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• Live CD / Live USB much faster than full install

  - by user29347

  I've observed it on both laptops I own! HP Compaq nx6125 and Ubuntu 11.04 x64 - somewhat solved Lenovo Thinkpad T500 and Ubuntu 11.10 x64 - help needed! I'm still struggling with the Thinkpad to get performance level similar to that of 10 y.o. laptops... All in all a really serious issue with multiple versions of Ubuntu that renders computers with perfectly compatible hardware unusable, as far as out of the box experience is concerned. Troubleshooting resultant issues seems to be a hard case even for users with some experience with installing graphics drivers. EDIT: I can't really post additional details. Two different ubuntu versions, two laptops, two different set of graph. drivers (OS vs ATI prop.) - all with the same symptoms. Also I can't stress enough how massive the performance degradation is compared to a healthy system. For that reason I ask for input from people who may know roughly what are we dealing with here. I can post more details if we were to focus on my current Thinkpad T500. In that case my current system details: Lenovo Thinkpad T500 Ubuntu 11.10 x64 ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 (also see the "What I have already tried" section about Intel graphics tested) ATI Catalyst 11.10 drivers OCZ Agility 3 SSD but! same with the default driver for ATI the card same with the prop. driver for the ATI card from Jockey (Additional drivers applet) What I have already tried: 0. Switching to Intel integrated card (Intel GMA 4500M HD) with the default driver - same effects = may indicate not driver related problem but a problem with something of global influence like e.g. nomodeset or other I don't even know about. (What you can read above) ATI Catalyst 11.10 and radeon.modeset=0 boot parameter + disabled Wait for VBlank. Unity 2D Ubuntu 10.04 LTS tested (ubuntu-10.04.3-desktop-i386.iso): Both live USB and installed version blazing fast! (on the default drivers - without even installing the proprietary fglrx drivers). re2 a) seems to give me the only significant results (still poor) - perfect Unity elements performance with the same crawling stuttering/lagging when dragging windows around. re2 b) this happens often http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b68/Bucic/ubuntuforumsorg/Screenshotat2011-10-28083140.png re2 c) Sometimes I am able to witness a normal performance when dragging a window around but only for a second or two. When I try to shake it longer it starts to lag and it will keep lagging like that with an increased probability of what you see in the sshot in point re2 b). re2 d) I can't establish the radeon.modeset=0 influence though. Once it seems to work be smooth with it, the other time - without it. Really can't tell.

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• C# Domain-Driven Design Sample Released

  - by Artur Trosin

  In the post I want to declare that NDDD Sample application(s) is released and share the work with you. You can access it here: http://code.google.com/p/ndddsample. NDDDSample from functionality perspective matches DDDSample 1.1.0 which is based Java and on joint effort by Eric Evans' company Domain Language and the Swedish software consulting company Citerus. But because NDDDSample is based on .NET technologies those two implementations could not be matched directly. However concepts, practices, values, patterns, especially DDD, are cross-language and cross-platform :). Implementation of .NET version of the application was an interesting journey because now as .NET developer I better understand the differences positive and negative between these two platforms. Even there are those differences they can be overtaken, in many cases it was not so hard to match a java libs\framework with .NET during the implementation. Here is a list of technology stack: 1. .net 3.5 - framework 2. VS.NET 2008 - IDE 3. ASP.NET MVC2.0 - for administration and tracking UI 4. WCF - communication mechanism 5. NHibernate - ORM 6. Rhino Commons - Nhibernate session management, base classes for in memory unit tests 7. SqlLite - database 8. Windsor - inversion of control container 9. Windsor WCF facility - for better integration with NHibernate 10. MvcContrib - and in particular its Castle WindsorControllerFactory in order to enable IoC for controllers 11. WPF - for incident logging application 12. Moq - mocking lib used for unit tests 13. NUnit - unit testing framework 14. Log4net - logging framework 15. Cloud based on Azure SDK These are not the latest technologies, tools and libs for the moment but if there are someone thinks that it would be useful to migrate the sample to latest current technologies and versions please comment. Cloud version of the application is based on Azure emulated environment provided by the SDK, so it hasn't been tested on ‘real' Azure scenario (we just do not have access to it). Thanks to participants, Eugen Gorgan who was involved directly in development, Ruslan Rusu and Victor Lungu spend their free time to discuss .NET specific decisions, Eugen Navitaniuc helped with Java related questions. Also, big thank to Cornel Cretu, he designed a nice logo and helped with some browser incompatibility issues. Any review and feedback are welcome! Thank you, Artur Trosin

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• SQL SERVER – Order By Numeric Values Formatted as String

  - by pinaldave

  When I was writing this blog post I had a hard time to come up with the title of the blog post so I did my best to come up with one. Here is the reason why? I wrote a blog post earlier SQL SERVER – Find First Non-Numeric Character from String. One of the questions was that how that blog can be useful in real life scenario. This blog post is the answer to that question. Let us first see a problem. We have a table which has a column containing alphanumeric data. The data always has first as an integer and later part as a string. The business need is to order the data based on the first part of the alphanumeric data which is an integer. Now the problem is that no matter how we use ORDER BY the result is not produced as expected. Let us understand this with example. Prepare a sample data: -- How to find first non numberic character USE tempdb GO CREATE TABLE MyTable (ID INT, Col1 VARCHAR(100)) GO INSERT INTO MyTable (ID, Col1) SELECT 1, '1one' UNION ALL SELECT 2, '11eleven' UNION ALL SELECT 3, '2two' UNION ALL SELECT 4, '22twentytwo' UNION ALL SELECT 5, '111oneeleven' GO -- Select Data SELECT * FROM MyTable GO The above query will give following result set. Now let us use ORDER BY COL1 and observe the result along with Original SELECT. -- Select Data SELECT * FROM MyTable GO -- Select Data SELECT * FROM MyTable ORDER BY Col1 GO The result of the table is not as per expected. We need the result in following format. Here is the good example of how we can use PATINDEX. -- Use of PATINDEX SELECT ID, LEFT(Col1,PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%',Col1)-1) 'Numeric Character', Col1 'Original Character' FROM MyTable ORDER BY LEFT(Col1,PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%',Col1)-1) GO We can use PATINDEX to identify the length of the digit part in the alphanumeric string (Remember: Our string has a first part as an int always. It will not work in any other scenario). Now you can use the LEFT function to extract the INT portion from the alphanumeric string and order the data according to it. You can easily clean up the script by dropping following table. DROP TABLE MyTable GO Here is the complete script so you can easily refer it. -- How to find first non numberic character USE tempdb GO CREATE TABLE MyTable (ID INT, Col1 VARCHAR(100)) GO INSERT INTO MyTable (ID, Col1) SELECT 1, '1one' UNION ALL SELECT 2, '11eleven' UNION ALL SELECT 3, '2two' UNION ALL SELECT 4, '22twentytwo' UNION ALL SELECT 5, '111oneeleven' GO -- Select Data SELECT * FROM MyTable GO -- Select Data SELECT * FROM MyTable ORDER BY Col1 GO -- Use of PATINDEX SELECT ID, Col1 'Original Character' FROM MyTable ORDER BY LEFT(Col1,PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%',Col1)-1) GO DROP TABLE MyTable GO Well, isn’t it an interesting solution. Any suggestion for better solution? Additionally any suggestion for changing the title of this blog post? Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL String, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• ArchBeat Top 10 for November 11-17, 2012

