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  • SQL Server Express with Advanced Services (with Reporting Services)???

    - by Fretwizard
    I have tried to download SQL Server 2005 Express edition about 4 times trying to find the correct version that has business intelligence studio and reporting services in it? Every time I try to unhide the advanced configuration during install, it's never there... Can anyone point me to the correct download? Looking for 2005 (not 2008) because my work SQL server that I am trying to learn this for is 2005, and the training material I have is for 2005 and VS 2008 does not want to integrate with SQL2008 express.

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  • New Windows 2008 server on Linux Domain

    - by DevNULL
    We just installed a Windows 2008 Enterprise server and I'm having a problem joining the domain. We're running Ubuntu Server, OpenLdap with Samba shares. Does anyone know of reference material where I can find information about getting this server to properly join our domain. I've tried googling various boolean searches with poor results.

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  • How can I lower the volume of my USB headphones?

    - by Jay Bazuzi
    Yes, I really am asking how to turn down the volume. But first, some more detail: My headphones are http://www.edimensional.com/product_info.php?cPath=22&products_id=122 They are really loud. I usually have to keep them on the lowest setting. If the source material is louder than average, I have to lower the output volume in the player software. Is there a way to can adjust the Windows 7 volume settings so that my normal listening volume is around 50% instead?

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  • Slideshow from excel file listing the caption, sound file and image file?

    - by Slabo
    Hello, I have excel files with the following header: Caption Sound: Location of sound file Image: Location of image file How can I make a slideshow from this? Each slide should show image, caption, and play sound automatically according to the excel list. I don't care what software I use, if I can get the job done. Total slides ~10,000. In case interested,this is review material for English second language students. Any help appreciated, Thanks

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  • Switchin from two monitors to one

    - by Jure Skumavc
    Hi everyone, I had two monitors and while using 3DSMax I had my Viewport opened on one monitor and all my drop-down tabs on the other (such as "Material Editor" , ... ). But I have just recently moved and only brought with me one monitor so now I can't access the drop-down tabs. How do I go about resolving the issus. Thank you

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  • top tweets WebLogic Partner Community – October 2012

    - by JuergenKress
    Send your tweets @wlscommunity #WebLogicCommunity and follow us at http://twitter.com/wlscommunity WebLogic Community?@wlscommunity Real World Java EE Patterns by Adam Bien http://wp.me/p1LMIb-mp Markus Eisele?@myfear #JavaOne Content Available for Free https://blogs.oracle.com/java/entry/javaone_content_available_for_free … /via @java Adam Bien?@AdamBien Thought that 1h screencast is way too long to be popular. I was wrong. Lightweight Java EE is doing very well: http://www.adam-bien.com/roller/abien/entry/lightweight_java_ee_screencast … OracleBlogs?@OracleBlogs COLLABORATE 13 Call for Papers http://ow.ly/2szPuZ Oracle WebLogic?@OracleWebLogic New Blog Post: Data Source Security Part 1 http://ow.ly/2szFbv Markus Eisele?@myfear My Three Days at #JavaOne 2012 http://yakovfain.com/2012/10/04/my-three-days-at-javaone-2012/ … < nice writeup ;) Adam Bien?@AdamBien JavaOne 2012 Announcements And Surprises: NetBeans 7.3+ comes with HTML 5, JavaScript, CSS 3 support. JavaScript... http://bit.ly/Uy14eD Andrejus Baranovskis?@andrejusb OOW'12: Oracle ADF Implementations Around the Globe: Best Practices http://fb.me/1IVg6gzU0 gschmutz?@gschmutz Just published a blog with a wrap-up of my presentations at OOW 2012. https://guidoschmutz.wordpress.com/2012/10/07/my-presentations-at-oracle-open-world-2012/ … #oow2012 #trivadis Andrejus Baranovskis?@andrejusb OOW'12: Oracle Business Process Management/Oracle ADF Integration Best Practices http://fb.me/1GY3nz1lb WebLogic Community?@wlscommunity ExaLogic 2.01 ppt & training & Installation check-list & tips & Web tier roadmap http://wp.me/p1LMIb-mh Adam Bien?@AdamBien JavaOne 2012, First Feedback and The Strange Thing: NetBeans day was surprising well attended. A big room was fu... http://bit.ly/PwWwx8 OracleSupport_WLS?@weblogicsupport Free registration for our next webcast on setting up and using a #weblogic #cluster http://pub.vitrue.com/xWV8 WebLogic Community?@wlscommunity UKOUG Application Server & Middleware SIG Meeting http://wp.me/p1LMIb-mC Ronald Luttikhuizen?@rluttikhuizen Discussing future plans for Oracle Middleware Infrastructure Group with @simon_haslam @Jphjulstad and Rene van Wijk #oow @wlscommunity JAX London?@jaxlondon Be part of #JAXLondon- only 11 days to go! Still need a ticket? http://buff.ly/TUPKmL WebLogic Community?@wlscommunity ExaLogic X3-2 launched at OOW 2012 http://wp.me/p1LMIb-mM WebLogic Community?@wlscommunity @OracleEvents Dear Oracle Team thanks for promoting the WebLogic bootcamp, new schedules are online https://blogs.oracle.com/emeapartnerweblogic/resource/weblogic12c.htm … #weblogiccommunity OracleBlogs?@OracleBlogs Partner Webcast Introducing Oracle Business Activity Monitoring - 18 October 2012 http://ow.ly/2svzyz AMIS, Oracle & Java?@AMIS_Services Grant posted a nice little video on youtube about the #ADF EMG activities during Oracle Open World. http://youtu.be/qZhtBqnK-Zc GlassFish?@glassfish ADF Essentials - Available for free and certified on GlassFish!: If you are an Oracle customer, you are probably... http://bit.ly/UCtVwY OracleBlogs?@OracleBlogs WebLogic 12 hands-on bootcamps for partnersnew dates & locations http://ow.ly/2smOfs Pieter Kranenburg?@pskranenburg I'm EXA and I know IT! How about you? Go to http://bit.ly/OnSlDd and find out! (you might win an #iphone5 ;-) #OOW please RT Andrejus Baranovskis?@andrejusb Enabling WebLogic Administrator Group Inside Custom ADF Application http://fb.me/2d5SCeJ2g Michel Schildmeijer?@MNEMONIC01 I'm EXA and I know IT! How about you? Go to http://bit.ly/OnSlDd (you might win an #iphone5 ;-) #oow OracleSupport_WLS?@weblogicsupport Step-by-step instructions on how to configure mail Alerts in #OEM 11g for #WebLogic Servers up/down status http://pub.vitrue.com/KpZq Jeff West?@jeffreyawest Answer: Deliver JMS message to a single node in a Weblogic Cluster with a Distributed Topic http://stackoverflow.com/a/12396492/697114?stw=2 … Java?@java Bucharest Java User Group: Launched and Growing! #JUG http://ow.ly/dDnbN OracleSupport_WLS?@weblogicsupport Don't shoot the messenger! #Java source code analyzer @ http://pub.vitrue.com/Cy2J JAX London?@jaxlondon .@BrianGoetz gives in depth session on the details of how #Lambda expressions are implemented in the #Java language at #JAXLondon" ADF Community DE?@ADFCommunityDE Webcast ADFNewsSession: ADF as a basis of Fusion Apps - the biggest ADF project ever. Sep 14, 8:30 AM CET. Dial in https://blogs.oracle.com/jdevotnharvest/entry/adf_partner_community_news_session … OracleBlogs?@OracleBlogs WebLogic & Coherence & Cloud presentations for customer meetings http://ow.ly/1mqwrC Pieter Kranenburg?@pskranenburg Seminar: Oracle WebLogic 12c at Qualogy. You are invited! http://bit.ly/Ps9LDF Oracle WebLogic?@OracleWebLogic New Blog Post: Oracle OpenWorld Update -- General Session: Oracle Fusion Middleware Strategies Driving Business Inno... http://ow.ly/2stylf Oracle Cloud Zone?@OracleCloudZone New partner programs for Oracle Cloud Solutions http://bit.ly/PrVq5O #cloud #oow Lucas Jellema?@lucasjellema The strategy on Java - JEE, SE, ME, FX: http://technology.amis.nl/2012/10/02/javaone-2012-strategy-and-technical-keynote/ … #javaone #oow_amis WebLogic Community?@wlscommunity Send your #WebLogicCommunity #oow pictures and blog posts @wlscommunity or http://www.facebook.com/weblogiccommunity … Enjoy OOW ;-) WebLogic Community?@wlscommunity Become an WebLogic 12c expert, attend our partner bootcampshttps://blogs.oracle.com/emeapartnerweblogic/resource/weblogic12c.htm … #WebLogicCommunity #opn AMIS, Oracle & Java?@AMIS_Services Volgende #oracle #ADF training bij @AMIS_SERVICES is van 12 tot 16 november. Meer info of aanmelden? http://www.amis.nl/Trainingen/oracle-adf-11g-applicatieontwikkeling/ … Devoxx?@Devoxx ALL the Devoxx 2011 talks are now freely available on Parleys @ http://www.parleys.com/#st=4&id=102998 Pls RT! Adam Bien?@AdamBien Use the coupon code "PLUMA" and you will get 20% off for "Real World Java EE Patterns": http://realworldpatterns.com Lucas Jellema?@lucasjellema Very good summary of the #JavaOne Technical Keynote last night: http://java.dzone.com/articles/javaone-2012-javaone-technical … Arun Gupta?@arungupta Blogged: JavaOne 2012 Keynote and GlassFish Party Pictures: Some pictures from the keynote ... And som... http://bit.ly/ViH0ue Lucas Jellema?@lucasjellema Most recent promoted build for GassFish 4.0 (EE7) has WebSocket support: to play with: http://dlc.sun.com.edgesuite.net/glassfish/4.0/promoted/ … #javaone michael palmeter?@michaelpalmeter If you haven't seen the 5-minute Exalogic demo, you need to (do it now!) - http://lnkd.in/GRqy3x Lonneke Dikmans?@lonnekedikmans VENNSTER BLOG: Running EclipseLink DBWS 2.4.0 on GlassFish 3.1.2 http://blog.vennster.nl/2012/09/running-eclipselink-dbws-240-on.html?spref=tw … WebLogic Community?@wlscommunity WebLogic Partner Community Newsletter September 2012 http://wp.me/p1LMIb-mf WebLogic Community?@wlscommunity again again again&hellip;. it is Oracle Open World 2012 http://wp.me/p1LMIb-m6 Markus Eisele?@myfear #WebLogic and #JavaEE Roadmap and Strategy Session at OOW http://ow.ly/2slZEY /via @OracleWebLogic Adam Bien?@AdamBien An Article About Java EE Connector Architectures 1.6 (JCA 1.6): The free Java Magazine article: Java EE Connect... http://bit.ly/St6sxq Lucas Jellema?@lucasjellema ADF Essentials - free to develop and to deploy (I said: free!) - http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/adf/overview/adfessentials-1719844.html … AMIS, Oracle & Java?@AMIS_Services Blog by Lucas Jellema: "Develop and Deploy ADF applications – free of charge using the new ADF Essentials" http://bit.ly/StAhxY Andrejus Baranovskis?@andrejusb ADF Essentials - Quick Technical Review http://fb.me/2hKCXyF43 OracleBlogs?@OracleBlogs GlassFish Extension for Oracle JDeveloper http://ow.ly/2slIO8 Retweetet von WebLogic Community Oracle Eclipse?@OEPE New Tutorial: Using ADF Faces and ADF Controller with Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse. #OEPE http://pub.vitrue.com/QoUg Simon Haslam?@simon_haslam As of the last day or two there's a new Java Products Media Pack on http://edelivery.oracle.com (rather than it being in FMW pack) WebLogic Community?@wlscommunity top tweets WebLogic Partner Community &ndash; September 2012 http://wp.me/p1LMIb-m2 Adam Bien?@AdamBien I was interviewed by OTN: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/java/jaxawards-1843595.html …See you at JavaOne! Oracle WebLogic?@OracleWebLogic DevOps Basics for #WebLogic: Track Down High CPU Thread with ps, top and the new JDK7 jcmd tool. Great blog @frankmuz. http://ow.ly/dOBM4 Simon Haslam?@simon_haslam Looking for "oak style"(!) advanced content but you're a middleware specialist? See #ukoug2012 #middlewaresunday http://2012.ukoug.org/default.asp?p=9355 … Julien Ponge ?@jponge Just finished Java EE 6 + AngularJS samples for my upcoming middleware lectures. Code at https://github.com/jponge/todoapp-javaee6-angularjs … and https://github.com/jponge/todoapp-bosswatch … Markus Eisele?@myfear #Oracle #WebLogic is now totally #FREE for #Developer - more than just OTN license to develop the 1st prototype! http://bit.ly/SWltsR Markus Eisele?@myfear #WebSockets on #WebLogic Server http://ow.ly/1mv4QP by @wlsteve < need to give this a testdrive ;) OracleEnterpriseMgr?@oracle_em EM Blog : Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 12c Release 2 (12.1.0.2) is Available Now ! #em12c http://pub.vitrue.com/mk7o OracleBlogs?@OracleBlogs ADF training material now on the iPad http://ow.ly/1mqz1Q GlassFish?@glassfish GlassFish grows by 50% in Software Stack Market Share Report for August 2012 by @Jelastic http://awe.sm/o4ZAp WebLogic Partner Community For regular information become a member in the WebLogic Partner Community please visit: http://www.oracle.com/partners/goto/wls-emea ( OPN account required). If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center. Blog Twitter LinkedIn Mix Forum Wiki Technorati Tags: twitter,WebLogic,WebLogic Community,Oracle,OPN,Jürgen Kress

