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• Displaying performance metrics in a modern web app?

  - by Charles

  We're updating our ancient internal PHP application at work. Right now, we gather extensive performance measurements on every pageview, and log them to the database. Additionally, users requested that some of the metrics be displayed at the bottom of the page. This worked out pretty well for us, because the last thing that the application does on every request is include the file containing the HTML footer. The updated parts of the application use an MVC framework and a Dispatch/Request/Response loop. The page footer is no longer the last thing done. In fact, it could very well be the first thing done, before the rest of the page is created. Because we can grab the Response before it's returned to the user, we could try to include placeholders for the performance metrics in the footer and simply replace them with the actual numbers, but this strikes me as a bad idea somehow. How do you handle this in your modern web app? While we're using PHP, I'm curious how it's done in a Ruby/Rails app, and in your favorite Python framework.

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• OpenGL ES and real world development

  - by Mark

  Hi Guys, I'm trying to learn OpenGL ES quickly (I know, I know, but these are the pressures that have been thrusted upon me) and I have been read around a fair bit, which lots of success at rendering basic models, some basic lighting and 'some' texturing success too. But this is CONSTANTLY the point at which all OpenGL ES tutorials end, they never say more of what a real life app may need. So I have a few questions that Im hoping arent too difficult. How do people get 3d models from their favorite 3d modeling tool into the iPhone/iPad application? I have seen a couple of blog posts where people have written some python scripts for tools like Blender which create .h files that you can use, is this what people seem to do everytime? Or do the "big" tooling suites (3DS, Maya, etc...) have exporting features? Say I have my model in a nice .h file, all the vertexes, texture points, etc.. are lined up, how to I make my model (say of a basic person) walk? Or to be more general, how do you animate "part" of a model (legs only, turn head, etc...)? Do they need to be a massive mash-up of many different tiny models, or can you pre-bake animations these days "into" models (somehow) Truely great 3D games for the iPhone are (im sure) unbelievably complex, but how do people (game dev firms) seem to manage that designer/developer workflow? Surely not all the animations, textures, etc... are done programatically. I hope these are not stupid questions, and in actual fact, my app that Im trying to investigate how to make is really quite simple, just a basic 3D model that I want to be able to pan/tilt around using touch. Has anyone ever done/seen anything like this that I might be able to read up on? Thanks for any help you can give, I appreciate all types of response big or small :) Cheers, Mark

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• What's so bad about building XML with string concatenation?

  - by wsanville

  In the thread What’s your favorite “programmer ignorance” pet peeve?, the following answer appears, with a large amount of upvotes: Programmers who build XML using string concatenation. My question is, why is building XML via string concatenation (such as a StringBuilder in C#) bad? I've done this several times in the past, as it's sometimes the quickest way for me to get from point A to point B when to comes to the data structures/objects I'm working with. So far, I have come up with a few reasons why this isn't the greatest approach, but is there something I'm overlooking? Why should this be avoided? Probably the biggest reason I can think of is you need to escape your strings manually, and most programmers will forget this. It will work great for them when they test it, but then "randomly" their apps will fail when someone throws an & symbol in their input somewhere. Ok, I'll buy this, but it's really easy to prevent the problem (SecurityElement.Escape to name one). When I do this, I usually omit the XML declaration (i.e. <?xml version="1.0"?>). Is this harmful? Performance penalties? If you stick with proper string concatenation (i.e. StringBuilder), is this anything to be concerned about? Presumably, a class like XmlWriter will also need to do a bit of string manipulation... There are more elegant ways of generating XML, such as using XmlSerializer to automatically serialize/deserialize your classes. Ok sure, I agree. C# has a ton of useful classes for this, but sometimes I don't want to make a class for something really quick, like writing out a log file or something. Is this just me being lazy? If I am doing something "real" this is my preferred approach for dealing w/ XML.

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• Why is only 2 of my querys working? (PHP/Mysql)

  - by ggfan

  When I remove a posting, I want it to remove the posting itself, any comments related to it, and like/dislike of the comments, and favorites that people added. So there are 4 queries that do this, but somehow only 2 of the 4 are working. When I switch say query 2 for query 3, then query 2 works and query 3 doesn't... The table names are correct and it is getting the data via $_GET. // Grab the data from the GET $posting_id = $_GET['posting_id']; // Delete the posting from the database $query = "DELETE FROM posting WHERE posting_id=$posting_id LIMIT 1"; mysqli_query($dbc, $query) or die(mysql_error()); // Delete the comments $query2 = "DELETE FROM comments WHERE posting_id=$posting_id "; mysqli_query($dbc, $query2) or die(mysql_error()); // Delete the like/dislike $query3 = "DELETE FROM comment_likedislike WHERE posting_id=$posting_id "; mysqli_query($dbc, $query3) or die(mysql_error()); // Delete the favorites $query4 = "DELETE FROM favorite WHERE posting_id=$posting_id "; mysqli_query($dbc, $query4) or die(mysql_error());

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• Reference - What does this error mean in PHP?

  - by hakre

  On Stackoverflow you can see a lot of questions popping up about errors. Some users do not even know that error messages exists, others are asking about code that gives an error message but they do not understand the error message. If the error message is common, many questions about the same kind of error appears, but it is hard to find existing Q&A about the topic. Please add "your favorite" error message, one per answer, a short description what it means (even if it is only highlighting terms to their manual page) and a listing of existing Q&A that are of value. This will create a list. The question is a community wiki, so you are not answering for reputation but for creating a reference list for new users. It's based on error messages. Compare with the existing Reference - What does this symbol mean in PHP? question, which works pretty well. What are common errors in PHP and what are their Solutions. Index of Errors Just starting, but there are already some: Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent Warning: mysql_fetch_array() expects parameter 1 to be resource, boolean given in ... on line Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_XXX in YYY on line ZZZ Fatal Error: Call to a member function ... on a non-object

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• Choosing a Job based on languages?

  - by Alan

  How often is language the deciding factor for selecting a job? Many of us here are well versed in many languages, C++, Java, C#, and likely have many other languages under our belt for the right occassion (really any occasion is the right occasion for Python, AMIRITE?), so this isn't so much a question of choosing a job that is a good fit based on your skill set. Rather, if you are skilled with most languages, do you pick your favorite, or do you follow the money (given the tight economy). I'm considering coming out of retirement, and have started to look around and what's available. Over the years, I've moved towards C# and Python; many jobs in the area are looking for .NET developers, but there are plenty of them that do not. I cut my teef on C++, consider myself adept at the language, and know my way around a Java. But I find myself really digging what they're doing to C#, and I have always loved python. So when I see an interesting job req that is looking for C++ developers; it gives me 2nd thoughts. Not because I can't cut it, but because I don't know if I want to go back to C++. Even if the work will be interesting, how important is the language to you?

