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• ZFS Data Loss Scenarios

  - by Obtuse

  I'm looking toward building a largish ZFS Pool (150TB+), and I'd like to hear people experiences about data loss scenarios due to failed hardware, in particular, distinguishing between instances where just some data is lost vs. the whole filesystem (of if there even is such a distinction in ZFS). For example: let's say a vdev is lost due to a failure like an external drive enclosure losing power, or a controller card failing. From what I've read the pool should go into a faulted mode, but if the vdev is returned the pool should recover? or not? or if the vdev is partially damaged, does one lose the whole pool, some files, etc.? What happens if a ZIL device fails? Or just one of several ZILs? Truly any and all anecdotes or hypothetical scenarios backed by deep technical knowledge are appreciated! Thanks! Update: We're doing this on the cheap since we are a small business (9 people or so) but we generate a fair amount of imaging data. The data is mostly smallish files, by my count about 500k files per TB. The data is important but not uber-critical. We are planning to use the ZFS pool to mirror 48TB "live" data array (in use for 3 years or so), and use the the rest of the storage for 'archived' data. The pool will be shared using NFS. The rack is supposedly on a building backup generator line, and we have two APC UPSes capable of powering the rack at full load for 5 mins or so.

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• Is there a way to measure wifi traffic on a network from a client?

  - by millimoose

  Is there some way (preferrably one that comes with an existing tool) to measure the traffic going through the whole WiFi network from a computer connected to it? (That is, not from the AP or something between the modem and AP.) My situation is this: a few months back, the internet connection at my parent's place got really sluggish and laggy. (Lag spikes that cause page loads to time out etc, connections plain getting lost and dropping packets forever.) It's impossible to get mom's husband to do anything about this because he brushes this off with something like "just tell your sister to turn off torrents". Unfortunately the WiFi router's firmware doesn't do traffic logging. I'm not going to risk bricking it to put WRT on it; nor am I keen on rewiring the network to add a proxy to analyse the traffic. (I'm one of those people that make computers break just by looking at them, except machines I own.) I'd like to be able to find out roughly how much data is going over the air here while all the LAN wires are out of the router, all the computers accused of torrenting are off, etc. The idea is to either show that: Even if everything but my macbook is turned off, something is congesting the network. The husband is a systems developer and has a whole lot of mysterious hardware that's not to be touched around, one of them might be culprit. There is barely any traffic on the network, but the internet is still sluggish. Meaning this is likely a problem the ISP should solve. (Some hardware of theirs being glitchy, someone on an aggregated line hogging it constantly...) The network is encrypted, but I can temporarily set it to open for the sake of finding this out. So, in conclusion? Can this be done? Or is there some alternative way I could try to diagnose the problem?

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• Managing multiple independant domains with Google Apps

  - by Saif Bechan

  I am currently running a server where I have multiple domains with all of them running there own mail server. My plan is to outsource this whole email service and have Google, or competitor, do this for me. Let me start by telling you the setup I have now and want to migrate to Google. Initial setup I have a main domain where I run my server, and my nameserver. This is an important domain because this holds the connection with all my internal applications. For example log messages, cronjob messages, and virus-scan messages are sent to this domain. This email is also registered at my registrar and I use it to communicate with my ISP. Next I run a few independent websites that all need their independent email addresses. This can be on shared space, I don't mind. 1 Gig will be enough for everything I am going to do. Summary: superdomain.com (which only has a catchall for internal use and communication with my ISP) cars.com (independent) flowers.com (independent) foods.com (independent) I am going to be the admin for all of this. The independent domains don't need there own admin panel, they just need email addresses like info@ support@, etc. I do all the managing and they just send and receive emails using the accounts i give them. All of the websites have there different staff that use the accounts. Tried so far I have registered my superdomain, but I can only add aliases to the main domain. If I make all the other domains aliases the emails from [email protected] and [email protected] will have the same inbox. I want them to be separate. is the only way to achieve this by creating an account for each domain? And if so, is there no way of creating a superdomain account where I can edit all these accounts easily without having to log in 4 different places to get my work done. I have searched the Google help forums, and posted questions but without any results so far. Questions Can anyone please give me some advice on what to do. I currently use the free program Google has.

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• strings and textfields, AS3

  - by VideoDnd

  How do I get my text fields to populate correctly and show single digits? Description Each textfield receives a substring. This doesn't limit it's input, because the text fields shows extra numbers. See illustration. Ex A //Tweening method 'could substitute code with Tweener' import fl.transitions.Tween; import fl.transitions.easing.*; //Timer that will run a sec and repeat var timer:Timer = new Timer(1000); //Integer values var count:int = +220000000; var fcount:int = 0; //Events and starting timer timer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, incrementCounter); addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, checkOdometerPosition); timer.start(); //Tween Variables var smoothLoop:int = 0; var originalYPosition:Number = 0; var upwardYPosition:Number = -99; //Formatting String function formatCount(i:int):String { var fraction:int = i % 100; var whole:int = i / 100; return ("0000000" + whole).substr(-7, 7) + "." + (fraction < 10 ? "0" + fraction : fraction); } //First Digit 'trigger set by using var upwardPosition as a constant' function checkOdometerPosition(event:Event):void{ if (seconds9.y <= upwardYPosition){ var toText:String = formatCount(fcount); //seconds9.firstDigit.text = formatCount(fcount); seconds9.firstDigit.text = toText.substr(9, 9); seconds9.y = originalYPosition; seconds8.firstDigit.text = toText.substr(8, 8); seconds8.y = originalYPosition; seconds7dec.firstDigit.text = toText.substr(7, 7); seconds7dec.y = originalYPosition; seconds6.firstDigit.text = toText.substr(6, 6); seconds6.y = originalYPosition; seconds5.firstDigit.text = toText.substr(5, 5); seconds5.y = originalYPosition; seconds5.firstDigit.text = toText.substr(4, 4); seconds5.y = originalYPosition; seconds3.firstDigit.text = toText.substr(3, 3); seconds3.y = originalYPosition; seconds2.firstDigit.text = toText.substr(2, 2); seconds2.y = originalYPosition; seconds1.firstDigit.text = toText.substr(1, 1); seconds1.y = originalYPosition; seconds1.firstDigit.text = toText.substr(1, 1); seconds1.y = originalYPosition; seconds0.firstDigit.text = toText.substr(0, 1); seconds0.y = originalYPosition; } } //Second Digit function incrementCounter(event:TimerEvent):void{ count++; fcount=int(count) if (smoothLoop < 9){ smoothLoop++; } else { smoothLoop = 0; } var lolly:String = formatCount(fcount-1); //seconds9.secondDigit.text = formatCount(fcount); seconds9.secondDigit.text = lolly.substr(9, 9); var addTween9:Tween = new Tween(seconds9, "y", Strong.easeOut,0,-222, .7, true); seconds8.secondDigit.text = lolly.substr(8, 8); var addTween8:Tween = new Tween(seconds8, "y", Strong.easeOut,0,-222, .7, true); seconds7dec.secondDigit.text = lolly.substr(7, 7); var addTween7dec:Tween = new Tween(seconds7dec, "y", Strong.easeOut,0,-222, .7, true); seconds6.secondDigit.text = lolly.substr(6, 6); var addTween6:Tween = new Tween(seconds6, "y", Strong.easeOut,0,-222, .7, true); seconds5.secondDigit.text = lolly.substr(5, 5); var addTween5:Tween = new Tween(seconds5, "y", Strong.easeOut,0,-222, .7, true); seconds4.secondDigit.text = lolly.substr(4, 4); var addTween4:Tween = new Tween(seconds4, "y", Strong.easeOut,0,-222, .7, true); seconds3.secondDigit.text = lolly.substr(3, 3); var addTween3:Tween = new Tween(seconds3, "y", Strong.easeOut,0,-222, .7, true); seconds2.secondDigit.text = lolly.substr(2, 2); var addTween2:Tween = new Tween(seconds2, "y", Strong.easeOut,0,-222, .7, true); seconds1.secondDigit.text = lolly.substr(1, 1); var addTween1:Tween = new Tween(seconds1, "y", Strong.easeOut,0,-222, .7, true); seconds0.secondDigit.text = lolly.substr(0, 1); var addTween0:Tween = new Tween(seconds0, "y", Strong.easeOut,0,-222, .7, true); } Ex A has 10 text objects, each with a pair of text fields. It’s move complex than Ex B, because it has a Y animation and pairs of numbers. The text objects are animated to create a scrolling effect. It moves vertically, and has a lead number and a catch up number contained in each symbol. See illustration for more description. The counters are set to 2,200,000.00, just to see if the numbers are populating. Ex B work fine! for example only //STRING SPLITTER COUNTER with nine individual text fields //Timer settings var delay:uint = 1000/100; var repeat:uint = 0; var timer:Timer; timer = new Timer(delay,repeat); timer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, incrementCounter); timer.start(); //Integer values var count:int = 0; var fcount:int = 0; //Format Count function formatCount(i:int):String { var fraction:int = i % 100; var whole:int = i / 100; return ("0000000" + whole).substr(-7, 7) + "." + (fraction < 10 ? "0" + fraction : fraction); } //Split strings off to individual text fields function incrementCounter(event:TimerEvent) { count++; fcount=int(count+220000000) var toText:String = formatCount(fcount); mytext9.text = toText.substr(9, 9); mytext8.text = toText.substr(8, 8); mytext7dec.text = toText.substr(7, 7); mytext6.text = toText.substr(6, 6); mytext5.text = toText.substr(5, 5); mytext4.text = toText.substr(4, 4); mytext3.text = toText.substr(3, 3); mytext2.text = toText.substr(2, 2); mytext1.text = toText.substr(1, 1); mytext0.text = toText.substr(0, 1); } Here's a link to the files

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• substrings and multiple textfields, AS3

  - by VideoDnd

  How do I get my text fields to populate correctly and show single digits? Description Each textfield receives a substring. This doesn't limit it's input, because the text fields shows extra numbers. The counters are set to 2,200,000.00, just to see if the numbers are populating. Ex A is the one I'm trying to fix. Ex A the one I want to fix //Tweening method 'could substitute code with Tweener' import fl.transitions.Tween; import fl.transitions.easing.*; //Timer that will run a sec and repeat var timer:Timer = new Timer(1000); //Integer values var count:int = +220000000; var fcount:int = 0; //Events and starting timer timer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, incrementCounter); addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, checkOdometerPosition); timer.start(); //Tween Variables var smoothLoop:int = 0; var originalYPosition:Number = 0; var upwardYPosition:Number = -99; //Formatting String function formatCount(i:int):String { var fraction:int = i % 100; var whole:int = i / 100; return ("0000000" + whole).substr(-7, 7) + "." + (fraction < 10 ? "0" + fraction : fraction); } //First Digit function checkOdometerPosition(event:Event):void{ if (seconds9.y <= upwardYPosition){ var toText:String = formatCount(fcount); //seconds9.firstDigit.text = formatCount(fcount); seconds9.firstDigit.text = toText.substr(9, 9); seconds9.y = originalYPosition; seconds8.firstDigit.text = toText.substr(8, 8); seconds8.y = originalYPosition; seconds7dec.firstDigit.text = toText.substr(7, 7); seconds7dec.y = originalYPosition; seconds6.firstDigit.text = toText.substr(6, 6); seconds6.y = originalYPosition; seconds5.firstDigit.text = toText.substr(5, 5); seconds5.y = originalYPosition; seconds5.firstDigit.text = toText.substr(4, 4); seconds5.y = originalYPosition; seconds3.firstDigit.text = toText.substr(3, 3); seconds3.y = originalYPosition; seconds2.firstDigit.text = toText.substr(2, 2); seconds2.y = originalYPosition; seconds1.firstDigit.text = toText.substr(1, 1); seconds1.y = originalYPosition; seconds1.firstDigit.text = toText.substr(1, 1); seconds1.y = originalYPosition; seconds0.firstDigit.text = toText.substr(0, 1); seconds0.y = originalYPosition; } } //Second Digit function incrementCounter(event:TimerEvent):void{ count++; fcount=int(count) if (smoothLoop < 9){ smoothLoop++; } else { smoothLoop = 0; } var lolly:String = formatCount(fcount-1); //seconds9.secondDigit.text = formatCount(fcount); seconds9.secondDigit.text = lolly.substr(9, 9); var addTween9:Tween = new Tween(seconds9, "y", Strong.easeOut,0,-222, .7, true); seconds8.secondDigit.text = lolly.substr(8, 8); var addTween8:Tween = new Tween(seconds8, "y", Strong.easeOut,0,-222, .7, true); seconds7dec.secondDigit.text = lolly.substr(7, 7); var addTween7dec:Tween = new Tween(seconds7dec, "y", Strong.easeOut,0,-222, .7, true); seconds6.secondDigit.text = lolly.substr(6, 6); var addTween6:Tween = new Tween(seconds6, "y", Strong.easeOut,0,-222, .7, true); seconds5.secondDigit.text = lolly.substr(5, 5); var addTween5:Tween = new Tween(seconds5, "y", Strong.easeOut,0,-222, .7, true); seconds4.secondDigit.text = lolly.substr(4, 4); var addTween4:Tween = new Tween(seconds4, "y", Strong.easeOut,0,-222, .7, true); seconds3.secondDigit.text = lolly.substr(3, 3); var addTween3:Tween = new Tween(seconds3, "y", Strong.easeOut,0,-222, .7, true); seconds2.secondDigit.text = lolly.substr(2, 2); var addTween2:Tween = new Tween(seconds2, "y", Strong.easeOut,0,-222, .7, true); seconds1.secondDigit.text = lolly.substr(1, 1); var addTween1:Tween = new Tween(seconds1, "y", Strong.easeOut,0,-222, .7, true); seconds0.secondDigit.text = lolly.substr(0, 1); var addTween0:Tween = new Tween(seconds0, "y", Strong.easeOut,0,-222, .7, true); } Ex A has 10 text objects, each with a pair of text fields. It’s move complex than Ex B, because it has a Y animation and pairs of numbers. The text objects are animated to create a scrolling effect. It moves vertically, and has a lead number and a catch up number contained in each symbol. See illustration for more description. Ex B work fine! for example only //STRING SPLITTER COUNTER with nine individual text fields //Timer settings var delay:uint = 1000/100; var repeat:uint = 0; var timer:Timer; timer = new Timer(delay,repeat); timer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, incrementCounter); timer.start(); //Integer values var count:int = 0; var fcount:int = 0; //Format Count function formatCount(i:int):String { var fraction:int = i % 100; var whole:int = i / 100; return ("0000000" + whole).substr(-7, 7) + "." + (fraction < 10 ? "0" + fraction : fraction); } //Split strings off to individual text fields function incrementCounter(event:TimerEvent) { count++; fcount=int(count+220000000) var toText:String = formatCount(fcount); mytext9.text = toText.substr(9, 9); mytext8.text = toText.substr(8, 8); mytext7dec.text = toText.substr(7, 7); mytext6.text = toText.substr(6, 6); mytext5.text = toText.substr(5, 5); mytext4.text = toText.substr(4, 4); mytext3.text = toText.substr(3, 3); mytext2.text = toText.substr(2, 2); mytext1.text = toText.substr(1, 1); mytext0.text = toText.substr(0, 1); }

