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• Apprentice Boot Camp in South Africa (Part 2)

  - by Tim Koekkoek

  By Maximilian Michel (DE), Jorge Garnacho (ES), Daniel Maull (UK), Adam Griffiths (UK), Guillermo De Las Nieves (ES), Catriona McGill (UK), Ed Dunlop (UK) Today we have the second part of the adventures of seven apprentices from all over Europe in South-Africa!  Kruger National Park & other experiences Going to the Kruger National Park was definitely an experience we will all remember for the rest of our lives. This trip,organised by Patrick Fitzgerald, owner of the Travellers Nest (where we all stayed), took us from the hustle and bustle of Joburg to experience what Africa is all about, the wild! Although the first week’s training we had prior to this trip to the Kruger was going very well, we all knew this was to be a very nice break before we started the second week of training. And we were right, the animals, scenery and sights we saw were just simply incredible and like I said something we will remember for the rest of our lives. To see lions, elephants, cheetahs and rhinos and many more in a zoo is one thing, but to see them in the wild, in their natural habitat is very special and I personally only realised this from the early 5 am start on the first morning in the Kruger, which was definitely worth it. Not only was it all about the safari, we ate some wonderful food, in particular on the Saturday night, Patrick made us a traditional South African Braai which was one of my favourite meals of the whole two weeks. After the Kruger National Park we had a whole day of traveling back to Johannesburg but even this was made to be a good day by our hosts. Despite the early start on the road it was all worth it by the time we reached God's Window. The walk to the top was made a lot harder by all the steaks we had eaten in the first week but the hard walk was worth it at the top, with views that stretched for miles. The Food The food in South Africa is typically meat and in big amounts, while there we ate a lot of big beef steaks, ribs and kudu sausage. All of the meat we ate was usually cooked with a sauce such as a Barbeque glaze. The restaurants we visited were: Upperdeck Restaurant, with live music and a great terrace to eat, the atmosphere was good for enjoying the music and eating our food. Most of us ate  Spare ribs that weighed 600 kg, with barbecue sauce that was delicious. Die Bosvelder Pub & Restaurant is a restaurant with a very surprising decor, this is because the walls had many of south Africa’s famous animals on them. The food was maybe the best we ate in South Africa. Our orders were: Springbokvlakte Lambs' Neck Stew, beef in gravy and steaks topped with cheese and then more meat on top! All meals were accompanied by a selection of white sauce cauliflower, spinach and zanhorias. Pepper Chair Restaurant, where the specialty is T-Bone steaks of 1.4 kg, but most of us were happy to attempt the 1 kg. Cooked with barbecue sauce over the meat, it was very good!  The only problem was their size causing the  the meat to get cold if you did not eat it very fast! We’re all waiting for our 1.0 kg t-bone steak including our Senior Director EMEA Systems Support Germany & Switzerland: Werner Hoellrigl The Godfather Restaurant, the food here was more meat in abundance. We ate: great ribs, hamburgers, steaks and all accompanied with a small plates of carrot and sauteed spinach, very good. We had two great weeks in South-Africa! If you want to join Oracle, then check http://campus.oracle.com 

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• Oracle at HR Tech: What a Difference a Year Makes

  - by Natalia Rachelson

  Last week, I had the privilege of attending the famous HR Technology Conference (HR Tech) in my new hometown of Chicago. This annual event, which draws the who of who in the world of HR technology, was by far the biggest.  It wasn't just the highest level of attendance that was mind blowing, but also the amazing quality of attendees. Kudos go to the organizers, especially Bill Kutik for pulling together such a phenomenal conference. Conference highlights included Naomi Bloom's (http://infullbloom.us) Masters Panel and Mark Hurd's General Session on the last day of the conference. Naomi managed to do the seemingly impossible -- get all of the industry heavyweights and fierce competitors to travel to Chicago for her panel. Here are the executives she hosted: Our own Steve Miranda Sanjay Poonen, President Global Solutions, SAP Stan Swete, CTO, Workday Mike Capone, VP for Product Development and CIO, ADP John Wookey, EVP, Social Applications, Salesforce.com Adam Rogers, CTO, Ultimate Software       I bet you think "WOW" when you look at these names. Just this panel by itself would have been enough of a draw for any tech conference, so Naomi and Bill really scored. TechTarget published a great review of the conference here.  And here are a few highlights from Steve. "Steve Miranda, EVP Apps Dev Oracle, said delivering software in the cloud helps vendors shape their products to customer needs more efficiently. "As vendors, we're able to improve the software faster," he said. "We can see in real time what customers are using and not using." Miranda underscored Oracle's commitment to socializing its HCM platform,and named recruiting as an area where social has had a significant impact. "We want to make social a part of the fabric, not a separate piece," he said. "Already, if you're doing recruiting without social, it probably doesn't make any sense."" Having Mark Hurd at the conference was another real treat and everyone took notice.  The Business of HR publication covered Mark's participation at HR Tech and the full article is available here. Here is what Business of HR had to say: "In truth, the story of Oracle today is a story similar to many of the current and potential customers they faced at the conference this week. Their business is changing and growing. They've dealt with acquisitions of their own and their competitors continue to nip at their heels. They are dealing with growth (and yes, they are hiring in case you're interested). They have concerns about talent as well. If Oracle feels as strongly about their products as they seem to be, they will be getting their co-president in front of a lot more groups of current and potential customers like they did at the HR Technology Conference this year. And here's hoping this is one executive who won't stop talking about the importance of talent just because he isn't at the HR tech conference anymore." Natalia RachelsonSenior Director, Oracle Applications

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• ArchBeat Link-o-Rama Top 10 for November 2012

  - by Bob Rhubart

  Every day ArchBeat searches the web for content created by and for community members, and then shares that content via social media. Here's the list of the Top 10 most popular items posted on the OTN ArchBeat Facebook Page for November 2012. One-Stop Shop for Oracle Webcasts Webcasts can be a great way to get information about Oracle products without having to go cross-eyed reading yet another document off your computer screen. Oracle's new Webcast Center offers selectable filtering to make it easy to get to the information you want. Yes, you have to register to gain access, but that process is quick, and with over 200 webcasts to choose from you know you'll find useful content. OAM/OVD JVM Tuning Vinay from the Oracle Fusion Middleware Architecture Group (otherwise known as the A-Team) shares a process for analyzing and improving performance in Oracle Virtual Directory and Oracle Access Manager. White Paper: Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud: Advanced I/O Virtualization Architecture for Consolidating High-Performance Workloads This new white paper by Adam Hawley (with contributions from Yoav Eilat) describes in great detail the incorporation into Oracle Exalogic of virtualized InfiniBand I/O interconnects using Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) technology. Architected Systems: "If you don't develop an architecture, you will get one anyway..." "Can you build a system without taking care of architecture?," asks Manuel Ricca. "You certainly can. But inevitably the system will be unbalanced, neglecting the interests of key stakeholders, and problems will soon emerge." Backup and Recovery of an Exalogic vServer via rsync "On Exalogic a vServer will consist of a number of resources from the underlying machine," says the man known only as Donald. "These resources include compute power, networking and storage. In order to recover a vServer from a failure in the underlying rack all of these components have to be thoughts about. This article only discusses the backup and recovery strategies that apply to the storage system of a vServer." This Week on the OTN Architect Community Home Page Make time to check out this week's features on the OTN Solution Architect Homepage, including: SOA Practitioner Guide: Identifying and Discovering Services Technical article by Yuli Vasiliev on Setting Up, Configuring, and Using an Oracle WebLogic Server Cluster Podcast: Are You Future Proof? Clustering ODI11g for High-Availability Part 1: Introduction and Architecture | Richard Yeardley "JEE agents can be deployed alongside, or instead of, standalone agents," says Rittman Meade's Richard Yeardley. "But there is one key advantage in using JEE agents and WebLogic – when you deploy JEE agents as part of a WebLogic cluster they can be configured together to form a high availability cluster." Learn more in Yeardley's extensive post. OIM 11g : Multi-thread approach for writing custom scheduled job | Saravanan V S Saravanan shares insight and expertise relevant to "designing and developing an OIM schedule job that uses multi threaded approach for updating data in OIM using APIs." How to Create Virtual Directory in Weblogic Server | Zeeshan Baig Oracle ACE Zeeshan Baig shows you how in six easy steps. SOA Galore: New Books for Technical Eyes Only Shake up up your technical skills with this trio of new technical books from community members covering SOA and BPM. Thought for the Day "Humans are the best value in computers -- where else can you get a non-linear computer weighing only about 160lbs, having a billion binary decision elements, that can be mass-produced by unskilled labour?" — Anonymous Source: SoftwareQuotes.com

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• A developer&rsquo;s WBS &ndash; 3 factors of 5

  - by johndoucette

  As a development manager, I have requested work breakdown structures (WBS) many times from the dev leads. Everyone has their own approach and why it takes sometimes days to get this simple list is often frustrating. Here is a simple way to get that elusive WBS done in 30 minutes and have 125 items in your list – well, 126. The WBS is made up of parent-child entities representing the overall outcome of the project. At the bottom of the hierarchical list should be the task item that a developer would perform in support of the branch in the list or WBS. Because I work with different dev leads on every project, I always ask the “what time value would you like to see at the lowest task in order to assign it to a developer and ensure it gets done within the timeframe”. I am particular to a task being 8 hours. Some like 8 to 24 hours. Stay away from tasks defaulting to 1 week. The task becomes way to vague and hard to manage completeness, especially on short budgets. As a developer, your focus is identifying the tasks you to accomplish in order to deliver the product. As a project manager, you will take the developer's WBS and add all the “other stuff” like quality testing, meetings, documentation, transition to maintenance, etc… Start your exercise with the name of the product you are delivering as a result of the project. You should be able to represent what you are building and deploying with one to three words. Example; XYZ Public Website Middleware BizTalk Application The reason you start with that single identifier is to always see the list as the product. It helps during each of the next three passes. Now, choose 5 tasks which in their entirety represent the product you will be delivering and add them to list under the product name you created earlier; Public Website     Security     Sites     Infrastructure     Publishing     Creative Continue this concept of seeing the list as the complete picture and decompose it one more level. You should have 25 items. Public Website     Security         Authentication         Login Control         Administration         DRM         Workflow     Sites         Masterpages         Page Layouts         Web Parts (RIA, Multimedia)         Content Types         Structures     Infrastructure         ...     Publishing         ...     Creative         ... And one more time for a total of 125 items. The top item makes the list 126. Public Website     Security         Authentication             Install (AD/ADAM/LDAP/SQL)             Configuration             Management             Web App Configuration             Implement Provider         Login Control             Login Form             Login/Logoff             pw change             pw recover/forgot             email verification         Administration             ...         DRM             ...         Workflow             ...     Sites         Masterpages         Page Layouts         Web Parts (RIA, Multimedia)         Content Types         Structures     Infrastructure         ...     Publishing         ...     Creative         ... The next step is to make sure the task at the bottom of every branch represents the “time value” you planned for the project. You can add more to the WBS and of course if you can’t find 5 items, 4 is fine. If a task can be done in a fraction of the time value you determined for the project, try to roll it up into a larger task. In the task actions (later when the iteration is being planned), decompose the details back to the simple tasks. Now, go estimate!

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• SQL Server service accounts and SPNs

  - by simonsabin

  Service Principal Names (SPNs) are a must for kerberos authentication which is a must when using sharepoint, reporting services and sql server where you access one server that then needs to access another resource, this is called the double hop. The reason this is a complex problem is that the second hop has to be done with impersonation/delegation. For this to work there needs to be a way for the security system to make sure that the service in the middle is allowed to impersonate you, after all you are not giving the service your password. To do this you need to be using kerberos. The following is my simple interpretation of how kerberos works. I find the Kerberos documentation rediculously complex so the following might be sligthly wrong but I think its close enough. Keberos works on a ticketing system, the prinicipal is that you get a security token from AD and then you can pass that to the service in the middle which can then use that token to impersonate you. For that to work AD has to be able to identify who is allowed to use the token, in this case the service account.But how do you as a client know what service account the service in the middle is configured with. The answer is SPNs. The SPN is the mapping between your logical connection to the service account. One type of SPN is for the DNS name for the server and the port. i.e. MySQL.mydomain.com and 1433. You can see how this maps to SQL Server on that server, but how does it map to the account. Well it can be done in two ways, either you can have a mapping defined in AD or AD can use a default mapping (this is something I didn't know about). To map the SPN in AD then you have to add the SPN to the user account, this is documented in the first link below either directly or using a tool called SetSPN. You might say that is complex, well it is and thats why SQL Server tries to do it for you, at start up it tries to connect to AD and set the SPN on the account it is running as, clearly that can only happen IF SQL is running as a domain account AND importantly it has permission to do so. By default a normal domain user account doesn't have the correct permission, and is why so many people have this problem. If the account is a domain admin then it will have permission, but non of us run SQL using domain admin accounts do we. You might also note that the SPN contains the port number (this isn't a requirement now in sql 2008 but I won't go into that), so if you set it manually and you are using dynamic ports (the default for a named instance) what do you do, well every time the port changes you need to change the SPN allocated to the account. Thats why its advised to let SQL Server register the SPN itself. You may also have thought, well what happens if I change my service account, won't that lead to two accounts with the same SPN. Possibly. Having two accounts with the same SPN is definitely a problem. Why? Well because if there are two accounts Kerberos can't identify the exact account that the service is running as, it could be either account, and so your security falls back to NTLM. SETSPN is useful for finding duplicate SPNs Reading this you will probably be thinking Oh my goodness this is really difficult. It is however I've found today in investigating something else that there is an easy option. Use Network Service as your service account. Network Service is a special account and is tied to the computer. It appears that Network Service has the update rights to AD to set an SPN mapping for the computer account. This then allows the SPN mapping to work. I believe this also works for the local system account. To get all the SPNs in your AD run the following, it could be a large file, so you might want to restrict it to a specific OU, or CN ldifde -d "DC=<domain>" -l servicePrincipalName -F spn.txt You will read in the links below that you need SQL to register the SPN this is done how to use Kerberos authenticaiton in SQL Server - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/319723 Using Kerberos with SQL Server - http://blogs.msdn.com/sql_protocols/archive/2005/10/12/479871.aspx Understanding Kerberos and NTLM authentication in SQL Server Connections - http://blogs.msdn.com/sql_protocols/archive/2006/12/02/understanding-kerberos-and-ntlm-authentication-in-sql-server-connections.aspx Summary The only reason I personally know to use a domain account is when you can't get kerberos to work and you want to do BULK INSERT or other network service that requires access to a a remote server. In this case you have to resort to using SQL authentication and the SQL Server uses its service account to access the remote service, and thus you need a domain account. You migth need this if using some forms of replication. I've always found Kerberos awkward to setup and so fallen back to this domain account approach. So in summary to get Kerberos to work try using the network service or local system accounts. For a great post from the Adam Saxton of the SQL Server support team go to http://blogs.msdn.com/psssql/archive/2010/03/09/what-spn-do-i-use-and-how-does-it-get-there.aspx 

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• Copying Columns from Grid to Clipboard in SQL Developer

  - by thatjeffsmith

  There are several ways to get data from a query or a table|view to the clipboard. You know the tried and true, copy and paste. But what if you only want one or more columns, not every column? There are several ways to do this, let’s see if we can’t identify all of them. Write your query to only include the data you want Obvious? Yes. Needed to be said? Definitely. The best tuning tip is to only ask for the data you need, only when you absolutely need it. But let’s look at a few more practical ways to do this. Hide the unwanted columns Mouse right click on an column header. In the context menu, select ‘Columns.’ Hide the columns you don’t want. Copy and paste. WYSIWYG Grids, Hide Columns and Filter Rows Mouse select the columns Obvious, but a bit painful. For a very large dataset, you’ll be holding down the Shift and PageDown buttons – but it works. Remember to use Ctrl+Shift+C to get the column headers with the data. Use the Export Wizard This used to be called ‘Unload’ – agreed, not a great name. So, we changed it. In a grid, right mouse click on the data, and on the context menu, select ‘Export…’ Select your format – I suggest ‘delimited’ or ‘fixed’ for copying data to the clipboard. You can export to the clipboard, yes you can! Click ‘Next.’ Click in the Columns dialog, and choose the columns you want copied. Trim the columns you don't want copied Click ‘Finish.’ Alt or Ctrl tab to your window or application of choice. And Paste! "FIRST_NAME" "LAST_NAME" "Donald" "OConnell" "Douglas" "Grant" "Jennifer" "Whalen" "Pat" "Fay" "Susan" "Mavris" "William" "Gietz" "Alexander" "Hunold" "Bruce" "Ernst" "David" "Austin" "Valli" "Pataballa" "Diana" "Lorentz" "Daniel" "Faviet" "John" "Chen" "Ismael" "Sciarra" "Jose Manuel" "Urman" "Luis" "Popp" "Alexander" "Khoo" "Shelli" "Baida" "Sigal" "Tobias" "Guy" "Himuro" "Karen" "Colmenares" "Matthew" "Weiss" "Adam" "Fripp" "Payam" "Kaufling" "Shanta" "Vollman" "Kevin" "Mourgos" "Julia" "Nayer" "Irene" "Mikkilineni" ... There’s probably at least 2 or 3 more ways, but… But, try these and let me know how we can improve things. I’ve already gotten a request to be able to include the SQL text used to populate the dataset on the the copy to clipboard, and it’s now on our to-do list

