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3 Ways to Make Steam Even Faster

- by Chris Hoffman

Have you ever noticed how slow Steam’s built-in web browser can be? Do you struggle with slow download speeds? Or is Steam just slow in general? These tips will help you speed it up. Steam isn’t a game itself, so there are no 3D settings to change to achieve maximum performance. But there are some things you can do to speed it up dramatically. Speed Up the Steam Web Browser Steam’s built-in web browser — used in both the Steam store and in Steam’s in-game overlay to provide a web browser you can quickly use within games – can be frustratingly slow on many systems. Rather than the typical speed we’ve come to expect from Chrome, Firefox, or even Internet Explorer, Steam seems to struggle. When you click a link or go to a new page, there’s a noticeable delay before the new page appears — something that doesn’t happen in desktop browsers. Many people seem to have made peace with this slowness, accepting that Steam’s built-in browser is just bad. However, there’s a trick that will eliminate this delay on many systems and make the Steam web browser fast. This problem seems to arise from an incompatibility with the Automatically Detect Proxy Settings option, which is enabled by default on Windows. This is a compatibility option that very few people should actually need, so it’s safe to disable it. To disable this option, open the Internet Options dialog — press the Windows key to access the Start menu or Start screen, type Internet Options, and click the Internet Options shortcut. Select the Connections tab in the Internet Options window and click the LAN settings button. Uncheck the Automatically detect settings option here, then click OK to save your settings. If you experienced a significant delay every time a web page loaded in Steam’s web browser, it should now be gone. In the unlikely event that you encounter some sort of problem with your network connection, you could always re-enable this option. Increase Steam’s Game Download Speed Steam attempts to automatically select the nearest download server to your location. However, it may not always select the ideal download server. Or, in the case of high-traffic events like big seasonal sales and huge game launches, you may benefit from selecting a less-congested server. To do this, open Steam’s settings by clicking the Steam menu in Steam and selecting Settings. Click over to the Downloads tab and select the closest download server from the Download Region box. You should also ensure that Steam’s download bandwidth isn’t limited from here. You may want to restart Steam and see if your download speeds improve after changing this setting. In some cases, the closest server might not be the fastest. One a bit farther away could be faster if your local server is more congested, for example. Steam once provided information about content server load, which allowed you to select a regional server that wasn’t under high-load, but this information no longer seems to be available. Steam still provides a page that shows you the amount of download activity happening in different regions, including statistics about the difference in download speeds in different US states, but this information isn’t as useful. Accelerate Steam and Your Games One way to speed up all your games — and Steam itself — is by getting a solid-state drive and installing Steam to it. Steam allows you to easily move your Steam folder — at C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam by default — to another hard drive. Just move it like you would any other folder. You can then launch the Steam.exe program as if you had never moved Steam’s files. Steam also allows you to configure multiple game library folders. This means that you can set up a Steam library folder on a solid-state drive and one on your larger magnetic hard drive. Install your most frequently played games to the solid-state drive for maximum speed and your less frequently played ones to the slower magnetic hard drive to save SSD space. To set up additional library folders, open Steam’s Settings window and click the Downloads tab. You’ll find the Steam Library Folders option here. Click the Add Library Folder button and create a new game library on another hard drive. When you install a game in Steam, you’ll be asked which library folder you want to install it to. With the proxy compatibility option disabled, the correct download server chosen, and Steam installed to a fast SSD, it should be a speed demon. There’s not much more you can do to speed up Steam, short of upgrading other hardware like your computer’s CPU. Image Credit: Andrew Nash on Flickr

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Article about Sun ZFS Storage Appliances

- by Owen Allen

Sun ZFS Storage Appliances are versatile storage systems. Discovering and managing them in Ops Center, though, makes them even more versatile. If you discover a Sun ZFS Storage Appliance in Ops Center 12c, you can create iSCSI and Fibre Channel LUNS, and make the LUNs available to server pools and virtualization hosts as a storage library. Barbara Higgins has written an excellent article that walks you through the process of setting up a Sun ZFS Storage Appliance and discovering and managing it in Ops Center. If you're looking into ways to make a Sun ZFS Storage Appliance work for you, it's worth a look.

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Obtaining Embedded Linux Experience

- by Thomas Matthews

As an embedded firmware developer, I have used operating systems such as WinCE, Nucleus, ThreadX, VRTX and some background loops. There are more opportunities for me if I had Linux OS experience, or perhaps some certification. In my research, the only way to get Linux experience is to have your company move to a Linux OS. All the recruiters and HR folks won't let you in the door unless you have Linux experience. I haven't found any Universities that teach Linux. Recruiters and HR want some tangible proof (starting up your own Ubuntu box or playing with it doesn't count). So, how does one get into the area of Embedded Linux without Linux experience (I have Unix and Cygwin experience, but not Linux)?

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Redirecting bad links to the correct links via htacess or 301 redirect plugin for WordPress

- by janoulle

I'm getting a lot of 404 errors b/c I recently switched content management systems (Habari to WordPress). I would like to use the 301 redirect plugin for WordPress to capture and helpfully redirect the offending links to the correct urls. Here's an example of the type of errors I'm seeing and what they should be redirected to: http://janetalkstech.com/admin/publish?id=146 should redirect to http://janetalkstech.com/?p=146 http://janetalkstech.com/admin/publish?slug=post-title should redirect to http://janetalkstech.com/post-title I would greatly appreciate any specific pointers on how to perform the redirects with either the 301 redirect plugin for WordPress or via .htaccess file Edit: Redirection plugin being used is the one by Urban Giraffe: http://urbangiraffe.com/plugins/redirection/

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The HTG Guide To Speeding Up Your Virtual Machines

- by Chris Hoffman

Virtual machines are demanding beasts, providing virtual hardware and running multiple operating systems on your computer at once. Upgrading your hardware (particularly your RAM and CPU) will always help speed up virtual machines, but there’s more you can do. These tips will help you squeeze every last drop of performance out of your virtual machine, whether you’re using VirtualBox, VMware, Parallels, or any other virtual machine program. How To Create a Customized Windows 7 Installation Disc With Integrated Updates How to Get Pro Features in Windows Home Versions with Third Party Tools HTG Explains: Is ReadyBoost Worth Using?

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BizTalk 2009 - Installing BizTalk Server 2009 on XP for Development

