lazy evaluation - Page 55

Why does defined(X) not work in a preprocessor definition without a space?

- by Devin

A preprocessor definition that includes defined(X) will never evaluate to true, but (defined X) will. This occurs in MSVC9; I have not tested other preprocessors. A simple example: #define FEATURE0 1 #define FEATURE1 0 #define FEATURE2 1 #define FEATURE3 (FEATURE0 && !FEATURE1 && (defined(FEATURE2))) #define FEATURE4 (FEATURE0 && !FEATURE1 && (defined FEATURE2)) #define FEATURE5 (FEATURE0 && !FEATURE1 && (defined (FEATURE2))) #if FEATURE3 #pragma message("FEATURE3 Enabled") #elif (FEATURE0 && !FEATURE1 && (defined(FEATURE2))) #pragma message("FEATURE3 Enabled (Fallback)") #endif #if FEATURE4 #pragma message("FEATURE4 Enabled") #elif (FEATURE0 && !FEATURE1 && (defined FEATURE2)) #pragma message("FEATURE4 Enabled (Fallback)") #endif #if FEATURE5 #pragma message("FEATURE5 Enabled") #elif (FEATURE0 && !FEATURE1 && (defined (FEATURE2))) #pragma message("FEATURE5 Enabled (Fallback)") #endif The output from the compiler is: 1FEATURE3 Enabled (Fallback) 1FEATURE4 Enabled 1FEATURE5 Enabled Working cases: defined (X), defined( X ), and defined X. Broken case: defined(X) Why is defined evaluated differently when part of a definition, as in the #if cases in the example, compared to direct evaluation, as in the #elif cases in the example?

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SQL SERVER – 2012 – All Download Links in Single Page – SQL Server 2012

- by pinaldave

SQL Server 2012 RTM is just announced and recently I wrote about all the SQL Server 2012 Certification on single page. As a feedback, I received suggestions to have a single page where everything about SQL Server 2012 is listed. I will keep this page updated as new updates are announced. Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Evaluation Microsoft SQL Server 2012 enables a cloud-ready information platform that will help organizations unlock breakthrough insights across the organization. Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Express Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Express is a powerful and reliable free data management system that delivers a rich and reliable data store for lightweight Web Sites and desktop applications. Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Feature Pack The Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Feature Pack is a collection of stand-alone packages which provide additional value for Microsoft SQL Server 2012. Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Report Builder Report Builder provides a productive report-authoring environment for IT professionals and power users. It supports the full capabilities of SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services. Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Master Data Services Add-in For Microsoft Excel The Master Data Services Add-in for Excel gives multiple users the ability to update master data in a familiar tool without compromising the data’s integrity in Master Data Services. Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Performance Dashboard Reports The SQL Server 2012 Performance Dashboard Reports are Reporting Services report files designed to be used with the Custom Reports feature of SQL Server Management Studio. Microsoft SQL Server 2012 PowerPivot for Microsoft Excel® 2010 Microsoft PowerPivot for Microsoft Excel 2010 provides ground-breaking technology; fast manipulation of large data sets, streamlined integration of data, and the ability to effortlessly share your analysis through Microsoft SharePoint. Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services Add-in for Microsoft SharePoint Technologies 2010 The SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services Add-in for Microsoft SharePoint 2010 technologies allows you to integrate your reporting environment with the collaborative SharePoint 2010 experience. Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Semantic Language Statistics The Semantic Language Statistics Database is a required component for the Statistical Semantic Search feature in Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Semantic Language Statistics. Microsoft ®SQL Server 2012 FileStream Driver – Windows Logo Certification Catalog file for Microsoft SQL Server 2012 FileStream Driver that is certified for WindowsServer 2008 R2. It meets Microsoft standards for compatibility and recommended practices with the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems. Microsoft SQL Server StreamInsight 2.0 Microsoft StreamInsight is Microsoft’s Complex Event Processing technology to help businesses create event-driven applications and derive better insights by correlating event streams from multiple sources with near-zero latency. Microsoft JDBC Driver 4.0 for SQL Server Download the Microsoft JDBC Driver 4.0 for SQL Server, a Type 4 JDBC driver that provides database connectivity through the standard JDBC application program interfaces (APIs) available in Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 5 and 6. Data Quality Services Performance Best Practices Guide This guide focuses on a set of best practices for optimizing performance of Data Quality Services (DQS). Microsoft Drivers 3.0 for SQL Server for PHP The Microsoft Drivers 3.0 for SQL Server for PHP provide connectivity to Microsoft SQLServer from PHP applications. Product Documentation for Microsoft SQL Server 2012 for firewall and proxy restricted environments The Microsoft SQL Server 2012 setup installs only the Help Viewer…install any documentation. All of the SQL Server documentation is available online. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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USB software protection dongle for Java with an SDK which is cross-platform “for real”. Does it exist?

- by Unai Vivi

What I'd like to ask is if anybody knows about an hardware USB-dongle for software protection which offers a very complete out-of-the-box API support for cross-platform Java deployments. Its SDK should provide a jar (only one, not one different library per OS & bitness) ready to be added to one's project as a library. The jar should contain all the native stuff for the various OSes and bitnesses From the application's point of view, one should continue to write (api calls) once and run everywhere, without having to care where the end-user will run the software The provided jar should itself deal with loading the appropriate native library Does such a thing exist? With what I've tried so far, you have different APIs and compiled libraries for win32, linux32, win64, linux64, etc (or you even have to compile stuff yourself on the target machine), but hey, we're doing Java here, we don't know (and don't care) where the program will run! And we can't expect the end-user to be a software engineer, tweak (and break!) its linux server, link libraries, mess with gcc, litter the filesystem, etc... In general, Java support (in a transparent cross-platform fashion) is quite bad with the dongle SDKs I've evaluated so far (e.g. KeyLok and SecuTech's UniKey). I even purchased (no free evaluation kit available) SecureMetric SDKs&dongles (they should've been "soooo" straighforward to integrate -- according to marketing material :\ ) and they were the worst ever: SecureDongle X has no 64bit support and SecureDongle SD is not cross-platform at all. So, has anyone out there been through this and found the ultimate Java security usb dongle for cross-platform deployments? Note: software is low-volume, high-value; application is off-line (intranet with no internet access), so no online-activation alternatives and the like. -- EDIT Tried out HASP dongles (used to be called "Aladdin"), and added them to the no-no list: here, too, there is no out-of-the-box (out-of-the-jar) support: e.g. end-linux-user has to manually put the .so library (the specific file for the appropriate bitness) in the right place on his filesystem, and export an env. variable accordingly. -- EDIT 2 I really don't understand all the negativity and all the downvoting: is this a taboo topic? Is it so hard to understand that a freelance developer has to put food on the table everyday to feed its family and pay the bills at the end of the month? Please don't talk about "adding value" as a supplier, because that'd be off-topic. Furthermore I'm not in direct contact with end-customers, but there's an intermediate reselling entity: it's this entity I want to prevent selling copies of the software without sharing the revenue. -- EDIT 3 I'd like to emphasize the fact that the question is looking for a technical answer, not one about opinions concerning business models, philosophical lucubrations on the concept of value, resellers' reliability, etc. I cannot change resellers, because this isn't a "general purpose" kind of sw, but a very vertical one and (for some reasons it's not worth explaining here) I must go through them. I just need to prevent the "we sold 2 copies, here's your share [bwahaha we sold 10]" scenario.

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Enabling OUD Entry Cache for large static groups

- by Sylvain Duloutre

Oracle Unified Directory can take advantage of several caches to improve performances. especially the so-called database cache and the file system cache. In addition to that, it is possible to use an entry cache to cache LDAP entries. By default, the entry cache is not used. In specific deployements involving large static groups, it may worth loading the group entries to the entry cache to speed up group membership and group-based aci evaluation. To do so, run the following commands: First, specify which entries should reside in the entry cache. In the commad below, only entries matching the LDAP filter " (|(objctclass=groupOfNames)(objectclass=groupOfUniqueNames)) " will be stored in the entry cache. dsconfig set-entry-cache-prop \ --cache-name FIFO \ --add include-filter:$\|\(objctclass=groupOfNames$$objectclass=groupOfUniqueNames$\) --port <ADMIN_PORT> \ --bindDN cn=Directory\ Manager \ --bindPassword ****** \ --no-prompt Then enable the entry cache: dsconfig set-entry-cache-prop \ --cache-name FIFO \ --set enabled:true \ --port <ADMIN_PORT> \ --bindDN cn=Directory\ Manager \ --bindPassword ****** \ --no-prompt In addition to that, you can control how much memory the entry cache can use: oud@s96sec1d0-v3:/application/oud : dsconfig -X -n -p <ADMIN PORT> -D "cn=Directory Manager" -w <password> get-entry-cache-prop --cache-name FIFO Property : Value(s) -------------------:----------------------------------------------------------- cache-level : 1 enabled : true exclude-filter : - include-filter : (|(objctclass=groupOfNames)(objectclass=groupOfUniqueNames)) max-entries : 2147483647 max-memory-percent : 90 You can change the max-entries amd max-memory-percent properties to control the entry cache size using the dsconfig set-entry-cache-prop command.

