Search Results

Search found 908 results on 37 pages for 'greg roberts'.

Page 36/37 | < Previous Page | 32 33 34 35 36 37  | Next Page >

  • Zaypay alternatives for payments using call or sms

    - by JohannesH
    We are currently trying to implement a payment provider in zaypay for paying for services using sms or by calling a number. We already have google checkout and paypal working for regular payments but zaypay is rather inflexible, poorly documented and a pain to setup when you have hundreds of products with varying prices. So my question is, do you know of any other european payment providers that take sms and call payments? As a response to Roberts answer/question Hi Robert, I must say that the Zaypay solution is the best and only I've seen thus far regarding phoned payments. However, since its now 2 months ago I finished the implementation of our custom Zaypay UI I can't remember much of the the details of the problems we were having. I'll try to give a brief of them anyways the best I can. First of all I would like to see a redirection type scenario for payalogues. From what I remember you guys are using the JS framework "Prototype" which doesn't play nice with jQuery which we are using so we weren't able to use the popup-type scenario supported by payalogues. Furthermore when implementing our custom interface I remember a lot of missing translations, like words that were codes instead of a word or a phrase. This meant we ended up writing/translating all the messages we needed ourselves. Also, another point of annoyance was the setup of prices and items. I wish we could just send in the order items/prices as a part of the interface like you can in Google Checkout or PayPal (not that they're flawless either), instead of having to define ALL the items you will ever sell through your admin interface beforehand. As far as I can remember it is virtually impossible to use Zaypay for a multi-item order in its current form. Finally there are, as far as I can tell, some security issues that you have to think about when you implement a custom solution... especially a ajax driven one. As I said in my original post you do mention this in the documentation but I believe the documentation wasn't that comprehensive regarding security issues. Again I wish I could give more details but the code & client is long since gone, so I can't look up the comments I wrote. Sorry! Oh yeah, the general API documentation weren't exactly comprehensive and 100% correct either. Again, I don't want to advice people against using Zaypay, I just want to advice that they should try it out first on a realistic prototype and think about their implementation before releasing to production. Maybe its just me who misunderstood a lot of things but I generally had a difficult time using your framework and I was left with a feeling that the API was very new and not thought through from the beginning.

    Read the article

  • The Microsoft Ajax Library and Visual Studio Beta 2

    - by Stephen Walther
    Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 was released this week and one of the first things that I hope you notice is that it no longer contains the latest version of ASP.NET AJAX. What happened? Where did AJAX go? Just like Sting and The Police, just like Phil Collins and Genesis, just like Greg Page and the Wiggles, AJAX has gone out of band! We are starting a solo career. A Name Change First things first. In previous releases, our Ajax framework was named ASP.NET AJAX. We now have changed the name of the framework to the Microsoft Ajax Library. There are two reasons behind this name change. First, the members of the Ajax team got tired of explaining to everyone that our Ajax framework is not tied to the server-side ASP.NET framework. You can use the Microsoft Ajax Library with ASP.NET Web Forms, ASP.NET MVC, PHP, Ruby on RAILS, and even pure HTML applications. Our framework can be used as a client-only framework and having the word ASP.NET in our name was confusing people. Second, it was time to start spelling the word Ajax like everyone else. Notice that the name is the Microsoft Ajax Library and not the Microsoft AJAX library. Originally, Microsoft used upper case AJAX because AJAX originally was an acronym for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. And, according to Strunk and Wagnell, acronyms should be all uppercase. However, Ajax is one of those words that have migrated from acronym status to “just a word” status. So whenever you hear one of your co-workers talk about ASP.NET AJAX, gently correct your co-worker and say “It is now called the Microsoft Ajax Library.” Why OOB? But why move out-of-band (OOB)? The short answer is that we have had approximately 6 preview releases of the Microsoft Ajax Library over the last year. That’s a lot. We pride ourselves on being agile. Client-side technology evolves quickly. We want to be able to get a preview version of the Microsoft Ajax Library out to our customers, get feedback, and make changes to the library quickly. Shipping the Microsoft Ajax Library out-of-band keeps us agile and enables us to continue to ship new versions of the library even after ASP.NET 4 ships. Showing Love for JavaScript Developers One area in which we have received a lot of feedback is around making the Microsoft Ajax Library easier to use for developers who are comfortable with JavaScript. We also wanted to make it easy for jQuery developers to take advantage of the innovative features of the Microsoft Ajax Library. To achieve these goals, we’ve added the following features to the Microsoft Ajax Library (these features are included in the latest preview release that you can download right now): A simplified imperative syntax – We wanted to make it brain-dead simple to create client-side Ajax controls when writing JavaScript. A client script loader – We wanted the Microsoft Ajax Library to load all of the scripts required by a component or control automatically. jQuery integration – We love the jQuery selector syntax. We wanted to make it easy for jQuery developers to use the Microsoft Ajax Library without changing their programming style. If you are interested in learning about these new features of the Microsoft Ajax Library, I recommend that you read the following blog post by Scott Guthrie: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2009/10/15/announcing-microsoft-ajax-library-preview-6-and-the-microsoft-ajax-minifier.aspx Downloading the Latest Version of the Microsoft Ajax Library Currently, the best place to download the latest version of the Microsoft Ajax Library is directly from the ASP.NET CodePlex project: http://aspnet.codeplex.com/ As I write this, the current version is Preview 6. The next version is coming out at the PDC. Summary I’m really excited about the future of the Microsoft Ajax Library. Moving outside of the ASP.NET framework provides us the flexibility to remain agile and continue to innovate aggressively. The latest preview release of the Microsoft Ajax Library includes several major new features including a client script loader, jQuery integration, and a simplified client control creation syntax.

    Read the article

  • SQLSaturday 33 Observations

    - by Geoff N. Hiten
    Along with a lot of my colleagues, I went to SQLSaturday #33 in Charlotte this last weekend.  Overall a really good event, especially for a first-time organizer.  There is some controversy over certain events where my name got mentioned so I thought I would clear the air. Before I get to the core controversy, let's get the details out of the way.  The Microsoft Offices in Charlotte were an excellent venue for this event.  I really appreciated the Microsoft employees that helped out by letting us in and out of normally secure areas.  This is definitely above and beyond on their part. Thanks to the organizers (especially Greg and Peter) for the great hospitality they showed to the speakers.  Now for the specifics.  Like most events of this type, there was a raffle at the end for some cool swag.  As a speaker I got raffle tickets just like any other attendee.  The raffle was clearly promoted as "must be present to win".  The problem is that for various reasons, the raffle kicked off immediately after the last speaker finished in the largest room.  That room was across the parking lot from all the other rooms for the event.  I happened to have one of the last sessions of the day, and not in the main room.  I also ran long since the audience was very interactive and there were a lot of follow-up questions.  (BTW, thanks to everyone who came and stayed for my session.  Sorry it cost you the chance to win too.).  My name was drawn for an very nice piece of swag (iPod Touch if you insist).  Since I wasn't there, I didn't win. Several folks mentioned I was still speaking and was "here" (as in at the event) just not "here in the room". Yes, I was mad when I found out about it. I think that was handled poorly.  I personally lost out as did my audience (dunno if anyone specific lost anything, but it is the idea that counts).  It was a mistake. Mistakes happen.  Nobody acted maliciously.  Heck, the guys running the event who made the decision are my friends and remain so.  I got over my mad.  We talked about this privately and we are all OK with what happened.  I am not going to let a gadget get in the way of a couple of good friendships. I think the mistake was mostly due to a lack of unity between the venue buildings   Pam Shaw had a similar challenge in Tampa a few weeks ago, including a speaker who ran long on the last session (not me that time).  She had a couple of teenage volunteers to act as gofers/runners.  They counted heads in sessions, pointed people to last-minute room and session changes, and generally helped connect the organizers to what was actually happening.  Note that this was not Pam's first SQLSaturday event.  She knew but the knowledge had not been institutionalized.  We (The SQL community in general and SQLSaturday organizers in particular) now know how essential gofers are to success. I know I spent most of this post focusing on the controversy, but I wanted to clear everything up.  I don't want to let a minor mistake, made in good faith, overshadow what was a tremendously good event for the community. As for the iPod Touch, someone in the SQL community is enjoying it, so it is not a total loss.  And if losing out on it is the price I pay so we can learn this, then that is what a community leader does.  Consider it a gift.  Besides, I really wanted a Zune 120 :)

    Read the article

  • A Forming Repository of Script Samples for Automating Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8

    - by Jialiang
    Compared with Windows Server 2008/R2 that provides about 230 cmdlets, Windows Server 2012 beats that by a factor of over 10 shipping ~ 2,430 cmdlets.  You can automate almost every aspect of the server.   The new PowerShell 3.0, like Windows Server 2012, has a ton of new features.  In this automation script-centric move, Microsoft All-In-One Script Framework (AIOSF) is ready to support IT Pros with many new services and offerings coming this year.  We sincerely hope that the IT community will benefit from the effort. Here is the first one among our new services and offerings:  The team is preparing a large set of Windows 8 / Windows Server 2012 script samples based on frequently asked IT tasks that we collect in TechNet forums and support calls to Microsoft.   Because the script topics come from frequently asked IT tasks, we hope that these script samples can be helpful to many IT Pros worldwide.   With the General Availability of Windows Server 2012, we release the first three Windows Server 2012 / Windows 8 script samples today.    Get Network Adapter Properties in Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 (PowerShell) http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/Get-Network-Adapter-37c5a913 Description: This script could be used to get network adapter properties and advanced properties in Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8. It combines the outputs of Get-NetAdapter and Get-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty. It can generate a report of network adapter configuration settings. Use Scenarios: In a real world, IT Administrators are required to check the configuration of network adapters after the deployment of new servers. One typical example is the duplex setting of network adapters. Also, IT administrators need to maintain a server list which contains network adapter configuration settings in a regular basis. Before Windows Server 2012, IT administrators often feel difficulties to handle these tasks. Acknowledgement: Thanks Greg Gu from AIOSF for collecting this script topic, and writing the script sample.  Thanks James Adams (Microsoft Premier Field Engineer) for reviewing the script sample and ensuring its quality.   How to batch create virtual machines in Windows Server 2012 (PowerShell) http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/How-to-batch-create-9efd1811 Description: This PowerShell Script illustrates how to batch create multiple virtual machines based on comma delimited file by using PowerShell 3.0 in Windows Server 2012. Use Scenarios: IT admin requires to batch creating virtual machines in Windows Server 2012, although they can use few commands due to the lack of programming knowledge. Although it’s a set of Hyper-V command-lets within Windows PowerShell, IT Admins are reluctant to use them except simple a command which is widely used. Acknowledgement: Thanks Anders Wang from AIOSF for collecting this script topic and writing the script sample.  Thanks Christopher Norris for reviewing the script sample and ensuring its quality before publishing.   Remove Windows Store Apps in Windows 8 (PowerShell) http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/Remove-Windows-Store-Apps-a00ef4a4 Description: This script can be used to remove multiple Windows Store Apps from a user account in Windows 8. It provides a list of installed Windows Store applications. You can specify the application IDs, and remove them all at once. Use Scenarios: 1. In Windows 8, you can remove a single Windows Store App by right-clicking the tile in the Start menu and choosing the uninstall command.  However, no command is provided for removing multiple Windows Store Apps all at once. If you want to do so, you can use this script sample. 2. Sometimes Windows Store Apps may crash in Windows 8.  Even though you can successfully uninstall and reinstall the App, the application may still crash after the reinstallation.  In this situation, you can use this example script to remove these Windows Store Apps cleanly. Acknowledgement: Thanks Edward Qi from AIOSF for collecting the script idea and composing the script sample.  Thanks James Adams (Microsoft Premier Field Engineer) for reviewing the script sample and ensuring its quality.   This is just the beginning, and more and more script samples are coming.  You can follow our blog (http://blogs.technet.com/b/onescript) to get the latest customer-driven script samples for Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8.