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• SQL SERVER – Solution – Puzzle – SELECT * vs SELECT COUNT(*)

  - by pinaldave

  Earlier I have published Puzzle Why SELECT * throws an error but SELECT COUNT(*) does not. This question have received many interesting comments. Let us go over few of the answers, which are valid. Before I start the same, let me acknowledge Rob Farley who has not only answered correctly very first but also started interesting conversation in the same thread. The usual question will be what is the right answer. I would like to point to official Microsoft Connect Items which discusses the same. RGarvao https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/details/671475/select-test-where-exists-select tiberiu utan http://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/details/338532/count-returns-a-value-1 Rob Farley count(*) is about counting rows, not a particular column. It doesn’t even look to see what columns are available, it’ll just count the rows, which in the case of a missing FROM clause, is 1. “select *” is designed to return columns, and therefore barfs if there are none available. Even more odd is this one: select ‘blah’ where exists (select *) You might be surprised at the results… Koushik The engine performs a “Constant scan” for Count(*) where as in the case of “SELECT *” the engine is trying to perform either Index/Cluster/Table scans. amikolaj When you query ‘select * from sometable’, SQL replaces * with the current schema of that table. With out a source for the schema, SQL throws an error. so when you query ‘select count(*)’, you are counting the one row. * is just a constant to SQL here. Check out the execution plan. Like the description states – ‘Scan an internal table of constants.’ You could do ‘select COUNT(‘my name is adam and this is my answer’)’ and get the same answer. Netra Acharya SELECT * Here, * represents all columns from a table. So it always looks for a table (As we know, there should be FROM clause before specifying table name). So, it throws an error whenever this condition is not satisfied. SELECT COUNT(*) Here, COUNT is a Function. So it is not mandetory to provide a table. Check it out this: DECLARE @cnt INT SET @cnt = COUNT(*) SELECT @cnt SET @cnt = COUNT(‘x’) SELECT @cnt Naveen Select 1 / Select ‘*’ will return 1/* as expected. Select Count(1)/Count(*) will return the count of result set of select statement. Count(1)/Count(*) will have one 1/* for each row in the result set of select statement. Select 1 or Select ‘*’ result set will contain only 1 result. so count is 1. Where as “Select *” is a sysntax which expects the table or equauivalent to table (table functions, etc..). It is like compilation error for that query. Ramesh Hi Friends, Count is an aggregate function and it expects the rows (list of records) for a specified single column or whole rows for *. So, when we use ‘select *’ it definitely give and error because ‘*’ is meant to have all the fields but there is not any table and without table it can only raise an error. So, in the case of ‘Select Count(*)’, there will be an error as a record in the count function so you will get the result as ’1'. Try using : Select COUNT(‘RAMESH’) and think there is an error ‘Must specify table to select from.’ in place of ‘RAMESH’ Pinal : If i am wrong then please clarify this. Sachin Nandanwar Any aggregate function expects a constant or a column name as an expression. DO NOT be confused with * in an aggregate function.The aggregate function does not treat it as a column name or a set of column names but a constant value, as * is a key word in SQL. You can replace any value instead of * for the COUNT function.Ex Select COUNT(5) will result as 1. The error resulting from select * is obvious it expects an object where it can extract the result set. I sincerely thank you all for wonderful conversation, I personally enjoyed it and I am sure all of you have the same feeling. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: CodeProject, Pinal Dave, PostADay, Readers Contribution, Readers Question, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Puzzle, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology

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• T-SQL Tuesday #21 - Crap!

  - by Most Valuable Yak (Rob Volk)

  Adam Machanic's (blog | twitter) ever popular T-SQL Tuesday series is being held on Wednesday this time, and the topic is… SHIT CRAP. No, not fecal material.  But crap code.  Crap SQL.  Crap ideas that you thought were good at the time, or were forced to do due (doo-doo?) to lack of time. The challenge for me is to look back on my SQL Server career and find something that WASN'T crap.  Well, there's a lot that wasn't, but for some reason I don't remember those that well.  So the additional challenge is to pick one particular turd that I really wish I hadn't squeezed out.  Let's see if this outline fits the bill: An ETL process on text files; That had to interface between SQL Server and an AS/400 system; That didn't use SSIS (should have) or BizTalk (ummm, no) but command-line scripting, using Unix utilities(!) via: xp_cmdshell; That had to email reports and financial data, some of it sensitive Yep, the stench smell is coming back to me now, as if it was yesterday… As to why SSIS and BizTalk were not options, basically I didn't know either of them well enough to get the job done (and I still don't).  I also had a strict deadline of 3 days, in addition to all the other responsibilities I had, so no time to learn them.  And seeing how screwed up the rest of the process was: Payment files from multiple vendors in multiple formats; Sent via FTP, PGP encrypted email, or some other wizardry; Manually opened/downloaded and saved to a particular set of folders (couldn't change this); Once processed, had to be placed BACK in the same folders with the original archived; x2 divisions that had to run separately; Plus an additional vendor file in another format on a completely different schedule; So that they could be MANUALLY uploaded into the AS/400 system (couldn't change this either, even if it was technically possible) I didn't feel so bad about the solution I came up with, which was naturally: Copy the payment files to the local SQL Server drives, using xp_cmdshell Run batch files (via xp_cmdshell) to parse the different formats using sed, a Unix utility (this was before Powershell) Use other Unix utilities (join, split, grep, wc) to process parsed files and generate metadata (size, date, checksum, line count) Run sqlcmd to execute a stored procedure that passed the parsed file names so it would bulk load the data to do a comparison bcp the compared data out to ANOTHER text file so that I could grep that data out of the original file Run another stored procedure to import the matched data into SQL Server so it could process the payments, including file metadata Process payment batches and log which division and vendor they belong to Email the payment details to the finance group (since it was too hard for them to run a web report with the same data…which they ran anyway to compare the emailed file against…which always matched, surprisingly) Email another report showing unmatched payments so they could manually void them…about 3 months afterward All in "Excel" format, using xp_sendmail (SQL 2000 system) Copy the unmatched data back to the original folder locations, making sure to match the file format exactly (if you've ever worked with ACH files, you'll understand why this sucked) If you're one of the 10 people who have read my blog before, you know that I love the DOS "for" command.  Like passionately.  Like fairy-tale love.  So my batch files were riddled with for loops, nested within other for loops, that called other batch files containing for loops.  I think there was one section that had 4 or 5 nested for commands.  It was wrong, disturbed, and completely un-maintainable by anyone, even myself.  Months, even a year, after I left the company I got calls from someone who had to make a minor change to it, and they called me to talk them out of spraying the office with an AK-47 after looking at this code.  (for you Star Trek TOS fans) The funniest part of this, well, one of the funniest, is that I made the deadline…sort of, I was only a day late…and the DAMN THING WORKED practically unchanged for 3 years.  Most of the problems came from the manual parts of the overall process, like forgetting to decrypt the files, or missing/late files, or saved to the wrong folders.  I'm definitely not trying to toot my own horn here, because this was truly one of the dumbest, crappiest solutions I ever came up with.  Fortunately as far as I know it's no longer in use and someone has written a proper replacement.  Today I would knuckle down and do it in SSIS or Powershell, even if it took me weeks to get it right. The real lesson from this crap code is to make things MAINTAINABLE and UNDERSTANDABLE.  sed scripting regular expressions doesn't fit that criteria in any way.  If you ever find yourself under pressure to do something fast at all costs, DON'T DO IT.  Stop and consider long-term maintainability, not just for yourself but for others on your team.  If you can't explain the basic approach in under 5 minutes, it ultimately won't succeed.  And while you may love to leave all that crap behind, it may follow you anyway, and you'll step in it again.   P.S. - if you're wondering about all the manual stuff that couldn't be changed, it was because the entire process had gone through Six Sigma, and was deemed the best possible way.  Phew!  Talk about stink!

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• 5 minutes WIF: Make your ASP.NET application use test-STS

  - by DigiMortal

  Windows Identity Foundation (WIF) provides us with simple and dummy STS application we can use to develop our system with no actual STS in place. In this posting I will show you how to add STS support to your existing application and how to generate dummy application that plays you real STS. Word of caution! Although it is relatively easy to build your own STS using WIF tools I don’t recommend you to build it. Identity providers must be highly secure and stable in every means and this makes development of your own STS very complex task. If it is possible then use some known STS solution. I suppose you have WIF and WIF SDK installed on your development machine. If you don’t then here are the links to download pages: Windows Identity Foundation Windows Identity Foundation SDK Adding STS support to your web application Suppose you have web application and you want to externalize authentication so your application is able to detect users, send unauthenticated users to login and work in other terms exactly like it worked before. WIF tools provide you with all you need. 1. Click on your web application project and select “Add STS reference…” from context menu to start adding or updating STS settings for web application. 2. Insert your application URI in application settings window. Note that web.config file is already selected for you. I inserted URI that corresponds to my web application address under IIS Express. This URI must exist (later) because otherwise you cannot use dummy STS service. 3. Select “Create a new STS project in the current solution” and click Next button. 4. Summary screen gives you information about how your site will use STS. You can run this wizard always when you have to modify STS parameters. Click Finish. If everything goes like expected then new web site will be added to your solution and it is named as YourWebAppName_STS. Dummy STS application Image on right shows you dummy STS web site. Yes, it is created as web site project not as web application. But it still works nice and you don’t have to make there any modifications. It just works but it is dummy one. Why dummy STS? Some points about dummy STS web site: Dummy STS is not template for your own custom STS identity provider. Dummy STS is very good and simple replacement of real STS so you have more flexible development environment and you don’t have to authenticate yourself in real service. Of course, you can modify dummy STS web site to mimic some behavior of your real STS. Pages in dummy STS Dummy STS has two pages – Login.aspx and  Default.aspx. Default.aspx is the page that handles requests to STS service. Login.aspx is the page where authentication takes place. Dummy STS authenticates users using FBA. You can insert whatever username you like and dummy STS still works. You can take a look at the code behind these pages to get some idea about how this dummy service is built up. But again – this service is there to simplify your life as developer. Authenticating users using dummy STS If you are using development web server that ships with Visual Studio 2010 I suggest you to switch over to IIS or IIS Express and make some more configuration changes as described in my previous posting Making WIF local STS to work with your ASP.NET application. When you are done with these little modifications you are ready to run your application and see how authentication works. If everything is okay then you are redirected to dummy STS login page when running your web application. Adam Carter is provided as username by default. If you click on submit button you are authenticated and redirected to application page. In my case it looks like this. Conclusion As you saw it is very easy to set up your own dummy STS web site for testing purposes. You coded nothing. You just ran wizard, inserted some data, modified configuration a little bit and you were done. Later, when your application goes to production you can run again this STS configuration utility and it generates correct settings for your real STS service automatically.

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• Introducing sp_ssiscatalog (v1.0.0.0)

  - by jamiet

  Regular readers of my blog may know that over the last year I have made available a suite of SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) reports that provide visualisations of the data in the SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) 2012 Catalog. Those reports are available at http://ssisreportingpack.codeplex.com. As I have built these reports and used them myself on a real life project a couple of things have dawned on me: As soon as your SSIS Catalog gets a significant amount of data in it the performance of the reports degrades rapidly. This is hampered by the fact that there are limitations as to the SQL statements that I can embed within a SSRS report. SSIS professionals are data guys at heart and those types of people feel more comfortable in a query environment rather than having to go through the rigmarole of standing up a reporting server (well, I know I do anyway) Hence I have decided to take a different tack with the reporting pack. Taking my lead from Adam Machanic’s sp_whoisactive and Brent Ozar’s sp_blitz I have produced sp_ssiscatalog, a stored procedure that makes it easy to get at the crucial data in the SSIS Catalog. I will spend the rest of this blog explaining exactly what sp_ssiscatalog does and how to use it but if you would rather just download the bits yourself and start to play you can download v1.0.0.0 from DB v1.0.0.0. Usage Scenarios Most Recent Execution I find that the most frequent information that one needs to get from the SSIS Catalog is information pertaining to the most recent execution. Hence if you execute sp_ssiscatalog with no parameters, that is exactly what you will get. EXEC [dbo].[sp_ssiscatalog] This will return up to 5 resultsets: EXECUTION - Summary information about the execution including status, start time & end time EVENTS - All events that occurred during the execution OnError,OnTaskFailed - All events where event_name is either OnError or OnTaskFailed OnWarning - All events where event_name is OnWarning EXECUTABLE_STATS - Duration and execution result of every executable in the execution All 5 resultsets will be displayed if there is any data satisfying that resultset. In other words, if there are no (for example) OnWarning events then the OnWarning resultset will not be displayed. The display of these 5 resultsets can be toggled respectively by these 5 optional parameters (all of which are of type BIT): @exec_execution @exec_events @exec_errors @exec_warnings @exec_executable_stats Any Execution As just explained the default behaviour is to supply data for the most recent execution. If you wish to specify which execution the data should return data for simply supply the execution_id as a parameter: EXEC [dbo].[sp_ssiscatalog] 6 All Executions sp_ssiscatalog can also return information about all executions: EXEC [dbo].[sp_ssiscatalog] @operation_type='execs' The most recent execution will appear at the top. sp_ssiscatalog provides a number of parameters that enable you to filter the resultset: @execs_folder_name @execs_project_name @execs_package_name @execs_executed_as_name @execs_status_desc Some typical usages might be: //Return all failed executions EXEC [dbo].[sp_ssiscatalog] @operation_type='execs',@execs_status_desc='failed' //Return all executions for a specified folder EXEC [dbo].[sp_ssiscatalog] @operation_type='execs',@execs_folder_name='My folder' //Return all executions of a specified package in a specified project EXEC [dbo].[sp_ssiscatalog] @operation_type='execs',@execs_project_name='My project', @execs_package_name='Pkg.dtsx' Installing sp_ssicatalog Under the covers sp_ssiscatalog actually calls many other stored procedures and functions hence creating it on your server is not simply a case of running a CREATE PROCEDURE script. I maintain the code in an SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) database project which means that you have two ways of obtaining it. Download the source code You can download the latest (at the time of writing) source code from http://ssisreportingpack.codeplex.com/SourceControl/changeset/view/70192. Hit the download button to download all the source code in a zip file. The contents of that zip file will include an SSDT database project which you can open up in SSDT and publish just like any other SSDT database project. You can publish to a new database or any existing database, even [SSISDB] if you prefer. Download a dacpac Maintaining the code in an SSDT database project means that it can all get packaged up into a dacpac that you can then publish to your SQL Server. That dacpac is available from DB v1.0.0.0: Ordinarily a dacpac can be deployed to a SQL Server from SSMS using the Deploy Dacpac wizard however in this case there is a limitation. Due to sp_ssiscatalog referring to objects in the SSIS Catalog (which it has to do of course) the dacpac contains a SqlCmd variable to store the name of the database that underpins the SSIS Catalog; unfortunately the Deploy Dacpac wizard in SSMS has a rather gaping limitation in that it cannot deploy dacpacs containing SqlCmd variables. Hence, we can use the command-line tool, sqlpackage.exe, instead. Don’t worry if reverting to the command-line sounds a little daunting, I assure you it is not. Simply open a Visual Studio command-prompt and cd to the folder containing the downloaded dacpac: Type: "%PROGRAMFILES(x86)%\Microsoft SQL Server\110\DAC\bin\sqlpackage.exe" /action:Publish /TargetDatabaseName:SsisReportingPack /SourceFile:SSISReportingPack.dacpac /Variables:SSISDB=SSISDB /TargetServerName:(local) or the shortened form: "%PROGRAMFILES(x86)%\Microsoft SQL Server\110\DAC\bin\sqlpackage.exe" /a:Publish /tdn:SsisReportingPack /sf:SSISReportingPack.dacpac /v:SSISDB=SSISDB /tsn:(local) remembering to set your server name appropriately (here mine is set to “(local)” ). If everything works successfully you will see this: And you’re done! You’ll have a new database called [SsisReportingPack] which contains sp_ssiscatalog:   Good luck with sp_ssiscatalog. I have been using it extensively on my own projects recently and it has proved to be very useful indeed. Rest-assured however, I will be adding many new capabilities in the future. Feedback is welcome. @Jamiet

