Search Results

Search found 13645 results on 546 pages for 'bugz r us'.

Page 385/546 | < Previous Page | 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392  | Next Page >

• DevExpress XAF, Behavior Driven Development (BDD), Domain Driven Development (DDD) and more&ndash;Introduction

  - by Patrick Liekhus

  OK.  I admit it.  I have been horrible at this blogging thing.  However, I have made a commitment to get better at it so here goes.  I have many crazy ideas when it comes to coding and how to make my processes better and now is the time to get them down on paper and get your feedback.  Now, these ideas might not be nearly as wild and crazy as Charlie Sheen, but at least they help me get through my coding assignments. So let’s start by laying out the vision and objectives of this exercise.  I have been trying to come up with the best set of tools, tips and practices so I can get a small team to be as productive as possible without burning out my resources.  My thoughts tend to lean towards the coding practices first as this is what I have been doing for years.  However, as one looks at the process as a whole, we need to remember to keep the users in mind.  If we don’t have a user to accept our application, do we really have an application in the first place? I have been using a commercial framework from DevExpress called eXpress Application Framework (XAF) with their eXpress Persistent Objects (XPO) behind the scenes for a few years.  We have had tremendous success with it and even implemented a code generation layer to save us some time.  Now we want more!!! My goals here are to create a technical stack that employs as many UI’s as possible, while being true to the layers and documenting the process along the way.  I will continue to have a series of these posts that will walk through each step as I work on it.  Right now here is what I have planned: Defining the solution SCRUM/Agile Story Planning Overview of Architectural Plan Feature Driven Development Domain Driven Development Persistence Layer with XPO Windows UI with XAF/XPO Web UI with XAF/XPO OData Services Layer Windows Mobile UI Android UI iPhone UI Blackberry UI Excel UI Outlook UI Lessons Learned I will explain the solution that I plan to implement in the next post.  Thanks again and let me know what you think.

  Read the article

• Type Casting variables in PHP: Is there a practical example?

  - by Stephen

  PHP, as most of us know, has weak typing. For those who don't, PHP.net says: PHP does not require (or support) explicit type definition in variable declaration; a variable's type is determined by the context in which the variable is used. Love it or hate it, PHP re-casts variables on-the-fly. So, the following code is valid: $var = "10"; $value = 10 + $var; var_dump($value); // int(20) PHP also alows you to explicitly cast a variable, like so: $var = "10"; $value = 10 + $var; $value = (string)$value; var_dump($value); // string(2) "20" That's all cool... but, for the life of me, I cannot conceive of a practical reason for doing this. I don't have a problem with strong typing in languages that support it, like Java. That's fine, and I completely understand it. Also, I'm aware of—and fully understand the usefulness of—type hinting in function parameters. The problem I have with type casting is explained by the above quote. If PHP can swap types at-will, it can do so even after you force cast a type; and it can do so on-the-fly when you need a certain type in an operation. That makes the following valid: $var = "10"; $value = (int)$var; $value = $value . ' TaDa!'; var_dump($value); // string(8) "10 TaDa!" So what's the point? Can anyone show me a practical application or example of type casting—one that would fail if type casting were not involved? I ask this here instead of SO because I figure practicality is too subjective. Edit in response to Chris' comment Take this theoretical example of a world where user-defined type casting makes sense in PHP: You force cast variable $foo as int -- (int)$foo. You attempt to store a string value in the variable $foo. PHP throws an exception!! <--- That would make sense. Suddenly the reason for user defined type casting exists! The fact that PHP will switch things around as needed makes the point of user defined type casting vague. For example, the following two code samples are equivalent: // example 1 $foo = 0; $foo = (string)$foo; $foo = '# of Reasons for the programmer to type cast $foo as a string: ' . $foo; // example 2 $foo = 0; $foo = (int)$foo; $foo = '# of Reasons for the programmer to type cast $foo as a string: ' . $foo;

  Read the article

• New Themes New Benefits (WinForms)

  We believe that working hard on something can be great fun at the end when everything is done and the seeds have resulted in the sweetest fruits. This is the case with the new Theming Mechanism and the new Visual Style Builder which we introduced as of Q1 2010.   I am not going to dive into any details on the new concepts behind all this stuff, but will simply focus on the numbers: both in terms of loading speed and memory usage. As you may already know, the new approach we use to style our controls uses the so called Style Repository which stores style settings that can be reused throughout the whole theme. As a result, we have estimated that the size of our themes has been significantly reduced. For instance, the size of all XML files of the Desert theme sums up to 1.83 MB. The case with the new version of the Desert theme is drastically different. Despite the fact that the new theme consists of more XML files compared to the old, its size is only 707 KB!   Furthermore, we have performed a simple performance test since the common sense tells us that such a great improvement in terms of memory footprint should be followed by a great improvement in terms of speed. We have estimated that loading and applying the new Desert theme to a form containing all RadControls for WinForms takes roughly 30% less time compared to the same operation with the old version of the Desert theme. The following screenshots briefly demonstrate the scenario which we used to estimate the loading time difference between the old and the new Desert theme:     Here, the old Desert theme is applied to all controls on the Form which takes almost 1,3 seconds.     Applying the new Desert theme (based on the new Theming Mechanism) takes about 0,78 seconds.   On top of all these great improvements, we can add the fact that the new Visual Style Builder significantly reduces the time needed to style a control by entirely changing the approach compared to the old version of this tool. You can be sure that we have already prepared some great new stuff for Q1 2010 SP1 that will simplify things further so that designing themes with the new VSB will become more fun than ever!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.

  Read the article

• New Themes New Benefits (WinForms)

  We believe that working hard on something can be great fun at the end when everything is done and the seeds have resulted in the sweetest fruits. This is the case with the new Theming Mechanism and the new Visual Style Builder which we introduced as of Q1 2010.   I am not going to dive into any details on the new concepts behind all this stuff, but will simply focus on the numbers: both in terms of loading speed and memory usage. As you may already know, the new approach we use to style our controls uses the so called Style Repository which stores style settings that can be reused throughout the whole theme. As a result, we have estimated that the size of our themes has been significantly reduced. For instance, the size of all XML files of the Desert theme sums up to 1.83 MB. The case with the new version of the Desert theme is drastically different. Despite the fact that the new theme consists of more XML files compared to the old, its size is only 707 KB!   Furthermore, we have performed a simple performance test since the common sense tells us that such a great improvement in terms of memory footprint should be followed by a great improvement in terms of speed. We have estimated that loading and applying the new Desert theme to a form containing all RadControls for WinForms takes roughly 30% less time compared to the same operation with the old version of the Desert theme. The following screenshots briefly demonstrate the scenario which we used to estimate the loading time difference between the old and the new Desert theme:     Here, the old Desert theme is applied to all controls on the Form which takes almost 1,3 seconds.     Applying the new Desert theme (based on the new Theming Mechanism) takes about 0,78 seconds.   On top of all these great improvements, we can add the fact that the new Visual Style Builder significantly reduces the time needed to style a control by entirely changing the approach compared to the old version of this tool. You can be sure that we have already prepared some great new stuff for Q1 2010 SP1 that will simplify things further so that designing themes with the new VSB will become more fun than ever!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.

