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• YouGrade - Silverlight Multimedia Exam Suite

  A multimedia exam suite built on Silverlight and Youtube...Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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• Microsoft Technical Computing

  - by Daniel Moth

  In the past I have described the team I belong to here at Microsoft (Parallel Computing Platform) in terms of contributing to Visual Studio and related products, e.g. .NET Framework. To be more precise, our team is part of the Technical Computing group, which is still part of the Developer Division. This was officially announced externally earlier this month in an exec email (from Bob Muglia, the president of STB, to which DevDiv belongs). Here is an extract: "… As we build the Technical Computing initiative, we will invest in three core areas: 1. Technical computing to the cloud: Microsoft will play a leading role in bringing technical computing power to scientists, engineers and analysts through the cloud. Existing high- performance computing users will benefit from the ability to augment their on-premises systems with cloud resources that enable ‘just-in-time’ processing. This platform will help ensure processing resources are available whenever they are needed—reliably, consistently and quickly. 2. Simplify parallel development: Today, computers are shipping with more processing power than ever, including multiple cores, but most modern software only uses a small amount of the available processing power. Parallel programs are extremely difficult to write, test and trouble shoot. However, a consistent model for parallel programming can help more developers unlock the tremendous power in today’s modern computers and enable a new generation of technical computing. We are delivering new tools to automate and simplify writing software through parallel processing from the desktop… to the cluster… to the cloud. 3. Develop powerful new technical computing tools and applications: We know scientists, engineers and analysts are pushing common tools (i.e., spreadsheets and databases) to the limits with complex, data-intensive models. They need easy access to more computing power and simplified tools to increase the speed of their work. We are building a platform to do this. Our development efforts will yield new, easy-to-use tools and applications that automate data acquisition, modeling, simulation, visualization, workflow and collaboration. This will allow them to spend more time on their work and less time wrestling with complicated technology. …" Our Parallel Computing Platform team is directly responsible for item #2, and we work very closely with the teams delivering items #1 and #3. At the same time as the exec email, our marketing team unveiled a website with interviews that I invite you to check out: Modeling the World. Comments about this post welcome at the original blog.

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• Updated Technical Best Practices whitepaper

  - by ACShorten

  The Technical Best Practices whitepaper has been updated with the latest advice. This edition of the whitepaper covers advice from our internal management team from the product group that manages our environments. Our product teams manage over 1500+ copies of the product, covering every version, every platform and every phase of our development, testing and production product development cycle. The technical team managing that group of environments has compiled some additional advice that has been incorporated into the Technical Best Practices and other whitepapers (inclusding Performance Troubleshooting and the Software Configuration Management Series). New advice includes new installation advice, advanced settings, new security settings and advice for both Oracle WebLogic and IBM WebSphere installations. The Technical Best Practices whitepaper is available from My Oracle Support at Doc Id: 560367.1. To assist readers of past editions of the whitepaper, new or updated advice is marked with an appropriate graphic.

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• Estimating time for planning and technical design using Evidence Based Scheduling

  - by Turgs

  I'm at the beginning of a development project in a large organization. The Functional Requirements are currently being worked out and documented with our business stakeholders by our Enterprise Design department. I'm required to produce Technical Design Documents and manage the team to actually build the solution. I'm wanting to try Evidence Based Scheduling, but as I understand, part of that is breaking the job down into small tasks that are less than 14 hours in duration, which requires me to have already done the Technical Design. Therefore, can Evidence Based Scheduling only be used after the Technical Design has been done? How do you then plan and estimate the time it may take to come up with the Technical Design?

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• Where to find Hg/Git technical support?