  - by Bob Rhubart

  The Top 10 most popular items shared on the OTN ArchBeat Facebook page for the week of November 11-17, 2012. Developing and Enforcing a BYOD Policy Darin Pendergraft's post includes links to a recent Mobile Access Policy Survey by SANS as well as registration information for a Nov 15 webcast featuring security expert Tony DeLaGrange from Secure Ideas, SANS instructor, attorney and technology law expert Ben Wright, and Oracle IDM product manager Lee Howarth. This Week on the OTN Architect Community Homepage Make time to check out this week's features on the OTN Solution Architect Homepage, including: SOA Practitioner Guide: Identifying and Discovering Services Technical article by Yuli Vasiliev on Setting Up, Configuring, and Using an Oracle WebLogic Server Cluster The conclusion of the 3-part OTN ArchBeat Podcast on Future-Proofing your career. WLST Starting and Stopping a WebLogic Environment | Rene van Wijk Oracle ACE Rene van Wijk explores how to start a server with as little input as possible. Cloud Integration White Paper | Bruce Tierney Bruce Tierney shares an overview of Cloud Integration - A Comprehensive Solution, a new white paper he co-authored with David Baum, Rajesh Raheja, Bruce Tierney, and Vijay Pawar. X.509 Certificate Revocation Checking Using OCSP protocol with Oracle WebLogic Server 12c | Abhijit Patil Abhijit Patil's article focuses on how to use X.509 Certificate Revocation Checking Functionality with the OCSP protocol to validate in-bound certificates. Although this article focuses on inbound OCSP validation using OCSP, Oracle WebLogic Server 12c also supports outbound OCSP validation. Update on My OBIEE / Exalytics Books | Mark Rittman Oracle ACE Director Mark Rittman shares several resources related to his books Oracle Business Intelligence 11g Developers Guide and Oracle Exalytics Revealed, including a podcast interview with Oracle's Paul Rodwick. E-Business Suite 12.1.3 Data Masking Certified with Enterprise Manager 12c | Elke Phelps "You can use the Oracle Data Masking Pack with Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control 12c to scramble sensitive data in cloned E-Business Suite environments," reports Elke Phelps. There's a lot more information about this announcement in Elke's post. WebLogic Application Server: free for developers! | Bruno Borges Java blogger Bruno Borges shares news about important changes in the license agreement for Oracle WebLogic Server. Agile Architecture | David Sprott "There is ample evidence that Agile Architecture is a primary contributor to business agility, yet we do not have a well understood architecture management system that integrates with Agile methods," observes David Sprott in this extensive post. My iPad & This Cloud Thing | Floyd Teter Oracle ACE Director Floyd Teter explains why the Cloud is making it possible for him to use his iPad for tasks previously relegated to his laptop, and why this same scenario is likely to play out for a great many people. Thought for the Day "In programming, the hard part isn't solving problems, but deciding what problems to solve." — Paul Graham Source: SoftwareQuotes.com

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• SQL SERVER – Transaction Log Full – Transaction Log Larger than Data File – Notes from Fields #001

  - by Pinal Dave

  I am very excited to announce a new series on this blog – Notes from Fields. I have been blogging for almost 7 years on this blog and it has been a wonderful experience. Though, I have extensive experience with SQL and Databases, it is always a good idea that we consult experts for their advice and opinion. Following the same thought process, I have started this new series of Notes from Fields. In this series we will have notes from various experts in the database world. My friends at Linchpin People have graciously decided to support me in my new initiation.  Linchpin People are database coaches and wellness experts for a data driven world. In this very first episode of the Notes from Fields series database expert Tim Radney (partner at Linchpin People) explains a very common issue DBA and Developer faces in their career, when database logs fills up your hard-drive or your database log is larger than your data file. Read the experience of Tim in his own words. As a consultant, I encounter a number of common issues with clients.  One of the more common things I encounter is finding a user database in the FULL recovery model that does not make a regular transaction log backups or ever had a transaction log backup. When I find this, usually the transaction log is several times larger than the data file. Finding this issue is very significant to me in that it allows to me to discuss service level agreements with the client. I get to ask questions such as, are nightly full backups sufficient or do they need point in time recovery.  This conversation has now signed with the customer and gets them to thinking about their disaster recovery and high availability solutions. This issue is also very prominent on SQL Server forums and usually has the title of “Help, my transaction log has filled up my disk” or “Help, my transaction log is many times the size of my database”. In cases where the client only needs the previous full nights backup, I am able to change the recovery model to SIMPLE and shrink the transaction log using DBCC SHRINKFILE (2,1) or by specifying the transaction log file name by using DBCC SHRINKFILE (file_name, target_size). When the client needs point in time recovery then in most cases I will still end up switching the client to the SIMPLE recovery model to truncate the transaction log followed by a full backup. I will then schedule a SQL Agent job to make the regular transaction log backups with an interval determined by the client to meet their service level agreements. It should also be noted that typically when I find an overgrown transaction log the virtual log file count is also out of control. I clean up will always take that into account as well.  That is a subject for a future blog post. If your SQL Server is facing any issue we can Fix Your SQL Server. Additional reading: Monitoring SQL Server Database Transaction Log Space Growth – DBCC SQLPERF(logspace)  SQL SERVER – How to Stop Growing Log File Too Big Shrinking Truncate Log File – Log Full Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Backup and Restore, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL

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• Customer Support Spotlight: Clemson University

