Search Results

Search found 1241 results on 50 pages for 'consumer electronics'.

Page 49/50 | < Previous Page | 45 46 47 48 49 50  | Next Page >

• CodePlex Daily Summary for Friday, April 30, 2010

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Friday, April 30, 2010New ProjectsAcres2: This is the new hotnessAsoraX.de - AirlineTycoon: EntwicklungsPhase von AsoraX.deazshop: Ecommerce macros and user controls based on Commerce4Umbraco from Umbraco CMS Project.BioPhotoAnalyzer: Some exercises with F#, WPF and Mathematical methods for quantitative analysis of biological photos, such as those obtained from microscopy, PAGE etcCECS622 - Simulations - South Computing Center: This simulation will be used to study the traffic flow of the South Computing Center (SCC) on the UofL campus. Document.Viewer: Basic document viewer for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 that supports FlowDocument, Rich and Plan Text FormatsDotNetNuke 5 Thai Language Pack: DotNetNuke Thai Language PackDotNetNuke Skins Pack: We derive html/css template from www.freecsstemplates.org and apply to DotNetNuke 4 & 5 Skins Pack.Dynamics AX Business Intelligence: Sample code for creating and using Dynamics AX Business Intelligence Easy Chat: Very simple kind of chat; it got DOS interface. It's just to start the server start the client enter the IP, enter your name, and you're ready to go!Html Source Transmitter Control: This web control allows getting a source of a web page, that will displayed before submit. So, developer can store a view of the html page, that wa...HydroServer - CUAHSI Hydrologic Information System Server: HydroServer is a set of software applications for publishing hydrologic datasets on the Internet. HydroServer leverages commercial software such a...Lisp.NET: Lisp.NET is a project that demonstrates how the Embedded Common Lisp (ECL) environment can be loaded and used from .NET. This enables Common Lisp ...Live-Exchange Calendar Sync: Live - Exchange Calendar Sync synchronizes calendars of users between 2 Exchange servers (it can be Live Calendar also). It's developed in C#. It u...MaLoRT : Mac Lovin' RayTracer: RaytracerMojo Workflow Web UI: Mojo Workflow Web UIMoonRover - Enter Island: Simple Graphics consumer application that simulates Moon RoversMVC Music Store: MVC Music Store is a tutorial application built on ASP.NET MVC 2. It's a lightweight sample store which sells albums online, demonstrating ASP.NET ...OpenPOS: OpenPOS, a completely open and free point-of-sale systemPgcDemuxCLI: A modified version of PgcDemux (http://download.videohelp.com/jsoto/dvdtools.htm) that has better CLI support and progress reporting.Sample 01: basic summarySharedEx: App dev in VS2010 RTM and Silverlight 4.0 for Windows Phone 7!SharePoint 2010 Managed Metadata WebPart: This SharePoint 2010 webpart creates a navigation control from a Managed Metadata column assigned to a list/library. The Termset the column relates...SharePoint 2010 Service Manager: The SharePoint Service manager let's you start and stop all the SharePoint 2010 services on your workstation. This is useful if you are running S...Sharp DOM: Sharp DOM is a view engine for ASP.NET MVC platform allowing developers to design extendable and maintenable dynamic HTML layouts using C# 4.0 lang...simple fx: simple framework written in javascriptSimpleGFC.NET: Simple GFC is a .NET library written in C# for simplifying the connection to Google Friend Connect. It is designed to be simple and concise, not a...SPSS & PSPP file library: Library for importing SPSS (now called PASW) & PSPP .sav datafiles, developed in C#. Support for writing and SPSS portable-files will be implemente...TailspinSpyworks - WebForms Sample Application: Tailspin Spyworks demonstrates how extraordinarily simple it is to create powerful, scalable applications for the .NET platform. It shows off how t...VividBed: Business website.卢融凯的个人主页: 卢融凯的个人主页New ReleasesAssemblyVerifier: 4.0.0.0 Release: Updated to target .NET 4.0Bricks' Bane: Bricks' Bane Editor v1.0.0.4: I've added functionality to the editor, after some personal use. Plus I fixed a bug that was occurring on file loading mostly when the file was mod...Dambach Linear Algebra Framework: Linear Algebra Framework - Sneak Peak: This is just to get the code out there into the hands of potential users and to elicit feedback.DevTreks -social budgeting that improves lives and livelihoods: Social Budgeting Web Software, DevTreks alpha 4a: DevTreks calculators, analyzers, and story tellers are being upgraded so that they can be extended by third parties using either add-ins (Managed ...DirectQ: Release 1.8.3c: Fixes some more late-breaking bugs and adds some optimizations from the forthcoming 1.8.4 release. No Windows 98 build this time. I may add one a...Document Assembly from a SharePoint Library using the Open XML SDK: Solution for March 2010 rel of the Open XML SDK: Microsoft changed some class names between the December 2009 CTP and the March 2010 release of the Open XML SDK which means that old solution will ...Document.Viewer: 0.9.0: Whats New?: New icon set Bug fix'sDotNetNuke Skins Pack: DNN 80 Skins Pack: This released is the first for DNN 4 & 5 with Skin Token Design (legacy skin support on DNN 4 & 5)DotNetWinService: Release 1.0.0.0: This release includes four different scheduled tasks: 1) TaskURL: Petition a specific URL: when working on a ASP.NET website, it's sometimes ...Hammock for REST: Hammock v1.0.1: v1.0.1 ChangesFixes to improve OAuth stability Fixes for asynchronous timeouts Fixes and simplification for retries v1.0 FeaturesSimple, clean...Home Access Plus+: v4.1.1: v4.1.1 Change Log: Added Enable for Booking Resource to allow Resources to be disabled but not deleted Updated HAP.Config for above File Changes...HouseFly controls: HouseFly controls alpha 0.9.6.0: HouseFly controls release 0.9.6.0 alphaHydroServer - CUAHSI Hydrologic Information System Server: ODM Data Loader 1.1.3: Version 1.1.3 of the ODM Data Loader is only compatible with version 1.1 of ODM This Version Addresses : Memory issues in Version 1.1.2 that were ...Jobping Url Shortener: Source Code v0.1: Source code for the 0.1 release.LinkedIn® for Windows Mobile: LinkedIn for Windows Mobile v0.6: Fixed the crash after accepting the use of internet access.mojoPortal: 2.3.4.3: see release notes on mojoportal.com http://www.mojoportal.com/mojoportal-2343-released.aspxMoonRover - Enter Island: Moon Rover: Simulates Rover Moves on MoonNanoPrompt: Release 0.4.1 - Beta 1.1: Now released: Beta 1.1 for .NET 4.0ORAYLIS BI.SmartDiff: Release 1.0.0: see change log for detailsQuickStart Engine (3D Game Engine for XNA): QuickStart Engine v0.22: Main FeaturesClean engine architecture Makes it easy to make your own game using the engine. Messaging system allows you to communicate between s...SharePoint 2010 Managed Metadata WebPart: Taxonomy WebPart 0.0.1: Initial version releasedSharePoint 2010 Service Manager: SharePoint Service Manager 2010 v1: Starts and stops all SharePoint services Works with both Microsoft SQL Server and SQL Server Express Edition (for SharePoint) Supports disablin...Shweet: SharePoint 2010 Team Messaging built with Pex: Shweet RTM Release: Shweet has been updated to work with the RTM of SharePoint and the latest version of Pex Visual Studio 2010 Power Tools. Know issues: Continuous I...Silverlight Testing Automation Tool: StatLight v1.0 - Beta 1: Things still to accomplish (before official v1 release)Item # 10716: Release build hangs on x64 machine Still awaiting UnitDriven change feedback...SPSS & PSPP file library: 0.1 alpha: This first test release allows to read an .sav SPSS/PSPP/PASW file and retreive the data, either in the form of a .net DataReader or as a custom Sp...SqlDiffFramework-A Visual Differencing Engine for Dissimilar Data Sources: SqlDiffFramework 1.0.0.0: Initial Public Release Requirements: .NET Framework 2.0 SqlDiffFramework is designed for the enterprise! Check with your system administrator (or...sqwarea: Sqwarea 0.0.210.0 (alpha): First public release. Deploy package contains : the documentation for classes. the azure package with the Web Role. the zip with assemblies wh...Sweeper: Sweeper Alpha 2: SweeperA Visual Studio Add-in for C# Code Formatting - Visual Studio 2008 Includes: A UI for options, Enable or disable any specific task you want ...TailspinSpyworks - WebForms Sample Application: TailspinSpyworks-v0.8: ASP.NET 4 ECommerce ApplicationTweetSharp: TweetSharp Release Candidate: New FeaturesComplete core rewrite for stability and speed, introducing Hammock http://hammock.codeplex.com Windows Phone 7, Silverlight 4 OOB (El...Wicked Compression ASP.NET HTTP Module: Wicked Compression ASP.NET HTTP Module Beta: Now supports AJAX from .NET Framework 2.0 through 4.0! Bug Fix for Excluded Paths! Binary Release Included for .NET Framework 2.0 through 4.0!Most Popular ProjectsRawrWBFS ManagerAJAX Control Toolkitpatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: DatabaseSilverlight ToolkitWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)iTuner - The iTunes CompanionASP.NETDotNetNuke® Community EditionMost Active ProjectsRawrpatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryIonics Isapi Rewrite FilterHydroServer - CUAHSI Hydrologic Information System ServerGMap.NET - Great Maps for Windows Forms & PresentationParticle Plot Pivotpatterns & practices: Azure Security GuidanceSqlDiffFramework-A Visual Differencing Engine for Dissimilar Data SourcesNB_Store - Free DotNetNuke Ecommerce Catalog ModuleN2 CMS

  Read the article

• How to Reuse Your Old Wi-Fi Router as a Network Switch

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Just because your old Wi-Fi router has been replaced by a newer model doesn’t mean it needs to gather dust in the closet. Read on as we show you how to take an old and underpowered Wi-Fi router and turn it into a respectable network switch (saving your $20 in the process). Image by mmgallan. Why Do I Want To Do This? Wi-Fi technology has changed significantly in the last ten years but Ethernet-based networking has changed very little. As such, a Wi-Fi router with 2006-era guts is lagging significantly behind current Wi-Fi router technology, but the Ethernet networking component of the device is just as useful as ever; aside from potentially being only 100Mbs instead of 1000Mbs capable (which for 99% of home applications is irrelevant) Ethernet is Ethernet. What does this matter to you, the consumer? It means that even though your old router doesn’t hack it for your Wi-Fi needs any longer the device is still a perfectly serviceable (and high quality) network switch. When do you need a network switch? Any time you want to share an Ethernet cable among multiple devices, you need a switch. For example, let’s say you have a single Ethernet wall jack behind your entertainment center. Unfortunately you have four devices that you want to link to your local network via hardline including your smart HDTV, DVR, Xbox, and a little Raspberry Pi running XBMC. Instead of spending $20-30 to purchase a brand new switch of comparable build quality to your old Wi-Fi router it makes financial sense (and is environmentally friendly) to invest five minutes of your time tweaking the settings on the old router to turn it from a Wi-Fi access point and routing tool into a network switch–perfect for dropping behind your entertainment center so that your DVR, Xbox, and media center computer can all share an Ethernet connection. What Do I Need? For this tutorial you’ll need a few things, all of which you likely have readily on hand or are free for download. To follow the basic portion of the tutorial, you’ll need the following: 1 Wi-Fi router with Ethernet ports 1 Computer with Ethernet jack 1 Ethernet cable For the advanced tutorial you’ll need all of those things, plus: 1 copy of DD-WRT firmware for your Wi-Fi router We’re conducting the experiment with a Linksys WRT54GL Wi-Fi router. The WRT54 series is one of the best selling Wi-Fi router series of all time and there’s a good chance a significant number of readers have one (or more) of them stuffed in an office closet. Even if you don’t have one of the WRT54 series routers, however, the principles we’re outlining here apply to all Wi-Fi routers; as long as your router administration panel allows the necessary changes you can follow right along with us. A quick note on the difference between the basic and advanced versions of this tutorial before we proceed. Your typical Wi-Fi router has 5 Ethernet ports on the back: 1 labeled “Internet”, “WAN”, or a variation thereof and intended to be connected to your DSL/Cable modem, and 4 labeled 1-4 intended to connect Ethernet devices like computers, printers, and game consoles directly to the Wi-Fi router. When you convert a Wi-Fi router to a switch, in most situations, you’ll lose two port as the “Internet” port cannot be used as a normal switch port and one of the switch ports becomes the input port for the Ethernet cable linking the switch to the main network. This means, referencing the diagram above, you’d lose the WAN port and LAN port 1, but retain LAN ports 2, 3, and 4 for use. If you only need to switch for 2-3 devices this may be satisfactory. However, for those of you that would prefer a more traditional switch setup where there is a dedicated WAN port and the rest of the ports are accessible, you’ll need to flash a third-party router firmware like the powerful DD-WRT onto your device. Doing so opens up the router to a greater degree of modification and allows you to assign the previously reserved WAN port to the switch, thus opening up LAN ports 1-4. Even if you don’t intend to use that extra port, DD-WRT offers you so many more options that it’s worth the extra few steps. Preparing Your Router for Life as a Switch Before we jump right in to shutting down the Wi-Fi functionality and repurposing your device as a network switch, there are a few important prep steps to attend to. First, you want to reset the router (if you just flashed a new firmware to your router, skip this step). Following the reset procedures for your particular router or go with what is known as the “Peacock Method” wherein you hold down the reset button for thirty seconds, unplug the router and wait (while still holding the reset button) for thirty seconds, and then plug it in while, again, continuing to hold down the rest button. Over the life of a router there are a variety of changes made, big and small, so it’s best to wipe them all back to the factory default before repurposing the router as a switch. Second, after resetting, we need to change the IP address of the device on the local network to an address which does not directly conflict with the new router. The typical default IP address for a home router is 192.168.1.1; if you ever need to get back into the administration panel of the router-turned-switch to check on things or make changes it will be a real hassle if the IP address of the device conflicts with the new home router. The simplest way to deal with this is to assign an address close to the actual router address but outside the range of addresses that your router will assign via the DHCP client; a good pick then is 192.168.1.2. Once the router is reset (or re-flashed) and has been assigned a new IP address, it’s time to configure it as a switch. Basic Router to Switch Configuration If you don’t want to (or need to) flash new firmware onto your device to open up that extra port, this is the section of the tutorial for you: we’ll cover how to take a stock router, our previously mentioned WRT54 series Linksys, and convert it to a switch. Hook the Wi-Fi router up to the network via one of the LAN ports (consider the WAN port as good as dead from this point forward, unless you start using the router in its traditional function again or later flash a more advanced firmware to the device, the port is officially retired at this point). Open the administration control panel via  web browser on a connected computer. Before we get started two things: first,  anything we don’t explicitly instruct you to change should be left in the default factory-reset setting as you find it, and two, change the settings in the order we list them as some settings can’t be changed after certain features are disabled. To start, let’s navigate to Setup ->Basic Setup. Here you need to change the following things: Local IP Address: [different than the primary router, e.g. 192.168.1.2] Subnet Mask: [same as the primary router, e.g. 255.255.255.0] DHCP Server: Disable Save with the “Save Settings” button and then navigate to Setup -> Advanced Routing: Operating Mode: Router This particular setting is very counterintuitive. The “Operating Mode” toggle tells the device whether or not it should enable the Network Address Translation (NAT)  feature. Because we’re turning a smart piece of networking hardware into a relatively dumb one, we don’t need this feature so we switch from Gateway mode (NAT on) to Router mode (NAT off). Our next stop is Wireless -> Basic Wireless Settings: Wireless SSID Broadcast: Disable Wireless Network Mode: Disabled After disabling the wireless we’re going to, again, do something counterintuitive. Navigate to Wireless -> Wireless Security and set the following parameters: Security Mode: WPA2 Personal WPA Algorithms: TKIP+AES WPA Shared Key: [select some random string of letters, numbers, and symbols like JF#d$di!Hdgio890] Now you may be asking yourself, why on Earth are we setting a rather secure Wi-Fi configuration on a Wi-Fi router we’re not going to use as a Wi-Fi node? On the off chance that something strange happens after, say, a power outage when your router-turned-switch cycles on and off a bunch of times and the Wi-Fi functionality is activated we don’t want to be running the Wi-Fi node wide open and granting unfettered access to your network. While the chances of this are next-to-nonexistent, it takes only a few seconds to apply the security measure so there’s little reason not to. Save your changes and navigate to Security ->Firewall. Uncheck everything but Filter Multicast Firewall Protect: Disable At this point you can save your changes again, review the changes you’ve made to ensure they all stuck, and then deploy your “new” switch wherever it is needed. Advanced Router to Switch Configuration For the advanced configuration, you’ll need a copy of DD-WRT installed on your router. Although doing so is an extra few steps, it gives you a lot more control over the process and liberates an extra port on the device. Hook the Wi-Fi router up to the network via one of the LAN ports (later you can switch the cable to the WAN port). Open the administration control panel via web browser on the connected computer. Navigate to the Setup -> Basic Setup tab to get started. In the Basic Setup tab, ensure the following settings are adjusted. The setting changes are not optional and are required to turn the Wi-Fi router into a switch. WAN Connection Type: Disabled Local IP Address: [different than the primary router, e.g. 192.168.1.2] Subnet Mask: [same as the primary router, e.g. 255.255.255.0] DHCP Server: Disable In addition to disabling the DHCP server, also uncheck all the DNSMasq boxes as the bottom of the DHCP sub-menu. If you want to activate the extra port (and why wouldn’t you), in the WAN port section: Assign WAN Port to Switch [X] At this point the router has become a switch and you have access to the WAN port so the LAN ports are all free. Since we’re already in the control panel, however, we might as well flip a few optional toggles that further lock down the switch and prevent something odd from happening. The optional settings are arranged via the menu you find them in. Remember to save your settings with the save button before moving onto a new tab. While still in the Setup -> Basic Setup menu, change the following: Gateway/Local DNS : [IP address of primary router, e.g. 192.168.1.1] NTP Client : Disable The next step is to turn off the radio completely (which not only kills the Wi-Fi but actually powers the physical radio chip off). Navigate to Wireless -> Advanced Settings -> Radio Time Restrictions: Radio Scheduling: Enable Select “Always Off” There’s no need to create a potential security problem by leaving the Wi-Fi radio on, the above toggle turns it completely off. Under Services -> Services: DNSMasq : Disable ttraff Daemon : Disable Under the Security -> Firewall tab, uncheck every box except “Filter Multicast”, as seen in the screenshot above, and then disable SPI Firewall. Once you’re done here save and move on to the Administration tab. Under Administration -> Management:  Info Site Password Protection : Enable Info Site MAC Masking : Disable CRON : Disable 802.1x : Disable Routing : Disable After this final round of tweaks, save and then apply your settings. Your router has now been, strategically, dumbed down enough to plod along as a very dependable little switch. Time to stuff it behind your desk or entertainment center and streamline your cabling.     

  Read the article

• Oracle WebCenter Partner Program

  - by kellsey.ruppel

  In competitive marketplaces, your company needs to quickly respond to changes and new trends, in order to open opportunities and build long-term growth. Oracle has a variety of next-generation services, solutions and resources that will leverage the differentiators in your offerings. Name your partnering needs: Oracle has the answer. This week we’d like to focus on Partners and the value your organization can gain from working with the Oracle PartnerNetwork. The Oracle PartnerNetwork will empower your company with exceptional resources to distinguish your offerings from the competition, seize opportunities, and increase your sales. We’re happy to welcome Christine Kungl, and Brian Buzzell, from Oracle’s World Wide Alliances & Channels (WWA&C) WebCenter Partner Enablement team, as today’s guests on the Oracle WebCenter blog. Q: What is the Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN)?A: Christine: Oracle’s PartnerNetwork (OPN) is a collaborative partnership which allows registered companies specific added value resources to help differentiate themselves from their competition. Through OPN programs it provides companies the ability to seize and target opportunities, educate and train their teams, and leverage unparalleled opportunity given Oracle’s large market footprint. OPN’s multi-level programs are targeted at different levels allowing companies to grow and evolve with Oracle based on their business needs.  As part of their OPN memberships partners are encouraged to become OPN Specialized allowing those partners additional differentiation in Oracle’s Partner Network Community.  Q: What is an OPN Specialization and what resources are available for Specialized Partners?A: Brian: Oracle wanted a better way for our partners to differentiate their special skills and expertise, as well a more effective way to communicate that difference to customers.  Oracle’s expanding product portfolio demanded that we be able to identify partners with significant product knowledge—those who had made an investment in Oracle and a continuing commitment to deliver Oracle solutions. And with more than 30,000 Oracle partners around the world, Oracle needed a way for our customers to choose the right partner for their business. So how did Oracle meet this need? With the new partner program:  Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) Specialized. In this new program, Oracle partners are: Specialized :  Differentiating themselves from the competition with expertise that set them apart Recognized:  Being acknowledged for investing in becoming Oracle experts in specialized areas. Preferred :  Connecting with potential customers who are seeking  value-added solutions for their business OPN Specialized provides all partners with educational opportunities, training, and tools specially designed to build competency and grow business.  Partners can serve their customers better through key resources:OPN Specialized Knowledge Zones – Located on the updated and enhanced OPN portal— provide a single point of entry for all education and training information for Oracle partners. Enablement 2.0 Resources —Enablement 2.0 helps Oracle partners build their competencies and skills through a variety of educational opportunities and expanded training choices. These resources include: Enablement 2.0 “Boot camps” provide three-tiered learning levels that help jump-start partner training The role-based training covers Oracle’s application and technology products and offers a combination of classroom lectures, hands-on lab exercises, and case studies. Enablement 2.0 Interactive guided learning paths (GLPs) with recommendations on how to achieve specialization Upgraded partner solution kits Enhanced, specialized business centers available 24/7 around the globe on the OPN portal OPN Competency Center—Tracking ProgressThe OPN Competency Center keeps track as a partner applies for and achieves specialization in selected areas. You start with an assessment that compares your organization’s current skills and experience with the requirements for specialization in the area you have chosen. The OPN Competency Center then provides a roadmap that itemizes the skills and the knowledge you need to earn specialized status. In summary, OPN Specialization not only includes key training resources but a way to track and show progression for your partner organization. Q: What is are the OPN Membership Levels and what are the benefits?A:  Christine: The base OPN membership levels are: Remarketer: At the Remarketer level, retailers can choose to resell select Oracle products with the backing of authorized, regionally located, value-added distributors (VADs). The Remarketer level has no fees and no partner agreement with Oracle, but does offer online training and sales tools through the OPN portal.Program Details: RemarketerSilver Level: The Silver level is for Oracle partners who are focused on reselling and developing business with products ordered through the Oracle 1-Click Ordering Program. The Silver level provides a cost-effective, yet scalable way for partners to start an OPN Specialized membership and offers a substantial set of benefits that lets partners increase their competitive positioning. Program Details: SilverGold Level: Gold-level partners have the ability to specialize, helping them grow their business and create differentiation in the marketplace. Oracle partners at the Gold level can develop, sell, or implement the full stack of Oracle solutions and can apply to resell Oracle Applications.Program Details: GoldPlatinum Level: The Platinum level is for Oracle partners who want the highest level of benefits and are committed to reaching a minimum of five specializations. Platinum partners are recognized for their expertise in a broad range of products and technology, and receive dedicated support from Oracle.Program Details: PlatinumIn addition we recently introduced a new level:Diamond Level: This level is the most prestigious level of OPN Specialized. It allows companies to differentiate further because of their focused depth and breadth of their expertise. Program Details: DiamondSo as you can see there are various levels cost effective ways that Partners can get assistance, differentiation through OPN membership. Q: What role does the Oracle's World Wide Alliances & Channels (WWA&C), Partner Enablement teams and the WebCenter Community play?  A: Brian: Oracle’s WWA&C teams are responsible for manage relationships, educating their teams, creating go-to-market solutions and fostering communities for Oracle partners worldwide.  The WebCenter Partner Enablement Middleware Team is tasked to create, manage and distribute Specialization resources for the WebCenter Partner community. Q: What WebCenter Specializations are currently available?A: Christine:  As of now here are the following WebCenter Specializations and their availability: Oracle WebCenter Portal Specialization (Oracle WebCenter Portal): Available NowThe Oracle WebCenter Specialization provides insight into the following products: WebCenter Services, WebCenter Spaces, and WebLogic Portal.Oracle WebCenter Specialized Partners can efficiently use Oracle WebCenter products to create social applications, enterprise portals, communities, composite applications, and Internet or intranet Web sites on a standards-based, service-oriented architecture (SOA). The suite combines the development of rich internet applications; a multi-channel portal framework; and a suite of horizontal WebCenter applications, which provide content, presence, and social networking capabilities to create a highly interactive user experience. Oracle WebCenter Content Specialization: Available NowThe Oracle WebCenter Content Specialization provides insight into the following products; Universal Content Management, WebCenter Records Management, WebCenter Imaging, WebCenter Distributed Capture, and WebCenter Capture.Oracle WebCenter Content Specialized Partners can efficiently build content-rich business applications, reuse content, and integrate hundreds of content services with other business applications. This allows our customers to decrease costs, automate processes, reduce resource bottlenecks, share content effectively, minimize the number of lost documents, and better manage risk. Oracle WebCenter Sites Specialization: Available Q1 2012Oracle WebCenter Sites is part of the broader Oracle WebCenter platform that provides organizations with a complete customer experience management solution.  Partners that align with the new Oracle WebCenter Sites platform allow their customers organizations to: Leverage customer information from all channels and systems Manage interactions across all channels Unify commerce, merchandising, marketing, and service across all channels Provide personalized, choreographed consumer journeys across all channels Integrate order orchestration, supply chain management and order fulfillment Q: What criteria does the Partner organization need to achieve Specialization? What about individual Sales, PreSales & Implementation Specialist/Technical consultants?A: Brian: Each Oracle WebCenter Specialization has unique Business Criteria that must be met in order to achieve that Specialization.  This includes a unique number of transactions (co-sell, re-sell, and referral), customer references and then unique number of specialists as part of a partner team (Sales, Pre-Sales, Implementation, and Support).   Each WebCenter Specialization provides training resources (GLPs, BootCamps, Assessments and Exams for individuals on a partner’s staff to fulfill those requirements.  That criterion can be found for each Specialization on the Specialize tab for each WebCenter Knowledge Zone.  Here are the sample criteria, recommended courses, exams for the WebCenter Portal Specialization: WebCenter Portal Specialization Criteria Q: Do you have any suggestions on the best way for partners to get started if they would like to know more?A: Christine:   The best way to start is for partners is look at their business and core Oracle team focus and then look to become specialized in one or more areas.  Once you have selected the Specializations that are right for your business, you need to follow the first 3 key steps described below. The fourth step outlines the additional process to follow if you meet the criteria to be Advanced Specialized. Note that Step 4 may not be done without first following Steps 1-3.1. Join the Knowledge Zone(s) where you want to achieve Specialized status Go to the Knowledge Zone lick on the "Why Partner" tab Click on the "Join Knowledge Zone" link 2. Meet the Specialization criteria - Define and implement plans in your organization to achieve the competency and business criteria targets of the Specialization. (Note: Worldwide OPN members at the Gold, Platinum, or Diamond level and their Associates at the Gold, Platinum, or Diamond level may count their collective resources to meet the business and competency criteria required for specialization in this area.) 3. Apply for Specialization – when you have met the business and competency criteria required, inform Oracle by completing the following steps: Click on the "Specialize" tab in the Knowledge Zone Click on the "Apply Now" button Complete the online application form Oracle will validate the information provided, and once approved, you will receive notification from Oracle of your awarded Specialized status. Need more information? Access our Step by Step Guide (PDF) 4. Apply for Advanced Specialization (Optional) – If your company has on staff 50 unique Certified Implementation Specialists in your company's approved Specialization's product set, let Oracle know by following these steps: Ensure that you have 50 or more unique individuals that are Certified Implementation Specialists in the specific Specialization awarded to your company If you are pooling resources from another Associate or Worldwide entity, ensure you know that company’s name and country Have your Oracle PRM Administrator complete the online Advanced Specialization Application Oracle will validate the information provided, and once approved, you will receive notification from Oracle of your awarded Advanced Specialized status. There are additional resources on OPN as well as the broader WebCenter Community: v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} Normal 0 false false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}

  Read the article

• Why does my sharepoint web part event handler lose the sender value on postback?