  - by Rook

  Posting this as a kind of a favour for a former coleague, so I don't know the exact circumstances, but I'll try to provide as much info as I can ... A friend from my old place of employment (maritime research institute; half government/commercial funding) has asked me if I could find out who provides technical support (commercial) for two major DVCS's of today - Git and Mercurial. They have been using VCS for years now (Subversion while I was there, don't know what they're using now - probably the same), and now they're renewing their software licences (they have to give a plan some time in advance for everything ... then it goes "through the system") and although they will be keeping Subversion as well, they would like to justify beginning of DVCS as an alternative system (most people root for Mercurial since it seems simpler; mostly engineers and physicians there who are not that interested in checking Git repos for corruption and the finer workings of Git, but I believe any one of the two could "pass") - but it has to have a price (can be zero; no problem there) and some sort of official technical support. It is a pro forma matter, but it has to be specified. Most of the people there are using one of the two already, but this has to be specified to be official. So, I'm asking you - do you know where could one go for Git or Mercurial technical support (can be commercial)? Technical forums and the like are out of the question. It has to work on the principle: - I have a problem. - I post a question with the details. - I get an answer in specified time. It can be "we cannot do that." but it has to be an official answer and given in agreed time. I'm sure by now most of you understand what I'm asking, but if not - post a comment or similar. Also, if you think of any reasons which could decide justification of introducing Git/Hg from an technical and administrative viewpoint, feel free to write them down also.

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• Run On Sentences in Technical Writing

  - by Sean Noodleson Neilan

  This is just a question to think about. When you write technical documentation and programming comments, do you ever find yourself writing run-on sentences in order to be more precise? Is packing more technical information into one sentence better than creating many little sentences each with a little bit of technical information? I know it's better to have lots of little classes in their own little files. Perhaps this doesn't apply to writing?

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• Insights From a Non-Geek Working With Technical Developers at a Software Startup

  Everyone is wired differently. Some people are artistic, some are leaders and some are highly technical. Most of the time, it is fairly difficult for these different types of people to communicate effectively and understand each others' limitations and strengths. This can be especially true if you find yourself working as a non-technical employee in a highly technical field such as software development.

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• Oracle Database Appliance Technical Boot Camp

  - by mseika

  Oracle Database Appliance Technical Boot Camp Wednesday 19th September 9.30 – 16.30 This session is designed to give our partners detailed sales and technical information to familiarise themselves with the Oracle Database Appliance. It is split into two sessions, the first aimed at sales and pre-sales technical support, and the second aimed at pre-sales and technical implementation staff. The agenda is as follows: Part 1 Oracle Engineered Systems Introducing the Oracle Database Appliance What is the target market? Competitive positioning Sales Plays Up sell opportunities Resell requirements and process Part 2 Hardware internals Download the appliance software kit Disabling / enabling cores Configuration and setup Oracle 11g R2 overview Backup strategies Please register here.

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• What is a "Technical Programmer"? [closed]

  - by Mike E

  I've noticed in job posting boards a few postings, all from European companies in the games industry, for a "Technical Programmer". The job description in both was similar, having to do with tools development, 3d graphics programming, etc. It seems to be somewhere between a Technical Artist who's more technical than artist or who can code, and a Technical Director but perhaps without the seniority/experience. Information elsewhere on the position is sparse. The title seems redundant and I haven't seen any American companies post jobs by that name exactly. One example is this job posting on gamedev.net which isn't exactly thorough. In case the link dies: Subject: Technical Programmer Frictional Games, the creators of Amnesia: The Dark Descent and the Penumbra series, are looking for a talented programmer to join the company! You will be working for a small team with a big focus on finding new and innovating solutions. We want you who are not afraid to explore uncharted territory and constantly learn new things. Self-discipline and independence are also important traits as all work will be done from home. Some the things you will work with include: 3D math, rendering, shaders and everything else related. Console development (most likely Xbox 360). Hardware implementations (support for motion controls, etc). All coding is in C++, so great skills in that is imperative. As I mentioned, the job title has appeared from European companies so maybe it goes by another title in America. What other titles might this specialization of programmer go by?

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• How to write a technical blog?

  - by Gutzofter

  I have a blog that I would like to increase traffic on. I've read lots of technical blogs, but it's a lot different writing a blog versus reading a blog. There seems to be several ways to write a post. General article: I like this tool. This is how I do it. Specific technical issue: Programming solutions. I do get some traffic, but they don't leave any comments. Should I use HN and Reddit. What are some of the other places I can promote my blog? How to respond to negative comments (trolls)? Another thing is you might want to have some link-thrus. comment on other peoples blog posts. BTW my blog is: (defun ugly-lisp-code () ()) New Blog ugly web development

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• MS 70-536 .NET Framework Foundation - info on Exam? Especially regex?

