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  • starting up with VPS or cloud hosting? [closed]

    - by FlyOn
    Possible Duplicate: How to find web hosting that meets my requirements? Summary: I want to start hosting my product. I'd like to register domains (at some point). I'm a linux beginner. Thinking about scalability and price, I'm thinking am I better off on a VPN to get started or would some form of cloud hosting be better (not being familiar with either). Full question: I'm creating a product where people can create their own 3D representations of whatever data / info they have, and (re)organise that data. The product is coming along beautifully on my local environment, but it's about time I start getting some form of hosting ready, and I could really use some advice where / how to get started: I'd like people to be able to move/register their own domains on my server. I could start without this just to demo the product, but it would be the very first on the todo list. I'd like to automatically copy some files / install databases etc for each domain. I probably want to see if I can let users manage their own subdomains at some points, but for now: I'd like start as simple as possible. I've always on a windows machine, so my linux experience is quite basic. I really don't mind getting into it, but I'm thinking it's better to get my product out first of all and see where to go from there. Although... I'd like things to be scalable. If I set up some reseller VPN now which only scales to 100 domains or so, which means I have to set up something else / move again when I pass that level, or which means that I'm in trouble if I suddenly get lots of new customers... hmm. Finally, I need to start cheap. I'm putting all I have into starting this company, and live on very little. So before I have any customers, 50 dollars a month is a fair bit and 100 dollars a month may be too much. If anyone has some tips to help get me started I'd be really grateful.

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  • What Should I Do? [closed]

    - by Laxmidi
    What is a reasonable goal in terms of traffic for my Flex 3 site: www.brainpinata.com Since I began a couple of months ago, I've gotten roughly 5500 ad views and 280 ad clicks. And the ad revenue is a whopping $4.80. (I don't use Google Adsense). I advertise my site using Google Adwords to try to build traffic. My budget is $10/day. What should I do? a) Push the marketing. Add a blog. Try to get backlinks, contact blogs, start a Facebook page, tweet, etc. b) Google is only indexing the static content in the SWF. The questions/answers are pulled from a mySQL database. So, Google doesn't index 99% of the content. Should I re-do the site in HTML/Javascript and hard-code the questions for each puzzle? (This would be a challenge as I don't know javascript worth squat.) Or should I hard-code the questions in XML and put them in the Flex app? If I put the questions in an XML file it's roughly 500 KB. Other ideas? c) Should I switch ad networks? (I currently get about 100 visitors a day). My ad network pays so little that if I were to make even $500/month, I would need 550,000 ad views/month, which seems impossible. If I go ahead and switch ad networks, I need to find one that allows iFrames as I've got a Flex website. Which ad networks permit their ads to be shown in iFrames? d) Should I cut and run? I put a lot of work into this project and it would really stink to get nothing out of it. I'm looking for some good advice. Looking forward to your suggestions. Thank you. -Laxmidi

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  • Every file on cPanel got deleted (then restored hours later), and I have no idea why

    - by mcranston18
    I apologize in advance if I don't provide proper detail; I am new to server stuff and am looking for general advice about this issue: I was helping out a client doing web design last month. They have about a dozen static sites on one server. The sites are all built on Joomla, except one which I built on Wordpress. Everything was working fine last month when we did the redesign but all of a sudden this morning, every single file on their server got deleted: every web page, file, and all e-mail addresses. I phoned the hosting company (alliancewww.com) to ask, "why did every single file suddenly delete off the server?" They said, "because someone must have deleted it." I said, "well no one did." (Which I'm pretty damn sure no one did.) They said, "you can pay us to look into the problem." I authorized $150 for them to look into the problem. About an hour later, everything was magically re-instated. The host said they had a back-up of everything and just restored everything. What I'm wondering: Does anyone have recommendations of logs I can go through to investigate how the files got deleted in the first place? I've checked out their cPanel logs but found nothing. Is it likely that this is a mess-up on the host's part?

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  • Product Support News for Oracle Solaris, Systems, and Storage

    - by user12244613
    Hi System Support Customers, April Newsletter is now available The April, 2012 Newsletter for Oracle Solaris, Systems, and Storage is now available via document 1363390.1 *Requires a My Oracle Support account to access. Please take a few minutes to read the newsletter. The newsletter is the primary method of communication about what we in support would like you to be aware of. If you are not receiving the newsletter, it could be due to: (a) Your Oracle profile does not have the allow Oracle Communication selected (on oracle.com Sign In, or if logged in select "Account" and under your Job Role, check you have selected this box : [ ] Yes, send me e-mails in Oracle Products.... (b) you have not logged a service request during the last 12 months. Oracle is working to improve the distribution process and changes are coming and once they are ready I will write more about that. But today if you don't automatically receive the newsletter all you can do is save it as a favorite within My Oracle Support and come back on the 2nd of each month to check out the changes. This month I am really interested to find out from you is the Newsletter providing you the type of items that you are interested in. To gather some data on that, I have a small 2minute survey running on the newsletter or you can access it [ here ] Finally, if you think I am missing a topic in the Newsletter, let me know by taking the survey or suggesting a topic via this blog. Get Proactive Don't forget about being Proactive. The latest updates for Systems and Solaris pages in the Get Proactive area are now available. Check out document 432.1 and learn what proactive features are available for Systems and Solaris.

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  • A Fresh Start

    - by Laila
    As you may already be aware, I'm no longer responsible for the .NET Reflector newsletter. That publication is now in the very capable hands of the Reflector team. But fear not; starting in early April, I'll be launching a brand new .NET Newsletter, and I invite you to enjoy the very first edition by subscribing to our new mailing list, or by updating your Simple-Talk subscriptions, and joining the .NET Newsletter mailing list. With a fresh and snappy design (it might even be described as idiosyncratic. but I can say no more at this stage), we'll be making a brand new start. Each month, a member of my team (that's the Red Gate .NET team) will host the .NET Newsletter, bringing you the choicest cuts of breaking news, the very best .NET content from Simple-Talk, alongside details of hot upcoming events. To top it off, not only will you be among the first to get access to free resources (including free wall-charts, training videos and eBooks), but you'll also get exclusive access to betas, early access programs, and special offers. We can't wait to share the new design and exciting new content with you! If you have any questions about the changes to the newsletter, please feel free to send an email to [email protected] or post a comment on my blog. If I don't hear from you before next month, then I'll simply say that I hope you enjoy the new look. Cheers, Laila

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  • Still Alive&hellip;

    - by MOSSLover
    As Glados would say at the end of Portal “I’m still alive…”.  I am around, but I’m just not posting as frequently as I should.  I am trying to get acclimated to my new job, planning SharePoint Saturday New York City and Women in SharePoint plus trying to lead a normal life doing normal chores and hang out with my boyfriend.  What does this mean?  Well I’m trying to cut back to one or two events a month, which will include Heartland Developer Conference, Best Practices Conference, SPS Ozarks, SPS NYC (not speaking, running), and maybe SPS Denver and/or SPS East Bay.  So with the new job acclimation the blog suffers and twitter is getting less loven.  I’m only posting on twitter at night.  I will try to blog when I can as I see more 2010 and 2007 things that I find interesting to share.  I guess when you are a new employee you try to figure out what’s going on the first few months.  It’s really hard to post on SharePoint issue while that happens.  I’m really sorry guys and I will try harder to post at least a couple times a month (and maybe moderate comments  slightly better).  I hope that you all have a good weekend.

