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  • Quartz.Net Writing your first Hello World Job

    - by Tarun Arora
    In this blog post I’ll be covering, 01: A few things to consider before you should schedule a Job using Quartz.Net 02: Setting up your solution to use Quartz.Net API 03: Quartz.Net configuration 04: Writing & scheduling a hello world job with Quartz.Net If you are new to Quartz.Net I would recommend going through, A brief introduction to Quartz.net Walkthrough of Installing & Testing Quartz.Net as a Windows Service A few things to consider before you should schedule a Job using Quartz.Net - An instance of the scheduler service - A trigger - And last but not the least a job For example, if I wanted to schedule a script to run on the server, I should be jotting down answers to the below questions, a. Considering there are multiple machines set up with Quartz.Net windows service, how can I choose the instance of Quartz.Net where I want my script to be run b. What will trigger the execution of the job c. How often do I want the job to run d. Do I want the job to run right away or start after a delay or may be have the job start at a specific time e. What will happen to my job if Quartz.Net windows service is reset f. Do I want multiple instances of this job to run concurrently g. Can I pass parameters to the job being executed by Quartz.Net windows service Setting up your solution to use Quartz.Net API 1. Create a new C# Console Application project and call it “HelloWorldQuartzDotNet” and add a reference to Quartz.Net.dll. I use the NuGet Package Manager to add the reference. This can be done by right clicking references and choosing Manage NuGet packages, from the Nuget Package Manager choose Online from the left panel and in the search box on the right search for Quartz.Net. Click Install on the package “Quartz” (Screen shot below). 2. Right click the project and choose Add New Item. Add a new Interface and call it ‘IScheduledJob.cs’. Mark the Interface public and add the signature for Run. Your interface should look like below. namespace HelloWorldQuartzDotNet { public interface IScheduledJob { void Run(); } }   3. Right click the project and choose Add new Item. Add a class and call it ‘Scheduled Job’. Use this class to implement the interface ‘IscheduledJob.cs’. Look at the pseudo code in the implementation of the Run method. using System; namespace HelloWorldQuartzDotNet { class ScheduledJob : IScheduledJob { public void Run() { // Get an instance of the Quartz.Net scheduler // Define the Job to be scheduled // Associate a trigger with the Job // Assign the Job to the scheduler throw new NotImplementedException(); } } }   I’ll get into the implementation in more detail, but let’s look at the minimal configuration a sample configuration file for Quartz.Net service to work. Quartz.Net configuration In the App.Config file copy the below configuration <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <configuration> <configSections> <section name="quartz" type="System.Configuration.NameValueSectionHandler, System, Version=1.0.5000.0,Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" /> </configSections> <quartz> <add key="quartz.scheduler.instanceName" value="ServerScheduler" /> <add key="quartz.threadPool.type" value="Quartz.Simpl.SimpleThreadPool, Quartz" /> <add key="quartz.threadPool.threadCount" value="10" /> <add key="quartz.threadPool.threadPriority" value="2" /> <add key="quartz.jobStore.misfireThreshold" value="60000" /> <add key="quartz.jobStore.type" value="Quartz.Simpl.RAMJobStore, Quartz" /> </quartz> </configuration>   As you can see in the configuration above, I have included the instance name of the quartz scheduler, the thread pool type, count and priority, the job store type has been defined as RAM. You have the option of configuring that to ADO.NET JOB store. More details here. Writing & scheduling a hello world job with Quartz.Net Once fully implemented the ScheduleJob.cs class should look like below. I’ll walk you through the details of the implementation… - GetScheduler() uses the name of the quartz.net and listens on localhost port 555 to try and connect to the quartz.net windows service. - Run() an attempt is made to start the scheduler in case it is in standby mode - I have defined a job “WriteHelloToConsole” (that’s the name of the job), this job belongs to the group “IT”. Think of group as a logical grouping feature. It helps you bucket jobs into groups. Quartz.Net gives you the ability to pause or delete all jobs in a group (We’ll look at that in some of the future posts). I have requested for recovery of this job in case the quartz.net service fails over to the other node in the cluster. The jobType is “HelloWorldJob”. This is the class that would be called to execute the job. More details on this below… - I have defined a trigger for my job. I have called the trigger “WriteHelloToConsole”. The Trigger works on the cron schedule “0 0/1 * 1/1 * ? *” which means fire the job once every minute. I would recommend that you look at www.cronmaker.com a free and great website to build and parse cron expressions. The trigger has a priority 1. So, if two jobs are run at the same time, this trigger will have high priority and will be run first. - Use the Job and Trigger to schedule the job. This method returns a datetime offeset. It is possible to see the next fire time for the job from this variable. using System.Collections.Specialized; using System.Configuration; using Quartz; using System; using Quartz.Impl; namespace HelloWorldQuartzDotNet { class ScheduledJob : IScheduledJob { public void Run() { // Get an instance of the Quartz.Net scheduler var schd = GetScheduler(); // Start the scheduler if its in standby if (!schd.IsStarted) schd.Start(); // Define the Job to be scheduled var job = JobBuilder.Create<HelloWorldJob>() .WithIdentity("WriteHelloToConsole", "IT") .RequestRecovery() .Build(); // Associate a trigger with the Job var trigger = (ICronTrigger)TriggerBuilder.Create() .WithIdentity("WriteHelloToConsole", "IT") .WithCronSchedule("0 0/1 * 1/1 * ? *") // visit http://www.cronmaker.com/ Queues the job every minute .WithPriority(1) .Build(); // Assign the Job to the scheduler var schedule = schd.ScheduleJob(job, trigger); Console.WriteLine("Job '{0}' scheduled for '{1}'", "", schedule.ToString("r")); } // Get an instance of the Quartz.Net scheduler private static IScheduler GetScheduler() { try { var properties = new NameValueCollection(); properties["quartz.scheduler.instanceName"] = "ServerScheduler"; // set remoting expoter properties["quartz.scheduler.proxy"] = "true"; properties["quartz.scheduler.proxy.address"] = string.Format("tcp://{0}:{1}/{2}", "localhost", "555", "QuartzScheduler"); // Get a reference to the scheduler var sf = new StdSchedulerFactory(properties); return sf.GetScheduler(); } catch (Exception ex) { Console.WriteLine("Scheduler not available: '{0}'", ex.Message); throw; } } } }   The above highlighted values have been taken from the Quartz.config file, this file is available in the Quartz.net server installation directory. Implementation of my HelloWorldJob Class below. The HelloWorldJob class gets called to execute the job “WriteHelloToConsole” using the once every minute trigger set up for this job. The HelloWorldJob is a class that implements the interface IJob. I’ll walk you through the details of the implementation… - context is passed to the method execute by the quartz.net scheduler service. This has everything you need to pull out the job, trigger specific information. - for example. I have pulled out the value of the jobKey name, the fire time and next fire time. using Quartz; using System; namespace HelloWorldQuartzDotNet { class HelloWorldJob : IJob { public void Execute(IJobExecutionContext context) { try { Console.WriteLine("Job {0} fired @ {1} next scheduled for {2}", context.JobDetail.Key, context.FireTimeUtc.Value.ToString("r"), context.NextFireTimeUtc.Value.ToString("r")); Console.WriteLine("Hello World!"); } catch (Exception ex) { Console.WriteLine("Failed: {0}", ex.Message); } } } }   I’ll add a call to call the scheduler in the Main method in Program.cs using System; using System.Threading; namespace HelloWorldQuartzDotNet { class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { try { var sj = new ScheduledJob(); sj.Run(); Thread.Sleep(10000 * 10000); } catch (Exception ex) { Console.WriteLine("Failed: {0}", ex.Message); } } } }   This was third in the series of posts on enterprise scheduling using Quartz.net, in the next post I’ll be covering how to pass parameters to the scheduled task scheduled on Quartz.net windows service. Thank you for taking the time out and reading this blog post. If you enjoyed the post, remember to subscribe to http://feeds.feedburner.com/TarunArora. Stay tuned!

