process improvement - Page 368

Firefox, Chrome, and Flash on Ubuntu

- by Zimmer

Ok I have recently run into some problems and was hoping you guys could help; 1) On Chrome sometimes when I play a video (even on Youtube) the audio won't work (yet other apps audio will work) but after pressing the play button (pausing and unpausing the video) it finally works but if I pause the video and click play it goes back to not working until I re-do that process. 2) When I go to play videos in firefox or go to grooveshark it says I don't have flash; but I do and when I go to install flash it says I have the LAST version for linux but flash works on Chrome fine (well except the audio problem above which annoys me to no end!)

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Asciifi Is a Lightening Fast Web-Based ASCII Converter

- by Jason Fitzpatrick

If you have a hankering from some old-school ASCII artwork, Asciifi is a free and lightening fast HTML5 ASCII converter. Despite the simplicity of ASCII images (pictures created not out of a grid of colored pixels like a standard digital photograph but out of a grid of text characters) many ASCII converters are rather slow. Asciifi speeds up the process by rendering your images on the fly with a snappy HTML5-based converter. Visit the site, drag and drop your image, and almost instantaneously you’ll see the results. The output can be further tweaked by adjusting the line width and the character set used. Hit up the link below to take it for a test drive. Asciifi [via Digital Inspiration] HTG Explains: Understanding Routers, Switches, and Network Hardware How to Use Offline Files in Windows to Cache Your Networked Files Offline How to See What Web Sites Your Computer is Secretly Connecting To

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Power management issues on an Asus N55

- by Andrea Borga

I noticed that with respect to Win7 on my Asus N55 Ubuntu 12.04 tend to overheat the system. After startup the fan controller takes control of the fan, I could here it slowing down, after a few second following a login the fan increases its speed again. Though there are no processor hungry process: top shows only Xorg consuming 4%. Even with the system monitor the CPUs load look ok. Is it a power management related problem? This can cause battery life troubles in general, and electronics is never happy to be overheated. Is there a better tool to root the cause of the issue?

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Ruby on Rails background API polling

- by Matthew Turney

I need to integrate a free/busy calendar integration with Zimbra. Unlike outlook, it seems, Zimbra requires polling their API. I need to be able to grab the free/busy data in background tasks for 10's of thousands of users on a regular time interval, preferably every few minutes. What would be the best way to implement this in a Rails application without bogging down our current resque tasks? I have considered moving this process to something like node.js or something similar in Ruby. The biggest problem is that we have no control over the IO, as each clients Zimbra instances could be slow and we don't want to create a huge backup in tasks. Thoughts and ideas?

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SQL Script to Assign All Items to ALL Sites with Dynamics GP

- by Ryan McBee

v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} Normal 0 false false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} When setting up new items within Microsoft Dynamics GP, you will often run into the error message below which reads “This site is not assigned to the selected item. Do you want to assign this site?” The fix is quite simple given that you simply click the Add button below which opens up the Item Quantities Maintenance window which you will hit the save button and proceed with the entry of your Sales Order or Purchase Order. If you have a lot of new items into GP and have just one Site ID setup, the best approach to assigning your items to a particular site is by going to the Site Maintenance Window which is located in Cards>>Inventory>>Site. Once you are in the window below, you can click the Assign button to assign Items to the Site selected. However, if you have you a lot of Sites and Items created, this can be quite a cumbersome and time consuming process. For that, I have created the following SQL Script below that Assigns all Items to all Site ID’s within Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010. declare @item varchar(100) , @loc varchar(100) , @ItemExist int DECLARE TablePositionCursor CURSOR FOR SELECT itemnmbr from IV00101 i OPEN TablePositionCursor FETCH NEXT FROM TablePositionCursor INTO @item WHILE (@@fetch_status <> -1) BEGIN DECLARE TablePositionCursor2 CURSOR FOR select locncode from IV40700 OPEN TablePositionCursor2 FETCH NEXT FROM TablePositionCursor2 INTO @loc WHILE (@@fetch_status <> -1) BEGIN SELECT @ItemExist = isnull(count(*), 0) FROM IV00102 where ITEMNMBR = @item and LOCNCODE = @loc if @ItemExist = 0 BEGIN insert into iv00102 values( @item ,@loc ,'' ,2 ,'' ,0 ,0 ,0 ,0 ,'01/01/1900' ,'' ,'01/01/1900' ,0 ,0 ,0 ,0 ,0 ,0 ,0 ,0 ,0 ,0 ,0 ,0 ,'01/01/1900' ,'01/01/1900' ,'01/01/1900' ,'01/01/1900' ,0 ,'' ,'' ,'' ,1 ,0 ,0 ,1 ,0 ,0 ,1 ,2 ,0 ,0 ,0 ,0 ,0 ,0 ,0 ,1 ,0 ,0 ,0 ,3 ,0 ,0 ,0 ,'' ,'' ,'' ,'' ,'' ,'' ,'' ,'' ,1 ,1 ,'' ,1 ,1 ,0 ,1 ,1 ,1 ,0 ,0 ,0 ,0 ,0 ) END FETCH NEXT FROM TablePositionCursor2 INTO @loc END DEALLOCATE TablePositionCursor2 FETCH NEXT FROM TablePositionCursor INTO @item END DEALLOCATE TablePositionCursor The script below works just for GP 2010 since the columns in the IV00102 have changed from version to version. If you need it for prior versions, please email me and I will send it to you. Disclaimer: I tested this on limited data, if you find an issue or have a suggestion for improvement, please let me know and I will post the update here for everyone. This blog is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

