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• A checklist for fixing .NET applications to SQL Server timeout problems and improve execution time

  - by avgbody

  A checklist for improving execution time between .NET code and SQL Server. Anything from the basic to weird solutions is appreciated. Code: Change default timeout in command and connection by avgbody. Use stored procedure calls instead of inline sql statement by avgbody. Look for blocking/locking using Activity monitor by Jay Shepherd. SQL Server: Watch out for parameter sniffing in stored procedures by AlexCuse. Beware of dynamically growing the database by Martin Clarke. Use Profiler to find any queries/stored procedures taking longer then 100 milliseconds by BradO. Increase transaction timeout by avgbody. Convert dynamic stored procedures into static ones by avgbody. Check how busy the server is by Jay Shepherd.

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• 2 Select or 1 Join query ?

  - by xRobot

  I have 2 tables: book ( id, title, age ) ---- 100 milions of rows author ( id, book_id, name, born ) ---- 10 millions of rows Now, supposing I have a generic id of a book. I need to print this page: Title: mybook authors: Tom, Graham, Luis, Clarke, George So... what is the best way to do this ? 1) Simple join like this: Select book.title, author.name From book, author WHERE ( author.book_id = book.id ) AND ( book.id = 342 ) 2) For avoid the join, I could make 2 simple query: Select title FROM book WHERE id = 342 Select name FROM author WHERE book_id = 342 What is the most efficient way ?

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• Session memory – who’s this guy named Max and what’s he doing with my memory?

  - by extended_events

  SQL Server MVP Jonathan Kehayias (blog) emailed me a question last week when he noticed that the total memory used by the buffers for an event session was larger than the value he specified for the MAX_MEMORY option in the CREATE EVENT SESSION DDL. The answer here seems like an excellent subject for me to kick-off my new “401 – Internals” tag that identifies posts where I pull back the curtains a bit and let you peek into what’s going on inside the extended events engine. In a previous post (Option Trading: Getting the most out of the event session options) I explained that we use a set of buffers to store the event data before  we write the event data to asynchronous targets. The MAX_MEMORY along with the MEMORY_PARTITION_MODE defines how big each buffer will be. Theoretically, that means that I can predict the size of each buffer using the following formula: max memory / # of buffers = buffer size If it was that simple I wouldn’t be writing this post. I’ll take “boundary” for 64K Alex For a number of reasons that are beyond the scope of this blog, we create event buffers in 64K chunks. The result of this is that the buffer size indicated by the formula above is rounded up to the next 64K boundary and that is the size used to create the buffers. If you think visually, this means that the graph of your max_memory option compared to the actual buffer size that results will look like a set of stairs rather than a smooth line. You can see this behavior by looking at the output of dm_xe_sessions, specifically the fields related to the buffer sizes, over a range of different memory inputs: Note: This test was run on a 2 core machine using per_cpu partitioning which results in 5 buffers. (Seem my previous post referenced above for the math behind buffer count.) input_memory_kb total_regular_buffers regular_buffer_size total_buffer_size 637 5 130867 654335 638 5 130867 654335 639 5 130867 654335 640 5 196403 982015 641 5 196403 982015 642 5 196403 982015 This is just a segment of the results that shows one of the “jumps” between the buffer boundary at 639 KB and 640 KB. You can verify the size boundary by doing the math on the regular_buffer_size field, which is returned in bytes: 196403 – 130867 = 65536 bytes 65536 / 1024 = 64 KB The relationship between the input for max_memory and when the regular_buffer_size is going to jump from one 64K boundary to the next is going to change based on the number of buffers being created. The number of buffers is dependent on the partition mode you choose. If you choose any partition mode other than NONE, the number of buffers will depend on your hardware configuration. (Again, see the earlier post referenced above.) With the default partition mode of none, you always get three buffers, regardless of machine configuration, so I generated a “range table” for max_memory settings between 1 KB and 4096 KB as an example. start_memory_range_kb end_memory_range_kb total_regular_buffers regular_buffer_size total_buffer_size 1 191 NULL NULL NULL 192 383 3 130867 392601 384 575 3 196403 589209 576 767 3 261939 785817 768 959 3 327475 982425 960 1151 3 393011 1179033 1152 1343 3 458547 1375641 1344 1535 3 524083 1572249 1536 1727 3 589619 1768857 1728 1919 3 655155 1965465 1920 2111 3 720691 2162073 2112 2303 3 786227 2358681 2304 2495 3 851763 2555289 2496 2687 3 917299 2751897 2688 2879 3 982835 2948505 2880 3071 3 1048371 3145113 3072 3263 3 1113907 3341721 3264 3455 3 1179443 3538329 3456 3647 3 1244979 3734937 3648 3839 3 1310515 3931545 3840 4031 3 1376051 4128153 4032 4096 3 1441587 4324761 As you can see, there are 21 “steps” within this range and max_memory values below 192 KB fall below the 64K per buffer limit so they generate an error when you attempt to specify them. Max approximates True as memory approaches 64K The upshot of this is that the max_memory option does not imply a contract for the maximum memory that will be used for the session buffers (Those of you who read Take it to the Max (and beyond) know that max_memory is really only referring to the event session buffer memory.) but is more of an estimate of total buffer size to the nearest higher multiple of 64K times the number of buffers you have. The maximum delta between your initial max_memory setting and the true total buffer size occurs right after you break through a 64K boundary, for example if you set max_memory = 576 KB (see the green line in the table), your actual buffer size will be closer to 767 KB in a non-partitioned event session. You get “stepped up” for every 191 KB block of initial max_memory which isn’t likely to cause a problem for most machines. Things get more interesting when you consider a partitioned event session on a computer that has a large number of logical CPUs or NUMA nodes. Since each buffer gets “stepped up” when you break a boundary, the delta can get much larger because it’s multiplied by the number of buffers. For example, a machine with 64 logical CPUs will have 160 buffers using per_cpu partitioning or if you have 8 NUMA nodes configured on that machine you would have 24 buffers when using per_node. If you’ve just broken through a 64K boundary and get “stepped up” to the next buffer size you’ll end up with total buffer size approximately 10240 KB and 1536 KB respectively (64K * # of buffers) larger than max_memory value you might think you’re getting. Using per_cpu partitioning on large machine has the most impact because of the large number of buffers created. If the amount of memory being used by your system within these ranges is important to you then this is something worth paying attention to and considering when you configure your event sessions. The DMV dm_xe_sessions is the tool to use to identify the exact buffer size for your sessions. In addition to the regular buffers (read: event session buffers) you’ll also see the details for large buffers if you have configured MAX_EVENT_SIZE. The “buffer steps” for any given hardware configuration should be static within each partition mode so if you want to have a handy reference available when you configure your event sessions you can use the following code to generate a range table similar to the one above that is applicable for your specific machine and chosen partition mode. DECLARE @buf_size_output table (input_memory_kb bigint, total_regular_buffers bigint, regular_buffer_size bigint, total_buffer_size bigint) DECLARE @buf_size int, @part_mode varchar(8) SET @buf_size = 1 -- Set to the begining of your max_memory range (KB) SET @part_mode = 'per_cpu' -- Set to the partition mode for the table you want to generate WHILE @buf_size <= 4096 -- Set to the end of your max_memory range (KB) BEGIN     BEGIN TRY         IF EXISTS (SELECT * from sys.server_event_sessions WHERE name = 'buffer_size_test')             DROP EVENT SESSION buffer_size_test ON SERVER         DECLARE @session nvarchar(max)         SET @session = 'create event session buffer_size_test on server                         add event sql_statement_completed                         add target ring_buffer                         with (max_memory = ' + CAST(@buf_size as nvarchar(4)) + ' KB, memory_partition_mode = ' + @part_mode + ')'         EXEC sp_executesql @session         SET @session = 'alter event session buffer_size_test on server                         state = start'         EXEC sp_executesql @session         INSERT @buf_size_output (input_memory_kb, total_regular_buffers, regular_buffer_size, total_buffer_size)             SELECT @buf_size, total_regular_buffers, regular_buffer_size, total_buffer_size FROM sys.dm_xe_sessions WHERE name = 'buffer_size_test'     END TRY     BEGIN CATCH         INSERT @buf_size_output (input_memory_kb)             SELECT @buf_size     END CATCH     SET @buf_size = @buf_size + 1 END DROP EVENT SESSION buffer_size_test ON SERVER SELECT MIN(input_memory_kb) start_memory_range_kb, MAX(input_memory_kb) end_memory_range_kb, total_regular_buffers, regular_buffer_size, total_buffer_size from @buf_size_output group by total_regular_buffers, regular_buffer_size, total_buffer_size Thanks to Jonathan for an interesting question and a chance to explore some of the details of Extended Event internals. - Mike