  - by vishal shah

  I have a web part which is going to be a part of pair of connected web parts. For simplicity, I am just describing the consumer web part. This web part has 10 link buttons on it. And they are rendered in the Render method instead ofCreateChildControls as this webpart will be receiving values based on input from the provider web part. Each Link Button has a text which is decided dynamically based on the input from provider web part. When I click on any of the Link Buttons, the event handler is triggered but the text on the Link Button shows up as the one set in CreateChildControls. When I trace the code, I see that the CreateChildControls gets called before the event handler (and i think that resets my Link Buttons). How do I get the event handler to show me the dynamic text instead? Here is the code... public class consWebPart : Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.WebPart { private bool _error = false; private LinkButton[] lkDocument = null; public consWebPart() { this.ExportMode = WebPartExportMode.All; } protected override void CreateChildControls() { if (!_error) { try { base.CreateChildControls(); lkDocument = new LinkButton[101]; for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) { lkDocument[i] = new LinkButton(); lkDocument[i].ID = "lkDocument" + i; lkDocument[i].Text = "Initial Text"; lkDocument[i].Style.Add("margin", "10 10 10 10px"); this.Controls.Add(lkDocument[i]); lkDocument[i].Click += new EventHandler(lkDocument_Click); } } catch (Exception ex) { HandleException(ex); } } } protected override void Render(HtmlTextWriter writer) { writer.Write("<table><tr>"); for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) { writer.Write("<tr>"); lkDocument[i].Text = "LinkButton" + i; writer.Write("<td>"); lkDocument[i].RenderControl(writer); writer.Write("</td>"); writer.Write("</tr>"); } writer.Write("</table>"); } protected void lkDocument_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { string strsender = sender.ToString(); LinkButton lk = (LinkButton)sender; } protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e) { if (!_error) { try { base.OnLoad(e); this.EnsureChildControls(); } catch (Exception ex) { HandleException(ex); } } } private void HandleException(Exception ex) { this._error = true; this.Controls.Clear(); this.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl(ex.Message)); } }

  Read the article

• Running a simple integration scenario using the Oracle Big Data Connectors on Hadoop/HDFS cluster

  - by hamsun

  Between the elephant ( the tradional image of the Hadoop framework) and the Oracle Iron Man (Big Data..) an english setter could be seen as the link to the right data Data, Data, Data, we are living in a world where data technology based on popular applications , search engines, Webservers, rich sms messages, email clients, weather forecasts and so on, have a predominant role in our life. More and more technologies are used to analyze/track our behavior, try to detect patterns, to propose us "the best/right user experience" from the Google Ad services, to Telco companies or large consumer sites (like Amazon:) ). The more we use all these technologies, the more we generate data, and thus there is a need of huge data marts and specific hardware/software servers (as the Exadata servers) in order to treat/analyze/understand the trends and offer new services to the users. Some of these "data feeds" are raw, unstructured data, and cannot be processed effectively by normal SQL queries. Large scale distributed processing was an emerging infrastructure need and the solution seemed to be the "collocation of compute nodes with the data", which in turn leaded to MapReduce parallel patterns and the development of the Hadoop framework, which is based on MapReduce and a distributed file system (HDFS) that runs on larger clusters of rather inexpensive servers. Several Oracle products are using the distributed / aggregation pattern for data calculation ( Coherence, NoSql, times ten ) so once that you are familiar with one of these technologies, lets says with coherence aggregators, you will find the whole Hadoop, MapReduce concept very similar. Oracle Big Data Appliance is based on the Cloudera Distribution (CDH), and the Oracle Big Data Connectors can be plugged on a Hadoop cluster running the CDH distribution or equivalent Hadoop clusters. In this paper, a "lab like" implementation of this concept is done on a single Linux X64 server, running an Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.4.0, and a single node Apache hadoop-1.2.1 HDFS cluster, using the SQL connector for HDFS. The whole setup is fairly simple: Install on a Linux x64 server ( or virtual box appliance) an Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.4.0 server Get the Apache Hadoop distribution from: http://mir2.ovh.net/ftp.apache.org/dist/hadoop/common/hadoop-1.2.1. Get the Oracle Big Data Connectors from: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/bdc/big-data-connectors/downloads/index.html?ssSourceSiteId=ocomen. Check the java version of your Linux server with the command: java -version java version "1.7.0_40" Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_40-b43) Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 24.0-b56, mixed mode) Decompress the hadoop hadoop-1.2.1.tar.gz file to /u01/hadoop-1.2.1 Modify your .bash_profile export HADOOP_HOME=/u01/hadoop-1.2.1 export PATH=$PATH:$HADOOP_HOME/bin export HIVE_HOME=/u01/hive-0.11.0 export PATH=$PATH:$HADOOP_HOME/bin:$HIVE_HOME/bin (also see my sample .bash_profile) Set up ssh trust for Hadoop process, this is a mandatory step, in our case we have to establish a "local trust" as will are using a single node configuration copy the new public keys to the list of authorized keys connect and test the ssh setup to your localhost: We will run a "pseudo-Hadoop cluster", in what is called "local standalone mode", all the Hadoop java components are running in one Java process, this is enough for our demo purposes. We need to "fine tune" some Hadoop configuration files, we have to go at our $HADOOP_HOME/conf, and modify the files: core-site.xml hdfs-site.xml mapred-site.xml check that the hadoop binaries are referenced correctly from the command line by executing: hadoop -version As Hadoop is managing our "clustered HDFS" file system we have to create "the mount point" and format it , the mount point will be declared to core-site.xml as: The layout under the /u01/hadoop-1.2.1/data will be created and used by other hadoop components (MapReduce = /mapred/...) HDFS is using the /dfs/... layout structure format the HDFS hadoop file system: Start the java components for the HDFS system As an additional check, you can use the GUI Hadoop browsers to check the content of your HDFS configurations: Once our HDFS Hadoop setup is done you can use the HDFS file system to store data ( big data : )), and plug them back and forth to Oracle Databases by the means of the Big Data Connectors ( which is the next configuration step). You can create / use a Hive db, but in our case we will make a simple integration of "raw data" , through the creation of an External Table to a local Oracle instance ( on the same Linux box, we run the Hadoop HDFS one node cluster and one Oracle DB). Download some public "big data", I use the site: http://france.meteofrance.com/france/observations, from where I can get *.csv files for my big data simulations :). Here is the data layout of my example file: Download the Big Data Connector from the OTN (oraosch-2.2.0.zip), unzip it to your local file system (see picture below) Modify your environment in order to access the connector libraries , and make the following test: [oracle@dg1 bin]$./hdfs_stream Usage: hdfs_stream locationFile [oracle@dg1 bin]$ Load the data to the Hadoop hdfs file system: hadoop fs -mkdir bgtest_data hadoop fs -put obsFrance.txt bgtest_data/obsFrance.txt hadoop fs -ls /user/oracle/bgtest_data/obsFrance.txt [oracle@dg1 bg-data-raw]$ hadoop fs -ls /user/oracle/bgtest_data/obsFrance.txt Found 1 items -rw-r--r-- 1 oracle supergroup 54103 2013-10-22 06:10 /user/oracle/bgtest_data/obsFrance.txt [oracle@dg1 bg-data-raw]$hadoop fs -ls hdfs:///user/oracle/bgtest_data/obsFrance.txt Found 1 items -rw-r--r-- 1 oracle supergroup 54103 2013-10-22 06:10 /user/oracle/bgtest_data/obsFrance.txt Check the content of the HDFS with the browser UI: Start the Oracle database, and run the following script in order to create the Oracle database user, the Oracle directories for the Oracle Big Data Connector (dg1 it’s my own db id replace accordingly yours): #!/bin/bash export ORAENV_ASK=NO export ORACLE_SID=dg1 . oraenv sqlplus /nolog <<EOF CONNECT / AS sysdba; CREATE OR REPLACE DIRECTORY osch_bin_path AS '/u01/orahdfs-2.2.0/bin'; CREATE USER BGUSER IDENTIFIED BY oracle; GRANT CREATE SESSION, CREATE TABLE TO BGUSER; GRANT EXECUTE ON sys.utl_file TO BGUSER; GRANT READ, EXECUTE ON DIRECTORY osch_bin_path TO BGUSER; CREATE OR REPLACE DIRECTORY BGT_LOG_DIR as '/u01/BG_TEST/logs'; GRANT READ, WRITE ON DIRECTORY BGT_LOG_DIR to BGUSER; CREATE OR REPLACE DIRECTORY BGT_DATA_DIR as '/u01/BG_TEST/data'; GRANT READ, WRITE ON DIRECTORY BGT_DATA_DIR to BGUSER; EOF Put the following in a file named t3.sh and make it executable, hadoop jar $OSCH_HOME/jlib/orahdfs.jar \ oracle.hadoop.exttab.ExternalTable \ -D oracle.hadoop.exttab.tableName=BGTEST_DP_XTAB \ -D oracle.hadoop.exttab.defaultDirectory=BGT_DATA_DIR \ -D oracle.hadoop.exttab.dataPaths="hdfs:///user/oracle/bgtest_data/obsFrance.txt" \ -D oracle.hadoop.exttab.columnCount=7 \ -D oracle.hadoop.connection.url=jdbc:oracle:thin:@//localhost:1521/dg1 \ -D oracle.hadoop.connection.user=BGUSER \ -D oracle.hadoop.exttab.printStackTrace=true \ -createTable --noexecute then test the creation fo the external table with it: [oracle@dg1 samples]$ ./t3.sh ./t3.sh: line 2: /u01/orahdfs-2.2.0: Is a directory Oracle SQL Connector for HDFS Release 2.2.0 - Production Copyright (c) 2011, 2013, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Enter Database Password:] The create table command was not executed. The following table would be created. CREATE TABLE "BGUSER"."BGTEST_DP_XTAB" ( "C1" VARCHAR2(4000), "C2" VARCHAR2(4000), "C3" VARCHAR2(4000), "C4" VARCHAR2(4000), "C5" VARCHAR2(4000), "C6" VARCHAR2(4000), "C7" VARCHAR2(4000) ) ORGANIZATION EXTERNAL ( TYPE ORACLE_LOADER DEFAULT DIRECTORY "BGT_DATA_DIR" ACCESS PARAMETERS ( RECORDS DELIMITED BY 0X'0A' CHARACTERSET AL32UTF8 STRING SIZES ARE IN CHARACTERS PREPROCESSOR "OSCH_BIN_PATH":'hdfs_stream' FIELDS TERMINATED BY 0X'2C' MISSING FIELD VALUES ARE NULL ( "C1" CHAR(4000), "C2" CHAR(4000), "C3" CHAR(4000), "C4" CHAR(4000), "C5" CHAR(4000), "C6" CHAR(4000), "C7" CHAR(4000) ) ) LOCATION ( 'osch-20131022081035-74-1' ) ) PARALLEL REJECT LIMIT UNLIMITED; The following location files would be created. osch-20131022081035-74-1 contains 1 URI, 54103 bytes 54103 hdfs://localhost:19000/user/oracle/bgtest_data/obsFrance.txt Then remove the --noexecute flag and create the external Oracle table for the Hadoop data. Check the results: The create table command succeeded. CREATE TABLE "BGUSER"."BGTEST_DP_XTAB" ( "C1" VARCHAR2(4000), "C2" VARCHAR2(4000), "C3" VARCHAR2(4000), "C4" VARCHAR2(4000), "C5" VARCHAR2(4000), "C6" VARCHAR2(4000), "C7" VARCHAR2(4000) ) ORGANIZATION EXTERNAL ( TYPE ORACLE_LOADER DEFAULT DIRECTORY "BGT_DATA_DIR" ACCESS PARAMETERS ( RECORDS DELIMITED BY 0X'0A' CHARACTERSET AL32UTF8 STRING SIZES ARE IN CHARACTERS PREPROCESSOR "OSCH_BIN_PATH":'hdfs_stream' FIELDS TERMINATED BY 0X'2C' MISSING FIELD VALUES ARE NULL ( "C1" CHAR(4000), "C2" CHAR(4000), "C3" CHAR(4000), "C4" CHAR(4000), "C5" CHAR(4000), "C6" CHAR(4000), "C7" CHAR(4000) ) ) LOCATION ( 'osch-20131022081719-3239-1' ) ) PARALLEL REJECT LIMIT UNLIMITED; The following location files were created. osch-20131022081719-3239-1 contains 1 URI, 54103 bytes 54103 hdfs://localhost:19000/user/oracle/bgtest_data/obsFrance.txt This is the view from the SQL Developer: and finally the number of lines in the oracle table, imported from our Hadoop HDFS cluster SQL select count(*) from "BGUSER"."BGTEST_DP_XTAB"; COUNT(*) ---------- 1151 In a next post we will integrate data from a Hive database, and try some ODI integrations with the ODI Big Data connector. Our simplistic approach is just a step to show you how these unstructured data world can be integrated to Oracle infrastructure. Hadoop, BigData, NoSql are great technologies, they are widely used and Oracle is offering a large integration infrastructure based on these services. Oracle University presents a complete curriculum on all the Oracle related technologies: NoSQL: Introduction to Oracle NoSQL Database Using Oracle NoSQL Database Big Data: Introduction to Big Data Oracle Big Data Essentials Oracle Big Data Overview Oracle Data Integrator: Oracle Data Integrator 12c: New Features Oracle Data Integrator 11g: Integration and Administration Oracle Data Integrator: Administration and Development Oracle Data Integrator 11g: Advanced Integration and Development Oracle Coherence 12c: Oracle Coherence 12c: New Features Oracle Coherence 12c: Share and Manage Data in Clusters Oracle Coherence 12c: Oracle GoldenGate 11g: Fundamentals for Oracle Oracle GoldenGate 11g: Fundamentals for SQL Server Oracle GoldenGate 11g Fundamentals for Oracle Oracle GoldenGate 11g Fundamentals for DB2 Oracle GoldenGate 11g Fundamentals for Teradata Oracle GoldenGate 11g Fundamentals for HP NonStop Oracle GoldenGate 11g Management Pack: Overview Oracle GoldenGate 11g Troubleshooting and Tuning Oracle GoldenGate 11g: Advanced Configuration for Oracle Other Resources: Apache Hadoop : http://hadoop.apache.org/ is the homepage for these technologies. "Hadoop Definitive Guide 3rdEdition" by Tom White is a classical lecture for people who want to know more about Hadoop , and some active "googling " will also give you some more references. About the author: Eugene Simos is based in France and joined Oracle through the BEA-Weblogic Acquisition, where he worked for the Professional Service, Support, end Education for major accounts across the EMEA Region. He worked in the banking sector, ATT, Telco companies giving him extensive experience on production environments. Eugen currently specializes in Oracle Fusion Middleware teaching an array of courses on Weblogic/Webcenter, Content,BPM /SOA/Identity-Security/GoldenGate/Virtualisation/Unified Comm Suite) throughout the EMEA region.

  Read the article

• Windows 8 Will be Here Tomorrow; but Should Silverlight be Gone Today?

  - by andrewbrust

  The software industry lives within an interesting paradox. IT in the enterprise moves slowly and cautiously, upgrading only when safe and necessary.  IT interests intentionally live in the past.  On the other hand, developers, and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) not only want to use the latest and greatest technologies, but this constituency prides itself on gauging tech’s future, and basing its present-day strategy upon it.  Normally, we as an industry manage this paradox with a shrug of the shoulder and musings along the lines of “it takes all kinds.”  Different subcultures have different tendencies.  So be it. Microsoft, with its Windows operating system (OS), can’t take such a laissez-faire view of the world though.  Redmond relies on IT to deploy Windows and (at the very least) influence its procurement, but it also relies on developers to build software for Windows, especially software that has a dependency on features in new versions of the OS.  It must indulge and nourish developers’ fetish for an early birthing of the next generation of software, even as it acknowledges the IT reality that the next wave will arrive on-schedule in Redmond and will travel very slowly to end users. With the move to Windows 8, and the corresponding shift in application development models, this paradox is certainly in place. On the one hand, the next version of Windows is widely expected sometime in 2012, and its full-scale deployment will likely push into 2014 or even later.  Meanwhile, there’s a technology that runs on today’s Windows 7, will continue to run in the desktop mode of Windows 8 (the next version’s codename), and provides absolutely the best architectural bridge to the Windows 8 Metro-style application development stack.  That technology is Silverlight.  And given what we now know about Windows 8, one might think, as I do, that Microsoft ecosystem developers should be flocking to it. But because developers are trying to get a jump on the future, and since many of them believe the impending v5.0 release of Silverlight will be the technology’s last, not everyone is flocking to it; in fact some are fleeing from it.  Is this sensible?  Is it not unprecedented?  What options does it lead to?  What’s the right way to think about the situation? Is v5.0 really the last major version of the technology called Silverlight?  We don’t know.  But Scott Guthrie, the “father” and champion of the technology, left the Developer Division of Microsoft months ago to work on the Windows Azure team, and he took his people with him.  John Papa, who was a very influential Redmond-based evangelist for Silverlight (and is a Visual Studio Magazine author), left Microsoft completely.  About a year ago, when initial suspicion of Silverlight’s demise reached significant magnitude, Papa interviewed Guthrie on video and their discussion served to dispel developers’ fears; but now they’ve moved on. So read into that what you will and let’s suppose, for the sake of argument, speculation that Silverlight’s days of major revision and iteration are over now is correct.  Let’s assume the shine and glimmer has dimmed.  Let’s assume that any Silverlight application written today, and that therefore any investment of financial and human resources made in Silverlight development today, is destined for rework and extra investment in a few years, if the application’s platform needs to stay current. Is this really so different from any technology investment we make?  Every framework, language, runtime and operating system is subject to change, to improvement, to flux and, yes, to obsolescence.  What differs from project to project, is how near-term that obsolescence is and how disruptive the change will be.  The shift from .NET 1.1. to 2.0 was incremental.  Some of the further changes were too.  But the switch from Windows Forms to WPF was major, and the change from ASP.NET Web Services (asmx) to Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) was downright fundamental. Meanwhile, the transition to the .NET development model for Windows 8 Metro-style applications is actually quite gentle.  The finer points of this subject are covered nicely in Magenic’s excellent white paper “Assessing the Windows 8 Development Platform.” As the authors of that paper (including Rocky Lhotka)  point out, Silverlight code won’t just “port” to Windows 8.  And, no, Silverlight user interfaces won’t either; Metro always supports XAML, but that relationship is not commutative.  But the concepts, the syntax, the architecture and developers’ skills map from Silverlight to Windows 8 Metro and the Windows Runtime (WinRT) very nicely.  That’s not a coincidence.  It’s not an accident.  This is a protected transition.  It’s not a slap in the face. There are few things that are unnerving about this transition, which make it seem markedly different from others: The assumed end of the road for Silverlight is something many think they can see.  Instead of being ignorant of the technology’s expiration date, we believe we know it.  If ignorance is bliss, it would seem our situation lacks it. The new technology involving WinRT and Metro involves a name change from Silverlight. .NET, which underlies both Silverlight and the XAML approach to WinRT development, has just about reached 10 years of age.  That’s equivalent to 80 in human years, or so many fear. My take is that the combination of these three factors has contributed to what for many is a psychologically compelling case that Silverlight should be abandoned today and HTML 5 (the agnostic kind, not the Windows RT variety) should be embraced in its stead.  I understand the logic behind that.  I appreciate the preemptive, proactive, vigilant conscientiousness involved in its calculus.  But for a great many scenarios, I don’t agree with it.  HTML 5 clients, no matter how impressive their interactivity and the emulation of native application interfaces they present may be, are still second-class clients.  They are getting better, especially when hardware acceleration and fast processors are involved.  But they still lag.  They still feel like they’re emulating something, like they’re prototypes, like they’re not comfortable in their own skins.  They are based on compromise, and they feel compromised too. HTML 5/JavaScript development tools are getting better, and will get better still, but they are not as productive as tools for other environments, like Flash, like Silverlight or even more primitive tooling for iOS or Android.  HTML’s roots as a document markup language, rather than an application interface, create a disconnect that impedes productivity.  I do not necessarily think that problem is insurmountable, but it’s here today. If you’re building line-of-business applications, you need a first-class client and you need productivity.  Lack of productivity increases your costs and worsens your backlog.  A second class client will erode user satisfaction, which is never good.  Worse yet, this erosion will be inconspicuous, rather than easily identified and diagnosed, because the inferiority of an HTML 5 client over a native one is hard to identify and, notably, doing so at this juncture in the industry is unpopular.  Why would you fault a technology that everyone believes is revolutionary?  Instead, user disenchantment will remain latent and yet will add to the malaise caused by slower development. If you’re an ISV and you’re coveting the reach of running multi-platform, it’s a different story.  You’ve likely wanted to move to HTML 5 already, and the uncertainty around Silverlight may be the only remaining momentum or pretext you need to make the shift.  You’re deploying many more copies of your application than a line-of-business developer is anyway; this makes the economic hit from lower productivity less impactful, and the wider potential installed base might even make it profitable. But no matter who you are, it’s important to take stock of the situation and do it accurately.  Continued, but merely incremental changes in a development model lead to conservatism and general lack of innovation in the underlying platform.  Periods of stability and equilibrium are necessary, but permanence in that equilibrium leads to loss of platform relevance, market share and utility.  Arguably, that’s already happened to Windows.  The change Windows 8 brings is necessary and overdue.  The marked changes in using .NET if we’re to build applications for the new OS are inevitable.  We will ultimately benefit from the change, and what we can reasonably hope for in the interim is a migration path for our code and skills that is navigable, logical and conceptually comfortable. That path takes us to a place called WinRT, rather than a place called Silverlight.  But considering everything that is changing for the good, the number of disruptive changes is impressively minimal.  The name may be changing, and there may even be some significance to that in terms of Microsoft’s internal management of products and technologies.  But as the consumer, you should care about the ingredients, not the name.  Turkish coffee and Greek coffee are much the same. Although you’ll find plenty of interested parties who will find the names significant, drinkers of the beverage should enjoy either one.  It’s all coffee, it’s all sweet, and you can tell your fortune from the grounds that are left at the end.  Back on the software side, it’s all XAML, and C# or VB .NET, and you can make your fortune from the product that comes out at the end.  Coffee drinkers wouldn’t switch to tea.  Why should XAML developers switch to HTML?

  Read the article

• Flushing a queue using AMQP, Rabbit, and Ruby

  - by jeffshantz

  I'm developing a system in Ruby that is going to make use of RabbitMQ to send messages to a queue as it does some work. I am using: Ruby 1.9.1 Stable RabbitMQ 1.7.2 AMQP gem v0.6.7 (http://github.com/tmm1/amqp) Most of the examples I have seen on this gem have their publish calls in an EM.add_periodic_timer block. This doesn't work for what I suspect is a vast majority of use cases, and certainly not for mine. I need to publish a message as I complete some work, so putting a publish statement in an add_periodic_timer block doesn't suffice. So, I'm trying to figure out how to publish a few messages to a queue, and then "flush" it, so that any messages I've published are then delivered to my subscribers. To give you an idea of what I mean, consider the following publisher code: #!/usr/bin/ruby require 'rubygems' require 'mq' MESSAGES = ["hello","goodbye","test"] AMQP.start do queue = MQ.queue('testq') messages_published = 0 while (messages_published < 50) if (rand() < 0.4) message = MESSAGES[rand(MESSAGES.size)] puts "#{Time.now.to_s}: Publishing: #{message}" queue.publish(message) messages_published += 1 end sleep(0.1) end AMQP.stop do EM.stop end end So, this code simply loops, publishing a message with 40% probability on each iteration of the loop, and then sleeps for 0.1 seconds. It does this until 50 messages have been published, and then stops AMQP. Of course, this is just a proof of concept. Now, my subscriber code: #!/usr/bin/ruby require 'rubygems' require 'mq' AMQP.start do queue = MQ.queue('testq') queue.subscribe do |header, msg| puts "#{Time.now.to_s}: Received #{msg}" end end So, we just subscribe to the queue, and for each message received, we print it out. Great, except that the subscriber only receives all 50 messages when the publisher calls AMQP.stop. Here's the output from my publisher. It has been truncated in the middle for brevity: $ ruby publisher.rb 2010-04-14 21:45:42 -0400: Publishing: test 2010-04-14 21:45:42 -0400: Publishing: hello 2010-04-14 21:45:42 -0400: Publishing: test 2010-04-14 21:45:43 -0400: Publishing: test 2010-04-14 21:45:44 -0400: Publishing: test 2010-04-14 21:45:44 -0400: Publishing: goodbye 2010-04-14 21:45:45 -0400: Publishing: goodbye 2010-04-14 21:45:45 -0400: Publishing: test 2010-04-14 21:45:45 -0400: Publishing: test . . . 2010-04-14 21:45:55 -0400: Publishing: test 2010-04-14 21:45:55 -0400: Publishing: test 2010-04-14 21:45:55 -0400: Publishing: test 2010-04-14 21:45:55 -0400: Publishing: goodbye Next, the output from my subscriber: $ ruby consumer.rb 2010-04-14 21:45:56 -0400: Received test 2010-04-14 21:45:56 -0400: Received hello 2010-04-14 21:45:56 -0400: Received test 2010-04-14 21:45:56 -0400: Received test 2010-04-14 21:45:56 -0400: Received test 2010-04-14 21:45:56 -0400: Received goodbye 2010-04-14 21:45:56 -0400: Received goodbye 2010-04-14 21:45:56 -0400: Received test 2010-04-14 21:45:56 -0400: Received test . . . 2010-04-14 21:45:56 -0400: Received test 2010-04-14 21:45:56 -0400: Received test 2010-04-14 21:45:56 -0400: Received test 2010-04-14 21:45:56 -0400: Received goodbye If you note the timestamps in the output, the subscriber only receives all of the messages once the publisher has stopped AMQP and exited. So, being an AMQP newb, how can I get my messages to deliver immediately? I tried putting AMQP.start and AMQP.stop in the body of the while loop of the publisher, but then only the first message gets delivered -- though strangely, if I turn on logging, there are no error messages reported by the server and the messages do get sent to the queue, but never get received by the subscriber. Suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks for reading.

  Read the article

• The Information Driven Value Chain - Part 2

  - by Paul Homchick

  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99" LatentStyleCount="267" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/ UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/ /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750139 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoPapDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; margin-bottom:10.0pt; line-height:115%;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} -- /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} In the first installment of this series, we looked at how companies have been set adrift down a churning  rapids of fast moving data, and how their supply chains (which used to be only about purchasing and logistics) had grown into value chains encompassing everything from their supplier's vendors all the way to the end consumer. This time we will look at the way investments have been made in enterprise software in an effort to create and manage value, and how Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} systems are moving from a controlled-process approach design towards gathering and using dynamically using information. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}

  Read the article

• Want to be part of the most meaningful Customer Experience conversation today?