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  • top tweets WebLogic Partner Community – September 2012

    - by JuergenKress
    Send your tweets @wlscommunity #WebLogicCommunity and follow us at http://twitter.com/wlscommunity Oracle Exalogic? VIDEO: Oracle Public Cloud Built on Exalogic!, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGzjDloUw_s&feature=plcp … oracleopenworld #NetBeans Community Day at #JavaOne http://ow.ly/dunFL Oracle Cloud Zone Building an enterprise Cloud? Have Oracle show you the RIGHT way to plan, deploy and monitor enterprise clouds.... http://fb.me/286978S4S OTNArchBeat? Oracle Exalogic X2-2 walk-through with Brad Cameron | @jvzoggel http://pub.vitrue.com/yE7d Oracle Technet? Stash your cash. September OTN Member Offers - discounts on books, more | OTN Blog http://pub.vitrue.com/yTr9 C2B2 Consulting? C2B2 is Speaking at @UKOUG App Server Middleware SIG Meeting 'Real Life #WebLogic Performance Tuning' http://www.c2b2.co.uk/ukoug_application_server_middleware_sig_meeting … @wlscommunity JAXenter.com? From yesterday, @smeyen offers his views on the next generation #Java - do you agree? http://jaxenter.com/next-gen-java-we-don-t-need-another-revolutionary-44334.html … Markus Eisele? Awesome: professor from ITU uploads her programming lectures to #YouTube. Programming classes without having to pay! http://bit.ly/UtkJIW Adam Bien? Real World Java EE 6 Patterns--Rethinking Best Practices Reloaded: A completely rewritten, second, iteration of ... http://bit.ly/Qc3xTH Markus Eisele [blog] #PrimeFaces Push with #Atmosphere on #GlassFish 3.1.2.2 http://goo.gl/fb/jPDzA Lucas Jellema? Forms community event at Oracle Open World - Tuesday, 2nd Oct with the BIG names in Forms - see: http://oracleformsinfo.wordpress.com/2012/08/28/ask-the-product-manager-join-us-at-the-oracle-forms-community-event-at-openworld-2012/ … WebLogic Community WebLogic & Coherence & Cloud presentations for customer meetings http://wp.me/p1LMIb-kw Adam Bien? New Book: Rethinking Best Practices with Java EE 6 is out: http://realworldpatterns.com (fully rewritten, re-edited and reformatted) WebLogic Community? Want to become and WebLogic 12c expert? free WebLogic 12c partner bootcamps &ndash;new locations: Madrid Spain http://wp.me/p1LMIb-kK WebLogic Community? Promote Your WebLogic events at http://oracle.com http://wp.me/p1LMIb-ku OracleBlogs Gartner review Oracle ADF http://ow.ly/1mgkCV Simon Haslam Next #ukoug App Server & MW SIG on 10 Oct: http://www.ukoug.org/events/ukoug-application-server-and-middleware-sig-meeting8/ … Hopefully plenty of good admin stuff! Michel Schildmeijer My book "WebLogic 12c; First look" has been reviewed again..see http://www.amazon.com/review/R28L6E3CC9RPMK/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1849687188&linkCode=&nodeID=&tag= … … Markus Eisele? #Weblogic 11g Interactive Quick Reference Map: http://bit.ly/Ugsq52 #wls #oracle #reference /via @TonyvanEsch Marc? Playing with #syslog server and #weblogic. Is there a simple how-to to configure all the logging from #WLS to #syslog-ng WebLogic Community Java update http://wp.me/p1LMIb-kI WebLogic Community top tweets WebLogic Partner Community &ndash; August 2012 http://wp.me/p1LMIb-kA Andrejus Baranovskis? Oracle University Training: ADF/WebCenter 11g Development in Depth | Andrejus Baranovskis http://fb.me/253ZTS2zp OracleSupport_WLS? How neat is a free tool that allows you to inspect and debug traffic from virtually any application? http://pub.vitrue.com/vXdP WebLogic Community WebLogic Partner Community Newsletter August 2012 http://wp.me/p1LMIb-kn OTNArchBeat Integrating Coherence & Java EE 6 Applications using ActiveCache | Ricardo Ferreira http://pub.vitrue.com/rwGg Adam Bien? Thanks for attending the #javaee #techtalk "Enterprise Java 2.0" I pushed the project and slides to: http://kenai.com/projects/javaee-patterns/sources/hg/show/hacks/techtalk2012?rev=429 … JDeveloper & ADF? How to service-enable Oracle ADF Business Components http://ht.ly/1mcfsZ OracleSupport_WLS? Do you know that #WebLogic 12.1.1.0 is certified for production with JDK 7? @ http://pub.vitrue.com/35Kn Andreas Koop? My latest upload : WebLogic Administration und Deployment mit WLST on @slideshare http://www.slideshare.net/multikoop/weblogic-administration-und-deployment-mit-wlst … OTNArchBeat? Demo for OPN: Oracle Coherence Management with EM Cloud Control 12c http://pub.vitrue.com/reoo Markus Eisele? [blog] Java Champions at #JavaOne 2012 http://goo.gl/fb/Ibb6N #javachampion OracleBlogs Buy This Book!: Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud Handbook http://ow.ly/1malM1 WebLogic Community? Coherence Management with EM Cloud Control 12c &ndash;demo for partners http://wp.me/p1LMIb-iE Arun Gupta? Learn how Java can help Internet of Things at Java Embedded at JavaOne: http://bit.ly/POBizh WebLogic Community? Follow WebLogicCommunity on facebook http://www.facebook.com/WebLogicCommunity … #WebLogicCommunity WebLogic Community? Building Java EE in the Cloud–Webcast August 30th 2012 https://weblogiccommunity.wordpress.com/2012/08/27/building-java-ee-in-the-cloudwebcast-august-30th-2012/ … #WebLogicCommunity #Java #oracle #opn WebLogic Community? Call for WebLogic Community newsletter content. Please send @wlscommunity #WebLogicCommunity OracleSupport_WLS? The #weblogic wasp: lots of tips, Q&A and examples http://pub.vitrue.com/v0bw Frank Nimphius? Free ADF Best Practices Webinar by Andrejus Baranovskis for ODTUG (18, 2012 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM EDT) http://bit.ly/OiSWbi ADF Code Corner Webcast- Friday September 14, 8:30 AM - 9.00 AM (CET) - ADF as a basis of Fusion Apps (in English) - with Chris Muir: http://bit.ly/OiQVMb Oracle WebLogic? New blog post: Developing Custom User Principal Object http://pub.vitrue.com/ltam JAX London? Just 4days left to get in on the early bird special, don't miss out!! http://jaxlondon.com/ #JAXLondon #Java WebLogic Community Building Java EE in the Cloud&ndash;Webcast August 30th 2012 http://wp.me/p1LMIb-kE Andrejus Baranovskis? New Record Master-Detail Validation and ADF BC Groovy Use Case http://fb.me/1D2NEIl8g JAX London? Don't miss out!!! Only 6 days left to make use of our early bird offer #JAXLondon #JAVA http://jaxlondon.com/ Michel Schildmeijer Qualogy launches Proof of Concept Center for Oracle Fusion Applications http://www.qualogy.com/qualogy-launches-proof-of-concept-center-for-oracle-fusion-applications/ … via @Qualogy_news OracleSupport_WLS ?Need to troubleshoot redeployment failure in #Weblogic? Check this http://pub.vitrue.com/auhz OracleEnterpriseMgr? Blog : Managing Oracle #Exalogic Elastic #Cloud with Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center http://ow.ly/dd40e #em12c ODTUG? Want free advanced technical ADF training?Join @andrejusb for an @odtug webinar! check out his blog for more info http://bit.ly/SvKJDq chriscmuir Oracle Open World 2012 and ADF EMG http://zite.to/QyusZE OTNArchBeat? Boost your infrastructure with Coherence into the Cloud | Nino Guarnacci http://pub.vitrue.com/v3aJ WebLogic Community? Presentations & Training material OFM Summer Camps & Impressions & Feedback http://wp.me/p1LMIb-ks Arun Gupta? Java EE 6 pocket guide by O'Reilly available for pre-order from Amazon: http://amzn.to/O6YyoP and B&N: http://bit.ly/NjWLk1 OTNArchBeat Joining the Existing Cluster in Coherence | A. Fuat Sungur http://pub.vitrue.com/6uLh Andrejus Baranovskis Sample Application for Switching Application Module Data Sources http://fb.me/1PSURUzch OTNArchBeat Oracle WebLogic DevCast: Building Java EE in the Cloud - August 30 - 10am PT/ 1pm ET http://pub.vitrue.com/xXg0 OTNArchBeat? GlassFish Community Event at #javaone - Sept 30 -11am – 1pm -Moscone South. Register Now! http://pub.vitrue.com/p2f5 OracleSupport_WLS? Connecting To HTTPS Site Using Simple Java Program When Using Proxy http://pub.vitrue.com/stVv Michel Schildmeijer? Before you go to #OOW take the sneak preview of WebLogic 12c with you: http://www.qualogy.com/ga-nog-niet-naar-oow-en-neem-mee-weblogic-12c/ … via @Qualogy_news Simon Haslam? Even more great ADF content at #oow2012 this year including a packed ADF EMG day on Sunday: https://blogs.oracle.com/onesizedoesntfitall/entry/the_year_after_the_year … OracleBlogs ExaLogic trainings for partners http://ow.ly/1m6a5D Robin? First presentation on DOAG conference (thanks to @Steffen2042) "Weblogic Server for Dummies". Now I´m pretty excited :) http://www.doag.org/de/events/konferenzen/doag-2012.html … Markus Eisele There is a #facebook page for the upcoming #Java Mission Control (JRockit Mission Control for #Hotspot)! ttp://on.fb.me/Q31oyA Adam Bien? The almost free #javaee workshop in Rapperswil has only 60 registrations so far: http://www.adam-bien.com/roller/abien/entry/enterprise_java_2_0_swiss … What's the problem? :-) WebLogic Community ExaLogic trainings for partners http://wp.me/p1LMIb-iC OracleBlogs How to install Oracle Weblogic Server using Generic Package installer? http://ow.ly/1m5ms7 OracleSupport_WLS #Weblogic Server new blog post - Developing Custom User Principal Object http://pub.vitrue.com/ltam OracleBlogs? Architects and Architecture at JavaOne 2012 http://ow.ly/1m4oS5 WebLogic Community Are you WebLogic or Application Grid Specialized? Do you get Recognized? Get your plaque https://weblogiccommunity.wordpress.com/2012/08/21/plaques-weblogic-application-grid-specialization/ … #WebLogicCommunity #opn WebLogic Community? Plaques WebLogic & Application Grid Specialization http://wp.me/p1LMIb-iA JDeveloper & ADF? First Steps With Oracle Application Testing Suite: Recording a Test With OpenScript http://dlvr.it/222npy WebLogic Partner Community For regular information become a member in the WebLogic Partner Community please visit: http://www.oracle.com/partners/goto/wls-emea ( OPN account required). If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center. Blog Twitter LinkedIn Mix Forum Wiki Technorati Tags: twitter,WebLogic,WebLogic Community,Oracle,OPN,Jürgen Kress

