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  • factorygirl rails, says "top required" in my spec - don't know how to fix

    - by user924088
    I get the following error message when I run my tests. It says that the problem is in my lecture_spec, and that the top is required. I don't know if this has something to do with requiring my spec_helper.rb file. 1) Lecture has a valid factory Failure/Error: FactoryGirl.create(:lecture).should be_valid NoMethodError: undefined method `after_build=' for #<Lecture:0x007fe7747bce70> # ./spec/models/lecture_spec.rb:21:in `block (2 levels) in <top (required)>' My factory looks like the following: require 'faker' FactoryGirl.define do factory :question do association :lecture name { Faker::Lorem.words(1) } description {Faker::Lorem.words(7)} factory :question_one do answer 1 end factory :question_two do answer 2 end factory :question_three do answer 3 end end end And this is my lecture_spec file require 'spec_helper' describe Lecture do it "has a valid factory" do FactoryGirl.create(:lecture).should be_valid end end and this is my lecture factory, where I defined the lecture factory. FactoryGirl.define do factory :lecture do #association :question name {Faker::Lorem.words(1)} description {Faker::Lorem.words(7)} soundfile_file_name {Faker::Lorem.words(1)} soundfile_content_type {Faker::Lorem.words(3)} soundfile_file_size {Faker::Lorem.words(8)} after_build do |question| [:question_one, :question_two, :question_three].each do |question| association :questions, factory: :question, strategy: :build end end end end

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  • Things one needs to know while writing a game engine

    - by Joe Barr
    I have been dabbling in game development as a hobby for a while now, and I cannot seam to quite get my games to sparkle at least a bit with some graphics. I have decided to write a simple test game engine that only focuses on the representation of graphics - shapes, textures and surfaces. While I have a few very simple game engines designed for my own games under my belt, I want to create a game engine that I can use to display and play with graphics. I'm going to do this in C++. Since this is my first time with a major engine, the engine in not going to focus on 3D graphics, it's going to be a mixture of isometric and 2D graphics. My previous engines have incorporated (been able to draw) or focused on simple flat (almost 2D) non impressive graphic designs and representations of: the player NPCs objects walls and surfaces textures Also, I had some basic AI and sometimes even sound. They also saved and loaded games. They didn't have a map editor or a level editor. Is this going to be a problem in the future? At this time I have to point out that some of my games didn't get finished because I was to lazy to write the few last levels. My question at this point would be: What are some things one should know if one wants write (develope) a better graphical game engine with all it's functions.

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  • How to know the ordinal position of an ItemTemplate

    - by Gaizka
    Need to add styles (class="bBot") to the first ItemTemplate item, how do I know it's the first? <asp:Repeater id="ArticlesRepeater" runat="server"> <HeaderTemplate> <div class="FR boxW380"> <div class="cnt mag"> <div class="FR"> <a href="#">Subscribe</a> &#160; &#160; <a href="#">Archive</a> </div> <h1>Magazine</h1> </HeaderTemplate> <ItemTemplate> <div> <a href="#"> <img class="visu" alt="" src="<%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "image") %> " /> <span class="title"> <%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "title") %> </span> <span class="content"> <%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "shortintroduction")%> </span> </a> <div class="CB"></div> </div> </ItemTemplate> <FooterTemplate> </div> </div> </FooterTemplate> </asp:Repeater>

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  • C# ErrorProvider Want to know if any are Active

    - by RcK
    I want to know if any ErrorProvider are active in my form. being able to find this out might help reduce my code.. I did find this thing here Counting ErrorProvider but incase someone knows a better way... so here goes. Ok so basically I have a WinForm which has many TextBoxes Now when user enters values I use Validating to perform validation and if it does not match Regex I set the ErrorProvider ON for that Control.. similarly if the user changes the value to a acceptable one I switch ErrorProvider OFF for that Control.. but when SAVE is clicked i have to do another check anyways incase the user did not listen to me and change the thing like he was supposed to and still clicked SAVE.. I dont want the thing crashing.. soo mm is there like a thing where I could say if ErrorProviders is not active then proceed with save else message box saying change it. [ANOTHER QUESTION] Umm When Validating it only Validates when the Control loses Focus... I kinda of want it to do validation when user stops typing.. I hope you get what I mean Like Email Address(textbox) when user is typing his/her name in I [DON'T] want it to do validation yet, but when user has finished entering is waiting for ErrorProvider to disappear(But it doesn't coz it only does that when control loses focus) 2 odd seconds after typing can i make the validation take place?

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  • .NET: How to know when serialization is completed?

    - by Ian Boyd
    When I construct my control (which inherits DataGrid), I add specific rows and columns. This works great at design time. Unfortunately, at runtime I add my rows and columns in the same constructor, but then the DataGrid is serialized (after the constructor runs) adding more rows and columns. After serialization is complete, I need to clear everything and re-initialize the rows and columns. Is there a protected method that I can override to know when the control is done serializing? Of course, I'd prefer to not have to do the work in the constructor, throw it away, and do it again after (potential) serialization. Is there a preferred event that is the equivalent of "set yourself up now", so that it is called once whether I'm serialized or not? The serialization i speak of comes from the InitializeComponent() method in the form's code-behind file. #region Windows Form Designer generated code /// <summary> /// Required method for Designer support - do not modify /// the contents of this method with the code editor. /// </summary> private void InitializeComponent() { ... } It would have been perfect if InitializeComponent was a virtual method defined by Control, then i could just override it and then perform my processing after i call base: protected override void InitializeComponent() { base.InitializeComponent(); InitializeMe(); } But it's not an ancestor method, it's declared only in the code-behind file. i notice that InitializeComponent calls SuspendLayout and ResumeLayout on various Controls. i thought it could override ResumeLayout, and perform my initialization then: public override void ResumeLayout() { base.ResumeLayout(); InitializeMe(); } But ResumeLayout is not virtual, so that's out. Anymore ideas? i can't be the first person to create a custom control.

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  • How can I know what this does?

    - by Dabor Troppe
    I got this piece of Assembly code extracted from some piece of software, but unfortunately I don't know anything of assembler and the bits I touched of Assembler was back in the Commodore Amiga with the 68000. Can anybody guide me on how I could understand this code without me needing to learn assembler from scratch, or just tell me what it does? Is there any kind of "Simulator" out there that I can run this on to see what it does? -[ObjSample Param1:andParam2:]: 00000c79 pushl %ebp 00000c7a movl %esp,%ebp 00000c7c subl $0x48,%esp 00000c7f movl %ebx,0xf4(%ebp) 00000c82 movl %esi,0xf8(%ebp) 00000c85 movl %edi,0xfc(%ebp) 00000c88 calll 0x00000c8d 00000c8d popl %ebx 00000c8e cmpb $-[ObjSample delegate],_bDoOnce.26952-0xc8d(%ebx) 00000c95 jel 0x00000d47 00000c9b movb $-[ObjSample delegate],_bDoOnce.26952-0xc8d(%ebx) 00000ca2 movl 0x7dc0-0xc8d(%ebx),%eax 00000ca8 movl %eax,0x04(%esp) 00000cac movl 0x7df4-0xc8d(%ebx),%eax 00000cb2 movl %eax,(%esp) 00000cb5 calll _objc_msgSend 00000cba movl 0x7dbc-0xc8d(%ebx),%edx 00000cc0 movl %edx,0x04(%esp) 00000cc4 movl %eax,(%esp) 00000cc7 calll _objc_msgSend 00000ccc movl %eax,0xe4(%ebp) 00000ccf movl 0x7db8-0xc8d(%ebx),%eax 00000cd5 movl %eax,0x04(%esp) 00000cd9 movl 0xe4(%ebp),%eax 00000cdc movl %eax,(%esp) 00000cdf calll _objc_msgSend 00000ce4 leal (%eax,%eax),%edi 00000ce7 movl %edi,(%esp) 00000cea calll _malloc 00000cef movl %eax,%esi 00000cf1 movl %edi,0x08(%esp) 00000cf5 movl $-[ObjSample delegate],0x04(%esp) 00000cfd movl %eax,(%esp) 00000d00 calll _memset 00000d05 movl $0x00000004,0x10(%esp) 00000d0d movl %edi,0x0c(%esp) 00000d11 movl %esi,0x08(%esp) 00000d15 movl 0x7db4-0xc8d(%ebx),%eax 00000d1b movl %eax,0x04(%esp) 00000d1f movl 0xe4(%ebp),%eax 00000d22 movl %eax,(%esp) 00000d25 calll _objc_msgSend 00000d2a xorl %edx,%edx 00000d2c movl %edi,%eax 00000d2e shrl $0x03,%eax 00000d31 jmp 0x00000d34 00000d33 incl %edx 00000d34 cmpl %edx,%eax 00000d36 ja 0x00000d33 00000d38 movl %esi,(%esp) 00000d3b calll _free 00000d40 movb $0x01,_isAuthenticated-0xc8d(%ebx) 00000d47 movzbl _isAuthenticated-0xc8d(%ebx),%eax 00000d4e movl 0xf4(%ebp),%ebx 00000d51 movl 0xf8(%ebp),%esi 00000d54 movl 0xfc(%ebp),%edi 00000d57 leave 00000d58 ret