- by StuartBrierley

At my previous employer, when developing for BizTalk Server 2004 using Visual Studio 2003, we made use of separate development and deployment environments; developing in Visual Studio on our client PCs and then deploying to a seperate shared BizTalk 2004 Server from there. This server was part of a multi-server Standard BizTalk environment comprising of separate BizTalk Server 2004 and SQL Server 2000 servers. This environment was implemented a number of years ago by an outside consulting company, and while it worked it did occasionally cause contention issues with three developers deploying to the same server to carry out unit testing! Now that I am making the design and implementation decisions about the environment that BizTalk will be developed in and deployed to, I have chosen to create a single "server" installation on my development PC, installling SQL Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and BizTalk Server 2009 on a single system. The client PC in use is actually a MacBook Pro running Windows XP; not the most powerful of systems for high volume processing but it should be powerful enough to allow development and initial unit testing to take place. I did not need to, and so chose not to, install all of the components detailed in the Microsoft guide for installing BizTalk 2009 on Windows XP but I did follow the basics of the procedures detailed within. Outlined below are the highlights of this process and any details of what choices I made. Install IIS I had previsouly installed Windows XP, including all current service packs and critical updates. At the time of installation this included Service Pack 3, the .Net Framework 3.5 and MS Windows Installer 3.1. Having a running XP system, my first step was to install IIS - this is quite straightforward and posed no difficulties. Install Visual Studio 2008 The next step for me was to install Visual Studio 2008. Making sure to select a custom installation is crucial at this point, as you need to make sure that you deselect SQL Server 2005 Express Edition as it can cause the BizTalk installation to fail. The installation guide suggests that you only select Visual C# when selecting features to install, but I decided that due to some legacy systems I have code for that I would also select the VB and ASP options. Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 Following the completion of the installation of Visual Studio itself you should then install the Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1. SQL Server 2008 Standard Edition The next step before intalling BizTalk Server 2009 itself is to install SQL Server 2008 Standard Edition. On the feature selection screen make sure that you select the follwoing options: Database Engine Services SQL Server Replication Full-Text Search Analysis Services Reporting Services Business Intelligence Development Studio Client Tools Connectivity Integration Services Management Tools Basic and Complete Use the default instance and the same accounts for all SQL server instances - in my case I used the Network Service and Local Service accounts for the two sets of accounts. On the database engine configuration screen I selected windows authentication and added the current user, adding the same user again on the Analysis services Configuration screen. All other screens were left on the default settings. The SQL Server 2008 installation also included the installation of hotfix for XP KB942288-v3, the Windows Installer 4.5 Redistributable. System Configuration At this stage I took a moment to disable the SQL Server shared memory protocol and enable the Named Pipes and TCP/IP protocols. These can be found in the SQL Server Configuration Manager > SQL Server Network Configuration > Protocols for MSSQLServer. I also made sure that the DTC settings were configured correctley. BizTalk Server 2009 The penultimate step is to install BizTalk Server 2009 Standard Edition. I had previsouly downloaded the redistributable prerequisites as a CAB file so was able to make use of this when carrying out the installation. When selecting which components to install I selected: Server Runtime BizTalk EDI/AS2 Runtime WCF Adapter Runtime Portal Components Administrative Tools WFC Administartion Tools Developer Tools and SDK, Enterprise SSO Administration Module Enterprise SSO Master Secret Server Business Rules Components BAM Alert Provider BAM Client BAM Eventing Once installation has completed clear the launch BizTalk Server Configuration check box and select finish. Verify the Installation Before configuring BizTalk Server it is a good idea to check that BizTalk Server 2009 is installed and that SQL Server 2008 has started correctly. The easiest way to verify the BizTalk installation is check the Programs and Features in Control panel. Check that SQL is started by looking in the SQL Server Configuration Manager. Configure BizTalk Server 2009 Finally we are ready to configure BizTalk Server 2009. To start this I opted for a custom configuration that allowed me to choose in more detail the settings to be used. For all databases I selected the local server and default database names. For all Accounts I used a local account that had been created specifically for the BizTalk Services. For all windows groups I allowed the configuration wizard to create the default local groups. The configuration wizard then ran: Upon completion you will be presented with a screen detailing the success or failure of the configuration. If your configuration failed you will need to sort out the issues and try again (it is possible to save the configuration settings for later use if you want too - except passwords of course!). If you see lots of nice green ticks - congratulations BizTalk Server 2009 on XP is now installed and configured ready for development.

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How To: Use Monitoring Rules and Policies

- by Owen Allen

One of Ops Center's most useful features is its asset monitoring capability. When you discover an asset - an operating system, say, or a server - a default monitoring policy is applied to it, based on the asset type. This policy contains rules that specify what properties are monitored and what thresholds are considered significant. Ops Center will send a notification if a monitored asset passes one of the specified thresholds. But sometimes you want different assets to be monitored in different ways. For example, you might have a group of mission-critical systems, for which you want to be notified immediately if their file system usage rises above a specific threshold. You can do so by creating a new monitoring policy and applying it to the group. You can also apply monitoring policies to individual assets, and edit them to meet the requirements of your environment. The Tuning Monitoring Rules and Policies How-To walks you through all of these procedures.

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Donald Ferguson says end-user programming is next big thing. Is it?

- by Joris Meys

You can guess how I came to ask this question... Anyway : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11944966 Donald Ferguson claiming that his websphere was his biggest disaster and proclaiming that end-user programming will be the way forward. This genuinely spurs the question : what with current programming languages. Honestly, I don't think that end-user programming will go much beyond a rather rigid template where you can build some apps around. If you see how many people actually manage to understand the basic functionality of functions in EXCEL... Plus, I fail to see how complex and performant systems can be built in such an end-user programming language ( Visual Basic, anyone?) Nice to play around with, but for many applications they're just not the thing. So no worries for the old languages if you ask me. What's your ideas?

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Understanding The Very Nature Of Linux - Becoming Core Programmer

- by MrWho

Well, I want to know how I should exactly start and get into the right path to become a core programmer and also get decent understanding of Linux infrastructure and fundamentals. I know my question may seem general or something but that's not because of my inability to ask a question.I'm just confused, I've programmed in a few languages and have got my hand dirty to code so I'm aware of the big picture of what the programmers actually do.Now, I want to get deeper and start my studies in a different level than I used to learn before, I want to become advanced core programmer and learn where it really start from.I'd like to know the bit by bit of what the today's operating systems like linux have been built on. I DO really need good references, books would be preferred for learning the fundamentals.If someone tell me the general path of what I'm supposed to do, it would be really appreciated.

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Online Introduction to Relational Databases (and not only) with Stanford University!

- by Luca Zavarella

How many of you know exactly the definition of "relational database"? What exactly the adjective "relational" refers to? Many of you allow themselves to be deceived, thinking this adjective is related to foreign key constraints between tables. Instead this adjective lurks in a world based on set theory, relational algebra and the concept of relationship intended as a table.Well, for those who want to deep the fundamentals of relational model, relational algebra, XML, OLAP and emerging "NoSQL" systems, Stanford University School of Engineering offers a public and free online introductory course to databases. This is the related web page: http://www.db-class.com/ The course will last 2 months, after which there will be a final exam. Passing the final exam will entitle the participants to receive a statement of accomplishment. A syllabus and more information is available here. Happy eLearning to you!

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Organizations & Architecture UNISA Studies – Chap 7