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• Java homework help, Error <identifier> expected

  - by user2900126

  Help with java homework this is my assignment that I have, this assignment code I've tried. But when I try to compile it I keep getting errors which I cant seem to find soloutions too: Error says <identifier> expected for Line 67 public static void () Assignment brief To write a simple java classMobile that models a mobile phone. Details the information stored about each mobile phone will include • Its type e.g. “Sony ericsson x90” or “Samsung Galaxy S”; • Its screen size in inches; You may assume that this a whole number from the scale 3 to 5 inclusive. • Its memory card capacity in gigabytes You may assume that this a whole number • The name of its present service provider You may assume this is a single line of text. • The type of contract with service provider You may assume this is a single line of text. • Its camera resolution in megapixels; You should not assume that this a whole number; • The percentage of charge left on the phone e.g. a fully charged phone will have a charge of 100. You may assume that this a whole number • Whether the phone has GPS or not. Your class will have fields corresponding to these attributes . Start by opening BlueJ, creating a new project called myMobile which has a classMobile and set up the fields that you need, Next you will need to write a Constructor for the class. Assume that each phone is manufactured by creating an object and specifying its type, its screen size, its memory card capacity, its camera resolution and whether it has GPS or not. Therefore you will need a constructor that allows you to pass arguments to initialise these five attributes. Other fields should be set to appropriate default values. You may assume that a new phone comes fully charged. When the phone is sold to its owner, you will need to set the service provider and type of contract with that provider so you will need mutator methods • setProvider () - - to set service provider. • setContractType - - to set the type of contract These methods will be used when the phones provider is changed. You should also write a mutator method ChargeUp () which simulates fully charging the phone. To obtain information about your mobile object you should write • accessor methods corresponding to four of its fields: • getType () – which returns the type of mobile; • getProvider () – which returns the present service provider; • getContractType () – which returns its type of contract; • getCharge () – which returns its remaining charge. An accessor method to printDetails () to print, to the terminal window, a report about the phone e.g. This mobile phone is a sony Erricsson X90 with Service provider BigAl and type of contract PAYG. At present it has 30% of its battery charge remaining. Check that the new method works correctly by for example, • creating a Mobile object and setting its fields; • calling printDetails () and t=checking the report corresponds to the details you have just given the mobile; • changing the service provider and contract type by calling setprovider () and setContractType (); • calling printDetails () and checking the report now prints out the new details. Challenging excercises • write a mutator methodswitchedOnFor () =which simulates using the phone for a specified period. You may assume the phone loses 1% of its charge for each hour that it is switched on . • write an accessor method checkcharge () whichg checks the phone remaing charge. If this charge has a value less than 25%, then this method returns a string containg the message Be aware that you will soon need to re-charge your phone, otherwise it returns a string your phone charge is sufficient. • Write a method changeProvider () which simulates changing the provider (and presumably also the type of service contract). Finally you may add up to four additional fields, with appropriate methods, that might be required in a more detailed model. above is my assignment that I have, this assignment code I've tried. But when I try to oompile it I keep getting errors which I cant seem to find soloutions too: Error says <identifier> expected for Line 67 public static void () /** * to write a simple java class Mobile that models a mobile phone. * * @author (Lewis Burte-Clarke) * @version (14/10/13) */ public class Mobile { // type of phone private String phonetype; // size of screen in inches private int screensize; // menory card capacity private int memorycardcapacity; // name of present service provider private String serviceprovider; // type of contract with service provider private int typeofcontract; // camera resolution in megapixels private int cameraresolution; // the percentage of charge left on the phone private int checkcharge; // wether the phone has GPS or not private String GPS; // instance variables - replace the example below with your own private int x; // The constructor method public Mobile(String mobilephonetype, int mobilescreensize, int mobilememorycardcapacity,int mobilecameraresolution,String mobileGPS, String newserviceprovider) { this.phonetype = mobilephonetype; this.screensize = mobilescreensize; this.memorycardcapacity = mobilememorycardcapacity; this.cameraresolution = mobilecameraresolution; this.GPS = mobileGPS; // you do not use this ones during instantiation,you can remove them if you do not need or assign them some default values //this.serviceprovider = newserviceprovider; //this.typeofcontract = 12; //this.checkcharge = checkcharge; Mobile samsungPhone = new Mobile("Samsung", "1024", "2", "verizon", "8", "GPS"); 1024 = screensize; 2 = memorycardcapacity; 8 = resolution; GPS = gps; "verizon"=serviceprovider; //typeofcontract = 12; //checkcharge = checkcharge; } // A method to display the state of the object to the screen public void displayMobileDetails() { System.out.println("phonetype: " + phonetype); System.out.println("screensize: " + screensize); System.out.println("memorycardcapacity: " + memorycardcapacity); System.out.println("cameraresolution: " + cameraresolution); System.out.println("GPS: " + GPS); System.out.println("serviceprovider: " + serviceprovider); System.out.println("typeofcontract: " + typeofcontract); } /** * The mymobile class implements an application that * simply displays "new Mobile!" to the standard output. */ public class mymobile { public static void main(String[] args) { System.out.println("new Mobile!"); //Display the string. } } public static void buildPhones(){ Mobile Samsung = new Mobile("Samsung", "3.0", "4gb", "8mega pixels", "GPS"); Mobile Blackberry = new Mobile("Blackberry", "3.0", "4gb", "8mega pixels", "GPS"); Samsung.displayMobileDetails(); Blackberry.displayMobileDetails(); } public static void main(String[] args) { buildPhones(); } } any answers.replies and help would be greatly appreciated as I really lost!

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• SQLAuthority News – TechEd India – April 12-14, 2010 Bangalore – An Unforgettable Experience – An Op