  - by Sebastian P.R. Gingter

  Hi, I know there are already some questions about this, but not that specific. I have the self-paced training kit and worked through the test exam tool that is on the CD coming with the book. I constantly fail on the test tool, mostly on the regex questions. I'm not a regex guru. In fact my regex-fu is more than weak. I know what regex'es are, how I can use them and where my 'Regular expressions - kurz und gut' book is in my drawer in case I really need them. And to be honest I feel like learning regex is a total waste of time, because if I need them I have either a colleague that is fit and can do them in just a few seconds or I need my book and get them right in a still fair amount of time. And from my experience I can tell that I need regex like once in two or three years. So just putting in a lot of time into learning just the expressions to pass the exam is.. something I like not to have to do. Can you tell me something about the real exam vs. the test exam tool on the book and about the need to know regex for passing it? Thank you for your time. Marked as Community Wiki. Hope that fits?

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• error LNK2019 and fatal error LNK1120 i get these errors in c++.

  - by user320950

  #include <iostream> #include <fstream> using namespace std; int read_file_in_array(int exam[100][3]); double calculate_total(int exam1[], int exam2[], int exam3[]); // function that calcualates grades to see how many 90,80,70,60 //void display_totals(); double exam[100][3]; int read_file_in_array(double exam[100][3]) { ifstream infile; int exam1[100]; int exam2[100]; int exam3[100]; infile.open("grades.txt");// file containing numbers in 3 columns if(infile.fail()) // checks to see if file opended { cout << "error" << endl; } int num, i=0,j=0; while(!infile.eof()) // reads file to end of line { for(i=0;i<100;i++) // array numbers less than 100 { for(j=0;j<3;j++) // while reading get 1st array or element infile >> exam[i][j]; infile >> exam[i][j]; infile >> exam[i][j]; cout << exam[i][j] << endl; { if (! (infile >> exam[i][j]) ) cout << exam[i][j] << endl; } exam[i][j]=exam1[i]; exam[i][j]=exam2[i]; exam[i][j]=exam3[i]; } infile.close(); } return 0; } i have no idea how to get these errors out. i wrote the whole code over and tried to see if it was a problem with brackets but that doesnt help either. i dont know what line it is but i believe it is in this function. error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol "int __cdecl read_file_in_array(int (* const)[3])" (?read_file_in_array@@YAHQAY02H@Z) referenced in function _main fatal error LNK1120: 1 unresolved externals // i believe this one has to do with brackets double calculate_total(int exam1[],int exam2[],int exam3[]) { int calc_tot,above90=0, above80=0, above70=0, above60=0,i,j, fail=0; int exam[100][3]; calc_tot=read_file_in_array(exam); for(i=0;i<100;i++) { exam1[i]=exam[100][0]; exam2[i]=exam[100][1]; exam3[i]=exam[100][2]; if(exam[i][j] <=90 && exam[i][j] >=100) { above90++; { if(exam[i][j] <=80 && exam[i][j] >=89) { above80++; { if(exam[i][j] <=70 && exam[i][j] >=79) { above70++; { if(exam[i][j] <=60 && exam[i][j] >=69) { above60++; { if(exam[i][j] >=59) { fail++; } } } } } } } } } } return 0; } int main() { int go,go2,go3; int exam[100][3]; int exam1[100]; int exam2[100]; int exam3[100]; go=read_file_in_array(exam); go2=calculate_total(exam1,exam2,exam3); //go3=display_totals(); cout << go,go2,go3; return 0; }

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• Prepare For Oracle Certification Exams With Confidence

  - by Brandye Barrington

  Empower yourself to put your best foot forward on exam day! Oracle Certification Exam Candidates, test with confidence using preparation tools created by Oracle and Oracle's only Authorized Practice Test Provider, Kaplan SelfTest. Oracle wants to help protect your investment of time and money by offering tools to help you be as prepared as possible for your certification exam as well as your future job role. Use these valuable tools to get the most out of your exam preparation: Online Exam Preparation Seminars, Online Practice Tests and the new free Online Demos from Kaplan SelfTest. FREE ONLINE DEMOS Choose from 1Z0-851 Java 6 Programmer Certified Professional or 1Z0-047 Oracle Database SQL Expert. Get a feel for the type and difficulty of questions on the Oracle Certification exams and determine if you are ready for the exam or if you need more preparation. This is a powerful tool that will help you plan your preparation and make the most of your investment. Access Free Online Demos Now ONLINE EXAM PREPARATION SEMINARS These one-day self-paced streaming video seminars are 100% focused on exam preparation. The streaming video format lets you fast forward, rewind, and replay at your own pace so that you can identify and close any knowledge gaps before taking the exam. The Exam Prep Seminar structures your studying - so you don't have to. Access Online Exam Preparation Seminars ONLINE PRACTICE TESTS Test your knowledge with Kaplan SelfTest Practice Exams. These practice tests are one of the most effective ways to prepare for your Oracle Certification exam by helping you self-assess your knowledge using realistic exam simulations. You can purchase practice exams from Oracle with 30-day or 12-month access. Access Online Practice Tests Approach exam day with confidence using the tools above.