- by MarkPearl

Learning Outcomes Name different device categories Discuss the functions and structure of I/.O modules Describe the principles of Programmed I/O Describe the principles of Interrupt-driven I/O Describe the principles of DMA Discuss the evolution characteristic of I/O channels Describe different types of I/O interface Explain the principles of point-to-point and multipoint configurations Discuss the way in which a FireWire serial bus functions Discuss the principles of InfiniBand architecture External Devices An external device attaches to the computer by a link to an I/O module. The link is used to exchange control, status, and data between the I/O module and the external device. External devices can be classified into 3 categories… Human readable – e.g. video display Machine readable – e.g. magnetic disk Communications – e.g. wifi card I/O Modules An I/O module has two major functions… Interface to the processor and memory via the system bus or central switch Interface to one or more peripheral devices by tailored data links Module Functions The major functions or requirements for an I/O module fall into the following categories… Control and timing Processor communication Device communication Data buffering Error detection I/O function includes a control and timing requirement, to coordinate the flow of traffic between internal resources and external devices. Processor communication involves the following… Command decoding Data Status reporting Address recognition The I/O device must be able to perform device communication. This communication involves commands, status information, and data. An essential task of an I/O module is data buffering due to the relative slow speeds of most external devices. An I/O module is often responsible for error detection and for subsequently reporting errors to the processor. I/O Module Structure An I/O module functions to allow the processor to view a wide range of devices in a simple minded way. The I/O module may hide the details of timing, formats, and the electro mechanics of an external device so that the processor can function in terms of simple reads and write commands. An I/O channel/processor is an I/O module that takes on most of the detailed processing burden, presenting a high-level interface to the processor. There are 3 techniques are possible for I/O operations Programmed I/O Interrupt[t I/O DMA Access Programmed I/O When a processor is executing a program and encounters an instruction relating to I/O it executes that instruction by issuing a command to the appropriate I/O module. With programmed I/O, the I/O module will perform the requested action and then set the appropriate bits in the I/O status register. The I/O module takes no further actions to alert the processor. I/O Commands To execute an I/O related instruction, the processor issues an address, specifying the particular I/O module and external device, and an I/O command. There are four types of I/O commands that an I/O module may receive when it is addressed by a processor… Control – used to activate a peripheral and tell it what to do Test – Used to test various status conditions associated with an I/O module and its peripherals Read – Causes the I/O module to obtain an item of data from the peripheral and place it in an internal buffer Write – Causes the I/O module to take an item of data form the data bus and subsequently transmit that data item to the peripheral The main disadvantage of this technique is it is a time consuming process that keeps the processor busy needlessly I/O Instructions With programmed I/O there is a close correspondence between the I/O related instructions that the processor fetches from memory and the I/O commands that the processor issues to an I/O module to execute the instructions. Typically there will be many I/O devices connected through I/O modules to the system – each device is given a unique identifier or address – when the processor issues an I/O command, the command contains the address of the address of the desired device, thus each I/O module must interpret the address lines to determine if the command is for itself. When the processor, main memory and I/O share a common bus, two modes of addressing are possible… Memory mapped I/O Isolated I/O (for a detailed explanation read page 245 of book) The advantage of memory mapped I/O over isolated I/O is that it has a large repertoire of instructions that can be used, allowing more efficient programming. The disadvantage of memory mapped I/O over isolated I/O is that valuable memory address space is sued up. Interrupts driven I/O Interrupt driven I/O works as follows… The processor issues an I/O command to a module and then goes on to do some other useful work The I/O module will then interrupts the processor to request service when is is ready to exchange data with the processor The processor then executes the data transfer and then resumes its former processing Interrupt Processing The occurrence of an interrupt triggers a number of events, both in the processor hardware and in software. When an I/O device completes an I/O operations the following sequence of hardware events occurs… The device issues an interrupt signal to the processor The processor finishes execution of the current instruction before responding to the interrupt The processor tests for an interrupt – determines that there is one – and sends an acknowledgement signal to the device that issues the interrupt. The acknowledgement allows the device to remove its interrupt signal The processor now needs to prepare to transfer control to the interrupt routine. To begin, it needs to save information needed to resume the current program at the point of interrupt. The minimum information required is the status of the processor and the location of the next instruction to be executed. The processor now loads the program counter with the entry location of the interrupt-handling program that will respond to this interrupt. It also saves the values of the process registers because the Interrupt operation may modify these The interrupt handler processes the interrupt – this includes examination of status information relating to the I/O operation or other event that caused an interrupt When interrupt processing is complete, the saved register values are retrieved from the stack and restored to the registers Finally, the PSW and program counter values from the stack are restored. Design Issues Two design issues arise in implementing interrupt I/O Because there will be multiple I/O modules, how does the processor determine which device issued the interrupt? If multiple interrupts have occurred, how does the processor decide which one to process? Addressing device recognition, 4 general categories of techniques are in common use… Multiple interrupt lines Software poll Daisy chain Bus arbitration For a detailed explanation of these approaches read page 250 of the textbook. Interrupt driven I/O while more efficient than simple programmed I/O still requires the active intervention of the processor to transfer data between memory and an I/O module, and any data transfer must traverse a path through the processor. Thus is suffers from two inherent drawbacks… The I/O transfer rate is limited by the speed with which the processor can test and service a device The processor is tied up in managing an I/O transfer; a number of instructions must be executed for each I/O transfer Direct Memory Access When large volumes of data are to be moved, an efficient technique is direct memory access (DMA) DMA Function DMA involves an additional module on the system bus. The DMA module is capable of mimicking the processor and taking over control of the system from the processor. It needs to do this to transfer data to and from memory over the system bus. DMA must the bus only when the processor does not need it, or it must force the processor to suspend operation temporarily (most common – referred to as cycle stealing). When the processor wishes to read or write a block of data, it issues a command to the DMA module by sending to the DMA module the following information… Whether a read or write is requested using the read or write control line between the processor and the DMA module The address of the I/O device involved, communicated on the data lines The starting location in memory to read from or write to, communicated on the data lines and stored by the DMA module in its address register The number of words to be read or written, communicated via the data lines and stored in the data count register The processor then continues with other work, it delegates the I/O operation to the DMA module which transfers the entire block of data, one word at a time, directly to or from memory without going through the processor. When the transfer is complete, the DMA module sends an interrupt signal to the processor, this the processor is involved only at the beginning and end of the transfer. I/O Channels and Processors Characteristics of I/O Channels As one proceeds along the evolutionary path, more and more of the I/O function is performed without CPU involvement. The I/O channel represents an extension of the DMA concept. An I/O channel ahs the ability to execute I/O instructions, which gives it complete control over I/O operations. In a computer system with such devices, the CPU does not execute I/O instructions – such instructions are stored in main memory to be executed by a special purpose processor in the I/O channel itself. Two types of I/O channels are common A selector channel controls multiple high-speed devices. A multiplexor channel can handle I/O with multiple characters as fast as possible to multiple devices. The external interface: FireWire and InfiniBand Types of Interfaces One major characteristic of the interface is whether it is serial or parallel parallel interface – there are multiple lines connecting the I/O module and the peripheral, and multiple bits are transferred simultaneously serial interface – there is only one line used to transmit data, and bits must be transmitted one at a time With new generation serial interfaces, parallel interfaces are becoming less common. In either case, the I/O module must engage in a dialogue with the peripheral. In general terms the dialog may look as follows… The I/O module sends a control signal requesting permission to send data The peripheral acknowledges the request The I/O module transfers data The peripheral acknowledges receipt of data For a detailed explanation of FireWire and InfiniBand technology read page 264 – 270 of the textbook

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7 Ubuntu File Manager Features You May Not Have Noticed

- by Chris Hoffman

The Nautilus file manager included with Ubuntu includes some useful features you may not notice unless you go looking for them. You can create saved searches, mount remote file systems, use tabs in your file manager, and more. Ubuntu’s file manager also includes built-in support for sharing folders on your local network – the Sharing Options dialog creates and configures network shares compatible with both Linux and Windows machines. How to Make Your Laptop Choose a Wired Connection Instead of Wireless HTG Explains: What Is Two-Factor Authentication and Should I Be Using It? HTG Explains: What Is Windows RT and What Does It Mean To Me?

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How to Use Steam In-Home Streaming