  - by pinaldave

  TechEd India was one of the largest Technology events in India led by Microsoft. This event was attended by more than 3,000 technology enthusiasts, making it one of the most well-organized events of the year. Though I attempted to attend almost all the technology events here, I have not seen any bigger or better event in Indian subcontinents other than this. There are 21 Technical Tracks at Tech·Ed India 2010 that span more than 745 learning opportunities. I was fortunate enough to be a part of this whole event as a speaker and a delegate, as well. TechEd India Speaker Badge and A Token of Lifetime Hotel Selection I presented three different sessions at TechEd India and was also a part of panel discussion. (The details of the sessions are given at the end of this blog post.) Due to extensive traveling, I stay away from my family occasionally. For this reason, I took my wife – Nupur and daughter Shaivi (8 months old) to the event along with me. We stayed at the same hotel where the event was organized so as to maximize my time bonding with my family and to have more time in networking with technology community, at the same time. The hotel Lalit Ashok is the largest and most luxurious venue one can find in Bangalore, located in the middle of the city. The cost of the hotel was a bit pricey, but looking at all the advantages, I had decided to ask for a booking there. Hotel Lalit Ashok Nupur Dave and Shaivi Dave Arrival Day – DAY 0 – April 11, 2010 I reached the event a day earlier, and that was one wise decision for I was able to relax a bit and go over my presentation for the next day’s course. I am a kind of person who likes to get everything ready ahead of time. I was also able to enjoy a pleasant evening with several Microsoft employees and my family friends. I even checked out the location where I would be doing presentations the next day. I was fortunate enough to meet Bijoy Singhal from Microsoft who helped me out with a few of the logistics issues that occured the day before. I was not aware of the fact that the very next day he was going to be “The Man” of the TechEd 2010 event. Vinod Kumar from Microsoft was really very kind as he talked to me regarding my subsequent session. He gave me some suggestions which were really helpful that I was able to incorporate them during my presentation. Finally, I was able to meet Abhishek Kant from Microsoft; his valuable suggestions and unlimited passion have inspired many people like me to work with the Community. Pradipta from Microsoft was also around, being extremely busy with logistics; however, in those busy times, he did find some good spare time to have a chat with me and the other Community leaders. I also met Harish Ranganathan and Sachin Rathi, both from Microsoft. It was so interesting to listen to both of them talking about SharePoint. I just have no words to express my overwhelmed spirit because of all these passionate young guys - Pradipta,Vinod, Bijoy, Harish, Sachin and Ahishek (of course!). Map of TechEd India 2010 Event Day 1 – April 12, 2010 From morning until night time, today was truly a very busy day for me. I had two presentations and one panel discussion for the day. Needless to say, I had a few meetings to attend as well. The day started with a keynote from S. Somaseger where he announced the launch of Visual Studio 2010. The keynote area was really eye-catching because of the very large, bigger-than- life uniform screen. This was truly one to show. The title music of the keynote was very interesting and it featured Bijoy Singhal as the model. It was interesting to talk to him afterwards, when we laughed at jokes together about his modeling assignment. TechEd India Keynote Opening Featuring Bijoy TechEd India 2010 Keynote – S. Somasegar Time: 11:15pm – 11:45pm Session 1: True Lies of SQL Server – SQL Myth Buster Following the excellent keynote, I had my very first session on the subject of SQL Server Myth Buster. At first, I was a bit nervous as right after the keynote, for this was my very first session and during my presentation I saw lots of Microsoft Product Team members. Well, it really went well and I had a really good discussion with attendees of the session. I felt that a well begin was half-done and my confidence was regained. Right after the session, I met a few of my Community friends and had meaningful discussions with them on many subjects. The abstract of the session is as follows: In this 30-minute demo session, I am going to briefly demonstrate few SQL Server Myths and their resolutions as I back them up with some demo. This demo presentation is a must-attend for all developers and administrators who would come to the event. This is going to be a very quick yet fun session. Pinal Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 Time: 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM Lunch with Somasegar After the session I went to see my daughter, and then I headed right away to the lunch with S. Somasegar – the keynote speaker and senior vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft. I really thank to Abhishek who made it possible for us. Because of his efforts, all the MVPs had the opportunity to meet such a legendary person and had to talk with them on Microsoft Technology. Though Somasegar is currently holding such a high position in Microsoft, he is very polite and a real gentleman, and how I wish that everybody in industry is like him. Believe me, if you spread love and kindness, then that is what you will receive back. As soon as lunch time was over, I ran to the session hall as my second presentation was about to start. Time: 2:30pm – 3:30pm Session 2: Master Data Services in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Business Intelligence is a subject which was widely talked about at TechEd. Everybody was interested in this subject, and I did not excuse myself from this great concept as well. I consider myself fortunate as I was presenting on the subject of Master Data Services at TechEd. When I had initially learned this subject, I had a bit of confusion about the usage of this tool. Later on, I decided that I would tackle about how we all developers and DBAs are not able to understand something so simple such as this, and even worst, creating confusion about the technology. During system designing, it is very important to have a reference material or master lookup tables. Well, I talked about the same subject and presented the session keeping that as my center talk. The session went very well and I received lots of interesting questions. I got many compliments for talking about this subject on the real-life scenario. I really thank Rushabh Mehta (CEO, Solid Quality Mentors India) for his supportive suggestions that helped me prepare the slide deck, as well as the subject. Pinal Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 The abstract of the session is as follows: SQL Server Master Data Services will ship with SQL Server 2008 R2 and will improve Microsoft’s platform appeal. This session provides an in-depth demonstration of MDS features and highlights important usage scenarios. Master Data Services enables consistent decision-making process by allowing you to create, manage and propagate changes from a single master view of your business entities. Also, MDS – Master Data-hub which is a vital component, helps ensure the consistency of reporting across systems and deliver faster and more accurate results across the enterprise. We will talk about establishing the basis for a centralized approach to defining, deploying, and managing master data in the enterprise. Pinal Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 The day was still not over for me. I had ran into several friends but we were not able keep our enthusiasm under control about all the rumors saying that SQL Server 2008 R2 was about to be launched tomorrow in the keynote. I then ran to my third and final technical event for the day- a panel discussion with the top technologies of India. Time: 5:00pm – 6:00pm Panel Discussion: Harness the power of Web – SEO and Technical Blogging As I have delivered two technical sessions by this time, I was a bit tired but  not less enthusiastic when I had to talk about Blog and Technology. We discussed many different topics there. I told them that the most important aspect for any blog is its content. We discussed in depth the issues with plagiarism and how to avoid it. Another topic of discussion was how we technology bloggers can create awareness in the Community about what the right kind of blogging is and what morally and technically wrong acts are. A couple of questions were raised about what type of liberty a person can have in terms of writing blogs. Well, it was generically agreed that a blog is mainly a representation of our ideas and thoughts; it should not be governed by external entities. As long as one is writing what they really want to say, but not providing incorrect information or not practicing plagiarism, a blogger should be allowed to express himself. This panel discussion was supposed to be over in an hour, but the interest of the participants was remarkable and so it was extended for 30 minutes more. Finally, we decided to bring to a close the discussion and agreed that we will continue the topic next year. TechEd India Panel Discussion on Web, Technology and SEO Surprisingly, the day was just beginning after doing all of these. By this time, I have almost met all the MVP who arrived at the event, as well as many Microsoft employees. There were lots of Community folks present, too. I decided that I would go to meet several friends from the Community and continue to communicate with me on SQLAuthority.com. I also met Abhishek Baxi and had a good talk with him regarding Win Mobile and Twitter. He also took a very quick video of me wherein I spoke in my mother’s tongue, Gujarati. It was funny that I talked in Gujarati almost all the day, but when I was talking in the interview I could not find the right Gujarati words to speak. I think we all think in English when we think about Technology, so as to address universality. After meeting them, I headed towards the Speakers’ Dinner. Time: 8:00 PM – onwards Speakers Dinner The Speakers’ dinner was indeed a wonderful opportunity for all the speakers to get together and relax. We talked so many different things, from XBOX to Hindi Movies, and from SQL to Samosas. I just could not express how much fun I had. After a long evening, when I returned tmy room and met Shaivi, I just felt instantly relaxed. Kids are really gifts from God. Today was a really long but exciting day. So many things happened in just one day: Visual Studio Lanch, lunch with Somasegar, 2 technical sessions, 1 panel discussion, community leaders meeting, speakers dinner and, last but not leas,t playing with my child! A perfect day! Day 2 – April 13, 2010 Today started with a bang with the excellent keynote by Kamal Hathi who launched SQL Server 2008 R2 in India and demonstrated the power of PowerPivot to all of us. 101 Million Rows in Excel brought lots of applause from the audience. Kamal Hathi Presenting Keynote at TechEd India 2010 The day was a bit easier one for me. I had no sessions today and no events planned. I had a few meetings planned for the second day of the event. I sat in the speaker’s lounge for half a day and met many people there. I attended nearly 9 different meetings today. The subjects of the meetings were very different. Here is a list of the topics of the Community-related meetings: SQL PASS and its involvement in India and subcontinents How to start community blogging Forums and developing aptitude towards technology Ahmedabad/Gandhinagar User Groups and their developments SharePoint and SQL Business Meeting – a client meeting Business Meeting – a potential performance tuning project Business Meeting – Solid Quality Mentors (SolidQ) And family friends Pinal Dave at TechEd India The day passed by so quickly during this meeting. In the evening, I headed to Partners Expo with friends and checked out few of the booths. I really wanted to talk about some of the products, but due to the freebies there was so much crowd that I finally decided to just take the contact details of the partner. I will now start sending them with my queries and, hopefully, I will have my questions answered. Nupur and Shaivi had also one meeting to attend; it was with our family friend Vijay Raj. Vijay is also a person who loves Technology and loves it more than anybody. I see him growing and learning every day, but still remaining as a ‘human’. I believe that if someone acquires as much knowledge as him, that person will become either a computer or cyborg. Here, Vijay is still a kind gentleman and is able to stay as our close family friend. Shaivi was really happy to play with Uncle Vijay. Pinal Dave and Vijay Raj Renuka Prasad, a Microsoft MVP, impressed me with his passion and knowledge of SQL. Every time he gives me credit for his success, I believe that he is very humble. He has way more certifications than me and has worked many more years with SQL compared to me. He is an excellent photographer as well. Most of the photos in this blog post have been taken by him. I told him if ever he wants to do a part time job, he can do the photography very well. Pinal Dave and Renuka Prasad I also met L Srividya from Microsoft, whom I was looking forward to meet. She is a bundle of knowledge that everyone would surely learn a lot from her. I was able to get a few minutes from her and well, I felt confident. She enlightened me with SQL Server BI concepts, domain management and SQL Server security and few other interesting details. I also had a wonderful time talking about SharePoint with fellow Solid Quality Mentor Joy Rathnayake. He is very passionate about SharePoint but when you talk .NET and SQL with him, he is still overwhelmingly knowledgeable. In fact, while talking to him, I figured out that the recent training he delivered was on SQL Server 2008 R2. I told him a joke that it hurts my ego as he is more popular now in SQL training and consulting than me. I am sure all of you agree that working with good people is a gift from God. I am fortunate enough to work with the best of the best Industry experts. It was a great pleasure to hang out with my Community friends – Ahswin Kini, HimaBindu Vejella, Vasudev G, Suprotim Agrawal, Dhananjay, Vikram Pendse, Mahesh Dhola, Mahesh Mitkari,  Manu Zacharia, Shobhan, Hardik Shah, Ashish Mohta, Manan, Subodh Sohani and Sanjay Shetty (of course!) .  (Please let me know if I have met you at the event and forgot your name to list here). Time: 8:00 PM – onwards Community Leaders Dinner After lots of meetings, I headed towards the Community Leaders dinner meeting and met almost all the folks I met in morning. The discussion was almost the same but the real good thing was that we were enjoying it. The food was really good. Nupur was invited in the event, but Shaivi could not come. When Nupur tried to enter the event, she was stopped as Shaivi did not have the pass to enter the dinner. Nupur expressed that Shaivi is only 8 months old and does not eat outside food as well and could not stay by herself at this age, but the door keeper did not agree and asked that without the entry details Shaivi could not go in, but Nupur could. Nupur called me on phone and asked me to help her out. By the time, I was outside; the organizer of the event reached to the door and happily approved Shaivi to join the party. Once in the party, Shaivi had lots of fun meeting so many people. Shaivi Dave and Abhishek Kant Dean Guida (Infragistics President and CEO) and Pinal Dave (SQLAuthority.com) Day 3 – April 14, 2010 Though, it was last day, I was very much excited today as I was about to present my very favorite session. Query Optimization and Performance Tuning is my domain expertise and I make my leaving by consulting and training the same. Today’s session was on the same subject and as an additional twist, another subject about Spatial Database was presented. I was always intrigued with Spatial Database and I have enjoyed learning about it; however, I have never thought about Spatial Indexing before it was decided that I will do this session. I really thank Solid Quality Mentor Dr. Greg Low for his assistance in helping me prepare the slide deck and also review the content. Furthermore, today was really what I call my ‘learning day’ . So far I had not attended any session in TechEd and I felt a bit down for that. Everybody spends their valuable time & money to learn something new and exciting in TechEd and I had not attended a single session at the moment thinking that it was already last day of the event. I did have a plan for the day and I attended two technical sessions before my session of spatial database. I attended 2 sessions of Vinod Kumar. Vinod is a natural storyteller and there was no doubt that his sessions would be jam-packed. People attended his sessions simply because Vinod is syhe speaker. He did not have a single time disappointed audience; he is truly a good speaker. He knows his stuff very well. I personally do not think that in India he can be compared to anyone for SQL. Time: 12:30pm-1:30pm SQL Server Query Optimization, Execution and Debugging Query Performance I really had a fun time attending this session. Vinod made this session very interactive. The entire audience really got into the presentation and started participating in the event. Vinod was presenting a small problem with Query Tuning, which any developer would have encountered and solved with their help in such a fashion that a developer feels he or she have already resolved it. In one question, I was the only one who was ready to answer and Vinod told me in a light tone that I am now allowed to answer it! The audience really found it very amusing. There was a huge crowd around Vinod after the session. Vinod – A master storyteller! Time: 3:45pm-4:45pm Data Recovery / consistency with CheckDB This session was much heavier than the earlier one, and I must say this is my most favorite session I EVER attended in India. In this TechEd I have only attended two sessions, but in my career, I have attended numerous technical sessions not only in India, but all over the world. This session had taken my breath away. One by one, Vinod took the different databases, and started to corrupt them in different ways. Each database has some unique ways to get corrupted. Once that was done, Vinod started to show the DBCC CEHCKDB and demonstrated how it can solve your problem. He finally fixed all the databases with this single tool. I do have a good knowledge of this subject, but let me honestly admit that I have learned a lot from this session. I enjoyed and cheered during this session along with other attendees. I had total satisfaction that, just like everyone, I took advantage of the event and learned something. I am now TECHnically EDucated. Pinal Dave and Vinod Kumar After two very interactive and informative SQL Sessions from Vinod Kumar, the next turn me presenting on Spatial Database and Indexing. I got once again nervous but Vinod told me to stay natural and do my presentation. Well, once I got a huge stage with a total of four projectors and a large crowd, I felt better. Time: 5:00pm-6:00pm Session 3: Developing with SQL Server Spatial and Deep Dive into Spatial Indexing Pinal Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 Pinal Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 I kicked off this session with Michael J Swart‘s beautiful spatial image. This session was the last one for the day but, to my surprise, I had more than 200+ attendees. Slowly, the rain was starting outside and I was worried that the hall would not be full; despite this, there was not a single seat available in the first five minutes of the session. Thanks to all of you for attending my presentation. I had demonstrated the map of world (and India) and quickly explained what  Geographic and Geometry data types in Spatial Database are. This session had interesting story of Indexing and Comparison, as well as how different traditional indexes are from spatial indexing. Pinal Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 Due to the heavy rain during this event, the power went off for about 22 minutes (just an accident – nobodies fault). During these minutes, there were no audio, no video and no light. I continued to address the mass of 200+ people without any audio device and PowerPoint. I must thank the audience because not a single person left from the session. They all stayed in their place, some moved closure to listen to me properly. I noticed that the curiosity and eagerness to learn new things was at the peak even though it was the very last session of the TechEd. Everybody wanted get the maximum knowledge out of this whole event. I was touched by the support from audience. They listened and participated in my session even without any kinds of technology (no ppt, no mike, no AC, nothing). During these 22 minutes, I had completed my theory verbally. Pinal Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 After a while, we got the projector back online and we continued with some exciting demos. Many thanks to Microsoft people who worked energetically in background to get the backup power for project up. I had a very interesting demo wherein I overlaid Bangalore and Hyderabad on the India Map and find their aerial distance between them. After finding the aerial distance, we browsed online and found that SQL Server estimates the exact aerial distance between these two cities, as compared to the factual distance. There was a huge applause from the crowd on the subject that SQL Server takes into the count of the curvature of the earth and finds the precise distances based on details. During the process of finding the distance, I demonstrated a few examples of the indexes where I expressed how one can use those indexes to find these distances and how they can improve the performance of similar query. I also demonstrated few examples wherein we were able to see in which data type the Index is most useful. We finished the demos with a few more internal stuff. Pinal Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 Despite all issues, I was mostly satisfied with my presentation. I think it was the best session I have ever presented at any conference. There was no help from Technology for a while, but I still got lots of appreciation at the end. When we ended the session, the applause from the audience was so loud that for a moment, the rain was not audible. I was truly moved by the dedication of the Technology enthusiasts. Pinal Dave After Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 The abstract of the session is as follows: The Microsoft SQL Server 2008 delivers new spatial data types that enable you to consume, use, and extend location-based data through spatial-enabled applications. Attend this session to learn how to use spatial functionality in next version of SQL Server to build and optimize spatial queries. This session outlines the new geography data type to store geodetic spatial data and perform operations on it, use the new geometry data type to store planar spatial data and perform operations on it, take advantage of new spatial indexes for high performance queries, use the new spatial results tab to quickly and easily view spatial query results directly from within Management Studio, extend spatial data capabilities by building or integrating location-enabled applications through support for spatial standards and specifications and much more. Time: 8:00 PM – onwards Dinner by Sponsors After the lively session during the day, there was another dinner party courtesy of one of the sponsors of TechEd. All the MVPs and several Community leaders were present at the dinner. I would like to express my gratitude to Abhishek Kant for organizing this wonderful event for us. It was a blast and really relaxing in all angles. We all stayed there for a long time and talked about our sweet and unforgettable memories of the event. Pinal Dave and Bijoy Singhal It was really one wonderful event. After writing this much, I say that I have no words to express about how much I enjoyed TechEd. However, it is true that I shared with you only 1% of the total activities I have done at the event. There were so many people I have met, yet were not mentioned here although I wanted to write their names here, too . Anyway, I have learned so many things and up until now, I am not able to get over all the fun I had in this event. Pinal Dave at TechEd India 2010 The Next Days – April 15, 2010 – till today I am still not able to get my mind out of the whole experience I had at TechEd India 2010. It was like a whole Microsoft Family working together to celebrate a happy occasion. TechEd India – Truly An Unforgettable Experience! Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: About Me, MVP, Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority Author Visit, SQLAuthority News, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology Tagged: TechEd, TechEdIn

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• SQLAuthority News – TechEd India – April 12-14, 2010 Bangalore – An Unforgettable Experience – An Op

