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  • Why is there a constructor method if you can assign the values to variables?

    - by Joel
    I'm just learning PHP, and I'm confused about what the purpose of the __construct() method? If I can do this: class Bear { // define properties public $name = 'Bill'; public $weight = 200; // define methods public function eat($units) { echo $this->name." is eating ".$units." units of food... <br />"; $this->weight += $units; } } Then why do it with a constructor instead? : class Bear { // define properties public $name; public $weight; public function __construct(){ $this->name = 'Bill'; $this->weight = 200; } // define methods public function eat($units) { echo $this->name." is eating ".$units." units of food... <br />"; $this->weight += $units; } }

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  • Freelance web hosting - what are good LAMP choices?

    - by tkotitan
    I think it's best if I ask this question with an example scenario. Let's say your mom-and-pop local hardware store has never had a website, and they want you, the freelance developer to build them a website. You have all the skills to run a LAMP setup and admin a system, so the difficult question you ask yourself is - where will I host it? As you aren't going to host it out of the machine in your apartment. Let's say you want to be able to customize your own system, install the version of PHP you want, and manage your own database. Perhaps the best kind of hosting is to get a virtual machine so you can customize the system as you see fit. But this essentially a "set it and forget it" site you make, bill by the hour for, and then are done. In other words, the hosting should not be an issue. Given the requirements of hosting a website: Unlimited growth potential needing good amounts of bandwidth to handle visitors Wide range of system and programming options allowing it to be portable Relatively cheap (not necessarily the cheapest) or reasonable scaling cost Reliable hosting with good support Hosted entirely on the host company's hardware Who would you pick to host this website? Yes I am asking for a business/company recommendation. Is there a clear answer for this scenario, or a good source that can reliably give the current answer? I know there are all kinds of schemes out there. I'm just wondering if any one company fills the bill for freelancers and stands out in such a crowded market.

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  • iPhone SDK Programming - Working with a variable across 2 views

    - by SD
    I have what I hope is a fairly simple question about using the value from a variable across 2 views. I’m new to the iPhone SDK platform and the Model/View/Controller methodology. I’ve got background in VB.Net, some Php, but mostly SQL, so this is new ground for me. I’m building an app that has 3 views. For simplicity’s sake, I’ll call them View1, View2, View3. On View1 I have an NSString variable that I’ve declared in View1.h, and synthesized in View1.m. I’ll call it String1. View1.m uses a UITextField to ask the user for their name and then sets the value of String1 to that name (i.e. "Bill"). I would now like to use the value of String1 in View2. I'm not doing anything other than displaying the value ("Bill"), in a UILabel object in View2. Can someone tell me what the easiest way to accomplish that is? Many thanks in advance….

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  • need help with some basic java.

    - by Racket
    Hi, I'm doing the first chapter exercises on my Java book and I have been stuck for a problem for a while now. I'll print the question, prompt/read a double value representing a monetary amount. Then determine the fewest number of each bill and coin needed to represent that amount, starting with the highest (assume that a ten dollar bill is the maximum size needed). For example, if the value entered is 47,63 (forty-seven dollars and sixty-three cents), and the program should print the equivalent amount as: 4 ten dollar bills 1 five dollar bills 2 one dollar bills 2 quarters 1 dimes 0 nickels 3 pennies" etc. I'm doing an example exactly as they said in order to get an idea, as you will see in the code. Nevertheless, I managed to print 4 dollars, and I can't figure out how to get "1 five dollar", only 7 dollars (see code). Please, don't do the whole code for me. I just need some advice in regards to what I said. Thank you. import java.util.Scanner; public class PP29 { public static void main (String[] args) { Scanner sc = new Scanner (System.in); int amount; double value; double test1; double quarter; System.out.println("Enter \"double\" value: "); value = sc.nextDouble(); amount = (int) value / 10; // 47,63 / 10 = 4. int amount2 = (int) value % 10; // 47 - 40 = 7 quarter = value * 100; // 47,63 * 100 = 4736 int sum = (int) quarter % 100; // 4763 / 100 => 4763-4700 = 63. System.out.println(amount); System.out.println(amount2); } }

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  • The Benefits of Smart Grid Business Software