  - by cwarticki

  I've begun a Customer Support Spotlight series that highlights our wonderful customers and Oracle loyalists.  A week ago I visited Clemson University.  As I travel to visit and educate our customers, I provide many useful tips/tricks and support best practices (as found on my blog and twitter). Most of all, I always discover an Oracle gem who deserves recognition for their hard work and advocacy. Meet George Manley.  George is a Storage Engineer who has worked in Clemson's Data Center all through college, partially in the Hardware Architecture group and partially in the Storage group. George and the rest of the Storage Team work with most all of the storage technologies that they have here at Clemson. This includes a wide array of different vendors' disk arrays, with the most of them being Oracle/Sun 2540's.  He also works with SAM/QFS, ACSLS, and our SL8500 Tape Libraries (all three Oracle/Sun products). (pictured L to R, Matt Schoger (Oracle), Mark Flores (Oracle) and George Manley) George was kind enough to take us for a data center tour.  It was amazing.  I rarely get to see the inside of data centers, and this one was massive. Clemson Computing and Information Technology’s physical resources include the main data center located in the Information Technology Center at the Innovation Campus and Technology Park. The core of Clemson’s computing infrastructure, the data center has 21,000 sq ft of raised floor and is powered by a 14MW substation. The ITC power capacity is 4.5MW.  The data center is the home of both enterprise and HPC systems, and is staffed by CCIT staff on a 24 hour basis from a state of the art network operations center within the ITC. A smaller business continuance data center is located on the main campus.  The data center serves a wide variety of purposes including HPC (supercomputing) resources which are shared with other Universities throughout the state, the state's medicaid processing system, and nearly all other needs for Clemson University. Yes, that's no typo (14,256 cores and 37TB of memory!!! Thanks for the tour George and thank you very much for your time.  The tour was fantastic. I enjoyed getting to know your team and I look forward to many successes from Clemson using Oracle products. -Chris WartickiGlobal Customer Management

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• Playing NSF music in FMOD.net

  - by Tesserex

  So, as the title says, I want to be able to play NSF files using FMOD, because my project already uses FMOD and I'd rather not replace it. This will involve figuring out how existing players and emulators work and porting it. I haven't yet found an existing player that uses FMOD. My starting point is the MyNes source from http://sourceforge.net/projects/mynes/. There are two big steps between here and what I'm looking for. MyNes plays from a ROM, not NSF. So, I have to rip out the APU and get it to play NSF files. The MyNes APU uses SlimDX, so I have to convert that to FMOD.NET. I am really stuck about how to go about either of these, because I'm not that familiar with audio formats and it's hard finding resources online. So here are a few questions: From what I can tell from the NSF spec at http://kevtris.org/nes/nsfspec.txt, it's just contains the relevant memory section of the ROM, plus the header. If anyone can verify or correct this that would be great. The emulator APU uses data from the rest of the emulator to play, including things like cycle counts. I'm not sure what replaces this in a standalone player. Can't I just load all the music data at once into a stream and play it? Joining #1 and #2, does the header data from the NSF substitute for some of the ROM data in the emulator code? Using FMOD, will I be following the usercreatedsound example for loading a stream? And does this format count as PCM? Specifically MyNes says PCM8. Any tips on loading / playing the stream in FMOD are appreciated. As an aside, I don't really understand the loading / playing sections of the spec I linked at all. It seems to apply to 6502 systems / emulators only and not to my situation. I know it's a long shot for anyone here to have enough experience in this area to help, but anything you can provide is definitely appreciated. A link to an existing .NET library that does this would be even better, but I don't believe one exists.

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• How To Approach 360 Degree Snake

  - by Austin Brunkhorst

  I've recently gotten into XNA and must say I love it. As sort of a hello world game I decided to create the classic game "Snake". The 90 degree version was very simple and easy to implement. But as I try to make a version of it that allows 360 degree rotation using left and right arrows, I've come into sort of a problem. What i'm doing now stems from the 90 degree version: Iterating through each snake body part beginning at the tail, and ending right before the head. This works great when moving every 100 milliseconds. The problem with this is that it makes for a choppy style of gameplay as technically the game progresses at only 6 fps rather than it's potential 60. I would like to move the snake every game loop. But unfortunately because the snake moves at the rate of it's head's size it goes way too fast. This would mean that the head would need to move at a much smaller increment such as (2, 2) in it's direction rather than what I have now (32, 32). Because I've been working on this game off and on for a couple of weeks while managing school I think that I've been thinking too hard on how to accomplish this. It's probably a simple solution, i'm just not catching it. Here's some pseudo code for what I've tried based off of what makes sense to me. I can't really think of another way to do it. for(int i = SnakeLength - 1; i > 0; i--){ current = SnakePart[i], next = SnakePart[i - 1]; current.x = next.x - (current.width * cos(next.angle)); current.y = next.y - (current.height * sin(next.angle)); current.angle = next.angle; } SnakeHead.x += cos(SnakeAngle) * SnakeSpeed; SnakeHead.y += sin(SnakeAngle) * SnakeSpeed; This produces something like this: Code in Action. As you can see each part always stays behind the head and doesn't make a "Trail" effect. A perfect example of what i'm going for can be found here: Data Worm. Not the viewport rotation but the trailing effect of the triangles. Thanks for any help!

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• Taking the fear out of a Cloud initiative through the use of security tools

  - by user736511

  Typical employees, constituents, and business owners  interact with online services at a level where their knowledge of back-end systems is low, and most of the times, there is no interest in knowing the systems' architecture.  Most application administrators, while partially responsible for these systems' upkeep, have very low interactions with them, at least at an operational, platform level.  Of greatest interest to these groups is the consistent, reliable, and manageable operation of the interfaces with which they communicate.  Introducing the "Cloud" topic in any evolving architecture automatically raises the concerns for data and identity security simply because of the perception that when owning the silicon, enterprises are not able to manage its content.  But is this really true?   In the majority of traditional architectures, data and applications that access it are physically distant from the organization that owns it.  It may reside in a shared data center, or a geographically convenient location that spans large organizations' connectivity capabilities.  In the end, very often, the model of a "traditional" architecture is fairly close to the "new" Cloud architecture.  Most notable difference is that by nature, a Cloud setup uses security as a core function, and not as a necessary add-on. Therefore, following best practices, one can say that data can be safer in the Cloud than in traditional, stove-piped environments where data access is segmented and difficult to audit. The caveat is, of course, what "best practices" consist of, and here is where Oracle's security tools are perfectly suited for the task.  Since Oracle's model is to support very large organizations, it is fundamentally concerned about distributed applications, databases etc and their security, and the related Identity Management Products, or DB Security options reflect that concept.  In the end, consumers of applications and their data are to be served more safely in a controlled Cloud environment, while realizing the many cost savings associated with it. Having very fast resources to serve them (such as the Exa* platform) makes the concept even more attractive.  Finally, if a Cloud strategy does not seem feasible, consider the pros and cons of a traditional vs. a Cloud architecture.  Using the exact same criteria and business goals/traditions, and with Oracle's technology, you might be hard pressed to justify maintaining the technical status quo on security alone. For additional information please visit Oracle's Cloud Security page at: http://www.oracle.com/us/technologies/cloud/cloud-security-428855.html

