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  • Collect consumers' information

    - by Yongwei Xing
    Hi all When we install some applications in Winodws, we would get a dialog ask us if we want to attend the some consumer program, and send some system/applcation information to the company. Or when the Window server meets failure, it would also send error report to MS. I want to know, how can a application send information from client to report? Best Regards,

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  • What happens when a consumer switch receives a VLAN-tagged Ethernet frame?

    - by netvope
    Suppose you connect a trunk port from a VLAN capable network switch to a (VLAN incapable) consumer-grade network switch via a direct cable. Now the former switch send the later switch a 802.1Q-tagged Ethernet frame. What should the later switch do? Drop the frame? Forward the frame? Undefined behavior? If the behavior is undefined, what is most probable? Edit: Thank you for your answers. To summarize, the behavior of the consumer switch depends on: How it handles frames with 0x8100 in the EtherType field1 How it handles jumbo frames, or frames with payload larger than 1500 bytes Wikipedia has a nice diagram comparing an untagged and a tagged Ethernet frame: There are reports that some consumer-grade switches pass VLAN-tagged frames just fine. 1 or more precisely, where an EtherType field is expected for non-tagged frames

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  • Attend This Webcast To Learn How CG Manufacturers Are Stepping Up Their Efforts to Sell to Consumers

    - by Michael Hylton
    Going Direct to Consumer is top of mind with executives in the Consumer Goods (CG) industry today. But are companies ready to engage? Recently, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) conducted research sponsored by Oracle to better understand how Consumer Goods companies are engaging directly with consumers today and in the future. The survey involved CG executives across the globe as well as in-depth interviews with corporate leaders in the industry to explore their direct-to-consumer initiatives. Some key findings include: Pushing traditional media through new media channels is not enough to reach today's more plugged in, product-savvy consumer  CG companies are experimenting with new ways to establish and enhance direct, two-way relationships with their target consumers across multiple channels to enhance brand loyalty and drive product sales Survey respondents and other CG executives see their nascent e-commerce efforts as complimentary to, not competing with, existing retail channels. This webinar will review the results of the research and panelists will discuss what CG companies worldwide are thinking as they deploy their direct-to-consumer strategies in an effort to engage directly with today's empowered consumer.

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  • Attend This Webcast To Learn How CG Manufacturers Are Stepping Up Their Efforts to Sell to Consumers

    - by Michael Hylton
    Going Direct to Consumer is top of mind with executives in the Consumer Goods (CG) industry today. But are companies ready to engage? Recently, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) conducted research sponsored by Oracle to better understand how Consumer Goods companies are engaging directly with consumers today and in the future. The survey involved CG executives across the globe as well as in-depth interviews with corporate leaders in the industry to explore their direct-to-consumer initiatives. Some key findings include: Pushing traditional media through new media channels is not enough to reach today's more plugged in, product-savvy consumer CG companies are experimenting with new ways to establish and enhance direct, two-way relationships with their target consumers across multiple channels to enhance brand loyalty and drive product sales Survey respondents and other CG executives see their nascent e-commerce efforts as complimentary to, not competing with, existing retail channels. This webinar will review the results of the research and panelists will discuss what CG companies worldwide are thinking as they deploy their direct-to-consumer strategies in an effort to engage directly with today's empowered consumer.

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  • "The usage of semaphores is subtly wrong"

