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• Finding nuggets in ARC discussions

  - by alanc

  A bit over twenty years ago, Sun formed an Architecture Review Committee (ARC) that evaluates proposals to change interfaces between components in Sun software products. During the OpenSolaris days, we opened many of these discussions to the community. While they’re back behind closed doors, and at a different company now, we still continue to hold these reviews for the software from what’s now the Sun Systems Group division of Oracle. Recently one of these reviews was held (via e-mail discussion) to review a proposal to update our GNU findutils package to the latest upstream release. One of the upstream changes discussed was the addition of an “oldfind” program. In findutils 4.3, find was modified to use the fts() function to walk the directory tree, and oldfind was created to provide the old mechanism in case there were bugs in the new implementation that users needed to workaround. In Solaris 11 though, we still ship the find descended from SVR4 as /usr/bin/find and the GNU find is available as either /usr/bin/gfind or /usr/gnu/bin/find. This raised the discussion of if we should add oldfind, and if so what should we call it. Normally our policy is to only add the g* names for GNU commands that conflict with an existing Solaris command – for instance, we ship /usr/bin/emacs, not /usr/bin/gemacs. In this case however, that seemed like it would be more confusing to have /usr/bin/oldfind be the older version of /usr/bin/gfind not of /usr/bin/find. Thus if we shipped it, it would make more sense to call it /usr/bin/goldfind, which several ARC members noted read more naturally as “gold find” than as “g old find”. One of the concerns we often discuss in ARC is if a change is likely to be understood by users or if it will result in more calls to support. As we hit this part of the discussion on a Friday at the end of a long week, I couldn’t resist putting forth a hypothetical support call for this command: “Hello, Oracle Solaris Support, how may I help you?” “My admin is out sick, but he sent an email that he put the findutils package on our server, and I can run goldfind now. I tried it, but goldfind didn’t find gold.” “Did he get the binutils package too?” “No he just said findutils, do we need binutils?” “Well, gold comes in the binutils package, so goldfind would be able to find gold if you got that package.” “How much does Oracle charge for that package?” “It’s free for Solaris users.” “You mean Oracle ships packages of gold to customers for free?” “Yes, if you get the binutils package, it includes GNU gold.” “New gold? Is that some sort of alchemy, turning stuff into gold?” “Not new gold, gold from the GNU project.” “Oracle’s taking gold from the GNU project and shipping it to me?” “Yes, if you get binutils, that package includes gold along with the other tools from the GNU project.” “And GNU doesn’t mind Oracle taking their gold and giving it to customers?” “No, GNU is a non-profit whose goal is to share their software.” “Sharing software sure, but gold? Where does a non-profit like GNU get gold anyway?” “Oh, Google donated it to them.” “Ah! So Oracle will give me the gold that GNU got from Google!” “Yes, if you get the package from us.” “How do I get the package with the gold?” “Just run pkg install binutils and it will put it on your disk.” “We’ve got multiple disks here - which one will it put it on?” “The one with the system image - do you know which one that is? “Well the note from the admin says the system is on the first disk and the users are on the second disk.” “Okay, so it should go on the first disk then.” “And where will I find the gold?” “It will be in the /usr/bin directory.” “In the user’s bin? So thats on the second disk?” “No, it would be on the system disk, with the other development tools, like make, as, and what.” “So what’s on the first disk?” “Well if the system image is there the commands should all be there.” “All the commands? Not just what?” “Right, all the commands that come with the OS, like the shell, ps, and who.” “So who’s on the first disk too?” “Yes. Did your admin say when he’d be back?” “No, just that he had a massive headache and was going home after I tried to get him to explain this stuff to me.” “I can’t imagine why.” “Oh, is why a command too?” “No, _why was a Ruby programmer.” “Ruby? Do you give those away with the gold too?” “Yes, but it comes in the ruby package, not binutils.” “Oh, I’ll have to have my admin get that package too! Thanks!” Needless to say, we decided this might not be the best idea. Since the GNU package hasn’t had to release a serious bug fix in the new find in the past few years, the new GNU find seems pretty stable, and we always have the SVR4 find to use as a fallback in Solaris, so it didn’t seem that adding oldfind was really necessary, so we passed on including it when we update to the new findutils release. [Apologies to Abbott, Costello, their fans, and everyone who read this far. The Gold (linker) page on Wikipedia may explain some of the above, but can’t explain why goldfind is the old GNU find, but gold is the new GNU ld.]

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• Nokia Windows Phone 8 App Collection

  - by Tim Murphy

  I recently upgraded to a Nokia Lumia 920.  Along with it came the availability of a number of Nokia developed apps or apps that Nokia has made available from other developers.  Below is a summary of some of the ones that I have used to this point.  There are quite a few of them so I won’t be covering everything that is available. Nokia Maps I am quite pleased with the accuracy of Nokia Maps and not having to tap the screen for each turn any more.  The information on the screen is quite good as well.  The couple of improvements I would like to see are for the voice directions to include which street or exit you need to use and improve the search accuracy.  Bing maps had much better search results in my opinion. Nokia Drive This one really had me confused when I first setup the phone.  I was driving down the road and suddenly I am getting notification tones, but there were no visual notifications on the phone.  It seems that in their infinite wisdom Nokia thinks I don’t know when I am going over the speed limit and need to be told. ESPN I really liked my ESPN app on Windows Phone 7.5, but I am not getting the type of experience I was looking for out of this app.  While it allows me to pick my favorite teams, but there isn’t a pivot page or panorama page that shows a summary of my favorite teams.  I have also found that the live tile don’t update very often.  Over all I am rather disappointed compared app produced by ESPN. Smart Shoot I really need to get the kids to let me use this on.  I like the concept, but I need to spend more time with it.  The idea how running the camera through a continuous shooting mode and then picking the best is something that I have done with my DSLR and am glad to see it available here. Cinemagraph Here is a fun filter.  It doesn’t have the most accurate editing features, but it is fun to stop certain parts of a scene and let other parts move.  As a test I stopped the traffic on the highway and let the traffic on the frontage road flow.  It makes for a fun effect.  If nothing else it could be great for sending prank animations to your friends. YouSendIt I have only briefly touched this application.  What I don’t understand is why it is needed.  Most of the functionality seems to be similar to SkyDrive and it gives you less storage.  They only feature that seems to differentiate the app is the signature capability. Creative Studio This app has some nice quick edits, but it is not very comprehensive.  I am also not to thrilled with the user experience.  It puts you though an initial color cast series that I’m not sure why it is there.  Discovery of the remaining adjustments isn’t that great.  In the end I found myself wanting Thumbia back. Panorama This is one of the apps that I like.  I found it easy to use as it guides you with a target circle that you center for it to take the next pictures.  It also stitches the images with amazing speed.  The one thing I wish it had was the capability to turn the phone into portrait orientation and do a taller panorama.  Perhaps we will see this in the future. Nokia Music After getting over the missing album art I found that there were a number of missing features with this app as well.  I have a Zune HD and I am used to being able to go through my collection and adding songs, albums or artists to my now playing.  There also doesn’t seem to be a way to manage playlists that I have seen yet.  Other than that the UI is familiar and it give Nokia City Lens Augmented reality is a cool concept, but I still haven’t seen it implemented in a compelling fashion beyond a demo at TED a couple of years ago.  The app still leaves me wanting as well.  It does give an interesting toy.  It gives you the ability to look for general categories and see general direction and clusters of locations.  I think as this concept is better thought out it will become more compelling. Nokia Trailers I don’t know how often I will use this app, but I do like being able to see what movies are being promoted.  I can’t wait for The Hobbit to come out and the trailer was just what the doctor ordered.  I can see coming back to this app from time to time. PhotoBeamer PhotoBeamer is a strange beast that needs a better instruction manual.  It seems a lot like magic but very confusing.  I need some more testing, but I don’t think this is something that most people are going to understand quickly and may give up before getting it to work.  I may put an update here after playing with it further. Ringtone Maker The app was just published and it didn’t work very well for me. It couldn’t find 95% of the songs that Nokia Music was playing for me and crashed several times.  It also had songs named wrong that when I checked them in Nokia Music they were fine.  This app looks like it has a long way to go. Summary In all I think that Nokia is offering a well rounded set of initial applications that can get any new owner started.  There is definitely room for improvement in all of these apps.  The main need is usability upgrades.  I would guess that with feedback from users they will come up to acceptable levels.  Try them out and see if you agree. del.icio.us Tags: Windows Phone,Nokia,Lumia,Nokia Apps,ESPN,PhotoBeamer,City Lens,YouSendIt,Drive,Maps

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• How can I render multiple windows with DirectX 9 in C++?