  - by pinaldave

  TechEd India was one of the largest Technology events in India led by Microsoft. This event was attended by more than 3,000 technology enthusiasts, making it one of the most well-organized events of the year. Though I attempted to attend almost all the technology events here, I have not seen any bigger or better event in Indian subcontinents other than this. There are 21 Technical Tracks at Tech·Ed India 2010 that span more than 745 learning opportunities. I was fortunate enough to be a part of this whole event as a speaker and a delegate, as well. TechEd India Speaker Badge and A Token of Lifetime Hotel Selection I presented three different sessions at TechEd India and was also a part of panel discussion. (The details of the sessions are given at the end of this blog post.) Due to extensive traveling, I stay away from my family occasionally. For this reason, I took my wife – Nupur and daughter Shaivi (8 months old) to the event along with me. We stayed at the same hotel where the event was organized so as to maximize my time bonding with my family and to have more time in networking with technology community, at the same time. The hotel Lalit Ashok is the largest and most luxurious venue one can find in Bangalore, located in the middle of the city. The cost of the hotel was a bit pricey, but looking at all the advantages, I had decided to ask for a booking there. Hotel Lalit Ashok Nupur Dave and Shaivi Dave Arrival Day – DAY 0 – April 11, 2010 I reached the event a day earlier, and that was one wise decision for I was able to relax a bit and go over my presentation for the next day’s course. I am a kind of person who likes to get everything ready ahead of time. I was also able to enjoy a pleasant evening with several Microsoft employees and my family friends. I even checked out the location where I would be doing presentations the next day. I was fortunate enough to meet Bijoy Singhal from Microsoft who helped me out with a few of the logistics issues that occured the day before. I was not aware of the fact that the very next day he was going to be “The Man” of the TechEd 2010 event. Vinod Kumar from Microsoft was really very kind as he talked to me regarding my subsequent session. He gave me some suggestions which were really helpful that I was able to incorporate them during my presentation. Finally, I was able to meet Abhishek Kant from Microsoft; his valuable suggestions and unlimited passion have inspired many people like me to work with the Community. Pradipta from Microsoft was also around, being extremely busy with logistics; however, in those busy times, he did find some good spare time to have a chat with me and the other Community leaders. I also met Harish Ranganathan and Sachin Rathi, both from Microsoft. It was so interesting to listen to both of them talking about SharePoint. I just have no words to express my overwhelmed spirit because of all these passionate young guys - Pradipta,Vinod, Bijoy, Harish, Sachin and Ahishek (of course!). Map of TechEd India 2010 Event Day 1 – April 12, 2010 From morning until night time, today was truly a very busy day for me. I had two presentations and one panel discussion for the day. Needless to say, I had a few meetings to attend as well. The day started with a keynote from S. Somaseger where he announced the launch of Visual Studio 2010. The keynote area was really eye-catching because of the very large, bigger-than- life uniform screen. This was truly one to show. The title music of the keynote was very interesting and it featured Bijoy Singhal as the model. It was interesting to talk to him afterwards, when we laughed at jokes together about his modeling assignment. TechEd India Keynote Opening Featuring Bijoy TechEd India 2010 Keynote – S. Somasegar Time: 11:15pm – 11:45pm Session 1: True Lies of SQL Server – SQL Myth Buster Following the excellent keynote, I had my very first session on the subject of SQL Server Myth Buster. At first, I was a bit nervous as right after the keynote, for this was my very first session and during my presentation I saw lots of Microsoft Product Team members. Well, it really went well and I had a really good discussion with attendees of the session. I felt that a well begin was half-done and my confidence was regained. Right after the session, I met a few of my Community friends and had meaningful discussions with them on many subjects. The abstract of the session is as follows: In this 30-minute demo session, I am going to briefly demonstrate few SQL Server Myths and their resolutions as I back them up with some demo. This demo presentation is a must-attend for all developers and administrators who would come to the event. This is going to be a very quick yet fun session. Pinal Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 Time: 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM Lunch with Somasegar After the session I went to see my daughter, and then I headed right away to the lunch with S. Somasegar – the keynote speaker and senior vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft. I really thank to Abhishek who made it possible for us. Because of his efforts, all the MVPs had the opportunity to meet such a legendary person and had to talk with them on Microsoft Technology. Though Somasegar is currently holding such a high position in Microsoft, he is very polite and a real gentleman, and how I wish that everybody in industry is like him. Believe me, if you spread love and kindness, then that is what you will receive back. As soon as lunch time was over, I ran to the session hall as my second presentation was about to start. Time: 2:30pm – 3:30pm Session 2: Master Data Services in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Business Intelligence is a subject which was widely talked about at TechEd. Everybody was interested in this subject, and I did not excuse myself from this great concept as well. I consider myself fortunate as I was presenting on the subject of Master Data Services at TechEd. When I had initially learned this subject, I had a bit of confusion about the usage of this tool. Later on, I decided that I would tackle about how we all developers and DBAs are not able to understand something so simple such as this, and even worst, creating confusion about the technology. During system designing, it is very important to have a reference material or master lookup tables. Well, I talked about the same subject and presented the session keeping that as my center talk. The session went very well and I received lots of interesting questions. I got many compliments for talking about this subject on the real-life scenario. I really thank Rushabh Mehta (CEO, Solid Quality Mentors India) for his supportive suggestions that helped me prepare the slide deck, as well as the subject. Pinal Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 The abstract of the session is as follows: SQL Server Master Data Services will ship with SQL Server 2008 R2 and will improve Microsoft’s platform appeal. This session provides an in-depth demonstration of MDS features and highlights important usage scenarios. Master Data Services enables consistent decision-making process by allowing you to create, manage and propagate changes from a single master view of your business entities. Also, MDS – Master Data-hub which is a vital component, helps ensure the consistency of reporting across systems and deliver faster and more accurate results across the enterprise. We will talk about establishing the basis for a centralized approach to defining, deploying, and managing master data in the enterprise. Pinal Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 The day was still not over for me. I had ran into several friends but we were not able keep our enthusiasm under control about all the rumors saying that SQL Server 2008 R2 was about to be launched tomorrow in the keynote. I then ran to my third and final technical event for the day- a panel discussion with the top technologies of India. Time: 5:00pm – 6:00pm Panel Discussion: Harness the power of Web – SEO and Technical Blogging As I have delivered two technical sessions by this time, I was a bit tired but  not less enthusiastic when I had to talk about Blog and Technology. We discussed many different topics there. I told them that the most important aspect for any blog is its content. We discussed in depth the issues with plagiarism and how to avoid it. Another topic of discussion was how we technology bloggers can create awareness in the Community about what the right kind of blogging is and what morally and technically wrong acts are. A couple of questions were raised about what type of liberty a person can have in terms of writing blogs. Well, it was generically agreed that a blog is mainly a representation of our ideas and thoughts; it should not be governed by external entities. As long as one is writing what they really want to say, but not providing incorrect information or not practicing plagiarism, a blogger should be allowed to express himself. This panel discussion was supposed to be over in an hour, but the interest of the participants was remarkable and so it was extended for 30 minutes more. Finally, we decided to bring to a close the discussion and agreed that we will continue the topic next year. TechEd India Panel Discussion on Web, Technology and SEO Surprisingly, the day was just beginning after doing all of these. By this time, I have almost met all the MVP who arrived at the event, as well as many Microsoft employees. There were lots of Community folks present, too. I decided that I would go to meet several friends from the Community and continue to communicate with me on SQLAuthority.com. I also met Abhishek Baxi and had a good talk with him regarding Win Mobile and Twitter. He also took a very quick video of me wherein I spoke in my mother’s tongue, Gujarati. It was funny that I talked in Gujarati almost all the day, but when I was talking in the interview I could not find the right Gujarati words to speak. I think we all think in English when we think about Technology, so as to address universality. After meeting them, I headed towards the Speakers’ Dinner. Time: 8:00 PM – onwards Speakers Dinner The Speakers’ dinner was indeed a wonderful opportunity for all the speakers to get together and relax. We talked so many different things, from XBOX to Hindi Movies, and from SQL to Samosas. I just could not express how much fun I had. After a long evening, when I returned tmy room and met Shaivi, I just felt instantly relaxed. Kids are really gifts from God. Today was a really long but exciting day. So many things happened in just one day: Visual Studio Lanch, lunch with Somasegar, 2 technical sessions, 1 panel discussion, community leaders meeting, speakers dinner and, last but not leas,t playing with my child! A perfect day! Day 2 – April 13, 2010 Today started with a bang with the excellent keynote by Kamal Hathi who launched SQL Server 2008 R2 in India and demonstrated the power of PowerPivot to all of us. 101 Million Rows in Excel brought lots of applause from the audience. Kamal Hathi Presenting Keynote at TechEd India 2010 The day was a bit easier one for me. I had no sessions today and no events planned. I had a few meetings planned for the second day of the event. I sat in the speaker’s lounge for half a day and met many people there. I attended nearly 9 different meetings today. The subjects of the meetings were very different. Here is a list of the topics of the Community-related meetings: SQL PASS and its involvement in India and subcontinents How to start community blogging Forums and developing aptitude towards technology Ahmedabad/Gandhinagar User Groups and their developments SharePoint and SQL Business Meeting – a client meeting Business Meeting – a potential performance tuning project Business Meeting – Solid Quality Mentors (SolidQ) And family friends Pinal Dave at TechEd India The day passed by so quickly during this meeting. In the evening, I headed to Partners Expo with friends and checked out few of the booths. I really wanted to talk about some of the products, but due to the freebies there was so much crowd that I finally decided to just take the contact details of the partner. I will now start sending them with my queries and, hopefully, I will have my questions answered. Nupur and Shaivi had also one meeting to attend; it was with our family friend Vijay Raj. Vijay is also a person who loves Technology and loves it more than anybody. I see him growing and learning every day, but still remaining as a ‘human’. I believe that if someone acquires as much knowledge as him, that person will become either a computer or cyborg. Here, Vijay is still a kind gentleman and is able to stay as our close family friend. Shaivi was really happy to play with Uncle Vijay. Pinal Dave and Vijay Raj Renuka Prasad, a Microsoft MVP, impressed me with his passion and knowledge of SQL. Every time he gives me credit for his success, I believe that he is very humble. He has way more certifications than me and has worked many more years with SQL compared to me. He is an excellent photographer as well. Most of the photos in this blog post have been taken by him. I told him if ever he wants to do a part time job, he can do the photography very well. Pinal Dave and Renuka Prasad I also met L Srividya from Microsoft, whom I was looking forward to meet. She is a bundle of knowledge that everyone would surely learn a lot from her. I was able to get a few minutes from her and well, I felt confident. She enlightened me with SQL Server BI concepts, domain management and SQL Server security and few other interesting details. I also had a wonderful time talking about SharePoint with fellow Solid Quality Mentor Joy Rathnayake. He is very passionate about SharePoint but when you talk .NET and SQL with him, he is still overwhelmingly knowledgeable. In fact, while talking to him, I figured out that the recent training he delivered was on SQL Server 2008 R2. I told him a joke that it hurts my ego as he is more popular now in SQL training and consulting than me. I am sure all of you agree that working with good people is a gift from God. I am fortunate enough to work with the best of the best Industry experts. It was a great pleasure to hang out with my Community friends – Ahswin Kini, HimaBindu Vejella, Vasudev G, Suprotim Agrawal, Dhananjay, Vikram Pendse, Mahesh Dhola, Mahesh Mitkari,  Manu Zacharia, Shobhan, Hardik Shah, Ashish Mohta, Manan, Subodh Sohani and Sanjay Shetty (of course!) .  (Please let me know if I have met you at the event and forgot your name to list here). Time: 8:00 PM – onwards Community Leaders Dinner After lots of meetings, I headed towards the Community Leaders dinner meeting and met almost all the folks I met in morning. The discussion was almost the same but the real good thing was that we were enjoying it. The food was really good. Nupur was invited in the event, but Shaivi could not come. When Nupur tried to enter the event, she was stopped as Shaivi did not have the pass to enter the dinner. Nupur expressed that Shaivi is only 8 months old and does not eat outside food as well and could not stay by herself at this age, but the door keeper did not agree and asked that without the entry details Shaivi could not go in, but Nupur could. Nupur called me on phone and asked me to help her out. By the time, I was outside; the organizer of the event reached to the door and happily approved Shaivi to join the party. Once in the party, Shaivi had lots of fun meeting so many people. Shaivi Dave and Abhishek Kant Dean Guida (Infragistics President and CEO) and Pinal Dave (SQLAuthority.com) Day 3 – April 14, 2010 Though, it was last day, I was very much excited today as I was about to present my very favorite session. Query Optimization and Performance Tuning is my domain expertise and I make my leaving by consulting and training the same. Today’s session was on the same subject and as an additional twist, another subject about Spatial Database was presented. I was always intrigued with Spatial Database and I have enjoyed learning about it; however, I have never thought about Spatial Indexing before it was decided that I will do this session. I really thank Solid Quality Mentor Dr. Greg Low for his assistance in helping me prepare the slide deck and also review the content. Furthermore, today was really what I call my ‘learning day’ . So far I had not attended any session in TechEd and I felt a bit down for that. Everybody spends their valuable time & money to learn something new and exciting in TechEd and I had not attended a single session at the moment thinking that it was already last day of the event. I did have a plan for the day and I attended two technical sessions before my session of spatial database. I attended 2 sessions of Vinod Kumar. Vinod is a natural storyteller and there was no doubt that his sessions would be jam-packed. People attended his sessions simply because Vinod is syhe speaker. He did not have a single time disappointed audience; he is truly a good speaker. He knows his stuff very well. I personally do not think that in India he can be compared to anyone for SQL. Time: 12:30pm-1:30pm SQL Server Query Optimization, Execution and Debugging Query Performance I really had a fun time attending this session. Vinod made this session very interactive. The entire audience really got into the presentation and started participating in the event. Vinod was presenting a small problem with Query Tuning, which any developer would have encountered and solved with their help in such a fashion that a developer feels he or she have already resolved it. In one question, I was the only one who was ready to answer and Vinod told me in a light tone that I am now allowed to answer it! The audience really found it very amusing. There was a huge crowd around Vinod after the session. Vinod – A master storyteller! Time: 3:45pm-4:45pm Data Recovery / consistency with CheckDB This session was much heavier than the earlier one, and I must say this is my most favorite session I EVER attended in India. In this TechEd I have only attended two sessions, but in my career, I have attended numerous technical sessions not only in India, but all over the world. This session had taken my breath away. One by one, Vinod took the different databases, and started to corrupt them in different ways. Each database has some unique ways to get corrupted. Once that was done, Vinod started to show the DBCC CEHCKDB and demonstrated how it can solve your problem. He finally fixed all the databases with this single tool. I do have a good knowledge of this subject, but let me honestly admit that I have learned a lot from this session. I enjoyed and cheered during this session along with other attendees. I had total satisfaction that, just like everyone, I took advantage of the event and learned something. I am now TECHnically EDucated. Pinal Dave and Vinod Kumar After two very interactive and informative SQL Sessions from Vinod Kumar, the next turn me presenting on Spatial Database and Indexing. I got once again nervous but Vinod told me to stay natural and do my presentation. Well, once I got a huge stage with a total of four projectors and a large crowd, I felt better. Time: 5:00pm-6:00pm Session 3: Developing with SQL Server Spatial and Deep Dive into Spatial Indexing Pinal Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 Pinal Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 I kicked off this session with Michael J Swart‘s beautiful spatial image. This session was the last one for the day but, to my surprise, I had more than 200+ attendees. Slowly, the rain was starting outside and I was worried that the hall would not be full; despite this, there was not a single seat available in the first five minutes of the session. Thanks to all of you for attending my presentation. I had demonstrated the map of world (and India) and quickly explained what  Geographic and Geometry data types in Spatial Database are. This session had interesting story of Indexing and Comparison, as well as how different traditional indexes are from spatial indexing. Pinal Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 Due to the heavy rain during this event, the power went off for about 22 minutes (just an accident – nobodies fault). During these minutes, there were no audio, no video and no light. I continued to address the mass of 200+ people without any audio device and PowerPoint. I must thank the audience because not a single person left from the session. They all stayed in their place, some moved closure to listen to me properly. I noticed that the curiosity and eagerness to learn new things was at the peak even though it was the very last session of the TechEd. Everybody wanted get the maximum knowledge out of this whole event. I was touched by the support from audience. They listened and participated in my session even without any kinds of technology (no ppt, no mike, no AC, nothing). During these 22 minutes, I had completed my theory verbally. Pinal Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 After a while, we got the projector back online and we continued with some exciting demos. Many thanks to Microsoft people who worked energetically in background to get the backup power for project up. I had a very interesting demo wherein I overlaid Bangalore and Hyderabad on the India Map and find their aerial distance between them. After finding the aerial distance, we browsed online and found that SQL Server estimates the exact aerial distance between these two cities, as compared to the factual distance. There was a huge applause from the crowd on the subject that SQL Server takes into the count of the curvature of the earth and finds the precise distances based on details. During the process of finding the distance, I demonstrated a few examples of the indexes where I expressed how one can use those indexes to find these distances and how they can improve the performance of similar query. I also demonstrated few examples wherein we were able to see in which data type the Index is most useful. We finished the demos with a few more internal stuff. Pinal Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 Despite all issues, I was mostly satisfied with my presentation. I think it was the best session I have ever presented at any conference. There was no help from Technology for a while, but I still got lots of appreciation at the end. When we ended the session, the applause from the audience was so loud that for a moment, the rain was not audible. I was truly moved by the dedication of the Technology enthusiasts. Pinal Dave After Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 The abstract of the session is as follows: The Microsoft SQL Server 2008 delivers new spatial data types that enable you to consume, use, and extend location-based data through spatial-enabled applications. Attend this session to learn how to use spatial functionality in next version of SQL Server to build and optimize spatial queries. This session outlines the new geography data type to store geodetic spatial data and perform operations on it, use the new geometry data type to store planar spatial data and perform operations on it, take advantage of new spatial indexes for high performance queries, use the new spatial results tab to quickly and easily view spatial query results directly from within Management Studio, extend spatial data capabilities by building or integrating location-enabled applications through support for spatial standards and specifications and much more. Time: 8:00 PM – onwards Dinner by Sponsors After the lively session during the day, there was another dinner party courtesy of one of the sponsors of TechEd. All the MVPs and several Community leaders were present at the dinner. I would like to express my gratitude to Abhishek Kant for organizing this wonderful event for us. It was a blast and really relaxing in all angles. We all stayed there for a long time and talked about our sweet and unforgettable memories of the event. Pinal Dave and Bijoy Singhal It was really one wonderful event. After writing this much, I say that I have no words to express about how much I enjoyed TechEd. However, it is true that I shared with you only 1% of the total activities I have done at the event. There were so many people I have met, yet were not mentioned here although I wanted to write their names here, too . Anyway, I have learned so many things and up until now, I am not able to get over all the fun I had in this event. Pinal Dave at TechEd India 2010 The Next Days – April 15, 2010 – till today I am still not able to get my mind out of the whole experience I had at TechEd India 2010. It was like a whole Microsoft Family working together to celebrate a happy occasion. TechEd India – Truly An Unforgettable Experience! Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: About Me, MVP, Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority Author Visit, SQLAuthority News, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology Tagged: TechEd, TechEdIn

