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• Passing Flash variables to PHP.

  - by user340553

  Hi, I have a simple standalone application written in Visual Basic that I'm porting to a browser based application using PHP/javascript. The original VB application has some simple embedded flash games with token and point counters. The token and point values are being passed as variables between the application and the game. I'm trying to achieve the same effect in my PHP port without modifying the actionscript code( using the variables in actionscript that already exist). Below is Visual Basic code that's loading a value from a database and posting that value to flash using FlashVars: Private Sub loadPlayer() Try If CtblPoints.CheckPointsByID(mCard) Then objPoints = CtblPoints.GettblPointsByID(mCard) objPlayerAc = CtblPlayerAccount.GettblPlayerAccountByPlayerID(objPoints.AccountId) objPlayer = CtblPlayer.GettblPlayerByID(objPlayerAc.PlayerID) objPlayerBal = CtblPlayerBalance.GettblPlayerBalanceByID(objPlayerAc.PlayerID) objPlayerAcDetail = CtblPlayerAccountDetail.GettblPlayerAccountDetailByAmount(objPoints.AccountId) strTotalPoints = Convert.ToString(objPlayerAc.Points) strTotalWin = Convert.ToString(objPlayerBal.TokenAmount) 'Dim intTokenAmount As Decimal = Convert.ToDecimal(objPlayerBal.TokenAmount) 'strTotalWin = Convert.ToString(Convert.ToInt64(intTokenAmount * 100)) flashPlayer.Size = panelGame.Size flashPlayer.FlashVars = "totalEntries=" & strTotalPoints & "&credit=" & strTotalWin flashPlayer.LoadMovie(0, strGameFile) flashPlayer.Play() Else Me.Close() Dim frmInvCrd As New frmInvalidCard frmInvCrd.ShowDialog() End If Catch ex As Exception End Try I'm trying to recreate this in PHP, but I'm at a loss as to how to begin implementing it. The variables in flash are declared publicly, and global imports used: import com.atticmedia.console.*; import flash.display.*; import flash.events.*; import flash.geom.*; import flash.media.*; import flash.net.*; import flash.system.*; import flash.utils.*; First declaration of variable 'totalEntries' is: public var totalEntries:int = 0; and this is a snip of totalEntries being used in the actionscript public function notifyServerOfUnwonCredits(param1) { var remainder:* = param1; if (this.useServer) { this.targetWinAmount = 0; this.cancelUpdateOverTime = F9.setEnterFrame(this.updateOverTime); fscommand("OverTime", "" + remainder); this.flashVarsUpdatedAction = function () { originalTotalWin = totalWin; return; }// end function ; } else { this.setTotalEntries(100000); this.setTotalWin(0); } return; }// end function Eventually I'll be passing these values back to a mySQL database. Any insight into this would be extremely helpful, Thanks!

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• How to embed html table into the bpdy of email

  - by Michael Mao

  Hi all: I am sending info to target email via PHP native mail() method right now. Everything else works fine but the table part troubles me the most. See sample output : Dear Michael Mao : Thank you for purchasing flight tickets with us, here is your receipt : Your tickets will be delivered by mail to the following address : Street Address 1 : sdfsdafsadf sdf Street Address 2 : N/A City : Sydney State : nsw Postcode : 2 Country : Australia Credit Card Number : *************1234 Your purchase details are recorded as : <table><tr><th class="delete">del?</th><th class="from_city">from</th><th class="to_city">to</th><th class="quantity">qty</th><th class="price">unit price</th><th class="price">total price</th></tr><tr class="evenrow" id="Sydney-Lima"><td><input name="isDeleting" type="checkbox"></td><td>Sydney</td><td>Lima</td><td>1</td><td>1030.00</td><td>1030</td></tr><tr class="oddrow" id="Sydney-Perth"><td><input name="isDeleting" type="checkbox"></td><td>Sydney</td><td>Perth</td><td>3</td><td>340.00</td><td>1020</td></tr><tr class="totalprice"><td colspan="5">Grand Total Price</td><td id="grandtotal">2050</td></tr></table> The source of table is directly taken from a webpage, exactly as the same. However, Gmail, Hotmail and most of other emails will ignore to render this as a table. So I am wondering, without using Outlook or other email sending agent software, how could I craft a embedded table for the PHP mail() method to send? Current code snippet corresponds to table generation : $purchaseinfo = $_POST["purchaseinfo"]; //if html tags are not to be filtered in the body of email $stringBuilder .= "<table>" .stripslashes($purchaseinfo) ."</table>"; //must send json response back to caller ajax request if(mail($email, 'Your purchase information on www.hardlyworldtravel.com', $emailbody, $headers)) echo json_encode(array("feedback"=>"successful")); else echo json_encode(array("feedback"=>"error")); Any hints and suggestions are welcomed, thanks a lot in advance.

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• Using PHP's IMAP library triggers Kaspersky's Antivirus

  - by TMG

  Hello, I just started today working with PHP's IMAP library, and while imap_fetchbody or imap_body are called, it is triggering my Kaspersky antivirus. The viruses are Trojan.Win32.Agent.dmyq and Trojan.Win32.FraudPack.aoda. I am running this off a local development machine with XAMPP and Kaspersky AV. Now, I am sure there are viruses there since there is spam in the box (who doesn't need a some viagra or vicodin these days?). And I know that since the raw body includes attachments and different mime-types, bad stuff can be in the body. So my question is: are there any risks using these libraries? I am assuming that the IMAP functions are retrieving the body, caching it to disk/memory and the AV scanning it sees the data. Is that correct? Are there any known security concerns using this library (I couldn't find any)? Does it clean up cached message parts perfectly or might viral files be sitting somewhere? Is there a better way to get plain text out of the body than this? Right now I am using the following code (credit to Kevin Steffer): function get_mime_type(&$structure) { $primary_mime_type = array("TEXT", "MULTIPART","MESSAGE", "APPLICATION", "AUDIO","IMAGE", "VIDEO", "OTHER"); if($structure->subtype) { return $primary_mime_type[(int) $structure->type] . '/' .$structure->subtype; } return "TEXT/PLAIN"; } function get_part($stream, $msg_number, $mime_type, $structure = false, $part_number = false) { if(!$structure) { $structure = imap_fetchstructure($stream, $msg_number); } if($structure) { if($mime_type == get_mime_type($structure)) { if(!$part_number) { $part_number = "1"; } $text = imap_fetchbody($stream, $msg_number, $part_number); if($structure->encoding == 3) { return imap_base64($text); } else if($structure->encoding == 4) { return imap_qprint($text); } else { return $text; } } if($structure->type == 1) /* multipart */ { while(list($index, $sub_structure) = each($structure->parts)) { if($part_number) { $prefix = $part_number . '.'; } $data = get_part($stream, $msg_number, $mime_type, $sub_structure,$prefix . ($index + 1)); if($data) { return $data; } } // END OF WHILE } // END OF MULTIPART } // END OF STRUTURE return false; } // END OF FUNCTION $connection = imap_open($server, $login, $password); $count = imap_num_msg($connection); for($i = 1; $i <= $count; $i++) { $header = imap_headerinfo($connection, $i); $from = $header->fromaddress; $to = $header->toaddress; $subject = $header->subject; $date = $header->date; $body = get_part($connection, $i, "TEXT/PLAIN"); }

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• What does N years of experience with a language really mean?

  - by marcgg

  I've been looking at jobs descriptions since I'm graduating soon and looking for a job and what's always coming back - I'm not teaching you anything - is the "N years of experience in this language". It has been discussed in this question that if you work professionally with let's say Ruby for 2 years, but during these two years you also did some C# and PHP and were actually coding in Ruby 50% of the time. Do you say you have 1 year of experience in Ruby? 2 years? Another issue that hasn't been reviewed in the other post is for "non-professional experience". I'll give you a personal example: I've been working with Ruby on Rails since 2004 while at school. I did a lot of personal projects and school projects using this technology. I also used Rails in 2 6-month internships. Do I have 5 years of Rails experience (2004-now)? Do I have 1 year(2 internships)? Do I have nothing? I feel like I don't deserve the credit for 5 years, because the first years I wasn't working a lot with rails, but since last year I launched some websites and invested myself a lot in this technology and just saying 1 year doesn't really reflect how much I know the technology... Another example: I Learned C++ at school and did 1 big project with it (2-3 month of work and a semester of classes). I never used it in a company but I'd be able to be productive fairly quickly if I had to work on a C++ project and I have a good grasp of the concepts. Do I have no experience? 3 months? 6 months? ... something else? What I'm really trying to do is to find a way to present my skill set in a way that is compliant to what recruiters expect. I also don't want to end up at an interview that would go something like this... Recruiter (finding out the horrible truth): Oh but you said that you had 2 years of experience with this when you have none! / slaps me in the face / Me (in pain): Oh! The irony! Recruiter (yelling): Get out of my office / calls security, punches me in the throat /

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• Is Java assert broken?

  - by BlairHippo

  While poking around the questions, I recently discovered the assert keyword in Java. At first, I was excited. Something useful I didn't already know! A more efficient way for me to check the validity of input parameters! Yay learning! But then I took a closer look, and my enthusiasm was not so much "tempered" as "snuffed-out completely" by one simple fact: you can turn assertions off.* This sounds like a nightmare. If I'm asserting that I don't want the code to keep going if the input listOfStuff is null, why on earth would I want that assertion ignored? It sounds like if I'm debugging a piece of production code and suspect that listOfStuff may have been erroneously passed a null but don't see any logfile evidence of that assertion being triggered, I can't trust that listOfStuff actually got sent a valid value; I also have to account for the possibility that assertions may have been turned off entirely. And this assumes that I'm the one debugging the code. Somebody unfamiliar with assertions might see that and assume (quite reasonably) that if the assertion message doesn't appear in the log, listOfStuff couldn't be the problem. If your first encounter with assert was in the wild, would it even occur to you that it could be turned-off entirely? It's not like there's a command-line option that lets you disable try/catch blocks, after all. All of which brings me to my question (and this is a question, not an excuse for a rant! I promise!): What am I missing? Is there some nuance that renders Java's implementation of assert far more useful than I'm giving it credit for? Is the ability to enable/disable it from the command line actually incredibly valuable in some contexts? Am I misconceptualizing it somehow when I envision using it in production code in lieu of statements like if (listOfStuff == null) barf();? I just feel like there's something important here that I'm not getting. *Okay, technically speaking, they're actually off by default; you have to go out of your way to turn them on. But still, you can knock them out entirely.