    - by Sylvie MacKenzie, PMP
    Smart Grid Background What Are Smart Grids?Smart Grids use computer hardware and software, sensors, controls, and telecommunications equipment and services to: Link customers to information that helps them manage consumption and use electricity wisely. Enable customers to respond to utility notices in ways that help minimize the duration of overloads, bottlenecks, and outages. Provide utilities with information that helps them improve performance and control costs. What Is Driving Smart Grid Development? Environmental ImpactSmart Grid development is picking up speed because of the widespread interest in reducing the negative impact that energy use has on the environment. Smart Grids use technology to drive efficiencies in transmission, distribution, and consumption. As a result, utilities can serve customers’ power needs with fewer generating plants, fewer transmission and distribution assets,and lower overall generation. With the possible exception of wind farm sprawl, landscape preservation is one obvious benefit. And because most generation today results in greenhouse gas emissions, Smart Grids reduce air pollution and the potential for global climate change.Smart Grids also more easily accommodate the technical difficulties of integrating intermittent renewable resources like wind and solar into the grid, providing further greenhouse gas reductions. CostsThe ability to defer the cost of plant and grid expansion is a major benefit to both utilities and customers. Utilities do not need to use as many internal resources for traditional infrastructure project planning and management. Large T&D infrastructure expansion costs are not passed on to customers.Smart Grids will not eliminate capital expansion, of course. Transmission corridors to connect renewable generation with customers will require major near-term expenditures. Additionally, in the future, electricity to satisfy the needs of population growth and additional applications will exceed the capacity reductions available through the Smart Grid. At that point, expansion will resume—but with greater overall T&D efficiency based on demand response, load control, and many other Smart Grid technologies and business processes. Energy efficiency is a second area of Smart Grid cost saving of particular relevance to customers. The timely and detailed information Smart Grids provide encourages customers to limit waste, adopt energy-efficient building codes and standards, and invest in energy efficient appliances. Efficiency may or may not lower customer bills because customer efficiency savings may be offset by higher costs in generation fuels or carbon taxes. It is clear, however, that bills will be lower with efficiency than without it. Utility Operations Smart Grids can serve as the central focus of utility initiatives to improve business processes. Many utilities have long “wish lists” of projects and applications they would like to fund in order to improve customer service or ease staff’s burden of repetitious work, but they have difficulty cost-justifying the changes, especially in the short term. Adding Smart Grid benefits to the cost/benefit analysis frequently tips the scales in favor of the change and can also significantly reduce payback periods.Mobile workforce applications and asset management applications work together to deploy assets and then to maintain, repair, and replace them. Many additional benefits result—for instance, increased productivity and fuel savings from better routing. Similarly, customer portals that provide customers with near-real-time information can also encourage online payments, thus lowering billing costs. Utilities can and should include these cost and service improvements in the list of Smart Grid benefits. What Is Smart Grid Business Software? Smart Grid business software gathers data from a Smart Grid and uses it improve a utility’s business processes. Smart Grid business software also helps utilities provide relevant information to customers who can then use it to reduce their own consumption and improve their environmental profiles. Smart Grid Business Software Minimizes the Impact of Peak Demand Utilities must size their assets to accommodate their highest peak demand. The higher the peak rises above base demand: The more assets a utility must build that are used only for brief periods—an inefficient use of capital. The higher the utility’s risk profile rises given the uncertainties surrounding the time needed for permitting, building, and recouping costs. The higher the costs for utilities to purchase supply, because generators can charge more for contracts and spot supply during high-demand periods. Smart Grids enable a variety of programs that reduce peak demand, including: Time-of-use pricing and critical peak pricing—programs that charge customers more when they consume electricity during peak periods. Pilot projects indicate that these programs are successful in flattening peaks, thus ensuring better use of existing T&D and generation assets. Direct load control, which lets utilities reduce or eliminate electricity flow to customer equipment (such as air conditioners). Contracts govern the terms and conditions of these turn-offs. Indirect load control, which signals customers to reduce the use of on-premises equipment for contractually agreed-on time periods. Smart Grid business software enables utilities to impose penalties on customers who do not comply with their contracts. Smart Grids also help utilities manage peaks with existing assets by enabling: Real-time asset monitoring and control. In this application, advanced sensors safely enable dynamic capacity load limits, ensuring that all grid assets can be used to their maximum capacity during peak demand periods. Real-time asset monitoring and control applications also detect the location of excessive losses and pinpoint need for mitigation and asset replacements. As a result, utilities reduce outage risk and guard against excess capacity or “over-build”. Better peak demand analysis. As a result: Distribution planners can better size equipment (e.g. transformers) to avoid over-building. Operations engineers can identify and resolve bottlenecks and other inefficiencies that may cause or exacerbate peaks. As above, the result is a reduction in the tendency to over-build. Supply managers can more closely match procurement with delivery. As a result, they can fine-tune supply portfolios, reducing the tendency to over-contract for peak supply and reducing the need to resort to spot market purchases during high peaks. Smart Grids can help lower the cost of remaining peaks by: Standardizing interconnections for new distributed resources (such as electricity storage devices). Placing the interconnections where needed to support anticipated grid congestion. Smart Grid Business Software Lowers the Cost of Field Services By processing Smart Grid data through their business software, utilities can reduce such field costs as: Vegetation management. Smart Grids can pinpoint momentary interruptions and tree-caused outages. Spatial mash-up tools leverage GIS models of tree growth for targeted vegetation management. This reduces the cost of unnecessary tree trimming. Service vehicle fuel. Many utility service calls are “false alarms.” Checking meter status before dispatching crews prevents many unnecessary “truck rolls.” Similarly, crews use far less fuel when Smart Grid sensors can pinpoint a problem and mobile workforce applications can then route them directly to it. Smart Grid Business Software Ensures Regulatory Compliance Smart Grids can ensure compliance with private contracts and with regional, national, or international requirements by: Monitoring fulfillment of contract terms. Utilities can use one-hour interval meters to ensure that interruptible (“non-core”) customers actually reduce or eliminate deliveries as required. They can use the information to levy fines against contract violators. Monitoring regulations imposed on customers, such as maximum use during specific time periods. Using accurate time-stamped event history derived from intelligent devices distributed throughout the smart grid to monitor and report reliability statistics and risk compliance. Automating business processes and activities that ensure compliance with security and reliability measures (e.g. NERC-CIP 2-9). Grid Business Software Strengthens Utilities’ Connection to Customers While Reducing Customer Service Costs During outages, Smart Grid business software can: Identify outages more quickly. Software uses sensors to pinpoint outages and nested outage locations. They also permit utilities to ensure outage resolution at every meter location. Size outages more accurately, permitting utilities to dispatch crews that have the skills needed, in appropriate numbers. Provide updates on outage location and expected duration. This information helps call centers inform customers about the timing of service restoration. Smart Grids also facilitates display of outage maps for customer and public-service use. Smart Grids can significantly reduce the cost to: Connect and disconnect customers. Meters capable of remote disconnect can virtually eliminate the costs of field crews and vehicles previously required to change service from the old to the new residents of a metered property or disconnect customers for nonpayment. Resolve reports of voltage fluctuation. Smart Grids gather and report voltage and power quality data from meters and grid sensors, enabling utilities to pinpoint reported problems or resolve them before customers complain. Detect and resolve non-technical losses (e.g. theft). Smart Grids can identify illegal attempts to reconnect meters or to use electricity in supposedly vacant premises. They can also detect theft by comparing flows through delivery assets with billed consumption. Smart Grids also facilitate outreach to customers. By monitoring and analyzing consumption over time, utilities can: Identify customers with unusually high usage and contact them before they receive a bill. They can also suggest conservation techniques that might help to limit consumption. This can head off “high bill” complaints to the contact center. Note that such “high usage” or “additional charges apply because you are out of range” notices—frequently via text messaging—are already common among mobile phone providers. Help customers identify appropriate bill payment alternatives (budget billing, prepayment, etc.). Help customers find and reduce causes of over-consumption. There’s no waiting for bills in the mail before they even understand there is a problem. Utilities benefit not just through improved customer relations but also through limiting the size of bills from customers who might struggle to pay them. Where permitted, Smart Grids can open the doors to such new utility service offerings as: Monitoring properties. Landlords reduce costs of vacant properties when utilities notify them of unexpected energy or water consumption. Utilities can perform similar services for owners of vacation properties or the adult children of aging parents. Monitoring equipment. Power-use patterns can reveal a need for equipment maintenance. Smart Grids permit utilities to alert owners or managers to a need for maintenance or replacement. Facilitating home and small-business networks. Smart Grids can provide a gateway to equipment networks that automate control or let owners access equipment remotely. They also facilitate net metering, offering some utilities a path toward involvement in small-scale solar or wind generation. Prepayment plans that do not need special meters. Smart Grid Business Software Helps Customers Control Energy Costs There is no end to the ways Smart Grids help both small and large customers control energy costs. For instance: Multi-premises customers appreciate having all meters read on the same day so that they can more easily compare consumption at various sites. Customers in competitive regions can match their consumption profile (detailed via Smart Grid data) with specific offerings from competitive suppliers. Customers seeing inexplicable consumption patterns and power quality problems may investigate further. The result can be discovery of electrical problems that can be resolved through rewiring or maintenance—before more serious fires or accidents happen. Smart Grid Business Software Facilitates Use of Renewables Generation from wind and solar resources is a popular alternative to fossil fuel generation, which emits greenhouse gases. Wind and solar generation may also increase energy security in regions that currently import fossil fuel for use in generation. Utilities face many technical issues as they attempt to integrate intermittent resource generation into traditional grids, which traditionally handle only fully dispatchable generation. Smart Grid business software helps solves many of these issues by: Detecting sudden drops in production from renewables-generated electricity (wind and solar) and automatically triggering electricity storage and smart appliance response to compensate as needed. Supporting industry-standard distributed generation interconnection processes to reduce interconnection costs and avoid adding renewable supplies to locations already subject to grid congestion. Facilitating modeling and monitoring of locally generated supply from renewables and thus helping to maximize their use. Increasing the efficiency of “net metering” (through which utilities can use electricity generated by customers) by: Providing data for analysis. Integrating the production and consumption aspects of customer accounts. During non-peak periods, such techniques enable utilities to increase the percent of renewable generation in their supply mix. During peak periods, Smart Grid business software controls circuit reconfiguration to maximize available capacity. Conclusion Utility missions are changing. Yesterday, they focused on delivery of reasonably priced energy and water. Tomorrow, their missions will expand to encompass sustainable use and environmental improvement.Smart Grids are key to helping utilities achieve this expanded mission. But they come at a relatively high price. Utilities will need to invest heavily in new hardware, software, business process development, and staff training. Customer investments in home area networks and smart appliances will be large. Learning to change the energy and water consumption habits of a lifetime could ultimately prove even more formidable tasks.Smart Grid business software can ease the cost and difficulties inherent in a needed transition to a more flexible, reliable, responsive electricity grid. Justifying its implementation, however, requires a full understanding of the benefits it brings—benefits that can ultimately help customers, utilities, communities, and the world address global issues like energy security and climate change while minimizing costs and maximizing customer convenience. This white paper is available for download here. For further information about Oracle's Primavera Solutions for Utilities, please read our Utilities e-book.

