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• ASP.NET developers turning to Visual WebGui for rich management system

  - by Webgui

  When The Center for Organ Recovery & Education (CORE) decided they needed a web application to allow easy access to the expenses management system they initially went to ASP.NET web forms combined with CSS. The outcome, however, was not satisfying enough as it appeared bland and lacked in richness. So in order to enrich the UI and give the web application some glitz, Visual WebGui was selected. Visual WebGui provided the needed richness and the familiar Windows look and feel also made the transition for the desktop users very easy. The richer GUI of Visual WebGui compared to ASP.NET conveyed some initial concerns about performance. But the Visual WebGui performance turned out to be a surprising advantage as the website maintained good response times. Working with Visual WebGui required a paradigm shift for the development process as some of the usual methods of coding with ASP.NET did not apply. However, the transition was fairly easy due to the simplicity and intuitiveness of Visual WebGui as well as the good support and documentation. “The shift into a different development paradigm was eased by the Visual WebGui web forums which are very active thanks to a large, involved community. There are also several video and web pages dedicated to answering the most commonly asked questions and pitfalls" Dave Bhatia, Systems Engineer who added "A couple of issues such as deploying on IIS7 seemed to be show stoppers at first, however the solution was readily available in a white paper on the Gizmox website.” The full story is found on the Visual WebGui website: http://www.visualwebgui.com/Gizmox/Resources/CaseStudies/tabid/358/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/964/The-Center-for-Organ-Recovery-Education-gets-a-web-based-expenses-management-system.aspx

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• ORACLE Fusion Middleware Summer Camps in Lisbon: Includes Advanced ADF Training by Oracle Product Management

  - by Frank Nimphius

  From July 9th - JUly 13th 2012, Frank Nimphius and Grant Ronald from the JDeveloper and ADF Product Management team present an 4 1/2 day advanced ADF Training Lisbon for the EMEA Oracle SOA Community. The training runs in parallel to an advanced WebCenter training giving you a chance to network with your peers during breaks and lunch. See below announcement by the ORACLE EMEA SOA Community for details:For Specialized partners who are working on following projects & opportunities, we (Oracle) offer these advanced summer camps:    ADF 11g     WebCenter Portal     SOA Suite 11g     ADF for BPM Suite 11     WebCenter Sites 11g All training sessions will be from HQ product management and our PTS team. The sessions will take place in July in Lisbon Portugal and Munich Germany. . Participation is limited to two people per company and bootcamp. Registration is handled by first come first serve, please pay attention to the skill requirements, the pre-requisitions and the follow up! We will not accept people onto the training who do not match the criteria!Lisbon: Monday, July 9th 11:00AM - Friday July 13th 16:00 PM (Lisbon time) ADF 11g advanced training by Grant Ronald and Frank Nimphius WebCenter Portal advanced training by Stefan Krantz and Angelo Santagata Cost: Free of charge, cancelation or no-show fee 2.000€Bootcamps are limited to 20 persons first come first serveFor details and registration please visit Lisbon registration page

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• Password Management for Oracle WebLogic customers

  - by Anthony Shorten

  One of the most common requests for enhancements I get across my desk is that customers wish to allow end users to change their passwords from our products. Now, typically password management is not in the realm of individual applications but it is an infrastructure requirement, so we don't usually add this to our roadmaps by default. The issue is that with the vast range of security stores that can be used with our product line across the Web Application Servers we support, it is almost impossible to come up with a generic enough API to work across them. If you have a specific security store on a specific Web Application Server platform then there are simpler solutions. There are a number of ways of implementing this without providing functionality specific functionality: Oracle sells Identity Management software that offers common API's to manage passwords. You can purchase those products and link to the password change dialog in those products using Navigation Keys. If you are a customer using Oracle WebLogic, then there is a sample JSP's that can be linked to provide this functionality under Oracle TechNet (registration required) under Code Samples (project S20). These can be added as a Navigation Key to complete the functionality. This will allow end users to manage their own passwords. Obviously these are all samples and should be treated as customizations when you implement them. If you wish to understand Navigation Keys, then look at the Oracle Utilities Application Framework Integration Guidelines (Doc Id: 789060.1) available from My Oracle Support.

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• Internship in License Contract Management

  - by cristian.condurache(at)oracle.com

  Hi Everyone, My name is Luca. I am an intern in the License Contract Management team in Italy. I have studied Economics and Business in Pescara and finished my Master’s Degree in July 2009. After a short work experience near my home town I decided to look for a job in an International Company. I got in touch with Oracle in January 2010. I had a telephone interview and then a face-to-face interview. On a cold and grey morning, I arrived in Milan....my first impression was fantastic....a big modern building with wide TVs everywhere. I was a little nervous but very excited. I understood this could be a great opportunity... The interview went well and I started to work in March. After a training period I was quickly involved in the closing of the last quarter of the fiscal year - of which May is the last month at Oracle. Working as a License Contract Manager is a real challenge for a fresh graduate. It involves thoroughly understanding the Oracle Policies and Practices with regards to License Contracts. In my experience, especially in May, I learnt to work under high pressure, within time constrains, and to keep up with constant changes. In this period I also had the opportunity to be involved in different negotiations, being directly in contact with the customers. This helped me to develop my relational skills during complex transactions. Looking back at the nine months at Oracle I can say I have a better understanding of the IT world. It is a complex environment that changes continously, offering new challenges to learn from everytime. If you have any questions related to this article feel free to contact [email protected]. You can find our job opportunities via http://campus.oracle.com. Technorati Tags: License Contract Management,oppotunity,Oracle Policies,internship

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• Spirent Communications Improves Customer Experience with Knowledge Management

  - by Tony Berk

  Spirent Communications plc is a global leader in test and measurement inspiring innovation within development labs, communication networks and IT organizations. The world’s leading communications companies rely on Spirent to help design, develop, validate, and deliver world-class network, devices, and services. Spirent’s customers require high levels of support for a diverse and complex product portfolio, and the company is committed to delivering on this requirement. Spirent needed a solution to help its customers get the information they need quickly and at their convenience through its Web site. After evaluating several solutions, Spirent selected and deployed Oracle Knowledge for Web Self Service Enterprise Edition. Oracle Knowledge Management uses natural language processing to understand the true intent of each inquiry logged via the support portal’s search function. The Spirent Knowledge Base on the company’s Customer Support Center (CSC) finds the best possible answer using search enhancement features?such as communications industry-specific libraries and federation to search external sources. Spirent has reduced contact center call volume while better serving its customers. Each time a customer uses the knowledge base, they find answers faster than by calling, and it saves Spirent an average of US$210 per call?which is significant when multiplied across the thousands of calls received monthly. Oracle Knowledge also helps support engineers find answers more quickly, enabling the company to scale without adding additional support engineers. Oracle Knowledge is integrated with Spirent's Siebel Contact Center implementation to provide an integrated desktop for CRM and agent intelligence, avoiding the need for contact center personnel to toggle between various screens to address customer inquiries, thereby accelerating customer service. Click here to learn more about Sprient's use of Siebel CRM and Oracle Knowledge Management.

