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  • WWDC and Tech Ed: A Tale of Two DevCons

    - by andrewbrust
    Next week marks the first full week of June.  Summer will feel in full swing and it will be a pretty big season for technology.  In seeming acknowledgement of that very fact, both Apple and Microsoft will be holding large developers conferences starting Monday.  Apple will hold its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in lovely San Francisco and Microsoft will hold its Tech Ed conference in muggy, oil-laden yet soulful New Orleans.  A brief survey of each show reveals much about the differences in each company’s offerings, strategy, and approach to customers and partners. In the interest of full disclosure, I must explain that I will be speaking at Microsoft’s Tech Ed show, and have done so, on and off, since 2003.  I have never been to an Apple conference and, as readers of this blog may know, I acquired my first ever Apple product 2 months ago when I bought an iPad on the day of that product’s launch.  I think I have keen insights into Microsoft’s conference.  My ability to comment on Apple’s event ranges somewhere between backseat driver and naive observer.  Just so you know. Although both shows cater to their respective company’s developers, there are a number of differences in the events’ purposes and content approaches.  First off, let’s consider each show as a news and PR vehicle.  WWDC will feature Steve Jobs’ keynote address and most likely will be where Apple officially reveals details of its 4th-generation iPhone. Jobs will likely also provide deep background information on the corresponding iPhone OS release.  These presumed announcements will make the show a magnet for the tech press and tech blogger elite.  Apple’s customers will be interested too, especially since the iPhone OS release will likely be made available to owners of existing iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad devices. Tech Ed, on the other hand, may not be especially newsworthy at all.  The keynote address will be given by Bob Muglia, who is President of the company’s Server and Tools Division, and he’ll likely be reviewing things more than previewing them. That’s because the company has, in the last 6-8 months, already released new versions of a majority of its products, including Windows, Office, SharePoint, SQL Server, Exchange, its Azure cloud platform, its .NET software development layer, its Silverlight Rich Internet Application (RIA) technology and its Visual Studio developer suite.  Redmond’s product pipeline has functioned more like a firehose of late, and the company has a ton of work to do to get developers up to speed on everything that’s new. I know I keep saying “developers,” but in Tech Ed’s case, that’s not really accurate.  In North America, Tech Ed caters to both developers and IT pros (i.e. technologists who work with physical IT infrastructure, as well as security and administration of the server software that runs on it).  This pairing has, since its inception, struck some as anomalous and others, including many exhibitors, as very smart. Certainly, it means Tech Ed ends up being a confab for virtually all professionals in Microsoft’s ecosystem.  And this year, Microsoft’s Business Intelligence (BI) conference will be co-located with Tech Ed, further enhancing that fusion effect. Clearly then, Microsoft’s show will focus on education, as its name assures us.  Apple’s will serve as both a press event and an opportunity to get its own App Store developer channel synced up with its newest technology advances.  For example, we already know that iPhone OS 4.0 will provide for a limited multitasking capability; that will only work well if people know how to code to it in a capable way.  Apple also told us its iAd advertising platform will be part of the new OS, and Steve Jobs insists that’s to provide a revenue opportunity for developers.  This too, then, needs to be explicated and soaked up buy the faithful. A look at each show’s breakout session lineup provides some interesting takeaways.  WWDC will have very few Mac-specific sessions on offer, and virtually no sessions that at are IT- or “Enterprise-“ related.  It’s all about the phone, music players and tablets.  However, WWDC will have plenty of low-level, hardcore tech coverage of such things as Advanced Memory Analysis and Creating Secure Applications, as well as lots of rich media-related content like Core Animation and Game Design and Development.  Beyond Apple’s proprietary platform, WWDC will also feature an array of sessions on HTML 5 and other Web standards.  In all, WWDC offers over 100 technical sessions and hands-on labs. What about Tech Ed’s editorial content?  Like the target audience, it really runs the gamut.  The show has 21 tracks (versus WWDC’s 5) and more than 745 “learning opportunities” which include breakout sessions, demo stations, hands-on labs and BIrds of a Feather discussion sessions.  Topics range from Architecture talks like Patterns of Parallel Programming to cloud computing talks like Building High Capacity Compute Applications with Windows Azure to IT-focused topics like Virtualization of Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Farm Architecture.  I also count 19 sessions on Windows Phone 7.  Unfortunately, with regard to Web standards and HTML 5, only a few sessions are offered, all of them specific to Internet Explorer. All-in-all, Apple’s show looks more exciting and “sexier” than Tech Ed. Microsoft’s show seems a lot more enterprise-focused than WWDC. This is, of course, well in sync with each company’s approach and products.  Microsoft’s content is much wider ranging and bests WWDC in sheer volume of sessions and labs.  I suppose some might argue that less is more; others that Apple’s consumer-focused offerings simply don’t provide for the same depth of coverage to a business audience.  Microsoft has a serious focus on the cloud and  a paucity of coverage on client-side Web standards; Apple has virtually no cloud offering at all.  Again, this reflects each tech titan’s go-to-market strategy. My own take is that employees of each company should attend the other’s event.  The amount of mutual exclusivity in content may make sense in terms of corporate philosophy, but the reality is that each company could stand to diversify into the other’s territory, at least somewhat. My own talk at Tech Ed will focus on competitive analysis around Microsoft’s BI products.  Apple does not today figure into that analysis. Maybe one day it will.

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  • Making Money from your SQL Server Blog

    - by Bill Graziano
    My SQL Server blog reading list is around one hundred blogs.  Many people are writing great content and generating lots of page views.  I see some of them running Google AdSense and trying to make a little money off their traffic.  If you want to earn some some extra money from what you’ve written there are a couple of options.  And one new option that I’m announcing here. Background Internet advertising is sold based on a few different pricing schemes.  Flat Fee.  You offer either all your impressions (page views) or some percentage of your impressions in exchange for a flat monthly fee.  CPM or cost per thousand impressions.  If the quoted price is $2 CPM you’ll get $2 for every 1,000 times the ad is displayed.  While you might think the “M” means millions, the “M” in CPM is the roman numeral for 1,000. CPC or cost per click.  This is also called PPC or pay per click.  In this method you get paid based on how many clicks there are on the ad.  CPA or cost per action.  In this method you get paid based on an action that occurs on the advertisers site after they click on the ad.  This is typically some type of sign up form.  This is how most affiliate programs work. Darren Rowse at ProBlogger has been writing about blogging and making money off blogs for years.  He has a good introduction to making money on your blog in his “Making Money” section.  If you’re interested in learning more he has a post up titled How to Make More Money From Your Blog in the New Year that links to many of his best posts on the subject. Google AdSense This is the most common method for people earning money from their blogging.  It’s easy to setup and administer.  You tell AdSense what size ads you’d like to run and it gives you a little piece of JavaScript to put on your site.  AdSense quickly learns the topics you write about and displays ads that are appropriate for your site.  I typically see ads for hosting, SQL Server tools and developer tools running in AdSense slots.  AdSense pays on a CPC model.  If you translate that back to CPM pricing you’ll see rates from $0.50 to $1.00 CPM. Amazon While you might not make much money writing books it’s now possible to make even less helping Amazon sell them.  You can sign up for an Amazon affiliate program.  Each time you send Amazon a link and someone buys the book you get a cut of that sale.  This is the CPA model from above.  Amazon can help you build some pretty nice “stores”.  Here’s the SQL Server bookstore I built for SQLTeam.com.  If you’re just putting in a page with books like I’ve done on SQLTeam you should keep your expectations low.  If you’re writing book reviews of suggesting books on your blog it really does make sense to setup an Amazon affiliate link.  People are much more likely to buy a book based on a review from a trusted source.  I always try to buy through a referral link if there is one. Amazon pays about 4% of the price as a referral fee.  You also get credit for anything else they buy while on the site.  I recently had someone buy an iPod nano with their SQL Server book making me an extra $5.60 richer!  Estimating how much you can make is difficult though.  How much attention you draw to the links and book reviews can dramatically affect the earnings. Private Ad Sales This is the hardest but potentially most lucrative option.  You sell advertising directly to companies that want to sell things to your readers.  Typically this would be SQL Server tool vendors, hosting companies or anyone else that wants to make money off database administrators.  This is also the most difficult to do.  You’ll need the contacts at the companies and enough page views to make it worth their while.  You’ll also need software to track the page views and clicks, geo-target your ads and smooth out the impressions.  Your earnings are based on whatever you can negotiate with the companies. SQL Server Ad Network For the last couple of years I’ve run any extra ads that I sold on the SQLTeam Weblogs.  You can see an example of that on Mladen’s blog.  The ad in the upper right corner is one that I’m running for him.  (Note: Many of the ads I’m running are geo-targeted to only appear in English speaking countries.  You may see a different set of ads outside the US, Canada and the UK.  You can also see he has a couple of Google ads on his blog.)  When I run ads on his blog I split the advertising revenue with him.  They make a little and I make a little. I recently started to expand this and sell advertising specifically to run on SQL Server-related blogs.  I’m also starting to run ads on non-SQLTeam blogs.  The only way I can sell more advertising is to have more blogs to run it on.  And that’s where you come in. I’ve created a SQL Server advertising network.  I handle all the ad sales and provide the technology to serve the ads.  I handle collections and payments back to you.  You get paid at the end of each month regardless of when (or if) the advertiser actually pays.  All you need to do is add a small piece of JavaScript to your site to display the ads. If you’re writing about SQL Server and interested in earning a little money for your site I’d like to talk to you.  You can use the Contact Us page on SQLTeam.com to reach me.  Running advertising on your blog isn’t for everyone.  If you’re concerned about what advertisers might think about certain posts then you might not be a good fit.  For the most part this isn’t an issue.  You’ll also need to have a PayPal account to receive payments.  You probably won’t get rich doing this.  But you can earn extra cash on the side for doing what you would do anyway.  I do know that people have earned enough to buy themselves a nice laptop doing this. My initial target is blogs with more than 10,000 page views per month.  I expect to pay two to three times what Google pays.  If you have less than 10,000 page views per month but are still interested I’d still like to hear from you.  I may not be able to sign up smaller blogs right away but we’ll get the process started.  If you’re unsure about your traffic Google Analytics is a free tool that provides great reporting on traffic, popular posts and how people find your blog.  If you have any questions or are just curious drop me a line and I’ll try to answer your questions.

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  • LLBLGen Pro v3.1 released!

    - by FransBouma
    Yesterday we released LLBLGen Pro v3.1! Version 3.1 comes with new features and enhancements, which I'll describe briefly below. v3.1 is a free upgrade for v3.x licensees. What's new / changed? Designer Extensible Import system. An extensible import system has been added to the designer to import project data from external sources. Importers are plug-ins which import project meta-data (like entity definitions, mappings and relational model data) from an external source into the loaded project. In v3.1, an importer plug-in for importing project elements from existing LLBLGen Pro v3.x project files has been included. You can use this importer to create source projects from which you import parts of models to build your actual project with. Model-only relationships. In v3.1, relationships of the type 1:1, m:1 and 1:n can be marked as model-only. A model-only relationship isn't required to have a backing foreign key constraint in the relational model data. They're ideal for projects which have to work with relational databases where changes can't always be made or some relationships can't be added to (e.g. the ones which are important for the entity model, but are not allowed to be added to the relational model for some reason). Custom field ordering. Although fields in an entity definition don't really have an ordering, it can be important for some situations to have the entity fields in a given order, e.g. when you use compound primary keys. Field ordering can be defined using a pop-up dialog which can be opened through various ways, e.g. inside the project explorer, model view and entity editor. It can also be set automatically during refreshes based on new settings. Command line relational model data refresher tool, CliRefresher.exe. The command line refresh tool shipped with v2.6 is now available for v3.1 as well Navigation enhancements in various designer elements. It's now easier to find elements like entities, typed views etc. in the project explorer from editors, to navigate to related entities in the project explorer by right clicking a relationship, navigate to the super-type in the project explorer when right-clicking an entity and navigate to the sub-type in the project explorer when right-clicking a sub-type node in the project explorer. Minor visual enhancements / tweaks LLBLGen Pro Runtime Framework Entity creation is now up to 30% faster and takes 5% less memory. Creating an entity object has been optimized further by tweaks inside the framework to make instantiating an entity object up to 30% faster. It now also takes up to 5% less memory than in v3.0 Prefetch Path node merging is now up to 20-25% faster. Setting entity references required the creation of a new relationship object. As this relationship object is always used internally it could be cached (as it's used for syncing only). This increases performance by 20-25% in the merging functionality. Entity fetches are now up to 20% faster. A large number of tweaks have been applied to make entity fetches up to 20% faster than in v3.0. Full WCF RIA support. It's now possible to use your LLBLGen Pro runtime framework powered domain layer in a WCF RIA application using the VS.NET tools for WCF RIA services. WCF RIA services is a Microsoft technology for .NET 4 and typically used within silverlight applications. SQL Server DQE compatibility level is now per instance. (Usable in Adapter). It's now possible to set the compatibility level of the SQL Server Dynamic Query Engine (DQE) per instance of the DQE instead of the global setting it was before. The global setting is still available and is used as the default value for the compatibility level per-instance. You can use this to switch between CE Desktop and normal SQL Server compatibility per DataAccessAdapter instance. Support for COUNT_BIG aggregate function (SQL Server specific). The aggregate function COUNT_BIG has been added to the list of available aggregate functions to be used in the framework. Minor changes / tweaks I'm especially pleased with the import system, as that makes working with entity models a lot easier. The import system lets you import from another LLBLGen Pro v3 project any entity definition, mapping and / or meta-data like table definitions. This way you can build repository projects where you store model fragments, e.g. the building blocks for a customer-order system, a user credential model etc., any model you can think of. In most projects, you'll recognize that some parts of your new model look familiar. In these cases it would have been easier if you would have been able to import these parts from projects you had pre-created. With LLBLGen Pro v3.1 you can. For example, say you have an Oracle schema called CRM which contains the bread 'n' butter customer-order-product kind of model. You create an entity model from that schema and save it in a project file. Now you start working on another project for another customer and you have to use SQL Server. You also start using model-first development, so develop the entity model from scratch as there's no existing database. As this customer also requires some CRM like entity model, you import the entities from your saved Oracle project into this new SQL Server targeting project. Because you don't work with Oracle this time, you don't import the relational meta-data, just the entities, their relationships and possibly their inheritance hierarchies, if any. As they're now entities in your project you can change them a bit to match the new customer's requirements. This can save you a lot of time, because you can re-use pre-fab model fragments for new projects. In the example above there are no tables yet (as you work model first) so using the forward mapping capabilities of LLBLGen Pro v3 creates the tables, PK constraints, Unique Constraints and FK constraints for you. This way you can build a nice repository of model fragments which you can re-use in new projects.