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• Graphics card fan is loud (additional graphics card drivers cause problems)

  - by tk4muffin

  Okay this explanation is a bit longer ... but I start at the beginning: I've been using Windows 7 for a very long time, shortly after the release of v12.10 I installed Ubuntu via Windows installer. Everything worked fine but the fan of the graphics card. After a bit of research I found out, that I just had to select a different driver (nvidia-current (proprietary, tested) worked pretty well). This also fixed some graphical bugs when I just logged into my account. Due to my university I got a MSDNAA-Account (allows me to download every Windows OS for free). I downloaded and installed Windows 8. After configuration I installed ubuntu via the Windows installer once again and the first couple launches of ubuntu went well. Suddenly ubuntu didn't launched anymore...caused by some hard-disk errors and had no clue what to do. So I kept working on Windows 8 - unfortunately. After playing around with the new Windows, I put my PC to sleep-mode. I couldn't wake my PC up and it wasn't responding to anything (neither mouse-movement, -clicks or keyboard strokes, nor the power-button and the reset-button worked), so I pulled the plug. Turns out, this was a huge mistake. Somehow the BIOS broke and after restarting a couple of times, the BIOS repaired itself. Neither Windows 8, nor ubuntu where bootable. Now I had to install ubuntu several times, because after rebooting unity was hidden and I didn't know what the problem was and how to fix it. I finally realized that this problem was caused by the graphics card driver, which I've changed to the nvidia-current (This dirver worked fine before my PC "crashed"). So I installed Windows 8 again and after a bit of usage I installed ubuntu once again (via DVD). The booting of ubuntu and windows works fine - so far. But I'm still not able to change the graphics card driver without unity hiding away after restarting the OS. The noisy fan is really disturbing my work... PC Specs: Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo COU E8400 @ 3GHz x2 Memory: 7.8 GB OS type: 64-bit Graphics Card: GeForce 9600 GT Motherboard: Asus P5Q I hope the information given are enough.

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• Auto Mocking using JustMock

  - by mehfuzh

  Auto mocking containers are designed to reduce the friction of keeping unit test beds in sync with the code being tested as systems are updated and evolve over time. This is one sentence how you define auto mocking. Of course this is a more or less formal. In a more informal way auto mocking containers are nothing but a tool to keep your tests synced so that you don’t have to go back and change tests every time you add a new dependency to your SUT or System Under Test. In Q3 2012 JustMock is shipped with built in auto mocking container. This will help developers to have all the existing fun they are having with JustMock plus they can now mock object with dependencies in a more elegant way and without needing to do the homework of managing the graph. If you are not familiar with auto mocking then I won't go ahead and educate you rather ask you to do so from contents that is already made available out there from community as this is way beyond the scope of this post. Moving forward, getting started with Justmock auto mocking is pretty simple. First, I have to reference Telerik.JustMock.Container.DLL from the installation folder along with Telerik.JustMock.DLL (of course) that it uses internally and next I will write my tests with mocking container. It's that simple! In this post first I will mock the target with dependencies using current method and going forward do the same with auto mocking container. In short the sample is all about a report builder that will go through all the existing reports, send email and log any exception in that process. This is somewhat my  report builder class looks like: Reporter class depends on the following interfaces: IReporBuilder: used to  create and get the available reports IReportSender: used to send the reports ILogger: used to log any exception. Now, if I just write the test without using an auto mocking container it might end up something like this: Now, it looks fine. However, the only issue is that I am creating the mock of each dependency that is sort of a grunt work and if you have ever changing list of dependencies then it becomes really hard to keep the tests in sync. The typical example is your ASP.NET MVC controller where the number of service dependencies grows along with the project. The same test if written with auto mocking container would look like: Here few things to observe: I didn't created mock for each dependencies There is no extra step creating the Reporter class and sending in the dependencies Since ILogger is not required for the purpose of this test therefore I can be completely ignorant of it. How cool is that ? Auto mocking in JustMock is just released and we also want to extend it even further using profiler that will let me resolve not just interfaces but concrete classes as well. But that of course starts the debate of code smell vs. working with legacy code. Feel free to send in your expert opinion in that regard using one of telerik’s official channels. Hope that helps

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• Speed Up the Help Dialog in Windows and Office

  - by Matthew Guay

  When you click help, you don’t want to wait for your computer to bring it to you.  Here’s how you can speed up the help dialog in Windows and Office. If you have a slow internet connection, chances are you’ve been frustrated by the Help dialog in Windows and Office trying to download fresh content every time you open them. This can be great if the updated help files contain better content, but sometimes you just want to find what you were looking for without waiting.  Here’s how you can turn off the automatic online help. Use Local Help in Windows Windows 7 and Vista’s help dialog usually tries to load the latest content from the net, but this can take a long time on slow connections. If you’re seeing the above screen a lot, you may want to switch to offline help.  Click the “Online Help” button at the bottom, and select “Get offline Help”. Now your computer will just load the pre-installed help files.  And don’t worry; if there’s a major update to your help files, Windows will download and install it through Windows Update.   Stupid Geek Tip: An easy way to open Windows Help is to click on your desktop or Start Menu and press F1 on your keyboard. Use Local Help in Office This same trick works in Office 2007 and 2010.  We’ve actually had more problems with Office’s help being tardy. Solve this the same way as with Windows help.  Click on the “Connected to Office.com” or “Connected to Office Online” button, depending on your version of Office, and select “Show content only from this computer”. This will automatically change the settings for Help in all of your Office applications. While this may not be a major trick, it can be helpful especially if you have a slow internet connection and want to get things done quickly.  Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips How to See the About Dialog and Version Information in Office 2007Speed Up SATA Hard Drives in Windows VistaMake Mouse Navigation Faster in WindowsSpeed up Your Windows Vista Computer with ReadyBoostSet the Speed Dial as the Opera Startup Page TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 FoxClocks adds World Times in your Statusbar (Firefox) Have Fun Editing Photo Editing with Citrify Outlook Connector Upgrade Error Gadfly is a cool Twitter/Silverlight app Enable DreamScene in Windows 7 Microsoft’s “How Do I ?” Videos

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• MySQL Connect: Interview with Tomas Ulin