  - by Friso1990

  I'm trying to render multiple windows, using DirectX 9 and swap chains, but even though I create 2 windows, I only see the first one that I've created. My RendererDX9 header is this: #include <d3d9.h> #include <Windows.h> #include <vector> #include "RAT_Renderer.h" namespace RAT_ENGINE { class RAT_RendererDX9 : public RAT_Renderer { public: RAT_RendererDX9(); ~RAT_RendererDX9(); void Init(RAT_WindowManager* argWMan); void CleanUp(); void ShowWin(); private: LPDIRECT3D9 renderInterface; // Used to create the D3DDevice LPDIRECT3DDEVICE9 renderDevice; // Our rendering device LPDIRECT3DSWAPCHAIN9* swapChain; // Swapchain to make multi-window rendering possible WNDCLASSEX wc; std::vector<HWND> hwindows; void Render(int argI); }; } And my .cpp file is this: #include "RAT_RendererDX9.h" static LRESULT CALLBACK MsgProc( HWND hWnd, UINT msg, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam ); namespace RAT_ENGINE { RAT_RendererDX9::RAT_RendererDX9() : renderInterface(NULL), renderDevice(NULL) { } RAT_RendererDX9::~RAT_RendererDX9() { } void RAT_RendererDX9::Init(RAT_WindowManager* argWMan) { wMan = argWMan; // Register the window class WNDCLASSEX windowClass = { sizeof( WNDCLASSEX ), CS_CLASSDC, MsgProc, 0, 0, GetModuleHandle( NULL ), NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, "foo", NULL }; wc = windowClass; RegisterClassEx( &wc ); for (int i = 0; i< wMan->getWindows().size(); ++i) { HWND hWnd = CreateWindow( "foo", argWMan->getWindow(i)->getName().c_str(), WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW, argWMan->getWindow(i)->getX(), argWMan->getWindow(i)->getY(), argWMan->getWindow(i)->getWidth(), argWMan->getWindow(i)->getHeight(), NULL, NULL, wc.hInstance, NULL ); hwindows.push_back(hWnd); } // Create the D3D object, which is needed to create the D3DDevice. renderInterface = (LPDIRECT3D9)Direct3DCreate9( D3D_SDK_VERSION ); // Set up the structure used to create the D3DDevice. Most parameters are // zeroed out. We set Windowed to TRUE, since we want to do D3D in a // window, and then set the SwapEffect to "discard", which is the most // efficient method of presenting the back buffer to the display. And // we request a back buffer format that matches the current desktop display // format. D3DPRESENT_PARAMETERS deviceConfig; ZeroMemory( &deviceConfig, sizeof( deviceConfig ) ); deviceConfig.Windowed = TRUE; deviceConfig.SwapEffect = D3DSWAPEFFECT_DISCARD; deviceConfig.BackBufferFormat = D3DFMT_UNKNOWN; deviceConfig.BackBufferHeight = 1024; deviceConfig.BackBufferWidth = 768; deviceConfig.EnableAutoDepthStencil = TRUE; deviceConfig.AutoDepthStencilFormat = D3DFMT_D16; // Create the Direct3D device. Here we are using the default adapter (most // systems only have one, unless they have multiple graphics hardware cards // installed) and requesting the HAL (which is saying we want the hardware // device rather than a software one). Software vertex processing is // specified since we know it will work on all cards. On cards that support // hardware vertex processing, though, we would see a big performance gain // by specifying hardware vertex processing. renderInterface->CreateDevice( D3DADAPTER_DEFAULT, D3DDEVTYPE_HAL, hwindows[0], D3DCREATE_SOFTWARE_VERTEXPROCESSING, &deviceConfig, &renderDevice ); this->swapChain = new LPDIRECT3DSWAPCHAIN9[wMan->getWindows().size()]; this->renderDevice->GetSwapChain(0, &swapChain[0]); for (int i = 0; i < wMan->getWindows().size(); ++i) { renderDevice->CreateAdditionalSwapChain(&deviceConfig, &swapChain[i]); } renderDevice->SetRenderState(D3DRS_CULLMODE, D3DCULL_CCW); // Set cullmode to counterclockwise culling to save resources renderDevice->SetRenderState(D3DRS_AMBIENT, 0xffffffff); // Turn on ambient lighting renderDevice->SetRenderState(D3DRS_ZENABLE, TRUE); // Turn on the zbuffer } void RAT_RendererDX9::CleanUp() { renderDevice->Release(); renderInterface->Release(); } void RAT_RendererDX9::Render(int argI) { // Clear the backbuffer to a blue color renderDevice->Clear( 0, NULL, D3DCLEAR_TARGET, D3DCOLOR_XRGB( 0, 0, 255 ), 1.0f, 0 ); LPDIRECT3DSURFACE9 backBuffer = NULL; // Set draw target this->swapChain[argI]->GetBackBuffer(0, D3DBACKBUFFER_TYPE_MONO, &backBuffer); this->renderDevice->SetRenderTarget(0, backBuffer); // Begin the scene renderDevice->BeginScene(); // End the scene renderDevice->EndScene(); swapChain[argI]->Present(NULL, NULL, hwindows[argI], NULL, 0); } void RAT_RendererDX9::ShowWin() { for (int i = 0; i < wMan->getWindows().size(); ++i) { ShowWindow( hwindows[i], SW_SHOWDEFAULT ); UpdateWindow( hwindows[i] ); // Enter the message loop MSG msg; while( GetMessage( &msg, NULL, 0, 0 ) ) { if (PeekMessage( &msg, NULL, 0U, 0U, PM_REMOVE ) ) { TranslateMessage( &msg ); DispatchMessage( &msg ); } else { Render(i); } } } } } LRESULT CALLBACK MsgProc( HWND hWnd, UINT msg, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam ) { switch( msg ) { case WM_DESTROY: //CleanUp(); PostQuitMessage( 0 ); return 0; case WM_PAINT: //Render(); ValidateRect( hWnd, NULL ); return 0; } return DefWindowProc( hWnd, msg, wParam, lParam ); } I've made a sample function to make multiple windows: void RunSample1() { //Create the window manager. RAT_ENGINE::RAT_WindowManager* wMan = new RAT_ENGINE::RAT_WindowManager(); //Create the render manager. RAT_ENGINE::RAT_RenderManager* rMan = new RAT_ENGINE::RAT_RenderManager(); //Create a window. //This is currently needed to initialize the render manager and create a renderer. wMan->CreateRATWindow("Sample 1 - 1", 10, 20, 640, 480); wMan->CreateRATWindow("Sample 1 - 2", 150, 100, 480, 640); //Initialize the render manager. rMan->Init(wMan); //Show the window. rMan->getRenderer()->ShowWin(); } How do I get the multiple windows to work?

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• socket operation on nonsocket or bad file descriptor