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• Ruby on Rails AJAX call affects only the first element in collection

  - by pruett

  I'm iterating over a collection of elements and trying to get AJAX to work properly on a specific element within the collection. I'm nesting a few partials in order to iterate over these items and use a js.erb call like this: $('#favorite_form').html("<%=j render partial: 'shared/unfavorite', locals: { mission: @mission } %>"); This only seems to change the 1st item in the collection even though I could be clicking the 5th item down the list, for example. Question: How can I specify (via .js and AJAX) which element to update? Is this jQuery call not specific enough to the individual element? The code works in regular HTTP requests, so I'm wondering if there is a way to specify the individual element, but I thought that's what partials did :/ Example View ( _favorites.html.erb ) <div id="favorite_form"> <% if you_favorited_this?(current_user, mission) %> <%= render partial: 'shared/unfavorite', locals: { mission: mission } %> <% else %> <%= render partial: 'shared/favorite', locals: { mission: mission } %> <% end %> </div>

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• MySQL subquery and bracketing

  - by text

  Here are my tables respondents: field sample value respondentid : 1 age : 2 gender : male survey_questions: id : 1 question : Q1 answer : sample answer answers: respondentid : 1 question : Q1 answer : 1 --id of survey question I want to display all respondents who answered the certain survey, display all answers and total all the answer and group them according to the age bracket. I tried using this query: SELECT res.Age, res.Gender, answer.id, answer.respondentid, SUM(CASE WHEN res.Gender='Male' THEN 1 else 0 END) AS males, SUM(CASE WHEN res.Gender='Female' THEN 1 else 0 END) AS females, CASE WHEN res.Age < 1 THEN 'age1' WHEN res.Age BETWEEN 1 AND 4 THEN 'age2' WHEN res.Age BETWEEN 4 AND 9 THEN 'age3' WHEN res.Age BETWEEN 10 AND 14 THEN 'age4' WHEN res.Age BETWEEN 15 AND 19 THEN 'age5' WHEN res.Age BETWEEN 20 AND 29 THEN 'age6' WHEN res.Age BETWEEN 30 AND 39 THEN 'age7' WHEN res.Age BETWEEN 40 AND 49 THEN 'age8' ELSE 'age9' END AS ageband FROM Respondents AS res INNER JOIN Answers as answer ON answer.respondentid=res.respondentid INNER JOIN Questions as question ON answer.Answer=question.id WHERE answer.Question='Q1' GROUP BY ageband ORDER BY res.Age ASC I was able to get the data but the listing of all answers are not present. Do I have to subquery SELECT into my current SELECT statement to show the answers? I want to produce something like this: ex: # of Respondents is 3 ages: 2,3 and 6 Question: what are your favorite subjects? Ages 1-4: subject 1: 1 subject 2: 2 subject 3: 2 total respondents for ages 1-4 : 2 Ages 5-10: subject 1: 1 subject 2: 1 subject 3: 0 total respondents for ages 5-10 : 1

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• Coding the R-ight way - avoiding the for loop

  - by mropa

  I am going through one of my .R files and by cleaning it up a little bit I am trying to get more familiar with writing the code the r-ight way. As a beginner, one of my favorite starting points is to get rid of the for() loops and try to transform the expression into a functional programming form. So here is the scenario: I am assembling a bunch of data.frames into a list for later usage. dataList <- list (dataA, dataB, dataC, dataD, dataE ) Now I like to take a look at each data.frame's column names and substitute certain character strings. Eg I like to substitute each "foo" and "bar" with "baz". At the moment I am getting the job done with a for() loop which looks a bit awkward. colnames(dataList[[1]]) [1] "foo" "code" "lp15" "bar" "lh15" colnames(dataList[[2]]) [1] "a" "code" "lp50" "ls50" "foo" matchVec <- c("foo", "bar") for (i in seq(dataList)) { for (j in seq(matchVec)) { colnames (dataList[[i]])[grep(pattern=matchVec[j], x=colnames (dataList[[i]]))] <- c("baz") } } Since I am working here with a list I thought about the lapply function. My attempts handling the job with the lapply function all seem to look alright but only at first sight. If I write f <- function(i, xList) { gsub(pattern=c("foo"), replacement=c("baz"), x=colnames(xList[[i]])) } lapply(seq(dataList), f, xList=dataList) the last line prints out almost what I am looking for. However, if i take another look at the actual names of the data.frames in dataList: lapply (dataList, colnames) I see that no changes have been made to the initial character strings. So how can I rewrite the for() loop and transform it into a functional programming form? And how do I substitute both strings, "foo" and "bar", in an efficient way? Since the gsub() function takes as its pattern argument only a character vector of length one.

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• HTML form never calls Javascript

  - by user1205577

  I have a set of radio buttons defined in HTML like so: <input type="radio" name="group" id="rad1" value="rad1" onClick="doStuff(this.id)">Option 1<br> <input type="radio" name="group" id="rad2" value="rad2" onClick="doStuff(this.id)">Option 2<br> Just before the </body> tag, I have the following JavaScript behavior defined: <script type="text/javascript"> /*<![CDATA[*/ function doStuff(var id){ alert("Doing stuff!"); } /*]]>*/ </script> When I run the program, the page loads as expected in my browser window and the radio buttons allow me to click them. The doStuff() function, however, is never called (I validated this using breakpoints as well). I also tried the following just to see if inline made the difference, but it seems the JavaScript is never called at all: <script type="text/javascript"> /*<![CDATA[*/ alert("JavaScript called!"); main(); function main(){ var group = document.getElementsByName('group'); for(var i=0; i<group.length; i++){ group[i].onclick = function(){ doStuff(this.id); }; } } /*]]>*/ </script> My question is, is there something special I need to do using HTML and JavaScript in this context? My question is not whether I should be using inline function calls or whether this is your favorite way to write code.

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• Automated generation of the "What's new in this version" reading

  - by lunohodov

  We all know it - this is the reading that lists the changes brought by each new version of our favorite software. Whenever it comes bundled as a file (Changes.txt, CHANGES, WhatsNew.txt, etc) or is presented within an installer this is usually the first thing we read before installing/updating. On a current project we have a Changelog.txt file that gets updated by hand every time a notable change occurs. However this often leads to "I forgot to update the changelog". So I am looking for a way to automate this. I am thinking of a script that extracts the changes from our commit messages (using a convention) and generates the file. For example a commit message like Updated json-glib to 0.7.6 [changes] - Fix crash on Windows - Fix issues with facebook contacts with very large UIDs. Would produce the following Changes.txt Version 1.9.18 (03/10/2010) Fix crash on Windows Fix issues with facebook contacts with very large UIDs. Does anyone know a better solution/tool for this or am I going to write my own? Thanks!