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Channel Revenue Management and General Ledger Integration

- by LuciaC-Oracle

Back in February of this year, we told you about the EBS Business Process Advisor: CRM Channel Revenue Management document which has detailed information about the Channel Revenue Management application business flow and explains integration points with other applications. But we thought that you might like to have even more information on exactly how Channel Revenue Management passes data to General Ledger. Take a look at Integration Troubleshooting: Oracle Channel Revenue Management to GL via Subledger Accounting (Doc ID 1604094.2). This note includes comprehensive information about the data flow between Channel Revenue Management and GL, offers troubleshooting tips and explains some key setups. Let us know what you think - start a discussion in the My Oracle Support Channel Revenue Management Community!

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Computer Networks UNISA - Chap 14 – Insuring Integrity & Availability

- by MarkPearl

After reading this section you should be able to Identify the characteristics of a network that keep data safe from loss or damage Protect an enterprise-wide network from viruses Explain network and system level fault tolerance techniques Discuss issues related to network backup and recovery strategies Describe the components of a useful disaster recovery plan and the options for disaster contingencies What are integrity and availability? Integrity – the soundness of a networks programs, data, services, devices, and connections Availability – How consistently and reliably a file or system can be accessed by authorized personnel A number of phenomena can compromise both integrity and availability including… security breaches natural disasters malicious intruders power flaws human error users etc Although you cannot predict every type of vulnerability, you can take measures to guard against the most damaging events. The following are some guidelines… Allow only network administrators to create or modify NOS and application system users. Monitor the network for unauthorized access or changes Record authorized system changes in a change management system’ Install redundant components Perform regular health checks on the network Check system performance, error logs, and the system log book regularly Keep backups Implement and enforce security and disaster recovery policies These are just some of the basics… Malware Malware refers to any program or piece of code designed to intrude upon or harm a system or its resources. Types of Malware… Boot sector viruses Macro viruses File infector viruses Worms Trojan Horse Network Viruses Bots Malware characteristics Some common characteristics of Malware include… Encryption Stealth Polymorphism Time dependence Malware Protection There are various tools available to protect you from malware called anti-malware software. These monitor your system for indications that a program is performing potential malware operations. A number of techniques are used to detect malware including… Signature Scanning Integrity Checking Monitoring unexpected file changes or virus like behaviours It is important to decide where anti-malware tools will be installed and find a balance between performance and protection. There are several general purpose malware policies that can be implemented to protect your network including… Every compute in an organization should be equipped with malware detection and cleaning software that regularly runs Users should not be allowed to alter or disable the anti-malware software Users should know what to do in case the anti-malware program detects a malware virus Users should be prohibited from installing any unauthorized software on their systems System wide alerts should be issued to network users notifying them if a serious malware virus has been detected. Fault Tolerance Besides guarding against malware, another key factor in maintaining the availability and integrity of data is fault tolerance. Fault tolerance is the ability for a system to continue performing despite an unexpected hardware or software malfunction. Fault tolerance can be realized in varying degrees, the optimal level of fault tolerance for a system depends on how critical its services and files are to productivity. Generally the more fault tolerant the system, the more expensive it is. The following describe some of the areas that need to be considered for fault tolerance. Environment (Temperature and humidity) Power Topology and Connectivity Servers Storage Power Typical power flaws include Surges – a brief increase in voltage due to lightening strikes, solar flares or some idiot at City Power Noise – Fluctuation in voltage levels caused by other devices on the network or electromagnetic interference Brownout – A sag in voltage for just a moment Blackout – A complete power loss The are various alternate power sources to consider including UPS’s and Generators. UPS’s are found in two categories… Standby UPS – provides continuous power when mains goes down (brief period of switching over) Online UPS – is online all the time and the device receives power from the UPS all the time (the UPS is charged continuously) Servers There are various techniques for fault tolerance with servers. Server mirroring is an option where one device or component duplicates the activities of another. It is generally an expensive process. Clustering is a fault tolerance technique that links multiple servers together to appear as a single server. They share processing and storage responsibilities and if one unit in the cluster goes down, another unit can be brought in to replace it. Storage There are various techniques available including the following… RAID Arrays NAS (Storage (Network Attached Storage) SANs (Storage Area Networks) Data Backup A backup is a copy of data or program files created for archiving or safekeeping. Many different options for backups exist with various media including… These vary in cost and speed. Optical Media Tape Backup External Disk Drives Network Backups Backup Strategy After selecting the appropriate tool for performing your servers backup, devise a backup strategy to guide you through performing reliable backups that provide maximum data protection. Questions that should be answered include… What data must be backed up At what time of day or night will the backups occur How will you verify the accuracy of the backups Where and for how long will backup media be stored Who will take responsibility for ensuring that backups occurred How long will you save backups Where will backup and recovery documentation be stored Different backup methods provide varying levels of certainty and corresponding labour cost. There are also different ways to determine which files should be backed up including… Full backup – all data on all servers is copied to storage media Incremental backup – Only data that has changed since the last full or incremental backup is copied to a storage medium Differential backup – Only data that has changed since the last backup is coped to a storage medium Disaster Recovery Disaster recovery is the process of restoring your critical functionality and data after an enterprise wide outage has occurred. A disaster recovery plan is for extreme scenarios (i.e. fire, line fault, etc). A cold site is a place were the computers, devices, and connectivity necessary to rebuild a network exist but they are not appropriately configured. A warm site is a place where the computers, devices, and connectivity necessary to rebuild a network exists with some appropriately configured devices. A hot site is a place where the computers, devices, and connectivity necessary to rebuild a network exists and all are appropriately configured.

