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  • Are programming languages and methods inefficient? (assembler and C knowledge needed)

    - by b-gen-jack-o-neill
    Hi, for a long time, I am thinking and studying output of C language compiler in assembler form, as well as CPU architecture. I know this may be silly to you, but it seems to me that something is very ineffective. Please, don´t be angry if I am wrong, and there is some reason I do not see for all these principles. I will be very glad if you tell me why is it designed this way. I actually truly believe I am wrong, I know the genius minds of people which get PCs together knew a reason to do so. What exactly, do you ask? I´ll tell you right away, I use C as a example: 1: Stack local scope memory allocation: So, typical local memory allocation uses stack. Just copy esp to ebp and than allocate all the memory via ebp. OK, I would understand this if you explicitly need allocate RAM by default stack values, but if I do understand it correctly, modern OS use paging as a translation layer between application and physical RAM, when address you desire is further translated before reaching actual RAM byte. So why don´t just say 0x00000000 is int a,0x00000004 is int b and so? And access them just by mov 0x00000000,#10? Because you wont actually access memory blocks 0x00000000 and 0x00000004 but those your OS set the paging tables to. Actually, since memory allocation by ebp and esp use indirect addressing, "my" way would be even faster. 2: Variable allocation duplicity: When you run application, Loader load its code into RAM. When you create variable, or string, compiler generates code that pushes these values on the top o stack when created in main. So there is actual instruction for do so, and that actual number in memory. So, there are 2 entries of the same value in RAM. One in form of instruction, second in form of actual bytes in the RAM. But why? Why not to just when declaring variable count at which memory block it would be, than when used, just insert this memory location?

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  • I Cannot retrieve ARPINSTALLLOCATION so we know where to install a new version

    - by Birkoff
    I am trying to retrieve the ARPINSTALLLOCATION during the installation of a Major Upgrade version of the software. Following this info I managed to set the ARPINSTALLLOCATION to the custom path. However, retrieving it again isn't working. I've tried many things over the past days but it keeps defaulting back to the default installation path instead of the custom one. <InstallUISequence> <AppSearch After="FindRelatedProducts"/> ... </InstallUISequence> <Property Id="WIXUI_INSTALLDIR" Value="APPROOTDIRECTORY"> <RegistrySearch Id="FindInstallLocation" Root="HKLM" Key="Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\[OLDERVERSIONBEINGUPGRADED]" Name="InstallLocation" Type="raw" /> </Property> In the custom WixUI_InstallDir UI I have this in the CustomInstallDirDlg <Control Id="Folder" Type="PathEdit" X="20" Y="90" Width="260" Height="18" Property="WIXUI_INSTALLDIR" Indirect="yes" /> The alternative install path is in the registry, but it isn't retrieved and shown in the control. What am I doing wrong here? -Birkoff

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  • I Cannot retrieve ARPINSTALLLOCATION so we know where to install a new version [WIX]

    - by Birkoff
    I am trying to retrieve the ARPINSTALLLOCATION during the installation of a Major Upgrade version of the software. Following this info I managed to set the ARPINSTALLLOCATION to the custom path. However, retrieving it again isn't working. I've tried many things over the past days but it keeps defaulting back to the default installation path instead of the custom one. <InstallUISequence> <AppSearch After="FindRelatedProducts"/> ... </InstallUISequence> <Property Id="WIXUI_INSTALLDIR" Value="APPROOTDIRECTORY"> <RegistrySearch Id="FindInstallLocation" Root="HKLM" Key="Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\[OLDERVERSIONBEINGUPGRADED]" Name="InstallLocation" Type="raw" /> </Property> In the custom WixUI_InstallDir UI I have this in the CustomInstallDirDlg <Control Id="Folder" Type="PathEdit" X="20" Y="90" Width="260" Height="18" Property="WIXUI_INSTALLDIR" Indirect="yes" /> The alternative install path is in the registry, but it isn't retrieved and shown in the control. What am I doing wrong here? -Birkoff

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  • In need of a Smarter Environmental Package Configuration

    - by Jeremy Liberman
    I am trying to set up a package template in SSIS, following the Wrox Programmer to Programmer book, SQL Server 2008 Integration Services: Problem - Design - Solution. I'm really liking this book even though it is 2008 and we're using SQL Server 2005. I've got a working package template that uses an Indirect XML package configuration to identify what environment (local developer, dev, QA, production, etc) the package is being run in. That locates the SQL Server package configuration for the environment. That set-up is great and all except for the environment variable at the very front of it all. My team would prefer it if the package could use the same environment resource locator as all our other applications and tools use, so we don't two environment markers with essentially the same information in them. Normally we look up a registry key in HKey_Local_Machine but the Registry Package Configuration type only lets you look up the HKey_Current_User registries. My first thought was to write a new Package Configuration Type class that extends the Registry type; after all we'd had such luck writing our own custom log provider. SSIS is super extendable, right? So there doesn't seem to be a way to write your own Package Configuration Types. Is there still some way I can configure my SSIS SQL Server package configuration from a HKLM registry key connection string? If this is not possible, what other workarounds are available? My idea is to write a PowerShell script that will create/modify the Environment Variable that the package will use by fetching the connection string from the registry. This way there's still two markers, but at least then it's automatically maintained and automated. Is this kind of workaround necessary? Thank you for your time.

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  • Question about CALL statement

    - by Bruce
    I have the following code in VC++ Func5(){ StackWalk(); } Func4{ Func5();} I am a Beginner in x86 Assembly Language. I am trying to find out the starting address of Func5(). I get the Func5()'s return address from its stack frame. Now before this return address there should be a CALL statement. So I extract out the bytes before the return address. Sometimes it's a near call like E8 ff ff ff d8. So for this statement I subtract the offset 0x28 from the function's return address to get Func5()'s base address (where it resides in memory). The problem is I don't know how to calculate this for a indirect NEAR call. I have been trying to find out how to do it for some time now. So I have extracted out the first 5 bytes before the return address and they are ff 75 08 ff d2 I think this stands for CALL ECX (ff d2) but I am not sure. I will be very grateful if someone can tell me what kind of CALL statement this is and how I can calculate the function's base address from this kind of call.

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  • List all foreign key constraints that refer to a particular column in a specific table

    - by Sid
    I would like to see a list of all the tables and columns that refer (either directly or indirectly) a specific column in the 'main' table via a foreign key constraint that has the ON DELETE=CASCADE setting missing. The tricky part is that there would be an indirect relationships buried across up to 5 levels deep. (example: ... great-grandchild- FK3 = grandchild = FK2 = child = FK1 = main table). We need to dig up the leaf tables-columns, not just the very 1st level. The 'good' part about this is that execution speed isn't of concern, it'll be run on a backup copy of the production db to fix any relational issues for the future. I did SELECT * FROM sys.foreign_keys but that gives me the name of the constraint - not the names of the child-parent tables and the columns in the relationship (the juicy bits). Plus the previous designer used short, non-descriptive/random names for the FK constraints, unlike our practice below The way we're adding constraints into SQL Server: ALTER TABLE [dbo].[UserEmailPrefs] WITH CHECK ADD CONSTRAINT [FK_UserEmailPrefs_UserMasterTable_UserId] FOREIGN KEY([UserId]) REFERENCES [dbo].[UserMasterTable] ([UserId]) ON DELETE CASCADE GO ALTER TABLE [dbo].[UserEmailPrefs] CHECK CONSTRAINT [FK_UserEmailPrefs_UserMasterTable_UserId] GO The comments in this SO question inpire this question.

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  • Are programming languages and methods ineffective? (assembler and C knowledge needed)

    - by b-gen-jack-o-neill
    Hi, for a long time, I am thinking and studying output of C language compiler in asemlber form, as well as CPU architecture. I know this may be silly to you, but it seems to me that something is very ineffective. Please, don´t be angry if I am wrong, and there is some reason I do not see for all these principles. I will be very glad if you tell me why is it designed this way. I actually trully believe I am wrong, I know the genius minds of people which get PCs together knew a reason to do so. What exactly, do you ask? I´ll tell you right away, I use C as a example: 1, Stack local scope memory allocation: So, typical local memory allocation uses stack. Just copy esp to ebp and than allocate all the memory via ebp. OK, I would understand this if you explicitly need allocate RAM by default stack values, but if I do understand it correctly, modern OS use paging as a translation layer between application and physical RAM, when adress you desire is further translated before reaching actuall RAM byte. So why don´t just say 0x00000000 is int a,0x00000004 is int b and so? And access them just by mov 0x00000000,#10? Becouse you wont actually access memory blocks 0x00000000 and 0x00000004 but those your OS set the paging tables to. Actually, since memory allocation by ebp and esp use indirect adressing, "my" way would be even faster. 2, Variable allocation duplicitly: When you run aaplication, Loader load its code into RAM. When you create variable, or string, compiler generates code that pushes these values on the top o stack when created in main. So there is actuall instruction for do so, and that actuall number in memory. So, there are 2 entries of the same value in RAM. One in fomr of instruction, second in form of actuall bytes in the RAM. But why? Why not to just when declaring variable count at which memory block it would be, than when used, just insert this memory location?

