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• ArchBeat Link-o-Rama for 2012-04-05

  - by Bob Rhubart

  Webcast: Oracle Maximum Availability Architecture Best Practices event.on24.com Date: Thursday, April 12, 2012 Time: 10:00 AM PDT Oracle expert Tom Kyte discusses how Oracle’s Maximum Availability Architecture can help to minimize the costs and risk of downtime. Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center 12c Launch - Interactive Webcast and Live Chat www.oracle.com Thursday, April 12, 2012. 9 a.m. PT / 12 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. GMT. Speakers: Steve Wilson (VP Systems Management, Oracle) John Fowler (Exec VP Systems, Oracle) Brad Cameron (VP Development, Oracle Fusion Middleware) Bill Nesheim (VP Oracle Solaris) Dennis Reno (VP Customer Portal Experience, Oracle) Mike Wookey (Chief Architect, Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center) Prasad Pai (Sr Director, Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center) 2012 Real World Performance Tour Dates |Performance Tuning | Performance Engineering www.ioug.org Coming to your town: a full day of real world database performance with Tom Kyte, Andrew Holdsworth, and Graham Wood. Rochester, NY - March 8 Los Angeles, CA - April 30 Orange County, CA - May 1 Redwood Shores, CA - May 3 Oracle Technology Network Developer Day: MySQL - New York www.oracle.com Wednesday, May 02, 2012 8:00 AM – 4:30 PM Grand Hyatt New York 109 East 42nd Street, Grand Central Terminal New York, NY 10017 Webcast Series: Data Warehousing Best Practices event.on24.com April 19, 2012 - Best Practices for Workload Management of a Data Warehouse on Oracle Exadata May 10, 2012 - Best Practices for Extreme Data Warehouse Performance on Oracle Exadata How to create a Global Rule that stores a document’s folder path in a custom metadata field | Nicolas Montoya blogs.oracle.com An illustrated how-to from Oracle Fusion Middleware A-Team blogger Nicolas Montoya. Get Proactive with Fusion Middleware | Daniel Mortimer blogs.oracle.com Daniel Mortimer shows how to access "a one stop shop for navigating to proactive support material, tools, and communication channels related to Oracle Fusion Middleware." Build an enterprise on 'other peoples' work', via SOA and cloud | Joe McKendrick www.zdnet.com Are you down with OPW? Joe McKendrick's synopsis of a recent presentation by David Linthicum focuses on reuse. Oracle Fusion Middleware Security: Unsolicited login with OAM 11g | Chris Johnson fusionsecurity.blogspot.com Chris Johnson shows how to create a shopping cart login model using "plain old HTML." How to use the Human WorkFlow Web Services | Edwin Biemond biemond.blogspot.com Oracle ACE Edwin Biemond shows how to invoke two WorkFlow web services to query the Human task in Oracle SOA Suite with your own ordering and restrictions. Bad Practice Use Case for LOV Performance Implementation in ADF BC | Andrejus Baranovskis andrejusb.blogspot.com "If you want to learn something well, there is nothing better [than] to learn bad practices first," says Oracle ACE Director Andrejus Baranovskis. Thought for the Day "The best meetings get real work done. When your people learn that your meetings actually accomplish something, they will stop making excuses to be elsewhere." — Larry Constantine

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• What are the arguments against parsing the Cthulhu way?

  - by smarmy53

  I have been assigned the task of implementing a Domain Specific Language for a tool that may become quite important for the company. The language is simple but not trivial, it already allows nested loops, string concatenation, etc. and it is practically sure that other constructs will be added as the project advances. I know by experience that writing a lexer/parser by hand -unless the grammar is trivial- is a time consuming and error prone process. So I was left with two options: a parser generator à la yacc or a combinator library like Parsec. The former was good as well but I picked the latter for various reasons, and implemented the solution in a functional language. The result is pretty spectacular to my eyes, the code is very concise, elegant and readable/fluent. I concede it may look a bit weird if you never programmed in anything other than java/c#, but then this would be true of anything not written in java/c#. At some point however, I've been literally attacked by a co-worker. After a quick glance at my screen he declared that the code is uncomprehensible and that I should not reinvent parsing but just use a stack and String.Split like everybody does. He made a lot of noise, and I could not convince him, partially because I've been taken by surprise and had no clear explanation, partially because his opinion was immutable (no pun intended). I even offered to explain him the language, but to no avail. I'm positive the discussion is going to re-surface in front of management, so I'm preparing some solid arguments. These are the first few reasons that come to my mind to avoid a String.Split-based solution: you need lot of ifs to handle special cases and things quickly spiral out of control lots of hardcoded array indexes makes maintenance painful extremely difficult to handle things like a function call as a method argument (ex. add( (add a, b), c) very difficult to provide meaningful error messages in case of syntax errors (very likely to happen) I'm all for simplicity, clarity and avoiding unnecessary smart-cryptic stuff, but I also believe it's a mistake to dumb down every part of the codebase so that even a burger flipper can understand it. It's the same argument I hear for not using interfaces, not adopting separation of concerns, copying-pasting code around, etc. A minimum of technical competence and willingness to learn is required to work on a software project after all. (I won't use this argument as it will probably sound offensive, and starting a war is not going to help anybody) What are your favorite arguments against parsing the Cthulhu way?* *of course if you can convince me he's right I'll be perfectly happy as well

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• Help needed with pyparsing [closed]

  - by Zearin

  Overview So, I’m in the middle of refactoring a project, and I’m separating out a bunch of parsing code. The code I’m concerned with is pyparsing. I have a very poor understanding of pyparsing, even after spending a lot of time reading through the official documentation. I’m having trouble because (1) pyparsing takes a (deliberately) unorthodox approach to parsing, and (2) I’m working on code I didn’t write, with poor comments, and a non-elementary set of existing grammars. (I can’t get in touch with the original author, either.) Failing Test I’m using PyVows to test my code. One of my tests is as follows (I think this is clear even if you’re unfamiliar with PyVows; let me know if it isn’t): def test_multiline_command_ends(self, topic): output = parsed_input('multiline command ends\n\n',topic) expect(output).to_equal( r'''['multiline', 'command ends', '\n', '\n'] - args: command ends - multiline_command: multiline - statement: ['multiline', 'command ends', '\n', '\n'] - args: command ends - multiline_command: multiline - terminator: ['\n', '\n'] - terminator: ['\n', '\n']''') But when I run the test, I get the following in the terminal: Failed Test Results Expected topic("['multiline', 'command ends']\n- args: command ends\n- command: multiline\n- statement: ['multiline', 'command ends']\n - args: command ends\n - command: multiline") to equal "['multiline', 'command ends', '\\n', '\\n']\n- args: command ends\n- multiline_command: multiline\n- statement: ['multiline', 'command ends', '\\n', '\\n']\n - args: command ends\n - multiline_command: multiline\n - terminator: ['\\n', '\\n']\n- terminator: ['\\n', '\\n']" Note: Since the output is to a Terminal, the expected output (the second one) has extra backslashes. This is normal. The test ran without issue before this piece of refactoring began. Expected Behavior The first line of output should match the second, but it doesn’t. Specifically, it’s not including the two newline characters in that first list object. So I’m getting this: "['multiline', 'command ends']\n- args: command ends\n- command: multiline\n- statement: ['multiline', 'command ends']\n - args: command ends\n - command: multiline" When I should be getting this: "['multiline', 'command ends', '\\n', '\\n']\n- args: command ends\n- multiline_command: multiline\n- statement: ['multiline', 'command ends', '\\n', '\\n']\n - args: command ends\n - multiline_command: multiline\n - terminator: ['\\n', '\\n']\n- terminator: ['\\n', '\\n']" Earlier in the code, there is also this statement: pyparsing.ParserElement.setDefaultWhitespaceChars(' \t') …Which I think should prevent exactly this kind of error. But I’m not sure. Even if the problem can’t be identified with certainty, simply narrowing down where the problem is would be a HUGE help. Please let me know how I might take a step or two towards fixing this.