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• How grouping and totaling are done into three tables using JOIN

  - by text

  Here are my tables respondents: field sample value respondentid : 1 age : 2 gender : male survey_questions: id : 1 question : Q1 answer : sample answer answers: respondentid : 1 question : Q1 answer : 1 --id of survey question I want to display all respondents who answered the certain survey, display all answers and total all the answer and group them according to the age bracket. I tried using this query: $sql = "SELECT res.Age, res.Gender, answer.id, answer.respondentid, SUM(CASE WHEN res.Gender='Male' THEN 1 else 0 END) AS males, SUM(CASE WHEN res.Gender='Female' THEN 1 else 0 END) AS females, CASE WHEN res.Age < 1 THEN 'age1' WHEN res.Age BETWEEN 1 AND 4 THEN 'age2' WHEN res.Age BETWEEN 4 AND 9 THEN 'age3' WHEN res.Age BETWEEN 10 AND 14 THEN 'age4' WHEN res.Age BETWEEN 15 AND 19 THEN 'age5' WHEN res.Age BETWEEN 20 AND 29 THEN 'age6' WHEN res.Age BETWEEN 30 AND 39 THEN 'age7' WHEN res.Age BETWEEN 40 AND 49 THEN 'age8' ELSE 'age9' END AS ageband FROM Respondents AS res INNER JOIN Answers as answer ON answer.respondentid=res.respondentid INNER JOIN Questions as question ON answer.Answer=question.id WHERE answer.Question='Q1' GROUP BY ageband ORDER BY res.Age ASC"; I was able to get the data but the listing of all answers are not present. What's wrong with my query. I want to produce something like this: ex: # of Respondents is 3 ages: 2,3 and 6 Question: what are your favorite subjects? Ages 1-4: subject 1: 1 subject 2: 2 subject 3: 2 total respondents for ages 1-4 : 2 Ages 5-10: subject 1: 1 subject 2: 1 subject 3: 0 total respondents for ages 5-10 : 1

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• Best strategies for reading J code

  - by estanford

  I've been using J for a few months now, and I find that reading unfamiliar code (e.g. that I didn't write myself) is one of the most challenging aspects of the language, particularly when it's in tacit. After a while, I came up with this strategy: 1) Copy the code segment into a word document 2) Take each operator from (1) and place it on a separate line, so that it reads vertically 3) Replace each operator with its verbal description in the Vocabulary page 4) Do a rough translation from J syntax into English grammar 5) Use the translation to identify conceptually related components and separate them with line breaks 6) Write a description of what each component from (5) is supposed to do, in plain English prose 7) Write a description of what the whole program is supposed to do, based on (6) 8) Write an explanation of why the code from (1) can be said to represent the design concept from (7). Although I learn a lot from this process, I find it to be rather arduous and time-consuming -- especially if someone designed their program using a concept I never encountered before. So I wonder: do other people in the J community have favorite ways to figure out obscure code? If so, what are the advantages and disadvantages of these methods?

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• CheckBOX ASP MVC

  - by NewmanASPMVC

  Hi i am new to ASP.NET MVC. I am not sure how to deal with Check box or Radio Button to get values when they are clicked. Can any one help me? I am providing a simple code that might help you understand what i meant to be. Please share examples. <script type="text/javascript" > function check(browser) { document.getElementById("answer").value=browser; } </script> <form action=""> <input type="radio" name="browser" onclick="check(this.value)" value="Internet Explorer"/>Internet Explorer<br /> <input type="radio" name="browser" onclick="check(this.value)" value="Firefox"/>Firefox<br /> <input type="radio" name="browser" onclick="check(this.value)" value="Netscape"/>Netscape<br /> <input type="radio" name="browser" onclick="check(this.value)" value="Opera"/>Opera<br /> <br /> Your favorite browser is: <input type="text" id="answer" size="20"/> </form>

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• How can I play my MP3 files through my stereo system?

  - by Joel Coehoorn

  Here's the situation. Like many others I have my entire CD collection ripped to my PC, along side other music I've acquired through iTunes or Amazon MP3. Also like many others the speakers at my PC are underpowered, and likely included in my monitor as an afterthought. This is fine for most use: system sounds, YouTube, etc. Even games sounds and music. But I'd like something a little better for when I really want to listen to music. And I have it; in the next room — barely 25 feet away as the crow flies — sits a nice 400 watts stereo system. The stereo supports MP3 CDs, so up to this point I've just kept a few CD-RW disks around to keep most of my collection available. But it's time to move on to something a little more sophisticated. What are my options for using the MP3 files available on my computer as an input for this stereo? Some notes: I want to be able to control what song the stereo is playing without having to go to the PC, including setting up and retrieving playlists. Ideally this should even be able to wake the PC from sleep mode to start playing. I primarily use Windows Media Player on the PC (which runs Windows Vista). However, the files themselves live on a server running Windows Server 2008, and so I could also install something on the server and run everything from there. The axillary input on the stereo is unfortunately limited to a 1/8 inch stereo mini-plug. I'm loath to run wires across two rooms, and I'm considering moving the stereo to the garage at some point. Therefore a wireless solution that can easily cover about 100 ft or so is preferred. I already have a Wi-Fi network ready, but it's secured so anything using Wi-Fi should make it easy to set up security. Bonus points for doing it in under $85 shipped at Amazon (I'm hoping to pay for this via $85 worth of Amazon gift cards). I know this a pretty tight budget, so just getting close is okay. Bonus points for something that remembers multiple profiles (keep my favorite songs separate from the wife's). Bonus points for a remote that can also replace my stereo remote, so I only need one device to control everything. I'm not holding my breath on this one given my price range, though. Bonus points if I can also use for Internet radio. Doing some research on my own as well. This looks like it'll do exactly what I want, but it lists at an outrageous $299: http://www.linksysbycisco.com/US/en/products/DMP100

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• HOW TO Convert DVD to iPad(Also converts to iPods)?