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• Case Management In-Depth: Stakeholders & Permissions by Mark Foster

  - by JuergenKress

  We’ve seen in the previous 3 posts in this series what Case Management is, how it can be configured in BPM Studio and its lifecycle. I now want to go into some more depth with specific areas such as:. Stakeholders & Permissions Case Activities Case Rules etc. In the process of designing a Case Management solution it is important to know what approach to take, what questions to ask and based on the answers to these questions, how to implement. I’ll start with Stakeholders & Permissions. Stakeholders The users that perform actions on case objects, defined at a business level, e.g. “Help Desk Agent”, “Help Desk Supervisor” etc. Read the full article here. SOA & BPM Partner Community For regular information on Oracle SOA Suite become a member in the SOA & BPM Partner Community for registration please visit www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa (OPN account required) If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center. Blog Twitter LinkedIn Facebook Wiki Mix Forum Technorati Tags: ACM,BPM,Mark Foster,SOA Community,Oracle SOA,Oracle BPM,Community,OPN,Jürgen Kress

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• Introducing Identity Management 11g R2: Join the webcast on July 19th, 2012 at 6:00 PM GMT

  - by Cinzia Mascanzoni

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• ASP.NET Session Management

  - by geekrutherford

  Great article (a little old but still relevant) about the inner workings of session management in ASP.NET: Underpinnings of the Session State Management Implementation in ASP.NET.   Using StateServer and the BinaryFormatter serialization occuring caused me quite the headache over the last few days. Curiously, it appears the w3wp.exe process actually consumes more memory when utilizing StateServer and storing somewhat large and complex data types in session.   Users began experiencing Out Of Memory exceptions in the production environment. Looking at the stack trace it related to serialization using the BinaryFormatter. Using remote debugging against our QA server I noted that the code in the application functioned without issue. The exception occured outside the context of the application itself when the request had completed and the web server was trying to serialize session state into the StateServer.   The short term solution is switching back to the InProc method. Thus far this has proven to consume considerably less memory and has caused no issues. Long term the complex object stored in session will be off-loaded into a web service used to access the information directly from the database outside the context of the object used to encapsulate it.

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• Workshop CUOA-Oracle Hyperion "Pianificazione economico-finanziaria, reporting e performance management" - Altavilla Vicentina, 25/10/2012

  - by Edilio Rossi

  Più di 100 professsionisti -  manager della funzione Amministrazione, Finanza e Controllo in azienda e consulenti del settore - hanno partecipato al Workshop, organizzato da CUOA e Oracle Hyperion, in collaborazione con Adacta Studio Associato. E' stata un'occasione unica per approfondire i temi della pianificazione "estesa" e del controllo di gestione nelle imprese italiane - piccole, medie e grandi - alternando chiavi di lettura diverse (accademica, consulenziale, tecnologico-applicativa e utenti) ma tutte legate dal filo conduttore dell'evoluzione dei modelli, degli strumenti e dell'utilizzo dei sistemi evoluti di planning e budgeting economico-finanziario e patrimoniale. Una particolare attenzione è stata posta sul rapporto banca-impresa alla luce dell'attuale crisi e di come i sistemi innovativi di performance management e business intelligence possono aiutare il management nel ridisegno del sistema di finanziamento delle aziende e nella negoziazione con i diversi stakeholders. Grazie alle testimonianze dei casi aziendali GIV (Gruppo Italiano Vini) e Datalogic si è potuto "toccare con mano" l'utlizzo dei modelli e degli strumenti di pianificazione e controllo in realtà aziendali diverse ma che affrontano entrambe alcune delle sfide che i mercati oggi pongono alle imprese italiane.  Le presentazioni sono disponibili su richiesta inviando una mail a: paolo.leveghi-AT-oracle.com

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• Hot Off the Press - Oracle Exadata: A Data Management Tipping Point

  - by kimberly.billings

  Advances in data-management architecture - including CPU, memory, storage, I/O, and the database - have been steady but piecemeal. In this report, Merv Adrian describes how Oracle Exadata not only provides the latest technology in each part of the data-management architecture, but also integrates them under the full control of one vendor with a unified approach to leveraging the full stack. He writes, "the real "secret sauce" of Oracle Exadata V2 is the way in which these technologies complement each other to deliver additional performance and scalability." Merv interviews two Exadata customers, Banco Transylvania and TUI Netherlands, and concludes that early indications are that Oracle Exadata is delivering on its promise of extreme performance and scalability. His recommendation to IT is to target corporate applications with the biggest potential for speed-based enhancement, and consider whether Oracle Exadata V2 can cost-effectively enable new ways to use these for competitive advantage. Read the full report. 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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• Java Management Extensions with Oracle WebLogic Server 12c–Webcast Nocember 13th 2012

  - by JuergenKress

  Date: Tuesday, November 13, 2012 Time: 10:00 AM PST You’re responsible for evaluating technologies to monitor and configure Oracle WebLogic Server. This Webcast will help you get a complete picture of what Oracle WebLogic Server 12c with Java Management Extensions (JMX) can do for you. Dr. Frank Munz will explain the development of JMX with Spring and compare it to Java EE. A new feature of Oracle WebLogic Server 12c, the RESTful Management API, will also be examined. Learn how JMX in Oracle WebLogic Server 12c is: Highly efficient. It uses WebLogic Scripting Tool (WLST) instead of a client JMX program written in Java, resulting in little overhead. Effective. It bundles optimized tools such as WLST and WebLogic Diagnostic Framework to eliminate the requirement for Java programming on the client side. Compliant. It is fully standard-compliant but also works with open source clients and frameworks. Register for the Webcast today. Speakers: Dr. Frank Munz, Oracle Technologist of the Year Dave Cabelus, Senior Principal Product Manager, Oracle WebLogic Partner Community For regular information become a member in the WebLogic Partner Community please visit: http://www.oracle.com/partners/goto/wls-emea ( OPN account required). If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center. BlogTwitterLinkedInMixForumWiki Technorati Tags: Java,Frank Munz,WebLogic Community,Oracle,OPN,Jürgen Kress

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• Video White Paper: Successful Maintenance Management Strategies for Oil & Gas Projects

  - by Melissa Centurio Lopes

  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Watch this short video white paper to learn how you can optimize your daily and routine maintenance with Oracle Primavera’s project portfolio management solution. You can also Register and read the full white paper “Optimizing Daily and Routine Maintenance through Project Portfolio Management” to discover how to: Capture best practices to successfully manage daily and routine maintenance projects. Keep your equipment running longer and more efficiently.