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• Calculate a set of concatenated sets of n sets

  - by Andras Zoltan

  Okay - I'm not even sure that the term is right - and I'm sure there is bound to be a term for this - but I'll do my best to explain. This is not quite a cross product here, and the order of the results are absolutely crucial. Given: IEnumerable<IEnumerable<string>> sets = new[] { /* a */ new[] { "a", "b", "c" }, /* b */ new[] { "1", "2", "3" }, /* c */ new[] { "x", "y", "z" } }; Where each inner enumerable represents an instruction to produce a set of concatenations as follows (the order here is important): set a* = new string[] { "abc", "ab", "a" }; set b* = new string[] { "123", "12", "1" }; set c* = new string[] { "xyz", "xy", "x" }; I want to produce set ordered concatenations as follows: set final = new string { a*[0] + b*[0] + c*[0], /* abc123xyz */ a*[0] + b*[0] + c*[1], /* abc123xy */ a*[0] + b*[0] + c*[2], /* abc123x */ a*[0] + b*[0], /* abc123 */ a*[0] + b*[1] + c*[0], /* abc12xyz */ a*[0] + b*[1] + c*[1], /* abc12xy */ a*[0] + b*[1] + c*[2], /* abc12x */ a*[0] + b*[1], /* abc12 */ a*[0] + b*[2] + c*[0], /* abc1xyz */ a*[0] + b*[2] + c*[1], /* abc1xy */ a*[0] + b*[2] + c*[2], /* abc1x */ a*[0] + b*[2], /* abc1 */ a*[0], /* abc */ a*[1] + b*[0] + c*[0], /* ab123xyz */ /* and so on for a*[1] */ /* ... */ a*[2] + b*[0] + c*[0], /* a123xyz */ /* and so on for a*[2] */ /* ... */ /* now lop off a[*] and start with b + c */ b*[0] + c*[0], /* 123xyz */ /* rest of the combinations of b + c with b on its own as well */ /* then finally */ c[0], c[1], c[2]}; So clearly, there are going to be a lot of combinations! I can see similarities with Numeric bases (since the order is important as well), and I'm sure there are permutations/combinations lurking in here too. The question is - how to write an algorithm like this that'll cope with any number of sets of strings? Linq, non-Linq; I'm not fussed. Why am I doing this? Indeed, why!? In Asp.Net MVC - I want to have partial views that can be redefined for a given combination of back-end/front-end culture and language. The most basic of these would be, for a given base view View, we could have View-en-GB, View-en, View-GB, and View, in that order of precedence (recognising of course that the language/culture codes could be the same, so some combinations might be the same - a Distinct() will solve that). But I also have other views that, in themselves, have other possible combinations before culture is even taken into account (too long to go into - but the fact is, this algo will enable a whole bunch of really cool that I want to offer my developers!). I want to produce a search list of all the acceptable view names, iterate through the whole lot until the most specific match is found (governed by the order that this algo will produce these concatenations in) then serve up the resolved Partial View. The result of the search can later be cached to avoid the expense of running the algorithm all the time. I already have a really basic version of this working that just has one enumerable of strings. But this is a whole different kettle of seafood! Any help greatly appreciated.

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• Python: Improving long cumulative sum

  - by Bo102010

  I have a program that operates on a large set of experimental data. The data is stored as a list of objects that are instances of a class with the following attributes: time_point - the time of the sample cluster - the name of the cluster of nodes from which the sample was taken code - the name of the node from which the sample was taken qty1 = the value of the sample for the first quantity qty2 = the value of the sample for the second quantity I need to derive some values from the data set, grouped in three ways - once for the sample as a whole, once for each cluster of nodes, and once for each node. The values I need to derive depend on the (time sorted) cumulative sums of qty1 and qty2: the maximum value of the element-wise sum of the cumulative sums of qty1 and qty2, the time point at which that maximum value occurred, and the values of qty1 and qty2 at that time point. I came up with the following solution: dataset.sort(key=operator.attrgetter('time_point')) # For the whole set sys_qty1 = 0 sys_qty2 = 0 sys_combo = 0 sys_max = 0 # For the cluster grouping cluster_qty1 = defaultdict(int) cluster_qty2 = defaultdict(int) cluster_combo = defaultdict(int) cluster_max = defaultdict(int) cluster_peak = defaultdict(int) # For the node grouping node_qty1 = defaultdict(int) node_qty2 = defaultdict(int) node_combo = defaultdict(int) node_max = defaultdict(int) node_peak = defaultdict(int) for t in dataset: # For the whole system ###################################################### sys_qty1 += t.qty1 sys_qty2 += t.qty2 sys_combo = sys_qty1 + sys_qty2 if sys_combo > sys_max: sys_max = sys_combo # The Peak class is to record the time point and the cumulative quantities system_peak = Peak(time_point=t.time_point, qty1=sys_qty1, qty2=sys_qty2) # For the cluster grouping ################################################## cluster_qty1[t.cluster] += t.qty1 cluster_qty2[t.cluster] += t.qty2 cluster_combo[t.cluster] = cluster_qty1[t.cluster] + cluster_qty2[t.cluster] if cluster_combo[t.cluster] > cluster_max[t.cluster]: cluster_max[t.cluster] = cluster_combo[t.cluster] cluster_peak[t.cluster] = Peak(time_point=t.time_point, qty1=cluster_qty1[t.cluster], qty2=cluster_qty2[t.cluster]) # For the node grouping ##################################################### node_qty1[t.node] += t.qty1 node_qty2[t.node] += t.qty2 node_combo[t.node] = node_qty1[t.node] + node_qty2[t.node] if node_combo[t.node] > node_max[t.node]: node_max[t.node] = node_combo[t.node] node_peak[t.node] = Peak(time_point=t.time_point, qty1=node_qty1[t.node], qty2=node_qty2[t.node]) This produces the correct output, but I'm wondering if it can be made more readable/Pythonic, and/or faster/more scalable. The above is attractive in that it only loops through the (large) dataset once, but unattractive in that I've essentially copied/pasted three copies of the same algorithm. To avoid the copy/paste issues of the above, I tried this also: def find_peaks(level, dataset): def grouping(object, attr_name): if attr_name == 'system': return attr_name else: return object.__dict__[attrname] cuml_qty1 = defaultdict(int) cuml_qty2 = defaultdict(int) cuml_combo = defaultdict(int) level_max = defaultdict(int) level_peak = defaultdict(int) for t in dataset: cuml_qty1[grouping(t, level)] += t.qty1 cuml_qty2[grouping(t, level)] += t.qty2 cuml_combo[grouping(t, level)] = (cuml_qty1[grouping(t, level)] + cuml_qty2[grouping(t, level)]) if cuml_combo[grouping(t, level)] > level_max[grouping(t, level)]: level_max[grouping(t, level)] = cuml_combo[grouping(t, level)] level_peak[grouping(t, level)] = Peak(time_point=t.time_point, qty1=node_qty1[grouping(t, level)], qty2=node_qty2[grouping(t, level)]) return level_peak system_peak = find_peaks('system', dataset) cluster_peak = find_peaks('cluster', dataset) node_peak = find_peaks('node', dataset) For the (non-grouped) system-level calculations, I also came up with this, which is pretty: dataset.sort(key=operator.attrgetter('time_point')) def cuml_sum(seq): rseq = [] t = 0 for i in seq: t += i rseq.append(t) return rseq time_get = operator.attrgetter('time_point') q1_get = operator.attrgetter('qty1') q2_get = operator.attrgetter('qty2') timeline = [time_get(t) for t in dataset] cuml_qty1 = cuml_sum([q1_get(t) for t in dataset]) cuml_qty2 = cuml_sum([q2_get(t) for t in dataset]) cuml_combo = [q1 + q2 for q1, q2 in zip(cuml_qty1, cuml_qty2)] combo_max = max(cuml_combo) time_max = timeline.index(combo_max) q1_at_max = cuml_qty1.index(time_max) q2_at_max = cuml_qty2.index(time_max) However, despite this version's cool use of list comprehensions and zip(), it loops through the dataset three times just for the system-level calculations, and I can't think of a good way to do the cluster-level and node-level calaculations without doing something slow like: timeline = defaultdict(int) cuml_qty1 = defaultdict(int) #...etc. for c in cluster_list: timeline[c] = [time_get(t) for t in dataset if t.cluster == c] cuml_qty1[c] = [q1_get(t) for t in dataset if t.cluster == c] #...etc. Does anyone here at Stack Overflow have suggestions for improvements? The first snippet above runs well for my initial dataset (on the order of a million records), but later datasets will have more records and clusters/nodes, so scalability is a concern. This is my first non-trivial use of Python, and I want to make sure I'm taking proper advantage of the language (this is replacing a very convoluted set of SQL queries, and earlier versions of the Python version were essentially very ineffecient straight transalations of what that did). I don't normally do much programming, so I may be missing something elementary. Many thanks!

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• Anyone willing to help out a javascript n00b? :-)

  - by Splynx

  Since I am asking for a lot, and know it, the following is a wall of text for those who might show some interest and want to know a little before offering their help to me. First a little about my level of programming skills, and a little about what I ask for. Where I'm at: I am not totally new to Javascript, and have dabbled a little with PHP earlier - well have dabbled a lot with PHP in fact, but never got good at it because I program alone. And I have until now never used forums to get help etc. other that searching to see if anyone else had my problem before and what the solution was. So I am not a intuitive or talented programmer, I'm more of a very maticulate programmer and you would be surprised how far you can get with if else... (ok that's a joke hehe). My solutions are usually (I am guessing here) not the best ones - and slow I take it, and the code is usually too long and I have to look up most of the stuff I use (really a lot of it is not done in "freehand"). I have a LOT of experience with HTML and CSS, and have always done well formed markup, as well as I am really into x-browsing and always require that my work validates when it's done. I also worry about optimizing a lot, and work with sprites for images, minimize the number of http requests etc, using H1,H2 etc. where it is logically correct, as well as use the correct elements and not just div span or p it... So because I am a workhorse and very maticulate I can actually pull off some quite "advanced" features, but it's always the basics that bite me in the end. Not fully understanding the syntax and so on usually gives me problems. Have recently discovered jQuery - wich is a lot of fun.... But I want to use it for the DOM node manipulation/handling only. As I mentioned I worry about optimizing, and jQuery used for everything seems... well not optimal, it strikes me as doing it yourself when possible is faster than accesing another script that may take a whole lot of other considerations into perspective when handling your variables and objects (and I am just guessing here since I as explained know nothing). So thats where I'm at... As mentioned I just started with javascript for "real" so I do not have much to show, but at the end of my WOT you can see two unfinisheded scripts I have made so you can see where I'm at roughly - just check out the URL without the /feedback.html for the second example (I am only allowed to post 1 link since I am also a SO n00b) (and for those rushing over to a validation service, remember I wrote "when it's done"...) What I ask for: I am figuring this... I have a piece of code I am working on at the moment, and this little project has taught me a whole lot already, and I have "grown" a lot as a javascript programmer. If I add a whole lot of comments to the script, and explain what it is intended to do, will you then show me where: I am writing incorrect code - making mistakes Where/how my code could be more optimal Where I am just simply being a muppet The code I want to use as the background for the tuition is the one here http://projects.1000monkeys.dk/feedback.html Use firebug and have a quick look see...

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• HTML 5 <video> tag vs Flash video. What are the pros and cons?

  - by Vilx-

  Seems like the new <video> tag is all the hype these days, especially since Firefox now supports it. News of this are popping up in blogs all over the place, and everyone seems to be excited. But what about? As much as I searched I could not find anything that would make it better than the good old Flash video. In fact, I see only problems with it: It will still be some time before all the browsers start supporting it, and much more time before most people upgrade; Flash is available already and everyone has it; You can couple Flash with whatever fancy UI you want for controlling the playback. I gather that the tag will be controllable as well (via JavaScript probably), but will it be able to go fullscreen? The only two pros for a <video> tag that I can see are: It is more "semantic" - which probably holds no importance to a whole lot of people, including me; It is not dependent on a single commercial 3rd party entity (Adobe) - which I also don't see as a compelling reason to switch, because free players and video converters are already available, and Adobe is not hindering the whole process in any way (it's not in their interests even). So... what's the big deal? Added: OK, so there is one more Pro... maybe. Support for mobile devices. Hard to say though. A number of thoughts race through my head about the subject: How many mobile devices are actually able to decode video at a decent speed anyway, Flash or otherwise? How long until mainstream mobile devices get the <video> support? Even if it is available through updates, how many people actually do that? How many people watch videos on web pages on their mobile phones at all? As for the semantics part - I understand that search engines might be able to detect videos better now, but... what will they do with them anyway? OK, so they know that there is a video in the page. And? They can't index a video! I'd like some more arguments here. Added: Just thought of another Cons. This opens up a whole new area of cross-browser incompatibility. HTML and CSS is quite messy already in this aspect. Flash at least is the same everywhere. But it's enough for at least one major browser vendor to decide against the <video> tag (can anyone say "Internet Explorer"?) and we have a nice new area of hell to explore. Added: A Pro just came in. More competition = more innovation. That's true. Giving Adobe more competition will probably force them to improve Flash in areas it has been lacking so far. Linux seems to be a weak spot for it, cited by many.