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  • Setting the type of a field in a superclass from a subclass (Java)

    - by Ibolit
    Hi. I am writing a project on Google App Engine, within it I have a number of abstract classes that I hope I will be able to use in my future projects, and a number of concrete classes inheriting from them. Among other abstract classes I have an abstract servlet that does user management, and I hava an abstract user. The AbstractUser has all the necessary fields and methods for storing it in the datastore and telling whether the user is registered with my service or not. It does not implement any project specific functionality. The abstract servlet that manages users, refers only to the methods declared in the AbstractUser class, which allows it to generate links for logging in, logging out and registering (for unregistered users). In order to implement the project-specific user functionality I need to subclass the Abstract user. The servlets I use in my project are all indirect descendants from that abstract user management servlet, and the user is a protected field in it, so the descendant servlets can use it as their own field. However, whenever i want to access any project specific method of the concrete user, i need to cast it to that type. i.e. (abstract user managing servlet) ... AbstractUser user = getUser(); ... abstract protected AbstractUser getUser(); (project-specific abstract servlet) @Override protected AbstractUser getUser() { return MyUserFactory.getUser(); } any other project specific servlet: int a = ((ConcreteUser) user).getA(); Well, what i'd like to do is to somehow make the type of “user” in the superclass depend on something in the project-specific abstract class. Is it at all possible? And i don't want to move all the user-management stuff into a project-specific layer, for i would like to have it for my future projects already written :) Thank you for your help.

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  • Social Network Updates: While You Were Busy Marketing 2

    - by Mike Stiles
    Since social moves at the speed of data, it’s already time for another update, as we did back in April, on the changes the various social networks have made or gone through while you were busy marketing. Facebook There’s a lot of talk Facebook’s developing a mobile product to act like Flipboard and surface news, from both users and media outlets. The biggest news was Facebook/Instagram’s introduction of 15-second videos, enhanced with with filters, to take some of Vine’s candy. You can also delete parts of videos and rerecord them, and there’s image stabilization. Facebook’s ad revenue is coming along just fine, thank you very much. 35% quarter-to-quarter growth in Q2. And it looks like new formats like Mobile App Install Ads and Unpublished Page Posts are adding to the mix. If you don’t already, you’ll soon see a little camera in comment boxes letting you insert photos right into the comments you make. The drive toward “more visual” continues. The other big news is Facebook’s adoption of our Twitter friend, the hashtag. Adding # sets apart the post topic so it can be easily found or discovered. It’s also being added to Google Plus, Tumblr, and Pinterest. Twitter Want to send someone a promoted tweet when they’re in range of your store? That could be happening by the end of this year. Some users have been seeing automatic in-stream previews of images on Twitter.com. Right now it’s images in your own tweets, but we can assume all tweets are next. Get your followers organized! Twitter raised the limit on the number of lists you can create from 20 to 1,000. They also raised the number of accounts you can have in a list from 500 to 5,000. Twitter started notifying you when someone favorites a tweet you’re mentioned in or re-tweets a tweet you re-tweeted. Anyway, it’s the first time Twitter’s notified you about indirect interactions like that. Who’s afraid of Instagram? A study shows 6-second Vine videos are being posted to Twitter at the rate of 9/second, up from 5/second 2 months ago. Vine has over 13 million users and branded Vines are 4x more likely to be shared than video ads. Google Plus Now featuring a 3-column redesigned stream, and images that take up a whole column. And photo filters Auto Highlight and Auto Awesome work to turn your photos into a real show. Google Hangouts is the workhorse for all Google messaging now, it’s not just an online chat with 9 people anymore. Google Plus Dashboard improves the connection between your company’s Google Plus business page and your Google Plus Local. Updates go out across all Google properties and you can do your managing from the dashboard. With Google Plus’ authorship system, you can build “Author Rank” based on what you write and put on the web. If your stuff is +1’ed and shared a lot, you’re the real deal and there are search result benefits. LinkedIn "Who's Viewed Your Updates" shows you what you’ve shared recently, who saw it and what they did about it in real-time. “Influencers” is, well, influential. Traffic to all LI news products has gone up 8x since it was introduced. LinkedIn is quickly figuring out how to get users to stick around awhile. You and your brand can post images and documents in status updates now. In fact, that whole “document posting” thing is making some analysts wonder if LinkedIn will drift on over to the Dropboxes and YouSendIts of the world. C’mon, admit it. Your favorite part of LinkedIn is being able to see who’s viewed your profile. Now you’ve got even more info and can see what/who you have in common. Premium users get even deeper insights about how people are finding them. If you’re a big fan of security, you’ll love that LinkedIn started offering two-factor authentication (2FA). It’s optional, but step 2 is a one-time code texted to your registered mobile. Pinterest A study showed pins have a looong shelf life compared to other social net posts. “Clicks kept coming for 30 days and beyond.” Most pins are timeless, and the infinite scroll causes people to see older pins. Is it a keeper? Pinterest jumped 82% to 54 million users in the past year. It’s valued at $2.5 billion and is one of the biggest sources of referral traffic there is. That said, CEO Ben Silbermann adds, "Right now, we don't make money." A new search feature stops you from having to endlessly scroll through your own pins looking for that waterfall picture you posted. Simply select “just my pins” in the search bar. New "Rich Pins" lets brands add info like price and availability to pins that can be updated daily via a data feed from your merchant site. Not so fast, you have to apply to Pinterest for it first. Like other social nets, Pinterest does not allow sexual content, nudity, or even partial nudity. However…some art contains nudity, and Pinterest wants to allow art. What constitutes “art” will be judged by…what we have to assume are Pinterest employees who love their job. @mikestilesPhoto: stock.xchng, Tim Marmon

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  • HPCM 11.1.2.2.x - How to find data in an HPCM Standard Costing database

    - by Jane Story
    Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} When working with a Hyperion Profitability and Cost Management (HPCM) Standard Costing application, there can often be a requirement to check data or allocated results using reporting tools e.g Smartview. To do this, you are retrieving data directly from the Essbase databases related to your HPCM model. For information, running reports is covered in Chapter 9 of the HPCM User documentation. The aim of this blog is to provide a quick guide to finding this data for reporting in the HPCM generated Essbase database in v11.1.2.2.x of HPCM. In order to retrieve data from an HPCM generated Essbase database, it is important to understand each of the following dimensions in the Essbase database and where data is located within them: Measures dimension – identifies Measures AllocationType dimension – identifies Direct Allocation Data or Genealogy Allocation data Point Of View (POV) dimensions – there must be at least one, maximum of four. Business dimensions: Stage Business dimensions – these will be identified by the Stage prefix. Intra-Stage dimension – these will be identified by the _Intra suffix. Essbase outlines and reporting is explained in the documentation here:http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E17236_01/epm.1112/hpm_user/ch09s02.html For additional details on reporting measures, please review this section of the documentation:http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E17236_01/epm.1112/hpm_user/apas03.html Reporting requirements in HPCM quite often start with identifying non balanced items in the Stage Balancing report. The following documentation link provides help with identifying some of the items within the Stage Balancing report:http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E17236_01/epm.1112/hpm_user/generatestagebalancing.html The following are some types of data upon which you may want to report: Stage Data: Direct Input Assigned Input Data Assigned Output Data Idle Cost/Revenue Unassigned Cost/Revenue Over Driven Cost/Revenue Direct Allocation Data Genealogy Allocation Data Stage Data Stage Data consists of: Direct Input i.e. input data, the starting point of your allocation e.g. in Stage 1 Assigned Input Data i.e. the cost/revenue received from a prior stage (i.e. stage 2 and higher). Assigned Output Data i.e. for each stage, the data that will be assigned forward is assigned post stage data. Reporting on this data is explained in the documentation here:http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E17236_01/epm.1112/hpm_user/ch09s03.html Dimension Selection Measures Direct Input: CostInput RevenueInput Assigned Input (from previous stages): CostReceivedPriorStage RevenueReceivedPriorStage Assigned Output (to subsequent stages): CostAssignedPostStage RevenueAssignedPostStage AllocationType DirectAllocation POV One member from each POV dimension Stage Business Dimensions Any members for the stage business dimensions for the stage you wish to see the Stage data for. All other Dimensions NoMember Idle/Unassigned/OverDriven To view Idle, Unassigned or Overdriven Costs/Revenue, first select which stage for which you want to view this data. If multiple Stages have unassigned/idle, resolve the earliest first and re-run the calculation as differences in early stages will create unassigned/idle in later stages. Dimension Selection Measures Idle: IdleCost IdleRevenue Unassigned: UnAssignedCost UnAssignedRevenue Overdriven: OverDrivenCost OverDrivenRevenue AllocationType DirectAllocation POV One member from each POV dimension Dimensions in the Stage with Unassigned/ Idle/OverDriven Cost All the Stage Business dimensions in the Stage with Unassigned/Idle/Overdriven. Zoom in on each dimension to find the individual members to find which members have Unassigned/Idle/OverDriven data. All other Dimensions NoMember Direct Allocation Data Direct allocation data shows the data received by a destination intersection from a source intersection where a direct assignment(s) exists. Reporting on direct allocation data is explained in the documentation here:http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E17236_01/epm.1112/hpm_user/ch09s04.html You would select the following to report direct allocation data Dimension Selection Measures CostReceivedPriorStage AllocationType DirectAllocation POV One member from each POV dimension Stage Business Dimensions Any members for the SOURCE stage business dimensions and the DESTINATION stage business dimensions for the direct allocations for the stage you wish to report on. All other Dimensions NoMember Genealogy Allocation Data Genealogy allocation data shows the indirect data relationships between stages. Genealogy calculations run in the HPCM Reporting database only. Reporting on genealogy data is explained in the documentation here:http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E17236_01/epm.1112/hpm_user/ch09s05.html Dimension Selection Measures CostReceivedPriorStage AllocationType GenealogyAllocation (IndirectAllocation in 11.1.2.1 and prior versions) POV One member from each POV dimension Stage Business Dimensions Any stage business dimension members from the STARTING stage in Genealogy Any stage business dimension members from the INTERMEDIATE stage(s) in Genealogy Any stage business dimension members from the ENDING stage in Genealogy All other Dimensions NoMember Notes If you still don’t see data after checking the above, please check the following Check the calculation has been run. Here are couple of indicators that might help them with that. Note the size of essbase cube before and after calculations ensure that a calculation was run against the database you are examing. Export the essbase data to a text file to confirm that some data exists. Examine the date and time on task area to see when, if any, calculations were run and what choices were used (e.g. Genealogy choices) If data does not exist in places where they are expecting, it could be that No calculations/genealogy were run No calculations were successfully run The model/data at feeder location were either absent or incompatible, resulting in no allocation e.g no driver data. Smartview Invocation from HPCM From version 11.1.2.2.350 of HPCM (this version will be GA shortly), it is possible to directly invoke Smartview from HPCM. There is guided navigation before the Smartview invocation and it is then possible to see the selected value(s) in SmartView. Click to Download HPCM 11.1.2.2.x - How to find data in an HPCM Standard Costing database (Right click or option-click the link and choose "Save As..." to download this pdf file)