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• Master Data Management – A Foundation for Big Data Analysis

  - by Manouj Tahiliani

  While Master Data Management has crossed the proverbial chasm and is on its way to becoming mainstream, businesses are being hammered by a new megatrend called Big Data. Big Data is characterized by massive volumes, its high frequency, the variety of less structured data sources such as email, sensors, smart meters, social networks, and Weblogs, and the need to analyze vast amounts of data to determine value to improve upon management decisions. Businesses that have embraced MDM to get a single, enriched and unified view of Master data by resolving semantic discrepancies and augmenting the explicit master data information from within the enterprise with implicit data from outside the enterprise like social profiles will have a leg up in embracing Big Data solutions. This is especially true for large and medium-sized businesses in industries like Retail, Communications, Financial Services, etc that would find it very challenging to get comprehensive analytical coverage and derive long-term success without resolving the limitations of the heterogeneous topology that leads to disparate, fragmented and incomplete master data. For analytical success from Big Data or in other words ROI from Big Data Investments, businesses need to acquire, organize and analyze the deluge of data to make better decisions. There will need to be a coexistence of structured and unstructured data and to maintain a tight link between the two to extract maximum insights. MDM is the catalyst that helps maintain that tight linkage by providing an understanding about the identity, characteristics of Persons, Companies, Products, Suppliers, etc. associated with the Big Data and thereby help accelerate ROI. In my next post I will discuss about patterns for co-existing Big Data Solutions and MDM. Feel free to provide comments and thoughts on above as well as Integration or Architectural patterns.

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• Adventures in Lab Management Configuration: Part 3 of 3

  - by Enrique Lima

  This is long overdue.  But here it is. In the previous two sections I have discussed on how I got a CMMI v4.2 to take on the same fields as v5 and therefore be able to communicate with MTM and Lab Manager.  And that was quite a success. Yet when I opened up Lab Management while it was fully aware of the VMs being there, it refused to let me enroll them into an environment.  It kept stating there was no suitable host to deploy the VM to, error TF259115. This was an indication something was not matching the expected network configuration between TFS and Hyper-V/SCVMM. So, here are a couple of things that took place: Verified the network segment specified for network isolation matched what was configured physically for either DHCP or manually assigned IP addressing for the guest VMs Made sure TFS was fully aware of the configuration settings for the network location name.  For that I issued:  tfsconfig lab /settings /networklocation:”<name of the network location configured in SCVMM” On that last item, that was key to making sure Lab Management communicated with the VMs and for it to allow enrollment into the new Virtual Environment.

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• AME : How to Diagnose Issues With the Default Approver List in Purchasing When Using Approvals Management

  - by Oracle_EBS

  Do you need help in understanding the concepts or how to setup the Approval Management Engine (AME) for requisition approvals? See the new diagnostic Note 1437183.1 'AME : How to Diagnose Issues With the Default Approver List in Purchasing When Using Approvals Management'. AME is designed to generate the approval list according to the conditions and rules you define in the setup. This troubleshooting guide will help you understand how AME builds the default approval list for Purchasing and help users find solutions for scenarios where the approval list fails to be generated. Follow along with the logical steps for troubleshooting.  The note first reviews how to generate the AME Setup report.   For example in the note we see a fragment of the setup report. Notice it has different sections for each one of the setup categories including attributes, conditions, rules, action types, approval groups etc.  How the default approval list is built in AME is then reviewed, followed by the logical steps for diagnosing issues.  The diagnostic steps include how to run the Test Workbench, as well as how to obtain valuable debug and exception information.  Then follow along using the steps to build a simple test case to sharpen your understanding.

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• Please recommend the best tools to build a test plan management tool

  - by fzkl

  I have mostly worked on hardware testing in my professional career and would like to get onto the software development side. I thought working on a practically usable project will help motivate me and help acquire some skills. I have decided to build a test plan management tool for the QA team I work in (We use excel sheets!). The test plan management tool should be browser based and should support this: There would be many test plans, each test plan having test sets, test sets having test cases and test cases having instructions, attachments and Pass/fail status marking and bug info in case of failure. It should also have an export to excel option. I have a visual picture of the tool I am looking to build but I don't have enough experience to figure our where to start. My current programming skills are limited to C and shell programming and I want to pick up python. What tools (programming language, database and anything else?) would you recommend for me to get this done? Also what are the key concepts in the recommended programming language that I should focus on to build a browser based tool like this?

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• What is a Relational Database Management System (RDBMS)?

  A Relational Database Management System (RDBMS)  can also be called a traditional database that uses a Structured Query Language (SQL) to provide access to stored data while insuring the integrity of the data. The data is stored in a collection of tables that is defined by relationships between data items. In addition, data permitted to be joined in new relationships. Traditional databases primarily process data through transactions called transaction processing. Transaction processing is the methodology of grouping related business operations based predefined business events. An example of this can be seen when a person attempts to purchase an item from an online e-tailor. The business must execute specific operations for a related  business event. In this case, a business must store the following information: Customer Info, Order Info, Order Item Info, Customer Payment Data, Payment Results, and Current Order Status. Example: Pseudo SQL Operations needed for processing an online e-tailor sale. Insert Customer into Customers Insert New Order into Orders Insert Each New Order Item into OrderItems Insert Customer Payment Info into PaymentInfo Insert Payment Processing Result into PaymentDetails Update Customer for Current Order Status Common Relational Database Management System Microsoft SQL Server Microsoft Access Oracle MySQL DB2 It is important to note that no current RDBMS has fully implemented all of the Relational Principles. Common RDBMS Traits Volatile Data Supports Transaction Processing Optimized for Updates and Simple Queries 

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• Financial Management: Why Move to the Cloud?