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  • Finding the Right Solution to Source and Manage Your Contractors

    - by mark.rosenberg(at)oracle.com
    Many of our PeopleSoft Enterprise applications customers operate in service-based industries, and all of our customers have at least some internal service units, such as IT, marketing, and facilities. Employing the services of contractors, often referred to as "contingent labor," to deliver either or both internal and external services is common practice. As we've transitioned from an industrial age to a knowledge age, talent has become a primary competitive advantage for most organizations. Contingent labor offers talent on flexible terms; it offers the ability to scale up operations, close skill gaps, and manage risk in the process of delivering services. Talent comes from many sources and the rise in the contingent worker (contractor, consultant, temporary, part time) has increased significantly in the past decade and is expected to reach 40 percent in the next decade. Managing the total pool of talent in a seamless integrated fashion not only saves organizations money and increases efficiency, but creates a better place for workers of all kinds to work. Although the term "contingent labor" is frequently used to describe both contractors and employees who have flexible schedules and relationships with an organization, the remainder of this discussion focuses on contractors. The term "contingent labor" is used interchangeably with "contractor." Recognizing the importance of contingent labor, our PeopleSoft customers often ask our team, "What Oracle vendor management system (VMS) applications should I evaluate for managing contractors?" In response, I thought it would be useful to describe and compare the three most common Oracle-based options available to our customers. They are:   The enterprise licensed software model in which you implement and utilize the PeopleSoft Services Procurement (sPro) application and potentially other PeopleSoft applications;  The software-as-a-service model in which you gain access to a derivative of PeopleSoft sPro from an Oracle Business Process Outsourcing Partner; and  The managed service provider (MSP) model in which staffing industry professionals utilize either your enterprise licensed software or the software-as-a-service application to administer your contingent labor program. At this point, you may be asking yourself, "Why three options?" The answer is that since there is no "one size fits all" in terms of talent, there is also no "one size fits all" for effectively sourcing and managing contingent workers. Various factors influence how an organization thinks about and relates to its contractors, and each of the three Oracle-based options addresses an organization's needs and preferences differently. For the purposes of this discussion, I will describe the options with respect to (A) pricing and software provisioning models; (B) control and flexibility; (C) level of engagement with contractors; and (D) approach to sourcing, employment law, and financial settlement. Option 1:  Enterprise Licensed Software In this model, you purchase from Oracle the license and support for the applications you need. Typically, you license PeopleSoft sPro as your VMS tool for sourcing, monitoring, and paying your contract labor. In conjunction with sPro, you can also utilize PeopleSoft Human Capital Management (HCM) applications (if you do not already) to configure more advanced business processes for recruiting, training, and tracking your contractors. Many customers choose this enterprise license software model because of the functionality and natural integration of the PeopleSoft applications and because the cost for the PeopleSoft software is explicit. There is no fee per transaction to source each contractor under this model. Our customers that employ contractors to augment their permanent staff on billable client engagements often find this model appealing because there are no fees to affect their profit margins. With this model, you decide whether to have your own IT organization run the software or have the software hosted and managed by either Oracle or another application services provider. Your organization, perhaps with the assistance of consultants, configures, deploys, and operates the software for managing your contingent workforce. This model offers you the highest level of control and flexibility since your organization can configure the contractor process flow exactly to your business and security requirements and can extend the functionality with PeopleTools. This option has proven very valuable and applicable to our customers engaged in government contracting because their contingent labor management practices are subject to complex standards and regulations. Customers find a great deal of value in the application functionality and configurability the enterprise licensed software offers for managing contingent labor. Some examples of that functionality are... The ability to create a tiered network of preferred suppliers including competencies, pricing agreements, and elaborate candidate management capabilities. Configurable alerts and online collaboration for bid, resource requisition, timesheet, and deliverable entry, routing, and approval for both resource and deliverable-based services. The ability to manage contractors with the same PeopleSoft HCM and Projects applications that are used to manage the permanent workforce. Because it allows you to utilize much of the same PeopleSoft HCM and Projects application functionality for contractors that you use for permanent employees, the enterprise licensed software model supports the deepest level of engagement with the contingent workforce. For example, you can: fill job openings with contingent labor; guide contingent workers through essential safety and compliance training with PeopleSoft Enterprise Learning Management; and source contingent workers directly to project-based assignments in PeopleSoft Resource Management and PeopleSoft Program Management. This option enables contingent workers to collaborate closely with your permanent staff on complex, knowledge-based efforts - R&D projects, billable client contracts, architecture and engineering projects spanning multiple years, and so on. With the enterprise licensed software model, your organization maintains responsibility for the sourcing, onboarding (including adherence to employment laws), and financial settlement processes. This means your organization maintains on staff or hires the expertise in these domains to utilize the software and interact with suppliers and contractors. Option 2:  Software as a Service (SaaS) The effort involved in setting up and operating VMS software to handle a contingent workforce leads many organizations to seek a system that can be activated and configured within a few days and for which they can pay based on usage. Oracle's Business Process Outsourcing partner, Provade, Inc., provides exactly this option to our customers. Provade offers its vendor management software as a service over the Internet and usually charges your organization a fee that is a percentage of your total contingent labor spending processed through the Provade software. (Percentage of spend is the predominant fee model, although not the only one.) In addition to lower implementation costs, the effort of configuring and maintaining the software is largely upon Provade, not your organization. This can be very appealing to IT organizations that are thinly stretched supporting other important information technology initiatives. Built upon PeopleSoft sPro, the Provade solution is tailored for simple and quick deployment and administration. Provade has added capabilities to clone users rapidly and has simplified business documents, like work orders and change orders, to facilitate enterprise-wide, self-service adoption with little to no training. Provade also leverages Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) to provide integrated spend analytics and dashboards. Although pure customization is more limited than with the enterprise licensed software model, Provade offers a very effective option for organizations that are regularly on-boarding and off-boarding high volumes of contingent staff hired to perform discrete support tasks (for example, order fulfillment during the holiday season, hourly clerical work, desktop technology repairs, and so on) or project tasks. The software is very configurable and at the same time very intuitive to even the most computer-phobic users. The level of contingent worker engagement your organization can achieve with the Provade option is generally the same as with the enterprise licensed software model since Provade can automatically establish contingent labor resources in your PeopleSoft applications. Provade has pre-built integrations to Oracle's PeopleSoft and the Oracle E-Business Suite procurement, projects, payables, and HCM applications, so that you can evaluate, train, assign, and track contingent workers like your permanent employees. Similar to the enterprise licensed software model, your organization is responsible for the contingent worker sourcing, administration, and financial settlement processes. This means your organization needs to maintain the staff expertise in these domains. Option 3:  Managed Services Provider (MSP) Whether you are using the enterprise licensed model or the SaaS model, you may want to engage the services of sourcing, employment, payroll, and financial settlement professionals to administer your contingent workforce program. Firms that offer this expertise are often referred to as "MSPs," and they are typically staffing companies that also offer permanent and temporary hiring services. (In fact, many of the major MSPs are Oracle applications customers themselves, and they utilize the PeopleSoft Solution for the Staffing Industry to run their own business operations.) Usually, MSPs place their staff on-site at your facilities, and they can utilize either your enterprise licensed PeopleSoft sPro application or the Provade VMS SaaS software to administer the network of suppliers providing contingent workers. When you utilize an MSP, there is a separate fee for the MSP's service that is typically funded by the participating suppliers of the contingent labor. Also in this model, the suppliers of the contingent labor (not the MSP) usually pay the contingent labor force. With an MSP, you are intentionally turning over business process control for the advantages associated with having someone else manage the processes. The software option you choose will to a certain extent affect your process flexibility; however, the MSPs are often able to adapt their processes to the unique demands of your business. When you engage an MSP, you will want to give some thought to the level of engagement and "partnering" you need with your contingent workforce. Because the MSP acts as an intermediary, it can be very valuable in handling high volume, routine contracting for which there is a relatively low need for "partnering" with the contingent workforce. However, if your organization (or part of your organization) engages contingent workers for high-profile client projects that require diplomacy, intensive amounts of interaction, and personal trust, introducing an MSP into the process may prove less effective than handling the process with your own staff. In fact, in many organizations, it is common to enlist an MSP to handle contractors working on internal projects and to have permanent employees handle the contractor relationships that affect the portion of the services portfolio focused on customer-facing, billable projects. One of the key advantages of enlisting an MSP is that you do not have to maintain the expertise required for orchestrating the sourcing, hiring, and paying of contingent workers.  These are the domain of the MSPs. If your own staff members are not prepared to manage the essential "overhead" processes associated with contingent labor, working with an MSP can make solid business sense. Proper administration of a contingent workforce can make the difference between project success and failure, operating profit and loss, and legal compliance and fines. Concluding Thoughts There is little doubt that thoughtfully and purposefully constructing a service delivery strategy that leverages the strengths of contingent workers can lead to better projects, deliverables, and business results. What requires a bit more thinking is determining the platform (or platforms) that will enable each part of your organization to best deliver on its mission.

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  • Fraud Detection with the SQL Server Suite Part 1