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  • Five Things Learned at the BSR Conference in San Francisco on Nov 2nd-4th

    - by Evelyn Neumayr
    The BSR Conference 2011—“Redefining Leadership”—held from Nov 2nd to Nov 4th in San Francisco, with Oracle as one of the main sponsors, saw senior business executives, civil society representatives, and other experts from around the world gathering to share strategies and insights on the future of sustainability. The general conference sessions kicked off on November 2nd with a plenary address by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore. Other sessions were presented by CEOs of the caliber of Carl Bass (Autodesk), Brian Dunn (Best Buy), Carlos Brito (Anheuser-Busch InBev) and Ofra Strauss (Strauss Group). Here are five key highlights from the conference: 1.      The main leadership challenge is integrating sustainability into core business functions and overcoming short-termism. The “BSR GlobeScan State of Sustainable Business Poll 2011” - a survey of nearly 500 business leaders from 300 member companies - shows that 84% of respondents are optimistic that global businesses will embrace CSR/sustainability as part of their core strategies and operations in the next five years but consider integrating sustainability into their core business functions the key challenge. It is still difficult for many companies that are committed to the sustainability agenda to find investors that understand the long-term implications and as Al Gore said “Many companies are given the signal by the investors that it is the short term results that matter and that is a terribly debilitating force in the market.” 2.      Companies are required to address increasing compliance requirements and transparency in their supply chain, especially in relation with conflict minerals legislation and water management. The Dodd-Frank legislation, OECD guidelines, and the upcoming Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules require companies to monitor upstream the sourcing of tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold, but given the complexity of this issue companies need to collaborate and partner with peer companies in their industry as well as in other industries to understand how to address conflict minerals in their supply chains. The Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs’ (IPE) China Water Pollution Map enables the public to access thousands of environmental quality, discharge, and infraction records released by various government agencies. Empowered with this information, the public has the opportunity to place greater pressure on polluting companies to comply with environmental standards and create solutions to improve their performance. 3.      A new standard for reporting on supply chain greenhouse gas emissions is available. The New “Scope 3” Supply Chain Greenhouse Gas Inventory Standard, released on October 4th 2011, is the only international greenhouse gas emissions standard that accounts for the full lifecycle of a company’s products. It provides a framework for companies to account for indirect emissions outside of energy use, such as transportation, manufacturing, and distribution, and it incorporates both upstream and downstream impacts of a product. With key investors now listing supplier vulnerability to rising energy prices and disruptions of service as a key concern, greenhouse gas (GHG) management isn’t just for leading companies but a necessity for any business. 4.      Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) reporting is becoming increasingly important to investors and other stakeholders. While European investors have traditionally driven the ESG agenda, U.S. investors are increasingly including ESG data in their analyses. This trend will likely increase as stakeholders continue to demand that an ESG lens be applied to their investments. Investors are increasingly looking to partner on sustainability, as they see the benefits of ESG providing significant returns on investment. 5.      Software companies are offering an increasing variety of solutions to help drive changes and measure performance internally, in supply chains, and across peer companies. The significant challenge is how to integrate different software systems to facilitate decision-making based on a holistic understanding of trade-offs. Jon Chorley, Chief Sustainability Officer and Vice President, Supply Chain Management Product Strategy at Oracle was a panelist in the “Trends in Sustainability Software” session and commented that, “How we think about our business decisions really comes down to how we think about cost. And as long as we don’t assign a cost to things that have an environmental impact or social impact, then we make decisions based on incomplete information. If we could include that in the process that determines ‘Is this product profitable? we would then have a much better decision.” For more information on BSR visit www.brs.org. You can also view highlights of the plenary session at http://www.bsr.org/en/bsr-conference/session-summaries/2011. Oracle is proud to be a sponsor of this BSR conference. By Elena Avesani, Principal Product Strategy Manager, Oracle          

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  • User-Defined Customer Events & their impact (FA Type Profile)

    - by Rajesh Sharma
    CC&B automatically creates field activities when a specific Customer Event takes place. This depends on the way you have setup your Field Activity Type Profiles, the templates within, and associated SP Condition(s) on the template. CC&B uses the service point type, its state and referenced customer event to determine which field activity type to generate.   Customer events available in the base product include: Cut for Non-payment (CNP) Disconnect Warning (DIWA) Reconnect for Payment (REPY) Reread (RERD) Stop Service (STOP) Start Service (STRT) Start/Stop (STSP)   Note the Field values/codes defined for each event.   CC&B comes with a flexibility to define new set of customer events. These can be defined in the Look Up - CUST_EVT_FLG. Values from the Look Up are used on the Field Activity Type Profile Template page.     So what's the use of having user-defined Customer Events? And how will the system detect such events in order to create field activity(s)?   Well, system can only detect such events when you reference a user-defined customer event on a Severance Event Type for an event type Create Field Activities.     This way you can create additional field activities of a specific field activity type for user-defined customer events.   One of our customers adopted this feature and created a user-defined customer event CNPW - Cut for Non-payment for Water Services. This event was then linked on a Field Activity Type Profile and referenced on a Severance Event - CUT FOR NON PAY-W. The associated Severance Process was configured to trigger a reconnection process if it was cancelled (done by defining a Post Cancel Algorithm). Whenever this Severance Event was executed, a specific type of Field Activity was generated for disconnection purposes. The Field Activity type was determined by the system from the Field Activity Type Profile referenced for the SP Type, SP's state and the referenced user-defined customer event. All was working well until the time when they realized that in spite of the Severance Process getting cancelled (when a payment was made); the Post Cancel Algorithm was not executed to start a Reconnection Severance Process for the purpose of generating a reconnection field activity and reconnecting the service.   Basically, the Post Cancel algorithm (if specified on a Severance Process Template) is triggered when a Severance Process gets cancelled because a credit transaction has affected/relieved a Service Agreement's debt.   So what exactly was happening? Now we come to actual question as to what is the impact in having a user-defined customer event.   System defined/base customer events are hard-coded across the entire system. There is an impact even if you remove any customer event entry from the Look Up. User-defined customer events are not recognized by the system anywhere else except in the severance process, as described above.   There are few programs which have routines to first validate the completion of disconnection field activities, which were raised as a result of customer event CNP - Cut for Non-payment in order to perform other associated actions. One such program is the Post Cancel Algorithm, referenced on a Severance Process Template, generally used to reconnect services which were disconnected from other Severance Event, specifically CNP - Cut for Non-Payment. Post cancel algorithm provided by the product - SEV POST CAN does the following (below is the algorithm's description):   This algorithm is called after a severance process has been cancelled (typically because the debt was paid and the SA is no longer eligible to be on the severance process). It checks to see if the process has a completed 'disconnect' event and, if so, starts a reconnect process using the Reconnect Severance Process Template defined in the parameter.    Notice the underlined text. This algorithm implicitly checks for Field Activities having completed status, which were generated from Severance Events as a result of CNP - Cut for Non-payment customer event.   Now if we look back to the customer's issue, we can relate that the Post Cancel algorithm was triggered, but was not able to find any 'Completed' CNP - Cut for Non-payment related field activity. And hence was not able to start a reconnection severance process. This was because a field activity was generated and completed for a customer event CNPW - Cut for Non-payment of Water Services instead.   To conclude, if you introduce new customer events that extend or simulate base customer events, the ones that are included in the base product, ensure that there is no other impact either direct or indirect to other business functions that the application has to offer.  