  - by Bertrand Matthelié

  The MySQL Connect conference is taking place September 29-30 in San Francisco. We asked a few questions about the event to Oracle’s VP of MySQL Engineering Tomas Ulin. Hi Tomas, to start with, what is MySQL Connect? A: MySQL Connect is a conference delivered by Oracle, with and for the MySQL Community. We’ll have over 60 technical breakout sessions, Birds-of-a-feather sessions and Hands-On labs running throughout the two days, plus the keynotes. So it’s a fantastic opportunity to learn a huge amount in only two days, and to network with Oracle engineers, users, customers and partners. When will the program be available online? A: The call for papers ended May 6 and we got an amazing response. The content committee has been working hard to build a great program, and the content catalog will be available by mid-June. Will Oracle MySQL engineers developing and supporting the products be there? A: Absolutely. And they’ll be available during the whole conference to answer questions. What do you plan to cover in your keynote? A: That’s a secret...:). Oracle is driving a lot of MySQL innovations and I will spend time on the latest developments, as well as help folks understand where we are going. What should attendees definitely not miss? A: We’ll have so many great sessions that the list could be long…but I also think the Saturday eve reception should not be missed. It’s always a lot of fun to meet so many MySQL users and have passionate discussions in a relaxed setting. What do you personally look forward to? A: Getting to meet the MySQL users and customers is probably most rewarding, as well as getting the chance to showcase the latest and greatest in our MySQL products. The development is so rapid that there are always new and exciting things to talk about. Oh, and I’ve also been told that there will be a game zone including Guitar Hero...:) In summary, why should people attend MySQL Connect? A: During two days, you’ll hang out with MySQL experts. You’ll learn a lot, you’ll meet the Oracle engineers developing and supporting the MySQL products, you’ll hear from customers using MySQL in a wide variety of applications and share your experiences with them, and you’ll have a lot of fun! Thank you Tomas! MySQL Connect registration is open – Register Now and you’ll save US$500 with the early bird discount! Interested in Sponsorship and Exhibit opportunities? You will find more information here.

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• links for 2010-04-22

  - by Bob Rhubart

  Barry N. Perkins: Unique Business Value vs. Unique IT "Some solutions may look good today, solving a budget challenge by reducing cost, or solving a specific tactical challenge, but result in highly complex environments, that may be difficult to manage and maintain and limit the future potential of your business. Put differently, some solutions might push today's challenge into the future, resulting in a more complex and expensive solution." -- Barry N. Perkins, VP Oracle Modernization & Oracle Integrated Solutions (tags: oracle otn enterprisearchitecture modernization) Paul Homchick: The Information Driven Value Chain - Part 2 Paul Homchick continues his series with a look "at the way investments have been made in enterprise software in an effort to create and manage value, and how systems are moving from a controlled-process approach design towards gathering and using dynamically using information." (tags: oracle otn enterprisearchitecture) @vambenepe: The battle of the Cloud Frameworks: Application Servers redux? "The battle of the Cloud Frameworks has started," says William Vambenepe, "and it will look a lot like the battle of the Application Servers which played out over the last decade and a half." (tags: oracle otn cloud frameworks appserver) @ORACLENERD: COLLABORATE: Day 4 Wrap Up Oraclenerd feesses up: "The day started out with the realization that I pulled off the best (COLLABORATE - self annointed) prank ever. Twitter was...all atwitter about the fact that Mark Rittman was Oracle's Person of the Year. Of course it wasn't true. If you look at the picture, you'll realize that he's wearing exactly the same clothes in the magazine cover as he is in real life." (tags: collaborate2010 oracleace) Oracle's Hal Stern at Cloud Expo: "We've Moved from 'What' to 'How'" | Cloud Computing Journal "Hal also spoke a bit about building 'a sustainable IT model.' By this, he said he didn't mean the various Green IT and similar efforts that 'are all about data center efficiency. I think the operational model is just as important. Many enterprises are managing a tremendous amount of complexity, and it's hard to make this sustainable.'" -- Cloud News Desk (tags: oracle cloud cloudexpo halstern) @ORACLENERD: COLLABORATE: The Beach Party "Then tiki statues somehow were incorporated into various dances" -- Oracle ACE Chet "oraclenerd" Justice (tags: 0racle otn oracleace collaborate2010 oaug ioug lasvegas) David Andrews: Collaborate Day Two "Collaborate 2010 has focused on helping attendees understand what is already available and how to make more effective use of it. This does not sound exciting but it is extremely valuable. Most customers use only a small fraction of the capability of the products they already own. Helping them understand all the additional things they could be doing without buying anything more is very valuable." -- David Andrews (tags: oracle oaug collaborate2010 ioug)

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• How to Create a Realistic Timeline for your Projects

  - by Aditi

  Developing a Realistic project time line is a biggest and most challenging task of any team. We here at JustSkins, have learned over time that developing and adhering to a timeline isn’t easy but is not impossible. Keeping in consideration from any technical glitches to a human resource issue, unexpected complications can come up at any time during the entire project life cycle, How ever there are many things you can do in order to save the project from going off-track there. A specific timeline is very important statistic for time management planning and keeping your client informed of the progress. Have a rigid time tracking assures the client, that you are committed to achieving specific project milestones in time. The more you work on varied IT projects, the more you know about the aspects of project and you get to better develop future estimates and timelines. Make a Structure When estimating the time required to accomplish each task, consider which all team members will be involved, also assign the amount of time each individual must put in to the project. Define Scope & dependability and set deadlines for accomplishing them. Sometimes Working in Phases or modules help in doing more in lesser time. One must use a Project management tool in order to systematize the collaboration between the team members. Realistic Goal Setting One approach is to keep a bandwidth of few days to deal with delay, errors & incorrect coding issues you are likely to have in the course. It is very realistic to keep delivery date to client different then internal delivery timeline. If your resource is having hard time finishing this task in the time specified, keep some room to give him a day or two extra to accomplish his task. This does not upset client delivery and is the safe way of doing projects. Keep and Insightful Approach Identify potential problems before they delay your project. To be a great IT manager you have to be honest & diplomatic at the same time, it is essential for you to give earlier notice of potential delays or scope changes to your clients. In situation where delay is inevitable you should be in a position to provide immediate, on-demand status progress reports. Learning from past experiences if very important one must keep a track of actual time spent on all aspects of the projects, this will help you create better future estimates and timelines.