    - by Dejan Sarka
    While working on different fraud detection projects, I developed my own approach to the solution for this problem. In my PASS Summit 2013 session I am introducing this approach. I also wrote a whitepaper on the same topic, which was generously reviewed by my friend Matija Lah. In order to spread this knowledge faster, I am starting a series of blog posts which will at the end make the whole whitepaper. Abstract With the massive usage of credit cards and web applications for banking and payment processing, the number of fraudulent transactions is growing rapidly and on a global scale. Several fraud detection algorithms are available within a variety of different products. In this paper, we focus on using the Microsoft SQL Server suite for this purpose. In addition, we will explain our original approach to solving the problem by introducing a continuous learning procedure. Our preferred type of service is mentoring; it allows us to perform the work and consulting together with transferring the knowledge onto the customer, thus making it possible for a customer to continue to learn independently. This paper is based on practical experience with different projects covering online banking and credit card usage. Introduction A fraud is a criminal or deceptive activity with the intention of achieving financial or some other gain. Fraud can appear in multiple business areas. You can find a detailed overview of the business domains where fraud can take place in Sahin Y., & Duman E. (2011), Detecting Credit Card Fraud by Decision Trees and Support Vector Machines, Proceedings of the International MultiConference of Engineers and Computer Scientists 2011 Vol 1. Hong Kong: IMECS. Dealing with frauds includes fraud prevention and fraud detection. Fraud prevention is a proactive mechanism, which tries to disable frauds by using previous knowledge. Fraud detection is a reactive mechanism with the goal of detecting suspicious behavior when a fraudster surpasses the fraud prevention mechanism. A fraud detection mechanism checks every transaction and assigns a weight in terms of probability between 0 and 1 that represents a score for evaluating whether a transaction is fraudulent or not. A fraud detection mechanism cannot detect frauds with a probability of 100%; therefore, manual transaction checking must also be available. With fraud detection, this manual part can focus on the most suspicious transactions. This way, an unchanged number of supervisors can detect significantly more frauds than could be achieved with traditional methods of selecting which transactions to check, for example with random sampling. There are two principal data mining techniques available both in general data mining as well as in specific fraud detection techniques: supervised or directed and unsupervised or undirected. Supervised techniques or data mining models use previous knowledge. Typically, existing transactions are marked with a flag denoting whether a particular transaction is fraudulent or not. Customers at some point in time do report frauds, and the transactional system should be capable of accepting such a flag. Supervised data mining algorithms try to explain the value of this flag by using different input variables. When the patterns and rules that lead to frauds are learned through the model training process, they can be used for prediction of the fraud flag on new incoming transactions. Unsupervised techniques analyze data without prior knowledge, without the fraud flag; they try to find transactions which do not resemble other transactions, i.e. outliers. In both cases, there should be more frauds in the data set selected for checking by using the data mining knowledge compared to selecting the data set with simpler methods; this is known as the lift of a model. Typically, we compare the lift with random sampling. The supervised methods typically give a much better lift than the unsupervised ones. However, we must use the unsupervised ones when we do not have any previous knowledge. Furthermore, unsupervised methods are useful for controlling whether the supervised models are still efficient. Accuracy of the predictions drops over time. Patterns of credit card usage, for example, change over time. In addition, fraudsters continuously learn as well. Therefore, it is important to check the efficiency of the predictive models with the undirected ones. When the difference between the lift of the supervised models and the lift of the unsupervised models drops, it is time to refine the supervised models. However, the unsupervised models can become obsolete as well. It is also important to measure the overall efficiency of both, supervised and unsupervised models, over time. We can compare the number of predicted frauds with the total number of frauds that include predicted and reported occurrences. For measuring behavior across time, specific analytical databases called data warehouses (DW) and on-line analytical processing (OLAP) systems can be employed. By controlling the supervised models with unsupervised ones and by using an OLAP system or DW reports to control both, a continuous learning infrastructure can be established. There are many difficulties in developing a fraud detection system. As has already been mentioned, fraudsters continuously learn, and the patterns change. The exchange of experiences and ideas can be very limited due to privacy concerns. In addition, both data sets and results might be censored, as the companies generally do not want to publically expose actual fraudulent behaviors. Therefore it can be quite difficult if not impossible to cross-evaluate the models using data from different companies and different business areas. This fact stresses the importance of continuous learning even more. Finally, the number of frauds in the total number of transactions is small, typically much less than 1% of transactions is fraudulent. Some predictive data mining algorithms do not give good results when the target state is represented with a very low frequency. Data preparation techniques like oversampling and undersampling can help overcome the shortcomings of many algorithms. SQL Server suite includes all of the software required to create, deploy any maintain a fraud detection infrastructure. The Database Engine is the relational database management system (RDBMS), which supports all activity needed for data preparation and for data warehouses. SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) supports OLAP and data mining (in version 2012, you need to install SSAS in multidimensional and data mining mode; this was the only mode in previous versions of SSAS, while SSAS 2012 also supports the tabular mode, which does not include data mining). Additional products from the suite can be useful as well. SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) is a tool for developing extract transform–load (ETL) applications. SSIS is typically used for loading a DW, and in addition, it can use SSAS data mining models for building intelligent data flows. SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) is useful for presenting the results in a variety of reports. Data Quality Services (DQS) mitigate the occasional data cleansing process by maintaining a knowledge base. Master Data Services is an application that helps companies maintaining a central, authoritative source of their master data, i.e. the most important data to any organization. For an overview of the SQL Server business intelligence (BI) part of the suite that includes Database Engine, SSAS and SSRS, please refer to Veerman E., Lachev T., & Sarka D. (2009). MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-448): Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance. MS Press. For an overview of the enterprise information management (EIM) part that includes SSIS, DQS and MDS, please refer to Sarka D., Lah M., & Jerkic G. (2012). Training Kit (Exam 70-463): Implementing a Data Warehouse with Microsoft® SQL Server® 2012. O'Reilly. For details about SSAS data mining, please refer to MacLennan J., Tang Z., & Crivat B. (2009). Data Mining with Microsoft SQL Server 2008. Wiley. SQL Server Data Mining Add-ins for Office, a free download for Office versions 2007, 2010 and 2013, bring the power of data mining to Excel, enabling advanced analytics in Excel. Together with PowerPivot for Excel, which is also freely downloadable and can be used in Excel 2010, is already included in Excel 2013. It brings OLAP functionalities directly into Excel, making it possible for an advanced analyst to build a complete learning infrastructure using a familiar tool. This way, many more people, including employees in subsidiaries, can contribute to the learning process by examining local transactions and quickly identifying new patterns.

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  • Jagran Prakashan Increases Staff Productivity by 40%

    - by Michael Snow
    Jagran Prakashan Increases Staff Productivity by 40%, Launches New IT Projects up to 4x Faster, Enables Mobile Service, and Improves Business Agility Oracle Customer: JPL Location:  Uttar Pradesh, India Industry: Media and Entertainment Employees:  10,000 Annual Revenue:  $100 to $500 Million Jagran Prakashan Ltd. (JPL) is one of India's premier media and communications groups with interests spanning print, advertising, event management, and mobile services for weather, cricket scores, and educational activities. It is a major media enterprise, with 300 locations across 15 states. Its impressive stable of print publications includes Dainik Jagran, the world’s most widely read daily newspaper––with a readership of over 55 million––the country’s leading afternoon dailies, and a range of popular local, bilingual, and English language newspapers. JPL was using multiple systems to manage its business processes. Users were resistant to using multiple passwords for various applications, preferring to continue their less efficient, legacy work practices. In addition, there was no single repository for sharing documents across the organization, such as company announcements or project documents. The company relied on e-mail to disseminate up-to-date company information, often missing employees. It was also time-consuming and difficult for managers to track the status of ongoing assignments or projects because collaboration and document sharing was inefficient and ineffective.With diverse businesses and many geographic locations, JPL needed to implement a centralized and user-friendly enterprise portal to improve document sharing and collaboration and increase business agility. The company implemented Oracle WebCenter Portal to create a dynamic, secure, and intuitive self-service enterprise portal to improve the user experience and increase operating efficiency. It improved staff productivity by 40%, accelerated new IT projects by up to 4x, boosted staff morale, and increased business agility.   Increases Staff Productivity by 40%, Launches New Products up to 2x Faster A word from JPL "With Oracle WebCenter Portal, we gained a dynamic, secure, and intuitive self-service enterprise portal that provided an exceptional user experience and enabled us to engage employees in a collaborative environment. It increased IT staff productivity by 40%, delivered new projects up to 4x faster, and enabled mobile service to improve our business agility.” Sarbani Bhatia, Vice President IT, Jagran Prakashahn Ltd Before implementing Oracle WebCenter Portal, JPL stored project-critical information, such as page planning of daily newspaper editions and the launch of new editions or supplements on individual laptops or in the e-mail system. Collaboration between colleagues was limited to physical meetings, telephone discussions, and e-mail. It was difficult to trace and recover important project documents when a staff member resigned, which represented a significant risk to business continuity. Employees were also averse to multiple passwords and resisted using the systems, affecting staff productivity. With Oracle WebCenter Portal, JPL created a dynamic, secure, and intuitive self-service enterprise portal with business activity streams. The portal allowed users to navigate, discover, and access information, such as advertising rates, requisition approvals, ad-hoc queries, and employee surveys from a single entry point with a single password. Managers can also upload important documents, such as new pricing for advertisers or newspaper distributors, and share them through the information and instruction section in the portal. In addition, managers can now easily track and review timelines for projects online rather than gathering information from meetings and e-mails. The company gained the ability to centrally manage information, ensured business continuity, and improved staff productivity by 40%.“In the media industry, news has a very short shelf life, so speed is crucial. Information delayed is like information lost,” said Sarbani Bhatia, vice president IT, Jagran Prakashahn Ltd. “Thanks to Oracle WebCenter Portal’s contextual collaboration tools, we can provide and share feedback for new project launches, such as career or education supplements, up to 2x faster through discussion forums or knowledge groups. Tasks that previously required four months, we now complete in one month.”In addition, the company can broadcast announcements, flash employee birthdays, and promote important events through the message section on the webpage, instead of using the e-mail system. The company can also conduct opinion polls to gauge employee response to organizational issues and improve management decision-making.“With over 10,000 employees across 300 locations, it is critical for management to hear the voice of employees and develop a cohesive organizational culture. Oracle WebCenter Portal enables employees to engage with business processes and systems in a collaborative environment, providing users with an exceptional experience,” Bhatia said. Enables Mobility Access and Increases Business Agility Newspaper advertisements generate the majority of JPL’s revenue. With most sales staff on the move, the company needed to ensure timely approval of print advertisement discounts for specific clients and meet tight publication deadlines.  By integrating Oracle WebCenter Portal seamlessly with its enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and other applications, such as the organizational mass mailing system, business intelligence, and management information system, JPL embedded its approval workflow processes into the enterprise portal and provided users with an integrated and intuitive interface. About 30% of JPL’s sales staff members now have tablets and receive advertising discount approval from managers while in the field and no longer need to return to the office, which has significantly improved efficiency and increased business agility.“Application mobility was critical for sales representatives in the field to meet stringent auditing requirements for online accountability, particularly for our newspaper advertising business. Staff member satisfaction has improved significantly now that the sales team can use tablets to access the portal––a capability we will extend to smart phones in the second stage of the implementation,” Bhatia said. Accelerates Application Development by up to 4x and Cuts Costs by up to 60% With Oracle WebCenter Portal, users can easily create, modify, and upload information to their personalized webpages without IT assistance. By seamlessly integrating Oracle WebCenter Portal with the payroll database, managers can decide which members of their team can access the page and with whom they will share information, a decision based on role or geographical location. A sales representative selling advertising space for a local language daily newspaper, for example, can upload an updated advertising rate relevant only to that particular publication. Users can also easily adapt to the new platform, thanks to its intuitive design and look, reducing the need for training and lowering resistance to using the system.Using Oracle WebCenter Portal’s out-of-the-box reusable components, such as portal pages and templates, provided JPL’s developers with a comprehensive and flexible user experience platform and increased the speed of application development. In less than five months, JPL developed more than 55 workflows. The IT team accelerated deployment of new applications by up to 4x, as they do not need to install them on individual machines now that they have a web-based environment.   “Previously, we would have spent a whole day deploying a new application for each department or location. With a browser-based environment, we have cut costs by up to 60% by reducing deployment time to zero, because our IT team can roll out a new application from a single point, thanks to Oracle WebCenter Portal,” Bhatia said. Challenges Provide a dynamic, secure, and intuitive self-service enterprise portal to improve staff productivity and ensure business continuity Enable seamless integration with multiple enterprise applications to improve workflow efficiency—including approval of print advertisement discounts—and increase business agility Improve engagement with employees and enable collaboration to enhance management decision-making Accelerate time-to-market for new services, such as new advertising programs Solutions Oracle Product and ServicesOracle WebCenter Portal 11g Increased staff productivity by 40% and enhanced user satisfaction by enabling employees to easily navigate, discover, and access information from a single, self-service enterprise portal without IT assistance Launched new products, such as career or education supplements, up to 2x faster by enabling peer collaboration and incorporating feedback generated through discussion forums, thanks to Oracle WebCenter Portal’s out-of-the-box collaboration tools Accelerated application development up to 4x by enabling developers to optimize reusable components for managing and deploying new applications in a browser-based environment rather than spending one day to install applications for each department, cutting costs by up to 60% Ensured business continuity by enabling managers to easily track and review project timelines online rather than storing important documents on individual laptops or relying on the e-mail system Increased business agility and operational efficiency by seamlessly integrating with the in-house, ERP system and embedding business processes into a single portal Boosted company revenue by enabling sales team members to submit print-advertising discount requests through mobile devices instead of waiting to return to office, ensuring timely approval from managers to meet tight publication deadlines Improved management decision-making by enabling employees to easily share and access feedback through opinion polls or forums, boosting staff morale Introduced the single sign-on capability and enhanced security by enabling managers to decide access level for staff members based on role or geographical location Reduced the need for staff training and minimized user resistance to systems by providing a dynamic and intuitive user experience Why Oracle JPL did not consider other products because the company was already using Oracle Database, Enterprise Edition with Real Application Clusters and had a positive experience with Oracle. JPL chose Oracle WebCenter Portal to ensure no compatibility issues for integration with its existing Oracle products and to take advantage of the experience and support of a reputable vendor to ensure business continuity. “We chose Oracle because we knew we could rely on its support and experience. In addition, Oracle WebCenter Portal’s speed, agility, and mobile access features were a perfect fit for our business requirements,” Bhatia said. Implementation Process JPL launched the enterprise portal to 500 users in the first phase of the project, and plans to extend this to 2,000 users when the portal is fully launched. Oracle partner PricewaterhouseCoopers used Oracle Application Development Framework for the intial set-up, user training and to develop and design sample workflows. JPL’s internal IT staff then took charge of the implementation, bringing it to completion on budget. Partner Oracle PartnerPricewaterhouseCoopers (India)