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• How to handle editing a large file for a non-technical user

  - by Luke

  I have a client who is given a tab delimited .txt file containing hundreds of thousands of rows. I have a user story as follows: As a user I want to take the text file and add a new value at the end of each line which contains the concatenated value of two of the columns. for example if the file read text_one text_two I need to output the following (preferably to a .txt file) text_one text_two text_onetext_two My first approach was to ask the vendor supplying the file to do the concatenation before providing the file, the easiest way to solve a problem is to eliminate it right? however they are very uncooperative and have point blank refused. I've looked at building a simple javascript application that does this client side so a non-technical user could select the file using a file selector. This approach has a few problems The file could be over a GB in size and so can't be loaded straight into memory, I've tried and the browser crashes There is no means to write a file in javascript so I'd need to output the content to the screen and have the user save it (somehow) I was thinking if I could get around the filesize limitations I could just output the edited content to the page and have the user save the page as a .txt file, however I think there is a better way than using javascript that will still accommodate the users lack of technical know-how. Please consider this question to be stack agnostic, but bear in mind that a nice little shell script or python script would be deemed unsuitable for a non technical user unless there is a way of "packaging" it nicely for a non-technical user. Updates The file is too large to open in excel. The process needs to be run weekly, but it doesn't require scheduling or automation...(yet)

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• Announcing Solaris Technical Track at NLUUG Spring Conference on Operating Systems

  - by user9135656

  The Netherlands Unix Users Group (NLUUG) is hosting a full-day technical Solaris track during its spring 2012 conference. The official announcement page, including registration information can be found at the conference page.This year, the NLUUG spring conference focuses on the base of every computing platform; the Operating System. Hot topics like Cloud Computing and Virtualization; the massive adoption of mobile devices that have their special needs in the OS they run but that at the same time put the challenge of massive scalability onto the internet; the upspring of multi-core and multi-threaded chips..., all these developments cause the Operating System to still be a very interesting area where all kinds of innovations have taken and are taking place.The conference will focus specifically on: Linux, BSD Unix, AIX, Windows and Solaris. The keynote speech will be delivered by John 'maddog' Hall, infamous promotor and supporter of UNIX-based Operating Systems. He will talk the audience through several decades of Operating Systems developments, and share many stories untold so far. To make the conference even more interesting, a variety of talks is offered in 5 parallel tracks, covering new developments in and  also collaboration  between Linux, the BSD's, AIX, Solaris and Windows. The full-day Solaris technical track covers all innovations that have been delivered in Oracle Solaris 11. Deeply technically-skilled presenters will talk on a variety of topics. Each topic will first be introduced at a basic level, enabling visitors to attend to the presentations individually. Attending to the full day will give the audience a comprehensive overview as well as more in-depth understanding of the most important new features in Solaris 11.NLUUG Spring Conference details:* Date and time:        When : April 11 2012        Start: 09:15 (doors open: 8:30)        End  : 17:00, (drinks and snacks served afterwards)* Venue:        Nieuwegein Business Center        Blokhoeve 1             3438 LC Nieuwegein              The Nederlands          Tel     : +31 (0)30 - 602 69 00        Fax     : +31 (0)30 - 602 69 01        Email   : [email protected]        Route   : description - (PDF, Dutch only)* Conference abstracts and speaker info can be found here.* Agenda for the Solaris track: Note: talks will be in English unless marked with 'NL'.1.      Insights to Solaris 11         Joerg Moellenkamp - Solaris Technical Specialist         Oracle Germany2.      Lifecycle management with Oracle Solaris 11         Detlef Drewanz - Solaris Technical Specialist         Oracle Germany3.      Solaris 11 Networking - Crossbow Project        Andrew Gabriel - Solaris Technical Specialist        Oracle UK4.      ZFS: Data Integrity and Security         Darren Moffat - Senior Principal Engineer, Solaris Engineering         Oracle UK5.      Solaris 11 Zones and Immutable Zones (NL)         Casper Dik - Senior Staff Engineer, Software Platforms         Oracle NL6.      Experiencing Solaris 11 (NL)         Patrick Ale - UNIX Technical Specialist         UPC Broadband, NLTalks are 45 minutes each.There will be a "Solaris Meeting point" during the conference where people can meet-up, chat with the speakers and with fellow Solaris enthousiasts, and where live demos or other hands-on experiences can be shared.The official announcement page, including registration information can be found at the conference page on the NLUUG website. This site also has a complete list of all abstracts for all talks.Please register on the NLUUG website.