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  • CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, April 12, 2010

    CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, April 12, 2010New Projects3 Hour Game Design Contest: The 3 Hour Game Design Contest is a programming contest for making simple games in 3 hours. 3 hours may not seem like enough time to make a game, b...BI Monkey SSIS ETL Framework: The BI Monkey SSIS ETL Framework is an ETL Execution, Control and Logging system for ETL projects using SSIS. It is supported by a SQL Server metad...Blend Sample Data Helpers: Helper behavior classes to generate sample images and data from Internet sources such as Flickr images. Bold TCP for Delphi 7: Open Sourcing the Bold TCP for Delphi 7.cfThreadingTools: This library project contains classes and extensions which will allow easy handling of multi-threaded UI-accesses.CuBiX_SDL: CuBiX_SDL : CuBiX est un projet personnel.Draglets: Draglets makes it easier for editors and CMS-developers to move and reorder content at their web sites. It's developed in ASP.NET, C# with WCF and ...DSQLT - Dynamic SQL Templates: DSQLT - Dynamic SQL Templates Use Stored Procedures as templates for dynamic SQL statements. Substitute parameters @0-@9 with values like objectna...Edtter: Edtter is a sample web application built on ASP.NET MVC 2 Framework. (Japanese Version Only)Forms Based Authentication Management - SharePoint2007FBA: This is my own update to Stacy Draper's FBABasic project for Forms Based Authentication in MOSS 2007. In additon to managing your fba user's roles,...Height Map to 3D World at XNA: Height Map to 3D World is a XNA project that developed firstly by Eric Grossinger and secondly improved by Karadeniz Technical University Computer ...HouseFly: A simple contact and note taking applicationITM 495 - iPhone Web App: School ProjectKaufleute: This will be finished laterLR: this project is about connecting toPowerShell Integration Services: A set of tools aimed at Extract Transform and Load tasks. Focused on getting the most common ETL tasks done without SSIS. Salient: A collection of, hopefully, useful libraries.Samurai.Validation: Extensible and flexible .Net object validation frameworkSamurai.Workflow: Samurai Workflow is a slim, easy-to-use workflow framework for WPF applications.SharePoint User Management WebPart: SharePoint User Management WebPartUrl shorte(ne)r: It's simple Url Shortener (like: http://tinyurl.com) Currently only Polish language is supported. In future will be provided multi language suppor...Yasbg: Yasbg (pronounced yas-bug) is Yet Another Static Blog Generator. It is made in C# using MarkdownSharp for markdown. Currently in alpha. New Releases.NET Extensions - Extension Methods Library: Release 2010.06: Added an universal approach for grouping extension methods like conversions. Conversion are now available on any data type (it's actually extension...3 Hour Game Design Contest: 3H-GDC mVII: This is the collection of game files for the 7th 3H-GDCB&W Port Scanner: Black`n`White Port Scanner 3.0: B&W Port Scanner 3 includes FTP Server detection tool, Better stability, Optimized memory management, Saving & Opening Result sets ... and more new...BI Monkey SSIS ETL Framework: Framework v1 Alpha: This Alpha release is not fully tested and some functionality is not operating as intended.Bluetooth Radar: Version 1.7: UI Changes Device UserControl Randomly placed devices.BugTracker.NET: BugTracker.NET 3.4.1: For the tasks/time tracking feature, added a way of viewing all the tasks at once, not just the tasks for one bug. Also added a way of exporting a...cfThreadingTools: cfThreadingTools 0.1.1.8: This is the first public available release. Following items are included: BaseTools-class which allows thread-safe setting of properties and callin...DeepZoom Pivot Constructor: DeepZoom Pivot Constructor v0.1: This is a test release of the library platform - Targets .NET 3.5 No samples yet, etc., but it works well :-)DSQLT - Dynamic SQL Templates: Initial release with License Included: nothing changed but license print procedure included the zip file contains database backup SQL script readmeForms Based Authentication Management - SharePoint2007FBA: SharePoint2007FBA 1.0.0.0: Downloads for the Project solution and the WSP package. Please read the Setup Guide. If you are unfamiliar with setting up Forms Based Authenticati...Foursquare BlogEngine Widget: foursquare widget for BlogEngine.NET version 0.3: To see the changes which have been made, visit http://philippkueng.ch/post/Foursquare-BlogEngineNET-widget-version-03.aspx For installation instruc...Framework Detector: FrameworkDetect Support .NET 4 v2: FrameworkDetect Support .NET 4Happy Turtle Plugins for BVI :: Repository Based Versioning for Visual Studio: Happy Turtle 1.0.46860: This is the second beta release of the SVN based version incrementor. Please feel free to create a thread in the discussion tabs and provide feedb...Height Map to 3D World at XNA: 3DWorld: Just open .rar file and extract it any folder and run Proje2Dto3D.exe file.HTML Ruby: 6.20.2: Removed rubyLineSpace option Improved options panel Fixed ruby text font-size rendering issue with complex ruby annotation Removed more waste...HTML Ruby: 6.20.3: Removed unused code Temporary partial fix for Firefox 3.7a4pre nightly buildHTML Ruby: 6.21.0: Added support for current HTML5 ruby annotation format. All ruby annotations are converted to XHTML 1.1 complex ruby annotation.Kooboo HTML form: Kooboo HTML Form Module for 2.1.0.0: Compatible with Kooboo cms 2.1.0.0 Upgrade to MVC 2Kooboo Menu: Kooboo CMS Menu for 2.1.0.0: Compatible with Kooboo cms 2.1.0.0 Upgrade to MVC 2Kooboo Meta: Kooboo Meta Module for 2.1.0.0: Compatible with Kooboo cms 2.1.0.0 Upgrade to MVC 2Kooboo PageMenu: Kooboo CMS PageMenu for 2.1.0.0: Compatible with Kooboo cms 2.1.0.0 Upgrade to MVC 2Kooboo Search: Kooboo CMS Search module for 2.1.0.0: Compatible with Kooboo cms 2.1.0.0 Upgrade to MVC 2Numina Application/Security Framework: Numina.Framework Core 50212: Added bulk import user page Added General settings page for updating Company Name, Theme, and API Key Add/Edit application calls Full URL to h...Rawr: Rawr 2.3.14: - Rawr3: Tons of fixes for Rawr3 compatability and UI. - Significant performance improvements all around. - More fixes and improvements to Wowhea...Rich Ajax empowered Web/Cloud Applications: 6.4 beta 2: The first fully featured version of Visual webGui offering web/cloud development tool that puts all ASP.NET Ajax limits behind with enhanced perfor...SharePoint User Management WebPart: User Management Web part 1.0: Most of the organization have one SharePoint Site which is configured with windows authenticated which is for internal employees having AD authenti...SkeinLibManaged: SkeinLibManaged 1.1.0.0 (Beta): This is the compiled DLL with XML documentation, so there should be plenty of context sensitive help and Intellisense. This is the Release version,...VCC: Latest build, v2.1.30411.0: Automatic drop of latest buildVFPX: Code References 1.1 Beta: Visit the Code References Info Page for complete information about this release.VisioAutomation: VisioAutomation 2.5.0: VisioAutomation 2.5.0- General cleanup/bugfixes - Many low-level changes the the VisioAutomation extension methods - these are far fewer now - This...Visual Studio DSite: English To Spanish Translator (Visual C++ 2008): A simple english to spanish translator made in visual c 2008, using the Google Translate API.WatchersNET CKEditor™ Provider for DotNetNuke: CKEditor Provider 1.10.00: Whats NewFile Browser: Inherits Folder Permissions from DotNetNuke Updated the Editor to Version 3.2.1 revision 5372 Added CkEditor jQuery Adap...Web/Cloud Applications Development Framework | Visual WebGui: 6.4 beta 2: The first fully featured version of Visual webGui offering web/cloud development tool that puts all ASP.NET Ajax limits behind with unique develope...WPF Data Virtualization: 1.0.0.0: First ReleaseYasbg: Yasbg Alpha: ReadmeYet Another Static Blog Generator is a command line utility that generates static html files for blogs. Currently, it is NOT feed enabled. I...異世界の新着動画: Ver. 10-04-12: ニコ生の仕様変更に対応 アンケート時間の設定追加Most Popular ProjectsWBFS ManagerRawrASP.NET Ajax LibraryMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: DatabaseAJAX Control ToolkitSilverlight ToolkitWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)ASP.NETMicrosoft SQL Server Community & SamplesFacebook Developer ToolkitMost Active ProjectsRawrnopCommerce. Open Source online shop e-commerce solution.AutoPocopatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryShweet: SharePoint 2010 Team Messaging built with PexFarseer Physics EngineNB_Store - Free DotNetNuke Ecommerce Catalog ModuleIonics Isapi Rewrite FilterBlogEngine.NETBeanProxy