  - by Tony Berk

  v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Today's entry is written by Chris Warner, Director, Product Strategy at Oracle. By now you’ve undoubtedly seen the blogs and announcements about Oracle OpenWorld. And perhaps you’ve also seen the news about OpenWorld’s newest sister event: Oracle Customer Experience (CX) Summit @ OpenWorld. Oracle CX Summit was created to be the most meaningful CX event, to be truly unique, to serve as the place to discover what it takes and what it really means to put the customer at the center of your business success. One long-time Oracle customer, when told about the Oracle CX Summit, put it this way: ‘This makes me rethink how I think about Oracle and Customer Experience’. Listen to what she heard and you be the judge. We believe Customer Experience (‘CX’) is a movement, not just the latest ‘IT’ tech trend. CX isn’t something you can simply ‘install’. CX is one of the most strategic initiatives an organization can undertake. Customer Experience is about connecting with an organization’s most important asset, the customer, and the critical role that connection has to an organization’s success. And there’s never been a bigger gathering of the smartest CX minds, most successful CX companies, and innovative CX examples than Oracle CX Summit. Take Subaru, for example. The company fully embraced the CX opportunity and their CX leadership will be on stage at the Oracle CX Summit to share their CX journey. They radically changed the way they interact with their customers, empower their employees, and differentiate their brand. And this is a story with a phenomenal happy ending: in a stagnant market and shrinking economy, they GREW their business and outpaced their competition. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} At Oracle CX Summit, you will be surrounded by dozens of CX leaders, visionaries and innovators like Subaru. This three-day event brings together the largest collection of thought leaders and practitioners in Customer Experience ever. Notable presenters include: v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} Seth Godin - World-renowned blogger and one ‘the World’s Top 21 Speakers’, author of 14 best-selling books like “Permission Marketing”, and founder of dozens of startups such as Squidoo.com (ranked one of the top 125 sites in the US). Kerry Bodine - VP Principal Analyst at Forrester for Customer Experience, author of the just-published book “Outside In - The Power of Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business”, and renowned author of “The Customer Experience Ecosystem”. Bruce Temkin - Co-founder and Chair of the Customer Experience Professionals Association, revered blogger of “Customer Experience Matters”, former VP Principal Analyst at Forrester for Customer Experience, Founder and Managing Partner of The Temkin Group, a leading Customer Experience research and consulting firm. George Kembel - Executive Director and Co-founder of the Stanford Design School, an established, recognized thought leader in design thinking and innovation, and a Silicon Valley based-CEO, venture capitalist and educator. Gene Alvarez - VP Research Analyst at Gartner and a recognized authority in the Retail and Consumer Goods industry. Gene has been published, featured and referenced in a variety of trade publications for Customer Experience insights. Senior Executives from innovative Customer Experience brands and agencies like AT&T, Intuit, Southwest Airlines, Marriott, Quiksilver, and Sapient. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} But the CX Summit includes much, much more. There are over 30+ role-driven sessions and rountables as well as one-of-a-kind events including: v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} The Customer Experience Innovation Tent featuring hands-on demonstrations of bleeding-edge customer experiences like the Share Happy Ice Cream Machine A hands-on Customer Journey Mapping Workshop that lets you learn design thinking techniques for innovating differentiated experiences that drive cross-functional alignment Access to the Oracle OpenWorld Exhibition Halls and DEMOgrounds as well as a week-long Live Music Festival and the Oracle Appreciation Event featuring Pearl Jam and Kings of Leon Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} At Oracle, we are quite proud of our award-winning suite of CX products, a suite of solutions that can help an organization greatly accelerate their CX journey. But Oracle CX Summit isn’t about products. It’s about how an organization can succeed in its CX initiative. There’s never been a bigger gathering of the smartest CX minds, most successful CX companies, and innovative CX examples than Oracle CX Summit. Come join the Customer Experience Revolution. Register for Oracle CX Summit @ OpenWorld here. v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} --

  Read the article

• The Internet of Things & Commerce: Part 3 -- Interview with Kristen J. Flanagan, Commerce Product Management

  - by Katrina Gosek, Director | Commerce Product Strategy-Oracle

  Internet of Things & Commerce Series: Part 3 (of 3) And now for the final installment my three part series on the Internet of Things & Commerce. Post one, “The Next 7,000 Days”, introduced the idea of the Internet of Things, followed by a second post interviewing one of our chief commerce innovation strategists, Brian Celenza.  This final post in the series is an interview with Kristen J. Flanagan, lead product manager for Oracle Commerce omnichannel strategy. She takes us through the past, present, and future of how our Commerce Solution is re-imagining the way physical and digital shopping come together. ------- QUESTION: It’s your job to stay on top of what our customers’ need to not only run their online businesses effectively, but also to make sure they have product capabilities they can innovate and grow on. What key trend has been top-of-mind for you and our customers around this collision of physical and digital shopping? Kristen: I’ll agree with Brian Celenza that hands down mobile has forced a major disruption in shopping and selling behavior. A few years ago, mobile exploded at a pace I don't think anyone was expecting. Early on, we saw our customers scrambling to establish a mobile presence---mostly through "screen scraping" technologies. As smartphones continued to advance (at lightening speed!), our customers started to investigate ways to truly tap in to their eCommerce capabilities to deliver the mobile experience. They started looking to us for a means of using the eCommerce services and capabilities to deliver a mobile experience that is tailored for mobile rather than the desktop experience on a smaller screen. In the future, I think we'll see customers starting to really understand what their shoppers need and expect from a mobile offering and how they can adapt their content and delivery of that content to meet those needs. And, mobile shopping doesn’t stop at the consumer / buyer. Because the in-store experience is compelling and has advantages that digital just can't offer, we're also starting to see the eCommerce services being leveraged for mobile for in-store sales associates. Brick-and-mortar retailers are interested in putting the omnichannel product catalog, promotions, and cart into the hands of knowledgeable associates. Retailers are now looking to connect and harness the eCommerce data in-store so that shoppers have a reason to walk-in. I think we'll be seeing a lot more customers thinking about melding the in-store and digital experiences to present a richer offering for shoppers.    QUESTION: What are some examples of what our customers are doing currently to bring these concepts to reality? Kristen: Well, without question, connecting digital and brick-and-mortar worlds is becoming tablestakes for selling experiences. If a brand has a foot in both worlds (i.e., isn’t a pureplay online retailer), they have to connect the dots because shoppers – whether consumers or B2B buyers –don't think in clearly defined channels anymore. The expectation is connectedness – for on- and offline experiences, promotions, products, and customer data. What does this mean practically for businesses selling goods on- and offline? It touches a lot of systems: inventory info on the eCommerce site, fulfillment options across channels (buy online/pickup in store), order information (representing various channels for a cohesive view of shopper order history), promotions across digital and store, etc.  A few years ago, the main link between store and digital was the smartphone. We all remember when “apps” became a thing and many of our customers were scrambling to get a native app out there. Now we're seeing more strategic thinking around the benefits of mobile web vs. native and how that ties in to the purpose and role of mobile within the digital channel. Put it more broadly, how these pieces fit together in the overall brand puzzle.  The same could be said for “showrooming.” Where it was a major concern (i.e., shoppers using stores to look at merchandise and then order online from Amazon), in recent months, it’s emerged that the inverse is now becoming a a reality as well. "Webrooming" (using digital sites to do research before making a purchase in the store) is a new behavior pure play retailers are challenged with. There are many technologies, behaviors, and information that need to tie together to offer a holistic omnichannel shopping experience. As a result, brands are looking for ways to connect the digital and in-store experiences to bridge the gaps: shared assortments across channels, assisted selling apps that arm associates with information about shoppers, shared promotions, inventory, etc. QUESTION: How has Oracle Commerce been built to help brands make the link between in-store and digital over the last few years? Kristen: Over the last seven years, the product has been in step with the changes in industry needs. Here is a brief history of the evolution: Prior to Oracle’s acquisition of ATG and Endeca, key investments were made to cross-channel functionality that we are still building on today. Commerce Service Center (v2007.1) ATG introduced the Commerce Service Center in 2007.1 and marked the first entry into what was then called “cross-channel.” The Commerce Service Center is a call-center-agent-facing application that enables agents to see shopper orders, online catalog, promotions, and pricing. It is tightly integrated with the eCommerce capabilities of the platform and commerce engine and provided a means of connecting data from the call center and online channels.  REST services framework (v9.1)  In v9.1 we introduced the REST services framework and interface in the Platform that enabled customers to use ATG web services in other applications. This framework has become the basis for our subsequent omni-channel features and functionality. Multisite Architecture (v10) With the v10 release, we introduced the Multisite Architecture, which enabled customers to manage multiple sites (and channels) within a single instance of the BCC. Customers could create site- and channel-specific catalogs, promotions, targeters, and scenarios. Endeca Page Builder (2.x) / Experience Manager (3.x) With the introduction of Endeca for Mobile (now part of the core platform, available through the reference store – see blow) on top of Page Builder (and then eventually Experience Manager), Endeca gave business users the tools to create and manage native and mobile web applications. And since the acquisition of both ATG (2011) and Endeca (2012), Oracle Commerce has leveraged the best of each leading technology’s capabilities for omnichannel commerce to continue to drive innovation for our customers. Service enablement of core Oracle Commerce capabilities (v10.1.1, 10.2, & 11) After the establishment of the REST services framework and interface, we followed up in subsequent releases with service enablement of core Oracle Commerce capabilities throughout the iOS native app and the enablement of the core Commerce Service Center features. The result is that customers can leverage these services for their integrations with other systems, as well as their omnichannel initiatives.  Mobile web reference application (v10.1) In 10.1 we introduced the shopper-facing mobile reference application that showed how to use Oracle Commerce to deliver a mobile web experience for shoppers. This included the use of Experience Manager and cartridges to drive those experiences on select pages.  Native (iOS) reference application (v10.1.1)  We came out with the 10.1.1 shopper-facing native iOS ref app that illustrated how to use the Commerce REST services to deliver an iOS app. Also included Experience Manager-driven pages.   Assisted Selling reference application (v10.2.1)  The Assisted Selling reference application is our first reference application designed for the in-store associate. This iOS app shows customers how they can use Oracle Commerce data and information to provide a high-touch, consultative sales environment as well as to put the endless aisle into hands of their associates. Shoppers can start a cart online, and in-store associates can access that cart via the application to provide more information or add products and then transact using the ATG engine. Support for Retail promotions (v11) As part of the v11 release, we worked with teams in the Oracle Retail Global Business Unit (RGBU) to assess which promotion types and capabilities are supported across our products. Those products included Oracle Commerce, Oracle Point of Service (ORPOS), and Oracle Retail Price Management (RPM). The result is that customers can now more easily support omnichannel use cases between the store and digital.  Making sure Oracle Commerce can help support the omnichannel needs of our customers is core to our product strategy. With 89% of consumers now use two or more channels to make a single purchase, ensuring that cross-channel interactions are linked is critical to a great customer experience – and to sales. As Oracle Commerce evolves, we want to make it simple for organizations to create, deliver, and scale experiences across touchpoints with our create once, deploy commerce anywhere framework. We have a flexible, services-oriented architecture that allows data, content, catalogs, cart, experiences, personalization, and merchandising to be shared across touchpoints and easily extended in to new environments like mobile, social, in-store, Call Center, and new Websites. [For the latest downloads and Oracle Commerce documentation, please visit the Oracle Technical Network.] ------ Thank you to both Brian and Kristen for their contributions and to this blog series and their continued thought leadership for Oracle Commerce. We are all looking forward to the coming years of months of new shopping behaviors and opportunities to innovate. Because – if the digital fabric of our everyday lives continues to change at the same pace – the next five years (that just under 2,000 days), will be dramatic. ---------- THIS DOCUMENT IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND MAY NOT BE INCORPORATED INTO A CONTRACT OR AGREEMENT

  Read the article

• Combined Likelihood Models

  - by Lukas Vermeer

  In a series of posts on this blog we have already described a flexible approach to recording events, a technique to create analytical models for reporting, a method that uses the same principles to generate extremely powerful facet based predictions and a waterfall strategy that can be used to blend multiple (possibly facet based) models for increased accuracy. This latest, and also last, addition to this sequence of increasing modeling complexity will illustrate an advanced approach to amalgamate models, taking us to a whole new level of predictive modeling and analytical insights; combination models predicting likelihoods using multiple child models. The method described here is far from trivial. We therefore would not recommend you apply these techniques in an initial implementation of Oracle Real-Time Decisions. In most cases, basic RTD models or the approaches described before will provide more than enough predictive accuracy and analytical insight. The following is intended as an example of how more advanced models could be constructed if implementation results warrant the increased implementation and design effort. Keep implemented statistics simple! Combining likelihoods Because facet based predictions are based on metadata attributes of the choices selected, it is possible to generate such predictions for more than one attribute of a choice. We can predict the likelihood of acceptance for a particular product based on the product category (e.g. ‘toys’), as well as based on the color of the product (e.g. ‘pink’). Of course, these two predictions may be completely different (the customer may well prefer toys, but dislike pink products) and we will have to somehow combine these two separate predictions to determine an overall likelihood of acceptance for the choice. Perhaps the simplest way to combine multiple predicted likelihoods into one is to calculate the average (or perhaps maximum or minimum) likelihood. However, this would completely forgo the fact that some facets may have a far more pronounced effect on the overall likelihood than others (e.g. customers may consider the product category more important than its color). We could opt for calculating some sort of weighted average, but this would require us to specify up front the relative importance of the different facets involved. This approach would also be unresponsive to changing consumer behavior in these preferences (e.g. product price bracket may become more important to consumers as a result of economic shifts). Preferably, we would want Oracle Real-Time Decisions to learn, act upon and tell us about, the correlations between the different facet models and the overall likelihood of acceptance. This additional level of predictive modeling, where a single supermodel (no pun intended) combines the output of several (facet based) models into a single prediction, is what we call a combined likelihood model. Facet Based Scores As an example, we have implemented three different facet based models (as described earlier) in a simple RTD inline service. These models will allow us to generate predictions for likelihood of acceptance for each product based on three different metadata fields: Category, Price Bracket and Product Color. We will use an Analytical Scores entity to store these different scores so we can easily pass them between different functions. A simple function, creatively named Compute Analytical Scores, will compute for each choice the different facet scores and return an Analytical Scores entity that is stored on the choice itself. For each score, a choice attribute referring to this entity is also added to be returned to the client to facilitate testing. One Offer To Predict Them All In order to combine the different facet based predictions into one single likelihood for each product, we will need a supermodel which can predict the likelihood of acceptance, based on the outcomes of the facet models. This model will not need to consider any of the attributes of the session, because they are already represented in the outcomes of the underlying facet models. For the same reason, the supermodel will not need to learn separately for each product, because the specific combination of facets for this product are also already represented in the output of the underlying models. In other words, instead of learning how session attributes influence acceptance of a particular product, we will learn how the outcomes of facet based models for a particular product influence acceptance at a higher level. We will therefore be using a single All Offers choice to represent all offers in our combined likelihood predictions. This choice has no attribute values configured, no scores and not a single eligibility rule; nor is it ever intended to be returned to a client. The All Offers choice is to be used exclusively by the Combined Likelihood Acceptance model to predict the likelihood of acceptance for all choices; based solely on the output of the facet based models defined earlier. The Switcheroo In Oracle Real-Time Decisions, models can only learn based on attributes stored on the session. Therefore, just before generating a combined prediction for a given choice, we will temporarily copy the facet based scores—stored on the choice earlier as an Analytical Scores entity—to the session. The code for the Predict Combined Likelihood Event function is outlined below. // set session attribute to contain facet based scores. // (this is the only input for the combined model) session().setAnalyticalScores(choice.getAnalyticalScores); // predict likelihood of acceptance for All Offers choice. CombinedLikelihoodChoice c = CombinedLikelihood.getChoice("AllOffers"); Double la = CombinedLikelihoodAcceptance.getChoiceEventLikelihoods(c, "Accepted"); // clear session attribute of facet based scores. session().setAnalyticalScores(null); // return likelihood. return la; This sleight of hand will allow the Combined Likelihood Acceptance model to predict the likelihood of acceptance for the All Offers choice using these choice specific scores. After the prediction is made, we will clear the Analytical Scores session attribute to ensure it does not pollute any of the other (facet) models. To guarantee our combined likelihood model will learn based on the facet based scores—and is not distracted by the other session attributes—we will configure the model to exclude any other inputs, save for the instance of the Analytical Scores session attribute, on the model attributes tab. Recording Events In order for the combined likelihood model to learn correctly, we must ensure that the Analytical Scores session attribute is set correctly at the moment RTD records any events related to a particular choice. We apply essentially the same switching technique as before in a Record Combined Likelihood Event function. // set session attribute to contain facet based scores // (this is the only input for the combined model). session().setAnalyticalScores(choice.getAnalyticalScores); // record input event against All Offers choice. CombinedLikelihood.getChoice("AllOffers").recordEvent(event); // force learn at this moment using the Internal Dock entry point. Application.getPredictor().learn(InternalLearn.modelArray, session(), session(), Application.currentTimeMillis()); // clear session attribute of facet based scores. session().setAnalyticalScores(null); In this example, Internal Learn is a special informant configured as the learn location for the combined likelihood model. The informant itself has no particular configuration and does nothing in itself; it is used only to force the model to learn at the exact instant we have set the Analytical Scores session attribute to the correct values. Reporting Results After running a few thousand (artificially skewed) simulated sessions on our ILS, the Decision Center reporting shows some interesting results. In this case, these results reflect perfectly the bias we ourselves had introduced in our tests. In practice, we would obviously use a wider range of customer attributes and expect to see some more unexpected outcomes. The facetted model for categories has clearly picked up on the that fact our simulated youngsters have little interest in purchasing the one red-hot vehicle our ILS had on offer. Also, it would seem that customer age is an excellent predictor for the acceptance of pink products. Looking at the key drivers for the All Offers choice we can see the relative importance of the different facets to the prediction of overall likelihood. The comparative importance of the category facet for overall prediction might, in part, be explained by the clear preference of younger customers for toys over other product types; as evident from the report on the predictiveness of customer age for offer category acceptance. Conclusion Oracle Real-Time Decisions' flexible decisioning framework allows for the construction of exceptionally elaborate prediction models that facilitate powerful targeting, but nonetheless provide insightful reporting. Although few customers will have a direct need for such a sophisticated solution architecture, it is encouraging to see that this lies within the realm of the possible with RTD; and this with limited configuration and customization required. There are obviously numerous other ways in which the predictive and reporting capabilities of Oracle Real-Time Decisions can be expanded upon to tailor to individual customers needs. We will not be able to elaborate on them all on this blog; and finding the right approach for any given problem is often more difficult than implementing the solution. Nevertheless, we hope that these last few posts have given you enough of an understanding of the power of the RTD framework and its models; so that you can take some of these ideas and improve upon your own strategy. As always, if you have any questions about the above—or any Oracle Real-Time Decisions design challenges you might face—please do not hesitate to contact us; via the comments below, social media or directly at Oracle. We are completely multi-channel and would be more than glad to help. :-)

  Read the article

• CodePlex Daily Summary for Friday, August 10, 2012

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Friday, August 10, 2012Popular ReleasesMugen Injection: Mugen Injection 2.6: Fixed incorrect work with children when creating the MugenInjector. Added the ability to use the IActivator after create object using MethodBinding or CustomBinding. Added new fluent syntax for MethodBinding and CustomBinding. Added new features for working with the ModuleManagerComponent. Fixed some bugs.Windows Uninstaller: Windows Uninstaller v1.0: Delete Windows once You click on it. Your Anti Virus may think It is Virus because it delete Windows. Prepare a installation disc of any operating system before uninstall. ---Steps--- 1. Prepare a installation disc of any operating system. 2. Backup your files if needed. (Optional) 3. Run winuninstall.bat . 4. Your Computer will shut down, When Your Computer is shutting down, it is uninstalling Windows. 5. Re-Open your computer and quickly insert the installation disc and install the new ope...WinRT XAML Toolkit: WinRT XAML Toolkit - 1.1.2 (Win 8 RP) - Source: WinRT XAML Toolkit based on the Release Preview SDK. For compiled version use NuGet. From View/Other Windows/Package Manager Console enter: PM> Install-Package winrtxamltoolkit http://nuget.org/packages/winrtxamltoolkit Features Controls Converters Extensions IO helpers VisualTree helpers AsyncUI helpers New since 1.0.2 WatermarkTextBox control ImageButton control updates ImageToggleButton control WriteableBitmap extensions - darken, grayscale Fade in/out method and prope...WebDAV Test Application: v1.0.0.0: First releaseHTTP Server API Configuration: HttpSysManager 1.0: *Set Url ACL *Bind https endpoint to certificateFluentData -Micro ORM with a fluent API that makes it simple to query a database: FluentData version 2.3.0.0: - Added support for SQLite, PostgreSQL and IBM DB2. - Added new method, QueryDataTable which returns the query result as a datatable. - Fixed some issues. - Some refactoring. - Select builder with support for paging and improved support for auto mapping.jQuery Mobile C# ASP.NET: jquerymobile-18428.zip: Full source with AppHarbor, AppHarbor SQL, SQL Express, Windows Azure & SQL Azure hosting.eel Browser: eel 1.0.2 beta: Bug fixesJSON C# Class Generator: JSON CSharp Class Generator 1.3: Support for native JSON.net serializer/deserializer (POCO) New classes layout option: nested classes Better handling of secondary classesProgrammerTimer: ProgrammerTimer: app stays hidden in tray and periodically pops up (a small form in the bottom left corner) to notify that you need to rest while also displaying the time remaining to rest, once the resting time elapses it hides back to tray while app is hidden in tray you can double click it and it will pop up showing you working time remaining, double click again on the tray and it will hide clicking on the popup will hide it hovering the tray icon will show the state working/resting and time remainin...Axiom 3D Rendering Engine: v0.8.3376.12322: Changes Since v0.8.3102.12095 ===================================================================== Updated ndoc3 binaries to fix bug Added uninstall.ps1 to nuspec packages fixed revision component in version numbering Fixed sln referencing VS 11 Updated OpenTK Assemblies Added CultureInvarient to numeric parsing Added First Visual Studio 2010 Project Template (DirectX9) Updated SharpInputSystem Assemblies Backported fix for OpenGL Auto-created window not responding to input Fixed freeInterna...Captcha MVC: Captcha Mvc 2.1.1: v 2.1.1: Fixed problem with serialization. Minor changes. v 2.1: Added support for storing captcha in the session or cookie. See the updated example. Updated example. Minor changes. v 2.0.1: Added support for a partial captcha. Now you can easily customize the layout, see the updated example. Updated example. Minor changes. v 2.0: Completely rewritten the whole code. Now you can easily change or extend the current implementation of the captcha.(In the examples show how to add a...DotSpatial: DotSpatial 1.3: This is a Minor Release. See the changes in the issue tracker. Minimal -- includes DotSpatial core and essential extensions Extended -- includes debugging symbols and additional extensions Tutorials are available. Just want to run the software? End user (non-programmer) version available branded as MapWindow Want to add your own feature? Develop a plugin, using the template and contribute to the extension feed (you can also write extensions that you distribute in other ways). Components ...BugNET Issue Tracker: BugNET 1.0: This release brings performance enhancements, improvements and bug fixes throughout the application. Various parts of the UI have been made consistent with the rest of the application and custom queries have been improved to better handle custom fields. Spanish and Dutch languages were also added in this release. Special thanks to wrhighfield for his many contributions to this release! Upgrade Notes Please see this thread regarding changes to the web.config and files in this release. htt...Iveely Search Engine: Iveely Search Engine (0.1.0): ?????????，???????????。 This is a basic version, So you do not think it is a good Search Engine of this version, but one day it is. only basic on text search. ????： How to use: 1. ?????????IveelySE.Spider.exe ??，????????????，?????????（?????，???????，??????????????。） Find the file which named IveelySE.Spider.exe, and input you link string like "http://www.cnblogs.com",and enter. 2 . ???????，???????IveelySE.Index.exe ????，????。?????。 When the spider finish working,you can run anther file na...Video Frame Explorer: Beta 3: Fix small bugsJson.NET: Json.NET 4.5 Release 8: New feature - Serialize and deserialize multidimensional arrays New feature - Members on dynamic objects with JsonProperty/DataMember will now be included in serialized JSON New feature - LINQ to JSON load methods will read past preceding comments when loading JSON New feature - Improved error handling to return incomplete values upon reaching the end of JSON content Change - Improved performance and memory usage when serializing Unicode characters Change - The serializer now create...????: ????2.0.4: 1、??????????，?????、????、???????????。 2、???????????。RiP-Ripper & PG-Ripper: RiP-Ripper 2.9.32: changes NEW: Added Support for "ImgBox.com" links CHANGES: Switched Installer to InnoSetupjHtmlArea - WYSIWYG HTML Editor for jQuery: 0.7.5: Fixed "html" method Fixed jQuery UI Dialog ExampleNew ProjectsAuthorized Action Link Extension for ASP.NET MVC: ASP.NET HtmlHelper extension to only display links (or other text) if user is authorized for target controller action.AutoShutdown.NET: Automatically Shutdown, Hibernate, Lock, Standby or Logoff your computer with an full featured, easy to use applicationAvian Mortality Detection Entry Application: This application is written for Trimble Yuma rugged computers on Wind Farms. It allows the field staff to create and upload detentions of avian fatalities.China Coordinate: As all know, China's electronic map has specified offset. The goal of this project is to fix or correct the offset, and should as easy to use as possible.cnFederal: This project is supposed to show implementing several third party API:s using ASP.NET Web forms.ControlAccessUser: sadfsafadsDeskopeia: Experimental Deskopeia Project, not yet finisheddfect: Defect/Issue Tracking line of business application.Express Workflow: Express WorkflowGavin.Shop: A b2c Of mvc3+entityframework HTTP Server API Configuration: Friendly user interface substitute for netsh http. Configure http.sys easily.labalno: Films and moviesLibNiconico: ?????????????LifeFlow.Servicer: This project is only a day old, but the main goal is to create an easy way to create and maintain .NET-based REST servicesMemcached: Memcached is an in-memory key-value store for small chunks of arbitrary data (strings, objects) from results of database calls, API calls, or page rendering.MongoDB: MongoDB (from "humongous") is a scalable, high-performance, open source NoSQL database. Written in C++, MongoDB features:Network Gnome: An attempt to create an open source alternative to "The Dude" by Mikro Tik.PowerShell Study: ??Powershell???sfmltest: Just learning SfmlSharePoint Timerjob and IoC: This is a sample project that explains how we can use IoC container with SharePoint. I have used StructureMap as an IoC container in this project.SignalR: Async library for .NET to help build real-time, multi-user interactive web applications. Sistem LPK Pemkot Semarang: Sistem Laporan Pelaksanaan Kegiatan SKPD Kota SemarangSitecoreInstaller: SitecoreInstaller was initially developed for rapid installation of Sitecore and modules on a local developer machine and still does the job well. SQL 2012 Always On Login Syncing: SQL 2012 Always on Availability Group Login Syncing job.Swagonomics: Input your name, age, yearly income, amount spent monthly on VAT taxable goods, alcohol, cigarettes, and fuel. After hitting submit, the application calls our ATapatalk Module for Dotnetnuke Core Forum: Hi, I work for months in a plug for Dotnetnuke core forums, I have enough work done, the engine RPCXML, the Web service and a skeleton of the main functions, buTesla Analyzer: Given the great need of energy saving due to the rising price of KW, and try to educate the consumer smart energy companies.testdd09082012git01: xctestdd09082012hg01: xctesttfs09082012tfs01: sdThe Ftp Library - Most simple, full-featured .NET Ftp Library: The Ftp Library - Most simple, full-featured .NET Ftp LibraryThe Verge .NET: This is a port of the existing iOS and Android applications to Windows Phone. This project is not sponsored nor endorsed by The Verge or Vox Media . . . yet :)Util SPServices: Usefull Libraries for SPServices SPServices is one of the most usefull libraries for SharePoint 2010 and this util is just a bunch of functions that helpme to Virtual Keyboard: This is a virtual keyboard project. This can do most of what a keyboard does. whatzup.mobi: Provide streams to mobile devices via a webservice that exposes various live broadcasted audio streams from night clubs.WPFSharp.Globalizer: WPFSharp Globalizer - A project deisgned to make localization and styling easier by decoupling both processes from the build.