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• Introducing Glimpse – Firebug for your server

  - by Neil Davidson

  Here at Red Gate, we spend every waking hour trying to wow .NET and SQL developers with great products.  Every so often, though, we find something out in the wild which knocks our socks off by taking “ingeniously simple” to a whole new level.  That’s what a little community led by developers Nik Molnar and Anthony van der Hoorn has done with the open source tool Glimpse. Glimpse describes itself as ‘Firebug for the server.’  You drop the NuGet package into your ASP.NET project, and then — like magic* — your web pages will bare every detail of their execution.  Even by our high standards, it was trivial to get running: if you can use NuGet, you’re already there. You get all that lovely detail without changing any code. Our feelings go beyond respect for the developers who designed and wrote Glimpse; we’re thrilled that Nik and Anthony have come to work for Red Gate full-time. They’re going to stay in control of the project and keep doing open source development work on Glimpse.  In the medium term, we’re hoping to make paid-for products which plug into the free open source framework, especially in areas like performance profiling where we already have some deep technology.  First, though, Glimpse needs to get from beta to a v1. Given the breakneck pace of new development, this should only be a month or so away. Supporting an open source project is a first for Red Gate, so we’re going to be working with Nik and Anthony, with the Glimpse community and even with other vendors to figure out what ‘great’ looks like from the a user perspective.  Only one thing is certain: this technology deserves a wider audience than the 40,000 people who have already downloaded it, so please have a look and tell us what you think. You can hear more about what the Glimpse developers think on the Glimpse blog, and there are plenty more technical facts over at our product manager’s blog. If you have any questions or queries, please tweet with the #glimpse hashtag or contact the Glimpse team directly on [email protected]. [*That’s ”magic” in the Arthur C. Clarke “sufficiently advanced technology” sense, of course] Neil Davidson co-founder and Joint CEO Red Gate Software http://twitter.com/neildavidson    

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• PASS 13 Dispatches: moving to the cloud

  - by Tony Davis

  PASS Summit 13, Day 1 keynote by Quentin Clarke and we're hearing about “redefiniing mission critical in the cloud”. With a move to the Windows Azure cloud comes the promise of capacity on demand, automatic HA, backups, patching and so on, as well as passing responsibility to MS for managing hardware, upgrades and so on. However, for many databases and applications the best route to the cloud is not necessarily obvious. For most, the path of least resistance is IaaS – SQL Server in a Azure VM. It removes the hardware burden but you still have to manage your databases and implementing HA for SQL Server is your responsibility. Also, scaling up comes at quite a cost – the biggest VM (8 CPU cores, 56 GB RAM, 16 1TB drives with 500 IOPS each) weighs in at over over $4500 per month. With PaaS, in the form of Windows SQL Database, you get a “3-copies replica set” so HA comes out-of the box, and removes the majority of the administration burden, but you are moving your database into a very different environment. For a start, it's a shared environment, with other customers using the same compute nodes in the cluster, and potentially even sharing the same database (multi-tenancy). Unless you pay for SQL DB Premium edition, the resources available for your workload will depends on how nicely others “play” in the shared environment. You'll potentially need to do a lot of tuning, and application rewriting to avoid throttling issues, optimising application-database communication to deal with increased latency between the two, and so on. You'll need aggressive application caching. You'll also need retry logic and to deal with (expected) node failure and the need to reconnect. In Tuesday's PASS Summit pre-con from the SQLCAT team, they spent a lot of time covering some of the telemetric techniques (collect into Azure storage the necessary monitoring data) to perform capacity planning, work out the hotspots and bottlenecks in your cloud applications. Tools like WAD (Windows Azure Diagnostics), performance counters SQL Database DMVs, and others, will be essential. Of course, to truly exploit the vast horizontal scaling that is available from the existence of thousands of compute nodes, you'll also need to need to consider how to “shard” your data so Azure can move it between nodes at will. Finding the right path to the Cloud isn't easy, but it's coming. I spoke to people one year ago who saw no real benefit in trying to move their infrastructure and databases to the cloud, but now at their company, it's the conversation that won't go away. Tony.  

