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• Big Data – Operational Databases Supporting Big Data – Key-Value Pair Databases and Document Databases – Day 13 of 21

  - by Pinal Dave

  In yesterday’s blog post we learned the importance of the Relational Database and NoSQL database in the Big Data Story. In this article we will understand the role of Key-Value Pair Databases and Document Databases Supporting Big Data Story. Now we will see a few of the examples of the operational databases. Relational Databases (Yesterday’s post) NoSQL Databases (Yesterday’s post) Key-Value Pair Databases (This post) Document Databases (This post) Columnar Databases (Tomorrow’s post) Graph Databases (Tomorrow’s post) Spatial Databases (Tomorrow’s post) Key Value Pair Databases Key Value Pair Databases are also known as KVP databases. A key is a field name and attribute, an identifier. The content of that field is its value, the data that is being identified and stored. They have a very simple implementation of NoSQL database concepts. They do not have schema hence they are very flexible as well as scalable. The disadvantages of Key Value Pair (KVP) database are that they do not follow ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability) properties. Additionally, it will require data architects to plan for data placement, replication as well as high availability. In KVP databases the data is stored as strings. Here is a simple example of how Key Value Database will look like: Key Value Name Pinal Dave Color Blue Twitter @pinaldave Name Nupur Dave Movie The Hero As the number of users grow in Key Value Pair databases it starts getting difficult to manage the entire database. As there is no specific schema or rules associated with the database, there are chances that database grows exponentially as well. It is very crucial to select the right Key Value Pair Database which offers an additional set of tools to manage the data and provides finer control over various business aspects of the same. Riak Rick is one of the most popular Key Value Database. It is known for its scalability and performance in high volume and velocity database. Additionally, it implements a mechanism for collection key and values which further helps to build manageable system. We will further discuss Riak in future blog posts. Key Value Databases are a good choice for social media, communities, caching layers for connecting other databases. In simpler words, whenever we required flexibility of the data storage keeping scalability in mind – KVP databases are good options to consider. Document Database There are two different kinds of document databases. 1) Full document Content (web pages, word docs etc) and 2) Storing Document Components for storage. The second types of the document database we are talking about over here. They use Javascript Object Notation (JSON) and Binary JSON for the structure of the documents. JSON is very easy to understand language and it is very easy to write for applications. There are two major structures of JSON used for Document Database – 1) Name Value Pairs and 2) Ordered List. MongoDB and CouchDB are two of the most popular Open Source NonRelational Document Database. MongoDB MongoDB databases are called collections. Each collection is build of documents and each document is composed of fields. MongoDB collections can be indexed for optimal performance. MongoDB ecosystem is highly available, supports query services as well as MapReduce. It is often used in high volume content management system. CouchDB CouchDB databases are composed of documents which consists fields and attachments (known as description). It supports ACID properties. The main attraction points of CouchDB are that it will continue to operate even though network connectivity is sketchy. Due to this nature CouchDB prefers local data storage. Document Database is a good choice of the database when users have to generate dynamic reports from elements which are changing very frequently. A good example of document usages is in real time analytics in social networking or content management system. Tomorrow In tomorrow’s blog post we will discuss about various other Operational Databases supporting Big Data. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Big Data, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL

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• IE9, HTML5 and truck load of other stuff happening around the web

  - by Harish Ranganathan

  First of all, I haven’t been updating this blog as regularly as it used to be.  Primarily, due to the fact was I was visiting a lot of cities talking about SharePoint, Web Matrix, IE9 and few other stuff.  IE9 is my new found love and I simply think we have done great work in improving the browser and browsing experiences for our users. This post would talk about IE, general things happening around the web and few misconceptions around IE (I had earlier written about IE8 and common myths When you think about the way web has transformed, its truly amazing.  Rewind back to late 90s and early 2000s, web was a luxury.  There were lot of desktop applications running around and web applications was starting to pick up.  Primarily reason was not a lot of folks were into web development and the areas of web were confined to HTML and JavaScript.  CSS was around here and there but no one took it so seriously.  XML, XSLT was fast picking up and contributed to decent web development techniques. So as a web developer all we had to worry about was, building good looking websites which worked well with IE6 and occasionally with Safari.  Firefox was  not even in the picture then and so was Chrome.  But with the various arms of W3C consortium and other bodies working actively on stuff like CSS, SVG and XHTML, few more areas came into picture when it comes to browsers supporting standards.  IE6 for sure wasn’t up to the speed and the main issue we were tackling then was privacy and piracy.  We did invest a lot of our efforts to curb piracy and one of the steps into it was that, IE7 the next version of IE would install only on genuine windows machines.  What this means, is that, people who were running pirated windows xp knowingly/unknowingly could not install IE7 and the limitations of IE6 really hurt them.  One more thing of importance is that, if you were running pirated windows, lots of chances that you didn’t get the security updates and thereby were vulnerable to run viruses/trojans on your system. Many of them actually block using IE in the first place and make it difficult to browse.  SP2 came as a big boon but again was there only for genuine windows machines. With Firefox coming as a free install and also heavily pushed by Google then, it was natural that people would try an alternative.  By then, we had started working on IE8 supporting the best standards (note HTML5, CSS 2.1 and other specs were then work in progress.  they are still) Later, Google in their infinite wisdom realized that with Firefox they were going nowhere and they released Chrome.  Now, they heavily push Chrome even for Firefox users, which is natural since its their browser. In the meanwhile, these browsers push their updates as mandatory and therefore have a very short lifecycle to add enhancements and support for stuff like CSS etc., Meanwhile, when IE8 came out, it really was the best standards supported browser and a lot of people saw our efforts in improving our browser. HTML5 is the buzz word in the industry and there is a lot of noise being made by many browsers claiming their support for it.  IE8 doesn’t have much support for HTML5.  But, with IE9 Beta, we have great support for many of HTML5 specifications.  Note that, HTML5 is still work under progress and one of the board of members working on the spec has mentioned that these specs might change and relying on them heavily is dangerous.  But, some of the advances such as video tag, etc., are indeed supported in IE9 Beta.  IE9 Beta also has full hardware acceleration support which other browsers don’t have. IE8 had advanced security features such as smartscreen filter, in-private browsing, anti-phishing and a lot of other stuff.  IE9 builds on top of these with the best in town security standards as well as support for HTML5, CSS3, Hardware acceleration, SVG and many other advancements in browser.  Read more at http://www.beautyoftheweb.com/#/highlights/html5  To summarize, IE9 Beta is really innovative and you should try it to believe what it provides.  You can visit http://www.beautyoftheweb.com/  to install as well as read more on this. Cheers !!!