  Read the article

• Silverlight Cream for February 23, 2011 -- #1051

  - by Dave Campbell

  In this Issue: Ian T. Lackey, Kevin Hoffman, Kunal Chowdhury, Jesse Liberty(-2-), Page Brooks, Deborah Kurata(-2-), and Paul Sheriff. Above the Fold: Silverlight: "Building a Radar Control in Silverlight–Part 2" Page Brooks WP7: "Reactive Drag and Drop Part 2" Jesse Liberty Expression Blend: "Simple RadioButtonList and / or CheckBoxList in Silverlight Using a Behavior" Ian T. Lackey Shoutouts: Kunal Chowdhury delivered a full day session on Silverlight at the Microsoft Imagine Cup Championship event in Mumbai... you can Download Microsoft Imagine Cup Session PPT on Silverlight Dennis Doomen has appeared in my blog any number of times... he's looking for some assistance: Get me on stage on the Developer Days 2011 Steve Wortham posted An Interview with Jeff Wilcox From SilverlightCream.com: Simple RadioButtonList and / or CheckBoxList in Silverlight Using a Behavior Ian T. Lackey bemoans the lack of a RadioButtonList or CheckBoxList, and jumps into Blend to show us how to make one using a behavior... and the code is available too! WP7 for iPhone and Android Developers - Introduction to XAML and Silverlight Continuing his series at SilvelightShow for iPhone and Android devs, Kevin Hoffman has part 2 up getting into the UI with an intro to XAML and Silverlight. Day 1: Working with Telerik Silverlight RadControls Kunal Chowdhury kicked my tires that I had missed his Telerik control series... He's detailing his experience getting up to speed with the Silverlight RadControls. Day 1 is intro, what there is, installing, stuff like that. Part 2 continues: Day 2: Working with BusyIndicator of Telerik Silverlight RadControls, followed (so far) by part 3: Day 3: Working with Masked TextBox of Telerik Silverlight RadControls Reactive Drag and Drop Part 2 Jesse Liberty has his 7th part about Rx up ... and the 2nd part of Reactive Drag and Drop, and oh yeah... it's for WP7 as well! Yet Another Podcast #25–Glenn Block / WCF Next Jesse Liberty has Glenn Block on stage for his Yet Another Podcast number 25... talking WCF with Glenn. Building a Radar Control in Silverlight–Part 2 Page Brooks has part 2 of his 'radar' control for Silverlight up... I don't know where I'd use this, but it's darned cool... and the live demo is amazing. Silverlight Charting: Setting Colors Deborah Kurata is looking at the charting controls now, and how to set colors. She begins with a previous post on charts and adds color definitions to that post. Silverlight Charting: Setting the Tooltip Deborah Kurata next gets into formatting the tooltip you can get when the user hovers over a chart to make it make more sense to your user 'Content' is NOT 'Text' in XAML Paul Sheriff discusses the Content property of XAML controls and how it can be pretty much any other XAML you want it to be, then goes on to show some nice examples. Stay in the 'Light! Twitter SilverlightNews | Twitter WynApse | WynApse.com | Tagged Posts | SilverlightCream Join me @ SilverlightCream | Phoenix Silverlight User Group Technorati Tags: Silverlight    Silverlight 3    Silverlight 4    Windows Phone MIX10

  Read the article

• Technology Selection for a dynamic product

  - by Kuntal Shah

  We are building a product for Procurement Domain in JAVA. Following are the main technical requirements. Platform Independent Database Independent Browser Independent In functional requirements the product is very dynamic in nature. The main reason being the procurement process around the world is different from client to client. Briefly we need to have a dynamic workflow engine and a dynamic template engine. The workflow engine by which we can define any kind of workflows and the template engine allows us to define any kind of data structures and based on definition it can get the user input through workflow. We have been developing this product for almost 2 years. It has been a long time till we can get down with the dynamics of requirements. Till now we have developed a basic workflow and template engine and which is in use at one of the client. We have been using following technologies. GWT-Ext (Front End Framework) Hibernate (Database Layer) In between we have faced some issues with GWT-Ext (mainly browser compatibility) and database optimization due to sub classing in hibernate. For resolving GWT-Ext issue, which a dying community so we decided to move to SmartGWT. In SmartGWT we faced issues related to loading and now we are able to finalize that GWT 2.3 will be the way to go as the library is rich and performance is upto the mark. We are able to almost finalize GWT-Spring based front and middle layer. In hibernate, we found main issues with sub-classing due to that it was throwing astronomical queries and sometimes it would stop firing any queries for 5-10 seconds or may be around 30 seconds and then resume again. Few days back I came to one article related to ORM. I am a traditional .Net SQL developer and I have always worked with relational database. Reading through this article, I also found it relating to the issues I face. I am still not completely convinced of using hibernate and this article just supported my opinion. Following are the questions for which I am looking for an answer. Should we be going with Hibernate in case of dynamic database requirements and the load of the data will be heavy in future? How can we partition the data, how we can efficiently join the data, how we can optimize the queries? If the answer is no then how do we achieve database independence? Is our choice related to GWT and Spring proper or do we need to change that too? Should we use any other key value pair database if the data is dynamic in nature and it is very difficult to make it relational?

