Search Results

Search found 19969 results on 799 pages for 'nate bit'.

Page 550/799 | < Previous Page | 546 547 548 549 550 551 552 553 554 555 556 557  | Next Page >

  • Manage Your Twitter Account from the Sidebar in Firefox

    - by Asian Angel
    Are you a Twitter addict and need an easy way to manage your account in Firefox? Now you can access Twitter in your Sidebar or as a separate window with the TwitKit+ extension for Firefox. Accessing TwitKit+ There are three ways that you can access TwitKit+ after installing the extension. The first is by adding the “Toolbar Button” to your browser’s UI. The second and third methods are through the “View & Tools Menus”.   TwitKit+ in Action When you open TwitKit+ for the first time you will see Twitter’s “Public Tweet Stream”. To get started login into your account. Note: If you do not care for the “brown theme” you can select a different one in “Preferences”. Here is a closer look at the top area and the commands available. Notice the “blue arrow symbol” in the upper left corner…very useful if you want to separate TwitKit+ from your main browser window for a bit. Secure Mode, Undock, Preferences, Login/Logout Google Search, Twitter Search, Copy Selection To Status Box, Shorten Selected URL Public, User, Friends, Followers, @ Messages, Direct Messages, Profile Note: To use Google or Twitter search enter your term in the “Status Area” and click on the appropriate service icon. Here is the regular timeline for our account…the “clickable tab buttons” make everything easy to view and work with. You can perform actions such as replying, retweeting, marking as a favorite, etc. using the set of “management buttons” at the bottom of each tweet. To add a new tweet to your timeline enter your text and press “Enter”. A look at the “Following List” for our account. Having a more defined and separate “view categories” set makes this better than directly accessing the Twitter website. Preferences The preferences can be quickly sorted out…choose how often the timeline is updated, name display, favorite URL shortening service, theme, and font size. Note: The default connection setting is for “Secure Access”. Conclusion TwitKit+ makes a nice addition to Firefox for anyone who loves keeping up with Twitter throughout the day. There when you want it and out of your way the rest of the time. Links Download the TwitKit+ extension (Mozilla Add-ons) Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Move Add-on Management to the Sidebar in FirefoxPreview and Manage Multiple Tabs in Firefox with Tab SidebarDisable Windows Sidebar in VistaQuick Tip: Use Google Talk Sidebar in FirefoxRun Windows Sidebar Gadgets Without the Sidebar TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Enable Check Box Selection in Windows 7 OnlineOCR – Free OCR Service Betting on the Blind Side, a Vanity Fair article 30 Minimal Logo Designs that Say More with Less LEGO Digital Designer – Free Create a Personal Website Quickly using Flavors.me

    Read the article

  • Manage Your Twitter Account from the Sidebar in Firefox

    - by Asian Angel
    Are you a Twitter addict and need an easy way to manage your account in Firefox? Now you can access Twitter in your Sidebar or as a separate window with the TwitKit+ extension for Firefox. Accessing TwitKit+ There are three ways that you can access TwitKit+ after installing the extension. The first is by adding the “Toolbar Button” to your browser’s UI. The second and third methods are through the “View & Tools Menus”.   TwitKit+ in Action When you open TwitKit+ for the first time you will see Twitter’s “Public Tweet Stream”. To get started login into your account. Note: If you do not care for the “brown theme” you can select a different one in “Preferences”. Here is a closer look at the top area and the commands available. Notice the “blue arrow symbol” in the upper left corner…very useful if you want to separate TwitKit+ from your main browser window for a bit. Secure Mode, Undock, Preferences, Login/Logout Google Search, Twitter Search, Copy Selection To Status Box, Shorten Selected URL Public, User, Friends, Followers, @ Messages, Direct Messages, Profile Note: To use Google or Twitter search enter your term in the “Status Area” and click on the appropriate service icon. Here is the regular timeline for our account…the “clickable tab buttons” make everything easy to view and work with. You can perform actions such as replying, retweeting, marking as a favorite, etc. using the set of “management buttons” at the bottom of each tweet. To add a new tweet to your timeline enter your text and press “Enter”. A look at the “Following List” for our account. Having a more defined and separate “view categories” set makes this better than directly accessing the Twitter website. Preferences The preferences can be quickly sorted out…choose how often the timeline is updated, name display, favorite URL shortening service, theme, and font size. Note: The default connection setting is for “Secure Access”. Conclusion TwitKit+ makes a nice addition to Firefox for anyone who loves keeping up with Twitter throughout the day. There when you want it and out of your way the rest of the time. Links Download the TwitKit+ extension (Mozilla Add-ons) Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Move Add-on Management to the Sidebar in FirefoxPreview and Manage Multiple Tabs in Firefox with Tab SidebarDisable Windows Sidebar in VistaQuick Tip: Use Google Talk Sidebar in FirefoxRun Windows Sidebar Gadgets Without the Sidebar TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Enable Check Box Selection in Windows 7 OnlineOCR – Free OCR Service Betting on the Blind Side, a Vanity Fair article 30 Minimal Logo Designs that Say More with Less LEGO Digital Designer – Free Create a Personal Website Quickly using Flavors.me

    Read the article

  • Big Data – Buzz Words: What is NoSQL – Day 5 of 21

    - by Pinal Dave
    In yesterday’s blog post we explored the basic architecture of Big Data . In this article we will take a quick look at one of the four most important buzz words which goes around Big Data – NoSQL. What is NoSQL? NoSQL stands for Not Relational SQL or Not Only SQL. Lots of people think that NoSQL means there is No SQL, which is not true – they both sound same but the meaning is totally different. NoSQL does use SQL but it uses more than SQL to achieve its goal. As per Wikipedia’s NoSQL Database Definition – “A NoSQL database provides a mechanism for storage and retrieval of data that uses looser consistency models than traditional relational databases.“ Why use NoSQL? A traditional relation database usually deals with predictable structured data. Whereas as the world has moved forward with unstructured data we often see the limitations of the traditional relational database in dealing with them. For example, nowadays we have data in format of SMS, wave files, photos and video format. It is a bit difficult to manage them by using a traditional relational database. I often see people using BLOB filed to store such a data. BLOB can store the data but when we have to retrieve them or even process them the same BLOB is extremely slow in processing the unstructured data. A NoSQL database is the type of database that can handle unstructured, unorganized and unpredictable data that our business needs it. Along with the support to unstructured data, the other advantage of NoSQL Database is high performance and high availability. Eventual Consistency Additionally to note that NoSQL Database may not provided 100% ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability) compliance.  Though, NoSQL Database does not support ACID they provide eventual consistency. That means over the long period of time all updates can be expected to propagate eventually through the system and data will be consistent. Taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice of classification of things or concepts and the principles. The NoSQL taxonomy supports column store, document store, key-value stores, and graph databases. We will discuss the taxonomy in detail in later blog posts. Here are few of the examples of the each of the No SQL Category. Column: Hbase, Cassandra, Accumulo Document: MongoDB, Couchbase, Raven Key-value : Dynamo, Riak, Azure, Redis, Cache, GT.m Graph: Neo4J, Allegro, Virtuoso, Bigdata As of now there are over 150 NoSQL Database and you can read everything about them in this single link. Tomorrow In tomorrow’s blog post we will discuss Buzz Word – Hadoop. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Big Data, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL

    Read the article

  • SQL SERVER – Online Index Rebuilding Index Improvement in SQL Server 2012

    - by pinaldave
    Have you ever faced situation when you see something working and you feel it should not be working? Well, I had similar moments few days ago. I know that SQL Server 2008 supports online indexing. However, I also know that I cannot rebuild index ONLINE if I have used VARCHAR(MAX), NVARCHAR(MAX) or few other data types. While I held my belief very strongly I came across situation, where I had to go online and do little bit reading from Book Online. Here is the similar example. First of all – run following code in SQL Server 2008 or SQL Server 2008 R2. USE TempDB GO CREATE TABLE TestTable (ID INT, FirstCol NVARCHAR(10), SecondCol NVARCHAR(MAX)) GO CREATE CLUSTERED INDEX [IX_TestTable] ON TestTable (ID) GO CREATE NONCLUSTERED INDEX [IX_TestTable_Cols] ON TestTable (FirstCol) INCLUDE (SecondCol) GO USE [tempdb] GO ALTER INDEX [IX_TestTable_Cols] ON [dbo].[TestTable] REBUILD WITH (ONLINE = ON) GO DROP TABLE TestTable GO Now run the same code in SQL Server 2012 version. Observe the difference between both of the execution. You will be get following resultset. In SQL Server 2008/R2 it will throw following error: Msg 2725, Level 16, State 2, Line 1 An online operation cannot be performed for index ‘IX_TestTable_Cols’ because the index contains column ‘SecondCol’ of data type text, ntext, image, varchar(max), nvarchar(max), varbinary(max), xml, or large CLR type. For a non-clustered index, the column could be an include column of the index. For a clustered index, the column could be any column of the table. If DROP_EXISTING is used, the column could be part of a new or old index. The operation must be performed offline. In SQL Server 2012 it will run successfully and will not throw any error. Command(s) completed successfully. I always thought it will throw an error if there is VARCHAR(MAX) or NVARCHAR(MAX) used in table schema definition. When I saw this result it was clear to me that it will be for sure not bug enhancement in SQL Server 2012. For matter for the fact, I always wanted this feature to be added in SQL Server Engine as this will enable ONLINE Index Rebuilding for mission critical tables which needs to be always online. I quickly searched online and landed on Jacob Sebastian’s blog where he has blogged about it as well. Well, is there any other new feature in SQL Server 2012 which gave you good surprise? Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Index, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

    Read the article

  • Improving CSS With .LESS

    Cascading Style Sheets, or CSS, is a syntax used to describe the look and feel of the elements in a web page. CSS allows a web developer to separate the document content - the HTML, text, and images - from the presentation of that content. Such separation makes the markup in a page easier to read, understand, and update; it can result in reduced bandwidth as the style information can be specified in a separate file and cached by the browser; and makes site-wide changes easier to apply. For a great example of the flexibility and power of CSS, check out CSS Zen Garden. This website has a single page with fixed markup, but allows web developers from around the world to submit CSS rules to define alternate presentation information. Unfortunately, certain aspects of CSS's syntax leave a bit to be desired. Many style sheets include repeated styling information because CSS does not allow the use of variables. Such repetition makes the resulting style sheet lengthier and harder to read; it results in more rules that need to be changed when the website is redesigned to use a new primary color. Specifying inherited CSS rules, such as indicating that a elements (i.e., hyperlinks) in h1 elements should not be underlined, requires creating a single selector name, like h1 a. Ideally, CSS would allow for nested rules, enabling you to define the a rules directly within the h1 rules. .LESS is a free, open-source port of Ruby's LESS library. LESS (and .LESS, by extension) is a parser that allows web developers to create style sheets using new and improved language features, including variables, operations, mixins, and nested rules. Behind the scenes, .LESS converts the enhanced CSS rules into standard CSS rules. This conversion can happen automatically and on-demand through the use of an HTTP Handler, or done manually as part of the build process. Moreover, .LESS can be configured to automatically minify the resulting CSS, saving bandwidth and making the end user's experience a snappier one. This article shows how to get started using .LESS in your ASP.NET websites. Read on to learn more! Read More >

    Read the article

  • Web application / Domain model integration using JSON capable DTOs [on hold]

    - by g-makulik
    I'm a bit confused about architectural choices for the web-applications/java/python world. For c/c++ world the available (open source) choices to implement web applications is pretty limited to zero, involving java or python the choices explode to a,- hard to sort out -, mess of available 'frameworks' and application approaches. I want to sort out a clean MVC model, where the M stands for a fully blown (POCO, POJO driven) domain model (according M.Fowler's EAA pattern) using a mature OO language (Java,C++) for implementation. The background is: I have a system with certain hardware components (that introduce system immanent active behavior) and a configuration database for system meta and HW-components configuration data (these are even usually self contained, since the HW-components are capable to persist their configuration data anyway). For realization of the configuration/status data exchange protocol with the HW-components we have chosen the Google Protobuf format, which works well for the directly wired communication with these components. This protocol is already used successfully with a Java based GUI application via TCP/IP connection to the main system controlling HW-component. This application has some drawbacks and design flaws for historical reasons. Now we want to develop an abstract model (domain model) for configuration and monitoring those HW-components, that represents a more use case oriented view to the overall system behavior. I have the feeling that a plain Java class model would fit best for this (c++ implementation seems to have too much implementation/integration overhead with viable language-bridge interfaces). Google Protobuf message definitions could still serve well to describe DTO objects used to interact with a domain model API. But integrating Google Protobuf messages client side for e.g. data binding in the current view doesn't seem to be a good choice. I'm thinking about some extra serialization features, e.g. for JSON based data exchange with the views/controllers. Most lightweight solutions seem to involve a python based presentation layer using JSON based data transfer (I'm at least not sure to be fully informed about this). Is there some lightweight (applicable for a limited ARM Linux platform) framework available, supporting such architecture to realize a web-application? UPDATE: According to my recent research and comments of colleagues I've noticed that using Java (and some JVM) might not be the preferable choice for integration with python on a limited linux system as we have (running on ARM9 with hard to discuss memory and MCU costs), but C/C++ modules would do well for this (since this forms the native interface to python extensions, doesn't it?). I can imagine to provide a domain model from an appropriate C/C++ API (though I still think it's more efforts and higher skill requirements for the involved developers to do with these languages). Still I'm searching for a good approach that supports such architecture. I'll appreciate any pointers!