  Read the article

• jQuery - I'm getting unexpected outputs from a basic math formula.

  - by OllieMcCarthy

  Hi I would like to start by saying I'd greatly appreciate anyones help on this. I have built a small caculator to calculate the amount a consumer can save annually on energy by installing a ground heat pump or solar panels. As far as I can tell the mathematical formulas are correct and my client verified this yesterday when I showed him the code. Two problems. The first is that the calculator is outputting ridiculously large numbers for the first result. The second problem is that the solar result is only working when there are no zeros in the fields. Are there some quirks as to how one would write mathematical formulas in JS or jQuery? Any help greatly appreciated. Here is the link - http://www.olliemccarthy.com/test/johncmurphy/?page_id=249 And here is the code for the entire function - $jq(document).ready(function(){ // Energy Bill Saver // Declare Variables var A = ""; // Input for Oil var B = ""; // Input for Storage Heater var C = ""; // Input for Natural Gas var D = ""; // Input for LPG var E = ""; // Input for Coal var F = ""; // Input for Wood Pellets var G = ""; // Input for Number of Occupants var J = ""; var K = ""; var H = ""; var I = ""; // Declare Constants var a = "0.0816"; // Rate for Oil var b = "0.0963"; // Rate for NightRate var c = "0.0558"; // Rate for Gas var d = "0.1579"; // Rate for LPG var e = "0.121"; // Rate for Coal var f = "0.0828"; // Rate for Pellets var g = "0.02675"; // Rate for Heat Pump var x = "1226.4"; // Splittin up I to avoid error var S1 = ""; // Splitting up the calcuation for I var S2 = ""; // Splitting up the calcuation for I var S3 = ""; // Splitting up the calcuation for I var S4 = ""; // Splitting up the calcuation for I var S5 = ""; // Splitting up the calcuation for I var S6 = ""; // Splitting up the calcuation for I // Calculate H (Ground Sourced Heat Pump) $jq(".es-calculate").click(function(){ $jq(".es-result-wrap").slideDown(300); A = $jq("input.es-oil").val(); B = $jq("input.es-storage").val(); C = $jq("input.es-gas").val(); D = $jq("input.es-lpg").val(); E = $jq("input.es-coal").val(); F = $jq("input.es-pellets").val(); G = $jq("input.es-occupants").val(); J = ( A / a ) + ( B / b ) + ( C / c ) + ( D / d ) + ( E / e ) + ( F / f ) ; H = A + B + C + D + E + F - ( J * g ) ; K = ( G * x ) ; if ( A !== "0" ) { S1 = ( ( ( A / a ) / J ) * K * a ) ; } else { S1 = "0" ; } if ( B !== "0" ) { S2 = ( ( ( B / b ) / J ) * K * b ) ; } else { S2 = "0" ; } if ( C !== "0" ) { S3 = ( ( ( C / c ) / J ) * K * c ) ; } else { S3 = "0" ; } if ( D !== "0" ) { S4 = ( ( ( D / d ) / J ) * K * d ) ; } else { S4 = "0" ; } if ( E !== "0" ) { S5 = ( ( ( E / e ) / J ) * K * e ) ; } else { S5 = "0" ; } if ( F !== "0" ) { S6 = ( ( ( F / f ) / J ) * K * f ) ; } else { S6 = "0" ; } I = S1 + S2 + S3 + S4 + S5 + S6 ; if(!isNaN(H)) {$jq("span.es-result-span-h").text(H.toFixed(2));} else{$jq("span.es-result-span-h").text('Error: Please enter numerals only');} if(!isNaN(I)) {$jq("span.es-result-span-i").text(I.toFixed(2));} else{$jq("span.es-result-span-i").text('Error: Please enter numerals only');} }); });

  Read the article

• Reference Data Management

  - by rahulkamath

  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} table.MsoTableColorfulListAccent2 {mso-style-name:"Colorful List - Accent 2"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:1; mso-tstyle-colband-size:1; mso-style-priority:72; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-tstyle-shading:#F8EDED; mso-tstyle-shading-themecolor:accent2; mso-tstyle-shading-themetint:25; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:black; mso-themecolor:text1;} table.MsoTableColorfulListAccent2FirstRow {mso-style-name:"Colorful List - Accent 2"; mso-table-condition:first-row; mso-style-priority:72; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-tstyle-shading:#9E3A38; mso-tstyle-shading-themecolor:accent2; mso-tstyle-shading-themeshade:204; mso-tstyle-border-bottom:1.5pt solid white; mso-tstyle-border-bottom-themecolor:background1; color:white; mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-font-weight:bold; mso-bidi-font-weight:bold;} table.MsoTableColorfulListAccent2LastRow {mso-style-name:"Colorful List - Accent 2"; mso-table-condition:last-row; mso-style-priority:72; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-tstyle-shading:white; mso-tstyle-shading-themecolor:background1; mso-tstyle-border-top:1.5pt solid black; mso-tstyle-border-top-themecolor:text1; color:#9E3A38; mso-themecolor:accent2; mso-themeshade:204; mso-ansi-font-weight:bold; mso-bidi-font-weight:bold;} table.MsoTableColorfulListAccent2FirstCol {mso-style-name:"Colorful List - Accent 2"; mso-table-condition:first-column; mso-style-priority:72; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-ansi-font-weight:bold; mso-bidi-font-weight:bold;} table.MsoTableColorfulListAccent2LastCol {mso-style-name:"Colorful List - Accent 2"; mso-table-condition:last-column; mso-style-priority:72; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-ansi-font-weight:bold; mso-bidi-font-weight:bold;} table.MsoTableColorfulListAccent2OddColumn {mso-style-name:"Colorful List - Accent 2"; mso-table-condition:odd-column; mso-style-priority:72; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-tstyle-shading:#EFD3D2; mso-tstyle-shading-themecolor:accent2; mso-tstyle-shading-themetint:63; mso-tstyle-border-top:cell-none; mso-tstyle-border-left:cell-none; mso-tstyle-border-bottom:cell-none; mso-tstyle-border-right:cell-none; mso-tstyle-border-insideh:cell-none; mso-tstyle-border-insidev:cell-none;} table.MsoTableColorfulListAccent2OddRow {mso-style-name:"Colorful List - Accent 2"; mso-table-condition:odd-row; mso-style-priority:72; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-tstyle-shading:#F2DBDB; mso-tstyle-shading-themecolor:accent2; mso-tstyle-shading-themetint:51;} Reference Data Management Oracle Data Relationship Management (DRM) has always been extremely powerful as an Enterprise MDM solution that can help manage changes to master data in a way that influences enterprise structure, whether it be mastering chart of accounts to enable financial transformation, or revamping organization structures to drive business transformation and operational efficiencies, or mastering sales territories in light of rapid fire acquisitions that require frequent sales territory refinement, equitable distribution of leads and accounts to salespersons, and alignment of budget/forecast with results to optimize sales coverage. Increasingly, DRM is also being utilized by Oracle customers for reference data management, an emerging solution space that deserves some explanation. What is reference data? Reference data is a close cousin of master data. While master data may be more rapidly changing, requires consensus building across stakeholders and lends structure to business transactions, reference data is simpler, more slowly changing, but has semantic content that is used to categorize or group other information assets – including master data – and give them contextual value. The following table contains an illustrative list of examples of reference data by type. Reference data types may include types and codes, business taxonomies, complex relationships & cross-domain mappings or standards. Types & Codes Taxonomies Relationships / Mappings Standards Transaction Codes Industry Classification Categories and Codes, e.g., North America Industry Classification System (NAICS) Product / Segment; Product / Geo Calendars (e.g., Gregorian, Fiscal, Manufacturing, Retail, ISO8601) Lookup Tables (e.g., Gender, Marital Status, etc.) Product Categories City à State à Postal Codes Currency Codes (e.g., ISO) Status Codes Sales Territories (e.g., Geo, Industry Verticals, Named Accounts, Federal/State/Local/Defense) Customer / Market Segment; Business Unit / Channel Country Codes (e.g., ISO 3166, UN) Role Codes Market Segments Country Codes / Currency Codes / Financial Accounts Date/Time, Time Zones (e.g., ISO 8601) Domain Values Universal Standard Products and Services Classification (UNSPSC), eCl@ss International Classification of Diseases (ICD) e.g., ICD9 à IC10 mappings Tax Rates Why manage reference data? Reference data carries contextual value and meaning and therefore its use can drive business logic that helps execute a business process, create a desired application behavior or provide meaningful segmentation to analyze transaction data. Further, mapping reference data often requires human judgment. Sample Use Cases of Reference Data Management Healthcare: Diagnostic Codes The reference data challenges in the healthcare industry offer a case in point. Part of being HIPAA compliant requires medical practitioners to transition diagnosis codes from ICD-9 to ICD-10, a medical coding scheme used to classify diseases, signs and symptoms, causes, etc. The transition to ICD-10 has a significant impact on business processes, procedures, contracts, and IT systems. Since both code sets ICD-9 and ICD-10 offer diagnosis codes of very different levels of granularity, human judgment is required to map ICD-9 codes to ICD-10. The process requires collaboration and consensus building among stakeholders much in the same way as does master data management. Moreover, to build reports to understand utilization, frequency and quality of diagnoses, medical practitioners may need to “cross-walk” mappings -- either forward to ICD-10 or backwards to ICD-9 depending upon the reporting time horizon. Spend Management: Product, Service & Supplier Codes Similarly, as an enterprise looks to rationalize suppliers and leverage their spend, conforming supplier codes, as well as product and service codes requires supporting multiple classification schemes that may include industry standards (e.g., UNSPSC, eCl@ss) or enterprise taxonomies. Aberdeen Group estimates that 90% of companies rely on spreadsheets and manual reviews to aggregate, classify and analyze spend data, and that data management activities account for 12-15% of the sourcing cycle and consume 30-50% of a commodity manager’s time. Creating a common map across the extended enterprise to rationalize codes across procurement, accounts payable, general ledger, credit card, procurement card (P-card) as well as ACH and bank systems can cut sourcing costs, improve compliance, lower inventory stock, and free up talent to focus on value added tasks. Specialty Finance: Point of Sales Transaction Codes and Product Codes In the specialty finance industry, enterprises are confronted with usury laws – governed at the state and local level – that regulate financial product innovation as it relates to consumer loans, check cashing and pawn lending. To comply, it is important to demonstrate that transactions booked at the point of sale are posted against valid product codes that were on offer at the time of booking the sale. Since new products are being released at a steady stream, it is important to ensure timely and accurate mapping of point-of-sale transaction codes with the appropriate product and GL codes to comply with the changing regulations. Multi-National Companies: Industry Classification Schemes As companies grow and expand across geographies, a typical challenge they encounter with reference data represents reconciling various versions of industry classification schemes in use across nations. While the United States, Mexico and Canada conform to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) standard, European Union countries choose different variants of the NACE industry classification scheme. Multi-national companies must manage the individual national NACE schemes and reconcile the differences across countries. Enterprises must invest in a reference data change management application to address the challenge of distributing reference data changes to downstream applications and assess which applications were impacted by a given change.

  Read the article

• WCF Endpoints & Binding Configuration Issues

  - by CodeAbundance

  I am running into a very strange issue here folks. For simplicity I created a project for the sole purpose of testing the issue outside the framework of a larger application and still encountered what is either a bug in WCF within Visual Studio 2010 or something related to my WCF newbie skill set : ) Here is the issue: I have a WCF endpoint I created running inside of an MVC3 project called "SimpleMethod". The method runs inside of a .svc file on the root of the application and it returns a bool. Using the "WCF Service Configuration Editor" I have added the endpoint to my Web.Config along with a called "LargeImageBinding". Here is the service: [OperationContract] public bool SimpleMethod() { return true; } And the Web.Config generated by the Config Tool: <system.serviceModel> <bindings> <wsHttpBinding> <binding name="LargeImageBinding" closeTimeout="00:10:00" /> </wsHttpBinding> </bindings> <services> <service name="WCFEndpoints.ServiceTestOne"> <endpoint address="/ServiceTestOne.svc" binding="wsHttpBinding" bindingConfiguration="LargeImageBinding" contract="WCFEndpoints.IServiceTestOne" /> </service> </services> <behaviors> <serviceBehaviors> <behavior name=""> <serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="true" /> <serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="false" /> </behavior> </serviceBehaviors> </behaviors> <serviceHostingEnvironment multipleSiteBindingsEnabled="true" /> The service renders fine and you can see the endpoint when you navigate to: http://localhost:57364/ServiceTestOne.svc - Now the issue occurs when I create a separate project to consume the service. I add a service reference to a running instance of the above project, point it to: http://localhost:57364/ServiceTestOne.svc Here is the weird part. The service automatically generates just fine but In the Web.Config the endpoint that is generated looks like this: <client> <endpoint address="http://localhost:57364/ServiceTestOne.svc/ServiceTestOne.svc" binding="wsHttpBinding" bindingConfiguration="WSHttpBinding_IServiceTestOne" contract="ServiceTestOne.IServiceTestOne" name="WSHttpBinding_IServiceTestOne"> As you can see it lists the "ServiceTestOne.svc" portion of the address twice! When I make a call to the the service I get the following error: The remote server returned an error: (404) Not Found. I tried removing the extra "/ServiceTestOne.svc" at the end of the endpoint address in the above config, and I get the same exact error. Now what DOES work is if I go back to the WCF application and remove the custom endpoint and binding references in the Web.Config (everything in the "services" and "bindings" tags) then go back to the consumer application, update the reference to the service and make the call to SimpleMethod()....BOOM works like a charm and I get back a bool set to true. The thing is, I need to make custom binding configurations in order to allow for access to the service outside of the defaults, and from what I can tell, any attempt to create custom bindings makes the endpoints seem to run fine, but fail when an actual method call is made. Can anyone see any flaw in how I am putting this together? Thank you for your time - I have been running in circles with this for about a week!

  Read the article

• Foolishness Check: PHP Class finds Class file but not Class in the file.

  - by Daniel Bingham

  I'm at a loss here. I've defined an abstract superclass in one file and a subclass in another. I have required the super-classes file and the stack trace reports to find an include it. However, it then returns an error when it hits the 'extends' line: Fatal error: Class 'HTMLBuilder' not found in View/Markup/HTML/HTML4.01/HTML4_01Builder.php on line 7. I had this working with another class tree that uses factories a moment ago. I just added the builder layer in between the factories and the consumer. The factory layer looked almost exactly the same in terms of includes and dependencies. So that makes me think I must have done something silly that's causes the HTMLBuilder.php file to not be included correctly or interpreted correctly or some such. Here's the full stack trace (paths slightly altered): # Time Memory Function Location 1 0.0001 53904 {main}( ) ../index.php:0 2 0.0002 67600 require_once( 'View/Page.php' ) ../index.php:3 3 0.0003 75444 require_once( 'View/Sections/SectionFactory.php' ) ../Page.php:4 4 0.0003 81152 require_once( 'View/Sections/HTML/HTMLSectionFactory.php' ) ../SectionFactory.php:3 5 0.0004 92108 require_once( 'View/Sections/HTML/HTMLTitlebarSection.php' ) ../HTMLSectionFactory.php:5 6 0.0005 99716 require_once( 'View/Markup/HTML/HTMLBuilder.php' ) ../HTMLTitlebarSection.php:3 7 0.0005 103580 require_once( 'View/Markup/MarkupBuilder.php' ) ../HTMLBuilder.php:3 8 0.0006 124120 require_once( 'View/Markup/HTML/HTML4.01/HTML4_01Builder.php' ) ../MarkupBuilder.php:3 Here's the code in question: Parent class (View/Markup/HTML/HTMLBuilder.php): <?php require_once('View/Markup/MarkupBuilder.php'); abstract class HTMLBuilder extends MarkupBuilder { public abstract function getLink($text, $href); public abstract function getImage($src, $alt); public abstract function getDivision($id, array $classes=NULL, array $children=NULL); public abstract function getParagraph($text, array $classes=NULL, $id=NULL); } ?> Child Class, (View/Markup/HTML/HTML4.01/HTML4_01Builder.php): <?php require_once('HTML4_01Factory.php'); require_once('View/Markup/HTML/HTMLBuilder.php'); class HTML4_01Builder extends HTMLBuilder { private $factory; public function __construct() { $this->factory = new HTML4_01Factory(); } public function getLink($href, $text) { $link = $this->factory->getA(); $link->addAttribute('href', $href); $link->addChild($this->factory->getText($text)); return $link; } public function getImage($src, $alt) { $image = $this->factory->getImg(); $image->addAttribute('src', $src); $image->addAttribute('alt', $alt); return $image; } public function getDivision($id, array $classes=NULL, array $children=NULL) { $div = $this->factory->getDiv(); $div->setID($id); if(!empty($classes)) { $div->addClasses($classes); } if(!empty($children)) { $div->addChildren($children); } return $div; } public function getParagraph($text, array $classes=NULL, $id=NULL) { $p = $this->factory->getP(); $p->addChild($this->factory->getText($text)); if(!empty($classes)) { $p->addClasses($classes); } if(!empty($id)) { $p->setID($id); } return $p; } } ?> I would appreciate any and all ideas. I'm at a complete loss here as to what is going wrong. I'm sure it's something stupid I just can't see...

  Read the article

• How to reserve public API to internal usage in .NET?

  - by mark

  Dear ladies and sirs. Let me first present the case, which will explain my question. This is going to be a bit long, so I apologize in advance :-). I have objects and collections, which should support the Merge API (it is my custom API, the signature of which is immaterial for this question). This API must be internal, meaning only my framework should be allowed to invoke it. However, derived types should be able to override the basic implementation. The natural way to implement this pattern as I see it, is this: The Merge API is declared as part of some internal interface, let us say IMergeable. Because the interface is internal, derived types would not be able to implement it directly. Rather they must inherit it from a common base type. So, a common base type is introduced, which would implement the IMergeable interface explicitly, where the interface methods delegate to respective protected virtual methods, providing the default implementation. This way the API is only callable by my framework, but derived types may override the default implementation. The following code snippet demonstrates the concept: internal interface IMergeable { void Merge(object obj); } public class BaseFrameworkObject : IMergeable { protected virtual void Merge(object obj) { // The default implementation. } void IMergeable.Merge(object obj) { Merge(obj); } } public class SomeThirdPartyObject : BaseFrameworkObject { protected override void Merge(object obj) { // A derived type implementation. } } All is fine, provided a single common base type suffices, which is usually true for non collection types. The thing is that collections must be mergeable as well. Collections do not play nicely with the presented concept, because developers do not develop collections from the scratch. There are predefined implementations - observable, filtered, compound, read-only, remove-only, ordered, god-knows-what, ... They may be developed from scratch in-house, but once finished, they serve wide range of products and should never be tailored to some specific product. Which means, that either: they do not implement the IMergeable interface at all, because it is internal to some product the scope of the IMergeable interface is raised to public and the API becomes open and callable by all. Let us refer to these collections as standard collections. Anyway, the first option screws my framework, because now each possible standard collection type has to be paired with the respective framework version, augmenting the standard with the IMergeable interface implementation - this is so bad, I am not even considering it. The second option breaks the framework as well, because the IMergeable interface should be internal for a reason (whatever it is) and now this interface has to open to all. So what to do? My solution is this. make IMergeable public API, but add an extra parameter to the Merge method, I call it a security token. The interface implementation may check that the token references some internal object, which is never exposed to the outside. If this is the case, then the method was called from within the framework, otherwise - some outside API consumer attempted to invoke it and so the implementation can blow up with a SecurityException. Here is the modified code snippet demonstrating this concept: internal static class InternalApi { internal static readonly object Token = new object(); } public interface IMergeable { void Merge(object obj, object token); } public class BaseFrameworkObject : IMergeable { protected virtual void Merge(object obj) { // The default implementation. } public void Merge(object obj, object token) { if (!object.ReferenceEquals(token, InternalApi.Token)) { throw new SecurityException("bla bla bla"); } Merge(obj); } } public class SomeThirdPartyObject : BaseFrameworkObject { protected override void Merge(object obj) { // A derived type implementation. } } Of course, this is less explicit than having an internally scoped interface and the check is moved from the compile time to run time, yet this is the best I could come up with. Now, I have a gut feeling that there is a better way to solve the problem I have presented. I do not know, may be using some standard Code Access Security features? I have only vague understanding of it, but can LinkDemand attribute be somehow related to it? Anyway, I would like to hear other opinions. Thanks.

  Read the article

• UAC being turned off once a day on Windows 7

  - by Mehper C. Palavuzlar

  I have strange problem on my HP laptop. This began to happen recently. Whenever I start my machine, Windows 7 Action Center displays the following warning: You need to restart your computer for UAC to be turned off. Actually, this does not happen if it happened once on a specific day. For example, when I start the machine in the morning, it shows up; but it never shows up in the subsequent restarts within that day. On the next day, the same thing happens again. I never disable UAC, but obviously some rootkit or virus causes this. As soon as I get this warning, I head for the UAC settings, and re-enable UAC to dismiss this warning. This is a bothersome situation as I can't fix it. First, I have run a full scan on the computer for any probable virus and malware/rootkit activity, but TrendMicro OfficeScan said that no viruses have been found. I went to an old Restore Point using Windows System Restore, but the problem was not solved. What I have tried so far (which couldn't find the rootkit): TrendMicro OfficeScan Antivirus AVAST Malwarebytes' Anti-malware Ad-Aware Vipre Antivirus GMER TDSSKiller (Kaspersky Labs) HiJackThis RegRuns UnHackMe SuperAntiSpyware Portable Tizer Rootkit Razor (*) Sophos Anti-Rootkit SpyHunter 4 There are no other strange activities on the machine. Everything works fine except this bizarre incident. What could be the name of this annoying rootkit? How can I detect and remove it? EDIT: Below is the log file generated by HijackThis: Logfile of Trend Micro HijackThis v2.0.4 Scan saved at 13:07:04, on 17.01.2011 Platform: Windows 7 (WinNT 6.00.3504) MSIE: Internet Explorer v8.00 (8.00.7600.16700) Boot mode: Normal Running processes: C:\Windows\system32\taskhost.exe C:\Windows\system32\Dwm.exe C:\Windows\Explorer.EXE C:\Program Files\CheckPoint\SecuRemote\bin\SR_GUI.Exe C:\Windows\System32\igfxtray.exe C:\Windows\System32\hkcmd.exe C:\Windows\system32\igfxsrvc.exe C:\Windows\System32\igfxpers.exe C:\Program Files\Hewlett-Packard\HP Wireless Assistant\HPWAMain.exe C:\Program Files\Synaptics\SynTP\SynTPEnh.exe C:\Program Files\Hewlett-Packard\HP Quick Launch Buttons\QLBCTRL.exe C:\Program Files\Analog Devices\Core\smax4pnp.exe C:\Program Files\Hewlett-Packard\HP Quick Launch Buttons\VolCtrl.exe C:\Program Files\LightningFAX\LFclient\lfsndmng.exe C:\Program Files\Common Files\Java\Java Update\jusched.exe C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Communicator\communicator.exe C:\Program Files\Iron Mountain\Connected BackupPC\Agent.exe C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\OfficeScan Client\PccNTMon.exe C:\Program Files\Microsoft LifeCam\LifeExp.exe C:\Program Files\Hewlett-Packard\Shared\HpqToaster.exe C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe C:\Program Files\mimio\mimio Studio\system\aps_tablet\atwtusb.exe C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\OUTLOOK.EXE C:\Program Files\Babylon\Babylon-Pro\Babylon.exe C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe C:\Users\userx\Desktop\HijackThis.exe R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896 R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = about:blank R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=69157 R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Search_URL = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896 R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896 R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=69157 R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,SearchAssistant = R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,CustomizeSearch = R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings,AutoConfigURL = http://www.yaysat.com.tr/proxy/proxy.pac R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar,LinksFolderName = O2 - BHO: AcroIEHelperStub - {18DF081C-E8AD-4283-A596-FA578C2EBDC3} - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX\AcroIEHelperShim.dll O2 - BHO: Babylon IE plugin - {9CFACCB6-2F3F-4177-94EA-0D2B72D384C1} - C:\Program Files\Babylon\Babylon-Pro\Utils\BabylonIEPI.dll O2 - BHO: Java(tm) Plug-In 2 SSV Helper - {DBC80044-A445-435b-BC74-9C25C1C588A9} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\bin\jp2ssv.dll O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [IgfxTray] C:\Windows\system32\igfxtray.exe O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [HotKeysCmds] C:\Windows\system32\hkcmd.exe O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Persistence] C:\Windows\system32\igfxpers.exe O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [hpWirelessAssistant] C:\Program Files\Hewlett-Packard\HP Wireless Assistant\HPWAMain.exe O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SynTPEnh] C:\Program Files\Synaptics\SynTP\SynTPEnh.exe O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [QlbCtrl.exe] C:\Program Files\Hewlett-Packard\HP Quick Launch Buttons\QlbCtrl.exe /Start O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SoundMAXPnP] C:\Program Files\Analog Devices\Core\smax4pnp.exe O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Adobe Reader Speed Launcher] "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 9.0\Reader\Reader_sl.exe" O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Adobe ARM] "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\ARM\1.0\AdobeARM.exe" O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [lfsndmng] C:\Program Files\LightningFAX\LFclient\LFSNDMNG.EXE O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SunJavaUpdateSched] "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Java\Java Update\jusched.exe" O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Communicator] "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Communicator\communicator.exe" /fromrunkey O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [AgentUiRunKey] "C:\Program Files\Iron Mountain\Connected BackupPC\Agent.exe" -ni -sss -e http://localhost:16386/ O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [OfficeScanNT Monitor] "C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\OfficeScan Client\pccntmon.exe" -HideWindow O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Babylon Client] C:\Program Files\Babylon\Babylon-Pro\Babylon.exe -AutoStart O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [LifeCam] "C:\Program Files\Microsoft LifeCam\LifeExp.exe" O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [Sidebar] C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe /autoRun O4 - Global Startup: mimio Studio.lnk = C:\Program Files\mimio\mimio Studio\mimiosys.exe O8 - Extra context menu item: Microsoft Excel'e &Ver - res://C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~1\Office12\EXCEL.EXE/3000 O8 - Extra context menu item: Translate this web page with Babylon - res://C:\Program Files\Babylon\Babylon-Pro\Utils\BabylonIEPI.dll/ActionTU.htm O8 - Extra context menu item: Translate with Babylon - res://C:\Program Files\Babylon\Babylon-Pro\Utils\BabylonIEPI.dll/Action.htm O9 - Extra button: Research - {92780B25-18CC-41C8-B9BE-3C9C571A8263} - C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~1\Office12\REFIEBAR.DLL O9 - Extra button: Translate this web page with Babylon - {F72841F0-4EF1-4df5-BCE5-B3AC8ACF5478} - C:\Program Files\Babylon\Babylon-Pro\Utils\BabylonIEPI.dll O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Translate this web page with Babylon - {F72841F0-4EF1-4df5-BCE5-B3AC8ACF5478} - C:\Program Files\Babylon\Babylon-Pro\Utils\BabylonIEPI.dll O16 - DPF: {00134F72-5284-44F7-95A8-52A619F70751} (ObjWinNTCheck Class) - https://172.20.12.103:4343/officescan/console/html/ClientInstall/WinNTChk.cab O16 - DPF: {08D75BC1-D2B5-11D1-88FC-0080C859833B} (OfficeScan Corp Edition Web-Deployment SetupCtrl Class) - https://172.20.12.103:4343/officescan/console/html/ClientInstall/setup.cab O17 - HKLM\System\CCS\Services\Tcpip\Parameters: Domain = yaysat.com O17 - HKLM\Software\..\Telephony: DomainName = yaysat.com O17 - HKLM\System\CS1\Services\Tcpip\Parameters: Domain = yaysat.com O17 - HKLM\System\CS2\Services\Tcpip\Parameters: Domain = yaysat.com O18 - Protocol: qcom - {B8DBD265-42C3-43E6-B439-E968C71984C6} - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Quest Shared\CodeXpert\qcom.dll O22 - SharedTaskScheduler: FencesShellExt - {1984DD45-52CF-49cd-AB77-18F378FEA264} - C:\Program Files\Stardock\Fences\FencesMenu.dll O23 - Service: Andrea ADI Filters Service (AEADIFilters) - Andrea Electronics Corporation - C:\Windows\system32\AEADISRV.EXE O23 - Service: AgentService - Iron Mountain Incorporated - C:\Program Files\Iron Mountain\Connected BackupPC\AgentService.exe O23 - Service: Agere Modem Call Progress Audio (AgereModemAudio) - LSI Corporation - C:\Program Files\LSI SoftModem\agrsmsvc.exe O23 - Service: BMFMySQL - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files\Quest Software\Benchmark Factory for Databases\Repository\MySQL\bin\mysqld-max-nt.exe O23 - Service: Com4QLBEx - Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. - C:\Program Files\Hewlett-Packard\HP Quick Launch Buttons\Com4QLBEx.exe O23 - Service: hpqwmiex - Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. - C:\Program Files\Hewlett-Packard\Shared\hpqwmiex.exe O23 - Service: OfficeScanNT RealTime Scan (ntrtscan) - Trend Micro Inc. - C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\OfficeScan Client\ntrtscan.exe O23 - Service: SMS Task Sequence Agent (smstsmgr) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\CCM\TSManager.exe O23 - Service: Check Point VPN-1 Securemote service (SR_Service) - Check Point Software Technologies - C:\Program Files\CheckPoint\SecuRemote\bin\SR_Service.exe O23 - Service: Check Point VPN-1 Securemote watchdog (SR_Watchdog) - Check Point Software Technologies - C:\Program Files\CheckPoint\SecuRemote\bin\SR_Watchdog.exe O23 - Service: Trend Micro Unauthorized Change Prevention Service (TMBMServer) - Trend Micro Inc. - C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\OfficeScan Client\..\BM\TMBMSRV.exe O23 - Service: OfficeScan NT Listener (tmlisten) - Trend Micro Inc. - C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\OfficeScan Client\tmlisten.exe O23 - Service: OfficeScan NT Proxy Service (TmProxy) - Trend Micro Inc. - C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\OfficeScan Client\TmProxy.exe O23 - Service: VNC Server Version 4 (WinVNC4) - RealVNC Ltd. - C:\Program Files\RealVNC\VNC4\WinVNC4.exe -- End of file - 8204 bytes As suggested in this very similar question, I have run full scans (+boot time scans) with RegRun and UnHackMe, but they also did not find anything. I have carefully examined all entries in the Event Viewer, but there's nothing wrong. Now I know that there is a hidden trojan (rootkit) on my machine which seems to disguise itself quite successfully. Note that I don't have the chance to remove the HDD, or reinstall the OS as this is a work machine subjected to certain IT policies on a company domain. Despite all my attempts, the problem still remains. I strictly need a to-the-point method or a pukka rootkit remover to remove whatever it is. I don't want to monkey with the system settings, i.e. disabling auto runs one by one, messing the registry, etc. EDIT 2: I have found an article which is closely related to my trouble: Malware can turn off UAC in Windows 7; “By design” says Microsoft. Special thanks(!) to Microsoft. In the article, a VBScript code is given to disable UAC automatically: '// 1337H4x Written by _____________ '// (12 year old) Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell") '// Toggle Start menu WshShell.SendKeys("^{ESC}") WScript.Sleep(500) '// Search for UAC applet WshShell.SendKeys("change uac") WScript.Sleep(2000) '// Open the applet (assuming second result) WshShell.SendKeys("{DOWN}") WshShell.SendKeys("{DOWN}") WshShell.SendKeys("{ENTER}") WScript.Sleep(2000) '// Set UAC level to lowest (assuming out-of-box Default setting) WshShell.SendKeys("{TAB}") WshShell.SendKeys("{DOWN}") WshShell.SendKeys("{DOWN}") WshShell.SendKeys("{DOWN}") '// Save our changes WshShell.SendKeys("{TAB}") WshShell.SendKeys("{ENTER}") '// TODO: Add code to handle installation of rebound '// process to continue exploitation, i.e. place something '// evil in Startup folder '// Reboot the system '// WshShell.Run "shutdown /r /f" Unfortunately, that doesn't tell me how I can get rid of this malicious code running on my system. EDIT 3: Last night, I left the laptop open because of a running SQL task. When I came in the morning, I saw that UAC was turned off. So, I suspect that the problem is not related to startup. It is happening once a day for sure no matter if the machine is rebooted.