  - by goodm

  DVD to iPad Converter (Also converts to iPods) DVD to iPad Converter is the easiest-to-use and fastest DVD to iPad converter for Apple iPad movie and iPad video. It can convert almost any kind of DVD to iPad movie or iPad video format. It is also a powerful DVD to iPad converter with a conversion speed that is much faster than real-time. With this converter, you can use your iPad as a portable DVD player and enjoy your favorite DVDs on your iPad. http://www.softseeking.com/prodail.aspx?proid=83" Features of this DVD to iPad Converter Three Running Modes --In Direct Mode, you can directly click the DVD menu to select the movie you want to rip. This mode is very easy for ripping DVD movies. --In Batch Mode, you can select the DVD titles or chapters you want to rip via a checkbox list. This mode is very easy for batch ripping music DVDs, MTV DVDs and episodic DVDs. --In 1-Click Mode, you just need one click to open a DVD, after which the rest of the task will be done automatically. This is a “designed-for-dummies” mode. Input Types You can convert almost any kind of DVD format to iPad. Output Splitting You can split your output video by DVD chapters and titles. Fully supports MTV DVDs and episodic DVDs. File Size and Quality Adjustment You can customize the output file size and corresponding video quality. Flexible Output Profiles You can easily customize the various video settings such as brightness, bit rate, etc. Language Selection for Subtitles and Audio Track In Direct mode and in Batch mode, you can select the subtitle and audio track language. (In 1-Click mode, the default language is chosen automatically). Video Crop You can crop your video to 16:9, 4:3, full screen, etc. Video Resize You can resize your video. For example, you can set it to "Keep aspect ratio" or "Stretch to fit screen." Other Converts DVD to MP3 audio. Supports Dolby, DTS Surround audio track. Converts to the latest iPhone, 4th generation iPad nano, nano chromatic, 2nd generation iPad touch, and Apple TV.

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• Geek Fun: Virtualized Old School Windows – Windows 95

  - by Matthew Guay

  Last week we enjoyed looking at Windows 3.1 running in VMware Player on Windows 7.  Today, let’s upgrade our 3.1 to 95, and get a look at how most of us remember Windows from the 90’s. In this demo, we’re running the first release of Windows 95 (version 4.00.950) in VMware Player 3.0 running on Windows 7 x64.  For fun, we ran the 95 upgrade on the 3.1 virtual machine we built last week. Windows 95 So let’s get started.  Here’s the first setup screen.  For the record, Windows 95 installed in about 15 minutes or less in VMware in our test. Strangely, Windows 95 offered several installation choices.  They actually let you choose what extra parts of Windows to install if you wished.  Oh, and who wants to run Windows 95 on your “Portable Computer”?  Most smartphones today are more powerful than the “portable computers” of 95. Your productivity may vastly increase if you run Windows 95.  Anyone want to switch? No, I don’t want to restart … I want to use my computer! Welcome to Windows 95!  Hey, did you know you can launch programs from the Start button? Our quick spin around Windows 95 reminded us why Windows got such a bad reputation in the ‘90’s for being unstable.  We didn’t even get our test copy fully booted after installation before we saw our first error screen.  Windows in space … was that the most popular screensaver in Windows 95, or was it just me? Hello Windows 3.1!  The UI was still outdated in some spots.   Ah, yes, Media Player before it got 101 features to compete with iTunes. But, you couldn’t even play CDs in Media Player.  Actually, CD player was one program I used almost daily in Windows 95 back in the day. Want some new programs?  This help file about new programs designed for Windows 95 lists a lot of outdated names in tech.    And, you really may want some programs.  The first edition of Windows 95 didn’t even ship with Internet Explorer.   We’ve still got Minesweeper, though! My Computer had really limited functionality, and by default opened everything in a new window.  Double click on C:, and it opens in a new window.  Ugh. But Explorer is a bit more like more modern versions. Hey, look, Start menu search!  If only it found the files you were looking for… Now I’m feeling old … this shutdown screen brought back so many memories … of shutdowns that wouldn’t shut down! But, you still have to turn off your computer.  I wonder how many old monitors had these words burned into them? So there’s yet another trip down Windows memory lane.  Most of us can remember using Windows 95, so let us know your favorite (or worst) memory of it!  At least we can all be thankful for our modern computers and operating systems today, right?  Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Geek Fun: Remember the Old-School SkiFree Game?Geek Fun: Virtualized old school Windows 3.11Stupid Geek Tricks: Tile or Cascade Multiple Windows in Windows 7Stupid Geek Tricks: Select Multiple Windows on the TaskbarHow to Delete a System File in Windows 7 or Vista 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 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Enable Check Box Selection in Windows 7 OnlineOCR – Free OCR Service Betting on the Blind Side, a Vanity Fair article 30 Minimal Logo Designs that Say More with Less LEGO Digital Designer – Free Create a Personal Website Quickly using Flavors.me

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• Geek Fun: Virtualized Old School Windows – Windows 95

  - by Matthew Guay

  Last week we enjoyed looking at Windows 3.1 running in VMware Player on Windows 7.  Today, let’s upgrade our 3.1 to 95, and get a look at how most of us remember Windows from the 90’s. In this demo, we’re running the first release of Windows 95 (version 4.00.950) in VMware Player 3.0 running on Windows 7 x64.  For fun, we ran the 95 upgrade on the 3.1 virtual machine we built last week. Windows 95 So let’s get started.  Here’s the first setup screen.  For the record, Windows 95 installed in about 15 minutes or less in VMware in our test. Strangely, Windows 95 offered several installation choices.  They actually let you choose what extra parts of Windows to install if you wished.  Oh, and who wants to run Windows 95 on your “Portable Computer”?  Most smartphones today are more powerful than the “portable computers” of 95. Your productivity may vastly increase if you run Windows 95.  Anyone want to switch? No, I don’t want to restart … I want to use my computer! Welcome to Windows 95!  Hey, did you know you can launch programs from the Start button? Our quick spin around Windows 95 reminded us why Windows got such a bad reputation in the ‘90’s for being unstable.  We didn’t even get our test copy fully booted after installation before we saw our first error screen.  Windows in space … was that the most popular screensaver in Windows 95, or was it just me? Hello Windows 3.1!  The UI was still outdated in some spots.   Ah, yes, Media Player before it got 101 features to compete with iTunes. But, you couldn’t even play CDs in Media Player.  Actually, CD player was one program I used almost daily in Windows 95 back in the day. Want some new programs?  This help file about new programs designed for Windows 95 lists a lot of outdated names in tech.    And, you really may want some programs.  The first edition of Windows 95 didn’t even ship with Internet Explorer.   We’ve still got Minesweeper, though! My Computer had really limited functionality, and by default opened everything in a new window.  Double click on C:, and it opens in a new window.  Ugh. But Explorer is a bit more like more modern versions. Hey, look, Start menu search!  If only it found the files you were looking for… Now I’m feeling old … this shutdown screen brought back so many memories … of shutdowns that wouldn’t shut down! But, you still have to turn off your computer.  I wonder how many old monitors had these words burned into them? So there’s yet another trip down Windows memory lane.  Most of us can remember using Windows 95, so let us know your favorite (or worst) memory of it!  At least we can all be thankful for our modern computers and operating systems today, right?  Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Geek Fun: Remember the Old-School SkiFree Game?Geek Fun: Virtualized old school Windows 3.11Stupid Geek Tricks: Tile or Cascade Multiple Windows in Windows 7Stupid Geek Tricks: Select Multiple Windows on the TaskbarHow to Delete a System File in Windows 7 or Vista 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 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Enable Check Box Selection in Windows 7 OnlineOCR – Free OCR Service Betting on the Blind Side, a Vanity Fair article 30 Minimal Logo Designs that Say More with Less LEGO Digital Designer – Free Create a Personal Website Quickly using Flavors.me