    - by Hoonose
    This past semester I was taking an OS practicum in C, in which the first project involved making a threads package, then writing a multiple producer-consumer program to demonstrate the functionality. However, after getting grading feedback, I lost points for "The usage of semaphores is subtly wrong" and "The program assumes preemption (e.g. uses yield to change control)" (We started with a non-preemptive threads package then added preemption later. Note that the comment and example contradict each other. I believe it doesn't assume either, and would work in both environments). This has been bugging me for a long time - the course staff was kind of overwhelmed, so I couldn't ask them what's wrong with this over the semester. I've spent a long time thinking about this and I can't see the issues. If anyone could take a look and point out the error, or reassure me that there actually isn't a problem, I'd really appreciate it. I believe the syntax should be pretty standard in terms of the thread package functions (minithreads and semaphores), but let me know if anything is confusing. #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include "minithread.h" #include "synch.h" #define BUFFER_SIZE 16 #define MAXCOUNT 100 int buffer[BUFFER_SIZE]; int size, head, tail; int count = 1; int out = 0; int toadd = 0; int toremove = 0; semaphore_t empty; semaphore_t full; semaphore_t count_lock; // Semaphore to keep a lock on the // global variables for maintaining the counts /* Method to handle the working of a student * The ID of a student is the corresponding minithread_id */ int student(int total_burgers) { int n, i; semaphore_P(count_lock); while ((out+toremove) < arg) { n = genintrand(BUFFER_SIZE); n = (n <= total_burgers - (out + toremove)) ? n : total_burgers - (out + toremove); printf("Student %d wants to get %d burgers ...\n", minithread_id(), n); toremove += n; semaphore_V(count_lock); for (i=0; i<n; i++) { semaphore_P(empty); out = buffer[tail]; printf("Student %d is taking burger %d.\n", minithread_id(), out); tail = (tail + 1) % BUFFER_SIZE; size--; toremove--; semaphore_V(full); } semaphore_P(count_lock); } semaphore_V(count_lock); printf("Student %d is done.\n", minithread_id()); return 0; } /* Method to handle the working of a cook * The ID of a cook is the corresponding minithread_id */ int cook(int total_burgers) { int n, i; printf("Creating Cook %d\n",minithread_id()); semaphore_P(count_lock); while ((count+toadd) <= arg) { n = genintrand(BUFFER_SIZE); n = (n <= total_burgers - (count + toadd) + 1) ? n : total_burgers - (count + toadd) + 1; printf("Cook %d wants to put %d burgers into the burger stack ...\n", minithread_id(),n); toadd += n; semaphore_V(count_lock); for (i=0; i<n; i++) { semaphore_P(full); printf("Cook %d is putting burger %d into the burger stack.\n", minithread_id(), count); buffer[head] = count++; head = (head + 1) % BUFFER_SIZE; size++; toadd--; semaphore_V(empty); } semaphore_P(count_lock); } semaphore_V(count_lock); printf("Cook %d is done.\n", minithread_id()); return 0; } /* Method to create our multiple producers and consumers * and start their respective threads by fork */ void starter(int* c){ int i; for (i=0;i<c[2];i++){ minithread_fork(cook, c[0]); } for (i=0;i<c[1];i++){ minithread_fork(student, c[0]); } } /* The arguments are passed as command line parameters * argv[1] is the no of students * argv[2] is the no of cooks */ void main(int argc, char *argv[]) { int pass_args[3]; pass_args[0] = MAXCOUNT; pass_args[1] = atoi(argv[1]); pass_args[2] = atoi(argv[2]); size = head = tail = 0; empty = semaphore_create(); semaphore_initialize(empty, 0); full = semaphore_create(); semaphore_initialize(full, BUFFER_SIZE); count_lock = semaphore_create(); semaphore_initialize(count_lock, 1); minithread_system_initialize(starter, pass_args); }

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  • What was the first consumer-oriented hardware/software solution?

    - by Maksee
    We all know the story of the personal computer as a consumer-oriented product. But I just thought that real end user solution should have appeared before that time. So a product that was probably expensive, but allowed using it as a service charging for it, for example computer-terminal for transport time-table access or game machine. On the other site, the video terminals as we know them appeared not so long ago. So if there was something like this, this could be hardware/software most likely offering no interactivity, but probably printing some information based on user actions.

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  • Using an actor model versus a producer-consumer model?

    - by hewhocutsdown
    I'm doing some early-stage research towards architecting a new software application. Concurrency and multithreading will likely play a significant part, so I've been reading up on the various topics. The producer-consumer model, at least how it is expressed in Java, has some surface similarities but appears to be deeply dissimilar to the actor model in use with languages such as Erlang and Scala. I'm having trouble finding any good comparative data, or specific reasons to use or avoid the one or the other. Is the actor model even possible with Java or C#, or do you have do use one of the languages built for the purpose? Is there a third way?