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  • Multiple Unpacking Assignment in Python when you don't know the sequence length

    - by doug
    The textbook examples of multiple unpacking assignment are something like: import numpy as NP M = NP.arange(5) a, b, c, d, e = M # so of course, a = 0, b = 1, etc. M = NP.arange(20).reshape(5, 4) # numpy 5x4 array a, b, c, d, e = M # here, a = M[0,:], b = M[1,:], etc. (ie, a single row of M is assigned each to a through e) (My Q is not numpy specfic; indeed, i would prefer a pure python solution.) W/r/t the piece of code i'm looking at now, i see two complications on that straightforward scenario: i usually won't know the shape of M; and i want to unpack a certain number of items (definitely less than all items) and i want to put the remainder into a single container so back to the 5x4 array above, what i would very much like to be able to do is, for instance, assign the first three rows of M to a, b, and c respectively (exactly as above) and the rest of the rows (i have no idea how many there will be, just some positive integer) to a single container, all_the_rest = []. I'm not sure if i have explained this clearly; in any event, if i get feedback i'll promptly edit my Question.

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  • Why does my .NET 4 application know .NET 4 is not installed

    - by Tergiver
    I developed an application that targeted .NET 4 the other day and XCOPY-installed it to a Windows XP machine. I had told the owner of the machine that they would need to install .NET Framework 4 to run my app and he told me he did (not a reliable source). When I ran the application I was presented with a message box that said this app requires .NET Framework 4, would I like to install it? Clicking the Yes button took me to the Microsoft web site and a few clicks later .NET 4 was installed, and the application successfully launched. Now I normally don't develop applications that target the latest version of .NET, I always target the lowest version I can (what features do I really need?). So this was my first .NET 4 app (and I only targeted 4 because it used a library that did). In the past, XCOPY-installing .NET applications to a machine that didn't have the correct version of .NET installed resulted in the application simply crashing on startup with no useful information presented to the user. Was it built into my app because I targeted .NET X? Was it something already installed on the target machine? I love the feature, I just want to know precisely how to leverage it in the future.

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  • How do I know which Object I clicked?

    - by Nick
    Here's the deal: I'm working on a personal portfolio in AS3 and I've run into a problem which I can't seem to find a logical answer to. I want everything (well, most of it) to be editable with an XML file, including my menu. My menu is just a Sprite with some text on it and a Tweener-tween, no big deal. But, I forgot to think of a way how I can determine which menu-item I have clicked. This is in my Main.as private function xmlLoaded(e:Event):void { xml = e.target.xml; menu = new Menu(xml); menu.x = 0; menu.y = stage.stageHeight / 2 - menu.height / 2; addChild(menu); } In Menu.as public function Menu(xml:XML) { for each (var eachMenuItem:XML in xml.menu.item) { menuItem = new MenuItem(eachMenuItem); menuItem.y += yPos; addChild(menuItem); yPos += menuItem.height + 3; } } and in my MenuItem.as, everything works - I have a fancy tween when I hover over it, but when I click a menu-item, I want something to appear ofcourse. How do I know which one I clicked? I've tried with pushing everything in an array, but that didn't work out well (or maybe I'm doing it wrong). Also tried a global counter, but that's not working either because the value will always be amount of items in my XML file. Also tried e.currentTarget in my click-function, but when I trace that, all of them are "Object Sprite".. I need something so I can give each a unique "name"? Thanks in advance!

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  • C Programming - My program is good enough for my assignment but I know its not good

    - by Joe
    Hi there I'm just starting an assignment for uni and it's raised a question for me. I don't understand how to return a string from a function without having a memory leak. char* trim(char* line) { int start = 0; int end = strlen(line) - 1; /* find the start position of the string */ while(isspace(line[start]) != 0) { start++; } //printf("start is %d\n", start); /* find the position end of the string */ while(isspace(line[end]) != 0) { end--; } //printf("end is %d\n", end); /* calculate string length and add 1 for the sentinel */ int len = end - start + 2; /* initialise char array to len and read in characters */ int i; char* trimmed = calloc(sizeof(char), len); for(i = 0; i < (len - 1); i++) { trimmed[i] = line[start + i]; } trimmed[len - 1] = '\0'; return trimmed; } as you can see I am returning a pointer to char which is an array. I found that if I tried to make the 'trimmed' array by something like: char trimmed[len]; then the compiler would throw up a message saying that a constant was expected on this line. I assume this meant that for some reason you can't use variables as the array length when initialising an array, although something tells me that can't be right. So instead I made my array by allocating some memory to a char pointer. I understand that this function is probably waaaaay sub-optimal for what it is trying to do, but what I really want to know is: 1. Can you normally initialise an array using a variable to declare the length like: char trimmed[len]; ? 2. If I had an array that was of that type (char trimmed[]) would it have the same return type as a pointer to char (ie char*). 3. If I make my array by callocing some memory and allocating it to a char pointer, how do I free this memory. It seems to me that once I have returned this array, I can't access it to free it as it is a local variable. Many thanks in advance Joe

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  • Need to know how to properly create a new object in another cpp file

    - by karikari
    I have a class. The problem now is, after a few attempt, I'm still in huge error. My problem is I don't know how to properly declare a new object for this class, inside another cpp file. I wanted to call/trigger the functions from this RebarHandler class from my other cpp file. I keep on getting problems like, 'used without being initialized', 'debug assertion failed' and so on. In the other cpp file, I include the RebarHandler.h and did like this: CRebarHandler *test=NULL; test->setButtonMenu2(); When compile, I does not give any error. But, when run time, it gives error and my IE crash. I need help. Below is the class I meant: #pragma once class CIEWindow; class CRebarHandler : public CWindowImpl<CRebarHandler>{ public: CRebarHandler(HWND hWndToolbar, CIEWindow *ieWindow); CRebarHandler(){}; ~CRebarHandler(); BEGIN_MSG_MAP(CRebarHandler) NOTIFY_CODE_HANDLER(TBN_DROPDOWN, onNotifyDropDown) NOTIFY_CODE_HANDLER(TBN_TOOLBARCHANGE, onNotifyToolbarChange) NOTIFY_CODE_HANDLER(NM_CUSTOMDRAW, onNotifyCustomDraw) NOTIFY_CODE_HANDLER(TBN_ENDADJUST, onNotifyEndAdjust) MESSAGE_HANDLER(WM_SETREDRAW, onSetRedraw) END_MSG_MAP() // message handlers LRESULT onNotifyDropDown(WPARAM wParam, LPNMHDR pNMHDR, BOOL& bHandled); LRESULT onNotifyToolbarChange(WPARAM wParam, LPNMHDR pNMHDR, BOOL& bHandled); LRESULT onNotifyCustomDraw(WPARAM wParam, LPNMHDR pNMHDR, BOOL& bHandled); LRESULT onNotifyEndAdjust(WPARAM wParam, LPNMHDR pNMHDR, BOOL& bHandled); LRESULT onSetRedraw(UINT uMsg, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam, BOOL& bHandled); // manage the subclassing of the IE rebar void subclass(); void unsubclass(); void handleSettings(); void setButtonMenu2(); bool findButton(HWND hWndToolbar); private: // handles to the various things HWND m_hWnd; HWND m_hWndToolbar, m_hWndRebar, m_hWndTooltip; HMENU m_hMenu; int m_buttonID; int m_ieVer; CIEWindow *m_ieWindow; // toolbar finding functions void scanForToolbarSlow(); void getRebarHWND(); void setButtonMenu(); };