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  • Problem rendering VBO

    - by Onno
    I'm developing a game engine using OpenTK. I'm trying to get to grips with the use of VBO's. I've run into some trouble because somehow it doesn't render correctly. Thus far I've used immediate mode to render a test object, a test cube with a texture. namespace SharpEngine.Utility.Mesh { using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using OpenTK; using OpenTK.Graphics; using OpenTK.Graphics.OpenGL; using SharpEngine.Utility; using System.Drawing; public class ImmediateFaceBasedCube : IMesh { private IList<Face> faces = new List<Face>(); public ImmediateFaceBasedCube() { IList<Vector3> allVertices = new List<Vector3>(); //rechtsbovenvoor allVertices.Add(new Vector3(1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f)); //0 //rechtsbovenachter allVertices.Add(new Vector3(1.0f, 1.0f, -1.0f)); //1 //linksbovenachter allVertices.Add(new Vector3(-1.0f, 1.0f, -1.0f)); //2 //linksbovenvoor allVertices.Add(new Vector3(-1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f)); //3 //rechtsondervoor allVertices.Add(new Vector3(1.0f, -1.0f, 1.0f)); //4 //rechtsonderachter allVertices.Add(new Vector3(1.0f, -1.0f, -1.0f)); //5 //linksonderachter allVertices.Add(new Vector3(-1.0f, -1.0f, -1.0f)); //6 //linksondervoor allVertices.Add(new Vector3(-1.0f, -1.0f, 1.0f)); //7 IList<Vector2> textureCoordinates = new List<Vector2>(); textureCoordinates.Add(new Vector2(0, 0)); //AA - 0 textureCoordinates.Add(new Vector2(0, 0.3333333f)); //AB - 1 textureCoordinates.Add(new Vector2(0, 0.6666666f)); //AC - 2 textureCoordinates.Add(new Vector2(0, 1)); //AD - 3 textureCoordinates.Add(new Vector2(0.3333333f, 0)); //BA - 4 textureCoordinates.Add(new Vector2(0.3333333f, 0.3333333f)); //BB - 5 textureCoordinates.Add(new Vector2(0.3333333f, 0.6666666f)); //BC - 6 textureCoordinates.Add(new Vector2(0.3333333f, 1)); //BD - 7 textureCoordinates.Add(new Vector2(0.6666666f, 0)); //CA - 8 textureCoordinates.Add(new Vector2(0.6666666f, 0.3333333f)); //CB - 9 textureCoordinates.Add(new Vector2(0.6666666f, 0.6666666f)); //CC -10 textureCoordinates.Add(new Vector2(0.6666666f, 1)); //CD -11 textureCoordinates.Add(new Vector2(1, 0)); //DA -12 textureCoordinates.Add(new Vector2(1, 0.3333333f)); //DB -13 textureCoordinates.Add(new Vector2(1, 0.6666666f)); //DC -14 textureCoordinates.Add(new Vector2(1, 1)); //DD -15 Vector3 copy1 = new Vector3(-2.0f, -2.5f, -3.5f); IList<Vector3> normals = new List<Vector3>(); normals.Add(new Vector3(0, 1.0f, 0)); //0 normals.Add(new Vector3(0, 0, 1.0f)); //1 normals.Add(new Vector3(1.0f, 0, 0)); //2 normals.Add(new Vector3(0, 0, -1.0f)); //3 normals.Add(new Vector3(-1.0f, 0, 0)); //4 normals.Add(new Vector3(0, -1.0f, 0)); //5 //todo: move vertex normal and texture data to datastructure //todo: VBO based rendering //top face //1 IList<VertexData> verticesT1 = new List<VertexData>(); VertexData T1a = new VertexData(); T1a.Normal = normals[0]; T1a.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[5]; T1a.Position = allVertices[3]; verticesT1.Add(T1a); VertexData T1b = new VertexData(); T1b.Normal = normals[0]; T1b.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[9]; T1b.Position = allVertices[0]; verticesT1.Add(T1b); VertexData T1c = new VertexData(); T1c.Normal = normals[0]; T1c.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[10]; T1c.Position = allVertices[1]; verticesT1.Add(T1c); Face F1 = new Face(verticesT1); faces.Add(F1); //2 IList<VertexData> verticesT2 = new List<VertexData>(); VertexData T2a = new VertexData(); T2a.Normal = normals[0]; T2a.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[10]; T2a.Position = allVertices[1]; verticesT2.Add(T2a); VertexData T2b = new VertexData(); T2b.Normal = normals[0]; T2b.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[6]; T2b.Position = allVertices[2]; verticesT2.Add(T2b); VertexData T2c = new VertexData(); T2c.Normal = normals[0]; T2c.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[5]; T2c.Position = allVertices[3]; verticesT2.Add(T2c); Face F2 = new Face(verticesT2); faces.Add(F2); //front face //3 IList<VertexData> verticesT3 = new List<VertexData>(); VertexData T3a = new VertexData(); T3a.Normal = normals[1]; T3a.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[1]; T3a.Position = allVertices[3]; verticesT3.Add(T3a); VertexData T3b = new VertexData(); T3b.Normal = normals[1]; T3b.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[0]; T3b.Position = allVertices[7]; verticesT3.Add(T3b); VertexData T3c = new VertexData(); T3c.Normal = normals[1]; T3c.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[5]; T3c.Position = allVertices[0]; verticesT3.Add(T3c); Face F3 = new Face(verticesT3); faces.Add(F3); //4 IList<VertexData> verticesT4 = new List<VertexData>(); VertexData T4a = new VertexData(); T4a.Normal = normals[1]; T4a.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[5]; T4a.Position = allVertices[0]; verticesT4.Add(T4a); VertexData T4b = new VertexData(); T4b.Normal = normals[1]; T4b.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[0]; T4b.Position = allVertices[7]; verticesT4.Add(T4b); VertexData T4c = new VertexData(); T4c.Normal = normals[1]; T4c.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[4]; T4c.Position = allVertices[4]; verticesT4.Add(T4c); Face F4 = new Face(verticesT4); faces.Add(F4); //right face //5 IList<VertexData> verticesT5 = new List<VertexData>(); VertexData T5a = new VertexData(); T5a.Normal = normals[2]; T5a.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[2]; T5a.Position = allVertices[0]; verticesT5.Add(T5a); VertexData T5b = new VertexData(); T5b.Normal = normals[2]; T5b.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[1]; T5b.Position = allVertices[4]; verticesT5.Add(T5b); VertexData T5c = new VertexData(); T5c.Normal = normals[2]; T5c.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[6]; T5c.Position = allVertices[1]; verticesT5.Add(T5c); Face F5 = new Face(verticesT5); faces.Add(F5); //6 IList<VertexData> verticesT6 = new List<VertexData>(); VertexData T6a = new VertexData(); T6a.Normal = normals[2]; T6a.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[1]; T6a.Position = allVertices[4]; verticesT6.Add(T6a); VertexData T6b = new VertexData(); T6b.Normal = normals[2]; T6b.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[5]; T6b.Position = allVertices[5]; verticesT6.Add(T6b); VertexData T6c = new VertexData(); T6c.Normal = normals[2]; T6c.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[6]; T6c.Position = allVertices[1]; verticesT6.Add(T6c); Face F6 = new Face(verticesT6); faces.Add(F6); //back face //7 IList<VertexData> verticesT7 = new List<VertexData>(); VertexData T7a = new VertexData(); T7a.Normal = normals[3]; T7a.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[4]; T7a.Position = allVertices[5]; verticesT7.Add(T7a); VertexData T7b = new VertexData(); T7b.Normal = normals[3]; T7b.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[9]; T7b.Position = allVertices[2]; verticesT7.Add(T7b); VertexData T7c = new VertexData(); T7c.Normal = normals[3]; T7c.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[5]; T7c.Position = allVertices[1]; verticesT7.Add(T7c); Face F7 = new Face(verticesT7); faces.Add(F7); //8 IList<VertexData> verticesT8 = new List<VertexData>(); VertexData T8a = new VertexData(); T8a.Normal = normals[3]; T8a.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[9]; T8a.Position = allVertices[2]; verticesT8.Add(T8a); VertexData T8b = new VertexData(); T8b.Normal = normals[3]; T8b.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[4]; T8b.Position = allVertices[5]; verticesT8.Add(T8b); VertexData T8c = new VertexData(); T8c.Normal = normals[3]; T8c.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[8]; T8c.Position = allVertices[6]; verticesT8.Add(T8c); Face F8 = new Face(verticesT8); faces.Add(F8); //left face //9 IList<VertexData> verticesT9 = new List<VertexData>(); VertexData T9a = new VertexData(); T9a.Normal = normals[4]; T9a.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[8]; T9a.Position = allVertices[6]; verticesT9.Add(T9a); VertexData T9b = new VertexData(); T9b.Normal = normals[4]; T9b.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[13]; T9b.Position = allVertices[3]; verticesT9.Add(T9b); VertexData T9c = new VertexData(); T9c.Normal = normals[4]; T9c.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[9]; T9c.Position = allVertices[2]; verticesT9.Add(T9c); Face F9 = new Face(verticesT9); faces.Add(F9); //10 IList<VertexData> verticesT10 = new List<VertexData>(); VertexData T10a = new VertexData(); T10a.Normal = normals[4]; T10a.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[8]; T10a.Position = allVertices[6]; verticesT10.Add(T10a); VertexData T10b = new VertexData(); T10b.Normal = normals[4]; T10b.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[12]; T10b.Position = allVertices[7]; verticesT10.Add(T10b); VertexData T10c = new VertexData(); T10c.Normal = normals[4]; T10c.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[13]; T10c.Position = allVertices[3]; verticesT10.Add(T10c); Face F10 = new Face(verticesT10); faces.Add(F10); //bottom face //11 IList<VertexData> verticesT11 = new List<VertexData>(); VertexData T11a = new VertexData(); T11a.Normal = normals[5]; T11a.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[10]; T11a.Position = allVertices[7]; verticesT11.Add(T11a); VertexData T11b = new VertexData(); T11b.Normal = normals[5]; T11b.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[9]; T11b.Position = allVertices[6]; verticesT11.Add(T11b); VertexData T11c = new VertexData(); T11c.Normal = normals[5]; T11c.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[14]; T11c.Position = allVertices[4]; verticesT11.Add(T11c); Face F11 = new Face(verticesT11); faces.Add(F11); //12 IList<VertexData> verticesT12 = new List<VertexData>(); VertexData T12a = new VertexData(); T12a.Normal = normals[5]; T12a.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[13]; T12a.Position = allVertices[5]; verticesT12.Add(T12a); VertexData T12b = new VertexData(); T12b.Normal = normals[5]; T12b.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[14]; T12b.Position = allVertices[4]; verticesT12.Add(T12b); VertexData T12c = new VertexData(); T12c.Normal = normals[5]; T12c.TexCoord = textureCoordinates[9]; T12c.Position = allVertices[6]; verticesT12.Add(T12c); Face F12 = new Face(verticesT12); faces.Add(F12); } public void draw() { GL.Begin(BeginMode.Triangles); foreach (Face face in faces) { foreach (VertexData datapoint in face.verticesWithTexCoords) { GL.Normal3(datapoint.Normal); GL.TexCoord2(datapoint.TexCoord); GL.Vertex3(datapoint.Position); } } GL.End(); } } } Gets me this very nice picture: The immediate mode cube renders nicely and taught me a bit on how to use OpenGL, but VBO's are the way to go. Since I read on the OpenTK forums that OpenTK has problems doing VA's or DL's, I decided to skip using those. Now, I've tried to change this cube to a VBO by using the same vertex, normal and tc collections, and making float arrays from them by using the coordinates in combination with uint arrays which contain the index numbers from the immediate cube. (see the private functions at end of the code sample) Somehow this only renders two triangles namespace SharpEngine.Utility.Mesh { using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using OpenTK; using OpenTK.Graphics; using OpenTK.Graphics.OpenGL; using SharpEngine.Utility; using System.Drawing; public class VBOFaceBasedCube : IMesh { private int VerticesVBOID; private int VerticesVBOStride; private int VertexCount; private int ELementBufferObjectID; private int textureCoordinateVBOID; private int textureCoordinateVBOStride; //private int textureCoordinateArraySize; private int normalVBOID; private int normalVBOStride; public VBOFaceBasedCube() { IList<Vector3> allVertices = new List<Vector3>(); //rechtsbovenvoor allVertices.Add(new Vector3(1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f)); //0 //rechtsbovenachter allVertices.Add(new Vector3(1.0f, 1.0f, -1.0f)); //1 //linksbovenachter allVertices.Add(new Vector3(-1.0f, 1.0f, -1.0f)); //2 //linksbovenvoor allVertices.Add(new Vector3(-1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f)); //3 //rechtsondervoor allVertices.Add(new Vector3(1.0f, -1.0f, 1.0f)); //4 //rechtsonderachter allVertices.Add(new Vector3(1.0f, -1.0f, -1.0f)); //5 //linksonderachter allVertices.Add(new Vector3(-1.0f, -1.0f, -1.0f)); //6 //linksondervoor allVertices.Add(new Vector3(-1.0f, -1.0f, 1.0f)); //7 IList<Vector2> textureCoordinates = new List<Vector2>(); textureCoordinates.Add(new Vector2(0, 0)); //AA - 0 textureCoordinates.Add(new Vector2(0, 0.3333333f)); //AB - 1 textureCoordinates.Add(new Vector2(0, 0.6666666f)); //AC - 2 textureCoordinates.Add(new Vector2(0, 1)); //AD - 3 textureCoordinates.Add(new Vector2(0.3333333f, 0)); //BA - 4 textureCoordinates.Add(new Vector2(0.3333333f, 0.3333333f)); //BB - 5 textureCoordinates.Add(new Vector2(0.3333333f, 0.6666666f)); //BC - 6 textureCoordinates.Add(new Vector2(0.3333333f, 1)); //BD - 7 textureCoordinates.Add(new Vector2(0.6666666f, 0)); //CA - 8 textureCoordinates.Add(new Vector2(0.6666666f, 0.3333333f)); //CB - 9 textureCoordinates.Add(new Vector2(0.6666666f, 0.6666666f)); //CC -10 textureCoordinates.Add(new Vector2(0.6666666f, 1)); //CD -11 textureCoordinates.Add(new Vector2(1, 0)); //DA -12 textureCoordinates.Add(new Vector2(1, 0.3333333f)); //DB -13 textureCoordinates.Add(new Vector2(1, 0.6666666f)); //DC -14 textureCoordinates.Add(new Vector2(1, 1)); //DD -15 Vector3 copy1 = new Vector3(-2.0f, -2.5f, -3.5f); IList<Vector3> normals = new List<Vector3>(); normals.Add(new Vector3(0, 1.0f, 0)); //0 normals.Add(new Vector3(0, 0, 1.0f)); //1 normals.Add(new Vector3(1.0f, 0, 0)); //2 normals.Add(new Vector3(0, 0, -1.0f)); //3 normals.Add(new Vector3(-1.0f, 0, 0)); //4 normals.Add(new Vector3(0, -1.0f, 0)); //5 //todo: VBO based rendering uint[] vertexElements = { 3,0,1, //01 1,2,3, //02 3,7,0, //03 0,7,4, //04 0,4,1, //05 4,5,1, //06 5,2,1, //07 2,5,6, //08 6,3,2, //09 6,7,5, //10 7,6,4, //11 5,4,6 //12 }; VertexCount = vertexElements.Length; IList<uint> vertexElementList = new List<uint>(vertexElements); uint[] normalElements = { 0,0,0, 0,0,0, 1,1,1, 1,1,1, 2,2,2, 2,2,2, 3,3,3, 3,3,3, 4,4,4, 4,4,4, 5,5,5, 5,5,5 }; IList<uint> normalElementList = new List<uint>(normalElements); uint[] textureIndexArray = { 5,9,10, 10,6,5, 1,0,5, 5,0,4, 2,1,6, 1,5,6, 4,9,5, 9,4,8, 8,13,9, 8,12,13, 10,9,14, 13,14,9 }; //textureCoordinateArraySize = textureIndexArray.Length; IList<uint> textureIndexList = new List<uint>(textureIndexArray); LoadVBO(allVertices, normals, textureCoordinates, vertexElements, normalElementList, textureIndexList); } public void draw() { //bind vertices //bind elements //bind normals //bind texture coordinates GL.EnableClientState(ArrayCap.VertexArray); GL.EnableClientState(ArrayCap.NormalArray); GL.EnableClientState(ArrayCap.TextureCoordArray); GL.BindBuffer(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer, VerticesVBOID); GL.VertexPointer(3, VertexPointerType.Float, VerticesVBOStride, 0); GL.BindBuffer(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer, normalVBOID); GL.NormalPointer(NormalPointerType.Float, normalVBOStride, 0); GL.BindBuffer(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer, textureCoordinateVBOID); GL.TexCoordPointer(2, TexCoordPointerType.Float, textureCoordinateVBOStride, 0); GL.BindBuffer(BufferTarget.ElementArrayBuffer, ELementBufferObjectID); GL.DrawElements(BeginMode.Polygon, VertexCount, DrawElementsType.UnsignedShort, 0); } //loads a static VBO void LoadVBO(IList<Vector3> vertices, IList<Vector3> normals, IList<Vector2> texcoords, uint[] elements, IList<uint> normalIndices, IList<uint> texCoordIndices) { int size; //todo // To create a VBO: // 1) Generate the buffer handles for the vertex and element buffers. // 2) Bind the vertex buffer handle and upload your vertex data. Check that the buffer was uploaded correctly. // 3) Bind the element buffer handle and upload your element data. Check that the buffer was uploaded correctly. float[] verticesArray = convertVector3fListToFloatArray(vertices); float[] normalsArray = createFloatArrayFromListOfVector3ElementsAndIndices(normals, normalIndices); float[] textureCoordinateArray = createFloatArrayFromListOfVector2ElementsAndIndices(texcoords, texCoordIndices); GL.GenBuffers(1, out VerticesVBOID); GL.BindBuffer(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer, VerticesVBOID); Console.WriteLine("load 1 - vertices"); VerticesVBOStride = BlittableValueType.StrideOf(verticesArray); GL.BufferData(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer, (IntPtr)(verticesArray.Length * sizeof(float)), verticesArray, BufferUsageHint.StaticDraw); GL.GetBufferParameter(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer, BufferParameterName.BufferSize, out size); if (verticesArray.Length * BlittableValueType.StrideOf(verticesArray) != size) { throw new ApplicationException("Vertex data not uploaded correctly"); } else { Console.WriteLine("load 1 finished ok"); size = 0; } Console.WriteLine("load 2 - elements"); GL.GenBuffers(1, out ELementBufferObjectID); GL.BindBuffer(BufferTarget.ElementArrayBuffer, ELementBufferObjectID); GL.BufferData(BufferTarget.ElementArrayBuffer, (IntPtr)(elements.Length * sizeof(uint)), elements, BufferUsageHint.StaticDraw); GL.GetBufferParameter(BufferTarget.ElementArrayBuffer, BufferParameterName.BufferSize, out size); if (elements.Length * sizeof(uint) != size) { throw new ApplicationException("Element data not uploaded correctly"); } else { size = 0; Console.WriteLine("load 2 finished ok"); } GL.GenBuffers(1, out normalVBOID); GL.BindBuffer(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer, normalVBOID); Console.WriteLine("load 3 - normals"); normalVBOStride = BlittableValueType.StrideOf(normalsArray); GL.BufferData(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer, (IntPtr)(normalsArray.Length * sizeof(float)), normalsArray, BufferUsageHint.StaticDraw); GL.GetBufferParameter(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer, BufferParameterName.BufferSize, out size); Console.WriteLine("load 3 - pre check"); if (normalsArray.Length * BlittableValueType.StrideOf(normalsArray) != size) { throw new ApplicationException("Normal data not uploaded correctly"); } else { Console.WriteLine("load 3 finished ok"); size = 0; } GL.GenBuffers(1, out textureCoordinateVBOID); GL.BindBuffer(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer, textureCoordinateVBOID); Console.WriteLine("load 4- texture coordinates"); textureCoordinateVBOStride = BlittableValueType.StrideOf(textureCoordinateArray); GL.BufferData(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer, (IntPtr)(textureCoordinateArray.Length * textureCoordinateVBOStride), textureCoordinateArray, BufferUsageHint.StaticDraw); GL.GetBufferParameter(BufferTarget.ArrayBuffer, BufferParameterName.BufferSize, out size); if (textureCoordinateArray.Length * BlittableValueType.StrideOf(textureCoordinateArray) != size) { throw new ApplicationException("texture coordinate data not uploaded correctly"); } else { Console.WriteLine("load 3 finished ok"); size = 0; } } //used to convert vertex arrayss for use with VBO's private float[] convertVector3fListToFloatArray(IList<Vector3> input) { int arrayElementCount = input.Count * 3; float[] output = new float[arrayElementCount]; int fillCount = 0; foreach (Vector3 v in input) { output[fillCount] = v.X; output[fillCount + 1] = v.Y; output[fillCount + 2] = v.Z; fillCount += 3; } return output; } //used for converting texture coordinate arrays for use with VBO's private float[] convertVector2List_to_floatArray(IList<Vector2> input) { int arrayElementCount = input.Count * 2; float[] output = new float[arrayElementCount]; int fillCount = 0; foreach (Vector2 v in input) { output[fillCount] = v.X; output[fillCount + 1] = v.Y; fillCount += 2; } return output; } //used to create an array of floats from private float[] createFloatArrayFromListOfVector3ElementsAndIndices(IList<Vector3> inputVectors, IList<uint> indices) { int arrayElementCount = inputVectors.Count * indices.Count * 3; float[] output = new float[arrayElementCount]; int fillCount = 0; foreach (int i in indices) { output[fillCount] = inputVectors[i].X; output[fillCount + 1] = inputVectors[i].Y; output[fillCount + 2] = inputVectors[i].Z; fillCount += 3; } return output; } private float[] createFloatArrayFromListOfVector2ElementsAndIndices(IList<Vector2> inputVectors, IList<uint> indices) { int arrayElementCount = inputVectors.Count * indices.Count * 2; float[] output = new float[arrayElementCount]; int fillCount = 0; foreach (int i in indices) { output[fillCount] = inputVectors[i].X; output[fillCount + 1] = inputVectors[i].Y; fillCount += 2; } return output; } } } This code will only render two triangles and they're nothing like I had in mind: I've done some searching. In some other questions I read that, if I did something wrong, I'd get no rendering at all. Clearly, something gets sent to the GFX card, but it might be that I'm not sending the right data. I've tried altering the sequence in which the triangles are rendered by swapping some of the index numbers in the vert, tc and normal index arrays, but this doesn't seem to be of any effect. I'm slightly lost here. What am I doing wrong here?

