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• Essbase BSO Data Fragmentation

  - by Ann Donahue

  Essbase BSO Data Fragmentation Data fragmentation naturally occurs in Essbase Block Storage (BSO) databases where there are a lot of end user data updates, incremental data loads, many lock and send, and/or many calculations executed.  If an Essbase database starts to experience performance slow-downs, this is an indication that there may be too much fragmentation.  See Chapter 54 Improving Essbase Performance in the Essbase DBA Guide for more details on measuring and eliminating fragmentation: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E17236_01/epm.1112/esb_dbag/daprcset.html Fragmentation is likely to occur in the following situations: Read/write databases that users are constantly updating data Databases that execute calculations around the clock Databases that frequently update and recalculate dense members Data loads that are poorly designed Databases that contain a significant number of Dynamic Calc and Store members Databases that use an isolation level of uncommitted access with commit block set to zero There are two types of data block fragmentation Free space tracking, which is measured using the Average Fragmentation Quotient statistic. Block order on disk, which is measured using the Average Cluster Ratio statistic. Average Fragmentation Quotient The Average Fragmentation Quotient ratio measures free space in a given database.  As you update and calculate data, empty spaces occur when a block can no longer fit in its original space and will either append at the end of the file or fit in another empty space that is large enough.  These empty spaces take up space in the .PAG files.  The higher the number the more empty spaces you have, therefore, the bigger the .PAG file and the longer it takes to traverse through the .PAG file to get to a particular record.  An Average Fragmentation Quotient value of 3.174765 means the database is 3% fragmented with free space. Average Cluster Ratio Average Cluster Ratio describes the order the blocks actually exist in the database. An Average Cluster Ratio number of 1 means all the blocks are ordered in the correct sequence in the order of the Outline.  As you load data and calculate data blocks, the sequence can start to be out of order.  This is because when you write to a block it may not be able to place back in the exact same spot in the database that it existed before.  The lower this number the more out of order it becomes and the more it affects performance.  An Average Cluster Ratio value of 1 means no fragmentation.  Any value lower than 1 i.e. 0.01032828 means the data blocks are getting further out of order from the outline order. Eliminating Data Block Fragmentation Both types of data block fragmentation can be removed by doing a dense restructure or export/clear/import of the data.  There are two types of dense restructure: 1. Implicit Restructures Implicit dense restructure happens when outline changes are done using EAS Outline Editor or Dimension Build. Essbase restructures create new .PAG files restructuring the data blocks in the .PAG files. When Essbase restructures the data blocks, it regenerates the index automatically so that index entries point to the new data blocks. Empty blocks are NOT removed with implicit restructures. 2. Explicit Restructures Explicit dense restructure happens when a manual initiation of the database restructure is executed. An explicit dense restructure is a full restructure which comprises of a dense restructure as outlined above plus the removal of empty blocks Empty Blocks vs. Fragmentation The existence of empty blocks is not considered fragmentation.  Empty blocks can be created through calc scripts or formulas.  An empty block will add to an existing database block count and will be included in the block counts of the database properties.  There are no statistics for empty blocks.  The only way to determine if empty blocks exist in an Essbase database is to record your current block count, export the entire database, clear the database then import the exported data.  If the block count decreased, the difference is the number of empty blocks that had existed in the database.

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• Design Pattern for building a Budget

  - by Scott

  So I've looked at the Builder Pattern, Abstract Interfaces, other design patterns, etc. - and I think I'm over thinking the simplicity behind what I'm trying to do, so I'm asking you guys for some help with either recommending a design pattern I should use, or an architecture style I'm not familiar with that fits my task. So I have one model that represents a Budget in my code. At a high level, it looks like this: public class Budget { public int Id { get; set; } public List<MonthlySummary> Months { get; set; } public float SavingsPriority { get; set; } public float DebtPriority { get; set; } public List<Savings> SavingsCollection { get; set; } public UserProjectionParameters UserProjectionParameters { get; set; } public List<Debt> DebtCollection { get; set; } public string Name { get; set; } public List<Expense> Expenses { get; set; } public List<Income> IncomeCollection { get; set; } public bool AutoSave { get; set; } public decimal AutoSaveAmount { get; set; } public FundType AutoSaveType { get; set; } public decimal TotalExcess { get; set; } public decimal AccountMinimum { get; set; } } To go into more detail about some of the properties here shouldn't be necessary, but if you have any questions about those I will fill more out for you guys. Now, I'm trying to create code that builds one of these things based on a set of BudgetBuildParameters that the user will create and supply. There are going to be multiple types of these parameters. For example, on the sites homepage, there will be an example section where you can quickly see what your numbers look like, so they would be a much simpler set of SampleBudgetBuildParameters then say after a user registers and wants to create a fully filled out Budget using much more information in the DebtBudgetBuildParameters. Now a lot of these builds are going to be using similar code for certain tasks, but might want to also check the status of a users DebtCollection when formulating a monthly spending report, where as a Budget that only focuses on savings might not want to. I'd like to reduce code duplication (obviously) as much as possible, but in my head, every way I can think to do this would require using a base BudgetBuilderFactory to return the correct builder to the caller, and then creating say a SimpleBudgetBuilder that inherits from a BudgetBuilder, and put all duplicate code in the BudgetBuilder, and let the SimpleBudgetBuilder handle it's own cases. Problem is, a lot of the unique cases are unique to 2/4 builders, so there will be duplicate code somewhere in there obviously if I did that. Can anyone think of a better way to either explain a solution to this that may or may not be similar to mine, or a completely different pattern or way of thinking here? I really appreciate it.

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• Customizing the Test Status on the TFS 2010 SSRS Stories Overview Report

  - by Bob Hardister

  This post shows how to customize the SQL query used by the Team Foundation Server 2010 SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) Stories Overview Report. The objective is to show test status for the current version while including user story status of the current and prior versions.  Why? Because we don’t copy completed user stories into the next release. We only want one instance of a user story for the product because we believe copies can get out of sync when they are supposed to be the same. In the example below, work items for the current version are on the area path root and prior versions are not on the area path root. However, you can use area path or iteration path criteria in the query as suits your needs. In any case, here’s how you do it: 1. Download a copy of the report RDL file as a backup 2. Open the report by clicking the edit down arrow and selecting “Edit in Report Builder” 3. Right click on the dsOverview Dataset and select Dataset Properties 4. Update the following SQL per the comments in the code: Customization 1 of 3 … -- Get the list deliverable workitems that have Test Cases linked DECLARE @TestCases Table (DeliverableID int, TestCaseID int); INSERT @TestCases     SELECT h.ID, flh.TargetWorkItemID     FROM @Hierarchy h         JOIN FactWorkItemLinkHistory flh             ON flh.SourceWorkItemID = h.ID                 AND flh.WorkItemLinkTypeSK = @TestedByLinkTypeSK                 AND flh.RemovedDate = CONVERT(DATETIME, '9999', 126)                 AND flh.TeamProjectCollectionSK = @TeamProjectCollectionSK         JOIN [CurrentWorkItemView] wi ON flh.TargetWorkItemID = wi.[System_ID]                  AND wi.[System_WorkItemType] = @TestCase             AND wi.ProjectNodeGUID  = @ProjectGuid              --  Customization 1 of 3: only include test status information when test case area path = root. Added the following 2 statements              AND wi.AreaPath = '{the root area path of the team project}'  …          Customization 2 of 3 … -- Get the Bugs linked to the deliverable workitems directly DECLARE @Bugs Table (ID int, ActiveBugs int, ResolvedBugs int, ClosedBugs int, ProposedBugs int) INSERT @Bugs     SELECT h.ID,         SUM (CASE WHEN wi.[System_State] = @Active THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) Active,         SUM (CASE WHEN wi.[System_State] = @Resolved THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) Resolved,         SUM (CASE WHEN wi.[System_State] = @Closed THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) Closed,         SUM (CASE WHEN wi.[System_State] = @Proposed THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) Proposed     FROM @Hierarchy h         JOIN FactWorkItemLinkHistory flh             ON flh.SourceWorkItemID = h.ID             AND flh.TeamProjectCollectionSK = @TeamProjectCollectionSK         JOIN [CurrentWorkItemView] wi             ON wi.[System_WorkItemType] = @Bug             AND wi.[System_Id] = flh.TargetWorkItemID             AND flh.RemovedDate = CONVERT(DATETIME, '9999', 126)             AND wi.[ProjectNodeGUID] = @ProjectGuid              --  Customization 2 of 3: only include test status information when test case area path = root. Added the following statement              AND wi.AreaPath = '{the root area path of the team project}'       GROUP BY h.ID … Customization 2 of 3 … -- Add the Bugs linked to the Test Cases which are linked to the deliverable workitems -- Walks the links from the user stories to test cases (via the tested by link), and then to -- bugs that are linked to the test case. We don't need to join to the test case in the work -- item history view. -- --    [WIT:User Story/Requirement] --> [Link:Tested By]--> [Link:any type] --> [WIT:Bug] INSERT @Bugs SELECT tc.DeliverableID,     SUM (CASE WHEN wi.[System_State] = @Active THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) Active,     SUM (CASE WHEN wi.[System_State] = @Resolved THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) Resolved,     SUM (CASE WHEN wi.[System_State] = @Closed THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) Closed,     SUM (CASE WHEN wi.[System_State] = @Proposed THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) Proposed FROM @TestCases tc     JOIN FactWorkItemLinkHistory flh         ON flh.SourceWorkItemID = tc.TestCaseID         AND flh.RemovedDate = CONVERT(DATETIME, '9999', 126)         AND flh.TeamProjectCollectionSK = @TeamProjectCollectionSK     JOIN [CurrentWorkItemView] wi         ON wi.[System_Id] = flh.TargetWorkItemID         AND wi.[System_WorkItemType] = @Bug         AND wi.[ProjectNodeGUID] = @ProjectGuid         --  Customization 3 of 3: only include test status information when test case area path = root. Added the following statement         AND wi.AreaPath = '{the root area path of the team project}'     GROUP BY tc.DeliverableID … 5. Save the report and you’re all set. Note: you may need to re-apply custom parameter changes like pre-selected sprints.