    Read the article

  • Proactive Support Sessions at OUG London and OUG Ireland

    - by THE
    .conf td { width: 350px; border: 1px solid black; background-color: #ffcccc; } table { border: 1px solid black; } tr { border: 0px solid black; } td { border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px; } Oracle Proactive Support Technology is proud to announce that two members of its team will be speaking at the UK and Ireland User Group Conferences this year. Maurice and Greg plan to run the following sessions (may be subject to change): Maurice Bauhahn OUG Ireland BI & EPM and Technology Joint SIG Meeting 20 November 2012 BI&EPM SIG event in Ireland (09:00-17:00) and OUG London EPM & Hyperion Conference 2012 Tuesday 23rd to Wednesday 24th Oct 2012 Profit from Oracle Diagnostic Tools Embedded in EPM Oracle bundles in many of its software suites valuable toolsets to collect logs and settings, slice/dice error messages, track performance, and trace activities across services. Become familiar with several enterprise-level diagnostic tools embedded in Enterprise Performance Management (Enterprise Manager Fusion Middleware Control, Remote Diagnostic Agent, Dynamic Monitoring Service, and Oracle Diagnostic Framework). Expedite resolution of Service Requests as you learn to upload output from these tools to My Oracle Support. Who will benefit from attending the session? Geeks will find this most beneficial, but anyone who raises Oracle technical service requests will learn valuable pointers that may speed resolution. The focus is on the EPM stack, but this session will benefit almost everyone who needs to drill deeper into Oracle software environments. What will delegates learn from the session? Delegates who participate in this session will learn: How to access and run Remote Diagnostic Agent, Enterprise Manager Fusion Middleware Control, Dynamic Monitoring Service, and Oracle Diagnostic Framework. How to exploit the strengths of each tool. How to pass the outputs to My Oracle Support. How to restrict exposure of sensitive information. OUG Ireland BI & EPM and Technology Joint SIG Meeting 20 November 2012 BI&EPM SIG event in Ireland (09:00-17:00) and OUG London EPM & Hyperion Conference 2012 Tuesday 23rd to Wednesday 24th Oct 2012 Using EPM-Specific Troubleshooting Tools EPM developers have created a number of EPM-specific tools to collect logs and configuration files, centralize configuration information, and validate a configured installation (Ziplogs, EPM Registry Editor, [Deployment Report, Registry Cleanup Utility, Reset Configuration Tool, EPMSYS Hostname Check] and Validate [EPM System Diagnostic]). Learn how to use these tools on your own or to expedite Service Request resolution. Who will benefit from attending the session? Anyone who monitors Oracle EPM environments or raises service requests will learn valuable lessons that could speed resolution of those requests. Anyone from novices to experts will benefit from this review of custom troubleshooting EPM tools. What will delegates learn from the session? Learn where to locate and start EPM troubleshooting tools created by EPM developers Learn how to collect and upload outputs of EPM troubleshooting tools. Adapt to history of changes in these tools across time and version. Learn how to make critical changes in configurations. Grzegorz Reizer OUG London EPM & Hyperion Conference 2012 Tuesday 23rd to Wednesday 24th Oct 2012 EPM 11.1.2.2: Detailed overview of new features and improvements in Financial Management products. This presentation is a detailed overview of new features and improvements introduced in Enterprise Performance Management 11.1.2.2 for Financial Management products (Hyperion Financial Managment, Hyperion Planning, Financial Close Management). The presentation will cover a number of new product features from recently introduced configurable dimensionality in HFM to new functionality enhancements in Planning. We'll close the session with an overview of upgrade options from earlier product releases.

    Read the article

  • Do MORE with WebCenter

    - by Michael Snow
    We’ve been extremely busy here on the Oracle WebCenter team. We hope that you’ve all be keeping up with the interesting news each week. Last week was jammed full of GartnerPCC and Gartner360 buzz. If you missed any of the highlights – be sure to check out both Kellsey’s post from last week: Gartner PCC: A Shovel & Some Ah-Ha's and Christie’s overview of Loren Weinberg’s PCC presentation: "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow: Engage Your Customers or Lose Them"  . This week, we’ll be focusing on “Doing More with WebCenter” leading up to a great webcast scheduled for Thursday, March 22 (invite and registration link below). This is the 2nd in a series of 3 webcasts dedicated to expanding the understanding of the full capabilities of WebCenter. Yes – that might mean that you are not getting the full benefits of the software you already own or the expansion potential via upgrade to the full WebCenter Suite Plus. Tune in on Thursday 10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET.  ++++++++++++++ Want to be a Speaker at Oracle OpenWorld 2012? Oracle Open World planning has already kicked off. We know that it is only March and next October is far in the distance. But planning has already started for Oracle OpenWorld 2012. So if you want to be a speaker and propose your own session for this year's event in San Francisco on September 30th - October 4th, starting thinking now!  The annual OpenWorld Call for Papers is now open until April 9th! All of the details to submit a paper are available here. Of course, the WebCenter team here is interested in sessions including case studies, thought-leadership, customer stories around any of the Oracle WebCenter solutions, but the Call for Papers is open to all Oracle topics. When submitting your topic, be sure to describe what you plan to discuss and the value of the presentation to other attendees. Sell your session, because there will be a lot of competition to be selected.  Bonus News: Speakers for selected sessions receive a complimentary full conference pass! Get your papers in and we'll see you in San Francisco! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Webcast Series: Do More with Oracle WebCenter - Expand Beyond Content Management Enable Employees, Partners, and Customers to Do More with Your Content Dear [FIRSTNAME] [LASTNAME],-- Did you know that, in addition to content management, Oracle WebCenter now also includes comprehensive portal, composite application, collaboration, and Web experience management capabilities? Join us for this Webcast and learn how you can provide a new level of user engagement. Learn how Oracle WebCenter: Drives task-specific application data and content to a single screen for executing specific business processes Enables mixed internal and external environments where content can be securely shared and filtered with employees, partners, and customers, based upon role-based security Offers Web experience management, driving contextually relevant, social, and interactive online experiences across multiple channels Provides social features that enable sharing, activity feeds, collaboration, expertise location, and best-practices communities Learn how to do more with Oracle WebCenter. Register now for the Webcast. Register Now Join us for the second Webcast in the series "Do More With Oracle WebCenter". March 22, 2012 10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET Presented by: Michelle Huff Senior Director, WebCenter Product Management, Oracle Greg Utecht Project Manager,IT Operations,TIES Copyright © 2012, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Contact Us | Legal Notices | Privacy Oracle Corporation - Worldwide Headquarters, 500 Oracle Parkway, OPL - E-mail Services, Redwood Shores, CA 94065, United States

    Read the article

  • DATEFROMPARTS

    - by jamiet
    I recently overheard a remark by Greg Low in which he said something akin to "the most interesting parts of a new SQL Server release are the myriad of small things that are in there that make a developer's life easier" (I'm paraphrasing because I can't remember the actual quote but it was something like that). The new DATEFROMPARTS function is a classic example of that . It simply takes three integer parameters and builds a date out of them (if you have used DateSerial in Reporting Services then you'll understand). Take the following code which generates the first and last day of some given years: SELECT 2008 AS Yr INTO #Years UNION ALL SELECT 2009 UNION ALL SELECT 2010 UNION ALL SELECT 2011 UNION ALL SELECT 2012SELECT [FirstDayOfYear] = CONVERT(DATE,CONVERT(CHAR(8),((y.[Yr] * 10000) + 101))),      [LastDayOfYear] = CONVERT(DATE,CONVERT(CHAR(8),((y.[Yr] * 10000) + 1231)))FROM   #Years y here are the results: That code is pretty gnarly though with those CONVERTs in there and, worse, if the character string is constructed in a certain way then it could fail due to localisation, check this out: SET LANGUAGE french;SELECT dt,Month_Name=DATENAME(mm,dt)FROM   (       SELECT  dt = CONVERT(DATETIME,CONVERT(CHAR(4),y.[Yr]) + N'-01-02')       FROM    #Years y       )d;SET LANGUAGE us_english;SELECT dt,Month_Name=DATENAME(mm,dt)FROM   (       SELECT  dt = CONVERT(DATETIME,CONVERT(CHAR(4),y.[Yr]) + N'-01-02')       FROM    #Years y       )d; Notice how the datetime has been converted differently based on the language setting. When French, the string "2012-01-02" gets interpreted as 1st February whereas when us_english the same string is interpreted as 2nd January. Instead of all this CONVERTing nastiness we have DATEFROMPARTS: SELECT [FirstDayOfYear] = DATEFROMPARTS(y.[Yr],1,1),    [LasttDayOfYear] = DATEFROMPARTS(y.[Yr],12,31)FROM   #Years y How much nicer is that? The bad news of course is that you have to upgrade to SQL Server 2012 or migrate to SQL Azure if you want to use it, as is the way of the world! Don't forget that if you want to try this code out on SQL Azure right this second, for free, you can do so by connecting up to AdventureWorks On Azure. You don't even need to have SSMS handy - a browser that runs Silverlight will do just fine. Simply head to https://mhknbn2kdz.database.windows.net/ and use the following credentials: Database AdventureWorks2012 User sqlfamily Password sqlf@m1ly One caveat, SELECT INTO doesn't work on SQL Azure so you'll have to use this instead: DECLARE @y TABLE ( [Yr] INT);INSERT @y([Yr])SELECT 2008 AS Yr UNION ALL SELECT 2009 UNION ALL SELECT 2010 UNION ALL SELECT 2011 UNION ALL SELECT 2012;SELECT [FirstDayOfYear] = DATEFROMPARTS(y.[Yr],1,1),      [LastDayOfYear] = DATEFROMPARTS(y.[Yr],12,31)FROM @y y;SELECT [FirstDayOfYear] = CONVERT(DATE,CONVERT(CHAR(8),((y.[Yr] * 10000) + 101))),      [LastDayOfYear] = CONVERT(DATE,CONVERT(CHAR(8),((y.[Yr] * 10000) + 1231)))FROM @y y; @Jamiet

