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• Archbeat Link-O-Rama Top 10 Facebook Faves for October 20-26, 2013

  - by OTN ArchBeat

  Here's this week's list of the Top 10 items shared on the OTN ArchBeat Facebook Page from October 27 - November 2, 2013. Visualizing and Process (Twitter) Events in Real Time with Oracle Coherence | Noah Arliss This OTN Virtual Developer Day session explores in detail how to create a dynamic HTML5 Web application that interacts with Oracle Coherence as it’s processing events in real time, using the Avatar project and Oracle Coherence’s Live Events feature. Part of OTN Virtual Developer Day: Harnessing the Power of Oracle WebLogic and Oracle Coherence, November 5, 2013. 9am to 1pm PT / 12pm to 4pm ET / 1pm to 5pm BRT. Register now! HTML5 Application Development with Oracle WebLogic Server | Doug Clarke This free OTN Virtual Developer Day session covers the support for WebSockets, RESTful data services, and JSON infrastructure available in Oracle WebLogic Server. Part of OTN Virtual Developer Day: Harnessing the Power of Oracle WebLogic and Oracle Coherence, November 5, 2013. 9am to 1pm PT / 12pm to 4pm ET / 1pm to 5pm BRT. Register now! Video: ADF BC and REST services | Frederic Desbiens Spend a few minutes with Oracle ADF principal product manager Frederic Desbiens and learn how to publish ADF Business Components as RESTful web services. One Client Two Clusters | David Felcey "Sometimes its desirable to have a client connect to multiple clusters, either because the data is dispersed or for instance the clusters are in different locations for high availability," says David Felcey. David shows you how in this post, which includes a simple example. Exceptions Handling and Notifications in ODI | Christophe Dupupet Oracle Fusion Middleware A-Team director Christophe Dupupet reviews the techniques that are available in Oracle Data Integrator to guarantee that the appropriate individuals are notified in the event that ODI processes are impacted by network outages or other mishaps. Securing WebSocket applications on Glassfish | Pavel Bucek WebSocket is a key capability standardized into Java EE 7. Many developers wonder how WebSockets can be secured. One very nice characteristic for WebSocket is that it in fact completely piggybacks on HTTP. In this post Pavel Bucek demonstrates how to secure WebSocket endpoints in GlassFish using TLS/SSL. Oracle Coherence, Split-Brain and Recovery Protocols In Detail | Ricardo Ferreira Ricardo Ferreira's article "provides a high level conceptual overview of Split-Brain scenarios in distributed systems," focusing on a "specific example of cluster communication failure and recovery in Oracle Coherence." Non-programmatic Authentication Using Login Form in JSF (For WebCenter & ADF) | JayJay Zheng Oracle ACE JayJay Zheng shares an approach that "avoids the programmatic authentication and works great for having a custom login page developed in WebCenter Portal integrated with OAM authentication." The latest article in the Industrial SOA series looks at mobile computing and how companies are developing SOA to go. http://pub.vitrue.com/PUxT Tech Article: SOA in Real Life: Mobile Solutions The ACE Director Thing | Dr. Frank Munz Frank Munz finally gets around to blogging about achieving Oracle ACE Director status and shares some interesting insight into what will change—and what won't—thanks to that new status. A good, short read for those interested in learning more about the Oracle ACE program. Thought for the Day "Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." — Will Rogers, American humorist (November 4, 1879 – August 15, 1935) Source: brainyquote.com

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• How to implement early exit / return in Haskell?

  - by Giorgio

  I am porting a Java application to Haskell. The main method of the Java application follows the pattern: public static void main(String [] args) { if (args.length == 0) { System.out.println("Invalid number of arguments."); System.exit(1); } SomeDataType d = getData(arg[0]); if (!dataOk(d)) { System.out.println("Could not read input data."); System.exit(1); } SomeDataType r = processData(d); if (!resultOk(r)) { System.out.println("Processing failed."); System.exit(1); } ... } So I have different steps and after each step I can either exit with an error code, or continue to the following step. My attempt at porting this to Haskell goes as follows: main :: IO () main = do a <- getArgs if ((length args) == 0) then do putStrLn "Invalid number of arguments." exitWith (ExitFailure 1) else do -- The rest of the main function goes here. With this solution, I will have lots of nested if-then-else (one for each exit point of the original Java code). Is there a more elegant / idiomatic way of implementing this pattern in Haskell? In general, what is a Haskell idiomatic way to implement an early exit / return as used in an imperative language like Java?

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• How Do I Print Photos?

  - by Takkat

  Other than for Windows in Ubuntu there are no fancy utilities provided from printer manufacturers to print photos. I am aware of Gnome Photo Printer and of Photoprint, the first being easy to handle, the latter having more options. However I wonder if there are any other or maybe even better alternatives (including plugins) to perform the following tasks: Print photos in the best photo-resolution the driver offers Adjust paper size for standard values of photo papers Choose paper tray if the printer has more than one Print out multiple photos on one page including mixed sizes (grids) Multiple prints with same settings Borderless printing if the printer is capable of this Any additional options like pre-processing for color correction or noise reduction would be nice to have but are not so essential. Update According to this spec it seems not to so easy to accomplish the simple task of printing photos. Indeed all applications I have gone through have major drawbacks that make printing photos almost impossible. Below I will list what put me off using them for photo printing: Gnome Photo Printer: no thumbnails, no grids Photoprint: does not keep settings, GUI broken, no standard photo size, no thumbs Eye Of Gnome: no multiple pages, no grids Gimp + Images Grid Layout: far too many steps to finally find that prints are always different to their previews. F-Spot: no grids Picasa 3: no grids, very few fixed paper sizes, 300 dpi only flPhoto: strange GUI, no thumbs, no printer settings, did not print at all Windows: Ooops - everything works fine! But I want Ubuntu to do this! After half a pack of ink cartridges and half a pack of photo paper cards I am getting tired of testing. At least Gimp and Picasa looked promising but both don't keep their promise when it comes to printing. I'd already be happy to quickly print a few photos with EOG if bug #80220 was fixed - but it's still on "wishlist".

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• C# XNA: Effecient mesh building algorithm for voxel based terrain ("top" outside layer only, non-destructible)

  - by Tim Hatch

  To put this bluntly, for non-destructible/non-constructible voxel style terrain, are generated meshes handled much better than instancing? Is there another method to achieve millions of visible quad faces per scene with ease? If generated meshes per chunk is the way to go, what kind of algorithm might I want to use based on only EVER needing the outer layer rendered? I'm using 3D Perlin Noise for terrain generation (for overhangs/caves/etc). The layout is fantastic, but even for around 20k visible faces, it's quite slow using instancing (whether it's one big draw call or multiple smaller chunks). I've simplified it to the point of removing non-visible cubes and only having the top faces of my cube-like terrain be rendered, but with 20k quad instances, it's still pretty sluggish (30fps on my machine). My goal is for the world to be made using quite small cubes. Where multiple games (IE: Minecraft) have the player 1x1 cube in width/length and 2 high, I'm shooting for 6x6 width/length and 9 high. With a lot of advantages as far as gameplay goes, it also means I could quite easily have a single scene with millions of truly visible quads. So, I have been trying to look into changing my method from instancing to mesh generation on a chunk by chunk basis. Do video cards handle this type of processing better than separate quads/cubes through instancing? What kind of existing algorithms should I be looking into? I've seen references to marching cubes a few times now, but I haven't spent much time investigating it since I don't know if it's the better route for my situation or not. I'm also starting to doubt my need of using 3D Perlin noise for terrain generation since I won't want the kind of depth it would seem best at. I just like the idea of overhangs and occasional cave-like structures, but could find no better 'surface only' algorithms to cover that. If anyone has any better suggestions there, feel free to throw them at me too. Thanks, Mythics

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• WebSocket Samples in GlassFish 4 build 66 - javax.websocket.* package: TOTD #190