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  • how do i know how many clients are calling my WCF service function

    - by ZhengZhiren
    i am writing a program to test WCF service performance in high concurrency circumstance. On client side, i start many threads to call a WCF service function which returns a long list of data object. On server side, in that function called by my client, i need to know the number of clients calling the function. For doing that, i set a counter variable. In the beginning of the function, i add the counter by 1, but how can i decrease it after the funtion has returned the result? int clientCount=0; public DataObject[] GetData() { Interlocked.Increment(ref clientCount); List<DataObject> result = MockDb.GetData(); return result.ToArray(); Interlocked.Decrement(ref clientCount); //can't run to here... } i have seen a way in c++. Create a new class named counter. In the constructor of the counter class, increase the variable. And decrease it in the destructor. In the function, make a counter object so that its constructor will be called. And after the function returns, its destructor will be called. Like this: class counter { public: counter(){++clientCount; /* not simply like this, need to be atomic*/} ~counter(){--clientCount; /* not simply like this, need to be atomic*/} }; ... myfunction() { counter c; //do something return something; } In c# i think i can do so with the following codes, but not for sure. public class Service1 : IService1 { static int clientCount = 0; private class ClientCounter : IDisposable { public ClientCounter() { Interlocked.Increment(ref clientCount); } public void Dispose() { Interlocked.Decrement(ref clientCount); } } public DataObject[] GetData() { using (ClientCounter counter = new ClientCounter()) { List<DataObject> result = MockDb.GetData(); return result.ToArray(); } } } i write a counter class implement the IDisposable interface. And put my function codes into a using block. But it seems that it doesn't work so good. No matter how many threads i start, the clientCount variable is up to 3. Any advise would be appreciated.

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  • I know I'm doing something wrong with RaiseCanExecuteChanged and CanExecute

    - by Cowman
    Well after fiddling with MVVM light to get my button to enable and disable when I want it to... I sort of mashed things together until it worked. However, I just know I'm doing something wrong here. I have RaiseCanExecuteChanged and CanExecute in the same area being called. Surely this is not how it's done? Here's my xaml <Button Margin="10, 25, 10, 25" VerticalAlignment="Center" HorizontalAlignment="Center" Width="50" Height="50" Grid.Column="1" Grid.Row="3" Content="Host"> <i:Interaction.Triggers> <i:EventTrigger EventName="Click"> <mvvmLight:EventToCommand Command="{Binding HostChat}" MustToggleIsEnabled="True" /> </i:EventTrigger> </i:Interaction.Triggers> </Button> And here's my code public override void InitializeViewAndViewModel() { view = UnityContainer.Resolve<LoginPromptView>(); viewModel = UnityContainer.Resolve<LoginPromptViewModel>(); view.DataContext = viewModel; InjectViewIntoRegion(RegionNames.PopUpRegion, view, true); viewModel.HostChat = new DelegateCommand(ExecuteHostChat, CanHostChat); viewModel.PropertyChanged += new System.ComponentModel.PropertyChangedEventHandler(ViewModelPropertyChanged); } void ViewModelPropertyChanged(object sender, System.ComponentModel.PropertyChangedEventArgs e) { if (e.PropertyName == "Name" || e.PropertyName == "Port" || e.PropertyName == "Address") { (viewModel.HostChat as DelegateCommand).RaiseCanExecuteChanged(); (viewModel.HostChat as DelegateCommand).CanExecute(); } } public void ExecuteHostChat() { } public bool CanHostChat() { if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(viewModel.Address) || String.IsNullOrEmpty(viewModel.Port) || String.IsNullOrEmpty(viewModel.Name)) { return false; } else return true; } See how these two are together? Surely that can't be right. I mean... it WORKS for me... but something seems wrong about it. Shouldn't RaiseCanExecuteChanged call CanExecute? It doesn't... and so if I don't have that CanExecute in there, my control never toggles its IsEnabled like I need it to. (viewModel.HostChat as DelegateCommand).RaiseCanExecuteChanged(); (viewModel.HostChat as DelegateCommand).CanExecute();

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  • 8 Reasons Why Even Microsoft Agrees the Windows Desktop is a Nightmare