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Computer Networks UNISA - Chap 15 – Network Management

- by MarkPearl

After reading this section you should be able to Understand network management and the importance of documentation, baseline measurements, policies, and regulations to assess and maintain a network’s health. Manage a network’s performance using SNMP-based network management software, system and event logs, and traffic-shaping techniques Identify the reasons for and elements of an asset managements system Plan and follow regular hardware and software maintenance routines Fundamentals of Network Management Network management refers to the assessment, monitoring, and maintenance of all aspects of a network including checking for hardware faults, ensuring high QoS, maintaining records of network assets, etc. Scope of network management differs depending on the size and requirements of the network. All sub topics of network management share the goals of enhancing the efficiency and performance while preventing costly downtime or loss. Documentation The way documentation is stored may vary, but to adequately manage a network one should at least record the following… Physical topology (types of LAN and WAN topologies – ring, star, hybrid) Access method (does it use Ethernet 802.3, token ring, etc.) Protocols Devices (Switches, routers, etc) Operating Systems Applications Configurations (What version of operating system and config files for serve / client software) Baseline Measurements A baseline is a report of the network’s current state of operation. Baseline measurements might include the utilization rate for your network backbone, number of users logged on per day, etc. Baseline measurements allow you to compare future performance increases or decreases caused by network changes or events with past network performance. Obtaining baseline measurements is the only way to know for certain whether a pattern of usage has changed, or whether a network upgrade has made a difference. There are various tools available for measuring baseline performance on a network. Policies, Procedures, and Regulations Following rules helps limit chaos, confusion, and possibly downtime. The following policies and procedures and regulations make for sound network management. Media installations and management (includes designing physical layout of cable, etc.) Network addressing policies (includes choosing and applying a an addressing scheme) Resource sharing and naming conventions (includes rules for logon ID’s) Security related policies Troubleshooting procedures Backup and disaster recovery procedures In addition to internal policies, a network manager must consider external regulatory rules. Fault and Performance Management After documenting every aspect of your network and following policies and best practices, you are ready to asses you networks status on an on going basis. This process includes both performance management and fault management. Network Management Software To accomplish both fault and performance management, organizations often use enterprise-wide network management software. There various software packages that do this, each collect data from multiple networked devices at regular intervals, in a process called polling. Each managed device runs a network management agent. So as not to affect the performance of a device while collecting information, agents do not demand significant processing resources. The definition of a managed devices and their data are collected in a MIB (Management Information Base). Agents communicate information about managed devices via any of several application layer protocols. On modern networks most agents use SNMP which is part of the TCP/IP suite and typically runs over UDP on port 161. Because of the flexibility and sophisticated network management applications are a challenge to configure and fine-tune. One needs to be careful to only collect relevant information and not cause performance issues (i.e. pinging a device every 5 seconds can be a problem with thousands of devices). MRTG (Multi Router Traffic Grapher) is a simple command line utility that uses SNMP to poll devices and collects data in a log file. MRTG can be used with Windows, UNIX and Linux. System and Event Logs Virtually every condition recognized by an operating system can be recorded. This is typically done using event logs. In Windows there is a GUI event log viewer. Similar information is recorded in UNIX and Linux in a system log. Much of the information collected in event logs and syslog files does not point to a