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  • The Proper Use of the VM Role in Windows Azure

    - by BuckWoody
    At the Professional Developer’s Conference (PDC) in 2010 we announced an addition to the Computational Roles in Windows Azure, called the VM Role. This new feature allows a great deal of control over the applications you write, but some have confused it with our full infrastructure offering in Windows Hyper-V. There is a proper architecture pattern for both of them. Virtualization Virtualization is the process of taking all of the hardware of a physical computer and replicating it in software alone. This means that a single computer can “host” or run several “virtual” computers. These virtual computers can run anywhere - including at a vendor’s location. Some companies refer to this as Cloud Computing since the hardware is operated and maintained elsewhere. IaaS The more detailed definition of this type of computing is called Infrastructure as a Service (Iaas) since it removes the need for you to maintain hardware at your organization. The operating system, drivers, and all the other software required to run an application are still under your control and your responsibility to license, patch, and scale. Microsoft has an offering in this space called Hyper-V, that runs on the Windows operating system. Combined with a hardware hosting vendor and the System Center software to create and deploy Virtual Machines (a process referred to as provisioning), you can create a Cloud environment with full control over all aspects of the machine, including multiple operating systems if you like. Hosting machines and provisioning them at your own buildings is sometimes called a Private Cloud, and hosting them somewhere else is often called a Public Cloud. State-ful and Stateless Programming This paradigm does not create a new, scalable way of computing. It simply moves the hardware away. The reason is that when you limit the Cloud efforts to a Virtual Machine, you are in effect limiting the computing resources to what that single system can provide. This is because much of the software developed in this environment maintains “state” - and that requires a little explanation. “State-ful programming” means that all parts of the computing environment stay connected to each other throughout a compute cycle. The system expects the memory, CPU, storage and network to remain in the same state from the beginning of the process to the end. You can think of this as a telephone conversation - you expect that the other person picks up the phone, listens to you, and talks back all in a single unit of time. In “Stateless” computing the system is designed to allow the different parts of the code to run independently of each other. You can think of this like an e-mail exchange. You compose an e-mail from your system (it has the state when you’re doing that) and then you walk away for a bit to make some coffee. A few minutes later you click the “send” button (the network has the state) and you go to a meeting. The server receives the message and stores it on a mail program’s database (the mail server has the state now) and continues working on other mail. Finally, the other party logs on to their mail client and reads the mail (the other user has the state) and responds to it and so on. These events might be separated by milliseconds or even days, but the system continues to operate. The entire process doesn’t maintain the state, each component does. This is the exact concept behind coding for Windows Azure. The stateless programming model allows amazing rates of scale, since the message (think of the e-mail) can be broken apart by multiple programs and worked on in parallel (like when the e-mail goes to hundreds of users), and only the order of re-assembling the work is important to consider. For the exact same reason, if the system makes copies of those running programs as Windows Azure does, you have built-in redundancy and recovery. It’s just built into the design. The Difference Between Infrastructure Designs and Platform Designs When you simply take a physical server running software and virtualize it either privately or publicly, you haven’t done anything to allow the code to scale or have recovery. That all has to be handled by adding more code and more Virtual Machines that have a slight lag in maintaining the running state of the system. Add more machines and you get more lag, so the scale is limited. This is the primary limitation with IaaS. It’s also not as easy to deploy these VM’s, and more importantly, you’re often charged on a longer basis to remove them. your agility in IaaS is more limited. Windows Azure is a Platform - meaning that you get objects you can code against. The code you write runs on multiple nodes with multiple copies, and it all works because of the magic of Stateless programming. you don’t worry, or even care, about what is running underneath. It could be Windows (and it is in fact a type of Windows Server), Linux, or anything else - but that' isn’t what you want to manage, monitor, maintain or license. You don’t want to deploy an operating system - you want to deploy an application. You want your code to run, and you don’t care how it does that. Another benefit to PaaS is that you can ask for hundreds or thousands of new nodes of computing power - there’s no provisioning, it just happens. And you can stop using them quicker - and the base code for your application does not have to change to make this happen. Windows Azure Roles and Their Use If you need your code to have a user interface, in Visual Studio you add a Web Role to your project, and if the code needs to do work that doesn’t involve a user interface you can add a Worker Role. They are just containers that act a certain way. I’ll provide more detail on those later. Note: That’s a general description, so it’s not entirely accurate, but it’s accurate enough for this discussion. So now we’re back to that VM Role. Because of the name, some have mistakenly thought that you can take a Virtual Machine running, say Linux, and deploy it to Windows Azure using this Role. But you can’t. That’s not what it is designed for at all. If you do need that kind of deployment, you should look into Hyper-V and System Center to create the Private or Public Infrastructure as a Service. What the VM Role is actually designed to do is to allow you to have a great deal of control over the system where your code will run. Let’s take an example. You’ve heard about Windows Azure, and Platform programming. You’re convinced it’s the right way to code. But you have a lot of things you’ve written in another way at your company. Re-writing all of your code to take advantage of Windows Azure will take a long time. Or perhaps you have a certain version of Apache Web Server that you need for your code to work. In both cases, you think you can (or already have) code the the software to be “Stateless”, you just need more control over the place where the code runs. That’s the place where a VM Role makes sense. Recap Virtualizing servers alone has limitations of scale, availability and recovery. Microsoft’s offering in this area is Hyper-V and System Center, not the VM Role. The VM Role is still used for running Stateless code, just like the Web and Worker Roles, with the exception that it allows you more control over the environment of where that code runs.

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  • Simple way of converting server side objects into client side using JSON serialization for asp.net websites

    - by anil.kasalanati
     Introduction:- With the growth of Web2.0 and the need for faster user experience the spotlight has shifted onto javascript based applications built using REST pattern or asp.net AJAX Pagerequest manager. And when we are working with javascript wouldn’t it be much better if we could create objects in an OOAD way and easily push it to the client side.  Following are the reasons why you would push the server side objects onto client side -          Easy availability of the complex object. -          Use C# compiler and rick intellisense to create and maintain the objects but use them in the javascript. You could run code analysis etc. -          Reduce the number of calls we make to the server side by loading data on the pageload.   I would like to explain about the 3rd point because that proved to be highly beneficial to me when I was fixing the performance issues of a major website. There could be a scenario where in you be making multiple AJAX based webrequestmanager calls in order to get the same response in a single page. This happens in the case of widget based framework when all the widgets are independent but they need some common information available in the framework to load the data. So instead of making n multiple calls we could load the data needed during pageload. The above picture shows the scenario where in all the widgets need the common information and then call GetData webservice on the server side. Ofcourse the result can be cached on the client side but a better solution would be to avoid the call completely.  In order to do that we need to JSONSerialize the content and send it in the DOM.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Example:- I have developed a simple application to demonstrate the idea and I would explaining that in detail here. The class called SimpleClass would be sent as serialized JSON to the client side .   And this inherits from the base class which has the implementation for the GetJSONString method. You can create a single base class and all the object which need to be pushed to the client side can inherit from that class. The important thing to note is that the class should be annotated with DataContract attribute and the methods should have the Data Member attribute. This is needed by the .Net DataContractSerializer and this follows the opt-in mode so if you want to send an attribute to the client side then you need to annotate the DataMember attribute. So if I didn’t want to send the Result I would simple remove the DataMember attribute. This is default WCF/.Net 3.5 stuff but it provides the flexibility of have a fullfledged object on the server side but sending a smaller object to the client side. Sometimes you may hide some values due to security constraints. And thing you will notice is that I have marked the class as Serializable so that it can be stored in the Session and used in webfarm deployment scenarios. Following is the implementation of the base class –  This implements the default DataContractJsonSerializer and for more information or customization refer to following blogs – http://softcero.blogspot.com/2010/03/optimizing-net-json-serializing-and-ii.html http://weblogs.asp.net/gunnarpeipman/archive/2010/12/28/asp-net-serializing-and-deserializing-json-objects.aspx The next part is pretty simple, I just need to inject this object into the aspx page.   And in the aspx markup I have the following line – <script type="text/javascript"> var data =(<%=SimpleClassJSON  %>);   alert(data.ResultText); </script>   This will output the content as JSON into the variable data and this can be any element in the DOM. And you can verify the element by checking data in the Firebug console.    Design Consideration – If you have a lot of javascripts then you need to think about using Script # and you can write javascript in C#. Refer to Nikhil’s blog – http://projects.nikhilk.net/ScriptSharp Ensure that you are taking security into consideration while exposing server side objects on to client side. I have seen application exposing passwords, secret key so it is not a good practice.   The application can be tested using the following url – http://techconsulting.vpscustomer.com/Samples/JsonTest.aspx The source code is available at http://techconsulting.vpscustomer.com/Source/HistoryTest.zip

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  • Oracle @ E20 Conference Boston - Building Social Business

    - by Michael Snow
    12.00 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii- mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi- mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Oracle WebCenter is The Engagement Platform Powering Exceptional Experiences for Employees, Partners and Customers &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;span id=&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;XinhaEditingPostion&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/span&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; The way we work is changing rapidly, offering an enormous competitive advantage to those who embrace the new tools that enable contextual, agile and simplified information exchange and collaboration to distributed workforces and  networks of partners and customers. As many of you are aware, Enterprise 2.0 is the term for the technologies and business practices that liberate the workforce from the constraints of legacy communication and productivity tools like email. It provides business managers with access to the right information at the right time through a web of inter-connected applications, services and devices. Enterprise 2.0 makes accessible the collective intelligence of many, translating to a huge  competitive advantage in the form of increased innovation, productivity and agility.The Enterprise 2.0 Conference takes a strategic perspective, emphasizing the bigger picture implications of the technology and the exploration of what is at stake for organizations trying to change not only tools, but also culture and process. Beyond discussion of the "why", there will also be in-depth opportunities for learning the "how" that will help you bring Enterprise 2.0 to your business. You won't want to miss this opportunity to learn and hear from leading experts in the fields of technology for business, collaboration, culture change and collective intelligence.Oracle was a proud Gold sponsor of the Enterprise 2.0 Conference, taking place this past week in Boston. For those of you that weren't able to make it - we've made the Oracle Social Network Presentation session available here and have posted the slides below. 12.00 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii- mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi- mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} 12.00 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii- mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi- mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} The following is intended to outline our general product direction. It is intended for information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. It is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described for Oracle’s products remains at the sole discretion of Oracle. 12.00 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}

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  • Silverlight for Everyone!!

    - by subodhnpushpak
    Someone asked me to compare Silverlight / HTML development. I realized that the question can be answered in many ways: Below is the high level comparison between a HTML /JavaScript client and Silverlight client and why silverlight was chosen over HTML / JavaScript client (based on type of users and major functionalities provided): 1. For end users Browser compatibility Silverlight is a plug-in and requires installation first. However, it does provides consistent look and feel across all browsers. For HTML / DHTML, there is a need to tweak JavaScript for each of the browser supported. In fact, tags like <span> and <div> works differently on different browser / version. So, HTML works on most of the systems but also requires lot of efforts coding-wise to adhere to all standards/ browsers / versions. Out of browser support No support in HTML. Third party tools like  Google gears offers some functionalities but there are lots of issues around platform and accessibility. Out of box support for out-of-browser support. provides features like drag and drop onto application surface. Cut and copy paste in HTML HTML is displayed in browser; which, in turn provides facilities for cut copy and paste. Silverlight (specially 4) provides rich features for cut-copy-paste along with full control over what can be cut copy pasted by end users and .advanced features like visual tree printing. Rich user experience HTML can provide some rich experience by use of some JavaScript libraries like JQuery. However, extensive use of JavaScript combined with various versions of browsers and the supported JavaScript makes the solution cumbersome. Silverlight is meant for RIA experience. User data storage on client end In HTML only small amount of data can be stored that too in cookies. In Silverlight large data may be stored, that too in secure way. This increases the response time. Post back In HTML / JavaScript the post back can be stopped by use of AJAX. Extensive use of AJAX can be a bottleneck as browser stack is used for the calls. Both look and feel and data travel over network.                           In Silverlight everything run the client side. Calls are made to server ONLY for data; which also reduces network traffic in long run. 2. For Developers Coding effort HTML / JavaScript can take considerable amount to code if features (requirements) are rich. For AJAX like interfaces; knowledge of third party kits like DOJO / Yahoo UI / JQuery is required which has steep learning curve. ASP .Net coding world revolves mostly along <table> tags for alignments whereas most popular tools provide <div> tags; which requires lots of tweaking. AJAX calls can be a bottlenecks for performance, if the calls are many. In Silverlight; coding is in C#, which is managed code. XAML is also very intuitive and Blend can be used to provide look and feel. Event handling is much clean than in JavaScript. Provides for many clean patterns like MVVM and composable application. Each call to server is asynchronous in silverlight. AJAX is in built into silverlight. Threading can be done at the client side itself to provide for better responsiveness; etc. Debugging Debugging in HTML / JavaScript is difficult. As JavaScript is interpreted; there is NO compile time error handling. Debugging in Silverlight is very helpful. As it is compiled; it provides rich features for both compile time and run time error handling. Multi -targeting browsers HTML / JavaScript have different rendering behaviours in different browsers / and their versions. JavaScript have to be written to sublime the differences in browser behaviours. Silverlight works exactly the same in all browsers and works on almost all popular browser. Multi-targeting desktop No support in HTML / JavaScript Silverlight is very close to WPF. Bot the platform may be easily targeted while maintaining the same source code. Rich toolkit HTML /JavaScript have limited toolkit as controls Silverlight provides a rich set of controls including graphs, audio, video, layout, etc. 3. For Architects Design Patterns Silverlight provides for patterns like MVVM (MVC) and rich (fat)  client architecture. This segregates the "separation of concern" very clearly. Client (silverlight) does what it is expected to do and server does what it is expected of. In HTML / JavaScript world most of the processing is done on the server side. Extensibility Silverlight provides great deal of extensibility as custom controls may be made. Extensibility is NOT restricted by browser but by the plug-in silverlight runs in. HTML / JavaScript works in a certain way and extensibility is generally done on the server side rather than client end. Client side is restricted by the limitations of the browser. Performance Silverlight provides localized storage which may be used for cached data storage. this reduces the response time. As processing can be done on client side itself; there is no need for server round trips. this decreases the round about time. Look and feel of the application is downloaded ONLY initially, afterwards ONLY data is fetched form the server. Security Silverlight is compiled code downloaded as .XAP; As compared to HTML / JavaScript, it provides more secure sandboxed approach. Cross - scripting is inherently prohibited in silverlight by default. If proper guidelines are followed silverlight provides much robust security mechanism as against HTML / JavaScript world. For example; knowing server Address in obfuscated JavaScript is easier than a compressed compiled obfuscated silverlight .XAP file. Some of these like (offline and Canvas support) will be available in HTML5. However, the timelines are not encouraging at all. According to Ian Hickson, editor of the HTML5 specification, the specification to reach the W3C Candidate Recommendation stage during 2012, and W3C Recommendation in the year 2022 or later. see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5 for details. The above is MY opinion. I will love to hear yours; do let me know via comments. Technorati Tags: Silverlight

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  • Share and Deliver BI Publisher Reports in Multiple Languages

    - by kanichiro.nishida
    When you share your reports with someone who speak and read in different languages you want your reports to be shown in their language, right ? Well, translating reports with BI Publisher is not only easy but also reduces the maintenance cost a lot. Many of us in the BI Publisher product development team used to work in Globalization and Multi Lingual support, which enables Oracle products and applications to be used in many different languages and countries and territories.  And we have a lot of experience in this area. In fact, being a strategic reporting platform for Oracle EBS, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, Siebel, and many other Oracle application products, our customers from all over the world are generating thousands of thousands of reports, including out-of-the-box pre-developed reports from Oracle and customer created or customized reports, in their own local language everyday as they operate and manage their business. Today, I’m going to talk about this very topic, how to translate my reports with BI Publisher 11G. Translation Grows, not the Numbers of the Reports Most of the reporting tools, regardless if it’s traditional or new, always take this translation on the back burner. They require their users to copy an original report and translate the whole thing. So when you want to support additional10 languages you will need to have 10 copies of the original. Imagine when you have 50 reports then you will end up having 500 reports (50 x 10) ! Now you need to maintain these 500 reports, whenever you need to make a change in a report you need to apply the same change to the other 10 reports. And as you imagine this is not only a nightmare for IT managements but not acceptable especially for the applications like Oracle EBS that supports over 30 languages. So first thing we did was, very simple, we separated the translation out of the report and marry it to the report only at the report generation. This means, regardless of how many languages you need to support you need to have only one report and translation files for the 10 languages, which would contain the translated letters and words. So let’s say you have 50 reports and need to support 10 languages for those reports you still have only 50 reports and each report now has 10 language translation files. Yes, translation is the one should grow as you add more languages to support, not the report itself! And second, we provide the translation files in XLIFF format, which is an international standard XML based format to exchange and maintain translation strings. So once you generate the XLIFF files for your reports with BI Publisher then you can work with any translation vendors in the world to make a mass translation or you can translate the XML files by yourself by manually updating the translatable strings presented in this text file. Lastly, we made it easier to manage the translation process starting from generating the XLIFF files to uploading the translated XLIFF files back to the BI Publisher server. You can generate, download, upload the XLIFF files from the BI Publisher’s Web interface with your browser and you can see the translated reports right away without needing to shutdown or restart your server. While the translated reports are displayed based on your language preference setting you can also specify a different language when you schedule or deliver the reports so that they can be generated in your customer’s preferred language. What Can I Translate? When it comes to translation there are three things. First, report content translation. When you receive a report you like to see the content like report title, section title, comments, annotation, table column header, and anything that are static and embedded in the report. in your preferred language. We call this Reports Content translation. Second, when you open a report online you might want to see not only the report content being translated but also the report UI, such as report name, parameter name, layout name, and anything that would help you to navigate around the reports, to be translated in your language. We call this Reports UI translation. And this separation of the Reports Content and Reports UI translation makes it very useful especially when you want to navigate through the reports in your preferred language UI but want to generate the reports in your customer’s preferred language. Imagine you are English native speaker and need to generate and send a report to your customers in China. You like to see the report name, parameter name in English so that you can comfortably navigate to the report and generate the report output, but like to see the report generated in Chinese so that the your customers in China can understand the report when they receive it. And lastly, you might want to see even the data presented in the report to be translated. For example, you might want to see product names in an Order Status report to be translated based on the report viewer’s language preference. We call this Reporting Data translation. Since this Reporting Data translation is maintained at the data source level such as Database tables along with the main data, you need to prepare the translation at the data source level first. Then, you want to make sure that your query is switched accordingly based on the language preference setting so that the translated data will be retrieved. How to Translate BI Publisher Reports? Now when it comes to ‘how to translate BI Publisher reports?’ the main focus here is about the translation for the Report Content and Report UI. And I just created this video to show you how to create and manage the translation with BI Publisher 11G. Please take a look at the clip below.   In today’s business world, customers and suppliers are from all over the world regardless of the size of the company or organization. Supporting multiple languages for your reports is no longer something ‘nice to have’, it’s mandatory. BI Publisher is designed to support multi lingual reports from the beginning without any extra hidden cost of license or configuration like other reporting tools such as Crystal Reports. You can support additional languages translation at any time with the very simple steps shown in the video above. Happy translation! Please share your translation experience with us! 