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• SQL Saturday and Exploring Data Privacy

  - by Johnm

  I have been highly impressed with the growth of the SQL Saturday phenomenon. It seems that an announcement for a new wonderful event finds its way to my inbox on a daily basis. I have had the opportunity to attend the first of the SQL Saturday's for Tampa, Chicago, Louisville and recently my home town of Indianapolis. It is my hope that there will be many more in my future. This past weekend I had the honor of being selected to speak amid a great line up of speakers at SQL Saturday #82 in Indianapolis. My session topic/title was "Exploring Data Privacy". Below is a brief synopsis of my session: Data Privacy in a Nutshell        - Definition of data privacy        - Examples of personally identifiable data        - Examples of Sensitive data Laws and Stuff        - Various examples of laws, regulations and policies that influence the definition of data privacy        - General rules of thumb that encompasses most laws Your Data Footprint        - Who has personal information about you?        - What are you exchanging data privacy for?        - The amazing resilience of data        - The cost of data loss Weapons of Mass Protection       - Data classification       - Extended properties       - Database Object Schemas       - An extraordinarily brief introduction of encryption       - The amazing data professional  <-the most important point of the entire session! The subject of data privacy is one that is quickly making its way to the forefront of the mind of many data professionals. Somewhere out there someone is storing personally identifiable and other sensitive data about you. In some cases it is kept reasonably secure. In other cases it is kept in total exposure without the consideration of its potential of damage to you. Who has access to it and how is it being used? Are we being unnecessarily required to supply sensitive data in exchange for products and services? These are just a few questions on everyone's mind. As data loss events of grand scale hit the headlines in a more frequent succession, the level of frustration and urgency for a solution increases. I assembled this session with the intent to raise awareness of sensitive data and remind us all that we, data professionals, are the ones who have the greatest impact and influence on how sensitive data is regarded and protected. Mahatma Gandhi once said "Be the change you want to see in the world." This is guidance that I keep near to my heart as I approached this topic of data privacy.

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• NHibernate Pitfalls: Custom Types and Detecting Changes

  - by Ricardo Peres

  This is part of a series of posts about NHibernate Pitfalls. See the entire collection here. NHibernate supports the declaration of properties of user-defined types, that is, not entities, collections or primitive types. These are used for mapping a database columns, of any type, into a different type, which may not even be an entity; think, for example, of a custom user type that converts a BLOB column into an Image. User types must implement interface NHibernate.UserTypes.IUserType. This interface specifies an Equals method that is used for comparing two instances of the user type. If this method returns false, the entity is marked as dirty, and, when the session is flushed, will trigger an UPDATE. So, in your custom user type, you must implement this carefully so that it is not mistakenly considered changed. For example, you can cache the original column value inside of it, and compare it with the one in the other instance. Let’s see an example implementation of a custom user type that converts a Byte[] from a BLOB column into an Image: 1: [Serializable] 2: public sealed class ImageUserType : IUserType 3: { 4: private Byte[] data = null; 5: 6: public ImageUserType() 7: { 8: this.ImageFormat = ImageFormat.Png; 9: } 10: 11: public ImageFormat ImageFormat 12: { 13: get; 14: set; 15: } 16: 17: public Boolean IsMutable 18: { 19: get 20: { 21: return (true); 22: } 23: } 24: 25: public Object Assemble(Object cached, Object owner) 26: { 27: return (cached); 28: } 29: 30: public Object DeepCopy(Object value) 31: { 32: return (value); 33: } 34: 35: public Object Disassemble(Object value) 36: { 37: return (value); 38: } 39: 40: public new Boolean Equals(Object x, Object y) 41: { 42: return (Object.Equals(x, y)); 43: } 44: 45: public Int32 GetHashCode(Object x) 46: { 47: return ((x != null) ? x.GetHashCode() : 0); 48: } 49: 50: public override Int32 GetHashCode() 51: { 52: return ((this.data != null) ? this.data.GetHashCode() : 0); 53: } 54: 55: public override Boolean Equals(Object obj) 56: { 57: ImageUserType other = obj as ImageUserType; 58: 59: if (other == null) 60: { 61: return (false); 62: } 63: 64: if (Object.ReferenceEquals(this, other) == true) 65: { 66: return (true); 67: } 68: 69: return (this.data.SequenceEqual(other.data)); 70: } 71: 72: public Object NullSafeGet(IDataReader rs, String[] names, Object owner) 73: { 74: Int32 index = rs.GetOrdinal(names[0]); 75: Byte[] data = rs.GetValue(index) as Byte[]; 76: 77: this.data = data as Byte[]; 78: 79: if (data == null) 80: { 81: return (null); 82: } 83: 84: using (MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream(this.data ?? new Byte[0])) 85: { 86: return (Image.FromStream(stream)); 87: } 88: } 89: 90: public void NullSafeSet(IDbCommand cmd, Object value, Int32 index) 91: { 92: if (value != null) 93: { 94: Image data = value as Image; 95: 96: using (MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream()) 97: { 98: data.Save(stream, this.ImageFormat); 99: value = stream.ToArray(); 100: } 101: } 102: 103: (cmd.Parameters[index] as DbParameter).Value = value ?? DBNull.Value; 104: } 105: 106: public Object Replace(Object original, Object target, Object owner) 107: { 108: return (original); 109: } 110: 111: public Type ReturnedType 112: { 113: get 114: { 115: return (typeof(Image)); 116: } 117: } 118: 119: public SqlType[] SqlTypes 120: { 121: get 122: { 123: return (new SqlType[] { new SqlType(DbType.Binary) }); 124: } 125: } 126: } In this case, we need to cache the original Byte[] data because it’s not easy to compare two Image instances, unless, of course, they are the same.

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• 3 Incredibly Useful Projects to jump-start your Kinect Development.

  - by mbcrump

  I’ve been playing with the Kinect SDK Beta for the past few days and have noticed a few projects on CodePlex worth checking out. I decided to blog about them to help spread awareness. If you want to learn more about Kinect SDK then you check out my”Busy Developer’s Guide to the Kinect SDK Beta”. Let’s get started:   KinectContrib is a set of VS2010 Templates that will help you get started building a Kinect project very quickly. Once you have it installed you will have the option to select the following Templates: KinectDepth KinectSkeleton KinectVideo Please note that KinectContrib requires the Kinect for Windows SDK beta to be installed. Kinect Templates after installing the Template Pack. The reference to Microsoft.Research.Kinect is added automatically.  Here is a sample of the code for the MainWindow.xaml in the “Video” template: <Window x:Class="KinectVideoApplication1.MainWindow" xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" Title="MainWindow" Height="480" Width="640"> <Grid> <Image Name="videoImage"/> </Grid> </Window> and MainWindow.xaml.cs using System; using System.Windows; using System.Windows.Media; using System.Windows.Media.Imaging; using Microsoft.Research.Kinect.Nui; namespace KinectVideoApplication1 { public partial class MainWindow : Window { //Instantiate the Kinect runtime. Required to initialize the device. //IMPORTANT NOTE: You can pass the device ID here, in case more than one Kinect device is connected. Runtime runtime = new Runtime(); public MainWindow() { InitializeComponent(); //Runtime initialization is handled when the window is opened. When the window //is closed, the runtime MUST be unitialized. this.Loaded += new RoutedEventHandler(MainWindow_Loaded); this.Unloaded += new RoutedEventHandler(MainWindow_Unloaded); //Handle the content obtained from the video camera, once received. runtime.VideoFrameReady += new EventHandler<Microsoft.Research.Kinect.Nui.ImageFrameReadyEventArgs>(runtime_VideoFrameReady); } void MainWindow_Unloaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) { runtime.Uninitialize(); } void MainWindow_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) { //Since only a color video stream is needed, RuntimeOptions.UseColor is used. runtime.Initialize(Microsoft.Research.Kinect.Nui.RuntimeOptions.UseColor); //You can adjust the resolution here. runtime.VideoStream.Open(ImageStreamType.Video, 2, ImageResolution.Resolution640x480, ImageType.Color); } void runtime_VideoFrameReady(object sender, Microsoft.Research.Kinect.Nui.ImageFrameReadyEventArgs e) { PlanarImage image = e.ImageFrame.Image; BitmapSource source = BitmapSource.Create(image.Width, image.Height, 96, 96, PixelFormats.Bgr32, null, image.Bits, image.Width * image.BytesPerPixel); videoImage.Source = source; } } } You will find this template pack is very handy especially for those new to Kinect Development.   Next up is The Coding4Fun Kinect Toolkit which contains extension methods and a WPF control to help you develop with the Kinect SDK. After downloading the package simply add a reference to the .dll using either the WPF or WinForms version. Now you will have access to several methods that can help you save an image: (for example) For a full list of extension methods and properties, please visit the site at http://c4fkinect.codeplex.com/. Kinductor – This is a great application for just learning how to use the Kinect SDK. The project uses MVVM Light and is a great start for those looking how to structure their first Kinect Application. Conclusion: Things are already getting easier for those working with the Kinect SDK. I imagine that after a few more months we will see the SDK go out of beta and allow commercial applications to run using it. I am very excited and hope that you continue reading my blog for more Kinect, WPF and Silverlight news.  Subscribe to my feed