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• Correcting color-shifted mirrored i915 driver in 12.04?

  - by Will Martin

  I was called in to fix a friend's malfunctioning HP Pavilion. She's not sure exactly which model, but the sticker on the bottom says "G60". The problem was a failed upgrade to 12.04. I was able to mostly repair it with sudo apt-get -f install, which ran setup and configuration for several hundred packages. The biggest problem at the moment is Xorg. The login screen (lightdm) loads normally but at a reduced resolution (1024x768 instead of 1366x768). But once you log in, it looks like this: Observe that the colors of the dock on the left and the bar at the top are normal. But the background is filled with bizarro color-skewed ghost images of the desktop. In all cases, the actual contents of any programs you run is a totally illegible mess, except that the bar at the top of any program windows looks and acts normally. And the ghost images are interactive! For example, if you click the icon in the top right corner to get the "shut down" menu, the same menu will appear in the ghost images below. Starting a terminal will start a terminal window in both the real desktop and the ghost images, and moving it around updates both the real and ghost desktops. I suspect Xorg is using some kind of wrong driver and/or parameter for the graphics hardware. Here is the graphics-relevant portion of the lspci -v output: 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Memory Controller Hub (rev 09) Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 360b Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0 Capabilities: [e0] Vendor Specific Information: Len=0a <?> Kernel driver in use: agpgart-intel 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller]) Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 360b Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 44 Memory at d0000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M] Memory at c0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M] I/O ports at 5110 [size=8] Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled] Capabilities: [90] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit- Capabilities: [d0] Power Management version 3 Kernel driver in use: i915 Kernel modules: i915 00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09) Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 360b Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0 Memory at d2500000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1M] Capabilities: [d0] Power Management version 3 I'm not sure what to check next. I would ordinarily check xorg.conf to see what it says, but that apparently doesn't exist any more, and my googling has not yielded any useful techniques for getting Xorg to tell me what settings it decided to use. The weird part is that it works fine on the login screen. It's only when you actually log in as a user that the display gets screwed up. Suggestions?

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• SQL – Biggest Concerns in a Data-Driven World

  - by Pinal Dave

  The ongoing chaos over Government Agency’s snooping has ignited a heated debate on privacy of personal data and its use by government and/or other institutions. It has created a feeling of disapproval and distrust among users. This incident proves to be a lesson for companies that are looking to leverage their business using a data driven approach. According to analysts, the goal of gathering personal information should be to deliver benefits to both the parties – the user as well as the data collector(government or business). Using data the right way is crucial, and companies need to deploy the right software applications and systems to ensure that their efforts are well-directed. However, there are various issues plaguing analysts regarding available software, which are highlighted below. According to a InformationWeek 2013 Survey of Analytics, Business Intelligence and Information Management where 541 business technology professionals contributed as respondents, it was discovered that the biggest concern was deemed to be the scarcity of expertise and high costs associated with the same. This concern was voiced by as many as 38% of the participants. A close second came out to be the issue of data warehouse appliance platforms being expensive, with 33% of those present believing it to be a huge roadblock. Another revelation made in this respect was that 31% professionals weren’t even sure how Data Analytics can create business opportunities for them. Another 17% shared that they found data platform technologies such as Hadoop and NoSQL technologies hard to learn. These results clearly pointed out that there are awareness and expertise issues that also need much attention. Unless the demand-supply gap of Business Intelligence professionals well versed in data analysis technologies is met, this divide is going to affect how companies make the most of their BI campaigns. One of the key action points that can be taken to salvage the situation, is to provide training on Data Analytics concepts. Koenig Solutions offer courses on many such technologies including a course on MCSE SQL Server 2012: BI Platform. So it’s time to brush up your skills and get down to work in a data driven world that awaits you ahead. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)Filed under: Big Data, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL

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• Friday Fun: Destroy the Web

  - by Mysticgeek

  Another Friday has arrived and it’s time to screw off on company time. Today we take a look at a unique game Add-on for Firefox called Destroy the Web. Destroy the Web Once you install the Add-on and restart Firefox, you’ll see the Destroy the Web icon on the toolbar. Click on it to destroy whatever webpage you’re on.   The game starts up and gives you a 3 second countdown… Now move the target over different elements of the page to destroy them. You have 30 seconds to destroy the site contents. If you are angry at a particular company or the one you work for, this can give you some fun stress relief by destroying it’s website. After you’ve destroyed as much of the page as possible, you’re given a score. You get different amounts of points for destroying certain elements on the page. Basically destroy as much as possible to get the most points. You can submit your score and check out some of the scoreboard leaders as well.  There are some cool sound effects and arcade sounding background music, so make sure to turn the volume down while playing. Or you can go into the Add-on options and disable it. If you want a unique way to let off some steam before the weekend starts, this is a fun way of doing it. Install Destroy the Web for Firefox Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Friday Fun: Destroy Everything with Indestructo TankWeekend Fun: Easter Egg in Spybot Search & DestroyFriday Fun: BoombotSecure Computing: Create Scheduled Scans With Spybot Search & DestroyFriday Fun: Castle Game Collection TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips HippoRemote Pro 2.2 Xobni Plus for Outlook All My Movies 5.9 CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Dual Boot Ubuntu and Windows 7 What is HTML5? Default Programs Editor – One great tool for Setting Defaults Convert BMP, TIFF, PCX to Vector files with RasterVect Free Identify Fonts using WhatFontis.com Windows 7’s WordPad is Actually Good

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• Mock RequireJS define dependencies with config.map