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  • Subterranean IL: Generics and array covariance

    - by Simon Cooper
    Arrays in .NET are curious beasts. They are the only built-in collection types in the CLR, and SZ-arrays (single dimension, zero-indexed) have their own commands and IL syntax. One of their stranger properties is they have a kind of built-in covariance long before generic variance was added in .NET 4. However, this causes a subtle but important problem with generics. First of all, we need to briefly recap on array covariance. SZ-array covariance To demonstrate, I'll tweak the classes I introduced in my previous posts: public class IncrementableClass { public int Value; public virtual void Increment(int incrementBy) { Value += incrementBy; } } public class IncrementableClassx2 : IncrementableClass { public override void Increment(int incrementBy) { base.Increment(incrementBy); base.Increment(incrementBy); } } In the CLR, SZ-arrays of reference types are implicitly convertible to arrays of the element's supertypes, all the way up to object (note that this does not apply to value types). That is, an instance of IncrementableClassx2[] can be used wherever a IncrementableClass[] or object[] is required. When an SZ-array could be used in this fashion, a run-time type check is performed when you try to insert an object into the array to make sure you're not trying to insert an instance of IncrementableClass into an IncrementableClassx2[]. This check means that the following code will compile fine but will fail at run-time: IncrementableClass[] array = new IncrementableClassx2[1]; array[0] = new IncrementableClass(); // throws ArrayTypeMismatchException These checks are enforced by the various stelem* and ldelem* il instructions in such a way as to ensure you can't insert a IncrementableClass into a IncrementableClassx2[]. For the rest of this post, however, I'm going to concentrate on the ldelema instruction. ldelema This instruction pops the array index (int32) and array reference (O) off the stack, and pushes a pointer (&) to the corresponding array element. However, unlike the ldelem instruction, the instruction's type argument must match the run-time array type exactly. This is because, once you've got a managed pointer, you can use that pointer to both load and store values in that array element using the ldind* and stind* (load/store indirect) instructions. As the same pointer can be used for both input and output to the array, the type argument to ldelema must be invariant. At the time, this was a perfectly reasonable restriction, and maintained array type-safety within managed code. However, along came generics, and with it the constrained callvirt instruction. So, what happens when we combine array covariance and constrained callvirt? .method public static void CallIncrementArrayValue() { // IncrementableClassx2[] arr = new IncrementableClassx2[1] ldc.i4.1 newarr IncrementableClassx2 // arr[0] = new IncrementableClassx2(); dup newobj instance void IncrementableClassx2::.ctor() ldc.i4.0 stelem.ref // IncrementArrayValue<IncrementableClass>(arr, 0) // here, we're treating an IncrementableClassx2[] as IncrementableClass[] dup ldc.i4.0 call void IncrementArrayValue<class IncrementableClass>(!!0[],int32) // ... ret } .method public static void IncrementArrayValue<(IncrementableClass) T>( !!T[] arr, int32 index) { // arr[index].Increment(1) ldarg.0 ldarg.1 ldelema !!T ldc.i4.1 constrained. !!T callvirt instance void IIncrementable::Increment(int32) ret } And the result: Unhandled Exception: System.ArrayTypeMismatchException: Attempted to access an element as a type incompatible with the array. at IncrementArrayValue[T](T[] arr, Int32 index) at CallIncrementArrayValue() Hmm. We're instantiating the generic method as IncrementArrayValue<IncrementableClass>, but passing in an IncrementableClassx2[], hence the ldelema instruction is failing as it's expecting an IncrementableClass[]. On features and feature conflicts What we've got here is a conflict between existing behaviour (ldelema ensuring type safety on covariant arrays) and new behaviour (managed pointers to object references used for every constrained callvirt on generic type instances). And, although this is an edge case, there is no general workaround. The generic method could be hidden behind several layers of assemblies, wrappers and interfaces that make it a requirement to use array covariance when calling the generic method. Furthermore, this will only fail at runtime, whereas compile-time safety is what generics were designed for! The solution is the readonly. prefix instruction. This modifies the ldelema instruction to ignore the exact type check for arrays of reference types, and so it lets us take the address of array elements using a covariant type to the actual run-time type of the array: .method public static void IncrementArrayValue<(IncrementableClass) T>( !!T[] arr, int32 index) { // arr[index].Increment(1) ldarg.0 ldarg.1 readonly. ldelema !!T ldc.i4.1 constrained. !!T callvirt instance void IIncrementable::Increment(int32) ret } But what about type safety? In return for ignoring the type check, the resulting controlled mutability pointer can only be used in the following situations: As the object parameter to ldfld, ldflda, stfld, call and constrained callvirt instructions As the pointer parameter to ldobj or ldind* As the source parameter to cpobj In other words, the only operations allowed are those that read from the pointer; stind* and similar that alter the pointer itself are banned. This ensures that the array element we're pointing to won't be changed to anything untoward, and so type safety within the array is maintained. This is a typical example of the maxim that whenever you add a feature to a program, you have to consider how that feature interacts with every single one of the existing features. Although an edge case, the readonly. prefix instruction ensures that generics and array covariance work together and that compile-time type safety is maintained. Tune in next time for a look at the .ctor generic type constraint, and what it means.

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  • 7 Steps To Cut Recruiting Costs & Drive Exceptional Business Results

    - by Oracle Accelerate for Midsize Companies
    By Steve Viarengo, Vice President Product Management, Oracle Taleo Cloud Services  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 In good times, trimming operational costs is an ongoing goal. In tough times, it’s a necessity. In both good times and bad, however, recruiting occurs. Growth increases headcount in good times, and opportunistic or replacement hiring occurs in slow business cycles. By employing creative recruiting strategies in tandem with the latest technology developments, you can reduce recruiting costs while driving exceptional business results. Here are some critical areas to focus on. 1.  Target Direct Cost Savings Total recruiting process expenses are the sum of external costs plus internal labor costs. Most organizations can reduce recruiting expenses with direct cost savings. While additional savings on indirect costs can be realized from process improvement and efficiency gains, there are direct cost savings and benefits readily available in three broad areas: sourcing, assessments, and green recruiting. 2. Sourcing: Reduce Agency Costs Agency search firm fees can amount to 35 percent of a new employee’s annual base salary. Typically taken from the hiring department budget, these fees may not be visible to HR. By relying on internal mobility programs, referrals, candidate pipelines, and corporate career Websites, organizations can reduce or eliminate this agency spend. And when you do have to pay third-party agency fees, you can optimize the value you receive by collaborating with agencies to identify referred candidates, ensure access to candidate data and history, and receive automatic notifications and correspondence. 3. Sourcing: Reduce Advertising Costs You can realize significant cost reductions by placing all job positions on your corporate career Website. This will allow you to reap a substantial number of candidates at minimal cost compared to job boards and other sourcing options. 4.  Sourcing: Internal Talent Pool Internal talent pools provide a way to reduce sourcing and advertising costs while delivering improved productivity and retention. Internal redeployment reduces costs and ramp-up time while increasing retention and employee satisfaction. 5.  Sourcing: External Talent Pool Strategic recruiting requires identifying and matching people with a given set of skills to a particular job while efficiently allocating sourcing expenditures. By using an e-recruiting system (which drives external talent pool management) with a candidate relationship database, you can automate prescreening and candidate matching while communicating with targeted candidates. Candidate relationship management can lower sourcing costs by marketing new job opportunities to candidates sourced in the past. By mining the talent pool in this fashion, you eliminate the need to source a new pool of candidates for each new requisition. Managing and mining the corporate candidate database can reduce the sourcing cost per candidate by as much as 50 percent. 6.  Assessments: Reduce Turnover Costs By taking advantage of assessments during the recruitment process, you can achieve a range of benefits, including better productivity, superior candidate performance, and lower turnover (providing considerable savings). Assessments also save recruiter and hiring manager time by focusing on a short list of qualified candidates. Hired for fit, such candidates tend to stay with the organization and produce quality work—ultimately driving revenue.  7. Green Recruiting: Reduce Paper and Processing Costs You can reduce recruiting costs by automating the process—and making it green. A paperless process informs candidates that you’re dedicated to green recruiting. It also leads to direct cost savings. E-recruiting reduces energy use and pollution associated with manufacturing, transporting, and recycling paper products. And process automation saves energy in mailing, storage, handling, filing, and reporting tasks. Direct cost savings come from reduced paperwork related to résumés, advertising, and onboarding. Improving the recruiting process through sourcing, assessments, and green recruiting not only saves costs. It also positions the company to improve the talent base during the recession while retaining the ability to grow appropriately in recovery. /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}