    Read the article

  • Dell XPS 15 (L502x) sound problem

    - by lauramolenaar
    I have a problem with my sound on my Dell XPS 15. First, when I had Windows 7, my sound was pretty good (I have a JBL 2.1 speaker system with Waves Maxx audio), but since I installed Ubuntu 12.04 it sounded very cheap and as if I put my laptop in a tin can. I've already tried installing alsa-hda-dkms from the alsa-daily ppa (http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-audio-dev/alsa-daily) This is my audio controller: laura@laura-XPS-L502X:~$ lspci -v | grep -A7 -i audio 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 05) Subsystem: Dell Device 04b6 Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 51 Memory at f1c00000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K] Capabilities: <access denied> Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel I hope you can help me, and you can always ask me for more information. Result of aplay -l: **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices **** card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC665 Analog [ALC665 Analog] Subdevices: 0/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 1: ALC665 Digital [ALC665 Digital] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 Result of aplay -L: default Playback/recording through the PulseAudio sound server sysdefault:CARD=PCH HDA Intel PCH, ALC665 Analog Default Audio Device front:CARD=PCH,DEV=0 HDA Intel PCH, ALC665 Analog Front speakers surround40:CARD=PCH,DEV=0 HDA Intel PCH, ALC665 Analog 4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers surround41:CARD=PCH,DEV=0 HDA Intel PCH, ALC665 Analog 4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers surround50:CARD=PCH,DEV=0 HDA Intel PCH, ALC665 Analog 5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers surround51:CARD=PCH,DEV=0 HDA Intel PCH, ALC665 Analog 5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers surround71:CARD=PCH,DEV=0 HDA Intel PCH, ALC665 Analog 7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers iec958:CARD=PCH,DEV=0 HDA Intel PCH, ALC665 Digital IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output hdmi:CARD=PCH,DEV=0 HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 0 HDMI Audio Output dmix:CARD=PCH,DEV=0 HDA Intel PCH, ALC665 Analog Direct sample mixing device dmix:CARD=PCH,DEV=1 HDA Intel PCH, ALC665 Digital Direct sample mixing device dmix:CARD=PCH,DEV=3 HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 0 Direct sample mixing device dsnoop:CARD=PCH,DEV=0 HDA Intel PCH, ALC665 Analog Direct sample snooping device dsnoop:CARD=PCH,DEV=1 HDA Intel PCH, ALC665 Digital Direct sample snooping device dsnoop:CARD=PCH,DEV=3 HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 0 Direct sample snooping device hw:CARD=PCH,DEV=0 HDA Intel PCH, ALC665 Analog Direct hardware device without any conversions hw:CARD=PCH,DEV=1 HDA Intel PCH, ALC665 Digital Direct hardware device without any conversions hw:CARD=PCH,DEV=3 HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 0 Direct hardware device without any conversions plughw:CARD=PCH,DEV=0 HDA Intel PCH, ALC665 Analog Hardware device with all software conversions plughw:CARD=PCH,DEV=1 HDA Intel PCH, ALC665 Digital Hardware device with all software conversions plughw:CARD=PCH,DEV=3 HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 0 Hardware device with all software conversions

    Read the article

  • Ad-hoc taxonomy: owning the chess set doesn't mean you decide how the little horsey moves

    - by Roger Hart
    There was one of those little laugh-or-cry moments recently when I heard an anecdote about content strategy failings at a major online retailer. The story goes a bit like this: successful company in a highly commoditized marketplace succeeds on price and largely ignores its content team. Being relatively entrepreneurial, the founders are still knocking around, and occasionally like to "take an interest". One day, they decree that clothing sold on the site can no longer be described as "unisex", because this sounds old fashioned. Sad now. Let me just reiterate for the folks at the back: large retailer, commoditized market place, differentiating on price. That's inherently unstable. Sooner or later, they're going to need one or both of competitive differentiation and significant optimization. I can't speak for the latter, since I'm hypothesizing off a raft of rumour, but one of the simpler paths to the former is to become - or rather acknowledge that they are - a content business. Regardless, they need highly-searchable terminology. Even in the face of tooth and claw resistance to noticing the fundamental position content occupies in driving sales (and SEO) on the web, there's a clear information problem here. Dilettante taxonomy is a disaster. Ok, so this is a small example, but that kind of makes it a good one. Unisex probably is the best way of describing clothing designed to suit either men or women interchangeably. It certainly takes less time to type (and read). It's established terminology, and as a single word, it's significantly better for web readability than a phrasal workaround. Something like "fits men or women" is short, by could fall foul of clause-level discard in web scanning. It's not an adjective, so for intuitive reading it's never going to be near the start of a title or description. It would also clutter up search results, and impose cognitive load in list scanning. Sorry kids, it's just worse. Even if "unisex" were an archaism (which it isn't), the only thing that would weigh against its being more usable and concise terminology would be evidence that this archaism were hurting conversions. Good luck with that. We once - briefly - called one of our products a "Can of worms". It was a bundle in a bug-tracking suite, and we thought it sounded terribly cool. Guess how well that sold. We have information and content professionals for a reason: to make sure that whatever we put in front of users is optimised to meet user and business goals. If that thinking doesn't inform style guides, taxonomy, messaging, title structure, and so forth, you might as well be finger painting.

    Read the article

  • Is Python Interpreted or Compiled?

    - by crodjer
    This is just a wondering I had while reading about interpreted and compiled languages. Ruby is no doubt an interpreted language, since source code is compiled by an interpreter at the point of execution. On the contrary C is a compiled language, as one have to compile the source code first according to the machine and then execute. This results is much faster execution. Now coming to Python: A python code (somefile.py) when imported creates a file (somefile.pyc) in the same directory. Let us say the import is done in a python shell or django module. After the import I change the code a bit and execute the imported functions again to find that it is still running the old code. This suggests that *.pyc files are compiled python files similar to executable created after compilation of a C file, though I can't execute *.pyc file directly. When the python file (somefile.py) is executed directly ( ./somefile.py or python somefile.py ) no .pyc file is created and the code is executed as is indicating interpreted behavior. These suggest that a python code is compiled every time it is imported in a new process to crate a .pyc while it is interpreted when directly executed. So which type of language should I consider it as? Interpreted or Compiled? And how does its efficiency compare to interpreted and compiled languages? According to wiki's Interpreted Languages page it is listed as a language compiled to Virtual Machine Code, what is meant by that? Update Looking at the answers it seems that there cannot be a perfect answer to my questions. Languages are not only interpreted or only compiled, but there is a spectrum of possibilities between interpreting and compiling. From the answers by aufather, mipadi, Lenny222, ykombinator, comments and wiki I found out that in python's major implementations it is compiled to bytecode, which is a highly compressed and optimized representation and is machine code for a virtual machine, which is implemented not in hardware, but in the bytecode interpreter. Also the the languages are not interpreted or compiled, but rather language implementations either interpret or compile code. I also found out about Just in time compilation As far as execution speed is concerned the various benchmarks cannot be perfect and depend on context and the task which is being performed. Please tell if I am wrong in my interpretations.