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• Best approach to depth streaming via existing codec

  - by Kevin

  I'm working on a development system (and game) intended for games set mostly in static third-person views. We produce our scenery by CG and photographic techniques. Our background art is rendered off-line by a production-grade renderer. To allow the runtime imagery to properly interact with the background art, I wrote a program to convert from depth output by Mental Ray into a texture, and a pixel shader to draw a quad such that the Z data comes from the texture. This technique is working out very well, but now we've decided that some of the camera angle changes between scenes should be animated. The animation itself is straightforward to produce from our CG models. We intend to encode it to some HD video codec such as H.264. The problem is that in order to maintain our runtime imagery on the screen, the depth buffer will need to be loaded for each video frame. Due to the bandwidth, the video's depth data will need to be compressed efficiently. I've looked into methods for performing temporal compression of depth info and found an interesting research paper here: http://web4.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/j.kautz/publications/depth-streaming.pdf The method establishes a mapping between 16-bit depth values and YCbCr values. The mapping is tuned to the properties of existing video codecs in order to maximize precision of the decoded depths after the YCbCr has undergone video compression. It allows an existing, unmodified video codec to be used on the backend. I'm looking at how to pull this off with the least possible work. (This design change was unplanned.) Our game engine itself is native C++, presently for Win32 and DirectX, although we've worked hard to keep platform dependence segregated because we intend other ports. We don't have motion video facilities in the engine yet but will ultimately need that anyway for cinematics. I was planning on using some off-the-shelf motion video solution we can plug into our engine, and haven't chosen one yet. This new added requirement makes selecting one harder since, among other things, we'll now need to bypass colourspace conversion on one of the streams, and also will need to be playing two streams simultaneously in lockstep, on top of in some cases audio on one of them (for the cinematics). I'm also wondering if it's possible (or even useful) to do the conversion from YCbCr to depth in a pixel shader, or if it's better to just do it in CPU and separately load the resulting depth values into a locked tex. The conversion unfortunately does involve branching logic per-pixel. (There are more naive mappings that don't need branching, but they produce inferior results.) It could be reduced to a table lookup but the table would be 32MB. Programming is second-nature to me but I'm not that experienced with pix shaders and have zero knowledge of off-the-shelf video solutions. I'd therefore be interested in advice from others who may have dealt more with depth streaming, pixel shaders, and/or off-the-shelf codecs, regarding how feasible the proposed application is and what off-the-shelf video systems out there would best get along with this usage case.

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• What is a good design pattern / lib for iOS 5 to synchronize with a web service?

  - by Junto

  We are developing an iOS application that needs to synchronize with a remote server using web services. The existing web services have an "operations" style rather than REST (implemented in WCF but exposing JSON HTTP endpoints). We are unsure of how to structure the web services to best fit with iOS and would love some advice. We are also interested in how to manage the synchronization process within iOS. Without going into detailed specifics, the application allows the user to estimate repair costs at a remote site. These costs are broken down by room and item. If the user has an internet connection this data can be sent back to the server. Multiple photographs can be taken of each item, but they will be held in a separate queue, which sends when the connection is optimal (ideally wifi). Our backend application controls the unique ids for each room and item. Thus, each time we send these costs to the server, the server echoes the central database ids back, thus, that they can be synchronized in the mobile app. I have simplified this a little, since the operations contract is actually much larger, but I just want to illustrate the basic requirements without complicating matters. Firstly, the web service architecture: We currently have two operations: GetCosts and UpdateCosts. My assumption is that if we used a strict REST architecture we would need to break our single web service operations into multiple smaller services. This would make the services much more chatty and we would also have to guarantee a delivery order from the app. For example, we need to make sure that containing rooms are added before the item. Although this seems much more RESTful, our perception is that these extra calls are expensive connections (security checks, database calls, etc). Does the type of web api (operation over service focus) determine chunky vs chatty? Since this is mobile (3G), are we better handling lots of smaller messages, or a few large ones? Secondly, the iOS side. What is the current advice on how to manage data synchronization within the iOS (5) app itself. We need multiple queues and we need to guarantee delivery order in each queue (and technically, ordering between queues). The server needs to control unique ids and other properties and echo them back to the application. The application then needs to update an internal database and when re-updating, make sure the correct ids are available in the update message (essentially multiple inserts and updates in one call). Our backend has a ton of business logic operating on these cost estimates. We don't want any of this in the app itself. Currently the iOS app sends the cost data, and then the server echoes that data back with populated ids (and other data). The existing cost data is deleted and the echoed response data is added to the client database on the device. This is causing us problems, because any photos might not have been sent, but the original entity tree has been removed and replaced. Obviously updating the costs tree rather than replacing it would remove this problem, but I'm not sure if there are any nice xcode libraries out there to do such things. I welcome any advice you might have.

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• ORE graphics using Remote Desktop Protocol

  - by Sherry LaMonica

  Oracle R Enterprise graphics are returned as raster, or bitmap graphics. Raster images consist of tiny squares of color information referred to as pixels that form points of color to create a complete image. Plots that contain raster images render quickly in R and create small, high-quality exported image files in a wide variety of formats. However, it is a known issue that the rendering of raster images can be problematic when creating graphics using a Remote Desktop connection. Raster images do not display in the windows device using Remote Desktop under the default settings. This happens because Remote Desktop restricts the number of colors when connecting to a Windows machine to 16 bits per pixel, and interpolating raster graphics requires many colors, at least 32 bits per pixel.. For example, this simple embedded R image plot will be returned in a raster-based format using a standalone Windows machine:  R> library(ORE) R> ore.connect(user="rquser", sid="orcl", host="localhost", password="rquser", all=TRUE)  R> ore.doEval(function() image(volcano, col=terrain.colors(30))) Here, we first load the ORE packages and connect to the database instance using database login credentials. The ore.doEval function executes the R code within the database embedded R engine and returns the image back to the client R session. Over a Remote Desktop connection under the default settings, this graph will appear blank due to the restricted number of colors. Users who encounter this issue have two options to display ORE graphics over Remote Desktop: either raise Remote Desktop's Color Depth or direct the plot output to an alternate device. Option #1: Raise Remote Desktop Color Depth setting In a Remote Desktop session, all environment variables, including display variables determining Color Depth, are determined by the RCP-Tcp connection settings. For example, users can reduce the Color Depth when connecting over a slow connection. The different settings are 15 bits, 16 bits, 24 bits, or 32 bits per pixel. To raise the Remote Desktop color depth: On the Windows server, launch Remote Desktop Session Host Configuration from the Accessories menu.Under Connections, right click on RDP-Tcp and select Properties.On the Client Settings tab either uncheck LimitMaximum Color Depth or set it to 32 bits per pixel. Click Apply, then OK, log out of the remote session and reconnect.After reconnecting, the Color Depth on the Display tab will be set to 32 bits per pixel.  Raster graphics will now display as expected. For ORE users, the increased color depth results in slightly reduced performance during plot creation, but the graph will be created instead of displaying an empty plot. Option #2: Direct plot output to alternate device Plotting to a non-windows device is a good option if it's not possible to increase Remote Desktop Color Depth, or if performance is degraded when creating the graph. Several device drivers are available for off-screen graphics in R, such as postscript, pdf, and png. On-screen devices include windows, X11 and Cairo. Here we output to the Cairo device to render an on-screen raster graphic.  The grid.raster function in the grid package is analogous to other grid graphical primitives - it draws a raster image within the current plot's grid.  R> options(device = "CairoWin") # use Cairo device for plotting during the session R> library(Cairo) # load Cairo, grid and png libraries  R> library(grid) R> library(png)  R> res <- ore.doEval(function()image(volcano,col=terrain.colors(30))) # create embedded R plot  R> img <- ore.pull(res, graphics = TRUE)$img[[1]] # extract image  R> grid.raster(as.raster(readPNG(img)), interpolate = FALSE) # generate raster graph R> dev.off() # turn off first device   By default, the interpolate argument to grid.raster is TRUE, which means that what is actually drawn by R is a linear interpolation of the pixels in the original image. Setting interpolate to FALSE uses a sample from the pixels in the original image.A list of graphics devices available in R can be found in the Devices help file from the grDevices package: R> help(Devices)