  - by arungupta

  This blog has published a few blogs on using JSR 356 Reference Implementation (Tyrus) integrated in GlassFish 4 promoted builds. TOTD #183: Getting Started with WebSocket in GlassFish TOTD #184: Logging WebSocket Frames using Chrome Developer Tools, Net-internals and Wireshark TOTD #185: Processing Text and Binary (Blob, ArrayBuffer, ArrayBufferView) Payload in WebSocket TOTD #186: Custom Text and Binary Payloads using WebSocket TOTD #189: Collaborative Whiteboard using WebSocket in GlassFish 4 The earlier blogs created a WebSocket endpoint as: import javax.net.websocket.annotations.WebSocketEndpoint;@WebSocketEndpoint("websocket")public class MyEndpoint { . . . Based upon the discussion in JSR 356 EG, the package names have changed to javax.websocket.*. So the updated endpoint definition will look like: import javax.websocket.WebSocketEndpoint;@WebSocketEndpoint("websocket")public class MyEndpoint { . . . The POM dependency is: <dependency> <groupId>javax.websocket</groupId> <artifactId>javax.websocket-api</artifactId> <version>1.0-b09</version> </dependency> And if you are using GlassFish 4 build 66, then you also need to provide a dummy EndpointFactory implementation as: import javax.websocket.WebSocketEndpoint;@WebSocketEndpoint(value="websocket", factory=MyEndpoint.DummyEndpointFactory.class)public class MyEndpoint { . . .   class DummyEndpointFactory implements EndpointFactory {    @Override public Object createEndpoint() { return null; }  }} This is only interim and will be cleaned up in subsequent builds. But I've seen couple of complaints about this already and so this deserves a short blog. Have you been tracking the latest Java EE 7 implementations in GlassFish 4 promoted builds ?

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• Drawing particles with CPU instead of GPU (XNA)

  - by Helix

  I'm trying out modifications to the following particle system. http://create.msdn.com/en-US/education/catalog/sample/particle_3d I have a function such that when I press Space, all the particles have their positions and velocities set to 0. for (int i = 0; i < particles.GetLength(0); i++) { particles[i].Position = Vector3.Zero; particles[i].Velocity = Vector3.Zero; } However, when I press space, the particles are still moving. If I go to FireParticleSystem.cs I can turn settings.Gravity to 0 and the particles stop moving, but the particles are still not being shifted to (0,0,0). As I understand it, the problem lies in the fact that the GPU is processing all the particle positions, and it's calculating where the particles should be based on their initial position, their initial velocity and multiplying by their age. Therefore, all I've been able to do is change the initial position and velocity of particles, but I'm unable to do it on the fly since the GPU is handling everything. I want the CPU to calculate the positions of the particles individually. This is because I will be later implementing some sort of wind to push the particles around. How do I stop the GPU from taking over? I think it's something to do with VertexBuffers and the draw function, but I don't know how to modify it to make it work.

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• Welcome 2011

  - by PSteele

  About this time last year, I wrote a blog post about how January of 2010 was almost over and I hadn’t done a single blog post.  Ugh…  History repeats itself. 2010 in Review If I look back at 2010, it was a great year in terms of technology and development: Visited Redmond to attend the MVP Summit in February.  Had a great time with the MS product teams and got to connect with some really smart people. Continued my work on Visual Studio Magazine’s “C# Corner” column.  About mid-year, the column changed from an every-other-month print column to an every-other-month print column along with bi-monthly web-only articles.  Needless to say, this kept me even busier and away from my blog. Participated in another GiveCamp!  Thanks to the wonderful leadership of Michael Eaton and all of his minions, GiveCamp 2010 was another great success.  Planning for GiveCamp 2011 will be starting soon… I switched to DVCS full time.  After years of being a loyal SVN user, I got bit by the DVCS bug.  I played around with both Mercurial and Git and finally settled on Mercurial.  It’s seamless integration with Windows Explorer along with it’s wealth of plugins made me fall in love.  I can’t imagine going back and using a centralized version control system. Continued to work with the awesome group of talent at SRT Solutions.  Very proud that SRT won it’s third consecutive FastTrack award! Jumped off the BlackBerry train and enjoying the smooth ride of Android.  It was time to replace the old BlackBerry Storm so I did some research and settled on the Motorola DroidX.  I couldn’t be happier.  Android is a slick OS and the DroidX is a sweet piece of hardware.  Been dabbling in some Android development with both Eclipse and IntelliJ IDEA (I like IntelliJ IDEA a lot better!).   2011 Plans On January 1st I was pleasantly surprised to get an email from the Microsoft MVP program letting me know that I had received the MVP award again for my community work in 2010.  I’m honored and humbled to be recognized by Microsoft as well as my peers! I’ll continue to do some Android development.  I’m currently working on a simple app to get me feet wet.  It may even makes it’s way into the Android Market. I’ve got a project that could really benefit from WPF so I’ll be diving into WPF this year.  I’ve played around with WPF a bit in the past – simple demos and learning exercises – but this will give me a chance to build an entire application in WPF.  I’m looking forward to the increased freedom that a WPF UI should give me. I plan on blogging a lot more in 2011! Technorati Tags: Android,MVP,Mercurial,WPF,SRT,GiveCamp

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• Oracle CEP on OTN

  - by seth.white

  Here are the latest links to Oracle CEP on the Oracle website (OTN). I've heard from a few folks that these are hard to find. As of this writing, the latest release of Oracle CEP is 11.1.3. You may also see this release referred to as 11.1.1.3 and 11.1.1.3.0. An overview of the new features in 11.1.3 can be found here. The product download page: http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/middleware/htdocs/fmw_11_download.html The product documentation: http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E14571_01/soa.htm#ocep Don't be alarmed that the release number in the documentation is 11.1.1. This is the documentation for the 11.1.3 release. The user forum: http://forums.oracle.com/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=820 The Oracle CEP samples page (contains useful code samples): http://www.oracle.com/technology/sample_code/products/event-driven-architecture/index.html   The Oracle CEP product page (maintained by our product manager): http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/event-driven-architecture/complex-event-processing.html   The event driven architecture page (Oracle CEP is bundled in the EDA Suite product): http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/event-driven-architecture/index.html   Technorati Tags: Oracle,CEP,OTN

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• New JavaScript Editor

  - by Petr

  I did not write a blog post here for a few weeks. I think the last my post was  about releasing NetBeans 7.1 in the beginning of January. The reason is not that I would change the job:), but that I have concentrated on new JavaScript support/editor. The new JavaScript editor is written basically from scratch. The answer for the question "Why from beginning again, why do you just improve the old one?" is not easy and the decision has more aspects. One of the main reasons is that the old support was written 4 years ago and the architecture is limited. Also during the time, the APIs were changed and it was very hard to keep the editor up to date. Also there is a license issue etc. In short, it is time to rewrite the old JS editor.  We build up strong community about the PHP support in NetBeans and because many PHP developers also write JavaScript code I would like to ask you for a help. There is a continual PHP build with the new JavaScript support. You can download the result of the builds here. It's a zip file. You can unzip the file anywhere, where you want. I recommend to run the build with the new userdir, to avoid damaging your current userdir. It shouldn't happened, but just to be sure:). You can achieve this through the switch --userdir. So start the unzipped file from command line from the folder, where you unzipped it, can be done with this command on unix: bin/netbeans.sh --userdir /path/to/new/userdir and on windows: bin\netbeans.exe --userdir D:\path\to\new\userdir For the developers who use continual php build already, it's well known. There is also full IDE build with the new JavaScript support for people, who need more than only PHP support.  Because the builds with the new JavaScript editor is created from a branch, there are not nightly builds available. They will be, when we merge the branch to the trunk, but so far we have to work only with the mentioned continual build. We will merge our branch after branching NetBeans 7.2 from trunk. This is also answer for the question, what release of NetBeans will contain the new JS support. It should be the release after NetBeans 7.2. I'm asking you whether you could play with the builds or better, could work in the builds with new JavaScript support and tell us every issue that you run in. It can be everything what doesn't fit you, something doesn't work as you expected, something is slow, you want change the behaviour of a feature etc. Your input / comments are very important for us and it will help us to achieve the new JavaScript support that you need.  The best way how to communicate issues is through our Bugzilla, because it is simple to track them. Sure you can write comment here:), but still I prefer Bugzilla for any issue. You can click here (you should be already log in Bugzilla), a form for the new JavaScript issue is opened, with pre-filled component Editor and NO72 keyword. I will write about the single features later, but now I will mentioned a few features that should work in better way than in the old support.  Syntactic and semantic colouring Navigator Mark Occurrences and GoTo Declaration  Code Completion Code Completion is invoked through keyboard shortcut CTRL+SPACE. The first invocation offers items that are found through a source model. Almost all editor features are based on the model, that is build from source code. There is a lot of work on the model yet, but it should offer better results. When the pop up window with code completion items is open and you press CTRL+SPACE again, then the code completion offers all elements that are in the project. In the pictures all elements that starts with letter 't'. Formatter with many options and more :) A few features are not still implemented that are supported in the old JavaScript support (for example jQuery support), but we are adding this features ASAP.