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  • Microsoft OneNote Replacement

    - by Tom Tresansky
    I'm wondering if a free, open source replacement for Microsoft OneNote exists. Features it would need to have: Click anywhere on the page and start typing. Automatic revision history tracking. Some sort of basic drawing facility (circle text, draw extremely crude diagrams, etc.) Not being platform-specific would be great too. Does anyone use or know of any project that fits the bill?

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  • Launch a program when another program opens

    - by metasequoia
    I would like a method for starting a program when another program starts. Specifically, I’d like a to open a MS Word document and have my citation manager open simultaneously (EndNote supports this function within MS Word preferences, but I recently switched citation managers). The batch scripts I’ve seen so far, including this one, don’t fit the bill. I’d like to be able to open any existing Word document on my drive and trigger the second program.

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  • Triple Boot with Windows 7, Windows 7 and Ubuntu

    - by BillJeansk
    Hello, currently I have dual boot with 2 windows 7. (dont ask why, long story, I need them for each with different settings involving Audio Recording) I am very keen to install the new Ubuntu and get into a new OS, out of interest but I don't want to mess with my current 2 windows installations? If I install Ubuntu, will this simply add to my list of OS boot options when you set it, like I did when I install my 2nd Windows 7 Any comments or help would be great? Thanks Bill

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  • How can I set up a load balancer to direct all Search Engine Bot traffic to one server?

    - by Ryan
    We have a simple load balancer set up on Rackspace to 3 web server nodes. After reviewing our traffic and expenses, the largest bandwidth hog is Google Bot. Since on Rackspace we pay for bandwidth by the byte, we'd like to direct all traffic from GoogleBot to another host (MediaTemple) with unlimited bandwidth. We think this would cut our hosting bill several thousand dollars a month. Is this possible? Advisable?