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• How to embed html table into the body of email

  - by Michael Mao

  Hi all: I am sending info to target email via PHP native mail() method right now. Everything else works fine but the table part troubles me the most. See sample output : Dear Michael Mao : Thank you for purchasing flight tickets with us, here is your receipt : Your tickets will be delivered by mail to the following address : Street Address 1 : sdfsdafsadf sdf Street Address 2 : N/A City : Sydney State : nsw Postcode : 2 Country : Australia Credit Card Number : *************1234 Your purchase details are recorded as : <table><tr><th class="delete">del?</th><th class="from_city">from</th><th class="to_city">to</th><th class="quantity">qty</th><th class="price">unit price</th><th class="price">total price</th></tr><tr class="evenrow" id="Sydney-Lima"><td><input name="isDeleting" type="checkbox"></td><td>Sydney</td><td>Lima</td><td>1</td><td>1030.00</td><td>1030</td></tr><tr class="oddrow" id="Sydney-Perth"><td><input name="isDeleting" type="checkbox"></td><td>Sydney</td><td>Perth</td><td>3</td><td>340.00</td><td>1020</td></tr><tr class="totalprice"><td colspan="5">Grand Total Price</td><td id="grandtotal">2050</td></tr></table> The source of table is directly taken from a webpage, exactly as the same. However, Gmail, Hotmail and most of other emails will ignore to render this as a table. So I am wondering, without using Outlook or other email sending agent software, how could I craft a embedded table for the PHP mail() method to send? Current code snippet corresponds to table generation : $purchaseinfo = $_POST["purchaseinfo"]; //if html tags are not to be filtered in the body of email $stringBuilder .= "<table>" .stripslashes($purchaseinfo) ."</table>"; //must send json response back to caller ajax request if(mail($email, 'Your purchase information on www.hardlyworldtravel.com', $emailbody, $headers)) echo json_encode(array("feedback"=>"successful")); else echo json_encode(array("feedback"=>"error")); Any hints and suggestions are welcomed, thanks a lot in advance.

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• Complex SQL query with group by and two rows in one

  - by Ricket

  Okay, I need help. I'm usually pretty good at SQL queries but this one baffles me. By the way, this is not a homework assignment, it's a real situation in an Access database and I've written the requirements below myself. Here is my table layout. It's in Access 2007 if that matters; I'm writing the query using SQL. Id (primary key) PersonID (foreign key) EventDate NumberOfCredits SuperCredits (boolean) There are events that people go to. They can earn normal credits, or super credits, or both at one event. The SuperCredits column is true if the row represents a number of super credits earned at the event, or false if it represents normal credits. So for example, if there is an event which person 174 attends, and they earn 3 normal credits and 1 super credit at the event, the following two rows would be added to the table: ID PersonID EventDate NumberOfCredits SuperCredits 1 174 1/1/2010 3 false 2 174 1/1/2010 1 true It is also possible that the person could have done two separate things at the event, so there might be more than two columns for one event, and it might look like this: ID PersonID EventDate NumberOfCredits SuperCredits 1 174 1/1/2010 1 false 2 174 1/1/2010 2 false 3 174 1/1/2010 1 true Now we want to print out a report. Here will be the columns of the report: PersonID LastEventDate NumberOfNormalCredits NumberOfSuperCredits The report will have one row per person. The row will show the latest event that the person attended, and the normal and super credits that the person earned at that event. What I am asking of you is to write, or help me write, the SQL query to SELECT the data and GROUP BY and SUM() and whatnot. Or, let me know if this is for some reason not possible, and how to organize my data to make it possible. This is extremely confusing and I understand if you do not take the time to puzzle through it. I've tried to simplify it as much as possible, but definitely ask any questions if you give it a shot and need clarification. I'll be trying to figure it out but I'm having a real hard time with it, this is grouping beyond my experience...

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• Flatten date range memberships retaining only the highest priority membership (TRANSACT-SQL)

  - by shadowranger

  Problem statement: A table contains an item_id, a category_id and a date range (begin_date and end_date). No item may be in more than one category on any given date (in general; during daily rebuilding it can be in an invalid state temporarily). By default, all items are added (and re-added if removed) to a category (derived from outside data) automatically on a daily basis, and their membership in that category matches the lifespan of the item (items have their own begin and end date, and usually spend their entire lives in the same category, which is why this matches). For items in category X, it is occasionally desirable to override the default category by adding them to category Y. Membership in category Y could entirely replace membership in category X (that is, the begin and end dates for membership in category Y would match the begin and end dates of the item itself), or it could override it for an arbitrary period of time (at the beginning, middle or end the item's lifespan, possibly overriding for short periods at multiple times). Membership in category Y is not renewed automatically and additions to that category is done by manual data entry. Every day, when category X is rebuilt, we get an overlap, where any item in category Y will now be in category X as well (which is forbidden, as noted previously). Goal: After each repopulation of category X (which is done in a rather complicated and fragile manner, and ideally would be left alone), I'm trying to find an efficient means of writing a stored procedure that: Identifies the overlaps Changes existing entries, adds new ones where necessary (such as in the case where an item starts in category X, switches to category Y, then eventually switches back to category X before ending), or removes entries (when an item is in category Y for its entire life) such that every item remains in category Y (and only Y) where specified, while category X membership is maintained when not overridden by category Y. Does not affect memberships of categories A, B, C, Z, etc., which do not have override categories and are built separately, by completely different rules. Note: It can be assumed that X membership covers the entire lifespan of the item before this procedure is called, so it is unnecessary to query any data outside this table. Bonus credit: If for some reason there are two adjacent or overlapping memberships in for the same item in category Y, stitching them together into a single entry is appreciated, but not necessary. Example: item_id category_id begin_date end_date 1 X 20080101 20090628 1 Y 20090101 20090131 1 Y 20090601 20090628 2 X 20080201 20080731 2 Y 20080201 20080731 Should become: item_id category_id begin_date end_date 1 X 20080101 20081231 1 Y 20090101 20090131 1 X 20090201 20090531 1 Y 20090601 20090628 2 Y 20080201 20080731 If it matters, this needs to work on SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008

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• A two player game over the intranet..

  - by Santwana

  Hi everybody.. I am a student of 3rd year engineering and only a novice in my programming skills. I need some help with my project.. I wish to develop a two player game to be played over the network (Intranet). I want to develop a simple website with a few html pages for this.My ideas for the project run as follows: 1.People can log in from different systems and check who ever is online on the network currently. the page also shows who is playing with whom. 2.If a person is interested in playing with a player who is currently online, he sends a request of which the other player is somehow notified( using a message or an alert on his profile page..) 3.If the player accepts the request, a game is started. This is exactly where I am clueless.. How can I make them play the game? I need to develop a turn based game with two players, eg chessboard.. how can I do this? The game has to be played live.. and it is time tracked. i need your help with coding the above.. the other features i wish to include are: 4.The game could not be abruptly terminated by any one if the users.The request to terminate the game should be sent to the other player first and only if he accepts can the game be terminated. Whoever wins the game would get a plus 10 on their credit and if he terminated he gets a minus 10. The credits remains constant even if he loses but the success percentage is reduced. 6.The player with highest winning percentage is projected as the player of the week on the home page and he can post a challenge to all others.. I only have an intermediate knowledge of core java and know the basics of Swing and Awt. I am not at all familiar with networking in java right now. I have 5 to 6 weeks of time for developing the project but I hope to learn the things before I start my project. i would prefer to use a lan to illustrate the project and I know only java,jsp,oracle,html and bit of xml to develop my proj. Also I wish to know if I can code this within 6 weeks, would it be too difficult or complicated? Please spare some time to tell me. Please.. please.. I need your suggestions and help.. thank you so much..

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• First record does not show in pagination script

  - by whitstone86

  This is my pagination script which extracts info for my TV guide project that I am working on. Currently I've been experimenting with different PHP/MySQL before it becomes a production site. This is my current script: <?php /*********************************** * PhpMyCoder Paginator * * Created By PhpMyCoder * * 2010 PhpMyCoder * * ------------------------------- * * You may use this code as long * * as this notice stays intact and * * the proper credit is given to * * the author. * ***********************************/ // set the default timezone to use. Available since PHP 5.1 putenv("TZ=US/Eastern") ?> <head> <title> Pagination Test - Created By PhpMyCoder</title> <style type="text/css"> #nav { font: normal 13px/14px Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 2px 0; } #nav a { background: #EEE; border: 1px solid #DDD; color: #000080; padding: 1px 7px; text-decoration: none; } #nav strong { background: #000080; border: 1px solid #DDD; color: #FFF; font-weight: normal; padding: 1px 7px; } #nav span { background: #FFF; border: 1px solid #DDD; color: #999; padding: 1px 7px; } </style> </head> <?php //Require the file that contains the required classes include("pmcPagination.php"); //PhpMyCoder Paginator $paginator = new pmcPagination(20, "page"); //Connect to the database mysql_connect("localhost","root","PASSWORD"); //Select DB mysql_select_db("mytvguide"); //Select only results for today and future $result = mysql_query("SELECT programme, channel, airdate, expiration, episode, setreminder FROM lagunabeach where expiration >= now() order by airdate, 3 ASC LIMIT 0, 100;"); //You can also add reuslts to paginate here mysql_data_seek($queryresult,0) ; while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) { $paginator->add(new paginationData($row['programme'], $row['channel'], $row['airdate'], $row['expiration'], $row['episode'], $row['setreminder'])); } ?> <?php //Show the paginated results $paginator->paginate (); ?><? include("pca-footer1.php"); ?> <?php //Show the navigation $paginator->navigation(); ?> Despite me having two records for the programmes airing today, it only shows records from the second one onwards - the programme that airs at 8:35pm UK time GMT does not show, but the later 11:25pm UK time GMT one does show. How should I fix this? Above is my code if that is of any use! Thanks