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  • CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, May 31, 2010

    CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, May 31, 2010New ProjectsAndrew's XNA Helpers: A collection of simple, yet useful methods and ways of accessing crucial variables such as the ContentManager or SpriteBatch from anywhere in your ...BASIC-DOS: BASIC-DOS OS Makes It Easier For People To Use DOS As It Comes With An Graphical User Interface That Loads Up During Boot Up. No Need To Type Any C...Chirpy - Visual Studio Add In For Handling Js, Css, and DotLess Files: Mashes, minifies, and validates your javascript, stylesheet, and dotless files.fprparser: Fortify XML Report parser in the form of an Excel Add-inHL7ToXmlConverter: Class library to transform HL7 Version 2.x to HL7Xml Version 2 depends on the used HL7 grammar.imdb movie downloader: basically download info from imdb and it s realy FAST ! need some development about thread pooling and webclient issues.. just try ;) for it run ...IMIfmoOptimisation: Задание по оптимизацииMarketView: MarketViewMediaStreamSources: 这是 CodePlex 上第一个可以呈现视频的 MediaStreamSource 项目。Migrate User Profile Values: A tool to move values between SharePoint 2007 User Profiles. The console application MigrateUserProfileValues.exe will export User Profile values ...Nexus6Studio Development Space: This is a working repository for development efforst of the Nexus6studio team.Project BlueLabel: BlueLabelSergioTools: SergioTools is a collection of tools and sample codes to help C# developers to improve your productivity and skills.SharePoint Property Bag Settings 2010: The Property Bag Settings can store any metadata as Key-Value pairs such as connection strings, server names, file paths, and other miscellaneous s...Silverlight Isolated Storage Cache: IsoCache is a small framework the make it easy to store dll's and xap files in the isolated storage so they can be use to speed up the startup of t...StackPivot: StackPivot is an app which can generate Microsoft Pivot "Collections" on-the-fly based on the data collected from the Stack Exchange APIs. Its d...Suspension Calculator: The Suspension Calculator aims to help people who are building race cars perform suspension related calculations. The calculations vary from motion...TFS Timesheets: A custom work item control for Team Foundation Server that allows timesheet data to be captured against a work item.Umbraco Membership infrastructure: Improvements to the Umbraco membership API implemented as a package. Includes user properties and improved membership API support.VolgaTransTelecomClient: VolgaTransTelecomClient makes it easier for clients of "Volga TransTelecom" company to get info about account. It's developed in C#.Wouter's SharePoint Demo Land: This site contains many of the SharePoint demos that I create while training or hobbying, both for the 2007 and the 2010 release. Please click the...New ReleasesAgUnit - Silverlight unit testing with ReSharper: AgUnit 0.1: Initial release of AgUnit. Copy the extracted files from AgUnit-0.1-ReSharper5.0.zip into the "Bin\Plugins\" folder of your ReSharper installatio...Andrew's XNA Helpers: Andrew's XNA Helpers v1: My first version of my Library of XNA Helpers. Includes: Variables class - A static class that can be accessed anywhere throughout your project -...Clean your Database: Database Cleaner Setup: Database Cleaner SetupClean your Database: Database Cleaner Source: Database Cleaner Source codeCommunity Forums NNTP bridge: Community Forums NNTP Bridge V16: Release of the Community Forums NNTP Bridge to access the social and anwsers MS forums with a single, open source NNTP bridge. This release has add...Community Forums NNTP bridge: Community Forums NNTP Bridge V17: Release of the Community Forums NNTP Bridge to access the social and anwsers MS forums with a single, open source NNTP bridge. This release is prim...Folder Bookmarks: Folder Bookmarks 1.5.8: The latest version of Folder Bookmarks (1.5.8), with new GUI improvements and 'Help' feature - all the instructions needed to use the software (If ...HL7ToXmlConverter: HL7ToXmlConverter Version 0.0.0.9: First distribution on codepleximdb movie downloader: 0.9 Fist Tryout of MyImdb SourceCode: Fist Tryout of MyImdb SourceCodeLightweight Fluent Workflow: Objectflow 1.0.0.2: The features of this release take advantage of .Net 3.5 featrures; Lamda support is back for Constraints and Functions can now be used in workflows...MDownloader: MDownloader-0.15.16.59384: Fixed password detector in context of .rar files. Fixed FileFactory provider implementation. Fixed detection of internet connection failures.MediaStreamSources: MediaStreamSources 1.0 Beta1: 1.0 Beta1Mongodb Management Studio: Mongodb Management Studio v1.1: MongodbManagementStudio v1.1 1.服务器管理功能 添加服务器,删除服务器 2.服务器,数据库,表,列,索引,树形显示和状态信息查看 3.查询分析器功能. 支持select,insert,Delete,update 支持自定义分页函数 $rowid(1,5) 查询...Multiplayer Quiz: Release 1_7_1_0: Latest Release. .NET 4.0 required to run server, and recommended for client. Download: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9cf...SCSM PowerShell Cmdlets: SCSM PowerShell Cmdlets Version 0.1.1: First release! This is a minimal build with limited funcitonallity. Should be handled as a preview of what's to come. Included Cmdlets are: New-...SharePoint Property Bag Settings 2010: PropertyBagSettings2010.wsp: The SharePoint Property Bag Settings is a reusable component that you can include in your own SharePoint applications. It can store simple types, s...Sharp Tests Ex: Sharp Tests Ex 1.0.0RTM: Project Description #TestsEx (Sharp Tests Extensions) is a set of extensible extensions. The main target is write short assertions where the Visual...Silverlight Testing Automation Tool: StatLight V1.1: FeaturesApplied some UnitDriven specific changes from justncase80/StatLight Updated to the 0.0.5 release over on rul:UnitDriven.codeplex.com Upda...SQL Server 2005 and 2008 - Backup, Integrity Check and Index Optimization: 30 May 2010: This is the latest version of my solution for Backup, Integrity Check and Index Optimization in SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 200...Suspension Calculator: SuspensionCalculator_V1.0.0.29: The Suspension Calculator aims to help people who are building race cars perform suspension related calculations. The calculations vary from motion...Svn2Svn: copy, sync, replay or reflect changes across SVN repositories: 1.2 (Beta): Build 1.2.8932.0. Added /incremental (/i) mode, svn2svn detects all previously synced revisions and starts at the latest revision that has not bee...VCC: Latest build, v2.1.30530.0: Automatic drop of latest buildVolgaTransTelecomClient: V.1.0.2.0: v.1.0.2.0 releaseWatchersNET.SkinObjects.ModulActionsMenu: ModulActionsMenu 01.00.01: changes CSS Fixed for the Microsoft Internet ExplorerWouter's SharePoint Demo Land: Navigation Service Basic: This sample shows how to create a simple Service Application for SharePoint 2010. You can read up on the how and why on my blog series about Serv...Most Popular ProjectsRawrWBFS ManagerAJAX Control ToolkitMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: DatabaseSilverlight ToolkitWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)patterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryMicrosoft SQL Server Community & SamplesPHPExcelASP.NETMost Active ProjectsCommunity Forums NNTP bridgeAStar.netpatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryBlogEngine.NETGMap.NET - Great Maps for Windows Forms & PresentationMirror Testing SystemIonics Isapi Rewrite FilterCustomer Portal Accelerator for Microsoft Dynamics CRMN2 CMSpatterns & practices: Windows Azure Security Guidance

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  • Anatomy of a .NET Assembly - PE Headers

    - by Simon Cooper
    Today, I'll be starting a look at what exactly is inside a .NET assembly - how the metadata and IL is stored, how Windows knows how to load it, and what all those bytes are actually doing. First of all, we need to understand the PE file format. PE files .NET assemblies are built on top of the PE (Portable Executable) file format that is used for all Windows executables and dlls, which itself is built on top of the MSDOS executable file format. The reason for this is that when .NET 1 was released, it wasn't a built-in part of the operating system like it is nowadays. Prior to Windows XP, .NET executables had to load like any other executable, had to execute native code to start the CLR to read & execute the rest of the file. However, starting with Windows XP, the operating system loader knows natively how to deal with .NET assemblies, rendering most of this legacy code & structure unnecessary. It still is part of the spec, and so is part of every .NET assembly. The result of this is that there are a lot of structure values in the assembly that simply aren't meaningful in a .NET assembly, as they refer to features that aren't needed. These are either set to zero or to certain pre-defined values, specified in the CLR spec. There are also several fields that specify the size of other datastructures in the file, which I will generally be glossing over in this initial post. Structure of a PE file Most of a PE file is split up into separate sections; each section stores different types of data. For instance, the .text section stores all the executable code; .rsrc stores unmanaged resources, .debug contains debugging information, and so on. Each section has a section header associated with it; this specifies whether the section is executable, read-only or read/write, whether it can be cached... When an exe or dll is loaded, each section can be mapped into a different location in memory as the OS loader sees fit. In order to reliably address a particular location within a file, most file offsets are specified using a Relative Virtual Address (RVA). This specifies the offset from the start of each section, rather than the offset within the executable file on disk, so the various sections can be moved around in memory without breaking anything. The mapping from RVA to file offset is done using the section headers, which specify the range of RVAs which are valid within that section. For example, if the .rsrc section header specifies that the base RVA is 0x4000, and the section starts at file offset 0xa00, then an RVA of 0x401d (offset 0x1d within the .rsrc section) corresponds to a file offset of 0xa1d. Because each section has its own base RVA, each valid RVA has a one-to-one mapping with a particular file offset. PE headers As I said above, most of the header information isn't relevant to .NET assemblies. To help show what's going on, I've created a diagram identifying all the various parts of the first 512 bytes of a .NET executable assembly. I've highlighted the relevant bytes that I will refer to in this post: Bear in mind that all numbers are stored in the assembly in little-endian format; the hex number 0x0123 will appear as 23 01 in the diagram. The first 64 bytes of every file is the DOS header. This starts with the magic number 'MZ' (0x4D, 0x5A in hex), identifying this file as an executable file of some sort (an .exe or .dll). Most of the rest of this header is zeroed out. The important part of this header is at offset 0x3C - this contains the file offset of the PE signature (0x80). Between the DOS header & PE signature is the DOS stub - this is a stub program that simply prints out 'This program cannot be run in DOS mode.\r\n' to the console. I will be having a closer look at this stub later on. The PE signature starts at offset 0x80, with the magic number 'PE\0\0' (0x50, 0x45, 0x00, 0x00), identifying this file as a PE executable, followed by the PE file header (also known as the COFF header). The relevant field in this header is in the last two bytes, and it specifies whether the file is an executable or a dll; bit 0x2000 is set for a dll. Next up is the PE standard fields, which start with a magic number of 0x010b for x86 and AnyCPU assemblies, and 0x20b for x64 assemblies. Most of the rest of the fields are to do with the CLR loader stub, which I will be covering in a later post. After the PE standard fields comes the NT-specific fields; again, most of these are not relevant for .NET assemblies. The one that is is the highlighted Subsystem field, and specifies if this is a GUI or console app - 0x20 for a GUI app, 0x30 for a console app. Data directories & section headers After the PE and COFF headers come the data directories; each directory specifies the RVA (first 4 bytes) and size (next 4 bytes) of various important parts of the executable. The only relevant ones are the 2nd (Import table), 13th (Import Address table), and 15th (CLI header). The Import and Import Address table are only used by the startup stub, so we will look at those later on. The 15th points to the CLI header, where the CLR-specific metadata begins. After the data directories comes the section headers; one for each section in the file. Each header starts with the section's ASCII name, null-padded to 8 bytes. Again, most of each header is irrelevant, but I've highlighted the base RVA and file offset in each header. In the diagram, you can see the following sections: .text: base RVA 0x2000, file offset 0x200 .rsrc: base RVA 0x4000, file offset 0xa00 .reloc: base RVA 0x6000, file offset 0x1000 The .text section contains all the CLR metadata and code, and so is by far the largest in .NET assemblies. The .rsrc section contains the data you see in the Details page in the right-click file properties page, but is otherwise unused. The .reloc section contains address relocations, which we will look at when we study the CLR startup stub. What about the CLR? As you can see, most of the first 512 bytes of an assembly are largely irrelevant to the CLR, and only a few bytes specify needed things like the bitness (AnyCPU/x86 or x64), whether this is an exe or dll, and the type of app this is. There are some bytes that I haven't covered that affect the layout of the file (eg. the file alignment, which determines where in a file each section can start). These values are pretty much constant in most .NET assemblies, and don't affect the CLR data directly. Conclusion To summarize, the important data in the first 512 bytes of a file is: DOS header. This contains a pointer to the PE signature. DOS stub, which we'll be looking at in a later post. PE signature PE file header (aka COFF header). This specifies whether the file is an exe or a dll. PE standard fields. This specifies whether the file is AnyCPU/32bit or 64bit. PE NT-specific fields. This specifies what type of app this is, if it is an app. Data directories. The 15th entry (at offset 0x168) contains the RVA and size of the CLI header inside the .text section. Section headers. These are used to map between RVA and file offset. The important one is .text, which is where all the CLR data is stored. In my next post, we'll start looking at the metadata used by the CLR directly, which is all inside the .text section.

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  • Reg Gets a Job at Red Gate (and what happens behind the scenes)

    - by red(at)work
    Mr Reg Gater works at one of Cambridge’s many high-tech companies. He doesn’t love his job, but he puts up with it because... well, it could be worse. Every day he drives to work around the Red Gate roundabout, wondering what his boss is going to blame him for today, and wondering if there could be a better job out there for him. By late morning he already feels like handing his notice in. He got the hacky look from his boss for being 5 minutes late, and then they ran out of tea. Again. He goes to the local sandwich shop for lunch, and picks up a Red Gate job menu and a Book of Red Gate while he’s waiting for his order. That night, he goes along to Cambridge Geek Nights and sees some very enthusiastic Red Gaters talking about the work they do; it sounds interesting and, of all things, fun. He takes a quick look at the job vacancies on the Red Gate website, and an hour later realises he’s still there – looking at videos, photos and people profiles. He especially likes the Red Gate’s Got Talent page, and is very impressed with Simon Johnson’s marathon time. He thinks that he’d quite like to work with such awesome people. It just so happens that Red Gate recently decided that they wanted to hire another hot shot team member. Behind the scenes, the wheels were set in motion: the recruitment team met with the hiring manager to understand exactly what they’re looking for, and to decide what interview tests to do, who will do the interviews, and to kick-start any interview training those people might need. Next up, a job description and job advert were written, and the job was put on the market. Reg applies, and his CV lands in the Recruitment team’s inbox and they open it up with eager anticipation that Reg could be the next awesome new starter. He looks good, and in a jiffy they’ve arranged an interview. Reg arrives for his interview, and is greeted by a smiley receptionist. She offers him a selection of drinks and he feels instantly relaxed. A couple of interviews and an assessment later, he gets a job offer. We make his day and he makes ours by accepting, and becoming one of the 60 new starters so far this year. Behind the scenes, things start moving all over again. The HR team arranges for a “Welcome” goodie box to be whisked out to him, prepares his contract, sends an email to Information Services (Or IS for short - we’ll come back to them), keeps in touch with Reg to make sure he knows what to expect on his first day, and of course asks him to fill in the all-important wiki questionnaire so his new colleagues can start to get to know him before he even joins. Meanwhile, the IS team see an email in SupportWorks from HR. They see that Reg will be starting in the sales team in a few days’ time, and they know exactly what to do. They pull out a new machine, and within minutes have used their automated deployment software to install every piece of software that a new recruit could ever need. They also check with Reg’s new manager to see if he has any special requirements that they could help with. Reg starts and is amazed to find a fully configured machine sitting on his desk, complete with stationery and all the other tools he’ll need to do his job. He feels even more cared for after he gets a workstation assessment, and realises he’d be comfier with an ergonomic keyboard and a footstool. They arrive minutes later, just like that. His manager starts him off on his induction and sales training. Along with job-specific training, he’ll also have a buddy to help him find his feet, and loads of pre-arranged demos and introductions. Reg settles in nicely, and is great at his job. He enjoys the canteen, and regularly eats one of the 40,000 meals provided each year. He gets used to the selection of teas that are available, develops a taste for champagne launch parties, and has his fair share of the 25,000 cups of coffee downed at Red Gate towers each year. He goes along to some Feel Good Fund events, and donates a little something to charity in exchange for a turn on the chocolate fountain. He’s looking a little scruffy, so he decides to get his hair cut in between meetings, just in time for the Red Gate birthday company photo. Reg starts a new project: identifying existing customers to up-sell to new bundles. He talks with the web team to generate lists of qualifying customers who haven’t recently been sent marketing emails, and sends emails out, using a new in-house developed tool to schedule follow-up calls in CRM for the same group. The customer responds, saying they’d like to upgrade but are having a licensing problem – Reg sends the issue to Support, and it gets routed to the web team. The team identifies a workaround, and the bug gets scheduled into the next maintenance release in a fortnight’s time (hey; they got lucky). With all the new stuff Reg is working on, he realises that he’d be way more efficient if he had a third monitor. He speaks to IS and they get him one - no argument. He also needs a test machine and then some extra memory. Done. He then thinks he needs an iPad, and goes to ask for one. He gets told to stop pushing his luck. Some time later, Reg’s wife has a baby, so Reg gets 2 weeks of paid paternity leave and a bunch of flowers sent to his house. He signs up to the childcare scheme so that he doesn’t have to pay National Insurance on the first £243 of his childcare. The accounts team makes it all happen seamlessly, as they did with his Give As You Earn payments, which come out of his wages and go straight to his favorite charity. Reg’s sales career is going well. He’s grateful for the help that he gets from the product support team. How do they answer all those 900-ish support calls so effortlessly each month? He’s impressed with the patches that are sent out to customers who find “interesting behavior” in their tools, and to the customers who just must have that new feature. A little later in his career at Red Gate, Reg decides that he’d like to learn about management. He goes on some management training specially customised for Red Gate, joins the Management Book Club, and gets together with other new managers to brainstorm how to get the most out of one to one meetings with his team. Reg decides to go for a game of Foosball to celebrate his good fortune with his team, and has to wait for Finance to finish. While he’s waiting, he reflects on the wonderful time he’s had at Red Gate. He can’t put his finger on what it is exactly, but he knows he’s on to a good thing. All of the stuff that happened to Reg didn’t just happen magically. We’ve got teams of people working relentlessly behind the scenes to make sure that everyone here is comfortable, safe, well fed and caffeinated to the max.

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  • Can Microsoft Build Appliances?