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  • Reasons for missing IP info in `last` output on pts logins?

    - by Mike Pennington
    I have five CentOS 6 linux systems at work, and encountered a rather strange issue that only seems to happen with my userid across all the linux systems I have... This is an example of the problem from entries I excepted from the last command... mpenning pts/19 Fri Nov 16 10:32 - 10:35 (00:03) mpenning pts/17 Fri Nov 16 10:21 - 10:42 (00:21) bill pts/15 sol-bill.local Fri Nov 16 10:19 - 10:36 (00:16) mpenning pts/1 192.0.2.91 Fri Nov 16 10:17 - 10:49 (12+00:31) kkim14 pts/14 192.0.2.225 Thu Nov 15 18:02 - 15:17 (4+21:15) gduarte pts/10 192.0.2.135 Thu Nov 15 12:33 - 08:10 (11+19:36) gduarte pts/9 192.0.2.135 Thu Nov 15 12:31 - 08:10 (11+19:38) kkim14 pts/0 :0.0 Thu Nov 15 12:27 - 15:17 (5+02:49) gduarte pts/6 192.0.2.135 Thu Nov 15 11:44 - 08:10 (11+20:25) kkim14 pts/13 192.0.2.225 Thu Nov 15 09:56 - 15:17 (5+05:20) kkim14 pts/12 192.0.2.225 Thu Nov 15 08:28 - 15:17 (5+06:49) kkim14 pts/11 192.0.2.225 Thu Nov 15 08:26 - 15:17 (5+06:50) dspencer pts/8 192.0.2.130 Wed Nov 14 18:24 still logged in mpenning pts/18 alpha-console-1. Mon Nov 12 14:41 - 14:46 (00:04) You can see two of my pts login entries above that do not have a source IP address associated with them. My CentOS machines have as many as six other users that share the systems, but the mpenning userid is the only one that has this issue. Approximately 5% of my logins see this issue, but no other usernames exhibit this behavior. Questions Given the kind of scripts I keep on these systems (which control much of our network infrastructure), I'm a little spooked by this and would like to understand what would cause my logins to occasionally miss source addresses. Is there anything (other than malicious activity) that would reasonably explain the behavior? Other than bash history timestamping, are there other things I can do to track the issue down? Informational Since this started happening, I enabled bash history time-stamping (i.e. HISTTIMEFORMAT="%y-%m-%d %T " in .bash_profile) and also added a few other bash history hacks; however, that does not give clues to what happened during the previous occurrences. All the systems run CentOS 6.3... [mpenning@typo ~]$ uname -a Linux typo.local 2.6.32-279.9.1.el6.x86_64 #1 SMP Tue Sep 25 21:43:11 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux [mpenning@typo ~]$ EDIT If I use last -i mpenning, I see entries like this... mpenning pts/19 0.0.0.0 Fri Nov 16 10:32 - 10:35 (00:03) mpenning pts/17 0.0.0.0 Fri Nov 16 10:21 - 10:42 (00:21)

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  • How does Amazon EC2 operating system licensing work?

    - by JP
    Hello, I'm new to the cloud and EC2 and am wondering how licensing of operating systems works. Specifically, i spent some time looking at amazon machine images (ami's) and some contain windows and sql server. My question is how does the licensing work: a) Do I install my own licenses once the boxes are available? b) Are these licenses covered by my Amazon bill c) what are any costs associated with this software? Thank in advance, JP

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  • Software for browsing/searching SQL Server transaction logs

    - by CodeByMoonlight
    I'd like to know whether there is any piece of software that will allow the browsing/searching of SQL Server transaction logs (any version). We've previously used Lumigent Log Explorer against SQL Server 2000 which fulfilled our need, but the product no longer exists and Lumigent's closest replacement doesn't appear to support SQL 2008 (according to the data sheet). I've discovered something called ApexSQL Audit which may fit the bill, but I'm wondering if anyone has any experience of it, how it compares with Log Explorer, and whether there are any good alternatives out there. Thanks :)

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  • UPK Professional Customer Success Story: Medtronic

    - by [email protected]
    In case you missed the live event, be sure to listen to last week's UPK Customer iSeminar featuring Medtronic. This was the first iSeminar in our quarterly series to showcase UPK Professional (UPK and Knowledge Pathways). Donna Miller and Staci Gilbert gave viewers an inside look at samples of Medtronic's content as they shared their experiences, methodology and best practices for use of the solution. Here are some highlights of the call: • Medtronic initially purchased UPK Professional to support a multi-year, global SAP rollout for 9,000 end users located in 24 countries. • As time went on, they expanded their use of UPK Professional to include several of their other enterprise applications: PeopleSoft, Siebel CRM, Hyperion Financial Management, a number of SAP bolt-ons, Documentum, TrackWise, and many others. • In combination with their Saba LMS, UPK Professional has allowed Medtronic to create, deploy, track and certify consistent end user training for critical transactions and processes across their organization worldwide - essential for a company in a heavily regulated industry. • For key pieces of content or certain end user populations, some Medtronic business units localize/translate the global UPK content. Staci demonstrated examples of their SAP content which has been translated into Japanese. • In the live SAP environment, end users rely on UPK's context sensitive in-application performance support. Medtronic has found this to be very helpful post go-live, giving just-in-time support so end users are confident in a new system or when performing tasks they don't often touch (at quarter or year end). UPK also serves as Medtronic's internal Google. • Medtronic has realized savings on many fronts: reduction in support calls due to in-application performance support, elimination of their training clients, and speedier training (1.5 days rather than 5-7 days) of temporary workers by moving from ILT to a blended solution that includes UPK simulations for eLearning. Thanks again to Donna and Staci for an exceptional presentation. They offered so many great examples for anyone who's looking for ways to get more out of UPK or interested in learning about UPK Professional: Knowledge Pathways. - Karen Rihs, Oracle UPK Outbound Product Management