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• Big Data – Basics of Big Data Architecture – Day 4 of 21

  - by Pinal Dave

  In yesterday’s blog post we understood how Big Data evolution happened. Today we will understand basics of the Big Data Architecture. Big Data Cycle Just like every other database related applications, bit data project have its development cycle. Though three Vs (link) for sure plays an important role in deciding the architecture of the Big Data projects. Just like every other project Big Data project also goes to similar phases of the data capturing, transforming, integrating, analyzing and building actionable reporting on the top of  the data. While the process looks almost same but due to the nature of the data the architecture is often totally different. Here are few of the question which everyone should ask before going ahead with Big Data architecture. Questions to Ask How big is your total database? What is your requirement of the reporting in terms of time – real time, semi real time or at frequent interval? How important is the data availability and what is the plan for disaster recovery? What are the plans for network and physical security of the data? What platform will be the driving force behind data and what are different service level agreements for the infrastructure? This are just basic questions but based on your application and business need you should come up with the custom list of the question to ask. As I mentioned earlier this question may look quite simple but the answer will not be simple. When we are talking about Big Data implementation there are many other important aspects which we have to consider when we decide to go for the architecture. Building Blocks of Big Data Architecture It is absolutely impossible to discuss and nail down the most optimal architecture for any Big Data Solution in a single blog post, however, we can discuss the basic building blocks of big data architecture. Here is the image which I have built to explain how the building blocks of the Big Data architecture works. Above image gives good overview of how in Big Data Architecture various components are associated with each other. In Big Data various different data sources are part of the architecture hence extract, transform and integration are one of the most essential layers of the architecture. Most of the data is stored in relational as well as non relational data marts and data warehousing solutions. As per the business need various data are processed as well converted to proper reports and visualizations for end users. Just like software the hardware is almost the most important part of the Big Data Architecture. In the big data architecture hardware infrastructure is extremely important and failure over instances as well as redundant physical infrastructure is usually implemented. NoSQL in Data Management NoSQL is a very famous buzz word and it really means Not Relational SQL or Not Only SQL. This is because in Big Data Architecture the data is in any format. It can be unstructured, relational or in any other format or from any other data source. To bring all the data together relational technology is not enough, hence new tools, architecture and other algorithms are invented which takes care of all the kind of data. This is collectively called NoSQL. Tomorrow Next four days we will answer the Buzz Words – Hadoop. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Big Data, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL

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• TechEd Israel 2010 may only accept speakers from sponsors

  - by RoyOsherove

  A month or so ago, Microsoft Israel started sending out emails to its partners and registered event users to “Save the date!” – Micraoft Teched Israel is coming, and it’s going to be this november! “Great news” I thought to myself. I’d been to a couple of the MS teched events, as a speaker and as an attendee, and it was lovely and professionally done. Israel is an amazing place for technology and development and TechEd hosted some big names in the world of MS software. A couple of weeks ago, I was shocked to hear from a couple of people that Microsoft Israel plans to only accept non-MS teched speakers, only from sponsors of the event. That means that according to the amount that you have paid, you get to insert one or more of your own selected speakers as part of teched. I’ve spent the past couple of weeks trying to gather more evidence of this, and have gotten some input from within MS about this information. It looks like that is indeed the case, though no MS rep. was prepared to answer any email I had publicly. If they approach me now I’d be happy to print their response. What does this mean? If this is true, it means that Microsoft Israel is making a grave mistake – They are diluting the quality of the speakers for pure money factors. That means, that as a teched attendee, who paid good money, you might be sitting down to watch nothing more that a bunch of infomercials, or sub-standard speakers – since speakers are no longer selected on quality or interest in their topic. They are turning the conference from a learning event to a commercial driven event They are closing off the stage to the community of speakers who may not be associated with any organization  willing to be a sponsor They are losing speakers (such as myself) who will not want to be part of such an event. (yes – even if my company ends up sponsoring the event, I will not take part in it, Sorry Eli!) They are saying “F&$K you” to the community of MVPs who should be the people to be approached first about technical talks (my guess is many MVPs wouldn’t want to talk at an event driven that way anyway ) I do hope this ends up not being true, but it looks like it is. MS Israel had already done such a thing with the Developer Days event previouly held in Israel – only sponsors were allowed to insert speakers into the event. If this turns out to be true I would urge the MS community in Israel to NOT TAKE PART AT THIS EVENT in any form (attendee, speaker, sponsor or otherwise). by taking part, you will be telling MS Israel it’s OK to piss all over the community that they are quietly suffocating anyway. The MVP case MS Israel has managed to screw the MVP program as well. MS MVPs (I’m one) have had a tough time here in Israel the past couple of years. ever since yosi taguri left the blue badge ranks, there was not real community leader left. Whoever runs things right now has their eyes and minds set elsewhere, with the software MVP community far from mind and heart. No special MVP events (except a couple of small ones this year). No real MVP leadership happens here, with the MVP MEA lead (Ruari) being on a remote line, is not really what’s needed. “MVP? What’s that?” I’m sure many MS Israel employees would say. Exactly my point. Last word I’ve been disappointed by the MS machine for a while now, but their slowness to realize what real community means in the past couple of years really turns me off. Maybe it’s time to move on. Maybe I shouldn’t be chasing people at MS Israel begging for a room to host the Agile Israel user group. Maybe it’s time to say a big bye bye and start looking at a life a bit more disconnected.

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• Adding Attributes to Generated Classes

  ASP.NET MVC 2 adds support for data annotations, implemented via attributes on your model classes.  Depending on your design, you may be using an OR/M tool like Entity Framework or LINQ-to-SQL to generate your entity classes, and you may further be using these entities directly as your Model.  This is fairly common, and alleviates the need to do mapping between POCO domain objects and such entities (though there are certainly pros and cons to using such entities directly). As an example, the current version of the NerdDinner application (available on CodePlex at nerddinner.codeplex.com) uses Entity Framework for its model.  Thus, there is a NerdDinner.edmx file in the project, and a generated NerdDinner.Models.Dinner class.  Fortunately, these generated classes are marked as partial, so you can extend their behavior via your own partial class in a separate file.  However, if for instance the generated Dinner class has a property Title of type string, you cant then add your own Title of type string for the purpose of adding data annotations to it, like this: public partial class Dinner { [Required] public string Title { get;set; } } This will result in a compilation error, because the generated Dinner class already contains a definition of Title.  How then can we add attributes to this generated code?  Do we need to go into the T4 template and add a special case that says if were generated a Dinner class and it has a Title property, add this attribute?  Ick. MetadataType to the Rescue The MetadataType attribute can be used to define a type which contains attributes (metadata) for a given class.  It is applied to the class you want to add metadata to (Dinner), and it refers to a totally separate class to which youre free to add whatever methods and properties you like.  Using this attribute, our partial Dinner class might look like this: [MetadataType(typeof(Dinner_Validation))] public partial class Dinner {}   public class Dinner_Validation { [Required] public string Title { get; set; } } In this case the Dinner_Validation class is public, but if you were concerned about muddying your API with such classes, it could instead have been created as a private class within Dinner.  Having the validation attributes specified in their own class (with no other responsibilities) complies with the Single Responsibility Principle and makes it easy for you to test that the validation rules you expect are in place via these annotations/attributes. Thanks to Julie Lerman for her help with this.  Right after she showed me how to do this, I realized it was also already being done in the project I was working on. 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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• SQL SERVER – Performance Tuning Resolution