  - by Aligned

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/Aligned/archive/2014/08/18/mock-requirejs-define-dependencies-with-config.map.aspxI had a module dependency, that I’m pulling down with RequireJS that I needed to use and write tests against. In this case, I don’t care about the actual implementation of the module (it’s simple enough that I’m just avoiding some AJAX calls). EDIT: make sure you look at the bottom example after the edit before using the config.map approach. I found that there is an easier way. I did not want to change the constructor of the consumer as I had a chain of changes that would have to be made and that would have been to invasive for this task. I found a question on StackOverflow with a short, but helpful answer from “Artem Oboturov”. We can use the config.map from RequireJs to achieve this. Here is some code: A module example (“usefulModule” in Common/Modules/usefulModule.js): define([], function() { "use strict"; var testMethod = function() { ... }; // add more functionality of the module return { testMethod; } }); A consumer of usefulModule example: define([ "Commmon/Modules/usefulModule" ], function(usefulModule) { "use strict"; var consumerModule = function(){ var self = this; // add functionality of the module } }); Using config.map in the html of the test runner page (and in your Karma config –> I’m still trying to figure this out): map: {'*': { // replace usefulModule with a mock 'Common/Modules/usefulModule': '/Tests/Specs/Common/usefulModuleMock.js' } } With the new mapping, Require will load usefulModuleMock.js from Tests/Specs/Common instead of the real implementation. Some of the answers on StackOverflow mentioned Squire.js, which looked interesting, but I wasn’t ready to introduce a new library at this time. That’s all you need to be able to mock a depency in RequireJS. However, there are many good cases when you should pass it in through the constructor instead of this approach.   EDIT: After all that, here’s another, probably better way: The consumer class, updated: define([ "Commmon/Modules/usefulModule" ], function(UsefulModule) { "use strict"; var consumerModule = function(){ var self = this; self.usefulModule = new UsefulModule(); // add functionality of the module } }); Jasmine test: define([ "consumerModule", "/UnitTests/Specs/Common/Mocks/usefulModuleMock.js" ], function(consumerModule, UsefulModuleMock){ describe("when mocking out the module", function(){ it("should probably just override the property", function(){ var consumer = new consumerModule(); consumer.usefulModule = new UsefulModuleMock(); }); }); });   Thanks for letting me think out loud :-).

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• Redgate ANTS Performance Profiler

  - by Jon Canning

  Seemingly forever I've been working on a business idea, it's a REST API delivering content to mobiles, and I've never really had much idea about its performance. Yes, I have a suite of unit tests and integration tests, but these only tell me that it works, not how well it works. I was also about to embark on a major refactor, swapping the database from MongoDB to RavenDB, and was curious to see if that impacted performance at all, so I needed a profiler that supported IIS Express that I can run my integration tests against, and Google gave me:   http://www.red-gate.com/supportcenter/content/ANTS_Performance_Profiler/help/7.4/app_iise   Excellent. Following the above guide an instance of IIS Express and is launched, as is Internet Explorer. The latter eventually becomes annoying, I would like to decide whether I want a browser opened, but thankfully the guide is wrong in that it can be closed and profiling will continue. So I ran my tests, stopped profiling, and was presented with a call tree listing the endpoints called and allowing me to drill down to the source code beneath.     Although useful and fascinating this wasn't what I was expecting to see, I was after the method timings from the entire test suite. Switching Show to Methods Grid presented me with a list of my methods, with the slowest lit up in red at the top. Marvellous.     I did find that if you switch to Methods Grid before Call tree has loaded, you do not get the red warnings.   StructureMap was very busy, and next on the list was a request filter that I didn't expect to be so overworked. Highlighting it, the source code was presented to me in the bottom window with timings and a nice red indicator to show me where to look. Oh horror, that reflection hack I put in months ago, I'd forgotten all about it. It was calling Validate<T>() which in turn was resolving a validator from StructureMap. Note to self, use //TODO: when leaving smelly code lying around.     Before refactoring, remember to Save Profile Results from the File menu. Annoyingly you are not prompted to save your results when exiting, and using Save Project will only leave you thankful that you have version control and can go back in time to run your tests again.   Having implemented StructureMap’s ForGenericType, I ran my tests again and:     Win, thankyou ANTS (What does ANTS stand for BTW?)   There's definitely room in my toolbox for a profiler; what started out as idle curiosity actually solved a potential problem. When presented with a new codebase I can see enormous benefit from getting an overview of the pipeline from the call tree before drilling into the code, and as a sanity check before release it gives a little more reassurance that you've done your best, and shows you exactly where to look if you haven’t.   Next I’m going to profile a load test.

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• Test your internet connection - Emtel Mobile Internet

  After yesterday's report on Emtel Fixed Broadband (I'm still wondering where the 'fixed' part is), I did the same tests on Emtel Mobile Internet. For this I'm using the Huawei E169G HSDPA USB stick, connected to the same machine. Actually, this is my fail-safe internet connection and the system automatically switches between them if a problem, let's say timeout, etc. has been detected on the main line. For better comparison I used exactly the same servers on Speedtest.net. The results Following are the results of Rose Hill (hosted by Emtel) and respectively Frankfurt, Germany (hosted by Vodafone DE): Speedtest.net result of 31.05.2013 between Flic en Flac and Rose Hill, Mauritius (Emtel - Mobile Internet) Speedtest.net result of 31.05.2013 between Flic en Flac and Frankfurt, Germany (Emtel - Mobile Internet) As you might easily see, there is a big difference in speed between national and international connections. More interestingly are the results related to the download and upload ratio. I'm not sure whether connections over Emtel Mobile Internet are asymmetric or symmetric like the Fixed Broadband. Might be interesting to find out. The first test result actually might give us a clue that the connection could be asymmetric with a ratio of 3:1 but again I'm not sure. I'll find out and post an update on this. It depends on network coverage Later today I was on tour with my tablet, a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (model GT-P7500) running on Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich), and did some more tests using the Speedtest.net app. The results are actually as expected and in areas with better network coverage you will get better results after all. At least, as long as you stay inside the national networks. For anything abroad, it doesn't really matter. But see for yourselves: Speedtest.net result of 31.05.2013 between Cascavelle and servers in Rose Hill, Mauritius (Emtel - Mobile Internet), Port Louis, Mauritius and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia It's rather shocking and frustrating to see how the speed on international destinations goes down. And the full capability of the tablet's integrated modem (HSDPA: 21 Mbps; HSUPA: 5.76 Mbps) isn't used, too. I guess, this demands more tests in other areas of the island, like Ebene, Pailles or Port Louis. I'll keep you updated... The question remains: Alternatives? After the publication of the test results on Fixed Broadband I had some exchange with others on Facebook. Sadly, it seems that there are really no alternatives to what Emtel is offering at the moment. There are the various internet packages by Mauritius Telecom feat. Orange, like ADSL, MyT and Mobile Internet, and there is Bharat Telecom with their Bees offer which is currently limited to Ebene and parts of Quatre Bornes.