  - by Kathryn Perry

  A guest post by Terrance Wampler, Vice President, Financials Product Strategy, Oracle I’ve spent my career designing and developing financial management systems, most of it at Oracle. Every single day I either meet with our customers or talk to them on the phone. The time is usually spent discussing various business challenges facing CFOs and Controllers, who are running Oracle’s Financials. Lately, we’ve been talking a lot about cloud computing and whether it makes sense for finance to go to the cloud. Here are some pros and cons that might help you make that decision. Let’s start with the benefits of cloud solutions. The first is savings. With cloud services, you pay only for those commodities that you use. That makes you feel like you're getting better value for your money. Plus, you can preserve your cash for your core business and you can get a better matching of expenses and revenues. So, at the top of the list is lower total cost of ownership. The second point has to do with optimization. With cloud services, you’ll need less IT infrastructure so you can optimize your IT resources for better-value, higher-end projects. This also leads to greater financial visibility, where there's a clear cost for the set of services or features replaced by cloud services. And, the last benefit is what I call acceleration. You can save money by speeding up the initialization and deployment of the project. You don't have to deal with IT infrastructure and you can start implementing right away. We did a quick survey of about 70 CFOs at the CFO Summit last month in New York City. We asked them why they were looking at cloud services, and not necessarily just for financials. The No. 1 response was perceived lower cost of ownership. But of course there are risks to consider. The first thing most people think about in the cloud is security and ownership of data. So, will your data really be safe? Can you meet your own privacy policy requirements? Do you really want your private financial data exposed? Do you trust the provider? Is what you see really your data? Do you own it or is it managed by someone else? Security is a big concern that comes with an emotional component. The next thing in the risk category is reliability. Is the provider proven? You’re taking what you have control over – for example, standards and policies and internal service level agreements – away from your IT department and giving it to someone else. Will you still be able to adapt to shifts in your business? Will the provider be able to grow with your business effectively? Reliability means having a provider that can give you the service infrastructure that you need. And then there’s performance, which has two components in terms of risk. Going forward, will the provider be able to scale the infrastructure or service level if you have new employees or new businesses? And second, will the price you negotiate and the rate you lock in cover additional costs and rising service fees? Another piece is cost. What happens if you don't get the service level you want? What if you end the service? What happens, if after a few years, you send the service out for bid and change service? Can you move your data? Can you move the applications? Do the integrations work? These are cost components people don’t always take into account. And, the final piece is the business case. The perception is that you can get started really quickly with cloud. It has a perceived lower cost of total ownership and it feels cool because it's cloud. But do you have a good business case for moving to the cloud? Your total cost of ownership is over three years; then you’ll renew it, so your TCO is six years. Have you compared that to other internal services that you’re offering? You might already have product that you can run this new business or division on. In that same survey at the CFO Summit, the execs thought the biggest perceived risks were security of data, ability to move data back, and the ability to create a business case to actually justify the risks. So that’s the list of pros and cons. Not to leave you hanging, I will do another post on how to balance these pros and cons and make the right decision for your business.

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• In Social Relationship Management, the Spirit is Willing, but Execution is Weak

  - by Mike Stiles

  In our final talk in this series with Aberdeen’s Trip Kucera, we wanted to find out if enterprise organizations are actually doing anything about what they’re learning around the importance of communicating via social and using social listening for a deeper understanding of customers and prospects. We found out that if your brand is lagging behind, you’re not alone. Spotlight: How was Aberdeen able to find out if companies are putting their money where their mouth is when it comes to implementing social across the enterprise? Trip: One way to think about the relative challenges a business has in a given area is to look at the gap between “say” and “do.” The first of those words reveals the brand’s priorities, while the second reveals their ability to execute on those priorities. In Aberdeen’s research, we capture this by asking firms to rank the value of a set of activities from one on the low end to five on the high end. We then ask them to rank their ability to execute those same activities, again on a one to five, not effective to highly effective scale. Spotlight: And once you get their self-assessments, what is it you’re looking for? Trip: There are two things we’re looking for in this analysis. The first is we want to be able to identify the widest gaps between perception of value and execution. This suggests impediments to adoption or simply a high level of challenge, be it technical or otherwise. It may also suggest areas where we can expect future investment and innovation. Spotlight: So the biggest potential pain points surface, places where they know something is critical but also know they aren’t doing much about it. What’s the second thing you look for? Trip: The second thing we want to do is look at specific areas in which high-performing companies, the Leaders, are out-executing the Followers. This points to the business impact of these activities since Leaders are defined by a set of business performance metrics. Put another way, we’re correlating adoption of specific business competencies with performance, looking for what high-performers do differently. Spotlight: Ah ha, that tells us what steps the winners are taking that are making them winners. So what did you find out? Trip: Generally speaking, we see something of a glass curtain when it comes to the social relationship management execution gap. There isn’t a single social media activity in which more than 50% of respondents indicated effectiveness, which would be a 4 or 5 on that 1-5 scale. This despite the fact that 70% of firms indicate that generating positive social media mentions is valuable or very valuable, a 4 or 5 on our 1-5 scale. Spotlight: Well at least they get points for being honest. The verdict they’re giving themselves is that they just aren’t cutting it in these highly critical social development areas. Trip: And the widest gap is around directly engaging with customers and/or prospects on social networks, which 69% of firms rated as valuable but only 34% of companies say they are executing well. Perhaps even more interesting is that these two are interdependent since you’re most likely to generate goodwill on social through happy, engaged customers. This data also suggests that social is largely being used as a broadcast channel rather than for one-to-one engagement. As we’ve discussed previously, social is an inherently personal media. Spotlight: And if they’re still using it as a broadcast channel, that shows they still fail to understand the root of social and see it as just another outlet for their ads and push-messaging. That’s depressing. Trip: A second way to evaluate this data is by using Aberdeen’s performance benchmarking. The story is both a bit different, but consistent in its own way. The first thing we notice is that Leaders are more effective in their execution of several key social relationship management capabilities, namely generating positive mentions and engaging with “influencers” and customers. Based on the fact that Aberdeen uses a broad set of performance metrics to rank the respondents as either “Leaders” (top 35% in weighted performance) or “Followers” (bottom 65% in weighted performance), from website conversion to annual revenue growth, we can then correlated high social effectiveness with company performance. We can also connect the specific social capabilities used by Leaders with effectiveness. We spoke about a few of those key capabilities last time and also discuss them in a new report: Social Powers Activate: Engineering Social Engagement to Win the Hidden Sales Cycle. Spotlight: What all that tells me is there are rewards for making the effort and getting it right. That’s how you become a Leader. Trip: But there’s another part of the story, which is that overall effectiveness, even among Leaders, is muted. There’s just one activity in which more than a majority of Leaders cite high effectiveness, effectiveness being the generation of positive buzz. While 80% of Leaders indicate “directly engaging with customers” through social media channels is valuable, the highest rated activity among Leaders, only 42% say they’re effective. This gap even among Leaders shows the challenges still involved in effective social relationship management. @mikestilesPhoto: stock.xchng

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• C# Monte Carlo Incremental Risk Calculation optimisation, random numbers, parallel execution

  - by m3ntat

  My current task is to optimise a Monte Carlo Simulation that calculates Capital Adequacy figures by region for a set of Obligors. It is running about 10 x too slow for where it will need to be in production and number or daily runs required. Additionally the granularity of the result figures will need to be improved down to desk possibly book level at some stage, the code I've been given is basically a prototype which is used by business units in a semi production capacity. The application is currently single threaded so I'll need to make it multi-threaded, may look at System.Threading.ThreadPool or the Microsoft Parallel Extensions library but I'm constrained to .NET 2 on the server at this bank so I may have to consider this guy's port, http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/aforge_parallel.aspx. I am trying my best to get them to upgrade to .NET 3.5 SP1 but it's a major exercise in an organisation of this size and might not be possible in my contract time frames. I've profiled the application using the trial of dotTrace (http://www.jetbrains.com/profiler). What other good profilers exist? Free ones? A lot of the execution time is spent generating uniform random numbers and then translating this to a normally distributed random number. They are using a C# Mersenne twister implementation. I am not sure where they got it or if it's the best way to go about this (or best implementation) to generate the uniform random numbers. Then this is translated to a normally distributed version for use in the calculation (I haven't delved into the translation code yet). Also what is the experience using the following? http://quantlib.org http://www.qlnet.org (C# port of quantlib) or http://www.boost.org Any alternatives you know of? I'm a C# developer so would prefer C#, but a wrapper to C++ shouldn't be a problem, should it? Maybe even faster leveraging the C++ implementations. I am thinking some of these libraries will have the fastest method to directly generate normally distributed random numbers, without the translation step. Also they may have some other functions that will be helpful in the subsequent calculations. Also the computer this is on is a quad core Opteron 275, 8 GB memory but Windows Server 2003 Enterprise 32 bit. Should I advise them to upgrade to a 64 bit OS? Any links to articles supporting this decision would really be appreciated. Anyway, any advice and help you may have is really appreciated.