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• Insert Registration Data in MySQL using PHP

  - by J M 4

  I may not be asking this in the best way possible but i will try my hardest. Thank you ahead of time for your help: I am creating an enrollment website which allows an individual OR manager to enroll for medical testing services for professional athletes. I will NOT be using the site as a query DB which anybody can view information stored within the database. The information is instead simply stored, and passed along in a CSV format to our network provider so they can use as needed after the fact. There are two possible scenarios: Scenario 1 - Individual Enrollment If an individual athlete chooses to enroll him/herself, they enter their personal information, submit their payment information (credit/bank account) for processing, and their information is stored in an online database as Athlete1. Scenario 2 - Manager Enrollment If a manager chooses to enroll several athletes he manages/ promotes for, he enters his personal information, then enters the personal information for each athlete he wishes to pay for (name, address, ssn, dob, etc), then submits payment information for ALL athletes he is enrolling. This number can range from 1 single athlete, up to 20 athletes per single enrollment (he can return and complete a follow up enrollment for additional athletes). Initially, I was building the database to house ALL information regardless of enrollment type in a single table which housed over 400 columns (think 20 athletes with over 10 fields per athlete such as name, dob, ssn, etc). Now that I think about it more, I believe create multiple tables (manager(s), athlete(s)) may be a better idea here but still not quite sure how to go about it for the following very important reasons: Issue 1 If I list the manager as the parent table, I am afraid the individual enrolling athlete will not show up in the primary table and will not be included in the overall registration file which needs to be sent on to the network providers. Issue 2 All athletes being enrolled by a manager are being stored in SESSION as F1FirstName, F2FirstName where F1 and F2 relate to the id of the fighter. I am not sure technically speaking how to store multiple pieces of information within the same table under separate rows using PHP. For example, all athleteswill have a first name. The very basic theory of what i am trying to do is: If number_of_athletes 1, store F1FirstName in row 1, column 1 of Table "Athletes"; store F1LastName in row 1, column 2 of Table "Athletes"; store F2FirstName in row 2, column 1 of Table "Athletes"; store F2LastName in row 2, column 2 of table "Athletes"; Does this make sense? I know this question is very long and probably difficult so i appreciate the guidance.

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• Why jQuery selector can't work but getElementById works in this scenario?

  - by Stallman

  Here is the HTML: <html> <head> <script type="text/javascript" src="jquery-1.7.2.min.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8" src="jquery-1.7.2.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="access.js"></script> </head> <body> <button id="trigger"></button> <img id= "testElement" style= "position: absolute; border-color: white; top:340px; left:615px;" width="34px" height= "34px" /> </body> </html> And the access.js file is: $(document).ready( function(){ $('#trigger').click(function(){ $('#testElement').src="success.png"; //THIS WON'T WORK. document.getElementById('testElement').src= "success.png"; //BUT THIS WORKS. }); }); I know that if I use $, the return object is a jQuery object. It's not the same as getElementById. But why the jQuery selector can't work here? I need the jQuery object to make more operations like "append/style"... Thanks. UPDATE Too much correct answers appear at almost the same time... Please give more explanations to let me decide who I should give the credit, thanks!!! Sorry for my poor understanding of your correct answer... I just want more detail. Are all the attribute nodes(src/width/height...) not the property of jQuery object? So does the jQuery selector only select DOM Element Node like ? Thank you! 3. List item

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• Finding good heuristic for A* search

  - by Martin

  I'm trying to find the optimal solution for a little puzzle game called Twiddle (an applet with the game can be found here). The game has a 3x3 matrix with the number from 1 to 9. The goal is to bring the numbers in the correct order using the minimum amount of moves. In each move you can rotate a 2x2 square either clockwise or counterclockwise. I.e. if you have this state 6 3 9 8 7 5 1 2 4 and you rotate the upper left 2x2 square clockwise you get 8 6 9 7 3 5 1 2 4 I'm using a A* search to find the optimal solution. My f() is simply the number of rotations need. My heuristic function already leads to the optimal solution but I don't think it's the best one you can find. My current heuristic takes each corner, looks at the number at the corner and calculates the manhatten distance to the position this number will have in the solved state (which gives me the number of rotation needed to bring the number to this postion) and sums all these values. I.e. You take the above example: 6 3 9 8 7 5 1 2 4 and this end state 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 then the heuristic does the following 6 is currently at index 0 and should by at index 5: 3 rotations needed 9 is currently at index 2 and should by at index 8: 2 rotations needed 1 is currently at index 6 and should by at index 0: 2 rotations needed 4 is currently at index 8 and should by at index 3: 3 rotations needed h = 3 + 2 + 2 + 3 = 10 But there is the problem, that you rotate 4 elements at once. So there a rare cases where you can do two (ore more) of theses estimated rotations in one move. This means theses heuristic overestimates the distance to the solution. My current workaround is, to simply excluded one of the corners from the calculation which solves this problem at least for my test-cases. I've done no research if really solves the problem or if this heuristic still overestimates in same edge-cases. So my question is: What is the best heuristic you can come up with? (Disclaimer: This is for a university project, so this is a bit of homework. But I'm free to use any resource if can come up with, so it's okay to ask you guys. Also I will credit Stackoverflow for helping me ;) )

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• Need help with tweaking a Dropdown with three options, user selects one - a hidden div appears with correct fields

  - by Jack

  Hello Again, I posted a question on here and got an answer within minutes I'm hoping the wizards on here can help me again. Okay so I'm using a script I found online to try and add this function to a shopping cart form. Here's the setup. I have a payment method dropdown with Visa, Mastercard and Bank Withdrawal as the options. For the credit cards I have one hidden div with a certain set of fields, and for the bank I have another hidden div. Each of the divs have named ID's - #payCredit and #payBank The css for both have margin: 0px and display: none; Here's a peice of javascript I used successfuly on a shipping address checkbox `function toggleLayer( whichLayer ) { var elem, vis; if( document.getElementById ) // this is the way the standards work elem = document.getElementById( whichLayer ); else if( document.all ) // this is the way old msie versions work elem = document.all[whichLayer]; else if( document.layers ) // this is the way nn4 works elem = document.layers[whichLayer]; vis = elem.style; // if the style.display value is blank we try to figure it out here if(vis.display==''&&elem.offsetWidth!=undefined&&elem.offsetHeight!=undefined) vis.display = (elem.offsetWidth!=0&&elem.offsetHeight!=0)?'block':'none'; vis.display = (vis.display==''||vis.display=='block')?'none':'block'; }` I was hoping I could change it slightly to meet my needs. Here's the dropdown <label>Payment Method:</label> <select name="payment" id="payment" class="dropdown3" style="width:8em"> <option selected="selected">Select</option> <option value="Visa" onclick="javascript:toggleLayer('payCredit');">Visa</option> <option value="MasterCard" onclick="javascript:toggleLayer('payCredit');">Mastercard</option> <option value="Direct" onclick="javascript:toggleLayer('payBank');">Direct Withdraw</option> </select></li> The current result is that it kinda works. I can open the dropdown and select Visa and it appears, if I select Visa again it disappears, if I select Visa and then select bank, both appear. You can see what i'm working on here - http://test.sharevetcare.com/bestfriends/cart3.html

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• Week in Geek: LastPass Rescues Xmarks Edition