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What I don’t like about WIF’s Claims-based Authorization

- by Your DisplayName here!

In my last post I wrote about what I like about WIF’s proposed approach to authorization – I also said that I definitely would build upon that infrastructure for my own systems. But implementing such a system is a little harder as it could be. Here’s why (and that’s purely my perspective): First of all WIF’s authorization comes in two “modes” Per-request authorization. When an ASP.NET/WCF request comes in, the registered authorization manager gets called. For SOAP the SOAP action gets passed in. For HTTP requests (ASP.NET, WCF REST) the URL and verb. Imperative authorization This happens when you explicitly call the claims authorization API from within your code. There you have full control over the values for action and resource. In ASP.NET per-request authorization is optional (depends on if you have added the ClaimsAuthorizationHttpModule). In WCF you always get the per-request checks as soon as you register the authorization manager in configuration. I personally prefer the imperative authorization because first of all I don’t believe in URL based authorization. Especially in the times of MVC and routing tables, URLs can be easily changed – but then you also have to adjust your authorization logic every time. Also – you typically need more knowledge than a simple “if user x is allowed to invoke operation x”. One problem I have is, both the per-request calls as well as the standard WIF imperative authorization APIs wrap actions and resources in the same claim type. This makes it hard to distinguish between the two authorization modes in your authorization manager. But you typically need that feature to structure your authorization policy evaluation in a clean way. The second problem (which is somehow related to the first one) is the standard API for interacting with the claims authorization manager. The API comes as an attribute (ClaimsPrincipalPermissionAttribute) as well as a class to use programmatically (ClaimsPrincipalPermission). Both only allow to pass in simple strings (which results in the wrapping with standard claim types mentioned earlier). Both throw a SecurityException when the check fails. The attribute is a code access permission attribute (like PrincipalPermission). That means it will always be invoked regardless how you call the code. This may be exactly what you want, or not. In a unit testing situation (like an MVC controller) you typically want to test the logic in the function – not the security check. The good news is, the WIF API is flexible enough that you can build your own infrastructure around their core. For my own projects I implemented the following extensions: A way to invoke the registered claims authorization manager with more overloads, e.g. with different claim types or a complete AuthorizationContext. A new CAS attribute (with the same calling semantics as the built-in one) with custom claim types. A MVC authorization attribute with custom claim types. A way to use branching – as opposed to catching a SecurityException. I will post the code for these various extensions here – so stay tuned.

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Software development stack 2012

A couple of months ago, I posted on Google+ about my evaluation period for a new software development stack in general. "Analysing existing 'jungle' of multiple applications and tools in various languages for clarification and future design decisions. Great fun and lots of headaches... #DevelopersLife" Surprisingly, there was response... ;-) - And this series of articles is initiated by this post. Thanks Olaf. The past few years... Well, after all my first choice of software development in the past was Microsoft Visual FoxPro 6.0 - 9.0 in combination with Microsoft SQL Server 2000 - 2008 and Crystal Reports 9.x - XI. Honestly, it is my main working environment due to exisiting maintenance and support plans with my customers, but also for new project requests. And... hands on, it is still my first choice for data manipulation and migration options. But the earth is spinning, and as a software craftsman one has to be flexible with the choice of tools. In parallel to my knowledge and expertise in the above mentioned tools, I already started very early to get my hands dirty with the Microsoft .NET Framework. If I remember correctly, I started back in 2002/2003 with the first version ever. But this was more out of curiousity. During the years this kind of development got more serious and demanding, and I focused myself on interop and integrational libraries and applications. Mainly, to expose exisitng features of the .NET Framework to Visual FoxPro - I even had a session about that at the German Developer's Conference in Frankfurt. Observation of recent developments With the recent hype on Javascript and HTML5, especially for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 development, I had several 'Deja vu' events... Back in early 2006 (roughly) I had a conversation on the future of Web and Desktop development with my former colleagues Golo Roden and Thomas Wilting about the underestimation of Javascript and its root as a prototype-based, dynamic, full-featured programming language. During this talk with them I took the Mozilla applications, namely Firefox and Thunderbird, as a reference which are mainly based on XML, CSS, Javascript and images - besides the core rendering engine. And that it is very simple to write your own extensions for the Gecko rendering engine. Looking at the Windows Vista Sidebar widgets, just underlines this kind of usage. So, yes the 'Modern UI' of Windows 8 based on HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript didn't come as any surprise to me. Just allow me to ask why did it take so long for Microsoft to come up with this step? A new set of tools Ok, coming from web development in HTML 4, CSS and Javascript prior to Visual FoxPro, I am partly going back to that combination of technologies. What is the other part of the software development stack here at IOS Indian Ocean Software Ltd? Frankly, it is easy and straight forward to describe: Microsoft Visual FoxPro 9.0 SP 2 - still going strong! Visual Studio 2012 (C# on latest .NET Framework) MonoDevelop Telerik DevCraft Suite WPF ASP.NET MVC Windows 8 Kendo UI OpenAccess ORM Reporting JustCode CODE Framework by EPS Software MonoTouch and Mono for Android Subversion and additional tools for the daily routine: Notepad++, JustCode, SQL Compare, DiffMerge, VMware, etc. Following the principles of Clean Code Developer and the Agile Manifesto Actually, nothing special about this combination but rather a solid fundament to work with and create line of business applications for customers.Honestly, I am really interested in your choice of 'weapons' for software development, and hopefully there might be some nice conversations in the comment section. Over the next coming days/weeks I'm going to describe a little bit more in detail about the reasons for my decision. Articles will be added bit by bit here as reference, too. Please bear with me... Regards, JoKi

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Sun Fire X4800 M2 Posts World Record x86 SPECjEnterprise2010 Result