    Read the article

  • URL Routing in ASP.NET 4.0

    In the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, Microsoft introduced ASP.NET Routing, which decouples the URL of a resource from the physical file on the web server. With ASP.NET Routing you, the developer, define routing rules map route patterns to a class that generates the content. For example, you might indicate that the URL Categories/CategoryName maps to a class that takes the CategoryName and generates HTML that lists that category's products in a grid. With such a mapping, users could view products for the Beverages category by visiting www.yoursite.com/Categories/Beverages. In .NET 3.5 SP1, ASP.NET Routing was primarily designed for ASP.NET MVC applications, although as discussed in Using ASP.NET Routing Without ASP.NET MVC it is possible to implement ASP.NET Routing in a Web Forms application, as well. However, implementing ASP.NET Routing in a Web Forms application involves a bit of seemingly excessive legwork. In a Web Forms scenario we typically want to map a routing pattern to an actual ASP.NET page. To do so we need to create a route handler class that is invoked when the routing URL is requested and, in a sense, dispatches the request to the appropriate ASP.NET page. For instance, to map a route to a physical file, such as mapping Categories/CategoryName to ShowProductsByCategory.aspx - requires three steps: (1) Define the mapping in Global.asax, which maps a route pattern to a route handler class; (2) Create the route handler class, which is responsible for parsing the URL, storing any route parameters into some location that is accessible to the target page (such as HttpContext.Items), and returning an instance of the target page or HTTP Handler that handles the requested route; and (3) writing code in the target page to grab the route parameters and use them in rendering its content. Given how much effort it took to just read the preceding sentence (let alone write it) you can imagine that implementing ASP.NET Routing in a Web Forms application is not necessarily the most straightforward task. The good news is that ASP.NET 4.0 has greatly simplified ASP.NET Routing for Web Form applications by adding a number of classes and helper methods that can be used to encapsulate the aforementioned complexity. With ASP.NET 4.0 it's easier to define the routing rules and there's no need to create a custom route handling class. This article details these enhancements. Read on to learn more! Read More >

    Read the article

  • Autoscaling in a modern world&hellip;. Part 3

    - by Steve Loethen
    The Wasabi Hands on Labs give you a good look at the basic mechanics, but I don’t find the setup too practical.  Using a local console application to host the Autoscaler and rules files is probably the (IMHO) least likely architecture.  Far more common would be hosting in a service on premise (if you want to have the Autoscaler local) or most likely, host it in a Azure role of it’s own.  I chose to go the Azure route. First step was to get the rules.xml and the services.xml files into the cloud.  I tend to be a “one step at a time” sort of guy, so running the console application with the rules sitting in a Azure hosted set of blobs seemed to be the logical first step.  Here are the steps: 1) Create a container in the storage account you wish to use.  Name does not matter, you will get a chance to set the container name (as well as the file names) in the app.config 2) Copy the two files from where you created them to your  container.  I used the same files I had locally.  I made the container public to eliminate security issues, but in the final application, a bit of security needs to be applied (one problem at a time).  The content type was set to text/xml.  I found one reference claiming the importance of this step, and it makes sense. 3) Adjust the app.config to set the location of the files.  This will let you set all the storage account and key information needed to reach into the cloud form your console application.  The sections of your app.config will look like this: <rulesStores> <add name="Blob Rules Store" type="Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.WindowsAzure.Autoscaling.Rules.Configuration.BlobXmlFileRulesStore, Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.WindowsAzure.Autoscaling, Version=5.0.1118.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" blobContainerName="[ContainerName]" blobName="rules.xml" storageAccount="DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=[StorageAccount];AccountKey=[AccountKey]" monitoringRate="00:00:30" certificateThumbprint="" certificateStoreLocation="LocalMachine" checkCertificateValidity="false" /> </rulesStores> <serviceInformationStores> <add name="Blob Service Information Store" type="Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.WindowsAzure.Autoscaling.ServiceModel.Configuration.BlobXmlFileServiceInformationStore, Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.WindowsAzure.Autoscaling, Version=5.0.1118.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" blobContainerName="[ContainerName]" blobName="services.xml" storageAccount="DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=[StorageAccount];AccountKey=[AccountKey]" monitoringRate="00:00:30" certificateThumbprint="" certificateStoreLocation="LocalMachine" checkCertificateValidity="false" /> </serviceInformationStores> Once I had the files up in the sky, I renamed the local copies to just to make my self feel better about the application using the correct set of rules and services.  Deploy the web role to the cloud.  Once it is up and running, start the console application.  You should find the application scales up and down in response to the buttons on the web site.  Tune in next time for moving the hosting of the Autoscaler to a worker role, discussions on getting the logging information into diagnostics into storage, and a set of discussions about certs and how they play a role.

    Read the article

  • ArchBeat Link-o-Rama for 11/15/2011

    - by Bob Rhubart
    Java Magazine - November/December 2011 - by and for the Java Community Java Magazine is an essential source of knowledge about Java technology, the Java programming language, and Java-based applications for people who rely on them in their professional careers, or who aspire to. Enterprise 2.0 Conference: November 14-17 | Kellsey Ruppel "Oracle is proud to be a Gold sponsor of the Enterprise 2.0 West Conference, November 14-17, 2011 in Santa Clara, CA. You will see the latest collaboration tools and technologies, and learn from thought leaders in Enterprise 2.0's comprehensive conference." The Return of Oracle Wikis: Bigger and Better | @oracletechnet The Oracle Wikis are back - this time, with Oracle SSO on top and powered by Atlassian's Confluence technology. These wikis offer quite a bit more functionality than the old platform. Cloud Migration Lifecycle | Tom Laszewski Laszewski breaks down the four steps in the Set Up Phase of the Cloud Migration lifecycle. Architecture all day. Oracle Technology Network Architect Day - Phoenix, AZ - Dec14 Spend the day with your peers learning from Oracle experts in engineered systems, cloud computing, Oracle Coherence, Oracle WebLogic, and more. Registration is free, but seating is limited. SOA all the Time; Architects in AZ; Clearing Info Integration Hurdles This week on the Architect Home Page on OTN. Live Webcast: New Innovations in Oracle Linux Date: Tuesday, November 15, 2011 Time: 9:00 AM PT / Noon ET Speakers: Chris Mason, Elena Zannoni. People in glass futures should throw stones | Nicholas Carr "Remember that Microsoft video on our glassy future? Or that one from Corning? Or that one from Toyota?" asks Carr. "What they all suggest, and assume, is that our rich natural 'interface' with the world will steadily wither away as we become more reliant on software mediation." Integration of SABSA Security Architecture Approaches with TOGAF ADM | Jeevak Kasarkod Jeevak Kasarkod's overview of a new paper from the OpenGroup and the SABSA institute "which delves into the incorporatation of risk management and security architecture approaches into a well established enterprise architecture methodology - TOGAF." Cloud Computing at the Tactical Edge | Grace Lewis - SEI Lewis describes the SEI's work with Cloudlets, " lightweight servers running one or more virtual machines (VMs), [that] allow soldiers in the field to offload resource-consumptive and battery-draining computations from their handheld devices to nearby cloudlets." Simplicity Is Good | James Morle "When designing cluster and storage networking for database platforms, keep the architecture simple and avoid the complexities of multi-tier topologies," says Morle. "Complexity is the enemy of availability." Mainframe as the cloud? Tom Laszewski There's nothing new about using the mainframe in the cloud, says Laszewski. Let Devoxx 2011 begin! | The Aquarium The Aquarium marks the kick-off of Devoxx 2011 with "a quick rundown of the Java EE and GlassFish side of things."