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• Why Oracle Data Integrator for Big Data?

  - by Mala Narasimharajan

  Big Data is everywhere these days - but what exactly is it? It’s data that comes from a multitude of sources – not only structured data, but unstructured data as well.  The sheer volume of data is mindboggling – here are a few examples of big data: climate information collected from sensors, social media information, digital pictures, log files, online video files, medical records or online transaction records.  These are just a few examples of what constitutes big data.   Embedded in big data is tremendous value and being able to manipulate, load, transform and analyze big data is key to enhancing productivity and competitiveness.  The value of big data lies in its propensity for greater in-depth analysis and data segmentation -- in turn giving companies detailed information on product performance, customer preferences and inventory.  Furthermore, by being able to store and create more data in digital form, “big data can unlock significant value by making information transparent and usable at much higher frequency." (McKinsey Global Institute, May 2011) Oracle's flagship product for bulk data movement and transformation, Oracle Data Integrator, is a critical component of Oracle’s Big Data strategy. ODI provides automation, bulk loading, and validation and transformation capabilities for Big Data while minimizing the complexities of using Hadoop.  Specifically, the advantages of ODI in a Big Data scenario are due to pre-built Knowledge Modules that drive processing in Hadoop. This leverages the graphical UI to load and unload data from Hadoop, perform data validations and create mapping expressions for transformations.  The Knowledge Modules provide a key jump-start and eliminate a significant amount of Hadoop development.  Using Oracle Data Integrator together with Oracle Big Data Connectors, you can simplify the complexities of mapping, accessing, and loading big data (via NoSQL or HDFS) but also correlating your enterprise data – this correlation may require integrating across heterogeneous and standards-based environments, connecting to Oracle Exadata, or sourcing via a big data platform such as Oracle Big Data Appliance. To learn more about Oracle Data Integration and Big Data, download our resource kit to see the latest in whitepapers, webinars, downloads, and more… or go to our website on www.oracle.com/bigdata

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• Adding Vertices to a dynamic mesh via Method Call

  - by Raven Dreamer

  I have a C# Struct with a static method, "Get Shape" which populates a List with the vertices of a polyhedron. Method Signature: public static void GetShape(Block b, int x, int y, int z, List<Vector3> vertices, List<int> triangles, List<Vector2> uvs, List<Vector2> uv2s) Adding directly to the vertices list (via vertices.Add(vector3) ), the code works as expected, and the new polyhedron appears when I trigger the method. However, I want to do some processing on the vertices I'm adding (a rotation), and the most sensible way I can think to do that is by creating a separate list of Vector3s, and then combining the lists when I'm done. However, vertices.AddRange(newVerts) does not add the shape to the mesh, nor does a foreach loop with verts.Add(vertices[i]). And this is before I've added in any of the processing! I have a feeling this might stem from passing the list of vertices in as a parameter, rather than returning a list and then adding to the vertices in the calling object, but since I'm filling 4 lists, I was trying to avoid having to create a data struct to return all four at once. Any ideas? The working version of the method is reprinted below, in full: public static void GetShape(Block b, int x, int y, int z, List<Vector3> vertices, List<int> triangles, List<Vector2> uvs, List<Vector2> uv2s) { //List<Vector3> vertices = new List<Vector3>(); int l_blockShape = b.blockShape; int l_blockType = b.blockType; //CheckFace checks if the block is empty //if this block is empty, don't draw anything. int vertexIndex; //only y faces need to be hidden. //if((l_blockShape & BlockShape.NegZFace) == BlockShape.NegZFace) { vertexIndex = vertices.Count; //top left, top right, bottom right, bottom left vertices.Add(new Vector3(x+.2f, y + 1, z+.2f)); vertices.Add(new Vector3(x+.8f, y + 1, z+.2f)); vertices.Add(new Vector3(x+.8f, y , z+.2f)); vertices.Add(new Vector3(x+.2f, y , z+.2f)); // first triangle for the face triangles.Add(vertexIndex); triangles.Add(vertexIndex+1); triangles.Add(vertexIndex+3); // second triangle for the face triangles.Add(vertexIndex+1); triangles.Add(vertexIndex+2); triangles.Add(vertexIndex+3); //UVs for the face uvs.Add( new Vector2(0,1)); uvs.Add( new Vector2(1,1)); uvs.Add( new Vector2(1,0)); uvs.Add( new Vector2(0,0)); //UV2s (lightmapping?) uv2s.Add( new Vector2(0,1)); uv2s.Add( new Vector2(1,1)); uv2s.Add( new Vector2(1,0)); uv2s.Add( new Vector2(0,0)); } //XY Z+1 face //if((l_blockShape & BlockShape.PosZFace) == BlockShape.PosZFace) { vertexIndex = vertices.Count; //top left, top right, bottom right, bottom left vertices.Add(new Vector3(x+.8f, y + 1, z+.8f)); vertices.Add(new Vector3(x+.2f, y + 1, z+.8f)); vertices.Add(new Vector3(x+.2f, y , z+.8f)); vertices.Add(new Vector3(x+.8f, y , z+.8f)); // first triangle for the face triangles.Add(vertexIndex); triangles.Add(vertexIndex+1); triangles.Add(vertexIndex+3); // second triangle for the face triangles.Add(vertexIndex+1); triangles.Add(vertexIndex+2); triangles.Add(vertexIndex+3); //UVs for the face uvs.Add( new Vector2(0,1)); uvs.Add( new Vector2(1,1)); uvs.Add( new Vector2(1,0)); uvs.Add( new Vector2(0,0)); //UV2s (lightmapping?) uv2s.Add( new Vector2(0,1)); uv2s.Add( new Vector2(1,1)); uv2s.Add( new Vector2(1,0)); uv2s.Add( new Vector2(0,0)); } //ZY face //if((l_blockShape & BlockShape.NegXFace) == BlockShape.NegXFace) { vertexIndex = vertices.Count; //top left, top right, bottom right, bottom left vertices.Add(new Vector3(x+.2f, y + 1, z+.8f)); vertices.Add(new Vector3(x+.2f, y + 1, z+.2f)); vertices.Add(new Vector3(x+.2f, y , z+.2f)); vertices.Add(new Vector3(x+.2f, y , z+.8f)); // first triangle for the face triangles.Add(vertexIndex); triangles.Add(vertexIndex+1); triangles.Add(vertexIndex+3); // second triangle for the face triangles.Add(vertexIndex+1); triangles.Add(vertexIndex+2); triangles.Add(vertexIndex+3); //UVs for the face uvs.Add( new Vector2(0,1)); uvs.Add( new Vector2(1,1)); uvs.Add( new Vector2(1,0)); uvs.Add( new Vector2(0,0)); //UV2s (lightmapping?) uv2s.Add( new Vector2(0,1)); uv2s.Add( new Vector2(1,1)); uv2s.Add( new Vector2(1,0)); uv2s.Add( new Vector2(0,0)); } //ZY X+1 face // if((l_blockShape & BlockShape.PosXFace) == BlockShape.PosXFace) { vertexIndex = vertices.Count; //top left, top right, bottom right, bottom left vertices.Add(new Vector3(x+.8f, y + 1, z+.2f)); vertices.Add(new Vector3(x+.8f, y + 1, z+.8f)); vertices.Add(new Vector3(x+.8f, y , z+.8f)); vertices.Add(new Vector3(x+.8f, y , z+.2f)); // first triangle for the face triangles.Add(vertexIndex); triangles.Add(vertexIndex+1); triangles.Add(vertexIndex+3); // second triangle for the face triangles.Add(vertexIndex+1); triangles.Add(vertexIndex+2); triangles.Add(vertexIndex+3); //UVs for the face uvs.Add( new Vector2(0,1)); uvs.Add( new Vector2(1,1)); uvs.Add( new Vector2(1,0)); uvs.Add( new Vector2(0,0)); //UV2s (lightmapping?) uv2s.Add( new Vector2(0,1)); uv2s.Add( new Vector2(1,1)); uv2s.Add( new Vector2(1,0)); uv2s.Add( new Vector2(0,0)); } //ZX face if((l_blockShape & BlockShape.NegYFace) == BlockShape.NegYFace) { vertexIndex = vertices.Count; //top left, top right, bottom right, bottom left vertices.Add(new Vector3(x+.8f, y , z+.8f)); vertices.Add(new Vector3(x+.8f, y , z+.2f)); vertices.Add(new Vector3(x+.2f, y , z+.2f)); vertices.Add(new Vector3(x+.2f, y , z+.8f)); // first triangle for the face triangles.Add(vertexIndex+3); triangles.Add(vertexIndex+1); triangles.Add(vertexIndex); // second triangle for the face triangles.Add(vertexIndex+3); triangles.Add(vertexIndex+2); triangles.Add(vertexIndex+1); //UVs for the face uvs.Add( new Vector2(0,1)); uvs.Add( new Vector2(1,1)); uvs.Add( new Vector2(1,0)); uvs.Add( new Vector2(0,0)); //UV2s (lightmapping?) uv2s.Add( new Vector2(0,1)); uv2s.Add( new Vector2(1,1)); uv2s.Add( new Vector2(1,0)); uv2s.Add( new Vector2(0,0)); } //ZX + 1 face if((l_blockShape & BlockShape.PosYFace) == BlockShape.PosYFace) { vertexIndex = vertices.Count; //top left, top right, bottom right, bottom left vertices.Add(new Vector3(x+.8f, y+1 , z+.2f)); vertices.Add(new Vector3(x+.8f, y+1 , z+.8f)); vertices.Add(new Vector3(x+.2f, y+1 , z+.8f)); vertices.Add(new Vector3(x+.2f, y+1 , z+.2f)); // first triangle for the face triangles.Add(vertexIndex+3); triangles.Add(vertexIndex+1); triangles.Add(vertexIndex); // second triangle for the face triangles.Add(vertexIndex+3); triangles.Add(vertexIndex+2); triangles.Add(vertexIndex+1); //UVs for the face uvs.Add( new Vector2(0,1)); uvs.Add( new Vector2(1,1)); uvs.Add( new Vector2(1,0)); uvs.Add( new Vector2(0,0)); //UV2s (lightmapping?) uv2s.Add( new Vector2(0,1)); uv2s.Add( new Vector2(1,1)); uv2s.Add( new Vector2(1,0)); uv2s.Add( new Vector2(0,0)); } }