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• ArchBeat Link-o-Rama for 2012-05-31

  - by Bob Rhubart

  Eclipse DemoCamp - June 2012 - Redwood Shores, CA wiki.eclipse.org Oracle HQ 10 Twin Dolphin Dr. Redwood Shores, CA Presentations: The evolution of Java persistence, Doug Clarke, EclipseLink Project Lead, Oracle Eclipse Project Sapphire, Konstantin Komissarchik, Sapphire Project Lead, Oracle Developing Rich ADF Applications with Java EE, Greg Stachnick, Oracle Leveraging OSGi In The Enterprise, Kamal Muralidharan, Lead Engineer, eBay NVIDIA Nsight Eclipse Edition, Goodwin (Tech lead - Visual tools), Eugene Ostroukhov (Senior engineer – Visual tools)   BI Architecture Master Class for Partners - Oracle Architecture Unplugged blogs.oracle.com June 21, 2012 This workshop will be highly interactive and is aimed at Oracle OPN member partners who are IT Architects and BI+W specialists. This will be a highly interactive session and does not involve slide presentations or product feature details, it addresses IT-Architectural issues and considerations for the IT-Architect Community. 2012 Oracle Fusion Middleware Innovation Awards - Win a FREE Pass to Oracle OpenWorld 2012 in SF www.oracle.com Share your use of Oracle Fusion Middleware solutions and how they help your organization drive business innovation. You just might win a free pass to Oracle Openworld 2012 in San Francisco. Deadline for submissions in July 17, 2012. IT professionals: Very much the time to change our approach | Andy Mulholland www.capgemini.com This final post by retiring Capgemini CTO blogger Andy Mulholland is a must-read for anyone in IT. 10 Great WebCenter Sites Resources (FatWire) | John Brunswick www.johnbrunswick.com John Brunswick shares "some good resources that span the WebCenter Sites and FatWire brands, to get a consolidated list of helpful destinations for ongoing education." Cloning a WebCenter Portal Managed Server | Maiko Rocha blogs.oracle.com WebCenter and ADF A-Team blogger Maiko Rocha shows how to easily add a new managed server to a single-node domain to make it a cluster. Sorting and Filtering By Model-Based LOV Display Value | Steven Davelaar blogs.oracle.com How-to by WebCenter and ADF A-Team blogger Steven Davelaar. Designing and Developing Cross-Cutting Features | Stephen Rylander www.infoq.com Architects are often tasked with a business feature that must span systems. This article by will provide strategies to handle the change and guide your thinking about separating system boundaries and what that means for your technical design. Thought for the Day "A committee is a group of people who individually can do nothing, but who, as a group, can meet and decide that nothing can be done." — Fred Allen (5/31/1894 – 3/17/1956) Source: Brainy Quote

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• ArchBeat Link-o-Rama for 2012-06-07

  - by Bob Rhubart

  Exalogic Webcast Series: Rethink Your Business Application Deployment Strategy Learn best practices for simplifying IT operations while delivering the application performance that a business needs. These on-demand Sessions include: Faster and Easier: Deploying ERP Applications on Oracle Exalogic Redefining the CRM and E-Commerce Experience with Oracle Exalogic The Road to a Cloud-Enabled, Infinitely Elastic Application Infrastructure Virtualization at Oracle - Six Part Series Links to all six articles in the series by Matthias Pfuetzner and Detlef Drewanz, spanning SPARC and x86. WebCenter Content shared folders for clustering | Kyle Hatlestad A-Team blogger Kyle Hatlestad shares the details on "how the file systems should be split and what options are required." Eclipse DemoCamp - June 2012 - Redwood Shores, CA When: Wednesday, June 13, 2012. 6:00pm - 9:00pm Where: Oracle HQ - 10 Twin Dolphin Drive, Redwood Shores, CA Presentations: The evolution of Java persistence, Doug Clarke, EclipseLink Project Lead, Oracle Integrating BIRT into Applications, Ashwini Verma, Actuate Corporation Developing Rich ADF Applications with Java EE, Greg Stachnick, Oracle Leveraging OSGi In The Enterprise, Kamal Muralidharan, Lead Engineer, eBay NVIDIA® NsightTM Eclipse Edition, Goodwin (Tech lead - Visual tools), Eugene Ostroukhov (Senior engineer – Visual tools) BI Architecture Master Class for Partners - Oracle Architecture Unplugged When:June 21, 2012 Where: City Office, London, UK This workshop will be highly interactive and is aimed at Oracle OPN member partners who are IT Architects and BI+W specialists. This will be a highly interactive session and does not involve slide presentations or product feature details, it addresses IT-Architectural issues and considerations for the IT-Architect Community. Oracle Fusion Middleware Innovation Awards | Oracle Excellence Awards Share your use of Oracle Fusion Middleware solutions and how they help your organization drive business innovation. You just might win a free pass to Oracle Openworld 2012 in San Francisco. Deadline for submissions in July 17, 2012. Oracle Service Bus 11g: listing projects and services with WLST - part 1 | Michel Schildmeijer "For automating and repetitive purposes, as well for uniformity it's always good to have some scripting," says Michel Schildmeijer. Creating an Oracle Endeca Information Discovery 2.3 Application Part 3 : Creating the User Interface | Mark Rittman Oracle ACE Director Mark Rittman continues his article series. WebLogic Advisor WebCasts On-Demand A series of videos by WebLogic experts, available to those with access to support.oracle.com. Integrating OBIEE 11g into Weblogic’s SAML SSO | Andre Correa A-Team blogger Andre Correa illustrates a transient federation scenario. InfoQ: Cloud 2017: Cloud Architectures in 5 Years Andrew Phillips, Mark Holdsworth, Martijn Verburg, Patrick Debois, and Richard Davies review the evolution of cloud computing so far and look five years into the future. Thought for the Day "One cannot make an omelet without breaking eggs – but it is amazing how many eggs one can break without making a decent omelet." — Charles P. Issawi Source: softwarequotes.com

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• ArchBeat Link-o-Rama for 2012-06-14

  - by Bob Rhubart

  Duke's Choice Award Nominations Close Friday! | The Java Source The Duke's Choice Awards celebrate extreme innovation in the world of Java technology. Nominate an individual, a group or company who show the best in Java innovation. Nominate at Java.net/dukeschoice. Nominations are open until this Friday, June 15. Whole Lotta Virtualization Goin' On | Rick Ramsey The OTN Garage's Rick Ramsey shares a list of recent Virtualization articles available on OTN, along with a link to a video by The Killer, Mr Jerry Lee Lewis. A Pragmatic Path to Navigating your Infrastructure to the Cloud | The WebLogic Server Blog Ruma Sanyal offers an overview of a recent Oracle webcast featuring Gartner VP and Distinguished Analyst Andy Butler and Vice President and Gartner Fellow Massimo Pezzini. Migrating C/C++ embedded SQL code | Tom Laszewski Cloud migration expert Tom Laszewski explains the how-to in 5 easy steps. Aetna Dumps Its Siloed Enterprise Architecture for SOA | CIO.com CIO writer Stephanie Overby tells the story of how one major health insurance provider put the "Enterprise" back in Enterprise Architecture. (H/T to Joe McKendrick for this story.) Downloading specific video renditions in WebCenter Content | Kyle Hatlestad How-to from Oracle WebCenter & ADF A-Team blogger Kyle Hatlestad. Eclipse DemoCamp - June 2012 - Redwood Shores, CA Location: Oracle HQ - 10 Twin Dolphin Drive, Redwood Shores, CA (Map) Date and Time: Wednesday, June 13, 2012. From 6pm - 9pm Agenda: The evolution of Java persistence, Doug Clarke, EclipseLink Project Lead, Oracle Integrating BIRT into Applications, Ashwini Verma, Actuate Corporation Leveraging OSGi In The Enterprise, Kamal Muralidharan, Lead Engineer, eBay Developing Rich ADF Applications with Java EE, Greg Stachnick, Oracle NVIDIA® NsightTM Eclipse Edition, Goodwin (Tech lead - Visual tools), Eugene Ostroukhov (Senior engineer – Visual tools) 2012 Oracle Fusion Middleware Innovation Awards - Win a FREE Pass to Oracle OpenWorld 2012 in San Francisco Share your use of Oracle Fusion Middleware solutions and how they help your organization drive business innovation. You just might win a free pass to Oracle Openworld 2012 in San Francisco. Deadline for submissions in July 17, 2012. BI Architecture Master Class for Partners – Oracle Architecture Unplugged Date: June 21, 2012 No slides, no fluff. This workshop will be highly interactive and is aimed at Oracle OPN member partners who are IT Architects and BI+W specialists. The focus will be on architectural issues and considerations. DevOps: Evolving to Handle Disruption | JP Morgenthal The subject of DevOps came up this week during an OTN ArchBeat podcast interview with Ron Batra and James Baty on the role of the cloud architect (that program will be available in a few weeks). Morgenthal's article for InfoQ offers a good overview of what DevOps is and how it works. Thought for the Day "Elegance is not a dispensable luxury but a factor that decides between success and failure." — Edsger Dijkstra Source: softwarequotes.com