  Read the article

• Should I be using a JavaScript SPA designed when security is important

  - by ryanzec

  I asked something kind of similar on stackoverflow with a particular piece of code however I want to try to ask this in a broader sense. So I have this web application that I have started to write in backbone using a Single Page Architecture (SPA) however I am starting to second guess myself because of security. Now we are not storing and sending credit card information or anything like that through this web application but we are storing sensitive information that people are uploading to us and will have the ability to re-download too. The obviously security concern that I have with JavaScript is that you can't trust anything that comes from JavaScript however in a Backbone SPA application, everything is being sent through JavaScript. There are two security features that I will have to build in JavaScript; permissions and authentication. The authentication piece is just me override the Backbone.Router.prototype.navigate method to check the fragment it is trying to load and if the JavaScript application.session.loggedIn is not set to true (and they are not viewing a none authenticated page), they are redirected to the login page automatically. The user could easily modify application.session.loggedIn to equal true (or modify Backbone.Router.prototype.navigate method) but then they would also have to not so easily dynamically embedded a link into the page (or modify a current one) that has the proper classes, data-* attributes, and href values to then load a page that should only be loaded when they user has logged in (and has the permissions). So I have an acl object that deals with the permissions stuff. All someone would have to do to view pages or parts of pages they should not be able to is to call acl.addPermission(resource, permission) with the proper permissions or modify the acl.hasPermission() to always return true and then navigate away and then back to the page. Now certain things is EMCAScript 5 like Object.seal() or Object.freeze() would help with some of this however we have to support IE 8 which does not support those pieces of functionality. Now the REST API also performs security checks on every request so technically even if they are able to see parts of the interface that they should not be able to, they still should not be able to actually affect any data. The main benefits for me in developing a JavaScript SPA application is that the application is a lot more responsive since it is only transferring the minimum amount of JSON data for the requested action and performing the minimum amount of work too. There are also other things that I think are beneficial like you are going to have to develop an API for the data (which is good if you want expand your application to different platforms/technologies) or their is more of a separation between front-end and back-end however if security is a concern, it is really wise to go down the road of a JavaScript SPA application for the front-end?

  Read the article

• Initial Look: Storing SQL Compact Data on a Windows Phone 7 Series

  - by Nikita Polyakov

  Ok, the title is misleading – I’ll admit it, but there is a way to store your data in Windows Phone 7 Series. Windows Phone 7 Silverlight solutions have what is called Isolated Storage. [XNA has content storage as well] At this time there is no port of SQL Compact engine for Silverlight Isolated Storage. There is no wind of such intention. [That was a question way before WP7 was even rumored to have Silverlight.] There a few options: 1. Microsoft recommends you “simply” use client-server or cloud approach here. But this is not an option for Offline. 2. Use the new Offline/CacheMode with Sync Framework as shown in the Building Offline Web Apps Using Microsoft Sync Framework MIX10 presentation see 19:10 for Silverlight portion [go to 22:10 mark to see the app]. 3. Use XlmSerializer to dumb your objects to a XML file into the Isolated Storage. Good for small data. 4. Experiment with C#SQLite for Silverlight that has been shown to work in WP7 emulator, read more. 5. Roll your own file format and read/write from it. Think good ol’ CSV. Good for when you want 1million row table ;)   Is Microsoft aware of this possible limitation? Yes. What are they doing about it? I don’t know. See #1 and #2 above as the official guidance for now. What should you do about it? Don’t be too quick to dismiss WP7 because you think you’ll “need” SQL Compact. As lot of us will be playing with these possible solutions, I will be sure to update you on further discoveries. Remember that the tools [even the emulator] released at MIX are CTP grade and might not have all the features. Stay up to date: Watch the @wp7dev account if you are on Twitter. And watch the Windows Phone Dev Website and Blog. More information and detail is sure to come about WP7 Dev, as Windows Phone is planned to launch “Holidays” 2010. [For example Office will be discussed in June from the latest news, June is TechEd 2010 timeframe btw]

  Read the article

• Delegate performance of Roslyn Sept 2012 CTP is impressive

  - by dotneteer

  I wanted to dynamically compile some delegates using Roslyn. I came across this article by Piotr Sowa. The article shows that the delegate compiled with Roslyn CTP was not very fast. Since the article was written using the Roslyn June 2012, I decided to give Sept 2012 CTP a try. There are significant changes in Roslyn Sept 2012 CTP in both C# syntax supported as well as API. I found Anoop Madhisidanan’s article that has an example of the new API. With that, I was able to put together a comparison. In my test, the Roslyn compiled delegate is as fast as C# (VS 2012) compiled delegate. See the source code below and give it a try. using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using System.Diagnostics; using Roslyn.Compilers; using Roslyn.Scripting.CSharp; using Roslyn.Scripting; namespace RoslynTest { class Program { public Func del; static void Main(string[] args) { Stopwatch stopWatch = new Stopwatch(); Program p = new Program(); p.SetupDel(); //Comment out this line and uncomment the next line to compare //p.SetupScript(); stopWatch.Start(); int result = DoWork(p.del); stopWatch.Stop(); Console.WriteLine(result); Console.WriteLine("Time elapsed {0}", stopWatch.ElapsedMilliseconds); Console.Read(); } private void SetupDel() { del = (s, i) => ++s; } private void SetupScript() { //Create the script engine //Script engine constructor parameters go changed var engine=new ScriptEngine(); //Let us use engine's Addreference for adding the required //assemblies new[] { typeof (Console).Assembly, typeof (Program).Assembly, typeof (IEnumerable<>).Assembly, typeof (IQueryable).Assembly }.ToList().ForEach(asm => engine.AddReference(asm)); new[] { "System", "System.Linq", "System.Collections", "System.Collections.Generic" }.ToList().ForEach(ns=>engine.ImportNamespace(ns)); //Now, you need to create a session using engine's CreateSession method, //which can be seeded with a host object var session = engine.CreateSession(); var submission = session.CompileSubmission>("new Func((s, i) => ++s)"); del = submission.Execute(); //- See more at: http://www.amazedsaint.com/2012/09/roslyn-september-ctp-2012-overview-api.html#sthash.1VutrWiW.dpuf } private static int DoWork(Func del) { int result = Enumerable.Range(1, 1000000).Aggregate(del); return result; } } }  Since Roslyn Sept 2012 CTP is already over a year old, I cannot wait to see a new version coming out.

