Search Results

Search found 13909 results on 557 pages for 'old man'.

Page 411/557 | < Previous Page | 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418  | Next Page >

• Achieving Zero Downtime Deployment

  - by MattW

  I am trying to achieve zero downtime deployments so I can deploy less during off hours and more during "slower" hours - or anytime, in theory. My current setup, somewhat simplified: Web Server A (.NET App) Web Server B (.NET App) Database Server (SQL Server) My current deployment process: "Stop" the sites on both Web Server A and B Upgrade the database schema for the version of the app being deployed Update Web Server A Update Web Server B Bring everything back online Current Problem This leads to a small amount of downtime each month - about 30 mins. I do this during off hours, so it isn't a huge problem - but it is something I'd like to get away from. Also - there is no way to really go 'back'. I don't generally make rollback DB scripts - only upgrade scripts. Leveraging The Load Balancer I'd love to be able to upgrade one Web Server at a time. Take Web Server A out of the load balancer, upgrade it, put it back online, then repeat for Web Server B. The problem is the database. Each version of my software will need to execute against a different version of the database - so I am sort of "stuck". Possible Solution A current solution I am considering is adopting the following rules: Never delete a database table. Never delete a database column. Never rename a database column. Never reorder a column. Every stored procedure must be versioned. Meaning - 'spFindAllThings' will become 'spFindAllThings_2' when it is edited. Then it becomes 'spFindAllThings_3' when edited again. Same rule applies to views. While, this seems a bit extreme - I think it solves the problem. Each version of the application will be hitting the DB in a non breaking way. The code expects certain results from the views/stored procedures - and this keeps that 'contract' valid. The problem is - it just seeps sloppy. I know I can clean up old stored procedures after the app is deployed for awhile, but it just feels dirty. Also - it depends on all of the developers following these rule, which will mostly happen, but I imagine someone will make a mistake. Finally - My Question Is this sloppy or hacky? Is anybody else doing it this way? How are other people solving this problem?

  Read the article

• Transfer websites and domains to new server

  - by Albert

  We have currently around 40 websites and 80+ domains/sub-domains in a shared 1&1 hosting package, and we just acquired a managed dedicated server with 1&1 as well. Now it's time to start transferring everything over to the new server. Transferring just the websites and databases wouldn't be a problem, it would take time but it's pretty straight forward. The problem comes when transferring the domains, let me explain why. Many of the websites we have are accessible via sub-domains of a parent domain. Ideally, we would like to transfer the sites one by one, in order to check for each one that everything works fine in the new server. However, since we also need to transfer the domain so it's managed in the new server, once we do that means that all the websites using that domain need to be already in the new server before transferring that domain, thus not allowing the "one by one" philosophy. Another issue is the downtime when transferring the domain, from the moment it stops working in the hosting package and becomes active in the new server. I believe there's nothing we can do here. So my question is if there's any way we can do the "one by one" transferring of the websites (and their corresponding sub-domains) in the circumstances described above. One idea I had would be: 1. Let's say we have website A, which is accessible using subdomain.mydomain.com (and there are many other websites accessible via other sub-domains of mydomain.com) 2. Transfer the files of website A to the new server 3. Point a test domain in the new server to the website A's folder (the new server comes with a "test" domain) 4. Test if website A works with that "test" domain 5. In the old hosting, somehow point the real sub-domain (subdomain.mydomain.com) to the new location of website A, in a way that user always see the same URL as always 6. Repeat 2-5 for every website belonging to the same domain 7. Once all are working in the new server, do the actual transfer of the domain to the new server, and then re-create all the sub-domains and point them to their corresponding website That way, users wouldn't notice that there's been a change (except for a small down time of the websites when doing the domain transfer). The part I'm not sure about is point 5 of the above. Is there any way to do that? I mean do it in a way that users see the original domain all the time in their browser, even for internal pages (so not only for the "home page", which would be sub-domain.mydomain.com, but also for example for the contact page, which would be sub-domain.mydomain.com/contact.php). Is there any way to do this? Or are we SOL and we're going to have to transfer all at the same time?

  Read the article

• Set a Video as Your Desktop Wallpaper with VLC

  - by DigitalGeekery

  Are you tired of static desktop wallpapers and want something a bit more entertaining? Today we’ll take a look at setting a video as wallpaper in VLC media player. Download and install VLC player. You’ll find the download link below. Open VLC and select Tools > Preferences. On the Preferences windows, select the Video button on the left. Under Video Settings, select DirectX video output from the Output dropdown list. Click Save before exiting and then restart VLC. Next, select a video and begin playing it with VLC. Right-click on the screen, select Video, then DirectX Wallpaper.   You can achieve the same result by selecting Video from the Menu and clicking DirectX Wallpaper.   If you’re using Windows Aero Themes, you may get the warning message below and your theme will switch automatically to a basic theme.   After the Wallpaper is enabled, minimize VLC player and enjoy the show as you work.     When you are ready to switch back to your normal wallpaper, click Video, and then close out of VLC.   Occasionally we had to manually change our wallpaper back to normal. You can do that by right clicking on the desktop and selecting your theme.   Conclusion This might not make the most productive desktop environment, but it is pretty cool. It’s definitely not the same old boring wallpaper! Download VLC Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Dual Monitors: Use a Different Wallpaper on Each Desktop in Windows 7, Vista or XPDual Monitors: Use a Different Wallpaper on Each DesktopDesktop Fun: Video Game Icon PacksDesktop Fun: Starship Theme WallpapersDesktop Fun: Mountains Theme Wallpapers TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips All My Movies 5.9 CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Snagit 10 VMware Workstation 7 OpenDNS Guide Google TV The iPod Revolution Ultimate Boot CD can help when disaster strikes Windows Firewall with Advanced Security – How To Guides Sculptris 1.0, 3D Drawing app

  Read the article

• ASP.NET MVC 3 Hosting :: How to Upgrade ASP.NET MVC 2 Project to ASP.NET MVC 3

  - by mbridge

  ASP.NET MVC 3 can be installed side by side with ASP.NET MVC 2 on the same computer, which gives you flexibility in choosing when to upgrade an ASP.NET MVC 2 application to ASP.NET MVC 3. The simplest way to upgrade is to create a new ASP.NET MVC 3 project and copy all the views, controllers, code, and content files from the existing MVC 2 project to the new project and then to update the assembly references in the new project to match the old project. If you have made changes to the Web.config file in the MVC 2 project, you must also merge those changes with the Web.config file in the MVC 3 project. To manually upgrade an existing ASP.NET MVC 2 application to version 3, do the following: 1. In both Web.config files in the MVC 3 project, globally search and replace the MVC version. Find the following: System.Web.Mvc, Version=2.0.0.0 Replace it with the following System.Web.Mvc, Version=3.0.0.0 There are three changes in the root Web.config and four in the Views\Web.config file. 2. In Solution Explorer, delete the reference to System.Web.Mvc (which points to the version 2 DLL). Then add a reference to System.Web.Mvc (v3.0.0.0). 3. In Solution Explorer, right-click the project name and then select Unload Project. Then right-click again and select Edit ProjectName.csproj. 4. Locate the ProjectTypeGuids element and replace {F85E285D-A4E0-4152-9332-AB1D724D3325} with {E53F8FEA-EAE0-44A6-8774-FFD645390401}. 5. Save the changes and then right-click the project and select Reload Project. 6. If the project references any third-party libraries that are compiled using ASP.NET MVC 2, add the following highlighted bindingRedirect element to the Web.config file in the application root under the configuration section: <runtime>   <assemblyBinding >     <dependentAssembly>       <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Mvc"           publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35"/>       <bindingRedirect oldVersion="2.0.0.0" newVersion="3.0.0.0"/>     </dependentAssembly>   </assemblyBinding> </runtime> Another ASP.NET MVC 3 article: - Rolling with Razor in MVC v3 Preview - Deploying ASP.NET MVC 3 web application to server where ASP.NET MVC 3 is not installed - RenderAction with ASP.NET MVC 3 Sessionless Controllers