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• Get Specific depth values in Kinect (XNA)

  - by N0xus

  I'm currently trying to make a hand / finger tracking with a kinect in XNA. For this, I need to be able to specify the depth range I want my program to render. I've looked about, and I cannot see how this is done. As far as I can tell, kinect's depth values only work with pre-set ranged found in the depthStream. What I would like to do is make it modular so that I can change the depth range my kinect renders. I know this has been down before but I can't find anything online that can show me how to do this. Could someone please help me out? I have made it possible to render the standard depth view with the kinect, and the method that I have made for converting the depth frame is as follows (I've a feeling its something in here I need to set) private byte[] ConvertDepthFrame(short[] depthFrame, DepthImageStream depthStream, int depthFrame32Length) { int tooNearDepth = depthStream.TooNearDepth; int tooFarDepth = depthStream.TooFarDepth; int unknownDepth = depthStream.UnknownDepth; byte[] depthFrame32 = new byte[depthFrame32Length]; for (int i16 = 0, i32 = 0; i16 < depthFrame.Length && i32 < depthFrame32.Length; i16++, i32 += 4) { int player = depthFrame[i16] & DepthImageFrame.PlayerIndexBitmask; int realDepth = depthFrame[i16] >> DepthImageFrame.PlayerIndexBitmaskWidth; // transform 13-bit depth information into an 8-bit intensity appropriate // for display (we disregard information in most significant bit) byte intensity = (byte)(~(realDepth >> 8)); if (player == 0 && realDepth == 00) { // white depthFrame32[i32 + RedIndex] = 255; depthFrame32[i32 + GreenIndex] = 255; depthFrame32[i32 + BlueIndex] = 255; } // omitted other if statements. Simple changed the color of the pixels if they went out of the pre=set depth values else { // tint the intensity by dividing by per-player values depthFrame32[i32 + RedIndex] = (byte)(intensity >> IntensityShiftByPlayerR[player]); depthFrame32[i32 + GreenIndex] = (byte)(intensity >> IntensityShiftByPlayerG[player]); depthFrame32[i32 + BlueIndex] = (byte)(intensity >> IntensityShiftByPlayerB[player]); } } return depthFrame32; } I have a strong hunch it's something I need to change in the int player and int realDepth values, but i can't be sure.

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• How do we keep dependent data structures up to date?

  - by Geo

  Suppose you have a parse tree, an abstract syntax tree, and a control flow graph, each one logically derived from the one before. In principle it is easy to construct each graph given the parse tree, but how can we manage the complexity of updating the graphs when the parse tree is modified? We know exactly how the tree has been modified, but how can the change be propagated to the other trees in a way that doesn't become difficult to manage? Naturally the dependent graph can be updated by simply reconstructing it from scratch every time the first graph changes, but then there would be no way of knowing the details of the changes in the dependent graph. I currently have four ways to attempt to solve this problem, but each one has difficulties. Nodes of the dependent tree each observe the relevant nodes of the original tree, updating themselves and the observer lists of original tree nodes as necessary. The conceptual complexity of this can become daunting. Each node of the original tree has a list of the dependent tree nodes that specifically depend upon it, and when the node changes it sets a flag on the dependent nodes to mark them as dirty, including the parents of the dependent nodes all the way down to the root. After each change we run an algorithm that is much like the algorithm for constructing the dependent graph from scratch, but it skips over any clean node and reconstructs each dirty node, keeping track of whether the reconstructed node is actually different from the dirty node. This can also get tricky. We can represent the logical connection between the original graph and the dependent graph as a data structure, like a list of constraints, perhaps designed using a declarative language. When the original graph changes we need only scan the list to discover which constraints are violated and how the dependent tree needs to change to correct the violation, all encoded as data. We can reconstruct the dependent graph from scratch as though there were no existing dependent graph, and then compare the existing graph and the new graph to discover how it has changed. I'm sure this is the easiest way because I know there are algorithms available for detecting differences, but they are all quite computationally expensive and in principle it seems unnecessary so I'm deliberately avoiding this option. What is the right way to deal with these sorts of problems? Surely there must be a design pattern that makes this whole thing almost easy. It would be nice to have a good solution for every problem of this general description. Does this class of problem have a name?

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• BIP 10.1.3.4.x June 2010 Update Available

  - by Tim Dexter

  A new patchset for 10.1.3.4.0 and 10.1.3.4.1 is available on Metalink. some notes: The patch number is 9791839. This patchset includes 28 new bug fixes since the last patchset release on March 31. This is a culmulative update that includes all the fixes and enhancements from previous updates. The patch will supercede the other two updates. Install instructions are in the readme inside the patch There is also a new BIP client patch available, 9821068. No new template building features to my knowledge but there is an update to the template viewer to allow you to test and debug you siny new Excel templates. Server 8529759XMLP_TEMPLATE_DESIGNER CANNOT SAVE / UPLOAD TEMPLATE 8566455 BI PUBLISHER SCHEDULER DOES NOT START WITH JNDI DATA SOURCE 9295667RESPONSE OF GETSCHEDULEDREPORTINFO RETURNS STATUS AS 'UNKNOWN' INSTEAD OF 'SCHED 9542413 UNABLE TO CREATE A NEW TEMPLATE FROM UI 9546137 EXCEL ANALYZER TEMPLATE FAILS FOR A STRUCTURED XML WHEN IT IS UPLOADED 9556338 SIEBEL - BIP PARAMETERS SORT ORDER 9560562 BI PUBLISHER CACHE DIRECTORY FILLING UP AND POINTING TO INVALID DIRECTORY 9646599 USER ROLE DEFINED AS PRIMARYGROUP IN ACTIVEDIRECTORY GROUP ARE NOT RECOGNIZED 9664768 ER: NEED TO BIND USER ATTRIBUTE VALUES DEFINED IN ACTIVEDIRECTORY IN DATA QUERY 9665075 BI PUBLISHER AFTER 9546699 NOTIFICATIONS FOR REPORTS FAIL 9669973 ER: NEED TO SUPPORT PRE-PROCESSING XML WITH XSL FOR EXCEL TEMPLATE 9704401 ER: NEED TO SUPPORT DEFAULT GROUP FOR ALL USERS IN LDAP/AD SECURITY 9711899 SEARCH PARAMETER IS NOT VISIBLE WHEN SCHEDULE A REPORT 9753736 SOME ROLES FROM ACTIVEDIRECTORY ARE NOT LISTED IN ADMIN ROLE-FOLDER MAPPING 9771354 MULTIPLE PARAMETERS IN 10.1.3.4.1 DATA TEMPLATE ACT ACT DIFFERENTLY FROM 10.1.3. 9772982 "REFRESH OTHER PARAMETERS ON CHANGE" DOESN'T WORK PROPERLY Core  8599646 ER:EXTRA SPACE ADDED BELOW IMAGE IN A TABLE CELL OF TEMPLATE IN FIREFOX 9377593 SOME ROWS HEIGHT IN HTML/EXCEL OUTPUT ARE TOO BIG IN BI PUBLISHER 9487030 NAVIGATION TREE REPEATING TWICE IN PDF DCCUMENT CREATED BY BI PUBLISHER 9509432 PERFORMANCE ISSUE WHEN USING PDF TEMPLATE 9534424 PS: DOCUMENT-REPEAT-FULLPATH-ELEMENTNAME SHOULDNT USE DOT "." AS PATH SEPARATOR 9553360 FORMPROCESSOR CANNOT PARSE SOME PDF TEMPLATES 9554959 TEXT IN AUTOSHAPE IS NOT PROPERLY CUT OFF FOR LINE WRAPPING 9569417 AFTER APPLYING PATCH 9509432 PDF TEMPLATES WITH DBDRV PRODUCE NO OUTPUT 9571670 ER: EXCEL TEMPLATE TO SUPPORT XSLT LOGIC AND XSL CUSTOM EXTENTIONS 9589809 XSL:CALL-TEMPLATE IS MISSING IN GENERATED XSL FILE 9605920 BOOKMARK TESTCASE FAILED DUE TO ER9283933 9689634 PRINT FLOW CHART USING ACROSS 3 DOWN 0 GIVES EXTRA BLANK PAGES You might have noticed some fixes and ehancements to the Excel templates so I can get back on those now. There is a part two to the Mapviewer BIP Mashup coming ... just need aanother 4 hours in the day to squeeze it in.