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  • AutoVue Integrates with Primavera P6

    - by celine.beck
    Oracle's Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management is an integrated project portfolio management (PPM) application that helps select the right strategic mix of projects, balance resource capacity, manage project risk and complete projects on time and within budget. AutoVue 19.3 and later versions (release 20.0) now integrate out of the box with the Web version of Oracle Primavera P6 release 7. The integration between the two products, which was announced during Oracle Open World 2009, provides project teams with ready access to any project documents directly from within the context of P6 in support for project scope definition and project planning and execution. You can learn more about the integration between AutoVue and Primavera P6 by: Listening to the Oracle Appcast entitled Enhance Primavera Project Document Collaboration with AutoVue Enterprise Visualization Watching an Oracle Webcast about how to improve project success with document visualization and collaboration Watching a recorded demo of the integrated solution Teams involved in complex projects like construction or plant shutdown activities are highly interdependent: the decisions of one affecting the actions of many others. This coupled with increasing project complexity, a vast array of players and heavy engineering and document-intensive workflows makes it more challenging to complete jobs on time and within budget. Organizations need complete visibility into project information, as well as robust project planning, risk analysis and resource balancing capabilities similar to those featured in Primavera P6 ; they also need to make sure that all project stakeholders, even those who neither understand engineering drawings nor are interested in engineering details that go beyond their specific needs, have ready access to technically advanced project information. This is exactly what the integration between AutoVue and Primavera delivers: ready access to any project information attached to Primavera projects, tasks or activities via AutoVue. There is no need for users to waste time searching for project-related documents or disrupting engineers for printouts, users have all the context they need to make sound decisions right from within Primavera P6 with a single click of a button. We are very excited about this new integration. If you are using Primavera and / or Primavera tied with AutoVue, we would be interested in getting your feedback on this integration! Please do not hesitate to post your comments / reactions on the blog!

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  • Letter to Ballmer: Making Better Consumer Devices