  Read the article

• Using CTAS & Exchange Partition Replace IAS for Copying Partition on Exadata

  - by Bandari Huang

  Usage Scenario: Copy data&index from one partition to another partition in a partitioned table. Solution: Create a partition definition Copy data from one partition to another partiton by 'Insert as select (IAS)' Create a nonpartitioned table by 'Create table as select (CTAS)' Convert a nonpartitioned table into a partition of partitoned table by exchangng their data segments. Rebuild unusable index Exchange Partition Convertion Mutual convertion between a partition (or subpartition) and a nonpartitioned table Mutual convertion between a hash-partitioned table and a partition of a composite *-hash partitioned table Mutual convertiton a [range | list]-partitioned table into a partition of a composite *-[range | list] partitioned table. Exchange Partition Usage Scenario High-speed data loading of new, incremental data into an existing partitioned table in DW environment Exchanging old data partitions out of a partitioned table, the data is purged from the partitioned table without actually being deleted and can be archived separately Exchange Partition Syntax ALTER TABLE schema.table EXCHANGE [PARTITION|SUBPARTITION] [partition|subprtition] WITH TABLE schema.table [INCLUDE|EXCLUDING] INDEX [WITH|WITHOUT] VALIDATION UPDATE [INDEXES|GLOBAL INDEXES] INCLUDING | EXCLUDING INDEXES Specify INCLUDING INDEXES if you want local index partitions or subpartitions to be exchanged with the corresponding table index (for a nonpartitioned table) or local indexes (for a hash-partitioned table). Specify EXCLUDING INDEXES if you want all index partitions or subpartitions corresponding to the partition and all the regular indexes and index partitions on the exchanged table to be marked UNUSABLE. If you omit this clause, then the default is EXCLUDING INDEXES. WITH | WITHOUT VALIDATION Specify WITH VALIDATION if you want Oracle Database to return an error if any rows in the exchanged table do not map into partitions or subpartitions being exchanged. Specify WITHOUT VALIDATION if you do not want Oracle Database to check the proper mapping of rows in the exchanged table. If you omit this clause, then the default is WITH VALIDATION.  UPADATE INDEX|GLOBAL INDEX Unless you specify UPDATE INDEXES, the database marks UNUSABLE the global indexes or all global index partitions on the table whose partition is being exchanged. Global indexes or global index partitions on the table being exchanged remain invalidated. (You cannot use UPDATE INDEXES for index-organized tables. Use UPDATE GLOBAL INDEXES instead.) Exchanging Partitions&Subpartitions Notes Both tables involved in the exchange must have the same primary key, and no validated foreign keys can be referencing either of the tables unless the referenced table is empty.  When exchanging partitioned index-organized tables: – The source and target table or partition must have their primary key set on the same columns, in the same order. – If key compression is enabled, then it must be enabled for both the source and the target, and with the same prefix length. – Both the source and target must be index organized. – Both the source and target must have overflow segments, or neither can have overflow segments. Also, both the source and target must have mapping tables, or neither can have a mapping table. – Both the source and target must have identical storage attributes for any LOB columns. 

  Read the article

• Non-English Character Display in Oracle SQL Developer

  - by thatjeffsmith

  I get a variation on this question at least once a week, if not more frequently. I’m from Israel, and the language on the databases is Hebrew. When I use the old and deprecated SQL*Plus (windows rich client) I can see the hebrew clearly, when I use the latest SQL Developer, I get gibberish. This question appears on the forums about every week or so as well. So what’s the deal? Well, it starts with a basic misunderstanding of NLS Client parameters. These should accurately reflect the language and locality setup on your LOCAL machine. DO NOT COPY what’s set in the database. The these parameters work together with the database so that information can be transferred back and forth correctly. Having the wrong NLS parameters locally can be bad. [ORACLE DOCS]Setting the NLS_LANG parameter properly is essential to proper data conversion. The character set that is specified by the NLS_LANG parameter should reflect the setting for the client operating system. Setting NLS_LANG correctly enables proper conversion from the client operating system character encoding to the database character set. When these settings are the same, Oracle Database assumes that the data being sent or received is encoded in the same character set as the database character set, so character set validation or conversion may not be performed. This can lead to corrupt data if conversions are necessary. OK, so what are you supposed to do? Set the Font! 9 times out of 10, this preference fixes the problem with display issues. Make sure you set a Font that supports the characters you’re trying to display. It’s as simple as that. This preference defines the font used to display characters in the editors and the data grids. If you have it set to a font that doesn’t have Hebrew character support – you’re not going to see Hebrew in SQL Developer. A few years ago…wow, like 15 years ago, I learned that the Tohama Font is pretty Unicode-friendly. Bad Font Selection A Font that’s not non-English friendly Good Font Selection Exact same text, except rendered with the Tahoma font Summary Having problems seeing non-English text in SQL Developer? Check the font! And do not start messing with NLS parameters without talking to your DBA first.

  Read the article

• InvokeRequired not reliable?

  - by marocanu2001

  InvalidOperationException: Cross-thread operation not valid: Control 'progressBar' accessed from a thread other than the thread it was created ... Now this is not a nice way to start a day! not even if it's a Monday! So you have seen this and already thought, come on, this is an old one, just ask whether InvokeRequired before calling the method in the control, something like this: if (progressBar.InvokeRequired) {           progressBar.Invoke  ( new MethodInvoker( delegate {  progressBar.Value = 50;    }) ) }else      progressBar.Value = 50;    Unfortunately this was not working the way I would have expected, I got this error, debugged and though in debugging the InvokeRequired had become true , the error was thrown on the branch that did not required Invoke. So there was a scenario where InvokeRequired returned false and still accessing the control was not on the right thread ... Problem was that I kept showing and hiding the little form showing the progressbar. The progressbar was updating on an event  , ProgressChanged and I could not guarantee the little form was loaded by the time the event was thrown. So , spotted the problem, if none of the parents of the control you try to modify is created at the time of the method invoking, the InvokeRequired returns true! That causes your code to execute on the woring thread. Of course, updating UI before the win dow was created is not a legitimate action either, still I would have expected a different error. MSDN: "If the control's handle does not yet exist, InvokeRequired searches up the control's parent chain until it finds a control or form that does have a window handle. If no appropriate handle can be found, the InvokeRequired method returns false. This means that InvokeRequired can return false if Invoke is not required (the call occurs on the same thread), or if the control was created on a different thread but the control's handle has not yet been created." Have  a look at InvokeRequired's implementation: public bool InvokeRequired {     get     {         HandleRef hWnd;         int lpdwProcessId;         if (this.IsHandleCreated)         {             hWnd = new HandleRef(this, this.Handle);         }         else         {             Control wrapper = this.FindMarshallingControl();             if (!wrapper.IsHandleCreated)             {                 return false; // <==========             }             hWnd = new HandleRef(wrapper, wrapper.Handle);         }         int windowThreadProcessId = SafeNativeMethods.GetWindowThreadProcessId(hWnd, out lpdwProcessId);         int currentThreadId = SafeNativeMethods.GetCurrentThreadId();         return (windowThreadProcessId != currentThreadId);     } } Here 's a good article about this and a workaround http://www.ikriv.com/en/prog/info/dotnet/MysteriousHang.html