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  • Calendar issue in simple java form using swing package?

    - by Rand Mate
    I have created a form using java swing package, For the purpose of adding Date of Birth in the form I have used the following code particularly to add in java Frame via Swing Package. Is there any alternative way to simplify the code. JLabel l2 = new JLabel("Date of Birth"); l2.setBounds(200,160,100,20); String day[] ={"1","2","3","4","5","6","7","8","9","10","11","12","13","14","15","16","17","18","19","20","21","22","23","24","25","26","27","28","29","30"}; String month[] = {"Jan", "Feb", "Mar", "Apr", "May", "Jun", "Jul", "Aug", "Sep", "Oct", "Nov", "Dec"}; String year[] = {"2012","2011","2010","2009","2008","2007","2006","2005","2004","2003","2002","2001","2000","1999","1998","1997","1996","1995","1994","1993","1992","1991","1990","1989","1988","1987","1986","1985","1984","1983","1982","1981","1980","1979","1976","1975"}; JComboBox cb1 = new JComboBox(day); cb1.setBounds(450,160,50,20); JComboBox cb2 = new JComboBox(month); cb2.setBounds(500,160,50,20); JComboBox cb3 = new JComboBox(year); cb3.setBounds(550,160,60,20);

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  • Dedicated Servers: Is one better then two for LAMP pseudo HA setup? [closed]

    - by bikedorkseattle
    Possible Duplicate: How to find web hosting that meets my requirements? I know there are zillions of commentary about hosting out there, but I haven't read much about this. Our current well known host is having too many problems, the hardware we are on it subpar, and I'm ready to leave. A day of downtime can cost as much as our monthly hosting bill. A month of bad performance is just killing us right now, user and google wise. I'm wondering about running two dedicated boxes for LAMP, one running as the primary Nginx/Apache (proxy pass), and the other as the MySQL box. Running a single box scares the bejesus out of me because who knows how long it will take anyone to fix a raid card or whatever. The idea is to set this up using some sort of failover system using pacemaker and heartbeat. If one server goes down the other can take over for the other running both web and db. There are some good articles over at Linode about this. I have a few DBs that are 1GB+ and would like to load them into memory. Because of this, I'm shying away from a Linode HA setup because for the price I could do it with two dedicated like I described. Am I mad or an idiot? What are people out there doing for pseodu high availability good performance setups under $400/month? I'm a webmaster; I do a lot of things none of it that well :)

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  • ArchBeat Link-o-Rama for December 12, 2012

    - by Bob Rhubart
    “Cloud Integration in Minutes” – True or False? | Bruce Tierney The answer is 'True, but..." according to Bruce Tierney. "Connecting on-premise and cloud applications “in minutes” is true…provided you only consider the connectivity subset of integration and have a small number of cloud integration touch points." Get the rest of the story in Bruce's detailed post. Tech World Discovers New Species: The Cloud Architect | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com This Wired article by Cade Metz boils down to one essential conclusion: Cloud computing is a significant departure from "data center designs of the past," and the demand for the specialized skills of the cloud architect will only increase. But you already knew that, right? Oracle B2B - Synchronous Request Reply | A-Team - SOA "Beginning with Oracle SOA Suite PS5 (11.1.1.6), B2B supports synchronous request reply over http using the b2b/syncreceiver servlet," says C. D. Wright of the Fusion Middleware A-Team. His post includes a demo and everything you need to run it. Thought for the Day "Don't worry about what anybody else is going to do… The best way to predict the future is to invent it." — Alan Kay (Month Day, Year - Month Day, Year) Source: SoftwareQuotes.com

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  • Is it worth moving from Microsoft tech to Linux, NodeJS & other open source frameworks to save money for a start-up?

    - by dormisher
    I am currently getting involved in a startup, I am the only developer involved at the moment, and the other guys are leaving all the tech decisions up to me at the moment. For my day job I work at a software house that uses Microsoft tech on a day to day basis, we utilise .NET, SqlServer, Windows Server etc. However, I realise that as a startup we need to keep costs down, and after having a brief look at the cost of hosting for Windows I was shocked to see some of the prices for a dedicated server. The cheapest I found was £100 a month. Also if the business needs to scale in the future and we end up needing multiple servers, we could end up shelling out £10's of £000's a year in SQL Server / Windows Server licenses etc. I then had a quick look at the price of Linux hosting for a dedicated server and saw the price was waaaaaay lower than windows hosting. One place was offering a machine with 2 cores for less than £20 a month. This got me thinking maybe the way to go is open source on Linux. As I write a lot of Javascript at work (I'm working on a single page backbone app at the moment), I thought maybe NodeJS and a web framework like Express would be cool to use. I then thought that instead of using SQL why not use an open source NoSQL database like MongoDB, which has great support on NodeJS? My only concern is that some of the work the application is going to do is going to be dynamically building images and various other image related stuff, i.e. stuff that is quite CPU heavy - so I'm thinking of maybe writing anything CPU heavy in C++ and consuming it as a module in Node. That's the background - but basically is Linux a good match for: Hosting a NodeJS/Express site? Compiling C++ node modules? Using a NoSQL DB like MongoDB? And is it a good idea to move to these unfamiliar technologies to save money?

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  • How to develop a Windows 8 app in 30 days!