- by Brian

Oracle's Sun Fire X4800 M2 using the Intel Xeon E7-8870 processor and Sun Fire X4470 M2 using the Intel Xeon E7-4870 processor, produced a world record single application server SPECjEnterprise2010 benchmark result of 27,150.05 SPECjEnterprise2010 EjOPS. The Sun Fire X4800 M2 server ran the application tier and the Sun Fire X4470 M2 server was used for the database tier. The Sun Fire X4800 M2 server demonstrated 63% better performance compared to IBM P780 server result of 16,646.34 SPECjEnterprise2010 EjOPS. The Sun Fire X4800 M2 server demonstrated 4% better performance than the Cisco UCS B440 M2 result, both results used the same number of processors. This result used Oracle WebLogic Server 12c, Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server 1.7.0_02, and Oracle Database 11g. This result was produced using Oracle Linux. Performance Landscape Complete benchmark results are at the SPEC website, SPECjEnterprise2010 Results. The table below compares against the best results from IBM and Cisco. SPECjEnterprise2010 Performance Chart as of 3/12/2012 Submitter EjOPS* Application Server Database Server Oracle 27,150.05 1x Sun Fire X4800 M2 8x 2.4 GHz Intel Xeon E7-8870 Oracle WebLogic 12c 1x Sun Fire X4470 M2 4x 2.4 GHz Intel Xeon E7-4870 Oracle Database 11g (11.2.0.2) Cisco 26,118.67 2x UCS B440 M2 Blade Server 4x 2.4 GHz Intel Xeon E7-4870 Oracle WebLogic 11g (10.3.5) 1x UCS C460 M2 Blade Server 4x 2.4 GHz Intel Xeon E7-4870 Oracle Database 11g (11.2.0.2) IBM 16,646.34 1x IBM Power 780 8x 3.86 GHz POWER 7 WebSphere Application Server V7 1x IBM Power 750 Express 4x 3.55 GHz POWER 7 IBM DB2 9.7 Workgroup Server Edition FP3a * SPECjEnterprise2010 EjOPS, bigger is better. Configuration Summary Application Server: 1 x Sun Fire X4800 M2 8 x 2.4 GHz Intel Xeon processor E7-8870 256 GB memory 4 x 10 GbE NIC 2 x FC HBA Oracle Linux 5 Update 6 Oracle WebLogic Server 11g Release 1 (10.3.5) Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM on Linux, version 1.7.0_02 (Java SE 7 Update 2) Database Server: 1 x Sun Fire X4470 M2 4 x 2.4 GHz Intel Xeon E7-4870 512 GB memory 4 x 10 GbE NIC 2 x FC HBA 2 x Sun StorageTek 2540 M2 4 x Sun Fire X4270 M2 4 x Sun Storage F5100 Flash Array Oracle Linux 5 Update 6 Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.2 Benchmark Description SPECjEnterprise2010 is the third generation of the SPEC organization's J2EE end-to-end industry standard benchmark application. The SPECjEnterprise2010 benchmark has been designed and developed to cover the Java EE 5 specification's significantly expanded and simplified programming model, highlighting the major features used by developers in the industry today. This provides a real world workload driving the Application Server's implementation of the Java EE specification to its maximum potential and allowing maximum stressing of the underlying hardware and software systems. The workload consists of an end to end web based order processing domain, an RMI and Web Services driven manufacturing domain and a supply chain model utilizing document based Web Services. The application is a collection of Java classes, Java Servlets, Java Server Pages, Enterprise Java Beans, Java Persistence Entities (pojo's) and Message Driven Beans. The SPECjEnterprise2010 benchmark heavily exercises all parts of the underlying infrastructure that make up the application environment, including hardware, JVM software, database software, JDBC drivers, and the system network. The primary metric of the SPECjEnterprise2010 benchmark is jEnterprise Operations Per Second ("SPECjEnterprise2010 EjOPS"). This metric is calculated by adding the metrics of the Dealership Management Application in the Dealer Domain and the Manufacturing Application in the Manufacturing Domain. There is no price/performance metric in this benchmark. Key Points and Best Practices Sixteen Oracle WebLogic server instances were started using numactl, binding 2 instances per chip. Eight Oracle database listener processes were started, binding 2 instances per chip using taskset. Additional tuning information is in the report at http://spec.org. See Also Oracle Press Release -- SPECjEnterprise2010 Results Page Sun Fire X4800 M2 Server oracle.com OTN Sun Fire X4270 M2 Server oracle.com OTN Sun Storage 2540-M2 Array oracle.com OTN Oracle Linux oracle.com OTN Oracle Database 11g Release 2 Enterprise Edition oracle.com OTN WebLogic Suite oracle.com OTN Disclosure Statement SPEC and the benchmark name SPECjEnterprise are registered trademarks of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. Sun Fire X4800 M2, 27,150.05 SPECjEnterprise2010 EjOPS; IBM Power 780, 16,646.34 SPECjEnterprise2010 EjOPS; Cisco UCS B440 M2, 26,118.67 SPECjEnterprise2010 EjOPS. Results from www.spec.org as of 3/27/2012.

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Installing SharePoint 2010 in one machine with built in database

- by sreejukg

It is very easy to deploy SharePoint 2010 in a single server using the built-in database. Normally one need to choose such installation for evaluation purposes. When installing with default settings, setup installs Microsoft SQL server 2008 express database along with SharePoint. After installing SharePoint, you need to run SharePoint products and technology configuration wizard which will install central admin website and creates the configuration database and content database for SharePoint sites. Limitations 1. You can not perform this installation on a domain controller 2. The maximum size for express edition database is 4 GB SharePoint 2010 only supports 64 bit operating systems. The installation steps are for windows server r2 64 bit enterprise edition. Installation steps The first screen for the installation is as follows As a first step you need to install the s/w prerequisites. Click on the corresponding link Click next, here you have to agree on the license terms. Select the checkbox and then click next. The installation will starts. The progress will be updated in the screen. This may take some time as during this process, there are some components needs to be downloaded from internet. Make sure you are connected to the internet, then only the installation will become a success. If any error occurs, it will display the error, you need to configure in order to continue. If everything ok you will receive the following success page. Click finish to exit the installation window. Now from the first screen, select Install SharePoint server. This will install SharePoint and SQL server 2008 express edition. First you need to enter the product key for SharePoint. Enter the product key and clicks continue. Now you need to accept the license agreement. Select the checkbox and click on continue. Select the installation type you want. Now click on the standalone button. In production scenario, you need to select the server farm installation. This article only cover the first option, installing server farm is not in the scope of this article. Once you click on the standalone, the installation starts and you can view the progress as below. If any error occurred during installation, you will get the details and link to the log file. Refer log file and fix the corresponding issue and then start the installation again. If installation completes without any error, you will see the below screen. Make sure you selected the check box “Run the SharePoint products Configuration Wizard now” and click close. The SharePoint products configuration wizard starts. Click next; you will get the following warning Click yes and the configuration steps starts. You can view the progress for each step. Once completed the below screen appears to the user. Click finish to complete the installation. Now SharePoint installation is completed. You can navigate to SharePoint central administration website from the administrative tools and start building your portal. Good luck

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Session Update from IASA 2010

- by [email protected]

Below: Tom Kristensen, senior vice president at Marsh US Consumer, and Roger Soppe, CLU, LUTCF, senior director of insurance strategy, Oracle Insurance. Tom and Roger participated in a panel discussion on policy administration systems this week at IASA 2010. This week was the 82nd Annual IASA Educational Conference & Business Show held in Grapevine, Texas. While attending the conference, I had the pleasure of serving as a panelist in one of many of the outstanding sessions conducted this year. The session - entitled "Achieving Business Agility and Promoting Growth with a Modern Policy Administration System" - included industry experts Steve Forte from OneShield, Mike Sciole of IFG Companies, and Tom Kristensen, senior vice president at Marsh US Consumer. The session was conducted as a panel discussion and focused on how insurers can leverage best practices to mitigate risk while enabling rapid product innovation through a modern policy administration system. The panelists offered insight into business and technical challenges for both Life & Annuity and Property & Casualty carriers. The session had three primary learning objectives: Identifying how replacing a legacy system with a more modern policy administration solution can deliver agility and growth Identifying how processes and system should be re-engineered or replaced in order to improve speed-to-market and product support Uncovering how to leverage best practices to mitigate risk during a migration to a new platform Tom Kristensen, who is an industry veteran with over 20 years of experience, was able was able to offer a unique perspective as a business process outsourcer (BPO). Marsh US Consumer is currently implementing both the Oracle Insurance Policy Administration solution and the Oracle Revenue Management and Billing platform while at the same time implementing a new BPO customer. Tom offered insight on the need to replace their aging systems and Marsh's ability to drive new products and processes with a modern solution. As a best practice, their current project has empowered their business users to play a major role in both the requirements gathering and configuration phases. Tom stated that working with a modern solution has also enabled his organization to use a more agile implementation methodology and get hands-on experience with the software earlier in the project. He also indicated that Marsh was encouraged by how quickly it will be able to implement new products, which is another major advantage of a modern rules-based system. One of the more interesting issues was raised by an audience member who asked, "With all the vendor solutions available in North American and across Europe, what is going to make some of them more successful than others and help ensure their long term success?" Panelist Mike Sciole, IFG Companies suggested that carriers do their due diligence and follow a structured evaluation process focusing on vendors who demonstrate they have the "cash to invest in long term R&D" and evaluate audited annual statements for verification. Other panelists suggested that the vendor space will continue to evolve and those with a strong strategy focused on the insurance industry and a solid roadmap will likely separate themselves from the rest. The session concluded with the panelists offering advice about not being afraid to evaluate new modern systems. While migrating to a new platform can be challenging and is typically only undertaken every 15+ years by carriers, the ability to rapidly deploy and manage new products, create consistent processes to better service customers, and the ability to manage their business more effectively, transparently and securely are well worth the effort. Roger A.Soppe, CLU, LUTCF, is the Senior Director of Insurance Strategy, Oracle Insurance.