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  • CodePlex Daily Summary for Thursday, May 08, 2014

    CodePlex Daily Summary for Thursday, May 08, 2014Popular ReleasesOneNote Tagging Kit: OneNoteTaggingKit Add-In v2.3.5241.24721: Bugfix Release First time add-in registration problem fixed (issue 973 ). Was introduced by changing installer technology. Page tags retrieved from page meta element rather than outline to avoid round-trip encoding issues and avoid tags getting out of sync if someone edits the tags in the outline. Fixed issue with popup which showed an incorrect message for a short timeAST - a tool for exploring windows kernel: Ast-0.1-win8.1x86: Ast-0.1-win8.1x86Ghostscript.NET: Ghostscript.NET v.1.1.8.: 1.1.8. fixed incompatibility problem with 'gsapisetarg_encoding' function in Ghostscript releases prior to 9.10. (this function was introduced in 9.10 release) fixed older versions incompatibility problem with '-dMaxBitmap=1g' switch bugfix which in some cases turns on text antialiasing for Ghostscript 9.14 added better initialization checking 1.1.7. implemented Ghostscript native library verification with a friendly error message that will clear out the confusion when used native Ghosts...SimCityPak: SimCityPak 0.3.0.0: Contains several bugfixes, newly identified properties and some UI improvements. Main new features UI overhaul for the main index list: Icons for each different index, including icons for different property files Tooltips for all relevant fields Removed clutter Identified hundreds of additional properties (thanks to MaxisGuillaume) - this should make modding gameplay easierSeal Report: Seal Report 1.4: New Features: Report Designer: New option to convert a Report Source into a Repository Source. Report Designer: New contextual helper menus to select, remove, copy, prompt elements in a model. Web Server: New option to expand sub-folders displayed in the tree view. Web Server: Web Folder Description File can be a .cshtml file to display a MVC View. Views: additional CSS parameters for some DIVs. NVD3 Chart: Some default configuration values have been changed. Issues Addressed:16 ...Magick.NET: Magick.NET 6.8.9.002: Magick.NET linked with ImageMagick 6.8.9.0.VidCoder: 1.5.22 Beta: Added ability to burn SRT subtitles. Updated to HandBrake SVN 6169. Added checks to prevent VidCoder from running with a database version newer than it expects. Tooltips in the Advanced Video panel now trigger on the field labels as well as the fields themselves. Fixed updating preset/profile/tune/level settings on changing video encoder. This should resolve some problems with QSV encoding. Fixed tunes and profiles getting set to blank when switching between x264 and x265. Fixed co...NuGet: NuGet 2.8.2: We will be releasing a 2.8.2 version of our own NuGet packages and the NuGet.exe command-line tool. The 2.8.2 release will not include updated VS or WebMatrix extensions. NuGet.Server.Extensions.dll needs to be used alongside NuGet-Signed.exe to provide the NuGet.exe mirror functionality.SmartStore.NET - Free ASP.NET MVC Ecommerce Shopping Cart Solution: SmartStore.NET 2.0.2: SmartStore.NET 2.0.2 is primarily a maintenance release for version 2.0.0, which has been released on April 04 2014. It contains several improvements & important fixes. BugfixesIMPORTANT FIX: Memory leak leads to OutOfMemoryException in application after a while Installation fix: some varchar(MAX) columns get created as varchar(4000). Added a migration to fix the column specs. Installation fix: Setup fails with exception Value cannot be null. Parameter name: stream Bugfix for stock iss...Channel9's Absolute Beginner Series: Windows Phone 8.1: Entire source code for Windows Phone 8.1 Absolute Beginner Series.BIDS Helper: BIDS Helper 1.6.6: This BIDS Helper beta release brings support for SQL Server 2014 and SSDTBI for Visual Studio 2013. (Note that SSDTBI for Visual Studio 2013 is currently unavailable to download from Microsoft. We are releasing BIDS Helper support to help those who downloaded it before it became unavailable, and we will recheck BIDS Helper 2014 is compatible after SSDTBI becomes available to download again.) BIDS Helper 2014 Beta Limitations: SQL Server 2014 support for Biml is still in progress, so this bet...Windows Phone IsoStoreSpy (a cool WP8.1 + WP8 Isolated Storage Explorer): IsoStoreSpy WP8.1 3.0.0.0 (Win8 only): 3.0.0.0 + WP8.1 & WP8 device allowed + Local, Roaming or Temp directory Selector for WindowsRuntime apps + Version number in the title :)CS-Script for Notepad++ (C# intellisense and code execution): Release v1.0.24.0: ShortcutMapping panel now allows direct modification of the shortcuts. Custom updater dropped support for MSI installation but it still allows downloading of MSI http://www.csscript.net/npp/codeplex/non_msi_update.pngProDinner - ASP.NET MVC Sample (EF5, N-Tier, jQuery): 8.2: upgrade to mvc 5 upgrade to ASP.net MVC Awesome 4.0, EF 6.1, latest jcrop, Windsor Castle etc. ability to show/hide the dog using tinymce for the feedback page mobile friendly uiASP.net MVC Awesome - jQuery Ajax Helpers: 4.0: version 4.0 ========================== - added InitPopup, InitPopupForm helpers, open initialized popups using awe.open(name, params) - added Tag or Tags for all helpers, usable in mod code - added popup aweclose, aweresize events - popups have api accessible via .data('api'), with methods open, close and destroy - all popups have .awe-popup class - popups can be grouped using .Group(string), only 1 popup in the same group can exist at the same time - added awebeginload event for...SEToolbox: SEToolbox 01.028.008 Release 2: Fixes for drag-drop copying. Added ship joiner, to rejoin a broken ship! Installation of this version will replace older version.ScreenToGif: Release 1.0: What's new: • Small UI tweaks everywhere. • You can add Text, Subtitles and Title Frames. • Processing the gif now takes less time. • Languages: Spanish, Italian and Tamil added. • Single .exe multi language. • Takes less time to apply blur and pixelated efect. • Restart button. • Language picker. (If the user wants to select a diferent language than the system's) • "Encoding Finished" page with a link to open the file. • GreenScreen unchanged pixels to save kilobytes. • "Check for Updates" t...Touchmote: Touchmote 1.0 beta 11: Changes Support for multiple monitor setup Additional settings for analog sticks More reliable pairing Bug fixes and improvementsMicrosoft Script Analyzer: Microsoft Script Analyzer 1.1: The Script Analyzer scans your current PowerShell script code against some PowerShell best practice rules, and provide suggestions to improve the script quality and readability. By double-clicking the checking result, the relevant script code will be highlighted in the code editor. Script Analyzer result You can configure the Script Analyzer rules in the Settings window of Script Analyzer. Script Analyzer settings The current release includes 5 PowerShell best practice rules. Invoke-...Microsoft Script Browser: Script Browser 1.1: Script Browser for Windows PowerShell ISE was designed and developed in response to many IT Pros’ and MVPs’ feedback during the MVP Global Summit. It puts nearly 10K script examples at IT Pros fingertips when they write scripts to automate their IT tasks. Users can search, learn, download and manage scripts from within their scripting environment - PowerShell ISE - with just a few button clicks. It saves the time of switching back and forth between webpages and scripting environment, and also...New ProjectsAgenda do Estudante: Aplicativo para auxiliar estudantes no gerenciamento do tempo, disponível na WEB, buscando possuir ampla acessibilidade. Code Analysis Rule Collection: Contains a set of diagnostics, code fixes and refactorings built on the Microsoft .NET Compiler Platform "Roslyn".CRM User Diagnostics Tool: DiagnosticsDbWord: this tools use xml.sql generate daily report and weekly report from word. EasyWork: ADO.NET Entity Framework Common Service Locator Unity Unity Interception Extension MEF ASP.NET MVC jQWidgetsEjerciciosFer: Ultimate Summary re LocoGestionEvenement: ASP .NET applicationINNOVA: Sistema web-movil para disponiblidad...,.Internal: This is an internal project for personal usageLearnserve CORE - SCORM LMS: Learnserve CORE LMS is a comprehensive .NET SCORM LMS Module designed to extend DNN into a CMS/LMS that can deliver any online training.M2B Gestion Entretiens: Gestion des entretiensModern DevOps Tools: Modern DevOps Tools is based around building an tools that uses recommended practices that will work inside of your continuous delivery cycle.Monopoly NOHI: Monopoly for the NOHIORT MAY 2014 HOTELUCHO C# MVC3 EF5: Academic web project using MVC 3, Entity Framework 5. Hotel reservations management. User registration and room reservations.ProfSteeve: ProfSteeve is a teaching tool.Project issue resolution lists: wenti Registry Settings Export Library: The main purpose of this project is to enable the creation of .reg files from registry keys.Scroll++: Enables scrolling ui-elements without focusing them. SIGCBI: Sistema para Gestión de las áreas de Almacén, Administración y Ventas del Complejo Turístico Baños del Inca.SISPERRHH - WEB: Sistema de Gestión de RRHH.Trabajo Practico Laboratorio V: Trabajo Practico Laboratorio VTraining_MEF_MVC: Training MEF MVCTraining_MEF_SimpleCalculator: Simple Calculator MEFTraining_MVC_ExploringMVCParts: Training Exploring MVC PartsTres Punto Cinco: Tres Punto CincoUI Exception Handler: UI Exception Handler is a simple library that provides error windows for unexpected .Net application exceptions.Widjet_jQueryUI_CustomLineSelector: Custom line selector

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  • Agile: User Stories for Machine Learning Project?