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• Technical Computing

    Today, Microsoft announced our Technical Computing initiative.    Through the Technical Computing initiative, we will enable scientists, engineers and analysts to more easily model the world at much greater fidelity.  The Technical Computing initiative will address a wide range of users.  One of the most critical elements is to help developers create applications that can take advantage of parallelism on their desktop, in a cluster, and in public and private clouds. ...Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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• Excel data representation: show me all people who did not pass the exam

  - by dreftymac

  Background I have an excel spreadsheet with the results of a pass/no-pass exam. Students are allowed to take the exam as often as they want until they either pass, or give up trying. student ;; result ;; date [email protected] ;; no-pass ;; 2000-06-07 [email protected] ;; pass ;; 2000-06-07 [email protected] ;; pass ;; 2000-06-07 [email protected] ;; no-pass ;; 2000-06-07 [email protected] ;; pass ;; 2000-06-07 [email protected] ;; pass ;; 2000-06-08 [email protected] ;; no-pass ;; 2000-06-08 Question Using a pivot-table or something else, how can I get excel to show me a clean report or representation of this data on another sheet that answers the question: Who are all the people who took the exam, but never got a passing grade? In the above example it would just show me [email protected] ;; no-pass ;; with all the dates that delta took the exam. I know excel is not a database nor a reporting tool per-se, but it would be great if I could get it to do this.

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• BlackBerry Technical Specification

  - by Sam

  I'm having trouble locating BlackBerry techical specifications and their website is a mess. They also don't have a number that I can use to easily contact them. This isn't exactly a coding question, but what does the BlackBerry audio API look like, and where can I get technical specifications on audio? Specifically, I'm trying to find out more information on Audio-In, specifically, through the Mic-In on the 3.5 mm jack. Unfortunately, before I can proceed, I need to know such things like sampling rate, data width, etc. Direction to the right resource or if you know off of the top of your head is appreciated.

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• Qt Certification Exams

  - by karlphillip

  I'm wondering about doing a Qt Certification Exam this year, but I'm not 100% sure the investment is worth. I'm considering it because I think it could be a nice + on my resume, and as you know, I'm all for improving my software engineer persona. As I already earn a BSc and MSc degrees in computer stuff, I guess I see the certification process as some kind of adventure. Anyway, I know I'll spend a lot of time preparing myself for the exam and I just wanted to know if a Qt certification is worth the effort. Apparently there are 2 certificates that you can get in the Qt world: Nokia Certified Qt Developer (basic) Nokia Certified Qt Specialist (advanced) Nowadays I build cross-platform software in C++ and this exam would fit beautifully in my resume. My main concern is that, given the obscure future of Qt, I might be throwing time and money out the window. I'm looking for some advice regarding the usefulness of such certifications.

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• New Exam Prep Seminar for Program With PL/SQL!

  - by Harold Green

  We're happy to announce the availability of a brand new Exam Prep Seminar titled Certification Exam Prep Seminar: Program with PL/SQL. This new Exam Prep Seminar is available as a standalone product. For those of you preparing for the Oracle PL/SQL Developer Certified Associate certification, this seminar is a great value and and an excellent way to gain valuable insight from one of Oracle University's top Database instructors. This Exam Prep Seminar will accelerate your preparation, make your prep time more efficient and give you insight to the breadth and depth of the certification exam. This type of exam preparation has traditionally only been available at the Oracle OpenWorld conference, but is now available to anyone through this new format. Of course with online video, you can now start, stop, rewind, and review as needed! Also note that because this seminar is in the Oracle Training On Demand format, you can also watch it on your your iPad through Oracle University's new free iPad app. QUICK LINKS SEMINAR: Certification Exam Prep Seminar: Program with PL/SQL APPLICABLE EXAMS: 1Z0-147: Program With PL/SQL 1Z0-144:  Oracle Database 11g: Program with PL/SQL CERTIFICATION: Oracle PL/SQL Developer Certified Associate

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• An MCM exam, Rob? Really?