    - by Scott Spradlin
    Begin your 30-day journey to create a Windows Store style app. Sign up to get started and receive: Insider tips and tricks on Windows 8 application development. Personal on-the-phone access to a Windows 8 architect*. An exclusive one-on-one Windows Store design consultation*. An opportunity to get expert help from a Microsoft Services Engineer at an App Excellence Lab. Sign up today and get started. Your new Windows 8 app could be mere days away. * Offer good only to legal residents in the 50 United States & D.C., age 18 or older to hobbyists, professionals or developers in the field of software tech who sign up for building a Windows 8 application on www.generationapp.com. Offer limited to 250 design consultations per month and 500 technical review consultations per month, on a first come first served basis. Limit of one session of each offer type per person. This offer is non-transferable and cannot be combined with any other offer. This offer ends when supplies are exhausted, and is not redeemable for cash.

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  • Resume on 30 Days of SharePoint

    Dear readers, as you might have noticed... It was an organisational desaster on my end! Even though I continued my studies and research on Microsoft SharePoint 2013 during the last 30 days, I wasn't able to write an article a day to keep you posted on my progress. Nonetheless, I gathered a good number of additional blogs, mainly SharePoint MVP sites, and online forums which will be helpful in the next couple of weeks while I'm actually going to develop a C#-based client which will enable an existing 'legacy' application to SharePoint as a document management system (DMS) besides other already existing solutions. Finding excuses Well, no. Not really. I simply didn't block any or enough time every day to write down my progress during my own challenge. My log book on learning about SharePoint stands at 41 hours and 15 minutes during this month. Which means that I spent an average of more than 1 hour per day on getting into SharePoint. I know that might sound a little bit low but also keep in mind that I went for the challenge on top of my daily job and private responsibilities. During the same period there had been two priority 0 incidents from clients - external root cause - which took presedence over this leisure project. More to come Anyway, it was a first trial and despite the low level of reporting on my blog, I'm confident about what I learned during the last 30 days, and I'm ready to implement the client's requirements. At least, I would say that I have a better understanding about the road map or the path to walk during the next month. As time and secrecy allows I'm going to note down some bits and pieces... During the process of development, I'm going to 'cheat' on the challenge summary article and add links to those new entries. Just for the sake of completeness. Next challenge? Hmm, there had been ideas during the last meetup of the Mauritius Software Craftsmanship Community (MSCC) regarding certifications in IT and eventually we might organise some kind of a study group for specific exams, most probably Microsoft exams towards MCSD Web Developer or Windows Developer.

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  • Re: # 47209 How to copy an Existing HD to a new one and have it be bootable?

    - by user281151
    Help please! My backup method of choice is to clone my "working" drive to another identical drive. I have 2 windows drives and I clone my working one to the other one once per month. No problem - each will boot if I select it. Now with the lack of future support for XP, I am getting familiar with Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. I have it on one drive and I have a second identical drive that I want to be able to clone it to once/month. Not as necessary to do this with Ubuntu as with windows, I know, but I'm anal. So I have followed #47209 MestreLion's procedure with just the two Ubuntu drives "on line". I.e., boot my "working" drive with Live CD, use Gparted to be sure I know what's what, open terminal and enter and execute the dd command, Go to bed till the clone is done, shut down the computer, disconnect the input/source drive, boot up using BIOS to select the remaining output drive. The drive starts fine but all is not OK. It puts up a screen that says I'm on a Guest Session and asks for a password. Well, for one thing I have my Ubuntu set up to start without a password being entered. I have one, of course, I put it in but it isn't accepted. I can't get by this Guest Session screen. I am fine, of course. I can disconnect this drive, hook up my "main" ubuntu drive and all the rest, and go on with my business. But I don't have the desired "emergency backup" drive working where I could jump on and use it immediately if I needed it. Can someone give me some guidance here?? What (else) do I need to do. Love Ubuntu but learning. Thanks, Wes.

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  • Security Newsletter – September Edition is Out Now

    - by Tanu Sood
      The September issue of Security Inside Out Newsletter is out now. This month’s edition offers a preview of Identity Management and Security events and activities scheduled for Oracle OpenWorld. Oracle OpenWorld (OOW) 2012 will be held in San Francisco from September 30-October 4. Identity Management will have a significant presence at Oracle OpenWorld this year, complete with sessions featuring technology experts, customer panels, implementation specialists, product demonstrations and more. In addition, latest technologies will be on display at OOW demogrounds. Hands-on-Labs sessions will allow attendees to do a technology deep dive and train with technology experts. Executive Edge @ OpenWorld also features the very successful Oracle Chief Security Officer (CSO) Summit. This year’s summit promises to be a great educational and networking forum complete with a contextual agenda and attendance from well known security executives from organizations around the globe. This month’s edition also does a deep dive on the recently announced Oracle Privileged Account Manager (OPAM). Learn more about the product’s key capabilities, business issues the solution addresses and information on key resources. OPAM is part of Oracle’s complete and integrated Oracle Identity Governance solution set. And if you haven’t done so yet, we recommend you subscribe to the Security Newsletter to keep up to date on Security news, events and resources. As always, we look forward to receiving your feedback on the newsletter and what you’d like us to cover in the upcoming editions.

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  • Server Setups for Agencies [closed]

    - by styks1987
    We are considering consolidating our server administration by cutting down on the number of systems we currently use to manage all our websites(~65 websites). Currently we have a testing server and 3 production servers. (2 - cherokee(linode), 1 - apache (mt)) We don't have a dedicated server admin, so I am stuck with managing all these servers, and as a developer, I don't want to deal with all the server hassle. So my main goal is to cut down on the time spent messing with the servers. We have looked at Pagoda Box and AppFog as possibilities. I am not sure if Pagoda Box would be cost effective. With 65+ websites we may end up paying anywhere from 0 to $50+ per website per month. Right now we page about $250 per month for the 4 VPS servers mentioned above. We already use Capistrano for deployment. I have the opportunity to completely overhaul the entire setup and I would like some feedback on where you found your information for large scale server management or how you currently do it. Articles are welcome. In summary: What is new (past 2 years) in simple server management arena? If you work at an agency or have had agency experience, how do/did you manage your sites? a. What is the level of effort for SSL, new site setup, database management, and extension management. b. How did you handle datacenter outages. Anyone with Pagoda Box experience, do you like it and did you have problems with Wordpress, Cakephp, Drupal, Expression Engine or Magento? a. Is it expensive for you? b. How has server uptime been? Your direction and comments are greatly appreciated.