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• Associating File Types with AutoVue Desktop Deployment

  - by [email protected]

  Windows users take for granted that when they double click on a document or design, that it will open up in its application automatically. One of the questions I'm commonly asked is "How can I get the same behavior with AutoVue Desktop Deployment?". It's pretty easy, but there are a few tricks to doing it. Step 1: Download new jvue_direct.bat and icon The first thing you'll need to do is download a slightly modified version of jvue_direct.bat. You can find it here (Document 1075784.1) on Oracle's Support Portal. You also want to download the AV.ico file. This is the icon that will be used for all file types associated with AutoVue. Place both of these files in your <AutoVueInstallDirectory>\bin directory. Step 2: Associate File Types With AutoVue There are two ways to do this. You can do this through the Windows user interface, or you can set up a batch file to do this. Associating File Types Through Windows The way most people associate file types to an application is using the Windows user interface. You've probably tried to open a file type that Windows doesn't recognize and seen this window pop up: Although you can use this dialog to associate that file type with AutoVue, I don't recommend it. I much prefer using a batch file to associate file types with AutoVue. Associating File Types Using A Batch File There are a few good reasons to associate file types using a batch file instead of using the pop-up dialog method: If you have several file types to associate with AutoVue, it's much easier to use a batch file to do them all at once. Doing it through the Windows user interface requires having files of each type available. Using a batch file doesn't require having the files you're associating. Associating file types through the dialog may work well for one person, but what if you're an administrator doing an enterprise wide deployment of AutoVue Desktop Deployment for several hundred users? You don't want to do this manually for each user. You can have one simple batch file that's run on each user's PC to set up all the file types. You can easily associate an icon with the file types you're opening with AutoVue. To use the batch file method follow these steps: Create a file called filetype.bat using a text editor and copy and paste the following into it: @assoc .dwg=AVFile @assoc .jpg=AVFile @assoc .doc=AVFile @ftype AVFile="%~dp0jvue_direct.bat" "%%1" @reg add HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AVFile\DefaultIcon /v "" /f /d "%~dp0AV.ico" Change the lines starting with @assoc. Each of these lines associates a file extension with AutoVue. You can have as many @assoc lines as you want. Save this file in your <AutoVueInstallDirectory>\bin directory. Double click this file, or run it from a command prompt. Restart Windows to get the icons to show up. How Does This Work? The first three lines are creating a file type called AVFile. We are associating the extensions .dwg, .jpg, and .doc with this file type. You will want to change these lines when creating your own batch file. For example, to associate Microstation designs, which have extension .dgn, you should delete the @assoc lines above and add the line: @assoc .dgn=AVfile The line beginning with @ftype tells Windows that all AVFile type files should be opened using AutoVue Desktop Deployment. The final line associates the AutoVue icon with these file types. You may need to restart Windows to see the new icons. Warning: One Size Doesn't Fit All When deciding which file types should be associated with AutoVue, remember that there are different types of users using it. Your engineers may be pretty surprised to find that after installing AutoVue, double clicking their .dwg file opens up AutoVue instead of AutoCAD. If you have more than one type of AutoVue user, make sure you've considered what file types each user group will and will not want to be associated with AutoVue. If necessary, create a separate file association batch file for each user type. So that's it. In two simple steps you can double click your favorite designs and have them open automatically in AutoVue Desktop Deployment. I'd love to hear how are you using AutoVue Desktop Deployment. What other deployment tips would you be interested in learning about?

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• The Challenge with HTML5 – In Pictures

  - by dwahlin

  I love working with Web technologies and am looking forward to the new functionality that HTML5 will ultimately bring to the table (some of which can be used today). Having been through the div versus layer battle back in the IE4 and Netscape 4 days I think we’re headed down that road again as a result of browsers implementing features differently. I’ve been spending a lot of time researching and playing around with HTML5 samples and features (mainly because we’re already seeing demand for training on HTML5) and there’s a lot of great stuff there that will truly revolutionize web applications as we know them. However, browsers just aren’t there yet and many people outside of the development world don’t really feel a need to upgrade their browser if it’s working reasonably well (Mom and Dad come to mind) so it’s going to be awhile. There’s a nice test site at http://www.HTML5Test.com that runs through different HTML5 features and scores how well they’re supported. They don’t test for everything and are very clear about that on the site: “The HTML5 test score is only an indication of how well your browser supports the upcoming HTML5 standard and related specifications. It does not try to test all of the new features offered by HTML5, nor does it try to test the functionality of each feature it does detect. Despite these shortcomings we hope that by quantifying the level of support users and web developers will get an idea of how hard the browser manufacturers work on improving their browsers and the web as a development platform. The score is calculated by testing for the many new features of HTML5. Each feature is worth one or more points. Apart from the main HTML5 specification and other specifications created the W3C HTML Working Group, this test also awards points for supporting related drafts and specifications. Some of these specifications were initially part of HTML5, but are now further developed by other W3C working groups. WebGL is also part of this test despite not being developed by the W3C, because it extends the HTML5 canvas element with a 3d context. The test also awards bonus points for supporting audio and video codecs and supporting SVG or MathML embedding in a plain HTML document. These test do not count towards the total score because HTML5 does not specify any required audio or video codec. Also SVG and MathML are not required by HTML5, the specification only specifies rules for how such content should be embedded inside a plain HTML file. Please be aware that the specifications that are being tested are still in development and could change before receiving an official status. In the future new tests will be added for the pieces of the specification that are currently still missing. The maximum number of points that can be scored is 300 at this moment, but this is a moving goalpost.” It looks like their tests haven’t been updated since June, but the numbers are pretty scary as a developer because it means I’m going to have to do a lot of browser sniffing before assuming a particular feature is available to use. Not that much different from what we do today as far as browser sniffing you say? I’d have to disagree since HTML5 takes it to a whole new level. In today’s world we have script libraries such as jQuery (my personal favorite), Prototype, script.aculo.us, YUI Library, MooTools, etc. that handle the heavy lifting for us. Until those libraries handle all of the key HTML5 features available it’s going to be a challenge. Certain features such as Canvas are supported fairly well across most of the major browsers while other features such as audio and video are hit or miss depending upon what codec you want to use. Run the tests yourself to see what passes and what fails for different browsers. You can also view the HTML5 Test Suite Conformance Results at http://test.w3.org/html/tests/reporting/report.htm (a work in progress). The table below lists the scores that the HTML5Test site returned for different browsers I have installed on my desktop PC and laptop. A specific list of tests run and features supported are given when you go to the site. Note that I went ahead and tested the IE9 beta and it didn’t do nearly as good as I expected it would, but it’s not officially out yet so I expect that number will change a lot. Am I opposed to HTML5 as a result of these tests? Of course not - I’m actually really excited about what it offers.  However, I’m trying to be realistic and feel it'll definitely add a new level of headache to the Web application development process having been through something like this many years ago. On the flipside, developers that are able to target a specific browser (typically Intranet apps) or master the cross-browser issues are going to release some pretty sweet applications. Check out http://html5gallery.com/ for a look at some of the more cutting-edge sites out there that use HTML5. Also check out the http://www.beautyoftheweb.com site that Microsoft put together to showcase IE9. Chrome 8 Safari 5 for Windows     Opera 10 Firefox 3.6     Internet Explorer 9 Beta (Note that it’s still beta) Internet Explorer 8