    - by andrewbrust
    Last year, I wrote Steve Ballmer an email, and he was kind enough to write me back.  The email contained a scan of a column I wrote praising Microsoft’s BI strategy.  His reply contained three simple words: “Super nice  thanks.” Well, now I’d like to write to Steve again, in an open letter format, and this time the love may be a bit tougher.  But I’m still super earnest. The past two days have been eventful ones for Microsoft: The company announced the departure of company veterans Robbie Bach and J Allard and the market announced Apple is now besting Microsoft in market capitalization. Plus, announcements were made that make it plain that Ballmer will, in effect, be running Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices division himself. With that in mind, I’d like to offer my list of a dozen things I think Microsoft’s CEO should do to improve that division’s offerings and, hopefully, its bottom line. So here goes:   1. On Windows Phone 7, Stay the Course The press is teeming with headlines and reader comments proclaiming the death-before-arrival of Windows Phone 7.  That’s plain silly.  You’ve got the makings of a great and unique SmartPhone platform, and you’re the only company (even considering RIM) that can offer full fidelity Exchange integration, not to mention implementing Office on the device.  Let the existing team finish this puppy and ship it. And then have them pump out a few updates, over-the-air, quickly.  Show them that Google Android’s not the only product that can do good, rapid dot releases. And another thing: make sure your OEMs’ devices have flawless touch screens.  If they don’t, then you shouldn’t certify them for delivery to customers.  Period. Oh, and kill the Kin, quietly.  It was DOA, and you know it.   2. Move Media Center to the Xbox Platform Media Center is, at its core, a good product.  But delivering a media distribution and DVR platform on a sophisticated PC operating system like Windows 7 just creates too many moving parts.  Xbox already functions as the best Media Center extender device – it should actually be the hub as well. Media Center is mostly based on .NET code – and XNA is a .NET environment for Xbox – find a way to bridge that small gap and make Media Center a joy to work with instead of a frustration.  Beating Apple TV out of this sub-market is the lowest hanging fruit on the tree (goofy pun, but it’s true).   3. Integrate Media Center with Mediaroom, or Kill the Latter You have two media products with almost identical names.  One is for standalone DVRs and the other is for IPTV cable set tops with DVR capabilities.  Can we merge these please?  My previous request of putting Media Center on Xbox would seem to tie into this nicely, since you’ve announced plans to do that with Mediaroom already.   4. Fix the Red Ring of Death People love the Xbox, but they really don’t love sending their consoles back every 18-24 months, when they get a bunch of red lights flashing on power up.  You’ve handled this defect about as gracefully as possible, but it’s been around for a long time now and it doesn’t seem to be fixed yet.  You can do better.  In fact, you must do better, or you insult your customers.   5. Add Blu Ray to Xbox I know, streaming movies are the future; physical media is legacy technology.  So if that’s true, why did you back HD DVD so hard?  You know why: for now, the film studios won’t allow a large selection of new release, HD, surround sound content be distributed on any medium other than Blu Ray or cable pay per view/on-demand.  Don’t you want home theater buffs to see the Xbox as a fantastic device for their rigs?  Don’t you want to put PlayStation 3 out of its misery?  And if you follow my suggestions above (move Media Center to the Xbox and fix the Red Ring problem), you’d have it all sewn up.  Do I think Blu Ray functionality will move a lot of units?  No.  Do I think that it would move more units with desperately needed influential home theater consumers?  You bet.  And you might sell more ZunePass subscriptions in the process. But while you’re at it, make the fan quieter, please.   6. Make More of Windows Home Server Home Server is a fantastic product.  And for reasons unknown to me, it seems like you’re letting it languish.  Development of the add-in ecosystem seems underfunded.  WHS’ unparalleled ease of use and reliability for home PC backup (and emergency restores) goes unsung.  Product cycles are slow.  Support for your OEMs, who are doing great work, especially in the green space with Atom CPUs, seems lacking.  You’ve married a trophy girl and you keep her cloistered at home!  That’s cruel, unusual and, um, incredibly ill-advised.  Make use of this ace card, and while you’re at it, give it real integration with Media Center.  The integration thus far proof-of-concept quality.  You should go way past that – both products will benefit immeasurably.   7. Set Up a Partner Platform for Custom Installers There’s a whole sub-industry of companies that install, integrate and configure home theater, security and connected home products.  They have an industry group. They are influential in the high-end of the consumer electronics industry, and so are their customers.  They love Media Center and they love Windows Home Server.  But I have talked to several of them at the Consumer Electronics Show and they tell me you don’t love them.  They find it very difficult to do business with Microsoft, even though they want nothing more than to sell and evangelize your platform.  