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• Visual Studio &amp; TFS 11 &ndash; List of extensions and upgrades

  - by terje

  This post is a list of the extensions I recommend for use with Visual Studio 11. It’s coming up all the time – what to install, where are the download sites, last version, etc etc, and thus I thought it better to post it here and keep it updated. The basics are Visual Studio 11 connected to a Team Foundation Server 11. Note that we now are at Beta time, and that also many live in a side-by-side environment with Visual Studio 2010.  The side-by-side is supported by VS 11. However, if you installed a component supporting VS11 before you installed VS11, then you need to reinstall it.  The VSIX installer will understand that it is to apply those only for VS11, and will not touch – nor remove – the same for VS2010. A good example here is the Power Commands. The list is more or less in priority order. The focus is to get a setup which can be used for a complete coding experience for the whole ALM process. The list of course reflects what I use for my work , so it is by no means complete, and for some of the tools there are equally useful alternatives. Many components have not yet arrived with VS11 support.  I will add them as they arrive.  The components directly associated with Visual Studio from Microsoft should be common, see the Microsoft column. If you still need the VS2010 extensions, here they are: The extensions for VS 2010.   Components ready for VS 11, both upgrades and new ones Product Notes Latest Version License Applicable to Microsoft TFS Power Tools Beta 111 Side-by-side with TFS 2010 should work, but remove the Shell Extension from the TFS 2010 power tool first. March 2012(11.0.50321.0) Free TFS integration Yes ReSharper EAP for Beta 11 (updates very often, nearly daily) 7.0.3.261 pr. 16/3/2012 Free as EAP, Licensed later Coding & Quality No Power Commands1 Just reinstall, even if you already have it for VS2010. The reinstall will then apply it to VS 11 1.0.2.3 Free Coding Yes Visualization and Modelling SDK for beta Info here and here. Another download site and info here. Also download from MSDN Subscription site. Requires VS 11 Beta SDK 11 Free now, otherwise Part of MSDN Subscription Modeling Yes Visual Studio 11 Beta SDK Published 16.2.2012     Yes Visual Studio 11 Feedback tool1 Use this to really ease the process of sending bugs back to Microsoft. 1.1 Free as prerelase Visual Studio Yes             #1 Get via Visual Studio’s Tools | Extension Manager (or The Code Gallery). (From Adam : All these are auto updated by the Extension Manager in Visual Studio) #2 Works with ultimate only Components we wait for, not yet in a VS 11 version Product Notes Latest Version License Applicable to Microsoft       Coding Yes Inmeta Build Explorer     Free TFS integration No Build Manager Community Build Manager. Info here from Jakob   Free TFS Integration No Code Contracts Coming real soon   Free Coding & Quality Yes Code Contracts Editor Extensions     Free Coding & Quality Yes Web Std Update     Free Coding (Web) Yes (MSFT) Web Essentials     Free Coding (Web) Yes (MSFT) DotPeek It says up to .Net 4.0, but some tests indicates it seems to be able to handle 4.5. 1.0.0.7999 Free Coding/Investigation No Just Decompile Also says up to .net 4.0   Free Coding/Investigation No dotTrace     Licensed Quality No NDepend   Licensed Quality No tangible T4 editor     Lite version Free (Good enough) Coding (T4 templates) No Pex Moles are now integrated and improved in VS 11 as a new library called Fakes.     Coding & Unit Testing Yes Components which are now integrated into VS 11 Product Notes Productivity Power Tools Features integrated into VS11, with a few exceptions, I don’t think you will miss those. Fakes  Was Moles in 2010. Fakes is improved and made into a product.  NuGet Manager Included in the install, but still an extension package. Info here. Product installation, upgrades and patches for VS/TFS 11   Product Notes Date Applicable to Visual Studio 11 & TFS 11 Beta This is the beta release, and you are free to download and try it out. March 2012 Visual Studio and TFS SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1 Cumulative Update 4 The TFS 11 requires the CU1 at least, but you should go up to at least CU4, since this update solves a ghost record problem that otherwise may cause your TFS database to not release records the way it should when you clean it up, see this post for more information on that issue.  Oct 2011 SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1

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• T-SQL Tuesday #34: Help! I Need Somebody!

  - by Most Valuable Yak (Rob Volk)

  Welcome everyone to T-SQL Tuesday Episode 34!  When last we tuned in, Mike Fal (b|t) hosted Trick Shots.  These highlighted techniques or tricks that you figured out on your own which helped you understand SQL Server better. This month, I'm asking you to look back this past week, year, century, or hour...to a time when you COULDN'T figure it out.  When you were stuck on a SQL Server problem and you had to seek help. In the beginning... SQL Server has changed a lot since I started with it.  <Cranky Old Guy> Back in my day, Books Online was neither.  There were no blogs. Google was the third-place search site. There were perhaps two or three community forums where you could ask questions.  (Besides the Microsoft newsgroups...which you had to access with Usenet.  And endure the wrath of...Celko.)  Your "training" was reading a book, made from real dead trees, that you bought from your choice of brick-and-mortar bookstore. And except for your local user groups, there were no conferences, seminars, SQL Saturdays, or any online video hookups where you could interact with a person. You'd have to call Microsoft Support...on the phone...a LANDLINE phone.  And none of this "SQL Family" business!</Cranky Old Guy> Even now, with all these excellent resources available, it's still daunting for a beginner to seek help for SQL Server.  The product is roughly 1247.4523 times larger than it was 15 years ago, and it's simply impossible to know everything about it.*  So whether you are a beginner, or a seasoned pro of over a decade's experience, what do you do when you need help on SQL Server? That's so meta... In the spirit of offering help, here are some suggestions for your topic: Tell us about a person or SQL Server community who have been helpful to you.  It can be about a technical problem, or not, e.g. someone who volunteered for your local SQL Saturday.  Sing their praises!  Let the world know who they are! Do you have any tricks for using Books Online?  Do you use the locally installed product, or are you completely online with BOL/MSDN/Technet, and why? If you've been using SQL Server for over 10 years, how has your help-seeking changed? Are you using Twitter, StackOverflow, MSDN Forums, or another resource that didn't exist when you started? What made you switch? Do you spend more time helping others than seeking help? What motivates you to help, and how do you contribute? Structure your post along the lyrics to The Beatles song Help! Audio or video renditions are particularly welcome! Lyrics must include reference to SQL Server terminology or community, and performances must be in your voice or include you playing an instrument. These are just suggestions, you are free to write whatever you like.  Bonus points if you can incorporate ALL of these into a single post.  (Or you can do multiple posts, we're flexible like that.)  Help us help others by showing how others helped you! Legalese, Your Rights, Yada yada... If you would like to participate in T-SQL Tuesday please be sure to follow the rules below: Your blog post must be published between Tuesday, September 11, 2012 00:00:00 GMT and Wednesday, September 12, 2012 00:00:00 GMT. Include the T-SQL Tuesday logo (above) and hyperlink it back to this post. If you don’t see your post in trackbacks, add the link to the comments below. If you are on Twitter please tweet your blog using the #TSQL2sDay hashtag.  I can be contacted there as @sql_r, in case you have questions or problems with comments/trackback.  I'll have a follow-up post listing all the contributions as soon as I can. Thank you all for participating, and special thanks to Adam Machanic (b|t) for all his help and for continuing this series!

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• Where is my object allocation and memory leak in this iPhone/objective C code?

  - by Spottswoode

  Hello, I'm still a rookie when it comes to this programming gig and was wondering if someone could help me smooth out this code. Functionally, the code works great and does what I need it to do. But when I run the performance tool the allocation graph peaks, the CPU load is high, there's a leak(s), and I've also confirmed when running on my iPhone it seems noticeably slower then the rest of the components in my app. I'd appreciate any advice/tips/help anyone could give me. :) Thanks in advance! .h file // // Time_CalculatorViewController.h // Time Calculator // // Created by Adam Soloway on 2/19/10. // Copyright Legacy Pilots 2010. All rights reserved. // #import <UIKit/UIKit.h> @interface Time_CalculatorViewController : UIViewController { //BOOL moveViewUp; //CGFloat scrollAmount; IBOutlet UILabel *hoursLabel; IBOutlet UILabel *minutesLabel; IBOutlet UILabel *hoursDecimalLabel; IBOutlet UILabel *minutesDecimalLabel; IBOutlet UILabel *errorLabel; IBOutlet UITextField *minTextField1; IBOutlet UITextField *minTextField2; IBOutlet UITextField *minTextField3; IBOutlet UITextField *minTextField4; IBOutlet UITextField *minTextField5; IBOutlet UITextField *minTextField6; IBOutlet UITextField *minTextField7; IBOutlet UITextField *minTextField8; IBOutlet UITextField *minTextField9; IBOutlet UITextField *minTextField10; IBOutlet UITextField *hourTextField1; IBOutlet UITextField *hourTextField2; IBOutlet UITextField *hourTextField3; IBOutlet UITextField *hourTextField4; IBOutlet UITextField *hourTextField5; IBOutlet UITextField *hourTextField6; IBOutlet UITextField *hourTextField7; IBOutlet UITextField *hourTextField8; IBOutlet UITextField *hourTextField9; IBOutlet UITextField *hourTextField10; IBOutlet UIButton *resetAll; NSString *minutesString1; NSString *minutesString2; NSString *minutesString3; NSString *minutesString4; NSString *minutesString5; NSString *minutesString6; NSString *minutesString7; NSString *minutesString8; NSString *minutesString9; NSString *minutesString10; NSString *hoursString1; NSString *hoursString2; NSString *hoursString3; NSString *hoursString4; NSString *hoursString5; NSString *hoursString6; NSString *hoursString7; NSString *hoursString8; NSString *hoursString9; NSString *hoursString10; int hourDecimalNumber; int totalTime; int leftOverMinutes; int minuteNumber1; int minuteNumber2; int minuteNumber3; int minuteNumber4; int minuteNumber5; int minuteNumber6; int minuteNumber7; int minuteNumber8; int minuteNumber9; int minuteNumber10; int hourNumber1; int hourNumber2; int hourNumber3; int hourNumber4; int hourNumber5; int hourNumber6; int hourNumber7; int hourNumber8; int hourNumber9; int hourNumber10; } //- (void)scrollTheView:(BOOL)movedUp; - (void)calculateTime; - (IBAction)resetAllValues; @end .m file // // Time_CalculatorViewController.m // Time Calculator // // Created by Adam Soloway on 2/19/10. // Copyright Legacy Pilots 2010. All rights reserved. // #import "Time_CalculatorViewController.h" @implementation Time_CalculatorViewController - (void)touchesBegan:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event { if( minTextField1.editing || minTextField2.editing || minTextField3.editing || minTextField4.editing || minTextField5.editing || minTextField6.editing || minTextField7.editing || minTextField8.editing || minTextField9.editing || minTextField10.editing || hourTextField1.editing || hourTextField2.editing || hourTextField3.editing || hourTextField4.editing || hourTextField5.editing || hourTextField6.editing || hourTextField7.editing || hourTextField8.editing || hourTextField9.editing || hourTextField10.editing) { [minTextField1 resignFirstResponder]; [minTextField2 resignFirstResponder]; [minTextField3 resignFirstResponder]; [minTextField4 resignFirstResponder]; [minTextField5 resignFirstResponder]; [minTextField6 resignFirstResponder]; [minTextField7 resignFirstResponder]; [minTextField8 resignFirstResponder]; [minTextField9 resignFirstResponder]; [minTextField10 resignFirstResponder]; [hourTextField1 resignFirstResponder]; [hourTextField2 resignFirstResponder]; [hourTextField3 resignFirstResponder]; [hourTextField4 resignFirstResponder]; [hourTextField5 resignFirstResponder]; [hourTextField6 resignFirstResponder]; [hourTextField7 resignFirstResponder]; [hourTextField8 resignFirstResponder]; [hourTextField9 resignFirstResponder]; [hourTextField10 resignFirstResponder]; [self calculateTime]; //if (moveViewUp) [self scrollTheView:NO]; } [super touchesBegan:touches withEvent:event]; } /* // The designated initializer. Override to perform setup that is required before the view is loaded. - (id)initWithNibName:(NSString *)nibNameOrNil bundle:(NSBundle *)nibBundleOrNil { if (self = [super initWithNibName:nibNameOrNil bundle:nibBundleOrNil]) { // Custom initialization } return self; } */ /* // Implement loadView to create a view hierarchy programmatically, without using a nib. - (void)loadView { } */ // Implement viewDidLoad to do additional setup after loading the view, typically from a nib. - (void)viewDidLoad { [super viewDidLoad]; } /* // Override to allow orientations other than the default portrait orientation. - (BOOL)shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)interfaceOrientation { // Return YES for supported orientations return (interfaceOrientation == UIInterfaceOrientationPortrait); } */ - (void)didReceiveMemoryWarning { // Releases the view if it doesn't have a superview. [super didReceiveMemoryWarning]; // Release any cached data, images, etc that aren't in use. } - (void)viewDidUnload { // Release any retained subviews of the main view. // e.g. self.myOutlet = nil; } - (void)dealloc { [minutesString1 release]; [minutesString2 release]; [minutesString3 release]; [minutesString4 release]; [minutesString5 release]; [minutesString6 release]; [minutesString7 release]; [minutesString8 release]; [minutesString9 release]; [minutesString10 release]; [hoursString1 release]; [hoursString2 release]; [hoursString3 release]; [hoursString4 release]; [hoursString5 release]; [hoursString6 release]; [hoursString7 release]; [hoursString8 release]; [hoursString9 release]; [hoursString10 release]; [super dealloc]; } -(BOOL)textFieldShouldReturn:(UITextField *)theTextField { //[minTextField10 resignFirstResponder]; //if (moveViewUp) [self scrollTheView:NO]; [self calculateTime]; return YES; } - (IBAction)resetAllValues { minTextField1.text = 0; minTextField2.text = 0; minTextField3.text = 0; minTextField4.text = 0; minTextField5.text = 0; minTextField6.text = 0; minTextField7.text = 0; minTextField8.text = 0; minTextField9.text = 0; minTextField10.text = 0; hourTextField1.text = 0; hourTextField2.text = 0; hourTextField3.text = 0; hourTextField4.text = 0; hourTextField5.text = 0; hourTextField6.text = 0; hourTextField7.text = 0; hourTextField8.text = 0; hourTextField9.text = 0; hourTextField10.text = 0; totalTime = 0; leftOverMinutes = 0; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"0"]; hourDecimalNumber = 0; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; minutesDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"0"]; self.calculateTime; } - (void)calculateTime { minutesString1 = minTextField1.text; minutesString2 = minTextField2.text; minutesString3 = minTextField3.text; minutesString4 = minTextField4.text; minutesString5 = minTextField5.text; minutesString6 = minTextField6.text; minutesString7 = minTextField7.text; minutesString8 = minTextField8.text; minutesString9 = minTextField9.text; minutesString10 = minTextField10.text; hoursString1 = hourTextField1.text; hoursString2 = hourTextField2.text; hoursString3 = hourTextField3.text; hoursString4 = hourTextField4.text; hoursString5 = hourTextField5.text; hoursString6 = hourTextField6.text; hoursString7 = hourTextField7.text; hoursString8 = hourTextField8.text; hoursString9 = hourTextField9.text; hoursString10 = hourTextField10.text; minuteNumber1 = [minutesString1 intValue]; minuteNumber2 = [minutesString2 intValue]; minuteNumber3 = [minutesString3 intValue]; minuteNumber4 = [minutesString4 intValue]; minuteNumber5 = [minutesString5 intValue]; minuteNumber6 = [minutesString6 intValue]; minuteNumber7 = [minutesString7 intValue]; minuteNumber8 = [minutesString8 intValue]; minuteNumber9 = [minutesString9 intValue]; minuteNumber10 = [minutesString10 intValue]; hourNumber1 = ([hoursString1 intValue] * 60); hourNumber2 = ([hoursString2 intValue] * 60); hourNumber3 = ([hoursString3 intValue] * 60); hourNumber4 = ([hoursString4 intValue] * 60); hourNumber5 = ([hoursString5 intValue] * 60); hourNumber6 = ([hoursString6 intValue] * 60); hourNumber7 = ([hoursString7 intValue] * 60); hourNumber8 = ([hoursString8 intValue] * 60); hourNumber9 = ([hoursString9 intValue] * 60); hourNumber10 = ([hoursString10 intValue] * 60); totalTime = (hourNumber1 + hourNumber2 +hourNumber3 +hourNumber4 +hourNumber5 +hourNumber6 +hourNumber7 +hourNumber8 +hourNumber9 +hourNumber10 + minuteNumber1 + minuteNumber2 + minuteNumber3 + minuteNumber4 + minuteNumber5 +minuteNumber6 + minuteNumber7 + minuteNumber8 + minuteNumber9 + minuteNumber10); if (totalTime <= 59) { leftOverMinutes = totalTime; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"0"]; hourDecimalNumber = 0; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >59 && totalTime <= 119){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 60; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"1"]; hourDecimalNumber = 1; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >119 && totalTime <= 179){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 120; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"2"]; hourDecimalNumber = 2; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >179 && totalTime <= 239){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 180; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"3"]; hourDecimalNumber = 3; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >239 && totalTime <= 299){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 240; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"4"]; hourDecimalNumber = 4; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >299 && totalTime <= 359){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 300; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"5"]; hourDecimalNumber = 5; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >359 && totalTime <= 419){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 360; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"6"]; hourDecimalNumber = 6; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >419 && totalTime <= 479){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 420; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"7"]; hourDecimalNumber = 7; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >479 && totalTime <= 539){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 480; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"8"]; hourDecimalNumber = 8; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >539 && totalTime <= 599){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 540; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"9"]; hourDecimalNumber = 9; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >599 && totalTime <= 659){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 600; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"10"]; hourDecimalNumber = 10; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >659 && totalTime <= 719){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 660; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"11"]; hourDecimalNumber = 11; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >719 && totalTime <= 779){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 720; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"12"]; hourDecimalNumber = 12; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >779 && totalTime <= 839){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 780; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"13"]; hourDecimalNumber = 13; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >839 && totalTime <= 899){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 840; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"14"]; hourDecimalNumber = 14; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >899 && totalTime <= 959){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 900; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"15"]; hourDecimalNumber = 15; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >959 && totalTime <= 1019){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 960; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"16"]; hourDecimalNumber = 16; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >1019 && totalTime <= 1079){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 1020; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"17"]; hourDecimalNumber = 17; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >1079 && totalTime <= 1139){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 1080; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"18"]; hourDecimalNumber = 18; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >1139 && totalTime <= 1199){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 1140; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"19"]; hourDecimalNumber = 19; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >1199 && totalTime <= 1259){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 1200; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"20"]; hourDecimalNumber = 20; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >1259 && totalTime <= 1319){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 1260; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"21"]; hourDecimalNumber = 21; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >1319 && totalTime <= 1379){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 1320; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"22"]; hourDecimalNumber = 22; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >1379 && totalTime <= 1439){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 1380; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"23"]; hourDecimalNumber = 23; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >1439 && totalTime <= 1499){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 1440; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"24"]; hourDecimalNumber = 24; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >1499 && totalTime <= 1559){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 1500; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"25"]; hourDecimalNumber = 25; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >1559 && totalTime <= 1619){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 1560; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"26"]; hourDecimalNumber = 26; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >1619 && totalTime <= 1679){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 1620; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"27"]; hourDecimalNumber = 27; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >1679 && totalTime <= 1739){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 1680; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"28"]; hourDecimalNumber = 28; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >1739 && totalTime <= 1799){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 1740; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"29"]; hourDecimalNumber = 29; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >1799 && totalTime <= 1859){ leftOverMinutes = totalTime - 1800; hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"30"]; hourDecimalNumber = 30; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; errorLabel.hidden = TRUE; } else if (totalTime >1859){ hoursLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"Error"]; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"Error"]; errorLabel.hidden = FALSE; } //Minutes Label if (leftOverMinutes < 10) { minutesLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"0%d", leftOverMinutes]; } else minutesLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%d", leftOverMinutes]; //Minutes Decimal Label if (leftOverMinutes >=0 && leftOverMinutes <=2) { minutesDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"0"]; } else if (leftOverMinutes >=3 && leftOverMinutes <=8){ minutesDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"1"]; } else if (leftOverMinutes >=9 && leftOverMinutes <=14){ minutesDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"2"]; } else if (leftOverMinutes >=15 && leftOverMinutes <=20){ minutesDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"3"]; } else if (leftOverMinutes >=21 && leftOverMinutes <=26){ minutesDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"4"]; } else if (leftOverMinutes >=27 && leftOverMinutes <=32){ minutesDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"5"]; } else if (leftOverMinutes >=33 && leftOverMinutes <=38){ minutesDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"6"]; } else if (leftOverMinutes >=39 && leftOverMinutes <=44){ minutesDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"7"]; } else if (leftOverMinutes >=45 && leftOverMinutes <=50){ minutesDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"8"]; } else if (leftOverMinutes >=51 && leftOverMinutes <=56){ minutesDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"9"]; } else if (leftOverMinutes >=57 && leftOverMinutes <=60){ minutesDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"0"]; hourDecimalNumber = hourDecimalNumber + 1; hoursDecimalLabel.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i", hourDecimalNumber]; } } @end