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• Moving data files failing

  - by Miles Hayler

  Trying to migrate data from C: to D: via the SBS console is failing. The wizard starts running but drops out in the first few seconds. I'll post the full logs, but the important lines appear to be as follows: An exception of type 'Type: System.IO.FileNotFoundException, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089' has occurred. Message: The system cannot find the file specified. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070002) Stack: at TaskScheduler.TaskSchedulerClass.GetFolder(String Path) at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Common.WindowsTaskScheduler..ctor(String taskPath, String taskName) BaseException: Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Storage.Common.StorageException: GetServerBackupTaskStatus: fail to find the task --- ErrorCode:0 I've been googling for days with no luck. I have found that mscorlib is a component of .net, and I've discovered multiple instances of the file in %windir%, %windir%\winsxs, %windir%\Microsoft.net Anyone come across and fixed this one before? --------------------------------------------------------- [1516] 110315.190856.1105: Storage: Initializing...C:\Program Files\Windows Small Business Server\Bin\MoveData.exe [1516] 110315.190856.2875: Storage: Data Store to be moved: Exchange [1516] 110315.190856.5305: TaskScheduler: Exception System.IO.FileNotFoundException: [1516] 110315.190856.5605: Exception: --------------------------------------- An exception of type 'Type: System.IO.FileNotFoundException, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089' has occurred. Timestamp: 03/15/2011 19:08:56 Message: The system cannot find the file specified. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070002) Stack: at TaskScheduler.TaskSchedulerClass.GetFolder(String Path) at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Common.WindowsTaskScheduler..ctor(String taskPath, String taskName) [1516] 110315.190856.5625: Storage: Exception Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Common.WindowsTaskSchedulerException: [1516] 110315.190856.5635: Exception: --------------------------------------- [b]An exception of type 'Type: Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Common.WindowsTaskSchedulerException, Common, Version=6.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' has occurred.[/b] Timestamp: 03/15/2011 19:08:56 Message: Failed to find the task path Stack: at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Common.WindowsTaskScheduler..ctor(String taskPath, String taskName) at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Storage.Common.ServerBackupUtility.GetServerBackupTaskStatus() --------------------------------------- An exception of type 'Type: System.IO.FileNotFoundException, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089' has occurred. Timestamp: 03/15/2011 19:08:56 Message: The system cannot find the file specified. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070002) Stack: at TaskScheduler.TaskSchedulerClass.GetFolder(String Path) at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Common.WindowsTaskScheduler..ctor(String taskPath, String taskName) [1516] 110315.190856.5665: Storage: Error Retrieving Server Backup Task Status: ErrorCode:0 BaseException: Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Storage.Common.StorageException: GetServerBackupTaskStatus: fail to find the task ---> ErrorCode:0 BaseException: Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Common.WindowsTaskSchedulerException: Failed to find the task path ---> System.IO.FileNotFoundException: The system cannot find the file specified. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070002) at TaskScheduler.TaskSchedulerClass.GetFolder(String Path) at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Common.WindowsTaskScheduler..ctor(String taskPath, String taskName) --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Common.WindowsTaskScheduler..ctor(String taskPath, String taskName) at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Storage.Common.ServerBackupUtility.GetServerBackupTaskStatus() --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Storage.Common.ServerBackupUtility.GetServerBackupTaskStatus() at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Storage.MoveData.Helper.get_ServerBackupTaskState() [1516] 110315.190857.6216: Storage: Backup Task State: Unknown [1516] 110315.190857.9347: Storage: Launching the Move Data Wizard! [1516] 110315.190857.9397: Wizard: Admin:QueryNextPage(null) = Storage.MoveDataWizard.GettingStartedPage [1516] 110315.190857.9417: Wizard: TOC Storage.MoveDataWizard.GettingStartedPage is on ExpectedPath [1516] 110315.190857.9577: Wizard: Storage.MoveDataWizard.GettingStartedPage entered [1516] 110315.190857.9657: Wizard: Admin:QueryNextPage(Storage.MoveDataWizard.GettingStartedPage) = Storage.MoveDataWizard.DiagnoseDataStorePage [1516] 110315.190857.9657: Wizard: TOC Storage.MoveDataWizard.DiagnoseDataStorePage is on ExpectedPath [1516] 110315.190857.9657: Wizard: Admin:QueryNextPage(Storage.MoveDataWizard.DiagnoseDataStorePage) = Storage.MoveDataWizard.NewDataStoreLocationPage [1516] 110315.190857.9657: Wizard: TOC Storage.MoveDataWizard.NewDataStoreLocationPage is on ExpectedPath [1516] 110315.190857.9657: Wizard: Admin:QueryNextPage(Storage.MoveDataWizard.NewDataStoreLocationPage) = null [1516] 110315.190857.9697: Wizard: ---------------------------------- [1516] 110315.190857.9697: Wizard: The pages visted: [1516] 110315.190857.9697: Wizard: Current Page := [TOC Storage.MoveDataWizard.GettingStartedPage] [1516] 110315.190857.9697: Wizard: [TOC] : TOC Storage.MoveDataWizard.DiagnoseDataStorePage [1516] 110315.190857.9697: Wizard: [TOC] : TOC Storage.MoveDataWizard.NewDataStoreLocationPage [1516] 110315.190857.9697: Wizard: Step 1 of 3 [1516] 110315.190907.0406: Wizard: Admin:QueryNextPage(Storage.MoveDataWizard.GettingStartedPage) = Storage.MoveDataWizard.DiagnoseDataStorePage [1516] 110315.190907.0416: Wizard: Storage.MoveDataWizard.GettingStartedPage exited with the button: Next [1516] 110315.190907.0416: WizardChainEngine Next Clicked: Going to page {0}.: Storage.MoveDataWizard.DiagnoseDataStorePage [1516] 110315.190907.0496: Wizard: Storage.MoveDataWizard.DiagnoseDataStorePage entered [1516] 110315.190907.0606: Wizard: Admin:QueryNextPage(Storage.MoveDataWizard.DiagnoseDataStorePage) = Storage.MoveDataWizard.NewDataStoreLocationPage [1516] 110315.190907.0606: Wizard: Admin:QueryNextPage(Storage.MoveDataWizard.NewDataStoreLocationPage) = null [1516] 110315.190907.0606: Wizard: ---------------------------------- [1516] 110315.190907.0606: Wizard: The pages visted: [1516] 110315.190907.0606: Wizard: [TOC] visited: TOC Storage.MoveDataWizard.GettingStartedPage [1516] 110315.190907.0606: Wizard: Current Page := [TOC Storage.MoveDataWizard.DiagnoseDataStorePage] [1516] 110315.190907.0616: Wizard: [TOC] : TOC Storage.MoveDataWizard.NewDataStoreLocationPage [1516] 110315.190907.0616: Wizard: Step 2 of 3 [19772] 110315.190907.0656: Storage: Starting System Diagnosis [19772] 110315.190907.0656: Storage: Getting Data Store Information [19772] 110315.190907.1086: Storage: Create the list of storage and DB directory path [19772] 110315.190907.1246: Messaging: Begin Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Messaging.Management.MessagingTasks..ctor [19772] 110315.190907.1546: Messaging: Begin Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Messaging.Management.MessagingTasks.Initialize [19772] 110315.190907.1596: Messaging: Begin Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Messaging.Management.MessagingRunspace.Initialize [19772] 110315.190907.1606: Messaging: Exchange install path: C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\bin [19772] 110315.190908.4157: Messaging: E12 Monad runspace created ID: Microsoft.PowerShell [19772] 110315.190908.4237: Messaging: Begin Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Messaging.Management.MessagingRunspace.StaticExecute [19772] 110315.190908.4287: Messaging: Executed management shell command: get-exchangeserver [19772] 110315.190910.2369: Messaging: End Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Messaging.Management.MessagingRunspace.StaticExecute [19772] 110315.190910.2369: Messaging: End Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Messaging.Management.MessagingRunspace.Initialize [19772] 110315.190910.5699: Messaging: Begin Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Messaging.Management.MessagingTasks.GatherAdminInfo [19772] 110315.190910.5699: Messaging: Begin Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Messaging.Management.MessagingRunspace.StaticExecute [19772] 110315.190910.5719: Messaging: Executed management shell command: get-user -Identity "dmagroup.local\Administrator" [19772] 110315.190911.0870: Messaging: End Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Messaging.Management.MessagingRunspace.StaticExecute [19772] 110315.190911.0880: Messaging: Begin Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Messaging.Management.MessagingRunspace.StaticExecute [19772] 110315.190911.0880: Messaging: Executed management shell command: get-mailbox -Identity "d2ae2bf0-48a7-4ce9-9e72-bb3c765454ac" [19772] 110315.190911.1300: Messaging: End Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Messaging.Management.MessagingRunspace.StaticExecute [19772] 110315.190911.1310: Messaging: User Administrator is mail enabled and can use MessagingManagement to send mail. [19772] 110315.190911.1310: Messaging: Email address used for user: [email protected] [19772] 110315.190911.1440: Messaging: Begin Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Messaging.Management.MessagingRunspace.StaticExecute [19772] 110315.190911.1440: Messaging: Executed management shell command: get-group -Identity "Domain Admins" [19772] 110315.190911.1630: Messaging: End Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Messaging.Management.MessagingRunspace.StaticExecute [19772] 110315.190911.1640: Messaging: User Administrator is a member of Domain Admins and can use MessagingManagement to manage Exchange. [19772] 110315.190911.1640: Messaging: End Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Messaging.Management.MessagingTasks.GatherAdminInfo [19772] 110315.190911.1640: Messaging: MessagingManagement enabled for Exchange management: True [19772] 110315.190911.1640: Messaging: MessagingManagement enabled for mail submission: True [19772] 110315.190911.1640: Messaging: End Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Messaging.Management.MessagingTasks.Initialize [19772] 110315.190911.1640: Messaging: End Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Messaging.Tasks.TaskMoveExchangeData.CreateDataStoreDriveList [19772] 110315.190911.1670: Messaging: Begin Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Messaging.Management.MessagingRunspace.Initialize [19772] 110315.190911.1670: Messaging: Begin Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Messaging.Management.MessagingRunspace.StaticExecute [19772] 110315.190911.1670: Messaging: Executed management shell command: get-storagegroup -Server "SERVER01" [19772] 110315.190911.2990: Messaging: End Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Messaging.Management.MessagingRunspace.StaticExecute [19772] 110315.190911.3070: Messaging: Begin Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Messaging.Management.MessagingRunspace.Initialize [19772] 110315.190911.3070: Messaging: Begin Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Messaging.Management.MessagingRunspace.StaticExecute [19772] 110315.190911.3070: Messaging: Executed management shell command: get-mailboxdatabase -Server "SERVER01" [19772] 110315.190911.4440: Messaging: End Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Messaging.Management.MessagingRunspace.StaticExecute [19772] 110315.190911.4520: Messaging: Begin Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Messaging.Management.MessagingRunspace.Initialize [19772] 110315.190911.4520: Messaging: Begin Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Messaging.Management.MessagingRunspace.StaticExecute [19772] 110315.190911.4520: Messaging: Executed management shell command: get-publicfolderdatabase -Server "SERVER01" [19772] 110315.190911.5240: Messaging: End Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Messaging.Management.MessagingRunspace.StaticExecute [19772] 110315.190911.5510: Storage: Data Store Drive/s Details:Name=C:\,Size=12675712420 [19772] 110315.190911.5510: Storage: Data Store Size Details: Current Total Size=12675712420 Required Size=12675712420 [19772] 110315.190911.5510: Storage: MoveData Task can move the Data Store=True [19772] 110315.190911.8401: Storage: An error was encountered when performing system diagnosis : ErrorCode:0 BaseException: Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Storage.Common.StorageException: WMI error occurred while accessing drive ---> System.Management.ManagementException: Not found at System.Management.ManagementException.ThrowWithExtendedInfo(ManagementStatus errorCode) at System.Management.ManagementObjectCollection.ManagementObjectEnumerator.MoveNext() at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Storage.Common.DriveUtil.IsDriveRemovable(String drive) --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Storage.Common.DriveUtil.IsDriveRemovable(String drive) at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Storage.Common.DataStoreInfo.LoadAvailableDrives() at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Storage.Common.MoveDataUtil.CanMoveData(DataStoreInfo storeInfo, MoveDataError& error) at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Storage.MoveData.DiagnoseDataStorePagePresenter.DiagnoseDataStore(Object sender, DoWorkEventArgs args) [1516] 110315.190912.0331: Storage: An error occured during the execution: System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation. ---> ErrorCode:0 BaseException: Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Storage.Common.StorageException: Diagnosing the Data Store failed (see the inner exception) ---> ErrorCode:0 BaseException: Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Storage.Common.StorageException: WMI error occurred while accessing drive ---> System.Management.ManagementException: Not found at System.Management.ManagementException.ThrowWithExtendedInfo(ManagementStatus errorCode) at System.Management.ManagementObjectCollection.ManagementObjectEnumerator.MoveNext() at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Storage.Common.DriveUtil.IsDriveRemovable(String drive) --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Storage.Common.DriveUtil.IsDriveRemovable(String drive) at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Storage.Common.DataStoreInfo.LoadAvailableDrives() at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Storage.Common.MoveDataUtil.CanMoveData(DataStoreInfo storeInfo, MoveDataError& error) at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Storage.MoveData.DiagnoseDataStorePagePresenter.DiagnoseDataStore(Object sender, DoWorkEventArgs args) at System.ComponentModel.BackgroundWorker.WorkerThreadStart(Object argument) --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Storage.MoveData.DiagnoseDataStorePagePresenter.backgroundWorker_RunWorkerCompleted(Object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e) --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at System.RuntimeMethodHandle._InvokeMethodFast(Object target, Object[] arguments, SignatureStruct& sig, MethodAttributes methodAttributes, RuntimeTypeHandle typeOwner) at System.Reflection.RuntimeMethodInfo.Invoke(Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, Binder binder, Object[] parameters, CultureInfo culture, Boolean skipVisibilityChecks) at System.Delegate.DynamicInvokeImpl(Object[] args) at System.Windows.Forms.Control.InvokeMarshaledCallbackDo(ThreadMethodEntry tme) at System.Windows.Forms.Control.InvokeMarshaledCallbackHelper(Object obj) at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.runTryCode(Object userData) at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.RuntimeHelpers.ExecuteCodeWithGuaranteedCleanup(TryCode code, CleanupCode backoutCode, Object userData) at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state) at System.Windows.Forms.Control.InvokeMarshaledCallback(ThreadMethodEntry tme) at System.Windows.Forms.Control.InvokeMarshaledCallbacks() at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m) at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m) at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.DebuggableCallback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam) at System.Windows.Forms.UnsafeNativeMethods.DispatchMessageW(MSG& msg) at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ComponentManager.System.Windows.Forms.UnsafeNativeMethods.IMsoComponentManager.FPushMessageLoop(Int32 dwComponentID, Int32 reason, Int32 pvLoopData) at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ThreadContext.RunMessageLoopInner(Int32 reason, ApplicationContext context) at System.Windows.Forms.Application.ThreadContext.RunMessageLoop(Int32 reason, ApplicationContext context) at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Common.Wizards.Framework.WizardFrameView.Create() at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Common.Wizards.Framework.WizardChainEngine.Launch() at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Storage.MoveData.MainClass.LaunchMoveDataWizard() at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Storage.MoveData.MainClass.Main(String[] args)