    - by andrewbrust
    Billy Hollis, my Visual Studio Live! colleague and fellow Microsoft Regional Director said recently, and I am paraphrasing, that the computing world, especially on the consumer side, has shifted from one of building hardware and software that makes things possible to do, to building products and technologies that make things easy to do.  Billy crystalized things perfectly, as he often does. In this new world of “easy to do,” Apple has done very well and Microsoft has struggled.  In the old world, customers wanted a Swiss Army Knife, with the most gimmicks and gadgets possible.  In the new world, people want elegantly cutlery.  They may want cake cutters and utility knives too, but they don’t want one device that works for all three tasks.  People don’t want tools, they want utensils.  People don’t want machines.  They want appliances. Microsoft Appliances: They Do Exist Microsoft has built a few appliance-like devices.  I would say XBox 360 is an appliance,  It’s versatile, mind you, but it’s the kind of thing you plug in, turn on and use, as opposed to set-up, tune, and open up to upgrade the internals.  Windows Phone 7 is an appliance too.  It’s a true smartphone, unlike Windows Mobile which was a handheld computer with a radio stack.  Zune is an appliance too, and a nice one.  It hasn’t attained much traction in the market, but that’s probably because the seminal consumer computing appliance -- the iPod – got there so much more quickly. In the embedded world, Mediaroom, Microsoft’s set-top product for the cable industry (used by AT&T U-Verse and others) is an appliance.  So is Microsoft’s Sync technology, used in Ford automobiles.  Even on the enterprise side, Microsoft has an appliance: SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse Edition (PDW) combines Microsoft software with select OEMs’ server, networking and storage hardware.  You buy the appliance units from the OEMs, plug them in, connect them and go. I would even say that Bing is an appliance.  Not in the hardware sense, mind you.  But from the software perspective, it’s a single-purpose product that you visit or run, use and then move on.  You don’t have to install it (except the iOS and Android native apps where it’s pretty straightforward), you don’t have to customize it, you don’t have to program it.  Basically, you just use it. Microsoft Appliances that Should Exist But Microsoft builds a bunch of things that are not appliances.  Media Center is not an appliance, and it most certainly should be.  Instead, it’s an app that runs on Windows 7.  It runs full-screen and you can use this configuration to conceal the fact that Windows is under it, but eventually something will cause you to abandon that masquerade (like Patch Tuesday). The next version of Windows Home Server won’t, in my opinion, be an appliance either.  Now that the Drive Extender technology is gone, and users can’t just add and remove drives into and from a single storage pool, the product is much more like a IT server and less like an appliance-premised one.  Much has been written about this decision by Microsoft.  I’ll just sum it up in one word: pity. Microsoft doesn’t have anything remotely appliance-like in the tablet category, either.  Until it does, it likely won’t have much market share in that space either.  And of course, the bulk of Microsoft’s product catalog on the business side is geared to enterprise machines and not personal appliances. Appliance DNA: They Gotta Have It. The consumerization of IT is real, because businesspeople are consumers too.  They appreciate the fit and finish of appliances at home, and they increasingly feel entitled to have it at work too.  Secure and reliable push email in a smartphone is necessary, but it isn’t enough.  People want great apps and a pleasurable user experience too.  The full Microsoft Office product is needed at work, but a PC with a keyboard and mouse, or maybe a touch screen that uses a stylus (or requires really small fingers), to run Office isn’t enough either.  People want a flawless touch experience available for the times they want to read and take quick notes.  Until Microsoft realizes this fully and internalizes it, it will suffer defeats in the consumer market and even setbacks in the business market.  Think about how slow the Office upgrade cycle is…now imagine if the next version of Office had a first-class alternate touch UI and consider the possible acceleration in adoption rates. Can Microsoft make the appliance switch?  Can the appliance mentality become pervasive at the company?  Can Microsoft hasten its release cycles dramatically and shed the “some assembly required” paradigm upon which many of its products are based?  Let’s face it, the chances that Microsoft won’t make this transition are significant. But there are also encouraging signs, and they should not be ignored.  The appliances we have already discussed, especially Xbox, Zune and Windows Phone 7, are the most obvious in this regard.  The fact that SQL Server has an appliance SKU now is a more subtle but perhaps also more significant outcome, because that product sits so smack in the middle of Microsoft’s enterprise stack.  Bing is encouraging too, especially given its integrated travel, maps and augmented reality capabilities.  As Bing gains market share, Microsoft has tangible proof that it can transform and win, even when everyone outside the company, and many within it, would bet otherwise. That Great Big Appliance in the Sky Perhaps the most promising (and evolving) proof points toward the appliance mentality, though, are Microsoft’s cloud offerings -- Azure and BPOS/Office 365.  While the cloud does not represent a physical appliance (quite the opposite in fact) its ability to make acquisition, deployment and use of technology simple for the user is absolutely an embodiment of the appliance mentality and spirit.  Azure is primarily a platform as a service offering; it doesn’t just provide infrastructure.  SQL Azure does likewise for databases.  And Office 365 does likewise for SharePoint, Exchange and Lync. You don’t administer, tune and manage servers; instead, you create databases or site collections or mailboxes and start using them. Upgrades come automatically, and it seems like releases will come more frequently.  Fault tolerance and content distribution is just there.  No muss.  No fuss.  You use these services; you don’t have to set them up and think about them.  That’s how appliances work.  To me, these signs point out that Microsoft has the full capability of transforming itself.  But there’s a lot of work ahead.  Microsoft may say they’re “all in” on the cloud, but the majority of the company is still oriented around its old products and models.  There needs to be a wholesale cultural transformation in Redmond.  It can happen, but product management, program management, the field and executive ranks must unify in the effort. So must partners, and even customers.  New leaders must rise up and Microsoft must be able to see itself as a winner.  If Microsoft does this, it could lock-in decades of new success, and be a standard business school case study for doing so.  If not, the company will have missed an opportunity, and may see its undoing.

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  • Integrating Oracle Hyperion Smart View Data Queries with MS Word and Power Point

    - by Andreea Vaduva
    Untitled Document table { border: thin solid; } Most Smart View users probably appreciate that they can use just one add-in to access data from the different sources they might work with, like Oracle Essbase, Oracle Hyperion Planning, Oracle Hyperion Financial Management and others. But not all of them are aware of the options to integrate data analyses not only in Excel, but also in MS Word or Power Point. While in the past, copying and pasting single numbers or tables from a recent analysis in Excel made the pasted content a static snapshot, copying so called Data Points now creates dynamic, updateable references to the data source. It also provides additional nice features, which can make life easier and less stressful for Smart View users. So, how does this option work: after building an ad-hoc analysis with Smart View as usual in an Excel worksheet, any area including data cells/numbers from the database can be highlighted in order to copy data points - even single data cells only.   TIP It is not necessary to highlight and copy the row or column descriptions   Next from the Smart View ribbon select Copy Data Point. Then transfer to the Word or Power Point document into which the selected content should be copied. Note that in these Office programs you will find a menu item Smart View;from it select the Paste Data Point icon. The copied details from the Excel report will be pasted, but showing #NEED_REFRESH in the data cells instead of the original numbers. =After clicking the Refresh icon on the Smart View menu the data will be retrieved and displayed. (Maybe at that moment a login window pops up and you need to provide your credentials.) It works in the same way if you just copy one single number without any row or column descriptions, for example in order to incorporate it into a continuous text: Before refresh: After refresh: From now on for any subsequent updates of the data shown in your documents you only need to refresh data by clicking the Refresh button on the Smart View menu, without copying and pasting the context or content again. As you might realize, trying out this feature on your own, there won’t be any Point of View shown in the Office document. Also you have seen in the example, where only a single data cell was copied, that there aren’t any member names or row/column descriptions copied, which are usually required in an ad-hoc report in order to exactly define where data comes from or how data is queried from the source. Well, these definitions are not visible, but they are transferred to the Word or Power Point document as well. They are stored in the background for each individual data cell copied and can be made visible by double-clicking the data cell as shown in the following screen shot (but which is taken from another context).   So for each cell/number the complete connection information is stored along with the exact member/cell intersection from the database. And that’s not all: you have the chance now to exchange the members originally selected in the Point of View (POV) in the Excel report. Remember, at that time we had the following selection:   By selecting the Manage POV option from the Smart View meny in Word or Power Point…   … the following POV Manager – Queries window opens:   You can now change your selection for each dimension from the original POV by either double-clicking the dimension member in the lower right box under POV: or by selecting the Member Selector icon on the top right hand side of the window. After confirming your changes you need to refresh your document again. Be aware, that this will update all (!) numbers taken from one and the same original Excel sheet, even if they appear in different locations in your Office document, reflecting your recent changes in the POV. TIP Build your original report already in a way that dimensions you might want to change from within Word or Power Point are placed in the POV. And there is another really nice feature I wouldn’t like to miss mentioning: Using Dynamic Data Points in the way described above, you will never miss or need to search again for your original Excel sheet from which values were taken and copied as data points into an Office document. Because from even only one single data cell Smart View is able to recreate the entire original report content with just a few clicks: Select one of the numbers from within your Word or Power Point document by double-clicking.   Then select the Visualize in Excel option from the Smart View menu. Excel will open and Smart View will rebuild the entire original report, including POV settings, and retrieve all data from the most recent actual state of the database. (It might be necessary to provide your credentials before data is displayed.) However, in order to make this work, an active online connection to your databases on the server is necessary and at least read access to the retrieved data. But apart from this, your newly built Excel report is fully functional for ad-hoc analysis and can be used in the common way for drilling, pivoting and all the other known functions and features. So far about embedding Dynamic Data Points into Office documents and linking them back into Excel worksheets. You can apply this in the described way with ad-hoc analyses directly on Essbase databases or using Hyperion Planning and Hyperion Financial Management ad-hoc web forms. If you are also interested in other new features and smart enhancements in Essbase or Hyperion Planning stay tuned for coming articles or check our training courses and web presentations. You can find general information about offerings for the Essbase and Planning curriculum or other Oracle-Hyperion products here (please make sure to select your country/region at the top of this page) or in the OU Learning paths section , where Planning, Essbase and other Hyperion products can be found under the Fusion Middleware heading (again, please select the right country/region). Or drop me a note directly: [email protected] . About the Author: Bernhard Kinkel started working for Hyperion Solutions as a Presales Consultant and Consultant in 1998 and moved to Hyperion Education Services in 1999. He joined Oracle University in 2007 where he is a Principal Education Consultant. Based on these many years of working with Hyperion products he has detailed product knowledge across several versions. He delivers both classroom and live virtual courses. His areas of expertise are Oracle/Hyperion Essbase, Oracle Hyperion Planning and Hyperion Web Analysis.  

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  • Using Apache FOP from .NET level

    - by Lukasz Kurylo
    In one of my previous posts I was talking about FO.NET which I was using to generate a pdf documents from XSL-FO. FO.NET is one of the .NET ports of Apache FOP. Unfortunatelly it is no longer maintained. I known it when I decidec to use it, because there is a lack of available (free) choices for .NET to render a pdf form XSL-FO. I hoped in this implementation I will find all I need to create a pdf file with my really simple requirements. FO.NET is a port from some old version of Apache FOP and I found really quickly that there is a lack of some features that I needed, like dotted borders, double borders or support for margins. So I started to looking for some alternatives. I didn’t try the NFOP, another port of Apache FOP, because I found something I think much more better, the IKVM.NET project.   IKVM.NET it is not a pdf renderer. So what it is? From the project site:   IKVM.NET is an implementation of Java for Mono and the Microsoft .NET Framework. It includes the following components: a Java Virtual Machine implemented in .NET a .NET implementation of the Java class libraries tools that enable Java and .NET interoperability   In the simplest form IKVM.NET allows to use a Java code library in the C# code and vice versa.   I tried to use an Apache FOP, the best I think open source pdf –> XSL-FO renderer written in Java from my project written in C# using an IKVM.NET and it work like a charm. In the rest of the post I want to show, how to prepare a .NET *.dll class library from Apache FOP *.jar’s with IKVM.NET and generate a simple Hello world pdf document.   To start playing with IKVM.NET and Apache FOP we need to download their packages: IKVM.NET Apache FOP and then unpack them.   From the FOP directory copy all the *.jar’s files from lib and build catalogs to some location, e.g. d:\fop. Second step is to build the *.dll library from these files. On the console execute the following comand:   ikvmc –target:library –out:d:\fop\fop.dll –recurse:d:\fop   The ikvmc is located in the bin subdirectory where you unpacked the IKVM.NET. You must execute this command from this catalog, add this path to the global variable PATH or specify the full path to the bin subdirectory.   In no error occurred during this process, the fop.dll library should be created. Right now we can create a simple project to test if we can create a pdf file.   So let’s create a simple console project application and add reference to the fop.dll and the IKVM dll’s: IKVM.OpenJDK.Core and IKVM.OpenJDK.XML.API.   Full code to generate a pdf file from XSL-FO template:   static void Main(string[] args)         {             //initialize the Apache FOP             FopFactory fopFactory = FopFactory.newInstance();               //in this stream we will get the generated pdf file             OutputStream o = new DotNetOutputMemoryStream();             try             {                 Fop fop = fopFactory.newFop("application/pdf", o);                 TransformerFactory factory = TransformerFactory.newInstance();                 Transformer transformer = factory.newTransformer();                   //read the template from disc                 Source src = new StreamSource(new File("HelloWorld.fo"));                 Result res = new SAXResult(fop.getDefaultHandler());                 transformer.transform(src, res);             }             finally             {                 o.close();             }             using (System.IO.FileStream fs = System.IO.File.Create("HelloWorld.pdf"))             {                 //write from the .NET MemoryStream stream to disc the generated pdf file                 var data = ((DotNetOutputMemoryStream)o).Stream.GetBuffer();                 fs.Write(data, 0, data.Length);             }             Process.Start("HelloWorld.pdf");             System.Console.ReadLine();         }   Apache FOP be default using a Java’s Xalan to work with XML files. I didn’t find a way to replace this piece of code with equivalent from .NET standard library. If any error or warning will occure during generating the pdf file, on the console will ge shown, that’s why I inserted the last line in the sample above. The DotNetOutputMemoryStream this is my wrapper for the Java OutputStream. I have created it to have the possibility to exchange data between the .NET <-> Java objects. It’s implementation:   class DotNetOutputMemoryStream : OutputStream     {         private System.IO.MemoryStream ms = new System.IO.MemoryStream();         public System.IO.MemoryStream Stream         {             get             {                 return ms;             }         }         public override void write(int i)         {             ms.WriteByte((byte)i);         }         public override void write(byte[] b, int off, int len)         {             ms.Write(b, off, len);         }         public override void write(byte[] b)         {             ms.Write(b, 0, b.Length);         }         public override void close()         {             ms.Close();         }         public override void flush()         {             ms.Flush();         }     } The last thing we need, this is the HelloWorld.fo template.   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <fo:root xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format"          xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">   <fo:layout-master-set>     <fo:simple-page-master master-name="simple"                   page-height="29.7cm"                   page-width="21cm"                   margin-top="1.8cm"                   margin-bottom="0.8cm"                   margin-left="1.6cm"                   margin-right="1.2cm">       <fo:region-body margin-top="3cm"/>       <fo:region-before extent="3cm"/>       <fo:region-after extent="1.5cm"/>     </fo:simple-page-master>   </fo:layout-master-set>   <fo:page-sequence master-reference="simple">     <fo:flow flow-name="xsl-region-body">       <fo:block font-size="18pt" color="black" text-align="center">         Hello, World!       </fo:block>     </fo:flow>   </fo:page-sequence> </fo:root>   I’m not going to explain how how this template is created, because this will be covered in the near future posts.   Generated pdf file should look that:

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  • Developing Mobile Applications: Web, Native, or Hybrid?

    - by Michelle Kimihira
    Authors: Joe Huang, Senior Principal Product Manager, Oracle Mobile Application Development Framework  and Carlos Chang, Senior Principal Product Director The proliferation of mobile devices and platforms represents a game-changing technology shift on a number of levels. Companies must decide not only the best strategic use of mobile platforms, but also how to most efficiently implement them. Inevitably, this conversation devolves to the developers, who face the task of developing and supporting mobile applications—not a simple task in light of the number of devices and platforms. Essentially, developers can choose from the following three different application approaches, each with its own set of pros and cons. Native Applications: This refers to apps built for and installed on a specific platform, such as iOS or Android, using a platform-specific software development kit (SDK).  For example, apps for Apple’s iPhone and iPad are designed to run specifically on iOS and are written in Xcode/Objective-C. Android has its own variation of Java, Windows uses C#, and so on.  Native apps written for one platform cannot be deployed on another. Native apps offer fast performance and access to native-device services but require additional resources to develop and maintain each platform, which can be expensive and time consuming. Mobile Web Applications: Unlike native apps, mobile web apps are not installed on the device; rather, they are accessed via a Web browser.  These are server-side applications that render HTML, typically adjusting the design depending on the type of device making the request.  There are no program coding constraints for writing server-side apps—they can be written in Java, C, PHP, etc., it doesn’t matter.  Instead, the server detects what type of mobile browser is pinging the server and adjusts accordingly. For example, it can deliver fully JavaScript and CSS-enabled content to smartphone browsers, while downgrading gracefully to basic HTML for feature phone browsers. Mobile apps work across platforms, but are limited to what you can do through a browser and require Internet connectivity. For certain types of applications, these constraints may not be an issue. Oracle supports mobile web applications via ADF Faces (for tablets) and ADF Mobile browser (Trinidad) for smartphone and feature phones. Hybrid Applications: As the name implies, hybrid apps combine technologies from native and mobile Web apps to gain the benefits each. For example, these apps are installed on a device, like their pure native app counterparts, while the user interface (UI) is based on HTML5.  This UI runs locally within the native container, which usually leverages the device’s browser engine.  The advantage of using HTML5 is a consistent, cross-platform UI that works well on most devices.  Combining this with the native container, which is installed on-device, provides mobile users with access to local device services, such as camera, GPS, and local device storage.  Native apps may offer greater flexibility in integrating with device native services.  However, since hybrid applications already provide device integrations that typical enterprise applications need, this is typically less of an issue.  The new Oracle ADF Mobile release is an HTML5 and Java hybrid framework that targets mobile app development to iOS and Android from one code base. So, Which is the Best Approach? The short answer is – the best choice depends on the type of application you are developing.  For instance, animation-intensive apps such as games would favor native apps, while hybrid applications may be better suited for enterprise mobile apps because they provide multi-platform support. Just for starters, the following issues must be considered when choosing a development path. Application Complexity: How complex is the application? A quick app that accesses a database or Web service for some data to display?  You can keep it simple, and a mobile Web app may suffice. However, for a mobile/field worker type of applications that supports mission critical functionality, hybrid or native applications are typically needed. Richness of User Interactivity: What type of user experience is required for the application?  Mobile browser-based app that’s optimized for mobile UI may suffice for quick lookup or productivity type of applications.  However, hybrid/native application would typically be required to deliver highly interactive user experiences needed for field-worker type of applications.  For example, interactive BI charts/graphs, maps, voice/email integration, etc.  In the most extreme case like gaming applications, native applications may be necessary to deliver the highly animated and graphically intensive user experience. Performance: What type of performance is required by the application functionality?  For instance, for real-time look up of data over the network, mobile app performance depends on network latency and server infrastructure capabilities.  If consistent performance is required, data would typically need to be cached, which is supported on hybrid or native applications only. Connectivity and Availability: What sort of connectivity will your application require? Does the app require Web access all the time in order to always retrieve the latest data from the server? Or do the requirements dictate offline support? While native and hybrid apps can be built to operate offline, Web mobile apps require Web connectivity. Multi-platform Requirements: The terms “consumerization of IT” and BYOD (bring your own device) effectively mean that the line between the consumer and the enterprise devices have become blurred. Employees are bringing their personal mobile devices to work and are often expecting that they work in the corporate network and access back-office applications.  Even if companies restrict access to the big dogs: (iPad, iPhone, Android phones and tablets, possibly Windows Phone and tablets), trying to support each platform natively will require increasing resources and domain expertise with each new language/platform. And let’s not forget the maintenance costs, involved in upgrading new versions of each platform.   Where multi-platform support is needed, Web mobile or hybrid apps probably have the advantage. Going native, and trying to support multiple operating systems may be cost prohibitive with existing resources and developer skills. Device-Services Access:  If your app needs to access local device services, such as the camera, contacts app, accelerometer, etc., then your choices are limited to native or hybrid applications.   Fragmentation: Apple controls Apple iOS and the only concern is what version iOS is running on any given device.   Not so Android, which is open source. There are many, many versions and variants of Android running on different devices, which can be a nightmare for app developers trying to support different devices running different flavors of Android.  (Is it an Amazon Kindle Fire? a Samsung Galaxy?  A Barnes & Noble Nook?) This is a nightmare scenario for native apps—on the other hand, a mobile Web or hybrid app, when properly designed, can shield you from these complexities because they are based on common frameworks.  Resources: How many developers can you dedicate to building and supporting mobile application development?  What are their existing skills sets?  If you’re considering native application development due to the complexity of the application under development, factor the costs of becoming proficient on a each platform’s OS and programming language. Add another platform, and that’s another language, another SDK. On the other side of the equation, Web mobile or hybrid applications are simpler to make, and readily support more platforms, but there may be performance trade-offs. Conclusion This only scratches the surface. However, I hope to have suggested some food for thought in choosing your mobile development strategy.  Do your due diligence, search the Web, read up on mobile, talk to peers, attend events. The development team at Oracle is working hard on mobile technologies to help customers extend enterprise applications to mobile faster and effectively.  To learn more on what Oracle has to offer, check out the Oracle ADF Mobile (hybrid) and ADF Faces/ADF Mobile browser (Web Mobile) solutions from Oracle.   Additional Information Blog: ADF Blog Product Information on OTN: ADF Mobile Product Information on Oracle.com: Oracle Fusion Middleware Follow us on Twitter and Facebook Subscribe to our regular Fusion Middleware Newsletter