  - by Magn3s1um

  I'm writing a pthread server which takes requests from clients and sends them back a bunch of .ppm files. Everything seems to go well, but sometimes when I have just 1 client connected, when trying to read from the file descriptor (for the file), it says Bad file Descriptor. This doesn't make sense, since my int fd isn't -1, and the file most certainly exists. Other times, I get this "Socket operation on nonsocket" error. This is weird because other times, it doesn't give me this error and everything works fine. When trying to connect multiple clients, for some reason, it will only send correctly to one, and then the other client gets the bad file descriptor or "nonsocket" error, even though both threads are processing the same messages and do the same routines. Anyone have an idea why? Here's the code that is giving me that error: while(mqueue.head != mqueue.tail && count < dis_m){ printf("Sending to client %s: %s\n", pointer->id, pointer->message); int fd; fd = open(pointer->message, O_RDONLY); char buf[58368]; int bytesRead; printf("This is fd %d\n", fd); bytesRead=read(fd,buf,58368); send(pointer->socket,buf,bytesRead,0); perror("Error:\n"); fflush(stdout); close(fd); mqueue.mcount--; mqueue.head = mqueue.head->next; free(pointer->message); free(pointer); pointer = mqueue.head; count++; } printf("Sending %s\n", pointer->message); int fd; fd = open(pointer->message, O_RDONLY); printf("This is fd %d\n", fd); printf("I am hhere2\n"); char buf[58368]; int bytesRead; bytesRead=read(fd,buf,58368); send(pointer->socket,buf,bytesRead,0); perror("Error:\n"); close(fd); mqueue.mcount--; if(mqueue.head != mqueue.tail){ mqueue.head = mqueue.head->next; } else{ mqueue.head->next = malloc(sizeof(struct message)); mqueue.head = mqueue.head->next; mqueue.head->next = malloc(sizeof(struct message)); mqueue.tail = mqueue.head->next; mqueue.head->message = NULL; } free(pointer->message); free(pointer); pthread_mutex_unlock(&numm); pthread_mutex_unlock(&circ); pthread_mutex_unlock(&slots); The messages for both threads are the same, being of the form ./path/imageXX.ppm where XX is the number that should go to the client. The file size of each image is 58368 bytes. Sometimes, this code hangs on the read, and stops execution. I don't know this would be either, because the file descriptor comes back as valid. Thanks in advanced. Edit: Here's some sample output: Sending to client a: ./support/images/sw90.ppm This is fd 4 Error: : Socket operation on non-socket Sending to client a: ./support/images/sw91.ppm This is fd 4 Error: : Socket operation on non-socket Sending ./support/images/sw92.ppm This is fd 4 I am hhere2 Error: : Socket operation on non-socket My dispatcher has defeated evil Sample with 2 clients (client b was serviced first) Sending to client b: ./support/images/sw87.ppm This is fd 6 Error: : Success Sending to client b: ./support/images/sw88.ppm This is fd 6 Error: : Success Sending to client b: ./support/images/sw89.ppm This is fd 6 Error: : Success This is fd 6 Error: : Bad file descriptor Sending to client a: ./support/images/sw85.ppm This is fd 6 Error: As you can see, who ever is serviced first in this instance can open the files, but not the 2nd person. Edit2: Full code. Sorry, its pretty long and terribly formatted. #include <netinet/in.h> #include <netinet/in.h> #include <netdb.h> #include <arpa/inet.h> #include <sys/types.h> #include <sys/socket.h> #include <errno.h> #include <stdio.h> #include <unistd.h> #include <pthread.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <string.h> #include <sys/types.h> #include <sys/stat.h> #include <fcntl.h> #include "ring.h" /* Version 1 Here is what is implemented so far: The threads are created from the arguments specified (number of threads that is) The server will lock and update variables based on how many clients are in the system and such. The socket that is opened when a new client connects, must be passed to the threads. To do this, we need some sort of global array. I did this by specifying an int client and main_pool_busy, and two pointers poolsockets and nonpoolsockets. My thinking on this was that when a new client enters the system, the server thread increments the variable client. When a thread is finished with this client (after it sends it the data), the thread will decrement client and close the socket. HTTP servers act this way sometimes (they terminate the socket as soon as one transmission is sent). *Note down at bottom After the server portion increments the client counter, we must open up a new socket (denoted by new_sd) and get this value to the appropriate thread. To do this, I created global array poolsockets, which will hold all the socket descriptors for our pooled threads. The server portion gets the new socket descriptor, and places the value in the first spot of the array that has a 0. We only place a value in this array IF: 1. The variable main_pool_busy < worknum (If we have more clients in the system than in our pool, it doesn't mean we should always create a new thread. At the end of this, the server signals on the condition variable clientin that a new client has arrived. In our pooled thread, we then must walk this array and check the array until we hit our first non-zero value. This is the socket we will give to that thread. The thread then changes the array to have a zero here. What if our all threads in our pool our busy? If this is the case, then we will know it because our threads in this pool will increment main_pool_busy by one when they are working on a request and decrement it when they are done. If main_pool_busy >= worknum, then we must dynamically create a new thread. Then, we must realloc the size of our nonpoolsockets array by 1 int. We then add the new socket descriptor to our pool. Here's what we need to figure out: NOTE* Each worker should generate 100 messages which specify the worker thread ID, client socket descriptor and a copy of the client message. Additionally, each message should include a message number, starting from 0 and incrementing for each subsequent message sent to the same client. I don't know how to keep track of how many messages were to the same client. Maybe we shouldn't close the socket descriptor, but rather keep an array of structs for each socket that includes how many messages they have been sent. Then, the server adds the struct, the threads remove it, then the threads add it back once they've serviced one request (unless the count is 100). ------------------------------------------------------------- CHANGES Version 1 ---------- NONE: this is the first version. */ #define MAXSLOTS 30 #define dis_m 15 //problems with dis_m ==1 //Function prototypes void inc_clients(); void init_mutex_stuff(pthread_t*, pthread_t*); void *threadpool(void *); void server(int); void add_to_socket_pool(int); void inc_busy(); void dec_busy(); void *dispatcher(); void create_message(long, int, int, char *, char *); void init_ring(); void add_to_ring(char *, char *, int, int, int); int socket_from_string(char *); void add_to_head(char *); void add_to_tail(char *); struct message * reorder(struct message *, struct message *, int); int get_threadid(char *); void delete_socket_messages(int); struct message * merge(struct message *, struct message *, int); int get_request(char *, char *, char*); ///////////////////// //Global mutexes and condition variables pthread_mutex_t startservice; pthread_mutex_t numclients; pthread_mutex_t pool_sockets; pthread_mutex_t nonpool_sockets; pthread_mutex_t m_pool_busy; pthread_mutex_t slots; pthread_mutex_t numm; pthread_mutex_t circ; pthread_cond_t clientin; pthread_cond_t m; /////////////////////////////////////// //Global variables int clients; int main_pool_busy; int * poolsockets, nonpoolsockets; int worknum; struct ring mqueue; /////////////////////////////////////// int main(int argc, char ** argv){ //error handling if not enough arguments to program if(argc != 3){ printf("Not enough arguments to server: ./server portnum NumThreadsinPool\n"); _exit(-1); } //Convert arguments from strings to integer values int port = atoi(argv[1]); worknum = atoi(argv[2]); //Start server portion server(port); } /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// //The listen server thread///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// void server(int port){ int sd, new_sd; struct sockaddr_in name, cli_name; int sock_opt_val = 1; int cli_len; pthread_t threads[worknum]; //create our pthread id array pthread_t dis[1]; //create our dispatcher array (necessary to create thread) init_mutex_stuff(threads, dis); //initialize mutexes and stuff //Server setup /////////////////////////////////////////////////////// if ((sd = socket (AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0)) < 0) { perror("(servConn): socket() error"); _exit (-1); } if (setsockopt (sd, SOL_SOCKET, SO_REUSEADDR, (char *) &sock_opt_val, sizeof(sock_opt_val)) < 0) { perror ("(servConn): Failed to set SO_REUSEADDR on INET socket"); _exit (-1); } name.sin_family = AF_INET; name.sin_port = htons (port); name.sin_addr.s_addr = htonl(INADDR_ANY); if (bind (sd, (struct sockaddr *)&name, sizeof(name)) < 0) { perror ("(servConn): bind() error"); _exit (-1); } listen (sd, 5); //End of server Setup ////////////////////////////////////////////////// for (;;) { cli_len = sizeof (cli_name); new_sd = accept (sd, (struct sockaddr *) &cli_name, &cli_len); printf ("Assigning new socket descriptor: %d\n", new_sd); inc_clients(); //New client has come in, increment clients add_to_socket_pool(new_sd); //Add client to the pool of sockets if (new_sd < 0) { perror ("(servConn): accept() error"); _exit (-1); } } pthread_exit(NULL); //Quit } //Adds the new socket to the array designated for pthreads in the pool void add_to_socket_pool(int socket){ pthread_mutex_lock(&m_pool_busy); //Lock so that we can check main_pool_busy int i; //If not all our main pool is busy, then allocate to one of them if(main_pool_busy < worknum){ pthread_mutex_unlock(&m_pool_busy); //unlock busy, we no longer need to hold it pthread_mutex_lock(&pool_sockets); //Lock the socket pool array so that we can edit it without worry for(i = 0; i < worknum; i++){ //Find a poolsocket that is -1; then we should put the real socket there. This value will be changed back to -1 when the thread grabs the sockfd if(poolsockets[i] == -1){ poolsockets[i] = socket; pthread_mutex_unlock(&pool_sockets); //unlock our pool array, we don't need it anymore inc_busy(); //Incrememnt busy (locks the mutex itself) pthread_cond_signal(&clientin); //Signal first thread waiting on a client that a client needs to be serviced break; } } } else{ //Dynamic thread creation goes here pthread_mutex_unlock(&m_pool_busy); } } //Increments the client number. If client number goes over worknum, we must dynamically create new pthreads void inc_clients(){ pthread_mutex_lock(&numclients); clients++; pthread_mutex_unlock(&numclients); } //Increments busy void inc_busy(){ pthread_mutex_lock(&m_pool_busy); main_pool_busy++; pthread_mutex_unlock(&m_pool_busy); } //Initialize all of our mutexes at the beginning and create our pthreads void init_mutex_stuff(pthread_t * threads, pthread_t * dis){ pthread_mutex_init(&startservice, NULL); pthread_mutex_init(&numclients, NULL); pthread_mutex_init(&pool_sockets, NULL); pthread_mutex_init(&nonpool_sockets, NULL); pthread_mutex_init(&m_pool_busy, NULL); pthread_mutex_init(&circ, NULL); pthread_cond_init (&clientin, NULL); main_pool_busy = 0; poolsockets = malloc(sizeof(int)*worknum); int threadreturn; //error checking variables long i = 0; //Loop and create pthreads for(i; i < worknum; i++){ threadreturn = pthread_create(&threads[i], NULL, threadpool, (void *) i); poolsockets[i] = -1; if(threadreturn){ perror("Thread pool created unsuccessfully"); _exit(-1); } } pthread_create(&dis[0], NULL, dispatcher, NULL); } ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// /////////Main pool routines ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// void dec_busy(){ pthread_mutex_lock(&m_pool_busy); main_pool_busy--; pthread_mutex_unlock(&m_pool_busy); } void dec_clients(){ pthread_mutex_lock(&numclients); clients--; pthread_mutex_unlock(&numclients); } //This is what our threadpool pthreads will be running. void *threadpool(void * threadid){ long id = (long) threadid; //Id of this thread int i; int socket; int counter = 0; //Try and gain access to the next client that comes in and wait until server signals that a client as arrived while(1){ pthread_mutex_lock(&startservice); //lock start service (required for cond wait) pthread_cond_wait(&clientin, &startservice); //wait for signal from server that client exists pthread_mutex_unlock(&startservice); //unlock mutex. pthread_mutex_lock(&pool_sockets); //Lock the pool socket so we can get the socket fd unhindered/interrupted for(i = 0; i < worknum; i++){ if(poolsockets[i] != -1){ socket = poolsockets[i]; poolsockets[i] = -1; pthread_mutex_unlock(&pool_sockets); } } printf("Thread #%d is past getting the socket\n", id); int incoming = 1; while(counter < 100 && incoming != 0){ char buffer[512]; bzero(buffer,512); int startcounter = 0; incoming = read(socket, buffer, 512); if(buffer[0] != 0){ //client ID:priority:request:arguments char id[100]; long prior; char request[100]; char arg1[100]; char message[100]; char arg2[100]; char * point; point = strtok(buffer, ":"); strcpy(id, point); point = strtok(NULL, ":"); prior = atoi(point); point = strtok(NULL, ":"); strcpy(request, point); point = strtok(NULL, ":"); strcpy(arg1, point); point = strtok(NULL, ":"); if(point != NULL){ strcpy(arg2, point); } int fd; if(strcmp(request, "start_movie") == 0){ int count = 1; while(count <= 100){ char temp[10]; snprintf(temp, 50, "%d\0", count); strcpy(message, "./support/images/"); strcat(message, arg1); strcat(message, temp); strcat(message, ".ppm"); printf("This is message %s to %s\n", message, id); count++; add_to_ring(message, id, prior, counter, socket); //Adds our created message to the ring counter++; } printf("I'm out of the loop\n"); } else if(strcmp(request, "seek_movie") == 0){ int count = atoi(arg2); while(count <= 100){ char temp[10]; snprintf(temp, 10, "%d\0", count); strcpy(message, "./support/images/"); strcat(message, arg1); strcat(message, temp); strcat(message, ".ppm"); printf("This is message %s\n", message); count++; } } //create_message(id, socket, counter, buffer, message); //Creates our message from the input from the client. Stores it in buffer } else{ delete_socket_messages(socket); break; } } counter = 0; close(socket);//Zero out counter again } dec_clients(); //client serviced, decrement clients dec_busy(); //thread finished, decrement busy } //Creates a message void create_message(long threadid, int socket, int counter, char * buffer, char * message){ snprintf(message, strlen(buffer)+15, "%d:%d:%d:%s", threadid, socket, counter, buffer); } //Gets the socket from the message string (maybe I should just pass in the socket to another method) int socket_from_string(char * message){ char * substr1 = strstr(message, ":"); char * substr2 = substr1; substr2++; int occurance = strcspn(substr2, ":"); char sock[10]; strncpy(sock, substr2, occurance); return atoi(sock); } //Adds message to our ring buffer's head void add_to_head(char * message){ printf("Adding to head of ring\n"); mqueue.head->message = malloc(strlen(message)+1); //Allocate space for message strcpy(mqueue.head->message, message); //copy bytes into allocated space } //Adds our message to our ring buffer's tail void add_to_tail(char * message){ printf("Adding to tail of ring\n"); mqueue.tail->message = malloc(strlen(message)+1); //allocate space for message strcpy(mqueue.tail->message, message); //copy bytes into allocated space mqueue.tail->next = malloc(sizeof(struct message)); //allocate space for the next message struct } //Adds a message to our ring void add_to_ring(char * message, char * id, int prior, int mnum, int socket){ //printf("This is message %s:" , message); pthread_mutex_lock(&circ); //Lock the ring buffer pthread_mutex_lock(&numm); //Lock the message count (will need this to make sure we can't fill the buffer over the max slots) if(mqueue.head->message == NULL){ add_to_head(message); //Adds it to head mqueue.head->socket = socket; //Set message socket mqueue.head->priority = prior; //Set its priority (thread id) mqueue.head->mnum = mnum; //Set its message number (used for sorting) mqueue.head->id = malloc(sizeof(id)); strcpy(mqueue.head->id, id); } else if(mqueue.tail->message == NULL){ //This is the problem for dis_m 1 I'm pretty sure add_to_tail(message); mqueue.tail->socket = socket; mqueue.tail->priority = prior; mqueue.tail->mnum = mnum; mqueue.tail->id = malloc(sizeof(id)); strcpy(mqueue.tail->id, id); } else{ mqueue.tail->next = malloc(sizeof(struct message)); mqueue.tail = mqueue.tail->next; add_to_tail(message); mqueue.tail->socket = socket; mqueue.tail->priority = prior; mqueue.tail->mnum = mnum; mqueue.tail->id = malloc(sizeof(id)); strcpy(mqueue.tail->id, id); } mqueue.mcount++; pthread_mutex_unlock(&circ); if(mqueue.mcount >= dis_m){ pthread_mutex_unlock(&numm); pthread_cond_signal(&m); } else{ pthread_mutex_unlock(&numm); } printf("out of add to ring\n"); fflush(stdout); } ////////////////////////////////// //Dispatcher routines ///////////////////////////////// void *dispatcher(){ init_ring(); while(1){ pthread_mutex_lock(&slots); pthread_cond_wait(&m, &slots); pthread_mutex_lock(&numm); pthread_mutex_lock(&circ); printf("Dispatcher to the rescue!\n"); mqueue.head = reorder(mqueue.head, mqueue.tail, mqueue.mcount); //printf("This is the head %s\n", mqueue.head->message); //printf("This is the tail %s\n", mqueue.head->message); fflush(stdout); struct message * pointer = mqueue.head; int count = 0; while(mqueue.head != mqueue.tail && count < dis_m){ printf("Sending to client %s: %s\n", pointer->id, pointer->message); int fd; fd = open(pointer->message, O_RDONLY); char buf[58368]; int bytesRead; printf("This is fd %d\n", fd); bytesRead=read(fd,buf,58368); send(pointer->socket,buf,bytesRead,0); perror("Error:\n"); fflush(stdout); close(fd); mqueue.mcount--; mqueue.head = mqueue.head->next; free(pointer->message); free(pointer); pointer = mqueue.head; count++; } printf("Sending %s\n", pointer->message); int fd; fd = open(pointer->message, O_RDONLY); printf("This is fd %d\n", fd); printf("I am hhere2\n"); char buf[58368]; int bytesRead; bytesRead=read(fd,buf,58368); send(pointer->socket,buf,bytesRead,0); perror("Error:\n"); close(fd); mqueue.mcount--; if(mqueue.head != mqueue.tail){ mqueue.head = mqueue.head->next; } else{ mqueue.head->next = malloc(sizeof(struct message)); mqueue.head = mqueue.head->next; mqueue.head->next = malloc(sizeof(struct message)); mqueue.tail = mqueue.head->next; mqueue.head->message = NULL; } free(pointer->message); free(pointer); pthread_mutex_unlock(&numm); pthread_mutex_unlock(&circ); pthread_mutex_unlock(&slots); printf("My dispatcher has defeated evil\n"); } } void init_ring(){ mqueue.head = malloc(sizeof(struct message)); mqueue.head->next = malloc(sizeof(struct message)); mqueue.tail = mqueue.head->next; mqueue.mcount = 0; } struct message * reorder(struct message * begin, struct message * end, int num){ //printf("I am reordering for size %d\n", num); fflush(stdout); int i; if(num == 1){ //printf("Begin: %s\n", begin->message); begin->next = NULL; return begin; } else{ struct message * left = begin; struct message * right; int middle = num/2; for(i = 1; i < middle; i++){ left = left->next; } right = left -> next; left -> next = NULL; //printf("Begin: %s\nLeft: %s\nright: %s\nend:%s\n", begin->message, left->message, right->message, end->message); left = reorder(begin, left, middle); if(num%2 != 0){ right = reorder(right, end, middle+1); } else{ right = reorder(right, end, middle); } return merge(left, right, num); } } struct message * merge(struct message * left, struct message * right, int num){ //printf("I am merginging! left: %s %d, right: %s %dnum: %d\n", left->message,left->priority, right->message, right->priority, num); struct message * start, * point; int lenL= 0; int lenR = 0; int flagL = 0; int flagR = 0; int count = 0; int middle1 = num/2; int middle2; if(num%2 != 0){ middle2 = middle1+1; } else{ middle2 = middle1; } while(lenL < middle1 && lenR < middle2){ count++; //printf("In here for count %d\n", count); if(lenL == 0 && lenR == 0){ if(left->priority < right->priority){ start = left; //Set the start point point = left; //set our enum; left = left->next; //move the left pointer point->next = NULL; //Set the next node to NULL lenL++; } else if(left->priority > right->priority){ start = right; point = right; right = right->next; point->next = NULL; lenR++; } else{ if(left->mnum < right->mnum){ ////printf("This is where we are\n"); start = left; //Set the start point point = left; //set our enum; left = left->next; //move the left pointer point->next = NULL; //Set the next node to NULL lenL++; } else{ start = right; point = right; right = right->next; point->next = NULL; lenR++; } } } else{ if(left->priority < right->priority){ point->next = left; left = left->next; //move the left pointer point = point->next; point->next = NULL; //Set the next node to NULL lenL++; } else if(left->priority > right->priority){ point->next = right; right = right->next; point = point->next; point->next = NULL; lenR++; } else{ if(left->mnum < right->mnum){ point->next = left; //set our enum; left = left->next; point = point->next;//move the left pointer point->next = NULL; //Set the next node to NULL lenL++; } else{ point->next = right; right = right->next; point = point->next; point->next = NULL; lenR++; } } } if(lenL == middle1){ flagL = 1; break; } if(lenR == middle2){ flagR = 1; break; } } if(flagL == 1){ point->next = right; point = point->next; for(lenR; lenR< middle2-1; lenR++){ point = point->next; } point->next = NULL; mqueue.tail = point; } else{ point->next = left; point = point->next; for(lenL; lenL< middle1-1; lenL++){ point = point->next; } point->next = NULL; mqueue.tail = point; } //printf("This is the start %s\n", start->message); //printf("This is mqueue.tail %s\n", mqueue.tail->message); return start; } void delete_socket_messages(int a){ }