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  • The Changing Face of PASS

    - by Bill Graziano
    I’m starting my sixth year on the PASS Board.  I served two years as the Program Director, two years as the Vice-President of Marketing and I’m starting my second year as the Executive Vice-President of Finance.  There’s a pretty good chance that if PASS has done something you don’t like or is doing something you don’t like, that I’m involved in one way or another. Andy Leonard asked in a comment on his blog if the Board had ever reversed itself based on community input.  He asserted that it hadn’t.  I disagree.  I’m not going to try and list all the changes we make inside portfolios based on feedback from and meetings with the community.  I’m going to focus on major governance issues since I was elected to the Board. Management Company The first big change was our management company.  Our old management company had a standard approach to running a non-profit.  It worked well when PASS was launched.  Having a ready-made structure and process to run the organization enabled the organization to grow quickly.  As time went on we were limited in some of the things we wanted to do.  The more involved you were with PASS, the more you saw these limitations.  Key volunteers were regularly providing feedback that they wanted certain changes that were difficult for us to accomplish.  The Board at that time wanted changes that were difficult or impossible to accomplish under that structure. This was not a simple change.  Imagine a $2.5 million dollar company letting all its employees go on a Friday and starting with a new staff on Monday.  We also had a very narrow window to accomplish that so that we wouldn’t affect the Summit – our only source of revenue.  We spent the year after the change rebuilding processes and putting on the Summit in Denver.  That’s a concrete example of a huge change that PASS made to better serve its members.  And it was a change that many in the community were telling us we needed to make. Financials We heard regularly from our members that they wanted our financials posted.  Today on our web site you can find audited financials going back to 2004.  We publish our budget at the start of each year.  If you ask a question about the financials on the PASS site I do my best to answer it.  I’m also trying to do a better job answering financial questions posted in other locations.  (And yes, I know I owe a few of you some blog posts.) That’s another concrete example of a change that our members asked for that the Board agreed was a good decision. Minutes When I started on the Board the meeting minutes were very limited.  The minutes from a two day Board meeting might fit on one page.  I think we did the bare minimum we were legally required to do.  Today Board meeting minutes run from 5 to 12 pages and go into incredible detail on what we talk about.  There are certain topics that are NDA but where possible we try to list the topic we discussed but that the actual discussion was under NDA.  We also publish the agenda of Board meetings ahead of time. This is another specific example where input from the community influenced the decision.  It was certainly easier to have limited minutes but I think the extra effort helps our members understand what’s going on. Board Q&A At the 2009 Summit the Board held its first public Q&A with our members.  We’d always been available individually to answer questions.  There’s a benefit to getting us all in one room and asking the really hard questions to watch us squirm.  We learn what questions we don’t have good answers for.  We get to see how many people in the crowd look interested in the various questions and answers. I don’t recall the genesis of how this came about.  I’m fairly certain there was some community pressure though. Board Votes Until last November, the Board only reported the vote totals and not how individual Board members voted.  That was one of the topics at a great lunch I had with Tim Mitchell and Kendal van Dyke at the Summit.  That was also the topic of the first question asked at the Board Q&A by Kendal.  Kendal expressed his opposition to to anonymous votes clearly and passionately and without trying to paint anyone into a corner.  Less than 24 hours later the PASS Board voted to make individual votes public unless the topic was under NDA.  That’s another area where the Board decided to change based on feedback from our members. Summit Location While this isn’t actually a governance issue it is one of the more public decisions we make that has taken some public criticism.  There is a significant portion of our members that want the Summit near them.  There is a significant portion of our members that like the Summit in Seattle.  There is a significant portion of our members that think it should move around the country.  I was one that felt strongly that there were significant, tangible benefits to our attendees to being in Seattle every year.  I’m also one that has been swayed by some very compelling arguments that we need to have at least one outside Seattle and then revisit the decision.  I can’t tell you how the Board will vote but I know the opinion of our members weighs heavily on the decision. Elections And that brings us to the grand-daddy of all governance issues.  My thesis for this blog post is that the PASS Board has implemented policy changes in response to member feedback.  It isn’t to defend or criticize our election process.  It’s just to say that is has been under going continuous change since I’ve been on the Board.  I ran for the Board in the fall of 2005.  I don’t know much about what happened before then.  I was actively volunteering for PASS for four years prior to that as a chapter leader and on the program committee.  I don’t recall any complaints about elections but that doesn’t mean they didn’t occur.  The questions from the Nominating Committee (NomCom) were trivial and the selection process rudimentary (For example, “Tell us about your accomplishments”).  I don’t even remember who I ran against or how many other people ran.  I ran for the VP of Marketing in the fall of 2007.  I don’t recall any significant changes the Board made in the election process for that election.  I think a lot of the changes in 2007 came from us asking the management company to work on the election process.  I was expecting a similar set of puff ball questions from my previous election.  Boy, was I in for a shock.  The NomCom had found a much better set of questions and really made the interview portion difficult.  The questions were much more behavioral in nature.  I’d already written about my vision for PASS and my goals.  They wanted to know how I handled adversity, how I handled criticism, how I handled conflict, how I handled troublesome volunteers, how I motivated people and how I responded to motivation. And many, many other things. They grilled me for over an hour.  I’ve done a fair bit of technical sales in my time.  I feel I speak well under pressure addressing pointed questions.  This interview intentionally put me under pressure.  In addition to wanting to know about my interpersonal skills, my work experience, my volunteer experience and my supervisory experience they wanted to see how I’d do under pressure.  They wanted to see who would respond under pressure and who wouldn’t.  It was a bit of a shock. That was the first big change I remember in the election process.  I know there were other improvements around the process but none of them stick in my mind quite like the unexpected hour-long grilling. The next big change I remember was after the 2009 elections.  Andy Warren was unhappy with the election process and wanted to make some changes.  He worked with Hannes at HQ and they came up with a better set of processes.  I think Andy moved PASS in the right direction.  Nonetheless, after the 2010 election even more people were very publicly clamoring for changes to our election process.  In August of 2010 we had a choice to make.  There were numerous bloggers criticizing the Board and our upcoming election.  The easy change would be to announce that we were changing the process in a way that would satisfy our critics.  I believe that a knee-jerk response to criticism is seldom correct. Instead the Board spent August and September and October and November listening to the community.  I visited two SQLSaturdays and asked questions of everyone I could.  I attended chapter meetings and asked questions of as many people as they’d let me.  At Summit I made it a point to introduce myself to strangers and ask them about the election.  At every breakfast I’d sit down at a table full of strangers and ask about the election.  I’m happy to say that I left most tables arguing about the election.  Most days I managed to get 2 or 3 breakfasts in. I spent less time talking to people that had already written about the election.  They were already expressing their opinion.  I wanted to talk to people that hadn’t spoken up.  I wanted to know what the silent majority thought.  The Board all attended the Q&A session where our members expressed their concerns about a variety of issues including the election. The PASS Board also chose to create the Election Review Committee.  We wanted people from the community that had been involved with PASS to look at our election process with fresh eyes while listening to what the community had to say and give us some advice on how we could improve the process.  I’m a part of this as is Andy Warren.  None of the other members are on the Board.  I’ve sat in numerous calls and interviews with this group and attended an open meeting at the Summit.  We asked anyone that wanted to discuss the election to come speak with us.  The ERC held an open meeting at the Summit and invited anyone to attend.  There are forums on the ERC web site where we’ve invited people to participate.  The ERC has reached to key people involved in recent elections.  The years that I haven’t mentioned also saw minor improvements in the election process.  Off the top of my head I don’t recall what exact changes were made each year.  Specifically since the 2010 election we’ve gone out of our way to seek input from the community about the process.  I’m not sure what more we could have done to invite feedback from the community. I think to say that we haven’t “fixed” the election process isn’t a fair criticism at this time.  We haven’t rushed any changes through the process.  If you don’t see any changes in our election process in July or August then I think it’s fair to criticize us for ignoring the community or ask for an explanation for what we’ve done. In Summary Andy’s main point was that the PASS Board hasn’t changed in response to our members wishes.  I think I’ve shown that time and time again the PASS Board has changed in response to what our members want.  There are only two outstanding issues: Summit location and elections.  The 2013 Summit location hasn’t been decided yet.  Our work on the elections is also in progress.  And at every step in the election review we’ve gone out of our way to listen to the community and incorporate their feedback on the process. I also hope I’m not encouraging everyone that wants some change in the organization to organize a “blog rush” against the Board.  We take public suggestions very seriously but we also take the time to evaluate those suggestions and learn what the rest of our members think and make a measured decision.