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• Featureful commercial text editors?

  - by wrp

  I'm willing to buy tools if they add genuine value over a FOSS equivalent. One thing I wouldn't mind having is an editor with the power of Emacs, but made more user-friendly. There seem to be several commercial editors out there, but I can't find much discussion of them online. Maybe it's because the kind of people who use commercial software don't have time to do much blogging. ;-) If you have used any, what was your evaluation? I'd especially like to hear how you would compare them to Emacs. I'm thinking of editors like VEDIT, Boxer, Crisp, UltraEdit, SlickEdit, etc. To get things started, I tried EditPad Pro because I needed something on a Win98SE box. I was attracted by its powerful support for regexps, but I didn't use it for long. One annoyance was that find-in-files was only available in a separate product you had to buy. The main problem, though, was stability. It sometimes hung and I lost a few files because it corrupted them while editing. After a couple weeks, I found that I was avoiding using it, so I just uninstalled. Edit: Ah...I need to remove some ambiguity. With reference to Emacs, "power" often means its potential for customization. This malleability comes from having an architecture in which most of the functionality is written in a scripting language that runs on a compiled core. Emacs (with elisp) is by far the most widely known such system among home users, but there have been other heavily used editors such as Freemacs (MINT), JED (S-Lang), XEDIT (Rexx), ADAM (TPU), and SlickEdit (Slick-C). In this case, by "power" I'm not referring to extensibility but to realized features. There are three main areas which I think a commercial text editor might be an improvement over Emacs: Stability The only apps I regularly use on Linux that give me flaky behavior are Emacs, Gedit, and Geany. On Windows, I like the look and features of Notepad++, but I find it extremely unstable, especially if I try to use the plugins. Whatever I happen to be doing, I'm using some text editor practically all day long. If I could switch to an editor that never gave me problems, it would definitely lower my stress level. Tools When I started using Emacs, I searched the manual cover to cover to gleam ideas for clever, useful things I could do with it. I'd like to see lots of useful features for editing code, based on detailed knowledge of what the system can do and the accumulated feedback of users. Polish The rule of threes goes that if you develop something for yourself, it's three times harder to make it usable in-house, and three times harder again to make it a viable product for sale. It's understandable, but free software development doesn't seem to benefit from much usability testing. BTW, texteditors.org is a fantastic resource for researching text editors.

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• extract data from Plist to array and dictionary

  - by Boaz

  Hi I made a plist that looks like that: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList 1.0.dtd"> <plist version="1.0"> <array> <array> <dict> <key>Company</key> <string>xxx</string> <key>Title</key> <string>VP Marketing</string> <key>Name</key> <string>Alon ddfr</string> </dict> <dict> <key>Name</key> <string>Adam Ben Shushan</string> <key>Title</key> <string>CEO</string> <key>Company</key> <string>Shushan ltd.</string> </dict> </array> <array> <dict> <key>Company</key> <string>xxx</string> <key>Title</key> <string>CTO</string> <key>Name</key> <string>Boaz frf</string> </dict> </array> </array> </plist> Now I want to extract the data like that (all the 'A' for key "Name" to one section and all the 'B' "Name" to other one): NSString *plistpath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"PeopleData" ofType:@"plist"]; NSMutableArray *attendees = [[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:plistpath]; listOfPeople = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];//Add items NSDictionary *indexADict = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObject:[[attendees objectAtIndex:0] objectForKey:@"Name"] forKey:@"Profiles"]; NSDictionary *indexBDict = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObject:[[attendees objectAtIndex:1] objectForKey:@"Name"] forKey:@"Profiles"]; [listOfPeople addObject:indexADict]; [listOfPeople addObject:indexBDict]; This in order to view them in sectioned tableView. I know that the problem is here: NSDictionary *indexADict = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObject:[[attendees objectAtIndex:0] objectForKey:@"Name"] forKey:@"Profiles"]; But I just can't figure how to do it right. Thanks.

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• ColdFusion's cfquery failing silently

  - by johnthexiii

  I have a query that retrieves a large amount of data. <cfsetting requesttimeout="9999999" > <cfquery name="randomething" datasource="ds" timeout="9999999" > SELECT col1, col2 FROM table </cfquery> <cfdump var="#randomething.recordCount#" /> <!---should be about 5 million rows ---> I can successfully retrieve the data with python's cx_Oracle and using sys.getsizeof on the python list returns 22621060, so about 21 megabytes. ColdFusion does not return an error on the page, and I can't find anything in any of the logs. Why is cfdump not showing the number of rows? Additional Information The reason for doing it this way is because I have about 8000 smaller queries to run against the randomthing query. In other words when I run those 8000 queries against the database it takes hours for that process to complete. I suspect this is because I am competing with several other database users, and the database is getting bogged down. The 8000 smaller queries are getting counts of col1 over a period of col2. SELECT count(col1) as count WHERE col2 < 20121109 AND col2 > 20121108 According to Adam Cameron's suggestions. cflog is suggesting that the query isn't finishing. I tried changing the queries timeout both in the code and in the CFIDE/administrator, apparently CF9 no long respects the timeout attribute, regardless of what I tried I couldn't get the query to timeout. I also started playing around with the maxrows attribute to see if I could discern any information that way. when maxrows is set to 1300000 everything works fine when maxrows is 1400000 or greater I get this error when maxrows is 2000000 I observe my original problem Update So this isn't a limit of cfquery. By using QueryNew then looping over it to add data and I can get well past the 2 million mark without any problems. I also created a ThinClient datasource using the information in this question, I didn't observe any change in behavior. The messages on the database end are SQL*Net message from client and SQL*Net more data to client I just discovered that by using the thin client along with blockfactor1="100" I can retrieve more rows (appx. 3000000).

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• readonly keyword

  - by nmarun

  This is something new that I learned about the readonly keyword. Have a look at the following class: 1: public class MyClass 2: { 3: public string Name { get; set; } 4: public int Age { get; set; } 5:  6: private readonly double Delta; 7:  8: public MyClass() 9: { 10: Initializer(); 11: } 12:  13: public MyClass(string name = "", int age = 0) 14: { 15: Name = name; 16: Age = age; 17: Initializer(); 18: } 19:  20: private void Initializer() 21: { 22: Delta = 0.2; 23: } 24: } I have a couple of public properties and a private readonly member. There are two constructors – one that doesn’t take any parameters and the other takes two parameters to initialize the public properties. I’m also calling the Initializer method in both constructors to initialize the readonly member. Now when I build this, the code breaks and the Error window says: “A readonly field cannot be assigned to (except in a constructor or a variable initializer)” Two things after I read this message: It’s such a negative statement. I’d prefer something like: “A readonly field can be assigned to (or initialized) only in a constructor or through a variable initializer” But in my defense, I AM assigning it in a constructor (only indirectly). All I’m doing is creating a method that does it and calling it in a constructor. Turns out, .net was not ‘frameworked’ this way. We need to have the member initialized directly in the constructor. If you have multiple constructors, you can just use the ‘this’ keyword on all except the default constructors to call the default constructor. This default constructor can then initialize your readonly members. This will ensure you’re not repeating the code in multiple places. A snippet of what I’m talking can be seen below: 1: public class Person 2: { 3: public int UniqueNumber { get; set; } 4: public string Name { get; set; } 5: public int Age { get; set; } 6: public DateTime DateOfBirth { get; set; } 7: public string InvoiceNumber { get; set; } 8:  9: private readonly string Alpha; 10: private readonly int Beta; 11: private readonly double Delta; 12: private readonly double Gamma; 13:  14: public Person() 15: { 16: Alpha = "FDSA"; 17: Beta = 2; 18: Delta = 3.0; 19: Gamma = 0.0989; 20: } 21:  22: public Person(int uniqueNumber) : this() 23: { 24: UniqueNumber = uniqueNumber; 25: } 26: } See the syntax in line 22 and you’ll know what I’m talking about. So the default constructor gets called before the one in line 22. These are known as constructor initializers and they allow one constructor to call another. The other ‘myth’ I had about readonly members is that you can set it’s value only once. This was busted as well (I recall Adam and Jamie’s show). Say you’ve initialized the readonly member through a variable initializer. You can over-write this value in any of the constructors any number of times. 1: public class Person 2: { 3: public int UniqueNumber { get; set; } 4: public string Name { get; set; } 5: public int Age { get; set; } 6: public DateTime DateOfBirth { get; set; } 7: public string InvoiceNumber { get; set; } 8:  9: private readonly string Alpha = "asdf"; 10: private readonly int Beta = 15; 11: private readonly double Delta = 0.077; 12: private readonly double Gamma = 1.0; 13:  14: public Person() 15: { 16: Alpha = "FDSA"; 17: Beta = 2; 18: Delta = 3.0; 19: Gamma = 0.0989; 20: } 21:  22: public Person(int uniqueNumber) : this() 23: { 24: UniqueNumber = uniqueNumber; 25: Beta = 3; 26: } 27:  28: public Person(string name, DateTime dob) : this() 29: { 30: Name = name; 31: DateOfBirth = dob; 32:  33: Alpha = ";LKJ"; 34: Gamma = 0.0898; 35: } 36:  37: public Person(int uniqueNumber, string name, int age, DateTime dob, string invoiceNumber) : this() 38: { 39: UniqueNumber = uniqueNumber; 40: Name = name; 41: Age = age; 42: DateOfBirth = dob; 43: InvoiceNumber = invoiceNumber; 44:  45: Alpha = "QWER"; 46: Beta = 5; 47: Delta = 1.0; 48: Gamma = 0.0; 49: } 50: } In the above example, every constructor over-writes the values for the readonly members. This is perfectly valid. There is a possibility that based on the way the object is instantiated, the readonly member will have a different value. Well, that’s all I have for today and read this as it’s on a related topic.