    - by Chris Hoffman
    Let’s be honest: The Windows desktop is a mess. Sure, it’s extremely powerful and has a huge software library, but it’s not a good experience for average people. It’s not even a good experience for geeks, although we tolerate it. Even Microsoft agrees about this. Microsoft’s Surface tablets with Windows RT don’t support any third-party desktop apps. They consider this a feature — users can’t install malware and other desktop junk, so the system will always be speedy and secure. Malware is Still Common Malware may not affect geeks, but it certainly continues to affect average people. Securing Windows, keeping it secure, and avoiding unsafe programs is a complex process. There are over 50 different file extensions that can contain harmful code to keep track of. It’s easy to have theoretical discussions about how malware could infect Mac computers, Android devices, and other systems. But Mac malware is extremely rare, and has  generally been caused by problem with the terrible Java plug-in. Macs are configured to only run executables from identified developers by default, whereas Windows will run everything. Android malware is talked about a lot, but Android malware is rare in the real world and is generally confined to users who disable security protections and install pirated apps. Google has also taken action, rolling out built-in antivirus-like app checking to all Android devices, even old ones running Android 2.3, via Play Services. Whatever the reason, Windows malware is still common while malware for other systems isn’t. We all know it — anyone who does tech support for average users has dealt with infected Windows computers. Even users who can avoid malware are stuck dealing with complex and nagging antivirus programs, especially since it’s now so difficult to trust Microsoft’s antivirus products. Manufacturer-Installed Bloatware is Terrible Sit down with a new Mac, Chromebook, iPad, Android tablet, Linux laptop, or even a Surface running Windows RT and you can enjoy using your new device. The system is a clean slate for you to start exploring and installing your new software. Sit down with a new Windows PC and the system is a mess. Rather than be delighted, you’re stuck reinstalling Windows and then installing the necessary drivers or you’re forced to start uninstalling useless bloatware programs one-by-one, trying to figure out which ones are actually useful. After uninstalling the useless programs, you may end up with a system tray full of icons for ten different hardware utilities anyway. The first experience of using a new Windows PC is frustration, not delight. Yes, bloatware is still a problem on Windows 8 PCs. Manufacturers can customize the Refresh image, preventing bloatware rom easily being removed. Finding a Desktop Program is Dangerous Want to install a Windows desktop program? Well, you’ll have to head to your web browser and start searching. It’s up to you, the user, to know which programs are safe and which are dangerous. Even if you find a website for a reputable program, the advertisements on that page will often try to trick you into downloading fake installers full of adware. While it’s great to have the ability to leave the app store and get software that the platform’s owner hasn’t approved — as on Android — this is no excuse for not providing a good, secure software installation experience for typical users installing typical programs. Even Reputable Desktop Programs Try to Install Junk Even if you do find an entirely reputable program, you’ll have to keep your eyes open while installing it. It will likely try to install adware, add browse toolbars, change your default search engine, or change your web browser’s home page. Even Microsoft’s own programs do this — when you install Skype for Windows desktop, it will attempt to modify your browser settings t ouse Bing, even if you’re specially chosen another search engine and home page. With Microsoft setting such an example, it’s no surprise so many other software developers have followed suit. Geeks know how to avoid this stuff, but there’s a reason program installers continue to do this. It works and tricks many users, who end up with junk installed and settings changed. The Update Process is Confusing On iOS, Android, and Windows RT, software updates come from a single place — the app store. On Linux, software updates come from the package manager. On Mac OS X, typical users’ software updates likely come from the Mac App Store. On the Windows desktop, software updates come from… well, every program has to create its own update mechanism. Users have to keep track of all these updaters and make sure their software is up-to-date. Most programs now have their act together and automatically update by default, but users who have old versions of Flash and Adobe Reader installed are vulnerable until they realize their software isn’t automatically updating. Even if every program updates properly, the sheer mess of updaters is clunky, slow, and confusing in comparison to a centralized update process. Browser Plugins Open Security Holes It’s no surprise that other modern platforms like iOS, Android, Chrome OS, Windows RT, and Windows Phone don’t allow traditional browser plugins, or only allow Flash and build it into the system. Browser plugins provide a wealth of different ways for malicious web pages to exploit the browser and open the system to attack. Browser plugins are one of the most popular attack vectors because of how many users have out-of-date plugins and how many plugins, especially Java, seem to be designed without taking security seriously. Oracle’s Java plugin even tries to install the terrible Ask toolbar when installing security updates. That’s right — the security update process is also used to cram additional adware into users’ machines so unscrupulous companies like Oracle can make a quick buck. It’s no wonder that most Windows PCs have an out-of-date, vulnerable version of Java installed. Battery Life is Terrible Windows PCs have bad battery life compared to Macs, IOS devices, and Android tablets, all of which Windows now competes with. Even Microsoft’s own Surface Pro 2 has bad battery life. Apple’s 11-inch MacBook Air, which has very similar hardware to the Surface Pro 2, offers double its battery life when web browsing. Microsoft has been fond of blaming third-party hardware manufacturers for their poorly optimized drivers in the past, but there’s no longer any room to hide. The problem is clearly Windows. Why is this? No one really knows for sure. Perhaps Microsoft has kept on piling Windows component on top of Windows component and many older Windows components were never properly optimized. Windows Users Become Stuck on Old Windows Versions Apple’s new OS X 10.9 Mavericks upgrade is completely free to all Mac users and supports Macs going back to 2007. Apple has also announced their intention that all new releases of Mac OS X will be free. In 2007, Microsoft had just shipped Windows Vista. Macs from the Windows Vista era are being upgraded to the latest version of the Mac operating system for free, while Windows PCs from the same era are probably still using Windows Vista. There’s no easy upgrade path for these people. They’re stuck using Windows Vista and maybe even the outdated Internet Explorer 9 if they haven’t installed a third-party web browser. Microsoft’s upgrade path is for these people to pay $120 for a full copy of Windows 8.1 and go through a complicated process that’s actaully a clean install. Even users of Windows 8 devices will probably have to pay money to upgrade to Windows 9, while updates for other operating systems are completely free. If you’re a PC geek, a PC gamer, or someone who just requires specialized software that only runs on Windows, you probably use the Windows desktop and don’t want to switch. That’s fine, but it doesn’t mean the Windows desktop is actually a good experience. Much of the burden falls on average users, who have to struggle with malware, bloatware, adware bundled in installers, complex software installation processes, and out-of-date software. In return, all they get is the ability to use a web browser and some basic Office apps that they could use on almost any other platform without all the hassle. Microsoft would agree with this, touting Windows RT and their new “Windows 8-style” app platform as the solution. Why else would Microsoft, a “devices and services” company, position the Surface — a device without traditional Windows desktop programs — as their mass-market device recommended for average people? This isn’t necessarily an endorsement of Windows RT. If you’re tech support for your family members and it comes time for them to upgrade, you may want to get them off the Windows desktop and tell them to get a Mac or something else that’s simple. Better yet, if they get a Mac, you can tell them to visit the Apple Store for help instead of calling you. That’s another thing Windows PCs don’t offer — good manufacturer support. Image Credit: Blanca Stella Mejia on Flickr, Collin Andserson on Flickr, Luca Conti on Flickr     

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  • Why do we (really) program to interfaces?

    - by Kyle Burns
    One of the earliest lessons I was taught in Enterprise development was "always program against an interface".  This was back in the VB6 days and I quickly learned that no code would be allowed to move to the QA server unless my business objects and data access objects each are defined as an interface and have a matching implementation class.  Why?  "It's more reusable" was one answer.  "It doesn't tie you to a specific implementation" a slightly more knowing answer.  And let's not forget the discussion ending "it's a standard".  The problem with these responses was that senior people didn't really understand the reason we were doing the things we were doing and because of that, we were entirely unable to realize the intent behind the practice - we simply used interfaces and had a bunch of extra code to maintain to show for it. It wasn't until a few years later that I finally heard the term "Inversion of Control".  Simply put, "Inversion of Control" takes the creation of objects that used to be within the control (and therefore a responsibility of) of your component and moves it to some outside force.  For example, consider the following code which follows the old "always program against an interface" rule in the manner of many corporate development shops: 1: ICatalog catalog = new Catalog(); 2: Category[] categories = catalog.GetCategories(); In this example, I met the requirement of the rule by declaring the variable as ICatalog, but I didn't hit "it doesn't tie you to a specific implementation" because I explicitly created an instance of the concrete Catalog object.  If I want to test the functionality of the code I just wrote I have to have an environment in which Catalog can be created along with any of the resources upon which it depends (e.g. configuration files, database connections, etc) in order to test my functionality.  That's a lot of setup work and one of the things that I think ultimately discourages real buy-in of unit testing in many development shops. So how do I test my code without needing Catalog to work?  A very primitive approach I've seen is to change the line the instantiates catalog to read: 1: ICatalog catalog = new FakeCatalog();   once the test is run and passes, the code is switched back to the real thing.  This obviously poses a huge risk for introducing test code into production and in my opinion is worse than just keeping the dependency and its associated setup work.  Another popular approach is to make use of Factory methods which use an object whose "job" is to know how to obtain a valid instance of the object.  Using this approach, the code may look something like this: 1: ICatalog catalog = CatalogFactory.GetCatalog();   The code inside the factory is responsible for deciding "what kind" of catalog is needed.  This is a far better approach than the previous one, but it does make projects grow considerably because now in addition to the interface, the real implementation, and the fake implementation(s) for testing you have added a minimum of one factory (or at least a factory method) for each of your interfaces.  Once again, developers say "that's too complicated and has me writing a bunch of useless code" and quietly slip back into just creating a new Catalog and chalking any test failures up to "it will probably work on the server". This is where software intended specifically to facilitate Inversion of Control comes into play.  There are many libraries that take on the Inversion of Control responsibilities in .Net and most of them have many pros and cons.  From this point forward I'll discuss concepts from the standpoint of the Unity framework produced by Microsoft's Patterns and Practices team.  I'm primarily focusing on this library because it questions about it inspired this posting. At Unity's core and that of most any IoC framework is a catalog or registry of components.  This registry can be configured either through code or using the application's configuration file and in the most simple terms says "interface X maps to concrete implementation Y".  It can get much more complicated, but I want to keep things at the "what does it do" level instead of "how does it do it".  The object that exposes most of the Unity functionality is the UnityContainer.  This object exposes methods to configure the catalog as well as the Resolve<T> method which is used to obtain an instance of the type represented by T.  When using the Resolve<T> method, Unity does not necessarily have to just "new up" the requested object, but also can track dependencies of that object and ensure that the entire dependency chain is satisfied. There are three basic ways that I have seen Unity used within projects.  Those are through classes directly using the Unity container, classes requiring injection of dependencies, and classes making use of the Service Locator pattern. The first usage of Unity is when classes are aware of the Unity container and directly call its Resolve method whenever they need the services advertised by an interface.  The up side of this approach is that IoC is utilized, but the down side is that every class has to be aware that Unity is being used and tied directly to that implementation. Many developers don't like the idea of as close a tie to specific IoC implementation as is represented by using Unity within all of your classes and for the most part I agree that this isn't a good idea.  As an alternative, classes can be designed for Dependency Injection.  Dependency Injection is where a force outside the class itself manipulates the object to provide implementations of the interfaces that the class needs to interact with the outside world.  This is typically done either through constructor injection where the object has a constructor that accepts an instance of each interface it requires or through property setters accepting the service providers.  When using dependency, I lean toward the use of constructor injection because I view the constructor as being a much better way to "discover" what is required for the instance to be ready for use.  During resolution, Unity looks for an injection constructor and will attempt to resolve instances of each interface required by the constructor, throwing an exception of unable to meet the advertised needs of the class.  The up side of this approach is that the needs of the class are very clearly advertised and the class is unaware of which IoC container (if any) is being used.  The down side of this approach is that you're required to maintain the objects passed to the constructor as instance variables throughout the life of your object and that objects which coordinate with many external services require a lot of additional constructor arguments (this gets ugly and may indicate a need for refactoring). The final way that I've seen and used Unity is to make use of the ServiceLocator pattern, of which the Patterns and Practices team has also provided a Unity-compatible implementation.  When using the ServiceLocator, your class calls ServiceLocator.Retrieve in places where it would have called Resolve on the Unity container.  Like using Unity directly, it does tie you directly to the ServiceLocator implementation and makes your code aware that dependency injection is taking place, but it does have the up side of giving you the freedom to swap out the underlying IoC container if necessary.  I'm not hugely concerned with hiding IoC entirely from the class (I view this as a "nice to have"), so the single biggest problem that I see with the ServiceLocator approach is that it provides no way to proactively advertise needs in the way that constructor injection does, allowing more opportunity for difficult to track runtime errors. This blog entry has not been intended in any way to be a definitive work on IoC, but rather as something to spur thought about why we program to interfaces and some ways to reach the intended value of the practice instead of having it just complicate your code.  I hope that it helps somebody begin or continue a journey away from being a "Cargo Cult Programmer".