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  • Why is site serving different SSL certs to different browsers?

    - by TRiG
    The SSL certificate on menswearireland.com and on www.menswearireland.com works fine on Safari, Chrome, SeaMonkey, K-Meleon, QtWeb, Firefox, and Opera. However, Internet Explorer claims that there is an error: The security certificate presented by this website was not issued by a trusted certificate authority. The security certificate presented by this website was issued for a different website's address. Security certificate problems may indicate an attempt to fool you or intercept any data you send to the server. Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 9.0; Windows NT 6.0; Trident/5.0) Another site hosted on the same managed server shows no errors: achill-fieldschool.com and www.achill-fieldschool.com work fine on IE, even though as far as I can tell the certificate is set up identically. What am I doing wrong? This is a LAMPP server running Plesk. It looks like the server is showing different certificates to different clients. To some clients it shows a RapidSSL certificate made out to www.menswearireland.com with menswearireland.com as a valid alternative name. To other clients, it shows a Parallels Panel certificate, made out to Parallels Panel. Here are results from a few different online SSL checkers: most say it's fine, while two show errors. Three online checkers say it's valid Comodo SSL Check shows it as valid DigiCert SSL Check shows it as valid SSL Shopper SSL Check shows it as valid Common name: www.menswearireland.com SANs: www.menswearireland.com, menswearireland.com Valid from October 2, 2012 to November 4, 2013 Serial Number: 559425 (0x88941) Signature Algorithm: sha1WithRSAEncryption Issuer: RapidSSL CA Another online checker seems to see a completely different certificate GeoCerts SSL Check shows it as invalid Common name: Parallels Panel Organization: Parallels Valid from August 15, 2012 to August 15, 2013 Issuer: Parallels Panel Another online checker sees more than one certificate Symantic SSL Check shows it as invalid The certificate installation checker connected to the Web server and read its certificates, but could not determine which is the primary certificate for the Web server. Incidentally, on both menswearireland.com and achill-fieldschool.com the homepage will redirect from HTTPS to HTTP. To see SSL details, visit the page /account on both (that page will redirect from HTTP to HTTPS). I’ve found more information in a more detailed online SSL checker. https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=menswearireland.com This site works only in browsers with SNI support My understanding is that SNI (RFC 6066) is a method for putting many SSL sites on one shared IP address and port. This does not work on Internet Explorer on older versions of Windows (this has to do with the version of Windows, not the version of Internet Explorer). However, all our SSL sites are on a unique IP address, so we shouldn’t need SNI.

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  • MySQL Master-Master replication generating thousands of log files

    - by Andrew
    Today, I checked the /var/lib/mysql/ directory of a server in a master-master replication setup and noticed there were about 3,600 slave-relay.00xxxx files in there (where "xxxx" is an incrementing integer). They appear to be binary log files and don't take up much space (only about 42K), but are they an indication that something is wrong? They range in date from August until today with about 25 per day. Thanks for any help.

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  • How to install Uniconverter (command-line app) on Mac OS 10.7.2 (Lion)?

    - by RecentlyAFish
    Uniconverter is a command-line tool that shares code with the sK1 Project. it's used to convert from one type of vector graphic file to another like this: uniconverter before.eps after.svg I'm looking for a step by step solution to install this tool on my laptop. A similar question posted on the Uniconverter Forum back in August is still unanswered. I read about Uniconverter in an answer posted by Neil but don't grok how to send him a message directly for more details.