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• ASP.Net 4.5 Garbage Collection Improvement

  - by Aligned

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/Aligned/archive/2013/06/24/asp.net-4.5-garbage-collection-improvement.aspxI just read Five Great .NET Framework 4.5 Features on CodeProject by Shivprasad koirala. Feature 5 in his article mentions the GC background cleanup and has a good explanation of the work the GC has to do for ASP.Net on the server. “Garbage collector is one real heavy task in a .NET application. And it becomes heavier when it is an ASP.NET application. ASP.NET applications run on the server and a lot of clients send requests to the server thus creating loads of objects, making the GC really work hard for cleaning up unwanted objects.” “To overcome the above problem, server GC was introduced. In server GC there is one more thread created which runs in the background. This thread works in the background and keeps cleaning…objects thus minimizing the load on the main GC thread. Due to double GC threads running, the main application threads are less suspended, thus increasing application throughput. To enable server GC, we need to use the gcServer XML tag and enable it to true.” <configuration> <runtime> <gcServer enabled="true"/> </runtime> </configuration> This is not done by default. The MSDN information page says “There are only two garbage collection options, workstation or server. For single-processor computers, the default workstation garbage collection should be the fastest option. Either workstation or server can be used for two-processor computers. Server garbage collection should be the fastest option for more than two processors. Use the GCSettingsIsServerGC property to determine if server garbage collection is enabled.” “In the .NET Framework 4 and earlier versions, concurrent garbage collection is not available when server garbage collection is enabled. Starting with the .NET Framework 4.5, server garbage collection is concurrent. To use non-concurrent server garbage collection, set the <gcServer> element to true and the <gcConcurrent> element to false. “ So if you’re using ASP.Net 4.5 and have a multi-core server, you should try turning on the Server Garbage Collection and do some profiling to see if it improves the performance of your site.

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• Frustrated where I am, but not sure where to go with my career [closed]

  - by Tom Pickles

  I work (3 years now) as a lead developer for a team developing internal tools and websites for a customer account within large outsourcing company. I'm a self taught programmer and my previous incarnation was a 3rd line support guy, so I have a solid infrastructure knowledge. We use VB.Net/MSSQL/SSIS/SSRS ASP.NET (nTier) in house and I have about 8 years coding experience. Without going into too much detail, my boss is very ambitious and uses our team as his footing to get up the ladder. I've been in the team from the start and the only new dev's we have brought in have been people with a bit of VBA/VBScript experience, much to my chagrin, to bolster his empire. It's been a lot of hard work to bring them up to a standard, but there's still a lot for them to learn. This makes my life stressful as I always get the high profile/complex project work to do as other's simply cannot do it, or it'd take them twice/three times longer to do it. My boss is always seeking stuff for us to build for people who haven't asked for it, which usually get's thrown to me as I have the most experience and can pick new API's (etc) up quicker. He doesn't give us proper requirements, we don't get time to design properly before we code, he wants us to throw something (quick and dirty as he calls it) together so we can get it out ASAP. I take pride in my work so I like to do it properly, make my code clean, maintainable etc, and I train the other guys in the team to do the same. But, we always fall on our faces. The customer we drop the apps on say it doesn't do what they need (due to few requirements), or my boss doesn't like it/changes the spec, so we have to rework it, it get's drawn out, and it makes us and me look and feel like fools. We then get accused by boss of not being reactive enough to change. I've had enough. In order to get my skills and knowledge gap's filled, I've been reading Code Complete 2nd Ed (McConnell) and the Head First Design Patterns books. I'm forcing myself to move into C# from VB at home to broaden my horizons. I'm not sure where to go from here. I don't want to code all my life as I'd like to move into a higher level design/architects role at some point in time (I'm 35). Where do I/can I go from here?

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• “Play Now” via website vs. download & install

  - by Inside

  I've spent some time looking over the various threads here on GDSE and also on the regular Stackoverflow site, and while I saw a lot of posts and threads regarding various engines that could be used in game development, I haven't seen very much discussion regarding the various platforms that they can be used on. In particular, I'm talking about browser games vs. desktop games. I want to develop a simple 3D networked multiplayer game - roughly on the graphics level of Paper Mario and gameplay with roughly the same level of interaction as a hack & slash action/adventure game - and I'm having a hard time deciding what platform I want to target with it. I have some experience with using C++/Ogre3D and Python/Panda3D (and also some synchronized/networked programming), but I'm wondering if it's worth it to spend the extra time to learn another language and another engine/toolkit just so that the game can be played in a browser window (I'm looking at jMonkeyEngine right now). Is it worth it to go with engines that are less-mature, have less documentation, have fewer features, and smaller communities* just so that a (possibly?) larger audience can be reached? Does it make sense to even go with a web-environment for the kind of game that I want to make? Does anyone have any experiences with decisions like this? (* With the exception of Flash-based engines it seems like most of the other approaches have downsides when compared to what is available for desktop-based environments. I'd go with Flash, but I'm worried that Flash's 3D capabilities aren't mature enough right now to do what I want easily. There's also Unity3D, but I'm not sure how I feel about that at all. It seems highly polished, but requires a plugin to be downloaded for the game to be played -- at that rate I might as well have players download my game.) For simple & short games the Newgrounds approach (go to the site, click "play now", instant gratification) seems to work well. What about for more complex games? Is there a point where the complexity of a game is enough for people to say "OK, I'm going to download and play that"?

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• NYC Silverlight FireStarter - June 5th 2010 at the NYC Microsoft Office

  - by Sam Abraham

  On Saturday June 5th, 2010, I spent my Saturday morning at the NYC Silverlight FireStarter. Presenting was Peter Laudati from Microsoft and Jason Beres, Matt Van Horn and Todd Snyder from Infragistics. I watched the Simulcast for the morning sessions as I was tied up with some work, but ended up finally making it to the Microsoft Office and had the opportunity to attend the last hour of the event in person.   For me, the quality of the Simulcast was as good as in-person attendance so far as sound/video quality and the interaction with speakers. In the background was a screen with tweets from remote attendees asking questions or commenting on the presentations. Presenters did periodically stop to answer the tweeted questions as well as questions from attendees. Only thing I missed was getting my hands on some of that swag that was (literally) flying in the air at the event floor.   Upon my arrival at the Microsoft Office Location in NYC, I spoke with Rachel Appel and Peter Laudati asking for permission to take a few photos to record the outstanding effort that took place in putting this event together. Both agreed and I started with putting my photography skills to work.   You can always gauge the quality of an event with the number of its attendees who opt to stay till the last minute as well as the level of interaction of the audience with the speaker. With most of the FireStarter attendees remaining till the very end of the talk, and with the many questions that were asked, one can simply judge the event as a success as per my aforementioned criteria.   Evaluation forms were passed around and Peter strongly encouraged the audience to openly speak their mind as they record their comments. I didn't get to submit my evaluation as I was busy recording the event in photos, so here it goes: I believe that lots of hard work was put into making this event a reality. Quality of speakers, topics and level of Geekiness at the event was outstanding.  Overall, aside from a minor issue with Lunch delivery time, this event was of high quality and I am very sure everyone's evaluation will be in line with my analysis of it being a great success. Below are a few photos of the event.   --Sam Abraham Site Director - West Palm Beach .Net User Group www.Fladotnet.com     NYC Silverlight FireStarter Speakers - From Left to right: Peter Laudati, Todd Snyder, Matt Van Horn & Jason Beres   As jason wasn't quiet visible in the above photo, a closeup was taken (It was Jason's birthday and he had to leave a bit early, so the Infagisticts team thought outside the box...)     Full Room - That was at the last hour of the event   Another view of full room   Discussions during the break   End-of-event Raffle