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• Splitting up a Rails/Ruby app onto multiple servers

  - by craig.kaminsky

  We recently moved a large application to two machines, both running the same codebase. I. Machine A Web server for public facing application Receives web hook call backs from our ESP Handles a few large, list-processing jobs (uploaded spreadsheets with data) II. Machine B Manages a massive set of (background) jobs but, primarily, focuses on building and assembling newsletters Runs all integration with our NetSuite platform Runs all system maintenance (read: DB) jobs To me, having these two apps running the same codebase (a large, monolithic Rails application) seems 'wrong'. I am wondering if anyone has advice on how to better break up the code for these two apps. While they both need the same DB and, ultimately, the same model code, Machine B has no need for Controllers and Views and it feels wasteful running a full-stack Rails app for its tasks. A couple things came to mind but I'm not sure if I'm trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist: Break the models out into a sub-module on git and include into both apps Build out the Mahcine B app in plain Ruby or a lighter framework like Sinatra (where I could use ActiveRecord with Sinatra in combo with a sub-module for the model folder). I'm new to this scenario and appreciate any and all feedback or direction! Thank you.

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• WebLogic Application Server: free for developers! by Bruno Borges

  - by JuergenKress

  Great news! Oracle WebLogic Server is now free for developers! What does this mean for you? That you as a developer are permitted to: "[...] deploy the programs only on your single developer desktop computer (of any type, including physical, virtual or remote virtual), to be used and accessed by only (1) named developer." But the most interesting part of the license change is this one: "You may continue to develop, test, prototype and demonstrate your application with the programs under this license after you have deployed the application for any internal data processing, commercial or production purposes" (Read the full license agreement here). If you want to take advantage of this licensing change and start developing Java EE applications with the #1 Application Server in the world, read now the previous post, How To Install WebLogic Zip on Linux! WebLogic Partner Community For regular information become a member in the WebLogic Partner Community please visit: http://www.oracle.com/partners/goto/wls-emea ( OPN account required). If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center. BlogTwitterLinkedInMixForumWiki Technorati Tags: WebLogic free,WebLogic for developers,WebLogic license,WebLogic Community,Oracle,OPN,Jürgen Kress

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• Functional Methods on Collections

  - by GlenPeterson

  I'm learning Scala and am a little bewildered by all the methods (higher-order functions) available on the collections. Which ones produce more results than the original collection, which ones produce less, and which are most appropriate for a given problem? Though I'm studying Scala, I think this would pertain to most modern functional languages (Clojure, Haskell) and also to Java 8 which introduces these methods on Java collections. Specifically, right now I'm wondering about map with filter vs. fold/reduce. I was delighted that using foldRight() can yield the same result as a map(...).filter(...) with only one traversal of the underlying collection. But a friend pointed out that foldRight() may force sequential processing while map() is friendlier to being processed by multiple processors in parallel. Maybe this is why mapReduce() is so popular? More generally, I'm still sometimes surprised when I chain several of these methods together to get back a List(List()) or to pass a List(List()) and get back just a List(). For instance, when would I use: collection.map(a => a.map(b => ...)) vs. collection.map(a => ...).map(b => ...) The for/yield command does nothing to help this confusion. Am I asking about the difference between a "fold" and "unfold" operation? Am I trying to jam too many questions into one? I think there may be an underlying concept that, if I understood it, might answer all these questions, or at least tie the answers together.