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  • Programs won't write to a file, and I do not know if it is reading it

    - by user320950
    This program is supposed to read files and write them. I took the file open checks out because they kept causing errors. The problem is that the files open like they are supposed to and the names are correct but nothing is on any of the text screens. Do you know what is wrong? #include<iostream> #include<fstream> #include<cstdlib> #include<iomanip> using namespace std; int main() { ifstream in_stream; // reads itemlist.txt ofstream out_stream1; // writes in items.txt ifstream in_stream2; // reads pricelist.txt ofstream out_stream3;// writes in plist.txt ifstream in_stream4;// read recipt.txt ofstream out_stream5;// write display.txt float price=' ',curr_total=0.0; int itemnum=' ', wrong=0; char next; in_stream.open("ITEMLIST.txt", ios::in); // list of avaliable items out_stream1.open("listWititems.txt", ios::out); // list of avaliable items in_stream2.open("PRICELIST.txt", ios::in); out_stream3.open("listWitdollars.txt", ios::out); in_stream4.open("display.txt", ios::in); out_stream5.open("showitems.txt", ios::out); in_stream.close(); // closing files. out_stream1.close(); in_stream2.close(); out_stream3.close(); in_stream4.close(); out_stream5.close(); system("pause"); in_stream.setf(ios::fixed); while(in_stream.eof()) { in_stream >> itemnum; cin.clear(); cin >> next; } out_stream1.setf(ios::fixed); while (out_stream1.eof()) { out_stream1 << itemnum; cin.clear(); cin >> next; } in_stream2.setf(ios::fixed); in_stream2.setf(ios::showpoint); in_stream2.precision(2); while((price== (price*1.00)) && (itemnum == (itemnum*1))) { while (in_stream2 >> itemnum >> price) // gets itemnum and price { while (in_stream2.eof()) // reads file to end of file { in_stream2 >> itemnum; in_stream2 >> price; price++; curr_total= price++; in_stream2 >> curr_total; cin.clear(); // allows more reading cin >> next; } } } out_stream3.setf(ios::fixed); out_stream3.setf(ios::showpoint); out_stream3.precision(2); while((price== (price*1.00)) && (itemnum == (itemnum*1))) { while (out_stream3 << itemnum << price) { while (out_stream3.eof()) // reads file to end of file { out_stream3 << itemnum; out_stream3 << price; price++; curr_total= price++; out_stream3 << curr_total; cin.clear(); // allows more reading cin >> next; } return itemnum, price; } } in_stream4.setf(ios::fixed); in_stream4.setf(ios::showpoint); in_stream4.precision(2); while ( in_stream4.eof()) { in_stream4 >> itemnum >> price >> curr_total; cin.clear(); cin >> next; } out_stream5.setf(ios::fixed); out_stream5.setf(ios::showpoint); out_stream5.precision(2); out_stream5 <<setw(5)<< " itemnum " <<setw(5)<<" price "<<setw(5)<<" curr_total " <<endl; // sends items and prices to receipt.txt out_stream5 << setw(5) << itemnum << setw(5) <<price << setw(5)<< curr_total; // sends items and prices to receipt.txt out_stream5 << " You have a total of " << wrong++ << " errors " << endl; }

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  • How to know if the client has terminated in sockets