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• Culture Shmulture?

  - by steve.diamond

  I've been thinking about "Customer Experience Management" lately. Here at Oracle, we arguably have the most complete suite of applications for managing the customer experience across and in the context of multiple channels -- from marketing to loyalty to contact center to self-service to analytics offerings, and more. And stay tuned, because in coming months let's just say we'll have even more to talk about on this front. But that said............ Last weekend my wife and I stayed at one of the premiere hotel chains on the planet. I won't name them, but we all know the short list. It could have been the St. Regis or the Ritz Carlton or Four Seasons or Hyatt Park or....This stay, at this particular hotel, was simply outstanding. Within a chain known for providing "above and beyond" levels of service, this particular hotel, under this particular manager, exceeded expectations on so many fronts. For example, at the Spa we mentioned to the two attendants that my wife is seven months pregnant and that we had previously had a lot of trouble conceiving. We then went to our room. Ten minutes later we heard a knock at the door and received a plate of chocolate covered strawberries with a heartfelt note and an inspiring quote, signed by the two spa attendees. The following day we arranged to have a bellhop drive us to the beach. Although they had a pre-arranged beach shuttle service with time limits, etc., he greeted us by saying, "I'm yours for the day until 4 p.m. Whatever you want to do is fine by me, as long as it's legal!" The morning that we left we arranged to have a taxi drive us to the airport--a nearly 40 mile drive. What showed up was a private coach complete with navy blue suited driver dude. And we were charged the taxi fare price. And there were many other awesome exchanges I won't mention here, although I did email the GM of this hotel two nights ago and expressed our effusive praise and gratitude. I'd submit that this hotel chain would have a definitive advantage using even more Oracle software to manage and optimize its customer interactions (yes, they are a customer). But WITHOUT the culture--that management team--and that instillation of aligned values across all employees of exemplifying 'the golden rule,' I wonder how much technology really matters in providing a distinctively positive and memorable customer experience. Lest you think I'm alone in these pontifications, have you read Paul Greenberg's blog lately? Have you seen one of his most recent posts? Now this SPECIFIC post is NOT about customer service per se. But it is about people. So yes, please think long and hard about the technology you seek to deploy. But never forget who will be interacting with your systems, and your customers.

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• SSIS Reporting Pack update

  - by jamiet

  Its been a while since I last posted anything in regard to SSIS Reporting Pack, the most recent release being on 27th May 2012, so here is a short update. There is still lots of work to do on SSIS Reporting Pack; lots more features to add, lots of performance work to be done, and a few bug fixes too. I have also been (fairly) hard at work on a framework to be used in conjunction with SSIS 2012 that I refer to as the Restart Framework (currently residing at http://ssisrestartframework.codeplex.com/). There is still much work to be done on the Restart Framework (not least some useful documentation on how to use it) which is why I haven’t mentioned it publicly before now although I am actively checking in changes. One thing I am considering is amalgamating the two projects into one; this would mean I could build a suite of reports that both work against the SSIS Catalog (what you currently know as “SSIS Reporting Pack”) and also against this Restart Framework thing. No decision has been made as yet though. There have been a number of bug reports and feature suggestions for SSIS Reporting Pack added to the Issue Tracker. Thank you to everyone that has submitted something, rest assured I am not going to ignore them forever; my time is at a premium right now unfortunately due to … well … life… so working on these items isn’t near the top of my priority list. Lastly, I am actively using SSIS Reporting Pack in a production environment right now and I’m happy to report that it is proving to be very useful. One of the reports that I have put a lot of time into is execution executable duration.rdl and its proving very adept at easily identifying bottlenecks in our SSIS 2012 executions: The report allows you to browse through the hierarchy of executables in each execution and each bar represents the duration of each executable in relation to all the other executables; longer bars being a good indication of where problems might lie. The colour of the bar indicates whether it was successful or not (green=success). Hovering over a bar brings up a tooltip showing more information about that executable. Clicking on a bar allows you to compare this particular instance of the executable against other executions. Please do let me know if you are using SSIS Reporting Pack. I would like to hear any anecdotes you might have, good or bad. @Jamiet

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• Configuring Multi-Tap on Synaptics Touchpad

  - by nunos

  I am having a hard time configuring my notebook's touchpad. The touchpad already works. It successfully responds to one-finger tap, two-finger tap and two-finger vertical scrolling. What I want to accomplish: change two-finger tap action from right-mouse click to middle-mouse click add three-finger tap functionality to yield right-mouse click action (i have checked that the three-finger tap is supported by my laptop's touchpad since it works on Windows) I read on a forum to use this as a guide. I have successfully accomplished point 1 with synclient TapButton2=2. However, I have to do it everytime I log in. I have tried to put that command on /etc/rc.local but the computer always boots and logins with the default configuration. Regarding point 2, I have tried synclient TapButton3=3 but it doesn't do anything when I three-finger tap the touchpad. I am running Ubuntu 11.10 on an Asus N82JV. /etc/X11/xorg.conf: nuno@mozart:~$ cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf Section "InputClass" Identifier "touchpad catchall" Driver "synaptics" MatchIsTouchpad "on" MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*" Option "TapButton1" "1" Option "TapButton2" "2" Option "TapButton3" "3" EndSection /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf: nuno@mozart:~$ cat /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf # Example xorg.conf.d snippet that assigns the touchpad driver # to all touchpads. See xorg.conf.d(5) for more information on # InputClass. # DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE, your distribution will likely overwrite # it when updating. Copy (and rename) this file into # /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d first. # Additional options may be added in the form of # Option "OptionName" "value" # Section "InputClass" Identifier "touchpad catchall" Driver "synaptics" MatchIsTouchpad "on" MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*" Option "TapButton1" "1" Option "TapButton2" "2" Option "TapButton3" "3" EndSection xinput list: nuno@mozart:~$ xinput list ? Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)] ? ? Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)] ? ? Microsoft Microsoft® Nano Transceiver v2.0 id=12 [slave pointer (2)] ? ? Microsoft Microsoft® Nano Transceiver v2.0 id=13 [slave pointer (2)] ? ? ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad id=16 [slave pointer (2)] ? Virtual core keyboard id=3 [master keyboard (2)] ? Virtual core XTEST keyboard id=5 [slave keyboard (3)] ? Power Button id=6 [slave keyboard (3)] ? Video Bus id=7 [slave keyboard (3)] ? Video Bus id=8 [slave keyboard (3)] ? Sleep Button id=9 [slave keyboard (3)] ? USB2.0 2.0M UVC WebCam id=10 [slave keyboard (3)] ? Microsoft Microsoft® Nano Transceiver v2.0 id=11 [slave keyboard (3)] ? Asus Laptop extra buttons id=14 [slave keyboard (3)] ? AT Translated Set 2 keyboard id=15 [slave keyboard (3)]