- by Chris Hoffman

Steam’s In-Home Streaming is now available to everyone, allowing you to stream PC games from one PC to another PC on the same local network. Use your gaming PC to power your laptops and home theater system. This feature doesn’t allow you to stream games over the Internet, only the same local network. Even if you tricked Steam, you probably wouldn’t get good streaming performance over the Internet. Why Stream? When you use Steam In-Home streaming, one PC sends its video and audio to another PC. The other PC views the video and audio like it’s watching a movie, sending back mouse, keyboard, and controller input to the other PC. This allows you to have a fast gaming PC power your gaming experience on slower PCs. For example, you could play graphically demanding games on a laptop in another room of your house, even if that laptop has slower integrated graphics. You could connect a slower PC to your television and use your gaming PC without hauling it into a different room in your house. Streaming also enables cross-platform compatibility. You could have a Windows gaming PC and stream games to a Mac or Linux system. This will be Valve’s official solution for compatibility with old Windows-only games on the Linux (Steam OS) Steam Machines arriving later this year. NVIDIA offers their own game streaming solution, but it requires certain NVIDIA graphics hardware and can only stream to an NVIDIA Shield device. How to Get Started In-Home Streaming is simple to use and doesn’t require any complex configuration — or any configuration, really. First, log into the Steam program on a Windows PC. This should ideally be a powerful gaming PC with a powerful CPU and fast graphics hardware. Install the games you want to stream if you haven’t already — you’ll be streaming from your PC, not from Valve’s servers. (Valve will eventually allow you to stream games from Mac OS X, Linux, and Steam OS systems, but that feature isn’t yet available. You can still stream games to these other operating systems.) Next, log into Steam on another computer on the same network with the same Steam username. Both computers have to be on the same subnet of the same local network. You’ll see the games installed on your other PC in the Steam client’s library. Click the Stream button to start streaming a game from your other PC. The game will launch on your host PC, and it will send its audio and video to the PC in front of you. Your input on the client will be sent back to the server. Be sure to update Steam on both computers if you don’t see this feature. Use the Steam > Check for Updates option within Steam and install the latest update. Updating to the latest graphics drivers for your computer’s hardware is always a good idea, too. Improving Performance Here’s what Valve recommends for good streaming performance: Host PC: A quad-core CPU for the computer running the game, minimum. The computer needs enough processor power to run the game, compress the video and audio, and send it over the network with low latency. Streaming Client: A GPU that supports hardware-accelerated H.264 decoding on the client PC. This hardware is included on all recent laptops and PCs. Ifyou have an older PC or netbook, it may not be able to decode the video stream quickly enough. Network Hardware: A wired network connection is ideal. You may have success with wireless N or AC networks with good signals, but this isn’t guaranteed. Game Settings: While streaming a game, visit the game’s setting screen and lower the resolution or turn off VSync to speed things up. In-Home Steaming Settings: On the host PC, click Steam > Settings and select In-Home Streaming to view the In-Home Streaming settings. You can modify your streaming settings to improve performance and reduce latency. Feel free to experiment with the options here and see how they affect performance — they should be self-explanatory. Check Valve’s In-Home Streaming documentation for troubleshooting information. You can also try streaming non-Steam games. Click Games > Add a Non-Steam Game to My Library on your host PC and add a PC game you have installed elsewhere on your system. You can then try streaming it from your client PC. Valve says this “may work but is not officially supported.” Image Credit: Robert Couse-Baker on Flickr, Milestoned on Flickr

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New Year, New Position, New Opportunity and Adventures!

- by D'Arcy Lussier

2010 was an incredible year of change for me. On the personal side, we celebrated our youngest daughter’s first birthday and welcomed my oldest daughter into our family (both my girls are adopted). Professionally, I put on the first ever Prairie Developer Conference, the 3rd annual Winnipeg Code Camp, the Software Development and Evolution Conference, continued to build the technology community in Winnipeg, was awarded a Microsoft MVP award for the 4th year, created a certification program to help my employer, Protegra, attain Microsoft Partner status, and had great project work throughout the year. So now its 2011, and I’m looking ahead to new challenges and opportunities with a new employer. Starting in mid February I’ll be the Microsoft Practice Lead with Online Business Systems, a Microsoft partner here in Winnipeg! I’m very excited about working with such great people and helping continue delivering quality solutions and consulting that the organization has become known for. 2010 was great, but 2011 is shaping up to be a banner year both personally and professionally!

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Oracle OpenWorld Update -- General Session: Oracle Fusion Middleware Strategies Driving Business Innovation

- by Ruma Sanyal

Today we kick it off with a fantastic general session focused on Fusion Middleware by Hasan Rizvi. Oracle Fusion Middleware is the leading business innovation platform for the enterprise and the cloud. Innovative businesses today are utilizing new platform technologies for their enterprise applications—embracing social, mobile, and cloud technologies. Convergence of these three technologies opens the door for business innovation—changing how customers interact, employees collaborate, and IT manages services. Successful adoption requires a comprehensive middleware platform that delivers secure multichannel user experiences, integrates back-end systems, and supports flexible deployment. In this general session, hear from Hasan Rizvi, and many of our customers how they leverage new innovations in their applications and customers achieve their business innovation goals with Oracle Fusion Middleware. For more information about this and other Fusion Middleware sessions, review the Oracle Fusion Middleware Focus On document. Details: Tuesday, Oct 2, 10:15 AM - 11:15 AM - Moscone North - Hall D

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Oracle + Sun Product Strategy Webcast Series

- by Paulo Folgado

The Oracle + Sun Product Strategy Webcast series is composed of informative, on-demand sessions that offer strategies for Sun's major product lines related to the company combination, explain how Oracle will deliver more innovation to our customers, and outline our approach to protecting customers' investments. Ranging from 5 to 27 minutes each, the Webcasts cover the strategies for hardware, systems, software, solutions, and partners.In addition, Judson Althoff, SVP, Worldwide Alliances and Channels, Oracle, followed up the Webcast series with a video FAQ to help answer the following top partner questions about the Oracle + Sun combination and the OPN Specialized program: What is the impact the overall combined company will have on the partners?What are Oracle's plans for selling direct and what is the impact to partners?How will Sun partners integrate into OPN Specialized?As a Sun partner, am I automatically migrated into OPN Specialized?Will Oracle continue to partner with other hardware vendors?How will Oracle map existing Sun investments and certifications into OPN Specialized?As a Sun partner new to Oracle, where should I be placing my focus?What can partners expect to see relative to Exadata V2?How do content delivery platforms (CDPs) fit into the Oracle framework?How do existing Sun Partners place orders?

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Best Practices For Database Consolidation On Exadata - New Whitepapers

- by Javier Puerta

Best Practices For Database Consolidation On Exadata Database Machine (Nov. 2011) Consolidation can minimize idle resources, maximize efficiency, and lower costs when you host multiple schemas, applications or databases on a target system. Consolidation is a core enabler for deploying Oracle database on public and private clouds.This paper provides the Exadata Database Machine (Exadata) consolidation best practices to setup and manage systems and applications for maximum stability and availability:Download here Oracle Exadata Database Machine Consolidation: Segregating Databases and Roles (Sep. 2011) This paper is focused on the aspects of segregating databases from each other in a platform consolidation environment on an Oracle Exadata Database Machine. Platform consolidation is the consolidation of multiple databases on to a single Oracle Exadata Database Machine. When multiple databases are consolidated on a single Database Machine, it may be necessary to isolate certain database components or functions in order to meet business requirements and provide best practices for a secure consolidation. In this paper we outline the use of Oracle Exadata database-scoped security to securely separate database management and provide a detailed case study that illustrates the best practices. Download here

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Why is my Internet connection randomly dropping?