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  • SQL Sentry First Impressions

    - by AjarnMark
    After struggling to defend my SQL Servers from a political attack recently, I realized that I needed better tools to back me up, and SQL Sentry is the leading candidate. A couple of weeks ago, seemingly from out of nowhere, complaints from the business users started coming in that one of the core internal applications was running dramatically slower than normal, and fingers were being pointed at the SQL Server.  Unfortunately, we don’t have a production DBA whose entire job is to monitor and maintain our SQL Servers.  The responsibility falls to me to do the best I can, investing only a small portion of my time, because there are so many other responsibilities to take care of, and our industry is still deep in recession.  I inherited these SQL Servers and have made significant improvements in process and procedure, but I had not yet made the time to take real baseline measurements or keep a really close eye on the performance.  Like many DBAs, I wrote several of my own tools and used the “built-in tools” like Profiler, PerfMon, and sp_who2 (did I mention most of our instances are SQL Server 2000?).  These have all served me well for in-the-moment troubleshooting and maintenance, but they really fell down on the job when I was called upon to “prove” that SQL Server performance was acceptable and more importantly had not degraded recently (i.e. historical comparisons).  I really didn’t have anything from a historical comparison perspective, but I was able to show that current performance was acceptable, and deflect attention back onto other components (which in fact turned out to be the real culprit). That experience dramatically illustrated the need for better monitoring tools.  Coincidentally, I had been talking recently to my boss about the mini nightmare of monitoring several critical and interdependent overnight jobs that operate on separate instances of SQL Server.  Among other tools, I had been using Idera’s SQL Job Manager which is a free tool and did a nice job of showing me job schedules and histories in a nice calendar view.  This worked fairly well, and for the money (did I mention it was free?) it couldn’t be beat.  But it is based on the stored job history in MSDB, and there were other performance problems that we ran into when we started changing the settings for how much job history to retain, in order to be able to look back a month or more in the calendar view.  Another coincidence (if you believe in such things) was that when we had some of those performance challenges, I posted a couple of questions to the #sqlhelp hashtag on Twitter and Greg Gonzalez (@SQLSensei) suggested I check out SQL Sentry’s Event Manager.  At the time, I just thought he worked there, but later found out that he founded the company.  When I took a quick look at the features & benefits, the one that really jumped out at me is Chaining and Queueing which sounded like it would really help with our “interdependent jobs on different servers” issue. I know that is a lot of background story and coincidences, but hopefully you have stuck with me so far, and now we have arrived at the point where last week I downloaded and installed the 30-day trial of the SQL Sentry Power Suite, which is Event Manager plus Performance Advisor.  And I must say that I really like what I see so far.  Here are a few highlights: Great Support.  I had two issues getting the trial setup and monitoring a handful of our servers.  One of which was entirely my fault (missed a security setting in SQL 2008) and the other was mostly my fault (late change to some config settings that were apparently cached and did not get refreshed properly).  In both cases, the support staff at SQL Sentry were very responsive and rather quickly figured out what the cause and fix was for each of them.  This left me with a great impression of the company.  Kudos to them! Chaining and Queueing.  While I have not yet activated this feature, I am very excited about the possibilities.  We have jobs on three different instances of SQL Server that have to be run in a certain order, and each has to finish before the next can successfully begin, and I believe this feature will ensure just that.  It has been a real pain in the backside when one of those jobs runs just a little too long and does not finish before the job on another instance starts, thus triggering a chain reaction of either outright job failures, or worse, successful completion of completely invalid processing. Calendar View.  I really, really like the Event Manager calendar view where I can see all jobs and events across all instances and identify potential resource contention as well as windows of opportunity for maintenance activity.  Very well done, and based on Event Manager’s own database of accumulated historical information rather than querying the source instances every time. Performance Advisor Dashboard History View.  This view let’s me quickly select a date and time range and it displays graphs of key SQL Server and Windows metrics.  This is exactly the thing I needed to answer the “has performance changed recently” question at the beginning of this post. Reporting Services Subscription Jobs with Report Name.  This was a big and VERY pleasant surprise.  If you have ever looked at the list of SQL Server jobs that SQL Server Reporting Services creates when you make a Subscription, you will notice that they all have some sort of GUID as the name of the job.  This is really ugly, and really annoying because when you are just looking at the SQL Agent and Job Activity Monitor, if you see that Job X failed, you really do not have any indication in the name or the properties of the Job itself, as to what Report that was for.  But with SQL Sentry Event Manager you do.  The Jobs list in the Navigator pane in SQL Sentry, amazingly, displays the name of the Report that the Subscription Job is for.  And when you open it to see more details, it shows you the full Reporting Services path to that Report, so you can immediately track it down in the Report Manager in case you want to identify/notify the owner or edit the Subscription information.  I did not expect this at all, but I sure do like it.  HOORAY! That is just my first impressions from using the tools for a few days.  And I haven’t even gotten into how it showed me where I was completely mistaken about one aspect of my SQL Server disk configurations.  I’ll share that lesson in another blog entry.  But I have to say it again, the combination of Event Manager and Performance Advisor working together have really made me a fan.

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  • Emtel Knowledge Series - Q2/2014

    From Cyber Island to Smart Mauritius Cyber Island? Smart Mauritius? - What is Emtel talking about? "With the majority of the population living in urban environments today, the concept of "Smart Cities" has become an urgent necessity. "Smart Cities" refer to an urban transformation which, by using latest ICT technologies makes cities more efficient. Many Governments are setting out ambitious plans to build the cities of the future based on massive connectivity, high bandwidth communications, intelligent sensors and analysis of huge volumes of data. Various researches have shown four key enablers for smart city success - Government leadership, suitable technology infrastructure, solid public-private partnerships and engaged citizens. It is around these enabling factors that telecoms companies can play a vital role in assisting governments to deliver on the smart city vision." The Emtel Knowledge Series goes in compliance with Emtel's 25th anniversary celebrations throughout the year and the master of ceremony, Kim Andersen, mentioned that there will be more upcoming events on a quarterly base. As a representative of the Mauritius Software Craftsmanship Community (MSCC) there was absolutely no hesitation to join in again. Following my visit to the first Emtel Knowledge Series workshop back in February this year, it was great to have another opportunity to meet and exchange with technology experts. But quite frankly what is it with those buzz words... As far as I remember and how it was mentioned "Cyber Island" is an old initiative from around 2005/2006 which has been refreshed in 2010. It implies the empowerment of Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) as an essential factor of growth by the government here in Mauritius. Actually, the first promotional period of Cyber Island brought me here but that's another story. The venue and its own problems Like last time the event was organised and held at the Conference Hall at Cyber Tower I in Ebene. As I've been working there for some years, I know about the frustrating situation of finding a proper parking. So, does Smart Island include better solutions for the search of parking spaces? Maybe, let's see whether I will be able to answer that question at the end of the article. Anyway, after circling around the tower almost two times, I finally got a decent space to put the car, without risking to get a ticket or damage actually. International speakers and their experience Once again, Emtel did a great job to get international expertise onto the stage to share their experience and vision on this kind of embarkment. Personally, I really appreciated the fact they were speakers of global reach and could provide own-experience knowledge. Johan Gott spoke about the fundamental change that the Swedish government ignited in order to move their society and workers' environment away from heavy industry towards a knowledge-based approach. Additionally, we spoke about the effort and transformation of New York City into a greener and more efficient Smart City. Given modern technology he also advised that any kind of available Big Data should be opened to the general public - this openness would provide a playground for anyone to garner new ideas and most probably solid solutions of which no one else thought about before. Emtel Knowledge Series on moving from Cyber Island to Smart Mauritus Later during the afternoon that exact statement regarding openness to and transparency of government-owned Big Data has been emphasised again by the Danish speaker Kim Andersen and his former colleague Mika Jantunen from Finland. Mika continued to underline the important role of the government to provide a solid foundation for a knowledge-based society and mentioned that Finnish citizens have a constitutional right to broadband connectivity. Next to free higher (tertiary) education Finland already produced a good number of innovations, among them are: First country to grant voting rights to women Free higher education Constitutional right to broadband connectivity Nokia Linux Angry Birds Sauna and others...  General access to internet via broadband and/or mobile connectivity is surely a key factor towards Smart Cities, or better said Smart Mauritius given the area dimensions and size of population. CTO Paul Valette gave the audience a brief overview of the essential role that Emtel will have to move Mauritius forward towards a knowledge-based and innovation-driven environment for its citizen. What I have seen looks really promising and with recently published information that Mauritians have 127% of mobile capacity - meaning more than 1 mobile, smartphone or tablet per person - it will be crucial to have the right infrastructure for these connected devices. How would it be possible to achieve a knowledge-based society? YouTube to the rescue!Seriously, gaining more knowledge will require to have fast access to educational course material as explained by Dr Kaviraj Sukon, General Director of the Open University of Mauritius. According to him a good number of high-profile universities in the world have opened their course libraries to the general public, among them EDX, Coursera and Open University. Nowadays, you're actually able and enabled to learn for and earn a BSc or even MSc certification on your own pace - no need to attend classed on campus. It was really impressive to see the number of available hours - more than enough for a life-long learning experience! {loadposition content_adsense} Networking in the name of MSCC As briefly mentioned above I was about to combine two approaches for this workshop. Of course, getting latest information and updates on Emtel services available, especially for my business here on the west coast of the island, but also to meet and greet new people for the MSCC. And I think it was very positive on both sides. Let me quickly describe some of the key aspects that happened during the day: Met with Arnaud Meslier and Kellie, both Microsoft to swap latest information on IT events. Hereby, I got an invite to Microsoft Windows Phone 8.1 Dev Camp. Got in touch with Arvin Lockee, Emtel to check our options to meet with the data team, and seizing the opportunity to have a visiting tour at the Emtel Data Centre. Had a great chat with Avinash Meetoo, Knowledge 7, Kim Andersen and Mika Jantunen about the situation of teaching and learning in general and specifically in the private sector here in Mauritius. Additionally, a number of various other interesting chats... Once again, I'm catching up on a couple of business cards in order to provide more background information about the MSCC, and to create a better awareness of MSCC within the local IT businesses. There is more to come soon!  Resume of the day The number of attendees during this event has been doubled or even tripled this time. The whole organisation has been improved massively and the combination of presentation and summarizing panel discussions was better than during the previous workshop back in February. Overall, once again a well-organised workshop and I'm already looking forward to join the next workshop in Q3. Update End of July we finally managed to visit the Emtel Data Centre in Arsenal. It was an interesting opportunity for some of our MSCC members.

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  • Unlocking Productivity

    - by Michael Snow
    Unlocking Productivity in Life Sciences with Consolidated Content Management by Joe Golemba, Vice President, Product Management, Oracle WebCenter As life sciences organizations look to become more operationally efficient, the ability to effectively leverage information is a competitive advantage. Whether data mining at the drug discovery phase or prepping the sales team before a product launch, content management can play a key role in developing, organizing, and disseminating vital information. The goal of content management is relatively straightforward: put the information that people need where they can find it. A number of issues can complicate this; information sits in many different systems, each of those systems has its own security, and the information in those systems exists in many different formats. Identifying and extracting pertinent information from mountains of farflung data is no simple job, but the alternative—wasted effort or even regulatory compliance issues—is worse. An integrated information architecture can enable health sciences organizations to make better decisions, accelerate clinical operations, and be more competitive. Unstructured data matters Often when we think of drug development data, we think of structured data that fits neatly into one or more research databases. But structured data is often directly supported by unstructured data such as experimental protocols, reaction conditions, lot numbers, run times, analyses, and research notes. As life sciences companies seek integrated views of data, they are typically finding diverse islands of data that seemingly have no relationship to other data in the organization. Information like sales reports or call center reports can be locked into siloed systems, and unavailable to the discovery process. Additionally, in the increasingly networked clinical environment, Web pages, instant messages, videos, scientific imaging, sales and marketing data, collaborative workspaces, and predictive modeling data are likely to be present within an organization, and each source potentially possesses information that can help to better inform specific efforts. Historically, content management solutions that had 21CFR Part 11 capabilities—electronic records and signatures—were focused mainly on content-enabling manufacturing-related processes. Today, life sciences companies have many standalone repositories, requiring different skills, service level agreements, and vendor support costs to manage them. With the amount of content doubling every three to six months, companies have recognized the need to manage unstructured content from the beginning, in order to increase employee productivity and operational efficiency. Using scalable and secure enterprise content management (ECM) solutions, organizations can better manage their unstructured content. These solutions can also be integrated with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems or research systems, making content available immediately, in the context of the application and within the flow of the employee’s typical business activity. Administrative safeguards—such as content de-duplication—can also be applied within ECM systems, so documents are never recreated, eliminating redundant efforts, ensuring one source of truth, and maintaining content standards in the organization. Putting it in context Consolidating structured and unstructured information in a single system can greatly simplify access to relevant information when it is needed through contextual search. Using contextual filters, results can include therapeutic area, position in the value chain, semantic commonalities, technology-specific factors, specific researchers involved, or potential business impact. The use of taxonomies is essential to organizing information and enabling contextual searches. Taxonomy solutions are composed of a hierarchical tree that defines the relationship between different life science terms. When overlaid with additional indexing related to research and/or business processes, it becomes possible to effectively narrow down the amount of data that is returned during searches, as well as prioritize results based on specific criteria and/or prior search history. Thus, search results are more accurate and relevant to an employee’s day-to-day work. For example, a search for the word "tissue" by a lab researcher would return significantly different results than a search for the same word performed by someone in procurement. Of course, diverse data repositories, combined with the immense amounts of data present in an organization, necessitate that the data elements be regularly indexed and cached beforehand to enable reasonable search response times. In its simplest form, indexing of a single, consolidated data warehouse can be expected to be a relatively straightforward effort. However, organizations require the ability to index multiple data repositories, enabling a single search to reference multiple data sources and provide an integrated results listing. Security and compliance Beyond yielding efficiencies and supporting new insight, an enterprise search environment can support important security considerations as well as compliance initiatives. For example, the systems enable organizations to retain the relevance and the security of the indexed systems, so users can only see the results to which they are granted access. This is especially important as life sciences companies are working in an increasingly networked environment and need to provide secure, role-based access to information across multiple partners. Although not officially required by the 21 CFR Part 11 regulation, the U.S. Food and Drug Administraiton has begun to extend the type of content considered when performing relevant audits and discoveries. Having an ECM infrastructure that provides centralized management of all content enterprise-wide—with the ability to consistently apply records and retention policies along with the appropriate controls, validations, audit trails, and electronic signatures—is becoming increasingly critical for life sciences companies. Making the move Creating an enterprise-wide ECM environment requires moving large amounts of content into a single enterprise repository, a daunting and risk-laden initiative. The first key is to focus on data taxonomy, allowing content to be mapped across systems. The second is to take advantage new tools which can dramatically speed and reduce the cost of the data migration process through automation. Additional content need not be frozen while it is migrated, enabling productivity throughout the process. The ability to effectively leverage information into success has been gaining importance in the life sciences industry for years. The rapid adoption of enterprise content management, both in operational processes as well as in scientific management, are clear indicators that the companies are looking to use all available data to be better informed, improve decision making, minimize risk, and increase time to market, to maintain profitability and be more competitive. As more and more varieties and sources of information are brought under the strategic management umbrella, the ability to divine knowledge from the vast pool of information is increasingly difficult. Simple search engines and basic content management are increasingly unable to effectively extract the right information from the mountains of data available. By bringing these tools into context and integrating them with business processes and applications, we can effectively focus on the right decisions that make our organizations more profitable. More Information Oracle will be exhibiting at DIA 2012 in Philadelphia on June 25-27. Stop by our booth Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} (#2825) to learn more about the advantages of a centralized ECM strategy and see the Oracle WebCenter Content solution, our 21 CFR Part 11 compliant content management platform.

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  • First PC Build (Part 1)

    - by Anthony Trudeau
    Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/tonyt/archive/2014/08/05/157959.aspxA couple of months ago I made the decision to build myself a new computer. The intended use is gaming and for using the last real version of Photoshop. I was motivated by the poor state of console gaming and a simple desire to do something I haven’t done before – build a PC from the ground up. I’ve been using PCs for more than two decades. I’ve replaced a component hear and there, but for the last 10 years or so I’ve only used laptops. Therefore, this article will be written from the perspective of someone familiar with PCs, but completely new at building. I’m not an expert and this is not a definitive guide for building a PC, but I do hope that it encourages you to try it yourself. Component List Research There was a lot of research necessary, because building a PC is completely new to me, and I haven’t kept up with what’s out there. The first thing you want to do is nail down what your goals are. Your goals are going to be driven by what you want to do with your computer and personal choice. Don’t neglect the second one, because if you’re doing this for fun you want to get what you want. In my case, I focused on three things: performance, longevity, and aesthetics. The performance aspect is important for gaming and Photoshop. This will drive what components you get. For example, heavy gaming use is going to drive your choice of graphics card. Longevity is relevant to me, because I don’t want to be changing things out anytime soon for the next hot game. The consequence of performance and longevity is cost. Finally, aesthetics was my next consideration. I could have just built a box, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as fun for me. Aesthetics might not be important to you. They are for me. I also like gadgets and that played into at least one purchase for this build. I used PC Part Picker to put together my component list. I found it invaluable during the process and I’d recommend it to everyone. One caveat is that I wouldn’t trust the compatibility aspects. It does a pretty good job of not steering you wrong, but do your own research. The rest of it isn’t really sexy. I started out with what appealed to me and then I made changes and additions as I dived deep into researching each component and interaction I could find. The resources I used are innumerable. I used reviews, product descriptions, forum posts (praises and problems), et al. to assist me. I also asked friends into gaming what they thought about my component list. And when I got near the end I posted my list to the Reddit /r/buildapc forum. I cannot stress the value of extra sets of eyeballs and first hand experiences. Some of the resources I used: PC Part Picker Tom’s Hardware bit-tech Reddit Purchase PC Part Picker favors certain vendors. You should look at others too. In my case I found their favorites to be the best. My priorities were out-the-door price and shipping time. I knew that once I started getting parts I’d want to start building. Luckily, I timed it well and everything arrived within the span of a few days. Here are my opinions on the vendors I ended up using in alphabetical order. Amazon.com is a good, reliable choice. They have excellent customer service in my experience, and I knew I wouldn’t have trouble with them. However, shipping time is often a problem when you use their free shipping unless you order expensive items (I’ve found items over $100 ship quickly). Ultimately though, price wasn’t always the best and their collection of sales tax in my state turned me off them. I did purchase my case from them. I ordered the mouse as well, but I cancelled after it was stuck four days in a “shipping soon” state. I purchased the mouse locally. Best Buy is not my favorite place to do business. There’s a lot of history with poor, uninterested sales representatives and they used to have a lot of bad anti-consumer policies. That’s a lot better now, but the bad taste is still in my mouth. I ended up purchasing the accessories from them including mouse (locally) and headphones. NCIX is a company that I’ve never heard of before. It popped up as a recommendation for my CPU cooler on PC Part Picker. I didn’t do a lot of research on the company, because their policy on you buying insurance for your orders turned me off. That policy makes it clear to me that the company finds me responsible for the shipment once it leaves their dock. That’s not right, and may run afoul of state laws. Regardless they shipped my CPU cooler quickly and I didn’t have a problem. NewEgg.com is a well known company. I had never done business with them, but I’m glad I did. They shipped quickly and provided good visibility over everything. The prices were also the best in most cases. My main complaint is that they have a lot of exchange only return policies on components. To their credit those policies are listed in the cart underneath each item. The visibility tells me that they’re not playing any shenanigans and made me comfortable dealing with that risk. The vast majority of what I ordered came from them. Coming Next In the next part I’ll tackle my build experience.