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• SQLAuthority News – Updates on Contests, Books and SQL Server

  - by pinaldave

  There are lots of things happening on this blog and I feel sometime it is difficult to keep up. One of the suggestion I keep on receiving if there is a single page where one can visit and know the updates. I did consider of the same at some point but in era of RSS Feed it is difficult to have proper audience to that page. Here are few updates on various contest and books give away in recent time. Combo set of 5 Joes 2 Pros Book – 1 for YOU and 1 for Friend – I have received so many entries for this contest. Many have sent me email asking if this contest can be extended by couple of days. For the same the deadline for this contest is now Nov 10th 7 AM. You can send your entries by that time. The prize is 2 combo set of Joes 2 Pros is of USD 444. If you have not take part in the contest please take part now. Guess What is in the box? – There were many entry for this contest. We played this contest on blog as well, facebook. The answer of this contest was announced in 2 days in blog post announcing my new book. The winner was Manas Dash from Bangalore. He answered “The box will contain SQL book authored by Vinod and Pinal”. This was the closest answer we received. Win 5 SQL Programming Book Contest will have winner announced by Nov 15th and winners will be sent email. Win 5 SQL Wait Stats Book Contest is closed and winners have been sent their award. My third book SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers have run out of stock in India in 36 hours of its launch. We are working very hard to make it available again. Thank you again for excellent support! Without your participation all the give away have no significance. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: About Me, Pinal Dave, PostADay, Readers Contribution, Readers Question, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Puzzle, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• BigData and Customer Experience: Happy Together

  - by Isabel F. Peñuelas

  The two big buzzes of the year may lay closer than it appears. Both concepts intersect at various points: BigData and Return of Investment of Marketing Campaigns On a recent post Big Data Is The Future Of Marketing Jeff Dachis explains very clearly how “Big data analytics finally allows marketers to identify, measure, and manage what is positively impacting their Brand”. Regression analysis applied to big data volumes coming from social media will substitute the failed attempts to justify marketing investments on social media in terms of followers and likes, he continues, “the measurement models applied by marketers on TV Campaigns don´t work on social”, we need to study the data with fresh eyes and maybe then we will start understanding and measuring brand engagemet. Social CRM and BigData The real value of Social CRM start by analyzing mass of big data from social media in order of applying social intelligence techniques that allow us to classify new customer niches and communities and define appropriated strategies to contact potential customers. Gartner Says that the Market for Social CRM is on pace to surpass $1 Billion in Revenue by Year-End 2012 but in words of Zach Hofer-Shall, Analyst at Forrester Research “Social customer relationship management is hard” (The Social CRM Arms Race Heats ). To succeed brands need three things: Investing in new social tools, investing in consultancy and investing in infrastructure for massive data storage and analysis. Neither CeX or BigData are easy and cheap wins. But what are the customer benefits of such investments? Big Data and Brand Engagement Time is the most valuable asset of todays consumers: tired of information overload, exhausted by the terabytes of offering, anxious because of not having the same fast multichannel experience with their services’ marketers or preferred goods providers than the one they found on their social media. Yes, I know you have read this before- me too. But is real. The motto of the Customer Experience philosophy of providing a consistent experience through multiple touchpoints that makes the relationship customer/brand easier and valuable finds it basis on understanding customer/s preferences and context for which BigData analysis is another imperative. In summary, I believe that using BigData Analysis in combination with appropriated CeX strategies and technologies is a promising direction for achieving: efficiency and marketing cost-savings; growing the customer base; and increasing customer conversion and retention. In a world: The Direction of Future Marketing.

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• How one decision can turn web services to hell

  - by DigiMortal

  In this posting I will show you how one stupid decision may turn developers life to hell. There is a project where bunch of complex applications exchange data frequently and it is very hard to change something without additional expenses. Well, one analyst thought that string is silver bullet of web services. Read what happened. Bad bad mistake In the early stages of integration project there was analyst who also established architecture and technical design for web services. There was one very bad mistake this analyst made: All data must be converted to strings before exchange! Yes, that’s correct, this was the requirement. All integers, decimals and dates are coming in and going out as strings. There was also explanation for this requirement: This way we can avoid data type conversion errors! Well, this guy works somewhere else already and I hope he works in some burger restaurant – far away from computers. Consequences If you first look at this requirement it may seem like little annoying piece of crap you can easily survive. But let’s see the real consequences one stupid decision can cause: hell load of data conversions are done by receiving applications and SSIS packages, SSIS packages are not error prone and they depend heavily on strings they get from different services, there are more than one format per type that is used in different services, for larger amounts of data all these conversion tasks slow down the work of integration packages, practically all developers have been in hurry with some SSIS import tasks and some fields that are not used in different calculations in SSAS cube are imported without data conversions (by example, some prices are strings in format “1.021 $”). The most painful problem for developers is the part of data conversions because they don’t expect that there is such a stupid requirement stated and therefore they are not able to estimate the time their tasks take on these web services. Also developers must be prepared for cases when suddenly some service sends data that is not in acceptable format and they must solve the problems ASAP. This puts unexpected load on developers and they are not very happy with it because they can’t understand why they have to live with this horror if it is possible to fix. What to do if you see something like this? Well, explain the problem to customer and demand special tasks to project schedule to get this mess solved before going on with new developments. It is cheaper to solve the problems now that later.

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