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  • Le SDK Windows Phone 7.1.1 est disponible avec une prise en charge de Tango et de la Consumer Preview de Windows 8

    Le SDK Windows Phone 7.1.1 disponible avec une prise en charge de Tango et de la Consumer Preview de Windows 8 Le SDK Windows Phone 7.1.1 est disponible en version finale et permettra principalement aux développeurs pour l'OS mobile de Microsoft de faire deux choses : cibler la mise à jour Windows Phone Tango ou Refresh et travailler avec le SDK sur les ordinateurs Windows 8. Cette mise à jour du SDK Windows Phone 7.1 apporte juste quelques nouveautés au SDK Windows Phone existant pour la conception des applications optimisées pour les dispositifs bas de gamme ayant de faibles ressources. Ainsi, le SDK installe un patch pour Visual Studio, permettant de sélectionner et de ...

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  • What causes Windows 8 Consumer Preview to lock-up / freeze / hang in Oracle VM VirtualBox?

    - by Zack Peterson
    I've installed Windows 8 Consumer Preview to a virtual machine using Oracle VM VirtualBox (4.1.14). It works well except for occasional temporary lock-up / freeze / hang interruptions. It will freeze for about a minute and then resume like normal for several more minutes before freezing again. Host Windows 7 Professional 64-bit 16 GB RAM Intel Core i7 (quad core, hyper threading, virtualization) CPU Guest Windows 8 Consumer Preview 64-bit 2 GB RAM 2 CPUs How should I configure VirtualBox to run Windows 8 well?

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  • Wacom consumer tablet driver service may crash while opening Bamboo Preferences, often after resuming computer from sleep

    - by DragonLord
    One of the ExpressKeys on my Wacom Bamboo Capture graphics tablet is mapped to Bamboo Preferences, so that I can quickly access the tablet settings and view the battery level (I have the Wireless Accessory Kit installed). However, when I connect the tablet to the computer, in wired or wireless mode, and attempt to open Bamboo Preferences, the Wacom consumer tablet driver service may crash, most often when I try to do so after resuming the computer from sleep. There is usually no direct indication of the crash (although I once did get Tablet Service for consumer driver stopped working and was closed), only that the cursor shows that the system is busy for a split second. When this happens, the pen no longer tracks on the screen when in proximity of the tablet (even though it is detected by the tablet itself); however, touch continues to function correctly. To recover from this condition, I need to restart the tablet driver services. I got tired of having to go through Task Manager to restart the service every time this happens, so I ended up writing the following command script, with a shortcut on the desktop for running it with elevated privileges: net stop TabletServicePen net start TabletServicePen net stop TouchServicePen net start TouchServicePen Is there something I can do to prevent these crashes from happening in the first place, or do I have have to deal with this issue until the driver is updated? Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. Tablet drivers are up to date. Technical details Action Center gives the following details about the crash in Reliability Monitor: Source Tablet Service for consumer driver Summary Stopped working Date ?10/?15/?2012 2:48 PM Status Report sent Description Faulting Application Path: C:\Program Files\Tablet\Pen\Pen_Tablet.exe Problem signature Problem Event Name: APPCRASH Application Name: Pen_Tablet.exe Application Version: 5.2.5.5 Application Timestamp: 4e694ecd Fault Module Name: Pen_Tablet.exe Fault Module Version: 5.2.5.5 Fault Module Timestamp: 4e694ecd Exception Code: c0000005 Exception Offset: 00000000002f6cde OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3 Locale ID: 1033 Additional Information 1: 9d4f Additional Information 2: 9d4f1c8d2c16a5d47e28521ff719cfba Additional Information 3: 375e Additional Information 4: 375ebb9963823eb7e450696f2abb66cc Extra information about the problem Bucket ID: 45598085 Exception code 0xC0000005 means STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION. The event log contains essentially the same information.

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  • Windows 8 "Upgrade Offer" eligibilty when running the Consumer Preview in a VM?