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• RIM's current BB7 developer toolset is a joke

  - by mbrit

  tl;dr - RIM's current developer toolset is not fit for purpose.Background to this is that I'm currently working on a PhoneGap/Cordova project for a client that has to run on BlackBerry. The tooling is so ridiculous to use that even though I had a gentle dig at them in a Guardian piece it's worth having a more full-on attack.At the moment, RIM's pitch is that apps are built for the current BBOS7 devices using WebWorks. This is an HTML-based toolset. Essentially a browser is spun up in a native app container and your app is powered by JavaScript. Specific JavaScript libraries exist that thunk down to native capabilities no the device. I happen to use PhoneCap/Cordova in combination with this.The tooling is non-existent. I'm using TextMate, Ant, and Terminal to develop the app. There's no "console.log" output, and no debugging. The only way to instrument the app is to put "alert" calls in your code.Apart from the fact that that's *not* fine in 2012, how about this… every time you deploy a new app to the device, the device has to reboot. This process takes six minutes on a relatively modern BlackBerry device. How about this as well - in order to get a file into the package it has to be signed. My small app over here has 100 different files (75 or so generated). Signing doesn't happen locally, it happens on RIM's servers in Waterloo. Thus whenever you deploy the app you have this utility have to call RIM's servers 100 times. More to the point, sometimes during the day these servers have "micro-downtime" moments where they're unreachable for five or ten minutes, normally two or three times a day. Oh yes, you'll also get an email sent to you per signing on success or failure. 100 inbound emails, per deployment.(I started this post at the beginning of one of these cycles, by the way. That's how long it takes to build and deploy *once*. By the way, the change I made didn't work.)To clarify:* Change the script,* Build it using Ant,* Ant will spin up a Java app that talks to RIM's servers to sign it.* Receive 100 emails, assuming the server is up.* App deployed - takes about 30 seconds.* BlackBerry device restarts - takes about six minutes.* Find and open the app. Go through security prompts.* Test the app, with no "console.log" output and no debugger."Why not use the simulator?" I hear you ask. Well, apart from the fact that the simulator refused to reach any network service over HTTPS that I happen to own? (Some people suggest changing DNS settings for this known issue.) Admittedly, the simulator does show you console.log, but you still have the "six minute" restart issue on the simulator.Developers will understand this problem. Breaking concentration for six-plus minutes every time you want to deploy an app turns developing into a nightmare. Combining that with no worthy debugging tools turns the toolset into a joke.

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• Designing a completely new database/gui solution for my compnay

  - by user1277304

  I'm no expert when it come to everything Visual Studio 2010 and utilizing SQL server 2008. I'm sure some of my personal projects I've built for personal use would get laughed off the face of the planet, but SQLCe has been the solution I was looking for those home type of projects. And they work, flawlessly. Now I feel it's time to step up to the big league. I want to develop a complete, unified and module based solution for my company that I'm working for. We're still using stuff from the 80s for goodness sake! I use Excel and query the ancient database on my own because I can't stand the GUI. Nothing against people of age, but the IDE our programmers are using is from the stone age, and they use APL of all things with it. I've yet to see a radio button control anywhere in the GUI where it would make sense. Anyway, I want to do this right from the ground up. I'm by no means a newbie when it comes to programming in .NET 2010, however, I want the entire solution to be professionally done. I want version control, test projects, project flow, SQL 2008 integration and all the bells and whistles that come with that. I know for a fact that if we had something like that running, not only would development costs and time be slashed four fold, but the possibilities for expansion and performance would sky rocket. (Between the GUI an our DB engine, it can only use ONE CORE! ONE! It's 2012 for goodness sake!) Our business is growing and our current ancient solution just can't keep up, and I'd hate to see our business go down in flames because our programmer is stuck in the 80's and refuses to use anything current. So I ask you guys, the experts and know-it-alls, where do I start? Are there any gems of good books out there in the haystack of all "This for dummies" type of deals? I already have several people backing me in this endeavor, and while it may seem brash to just usurp the current programmers, I'm doing this for the company as a whole.