  Read the article

• Exciting product releases (and one disappointing thing) with Mix10

  - by Jeff

  Sadly, I'm not at Mix this year, for the first time in a few years. It's a little harder to go if you work for Microsoft, oddly enough. And then there's this little guy next to me, who at ten days old really needs his daddy to be around! But oh, the excitement of what Microsoft has in store! It's great to finally see all of these major releases coming together for Microsoft developer products. There is a great deal of excitement among people internally no matter where you work, because there is so much cool stuff in the pipe. In case you live under a rock...Visual Studio 2010 - Great to see all of the positive feedback on the Twitter and what not. I've been using it on one of my home products for awhile, and I really like it. The newer nightly builds of ReSharper also seem to be gaining speed in quality as well. I like the new debugging features, and the text readability is not imagined. Love it.Silverlight 4 - I've been running a couple of minor SL3 apps on my personal sites for awhile now, and I'm thrilled with the platform. With a couple of key concepts down, .NET folk like you and me can do some stellar things with this, and if you're a Mac nerd (like me), it's all kinds of awesome to be able to build stuff for it without the agony of Objective-C and X Code.Windows Phone 7 Series - A few weeks ago you got to see the shiny new UI that went beyond the icon grid, and now you've got the developer story as well. That I can adapt my existing Silverlight apps with minimal effort to work on the phone is pretty powerful. Millions of .NET devs just because phone developers, using the tools they already know. How great is that?ASP.NET MVC2 - The final bits shipped last week, and there was much rejoicing. I love this framework because of the testability and the real ability to get to the true mechanics of HTTP. The other cool thing is the speed at which the framework has evolved. v2 in less than a year is pretty "un-Microsoft" in a lot of eyes.The video of keynotes and sessions is starting to appear on the Mix site, but for reasons I can't understand, they're WMV downloads. For real? Not that helpful for Mac folk. Why wouldn't they be using a Silverlight player?In any case, the thing that continues to motivate me is that getting what you imagine on to the Internet gets easier every year. This is not a new revelation for me. I've only been at Microsoft for four months, but I've felt this way for years. I'm thrilled to be a part of it.

  Read the article

• Is inline SQL still classed as bad practice now that we have Micro ORMs?

  - by Grofit

  This is a bit of an open ended question but I wanted some opinions, as I grew up in a world where inline SQL scripts were the norm, then we were all made very aware of SQL injection based issues, and how fragile the sql was when doing string manipulations all over the place. Then came the dawn of the ORM where you were explaining the query to the ORM and letting it generate its own SQL, which in a lot of cases was not optimal but was safe and easy. Another good thing about ORMs or database abstraction layers were that the SQL was generated with its database engine in mind, so I could use Hibernate/Nhibernate with MSSQL, MYSQL and my code never changed it was just a configuration detail. Now fast forward to current day, where Micro ORMs seem to be winning over more developers I was wondering why we have seemingly taken a U-Turn on the whole in-line sql subject. I must admit I do like the idea of no ORM config files and being able to write my query in a more optimal manner but it feels like I am opening myself back up to the old vulnerabilities such as SQL injection and I am also tying myself to one database engine so if I want my software to support multiple database engines I would need to do some more string hackery which seems to then start to make code unreadable and more fragile. (Just before someone mentions it I know you can use parameter based arguments with most micro orms which offers protection in most cases from sql injection) So what are peoples opinions on this sort of thing? I am using Dapper as my Micro ORM in this instance and NHibernate as my regular ORM in this scenario, however most in each field are quite similar. What I term as inline sql is SQL strings within source code. There used to be design debates over SQL strings in source code detracting from the fundamental intent of the logic, which is why statically typed linq style queries became so popular its still just 1 language, but with lets say C# and Sql in one page you have 2 languages intermingled in your raw source code now. Just to clarify, the SQL injection is just one of the known issues with using sql strings, I already mention you can stop this from happening with parameter based queries, however I highlight other issues with having SQL queries ingrained in your source code, such as the lack of DB Vendor abstraction as well as losing any level of compile time error capturing on string based queries, these are all issues which we managed to side step with the dawn of ORMs with their higher level querying functionality, such as HQL or LINQ etc (not all of the issues but most of them). So I am less focused on the individual highlighted issues and more the bigger picture of is it now becoming more acceptable to have SQL strings directly in your source code again, as most Micro ORMs use this mechanism. Here is a similar question which has a few different view points, although is more about the inline sql without the micro orm context: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5303746/is-inline-sql-hard-coding

  Read the article

• Six Unusual Blogs I Like

  - by Bill Graziano

  I subscribe to and read over 100 SQL Server blogs every day.  I link to posts that I think are interesting.  I also read a fair number of non-SQL Server blogs.  Here are a few that I think are interesting. danah boyd. She is a researcher with Microsoft and writes about privacy, social media and teenagers.  I discovered her blog while looking for strategies to keep my personal and professional life separate.  (I haven’t found a good solution to that yet.)  Her stories of how teenagers use Facebook and other social media tools are fascinating. Clayton’s Web Snacks.  Steve Clayton works at Microsoft and has a variety of blogs out there.  This one focuses on … hmmm.  His latest posts are on graffiti, infographics, paper tweets, cartoons and slow motion videos.  It’s mostly visual and you never really know what you’ll get.  It’s always interesting though and I like what he posts.  It’s good creative stuff. Seth Godin.  Seth writes about Marketing.  I read him for motivation to get off my butt and get things done.  He’s a great motivator who encourages you to think big.  And do something! Ask the Pilot.  Patrick Smith is a commercial airline pilot writing about the airline industry.  He’s a great debunker of myths (no they don’t reduce oxygen in the cabin to keep you docile).  My favorite topics include the TSA, flying myths, airport reviews and flight delays. My old favorite flight blog used to be enplaned.  No one knew who wrote it.  It focused on the economics of the airline industry.  It was fascinating stuff.  One day it was gone.  The entire blog was deleted.  Someone tracked down some partial archives and put them online. The Agent’s Journal.  Jack Bechta is an NFL agent.  He writes about the business side of the NFL, the draft and free agency.  Lately he’s been writing about the potential lockout.  He has a distinct lack of hype which I find very refreshing.  xkcd.  I call this the comic for smart people.  A little math, some IT and internet privacy thrown in all make an unusual comic. Funny and intelligent.