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  • Tweaking Hudson memory usage

    - by rovarghe
    Hudson 3.1 has some performance optimizations that greatly reduces its memory footprint. Prior to this Hudson used to always hold the entire data model (all jobs and all builds) in memory which affected scalability. Some installations configured heap sizes in excess of 1GB to counteract this. Hudson 3.1.x maintains an MRU cache and only loads jobs and builds as they are required. Because of the inability to change existing APIs and be backward compatible with plugins, there were limits to how far we could go with this approach. Memory optimizations almost always come with a related cost, in this case its additional I/O that has to be performed to load data on request. On a small site that has frequent traffic, this is usually not noticeable since the MRU cache will usually hold on to all the data. A large site with infrequent traffic might experience some delays when the first request hits the server after a long gap. If you have a large heap and are able to allocate more memory, the cache settings can be adjusted to take advantage of this and even go back to pre-3.1 behavior. All the cache settings can be passed as options to the JVM container (Tomcat or the default Jetty container) using the -D option. There are two caches, independant of each other, one for Jobs and the other for Builds. For the jobs cache: hudson.jobs.cache.evict_in_seconds ( default=60 ) Seconds from last access (could be because of a servlet request or a background cron thread) a job should be purged from the cache. Set this to 0 to never purge based on time. hudson.jobs.cache.initial_capacity ( default=1024 ) Initial number of jobs the cache can accomodate. Setting this to the number of jobs you typically display on your Hudson landing page or home page will speed up consecutive access to that page. If the default is too large you may consider downsizing and using that memory for the Builds cache instead. hudson.jobs.cache.max_entries ( default=1024) Maximum number of jobs in the cache. The default is large enough for most installations, but if you find I/O activity when always accessing the hudson home page you might consider increasing this, but first verify if the I/O is caused by frequent eviction (see above), rather than by the cache not being large enough. For the builds cache: The builds cache is used to store Build objects as they are read from storage. Typically this happens when a user drills down into the details of a particular Job from the hudson hom epage. The cache is shared among builds for different jobs since in most installations all jobs are not accessed with the same frequency, so a per-job builds cache would be a waste of memory. hudson.job.builds.cache.evict_in_seconds ( default=60 ) Same as the equivalent Job cache, applied to Build. hudson.job.builds.cache.initial_capacity" ( default=512 ) Same as equivalent Job cache setting. Note the smaller initial size. If your site stores a large number of builds and has frequent access to more builds you might consider bumping this up. hudson.job.builds.cache.max_entries ( default=10240 ) The default max is large enough for most installations, the builds cache has bigger sized objects, so be careful about increasing the upper limit on this. See section on monitoring below. Sample usage: java -jar hudson-war-3.1.2-SNAPSHOT.war -Dhudson.jobs.cache.evict_in_seconds=300 \ -Dhudson.job.builds.cache.evict_in_seconds=300 Monitoring cache usage The 'jmap' tool that comes with the JDK can be used to monitor cache performance in an indirect way by looking at the number of Job and Build objects in each cache. Find the PID of the hudson instance and run $ jmap -histo:live <pid | grep 'hudson.model.*Lazy.*Key$' Here's a sample output: num #instances #bytes class name 523: 28 896 hudson.model.RunMap$LazyRunValue$Key 1200: 3 96 hudson.model.LazyTopLevelItem$Key These are the keys to the Jobs (LazyTopLevelItem$Key) and Builds (RunMap$LazyRunValue$Key) in the caches, so counting the number of keys is a good indicator of the number of items in the cache at any given moment. The size in bytes can be ignored, they are just the size of the keys, not the actual sizes of the objects they hold. Those sizes can only be obtained with a profiler. With the output above we can conclude that there are 3 jobs and 28 builds in memory. The 28 builds can all be from 1 job or all 3 jobs. Over time on an idle system, these should get evicted and memory cache should be empty. In practice, because of background cron threads and triggers, jobs rarely fall down to zero. Access of a job or a build by a cron thread resets the eviction timer.

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  • Trouble animating RadialGradientBrush in WPF

    - by emddudley
    I'm trying to animate a RadialGradientBrush in my application. I get the super helpful exception: Additional information: 'System.Windows.Style' value cannot be assigned to property 'Style' of object 'System.Windows.Controls.Border'. '[Unknown]' property does not point to a DependencyObject in path '(0).(1).[0].(2)'. Error at object 'System.Windows.Style' in markup file 'Eng.Modules.Core;component/system/grid/systemgridview.xaml' Line 252 Position 51. I know it's something wrong with the indirect property targeting or partial path qualification in my DoubleAnimation's Storyboard.TargetProperty attribute. Any ideas? <Border> <Border.Resources> <RadialGradientBrush x:Key="SomeBrush"> <RadialGradientBrush.GradientStops> <GradientStop Color="White" Offset="0" /> <GradientStop Color="Gold" Offset="1" /> </RadialGradientBrush.GradientStops> </RadialGradientBrush> </Border.Resources> <Border.Style> <Style TargetType="{x:Type Border}"> <Style.Triggers> <DataTrigger Binding="{Binding Path=IsEnabled, RelativeSource={RelativeSource Self}}" Value="True"> <Setter Property="Background" Value="{StaticResource SomeBrush}" /> <DataTrigger.EnterActions> <BeginStoryboard x:Name="SomeStoryBoard"> <Storyboard> <!-- RIGHT HERE --> <DoubleAnimation Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Border.Background).(GradientBrush.GradientStops)[0].(GradientStop.Offset)" From="0" To="1" Duration="0:0:1" RepeatBehavior="Forever" AutoReverse="True" /> </Storyboard> </BeginStoryboard> </DataTrigger.EnterActions> <DataTrigger.ExitActions> <RemoveStoryboard BeginStoryboardName="SomeStoryBoard" /> </DataTrigger.ExitActions> </DataTrigger> </Style.Triggers> </Style> </Border.Style> </Border>

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  • Succinct introduction to C++/CLI for C#/Haskell/F#/JS/C++/... programmer

    - by Henrik
    Hello everybody, I'm trying to write integrations with the operating system and with things like active directory and Ocropus. I know a bunch of programming languages, including those listed in the title. I'm trying to learn exactly how C++/CLI works, but can't find succinct, exact and accurate descriptions online from the searching that I have done. So I ask here. Could you tell me the pitfalls and features of C++/CLI? Assume I know all of C# and start from there. I'm not an expert in C++, so some of my questions' answers might be "just like C++", but could say that I am at C#. I would like to know things like: Converting C++ pointers to CLI pointers, Any differences in passing by value/doubly indirect pointers/CLI pointers from C#/C++ and what is 'recommended'. How do gcnew, __gc, __nogc work with Polymorphism Structs Inner classes Interfaces The "fixed" keyword; does that exist? Compiling DLLs loaded into the kernel with C++/CLI possible? Loaded as device drivers? Invoked by the kernel? What does this mean anyway (i.e. to load something into the kernel exactly; how do I know if it is?)? L"my string" versus "my string"? wchar_t? How many types of chars are there? Are we safe in treating chars as uint32s or what should one treat them as to guarantee language indifference in code? Finalizers (~ClassName() {}) are discouraged in C# because there are no garantuees they will run deterministically, but since in C++ I have to use "delete" or use copy-c'tors as to stack allocate memory, what are the recommendations between C#/C++ interactions? What are the pitfalls when using reflection in C++/CLI? How well does C++/CLI work with the IDisposable pattern and with SafeHandle, SafeHandleZeroOrMinusOneIsInvalid? I've read briefly about asynchronous exceptions when doing DMA-operations, what are these? Are there limitations you impose upon yourself when using C++ with CLI integration rather than just doing plain C++? Attributes in C++ similar to Attributes in C#? Can I use the full meta-programming patterns available in C++ through templates now and still have it compile like ordinary C++? Have you tried writing C++/CLI with boost? What are the optimal ways of interfacing the boost library with C++/CLI; can you give me an example of passing a lambda expression to an iterator/foldr function? What is the preferred way of exception handling? Can C++/CLI catch managed exceptions now? How well does dynamic IL generation work with C++/CLI? Does it run on Mono? Any other things I ought to know about?