    - by benjismith
    I've just finished up with a prototype implementation of a supervised learning algorithm, automatically assigning categorical tags to all the items in our company database (roughly 5 million items). The results look good, and I've been given the go-ahead to plan the production implementation project. I've done this kind of work before, so I know how the functional components of the software. I need a collection of web crawlers to fetch data. I need to extract features from the crawled documents. Those documents need to be segregated into a "training set" and a "classification set", and feature-vectors need to be extracted from each document. Those feature vectors are self-organized into clusters, and the clusters are passed through a series of rebalancing operations. Etc etc etc etc. So I put together a plan, with about 30 unique development/deployment tasks, each with time estimates. The first stage of development -- ignoring some advanced features that we'd like to have in the long-term, but aren't high enough priority to make it into the development schedule yet -- is slated for about two months worth of work. (Keep in mind that I already have a working prototype, so the final implementation is significantly simpler than if the project was starting from scratch.) My manager said the plan looked good to him, but he asked if I could reorganize the tasks into user stories, for a few reasons: (1) our project management software is totally organized around user stories; (2) all of our scheduling is based on fitting entire user stories into sprints, rather than individually scheduling tasks; (3) other teams -- like the web developers -- have made great use of agile methodologies, and they've benefited from modelling all the software features as user stories. So I created a user story at the top level of the project: As a user of the system, I want to search for items by category, so that I can easily find the most relevant items within a huge, complex database. Or maybe a better top-level story for this feature would be: As a content editor, I want to automatically create categorical designations for the items in our database, so that customers can easily find high-value data within our huge, complex database. But that's not the real problem. The tricky part, for me, is figuring out how to create subordinate user stories for the rest of the machine learning architecture. Case in point... I know that the algorithm requires two major architectural subdivisions: (A) training, and (B) classification. And I know that the training portion of the architecture requires construction of a cluster-space. All the Agile Development literature I've read seems to indicate that a user story should be the "smallest possible implementation that provides any business value". And that makes a lot of sense when designing a piece of end-user software. Start small, and then incrementally add value when users demand additional functionality. But a cluster-space, in and of itself, provides zero business value. Nor does a crawler, or a feature-extractor. There's no business value (not for the end-user, or for any of the roles internal to the company) in a partial system. A trained cluster-space is only possible with the crawler and feature extractor, and only relevant if we also develop an accompanying classifier. I suppose it would be possible to create user stories where the subordinate components of the system act as the users in the stories: As a supervised-learning cluster-space construction routine, I want to consume data from a feature extractor, so that I can exist. But that seems really weird. What benefit does it provide me as the developer (or our users, or any other stakeholders, for that matter) to model my user stories like that? Although the main story can be easily divided along architectural-component boundaries (crawler, trainer, classifier, etc), I can't think of any useful decomposition from a user's perspective. What do you guys think? How do you plan Agile user stories for sophisticated, indivisible, non-user-facing components?

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  • OpenGL 3.x Assimp trouble implementing phong shading (normals?)

    - by Defcronyke
    I'm having trouble getting phong shading to look right. I'm pretty sure there's something wrong with either my OpenGL calls, or the way I'm loading my normals, but I guess it could be something else since 3D graphics and Assimp are both still very new to me. When trying to load .obj/.mtl files, the problems I'm seeing are: The models seem to be lit too intensely (less phong-style and more completely washed out, too bright). Faces that are lit seem to be lit equally all over (with the exception of a specular highlight showing only when the light source position is moved to be practically right on top of the model) Because of problems 1 and 2, spheres look very wrong: picture of sphere And things with larger faces look (less-noticeably) wrong too: picture of cube I could be wrong, but to me this doesn't look like proper phong shading. Here's the code that I think might be relevant (I can post more if necessary): file: assimpRenderer.cpp #include "assimpRenderer.hpp" namespace def { assimpRenderer::assimpRenderer(std::string modelFilename, float modelScale) { initSFML(); initOpenGL(); if (assImport(modelFilename)) // if modelFile loaded successfully { initScene(); mainLoop(modelScale); shutdownScene(); } shutdownOpenGL(); shutdownSFML(); } assimpRenderer::~assimpRenderer() { } void assimpRenderer::initSFML() { windowWidth = 800; windowHeight = 600; settings.majorVersion = 3; settings.minorVersion = 3; app = NULL; shader = NULL; app = new sf::Window(sf::VideoMode(windowWidth,windowHeight,32), "OpenGL 3.x Window", sf::Style::Default, settings); app->setFramerateLimit(240); app->setActive(); return; } void assimpRenderer::shutdownSFML() { delete app; return; } void assimpRenderer::initOpenGL() { GLenum err = glewInit(); if (GLEW_OK != err) { /* Problem: glewInit failed, something is seriously wrong. */ std::cerr << "Error: " << glewGetErrorString(err) << std::endl; } // check the OpenGL context version that's currently in use int glVersion[2] = {-1, -1}; glGetIntegerv(GL_MAJOR_VERSION, &glVersion[0]); // get the OpenGL Major version glGetIntegerv(GL_MINOR_VERSION, &glVersion[1]); // get the OpenGL Minor version std::cout << "Using OpenGL Version: " << glVersion[0] << "." << glVersion[1] << std::endl; return; } void assimpRenderer::shutdownOpenGL() { return; } void assimpRenderer::initScene() { // allocate heap space for VAOs, VBOs, and IBOs vaoID = new GLuint[scene->mNumMeshes]; vboID = new GLuint[scene->mNumMeshes*2]; iboID = new GLuint[scene->mNumMeshes]; glClearColor(0.4f, 0.6f, 0.9f, 0.0f); glEnable(GL_DEPTH_TEST); glDepthFunc(GL_LEQUAL); glEnable(GL_CULL_FACE); shader = new Shader("shader.vert", "shader.frag"); projectionMatrix = glm::perspective(60.0f, (float)windowWidth / (float)windowHeight, 0.1f, 100.0f); rot = 0.0f; rotSpeed = 50.0f; faceIndex = 0; colorArrayA = NULL; colorArrayD = NULL; colorArrayS = NULL; normalArray = NULL; genVAOs(); return; } void assimpRenderer::shutdownScene() { delete [] iboID; delete [] vboID; delete [] vaoID; delete shader; } void assimpRenderer::renderScene(float modelScale) { sf::Time elapsedTime = clock.getElapsedTime(); clock.restart(); if (rot > 360.0f) rot = 0.0f; rot += rotSpeed * elapsedTime.asSeconds(); glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT | GL_STENCIL_BUFFER_BIT); viewMatrix = glm::translate(glm::mat4(1.0f), glm::vec3(0.0f, -3.0f, -10.0f)); // move back a bit modelMatrix = glm::scale(glm::mat4(1.0f), glm::vec3(modelScale)); // scale model modelMatrix = glm::rotate(modelMatrix, rot, glm::vec3(0, 1, 0)); //modelMatrix = glm::rotate(modelMatrix, 25.0f, glm::vec3(0, 1, 0)); glm::vec3 lightPosition( 0.0f, -100.0f, 0.0f ); float lightPositionArray[3]; lightPositionArray[0] = lightPosition[0]; lightPositionArray[1] = lightPosition[1]; lightPositionArray[2] = lightPosition[2]; shader->bind(); int projectionMatrixLocation = glGetUniformLocation(shader->id(), "projectionMatrix"); int viewMatrixLocation = glGetUniformLocation(shader->id(), "viewMatrix"); int modelMatrixLocation = glGetUniformLocation(shader->id(), "modelMatrix"); int ambientLocation = glGetUniformLocation(shader->id(), "ambientColor"); int diffuseLocation = glGetUniformLocation(shader->id(), "diffuseColor"); int specularLocation = glGetUniformLocation(shader->id(), "specularColor"); int lightPositionLocation = glGetUniformLocation(shader->id(), "lightPosition"); int normalMatrixLocation = glGetUniformLocation(shader->id(), "normalMatrix"); glUniformMatrix4fv(projectionMatrixLocation, 1, GL_FALSE, &projectionMatrix[0][0]); glUniformMatrix4fv(viewMatrixLocation, 1, GL_FALSE, &viewMatrix[0][0]); glUniformMatrix4fv(modelMatrixLocation, 1, GL_FALSE, &modelMatrix[0][0]); glUniform3fv(lightPositionLocation, 1, lightPositionArray); for (unsigned int i = 0; i < scene->mNumMeshes; i++) { colorArrayA = new float[3]; colorArrayD = new float[3]; colorArrayS = new float[3]; material = scene->mMaterials[scene->mNumMaterials-1]; normalArray = new float[scene->mMeshes[i]->mNumVertices * 3]; unsigned int normalIndex = 0; for (unsigned int j = 0; j < scene->mMeshes[i]->mNumVertices * 3; j+=3, normalIndex++) { normalArray[j] = scene->mMeshes[i]->mNormals[normalIndex].x; // x normalArray[j+1] = scene->mMeshes[i]->mNormals[normalIndex].y; // y normalArray[j+2] = scene->mMeshes[i]->mNormals[normalIndex].z; // z } normalIndex = 0; glUniformMatrix3fv(normalMatrixLocation, 1, GL_FALSE, normalArray); aiColor3D ambient(0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f); material->Get(AI_MATKEY_COLOR_AMBIENT, ambient); aiColor3D diffuse(0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f); material->Get(AI_MATKEY_COLOR_DIFFUSE, diffuse); aiColor3D specular(0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f); material->Get(AI_MATKEY_COLOR_SPECULAR, specular); colorArrayA[0] = ambient.r; colorArrayA[1] = ambient.g; colorArrayA[2] = ambient.b; colorArrayD[0] = diffuse.r; colorArrayD[1] = diffuse.g; colorArrayD[2] = diffuse.b; colorArrayS[0] = specular.r; colorArrayS[1] = specular.g; colorArrayS[2] = specular.b; // bind color for each mesh glUniform3fv(ambientLocation, 1, colorArrayA); glUniform3fv(diffuseLocation, 1, colorArrayD); glUniform3fv(specularLocation, 1, colorArrayS); // render all meshes glBindVertexArray(vaoID[i]); // bind our VAO glDrawElements(GL_TRIANGLES, scene->mMeshes[i]->mNumFaces*3, GL_UNSIGNED_INT, 0); glBindVertexArray(0); // unbind our VAO delete [] normalArray; delete [] colorArrayA; delete [] colorArrayD; delete [] colorArrayS; } shader->unbind(); app->display(); return; } void assimpRenderer::handleEvents() { sf::Event event; while (app->pollEvent(event)) { if (event.type == sf::Event::Closed) { app->close(); } if ((event.type == sf::Event::KeyPressed) && (event.key.code == sf::Keyboard::Escape)) { app->close(); } if (event.type == sf::Event::Resized) { glViewport(0, 0, event.size.width, event.size.height); } } return; } void assimpRenderer::mainLoop(float modelScale) { while (app->isOpen()) { renderScene(modelScale); handleEvents(); } } bool assimpRenderer::assImport(const std::string& pFile) { // read the file with some example postprocessing scene = importer.ReadFile(pFile, aiProcess_CalcTangentSpace | aiProcess_Triangulate | aiProcess_JoinIdenticalVertices | aiProcess_SortByPType); // if the import failed, report it if (!scene) { std::cerr << "Error: " << importer.GetErrorString() << std::endl; return false; } return true; } void assimpRenderer::genVAOs() { int vboIndex = 0; for (unsigned int i = 0; i < scene->mNumMeshes; i++, vboIndex+=2) { mesh = scene->mMeshes[i]; indexArray = new unsigned int[mesh->mNumFaces * sizeof(unsigned int) * 3]; // convert assimp faces format to array faceIndex = 0; for (unsigned int t = 0; t < mesh->mNumFaces; ++t) { const struct aiFace* face = &mesh->mFaces[t]; std::memcpy(&indexArray[faceIndex], face->mIndices, sizeof(float) * 3); faceIndex += 3; } // generate VAO glGenVertexArrays(1, &vaoID[i]); glBindVertexArray(vaoID[i]); // generate IBO for faces glGenBuffers(1, &iboID[i]); glBindBuffer(GL_ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER, iboID[i]); glBufferData(GL_ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER, sizeof(GLuint) * mesh->mNumFaces * 3, indexArray, GL_STATIC_DRAW); // generate VBO for vertices if (mesh->HasPositions()) { glGenBuffers(1, &vboID[vboIndex]); glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, vboID[vboIndex]); glBufferData(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, mesh->mNumVertices * sizeof(GLfloat) * 3, mesh->mVertices, GL_STATIC_DRAW); glEnableVertexAttribArray((GLuint)0); glVertexAttribPointer((GLuint)0, 3, GL_FLOAT, GL_FALSE, 0, 0); } // generate VBO for normals if (mesh->HasNormals()) { normalArray = new float[scene->mMeshes[i]->mNumVertices * 3]; unsigned int normalIndex = 0; for (unsigned int j = 0; j < scene->mMeshes[i]->mNumVertices * 3; j+=3, normalIndex++) { normalArray[j] = scene->mMeshes[i]->mNormals[normalIndex].x; // x normalArray[j+1] = scene->mMeshes[i]->mNormals[normalIndex].y; // y normalArray[j+2] = scene->mMeshes[i]->mNormals[normalIndex].z; // z } normalIndex = 0; glGenBuffers(1, &vboID[vboIndex+1]); glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, vboID[vboIndex+1]); glBufferData(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, mesh->mNumVertices * sizeof(GLfloat) * 3, normalArray, GL_STATIC_DRAW); glEnableVertexAttribArray((GLuint)1); glVertexAttribPointer((GLuint)1, 3, GL_FLOAT, GL_FALSE, 0, 0); delete [] normalArray; } // tex coord stuff goes here // unbind buffers glBindVertexArray(0); glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, 0); glBindBuffer(GL_ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER, 0); delete [] indexArray; } vboIndex = 0; return; } } file: shader.vert #version 150 core in vec3 in_Position; in vec3 in_Normal; uniform mat4 projectionMatrix; uniform mat4 viewMatrix; uniform mat4 modelMatrix; uniform vec3 lightPosition; uniform mat3 normalMatrix; smooth out vec3 vVaryingNormal; smooth out vec3 vVaryingLightDir; void main() { // derive MVP and MV matrices mat4 modelViewProjectionMatrix = projectionMatrix * viewMatrix * modelMatrix; mat4 modelViewMatrix = viewMatrix * modelMatrix; // get surface normal in eye coordinates vVaryingNormal = normalMatrix * in_Normal; // get vertex position in eye coordinates vec4 vPosition4 = modelViewMatrix * vec4(in_Position, 1.0); vec3 vPosition3 = vPosition4.xyz / vPosition4.w; // get vector to light source vVaryingLightDir = normalize(lightPosition - vPosition3); // Set the position of the current vertex gl_Position = modelViewProjectionMatrix * vec4(in_Position, 1.0); } file: shader.frag #version 150 core out vec4 out_Color; uniform vec3 ambientColor; uniform vec3 diffuseColor; uniform vec3 specularColor; smooth in vec3 vVaryingNormal; smooth in vec3 vVaryingLightDir; void main() { // dot product gives us diffuse intensity float diff = max(0.0, dot(normalize(vVaryingNormal), normalize(vVaryingLightDir))); // multiply intensity by diffuse color, force alpha to 1.0 out_Color = vec4(diff * diffuseColor, 1.0); // add in ambient light out_Color += vec4(ambientColor, 1.0); // specular light vec3 vReflection = normalize(reflect(-normalize(vVaryingLightDir), normalize(vVaryingNormal))); float spec = max(0.0, dot(normalize(vVaryingNormal), vReflection)); if (diff != 0) { float fSpec = pow(spec, 128.0); // Set the output color of our current pixel out_Color.rgb += vec3(fSpec, fSpec, fSpec); } } I know it's a lot to look through, but I'm putting most of the code up so as not to assume where the problem is. Thanks in advance to anyone who has some time to help me pinpoint the problem(s)! I've been trying to sort it out for two days now and I'm not getting anywhere on my own.