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• WiX 3 Tutorial: Understanding main WXS and WXI file

  - by Mladen Prajdic

  In the previous post we’ve taken a look at the WiX solution/project structure and project properties. We’re still playing with our super SuperForm application and today we’ll take a look at the general parts of the main wxs file, SuperForm.wxs, and the wxi include file. For wxs file we’ll just go over the general description of what each part does in the code comments. The more detailed descriptions will be in future posts about features themselves. WXI include file Include files are exactly what their name implies. To include a wxi file into the wxs file you have to put the wxi at the beginning of each .wxs file you wish to include it in. If you’ve ever worked with C++ you can think of the include files as .h files. For example if you include SuperFormVariables.wxi into the SuperForm.wxs, the variables in the wxi won’t be seen in FilesFragment.wxs or RegistryFragment.wxs. You’d have to include it manually into those two wxs files too. For preprocessor variable $(var.VariableName) to be seen by every file in the project you have to include them in the WiX project properties->Build->“Define preprocessor variables” textbox. This is why I’ve chosen not to go this route because in multi developer teams not everyone has the same directory structure and having a single variable would mean each developer would have to checkout the wixproj file to edit the variable. This is pretty much unacceptable by my standards. This is why we’ve added a System Environment variable named SuperFormFilesDir as is shown in the previous Wix Tutorial post. Because the FilesFragment.wxs is autogenerated on every project build we don’t want to change it manually each time by adding the include wxi at the beginning of the file. This way we couldn’t recreate it in each pre-build event. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><Include> <!-- Versioning. These have to be changed for upgrades. It's not enough to just include newer files. --> <?define MajorVersion="1" ?> <?define MinorVersion="0" ?> <?define BuildVersion="0" ?> <!-- Revision is NOT used by WiX in the upgrade procedure --> <?define Revision="0" ?> <!-- Full version number to display --> <?define VersionNumber="$(var.MajorVersion).$(var.MinorVersion).$(var.BuildVersion).$(var.Revision)" ?> <!-- Upgrade code HAS to be the same for all updates. Once you've chosen it don't change it. --> <?define UpgradeCode="YOUR-GUID-HERE" ?> <!-- Path to the resources directory. resources don't really need to be included in the project structure but I like to include them for for clarity --> <?define ResourcesDir="$(var.ProjectDir)\Resources" ?> <!-- The name of your application exe file. This will be used to kill the process when updating and creating the desktop shortcut --> <?define ExeProcessName="SuperForm.MainApp.exe" ?></Include> For now there’s no way to tell WiX in Visual Studio to have a wxi include file available to the whole project, so you have to include it in each file separately. Only variables set in “Define preprocessor variables” or System Environment variables are accessible to the whole project for now. The main WXS file: SuperForm.wxs We’ll only take a look at the general structure of the main SuperForm.wxs and not its the details. We’ll cover the details in future posts. The code comments should provide plenty info about what each part does in general. Basically there are 5 major parts. The update part, the conditions and actions part, the UI install sequence, the directory structure and the features we want to include. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><!-- Add xmlns:util namespace definition to be able to use stuff from WixUtilExtension dll--><Wix xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi" xmlns:util="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/UtilExtension"> <!-- This is how we include wxi files --> <?include $(sys.CURRENTDIR)Includes\SuperFormVariables.wxi ?> <!-- Id="*" is to enable upgrading. * means that the product ID will be autogenerated on each build. Name is made of localized product name and version number. --> <Product Id="*" Name="!(loc.ProductName) $(var.VersionNumber)" Language="!(loc.LANG)" Version="$(var.VersionNumber)" Manufacturer="!(loc.ManufacturerName)" UpgradeCode="$(var.UpgradeCode)"> <!-- Define the minimum supported installer version (3.0) and that the install should be done for the whole machine not just the current user --> <Package InstallerVersion="300" Compressed="yes" InstallScope="perMachine"/> <Media Id="1" Cabinet="media1.cab" EmbedCab="yes" /> <!-- Upgrade settings. This will be explained in more detail in a future post --> <Upgrade Id="$(var.UpgradeCode)"> <UpgradeVersion OnlyDetect="yes" Minimum="$(var.VersionNumber)" IncludeMinimum="no" Property="NEWER_VERSION_FOUND" /> <UpgradeVersion Minimum="0.0.0.0" IncludeMinimum="yes" Maximum="$(var.VersionNumber)" IncludeMaximum="no" Property="OLDER_VERSION_FOUND" /> </Upgrade> <!-- Reference the global NETFRAMEWORK35 property to check if it exists --> <PropertyRef Id="NETFRAMEWORK35"/> <!-- Startup conditions that checks if .Net Framework 3.5 is installed or if we're running the OS higher than Windows XP SP2. If not the installation is aborted. By doing the (Installed OR ...) property means that this condition will only be evaluated if the app is being installed and not on uninstall or changing --> <Condition Message="!(loc.DotNetFrameworkNeeded)"> <![CDATA[Installed OR NETFRAMEWORK35]]> </Condition> <Condition Message="!(loc.AppNotSupported)"> <![CDATA[Installed OR ((VersionNT >= 501 AND ServicePackLevel >= 2) OR (VersionNT >= 502))]]> </Condition> <!-- This custom action in the InstallExecuteSequence is needed to stop silent install (passing /qb to msiexec) from going around it. --> <CustomAction Id="NewerVersionFound" Error="!(loc.SuperFormNewerVersionInstalled)" /> <InstallExecuteSequence> <!-- Check for newer versions with FindRelatedProducts and execute the custom action after it --> <Custom Action="NewerVersionFound" After="FindRelatedProducts"> <![CDATA[NEWER_VERSION_FOUND]]> </Custom> <!-- Remove the previous versions of the product --> <RemoveExistingProducts After="InstallInitialize"/> <!-- WixCloseApplications is a built in custom action that uses util:CloseApplication below --> <Custom Action="WixCloseApplications" Before="InstallInitialize" /> </InstallExecuteSequence> <!-- This will ask the user to close the SuperForm app if it's running while upgrading --> <util:CloseApplication Id="CloseSuperForm" CloseMessage="no" Description="!(loc.MustCloseSuperForm)" ElevatedCloseMessage="no" RebootPrompt="no" Target="$(var.ExeProcessName)" /> <!-- Use the built in WixUI_InstallDir GUI --> <UIRef Id="WixUI_InstallDir" /> <UI> <!-- These dialog references are needed for CloseApplication above to work correctly --> <DialogRef Id="FilesInUse" /> <DialogRef Id="MsiRMFilesInUse" /> <!-- Here we'll add the GUI logic for installation and updating in a future post--> </UI> <!-- Set the icon to show next to the program name in Add/Remove programs --> <Icon Id="SuperFormIcon.ico" SourceFile="$(var.ResourcesDir)\Exclam.ico" /> <Property Id="ARPPRODUCTICON" Value="SuperFormIcon.ico" /> <!-- Installer UI custom pictures. File names are made up. Add path to your pics. –> <!-- <WixVariable Id="WixUIDialogBmp" Value="MyAppLogo.jpg" /> <WixVariable Id="WixUIBannerBmp" Value="installBanner.jpg" /> --> <!-- the default directory structure --> <Directory Id="TARGETDIR" Name="SourceDir"> <Directory Id="ProgramFilesFolder"> <Directory Id="INSTALLLOCATION" Name="!(loc.ProductName)" /> </Directory> </Directory> <!-- Set the default install location to the value of INSTALLLOCATION (usually c:\Program Files\YourProductName) --> <Property Id="WIXUI_INSTALLDIR" Value="INSTALLLOCATION" /> <!-- Set the components defined in our fragment files that will be used for our feature --> <Feature Id="SuperFormFeature" Title="!(loc.ProductName)" Level="1"> <ComponentGroupRef Id="SuperFormFiles" /> <ComponentRef Id="cmpVersionInRegistry" /> <ComponentRef Id="cmpIsThisUpdateInRegistry" /> </Feature> </Product></Wix> For more info on what certain attributes mean you should look into the WiX Documentation.   WiX 3 tutorial by Mladen Prajdic navigation WiX 3 Tutorial: Solution/Project structure and Dev resources WiX 3 Tutorial: Understanding main wxs and wxi file WiX 3 Tutorial: Generating file/directory fragments with Heat.exe

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• Wednesday at OpenWorld: Identity Management

  - by Tanu Sood

  Divide and conquer! Yes, divide and conquer today at Oracle OpenWorld with your colleagues to make the most of all things Identity Management since there’s a lot going on. Here’ the line-up for today: Wednesday, October 3, 2012 CON9458: End End-User-Managed Passwords and Increase Security with Oracle Enterprise Single Sign-On Plus 10:15 a.m. – 11:15 a.m., Moscone West 3008 Most customers have a broad variety of applications (internal, external, web, client server, host etc) and single sign-on systems that extend to some, but not all systems. This session will focus on how customers are using enterprise single sign-on can help extend single sign-on to virtually any application, without costly application modification while laying a foundation that will enable integration with a broader identity management platform. CON9494: Sun2Oracle: Identity Management Platform Transformation 11:45 a.m. – 12:45 p.m., Moscone West 3008 Sun customers are actively defining strategies for how they will modernize their identity deployments. Learn how customers like Avea and SuperValu are leveraging their Sun investment, evaluating areas of expansion/improvement and building momentum. CON9631: Entitlement-centric Access to SOA and Cloud Services 11:45 a.m. – 12:45 p.m., Marriott Marquis, Salon 7 How do you enforce that a junior trader can submit 10 trades/day, with a total value of $5M, if market volatility is low? How can hide sensitive patient information from clerical workers but make it visible to specialists as long as consent has been given or there is an emergency? In this session, Uberether and HerbaLife take the stage with Oracle to demonstrate how you can enforce such entitlements on a service not just within your intranet but also right at the perimeter. CON3957 - Delivering Secure Wi-Fi on the Tube as an Olympics Legacy from London 2012 11:45 a.m. – 12:45 p.m., Moscone West 3003 In this session, Virgin Media, the U.K.’s first combined provider of broadband, TV, mobile, and home phone services, shares how it is providing free secure Wi-Fi services to the London Underground, using Oracle Virtual Directory and Oracle Entitlements Server, leveraging back-end legacy systems that were never designed to be externalized. As an Olympics 2012 legacy, the Oracle architecture will form a platform to be consumed by other Virgin Media services such as video on demand. CON9493: Identity Management and the Cloud 1:15 p.m. – 2:15 p.m., Moscone West 3008 Security is the number one barrier to cloud service adoption.  Not so for industry leading companies like SaskTel, ConAgra foods and UPMC. This session will explore how these organizations are using Oracle Identity with cloud services and how some are offering identity management as a cloud service. CON9624: Real-Time External Authorization for Middleware, Applications, and Databases 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m., Moscone West 3008 As organizations seek to grant access to broader and more diverse user populations, the importance of centrally defined and applied authorization policies become critical; both to identify who has access to what and to improve the end user experience.  This session will explore how customers are using attribute and role-based access to achieve these goals. CON9625: Taking Control of WebCenter Security 5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m., Moscone West 3008 Many organizations are extending WebCenter in a business to business scenario requiring secure identification and authorization of business partners and their users. Leveraging LADWP’s use case, this session will focus on how customers are leveraging, securing and providing access control to Oracle WebCenter portal and mobile solutions. EVENTS: Identity Management Customer Advisory Board 2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m., Four Seasons – Yerba Buena Room This invitation-only event is designed exclusively for Customer Advisory Board (CAB) members to provide product strategy and roadmap updates. Identity Management Meet & Greet Networking Event 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m., Meeting Session 4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m., Cocktail Reception Yerba Buena Room, Four Seasons Hotel, 757 Market Street, San Francisco The CAB meeting will be immediately followed by an open Meet & Greet event hosted by Oracle Identity Management executives and product management team. Do take this opportunity to network with your peers and connect with the Identity Management customers. For a complete listing, refer to the Focus on Identity Management document. And as always, you can find us on @oracleidm on twitter and FaceBook. Use #oow and #idm to join in the conversation.