  Read the article

• The 2010 Life Insurance Conference - Washington, DC

  - by [email protected]

  How ironic to be in Washington, DC on April 15 - TAX DAY! Fortunately, I avoided IRS offices and attended the much more enjoyable 2010 Life Insurance Conference, presented by LIMRA, LOMA SOA and ACLI. This year's conference offered a variety of tracks focused on the Life Industry including Distribution/Marketing Marketing, Administration, Actuarial/Product Development, Regulatory, Reinsurance and Strategic Management. President and CEO of the ACLI, Frank Keating, opened the event by moderating a session titled "Executive Viewpoint on new Opportunities." Guest speakers included Ted Mathas, President and CEO of NY Life, and John Walters, President and CEO of Hartford Life. Both speakers were insightful as they shared the challenges and opportunities each company faces and the key role life insurance companies play in our society and the global economy. There were several key themes that were reiterated in multiple sessions throughout the conference - the economy is on the rebound, optimism is growing, consumer spending is up and an uptick in employment is likely to follow. The threat of a double dip recession has seemed to passed. Good news for our industry, and welcomed by all in attendance. Of special interest to me, given my background, was some research shared by both The Nolan Group and Novarica in separate sessions. Both firms indicate that policy administration upgrades/replacement projects remain a top priority in 2010. Carriers continue to invest in modern technology. Modern ultra-configurable systems enable carriers to switch from a waterfall to an agile project methodology, which often entails a "culture change" within an organization. Other themes heard throughout the two-day event: Virtually all sessions focused on People, Process and Technology! Product innovation, agility and speed to market are as important as ever. Social Networks and Twitter are becoming more popular ways of communicating with both field and dispersed staff. Several sessions focused on the application, new business and underwriting process. Companies continue looking for ways to increase market agility, accelerate speed to market, address cost issues and improve service levels across the process. They recognize the need to ease the way to do business with both producers and consumers. Author and economic futurist Jeff Thredgold presented an entertaining, informative and humorous general session on Wednesday afternoon that focused on the US and global economies, financial markets and retirement outlook. Thredgold did not disappoint anyone with his message! The Thursday morning general session was keynoted by Therese Vaughan (CEO - NAIC) and Thomas Crawford (President of C2 Group). Both speakers gave a poignant view of the recent financial crisis and discussed "Putting the Pieces Back Together." Therese spoke of the recent financial turmoil and likely changes to regulations to the financial services sector. Tom's topics focused on economic recovery and the political environment in Washington, and how that impacts our industry. Next year's event will be April 11-13, 2011 in Las Vegas. Roger A.Soppe, CLU, LUTCF, is the Senior Director of Insurance Strategy, Oracle Insurance.

  Read the article

• We’ve Got 10 Free Copies of Microsoft’s Networking Windows 7 eBook to Give Away. Get Yours!

  - by The Geek

  Last month, we reviewed our friend Ciprian’s new book by Microsoft Press, Network Your Computers & Devices: Step by Step—and we’ve twisted his arm until he decided to give away 10 free copies for our readers. First, the book: It’s a great book that covers networking between computers running Windows 7, XP, Vista, Linux, and even Mac OS X. Just as the title suggests, he’s got step-by-step tutorials that explain how to get your network up and running with a minimum of fuss. Want to see for yourself? You can grab a copy of the free sample chapter if you’d like, or you can look through the chapter outline: Chapter 1: Setting Up a Router and Devices Chapter 2: Setting User Accounts on All Computers Chapter 3: Setting Up Your Libraries on All Windows 7 Computers Chapter 4: Creating the Network Chapter 5: Customizing Network Sharing Settings in Windows 7 Chapter 6: Creating the Homegroup and Joining Windows 7 Computers Chapter 7: Sharing Libraries and Folders Chapter 8: Sharing and Working with Devices Chapter 9: Streaming Media Over the Network and the Internet Chapter 10: Sharing Between Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 Computers Chapter 11: Sharing Between Mac OS X and Windows 7 Computers Chapter 12: Sharing Between Ubuntu Linux and Windows 7 Computers Chapter 13: Keeping the Network Secure Chapter 14: Setting Up Parental Controls Chapter 15: Troubleshooting Network and Internet Problems Whether you believe it’s the perfect book or not, we’re giving away one for free, so keep reading. Giveaway Details: Or What You Need to Do Since we’ve got an awful lot of subscribers, and we’ve only got 10 ebooks to give away, we need a few rules. So here’s how you can put your name into the hat for the giveaway: Method 1: Leave a comment on the giveaway post over on our Facebook Fan page. Obviously you’ll need to Like us before you can leave a comment. Method 2: If you don’t use Facebook, you can tweet this post using the Tweet button at the top of the article. Winners: We’ll randomly pick 10 winners from those who participate. Expiration: This giveaway expires in 3 days, give or take a day. We’ll announce the winners and contact them directly. So go forth, and get yourself a free ebook! Of course, if you want the print version, you can get that for a discount over on Amazon at the moment. Latest Features How-To Geek ETC Internet Explorer 9 RC Now Available: Here’s the Most Interesting New Stuff Here’s a Super Simple Trick to Defeating Fake Anti-Virus Malware How to Change the Default Application for Android Tasks Stop Believing TV’s Lies: The Real Truth About "Enhancing" Images The How-To Geek Valentine’s Day Gift Guide Inspire Geek Love with These Hilarious Geek Valentines MyPaint is an Open-Source Graphics App for Digital Painters Can the Birds and Pigs Really Be Friends in the End? [Angry Birds Video] Add the 2D Version of the New Unity Interface to Ubuntu 10.10 and 11.04 MightyMintyBoost Is a 3-in-1 Gadget Charger Watson Ties Against Human Jeopardy Opponents Peaceful Tropical Cavern Wallpaper

  Read the article

• Sync Your Windows Computer with Your Ubuntu One Account [Desktop Client]

  - by Asian Angel

  Do you have a Windows computer that needs to be synced with the Ubuntu systems connected to your Ubuntu One account? Not a problem. Just grab a copy of the Ubuntu One Desktop Client and in just a few minutes your Windows system will be feeling the Ubuntu love. Once you get the desktop client installed you will see a new System Tray Icon waiting for you. Access the Context Menu and select Add this computer to start the syncing process. Enter your account details into the login window that appears and click Connect to Ubuntu One. Go back to the System Tray Icon, access the Context Menu, and select Synchronize Now. You can monitor the progress as small desktop notification messages keep you updated during the synchronizing process. The newly synchronized files will be placed in an Ubuntu One Folder under Documents/My Documents. Here is a quick peek at the Preferences Window. The only odd thing (bug) that we noticed with the whole setup was “Disconnected” being displayed even though our system was freshly synchronized and logged in. Note: Works on Windows XP (with SP3 & Windows Installer 4.5), Vista, and Windows 7. You will need to have the .NET 4 Framework installed (links for both installer types provided below). Need to access your Ubuntu One account directly through your browser? Then see our article on Accessing and Managing Your Ubuntu One Account in Chrome and Iron. Links Download the Ubuntu One Desktop Client [Ubuntu One Wiki] *Click on the (https://one.ubuntu.com/windows/beta) link to start the download. Microsoft .NET Framework 4 (Standalone Installer) [Microsoft] Microsoft .NET Framework 4 (Web Installer) [Microsoft] Latest Features How-To Geek ETC Learn To Adjust Contrast Like a Pro in Photoshop, GIMP, and Paint.NET Have You Ever Wondered How Your Operating System Got Its Name? Should You Delete Windows 7 Service Pack Backup Files to Save Space? What Can Super Mario Teach Us About Graphics Technology? Windows 7 Service Pack 1 is Released: But Should You Install It? How To Make Hundreds of Complex Photo Edits in Seconds With Photoshop Actions Awesome 10 Meter Curved Touchscreen at the University of Groningen [Video] TV Antenna Helper Makes HDTV Antenna Calibration a Snap Turn a Green Laser into a Microscope Projector [Science] The Open Road Awaits [Wallpaper] N64oid Brings N64 Emulation to Android Devices Super-Charge GIMP’s Image Editing Capabilities with G’MIC [Cross-Platform]