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• Welcome To The Nashorn Blog

  - by Homma

  ??? ??? jlaskey ??? Nashorn Blog ????????????? https://blogs.oracle.com/nashorn/entry/welcome_to_the_nashorn_blog ???????? ?? ??????????????Nashorn ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Nashorn ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ????? JavaOne ??????????Nashorn ???????????????????????????????? Georges Saab ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? JavaOne ????????????????????????????????? ?Nashorn: JVM ??? JavaScript ????????????? ?????????(????????)??????????????????????????????????????????????????JVM ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?Nashorn: JVM ?? JavaScript? ??? Nashorn ???????????????????????????????????????????????????Nashorn ???????????????????????????250 ??????????????????????????Twitter ? Sam Pullara ??? Mustache.js ???????(Rhino ? 20 ?????)???????????NetBeans ? John Ceccarelli ??? Nashorn ? Netbeans ??????????????????????????????? Q & A ???????????????? ?Nashorn JavaScript Team ???? Michel ? Attila ? Marcus ??? Q & A ??????????????(??????????????????????????)?????????? Node.jar ??????????Nashorn + Node.jar ???????????????????????????????? Node.jar ? Akhil ??????????????????? ?Nashorn ? Node ? Java Persistence? Doug Clarke ? Akhil ?????????????????(????????? ???????)?????? Q & A ??????????? 80 ??????? ?????? Node.jar ????????Doug ? Nashorn + JPA ??????? ?????????????Nashorn ????????????????? ????????????????? : Nashorn ? Java ???????? Attila ??????? Dynalink ? Nashorn ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????JVM ???????????????????????????????????? ????JavaOne ?? Java ??????????? JVM ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ????????? Nashorn ???? how to ?????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????????!

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• How can I filter data based on items in a list?

  - by user2964366

  How can I filter entries containing any specific word in a list of words? For example, I have a list of road names in Singapore. Amoy Street, Singapore Ann Siang Hill Anson Road Arab Street Armenian Street, Singapore BBaghdad Street (Singapore) Balestier Road Banda Street Bartley Road Beach Road, Singapore Bencoolen Street Bernam Street Boat Quay Boon Tat Street Boundary Road, Singapore Bras Basah Road Bugis Street Bukit Batok Road Bukit Pasoh Road Bukit Timah Road CCantonment Road, Singapore Choa Chu Kang Road Clarke Quay Clementi Road Club Street Collyer Quay Connaught Drive Craig Road (Singapore) Cross Street and many more My spreadsheet has a large number of entries like the following, which may or may not contain road names mentioned in my list: Saw an accident at Thomson Road Found this by accident 6 vehicles crashed at Balestier Road I wanna crash now. So tired. Bus collides with bicycle at Arab Street. Accident at City Road. You can crash my house later. How do I filter to return entries that contains any road name identified in the list of names? How do I introduce an array/list of road names into Microsoft Excel and then relate it to a filter function?

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• Web Server slows down (ASP.NET)

  - by mfeingold

  below is a question I posted on stackoverflow . as suggested by Martin Clarke I also post it here. We have a really strange problem. One of the servers in the server farm becomes really slow. We see a number of timeouts in the logs and overall response time is not where it should be (and is on other servers in the farm). What is also strange is that it is not just the web app - Just logging into the server takes up to 1.5 min to show you the desktop. Once you are in, the system is as responsive as ever - unless you try to launch something, i.e. notepad - it takes another minute to launch and after launch it works fine. I checked a number of things - memory utilization is reasonable, CPU is below 15%, windows handles, event logs do not show anything. Recycling the aps.net process does not fix it - it still takes over a minute to log in. Rebooting the server helped, but now it started to slow down again. After a closer look we found out that Windows Temp directory is full of temp files - over 65k files. This is certainly something to take care of. But my question is could it be the root cause of the sluggishness, or there is still something else lurking in the shadows? Edit After more digging I am zeroing in on the issue related to the size of temp directories. This article: (see the original post this thing will not let me include a second link) describes something very similar. It still does not answer the question why the server is still slow even there is no activity.

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• Visual Basic 2010 Language Enhancements

  Earlier this month Microsoft released Visual Studio 2010, the .NET Framework 4.0 (which includes ASP.NET 4.0), and new versions of their core programming languages: C# 4.0 and Visual Basic 10 (also referred to as Visual Basic 2010). Previously, the C# and Visual Basic programming languages were managed by two separate teams within Microsoft, which helps explain why features found in one language was not necessarily found in the other. For example, C# 3.0 introduced collection initializers, which enable developers to define the contents of a collection when declaring it; however, Visual Basic 9 did not support collection initializers. Conversely, Visual Basic has long supported optional parameters in methods, whereas C# did not. Recently, Microsoft merged the Visual Basic and C# teams to help ensure that C# and Visual Basic grow together. As explained by Microsoft program manager Jonathan Aneja, "The intent is to make the languages advance together. When major functionality is introduced in one language, it should appear in the other as well. ... [T]hat any task you can do in one language should be as simple in the other." To this end, with version 4.0 C# now supports optional parameters and named arguments, two features that have long been part of Visual Basic's vernacular. And, likewise, Visual Basic has been updated to include a number of C# features that it was previously missing. This article explores some of these new features that were added to Visual Basic 2010. Read on to learn more! Read More >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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• Visual Basic 2010 Language Enhancements