    Read the article

  • MVC's Html.DropDownList and "There is no ViewData item of type 'IEnumerable<SelectListItem>' that has the key '...'

    - by pjohnson
    ASP.NET MVC's HtmlHelper extension methods take out a lot of the HTML-by-hand drudgery to which MVC re-introduced us former WebForms programmers. Another thing to which MVC re-introduced us is poor documentation, after the excellent documentation for most of the rest of ASP.NET and the .NET Framework which I now realize I'd taken for granted. I'd come to regard using HtmlHelper methods instead of writing HTML by hand as a best practice. When I upgraded a project from MVC 3 to MVC 4, several hidden fields with boolean values broke, because MVC 3 called ToString() on those values implicitly, and MVC 4 threw an exception until you called ToString() explicitly. Fields that used HtmlHelper weren't affected. I then went through dozens of views and manually replaced hidden inputs that had been coded by hand with Html.Hidden calls. So for a dropdown list I was rendering on the initial page as empty, then populating via JavaScript after an AJAX call, I tried to use a HtmlHelper method: @Html.DropDownList("myDropdown") which threw an exception: System.InvalidOperationException: There is no ViewData item of type 'IEnumerable<SelectListItem>' that has the key 'myDropdown'. That's funny--I made no indication I wanted to use ViewData. Why was it looking there? Just render an empty select list for me. When I populated the list with items, it worked, but I didn't want to do that: @Html.DropDownList("myDropdown", new List<SelectListItem>() { new SelectListItem() { Text = "", Value = "" } }) I removed this dummy item in JavaScript after the AJAX call, so this worked fine, but I shouldn't have to give it a list with a dummy item when what I really want is an empty select. A bit of research with JetBrains dotPeek (helpfully recommended by Scott Hanselman) revealed the problem. Html.DropDownList requires some sort of data to render or it throws an error. The documentation hints at this but doesn't make it very clear. Behind the scenes, it checks if you've provided the DropDownList method any data. If you haven't, it looks in ViewData. If it's not there, you get the exception above. In my case, the helper wasn't doing much for me anyway, so I reverted to writing the HTML by hand (I ain't scared), and amended my best practice: When an HTML control has an associated HtmlHelper method and you're populating that control with data on the initial view, use the HtmlHelper method instead of writing by hand.

    Read the article

  • SQLAuthority News – First SQL Bangalore Event Report – Nov 24, 2012 – SQL Server User Group Bangalore

    - by pinaldave
    A very common question I often receive - Do we have SQL Server User Group in Bangalore? Yes! SQL Bangalore – we had very first meeting on Nov 24, 2012 and very soon we are going to have another User Group meeting. The goal is to keep up a monthly rhythm of User Group meeting. If you are in Bangalore area please join the Facebook page and you will keep on getting regular update about SQL Server. In the very first meeting we have five 30 minute session and had a fantastic time. We had the best of the best speakers presenting all the five sessions. The event was inaugurated by Vinod Kumar M by presenting on T-SQL Pitfalls. His excellent and eye-opening session was followed by Manas Dash. He enlightened everybody with functions introduced in SQL Server 2012. We had a surprise guest from Mumbai – Raj Chaodhary. If you know him he has a very interesting way to present sessions and he presented on SQL Joins. His hard to follow act was followed by Sudeepta who presented on Contained Database. This subject is quite entertaining and interesting. My session was last in order and I was eagerly waiting to present. I had decided to do something new this time so I had created around 52 slides and two demos. I was committed to go over all the 52 slides and both of the demos in 25 minutes of the time. I had interesting story as well. Though, I was a bit nervous I was able to go over a complete slide deck and demo in 25 minutes of the time I had. We also were very fortunate to have international guest Lynn Langit from USA present at the event as well. She presented an overview of the Big Data in very little time – something not everyone can do it efficiently. We are very thankful to our sponsor Pluralsight for awarding USD 300 worth Annual Subscription. It was the most awaited moment of the day. Well, overall we had a great fun with 100+ attendees learning SQL Server. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology

    Read the article

  • Changing Focus on my Blog

    - by D'Arcy Lussier
    I try to limit these types of blog posts – the ones where I communicate some change as if I have a loyal subscriber base that will be somehow affected. Still, I think its of worth if for nothing else than to document for myself an acknowledgement that my career is evolving. For the last who knows how long, I’ve had this as my banner: It’s funny how technology focuses change over time. 3.5 – 4 years ago I was wanting to immerse myself in BizTalk. Then I shifted, focussing on Silverlight. I even started a short-lived Silverlight user group here in Winnipeg that had, IMO, one of the *best* UG logos ever (do a Google search for the old school Winnipeg Jets logo if you don’t catch the reference)… And even how I identified myself – as a Developer – isn’t really accurate anymore as I’ve shifted more into an architect/analyst role at Online Business Systems as well as getting much more involved in business development. So I’m switching the focus of this blog a bit. Nothing too great, but you’ll find my posts aren’t necessarily tied to a technology or platform. Instead I’ll be focussing on current passions and interests. Solution Architecture Before a line of code is written, a solution is envisioned. The process of performing solution analysis and architecture is an intriguing process that encompasses negotiation and interpersonal skills as much as technical knowledge. Business & Entrepreneurship Creating things, building things, and working with others – business is fascinating and exciting! Entrepreneurship, and intrapreneurship, are growing trends that I’ve been exploring over the last few years through my conference (www.prairiedevcon.com) and within Online. Microsoft At Online one of my roles is “Microsoft Practice Lead” and my entire career has been built around the Microsoft stack of technologies. That focus won’t change here on my blog, and there’s tonnes of exciting new products and technologies coming out of Redmond. Adoption This is a very personal subject that’s extremely close to my heart. I’m not talking about technology adoption, I’m talking about human adoption. Almost three years ago we adopted our first daughter, Sadie, and two years ago we adopted our second daughter, Skylar; an amazing new chapter in my life as I became a “parent”. Adoption is very much misunderstood, and many people have questions about it. Hopefully I can shed some light into our experiences and provide some guidance for those that are looking into it. So come along with me as I start chronicling the next phase of my career and life.