  - by Asian Angel

  This week we learned how to breathe new life into an aging Windows Mobile 6.x device, use filters in Photoshop, backup and move VirtualBox machines, use the BitDefender Rescue CD to clean an infected PC, and had fun setting up a pirates theme on our computers. Photo by _nash. Weekly Feature Do you love using the Faenza icon set on your Ubuntu system but feel that there are a few much needed icons missing (or you desire a different version of a particular icon)? Then you may want to take a look at the Faenza Variants icon pack. The icons are available in the following sizes: 16px, 22px, 32px, 48px and scalable sizes. Photo by Asian Angel. Faenza Variants Random Geek Links Another week with extra link goodness to help keep you on top of the news. Photo by Asian Angel. LastPass acquires Xmarks, premium service announced Xmarks announced that it has been acquired by LastPass, a cross-platform password management service. This also means that Xmarks is now in transition from a “free” to a “freemium” business model. WikiLeaks reappears on European Net domains WikiLeaks has re-emerged on a Swiss Internet domain followed by domains in Germany, Finland, and the Netherlands, sidestepping a move that had in effect taken the controversial site off the Internet. Iran: Yes, Stuxnet hurt our nuclear program The Stuxnet worm got some big play from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who acknowledged that the malware dinged his nuclear program. More Windows Rogues than Just AV – Fake Defragmenter Check Disk Don’t think for a second that rogues are limited to scareware, because as so-called products such as “System Defragmenter”, “Scan Disk” “Check Disk” prove, they’re not. Internet Explorer’s Protected Mode can be bypassed Researchers from Verizon Business have now described a way of bypassing Protected Mode in IE 7 and 8 in order to gain access to user accounts. Can you really see who viewed your Facebook profile? Rogue application spreads virally Once again, a rogue application is spreading virally between Facebook users pretending to offer you a way of seeing who has viewed your profile. More holes in Palm’s WebOS Researchers Orlando Barrera and Daniel Herrera, who both work for security firm SecTheory, have discovered a gaping security hole in Palm’s WebOS smartphone operating system. Next-gen banking Trojans hit APAC With the proliferation of banking Trojans, Web and smartphone users of online banking services have to be on constant alert to avoid falling prey to fraud schemes, warned Etay Maor, project manager for RSA Fraud Action. AVG update cripples 64-bit computers A signature update automatically deployed by the AVG virus scanner Thursday has crippled numerous computers. Article includes link to forums to fix computers affected after a restart. Congress moves to outlaw ‘mystery charges’ for Web shoppers Legislation that makes it illegal for Web merchants and so-called post-transaction marketers to charge credit cards without the card owners’ say-so came closer to becoming law this week. Ballmer Set to “Look Into” Windows Home Server Drive Extender Fiasco Tuesday’s announcement from Microsoft regarding the removal of Drive Extender from Windows Home Server has sent shock waves across the web. Google tweaks search recipe to ding scam artists Google has changed its search algorithm to penalize sites deemed to provide an “extremely poor user experience” following a New York Times story on a merchant who justified abusive behavior towards customers as a search-engine optimization tactic. Geek Video of the Week Watch as our two friends debate back and forth about the early adoption of new technology through multiple time periods (Stone Age to the far future). Will our reluctant friend finally succumb to the temptation? Photo by CollegeHumor. Early Adopters Through History Random TinyHacker Links Fix Issues in Windows 7 Using Reliability Monitor Learn how to analyze Windows 7 errors and then fix them using the built-in reliability monitor. Learn About IE Tab Groups Tab groups is a useful feature in IE 8. Here’s a detailed guide to what it is all about. Google’s Book Helps You Learn About Browsers and Web A cool new online book by the Google Chrome team on browsers and the web. TrustPort Internet Security 2011 – Good Security from a Less Known Provider TrustPort is not exactly a well-known provider of security solutions. At least not in the consumer space. This review tests in detail their latest offering. How the World is Using Cell phones An infographic showing the shocking demographics of cell phone use. Super User Questions See the great answers to these questions from Super User. I am unable to access my C drive. It says it is unable to display current owner. List of Windows special directories/shortcuts like ‘%TEMP%’ Is using multiple passes for wiping a disk really necessary? How can I view two files side by side in Notepad++ Is there any tool that automatically puts screenshots to my Dropbox? How-To Geek Weekly Article Recap Look through our hottest articles from this past week at How-To Geek. How to Create a Software RAID Array in Windows 7 9 Alternatives for Windows Home Server’s Drive Extender Why Doesn’t Disk Cleanup Delete Everything from the Temp Folder? Ask the Readers: How Much Do You Customize Your Operating System? How to Upload Really Large Files to SkyDrive, Dropbox, or Email One Year Ago on How-To Geek Enjoy reading through these awesome articles from one year ago. How To Upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 Home Premium Edition How To Fix No Aero Transparency in Windows 7 Troubleshoot Startup Problems with Startup Repair Tool in Windows 7 & Vista Rename the Guest Account in Windows 7 for Enhanced Security Disable Error Reporting in XP, Vista, and Windows 7 The Geek Note That wraps things up here for this week. Regardless of the weather wherever you may be, we hope that you have an opportunity to get outside and have some fun! Remember to keep sending those great tips in to us at [email protected]. Photo by Tony the Misfit. Latest Features How-To Geek ETC The How-To Geek Guide to Learning Photoshop, Part 8: Filters Get the Complete Android Guide eBook for Only 99 Cents [Update: Expired] Improve Digital Photography by Calibrating Your Monitor The How-To Geek Guide to Learning Photoshop, Part 7: Design and Typography How to Choose What to Back Up on Your Linux Home Server How To Harmonize Your Dual-Boot Setup for Windows and Ubuntu Hang in There Scrat! – Ice Age Wallpaper How Do You Know When You’ve Passed Geek and Headed to Nerd? On The Tip – A Lamborghini Theme for Chrome and Iron What if Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner were Human? [Video] Peaceful Winter Cabin Wallpaper Store Tabs for Later Viewing in Opera with Tab Vault

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• Hey, Google: It’s Time to Add Multi-Window Multitasking To Android

  - by Chris Hoffman

  In 2012, Google’s Dianne Hackborn threatened to revoke CyanogenMod’s access to the Android Market if they moved forward with adding “Cornerstone” multitasking to their custom ROM. Samsung has since created their own multi-window multitasking feature. Dianne Hackborn said this “is something that needs to be done at the mainline platform level” so apps wouldn’t break. She was right — Android needs this as a standard feature and it’s time for Google to provide it. Doesn’t Android Have Multitasking? Android originally stood out from Apple’s iOS with its powerful multitasking. Applications can continue running in the background while you’re using another application. This makes Android powerful — you can even have BitTorrent clients downloading files in the background while using another app. Android still kept the design of a single app on screen at a time. This made a lot of sense when Android only ran on smartphones with small screens. Today, Android runs on everything from smaller smartphones all the way up to huge “phablets” like the Galaxy Note. Android has gone beyond phones and runs on 12-inch tablets, convertibles with keyboard docks, laptops, and even Android desktops. Android isn’t just a phone operating system. Samsung’s Multi-Window Isn’t Good Enough Samsung has tried to add value to Android by adding a multi-window feature. When you’re using a high-end phone like the Galaxy Note or Galaxy S, or a Galaxy tablet, you have the ability to run certain apps side-by-side with each other. There are big problems here. This only works on Samsung devices, and only on specific Samsung devices. To add support for this feature in a way that doesn’t break other apps, Samsung’s multi-window feature also only works with specific apps. You can’t just run any app in multi-window view, only the apps on the Multi Window bar Samsung provides. This prevents third-party apps from breaking, which is what Google was worried about with CyanogenMod’s Cornerstone feature. A feature that only works with a handful of apps on specific devices from a single manufacturer isn’t good enough. This feature needs to work on every Android device — or at least ones with suitably large screens and powerful enough internals. It needs to be an Android platform feature so application developers can ensure their apps will work properly with it on every device. Android developers shouldn’t have to add support for each manufacturer’s own multi-window feature if other manufacturers decide to copy Samsung. Floating Apps Are a Dirty Hack Floating apps also enable real multitasking. Remember that Android allows apps to run in the background while you’re using an app in the foreground. These apps can present interfaces that appear floating above the current app — think of it like using “always on top” to make a window always appear over every other app on a desktop operating system. You can install floating apps to browse the web, take notes, chat, and watch videos while using any app. Only apps specifically designed to run as floating apps will work, so you have to seek them out. Floating apps are also awkward to use because they float over the app you’re using, blocking parts of its interface. Microsoft added floating-window support to Skype for Android. You can have a video conversation and the other person’s face will always appear on your screen, even when you leave the Skype app. Microsoft is using more of Android’s multi-window multitasking power than Google is. Custom ROMs and Root-Only Tweaks Aren’t Acceptable Some custom ROMs are adding this feature to Android. Google threatened to revoke CyanogenMod’s access to the Android Market (now known as Google Play) if they added this feature because it could potentially break third-party apps. Today, other custom ROMs are working on split-screen multitasking. Samsung added their own version to their own devices. You can also get this feature by using a root-only Xposed Framework tweak known as XMultiWindow. If you have root access, you can get multi-window multitasking or any app on your device. This shouldn’t require rooting your device or installing a custom ROM. These third-party solutions often have awkward interfaces and bugs. We need an integrated, supported solution that works the same on every device. Why Multi-Window is Important Microsoft’s Windows 8.1 stands out among tablet operating systems for its powerful multitasking support, allowing you to view several apps side-by-side at the same time. Apple is also reported to be working on adding side-by-side apps to the iPad with iOS 8. On every competitor’s operating system, you’ll be able to view a web page while you write an email, watch a video while you browse the web, or chat with someone while you do anything else. But Android’s still remained frozen in time. Despite all Android’s underlying power — and despite the way Android allows apps to adapt to different screen sizes — Google is resisting adding this feature. Large-screen Android tablets like the Nexus 10 (remember that tablet Google hasn’t updated in over 18 months?) need this feature. So do huge phones, convertibles, laptops, and Android desktops. If tablets are the future of personal computing, we should be able to do more than one thing at a time on our tablets’ big screens. Microsoft, Samsung, and even Apple are realizing this — now it’s Google’s turn. Image Credit: Sergey Galyonkin on Flickr, Karlis Dambrans on Flickr

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• Refreshing Your PC Won’t Help: Why Bloatware is Still a Problem on Windows 8