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• Unexpected results for projection on to plane

  - by ravenspoint

  I want to use this projection matrix: GLfloat shadow[] = { -1,0,0,0, 1,0,-1,1, 0,0,-1,0, 0,0,0,-1 }; It should cast object shadows onto the y = 0 plane from a point light at 1,1,-1. I create a rectangle in the x = 0.5 plane glBegin( GL_QUADS ); glVertex3f( 0.5,0.2,-0.5); glVertex3f( 0.5,0.2,-1.5); glVertex3f( 0.5,0.5,-1.5); glVertex3f( 0.5,0.5,-0.5); glEnd(); Now if I manually multiply these vertices with the matrix, I get. glBegin( GL_QUADS ); glVertex3f( 0.375,0,-0.375); glVertex3f( 0.375,0,-1.625); glVertex3f( 0,0,-2); glVertex3f( 0,0,0); glEnd(); Which produces a reasonable display ( camera at 0,5,0 looking down y axis ) So rather than do the calculation manually, I should be able to use the opengl model transormation. I write this code: glMatrixMode (GL_MODELVIEW); GLfloat shadow[] = { -1,0,0,0, 1,0,-1,1, 0,0,-1,0, 0,0,0,-1 }; glLoadMatrixf( shadow ); glBegin( GL_QUADS ); glVertex3f( 0.5,0.2,-0.5); glVertex3f( 0.5,0.2,-1.5); glVertex3f( 0.5,0.5,-1.5); glVertex3f( 0.5,0.5,-0.5); glEnd(); But this produces a blank screen! What am I doing wrong? Is there some debug mode where I can print out the transformed vertices, so I can see where they are ending up? Note: People have suggested that using glMultMatrixf() might make a difference. It doesn't. Replacing glLoadMatrixf( shadow ); with glLoadIdentity(); glMultMatrixf( shadow ); gives the identical result ( of course! )

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• mongoDB Management Studio

  - by Liam McLennan

  This weekend I have been in Sydney at the MS Web Camp, learning about web application development. At the end of the first day we came up with application ideas and pitched them. My idea was to build a web management application for mongoDB. mongoDB I pitched my idea, put down the microphone, and then someone asked, “what’s mongo?”. Good question. MongoDB is a document database that stores JSON style documents. This is a JSON document for a tweet from twitter: db.tweets.find()[0] { "_id" : ObjectId("4bfe4946cfbfb01420000001"), "created_at" : "Thu, 27 May 2010 10:25:46 +0000", "profile_image_url" : "http://a3.twimg.com/profile_images/600304197/Snapshot_2009-07-26_13-12-43_normal.jpg", "from_user" : "drearyclocks", "text" : "Does anyone know who has better coverage, Optus or Vodafone? Telstra is still too expensive.", "to_user_id" : null, "metadata" : { "result_type" : "recent" }, "id" : { "floatApprox" : 14825648892 }, "geo" : null, "from_user_id" : 6825770, "search_term" : "telstra", "iso_language_code" : "en", "source" : "&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.tweetdeck.com&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;TweetDeck&lt;/a&gt;" } A mongodb server can have many databases, each database has many collections (instead of tables) and a collection has many documents (instead of rows). Development Day 2 of the Sydney MS Web Camp was allocated to building our applications. First thing in the morning I identified the stories that I wanted to implement: Scenario: View databases Scenario: View Collections in a database Scenario: View Documents in a Collection Scenario: Delete a Collection Scenario: Delete a Database Scenario: Delete Documents Over the course of the day the team (3.5 developers) implemented all of the planned stories (except ‘delete a database’) and also implemented the following: Scenario: Create Database Scenario: Create Collection Lessons Learned I’m new to MongoDB and in the past I have only accessed it from Ruby (for my hare-brained scheme). When it came to implementing our MongoDB management studio we discovered that their is no official MongoDB driver for .NET. We chose to use NoRM, honestly just because it was the only one I had heard of. NoRM was a challenge. I think it is a fine library but it is focused on mapping strongly typed objects to MongoDB. For our application we had no prior knowledge of the types that would be in the MongoDB database so NoRM was probably a poor choice. Here are some screens (click to enlarge):

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• Using ASP.NET Membership Provider with an ACL

  - by geekrutherford

  Up until recently one of my applications has used the membership provider within ASP.NET exclusively. However, it has been proposed that while the currently defined roles are beneficial, security needs to be more granular to restrict both access to certain pages and functionality present within a given page.   Unfortunately, the role based security ASP.NET gives you out of the box falls down in this area. This is not due to a lack of foresight by Microsoft, but rather it was simply not designed for implementing both role based security and any inherent ACL you may define within these roles. Mind you some would say an ACL is independent of the role to which a user belongs and is assigned to the user directly.   The application mentioned here has it's own User object (which encapsulates the membership provider user object as a property) and SQL Server table to store extended information not present in the aspnet_users table. While I could have modified the aspnet membership schema to suit the applications needs, it seemed smarter to simply create a separate table with a foreign key back to the aspnet_users table.   Since I have a separate object to store extended user information, I simply created an ACL object and expose it as a property of my user object.   This is all well and good, but it does not help in regards to the SiteMapProvider and restricting access at the page level based on the users ACL.   The straightforward answer would be to develop some code within the databound event for the menu that checks the page title and has hardcoded logic that dictates a user must have certain permissions turned on. The problem with this approach is that it's HARDCODED!!! If you need to change access to a page you'd need to do a build and go through your normal deployment process....ugh!!!   An alternative method, albeit not perfect, is to utilize the resourceKey property on the SiteMapNodes in the SiteMap file with the name of the required permission to view the page. Within the databound event for your menu you iterate the SiteMapNodes in the menus SiteMapProvider looking for a match at the page level based on title. When a match is detected, you have a switch/case on the SiteMapNodes resourceKey (the name of the ACL permission required). The case for the resourceKey ensures the users ACL permission is turned on and viola!!!   This is noteably not perfect in that it is using the resourceKey in a manner other than intended.  Since the application is not localized, using it in the manner described it not an issue.   Below is a sample SiteMap file with the resourceKey used as the ACL permission identifier:     Below is the ItemDataBound event. This application uses the Telerik Menu control:

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• Automate RAC Cluster Upgrades using EM12c

  - by HariSrinivasan

  One of the most arduous processes  in DB maintenance is upgrading Databases across major versions, especially for complex RAC Clusters.With the release of Database Plug-in  (12.1.0.5.0), EM12c Rel 3 (12.1.0.3.0)  now supports automated upgrading of RAC Clusters in addition to Standalone Databases. This automation includes: Upgrade of the complete Cluster across the nodes. ( Example: 11.1.0.7 CRS, ASM, RAC DB  ->   11.2.0.4 or 12.1.0.1 GI, RAC DB)  Best practices in tune with your operations, where you can automate upgrade in steps: Step 1: Upgrade the Clusterware to Grid Infrastructure (Allowing you to wait, test and then move to DBs). Step 2: Upgrade RAC DBs either separately or in group (Mass upgrade of RAC DB's in the cluster). Standard pre-requisite checks like Cluster Verification Utility (CVU) and RAC checks Division of Upgrade process into Non-downtime activities (like laying down the new Oracle Homes (OH), running checks) to Downtime Activities (like Upgrading Clusterware to GI, Upgrading RAC) there by lowering the downtime required. Ability to configure Back up and Restore options as a part of this upgrade process. You can choose to : a. Take Backup via this process (either Guaranteed Restore Point (GRP) or RMAN) b. Set the procedure to pause just before the upgrade step to allow you to take a custom backup c. Ignore backup completely, if there are external mechanisms already in place.  High Level Steps: Select the Procedure "Upgrade Database" from Database Provisioning Home page. Choose the Target Type for upgrade and the Destination version Pick and choose the Cluster, it picks up the complete topology since the clusterware/GI isn't upgraded already Select the Gold Image of the destination version for deploying both the GI and RAC OHs Specify new OH patch, credentials, choose the Restore and Backup options, if required provide additional pre and post scripts Set the Break points in the procedure execution to isolate Downtime activities Submit and track the procedure's execution status.  The animation below captures the steps in the wizard.  For step by step process and to understand the support matrix check this documentation link. Explore the functionality!! In the next blog, will talk about automating rolling Upgrades of Databases in Physical Standby Data Guard environment using Transient Logical Standby.