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• Get Exchange Online Mailbox Size in GB

  - by Brian Jackett

  As mentioned in my previous post I was recently working with a customer to get started with Exchange Online PowerShell commandlets.  In this post I wanted to follow up and show one example of a difference in output from commandlets in Exchange 2010 on-premises vs. Exchange Online.   Problem    The customer was interested in getting the size of mailboxes in GB.  For Exchange on-premises this is fairly easy.  A fellow PFE Gary Siepser wrote an article explaining how to accomplish this (click here).  Note that Gary’s script will not work when remoting from a local machine that doesn’t have the Exchange object model installed.  A similar type of scenario exists if you are executing PowerShell against Exchange Online.  The data type for TotalItemSize  being returned (ByteQuantifiedSize) exists in the Exchange namespace.  If the PowerShell session doesn’t have access to that namespace (or hasn’t loaded it) PowerShell works with an approximation of that data type.    The customer found a sample script on this TechNet article that they attempted to use (minor edits by me to fit on page and remove references to deleted item size.)   Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | Get-MailboxStatistics | Select DisplayName,StorageLimitStatus, ` @{name="TotalItemSize (MB)"; expression={[math]::Round( ` ($_.TotalItemSize.Split("(")[1].Split(" ")[0].Replace(",","")/1MB),2)}}, ` ItemCount | Sort "TotalItemSize (MB)" -Descending | Export-CSV "C:\My Documents\All Mailboxes.csv" -NoTypeInformation     The script is targeted to Exchange 2010 but fails for Exchange Online.  In Exchange Online when referencing the TotalItemSize property though it does not have a Split method which ultimately causes the script to fail.   Solution    A simple solution would be to add a call to the ToString method off of the TotalItemSize property (in bold on line 5 below).   Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | Get-MailboxStatistics | Select DisplayName,StorageLimitStatus, ` @{name="TotalItemSize (MB)"; expression={[math]::Round( ` ($_.TotalItemSize.ToString().Split("(")[1].Split(" ")[0].Replace(",","")/1MB),2)}}, ` ItemCount | Sort "TotalItemSize (MB)" -Descending | Export-CSV "C:\My Documents\All Mailboxes.csv" -NoTypeInformation      This fixes the script to run but the numerous string replacements and splits are an eye sore to me.  I attempted to simplify the string manipulation with a regular expression (more info on regular expressions in PowerShell click here).  The result is a workable script that does one nice feature of adding a new member to the mailbox statistics called TotalItemSizeInBytes.  With this member you can then convert into any byte level (KB, MB, GB, etc.) that suits your needs.  You can download the full version of this script below (includes commands to connect to Exchange Online session). $UserMailboxStats = Get-Mailbox -RecipientTypeDetails UserMailbox ` -ResultSize Unlimited | Get-MailboxStatistics $UserMailboxStats | Add-Member -MemberType ScriptProperty -Name TotalItemSizeInBytes ` -Value {$this.TotalItemSize -replace "(.*\()|,| [a-z]*\)", ""} $UserMailboxStats | Select-Object DisplayName,@{Name="TotalItemSize (GB)"; ` Expression={[math]::Round($_.TotalItemSizeInBytes/1GB,2)}}   Conclusion    Moving from on-premises to the cloud with PowerShell (and PowerShell remoting in general) can sometimes present some new challenges due to what you have access to.  This means that you must always test your code / scripts.  I still believe that not having to physically RDP to a server is a huge gain over some of the small hurdles you may encounter during the transition.  Scripting is the future of administration and makes you more valuable.  Hopefully this script and the concepts presented help you be a better admin / developer.         -Frog Out     Links The Get-MailboxStatistics Cmdlet, the TotalitemSize Property, and that pesky little “b” http://blogs.technet.com/b/gary/archive/2010/02/20/the-get-mailboxstatistics-cmdlet-the-totalitemsize-property-and-that-pesky-little-b.aspx   View Mailbox Sizes and Mailbox Quotas Using Windows PowerShell http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/exchangelabshelp/gg576861#ViewAllMailboxes   Regular Expressions with Windows PowerShell http://www.regular-expressions.info/powershell.html   “I don’t always test my code…” image http://blogs.pinkelephant.com/images/uploads/conferences/I-dont-always-test-my-code-But-when-I-do-I-do-it-in-production.jpg   The One Thing: Brian Jackett and SharePoint 2010 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg_h66HMP9o

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• SQL SERVER – Select the Most Optimal Backup Methods for Server

  - by pinaldave

  Backup and Restore are very interesting concepts and one should be very much with the concept if you are dealing with production database. One never knows when a natural disaster or user error will surface and the first thing everybody wants is to get back on point in time when things were all fine. Well, in this article I have attempted to answer a few of the common questions related to Backup methodology. How to Select a SQL Server Backup Type In order to select a proper SQL Server backup type, a SQL Server administrator needs to understand the difference between the major backup types clearly. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, let me offer it to you below. Select a Recovery Model First The very first question that you should ask yourself is: Can I afford to lose at least a little (15 min, 1 hour, 1 day) worth of data? Resist the temptation to save it all as it comes with the overhead – majority of businesses outside finances can actually afford to lose a bit of data. If your answer is YES, I can afford to lose some data – select a SIMPLE (default) recovery model in the properties of your database, otherwise you need to select a FULL recovery model. The additional advantage of the Full recovery model is that it allows you to restore the data to a specific point in time vs to only last backup time in the Simple recovery model, but it exceeds the scope of this article Backups in SIMPLE Recovery Model In SIMPLE recovery model you can select to do just Full backups or Full + Differential. Full Backup This is the simplest type of backup that contains all information needed to restore the database and should be your first choice. It is often sufficient for small databases, but note that it makes a big impact on the performance of your database Full + Differential Backup After Full, Differential backup picks up all of the changes since the last Full backup. This means if you made Full, Diff, Diff backup – the last Diff backup contains all of the changes and you don’t need the previous Differential backup. Differential backup is obviously smaller and carries less performance overhead Backups in FULL Recovery Model In FULL recovery model you can select Full + Transaction Log or Full + Differential + Transaction Log backup. You have to create Transaction Log backup, because at that time the log is being truncated. Otherwise your Transaction Log will grow uncontrollably. Full + Transaction Log Backup You would always need to perform a Full backup first. Then a series of Transaction log backup. Note that (in contrast to Differential) you need ALL transactions to log since the last Full of Diff backup to properly restore. Transaction log backups have the smallest performance overhead and can be performed often. Full + Differential + Transaction Log Backup If you want to ease the performance overhead on your server, you can replace some of the Full backup in the previous scenario with Differential. You restore scenario would start from Full, then the Last Differential, then all of the remaining transactions log backups Typical backup Scenarios You may say “Well, it is all nice – give me the examples now”. As you may already know, my favorite SQL backup software is SQLBackupAndFTP. If you go to Advanced Backup Schedule form in this program and click “Load a typical backup plan…” link, it will give you these scenarios that I think are quite common – see the image below. The Simplest Way to Schedule SQL Backups I hate to repeat myself, but backup scheduling in SQL agent leaves a lot to be desired. I do not know the simple way to schedule your SQL server backups than in SQLBackupAndFTP – see the image below. The whole backup scheduling with compression, encryption and upload to a Network Folder / HDD / NAS Drive / FTP / Dropbox / Google Drive / Amazon S3 takes just a few minutes – see my previous post for the review. Final Words This post offered an explanation for major backup types only. For more complicated scenarios or to research other options as usually go to MSDN. 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, Technology

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• My Tech Ed North America Preview - Certification Edition

  - by Chris Gardner

  In my previous TechEd North America Preview, I addressed all the content I wanted to see at the show. This time, we shall turn our attention to the certifications I might try to pick up. If you have never been to TechEd North America before, one of the greatest things about the event is an on-site certification center. If you have a couple hours to spare, you can walk up to a test. The first test on my agenda is 70-5231. I took this update test once, but did not do well on the MVC portion2. A few practice tests later, and I think I'm ready to fake that section. After that, I need to complete my road to being a master. The good folks here at work have been having a real love / hate relationship with the idea of me become an MCM in SQL Server3. Of course, before I do that, I need to finally take the SQL Administration tests. Thus, we shall add 70-4324 and 70-4505 to the list. Speaking of MCM, TechEd North America will have a special on test 88-9706. This test is normally $500, and you have to find a place to take it7. However, there is a special 50% off rate for people who take it on location. With those kind of prices, I may just take it as a form of study guide. As a final push, I may take some Windows Phone exams. I mentioned in my previous post that I may attend the 70-5998 Exam Cram session. Unfortunately, I will be staffing the Hands-On-Lab at that time. As we know, this has never stopped me from taking a test. This may lead to fits of 70-5069, but after we've come this far... That should complete my list. Do I really think I'll find time to take 6 tests at TechEd North America? Probably not. I have done it at TechEd North America before, but that was before I was TechEd North America staff. I also had a co-worker pass 9 in one year, but he basically did nothing but travel to Orlando in 2007 to take tests. And what's the point of attending a HUGE conference if you don't network? Of course, networking will have to wait for Friday's post... 1 Upgrade: Transition Your MCPD .NET Framework 3.5 Web Developer Skills to MCPD .NET Framework 4 Web Developer 2Because I never have used, nor do I really think I ever will use, MVC... 3By that, I mean they love the idea, and they hate the price 4Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Implementation and Maintenance 5PRO: Designing, Optimizing and Maintaining a Database Administrative Solution Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 6SQL Server 2008 Microsoft Certified Master: Knowledge Exam 7Which isn't nearly as expensive as the Lab Exam, nor as difficult to find a location. However, it is not offered at every testing facility. 8PRO: Designing and Developing Windows Phone Applications 9TS: Silverlight 4, Development