  Read the article

• Visual Studio 2010 plus Help Index : have your cake and eat it too

  - by Adrian Hara

  Although the team's intentions might have been good, the new help system in Visual Studio 2010  is a huge step backwards (more like a cannonball-shot-kind-of-leap really) from the one we all know (and love?) in Visual Studio 2008 and 2005 (and heck, even VS6). Its biggest problem, from my point of view, is the total and complete lack of the Help Index feature: you know...the thing where you just go and type in what you're looking for and it filters down the list of results automatically. For me this was the number one productivity feature in the "old" help system, allowing me to find stuff very quickly. Number two is that it's entirely web based and runs, by default, in the browser. So imagine, when you press F1, a new tab opens in your default browser pointing to the help entry. While this is wrong in many ways, it's also extremely annoying, cleaning up tabs in the browser becomes a chore which represents a serious productivity hit. These and many other problems were discussed extensively (and rather vocally) on connect but it seems MS seemed to ignore it and opt to release the new help system anyway, with the promise that more features will be added in a later release. Again, it kind of amazes me that they chose to ship a product with LESS features that the previous one and, what's worse, missing KEY features, just so it's "standards based" and "extensible". To be honest, I couldn't care less about the help system's implementation, I just want it to be usable and I would've thought that by now the software community and especially MS would've learned this lesson. In the end, what kind of saddens me is that MS regards these basic features as ones for the "power help user". I mean, come on! I mean a) it's not like my aunt's using Visual Studio 2010 and she represents the regular user, b) all software developers are, by definition, power users and c) it's a freakin help, not rocket science! As you can tell, I'm pretty pissed. Even more so because I really feel that the VS2010 & co. release really is a great one, with a lot of effort going into the various platforms and frameworks, most (if not all) of them being really REALLY good products. And then they go and screw up the help! How lame is that?!   Anyway, it's not all gloom-and-doom. Luckily there is a desktop app which presents a UI over the new help system that's very close to what was there in VS2008, by Robert Chandler (to which I hereby declare eternal gratitude). It still has some minor issues but I'll take it over the browser version of the help any day. It's free, pretty quick (on my machine ;)) and nicely usable. So, if you hate the new help system (passionately) like I do, download H3Viewer now.

  Read the article

• Problem with apt-get [install, purge, autoremove, upgrade]

  - by Ark

  I am trying to install openvpn using apt-get, but I get an error during the process [As far as I understand the issue is with unattended-updates, which I could not upgrade due to apt-get porblem :/]. I cannot upgrade, install, autoremove or purge anything else [which I need to do since /boot is full. For upgrading I did update before trying].... Trace [on sudo apt-get autoremove]: 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 79 to remove and 421 not upgraded. 35 not fully installed or removed. Need to get 24.1 kB of archives. After this operation, 140 MB disk space will be freed. Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric/main unattended-upgrades all 0.73ubuntu1 [24.1 kB] Fetched 24.1 kB in 0s (31.2 kB/s) Preconfiguring packages ... (Reading database ... 287206 files and directories currently installed.) Removing flashplugin-downloader:i386 ... Removing libasound2-plugins:i386 ... Removing libpulse0:i386 ... Removing libsndfile1:i386 ... Removing libvorbisenc2:i386 ... Removing libvorbis0a:i386 ... Processing triggers for libc-bin ... ldconfig deferred processing now taking place (Reading database ... 287174 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to replace unattended-upgrades 0.73ubuntu1 (using .../unattended-upgrades_0.73ubuntu1_all.deb) ... Checking for running unattended-upgrades: Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/share/unattended-upgrades/unattended-upgrade-shutdown", line 27, in <module> import apt_pkg ImportError: No module named apt_pkg invoke-rc.d: initscript unattended-upgrades, action "stop" failed. dpkg: warning: subprocess old pre-removal script returned error exit status 1 dpkg - trying script from the new package instead ... Checking for running unattended-upgrades: Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/share/unattended-upgrades/unattended-upgrade-shutdown", line 27, in <module> import apt_pkg ImportError: No module named apt_pkg invoke-rc.d: initscript unattended-upgrades, action "stop" failed. dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/unattended-upgrades_0.73ubuntu1_all.deb (--unpack): subprocess new pre-removal script returned error exit status 1 update-rc.d: warning: unattended-upgrades start runlevel arguments (2 3 4 5) do not match LSB Default-Start values (none) update-rc.d: warning: unattended-upgrades stop runlevel arguments (0 1 6) do not match LSB Default-Stop values (0 6) Checking for running unattended-upgrades: Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/share/unattended-upgrades/unattended-upgrade-shutdown", line 27, in <module> import apt_pkg ImportError: No module named apt_pkg invoke-rc.d: initscript unattended-upgrades, action "start" failed. dpkg: error while cleaning up: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1 Errors were encountered while processing: /var/cache/apt/archives/unattended-upgrades_0.73ubuntu1_all.deb E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) Maybe I missed something basic, but I would appreciate pointers on solving the issue. Thanks

  Read the article

• Silverlight Cream for November 17, 2011 -- #1168

  - by Dave Campbell

  In this Issue: Colin Eberhardt, Lazar Nikolov, WindowsPhoneGeek, Jesse Liberty, Peter Kuhn, Derik Whittaker, Chris Koenig, and Jeff Blankenburg(-2-). Above the Fold: Silverlight: "Facebook Graph API and Silverlight Part 2 – Publishing data" Lazar Nikolov WP7: "Suppressing Zoom and Scroll interactions in the Windows Phone 7 WebBrowser Control" Colin Eberhardt Metro/WinRT/W8: "Tip/Trick when working with the Application Bar in WinRT/Metro (C#)" Derik Whittaker Shoutouts: Michael Palermo's latest Desert Mountain Developers is up Michael Washington's latest Visual Studio #LightSwitch Daily is up Pete Brown announced the completion of his book: It’s a wrap! I’ve completed writing Silverlight 5 in Action From SilverlightCream.com: Suppressing Zoom and Scroll interactions in the Windows Phone 7 WebBrowser Control Colin Eberhardt's latest post is all about a helper class he wrote to suppress scrolling and pinch zoom of the WP7 browser control, which you might want to do if the browser is placed inside another control. Facebook Graph API and Silverlight Part 2 – Publishing data In this part 2 of his Facebook and Silverlight series, Lazar Nikolov shows how to post data to your profile or your friends' profiles Localizing a Windows Phone app Step by Step WindowsPhoneGeek's latest post is on Localizing a WP7 app .. another great tutorial with plenty of discussion, pictures, and a project to load up and follow Background Audio Part II: Copying Audio Files To Isolated Storage Continuing his WP7 series, Jesse Liberty has Part 2 of a mini-series on Background Audio up... in this episode he's using local audio and to do so, it must be in ISO Silverlight: Bugs in the multicast client In a Q/A session, Peter Kuhn was presented a nasty bug in the multicast client that he has verified exists in not only Silverlight 4 but also Silverlight 5 Beta, including a link to his entry on Connect. Tip/Trick when working with the Application Bar in WinRT/Metro (C#) Derik Whittaker offers up some good information about the Metro Application Bar and how to keep it where you want it New! Windows Phone Starter Kit for Podcasts Chris Koenig announced the release of a new starter kit for WP7... a starter kit for podcasts. Check out the links on Chris' site and the other two starter kits that are available 31 Days of Mango | Day #4: Compass Jeff Blankenburg continues with Day 4 of his Mango series with this post on the Compass and a cool app to demonstrate it 31 Days of Mango | Day #5: Gyroscope In Day 5, Jeff Blankenburg is talking about and discussing the gyroscope, of course if you have a phone as old as mine, you won't have a gyroscope and it's not on the emulator Stay in the 'Light! Twitter SilverlightNews | Twitter WynApse | WynApse.com | Tagged Posts | SilverlightCream Join me @ SilverlightCream | Phoenix Silverlight User Group Technorati Tags: Silverlight    Silverlight 3    Silverlight 4    Windows Phone MIX10