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• What is a good software development plan?

  - by Totophil

  Whilst browsing through answers on SO I came across something that is, in my view, one of the more frequent software development management misconceptions: "[software development] plan is a reasonably detailed description of all the activities you need to undertake". Hence the question: what is good software development plan? Can it be boiled down just to a work breakdown structure; is WBS the single most important thing for a software development plan anyway?

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• Authoritative sources about Database vs. Flatfile decision

  - by FastAl

  <tldr>looking for a reference to a book or other undeniably authoritative source that gives reasons when you should choose a database vs. when you should choose other storage methods. I have provided an un-authoritative list of reasons about 2/3 of the way down this post.</tldr> I have a situation at my company where a database is being used where it would be better to use another solution (in this case, an auto-generated piece of source code that contains a static lookup table, searched by binary sort). Normally, a database would be an OK solution even though the problem does not require a database, e.g, none of the elements of ACID are needed, as it is read-only data, updated about every 3-5 years (also requiring other sourcecode changes), and fits in memory, and can be keyed into via binary search (a tad faster than db, but speed is not an issue). The problem is that this code runs on our enterprise server, but is shared with several PC platforms (some disconnected, some use a central DB, etc.), and parts of it are managed by multiple programming units, parts by the DBAs, parts even by mathematicians in another department, etc. These hit their own platform’s version of their databases (containing their own copy of the static data). What happens is that every implementation, every little change, something different goes wrong. There are many other issues as well. I can’t even use a flatfile, because one mode of running on our enterprise server does not have permission to read files (only databases, and of course, its own literal storage, e.g., in-source table). Of course, other parts of the system use databases in proper, less obscure manners; there is no problem with those parts. So why don’t we just change it? I don’t have administrative ability to force a change. But I’m affected because sometimes I have to help fix the problems, but mostly because it causes outages and tons of extra IT time by other programmers and d*mmit that makes me mad! The reason neither management, nor the designers of the system, can see the problem is that they propose a solution that won’t work: increase communication; implement more safeguards and standards; etc. But every time, in a different part of the already-pared-down but still multi-step processes, a few different diligent, hard-working, top performing IT personnel make a unique subtle error that causes it to fail, sometimes after the last round of testing! And in general these are not single-person failures, but understandable miscommunications. And communication at our company is actually better than most. People just don't think that's the case because they haven't dug into the matter. However, I have it on very good word from somebody with extensive formal study of sociology and psychology that the relatively small amount of less-than-proper database usage in this gigantic cross-platform multi-source, multi-language project is bureaucratically un-maintainable. Impossible. No chance. At least with Human Beings in the loop, and it can’t be automated. In addition, the management and developers who could change this, though intelligent and capable, don’t understand the rigidity of this ‘how humans are’ issue, and are not convincible on the matter. The reason putting the static data in sourcecode will solve the problem is, although the solution is less sexy than a database, it would function with no technical drawbacks; and since the sharing of sourcecode already works very well, you basically erase any database-related effort from this section of the project, along with all the drawbacks of it that are causing problems. OK, that’s the background, for the curious. I won’t be able to convince management that this is an unfixable sociological problem, and that the real solution is coding around these limits of human nature, just as you would code around a bug in a 3rd party component that you can’t change. So what I have to do is exploit the unsuitableness of the database solution, and not do it using logic, but rather authority. I am aware of many reasons, and posts on this site giving reasons for one over the other; I’m not looking for lists of reasons like these (although you can add a comment if I've miss a doozy): WHY USE A DATABASE? instead of flatfile/other DB vs. file: if you need... Random Read / Transparent search optimization Advanced / varied / customizable Searching and sorting capabilities Transaction/rollback Locks, semaphores Concurrency control / Shared users Security 1-many/m-m is easier Easy modification Scalability Load Balancing Random updates / inserts / deletes Advanced query Administrative control of design, etc. SQL / learning curve Debugging / Logging Centralized / Live Backup capabilities Cached queries / dvlp & cache execution plans Interleaved update/read Referential integrity, avoid redundant/missing/corrupt/out-of-sync data Reporting (from on olap or oltp db) / turnkey generation tools [Disadvantages:] Important to get right the first time - professional design - but only b/c it's meant to last s/w & h/w cost Usu. over a network, speed issue (best vs. best design vs. local=even then a separate process req's marshalling/netwk layers/inter-p comm) indicies and query processing can stand in the way of simple processing (vs. flatfile) WHY USE FLATFILE: If you only need... Sequential Row processing only Limited usage append only (no reading, no master key/update) Only Update the record you're reading (fixed length recs only) Too big to fit into memory If Local disk / read-ahead network connection Portability / small system Email / cut & Paste / store as document by novice - simple format Low design learning curve but high cost later WHY USE IN-MEMORY/TABLE (tables, arrays, etc.): if you need... Processing a single db/ff record that was imported Known size of data Static data if hardcoding the table Narrow, unchanging use (e.g., one program or proc) -includes a class that will be shared, but encapsulates its data manipulation Extreme speed needed / high transaction frequency Random access - but search is dependent on implementation Following are some other posts about the topic: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1499239/database-vs-flat-text-file-what-are-some-technical-reasons-for-choosing-one-over http://stackoverflow.com/questions/332825/are-flat-file-databases-any-good http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2356851/database-vs-flat-files http://stackoverflow.com/questions/514455/databases-vs-plain-text/514530 What I’d like to know is if anybody could recommend a hard, authoritative source containing these reasons. I’m looking for a paper book I can buy, or a reputable website with whitepapers about the issue (e.g., Microsoft, IBM), not counting the user-generated content on those sites. This will have a greater change to elicit a change that I’m looking for: less wasted programmer time, and more reliable programs. Thanks very much for your help. You win a prize for reading such a large post!