problem, even if it is marked with a warning so it is important to filter your logs appropriately to reduce the noise. Traffic Shaping When a network must handle high volumes of network traffic, users benefit from performance management technique called traffic shaping. Traffic shaping involves manipulating certain characteristics of packets, data streams, or connections to manage the type and amount of traffic traversing a network or interface at any moment. Its goals are to assure timely delivery of the most important traffic while offering the best possible performance for all users. Several types of traffic prioritization exist including prioritizing traffic according to any of the following characteristics… Protocol IP address User group DiffServr VLAN tag in a Data Link layer frame Service or application Caching In addition to traffic shaping, a network or host might use caching to improve performance. Caching is the local storage of frequently needed files that would otherwise be obtained from an external source. By keeping files close to the requester, caching allows the user to access those files quickly. The most common type of caching is Web caching, in which Web pages are stored locally. To an ISP, caching is much more than just convenience. It prevents a significant volume of WAN traffic, thus improving performance and saving money. Asset Management Another key component in managing networks is identifying and tracking its hardware. This is called asset management. The first step to asset management is to take an inventory of each node on the network. You will also want to keep records of every piece of software purchased by your organization. Asset management simplifies maintaining and upgrading the network chiefly because you know what the system includes. In addition, asset management provides network administrators with information about the costs and benefits of certain types of hardware or software. Change Management Networks are always in a stage of flux with various aspects including… Software changes and patches Client Upgrades Shared Application Upgrades NOS Upgrades Hardware and Physical Plant Changes Cabling Upgrades Backbone Upgrades For a detailed explanation on each of these read the textbook (Page 750 – 761)

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You made it through the Interview, Now What?

- by Jonathan Kehayias

This is somewhat of a continuation post to my previous blog post, “Some thoughts on Interviweing…” . Now that you survived the interview process, what do you do? This is a common area of discomfort for people interviewing for any kind of job, not just positions dealing with SQL Server. In this post I’d like to focus on a topic that I like to refer to as “Post Interview Etiquette” and how it might impact your ability to get hired for a position. Whether or not to follow-up...(read more)

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Qt Certification Exams

- by karlphillip

I'm wondering about doing a Qt Certification Exam this year, but I'm not 100% sure the investment is worth. I'm considering it because I think it could be a nice + on my resume, and as you know, I'm all for improving my software engineer persona. As I already earn a BSc and MSc degrees in computer stuff, I guess I see the certification process as some kind of adventure. Anyway, I know I'll spend a lot of time preparing myself for the exam and I just wanted to know if a Qt certification is worth the effort. Apparently there are 2 certificates that you can get in the Qt world: Nokia Certified Qt Developer (basic) Nokia Certified Qt Specialist (advanced) Nowadays I build cross-platform software in C++ and this exam would fit beautifully in my resume. My main concern is that, given the obscure future of Qt, I might be throwing time and money out the window. I'm looking for some advice regarding the usefulness of such certifications.

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When to do Code Review

- by mcass20

We have recently moved to a scrum process and are working on tasks and user stories inside of sprints. We would like to do code reviews frequently to make them less daunting. We are thinking that doing them on a user story level but are unsure how to branch our code to account for this. We are using VS and TFS 2010 and we are a team of 6. We currently branch for features but are working on changing to branching for scrum. We do not currently use shelvesets and don't really want to implement if there are other techniques available. How do you recommend we implement code review per user story?