    Read the article

  • Add Global Hotkeys to Windows Media Player

    - by DigitalGeekery
    Do you use Windows Media Player in the background while working in other applications? The WMP Keys plug-in for Media Player adds global keyboard shortcuts that allow you to control Media Player even when it isn’t in focus. Windows Media Player has a slew of keyboard shortcuts that work only when the media player is active, but these shortcuts stop working once WMP is no longer in focus or minimized. WMP Keys add the following default global hotkeys for Windows Media Player 10, 11, and 12. Ctrl+Alt+Home – Play / Pause Ctrl+Alt+Right – Next track Ctrl+Alt+Left – Previous track Ctrl+Alt+Up Arrow Key – Volume Up Ctrl+Alt+Down Arrow Key – Volume Down Ctrl+Alt+F – Fast Forward Ctrl+Alt+B – Fast Backward Ctrl+Alt+[1-5] – Rate 1-5 stars Note: Tapping Ctrl+Alt+F and Ctrl+Alt+B will skip ahead or back in 5 second intervals. Close out of Windows Media Player and then download and install WMP Keys (link below). After you’ve installed WMP Keys, you’ll need to enable it. Select Organize and then Options… In the Options window, select the Plug-ins tab, click Background in the Category window, then check the box for Wmpkeys Plugin. Click OK to save and exit. You can also enable the plug-in by selecting Tools > Plug-ins and clicking Wmpkeys Plugin. You to view and edit the global hotkeys in the WMPKeys settings window. Select Tools > Plug-in properties and click Wmpkeys Plugin. Below you can see all the default WMP Keys shortcuts.   To change any of the shortcuts, select the text box then press the new keyboard shortcut. Click OK when finished. WMP Keys is very simple little plug-in that makes using WMP while you’re multitasking just a little bit easier and more efficient.  Looking for more plugins for Windows Media Player? Check out our previous articles on adding new features with Media Player Plus, and displaying song lyrics with Lyrics Plugin. Download WMP Keys Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Built-in Quick Launch Hotkeys in Windows VistaFixing When Windows Media Player Library Won’t Let You Add FilesKantaris is a Unique Media Player Based on VLCInstall and Use the VLC Media Player on Ubuntu LinuxAssign Keyboard Media Keys to Work in Winamp TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips HippoRemote Pro 2.2 Xobni Plus for Outlook All My Movies 5.9 CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server XPS file format & XPS Viewer Explained Microsoft Office Web Apps Guide Know if Someone Accessed Your Facebook Account Shop for Music with Windows Media Player 12 Access Free Documentaries at BBC Documentaries Rent Cameras In Bulk At CameraRenter

    Read the article

  • Site Search Engine for 1,000 page website

    - by Ian
    I manage a website with about 1,000 articles that need to be searchable by my members. The site search engines I've tried all had their own problems: Fluid Dynamics Search Engine Since it's written in perl, it was a bit hacky to integrate with my PHP-based CMS. I basically had to file_get_contents the search results page. However, FDSE had the best search results. Google CSE Ugh, the search results SUCK. It can't find documents even using unique strings. I'm so surprised that a Google search product is this bad. Nor can I get any answers on their 'help' forums, and I am a paying user. Boo, Google. Boo. Sphider Again, bad search results. Unable to locate some phrases used in link text. Better results than Google CSE though. Shame on Google that a free PHP script has better search results than their paid application. IndexTank This one looked really promising. I got all set up with their PHP API client. But it would only randomly add articles that I submitted. Out of 700+ articles I pushed to the index through their API, only 8 made it in. Unable to find any help on this subject. Update for IndexTank -- Got the above issue fixed, so this looks most promising so far. The site itself runs on php/mysql and FreeBSD, though this shouldn't matter for a web crawling indexer. I've looked at Lucene, but I don't know anything about Java or installing Java programs on my web server. I also do not have root access on my web server, if this would be required for installation. I really don't need a lot of fancy features. It just needs to be able to crawl my web site and return great (even decent!) search results. I don't need any crazy search operators. It doesn't need to index off my primary domain. It just needs to work! Thanks, Hive Mind!

    Read the article

  • Eggnog and Oracle’s StorageTek SL150 Updates

    - by Kristin Rose
    Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} Looks like the holiday’s came early this year! You may remember this snazzy blog that posted a couple months back,  “Keepin’ It Simple with Storage Tek SL150”, that was based on the benefits around Oracle’s StorageTek SL150. Well, in addition to these great benefits, OPN is pleased to provide you with a complete StorageTek SL150 winter wish list that is about to come true! 1. SL150 is the only product in the Oracle portfolio, for which OPN Members can become authorized to create and provide support.  2. OPN Members can qualify for the OPN Incentive Program Rebates, without Oracle Support Attach, (provided all other criteria is met). The requirement of Premier Support Attach has been exempted for this product. 3. OPN Members who become authorized under this model will be eligible for an additional discount on parts.  4. As always Oracle’s StorageTek SL150 is Simple, Scalable and will help you Save! To add just a bit more cheer to your cup of hot coco, watch this video on why Oracle’s StorageTek SL150 Tape Library is for you! So if you haven’t done so already, contact your Oracle Channel Sales representative — let them know if you’ve been nice this year, and tell them you want to learn more! Cheers! The OPN Communications Team

    Read the article

  • ERP in a Flash! Latest News on JD Edwards and Oracle VM Templates

    - by Kem Butller-Oracle
    Oracle Announces the Availability of Oracle VM Templates for JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 9.1 Update 2 and Tools 9.1 Update 4.4 Continuing the commitment to rapid and predictable deployments of JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, Oracle announces the general availability of Oracle VM templates for JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Application release 9.1 Update 2 and Tools release 9.1 Update 4.4. These templates can be used with Oracle VM for x86, on the Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud, and on the Oracle Database Machine. Oracle VM Templates for JD Edwards EnterpriseOne accelerate the process of setting up a working environment compared to the traditional installation process. The templates can be a key component to a well-managed cloud infrastructure, allowing system administrators to quickly provision fully functional JD Edwards EnterpriseOne environments for evaluation, development, or production use. The templates contain preconfigured images of the major JD Edwards EnterpriseOne server components, including: • Enterprise server • HTML server • Database server • BI Publisher (for use with One View Reporting) • Business Services Server and ADF Runtime (for use with Mobile Smartphone Applications) • Application Interface Services (new with this release, for use with Mobile Enterprise Applications) • Server Manager (new with this release) The virtual server images are built on a complete Oracle technology stack, including Oracle VM for x86, Oracle Linux, Oracle WebLogic Server, Oracle Database, and Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher. The templates can be installed into an Oracle VM for x86 system running on standard x86 servers, the Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud, and the Oracle Database Appliance as a composite “all-in-one” system. The database can be deployed as a fully preconfigured VM template, or it can be deployed to a preexisting database server, for example, the Oracle Exadata Database Machine or the Oracle Database Appliance. This latest set of templates includes the following applications and technology components: • JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Applications Release 9.1 Update 2 with ESUs as of April 8, 2014 • JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Tools 9.1 Update 4, maintenance pack 4 (9.1.4.4) • Oracle Database 12c (12.1.0.1) • Oracle WebLogic Server 12c (12.1.2) • Oracle Linux 5 Update 8, 64-bit • Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher 11.1.1.7.1, for use with JD Edwards EnterpriseOne One View Reporting • JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Business Services Server and Oracle Application Development Framework (ADF) 11.1.1.5, for use with the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Mobile Applications. The delivery also includes a JD Edwards EnterpriseOne deployment server preconfigured to match the content of the templates. This edition of the templates also includes enhanced configuration utilities that greatly simplify the process of configuring the templates for deployment into a running system. The templates are immediately available for download from the Oracle Software Delivery Cloud. For more information see: • My Oracle Support article 884592.1 • Oracle Technology Network

    Read the article

  • Should I be wary of signing a non-disclosure agreement with someone I just met?