  Read the article

• Android app to remote control Samsung Smart TVs

  - by Gopinath

  Smart TV Remote is an unofficial Android app that lets you control Samsung Smart TVs connected over a local WiFi network. This app comes very handy when you want to control your TV which is not in line of sight of your TV remote control or just want to use your mobile phone/tablet to control the TV. Setting up a TV  is very easy using auto scan feature . Once the TV is setup, you are all set to start using the app as a remote control. A traditional remote controls makes use of infra red technology and it needs to be in the line of sight of the TV receiver to work. But this app make use of WiFi technology which give it flexibility of controlling the TV as long as the mobile & TV is connected to WiFi network. It just works even if the TV is behind a wall. The App provides very easy to use options to switch between channels and separate remotes with media controls, smart hub features and a numeric key pad if you want to navigate to a channel through its number. The App also provides a home screen widget with volume controls and channel navigation options. I use  this App to control Samsung E Series Smart Tv at home and it works very well. I’m impressed by the ease at which it allows to setup a TV, support for multiple TVs, controlling the TV though I’m not in the line of sight and using volume buttons of smart phone to control volume of TV. What’s annoying and missing with the app As advertised the app works very well in controlling Samsung TVs (B-, C-, D- E-, and F-Series) except it is very painful to move mouse pointer while browsing web on TV. When you try to move mouse pointer using the App, it mouse painfully slow especially. I gave us using the app to control mouse pointer after trying couple of times. I installed this App thinking that it may help me browse web on Smart TVs, especially a key board support to type web urls. App does not supports entering text either while browsing web or searching through Smart TV apps like YouTube, App Store etc. Developers of this App never advertised keyboard support so no complaints about this. But it would be very helpful if the developers allow this app use as a keyboard and rescue me from the pain of typing text using TV Remote control. Overall this is a very nice app and worth trying out – Download Smart TV Remote from Google Play

  Read the article

• User Group Meeting Summary - April 2010

  - by Michael Stephenson

  Thanks to everyone who could make it to what turned out to be an excellent SBUG event.  First some thanks to:  Speakers: Anthony Ross and Elton Stoneman Host: The various people at Hitachi who helped to organise and arrange the venue.   Session 1 - Getting up and running with Windows Mobile and the Windows Azure Service Bus In this session Anthony discussed some considerations for using Windows Mobile and the Windows Azure Service Bus from a real-world project which Hitachi have been working on with EasyJet.  Anthony also walked through a simplified demo of the concepts which applied on the project.   In addition to the slides and demo it was also very interesting to discuss with the guys involved on this project to hear about their real experiences developing with the Azure Service Bus and some of the limitations they have had to work around in Windows Mobiles ability to interact with the service bus.   On the back of this session we will look to do some further activities around this topic and the guys offered to share their wish list of features for both Windows Mobile and Windows Azure which we will look to share for user group discussion.   Another interesting point was the cost aspects of using the ISB which were very low.   Session 2 - The Enterprise Cache In the second session Elton used a few slides which are based around one of his customer scenario's where they are looking into the concept of an Enterprise Cache within the organisation.  Elton discusses this concept and also a codeplex project he is putting together which allows you to take advantage of a cache with various providers such as Memcached, AppFabric Caching and Ncache.   Following the presentation it was interesting to hear peoples thoughts on various aspects such as the enterprise cache versus an out of process application cache.  Also there was interesting discussion around how people would like to search the cache in the future.   We will again look to put together some follow-up activity on this   Meeting Summary Following the meeting all slide decks are saved in the skydrive location where we keep content from all meetings: http://cid-40015ea59a1307c8.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/.Public/SBUG/SBUG%20Meetings/2010%20April   Remember that the details of all previous events are on the following page. http://uksoabpm.org/Events.aspx   Competition We had three copies of the Windows Identity Foundation Patterns and Practices book that were raffles on the night, it would be great to hear any feedback on the book from those who won it.   Recording The user group meeting was recorded and we will look to make this available online sometime soon.   UG Business The following things were discussed as general UG topics:   We will change the name of the user group to the UK Connected Systems User Group to we are more inline with other user groups who cover similar topics and we believe this will help us to attract more members.  The content or focus of the user group is not expected to change.   The next meeting is 26th May and can be registered at the following link: http://sbugmay2010.eventbrite.com/

  Read the article

• Eggnog and Oracle’s StorageTek SL150 Updates

  - by Kristin Rose

  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} Looks like the holiday’s came early this year! You may remember this snazzy blog that posted a couple months back,  “Keepin’ It Simple with Storage Tek SL150”, that was based on the benefits around Oracle’s StorageTek SL150. Well, in addition to these great benefits, OPN is pleased to provide you with a complete StorageTek SL150 winter wish list that is about to come true! 1. SL150 is the only product in the Oracle portfolio, for which OPN Members can become authorized to create and provide support.  2. OPN Members can qualify for the OPN Incentive Program Rebates, without Oracle Support Attach, (provided all other criteria is met). The requirement of Premier Support Attach has been exempted for this product. 3. OPN Members who become authorized under this model will be eligible for an additional discount on parts.  4. As always Oracle’s StorageTek SL150 is Simple, Scalable and will help you Save! To add just a bit more cheer to your cup of hot coco, watch this video on why Oracle’s StorageTek SL150 Tape Library is for you! So if you haven’t done so already, contact your Oracle Channel Sales representative — let them know if you’ve been nice this year, and tell them you want to learn more! Cheers! The OPN Communications Team