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• Get to know what HTML-button is clicked with PHP, no Name of value available

  - by koko

  I have a wizard with 4 steps and in one of the steps, you can add items. By default, there are 3 time 5 empty input-fields listed. When you click a button, there have to be added some more. The 3 times 5 fields are added by a loop. How can I determine where I have to add some fields (in the first 5 field of the second or the third). I can't use another name for every button, because sometimes there can be more then 3 groups of 5 fields. In my code (PHP), I use the name of the button to know what happened in the form, so the name can't be different for the button in every group ... Further, the whole step is 1 form, so the post can't go to another script ... The value of the button has to be the same for every group. I've been thinking on possible solutions and these came up: On click a javascript adds a value to the post (in a hidden field?) But is this posted with the form? Could it be possible to get the ID of the clicked button? This might be different :-) I need a refresh after the click, so pure javascript isn't a solution either ... It is a very specific question, but I hope someone can give me some direction. Here is the code I'm talking about: <h3><label class="list_list:table_title">Eten</label></h3> <table id="eten"> <thead> <tr> <th>Naam item</th> <th>Aantal</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td class="item"><input type="text" name="item_1_1" value="" class="inputText" maxlength="64" size="46" tabindex="11"/></td> <td class="amount"><input type="text" name="amount_1_1" value="" class="inputText" maxlength="64" size="10" tabindex="11"/></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="item"><input type="text" name="item_1_2" value="" class="inputText" maxlength="64" size="46" tabindex="12"/></td> <td class="amount"><input type="text" name="amount_1_2" value="" class="inputText" maxlength="64" size="10" tabindex="12"/></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="item"><input type="text" name="item_1_3" value="" class="inputText" maxlength="64" size="46" tabindex="13"/></td> <td class="amount"><input type="text" name="amount_1_3" value="" class="inputText" maxlength="64" size="10" tabindex="13"/></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="item"><input type="text" name="item_1_4" value="" class="inputText" maxlength="64" size="46" tabindex="14"/></td> <td class="amount"><input type="text" name="amount_1_4" value="" class="inputText" maxlength="64" size="10" tabindex="14"/></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="item"><input type="text" name="item_1_5" value="" class="inputText" maxlength="64" size="46" tabindex="15"/></td> <td class="amount"><input type="text" name="amount_1_5" value="" class="inputText" maxlength="64" size="10" tabindex="15"/></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <input id="list_list:add" type="submit" name="list_list:add" value="voeg extra items toe" class="add" /> <div class="spacer"></div> <h3><label class="list_list:table_title">Drinken</label></h3> <table id="drinken"> <thead> <tr> <th>Naam item</th> <th>Aantal</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td class="item"><input type="text" name="item_2_1" value="" class="inputText" maxlength="64" size="46" tabindex="21"/></td> <td class="amount"><input type="text" name="amount_2_1" value="" class="inputText" maxlength="64" size="10" tabindex="21"/></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="item"><input type="text" name="item_2_2" value="" class="inputText" maxlength="64" size="46" tabindex="22"/></td> <td class="amount"><input type="text" name="amount_2_2" value="" class="inputText" maxlength="64" size="10" tabindex="22"/></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="item"><input type="text" name="item_2_3" value="" class="inputText" maxlength="64" size="46" tabindex="23"/></td> <td class="amount"><input type="text" name="amount_2_3" value="" class="inputText" maxlength="64" size="10" tabindex="23"/></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="item"><input type="text" name="item_2_4" value="" class="inputText" maxlength="64" size="46" tabindex="24"/></td> <td class="amount"><input type="text" name="amount_2_4" value="" class="inputText" maxlength="64" size="10" tabindex="24"/></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="item"><input type="text" name="item_2_5" value="" class="inputText" maxlength="64" size="46" tabindex="25"/></td> <td class="amount"><input type="text" name="amount_2_5" value="" class="inputText" maxlength="64" size="10" tabindex="25"/></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <input id="list_list:add" type="submit" name="list_list:add" value="voeg extra items toe" class="add" /> <div class="spacer"></div> <h3><label class="list_list:table_title">Varia</label></h3> <table id="varia"> <thead> <tr> <th>Naam item</th> <th>Aantal</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td class="item"><input type="text" name="item_3_1" value="" class="inputText" maxlength="64" size="46" tabindex="31"/></td> <td class="amount"><input type="text" name="amount_3_1" value="" class="inputText" maxlength="64" size="10" tabindex="31"/></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="item"><input type="text" name="item_3_2" value="" class="inputText" maxlength="64" size="46" tabindex="32"/></td> <td class="amount"><input type="text" name="amount_3_2" value="" class="inputText" maxlength="64" size="10" tabindex="32"/></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="item"><input type="text" name="item_3_3" value="" class="inputText" maxlength="64" size="46" tabindex="33"/></td> <td class="amount"><input type="text" name="amount_3_3" value="" class="inputText" maxlength="64" size="10" tabindex="33"/></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="item"><input type="text" name="item_3_4" value="" class="inputText" maxlength="64" size="46" tabindex="34"/></td> <td class="amount"><input type="text" name="amount_3_4" value="" class="inputText" maxlength="64" size="10" tabindex="34"/></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="item"><input type="text" name="item_3_5" value="" class="inputText" maxlength="64" size="46" tabindex="35"/></td> <td class="amount"><input type="text" name="amount_3_5" value="" class="inputText" maxlength="64" size="10" tabindex="35"/></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <input id="list_list:add" type="submit" name="list_list:add" value="voeg extra items toe" class="add" /> <div class="spacer"></div> </div> <div id="formButtons"> <input id="list_info:back" type="submit" name="list_info:back" value="<< Terug" tabindex="11" class="back" /> <input id="list_info:next" type="submit" name="list_info:next" value="Volgende >>" tabindex="12" class="next" /> <input id="list_info:options" type="submit" name="list_info:options" value="Opties" tabindex="13" class="options" /> <input id="list_info:finish" type="submit" name="list_info:finish" value="Voltooien" tabindex="14" disabled="disabled" class="finish" /> </div>

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• XNA: Camera's Rotation and Translation matrices seem to interfere with each other

  - by Danjen

  I've been following the guide here for how to create a custom 2D camera in XNA. It works great, I've implemented it before, but for some reason, the matrix math is throwing me off. public sealed class Camera2D { public Vector2 Origin { get; set; } public Vector2 Position { get; set; } public float Scale { get; set; } public float Rotation { get; set; } } It might be easier to just show you a picture of my problem: http://i.imgur.com/H1l6LEx.png What I want to do is allow the camera to pivot around any given point. Right now, I have the rotations mapped to my shoulder buttons on a gamepad, and if I press them, it should rotate around the point the camera is currently looking at. Then, I use the left stick to move the camera around. The problem is that after it's been rotated, pressing "up" results in it being used relative to the rotation, creating the image above. I understand that matrices have to be applied in a certain order, and that I have to offset the thing to be rotated around the world origin and move it back, but it just won't work! public Matrix GetTransformationMatrix() { Matrix mRotate = Matrix.Identity * Matrix.CreateTranslation(-Origin.X, -Origin.Y, 0.00f) * // Move origin to world center Matrix.CreateRotationZ(MathHelper.ToRadians(Rotation)) * // Apply rotation Matrix.CreateTranslation(+Origin.X, +Origin.Y, 0.00f); // Undo the move operation Matrix mTranslate = Matrix.Identity * Matrix.CreateTranslation(-Position.X, Position.Y, 0.00f); // Apply the actual translation return mRotate * mTranslate; } So to recap, it seems I can have it rotate around an arbitrary point and lose the ability to have "up" move the camera straight up, or I can rotate it around the world origin and have the camera move properly, but not both.

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• RRAS won’t start with 8007042a or event ID 7024, aka the “routing remote access unable to load Iprtrmgr.dll”

  - by KCotreau

  History: The history of this error, which has mostly gone unsolved, dates back to Windows 2000. Platforms affected: Windows Server 2008 R2, Server 2008, Server 2003 R2, Server 2003, Server 2000 (both 32-bit and 64-bit installs are affected). Error Messages Event ID: 7024 The Routing and Remote Access service terminated with service-specific error 2 (0x2). Event ID: 7024 The Routing and Remote Access service terminated with service-specific error 31 (0x1F). Event ID: 7024 The Routing and Remote Access service terminated with service-specific error 20205 (0x4EED). Event ID: 7024 The Routing and Remote Access service terminated with service-specific error 193 (0xC1). Event ID: 20103 Unable to load C:\WINDOWS\System32\iprtrmgr.dll . (32-bit installs). Event ID: 20103 Unable to load C:\WINDOWS\SysWOW64\iprtrmgr.dll . (64-bit installs).

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• Explained: EF 6 and “Could not determine storage version; a valid storage connection or a version hint is required.”