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wcf http 504: Working on a mystery

- by James Fleming

Ok, So you're here because you've been trying to solve the mystery of why you're getting a 504 error. If you've made it to this lonely corner of the Internet, then the advice you're getting from other bloggers isn't the answer you are after. It wasn't the answer I needed either, so once I did solve my problem, I thought I'd share the answer with you. For starters, if by some miracle, you landed here first you may not already know that the 504 error is NOT coming from IIS or Casini, that response code is coming from Fiddler. HTTP/1.1 504 Fiddler - Receive Failure Content-Type: text/html Connection: close Timestamp: 09:43:05.193 ReadResponse() failed: The server did not return a response for this request. The take away here is Fiddler won't help you with the diagnosis and any further digging in that direction is a red herring. Assuming you've dug around a bit, you may have arrived at posts which suggest you may be getting the error because you're trying to hump too much data over the wire, and have an urgent need to employ an anti-pattern: due to a special case: http://delphimike.blogspot.com/2010/01/error-504-in-wcfnet-35.html Or perhaps you're experiencing wonky behavior using WCF-CustomIsolated Adapter on Windows Server 2008 64bit environment, in which case the rather fly MVP Dwight Goins' advice is what you need. http://dgoins.wordpress.com/2009/12/18/64bit-wcf-custom-isolated-%E2%80%93-rest-%E2%80%93-%E2%80%9C504%E2%80%9D-response/ For me, none of that was helpful. I could perform a get on a single record http://localhost:8783/Criterion/Skip(0)/Take(1) but I couldn't get more than one record in my collection as in: http://localhost:8783/Criterion/Skip(0)/Take(2) I didn't have a big payload, or a large number of objects (as you can see by the size of one record below) - - A-1B f5abd850-ec52-401a-8bac-bcea22c74138 .biological/legal mother This item refers to the supervisor’s evaluation of the caseworker’s ability to involve the biological/legal mother in the permanency planning process. 75d8ecb7-91df-475f-aa17-26367aeb8b21 false true Admin account 2010-01-06T17:58:24.88 1.20 764a2333-f445-4793-b54d-1c3084116daa So while I was able to retrieve one record without a hitch (thus the record above) I wasn't able to return multiple records. I confirmed I could get each record individually, (Skip(1)/Take(1))so it stood to reason the problem wasn't with the data at all, so I suspected a serialization error. The first step to resolving this was to enable WCF Tracing. Instructions on how to set it up are here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms733025.aspx. The tracing log led me to the solution. The use of type 'Application.Survey.Model.Criterion' as a get-only collection is not supported with NetDataContractSerializer. Consider marking the type with the CollectionDataContractAttribute attribute or the SerializableAttribute attribute or adding a setter to the property. So I was wrong (but close!). The problem was a deserializing issue in trying to recreate my read only collection. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa347850.aspx#Y1455 So looking at my underlying model, I saw I did have a read only collection. Adding a setter was all it took. public virtual ICollection<string> GoverningResponses { get { if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(GoverningResponse)) { return GoverningResponse.Split(';'); } else return null; } } Hope this helps. If it does, post a comment.

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Evaluating Solutions to Manage Product Compliance? Don’t Wait Much Longer

- by Evelyn Neumayr

By Kerrie Foy, Director PLM Product Marketing, Oracle Depending on severity, product compliance issues can cause various problems from run-away budgets to business closures. But effective policies and safeguards can create a strong foundation for innovation, productivity, market penetration and competitive advantage. If you’ve been putting off a systematic approach to product compliance, it is time to reconsider that decision. Why now? No matter what industry, companies face a litany of worldwide and regional regulations that require proof of product compliance and environmental friendliness for market access. For example, Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS), a regulation that restricts the use of six dangerous materials used in the manufacture of electronic and electrical equipment, was originally adopted by the European Union in 2003 for implementation in 2006 and has evolved over time through various regional versions for North America, China, Japan, Korea, Norway and Turkey. In addition, the RoHS directive allowed for material exemptions used in Medical Devices, but that exemption ends in 2014. Additional regulations worth watching are the Battery Directive, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), and Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) directives. Additional regulations are expected from organizations such as the Food and Drug Administration in the US and similar organizations elsewhere. Meeting compliance requirements and also successfully investing in eco-friendly designs can be a major challenge. It may involve transforming business models, go-to-market strategies, supply networks, quality assurance policies and compliance processes. Without a single source of truth for product data and without proper processes in place, ensuring product compliance burgeons into a crushing task that is cost-prohibitive and overwhelming. However, the risk to consumer goodwill and satisfaction, revenue, business continuity, and market potential is too great not to solve the compliance challenge. Companies are beginning to adapt and thrive by implementing systematic approaches to product compliance that are more than functional bandages, they are revenue-generating engines. Consider working with Oracle to help you address your compliance needs. Many of the world’s most innovative leaders and pioneers are leveraging Oracle’s Agile Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) portfolio of enterprise applications to manage the product value chain, centralize product data, automate processes, and launch more eco-friendly products to market faster. Particularly, the Agile Product Governance & Compliance (PG&C) solution provides out-of-the-box functionality to integrate actionable regulatory information into the enterprise product record from the ideation to the disposal/recycling phase. Agile PG&C is a comprehensive solution that makes product compliance per corporate initiatives and regulations more reliable and efficient. Throughout product lifecycles, use the solution to support full material disclosures, gain rapid visibility into non-compliance issues, efficiently manage declarations with your suppliers, feed compliance data into a corrective action if a product must be changed, and swiftly satisfy audits by showing all due diligence tracked in one solution. Given the compounding regulation and consumer focus on urgent environmental issues, now is the time to act. Implementing an enterprise-wide systematic approach to product compliance is a competitive investment. From the start, Agile PG&C enables companies to confidently design for compliance and sustainability, reduce the cost of compliance, minimize the risk of business interruption, deliver responsible products, and inspire new innovation. Don’t wait any longer! To find out more about Agile Product Governance & Compliance download the data sheet, contact your sales representative, or call Oracle at 1-800-633-0738.

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Software Architecture verses Software Design

Recently, I was asked what the differences between software architecture and software design are. At a very superficial level both architecture and design seem to mean relatively the same thing. However, if we examine both of these terms further we will find that they are in fact very different due to the level of details they encompass. Software Architecture can be defined as the essence of an application because it deals with high level concepts that do not include any details as to how they will be implemented. To me this gives stakeholders a view of a system or application as if someone was viewing the earth from outer space. At this distance only very basic elements of the earth can be detected like land, weather and water. As the viewer comes closer to earth the details in this view start to become more defined. Details about the earth’s surface will start to actually take form as well as mane made structures will be detected. The process of transitioning a view from outer space to inside our earth’s atmosphere is similar to how an architectural concept is transformed to an architectural design. From this vantage point stakeholders can start to see buildings and other structures as if they were looking out of a small plane window. This distance is still high enough to see a large area of the earth’s surface while still being able to see some details about the surface. This viewing point is very similar to the actual design process of an application in that it takes the very high level architectural concept or concepts and applies concrete design details to form a software design that encompasses the actual implementation details in the form of responsibilities and functions. Examples of these details include: interfaces, components, data, and connections. In review, software architecture deals with high level concepts without regard to any implementation details. Software design on the other hand takes high level concepts and applies concrete details so that software can be implemented. As part of the transition between software architecture to the creation of software design an evaluation on the architecture is recommended. There are several benefits to including this step as part of the transition process. It allows for projects to ensure that they are on the correct path as to meeting the stakeholder’s requirement goals, identifies possible cost savings and can be used to find missing or nonspecific requirements that cause ambiguity in a design. In the book “Evaluating Software Architectures: Methods and Case Studies”, they define key benefits to adding an architectural review process to ensure that an architecture is ready to move on to the design phase. Benefits to evaluating software architecture: Gathers all stakeholders to communicate about the project Goals are clearly defined in regards to the creation or validation of specific requirements Goals are prioritized so that when conflicts occur decisions will be made based on goal priority Defines a clear expectation of the architecture so that all stakeholders have a keen understanding of the project Ensures high quality documentation of the architecture Enables discoveries of architectural reuse Increases the quality of architecture practices. I can remember a few projects that I worked on that could have really used an architectural review prior to being passed on to developers. This project was to create some new advertising space on the company’s website in order to sell space based on the location and some other criteria. I was one of the developer selected to lead this project and I was given a high level design concept and a long list of ever changing requirements due to the fact that sales department had no clear direction as to what exactly the project was going to do or how they were going to bill the clients once they actually agreed to purchase the Ad space. In my personal opinion IT should have pushed back to have the requirements further articulated instead of forcing programmers to code blindly attempting to build such an ambiguous project. Unfortunately, we had to suffer with this project for about 4 months when it should have only taken 1.5 to complete due to the constantly changing and unclear requirements. References Clements, P., Kazman, R., & Klein, M. (2002). Evaluating Software Architectures. Westford, Massachusetts: Courier Westford.