- by Jeanno

Ever since I have installed 12.04 (clean install not an upgrade), i have been having a drop in the Internet connection. The drop in the connection can be anything from 15 seconds to about 3 mins, and then the connection comes back. This behaviour happens while I am actively browsing the Internet, or if I wake up the computer and open Firefox (sometimes I have connection and sometimes I don't) . Please note that when the internet connection is on, it is not slow (as speedtest.net results show) In the beginning, I thought it was a problem with the driver r8169 for my RTL8111/8168B Ethernet card, so I downloaded the r8168 from Realtek website, followed the detailed instructions (blacklisted r8169, changed the file to '.bsh' ...), but still the same problem persisted. So I switched to a wireless connection, and I got the same problem with internet connection dropping randomly. Any ideas? Thanks in advance Output from 'lspci -v' Code: 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family DRAM Controller (rev 09) Subsystem: Dell Device 04a7 Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0 Capabilities: [e0] Vendor Specific Information: Len=0c <?> 00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200/2nd Generation Core Processor Family PCI Express Root Port (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode]) Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0 Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0 I/O behind bridge: 0000e000-0000efff Memory behind bridge: f8000000-fa0fffff Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000d0000000-00000000dbffffff Capabilities: [88] Subsystem: Dell Device 04a7 Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 3 Capabilities: [90] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit- Capabilities: [a0] Express Root Port (Slot+), MSI 00 Capabilities: [100] Virtual Channel Capabilities: [140] Root Complex Link Kernel driver in use: pcieport Kernel modules: shpchp 00:01.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200/2nd Generation Core Processor Family PCI Express Root Port (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode]) Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0 Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=02, sec-latency=0 I/O behind bridge: 0000d000-0000dfff Memory behind bridge: f4000000-f60fffff Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000c0000000-00000000cbffffff Capabilities: [88] Subsystem: Dell Device 04a7 Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 3 Capabilities: [90] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit- Capabilities: [a0] Express Root Port (Slot+), MSI 00 Capabilities: [100] Virtual Channel Capabilities: [140] Root Complex Link Kernel driver in use: pcieport Kernel modules: shpchp 00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04) Subsystem: Dell Device 04a7 Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 52 Memory at f6108000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16] Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3 Capabilities: [8c] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+ Kernel driver in use: mei Kernel modules: mei 00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 05) (prog-if 20 [EHCI]) Subsystem: Dell Device 04a7 Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16 Memory at f6107000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K] Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2 Capabilities: [58] Debug port: BAR=1 offset=00a0 Capabilities: [98] PCI Advanced Features Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 05) Subsystem: Dell Device 04a7 Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 53 Memory at f6100000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K] Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2 Capabilities: [60] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+ Capabilities: [70] Express Root Complex Integrated Endpoint, MSI 00 Capabilities: [100] Virtual Channel Capabilities: [130] Root Complex Link Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel 00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev b5) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode]) Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0 Bus: primary=00, secondary=03, subordinate=03, sec-latency=0 Memory behind bridge: fa400000-fa4fffff Capabilities: [40] Express Root Port (Slot+), MSI 00 Capabilities: [80] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit- Capabilities: [90] Subsystem: Dell Device 04a7 Capabilities: [a0] Power Management version 2 Kernel driver in use: pcieport Kernel modules: shpchp 00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 2 (rev b5) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode]) Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0 Bus: primary=00, secondary=04, subordinate=04, sec-latency=0 I/O behind bridge: 0000c000-0000cfff Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000dc100000-00000000dc1fffff Capabilities: [40] Express Root Port (Slot+), MSI 00 Capabilities: [80] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit- Capabilities: [90] Subsystem: Dell Device 04a7 Capabilities: [a0] Power Management version 2 Kernel driver in use: pcieport Kernel modules: shpchp 00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 3 (rev b5) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode]) Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0 Bus: primary=00, secondary=05, subordinate=05, sec-latency=0 I/O behind bridge: 0000b000-0000bfff Memory behind bridge: fa300000-fa3fffff Capabilities: [40] Express Root Port (Slot+), MSI 00 Capabilities: [80] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit- Capabilities: [90] Subsystem: Dell Device 04a7 Capabilities: [a0] Power Management version 2 Kernel driver in use: pcieport Kernel modules: shpchp 00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 4 (rev b5) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode]) Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0 Bus: primary=00, secondary=06, subordinate=06, sec-latency=0 I/O behind bridge: 0000a000-0000afff Memory behind bridge: fa200000-fa2fffff Capabilities: [40] Express Root Port (Slot+), MSI 00 Capabilities: [80] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit- Capabilities: [90] Subsystem: Dell Device 04a7 Capabilities: [a0] Power Management version 2 Kernel driver in use: pcieport Kernel modules: shpchp 00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 05) (prog-if 20 [EHCI]) Subsystem: Dell Device 04a7 Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 23 Memory at f6106000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K] Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2 Capabilities: [58] Debug port: BAR=1 offset=00a0 Capabilities: [98] PCI Advanced Features Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation P67 Express Chipset Family LPC Controller (rev 05) Subsystem: Dell Device 04a7 Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0 Capabilities: [e0] Vendor Specific Information: Len=0c <?> Kernel modules: iTCO_wdt 00:1f.2 RAID bus controller: Intel Corporation 82801 SATA Controller [RAID mode] (rev 05) Subsystem: Dell Device 04a7 Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 42 I/O ports at f070 [size=8] I/O ports at f060 [size=4] I/O ports at f050 [size=8] I/O ports at f040 [size=4] I/O ports at f020 [size=32] Memory at f6105000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2K] Capabilities: [80] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit- Capabilities: [70] Power Management version 3 Capabilities: [a8] SATA HBA v1.0 Capabilities: [b0] PCI Advanced Features Kernel driver in use: ahci 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 05) Subsystem: Dell Device 04a7 Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 5 Memory at f6104000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256] I/O ports at f000 [size=32] Kernel modules: i2c-i801 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation Device 0dc5 (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller]) Subsystem: NVIDIA Corporation Device 085b Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16 Memory at f8000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M] Memory at d0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M] Memory at d8000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=32M] I/O ports at e000 [size=128] Expansion ROM at fa000000 [disabled] [size=512K] Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 3 Capabilities: [68] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+ Capabilities: [78] Express Endpoint, MSI 00 Capabilities: [b4] Vendor Specific Information: Len=14 <?> Capabilities: [100] Virtual Channel Capabilities: [128] Power Budgeting <?> Capabilities: [600] Vendor Specific Information: ID=0001 Rev=1 Len=024 <?> Kernel driver in use: nouveau Kernel modules: nouveau, nvidiafb 01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation GF106 High Definition Audio Controller (rev a1) Subsystem: NVIDIA Corporation Device 085b Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17 Memory at fa080000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K] Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 3 Capabilities: [68] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+ Capabilities: [78] Express Endpoint, MSI 00 Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel 02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation Device 0dc5 (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller]) Subsystem: NVIDIA Corporation Device 085b Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17 Memory at f4000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=32M] Memory at c0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M] Memory at c8000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=64M] I/O ports at d000 [size=128] Expansion ROM at f6000000 [disabled] [size=512K] Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 3 Capabilities: [68] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+ Capabilities: [78] Express Endpoint, MSI 00 Capabilities: [b4] Vendor Specific Information: Len=14 <?> Capabilities: [100] Virtual Channel Capabilities: [128] Power Budgeting <?> Capabilities: [600] Vendor Specific Information: ID=0001 Rev=1 Len=024 <?> Kernel driver in use: nouveau Kernel modules: nouveau, nvidiafb 02:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation GF106 High Definition Audio Controller (rev a1) Subsystem: NVIDIA Corporation Device 085b Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 18 Memory at f6080000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K] Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 3 Capabilities: [68] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+ Capabilities: [78] Express Endpoint, MSI 00 Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel 03:00.0 USB controller: NEC Corporation uPD720200 USB 3.0 Host Controller (rev 03) (prog-if 30 [XHCI]) Subsystem: Dell Device 04a7 Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16 Memory at fa400000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K] Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3 Capabilities: [70] MSI: Enable- Count=1/8 Maskable- 64bit+ Capabilities: [90] MSI-X: Enable+ Count=8 Masked- Capabilities: [a0] Express Endpoint, MSI 00 Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting Capabilities: [140] Device Serial Number ff-ff-ff-ff-ff-ff-ff-ff Capabilities: [150] Latency Tolerance Reporting Kernel driver in use: xhci_hcd 04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 06) Subsystem: Dell Device 04a7 Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 51 I/O ports at c000 [size=256] Memory at dc104000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=4K] Memory at dc100000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=16K] Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3 Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+ Capabilities: [70] Express Endpoint, MSI 01 Capabilities: [b0] MSI-X: Enable- Count=4 Masked- Capabilities: [d0] Vital Product Data Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting Capabilities: [140] Virtual Channel Capabilities: [160] Device Serial Number 03-00-00-00-68-4c-e0-00 Kernel driver in use: r8168 Kernel modules: r8168 05:00.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6315 Series Firewire Controller (rev 01) (prog-if 10 [OHCI]) Subsystem: Dell Device 04a7 Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 18 Memory at fa300000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2K] I/O ports at b000 [size=256] Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3 Capabilities: [80] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable+ 64bit+ Capabilities: [98] Express Endpoint, MSI 00 Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting Capabilities: [130] Device Serial Number 00-10-dc-ff-ff-cf-56-1a Kernel driver in use: firewire_ohci Kernel modules: firewire-ohci 06:00.0 SATA controller: JMicron Technology Corp. JMB362 SATA Controller (rev 10) (prog-if 01 [AHCI 1.0]) Subsystem: Dell Device 04a7 Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 19 I/O ports at a040 [size=8] I/O ports at a030 [size=4] I/O ports at a020 [size=8] I/O ports at a010 [size=4] I/O ports at a000 [size=16] Memory at fa210000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512] Capabilities: [8c] Power Management version 3 Capabilities: [50] Express Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00 Kernel driver in use: ahci Note that my wireless card is not showing, I have the Ralink 3390 card (which apparently does not show up on Ubuntu for some reason), however I am able to connect to wireless network and connect to the internet (when it is working)

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Battling Emacs Pinky?