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• UCM 11g is 4 days old!

  - by kyle.hatlestad

  Ok...so I missed posting a blog entry when UCM 11g and the entire ECM suite released on Tuesday. Hopefully you've already seen the announcements on any number of the Oracle ECM blogs out there such as ECM Alerts, Fusion ECM, bex huff, or C4. So I won't bore you with the same talking points like 179 million check-ins per day or 124 web site page hits per second. Instead, I thought I'd show some screenshots of the new features in UCM and URM 11g. WebLogic Server and Enterprise Manager So probably the biggest change in 11g is UCM and URM now run on top of the WebLogic Server application server. This is a huge step as ECM is now on a standard platform with the rest of Oracle Fusion Middleware which makes installation, configuration, and integration consistent among all the products. From a feature perspective, it's also beneficial because it's now integrated with Oracle Enterprise Manager. Enterprise Manager provides a lot of provisioning control over servers as well as performance monitoring and access to logs and debugging information. Desktop Integration Suite Desktop Integration Suite got a complete overhaul for 11g. It exposes a lot more features within Windows Explorer such as saved searches, workflow queue, and checked-out items. It also now support metadata pop-up screens to let users fill in additional metadata when they drag-n-drop files in! And the integration within Office applications has changed significantly by introducing a dedicated UCM menu to do open, save, compare, etc. Site Studio for External Applications In UCM Site Studio 10gR4, a major architectural shift was introduced which brought several new objects such as elements, region definitions, region templates, and placeholder definitions. This truly separated the content from the display and from the definition. It also allowed separation of the content from needing to be rendered on a complete Site Studio page. Well, the new Site Studio for External Applications takes advantage of that architecture and introduces pre-built tags and plug-ins to JDeveloper to allow to go from simply adding a content area to your web application page to building an entire web site, just like you would have done in Site Studio Designer. In addition to these changes, enhancements to the core Site Studio have been added as well. One of the big ones is called Designer Mode which allows power-users to bypass the standard rules defined by the placeholder definition or template and perform any number of additional actions. This reduces the need to go back to Site Studio Designer or JDeveloper to make more advanced changes to the site. Dashboards As part of the updated records management functionality in both UCM and URM, users can now set a dashboard view on their home page to surface common functions in a single view. It has pre-built "portlets" users can choose from to display and organize they way they want. Behind the scenes, these dashboards are stored as Content Folios. So the dashboards themselves are content items that can be revisioned and shared between users. And new dashboard portlets can be easily added (like the User Profile one in the screenshots) by getting a copy of an existing one, modifying the display, and then checking it in as a new one to select from. URM Interface Enhancements URM includes several new UI and usability enhancements in 11g. There is a new view for physical records, a place to configure "favorite" items to quickly get to, and new placement of the records management menu. BI Publisher Reports Records management in UCM and URM now offer reports generated through embedded BI Publisher. Templates are controlled by rich text files checked directly into the repository, so they can be easily modified. Other Features A new Inbound Refinery conversion option is available that does native Microsoft Office HTML conversion. If your IBR is on Windows and you have the native applications loaded, the IBR can use them to produce HTML. A new GUI template editor for Dynamic Converter is available. It's written in Java so is available through all the supported browsers and platforms. The original ActiveX based editor is also still available. The Component Manager interface has changed to help provide an easier and more descriptive way to enable core components that are installed along with UCM. All of the supported components are immediately available to turn on and do not have to be installed separately as in previous versions. My Downloads is located in the My Content Server menu and provides for easy download of client installs including Desktop Integration Suite and Site Studio Designer. Well, hopefully that gives you a taste for some of the new things in 11g. We're all pretty excited here at Oracle about all the new changes and enhancements. Over the next few months I hope to highlight some of these features more in-depth, so keep your eye out for those posts.

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• How to Find Office 2003 Commands in Office 2010