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  • Craftsmanship is ALL that Matters

    - by Wayne Molina
    Today, I'm going to talk about a touchy subject: the notion of working in a company that doesn't use the prescribed "best practices" in its software development endeavours.  Over the years I have, using a variety of pseudonyms, asked this question on popular programming forums.  Although I always add in some minor variation of the story to avoid suspicion that it's the same person posting, the crux of the tale remains the same: A Programmer’s Tale A junior software developer has just started a new job at an average company, creating average line-of-business applications for internal use (the most typical scenario programmers find themselves in).  This hypothetical newbie has spent a lot of time reading up on the "theory" of software development, devouring books, blogs and screencasts from well-known and respected software developers in the community in order to broaden his knowledge and "do what the pros do".  He begins his new job, eager to apply what he's learned on a real-world project only to discover that his new teammates doesn't use any of those concepts and techniques.  They hack their way through development, or in a best-case scenario use some homebrew, thrown-together semblance of a framework for their applications that follows not one of the best practices suggested by the “elite” in the software community - things like TDD (TDD as a "best practice" is the only subjective part of this post, but it's included here due to a very large following of respected developers who consider it one), the SOLID principles, well-known and venerable tools, even version control in a worst case and truly nightmarish scenario.  Our protagonist is frustrated that he isn't doing things the "proper" way - a way he's spent personal time digesting and learning about and, more importantly, a way that some of the top developers in the industry advocate - and turns to a forum to ask the advice of his peers. Invariably the answer I, in the guise of the concerned newbie, will receive is that A) I don't know anything and should just shut my mouth and sling code the bad way like everybody else on the team, and B) These "best practices" are fade or a joke, and the only thing that matters is shipping software to your customers. I am here today to say that anyone who says this, or anything like it, is not only full of crap but indicative of exactly the type of “developer” that has helped to give our industry a bad name.  Here is why: One Who Knows Nothing, Understands Nothing On one hand, you have the cognoscenti of the .NET development world.  Guys like James Avery, Jeremy Miller, Ayende Rahien and Rob Conery; all well-respected and noted programmers that are pretty much our version of celebrities.  These guys write blogs, books, and post videos outlining the "correct" way of writing software to make sure it not only works but is maintainable and extensible and a joy to work with.  They tout the virtues of the SOLID principles, or of using TDD/BDD, or using a mature ORM like NHibernate, Subsonic or even Entity Framework. On the other hand, you have Joe Everyman, Lead Software Developer at Initrode Corporation - in our hypothetical story Joe is the junior developer's new boss.  Joe's been with Initrode for 10 years, starting as the company’s very first programmer and over the years building up a little fiefdom of his own until at the present he’s in charge of all Initrode’s software development.  Joe writes code the same way he always has, without bothering to learn much, if anything.  He looked at NHibernate once and found it was "too hard", so he uses a primitive implementation of the TableDataGateway pattern as a wrapper around SqlClient.SqlConnection and SqlClient.SqlCommand instead of an actual ORM (or, in a better case scenario, has created his own ORM); the thought of using LINQ or Entity Framework or really anything other than his own hastily homebrew solution has never occurred to him.  He doesn't understand TDD and considers “testing” to be using the .NET debugger to step through code, or simply loading up an app and entering some values to see if it works.  He doesn't really understand SOLID, and he doesn't care to.  He's worked as a programmer for years, and that's all that counts.  Right?  WRONG. Who would you rather trust?  Someone with years of experience and who writes books, creates well-known software and is akin to a celebrity, or someone with no credibility outside their own minute environment who throws around their clout and company seniority as the "proof" of their ability?  Joe Everyman may have years of experience at Initrode as a programmer, and says to do things "his way" but someone like Jeremy Miller or Ayende Rahien have years of experience at companies just like Initrode, THEY know ten times more than Joe Everyman knows or could ever hope to know, and THEY say to do things "this way". Here's another way of thinking about it: If you wanted to get into politics and needed advice on the best way to do it, would you rather listen to the mayor of Hicktown, USA or Barack Obama?  One is a small-time nobody while the other is very well-known and, as such, would probably have much more accurate and beneficial advice. NOTE: The selection of Barack Obama as an example in no way, shape, or form suggests a political affiliation or political bent to this post or blog, and no political innuendo should be mistakenly read from it; the intent was merely to compare a small-time persona with a well-known persona in a non-software field.  Feel free to replace the name "Barack Obama" with any well-known Congressman, Senator or US President of your choice. DIY Considered Harmful I will say right now that the homebrew development environment is the WORST one for an aspiring programmer, because it relies on nothing outside it's own little box - no useful skill outside of the small pond.  If you are forced to use some half-baked, homebrew ORM created by your Director of Software, you are not learning anything valuable you can take with you in the future; now, if you plan to stay at Initrode for 10 years like Joe Everyman, this is fine and dandy.  However if, like most of us, you want to advance your career outside a very narrow space you will do more harm than good by sticking it out in an environment where you, to be frank, know better than everybody else because you are aware of alternative and, in almost most cases, better tools for the job.  A junior developer who understands why the SOLID principles are good to follow, or why TDD is beneficial, or who knows that it's better to use NHibernate/Subsonic/EF/LINQ/well-known ORM versus some in-house one knows better than a senior developer with 20 years experience who doesn't understand any of that, plain and simple.  Anyone who disagrees is either a liar, or someone who, just like Joe Everyman, Lead Developer, relies on seniority and tenure rather than adapting their knowledge as things evolve. In many cases, the Joe Everymans of the world act this way out of fear - they cannot possibly fathom that a “junior” could know more than them; after all, they’ve spent 10 or more years in the same company, doing the same job, cranking out the same shoddy software.  And here comes a newbie who hasn’t spent 10+ years doing the same things, with a fresh and often radical take on the craft, and Joe Everyman is afraid he might have to put some real effort into his career again instead of just pointing to his 10 years of service at Initrode as “proof” that he’s good, or that he might have to learn something new to improve; in most cases the problem is Joe Everyman, and by extension Initrode itself, has a mentality of just being “good enough”, and mediocrity is the rule of the day. A Thorn Bush is No Place for a Phoenix My advice is that if you work on a team where they don't use the best practices that some of the most famous developers in our field say is the "right" way to do things (and have legions of people who agree), and YOU are aware of these practices and can see why they work, then LEAVE the company.  Find a company where they DO care about quality, and craftsmanship, otherwise you will never be happy.  There is no point in "dumbing" yourself down to the level of your co-workers and slinging code without care to craftsmanship.  In 95% of these situations there will be no point in bringing it to the attention of Joe Everyman because he won't listen; he might even get upset that someone is trying to "upstage" him and fire the newbie, and replace someone with loads of untapped potential with a drone that will just nod affirmatively and grind out the tasks assigned without question. Find a company that has people smart enough to listen to the "best and brightest", and be happy.  Do not, I repeat, DO NOT waste away in a job working for ignorant people.  At the end of the day software development IS a craft, and a level of craftsmanship is REQUIRED for any serious professional.  When you have knowledgeable people with the credibility to back it up saying one thing, and small-time people who are, to put it bluntly, nobodies in the field saying and doing something totally different because they can't comprehend it, leave the nobodies to their own devices to fade into obscurity.  Work for a company that uses REAL software engineering techniques and really cares about craftsmanship.  The biggest issue affecting our career, and the reason software development has never been the respected, white-collar career it was meant to be, is because hacks and charlatans can pass themselves off as professional programmers without following a lick of good advice from programmers much better at the craft than they are.  These modern day snake-oil salesmen entrench themselves in companies by hoodwinking non-technical businesspeople and customers with their shoddy wares, end up in senior/lead/executive positions, and push their lack of knowledge on everybody unfortunate enough to work with/for/under them, crushing any dissent or voices of reason and change under their tyrannical heel and leaving behind a trail of dismayed and, often, unemployed junior developers who were made examples of to keep up the facade and avoid the shadow of doubt being cast upon them. To sum this up another way: If you surround yourself with learned people, you will learn.  Surround yourself with ignorant people who can't, as the saying goes, see the forest through the trees, and you'll learn nothing of any real value.  There is more to software development than just writing code, and the end goal should not be just "shipping software", it should be shipping software that is extensible, maintainable, and above all else software whose creation has broadened your knowledge in some capacity, even if a minor one.  An eager newbie who knows theory and thirsts for knowledge can easily be moulded and taught the advanced topics, but the same can't be said of someone who only cares about the finish line.  This industry needs more people espousing the benefits of software craftsmanship and proper software engineering techniques, and less Joe Everymans who are unwilling to adapt or foster new ways of thinking. Conclusion - I Cast “Protection from Fire” I am fairly certain this post will spark some controversy and might even invite the flames.  Please keep in mind these are opinions and nothing more.  A little healthy rant and subsequent flamewar can be good for the soul once in a while.  To paraphrase The Godfather: It helps to get rid of the bad blood.