    - by shadyabhi
    Suppose, I have a connected socket after writing this code.. if ((sd = accept(socket_d, (struct sockaddr *)&client_addr, &alen)) < 0) { perror("accept failed\n"); exit(1); } How can I know at the server side that client has exited. My whole program actually does the following.. Accepts a connection from client Starts a new thread that reads messages from that particular client and then broadcast this message to all the connected clients. If you want to see the whole code... In this whole code. I am also struggling with one more problem that whenever I kill a client with Ctrl+C, my server terminates abruptly.. It would be nice if anyone could suggest what the problem is.. #include <sys/types.h> #include <sys/socket.h> #include <netinet/in.h> #include <arpa/inet.h> #include <netdb.h> #include <stdio.h> #include <unistd.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <string.h> #include <signal.h> #include <errno.h> #include <pthread.h> /*CONSTANTS*/ #define DEFAULT_PORT 10000 #define LISTEN_QUEUE_LIMIT 6 #define TOTAL_CLIENTS 10 #define CHAR_BUFFER 256 /*GLOBAL VARIABLE*/ int current_client = 0; int connected_clients[TOTAL_CLIENTS]; extern int errno; void *client_handler(void * socket_d); int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { struct sockaddr_in server_addr;/* structure to hold server's address*/ int socket_d; /* listening socket descriptor */ int port; /* protocol port number */ int option_value; /* needed for setsockopt */ pthread_t tid[TOTAL_CLIENTS]; port = (argc > 1)?atoi(argv[1]):DEFAULT_PORT; /* Socket Server address structure */ memset((char *)&server_addr, 0, sizeof(server_addr)); server_addr.sin_family = AF_INET; /* set family to Internet */ server_addr.sin_addr.s_addr = INADDR_ANY; /* set the local IP address */ server_addr.sin_port = htons((u_short)port); /* Set port */ /* Create socket */ if ( (socket_d = socket(PF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0)) < 0) { fprintf(stderr, "socket creation failed\n"); exit(1); } /* Make listening socket's port reusable */ if (setsockopt(socket_d, SOL_SOCKET, SO_REUSEADDR, (char *)&option_value, sizeof(option_value)) < 0) { fprintf(stderr, "setsockopt failure\n"); exit(1); } /* Bind a local address to the socket */ if (bind(socket_d, (struct sockaddr *)&server_addr, sizeof(server_addr)) < 0) { fprintf(stderr, "bind failed\n"); exit(1); } /* Specify size of request queue */ if (listen(socket_d, LISTEN_QUEUE_LIMIT) < 0) { fprintf(stderr, "listen failed\n"); exit(1); } memset(connected_clients,0,sizeof(int)*TOTAL_CLIENTS); for (;;) { struct sockaddr_in client_addr; /* structure to hold client's address*/ int alen = sizeof(client_addr); /* length of address */ int sd; /* connected socket descriptor */ if ((sd = accept(socket_d, (struct sockaddr *)&client_addr, &alen)) < 0) { perror("accept failed\n"); exit(1); } else printf("\n I got a connection from (%s , %d)\n",inet_ntoa(client_addr.sin_addr),ntohs(client_addr.sin_port)); if (pthread_create(&tid[current_client],NULL,(void *)client_handler,(void *)sd) != 0) { perror("pthread_create error"); continue; } connected_clients[current_client]=sd; current_client++; /*Incrementing Client number*/ } return 0; } void *client_handler(void *connected_socket) { int sd; sd = (int)connected_socket; for ( ; ; ) { ssize_t n; char buffer[CHAR_BUFFER]; for ( ; ; ) { if (n = read(sd, buffer, sizeof(char)*CHAR_BUFFER) == -1) { perror("Error reading from client"); pthread_exit(1); } int i=0; for (i=0;i<current_client;i++) { if (write(connected_clients[i],buffer,sizeof(char)*CHAR_BUFFER) == -1) perror("Error sending messages to a client while multicasting"); } } } } My client side is this (Maye be irrelevant while answering my question) #include <stdio.h> #include <sys/types.h> #include <sys/socket.h> #include <netinet/in.h> #include <netdb.h> #include <string.h> #include <stdlib.h> void error(char *msg) { perror(msg); exit(0); } void *listen_for_message(void * fd) { int sockfd = (int)fd; int n; char buffer[256]; bzero(buffer,256); printf("YOUR MESSAGE: "); fflush(stdout); while (1) { n = read(sockfd,buffer,256); if (n < 0) error("ERROR reading from socket"); if (n == 0) pthread_exit(1); printf("\nMESSAGE BROADCAST: %sYOUR MESSAGE: ",buffer); fflush(stdout); } } int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { int sockfd, portno, n; struct sockaddr_in serv_addr; struct hostent *server; pthread_t read_message; char buffer[256]; if (argc < 3) { fprintf(stderr,"usage %s hostname port\n", argv[0]); exit(0); } portno = atoi(argv[2]); sockfd = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0); if (sockfd < 0) error("ERROR opening socket"); server = gethostbyname(argv[1]); if (server == NULL) { fprintf(stderr,"ERROR, no such host\n"); exit(0); } bzero((char *) &serv_addr, sizeof(serv_addr)); serv_addr.sin_family = AF_INET; bcopy((char *)server->h_addr, (char *)&serv_addr.sin_addr.s_addr, server->h_length); serv_addr.sin_port = htons(portno); if (connect(sockfd,&serv_addr,sizeof(serv_addr)) < 0) error("ERROR connecting"); bzero(buffer,256); if (pthread_create(&read_message,NULL,(void *)listen_for_message,(void *)sockfd) !=0 ) { perror("error creating thread"); } while (1) { fgets(buffer,255,stdin); n = write(sockfd,buffer,256); if (n < 0) error("ERROR writing to socket"); bzero(buffer,256); } return 0; }

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  • Making a Job Change That's Easy Why Not Try a Career Change

    - by david.talamelli
    A few nights ago I received a comment on one of our blog posts that reminded me of a statistic that I heard a while back. The statistic reflected the change in our views towards work and showed how while people in past generations would stay in one role for their working career - now with so much choice people not only change jobs often but also change careers 4-5 times in their working life. To differentiate between a job change and a career change: when I say job change this could be an IT Sales person moving from one IT Sales role to another IT Sales role. A Career change for example would be that same IT Sales person moving from IT Sales to something outside the scope of their industry - maybe to something like an Engineer or Scuba Dive Instructor. The reason for Career changes can be as varied as the people who make them. Someone's motivation could be to pursue a passion or maybe there is a change in their personal circumstances forcing the change or it could be any other number of reasons. I think it takes courage to make a Career change - it can be easy to stay in your comfort zone and do what you know, but to really push yourself sometimes you need to try something new, it is a matter of making that career transition as smooth as possible for yourself. The comment that was posted is here below (thanks Dean for the kind words they are appreciated). Hi David, I just wanted to let you know that I work for a company called Milestone Search in Melbourne, Victoria Australia. (www.mstone.com.au) We subscribe to your feed on a daily basis and find your blogs both interesting and insightful. Not to mention extremely entertaining. I wonder if you have missed out on getting in journalism as this seems to be something you'd be great at ?: ) Anyways back to my point about changing careers. This could be anything from going from I.T. to Journalism, Engineering to Teaching or any combination of career you can think of. I don't think there ever has been a time where we have had so many opportunities to do so many different things in our working life. While this idea sounds great in theory, putting it into practice would be much harder to do I think. First, in an increasingly competitive job market, employers tend to look for specialists in their field. You may want to make a change but your options may be limited by the number of employers willing to take a chance on someone new to an industry that will likely require a significant investment in time to get brought up to speed. Also, using myself as an example if I was given the opportunity to move into Journalism/Communication/Marketing career from my career as an IT Recruiter - realistically I would have to take a significant pay cut to make this change as my current salary reflects the expertise I have in my current career. I would not immediately be up to speed moving into a new career and would not be able to justify a similar salary. Yes there are transferable skills in any career change, but even though you may have transferable skills you must realise that you will also have a large amount of learning to do which would take time. These are two initial hurdles that I immediately think of, there may be more but nothing is insurmountable. If you work out what you want to do with your working career whatever that may be, you then need to just need to work out the steps to get to your end goal. This is where utilising the power of your networks and using Social Media can come in handy. If you are interested in working somewhere why not proactively take the opportunity to research the industry or company - find out who it is you need to speak to and get in touch with them. We spend so much time working, we should enjoy the work we do and not be afraid to try new things. Waiting for your dream job to fall into your lap or be handed to you on a silver platter is not likely going to happen, so if there is something you do want to do, work out a plan to make it happen and chase after it. This article was originally posted on David Talamelli's Blog - David's Journal on Tap

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  • Why Your ERP System Isn't Ready for the Next Evolution of the Enterprise