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• Mixed Emotions: Humans React to Natural Language Computer

  - by Applications User Experience

  There was a big event in Silicon Valley on Tuesday, November 15. Watson, the natural language computer developed at IBM Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York, and its inventor and principal research investigator, David Ferrucci, were guests at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California for another round of the television game Jeopardy. You may have read about or watched on YouTube how Watson beat Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, two top Jeopardy competitors, last February. This time, Watson swept the floor with two Silicon Valley high-achievers, one a venture capitalist with a background  in math, computer engineering, and physics, and the other a technology and finance writer well-versed in all aspects of culture and humanities. Watson is the product of the DeepQA research project, which attempts to create an artificially intelligent computing system through advances in natural language processing (NLP), among other technologies. NLP is a computing strategy that seeks to provide answers by processing large amounts of unstructured data contained in multiple large domains of human knowledge. There are several ways to perform NLP, but one way to start is by recognizing key words, then processing  contextual  cues associated with the keyword concepts so that you get many more “smart” (that is, human-like) deductions,  rather than a series of “dumb” matches.  Jeopardy questions often require more than key word matching to get the correct answer; typically several pieces of information put together, often from vastly different categories, to come up with a satisfactory word string solution that can be rephrased as a question.  Smarter than your average search engine, but is it as smart as a human? Watson was especially fast at descrambling mixed-up state capital names, and recalling and pairing movie titles where one started and the other ended in the same word (e.g., Billion Dollar Baby Boom, where both titles used the word Baby). David said they had basically removed the variable of how fast Watson hit the buzzer compared to human contestants, but frustration frequently appeared on the faces of the contestants beaten to the punch by Watson. David explained that top Jeopardy winners like Jennings achieved their success with a similar strategy, timing their buzz to the end of the reading of the clue,  and “running the board”, being first to respond on about 60% of the clues.  Similar results for Watson. It made sense that Watson would be good at the technical and scientific stuff, so I figured the venture capitalist was toast. But I thought for sure Watson would lose to the writer in categories such as pop culture, wines and foods, and other humanities. Surprisingly, it held its own. I was amazed it could recognize a word definition of a syllogism in the category of philosophy. So what was the audience reaction to all of this? We started out expecting our formidable human contestants to easily run some of their categories; however, they started off on the wrong foot with the state capitals which Watson could unscramble so efficiently. By the end of the first round, contestants and the audience were feeling a little bit, well, …. deflated. Watson was winning by about $13,000, and the humans had gone into negative dollars. The IBM host said he was going to “slow Watson down a bit,” and the humans came back with respectable scores in Double Jeopardy. This was partially thanks to a very sympathetic audience (and host, also a human) providing “group-think” on many questions, especially baseball ‘s most valuable players, which by the way, couldn’t have been hard because even I knew them.  Yes, that’s right, the humans cheated. Since Watson could speak but not hear us (it didn’t have speech recognition capability), it was probably unaware of this. In Final Jeopardy, the single question had to do with law. I was sure Watson would blow this one, but all contestants were able to answer correctly about a copyright law. In a career devoted to making computers more helpful to people, I think I may have seen how a computer can do too much. I’m not sure I’d want to work side-by-side with a Watson doing my job. Certainly listening and empathy are important traits we humans still have over Watson.  While there was great enthusiasm in the packed room of computer scientists and their friends for this standing-room-only show, I think it made several of us uneasy (especially the poor human contestants whose egos were soundly bashed in the first round). This computer system, by the way , only took 4 years to program. David Ferrucci mentioned several practical uses for Watson, including medical diagnoses and legal strategies. Are you “the expert” in your job? Imagine NLP computing on an Oracle database.   This may be the user interface of the future to enable users to better process big data. How do you think you’d like it? Postscript: There were three little boys sitting in front of me in the very first row. They looked, how shall I say it, … unimpressed!

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• Reflections from the Young Prisms

  - by Oracle OpenWorld Blog Team

   By Karen Shamban The Young Prisms began their musical journey in San Francisco, and it's here they return to bring their unique sound to the Oracle OpenWorld Music Festival.  We asked them to tell us their thoughts on music, performing, and what they like in an audience.  Here's what they had to say: Q. What do you like best about performing in front of a live audience?A. There are a lot of things to love about playing in front of people. The best part is definitely the nights when the energy the audience brings shows through. Although it always differs from city to city and person to person, when you play to a full house and people are really getting into it, it's like no other feeling.Q. How do you use technology in creating and delivering your music?A. Well, we actually use a lot more electronic components than people realize. Pretty much every string instrument played either live or on recording has been filtered through numerous electronic effects. Matt uses somewhere around 12 or 14 every time we play live. Giovanni has six. Most of our writing and demoing is done with drum sequencers and samplers too, so it's safe to say we use technology to our advantage in the writing process. Live is a bit different, since we keep it to the basics with guitars and acoustic drums. We also tend to use projections when we play live, so technology helps us do that fairly easily as well.Q. Do you prefer smaller, intimate venues or larger, louder ones?  Why?A. Couldn’t say we have a real preference in venue size. I mean, its always great to get to play through a massive killer sound system, but small venues when packed full are equally as special if not more so, because of the intimacy of it. Some of my favorite shows I've seen as an audience member/ fan have been at the smaller venues in San Francisco.Q. What about your fans surprises you?A. Sometimes the older guys are a surprise. We've played shows where there are more older guys in their 40s and 50s, who come and stare and take notes at our effects pedals. Then there are kids our age or in their 20s. Sometimes it's surprising to think that the older guys relate to what we're doing more than our peers and friends in our age group.Q. What about your live act surprises your fans?A. I think people are often surprised by how shy we can be. It feels like people expect us to be really rowdy and throw things and make really loud noises and get really aggressive on stage because some of the sounds we use can have an abrasive element to them. People expect Matt to have some kind of Kurt Cobain attitude, which he doesn’t at all. So it seems it surprises people to see musicians playing loud and noisy songs in their early and mid 20s being fairly tame and calm on stage.Q. There are going to be a lot of technical people (you could call them geeks) in the Oracle crowd -- what are they going to love about your performance?A. Hopefully most of them are pedal nerds like we are and like the previously mentioned “older dude crowd.” Besides that I hope they’d be into the projections and group of songs we're going to play for them.Q. What's new and different in the music you're making today, versus a year or two ago?A. I'd say there is more focus on the songwriting now and less of the noise today than last year. I think it's pretty evident on the new record compared to the last two. On the first two records we made as YP, we had another guitar player and songwriter who no longer plays with us. So the process in which we develop songs is different as well.Q. Have you been on tour recently? If so, what do you like about touring, and what do you dislike?A. Touring is amazing. Some people might tell you different if they've been doing it for what they'd call too long, but for us it's really a great chance to play for people who care about the music we're making and also to see and explore the world. Getting to visit so many different cities and explore so many different cultures is amazing. Of course we love getting into cultural foods too. Stefanie is a fashion geek so getting to go to New York as often as we do as well as getting to play in London and Paris is always especially fun for her.Q. Ever think about playing another kind of music? If so, what, and why?A. Never really thought about wanting to do anything drastically different. I think the style of music we play has a lot to do with the stuff we have been listening to both growing up and now. It wasn’t really a conscious decision to make sure it was a certain sound, so I'm not sure we've ever thought about doing a way different genre or whatever like electronic music or country. Although there have been times we've had conversations where we discuss possibly doing quiet sets or using the string synth sounds.Q. What are the top three things people should know about your music?A1. We like noise.A2. We use ambience and atmosphere as much as as we can.A3. Yes, the vocals are supposed to be mixed in with the guitars. Get more info: Oracle OpenWorld Music Festival Young Prisms

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• SQLAuthority News – The Best Quotes of “Who Wrote This?” Contest

  - by pinaldave

  I am a frequent reader of Brent Ozar PLF, it is one of my favorite blogs. A recent post announced a “Who Wrote This?” contest to see if readers could tell their three contributors apart based on some writing samples. Here are my favorite lines from the sample paragraphs, from each of the three “mystery authors.” Topic 1: Working with Bad Managers Mystery Author A – “Working with bad managers means working against my own happiness, and I’ve come to learn that there’s no changing bad managers.” I love this line because, as anyone who has had a bad manager knows, often a lot of self-doubt rises up. We all have to remember that sometimes the problem is out of our control. Mystery Author B – “Mentor your manager just like you would mentor a junior DBA.” Having a bad manager can be extremely depressing, and we often feel out of control. But we all need to remember that our work is a two-way street, and that sometimes we can subtly influence those above us. Mystery Author C – “The trick to working for all bad managers is to remember that they aren’t your parent. Take charge of your career.” We all also need to learn not to play the blame game. Would you rather stay in a place where you are unhappy, or would you rather take charge of your life? I hope most people would pick the latter. Topic 2: Working with Remote Teams Mystery Author A – “Like almost anything else the key is to make sure that everyone on the team has an understanding of how and when communication will occur.” Communication is so important. I cannot over emphasize how much. And this one line captures how I feel and even communicates the idea clearly! Mystery Author B – “The key to remote team success is verifiable trust: feeling confident that invisible team members are doing the right amount of the right thing at the right time.” I think this line not only captures the key aspects of remote work – verifiable work and trust – but there were so many lines that followed that I loved and could not fit here. The whole paragraph is a list for successful remote work. Everyone could benefit from reading it. Mystery Author C – “What seems clear, precise, and specific in one time zone comes across as vague, soupy, and just plain weird in another.” You know what? I just love this description. The author is right – sometimes vague e-mails really do seem soupy and weird! Topic 3: Working with Your Nemesis Mystery Author A – “Every job is temporary, but your reputation stays with you.” Everyone needs to remember this. The workplace is meant to be a professional arena, and many people have the opinion that work is temporary and disposable. No one wants to work with co-worker like that. Mystery Author B – “Unhealthy conflict is going to lead to leaving three week old tuna fish sandwiches in someone’s desk drawer.” Sometimes humor really is the best policy! Mystery Author C – “Oh no, it’s that guy.” This might seem like a weird phrase to choose as my favorite from an entire paragraph. But the whole piece was written in the form of a story of co-workers getting drunk and plotting against a nemesis. It was too funny to overlook, but too long to post here. A must read! Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology

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• Ann Arbor Day of .NET 2010 Recap

  - by PSteele

  Had a great time at the Ann Arbor Day of .NET on Saturday.  Lots of great speakers and topics.  And chance to meet up with friends you usually only communicate with via email/twitter. My Presentation I presented "Getting up to speed with C# 3.5 — Just in time for 4.0!".  There's still a lot of devs that are either stuck in .NET 2.0 or just now moving to .NET 3.5.  This presentation gave highlights of a lot of the key features of 3.5.  I had great questions from the audience.  Afterwards, I talked with a few people who are just now getting in to 3.5 and they told me they had a lot of "A HA!" moments when something I said finally clicked and made sense from a code sample they had seen on the web.  Thanks to all who attended! A few people have asked me for the slides and demo.  The slides were nothing more than a table of contents.  90% of the presentation was spent inside Visual Studio demo'ing new techniques.  However, I have included it in the ZIP file with the sample solution.  You can download it here. Dennis Burton on MongoDB I caught Dennis Burton's presentation on MongoDB.  I was really interested in this one as I've missed the last few times Dennis had given it to local user groups.  It was very informative and I want to spend some time learning more about MongoDB.  I'm still an old-school relational guy, but I'm willing to investigate alternatives. Brian Genisio on Prism Since I'm not a Silverlight/WPF guy (yet), I wasn't sure this would interest me.  But I talked with Brian for a couple of minutes before the presentation and he convinced me to catch it.  And I'm glad he did.  Prism looks like a very nice framework for "composable UI's" in Silverlight and WPF.  I like the whole "dependency injection" feel to it.  Nice job Brian! GiveCamp Planning I spent some time Saturday working on things for the upcoming GiveCamp (which is why I only caught a few sessions).  Ann Arbor's Day of .NET and GiveCamp have both been held at Washtenaw Community College so I took some time (along with fellow GiveCamp planners Mike Eaton and John Hopkins) to check out the new location for Ann Arbor GiveCamp this year! In the past, WCC has let us use the Business Education (BE) building for our GiveCamp's.  But this year, they're moving us over to the Morris Lawrence (ML) building.  Let me tell you – this is a step UP!  In the BE building, we were spread across two floors and spread out into classrooms.  Plus, our opening and closing ceremonies were held in the Liberal Arts (LA) building – a bit of a walk from the BE building. In the ML building, we're together for the whole weekend.  We've got a large open area (which can be sectioned off if needed) for everyone to work in:   Right next to that, we have a large area where we can set up tables and eat.  And it helps that we have a wonderful view while eating (yes, that's a lake out there with a fountain): The ML building also has showers (which we'll have access to!) and it's own auditorium for our opening and closing ceremonies. All in all, this year's GiveCamp will be great! Stay tuned to the Ann Arbor GiveCamp website.  We'll be looking for volunteers (devs, designers, PM's, etc…) soon! Technorati Tags: .NET,Day of .NET,GiveCamp,MongoDB,Prism

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• Windows Phone appointment task

  - by Dennis Vroegop

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/dvroegop/archive/2014/08/10/windows-phone-appointment-task.aspxI am currently working on a new version of my AgeInDays app for Windows Phone. This app calculates how old you are in days (or weeks, depending on your preferences). The inspiration for this app came from my father, who once told me he proposed to my mother when she was 1000 weeks old. That left me wondering: how old in weeks or days am I? And being the geek I am, I wrote an app for it. If you have a Windows Phone, you can find it at http://www.windowsphone.com/en-in/store/app/age-in-days/7ed03603-0e00-4214-ad04-ce56773e5dab A new version of the app was published quite quickly, adding the possibility to mark a date in your agenda when you would have reached a certain age. Of course the logic behind this if extremely simple. Just take a DateTime, populate it with the given date from the DatePicker, then call AddDays(numDays) and voila, you have the date. Now all I had to do was implement a way to store this in the users calendar so he would get a reminder when that date occurred. Luckily, the Windows Phone SDK makes that extremely simple: public void PublishTask(DateTime occuranceDate, string message) { var task = new SaveAppointmentTask() { StartTime = occuranceDate, EndTime = occuranceDate, Subject = message, Location = string.Empty, IsAllDayEvent = true, Reminder = Reminder.None, AppointmentStatus = AppointmentStatus.Free };   task.Show(); }  And that's it. Whenever I call the PublishTask Method an appointment will be made and put in the calendar. Well, not exactly: a template will be made for that appointment and the user will see that template, giving him the option to either discard or save the reminder. The user can also make changes before submitting this to the calendar: it would be useful to be able to change the text in the agenda and that's exactly what this allows you to do. Now, see at the bottom of the screen the option "Occurs". This tiny field is what this post is about. You cannot set it from the code. I want to be able to have repeating items in my agenda. Say for instance you're counting down to a certain date, I want to be able to give you that option as well. However, I cannot. The field "occurs" is not part of the Task you create in code. Of course, you could create a whole series of events yourself. Have the "Occurs" field in your own user interface and make all the appointments. But that's not the same. First, the system doesn't recognize them as part of a series. That means if you want to change the text later on on one of the occurrences it will not ask you if you want to open this one or the whole series. More important however, is that the user has to acknowledge each and every single occurrence and save that into the agenda. Now, I understand why they implemented the system in such a way that the user has to approve an entry. You don't want apps to automatically fill your agenda with messages such as "Remember to pay for my app!". But why not include the "Occurs" option? The user can still opt out if they see this happening. I hope an update will fix this soon. But for now: you just have to countdown to your birthday yourself. My app won't support this.