- by haziz

My problem is not so much emacs pinky as much as having to work with multiple machines, across 3 operating systems, both desktop and laptop, with differing keyboard layouts and different locations for Ctrl and Alt\Meta keys so I often have to pause and think about where is the Ctrl key on this machine. How do you deal with varying keyboard layouts, between Mac keyboards (mostly the laptops) and PC keyboards (mostly 101 keys in my case, yes the original PC keyboard)? I have turned the Caps lock Key into a Ctrl key (losing the Caps lock function completely rather than swapping with Ctrl) on most of them but still find myself hunting for the original Ctrl labeled key most of the time. How do you deal with this keyboard confusion? Suggestions, ideas and feedback welcome.

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Manage SQL Server Connectivity through Windows Azure Virtual Machines Remote PowerShell

- by SQLOS Team

Manage SQL Server Connectivity through Windows Azure Virtual Machines Remote PowerShell Blog This blog post comes from Khalid Mouss, Senior Program Manager in Microsoft SQL Server. Overview The goal of this blog is to demonstrate how we can automate through PowerShell connecting multiple SQL Server deployments in Windows Azure Virtual Machines. We would configure TCP port that we would open (and close) though Windows firewall from a remote PowerShell session to the Virtual Machine (VM). This will demonstrate how to take the advantage of the remote PowerShell support in Windows Azure Virtual Machines to automate the steps required to connect SQL Server in the same cloud service and in different cloud services. Scenario 1: VMs connected through the same Cloud Service 2 Virtual machines configured in the same cloud service. Both VMs running different SQL Server instances on them. Both VMs configured with remote PowerShell turned on to be able to run PS and other commands directly into them remotely in order to re-configure them to allow incoming SQL connections from a remote VM or on premise machine(s). Note: RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) is kept configured in both VMs by default to be able to remote connect to them and check the connections to SQL instances for demo purposes only; but not actually required. Step 1 – Provision VMs and Configure Ports Provision VM1; named DemoVM1 as follows (see examples screenshots below if using the portal): Provision VM2 (DemoVM2) with PowerShell Remoting enabled and connected to DemoVM1 above (see examples screenshots below if using the portal): After provisioning of the 2 VMs above, here is the default port configurations for example: Step2 – Verify / Confirm the TCP port used by the database Engine By the default, the port will be configured to be 1433 – this can be changed to a different port number if desired. 1. RDP to each of the VMs created below – this will also ensure the VMs complete SysPrep(ing) and complete configuration 2. Go to SQL Server Configuration Manager -> SQL Server Network Configuration -> Protocols for <SQL instance> -> TCP/IP - > IP Addresses 3. Confirm the port number used by SQL Server Engine; in this case 1433 4. Update from Windows Authentication to Mixed mode 5. Restart SQL Server service for the change to take effect 6. Repeat steps 3., 4., and 5. For the second VM: DemoVM2 Step 3 – Remote Powershell to DemoVM1 Enter-PSSession -ComputerName condemo.cloudapp.net -Port 61503 -Credential <username> -UseSSL -SessionOption (New-PSSessionOption -SkipCACheck -SkipCNCheck) Your will then be prompted to enter the password. Step 4 – Open 1433 port in the Windows firewall netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="DemoVM1Port" dir=in localport=1433 protocol=TCP action=allow Output: netsh advfirewall firewall show rule name=DemoVM1Port Rule Name: DemoVM1Port ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Enabled: Yes Direction: In Profiles: Domain,Private,Public Grouping: LocalIP: Any RemoteIP: Any Protocol: TCP LocalPort: 1433 RemotePort: Any Edge traversal: No Action: Allow Ok. Step 5 – Now connect from DemoVM2 to DB instance in DemoVM1 Step 6 – Close port 1433 in the Windows firewall netsh advfirewall firewall delete rule name=DemoVM1Port Output: Deleted 1 rule(s). Ok. netsh advfirewall firewall show rule name=DemoVM1Port No rules match the specified criteria. Step 7 – Try to connect from DemoVM2 to DB Instance in DemoVM1 Because port 1433 has been closed (in step 6) in the Windows Firewall in VM1 machine, we can longer connect from VM3 remotely to VM1. Scenario 2: VMs provisioned in different Cloud Services 2 Virtual machines configured in different cloud services. Both VMs running different SQL Server instances on them. Both VMs configured with remote PowerShell turned on to be able to run PS and other commands directly into them remotely in order to re-configure them to allow incoming SQL connections from a remote VM or on on-premise machine(s). Note: RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) is kept configured in both VMs by default to be able to remote connect to them and check the connections to SQL instances for demo purposes only; but not actually needed. Step 1 – Provision new VM3 Provision VM3; named DemoVM3 as follows (see examples screenshots below if using the portal): After provisioning is complete, here is the default port configurations: Step 2 – Add public port to VM1 connect to from VM3’s DB instance Since VM3 and VM1 are not connected in the same cloud service, we will need to specify the full DNS address while connecting between the machines which includes the public port. We shall add a public port 57000 in this case that is linked to private port 1433 which will be used later to connect to the DB instance. Step 3 – Remote Powershell to DemoVM1 Enter-PSSession -ComputerName condemo.cloudapp.net -Port 61503 -Credential <UserName> -UseSSL -SessionOption (New-PSSessionOption -SkipCACheck -SkipCNCheck) You will then be prompted to enter the password. Step 4 – Open 1433 port in the Windows firewall netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="DemoVM1Port" dir=in localport=1433 protocol=TCP action=allow Output: Ok. netsh advfirewall firewall show rule name=DemoVM1Port Rule Name: DemoVM1Port ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Enabled: Yes Direction: In Profiles: Domain,Private,Public Grouping: LocalIP: Any RemoteIP: Any Protocol: TCP LocalPort: 1433 RemotePort: Any Edge traversal: No Action: Allow Ok. Step 5 – Now connect from DemoVM3 to DB instance in DemoVM1 RDP into VM3, launch SSM and Connect to VM1’s DB instance as follows. You must specify the full server name using the DNS address and public port number configured above. Step 6 – Close port 1433 in the Windows firewall netsh advfirewall firewall delete rule name=DemoVM1Port Output: Deleted 1 rule(s). Ok. netsh advfirewall firewall show rule name=DemoVM1Port No rules match the specified criteria. Step 7 – Try to connect from DemoVM2 to DB Instance in DemoVM1 Because port 1433 has been closed (in step 6) in the Windows Firewall in VM1 machine, we can no longer connect from VM3 remotely to VM1. Conclusion Through the new support for remote PowerShell in Windows Azure Virtual Machines, one can script and automate many Virtual Machine and SQL management tasks. In this blog, we have demonstrated, how to start a remote PowerShell session, re-configure Virtual Machine firewall to allow (or disallow) SQL Server connections. References SQL Server in Windows Azure Virtual Machines Originally posted at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlosteam/