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Compelling Reasons For Migrating to Oracle Database 11g

- by margaret hamburger

IDC's white paper Maximizing Your Investment in Oracle Application Software: The Case for Migrating to Oracle Database 11g describes compelling business, operational, and technical reasons for Oracle application customers to upgrade or Oracle Database 11g. In researching this paper, IDC found that the upgrade process is smooth, the latest version offers key benefits over older versions, and the new features and procedures are easy to learn and well worth implementing. The paper highlights users of Oracle applications, such as Oracle's PeopleSoft Enterprise applications, Siebel Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications, and Oracle E-Business Suite. It includes a review of Oracle Database 11g improvements and new features along with best practices from Oracle users who upgraded to Oracle Database 11g.

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What is Linkvana?

Linkvana is a wonderful search engine optimization service that makes it possible to have as many back links as you want. You can have these back links to multiple third party websites. You are completely free to choose your own anchor text for these back links. There is a network of articles and another one that comprises of blogs. You can create a custom anchor text in a very short time. Usually the process takes less than the time taken to write a hundred words long post on your blog or website. It is very easy and intuitive to create number of back links to several pages deep in your site navigation with the help of Linkvana.

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Big Data – Buzz Words: What is HDFS – Day 8 of 21

- by Pinal Dave

In yesterday’s blog post we learned what is MapReduce. In this article we will take a quick look at one of the four most important buzz words which goes around Big Data – HDFS. What is HDFS ? HDFS stands for Hadoop Distributed File System and it is a primary storage system used by Hadoop. It provides high performance access to data across Hadoop clusters. It is usually deployed on low-cost commodity hardware. In commodity hardware deployment server failures are very common. Due to the same reason HDFS is built to have high fault tolerance. The data transfer rate between compute nodes in HDFS is very high, which leads to reduced risk of failure. HDFS creates smaller pieces of the big data and distributes it on different nodes. It also copies each smaller piece to multiple times on different nodes. Hence when any node with the data crashes the system is automatically able to use the data from a different node and continue the process. This is the key feature of the HDFS system. Architecture of HDFS The architecture of the HDFS is master/slave architecture. An HDFS cluster always consists of single NameNode. This single NameNode is a master server and it manages the file system as well regulates access to various files. In additional to NameNode there are multiple DataNodes. There is always one DataNode for each data server. In HDFS a big file is split into one or more blocks and those blocks are stored in a set of DataNodes. The primary task of the NameNode is to open, close or rename files and directory and regulate access to the file system, whereas the primary task of the DataNode is read and write to the file systems. DataNode is also responsible for the creation, deletion or replication of the data based on the instruction from NameNode. In reality, NameNode and DataNode are software designed to run on commodity machine build in Java language. Visual Representation of HDFS Architecture Let us understand how HDFS works with the help of the diagram. Client APP or HDFS Client connects to NameSpace as well as DataNode. Client App access to the DataNode is regulated by NameSpace Node. NameSpace Node allows Client App to connect to the DataNode based by allowing the connection to the DataNode directly. A big data file is divided into multiple data blocks (let us assume that those data chunks are A,B,C and D. Client App will later on write data blocks directly to the DataNode. Client App does not have to directly write to all the node. It just has to write to any one of the node and NameNode will decide on which other DataNode it will have to replicate the data. In our example Client App directly writes to DataNode 1 and detained 3. However, data chunks are automatically replicated to other nodes. All the information like in which DataNode which data block is placed is written back to NameNode. High Availability During Disaster Now as multiple DataNode have same data blocks in the case of any DataNode which faces the disaster, the entire process will continue as other DataNode will assume the role to serve the specific data block which was on the failed node. This system provides very high tolerance to disaster and provides high availability. If you notice there is only single NameNode in our architecture. If that node fails our entire Hadoop Application will stop performing as it is a single node where we store all the metadata. As this node is very critical, it is usually replicated on another clustered as well as on another data rack. Though, that replicated node is not operational in architecture, it has all the necessary data to perform the task of the NameNode in the case of the NameNode fails. The entire Hadoop architecture is built to function smoothly even there are node failures or hardware malfunction. It is built on the simple concept that data is so big it is impossible to have come up with a single piece of the hardware which can manage it properly. We need lots of commodity (cheap) hardware to manage our big data and hardware failure is part of the commodity servers. To reduce the impact of hardware failure Hadoop architecture is built to overcome the limitation of the non-functioning hardware. Tomorrow In tomorrow’s blog post we will discuss the importance of the relational database in Big Data. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Big Data, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL

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What are your advice, methods, or practices to take out the most from a day on-site at a customer?