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• How can I retrieve the details of the file from an outbound operation in BPEL 11g

  - by [email protected]

  Several times, we come across requirements where we need to capture the details of the file that got written out as a part of a BPEL process invoking a File/Ftp Adapter. Consider a case where we're using FileNamingConvention as "PurchaseOrder_%SEQ%.txt" and we need to do some post processing based on the filename (please remember that we wouldn't know the filename until the adapter invocation completes) In order to achieve this, we need to manually tweak the WSDL so that the File/Ftp Adapter can return the metadata of the file that was written out. In general, the File/Ftp Write/Put WSDL operations are one way as shown below:         The File/Ftp Adapters are designed to return the metadata back if this WSDL is tweaked into a two-way WSDL. In addition, the <wsdl:output/> must import the fileread.xsd schema (see below). You will need to copy fileread.xsd from  here into the xsd folder of your composite.       Finally, we will need to tweak the  WSDL. (highlighted below)           Finally, the BPEL <invoke> would look as shown below. Please note that the file metadata would be returned as a part of the BPEL output variable:

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• How can a non-technical person learn to write a spec for small projects?

  - by Joseph Turian

  How can a non-technical person learn to write specs for small projects? A friend of mine is trying to outsource some development on a statistics project. In particular, he does a lot of work in excel, and wants to outsource the creation of scripts to do what he now does by hand. However, my friend is extremely non-technical. He is poor at writing technical specs. When he does write a spec, it is written the way you would describe doing something in excel (go to this cell and then copy the value to that cell). It is also overly verbose, and does examples several times. I'm not sure if he properly describes corner cases. The first project he outsourced was a failure. I think he overdescribed some details, but underdescribed corner cases. That and/or the coder he hired didn't think through the corner cases and ask appropriate questions. I'm not sure. I got on IM with him and it took me half an hour to dig out a description that should have taken five minutes or less to describe. I wrote the scripts for him at the end, but didn't examine why his process with the coder failed. He has asked me for help. However, I refuse to get involved, because taking his spec and translating it into clear requirements is 10x more work than executing on a clearly written spec. What is the right way for him to learn? Are there resources he could use? Are there ways he can learn from small, low-pressure practice projects with coders? Most of his scripts are statistical and data processing oriented. e.g. take this column and run an average over it. Remove these rows under these conditions. So the challenge is different than spec'ing a web app.

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• Silverlight Cream for June 01, 2010 -- #874

  - by Dave Campbell

  In this Issue: Michael Washington, Alan Beasley and Michael Washington, Miroslav Miroslavov, Max Paulousky, Teresa and Ronald Burger, Laurent Duveau, Tim Heuer, Jeff Brand, Mike Snow, and John Papa. Shoutouts: To pay homage to the Advanced Options button in Expression Blend, Adam Kinney posted: Expression Blend Advanced Options square wallpaper SilverLaw stood his drag and drop ripple on it's head for this one: Silver Soccer - A Case Study for the Flexible Surface Effect (Silverlight 4) From SilverlightCream.com: Expression Blend DataStore - A Powerful Tool For Designers Michael Washington dug into the documentation and with some Microsoft assistance has figured out how to use the SetDataStoreAction in SketchFlow... good tutorial and a game to demonstrate it's use. Windows Phone 7 View Model Style Video Player Alan Beasley and Michael Washington teamed up again to produce a ViewModel-Style Video Player for WP7 ... very nice interface I might add... very detailed tutorial and all the code... oh, and did you notice it uses MVVMLight... on WP7? ... just thought I'd mention that :) Navigation in 3D world of 2D objects In part 7 of the CompleteIT code explenation, Miroslav Miroslavov is discussing some of the very cool animation they did... 3D, moving camera... cool stuff! Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Silverlight Applications. Part 2 Max Paulousky has part 2 of his Silverlight 4 and SEO series up. In part 2 he's discussing sitemaps and html content providing. He also has good links showing where to submit your sitemaps and information. Mousin’ down the PathListBox Teresa and Ronald Burger (not sure which) has a post up about the PathListBox and how they drew the path that they ended up using, and the code used to enable animation. Dynamically apply and change Theme with the Silverlight Toolkit We've all had fun playing with themes, but Laurent Duveau has an example up of letting your users change the theme at run-time. Microsoft Translator client library for Silverlight Tim Heuer has been playing with the Microsoft Translator for Silverlight and he has a "Works on My Machine" license on what he's making available .. but considering his access to resources... I'd say go for it :) Custom Per-Page Transitions in Windows Phone 7 Jeff Brand has a follow-on to his other WP7 post about page transitions and is now discussing per-page transitions Silverlight Tip of the Day #26 – Changing the Startup Class Mike Snow's latest 'tip' is a little more involved than a tip ... changing the startup class and actually removing (in his example), the page and app classes... code and xaml! I've seen this before but never explained as clean... fun stuff. Behaviors in Blend 4 (Silverlight TV #30) Episode 30 of Silverlight TV (now a tag at Silverlight Cream) finds John Papa talking to Adam Kinney about Behaviors in Blend 4... not only using them but creating a custom one. 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

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• Oracle SOA Suite, the Most Capable Tool for Every Possible Integration Challenge

  - by Demed L'Her

  session ID: CON8601 - when: Monday, Oct. 1, 10:45am-11:45am - where: Moscone South 102 "Oracle SOA Suite, the Most Capable Tool for Every Possible Integration Challenge" is the name of the session I will be delivering at Oracle OpenWorld this year. I'm usually going for more subdued titles but decided to remove the gloves this year, at the risk of sounding arrogant! While we have a number of worthy competitors in various areas of integration no one can really compete with the breadth and reliability of Oracle SOA Suite. This session is primarily intended for people who are not yet familiar with Oracle SOA Suite (i.e. if you are an existing customer your time might be better spent at some of the other sessions we have on the topic). I will provide an overview of Oracle SOA Suite, the customers using it and the types of challenges they are solving with it: from integrating Oracle Applications (E-Business Suite, Siebel, PeopleSoft, RightNow, Taleo etc.) to third-party applications (did you know that over a third of our customers actually use us to integrate SAP?), mainframes and a variety of technologies. We will talk about some emerging trends and problems that our users are solving with the product: cloud integration, B2B consolidation and mobile-enablement. I will also briefly touch upon the exciting projects we are doing with Oracle Event Processing, in the domain of "Fast Data" and "Big Data". Last but not least, I will be joined on stage by Venktesh Maudgalya, Director at Electronic Arts. Venktesh will bring his customer perspective and explain how EA leveraged Oracle SOA Suite to implement iHub, the massive integration hub that interconnects all their applications (E-BusinessSuite, Hyperion, Demantra, Peoplesoft, Salesforce.com, Kronos, Teradata, GXS etc.) and carries 3/4 of their revenue flows. I just picked up my badge and will be kicking off the festivities tomorrow talking to partners in a pre-OOW briefing at the Oracle Headquarters - see you next week! PS: if you're going to tweet about Oracle SOA Suite next week please make sure to use the #oraclesoa and #oow hashtags so that we can track and amplify your tweets!