This is a travesty.  Please fix it.  Get Allison Watson and the Microsoft Partner Network on board and have her hire someone who knows how to run a channel program for consumer electronics companies.  Problem solved.  Markets expanded.   8. Make Your Own Hardware In other areas, I know you love your partners.  I help run one, so I appreciate that.  But when it came to Xbox and Zune you built them it yourself (albeit on a contract basis, which is fine).  Windows Phone 7 has a chance to work as an OEM play, but it would work better if you produced the devices.  At least consider building a reference device that sells alongside your OEMs’ offerings.  That’s what Google did with the Nexxus One.  And while that phone was not itself a big seller, it catalyzed two wonderful things : (1) a quality bar was set and (2) partners exceeded it.  Before the Nexxus One, the best Android handset out there was the Motorola Droid. The Nexxus One was better, and the HTC Droid Incredible and Evo 4G are now even better than Google’s phone, which is why Verizon and Sprint decided not to carry it.  Imagine if all Windows Phone 6.x devices were on par with the HTC HD2.  I tend to believe you’d have a lot bigger market share than you do now.   9. Continue with Your Retail Initiative From what I hear, it sounds like it’s going well.  And this goes right along with making your own hardware.  When you build it, they will come.  And then it makes the likes of Best Buy and Staples do better.   10. Make an Acquisition (or Two) TiVo and/or Moxi look ripe for the picking.  With their ability to build stuff people love and your ability to run a business, you might just have something.  But do a better job than you did when you bought Danger.  Buy the ideas, not just the customers, eh?   11. Make Beautiful Stuff You’ve heard this one before, I know.  But I have some head-shrinking advice on this one.  You know that Apple obsesses over its industrial design.  You know that appeals to consumers.  But it seems you think doing so is Apple’s game exclusively and so you shouldn’t even try.  Bull dinky.  Come to New York and visit the Museum of Modern Art’s Architecture and Design gallery.  You’ll see that lots of companies and product categories have had very high design value well before Apple existed.  You can do this, and the Zune HD was a great start.  Now run with that.  Find those negative voices in your head that are telling you that you can’t and shut them up.  For good.   12. Burst the Bubble Some of the products you’ve built seem like they were conceived in a bizarro world.  That would appear to be the result of groupthink.  You must do better.  And there’s lots of people willing to advise you.  This includes just about everyone in the Regional Director program, and probably a bunch of MVPs.  Heck, I bet the guys at Engadget could help out too.  Imagine if you let them see the Kin before it shipped.  Talk to high-end gear consumers.  Talk to Best Buy and CostCo customers too.   Signing Off I hope this was of value to you.  As I wrote this I kept telling myself how obvious, even trite, some of these pieces of advice were and then, because of that, doubting they’d really help.  But I decided that they must not be obvious to Microsoft.  Sometimes when you get wrapped up in stuff, it’s hard to clear your head.  I think my head’s pretty clear here though (I’m wrapped up in other stuff), so maybe my perspective can help.  If not, well, then, I guess they all can’t be super nice.

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  • SQL SERVER – Fastest Way to Restore the Database

    - by pinaldave
    A few days ago, I received following email: “Pinal, We are in an emergency situation. We have a large database of around 80+ GB and its backup is of 50+ GB in size. We need to restore this database ASAP and use it; however, restoring the database takes forever. Do you think a compressed backup would solve our problem? Any other ideas you got?” First of all, the asker has already answered his own question. Yes; I have seen that if you are using a compressed backup, it takes lesser time when you try to restore a database. I have previously blogged about the same subject. Here are the links to those blog posts: SQL SERVER – Data and Page Compressions – Data Storage and IO Improvement SQL SERVER – 2008 – Introduction to Row Compression SQL SERVER – 2008 – Introduction to New Feature of Backup Compression However, if your database is very large that it still takes a few minutes to restore the database even though you use any of the features listed above, then it will really take some time to restore the database. If there is urgency and there is no time you can spare for restoring the database, then you can use the wonderful tool developed by Idera called virtual database. This tool restores a certain database in just a few seconds so it will readily be available for usage. I have in depth written my experience with this tool in the article here SQL SERVER – Retrieve and Explore Database Backup without Restoring Database – Idera virtual database. Let me know your experience in this scenario. Have you ever needed your database backup restored very quickly, what did you do in that scenario. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, Readers Question, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Backup and Restore, SQL Performance, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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  • push email / email server tutorial