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  • Succinct introduction to C++/CLI for C#/Haskell/F#/JS/C++/... programmer

    - by Henrik
    Hello everybody, I'm trying to write integrations with the operating system and with things like active directory and Ocropus. I know a bunch of programming languages, including those listed in the title. I'm trying to learn exactly how C++/CLI works, but can't find succinct, exact and accurate descriptions online from the searching that I have done. So I ask here. Could you tell me the pitfalls and features of C++/CLI? Assume I know all of C# and start from there. I'm not an expert in C++, so some of my questions' answers might be "just like C++", but could say that I am at C#. I would like to know things like: Converting C++ pointers to CLI pointers, Any differences in passing by value/doubly indirect pointers/CLI pointers from C#/C++ and what is 'recommended'. How do gcnew, __gc, __nogc work with Polymorphism Structs Inner classes Interfaces The "fixed" keyword; does that exist? Compiling DLLs loaded into the kernel with C++/CLI possible? Loaded as device drivers? Invoked by the kernel? What does this mean anyway (i.e. to load something into the kernel exactly; how do I know if it is?)? L"my string" versus "my string"? wchar_t? How many types of chars are there? Are we safe in treating chars as uint32s or what should one treat them as to guarantee language indifference in code? Finalizers (~ClassName() {}) are discouraged in C# because there are no garantuees they will run deterministically, but since in C++ I have to use "delete" or use copy-c'tors as to stack allocate memory, what are the recommendations between C#/C++ interactions? What are the pitfalls when using reflection in C++/CLI? How well does C++/CLI work with the IDisposable pattern and with SafeHandle, SafeHandleZeroOrMinusOneIsInvalid? I've read briefly about asynchronous exceptions when doing DMA-operations, what are these? Are there limitations you impose upon yourself when using C++ with CLI integration rather than just doing plain C++? Attributes in C++ similar to Attributes in C#? Can I use the full meta-programming patterns available in C++ through templates now and still have it compile like ordinary C++? Have you tried writing C++/CLI with boost? What are the optimal ways of interfacing the boost library with C++/CLI; can you give me an example of passing a lambda expression to an iterator/foldr function? What is the preferred way of exception handling? Can C++/CLI catch managed exceptions now? How well does dynamic IL generation work with C++/CLI? Does it run on Mono? Any other things I ought to know about?

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  • MVC 2 AntiForgeryToken - Why symmetric encryption + IPrinciple?

    - by Brad R
    We recently updated our solution to MVC 2, and this has updated the way that the AntiForgeryToken works. Unfortunately this does not fit with our AJAX framework any more. The problem is that MVC 2 now uses symmetric encryption to encode some properties about the user, including the user's Name property (from IPrincipal). We are able to securely register a new user using AJAX, after which subsequent AJAX calls will be invalid as the anti forgery token will change when the user has been granted a new principal. There are also other cases when this may happen, such as a user updating their name etc. My main question is why does MVC 2 even bother using symmetric encryption? Any then why does it care about the user name property on the principal? If my understanding is correct then any random shared secret will do. The basic principle is that the user will be sent a cookie with some specific data (HttpOnly!). This cookie is then required to match a form variable sent back with each request that may have side effects (POST's usually). Since this is only meant to protect from cross site attacks it is easy to craft up a response that would easily pass the test, but only if you had full access to the cookie. Since a cross site attacker is not going to have access to your user cookies you are protected. By using symmetric encryption, what is the advantage in checking the contents of the cookie? That is, if I already have sent an HttpOnly cookie the attacker cannot override it (unless a browser has a major security issue), so why do I then need to check it again? After having a think about it it appears to be one of those 'added layer of security' cases - but if your first line of defence has fallen (HttpOnly) then the attacker is going to get past the second layer anyway as they have full access to the users cookie collection, and could just impersonate them directly, instead of using an indirect XSS/CSRF attack. Of course I could be missing a major issue, but I haven't found it yet. If there are some obvious or subtle issues at play here then I would like to be aware of them.

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  • WTF is wtf? (in WebKit code base)

    - by Motti
    I downloaded Chromium's code base and ran across the WTF namespace. namespace WTF { /* * C++'s idea of a reinterpret_cast lacks sufficient cojones. */ template<typename TO, typename FROM> TO bitwise_cast(FROM in) { COMPILE_ASSERT(sizeof(TO) == sizeof(FROM), WTF_wtf_reinterpret_cast_sizeof_types_is_equal); union { FROM from; TO to; } u; u.from = in; return u.to; } } // namespace WTF Does this mean what I think it means? Could be so, the bitwise_cast implementation specified here will not compile if either TO or FROM is not a POD and is not (AFAIK) more powerful than C++ built in reinterpret_cast. The only point of light I see here is the nobody seems to be using bitwise_cast in the Chromium project. I see there's some legalese so I'll put in the little letters to keep out of trouble. /* * Copyright (C) 2008 Apple Inc. All Rights Reserved. * * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without * modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions * are met: * 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright * notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. * 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright * notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the * documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. * * THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY APPLE INC. ``AS IS'' AND ANY * EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE * IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR * PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL APPLE INC. OR * CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, * EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, * PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR * PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY * OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT * (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE * OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. */

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  • How to obtain a pointer out of a C++ vtable?

    - by Josh Haberman
    Say you have a C++ class like: class Foo { public: virtual ~Foo() {} virtual DoSomething() = 0; }; The C++ compiler translates a call into a vtable lookup: Foo* foo; // Translated by C++ to: // foo->vtable->DoSomething(foo); foo->DoSomething(); Suppose I was writing a JIT compiler and I wanted to obtain the address of the DoSomething() function for a particular instance of class Foo, so I can generate code that jumps to it directly instead of doing a table lookup and an indirect branch. My questions are: Is there any standard C++ way to do this (I'm almost sure the answer is no, but wanted to ask for the sake of completeness). Is there any remotely compiler-independent way of doing this, like a library someone has implemented that provides an API for accessing a vtable? I'm open to completely hacks, if they will work. For example, if I created my own derived class and could determine the address of its DoSomething method, I could assume that the vtable is the first (hidden) member of Foo and search through its vtable until I find my pointer value. However, I don't know a way of getting this address: if I write &DerivedFoo::DoSomething I get a pointer-to-member, which is something totally different. Maybe I could turn the pointer-to-member into the vtable offset. When I compile the following: class Foo { public: virtual ~Foo() {} virtual void DoSomething() = 0; }; void foo(Foo *f, void (Foo::*member)()) { (f->*member)(); } On GCC/x86-64, I get this assembly output: Disassembly of section .text: 0000000000000000 <_Z3fooP3FooMS_FvvE>: 0: 40 f6 c6 01 test sil,0x1 4: 48 89 74 24 e8 mov QWORD PTR [rsp-0x18],rsi 9: 48 89 54 24 f0 mov QWORD PTR [rsp-0x10],rdx e: 74 10 je 20 <_Z3fooP3FooMS_FvvE+0x20> 10: 48 01 d7 add rdi,rdx 13: 48 8b 07 mov rax,QWORD PTR [rdi] 16: 48 8b 74 30 ff mov rsi,QWORD PTR [rax+rsi*1-0x1] 1b: ff e6 jmp rsi 1d: 0f 1f 00 nop DWORD PTR [rax] 20: 48 01 d7 add rdi,rdx 23: ff e6 jmp rsi I don't fully understand what's going on here, but if I could reverse-engineer this or use an ABI spec I could generate a fragment like the above for each separate platform, as a way of obtaining a pointer out of a vtable.

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  • Converting C source to C++

    - by Barry Kelly
    How would you go about converting a reasonably large (300K), fairly mature C codebase to C++? The kind of C I have in mind is split into files roughly corresponding to modules (i.e. less granular than a typical OO class-based decomposition), using internal linkage in lieu private functions and data, and external linkage for public functions and data. Global variables are used extensively for communication between the modules. There is a very extensive integration test suite available, but no unit (i.e. module) level tests. I have in mind a general strategy: Compile everything in C++'s C subset and get that working. Convert modules into huge classes, so that all the cross-references are scoped by a class name, but leaving all functions and data as static members, and get that working. Convert huge classes into instances with appropriate constructors and initialized cross-references; replace static member accesses with indirect accesses as appropriate; and get that working. Now, approach the project as an ill-factored OO application, and write unit tests where dependencies are tractable, and decompose into separate classes where they are not; the goal here would be to move from one working program to another at each transformation. Obviously, this would be quite a bit of work. Are there any case studies / war stories out there on this kind of translation? Alternative strategies? Other useful advice? Note 1: the program is a compiler, and probably millions of other programs rely on its behaviour not changing, so wholesale rewriting is pretty much not an option. Note 2: the source is nearly 20 years old, and has perhaps 30% code churn (lines modified + added / previous total lines) per year. It is heavily maintained and extended, in other words. Thus, one of the goals would be to increase mantainability. [For the sake of the question, assume that translation into C++ is mandatory, and that leaving it in C is not an option. The point of adding this condition is to weed out the "leave it in C" answers.]