  - by Rob Farley

  I took the SQL 2008 MCM Knowledge exam while in Seattle for the PASS Summit ten days ago. I wasn’t planning to do it, but I got persuaded to try. I was meaning to write this post to explain myself before the result came out, but it seems I didn’t get typing quickly enough. Those of you who know me will know I’m a big fan of certification, to a point. I’ve been involved with Microsoft Learning to help create exams. I’ve kept my certifications current since I first took an exam back in 1998, sitting many in beta, across quite a variety of topics. I’ve probably become quite good at them – I know I’ve definitely passed some that I really should’ve failed. I’ve also written that I don’t think exams are worth studying for. (That’s probably not entirely true, but it depends on your motivation. If you’re doing learning, I would encourage you to focus on what you need to know to do your job better. That will help you pass an exam – but the two skills are very different. I can coach someone on how to pass an exam, but that’s a different kind of teaching when compared to coaching someone about how to do a job. For example, the real world includes a lot of “it depends”, where you develop a feel for what the influencing factors might be. In an exam, its better to be able to know some of the “Don’t use this technology if XYZ is true” concepts better.) As for the Microsoft Certified Master certification… I’m not opposed to the idea of having the MCM (or in the future, MCSM) cert. But the barrier to entry feels quite high for me. When it was first introduced, the nearest testing centres to me were in Kuala Lumpur and Manila. Now there’s one in Perth, but that’s still a big effort. I know there are options in the US – such as one about an hour’s drive away from downtown Seattle, but it all just seems too hard. Plus, these exams are more expensive, and all up – I wasn’t sure I wanted to try them, particularly with the fact that I don’t like to study. I used to study for exams. It would drive my wife crazy. I’d have some exam scheduled for some time in the future (like the time I had two booked for two consecutive days at TechEd Australia 2005), and I’d make sure I was ready. Every waking moment would be spent pouring over exam material, and it wasn’t healthy. I got shaken out of that, though, when I ended up taking four exams in those two days in 2005 and passed them all. I also worked out that if I had a Second Shot available, then failing wasn’t a bad thing at all. Even without Second Shot, I’m much more okay about failing. But even just trying an MCM exam is a big effort. I wouldn’t want to fail one of them. Plus there’s the illusion to maintain. People have told me for a long time that I should just take the MCM exams – that I’d pass no problem. I’ve never been so sure. It was almost becoming a pride-point. Perhaps I should fail just to demonstrate that I can fail these things. Anyway – boB Taylor (@sqlboBT) persuaded me to try the SQL 2008 MCM Knowledge exam at the PASS Summit. They set up a testing centre in one of the room there, so it wasn’t out of my way at all. I had to squeeze it in between other commitments, and I certainly didn’t have time to even see what was on the syllabus, let alone study. In fact, I was so exhausted from the week that I fell asleep at least once (just for a moment though) during the actual exam. Perhaps the questions need more jokes, I’m not sure. I knew if I failed, then I might disappoint some people, but that I wouldn’t’ve spent a great deal of effort in trying to pass. On the other hand, if I did pass I’d then be under pressure to investigate the MCM Lab exam, which can be taken remotely (therefore, a much smaller amount of effort to make happen). In some ways, passing could end up just putting a bunch more pressure on me. Oh, and I did.

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• An MCM exam, Rob? Really?