    Read the article

  • Beginner SQL question: querying gold and silver tag badges in Stack Exchange Data Explorer

    - by polygenelubricants
    I'm using the Stack Exchange Data Explorer to learn SQL, but I think the fundamentals of the question is applicable to other databases. I'm trying to query the Badges table, which according to Stexdex (that's what I'm going to call it from now on) has the following schema: Badges Id UserId Name Date This works well for badges like [Epic] and [Legendary] which have unique names, but the silver and gold tag-specific badges seems to be mixed in together by having the same exact name. Here's an example query I wrote for [mysql] tag: SELECT UserId as [User Link], Date FROM Badges Where Name = 'mysql' Order By Date ASC The (slightly annotated) output is: as seen on stexdex: User Link Date --------------- ------------------- // all for silver except where noted Bill Karwin 2009-02-20 11:00:25 Quassnoi 2009-06-01 10:00:16 Greg 2009-10-22 10:00:25 Quassnoi 2009-10-31 10:00:24 // for gold Bill Karwin 2009-11-23 11:00:30 // for gold cletus 2010-01-01 11:00:23 OMG Ponies 2010-01-03 11:00:48 Pascal MARTIN 2010-02-17 11:00:29 Mark Byers 2010-04-07 10:00:35 Daniel Vassallo 2010-05-14 10:00:38 This is consistent with the current list of silver and gold earners at the moment of this writing, but to speak in more timeless terms, as of the end of May 2010 only 2 users have earned the gold [mysql] tag: Quassnoi and Bill Karwin, as evidenced in the above result by their names being the only ones that appear twice. So this is the way I understand it: The first time an Id appears (in chronological order) is for the silver badge The second time is for the gold Now, the above result mixes the silver and gold entries together. My questions are: Is this a typical design, or are there much friendlier schema/normalization/whatever you call it? In the current design, how would you query the silver and gold badges separately? GROUP BY Id and picking the min/max or first/second by the Date somehow? How can you write a query that lists all the silver badges first then all the gold badges next? Imagine also that the "real" query may be more complicated, i.e. not just listing by date. How would you write it so that it doesn't have too many repetition between the silver and gold subqueries? Is it perhaps more typical to do two totally separate queries instead? What is this idiom called? A row "partitioning" query to put them into "buckets" or something?

    Read the article

  • Pros/Cons of MySQL vs Postgresql for production Ruby on Rails environment?

    - by cakeforcerberus
    I will soon be switching from sqlite3 to either postgres or mysql. What should I consider when making this decision? Is mysql more suited for Rails than postgres in some areas and/or vice versa? Or, as I somewhat suspect, does it not really matter either way? Another factor that might play into my decision is the availability of tools to data pump my test data from the sqlite3 db to my new one. Is there anything that ActiveRecord provides natively to do this or any decent plugins/gems to help with this task? BONUS: How do I pronounce "Postgresql" and sound like I know what I'm talking about? :) Thanks Greg Smith for providing the following link that shows the most common pronunciations: http://www.postgresql.org/community/survey.33 UPDATE: Reference this question for more: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/110927/do-you-recommend-postgresql-over-mysql FYI: I ended up using MySQL. There is a neat plugin called yamldb that really saved me some time with the data transfer from my sqlite db to my new mysql one. Instructions on how to install and use it can be found here: http://accidentaltechnologist.com/ruby/change-databases-in-rails-with-yamldb/ Thanks Tom

    Read the article

  • How to parse this xml document?

    - by dfjhdfjhdf
    Get such a XML document with the help of ajax (var data = request.responseXML;), how do I parse the contacts?: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <Alladresses xmlns="http://somedomain.org/doc/2007-08-02/"> <Owner> <ID>gut74hfowesdfj49fjsifhryh8e8rta3uyhw4</ID> <Name>Mr.Bin</Name> </Owner> <Contacts> <Person> <Name>Greg</Name> <Phone>3254566756</Phone> </Person> <Person> <Name>Smith</Name> <Phone>342446446</Phone> </Person> <Person> <Name>Yuliya</Name> <Phone>675445566867</Phone> </Person> </Contacts> </Alladresses>

    Read the article

  • Directly call distutils' or setuptools' setup() function with command name/options, without parsing

    - by Ryan B. Lynch
    I'd like to call Python's distutils' or setuptools' setup() function in a slightly unconventional way, but I'm not sure whether distutils is meant for this kind of usage. As an example, let's say I currently have a 'setup.py' file, which looks like this (lifted verbatim from the distutils docs--the setuptools usage is almost identical): from distutils.core import setup setup(name='Distutils', version='1.0', description='Python Distribution Utilities', author='Greg Ward', author_email='[email protected]', url='http://www.python.org/sigs/distutils-sig/', packages=['distutils', 'distutils.command'], ) Normally, to build just the .spec file for an RPM of this module, I could run python setup.py bdist_rpm --spec-only, which parses the command line and calls the 'bdist_rpm' code to handle the RPM-specific stuff. The .spec file ends up in './dist'. How can I change my setup() invocation so that it runs the 'bdist_rpm' command with the '--spec-only' option, WITHOUT parsing command-line parameters? Can I pass the command name and options as parameters to setup()? Or can I manually construct a command line, and pass that as a parameter, instead? NOTE: I already know that I could call the script in a separate process, with an actual command line, using os.system() or the subprocess module or something similar. I'm trying to avoid using any kind of external command invocations. I'm looking specifically for a solution that runs setup() in the current interpreter. For background, I'm converting some release-management shell scripts into a single Python program. One of the tasks is running 'setup.py' to generate a .spec file for further pre-release testing. Running 'setup.py' as an external command, with its own command line options, seems like an awkward method, and it complicates the rest of the program. I feel like there may be a more Pythonic way.

    Read the article

  • Using CURL within a loop to download a file, 1st one works, 2nd one times out

    - by kitenski
    Morning all, I am using CURL to download an image file within a loop. The first time it runs fine and I see the image appear in the directory. The second time it fails with a timeout, despite it being a valid URL. Can anyone suggest why it always fails on the 2nd time and how to fix it? The snippet of code is: // download image $extension = "gif"; $ch = curl_init(); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 90); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $imgurl); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true); echo $imgurl . " attempting to open URL "; $i = curl_exec($ch); if ( $i==false ) { echo curl_errno($ch).' '.curl_error($ch); } $image_name=time().'.'.$extension; $f = fopen('/fulldirectorypath/' . $image_name ,'w+'); fwrite($f,$i); fclose($f); I have put an echo in there to display the $IMGURL, to check it is valid, and upped the timeout to 90 secs, but it still fails. This is what I see on screen: http://images.eu-xmedia.de/thumbnails/34555861/5676051/pt=pic,lang=2,origfile=yes/image.gif attempting to open URL 28 Operation timed out after 90 seconds with 0 bytes received an empty file is created in my directory. thanks alot, Greg

    Read the article

  • Attempting to Convert Byte[] into Image... but is there platform issues involved

    - by user305535
    Greetings, Current, I'm attempting to develop an application that takes a Byte Array that is streamed to us from a Linux C language program across a TCPClient (stream) and reassemble it back into an image/jpg. The "sending" application was developed by a off-site developer who claims that the image reassembles back into an image without any problems or errors in his test environment (all Linux)... However, we are not so fortunate. I (believe) we successfully get all of the data sent, storing it as a string (lets us append the stream until it is complete) and then we convert it back into a Byte[]. This appears to be working fine... But, when we take the byte[] we get from the streaming (and our string assembly) and try to convert it into an image using the System.Drawing.Image.FromStream() we get errors.... Anyone have any idea what we're doing wrong? Or, does anyone know if this is a cross-platform issue? We're developing our app for Windows XP and C# .net, but the off-site developer did his work in c and Linux... perhaps there's some difference as to how each Operating System Coverts Images into Byte Arrays? Anyway, here's the code for converting our received ByteArray (from the TCPClient Stream) into an image. This code works when we send an image from a test machine we built that RUNS on XP, but not from the Linux box... System.Text.ASCIIEncoding encoding = new System.Text.ASCIIEncoding(); byte[] imageBytes = encoding.GetBytes(data); MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(imageBytes, 0, imageBytes.Length); // Convert byte[] to Image ms.Write(imageBytes, 0, imageBytes.Length); System.Drawing.Image image = System.Drawing.Image.FromStream(ms, false); <-- DIES here, throws a {System.ArgumentException: Parameter is not valid.} error Any advice, suggestions, theories, or HELP would be GREATLY appreciated! Please let me know??? Best wishes all! Thanks in advance! Greg

    Read the article

  • My D-Link's Ethernet bridge downlink just got 10-30x slower?