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• Thoughts on the Nomination Committee Campaign 2014

  - by Testas

  Congratulations to Erin, Andy and Allen on making the Nomination Committee for 2014. As Mark Broadbent (@retracement) stated in his tweet, there’s a great set of individuals for the Nom Com, and I could not agree more. I know Erin and Allen, and I know how much value they will bring to the process. I don’t know Andy as well, but I am sure he will do a great job and I hope I can meet him at PASS soon. The final candidate appointed by the PASS board is Rick Bolesta, who brings a wealth of experience to the process. I also want to take the opportunity to thank all who have voted. Not just for me, but for all the candidates during the election. Your contribution is greatly appreciated. Would I apply for the Nom Com again?  Yes I would. My first election experience has been a learning experience in itself. So I accept the result and look forward to applying next year. Moving on from this, I do want to express my opinion about the lack of international representation in the election process. One of the tweets that I saw after the result was from Adam Machanic (@AdamMachanic) who commented on the lack of international members on the Nom Com. If truth be told, I was disappointed – when the candidate list was released -- that for the second time in recent elections there was a lack of international candidates on the candidate list. It feels that only Brits and Americans partake in such elections. This is a real shame, and I can’t help thinking why this is the case. Hugo Kornelis (@Hugo_Kornelis) wrote a blog here to express his thoughts. He did raise some valid points. I don’t know why there is an absence of international candidates. I know that the team at PASS are looking to improve the situation, so I do not want to give the impression that PASS are doing nothing. For reference please see Bill Graziano’ s article here to see how PASS are addressing the situation. There is a clear direction to change the rules within PASS to give greater inclusion of international members. In addition to this, I wanted to explore a couple of potential approaches to address the situation. I am not saying that they are the right answer, but when I see challenges, I like to bring potential solutions to the table. 1.       Use the PASS mission statement to define a tactical objective that engages community leaders into the election process. If you are not familiar with the PASS mission statement, let me provide it here as laid out on the PASS website. “Empower data professionals who leverage Microsoft technologies to connect, share, and learn through networking, knowledge sharing, and peer-based learning” PASS fulfil this mission statement regularly. Whether you attend SQL Saturday, SQLRally, SQLPASS and BA conference itself. The biggest value of PASS is the ability to bring our profession together. And the 24 hour hop allows you to learn from the comfort of your own office/home. This mission should be extended to define a tactical objectives that bring greater networking and knowledge sharing between PASS Chapter leaders/Regional Mentors and PASS HQ. It should help educate the leaders about the opportunities of elections and how leaders can become involved. I know PASS engage with Chapter leaders on a regular basis to discuss community matters for the benefit of PASS members. How could this be achieved? Perhaps PASS could perform a quarterly virtual meeting that specifically looks at helping leaders become more involved with the election process 2.       Evolve the Global Growth Strategy into a Global Engagement Strategy. One of the remits of the PASS board over the last couple of years is the Global Growth strategy. This has been very successful as we have seen the massive growth of events across the world. For that, I congratulate the board for this success. Perhaps the time is now right to look at solidifying this success, through a Global Engagement Strategy that starts with the collaboration of Chapter Leaders, Regional Mentors and Evangelists in their respective Countries or Regions. The engagement strategy should look at increasing collaboration between community leaders for the benefit of their respective communities. It should also provide a channel for encouraging leaders to put themselves forward for the elections. How could this be achieved? In the UK, there has been a big growth in PASS Chapters and SQL Server Events that was approaching saturation point. The introduction of the Community Engagement Day -- channelled through the SQLBits conference -- has enabled Chapter Leaders to collaborate, connect and share with PASS, Sponsors and Microsoft. It also provides the ability for Chapter Leaders to speak directly to the PASS representatives from PASSHQ. This brings with it the ability for PASS community evangelists to communicate PASS objectives. It has also been the event where we have found out; and/or encouraged, Chapter Leaders to put themselves forward for elections. People like encouragement and validation when going for something like an election, and being able to discuss this with peers at a dedicated event provides a useful platform. PASS has the people in place already to facilitate such an event. Regional Mentors could potentially help organise such events on an annual basis, with PASSHQ providing support in providing a room/Lync access for the event to take place. It would be really good if a PASSHQ representative could attend in person as well.   3.       Restrict candidates to serve only a limited number of terms. A frequent comment I saw on social networking was that the elections can be seen by some as a popularity conference. Perhaps by limiting the number of terms that an individual can serve on either the Nom Com or the BOD, other candidates may be encouraged to be more actively involved within the PASS election process. I don’t think that the current byelaws deal with this particular suggestion. I also saw a couple of tweets that stated that more active community members did not apply for the Nom Com. I struggled to understand how the individuals of the tweets measured “more active”. It just also further solidified the subjective nature of elections. In the absence of how candidates are put forward for the elections. Then a restriction of terms enables the opportunity to be extended to others. How could this be achieved? Set a resolution that is put to a community vote as to the viability of such a solution. For example, the questions for the vote could be: Should individuals in the Nom Com and BoD be limited to a certain number of terms?  Yes/No. What is the maximum number of terms a candidate could serve?   It would be simple to execute such a vote, and the community will have an opportunity to have a say in an important aspect of the PASS organisation. And is the change is successful, then add it as a byelaw.   So there are some of my thoughts. I am not saying they are right or wrong. But I do hope that there is a concerted effort to encourage more candidates from other reaches of the Globe to become involved with future elections.   It would be good to hear your thoughts   Thanks   Chris

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• Checking who is connected to your server, with PowerShell.

  - by Fatherjack

  There are many occasions when, as a DBA, you want to see who is connected to your SQL Server, along with how they are connecting and what sort of activities they are carrying out. I’m going to look at a couple of ways of getting this information and compare the effort required and the results achieved of each. SQL Server comes with a couple of stored procedures to help with this sort of task – sp_who and its undocumented counterpart sp_who2. There is also the pumped up version of these called sp_whoisactive, written by Adam Machanic which does way more than these procedures. I wholly recommend you try it out if you don’t already know how it works. When it comes to serious interrogation of your SQL Server activity then it is absolutely indispensable. Anyway, back to the point of this blog, we are going to look at getting the information from sp_who2 for a remote server. I wrote this Powershell script a week or so ago and was quietly happy with it for a while. I’m relatively new to Powershell so forgive both my rather low threshold for entertainment and the fact that something so simple is a moderate achievement for me. $Server = 'SERVERNAME' $SMOServer = New-Object Microsoft.SQLServer.Management.SMO.Server $Server # connection and query stuff         $ConnectionStr = "Server=$Server;Database=Master;Integrated Security=True" $Query = "EXEC sp_who2" $Connection = new-object system.Data.SQLClient.SQLConnection $Table = new-object "System.Data.DataTable" $Connection.connectionstring = $ConnectionStr try{ $Connection.open() $Command = $Connection.CreateCommand() $Command.commandtext = $Query $result = $Command.ExecuteReader() $Table.Load($result) } catch{ # Show error $error[0] | format-list -Force } $Title = "Data access processes (" + $Table.Rows.Count + ")" $Table | Out-GridView -Title $Title $Connection.close() So this is pretty straightforward, create an SMO object that represents our chosen server, define a connection to the database and a table object for the results when we get them, execute our query over the connection, load the results into our table object and then, if everything is error free display these results to the PowerShell grid viewer. The query simply gets the results of ‘EXEC sp_who2′ for us. Depending on how many connections there are will influence how long the query runs. The grid viewer lets me sort and search the results so it can be a pretty handy way to locate troublesome connections. Like I say, I was quite pleased with this, it seems a pretty simple script and was working well for me, I have added a few parameters to control the output and give me more specific details but then I see a script that uses the $SMOServer object itself to provide the process information and saves having to define the connection object and query specifications. $Server = 'SERVERNAME' $SMOServer = New-Object Microsoft.SQLServer.Management.SMO.Server $Server $Processes = $SMOServer.EnumProcesses() $Title = "SMO processes (" + $Processes.Rows.Count + ")" $Processes | Out-GridView -Title $Title Create the SMO object of our server and then call the EnumProcesses method to get all the process information from the server. Staggeringly simple! The results are a little different though. Some columns are the same and we can see the same basic information so my first thought was to which runs faster – so that I can get my results more quickly and also so that I place less stress on my server(s). PowerShell comes with a great way of testing this – the Measure-Command function. All you have to do is wrap your piece of code in Measure-Command {[your code here]} and it will spit out the time taken to execute the code. So, I placed both of the above methods of getting SQL Server process connections in two Measure-Command wrappers and pressed F5! The Powershell console goes blank for a while as the code is executed internally when Measure-Command is used but the grid viewer windows appear and the console shows this. You can take the output from Measure-Command and format it for easier reading but in a simple comparison like this we can simply cross refer the TotalMilliseconds values from the two result sets to see how the two methods performed. The query execution method (running EXEC sp_who2 ) is the first set of timings and the SMO EnumProcesses is the second. I have run these on a variety of servers and while the results vary from execution to execution I have never seen the SMO version slower than the other. The difference has varied and the time for both has ranged from sub-second as we see above to almost 5 seconds on other systems. This difference, I would suggest is partly due to the cost overhead of having to construct the data connection and so on where as the SMO EnumProcesses method has the connection to the server already in place and just needs to call back the process information. There is also the difference in the data sets to consider. Let’s take a look at what we get and where the two methods differ Query execution method (sp_who2) SMO EnumProcesses Description - Urn What looks like an XML or JSON representation of the server name and the process ID SPID Spid The process ID Status Status The status of the process Login Login The login name of the user executing the command HostName Host The name of the computer where the  process originated BlkBy BlockingSpid The SPID of a process that is blocking this one DBName Database The database that this process is connected to Command Command The type of command that is executing CPUTime Cpu The CPU activity related to this process DiskIO - The Disk IO activity related to this process LastBatch - The time the last batch was executed from this process. ProgramName Program The application that is facilitating the process connection to the SQL Server. SPID1 - In my experience this is always the same value as SPID. REQUESTID - In my experience this is always 0 - Name In my experience this is always the same value as SPID and so could be seen as analogous to SPID1 from sp_who2 - MemUsage An indication of the memory used by this process but I don’t know what it is measured in (bytes, Kb, Mb…) - IsSystem True or False depending on whether the process is internal to the SQL Server instance or has been created by an external connection requesting data. - ExecutionContextID In my experience this is always 0 so could be analogous to REQUESTID from sp_who2. Please note, these are my own very brief descriptions of these columns, detail can be found from MSDN for columns in the sp_who results here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-GB/library/ms174313.aspx. Where the columns are common then I would use that description, in other cases then the information returned is purely for interpretation by the reader. Rather annoyingly both result sets have useful information that the other doesn’t. sp_who2 returns Disk IO and LastBatch information which is really useful but the SMO processes method give you IsSystem and MemUsage which have their place in fault diagnosis methods too. So which is better? On reflection I think I prefer to use the sp_who2 method primarily but knowing that the SMO Enumprocesses method is there when I need it is really useful and I’m sure I’ll use it regularly. I’m OK with the fact that it is the slower method because Measure-Command has shown me how close it is to the other option and that it really isn’t a large enough margin to matter.

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• Visual Studio 2010 Productivity Tips and Tricks&ndash;Part 1: Extensions

  - by ToStringTheory

  I don’t know about you, but when it comes to development, I prefer my environment to be as free of clutter as possible.  It may surprise you to know that I have tried ReSharper, and did not like it, for the reason that I stated above.  In my opinion, it had too much clutter.  Don’t get me wrong, there were a couple of features that I did like about it (inversion of if blocks, code feedback), but for the most part, I actually felt that it was slowing me down. Introduction Another large factor besides intrusiveness/speed in my choice to dislike ReSharper would probably be that I have become comfortable with my current setup and extensions.  I believe I have a good collection, and am quite happy with what I can accomplish in a short amount of time.  I figured that I would share some of my tips/findings regarding Visual Studio productivity here, and see what you had to say. The first section of things that I would like to cover, are Visual Studio Extensions.  In case you have been living under a rock for the past several years, Extensions are available under the Tools menu in Visual Studio: The extension manager enables integrated access to the Microsoft Visual Studio Gallery online with access to a few thousand different extensions.  I have tried many extensions, but for reasons of lack reliability, usability, or features, have uninstalled almost all of them.  However, I have come across several that I find I can not do without anymore: NuGet Package Manager (Microsoft) Perspectives (Adam Driscoll) Productivity Power Tools (Microsoft) Web Essentials (Mads Kristensen) Extensions NuGet Package Manager To be honest, I debated on whether or not to put this in here.  Most people seem to have it, however, there was a time when I didn’t, and was always confused when blogs/posts would say to right click and “Add Package Reference…” which with one of the latest updates is now “Manage NuGet Packages”.  So, if you haven’t downloaded the NuGet Package Manager yet, or don’t know what it is, I would highly suggest downloading it now! Features Simply put, the NuGet Package Manager gives you a GUI and command line to access different libraries that have been uploaded to NuGet. Some of its features include: Ability to search NuGet for packages via the GUI, with information in the detail bar on the right. Quick access to see what packages are in a solution, and what packages have updates available, with easy 1-click updating. If you download a package that requires references to work on other NuGet packages, they will be downloaded and referenced automatically. Productivity Tip If you use any type of source control in Visual Studio as well as using NuGet packages, be sure to right-click on the solution and click "Enable NuGet Package Restore". What this does is add a NuGet package to the solution so that it will be checked in along side your solution, as well as automatically grab packages from NuGet on build if needed. This is an extremely simple system to use to manage your package references, instead of having to manually go into TFS and add the Packages folder. Perspectives I can't stand developing with just one monitor. Especially if it comes to debugging. The great thing about Visual Studio 2010, is that all of the panels and windows are floatable, and can dock to other screens. The only bad thing is, I don't use the same toolset with everything that I am doing. By this, I mean that I don't use all of the same windows for debugging a web application, as I do for coding a WPF application. Only thing is, Visual Studio doesn't save the screen positions for all of the undocked windows. So, I got curious one day and decided to check and see if there was an extension to help out. This is where I found Perspectives. Features Perspectives gives you the ability to configure window positions across any or your monitors, and then to save the positions in a profile. Perspectives offers a Panel to manage different presets/favorites, and a toolbar to add to the toolbars at the top of Visual Studio. Ability to 'Favorite' a profile to add it to the perspectives toolbar. Productivity Tip Take the time to setup profiles for each of your scenarios - debugging web/winforms/xaml, coding, maintenance, etc. Try to remember to use the profiles for a few days, and at the end of a week, you may find that your productivity was never better. Productivity Power Tools Ah, the Productivity Power Tools... Quite possibly one of my most used extensions, if not my most used. The tool pack gives you a variety of enhancements ranging from key shortcuts, interface tweaks, and completely new features to Visual Studio 2010. Features I don't want to bore you with all of the features here, so here are my favorite: Quick Find - Unobtrusive search box in upper-right corner of the code window. Great for searching in general, especially in a file. Solution Navigator - The 'Solution Explorer' on steroids. Easy to search for files, see defined members/properties/methods in files, and my favorite feature is the 'set as root' option. Updated 'Add Reference...' Dialog - This is probably my favorite enhancement period... The 'Add Reference...' dialog redone in a manner that resembles the Extension/Package managers. I especially love the ability to search through all of the references. "Ctrl - Click" for Definition - I am still getting used to this as I usually try to use my keyboard for everything, but I love the ability to hold Ctrl and turn property/methods/variables into hyperlinks, that you click on to see their definitions. Great for travelling down a rabbit hole in an application to research problems. While there are other commands/utilities, I find these to be the ones that I lean on the most for the usefulness. Web Essentials If you have do any type of web development in ASP .Net, ASP .Net MVC, even HTML, I highly suggest grabbing the Web Essentials right NOW! This extension alone is great for productivity in web development, and greatly decreases my development time on new features. Features Some of its best features include: CSS Previews - I say 'previews' because of the multiple kinds of previews in CSS that you get font-family, color, background/background-image previews. This is great for just tweaking UI slightly in different ways and seeing how they look in the CSS window at a glance. Live Preview - One word - awesome! This goes well with my multi-monitor setup. I put the site on one monitor in a Live Preview panel, and then as I make changes to CSS/cshtml/aspx/html, the preview window will update with each save/build automatically. For CSS, you can even turn on live-update, so as you are tweaking CSS, the style changes in real time. Great for tweaking colors or font-sizes. Outlining - Small, but I like to be able to collapse regions/declarations that are in the way of new work, or are just distracting. Commenting Shortcuts - I don't know why it wasn't included by default, but it is nice to have the key shortcuts for commenting working in the CSS editor as well. Productivity Tip When working on a site, hit CTRL-ALT-ENTER to launch the Live Preview window. Dock it to another monitor. When you make changes to the document/css, just save and glance at the other monitor. No need to alt tab, then alt tab before continuing editing. Conclusion These extensions are only the most useful and least intrusive - ones that I use every day. The great thing about Visual Studio 2010 is the extensibility options that it gives developers to utilize. Have an extension that you use that isn't intrusive, but isn't listed here? Please, feel free to comment. I love trying new things, and am always looking for new additions to my toolset of the most useful. Finally, please keep an eye out for Part 2 on key shortcuts in Visual Studio. Also, if you are visiting my site (http://tostringtheory.com || http://geekswithblogs.net/tostringtheory) from an actual browser and not a feed, please let me know what you think of the new styling!

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• Content Box is a Little Off in IE9 ... How to Fix?