  Earlier this month Microsoft released Visual Studio 2010, the .NET Framework 4.0 (which includes ASP.NET 4.0), and new versions of their core programming languages: C# 4.0 and Visual Basic 10 (also referred to as Visual Basic 2010). Previously, the C# and Visual Basic programming languages were managed by two separate teams within Microsoft, which helps explain why features found in one language was not necessarily found in the other. For example, C# 3.0 introduced collection initializers, which enable developers to define the contents of a collection when declaring it; however, Visual Basic 9 did not support collection initializers. Conversely, Visual Basic has long supported optional parameters in methods, whereas C# did not. Recently, Microsoft merged the Visual Basic and C# teams to help ensure that C# and Visual Basic grow together. As explained by Microsoft program manager Jonathan Aneja, "The intent is to make the languages advance together. When major functionality is introduced in one language, it should appear in the other as well. ... [T]hat any task you can do in one language should be as simple in the other." To this end, with version 4.0 C# now supports optional parameters and named arguments, two features that have long been part of Visual Basic's vernacular. And, likewise, Visual Basic has been updated to include a number of C# features that it was previously missing. This article explores some of these new features that were added to Visual Basic 2010. Read on to learn more! Read More >

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• Google+ Hangouts API v1.2

  Google+ Hangouts API v1.2 We just launched v1.2 of the Hangouts API. Join Jonathan Beri and Jenny Murphy as they discuss the improvements and new features included in this release. After that, they'll answer your questions about the Hangouts API. 0:44 - Introductions 2:04 - What's new in Hangouts API v1.2 - developers.google.com 7:39 - Why can't I use the same URL for multiple ImageResources? 12:20 - The YouTube live ID in the Hangouts API 13:59 - Does onYouTubeLiveIdReady fire when new participants join? 15:10 - Can the 18+ flag be exposed in the Hangouts API? 15:50 - Can I use the share button or +1 button to target my Hangout App? 18:20 - When will Google+ pages be able to launch apps in their hangouts? 19:00 - Allen has been using the history API to log use of his Hangout Apps. 19:51 - Will this hangout be archived? - Google+ Platform YouTube playlist: www.youtube.com 20:20 - Is there a way for a user to remove a plugin from their hangout? 21:44 - Why is the self view in hangouts mirrored? 23:45 - Can hangouts support multiple cameras and control them via the API? Can take snapshots? 26:37 - It would be really cool if the hangout button could specify the invitation list. - Google+ issue tracker: code.google.com 28:40 - Can the REST API expose hangout metadata? From: GoogleDevelopers Views: 1350 43 ratings Time: 31:35 More in Science & Technology

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• Google+ Platform Office Hours for March 21, 2012: JavaScript and the REST APIs

  Google+ Platform Office Hours for March 21, 2012: JavaScript and the REST APIs It's a blast from the past. Here's the video from our office hours held on the 20th of March. In this session Jonathan and Wolff guided you through using the REST APIs with JavaScript. Get the source code: goo.gl Discuss this video on Google+: goo.gl 1:05 - How to use JSONP to access the REST APIs in JavaScript 2:30 - Setting up a new project in the API console 7:06 - The client libraries, what are they? 8:39 - Using the JavaScript client library to reimplement our example 13:27 - About OAuth and private resources 14:26 - Creating an OAuth client using the API console - The JavaScript client library discussion group - goo.gl 24:14 - Using the JavaScript client library and REST APIs from within a hangout - hangoutbots.blogspot.com Q&A 19 - Are you planning to change the +1 button back? 20:14 - Will this video be posted to YouTube? (Spoiler: the answer is yes) 20:43 - Do you read your issues list? - The Google+ platform issue tracker: goo.gl From: GoogleDevelopers Views: 2808 33 ratings Time: 27:03 More in Science & Technology

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• Want to book hotel stay using Bitcoin? Book using Expedia.com

  - by Gopinath

  The online travel booking leader Expedia announced that it started accepting Bitcoins for booking hotels on its website. For those who are new to Bitcoin, it is a digital currency in which transactions can be performed without the need for a central bank – its more like internet of currency. At the moment Expedia is accepting Bitcoin payments only for hotel bookings and in the future it may allow flights and vacation packages bookings. When Expedia customers wants to pay for a hotel using Bitcoin then they are transferred to Coinbase, a third party bit coin processor, for accepting the payments and then they are redirected back to Expedia.com to complete booking. This simple process would definitely drive mainstream adoption of Bitcoin – a win-win situation for digital currency users as well as for the travel company as they save a lot on card processing fees. Online retailers pay around 3% of transaction amount as fees for credit card processing companies like Visa & Master when they accept cards, but Coinbase charges a fee of just 1 percent for processing Bitcoins. Irrespective of customers adoption to Bitcoin based payments on Expedia as well as the savings on transaction fees, this move would give bragging rights to Expedia being the first e-commerce giant to accept digital currency! Image credit: Jonathan Caves

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• Oracle University Seminars April/May/June 2012

  - by A&C Redaktion

  Normal 0 21 false false false DE X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} Oracle University's Expert Seminars are exclusive events delivered by top experts with years of experience in working with Oracle products. The seminars topics cover the breadth of the Oracle portfolio and are aimed at helping you to get the most of your Oracle products and to stay connected with new technologies. We currently have the following events scheduled: RAC Performance Tuning Online with Arup Nanda - 30 Apr 2012 Understanding Explain Plans & Index Utilization Online with Dan Hotka - 8-9 May 2012 Writing Optimal SQL & Troubleshooting & Tuning with Jonathan Lewis, Düsseldorf, 9-10 May 2012 Flashback Techniques in Oracle11g with Carl Dudley, München, 14 May 2012 Minimize Downtime with Rolling Upgrade using Data Guard with Uwe Hesse, München, 16 May 2012 Enterprise Business Intelligence 11g Advanced Development Online with Mark Rittman – 24-25 May Mastering Backup & Recovery with Francisco Munoz Alvarez, Düsseldorf, 29-30 May 2012 Real World Java EE 6 – Re-thinking Best Practice with Adam Bien, München, 15 Jun 2012

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• How Do Top Performing High Tech Companies Measure Online Marketing Success?

  - by Charles Knapp

  You might expect a focus on Net Promoter scores, open rates, and click metrics. The real answers from top performers may surprise you. I've been working for a few months with Aberdeen Group and colleagues from IBM and Oracle to survey high technology firms worldwide on best practices in marketing and channel sales effectiveness.  Now, we will share the results of our original customer research in a new white paper and webcast. Register today to learn how leading High Tech companies are increasing their Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI) and growing channel sales revenue. Discover how top performing high tech companies manage and use customer data, measure marketing spend effectiveness, and support internal and channel sales. Learn how best in class high tech companies use enterprise data throughout their customer lifecycle -- messaging to leads, selling to prospects, and serving customers. Our speakers will be: Peter Ostrow, Research Director - Sales Effectiveness, Aberdeen Group David Lasher, Global Business Services Partner, IBM Jonathan Oomrigar, Vice President, Global High Technology Business Unit, Oracle Reserve your place now! This global webinar is on Tuesday, November 15, 10-11 am PST / 1-2 pm EST / 6-7 GMT / 7-8 CET

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• Standards Matter: The Battle For Interoperability Continues