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  • Raid 1 array won't assemble after power outage. How do I fix this ext4 mirror?

    - by Forkrul Assail
    Two ext4 drives on Raid 1 with mdadm won't reassemble after the power went out for an extended period (UPS drained). After turning the machine back on, mdadm said that the array was degraded, after which it took about 2 days for a full resync, which completed without problems. On trying to remount the array I get: mount: you must specify the filesystem type cat /etc/fstab lines relevant to setup: /dev/md127 /media/mediapool ext4 defaults 0 0 dmesg | tail (on trying to mount) says: [ 1050.818782] EXT3-fs (md127): error: can't find ext3 filesystem on dev md127. [ 1050.849214] EXT4-fs (md127): VFS: Can't find ext4 filesystem [ 1050.944781] FAT-fs (md127): invalid media value (0x00) [ 1050.944782] FAT-fs (md127): Can't find a valid FAT filesystem [ 1058.272787] EXT2-fs (md127): error: can't find an ext2 filesystem on dev md127. cat /proc/mdstat says: Personalities : [raid1] [linear] [multipath] [raid0] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] [raid10] md127 : active (auto-read-only) raid1 sdj[2] sdi[0] 2930135360 blocks super 1.2 [2/2] [UU] unused devices: <none> fsck /dev/md127 says: fsck from util-linux 2.20.1 e2fsck 1.42 (29-Nov-2011) fsck.ext2: Superblock invalid, trying backup blocks... fsck.ext2: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/md127 The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2 filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2 filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock: e2fsck -b 8193 <device> mdadm -E /dev/sdi gives me: /dev/sdi: Magic : a92b4efc Version : 1.2 Feature Map : 0x0 Array UUID : 37ac1824:eb8a21f6:bd5afd6d:96da6394 Name : sojourn:33 Creation Time : Sat Nov 10 10:43:52 2012 Raid Level : raid1 Raid Devices : 2 Avail Dev Size : 5860271016 (2794.40 GiB 3000.46 GB) Array Size : 2930135360 (2794.39 GiB 3000.46 GB) Used Dev Size : 5860270720 (2794.39 GiB 3000.46 GB) Data Offset : 262144 sectors Super Offset : 8 sectors State : clean Device UUID : 3e6e9a4f:6c07ab3d:22d47fce:13cecfd0 Update Time : Tue Nov 13 20:34:18 2012 Checksum : f7d10db9 - correct Events : 27 Device Role : Active device 0 Array State : AA ('A' == active, '.' == missing) boot@boot ~ $ sudo mdadm -E /dev/sdj /dev/sdj: Magic : a92b4efc Version : 1.2 Feature Map : 0x0 Array UUID : 37ac1824:eb8a21f6:bd5afd6d:96da6394 Name : sojourn:33 Creation Time : Sat Nov 10 10:43:52 2012 Raid Level : raid1 Raid Devices : 2 Avail Dev Size : 5860271016 (2794.40 GiB 3000.46 GB) Array Size : 2930135360 (2794.39 GiB 3000.46 GB) Used Dev Size : 5860270720 (2794.39 GiB 3000.46 GB) Data Offset : 262144 sectors Super Offset : 8 sectors State : clean Device UUID : 7fb84af4:e9295f7b:ede61f27:bec0cb57 Update Time : Tue Nov 13 20:34:18 2012 Checksum : b9d17fef - correct Events : 27 Device Role : Active device 1 Array State : AA ('A' == active, '.' == missing) machine@user ~ dmesg | tail [ 61.785866] init: alsa-restore main process (2736) terminated with status 99 [ 68.433548] eth0: no IPv6 routers present [ 534.142511] EXT4-fs (sdi): ext4_check_descriptors: Block bitmap for group 0 not in group (block 2838187772)! [ 534.142518] EXT4-fs (sdi): group descriptors corrupted! [ 546.418780] EXT2-fs (sdi): error: couldn't mount because of unsupported optional features (240) [ 549.654127] EXT3-fs (sdi): error: couldn't mount because of unsupported optional features (240) Since this is Raid 1 it was suggested that I try and mount or fsck the drives separately. After a long fsck on one drive, it ended with this as tail: Illegal double indirect block (2298566437) in inode 39717736. CLEARED. Illegal block #4231180 (2611866932) in inode 39717736. CLEARED. Error storing directory block information (inode=39717736, block=0, num=1092368): Memory allocation failed Recreate journal? yes Creating journal (32768 blocks): Done. *** journal has been re-created - filesystem is now ext3 again *** The drive however still doesn't want to mount: dmesg | tail [ 170.674659] md: export_rdev(sdc) [ 170.675152] md: export_rdev(sdc) [ 195.275288] md: export_rdev(sdc) [ 195.275876] md: export_rdev(sdc) [ 1338.540092] CE: hpet increased min_delta_ns to 30169 nsec [26125.734105] EXT4-fs (sdc): ext4_check_descriptors: Checksum for group 0 failed (43502!=37987) [26125.734115] EXT4-fs (sdc): group descriptors corrupted! [26182.325371] EXT3-fs (sdc): error: couldn't mount because of unsupported optional features (240) [27083.316519] EXT4-fs (sdc): ext4_check_descriptors: Checksum for group 0 failed (43502!=37987) [27083.316530] EXT4-fs (sdc): group descriptors corrupted! Please help me fix this. I never in my wildest nightmares thought a complete mirror would die this badly. Am I missing something? Suggestions on fixing this? Could someone explain why it would resync after the powerout, only to seemingly nuke the drive? Thanks for reading. Any help much appreciated. I've tried everything I can think of, including booting and filesystem checking with SystemRescue and Ubuntu liveboot discs.

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  • The hidden cost of interrupting knowledge workers

    - by Piet
    The November issue of pragpub has an interesting article on interruptions. The article is written by Brian Tarbox, who also mentions the article on his blog. I like the subtitle: ‘Simple Strategies for Avoiding Dumping Your Mental Stack’. Brian talks about the effective cost of interrupting a ‘knowledge worker’, often with trivial questions or distractions. In the eyes of the interruptor, the interruption only costs the time the interrupted had to listen to the question and give an answer. However, depending on what the interrupted was doing at the time, getting fully immersed in their task again might take up to 15-20 minutes. Enough interruptions might even cause a knowledge worker to mentally call it a day. According to this article interruptions can consume about 28% of a knowledge worker’s time, translating in a $588 billion loss for US companies each year. Looking for a new developer to join your team? Ever thought about optimizing your team’s environment and the way they work instead? Making non knowledge workers aware You can’t. Well, I haven’t succeeded yet. And believe me: I’ve tried. When you’ve got a simple way to really increase your productivity (’give me 2 hours of uninterrupted time a day’) it wouldn’t be right not to tell your boss or team-leader about it. The problem is: only productive knowledge workers seem to understand this. People who don’t fall into this category just seem to think you’re joking, being arrogant or anti-social when you tell them the interruptions can really have an impact on your productivity. Also, knowledge workers often work in a very concentrated mental state which is described here as: It is the same mindfulness as ecstatic lovemaking, the merging of two into a fluidly harmonious one. The hallmark of flow is a feeling of spontaneous joy, even rapture, while performing a task. Yes, coding can be addictive and if you’re interrupting a programmer at the wrong moment, you’re effectively bringing down a junkie from his high in just a few seconds. This can result in seemingly arrogant, almost aggressive reactions. How to make people aware of the production-cost they’re inflicting: I’ve been often pondering that question myself. The article suggests that solutions based on that question never seem to work. To be honest: I’ve never even been able to find a half decent solution for this question. People who are not in this situations just don’t understand the issue, no matter how you try to explain it. Fun (?) thing I’ve noticed: Programmers or IT people in general who don’t get this are often the kind of people who just don’t get anything done. Interrupt handling (interruption management?) IRL Have non-urgent questions handled in a non-interruptive way It helps a bit to educate people into using non-interruptive ways to ask questions: “duh, I have no idea, but I’m a bit busy here now could you put it in an email so I don’t forget?”. Eventually, a considerable amount of people will skip interrupting you and just send an email right away. Some stubborn-headed people however will continue to just interrupt you, saying “you’re 10 meters from my desk, why can’t we just talk?”. Just remember to disable your email notifications, it can be hard to resist opening your email client when you know a new email just arrived. Use Do Not Disturb signals When working in a group of programmers, often the unofficial sign you can only be interrupted for something important is to put on headphones. And when the environment is quiet enough, often people aren’t even listening to music. Otherwise music can help to block the indirect distractions (someone else talking on the phone or tapping their feet). You might get a “they’re all just surfing and listening to music”-reaction from outsiders though. Peopleware talks about a team where the no-interruption sign was placing a shawl on the desk. If I remember correctly, I am unable to locate my copy of this really excellent must-read book. If you have all standardized on the same IM tool, maybe that tool has a ‘do not disturb’ setting. Also some phone-systems have a ‘DND’ (do not disturb) setting. Hide Brian offers a number of good suggestions, some obvious like: hide away somewhere they can’t find you. Not sure how long it’ll be till someone thinks you’re just taking a nap somewhere though. Also, this often isn’t possible or your boss might not understand this. And if you really get caught taking a nap, make sure to explain that your were powernapping. Counter-act interruptions Another suggestion he offers is when you’re being interrupted to just hold up your hand, blocking the interruption, and at least giving you time to finish your sentence or your block/line of code. The last suggestion works more as a way to make it obvious to the interruptor that they really are interrupting your work and to offload some of the cost on the interruptor. In practice, this can also helps you cool down a bit so you don’t start saying nasty things to the interruptor. Unfortunately I’ve sometimes been confronted with people who just ignore this signal and keep talking, as if they’re sure that whatever they’ve got to say is really worth listening to and without a doubt more important than anything you might be doing. This behaviour usually leaves me speechless (not good when someone just asked a question). I’ve noticed that these people are usually also the first to complain when being interrupted themselves. They’re generally not very liked as colleagues, so try not to imitate their behaviour. TDD as a way to minimize recovery time I don’t like Test Driven Development. Mainly for only one reason: It interrupts flow. At least, that’s what it does for me, but maybe I’m just not grown used to TDD yet. BUT a positive effect TDD has on me when I have to work in an interruptive environment and can’t really get into the ‘flow’ (also supposedly called ‘the zone’ by software developers, although I’ve never heard it 1st hand), TDD helps me to concentrate on the tasks at hand and helps me to get back at work after an interruption. I feel when using TDD, I can get by without the need for being totally ‘in’ the project and I can be reasonably productive without obtaining ‘flow’. Do you have a suggestion on how to make people aware of the concept of ‘flow’ and the cost of interruptions? (without looking like an arrogant ass or a weirdo)