    - by Dan Harris
    If I have a VM running Windows 8 Consumer/Release Preview, am I allowed to take advantage of the Windows 8 upgrade offer, and install it on that machine? I would have assumed not...as there was never a licensed version of XP SP3 through to Windows 7 installed in that VM. It was a clean installation of the Consumer Preview into a VM. My confusion comes from the notes at the bottom of the download page for the Upgrade offer which states: Offer valid from October 26, 2012 until January 31, 2013 and is for individuals and small businesses needing to upgrade up to five devices. If you are a business customer looking to upgrade more than five devices to Windows 8 Pro, contact your Microsoft partner for more information. To install Windows 8 Pro, customers must be running Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 Consumer Preview, or Windows 8 Release Preview. I am assuming it's not possible and i'll need to purchase the System Builder edition to install within a VM? My guess is that you can use your downloaded upgrade offer only if you updated Windows 7 to the release preview, and therefore had the Windows 7 license on the machine, I used the serial number from the Microsoft Website when downloading the Release Preview, and did a clean install, so there was never a Windows 7 license on the VM. I have MSDN for development purposes, but I am looking to run in a VM for personal use as well, so my MSDN license is not valid for that particular use.

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  • Simple electric DC question. Currency consumption

    - by Bobb
    Suppose you have DC power supply and a consumer connected to it (i.e. computer PSU and a hard drive). Suppose PSU which was supplied with the consumer has output 5V 1A. So I assume that the consumer should not consume more than 1A. Suppose the original PSU is broken now and I want to replace it with the one I have which is 5V 10A. My guess is that current is something which depends on the consumer. So if the consumer consumes normally 1A then it will not consume more than that even if it is connected to 10A PSU. In other word - am I right assuming that the consumer will not burn out being connected to a power supply with higher current output? P.S. my understanding is that voltage is something independent from the consumer. If you give it higher voltage it will burn (voltage is from PSU to the consumer). However current must be in opposite - consumer sucks as much current as it need not as much as PSU can provide (of course given that max PSU current is greater than the consumer needs)

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  • Simple electric DC question. Current consumption

    - by Bobb
    Suppose you have DC power supply and a consumer connected to it (i.e. computer PSU and a hard drive). Suppose PSU which was supplied with the consumer has output 5V 1A. So I assume that the consumer should not consume more than 1A. Suppose the original PSU is broken now and I want to replace it with the one I have which is 5V 10A. My guess is that current is something which depends on the consumer. So if the consumer consumes normally 1A then it will not consume more than that even if it is connected to 10A PSU. In other word - am I right assuming that the consumer will not burn out being connected to a power supply with higher current output? P.S. my understanding is that voltage is something independent from the consumer. If you give it higher voltage it will burn (voltage is from PSU to the consumer). However current must be in opposite - consumer sucks as much current as it need not as much as PSU can provide (of course given that max PSU current is greater than the consumer needs)

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  • How to make the jump from consumer support to enterprise support?

    - by Zac Cramer
    I am currently a high level consumer break/fix technician responsible for about 300-400 repairs a month. I am good at my job, but bored, and I want to move into the enterprise side of my company, dealing with Server 2008 R2 and exchange and switches and routers that cost more than I make in a month. How do I make this transition? Whats the best thing to learn first? Is there a standard trajectory for making this leap from consumer to business? I am full time employed, so going back to school is not a great option, but I have no life, so spending my nights and weekends reading and practicing is totally within my realm. I am basically overwhelmed by the number of things to learn, and looking for any advice you may have on the best way to proceed. PS - I apologize if this is a not quite the right forum for this, I know its not a technical question exactly, but I also know the sorts of people I want to answer this question are reading this website.

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  • Why are the prices for broadband bandwidth at data centers much higher than consumer/small business offerings?

    - by odemarken
    The prices for broadband bandwidth at data centers are sometimes as much as 10x higher than for a typical small business/consumer connection, at least where I live. Now, I understand those are two differend kind of products, but what exactly are the differences? Is it mainly because the bandwidth you get at a data center is guaranteed (CIR), while a consumer offer lists maximal bandwidth (EIR/MIR)? Or are there other factors as well? (Note: my previous, much more specific question on the same general topic was closed as not constructive. I tried to extract the core issue and present it in a way that can be answered objectively. If you feel that this question is still bad and should be closed, please care to comment and explain why.)