- by Stephane

We just deployed a large software that affects the way the user work-day looks like in many aspects. It changes a lot of things in the way they interact between eachothers. The developers of the team are taking rounds and spending one day at the customer's site to understand better what is a typical day for our user, and the learning process they go through. In this context, what How would you approach that day, what kind of questions do you ask, how do you observe the user. Are there defined practices that exist? Also what wouldn't you do? Did you have some bad experience out of this?

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Disaster Recovery Discovery

- by Rodney Landrum

Last weekend I joined several of my IT staff on a mission to perform a DR test in our remote CoLo center in a large South East city of the US. Can I be more obtuse? The goal was simple for me as the sole DBA in a throng of Windows, Storage, Network and SAN admins – restore the databases and make them work. There were 4 applications that back ended to 7 SQL Server databases on 4 different SQL Server instances. We would maintain the original server names, but beyond that it was fair game. We had time to prepare so I was able to script out or otherwise automate the recovery process. I used sp_help_revlogin for three of the servers, a bit of a cheat actually because restoring the Master database on the target DR servers was the specified course of action according to the DR procedures ( the caveat “IF REQUIRED” left it open to interpretation. I really wanted to avoid the step of restoring Master for a number of reasons but mainly because I did not want to deal with issues starting SQL Services afterward. Having to account for the location of TempDB and the version conflicts of the resource DBs were just two of the battles I chose not to fight. Not to mention other system database location problems that might arise and prevent SQL from starting. I was going to have to restore all of the user databases anyway, so I would not really gain any benefit, outside of logins, for taking the time to restore the source Master database over the newly installed one on the fresh server. What I wanted was the ability to restore the Master database as a user database, call it Master_Mine, from a backup on the source system and then use that restored database to script the SQL Logins and passwords on the DR systems. While I did not attempt this on the trip, the thought stuck in my mind and this past week I succeeded at scripting user accounts and passwords using only a restored copy of the Master database. Granted there were several challenges to overcome. Also, as is usual for any work like this the usual disclaimers apply: This is not something that I would imagine Microsoft would condone or support and this was really only an experiment for me to learn if it was even possible. While I have tested the process with success, I do not know that I would use this technique in a documented procedure because future updates for SQL Server will render this technique non-functional. I thought at first, incorrectly of course, that I could use sp_help_revlogin on a restored copy of the master database I named Master_Mine. Since sp_help_revlogin uses system schema objects, sys.syslogins and sys.server_principals, this was not going to work because all results would come from the main Master database. To test this I added a SQL login via SSMS, backed up Master, restored it as Master_Mine, and then deleted the login. Even though the test account I created should presumably still be in the Master_Mine database, I should be able to get to it and script out its creation with its password hash so that I would not need to know the password, but any applications that stored that password would not have to be altered in the DR scenario. They would just work as expected. Once I realized that would not work I began looking deeper. Knowing that sys.syslogins and sys.server_principals are system views, their underlying code should be available with sp_helptext, right? They were. And this led me to discover the two tables sys.sysxlgns and sys.sysprivs, where the data I needed was stored. These tables existed in both the real Master and the restored copy, Master_Mine. I used this information to tweak the sp_help_revlogin stored procedure to use these tables instead to create the logins cursor used in sp_help_revlogin. For the password hash, sp_help_revlogin uses the function LoginProperty() which takes a user name and option ‘passwordhash’ to return the hash for the user. Unfortunately, it requires the login to exist in the Master database. This would not work. So another slight modification I had to make was to pull the password hash itself (pwdhash from sys.sysxlgns) into the logins cursor and comment out the section of sp_help_revlogin that uses LoginProperty. Instead, I pass the pwdhash value as the variable @PWD_varbinary to the sp_hexadecimal stored procedure which is also created by and used within the code provided by Microsoft in the link above for sp_help_revlogin. The final challenge: sys.sysxlgns and sys.server_principals are visible only within a Dedicated Administrator Connection (DAC) query window in SSMS or within SQLCDMD. To open a DAC connection you have to be logged in on the SQL Server itself, via RDP in my case, and you preface the server name in the query connection with ADMIN:, so that the server connection looks like ADMIN:ServerName. From there you can create the modified stored procedure in the restored copy of a Master database from a source system as whatever name you like, and then run the modified stored procedure. I named my new stored procedure usp_help_revlogin_MyMaster. Upon execution I was happy to see the logins and password hashes that I needed to apply from the source Master database without having to restore over the new Master system database and without the need to access the original server (assuming it was down due to whatever disaster put it in that state). You will note that I am not providing full code samples here of the modifications. I will say that it was a slight bit of work and anyone who needed to do this for whatever reason, could fairly easily roll their own solution with the information provided herein. My goal, as I said was to prove that this could be done and provide another option if required to ease the burden of getting SQL Servers up and available in an emergency situation where alternatives may be more challenging or otherwise unavailable.