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Apps UX Unveils New Face of Fusion at OpenWorld 2012

- by Kathy.Miedema

By Kathy Miedema, Oracle Applications User Experience The Oracle Applications User Experience (UX) team is getting ready to unveil the new face of Oracle Fusion Applications at Oracle OpenWorld 2012 in San Francisco next week. Photos by Martin Taylor, Oracle Applications User ExperienceJeremy Ashley, Vice President of Oracle Applications User Experience, shows the new face of Fusion Applications to a group of trainers at Oracle’s headquarters in Redwood Shores, Calif. Our team spent the past 6 months working on this project, which embraces simplicity with a modern, productive user experience that aims to help our applications customers rapidly scale deployment of essential self-service tasks and speed adoption by users who need quick access to do quick-entry tasks. We have spent the week before OpenWorld at Oracle headquarters in Redwood Shores, conducting training sessions with Fusion UX Advocates (FXA), Oracle UX Sales Ambassadors (SAMBA), and members of the Oracle Usability Advisory Board (OUAB). We showed the new face of Fusion to customers, partners, ACE Directors, and people from our own sales organization. Next week during OpenWorld, they will be showing demos alongside our team members. To find them, look for the Usable Apps t-shirt, with this artwork: You can also get a look at the new face of Fusion during OpenWorld at the following sessions and demopods: GEN9433 - General Session: Oracle Fusion Applications—Overview, Strategy, and Roadmap Presenter: Chris Leone, Senior Vice President, Oracle Monday, Oct. 1, 10:45 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. in Moscone West 2002/2004 AND Wednesday, Oct. 3, 10:1 a.m. – 11:15 a.m. in Moscone West 2002/2004 CON9407 - Oracle Fusion Customer Relationship Management: Overview/Strategy/Customer Experiences/Roadmap Presenter: Anthony Lye, Senior Vice President, Oracle Monday, Oct. 1, 3:15 – 4:15 p.m. in Moscone West 2008 CON9438 - Oracle Fusion Applications: Transforming Insight into Action Presenters: Jeremy Ashley, Vice President Applications User Experience, Oracle; Katie Candland, Director Applications User Experience, Oracle; Basheer Khan, founder and CEO of Innowave Technology, an Oracle ACE Director for both Fusion Middleware and Applications, and a Fusion UX Advocate Tuesday, Oct. 2, 10:15 a.m. - 11:15 a.m. in Moscone West 2007 CON9467 - Oracle’s Roadmap to a Simple, Modern User Experience Presenter: Jeremy Ashley, Vice President Applications User Experience, Oracle Wednesday, Oct. 3, 3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. in Moscone West 3002/3004 On the demogrounds: Come to the Apps UX pods for a look at enterprise applications on mobile devices such as smart phones and the iPad, and stay for a demo of the new face of Oracle Fusion Applications. Our demopods will also feature some of the cutting-edge tools in Oracle’s arsenal of usability evaluation methods. The Exhibition Hall at Oracle OpenWorld 2012 will be open Monday through Wednesday, Oct. 1-3. The demogrounds for Oracle Applications are located on the lower level of Moscone West in San Francisco. Hours for the Exhibition Hall are: · Monday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. · Tuesday, 9:45 a.m. to 6 p.m. · Wednesday, 9:45 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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Oracle OpenWorld Update: Oracle GoldenGate Customer Panels

- by Doug Reid

0 false 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} We are two weeks out from the start of Oracle OpenWorld 2012. The Data Integration team has a solid line-up of product and customer sessions for you to attend this year, plus five hands-on labs, and numerous demonstration pods in Moscone South. On Monday we kick the track off with Brad Adelberg’s Future Strategy, Direction and Roadmap for Oracle’s Data Integration Platform at 10:45AM in Moscone West 3005. Over the rest of the week we have a number of deep dive sessions that build out the themes that Brad discusses in his keynote, but the two that I would like to highlight today are our Oracle GoldenGate customer panels. The first customer panel is on Zero Downtime Operations and is on Monday at 1:45 in Moscone West 3005. The theme of this session is how to reduce downtime for critical must-succeed systems. Here’s a rundown of the session: Bank of America, TALX, and St. Jude Medical all have users communities that expect systems to be available around the clock. In this customer panel session, Bank of America discusses how it will be leveraging Oracle GoldenGate. St. Jude Medical shares how it is using Oracle GoldenGate to achieve a zero-downtime migration for a 5 TB Oracle online transaction processing (OLTP) 24/7 mission-critical database. TALX discusses how Equifax Workforce Information Services used Oracle GoldenGate to move from processing online transactions in a single site to processing concurrently from two geographically disparate data centers, providing a highly available solution with significant burst capacity. On Tuesday at 11:45 in Moscone West 3005 we switch gears and host a customer panel on Operational Reporting. The theme of this customer panel is all around reporting and how Oracle GoldenGate raises the bar on reporting by enabling real-time access to real-time data. Here’s a rundown of the session: Turk Telekom and Comcast are half a world away from each other, but these two powerhouse companies have both drastically improved performance and access to real-time data by using Oracle GoldenGate. During this panel discussion, Turk Telekom will explain its evaluation and implementation of Oracle GoldenGate, how the business has experienced significant improvements in the core database and reporting platform, and how it plans to expand its usage into its SOA architecture and its architecture based on Oracle’s Siebel platform. Comcast will explain its implementation of Oracle GoldenGate and how it moves data in real time from its mission-critical HP NonStop database to a Teradata data warehouse. Join us at our sessions to learn what other customers are doing with our products or stop by our demo pods in Moscone south and meet the product management and development teams.

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Sign up Today for User Feedback Sessions at Oracle OpenWorld and JavaOne 2012

- by Lionel Dubreuil

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 You’re Invited to Sign Up for Oracle Usability Feedback Sessions SIGN UP TODAY to get the most from your conference experience by participating in a usability feedback session where your expertise will help Oracle develop outstanding products and solutions. The Oracle User Experience team is conducting a Usability Evaluation on publishing and accessing Oracle Enterprise Repository content when building SOA projects in JDeveloper. We are asking Developers and Architects who build or integrate applications using SOA Suite to take a look at the interaction between JDeveloper with the Enterprise Repository. We are looking for feedback on the interaction between JDeveloper and Oracle Enterprise Repository so that we may improve the User Interface in a future release. The feedback sessions will be conducted during the Oracle OpenWorld and JavaOne Conferences, at the Intercontinental Hotel in San Francisco, CA. Sessions will last 1 hour and will be held on Monday, October 1 through Wednesday, October 3, 2012. This event fills up quickly, and space is limited. If you are interested in participating, please send an email to [email protected] with the following information: Identification Name: _________________________________ Company Name: _________________________ Job Title: Email: Phone Number (work, mobile, include country code): Which conference are you attending? _____Oracle OpenWorld _____JavaOne Have you ever participated in usability activities with Oracle or any of its subsidiaries? ____Yes; specify __________________________________________________ ____No Are you currently using JDeveloper? ____Yes ; specify version(s): _______________________________ ____No How long have you used JDeveloper? ____ Less than 1 year ____ 1 - 2 years ____ 3 - 4 years ____ 4 + years Are you currently using SOA features in JDeveloper? ____Yes ____No How long have you used SOA features in JDeveloper? ____ Less than 1 year ____ 1 - 2 years ____ 3 - 4 years ____ 4 + years How often do you use SOA features in JDeveloper? ____ Daily ____ 2 - 3 times a week ____ Once a week ____ Once a month or less Briefly describe the types of SOA tasks you use JDeveloper to perform: _____________________________________ _____________________________________ Please list your availability If you know your availability; please let me know which day you would prefer to participate, Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. Limited sessions are available on each day, and each session lasts 1 hour. Thank you for taking the time to complete this questionnaire. It will help us match you to the best suited feedback session. Once we receive your email, we will contact you to set up a time and day for participation. You'll find more information about our on-site lab on the VoX (Voice of User Experience) blog, and on our Events page at Usable Apps. /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";}