  - by pinaldave

  This blog post is written in response to T-SQL Tuesday hosted by MidnightDBAs. Taking resolutions is such an interesting subject. I think just like records, these are broken way more often. I find this is the funniest thing as we all take resolutions every year but not every year, we can manage to keep them. Well, does it mean we should not take resolutions? In fact I support resolutions. Every year, I take a resolution that I will strive reduce my body weight and I usually manage to keep eating healthy till the end of January. When February begins, I begin to loose focus from my goal and as March starts, the “As usual” eating habits begin. Looking at the positive side, what would happen if every year I do not eat healthy in January, I think that might cause terrible consequences to my health in the long run. So keeping resolutions is a good practise and following them to the extent one can is commendable. Let us come back to the world of SQL Server. What is my resolution for year 2011 for SQL Server? There are many, I am going to list three of very important resolutions that I have taken this new year over here. To understand SQL Server Performance Tuning at a deeper Level I think I am already half way through. I have been being very much busy during any given month doing hands-on performance tuning for at least 12 days on an average. That means, I am doing this activity for almost doing 2 weeks a month. I believe that I have a good understanding of the subject. Note that the word that I have used is “good,” and not “best.” There are often cases when I am stumped, and I have no clue of what to do next. Then, I usually go for my “trial and error” method - whichever method works, I make sure to keep a note on my blog. My goal is that I should never ever go for the trial and error method again to achieve the same solution. I should know the solution right away when I see the problem. I do understand that Performance Tuning can be a strange animal at times and one cannot guess the right step every time. However, aiming a high goal never hurts and I am going to learn more and more in this focused area. Going further from Basic BI understanding I do fairly decent with BI concepts. I know the nbasics of SSIS, SSRS, SSAS, PowerPivot and SharePoint (and few other things MDS, StreamInsight, etc). However, I still consider myself as a beginner. I do not have hands-on experience like many other BI Gurus around. I think I want to take my learning further in this direction. I do not want to be a BI expert as the first step but the goal is to move ahead from basic level towards an advanced level. I am going to start presenting in User Group Sessions and other places on this subject. When I have to prepare new subject for presentations, I think I force myself to learn more. I am committed to learn a bit more in this direction. Learning new features SQL Server 2011 Denali This is new thing from “Microsoft” for all the SQL Geeks. I am eagerly waiting for final product later this year and I am planning to learn it well. I think if I follow my above two goals, I think this goal will be automatically covered. I am eager and excited for this new offering from Microsoft. I guess, these are my resolutions; may be next year about the same time, I must revisit this post and see how much successful I am in following my goal. On a lighter note, I am particularly fan of following cartoon strip (Courtesy: Calvin and Hobbes). I think when we cannot resolve our resolutions, we tend to act like Calvin. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: About Me, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Creating All New Database with Full Recovery Model

  - by pinaldave

  Sometimes, complex problems have very simple solutions. Let us see the following email which I received recently. “Hi Pinal, In our system when we create new database, by default, they are all created with the Simple Recovery Model. We have to manually change the recovery model after we create the database. We used the following simple T-SQL code: CREATE DATABASE dbname. We are very frustrated with this situation. We want all our databases to have the Full Recovery Model option by default. We are considering the following methods; please suggest the most efficient one among them. 1) Creating a Policy; when it is violated, the database model can be fixed 2) Triggers at Server Level 3) Automated Job which goes through all the databases and checks their recovery model; if the DBA has not changed the model, then the job will list the Databases and change their recovery model Also, we have a situation where we need a database in the Simple Recovery Model as well – how to white list them? Please suggest the best method.” Indeed, an interesting email! The answer to their question, i.e., which is the best method to fit their needs (white list, default, etc)? It will be NONE of the above. Here is the solution in one line and also the easiest way: Just go to your Model database: Path in SSMS >> Databases > System Databases >> model >> Right Click Properties >> Options >> Recovery Model - Select Full from dropdown. Every newly created database takes its base template from the Model Database. If you create a custom SP in the Model Database, when you create a new database, it will automatically exist in that database. Any database that was already created before making changes in the Model Database will not be affected at all. Creating Policy is also a good method, and I will blog about this in a separate blog post, but looking at current specifications of the reader, I think the Model Database should be modified to have a Full Recovery Option. While writing this blog post, I remembered my another blog post where the model database log file was growing drastically even though there were no transactions SQL SERVER – Log File Growing for Model Database – model Database Log File Grew Too Big. NOTE: Please do not touch the Model Database unnecessary. It is a strict “No.” If you want to create an object that you need in all the databases, then instead of creating it in model database, I suggest that you create a new database called maintenance and create the object there. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, Readers Question, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• Free eBook with SQL Server performance tips and nuggets

  - by Claire Brooking

  I’ve often found that the kind of tips that turn out to be helpful are the ones that encourage me to make a small step outside of a routine. No dramatic changes – just a quick suggestion that changes an approach. As a languages student at university, one of the best I spotted came from outside the lecture halls and ended up saving me time (and lots of huffing and puffing) – the use of a rainbow of sticky notes for well-used pages and letter categories in my dictionary. Simple, but armed with a heavy dictionary that could double up as a step stool, those markers were surprisingly handy. When the Simple-Talk editors told me about a book they were planning that would give a series of tips for developers on how to improve database performance, we all agreed it needed to contain a good range of pointers for big-hitter performance topics. But we wanted to include some of the smaller, time-saving nuggets too. We hope we’ve struck a good balance. The 45 Database Performance Tips eBook covers different tips to help you avoid code that saps performance, whether that’s the ‘gotchas’ to be aware of when using Object to Relational Mapping (ORM) tools, or what to be aware of for indexes, database design, and T-SQL. The eBook is also available to download with SQL Prompt from Red Gate. We often hear that it’s the productivity-boosting side of SQL Prompt that makes it useful for everyday coding. So when a member of the SQL Prompt team mentioned an idea to make the most of tab history, a new feature in SQL Prompt 6 for SQL Server Management Studio, we were intrigued. Now SQL Prompt can save tabs we have been working on in SSMS as a way to maintain an active template for queries we often recycle. When we need to reuse the same code again, we search for our saved tab (and we can also customize its name to speed up the search) to get started. We hope you find the eBook helpful, and as always on Simple-Talk, we’d love to hear from you too. If you have a performance tip for SQL Server you’d like to share, email Melanie on the Simple-Talk team ([email protected]) and we’ll publish a collection in a follow-up post.

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• How to move complete SharePoint Server 2007 from one box to another

  - by DipeshBhanani

  It was time of my first onsite client assignment on SharePoint. Client had one server production environment. They wanted to upgrade the topology with completely new SharePoint Farm of three servers. So, the task was to move whole MOSS 2007 stuff to the new server environment without impacting data. The last three scary words “… without impacting data…” were actually putting pressure on my head. Moreover SSP was required to move because additional information has been added for users apart from AD import.   I thought I had to do only backup and restore. It appeared pretty easy at first thought. Just because of these damn scary words, I thought to check out on internet for guidance related to this scenario. I couldn’t get anything except general guidance of moving server on Microsoft TechNet site. I promised myself for starting blogs with this post if I would be successful in this task. Well, I took long time to write this but finally made it. I hope it will be useful to all guys looking for SharePoint server movement.   Before beginning restoration, make sure that, there is no difference in versions of SharePoint at source and destination server. Also check whether the state of SharePoint Installation at the time of backup and restore is same or not. (E.g. SharePoint related service packs and patches if any)   The main tasks of the server movement are as follow:   Backup all the databases Install and configure SharePoint on new environment Deploy all solution (WSP Files) globally to destination server- for installing features attached to the solutions Install all the custom features Deploy/Copy custom pages/files which are added to the “12Hive” folder later Restore SSP Restore My Site Restore other web application   Tasks 3 to 5 are for making sure that we have configured the environment well enough for the web application to be restored successfully. The main and complex task was restoring SSP. I have started restoring SSP through Central Admin. After a while, the restoration status was updated to “unsuccessful”. “Damn it, what went wrong?” I thought looking at the error detail down the page. I couldn’t remember the error message but I had corrected and restored it again.   Actually once you fail restoring SSP, until and unless you don’t clean all related stuff well, your restoration will be failed again and again. I wanted to find the actual reason. So cleaned, restored, cleaned, restored… I had tried almost 5-6 times and finally, I succeeded. I had realized how pleasant it is, to see the word “Successful” on the screen. Without wasting your much time to read, let me write all the detailed steps of restoring SSP:   Delete the SSP through following STSADM command. stsadm -o deletessp -title <SSP name> -deletedatabases -force e.g.: stsadm -o deletessp -title SharedServices1 -deletedatabases –force Check and delete the web application associated with SSP if it exists. Remove Link from Check and remove “Alternate Access Mapping” associated with SSP if it exists. Check and delete IIS site as well as application pool associated with SSP if it exists. Stop following services: ·         Office SharePoint Server Search ·         Windows SharePoint Services Search ·         Windows SharePoint Services Help Search Delete all the databases associated/related to SSP from SQL Server. Reset IIS. Start again following services: ·         Office SharePoint Server Search ·         Windows SharePoint Services Search ·         Windows SharePoint Services Help Search Restore the new SSP.   After the SSP restoration, all other stuffs had completed very smoothly without any more issues. I did few modifications to sites for change of server name and finally, the new environment was ready.