  Read the article

• CodePlex Daily Summary for Wednesday, February 17, 2010

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Wednesday, February 17, 2010New ProjectsAcademic Success Accounting System: The system is intended to use by school teacher to set marks to students and estimate their academic success and possibilities. The client applicat...Access.PowerTools: Access PowerTools is currently a sample MS Access add-in project to try & test features of Add-in Express™ 2009 for Microsoft® Office and .net (ht...AntoonCms: AntoonCms makes it easy to maintain a simple website with it's builtin administration pages. It's developed in C# on target Framework 2.0 The CMS...ASP.NET MVC Mehr Lib: Mehr Lib makes it easier for ASP.NET MVC developers to do develop projects. It's developed in C#. This version currently include Ajax master detail...BCryptTool: Developer tool that calculates BCrypt hash codes for strings. BCrypt is an implementation of the Blowfish cipher and a computationally-expensive ha...Coronasoft Cryostasis scripting engine: A scripting engine that allows you to dynamically load plugins from just about any supported .NET language. Its written in C#. Languages supported ...Critical Point Search: Critical Point Searchcritical points: critical pointsFont Family Name Retrieval: This library helps developer to retrieve the font family name from the TTF, OTF and TTC font files, so that developer can display the font without ...jQuery Form Input Hints Plugin: Automatically display hints on input textboxes in your forms using this jQuery plugin. I wrote this code to be as simple and as easy to use as pos...Kojax: kojax projectKronRetro: KronRetro! Making a Habbo Retro just got easier! Powered by PHP & MySQL you can make a Habbo Retro site fast!MVVM Wrapper Kit: MVVM Wrapper Kit makes it easier for View Model programmers to wrap their business objects and collections while preserving change notification and...ObjectCartographer: ObjectCartographer is an object to object mapper and object factory. It's developed in C#.PE-file Reader Writer API (PERWAPI): PERWAPI is a reader writer module for .NET program executables. It has been used as back-end for progamming language compilers such as Gardens Poi...Pinger: A simple Pinger, pings an address until you press a buttonQPV: 0.1: QPV aka Que pelicula es una aplicacion que consiste crear una base de datos potente de peliculas, criticas e informacion para poder filtrar pelicul...SIMD Detector: This SIMD class helps developers to detect the types of SIMD instruction available on users' processor. It supports Intel and AMD CPUs. It is writt...StackOverflow Test Project: Following Andrew Siemer's StackOverflow Knowledge Exchange Project.WeBlog: A blogging platform built on the MVC framework The project will showcase current technologies such as MVC 2, Silverlight 4 and jQuery 1.4. Data pro...Webmedia: this is my webmedia projectWindows Azure RSS Reader: This is and online RSS reader based on the Windows Azure platformWordEditor. A Word Editor for Windows, and an extended RichTextBox control.: This is a word editor that can be used as a stand alone word processor, or added to an existing project.Домашняя Бухгалтерия: Программа для ведения домашнего бухгалтерского учета финансов. New ReleasesAccess.PowerTools: Access PowerTools Add-In Community Edition v.0.0.1: Access PowerTools Add-In Community Edition v.0.0.1 is a sample MS Access add-in project to try & test Add-in Express™ 2009 for Microsoft® Office an...Active CSS: ActiveCSS-0.1.1: revision for version 0.1ASP.NET: Microsoft Ajax Minifier 4.0: The Microsoft Ajax Minifier enables you to improve the performance of your Ajax applications by reducing the size of your Cascading Style Sheet and...ASP.NET MVC Mehr Lib: V1.0: Mehr Lib V1.0 This version currently include ajax master detail combo facilities.ASP.net Ribbon: Version 1.2: New controls : Expandable gallery Color Picker Multi color File Menu Some JS modifications. Some CSS modifications. Includes some functionna...ASP.NET Web Forms Model-View-Presenter (MVP) Contrib: WebForms MVP Contrib CTP6: This is a release of the WebForms MVP Contrib project for WebForms MVP CTP6. Release includes: WebForms MVP Contrib framework Ninject IoC containerAwesomiumDotNet: AwesomiumDotNet 1.2.1: - Added Awesomium 1.5 features: URL filtering, header rewrite rules, SetOpensExternalLinksInCallingFrame. - Numerous fixes and improvements.BCryptTool: BCryptTool v0.1: The Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 (SP1) is needed to run this program.Buzz Dot Net: Buzz Dot Net v.1.10216: Features Parse Google Buzz feed to Objects Partial MVVM Implementation Partial OptimizationsCanvas VSDOC Intellisense: v1.0.0.0a: canvas-vsdoc.js and canvas-utils.js JavaScript intellisense for HTML5 Canvas element.CheckHeader: CheckHeader v0.8.5: The Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 (SP1) is needed to run this program.Claymore MVP: Claymore 1.0.2.0: Changelog Added ASP.NET WebForm support via ClaymoreHttpModule class. Added xsd schema for Visual Studio Intellisense within App.config and Web....Dam Gd - URL Shortner: Dam.gd Version 1.1: This is the latest instalment in our URL shortner. It uses The Easy API http://theeasyapi.com to access data that is used for the back-end analyti...D-AMPS: D-AMPS 0.9.1: Initial version.easySMS: easySMS 1.0 Source code: easySMS 1.0 Source codeFont Family Name Retrieval: 1st Release: Version 1.0.0Free Silverlight & WPF Chart Control - Visifire: Visifire Now Supports DataBinding: Hi, Today we are releasing the much awaited DataBinding feature in Visifire 3.0.3 beta 3. Now you can Bind any DataSource at the Series level so t...GenerateTypedBamApi: Version 2.0: Changes in this release: NEW: Export functionality no longer requires Excel to be installed (uses OLE DB vs. Excel Automation; also enables usage i...Gmail Notifier 2: GmailNotifier2 1.2.1: Fixes issues #9652, #9653iTuner - The iTunes Companion: iTuner 1.1.3699: This includes the first pass of the iTuner Librarian including management of dead tracks, duplicates, and empty directories... While I promised a ...jQuery Form Input Hints Plugin: jQuery.InputHints v1.0: jQuery.InputHints v1.0 Includes Standard & minified source Demo HTML file VS2008 SolutionLibWowArmory: LibWowArmory 0.2.3 beta: LibWowArmory 0.2.3 betaThis release of the LibWowArmory source code matches the WoW Armory as of version 3.3.2. Changes since version 0.2.2:Update...Managed Extensibility Framework: MEF Preview 9: We have merged the .net 3.5 and Silverlight 3 into a single zip. The bin folder contains the binaries for .net 3.5 whereas bin\SL contains the bina...MDX Parser,Builder,DOM and OLAP visual controls with Writeback for Silverlight: Ranet.UILibrary.Olap-1.3.3.0-6571.msi: February 16, 2010 * MdxDesigner: Fix for the issue where when an element is clicked, the mouse wheel stops working until the cursor leaves and r...MEFGeneric: MEFGeneric Preview 9: MEFGeneric Preview 9 release.Mesopotamia Experiment: Mesopotamia 1.2.26: Bug Fixes - mud map - progress window - recycle app domains on robotics engine crashes( in command prompt and visual, major work) - fixed rooomba h...Microsoft Solution Framework for Business Intelligence in Media: Release 1.0: This is the public release of the Microsoft Solution Framework for Business Intelligence in Media (Release 1.0).MVVM Wrapper Kit: MVVM Wrapper Beta: A simple test project is included to get you up and running, and wrapping those business objects.nBayes - Bayesian Filtering in C#: nBayes v0.2: nBayes' indexing system is factored in such a way that you can easily replace the index with a custom implementation. This release introduces an ad...NetSqlAzMan - .NET SQL Authorization Manager: 3.6.0.5: 3.6.0.5 16-February-2010 - Fix: SqlAzManSid Class. "Equals" matches object signiture instead of IAzManSid signiture. When a real null object is pas...ObjectCartographer: ObjectCartographer Code 1.0: This is the first release and contains code to help with object to object mapping (including mapping from one object to multiple objects), object f...Office Apps: 0.8.6: Bug fix's, added Calendar.OI - Open Internet: OI HTML and .XAP files (OI offline): this is the HTML code and the XAP file. please right-click the app at http://bit.ly/openinternet and select "install openinternet application to th...PE-file Reader Writer API (PERWAPI): PERWAPI-1.1.3: Perwapi version 1.1.3 is the complete distribution package. It contains Binary files, pdb files and xml files for the PERWAPI and SymbolRW compone...Pinger: Pinger 1.0.0.0 Binary: The Latest BinaryRNA Comparative Analysis Software Tools: RNA Comparative Analysis Software Tools 2.0: RNA Comparative Analysis Software Tools Version 2.0 Note: The RNA Comparative Analysis Software Tools are provided as is, without any warranty. No...SAL- Self Artificial Learning: Artificial Learning working proof of concept: This is a working proof of concept. It includes the Dev version (in .zip format) and the consumer version (in .exe format)SharePoint Management PowerShell scripts: SharePoint 2010 PowerShell Scripts: All the SharePoint 2010 PowerShell Scripts The first file is an Excel 2010 file allowing to find quiclky and easily the new cmdlets available wi...SIMD Detector: 1st Release: Version 1.3 Supports MMX/MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, SSE4a, SSE5, 3DNow.Terminals: Terminals 1.9 Beta Release: This is a beta release so the new features being added to terminals can be tested properly. The major change in this release is that Terminals has...Text Designer Outline Text Library: 9th minor release: Added the ability to select brush, such as gradient brush or texture brush for the text body. Added CSharp library, TextDesignerCSLibrary. Manage...VivoSocial: VivoSocial 7.0.2: This release has several updated modules. See the Support Forums for more details. Since we update modules very often, we will be changing how we d...WatchersNET CKEditor™ Provider for DotNetNuke: CKEditor Provider 1.6.00: changes CKEditor Upgrade to Version 3.2 SVN 5132 File Browser: After File Upload, File will be Auto Selected File Browser: Icons are corrected ...WordEditor. A Word Editor for Windows, and an extended RichTextBox control.: WordEditor Source Code: This contains the latest solution file, with all project files included.Домашняя Бухгалтерия: Alapha Realease: Принимаются ваши предложения по дизайну и функциональности программы.Most Popular ProjectsRawrWBFS ManagerAJAX Control ToolkitMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: DatabaseSilverlight ToolkitWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)Image Resizer Powertoy Clone for WindowsMicrosoft SQL Server Community & SamplesASP.NETLiveUpload to FacebookMost Active ProjectsDinnerNow.netRawrBlogEngine.NETSimple SavantNB_Store - Free DotNetNuke Ecommerce Catalog Modulepatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryPHPExcelSharpyjQuery Library for SharePoint Web ServicesFluent Validation for .NET

  Read the article

• CodePlex Daily Summary for Thursday, November 18, 2010

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Thursday, November 18, 2010Popular ReleasesSitefinity Migration Tool: Sitefinity Migration Tool 0.2 Alpha: - Improvements for the Sitefinity RC releaseMiniTwitter: 1.57: MiniTwitter 1.57 ???? ?? ?????????????????? ?? User Streams ????????????????????? ???????????????·??????·???????VFPX: VFP2C32 2.0.0.7: fixed a bug in AAverage - NULL values in the array corrupted the result removed limitation in ASum, AMin, AMax, AAverage - the functions were limited to 65000 elements, now they're limited to 65000 rows ASplitStr now returns a 1 element array with an empty string when an empty string is passed (behaves more like ALINES) internal code cleanup and optimization: optimized FoxArray class - results in a speedup of 10-20% in many functions which return the result in an array - like AProcesses...Microsoft SQL Server Product Samples: Database: AdventureWorks 2008R2 SR1: Sample Databases for Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2 (SR1)This release is dedicated to the sample databases that ship for Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2. See Database Prerequisites for SQL Server 2008R2 for feature configurations required for installing the sample databases. See Installing SQL Server 2008R2 Databases for step by step installation instructions. The SR1 release contains minor bug fixes to the installer used to create the sample databases. There are no changes to the databases them...VidCoder: 0.7.2: Fixed duplicated subtitles when running multiple encodes off of the same title.Razor Templating Engine: Razor Template Engine v1.1: Release 1.1 Changes: ADDED: Signed assemblies with strong name to allow assemblies to be referenced by other strongly-named assemblies. FIX: Filter out dynamic assemblies which causes failures in template compilation. FIX: Changed ASCII to UTF8 encoding to support UTF-8 encoded string templates. FIX: Corrected implementation of TemplateBase adding ITemplate interface.Prism Training Kit: Prism Training Kit - 1.1: This is an updated version of the Prism training Kit that targets Prism 4.0 and fixes the bugs reported in the version 1.0. This release consists of a Training Kit with Labs on the following topics Modularity Dependency Injection Bootstrapper UI Composition Communication Note: Take into account that this is a Beta version. If you find any bugs please report them in the Issue Tracker PrerequisitesVisual Studio 2010 Microsoft Word 2007/2010 Microsoft Silverlight 4 Microsoft S...Craig's Utility Library: Craig's Utility Library Code 2.0: This update contains a number of changes, added functionality, and bug fixes: Added transaction support to SQLHelper. Added linked/embedded resource ability to EmailSender. Updated List to take into account new functions. Added better support for MAC address in WMI classes. Fixed Parsing in Reflection class when dealing with sub classes. Fixed bug in SQLHelper when replacing the Command that is a select after doing a select. Fixed issue in SQL Server helper with regard to generati...MFCMAPI: November 2010 Release: Build: 6.0.0.1023 Full release notes at SGriffin's blog. If you just want to run the tool, get the executable. If you want to debug it, get the symbol file and the source. The 64 bit build will only work on a machine with Outlook 2010 64 bit installed. All other machines should use the 32 bit build, regardless of the operating system. Facebook BadgeDotNetNuke® Community Edition: 05.06.00: Major HighlightsAdded automatic portal alias creation for single portal installs Updated the file manager upload page to allow user to upload multiple files without returning to the file manager page. Fixed issue with Event Log Email Notifications. Fixed issue where Telerik HTML Editor was unable to upload files to secure or database folder. Fixed issue where registration page is not set correctly during an upgrade. Fixed issue where Sendmail stripped HTML and Links from emails...mVu Mobile Viewer: mVu Mobile Viewer 0.7.10.0: Tube8 fix.EPPlus-Create advanced Excel 2007 spreadsheets on the server: EPPlus 2.8.0.1: EPPlus-Create advanced Excel 2007 spreadsheets on the serverNew Features Improved chart support Different chart-types series on the same chart Support for secondary axis and a lot of new properties Better styling Encryption and Workbook protection Table support Import csv files Array formulas ...and a lot of bugfixesAutoLoL: AutoLoL v1.4.2: Added support for more clients (French and Russian) Settings are now stored sepperatly for each user on a computer Auto Login is much faster now Auto Login detects and handles caps lock state properly nowTailspinSpyworks - WebForms Sample Application: TailspinSpyworks-v0.9: Contains a number of bug fixes and additional tutorial steps as well as complete database implementation details.ASP.NET MVC Project Awesome (rich jQuery AJAX helpers): 1.3 and demos: a library with mvc helpers and a demo project that demonstrates an awesome way of doing asp.net mvc. tested on mozilla, safari, chrome, opera, ie 9b/8/7/6 new stuff in 1.3 Autocomplete helper Autocomplete and AjaxDropdown can have parentId and be filled with data depending on the value of the parent PopupForm besides Content("ok") on success can also return Json(data) and use 'data' in a client side function Awesome demo improved (cruder, builder, added service layer)Nearforums - ASP.NET MVC forum engine: Nearforums v4.1: Version 4.1 of the ASP.NET MVC forum engine, with great improvements: TinyMCE added as visual editor for messages (removed CKEditor). Integrated AntiSamy for cleaner html user post and add more prevention to potential injections. Admin status page: a page for the site admin to check the current status of the configuration / db / etc. View Roadmap for more details.UltimateJB: UltimateJB 2.01 PL3 KakaRoto + PSNYes by EvilSperm: Voici une version attendu avec impatience pour beaucoup : - La Version PSNYes pour pouvoir jouer sur le PSN avec une PS3 Jailbreaker. - Pour l'instant le PSNYes n'est disponible qu'avec les PS3 en firmwares 3.41 !!! - La version PL3 KAKAROTO intégre ses dernières modification et prépare a l'intégration du Firmware 3.30 !!! Conclusion : - UltimateJB PSNYes => Valide l'utilisation du PSN : Uniquement compatible avec les 3.41 - ultimateJB DEFAULT => Pas de PSN mais disponible pour les PS3 sui...Fluent Ribbon Control Suite: Fluent Ribbon Control Suite 2.0: Fluent Ribbon Control Suite 2.0(supports .NET 4.0 RTM and .NET 3.5) Includes: Fluent.dll (with .pdb and .xml) Showcase Application Samples (only for .NET 4.0) Foundation (Tabs, Groups, Contextual Tabs, Quick Access Toolbar, Backstage) Resizing (ribbon reducing & enlarging principles) Galleries (Gallery in ContextMenu, InRibbonGallery) MVVM (shows how to use this library with Model-View-ViewModel pattern) KeyTips ScreenTips Toolbars ColorGallery NEW! *Walkthrough (documenta...patterns & practices: Prism: Prism 4 Documentation: This release contains the Prism 4 documentation in Help 1.0 (CHM) format and PDF format. The documentation is also included with the full download of the guidance. Note: If you cannot view the content of the CHM, using Windows Explorer, select the properties for the file and then click Unblock on the General tab. Note: The PDF version of the guidance is provided for printing and reading in book format. The online version of the Prism 4 documentation can be read here.Farseer Physics Engine: Farseer Physics Engine 3.1: DonationsIf you like this release and would like to keep Farseer Physics Engine running, please consider a small donation. What's new?We bring a lot of new features in Farseer Physics Engine 3.1. Just to name a few: New Box2D core Rope joint added More stable CCD algorithm YuPeng clipper Explosives logic New Constrained Delaunay Triangulation algorithm from the Poly2Tri project. New Flipcode triangulation algorithm. Silverlight 4 samples Silverlight 4 debug view XNA 4.0 relea...New Projectsbizicosoft crm: crmBlog Migrator: The Blog Migrator tool is an all purpose utility designed to help transition a blog from one platform to another. It leverages XML-RPC, BlogML, and WordPress WXR formats. It also provides the ability to "rewrite" your posts on your old blog to point to the new location.bzr-tfs integration tests: Used to test bzr-tfs integrationC++ Open Source Advanced Operating System: C++ Open Source Advanced Operating System is a project which allows starter developers create their own OS. For now it is at a really initial stage.Chavah - internet radio for Yeshua's disciples: Chavah (pronounced "ha-vah") is internet radio for Yeshua's disciples. Inspired by Pandora, Chavah is a Silverlight application that brings community-driven Messianic Jewish tunes for the Lord over the web to your eager ears.CodePoster: An add-in for Visual Studio which allows you to post code directly from Visual Studio to your blog. CRM 2011 Plugin Testing Tools: This solution is meant to make unit testing of plugins in CRM 2011 a simpler and more efficient process. This solution serializes the objects that the CRM server passes to a plugin on execution and then offers a library that allows you to deserialize them in a unit test.Edinamarry Free Tarot Software for Windows: A freeware yet an advanced Tarot reading divinity Software for Psychics and for all those who practice Divinity and Spirituality. This software includes Tarot Spread Designer, Tarot Deck Designer, Tarot Cards Gallery, Client & Customer Profile, Word Editor, Tarot Reader, etc.EPiSocial: Social addons for EPiServer.first team foundation project: this is my first project for the student to teach them about the ms visual studio 201o and team foundation serverFKTdev: Proyecto donde subiremos las pruebas, códigos de ejemplo y demás recursos en nuestro aprendizaje en XNA, hasta que comencemos un desarrollo estable.Gardens Point Component Pascal: Gardens Point Component Pascal is an implementation for .NET of the Component Pascal Language (CP). CP is an object oriented version of Pascal, and shares many design features with Oberon-2. Geoinformatics: geoinformaticsGREENHOUSEMANAGER: GREENHOUSE es un proyecto universitario para manejar los distintos aspectos de un invernadero. El sistema esta desarrollado en c# con interfaz grafica en WPFHousing: This project is only for the asp.net learning. HR-XML.NET: A .NET HR-XML Serialization Library. Also supports the Dutch SETU standard and some proprietary extensions used in the Netherlands. The project is currently targeting HR-XML version 2.5 and Setu standard 2008-01.InternetShop2: ShopLesson4: Lesson4 for M.Logical Synchronous Circuit Simulator: As part of a student project, we are trying to make a logic synchronous circuit simulator, with the ultimate goal of simulating a processor and a digital clock running on it.MediaOwl: MediaOwl is a music (albums, artists, tracks, tags) and movie (movies, series, actors, directors, genres) search engine, but above all, it is a Microsoft Silverlight 4 application (C#), that shows how to use Caliburn Micro.N2F Yverdon Solar Flare Reflector: The solar flare reflector provides minimal base-range protection for your N2F Yverdon installation against solar flare interference.Netduino Plus Home Automation Toolkit: The Netduino Plus Home Automation project is designed to proivde a communication platform from various consumer based home automation products that offer a common web service endpoint. This will hopefully create a low cost DIY alternative to the expensive ethernet interfaces.NRapid: NRapidOfficeHelper: Wrapper around the open xml office package. You can easily create xlsx documents based on a template xlsx document and reuse parts from that document, if you mark them as named ranges (i.e. "names").OffProjects: This is a private project which for my dev investigationParis Velib Stations for Windows Mobile: Allow to find the closest Velib bike station in Paris on a Windows Mobile Phone (6.5)/ Permet de trouver la station de Vélib la plus proche dans Paris ainsi que ses informations sur un smartphone Windows MobilePolarConverter: Adjust the measured distance of HRM files created by Polar Heart Rate monitorsSexy Select: a jQuery plugin that allows for easy manipulation of select options. Allows for adding, removing, sorting, validation and custom skinningSilverlight Progress Feedback: Demonstrates how to get progress feedback from slow running WPF processes in Silverlight.Silverlight Tabbed Panel: Tabbed Panel based on Silverlight targeted for both developers and designers audience. Tabbed Control is used in this project. This is a basic application. More features will be added in further releases. XAML has been used to design this panel. slabhid: SLABHIDDevice.dll is used for the SLAB MCU example code on PC, the original source code is written by C++. This wrapper class brings SLABHIDDevice.dll to the .Net world, so it will be possible to make some quick solution for firmware testing purpose.SuperWebSocket: A .NET server side implementation of WebSocket protocol.test1-jjoiner: just a test projectTotem Alpha Developer Framework For .Net: ????tadf??VS.NET???????????，????jtadf???????????????。 ?????????tadf??????????????J2EE???????VS.NET?????????，??tadf?????.NET??，???????????，????????????，??????C#??????????Java???????，??????。 tadf?????????????，????HTML???????????，???????，?????????，?????。tadf???????????，????????RICH UI?????WEB??。??????，??。 tadf?????????????????????，????WEB??????????。???????，???????????，?Ajax???????，????????????????，????????，????????????????。???????????，???????????????????????????????，?xml??????，?????????????xml...Ukázkové projekty: Obsahuje ukázkové projekty uživatele TenCoKaciStromy.WPFDemo: This Peoject is only for the WPF learning.Xinx TimeIt!: TinyAlarm is a small utility that allows you to configure an Alarm so that you can opt for 1. Shutdown computer 2. Play a sound 3. Show a note with sound 4. Disconnect a dial-up connection 5. Connect via dial-up connection