  Read the article

• SQL SERVER – A Puzzle – Fun with NULL – Fix Error 8117

  - by pinaldave

  During my 8 years of career, I have been involved in many interviews. Quite often, I act as the  interview. If I am the interviewer, I ask many questions – from easy questions to difficult ones. When I am the interviewee, I frequently get an opportunity to ask the interviewer some questions back. Regardless of the my capacity in attending the interview, I always make it a point to ask the interviewer at least one question. What is NULL? It’s always fun to ask this question during interviews, because in every interview, I get a different answer. NULL is often confused with false, absence of value or infinite value. Honestly, NULL is a very interesting subject as it bases its behavior in server settings. There are a few properties of NULL that are universal, but the knowledge about these properties is not known in a universal sense. Let us run this simple puzzle. Run the following T-SQL script: SELECT SUM(data) FROM (SELECT NULL AS data) t It will return the following error: Msg 8117, Level 16, State 1, Line 1 Operand data type NULL is invalid for sum operator. Now the error makes it very clear that NULL is invalid for sum Operator. Frequently enough, I have showed this simple query to many folks whom I came across. I asked them if they could modify the subquery and return the result as NULL. Here is what I expected: Even though this is a very simple looking query, so far I’ve got the correct answer from only 10% of the people to whom I have asked this question. It was common for me to receive this kind of answer – convert the NULL to some data type. However, doing so usually returns the value as 0 or the integer they passed. SELECT SUM(data) FROM (SELECT ISNULL(NULL,0) AS data) t I usually see many people modifying the outer query to get desired NULL result, but that is not allowed in this simple puzzle. This small puzzle made me wonder how many people have a clear understanding about NULL. Well, here is the answer to my simple puzzle. Just CAST NULL AS INT and it will return the final result as NULL: SELECT SUM(data) FROM (SELECT CAST(NULL AS INT) AS data) t Now that you know the answer, don’t you think it was very simple indeed? This blog post is especially dedicated to my friend Madhivanan who has written an excellent blog post about NULL. I am confident that after reading the blog post from Madhivanan, you will have no confusion regarding NULL in the future. Read: NULL, NULL, NULL and nothing but NULL. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Puzzle, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

  Read the article

• The Kids Are Alright. With Facebook and SMS. But Not Twitter

  - by ultan o'broin

  I delivered a lecture to business and technology freshmen (late teens, I reckon) in Trinity College Dublin recently. I spoke about user experience in enterprise applications, trends that UX pros need to be aware of such as social media, community support, mobile and tablet platforms and a bunch of nuances around those areas (data and device security, privacy, reputation, branding, and so on). It was all fairly high level stuff given the audience, and I included lots of colorful screenshots. Irish-related examples helped to get the message across. During the lecture I did a quick poll. “How many students here use Twitter?” Answer: None. “How many use Facebook?” All (pretty much). So what do these guys like to use instead of Twitter? Easy - text messaging (or SMS if you like). They all had phones. Perhaps I should not have been so surprised about Twitter, but it’s always great to have research validated by some guerilla UX research on the street. There’s already quite a bit of research about teen uptake (or lack) of Twitter, telling us young adults don’t tweet. Twitter is seen as something for er, older people. Affordable devices and data plans that allow students to text really quickly are also popular (BlackBerry, for example). Younger people just luuurve to text each other. A lot.  Facebook versus Twitter for younger folks? Well, we know the story. No contest. I would love to engage more with students like these. I’ll plan for it. It will also be interesting to see if Twitter becomes more important to them over time. There were a few other interesting observations about the lack of uptake of Foursquare, Gowalla and mobile apps like that. I  don’t think there’s a huge uptake in these kind of apps in Ireland anyway, but maybe students have different priorities anyway?   I’ll return to that another day. Technorati Tags: Gowalla,FourSquare,Twitter,UX,user experience,user assistance,Trinity College Dublin

  Read the article

• The Whole Enchilada — Fusion Supply Chain in the Cloud

  - by Kathryn Perry

  A guest post by Tyra Crockett, Senior Manager at Oracle No other vendor can offer everything in the cloud the way Oracle can. You can get HR from Workday and CRM from Salesforce, but you can get the whole enchilada—HCM, CRM and ERP—all from Oracle on one platform. If you’re thinking about using Oracle's Cloud Services to implement the newest Oracle Fusion Supply Chain applications, this post is for you. Point #1: The Oracle Cloud Applications Services portfolio includes ERP cloud services which are flexible and can adapt to fill your supply chain needs. For example, you might be opening a small distribution facility in California, but don’t have the time or IT resources to warrant a full scale supply chain implementation. You can use Oracle’s Cloud to implement the Oracle Fusion Supply Chain applications you need without an increase in IT staff or hardware. Then as your business grows, you can add more features and applications to your cloud.   Point #2: Whether you’re implementing a slice of the Fusion Procurement pie, or the entire ERP portfolio, you want to be up and running fast with low upfront costs and investment risks. That’s where you can trust a world-class technology organization like Oracle. Your SaaS subscription-based deployment model will take away the headaches associated with determining your software costs. You also will be able to eliminate expensive customizations and configure your deployment as you like, saving you time and money during the initial stages and upon upgrade. Point #3: Another great benefit of operating your Oracle Fusion Supply Chain in the cloud is the opportunity to standardize your processes across your entire supply chain. You can institute processes in San Francisco and be confident they will be followed in Mexico City and Hong Kong. Point #4: If data security is a concern – and it is for most of us – Oracle-managed cloud services give you the comfort of knowing that your data will always be there when you need it. You will not have to manage the IT services associated with patching and upgrade. They will be taken care of automatically. This enables you to focus on what you do best: managing your business. Point #5: Cloud services aren’t an either/or proposition. You might have very good business reasons for choosing a hybrid model -- running some applications in the cloud and others on premise. That allows you to leverage your own IT department, when and where you need to, and shift focus when necessary. I urge you to take a hard look at the Oracle Fusion Supply Chain applications running in the cloud. These solutions running alongside your existing legacy systems can solve your toughest business challenges as you move forward in the 21st century.

  Read the article

• SharpDX and game engines, back to zero?