    - by Thomas Levine
    tl;dr: Some guy I just met says he wants me to join his company. Before he shows me what they do, he wants me to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Is this weird? I'm traveling right now. Someone who saw me coding seemed to think I was smart or something and started talking with me. He explained that he owns a software company, told me a bit about what it does and told me that he was looking for a programmer who would work for a stake in the company. He explained that the company's product is being developed rather secretly, so he couldn't tell me much. But he did tell enough about the product to convince me that he's not completely making this up, which is a decent baseline. He suggested that he show me more of what he's been working on and, after seeing that, I decide whether I want to join. Because of the secrecy behind the product, he wants me to sign a non-disclosure agreement before we talk. I'm obviously somewhat skeptical because of the random nature by which we met. In the short term, I'm wondering if I should be wary of signing such an agreement. He said it would be easier to show me the product in person rather than over the internet, and I'm leaving town tomorrow, so I'd have to figure this out by tomorrow. If I decide to talk with him, I could decide later whether I trust that it's worth spending any time on this company. The concept of being able to avoid telling a secret seems strange to me for the same reason that things like certain aspects of copyright seem strange. Should I be wary of signing a non-disclosure agreement? Is this common practice? I don't know the details of the agreement of which he was thinking, (If I end up meeting with him, I'll of course read over the agreement before I decide whether to sign it.) so I could consider alternatives according to the aspects of the agreement. Or I could just consider the case of an especially harsh agreement. This question seems vaguely related. Do we need a non-disclosure agreement (NDA)? Thanks

    Read the article

  • Giving a Bomberman AI intelligent bomb placement

    - by Paul Manta
    I'm trying to implement an AI algorithm for Bomberman. Currently I have a working but not very smart rudimentary implementation (the current AI is overzealous in placing bombs). This is the first AI I've ever tried implementing and I'm a bit stuck. The more sophisticated algorithms I have in mind (the ones that I expect to make better decisions) are too convoluted to be good solutions. What general tips do you have for implementing a Bomberman AI? Are there radically different approaches for making the bot either more defensive or offensive? Edit: Current algorithm My current algorithm goes something like this (pseudo-code): 1) Try to place a bomb and then find a cell that is safe from all the bombs, including the one that you just placed. To find that cell, iterate over the four directions; if you can find any safe divergent cell and reach it in time (eg. if the direction is up or down, look for a cell that is found to the left or right of this path), then it's safe to place a bomb and move in that direction. 2) If you can't find and safe divergent cells, try NOT placing a bomb and look again. This time you'll only need to look for a safe cell in only one direction (you don't have to diverge from it). 3) If you still can't find a safe cell, don't do anything. for $(direction) in (up, down, left, right): place bomb at current location if (can find and reach divergent safe cell in current $(direction)): bomb = true move = $(direction) return for $(direction) in (up, down, left, right): do not place bomb at current location if (any safe cell in the current $(direction)): bomb = false move = $(direction) return else: bomb = false move = stay_put This algorithm makes the bot very trigger-happy (it'll place bombs very frequently). It doesn't kill itself, but it does have a habit of making itself vulnerable by going into dead ends where it can be blocked and killed by the other players. Do you have any suggestions on how I might improve this algorithm? Or maybe I should try something completely different? One of the problems with this algorithm is that it tends to leave the bot with very few (frequently just one) safe cells on which it can stand. This is because the bot leaves a trail of bombs behind it, as long as it doesn't kill itself. However, leaving a trail of bombs behind leaves few places where you can hide. If one of the other players or bots decide to place a bomb somewhere near you, it often happens that you have no place to hide and you die. I need a better way to decide when to place bombs.

    Read the article

  • The Kids Are Alright. With Facebook and SMS. But Not Twitter

    - by ultan o'broin
    I delivered a lecture to business and technology freshmen (late teens, I reckon) in Trinity College Dublin recently. I spoke about user experience in enterprise applications, trends that UX pros need to be aware of such as social media, community support, mobile and tablet platforms and a bunch of nuances around those areas (data and device security, privacy, reputation, branding, and so on). It was all fairly high level stuff given the audience, and I included lots of colorful screenshots. Irish-related examples helped to get the message across. During the lecture I did a quick poll. “How many students here use Twitter?” Answer: None. “How many use Facebook?” All (pretty much). So what do these guys like to use instead of Twitter? Easy - text messaging (or SMS if you like). They all had phones. Perhaps I should not have been so surprised about Twitter, but it’s always great to have research validated by some guerilla UX research on the street. There’s already quite a bit of research about teen uptake (or lack) of Twitter, telling us young adults don’t tweet. Twitter is seen as something for er, older people. Affordable devices and data plans that allow students to text really quickly are also popular (BlackBerry, for example). Younger people just luuurve to text each other. A lot.  Facebook versus Twitter for younger folks? Well, we know the story. No contest. I would love to engage more with students like these. I’ll plan for it. It will also be interesting to see if Twitter becomes more important to them over time. There were a few other interesting observations about the lack of uptake of Foursquare, Gowalla and mobile apps like that. I  don’t think there’s a huge uptake in these kind of apps in Ireland anyway, but maybe students have different priorities anyway?   I’ll return to that another day. Technorati Tags: Gowalla,FourSquare,Twitter,UX,user experience,user assistance,Trinity College Dublin

    Read the article

  • What&rsquo;s new in VS.10 &amp; TFS.10?