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  • ArchBeat Link-o-Rama for October 17, 2013

    - by OTN ArchBeat
    Oracle Author Podcast: Danny Coward on "Java WebSocket Programming" In this Oracle Author Podcast Roger Brinkley talks with Java architect Danny Coward about his new book, Java WebSocket Programming, now available from Oracle Press. Webcast: Why Choose Oracle Linux for your Oracle Database 12c Deployments Sumanta Chatterjee, VP Database Engineering for Oracle discusses advantages of choosing Oracle Linux for Oracle Database, including key optimizations and features, and talks about tools to simplify and speed deployment of Oracle Database on Linux, including Oracle VM Templates, Oracle Validated Configurations, and pre-install RPM. Oracle BI Apps 11.1.1.7.1 – GoldenGate Integration - Part 1: Introduction | Michael Rainey Michael Rainey launches a series of posts that guide you through "the architecture and setup for using GoldenGate with OBIA 11.1.1.7.1." Should your team use a framework? | Sten Vesterli "Some developers have an aversion to frameworks, feeling that it will be faster to just write everything themselves," observes Oracle ACE Director Sten Vesterli. He explains why that's a very bad idea in this short post. Free Poster: Adaptive Case Management in Practice Thanks to Masons of SOA member Danilo Schmiedel for providing a hi-res copy of the Adaptive Case Management poster, now available for download from the OTN ArchBeat Blog. Oracle Internal Testing Overview: Understanding How Rigorous Oracle Testing Saves Time and Effort During Deployment Want to understand Oracle Engineering's internal product testing methodology? This white paper takes you behind the curtain. Thought for the Day "If I see an ending, I can work backward." — Arthur Miller, American playwright (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) Source: brainyquote.com

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  • Extreme Portability: OpenJDK 7 and GlassFish 3.1.1 on Power Mac G5!