  - by michael.rowell

  Great Article, although it is a little dated at this point. Information Week Article Standards Matter: The Battle for Interoperability goes on Summary If you're guilty of relegating standards support to a "nice to have" feature rather than a requirement, you're part of the problem. If you want products to interoperate, be prepared to walk away if a vendor can't prove compliance. Don't be brushed off with promises of standards support "on the road map." The alternative is vendor lock-in and higher costs, including the cost of maintaining systems that don't work together. Standards bodies are imperfect and must do better. The alternative: splintered networks and broken promises. The point: "The secret sauce to a successful 'working standard' isn't necessarily IETF or another longstanding body," says Jonathan Feldman, director of IT services for the city of Asheville, N.C., and an InformationWeek Analytics contributor. "Rather, an earnest and honest effort by a group that has governance outside of a single corporation's control is what's important." In order to have true interoperability vendors as well as customers must be actively engaged in the standards process. Vendors must be willing to truly work together and not be protecting an existing product. Customers must also be willing to truly to work together and not be demanding a solution that only meets their needs but instead meets the needs of all participants. Ultimately, customers must be willing to reward vendor compliance by requiring compliance in products and services that they purchase and deploy. Managers that deploy systems without compliance to standards are only hurting themselves. Standards do matter. When developed openly and deployed compliantly standards deliver interoperability which provides solid business value.

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• Collision Detection with SAT: False Collision for Diagonal Movement Towards Vertical Tile-Walls?

  - by Macks

  Edit: Problem solved! Big thanks to Jonathan who pointed me in the right direction. Sean describes the method I used in a different thread. Also big thanks to him! :) Here is how I solved my problem: If a collision is registered by my SAT-method, only fire the collision-event on my character if there are no neighbouring solid tiles in the direction of the returned minimum translation vector. I'm developing my first tile-based 2D-game with Javascript. To learn the basics, I decided to write my own "game engine". I have successfully implemented collision detection using the separating axis theorem, but I've run into a problem that I can't quite wrap my head around. If I press the [up] and [left] arrow-keys simultaneously, my character moves diagonally towards the upper left. If he hits a horizontal wall, he'll just keep moving in x-direction. The same goes for [up] and [left] as well as downward-diagonal movements, it works as intended: http://i.stack.imgur.com/aiZjI.png Diagonal movement works fine for horizontal walls, for both left and right-movement However: this does not work for vertical walls. Instead of keeping movement in y-direction, he'll just stop as soon as he "enters" a new tile on the y-axis. So for some reason SAT thinks my character is colliding vertically with tiles from vertical walls: http://i.stack.imgur.com/XBEKR.png My character stops because he thinks that he is colliding vertically with tiles from the wall on the right. This only occurs, when: Moving into top-right direction towards the right wall Moving into top-left direction towards the left wall Bottom-right and bottom-left movement work: the character keeps moving in y-direction as intended. Is this inherited from the way SAT works or is there a problem with my implementation? What can I do to solve my problem? Oh yeah, my character is displayed as a circle but he's actually a rectangular polygon for the collision detection. Thank you very much for your help.

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• New XAML-Based User Group started in Birmingham, Alabama.

  - by mbcrump

  I’m pleased to announce that a new XAML-Based User Group has started in Birmingham, Alabama. The group is being hosted by Michael Crump and Jonathan Marbutt. The reason is very simple: we feel that Birmingham needs a fresh start. We are both very passionate about .NET and are hoping to share our experiences with the community. We have created a site (http://allaboutxaml.net) and our first meetup is now scheduled. We are here to discuss all things that have to do with xaml. This includes Silverlight, WPF, Windows Phone 7, Surface, Lightswitch and Silverlight with SharePoint 2010. We: believe strongly in xaml and are passionate about what we talk about. believe in an open-forum. believe a user group should be FUN as well as educational. do not claim to be an expert on anything, we are here to share. record every presentation and put it on the web for others to benefit. meet monthly but are flexible on the actual date. do our events outside of technical colleges. have families and our meetings start and stop on time. welcome new speakers. welcome adult beverages. Our first meeting is going to be on February 15th, 2011 (6PM), at Logan's on HWY 280. It is going to be more of a meetup than a meeting. I would like to discuss current xaml-based projects that you are working on and get to know one another. If you are interested in coming then please sign up here so that we know how many to expect. Please visit our site to find out more about us: http://allaboutxaml.net.

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• Robots &amp; Pencils Bring iOS Dev Camp/Dev School to Winnipeg

  - by D'Arcy Lussier

  My buddy Paul Thorsteinson from Robots and Pencils has come up with an elaborate way to collect his Mac power adaptor that I keep forgetting to mail to him – he’s coming to town with Jonathan Rasmusson to run an iPhone Dev Camp and two-day Dev School here in Winnipeg! From the email he sent me: We are going to be bringing our successful iOS dev school out to the 'Peg in October as well has hosting a dev camp on the Friday night (comparable to a .net user group type deal).  If you know any peeps in Manitoba who are interested in these, please pass along!  .Net developers are welcome to come and heckle as well ;) Winnipeg iPhone Dev Camp October 26th Marlborough Hotel, 5:30pm Cost: $10 http://ios-dev-camp-winnipeg-eorg.eventbrite.com/ ^for devs of any level interested in meeting other devs hearing talks of all levels.  Food and networking Winnipeg iPhone Dev School October 27th, 28th, Marlborough Hotel Cost: $899 + GST http://academy.robotsandpencils.com/training ^For devs looking to get their feet wet in iOS dev Paul has spoken at Prairie Dev Con before and is vastly knowledgeable in mobile development. You can see his work in Spy vs Spy, Catch the Princess, World Explorer for Minecraft, Deco Windshield (yes they run their entire business on their iPad), Anthm, Own This World and too many other apps. If you’re into iOS development, looking to get in, or wanting to improve your skills, consider these great professional development opportunities! D

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• SQLAuthority News – SQLPASS Nov 8-11, 2010-Seattle – An Alternative Look at Experience