  - by Chris Hoffman

  Bloatware is still a big problem on new Windows 8 and 8.1 PCs. Some websites will tell you that you can easily get rid of manufacturer-installed bloatware with Windows 8′s Reset feature, but they’re generally wrong. This junk software often turns the process of powering on your new PC from what could be a delightful experience into a tedious slog, forcing you to spend hours cleaning up your new PC before you can enjoy it. Why Refreshing Your PC (Probably) Won’t Help Manufacturers install software along with Windows on their new PCs. In addition to hardware drivers that allow the PC’s hardware to work properly, they install more questionable things like trial antivirus software and other nagware. Much of this software runs at boot, cluttering the system tray and slowing down boot times, often dramatically. Software companies pay computer manufacturers to include this stuff. It’s installed to make the PC manufacturer money at the cost of making the Windows computer worse for actual users. Windows 8 includes “Refresh Your PC” and “Reset Your PC” features that allow Windows users to quickly get their computers back to a fresh state. It’s essentially a quick, streamlined way of reinstalling Windows.  If you install Windows 8 or 8.1 yourself, the Refresh operation will give your PC a clean Windows system without any additional third-party software. However, Microsoft allows computer manufacturers to customize their Refresh images. In other words, most computer manufacturers will build their drivers, bloatware, and other system customizations into the Refresh image. When you Refresh your computer, you’ll just get back to the factory-provided system complete with bloatware. It’s possible that some computer manufacturers aren’t building bloatware into their refresh images in this way. It’s also possible that, when Windows 8 came out, some computer manufacturer didn’t realize they could do this and that refreshing a new PC would strip the bloatware. However, on most Windows 8 and 8.1 PCs, you’ll probably see bloatware come back when you refresh your PC. It’s easy to understand how PC manufacturers do this. You can create your own Refresh images on Windows 8 and 8.1 with just a simple command, replacing Microsoft’s image with a customized one. Manufacturers can install their own refresh images in the same way. Microsoft doesn’t lock down the Refresh feature. Desktop Bloatware is Still Around, Even on Tablets! Not only is typical Windows desktop bloatware not gone, it has tagged along with Windows as it moves to new form factors. Every Windows tablet currently on the market — aside from Microsoft’s own Surface and Surface 2 tablets — runs on a standard Intel x86 chip. This means that every Windows 8 and 8.1 tablet you see in stores has a full desktop with the capability to run desktop software. Even if that tablet doesn’t come with a keyboard, it’s likely that the manufacturer has preinstalled bloatware on the tablet’s desktop. Yes, that means that your Windows tablet will be slower to boot and have less memory because junk and nagging software will be on its desktop and in its system tray. Microsoft considers tablets to be PCs, and PC manufacturers love installing their bloatware. If you pick up a Windows tablet, don’t be surprised if you have to deal with desktop bloatware on it. Microsoft Surfaces and Signature PCs Microsoft is now selling their own Surface PCs that they built themselves — they’re now a “devices and services” company after all, not a software company. One of the nice things about Microsoft’s Surface PCs is that they’re free of the typical bloatware. Microsoft won’t take money from Norton to include nagging software that worsens the experience. If you pick up a Surface device that provides Windows 8.1 and 8 as Microsoft intended it — or install a fresh Windows 8.1 or 8 system — you won’t see any bloatware. Microsoft is also continuing their Signature program. New PCs purchased from Microsoft’s official stores are considered “Signature PCs” and don’t have the typical bloatware. For example, the same laptop could be full of bloatware in a traditional computer store and clean, without the nasty bloatware when purchased from a Microsoft Store. Microsoft will also continue to charge you $99 if you want them to remove your computer’s bloatware for you — that’s the more questionable part of the Signature program. Windows 8 App Bloatware is an Improvement There’s a new type of bloatware on new Windows 8 systems, which is thankfully less harmful. This is bloatware in the form of included “Windows 8-style”, “Store-style”, or “Modern” apps in the new, tiled interface. For example, Amazon may pay a computer manufacturer to include the Amazon Kindle app from the Windows Store. (The manufacturer may also just receive a cut of book sales for including it. We’re not sure how the revenue sharing works — but it’s clear PC manufacturers are getting money from Amazon.) The manufacturer will then install the Amazon Kindle app from the Windows Store by default. This included software is technically some amount of clutter, but it doesn’t cause the problems older types of bloatware does. It won’t automatically load and delay your computer’s startup process, clutter your system tray, or take up memory while you’re using your computer. For this reason, a shift to including new-style apps as bloatware is a definite improvement over older styles of bloatware. Unfortunately, this type of bloatware has not replaced traditional desktop bloatware, and new Windows PCs will generally have both. Windows RT is Immune to Typical Bloatware, But… Microsoft’s Windows RT can’t run Microsoft desktop software, so it’s immune to traditional bloatware. Just as you can’t install your own desktop programs on it, the Windows RT device’s manufacturer can’t install their own desktop bloatware. While Windows RT could be an antidote to bloatware, this advantage comes at the cost of being able to install any type of desktop software at all. Windows RT has also seemingly failed — while a variety of manufacturers came out with their own Windows RT devices when Windows 8 was first released, they’ve all since been withdrawn from the market. Manufacturers who created Windows RT devices have criticized it in the media and stated they have no plans to produce any future Windows RT devices. The only Windows RT devices still on the market are Microsoft’s Surface (originally named Surface RT) and Surface 2. Nokia is also coming out with their own Windows RT tablet, but they’re in the process of being purchased by Microsoft. In other words, Windows RT just isn’t a factor when it comes to bloatware — you wouldn’t get a Windows RT device unless you purchased a Surface, but those wouldn’t come with bloatware anyway. Removing Bloatware or Reinstalling Windows 8.1 While bloatware is still a problem on new Windows systems and the Refresh option probably won’t help you, you can still eliminate bloatware in the traditional way. Bloatware can be uninstalled from the Windows Control Panel or with a dedicated removal tool like PC Decrapifier, which tries to automatically uninstall the junk for you. You can also do what Windows geeks have always tended to do with new computers — reinstall Windows 8 or 8.1 from scratch with installation media from Microsoft. You’ll get a clean Windows system and you can install only the hardware drivers and other software you need. Unfortunately, bloatware is still a big problem for Windows PCs. Windows 8 tries to do some things to address bloatware, but it ultimately comes up short. Most Windows PCs sold in most stores to most people will still have the typical bloatware slowing down the boot process, wasting memory, and adding clutter. Image Credit: LG on Flickr, Intel Free Press on Flickr, Wilson Hui on Flickr, Intel Free Press on Flickr, Vernon Chan on Flickr     

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• Making Money from your SQL Server Blog

  - by Bill Graziano

  My SQL Server blog reading list is around one hundred blogs.  Many people are writing great content and generating lots of page views.  I see some of them running Google AdSense and trying to make a little money off their traffic.  If you want to earn some some extra money from what you’ve written there are a couple of options.  And one new option that I’m announcing here. Background Internet advertising is sold based on a few different pricing schemes.  Flat Fee.  You offer either all your impressions (page views) or some percentage of your impressions in exchange for a flat monthly fee.  CPM or cost per thousand impressions.  If the quoted price is $2 CPM you’ll get $2 for every 1,000 times the ad is displayed.  While you might think the “M” means millions, the “M” in CPM is the roman numeral for 1,000. CPC or cost per click.  This is also called PPC or pay per click.  In this method you get paid based on how many clicks there are on the ad.  CPA or cost per action.  In this method you get paid based on an action that occurs on the advertisers site after they click on the ad.  This is typically some type of sign up form.  This is how most affiliate programs work. Darren Rowse at ProBlogger has been writing about blogging and making money off blogs for years.  He has a good introduction to making money on your blog in his “Making Money” section.  If you’re interested in learning more he has a post up titled How to Make More Money From Your Blog in the New Year that links to many of his best posts on the subject. Google AdSense This is the most common method for people earning money from their blogging.  It’s easy to setup and administer.  You tell AdSense what size ads you’d like to run and it gives you a little piece of JavaScript to put on your site.  AdSense quickly learns the topics you write about and displays ads that are appropriate for your site.  I typically see ads for hosting, SQL Server tools and developer tools running in AdSense slots.  AdSense pays on a CPC model.  If you translate that back to CPM pricing you’ll see rates from $0.50 to $1.00 CPM. Amazon While you might not make much money writing books it’s now possible to make even less helping Amazon sell them.  You can sign up for an Amazon affiliate program.  Each time you send Amazon a link and someone buys the book you get a cut of that sale.  This is the CPA model from above.  Amazon can help you build some pretty nice “stores”.  Here’s the SQL Server bookstore I built for SQLTeam.com.  If you’re just putting in a page with books like I’ve done on SQLTeam you should keep your expectations low.  If you’re writing book reviews of suggesting books on your blog it really does make sense to setup an Amazon affiliate link.  People are much more likely to buy a book based on a review from a trusted source.  I always try to buy through a referral link if there is one. Amazon pays about 4% of the price as a referral fee.  You also get credit for anything else they buy while on the site.  I recently had someone buy an iPod nano with their SQL Server book making me an extra $5.60 richer!  Estimating how much you can make is difficult though.  How much attention you draw to the links and book reviews can dramatically affect the earnings. Private Ad Sales This is the hardest but potentially most lucrative option.  You sell advertising directly to companies that want to sell things to your readers.  Typically this would be SQL Server tool vendors, hosting companies or anyone else that wants to make money off database administrators.  This is also the most difficult to do.  You’ll need the contacts at the companies and enough page views to make it worth their while.  You’ll also need software to track the page views and clicks, geo-target your ads and smooth out the impressions.  Your earnings are based on whatever you can negotiate with the companies. SQL Server Ad Network For the last couple of years I’ve run any extra ads that I sold on the SQLTeam Weblogs.  You can see an example of that on Mladen’s blog.  The ad in the upper right corner is one that I’m running for him.  (Note: Many of the ads I’m running are geo-targeted to only appear in English speaking countries.  You may see a different set of ads outside the US, Canada and the UK.  You can also see he has a couple of Google ads on his blog.)  When I run ads on his blog I split the advertising revenue with him.  They make a little and I make a little. I recently started to expand this and sell advertising specifically to run on SQL Server-related blogs.  I’m also starting to run ads on non-SQLTeam blogs.  The only way I can sell more advertising is to have more blogs to run it on.  And that’s where you come in. I’ve created a SQL Server advertising network.  I handle all the ad sales and provide the technology to serve the ads.  I handle collections and payments back to you.  You get paid at the end of each month regardless of when (or if) the advertiser actually pays.  All you need to do is add a small piece of JavaScript to your site to display the ads. If you’re writing about SQL Server and interested in earning a little money for your site I’d like to talk to you.  You can use the Contact Us page on SQLTeam.com to reach me.  Running advertising on your blog isn’t for everyone.  If you’re concerned about what advertisers might think about certain posts then you might not be a good fit.  For the most part this isn’t an issue.  You’ll also need to have a PayPal account to receive payments.  You probably won’t get rich doing this.  But you can earn extra cash on the side for doing what you would do anyway.  I do know that people have earned enough to buy themselves a nice laptop doing this. My initial target is blogs with more than 10,000 page views per month.  I expect to pay two to three times what Google pays.  If you have less than 10,000 page views per month but are still interested I’d still like to hear from you.  I may not be able to sign up smaller blogs right away but we’ll get the process started.  If you’re unsure about your traffic Google Analytics is a free tool that provides great reporting on traffic, popular posts and how people find your blog.  If you have any questions or are just curious drop me a line and I’ll try to answer your questions.