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• Fraud Detection with the SQL Server Suite Part 1

  - by Dejan Sarka

  While working on different fraud detection projects, I developed my own approach to the solution for this problem. In my PASS Summit 2013 session I am introducing this approach. I also wrote a whitepaper on the same topic, which was generously reviewed by my friend Matija Lah. In order to spread this knowledge faster, I am starting a series of blog posts which will at the end make the whole whitepaper. Abstract With the massive usage of credit cards and web applications for banking and payment processing, the number of fraudulent transactions is growing rapidly and on a global scale. Several fraud detection algorithms are available within a variety of different products. In this paper, we focus on using the Microsoft SQL Server suite for this purpose. In addition, we will explain our original approach to solving the problem by introducing a continuous learning procedure. Our preferred type of service is mentoring; it allows us to perform the work and consulting together with transferring the knowledge onto the customer, thus making it possible for a customer to continue to learn independently. This paper is based on practical experience with different projects covering online banking and credit card usage. Introduction A fraud is a criminal or deceptive activity with the intention of achieving financial or some other gain. Fraud can appear in multiple business areas. You can find a detailed overview of the business domains where fraud can take place in Sahin Y., & Duman E. (2011), Detecting Credit Card Fraud by Decision Trees and Support Vector Machines, Proceedings of the International MultiConference of Engineers and Computer Scientists 2011 Vol 1. Hong Kong: IMECS. Dealing with frauds includes fraud prevention and fraud detection. Fraud prevention is a proactive mechanism, which tries to disable frauds by using previous knowledge. Fraud detection is a reactive mechanism with the goal of detecting suspicious behavior when a fraudster surpasses the fraud prevention mechanism. A fraud detection mechanism checks every transaction and assigns a weight in terms of probability between 0 and 1 that represents a score for evaluating whether a transaction is fraudulent or not. A fraud detection mechanism cannot detect frauds with a probability of 100%; therefore, manual transaction checking must also be available. With fraud detection, this manual part can focus on the most suspicious transactions. This way, an unchanged number of supervisors can detect significantly more frauds than could be achieved with traditional methods of selecting which transactions to check, for example with random sampling. There are two principal data mining techniques available both in general data mining as well as in specific fraud detection techniques: supervised or directed and unsupervised or undirected. Supervised techniques or data mining models use previous knowledge. Typically, existing transactions are marked with a flag denoting whether a particular transaction is fraudulent or not. Customers at some point in time do report frauds, and the transactional system should be capable of accepting such a flag. Supervised data mining algorithms try to explain the value of this flag by using different input variables. When the patterns and rules that lead to frauds are learned through the model training process, they can be used for prediction of the fraud flag on new incoming transactions. Unsupervised techniques analyze data without prior knowledge, without the fraud flag; they try to find transactions which do not resemble other transactions, i.e. outliers. In both cases, there should be more frauds in the data set selected for checking by using the data mining knowledge compared to selecting the data set with simpler methods; this is known as the lift of a model. Typically, we compare the lift with random sampling. The supervised methods typically give a much better lift than the unsupervised ones. However, we must use the unsupervised ones when we do not have any previous knowledge. Furthermore, unsupervised methods are useful for controlling whether the supervised models are still efficient. Accuracy of the predictions drops over time. Patterns of credit card usage, for example, change over time. In addition, fraudsters continuously learn as well. Therefore, it is important to check the efficiency of the predictive models with the undirected ones. When the difference between the lift of the supervised models and the lift of the unsupervised models drops, it is time to refine the supervised models. However, the unsupervised models can become obsolete as well. It is also important to measure the overall efficiency of both, supervised and unsupervised models, over time. We can compare the number of predicted frauds with the total number of frauds that include predicted and reported occurrences. For measuring behavior across time, specific analytical databases called data warehouses (DW) and on-line analytical processing (OLAP) systems can be employed. By controlling the supervised models with unsupervised ones and by using an OLAP system or DW reports to control both, a continuous learning infrastructure can be established. There are many difficulties in developing a fraud detection system. As has already been mentioned, fraudsters continuously learn, and the patterns change. The exchange of experiences and ideas can be very limited due to privacy concerns. In addition, both data sets and results might be censored, as the companies generally do not want to publically expose actual fraudulent behaviors. Therefore it can be quite difficult if not impossible to cross-evaluate the models using data from different companies and different business areas. This fact stresses the importance of continuous learning even more. Finally, the number of frauds in the total number of transactions is small, typically much less than 1% of transactions is fraudulent. Some predictive data mining algorithms do not give good results when the target state is represented with a very low frequency. Data preparation techniques like oversampling and undersampling can help overcome the shortcomings of many algorithms. SQL Server suite includes all of the software required to create, deploy any maintain a fraud detection infrastructure. The Database Engine is the relational database management system (RDBMS), which supports all activity needed for data preparation and for data warehouses. SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) supports OLAP and data mining (in version 2012, you need to install SSAS in multidimensional and data mining mode; this was the only mode in previous versions of SSAS, while SSAS 2012 also supports the tabular mode, which does not include data mining). Additional products from the suite can be useful as well. SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) is a tool for developing extract transform–load (ETL) applications. SSIS is typically used for loading a DW, and in addition, it can use SSAS data mining models for building intelligent data flows. SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) is useful for presenting the results in a variety of reports. Data Quality Services (DQS) mitigate the occasional data cleansing process by maintaining a knowledge base. Master Data Services is an application that helps companies maintaining a central, authoritative source of their master data, i.e. the most important data to any organization. For an overview of the SQL Server business intelligence (BI) part of the suite that includes Database Engine, SSAS and SSRS, please refer to Veerman E., Lachev T., & Sarka D. (2009). MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-448): Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance. MS Press. For an overview of the enterprise information management (EIM) part that includes SSIS, DQS and MDS, please refer to Sarka D., Lah M., & Jerkic G. (2012). Training Kit (Exam 70-463): Implementing a Data Warehouse with Microsoft® SQL Server® 2012. O'Reilly. For details about SSAS data mining, please refer to MacLennan J., Tang Z., & Crivat B. (2009). Data Mining with Microsoft SQL Server 2008. Wiley. SQL Server Data Mining Add-ins for Office, a free download for Office versions 2007, 2010 and 2013, bring the power of data mining to Excel, enabling advanced analytics in Excel. Together with PowerPivot for Excel, which is also freely downloadable and can be used in Excel 2010, is already included in Excel 2013. It brings OLAP functionalities directly into Excel, making it possible for an advanced analyst to build a complete learning infrastructure using a familiar tool. This way, many more people, including employees in subsidiaries, can contribute to the learning process by examining local transactions and quickly identifying new patterns.

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• Lost in Translation – Common Mistakes Interpreting Patterns – Mark Simpson, Griffiths-Waite @ SOA, Cloud & Service Technology Symposium 2012