    - by David A
    Does anyone happen to know the current status of push email in the linux world? From my searching at the moment I have seen Z-push http://www.ifusio.com/blog/setup-your-own-push-mail-server-with-z-push-on-debian-linux and https://peterkieser.com/2011/03/25/androids-k-9-mail-battery-life-and-dovecots-push-imap/ Are there other solutions? Does anyone have any experiences with these? They're somewhat different in that Z-push seems to work in conjunction with an existing imap server? Some time ago I did manage to compile and build Dovecot 2 (since only Dovecot 1 was available in the Ubuntu repos at the time), it would have been a real fluke because I had no idea what I was doing but it seemed to work well with my mobile phone, that said, I can't say for sure that it was pushing, but it seemed like it. Anyway, I'm here again and looking to set up a mail server. I'm hoping to do a better of a job this time around with virtual users and such. Without installing ispconfig3 (or something similar), does anyone have any recent email server tutorials (that cover all aspects MTA, MDA...) that can supply push email on a Ubuntu 12.04 server? (I'm probably of slightly above newb status, but not far) Thanks a bunch

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  • Google tweets – Now search twitter archives using Google

    - by samsudeen
    Google has launched a Twitter archive service which allows you to  search tweets in real time as well as on its huge public archive (remember Twitter crossed 10 billionth tweet last month). The search results are displayed as tweets with twitter logo. To explore the twitter search go to Google.com homepage  and select   “Show options” on the search results page, then select “Updates.”.  The search is similar to the Google search with options to dig through the tweets by timeframe. You can explore results by zooming through a particular time range  or date. In addition to the time chart, it also displays the relative volume of an activity on Twitter about the topic. as you can see there is a spike about GSLV launch after 3 PM today.There is also a short cut link “Now” on the left corner which displays the latest results on the topics searched.The tweets also gets refreshed automatically.   Considering the huge volume of activity (50 million messages per day) on twitter, the archive is going to more and bigger. By providing such feature Google has once again proved it is way ahead of others in search Related Posts:None FoundJoin us on Facebook to read all our stories right inside your Facebook news feed.

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  • Google tweets – Now search twitter archives using Google

    - by samsudeen
    Google has launched a Twitter archive service which allows you to  search tweets in real time as well as on its huge public archive (remember Twitter crossed 10 billionth tweet last month). The search results are displayed as tweets with twitter logo. To explore the twitter search go to Google.com homepage  and select   “Show options” on the search results page, then select “Updates.”.  The search is similar to the Google search with options to dig through the tweets by timeframe. You can explore results by zooming through a particular time range  or date. In addition to the time chart, it also displays the relative volume of an activity on Twitter about the topic. as you can see there is a spike about GSLV launch after 3 PM today.There is also a short cut link “Now” on the left corner which displays the latest results on the topics searched.The tweets also gets refreshed automatically.   Considering the huge volume of activity (50 million messages per day) on twitter, the archive is going to more and bigger. By providing such feature Google has once again proved it is way ahead of others in search Related Posts:None FoundJoin us on Facebook to read all our stories right inside your Facebook news feed.

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  • Adventures in MVVM &ndash; My ViewModel Base