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• SQLAuthority News – Public Training Classes In Hyderabad 12-14 May – Microsoft SQL Server 2005/2008

  - by pinaldave

  After successfully delivering many corporate trainings as well as the private training Solid Quality Mentors, India is launching the Public Training in Hyderabad for SQL Server 2008 and SharePoint 2010. This is going to be one of the most unique and one-of-a-kind events in India where Solid Quality Mentors are offering public classes. I will be leading the training on Microsoft SQL Server 2005/2008 Query Optimization & Performance Tuning. This intensive, 3-day course intends to give attendees an in-depth look at Query Optimization and Performance Tuning in SQL Server 2005 and 2008. Designed to prepare SQL Server developers and administrators for a transition into SQL Server 2005 or 2008, the course covers the best practices for a variety of essential tasks in order to maximize the performance. At the end of the course, there would be daily discussions about your real-world problems and find appropriate solutions. Note: Scroll down for course fees, discount, dates and location. Do not forget to take advantage of Discount code ‘SQLAuthority‘. The training premises are very well-equipped as they will be having 1:1 computers. Every participant will be provided with printed course materials. I will pick up your entire lunch tab and we will have lots of SQL talk together. The best participant will receive a special gift at the end of the course. Even though the quality of the material to be delivered together with the course will be of extremely high standard, the course fees are set at a very moderate rate. The fee for the course is INR 14,000/person for the whole 3-day convention. At the rate of 1 USD = 44 INR, this fee converts to less than USD 300. At this rate, it is totally possible to fly from anywhere from the world to India and take the training and still save handsome pocket money. It would be even better if you register using the discount code “SQLAuthority“, for you will instantly get an INR 3000 discount, reducing the total cost of the training to INR 11,000/person for whole 3 days course. This is a onetime offer and will not be available in the future. Please note that there will be a 10.3% service tax on course fees. To register, either send an email to [email protected] or call +91 95940 43399. Feel free to drop me an email at [email protected] for any additional information and clarification. Training Date and Time: May 12-14, 2010 10 AM- 6 PM. Training Venue: Abridge Solutions, #90/B/C/3/1, Ganesh GHR & MSY Plaza, Vittalrao Nagar, Near Image Hospital, Madhapur, Hyderabad – 500 081. The details of the course is as listed below. Day 1 : Strengthen the basics along with SQL Server 2005/2008 New Features Module 01: Subqueries, Ranking Functions, Joins and Set Operations Module 02: Table Expressions Module 03: TOP and APPLY Module 04: SQL Server 2008 Enhancements Day 2: Query Optimization & Performance Tuning 1 Module 05: Logical Query Processing Module 06: Query Tuning Module 07:  Introduction to the Query Processor Module 08:  Review of common query coding which causes poor performance Day 3: Query Optimization & Performance Tuning 2 Module 09:  SQL Server Indexing and index maintenance Module 10:  Plan Guides, query hints, UDFs, and Computed Columns Module 11:  Understanding SQL Server Execution Plans Module 12: Real World Index and Optimization Tips Download the complete PDF brochure. We are also going to have SharePoint 2010 training by Joy Rathnayake on 10-11 May. All the details for discount applies to the same as well. Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL Training, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology

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• Start/Stop Window Service from ASP.NET page

  - by kaushalparik27

  Last week, I needed to complete one task on which I am going to blog about in this entry. The task is "Create a control panel like webpage to control (Start/Stop) Window Services which are part of my solution installed on computer where the main application is hosted". Here are the important points to accomplish:[1] You need to add System.ServiceProcess reference in your application. This namespace holds ServiceController Class to access the window service.[2] You need to check the status of the window services before you explicitly start or stop it.[3] By default, IIS application runs under ASP.NET account which doesn't have access rights permission to window service. So, Very Important part of the solution is: Impersonation. You need to impersonate the application/part of the code with the User Credentials which is having proper rights and permission to access the window service. If you try to access window service it will generate "access denied" error.The alternatives are: You can either impersonate whole application by adding Identity tag in web.cofig as:        <identity impersonate="true" userName="" password=""/>This tag will be under System.Web section. the "userName" and "password" will be the credentials of the user which is having rights to access the window service. But, this would not be a wise and good solution; because you may not impersonate whole website like this just to have access window service (which is going to be a small part of code).Second alternative is: Only impersonate part of code where you need to access the window service to start or stop it. I opted this one. But, to be fair; I am really unaware of the code part for impersonation. So, I just googled it and injected the code in my solution in a separate class file named as "Impersonate" with required static methods. In Impersonate class; impersonateValidUser() is the method to impersonate a part of code and undoImpersonation() is the method to undo the impersonation. Below is one example:  You need to provide domain name (which is "." if you are working on your home computer), username and password of appropriate user to impersonate.[4] Here, it is very important to note that: You need to have to store the Access Credentials (username and password) which you are going to user for impersonation; to some secured and encrypted format. I have used Machinekey Encryption to store the value encrypted value inside database.[5] So now; The real part is to start or stop a window service. You are almost done; because ServiceController class has simple Start() and Stop() methods to start or stop a window service. A ServiceController class has parametrized constructor that takes name of the service as parameter.Code to Start the window service: Code to Stop the window service: Isn't that too easy! ServiceController made it easy :) I have attached a working example with this post here to start/stop "SQLBrowser" service where you need to provide proper credentials who have permission to access to window service.  hope it would helps./.

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• iPad Impressions

  - by Aaron Lazenby

  So, I spent some quality time with my new iPad on Saturday. Here are things I like/don't like: -- Don't like that it has to sync with iTunes before you use it: I was traveling and left my laptop at home thinking I'd use this iPad thing instead. But the first thing it asked me to do is connect it to a laptop. Ugh. Had to borrow my mother-in-law's MacBook Pro just to get the iPad rolling. -- Like that magazines and newspapers are forever changed: And I think for the better...it's why I bought this thing in the first place. I spent significant time with The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine and Popular Science on the iPad. Sliding stories around, jumping from section to section, enlarging images = all excellent experiences. Actually prefer iPad magazine to print, which will require a major shift in editorial strategy, summed up by Popular Science's Mark Jannot in his editor's note "What defines a magazine? Curated expertise--not paper." -- Don't like the screwy human factors: I actually enjoy the virtual keyboard (although I think I'm in the minority), but you have to hunch over to look down at what you're typing. Bad technology ergonomics have already jacked my body in various ways. The iPad just introduced a new one.-- Like the multitouch: In fact, it's awesome. Hands down. Probably will have the most lasting impact on the personal computing industry as a whole.   -- Don't like that it's heavy: If you plan to read in bed, you'd better double up on the creatine and curls. Holding this thing up on your own gets pretty uncomfortable. -- Like the Netfilx app: I wanted to watch "The Big Lebowski," so I did. That is all. -- Don't like that people feel 3G is necessary: For $30 a month? Please. I'm already accustomed to limiting my laptop internet use to readily available free wi-fi. Why do I expect anything different with the iPad? Most anyplace I have time to sit and read/use a computer (cafe, airport, you house, library, etc.) has free wi-fi. I can live without web surfing in your car. That's what the iPhone is for. -- Don't like that not everyone was ready in day one: I'm looking at you Facebook. No iPad app for launch? Lame. iPhone apps scaled-up to work on the iPad look grainy and cheap. Not a quality befitting this beautiful $700 piece of glass.Verdict: I'm bringing it to COLLABORATE 08 and seeing if I can go the whole week using only the iPad. If I can trade this thing for my laptop, I know it's a winner. For now, I'm enjoying Popular Science.

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• Dude, what’s up with POP Forums vNext?

  - by Jeff

  Yeah, it has been awhile. I posted v9.2 back in January, about five months ago. That’s a real change from the release pace I had there for awhile. Let me explain what’s going on. First off, in the interim, I re-launched CoasterBuzz, which required a lot of my attention for about two of those months. That’s a good thing though, because that site is just about the best test bed I could ask for. The other thing is that I committed to make the next version use ASP.NET MVC 4, which is now at the RC stage. I didn’t think much about when they’d hit their RTW point, but RC is good enough for me. To that end, there is enough change in the next version that I recently decided to make it a major version upgrade, and finish up the loose ends and science projects to make it whole. Here’s what’s in store… Mobile views: I sat on this or a long time. Originally, I was going to use jQuery Mobile, and waited and waited for a new release, but in the end, decided against using it. Sometimes buttons would unexplainably not work, I felt like I was fighting it at times, and the CSS just felt too heavy. I rolled my own mobile sugar at a fraction of the size, and I think you’ll find it easy to modify. And it’s Metro-y, of course! Re-do of background services: A number of things run in the background, and I did quite a bit of “reimagining” of that code. It’s the weirdness of running services in a Web site context, because so many folks can’t run a bona fide service on their host’s box. The biggest change here is that these service no longer start up by default. You’ll need to call a new method from global.asax called PopForumsActivation.StartServices(). This is also a precursor to running the app in a Web farm (new data layer and caching is the second part of that). I learned about this the hard way when I had three apps using the forum library code but only one was actually the forum. The services were all running three times as often with race conditions and hits on the same data. That was particularly bad for e-mail. CSS clean up: It’s still not ideal, but it’s getting better. That’s one of those things that comes with integrating to a real site… you discover all of the dumb things you did. The mobile CSS is particularly easier to live with. Bug fixes: There are a whole lot of them. Most were minor, but it’s feeling pretty solid now. So that’s where I am. I’m going to call it v10.0, and I’m going to really put forth some effort toward finishing the mobile experience and getting through the remaining bugs. The roadmap beyond that will likely not be feature oriented, but rather work on some other things, like making it run in Azure, perhaps using SQL CE, a better install experience, etc. As usual, I’ll post the latest here. Stay tuned!

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• Google, typography, and cognitive fluency for persuasion

  - by Roger Hart

  Cognitive fluency is - roughly - how easy it is to think about something. Mere Exposure (or familiarity) effects are basically about reacting more favourably to things you see a lot. Which is part of why marketers in generic spaces like insipid mass-market lager will spend quite so much money on getting their logo daubed about the place; or that guy at the bus stop starts to look like a dating prospect after a month or two. Recent thinking suggests that exposure effects likely spin off cognitive fluency. We react favourably to things that are easier to think about. I had to give tech support to an older relative recently, and suggested they Google the problem. They were confused. They could not, apparently, Google the problem, because part of it was that their Google toolbar had mysteriously vanished. Once I'd finished trying not to laugh, I started thinking about typography. This is going somewhere, I promise. Google is a ubiquitous brand. Heck, it's a verb, and their recent, jaw-droppingly well constructed Paris advert is more or less about that ubiquity. It trades on Google's integration into any information-seeking behaviour. But, as my tech support encounter suggests, people settle into comfortable patterns of thinking about things. They build schemas, and altering them can take work. Maybe the ubiquity even works to cement that. Alongside their online effort, Google is running billboard campaigns to advertise Chrome, a free product in a crowded space. They are running these ads in some kind of kooky Calibri / Comic Sans hybrid. Now, at first it seems odd that one of the world's more ubiquitous brands needs to run a big print campaign in public places - surely they have all the fluency they need? Well, not so much. Chrome, after all, is not the same as their core product, so there's some basic awareness work to do, and maybe a whole new batch of exposure effect to try and grab. But why the typeface? It's heavily foregrounded, and the ads are extremely textual. Plus, don't we all know that jovial, off-beat fonts look unprofessional, or something? There's a whole bunch of people who want (often rightly) to ban Comic Sans I wonder, though. Are Google trying to subtly disrupt cognitive fluency? There's an interesting paper (pdf) about - among other things - the effects of typography on they way people answer survey questions. Participants given the slightly harder to read question gave more abstract answers. The paper references other work suggesting that generally speaking, less-fluent question framing elicits more considered answers. The Chrome ad typeface is less fluent for print. Reactions may therefore be more considered, abstract, and disruptive. Is that, in fact, what Google need? They have brand ubiquity, but they want here to change accustomed behaviour, to get people to think about changing their browser. Is this actually a very elegant piece of persuasive information design? If you think about their "what is a browser?" vox pop research video, there's certainly a perceptual barrier they're going to have to tackle somehow.

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• SQL SERVER – Guest Post – Glenn Berry – Wait Type – Day 26 of 28

  - by pinaldave

  Glenn Berry works as a Database Architect at NewsGator Technologies in Denver, CO. He is a SQL Server MVP, and has a whole collection of Microsoft certifications, including MCITP, MCDBA, MCSE, MCSD, MCAD, and MCTS. He is also an Adjunct Faculty member at University College – University of Denver, where he has been teaching since 2000. He is one wonderful blogger and often blogs at here. I am big fan of the Dynamic Management Views (DMV) scripts of Glenn. His script are extremely popular and the reality is that he has inspired me to start this series with his famous DMV which I have mentioned in very first  wait stats blog post (I had forgot to request his permission to re-use the script but when asked later on his whole hearty approved it). Here is is his excellent blog post on this subject of wait stats: Analyzing cumulative wait stats in SQL Server 2005 and above has become a popular and effective technique for diagnosing performance issues and further focusing your troubleshooting and diagnostic  efforts.  Rather than just guessing about what resource(s) that SQL Server is waiting on, you can actually find out by running a relatively simple DMV query. Once you know what resources that SQL Server is spending the most time waiting on, you can run more specific queries that focus on that resource to get a better idea what is causing the problem. I do want to throw out a few caveats about using wait stats as a diagnostic tool. First, they are most useful when your SQL Server instance is experiencing performance problems. If your instance is running well, with no indication of any resource pressure from other sources, then you should not worry that much about what the top wait types are. SQL Server will always be waiting on some resource, but many wait types are quite benign, and can be safely ignored. In spite of this, I quite often see experienced DBAs obsessing over the top wait type, even when their SQL Server instance is running extremely well. Second, I often see DBAs jump to the wrong conclusion based on seeing a particular well-known wait type. A good example is CXPACKET waits. People typically jump to the conclusion that high CXPACKET waits means that they should immediately change their instance-level MADOP setting to 1. This is not always the best solution. You need to consider your workload type, and look carefully for any important “missing” indexes that might be causing the query optimizer to use a parallel plan to compensate for the missing index. In this case, correcting the index problem is usually a better solution than changing MAXDOP, since you are curing the disease rather than just treating the symptom. Finally, you should get in the habit of clearing out your cumulative wait stats with the  DBCC SQLPERF(‘sys.dm_os_wait_stats’, CLEAR); command. This is especially important if you have made an configuration or index changes, or if your workload has changed recently. Otherwise, your cumulative wait stats will be polluted with the old stats from weeks or months ago (since the last time SQL Server was started or the stats were cleared).  If you make a change to your SQL Server instance, or add an index, you should clear out your wait stats, and then wait a while to see what your new top wait stats are. At any rate, enjoy Pinal Dave’s series on Wait Stats. This blog post has been written by Glenn Berry (Twitter | Blog) Read all the post in the Wait Types and Queue series. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, Readers Contribution, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL Wait Stats, SQL Wait Types, T SQL, Technology

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