  - by pinaldave

  I recently attended most prestigious SQL Server event SQLPASS between Nov 8-11, 2010 at Seattle. I have only one expression for the event - Best Summit Ever This year the summit was at its best. Instead of writing about my usual routine or the event, I am going to write about the interesting things I did and how I felt about it! Best Summit Ever Trip to Seattle! This was my second trip to Seattle this year and the journey is always long. Here is the travel stats on how long it takes to get to Seattle: 24 hours official air time 36 hours total travel time (connection waits and airport commute) Every time I travel to USA I gain a day and when I travel back to home, I lose a day. However, the total traveling time is around 3 days. The journey is long and very exhausting. However, it is all worth it when you’re attending an event like SQLPASS. Here are few things I carry when I travel for a long journey: Dry Snack packs – I like to have some good Indian Dry Snacks along with me in my backpack so I can have my own snack when I want Amazon Kindle – Loaded with 80+ books A physical book – This is usually a very easy to read book I do not watch movies on the plane and usually spend my time reading something quick and easy. If I can go to sleep, I go for it. I prefer to not to spend time in conversation with the guy sitting next to me because usually I end up listening to their biography, which I cannot blog about. Sheraton Seattle SQLPASS In any case, I love to go to Seattle as the city is great and has everything a brilliant metropolis has to offer. The new Light Train is extremely convenient, and I can take it directly from the airport to the city center. My hotel, the Sheraton, was only few meters (in the USA people count in blocks – 3 blocks) away from the train station. This time I saved USD 40 each round trip due to the Light Train. Sessions I attended! Well, I really wanted to attend most of the sessions but there was great dilemma of which ones to choose. There were many, many sessions to be attended and at any given time there was more than one good session being presented. I had decided to attend sessions in area performance tuning and I attended quite a few sessions this year, compared to what I was able to do last year. Here are few names of the speakers whose sessions I attended (please note, following great speakers are not listed in any order. I loved them and I enjoyed their sessions): Conor Cunningham Rushabh Mehta Buck Woody Brent Ozar Jonathan Kehayias Chris Leonard Bob Ward Grant Fritchey I had great fun attending their sessions. The sessions were meaningful and enlightening. It is hard to rate any session but I have found that the insights learned in Conor Cunningham’s sessions are the highlight of the PASS Summit. Rushabh Mehta at Keynote SQLPASS   Bucky Woody and Brent Ozar I always like the sessions where the speaker is much closer to the audience and has real world experience. I think speakers who have worked in the real world deliver the best content and most useful information. Sessions I did not like! Indeed there were few sessions I did not like it and I am not going to name them here. However, there were strong reasons I did not like their sessions, and here is why: Sessions were all theory and had no real world connections. All technical questions ended with confusing answers (lots of “I will get back to you on it,” “it depends,” “let us take this offline” and many more…) “I am God” kind of attitude in the speakers For example, I attended a session of one very well known speaker who is a specialist for one particular area. I was bit late for the session and was surprised to see that in a room that could hold 350 people there were only 30 attendees. After sitting there for 15 minutes, I realized why lots of people left. Very soon I found I preferred to stare out the window instead of listening to that particular speaker. One on One Talk! Many times people ask me what I really like about PASS. I always say the experience of meeting SQL legends and spending time with them one on one and LEARNING! Here is the quick list of the people I met during this event and spent more than 30 minutes with each of them talking about various subjects: Pinal Dave and Brad Shulz Pinal Dave and Rushabh Mehta Michael Coles and Pinal Dave Rushabh Mehta – It is always pleasure to meet with him. He is a man with lots of energy and a passion for community. He recently told me that he really wanted to turn PASS into resource for learning for every SQL Server Developer and Administrator in the world. I had great in-depth discussion regarding how a single person can contribute to a community. Michael Coles – I consider him my best friend. It is always fun to meet him. He is funny and very knowledgeable. I think there are very few people who are as expert as he is in encryption and spatial databases. Worth meeting him every single time. Glenn Berry – A real friend of everybody. He is very a simple person and very true to his heart. I think there is not a single person in whole community who does not like him. He is a friends of all and everybody likes him very much. I once again had time to sit with him and learn so much from him. As he is known as Dr. DMV, I can be his nurse in the area of DMV. Brad Schulz – I always wanted to meet him but never got chance until today. I had great time meeting him in person and we have spent considerable amount of time together discussing various T-SQL tricks and tips. I do not know where he comes up with all the different ideas but I enjoy reading his blog and sharing his wisdom with me. Jonathan Kehayias – He is drill sergeant in US army. If you get the impression that he is a giant with very strong personality – you are wrong. He is very kind and soft spoken DBA with strong performance tuning skills. I asked him how he has kept his two jobs separate and I got very good answer – just work hard and have passion for what you do. I attended his sessions and his presentation style is very unique.  I feel like he is speaking in a language I understand. Louis Davidson – I had never had a chance to sit with him and talk about technology before. He has so much wisdom and he is very kind. During the dinner, I had talked with him for long time and without hesitation he started to draw a schema for me on the menu. It was a wonderful experience to learn from a master at the dinner table. He explained to me the real and practical differences between third normal form and forth normal form. Honestly I did not know earlier, but now I do. Erland Sommarskog – This man needs no introduction, he is very well known and very clear in conveying his ideas. I learned a lot from him during the course of year. Every time I meet him, I learn something new and this time was no exception. Joe Webb – Joey is all about community and people, we had interesting conversation about community, MVP and how one can be helpful to community without losing passion for long time. It is always pleasant to talk to him and of course, I had fun time. Ross Mistry – I call him my brother many times because he indeed looks like my cousin. He provided me lots of insight of how one can write book and how he keeps his books simple to appeal to all the readers. A wonderful person and great friend. Ola Hallgren - I did not know he was coming to the summit. I had great time meeting him and had a wonderful conversation with him regarding his scripts and future community activities. Blythe Morrow – She used to be integrated part of SQL Server Community and PASS HQ. It was wonderful to meet her again and re-connect. She is wonderful person and I had a great time talking to her. Solid Quality Mentors – It is difficult to decide who to mention here. Instead of writing all the names, I am going to include a photo of our meeting. I had great fun meeting various members of our global branches. This year I was sitting with my Spanish speaking friends and had great fun as Javier Loria from Solid Quality translated lots of things for me. Party, Party and Parties Every evening there were various parties. I did attend almost all of them. Every party had different theme but the goal of all the parties the same – networking. Here are the few parties where I had lots of fun: Dell Reception Party Exhibitor Party Solid Quality Fun Party Red Gate Friends Party MVP Dinner Microsoft Party MVP Dinner Quest Party Gameworks PASS Party Volunteer Party at Garage Solid Quality Mentors (10 Members out of 120) They were all great networking opportunities and lots of fun. I really had great time meeting people at the various parties. There were few people everywhere – well, I will say I am among them – who hopped parties. NDA – Not Decided Agenda During the event there were few meetings marked “NDA.” Someone asked me “why are these things NDA?”  My response was simple: because they are not sure themselves. NDA stands for Not Decided Agenda. Toys, Giveaways and Luggage I admit, I was like child in Gameworks and was playing to win soft toys. I was doing it for my daughter. I must thank all of the people who gave me their cards to try my luck. I won 4 soft-toys for my daughter and it was fun. Also, thanks to Angel who did a final toy swap with me to get the desired toy for my daughter. I also collected ducks from Idera, as my daughter really loves them. Solid Quality Booth Each of the exhibitors was giving away something and I got so much stuff that my luggage got quite a bit bigger when I returned. Best Exhibitor Idera had SQLDoctor (a real magician and fun guy) to promote their new tool SQLDoctor. I really had a great time participating in the magic myself. At one point, the magician made my watch disappear.  I have seen better magic before, but this time it caught me unexpectedly and I was taken by surprise. I won many ducks again. The Common Question I heard the following common questions: I have seen you somewhere – who are you? – I am Pinal Dave. I did not know that Pinal is your first name and Dave is your last name, how do you pronounce your last name again? – Da-way How old are you? – I am as old as I can be. Are you an Indian because you look like one? – I did not answer this one. Where are you from? This question was usually asked after looking at my badge which says India. So did you really fly from India? – Yes, because I have seasickness so I do not prefer the sea journey. How long was the journey? – 24/36/12 (air travel time/total travel time/time zone difference) Why do you write on SQLAuthority.com? – Because I want to. I remember your daughter looks like you. – Is this even a question? Of course, she is daddy’s little girl. There were so many other questions, I will have to write another blog post about it. SQLPASS Again, Best Summit Ever! Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: About Me, Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority Author Visit, T SQL, Technology Tagged: SQLPASS

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• The Oracle Retail Week Awards - most exciting awards yet?