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  • How to follow object on CatmullRomSplines at constant speed (e.g. train and train carriage)?

    - by Simon
    I have a CatmullRomSpline, and using the very good example at https://github.com/libgdx/libgdx/wiki/Path-interface-%26-Splines I have my object moving at an even pace over the spline. Using a simple train and carriage example, I now want to have the carriage follow the train at the same speed as the train (not jolting along as it does with my code below). This leads into my main questions: How can I make the carriage have the same constant speed as the train and make it non jerky (it has something to do with the derivative I think, I don't understand how that part works)? Why do I need to divide by the line length to convert to metres per second, and is that correct? It wasn't done in the linked examples? I have used the example I linked to above, and modified for my specific example: private void process(CatmullRomSpline catmullRomSpline) { // Render path with precision of 1000 points renderPath(catmullRomSpline, 1000); float length = catmullRomSpline.approxLength(catmullRomSpline.spanCount * 1000); // Render the "train" Vector2 trainDerivative = new Vector2(); Vector2 trainLocation = new Vector2(); catmullRomSpline.derivativeAt(trainDerivative, current); // For some reason need to divide by length to convert from pixel speed to metres per second but I do not // really understand why I need it, it wasn't done in the examples??????? current += (Gdx.graphics.getDeltaTime() * speed / length) / trainDerivative.len(); catmullRomSpline.valueAt(trainLocation, current); renderCircleAtLocation(trainLocation); if (current >= 1) { current -= 1; } // Render the "carriage" Vector2 carriageLocation = new Vector2(); float carriagePercentageCovered = (((current * length) - 1f) / length); // I would like it to follow at 1 metre behind carriagePercentageCovered = Math.max(carriagePercentageCovered, 0); catmullRomSpline.valueAt(carriageLocation, carriagePercentageCovered); renderCircleAtLocation(carriageLocation); } private void renderPath(CatmullRomSpline catmullRomSpline, int k) { // catMulPoints would normally be cached when initialising, but for sake of example... Vector2[] catMulPoints = new Vector2[k]; for (int i = 0; i < k; ++i) { catMulPoints[i] = new Vector2(); catmullRomSpline.valueAt(catMulPoints[i], ((float) i) / ((float) k - 1)); } SHAPE_RENDERER.begin(ShapeRenderer.ShapeType.Line); SHAPE_RENDERER.setColor(Color.NAVY); for (int i = 0; i < k - 1; ++i) { SHAPE_RENDERER.line((Vector2) catMulPoints[i], (Vector2) catMulPoints[i + 1]); } SHAPE_RENDERER.end(); } private void renderCircleAtLocation(Vector2 location) { SHAPE_RENDERER.begin(ShapeRenderer.ShapeType.Filled); SHAPE_RENDERER.setColor(Color.YELLOW); SHAPE_RENDERER.circle(location.x, location.y, .5f); SHAPE_RENDERER.end(); } To create a decent sized CatmullRomSpline for testing this out: Vector2[] controlPoints = makeControlPointsArray(); CatmullRomSpline myCatmull = new CatmullRomSpline(controlPoints, false); .... private Vector2[] makeControlPointsArray() { Vector2[] pointsArray = new Vector2[78]; pointsArray[0] = new Vector2(1.681817f, 10.379999f); pointsArray[1] = new Vector2(2.045455f, 10.379999f); pointsArray[2] = new Vector2(2.663636f, 10.479999f); pointsArray[3] = new Vector2(3.027272f, 10.700000f); pointsArray[4] = new Vector2(3.663636f, 10.939999f); pointsArray[5] = new Vector2(4.245455f, 10.899999f); pointsArray[6] = new Vector2(4.736363f, 10.720000f); pointsArray[7] = new Vector2(4.754545f, 10.339999f); pointsArray[8] = new Vector2(4.518181f, 9.860000f); pointsArray[9] = new Vector2(3.790908f, 9.340000f); pointsArray[10] = new Vector2(3.172727f, 8.739999f); pointsArray[11] = new Vector2(3.300000f, 8.340000f); pointsArray[12] = new Vector2(3.700000f, 8.159999f); pointsArray[13] = new Vector2(4.227272f, 8.520000f); pointsArray[14] = new Vector2(4.681818f, 8.819999f); pointsArray[15] = new Vector2(5.081817f, 9.200000f); pointsArray[16] = new Vector2(5.463636f, 9.460000f); pointsArray[17] = new Vector2(5.972727f, 9.300000f); pointsArray[18] = new Vector2(6.063636f, 8.780000f); pointsArray[19] = new Vector2(6.027272f, 8.259999f); pointsArray[20] = new Vector2(5.700000f, 7.739999f); pointsArray[21] = new Vector2(5.300000f, 7.440000f); pointsArray[22] = new Vector2(4.645454f, 7.179999f); pointsArray[23] = new Vector2(4.136363f, 6.940000f); pointsArray[24] = new Vector2(3.427272f, 6.720000f); pointsArray[25] = new Vector2(2.572727f, 6.559999f); pointsArray[26] = new Vector2(1.900000f, 7.100000f); pointsArray[27] = new Vector2(2.336362f, 7.440000f); pointsArray[28] = new Vector2(2.590908f, 7.940000f); pointsArray[29] = new Vector2(2.318181f, 8.500000f); pointsArray[30] = new Vector2(1.663636f, 8.599999f); pointsArray[31] = new Vector2(1.209090f, 8.299999f); pointsArray[32] = new Vector2(1.118181f, 7.700000f); pointsArray[33] = new Vector2(1.045455f, 6.880000f); pointsArray[34] = new Vector2(1.154545f, 6.100000f); pointsArray[35] = new Vector2(1.281817f, 5.580000f); pointsArray[36] = new Vector2(1.700000f, 5.320000f); pointsArray[37] = new Vector2(2.190908f, 5.199999f); pointsArray[38] = new Vector2(2.900000f, 5.100000f); pointsArray[39] = new Vector2(3.700000f, 5.100000f); pointsArray[40] = new Vector2(4.372727f, 5.220000f); pointsArray[41] = new Vector2(4.827272f, 5.220000f); pointsArray[42] = new Vector2(5.463636f, 5.160000f); pointsArray[43] = new Vector2(5.554545f, 4.700000f); pointsArray[44] = new Vector2(5.245453f, 4.340000f); pointsArray[45] = new Vector2(4.445455f, 4.280000f); pointsArray[46] = new Vector2(3.609091f, 4.260000f); pointsArray[47] = new Vector2(2.718181f, 4.160000f); pointsArray[48] = new Vector2(1.990908f, 4.140000f); pointsArray[49] = new Vector2(1.427272f, 3.980000f); pointsArray[50] = new Vector2(1.609090f, 3.580000f); pointsArray[51] = new Vector2(2.136363f, 3.440000f); pointsArray[52] = new Vector2(3.227272f, 3.280000f); pointsArray[53] = new Vector2(3.972727f, 3.340000f); pointsArray[54] = new Vector2(5.027272f, 3.360000f); pointsArray[55] = new Vector2(5.718181f, 3.460000f); pointsArray[56] = new Vector2(6.100000f, 4.240000f); pointsArray[57] = new Vector2(6.209091f, 4.500000f); pointsArray[58] = new Vector2(6.118181f, 5.320000f); pointsArray[59] = new Vector2(5.772727f, 5.920000f); pointsArray[60] = new Vector2(4.881817f, 6.140000f); pointsArray[61] = new Vector2(5.318181f, 6.580000f); pointsArray[62] = new Vector2(6.263636f, 7.020000f); pointsArray[63] = new Vector2(6.645453f, 7.420000f); pointsArray[64] = new Vector2(6.681817f, 8.179999f); pointsArray[65] = new Vector2(6.627272f, 9.080000f); pointsArray[66] = new Vector2(6.572727f, 9.699999f); pointsArray[67] = new Vector2(6.263636f, 10.820000f); pointsArray[68] = new Vector2(5.754546f, 11.479999f); pointsArray[69] = new Vector2(4.536363f, 11.599998f); pointsArray[70] = new Vector2(3.572727f, 11.700000f); pointsArray[71] = new Vector2(2.809090f, 11.660000f); pointsArray[72] = new Vector2(1.445455f, 11.559999f); pointsArray[73] = new Vector2(0.936363f, 11.280000f); pointsArray[74] = new Vector2(0.754545f, 10.879999f); pointsArray[75] = new Vector2(0.700000f, 9.939999f); pointsArray[76] = new Vector2(0.918181f, 9.620000f); pointsArray[77] = new Vector2(1.463636f, 9.600000f); return pointsArray; } Disclaimer: My math is very rusty, so please explain in lay mans terms....

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  • ANTS CLR and Memory Profiler In Depth Review (Part 2 of 2 &ndash; Memory Profiler)

    - by ToStringTheory
    One of the things that people might not know about me, is my obsession to make my code as efficient as possible. Many people might not realize how much of a task or undertaking that this might be, but it is surely a task as monumental as climbing Mount Everest, except this time it is a challenge for the mind… In trying to make code efficient, there are many different factors that play a part – size of project or solution, tiers, language used, experience and training of the programmer, technologies used, maintainability of the code – the list can go on for quite some time. I spend quite a bit of time when developing trying to determine what is the best way to implement a feature to accomplish the efficiency that I look to achieve. One program that I have recently come to learn about – Red Gate ANTS Performance (CLR) and Memory profiler gives me tools to accomplish that job more efficiently as well. In this review, I am going to cover some of the features of the ANTS memory profiler set by compiling some hideous example code to test against. Notice As a member of the Geeks With Blogs Influencers program, one of the perks is the ability to review products, in exchange for a free license to the program. I have not let this affect my opinions of the product in any way, and Red Gate nor Geeks With Blogs has tried to influence my opinion regarding this product in any way. Introduction – Part 2 In my last post, I reviewed the feature packed Red Gate ANTS Performance Profiler.  Separate from the Red Gate Performance Profiler is the Red Gate ANTS Memory Profiler – a simple, easy to use utility for checking how your application is handling memory management…  A tool that I wish I had had many times in the past.  This post will be focusing on the ANTS Memory Profiler and its tool set. The memory profiler has a large assortment of features just like the Performance Profiler, with the new session looking nearly exactly alike: ANTS Memory Profiler Memory profiling is not something that I have to do very often…  In the past, the few cases I’ve had to find a memory leak in an application I have usually just had to trace the code of the operations being performed to look for oddities…  Sadly, I have come across more undisposed/non-using’ed IDisposable objects, usually from ADO.Net than I would like to ever see.  Support is not fun, however using ANTS Memory Profiler makes this task easier.  For this round of testing, I am going to use the same code from my previous example, using the WPF application. This time, I will choose the ‘Profile Memory’ option from the ANTS menu in Visual Studio, which launches the solution in its currently configured state/start-up project, and then launches the ANTS Memory Profiler to help.  It prepopulates all of the fields with the current project information, and all I have to do is select the ‘Start Profiling’ option. When the window comes up, it is actually quite barren, just giving ideas on how to work the profiler.  You start by getting to the point in your application that you want to profile, and then taking a ‘Memory Snapshot’.  This performs a full garbage collection, and snapshots the managed heap.  Using the same WPF app as before, I will go ahead and take a snapshot now. As you can see, ANTS is already giving me lots of information regarding the snapshot, however this is just a snapshot.  The whole point of the profiler is to perform an action, usually one where a memory problem is being noticed, and then take another snapshot and perform a diff between them to see what has changed.  I am going to go ahead and generate 5000 primes, and then take another snapshot: As you can see, ANTS is already giving me a lot of new information about this snapshot compared to the last.  Information such as difference in memory usage, fragmentation, class usage, etc…  If you take more snapshots, you can use the dropdown at the top to set your actual comparison snapshots. If you beneath the timeline, you will see a breadcrumb trail showing how best to approach profiling memory using ANTS.  When you first do the comparison, you start on the Summary screen.  You can either use the charts at the bottom, or switch to the class list screen to get to the next step.  Here is the class list screen: As you can see, it lists information about all of the instances between the snapshots, as well as at the bottom giving you a way to filter by telling ANTS what your problem is.  I am going to go ahead and select the Int16[] to look at the Instance Categorizer Using the instance categorizer, you can travel backwards to see where all of the instances are coming from.  It may be hard to see in this image, but hopefully the lightbox (click on it) will help: I can see that all of these instances are rooted to the application through the UI TextBlock control.  This image will probably be even harder to see, however using the ‘Instance Retention Graph’, you can trace an objects memory inheritance up the chain to see its roots as well.  This is a simple example, as this is simply a known element.  Usually you would be profiling an actual problem, and comparing those differences.  I know in the past, I have spotted a problem where a new context was created per page load, and it was rooted into the application through an event.  As the application began to grow, performance and reliability problems started to emerge.  A tool like this would have been a great way to identify the problem quickly. Overview Overall, I think that the Red Gate ANTS Memory Profiler is a great utility for debugging those pesky leaks.  3 Biggest Pros: Easy to use interface with lots of options for configuring profiling session Intuitive and helpful interface for drilling down from summary, to instance, to root graphs ANTS provides an API for controlling the profiler. Not many options, but still helpful. 2 Biggest Cons: Inability to automatically snapshot the memory by interval Lack of complete integration with Visual Studio via an extension panel Ratings Ease of Use (9/10) – I really do believe that they have brought simplicity to the once difficult task of memory profiling.  I especially liked how it stepped you further into the drilldown by directing you towards the best options. Effectiveness (10/10) – I believe that the profiler does EXACTLY what it purports to do.  Features (7/10) – A really great set of features all around in the application, however, I would like to see some ability for automatically triggering snapshots based on intervals or framework level items such as events. Customer Service (10/10) – My entire experience with Red Gate personnel has been nothing but good.  their people are friendly, helpful, and happy! UI / UX (9/10) – The interface is very easy to get around, and all of the options are easy to find.  With a little bit of poking around, you’ll be optimizing Hello World in no time flat! Overall (9/10) – Overall, I am happy with the Memory Profiler and its features, as well as with the service I received when working with the Red Gate personnel.  Thank you for reading up to here, or skipping ahead – I told you it would be shorter!  Please, if you do try the product, drop me a message and let me know what you think!  I would love to hear any opinions you may have on the product. Code Feel free to download the code I used above – download via DropBox

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  • How to begin? Windows 8 Development

    - by Dennis Vroegop
    Ok. I convinced you in my last post to do some Win8 development. You want a piece of that cake, or whatever your reasons may be. Good! Welcome to the club! Now let me ask you a question: what are you going to write? Ah. That’s the big one, isn’t it? What indeed? If you have been creating applications for computers before you’re in for quite a shock. The way people perceive apps on a tablet is quite different from what we know as applications. There’s a reason we call them apps instead of applications! Yes, technically they are applications but we don’t call them apps only because it sounds cool. The abbreviated form of the word applications itself is a pointer. Apps are small. Apps are focused. Apps are more lightweight. Apps do one thing but they do that one thing extremely good. In the ‘old’ days we wrote huge systems. We build ecosystems of services, screens, databases and more to create a system that provides value for the user. Think about it: what application do you use most at work? Can you in one sentence describe what it is, or what it does and yet still distinctively describe its purpose? I doubt you can. Let’s have a look at Outlouk. We all know it and we all love or hate it. But what is it? A mail program? No, there’s so much more there: calendar, contacts, RSS feeds and so on. Some call it a ‘collaboration’  application but that’s not really true as well. After all, why should a collaboration application give me my schedule for the day? I think the best way to describe Outlook is “client for Exchange”  although that isn’t accurate either. Anyway: Outlook is a great application but it’s not an ‘app’ and therefor not very suitable for WinRT. Ok. Disclaimer here: yes, you can write big applications for WinRT. Some will. But that’s not what 99.9% of the developers will do. So I am stating here that big applications are not meant for WinRT. If 0.01% of the developers think that this is nonsense then they are welcome to go ahead but for the majority here this is not what we’re talking about. So: Apps are small, lightweight and good at what they do but only at that. If you’re a Phone developer you already know that: Phone apps on any platform fit the description I have above. If you’ve ever worked in a large cooperation before you might have seen one of these before: the Mission Statement. It’s supposed to be a oneliner that sums up what the company is supposed to do. Funny enough: although this doesn’t work for large companies it does work for defining your app. A mission statement for an app describes what it does. If it doesn’t fit in the mission statement then your app is going to get to big and will fail. A statement like this should be in the following style “<your app name> is the best app to <describe single task>” Fill in the blanks, write it and go! Mmm.. not really. There are some things there we need to think about. But the statement is a very, very important one. If you cannot fit your app in that line you’re preparing to fail. Your app will become to big, its purpose will be unclear and it will be hard to use. People won’t download it and those who do will give it a bad rating therefor preventing that huge success you’ve been dreaming about. Stick to the statement! Ok, let’s give it a try: “PlanesAreCool” is the best app to do planespotting in the field. You might have seen these people along runways of airports: taking photographs of airplanes and noting down their numbers and arrival- and departure times. We are going to help them out with our great app! If you look at the statement, can you guess what it does? I bet you can. If you find out it isn’t clear enough of if it’s too broad, refine it. This is probably the most important step in the development of your app so give it enough time! So. We’ve got the statement. Print it out, stick it to the wall and look at it. What does it tell you? If you see this, what do you think the app does? Write that down. Sit down with some friends and talk about it. What do they expect from an app like this? Write that down as well. Brainstorm. Make a list of features. This is mine: Note planes Look up aircraft carriers Add pictures of that plane Look up airfields Notify friends of new spots Look up details of a type of plane Plot a graph with arrival and departure times Share new spots on social media Look up history of a particular aircraft Compare your spots with friends Write down arrival times Write down departure times Write down wind conditions Write down the runway they take Look up weather conditions for next spotting day Invite friends to join you for a day of spotting. Now, I must make it clear that I am not a planespotter nor do I know what one does. So if the above list makes no sense, I apologize. There is a lesson: write apps for stuff you know about…. First of all, let’s look at our statement and then go through the list of features. Remove everything that has nothing to do with that statement! If you end up with an empty list, try again with both steps. Note planes Look up aircraft carriers Add pictures of that plane Look up airfields Notify friends of new spots Look up details of a type of plane Plot a graph with arrival and departure times Share new spots on social media Look up history of a particular aircraft Compare your spots with friends Write down arrival times Write down departure times Write down wind conditions Write down the runway they take Look up weather conditions for next spotting day Invite friends to join you for a day of spotting. That's better. The things I removed could be pretty useful to a plane spotter and could be fun to write. But do they match the statement? I said that the app is for spotting in the field, so “look up airfields” doesn’t belong there: I know where I am so why look it up? And the same goes for inviting friends or looking up the weather conditions for tomorrow. I am at the airfield right now, looking through my binoculars at the planes. I know the weather now and I don’t care about tomorrow. If you feel the items you’ve crossed out are valuable, then why not write another app? One that says “SpotNoter” is the best app for preparing a day of spotting with my friends. That’s a different app! Remember: Win8 apps are small and very good at doing ONE thing, and one thing only! If you have made that list, it’s time to prepare the navigation of your app. The navigation is how users see your app and how they use it. We’ll do that next time!