  - by Ken Cox [MVP]

  I have a legacy ASP.NET 3.5 web site that I’ve upgraded to a .NET 4 web application. At the same time, I upgraded to Entity Framework 6. Suddenly one of the pages returned the following error: [ArgumentException: Could not determine storage version; a valid storage connection or a version hint is required.]    System.Data.SqlClient.SqlVersionUtils.GetSqlVersion(String versionHint) +11372412    System.Data.SqlClient.SqlProviderServices.GetDbProviderManifest(String versionHint) +91    System.Data.Common.DbProviderServices.GetProviderManifest(String manifestToken) +92 [ProviderIncompatibleException: The provider did not return a ProviderManifest instance.]    System.Data.Common.DbProviderServices.GetProviderManifest(String manifestToken) +11431433    System.Data.Metadata.Edm.Loader.InitializeProviderManifest(Action`3 addError) +11370982    System.Data.EntityModel.SchemaObjectModel.Schema.HandleAttribute(XmlReader reader) +216 A search of the error message didn’t turn up anything helpful except that someone mentioned that the error messages was bogus in his case. The page in question uses the ASP.NET EntityDataSource control, consumed by a Telerik RadGrid. This is a fabulous combination for putting a huge amount of functionality on a page in a very short time. Unfortunately, the 6.0.1 release of EF6 doesn’t support EntityDataSource. According to the people in charge, support is planned but there’s no timeline for an EntityDataSource build that works with EF6.  I’m not sure what to do in the meantime. Should I back out EF6 or manually wire up the RadGrid? The upshot is that you might want to rethink plans to upgrade to Entity Framework 6 for Web forms projects if they rely on that handy control. It might also help to spend a User voice vote here:  http://data.uservoice.com/forums/72025-entity-framework-feature-suggestions/suggestions/3702890-support-for-asp-net-entitydatasource-and-dynamicda

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• Cannot enable network discovery on Windows Server 2008 R2

  - by dariom

  I'm trying to enable the Network Discovery feature on a newly installed Windows Server 2008 R2 instance. The network connection is in the Home or Work profile (it is not domain joined). These are the steps I've followed: Within the Network and Sharing Center I select Change advanced sharing settings Then I select the Turn on network discovery option for the current network profile (Home or Work) I then click Save changes If I then go back to the Advanced sharing settings screen the Turn off network discovery option is selected and the machine is not visible to others within the Network node in Windows Explorer. Things I've checked: I can ping the server and connect to it using the machine name/IP address. The Windows Firewall has exceptions for Network Discovery for both Private and Public networks. File and Printer sharing is enabled and I can transfer files to/from the server by connecting to the server using a UNC path. What am I missing here?

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• VMWare Server 2 Install is Failing w/ Error 25032: "failed to customize windows logon process"

  - by Justin Searls

  VMWare Server 2 install question here.* Straightforward question that would probably require a VMWare expert to pull apart, given that Google has been totally worthless on this. On a patched Windows XP machine, any attempt to install VMWare Server 2.0.1 results in failure, just prior to completion (progress bar is full but I can tell network adapter stuff hasn't been fired yet and most of the services haven't been instaled). The error: Error 25032. Failed to customize Windows logon process (). Please contact your administrator. Upon dismissing the error, you're treated to: Warning 25033. Failed to remove Windows logon customization (VMGINA.DLL). Please contact your administrator. Clicking "OK" rolls back your installation. Killing the installer and hoping that it somehow leaves a working install behind was also unproductive. *I hope install troubleshooting isn't outside the purview of serverfault, I'm typically an SO user.

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• Social Shopping

  - by David Dorf

  I've written about various breeds of social shopping in the past, so I decided to give some thought into a categorization with examples. Below I've listed the different types of social shopping I've observed and some companies that support them. Comments and Ratings -- Commenting on products has been around almost as long as e-commerce. Two popular players in this space are BazaarVoice and PowerReviews. Most shoppers prefer relying on peer reviews rather than retailer descriptions, so the influence over sales is very strong. f-commerce -- A new term that was sure to rear its ugly head when retailers started allowing shopping on Facebook, And its all Elastic Path and Alvenda's fault! Co-shopping -- Retailers like Wet Seal are enabling multiple people to shop together online. This is particularly applicable to fashion, where the real-time exchange of opinions is important. I actually tried this with a co-worker and its pretty cool. Bragging -- Blippy is Twitter for shoppers, allowing purchases to be "tweeted" so you can keep up with your friends. I get alerted when friends download music or apps from iTunes because chances are I'll be interested as well. This covert influence is one-up'ed by Snatter, a service that gives people discounts for tweeting or posting promotions from retailers. This is the petri dish of viral marketing. Advice -- Combine the bragging of Blippy and the opinions from BazaarVoice and you'd get ShopSocially, a social network dedicated to spreading product knowledge amongst informed shoppers. I'm sure if I gave it more thought, a few more types would come to mind, but I've got to get back to work. Now is not the time to be blogging at Oracle!

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• Desktop Fun: Steampunk Theme Wallpapers

  - by Asian Angel

  Do you enjoy imagining what it would be like to live in a world where technology and fantasy are mixed together? Then kick back and get ready to indulge in some great daydreaming with our Steampunk Theme wallpapers collection. Note: Click on the picture to see the full-size image—these wallpapers vary in size so you may need to crop, stretch, or place them on a colored background in order to best match them to your screen’s resolution.                         For more fun wallpapers be certain to visit our new Desktop Fun section. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Windows 7 Welcome Screen Taking Forever? Here’s the Fix (Maybe)Desktop Fun: Starship Theme WallpapersDesktop Fun: Underwater Theme WallpapersDesktop Fun: Forest Theme WallpapersDesktop Fun: Fantasy 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 DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 NoSquint Remembers Site Specific Zoom Levels (Firefox) New Firefox release 3.6.3 fixes 1 Critical bug Dark Side of the Moon (8-bit) Norwegian Life If Web Browsers Were Modes of Transportation Google Translate (for animals)

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• [ASP.NET 4.0] Persisting Row Selection in Data Controls

  - by HosamKamel

  Data Control Selection Feature In ASP.NET 2.0: ASP.NET Data Controls row selection feature was based on row index (in the current page), this of course produce an issue if you try to select an item in the first page then navigate to the second page without select any record you will find the same row (with the same index) selected in the second page! In the sample application attached: Select the second row in the books GridView. Navigate to second page without doing any selection You will find the second row in the second page selected. Persisting Row Selection: Is a new feature which replace the old selection mechanism which based on row index to be based on the row data key instead. This means that if you select the third row on page 1 and move to page 2, nothing is selected on page 2. When you move back to page 1, the third row is still selected. Data Control Selection Feature In ASP.NET 3.5 SP1: The Persisting Row Selection was initially supported only in Dynamic Data projects Data Control Selection Feature In ASP.NET 4.0: Persisted selection is now supported for the GridView and ListView controls in all projects. You can enable this feature by setting the EnablePersistedSelection property, as shown below: Important thing to note, once you enable this feature you have to set the DataKeyNames property too because as discussed the full approach is based on the Row Data Key Simple feature but  is a much more natural behavior than the behavior in earlier versions of ASP.NET. Download Demo Project

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• Excel error "This workbook contains Excel 4.0 macros or Excel 5.0 modules"

  - by James

  I have a workbook that was protected via the Protect Workbook feature. It was sent to someone else to modify. When they sent it back, it was unprotected and when I try to reprotect it I get this error, "This workbook contains Excel 4.0 macros or Excel 5.0 modules. If you would like to password protect or restrict permission to this document, you need to remove these macros." I looked and there are no new macros in the edited file. The original file contained the same macros and it was able to be write protected, so I'm not sure why the modified file is having a problem. What are common causes and solutions for this error and does it make sense for the modified file to have the error when the original doesn't?

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• Entity Framework Code-First to Provide Replacement for ASP.NET Profile Provider

  - by Ken Cox [MVP]

  A while back, I coordinated a project to add support for the SQL Table Profile Provider in ASP.NET 4 Web Applications.  We urged Microsoft to improve ASP.NET’s built-in Profile support so our workaround wouldn’t be necessary. Instead, Microsoft plans to provide a replacement for ASP.NET Profile in a forthcoming release. In response to my feature suggestion on Connect, Microsoft says we should look for something even better using Entity Framework: “When code-first is officially released the final piece of a full replacement of the ASP.NET Profile will have arrived. Once code-first for EF4 is released, developers will have a really easy and very approachable way to create any arbitrary class, and automatically have the .NET Framework create a table to provide storage for that class. Furthermore developer will also have full LINQ-query capabilities against code-first classes. “ The downside is that there won’t be a way to retrofit this Profile replacement to pre- ASP.NET 4 Web applications. At least there’ll still be the MVP workaround code. It looks like it’s time for me to dig into a CTP of EF Code-First to see what’s available.   Scott Guthrie has been blogging about Code-First Development with Entity Framework 4. It’s not clear when the EF Code-First is coming, but my guess is that it’ll be part of the VS 2010/.NET 4 service pack.

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• RAID 0 Volatile Volume Cache Mode configuration

  - by SnippetSpace

  I discovered that in IRST there is an option to set a cache mode for my 3 ssd raid 0 array. I've read the documentation by Intel and have some questions: Are there any overall benefits/risks from enabling cache mode? As I'm on a laptop, would write back be recommended? I read it increases chance of data loss on power interruption. What is the difference between how windows handles data integrity and the intel driver? Read only mode seems to have the benefit of faster reads, does it have any downsides? Thanks for your help guys!

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• VDR - Trouble writing to destination volume, error -1020 (sharing violation)

  - by woodwarp

  Using VMware Data Recovery 1.1, backing up to CIFS share and getting this error 1/18/2010 8:55:31 AM: Performing incremental back up of disk "Lun VM/VM-DB1-flat.vmdk" using "SCSI Hot-Add" 1/18/2010 8:55:32 AM: Trouble writing to destination volume, error -1020 ( sharing violation) Integrity checks of the destination complete successfully and I tried rebooting the VDR appliance just in case. To resolve the issue I removed the share from the VDR, pointed the backups to other destinations and renamed the VMware Data Recovery subfolder in the destination, then re-added the share and pointed the backups, this of course creates a new Backup Store. Anyone have any ideas why this error is occuring, means I can't backup into this Backup Store any longer.

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• Sharepoint Search crawl not working

  - by Satish

  Search Crawling is error out on my MOSS 2007 installation. I get the following error for all the web apps I have following error in Crawl logs. http://mysites.devserver URL could not be resolved. The host may be unavailable, or the proxy settings are not configured correctly on the index server. The Application Event log also has the following corresponding error The start address http://mysites.devserver cannot be crawled. Context: Application 'SSPMain', Catalog 'Portal_Content' Details: The URL of the item could not be resolved. The repository might be unavailable, or the crawler proxy settings are not configured. To configure the crawler proxy settings, use the Proxy and Timeout page in search administration. (0x80041221) I'm using Windows 2008 server. I tried accessing the site using the above mentioned url and its available. I did the registry setting for loop back issue found here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896861 still not luck. Any Ideas?

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• Fix: Orchard Error ‘The controller for path '/OrchardLocal/' was not found or does not implement IController.

  - by Ken Cox [MVP]

  Suddenly, in a local Orchard 1.6 project, I started getting this error in ShellRoute.cs: The controller for path '/OrchardLocal/' was not found or does not implement IController. Obviously I had changed something, but the error wasn’t helping much.  After losing far too much time, I copied over the original Orchard source code and was back in business. Shortly thereafter, I further flattened my forehead by applying a sudden, solid blow with the lower portion of my palm! You see, in testing the importing of comments via blogML, I had set the added blog as the Orchard site’s Start page. Then, I deleted the blog so I could test another import batch. The upshot was that by deleting the blog, Orchard no longer had a default (home) page at the root of the site. The site’s default content was missing. The fix was to go to the Admin subdirectory (http://localhost:30320/OrchardLocal/admin) . add a new page, and check Set as homepage. Once again, the problem was between the keyboard and the chair. I hope this helps someone else. Ken

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• Warning: mail() [function.mail]: SMTP server response: 530 Relaying not allowed - sender domain not local in D:\INETPUB\VHOSTS\gaehambuilders.com

  - by Kiran RS

  Why I'm getting an error like this - Warning: mail() [function.mail]: SMTP server response: 530 Relaying not allowed - sender domain not local in D:\INETPUB\VHOSTS\gaehambuilders.com\httpdocs\contacts.php on line 120 ? Here is my php code, if(isset($_POST['send'])) //if "email" is filled out, send email { //send email $name=$_REQUEST['name']; $email=$_POST['email']; $cnum=$_REQUEST['cnum']; $enq=$_REQUEST['enq']; $email1=$_REQUEST['email']; $to = "[email protected]"; $subject = "Test mail"; $message = "Hello! This is a simple email message."; $from = $email1; $headers = "From:" . $from; mail($to,$subject,$message,$headers); ? alert ("Enquiry form submited successfully ! We'll get back you soon "); Thanks in advance!