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Growing Talent

The subtitle of Daniel Coyles intriguing book The Talent Code is Greatness Isnt Born. Its Grown. Heres How. The Talent Code proceeds to layout a theory of how expertise can be cultivated through specific practices that encourage the growth of myelin in the brain. Myelin is a material that is produced and wraps around heavily used circuits in the brain, making them more efficient. Coyle uses an analogy that geeks will appreciate. When a circuit in the brain is used a lot (i.e. a specific action is repeated), the myelin insulates that circuit, increasing its bandwidth from telephone over copper to high speed broadband. This leads to the funny phenomenon of effortless expertise. Although highly skilled, the best players make it look easy. Coyle provides some biological backing for the long held theory that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to achieve mastery over a given subject. 10,000 hours or 10 years, as in, Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years and others. However, it is not just that more hours equals more mastery. The other factors that Coyle identifies includes deep practice, practice which crucially involves drills that are challenging without being impossible. Another way to put it is that every day you spend doing only tasks you find monotonous and automatic, you are literally stagnating your brains development! Perhaps Coyles subtitle, needs one more phrase, Greatness Isnt Born. Its Grown. Heres How. And oh yeah, its not easy. Challenging yourself, continuing to persist in the face of repeated failures, practicing every day is not easy. As consultants, we sell our expertise, so it makes sense that we plan projects so that people can play to their strengths. At the same time, an important part of our culture is constant improvement, challenging yourself to be better. And the balancing contest ensues. I just finished working on a proof of concept (POC) we did for a project we are bidding on. Completely time boxed, so our team naturally split responsibilities amongst ourselves according to who was better at what. I must have been pretty bad at the other components, as I found myself working on the user interface, not my usual strength. The POC had a website frontend, and one thing I do know is HTML. After starting out in pure ASP.NET WebForms, I got frustrated as time was ticking, I knew what I wanted in HTML, but I couldnt coax the right output out of the ASP.NET controls. I needed two or three elements on the screen that were identical in layout, with different content. With a backup plan in of writing the HTML into the response by hand, I decided to challenge myself a bit and see what I could do in an hour or two using the Microsoft submitted jQuery micro-templating JavaScript library. This risk paid off. I was able to quickly get the user interface up and running, responsive to the JSON data we were working with. I felt energized by the double win of getting the POC ready and learning something new. Opportunities specifically like this POC dont come around often, but the takeaway is that while it wont be easy, there are ways to generate your own opportunities to grow towards greatness.Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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Oracle Sequences

- by jkrebsbach

Reminder to myself - SQL Server has nice index columns directly tied to their tables. Oracle has sequences that are islands to themselves. select seq_name.currval from dual; select seq_name.nextval from dual; currval - return current number at top of sequence nextval - increment sequence by 1, return new number therefore - to create functionality in oracle similar to an index column - OPTION A) - Create insert trigger: CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER dept_bir BEFORE INSERT ON departments FOR EACH ROW WHEN (new.id IS NULL) BEGIN SELECT dept_seq.NEXTVAL INTO :new.id FROM dual; END; This will handle creating a unique identity, but will not necessarily inform process flow of identity without additional logic. OPTION B) - Select indentity into temp variable, insert whole item into tab **** When attemptint to query currval, the below error was being thrown - SELECT seq_name.currval from dual; ERROR : TABLE OR VIEW DOES NOT EXIST *** Although Oracle sys tables may have access to the sequences, that isn't to say the Oracle user may have access to those sequences - verify permissions when the system can't see object that are being reported in the object explorer.

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JCP Calendar for 2013 - First EC Meeting 15-16 January

- by Heather VanCura

The JCP 2013 calendar and EC Meeting schedule has now been finalized and published :-). This year the EC will be holding meetings in the San Francisco Bay Area in January, and also in September, scheduled around the JavaOne San Francisco Conference; and, Credit Suisse will host the May EC Meeting in Zurich, Switzerland. The first JCP EC Meeting of 2013 will be a Face to Face Meeting in Santa Clara, California USA, hosted by Intel. We are of in the midst preparing the agenda now, but it will include a 2012 annual review, JSR Spec Lead presentations & updates, as well as JSR 358, A major revision of the Java Community Process, Expert Group session. You can view meeting materials and minutes from the JCP EC Meetings on JCP.org. The JCP also plans to meet with the Java User Group Leaders attending the User Group Leaders Summit being held at Oracle Redwood Shores location 14-16 January.