  Read the article

• While installing updates I get "Package operation Failed" for ubuntu 12.04

  - by user54395

  i get the following response in the details:- Please help nstallArchives() failed: perl: warning: Setting locale failed. perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings: LANGUAGE = (unset), LC_ALL = (unset), LANG = "en_IN.ISO8859-1" are supported and installed on your system. perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C"). locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory locale: Cannot set LC_MESSAGES to default locale: No such file or directory locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory perl: warning: Setting locale failed. perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings: LANGUAGE = (unset), LC_ALL = (unset), LANG = "en_IN.ISO8859-1" are supported and installed on your system. perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C"). locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory locale: Cannot set LC_MESSAGES to default locale: No such file or directory locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory perl: warning: Setting locale failed. perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings: LANGUAGE = (unset), LC_ALL = (unset), LANG = "en_IN.ISO8859-1" are supported and installed on your system. perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C"). locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory locale: Cannot set LC_MESSAGES to default locale: No such file or directory locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory perl: warning: Setting locale failed. perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings: LANGUAGE = (unset), LC_ALL = (unset), LANG = "en_IN.ISO8859-1" are supported and installed on your system. perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C"). locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory locale: Cannot set LC_MESSAGES to default locale: No such file or directory locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory (Reading database ... (Reading database ... 5%% (Reading database ... 10%% (Reading database ... 15%% (Reading database ... 20%% (Reading database ... 25%% (Reading database ... 30%% (Reading database ... 35%% (Reading database ... 40%% (Reading database ... 45%% (Reading database ... 50%% (Reading database ... 55%% (Reading database ... 60%% (Reading database ... 65%% (Reading database ... 70%% (Reading database ... 75%% (Reading database ... 80%% (Reading database ... 85%% (Reading database ... 90%% (Reading database ... 95%% (Reading database ... 100%% (Reading database ... 427340 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to replace thunderbird-trunk-globalmenu 14.0~a1~hg20120409r9862.91177-0ubuntu1~umd1 (using .../thunderbird-trunk-globalmenu_14.0~a1~hg20120409r9866.91235-0ubuntu1~umd1_i386.deb) ... Unpacking replacement thunderbird-trunk-globalmenu ... Preparing to replace thunderbird-trunk 14.0~a1~hg20120409r9862.91177-0ubuntu1~umd1 (using .../thunderbird-trunk_14.0~a1~hg20120409r9866.91235-0ubuntu1~umd1_i386.deb) ... Unpacking replacement thunderbird-trunk ... Processing triggers for man-db ... locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory locale: Cannot set LC_MESSAGES to default locale: No such file or directory locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory Processing triggers for bamfdaemon ... Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf.index... Processing triggers for gnome-menus ... Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils ... Setting up crossplatformui (1.0.27) ... Rather than invoking init scripts through /etc/init.d, use the service(8) utility, e.g. service acpid restart Since the script you are attempting to invoke has been converted to an Upstart job, you may also use the stop(8) and then start(8) utilities, e.g. stop acpid ; start acpid. The restart(8) utility is also available. acpid stop/waiting acpid start/running, process 5286 package libqtgui4 exist QT_VERSION = 4 make -C /lib/modules/3.2.0-22-generic/build M=/usr/local/bin/ztemtApp/zteusbserial/below2.6.27 modules make[1]: Entering directory /usr/src/linux-headers-3.2.0-22-generic' CC [M] /usr/local/bin/ztemtApp/zteusbserial/below2.6.27/usb-serial.o /usr/local/bin/ztemtApp/zteusbserial/below2.6.27/usb-serial.c:34:28: fatal error: linux/smp_lock.h: No such file or directory compilation terminated. make[2]: *** [/usr/local/bin/ztemtApp/zteusbserial/below2.6.27/usb-serial.o] Error 1 make[1]: *** [_module_/usr/local/bin/ztemtApp/zteusbserial/below2.6.27] Error 2 make[1]: Leaving directory/usr/src/linux-headers-3.2.0-22-generic' make: * [modules] Error 2 dpkg: error processing crossplatformui (--configure): subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2 No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already Setting up thunderbird-trunk (14.0~a1~hg20120409r9866.91235-0ubuntu1~umd1) ... Setting up thunderbird-trunk-globalmenu (14.0~a1~hg20120409r9866.91235-0ubuntu1~umd1) ... Errors were encountered while processing: crossplatformui Error in function: SystemError: E:Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) Setting up crossplatformui (1.0.27) ... Rather than invoking init scripts through /etc/init.d, use the service(8) utility, e.g. service acpid restart Since the script you are attempting to invoke has been converted to an Upstart job, you may also use the stop(8) and then start(8) utilities, e.g. stop acpid ; start acpid. The restart(8) utility is also available. acpid stop/waiting acpid start/running, process 5541 package libqtgui4 exist QT_VERSION = 4 make -C /lib/modules/3.2.0-22-generic/build M=/usr/local/bin/ztemtApp/zteusbserial/below2.6.27 modules make[1]: Entering directory /usr/src/linux-headers-3.2.0-22-generic' CC [M] /usr/local/bin/ztemtApp/zteusbserial/below2.6.27/usb-serial.o /usr/local/bin/ztemtApp/zteusbserial/below2.6.27/usb-serial.c:34:28: fatal error: linux/smp_lock.h: No such file or directory compilation terminated. make[2]: *** [/usr/local/bin/ztemtApp/zteusbserial/below2.6.27/usb-serial.o] Error 1 make[1]: *** [_module_/usr/local/bin/ztemtApp/zteusbserial/below2.6.27] Error 2 make[1]: Leaving directory/usr/src/linux-headers-3.2.0-22-generic' make: * [modules] Error 2 dpkg: error processing crossplatformui (--configure): subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2

  Read the article

• More Changes...

  - by MOSSLover

  Stuff has changed drastically for me in the past two to three years.  I moved over 1000 miles from Saint Louis.  I go outside and I get up in front of crowds with less issues.  Now I'm changing jobs again.  I'm not really sure what to say here.  I was obviously unhappy and I needed to do something different.  So quit two days ago and I guess it worked out that I end with B&R this Friday, then head to TEC and SPS Huntsville and a week from this Monday I start my new job at Gig Werks.  I'm not sure what to expect or where I'm heading, but I think it's a step in the right direction.  I won't really know what kind of impact this will have on my life for at least another 6 months to a year. For some reason I can't sleep tonight and I think it's really a reflection of my last day.  Tomorrow is an ending and a beginning at the same time.  So it's both kind of sad and exciting.  I don't know why I'm really excited to go to Disney Land for the second time ever in my life time.  I get to ride the Teacups.  For the longest time when I was a kid I wanted to go to Disney Land.  I wanted to ride the teacups.  In 2007, at the age of 25, I rode the teacups for my first ever visit to LA.  That was the start of finally syncing up with my childhood goals.  I wanted to live near a major city.  I wanted to visit all the major cities in the world.  I wanted to see everything and meet everyone.  This job change will probably turn into something great I just don't know it yet.  I'm walking again outside my comfort zone and stepping into uncharted territory.  In 2-3 years I'll probably write another blog post how this week lead to something great.  It just stinks when you have to leave behind something you know and love.  I will miss all my current colleagues, but I'm sure I'll gain some new ones and keep in touch with the old.  To 2010 being a great year for change and hopefully by the end of the year I can say I went to Europe.  To reaching my goals and my dreams.  Don't let anyone stop you from getting what you want in life (unless you are axe murderer please don't kill anyone that's just wrong).  Have a good weekend everyone!