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• Python Coding standards vs. productivity

  - by Shroatmeister

  I work for a large humanitarian organisation, on a project building software that could help save lives in emergencies by speeding up the distribution of food. Many NGOs desperately need our software and we are weeks behind schedule. One thing that worries me in this project is what I think is an excessive focus on coding standards. We write in python/django and use a version of PEP0008, with various modifications e.g. line lengths can go up to 160 chars and all lines should go that long if possible, no blank lines between imports, line wrapping rules that apply only to certain kinds of classes, lots of templates that we must use, even if they aren't the best way to solve a problem etc. etc. One core dev spent a week rewriting a major part of the system to meet the then new coding standards, throwing away several suites of tests in the process, as the rewrite meant they were 'invalid'. We spent two weeks rewriting all the functionality that was lost, and fixing bugs. He is the lead dev and his word carries weight, so he has convinced the project manager that these standards are necessary. The junior devs do as they are told. I sense that the project manager has a strong feeling of cognitive dissonance about all this but nevertheless agrees with it vehemently as he feels unsure what else to do. Today I got in serious trouble because I had forgotten to put some spaces after commas in a keyword argument. I was literally shouted at by two other devs and the project manager during a Skype call. Personally I think coding standards are important but also think that we are wasting a lot of time obsessing with them, and when I verbalized this it provoked rage. I'm seen as a troublemaker in the team, a team that is looking for scapegoats for its failings. Since the introduction of the coding standards, the team's productivity has measurably plummeted, however this only reinforces the obsession, i.e. the lead dev simply blames our non-adherence to standards for the lack of progress. He believes that we can't read each other's code if we don't adhere to the conventions. This is starting to turn sticky. Now I am trying to modify various scripts, autopep8, pep8ify and PythonTidy to try to match the conventions. We also run pep8 against source code but there are so many implicit amendments to our standard that it's hard to track them all. The lead dev simple picks faults that the pep8 script doesn't pick up and shouts at us in the next stand-up meeting. Every week there are new additions to the coding standards that force us to rewrite existing, working, tested code. Thank heavens we still have tests, (I reverted some commits and fixed a bunch of the ones he removed). All the while there is increasing pressure to meet the deadline. I believe a fundamental issue is that the lead dev and another core dev refuse to trust other developers to do their job. But how to deal with that? We can't do our job because we are too busy rewriting everything. I've never encountered this dynamic in a software engineering team. Am I wrong to question their adherence to coding standards? Has anyone else experienced a similar situation and how have they dealt with it successfully? (I'm not looking for a discussion just actual solutions people have found)

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• Which web framework to use under Backbonejs?

  - by egidra

  For a previous project, I was using Backbonejs alongside Django, but I found out that I didn't use many features from Django. So, I am looking for a lighter framework to use underneath a Backbonejs web app. I never used Django built in templates. When I did, it was to set up the initial index page, but that's all. I did use the user management system that Django provided. I used the models.py, but never views.py. I used urls.py to set up which template the user would hit upon visiting the site. I noticed that the two features that I used most from Django was South and Tastypie, and they aren't even included with Django. Particularly, django-tastypie made it easy for me to link up my frontend models to my backend models. It made it easy to JSONify my front end models and send them to Tastypie. Although, I found myself overriding a lot of tastypie's methods for GET, PUT, POST requests, so it became useless. South made it easy to migrate new changes to the database. Although, I had so much trouble with South. Is there a framework with an easier way of handling database modifications than using South? When using South with multiple people, we had the worse time keeping our databases synced. When someone added a new table and pushed their migration to git, the other two people would spend days trying to use South's automatic migration, but it never worked. I liked how Rails had a manual way of migrating databases. Even though I used Tastypie and South a lot, I found myself not actually liking them because I ended up overriding most Tastypie methods for each Resource, and I also had the worst trouble migrating new tables and columns with South. So, I would like a framework that makes that process easier. Part of my problem was that they are too "magical". Which framework should I use? Nodejs or a lighter Python framework? Which works best with my above criteria?

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• Physics/Graphics Components

  - by Brett Powell

  I have spent the last 48 hours reading up on Object Component systems, and feel I am ready enough to start implementing it. I got the base Object and Component classes created, but now that I need to start creating the actual components I am a bit confused. When I think of them in terms of HealthComponent or something that would basically just be a property, it makes perfect sense. When it is something more general as a Physics/Graphics component, I get a bit confused. My Object class looks like this so far (If you notice any changes I should make please let me know, still new to this)... typedef unsigned int ID; class GameObject { public: GameObject(ID id, Ogre::String name = ""); ~GameObject(); ID &getID(); Ogre::String &getName(); virtual void update() = 0; // Component Functions void addComponent(Component *component); void removeComponent(Ogre::String familyName); template<typename T> T* getComponent(Ogre::String familyName) { return dynamic_cast<T*>(m_components[familyName]); } protected: // Properties ID m_ID; Ogre::String m_Name; float m_flVelocity; Ogre::Vector3 m_vecPosition; // Components std::map<std::string,Component*> m_components; std::map<std::string,Component*>::iterator m_componentItr; }; Now the problem I am running into is what would the general population put into Components such as Physics/Graphics? For Ogre (my rendering engine) the visible Objects will consist of multiple Ogre::SceneNode (possibly multiple) to attach it to the scene, Ogre::Entity (possibly multiple) to show the visible meshes, and so on. Would it be best to just add multiple GraphicComponent's to the Object and let each GraphicComponent handle one SceneNode/Entity or is the idea to have one of each Component needed? For Physics I am even more confused. I suppose maybe creating a RigidBody and keeping track of mass/interia/etc. would make sense. But I am having trouble thinking of how to actually putting specifics into a Component. Once I get a couple of these "Required" components done, I think it will make a lot more sense. As of right now though I am still a bit stumped.

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• ODI 11g - Dynamic and Flexible Code Generation

  - by David Allan

  ODI supports conditional branching at execution time in its code generation framework. This is a little used, little known, but very powerful capability - this let's one piece of template code behave dynamically based on a runtime variable's value for example. Generally knowledge module's are free of any variable dependency. Using variable's within a knowledge module for this kind of dynamic capability is a valid use case - definitely in the highly specialized area. The example I will illustrate is much simpler - how to define a filter (based on mapping here) that may or may not be included depending on whether at runtime a certain value is defined for a variable. I define a variable V_COND, if I set this variable's value to 1, then I will include the filter condition 'EMP.SAL > 1' otherwise I will just use '1=1' as the filter condition. I use ODIs substitution tags using a special tag '<$' which is processed just prior to execution in the runtime code - so this code is included in the ODI scenario code and it is processed after variables are substituted (unlike the '<?' tag).  So the lines below are not equal ... <$ if ( "#V_COND".equals("1")  ) { $> EMP.SAL > 1 <$ } else { $> 1 = 1 <$ } $> <? if ( "#V_COND".equals("1")  ) { ?> EMP.SAL > 1 <? } else { ?> 1 = 1 <? } ?> When the <? code is evaluated the code is executed without variable substitution - so we do not get the desired semantics, must use the <$ code. You can see the jython (java) code in red is the conditional if statement that drives whether the 'EMP.SAL > 1' or '1=1' is included in the generated code. For this illustration you need at least the ODI 11.1.1.6 release - with the vanilla 11.1.1.5 release it didn't work for me (may be patches?). As I mentioned, normally KMs don't have dependencies on variables - since any users must then have these variables defined etc. but it does afford a lot of runtime flexibility if such capabilities are required - something to keep in mind, definitely.