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  • On Contract Employment

    - by kerry
    I am going to post about something I don’t post about a lot, the business side of development.  Scott at the antipimp does a good job of explaining how contracts work from a business perspective.  I am going to give a view from the ground. First, a little background on myself.  I have recently taken a 6 month contract after about 8 years of fulltime employment.  I have 2 kids, and a stay at home wife.  I took this contract opportunity because I wanted to try it on for size.  I have always wondered whether I would like doing contracts over fulltime employment.  So, in keeping with the theme of this blog I will write this down now so that I may reference it later. ALL jobs are temporary! Right now you may not realize it, most people simply ignore it, but EVERY job is temporary.  Everyone should be planning for life after the money stops coming in.  Sadly, most people do not.  Contracting pushes this issue to the forefront, making you deal with it.  After a month on a contract, I am happy to say that I am saving more than I ever saved in a fulltime position.  Hopefully, I will be ready in case of an extended window of unemployment between contracts. Networking I find it extremely gratifying getting to know people.  It is especially beneficial when moving to a new city.  What better way to go out and meet people in your field than to work a few contracts?  6 months of working beside someone and you get to know them pretty well.  This is one of my favorite aspects. Technical Agility Moving between IS shops takes (or molds you into) a flexible person.  You have to be able to go in and hit the ground running.  This means you need to be able to sit down and start work on a large codebase working in a language that you may or may not have that much experience in.  It is also an excellent way to learn new languages and broaden your technical skill set.  I took my current position to learn Ruby.  A month ago, I had only used it in passing, but now I am using it every day.  It’s a tragedy in this field when people start coding for the joy and love of coding, then become deeply entrenched in their companies methods and technologies that it becomes a just a job. Less Stress I am not talking about the kind of stress you get from a jackass boss.  I am talking about the kind of stress I (or others) experience about planning and future proofing your code.  Not saying I stay up at night worrying whether we have done it right, if that code I wrote today is going to bite me later, but it still creeps around in the dark recesses of my mind.  Careful though, I am not suggesting you write sloppy code; just defer any large architectural or design decisions to the ‘code owners’. Flexible Scheduling It makes me very happy to be able to cut out a few hours early on a Friday (provided the work is done) and start the weekend off early by going to the pool, or taking the kids to the park.  Contracting provides you this opportunity (mileage may vary).  Most of your fulltime brethren will not care, they will be jealous that they’re corporate policy prevents them from doing the same.  However, you must be mindful of situations where this is not appropriate, and don’t over do it.  You are there to work after all. Affirmation of Need Have you ever been stuck in a job where you thought you were underpaid?  Have you ever been in a position where you felt like there was not enough workload for you?  This is not a problem for contractors.  When you start a contract it is understood that you are needed, and the employer knows that you are happy with the terms. Contracting may not be for everyone.  But, if you develop a relationship with a good consulting firm, keep their clients happy, then they will keep you happy.  They want you to work almost as much as you do.  Just be sure and plan financially for any windows of unemployment.

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  • What Will Happen to Real Estate Leases when Operating Leases are Gone?

    - by Theresa Hickman
    Many people are concerned about what will happen to real estate leases when FASB and IASB abolish operating leases. They plan to unveil the proposed standards on treating leases this summer as part of the convergence project but no "finalized ruling" is expected for at least a year because it will need to get formal consensus from many players, such as the SEC, American Association of Investors, Congress, the Big Four, American Associate of Realtors, the international equivalents of these, etc. If your accounting is a bit rusty, an Operating Lease is where you lease equipment or some asset for a shorter period than the actual (expected) life of the asset and then give the asset back while it still has some useful life in it. (Think leasing a car). Because an Operating Lease does not contain any of the provisions that would qualify it as a Capital Lease, the lease is not treated as a sale or purchase and hits the lessee's rental expense and the lessor's revenue. So it all stays on the P&L (assuming no prepayments are made). Capital Leases, on the other hand, hit lessee's and lessor's balance sheets because the asset is treated as a sale. (I'm ignoring interest and depreciation here to emphasize my point). Question: What will happen to real estate leases when Operating Leases go away and how will Oracle Financials address these changes? Before I attempt to address these questions, here's a real-life example to expound on some of the issues: Let's say a U.S. retailer leases a store in a mall for 15 years. Under U.S. GAAP, the lease is considered an operating or expense lease. Will that same lease be considered a capital lease under IFRS? Real estate leases are supposedly going to be capitalized under IFRS. If so, will everyone need to change all leases from operating to capital? Or, could we make some adjustments so we report the lease as an expense for operations reporting but capitalize it for SEC reporting? Would all aspects of the lease be capitalized, or would some line items still be expensed? For example, many retail store leases are defined to include (1) the agreed-to rent amount; (2) a negotiated increase in base rent, e.g., maybe a 5% increase in Year 5; (3) a sales rent component whereby the retailer pays a variable additional amount based on the sales generated in the prior month; (4) parking lot maintenance fees. Would the entire lease be capitalized, or would some portions still be expensed? To help answer these questions, I met up with our resident accounting expert and walking encyclopedia, Seamus Moran. Here's what he had to say: Oracle is aware of the potential changes specific to reporting/capitalization of real estate leases; i.e., we are aware that FASB and IASB have identified real estate leases as one of the areas for standards convergence. Oracle stays apprised of the on-going convergence through our domain expertise staff, our relationship with customers, our market awareness, and, of course, our relationships with the Big 4. This is part of our normal process with respect to regulatory compliance worldwide. At this time, Oracle expects that the standards convergence committee will make a recommendation about reporting standards for real estate leases in about a year. Following typical procedures, we also expect that the recommendation will be up for review for a year, and customers will then need to start reporting to the new standard about a year after that. So that means we would expect the first customer to report under the new standard in maybe 3 years. Typically, after the new standard is finalized and distributed, we find that our customers then begin to evaluate how they plan to meet the new standard. And through groups like the Customer Advisory Boards (CABs), our customers tell us what kind of product changes are needed in order to satisfy their new reporting requirements. Of course, Oracle is also working with the Big 4 and Accenture and other implementers in order to ascertain that these recommended changes will indeed meet new reporting standards. So the best advice we can offer right now is, stay apprised of the standards convergence committee; know that Oracle is also staying abreast of developments; get involved with your CAB so your voice is heard; know that Oracle products continue to be GAAP compliant, and we will continue to maintain that as our standard. But exactly what is that "standard"--we need to wait on the standards convergence committee. In a nut shell, operating leases will become either capital leases or month to month rentals, but it is still too early, too political and too uncertain to call out at this point.

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  • JQuery and the multiple date selector