  - by Baboon

  I'm a desktop developer (I mainly do WPF for a living) but I want to make games as a hobby. So a few months ago, I started reading blogs, gamedevSE, you name it. I understand in the C++ DirectX world, you have engines such as Unity3D with designers and whatnot, but as much as I'm ok to spend months understanding game development, I'd prefer to stay with my comfy C#. So I thought I'd develop my first games in /C#/DirectX through SharpDX But then, I can't use game engines anymore, since they're made for C++DirectX and not SharpDX. (ok, I could do P/Invokes but that defeats the purpose of SharpDX). I do know about XNA, and I also do know I can't publish to the marketplace with it (and quite frankly, I don't really want to learn an API that is in jeopardy). So how do you conceal writing games in C# and using existing game engines instead of reinventing the wheel? wait for ports? So I've found out the following: After doing the first tutorials of MOgre and digging around, it seems MOgre gives you the worse of both worlds: . You can't port it with Mono because it directly references a C++/CLI dll (Ogre) and C++/CLI isn't supported by Mono. And since it's not C++ itself, you can't make a pure build. Which, as far as I understand, means I'd be stuck on windows (and not even WinRT/Metro compatible), without capability of porting anything to mobiles or other OS (Mac/Linux). Even though it looks really nice to develop with MOgre, I'd like to learn something a little more open to future broadening. On the other hand, MonoGame seems to be a rewrite of XNA with SharpDX which sounds very promising: Mono allows me to easily port my games to other platforms, mobiles included. SharpDX allows me to access the latest DirectX versions XNA would be my first choice if only MS showed some hope for the future It really looks like MonoGame is nothing else than XNA on SharpDX. Axiom looks good too but I lack info on the subject (and pages with poor design don't give me a good feeling about an API...) XNA with SunBurn looks good: It should be portable to Mono (can anyone with experience give us feedback on that?), thus multi-platform. It's then marketplace-able since Mono itself is. Did I miss something or are 2) and 4) my best options (aside from the fact Mono doesn't support any XAML)?

  Read the article

• Innovation and the Role of Social Media

  - by Brian Dirking

  A very interesting post by Andy Mulholland of CAP Gemini this week – “The CIO is trapped between the CEO wanting innovation and the CFO needing compliance” – had many interesting points: “A successful move in one area won’t be recognized and rapidly implemented in other areas to multiply the benefits, or worse unsuccessful ideas will get repeated adding to the cost and time wasted. That’s where the need to really address the combination of social networking, collaboration, knowledge management and business information is required.” Without communicating what works and what doesn’t, the innovations of our organization may be lost, and the failures repeated. That makes sense. If you liked Andy Mulholland’s blog post, you need to hear Howard Beader’s presentation at Enterprise 2.0 Conference on innovation and the role of social media. (Howard will be speaking in the Market Leaders Session at 1 PM on Wednesday June 22nd). Some of the thoughts Howard will share include: • Innovation is more than just ideas, it’s getting ideas to market, and removing the obstacles that stand in the way • Innovation is about parallel processing – you can’t remove the obstacles one by one because you will get to market too late • Innovation can be about product innovation, but it can also be about process innovation This brings us to Andy’s second issue he raises: "..the need for integration with, and visibility of, processes to understand exactly how the enterprise functions and delivers on its policies…" Andy goes on to talk about this from the perspective of compliance and the CFO’s concerns. And it’s true: innovation can come both in product innovation, but also internal process innovation. And process innovation can have as much impact as product innovation.  New supply chain models can disrupt an industry overnight. Many people ignore process innovation as a benefit of social business, because it is perceived as a bottom line rather than top line impact. But it can actually impact your top line by changing your entire business model. Oracle WebCenter sits at this crossroads between product innovation and process innovation, enabling you to drive go-to-market innovations through internal social media tools, removing obstacles in parallel, and also providing you deep insight into your processes so you can identify bottlenecks and realize whole new ways of doing business. Learn more about how at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference, where Oracle will be in booth #213 showing Oracle WebCenter and Oracle Fusion Applications.

  Read the article

• How Microsoft listens

  - by Stacy Vicknair

  This being my freshman year as an MVP, I had a realization that I perhaps should be embarrassed hasn’t happened sooner. The realization comes much like the iconic M&Ms commercial where the M&Ms run into Santa and exclaim, “He does exist!” My personal realization arguably has a greater implication: Microsoft does listen. This is the most important lesson that I received this year attending the MVP Summit. My hope is that I can convince you that we are empowered to make a difference. Instead of using “Man I hate how this works / doesn’t work!” as cooler conversation, we can use it as true interaction with Microsoft. We as customers to Microsoft need to stop asking the question “Will this work for me?” and instead ask “How can this work for me?” There are three quick resources that the average developer has access to today that they can use to be heard by the product teams, and by no means should you think twice if you have a concern that you’d like a real response on. MVPs MVPs are members of your community who have a deep relationship with Microsoft and will have connections to their associated product group. Don’t think of them as just a resource for answers, but also as your ambassador for getting your experiences heard. You can find your local MVPs by browsing the directory at: https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/communities/mvp.aspx Evangelists Evangelists are employees of Microsoft who work to foster and grow communities in their assigned region. They are first-class citizens of Microsoft and are often deeply involved with the product groups. As a result, they will be more than glad to direct your questions or concerns to those who can answer them most expertly. With that said, evangelists are also very busy people (who do amazing things for the community) and might not be able to get you that conversation as quickly as a local MVP. You can find your local evangelist at the following website: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/bb905078.aspx Microsoft Connect This is one of the resources that I haven’t used enough, but it cannot be understated. Connect is the starting point of the social conversation that happens between Microsoft and the community daily. Connect acts as a portal where you can provide new feedback as well as comment and rate the feedback provided by others. Power is in numbers when it comes to Connect, so the exposure that your feedback can get not only lets you know that you aren’t the only one who wants change, but also lets Microsoft know the same. https://connect.microsoft.com   Technorati Tags: Microsoft,MVP,Feedback,Connect

  Read the article

• Exploding maps in Reporting Services 2008 R2

  - by Rob Farley

  Kaboom! Well, that was the imagery that secretly appeared in my mind when I saw “USA By State Exploded” in the list of installed maps in Report Builder 3.0 – part of the spatial offering of SQL Server Reporting Server 2008 R2. Alas, it just means that the borders are bigger. Clicking on it showed me. Unfortunately, I’m not interested in maps of the US. None of my clients are there (at least, not yet – feel free to get in touch if you want to change this ‘feature’ of my company). So instead, I’ve recently been getting hold of some data for Australian areas. I’ve just bought some PostCode shapes for South Australia, and will use this in demos for conferences and for showing clients how this kind of report can really impact their reporting. One of the companies I was talking about getting shape files sent me a sample. So I chose the “ESRI shapefile” option you see above, and browsed to my file. It appeared in the window like this: Australians will immediately recognise this as the area around Wollongong, just south of Sydney. Well, apart from me. I didn’t. I had to put a Bing Maps layer behind it to work that out, but that’s not for this post. The thing that I discovered was that if I selected the Exploded USA option (but without clicking Next), and then chose my shape file, then my area around Wollongong would be exploded too! Huh! I think this is actually a bug, but a potentially useful one! Some further investigation (involving creating two identical reports, one with this exploded view, one without), showed that the Exploded View is done by reducing the ScaleFactor property of the PolygonLayer in the map control. The Exploded version has it below 1. If you set to above one, your shapes overlap. I discovered this by accident… I guess I hadn’t looked through all the PolygonLayer options to work out what they all do. And because this post is about Reporting, it can qualify for this month’s T-SQL Tuesday, hosted by Aaron Nelson (@sqlvariant). Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