    - by Jay Levitt
    TL;DR: I unplugged my network to move my desk, and now downloading via my DIR-655's Ethernet LAN bridge is 10-30x slower than the Ethernet switch it's plugged into. Background My network is SMC cable modem <-> Cisco firewall <-> Netgear switch <-> D-Link WiFi† | | | | SMC8014 ASA-5505 GS608v2 gigE DIR-655 rev A3 gigE †The DIR-655 is used as an access point, not a router (although what D-Link calls an access point, I'd call a bridge). The "WAN" port is unused; the Netgear connects to the built-in 4-port Ethernet LAN switch, inside the built- in router/firewall. Endpoints: MacBook Pro 17" mid-2010 iPhone 4S Fedora 12 Linux server running reasonably fast dual-Athlon X2, VelociRaptors, etc. All cables are <10 feet, mostly CAT-5e, some CAT-6, all premade. All WiFi endpoints are within three feet of the D-Link. Yesterday I unplugged and rearranged stuff, and now connecting via the D-Link - even through the wired switch, right next to the incoming network cable - is 30x slower than connecting directly to the Netgear switch, on both my MacBook and iPhone. How I'm measuring "slower" I'm mostly using http://speedtest.net, which of course only really measures broadband speeds. I've also installed http://www.speedtest.net/mini.php on my local server, but can't test the iPhone with that. Results Speedtest.net, closest server over Comcast business-class: CONFIG | PING (ms) | DOWN (Mbps) | UP (Mbps) Mac <-> Ethernet <-> Netgear | 9 | 31.6 | 6.8 Mac <-> Ethernet <-> D-Link | 8 | 4.1 | 6.0 Mac <-> WiFi <-> D-Link | 9 | 1.4 | 2.9 iPhone <-> WiFi <-> D-Link | 67 | 0.4 | 1.6 Speedtest Mini on Linux PC: CONFIG | DOWN (Mbps) | UP (Mbps) Mac <-> Ethernet <-> NetGear | 97.2 | 76.9 Mac <-> Ethernet <-> D-Link | 8.2 | 24.2 Mac <-> WiFi <-> D-Link | 1.0 | 8.6 Slow typing in SSH: Mac <-> Ethernet <-> Netgear <-> Linux PC: smooth Mac <-> Ethernet <-> D-Link <-> Linux PC: choppy Note that D-Link upload speeds are normal on broadband, slower locally (but I'd believe that's a D-Link limitation), and always faster than the downloads! Since ssh is choppy just with slow typing, I don't believe it's a throttling-type problem either; that's not a lot of bandwidth. What I've tried Swapping all "good" and "bad" cables Re-plugging "bad" cable from D-Link to Netgear and watching it be the "good" cable pulling cables away from power lines Verify that the Mac auto-detects the D-Link as gigE Try to verify the link speed of the D-Link <- Netgear connection, but the firmware doesn't report that Verify that the D-Link sees no TX/RX errors or collisions Use different Ethernet ports on both Netgear and D-Link Reset the D-Link to factory settings Upgrade the D-Link firmware from 1.21 to 1.35NA, 2010/11/12, the latest Reboot everything at least once On the Mac, disable Wi-Fi during the Ethernet tests, and unplug Ethernet during the Wi-Fi tests Using iStumbler, verify that the D-Link isn't picking overloaded Wi-Fi channels (usually just 1-5 neighbors on my and adjacent channels, average for my apt building) Verify that the only client connected to the Wi-Fi was the iPhone Verify that nothing was being chatty on my network according to the WISH log Enable and disable all sorts of D-Link settings, including forcing WAN auto-detect to gigE So. I don't mind buying a new access point—I wouldn't mind having a dual-link network—but as a guy who's been networking since gated v4 was a drastic rewrite, and who often used physical sniffers in the days before Wireshark, I'm baffled. I hate being baffled. What could I possibly have changed that would result in this? How can I measure it? All I can think of is a static zap—thick carpet, socks, HVAC—but I didn't feel one, and does that really happen anymore? Can I test if it's Ethernet vs. TCP layer slowness? I'm not familiar with modern network utilities; it's hard to Google without hitting "Q: Why is my network slow? A: Is your microwave on?" If I don't get an answer here, will someone big and powerful help me migrate it to serverfault without getting screamed back here? In the words of Inigo Montoya, "I must know." Don't get all Dread Pirate Roberts on me.

    Read the article

  • Fill container with template parameters

    - by phlipsy
    I want to fill the template parameters passed to a variadic template into an array with fixed length. For that purpose I wrote the following helper function templates template<typename ForwardIterator, typename T> void fill(ForwardIterator i) { } template<typename ForwardIterator, typename T, T head, T... tail> void fill(ForwardIterator i) { *i = head; fill<ForwardIterator, T, tail...>(++i); } the following class template template<typename T, T... args> struct params_to_array; template<typename T, T last> struct params_to_array<T, last> { static const std::size_t SIZE = 1; typedef std::array<T, SIZE> array_type; static const array_type params; private: void init_params() { array_type result; fill<typename array_type::iterator, T, head, tail...>(result.begin()); return result; } }; template<typename T, T head, T... tail> struct params_to_array<T, head, tail...> { static const std::size_t SIZE = params_to_array<T, tail...>::SIZE + 1; typedef std::array<T, SIZE> array_type; static const array_type params; private: void init_params() { array_type result; fill<typename array_type::iterator, T, last>(result.begin()); return result; } }; and initialized the static constants via template<typename T, T last> const typename param_to_array<T, last>::array_type param_to_array<T, last>::params = param_to_array<T, last>::init_params(); and template<typename T, T head, T... tail> const typename param_to_array<T, head, tail...>::array_type param_to_array<T, head, tail...>::params = param_to_array<T, head, tail...>::init_params(); Now the array param_to_array<int, 1, 3, 4>::params is a std::array<int, 3> and contains the values 1, 3 and 4. I think there must be a simpler way to achieve this behavior. Any suggestions? Edit: As Noah Roberts suggested in his answer I modified my program like the following: I wrote a new struct counting the elements in a parameter list: template<typename T, T... args> struct count; template<typename T, T head, T... tail> struct count<T, head, tail...> { static const std::size_t value = count<T, tail...>::value + 1; }; template<typename T, T last> stuct count<T, last> { static const std::size_t value = 1; }; and wrote the following function template<typename T, T... args> std::array<T, count<T, args...>::value> params_to_array() { std::array<T, count<T, args...>::value> result; fill<typename std::array<T, count<T, args...>::value>::iterator, T, args...>(result.begin()); return result; } Now I get with params_to_array<int, 10, 20, 30>() a std::array<int, 3> with the content 10, 20 and 30. Any further suggestions?

    Read the article

  • XNA Notes 011

    - by George Clingerman
    Even with a lot of the XNA community working on Dream Build Play entries ( I swear I’m going to finish mine this year!) people are still finding time to do side projects and be amazingly active in the XNA and XBLIG community. With my one eye on my code and one eye on the community, here’s what I noticed these over achievers doing this past week! Time Critical XNA News: Xbox LIVE Indie Games sales data will be delayed March 17-20th due to some schedule maintenance http://create.msdn.com/en-us/news/indie_games_data_delay_march2011 GameMarx is releasing a series of videos to help raise donations for victims of the earthquakes and tsunami in Japan. Help out if you can! http://www.gamemarx.com/video/special/29/help-japan-sushido.aspx XNA MVPs: Catalin Zima shares his thoughts on the MVP summit and my book! http://www.catalinzima.com/2011/03/mvp-summit-2011/ Glenn Wilson (@mykre) helps the XNA team announce some new educational content that you don’t want to miss if you’re porting your app or game to Windows Phone 7 http://www.virtualrealm.com.au/Blog/tabid/62/EntryId/653/Porting-your-App-or-Game-to-Windows-Phone-7.aspx and Windows Phone 7 from scratch http://www.virtualrealm.com.au/Blog/tabid/62/EntryId/654/Windows-Phone-from-Scratch.aspx and shares a link to some free architectural models and textures http://twitter.com/#!/Mykre/status/46410160784158720 George (that’s me!) shares his MVP Summit 2011 summary and XBLIG thoughts http://geekswithblogs.net/clingermangw/archive/2011/03/15/144366.aspx XNA Developers: @SmallCaveGames shares a Code of Ethics for Xbox LIVE Indie Game Developers http://smallcavegames.blogspot.com/2011/03/unofficial-xblig-developers-code-of.html Derek S adds more Xbox LIVE Indie Game studios to his master list of XBLIG links http://twitter.com/#!/Mr_Deeke/status/46140996056125440 http://xbl-indieverse.blogspot.com/p/xblig-links.html Making games and want to help kids? Then share your story with GameFace: America! http://gameitupinitiative.com/about-the-initiative/programs/gameface-america/ Xbox LIVE Indie Games (XBLIG): XonaGames shares some video footage of their booth from GDC 2011 Video 1: http://youtu.be/lxIV9nk3Gq4 Video 2: http://youtu.be/GgfrjqkxR_o Video 3: http://youtu.be/yVcpXrTX7SQ Joystiq on Mommy’s Best Games Serious Sam Double D http://www.joystiq.com/2011/03/16/the-most-important-thing-about-serious-sam-double-d/ And The Escapist recommends that gamers start learning to avoid cleavage now http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/108543-Boobie-Bomber-Makes-First-Appearance-in-Serious-Sam-Double-D Magiko Gaming started a blog on the XBLIG dashboard daily Top 10 games in the US. Good way to go back in time and look at the history of which games were in the the Top 10. http://dailytop10indiegames.wordpress.com/ Where are they going now? XBLIG developers at a crossroads.. http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2011/03/where_are_they_going_now_xblig.php http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/33527/InDepth_Where_Are_They_Going_Now_XBLIG_Developers_At_A_Crossroads_.php BinaryTweed’s Clover: A Curious Tail is Xbox LIVE’s Deal of the Week! http://www.armlessoctopus.com/2011/03/15/what-luck-clover-a-curious-tale-is-half-price-this-week/ Looking for an Xbox LIVE Indie Game to buy? Writings of Mass Deduction has over 125 suggestions at this point! http://writingsofmassdeduction.com/ SkaStudios shares Vampire Smile Achievements AND their PAX East 2011 Both Setup video http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/03/14/vampire-smile-achievement/ http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/03/15/pax-booth-setup-time-lapse/ MasterBlud and VVGTV starts a new community for XBLIG developers and gamers to join http://vvgtv.forumotion.com/ Raymond Matthews (@DrakstarMatryx) covers Mommy’s Best Games getting Serious http://www.darkstarmatryx.com/?p=286 XNA Development: Dave Henry (@mort8088) posts the 4th tutorial in his series XNA 4.0 SpriteBatch extended http://mort8088.com/2011/03/11/xna-4-0-tutorial-4-spritebatch-extended/ Tutorial 5 - Creating a manual blank texture http://mort8088.com/2011/03/13/xna-4-tutorial-5-manual-blank-texture/ XNA 4.0 Tutorial 6 - Spritesheet Object http://mort8088.com/2011/03/18/xna-4-0-tutorial-6-spritesheet-object/ Jason Mitchell shares a tutorial on setting the alpha value for spritebatch in XNA 4.0 http://www.jason-mitchell.com/index.php/2011/03/13/setting-alpha-value-for-spritebatch-draw-in-xna-4/ XNA for Silverlight Developers: Part 7 - Collision Detection http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/XNA-for-Silverlight-developers-Part-7-Collision-detection.aspx Markus Ewald (@Cygon4) shares the full Ninject 2.0 binding for XNA and Sunburn http://twitter.com/#!/Cygon4/status/48330203826622464 Michael B. McLaughlin shares an AccelerometerInput XNA GameComponent he created (which I’m probably going to snag for a game I’m working on...) http://geekswithblogs.net/mikebmcl/archive/2011/03/17/accelerometerinput-xna-gamecomponent.aspx Extra Credit tackles the building of a good tutorial. Must watch for all Indie game devs (thanks for pointing it out Evan Johnson!) http://twitter.com/#!/johnsonevan/status/48452115680604160 http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/2921-Tutorials-101 ExEn is fully funded at this point so definitely something for XBLIG developers to keep an eye on as they consider releasing their games on other platforms http://rockethub.com/projects/752-exen-xna-for-iphone-android-and-silverlight Channel 9 and Greg Duncan post Mixing the Game State Management and Platformer XNA Recipes http://channel9.msdn.com/coding4fun/blog/Mixing-the-Game-State-Management-and-Platformer-XNA-Recipes Sgt. Conker has noticed Mike McLaughlin has been crazy productive and has done a recap of his recent posts http://www.sgtconker.com/2011/03/recap-of-mikebmcls-posts/