  - by Kelsey Nealon

  Hi there! I have a website at www.thetotempole.ca and when viewed in IE9... My websites content box (The green wooden backgrounded box with content inside) is moved slightly over to the left making a space between the actual container and the content box... Is there anyway I can fix this without harming any of the other browsers? Thanks! Screenshot: HTML: <!DOCTYPE html> <head> <title>The Totem Pole News - Movies</title> <!-- Start WOWSlider.com HEAD section --> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="engine1/style.css" /> <script type="text/javascript" src="engine1/jquery.js"></script> <!-- End WOWSlider.com HEAD section --> <script type="text/javascript"> var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-45342007-1']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); </script> <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta name="description" content="A totem pole themed news website posting articles on news, music, movies, video games, and health."> <link href="thecss2.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> <link rel="icon" type="image/ico" href="images/favicon.ico"> <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=8" /> </head> <body> <div id="container"> <div id="contentbox" align="Center"> <a href="index.html"><div id="banner" align="Center"> </div></a> <div id="navbar"> <p><a href="index.html"><img src="images/home.png" width="65" height="54" alt="picture of a house to relate to the home page (content)" style="position: absolute; left: 23px; top: 16px; width: 57px; height: 48px;"><span style="position: absolute; left: 24px; z-index:2; top: 71px; height: 23px;">Content</span></a> <a href="#"><img src="images/eagleicon.gif" width="73" height="39" alt="An Eagle icon for the News section of the Totem Pole" style="position: absolute; left: 111px; top: 28px;"><span style="position: absolute; z-index: 2; left: 127px; top: 72px;">News</span></a> <a href="#"><img src="images/owlicon.gif" width="81" height="61" alt="An Owl icon for the Music section of the totem pole" style="position: absolute; left: 210px; top: 11px;"><span style="position: absolute; z-index:2; left: 226px; top: 73px;"><strong>Music</strong></span></a><a href="movies.html"><img src="images/wolficon.gif" width="88" height="54" alt="A Wolf icon for the Movies section of the totem pole" style="position: absolute; left: 320px; top: 15px;"><span style="position: absolute; left: 336px; top: 72px; z-index:2;"><strong>Movies</strong></span></a> <a href="#"><img src="images/hareimage.gif" width="60" height="56" alt="A Hare icon for Video Game section of the Totem Pole" style="position: absolute; left: 441px; top: 13px;"><span style="position: absolute; z-index:2; left: 428px; top: 73px;"><strong>Video Games</strong></span></a> <a href="#"><img src="images/bearicon.gif" width="91" height="57" alt="A bear icon for the Health section of The Totem Pole" style="position: absolute; left: 551px; top: 13px;"><span style="position: absolute; left: 580px; top: 72px; z-index:2;">Health</span></a></p> </div> <!--Nav Bar 2--> <div id="navbar2"> <a href="#">About Us</a> <a href="#">Feedback</a> <a href="#">Subscribe</a> </div> <!-- Atomz HTML for Search --> <div id="searchbar"> <form method="get" action="http://search.atomz.com/search/"> <input id="searchbox" size="13" name="sp_q" value="Search..." onFocus="if (this.value == 'Search...') {this.value=''}"> <input class="css_btn_class" type="submit" value="Search"> <input type="hidden" name="sp_a" value="sp1005092e"> <input type="hidden" name="sp_p" value="all"> <input type="hidden" name="sp_f" value="UTF-8"> </form> </div> <!-- Start WOWSlider.com BODY section --> <div id="mywowslider"> <div id="wowslider-container1"> <div class="ws_images"> <ul> <li><img src="images/anchor.jpg" alt="Ron Burgundy" title="Ron Burgundy" id="wows1_0"/>Played by Will Ferrell</li> <li><img src="images/anchor2.jpg" alt="Brian Fantana" title="Brian Fantana" id="wows1_1"/>Played by Paul Rudd</li> <li><img src="images/anchor3.jpg" alt="Brick Tamland" title="Brick Tamland" id="wows1_2"/>Played by Steve Carrell</li> <li><img src="images/anchor4.jpg" alt="Champ Kind" title="Champ Kind" id="wows1_3"/>Played by David Koechner</li> </ul> </div> <div class="ws_bullets"><div> <a href="#" title="Ron Burgundy"><img src="images/anchor.jpg" alt="Ron Burgundy"/>1</a> <a href="#" title="Brian Fantana"><img src="images/anchor2.jpg" alt="Brian Fantana"/>2</a> <a href="#" title="Brick Tamland"><img src="images/anchor3.jpg" alt="Brick Tamland"/>3</a> <a href="#" title="Champ Kind"><img src="images/anchor4.jpg" alt="Champ Kind"/>4</a> </div> </div> <span class="wsl"><a href="http://wowslider.com"></a></span> <div class="ws_shadow"></div> </div> <script type="text/javascript" src="engine1/wowslider.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="engine1/script.js"></script> </div> <!-- End WOWSlider.com BODY section --> <!-- AddThis Smart Layers BEGIN --> <!-- Go to http://www.addthis.com/get/smart-layers to customize --> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=ra-5279b96309e7df24"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> addthis.layers({ 'theme' : 'transparent', 'share' : { 'position' : 'left', 'numPreferredServices' : 5 } }); </script> <!-- AddThis Smart Layers END --> <div id="sources"><p> Source(s): <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchorman_2:_The_Legend_Continues">wikipedia.com</a></p></div> <div id="infocontent"> <p align="left"><em><strong> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues</strong></em> is an upcoming American comedy film being released on December 20, 2013, also a sequel to the 2004 film <em>Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgandy</em>. On March 28, 2012, actor Will Ferrell officially announced the sequel dressed in character as Ron Burgundy on the late-night talk-show <em>Conan</em>. As with the original film, it is directed by Adam McKay, produced by Judd Apatow, stars Will Ferrell and is written by Adam McKay and Will Ferrell. Unlike the original film, which was distributed by DreamWorks Pictures, <em>The Legend Continues</em> will be distributed by Paramount Pictures.</p> <p align="left"><em><strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</strong></em>The movie now has a website at <a href="www.anchormanmovie.com">www.anchormanmovie.com</a> where a countdown for the release of this film can be seen. By the looks of these images, I think we can expect big things when the movie comes out this December. Enjoy the poster photos and trailers all posted below, and don't forget to submit your vote in the poll!</p> </div> <div id="trailer1"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Elczv0ghqw0?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div> <div id="trailer2"> <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/mZ-JX-7B3uM?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> </div> <div id="poll"> <form method="post" action="http://poll.pollcode.com/763294"><table style="border: black 1px solid;" border="1" width="175" bgcolor="EEEEEE" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0"><tr><td colspan="2" height="10"><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><b>What Rating Do You Think This Will Recieve</b></font></td></tr><tr><td width="5"><input type="radio" name="answer" value="1" id="763294answer1"></td><td>&nbsp;<font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><label for="763294answer1">10</label></font></td></tr><tr><td width="5"><input type="radio" name="answer" value="2" id="763294answer2"></td><td>&nbsp;<font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><label for="763294answer2">9</label></font></td></tr><tr><td width="5"><input type="radio" name="answer" value="3" id="763294answer3"></td><td>&nbsp;<font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><label for="763294answer3">8</label></font></td></tr><tr><td width="5"><input type="radio" name="answer" value="4" id="763294answer4"></td><td>&nbsp;<font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><label for="763294answer4">7</label></font></td></tr><tr><td width="5"><input type="radio" name="answer" value="5" id="763294answer5"></td><td>&nbsp;<font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><label for="763294answer5">6</label></font></td></tr><tr><td width="5"><input type="radio" name="answer" value="6" id="763294answer6"></td><td>&nbsp;<font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><label for="763294answer6">5</label></font></td></tr><tr><td width="5"><input type="radio" name="answer" value="7" id="763294answer7"></td><td>&nbsp;<font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><label for="763294answer7">4</label></font></td></tr><tr><td width="5"><input type="radio" name="answer" value="8" id="763294answer8"></td><td>&nbsp;<font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><label for="763294answer8">3</label></font></td></tr><tr><td width="5"><input type="radio" name="answer" value="9" id="763294answer9"></td><td>&nbsp;<font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><label for="763294answer9">2</label></font></td></tr><tr><td width="5"><input type="radio" name="answer" value="10" id="763294answer10"></td><td>&nbsp;<font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><label for="763294answer10">1</label></font></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" height="10"><center><input type="submit" value=" Vote ">&nbsp;&nbsp;<input title="Clicking this will send you to a new page" type="submit" name="view" value=" View "></center></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" align="right"><font face="Verdana" height="5" size="1" color="000000"></font></td></tr></table></form></div> <span style="position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 225px; width: 1000px; border-bottom: 2px black double; height: 58px;"> <h1 style="font-weight: normal; font-size:28px"><em>Anchorman 2 Arrives Soon</em></h1></span> <div id="contentbox2"></div> <!--Footer Div --> <center><div id="footer"><a href="#">Sitemap</a> <a href="#">About Us</a> <a href="#">Feedback</a></div></center> <div id="disqus"><div id="disqus_thread"></div> <script type="text/javascript"> /* * * CONFIGURATION VARIABLES: EDIT BEFORE PASTING INTO YOUR WEBPAGE * * */ var disqus_shortname = 'thetotempoleanchorman2'; // required: replace example with your forum shortname /* * * DON'T EDIT BELOW THIS LINE * * */ (function() { var dsq = document.createElement('script'); dsq.type = 'text/javascript'; dsq.async = true; dsq.src = '//' + disqus_shortname + '.disqus.com/embed.js'; (document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0] || document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0]).appendChild(dsq); })(); </script> <noscript>Please enable JavaScript to view the <a href="http://disqus.com/?ref_noscript">comments powered by Disqus.</a></noscript> <a href="http://disqus.com" class="dsq-brlink">comments powered by <span class="logo-disqus">Disqus</span></a></div> <!-- This is the end of the contentbox --></div> <!-- This is the end of the container div --> </div> </body> </html> CSS: html { background: url(images/pine.jpg) no-repeat center center fixed; -webkit-background-size: cover; -moz-background-size: cover; -o-background-size: cover; background-size: cover; filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader(src='images/pine.jpg', sizingMethod='scale'); -ms-filter: "progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader(src='images/pine.jpg', sizingMethod='scale')"; } body { margin-bottom:0px; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; } a { outline : none; border: none; } a:hover { color: #0FC; } #container { width: 1000px; height:1924px; position:relative; margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; z-index:1; margin-bottom: 50px; } #facebook { position:fixed; right:100px; z-index:15; } #twitter { position:fixed; z-index:16; right:120px; } #google { position:fixed; top:7px; right: 135px; } #socialmediaplugins { text-align: right; position: fixed; background: rgb(125,126,125); /* Old browsers */ background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, rgba(125,126,125,1) 0%, rgba(247,247,247,1) 100%); /* FF3.6+ */ background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0%,rgba(125,126,125,1)), color-stop(100%,rgba(247,247,247,1))); /* Chrome,Safari4+ */ background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, rgba(125,126,125,1) 0%,rgba(247,247,247,1) 100%); /* Chrome10+,Safari5.1+ */ background: -o-linear-gradient(top, rgba(125,126,125,1) 0%,rgba(247,247,247,1) 100%); /* Opera 11.10+ */ background: -ms-linear-gradient(top, rgba(125,126,125,1) 0%,rgba(247,247,247,1) 100%); /* IE10+ */ background: linear-gradient(to bottom, rgba(125,126,125,1) 0%,rgba(247,247,247,1) 100%); /* W3C */ filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#7d7e7d', endColorstr='#f7f7f7',GradientType=0 ); /* IE6-9 */ margin: 0px; top: 0px; left: 0px; right: 0px; z-index:14; } #searchbox { background-color:#01bff6; border-radius:4px; } #searchbox:hover { background-color:#76b618; border-radius:4px; } #searchbox:active { background-color:#01bff6; border-radius:4px; } #contentbox { background-color:black; background-image:url(images/wooden.jpg); width: 1000px; margin-bottom:50px; height: 1924px; box-shadow:2px 2px 10px 10px #060606; -webkit-box-shadow:2px 2px 10px 10px #060606; -moz-box-shadow:2px 2px 10px 10px #060606; /* For IE<9 */ filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Shadow(color=#060606,direction=0,strength=5), progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Shadow(color=#060606,direction=45,strength=2), progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Shadow(color=#060606,direction=90,strength=5), progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Shadow(color=#060606,direction=135,strength=5), progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Shadow(color=#060606,direction=180,strength=10), progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Shadow(color=#060606,direction=225,strength=5), progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Shadow(color=#060606,direction=270,strength=5), progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Shadow(color=#060606,direction=315,strength=2); } #contentbox2 { background-image:url(images/woodenmovies.jpg); top:299px; width: 1000px; margin-bottom:50px; height: 1625px; position: absolute; } #banner { background-image:url(images/totempolebanner.gif); position:absolute; top:25px; width:768px; height:120px; left:116px; } #navbar { float: left; 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color:#ff0000; display:inline-block; text-shadow:0px 0px 1px #117cff; -webkit-box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px 0px #117cff; -moz-box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px 0px #117cff; box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px 0px #117cff; background-image: url(images/unnamed.gif); background-repeat:no-repeat; background-position:right; }.css_btn_class:hover { width:90px; background:-webkit-gradient( linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(5%, #ffe711), color-stop(100%, #ff9d00) ); background:-moz-linear-gradient( center top, #ffe711 5%, #ff9d00 100% ); background:-ms-linear-gradient( top, #ffe711 5%, #ff9d00 100% ); background-color:#ffe711; background-image: url(images/unnamed.gif); background-repeat:no-repeat; background-position:right; }.css_btn_class:active { position:relative; width:90px; top:1px; background-image: url(images/unnamed.gif); background-repeat:no-repeat; background-position:right; } /* This css button was generated by css-button-generator.com */ img {border:none;} #eagle { position:relative; right: 144px; top:299px; } #owl { top:624px; position:absolute; left:0px; } #wolf { top:949px; position:absolute; right:0px; } #hare { top:1274px; position:absolute; left:0px; } #bear { top:1599px; position:absolute; right:0px; } #footer { position: absolute; left: 393px; top: 1941px; width: 251px; color: #0F9; } #footer a { color: #0f9; } .atss { left: 0; } #infocontent { position: absolute; z-index: 3; left: 15px; top: 333px; height: 348px; width: 789px; } #mywowslider { position: absolute; z-index: 3; left: 640px; top: 684px; } #poll { position: absolute; z-index: 3; left: 815px; top: 344px; } #trailer1 { position: absolute; z-index: 3; left: 40px; top: 598px; } #trailer2 { position: absolute; z-index: 3; left: 40px; top: 948px; } #trailer1header { position: absolute; z-index: 3; left: 200px; top: 550px; width: 240px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; } #trailer2header { position: absolute; z-index: 3; left: 200px; top: 898px; width: 241px; height: 51px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; } #disqus { position: absolute; 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• PASS Summit Feedback