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• Big Data – Is Big Data Relevant to me? – Big Data Questionnaires – Guest Post by Vinod Kumar

  - by Pinal Dave

  This guest post is by Vinod Kumar. Vinod Kumar has worked with SQL Server extensively since joining the industry over a decade ago. Working on various versions of SQL Server 7.0, Oracle 7.3 and other database technologies – he now works with the Microsoft Technology Center (MTC) as a Technology Architect. Let us read the blog post in Vinod’s own voice. I think the series from Pinal is a good one for anyone planning to start on Big Data journey from the basics. In my daily customer interactions this buzz of “Big Data” always comes up, I react generally saying – “Sir, do you really have a ‘Big Data’ problem or do you have a big Data problem?” Generally, there is a silence in the air when I ask this question. Data is everywhere in organizations – be it big data, small data, all data and for few it is bad data which is same as no data :). Wow, don’t discount me as someone who opposes “Big Data”, I am a big supporter as much as I am a critic of the abuse of this term by the people. In this post, I wanted to let my mind flow so that you can also think in the direction I want you to see these concepts. In any case, this is not an exhaustive dump of what is in my mind – but you will surely get the drift how I am going to question Big Data terms from customers!!! Is Big Data Relevant to me? Many of my customers talk to me like blank whiteboard with no idea – “why Big Data”. They want to jump into the bandwagon of technology and they want to decipher insights from their unexplored data a.k.a. unstructured data with structured data. So what are these industry scenario’s that come to mind? Here are some of them: Financials Fraud detection: Banks and Credit cards are monitoring your spending habits on real-time basis. Customer Segmentation: applies in every industry from Banking to Retail to Aviation to Utility and others where they deal with end customer who consume their products and services. Customer Sentiment Analysis: Responding to negative brand perception on social or amplify the positive perception. Sales and Marketing Campaign: Understand the impact and get closer to customer delight. Call Center Analysis: attempt to take unstructured voice recordings and analyze them for content and sentiment. Medical Reduce Re-admissions: How to build a proactive follow-up engagements with patients. Patient Monitoring: How to track Inpatient, Out-Patient, Emergency Visits, Intensive Care Units etc. Preventive Care: Disease identification and Risk stratification is a very crucial business function for medical. Claims fraud detection: There is no precise dollars that one can put here, but this is a big thing for the medical field. Retail Customer Sentiment Analysis, Customer Care Centers, Campaign Management. Supply Chain Analysis: Every sensors and RFID data can be tracked for warehouse space optimization. Location based marketing: Based on where a check-in happens retail stores can be optimize their marketing. Telecom Price optimization and Plans, Finding Customer churn, Customer loyalty programs Call Detail Record (CDR) Analysis, Network optimizations, User Location analysis Customer Behavior Analysis Insurance Fraud Detection & Analysis, Pricing based on customer Sentiment Analysis, Loyalty Management Agents Analysis, Customer Value Management This list can go on to other areas like Utility, Manufacturing, Travel, ITES etc. So as you can see, there are obviously interesting use cases for each of these industry verticals. These are just representative list. Where to start? A lot of times I try to quiz customers on a number of dimensions before starting a Big Data conversation. Are you getting the data you need the way you want it and in a timely manner? Can you get in and analyze the data you need? How quickly is IT to respond to your BI Requests? How easily can you get at the data that you need to run your business/department/project? How are you currently measuring your business? Can you get the data you need to react WITHIN THE QUARTER to impact behaviors to meet your numbers or is it always “rear-view mirror?” How are you measuring: The Brand Customer Sentiment Your Competition Your Pricing Your performance Supply Chain Efficiencies Predictive product / service positioning What are your key challenges of driving collaboration across your global business?  What the challenges in innovation? What challenges are you facing in getting more information out of your data? Note: Garbage-in is Garbage-out. Hold good for all reporting / analytics requirements Big Data POCs? A number of customers get into the realm of setting a small team to work on Big Data – well it is a great start from an understanding point of view, but I tend to ask a number of other questions to such customers. Some of these common questions are: To what degree is your advanced analytics (natural language processing, sentiment analysis, predictive analytics and classification) paired with your Big Data’s efforts? Do you have dedicated resources exploring the possibilities of advanced analytics in Big Data for your business line? Do you plan to employ machine learning technology while doing Advanced Analytics? How is Social Media being monitored in your organization? What is your ability to scale in terms of storage and processing power? Do you have a system in place to sort incoming data in near real time by potential value, data quality, and use frequency? Do you use event-driven architecture to manage incoming data? Do you have specialized data services that can accommodate different formats, security, and the management requirements of multiple data sources? Is your organization currently using or considering in-memory analytics? To what degree are you able to correlate data from your Big Data infrastructure with that from your enterprise data warehouse? Have you extended the role of Data Stewards to include ownership of big data components? Do you prioritize data quality based on the source system (that is Facebook/Twitter data has lower quality thresholds than radio frequency identification (RFID) for a tracking system)? Do your retention policies consider the different legal responsibilities for storing Big Data for a specific amount of time? Do Data Scientists work in close collaboration with Data Stewards to ensure data quality? How is access to attributes of Big Data being given out in the organization? Are roles related to Big Data (Advanced Analyst, Data Scientist) clearly defined? How involved is risk management in the Big Data governance process? Is there a set of documented policies regarding Big Data governance? Is there an enforcement mechanism or approach to ensure that policies are followed? Who is the key sponsor for your Big Data governance program? (The CIO is best) Do you have defined policies surrounding the use of social media data for potential employees and customers, as well as the use of customer Geo-location data? How accessible are complex analytic routines to your user base? What is the level of involvement with outside vendors and third parties in regard to the planning and execution of Big Data projects? What programming technologies are utilized by your data warehouse/BI staff when working with Big Data? These are some of the important questions I ask each customer who is actively evaluating Big Data trends for their organizations. These questions give you a sense of direction where to start, what to use, how to secure, how to analyze and more. Sign off Any Big data is analysis is incomplete without a compelling story. The best way to understand this is to watch Hans Rosling – Gapminder (2:17 to 6:06) videos about the third world myths. Don’t get overwhelmed with the Big Data buzz word, the destination to what your data speaks is important. In this blog post, we did not particularly look at any Big Data technologies. This is a set of questionnaire one needs to keep in mind as they embark their journey of Big Data. I did write some of the basics in my blog: Big Data – Big Hype yet Big Opportunity. Do let me know if these questions make sense?  Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)Filed under: Big Data, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL

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• Wireless AAA for a small, bandwidth-limited hotel.

  - by Anthony Hiscox

  We (the tech I work with and myself) live in a remote northern town where Internet access is somewhat of a luxury, and bandwidth is quite limited. Here, overage charges ranging from few hundreds, to few thousands of dollars a month, is not uncommon. I myself incur regular monthly charges just through my regular Internet usage at home (I am allowed 10G for $60CAD!) As part of my work, I have found myself involved with several hotels that are feeling this. I know that I can come up with something to solve this problem, but I am relatively new to system administration and I don't want my dreams to overcome reality. So, I pass these ideas on to you, those with much more experience than I, in hopes you will share some of your thoughts and concerns. This system must be cost effective, yes the charges are high here, but the trust in technology is the lowest I've ever seen. Must be capable of helping client reduce their usage (squid) Allow a limited (throughput and total usage) amount of free Internet, as this is often franchise policy. Allow a user to track their bandwidth usage Allow (optional) higher speed and/or usage for an additional charge. This fee can be obtained at the front desk on checkout and should not require the use of PayPal or Credit Card. Unfortunately some franchises have ridiculous policies that require the use of a third party remote service to authenticate guests to your network. This means WPA is out, and it also means that I do not auth before Internet usage, that will be their job. However, I do require the ABILITY to perform authentication for Internet access if a hotel does not have this policy. I will still have to track bandwidth (under a guest account by default) and provide the same limiting, however the guest often will require a complete 'unlimited' access, in terms of existence, not throughput. Provide firewalling capabilities for hotels that have nothing, Office, and Guest network segregation (some of these guys are running their office on the guest network, with no encryption, and a simple TOS to get on!) Prevent guests from connecting to other guests, however provide a means to allow this to happen. IE. Each guest connects to a page and allows the other guest, this writes a iptables rule (with python-netfilter) and allows two rooms to play a game, for instance. My thoughts on how to implement this. One decent box (we'll call it a router now) with a lot of ram, and 3 NIC's: Internet Office Guests (AP's + In Room Ethernet) Router Firewall Rules Guest can talk to router only, through which they are routed to where they need to go, including Internet services. Office can be used to bridge Office to Internet if an existing solution is not in place, otherwise, it simply works for a network accessible web (webmin+python-webmin?) interface. Router Software: OpenVZ provides virtualization for a few services I don't really trust. Squid, FreeRADIUS and Apache. The only service directly accessible to guests is Apache. Apache has mod_wsgi and django, because I can write quickly using django and my needs are low. It also potentially has the FreeRADIUS mod, but there seems to be some caveats with this. Firewall rules are handled on the router with iptables. Webmin (or a custom django app maybe) provides abstracted control over any features that the staff may need to access. Python, if you haven't guessed it's the language I feel most comfortable in, and I use it for almost everything. And finally, has this been done, is it a overly massive project not worth taking on for one guy, and/or is there some tools I'm missing that could be making my life easier? For the record, I am fairly good with Python, but not very familiar with many other languages (I can struggle through PHP, it's a cosmetic issue there). I am also an avid linux user, and comfortable with config files and command line. Thank you for your time, I look forward to reading your responses. Edit: My apologies if this is not a Q&A in the sense that some were expecting, I'm just looking for ideas and to make sure I'm not trying to do something that's been done. I'm looking at pfSense now as a possible start for what I need.