    Read the article

  • SQL Saturday 43 in Redmond

    - by AjarnMark
    I attended my first SQLSaturday a couple of days ago, SQLSaturday #43 in Redmond (at Microsoft).  I got there really early, primarily because I forgot how fast I can get there from my home when nobody else is on the road.  On a weekday in rush hour traffic, that would have taken two hours to get there.  I gave myself 90 minutes, and actually got there in about 45.  Crazy! I made the mistake of going to the main Microsoft campus, but that’s not where the event was being held.  Instead it was in a big Microsoft conference center on the other side of the highway.  Fortunately, I had the address with me and quickly realized my mistake.  When I got back on track, I noticed that there were bright yellow signs out on the street corner that looked like they said they were for SOL Saturday, which actually was appropriate since it was the sunniest day around here in a long time. Since I was there so early, the registration was just getting setup, so I found Greg Larsen who was coordinating things and offered to help.  He put me to work with a group of people organizing the pre-printed raffle tickets and stuffing swag bags. I had never been to a SQLSaturday before this one, so I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect even though I have read about a few on some blogs.  It makes sense that each one will be a little bit different since they are almost completely volunteer driven, and the whole concept is still in its early stages.  I have been to the PASS Summit for the last several years, and was hoping for a smaller version of that.  Now, it’s not really fair to compare one free day of training run entirely by volunteers with a multi-day, $1,000+ event put on under the direction of a professional event management company.  But there are some parallels. At this SQLSaturday, there was no opening general session, just coffee and pastries in the common area / expo hallway and straight into the first group of sessions.  I don’t know if that was because there was no single room large enough to hold everyone, or for other reasons.  This worked out okay, but the organization guy in me would have preferred to have even a 15 minute welcome message from the organizers with a little overview of the day.  Even something as simple as, “Thanks to persons X, Y, and Z for helping put this together…Sessions will start in 20 minutes and are all in rooms down this hallway…the bathrooms are on the other side of the conference center…lunch today is pizza and we would like to thank sponsor Q for providing it.”  It doesn’t need to be much, certainly not a full-blown Keynote like at the PASS Summit, but something to use as a rallying point to pull everyone together and get the day off to an official start would be nice.  Again, there may have been logistical reasons why that was not feasible here.  I’m just putting out my thoughts for other SQLSaturday coordinators to consider. The event overall was great.  I believe that there were over 300 in attendance, and everything seemed to run smoothly.  At least from an attendee’s point of view where there was plenty of muffins in the morning and pizza in the afternoon, with plenty of pop to drink.  And hey, if you’ve got the food and drink covered, a lot of other stuff could go wrong and people will be very forgiving.  But as I said, everything appeared to run pretty smoothly, at least until Buck Woody showed up in his Oracle shirt.  Other than that, the volunteers did a great job! I was a little surprised by how few people in my own backyard that I know.  It makes sense if you really think about it, given how many companies must be using SQL Server around here.  I guess I just got spoiled coming into the PASS Summit with a few contacts that I already knew would be there.  Perhaps I have been spending too much time with too few people at the Summits and I need to step out and meet more folks.  Of course, it also is different since the Summit is the big national event and a number of the folks I know are spread out across the country, so the Summit is the only time we’re all in the same place at the same time.  I did make a few new contacts at SQLSaturday, and bumped into a couple of people that I knew (and a couple others that I only knew from Twitter, and didn’t even realize that they were here in the area). Other than the sheer entertainment value of Buck Woody’s session, the one that was probably the greatest value for me was a quick introduction to PowerShell.  I have not done anything with it yet, but I think it will be a good tool to use to implement my plans for automated database recovery testing.  I saw just enough at the session to take away some of the intimidation factor, and I am getting ready to jump in and see what I can put together in the next few weeks.  And that right there made the investment worthwhile.  So I encourage you, if you have the opportunity to go to a SQLSaturday event near you, go for it!

    Read the article

  • SQLAuthority News – #SQLPASS 2012 Seattle Update – Memorylane 2009, 2010, 2011

    - by pinaldave
    Today is the first day of the SQLPASS 2012 and I will be soon posting SQL Server 2012 experience over here. Today when I landed in Seattle, I got the nostalgia feeling. I used to stay in the USA. I stayed here for more than 7 years – I studied here and I worked in USA. I had lots of friends in Seattle when I used to stay in the USA. I always wanted to visit Seattle because it is THE place. I remember once I purchased a ticket to travel to Seattle through Priceline (well it was the cheapest option and I was a student) but could not fly because of an interesting issue. I used to be Teaching Assistant of an advanced course and the professor asked me to build a pop-quiz for the course. I unfortunately had to cancel the trip. Before I returned to India – I pretty much covered every city existed in my list to must visit, except one – Seattle. It was so interesting that I never made it to Seattle even though I wanted to visit, when I was in USA. After that one time I never got a chance to travel to Seattle. After a few years I also returned to India for good. Once on Television I saw “Sleepless in Seattle” movie playing and I immediately changed the channel as it reminded me that I never made it to Seattle before. However, destiny has its own way to handle decisions. After I returned to India – I visited Seattle total of 5 times and this is my 6th visit to Seattle in less than 3 years. I was here for 3 previous SQLPASS events – 2009, 2010, and 2011 as well two Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Summit in 2009 and 2010. During these five trips I tried to catch up with all of my all friends but I realize that time has its own way of doing things. Many moved out of Seattle and many were too busy revive the old friendship but there were few who always make a point to meet me when I travel to the city. During the course of my visits I have made few fantastic new friends – Rick Morelan (Joes 2 Pros) and Greg Lynch. Every time I meet them I feel that I know them for years. I think city of Seattle has played very important part in our relationship that I got these fantastic friends. SQLPASS is the event where I find all of my SQL Friends and I look for this event for an entire year. This year’s my goal is to meet as many as new friends I can meet. If you are going to be at SQLPASS – FIND ME. I want to have a photo with you. I want to remember each name as I believe this is very important part of our life – making new friends and sustaining new friendship. Here are few of the pointers where you can find me. All Keynotes – Blogger’s Table Exhibition Booth Joes 2 Pros Booth #117 – Do not forget to stop by at the booth – I might have goodies for you – limited editions. Book Signing Events – Check details in tomorrow’s blog or stop by Booth #117 Evening Parties 6th Nov – Welcome Reception Evening Parties 7th Nov - Exhibitor Reception – Do not miss Booth #117 Evening Parties 8th Nov - Community Appreciation Party Additionally at few other locations – Embarcadero Booth In Coffee shops in Convention Center If you are SQLPASS – make sure that I find an opportunity to meet you at the event. Reserve a little time and lets have a coffee together. I will be continuously tweeting about my where about on twitter so let us stay connected on twitter. Here is my experience of my earlier experience of attending SQLPASS. SQLAuthority News – Book Signing Event – SQLPASS 2011 Event Log SQLAuthority News – Meeting SQL Friends – SQLPASS 2011 Event Log SQLAuthority News – Story of Seattle – SQLPASS 2011 Event Log SQLAuthority News – SQLPASS Nov 8-11, 2010-Seattle – An Alternative Look at Experience SQLAuthority News – Notes of Excellent Experience at SQL PASS 2009 Summit, Seattle Let us meet! Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)   Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL PASS, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology

    Read the article

  • Reading the tea leaves from Windows Azure support

    - by jamiet
    A few idle thoughts… Three months ago I had an issue regarding Windows Azure where I was unable to login to the management portal. At the time I contacted Azure support, the issue was soon resolved and I thought no more about it. Until today that is when I received an email from Azure support providing a detailed analysis of the root cause, the fix and moreover precise details about when and where things occurred. The email itself is interesting and I have included the entirety of it below. A few things were interesting to me: The level of detail and the diligence in investigating and reporting the issue I found really rather impressive. They even outline the number of users that were affected (127 in case you can’t be bothered reading). Compare this to the quite pathetic support that another division within Microsoft, Skype, provided to Greg Low recently: Skype support and dead parrot sketches   This line: “Windows Azure performed a planned change from using the Microsoft account service (formerly Windows Live ID) to the Azure Active Directory (AAD) as its primary authentication mechanism on August 24th. This change was made to enable future innovation in the area of authentication – particularly for organizationally owned identities, identity federation, stronger authentication methods and compliance certification. ” I also found to be particularly interesting. I have long thought that one of the reasons Microsoft has proved to be such a money-making machine in the enterprise is because they provide the infrastructure and then upsell on top of that – and nothing is more infrastructural than Active Directory. It has struck me of late that they are trying to make the same play of late in the cloud by tying all their services into Azure Active Directory and here we see a clear indication of that by making AAD the authentication mechanism for anyone using Windows Azure. I get the feeling that we’re going to hear much much more about AAD in the future; isn’t it about time we could log on to SQL Azure Windows Azure SQL Database without resorting to SQL authentication, for example? And why do Microsoft have two identity providers – Microsoft Account (aka Windows Live ID) and AAD – isn’t it about time those things were combined? As I said, just some idle thoughts. Below is the transcript of the email if you are interested. @Jamiet  This is regarding the support request <redacted> where in you were not able to login into the windows azure management portal with live id. We are providing you with the summary, root cause analysis and information about permanent fix: Incident Title: You were unable to access Windows Azure Portal after Microsoft Account to Azure Active Directory account Migration. Service Impacted: Management Portal Incident Start Date and Time: 8/24/2012 4:30:00 PM Date and Time Service was Restored: 10/17/2012 12:00:00 AM Summary: Windows Azure performed a planned change from using the Microsoft account service (formerly Windows Live ID) to the Azure Active Directory (AAD) as its primary authentication mechanism on August 24th.   This change was made to enable future innovation in the area of authentication – particularly for organizationally owned identities, identity federation, stronger authentication methods and compliance certification.   While this migration was largely transparent to Windows Azure users, a small number of users whose sign-in names were part of a Windows Live Custom Domain were unable to login.   This incompatibility was not discovered during the Quality Assurance testing phase prior to the migration. Customer Impact: Customers whose sign-in names were part of a Windows Live Custom Domain were unable to sign-in the Management Portal after ~4:00 p.m. PST on August 24th, 2012.   We determined that the issue did impact at least 127 users in 98 of these Windows Live Custom Domains and had a maximum potential impact of 1,110 users in total. Root Cause: The root cause of the issue was an incompatibility in the AAD authentication service to handle logins from Microsoft accounts whose sign-in names were part of a Windows Live Custom Domains.  This issue was not discovered during the Quality Assurance testing phase prior to the migration from Microsoft Account (MSA) to AAD. Mitigations: The issue was mitigated for the majority of affected users by 8:20 a.m. PST on August 25th, 2012 by running some internal scripts to correct many known Windows Live Custom Domains.   The remaining affected domains fell into two categories: Windows Live Custom Domains that were not corrected by 8/25/2012. An additional 48 Windows Live Custom Domains were fixed in the weeks following the incident within 2 business days after the AAD team received an escalation from product support regarding those accounts. Windows Live Custom domains that were also provisioned in Office365. Some of the affected Windows Live Custom Domains had already been provisioned in AAD because their owners signed up for Office365 which is a service that also uses AAD.   In these cases the Azure customers had to work around the issue by renaming their Microsoft Account or using a different Microsoft Account to administer their Azure subscription. Permanent Fix: The Azure Active Directory team permanently fixed the issue for all customers on 10/17/2012 in an upgraded release of the AAD service.

    Read the article

  • Delphi TBytesField - How to see the text properly - Source is HIT OLEDB AS400

    - by myitanalyst
    We are connecting to a multi-member AS400 iSeries table via HIT OLEDB and HIT ODBC. You connect to this table via an alias to access a specific multi-member. We create the alias on the AS400 this way: CREATE ALIAS aliasname FOR table(membername) We can then query each member of the table this way: SELECT * FROM aliasname We are testing this in Delphi6 first, but will move it to D2010 later We are using HIT OLEDB for the AS400. We are pulling down records from a table and the field is being seen as a tBytesField. I have also tried ODBC driver and it sees as tBytesField as well. Directly on the AS400 I can query the data and see readable text. I can use the iSeries Navigation tool and see readable text as well. However when I bring it down to the Delphi client via the HIT OLEDB or HIT ODBC and try to view via asString then I just see unreadable text.. something like this: ñðð@ðõñððððñ÷@õôððõñòøóóöøñðÂÁÕÒ@ÖÆ@ÁÔÅÙÉÃÁ@@@@@@@@ÂÈÙÉâãæÁðòñè@ÔK@k@ÉÕÃK@@@@@@@@@ç I jumbled up the text above, but that is the character types that show up. When I did a test in D2010 the text looks like japanse or chinese characters, but if I display as AnsiString then it looks like what it does in Delphi 6. I am thinking this may have something to do with code pages or character sets, but I have no experience in this are so it is new to me if it is related. When I look at the Coded Character Set on the AS400 it is set to 65535. What do I need to do to make this text readable? We do have a third party component (Delphi400) that makes things behave in a more native AS400 manner. When I use its AS400 connection and AS400 query components it shows the field as a tStringField and displays just fine. BUT we are phasing out this product (for a number of reasons) and would really like the OLEDB with the ADO components work. Just for clarification the HIT OLEDB with tADOQuery do have some fields showing as tStringFields for many of the other tables we use... not sure why it is showing as a tBytesField in this case. I am not an AS400 expert, but looking at the field definititions on the AS400 the ones showing up as tBytesField look the same as the ones showing up as tStringFields... but there must be a difference. Maybe due to being a multi-member? So... does anyone have any guidance on how to get the correct string data that is readable? If you need more info please ask. Greg

    Read the article

  • CQRS - Should a Command try to create a "complex" master-detail entity?

    - by Simon Crabtree
    I've been reading Greg Young and Udi Dahan's thoughts on Command Query Responsibilty Separation and a lot of what I read strikes a chord with me. My domain (we track vehicles which are doing deliveries) has the concept of a Route which contains one or more Stops. I need my customers to be able to set these up in our system by calling a webservice, and then be able to retrieve information about a Route and how the vehicle is progressing. In the past I would have "cut-down" DTO classes which closely resemble my domain classes, and the customer would create a RouteDto with an array of StopDto(s), and call our CreateRoute webmethod, passing in the RouteDto. When they query our system by calling the GetRouteDetails method, I would return exactly the same objects to them. One of the appealing aspects of CQRS is that the RouteDto might have all manner of properties that the customer wants to query, but have no business setting when they create a Route. So I create a separate CreateRouteRequest class which is passed in when calling the CreateRoute "command", and a Route DTO class which gets returned as a query result. class Route{ string Reference; List<Stop> Stops; } But I need my customer to provide me with Route AND Stop details when they create a route. As I see it I could either... Give my CreateRouteRequest class a Stops(s) property which is an array of "something" representing the data they need to provide about each stop - but what do I call this class? It's not a Stop as that's what I'm calling the list of DTO inside my Route DTO, but I don't like "CreateStopRequest". I also wonder if I'm stuck in a CRUD mindset here thinking in terms of master-detail information and asking the customer to think like that too. class CreateRouteRequest{ string Reference; ... List<CreateStopRequest> Stops; } or They call CreateRoute, and then make a number of calls to an AddStopToRoute method. This feels a bit more "behavioural" but I'm going to lose the ability to treat creating a route including its stops as a single atomic command. If they create a Route and then try to add a Stop which fails due to some validation problem they're going to have a partially correct Route. The fact that I can't come up with a good name for the list of "StopCreationData" objects I'd be working with in option 1, makes me wonder if there's something I'm missing.