  - by JuergenKress

  ORACLE PROMOTIONAL DISCOUNT FOR EXCLUSIVE ORACLE DISCOUNT, ENTER PROMO CODE: DJMXZ370 For details please visit the registration page International SOA, Cloud + Service Technology Symposium is a yearly event that features the top experts and authors from around the world, providing a series of keynotes, talks, demonstrations, and panels, as well as training and certification workshops - all dedicated to empowering IT professionals to realize modern service technologies and practices in the real world. Click here for a two-page printable conference overview (PDF). Speaker: Mark Simpson, Griffiths-Waite Mark has been specialising in Oracle technology for 13 years, the last 10 of these with Griffiths Waite. Mark leads our SOA technology practice (covering SOA, Business Process Management and Enterprise Architecture). He is a much sought after presenter on the Oracle and SOA conference circuits, and a respected authority on these technologies. Mark has advised a host of UK leading organisations on the deployment of BPM / SOA solutions. Working closely with Oracle US Product Development Mark has contributed to Oracle's SOA Methodology and Oracle's SOA Maturity Model. Lost in Translation – Common Mistakes Interpreting Patterns Learn how small misinterpretations of high-level design patterns can have large and costly project ramifications. Good SOA design benefits from the use of a reference architecture and standardised design patterns. However both of these concepts give an abstracted view of the intended solution, which needs to be interpreted to become realised. A reference implementation is important to demonstrate how key design guidelines can be implemented in the toolset of choice, but the main success factor is how these are used through the build and post live phases of the project. This session will introduce practical design patterns with supporting implementation examples that, if used correctly, will give long term benefit. We will highlight implementations where misinterpretations or misalignment from pattern aims have led to issues post implementation. The session will add depth to the pattern discussions you are already having enabling confidence in proceeding to the next level of realisation whilst considering how they may be implemented within your solution and chosen toolset. September 25, 2012 - 13:55 KEYNOTES & SPEAKERS More than 80 international subject matter experts will be speaking at the Symposium. Below are confirmed keynotes and speakers so far. Over 50% of the agenda has not yet been finalized. Many more speakers to come. View the partial program calendars on the Conference Agenda page. CONFERENCE THEMES & TRACKS Cloud Computing Architecture & Patterns New SOA & Service-Orientation Practices & Models Emerging Service Technology Innovation Service Modeling & Analysis Techniques Service Infrastructure & Virtualization Cloud-based Enterprise Architecture Business Planning for Cloud Computing Projects Real World Case Studies Semantic Web Technologies (with & without the Cloud) Governance Frameworks for SOA and/or Cloud Computing Projects Service Engineering & Service Programming Techniques Interactive Services & the Human Factor New REST & Web Services Tools & Techniques Oracle Specialized SOA & BPM Partners Oracle Specialized partners have proven their skills by certifications and customer references. To find a local Specialized partner please visit http://solutions.oracle.com SOA & BPM Partner Community For regular information on Oracle SOA Suite become a member in the SOA & BPM Partner Community for registration please visit  www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa (OPN account required) If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center. Blog Twitter LinkedIn Mix Forum Technorati Tags: Mark Simpson,Griffiths Waite,SOA Patterns,SOA Symposium,Thomas Erl,SOA Community,Oracle SOA,Oracle BPM,BPM,Community,OPN,Jürgen Kress

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• SQL SERVER – BACKUPIO, BACKUPBUFFER – Wait Type – Day 14 of 28

  - by pinaldave

  Backup is the most important task for any database admin. Your data is at risk if you are not performing database backup. Honestly, I have seen many DBAs who know how to take backups but do not know how to restore it. (Sigh!) In this blog post we are going to discuss about one of my real experiences with one of my clients – BACKUPIO. When I started to deal with it, I really had no idea how to fix the issue. However, after fixing it at two places, I think I know why this is happening but at the same time, I am not sure the fix is the best solution. The reality is that the fix is not a solution but a workaround (which is not optimal, but get your things done). From Book On-Line: BACKUPIO Occurs when a backup task is waiting for data, or is waiting for a buffer in which to store data. This type is not typical, except when a task is waiting for a tape mount. BACKUPBUFFER Occurs when a backup task is waiting for data, or is waiting for a buffer in which to store data. This type is not typical, except when a task is waiting for a tape mount. BACKUPIO and BACKUPBUFFER Explanation: This wait stats will occur when you are taking the backup on the tape or any other extremely slow backup system. Reducing BACKUPIO and BACKUPBUFFER wait: In my recent consultancy, backup on tape was very slow probably because the tape system was very old. During the time when I explained this wait type reason in the consultancy, the owners immediately decided to replace the tape drive with an alternate system. They had a small SAN enclosure not being used on side, which they decided to re-purpose. After a week, I had received an email from their DBA, saying that the wait stats have reduced drastically. At another location, my client was using a third party tool (please don’t ask me the name of the tool) to take backup. This tool was compressing the backup along with taking backup. I have had a very good experience with this tool almost all the time except this one sparse experience. When I tried to take backup using the native SQL Server compressed backup, there was a very small value on this wait type and the backup was much faster. However, when I attempted with the third party backup tool, this value was very high again and was taking much more time. The third party tool had many other features but the client was not using these features. We end up using the native SQL Server Compressed backup and it worked very well. If I get to see this higher in my future consultancy, I will try to understand this wait type much more in detail and so probably I would able to come to some solid solution. Read all the post in the Wait Types and Queue series. Note: The information presented here is from my experience and there is no way that I claim it to be accurate. I suggest reading Book OnLine for further clarification. All the discussion of Wait Stats in this blog is generic and varies from system to system. It is recommended that you test this on a development server before implementing it to a production server. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL Wait Stats, SQL Wait Types, T SQL, Technology

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• Handy SQL Server Functions Series (HSSFS) Part 2.0 - Prelude to Parsing Patterns Properly

  - by Most Valuable Yak (Rob Volk)

  In Part 1 of the series I wrote about 2 lesser-known and somewhat undocumented functions. In this part, I'm going to cover some familiar string functions like Substring(), Parsename(), Patindex(), and Charindex() and delve into their strengths and weaknesses. I'm also splitting this part up into sub-parts to help focus on a particular technique and/or problem with the technique, hence the Part 2.0. Consider this a composite post, or com-post, if you will. (It may just turn out to be a pile of sh_t after all) I'll be using a contrived example, perhaps the most frustratingly useful, or usefully frustrating, function in SQL Server: @@VERSION. Contrived, because there are better ways to get the information (which I'll cover later); frustrating, because of the way Microsoft formatted the value; and useful because it does have 1 or 2 bits of information not found elsewhere. First let's take a look at the output of @@VERSION: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 (RTM) - 10.50.1600.1 (Intel X86) Apr 2 2010 15:53:02 Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation Developer Edition on Windows NT 5.1 <X86> (Build 2600: Service Pack 3) There are 4 lines, with lines 2-4 indented with a tab character.  In case your browser (or this blog software) doesn't show it correctly, I gave each line a different color.  While this PRINTs nicely, if you SELECT @@VERSION in grid mode it all runs together because it ignores carriage return/line feed (CR/LF) characters.  Not fatal, but annoying. Note that @@VERSION's output will vary depending on edition and version of SQL Server, and also the OS it's installed on.  Despite the differences, the output is laid out the same way and the relevant pieces are in the same order. I'll be using the following view for Parts 2.1 onward, so we have a nice collection of @@VERSION information: create view version(SQLVersion,VersionString) AS ( select 2000, 'Microsoft SQL Server 2000 - 8.00.2055 (Intel X86) Dec 16 2008 19:46:53 Copyright (c) 1988-2003 Microsoft Corporation Developer Edition on Windows NT 5.1 (Build 2600: Service Pack 3)' union all select 2005, 'Microsoft SQL Server 2005 - 9.00.4053.00 (Intel X86) May 26 2009 14:24:20 Copyright (c) 1988-2005 Microsoft Corporation Developer Edition on Windows NT 5.1 (Build 2600: Service Pack 3)' union all select 2008, 'Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 (RTM) - 10.50.1600.1 (Intel X86) Apr 2 2010 15:53:02 Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation Developer Edition on Windows NT 5.1 <X86> (Build 2600: Service Pack 3)' union all select 2005, 'Microsoft SQL Server 2005 - 9.00.3080.00 (Intel X86) Sep 6 2009 01:43:32 Copyright (c) 1988-2005 Microsoft Corporation Standard Edition on Windows NT 5.2 (Build 3790: Service Pack 2)' union all select 2008, 'Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 (RTM) - 10.50.1600.1 (X64) Apr 2 2010 15:48:46 Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation Developer Edition (64-bit) on Windows NT 6.1 <X64> (Build 7600: ) (Hypervisor)' union all select 2008, 'Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 (RTM) - 10.50.1600.1 (X64) Apr 2 2010 15:48:46 Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation Express Edition with Advanced Services (64-bit) on Windows NT 6.1 <X64> (Build 7600: ) (Hypervisor)' ) Feel free to add your own @@VERSION info if it's not already there. In Part 2.1 I'll focus on extracting the SQL Server version number (10.50.1600.1 in first example) and the Edition (Developer), but will have a solution that works with all versions.  Stay tuned!

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