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• SQL SERVER – How to easily work with Database Diagrams

  - by Pinal Dave

  Databases are very widely used in the modern world. Regardless of the complexity of a database, each one requires in depth designing. To practice along please Download dbForge Studio now.  The right methodology of designing a database is based on the foundations of data normalization, according to which we should first define database’s key elements – entities. Afterwards the attributes of entities and relations between them are determined. There is a strong opinion that the process of database designing should start with a pencil and a blank sheet of paper. This might look old-fashioned nowadays, because SQL Server provides a much wider functionality for designing databases – Database Diagrams. When using SSMS for working with Database Diagrams I realized two things – on the one hand, visualization of a scheme allows designing a database more efficiently; on the other – when it came to creating a big scheme, some difficulties occurred when designing with SSMS. The alternatives haven’t taken long to wait and dbForge Studio for SQL Server is one of them. Its functions offer more advantages for working with Database Diagrams. For example, unlike SSMS, dbForge Studio supports an opportunity to drag-and-drop several tables at once from the Database Explorer. This is my opinion but personally I find this option very useful. Another great thing is that a diagram can be saved as both a graphic file and a special XML file, which in case of identical environment can be easily opened on the other server for continuing the work. During working with dbForge Studio it turned out that it offers a wide set of elements to operate with on the diagram. Noteworthy among such elements are containers which allow aggregating diagram objects into thematic groups. Moreover, you can even place an image directly on the diagram if the scheme design is based on a standard template. Each of the development environments has a different approach to storing a diagram (for example, SSMS stores them on a server-side, whereas dbForge Studio – in a local file). I haven’t found yet an ability to convert existing diagrams from SSMS to dbForge Studio. However I hope Devart developers will implement this feature in one of the following releases. All in all, editing Database Diagrams through dbForge Studio was a nice experience and allowed speeding-up the common database designing tasks. Download dbForge Studio now. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL Utility, T SQL

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• Announcement: Employee Info Starter Kit (v6.0–ASP.NET MVC Edition) is Released

  - by Mohammad Ashraful Alam

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/joycsharp/archive/2013/06/16/announcement-employee-info-starter-kit-v6.0asp.net-mvc-edition-is-released.aspxAfter a long wait, the next version of Employee Info Starter Kit is released! This starter kit is basically a project template that contains code samples targeting a specific technology, such as ASP.NET Web Form, ASP.NET MVC etc. Since its first release, this open source project gained a huge popularity in the developer community and had 250K+ combined downloads. This starter kit is honored to be placed at the official ASP.NET site, along with other asp.net starter kits, which all are being considered as the “best” ASP.NET coding standards, recommended by Microsoft. EISK is showcased in Microsoft’s Channel 9’s Weekly Show, as well. The ASP.NET MVC Edition of the new version 6.0 bundles most of the greatest and successful platforms, frameworks and technologies together, to enable web developers to learn and build manageable and high performance web applications with rich user experience effectively and quickly. User End Specifications Creating a new employee record Read existing employee records Update an existing employee record Delete existing employee records Role based security model Key Technology Areas ASP.NET MVC 4 Entity Framework 4.3.1 Sql Server Compact Edition 4 Visual Studio 2012 QuickStart Guide Getting started with EISK 6.0 ASP.NET is pretty easy. Once you've Visual Studio 2012 installed, then just follow the steps as provided below: Download the EISK 6.0 MVC version. Extract the file. From the extracted folder, click the solution file "Eisk.MVC-VS2012.sln". Right click the "Eisk.MVC" project node and select "Select set as StartUp Project". Hit Ctrl+F5 and explore! Architectural Overview Overall architecture is based on Model-View-Controller pattern Support for desktop & mobile browsers. Usage of Domain Model, Repository and Unit of Work pattern from Domain Driven Development approach Usage of Data Annotations in model (entity) classes to centralize basic validation mechanism that facilitates DRY principle Usage of IValidatableObject interface in model (entity) classes that isolates custom business logic from application layer Usage of OOP inheritance and Value Object pattern in model (entity) classes that provides reusability in application architecture Usage of View Model, Editor Model pattern that provides mechanism for testable view rendering logic Several helper classes and extension methods to enable developers build application with reduced code If you want to learn more about it in details, just check the following links: Getting Started - Hands on Coding Walkthrough – Technology Stack - Design & Architecture Enjoy!

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• Altering a Column Which has a Default Constraint

  - by Dinesh Asanka

  Setting up a default column is a common task for  developers.  But, are we naming those default constraints explicitly? In the below  table creation, for the column, sys_DateTime the default value Getdate() will be allocated. CREATE TABLE SampleTable (ID int identity(1,1), Sys_DateTime Datetime DEFAULT getdate() ) We can check the relevant information from the system catalogs from following query. SELECT sc.name TableName, dc.name DefaultName, dc.definition, OBJECT_NAME(dc.parent_object_id) TableName, dc.is_system_named  FROM sys.default_constraints dc INNER JOIN sys.columns sc ON dc.parent_object_id = sc.object_id AND dc.parent_column_id = sc.column_id and results would be: Most of the above columns are self-explanatory. The last column, is_system_named, is to identify whether the default name was given by the system. As you know, in the above case, since we didn’t provide  any default name, the  system will generate a default name for you. But the problem with these names is that they can differ from environment to environment.  If example if I create this table in different table the default name could be DF__SampleTab__Sys_D__7E6CC920 Now let us create another default and explicitly name it: CREATE TABLE SampleTable2 (ID int identity(1,1), Sys_DateTime Datetime )   ALTER TABLE SampleTable2 ADD CONSTRAINT DF_sys_DateTime_Getdate DEFAULT( Getdate()) FOR Sys_DateTime If we run the previous query again we will be returned the below output. And you can see that last created default name has 0 for is_system_named. Now let us say I want to change the data type of the sys_DateTime column to something else: ALTER TABLE SampleTable2 ALTER COLUMN Sys_DateTime Date This will generate the below error: Msg 5074, Level 16, State 1, Line 1 The object ‘DF_sys_DateTime_Getdate’ is dependent on column ‘Sys_DateTime’. Msg 4922, Level 16, State 9, Line 1 ALTER TABLE ALTER COLUMN Sys_DateTime failed because one or more objects access this column. This means, you need to drop the default constraint before altering it: ALTER TABLE [dbo].[SampleTable2] DROP CONSTRAINT [DF_sys_DateTime_Getdate] ALTER TABLE SampleTable2 ALTER COLUMN Sys_DateTime Date   ALTER TABLE [dbo].[SampleTable2] ADD CONSTRAINT [DF_sys_DateTime_Getdate] DEFAULT (getdate()) FOR [Sys_DateTime] If you have a system named default constraint that can differ from environment to environment and so you cannot drop it as before, you can use the below code template: DECLARE @defaultname VARCHAR(255) DECLARE @executesql VARCHAR(1000)   SELECT @defaultname = dc.name FROM sys.default_constraints dc INNER JOIN sys.columns sc ON dc.parent_object_id = sc.object_id AND dc.parent_column_id = sc.column_id WHERE OBJECT_NAME (parent_object_id) = 'SampleTable' AND sc.name ='Sys_DateTime' SET @executesql = 'ALTER TABLE SampleTable DROP CONSTRAINT ' + @defaultname EXEC( @executesql) ALTER TABLE SampleTable ALTER COLUMN Sys_DateTime Date ALTER TABLE [dbo].[SampleTable] ADD DEFAULT (Getdate()) FOR [Sys_DateTime]