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SQL Server Date Comparison Functions

- by HighAltitudeCoder

A few months ago, I found myself working with a repetitive cursor that looped until the data had been manipulated enough times that it was finally correct. The cursor was heavily dependent upon dates, every time requiring the earlier of two (or several) dates in one stored procedure, while requiring the later of two dates in another stored procedure. In short what I needed was a function that would allow me to perform the following evaluation: WHERE MAX(Date1, Date2) < @SomeDate The problem is, the MAX() function in SQL Server does not perform this functionality. So, I set out to put these functions together. They are titled: EarlierOf() and LaterOf(). /********************************************************** EarlierOf.sql **********************************************************/ /********************************************************** Return the later of two DATETIME variables. Parameter 1: DATETIME1 Parameter 2: DATETIME2 Works for a variety of DATETIME or NULL values. Even though comparisons with NULL are actually indeterminate, we know conceptually that NULL is not earlier or later than any other date provided. SYNTAX: SELECT dbo.EarlierOf('1/1/2000','12/1/2009') SELECT dbo.EarlierOf('2009-12-01 00:00:00.000','2009-12-01 00:00:00.521') SELECT dbo.EarlierOf('11/15/2000',NULL) SELECT dbo.EarlierOf(NULL,'1/15/2004') SELECT dbo.EarlierOf(NULL,NULL) **********************************************************/ USE AdventureWorks GO IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sysobjects WHERE name = 'EarlierOf' AND xtype = 'FN' ) BEGIN DROP FUNCTION EarlierOf END GO CREATE FUNCTION EarlierOf ( @Date1 DATETIME, @Date2 DATETIME ) RETURNS DATETIME AS BEGIN DECLARE @ReturnDate DATETIME IF (@Date1 IS NULL AND @Date2 IS NULL) BEGIN SET @ReturnDate = NULL GOTO EndOfFunction END ELSE IF (@Date1 IS NULL AND @Date2 IS NOT NULL) BEGIN SET @ReturnDate = @Date2 GOTO EndOfFunction END ELSE IF (@Date1 IS NOT NULL AND @Date2 IS NULL) BEGIN SET @ReturnDate = @Date1 GOTO EndOfFunction END ELSE BEGIN SET @ReturnDate = @Date1 IF @Date2 < @Date1 SET @ReturnDate = @Date2 GOTO EndOfFunction END EndOfFunction: RETURN @ReturnDate END -- End Function GO ---- Set Permissions --GRANT SELECT ON EarlierOf TO UserRole1 --GRANT SELECT ON EarlierOf TO UserRole2 --GO The inverse of this function is only slightly different. /********************************************************** LaterOf.sql **********************************************************/ /********************************************************** Return the later of two DATETIME variables. Parameter 1: DATETIME1 Parameter 2: DATETIME2 Works for a variety of DATETIME or NULL values. Even though comparisons with NULL are actually indeterminate, we know conceptually that NULL is not earlier or later than any other date provided. SYNTAX: SELECT dbo.LaterOf('1/1/2000','12/1/2009') SELECT dbo.LaterOf('2009-12-01 00:00:00.000','2009-12-01 00:00:00.521') SELECT dbo.LaterOf('11/15/2000',NULL) SELECT dbo.LaterOf(NULL,'1/15/2004') SELECT dbo.LaterOf(NULL,NULL) **********************************************************/ USE AdventureWorks GO IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sysobjects WHERE name = 'LaterOf' AND xtype = 'FN' ) BEGIN DROP FUNCTION LaterOf END GO CREATE FUNCTION LaterOf ( @Date1 DATETIME, @Date2 DATETIME ) RETURNS DATETIME AS BEGIN DECLARE @ReturnDate DATETIME IF (@Date1 IS NULL AND @Date2 IS NULL) BEGIN SET @ReturnDate = NULL GOTO EndOfFunction END ELSE IF (@Date1 IS NULL AND @Date2 IS NOT NULL) BEGIN SET @ReturnDate = @Date2 GOTO EndOfFunction END ELSE IF (@Date1 IS NOT NULL AND @Date2 IS NULL) BEGIN SET @ReturnDate = @Date1 GOTO EndOfFunction END ELSE BEGIN SET @ReturnDate = @Date1 IF @Date2 > @Date1 SET @ReturnDate = @Date2 GOTO EndOfFunction END EndOfFunction: RETURN @ReturnDate END -- End Function GO ---- Set Permissions --GRANT SELECT ON LaterOf TO UserRole1 --GRANT SELECT ON LaterOf TO UserRole2 --GO The interesting thing about this function is its simplicity and the built-in NULL handling functionality. Its interesting, because it seems like something should already exist in SQL Server that does this. From a different vantage point, if you create this functionality and it is easy to use (ideally, intuitively self-explanatory), you have made a successful contribution. Interesting is good. Self-explanatory, or intuitive is FAR better. Happy coding! Graeme

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Proving What You are Worth

- by Ted Henson

Here is a challenge for everyone. Just about everyone has been asked to provide or calculate the Return on Investment (ROI), so I will assume everyone has a method they use. The problem with stopping once you have an ROI is that those in the C-Suite probably do not care about the ROI as much as Return on Equity (ROE). Shareholders are mostly concerned with their return on the money the invested. Warren Buffett looks at ROE when deciding whether to make a deal or not. This article will outline how you can add more meaning to your ROI and show how you can potentially enhance the ROE of the company. First I want to start with a base definition I am using for ROI and ROE. Return on investment (ROI) and return on equity (ROE) are ways to measure management effectiveness, parts of a system of measures that also includes profit margins for profitability, price-to-earnings ratio for valuation, and various debt-to-equity ratios for financial strength. Without a set of evaluation metrics, a company's financial performance cannot be fully examined by investors. ROI and ROE calculate the rate of return on a specific investment and the equity capital respectively, assessing how efficient financial resources have been used. Typically, the best way to improve financial efficiency is to reduce production cost, so that will be the focus. Now that the challenge has been made and items have been defined, let’s go deeper. Most research about implementation stops short at system start-up and seldom addresses post-implementation issues. However, we know implementation is a continuous improvement effort, and continued efforts after system start-up will influence the ultimate success of a system. Most UPK ROI’s I have seen only include the cost savings in developing the training material. Some will also include savings based on reduced Help Desk calls. Using just those values you get a good ROI. To get an ROE you need to go a little deeper. Typically, the best way to improve financial efficiency is to reduce production cost, which is the purpose of implementing/upgrading an enterprise application. Let’s assume the new system is up and running and all users have been properly trained and are comfortable using the system. You provide senior management with your ROI that justifies the original cost. What you want to do now is develop a good base value to a measure the current efficiency. Using usage tracking you can look for various patterns. For example, you may find that users that are accessing UPK assistance are processing a procedure, such as entering an order, 5 minutes faster than those that don’t. You do some research and discover each minute saved in processing a claim saves the company one dollar. That translates to the company saving five dollars on every transaction. Assuming 100,000 transactions are performed a year, and all users improve their performance, the company will be saving $500,000 a year. That $500,000 can be re-invested, used to reduce debt or paid to the shareholders. With continued refinement during the life cycle, you should be able to find ways to reduce cost. These are the type of numbers and productivity gains that senior management and shareholders want to see. Being able to quantify savings and increase productivity may also help when seeking a raise or promotion.