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Save the date For AutoVue Enterprise Visualization at Oracle OpenWorld 2013

- by Gerald Fauteux

Planning to attend Oracle OpenWorld 2013 (September 22–26, 2013)? If so, be sure to check out the various Enterprise Visualization activities that you can take advantage of while in San Francisco. Enterprise Visualization Sessions: CON8992 - Qualcomm Streamlines Its Design and Manufacturing Process with AutoVue/Agile Products. Click here for full session description. Customer Speakers: Mary Legaspi - Staff Systems Administrator and Ravi Sankaran - Sr. Staff Systems Analyst, Qualcomm CON8741 - Visual Information Navigator: Next-Generation Interaction Paradigm. Click here for full session description. Speakers: Rozita Naghshin - Sr. Principal Product Manager-Visual Information Navigator and Thierry Bonfante - Senior Director Product Development, Oracle Other Activities There will be an “Oracle’s AutoVue & Visual Information Navigator" pod in the exhibit hall Come and meet Oracle’s Visualization experts at the SCM product lounge, and have exclusive 1 on 1 or group conversations with development and strategy experts. Check back shortly for the dates and times of these activities

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Problem upgrading from 13.04 to 13.10

- by Charles

Part way through upgrading from 13.04 to 13.10 the process ground to a halt with an error message. Now on retrying by going to 'Check for updates' I get the following: Failed to load the package list This is a serious problem. Try again later. If this problem appears again, please report an error to the developers. E:Encountered a section with no Package: header, E:Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_saucy_universe_i18n_Translation-en%%5fGB, E:The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened. Problem reported but my question is, "what can I do now?; Do I have to do a fresh install?; if so will settings etc. in my Home folder (on its own partition) be saved?" 13.04 still seems to be working perfectly, while upgrading I had a terrible internet connection varying between 'dead slow' and 'dead stop', not sure if that caused the problem.

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Default file manager changed, can't change back

- by user16171

(Using ubuntu 11.04) I tried to open a torrent file in chrome, and it asked for my default application, so I clicked Transmission, and then I got an error: "Failed to execute default file manager, Failed to execute child process "transmission" (No such file or directory)." Now if I click on any shortcut on the unity bar, such as the trash folder or the icon for my portable hard drive, I get this error, as well as with any download or folder from chrome or firefox. I can't seem to figure out how to fix this, as there seems to be no easy way to do it.

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Trade off: Lower the number of URLs in sitemap from 43k to 23k or update the sitemap.xml only weekly basis

- by Tobias

we rewrote the sitemap creation process. Now the sitemap contains 43.000 URLs. 20k more than before. We have daily changing in URLs. The script that is creating the complete sitemap takes more than 30h. So we can not build it every day. Lets say that increasing the speed of the script is not possible. What should I do? A: Stay with the 23k URLs and update it daily B: Increase number of URLs to 43k and update it weekly

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Will we ever lose the human touch?

- by divya.malik

I was at a conference two weeks ago, which was targeted to sales and marketing professionals. The discussions around the changing scenario in sales was very interesting. More and more of selling is moving to the internet- sales people are delivering more of their presentations online, or via the phone. Budget constraints and new technologies have dramatically decreased the need for face-to-face interactions. At the same time, customers are also researching for products on their own, taking the advice of peers, making up their mind, and then contacting the vendor. That takes care of more than half of the usual selling process. But humans are social animals, and because of that I believe that despite these changing trends and technologies, the need to maintain the human touch will always be necessary. One of the presenters at the conference shared this video, which stayed in my mind.

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Webcast: Optimize Accounts Payable Through Automated Invoice Processing

- by kellsey.ruppel(at)oracle.com

Is your accounts payable process still very labor-intensive? Then discover how Oracle can help you eliminate paper, automate data entry and reduce costs by up to 90% - while saving valuable time through fewer errors and faster lookups. Join us on Tuesday, March 22 at 10 a.m. PT for this informative Webcast where Jamie Rancourt and Brian Dirking will show how you can easily integrate capture, forms recognition and content management into your PeopleSoft and Oracle E-Business Suite accounts payable systems. You will also see how The Home Depot, Costco and American Express have achieved tremendous savings and productivity gains by switching to automated solutions. Learn how you can automate invoice scanning, indexing and data extraction to:Improve speed and reduce errors Eliminate time-consuming searches Utilize vendor discounts through faster processing Improve visibility and ensure compliance Save costs in accounts payable and other business processesRegister today!

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