    - by MarkH
    Occasionally you hear someone grumble about platform support for some portion or combination of the Java product "stack". As you're about to see, this really is not as much of a problem as you might think. Our friend John Yeary was able to pull off a pretty slick feat with his vintage Power Mac G5. In his words: Using a build script sent to me by Kurt Miller, build recommendations from Kelly O'Hair, and the great work of the BSD Port team... I created a new build of OpenJDK 7 for my PPC based system using the Zero VM. The results are fantastic. I can run GlassFish 3.1.1 along with all my enterprise applications. I recently had the opportunity to pick up an old G5 for little money and passed on it. What would I do with it? At the time, I didn't think it would be more than a space-consuming novelty. Turns out...I could have had some fun and a useful piece of hardware at the same time. Maybe it's time to go bargain-hunting again. For more information about repurposing classic Apple hardware and learning a few JDK-related tricks in the process, visit John's site for the full article, available here. All the best,Mark

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  • Javascript enabled but not enabled in Firefox browser

    - by k s subramanisn
    I had installed Java ii icedtea-6-jre-cacao 6b24-1.11.5-0ubuntu1~12.04.1 Alternative JVM for OpenJDK, using Cacao ii icedtea-6-jre-jamvm 6b24-1.11.5-0ubuntu1~12.04.1 Alternative JVM for OpenJDK, using JamVM ii openjdk-6-jre-headless 6b24-1.11.5-0ubuntu1~12.04.1 OpenJDK Java runtime, using Hotspot JIT (headless) ii openjdk-6-jre-lib 6b24-1.11.5-0ubuntu1~12.04.1 OpenJDK Java runtime (architecture and had installed addon in Firefox browser QuickJava 1.8.0. And still keep getting message Javascript enabled, but Java is not enabled in Firefox browser while trying to use on-line bill payment facility.

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  • Microsoft Visual Studio Release History/Timelines/Milestones

    1975 – Bill Gates and Paul Allen write a version of Basic for Altair 8080 1982 – IBM releases BASCOM 1.0 (developed by Microsoft) 1983 – Microsoft Basic Compiler System v5.35 for MS-DOS release 1984 - Microsoft Basic Compiler System v5.36 release 1985 – Microsoft QuickBASIC 1.0 1986 – Microsoft QuickBASIC 1.01, 1.02, 2.00 1987 – Microsoft QuickBASIC 2.01, 3.00, 4.00 1987 – Microsoft BASIC 6.0 1988 – Microsoft QuickBASIC 4.00, 4.00b, 4.50 1989 – Microsoft BASIC Professional Development System 7.0 1990 - Microsoft BASIC Professional Development System 7.1 1991 – Microsoft Visual Basic released May 20-Windows World Convention –Atlanta 1992 – Microsoft Visual Basic 2.0 1993 – Microsoft Visual Basic 3.0 in Standard and Professional versions 1995 – Microsoft Visual Basic 4.0 released, supported the new Windows 95 1997 – Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 – introduction of IntelliSense 1998 – Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0 that included Visual Basic 6.0 released (first VS) 2002 – Microsoft Visual Basic .NET 7.0 2002 – Visual Studio .NET 2003 – Microsoft Visual Basic .NET 7.1 2003 – Microsoft Visual Studio w/Intellisense 2003 – Visual Studio .NET 2004 – Announce Visual Studios 2005 – Code name Whidbey 2005 – Visual Studio 2005 release w/Extensibility 2005 – Visual Studio Express released 2006 - Expression Tool Set released - devs and designers work together 2006 – Visual Studio Team release – November 30th 2007 – Visual Studio 2008 (code name Orcas) ships November = Video Studio Shell 2010 - Visual Studios (code name Rosario) span.fullpost {display:none;}

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  • Identifying Data Model Changes Between EBS 12.1.3 and Prior EBS Releases

    - by Steven Chan
    The EBS 12.1.3 Release Content Document (RCD, Note 561580.1) summarizes the latest functional and technology stack-related updates in a specific release.  The E-Business Suite Electronic Technical Reference Manual (eTRM) summarizes the database objects in a specific EBS release.  Those are useful references, but sometimes you need to find out which database objects have changed between one EBS release and another.  This kind of information about the differences or deltas between two releases is useful if you have customized or extended your EBS instance and plan to upgrade to EBS 12.1.3. Where can you find that information?Answering that question has just gotten a lot easier.  You can now use a new EBS Data Model Comparison Report tool:EBS Data Model Comparison Report Overview (Note 1290886.1)This new tool lists the database object definition changes between the following source and target EBS releases:EBS 11.5.10.2 and EBS 12.1.3EBS 12.0.4 and EBS 12.1.3EBS 12.1.1 and EBS 12.1.3EBS 12.1.2 and EBS 12.1.3For example, here's part of the report comparing Bill of Materials changes between 11.5.10.2 and 12.1.3:

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  • 555 Footstool Turns Tech into Mad Scientist Decor

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    If you just can’t find the appropriate footstool for your laboratory, this laser-cut footstool styled to look like the ubiquitous 555 Timer should fit the bill. At Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories they were in search for the perfect footstool. Never ones to do something halfway they set out to build a footstool shaped like the famous integrated circuit design the 555 Timer. The project involved computer design, CNC routers, laser engraving, lots of plywood and glue, and paint. Hit up the link below to see pictures of the entire build process. 555 Footstool [Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories] How To Encrypt Your Cloud-Based Drive with BoxcryptorHTG Explains: Photography with Film-Based CamerasHow to Clean Your Dirty Smartphone (Without Breaking Something)

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  • Apartment management software. Apartment accounting software FREE.

    - by Jay Kinker
    Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/JayKinker/archive/2014/08/13/apartment-management-software.-apartment-accounting-software-free.aspx How are you managing your society today? How about bill generation & collection or socializing at your housing society?   Check out the all new online and offline services to manage your society. Online management and accounting software for housing society is free now. Get your housing society or neighbourhood online today for FREE.   Get a new amenity at your society today!   Societyhive services: www.societyhive.com Societyhive helpdesk: www.societyhive.com/helpdesk   Helpdesk is a free service to provide legal and management advice for societies. Do let me know if you have any feature request you’d want to see at Societyhive.