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Cream of the Crop

- by KemButller

JD Edwards has been working hard to ensure that you shouldn't have to work so hard! Yet there are still JD Edwards customers that may not be up to speed on all the new and or improved tools and utilities we have delivered, all designed to make your life easier. So today, I want to share what I consider to be the cream of the crop….those items that every customer should know about and leverage to make ERP life just a little bit (or A LOT) easier! These are my top picks, the cream of a very good crop! Explore and enjoy, and gain some of your time back to do with as you please. · www.runjde.com It’s where to go when you need to know! The Resource Kits available on www.runjde.com provide comprehensive Resource Kits (guides) by user type. The guides provide brief descriptions of the wide array of resources that are available to JD Edwards’s eco system and links to each of those resources. · My Oracle Support (MOS) Information Centers This link will take you to an index that is designed to provide you with simple and quick navigation to the available EnterpriseOne Information Centers. This index provides links to: · EnterpriseOne Application specific Information Centers · EnterpriseOne Tools and Technology Information Centers · EnterpriseOne Performance Information Center · EnterpriseOne 9.1 and 9.0 Information Centers Information Centers give Oracle the ability to aggregate content for a given focus area and present this content in categories for easy browsing by our customers. Information Centers offer a variety of focused dynamic content organized around one or more of the following tasks. · Overview · Use · Troubleshooting · Patching and Maintenance · Install and Configure · Upgrade · Optimize Performance · Security · Certify JD Edwards Newsletters Be in the know by reading the Global Customer Support Product Newsletters. They are PACKED with news and information covering a wide range of topics and news. It is a must read if you want to know what’s happening in the JD Edwards universe! Read the latest EntepriseOne newsletter Read the latest World newsletter Learn How to receive notification when a new newsletter edition is published Oracle Learning Library – (OLL) Oracle Learn Library is the place to go for easy access to JD Edwards Application and Tools training. For a comprehensive view of the training available for a specific product/functional area, explore the Knowledge Paths For Net Change (new feature) training, explore the TOI sessions (TOI stands for Transfer Of Information). Tip: Be sure to experiment with the search filters! · www.upgradejde.com The site designed to help customers and partners with the process of upgrading JD Edwards. The site is a wealth of information, tools and resources designed to assist in the evaluation, planning and execution steps required when upgrading. Of note is the wildly successful upgrade strategy known as “The Art of the Possible” wherein JD Edwards and many of our partners hold free workshops to teach customers how to conduct upgrades in 100 days or less. Equally important is the fact that on www.upgradejde.com, customers can gain visibility into planned enhancements using the Product and Technology Feature Catalogs. The catalogs are great for creating customer specific reports about the net change between older releases and current or planned releases. Examples of other key resources on www.upgradejde.com are the product data base changes between releases, extensibility guides, (formerly known as programmer’s guides), whitepapers, ROI calculators and much more!

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HERMES Medical Solutions Helps Save Lives with MySQL

- by Bertrand Matthelié

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Why is x=x++ undefined?

- by ugoren

It's undefined because the it modifies x twice between sequence points. The standard says it's undefined, therefore it's undefined. That much I know. But why? My understanding is that forbidding this allows compilers to optimize better. This could have made sense when C was invented, but now seems like a weak argument. If we were to reinvent C today, would we do it this way, or can it be done better? Or maybe there's a deeper problem, that makes it hard to define consistent rules for such expressions, so it's best to forbid them? So suppose we were to reinvent C today. I'd like to suggest simple rules for expressions such as x=x++, which seem to me to work better than the existing rules. I'd like to get your opinion on the suggested rules compared to the existing ones, or other suggestions. Suggested Rules: Between sequence points, order of evaluation is unspecified. Side effects take place immediately. There's no undefined behavior involved. Expressions evaluate to this value or that, but surely won't format your hard disk (strangely, I've never seen an implementation where x=x++ formats the hard disk). Example Expressions x=x++ - Well defined, doesn't change x. First, x is incremented (immediately when x++ is evaluated), then it's old value is stored in x. x++ + ++x - Increments x twice, evaluates to 2*x+2. Though either side may be evaluated first, the result is either x + (x+2) (left side first) or (x+1) + (x+1) (right side first). x = x + (x=3) - Unspecified, x set to either x+3 or 6. If the right side is evaluated first, it's x+3. It's also possible that x=3 is evaluated first, so it's 3+3. In either case, the x=3 assignment happens immediately when x=3 is evaluated, so the value stored is overwritten by the other assignment. x+=(x=3) - Well defined, sets x to 6. You could argue that this is just shorthand for the expression above. But I'd say that += must be executed after x=3, and not in two parts (read x, evaluate x=3, add and store new value). What's the Advantage? Some comments raised this good point. It's not that I'm after the pleasure of using x=x++ in my code. It's a strange and misleading expression. What I want is to be able to understand complicated expressions. Normally, a complicated expression is no more than the sum of its parts. If you understand the parts and the operators combining them, you can understand the whole. C's current behavior seems to deviate from this principle. One assignment plus another assignment suddenly doesn't make two assignments. Today, when I look at x=x++, I can't say what it does. With my suggested rules, I can, by simply examining its components and their relations.

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Getting Started with Cloud Computing

- by juanlarios

You’ve likely heard about how Office 365 and Windows Intune are great applications to get you started with Cloud Computing. Many of you emailed me asking for more info on what Cloud Computing is, including the distinction between "Public Cloud" and "Private Cloud". I want to address these questions and help you get started. Let's begin with a brief set of definitions and some places to find more info; however, an excellent place where you can always learn more about Cloud Computing is the Microsoft Virtual Academy. Public Cloud computing means that the infrastructure to run and manage the applications users are taking advantage of is run by someone else and not you. In other words, you do not buy the hardware or software to run your email or other services being used in your organization – that is done by someone else. Users simply connect to these services from their computers and you pay a monthly subscription fee for each user that is taking advantage of the service. Examples of Public Cloud services include Office 365, Windows Intune, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, Hotmail, and others. Private Cloud computing generally means that the hardware and software to run services used by your organization is run on your premises, with the ability for business groups to self-provision the services they need based on rules established by the IT department. Generally, Private Cloud implementations today are found in larger organizations but they are also viable for small and medium-sized businesses since they generally allow an automation of services and reduction in IT workloads when properly implemented. Having the right management tools, like System Center 2012, to implement and operate Private Cloud is important in order to be successful. So – how do you get started? The first step is to determine what makes the most sense to your organization. The nice thing is that you do not need to pick Public or Private Cloud – you can use elements of both where it makes sense for your business – the choice is yours. When you are ready to try and purchase Public Cloud technologies, the Microsoft Volume Licensing web site is a good place to find links to each of the online services. In particular, if you are interested in a trial for each service, you can visit the following pages: Office 365, CRM Online, Windows Intune, and Windows Azure. For Private Cloud technologies, start with some of the courses on Microsoft Virtual Academy and then download and install the Microsoft Private Cloud technologies including Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and System Center 2012 in your own environment and take it for a spin. Also, keep up to date with the Canadian IT Pro blog to learn about events Microsoft is delivering such as the IT Virtualization Boot Camps and more to get you started with these technologies hands on. Finally, I want to ask for your help to allow the team at Microsoft to continue to provide you what you need. Twice a year through something we call "The Global Relationship Study" – they reach out and contact you to see how they're doing and what Microsoft could do better. If you get an email from "Microsoft Feedback" with the subject line "Help Microsoft Focus on Customers and Partners" between March 5th and April 13th, please take a little time to tell them what you think. Cloud Computing Resources: Microsoft Server and Cloud Computing site – information on Microsoft's overall cloud strategy and products. Microsoft Virtual Academy – for free online training to help improve your IT skillset. Office 365 Trial/Info page – get more information or try it out for yourself. Office 365 Videos – see how businesses like yours have used Office 365 to transition to the cloud. Windows Intune Trial/Info – get more information or try it out for yourself. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online page – information on trying and licensing Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. Additional Resources You May Find Useful: Springboard Series Your destination for technical resources, free tools and expert guidance to ease the deployment and management of your Windows-based client infrastructure. TechNet Evaluation Center Try some of our latest Microsoft products for free, Like System Center 2012 Pre-Release Products, and evaluate them before you buy. AlignIT Manager Tech Talk Series A monthly streamed video series with a range of topics for both infrastructure and development managers. Ask questions and participate real-time or watch the on-demand recording. Tech·Days Online Discover what's next in technology and innovation with Tech·Days session recordings, hands-on labs and Tech·Days TV.