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• Implementing the Reactive Manifesto with Azure and AWS

  - by Elton Stoneman

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/EltonStoneman/archive/2013/10/31/implementing-the-reactive-manifesto-with-azure-and-aws.aspxMy latest Pluralsight course, Implementing the Reactive Manifesto with Azure and AWS has just been published! I’d planned to do a course on dual-running a messaging-based solution in Azure and AWS for super-high availability and scale, and the Reactive Manifesto encapsulates exactly what I wanted to do. A “reactive” application describes an architecture which is inherently resilient and scalable, being event-driven at the core, and using asynchronous communication between components. In the course, I compare that architecture to a classic n-tier approach, and go on to build out an app which exhibits all the reactive traits: responsive, event-driven, scalable and resilient. I use a suite of technologies which are enablers for all those traits: ASP.NET SignalR for presentation, with server push notifications to the user Messaging in the middle layer for asynchronous communication between presentation and compute Azure Service Bus Queues and Topics AWS Simple Queue Service AWS Simple Notification Service MongoDB at the storage layer for easy HA and scale, with minimal locking under load. Starting with a couple of console apps to demonstrate message sending, I build the solution up over 7 modules, deploying to Azure and AWS and running the app across both clouds concurrently for the whole stack - web servers, messaging infrastructure, message handlers and database servers. I demonstrating failover by killing off bits of infrastructure, and show how a reactive app deployed across two clouds can survive machine failure, data centre failure and even whole cloud failure. The course finishes by configuring auto-scaling in AWS and Azure for the compute and presentation layers, and running a load test with blitz.io. The test pushes masses of load into the app, which is deployed across four data centres in Azure and AWS, and the infrastructure scales up seamlessly to meet the load – the blitz report is pretty impressive: That’s 99.9% success rate for hits to the website, with the potential to serve over 36,000,000 hits per day – all from a few hours’ build time, and a fairly limited set of auto-scale configurations. When the load stops, the infrastructure scales back down again to a minimal set of servers for high availability, so the app doesn’t cost much to host unless it’s getting a lot of traffic. This is my third course for Pluralsight, with Nginx and PHP Fundamentals and Caching in the .NET Stack: Inside-Out released earlier this year. Now that it’s out, I’m starting on the fourth one, which is focused on C#, and should be out by the end of the year.

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• Need help with a complex 3d scene (using Ogre and bullet)

  - by Matthias

  In my setup there is a box with a hole on one side, and a freely movable "stick" (or bar, tube). This stick can be inserted/moved through the hole into the box. This hole is exactly as wide as the diameter of the stick. In reality, when you would now hold the end of the stick in your hand and move the hand left/right or up/down, the other end of the stick, which is inside the box, would move into the opposite direction of your hand movement (because the stick is affixed at the pivot point where it is entering the box through the hole). (I hope you understand what I mean so far.) Now I need to simulate such a setup in a 3d program. I have already successfully developed an Ogre3d framework for this application, including bullet. But what I don't know is how I can implement in my program what I have described above. This application must include two more features: The scene camera is attached to the end of the stick that is inserted into the box. So when the user would move the mouse (to control "his" end of the stick outside the box), then the camera attached to the stick would move in the opposite direction, as described above. The stick has some length, and the user can push it further into the box, or pull it closer to him again. That means of course that the max. radius on which the end of the stick inside the box can move depends on how far the stick is pushed into the box. Thus, the more the stick is pushed into the box, the larger the max. radius of this end of the stick with the camera will be. I understand this is maybe quite a complex thing, so I don't expect any real source code here. I already have the Ogre and bullet part as said up and running, as well as a camera attached to the stick. This works fine. What I don't know though is how I can simulate the setup described above. Especially the requirement that the stick is affixed at the position of the hole on the box, where it is inserted into the box. Any ideas how I could approach to implement the described setup?

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• How can I dynamically load the correct sprite from a sprite sheet?

  - by Leonard Challis

  I am making a simple card game in unity. The game is based on a standard 52-card pack, with identical backs for unique faces. In my particular game different cards are worth different values and have various special abilities. The game will have 52 cards on the table (on the draw position or in the face-down deck or in someone's hand) at all times, so this number won't change. I thought that making a Card prefab and instantiating 52 of these manually would be a bad idea. Even doing it in code, I thought, would be a bit OTT, and that I should just instantiate visual cards when they are face-up to the player. I have a sprite sheet of the 52 cards and the back, which is imported as a Sprite in multiple mode, sliced in to a grid containing all the cards needed to play the game. The problem I now face is that, through my GameController script I want to generate a shuffled pack of cards, deal some to each player and then show those cards to a player. However, I am not sure of the best way, or even if it's possible, to do this dynamically with the sprite sheets as they are. For instance if I have the following: private CardRank rank; private CardSuite suite; private void Start() { this.rank = CardRank.Ace; this.suite = CardSuite.Spades; } This class would be instantiated by the game manager. I would have 52 of these in code. Whenever I have to visually show a card in the scene, I would use a card prefab, which is essentially a game object with a SpriteRenderer on it. I would need to dynamically load the correct sprite for this object from the spritesheet. The sliced sprites from the sprite sheet actually have names in the format AS (Ace of Spades), 7H (Seven of Hearts), etc - though this was a manual thing I did myself of course. I have also tried various alternative solutions, including creating animations, having separate sprites not in a spritesheet and having an array of available sprites in an array with a specific index for each card, but none seem as elegant as trying to load the correct sprite at runtime, as I'm trying to. So, how do I load a specific sprite from a spritesheet at runtime? I'm open to suggestions, even those that make me think differently about how to approach the problem.