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• Workarounds for supporting MVVM in the Silverlight ContextMenu service

  - by cibrax

  As I discussed in my last post, some of the Silverlight controls does not support MVVM quite well out of the box without specific customizations. The Context Menu is another control that requires customizations for enabling data binding on the menu options. There are a few things that you might want to expose as view model for a menu item, such as the Text, the associated icon or the command that needs to be executed. That view model should look like this, public class MenuItemModel { public string Name { get; set; } public ICommand Command { get; set; } public Image Icon { get; set; } public object CommandParameter { get; set; } } This is how you can modify the built-in control to support data binding on the model above, public class CustomContextMenu : ContextMenu { protected override DependencyObject GetContainerForItemOverride() { CustomMenuItem item = new CustomMenuItem(); Binding commandBinding = new Binding("Command"); item.SetBinding(CustomMenuItem.CommandProperty, commandBinding);   Binding commandParameter = new Binding("CommandParameter"); item.SetBinding(CustomMenuItem.CommandParameterProperty, commandParameter);   return item; } }   public class CustomMenuItem : MenuItem { protected override DependencyObject GetContainerForItemOverride() { CustomMenuItem item = new CustomMenuItem();   Binding commandBinding = new Binding("Command"); item.SetBinding(CustomMenuItem.CommandProperty, commandBinding);   return item; } } The change is very similar to the one I made in the TreeView for manually data binding some of the Menu item properties to the model. Once you applied that change in the control, you can define it in your XAML like this. <toolkit:ContextMenuService.ContextMenu> <e:CustomContextMenu ItemsSource="{Binding MenuItems}"> <e:CustomContextMenu.ItemTemplate> <DataTemplate> <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal" > <ContentPresenter Margin="0 0 4 0" Content="{Binding Icon}" /> <TextBlock Margin="0" Text="{Binding Name, Mode=OneWay}" FontSize="12"/> </StackPanel> </DataTemplate> </e:CustomContextMenu.ItemTemplate> </e:CustomContextMenu> </toolkit:ContextMenuService.ContextMenu> The property MenuItems associated to the “ItemsSource” in the parent model just returns a list of supported options (menu items) in the context menu. this.menuItems = new MenuItemModel[] { new MenuItemModel { Name = "My Command", Command = new RelayCommand(OnCommandClick), Icon = ImageLoader.GetIcon("command.png") } }; The only problem I found so far with this approach is that the context menu service does not support a HierarchicalDataTemplate in case you want to have an hierarchy in the context menu (MenuItem –> Sub menu items), but I guess we can live without that.

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• Looking into CSS3 Multiple backgrounds

  - by nikolaosk

  In this post I will be looking into a great feature in CSS3 called multiple backgrounds.With CSS3 ourselves as web designers we can specify multiple background images for box elements, using nothing more than a simple comma-separated list. This is a very nice feature that can be useful in many websites.In this hands-on example I will be using Expression Web 4.0.This application is not a free application. You can use any HTML editor you like.You can use Visual Studio 2012 Express edition. You can download it here.Before I go on with the actual demo I will use the (http://www.caniuse.com) to see the support for CSS 3 Multiple backgrounds from the latest versions of modern browsers.Please have a look in this link All modern browsers support this feature. I am typing this very simple HTML 5 markup with an internal CSS style.<!DOCTYPE html><html lang="en">  <head>    <title>Sold items</title>        <style>                #box{        border:1px solid #afafaf;        width:260px;        height:290px;        background-image:url(shirt.png), url(sold.jpg);        background-position: center bottom, right top;        background-repeat: no-repeat, no-repeat;    </style>    </head>  <body>    <header>                <h1>CSS3 Multiple backgrounds</h1>    </header>           <div id="box">              </div>        <footer>        <p>All Rights Reserved</p>      </footer>     </body>  </html>  Let me explain what I do here, multiple background images are specified using a comma-separated list of values for the background-image property.A comma separated list is also used for the other background properties such as background-repeat, background-position .So in the next three lines of CSS code         background-image:url(shirt.png), url(sold.jpg);        background-position: center bottom, right top;        background-repeat: no-repeat, no-repeat; we have 2 images placed in the div element. The first is placed center bottom in the div element and the second is placed at right top position inside the div element.Both images do not get repeated.I view the page in IE 10 and all the latest versions of Opera,Chrome and Firefox.Have a look at the picture below. Hope it helps!!!!

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• WF4 &ndash; Guess the number game!

  - by MarkPearl

  I posted yesterday how really good WF4 was looking. Today I thought I would show some real basics that I was able to figure out. This will be a simple example, I am going to make a flowchart workflow – which will prompt the user to guess the number until they guess the right number. Lets begin… Make a new project and make it a Workflow console Application. Then select the Workflow file and drag a FlowChart (2) to point 3. This will now show a green start circle in the designer form. We are going to work with primitives to start with. We are now going to drag a few objects onto the Workflow, We drag the WriteLine, Assign & Decision items onto the designer. Once they are dragged onto the designer we will want to link them up. The order that they are linked is critical since this will determine the order of the solution. In this case, we want the system to first ask “Guess a number”, then to wait for the user to input some code, and then to display “You got it” if they got it right, and “Try again” if they got it wrong. So we now link the arrows to the objects. This is done by moving the mouse pointer over the start objects and clicking on one of the toggles and then dragging it to the next object and releasing the button over one of the toggles. This will place an arrow from the source object to the target object. Okay… pretty simple stuff – now we just need these primitive objects to do stuff. Lets start with the WriteLine primitive. We place the text in inverted commas in the Text field. Because this field accepts any valid VB expression we could have put variables etc. in there if we wanted to. The next thing we want to do is allow the user to input a number. This brings up an interesting problem, if a user were to type in a number, there would need to be someway to declare a variable to hold that value for the life of the workflow. We can achieve this by declaring a variable. To declare a variable, move your cursor over the variables tab at the bottom of the workflow, and then type the name of the new variable in the “Create Variable” field and set it as shown in the image above. Now that we have a variable, we want to call the Console.Readline method and assign the inputted value from the Console to that variable. The code that cannot be seen is actually this – Convert.ToInt32(Console.ReadLine()) We now have a workflow that first prompts the user for a number, then allows the user to type in a number. We are almost done, we just need to make the system react to the value inputted. There are a few ways we could do this, I am going to use the Decision item. So select the Decision object on the designer and then view its properties (F4 for me), and in the condition field place a condition. For simplicity sake I have decided that if the user guesses 10, they will have guessed the number. This is now the completed workflow. Its really easy to understand and shows some really powerful principles for Business applications. You can run the application and see what it does. Imagine writing business solutions that do not worry about the exact flow of objects, but simply allows a business analyst or someone to configure the solution to work exactly as the business rules would dictate. And if the rules changed six months later all they would need to do is re-drag some of the flows. Now I do not know if WF4 will allow for this, but it feels like it is a step in the right direct.