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SQL Server: Writing CASE expressions properly when NULLs are involved

- by Mladen Prajdic

We’ve all written a CASE expression (yes, it’s an expression and not a statement) or two every now and then. But did you know there are actually 2 formats you can write the CASE expression in? This actually bit me when I was trying to add some new functionality to an old stored procedure. In some rare cases the stored procedure just didn’t work correctly. After a quick look it turned out to be a CASE expression problem when dealing with NULLS. In the first format we make simple “equals to” comparisons to a value: SELECT CASE <value> WHEN <equals this value> THEN <return this> WHEN <equals this value> THEN <return this> -- ... more WHEN's here ELSE <return this> END Second format is much more flexible since it allows for complex conditions. USE THIS ONE! SELECT CASE WHEN <value> <compared to> <value> THEN <return this> WHEN <value> <compared to> <value> THEN <return this> -- ... more WHEN's here ELSE <return this> END Now that we know both formats and you know which to use (the second one if that hasn’t been clear enough) here’s an example how the first format WILL make your evaluation logic WRONG. Run the following code for different values of @i. Just comment out any 2 out of 3 “SELECT @i =” statements. DECLARE @i INTSELECT @i = -1 -- first resultSELECT @i = 55 -- second resultSELECT @i = NULL -- third resultSELECT @i AS OriginalValue, -- first CASE format. DON'T USE THIS! CASE @i WHEN -1 THEN '-1' WHEN NULL THEN 'We have a NULL!' ELSE 'We landed in ELSE' END AS DontUseThisCaseFormatValue, -- second CASE format. USE THIS! CASE WHEN @i = -1 THEN '-1' WHEN @i IS NULL THEN 'We have a NULL!' ELSE 'We landed in ELSE' END AS UseThisCaseFormatValue When the value of @i is –1 everything works as expected, since both formats go into the –1 WHEN branch. When the value of @i is 55 everything again works as expected, since both formats go into the ELSE branch. When the value of @i is NULL the problems become evident. The first format doesn’t go into the WHEN NULL branch because it makes an equality comparison between two NULLs. Because a NULL is an unknown value: NULL = NULL is false. That is why the first format goes into the ELSE Branch but the second format correctly handles the proper IS NULL comparison. Please use the second more explicit format. Your future self will be very grateful to you when he doesn’t have to discover these kinds of bugs.

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F# Objects – Integration with the other .Net Languages – Part 2

- by MarkPearl

So in part one of my posting I covered the real basics of object creation. Today I will hopefully dig a little deeper… My expert F# book brings up an interesting point – properties in F# are just syntactic sugar for method calls. This makes sense… for instance assume I had the following object with the property exposed called Firstname. type Person(Firstname : string, Lastname : string) = member v.Firstname = Firstname I could extend the Firstname property with the following code and everything would be hunky dory… type Person(Firstname : string, Lastname : string) = member v.Firstname = Console.WriteLine("Side Effect") Firstname All that this would do is each time I use the property Firstname, I would see the side effect printed to the screen saying “Side Effect”. Member methods have a very similar look & feel to properties, in fact the only difference really is that you declare that parameters are being passed in. type Person(Firstname : string, Lastname : string) = member v.FullName(middleName) = Firstname + " " + middleName + " " + Lastname In the code above, FullName requires the parameter middleName, and if viewed from another project in C# would show as a method and not a property. Precomputation Optimizations Okay, so something that is obvious once you think of it but that poses an interesting side effect of mutable value holders is pre-computation of results. All it is, is a slight difference in code but can result in quite a huge saving in performance. Basically pre-computation means you would not need to compute a value every time a method is called – but could perform the computation at the creation of the object (I hope I have got it right). In a way I battle to differentiate this from lazy evaluation but I will show an example to explain the principle. Let me try and show an example to illustrate the principle… assume the following F# module namespace myNamespace open System module myMod = let Add val1 val2 = Console.WriteLine("Compute") val1 + val2 type MathPrecompute(val1 : int, val2 : int) = let precomputedsum = Add val1 val2 member v.Sum = precomputedsum type MathNormalCompute(val1 : int, val2 : int) = member v.Sum = Add val1 val2 Now assume you have a C# console app that makes use of the objects with code similar to the following… using System; using myNamespace; namespace CSharpTest { class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { Console.WriteLine("Constructing Objects"); var myObj1 = new myMod.MathNormalCompute(10, 11); var myObj2 = new myMod.MathPrecompute(10, 11); Console.WriteLine(""); Console.WriteLine("Normal Compute Sum..."); Console.WriteLine(myObj1.Sum); Console.WriteLine(myObj1.Sum); Console.WriteLine(myObj1.Sum); Console.WriteLine(""); Console.WriteLine("Pre Compute Sum..."); Console.WriteLine(myObj2.Sum); Console.WriteLine(myObj2.Sum); Console.WriteLine(myObj2.Sum); Console.ReadKey(); } } } The output when running the console application would be as follows…. You will notice with the normal compute object that the system would call the Add function every time the method was called. With the Precompute object it only called the compute method when the object was created. Subtle, but something that could lead to major performance benefits. So… this post has gone off in a slight tangent but still related to F# objects.

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SSI: Failed String Comparison with CGI Environment Variable [migrated]

- by Calyo Delphi

I am currently working on developing a personal website. It's not my first time doing this, but this is my first major foray into implementing SSI. I've run myself into a wall, however, with an if-else directive that uses one of the CGI environment variables as part of its comparison. Even after some limited attempts at debugging, all of the output and documentation that I have means that the comparisons being made should fail outright. This is not the case, and the wrong evaluation is being made by the if-else directive. Here's the code in the file index.shtml: <head>   <style> img#ref { float: right; margin-left: 8px; border-width: 0px; } </style> </head> Here's the code in the file headlinks.shtml: <title> – </title>    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../style.css"> <link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/svg+xml" href="../favicon.svg" />  <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css"> <link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/svg+xml" href="favicon.svg" />  And here's the output for the file index.shtml: <title>Home – dragarch</title> /Applications/MAMP/htdocs <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../style.css"> <link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/svg+xml" href="../favicon.svg" /> Both style.css and favicon.svg are in the document root with index.shtml, so the if directive should fail and default to the output of the else directive. As you can see, while the document root (which is currently the MAMP htdocs folder on my own notebook) is correct according to the output of the echo directive, the comparison in the if-else directive fails to compare the strings properly. I'm using this page for my documentation: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_include.html I'm at a complete loss as to why this is the case, and need a bit of help here. EDIT: I should note that dragarch is a hostname that I configured in /etc/hosts to point to 127.0.0.1 so I could test the site without having to use localhost. It has no real effect on the functionality of anything, other than to just act as a prettier hostname to use.

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SQL Server 2008 R2 upgrade fails on upgrade rule check

- by Tim

I'm trying to upgrade an evaluation instance of SQL Server 2008 to a fully licensed instance of SQL Server 2008 R2. I made it most of the way through the installer, but I'm getting stopped at the Upgrade Rules page - the SQL Server Analysis Services Upgrade Service Functional Check is failing. The specific error I get: Rule "SQL Server Analysis Services Upgrade Service Functional Check" failed. The current instance of the SQL Server Analysis Services service cannot be upgraded because the Analysis Services service is disabled or not online. Please start the service and then run the upgrade rules check again. Simple enough - just need to start the service. Here's where it gets troublesome. When I open Services and go to start the SQL Server Analysis Services (MSSQLSERVER) service, it provides me the following message: The SQL Server Analysis Services (MSSQLSERVER) service on Local Computer started and then stopped. Some services stop automatically if they are not in use by other services or programs. Trying from the command line as Administrator yields: PS C:\Windows\System32 net start MSSQLServerOLAPService The SQL Server Analysis Services (MSSQLSERVER) service is starting... The SQL Server Analysis Services (MSSQLSERVER) service could not be started. The service did not report an error. More help is available by typing NET HELPMSG 3534. I've tried changing the logon setting of this service to Administrator, a user with admin privileges, and both the Local System and Network Service accounts - nothing works. In addition, when I look at the service through the SQL Server Configuration Manager (also run as Administrator), attempting to change the logon setting for the service results in the message: The server threw an exception. [0x80010105] I have no need for analysis services themselves - all I need is for this one service to be running long enough to do the R2 upgrade, then it can shut down again. Any thoughts on how to get the Analysis Services service running? Update: Checking the event log, I found an error logged to the Application log from the MSSQLServerOLAPService. It has event ID 0, task category (289), and says: The service cannot be started: XML parsing failed at line 1, column 4: Unrecognized input signature.

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