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  • SQL SERVER – Beginning SQL Server: One Step at a Time – SQL Server Magazine

    - by pinaldave
    I am glad to announce that along with SQLAuthority.com, I will be blogging on the prominent site of SQL Server Magazine. My very first blog post there is already live; read here: Beginning SQL Server: One Step at a Time. My association with SQL Server Magazine has been quite long, I have written nearly 7 to 8 SQL Server articles for the print magazine and it has been a great experience. I used to stay in the United States at that time. I moved back to India for good, and during this process, I had put everything on hold for a while. Just like many things, “temporary” things become “permanent” – coming back to SQLMag was on hold for long time. Well, this New Year, things have changed – once again, I am back with my online presence at SQLMag.com. Everybody is a beginner at every task or activity at some point of his/her life: spelling words for the first time; learning how to drive for the first time, etc. No one is perfect at the start of any task, but every human is different. As time passes, we all develop our interests and begin to study our subject of interest. Most of us dream to get a job in the area of our study – however things change as time passes. I recently read somewhere online (I could not find the link again while writing this one) that all the successful people in various areas have never studied in the area in which they are successful. After going through a formal learning process of what we love, we refuse to stop learning, and we finally stop changing career and focus areas. We move, we dare and we progress. IT field is similar to our life. New IT professionals come to this field every day. There are two types of beginners – a) those who are associated with IT field but not familiar with other technologies, and b) those who are absolutely new to the IT field. Learning a new technology is always exciting and overwhelming for enthusiasts. I am working with database (in particular) for SQL Server for more than 7 years but I am still overwhelmed with so many things to learn. I continue to learn and I do not think that I should ever stop doing so. Just like everybody, I want to be in the race and get ahead in learning the technology. For the same, I am always looking for good guidance. I always try to find a good article, blog or book chapter, which can teach me what I really want to learn at this stage in my career and can be immensely helpful. Quite often, I prefer to read the material where the author does not judge me or assume my understanding. I like to read new concepts like a child, who takes his/her first steps of learning without any prior knowledge. Keeping my personal philosophy and preference in mind, I will be blogging on SQL Server Magazine site. I will be blogging on the beginners stuff. I will be blogging for them, who really want to start and make a mark in this area. I will be blogging for all those who have an extreme passion for learning. I am happy that this is a good start for this year. One of my resolutions is to help every beginner. It is totally possible that in future they all will grow and find the same article quite ‘easy‘ – well when that happens, it indicates the success of the article and material! Well, I encourage everybody to read my SQL Server Magazine blog – I will be blogging there frequently on various topics. To begin, we will be talking about performance tuning, and I assure that I will not shy away from other multiple areas. Read my SQL Server Magazine Blog: Beginning SQL Server: One Step at a Time I think the title says it all. Do leave your comments and feedback to indicate your preference of subject and interest. I am going to continue writing on subject, and the aim is of course to help grow in this field. Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Optimization, SQL Performance, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology

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  • Oracle B2B Started Kit

    - by Nitesh Jain Oracle
    This post is for audience who is starting their journey with Oracle B2B 11g practice. Thought of writing this article as even i wondered as to what to do where to search while i was like you. Hope this material will help you to understand Oracle B2B closely: Oracle B2B OTN : http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/soa/b2b/index.html Download Location: http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/soa/soasuite/collateral/downloads.html#11.1.1.3.0 Installation Guide: http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E14571_01/doc.1111/e13925/toc.htm User Guide: http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E14571_01/integration.1111/e10229/toc.htm Sample Location: B2B Samples are part of SOA sample at below location: http://www.oracle.com/technology/sample_code/products/soa/index.html Developer Notes / Step by Step configuration guide: http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/soa/b2b/index.html http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/soa/b2b/collateral/B2B_TU001_EDI.pdf http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/soa/b2b/collateral/B2B_TU002_HL7.pdf http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/soa/b2b/collateral/B2B_TU003_ebxml.pdf Blog: http://blogs.oracle.com/oracleb2bgurus/ Forum: http://forums.oracle.com/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=242&start=0 This article is as per Oracle B2B 11g PS2 Release (11.1.1.3.0)

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  • Would you recommend Head First Programming for someone new?

    - by Sergio
    My brother is just starting out college. He's studying the same thing I am here in Bolivia; Systems Engineer which is the equivalent of what a CS degree is in the US. Being his big brother and a programmer myself I really want to guide him and give him the right material to learn and become good at programming. My motives are selfish I admit, I want him to become really good so he can teach me things in the future. :) After poking around the web, I found Head First Programming. This book seems to teach the fundamentals of programming, using Python as the language. Would you recommend this book as his first book ever? Would learning Python as his first language stunt him somehow? What are your thoughts and suggestions? Thanks!

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  • New Version: ZFS RAID Calculator v7

    - by uwes
    New version available now. ZFS RAID Calculator v7 on eSTEP portal. The Tool calculates key capacity parameter like  number of Vdev's, number of spares, number of data drives, raw RAID capacity(TB), usable capacity (TiB) and (TB) according the different possible  RAID types for a given ZS3 configuration. Updates included in v7: added an open office version compatible with MacOS included the obsolete drives as options for upgrade calculations simplified the color scheme and tweaked the formulas for better compatibility The spreadsheet can be downloaded from eSTEP portal. URL: http://launch.oracle.com/ PIN: eSTEP_2011 The material can be found under tab eSTEP Download.

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  • Data Quality and Master Data Management Resources

    - by Dejan Sarka
    Many companies or organizations do regular data cleansing. When you cleanse the data, the data quality goes up to some higher level. The data quality level is determined by the amount of work invested in the cleansing. As time passes, the data quality deteriorates, and you need to repeat the cleansing process. If you spend an equal amount of effort as you did with the previous cleansing, you can expect the same level of data quality as you had after the previous cleansing. And then the data quality deteriorates over time again, and the cleansing process starts over and over again. The idea of Data Quality Services is to mitigate the cleansing process. While the amount of time you need to spend on cleansing decreases, you will achieve higher and higher levels of data quality. While cleansing, you learn what types of errors to expect, discover error patterns, find domains of correct values, etc. You don’t throw away this knowledge. You store it and use it to find and correct the same issues automatically during your next cleansing process. The following figure shows this graphically. The idea of master data management, which you can perform with Master Data Services (MDS), is to prevent data quality from deteriorating. Once you reach a particular quality level, the MDS application—together with the defined policies, people, and master data management processes—allow you to maintain this level permanently. This idea is shown in the following picture. OK, now you know what DQS and MDS are about. You can imagine the importance on maintaining the data quality. Here are some resources that help you preparing and executing the data quality (DQ) and master data management (MDM) activities. Books Dejan Sarka and Davide Mauri: Data Quality and Master Data Management with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 – a general introduction to MDM, MDS, and data profiling. Matching explained in depth. Dejan Sarka, Matija Lah and Grega Jerkic: MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-463): Building Data Warehouses with Microsoft SQL Server 2012 – I wrote quite a few chapters about DQ and MDM, and introduced also SQL Server 2012 DQS. Thomas Redman: Data Quality: The Field Guide – you should start with this book. Thomas Redman is the father of DQ and MDM. Tyler Graham: Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Master Data Services – MDS in depth from a product team mate. Arkady Maydanchik: Data Quality Assessment – data profiling in depth. Tamraparni Dasu, Theodore Johnson: Exploratory Data Mining and Data Cleaning – advanced data profiling with data mining. Forthcoming presentations I am presenting a DQS and MDM seminar at PASS SQL Rally Amsterdam 2013: Wednesday, November 6th, 2013: Enterprise Information Management with SQL Server 2012 – a good kick start to your first DQ and / or MDM project. Courses Data Quality and Master Data Management with SQL Server 2012 – I wrote a 2-day course for SolidQ. If you are interested in this course, which I could also deliver in a shorter seminar way, you can contact your closes SolidQ subsidiary, or, of course, me directly on addresses [email protected] or [email protected]. This course could also complement the existing courseware portfolio of training providers, which are welcome to contact me as well. Start improving the quality of your data now!