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• sending sms to mobile from pc using java [closed]

  - by sjohnfernandas

  hi i need to send sms from pc to mobile phone can u people guide me to achieve? i used the following code to send sms to a mobile from pc but i did not get any output and also not getting any error so guide me and point out the mistakes what i have done. package mobilesms; import java.io.; import java.util.; import javax.comm.*; import java.io.IOException; import java.util.Properties; import java.io.InputStream; import java.io.OutputStream; import java.io.DataInputStream; import java.io.FileInputStream; import java.io.DataOutputStream; import java.io.FileOutputStream; public class ReadSimple implements Runnable, SerialPortEventListener { static CommPortIdentifier portId; static Enumeration portList; OutputStream outputstream; InputStream inputStream; SerialPort serialPort; Thread readThread; public static void main(String[] args) { portList = CommPortIdentifier.getPortIdentifiers(); while (portList.hasMoreElements()) { portId = (CommPortIdentifier) portList.nextElement(); if (portId.getPortType() == CommPortIdentifier.PORT_SERIAL) { if (portId.getName().equals("COM1")) { System.out.println("Found port:COM1 "); ReadSimple reader = new ReadSimple(); } } } } public ReadSimple() { try { serialPort = (SerialPort) portId.open("ReadSimpleApp",500); } catch (PortInUseException e) { System.out.println(e); } try { inputStream = serialPort.getInputStream(); OutputStream out=serialPort.getOutputStream(); String line=""; line="AT"+"r\n"; out.write(line.trim().getBytes()); line=""; line="AT+CMGS=7639808583"+"\r\n"; out.write(line.trim().getBytes()); System.out.print(line); line="helloworld"; //line=”ATD 996544325;”+”\r\n”; out.write(line.trim().getBytes()); } catch (IOException e) { serialPort.close(); System.out.println(e); } // catch(InterruptedException E){E.printStackTrace();} try { serialPort.addEventListener(this); } catch (TooManyListenersException e) {System.out.println(e);} serialPort.notifyondataavailable(true); try { serialPort.setSerialPortParams(9600, SerialPort.DATABITS_8, SerialPort.STOPBITS_1, SerialPort.PARITY_NONE); } catch (UnsupportedCommOperationException e) {System.out.println(e);} readThread = new Thread(this); readThread.start(); } public void run() { try { Thread.sleep(200); } catch (InterruptedException e) {System.out.println(e);} } public void serialEvent(SerialPortEvent event) { switch(event.getEventType()) { case SerialPortEvent.BI: case SerialPortEvent.OE: case SerialPortEvent.FE: case SerialPortEvent.PE: case SerialPortEvent.CD: case SerialPortEvent.CTS: case SerialPortEvent.DSR: case SerialPortEvent.RI: case SerialPortEvent.OUTPUT_BUFFER_EMPTY: break; case SerialPortEvent.DATA_AVAILABLE: byte[] readBuffer = new byte[10]; try { while (inputStream.available() 0) { int numBytes = inputStream.read(readBuffer); } System.out.println(new String(readBuffer)); } catch (IOException e) {System.out.println(e);} break; } } }

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• Questions to ask to ensure someone understands programming? (and iOS)

  - by Stephen J

  So, I've been tutoring my friend for 2 years. Most people learn programming on their own in 3-6 months, (sans algorithms). It's confusing 'cause he'll run anywhere I tell him to, understands how to read C and C++ honestly better than the average college student, and he'll modify and repeat anything I do... but for the love of god he doesn't move on to new things and he still has test anxiety. I've recently realized he's copied and toyed with existing, but not once gained an understanding of why. I was under the impression he was learning fast because he could write it, but when you say "Make a function that takes an NSString" and he says "How?" and I say "The same way you make ANY function that takes any parameter, NSString is just a type like int" and all I hear is "No, it's an NSString, it's a special thing." and we get into an arguing match 'cause I'm like "It's just a class like any other class, you've used them for months now" and blah... I've subconsciously avoided comprehension questions because of this. Anyway, if you have him copy a program and say "Just initialize it" "Where?" "I don't care, didLoad or initWithCoder or Awake from nib, anywhere it gets initialized" and "No, it has to be exactly where you had it!" "No it doesn't!" I'm sick of this, but he won't give up. So I'm done avoiding these yelling matches and becoming a sadist from now on. I would like some help in finding questions to ask him that force him to understand what he's doing. I'd like some help and any resources I can find. CQuestions looked like a good site, but now I need some iPhone stuff. For example: *What do properties do? How are they changed? How do you change the name of the getter? *Why are Booleans inefficent? What advantage does int have over a boolean and how does the bit-shift operator help? *What does Copy do to a string? *What's the difference between a view controller and a uiview? *Write a program from memory that displays blah on screen, and flashes each view one by one. From beginner up to intermediate, hobbyist with some algebra at most. I'm just looking for resources to work with. I left in backstory so you know to "twist" the questions so he doesn't know he's supposed to init a variable here or there, but has to figure it out, and learn why it goes "here" or that "anywhere is fine as long as it's". Sample programs, anything. I'm relatively open about this because, being a programmer, I seriously doubt he's the only one who has this issue. I'd like to know how others have overcome similar. What made things "click"? for you? Did you have a hard time finding answers on Google, and how did you learn a better way to find what you were looking for? (He's so exact, he'll search for how to write a checkers program with color X and Y inside a uiview, as his search string, instead of breaking it up into components, I need help with that too, and believe it is related). This type of problem has to remind one of us of someone they know. So, Exercises to force them to think? Ways we overcame this thing in the past? I greatly appreciate any help.

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• My architecture has a problem with views that required information from different objects. How can I solve this?

  - by Oscar

  I am building an architecture like this: These are my SW layers ______________ | | | Views | |______________| ______________ | | |Business Logic| |______________| ______________ | | | Repository | |______________| My views are going to generate my HTML to be sent to the user Business logic is where all the business logics are Repository is a layer to access the DB My idea is that the repository uses entities (that are basically the representation of the tables, in order to perform DB queries. The layers communicate between themselves using Business Objects, that are objects that represent the real-world-object itself. They can contain business rules and methods. The views build/use DTOs, they are basically objects that have the information required to be shown on the screen. They expect also this kind of object on actions and, before calling the business logic, they create BO. First question: what is your overall feeling about this architecture? I've used similar architecture for some projects and I always got this problem: If my view has this list to show : Student1, age, course, Date Enrolled, Already paid? It has information from different BO. How do you think one should build the structure? These were the alternatives I could think of: The view layer could call the methods to get the student, then the course it studies, then the payment information. This would cause a lot of DB accesses and my view would have the knowledge about how to act to generate this information. This just seems wrong for me. I could have an "adapter object", that has the required information (a class that would have a properties Student, Course and Payment). But I would required one adapter object for each similar case, this may get very bad for big projects. I still don't like them. Would you have ideas? How would you change the architecture to avoid this kind of problems? @Rory: I read the CQRS and I don't think this suits my needs. As taken from a link references in your link Before describing the details of CQRS we need to understand the two main driving forces behind it: collaboration and staleness That means: many different actors using the same object (collaboration) and once data has been shown to a user, that same data may have been changed by another actor – it is stale (staleness). My problem is that I want to show to the user information from different BO, so I would need to receive them from the service layer. How can my service layer assemble and deliver this information? Edit to @AndrewM: Yes, you understood it correctly, the original idea was to have the view layer to build the BOs, but you have a very nice point about the creation of the BO inside the business layers. Assuming I follow your advice and move the creation logic inside the business layer, my business layer interface would contain the DTOs, for instance public void foo(MyDTO object) But as far as I understand, the DTO is tightly coupled to each view, so it would not be reusable by a second view. In order to use it, the second view would need to build a specific DTO from a specific view or I would have to duplicate the code in the business layer. Is this correct or am I missing something?

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• If the model is validating the data, shouldn't it throw exceptions on bad input?

  - by Carlos Campderrós

  Reading this SO question it seems that throwing exceptions for validating user input is frowned upon. But who should validate this data? In my applications, all validations are done in the business layer, because only the class itself really knows which values are valid for each one of its properties. If I were to copy the rules for validating a property to the controller, it is possible that the validation rules change and now there are two places where the modification should be made. Is my premise that validation should be done on the business layer wrong? What I do So my code usually ends up like this: <?php class Person { private $name; private $age; public function setName($n) { $n = trim($n); if (mb_strlen($n) == 0) { throw new ValidationException("Name cannot be empty"); } $this->name = $n; } public function setAge($a) { if (!is_int($a)) { if (!ctype_digit(trim($a))) { throw new ValidationException("Age $a is not valid"); } $a = (int)$a; } if ($a < 0 || $a > 150) { throw new ValidationException("Age $a is out of bounds"); } $this->age = $a; } // other getters, setters and methods } In the controller, I just pass the input data to the model, and catch thrown exceptions to show the error(s) to the user: <?php $person = new Person(); $errors = array(); // global try for all exceptions other than ValidationException try { // validation and process (if everything ok) try { $person->setAge($_POST['age']); } catch (ValidationException $e) { $errors['age'] = $e->getMessage(); } try { $person->setName($_POST['name']); } catch (ValidationException $e) { $errors['name'] = $e->getMessage(); } ... } catch (Exception $e) { // log the error, send 500 internal server error to the client // and finish the request } if (count($errors) == 0) { // process } else { showErrorsToUser($errors); } Is this a bad methodology? Alternate method Should maybe I create methods for isValidAge($a) that return true/false and then call them from the controller? <?php class Person { private $name; private $age; public function setName($n) { $n = trim($n); if ($this->isValidName($n)) { $this->name = $n; } else { throw new Exception("Invalid name"); } } public function setAge($a) { if ($this->isValidAge($a)) { $this->age = $a; } else { throw new Exception("Invalid age"); } } public function isValidName($n) { $n = trim($n); if (mb_strlen($n) == 0) { return false; } return true; } public function isValidAge($a) { if (!is_int($a)) { if (!ctype_digit(trim($a))) { return false; } $a = (int)$a; } if ($a < 0 || $a > 150) { return false; } return true; } // other getters, setters and methods } And the controller will be basically the same, just instead of try/catch there are now if/else: <?php $person = new Person(); $errors = array(); if ($person->isValidAge($age)) { $person->setAge($age); } catch (Exception $e) { $errors['age'] = "Invalid age"; } if ($person->isValidName($name)) { $person->setName($name); } catch (Exception $e) { $errors['name'] = "Invalid name"; } ... if (count($errors) == 0) { // process } else { showErrorsToUser($errors); } So, what should I do? I'm pretty happy with my original method, and my colleagues to whom I have showed it in general have liked it. Despite this, should I change to the alternate method? Or am I doing this terribly wrong and I should look for another way?