    - by David Carter
    Overview I recently needed to build a web page that would allow a user to capture some information and most importantly select multiple dates. This functionality was core to the application and hence had to be easy and quick to do. This is a public facing website so it had to be intuitive and very responsive. On the face of it it didn't seem too hard, I know enough juery to know what it is capable of and I was pretty sure that there would be some plugins that would help speed things along the way. I'm using ASP.Net MVC for this project as I really like the control that it gives you over the generated html and javascript. After years of Web Forms development it makes me feel like a web developer again and puts a smile on my face, that can only be a good thing!   The Calendar The first item that I needed on this page was a calender and I wanted the ability to: have the calendar be always visible select/deselect multiple dates at the same time bind to the select/deselect event so that I could update a seperate listing of the selected dates allow the user to move to another month and still have the calender remember any dates in the previous month I was hoping that there was a jQuery plugin that would meet my requirements and luckily there was! The jQuery datepicker does everything I want and there is quite a bit of documentation on how to use it. It makes use of a javascript date library date.js which I had not come across before but has a number of very useful date utilities that I have used elsewhere in the project. As you can see from the image there still needs to be some styling done! But there will be plenty of time for that later. The calendar clearly shows which dates the user has selected in red and i also make use of an unordered list to show the the selected dates so the user can always clearly see what has been selected even if they move to another month on the calendar. The javascript code that is responsible for listening to events on the calendar and synchronising the list look as follows: <script type="text/javascript">     $(function () {         $('.datepicker').datePicker({ inline: true, selectMultiple: true })         .bind(             'dateSelected',             function (e, selectedDate, $td, state) {                                 var dateInMillisecs = selectedDate.valueOf();                 if (state) { //adding a date                     var newDate = new Date(selectedDate);                     //insert the new item into the correct place in the list                     var listitems = $('#dateList').children('li').get();                     var liToAdd = "<li id='" + dateInMillisecs + "' >" + newDate.toString('ddd dd MMM yyyy') + "</li>";                     var targetIndex = -1;                     for (var i = 0; i < listitems.length; i++) {                         if (dateInMillisecs <= listitems[i].id) {                             targetIndex = i;                             break;                         }                     }                     if (targetIndex < 0) {                         $('#dateList').append(liToAdd);                     }                     else {                         $($('#dateList').children("li")[targetIndex]).before(liToAdd);                     }                 }                 else {//removing a date                     $('ul #' + dateInMillisecs).remove();                 }             }         )     }); When a date is selected on the calendar a function is called with a number of parameters passed to it. The ones I am particularly interested in are selectedDate and state. State tells me whether the user has selected or deselected the date passed in the selectedDate parameter. The <ul> that I am using to show the date has an id of dateList and this is what I will be adding and removing <li> items from. To make things a little more logical for the user I decided that the date should be sorted in chronological order, this means that each time a new date is selected it need to be placed in the correct position in the list. One way to do this would be just to append a new <li> to the list and then sort the whole list. However the approach I took was to get an array of all the items in the list var listitems = ('#dateList').children('li').get(); and then check the value of each item in the array against my new date and as soon as I found the case where the new date was less than the current item remember that position in the list as this is where I would insert it later. To make this work easily I decided to store a numeric representation of each date in the list in the id attribute of each <li> element. Fortunately javascript natively stores dates as the number of milliseconds since 1 Jan 1970. var dateInMillisecs = selectedDate.valueOf(); Please note that this is the value of the date in UTC! I always like to store dates in UTC as I learnt a long time ago that it saves a lot of refactoring at a later date... When I convert the dates back to their original back on the server I will need the UTC offset that was used when calculating the dates, this and how to actually serialise the dates and get them posted back will be the subject of another post.

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  • SQL SERVER – What is Incremental Statistics? – Performance improvements in SQL Server 2014 – Part 1

    - by Pinal Dave
    This is the first part of the series Incremental Statistics. Here is the index of the complete series. What is Incremental Statistics? – Performance improvements in SQL Server 2014 – Part 1 Simple Example of Incremental Statistics – Performance improvements in SQL Server 2014 – Part 2 DMV to Identify Incremental Statistics – Performance improvements in SQL Server 2014 – Part 3 Statistics are considered one of the most important aspects of SQL Server Performance Tuning. You might have often heard the phrase, with related to performance tuning. “Update Statistics before you take any other steps to tune performance”. Honestly, I have said above statement many times and many times, I have personally updated statistics before I start to do any performance tuning exercise. You may agree or disagree to the point, but there is no denial that Statistics play an extremely vital role in the performance tuning. SQL Server 2014 has a new feature called Incremental Statistics. I have been playing with this feature for quite a while and I find that very interesting. After spending some time with this feature, I decided to write about this subject over here. New in SQL Server 2014 – Incremental Statistics Well, it seems like lots of people wants to start using SQL Server 2014′s new feature of Incremetnal Statistics. However, let us understand what actually this feature does and how it can help. I will try to simplify this feature first before I start working on the demo code. Code for all versions of SQL Server Here is the code which you can execute on all versions of SQL Server and it will update the statistics of your table. The keyword which you should pay attention is WITH FULLSCAN. It will scan the entire table and build brand new statistics for you which your SQL Server Performance Tuning engine can use for better estimation of your execution plan. UPDATE STATISTICS TableName(StatisticsName) WITH FULLSCAN Who should learn about this? Why? If you are using partitions in your database, you should consider about implementing this feature. Otherwise, this feature is pretty much not applicable to you. Well, if you are using single partition and your table data is in a single place, you still have to update your statistics the same way you have been doing. If you are using multiple partitions, this may be a very useful feature for you. In most cases, users have multiple partitions because they have lots of data in their table. Each partition will have data which belongs to itself. Now it is very common that each partition are populated separately in SQL Server. Real World Example For example, if your table contains data which is related to sales, you will have plenty of entries in your table. It will be a good idea to divide the partition into multiple filegroups for example, you can divide this table into 3 semesters or 4 quarters or even 12 months. Let us assume that we have divided our table into 12 different partitions. Now for the month of January, our first partition will be populated and for the month of February our second partition will be populated. Now assume, that you have plenty of the data in your first and second partition. Now the month of March has just started and your third partition has started to populate. Due to some reason, if you want to update your statistics, what will you do? In SQL Server 2012 and earlier version You will just use the code of WITH FULLSCAN and update the entire table. That means even though you have only data in third partition you will still update the entire table. This will be VERY resource intensive process as you will be updating the statistics of the partition 1 and 2 where data has not changed at all. In SQL Server 2014 You will just update the partition of Partition 3. There is a special syntax where you can now specify which partition you want to update now. The impact of this is that it is smartly merging the new data with old statistics and update the entire statistics without doing FULLSCAN of your entire table. This has a huge impact on performance. Remember that the new feature in SQL Server 2014 does not change anything besides the capability to update a single partition. However, there is one feature which is indeed attractive. Previously, when table data were changed 20% at that time, statistics update were triggered. However, now the same threshold is applicable to a single partition. That means if your partition faces 20% data, change it will also trigger partition level statistics update which, when merged to your final statistics will give you better performance. In summary If you are not using a partition, this feature is not applicable to you. If you are using a partition, this feature can be very helpful to you. Tomorrow: We will see working code of SQL Server 2014 Incremental Statistics. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Performance, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL Tagged: SQL Statistics, Statistics

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  • How to get paid and figure out if I want to keep this client [migrated]