  Read the article

• Running Multiple Queries in Oracle SQL Developer

  - by thatjeffsmith

  There are two methods for running queries in SQL Developer: Run Statement Run Statement, Shift+Enter, F9, or this button Run Script No grids, just script (SQL*Plus like) ouput is fine, thank you very much! What’s the Difference? There are some obvious differences between the two features, the most obvious being the format of the output delivered. But there are some other, more subtle differences here, primarily around fetching. What is Fetch? After you run send your query to Oracle, it has to do 3 things: Parse Execute Fetch Technically it has to do at least 2 things, and sometimes only 1. But, to get the data back to the user, the fetch must occur. If you have a 10 row query or a 1,000,000 row query, this can mean 1 or many fetches in groups of records. Ok, before I went on the Fetch tangent, I said there were two ways to run statements in SQL Developer: Run Statement Run statement brings your query results to a grid with a single fetch. The user sees 50, 100, 500, etc rows come back, but SQL Developer and the database know that there are more rows waiting to be retrieved. The process on the server that was used to execute the query is still hanging around too. To alleviate this, increase your fetch size to 500. Every query ran will come back with the first 500 rows, and rows will be continued to be fetched in 500 row increments. You’ll then see most of your ad hoc queries complete with a single fetch. Scroll down, or hit Ctrl+End to force a full fetch and get all your rows back. Run Script Run Script runs the contents of the worksheet (or what’s highlighted) as a ‘script.’ What does that mean exactly? Think of this as being equivalent to running this in SQL*Plus: @my_script.sql; Each statement is executed. Also, ALL rows are fetched. So once it’s finished executing, there are no open cursors left around. The more obvious difference here is that the output comes back formatted as plain old text. Run one or more commands plus SQL*Plus commands like SET and SPOOL The Trick: Run Statement Works With Multiple Statements! It says ‘run statement,’ but if you select more than one with your mouse and hit the button – it will run each and throw the results to 1 grid for each statement. If you mouse hover over the Query Result panel tab, SQL Developer will tell you the query used to populate that grid. This will work regardless of what you have this preference set to: DATABASE – WORKSHEET – SHOW QUERY RESULTS IN NEW TABS Mind the fetch though! Close those cursors by bring back all the records or closing the grids when you’re done with them.

  Read the article

• Why is there nobody talking about an alternative to HTML & CSS? [closed]

  - by Nic

  HTML is such an old and cumbersome language, which was intended just to markup text. Today it's very rare to see a static HTML website, or a site with only text or a very simple layout. As a web developer I find it inconvenient to use HTML & CSS, very repetitive and cumbersome. I think that for a lot of website it could be simplified a lot. Tim Berners-Lee (W3) wrote a document named "The World Wide Web: Past, Present and Future" in August 1996 ... though HTML will be considered part of the established infrastructure (rather than an exciting new toy), there will always be new formats coming along, and it may be that a more powerful and perhaps a more consistent set of formats will eventually displace HTML. So, more than 15 years later, HTML is still here and it's here to stay. Why? Why searching for xml alternatives brings so much relevant result, but searching for html alternatives brings almost none relevant results? Answers like "it's too hard to change a standard" aren't answering the question since a lot of new standards emerged since the initiation of the web. I'm also not searching for answers that suggest using tools to simplify the process or formats that anyhow depends on HTML or CSS, technologies that currently require a plugin and not even trying to become an open standards (like Flash) aren't an answer neither. BTW, here are 2 articles written more than two years ago as food for thought, it might help with writing a better answers. "HTML, CSS, and Web Development Practices: Past, Present, and Future" describing a very related problem, by Jens O. Meiert. "A Brief History of HTML" by Scott Reynen, Here is a quote from the end: So now you can answer questions about HTML5 without even looking at the draft, which is handy, because the draft is 400+ pages long. Why is there a new tag in HTML5? Because some browser vendor (maybe the one that also owns a large video site) wanted it. Why are there so many scriptable interface elements in HTML5? Because some browser vendor (maybe the one selling phones without Flash support) wants them. Why is there no support for RDFa in HTML5? Apparently no browser vendor wanted it. Is that the future?

  Read the article

• Desktop Fun: Google Themed Icon Packs

  - by Asian Angel

  Are you an avid user of Google’s online services, but the icons for your desktop and app launcher shortcuts leave something to be desired? Now you can make those shortcuts shine with style using our Google Themed Icon Packs collection. Note: To customize the icon setup on your Windows 7 & Vista systems see our article here. Using Windows XP? We have you covered here. Sneak Preview For this week’s sneak preview we set up a Google Chrome themed desktop using the Simply Google Icon Collection shown below. Note: Original full-size wallpaper can be found here. We used Chromium to create a set of app shortcuts for various Google services on our desktop. Anyone who has done the same knows that the original icons do not look very good, so these icon packs can make those shortcuts look spectacular. Once the new icons were arranged for our desktop app shortcuts, we then pinned them to our Taskbar. Those are definitely looking nice! The Icon Packs Simply Google Icon Collection *.ico and .png format Download Google icons *.ico and .png format Download Tango Google Icon Set Vol. 1 *.png and .svg format Download Google Tango Icon Set Vol. 2 *.png and .svg format Download New Google Product Icons *.ico, .png, and .gif format Note: This icon pack contains 657 icons of various sizes. The best selection of individual icon types in the same size (i.e. 48, 128, etc.) from this pack is a mixture of .png and .gif formats. Download New google docs icons *.png format only Download Google Docs pack Icons *.ico, .png, and .gif format Download GCal *.png format only (original favicon .ico file included) Download Google Earth Icon Color Pack *.png format only Download Google Earth Dock Icons *.ico, .png, and .icns format Download Gtalk Color Icons *.png format only Download Google Buzz Icons *.png format only Download Google Chrome icon pack *.png format only Download Google Chrome X *.ico, .png, and .icns format Download Google Chrome icon pack *.png format only Download Wanting more great icon sets to look through? Be certain to visit our Desktop Fun section for more icon goodness! Latest Features How-To Geek ETC How To Boot 10 Different Live CDs From 1 USB Flash Drive The 20 Best How-To Geek Linux Articles of 2010 The 50 Best How-To Geek Windows Articles of 2010 The 20 Best How-To Geek Explainer Topics for 2010 How to Disable Caps Lock Key in Windows 7 or Vista How to Use the Avira Rescue CD to Clean Your Infected PC Enjoy Old School Style Video Game Fun with Chicken Invaders Hide the Twitter “Litter” in Twitter’s Sidebar Area (Chrome and Iron) Public Domain Day: Reflections on Copyright and the Importance of Public Domain Angry Birds Coming to PS3 and PSP This Week I Hate Mondays Wallpaper for That First Day Back at Work Tune Pop Enhances Android Music Notifications

  Read the article

• Wordpress Installation (on IIS and SQL Server)