  - by Rob Farley

  PASS Feedback came in last week. I also saw my dentist for some fillings... At the PASS Summit this year, I delivered a couple of regular sessions and a Lightning Talk. People told me they enjoyed it, but when the rankings came out, they showed that I didn’t score particularly well. Brent Ozar was keen to discuss it with me. Brent: PASS speaker feedback is out. You did two sessions and a Lightning Talk. How did you go? Rob: Not so well actually, thanks for asking. Brent: Ha! Sorry. Of course you know that's why I wanted to discuss this with you. I was in one of your sessions at SQLBits in the UK a month before PASS, and I thought you rocked. You've got a really good and distinctive delivery style.  Then I noticed your talks were ranked in the bottom quarter of the Summit ratings and wanted to discuss it. Rob: Yeah, I know. You did ask me if we could do this...  I should explain – my presentation style is not the stereotypical IT conference one. I throw in jokes, and try to engage the audience thoroughly. I find many talks amazingly dry, and I guess I try to buck that trend. I also run training courses, and find that I get a lot of feedback from people thanking me for keeping things interesting. That said, I also get feedback criticising me for my style, and that’s basically what’s happened here. For the rest of this discussion, let’s focus on my talk about the Incredible Shrinking Execution Plan, which I considered to be my main talk. Brent: I thought that session title was the very best one at the entire Summit, and I had it on my recommended sessions list.  In four words, you managed to sum up the topic and your sense of humor.  I read that and immediately thought, "People need to be in this session," and then it didn't score well.  Tell me about your scores. Rob: The questions on the feedback form covered the usefulness of the information, the speaker’s presentation skills, their knowledge of the subject, how well the session was described, the amount of time allocated, and the quality of the presentation materials. Brent: Presentation materials? But you don’t do slides.  Did they rate your thong? Rob: No-one saw my flip-flops in this talk, Brent. I created a script in Management Studio, and published that afterwards, but I think people will have scored that question based on the lack of slides. I wasn’t expecting to do particularly well on that one. That was the only section that didn’t have 5/5 as the most popular score. Brent: See, that sucks, because cookbook-style scripts are often some of my favorites.  Adam Machanic's Service Broker workbench series helped me immensely when I was prepping for the MCM.  As an attendee, I'd rather have a commented script than a slide deck.  So how did you rank so low? Rob: When I look at the scores that you got (based on your blog post), you got very few scores below 3 – people that felt strong enough about your talk to post a negative score. In my scores, between 5% and 10% were below 3 (except on the question about whether I knew my stuff – I guess I came as knowledgeable). Brent: Wow – so quite a few people really didn’t like your talk then? Rob: Yeah. Mind you, based on the comments, some people really loved it. I’d like to think that there would be a certain portion of the room who may have rated the talk as one of the best of the conference. Some of my comments included “amazing!”, “Best presentation so far!”, “Wow, best session yet”, “fantastic” and “Outstanding!”. I think lots of talks can be “Great”, but not so many talks can be “Outstanding” without the word losing its meaning. One wrote “Pretty amazing presentation, considering it was completely extemporaneous.” Brent: Extemporaneous, eh? Rob: Yeah. I guess they don’t realise how much preparation goes into coming across as unprepared. In many ways it’s much easier to give a written speech than to deliver a presentation without slides as a prompt. Brent: That delivery style, the really relaxed, casual, college-professor approach was one of the things I really liked about your presentation at SQLbits.  As somebody who presents a lot, I "get" it - I know how hard it is to come off as relaxed and comfortable with your own material.  It's like improv done by jazz players and comedians - if you've never tried it, you don't realize how hard it is.  People also don't realize how hard it is to make a tough subject fun. Rob: Yeah well... There will be people writing comments on this post that say I wasn't trying to make the subject fun, and that I was making it all about me. Sometimes the style works, sometimes it doesn't. Most of the comments mentioned the fact that I tell jokes, some in a nice way, but some not so much (and it wasn't just a PASS thing - that's the mix of feedback I generally get). One comment at PASS was: “great stand up comedian - not what I'm looking for at pass”, and there were certainly a few that said “too many jokes”. I’m not trying to do stand-up – jokes are my way of engaging with the audience while I demonstrate some of the amazing things that the Query Optimizer can do if you write your queries the right way. Some people didn’t think it was technical enough, but I’ve also had some people tell me that the concepts I’m explaining are deep and profound. Brent: To me, that's a hallmark of a great explanation - when someone says, "But of course it has to work that way - how could it work any other way?  It seems so simple and logical."  Well, sure it does when it's explained correctly, but now pick up any number of thick SQL Server books and try to understand the Redundant Joins concept.  I guarantee it'll take more than 45 minutes. Rob: Some people in my audiences realise that, but definitely not everyone. There's only so much you can tell someone that something is profound. Generally it's something that they either have an epiphany on or not. I like to lull my audience into knowing what's going on, and do something that surprises them. Gain their trust, build a rapport, and then show them the deeper truth of what just happened. Brent: So you've learned your lesson about presentation scores, right?  From here on out, you're going to be dry, humorless, and all your presentations will consist of you reading bullet points off the screen. Rob: No Brent, I’m not. I'm also not going to suggest that most presentations at PASS are like that. No-one tries to present like that. There's a big space to occupy between what "dry and humourless" and me. My difference is to focus on the relationship I have with the crowd, rather than focussing on delivering the perfect session. I want to see people smiling and know they're relaxed. I think most presenters focus on the material, which is completely reasonable and safe. I remember once hearing someone talking about product creation. They talked about mediocrity. They said that one of the worst things that people can ever say about your product is that it’s “good”. What you want is for 10% of the world to love it enough to want to buy it. If 10% the world gave me a dollar, I’d have more money than I could ever use (assuming it wasn’t the SAME dollar they were giving me I guess). Brent: It's the Raving Fans theory.  It's better to have a small number of raving customers than a large number of almost-but-not-really customers who don't care that much about your product or service.  I know exactly how you feel - when I got survey feedback from my Quest video presentation when I was dressed up in a Richard Simmons costume, some of the attendees said I was unprofessional and distracting.  Some of the attendees couldn't get enough and Photoshopped all kinds of stuff into the screen captures.  On a whole, I probably didn't score that well, and I'm fine with that.  It sucks to look at the scores though - do those lower scores bother you? Rob: Of course they do. It hurts deeply. I open myself up and give presentations in a very personal way. All presenters do that, and we all feel the pain of negative feedback. I hate coming 146th & 162nd out of 185, but have to acknowledge that many sessions did worse still. Plus, once I feel the wounds have healed, I’ll be able to remember that there are people in the world that rave about my presentation style, and figure that people will hopefully talk about me. One day maybe those people that don’t like my presentation style will stay away and I might be able to score better. You don’t pay to hear country music if you prefer western... Lots of people find chili too spicy, but it’s still a popular food. Brent: But don’t you want to appeal to everyone? Rob: I do, but I don’t want to be lukewarm as in Revelation 3:16. I’d rather disgust and be discussed. Well, maybe not ‘disgust’, but I don’t want to conform. Conformity just isn’t the same any more. I’m not sure I’ve ever been one to do that. I try not to offend, but definitely like to be different. Brent: Count me among your raving fans, sir.  Where can we see you next? Rob: Considering I live in Adelaide in Australia, I’m not about to appear at anyone’s local SQL Saturday. I’m still trying to plan which events I’ll get to in 2011. I’ve submitted abstracts for TechEd North America, but won’t hold my breath. I’m also considering the SQLBits conferences in the UK in April, PASS in October, and I’m sure I’ll do some LiveMeeting presentations for user groups. Online, people download some of my recent SQLBits presentations at http://bit.ly/RFSarg and http://bit.ly/Simplification though. And they can download a 5-minute MP3 of my Lightning Talk at http://www.lobsterpot.com.au/files/Collation.mp3, in which I try to explain the idea behind collation, using thongs as an example. Brent: I was in the audience for http://bit.ly/RFSarg. That was a great presentation. Rob: Thanks, Brent. Now where’s my dollar?

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• T-SQL Tuesday #53-Matt's Making Me Do This!

  - by Most Valuable Yak (Rob Volk)

  Hello everyone! It's that time again, time for T-SQL Tuesday, the wonderful blog series started by Adam Machanic (b|t). This month we are hosted by Matt Velic (b|t) who asks the question, "Why So Serious?", in celebration of April Fool's Day. He asks the contributors for their dirty tricks. And for some reason that escapes me, he and Jeff Verheul (b|t) seem to think I might be able to write about those. Shocked, I am! Nah, not really. They're absolutely right, this one is gonna be fun! I took some inspiration from Matt's suggestions, namely Resource Governor and Login Triggers.  I've done some interesting login trigger stuff for a presentation, but nothing yet with Resource Governor. Best way to learn it! One of my oldest pet peeves is abuse of the sa login. Don't get me wrong, I use it too, but typically only as SQL Agent job owner. It's been a while since I've been stuck with it, but back when I started using SQL Server, EVERY application needed sa to function. It was hard-coded and couldn't be changed. (welllllll, that is if you didn't use a hex editor on the EXE file, but who would do such a thing?) My standard warning applies: don't run anything on this page in production. In fact, back up whatever server you're testing this on, including the master database. Snapshotting a VM is a good idea. Also make sure you have other sysadmin level logins on that server. So here's a standard template for a logon trigger to address those pesky sa users: CREATE TRIGGER SA_LOGIN_PRIORITY ON ALL SERVER WITH ENCRYPTION, EXECUTE AS N'sa' AFTER LOGON AS IF ORIGINAL_LOGIN()<>N'sa' OR APP_NAME() LIKE N'SQL Agent%' RETURN; -- interesting stuff goes here GO   What can you do for "interesting stuff"? Books Online limits itself to merely rolling back the logon, which will throw an error (and alert the person that the logon trigger fired).  That's a good use for logon triggers, but really not tricky enough for this blog.  Some of my suggestions are below: WAITFOR DELAY '23:59:59';   Or: EXEC sp_MSforeach_db 'EXEC sp_detach_db ''?'';'   Or: EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_add_job @job_name=N'`', @enabled=1, @start_step_id=1, @notify_level_eventlog=0, @delete_level=3; EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_add_jobserver @job_name=N'`', @server_name=@@SERVERNAME; EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_add_jobstep @job_name=N'`', @step_id=1, @step_name=N'`', @command=N'SHUTDOWN;'; EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_start_job @job_name=N'`';   Really, I don't want to spoil your own exploration, try it yourself!  The thing I really like about these is it lets me promote the idea that "sa is SLOW, sa is BUGGY, don't use sa!".  Before we get into Resource Governor, make sure to drop or disable that logon trigger. They don't work well in combination. (Had to redo all the following code when SSMS locked up) Resource Governor is a feature that lets you control how many resources a single session can consume. The main goal is to limit the damage from a runaway query. But we're not here to read about its main goal or normal usage! I'm trying to make people stop using sa BECAUSE IT'S SLOW! Here's how RG can do that: USE master; GO CREATE FUNCTION dbo.SA_LOGIN_PRIORITY() RETURNS sysname WITH SCHEMABINDING, ENCRYPTION AS BEGIN RETURN CASE WHEN ORIGINAL_LOGIN()=N'sa' AND APP_NAME() NOT LIKE N'SQL Agent%' THEN N'SA_LOGIN_PRIORITY' ELSE N'default' END END GO CREATE RESOURCE POOL SA_LOGIN_PRIORITY WITH ( MIN_CPU_PERCENT = 0 ,MAX_CPU_PERCENT = 1 ,CAP_CPU_PERCENT = 1 ,AFFINITY SCHEDULER = (0) ,MIN_MEMORY_PERCENT = 0 ,MAX_MEMORY_PERCENT = 1 -- ,MIN_IOPS_PER_VOLUME = 1 ,MAX_IOPS_PER_VOLUME = 1 -- uncomment for SQL Server 2014 ); CREATE WORKLOAD GROUP SA_LOGIN_PRIORITY WITH ( IMPORTANCE = LOW ,REQUEST_MAX_MEMORY_GRANT_PERCENT = 1 ,REQUEST_MAX_CPU_TIME_SEC = 1 ,REQUEST_MEMORY_GRANT_TIMEOUT_SEC = 1 ,MAX_DOP = 1 ,GROUP_MAX_REQUESTS = 1 ) USING SA_LOGIN_PRIORITY; ALTER RESOURCE GOVERNOR WITH (CLASSIFIER_FUNCTION=dbo.SA_LOGIN_PRIORITY); ALTER RESOURCE GOVERNOR RECONFIGURE;   From top to bottom: Create a classifier function to determine which pool the session should go to. More info on classifier functions. Create the pool and provide a generous helping of resources for the sa login. Create the workload group and further prioritize those resources for the sa login. Apply the classifier function and reconfigure RG to use it. I have to say this one is a bit sneakier than the logon trigger, least of all you don't get any error messages.  I heartily recommend testing it in Management Studio, and click around the UI a lot, there's some fun behavior there. And DEFINITELY try it on SQL 2014 with the IO settings included!  You'll notice I made allowances for SQL Agent jobs owned by sa, they'll go into the default workload group.  You can add your own overrides to the classifier function if needed. Some interesting ideas I didn't have time for but expect you to get to before me: Set up different pools/workgroups with different settings and randomize which one the classifier chooses Do the same but base it on time of day (Books Online example covers this)... Or, which workstation it connects from. This can be modified for certain special people in your office who either don't listen, or are attracted (and attractive) to you. And if things go wrong you can always use the following from another sysadmin or Dedicated Admin connection: ALTER RESOURCE GOVERNOR DISABLE;   That will let you go in and either fix (or drop) the pools, workgroups and classifier function. So now that you know these types of things are possible, and if you are tired of your team using sa when they shouldn't, I expect you'll enjoy playing with these quite a bit! Unfortunately, the aforementioned Dedicated Admin Connection kinda poops on the party here.  Books Online for both topics will tell you that the DAC will not fire either feature. So if you have a crafty user who does their research, they can still sneak in with sa and do their bidding without being hampered. Of course, you can still detect their login via various methods, like a server trace, SQL Server Audit, extended events, and enabling "Audit Successful Logins" on the server.  These all have their downsides: traces take resources, extended events and SQL Audit can't fire off actions, and enabling successful logins will bloat your error log very quickly.  SQL Audit is also limited unless you have Enterprise Edition, and Resource Governor is Enterprise-only.  And WORST OF ALL, these features are all available and visible through the SSMS UI, so even a doofus developer or manager could find them. Fortunately there are Event Notifications! Event notifications are becoming one of my favorite features of SQL Server (keep an eye out for more blogs from me about them). They are practically unknown and heinously underutilized.  They are also a great gateway drug to using Service Broker, another great but underutilized feature. Hopefully this will get you to start using them, or at least your enemies in the office will once they read this, and then you'll have to learn them in order to fix things. So here's the setup: USE msdb; GO CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.SA_LOGIN_PRIORITY_act WITH ENCRYPTION AS DECLARE @x XML, @message nvarchar(max); RECEIVE @x=CAST(message_body AS XML) FROM SA_LOGIN_PRIORITY_q; IF @x.value('(//LoginName)[1]','sysname')=N'sa' AND @x.value('(//ApplicationName)[1]','sysname') NOT LIKE N'SQL Agent%' BEGIN -- interesting activation procedure stuff goes here END GO CREATE QUEUE SA_LOGIN_PRIORITY_q WITH STATUS=ON, RETENTION=OFF, ACTIVATION (PROCEDURE_NAME=dbo.SA_LOGIN_PRIORITY_act, MAX_QUEUE_READERS=1, EXECUTE AS OWNER); CREATE SERVICE SA_LOGIN_PRIORITY_s ON QUEUE SA_LOGIN_PRIORITY_q([http://schemas.microsoft.com/SQL/Notifications/PostEventNotification]); CREATE EVENT NOTIFICATION SA_LOGIN_PRIORITY_en ON SERVER WITH FAN_IN FOR AUDIT_LOGIN TO SERVICE N'SA_LOGIN_PRIORITY_s', N'current database' GO   From top to bottom: Create activation procedure for event notification queue. Create queue to accept messages from event notification, and activate the procedure to process those messages when received. Create service to send messages to that queue. Create event notification on AUDIT_LOGIN events that fire the service. I placed this in msdb as it is an available system database and already has Service Broker enabled by default. You should change this to another database if you can guarantee it won't get dropped. So what to put in place for "interesting activation procedure code"?  Hmmm, so far I haven't addressed Matt's suggestion of writing a lengthy script to send an annoying message: SET @[email protected]('(//HostName)[1]','sysname') + N' tried to log in to server ' + @x.value('(//ServerName)[1]','sysname') + N' as SA at ' + @x.value('(//StartTime)[1]','sysname') + N' using the ' + @x.value('(//ApplicationName)[1]','sysname') + N' program. That''s why you''re getting this message and the attached pornography which' + N' is bloating your inbox and violating company policy, among other things. If you know' + N' this person you can go to their desk and hit them, or use the following SQL to end their session: KILL ' + @x.value('(//SPID)[1]','sysname') + N'; Hopefully they''re in the middle of a huge query that they need to finish right away.' EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_send_dbmail @recipients=N'[email protected]', @subject=N'SA Login Alert', @query_result_width=32767, @body=@message, @query=N'EXEC sp_readerrorlog;', @attach_query_result_as_file=1, @query_attachment_filename=N'UtterlyGrossPorn_SeriouslyDontOpenIt.jpg' I'm not sure I'd call that a lengthy script, but the attachment should get pretty big, and I'm sure the email admins will love storing multiple copies of it.  The nice thing is that this also fires on Dedicated Admin connections! You can even identify DAC connections from the event data returned, I leave that as an exercise for you. You can use that info to change the action taken by the activation procedure, and since it's a stored procedure, it can pretty much do anything! Except KILL the SPID, or SHUTDOWN the server directly.  I'm still working on those.