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• What to Do When Windows Won’t Boot

  - by Chris Hoffman

  You turn on your computer one day and Windows refuses to boot — what do you do? “Windows won’t boot” is a common symptom with a variety of causes, so you’ll need to perform some troubleshooting. Modern versions of Windows are better at recovering from this sort of thing. Where Windows XP might have stopped in its tracks when faced with this problem, modern versions of Windows will try to automatically run Startup Repair. First Things First Be sure to think about changes you’ve made recently — did you recently install a new hardware driver, connect a new hardware component to your computer, or open your computer’s case and do something? It’s possible the hardware driver is buggy, the new hardware is incompatible, or that you accidentally unplugged something while working inside your computer. The Computer Won’t Power On At All If your computer won’t power on at all, ensure it’s plugged into a power outlet and that the power connector isn’t loose. If it’s a desktop PC, ensure the power switch on the back of its case — on the power supply — is set to the On position. If it still won’t power on at all, it’s possible you disconnected a power cable inside its case. If you haven’t been messing around inside the case, it’s possible the power supply is dead. In this case, you’ll have to get your computer’s hardware fixed or get a new computer. Be sure to check your computer monitor — if your computer seems to power on but your screen stays black, ensure your monitor is powered on and that the cable connecting it to your computer’s case is plugged in securely at both ends. The Computer Powers On And Says No Bootable Device If your computer is powering on but you get a black screen that says something like “no bootable device” or another sort of “disk error” message, your computer can’t seem to boot from the hard drive that Windows was installed on. Enter your computer’s BIOS or UEFI firmware setup screen and check its boot order setting, ensuring that it’s set to boot from its hard drive. If the hard drive doesn’t appear in the list at all, it’s possible your hard drive has failed and can no longer be booted from. In this case, you may want to insert Windows installation or recovery media and run the Startup Repair operation. This will attempt to make Windows bootable again. For example, if something overwrote your Windows drive’s boot sector, this will repair the boot sector. If the recovery environment won’t load or doesn’t see your hard drive, you likely have a hardware problem. Be sure to check your BIOS or UEFI’s boot order first if the recovery environment won’t load. You can also attempt to manually fix Windows boot loader problems using the fixmbr and fixboot commands. Modern versions of Windows should be able to fix this problem for you with the Startup Repair wizard, so you shouldn’t actually have to run these commands yourself. Windows Freezes or Crashes During Boot If Windows seems to start booting but fails partway through, you may be facing either a software or hardware problem. If it’s a software problem, you may be able to fix it by performing a Startup Repair operation. If you can’t do this from the boot menu, insert a Windows installation disc or recovery disk and use the startup repair tool from there. If this doesn’t help at all, you may want to reinstall Windows or perform a Refresh or Reset on Windows 8. If the computer encounters errors while attempting to perform startup repair or reinstall Windows, or the reinstall process works properly and you encounter the same errors afterwards, you likely have a hardware problem. Windows Starts and Blue Screens or Freezes If Windows crashes or blue-screens on you every time it boots, you may be facing a hardware or software problem. For example, malware or a buggy driver may be loading at boot and causing the crash, or your computer’s hardware may be malfunctioning. To test this, boot your Windows computer in safe mode. In safe mode, Windows won’t load typical hardware drivers or any software that starts automatically at startup. If the computer is stable in safe mode, try uninstalling any recently installed hardware drivers, performing a system restore, and scanning for malware. If you’re lucky, one of these steps may fix your software problem and allow you to boot Windows normally. If your problem isn’t fixed, try reinstalling Windows or performing a Refresh or Reset on Windows 8. This will reset your computer back to its clean, factory-default state. If you’re still experiencing crashes, your computer likely has a hardware problem. Recover Files When Windows Won’t Boot If you have important files that will be lost and want to back them up before reinstalling Windows, you can use a Windows installer disc or Linux live media to recover the files. These run entirely from a CD, DVD, or USB drive and allow you to copy your files to another external media, such as another USB stick or an external hard drive. If you’re incapable of booting a Windows installer disc or Linux live CD, you may need to go into your BIOS or UEFI and change the boot order setting. If even this doesn’t work — or if you can boot from the devices and your computer freezes or you can’t access your hard drive — you likely have a hardware problem. You can try pulling the computer’s hard drive, inserting it into another computer, and recovering your files that way. Following these steps should fix the vast majority of Windows boot issues — at least the ones that are actually fixable. The dark cloud that always hangs over such issues is the possibility that the hard drive or another component in the computer may be failing. Image Credit: Karl-Ludwig G. Poggemann on Flickr, Tzuhsun Hsu on Flickr     

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• Using SQL Source Control with Fortress or Vault &ndash; Part 2

  - by AjarnMark

  In Part 1, I started talking about using Red-Gate’s newest version of SQL Source Control and how I really like it as a viable method to source control your database development.  It looks like this is going to turn into a little series where I will explain how we have done things in the past, and how life is different with SQL Source Control.  I will also explain some of my philosophy and methodology around deployment with these tools.  But for now, let’s talk about some of the good and the bad of the tool itself. More Kudos and Features I mentioned previously how impressed I was with the responsiveness of Red-Gate’s team.  I have been having an ongoing email conversation with Gyorgy Pocsi, and as I have run into problems or requested things behave a little differently, it has not been more than a day or two before a new Build is ready for me to download and test.  Quite impressive! I’m sure much of the requests I put in were already in the plans, so I can’t really take credit for them, but throughout this conversation, Red-Gate has implemented several features that were not in the first Early Access version.  Those include: Honoring the Fortress configuration option to require Work Item (Bug) IDs on check-ins. Adding the check-in comment text as a comment to the Work Item. Adding the list of checked-in files, along with the Fortress links for automatic History and DIFF view Updating the status of a Work Item on check-in (e.g. setting the item to Complete or, in our case “Dev-Complete”) Support for the Fortress 2.0 API, and not just the Vault Pro 5.1 API.  (See later notes regarding support for Fortress 2.0). These were all features that I felt we really needed to have in-place before I could honestly consider converting my team to using SQL Source Control on a regular basis.  Now that I have those, my only excuse is not wanting to switch boats on the team mid-stream.  So when we wrap up our current release in a few weeks, we will make the jump.  In the meantime, I will continue to bang on it to make sure it is stable.  It passed one test for stability when I did a test load of one of our larger database schemas into Fortress with SQL Source Control.  That database has about 150 tables, 200 User-Defined Functions and nearly 900 Stored Procedures.  The initial load to source control went smoothly and took just a brief amount of time. Warnings Remember that this IS still in pre-release stage and while I have not had any problems after that first hiccup I wrote about last time, you still need to treat it with a healthy respect.  As I understand it, the RTM is targeted for February.  There are a couple more features that I hope make it into the final release version, but if not, they’ll probably be coming soon thereafter.  Those are: A Browse feature to let me lookup the Work Item ID instead of having to remember it or look back in my Item details.  This is just a matter of convenience. I normally have my Work Item list open anyway, so I can easily look it up, but hey, why not make it even easier. A multi-line comment area.  The current space for writing check-in comments is a single-line text box.  I would like to have a multi-line space as I sometimes write lengthy commentary.  But I recognize that it is a struggle to get most developers to put in more than the word “fixed” as their comment, so this meets the need of the majority as-is, and it’s not a show-stopper for us. Merge.  SQL Source Control currently does not have a Merge feature.  If two or more people make changes to the same database object, you will get a warning of the conflict and have to choose which one wins (and then manually edit to include the others’ changes).  I think it unlikely you will run into actual conflicts in Stored Procedures and Functions, but you might with Views or Tables.  This will be nice to have, but I’m not losing any sleep over it.  And I have multiple tools at my disposal to do merges manually, so really not a show-stopper for us. Automation has its limits.  As cool as this automation is, it has its limits and there are some changes that you will be better off scripting yourself.  For example, if you are refactoring table definitions, and want to change a column name, you can write that as a quick sp_rename command and preserve the data within that column.  But because this tool is looking just at a before and after picture, it cannot tell that you just renamed a column.  To the tool, it looks like you dropped one column and added another.  This is not a knock against Red-Gate.  All automated scripting tools have this issue, unless the are actively monitoring your every step to know exactly what you are doing.  This means that when you go to Deploy your changes, SQL Compare will script the change as a column drop and add, or will attempt to rebuild the entire table.  Unfortunately, neither of these approaches will preserve the existing data in that column the way an sp_rename will, and so you are better off scripting that change yourself.  Thankfully, SQL Compare will produce warnings about the potential loss of data before it does the actual synchronization and give you a chance to intercept the script and do it yourself. Also, please note that the current official word is that SQL Source Control supports Vault Professional 5.1 and later.  Vault Professional is the new name for what was previously known as Fortress.  (You can read about the name change on SourceGear’s site.)  The last version of Fortress was 2.x, and the API for Fortress 2.x is different from the API for Vault Pro.  At my company, we are currently running Fortress 2.0, with plans to upgrade to Vault Pro early next year.  Gyorgy was able to come up with a work-around for me to be able to use SQL Source Control with Fortress 2.0, even though it is not officially supported.  If you are using Fortress 2.0 and want to use SQL Source Control, be aware that this is not officially supported, but it is working for us, and you can probably get the work-around instructions from Red-Gate if you’re really, really nice to them. Upcoming Topics Some of the other topics I will likely cover in this series over the next few weeks are: How we used to do source control back in the old days (a few weeks ago) before SQL Source Control was available to Vault users What happens when you restore a database that is linked to source control Handling multiple development branches of source code Concurrent Development practices and handling Conflicts Deployment Tips and Best Practices A recap after using the tool for a while

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• September Independent Oracle User Group (IOUG) Regional Events:

  - by Mandy Ho

  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";} September 5, 2012 – Denver, CO Oracle 11g Database Upgrade Seminar Join Roy Swonger, Senior Director of software development at Oracle to learn about upgrading to Oracle Database 11g. Topics include: All the required preparatory steps Database upgrade strategies Post-upgrade performance analysis Helpful tips and common pitfalls to watch out for http://www.oracle.com/webapps/events/ns/EventsDetail.jsp?p_eventId=152242&src=7598177&src=7598177&Act=4 September 6, 2012 – Salt Lake City, UT Fall Symposium 2012 Plan to join us for our annual fall event on Sept 6. They day will be filled with learning and networking with tracks focused on Applications, APEX, BI, Development and DBA Topics. This event is free for UTOUG members to attend, but please register. http://www.utoug.org/apex/f?p=972:2:6686308836668467::::P2_EVENT_ID:121 September 6, 2012 – Portland, OR Oracle’s Hands on Workshop Series focused on providing Defense-in-Depth Solutions to secure data at the source, reduce risk and simplify compliance The Oracle Database Security Workshop is a one-day hands-on session for IT Managers, IT Security Architects and Oracle DBAs who are looking for solutions to address their information protection, privacy, and accountability challenges within their Oracle database environment. Most security programs offered today fail toadequately address database security. Customers continue to be challenged tosecure information against loss and protect the integrity of sensitiveinformation like critical financial data, personally identifiable information(PII) and credit card data for PCI compliance. http://nwoug.org/content.aspx?page_id=87&club_id=165905&item_id=241082 September 11, 2012 – Montreal, QC APEXposed! For APEX aficionados – join ODTUG in Montreal, September 11-12 for APEXposed! Topics will include Dynamic Actions, Plug-ins, Tuning, and Building Mobile Apps. The cost is $399 US and early registration ends August 15th. For more information: http://www.odtugapextraining.com  September 11, 2012 – Philadelphia, PA Big Data & What are we still doing wrong with Tom Kyte Tom Kyte is a Senior Technical Architect in Oracle's Server Technology Division. Tom is the Tom behind the AskTom column in Oracle Magazine and is also the author of Expert Oracle Database Architecture (Apress, 2005/2009) among other books Abstract: Big Data The term "big data" draws a lot of attention, but behind the hype there's a simple story. For decades, companies have been making business decisions based on transactional data stored in relational databases. However, beyond that critical data is a potential treasure trove of less structured data: weblogs, social media, email, sensors, and photographs that can be mined for useful information. This presentation will take a look at what Big Data is and means - and Oracle's strategy for handling it Abstract: What are we still doing wrong? I've given many best practices presentations in the last 10 years. I've given many worst practices presentations in the last 10 years. I've seen some things change over the last ten years and many other things stay exactly the same. In this talk - we'll be taking a look at the good and the bad - what we do right and what we continue to do wrong over and over again. We'll look at why "Why" is probably the right initial answer to most any question. We'll look at how we get to "Know what we Know", and why that can be both a help and a hindrance. We'll peek at "Best Practices" and tie them into what I term "Worst Practices". In short, a talk on the good and the bad. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";} http://ioug.itconvergence.com/pls/apex/f?p=207:27:3669516430980563::NO September 12, 2012- New York, NY NYOUG Fall General Meeting “Trends in Database Administration and Why the Future of Database Administration is the Vdba” http://www.nyoug.org/upcoming_events.htm#General_Meeting1 September 21, 2012 – Cleveland, OH Oracle Database 11g for Developers: What You need to know or Oracle Database 11g New Features for Developers Attendees are introduced to the new and improved features of Oracle 11g (both Oracle 11g R1 and Oracle 11g R2) that directly impact application development. Special emphasis is placed on features that reduce development time, make development simpler, improve performance, or speed deployment. Specific topics include: New SQL functions, virtual columns, result caching, XML improvements, pivot statements, JDBC improvements, and PL/SQL enhancements such as compound triggers. http://www.neooug.org/ September 24, 2012 – Ottawa, ON Introduction to Oracle Spatial The free Oracle Locator functionality, and the Oracle Spatial option which dramatically extends Locator, are very useful, but poorly understood capabilities of the database. In the afternoon we will extend into additional areas selected from: storage and performance; answering business problems with spatial queries; using Oracle Maps in OBIEE; an overview and capabilities of Oracle Topology; under the covers with GeoCoding. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";} http://www.oug-ottawa.org/pls/htmldb/f?p=327:27:4209274028390246::NO

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• Coming to OpenWorld? A must attend session…

  - by Ruma Sanyal

  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE NTT Docomo, Inc. is the predominant mobile phone operator in Japan. The name is officially an abbreviation of the phrase, "do communications over the mobile network", and is also from a compound word dokomo, meaning "everywhere" in Japanese.  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} One of the most important of NTT Docomo’s systems is ALADIN, which is a nationwide operating system shared with its eight regional subsidiaries. ALADIN has five primary functions: customer management, phone number management, information processing and storage, sales information management, and credit investigation. To enhance cost efficiency and help ensure stable operation of ALADIN, NTT Docomo has employed Oracle WebLogic Server as a new application platform. Further information on this can be found here. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Last year at OpenWorld, NTT Docomo was honored as an Innovation Award Winner for: · Implementing real time sales and contract management system enabling all services requested by customers for immediate activations before customer leaves the Docomo store · A robust disaster recovery strategy, room to grow the business, and ability to move custom Java development to a platform with built in standards - WebLogic · Better performance, better reliability, better stability, and smooth migration v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} Normal 0 false false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Meet This Year's Most Impressive Innovators! This year we continue to honor customers for their most innovative and cutting-edge solutions using Oracle Fusion Middleware. Join us in celebrating award recipients’ great achievements and commitment to innovation.   Oracle Fusion Middleware: Meet This Year's Most Impressive Innovators Session ID: CON7029 Tuesday September 30, 2014 @ 5-5:45 pm (PST) Yerba Buena Center for the Arts  YBCA Theater (next to Moscone North) 700 Howard St., San Francisco, CA, 94103 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}

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• 6 Ways to Free Up Hard Drive Space Used by Windows System Files

  - by Chris Hoffman

  We’ve previously covered the standard ways to free up space on Windows. But if you have a small solid-state drive and really want more hard space, there are geekier ways to reclaim hard drive space. Not all of these tips are recommended — in fact, if you have more than enough hard drive space, following these tips may actually be a bad idea. There’s a tradeoff to changing all of these settings. Erase Windows Update Uninstall Files Windows allows you to uninstall patches you install from Windows Update. This is helpful if an update ever causes a problem — but how often do you need to uninstall an update, anyway? And will you really ever need to uninstall updates you’ve installed several years ago? These uninstall files are probably just wasting space on your hard drive. A recent update released for Windows 7 allows you to erase Windows Update files from the Windows Disk Cleanup tool. Open Disk Cleanup, click Clean up system files, check the Windows Update Cleanup option, and click OK. If you don’t see this option, run Windows Update and install the available updates. Remove the Recovery Partition Windows computers generally come with recovery partitions that allow you to reset your computer back to its factory default state without juggling discs. The recovery partition allows you to reinstall Windows or use the Refresh and Reset your PC features. These partitions take up a lot of space as they need to contain a complete system image. On Microsoft’s Surface Pro, the recovery partition takes up about 8-10 GB. On other computers, it may be even larger as it needs to contain all the bloatware the manufacturer included. Windows 8 makes it easy to copy the recovery partition to removable media and remove it from your hard drive. If you do this, you’ll need to insert the removable media whenever you want to refresh or reset your PC. On older Windows 7 computers, you could delete the recovery partition using a partition manager — but ensure you have recovery media ready if you ever need to install Windows. If you prefer to install Windows from scratch instead of using your manufacturer’s recovery partition, you can just insert a standard Window disc if you ever want to reinstall Windows. Disable the Hibernation File Windows creates a hidden hibernation file at C:\hiberfil.sys. Whenever you hibernate the computer, Windows saves the contents of your RAM to the hibernation file and shuts down the computer. When it boots up again, it reads the contents of the file into memory and restores your computer to the state it was in. As this file needs to contain much of the contents of your RAM, it’s 75% of the size of your installed RAM. If you have 12 GB of memory, that means this file takes about 9 GB of space. On a laptop, you probably don’t want to disable hibernation. However, if you have a desktop with a small solid-state drive, you may want to disable hibernation to recover the space. When you disable hibernation, Windows will delete the hibernation file. You can’t move this file off the system drive, as it needs to be on C:\ so Windows can read it at boot. Note that this file and the paging file are marked as “protected operating system files” and aren’t visible by default. Shrink the Paging File The Windows paging file, also known as the page file, is a file Windows uses if your computer’s available RAM ever fills up. Windows will then “page out” data to disk, ensuring there’s always available memory for applications — even if there isn’t enough physical RAM. The paging file is located at C:\pagefile.sys by default. You can shrink it or disable it if you’re really crunched for space, but we don’t recommend disabling it as that can cause problems if your computer ever needs some paging space. On our computer with 12 GB of RAM, the paging file takes up 12 GB of hard drive space by default. If you have a lot of RAM, you can certainly decrease the size — we’d probably be fine with 2 GB or even less. However, this depends on the programs you use and how much memory they require. The paging file can also be moved to another drive — for example, you could move it from a small SSD to a slower, larger hard drive. It will be slower if Windows ever needs to use the paging file, but it won’t use important SSD space. Configure System Restore Windows seems to use about 10 GB of hard drive space for “System Protection” by default. This space is used for System Restore snapshots, allowing you to restore previous versions of system files if you ever run into a system problem. If you need to free up space, you could reduce the amount of space allocated to system restore or even disable it entirely. Of course, if you disable it entirely, you’ll be unable to use system restore if you ever need it. You’d have to reinstall Windows, perform a Refresh or Reset, or fix any problems manually. Tweak Your Windows Installer Disc Want to really start stripping down Windows, ripping out components that are installed by default? You can do this with a tool designed for modifying Windows installer discs, such as WinReducer for Windows 8 or RT Se7en Lite for Windows 7. These tools allow you to create a customized installation disc, slipstreaming in updates and configuring default options. You can also use them to remove components from the Windows disc, shrinking the size of the resulting Windows installation. This isn’t recommended as you could cause problems with your Windows installation by removing important features. But it’s certainly an option if you want to make Windows as tiny as possible. Most Windows users can benefit from removing Windows Update uninstallation files, so it’s good to see that Microsoft finally gave Windows 7 users the ability to quickly and easily erase these files. However, if you have more than enough hard drive space, you should probably leave well enough alone and let Windows manage the rest of these settings on its own. Image Credit: Yutaka Tsutano on Flickr     

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