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ORACLE RIGHTNOW DYNAMIC AGENT DESKTOP CLOUD SERVICE - Putting the Dynamite into Dynamic Agent Desktop

- by Andreea Vaduva

Untitled Document There’s a mountain of evidence to prove that a great contact centre experience results in happy, profitable and loyal customers. The very best Contact Centres are those with high first contact resolution, customer satisfaction and agent productivity. But how many companies really believe they are the best? And how many believe that they can be? We know that with the right tools, companies can aspire to greatness – and achieve it. Core to this is ensuring their agents have the best tools that give them the right information at the right time, so they can focus on the customer and provide a personalised, professional and efficient service. Today there are multiple channels through which customers can communicate with you; phone, web, chat, social to name a few but regardless of how they communicate, customers expect a seamless, quality experience. Most contact centre agents need to switch between lots of different systems to locate the right information. This hampers their productivity, frustrates both the agent and the customer and increases call handling times. With this in mind, Oracle RightNow has designed and refined a suite of add-ins to optimize the Agent Desktop. Each is designed to simplify and adapt the agent experience for any given situation and unify the customer experience across your media channels. Let’s take a brief look at some of the most useful tools available and see how they make a difference. Contextual Workspaces: The screen where agents do their job. Agents don’t want to be slowed down by busy screens, scrolling through endless tabs or links to find what they’re looking for. They want quick, accurate and easy. Contextual Workspaces are fully configurable and through workspace rules apply if, then, else logic to display only the information the agent needs for the issue at hand . Assigned at the Profile level, different levels of agent, from a novice to the most experienced, get a screen that is relevant to their role and responsibilities and ensures their job is done quickly and efficiently the first time round. Agent Scripting: Sometimes, agents need to deliver difficult or sensitive messages while maximising the opportunity to cross-sell and up-sell. After all, contact centres are now increasingly viewed as revenue generators. Containing sophisticated branching logic, scripting helps agents to capture the right level of information and guides the agent step by step, ensuring no mistakes, inconsistencies or missed opportunities. Guided Assistance: This is typically used to solve common troubleshooting issues, displaying a series of question and answer sets in a decision-tree structure. This means agents avoid having to bookmark favourites or rely on written notes. Agents find particular value in these guides - to quickly craft chat and email responses. What’s more, by publishing guides in answers on support pages customers, can resolve issues themselves, without needing to contact your agents. And b ecause it can also accelerate agent ramp-up time, it ensures that even novice agents can solve customer problems like an expert. Desktop Workflow: Take a step back and look at the full customer interaction of your agents. It probably spans multiple systems and multiple tasks. With Desktop Workflows you control the design workflows that span the full customer interaction from start to finish. As sequences of decisions and actions, workflows are unique in that they can create or modify different records and provide automation behind the scenes. This means your agents can save time and provide better quality of service by having the tools they need and the relevant information as required. And doing this boosts satisfaction among your customers, your agents and you – so win, win, win! I have highlighted above some of the tools which can be used to optimise the desktop; however, this is by no means an exhaustive list. In approaching your design, it’s important to understand why and how your customers contact you in the first place. Once you have this list of “whys” and “hows”, you can design effective policies and procedures to handle each category of problem, and then implement the right agent desktop user interface to support them. This will avoid duplication and wasted effort. Five Top Tips to take away: Start by working out “why” and “how” customers are contacting you. Implement a clean and relevant agent desktop to support your agents. If your workspaces are getting complicated consider using Desktop Workflow to streamline the interaction. Enhance your Knowledgebase with Guides. Agents can access them proactively and can be published on your web pages for customers to help themselves. Script any complex, critical or sensitive interactions to ensure consistency and accuracy. Desktop optimization is an ongoing process so continue to monitor and incorporate feedback from your agents and your customers to keep your Contact Centre successful. Want to learn more? Having attending the 3-day Oracle RightNow Customer Service Administration class your next step is to attend the Oracle RightNow Customer Portal Design and 2-day Dynamic Agent Desktop Administration class. Here you’ll learn not only how to leverage the Agent Desktop tools but also how to optimise your self-service pages to enhance your customers’ web experience. Useful resources: Review the Best Practice Guide Review the tune-up guide About the Author: Angela Chandler joined Oracle University as a Senior Instructor through the RightNow Customer Experience Acquisition. Her other areas of expertise include Business Intelligence and Knowledge Management. She currently delivers the following Oracle RightNow courses in the classroom and as a Live Virtual Class: RightNow Customer Service Administration (3 days) RightNow Customer Portal Design and Dynamic Agent Desktop Administration (2 days) RightNow Analytics (2 days) Rightnow Chat Cloud Service Administration (2 days)

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Spooling in SQL execution plans