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• apache2: Could not open configuration file /etc/apache2/apache2.conf: Permission denied

  - by AntonChanning

  I recently upgraded Ubuntu to the latest LTS edition on my work laptop, which I use as a LAMP development platform. The upgrade was from 12.4 to 14.4. Now I'm having trouble getting apache up and running again. Here is the output from an attempt: antonc@antonc-laptop:/etc/apache2$ sudo service apache2 restart * Restarting web server apache2 * The apache2 configtest failed. Output of config test was: apache2: Could not open configuration file /etc/apache2/apache2.conf: Permission denied Action 'configtest' failed. The Apache error log may have more information. Here is a list of permissions and ownership in /etc/apache, showing that apache2.conf is currently owned by root with permissions 644. I changed this temporarily to 777, but this made no difference, so I changed it back to 644. antonc@antonc-laptop:/etc/apache2$ ls -l total 80 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7115 Jan 7 2014 apache2.conf ... What do I need to do to get apache running again? Is the problem really with apache2.conf or some other setting? Should the conf file be owned by a user other than root?

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• DNS query appending parent suffix twice

  - by sjw

  We're having an issue with DNS clients not being able to resolve certain FQDNs. Within the same domain in which the problem occurs, doing an nslookup against a host name works. However, an nslookup against the hostname.domain.parentdomain1.parentdomain2.net doesn't work. Weird, from outside that domain, the same FQDN query works. Clients in both domains are using the same DNS servers, which are in the "parentdomain1" example. The nslookup comes back with: Non-authoritative answer: Name: hostname.domain.parentdomain1.parentdomain2.net.parentdomain2.net Address: 209.62.20.188 So, the client is appending the "parentdomain2.net" twice. Would appreciate any assistance.

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• updating from windows 8 to windows 8.1 give me error 0x101 0x2000c and driver irql not less or equal on clean install

  - by user1143745

  i'm trying to update my hp dv6-6156sl running win 8 to win 8.1. When i try to update the os with all kept when it configures devices (around 55%) i get a bsod with driver irql not less or equal error and windows revert back to my previous windows 8 showing at the end 0x101 0x2000c error. So i tried a clean install to see if i could fix it but i still get the same driver irql not less or equal error (on ntoskrnl.exe) I tried to edit bios settings to see if there's something to disable but like almost all hp laptops it is locked so i can only enable virtualization, select boot order and change gpu between fixed or dinamic (none of these worked) i found the dmp file with the error of the update: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2219086/setupmem.dmp How can i fix this?

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• Windows Backup to network share (Server 2008)

  - by Joe

  I'm trying to setup Windows Backup on a Server 2008 machine to backup to a network share. When I run the wizard to setup the backup I get an error message "The user name being used for accessing the remote share folder is not recognized by the local computer". I have no idea what this means. Help? The server with the network share is a domain controller (also server 2008). The server I am trying to back up is not and is not part of the domain.

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• Is there a Telecommunications Reference Architecture?