  Read the article

• SQL Server 2012 - AlwaysOn

  - by Claus Jandausch

  Ich war nicht nur irritiert, ich war sogar regelrecht schockiert - und für einen kurzen Moment sprachlos (was nur selten der Fall ist). Gerade eben hatte mich jemand gefragt "Wann Oracle denn etwas Vergleichbares wie AlwaysOn bieten würde - und ob überhaupt?" War ich hier im falschen Film gelandet? Ich konnte nicht anders, als meinen Unmut kundzutun und zu erklären, dass die Fragestellung normalerweise anders herum läuft. Zugegeben - es mag vielleicht strittige Punkte geben im Vergleich zwischen Oracle und SQL Server - bei denen nicht unbedingt immer Oracle die Nase vorn haben muss - aber das Thema Clustering für Hochverfügbarkeit (HA), Disaster Recovery (DR) und Skalierbarkeit gehört mit Sicherheit nicht dazu. Dieses Erlebnis hakte ich am Nachgang als Einzelfall ab, der so nie wieder vorkommen würde. Bis ich kurz darauf eines Besseren belehrt wurde und genau die selbe Frage erneut zu hören bekam. Diesmal sogar im Exadata-Umfeld und einem Oracle Stretch Cluster. Einmal ist keinmal, doch zweimal ist einmal zu viel... Getreu diesem alten Motto war mir klar, dass man das so nicht länger stehen lassen konnte. Ich habe keine Ahnung, wie die Microsoft Marketing Abteilung es geschafft hat, unter dem AlwaysOn Brading eine innovative Technologie vermuten zu lassen - aber sie hat ihren Job scheinbar gut gemacht. Doch abgesehen von einem guten Marketing, stellt sich natürlich die Frage, was wirklich dahinter steckt und wie sich das Ganze mit Oracle vergleichen lässt - und ob überhaupt? Damit wären wir wieder bei der ursprünglichen Frage angelangt.  So viel zum Hintergrund dieses Blogbeitrags - von meiner Antwort handelt der restliche Blog. "Windows was the God ..." Um den wahren Unterschied zwischen Oracle und Microsoft verstehen zu können, muss man zunächst das bedeutendste Microsoft Dogma kennen. Es lässt sich schlicht und einfach auf den Punkt bringen: "Alles muss auf Windows basieren." Die Überschrift dieses Absatzes ist kein von mir erfundener Ausspruch, sondern ein Zitat. Konkret stammt es aus einem längeren Artikel von Kurt Eichenwald in der Vanity Fair aus dem August 2012. Er lautet Microsoft's Lost Decade und sei jedem ans Herz gelegt, der die "Microsoft-Maschinerie" unter Steve Ballmer und einige ihrer Kuriositäten besser verstehen möchte. "YOU TALKING TO ME?" Microsoft C.E.O. Steve Ballmer bei seiner Keynote auf der 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas am 9. Januar   Manche Dinge in diesem Artikel mögen überspitzt dargestellt erscheinen - sind sie aber nicht. Vieles davon kannte ich bereits aus eigener Erfahrung und kann es nur bestätigen. Anderes hat sich mir erst so richtig erschlossen. Insbesondere die folgenden Passagen führten zum Aha-Erlebnis: “Windows was the god—everything had to work with Windows,” said Stone... “Every little thing you want to write has to build off of Windows (or other existing roducts),” one software engineer said. “It can be very confusing, …” Ich habe immer schon darauf hingewiesen, dass in einem SQL Server Failover Cluster die Microsoft Datenbank eigentlich nichts Nenneswertes zum Geschehen beiträgt, sondern sich voll und ganz auf das Windows Betriebssystem verlässt. Deshalb muss man auch die Windows Server Enterprise Edition installieren, soll ein Failover Cluster für den SQL Server eingerichtet werden. Denn hier werden die Cluster Services geliefert - nicht mit dem SQL Server. Er ist nur lediglich ein weiteres Server Produkt, für das Windows in Ausfallszenarien genutzt werden kann - so wie Microsoft Exchange beispielsweise, oder Microsoft SharePoint, oder irgendein anderes Server Produkt das auf Windows gehostet wird. Auch Oracle kann damit genutzt werden. Das Stichwort lautet hier: Oracle Failsafe. Nur - warum sollte man das tun, wenn gleichzeitig eine überlegene Technologie wie die Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) zur Verfügung steht, die dann auch keine Windows Enterprise Edition voraussetzen, da Oracle die eigene Clusterware liefert. Welche darüber hinaus für kürzere Failover-Zeiten sorgt, da diese Cluster-Technologie Datenbank-integriert ist und sich nicht auf "Dritte" verlässt. Wenn man sich also schon keine technischen Vorteile mit einem SQL Server Failover Cluster erkauft, sondern zusätzlich noch versteckte Lizenzkosten durch die Lizenzierung der Windows Server Enterprise Edition einhandelt, warum hat Microsoft dann in den vergangenen Jahren seit SQL Server 2000 nicht ebenfalls an einer neuen und innovativen Lösung gearbeitet, die mit Oracle RAC mithalten kann? Entwickler hat Microsoft genügend? Am Geld kann es auch nicht liegen? Lesen Sie einfach noch einmal die beiden obenstehenden Zitate und sie werden den Grund verstehen. Anders lässt es sich ja auch gar nicht mehr erklären, dass AlwaysOn aus zwei unterschiedlichen Technologien besteht, die beide jedoch wiederum auf dem Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) basieren. Denn daraus ergeben sich klare Nachteile - aber dazu später mehr. Um AlwaysOn zu verstehen, sollte man sich zunächst kurz in Erinnerung rufen, was Microsoft bisher an HA/DR (High Availability/Desaster Recovery) Lösungen für SQL Server zur Verfügung gestellt hat. Replikation Basiert auf logischer Replikation und Pubisher/Subscriber Architektur Transactional Replication Merge Replication Snapshot Replication Microsoft's Replikation ist vergleichbar mit Oracle GoldenGate. Oracle GoldenGate stellt jedoch die umfassendere Technologie dar und bietet High Performance. Log Shipping Microsoft's Log Shipping stellt eine einfache Technologie dar, die vergleichbar ist mit Oracle Managed Recovery in Oracle Version 7. Das Log Shipping besitzt folgende Merkmale: Transaction Log Backups werden von Primary nach Secondary/ies geschickt Einarbeitung (z.B. Restore) auf jedem Secondary individuell Optionale dritte Server Instanz (Monitor Server) für Überwachung und Alarm Log Restore Unterbrechung möglich für Read-Only Modus (Secondary) Keine Unterstützung von Automatic Failover Database Mirroring Microsoft's Database Mirroring wurde verfügbar mit SQL Server 2005, sah aus wie Oracle Data Guard in Oracle 9i, war funktional jedoch nicht so umfassend. Für ein HA/DR Paar besteht eine 1:1 Beziehung, um die produktive Datenbank (Principle DB) abzusichern. Auf der Standby Datenbank (Mirrored DB) werden alle Insert-, Update- und Delete-Operationen nachgezogen. Modi Synchron (High-Safety Modus) Asynchron (High-Performance Modus) Automatic Failover Unterstützt im High-Safety Modus (synchron) Witness Server vorausgesetzt     Zur Frage der Kontinuität Es stellt sich die Frage, wie es um diesen Technologien nun im Zusammenhang mit SQL Server 2012 bestellt ist. Unter Fanfaren seinerzeit eingeführt, war Database Mirroring das erklärte Mittel der Wahl. Ich bin kein Produkt Manager bei Microsoft und kann hierzu nur meine Meinung äußern, aber zieht man den SQL AlwaysOn Team Blog heran, so sieht es nicht gut aus für das Database Mirroring - zumindest nicht langfristig. "Does AlwaysOn Availability Group replace Database Mirroring going forward?” “The short answer is we recommend that you migrate from the mirroring configuration or even mirroring and log shipping configuration to using Availability Group. Database Mirroring will still be available in the Denali release but will be phased out over subsequent releases. Log Shipping will continue to be available in future releases.” Damit wären wir endlich beim eigentlichen Thema angelangt. Was ist eine sogenannte Availability Group und was genau hat es mit der vielversprechend klingenden Bezeichnung AlwaysOn auf sich?   SQL Server 2012 - AlwaysOn Zwei HA-Features verstekcne sich hinter dem “AlwaysOn”-Branding. Einmal das AlwaysOn Failover Clustering aka SQL Server Failover Cluster Instances (FCI) - zum Anderen die AlwaysOn Availability Groups. Failover Cluster Instances (FCI) Entspricht ungefähr dem Stretch Cluster Konzept von Oracle Setzt auf Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) auf Bietet HA auf Instanz-Ebene AlwaysOn Availability Groups (Verfügbarkeitsgruppen) Ähnlich der Idee von Consistency Groups, wie in Storage-Level Replikations-Software von z.B. EMC SRDF Abhängigkeiten zu Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) Bietet HA auf Datenbank-Ebene   Hinweis: Verwechseln Sie nicht eine SQL Server Datenbank mit einer Oracle Datenbank. Und auch nicht eine Oracle Instanz mit einer SQL Server Instanz. Die gleichen Begriffe haben hier eine andere Bedeutung - nicht selten ein Grund, weshalb Oracle- und Microsoft DBAs schnell aneinander vorbei reden. Denken Sie bei einer SQL Server Datenbank eher an ein Oracle Schema, das kommt der Sache näher. So etwas wie die SQL Server Northwind Datenbank ist vergleichbar mit dem Oracle Scott Schema. Wenn Sie die genauen Unterschiede kennen möchten, finden Sie eine detaillierte Beschreibung in meinem Buch "Oracle10g Release 2 für Windows und .NET", erhältich bei Lehmanns, Amazon, etc.   Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) Wie man sieht, basieren beide AlwaysOn Technologien wiederum auf dem Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC), um einerseits Hochverfügbarkeit auf Ebene der Instanz zu gewährleisten und andererseits auf der Datenbank-Ebene. Deshalb nun eine kurze Beschreibung der WSFC. Die WSFC sind ein mit dem Windows Betriebssystem geliefertes Infrastruktur-Feature, um HA für Server Anwendungen, wie Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, SQL Server, etc. zu bieten. So wie jeder andere Cluster, besteht ein WSFC Cluster aus einer Gruppe unabhängiger Server, die zusammenarbeiten, um die Verfügbarkeit einer Applikation oder eines Service zu erhöhen. Falls ein Cluster-Knoten oder -Service ausfällt, kann der auf diesem Knoten bisher gehostete Service automatisch oder manuell auf einen anderen im Cluster verfügbaren Knoten transferriert werden - was allgemein als Failover bekannt ist. Unter SQL Server 2012 verwenden sowohl die AlwaysOn Avalability Groups, als auch die AlwaysOn Failover Cluster Instances die WSFC als Plattformtechnologie, um Komponenten als WSFC Cluster-Ressourcen zu registrieren. Verwandte Ressourcen werden in eine Ressource Group zusammengefasst, die in Abhängigkeit zu anderen WSFC Cluster-Ressourcen gebracht werden kann. Der WSFC Cluster Service kann jetzt die Notwendigkeit zum Neustart der SQL Server Instanz erfassen oder einen automatischen Failover zu einem anderen Server-Knoten im WSFC Cluster auslösen.   Failover Cluster Instances (FCI) Eine SQL Server Failover Cluster Instanz (FCI) ist eine einzelne SQL Server Instanz, die in einem Failover Cluster betrieben wird, der aus mehreren Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) Knoten besteht und so HA (High Availability) auf Ebene der Instanz bietet. Unter Verwendung von Multi-Subnet FCI kann auch Remote DR (Disaster Recovery) unterstützt werden. Eine weitere Option für Remote DR besteht darin, eine unter FCI gehostete Datenbank in einer Availability Group zu betreiben. Hierzu später mehr. FCI und WSFC Basis FCI, das für lokale Hochverfügbarkeit der Instanzen genutzt wird, ähnelt der veralteten Architektur eines kalten Cluster (Aktiv-Passiv). Unter SQL Server 2008 wurde diese Technologie SQL Server 2008 Failover Clustering genannt. Sie nutzte den Windows Server Failover Cluster. In SQL Server 2012 hat Microsoft diese Basistechnologie unter der Bezeichnung AlwaysOn zusammengefasst. Es handelt sich aber nach wie vor um die klassische Aktiv-Passiv-Konfiguration. Der Ablauf im Failover-Fall ist wie folgt: Solange kein Hardware-oder System-Fehler auftritt, werden alle Dirty Pages im Buffer Cache auf Platte geschrieben Alle entsprechenden SQL Server Services (Dienste) in der Ressource Gruppe werden auf dem aktiven Knoten gestoppt Die Ownership der Ressource Gruppe wird auf einen anderen Knoten der FCI transferriert Der neue Owner (Besitzer) der Ressource Gruppe startet seine SQL Server Services (Dienste) Die Connection-Anforderungen einer Client-Applikation werden automatisch auf den neuen aktiven Knoten mit dem selben Virtuellen Network Namen (VNN) umgeleitet Abhängig vom Zeitpunkt des letzten Checkpoints, kann die Anzahl der Dirty Pages im Buffer Cache, die noch auf Platte geschrieben werden müssen, zu unvorhersehbar langen Failover-Zeiten führen. Um diese Anzahl zu drosseln, besitzt der SQL Server 2012 eine neue Fähigkeit, die Indirect Checkpoints genannt wird. Indirect Checkpoints ähnelt dem Fast-Start MTTR Target Feature der Oracle Datenbank, das bereits mit Oracle9i verfügbar war.   SQL Server Multi-Subnet Clustering Ein SQL Server Multi-Subnet Failover Cluster entspricht vom Konzept her einem Oracle RAC Stretch Cluster. Doch dies ist nur auf den ersten Blick der Fall. Im Gegensatz zu RAC ist in einem lokalen SQL Server Failover Cluster jeweils nur ein Knoten aktiv für eine Datenbank. Für die Datenreplikation zwischen geografisch entfernten Sites verlässt sich Microsoft auf 3rd Party Lösungen für das Storage Mirroring.     Die Verbesserung dieses Szenario mit einer SQL Server 2012 Implementierung besteht schlicht darin, dass eine VLAN-Konfiguration (Virtual Local Area Network) nun nicht mehr benötigt wird, so wie dies bisher der Fall war. Das folgende Diagramm stellt dar, wie der Ablauf mit SQL Server 2012 gehandhabt wird. In Site A und Site B wird HA jeweils durch einen lokalen Aktiv-Passiv-Cluster sichergestellt.     Besondere Aufmerksamkeit muss hier der Konfiguration und dem Tuning geschenkt werden, da ansonsten völlig inakzeptable Failover-Zeiten resultieren. Dies liegt darin begründet, weil die Downtime auf Client-Seite nun nicht mehr nur von der reinen Failover-Zeit abhängt, sondern zusätzlich von der Dauer der DNS Replikation zwischen den DNS Servern. (Rufen Sie sich in Erinnerung, dass wir gerade von Multi-Subnet Clustering sprechen). Außerdem ist zu berücksichtigen, wie schnell die Clients die aktualisierten DNS Informationen abfragen. Spezielle Konfigurationen für Node Heartbeat, HostRecordTTL (Host Record Time-to-Live) und Intersite Replication Frequeny für Active Directory Sites und Services werden notwendig. Default TTL für Windows Server 2008 R2: 20 Minuten Empfohlene Einstellung: 1 Minute DNS Update Replication Frequency in Windows Umgebung: 180 Minuten Empfohlene Einstellung: 15 Minuten (minimaler Wert)   Betrachtet man diese Werte, muss man feststellen, dass selbst eine optimale Konfiguration die rigiden SLAs (Service Level Agreements) heutiger geschäftskritischer Anwendungen für HA und DR nicht erfüllen kann. Denn dies impliziert eine auf der Client-Seite erlebte Failover-Zeit von insgesamt 16 Minuten. Hierzu ein Auszug aus der SQL Server 2012 Online Dokumentation: Cons: If a cross-subnet failover occurs, the client recovery time could be 15 minutes or longer, depending on your HostRecordTTL setting and the setting of your cross-site DNS/AD replication schedule.    Wir sind hier an einem Punkt unserer Überlegungen angelangt, an dem sich erklärt, weshalb ich zuvor das "Windows was the God ..." Zitat verwendet habe. Die unbedingte Abhängigkeit zu Windows wird zunehmend zum Problem, da sie die Komplexität einer Microsoft-basierenden Lösung erhöht, anstelle sie zu reduzieren. Und Komplexität ist das Letzte, was sich CIOs heutzutage wünschen.  Zur Ehrenrettung des SQL Server 2012 und AlwaysOn muss man sagen, dass derart lange Failover-Zeiten kein unbedingtes "Muss" darstellen, sondern ein "Kann". Doch auch ein "Kann" kann im unpassenden Moment unvorhersehbare und kostspielige Folgen haben. Die Unabsehbarkeit ist wiederum Ursache vieler an der Implementierung beteiligten Komponenten und deren Abhängigkeiten, wie beispielsweise drei Cluster-Lösungen (zwei von Microsoft, eine 3rd Party Lösung). Wie man die Sache auch dreht und wendet, kommt man an diesem Fakt also nicht vorbei - ganz unabhängig von der Dauer einer Downtime oder Failover-Zeiten. Im Gegensatz zu AlwaysOn und der hier vorgestellten Version eines Stretch-Clusters, vermeidet eine entsprechende Oracle Implementierung eine derartige Komplexität, hervorgerufen duch multiple Abhängigkeiten. Den Unterschied machen Datenbank-integrierte Mechanismen, wie Fast Application Notification (FAN) und Fast Connection Failover (FCF). Für Oracle MAA Konfigurationen (Maximum Availability Architecture) sind Inter-Site Failover-Zeiten im Bereich von Sekunden keine Seltenheit. Wenn Sie dem Link zur Oracle MAA folgen, finden Sie außerdem eine Reihe an Customer Case Studies. Auch dies ist ein wichtiges Unterscheidungsmerkmal zu AlwaysOn, denn die Oracle Technologie hat sich bereits zigfach in höchst kritischen Umgebungen bewährt.   Availability Groups (Verfügbarkeitsgruppen) Die sogenannten Availability Groups (Verfügbarkeitsgruppen) sind - neben FCI - der weitere Baustein von AlwaysOn.   Hinweis: Bevor wir uns näher damit beschäftigen, sollten Sie sich noch einmal ins Gedächtnis rufen, dass eine SQL Server Datenbank nicht die gleiche Bedeutung besitzt, wie eine Oracle Datenbank, sondern eher einem Oracle Schema entspricht. So etwas wie die SQL Server Northwind Datenbank ist vergleichbar mit dem Oracle Scott Schema.   Eine Verfügbarkeitsgruppe setzt sich zusammen aus einem Set mehrerer Benutzer-Datenbanken, die im Falle eines Failover gemeinsam als Gruppe behandelt werden. Eine Verfügbarkeitsgruppe unterstützt ein Set an primären Datenbanken (primäres Replikat) und einem bis vier Sets von entsprechenden sekundären Datenbanken (sekundäre Replikate).       Es können jedoch nicht alle SQL Server Datenbanken einer AlwaysOn Verfügbarkeitsgruppe zugeordnet werden. Der SQL Server Spezialist Michael Otey zählt in seinem SQL Server Pro Artikel folgende Anforderungen auf: Verfügbarkeitsgruppen müssen mit Benutzer-Datenbanken erstellt werden. System-Datenbanken können nicht verwendet werden Die Datenbanken müssen sich im Read-Write Modus befinden. Read-Only Datenbanken werden nicht unterstützt Die Datenbanken in einer Verfügbarkeitsgruppe müssen Multiuser Datenbanken sein Sie dürfen nicht das AUTO_CLOSE Feature verwenden Sie müssen das Full Recovery Modell nutzen und es muss ein vollständiges Backup vorhanden sein Eine gegebene Datenbank kann sich nur in einer einzigen Verfügbarkeitsgruppe befinden und diese Datenbank düerfen nicht für Database Mirroring konfiguriert sein Microsoft empfiehl außerdem, dass der Verzeichnispfad einer Datenbank auf dem primären und sekundären Server identisch sein sollte Wie man sieht, eignen sich Verfügbarkeitsgruppen nicht, um HA und DR vollständig abzubilden. Die Unterscheidung zwischen der Instanzen-Ebene (FCI) und Datenbank-Ebene (Availability Groups) ist von hoher Bedeutung. Vor kurzem wurde mir gesagt, dass man mit den Verfügbarkeitsgruppen auf Shared Storage verzichten könne und dadurch Kosten spart. So weit so gut ... Man kann natürlich eine Installation rein mit Verfügbarkeitsgruppen und ohne FCI durchführen - aber man sollte sich dann darüber bewusst sein, was man dadurch alles nicht abgesichert hat - und dies wiederum für Desaster Recovery (DR) und SLAs (Service Level Agreements) bedeutet. Kurzum, um die Kombination aus beiden AlwaysOn Produkten und der damit verbundene Komplexität kommt man wohl in der Praxis nicht herum.    Availability Groups und WSFC AlwaysOn hängt von Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) ab, um die aktuellen Rollen der Verfügbarkeitsreplikate einer Verfügbarkeitsgruppe zu überwachen und zu verwalten, und darüber zu entscheiden, wie ein Failover-Ereignis die Verfügbarkeitsreplikate betrifft. Das folgende Diagramm zeigt de Beziehung zwischen Verfügbarkeitsgruppen und WSFC:   Der Verfügbarkeitsmodus ist eine Eigenschaft jedes Verfügbarkeitsreplikats. Synychron und Asynchron können also gemischt werden: Availability Modus (Verfügbarkeitsmodus) Asynchroner Commit-Modus Primäres replikat schließt Transaktionen ohne Warten auf Sekundäres Synchroner Commit-Modus Primäres Replikat wartet auf Commit von sekundärem Replikat Failover Typen Automatic Manual Forced (mit möglichem Datenverlust) Synchroner Commit-Modus Geplanter, manueller Failover ohne Datenverlust Automatischer Failover ohne Datenverlust Asynchroner Commit-Modus Nur Forced, manueller Failover mit möglichem Datenverlust   Der SQL Server kennt keinen separaten Switchover Begriff wie in Oracle Data Guard. Für SQL Server werden alle Role Transitions als Failover bezeichnet. Tatsächlich unterstützt der SQL Server keinen Switchover für asynchrone Verbindungen. Es gibt nur die Form des Forced Failover mit möglichem Datenverlust. Eine ähnliche Fähigkeit wie der Switchover unter Oracle Data Guard ist so nicht gegeben.   SQL Sever FCI mit Availability Groups (Verfügbarkeitsgruppen) Neben den Verfügbarkeitsgruppen kann eine zweite Failover-Ebene eingerichtet werden, indem SQL Server FCI (auf Shared Storage) mit WSFC implementiert wird. Ein Verfügbarkeitesreplikat kann dann auf einer Standalone Instanz gehostet werden, oder einer FCI Instanz. Zum Verständnis: Die Verfügbarkeitsgruppen selbst benötigen kein Shared Storage. Diese Kombination kann verwendet werden für lokale HA auf Ebene der Instanz und DR auf Datenbank-Ebene durch Verfügbarkeitsgruppen. Das folgende Diagramm zeigt dieses Szenario:   Achtung! Hier handelt es sich nicht um ein Pendant zu Oracle RAC plus Data Guard, auch wenn das Bild diesen Eindruck vielleicht vermitteln mag - denn alle sekundären Knoten im FCI sind rein passiv. Es existiert außerdem eine weitere und ernsthafte Einschränkung: SQL Server Failover Cluster Instanzen (FCI) unterstützen nicht das automatische AlwaysOn Failover für Verfügbarkeitsgruppen. Jedes unter FCI gehostete Verfügbarkeitsreplikat kann nur für manuelles Failover konfiguriert werden.   Lesbare Sekundäre Replikate Ein oder mehrere Verfügbarkeitsreplikate in einer Verfügbarkeitsgruppe können für den lesenden Zugriff konfiguriert werden, wenn sie als sekundäres Replikat laufen. Dies ähnelt Oracle Active Data Guard, jedoch gibt es Einschränkungen. Alle Abfragen gegen die sekundäre Datenbank werden automatisch auf das Snapshot Isolation Level abgebildet. Es handelt sich dabei um eine Versionierung der Rows. Microsoft versuchte hiermit die Oracle MVRC (Multi Version Read Consistency) nachzustellen. Tatsächlich muss man die SQL Server Snapshot Isolation eher mit Oracle Flashback vergleichen. Bei der Implementierung des Snapshot Isolation Levels handelt sich um ein nachträglich aufgesetztes Feature und nicht um einen inhärenten Teil des Datenbank-Kernels, wie im Falle Oracle. (Ich werde hierzu in Kürze einen weiteren Blogbeitrag verfassen, wenn ich mich mit der neuen SQL Server 2012 Core Lizenzierung beschäftige.) Für die Praxis entstehen aus der Abbildung auf das Snapshot Isolation Level ernsthafte Restriktionen, derer man sich für den Betrieb in der Praxis bereits vorab bewusst sein sollte: Sollte auf der primären Datenbank eine aktive Transaktion zu dem Zeitpunkt existieren, wenn ein lesbares sekundäres Replikat in die Verfügbarkeitsgruppe aufgenommen wird, werden die Row-Versionen auf der korrespondierenden sekundären Datenbank nicht sofort vollständig verfügbar sein. Eine aktive Transaktion auf dem primären Replikat muss zuerst abgeschlossen (Commit oder Rollback) und dieser Transaktions-Record auf dem sekundären Replikat verarbeitet werden. Bis dahin ist das Isolation Level Mapping auf der sekundären Datenbank unvollständig und Abfragen sind temporär geblockt. Microsoft sagt dazu: "This is needed to guarantee that row versions are available on the secondary replica before executing the query under snapshot isolation as all isolation levels are implicitly mapped to snapshot isolation." (SQL Storage Engine Blog: AlwaysOn: I just enabled Readable Secondary but my query is blocked?)  Grundlegend bedeutet dies, dass ein aktives lesbares Replikat nicht in die Verfügbarkeitsgruppe aufgenommen werden kann, ohne das primäre Replikat vorübergehend stillzulegen. Da Leseoperationen auf das Snapshot Isolation Transaction Level abgebildet werden, kann die Bereinigung von Ghost Records auf dem primären Replikat durch Transaktionen auf einem oder mehreren sekundären Replikaten geblockt werden - z.B. durch eine lang laufende Abfrage auf dem sekundären Replikat. Diese Bereinigung wird auch blockiert, wenn die Verbindung zum sekundären Replikat abbricht oder der Datenaustausch unterbrochen wird. Auch die Log Truncation wird in diesem Zustant verhindert. Wenn dieser Zustand längere Zeit anhält, empfiehlt Microsoft das sekundäre Replikat aus der Verfügbarkeitsgruppe herauszunehmen - was ein ernsthaftes Downtime-Problem darstellt. Die Read-Only Workload auf den sekundären Replikaten kann eingehende DDL Änderungen blockieren. Obwohl die Leseoperationen aufgrund der Row-Versionierung keine Shared Locks halten, führen diese Operatioen zu Sch-S Locks (Schemastabilitätssperren). DDL-Änderungen durch Redo-Operationen können dadurch blockiert werden. Falls DDL aufgrund konkurrierender Lese-Workload blockiert wird und der Schwellenwert für 'Recovery Interval' (eine SQL Server Konfigurationsoption) überschritten wird, generiert der SQL Server das Ereignis sqlserver.lock_redo_blocked, welches Microsoft zum Kill der blockierenden Leser empfiehlt. Auf die Verfügbarkeit der Anwendung wird hierbei keinerlei Rücksicht genommen.   Keine dieser Einschränkungen existiert mit Oracle Active Data Guard.   Backups auf sekundären Replikaten  Über die sekundären Replikate können Backups (BACKUP DATABASE via Transact-SQL) nur als copy-only Backups einer vollständigen Datenbank, Dateien und Dateigruppen erstellt werden. Das Erstellen inkrementeller Backups ist nicht unterstützt, was ein ernsthafter Rückstand ist gegenüber der Backup-Unterstützung physikalischer Standbys unter Oracle Data Guard. Hinweis: Ein möglicher Workaround via Snapshots, bleibt ein Workaround. Eine weitere Einschränkung dieses Features gegenüber Oracle Data Guard besteht darin, dass das Backup eines sekundären Replikats nicht ausgeführt werden kann, wenn es nicht mit dem primären Replikat kommunizieren kann. Darüber hinaus muss das sekundäre Replikat synchronisiert sein oder sich in der Synchronisation befinden, um das Beackup auf dem sekundären Replikat erstellen zu können.   Vergleich von Microsoft AlwaysOn mit der Oracle MAA Ich komme wieder zurück auf die Eingangs erwähnte, mehrfach an mich gestellte Frage "Wann denn - und ob überhaupt - Oracle etwas Vergleichbares wie AlwaysOn bieten würde?" und meine damit verbundene (kurze) Irritation. Wenn Sie diesen Blogbeitrag bis hierher gelesen haben, dann kennen Sie jetzt meine darauf gegebene Antwort. Der eine oder andere Punkt traf dabei nicht immer auf Jeden zu, was auch nicht der tiefere Sinn und Zweck meiner Antwort war. Wenn beispielsweise kein Multi-Subnet mit im Spiel ist, sind alle diesbezüglichen Kritikpunkte zunächst obsolet. Was aber nicht bedeutet, dass sie nicht bereits morgen schon wieder zum Thema werden könnten (Sag niemals "Nie"). In manch anderes Fettnäpfchen tritt man wiederum nicht unbedingt in einer Testumgebung, sondern erst im laufenden Betrieb. Erst recht nicht dann, wenn man sich potenzieller Probleme nicht bewusst ist und keine dedizierten Tests startet. Und wer AlwaysOn erfolgreich positionieren möchte, wird auch gar kein Interesse daran haben, auf mögliche Schwachstellen und den besagten Teufel im Detail aufmerksam zu machen. Das ist keine Unterstellung - es ist nur menschlich. Außerdem ist es verständlich, dass man sich in erster Linie darauf konzentriert "was geht" und "was gut läuft", anstelle auf das "was zu Problemen führen kann" oder "nicht funktioniert". Wer will schon der Miesepeter sein? Für mich selbst gesprochen, kann ich nur sagen, dass ich lieber vorab von allen möglichen Einschränkungen wissen möchte, anstelle sie dann nach einer kurzen Zeit der heilen Welt schmerzhaft am eigenen Leib erfahren zu müssen. Ich bin davon überzeugt, dass es Ihnen nicht anders geht. Nachfolgend deshalb eine Zusammenfassung all jener Punkte, die ich im Vergleich zur Oracle MAA (Maximum Availability Architecture) als unbedingt Erwähnenswert betrachte, falls man eine Evaluierung von Microsoft AlwaysOn in Betracht zieht. 1. AlwaysOn ist eine komplexe Technologie Der SQL Server AlwaysOn Stack ist zusammengesetzt aus drei verschiedenen Technlogien: Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) SQL Server Failover Cluster Instances (FCI) SQL Server Availability Groups (Verfügbarkeitsgruppen) Man kann eine derartige Lösung nicht als nahtlos bezeichnen, wofür auch die vielen von Microsoft dargestellten Einschränkungen sprechen. Während sich frühere SQL Server Versionen in Richtung eigener HA/DR Technologien entwickelten (wie Database Mirroring), empfiehlt Microsoft nun die Migration. Doch weshalb dieser Schwenk? Er führt nicht zu einem konsisten und robusten Angebot an HA/DR Technologie für geschäftskritische Umgebungen.  Liegt die Antwort in meiner These begründet, nach der "Windows was the God ..." noch immer gilt und man die Nachteile der allzu engen Kopplung mit Windows nicht sehen möchte? Entscheiden Sie selbst ... 2. Failover Cluster Instanzen - Kein RAC-Pendant Die SQL Server und Windows Server Clustering Technologie basiert noch immer auf dem veralteten Aktiv-Passiv Modell und führt zu einer Verschwendung von Systemressourcen. In einer Betrachtung von lediglich zwei Knoten erschließt sich auf Anhieb noch nicht der volle Mehrwert eines Aktiv-Aktiv Clusters (wie den Real Application Clusters), wie er von Oracle bereits vor zehn Jahren entwickelt wurde. Doch kennt man die Vorzüge der Skalierbarkeit durch einfaches Hinzufügen weiterer Cluster-Knoten, die dann alle gemeinsam als ein einziges logisches System zusammenarbeiten, versteht man was hinter dem Motto "Pay-as-you-Grow" steckt. In einem Aktiv-Aktiv Cluster geht es zwar auch um Hochverfügbarkeit - und ein Failover erfolgt zudem schneller, als in einem Aktiv-Passiv Modell - aber es geht eben nicht nur darum. An dieser Stelle sei darauf hingewiesen, dass die Oracle 11g Standard Edition bereits die Nutzung von Oracle RAC bis zu vier Sockets kostenfrei beinhaltet. Möchten Sie dazu Windows nutzen, benötigen Sie keine Windows Server Enterprise Edition, da Oracle 11g die eigene Clusterware liefert. Sie kommen in den Genuss von Hochverfügbarkeit und Skalierbarkeit und können dazu die günstigere Windows Server Standard Edition nutzen. 3. SQL Server Multi-Subnet Clustering - Abhängigkeit zu 3rd Party Storage Mirroring  Die SQL Server Multi-Subnet Clustering Architektur unterstützt den Aufbau eines Stretch Clusters, basiert dabei aber auf dem Aktiv-Passiv Modell. Das eigentlich Problematische ist jedoch, dass man sich zur Absicherung der Datenbank auf 3rd Party Storage Mirroring Technologie verlässt, ohne Integration zwischen dem Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) und der darunterliegenden Mirroring Technologie. Wenn nun im Cluster ein Failover auf Instanzen-Ebene erfolgt, existiert keine Koordination mit einem möglichen Failover auf Ebene des Storage-Array. 4. Availability Groups (Verfügbarkeitsgruppen) - Vier, oder doch nur Zwei? Ein primäres Replikat erlaubt bis zu vier sekundäre Replikate innerhalb einer Verfügbarkeitsgruppe, jedoch nur zwei im Synchronen Commit Modus. Während dies zwar einen Vorteil gegenüber dem stringenten 1:1 Modell unter Database Mirroring darstellt, fällt der SQL Server 2012 damit immer noch weiter zurück hinter Oracle Data Guard mit bis zu 30 direkten Stanbdy Zielen - und vielen weiteren durch kaskadierende Ziele möglichen. Damit eignet sich Oracle Active Data Guard auch für die Bereitstellung einer Reader-Farm Skalierbarkeit für Internet-basierende Unternehmen. Mit AwaysOn Verfügbarkeitsgruppen ist dies nicht möglich. 5. Availability Groups (Verfügbarkeitsgruppen) - kein asynchrones Switchover  Die Technologie der Verfügbarkeitsgruppen wird auch als geeignetes Mittel für administrative Aufgaben positioniert - wie Upgrades oder Wartungsarbeiten. Man muss sich jedoch einem gravierendem Defizit bewusst sein: Im asynchronen Verfügbarkeitsmodus besteht die einzige Möglichkeit für Role Transition im Forced Failover mit Datenverlust! Um den Verlust von Daten durch geplante Wartungsarbeiten zu vermeiden, muss man den synchronen Verfügbarkeitsmodus konfigurieren, was jedoch ernstzunehmende Auswirkungen auf WAN Deployments nach sich zieht. Spinnt man diesen Gedanken zu Ende, kommt man zu dem Schluss, dass die Technologie der Verfügbarkeitsgruppen für geplante Wartungsarbeiten in einem derartigen Umfeld nicht effektiv genutzt werden kann. 6. Automatisches Failover - Nicht immer möglich Sowohl die SQL Server FCI, als auch Verfügbarkeitsgruppen unterstützen automatisches Failover. Möchte man diese jedoch kombinieren, wird das Ergebnis kein automatisches Failover sein. Denn ihr Zusammentreffen im Failover-Fall führt zu Race Conditions (Wettlaufsituationen), weshalb diese Konfiguration nicht länger das automatische Failover zu einem Replikat in einer Verfügbarkeitsgruppe erlaubt. Auch hier bestätigt sich wieder die tiefere Problematik von AlwaysOn, mit einer Zusammensetzung aus unterschiedlichen Technologien und der Abhängigkeit zu Windows. 7. Problematische RTO (Recovery Time Objective) Microsoft postioniert die SQL Server Multi-Subnet Clustering Architektur als brauchbare HA/DR Architektur. Bedenkt man jedoch die Problematik im Zusammenhang mit DNS Replikation und den möglichen langen Wartezeiten auf Client-Seite von bis zu 16 Minuten, sind strenge RTO Anforderungen (Recovery Time Objectives) nicht erfüllbar. Im Gegensatz zu Oracle besitzt der SQL Server keine Datenbank-integrierten Technologien, wie Oracle Fast Application Notification (FAN) oder Oracle Fast Connection Failover (FCF). 8. Problematische RPO (Recovery Point Objective) SQL Server ermöglicht Forced Failover (erzwungenes Failover), bietet jedoch keine Möglichkeit zur automatischen Übertragung der letzten Datenbits von einem alten zu einem neuen primären Replikat, wenn der Verfügbarkeitsmodus asynchron war. Oracle Data Guard hingegen bietet diese Unterstützung durch das Flush Redo Feature. Dies sichert "Zero Data Loss" und beste RPO auch in erzwungenen Failover-Situationen. 9. Lesbare Sekundäre Replikate mit Einschränkungen Aufgrund des Snapshot Isolation Transaction Level für lesbare sekundäre Replikate, besitzen diese Einschränkungen mit Auswirkung auf die primäre Datenbank. Die Bereinigung von Ghost Records auf der primären Datenbank, wird beeinflusst von lang laufenden Abfragen auf der lesabaren sekundären Datenbank. Die lesbare sekundäre Datenbank kann nicht in die Verfügbarkeitsgruppe aufgenommen werden, wenn es aktive Transaktionen auf der primären Datenbank gibt. Zusätzlich können DLL Änderungen auf der primären Datenbank durch Abfragen auf der sekundären blockiert werden. Und imkrementelle Backups werden hier nicht unterstützt.   Keine dieser Restriktionen existiert unter Oracle Data Guard.