    - by johndoucette
    Getting my geek on… I have decided to call the products VS.10 (Visual Studio 2010), TP.10 (Test Professional 2010),  and TFS.10 (Team Foundation Server 2010) Thanks Neno Loje. What's new in Visual Studio & Team Foundation Server 2010? Focusing on Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) ALM-related parts: Visual Studio Ultimate 2010 NEW: IntelliTrace® (aka the historical debugger) NEW: Architecture Tools New Project Type: Modeling Project UML Diagrams UML Use Case Diagram UML Class Diagram UML Sequence Diagram (supports reverse enginneering) UML Activity Diagram UML Component Diagram Layer Diagram (with Team Build integration for layer validation) Architecuture Explorer Dependency visualization DGML Web & Load Tests Visual Studio Premium 2010 NEW: Architecture Tools Read-only model viewer Development Tools Code Analysis New Rules like SQL Injection detection Rule Sets Code Profiler Multi-Tier Profiling JScript Profiling Profiling applications on virtual machines in sampling mode Code Metrics Test Tools Code Coverage NEW: Test Impact Analysis NEW: Coded UI Test Database Tools (DB schema versioning & deployment) Visual Studio Professional 2010 Debuger Mixed Mode Debugging for 64-bit Applications Export/Import of Breakpoints and data tips Visual Studio Test Professional 2010 Microsoft Test Manager (MTM, formerly known as "Camano")) Fast Forward Testing Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 Work Item Tracking and Project Management New MSF templatesfor Agile and CMMI (V 5.0) Hierarchical Work Items Custom Work Item Link Types Ready to use Excel agile project management workbooks for managing your backlogs (including capacity planing) Convert Work Item query to an Excel report MS Excel integration Support for Work Item hierarchies Formatting is preserved after doing a 'Refresh' MS Project integration Hierarchy and successor/predecessor info is now synchronized NEW: Test Case Management Version Control Public Workspaces Branch & Merge Visualization Tracking of Changesets & Work Items Gated Check-In Team Build Build Controllers and Agents Workflow 4-based build process NEW: Lab Management (only a pre-release is avaiable at the moment!) Project Portal & Reporting Dashboards (on SharePoint Portal) Burndown Chart TFS Web Parts (to show data from TFS) Administration & Operations Topology enhancements Application tier network load balancing (NLB) SQL Server scale out Improved Sharepoint flexibility Report Server flexibility Zone support Kerberos support Separation of TFS and SQL administration Setup Separate install from configure Improved installation wizards Optional components Simplified account requirements Improved Reporting Services configuration Setup consolidation Upgrading from previous TFS versions Improved IIS flexibility Administration Consolidation of command line tools User rename support Project Collections Archive/restore individual project collections Move Team Project Collections Server consolidation Team Project Collection Split Team Project Collection Isolation Server request cancellation Licensing: TFS server license included in MSDN subscriptions Removed features (former features not part of Visual Studio 2010): Debug » Start With Application Verifier Object Test Bench IntelliSense for C++ / CLI Debugging support for SQL 2000

    Read the article

  • Plan Operator Tuesday round-up

    - by Rob Farley
    Eighteen posts for T-SQL Tuesday #43 this month, discussing Plan Operators. I put them together and made the following clickable plan. It’s 1000px wide, so I hope you have a monitor wide enough. Let me explain this plan for you (people’s names are the links to the articles on their blogs – the same links as in the plan above). It was clearly a SELECT statement. Wayne Sheffield (@dbawayne) wrote about that, so we start with a SELECT physical operator, leveraging the logical operator Wayne Sheffield. The SELECT operator calls the Paul White operator, discussed by Jason Brimhall (@sqlrnnr) in his post. The Paul White operator is quite remarkable, and can consume three streams of data. Let’s look at those streams. The first pulls data from a Table Scan – Boris Hristov (@borishristov)’s post – using parallel threads (Bradley Ball – @sqlballs) that pull the data eagerly through a Table Spool (Oliver Asmus – @oliverasmus). A scalar operation is also performed on it, thanks to Jeffrey Verheul (@devjef)’s Compute Scalar operator. The second stream of data applies Evil (I figured that must mean a procedural TVF, but could’ve been anything), courtesy of Jason Strate (@stratesql). It performs this Evil on the merging of parallel streams (Steve Jones – @way0utwest), which suck data out of a Switch (Paul White – @sql_kiwi). This Switch operator is consuming data from up to four lookups, thanks to Kalen Delaney (@sqlqueen), Rick Krueger (@dataogre), Mickey Stuewe (@sqlmickey) and Kathi Kellenberger (@auntkathi). Unfortunately Kathi’s name is a bit long and has been truncated, just like in real plans. The last stream performs a join of two others via a Nested Loop (Matan Yungman – @matanyungman). One pulls data from a Spool (my post – @rob_farley) populated from a Table Scan (Jon Morisi). The other applies a catchall operator (the catchall is because Tamera Clark (@tameraclark) didn’t specify any particular operator, and a catchall is what gets shown when SSMS doesn’t know what to show. Surprisingly, it’s showing the yellow one, which is about cursors. Hopefully that’s not what Tamera planned, but anyway...) to the output from an Index Seek operator (Sebastian Meine – @sqlity). Lastly, I think everyone put in 110% effort, so that’s what all the operators cost. That didn’t leave anything for me, unfortunately, but that’s okay. Also, because he decided to use the Paul White operator, Jason Brimhall gets 0%, and his 110% was given to Paul’s Switch operator post. I hope you’ve enjoyed this T-SQL Tuesday, and have learned something extra about Plan Operators. Keep your eye out for next month’s one by watching the Twitter Hashtag #tsql2sday, and why not contribute a post to the party? Big thanks to Adam Machanic as usual for starting all this. @rob_farley

    Read the article

  • SQL SERVER – Monday Morning Puzzle – Query Returns Results Sometimes but Not Always

    - by pinaldave
    The amount of email I receive sometime it is impossible for me to answer every email. Nonetheless I try to answer pretty much every email I receive. However, quite often I receive such questions in email that I have no answer to them because either emails are not complete or they are out of my domain expertise. In recent times I received one email which had only one or two lines but indeed attracted my attention to it. The question was bit vague but it indeed made me think. The answer was not straightforward so I had to keep on writing the answer as I remember it. However, after writing the answer I do not feel satisfied. Let me put this question in front of you and see if we all can come up with a comprehensive answer. Question: I am beginner with SQL Server. I have one query, it sometime returns a result and sometime it does not return me the result. Where should I start looking for a solution and what kind of information I should send to you so you can help me with solving. I have no clue, please guide me. Well, if you read the question, it is indeed incomplete and it does not contain much of the information at all. I decided to help him and here is the answer, which I started to compose. Answer: As there are not much information in the original question, I am not confident what will solve your problem. However, here are the few things which you can try to look at and see if that solves your problem. Check parameter which is passed to the query. Is the parameter changing at various executions? Check connection string – is there some kind of logic around it? Do you have a non-deterministic component in your query logic? (In other words – does your result is based on current date time or any other time based function?) Are you facing time out while running your query? Is there any error in error log? What is the business logic in your query? Do you have all the valid permissions to all the objects used in the query? Are permissions changing or query accessing a different object in various executions? (Add your suggestions here) Meanwhile, have you ever faced this situation? If yes, do share your experience in the comment area. I will send a copy of my book SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers to one of the most interesting comment. The winner will be announced by next Monday.  Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Interview Questions and Answers, SQL Puzzle, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

    Read the article

< Previous Page | 546 547 548 549 550 551 552 553 554 555 556 557  | Next Page >