    Read the article

  • CodePlex Daily Summary for Wednesday, May 26, 2010

    CodePlex Daily Summary for Wednesday, May 26, 2010New Projects3D File Manager: 3D File manager is an application that aims to show how could look file manager in 3D. It´s developed in C# and XNA frameworkAcies: Acies is a dungeon crawler game done with C# and XNA.ActiveWinery: The open source winery and vineyard application.CC.Yacht: CC.Yacht is a client/server yacht dice game written in C# .NET. It utilizes a net.tcp WCF duplex service for client/server communication.Community Forums NNTP bridge: Community project for accessing the MS Web-Forums via an open source NNTP newsserver (bridge).Dojo Timer: WPF timer for Coding Dojo meetings. Timer feito em WPF para Coding Dojo.GameFX - The Game Development Framework: The Game Development Framework (GameFX) is simply a set of libraries to be used as the foundation for any simple 2D tile-based game. It can be used...Greg Roberts MVC Extensions: Asp.Net MVC Extensions including JSONP ActionResult. Targeted for MVC 2 and .NET 4.0.IIS Deploy: Project to develop a tool that automates the deploy Web sites and WCF services in single server environments and clustered.MarkLogic Sample Authoring App for Word: The MarkLogic Authoring Sample App for Word lets authors enrich Word documents using Content Controls, associate and manage metadata with those Con...Mono.Addins: Mono.Addins is a framework for creating extensible applications, and for creating add-ins which extend applications.MPCLI: MPCLI is a library that brings the power of the GNU MP big numbers library to those who use CLS-compliant languages such as C#, F#, and Visual Basi...NTFS parser classes: This is a C++ library to help parsing an NTFS volume, as well as file records and attributes. It will facilitate much when handling NTFS filesystem...Oddworld Level Gen: A 2D platform game, with Oddworld : Abe's Oddysee asset. The game introduce a dynamic system to generate the next level according to the previous l...Page Action Web Part for SharePoint 2007: This Web Part for SharePoint 2007 allows you to perform actions (such as causing an "Access is denied", redirect to another web page, view content ...Piggy Bank: Piggy Bank is a web-based financial application targetted towards kids.Productivity Hub Solutions: The Productivity Hub 2010 is a customizable, on-premise training solution for technology products. Developed by RedTech for Microsoft, the Producti...PyQt port of TortoiseHg: PyQt port of TortoiseHg (aka TortoiseHg 2.0)Releaser™: This is my private project. Currently, I'm not going to support it publicly.SLManagers: SLManagers 用于动态加载组件 实现对程序不同的的管理Smith Async .NET Memcached Client: Async .NET Memcached Client is a fully asynchronous implementation of a memcached client. The advantage of a fully asynchronous client is that you...Tauck Public API: Tauck's public API allows for travel agencies and other parterners to use Tauck's product information in their websites and other systems. Virtualizing WrapPanel: Virtualizing WrapPanel improves performance when binding a ListBox/ListView to a large amount of data. It is written in C#New Releases3D File Manager: 3D File manager: 3D File managerAragon Online Client: Aragon Online Client: The executable version of the Aragon Online Client can be installed from the Aragon Online page: http://aragon-online.net/aoclient/publish.phpASP.NET MVC CMS ( Using CommonLibrary.NET ): CommonLibrary CMS Alpha 2: CommonLibrary CMSA simple yet powerful CMS system in ASP.NET MVC 2 using C# 3.5. ActiveRecord based support for Blogs, Widgets, Pages, Parts, Ev...BFBC2 PRoCon: PRoCon 0.5.1.8: It's not even funny anymore =\Code for Rapid C# Windows Development eBook: LLBLGen LINQPad Data Context Driver Ver 1.0.0.3: Second release of a Static LLBLGen Pro Data Context Driver for LINQPad For LLBLGen Pro versions 2.6 and 3.0 beta. Fixed 'connection string not ini...Community Forums NNTP bridge: Community Forums NNTP Bridge V01: This is the first release of the Community Forums NNTP Bridge to access the social and anwsers MS forums with a single, open sourcen NNTP Bridge.Community Forums NNTP bridge: Community Forums NNTP Bridge V02: This is the second release of the Community Forums NNTP Bridge to access the social and anwsers MS forums with a single, open sourcen NNTP Bridge. ...DDDSample.Net: 0.9: Release 0.9 contains two major improvements: Vanilla version (both Synch and Asynch) has been updated so its model more closely resembles Java orig...DEWD: DEWD for Umbraco: Alpha release of the package. Usable for simple SQL editing, but lacking some core features such as validation, user friendly error handling, confi...Dojo Timer: Dojo Timer v1: Primeira versão Dojo Timer.eXpress Persistent Objects (XPO) Toolkit: Samples: Video Channel Channel.zip sample shows how to build a video site using XPO and WCF Data Services. DevExpress Channel DevExpress Channel Browse ...F# Project Extender: V0.9.2.1 (VS2008,VS2010): F# project extender for Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Studio 2010. Fixed bugs: -Project extender 0.9.2.0 can't be loaded in VS2008 without SDKFeedback Form: Feedback Application: Installer of the projectFeedback Form: Feedback Form: .sln for Feedback Form ApplicationGameFX - The Game Development Framework: Version 1.0 (Beta): Project is Visual Studio 2008 solution. GameFX Source code and sample program. The sample program allows you to create maps of any size, and drop ...MarkLogic Sample Authoring App for Word: MarkLogic Sample Authoring App for Word 1.0-1: Initial release of the MarkLogic Sample Authoring App for Word. See the home page for an overview on functionality. Within the release you'll ...MarkLogic Toolkit for Word: MarkLogic Toolkit for Word 1.2-1: Release built in support of the MarkLogic Sample Authoring App for Word. Updates include: update to XQuery API to expose functions for working w...Microsoft SQL Server Community & Samples: SQL Server 2008R2 RTM: Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2 (RTM) This release contains sample code for Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2. For many of these samples you will also need...Microsoft SQL Server Product Samples: Analysis Services: SQL Server 2008R2 RTM: Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2 (RTM) This release is dedicated to the samples that ship for Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2. For many of these samples y...Microsoft SQL Server Product Samples: Data Programming: SQL Server 2008R2 RTM: Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2 (RTM) This release is dedicated to the samples that ship for Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2. For many of these samples y...Microsoft SQL Server Product Samples: Database: AdventureWorks 2008R2 RTM: Sample Databases for Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2 (RTM)This release is dedicated to the sample databases that ship for Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2. ...Microsoft SQL Server Product Samples: End to End: SQL Server 2008R2 RTM: Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2 (RTM) This release is dedicated to the samples that ship for Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2. For many of these samples y...Microsoft SQL Server Product Samples: Engine: SQL Server 2008R2 RTM: Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2 (RTM) This release is dedicated to the samples that ship for Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2. For many of these samples y...Microsoft SQL Server Product Samples: Integration Services: SQL Server 2008R2 RTM: Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2 (RTM) This release is dedicated to the samples that ship for Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2. For many of these samples y...Microsoft SQL Server Product Samples: Replication: SQL Server 2008R2 RTM: Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2 (RTM) This release is dedicated to the samples that ship for Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2. For many of these samples y...Microsoft SQL Server Product Samples: Reporting Services: SQL Server 2008R2 RTM: Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2 (RTM) This release is dedicated to the samples that ship for Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2. For many of these samples y...Microsoft SQL Server Product Samples: Scripts: SQL Server 2008R2 RTM: Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2 (RTM) This release is dedicated to the samples that ship for Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2. For many of these samples y...Microsoft SQL Server Product Samples: Service Broker: SQL Server 2008R2 RTM: Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2 (RTM) This release is dedicated to the samples that ship for Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2. For many of these samples y...Microsoft SQL Server Product Samples: XML: SQL Server 2008R2 RTM: Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2 (RTM) This release is dedicated to the samples that ship for Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2. For many of these samples y...NLog - Advanced .NET Logging: Nightly Build 2010.05.25.001: Changes since the last build:2010-05-24 23:08:47 Jarek Kowalski Fixed base constructor invocation to ensure consistency. Added tests for common wra...NTFS parser classes: NTFS parser lib 0.55: 0.55openrs: Revision 3: Things that have been added since last release: Vector expanding Dynamic vectors Vector put method chaining Basic ISAAC implementation Wor...Page Action Web Part for SharePoint 2007: Page Action Web Part v1.0.0.0: First release of the Page Action Web Part v1.0.0.0.Productivity Hub Solutions: Silverlight Bookshelf: The Silverlight Bookshelf component of the 2010 Productivity Hub provides 4 accordion-style vertical tabs dispalying Featured Video, Featured Conte...Productivity Hub Solutions: Silverlight Product Carousel: The Product Carousel Silverlight component provides a rich navigation experience to the home page of the 2010 Productivity Hub - presenting the pro...Rawr: Rawr 2.3.18: >Rawr3 Public Beta has been released! Click here for details.< - Fix for bug in parsing characters with certain abnormal characters in their data. ...Runtime Intelligence Data Visualizer: RI Data Visualizer Release 1: This release of the RI Data Visualizer contains both a WPF client that displays application usage data and a Silverlight client that displays featu...sGSHOPedit: sGSHOPedit v1.1a: Fixed: bug in parsing description from "itemextdesc.txt" Fixed: surface change event Fixed: range for numeric values Added: search featureSLManagers: SlManagers: 实现简单的组件动态下载 使用Mef技术Sudoku (Multiplayer in RnD): Sudoku (Multiplayer in RnD) 1.0.1.0 program: Sudoku project was to practice on C# by making a desktop application using some algorithm Idea: The basic idea of algorithm is from http://www.ac...Sudoku (Multiplayer in RnD): Sudoku (Multiplayer in RnD) 1.0.1.0 source: user-interface, multi-threading, formatting Sudoku project was to practice on C# by making a desktop application using some algorithm Idea: The...Tauck Public API: XML Package 1.0: Current Release of XML dataTeach.Net: Teach.Net 1.0 Alpha: First alpha version. It should work, but there's gonna be bugs. Also, no intellisense documentation (or any other sort of documentation) yet. I'm w...VCC: Latest build, v2.1.30525.0: Automatic drop of latest buildVista Media Center TCP/IP Controller: Win7 64 and 32 bit Alpha - button command fix: button command fix , button-play, button-pause, button-skip back, button-skip fwd. Confirmed works on x64. Has not been tested on x32XsltDb - DotNetNuke Module Universal Building Block: 01.01.21: ASP.NET controls TreeView and TextEditor usage Live demo site Attention This release requires DNN 5.2 or higher as it using Telerik classes.in...Most Popular ProjectsRawrWBFS ManagerAJAX Control ToolkitMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: DatabaseSilverlight ToolkitWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)patterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryMicrosoft SQL Server Community & SamplesPHPExcelASP.NETMost Active ProjectsAStar.netpatterns & practices – Enterprise Librarypatterns & practices: Windows Azure Security GuidanceRawrSqlServerExtensionsMono.AddinsBlogEngine.NETGMap.NET - Great Maps for Windows Forms & PresentationCodeReviewCaliburn: An Application Framework for WPF and Silverlight

    Read the article

  • C# LINQ XML Query with duplicate element names that have attributes

    - by ncain187
    <Party id="Party_1"> <PartyTypeCode tc="1">Person</PartyTypeCode> <FullName>John Doe</FullName> <GovtID>123456789</GovtID> <GovtIDTC tc="1">Social Security Number US</GovtIDTC> <ResidenceState tc="35">New Jersey</ResidenceState> <Person> <FirstName>Frank</FirstName> <MiddleName>Roberts</MiddleName> <LastName>Madison</LastName> <Prefix>Dr.</Prefix> <Suffix>III</Suffix> <Gender tc="1">Male</Gender> <BirthDate>1974-01-01</BirthDate> <Age>35</Age> <Citizenship tc="1">United States of America</Citizenship> </Person> <Address> <AddressTypeCode tc="26">Bill Mailing</AddressTypeCode> <Line1>2400 Meadow Lane</Line1> <Line2></Line2> <Line3></Line3> <Line4></Line4> <City>Somerset</City> <AddressStateTC tc="35">New Jersey</AddressStateTC> <Zip>07457</Zip> <AddressCountryTC tc="1">United States of America</AddressCountryTC> </Address> </Party> <!-- *********************** --> <!-- Insured Information --> <!-- *********************** --> <Party id="Party_2"> <PartyTypeCode tc="1">Person</PartyTypeCode> <FullName>Dollie Robert Madison</FullName> <GovtID>123956239</GovtID> <GovtIDTC tc="1">Social Security Number US</GovtIDTC> <Person> <FirstName>Dollie</FirstName> <MiddleName>R</MiddleName> <LastName>Madison</LastName> <Suffix>III</Suffix> <Gender tc="2">Female</Gender> <BirthDate>1996-10-12</BirthDate> <Citizenship tc="1">United States of America</Citizenship> </Person> <!-- Insured Address --> <Address> <AddressTypeCode tc="26">Bill Mailing</AddressTypeCode> <Line1>2400 Meadow Lane</Line1> <City>Somerset</City> <AddressStateTC tc="35">New Jersey</AddressStateTC> <Zip>07457</Zip> <AddressCountryTC tc="1">United States of America</AddressCountryTC> </Address> <Risk> <!-- Disability Begin Effective Date --> <DisabilityEffectiveStartDate>2006-01-01</DisabilityEffectiveStartDate> <!-- Disability End Effective Date --> <DisabilityEffectiveStopDate>2008-01-01</DisabilityEffectiveStopDate> </Risk> </Party> <!-- ******************************* --> <!-- Company Information --> <!-- ****************************** --> <Party id="Party_3"> <PartyTypeCode tc="2">Organization</PartyTypeCode> <Organization> <DTCCMemberCode>1234</DTCCMemberCode> </Organization> <Carrier> <CarrierCode>105</CarrierCode> </Carrier> </Party> Here is my code which doesn't work because party 3 doesn't contain FullName, I know that partyelements contains 3 parties if I only return the name attribute. Is there a way to loop through each tag seperate? var partyElements = from party in xmlDoc.Descendants("Party") select new { Name = party.Attribute("id").Value, PartyTypeCode = party.Element("PartyTypeCode").Value, FullName = party.Element("FullName").Value, GovtID = party.Element("GovtID").Value, };