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  • SQL SERVER – Faster SQL Server Databases and Applications – Power and Control with SafePeak Caching Options

    - by Pinal Dave
    Update: This blog post is written based on the SafePeak, which is available for free download. Today, I’d like to examine more closely one of my preferred technologies for accelerating SQL Server databases, SafePeak. Safepeak’s software provides a variety of advanced data caching options, techniques and tools to accelerate the performance and scalability of SQL Server databases and applications. I’d like to look more closely at some of these options, as some of these capabilities could help you address lagging database and performance on your systems. To better understand the available options, it is best to start by understanding the difference between the usual “Basic Caching” vs. SafePeak’s “Dynamic Caching”. Basic Caching Basic Caching (or the stale and static cache) is an ability to put the results from a query into cache for a certain period of time. It is based on TTL, or Time-to-live, and is designed to stay in cache no matter what happens to the data. For example, although the actual data can be modified due to DML commands (update/insert/delete), the cache will still hold the same obsolete query data. Meaning that with the Basic Caching is really static / stale cache.  As you can tell, this approach has its limitations. Dynamic Caching Dynamic Caching (or the non-stale cache) is an ability to put the results from a query into cache while maintaining the cache transaction awareness looking for possible data modifications. The modifications can come as a result of: DML commands (update/insert/delete), indirect modifications due to triggers on other tables, executions of stored procedures with internal DML commands complex cases of stored procedures with multiple levels of internal stored procedures logic. When data modification commands arrive, the caching system identifies the related cache items and evicts them from cache immediately. In the dynamic caching option the TTL setting still exists, although its importance is reduced, since the main factor for cache invalidation (or cache eviction) become the actual data updates commands. Now that we have a basic understanding of the differences between “basic” and “dynamic” caching, let’s dive in deeper. SafePeak: A comprehensive and versatile caching platform SafePeak comes with a wide range of caching options. Some of SafePeak’s caching options are automated, while others require manual configuration. Together they provide a complete solution for IT and Data managers to reach excellent performance acceleration and application scalability for  a wide range of business cases and applications. Automated caching of SQL Queries: Fully/semi-automated caching of all “read” SQL queries, containing any types of data, including Blobs, XMLs, Texts as well as all other standard data types. SafePeak automatically analyzes the incoming queries, categorizes them into SQL Patterns, identifying directly and indirectly accessed tables, views, functions and stored procedures; Automated caching of Stored Procedures: Fully or semi-automated caching of all read” stored procedures, including procedures with complex sub-procedure logic as well as procedures with complex dynamic SQL code. All procedures are analyzed in advance by SafePeak’s  Metadata-Learning process, their SQL schemas are parsed – resulting with a full understanding of the underlying code, objects dependencies (tables, views, functions, sub-procedures) enabling automated or semi-automated (manually review and activate by a mouse-click) cache activation, with full understanding of the transaction logic for cache real-time invalidation; Transaction aware cache: Automated cache awareness for SQL transactions (SQL and in-procs); Dynamic SQL Caching: Procedures with dynamic SQL are pre-parsed, enabling easy cache configuration, eliminating SQL Server load for parsing time and delivering high response time value even in most complicated use-cases; Fully Automated Caching: SQL Patterns (including SQL queries and stored procedures) that are categorized by SafePeak as “read and deterministic” are automatically activated for caching; Semi-Automated Caching: SQL Patterns categorized as “Read and Non deterministic” are patterns of SQL queries and stored procedures that contain reference to non-deterministic functions, like getdate(). Such SQL Patterns are reviewed by the SafePeak administrator and in usually most of them are activated manually for caching (point and click activation); Fully Dynamic Caching: Automated detection of all dependent tables in each SQL Pattern, with automated real-time eviction of the relevant cache items in the event of “write” commands (a DML or a stored procedure) to one of relevant tables. A default setting; Semi Dynamic Caching: A manual cache configuration option enabling reducing the sensitivity of specific SQL Patterns to “write” commands to certain tables/views. An optimization technique relevant for cases when the query data is either known to be static (like archive order details), or when the application sensitivity to fresh data is not critical and can be stale for short period of time (gaining better performance and reduced load); Scheduled Cache Eviction: A manual cache configuration option enabling scheduling SQL Pattern cache eviction based on certain time(s) during a day. A very useful optimization technique when (for example) certain SQL Patterns can be cached but are time sensitive. Example: “select customers that today is their birthday”, an SQL with getdate() function, which can and should be cached, but the data stays relevant only until 00:00 (midnight); Parsing Exceptions Management: Stored procedures that were not fully parsed by SafePeak (due to too complex dynamic SQL or unfamiliar syntax), are signed as “Dynamic Objects” with highest transaction safety settings (such as: Full global cache eviction, DDL Check = lock cache and check for schema changes, and more). The SafePeak solution points the user to the Dynamic Objects that are important for cache effectiveness, provides easy configuration interface, allowing you to improve cache hits and reduce cache global evictions. Usually this is the first configuration in a deployment; Overriding Settings of Stored Procedures: Override the settings of stored procedures (or other object types) for cache optimization. For example, in case a stored procedure SP1 has an “insert” into table T1, it will not be allowed to be cached. However, it is possible that T1 is just a “logging or instrumentation” table left by developers. By overriding the settings a user can allow caching of the problematic stored procedure; Advanced Cache Warm-Up: Creating an XML-based list of queries and stored procedure (with lists of parameters) for periodically automated pre-fetching and caching. An advanced tool allowing you to handle more rare but very performance sensitive queries pre-fetch them into cache allowing high performance for users’ data access; Configuration Driven by Deep SQL Analytics: All SQL queries are continuously logged and analyzed, providing users with deep SQL Analytics and Performance Monitoring. Reduce troubleshooting from days to minutes with database objects and SQL Patterns heat-map. The performance driven configuration helps you to focus on the most important settings that bring you the highest performance gains. Use of SafePeak SQL Analytics allows continuous performance monitoring and analysis, easy identification of bottlenecks of both real-time and historical data; Cloud Ready: Available for instant deployment on Amazon Web Services (AWS). As you can see, there are many options to configure SafePeak’s SQL Server database and application acceleration caching technology to best fit a lot of situations. If you’re not familiar with their technology, they offer free-trial software you can download that comes with a free “help session” to help get you started. You can access the free trial here. Also, SafePeak is available to use on Amazon Cloud. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Performance, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL

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