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• ReSharper 8.0 EAP now available

  - by TATWORTH

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/TATWORTH/archive/2013/06/28/resharper-8.0-eap-now-available.aspxJetbrains have just released |ReSharper 8.0 Beta on their Early Access |Programme at http://www.jetbrains.com/resharper/whatsnew/?utm_source=resharper8b&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=resharper&utm_content=customersResharper 8.0 comes with the following new features:Support for Visual Studio 2013 Preview. Yes, ReSharper is known to work well with the fresh preview of Visual Studio 2013, and if you have already started digging into it, ReSharper 8.0 Beta is ready for the challenge.Faster code fixes. Thanks to the new Fix in Scope feature, you can choose to batch-fix some of the code issues that ReSharper detects in the scope of a project or the whole solution. Supported fixes include removing unused directives and redundant casts.Project dependency viewer. ReSharper is now able to visualize a project dependency graph for a bird's eye view of dependencies within your solution, all without compiling anything!Multifile templates. ReSharper's file templates can now be expanded to generate more than one file. For instance, this is handy for generating pairs of a main logic class and a class for extensions, or sets of partial files.Navigation improvements. These include a new action called Go to Everything to let you search for a file, type or method name from the same input box; support for line numbers in navigation actions; a new tool window called Assembly Explorer for browsing through assemblies; and two more contextual navigation actions: Navigate to Generic Substitutions and Navigate to Assembly Explorer.New solution-wide refactorings. The set of fresh refactorings is headlined by the highly requested Move Instance Method to move methods between classes without making them static. In addition, there are Inline Parameter and Pull Parameter. Last but not least, we're also introducing 4 new XAML-specific refactorings!Extraordinary XAML support. A plethora of new and improved functionality for all developers working with XAML code includes dedicated grid inspections and quick-fixes; Extract Style, Extract, Move and Inline Resource refactorings; atomic renaming of dependency properties; and a lot more.More accessible code completion. ReSharper 8 makes more of its IntelliSense magic available in automatic completion lists, including extension methods and an option to import a type. We're also introducing double completion which gives you additional completion items when you press the corresponding shortcut for the second time.A new level of extensibility. With the new NuGet-based Extension Manager, discovering, installing and uninstalling ReSharper extensions becomes extremely easy in Visual Studio 2010 and higher. When we say extensions, we mean not only full-fledged plug-ins but also sets of templates or SSR patterns that can now be shared much more easily.CSS support improvements. Smarter usage search for CSS attributes, new CSS-specific code inspections, configurable support for CSS3 and earlier versions, compatibility checks against popular browsers - there's a rough outline of what's new for CSS in ReSharper 8.A command-line version of ReSharper. ReSharper 8 goes beyond Visual Studio: we now provide a free standalone tool with hundreds of ReSharper inspections and additionally a duplicate code finder that you can integrate with your CI server or version control system.Multiple minor improvements in areas such as decompiling and code formatting, as well as support for the Blue Theme introduced in Visual Studio 2012 Update 2.

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• C#&ndash;Using a delegate to raise an event from one class to another

  - by Bill Osuch

  Even though this may be a relatively common task for many people, I’ve had to show it to enough new developers that I figured I’d immortalize it… MSDN says “Events enable a class or object to notify other classes or objects when something of interest occurs. The class that sends (or raises) the event is called the publisher and the classes that receive (or handle) the event are called subscribers.” Any time you add a button to a Windows Form or Web app, you can subscribe to the OnClick event, and you can also create your own event handlers to pass events between classes. Here I’ll show you how to raise an event from a separate class to a console application (or Windows Form). First, create a console app project (you could create a Windows Form, but this is easier for this demo). Add a class file called MyEvent.cs (it doesn’t really need to be a separate file, this is just for clarity) with the following code: public delegate void MyHandler1(object sender, MyEvent e); public class MyEvent : EventArgs {     public string message; } Your event can have whatever public properties you like; here we’re just got a single string. Next, add a class file called WorkerDLL.cs; this will simulate the class that would be doing all the work in the project. Add the following code: class WorkerDLL {     public event MyHandler1 Event1;     public WorkerDLL()     {     }     public void DoWork()     {         FireEvent("From Worker: Step 1");         FireEvent("From Worker: Step 5");         FireEvent("From Worker: Step 10");     }     private void FireEvent(string message)     {         MyEvent e1 = new MyEvent();         e1.message = message;         if (Event1 != null)         {             Event1(this, e1);         }         e1 = null;     } } Notice that the FireEvent method creates an instance of the MyEvent class and passes it to the Event1 handler (which we’ll create in just a second). Finally, add the following code to Program.cs: static void Main(string[] args) {     Program p = new Program(args); } public Program(string[] args) {     Console.WriteLine("From Console: Creating DLL");     WorkerDLL wd = new WorkerDLL();     Console.WriteLine("From Console: Wiring up event handler");     WireEventHandlers(wd);     Console.WriteLine("From Console: Doing the work");     wd.DoWork();     Console.WriteLine("From Console: Done - press any key to finish.");     Console.ReadLine(); } private void WireEventHandlers(WorkerDLL wd) {     MyHandler1 handler = new MyHandler1(OnHandler1);     wd.Event1 += handler; } public void OnHandler1(object sender, MyEvent e) {     Console.WriteLine(e.message); } The OnHandler1 method is called any time the event handler “hears” an event matching the specified signature – you could have it log to a file, write to a database, etc. Run the app in debug mode and you should see output like this: You can distinctly see which lines were written by the console application itself (Program.cs) and which were written by the worker class (WorkerDLL.cs). Technorati Tags: Csharp

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• The long road to bug-free software

  - by Tony Davis

  The past decade has seen a burgeoning interest in functional programming languages such as Haskell or, in the Microsoft world, F#. Though still on the periphery of mainstream programming, functional programming concepts are gradually seeping into the imperative C# language (for example, Lambda expressions have their root in functional programming). One of the more interesting concepts from functional programming languages is the use of formal methods, the lofty ideal behind which is bug-free software. The idea is that we write a specification that describes exactly how our function (say) should behave. We then prove that our function conforms to it, and in doing so have proved beyond any doubt that it is free from bugs. All programmers already use one form of specification, specifically their programming language's type system. If a value has a specific type then, in a type-safe language, the compiler guarantees that value cannot be an instance of a different type. Many extensions to existing type systems, such as generics in Java and .NET, extend the range of programs that can be type-checked. Unfortunately, type systems can only prevent some bugs. To take a classic problem of retrieving an index value from an array, since the type system doesn't specify the length of the array, the compiler has no way of knowing that a request for the "value of index 4" from an array of only two elements is "unsafe". We restore safety via exception handling, but the ideal type system will prevent us from doing anything that is unsafe in the first place and this is where we start to borrow ideas from a language such as Haskell, with its concept of "dependent types". If the type of an array includes its length, we can ensure that any index accesses into the array are valid. The problem is that we now need to carry around the length of arrays and the values of indices throughout our code so that it can be type-checked. In general, writing the specification to prove a positive property, even for a problem very amenable to specification, such as a simple sorting algorithm, turns out to be very hard and the specification will be different for every program. Extend this to writing a specification for, say, Microsoft Word and we can see that the specification would end up being no simpler, and therefore no less buggy, than the implementation. Fortunately, it is easier to write a specification that proves that a program doesn't have certain, specific and undesirable properties, such as infinite loops or accesses to the wrong bit of memory. If we can write the specifications to prove that a program is immune to such problems, we could reuse them in many places. The problem is the lack of specification "provers" that can do this without a lot of manual intervention (i.e. hints from the programmer). All this might feel a very long way off, but computing power and our understanding of the theory of "provers" advances quickly, and Microsoft is doing some of it already. Via their Terminator research project they have started to prove that their device drivers will always terminate, and in so doing have suddenly eliminated a vast range of possible bugs. This is a huge step forward from saying, "we've tested it lots and it seems fine". What do you think? What might be good targets for specification and verification? SQL could be one: the cost of a bug in SQL Server is quite high given how many important systems rely on it, so there's a good incentive to eliminate bugs, even at high initial cost. [Many thanks to Mike Williamson for guidance and useful conversations during the writing of this piece] Cheers, Tony.