  - by Davide Mauri

  To proceed with the installation of Wordpress on SQL Server and IIS, first of all, you need to do the following steps Create a database on SQL Server that will be used by Wordpress Create login that can access to the just created database and put the user into ddladmin, db_datareader, db_datawriter roles Download and unpack Wordpress 3.3.2 (latest version as of 27 May 2012) zip file into a directory of your choice Download the wp-db-abstraction 1.1.4 (latest version as of 27 May 2012) plugin from wordpress.org website Now that the basic action has been done, you can start to setup and configure your Wordpress installation. Unpack and follow the instructions in the README.TXT file to install the Database Abstraction Layer. Mainly you have to: Upload wp-db-abstraction.php and the wp-db-abstraction directory to wp-content/mu-plugins.  This should be parallel to your regular plugins directory.  If the mu-plugins directory does not exist, you must create it. Put the db.php file from inside the wp-db-abstraction.php directory to wp-content/db.php Now you can create an application pool in IIS like the following one Create a website, using the above Application Pool, that points to the folder where you unpacked Wordpress files. Be sure to give the “Write” permission to the IIS account, as pointed out in this (old, but still quite valid) installation manual: http://wordpress.visitmix.com/development/installing-wordpress-on-sql-server#iis Now you’re ready to go. Point your browser to the configured website and the Wordpress installation screen will be there for you. When you’re requested to enter information to connect to MySQL database, simply skip that page, leaving the default values. If you have installed the Database Abstraction Layer, another database installation screen will appear after the one used by MySQL, and here you can enter the configuration information needed to connect to SQL Server. After having finished the installation steps, you should be able to access and navigate your wordpress site.  A final touch, and it’s done: just add the needed rewrite rules http://wordpress.visitmix.com/development/installing-wordpress-on-sql-server#urlrewrite and that’s it! Well. Not really. Unfortunately the current (as of 27 May 2012) version of the Database Abstraction Layer (1.1.4) has some bugs. Luckily they can be quickly fixed: Backslash Fix http://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-wp-db-abstraction-fix-problems-with-backslash-usage Select Top 0 Fix Make the change to the file “.\wp-content\mu-plugins\wp-db-abstraction\translations\sqlsrv\translations.php” suggested by “debettap”   http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=3485384&group_id=315685&atid=1328061 And now you have a 100% working Wordpress installation on SQL Server! Since I also wanted to take advantage of SQL Server Full Text Search, I’ve created a very simple wordpress plugin to setup full-text search and to use it as website search engine: http://wpfts.codeplex.com/ Enjoy!

  Read the article

• Did I lost my RAID again?

  - by BarsMonster

  Hi! A little history: 2 years ago I was really excited to find out that mdadm is so powerful so it even can reshape arrays so you can start with a smaller array and the grow it as you need. I've bought 3x1Tb drives and made RAID-5. It was fine for a year. Then I bought 2x more, and tried to reshape to RAID-6 out of 5 drives, and due to some mess with superblock versions, lost all content. Had to rebuild it from scratch, but 2Tb of data were gone. Yesterday I bought 2 more drives, and this time I had everything: properly built array, UPS. I've disabled write intent map, added 2 new drives as a spare and run a command to grow array to 7-disk. It started working, but speed was ridiculously slow, ~100kb/sec. AFter processing first 37Mb at such an amasing speed, one of old HDDs fails. I properly shutdown PC and disconnected failed drive. After bootup it appeared it recreated intent map as it was still in mdadm config, so I removed it from config and rebooted again. Now all I see is that all mdadm processes deadlocks, and don't do anything. PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 1937 root 20 0 12992 608 444 D 0 0.1 0:00.00 mdadm 2283 root 20 0 12992 852 704 D 0 0.1 0:00.01 mdadm 2287 root 20 0 0 0 0 D 0 0.0 0:00.01 md0_reshape 2288 root 18 -2 12992 820 676 D 0 0.1 0:00.01 mdadm And all I see in mdstat is: $ cat /proc/mdstat Personalities : [linear] [multipath] [raid0] [raid1] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] [raid10] md0 : active raid6 sdb1[1] sdg1[4] sdf1[7] sde1[6] sdd1[0] sdc1[5] 2929683456 blocks super 1.2 level 6, 1024k chunk, algorithm 2 [7/6] [UU_UUUU] [>....................] reshape = 0.0% (37888/976561152) finish=567604147.2min speed=0K/sec I've already tried mdadm 2.6.7, 3.1.4 and 3.2 - nothing helps. Did I lost my data again? Any suggestions how can I make it work? OS is Ubuntu Server 10.04.2... PS. Needless to say that data is unaccessible - I cannot mount /dev/md0 as save the most valuable data. You can see my disappointment - the very specific thing I was excited about failed twice taking 5Tb of my data with it.

  Read the article

• Adventures in Scrum: Lesson 1 &ndash; The failed Sprint

  - by Martin Hinshelwood

  I recently had a conversation with a product owner that wanted to have the Scrum team broken up into smaller units so that less time was wasted on the Scrum Ceremonies! Their complaint was around the need in Scrum to have the entire “Team” (7+-2) involved in the sizing of the work during the “Sprint Planning Meeting”.  The standard flippant answer of all Scrum professionals, “Well that's not Scrum”, does not get you any brownie points in these situations. The response could be “Well we are not doing Scrum then” which in turn leads to “We are doing Scrum…But, we have split the scrum team into units of 2/3 so that they can concentrate on a specific area of work”. While this may work, it is not Scrum and should not be called so… It is just a form of Agile. Don’t get me wrong at this stage, there is nothing wrong with Agile, just don’t call it Scrum. The reason that the Product Owner wants to do this is that, in effect, through a number of miscommunications and failings in our implementation of Scrum, there was NO unit of potentially Shippable software at the end of the first sprint. It does not matter to them that most Scrum teams will fail the first Sprint, even those that are high performing teams. Remember it is the product owners their money! We should NOT break up scrum teams into smaller units for the purpose of having less people tied up in the Scrum Ceremonies. The amount of backlog the Team selects is solely up to the Team… Only the Team can assess what it can accomplish over the upcoming Sprint. - Scrum Guide, Scrum.org The entire team must accept the work and in order to understand what they can accept they must be free to size it as a team. This both encourages common understanding and increases visibility on why team members think a task is of a particular size. This has the benefit of increasing the knowledge of the entire team in the problem domain. A new Team often first realizes that it will either sink or swim as a Team, not individually, in this meeting. The Team realizes that it must rely on itself. As it realizes this, it starts to self-organize to take on the characteristics and behaviour of a real Team. - Scrum Guide, Scrum.org This paragraph goes to the why of having the whole team at the meeting; The goal of Scrum it to produce a unit of potentially shippable software at the end of every Sprint. In order to achieve this we need high performing teams and this is what Scrum as a framework has been optimised to produce. I think that our Product Owner is understandably upset over loosing two weeks work and is losing sight the end goal of Scrum in the failures of the moment. As the man spending the money, I completely understand his perspective and I think that we should not have started Scrum on an internal project, but selected a customer  that is open to the ideas and complications of Scrum. So, what should we have NOT done on our first Scrum project: Should not have had 3 interns as the only on site resource – This lead to bad practices as the experienced guys were not there helping and correcting as they usually would. Should not have had the only experienced guys offsite – With both the experienced technical guys in completely different time zones it was difficult to get time for questions. Helping the guys on site was just plain impossible. Should not have used a part time ScrumMaster – Although the ScrumMaster attended all of the Ceremonies, because they are only in 2 full days of the week it makes it difficult for the team to raise impediments as they go. Should not have used a proxy product owner. – This was probably the worst decision that was made. Mainly because the proxy product owner did not have the same vision as the product owner. While Scrum does not explicitly reject the idea of a Proxy Product Owner, I do not think it works very well in practice. The “single wringable neck” needs to contain both the Money and the Vision as well as attending the required meetings. I will be brining all of these things up at the Sprint Retrospective and we will learn from our mistakes and move on. Do, Inspect then Adapt…   Technorati Tags: Scrum,Sprint Planing,Sprint Retrospective,Scrum.org,Scrum Guide,Scrum Ceremonies,Scrummaster,Product Owner Need Help? Professional Scrum Developer Training SSW has six Professional Scrum Developer Trainers who specialise in training your developers in implementing Scrum with Microsoft's Visual Studio ALM tools.