  - by Matthew Guay

  Are you new to the ribbon interface in Office 2010?  Here’s how you can get up to speed and learn where everything is quickly and easily. Microsoft has made an interactive guide to Office 2010’s new interface to help users learn their way around the new version.  If you’ve already used Office 2007, then Office 2010 will be very easy to transition to, but if you’re still using Office 2003 you may find the learning curve more steep.  With this interactive guide, upgrading your Office skills doesn’t have to be hard. Learn Your Way Around the Office Ribbon Open the Office 2010 interactive guides site (link below) in your browser, and select the Office app you want to explore. The guides are powered by Silverlight, so if you don’t already have it installed you will be prompted to do so. Once the guide has loaded, click Start to begin. Select any menu or toolbar item in the Office 2003 mockup.  A tooltip will appear to show you how to find this option in Word 2010. If you click the item, the interface will switch to an Office 2010 mockup and will interactively show you how to access this feature.  The Thumbnails view isn’t available by default in Word 2010, so it shows us how to add it to the ribbon.  When you’ve figured this command out, click anywhere to go back to the Office 2003 mockup and find another item. Currently the guides are available for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, but the site says that guides for the other Office apps will be available soon.  Here’s the PowerPoint guide showing where the Rehearse Timings option is in PowerPoint 2010. Install the Interactive Guides to Your Computer You can also install the guides to your computer so you can easily access them even if you’re not online.  Open the guide you want to install, and click the Install button in the top right corner of the guide. Choose where you want the shortcuts, and click Ok. Here’s the Interactive Word 2010 guide installed on our computer.  The downloaded version seemed to work faster in our tests, likely because all the content was already saved to the computer.  If you decide you don’t need it any more, click Uninstall in the top right corner. Download Office Cheat Sheets If you’d like a cheat-sheet of Office commands that have changed or are new in Office 2010, Microsoft’s got that for you, too.  You can download Office reference workbooks (link below) that show how to access each item that was in Office 2003’s menus.  Here’s the Word guide showing where each of Word 2003’s commands from the help menu are in Word 2010. Learn Your Way Around Office 2007, Too! Microsoft offers similar interactive guides for learning the ribbon in Office 2007, so if you’re still using Office 2007 but can’t find a command, feel free to check it out as well (link below).  Guides are available for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and Outlook 2007.  You can also download cheat sheets for Office 2007 at this site as well.  Here’s the tutorial showing us where the font options are in PowerPoint 2007. Conclusion We have found the ribbon interface to be a great addition to Office, but if you’ve got years of Office 2003 experience under your belt you may find it difficult to locate your favorite commands.  These tutorials can help you use your old Office knowledge to learn Office 2010 or 2007 in a quick and easy way! Links Office 2010 interactive guide Download Office 2010 reference workbooks Office 2007 interactive guide Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips How To Find Commands and Functions in Office 2007 the Easy WayMake Excel 2007 Always Save in Excel 2003 FormatMake Word 2007 Always Save in Word 2003 FormatAdd or Remove Apps from the Microsoft Office 2007 or 2010 SuiteCreate a Customized Tab on the Office 2010 Ribbon TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Outlook Connector Upgrade Error Gadfly is a cool Twitter/Silverlight app Enable DreamScene in Windows 7 Microsoft’s “How Do I ?” Videos Home Networks – How do they look like & the problems they cause Check Your IMAP Mail Offline In Thunderbird

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• MySQL 5.5 brings in new ways to authenticate users

  - by Georgi Kodinov

  Ever wanted to use your server's OS for authenticating MySQL users ? Or the corporate LDAP repository ? Unfortunately options like the above are plentiful nowadays. And providing hard-coded support for protocol X or service Y is not the best possible idea. MySQL 5.5 has taken the step into the right direction by providing an infrastructure allowing one to make the server understand different authentication protocols by creating a set of simple plugins (one for the client and one for the server). So now you can easily extend MySQL to search for and authenticate users in your favorite user directory. In fact the API supplied is so versatile that we took the possibility to re-design the current "native" authentication mechanism into a built-in always-on plugin ! OK, let me give you an example: Imagine we have a bunch of users defined in your OS, e.g. we have a user joro with his respective password. And we have a MySQL instance running on the same computer. It would not be unexpected to need to let joro access and/or modify MySQL data. The first step is to define him as a MySQL user. And there's a problem right there : MySQL's CREATE USER joro@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'joros_password' statement needs a password. And this is a password in no way related to the password that joro have set up in the OS. What's worse : if joro changes his OS password this will in no way be reflected in MySQL. So he'll need to change his MySQL password in a separate step. Not very convenient, specially when you have a lot of users. This is a laborious setup for joro's DBA as well : he'll have to disable his access in both MySQL and the OS should he decides that joro's out of the "nice" list. Now mysql 5.5 to the rescue: Imagine that the smart DBA has created a MySQL server plugin that will check if the name of the user logging in is a valid and enabled OS name and if the password supplied to the mysql client matches the OS and has called this plugin 'auth_os'. Now all that's left to do is to define joro as a MySQL user that will be authenticated externally. This is done by the following command : CREATE USER 'joro'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH 'auth_os'; Now joro can login to MySQL using his current OS password. Note : joro is still a valid MySQL user, so you can grant privileges to him just like you would for all other users. What's better: you can have users that authenticate using different mechanisms in the same server. So you can e.g. safely experiment with external authentication for selected users while keeping your current user base operational. What happens under the hood when joro logs in ? The server will find out by the user definition that it needs to use a non-default authentication and will ask the client to "switch" to using the appropriate client-side plugin (if of course the client is not already using it). If the client can't do this (e.g. because it's an old client or doesn't have the necessary plugin available) the server will reject the login. Otherwise the server will let the server-side plugin decide (while possibly talking to the client side plugin and the OS user directory) if this is a valid login or not. If it is the login process will continue as usual, while if it's not the login will get rejected. There's a lot more that MySQL 5.5 can do for you than just the simple case above. Stay tuned for more advanced use cases like mapping groups of external users to a single MySQL user (so you won't have to have 1-to-1 mapping between your external user directory and your mysql user repository) or ways to control the process as a DBA. Or you can simply skip ahead and read the relevant topics from MySQL's excellent online documentation. Or take a look at the example plugins in plugin/auth. Or take a look at the test suite in mysql-test/t/plugin_auth.test. Changelog entry: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/news-5-5-7.html Primary new sections: Pluggable authentication Proxy users Client plugin C API functions Revised sections: New PROXY privilege New proxies_priv grant table Passwords might be external New external_user and proxy_user system variables New --default-auth and --plugin-dir mysql options New MYSQL_DEFAULT_AUTH and MYSQL_PLUGIN_DIR options for mysql_options() CREATE USER has IDENTIFIED WITH clause to specify auth plugin GRANT has PROXY privilege, IDENTIFIED WITH clause to specify auth plugin The data structure for writing client plugins

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• Developer Training – A Conclusive Summary- Part 5