  - by Rob Farley

  I took the SQL 2008 MCM Knowledge exam while in Seattle for the PASS Summit ten days ago. I wasn’t planning to do it, but I got persuaded to try. I was meaning to write this post to explain myself before the result came out, but it seems I didn’t get typing quickly enough. Those of you who know me will know I’m a big fan of certification, to a point. I’ve been involved with Microsoft Learning to help create exams. I’ve kept my certifications current since I first took an exam back in 1998, sitting many in beta, across quite a variety of topics. I’ve probably become quite good at them – I know I’ve definitely passed some that I really should’ve failed. I’ve also written that I don’t think exams are worth studying for. (That’s probably not entirely true, but it depends on your motivation. If you’re doing learning, I would encourage you to focus on what you need to know to do your job better. That will help you pass an exam – but the two skills are very different. I can coach someone on how to pass an exam, but that’s a different kind of teaching when compared to coaching someone about how to do a job. For example, the real world includes a lot of “it depends”, where you develop a feel for what the influencing factors might be. In an exam, its better to be able to know some of the “Don’t use this technology if XYZ is true” concepts better.) As for the Microsoft Certified Master certification… I’m not opposed to the idea of having the MCM (or in the future, MCSM) cert. But the barrier to entry feels quite high for me. When it was first introduced, the nearest testing centres to me were in Kuala Lumpur and Manila. Now there’s one in Perth, but that’s still a big effort. I know there are options in the US – such as one about an hour’s drive away from downtown Seattle, but it all just seems too hard. Plus, these exams are more expensive, and all up – I wasn’t sure I wanted to try them, particularly with the fact that I don’t like to study. I used to study for exams. It would drive my wife crazy. I’d have some exam scheduled for some time in the future (like the time I had two booked for two consecutive days at TechEd Australia 2005), and I’d make sure I was ready. Every waking moment would be spent pouring over exam material, and it wasn’t healthy. I got shaken out of that, though, when I ended up taking four exams in those two days in 2005 and passed them all. I also worked out that if I had a Second Shot available, then failing wasn’t a bad thing at all. Even without Second Shot, I’m much more okay about failing. But even just trying an MCM exam is a big effort. I wouldn’t want to fail one of them. Plus there’s the illusion to maintain. People have told me for a long time that I should just take the MCM exams – that I’d pass no problem. I’ve never been so sure. It was almost becoming a pride-point. Perhaps I should fail just to demonstrate that I can fail these things. Anyway – boB Taylor (@sqlboBT) persuaded me to try the SQL 2008 MCM Knowledge exam at the PASS Summit. They set up a testing centre in one of the room there, so it wasn’t out of my way at all. I had to squeeze it in between other commitments, and I certainly didn’t have time to even see what was on the syllabus, let alone study. In fact, I was so exhausted from the week that I fell asleep at least once (just for a moment though) during the actual exam. Perhaps the questions need more jokes, I’m not sure. I knew if I failed, then I might disappoint some people, but that I wouldn’t’ve spent a great deal of effort in trying to pass. On the other hand, if I did pass I’d then be under pressure to investigate the MCM Lab exam, which can be taken remotely (therefore, a much smaller amount of effort to make happen). In some ways, passing could end up just putting a bunch more pressure on me. Oh, and I did.

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• SQLAuthority News – SQL Server 2012 Upgrade Technical Guide – A Comprehensive Whitepaper – (454 pages – 9 MB)