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  • PASS Summit 2010 Recap

    - by AjarnMark
    Last week I attended my eighth PASS Summit in nine years, and every year it is a fantastic event!  I was fortunate my first year to have a contact (Bill Graziano (blog | Twitter) from SQLTeam) that I was expecting to meet, and who got me started on a good track of making new contacts.  Each year I have made a few more, and renewed friendships from years past.  Many of the attendees agree that the pure networking opportunities are one of the best benefits of attending the Summit.  And there’s a lot of great technical stuff, too, some of the things that stick out for me this year include… Pre-Con Monday: PowerShell with Allen White (blog | Twitter).  This was the first time that I attended a pre-con.  For those not familiar with the concept, the regular sessions for the conference are 75-90 minutes long.  For an extra fee, you can attend a full-day session on a single topic during a pre- or post-conference training day.  I had been meaning for several months to dive in and learn PowerShell, but just never seemed to find (or make) the time for it, so when I saw this was one of the all-day sessions, and I was planning to be there on Monday anyway, I decided to go for it.  And it was well worth it!  I definitely came out of there with a good foundation to build my own PowerShell scripts, plus several sample scripts that he showed which already cover the first four or five things I was planning to do with PowerShell anyway.  This looks like the right tool for me to build an automated version of our software deployment process, which right now contains many repeated steps.  Thanks Allen! Service Broker with Denny Cherry (blog | Twitter).  I remembered reading Denny’s blog post on Using Service Broker instead of Replication, and ever since then I have been thinking about using this to populate a new reporting-focused Data Repository that we will be building in the near future.  When I saw he was doing this session, I thought it would be great to get more information and be able to ask the author questions.  When I brought this idea back to my boss, he really liked it, as we had previously been discussing doing nightly data loads, with an option to manually trigger a mid-day load if up-to-the-minute data was needed for something.  If we go the Service Broker route, we can keep the Repository current in near real-time.  Hooray! DBA Mythbusters with Paul Randal (blog | Twitter).  Even though I read every one of the posts in Paul’s blog series of the same name, I had to go see the legend in person.  It was great, and I still learned something new! How to Conduct Effective Meetings with Joe Webb (blog | Twitter).  I always like to sit in on a session that Joe does.  I met Joe several years ago when both he and Bill Graziano were on the PASS Board of Directors together, and we have kept in touch.  Joe is very well-spoken and has great experience with both SQL Server and business.  And we could certainly use some pointers at my work (probably yours, too) on making our meetings more effective and to run on-time.  Of course, now that I’m the Chapter Leader for the Professional Development virtual chapter, I also had to sit in on this ProfDev session and recruit Joe to do a presentation or two for the chapter next year. Query Optimization with David DeWitt.  Anyone who has seen Dr. David DeWitt present the 3rd keynote at a PASS Summit over the last three years knows what a great time it is to sit and listen to him make some really complicated and advanced topic easy to understand (although it still makes your head hurt).  It still amazes me that the simple two-table join query from pubs that he used in his example can possibly have 22 million possible physical query plans.  Ouch! Exhibit Hall:  This year I spent more serious time in the exhibit hall than any year past.  I have talked my boss into making a significant (for us) investment in monitoring tools next year, and this was a great opportunity to talk with all the big-hitters.  Readers of mine may recall that I fell in love with the SQL Sentry Power Suite several months ago and wrote a blog entry about it just from the trial version.  Well as things turned out, short-term budget priorities shifted, and we weren’t able to make the purchase then.  I have it in the budget for next year, but since I was going to the Summit, my boss wanted me to look at the other options to see if this was really the one that we wanted.  I spent a couple of hours talking with representatives from Red-Gate, Idera, Confio, and Quest about their offerings, and giving them each the same 3 scenarios that I wanted to be able to accomplish based on the questions and issues that arise in our company.  It was interesting to discover the different approaches or “world view” that each vendor takes to the subject of performance monitoring and troubleshooting.  I may write a separate article that goes into this in more depth, but the product that best aligned with our point of view, and met the current needs we have is still the SQL Sentry Power Suite.  I’m not saying that the others are bad or wrong or anything like that, just that the way they tackled the issue did not align as well with our particular needs as does SQL Sentry’s product.  And that was something I learned too, when you go shopping for these products, you really need to know what you want to get from them.  It’s best if you have a few example scenarios from work that you can use to test out how well each tool fits your particular needs. Overall, another GREAT event.  I can’t wait to get the DVDs so I can sit in on a bunch of other sessions that I couldn’t get to because I was in one of the ones above.  And I can hardly wait until next year!

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  • How Aluminum Anodizing Works [Video]

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    Whether we’re talking about a pricey iPod or a cheap carabiner to hold your keys, anodized metals are all around us. Check out this video to see how the process actually works. Courtesy of Bill Hammack, the Engineer Guy, another great video detailing the processes behind products we take for granted. In this installment we learn more about the process of anodizing metals. [via Make] HTG Explains: Why Linux Doesn’t Need Defragmenting How to Convert News Feeds to Ebooks with Calibre How To Customize Your Wallpaper with Google Image Searches, RSS Feeds, and More

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  • Oracle... and InfiniBand.

    - by jenny.gelhausen
    Beginning Sunday, 14th March 2010 the OpenFabrics Alliance has been hosting its annual conference in Sonoma, California. On Monday morning, Tim Shetler - VP of Product Management at Oracle - addressed a conference room full to the brim with the industry's InfiniBand luminaries. That same afternoon, Sumanta Chatterjee, Senior Director of Development at Oracle, was publicly lauded by moderator Bill Boas for being a long-standing, pivotal driver and crucial member of the community. A testament to InfiniBand's building momentum, it is no surprise to find it at the core of Oracle's flagship product, the Sun Oracle Database Machine. var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); try { var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-13185312-1"); pageTracker._trackPageview(); } catch(err) {}

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