    - by Brian Genisio's House Of Bilz
    More Adventures in MVVM First, I’d like to say: THIS IS NOT A NEW MVVM FRAMEWORK. I tend to believe that MVVM support code should be specific to the system you are building and the developers working on it.  I have yet to find an MVVM framework that does everything I want it to without doing too much.  Don’t get me wrong… there are some good frameworks out there.  I just like to pick and choose things that make sense for me.  I’d also like to add that some of these features only work in WPF.  As of Silveright 4, they don’t support binding to dynamic properties, so some of the capabilities are lost. That being said, I want to share my ViewModel base class with the world.  I have had several conversations with people about the problems I have solved using this ViewModel base.  A while back, I posted an article about some experiments with a “Rails Inspired ViewModel”.  What followed from those ideas was a ViewModel base class that I take with me and use in my projects.  It has a lot of features, all designed to reduce the friction in writing view models. I have put the code out on Codeplex under the project: ViewModelSupport. Finally, this article focuses on the ViewModel and only glosses over the View and the Model.  Without all three, you don’t have MVVM.  But this base class is for the ViewModel, so that is what I am focusing on. Features: Automatic Command Plumbing Property Change Notification Strongly Typed Property Getter/Setters Dynamic Properties Default Property values Derived Properties Automatic Method Execution Command CanExecute Change Notification Design-Time Detection What about Silverlight? Automatic Command Plumbing This feature takes the plumbing out of creating commands.  The common pattern for commands in a ViewModel is to have an Execute method as well as an optional CanExecute method.  To plumb that together, you create an ICommand Property, and set it in the constructor like so: Before public class AutomaticCommandViewModel { public AutomaticCommandViewModel() { MyCommand = new DelegateCommand(Execute_MyCommand, CanExecute_MyCommand); } public void Execute_MyCommand() { // Do something } public bool CanExecute_MyCommand() { // Are we in a state to do something? return true; } public DelegateCommand MyCommand { get; private set; } } With the base class, this plumbing is automatic and the property (MyCommand of type ICommand) is created for you.  The base class uses the convention that methods be prefixed with Execute_ and CanExecute_ in order to be plumbed into commands with the property name after the prefix.  You are left to be expressive with your behavior without the plumbing.  If you are wondering how CanExecuteChanged is raised, see the later section “Command CanExecute Change Notification”. After public class AutomaticCommandViewModel : ViewModelBase { public void Execute_MyCommand() { // Do something } public bool CanExecute_MyCommand() { // Are we in a state to do something? return true; } }   Property Change Notification One thing that always kills me when implementing ViewModels is how to make properties that notify when they change (via the INotifyPropertyChanged interface).  There have been many attempts to make this more automatic.  My base class includes one option.  There are others, but I feel like this works best for me. The common pattern (without my base class) is to create a private backing store for the variable and specify a getter that returns the private field.  The setter will set the private field and fire an event that notifies the change, only if the value has changed. Before public class PropertyHelpersViewModel : INotifyPropertyChanged { private string text; public string Text { get { return text; } set { if(text != value) { text = value; RaisePropertyChanged("Text"); } } } protected void RaisePropertyChanged(string propertyName) { var handlers = PropertyChanged; if(handlers != null) handlers(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName)); } public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged; } This way of defining properties is error-prone and tedious.  Too much plumbing.  My base class eliminates much of that plumbing with the same functionality: After public class PropertyHelpersViewModel : ViewModelBase { public string Text { get { return Get<string>("Text"); } set { Set("Text", value);} } }   Strongly Typed Property Getters/Setters It turns out that we can do better than that.  We are using a strongly typed language where the use of “Magic Strings” is often frowned upon.  Lets make the names in the getters and setters strongly typed: A refinement public class PropertyHelpersViewModel : ViewModelBase { public string Text { get { return Get(() => Text); } set { Set(() => Text, value); } } }   Dynamic Properties In C# 4.0, we have the ability to program statically OR dynamically.  This base class lets us leverage the powerful dynamic capabilities in our ecosystem. (This is how the automatic commands are implemented, BTW)  By calling Set(“Foo”, 1), you have now created a dynamic property called Foo.  It can be bound against like any static property.  The opportunities are endless.  One great way to exploit this behavior is if you have a customizable view engine with templates that bind to properties defined by the user.  The base class just needs to create the dynamic properties at runtime from information in the model, and the custom template can bind even though the static properties do not exist. All dynamic properties still benefit from the notifiable capabilities that static properties do. For any nay-sayers out there that don’t like using the dynamic features of C#, just remember this: the act of binding the View to a ViewModel is dynamic already.  Why not exploit it?  Get over it :) Just declare the property dynamically public class DynamicPropertyViewModel : ViewModelBase { public DynamicPropertyViewModel() { Set("Foo", "Bar"); } } Then reference it normally <TextBlock Text="{Binding Foo}" />   Default Property Values The Get() method also allows for default properties to be set.  Don’t set them in the constructor.  Set them in the property and keep the related code together: public string Text { get { return Get(() => Text, "This is the default value"); } set { Set(() => Text, value);} }   Derived Properties This is something I blogged about a while back in more detail.  This feature came from the chaining of property notifications when one property affects the results of another, like this: Before public class DependantPropertiesViewModel : ViewModelBase { public double Score { get { return Get(() => Score); } set { Set(() => Score, value); RaisePropertyChanged("Percentage"); RaisePropertyChanged("Output"); } } public int Percentage { get { return (int)(100 * Score); } } public string Output { get { return "You scored " + Percentage + "%."; } } } The problem is: The setter for Score has to be responsible for notifying the world that Percentage and Output have also changed.  This, to me, is backwards.    It certainly violates the “Single Responsibility Principle.” I have been bitten in the rear more than once by problems created from code like this.  What we really want to do is invert the dependency.  Let the Percentage property declare that it changes when the Score Property changes. After public class DependantPropertiesViewModel : ViewModelBase { public double Score { get { return Get(() => Score); } set { Set(() => Score, value); } } [DependsUpon("Score")] public int Percentage { get { return (int)(100 * Score); } } [DependsUpon("Percentage")] public string Output { get { return "You scored " + Percentage + "%."; } } }   Automatic Method Execution This one is extremely similar to the previous, but it deals with method execution as opposed to property.  When you want to execute a method triggered by property changes, let the method declare the dependency instead of the other way around. Before public class DependantMethodsViewModel : ViewModelBase { public double Score { get { return Get(() => Score); } set { Set(() => Score, value); WhenScoreChanges(); } } public void WhenScoreChanges() { // Handle this case } } After public class DependantMethodsViewModel : ViewModelBase { public double Score { get { return Get(() => Score); } set { Set(() => Score, value); } } [DependsUpon("Score")] public void WhenScoreChanges() { // Handle this case } }   Command CanExecute Change Notification Back to Commands.  One of the responsibilities of commands that implement ICommand – it must fire an event declaring that CanExecute() needs to be re-evaluated.  I wanted to wait until we got past a few concepts before explaining this behavior.  You can use the same mechanism here to fire off the change.  In the CanExecute_ method, declare the property that it depends upon.  When that property changes, the command will fire a CanExecuteChanged event, telling the View to re-evaluate the state of the command.  The View will make appropriate adjustments, like disabling the button. DependsUpon works on CanExecute methods as well public class CanExecuteViewModel : ViewModelBase { public void Execute_MakeLower() { Output = Input.ToLower(); } [DependsUpon("Input")] public bool CanExecute_MakeLower() { return !string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(Input); } public string Input { get { return Get(() => Input); } set { Set(() => Input, value);} } public string Output { get { return Get(() => Output); } set { Set(() => Output, value); } } }   Design-Time Detection If you want to add design-time data to your ViewModel, the base class has a property that lets you ask if you are in the designer.  You can then set some default values that let your designer see what things might look like in runtime. Use the IsInDesignMode property public DependantPropertiesViewModel() { if(IsInDesignMode) { Score = .5; } }   What About Silverlight? Some of the features in this base class only work in WPF.  As of version 4, Silverlight does not support binding to dynamic properties.  This, in my opinion, is a HUGE limitation.  Not only does it keep you from using many of the features in this ViewModel, it also keeps you from binding to ViewModels designed in IronRuby.  Does this mean that the base class will not work in Silverlight?  No.  Many of the features outlined in this article WILL work.  All of the property abstractions are functional, as long as you refer to them statically in the View.  This, of course, means that the automatic command hook-up doesn’t work in Silverlight.  You need to plumb it to a static property in order for the Silverlight View to bind to it.  Can I has a dynamic property in SL5?     Good to go? So, that concludes the feature explanation of my ViewModel base class.  Feel free to take it, fork it, whatever.  It is hosted on CodePlex.  When I find other useful additions, I will add them to the public repository.  I use this base class every day.  It is mature, and well tested.  If, however, you find any problems with it, please let me know!  Also, feel free to suggest patches to me via the CodePlex site.  :)