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• SQL Sentry Truth-Telling and Disk Configuration

  - by AjarnMark

  Recently, SQL Sentry told me something about my SQL Server disk configurations that I just didn’t want to believe, but alas, it was true. Several days ago I posted my First Impressions of the SQL Sentry Power Suite.  Today’s post could fall into the category of, “Hey, as long as you have that fancy tool…”  Unfortunately, it also falls into the category of an overloaded worker taking someone else’s word for the truth, not verifying it with independent fact-checking, and then making decisions based on that.  Here’s my story… I’m not exactly an Accidental DBA (or Involuntary DBA as Paul Randal calls it).  I came to this company five years ago as a lead application developer with extensive experience in database design and development.  I worked my way into management, and along the way, took over the DBA responsibilities.  Fortunately, our systems run pretty smoothly most of the time, but I’m always looking for ways to make them better and to fit into my understanding of best practices.  When I took over as DBA, I inherited a SQL 2000 server with about 30 databases on it supporting our main systems, and a SQL 2005 server with multiple instances.  Both of these servers were configured with the Operating System and Application files on the C drive, data files on a different drive letter, and log files on a third drive letter.  Even before I took over as DBA, I verified that this was true with a previous server administrator, and that these represented actual separate disks.  He stated that they did, and I thought that all was well. Then one day, I’m poking around inside the SQL Sentry Performance Advisor, checking out features as I am evaluating whether to purchase the product, and I come across a Disk Configuration section.  The first thing I notice is that the drives do not have the proper partition offset, which was not at all surprising to me given the age of the installation and the relative newness of that topic.  But what threw me for a loop was that the graphic display appeared to be telling me that I did not in fact have three separate drives (or arrays) but rather had two, and that the log files were merely on a separate volume on the same physical array as the OS.  I figured that I must be reading it wrong so I scanned the Help file, but that just seemed to confirm my interpretation.  Then I thought, “there must be something wrong with the demo version of the software!  This can’t be right!”  But just to double-check, I went to our current server admin to talk it over with him, and sure enough, SQL Sentry was telling the truth! I was stunned!  I quickly went through the grieving process…denial…anger…reconciliation.  Here was something that I thought was such a basic truth that was turned upside down.  OK, granted, this wasn’t disastrous.  Our databases didn’t suddenly grind to a halt.  I didn’t get calls late at night inquiring about the sudden downturn in performance.  But it was a bit of a shock to the system, in a good way, to jolt me out of taking what I had believed as the truth for granted, and instead to Trust, but Verify! Yes, before someone else points it out, I know that there are”free” disk management tools built-in to Windows that would have told me the same thing if I had only looked at them; I did not have to buy a fancy tool to tell me that, but the fact is, until I was evaluating the tool, I had just gone with what I was told, and never bothered to check what was actually there. So, what things do you believe to be true but you actually never verified?

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• Developing add-ins for multiple versions of Office

  - by Pranav

  Do you want to develop an add-in targeting multiple versions of Office? And you have basic questions like “Is it possible to do? ” and “How to do it?” ? Then you came to the right place. Few months back, I got a requirement to developed add-ins for Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007. The functionality for both the versions is same. A doubt stroked… when the functionality is same, why would I develop two add-ins separately? Why don’t I make a single build for both the versions of Office? Then I started searching for techniques to develop add-ins which works in both (2003 and 2007) and read many articles written by VSTO Experts in their blogs, Official VSTO Blog, MSDN, Forums and what not. Misha Says: Theoretically, you can develop an add-in for multiple versions of Microsoft Office by catering to the lowest common denominator. This means if you use an Excel 2003 add-in template in Visual Studio 2008, you would be able to develop and debug this with Excel 2007. However if you try this, you may meet these error messages: “You cannot debug or run this project, because the required version of the Microsoft Office application is not installed.”, followed by “Unable to start debugging.” You can develop Office 2003 add-in in a system where Office 2007 is installed. The following is the procedure that demonstrates how to update your Visual Studio debugging options to use Microsoft Outlook 2007 to debug an add-in targeting Microsoft Outlook 2003. On the Project menu, click on ProjectName Properties Click on the Debug tab In the Start Action pane, click the Start external program radio button Click the file browser button and navigate to %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\Office12 Choose Outlook.exe and click Open Press F5 to debug your add-in For more details. Go through this article in Misha Shneerson’s Blog. There are some tips and tricks to be followed and the things that one needs to take care while developing add-ins targeting multiple versions of Office in Andrew’s Blog. Have a look at this too. You might find it interesting and useful. http://blogs.msdn.com/andreww/archive/2007/06/15/can-you-build-one-add-in-for-multiple-versions-of-office.aspx Here is an MSDN article on Running Solutions in Different Versions of Microsoft Office http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb772080.aspx Hope this helps!

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• SQL Server MVP Deep Dives 2. The Awesome Returns.

  - by Mladen Prajdic

  Two years ago 59 SQL Server MVP's came together and helped make one of the best book on SQL Server out there. Each chapter was written by an MVP about a part of SQL Server they loved working with. This resulted in superb quality content and excellent ratings from the readers. To top it off all earnings went to a good cause, the War Child International organization. That book was SQL Server MVP Deep Dives. This year 63 SQL Server MVPs, me included, decided it was time do repeat the success of the first book. Let me introduce you the: SQL Server MVP Deep Dives 2 The topics in 60 chapters are grouped in 5 groups: Architecture, Database Administration, Database Development, Performance Tuning and Optimization, Business Intelligence. They represent over 1000 years of daily experience in various areas of SQL Server. I have contributed chapter 28 in Database Development group titled Getting asynchronous with Service Broker. In it I show you the Service Broker template you can use for secure communication between two or more SQL server instances for whatever purpose you may have. If you haven't heard of Service Broker it's a part of the database engine that enables you to do completely async operations in the database itself or between databases and instances. The official release of the book will be next week at PASS where there will be 2 slots where most of the authors will be there signing the books you bring. This is also a great opportunity to meet everyone and ask about any problems you may have. So definitely come say hi. Again we decided on a charity that will be supported by this book. It's called Operation Smile. They provide free surgeries to repair cleft lip, cleft palate and other facial deformities for children around the globe. You can also help them by donating. You can preorder it on at Manning Publications website or on Amazon. By having it you not only get to learn a lot, improve your skills and have fun but you also help a child have a normal life. If that's not a good cause then I don't know what it is.