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• Finalists for Community Manager of the Year Announced

  - by Mike Stiles

  For as long as brand social has been around, there’s still an amazing disparity from company to company on the role of Community Manager. At some brands, they are the lead social innovators. At others, the task has been relegated to interns who are at the company temporarily. Some have total autonomy and trust. Others must get chain-of-command permission each time they engage. So what does a premiere “worth their weight in gold” Community Manager look like? More than anyone else in the building, they have the most intimate knowledge of who the customer is. They live on the front lines and are the first to detect problems and opportunities. They are sincere, raving fans of the brand themselves and are trusted advocates for the others. They’re fun to be around. They aren’t salespeople. Give me one Community Manager who’s been at the job 6 months over 5 focus groups any day. Because not unlike in speed dating, they must immediately learn how to make a positive, lasting impression on fans so they’ll want to return and keep the relationship going. They’re informers and entertainers, with a true belief in the value of the brand’s proposition. Internally, they live at the mercy of the resources allocated toward social. Many, whose managers don’t understand the time involved in properly curating a community, are tasked with 2 or 3 too many of them. 63% of CM’s will spend over 30 hours a week on one community. They come to intuitively know the value of the relationships they’re building, even if they can’t always be shown in a bar graph to the C-suite. Many must communicate how the customer feels to executives that simply don’t seem to want to hear it. Some can get the answers fans want quickly, others are frustrated in their ability to respond within an impressive timeframe. In short, in a corporate world coping with sweeping technological changes, amidst business school doublespeak, pie charts, decks, strat sessions and data points, the role of the Community Manager is the most…human. They are the true emotional connection to the real life customer. Which is why we sought to find a way to recognize and honor who they are, what they do, and how well they have defined the position as social grows and integrates into the larger organization. Meet our 3 finalists for Community Manager of the Year. Jeff Esposito with VistaprintJeff manages and heads up content strategy for all social networks and blogs. He also crafts company-wide policies surrounding the social space. Vistaprint won the NEDMA Gold Award for Twitter Strategy in 2010 and 2011, and a Bronze in 2011 for Social Media Strategy. Prior to Vistaprint, Jeff was Media Relations Manager with the Long Island Ducks. He graduated from Seton Hall University with a BA in English and a minor in Classical Studies. Stacey Acevero with Vocus In addition to social management, Stacey blogs at Vocus on influential marketing and social media, and blogs at PRWeb on public relations and SEO. She’s been named one of the #Nifty50 Women in Tech on Twitter 2 years in a row, as well as included in the 15 up-and-coming PR pros to watch in 2012. Carly Severn with the San Francisco BalletCarly drives engagement, widens the fanbase and generates digital content for America’s oldest professional ballet company. Managed properties include Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube and G+. Prior to joining the SF Ballet, Carly was Marketing & Press Coordinator at The Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge, where she graduated with a degree in English. We invite you to join us at the first annual Oracle Social Media Summit November 14 and 15 at the Wynn in Las Vegas where our finalists will be featured. Over 300 top brand marketers, agency executives, and social leaders & innovators will be exploring how social is transforming business. Space is limited and the information valuable, so get more info and get registered as soon as possible at the event site.

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• Dual monitor not working completely in 12.10 after upgrade

  - by Mark Baldridge

  At 12.04, dual monitors worked perfectly. After upgrading to 12.10, the primary monitor works, the second monitor only partly works. I am sure there is some difference between the releases that I have missed setting properly. System settings - Displays show both correctly as Acer 22" monitors at 1680x1050 (16:10). An icon on monitor 2 is present, but elongated; almost an artifact, since other icons on the primary screen are absent, but this one icon is there on th second monitor. Selecting the icons on both screens exist. Painting is weird on monitor 2. Launcher exists and works on both screens, but even with sticky edges off, the cursor stops at the left edge of monitor 2. Clicking on text editor on screen 2 launcer will launch gedit there. If I drag it, it leaves a trail of after images like repaint is failing. If I drive the cursor on the launcher, the help tags like "LibreOffice Writer" appear, but stay on screen unless I drag the active gedit window over them. Then part of the help bubbles are overwritten, leaving behind after images of the gedit window on screen. What is really fascinating is that the System settings - Displays is now ignoring monitor selection, after allowing it earlier. Just before this, the help popup which said "Select a monitor to change its properties; drag to rearrange its placement" actually let me do that. Maybe a trick of where I grab the edge of the monitor in the Displays setting. I just found a working handle. When I drag monitor 1 to the right of monitor 2, "Apply" and confirm, both monitors work normally (although the right monitor lets the cursor slide off the right edge onto the left edge of monitor 1 - which sounds correct). Painting of windows does not leave an after image. However, success is only temporary. The setting survives the reboot, but painting on the left monitor, now monitor 2, now replicates the issues from before. The after image of the gedit window and the small window for "Are you sure you want to close all programs and restart the computer?" are still on monitor 2 (on the left now), even though they are not real windows, nor do they have processes behind them. Curiously, in Displays, the "green" monitor on the left in the display window is matched by the right monitor color in the monitor upper left corner. Probably makes sense as the one on the right is now monitor 1. If I repeat the "drag the left monitor to the right of the right monitor on the "Displays" window, things are oriented properly, with no display artifacts as I drag windows around either screen. Also the description bubbles that pop up are overwritten on both screens, so none of those artifacts either. This goodness does not survive a reboot, however. Have not tried logging out and back in. All of this after positing that the motherboard VGA and HDMI ports could have been the issue. So, I installed an e-GeForce 7600 GT Dual DVI (I know the web thinks it is not DVI, but VGA, but the connectors are DVI). No change to the weird behavior. The good parts continue to work, the weirdness also works, and swapping monitor positions seems to cure the issue. So, is there a setting I have missed? Given "swapping" monitor 1 and 2 on the System Settings... - Displays makes it work, just not across boot, I suspect so.

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• Formatting made easy - Silverlight 4

  - by PeterTweed

  One of the simplest tasks in business apps is displaying different types of data to be read in the format that the user expects them.  In Silverlight versions until Silverlight 4 this has meant using a Converter to format data during binding.  This involves writing code for the formatting of the data to bind, instead of simply defining the formatting to use for the data in question where you bind the data to the control.   In Silverlight 4 we find the addition of the StringFormat markup extension that allows us to do exactly this.  Of course the nice thing is the ability to use the common formatting conventions available in C# through the String.Format function.   This post will show you how to use three of the common formatting conventions - currency, a defined number of decimal places for a number and a date format.   Steps:   1. Create a new Silverlight 4 application   2. In the body of the MainPage.xaml.cs file replace the MainPage class with the following code:       public partial class MainPage : UserControl     {         public MainPage()         {             InitializeComponent();             this.Loaded += new RoutedEventHandler(MainPage_Loaded);         }           void MainPage_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)         {             info i = new info() { PriceValue = new Decimal(9.2567), DoubleValue = 1.2345678, DateValue = DateTime.Now };             this.DataContext = i;         }     }         public class info     {         public decimal PriceValue { get; set; }         public double DoubleValue { get; set; }         public DateTime DateValue { get; set; }     }   This code defines a class called info with different data types for the three properties.  A new instance of the class is created and bound to the DataContext of the page.   3.  In the MainPage.xaml file copy the following XAML into the LayoutRoot grid:           <Grid.RowDefinitions>             <RowDefinition Height="60*" />             <RowDefinition Height="28*" />             <RowDefinition Height="28*" />             <RowDefinition Height="30*" />             <RowDefinition Height="154*" />         </Grid.RowDefinitions>         <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>             <ColumnDefinition Width="86*" />             <ColumnDefinition Width="314*" />         </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>         <TextBlock Grid.Row="1" Height="23" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="32,0,0,0" Name="textBlock1" Text="Price Value:" VerticalAlignment="Top" />         <TextBlock Grid.Row="2" Height="23" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="32,0,0,0" Name="textBlock2" Text="Decimal Value:" VerticalAlignment="Top" />         <TextBlock Grid.Row="3" Height="23" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="32,0,0,0" Name="textBlock3" Text="Date Value:" VerticalAlignment="Top" />         <TextBlock Grid.Column="1" Grid.Row="1" Height="23" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Name="textBlock4" Text="{Binding PriceValue, StringFormat='C'}" VerticalAlignment="Top" Margin="6,0,0,0" />         <TextBlock Grid.Column="1" Grid.Row="2" Height="23" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="6,0,0,0" Name="textBlock5" Text="{Binding DoubleValue, StringFormat='N3'}" VerticalAlignment="Top" />         <TextBlock Grid.Column="1" Grid.Row="3" Height="23" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="6,0,0,0" Name="textBlock6" Text="{Binding DateValue, StringFormat='yyyy MMM dd'}" VerticalAlignment="Top" />   This XAML defines three textblocks that use the StringFormat markup extension.  The three examples use the C for currency, N3 for a number with 3 decimal places and yyy MM dd for a date that displays year 3 letter month and 2 number date.   4. Run the application and see the data displayed with the correct formatting. It's that easy!