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  • Restructuring a large Chrome Extension/WebApp

    - by A.M.K
    I have a very complex Chrome Extension that has gotten too large to maintain in its current format. I'd like to restructure it, but I'm 15 and this is the first webapp or extension of it's type I've built so I have no idea how to do it. TL;DR: I have a large/complex webapp I'd like to restructure and I don't know how to do it. Should I follow my current restructure plan (below)? Does that sound like a good starting point, or is there a different approach that I'm missing? Should I not do any of the things I listed? While it isn't relevant to the question, the actual code is on Github and the extension is on the webstore. The basic structure is as follows: index.html <html> <head> <link href="css/style.css" rel="stylesheet" /> <!-- This holds the main app styles --> <link href="css/widgets.css" rel="stylesheet" /> <!-- And this one holds widget styles --> </head> <body class="unloaded"> <!-- Low-level base elements are "hardcoded" here, the unloaded class is used for transitions and is removed on load. i.e: --> <div class="tab-container" tabindex="-1"> <!-- Tab nav --> </div> <!-- Templates for all parts of the application and widgets are stored as elements here. I plan on changing these to <script> elements during the restructure since <template>'s need valid HTML. --> <template id="template.toolbar"> <!-- Template content --> </template> <!-- Templates end --> <!-- Plugins --> <script type="text/javascript" src="js/plugins.js"></script> <!-- This contains the code for all widgets, I plan on moving this online and downloading as necessary soon. --> <script type="text/javascript" src="js/widgets.js"></script> <!-- This contains the main application JS. --> <script type="text/javascript" src="js/script.js"></script> </body> </html> widgets.js (initLog || (window.initLog = [])).push([new Date().getTime(), "A log is kept during page load so performance can be analyzed and errors pinpointed"]); // Widgets are stored in an object and extended (with jQuery, but I'll probably switch to underscore if using Backbone) as necessary var Widgets = { 1: { // Widget ID, this is set here so widgets can be retreived by ID id: 1, // Widget ID again, this is used after the widget object is duplicated and detached size: 3, // Default size, medium in this case order: 1, // Order shown in "store" name: "Weather", // Widget name interval: 300000, // Refresh interval nicename: "weather", // HTML and JS safe widget name sizes: ["tiny", "small", "medium"], // Available widget sizes desc: "Short widget description", settings: [ { // Widget setting specifications stored as an array of objects. These are used to dynamically generate widget setting popups. type: "list", nicename: "location", label: "Location(s)", placeholder: "Enter a location and press Enter" } ], config: { // Widget settings as stored in the tabs object (see script.js for storage information) size: "medium", location: ["San Francisco, CA"] }, data: {}, // Cached widget data stored locally, this lets it work offline customFunc: function(cb) {}, // Widgets can optionally define custom functions in any part of their object refresh: function() {}, // This fetches data from the web and caches it locally in data, then calls render. It gets called after the page is loaded for faster loads render: function() {} // This renders the widget only using information from data, it's called on page load. } }; script.js (initLog || (window.initLog = [])).push([new Date().getTime(), "These are also at the end of every file"]); // Plugins, extends and globals go here. i.e. Number.prototype.pad = .... var iChrome = function(refresh) { // The main iChrome init, called with refresh when refreshing to not re-run libs iChrome.Status.log("Starting page generation"); // From now on iChrome.Status.log is defined, it's used in place of the initLog iChrome.CSS(); // Dynamically generate CSS based on settings iChrome.Tabs(); // This takes the tabs stored in the storage (see fetching below) and renders all columns and widgets as necessary iChrome.Status.log("Tabs rendered"); // These will be omitted further along in this excerpt, but they're used everywhere // Checks for justInstalled => show getting started are run here /* The main init runs the bare minimum required to display the page, this sets all non-visible or instantly need things (such as widget dragging) on a timeout */ iChrome.deferredTimeout = setTimeout(function() { iChrome.deferred(refresh); // Pass refresh along, see above }, 200); }; iChrome.deferred = function(refresh) {}; // This calls modules one after the next in the appropriate order to finish rendering the page iChrome.Search = function() {}; // Modules have a base init function and are camel-cased and capitalized iChrome.Search.submit = function(val) {}; // Methods within modules are camel-cased and not capitalized /* Extension storage is async and fetched at the beginning of plugins.js, it's then stored in a variable that iChrome.Storage processes. The fetcher checks to see if processStorage is defined, if it is it gets called, otherwise settings are left in iChromeConfig */ var processStorage = function() { iChrome.Storage(function() { iChrome.Templates(); // Templates are read from their elements and held in a cache iChrome(); // Init is called }); }; if (typeof iChromeConfig == "object") { processStorage(); } Objectives of the restructure Memory usage: Chrome apparently has a memory leak in extensions, they're trying to fix it but memory still keeps on getting increased every time the page is loaded. The app also uses a lot on its own. Code readability: At this point I can't follow what's being called in the code. While rewriting the code I plan on properly commenting everything. Module interdependence: Right now modules call each other a lot, AFAIK that's not good at all since any change you make to one module could affect countless others. Fault tolerance: There's very little fault tolerance or error handling right now. If a widget is causing the rest of the page to stop rendering the user should at least be able to remove it. Speed is currently not an issue and I'd like to keep it that way. How I think I should do it The restructure should be done using Backbone.js and events that call modules (i.e. on storage.loaded = init). Modules should each go in their own file, I'm thinking there should be a set of core files that all modules can rely on and call directly and everything else should be event based. Widget structure should be kept largely the same, but maybe they should also be split into their own files. AFAIK you can't load all templates in a folder, therefore they need to stay inline. Grunt should be used to merge all modules, plugins and widgets into one file. Templates should also all be precompiled. Question: Should I follow my current restructure plan? Does that sound like a good starting point, or is there a different approach that I'm missing? Should I not do any of the things I listed? Do applications written with Backbone tend to be more intensive (memory and speed) than ones written in Vanilla JS? Also, can I expect to improve this with a proper restructure or is my current code about as good as can be expected?

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  • Slow NFS and GFS2 performance

    - by Tiago
    Recently I've designed and configured a 4 node cluster for a webapp that does lots of file handling. The cluster have been broken down into 2 main roles, webserver and storage. Each role is replicated to a second server using drbd in active/passive mode. The webserver does a NFS mount of the data directory of the storage server and the latter also has a webserver running to serve files to browser clients. In the storage servers I've created a GFS2 FS to hold the data which is wired to drbd. I've chose GFS2 mainly because the announced performance and also because the volume size which has to be pretty high. Since we entered production I've been facing two problems that I think are deeply connected. First of all, the NFS mount on the webservers keeps hanging for a minute or so and then resumes normal operations. By analyzing the logs I've found out that NFS stops answering for a while and outputs the following log lines: Oct 15 18:15:42 <server hostname> kernel: nfs: server active.storage.vlan not responding, still trying Oct 15 18:15:44 <server hostname> kernel: nfs: server active.storage.vlan not responding, still trying Oct 15 18:15:46 <server hostname> kernel: nfs: server active.storage.vlan not responding, still trying Oct 15 18:15:47 <server hostname> kernel: nfs: server active.storage.vlan not responding, still trying Oct 15 18:15:47 <server hostname> kernel: nfs: server active.storage.vlan not responding, still trying Oct 15 18:15:47 <server hostname> kernel: nfs: server active.storage.vlan not responding, still trying Oct 15 18:15:48 <server hostname> kernel: nfs: server active.storage.vlan not responding, still trying Oct 15 18:15:48 <server hostname> kernel: nfs: server active.storage.vlan not responding, still trying Oct 15 18:15:51 <server hostname> kernel: nfs: server active.storage.vlan not responding, still trying Oct 15 18:15:52 <server hostname> kernel: nfs: server active.storage.vlan not responding, still trying Oct 15 18:15:52 <server hostname> kernel: nfs: server active.storage.vlan not responding, still trying Oct 15 18:15:55 <server hostname> kernel: nfs: server active.storage.vlan not responding, still trying Oct 15 18:15:55 <server hostname> kernel: nfs: server active.storage.vlan not responding, still trying Oct 15 18:15:58 <server hostname> kernel: nfs: server active.storage.vlan OK Oct 15 18:15:59 <server hostname> kernel: nfs: server active.storage.vlan OK Oct 15 18:15:59 <server hostname> kernel: nfs: server active.storage.vlan OK Oct 15 18:15:59 <server hostname> kernel: nfs: server active.storage.vlan OK Oct 15 18:15:59 <server hostname> kernel: nfs: server active.storage.vlan OK Oct 15 18:15:59 <server hostname> kernel: nfs: server active.storage.vlan OK Oct 15 18:15:59 <server hostname> kernel: nfs: server active.storage.vlan OK Oct 15 18:15:59 <server hostname> kernel: nfs: server active.storage.vlan OK Oct 15 18:15:59 <server hostname> kernel: nfs: server active.storage.vlan OK Oct 15 18:15:59 <server hostname> kernel: nfs: server active.storage.vlan OK Oct 15 18:15:59 <server hostname> kernel: nfs: server active.storage.vlan OK Oct 15 18:15:59 <server hostname> kernel: nfs: server active.storage.vlan OK Oct 15 18:15:59 <server hostname> kernel: nfs: server active.storage.vlan OK In this case, the hang lasted for 16 seconds but sometimes it takes 1 or 2 minutes to resume normal operations. My first guess was this was happening due to heavy load of the NFS mount and that by increasing RPCNFSDCOUNT to a higher value, this would become stable. I've increased it several times and apparently, after a while, the logs started appearing less times. The value is now on 32. After further investigating the issue, I've came across a different hang, despite the NFS messages still appear in the logs. Sometimes, the GFS2 FS simply hangs which causes both the NFS and the storage webserver to serve files. Both stay hang for a while and then they resume normal operations. This hangs leaves no trace on client side (also leaves no NFS ... not responding messages) and, on the storage side, the log system appears to be empty, even though the rsyslogd is running. The nodes connect themselves through a 10Gbps non-dedicated connection but I don't think this is an issue because the GFS2 hang is confirmed but connecting directly to the active storage server. I've been trying to solve this for a while now and I've tried different NFS configuration options, before I've found out the GFS2 FS is also hanging. The NFS mount is exported as such: /srv/data/ <ip_address>(rw,async,no_root_squash,no_all_squash,fsid=25) And the NFS client mounts with: mount -o "async,hard,intr,wsize=8192,rsize=8192" active.storage.vlan:/srv/data /srv/data After some tests, these were the configurations that yielded more performance to the cluster. I am desperate to find a solution for this as the cluster is already in production mode and I need to fix this so that this hangs won't happen in the future and I don't really know for sure what and how I should be benchmarking. What I can tell is that this is happening due to heavy loads as I have tested the cluster earlier and this problems weren't happening at all. Please tell me if you need me to provide configuration details of the cluster, and which do you want me to post. As last resort I can migrate the files to a different FS but I need some solid pointers on whether this will solve this problems as the volume size is extremely large at this point. The servers are being hosted by a third-party enterprise and I don't have physical access to them. Best regards. EDIT 1: The servers are physical servers and their specs are: Webservers: Intel Bi Xeon E5606 2x4 2.13GHz 24GB DDR3 Intel SSD 320 2 x 120GB Raid 1 Storage: Intel i5 3550 3.3GHz 16GB DDR3 12 x 2TB SATA Initially there was a VRack setup between the servers but we've upgraded one of the storage servers to have more RAM and it wasn't inside the VRack. They connect through a shared 10Gbps connection between them. Please note that it is the same connection that is used for public access. They use a single IP (using IP Failover) to connect between them and to allow for a graceful failover. NFS is therefore over a public connection and not under any private network (it was before the upgrade, were the problem still existed). The firewall was configured and tested thoroughly but I disabled it for a while to see if the problem still occurred, and it did. From my knowledge the hosting provider isn't blocking or limiting the connection between either the servers and the public domain (at least under a given bandwidth consumption threshold that hasn't been reached yet). Hope this helps figuring out the problem. EDIT 2: Relevant software versions: CentOS 2.6.32-279.9.1.el6.x86_64 nfs-utils-1.2.3-26.el6.x86_64 nfs-utils-lib-1.1.5-4.el6.x86_64 gfs2-utils-3.0.12.1-32.el6_3.1.x86_64 kmod-drbd84-8.4.2-1.el6_3.elrepo.x86_64 drbd84-utils-8.4.2-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64 DRBD configuration on storage servers: #/etc/drbd.d/storage.res resource storage { protocol C; on <server1 fqdn> { device /dev/drbd0; disk /dev/vg_storage/LV_replicated; address <server1 ip>:7788; meta-disk internal; } on <server2 fqdn> { device /dev/drbd0; disk /dev/vg_storage/LV_replicated; address <server2 ip>:7788; meta-disk internal; } } NFS Configuration in storage servers: #/etc/sysconfig/nfs RPCNFSDCOUNT=32 STATD_PORT=10002 STATD_OUTGOING_PORT=10003 MOUNTD_PORT=10004 RQUOTAD_PORT=10005 LOCKD_UDPPORT=30001 LOCKD_TCPPORT=30001 (can there be any conflict in using the same port for both LOCKD_UDPPORT and LOCKD_TCPPORT?) GFS2 configuration: # gfs2_tool gettune <mountpoint> incore_log_blocks = 1024 log_flush_secs = 60 quota_warn_period = 10 quota_quantum = 60 max_readahead = 262144 complain_secs = 10 statfs_slow = 0 quota_simul_sync = 64 statfs_quantum = 30 quota_scale = 1.0000 (1, 1) new_files_jdata = 0 Storage network environment: eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr <mac address> inet addr:<ip address> Bcast:<bcast address> Mask:<ip mask> inet6 addr: <ip address> Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:957025127 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:1473338731 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:2630984979622 (2.3 TiB) TX bytes:1648430431523 (1.4 TiB) eth0:0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr <mac address> inet addr:<ip failover address> Bcast:<bcast address> Mask:<ip mask> UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 The IP addresses are statically assigned with the given network configurations: DEVICE="eth0" BOOTPROTO="static" HWADDR=<mac address> ONBOOT="yes" TYPE="Ethernet" IPADDR=<ip address> NETMASK=<net mask> and DEVICE="eth0:0" BOOTPROTO="static" HWADDR=<mac address> IPADDR=<ip failover> NETMASK=<net mask> ONBOOT="yes" BROADCAST=<bcast address> Hosts file to allow for a graceful NFS failover in conjunction with NFS option fsid=25 set on both storage servers: #/etc/hosts <storage ip failover address> active.storage.vlan <webserver ip failover address> active.service.vlan As you can see, packet errors are down to 0. I've also ran ping for a long time without any packet loss. MTU size is the normal 1500. As there is no VLan by now, this is the MTU used to communicate between servers. The webservers' network environment is similar. One thing I forgot to mention is that the storage servers handle ~200GB of new files each day through the NFS connection, which is a key point for me to think this is some kind of heavy load problem with either NFS or GFS2. If you need further configuration details please tell me. EDIT 3: Earlier today we had a major filesystem crash on the storage server. I couldn't get the details of the crash right away because the server stop responding. After the reboot, I noticed the filesystem was extremely slow, and I was not being able to serve a single file through either NFS or httpd, perhaps due to cache warming or so. Nevertheless, I've been monitoring the server closely and the following error came up in dmesg. The source of the problem is clearly GFS, which is waiting for a lock and ends up starving after a while. INFO: task nfsd:3029 blocked for more than 120 seconds. "echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message. nfsd D 0000000000000000 0 3029 2 0x00000080 ffff8803814f79e0 0000000000000046 0000000000000000 ffffffff8109213f ffff880434c5e148 ffff880624508d88 ffff8803814f7960 ffffffffa037253f ffff8803815c1098 ffff8803814f7fd8 000000000000fb88 ffff8803815c1098 Call Trace: [<ffffffff8109213f>] ? wake_up_bit+0x2f/0x40 [<ffffffffa037253f>] ? gfs2_holder_wake+0x1f/0x30 [gfs2] [<ffffffff814ff42e>] __mutex_lock_slowpath+0x13e/0x180 [<ffffffff814ff2cb>] mutex_lock+0x2b/0x50 [<ffffffffa0379f21>] gfs2_log_reserve+0x51/0x190 [gfs2] [<ffffffffa0390da2>] gfs2_trans_begin+0x112/0x1d0 [gfs2] [<ffffffffa0369b05>] ? gfs2_dir_check+0x35/0xe0 [gfs2] [<ffffffffa0377943>] gfs2_createi+0x1a3/0xaa0 [gfs2] [<ffffffff8121aab1>] ? avc_has_perm+0x71/0x90 [<ffffffffa0383d1e>] gfs2_create+0x7e/0x1a0 [gfs2] [<ffffffffa037783f>] ? gfs2_createi+0x9f/0xaa0 [gfs2] [<ffffffff81188cf4>] vfs_create+0xb4/0xe0 [<ffffffffa04217d6>] nfsd_create_v3+0x366/0x4c0 [nfsd] [<ffffffffa0429703>] nfsd3_proc_create+0x123/0x1b0 [nfsd] [<ffffffffa041a43e>] nfsd_dispatch+0xfe/0x240 [nfsd] [<ffffffffa025a5d4>] svc_process_common+0x344/0x640 [sunrpc] [<ffffffff810602a0>] ? default_wake_function+0x0/0x20 [<ffffffffa025ac10>] svc_process+0x110/0x160 [sunrpc] [<ffffffffa041ab62>] nfsd+0xc2/0x160 [nfsd] [<ffffffffa041aaa0>] ? nfsd+0x0/0x160 [nfsd] [<ffffffff81091de6>] kthread+0x96/0xa0 [<ffffffff8100c14a>] child_rip+0xa/0x20 [<ffffffff81091d50>] ? kthread+0x0/0xa0 [<ffffffff8100c140>] ? child_rip+0x0/0x20

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