  - by pinaldave

  Microsoft has just released SQL Server 2012 Upgrade Technical Guide. This guide is very comprehensive and covers the subject of upgrade in-depth. This is indeed a helpful detailed white paper. Even writing a summary of this white paper would take over 100 pages. This further proves that SQL Server 2012 is quite an important release from Microsoft. This white paper discusses how to upgrade from SQL Server 2008/R2 to SQL Server 2012. I love how it starts with the most interesting and basic discussion of upgrade strategies: 1) In-place upgrades, 2) Side by side upgrade, 3) One-server, and 4) Two-server. This whitepaper is not just pure theory but is also an excellent source for some tips and tricks. Here is an example of a good tip from the paper: “If you want to upgrade just one database from a legacy instance of SQL Server and not upgrade the other databases on the server, use the side-by-side upgrade method instead of the in-place method.” There are so many trivia, tips and tricks that make creating the list seems humanly impossible given a short period of time. My friend Vinod Kumar, an SQL Server expert, wrote a very interesting article on SQL Server 2012 Upgrade before. In that article, Vinod addressed the most interesting and practical questions related to upgrades. He started with the fundamentals of how to start backup before upgrade and ended with fail-safe strategies after the upgrade is over. He covered end-to-end concepts in his blog posts in simple words in extremely precise statements. A successful upgrade uses a cycle of: planning, document process, testing, refine process, testing, planning upgrade window, execution, verifying of upgrade and opening for business. If you are at Vinod’s blog post, I suggest you go all the way down and collect the gold mine of most important links. I have bookmarked the blog by blogging about it and I suggest that you bookmark it as well with the way you prefer. Vinod Kumar’s blog post on SQL Server 2012 Upgrade Technical Guide SQL Server 2012 Upgrade Technical Guide is a detailed resource that’s also available online for free. Each chapter was carefully crafted and explained in detail. Here is a quick list of the chapters included in the whitepaper. Before downloading the guide, beware of its size of 9 MB and 454 pages. Here’s the list of chapters: Chapter 1: Upgrade Planning and Deployment Chapter 2: Management Tools Chapter 3: Relational Databases Chapter 4: High Availability Chapter 5: Database Security Chapter 6: Full-Text Search Chapter 7: Service Broker Chapter 8: SQL Server Express Chapter 9: SQL Server Data Tools Chapter 10: Transact-SQL Queries Chapter 11: Spatial Data Chapter 12: XML and XQuery Chapter 13: CLR Chapter 14: SQL Server Management Objects Chapter 15: Business Intelligence Tools Chapter 16: Analysis Services Chapter 17: Integration Services Chapter 18: Reporting Services Chapter 19: Data Mining Chapter 20: Other Microsoft Applications and Platforms Appendix 1: Version and Edition Upgrade Paths Appendix 2: SQL Server 2012: Upgrade Planning Checklist Download SQL Server 2012 Upgrade Technical Guide [454 pages and 9 MB] Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Database, DBA, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Documentation, SQL Download, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL White Papers, SQLAuthority News, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology

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• The Latest JD Edwards World Technical Enhancements

  Tom Carrell, Principal Product Strategy Manager and Mike Jepkes, Senior Technical Development Manager for JD Edwards World products discuss with Cliff how customers can take full advantage of web enablement, service enablement along with many other new JD Edwards World technical enhancements.

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• Interviews: Going Beyond the Technical Quiz

  - by Tony Davis

  All developers will be familiar with the basic format of a technical interview. After a bout of CV-trawling to gauge basic experience, strengths and weaknesses, the interview turns technical. The whiteboard takes center stage and the challenge is set to design a function or query, or solve what on the face of it might seem a disarmingly simple programming puzzle. Most developers will have experienced those few panic-stricken moments, when one’s mind goes as blank as the whiteboard, before un-popping the marker pen, and hopefully one’s mental functions, to work through the problem. It is a way to probe the candidate’s knowledge of basic programming structures and techniques and to challenge their critical thinking. However, these challenges or puzzles, often devised by some of the smartest brains in the development team, have a tendency to become unnecessarily ‘tricksy’. They often seem somewhat academic in nature. While the candidate straight out of IT school might breeze through the construction of a Markov chain, a candidate with bags of practical experience but less in the way of formal training could become nonplussed. Also, a whiteboard and a marker pen make up only a very small part of the toolkit that a programmer will use in everyday work. I remember vividly my first job interview, for a position as technical editor. It went well, but after the usual CV grilling and technical questions, I was only halfway there. Later, they sat me alongside a team of editors, in front of a computer loaded with MS Word and copy of SQL Server Query Analyzer, and my task was to edit a real chapter for a real SQL Server book that they planned to publish, including validating and testing all the code. It was a tough challenge but I came away with a sound knowledge of the sort of work I’d do, and its context. It makes perfect sense, yet my impression is that many organizations don’t do this. Indeed, it is only relatively recently that Red Gate started to move over to this model for developer interviews. Now, instead of, or perhaps in addition to, the whiteboard challenges, the candidate can expect to sit with their prospective team, in front of Visual Studio, loaded with all the useful tools in the developer’s kit (ReSharper and so on) and asked to, for example, analyze and improve a real piece of software. The same principles should apply when interviewing for a database positon. In addition to the usual questions challenging the candidate’s knowledge of such things as b-trees, object permissions, database recovery models, and so on, sit the candidate down with the other database developers or DBAs. Arm them with a copy of Management Studio, and a few other tools, then challenge them to discover the flaws in a stored procedure, and improve its performance. Or present them with a corrupt database and ask them to get the database back online, and discover the cause of the corruption.

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