    - by Heiner Fawkes
    I have a client who is not paying on time, but it looks like the specifics don't match similar questions on this SE site. I got a call from a client I did website work for years ago. I had not done this kind of work for many years and frankly I'm not sure I want to now, but nevertheless about a month ago I agreed to bring his website, SEO, social media, and overall marketing for his small business up to speed. Why? He has told me many times how I'm the most honest, most well-informed contractor he's had experience with. And I personally kind of like him too. So I started working on an hourly basis. I sent one very small invoice and got paid. Then we talked a whole lot about all sorts of feature he would like me to implement. I started that work, and sent a second invoice on the first of the month (one of my two stated billing days). I didn't get paid. On every invoice it states that I charge a whopping ten percent per week late. I sent many voicemails and emails asking to please let me know what's going on with payment, and didn't get replies. Then the 15th of the month rolled around (which I stated initially as one of my invoicing dates). Since I hadn't been paid for the last invoice, I simply didn't send him an invoice at that time but emailed him and said that I will combine it with the next scheduled invoice for this reason (probably a bad idea I realize). Eventually he sent a portion of the invoice payment. I emailed back to let him know that he's three weeks late and what the remaining balance is. Finally we got in touch via phone. He basically told me that he thought I hadn't done all of the work I said I did. He looked at the page source code and it didn't look complete to him. I explained why his perception would be different and what work I had done as specified. He accepted this and said that part of the reason he didn't pay in full is that he's been swamped with personal family stuff, and part of the reason is that he didn't think I did all the work. That struck me as pretty weird. He also expressed concern that he has no idea now how much all the changes he has asked for are going to cost. And once again, he told me how honest and high-quality my services are compared to others he has dealt with. He also said he would pay me more (but not all) of the now three weeks overdue invoice that day. I didn't receive any payment. Basically this is how the client relationship strikes me: He's not good at communication. He's very busy and English isn't his first language. He almost never replies to emails but phone calls are fine. He's asked me to avoid emails for communication and I've asked him to please use email. He might not have enough money to afford all the things he has asked for. But so far I have been working for an hourly fee (which is quite high). He also has started paying monthly for hosting and social media services from me. What seems very abnormal is for a client to be so overdue on payments and to actually withhold payment of an invoice without any communication because he didn't think the work was done. I told him that I will send dollar estimates of each module of remaining work so that we can decide which ones are the highest priority if he cannot afford them all. I also reiterated that in the future if he has doubts about the work or an inability to pay, he must contact me immediately to say so. I basically plan to state the following to him: I would like to work for him and help his business. I also have sympathy for his recent family difficulties. I am happy to figure out payment plans that would work better for him, but first I need to be paid in full for all outstanding invoices, especially given that I skipped one of them just to be nice. The most crucial thing I need is communication about any problems with my work or his ability to pay. Once again, he heeds to pay in full immediately before we negotiate anything else. Does the above seem like an appropriate communication? Is anything missing from it? Is anything I'm doing here really abnormal?

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  • 5 Android Keyboard Replacements to Help You Type Faster

    - by Chris Hoffman
    Android allows developers to replace its keyboard with their own keyboard apps. This has led to experimentation and great new features, like the gesture-typing feature that’s made its way into Android’s official keyboard after proving itself in third-party keyboards. This sort of customization isn’t possible on Apple’s iOS or even Microsoft’s modern Windows environments. Installing a third-party keyboard is easy — install it from Google Play, launch it like another app, and it will explain how to enable it. Google Keyboard Google Keyboard is Android’s official keyboard, as seen on Google’s Nexus devices. However, there’s a good chance your Android smartphone or tablet comes with a keyboard designed by its manufacturer instead. You can install the Google Keyboard from Google Play, even if your device doesn’t come with it. This keyboard offers a wide variety of features, including a built-in gesture-typing feature, as popularized by Swype. It also offers prediction, including full next-word prediction based on your previous word, and includes voice recognition that works offline on modern versions of Android. Google’s keyboard may not offer the most accurate swiping feature or the best autocorrection, but it’s a great keyboard that feels like it belongs in Android. SwiftKey SwiftKey costs $4, although you can try it free for one month. In spite of its price, many people who rarely buy apps have been sold on SwiftKey. It offers amazing auto-correction and word-prediction features. Just mash away on your touch-screen keyboard, typing as fast as possible, and SwiftKey will notice your mistakes and type what you actually meant to type. SwiftKey also now has built-in support for gesture-typing via SwiftKey Flow, so you get a lot of flexibility. At $4, SwiftKey may seem a bit pricey, but give the month-long trial a try. A great keyboard makes all the typing you do everywhere on your phone better. SwiftKey is an amazing keyboard if you tap-to-type rather than swipe-to-type. Swype While other keyboards have copied Swype’s swipe-to-type feature, none have completely matched its accuracy. Swype has been designing a gesture-typing keyboard for longer than anyone else and its gesture feature still seems more accurate than its competitors’ gesture support. If you use gesture-typing all the time, you’ll probably want to use Swype. Swype can now be installed directly from Google Play without the old, tedious process of registering a beta account and sideloading the Swype app. Swype offers a month-long free trial and the full version is available for $1 afterwards. Minuum Minuum is a crowdfunded keyboard that is currently still in beta and only supports English. We include it here because it’s so interesting — it’s a great example of the kind of creativity and experimentation that happens when you allow developers to experiment with their own forms of keyboard. Minuum uses a tiny, minimum keyboard that frees up your screen space, so your touch-screen keyboard doesn’t hog your device’s screen. Rather than displaying a full keyboard on your screen, Minuum displays a single row of letters.  Each letter is small and may be difficult to hit, but that doesn’t matter — Minuum’s smart autocorrection algorithms interpret what you intended to type rather than typing the exact letters you press. Just swipe to the right to type a space and accept Minuum’s suggestion. At $4 for a beta version with no trial, Minuum may seem a bit pricy. But it’s a great example of the flexibility Android allows. If there’s a problem with this keyboard, it’s that it’s a bit late — in an age of 5″ smartphones with 1080p screens, full-size keyboards no longer feel as cramped. MessagEase MessagEase is another example of a new take on text input. Thankfully, this keyboard is available for free. MessagEase presents all letters in a nine-button grid. To type a common letter, you’d tap the button. To type an uncommon letter, you’d tap the button, hold down, and swipe in the appropriate direction. This gives you large buttons that can work well as touch targets, especially when typing with one hand. Like any other unique twist on a traditional keyboard, you’d have to give it a few minutes to get used to where the letters are and the new way it works. After giving it some practice, you may find this is a faster way to type on a touch-screen — especially with one hand, as the targets are so large. Google Play is full of replacement keyboards for Android phones and tablets. Keyboards are just another type of app that you can swap in. Leave a comment if you’ve found another great keyboard that you prefer using. Image Credit: Cheon Fong Liew on Flickr     

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