  Read the article

• Add Bookmarks and Notes to Delicious in IE 8

  - by Asian Angel

  Are you constantly adding bookmarks to your Delicious account while browsing but want to keep UI use to a minimum? Add bookmarks directly to your account from the context menu using the Share with Delicious accelerator. Share with Delicious in Action To add the accelerator click on Add to Internet Explorer and confirm the installation when the secondary window appears. This is going to be much better than having the Favorites Bar or a new toolbar taking up precious UI room. When you find a webpage that you would like to bookmark right click within the page, go to All Accelerators and select Share with Delicious. The form for the new bookmark will open in a new tab with the URL and title filled in. All that you need to do is add any desired notes/tags and save the bookmark. Suppose that you want notes from the page added to the bookmark. Highlight the desired text, right click on it, then go to All Accelerators and select Share with Delicious. As before the form will open in a new tab…you can see the highlighted text was entered into the notes section for the new bookmark. All that is left to do is add an appropriate tag and save. Once you save your new bookmark the tab will auto navigate to the webpage that you just saved. Returning to our account showed the new bookmark ready for future use along with a the notes for later reference. Conclusion If you add bookmarks to your Delicious account but want to save UI room, then the Share with Delicious accelerator will make a nice addition to Internet Explorer. Links Add the Share with Delicious accelerator to Internet Explorer 8 Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Access and Manage Your Delicious Bookmarks the Easy WayQuickly Add Bookmarks to Delicious in FirefoxAutomate Adding Bookmarks to del.icio.usHow Many Times Has an Article Been Bookmarked on del.icio.us?Add Social Bookmarking (Digg This!) Links to your Wordpress Blog 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 Xobni Plus for Outlook All My Movies 5.9 CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Snagit 10 Use ILovePDF To Split and Merge PDF Files TimeToMeet is a Simple Online Meeting Planning Tool Easily Create More Bookmark Toolbars in Firefox Filevo is a Cool File Hosting & Sharing Site Get a free copy of WinUtilities Pro 2010 World Cup Schedule

  Read the article

• Is your test method self-validating ?

  - by mehfuzh

  Writing state of art unit tests that can validate your every part of the framework is challenging and interesting at the same time, its like becoming a samurai. One of the key concept in this is to keep our test synced all the time as underlying code changes and thus breaking them to the furthest unit as possible.  This also means, we should avoid  multiple conditions embedded in a single test. Let’s consider the following example of transfer funds. [Fact] public void ShouldAssertTranserFunds() {     var currencyService = Mock.Create<ICurrencyService>();     //// current rate     Mock.Arrange(() => currencyService.GetConversionRate("AUS", "CAD")).Returns(0.88f);       Account to = new Account { Currency = "AUS", Balance = 120 };     Account from = new Account { Currency = "CAD" };       AccountService accService = new AccountService(currencyService);       Assert.Throws<InvalidOperationException>(() => accService.TranferFunds(to, from, 200f));       accService.TranferFunds(to, from, 100f);       Assert.Equal(from.Balance, 88);     Assert.Equal(20, to.Balance); } At first look,  it seems ok but as you look more closely , it is actually doing two tasks in one test. At line# 10 it is trying to validate the exception for invalid fund transfer and finally it is asserting if the currency conversion is successfully made. Here, the name of the test itself is pretty vague. The first rule for writing unit test should always reflect to inner working of the target code, where just by looking at their names it is self explanatory. Having a obscure name for a test method not only increase the chances of cluttering the test code, but it also gives the opportunity to add multiple paths into it and eventually makes things messy as possible. I would rater have two test methods that explicitly describes its intent and are more self-validating. ShouldThrowExceptionForInvalidTransferOperation ShouldAssertTransferForExpectedConversionRate Having, this type of breakdown also helps us pin-point reported bugs easily rather wasting any time on debugging for something more general and can minimize confusion among team members. Finally, we should always make our test F.I.R.S.T ( Fast.Independent.Repeatable.Self-validating.Timely) [ Bob martin – Clean Code]. Only this will be enough to ensure, our test is as simple and clean as possible.   Hope that helps

  Read the article

• Are You Afraid of Each Other? Study Shows CMO’s/CIO’s Missing Benefits of Collaboration

  - by Mike Stiles

  Remember that person in school you spent months being too scared to talk to?  Then when you finally did, it led to a wonderful friendship…if not something more. New research from Oracle, Social Media Today and Leader Networks shows marketing and IT need to get over whatever’s holding them back and start reaping the benefits of collaboration. Back in the old days of just a few years ago, marketing could stay on their side of the building, IT could stay on their side of the building, and both could refer to the other as “those guys.” Today, the structure of organizations is shifting from islands to “us,” one integrated body where each part knows what the other parts are doing, and all parts work together in accomplishing job one…a winning customer experience. Ignore that, and you start losing. Give your reluctance to change priority over the benefits of new collaborations, and you start losing. You’re either working together and accelerating forward or getting in the way of each other’s separate agendas and grinding down…much to your competitors’ delight. The study reveals a basic current truth: those who are collaborating in marketing and IT report being more effective, however less than 1/3 report collaborating even “frequently.” In other words, this is obviously a good thing, so we’d better not do it. Smart. The white paper, “Socially Driven Collaboration,” set out to explore how today’s always-changing digital, social and mobile landscape is forcing change across the enterprise, whether it’s welcomed or not. Part of what it found is marketing and IT leaders are not unaware of what’s going on and see their roles evolving. And both know the ability to collaborate more effectively now exists. And of those who are collaborating, over 2/3 say they’re “more effective” professionally because of it. Yet even if you don’t want to take the Oracle study’s word for it, an August 2013 Accenture study of 400 senior marketing and 250 IT executives revealed only 10% think CMO/CIO collaboration is at the right level. There’s a lot of room for improvement here, and not just around people. Collaboration is also being called for across processes and technologies. Business benefits of such collaboration cited in the Oracle study include stronger marketing messages, faster speed-to-market, greater product adoption, faster discovery of product and service shortcomings, and reduction in project costs. Those are the benefits you will cheat yourself out of by keeping “those guys” at arm’s length and continuing to try to function in traditional roles while modern business and the consumer is changing around you. “Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.” –Stephen Hawking @mikestilesPhoto: istockphoto

  Read the article

< Previous Page | 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392  | Next Page >