    Read the article

  • Company Review: Google Products

    Google, Inc offers an array of products and services to all of its end-users. However their search capabilities are the foundation for Google’s current success and their primary business focus. Currently, Google offers over twenty different search applications that allow users to search the internet for books, maps, videos, images, products and much more. Their product decisions have allowed users demands to be met while focusing on the free based model. This allows users to access Google data free of charge and indirectly gives Google a strong competitive advantage of other competitors along with the accuracy of the search results. According to Google, Inc, they offer the following types of searching capabilities: Alerts Get email updates on the topics of your choice Blog Search Find blogs on your favorite topics  Books Search the full text of books  Custom Search Create a customized search experience for your community  Desktop Search and personalize your computer  Dictionary Search for definitions of words and phrases Directory Search the web, organized by topic or category Earth Explore the world from your computer Finance Business info, news and interactive charts GOOG-411 Find and connect for free with businesses from your phone  Images Search for images on the web Maps View maps and directions News Search thousands of news stories Patent Search Search the full text of US Patents Product Search Search for stuff to buy Scholar Search scholarly papers Toolbar Add a search box to your browser Trends Explore past and present search trends Videos Search for videos on the web Web Search Search billions of web pages Web Search Features Find movies, music, stocks, books and more mapping Google’s free based business model is only one way it differentiates itself from its competition. There is also a strong focus on the accuracy of search results and the speed in which they are returned to the end-user. Quality function deployment (QFD) is a structured method used to help connect user needs to the design features of a project proposed to address those needs. This method is particularly useful in accounting for needs that are not easily articulated or precisely defined according to the U. S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration. Due to the fact that QFD is so customer driven Google is always in a constant state of change in attempt to reengineer its search algorithms, and other dependant systems so that end-users requirements are constantly being met. Value engineering is a key example of this, Google is constantly trying to improve all aspects of its products, improve system maintainability, and system interoperability. Bridgefield Group defines value engineering as an organized methodology that identifies and selects the lowest lifecycle cost options in design, materials and processes that achieves the desired level of performance, reliability and customer satisfaction. In addition, it seeks to remove unnecessary costs in the above areas and is often a joint effort with cross-functional internal teams and relevant suppliers. Common issues that appear when developing large scale systems like Google’s search applications include modular design of a product and/or service and providing accurate value analysis. A design approach that adheres to four fundamental tenets of cohesiveness, encapsulation, self-containment, and high binding to design a system component as an independently operable unit subject to change is how the Open System Joint Task Force defines modular design. More specifically M. S. Schmaltz defines modular software design as having a large collection of statements strung together in one partition of in-line code; we segment or divide the statements into logical groups called modules. Each module performs one or two tasks, and then passes control to another module. By breaking up the code into "bite-sized chunks", so to speak, we are able to better control the flow of data and control. This is especially true in large software systems. Value analysis is a process to evaluate products and services based on effectiveness, safety, and cost. Value analysis involves assessing the quality as well as the cost of a product or service as defined by the Healthcare Financial Management Association.  “Operations Management deals with the design and management of products, processes, services and supply chains. It considers the acquisition, development, and utilization of resources that firms need to deliver the goods and services their clients want.” (MIT,2010) Google, Inc encourages an open environment between all employees, also known as Googlers. This is reinforced by a cross-section team or cross-functional teams comprised from multiple departments assigned to every project so that every department like marketing, finance, and quality assurance has input on every project. In addition, Google is known for their openness to new ideas regardless of the status or seniority of an employee. In fact, Google allows for 20% of an employee’s time can be devoted to developing new ideas and/or pet projects. HumTech.com defines a cross-functional team as a collection of people with varied levels of skills and experience brought together to accomplish a task. As the name implies, Cross-Functional Team members come from different organizational units. Cross-Functional Teams may be permanent or ad hoc. Google’s search application product strategy primarily focuses on mass customization. This is allows Google to create a base search application and allows results to be returned to the end-users quickly based on specific parameters and search settings. In addition, they also store the data that is returned in case other desire the same results based on other end-users supplying the same customized settings. This allows Google to appear to render search results in virtually real-time to the user while allowing for complete customization of the searching criteria. Greg Vogl, a professor at Uganda Martyrs University, defines mass customization as when a business gives its customers the opportunity to tailor its products or services to the customer's specifications. The IT staff at Google play a key role in ensuring that the search application’s product strategy is maintained simply because the IT staff designs, develops, and maintains all of their proprietary applications. In fact, they also maintain all network infrastructure to ensure that it is available to all end-users. References: http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/ http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/freight/publications/ftat_user_guide/sec5.htm http://www.bridgefieldgroup.com/bridgefieldgroup/glos9.htm#V http://www.acq.osd.mil/osjtf/termsdef.html http://www.cise.ufl.edu/~mssz/Pascal-CGS2462/prog-dsn.html http://www.hfma.org/publications/business_caring_newsletter/exclusives/Supply+and+Inventory+Terms+Defined.htm http://mitsloan.mit.edu/omg/om-definition.php http://www.humtech.com/opm/grtl/ols/ols3.cfm http://www.gregvogl.net/courses/mis1/glossary.htm

    Read the article

  • SQL Sentry First Impressions

    - by AjarnMark
    After struggling to defend my SQL Servers from a political attack recently, I realized that I needed better tools to back me up, and SQL Sentry is the leading candidate. A couple of weeks ago, seemingly from out of nowhere, complaints from the business users started coming in that one of the core internal applications was running dramatically slower than normal, and fingers were being pointed at the SQL Server.  Unfortunately, we don’t have a production DBA whose entire job is to monitor and maintain our SQL Servers.  The responsibility falls to me to do the best I can, investing only a small portion of my time, because there are so many other responsibilities to take care of, and our industry is still deep in recession.  I inherited these SQL Servers and have made significant improvements in process and procedure, but I had not yet made the time to take real baseline measurements or keep a really close eye on the performance.  Like many DBAs, I wrote several of my own tools and used the “built-in tools” like Profiler, PerfMon, and sp_who2 (did I mention most of our instances are SQL Server 2000?).  These have all served me well for in-the-moment troubleshooting and maintenance, but they really fell down on the job when I was called upon to “prove” that SQL Server performance was acceptable and more importantly had not degraded recently (i.e. historical comparisons).  I really didn’t have anything from a historical comparison perspective, but I was able to show that current performance was acceptable, and deflect attention back onto other components (which in fact turned out to be the real culprit). That experience dramatically illustrated the need for better monitoring tools.  Coincidentally, I had been talking recently to my boss about the mini nightmare of monitoring several critical and interdependent overnight jobs that operate on separate instances of SQL Server.  Among other tools, I had been using Idera’s SQL Job Manager which is a free tool and did a nice job of showing me job schedules and histories in a nice calendar view.  This worked fairly well, and for the money (did I mention it was free?) it couldn’t be beat.  But it is based on the stored job history in MSDB, and there were other performance problems that we ran into when we started changing the settings for how much job history to retain, in order to be able to look back a month or more in the calendar view.  Another coincidence (if you believe in such things) was that when we had some of those performance challenges, I posted a couple of questions to the #sqlhelp hashtag on Twitter and Greg Gonzalez (@SQLSensei) suggested I check out SQL Sentry’s Event Manager.  At the time, I just thought he worked there, but later found out that he founded the company.  When I took a quick look at the features & benefits, the one that really jumped out at me is Chaining and Queueing which sounded like it would really help with our “interdependent jobs on different servers” issue. I know that is a lot of background story and coincidences, but hopefully you have stuck with me so far, and now we have arrived at the point where last week I downloaded and installed the 30-day trial of the SQL Sentry Power Suite, which is Event Manager plus Performance Advisor.  And I must say that I really like what I see so far.  Here are a few highlights: Great Support.  I had two issues getting the trial setup and monitoring a handful of our servers.  One of which was entirely my fault (missed a security setting in SQL 2008) and the other was mostly my fault (late change to some config settings that were apparently cached and did not get refreshed properly).  In both cases, the support staff at SQL Sentry were very responsive and rather quickly figured out what the cause and fix was for each of them.  This left me with a great impression of the company.  Kudos to them! Chaining and Queueing.  While I have not yet activated this feature, I am very excited about the possibilities.  We have jobs on three different instances of SQL Server that have to be run in a certain order, and each has to finish before the next can successfully begin, and I believe this feature will ensure just that.  It has been a real pain in the backside when one of those jobs runs just a little too long and does not finish before the job on another instance starts, thus triggering a chain reaction of either outright job failures, or worse, successful completion of completely invalid processing. Calendar View.  I really, really like the Event Manager calendar view where I can see all jobs and events across all instances and identify potential resource contention as well as windows of opportunity for maintenance activity.  Very well done, and based on Event Manager’s own database of accumulated historical information rather than querying the source instances every time. Performance Advisor Dashboard History View.  This view let’s me quickly select a date and time range and it displays graphs of key SQL Server and Windows metrics.  This is exactly the thing I needed to answer the “has performance changed recently” question at the beginning of this post. Reporting Services Subscription Jobs with Report Name.  This was a big and VERY pleasant surprise.  If you have ever looked at the list of SQL Server jobs that SQL Server Reporting Services creates when you make a Subscription, you will notice that they all have some sort of GUID as the name of the job.  This is really ugly, and really annoying because when you are just looking at the SQL Agent and Job Activity Monitor, if you see that Job X failed, you really do not have any indication in the name or the properties of the Job itself, as to what Report that was for.  But with SQL Sentry Event Manager you do.  The Jobs list in the Navigator pane in SQL Sentry, amazingly, displays the name of the Report that the Subscription Job is for.  And when you open it to see more details, it shows you the full Reporting Services path to that Report, so you can immediately track it down in the Report Manager in case you want to identify/notify the owner or edit the Subscription information.  I did not expect this at all, but I sure do like it.  HOORAY! That is just my first impressions from using the tools for a few days.  And I haven’t even gotten into how it showed me where I was completely mistaken about one aspect of my SQL Server disk configurations.  I’ll share that lesson in another blog entry.  But I have to say it again, the combination of Event Manager and Performance Advisor working together have really made me a fan.

    Read the article

< Previous Page | 32 33 34 35 36 37  | Next Page >