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Sunday, November 27, 2011

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Sunday, November 27, 2011Popular ReleasesTerminals: Version 2 - Beta 4 Release: Beta 4 Refresh Build Dont forget to backup your config files BEFORE upgrading! As usual, please take time to use and abuse this release. We left logging in place, and this is a debug build so be sure to submit your logs on each bug reported, and please do report all bugs! Updated the About form to include the date and time of the build. Useful for CI builds to ensure we have the correct version "Favourites" and "History" save their expanded states after app restarts Code cleanup, secu...MiniTwitter: 1.76: MiniTwitter 1.76 ???? ?? ?????????? User Streams ???????????? User Streams ???????????、??????????????? REST ?????????? ?????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????Media Companion: MC 3.424b Weekly: Ensure .NET 4.0 Full Framework is installed. (Available from http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=17718) Ensure the NFO ID fix is applied when transitioning from versions prior to 3.416b. (Details here) Movie Show Resolutions... Resolved issue when reverting multiselection of movies to "-none-" Added movie rename support for subtitle files '.srt' & '.sub' Finalised code for '-1' fix - radiobutton to choose either filename or title Fixed issue with Movie Batch Wizard Fanart - ...Advanced Windows Phone Enginering Tool: WPE Downloads: This version of WPE gives you basic updating, restoring, and, erasing for your Windows Phone device.Anno 2070 Assistant: Beta v1.0 (STABLE): Anno 2070 Assistant Beta v1.0 Released! Features Included: Complete Building Layouts for Ecos, Tycoons & Techs Complete Production Chains for Ecos, Tycoons & Techs Completed Credits Screen Known Issues: Not all production chains and building layouts may be on the lists because they have not yet been discovered. However, data is still 99.9% complete. Currently the Supply & Demand, including Calculator screen are disabled until version 1.1.Minemapper: Minemapper v0.1.7: Including updated Minecraft Biome Extractor and mcmap to support the new Minecraft 1.0.0 release (new block types, etc).Visual Leak Detector for Visual C++ 2008/2010: v2.2.1: Enhancements: * strdup and _wcsdup functions support added. * Preliminary support for VS 11 added. Bugs Fixed: * Low performance after upgrading from VLD v2.1. * Memory leaks with static linking fixed (disabled calloc support). * Runtime error R6002 fixed because of wrong memory dump format. * version.h fixed in installer. * Some PVS studio warning fixed.NetSqlAzMan - .NET SQL Authorization Manager: 3.6.0.10: 3.6.0.10 22-Nov-2011 Update: Removed PreEmptive Platform integration (PreEmptive analytics) Removed all PreEmptive attributes Removed PreEmptive.dll assembly references from all projects Added first support to ADAM/AD LDS Thanks to PatBea. Work Item 9775: http://netsqlazman.codeplex.com/workitem/9775VideoLan DotNet for WinForm, WPF & Silverlight 5: VideoLan DotNet for WinForm, WPF, SL5 - 2011.11.22: The new version contains Silverlight 5 library: Vlc.DotNet.Silverlight. A sample could be tested here The new version add and correct many features : Correction : Reinitialize some variables Deprecate : Logging API, since VLC 1.2 (08/20/2011) Add subitem in LocationMedia (for Youtube videos, ...) Update Wpf sample to use Youtube videos Many others correctionsEZ-NFC: Alpha 1: THIS IS AN ALPHA RELEASE. STILL UNSTABLE AND SUBJECT TO ARCHITECTURE CHANGE What is implemented (In alpha) : ACR122L Device Mifare 1K tag Windows frontend#liveDB: liveDB 0.3.2: New featuresNew abstract storage scheme enabling future cloud support New file system structure and naming scheme for snapshots and journal files based on sequence numbers Journal files are never deleted Automatic snapshots during load or shutdown Renamed/added hooks to Model JournalRestored, SnapshotRestored Created an extensible logging facade Journal gets split into 1MB segments (configurable) Integrity checks before during load/create Commands are cloned by default before ...ReactiveMVVM: ReactiveMVVM v1.0: Example 1 property change: public class Example1 : ViewModelBase{ string _Userid; /// <summary> /// person infomation of owner. /// </summary> public string Userid { get { return _Userid; } set { this.RaiseAndSetIfChanged(x => x.Userid, ref _Userid, value, *true*); } // true, broadcast property change message. } //if the property changed to do...... this.ObservableProperty(x => x.Useid) ...IoCWrap: Initial: Initial release of the source code.Code for Rapid C# Windows Development eBook + LINQPad and Data Tools: LinqPad Custom Visualizer Version 1.0: First release of my LinqPad Custom Visualizer. It is compiled against the Any-CPU build of LINQPad v4.36.6 so it can only be used with the LINQPad Beta: v4.36.x. To install unzip to the LinqPad plugins folder.Distributed replay GUI: Distributed Replay Snapin: This is the dll for registering the snapin in mmc.FaST-LMM: FActored Spectrally Transformed Linear Mixed Models: FaSTLMM v1.03 Binaries for Windows and Linux: These files contain the files necessary to run FaSTLMM on Windows or Linux along with the license and users manual. To download FaSTLMM source code, please follow the changeset link located above to the Source Code tab. The FaSTLMM.Win.zip download contains both C++ and CSharp executable versions of FaSTLMM. No installer is required, just UnZip the file into a directory and run from there. Or put the installation directory on your path and run it from anywhere. The C++ version included r...SharePoint 2010 FBA Pack: SharePoint 2010 FBA Pack 1.2.0: Web parts are now fully customizable via html templates (Issue #323) FBA Pack is now completely localizable using resource files. Thank you David Chen for submitting the code as well as Chinese translations of the FBA Pack! The membership request web part now gives the option of having the user enter the password and removing the captcha (Issue # 447) The FBA Pack will now work in a zone that does not have FBA enabled (Another zone must have FBA enabled, and the zone must contain the me...SharePoint 2010 Education Demo Project: Release SharePoint SP1 for Education Solutions: This release includes updates to the Content Packs for SharePoint SP1. All Content Packs have been updated to install successfully under SharePoint SP1SQL Monitor - managing sql server performance: SQLMon 4.1 alpha 6: 1. improved support for schema 2. added find reference when right click on object list 3. added object rename supportBugNET Issue Tracker: BugNET 0.9.126: First stable release of version 0.9. Upgrades from 0.8 are fully supported and upgrades to future releases will also be supported. This release is now compiled against the .NET 4.0 framework and is a requirement. Because of this the web.config has significantly changed. After upgrading, you will need to configure the authentication settings for user registration and anonymous access again. Please see our installation / upgrade instructions for more details: http://wiki.bugnetproject.c...New Projectsandrewtatham.robocode: Andrew Tatham's Robocode botsClear SharePoint Lists: This project contains the tools used to clear the items from the one or more Lists.Clipboard Editor: How many times have you pasted something in Notepad and then copied the plain text again? We do it all the time to strip formatting from the clipboard. This utility lets you pick which format from the clipboard to keep.CS New Rus: ?? ????? ??????????? ??????. ??? ??? - CS New. ?? ???? ????? ?? ????? ??????????? ??? ? ?????????? ? ???????. ElfDoc: ElfDoc enables you to create word documents from templates, using open xml.HTC RUU .NET: HTC's legendary RUU goes .NET and Open Source.................. You can browse for .nbh file, not locked at current directory and, you can update your device's rom in .NET wayMobileGamePrototype: For now just a skeleton of the architecture.NopCommerce 23 Multi Store Support: NopCommerce 23 Multi Store Support novel: fetch novelOrchard Custom Shapes: Ready to use custom orchard shapes like a table shape.Philosophy Gadget: This gadget helps people associate known works of philosophy with their known authors.ReefTracker: A controller agnostic logging and reporting application for reef aquarium controllers. SQLQuery: SQL QueryWindows Phone Marketplace Viewer: Windows Phone Marketplace Viewer is a single aspx page for asp.net 3+ with no additional dependencies. It will show the top 2000 apps in one of the 3 categories: paid and free together, only paid or only free, for all the marketplace languages.

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, November 26, 2011

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, November 26, 2011Popular ReleasesTerminals: Version 2 - Beta 4 Release: Beta 4 Refresh Build Dont forget to backup your config files BEFORE upgrading! As usual, please take time to use and abuse this release. We left logging in place, and this is a debug build so be sure to submit your logs on each bug reported, and please do report all bugs! Updated the About form to include the date and time of the build. Useful for CI builds to ensure we have the correct version "Favourites" and "History" save their expanded states after app restarts Code cleanup, secu...MiniTwitter: 1.76: MiniTwitter 1.76 ???? ?? ?????????? User Streams ???????????? User Streams ???????????、??????????????? REST ?????????? ?????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????Media Companion: MC 3.424b Weekly: Ensure .NET 4.0 Full Framework is installed. (Available from http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=17718) Ensure the NFO ID fix is applied when transitioning from versions prior to 3.416b. (Details here) Movie Show Resolutions... Resolved issue when reverting multiselection of movies to "-none-" Added movie rename support for subtitle files '.srt' & '.sub' Finalised code for '-1' fix - radiobutton to choose either filename or title Fixed issue with Movie Batch Wizard Fanart - ...Advanced Windows Phone Enginering Tool: WPE Downloads: This version of WPE gives you basic updating, restoring, and, erasing for your Windows Phone device.ASP.NET Comet Ajax Library (Reverse Ajax - Server Push): ASP.NET Reverse Ajax Samples: Chat, MVC Razor, DesktopClient, Reverse Ajax for VB.NET and C#Anno 2070 Assistant: Beta v1.0 (STABLE): Anno 2070 Assistant Beta v1.0 Released! Features Included: Complete Building Layouts for Ecos, Tycoons & Techs Complete Production Chains for Ecos, Tycoons & Techs Completed Credits Screen Known Issues: Not all production chains and building layouts may be on the lists because they have not yet been discovered. However, data is still 99.9% complete. Currently the Supply & Demand, including Calculator screen are disabled until version 1.1.Oil Prices: Oil Prices V1.1: Oil Prices V1.1 Fix Bangchak price listTAXILISM: TAXILISM V1.0: TAXILISMExamine: v1.4 - Beta: A fairly mega release which borrows some behaviors from the currently under development v2.0 version, this means there are some breaking changes which are listed below, though I don't think these breaking changes will affect many. FeaturesUpgraded DLLs to .Net 4.0 runtime Azure support No more file queue, all asynchronous operations are handled by .Net 4.0's async Task scheduling system, this not only increases performance but better handles async operations. Running in async mode will...Minemapper: Minemapper v0.1.7: Including updated Minecraft Biome Extractor and mcmap to support the new Minecraft 1.0.0 release (new block types, etc).Metro Pandora: Metro Pandora SDK V1: Metro Pandora aims to ship a Pandora SDK and apps for XAML .net platforms. For more information on this release please see Metro Pandora SDK Introduction. Supported platforms in V1: Windows Phone 7 / Silverlight Windows 8 .Net 4.0, WPF, WinformsVisual Leak Detector for Visual C++ 2008/2010: v2.2.1: Enhancements: * strdup and _wcsdup functions support added. * Preliminary support for VS 11 added. Bugs Fixed: * Low performance after upgrading from VLD v2.1. * Memory leaks with static linking fixed (disabled calloc support). * Runtime error R6002 fixed because of wrong memory dump format. * version.h fixed in installer. * Some PVS studio warning fixed.NetSqlAzMan - .NET SQL Authorization Manager: 3.6.0.10: 3.6.0.10 22-Nov-2011 Update: Removed PreEmptive Platform integration (PreEmptive analytics) Removed all PreEmptive attributes Removed PreEmptive.dll assembly references from all projects Added first support to ADAM/AD LDS Thanks to PatBea. Work Item 9775: http://netsqlazman.codeplex.com/workitem/9775VideoLan DotNet for WinForm, WPF & Silverlight 5: VideoLan DotNet for WinForm, WPF, SL5 - 2011.11.22: The new version contains Silverlight 5 library: Vlc.DotNet.Silverlight. A sample could be tested here The new version add and correct many features : Correction : Reinitialize some variables Deprecate : Logging API, since VLC 1.2 (08/20/2011) Add subitem in LocationMedia (for Youtube videos, ...) Update Wpf sample to use Youtube videos Many others correctionsSharePoint 2010 FBA Pack: SharePoint 2010 FBA Pack 1.2.0: Web parts are now fully customizable via html templates (Issue #323) FBA Pack is now completely localizable using resource files. Thank you David Chen for submitting the code as well as Chinese translations of the FBA Pack! The membership request web part now gives the option of having the user enter the password and removing the captcha (Issue # 447) The FBA Pack will now work in a zone that does not have FBA enabled (Another zone must have FBA enabled, and the zone must contain the me...SharePoint 2010 Education Demo Project: Release SharePoint SP1 for Education Solutions: This release includes updates to the Content Packs for SharePoint SP1. All Content Packs have been updated to install successfully under SharePoint SP1SQL Monitor - managing sql server performance: SQLMon 4.1 alpha 6: 1. improved support for schema 2. added find reference when right click on object list 3. added object rename supportBugNET Issue Tracker: BugNET 0.9.126: First stable release of version 0.9. Upgrades from 0.8 are fully supported and upgrades to future releases will also be supported. This release is now compiled against the .NET 4.0 framework and is a requirement. Because of this the web.config has significantly changed. After upgrading, you will need to configure the authentication settings for user registration and anonymous access again. Please see our installation / upgrade instructions for more details: http://wiki.bugnetproject.c...Free SharePoint 2010 Sites Templates: SharePoint Server 2010 Sites Templates: here is the list of sites templates to be downloadedVsTortoise - a TortoiseSVN add-in for Microsoft Visual Studio: VsTortoise Build 30 Beta: Note: This release does not work with custom VsTortoise toolbars. These get removed every time when you shutdown Visual Studio. (#7940) Build 30 (beta)New: Support for TortoiseSVN 1.7 added. (the download contains both setups, for TortoiseSVN 1.6 and 1.7) New: OpenModifiedDocumentDialog displays conflicted files now. New: OpenModifiedDocument allows to group items by changelist now. Fix: OpenModifiedDocumentDialog caused Visual Studio 2010 to freeze sometimes. Fix: The installer didn...New Projects1Internet: Branch of 1Intranet.ANX.Framework: The ANX.Framework is a platform independent game framework which is compatible with Microsofts XNA Framework.CBMMark: Commodore 8-bit benchmarking suitecodeplanner: A nuget package that will help you with architecture and generate code from T4 templates. 1. Create a new MVC3 (C#) Project 2. Install-Package codeplanner 3. Create your domainmodel (see documentation or readme.txt) 4. Create system by -> Scaffold CodePlanner.ScaffoldAllCommonLib: ???? C#????CoverFlow Project: This is a proyect that can we use like a control for own apps , its need some improvements like differents view and also some memory issue to get fix... if anyone can help me to improve please... NOTE: This coverflow reads bytes and then convert it to images thanks Dev.Net: The project aims creating development help pages, where user can find useful information about each referenced assembly. It also have an in-place editor for each page section and a versioning system to work with previously modified pages.EasyFramework: ?.net framework?????，???????????EPioneerCenter: Project Name：EPioneer Programming Language：C#ErSE253: General application for geostatistics estimations. Entirely written in C# designed to be readable and perform efficient calculations.FontysIsa2: FontysIsa2Kaos: Klinik Administrations og Oversigts SystemKinect Cursor Move: Kinect Cursor Move is a library that uses the Kinect for Windows SDK and its skeletal tracking features to allow a user to use their hands to control the Windows mouse cursor. The project is developped in / for c# only ...Mitutoyo 264-007 RS232 SPC Data Input Tool: This tool allows measurements to be recorded from Mitutoyo SPC measurement tools using the Mitutoyo RS232 Data Input Tool (part#: 264-007) by emulating a keyboard. It has many configurable options. It's developed in C#.NAU Airplane speech engine: Generates speech for airplain simulator, based on networking eventsProASPNETMVCInvest: This is the source code example for the book: <<Pro ASP.NET MVC2 Framework>>School Helper: Keep track of grades and upcoming assignments.Sheva engine 2: XNA game engineSimple Job Management: Simple job management solution created to handle less complicated jobs not tied to a larger scale project.StoreOnline: the latest versionVectorlib: A Library.WP7 toolkit by MSP: Some controls and utilites are made by MSP??????Judge Online: ??????Judge Online????????????。??????????????（?C、C++）???，?????????????，????????????????????????。???????????，???SNS????????。

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