    - by ken.pulverman
      ERP has been the backbone of enterprise software.  The data held in your ERP system is core of most companies.  Efficiencies gained through the accounting and resource allocation through ERP software have literally saved companies trillions of dollars. Not only does everything seem to be fine with your ERP system, you haven't had to touch it in years.  Why aren't you ready for what comes next? Well judging by the growth rates in the space (Oracle posted only a 3% growth rate, while SAP showed a 12% decline) there hasn't been much modernization going on, just a little replacement activity. If you are like most companies, your ERP system is connected to a proprietary middleware solution that only effectively talks with a handful of other systems you might have acquired from the same vendor.   Connecting your legacy system through proprietary middleware is expensive and brittle and if you are like most companies, you were only willing to pay an SI so much before you said "enough."  So your ERP is working.  It's humming along.  You might not be able to get Order to Promise information when you take orders in your call center, but there are work arounds that work just fine. So what's the problem? The problem is that you built your business around your ERP core, and now there is such pressure to innovate your business processes to keep up that you need a whole new slew of modern apps and you need ERP data to be accessible from everywhere.   Every time you change a sales territory or a comp plan or change a benefits provider your ERP system, literally the economic brain of your business, needs to know what's going on.  And this giant need to access and provide information to your ERP is only growing. What makes matters even more challenging is that apps today come in every flavor under the Sun™.   SaaS, cloud, managed, hybrid, outsourced, composite....and they all have different integration protocols. The only easy way to get ahead of all this is to modernize the way you connect and run your applications.  Unlike the middleware solutions of yesteryear, modern middleware is effectively the operating system of the enterprise.  In the same way that you rely on Apple, Microsoft, and Google to find a video driver for your 23" monitor or to ensure the Word or Keynote runs, modern middleware takes care of intra-application connectivity and process execution.  It effectively allows you to take ERP out of the middle while ensuring connectivity to your vital data for anything you want to do.  The diagram below reflects that change.    In this model, the hegemony of ERP is over.  It too has to become a stealthy modern app to help you quickly adapt to business changes while managing vital information.  And through modern middleware it will connect to everything.  So yes ERP as we've know it is dead, but long live ERP as a connected application member of the modern enterprise. I want to Thank Andrew Zoldan, Group Vice President Oracle Manufacturing Industries Business Unit for introducing me to how some of his biggest customers have benefited by modernizing their applications infrastructure and making ERP a connected application. by John Burke, Group Vice President, Applications Business Unit

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  • Why Your ERP System Isn't Ready for the Next Evolution of the Enterprise

    - by [email protected]
    By ken.pulverman on March 24, 2010 8:51 AM ERP has been the backbone of enterprise software. The data held in your ERP system is core of most companies. Efficiencies gained through the accounting and resource allocation through ERP software have literally saved companies trillions of dollars. Not only does everything seem to be fine with your ERP system, you haven't had to touch it in years. Why aren't you ready for what comes next? Well judging by the growth rates in the space (Oracle posted only a 3% growth rate, while SAP showed a 12% decline) there hasn't been much modernization going on, just a little replacement activity. If you are like most companies, your ERP system is connected to a proprietary middleware solution that only effectively talks with a handful of other systems you might have acquired from the same vendor. Connecting your legacy system through proprietary middleware is expensive and brittle and if you are like most companies, you were only willing to pay an SI so much before you said "enough." So your ERP is working. It's humming along. You might not be able to get Order to Promise information when you take orders in your call center, but there are work arounds that work just fine. So what's the problem? The problem is that you built your business around your ERP core, and now there is such pressure to innovate your business processes to keep up that you need a whole new slew of modern apps and you need ERP data to be accessible from everywhere. Every time you change a sales territory or a comp plan or change a benefits provider your ERP system, literally the economic brain of your business, needs to know what's going on. And this giant need to access and provide information to your ERP is only growing. What makes matters even more challenging is that apps today come in every flavor under the Sun™. SaaS, cloud, managed, hybrid, outsourced, composite....and they all have different integration protocols. The only easy way to get ahead of all this is to modernize the way you connect and run your applications. Unlike the middleware solutions of yesteryear, modern middleware is effectively the operating system of the enterprise. In the same way that you rely on Apple, Microsoft, and Google to find a video driver for your 23" monitor or to ensure that Word or Keynote runs, modern middleware takes care of intra-application connectivity and process execution. It effectively allows you to take ERP out of the middle while ensuring connectivity to your vital data for anything you want to do. The diagram below reflects that change. In this model, the hegemony of ERP is over. It too has to become a stealthy modern app to help you quickly adapt to business changes while managing vital information. And through modern middleware it will connect to everything. So yes ERP as we've know it is dead, but long live ERP as a connected application member of the modern enterprise. I want to Thank Andrew Zoldan, Group Vice President Oracle Manufacturing Industries Business Unit for introducing me to how some of his biggest customers have benefited by modernizing their applications infrastructure and making ERP a connected application. by John Burke, Group Vice President, Applications Business Unit

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  • Why SQL Developer Rocks for the Advanced User Too

    - by thatjeffsmith
    While SQL Developer may be ‘perfect for Oracle beginners,’ that doesn’t preclude advanced and intermediate users from getting their fair share of toys! I’ve been working with Oracle since the 7.3.4 days, and I think it’s pretty safe to say that the WAY an ‘old timer’ uses a tool like SQL Developer is radically different than the ‘beginner.’ If you’ve been reluctant to use SQL Developer because it’s a GUI, give me a few minutes to try to convince you it’s worth a second (or third) look. 1. Help when you want it, and only when you want it One of the biggest gripes any user has with a piece of software is when said software can’t get out of it’s own way. When you’re typing in a word processor, sometimes you can do without the grammar and spelling checks, the offer to auto-complete your words, and all of the additional mark-up. This drives folks to programs like Notepad++ and vi. You can disable the code insight feature so you can type unmolested by SQL Developer’s attempt to auto-complete your object names. Now, if you happen to come across a long or hard to spell object name, you can still invoke the feature on demand using Ctrl+Spacebar Code Editor – Completion Insight – Enable Completion Auto-Popup (Keyword being Auto) 2. Automatic File Tracking SQL*Minus is nice. Vi is cool. Notepad++ has a lot of features I like. But not too many editors offer automatic logging of changes to your files without having to setup a source control system. I was doing some work on my login.sql. I’m not doing anything crazy, but seeing what I had done in previous iterations was helpful. Now imagine how nice it would be to have this available for your l,000+ line scripts! Track your scripts as they change, no setup required! 3. Extend the Functionality Know SQL and XML? Wish SQL Developer did JUST a little bit more? Build your own extensions. You can have custom context menus and object pages in just a few minutes. This is an example of lazy developers writing code that write code. 4. Get Your Money’s Worth You’ve licensed Enterprise Edition. You got your Diagnostic and Tuning packs. Now start using them! Not everyone has access to Enterprise Manager, especially developers. But that doesn’t mean they don’t need help with troubleshooting and optimizing poorly performing SQL statements. ASH, AWR, Real-Time SQL Monitoring and the SQL Tuning Advisor are built into the Reports and Worksheet. Yes you could make the package calls, but that’s a whole lot of typing, and I’d rather just get to the results. 5. Profile, Debug, & Unit Testing PLSQL An Interactive Development Environment (IDE) built by the same folks that own the programming language (Hello – Oracle PLSQL!) should be complete. It should ‘hug’ the developer and empower them to churn out programs that work, run fast, and are easy to maintain. Write it, test it, debug it, and tune it. When you’re running your programs and you just want to see the data that’s returned, that shouldn’t require any special settings or workaround to make it happen either. Magic! And a whole lot more… I could go on and talk about the support for things like DataPump, RMAN, and DBMS_SCHEDULER, but you’re experts and you’re plenty busy. If you think SQL Developer is falling short somewhere, I want you to let us know about it.