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  • What is the absolute fastest way to implement a concurrent queue with ONLY one consumer and one producer?

    - by JohnPristine
    java.util.concurrent.ConcurrentLinkedQueue comes to mind, but is it really optimum for this two-thread scenario? I am looking for the minimum latency possible on both sides (producer and consumer). If the queue is empty you can immediately return null AND if the queue is full you can immediately discard the entry you are offering. Does ConcurrentLinkedQueue use super fast and light locks (AtomicBoolean) ? Has anyone benchmarked ConcurrentLinkedQueue or knows about the ultimate fastest way of doing that? Additional Details: I imagine the queue should be a fair one, meaning the consumer should not make the consumer wait any longer than it needs (by front-running it) and vice-versa.

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  • The future for Microsoft

    - by Scott Dorman
    Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/sdorman/archive/2013/10/16/the-future-for-microsoft.aspxMicrosoft is in the process of reinventing itself. While some may argue that it’s “too little, too late” or that their growing consumer-focused strategy is wrong, the truth of the situation is that Microsoft is reinventing itself into a new company. While Microsoft is now calling themselves a “devices and services” company, that’s not entirely accurate. Let’s look at some facts: Microsoft will always (for the long-term foreseeable future) be financially split into the following divisions: Windows/Operating Systems, which for FY13 made up approximately 24% of overall revenue. Server and Tools, which for FY13 made up approximately 26% of overall revenue. Enterprise/Business Products, which for FY13 made up approximately 32% of overall revenue. Entertainment and Devices, which for FY13 made up approximately 13% of overall revenue. Online Services, which for FY13 made up approximately 4% of overall revenue. It is important to realize that hardware products like the Surface fall under the Windows/Operating Systems division while products like the Xbox 360 fall under the Entertainment and Devices division. (Presumably other hardware, such as mice, keyboards, and cameras, also fall under the Entertainment and Devices division.) It’s also unclear where Microsoft’s recent acquisition of Nokia’s handset division will fall, but let’s assume that it will be under Entertainment and Devices as well. Now, for the sake of argument, let’s assume a slightly different structure that I think is more in line with how Microsoft presents itself and how the general public sees it: Consumer Products and Devices, which would probably make up approximately 9% of overall revenue. Developer Tools, which would probably make up approximately 13% of overall revenue. Enterprise Products and Devices, which would probably make up approximately 47% of overall revenue. Entertainment, which would probably make up approximately 13% of overall revenue. Online Services, which would probably make up approximately 17% of overall revenue. (Just so we’re clear, in this structure hardware products like the Surface, a portion of Windows sales, and other hardware fall under the Consumer Products and Devices division. I’m assuming that more of the income for the Windows division is coming from enterprise/volume licenses so 15% of that income went to the Enterprise Products and Devices division. Most of the enterprise services, like Azure, fall under the Online Services division so half of the Server and Tools income went there as well.) No matter how you look at it, the bulk of Microsoft’s income still comes from not just the enterprise but also software sales, and this really shouldn’t surprise anyone. So, now that the stage is set…what’s the future for Microsoft? The future I see for Microsoft (again, this is just my prediction based on my own instinct, gut-feel and publicly available information) is this: Microsoft is becoming a consumer-focused enterprise company. Let’s look at it a different way. Microsoft is an enterprise-focused company trying to create a larger consumer presence.  To a large extent, this is the exact opposite of Apple, who is really a consumer-focused company trying to create a larger enterprise presence. The major reason consumer-focused companies (like Apple) have started making in-roads into the enterprise is the “bring your own device” phenomenon. Yes, Apple has created some “game-changing” products but their enterprise influence is still relatively small. Unfortunately (for this blog post at least), Apple provides revenue in terms of hardware products rather than business divisions, so it’s not possible to do a direct comparison. However, in the interest of transparency, from Apple’s Quarterly Report (filed 24 July 2013), their revenue breakdown is: iPhone, which for the 3 months ending 29 June 2013 made up approximately 51% of revenue. iPad, which for the 3 months ending 29 June 2013 made up approximately 18% of revenue. Mac, which for the 3 months ending 29 June 2013 made up approximately 14% of revenue. iPod, which for the 3 months ending 29 June 2013 made up approximately 2% of revenue. iTunes, Software, and Services, which for the 3 months ending 29 June 2013 made up approximately 11% of revenue. Accessories, which for the 3 months ending 29 July 2013 made up approximately 3% of revenue. From this, it’s pretty clear that Apple is a consumer-and-hardware-focused company. At this point, you may be asking yourself “Where is all of this going?” The answer to that lies in Microsoft’s shift in company focus. They are becoming more consumer focused, but what exactly does that mean? The biggest change (at least that’s been in the news lately) is the pending purchase of Nokia’s handset division. This, in combination with their Surface line of tablets and the Xbox, will put Microsoft squarely in the realm of a hardware-focused company in addition to being a software-focused company. That can (and most likely will) shift the revenue split to looking at revenue based on software sales (both consumer and enterprise) and also hardware sales (mostly on the consumer side). If we look at things strictly from a Windows perspective, Microsoft clearly has a lot of irons in the fire at the moment. Discounting the various product SKUs available and painting the picture with broader strokes, there are currently 5 different Windows-based