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  • Top 4 Lame Tech Blogging Posts

    - by jkauffman
    From a consumption point of view, tech blogging is a great resource for one-off articles on niche subjects. If you spend any time reading tech blogs, you may find yourself running into several common, useless types of posts tech bloggers slip into. Some of these lame posts may just be natural due to common nerd psychology, and some others are probably due to lame, lemming-like laziness. I’m sure I’ll do my fair share of fitting the mold, but I quickly get bored when I happen upon posts that hit these patterns without any real purpose or personal touches. 1. The Content Regurgitation Posts This is a common pattern fueled by the starving pan-handlers in the web traffic economy. These are posts that are terse opinions or addendums to an existing post. I commonly see these involve huge block quotes from the linked article which almost always produces over 50% of the post itself. I’ve accidentally gone to these posts when I’m knowingly only interested in the source material. Web links can degrade as well, so if the source link is broken, then, well, I’m pretty steamed. I see this occur with simple opinions on technologies, Stack Overflow solutions, or various tech news like posts from Microsoft. It’s not uncommon to go to the linked article and see the author announce that he “added a blog post” as a response or summary of the topic. This is just rude, but those who do it are probably aware of this. It’s a matter of winning that sweet, juicy web traffic. I doubt this leeching is fooling anybody these days. I would like to rally human dignity and urge people to avoid these types of posts, and just leave a comment on the source material. 2. The “Sorry I Haven’t Posted In A While” Posts This one is far too common. You’ll most likely see this quote somewhere in the body of the offending post: I have been really busy. If the poster is especially guilt-ridden, you’ll see a few volleys of excuses. Here are some common reasons I’ve seen, which I’ll list from least to most painfully awkward. Out of town Vague allusions to personal health problems (these typically includes phrases like “sick”, “treatment'”, and “all better now!”) “Personal issues” (which I usually read as "divorce”) Graphic or specific personal health problems (maximum awkwardness potential is achieved if you see links to charity fund websites) I can’t help but to try over-analyzing why this occurs. Personally, I see this an an amalgamation of three plain factors: Life happens Us nerds are duty-driven, and driven to guilt at personal inefficiencies Tech blogs can become personal journals I don’t think we can do much about the first two, but on the third I think we could certainly contain our urges. I’m a pretty boring guy and, whether or I like it or not, I have an unspoken duty to protect the world from hearing about my unremarkable existence. Nobody cares what kind of sandwich I’m eating. Similarly, if I disappear for a while, it’s unlikely that anybody who happens upon my blog would care why. Rest assured, if I stop posting for a while due to a vasectomy, you will be the first to know. 3. The “At A Conference”, or “Conference Review” Posts I don’t know if I’m like everyone else on this one, but I have never been successfully interested in these posts. It even sounds like a good idea: if I can’t make it to a particular conference (like the KCDC this year), wouldn’t I be interested in a concentrated summary of events? Apparently, no! Within this realm, I’ve never read a post by a blogger that held my interest. What really baffles is is that, for whatever reason, I am genuinely engaged and interested when talking to someone in person regarding the same topic. I have noticed the same phenomenon when hearing about others’ vacations. If someone sends me an email about their vacation, I gloss over it and forget about it quickly. In contrast, if I’m speaking to that individual in person about their vacation, I’m actually interested. I’m unsure why the written medium eradicates the intrigue. I was raised by a roaming pack of friendly wild video games, so that may be a factor. 4. The “Top X Number of Y’s That Z” Posts I’ve seen this one crop up a lot more in the past few of years. Here are some fabricated examples: 5 Easy Ways to Improve Your Code Top 7 Good Habits Programmers Learn From Experience The 8 Things to Consider When Giving Estimates Top 4 Lame Tech Blogging Posts These are attention-grabbing headlines, and I’d assume they rack up hits. In fact, I enjoy a good number of these. But, I’ve been drawn to articles like this just to find an endless list of identically formatted posts on the blog’s archive sidebar. Often times these posts have overlapping topics, too. These types of posts give the impression that the author has given thought to prioritize and organize the points as a result of a comprehensive consideration of a particular topic. Did the author really weigh all the possibilities when identifying the “Top 4 Lame Tech Blogging Patterns”? Unfortunately, probably not. What a tool. To reiterate, I still enjoy the format, but I feel it is abused. Nowadays, I’m pretty skeptical when approaching posts in this format. If these trends continue, my brain will filter these blog posts out just as effectively as it ignores the encroaching “do xxx with this one trick” advertisements. Conclusion To active blog readers, I hope my guide has served you precious time in being able to identify lame blog posts at a glance. Save time and energy by skipping over the chaff of the internet! And if you author a blog, perhaps my insight will help you to avoid the occasional urge to produce these needless filler posts.

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  • Silverlight Cream for March 17, 2010 -- #814

    - by Dave Campbell
    In this Issue: Tim Heuer(-2-), René Schulte(-2-), Bart Czernicki, Mark Monster, Pencho Popadiyn, Alex Golesh, Phil Middlemiss, and Yochay Kiriaty. Shoutouts: Check out the new themes, and Tim Heuer's poetry skills: SNEAK PEEK: New Silverlight application themes I learned to program Windows 3.1 from reading Charles Petzold's book, and here we are again: Free ebook: Programming Windows Phone 7 Series (DRAFT Preview) Here's a blog you're going to want to watch, and first up on the blog tonight is links to the complete set of MIX10 phone sessions: The Windows Phone Developer Blog First let me get a couple of things out of my system... "Holy Crap it's March 17th already" and "Holy Crap, we're all Windows Phone Developers!" I'm sure both of those were old news to anyone that's not been in a coma since Monday, but I've been a tad busy here at #MIX10. I'm not complainin' ... I'm just sayin' From SilverlightCream.com: Getting Started with Silverlight and Windows Phone 7 Development With any new Silverlight technology we have to begin with Tim Heuer... and this is Tim's announcement of Silverlight on the Windows Phone 7 Series ('cmon, can I call it a "Silverlight Phone"? ... please?) ... hope I didn't type that out loud :) ... so... in case you fell asleep Sunday, and just woke up, Tim let the dogs out on this and we could all talk about it. In all seriousness, bookmark this page... lots of good links. A guide to what has changed in the Silverlight 4 RC Continuing the 'bookmark this page' thought... Tim Heuer also has one up on what the heck is all in the Silverlight 4 RC they released on Monday... check this out... really good stuff in there... and a great post detailing it all. The Silverlight 4 Release Candidate René Schulte has a good post up detailing the new stuff in Silverlight 4 RC, with special attention paid to the webcam/mic and AsyncCaptureImage Let it ring - WriteableBitmapEx for Windows Phone René Schulte has a Windows Phone post up as well, introducing the WriteableBitmapEx library for Windows Phone... how cool is that?? Silverlight for Windows Phone 7 is NOT the same full Silverlight 3 RTM Bart Czernicki dug into the docs to expose some of the differences between Silverlight for the Windows Phone and Silverlight 3. If you've been developing in SL3 and want to also do Phone, check out this post and his resource listings. Trying to sketch a Windows Phone 7 application Mark Monster tried to SketchFlow a Windows Phone app and hit some problems... if anyone has thoughts, contribute on his blog page. Using Reactive Extensions in Silverlight – part 2 – Web Services Pencho Popadiyn has part 2 of his tutorial on Rx, and this one is concentrating on asynchronous service calls. Silverlight 4 Quick Tip: Out-Of-Browser Improvements This post from Alex Golesh is a little weird since he was sitting next to me in a session at MIX10 when he submitted it :) ... good update on what's new in OOB in the RC Turning a round button into a rounded panel I like Phil Middlemiss' other title for this post: "A Scalable Orb Panel-Button-Thingy" ... this is a very cool resizing button that works amazingly similar to the resizable skinned dialogs I did in Win32!... very cool, Phil! Go Get It – The Windows Phone Developer Training Kit Did you know there was a Windows Phone Training Kit with Hands-on Labs? Yochay Kiriaty at the Windows Phone Developer Blog wrote about it... I pulled it down, and it looks really good! Stay in the 'Light! Twitter SilverlightNews | Twitter WynApse | WynApse.com | Tagged Posts | SilverlightCream Join me @ SilverlightCream | Phoenix Silverlight User Group Technorati Tags: Silverlight    Silverlight 3    Silverlight 4    Windows Phone MIX10

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  • Is Agile the new micromanagement?

    - by Smith James
    Hi, This question has been cooking in my head for a while so I wanted to ask those who are following agile/scrum practices in their development environments. My company has finally ventured into incorporating agile practices and has started out with a team of 4 developers in an agile group on a trial basis. It has been 4 months with 3 iterations and they continue to do it without going fully agile for the rest of us. This is due to the fact that management's trust to meet business requirements with a quite a bit of ad hoc type request from high above. Recently, I talked to the developers who are part of this initiative; they tell me that it's not fun. They are not allowed to talk to other developers by their Scrum master and are not allowed to take any phone calls in the work area (which maybe fine to an extent). For example, if I want to talk to my friend for kicks who is in the agile team, I am not allowed without the approval of the Scrum master; who is sitting right next to the agile team. The idea of all this or the agile is to provide a complete vacuum for agile developers from any interruptions and to have them put in good 6+ productive hours. Well, guys, I am no agile guru but what I have read Yahoo agile rollout document and similar for other organizations, it gives me a feeling that agile is not cheap. It require resources and budget to instill agile into the teams and correct issue as they arrive to put them back on track. For starters, it requires training for developers and coaching for managers and etc, etc... The current Scrum master was a manager who took a couple days agile training class paid by the management is now leading this agile team. I have also heard in the meeting that agile manifesto doesn't dictate that agile is not set in stones and is customized differently for each company. Well, it all sounds good and reason. In conclusion, I always thought the agile was supposed to bring harmony in the development teams which results in happy developers. However, I am getting a very opposite feeling when talking to the developers in the agile team. They are unhappy that they cannot talk anything but work, sitting quietly all day just working, and they feel it's just another way for management to make them work more. Tell me please, if this is one of the examples of good practices used for the purpose of selfish advantage for more dollars? Or maybe, it's just us the developers like me and this agile team feels that they don't like to work in an environment where they only breathe work because they are at work. Thanks. Edit: It's a company in healthcare domain that has offices across US, but we're in Texas. It definitely feels like a cowboy style agile which makes me really not wanting to go for agile at all, esp at my current company. All of it has to do with the management being completely cheap. Cutting out expensive coffee for cheaper version, emphasis on savings and being productive while staying as lean as possible. My feeling is that someone in the management behind the door threw out this idea, that agile makes you produce more so we can show our bosses we're producing more with the same headcount. Or, maybe, it will allow us to reduce headcount if that's the case. EDITED: They are having their 5 min daily meeting. But not allowed to chat or talk with someone outside of their team. All focus is on work.

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  • BPM best practice by David Read and Niall Commiskey

    - by JuergenKress
    At our SOA Community Workspace (SOA Community membership required) you can find best practice documents for BPM Implementations. Please make sure that your BPM experts and architects read this documents if you start or work on a BPM project. The material was created based on the experience with large BPM implementations: 11g-Runtime-Overview-v1.pptx Advanced-BPM-Session1-v2.pptx Error-Handling-v4.pptx BPM-MessageRecovery-Final.doc Also we can support you with your BPM project on-side. Please contact us if you need BPM support! SOA & BPM Partner Community For regular information on Oracle SOA Suite become a member in the SOA & BPM Partner Community for registration please visit www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa (OPN account required) If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center. Blog Twitter LinkedIn Facebook Wiki Technorati Tags: BPM,Niall Commiskey,David Read,BPM best practice,SOA Community,Oracle SOA,Oracle BPM,Community,OPN,Jürgen Kress

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  • Web-Applikationen entwickeln mit Oracle Application Express

    - by britta.wolf
    Mit Oracle Application Express können schnell und einfach datenbankgestützte Web-Anwendungen erstellt werden. Das Tool wird kostenlos (!) über das Oracle Technology Network (OTN) bereitgestellt und kann für alle Zwecke eingesetzt werden. Wer sich über das relativ umfangreiche APEX-Material auf OTN hinaus informieren möchte, dem empfehle ich wärmstens die deutschsprachige APEX-Community-Seite. Die Webseite wird super gepflegt und bietet Einsteigerinformationen, regelmäßige Neuigkeiten, nützliche Tipps und weiterführende Links, sowie Hinweise zu Community-Treffen oder Web-Sessions. Es besteht derzeit die Möglichkeit, auf die neueste Version, die sogenannte Early Adopter Version (EA Phase2) von APEX 4.0 zuzugreifen: http://tryapexnow.com/ Zuerst müssen Sie sich registrieren. Danach fordern Sie Ihren persönlichen Workspace (Arbeitsbereich) an. Innerhalb weniger Minuten bekommen Sie per Mail die Bestätigung und eine Aufforderung, die Account-Erstellung zu finalisieren. Und dann kann es los gehen...!

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