  - by pinaldave

  Developer Training - Importance and Significance - Part 1 Developer Training – Employee Morals and Ethics – Part 2 Developer Training – Difficult Questions and Alternative Perspective - Part 3 Developer Training – Various Options for Developer Training – Part 4 Developer Training – A Conclusive Summary- Part 5 We have now reached the end of our series about developer training.  I hope you have come away thinking that training is the best way to advance in your company and that you are looking for training opportunities right now.  If you’re still not convinced here are a few things to keep in mind:  Training benefits the employer and the employee. A well trained employee is a happy employee, and a happy employee is more efficient and productive. Training an employee might be expensive, but it is less expensive than hiring a new person. Whether you are looking at him from the employee’s or the company’s point of view, there are always advantages to training. A Broader View This series is definitely written for Developer Training but it is not limited to developers only. There are IT Pro, System Admins, DBAs as well many other technology professionals; this article series is for all professionals in the world. The concepts and take away will remain common across all the platform and regardless of technology affiliation. Pass the Knowledge If I have to pick one advise which is extremely important related to training, I will pick – pass the knowledge. Once you have decided in favor of training, there is more to it than simply showing up and staying awake.  It is always a good idea to take notes – at the very least it will help you stay awake, but they will often serve as a good way to remember your training when you go back to work.  You can also use them to pass your new knowledge on to fellow employees, which can be very fun and rewarding. Right Place, Right Time and Right Training There are so many ways to get developer training.  In-person and on the job training is easy to come by and is the most usual type of training, but don’t overlook my favorite type of training: On Demand.  Being able to learn at your own pace, own place and on your own time will make training a realistic goal for almost every employee. I can think of nothing more important in life than furthering your education.  Especially when you work in a field that is constantly changing – like technology.  Whether you like it or not, training is incredibly important.  That is why I feel it is so important to receive training.  And because there are so many different training formats – live, online, through books, through people – I am certain that we all can find a way to be trained that best suits our goals and personalities. The Teacher Within If you think of anyone who is a master of the technology field or an incredibly successful developer (the obvious examples that spring to mind are Steve Jobs or Bill Gates), you will also find a teacher.  Both these individuals spent their lives developing better technology, but also educating other developers and the public about how to use these technologies and how it can change your life for the better.  I think that we all should strive to be like these wonderful teachers.  We might not be able to change the world, but we can certainly change a few lives around us. Even if we never turn into trainers ourselves , being trained as a student can be a good exercise.  We learn a lot and become better employees – and it would not be a stretch to say that this makes us better individuals, as well. Final Say I think learning and growing in your chosen field is not only a good idea, career-wise, but can be fun, too!  I for one never feel more alive than when I am learning about something I am really passionate about.  I think my job title – technology evangelist – explains how enthusiastic I am about this subject.  But please don’t think that I am thinking of this as someone who wants to train and educate others (although this is also one of my passions).  I am also a passionate student.  I enjoy learning new things and am always on the lookout for new ways to learn and new people to learn from. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Developer Training, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• The ASP.NET Daily Community Spotlight - How posts get there, and how to make it your Visual Studio Start Page

  - by Jon Galloway

  One really cool part of my job is selecting the articles for the Daily Community Spotlight, on the home page of the ASP.NET website. The spotlight highlights a new post about ASP.NET development every day from a member of the ASP.NET community. You can find it on the home page of the ASP.NET site, at http://asp.net These posts aren't automatically drawn from a pool of RSS feeds or anything - I pick a new post for each day of the year. How I pick the posts I have a few important selection criteria: Interesting to well rounded ASP.NET developers The ASP.NET website has a lot of material for all skill and experience levels, from download / get started to advanced. I try to select community spotlight posts to round that out with fresh and timely information that working ASP.NET developers can really use. Posts highlight solutions to common problems, clever projects and code that helps you leverage ASP.NET, and important announcements about things you can use today. As part of that, I try to mix between ASP.NET MVC, Web Forms, and Web Pages (a.k.a. WebMatrix). As a professional developer, I want to keep on top of all of my options for ASP.NET development, and the common platform base they all share generally means that good ASP.NET code is good ASP.NET code. Exposing new and non-Microsoft community members as much as possible The exercise of selecting good ASP.NET community posts every day of the year has made me think about what the community is. Given the choice, I'll always favor non-Microsoft employees, but since Microsoft often hires ASP.NET community members and MVP's (myself included), I really think that the ASP.NET community includes developers who are using and writing about ASP.NET, both inside and outside of Microsoft. I'm especially excited about the opportunity to highlight new and lesser known bloggers. Usually being featured on the ASP.NET Community Spotlight gives a pretty good traffic bump, and I love being able to both provide great content to the community and encourage lesser known community members by giving them some (much deserved) attention. Announcements only when they're useful to working developers - not marketing Some of the posts are announcements about new releases, such as Scott Hanselman's post on ASP.NET Universal Providers for Session, Memebership, and Roles. I include those when I think they're interesting and of immediate use to you on projects. I occasionally get asked to link to new content from a team at Microsoft; if it's useful and timely content I'll ask them to point me to a blog post by an actual person rather than a faceless team. How the posts are managed This feed used to be managed by an internal spreadsheet on a Sharepoint site, which was painful for a lot of reasons. I took a cue from Jon Udell, who uses of a public Delicious feed feed for his Elm City project, and we moved the management of these posts over to a Delicious feed as well. You can hear more about Jon's use of Delicious in Elm City in our Herding Code interview - still one of my favorite interviews. We ended up with a simpler scenario, but Note: I watched the Yahoo/Delicious news over the past year and was happy to see that Delicious was recently acquired by the founders of YouTube. I investigated several other Delicious competitors, but am happy with Delicious for now. My Delicious feed here: http://www.delicious.com/jon_galloway You can also browse through this past year's ASP.NET Community Spotlight posts using the (pretty cool) Delicious Browse Bar Submitting articles I'm always on the lookout for new articles to feature. The best way to get them to me is to share them via Delicious. It's pretty easy - sign up for an account, then you can add a post and share it to me. Alternatively, you can send them to me via Twitter (@jongalloway) or e-mail (). If you do e-mail me, it helps to include a short description and your full name so I can credit you. Way too many developer blogs don't include names and pictures; if I can't find them I can't feature the post. Subscribing to the Community Spotlight feed The Community Spotlight is available as an RSS feed, so you might want to subscribe to it: http://www.asp.net/rss/spotlight Setting the ASP.NET Community Spotlight feed as your Visual Studio start page If you're an ASP.NET developer, you might consider setting the ASP.NET Community Spotlight as the content for your Visual Studio Start Page. It's really easy - here's how to do it in Visual Studio 2010: Display the Visual Studio Start Page if it's not already showing (View / Start Page) Click on the Latest News tab and enter the following RSS URL: http://www.asp.net/rss/spotlight If you didn't previously have RSS feeds enabled for your start page, click the Enable RSS Feed button Now, every time you start up Visual Studio you'll see great content from members of the ASP.NET community: You can also configure - and disable, if you'd like - the Visual Studio start page in the Tools / Options / Environment / Startup dialog. Credits I'll do a follow-up highlighting some places I commonly find great content for the feed, but I'd like to specifically point out two of them: Elijah Manor posts a lot of great content, which is available in his Twitter feed at @elijahmanor, on his Delicious feed, and on a dedicated website - Web Dev Tweets Chris Alcock's The Morning Brew is a must-read blog which highlights each day's best blog posts across the .NET community. He's an absolute machine, and no matter how obscure the post I find, I can guarantee he'll find it as well if he hasn't already. Did I say must read?

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