  Read the article

• CodePlex Daily Summary for Wednesday, December 01, 2010

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Wednesday, December 01, 2010Popular ReleasesUltimateJB: UltimateJB 2.02 PL3 KAKAROTO + CE-X-3.41 EvilSperm: Voici une version attendu avec impatience pour beaucoup : - La Version CEX341 pour pouvoir jouer avec des jeux demandant le firmware 3.50 ( certain ne fonctionne tous simplement pas ). - Pour l'instant le CEX341 n'est disponible qu'avec les PS3 en firmwares 3.41 !!! - La version PL3 KAKAROTO intégre ses dernières modification et intégre maintenant le firmware 3.30 !!! Conclusion : - UltimateJB CEX341 => Spoof le Firmware 3.41 en 3.50 ( facilite l'utilisation de certain jeux avec openManage...Menu and Context Menu for Silverlight 4.0: Silverlight Menu and Context Menu v2.2 Beta2: - Added keyboard navigation support with access keys - Shortcuts like Ctrl-Alt-A are now supported(where the browser permits it) - The PopupMenuSeparator is now completely based on the PopupMenuItem class - Moved item manipulation code to a partial class in PopupMenuItemsControl.cs - Simplified the layout by removing the RootGrid element(all content is now placed in OverlayCanvas and is accessed by the new ContentRoot property) - Added properties AccessKey, AccessKeyModifier, AccessKeyElemen...EnhSim: EnhSim 2.1.1: 2.1.1This release adds in the changes for 4.03a. To use this release, you must have the Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package installed. This can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=A7B7A05E-6DE6-4D3A-A423-37BF0912DB84 To use the GUI you must have the .NET 4.0 Framework installed. This can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=9cfb2d51-5ff4-4491-b0e5-b386f32c0992 - Switched Searing Flames bac...AI: Initial 0.0.1: It’s simply just one code file; it simulates AI and machine in a simulated world. The AI has a little understanding of its body machine and parts, and able to use its feet to do actions just start and stop walking. The world is all of white with nothing but just the machine on a white planet. Colors, odors and position information make no sense. I’m previous C# programmer and I’m learning F# during this project, although I’m still not a good F# programmer, in this project I learning to prog...Microsoft - Domain Oriented N-Layered .NET 4.0 App Sample (Microsoft Spain): V1.0 - N-Layer DDD Sample App .NET 4.0: Required Software (Microsoft Base Software needed for Development environment) Visual Studio 2010 RTM & .NET 4.0 RTM (Final Versions) Expression Blend 4 SQL Server 2008 R2 Express/Standard/Enterprise Unity Application Block 2.0 - Published May 5th 2010 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=2D24F179-E0A6-49D7-89C4-5B67D939F91B&displaylang=en http://unity.codeplex.com/releases/view/31277 PEX & MOLES 0.94.51023.0, 29/Oct/2010 - Visual Studio 2010 Power Tools http://re...Sense/Net Enterprise Portal & ECMS: SenseNet 6.0.1 Community Edition: Sense/Net 6.0.1 Community Edition This half year we have been working quite fiercely to bring you the long-awaited release of Sense/Net 6.0. Download this Community Edition to see what we have been up to. These months we have worked on getting the WebCMS capabilities of Sense/Net 6.0 up to par. New features include: New, powerful page and portlet editing experience. HTML and CSS cleanup, new, powerful site skinning system. Upgraded, lightning-fast indexing and query via Lucene. Limita...Minecraft GPS: Minecraft GPS 1.1.1: New Features Compass! New style. Set opacity on main window to allow overlay of Minecraft. Open World in any folder. Fixes Fixed style so listbox won't grow the window size. Fixed open file dialog issue on non-vista kernel machines.DotSpatial: DotSpatial 11-28-2001: This release introduces some exciting improvements. Support for big raster, both in display and changing the scheme. Faster raster scheme creation for all rasters. Caching of the "sample" values so once obtained the raster symbolizer dialog loads faster. Reprojection supported for raster and image classes. Affine transform fully supported for images and rasters, so skewed images are now possible. Projection uses better checks when loading unprojected layers. GDAL raster support f...SuperWebSocket: SuperWebSocket(60438): It is the first release of SuperWebSocket. Because it is base on SuperSocket, most features of SuperSocket are supported in SuperWebSocket. The source code include a LiveChat demo.MDownloader: MDownloader-0.15.25.7002: Fixed updater Fixed FileServe Fixed LetItBitCropper: 1.9.4: Mostly fixes for issues with a few feature requests. Fixed Issues 2730 & 3638 & 14467 11044 11447 11448 11449 14665 Implemented Features 6123 11581PFC: PFC for PB 11.5: This is just a migration from the 11.0 code. No changes have been made yet (and they are needed) for it to work properly with 11.5.PDF Rider: PDF Rider 0.5: This release does not add any new feature for pdf manipulation, but enables automatic updates checking, so it is reccomended to install it in order to stay updated with next releases. Prerequisites * Microsoft Windows Operating Systems (XP - Vista - 7) * Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 runtime * A PDF rendering software (i.e. Adobe Reader) that can be opened inside Internet Explorer. Installation instructionsChoose one of the following methods: 1. Download and run the "pdfRider0...BCLExtensions: BCL Extensions v1.0: The files associated with v1.0 of the BCL Extensions library.XamlQuery/WPF - The Write Less, Do More, WPF Library: XamlQuery-WPF v1.2 (Runtime, Source): This is the first release of popular XamlQuery library for WPF. XamlQuery has already gained recognition among Silverlight developers.Math.NET Numerics: Beta 1: First beta of Math.NET Numerics. Only contains the managed linear algebra provider. Beta 2 will include the native linear algebra providers along with better documentation and examples.Microsoft All-In-One Code Framework: Visual Studio 2010 Code Samples 2010-11-25: Code samples for Visual Studio 2010Wii Backup Fusion: Wii Backup Fusion 0.8.5 Beta: - WBFS repair (default) options fixed - Transfer to image fixed - Settings ui widget names fixed - Some little bug fixes You need to reset the settings! Delete WiiBaFu's config file or registry entries on windows: Linux: ~/.config/WiiBaFu/wiibafu.conf Windows: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\WiiBaFu\wiibafu Mac OS X: ~/Library/Preferences/com.wiibafu.wiibafu.plist Caution: This is a BETA version! Errors, crashes and data loss not impossible! Use in test environments only, not on productive syste...Minemapper: Minemapper v0.1.3: Added process count and world size calculation progress to the status bar. Added View->'Status Bar' menu item to show/hide the status bar. Status bar is automatically shown when loading a world. Added a prompt, when loading a world, to use or clear cached images.Sexy Select: sexy select v0.4: Changes in v0.4 Added method : elements. This returns all the option elements that are currently added to the select list Added method : selectOption. This method accepts two values, the element to be modified and the selected state. (true/false)New ProjectsAbstract SQL: ADO.NET Sql classes wrapper; provides a clean fluent interface library that allows you to write very concise code and avoid the repetitiveness of ADO.NET. It can be used in all types of applications, even supports CLR stored procedures. It is written in C# 2.0.AI: The Artificial Intelligence program built on F#.Another .NET wrapper for the MailChimp API: A .NET wrapper for the MailChimp API 1.3 written in F# by DK.App-V Tool Suite: A collection of tools for Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V). These tools were developed at Sinclair Community College in the process of setting up and then supporting its App-V implementation.b2b: Project-01tBham.CmuCam: A library and GUI front-end for the CMUcam series of cameras for use by .NET-based applications, the GUI can also run standalone.BizTalk Deployment Tool: Yet another BizTalk Deployment Tool to make it easier for BizTalk deployment that needs to support orchestration versioning, multiple environments. Features includes but not limited to: GAC Verification, Receive Locations and Send Ports management, Orchestration States managementCertificate Request (PKCS#10) Generator: A .NET application that can create PKCS#10 Certificate Requests, either by generating a new key or reusing a preexisting one. Minimum requirement : Windows Vista and above. .NET 2.0.Cloud Billing: Cloud billing proposal.Currency Converter: Coding4Fun Windows Phone 7 Currency ConverterDiffLib: A diff implementation class library for .NET 3.5 written in C#.expression Blend 4.0 Comment Uncomment Xaml Code Extension: BlendShortCuts Extension makes it easier for blend users to comment and uncomment xaml code. you'll no longer have to insert tag <!-- --> just press ALt+C and ALT+U it's developed in c# (.Net framework 4.0, microsoft expression library)Game Studio: Game Studio is an Integrated Development Environment “IDE” that helps game developers in designing their games. The software generates code for the mesh, models, pictures and sounds. It has a form designer, code editor and a special framework for the “Game Studio”.Gridify for ASP.NET MVC: Easy solution for grids on top of ASP.NET MVC Make grids from your data tables in a really lightweight manner! How lightweight? Well, exactly TWO line changes. You don't have to add new action parameters or anything. Really simple!In-House Inventory System: a normal inventory management system, normal use case and normal function.In-House Money Saver: just for school project, it may not be useful, however, it is my first project using Microsoft technology.ITICup2009: Programs used in ITICup 2009.libobs++: Implementation of a signal/slot system, created exclusively for developers that uses Visual Studio's 2010 IDE/Compiler. The classes are templated, and really easy to learn. The callbacks are fast, and type-safe.Longan ERP: Open Source Business Solutions.Lucienne - WebScripting Assignment: Lucienne - WebScripting AssignmentMercurial.Net: .NET wrapper class library for the Mercurial Distributed Version Control System (DVCS) - (http://mercurial.selenic.com/), written in C# 3.0 for the .NET 3.5 Client Profile runtime.Mini C++ UI Framework: Mini C++ UI Framework for my work.MinuRaamu: MeieRaamuMobile Device Browser File: The Mobile Browser Definition File contains definitions for individual mobile devices and browsers. At run time, ASP.NET uses the information in the request header to determine what type of device/browser has made the request.NKinect: .NET 4.0 (C++/CLI) based open source implementation of Microsoft Kinect. Currently supports CodeLaboratories NUI SDK, but will be brought to OpenKinect/libfreenect when a Windows version is stable.Oblivion Cell - Oblivion mmo project: We are working on creating a mmorpg mod/Addon for Oblivion using C# and hooking to the accual game with obse and a few other mods. We also use Cell Framework for our base server system.Optional: Optional is a library to create options and commands from command-line arguments. It uses Convention over Configuration to get out of your way. Attributes can be used to set properties which differ from the convention.Paypal adaptive payments using .NET (C#): This is a C# project to help you interface with the PayPal adaptive payments API. https://www.x.com/community/ppx/adaptive_payments. POS bd: Dynamic POS. this project is being devoloped on focused to local market only. the initial project is projected for a single company whose main business is selling lighting-bulb instruments.PowerEvents for Windows PowerShell: A Microsoft Windows PowerShell module to assist with managing permanent WMI event consumer registrations. You can use this module to register for, and respond to, system-level events available to WMI.PPL Daily Report Helper: Daily Reporting Helper Tool for Phoenix Propulsion LabsRandom Passwd Generator: This is a simple program developed in C# that generates random passwords of the specified length with the specified characters to be used. It's in beta version.SharePoint MUI Manager: The SharePoint MUI Manager allows you to translate user-specified text, such as the Title and Description of the site, throught the web interface. There is no need to download, edit and upload a RESX file. Sqlite Client for Windows Phone: Sqlite client for Windows Phone 7 . Supports transactionsTouchToolkit: A toolkit to simplify the multi-touch application development and testing complexities. It currently supports WPF and Silverlight.TSI4: Proyecto para facultad de ingenieríaVS2010 Debugger Visualizers Contrib: This project is for hosting user-contributed debugger visualizers for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010.Windows Shell Framework: Windows Shell Framework is a managed wrappers for a subset of the windows shell. This Project is for of .NET Shell Namespace Extension FrameworkWork in Progress: Work in progressWPFtest: A simpel test project for experimenting with WPF.YingYangXonix: YingYangXonixZeroUnit.net: The zero dependency, zero friction, sugar free Unit Testing framework for .Net.ZXing barcode for Windows Phone: Barcode support for Windows Phone 7 using ZXing