  Read the article

• MythTV lost recordings - "No recordings available" and no recording rules either

  - by nimasmi

  I have a c.6 year old mythtv database. I recently upgraded from Ubuntu 10.04 to 12.04. This brought a MythTV upgrade from 0.24 to 0.25, which went well. Today, all my recordings have disappeared. They still exist in the /var/lib/mythtv/recordings folder, and the 'M' key in the Watch Recordings page says that there are 201 recordings available somewhere, but they will not display. See screenshot: (implicit thanks to whomever upvoted this, giving me sufficient reputation to upload images) Changing the filter does not remedy the fact that there is nothing shown in the lists. My Upcoming Recordings screen says that there are no rules set, but my list of previously recorded shows is still there, and has an entry from as recently as 3am today. mythbackend --printsched gives the following: user@box:~$ mythbackend --printsched 2012-09-22 12:59:20.537008 C mythbackend version: fixes/0.25 [v0.25.2-15-g46cab93] www.mythtv.org 2012-09-22 12:59:20.537043 C Qt version: compile: 4.8.1, runtime: 4.8.1 2012-09-22 12:59:20.537048 N Enabled verbose msgs: general 2012-09-22 12:59:20.537076 N Setting Log Level to LOG_INFO 2012-09-22 12:59:20.537142 I Added logging to the console 2012-09-22 12:59:20.537152 I Added database logging to table logging 2012-09-22 12:59:20.537279 N Setting up SIGHUP handler 2012-09-22 12:59:20.537373 N Using runtime prefix = /usr 2012-09-22 12:59:20.537394 N Using configuration directory = /home/user/.mythtv 2012-09-22 12:59:20.537999 I Assumed character encoding: en_GB.UTF-8 2012-09-22 12:59:20.538599 N Empty LocalHostName. 2012-09-22 12:59:20.538610 I Using localhost value of box 2012-09-22 12:59:20.538792 I Testing network connectivity to '192.168.1.2' 2012-09-22 12:59:20.539420 I Starting process manager 2012-09-22 12:59:20.541412 I Starting IO manager (read) 2012-09-22 12:59:20.541715 I Starting IO manager (write) 2012-09-22 12:59:20.541836 I Starting process signal handler 2012-09-22 12:59:20.684497 N Setting QT default locale to EN_GB 2012-09-22 12:59:20.684694 I Current locale EN_GB 2012-09-22 12:59:20.684813 N Reading locale defaults from /usr/share/mythtv//locales/en_gb.xml 2012-09-22 12:59:20.697623 I New static DB connectionDataDirectCon 2012-09-22 12:59:20.704769 I MythCoreContext: Connecting to backend server: 192.168.1.2:6543 (try 1 of 1) Calculating Schedule from database. Inputs, Card IDs, and Conflict info may be invalid if you have multiple tuners. 2012-09-22 12:59:27.710538 E MythSocket(21dfcd0:14): readStringList: Error, timed out after 7000 ms. 2012-09-22 12:59:27.710592 C Protocol version check failure. The response to MYTH_PROTO_VERSION was empty. This happens when the backend is too busy to respond, or has deadlocked in due to bugs or hardware failure. Things I have tried so far: restart the backend restart the frontend run mythtv-setup and check database passwords and IP addresses change the frontend setting for backend IP from localhost to 192.168.1.2 (the backend/frontend's IP) run optimize_mythdb.pl Other suggestions appreciated.

  Read the article

• 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

  Read the article

• Viewing at Impossible Angles

  - by kemer

  The picture of the little screwdriver with the Allen wrench head to the right is bound to invoke a little nostalgia for those readers who were Sun customers in the late 80s. This tool was a very popular give-away: it was essential for installing and removing Multibus (you youngsters will have to look that up on Wikipedia…) cards in our systems. Back then our mid-sized systems were gargantuan: it was routine for us to schlep around a 200 lb. desk side box and 90 lb. monitor to demo a piece of software your smart phone will run better today. We were very close to the hardware, and the first thing a new field sales systems engineer had to learn was how put together a system. If you were lucky, a grizzled service engineer might run you through the process once, then threaten your health and existence should you ever screw it up so that he had to fix it. Nowadays we make it much easier to learn the ins and outs of our hardware with simulations–3D animations–that take you through the process of putting together or replacing pieces of a system. Most recently, we have posted three sophisticated PDFs that take advantage of Acrobat 9 features to provide a really intelligent approach to documenting hardware installation and repair: Sun Fire X4800/X4800 M2 Animations for Chassis Components Sun Fire X4800/X4800 M2 Animations for Sub Assembly Module (SAM) Sun Fire X4800/X4800 M2 Animations for CMOD Download one of these documents and take a close look at it. You can view the hardware from any angle, including impossible ones. Each document has a number of procedures, that break down into steps. Click on a procedure, then a step and you will see it animated in the drawing. Of course hardware design has generally eliminated the need for things like our old giveaway tools: components snap and lock in. Often you can replace redundant units while the system is hot, but for heaven’s sake, you’ll want to verify that you can do that before you try it! Meanwhile, we can all look forward to a growing portfolio of these intelligent documents. We would love to hear what you think about them. –Kemer

  Read the article

• Productivity vs Security [closed]

  - by nerijus

  Really do not know is this right place to ask such a questions. But it is about programming in a different light. So, currently contracting with company witch pretends to be big corporation. Everyone is so important that all small issues like developers are ignored. Give you a sample: company VPN is configured so that if you have VPN then HTTP traffic is banned. Bearing this in mind can you imagine my workflow: Morning. Ok time to get latest source. Ups, no VPN. Let’s connect. Click-click. 3 sec. wait time. Ok getting source. Do I have emails? Ups. VPN is on, can’t check my emails. Need to wait for source to come up. Finally here it is! Ok Click-click VPN is gone. What is in my email. Someone reported a bug. Good, let’s track it down. It is in TFS already. Oh, dam, I need VPN. Click-click. Ok, there is description. Yea, I have seen this issue in stachoverflow.com. Let’s go there. Ups, no internet. Click-click. No internet. What? IPconfig… DHCP server kicked me out. Dam. Renew ip. 1..2..3. Ok internet is back. Google: site: stachoverflow.com 3 min. I have solution. Great I love stackoverflow.com. Don’t want to remember days where there was no stackoveflow.com. Ok. Copy paste this like to studio. Dam, studio is stalled, can’t reach files on TFS. Click-click. VPN is back. Get source out, paste my code. Grand. Let’s see what other comments about an issue in stackoverflow.com tells. Hmm.. There is a link. Click. Dammit! No internet. Click-click. No internet. DHCP kicked me out. Dammit. Now it is even worse: this happens 3-4 times a day. After certain amount of VPN connections open\closed my internet goes down solid. Only way to get internet back is reboot. All my browser tabs/SQL windows/studio will be gone. This happened just now when I am typing this. Back to issue I am solving right now: I am getting frustrated - I do not care about better solution for this issue. Let’s do it somehow and forget. This Click-click barrier between internet and TFS kills me… Sounds familiar? You could say there are VPN settings to change. No! This is company laptop, not allowed to do changes. I am very very lucky to have admin privileges on my machine. Most of developers don’t. So just learned to live with this frustration. It takes away 40-60 minutes daily. Tried to email company support, admins. They are too important ant too busy with something that just ignored my little man’s problem. Politely ignored. Question is: Is this normal in corporate world? (Have been in States, Canada, Germany. Never seen this.)

  Read the article

< Previous Page | 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418  | Next Page >