operating systems: Windows Phone Windows Phone 7.x, which runs on top of the Windows CE kernel Windows Phone 8.x+, which runs on top of the Windows 8 kernel Windows RT The ARM-based version of Windows 8, which runs on top of the Windows 8 kernel Windows (Pro) The Intel-based version of Windows 8, which runs on top of the Windows 8 kernel Xbox The Xbox 360, which runs it’s own proprietary OS. The Xbox One, which runs it’s own proprietary OS, a version of Windows running on top of the Windows 8 kernel and a proprietary “manager” OS which manages the other two. Over time, Windows Phone 7.x devices will fade so that really leaves 4 different versions. Looking at Windows RT and Windows Phone 8.x paints an interesting story. Right now, all mobile phone devices run on some sort of ARM chip and that doesn’t look like it will change any time soon. That means Microsoft has two different Windows based operating systems for the ARM platform. Long term, it doesn’t make sense for Microsoft to continue supporting that arrangement. I have long suspected (since the Surface was first announced) that Microsoft will unify these two variants of Windows and recent speculation from some of the leading Microsoft watchers lends credence to this suspicion. It is rumored that upcoming Windows Phone releases will include support for larger screen sizes, relax the requirement to have a hardware-based back button and will continue to improve API parity between Windows Phone and Windows RT. At the same time, Windows RT will include support for smaller screen sizes. Since both of these operating systems are based on the same core Windows kernel, it makes sense (both from a financial and development resource perspective) for Microsoft to unify them. The user interfaces are already very similar. So similar in fact, that visually it’s difficult to tell them apart. To illustrate this, here are two screen captures: Other than a few variations (the Bing News app, the picture shown in the Pictures tile and the spacing between the tiles) these are identical. The one on the left is from my Windows 8.1 laptop (which looks the same as on my Surface RT) and the one on the right is from my Windows Phone 8 Lumia 925. This pretty clearly shows that from a consumer perspective, there really is no practical difference between how these two operating systems look and how you interact with them. For the consumer, your entertainment device (Xbox One), phone (Windows Phone) and mobile computing device (Surface [or some other vendors tablet], laptop, netbook or ultrabook) and your desktop computing device (desktop) will all look and feel the same. While many people will denounce this consistency of user experience, I think this will be a good thing in the long term, especially for the upcoming generations. For example, my 5-year old son knows how to use my tablet, phone and Xbox because they all feature nearly identical user experiences. When Windows 8 was released, Microsoft allowed a Windows Store app to be purchased once and installed on as many as 5 devices. With Windows 8.1, this limit has been increased to over 50. Why is that important? If you consider that your phone, computing devices, and entertainment device will be running the same operating system (with minor differences related to physical hardware chipset), that means that I could potentially purchase my sons favorite Angry Birds game once and be able to install it on all of the devices I own. (And for those of you wondering, it’s only 7 [at the moment].) From an app developer perspective, the story becomes even more compelling. Right now there are differences between the different operating systems, but those differences are shrinking. The user interface technology for both is XAML but there are different controls available and different user experience concepts. Some of the APIs available are the same while some are not. You can’t develop a Windows Phone app that can also run on Windows (either Windows Pro or RT). With each release of Windows Phone and Windows RT, those difference become smaller and smaller. Add to this mix the Xbox One, which will also feature a Windows-based operating system and the same “modern” (tile-based) user interface and the visible distinctions between the operating systems will become even smaller. Unifying the operating systems means one set of APIs and one code base to maintain for an app that can run on multiple devices. One code base means it’s easier to add features and fix bugs and that those changes become available on all devices at the same time. It also means a single app store, which will increase the discoverability and reach of your app and consolidate revenue and app profile management. Now, the choice of what devices an app is available on becomes a simple checkbox decision rather than a technical limitation. Ultimately, this means more apps available to consumers, which is always good for the app ecosystem. Is all of this just rumor, speculation and conjecture? Of course, but it’s not unfounded. As I mentioned earlier, some of the prominent Microsoft watchers are also reporting similar rumors. However, Microsoft itself has even hinted at this future with their recent organizational changes and by telling developers “if you want to develop for Xbox One, start developing for Windows 8 now.” I think this pretty clearly paints the following picture: Microsoft is committed to the “modern” user interface paradigm. Microsoft is changing their release cadence (for all products, not just operating systems) to be faster and more modular. Microsoft is going to continue to unify their OS platforms both from a consumer perspective and a developer perspective. While this direction will certainly concern some people it will excite many others. Microsoft’s biggest failing has always been following through with a strong and sustained marketing strategy that presents a consistent view point and highlights what this unified and connected experience looks like and how it benefits consumers and enterprises. We’ve started to see some of this over the last few years, but it needs to continue and become more aggressive and consistent. In the long run, I think Microsoft will be able to pull all of these technologies and devices together into one seamless ecosystem. It isn’t going to happen overnight, but my prediction is that we will be there by the end of 2016. As both a consumer and a developer, I, for one, am excited about the future of Microsoft.