  - by sarah.taylor(at)oracle.com

  Last night's annual Oracle Retail Week Awards saw the UK's top retailers come together to celebrate the very best of our industry over the last year.  The Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane in London was the setting for an exciting ceremony which this year marked several significant milestones in British - and global - retail.  Check out our videos about the event at our Oracle Retail YouTube channel, and see if you were snapped by our photographer on our Oracle Retail Facebook page. There were some extremely hot contests for many of this year's awards - and all very deserving winners.  The entries have demonstrated beyond doubt that retailers have striven to push their standards up yet again in all areas over the past year.  The judging panel includes some of the most prestigious names in the retail industry - to impress the panel enough to win an award is a substantial achievement.  This year the panel included the likes of Andy Clarke - Chief Executive of ASDA Group; Mark Newton Jones - CEO of Shop Direct Group; Richard Pennycook - the finance director at Morrisons; Rob Templeman - Chief Executive of Debenhams; and Stephen Sunnucks - the president of Gap Europe.  These are retail veterans  who have each helped to shape the British High Street over the last decade.  It was great to chat with many of them in the Oracle VIP area last night.  For me, last night's highlight was honouring both Sir Stuart Rose and Sir Terry Leahy for their contributions to the retail industry.  Both have set the standards in retailing over the last twenty years and taken their respective businesses from strength to strength, demonstrating that there is always a need for innovation even in larger businesses, and that a business has to adapt quickly to new technology in order to stay competitive.  Sir Terry Leahy's retirement this year marks the end of an era of global expansion for the Tesco group and a milestone in the progression of British retail.  Sir Terry has helped steer Tesco through nearly 20 years of change, with 14 years as Chief Executive.  During this time he led the drive for international expansion and an aggressive campaign to increase market share.  He has led the way for High Street retailers in adapting to the rise of internet retailing and nurtured a very successful home delivery service.  More recently he has pioneered the notion of cross-channel retailing with the introduction of Tesco apps for the iPhone and Android mobile phones allowing customers to scan barcodes of items to add to a shopping list which they can then either refer to in store or order for delivery.  John Lewis Partnership was a very deserving winner of The Oracle Retailer of the Year award for their overall dedication to excellent retailing practices.  The business was also named the American Express Marketing/Advertising Campaign of the Year award for their memorable 'Never Knowingly Undersold' advert series, which included a very successful viral video and radio campaign with Fyfe Dangerfield's cover of Billy Joel's 'She's Always a Woman' used for the adverts.  Store Design of the Year was another exciting category with Topshop taking the accolade for its flagship Oxford Street store in London, which combines boutique concession-style stalls with high fashion displays and exclusive collections from leading designers.  The store even has its own hairdressers and food hall, making it a truly all-inclusive fashion retail experience and a global landmark for any self-respecting international fashion shopper. Over the next few weeks we'll be exploring some of the winning entries in more detail here on the blog, so keep an eye out for some unique insights into how the winning retailers have made such remarkable achievements. 

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• F1 Pit Pragmatics

  - by mikef

  "I hate computers. No, really, I hate them. I love the communications they facilitate, I love the conveniences they provide to my life. but I actually hate the computers themselves." - Scott Merrill, 'I hate computers: confessions of a Sysadmin' If Scott's goal was to polarize opinion and trigger raging arguments over the 'real reasons why computers suck', then he certainly succeeded. Impassioned vitriol sits side-by-side with rational debate. Yet Scott's fundamental point is absolutely on the money - Computers are a means to an end. The IT industry is finally starting to put weight behind the notion that good User Experience is an absolutely crucial goal, a cause championed by the likes of Microsoft's Bill Buxton, and which Apple's increasingly ubiquitous touch screen interface exemplifies. However, that doesn't change the fact that, occasionally, you just have to man up and deal with complex systems. In fact, sometimes you just need to sacrifice everything else in the name of performance. You'll find a perfect example of this Faustian bargain in Trevor Clarke's fascinating look into the (diabolical) IT infrastructure of modern F1 racing - high performance, high availability. high everything. To paraphrase, each car has up to 100 sensors, transmitting around 30Gb of data over the course of a race (70% in real-time). This data is then processed by no less than 3 servers (per car) so that the engineers in the pit have access to telemetry, strategy information, timing feeds, a connection back to the operations room in the team's home base - the list goes on. All of this while the servers are exposed "to carbon dust, oil, vibration, rain, heat, [and] variable power". Now, this is admittedly an extreme context where there's no real choice but to use complex systems where ease-of-use is, at best, a secondary concern. The flip-side is seen in small-scale personal computing such as that seen in Apple's iDevices, which are incredibly intuitive but limited in their scope. In terms of what kinds of systems they prefer to use, I suspect that most SysAdmins find themselves somewhere along this axis of Power vs. Usability, and which end of this axis you resonate with also hints at where you think the IT industry should focus its energy. Do you see yourself in the F1 pit, making split-second decisions, wrestling with information flows and reticent hardware to bend them to your will? If so, I imagine you feel that computers are subtle tools which need to be tuned and honed, using the advanced knowledge possessed only by responsible SysAdmins (If you have an iPhone, I suspect it's jail-broken). If the machines throw enigmatic errors, it's the price of flexibility and raw power. Alternatively, would you prefer to have your role more accessible, with users empowered by knowledge, spreading the load of managing IT environments? In that case, then you want hardware and software to have User Experience as their primary focus, and are of the "means to an end" school of thought (you're probably also fed up with users not listening to you when you try and help). At its heart, the dichotomy is between raw power (which might be difficult to use) and ease-of-use (which might have some limitations, but you can be up and running immediately). Of course, the ultimate goal is a fusion of flexibility, power and usability all in one system. It's achievable in specific software environments, and Red Gate considers it a target worth aiming for, but in other cases it's a goal right up there with cold fusion. I think it'll be a long time before we see it become ubiquitous. In the meantime, are you Power-Hungry or a Champion of Usability? Cheers, Michael Francis Simple Talk SysAdmin Editor

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