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• Commerce, Anyway You Want It

  - by David Dorf

  I believe our industry is finally starting to realize the importance of letting consumers determine how, when, and where to interact with retailers.  Over the last few months I've seen several articles discussing the importance of removing the barriers between existing channels. Paula Rosenblum of RSR first brought the term omni-channel to my attention back in September. She stated, "omni-channel retail isn’t the merging of channels – rather, it’s the use of all possible channels (present and future) to enhance the customer experience in a profitable way." I added to her thoughts in this blog posting in which I said, "For retailers to provide an omni-channel experience, there needs to be one logical representation of products, prices, promotions, and customers across all channels. The only thing that varies is the presentation of the content based on the delivery mechanism (e.g. shelf labels, mobile phone, web site, print, etc.) and often these mechanisms can be combined in various ways." More recently Brian Walker of Gartner suggested we stop using the term multi-channel and begin thinking more about consumer touch-points. "It is time for organizations to leave their channel-oriented ways behind, and enter the era of agile commerce--optimizing their people, processes and technology to serve today's empowered, ever-connected customers across this rapidly evolving set of customer touch points." Now Jason Goldberg, better known as RetailGeek, says we should start breaking down the channel silos by re-casting the VP of E-Commerce as the VP of Digital Marketing, and change his/her focus to driving sales across all channels using digital media. This logic is based on the fact that consumers switch between channels, or touch-points as Brian prefers, as part of their larger buying process. Today's smart consumer leverages the Web, mobile, and stores to provide the best shopping experience, so retailers need to make this easier. Regardless of what we call it, the key take-away is that "multi-channel" is not only an antiquated term but also an idea who's time has passed.  Today, retailers must look at e-commerce, m-commerce, f-commerce, catalogs, and traditional store sales collectively and through the consumers' eyes.  The goal is not to drive sales through each channel but rather to just drive sales -- using whatever method the customer prefers.  There really should be just one cart.

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• Misadventures at Radio Shack

  - by Chris Williams

  While I'm waiting for my Arduino kits to show up, I started reading the Getting Started With Arduino book from O'Reilly (review coming later) and I'm about 40 pages in when I get to a parts list for one of the first projects. Looks pretty straightforward, and even has Radio Shack part numbers next to almost everything. So on my lunch today, I decided to run out to "The Shack" (seriously, that's their rebranding?) to pick up some basics, like a couple resistors, a breadboard, a momentary switch and a pack of pre-cut jumper wires. I found the resistors without any difficulty, and while they didn't have the exact switch I wanted, it was easy enough to find one that would do. That's where my good luck abruptly ended. I was surprised that I couldn't find a breadboard or any jumper wires, so while I was looking around, a guy came up and asked me if I needed some help. I told him I did, explained what I needed and even gave him the Radio Shack part number for the pack of jumper wires. After a couple minutes he says he can't find anything in the system, which was unfortunate but not the end of the world.  So then I asked him about the breadboard, and he pointed me to some blank circuitboards (which are not the same thing) and I said (nicely) that those weren't breadboards and attempted to explain (again) what I needed, at which point he says to me "I don't even know what the hell you're looking for!" I stood there for a moment and tried to process his words. About that time, another salesperson came up and asked what I was trying to find. I told her I needed a breadboard, and she pointed to the blank circuit boards and said "they're right in front of you..." After seeing the look on my face, she thought for a minute and said... "OH! you mean those white things. We don't have those anymore." I thanked her, set everything down on the counter and left. (I wasn't going to buy only half the stuff I needed.. and I was pretty sure I was never going to be buying ANYTHING at that particular location ever again.) Guess I'll be ordering more stuff online at this point. It's a shame really, because I used to LOVE going to Radio Shack as a kid, and looking through all the cool electronics components and stuff, even if I didnt understand what most of them were at the time. Seems like the only thing they carry in any quantity/variety now is cell phones and random stereo connectors.

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• Software monetization that is not evil

  - by t0x1n

  I have a free open-source project with around 800K downloads to date. I've been contacted by some monetization companies from time to time and turned them down, since I didn't want toolbar malware associated with my software. I was wondering however, is there a non-evil way to monetize software ? Here are the options as I know them: Add a donation button. I don't feel comfortable with that as I really don't need "donations" - I'm paid quite well. Donating users may feel entitled to support etc. (see the second to last bullet) Add ads inside your application. In the web that may be acceptable, but in a desktop program it looks incredibly lame. Charge a small amount for each download. This model works well in the mobile world, but I suspect no one will go for it on the desktop. It doesn't mix well with open source, though I suppose I could charge only for the binaries (most users won't go to the hassle of compiling the sources). People may expect support etc. after having explicitly paid (see next bullet). Make money off a service / community / support associated with the program. This is one route I definitely don't want to take, I don't want any sort of hassle beyond coding. I assure you, the program is top notch (albeit simple) and I'm not aware of any bugs as of yet (there are support forums and blog comments where users may report them). It is also very simple, documented, and discoverable so I do think I have a case for supplying it "as is". Add affiliate suggestions to your installer. If you use a monetization company, you lose control over what they propose. Unless you can establish some sort of strong trust with the company to supply quality suggestions (I sincerely doubt it), I can't have that. Choosing your own affiliate (e.g. directly suggesting Google Toolbar) is possibly the only viable solution to my mind. Problem is, where do I find a solid affiliate that could actually give value to the user rather than infect his computer with crapware? I thought maybe Babylon (not the toolbar of course, I hate toolbars)?

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• Investing in Servers by Intel

  - by Koushal Deshpande

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/BizTalkAndOtherTechs/archive/2013/10/31/investing-in-servers-by-intel.aspxA nice article reference from Intel, refer here. Referees to cloud as well. Choose correctly what you need. 1 Do determine right server for your company. There is no use getting a server that has redundant services but still add to the costs. 2 Do get servers that can be upgraded. A server with limited memory and storage may not be able to keep up with your business growth. The basic memory and storage options might not be sufficient. Consider at least 8GB of RAM and 1 terabyte of hard disk space. 3 Do check the server has at least one Gigabit Ethernet port. This allows high speed transferring of files and increases productivity for your employees. USB and Firewire ports may not be enough as their transfer speed is too low and will affect the productivity of your company. Infinite Technologies is ready to help perform this upgrade. Contact Infinite Technologies now View our other resellers » 4 Do verify that the server comes with documentation. Documentation allows you to make a claim when your server breaks down and is supported by a warranty. 6 Do check the support options for the server from the manufacturer. Different manufacturer has different support options such as maintenance plans and software upgrades. 5 Do always look into the warranty. Get an enhanced warranty that guarantees response and repair time to avoid disruption. 7 Do get server management tools that can be used on any computer. Server management tools should be cross compatible across different operating systems to take into account future PC replacements. 8 Do check the power usage of the servers. Get the right power supply to avoid damaging server hardware and consider the Intel® Xeon® E3 processor to help save on your electricity bills. 9 Do check what built-in security packages are available. Ensure that your server is protected. Built-in security1 helps you save on getting add on security packages.

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