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• Patterns for a tree of persistent data with multiple storage options?

  - by Robin Winslow

  I have a real-world problem which I'll try to abstract into an illustrative example. So imagine I have data objects in a tree, where parent objects can access children, and children can access parents: // Interfaces interface IParent<TChild> { List<TChild> Children; } interface IChild<TParent> { TParent Parent; } // Classes class Top : IParent<Middle> {} class Middle : IParent<Bottom>, IChild<Top> {} class Bottom : IChild<Middle> {} // Usage var top = new Top(); var middles = top.Children; // List<Middle> foreach (var middle in middles) { var bottoms = middle.Children; // List<Bottom> foreach (var bottom in bottoms) { var middle = bottom.Parent; // Access the parent var top = middle.Parent; // Access the grandparent } } All three data objects have properties that are persisted in two data stores (e.g. a database and a web service), and they need to reflect and synchronise with the stores. Some objects only request from the web service, some only write to it. Data Mapper My favourite pattern for data access is Data Mapper, because it completely separates the data objects themselves from the communication with the data store: class TopMapper { public Top FetchById(int id) { var top = new Top(DataStore.TopDataById(id)); top.Children = MiddleMapper.FetchForTop(Top); return Top; } } class MiddleMapper { public Middle FetchById(int id) { var middle = new Middle(DataStore.MiddleDataById(id)); middle.Parent = TopMapper.FetchForMiddle(middle); middle.Children = BottomMapper.FetchForMiddle(bottom); return middle; } } This way I can have one mapper per data store, and build the object from the mapper I want, and then save it back using the mapper I want. There is a circular reference here, but I guess that's not a problem because most languages can just store memory references to the objects, so there won't actually be infinite data. The problem with this is that every time I want to construct a new Top, Middle or Bottom, it needs to build the entire object tree within that object's Parent or Children property, with all the data store requests and memory usage that that entails. And in real life my tree is much bigger than the one represented here, so that's a problem. Requests in the object In this the objects request their Parents and Children themselves: class Middle { private List<Bottom> _children = null; // cache public List<Bottom> Children { get { _children = _children ?? BottomMapper.FetchForMiddle(this); return _children; } set { BottomMapper.UpdateForMiddle(this, value); _children = value; } } } I think this is an example of the repository pattern. Is that correct? This solution seems neat - the data only gets requested from the data store when you need it, and thereafter it's stored in the object if you want to request it again, avoiding a further request. However, I have two different data sources. There's a database, but there's also a web service, and I need to be able to create an object from the web service and save it back to the database and then request it again from the database and update the web service. This also makes me uneasy because the data objects themselves are no longer ignorant of the data source. We've introduced a new dependency, not to mention a circular dependency, making it harder to test. And the objects now mask their communication with the database. Other solutions Are there any other solutions which could take care of the multiple stores problem but also mean that I don't need to build / request all the data every time?

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• Problem with sprite direction and rotation

  - by user2236165

  I have a sprite called Tool that moves with a speed represented as a float and in a direction represented as a Vector2. When I click the mouse on the screen the sprite change its direction and starts to move towards the mouseclick. In addition to that I rotate the sprite so that it is facing in the direction it is heading. However, when I add a camera that is suppose to follow the sprite so that the sprite is always centered on the screen, the sprite won't move in the given direction and the rotation isn't accurate anymore. This only happens when I add the Camera.View in the spriteBatch.Begin(). I was hoping anyone could maybe shed a light on what I am missing in my code, that would be highly appreciated. Here is the camera class i use: public class Camera { private const float zoomUpperLimit = 1.5f; private const float zoomLowerLimit = 0.1f; private float _zoom; private Vector2 _pos; private int ViewportWidth, ViewportHeight; #region Properties public float Zoom { get { return _zoom; } set { _zoom = value; if (_zoom < zoomLowerLimit) _zoom = zoomLowerLimit; if (_zoom > zoomUpperLimit) _zoom = zoomUpperLimit; } } public Rectangle Viewport { get { int width = (int)((ViewportWidth / _zoom)); int height = (int)((ViewportHeight / _zoom)); return new Rectangle((int)(_pos.X - width / 2), (int)(_pos.Y - height / 2), width, height); } } public void Move(Vector2 amount) { _pos += amount; } public Vector2 Position { get { return _pos; } set { _pos = value; } } public Matrix View { get { return Matrix.CreateTranslation(new Vector3(-_pos.X, -_pos.Y, 0)) * Matrix.CreateScale(new Vector3(Zoom, Zoom, 1)) * Matrix.CreateTranslation(new Vector3(ViewportWidth * 0.5f, ViewportHeight * 0.5f, 0)); } } #endregion public Camera(Viewport viewport, float initialZoom) { _zoom = initialZoom; _pos = Vector2.Zero; ViewportWidth = viewport.Width; ViewportHeight = viewport.Height; } } And here is my Update and Draw-method: protected override void Update (GameTime gameTime) { float elapsed = (float)gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.TotalSeconds; TouchCollection touchCollection = TouchPanel.GetState (); foreach (TouchLocation tl in touchCollection) { if (tl.State == TouchLocationState.Pressed || tl.State == TouchLocationState.Moved) { //direction the tool shall move towards direction = touchCollection [0].Position - toolPos; if (direction != Vector2.Zero) { direction.Normalize (); } //change the direction the tool is moving and find the rotationangle the texture must rotate to point in given direction toolPos += (direction * speed * elapsed); RotationAngle = (float)Math.Atan2 (direction.Y, direction.X); } } if (direction != Vector2.Zero) { direction.Normalize (); } //move tool in given direction toolPos += (direction * speed * elapsed); //change cameracentre to the tools position Camera.Position = toolPos; base.Update (gameTime); } protected override void Draw (GameTime gameTime) { graphics.GraphicsDevice.Clear (Color.Blue); spriteBatch.Begin (SpriteSortMode.BackToFront, BlendState.AlphaBlend, null, null, null, null, Camera.View); spriteBatch.Draw (tool, new Vector2 (toolPos.X, toolPos.Y), null, Color.White, RotationAngle, originOfToolTexture, 1, SpriteEffects.None, 1); spriteBatch.End (); base.Draw (gameTime); }

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• Data Mining Email with Thunderbird

  - by user554629

  Oracle has many formal, searchable locations:  Service Requests, BugIDs, Technical Documents. These contain the results of an investigation for a customer crash situation;  they're created after the intense work of resolution is over, and typically contain the "root cause" of the failure ... but not the methods for identifying that cause. Email is still the standby for interacting with quickly formed groups of specialists, focusing on a particular incident.Customer BI, Network and System specialists;  Oracle Tech Support, Development, Consultants; OEM Database, OS technical support.   It is a chaotic, time-oriented set of configuration, call stacks, changes, techniques to discover and repair the failure. I needed to organize that information into something cohesive to prepare the blog entry on Teradata.  My corporate email client of choice is Thunderbird.   My original (flawed) search technique: R-Click on Inbox in Thunderbird left pane, and choose Search Messages Subject:  [ teradata ] Results: A new window titled "Search Messages"Single pane of selected messagesColumn headings:  Subject  From  Date  LocationNo preview window for messages There are 673 email entries in the result ( too many )  R-click icon just above the vertical scroll bar on the rightCheck [x] Tags Click on the Tags header to sort by "Important" View contents of message by double-clickingOpens in the Thunderbird Main Window in a new Tab Not what I was looking for, close the tab and try again. There has to be a better way.  ( and there is ) I need to be more productive, eliminating duplicate-chained messages, for example.   Even the Tag "Important" that was added during the investigation phase, is "not so much" for my current task. In the "Search Messages" window, click [ Save as Search Folder ] [ teradata ]  Appears as a new folder in my Inbox. Focus on that folder and the results appear with a list of messages like every other folder in the Inbox.Only the results of the search are shown A preview window is now available for each message Sort, Select message, Cursor Down ... navigates quickly through the messages. But wait, there's more ... Click Find ( Ctrl-F) Enter a search term for the message body, like.[ LIBPATH ] The search is "sticky" ... each message you cycle through wil focus ( and highlight) the LIBPATH search term. And still more .... Reset the Tag"Important" message.   Press "1" and the tag is removed Press "4" and a new Tag "ToDo" is applied After applying all of the tags, sort by Tag for a new message order Adjust the search criteria ... R-click on the [ teradata ] search folder, and choose Properties Add additional criteria to narrow the search Some of the information I'm looking for did not contain "teradata" in the subject line. + Body  [ contains ] [ Best Practices ] That's it.  Much more efficient search.   Thank you Thunderbird.

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