  Read the article

• eBooks on iPad vs. Kindle: More Debate than Smackdown

  - by andrewbrust

  When the iPad was presented at its San Francisco launch event on January 28th, Steve Jobs spent a significant amount of time explaining how well the device would serve as an eBook reader. He showed the iBooks reader application and iBookstore and laid down the gauntlet before Amazon and its beloved Kindle device. Almost immediately afterwards, criticism came rushing forth that the iPad could never beat the Kindle for book reading. The curious part of that criticism is that virtually no one offering it had actually used the iPad yet. A few weeks later, on April 3rd, the iPad was released for sale in the United States. I bought one on that day and in the few additional weeks that have elapsed, I’ve given quite a workout to most of its capabilities, including its eBook features. I’ve also spent some time with the Kindle, albeit a first-generation model, to see how it actually compares to the iPad. I had some expectations going in, but I came away with conclusions about each device that were more scenario-based than absolute. I present my findings to you here.   Vital Statistics Let’s start with an inventory of each device’s underlying technology. The iPad has a color, backlit LCD screen and an on-screen keyboard. It has a battery which, on a full charge, lasts anywhere from 6-10 hours. The Kindle offers a monochrome, reflective E Ink display, a physical keyboard and a battery that on my first gen loaner unit can go up to a week between charges (Amazon claims the battery on the Kindle 2 can last up to 2 weeks on a single charge). The Kindle connects to Amazon’s Kindle Store using a 3G modem (the technology and network vary depending on the model) that incurs no airtime service charges whatsoever. The iPad units that are on-sale today work over WiFi only. 3G-equipped models will be on sale shortly and will command a $130 premium over their WiFi-only counterparts. 3G service on the iPad, in the U.S. from AT&T, will be fee-based, with a 250MB plan at $14.99 per month and an unlimited plan at $29.99. No contract is required for 3G service. All these tech specs aside, I think a more useful observation is that the iPad is a multi-purpose Internet-connected entertainment device, while the Kindle is a dedicated reading device. The question is whether those differences in design and intended use create a clear-cut winner for reading electronic publications. Let’s take a look at each device, in isolation, now.   Kindle To me, what’s most innovative about the Kindle is its E Ink display. E Ink really looks like ink on a sheet of paper. It requires no backlight, it’s fully visible in direct sunlight and it causes almost none of the eyestrain that LCD-based computer display technology (like that used on the iPad) does. It’s really versatile in an all-around way. Forgive me if this sounds precious, but reading on it is really a joy. In fact, it’s a genuinely relaxing experience. Through the Kindle Store, Amazon allows users to download books (including audio books), magazines, newspapers and blog feeds. Books and magazines can be purchased either on a single-issue basis or as an annual subscription. Books, of course, are purchased singly. Oddly, blogs are not free, but instead carry a monthly subscription fee, typically $1.99. To me this is ludicrous, but I suppose the free 3G service is partially to blame. Books and magazine issues download quickly. Magazine and blog subscriptions cause new issues or posts to be pushed to your device on an automated basis. Available blogs include 9000-odd feeds that Amazon offers on the Kindle Store; unless I missed something, arbitrary RSS feeds are not supported (though there are third party workarounds to this limitation). The shopping experience is integrated well, has an huge selection, and offers certain graphical perks. For example, magazine and newspaper logos are displayed in menus, and book cover thumbnails appear as well. A simple search mechanism is provided and text entry through the physical keyboard is relatively painless. It’s very easy and straightforward to enter the store, find something you like and start reading it quickly. If you know what you’re looking for, it’s even faster. Given Kindle’s high portability, very reliable battery, instant-on capability and highly integrated content acquisition, it makes reading on whim, and in random spurts of downtime, very attractive. The Kindle’s home screen lists all of your publications, and easily lets you select one, then start reading it. Once opened, publications display in crisp, attractive text that is adjustable in size. “Turning” pages is achieved through buttons dedicated to the task. Notes can be recorded, bookmarks can be saved and pages can be saved as clippings. I am not an avid book reader, and yet I found the Kindle made it really fun, convenient and soothing to read. There’s something about the easy access to the material and the simplicity of the display that makes the Kindle seduce you into chilling out and reading page after page. On the other hand, the Kindle has an awkward navigation interface. While menus are displayed clearly on the screen, the method of selecting menu items is tricky: alongside the right-hand edge of the main display is a thin column that acts as a second display. It has a white background, and a scrollable silver cursor that is moved up or down through the use of the device’s scrollwheel. Picking a menu item on the main display involves scrolling the silver cursor to a position parallel to that menu item and pushing the scrollwheel in. This navigation technique creates a disconnect, literally. You don’t really click on a selection so much as you gesture toward it. I got used to this technique quickly, but I didn’t love it. It definitely created a kind of anxiety in me, making me feel the need to speed through menus and get to my destination document quickly. Once there, I could calm down and relax. Books are great on the Kindle. Magazines and newspapers much less so. I found the rendering of photographs, and even illustrations, to be unacceptably crude. For this reason, I expect that reading textbooks on the Kindle may leave students wanting. I found that the original flow and layout of any publication was sacrificed on the Kindle. In effect, browsing a magazine or newspaper was almost impossible. Reading the text of individual articles was enjoyable, but having to read this way made the whole experience much more “a la carte” than cohesive and thematic between articles. I imagine that for academic journals this is ideal, but for consumer publications it imposes a stripped-down, low-fidelity experience that evokes a sense of deprivation. In general, the Kindle is great for reading text. For just about anything else, especially activity that involves exploratory browsing, meandering and short-attention-span reading, it presents a real barrier to entry and adoption. Avid book readers will enjoy the Kindle (if they’re not already). It’s a great device for losing oneself in a book over long sittings. Multitaskers who are more interested in periodicals, be they online or off, will like it much less, as they will find compromise, and even sacrifice, to be palpable.   iPad The iPad is a very different device from the Kindle. While the Kindle is oriented to pages of text, the iPad orbits around applications and their interfaces. Be it the pinch and zoom experience in the browser, the rich media features that augment content on news and weather sites, or the ability to interact with social networking services like Twitter, the iPad is versatile. While it shares a slate-like form factor with the Kindle, it’s effectively an elegant personal computer. One of its many features is the iBook application and integration of the iBookstore. But it’s a multi-purpose device. That turns out to be good and bad, depending on what you’re reading. The iBookstore is great for browsing. It’s color, rich animation-laden user interface make it possible to shop for books, rather than merely search and acquire them. Unfortunately, its selection is rather sparse at the moment. If you’re looking for a New York Times bestseller, or other popular titles, you should be OK. If you want to read something more specialized, it’s much harder. Unlike the awkward navigation interface of the Kindle, the iPad offers a nearly flawless touch-screen interface that seduces the user into tinkering and kibitzing every bit as much as the Kindle lulls you into a deep, concentrated read. It’s a dynamic and interactive device, whereas the Kindle is static and passive. The iBook reader is slick and fun. Use the iPad in landscape mode and you can read the book in 2-up (left/right 2-page) display; use it in portrait mode and you can read one page at a time. Rather than clicking a hardware button to turn pages, you simply drag and wipe from right-to-left to flip the single or right-hand page. The page actually travels through an animated path as it would in a physical book. The intuitiveness of the interface is uncanny. The reader also accommodates saving of bookmarks, searching of the text, and the ability to highlight a word and look it up in a dictionary. Pages display brightly and clearly. They’re easy to read. But the backlight and the glare made me less comfortable than I was with the Kindle. The knowledge that completely different applications (including the Web and email and Twitter) were just a few taps away made me antsy and very tempted to task-switch. The knowledge that battery life is an issue created subtle discomfort. If the Kindle makes you feel like you’re in a library reading room, then the iPad makes you feel, at best, like you’re under fluorescent lights at a Barnes and Noble or Borders store. If you’re lucky, you’d be on a couch or at a reading table in the store, but you might also be standing up, in the aisles. Clearly, I didn’t find this conducive to focused and sustained reading. But that may have more to do with my own tendency to read periodicals far more than books, and my neurotic . And, truth be known, the book reading experience, when not explicitly compared to Kindle’s, was still pleasant. It is also important to point out that Kindle Store-sourced books can be read on the iPad through a Kindle reader application, from Amazon, specific to the device. This offered a less rich experience than the iBooks reader, but it was completely adequate. Despite the Kindle brand of the reader, however, it offered little in terms of simulating the reading experience on its namesake device. When it comes to periodicals, the iPad wins hands down. Magazines, even if merely scanned images of their print editions, read on the iPad in a way that felt similar to reading hard copy. The full color display, touch navigation and even the ability to render advertisements in their full glory makes the iPad a great way to read through any piece of work that is measured in pages, rather than chapters. There are many ways to get magazines and newspapers onto the iPad, including the Zinio reader, and publication-specific applications like the Wall Street Journal’s and Popular Science’s. The New York Times’ free Editors’ Choice application offers a Times Reader-like interface to a subset of the Gray Lady’s daily content. The completely Web-based but iPad-optimized Times Skimmer site (at www.nytimes.com/timesskimmer) works well too. Even conventional Web sites themselves can be read much like magazines, given the iPad’s ability to zoom in on the text and crop out advertisements on the margins. While the Kindle does have an experimental Web browser, it reminded me a lot of early mobile phone browsers, only in a larger size. For text-heavy sites with simple layout, it works fine. For just about anything else, it becomes more trouble than it’s worth. And given the way magazine articles make me think of things I want to look up online, I think that’s a real liability for the Kindle.   Summing Up What I came to realize is that the Kindle isn’t so much a computer or even an Internet device as it is a printer. While it doesn’t use physical paper, it still renders its content a page at a time, just like a laser printer does, and its output appears strikingly similar. You can read the rendered text, but you can’t interact with it in any way. That’s why the navigation requires a separate cursor display area. And because of the page-oriented rendering behavior, turning pages causes a flash on the display and requires a sometimes long pause before the next page is rendered. The good side of this is that once the page is generated, no battery power is required to display it. That makes for great battery life, optimal viewing under most lighting conditions (as long as there is some light) and low-eyestrain text-centric display of content. The Kindle is highly portable, has an excellent selection in its store and is refreshingly distraction-free. All of this is ideal for reading books. And iPad doesn’t offer any of it. What iPad does offer is versatility, variety, richness and luxury. It’s flush with accoutrements even if it’s low on focused, sustained text display. That makes it inferior to the Kindle for book reading. But that also makes it better than the Kindle for almost everything else. As such, and given that its book reading experience is still decent (even if not superior), I think the iPad will give Kindle a run for its money. True book lovers, and people on a budget, will want the Kindle. People with a robust amount of discretionary income may want both devices. Everyone else who is interested in a slate form factor e-reading device, especially if they also wish to have leisure-friendly Internet access, will likely choose the iPad exclusively. One thing is for sure: iPad has reduced Kindle’s market, and may have shifted its mass market potential to a mere niche play. If Amazon is smart, it will improve its iPad-based Kindle reader app significantly. It can then leverage the iPad channel as a significant market for the Kindle Store. After all, selling the eBooks themselves is what Amazon should care most about.

  Read the article

• Is Social Media The Vital Skill You Aren’t Tracking?

  - by HCM-Oracle

  By Mark Bennett - Originally featured in Talent Management Excellence The ever-increasing presence of the workforce on social media presents opportunities as well as risks for organizations. While on the one hand, we read about social media embarrassments happening to organizations, on the other we see that social media activities by workers and candidates can enhance a company’s brand and provide insight into what individuals are, or can become, influencers in the social media sphere. HR can play a key role in helping organizations make the most value out of the activities and presence of workers and candidates, while at the same time also helping to manage the risks that come with the permanence and viral nature of social media. What is Missing from Understanding Our Workforce? “If only HP knew what HP knows, we would be three-times more productive.”  Lew Platt, Former Chairman, President, CEO, Hewlett-Packard  What Lew Platt recognized was that organizations only have a partial understanding of what their workforce is capable of. This lack of understanding impacts the company in several negative ways: 1. A particular skill that the company needs to access in one part of the organization might exist somewhere else, but there is no record that the skill exists, so the need is unfulfilled. 2. As market conditions change rapidly, the company needs to know strategic options, but some options are missed entirely because the company doesn’t know that sufficient capability already exists to enable those options. 3. Employees may miss out on opportunities to demonstrate how their hidden skills could create new value to the company. Why don’t companies have that more complete picture of their workforce capabilities – that is, not know what they know? One very good explanation is that companies put most of their efforts into rating their workforce according to the jobs and roles they are filling today. This is the essence of two important talent management processes: recruiting and performance appraisals.  In recruiting, a set of requirements is put together for a job, either explicitly or indirectly through a job description. During the recruiting process, much of the attention is paid towards whether the candidate has the qualifications, the skills, the experience and the cultural fit to be successful in the role. This makes a lot of sense.  In the performance appraisal process, an employee is measured on how well they performed the functions of their role and in an effort to help the employee do even better next time, they are also measured on proficiency in the competencies that are deemed to be key in doing that job. Again, the logic is impeccable.  But in both these cases, two adages come to mind: 1. What gets measured is what gets managed. 2. You only see what you are looking for. In other words, the fact that the current roles the workforce are performing are the basis for measuring which capabilities the workforce has, makes them the only capabilities to be measured. What was initially meant to be a positive, i.e. identify what is needed to perform well and measure it, in order that it can be managed, comes with the unintended negative consequence of overshadowing the other capabilities the workforce has. This also comes with an employee engagement price, for the measurements and management of workforce capabilities is to typically focus on where the workforce comes up short. Again, it makes sense to do this, since improving a capability that appears to result in improved performance benefits, both the individual through improved performance ratings and the company through improved productivity. But this is based on the assumption that the capabilities identified and their required proficiencies are the only attributes of the individual that matter. Anything else the individual brings that results in high performance, while resulting in a desired performance outcome, often goes unrecognized or underappreciated at best. As social media begins to occupy a more important part in current and future roles in organizations, businesses must incorporate social media savvy and innovation into job descriptions and expectations. These new measures could provide insight into how well someone can use social media tools to influence communities and decision makers; keep abreast of trends in fast-moving industries; present a positive brand image for the organization around thought leadership, customer focus, social responsibility; and coordinate and collaborate with partners. These measures should demonstrate the “social capital” the individual has invested in and developed over time. Without this dimension, “short cut” methods may generate a narrow set of positive metrics that do not have real, long-lasting benefits to the organization. How Workforce Reputation Management Helps HR Harness Social Media With hundreds of petabytes of social media data flowing across Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, businesses are tapping technology solutions to effectively leverage social for HR. Workforce reputation management technology helps organizations discover, mobilize and retain talent by providing insight into the social reputation and influence of the workforce while also helping organizations monitor employee social media policy compliance and mitigate social media risk.  There are three major ways that workforce reputation management technology can play a strategic role to support HR: 1. Improve Awareness and Decisions on Talent Many organizations measure the skills and competencies that they know they need today, but are unaware of what other skills and competencies their workforce has that could be essential tomorrow. How about whether your workforce has the reputation and influence to make their skills and competencies more effective? Many organizations don’t have insight into the social media “reach” their workforce has, which is becoming more critical to business performance. These features help organizations, managers, and employees improve many talent processes and decision making, including the following: Hiring and Assignments. People and teams with higher reputations are considered more valuable and effective workers. Someone with high reputation who refers a candidate also can have high credibility as a source for hires.   Training and Development. Reputation trend analysis can impact program decisions regarding training offerings by showing how reputation and influence across the workforce changes in concert with training. Worker reputation impacts development plans and goal choices by helping the individual see which development efforts result in improved reputation and influence.   Finding Hidden Talent. Managers can discover hidden talent and skills amongst employees based on a combination of social profile information and social media reputation. Employees can improve their personal brand and accelerate their career development.  2. Talent Search and Discovery The right technology helps organizations find information on people that might otherwise be hidden. By leveraging access to candidate and worker social profiles as well as their social relationships, workforce reputation management provides companies with a more complete picture of what their knowledge, skills, and attributes are and what they can in turn access. This more complete information helps to find the right talent both outside the organization as well as the right, perhaps previously hidden talent, within the organization to fill roles and staff projects, particularly those roles and projects that are required in reaction to fast-changing opportunities and circumstances. 3. Reputation Brings Credibility Workforce reputation management technology provides a clearer picture of how candidates and workers are viewed by their peers and communities across a wide range of social reputation and influence metrics. This information is less subject to individual bias and can impact critical decision-making. Knowing the individual’s reputation and influence enables the organization to predict how well their capabilities and behaviors will have a positive effect on desired business outcomes. Many roles that have the highest impact on overall business performance are dependent on the individual’s influence and reputation. In addition, reputation and influence measures offer a very tangible source of feedback for workers, providing them with insight that helps them develop themselves and their careers and see the effectiveness of those efforts by tracking changes over time in their reputation and influence. The following are some examples of the different reputation and influence measures of the workforce that Workforce Reputation Management could gather and analyze: Generosity – How often the user reposts other’s posts. Influence – How often the user’s material is reposted by others.  Engagement – The ratio of recent posts with references (e.g. links to other posts) to the total number of posts.  Activity – How frequently the user posts. (e.g. number per day)  Impact – The size of the users’ social networks, which indicates their ability to reach unique followers, friends, or users.   Clout – The number of references and citations of the user’s material in others’ posts.  The Vital Ingredient of Workforce Reputation Management: Employee Participation “Nothing about me, without me.” Valerie Billingham, “Through the Patient’s Eyes”, Salzburg Seminar Session 356, 1998 Since data resides primarily in social media, a question arises: what manner is used to collect that data? While much of social media activity is publicly accessible (as many who wished otherwise have learned to their chagrin), the social norms of social media have developed to put some restrictions on what is acceptable behavior and by whom. Disregarding these norms risks a repercussion firestorm. One of the more recognized norms is that while individuals can follow and engage with other individual’s public social activity (e.g. Twitter updates) fairly freely, the more an organization does this unprompted and without getting permission from the individual beforehand, the more likely the organization risks a totally opposite outcome from the one desired. Instead, the organization must look for permission from the individual, which can be met with resistance. That resistance comes from not knowing how the information will be used, how it will be shared with others, and not receiving enough benefit in return for granting permission. As the quote above about patient concerns and rights succinctly states, no one likes not feeling in control of the information about themselves, or the uncertainty about where it will be used. This is well understood in consumer social media (i.e. permission-based marketing) and is applicable to workforce reputation management. However, asking permission leaves open the very real possibility that no one, or so few, will grant permission, resulting in a small set of data with little usefulness for the company. Connecting Individual Motivation to Organization Needs So what is it that makes an individual decide to grant an organization access to the data it wants? It is when the individual’s own motivations are in alignment with the organization’s objectives. In the case of workforce reputation management, when the individual is motivated by a desire for increased visibility and career growth opportunities to advertise their skills and level of influence and reputation, they are aligned with the organizations’ objectives; to fill resource needs or strategically build better awareness of what skills are present in the workforce, as well as levels of influence and reputation. Individuals can see the benefit of granting access permission to the company through multiple means. One is through simple social awareness; they begin to discover that peers who are getting more career opportunities are those who are signed up for workforce reputation management. Another is where companies take the message directly to the individual; we think you would benefit from signing up with our workforce reputation management solution. Another, more strategic approach is to make reputation management part of a larger Career Development effort by the company; providing a wide set of tools to help the workforce find ways to plan and take action to achieve their career aspirations in the organization. An effective mechanism, that facilitates connecting the visibility and career growth motivations of the workforce with the larger context of the organization’s business objectives, is to use game mechanics to help individuals transform their career goals into concrete, actionable steps, such as signing up for reputation management. This works in favor of companies looking to use workforce reputation because the workforce is more apt to see how it fits into achieving their overall career goals, as well as seeing how other participation brings additional benefits.  Once an individual has signed up with reputation management, not only have they made themselves more visible within the organization and increased their career growth opportunities, they have also enabled a tool that they can use to better understand how their actions and behaviors impact their influence and reputation. Since they will be able to see their reputation and influence measurements change over time, they will gain better insight into how reputation and influence impacts their effectiveness in a role, as well as how their behaviors and skill levels in turn affect their influence and reputation. This insight can trigger much more directed, and effective, efforts by the individual to improve their ability to perform at a higher level and become more productive. The increased sense of autonomy the individual experiences, in linking the insight they gain to the actions and behavior changes they make, greatly enhances their engagement with their role as well as their career prospects within the company. Workforce reputation management takes the wide range of disparate data about the workforce being produced across various social media platforms and transforms it into accessible, relevant, and actionable information that helps the organization achieve its desired business objectives. Social media holds untapped insights about your talent, brand and business, and workforce reputation management can help unlock them. Imagine - if you could find the hidden secrets of your businesses, how much more productive and efficient would your organization be? Mark Bennett is a Director of Product Strategy at Oracle. Mark focuses on setting the strategic vision and direction for tools that help organizations understand, shape, and leverage the capabilities of their workforce to achieve business objectives, as well as help individuals work effectively to achieve their goals and navigate their own growth. His combination of a deep technical background in software design and development, coupled with a broad knowledge of business challenges and thinking in today’s globalized, rapidly changing, technology accelerated economy, has enabled him to identify and incorporate key innovations that are central to Oracle Fusion’s unique value proposition. Mark has over the course of his career been in charge of the design, development, and strategy of Talent Management products and the design and development of cutting edge software that is better equipped to handle the increasingly complex demands of users while also remaining easy to use. Follow him @mpbennett

  Read the article

• CodePlex Daily Summary for Friday, August 24, 2012

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Friday, August 24, 2012Popular ReleasesVisual Studio Team Foundation Server Branching and Merging Guide: v2 - Visual Studio 2012: Welcome to the Branching and Merging Guide Quality-Bar Details Documentation has been reviewed by Visual Studio ALM Rangers Documentation has been through an independent technical review Documentation has been reviewed by the quality and recording team All critical bugs have been resolved Known Issues / Bugs Spelling, grammar and content revisions are in progress. Hotfix will be published.Community TFS Build Extensions: August 2012: The August 2012 release contains VS2010 Activities(target .NET 4.0) VS2012 Activities (target .NET 4.5) Community TFS Build Manager VS2010 Community TFS Build Manager VS2012 Both the Community TFS Build Managers can also be found in the Visual Studio Gallery here where updates will first become available. Please note that we only intend to fix major bugs in the 2010 version and will concentrate our efforts on the 2012 version of the TFS Build Manager. At a high level, the following I...Microsoft Ajax Minifier: Microsoft Ajax Minifier 4.62: Fix for issue #18525 - escaped characters in CSS identifiers get double-escaped if the character immediately after the backslash is not normally allowed in an identifier. fixed symbol problem with nuget package. 4.62 should have nuget symbols available again.Game of Life 3D: GameOfLife3D Version 0.5.2: Support Windows 8nopCommerce. Open source shopping cart (ASP.NET MVC): nopcommerce 2.65: As some of you may know we were planning to release version 2.70 much later (the end of September). But today we have to release this intermediate version (2.65). It fixes a critical issue caused by a third-party assembly when running nopCommerce on a server with .NET 4.5 installed. No major features have been introduced with this release as our development efforts were focused on further enhancements and fixing bugs. To see the full list of fixes and changes please visit the release notes p...MyRouter (Virtual WiFi Router): MyRouter 1.2.9: . Fix: Some missing changes for fixing the window subclassing crash. · Fix: fixed bug when Run MyRouter at the first Time. · Fix: Log File · Fix: improve performance speed application · fix: solve some Exception.Smart Thread Pool: SmartThreadPool 2.2.2: Release Changes Added set name to threads Fixed the WorkItemsQueue.Dequeue. Replaced while(!Monitor.TryEnter(this)); with lock(this) { ... } Fixed SmartThreadPool.Pipe Added IsBackground option to threads Added ApartmentState to threads Fixed thread creation when queuing many work items at the same time.ZXing.Net: ZXing.Net 0.8.0.0: sync with rev. 2393 of the java version improved API, direct support for multiple barcode decoding, wrapper for barcode generating many other improvements and fixes encoder and decoder command line clients demo client for emguCV dev documentation startedScintillaNET: ScintillaNET 2.5.1: This release has been built from the 2.5 branch. Issues closed: Issue # Title 32524 32524 32550 32550 32552 32552 25148 25148 32449 32449 32551 32551 32711 32711 MFCMAPI: August 2012 Release: Build: 15.0.0.1035 Full release notes at SGriffin's blog. If you just want to run the MFCMAPI or MrMAPI, get the executables. If you want to debug them, get the symbol files and the source. The 64 bit builds will only work on a machine with Outlook 2010 64 bit installed. All other machines should use the 32 bit builds, regardless of the operating system. Facebook BadgeDocument.Editor: 2013.2: Whats new for Document.Editor 2013.2: New save as Html document Improved Traslate support Minor Bug Fix's, improvements and speed upsPulse: Pulse Beta 5: Whats new in this release? Well to start with we now have Wallbase.cc Authentication! so you can access favorites or NSFW. This version requires .NET 4.0, you probably already have it, but if you don't it's a free and easy download from Microsoft. Pulse can bet set to start on Windows startup now too. The Wallpaper setter has settings now, so you can change the background color of the desktop and the Picture Position (Tile/Center/Fill/etc...) I've switched to Windows Forms instead of WPF...Metro Paint: Metro Paint: Download it now , don't forget to give feedback to me at maitreyavyas@live.com or at my facebook page fb.com/maitreyavyas , Hope you enjoy it.Obelisk - WP7 & Windows 8 MVVM Persistence Library: Obelisk 2.2 Release: This release is built against code shared between WP7 and Windows 8. The setup project only contains the source for WP7, because I can't create an MSI in Windows 8 yet, so for Windows 8, use the source.MiniTwitter: 1.80: MiniTwitter 1.80 ???? ?? .NET Framework 4.5 ?????? ?? .NET Framework 4.5 ????????????? "&" ??????????????????? ???????????????????????? 2 ??????????? ReTweet ?????????????????、In reply to ?????????????? URL ???????????? ??????????????????????????????Droid Explorer: Droid Explorer 0.8.8.6 Beta: Device images are now pulled from DroidExplorer Cloud Service refined some issues with the usage statistics Added a method to get the first available value from a list of property names DroidExplorer.Configuration no longer depends on DroidExplorer.Core.UI (it is actually the other way now) fix to the bootstraper to only try to delete the SDK if it is a "local" sdk, not an existing. no longer support the "local" sdk, you must now select an existing SDK checks for sdk if it was ins...Path Copy Copy: 11.0.1: Bugfix release that corrects the following issue: 11365 If you are using Path Copy Copy in a network environment and use the UNC path commands, it is recommended that you upgrade to this version.ExtAspNet: ExtAspNet v3.1.9.1: +2012-08-18 v3.1.9 -??other/addtab.aspx???JS???BoundField??Tooltip???（Dennis_Liu）。 +??Window?GetShowReference???????????????（︶????、????、???、??~）。 -?????JavaScript?????，??????HTML????????。 -??HtmlNodeBuilder????????????????JavaScript??。 -??????WindowField、LinkButton、HyperLink????????????????????????????。 -???????????grid/griddynamiccolumns2.aspx（?????）。 -?????Type??Reset?????，??????????????????（e??）。 -?????????????????????。 -?????????int,short,double??????????（???）。 +?Window????Ge...Task Card Creator 2010: TaskCardCreator2010 4.0.2.0: What's New: UI/UX improved using a contextual ribbon tab for reports Finishing the "new 4.0 UI" Report template help improved New project branch to support TFS 2012: http://taskcardcreator2012.codeplex.com User interface made more modern (4.0.1.0) Smarter algorithm used for report generation (4.0.1.0) Quality setting added (4.0.1.0) Terms harmonized (4.0.1.0) Miscellaneous optimizations (4.0.1.0) Fixed critical issue introduced in 4.0.0.0 (4.0.1.0)SABnzbd for LCDSmartie: v 0.9.1: - Included right version of Newtonsoft.Json.dll in download No other changesNew ProjectsAnagramme: Jeu en réseau basé sur les anagrammes. Démonstraction technique utilisant WPF, WCF, WF, MEF et le pattern MVVM.ApplicationModel Framework: Ultra light WPF, MEF and MVVM enabled Framework.atfcard: atfcardCaribbean Cinemas: Crear una aplicación para Windows Phone 7.5 o superior, en la cual los usuarios puedan conocer cuales películas se encuentran actualmente en la cartelera.CiberSeguros: Este es un basico ABM usando una empresa de seguros como logica de negociosCLF 3.0: The SharePoint CLF 3.0 toolkit will allow departments and agencies to publish web sites that conform to the new Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat.CodeContrib: C# blog engine using ASP.NET MVC 4.DataGridView UserControl with Paging: this is user control of Windows form in C#. this user control is DatagridView with extended functionality of paging. diploma: ????JVM via COBOL: Sample programs in the isCOBOL dialect of object-aware and object-oriented COBOL, which focus on integrating functionality from the Java APIs into COBOL.MyEFamily: Client/Server software to remove the family from the Social Network and into the Family NetworkMyMVC3: My MVCOMR.Lib.Database - Lightweight WinRT InMemory Database: Lightweight in memory database with depended persistent source.OpenNETXC an unofficial port of the OpenXCPlatform Project to WinRT: An Unofficial WInRT port of the OpenXC Platform to WinRT see http://openxcplatform.com/PowerExtension: PowerExtension is an Open Source extension for Small Basic, a programming language. It adds file, networking, speech, and more!Project Webernet: Published: 8/23/2012ProjectManagementGenius: ????，???Proligence PowerShell VFS: The PowerShell VFS project is an implementation of a virtual file system for PowerShell providers. Using this library you can easily implement advanced PowerSheProxer.Me-Wrapper: Ein Wrapper für die Website Proxer.Me zum anschauen der Streams.Sharepoint Custom Recurrence Field: A recurrence field for SharePoint 2010 similar to the timer recurrence field in Central Admin.SharePoint Document Converter: SharePoint Document Converter solution gives a start on how we can leverage the Word automation Service to convert documents to formats that word can support. This project convert documents of type "docx" or "doc" to any possible file type that word support like to PDF, XPS, DOCX, DOCM, DOC, DOTX, DOTM, DOT, XML, RTF, MHT. This solution helps you to learn following things about SharePoint: - How document conversion happen using Word Automation Service - SharePoint Ribbon customization (H...Small Ticket System: Light CRM / Ticket System LightSwitch / Basic Features: Account/Contact/Contract Management Ticket System with Work History / Notes / TasksSQL Server Keep Alive Service: What is this? A Windows Service that will test if your SQL Server is up and running and writes the status to the Windows EventlogTeamBoard: A team build server displayTest Foreign Vocabulary: Tool helping to learn foreign vocabulary. You import Excel file which contains the vocabulary list and after, you yourself test with tool.testdd08232012git01: sdtesttfs08232012tfs01: sdTFS Kurs 2012: Dette er et undervisningsprosjekt til bruk i Mesaninen 2012. thenewcat: ffffffffffffffvvvvTriviaGame: a trivia game using wcf wpf technologiesUltra Urban: Ultra Urban is a 3d simcity-like game framework written in C# and XNA. It's going to provide some open interfaces for further city simulationUniversity Scheduler: University SchedulerVisual Studio Solution Export Import Addin: Usually we need to share visual studio projects. We take the source code and create zip file and share location with others. If project is not clean then share size will be more. Above manual process can be automated inside visual studio. if we have an add-in to do the same. I have created an addin for Visual Studio 2010 with that all the above manual tasks can be automated. Source code is provided as it is. So you can extend to develop same for other versions of visual studios. Cheers!...Whisper.Web.Providers: Custom web providers by whisper.Including CustomMembershipProvider ,CustomRoleProvider and Sqlserver version(SqlMembershipProvider,SqlRoleProvider).Windows Azure Storage Metrics Client Library: A library of .NET classes useful for the client (consumer) side of Windows Azure Storage Metrics and Windows Azure Diagnostics.WPF Prism Starter Kit: The goal of this project is to deliver a partitioned project skeleton to use prism with WPF.

  Read the article

< Previous Page | 45 46 47 48 49 50  | Next Page >