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  • Oracle Tutor: Installing Is Not Implementing or Why CIO's should care about End User Adoption

    - by emily.chorba(at)oracle.com
    Eighteen months ago I showed Tutor and UPK Productive Day One overview to a CIO friend of mine. He works in a manufacturing business which had been recently purchased by a global conglomerate. He had a major implementation coming up, but said that the corporate team would be coming in to handle the project. I asked about their end user training approach, but it was unclear to him at the time. We were in touch over the course of the implementation project. The major activities were data conversion, how-to workshops, General Ledger realignment, and report definition. The message was "Here's how we do it at corporate, and here's how you are going to do it." In short, it was an application software installation. The corporate team had experience and confidence and the effort through go-live was smooth. Some weeks after cutover, problems with customer orders began to surface. Orders could not be fulfilled in a timely fashion. The problem got worse, and the corporate emergency team was called in. After many days of analysis, the issue was tracked down and resolved, but by then there were weeks of backorders, and their customer base was impacted in a significant way. It took three months of constant handholding of customers by the sales force for good will to be reestablished, and this itself diminished a new product sales push. I learned of these results in a recent conversation with the CIO. I asked him what the solution to the problem was, and he replied that it was twofold. The first component was a lack of understanding by customer service reps about how a particular data item in order entry was to be filled in, resulting in discrepant order data. The second component was that product planners were using this data, along with data from other sources, to fill in a spreadsheet based on the abandoned system. This spreadsheet was the primary input for planning data. The result of these two inaccuracies was that key parts were not being ordered to effectively meet demand and the lead time for finished goods was pushed out by weeks. I reminded him about the Productive Day One approach, and it's focus on methodology and tools for end user training. A more collaborative solution workshop would have identified proper applications use in the new environment. Using UPK to document correct transaction entry would have provided effective guidelines to the CSRs for data entry. Using Oracle Tutor to document the manual tasks would have eliminated the use of an out of date spreadsheet. As we talked this over, he said, "I wish I knew when I started what I know now." Effective end user adoption is the most critical and most overlooked success factor in applications implementations. When the switch is thrown at go-live, employees need to know how to use the new systems to do their jobs. Their jobs are made up of manual steps and systems steps which must be performed in the right order for the implementing organization to operate smoothly. Use Tutor to document the manual policies and procedures, use UPK to document the systems tasks, and develop this documentation in conjunction with a solution workshop. This is the path to develop effective end user training material for a smooth implementation. Learn More For more information about Tutor, visit Oracle.com or the Tutor Blog. Post your questions at the Tutor Forum. Chuck Jones, Product Manager, Oracle Tutor and BPM

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  • Why I Love the Social Management Platform I Use

    - by Mike Stiles
    Not long ago, I asked the product heads for the various components of the Oracle Social Cloud’s SRM to say what they thought was coolest about their component. And while they did a fine job, it was recently pointed out to me that no one around here uses the platform in a real-world setting more than I do, as I not only blog and podcast my brains out, I also run Oracle Social’s own social properties. Of course I’m pro-Oracle Social’s product. Duh. But if you can get around immediately writing this off as a puff piece, there are real reasons beyond my employment that the Oracle SRM works for me as a community manager. If it didn’t, I could have simply written about something else, like how people love smartphones or something genius like that. Post Grid I like seeing what I want to see. I’m difficult that way. Post grid lets me see all posts for all channels, with custom columns showing me how posts are doing. I can filter the grid by social channel, published, scheduled, draft, suggested, etc. Then there’s a pullout side panel that shows me post details, including engagement analytics. From the pullout, I can preview the post, do a quick edit, a full edit, or (my favorite) copy a post so I can edit it and schedule it for other times so I don’t have to repeat from scratch. I’m not lazy, just time conscious. The Post Creation Environment Given our post volume, I need this to be as easy as it can be. I can highlight which streams I want the post to go out on, edit for the individual streams, maintain a media library that’s easy to upload to and attach from, tag posts, insert links that auto-shorten to an orac.le shortlink, schedule with a nice calendar visual, geo-target, drop photos inline into Twitter, and review each post. Watching My Channels The Engage component of the Oracle SRM brings in and drops into a grid the activity that’s happening on all my channels. I keep this open round-the-clock. Again, I get to see only what I want; social network, stream, unread messages, engagement by how I labeled them, and date range. I can bring up a post with a click, reply, label it, retweet it, assign it, delete it, archive it, etc. So don’t bother trying to be a troll on my channels. Analytics Social publishing and engaging 24/7 would be pretty unrewarding if I couldn’t see how our audience was responding. Frankly, I get more analytics than I know what to do with (I’m a content creator, not a data analyst). But I do know what numbers I care about, and they’re available by channel, date range, and campaigns. I’m seeing fan count, sources and demographics. I’m seeing engagement, what kinds of posts are getting engagement, and top engagers. I’m seeing my reach, both organic and paid. I’m seeing how individual posts performed in terms of engagement and virality, and posting time/date insight. Have I covered all the value propositions? I’ve covered pathetically few of them. It would be impossible in blog length to give shout-outs to the vast number of features and functionalities. From organizing teams and managing permissions with Workflow to the powerful ability to monitor topics (and your competition) across the web in Listen, it’s a major, and increasingly necessary, weapon in your social marketing arsenal. The life of a Community Manager is not for everybody. So if the Oracle SRM can actually make a Community Manager’s life easier, what’s not to love? I invite you to take a look at and participate in our Oracle Social Cloud social channels! Facebook Twitter YouTube Google Plus LinkedIn Daily Podcast on iHeartRadio @mikestiles @oraclesocial Photo: freeimages.com

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  • Why Apple’s New SDK Limitation is So Offensive

    - by TStewartDev
    I am not an Apple fanboy, nor have I ever been. However, I have owned a Mac, an iPod, and an iPhone in my lifetime, and for more than a decade, I have defended Apple against the untruths that the haters so enjoy spewing. I encouraged my wife to buy a MacBook when she needed a new laptop two years ago, and I often recommend them to my friends and relatives. I have proudly and happily used my first generation iPhone for nearly three years. Now, for the first time in well over ten years, I find myself ready to swear off Apple and encourage everyone I know to do the same. I was disappointed when Apple wouldn't allow native apps, but I still bought the iPhone. I've stomached their ambiguous app approval process even though it's apparent that Steve may just reject your app because he doesn't like you or feels threatened by you (I'm still lamenting the rejection of the Google Voice app). But, as a developer, I can no longer tolerate Apple's terms and the kind of totalitarian control they indicate Apple wants. In case you are not already familiar, Apple has dictated in their OS 4.0 SDK license agreement (the now infamous Section 3.3.1) that all apps developed for the iPhone must be coded in C, C++, or Objective C, and moreover, that using any cross-compiling platforms is a violation of the agreement. For those of you who aren't developers, let me try to illustrate why this angers those of us who are. Imagine you're a professional writer. You've had articles published in some journals and magazines, and you've got a couple popular books out there, too. You've got an idea for a new book, and so you take it to your publisher. Your publisher agrees that it's a good idea. "But," says the publisher, "we want to hold our books to a tighter standard so that our readers get the experience we want them to have. Therefore, from now on, all our writers may only use words from this list of the 10,000 most common English words. Furthermore, if you cite any other works or quote anyone, they must comply with that same list, or you'll have to rewrite the entire work as well in case our readers want to look up your citation." What do you do? If your work is a children's book, this probably isn't a big deal to you. If it's an autobiography, textbook, or even a novel, though, you're going to have a lot of trouble describing your content with only common words. It's going to take you longer to complete your book, too, since you'll be looking up less common words frequently to see if you can use them. You could always go to another publisher, but this one has the best ability to distribute your book. The next largest distributor can only do a quarter as much. You could abandon the project altogether, but then everyone loses. Isn't this a silly scenario? Who would put such a limitation on writers? Yet this is very much what Apple is doing. They are using their dominant position in the market to coerce developers to write their apps exclusively for the iPhone OS by making it too expensive to write for multiple platforms. It is at least a threefold attack, striking at Adobe who is set to release a compiler that lets Flash source be compiled to iPhone binaries; striking at Google whose Android platform stands the best chance at the moment of providing serious competition to the iPhone; and reinforcing their own strong position by keeping popular apps exclusively to iPhone. And while developers are already very upset about this, the sad fact is that most of us will cave and give in to Apple because consumers don't know any better. They will continue to buy Apple's toy forcing developers to play Apple's maniacal game in order to make any money, at least until Steve Jobs decides he doesn't like them or he intends to release a competing application (bye-bye OpenFeint). Apple has been kept in check on the desktop front by a very dominant Microsoft, but I'm afraid that their success with iPods, iTunes, and iPhones has created a monster that we may have to bear until it is slain by an anti-trust suit or dies with the retirement of Steve Jobs.

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