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• How do I prove I should put a table of values in source code instead of a database table?

  - by FastAl

  <tldr>looking for a reference to a book or other undeniably authoritative source that gives reasons when you should choose a database vs. when you should choose other storage methods. I have provided an un-authoritative list of reasons about 2/3 of the way down this post.</tldr> I have a situation at my company where a database is being used where it would be better to use another solution (in this case, an auto-generated piece of source code that contains a static lookup table, searched by binary sort). Normally, a database would be an OK solution even though the problem does not require a database, e.g, none of the elements of ACID are needed, as it is read-only data, updated about every 3-5 years (also requiring other sourcecode changes), and fits in memory, and can be keyed into via binary search (a tad faster than db, but speed is not an issue). The problem is that this code runs on our enterprise server, but is shared with several PC platforms (some disconnected, some use a central DB, etc.), and parts of it are managed by multiple programming units, parts by the DBAs, parts even by mathematicians in another department, etc. These hit their own platform’s version of their databases (containing their own copy of the static data). What happens is that every implementation, every little change, something different goes wrong. There are many other issues as well. I can’t even use a flatfile, because one mode of running on our enterprise server does not have permission to read files (only databases, and of course, its own literal storage, e.g., in-source table). Of course, other parts of the system use databases in proper, less obscure manners; there is no problem with those parts. So why don’t we just change it? I don’t have administrative ability to force a change. But I’m affected because sometimes I have to help fix the problems, but mostly because it causes outages and tons of extra IT time by other programmers and d*mmit that makes me mad! The reason neither management, nor the designers of the system, can see the problem is that they propose a solution that won’t work: increase communication; implement more safeguards and standards; etc. But every time, in a different part of the already-pared-down but still multi-step processes, a few different diligent, hard-working, top performing IT personnel make a unique subtle error that causes it to fail, sometimes after the last round of testing! And in general these are not single-person failures, but understandable miscommunications. And communication at our company is actually better than most. People just don't think that's the case because they haven't dug into the matter. However, I have it on very good word from somebody with extensive formal study of sociology and psychology that the relatively small amount of less-than-proper database usage in this gigantic cross-platform multi-source, multi-language project is bureaucratically un-maintainable. Impossible. No chance. At least with Human Beings in the loop, and it can’t be automated. In addition, the management and developers who could change this, though intelligent and capable, don’t understand the rigidity of this ‘how humans are’ issue, and are not convincible on the matter. The reason putting the static data in sourcecode will solve the problem is, although the solution is less sexy than a database, it would function with no technical drawbacks; and since the sharing of sourcecode already works very well, you basically erase any database-related effort from this section of the project, along with all the drawbacks of it that are causing problems. OK, that’s the background, for the curious. I won’t be able to convince management that this is an unfixable sociological problem, and that the real solution is coding around these limits of human nature, just as you would code around a bug in a 3rd party component that you can’t change. So what I have to do is exploit the unsuitableness of the database solution, and not do it using logic, but rather authority. I am aware of many reasons, and posts on this site giving reasons for one over the other; I’m not looking for lists of reasons like these (although you can add a comment if I've miss a doozy): WHY USE A DATABASE? instead of flatfile/other DB vs. file: if you need... Random Read / Transparent search optimization Advanced / varied / customizable Searching and sorting capabilities Transaction/rollback Locks, semaphores Concurrency control / Shared users Security 1-many/m-m is easier Easy modification Scalability Load Balancing Random updates / inserts / deletes Advanced query Administrative control of design, etc. SQL / learning curve Debugging / Logging Centralized / Live Backup capabilities Cached queries / dvlp & cache execution plans Interleaved update/read Referential integrity, avoid redundant/missing/corrupt/out-of-sync data Reporting (from on olap or oltp db) / turnkey generation tools [Disadvantages:] Important to get right the first time - professional design - but only b/c it's meant to last s/w & h/w cost Usu. over a network, speed issue (best vs. best design vs. local=even then a separate process req's marshalling/netwk layers/inter-p comm) indicies and query processing can stand in the way of simple processing (vs. flatfile) WHY USE FLATFILE: If you only need... Sequential Row processing only Limited usage append only (no reading, no master key/update) Only Update the record you're reading (fixed length recs only) Too big to fit into memory If Local disk / read-ahead network connection Portability / small system Email / cut & Paste / store as document by novice - simple format Low design learning curve but high cost later WHY USE IN-MEMORY/TABLE (tables, arrays, etc.): if you need... Processing a single db/ff record that was imported Known size of data Static data if hardcoding the table Narrow, unchanging use (e.g., one program or proc) -includes a class that will be shared, but encapsulates its data manipulation Extreme speed needed / high transaction frequency Random access - but search is dependent on implementation Following are some other posts about the topic: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1499239/database-vs-flat-text-file-what-are-some-technical-reasons-for-choosing-one-over http://stackoverflow.com/questions/332825/are-flat-file-databases-any-good http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2356851/database-vs-flat-files http://stackoverflow.com/questions/514455/databases-vs-plain-text/514530 What I’d like to know is if anybody could recommend a hard, authoritative source containing these reasons. I’m looking for a paper book I can buy, or a reputable website with whitepapers about the issue (e.g., Microsoft, IBM), not counting the user-generated content on those sites. This will have a greater change to elicit a change that I’m looking for: less wasted programmer time, and more reliable programs. Thanks very much for your help. You win a prize for reading such a large post!

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• Microsoft RAP (Risk Assessment Program)

  - by UmutKa

  Hello, Do you think Microsoft's RAP program worth the money you pay ? Any suggestions ? Thanks

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