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  • How can dev teams prevent slow performance in consumer apps?

    - by Crashworks
    When I previously asked what's responsible for slow software, a few answers I've received suggested it was a social and management problem: This isn't a technical problem, it's a marketing and management problem.... Utimately, the product mangers are responsible to write the specs for what the user is supposed to get. Lots of things can go wrong: The product manager fails to put button response in the spec ... The QA folks do a mediocre job of testing against the spec ... if the product management and QA staff are all asleep at the wheel, we programmers can't make up for that. —Bob Murphy People work on good-size apps. As they work, performance problems creep in, just like bugs. The difference is - bugs are "bad" - they cry out "find me, and fix me". Performance problems just sit there and get worse. Programmers often think "Well, my code wouldn't have a performance problem. Rather, management needs to buy me a newer/bigger/faster machine." The fact is, if developers periodically just hunt for performance problems (which is actually very easy) they could simply clean them out. —Mike Dunlavey So, if this is a social problem, what social mechanisms can an organization put into place to avoid shipping slow software to its customers?

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  • What are provenly scalable data persistence solutions for consumer profiles?

    - by Hubbard
    Consumer profiles with analytical scores [ConsumerID, 1..n demographical variables, 1...n analytical scores e.g. "likely to churn" "likely to buy an item 100$ in worth" etc.] have to be possible to query fast if they are to be used in customizing web-sites, consumer communications etc. Well. If you have: Large number of consumers Large profiles with a huge set of variables (as profiles describing human behaviour are likely to be..) ...you are in trouble. If you really have a physical relational database to which you target a query and then a physical disk starts to rotate someplace to give you an individual profile or a set of profiles, the profile user (a web site customizing a page, a recommendation engine making a recommendation..) has died of boredom before getting any observable results. There is the possibility of having the profiles in memory, which would of course increase the performance hugely. What are the most proven solutions for a fast-response, scalable consumer profile storage? Is there a shootout of these someplace?