  - by raul.goycoolea

  @font-face { font-family: "Arial"; }@font-face { font-family: "Courier New"; }@font-face { font-family: "Wingdings"; }@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraph, li.MsoListParagraph, div.MsoListParagraph { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }ol { margin-bottom: 0cm; }ul { margin-bottom: 0cm; } Abstract   Reference architecture provides needed architectural information that can be provided in advance to an enterprise to enable consistent architectural best practices. Enterprise Reference Architecture helps business owners to actualize their strategies, vision, objectives, and principles. It evaluates the IT systems, based on Reference Architecture goals, principles, and standards. It helps to reduce IT costs by increasing functionality, availability, scalability, etc. Telecom Reference Architecture provides customers with the flexibility to view bundled service bills online with the provision of multiple services. It provides real-time, flexible billing and charging systems, to handle complex promotions, discounts, and settlements with multiple parties. This paper attempts to describe the Reference Architecture for the Telecom Enterprises. It lays the foundation for a Telecom Reference Architecture by articulating the requirements, drivers, and pitfalls for telecom service providers. It describes generic reference architecture for telecom enterprises and moves on to explain how to achieve Enterprise Reference Architecture by using SOA.   Introduction   A Reference Architecture provides a methodology, set of practices, template, and standards based on a set of successful solutions implemented earlier. These solutions have been generalized and structured for the depiction of both a logical and a physical architecture, based on the harvesting of a set of patterns that describe observations in a number of successful implementations. It helps as a reference for the various architectures that an enterprise can implement to solve various problems. It can be used as the starting point or the point of comparisons for various departments/business entities of a company, or for the various companies for an enterprise. It provides multiple views for multiple stakeholders.   Major artifacts of the Enterprise Reference Architecture are methodologies, standards, metadata, documents, design patterns, etc.   Purpose of Reference Architecture   In most cases, architects spend a lot of time researching, investigating, defining, and re-arguing architectural decisions. It is like reinventing the wheel as their peers in other organizations or even the same organization have already spent a lot of time and effort defining their own architectural practices. This prevents an organization from learning from its own experiences and applying that knowledge for increased effectiveness.   Reference architecture provides missing architectural information that can be provided in advance to project team members to enable consistent architectural best practices.   Enterprise Reference Architecture helps an enterprise to achieve the following at the abstract level:   ·       Reference architecture is more of a communication channel to an enterprise ·       Helps the business owners to accommodate to their strategies, vision, objectives, and principles. ·       Evaluates the IT systems based on Reference Architecture Principles ·       Reduces IT spending through increasing functionality, availability, scalability, etc ·       A Real-time Integration Model helps to reduce the latency of the data updates Is used to define a single source of Information ·       Provides a clear view on how to manage information and security ·       Defines the policy around the data ownership, product boundaries, etc. ·       Helps with cost optimization across project and solution portfolios by eliminating unused or duplicate investments and assets ·       Has a shorter implementation time and cost   Once the reference architecture is in place, the set of architectural principles, standards, reference models, and best practices ensure that the aligned investments have the greatest possible likelihood of success in both the near term and the long term (TCO).     Common pitfalls for Telecom Service Providers   Telecom Reference Architecture serves as the first step towards maturity for a telecom service provider. During the course of our assignments/experiences with telecom players, we have come across the following observations – Some of these indicate a lack of maturity of the telecom service provider:   ·       In markets that are growing and not so mature, it has been observed that telcos have a significant amount of in-house or home-grown applications. In some of these markets, the growth has been so rapid that IT has been unable to cope with business demands. Telcos have shown a tendency to come up with workarounds in their IT applications so as to meet business needs. ·       Even for core functions like provisioning or mediation, some telcos have tried to manage with home-grown applications. ·       Most of the applications do not have the required scalability or maintainability to sustain growth in volumes or functionality. ·       Applications face interoperability issues with other applications in the operator's landscape. Integrating a new application or network element requires considerable effort on the part of the other applications. ·       Application boundaries are not clear, and functionality that is not in the initial scope of that application gets pushed onto it. This results in the development of the multiple, small applications without proper boundaries. ·       Usage of Legacy OSS/BSS systems, poor Integration across Multiple COTS Products and Internal Systems. Most of the Integrations are developed on ad-hoc basis and Point-to-Point Integration. ·       Redundancy of the business functions in different applications • Fragmented data across the different applications and no integrated view of the strategic data • Lot of performance Issues due to the usage of the complex integration across OSS and BSS systems   However, this is where the maturity of the telecom industry as a whole can be of help. The collaborative efforts of telcos to overcome some of these problems have resulted in bodies like the TM Forum. They have come up with frameworks for business processes, data, applications, and technology for telecom service providers. These could be a good starting point for telcos to clean up their enterprise landscape.   Industry Trends in Telecom Reference Architecture   Telecom reference architectures are evolving rapidly because telcos are facing business and IT challenges.   “The reality is that there probably is no killer application, no silver bullet that the telcos can latch onto to carry them into a 21st Century.... Instead, there are probably hundreds – perhaps thousands – of niche applications.... And the only way to find which of these works for you is to try out lots of them, ramp up the ones that work, and discontinue the ones that fail.” – Martin Creaner President & CTO TM Forum.   The following trends have been observed in telecom reference architecture:   ·       Transformation of business structures to align with customer requirements ·       Adoption of more Internet-like technical architectures. The Web 2.0 concept is increasingly being used. ·       Virtualization of the traditional operations support system (OSS) ·       Adoption of SOA to support development of IP-based services ·       Adoption of frameworks like Service Delivery Platforms (SDPs) and IP Multimedia Subsystem ·       (IMS) to enable seamless deployment of various services over fixed and mobile networks ·       Replacement of in-house, customized, and stove-piped OSS/BSS with standards-based COTS products ·       Compliance with industry standards and frameworks like eTOM, SID, and TAM to enable seamless integration with other standards-based products   Drivers of Reference Architecture   The drivers of the Reference Architecture are Reference Architecture Goals, Principles, and Enterprise Vision and Telecom Transformation. The details are depicted below diagram. @font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoCaption, li.MsoCaption, div.MsoCaption { margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; color: rgb(79, 129, 189); font-weight: bold; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } Figure 1. Drivers for Reference Architecture @font-face { font-family: "Arial"; }@font-face { font-family: "Courier New"; }@font-face { font-family: "Wingdings"; }@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraph, li.MsoListParagraph, div.MsoListParagraph { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }ol { margin-bottom: 0cm; }ul { margin-bottom: 0cm; } Today’s telecom reference architectures should seamlessly integrate traditional legacy-based applications and transition to next-generation network technologies (e.g., IP multimedia subsystems). This has resulted in new requirements for flexible, real-time billing and OSS/BSS systems and implications on the service provider’s organizational requirements and structure.   Telecom reference architectures are today expected to:   ·       Integrate voice, messaging, email and other VAS over fixed and mobile networks, back end systems ·       Be able to provision multiple services and service bundles • Deliver converged voice, video and data services ·       Leverage the existing Network Infrastructure ·       Provide real-time, flexible billing and charging systems to handle complex promotions, discounts, and settlements with multiple parties. ·       Support charging of advanced data services such as VoIP, On-Demand, Services (e.g.  Video), IMS/SIP Services, Mobile Money, Content Services and IPTV. ·       Help in faster deployment of new services • Serve as an effective platform for collaboration between network IT and business organizations ·       Harness the potential of converging technology, networks, devices and content to develop multimedia services and solutions of ever-increasing sophistication on a single Internet Protocol (IP) ·       Ensure better service delivery and zero revenue leakage through real-time balance and credit management ·       Lower operating costs to drive profitability   Enterprise Reference Architecture   The Enterprise Reference Architecture (RA) fills the gap between the concepts and vocabulary defined by the reference model and the implementation. Reference architecture provides detailed architectural information in a common format such that solutions can be repeatedly designed and deployed in a consistent, high-quality, supportable fashion. This paper attempts to describe the Reference Architecture for the Telecom Application Usage and how to achieve the Enterprise Level Reference Architecture using SOA.   • Telecom Reference Architecture • Enterprise SOA based Reference Architecture   Telecom Reference Architecture   Tele Management Forum’s New Generation Operations Systems and Software (NGOSS) is an architectural framework for organizing, integrating, and implementing telecom systems. NGOSS is a component-based framework consisting of the following elements:   ·       The enhanced Telecom Operations Map (eTOM) is a business process framework. ·       The Shared Information Data (SID) model provides a comprehensive information framework that may be specialized for the needs of a particular organization. ·       The Telecom Application Map (TAM) is an application framework to depict the functional footprint of applications, relative to the horizontal processes within eTOM. ·       The Technology Neutral Architecture (TNA) is an integrated framework. TNA is an architecture that is sustainable through technology changes.   NGOSS Architecture Standards are:   ·       Centralized data ·       Loosely coupled distributed systems ·       Application components/re-use  ·       A technology-neutral system framework with technology specific implementations ·       Interoperability to service provider data/processes ·       Allows more re-use of business components across multiple business scenarios ·       Workflow automation   The traditional operator systems architecture consists of four layers,   ·       Business Support System (BSS) layer, with focus toward customers and business partners. Manages order, subscriber, pricing, rating, and billing information. ·       Operations Support System (OSS) layer, built around product, service, and resource inventories. ·       Networks layer – consists of Network elements and 3rd Party Systems. ·       Integration Layer – to maximize application communication and overall solution flexibility.   Reference architecture for telecom enterprises is depicted below. @font-face { font-family: "Arial"; }@font-face { font-family: "Courier New"; }@font-face { font-family: "Wingdings"; }@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoCaption, li.MsoCaption, div.MsoCaption { margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; color: rgb(79, 129, 189); font-weight: bold; }p.MsoListParagraph, li.MsoListParagraph, div.MsoListParagraph { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }ol { margin-bottom: 0cm; }ul { margin-bottom: 0cm; } Figure 2. Telecom Reference Architecture   The major building blocks of any Telecom Service Provider architecture are as follows:   1. Customer Relationship Management   CRM encompasses the end-to-end lifecycle of the customer: customer initiation/acquisition, sales, ordering, and service activation, customer care and support, proactive campaigns, cross sell/up sell, and retention/loyalty.   CRM also includes the collection of customer information and its application to personalize, customize, and integrate delivery of service to a customer, as well as to identify opportunities for increasing the value of the customer to the enterprise.   The key functionalities related to Customer Relationship Management are   ·       Manage the end-to-end lifecycle of a customer request for products. ·       Create and manage customer profiles. ·       Manage all interactions with customers – inquiries, requests, and responses. ·       Provide updates to Billing and other south bound systems on customer/account related updates such as customer/ account creation, deletion, modification, request bills, final bill, duplicate bills, credit limits through Middleware. ·       Work with Order Management System, Product, and Service Management components within CRM. ·       Manage customer preferences – Involve all the touch points and channels to the customer, including contact center, retail stores, dealers, self service, and field service, as well as via any media (phone, face to face, web, mobile device, chat, email, SMS, mail, the customer's bill, etc.). ·       Support single interface for customer contact details, preferences, account details, offers, customer premise equipment, bill details, bill cycle details, and customer interactions.   CRM applications interact with customers through customer touch points like portals, point-of-sale terminals, interactive voice response systems, etc. The requests by customers are sent via fulfillment/provisioning to billing system for ordering processing.   2. Billing and Revenue Management   Billing and Revenue Management handles the collection of appropriate usage records and production of timely and accurate bills – for providing pre-bill usage information and billing to customers; for processing their payments; and for performing payment collections. In addition, it handles customer inquiries about bills, provides billing inquiry status, and is responsible for resolving billing problems to the customer's satisfaction in a timely manner. This process grouping also supports prepayment for services.   The key functionalities provided by these applications are   ·       To ensure that enterprise revenue is billed and invoices delivered appropriately to customers. ·       To manage customers’ billing accounts, process their payments, perform payment collections, and monitor the status of the account balance. ·       To ensure the timely and effective fulfillment of all customer bill inquiries and complaints. ·       Collect the usage records from mediation and ensure appropriate rating and discounting of all usage and pricing. ·       Support revenue sharing; split charging where usage is guided to an account different from the service consumer. ·       Support prepaid and post-paid rating. ·       Send notification on approach / exceeding the usage thresholds as enforced by the subscribed offer, and / or as setup by the customer. ·       Support prepaid, post paid, and hybrid (where some services are prepaid and the rest of the services post paid) customers and conversion from post paid to prepaid, and vice versa. ·       Support different billing function requirements like charge prorating, promotion, discount, adjustment, waiver, write-off, account receivable, GL Interface, late payment fee, credit control, dunning, account or service suspension, re-activation, expiry, termination, contract violation penalty, etc. ·       Initiate direct debit to collect payment against an invoice outstanding. ·       Send notification to Middleware on different events; for example, payment receipt, pre-suspension, threshold exceed, etc.   Billing systems typically get usage data from mediation systems for rating and billing. They get provisioning requests from order management systems and inquiries from CRM systems. Convergent and real-time billing systems can directly get usage details from network elements.   3. Mediation   Mediation systems transform/translate the Raw or Native Usage Data Records into a general format that is acceptable to billing for their rating purposes.   The following lists the high-level roles and responsibilities executed by the Mediation system in the end-to-end solution.   ·       Collect Usage Data Records from different data sources – like network elements, routers, servers – via different protocol and interfaces. ·       Process Usage Data Records – Mediation will process Usage Data Records as per the source format. ·       Validate Usage Data Records from each source. ·       Segregates Usage Data Records coming from each source to multiple, based on the segregation requirement of end Application. ·       Aggregates Usage Data Records based on the aggregation rule if any from different sources. ·       Consolidates multiple Usage Data Records from each source. ·       Delivers formatted Usage Data Records to different end application like Billing, Interconnect, Fraud Management, etc. ·       Generates audit trail for incoming Usage Data Records and keeps track of all the Usage Data Records at various stages of mediation process. ·       Checks duplicate Usage Data Records across files for a given time window.   4. Fulfillment   This area is responsible for providing customers with their requested products in a timely and correct manner. It translates the customer's business or personal need into a solution that can be delivered using the specific products in the enterprise's portfolio. This process informs the customers of the status of their purchase order, and ensures completion on time, as well as ensuring a delighted customer. These processes are responsible for accepting and issuing orders. They deal with pre-order feasibility determination, credit authorization, order issuance, order status and tracking, customer update on customer order activities, and customer notification on order completion. Order management and provisioning applications fall into this category.   The key functionalities provided by these applications are   ·       Issuing new customer orders, modifying open customer orders, or canceling open customer orders; ·       Verifying whether specific non-standard offerings sought by customers are feasible and supportable; ·       Checking the credit worthiness of customers as part of the customer order process; ·       Testing the completed offering to ensure it is working correctly; ·       Updating of the Customer Inventory Database to reflect that the specific product offering has been allocated, modified, or cancelled; ·       Assigning and tracking customer provisioning activities; ·       Managing customer provisioning jeopardy conditions; and ·       Reporting progress on customer orders and other processes to customer.   These applications typically get orders from CRM systems. They interact with network elements and billing systems for fulfillment of orders.   5. Enterprise Management   This process area includes those processes that manage enterprise-wide activities and needs, or have application within the enterprise as a whole. They encompass all business management processes that   ·       Are necessary to support the whole of the enterprise, including processes for financial management, legal management, regulatory management, process, cost, and quality management, etc.;   ·       Are responsible for setting corporate policies, strategies, and directions, and for providing guidelines and targets for the whole of the business, including strategy development and planning for areas, such as Enterprise Architecture, that are integral to the direction and development of the business;   ·       Occur throughout the enterprise, including processes for project management, performance assessments, cost assessments, etc.     (i) Enterprise Risk Management:   Enterprise Risk Management focuses on assuring that risks and threats to the enterprise value and/or reputation are identified, and appropriate controls are in place to minimize or eliminate the identified risks. The identified risks may be physical or logical/virtual. Successful risk management ensures that the enterprise can support its mission critical operations, processes, applications, and communications in the face of serious incidents such as security threats/violations and fraud attempts. Two key areas covered in Risk Management by telecom operators are:   ·       Revenue Assurance: Revenue assurance system will be responsible for identifying revenue loss scenarios across components/systems, and will help in rectifying the problems. The following lists the high-level roles and responsibilities executed by the Revenue Assurance system in the end-to-end solution. o   Identify all usage information dropped when networks are being upgraded. o   Interconnect bill verification. o   Identify where services are routinely provisioned but never billed. o   Identify poor sales policies that are intensifying collections problems. o   Find leakage where usage is sent to error bucket and never billed for. o   Find leakage where field service, CRM, and network build-out are not optimized.   ·       Fraud Management: Involves collecting data from different systems to identify abnormalities in traffic patterns, usage patterns, and subscription patterns to report suspicious activity that might suggest fraudulent usage of resources, resulting in revenue losses to the operator.   The key roles and responsibilities of the system component are as follows:   o   Fraud management system will capture and monitor high usage (over a certain threshold) in terms of duration, value, and number of calls for each subscriber. The threshold for each subscriber is decided by the system and fixed automatically. o   Fraud management will be able to detect the unauthorized access to services for certain subscribers. These subscribers may have been provided unauthorized services by employees. The component will raise the alert to the operator the very first time of such illegal calls or calls which are not billed. o   The solution will be to have an alarm management system that will deliver alarms to the operator/provider whenever it detects a fraud, thus minimizing fraud by catching it the first time it occurs. o   The Fraud Management system will be capable of interfacing with switches, mediation systems, and billing systems   (ii) Knowledge Management   This process focuses on knowledge management, technology research within the enterprise, and the evaluation of potential technology acquisitions.   Key responsibilities of knowledge base management are to   ·       Maintain knowledge base – Creation and updating of knowledge base on ongoing basis. ·       Search knowledge base – Search of knowledge base on keywords or category browse ·       Maintain metadata – Management of metadata on knowledge base to ensure effective management and search. ·       Run report generator. ·       Provide content – Add content to the knowledge base, e.g., user guides, operational manual, etc.   (iii) Document Management   It focuses on maintaining a repository of all electronic documents or images of paper documents relevant to the enterprise using a system.   (iv) Data Management   It manages data as a valuable resource for any enterprise. For telecom enterprises, the typical areas covered are Master Data Management, Data Warehousing, and Business Intelligence. It is also responsible for data governance, security, quality, and database management.   Key responsibilities of Data Management are   ·       Using ETL, extract the data from CRM, Billing, web content, ERP, campaign management, financial, network operations, asset management info, customer contact data, customer measures, benchmarks, process data, e.g., process inputs, outputs, and measures, into Enterprise Data Warehouse. ·       Management of data traceability with source, data related business rules/decisions, data quality, data cleansing data reconciliation, competitors data – storage for all the enterprise data (customer profiles, products, offers, revenues, etc.) ·       Get online update through night time replication or physical backup process at regular frequency. ·       Provide the data access to business intelligence and other systems for their analysis, report generation, and use.   (v) Business Intelligence   It uses the Enterprise Data to provide the various analysis and reports that contain prospects and analytics for customer retention, acquisition of new customers due to the offers, and SLAs. It will generate right and optimized plans – bolt-ons for the customers.   The following lists the high-level roles and responsibilities executed by the Business Intelligence system at the Enterprise Level:   ·       It will do Pattern analysis and reports problem. ·       It will do Data Analysis – Statistical analysis, data profiling, affinity analysis of data, customer segment wise usage patterns on offers, products, service and revenue generation against services and customer segments. ·       It will do Performance (business, system, and forecast) analysis, churn propensity, response time, and SLAs analysis. ·       It will support for online and offline analysis, and report drill down capability. ·       It will collect, store, and report various SLA data. ·       It will provide the necessary intelligence for marketing and working on campaigns, etc., with cost benefit analysis and predictions.   It will advise on customer promotions with additional services based on loyalty and credit history of customer   ·       It will Interface with Enterprise Data Management system for data to run reports and analysis tasks. It will interface with the campaign schedules, based on historical success evidence.   (vi) Stakeholder and External Relations Management   It manages the enterprise's relationship with stakeholders and outside entities. Stakeholders include shareholders, employee organizations, etc. Outside entities include regulators, local community, and unions. Some of the processes within this grouping are Shareholder Relations, External Affairs, Labor Relations, and Public Relations.   (vii) Enterprise Resource Planning   It is used to manage internal and external resources, including tangible assets, financial resources, materials, and human resources. Its purpose is to facilitate the flow of information between all business functions inside the boundaries of the enterprise and manage the connections to outside stakeholders. ERP systems consolidate all business operations into a uniform and enterprise wide system environment.   The key roles and responsibilities for Enterprise System are given below:   ·        It will handle responsibilities such as core accounting, financial, and management reporting. ·       It will interface with CRM for capturing customer account and details. ·       It will interface with billing to capture the billing revenue and other financial data. ·       It will be responsible for executing the dunning process. Billing will send the required feed to ERP for execution of dunning. ·       It will interface with the CRM and Billing through batch interfaces. Enterprise management systems are like horizontals in the enterprise and typically interact with all major telecom systems. E.g., an ERP system interacts with CRM, Fulfillment, and Billing systems for different kinds of data exchanges.   6. External Interfaces/Touch Points   The typical external parties are customers, suppliers/partners, employees, shareholders, and other stakeholders. External interactions from/to a Service Provider to other parties can be achieved by a variety of mechanisms, including:   ·       Exchange of emails or faxes ·       Call Centers ·       Web Portals ·       Business-to-Business (B2B) automated transactions   These applications provide an Internet technology driven interface to external parties to undertake a variety of business functions directly for themselves. These can provide fully or partially automated service to external parties through various touch points.   Typical characteristics of these touch points are   ·       Pre-integrated self-service system, including stand-alone web framework or integration front end with a portal engine ·       Self services layer exposing atomic web services/APIs for reuse by multiple systems across the architectural environment ·       Portlets driven connectivity exposing data and services interoperability through a portal engine or web application   These touch points mostly interact with the CRM systems for requests, inquiries, and responses.   7. Middleware   The component will be primarily responsible for integrating the different systems components under a common platform. It should provide a Standards-Based Platform for building Service Oriented Architecture and Composite Applications. The following lists the high-level roles and responsibilities executed by the Middleware component in the end-to-end solution.   ·       As an integration framework, covering to and fro interfaces ·       Provide a web service framework with service registry. ·       Support SOA framework with SOA service registry. ·       Each of the interfaces from / to Middleware to other components would handle data transformation, translation, and mapping of data points. ·       Receive data from the caller / activate and/or forward the data to the recipient system in XML format. ·       Use standard XML for data exchange. ·       Provide the response back to the service/call initiator. ·       Provide a tracking until the response completion. ·       Keep a store transitional data against each call/transaction. ·       Interface through Middleware to get any information that is possible and allowed from the existing systems to enterprise systems; e.g., customer profile and customer history, etc. ·       Provide the data in a common unified format to the SOA calls across systems, and follow the Enterprise Architecture directive. ·       Provide an audit trail for all transactions being handled by the component.   8. Network Elements   The term Network Element means a facility or equipment used in the provision of a telecommunications service. Such terms also includes features, functions, and capabilities that are provided by means of such facility or equipment, including subscriber numbers, databases, signaling systems, and information sufficient for billing and collection or used in the transmission, routing, or other provision of a telecommunications service.   Typical network elements in a GSM network are Home Location Register (HLR), Intelligent Network (IN), Mobile Switching Center (MSC), SMS Center (SMSC), and network elements for other value added services like Push-to-talk (PTT), Ring Back Tone (RBT), etc.   Network elements are invoked when subscribers use their telecom devices for any kind of usage. These elements generate usage data and pass it on to downstream systems like mediation and billing system for rating and billing. They also integrate with provisioning systems for order/service fulfillment.   9. 3rd Party Applications   3rd Party systems are applications like content providers, payment gateways, point of sale terminals, and databases/applications maintained by the Government.   Depending on applicability and the type of functionality provided by 3rd party applications, the integration with different telecom systems like CRM, provisioning, and billing will be done.   10. Service Delivery Platform   A service delivery platform (SDP) provides the architecture for the rapid deployment, provisioning, execution, management, and billing of value added telecom services. SDPs are based on the concept of SOA and layered architecture. They support the delivery of voice, data services, and content in network and device-independent fashion. They allow application developers to aggregate network capabilities, services, and sources of content. SDPs typically contain layers for web services exposure, service application development, and network abstraction.   SOA Reference Architecture   SOA concept is based on the principle of developing reusable business service and building applications by composing those services, instead of building monolithic applications in silos. It’s about bridging the gap between business and IT through a set of business-aligned IT services, using a set of design principles, patterns, and techniques.   In an SOA, resources are made available to participants in a value net, enterprise, line of business (typically spanning multiple applications within an enterprise or across multiple enterprises). It consists of a set of business-aligned IT services that collectively fulfill an organization’s business processes and goals. We can choreograph these services into composite applications and invoke them through standard protocols. SOA, apart from agility and reusability, enables:   ·       The business to specify processes as orchestrations of reusable services ·       Technology agnostic business design, with technology hidden behind service interface ·       A contractual-like interaction between business and IT, based on service SLAs ·       Accountability and governance, better aligned to business services ·       Applications interconnections untangling by allowing access only through service interfaces, reducing the daunting side effects of change ·       Reduced pressure to replace legacy and extended lifetime for legacy applications, through encapsulation in services   ·       A Cloud Computing paradigm, using web services technologies, that makes possible service outsourcing on an on-demand, utility-like, pay-per-usage basis   The following section represents the Reference Architecture of logical view for the Telecom Solution. The new custom built application needs to align with this logical architecture in the long run to achieve EA benefits.   Packaged implementation applications, such as ERP billing applications, need to expose their functions as service providers (as other applications consume) and interact with other applications as service consumers.   COT applications need to expose services through wrappers such as adapters to utilize existing resources and at the same time achieve Enterprise Architecture goal and objectives.   The following are the various layers for Enterprise level deployment of SOA. This diagram captures the abstract view of Enterprise SOA layers and important components of each layer. Layered architecture means decomposition of services such that most interactions occur between adjacent layers. However, there is no strict rule that top layers should not directly communicate with bottom layers.   The diagram below represents the important logical pieces that would result from overall SOA transformation. @font-face { font-family: "Arial"; }@font-face { font-family: "Courier New"; }@font-face { font-family: "Wingdings"; }@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoCaption, li.MsoCaption, div.MsoCaption { margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; color: rgb(79, 129, 189); font-weight: bold; }p.MsoListParagraph, li.MsoListParagraph, div.MsoListParagraph { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }ol { margin-bottom: 0cm; }ul { margin-bottom: 0cm; } Figure 3. Enterprise SOA Reference Architecture 1.          Operational System Layer: This layer consists of all packaged applications like CRM, ERP, custom built applications, COTS based applications like Billing, Revenue Management, Fulfilment, and the Enterprise databases that are essential and contribute directly or indirectly to the Enterprise OSS/BSS Transformation.   ERP holds the data of Asset Lifecycle Management, Supply Chain, and Advanced Procurement and Human Capital Management, etc.   CRM holds the data related to Order, Sales, and Marketing, Customer Care, Partner Relationship Management, Loyalty, etc.   Content Management handles Enterprise Search and Query. Billing application consists of the following components:   ·       Collections Management, Customer Billing Management, Invoices, Real-Time Rating, Discounting, and Applying of Charges ·       Enterprise databases will hold both the application and service data, whether structured or unstructured.   MDM - Master data majorly consists of Customer, Order, Product, and Service Data.     2.          Enterprise Component Layer:   This layer consists of the Application Services and Common Services that are responsible for realizing the functionality and maintaining the QoS of the exposed services. This layer uses container-based technologies such as application servers to implement the components, workload management, high availability, and load balancing.   Application Services: This Service Layer enables application, technology, and database abstraction so that the complex accessing logic is hidden from the other service layers. This is a basic service layer, which exposes application functionalities and data as reusable services. The three types of the Application access services are:   ·       Application Access Service: This Service Layer exposes application level functionalities as a reusable service between BSS to BSS and BSS to OSS integration. This layer is enabled using disparate technology such as Web Service, Integration Servers, and Adaptors, etc.   ·       Data Access Service: This Service Layer exposes application data services as a reusable reference data service. This is done via direct interaction with application data. and provides the federated query.   ·       Network Access Service: This Service Layer exposes provisioning layer as a reusable service from OSS to OSS integration. This integration service emphasizes the need for high performance, stateless process flows, and distributed design.   Common Services encompasses management of structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data such as information services, portal services, interaction services, infrastructure services, and security services, etc.   3.          Integration Layer:   This consists of service infrastructure components like service bus, service gateway for partner integration, service registry, service repository, and BPEL processor. Service bus will carry the service invocation payloads/messages between consumers and providers. The other important functions expected from it are itinerary based routing, distributed caching of routing information, transformations, and all qualities of service for messaging-like reliability, scalability, and availability, etc. Service registry will hold all contracts (wsdl) of services, and it helps developers to locate or discover service during design time or runtime.   • BPEL processor would be useful in orchestrating the services to compose a complex business scenario or process. • Workflow and business rules management are also required to support manual triggering of certain activities within business process. based on the rules setup and also the state machine information. Application, data, and service mediation layer typically forms the overall composite application development framework or SOA Framework.   4.          Business Process Layer: These are typically the intermediate services layer and represent Shared Business Process Services. At Enterprise Level, these services are from Customer Management, Order Management, Billing, Finance, and Asset Management application domains.   5.          Access Layer: This layer consists of portals for Enterprise and provides a single view of Enterprise information management and dashboard services.   6.          Channel Layer: This consists of various devices; applications that form part of extended enterprise; browsers through which users access the applications.   7.          Client Layer: This designates the different types of users accessing the enterprise applications. The type of user typically would be an important factor in determining the level of access to applications.   8.          Vertical pieces like management, monitoring, security, and development cut across all horizontal layers Management and monitoring involves all aspects of SOA-like services, SLAs, and other QoS lifecycle processes for both applications and services surrounding SOA governance.     9.          EA Governance, Reference Architecture, Roadmap, Principles, and Best Practices:   EA Governance is important in terms of providing the overall direction to SOA implementation within the enterprise. This involves board-level involvement, in addition to business and IT executives. At a high level, this involves managing the SOA projects implementation, managing SOA infrastructure, and controlling the entire effort through all fine-tuned IT processes in accordance with COBIT (Control Objectives for Information Technology).   Devising tools and techniques to promote reuse culture, and the SOA way of doing things needs competency centers to be established in addition to training the workforce to take up new roles that are suited to SOA journey.   Conclusions   Reference Architectures can serve as the basis for disparate architecture efforts throughout the organization, even if they use different tools and technologies. Reference architectures provide best practices and approaches in the independent way a vendor deals with technology and standards. Reference Architectures model the abstract architectural elements for an enterprise independent of the technologies, protocols, and products that are used to implement an SOA. Telecom enterprises today are facing significant business and technology challenges due to growing competition, a multitude of services, and convergence. Adopting architectural best practices could go a long way in meeting these challenges. The use of SOA-based architecture for communication to each of the external systems like Billing, CRM, etc., in OSS/BSS system has made the architecture very loosely coupled, with greater flexibility. Any change in the external systems would be absorbed at the Integration Layer without affecting the rest of the ecosystem. The use of a Business Process Management (BPM) tool makes the management and maintenance of the business processes easy, with better performance in terms of lead time, quality, and cost. Since the Architecture is based on standards, it will lower the cost of deploying and managing OSS/BSS applications over their lifecycles.

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