- by Rob Farley

Sewing has never been my thing. I barely even know the terminology, and when discussing this with American friends, I even found out that half the words that Americans use are different to the words that English and Australian people use. That said – let’s talk about spools! In particular, the Spool operators that you find in some SQL execution plans. This post is for T-SQL Tuesday, hosted this month by me! I’ve chosen to write about spools because they seem to get a bad rap (even in my song I used the line “There’s spooling from a CTE, they’ve got recursion needlessly”). I figured it was worth covering some of what spools are about, and hopefully explain why they are remarkably necessary, and generally very useful. If you have a look at the Books Online page about Plan Operators, at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms191158.aspx, and do a search for the word ‘spool’, you’ll notice it says there are 46 matches. 46! Yeah, that’s what I thought too... Spooling is mentioned in several operators: Eager Spool, Lazy Spool, Index Spool (sometimes called a Nonclustered Index Spool), Row Count Spool, Spool, Table Spool, and Window Spool (oh, and Cache, which is a special kind of spool for a single row, but as it isn’t used in SQL 2012, I won’t describe it any further here). Spool, Table Spool, Index Spool, Window Spool and Row Count Spool are all physical operators, whereas Eager Spool and Lazy Spool are logical operators, describing the way that the other spools work. For example, you might see a Table Spool which is either Eager or Lazy. A Window Spool can actually act as both, as I’ll mention in a moment. In sewing, cotton is put onto a spool to make it more useful. You might buy it in bulk on a cone, but if you’re going to be using a sewing machine, then you quite probably want to have it on a spool or bobbin, which allows it to be used in a more effective way. This is the picture that I want you to think about in relation to your data. I’m sure you use spools every time you use your sewing machine. I know I do. I can’t think of a time when I’ve got out my sewing machine to do some sewing and haven’t used a spool. However, I often run SQL queries that don’t use spools. You see, the data that is consumed by my query is typically in a useful state without a spool. It’s like I can just sew with my cotton despite it not being on a spool! Many of my favourite features in T-SQL do like to use spools though. This looks like a very similar query to before, but includes an OVER clause to return a column telling me the number of rows in my data set. I’ll describe what’s going on in a few paragraphs’ time. So what does a Spool operator actually do? The spool operator consumes a set of data, and stores it in a temporary structure, in the tempdb database. This structure is typically either a Table (ie, a heap), or an Index (ie, a b-tree). If no data is actually needed from it, then it could also be a Row Count spool, which only stores the number of rows that the spool operator consumes. A Window Spool is another option if the data being consumed is tightly linked to windows of data, such as when the ROWS/RANGE clause of the OVER clause is being used. You could maybe think about the type of spool being like whether the cotton is going onto a small bobbin to fit in the base of the sewing machine, or whether it’s a larger spool for the top. A Table or Index Spool is either Eager or Lazy in nature. Eager and Lazy are Logical operators, which talk more about the behaviour, rather than the physical operation. If I’m sewing, I can either be all enthusiastic and get all my cotton onto the spool before I start, or I can do it as I need it. “Lazy” might not the be the best word to describe a person – in the SQL world it describes the idea of either fetching all the rows to build up the whole spool when the operator is called (Eager), or populating the spool only as it’s needed (Lazy). Window Spools are both physical and logical. They’re eager on a per-window basis, but lazy between windows. And when is it needed? The way I see it, spools are needed for two reasons. 1 – When data is going to be needed AGAIN. 2 – When data needs to be kept away from the original source. If you’re someone that writes long stored procedures, you are probably quite aware of the second scenario. I see plenty of stored procedures being written this way – where the query writer populates a temporary table, so that they can make updates to it without risking the original table. SQL does this too. Imagine I’m updating my contact list, and some of my changes move data to later in the book. If I’m not careful, I might update the same row a second time (or even enter an infinite loop, updating it over and over). A spool can make sure that I don’t, by using a copy of the data. This problem is known as the Halloween Effect (not because it’s spooky, but because it was discovered in late October one year). As I’m sure you can imagine, the kind of spool you’d need to protect against the Halloween Effect would be eager, because if you’re only handling one row at a time, then you’re not providing the protection... An eager spool will block the flow of data, waiting until it has fetched all the data before serving it up to the operator that called it. In the query below I’m forcing the Query Optimizer to use an index which would be upset if the Name column values got changed, and we see that before any data is fetched, a spool is created to load the data into. This doesn’t stop the index being maintained, but it does mean that the index is protected from the changes that are being done. There are plenty of times, though, when you need data repeatedly. Consider the query I put above. A simple join, but then counting the number of rows that came through. The way that this has executed (be it ideal or not), is to ask that a Table Spool be populated. That’s the Table Spool operator on the top row. That spool can produce the same set of rows repeatedly. This is the behaviour that we see in the bottom half of the plan. In the bottom half of the plan, we see that the a join is being done between the rows that are being sourced from the spool – one being aggregated and one not – producing the columns that we need for the query. Table v Index When considering whether to use a Table Spool or an Index Spool, the question that the Query Optimizer needs to answer is whether there is sufficient benefit to storing the data in a b-tree. The idea of having data in indexes is great, but of course there is a cost to maintaining them. Here we’re creating a temporary structure for data, and there is a cost associated with populating each row into its correct position according to a b-tree, as opposed to simply adding it to the end of the list of rows in a heap. Using a b-tree could even result in page-splits as the b-tree is populated, so there had better be a reason to use that kind of structure. That all depends on how the data is going to be used in other parts of the plan. If you’ve ever thought that you could use a temporary index for a particular query, well this is it – and the Query Optimizer can do that if it thinks it’s worthwhile. It’s worth noting that just because a Spool is populated using an Index Spool, it can still be fetched using a Table Spool. The details about whether or not a Spool used as a source shows as a Table Spool or an Index Spool is more about whether a Seek predicate is used, rather than on the underlying structure. Recursive CTE I’ve already shown you an example of spooling when the OVER clause is used. You might see them being used whenever you have data that is needed multiple times, and CTEs are quite common here. With the definition of a set of data described in a CTE, if the query writer is leveraging this by referring to the CTE multiple times, and there’s no simplification to be leveraged, a spool could theoretically be used to avoid reapplying the CTE’s logic. Annoyingly, this doesn’t happen. Consider this query, which really looks like it’s using the same data twice. I’m creating a set of data (which is completely deterministic, by the way), and then joining it back to itself. There seems to be no reason why it shouldn’t use a spool for the set described by the CTE, but it doesn’t. On the other hand, if we don’t pull as many columns back, we might see a very different plan. You see, CTEs, like all sub-queries, are simplified out to figure out the best way of executing the whole query. My example is somewhat contrived, and although there are plenty of cases when it’s nice to give the Query Optimizer hints about how to execute queries, it usually doesn’t do a bad job, even without spooling (and you can always use a temporary table). When recursion is used, though, spooling should be expected. Consider what we’re asking for in a recursive CTE. We’re telling the system to construct a set of data using an initial query, and then use set as a source for another query, piping this back into the same set and back around. It’s very much a spool. The analogy of cotton is long gone here, as the idea of having a continual loop of cotton feeding onto a spool and off again doesn’t quite fit, but that’s what we have here. Data is being fed onto the spool, and getting pulled out a second time when the spool is used as a source. (This query is running on AdventureWorks, which has a ManagerID column in HumanResources.Employee, not AdventureWorks2012) The Index Spool operator is sucking rows into it – lazily. It has to be lazy, because at the start, there’s only one row to be had. However, as rows get populated onto the spool, the Table Spool operator on the right can return rows when asked, ending up with more rows (potentially) getting back onto the spool, ready for the next round. (The Assert operator is merely checking to see if we’ve reached the MAXRECURSION point – it vanishes if you use OPTION (MAXRECURSION 0), which you can try yourself if you like). Spools are useful. Don’t lose sight of that. Every time you use temporary tables or table variables in a stored procedure, you’re essentially doing the same – don’t get upset at the Query Optimizer for doing so, even if you think the spool looks like an expensive part of the query. I hope you’re enjoying this T-SQL Tuesday. Why not head over to my post that is hosting it this month to read about some other plan operators? At some point I’ll write a summary post – once I have you should find a comment below pointing at it. @rob_farley

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Java EE/GlassFish Adoption Story by Kerry Wilson/Vanderbilt University

- by reza_rahman

Kerry Wilson is a Software Engineer at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He served in a consultant role to design a lightweight systems integration solution for the next generation Foundations Recovery Network using GlassFish, Java EE 6, JPA, @Scheduled EJBs, CDI, JAX-RS and JSF. He shared his story at the JavaOne 2013 Sunday GlassFish community event - check out the video below: Kerry outlined some of the details of the implementation and emphasized the fact that Java EE can be a great solution for applications that are considered small/lightweight. He mentioned the productivity gains through the modern Java EE programming model centered on annotations, POJOs and zero-configuration - comparing it with competing frameworks that aim towards similar productivity for lightweight applications. Kerry also stressed the quality of the excellent NetBeans integration with GlassFish and the need for community self-support in free, non-commercial open source projects like GlassFish. You can check out the details of his story on the GlassFish stories blog. Do you have a Java EE/GlassFish adoption story to share? Let us know and we will highlight it for the community.

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Java EE/GlassFish Adoption Story by Kerry Wilson/Vanderbilt University

- by reza_rahman

Kerry Wilson is a Software Engineer at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He served in a consultant role to design a lightweight systems integration solution for the next generation Foundations Recovery Network using GlassFish, Java EE 6, JPA, @Scheduled EJBs, CDI, JAX-RS and JSF. He lives in Nashville, TN where he helps organize the Nashville Java User Group. Kerry shared his Java EE/GlassFish adoption story at the JavaOne 2013 Sunday GlassFish community event - check out the video below: Here is the slide deck for his talk: GlassFish Story by Kerry Wilson/Vanderbilt University Medical Center from glassfish Kerry outlined some of the details of the implementation and emphasized the fact that Java EE can be a great solution for applications that are considered small/lightweight. He mentioned the productivity gains through the modern Java EE programming model centered on annotations, POJOs and zero-configuration - comparing it with competing frameworks that aim towards similar productivity for lightweight applications. Kerry also stressed the quality of the excellent NetBeans integration with GlassFish and the need for community self-support in free, non-commercial open source projects like GlassFish.

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What can I do with the twitter API?

- by aditya menon

I've tried googling for this but could not find concrete developer examples. When building mundane daily web applications like Classified websites, Job boards or Intranet targeted Document Management Systems, how can the twitter API help me do more things. May I please have some examples on how developers have used twitter to make their apps better? Other than the obvious use for promotional and search engine optimization purpose (yay there's a new job post on our site), what can I do with it? Also, am I late to the party? I hear a lot of upset on the internet about how twitter is apparently slowly betraying developers (I don't understand the specifics), so should I even look at the system or consider alternatives?

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