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• SharePoint Saturday DC

  - by Mark Rackley

  Wow… did you see this thing? 927 attendees? An exhibition hall full of vendors? 94 speakers? 100 sessions?? Insane is a word that comes to mind… SharePoint Saturday DC was definitely epic as far as SharePoint Saturdays go. I got to catch up with a lot of friends and make some new ones.  Met a couple of fans of the blog (hello ladies…;))  Did you know that people actually read this thing? I guess that means I need to stop putting so much garbage on here and more content. I’ll get right on that as soon as I find out how to add 6 hours to each day. Anyway, once again I did my “Wrapping Your Head Around the SharePoint Beast” session.  I tweaked it even more from Huntsville and presented to a packed room with some people sitting on the floor and standing in the aisles. It was a great crowd, very interactive and they seemed interested at least. Thank you guys so much for attending and please feel free to tell me of any suggestions you have to make the presentation better.  This is one of the presentations that will probably never die. Everyone beginning SharePoint development needs a good introduction and starting point. My goal is to make this THE session to see on the subject. So, a little interesting data about my class. Half of the room was brand new to SharePoint and only one person was using 2010. That tells me that this session still has legs and that 2007 isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.  I know my organization will be using 2007 for at least a couple more years. Oh yeah… the slide deck?  Here it is: SharePoint Saturday DC Slide Deck So, SharePoint Saturday was truly tremendous and if you weren’t there you missed out. @meetdux, @usher, and the rest of their crew did a spectacular job. You guys rock and are a huge asset to the community. Thanks for allowing me to speak. What’s up next for me?  I’m so glad you asked…. SHAREPOINT SATURDAY OZARKS IS JUNE 12TH! Although SharePoint Saturday Ozarks on June 12 in Harrison Arkansas will be a much more intimate event than DC, it promises to be a most memorable event. We’ve got over 30 speakers and sessions, some cool stuff to give away, and we’re going floating down the Buffalo River on the 13th. Let’s see you do THAT in DC.  :) Anyway, I hope to see you there and I would truly appreciate any help you can do to help publicize the event. We just got internet here in the hills and most people here are still looking for the “any” key….

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• C#: A "Dumbed-Down" C++?

  - by James Michael Hare

  I was spending a lovely day this last weekend watching my sons play outside in one of the better weekends we've had here in Saint Louis for quite some time, and whilst watching them and making sure no limbs were broken or eyes poked out with sticks and other various potential injuries, I was perusing (in the correct sense of the word) this month's MSDN magazine to get a sense of the latest VS2010 features in both IDE and in languages. When I got to the back pages, I saw a wonderful article by David S. Platt entitled, "In Praise of Dumbing Down"  (msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/ee336129.aspx).  The title captivated me and I read it and found myself agreeing with it completely especially as it related to my first post on divorcing C++ as my favorite language. Unfortunately, as Mr. Platt mentions, the term dumbing-down has negative connotations, but is really and truly a good thing.  You are, in essence, taking something that is extremely complex and reducing it to something that is much easier to use and far less error prone.  Adding safeties to power tools and anti-kick mechanisms to chainsaws are in some sense "dumbing them down" to the common user -- but that also makes them safer and more accessible for the common user.  This was exactly my point with C++ and C#.  I did not mean to infer that C++ was not a useful or good language, but that in a very high percentage of cases, is too complex and error prone for the job at hand. Choosing the correct programming language for a job is a lot like choosing any other tool for a task.  For example: if I want to dig a French drain in my lawn, I can attempt to use a huge tractor-like backhoe and the job would be done far quicker than if I would dig it by hand.  I can't deny that the backhoe has the raw power and speed to perform.  But you also cannot deny that my chances of injury or chances of severing utility lines or other resources climb at an exponential rate inverse to the amount of training I may have on that machinery. Is C++ a powerful tool?  Oh yes, and it's great for those tasks where speed and performance are paramount.  But for most of us, it's the wrong tool.  And keep in mind, I say this even though I have 17 years of experience in using it and feel myself highly adept in utilizing its features both in the standard libraries, the STL, and in supplemental libraries such as BOOST.  Which, although greatly help with adding powerful features quickly, do very little to curb the relative dangers of the language. So, you may say, the fault is in the developer, that if the developer had some higher skills or if we only hired C++ experts this would not be an issue.  Now, I will concede there is some truth to this.  Obviously, the higher skilled C++ developers you hire the better the chance they will produce highly performant and error-free code.  However, what good is that to the average developer who cannot afford a full stable of C++ experts? That's my point with C#:  It's like a kinder, gentler C++.  It gives you nearly the same speed, and in many ways even more power than C++, and it gives you a much softer cushion for novices to fall against if they code less-than-optimally.  A bug is a bug, of course, in any language, but C# does a good job of hiding and taking on the task of handling almost all of the resource issues that make C++ so tricky.  For my money, C# is much more maintainable, more feature-rich, second only slightly in performance, faster to market, and -- last but not least -- safer and easier to use.  That's why, where I work, I much prefer to see the developers moving to C#.  The quantity of bugs is much lower, and we don't need to hire "experts" to achieve the same results since the language itself handles those resource pitfalls so prevalent in poorly written C++ code.  C++ will still have its place in the world, and I'm sure I'll still use it now and again where it is truly the correct tool for the job, but for nearly every other project C# is a wonderfully "dumbed-down" version of C++ -- in the very best sense -- and to me, that's the smart choice.

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• Giving a Zone "More Power"

  - by Brian Leonard

  In addition to the traditional virtualization benefits that Solaris zones offer, applications running in zones are also running in a more secure environment. One way to quantify this is compare the privileges available to the global zone with those of a local zone. For example, there a 82 distinct privileges available to the global zone: bleonard@solaris:~$ ppriv -l | wc -l 82 You can view the descriptions for each of those privileges as follows: bleonard@solaris:~$ ppriv -lv contract_event Allows a process to request critical events without limitation. Allows a process to request reliable delivery of all events on any event queue. contract_identity Allows a process to set the service FMRI value of a process contract template. ... Or for just one or more privileges: bleonard@solaris:~$ ppriv -lv file_dac_read file_dac_write file_dac_read Allows a process to read a file or directory whose permission bits or ACL do not allow the process read permission. file_dac_write Allows a process to write a file or directory whose permission bits or ACL do not allow the process write permission. In order to write files owned by uid 0 in the absence of an effective uid of 0 ALL privileges are required. However, in a non-global zone, only 43 of the 83 privileges are available by default: root@myzone:~# ppriv -l zone | wc -l 43 The missing privileges are: cpc_cpu dtrace_kernel dtrace_proc dtrace_user file_downgrade_sl file_flag_set file_upgrade_sl graphics_access graphics_map net_mac_implicit proc_clock_highres proc_priocntl proc_zone sys_config sys_devices sys_ipc_config sys_linkdir sys_dl_config sys_net_config sys_res_bind sys_res_config sys_smb sys_suser_compat sys_time sys_trans_label virt_manage win_colormap win_config win_dac_read win_dac_write win_devices win_dga win_downgrade_sl win_fontpath win_mac_read win_mac_write win_selection win_upgrade_sl xvm_control However, just like Tim Taylor, it is possible to give your zones more power. For example, a zone by default doesn't have the privileges to support DTrace: root@myzone:~# dtrace -l ID PROVIDER MODULE FUNCTION NAME The DTrace privileges can be added, however, as follows: bleonard@solaris:~$ sudo zonecfg -z myzone Password: zonecfg:myzone> set limitpriv="default,dtrace_proc,dtrace_user" zonecfg:myzone> verify zonecfg:myzone> exit bleonard@solaris:~$ sudo zoneadm -z myzone reboot Now I can run DTrace from within the zone: root@myzone:~# dtrace -l | more ID PROVIDER MODULE FUNCTION NAME 1 dtrace BEGIN 2 dtrace END 3 dtrace ERROR 7115 syscall nosys entry 7116 syscall nosys return ... Note, certain privileges are never allowed to be assigned to a zone. You'll be notified on boot if you attempt to assign a prohibited privilege to a zone: bleonard@solaris:~$ sudo zoneadm -z myzone reboot privilege "dtrace_kernel" is not permitted within the zone's privilege set zoneadm: zone myzone failed to verify Here's a nice listing of all the privileges and their zone status (default, optional, prohibited): Privileges in a Non-Global Zone.