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  • I want to virtualize my workstation (Tier 1), Looking for Bare Metal Hypervisor for consumer grade components

    - by Chase Florell
    I find myself in this similar bind at least once a year. The bind whereby I'm either upgrading a motherboard, or an OS hard drive. It drives me crazy to have to reinstall Windows, Visual Studio, all my addins, reconfigure my settings etc... every single time. I have a layout and I like and I want to stick with it. My question is... Is there a Bare Metal Hypervisor on the market that will enable me to virtualize my consumer grade workstation? I really want to avoid Host/Client virtualization. Bare Metal is definitely a better way to go for my needs. Is this a good approach, or am I going to suffer some other undesirable side effects by doing this? Clarification My machine has very limited purposes. My primary use is Visual Studio 2010 Professional where I develop ASP.NET MVC Web Applications. The second piece of software that I use (that's system intensive) is Photoshop CS3. Beyond that, my applications are limited to Outlook, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Chrome, LinqPad, and various other (small) apps. Beyond this, I'm considering working on a node.js project and might run ubuntu on the same hypervisor if possible. System Specs: Gigabyte Motherboard Intel i7 920 12 GB Ram basic 500GB 7200RPM HDD for OS 4 VelociRaptors in Raid 1/0 for build disk Dual GTS250 (512MB) Graphics cards (non SLI) for quad monitors On a side note I also wouldn't be opposed to an alternative suggestion if the limitations are too great. I could install the ESXi (or Zen Server) on my box, and build a separate "thin client" to RDP into the virtual machine. It appears as though RDP supports dual monitors. Edit (Dec 9, 2011) It's been nearly a year since I first asked this question. Since then, there have been a lot of great strides in Hypervisor technology... AND MokaFive is now released for corporate use. I'd love to dig into this question a little more and find out if there is a solid BareMetal Hypervisor for workstations running consumer grade components (IE: not Dell, HP, Lenovo, Etc).

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  • I have a collection of dead consumer grade routers, should I buy a real one?

    - by Ex Networking Guy
    Am I crazy for considering purchasing a Cisco 2621 for the house? I am familiar enough with IOS to set up a simple gateway router, I don't really need the experience. At this point, I'm a developer so my days of crawling through CO's and under desks are long past me. But I am really sick of crappy consumer grade networking gear. Maybe I have lousy luck and this stack of WRTG54s is just because I have lousy power, or whatever.

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  • best practice? Consumer data in MySQL on Amazon EBS (Elastic block store)

    - by jeff7091
    This is a consumer app, so I will care about storage costs - I don't want to have 5x copies of data lying about. The app shards very well, so I can use MySQL and not have scaling issues. Amazon EBS has a nice baseline+snapshot backup capability that uses S3. This should have a light footprint (in terms of storage cost). BUT: the magnolia.com story scares the crap out of me: basically flawless block-level backup of a corrupt DB or filesystem. Is there anything that is nearly as storage efficient as EBS at the MySQL level?

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  • Do superuser's prefer business grade or consumer grade PCs?

    - by joelhaus
    Having burned through a number of consumer grade laptops in recent years, I'm wondering if the additional cost of a business grade computer is a worth while investment. I'm considering getting a laptop with slightly lower specs to justify the added cost. The primary benefits I see are: (i) the notebook will be more reliable, (ii) have a longer life and (iii) the warranty (parts and labor) will be 3 years instead of 1 year. Are there any other considerations one should keep in mind when shopping for a business grade PC? Is purchasing direct from the manufacturer wise or are there other options that should be considered too? Thanks in advance!

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  • Is it safe to use consumer MLC SSDs in a server?

    - by Zypher
    We (and by we I mean Jeff) are looking into the possibility of using Consumer MLC SSD disks in our backup data center. We want to try to keep costs down and usable space up - so the Intel X25-E's are pretty much out at about 700$ each and 64GB of capacity. What we are thinking of doing is to buy some of the lower end SSD's that offer more capacity at a lower price point. My boss doesn't think spending about 5k for disks in servers running out of the backup data center is worth the investment. Just how dangerous of an approach is this and what can be done to mitigate these dangers?

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