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• SQL Prompt Easter Egg

  - by Johnm

  Having Red Gate's SQL Prompt installed with SQL Server Management Studio has saved me many headaches over the years of its use. It is extremely nice to type in a table name and see not only the column names, but also their data types and identification of primary keys. Another cool feature is the built-in short cut scripts that are included toward the bottom of the suggestion box. An example of these short cut scripts would be to type in the letters  cv and then hit enter and the following template for CREATE VIEW will appear: CREATE VIEW --WITH ENCRYPTION, SCHEMABINDING, VIEW_METADATA AS     SELECT /* query specification */ -- WITH CHECK OPTION GO These scripts are great, and on occasion rather humorous. Recently, I was writing an UPDATE statement that would update a derived and aliased set of data in . An example of such a statement is as follows: UPDATE y SET a.[FieldA] = b.[FieldB] FROM     (         SELECT             a.[FieldA]             ,b.[FieldB]         FROM             [MyTableA] a             INNER JOIN [MyTableB] b                 ON a.[PKA] = b.[PKB]     ) y; Upon typing the UPDATE y portion I hit enter and the expression "A A A A R G H !" appeared resulting in an unexpected burst of laughter. With a dash of curiosity and a pinch of research I discovered that at the bottom of the SQL Prompt suggestion box resides a short cut script called "yell", which is described as "Vent your frustration". Another humorous short cut script is "neo", which is described as "-- I know Kung-Fu". All is required for these to activate is to type the first letter and hit enter. I wonder if there are any undocumented ones?

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• Oracle Tutor: XPDL conversion (and why you should care)

  - by mary.keane

  You may have noticed that the Oracle Business Process Converter feature in Tutor 14 supports "XPDL" conversion to Oracle Business Process Analysis Suite (BPA), Oracle Business Process Management Suite (BPM), and Oracle Tutor, and you may have briefly wondered "what is XPDL?" before you moved on to the Visio import feature (a very popular feature in Tutor 14). This posting is for those who do not yet understand (or care) about XPDL and process modeling. Many of us (and I'm including myself) have spent years working in the process definition arena: we've written procedures, designed systems and software to help others write procedures, and have been responsible for embedding policies and procedures into training material for employees. We've worked with tools such as Oracle Tutor, Microsoft Visio, Microsoft Word, and UPK. Most of us have never worked with "modeling tools" before, and we certainly never had to understand BPMN. It's a brave new world in this arena, and companies desperately need people with policy and procedural system expertise to be able to work with system analysts so there is a seamless transfer of knowledge from IT to employees. When working with applications, a picture is worth a thousand words, so eventually you're going to need to understand and be able to work with business process models. XPDL is an acronym for XML Process Definition Language, and it is an interchange format for business process models. It allows you to take a BPMN model that was developed in one workflow application such as BizAgi and import it into another workflow application or a true BPMN management system such as Oracle BPM. Specifically, the XPDL format contains the graphical information of a model as well as any executable information. By using a common format, models can be moved from a basic modeling application used by business owners to applications used by system architects. Over 80 applications support the XPDL format, including MetaStorm ProVision, BEA ALBPM, BizAgi, and Tibco. I mention these applications because we have provided XSLT mapping files specifically for these vendors. Oracle Business Process Converter was designed with user extensibility in mind, and thus users can add their own XML files so that additional XPDL models from other vendors can be converted to BPM, BPA, and Oracle Tutor. Instructions on how to add your own files can be found in Appendix 4 of the Oracle Business Converter manual. Let's take a visual look at how this works. Here is an example of a model devloped in BizAgi: This model can be created by the average business user without a large learning curve, and it's a good start for the system analyst who will be adding web services as well as for the business manager who manages the process described in the model. By exporting this model as XPDL, the information can be converted into Oracle BPA and Oracle BPM as well as converted to Oracle Tutor to become the framework for a procedure. Through this conversion feature, one graphic illustration of a business process can be used by a system analyst, business analyst, business manager, and employee, as seen below. Model Converted to Tutor Procedure Below is the task section of the procedure after conversion from an XPDL file. Model converted to BPA Model converted to BPM End users still want step by step instructions on how to perform their jobs, so procedures (Oracle Tutor) and application simulations (UPK) are still a critical piece of the solution. But IT professionals need graphic descriptions of how the applications work, regardless of whether there are any tasks involving humans. Now there is a way to convert procedures (Oracle Tutor docx files) and basic models (XPDL files) so that business managers and system analysts can share process information. References Wikipedia XPDL. Workflow Management Coalition, XPDL Support and Resources Oracle Business Process Converter manual, Oracle Tutor 14 Oracle Business Process Management 11g If you have any XPDL conversion stories to share, we'd love to hear from you. Best wishes for the coming new year, Mary Keane, Senior Development Manager, Oracle Tutor and BPM

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• Is ASP.NET MVC completely (and exclusively) based on conventions?

  - by Mike Valeriano

  --TL;DR Is there a "Hello World!" ASP.NET MVC tutorial out there that doesn't rely on conventions and "stock" projects? Is it even possible to take advantage of the technology without reusing the default file structure, and start from a single "hello_world.asp" file or something (like in PHP)? Am I completely mistaken and I should be looking somewhere else, maybe this? I'm interested in the MVC framework, not Web Forms --Background I've played a bit with PHP in the past, just for fun, and now I'm back to it since web development became relevant for me once again. I'm no professional, but I try to gain as much knowledge and control over the technology I'm working with as possible. I'm using Visual Studio 2012 for C# - my "desktop" language of choice - and since I got the Professional Edition from Dreamspark, the Web Development Tools are available, including ASP.NET MVC 4. I won't touch Web Forms, but the MVC Framework got my attention because the MVC pattern is something I can really relate to, since it provides the control I want but... not quite. Learning PHP was easy - and right form the start I could just create a "hello_world.php" file and just do something like this for immediate results: <!-- file: hello_world.php --> <?php> echo "Hello World!"; <?> But I couldn't find a single ASP.NET (MVC) tutorial out there (I'll be sure to buy one of the upcoming MVC 4 books, only a month away or so) that would start like that. They all start with a sample project, building up knowledge from the basics and heavily using conventions as they go along. Which is fine, I suppose, but it's now the best way for me to learn things. Even the "Empty" project template for a new ASP.NET MVC 4 Application in VS2012 is not empty at all: several files and folders are created for you - much like a new C# desktop application project, but with C# I can in fact start from scratch, creating the project structure myself. It is not the case with PHP: I can choose from a plethora of different MVC frameworks I can just create my own framework I can just skip frameworks altogether, and toss random PHP along with my HTML on a single file and make it work I understand the framework needs to establish some rules, but what if I just want to create a single page website with some C# logic behind it? Do I really need to create a whole bloat of files and folders for the sake of convention? Also, please understand that I haven't gotten far on any of those tutorials mainly because of this reason, but, if that's the only way to do it, I'll go for it using one of the books I've mentioned before. This is my first contact with ASP.NET but from the few comparisons I've read, I believe I should stay the hell away from Web Forms. Thank you. (Please forgive the broken English - it is not my primary language.)

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