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  • Partner Webcast – More out of Database Appliance with DB Options - 13 September 2012

    - by Thanos
    The Oracle Database Appliance is a new way to take advantage of the world's most popular database—Oracle Database 11g —in a single, easy-to-deploy and manage system. It's a complete package of software, server, storage, and networking that's engineered for simplicity; saving time and money by simplifying deployment, maintenance, and support of database workloads. But that is not all, with the support for all Oracle Database Options, Oracle Database Appliance can be the ideal solution for many use cases. Feature Benefit Simplifies deployment, maintenance, and support of high-availability database workloads Saves significant time and effort throughout the database administration lifecycle An engineered system of software, server, storage, and networking High availability for a wide range of custom and packaged OLTP and data warehousing application databases Simple one-button Installation, full-stack integrated patching and diagnostics Reduces planned and unplanned downtime by automatically monitoring and logging service requests with Oracle Support Built using the world’s #1 database Protects databases from server and storage failures with Oracle Real Application Clusters and Automatic Storage Management Unique Pay-As-You-Grow software licensing Reduces cost with flexibility to adjust your software spend as your business grows without the need for any hardware upgrades Discover the Oracle Database Appliance Value Proposition and learn how to position and combine it with database options to capture new business and easily roll out solutions safely and with maximum cost efficiency. This webcast is repeated once again for your benefit. Agenda: Oracle Database& Engineered Systems Innovation. What’s the Oracle Database Appliance ? Oracle Database Appliance Value Proposition. Oracle Database Appliance with Database Options Oracle Database Appliance Partners Business Delivery FormatThis FREE online LIVE eSeminar will be delivered over the Web. Registrations received less than 24hours prior to start time may not receive confirmation to attend. Duration: 1 hour Register Now! Oracle Database Appliance is available for purchase at the Oracle Store under Engineered Systems. For any questions please contact us at partner.imc-AT-beehiveonline.oracle-DOT-com Visit regularly our ISV Migration Center blog Or Follow us @oracleimc to learn more on Oracle Technologies as well as upcoming partner webcasts and events.

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  • SQL SERVER – Guest Post – Jonathan Kehayias – Wait Type – Day 16 of 28

    - by pinaldave
    Jonathan Kehayias (Blog | Twitter) is a MCITP Database Administrator and Developer, who got started in SQL Server in 2004 as a database developer and report writer in the natural gas industry. After spending two and a half years working in TSQL, in late 2006, he transitioned to the role of SQL Database Administrator. His primary passion is performance tuning, where he frequently rewrites queries for better performance and performs in depth analysis of index implementation and usage. Jonathan blogs regularly on SQLBlog, and was a coauthor of Professional SQL Server 2008 Internals and Troubleshooting. On a personal note, I think Jonathan is extremely positive person. In every conversation with him I have found that he is always eager to help and encourage. Every time he finds something needs to be approved, he has contacted me without hesitation and guided me to improve, change and learn. During all the time, he has not lost his focus to help larger community. I am honored that he has accepted to provide his views on complex subject of Wait Types and Queues. Currently I am reading his series on Extended Events. Here is the guest blog post by Jonathan: SQL Server troubleshooting is all about correlating related pieces of information together to indentify where exactly the root cause of a problem lies. In my daily work as a DBA, I generally get phone calls like, “So and so application is slow, what’s wrong with the SQL Server.” One of the funny things about the letters DBA is that they go so well with Default Blame Acceptor, and I really wish that I knew exactly who the first person was that pointed that out to me, because it really fits at times. A lot of times when I get this call, the problem isn’t related to SQL Server at all, but every now and then in my initial quick checks, something pops up that makes me start looking at things further. The SQL Server is slow, we see a number of tasks waiting on ASYNC_IO_COMPLETION, IO_COMPLETION, or PAGEIOLATCH_* waits in sys.dm_exec_requests and sys.dm_exec_waiting_tasks. These are also some of the highest wait types in sys.dm_os_wait_stats for the server, so it would appear that we have a disk I/O bottleneck on the machine. A quick check of sys.dm_io_virtual_file_stats() and tempdb shows a high write stall rate, while our user databases show high read stall rates on the data files. A quick check of some performance counters and Page Life Expectancy on the server is bouncing up and down in the 50-150 range, the Free Page counter consistently hits zero, and the Free List Stalls/sec counter keeps jumping over 10, but Buffer Cache Hit Ratio is 98-99%. Where exactly is the problem? In this case, which happens to be based on a real scenario I faced a few years back, the problem may not be a disk bottleneck at all; it may very well be a memory pressure issue on the server. A quick check of the system spec’s and it is a dual duo core server with 8GB RAM running SQL Server 2005 SP1 x64 on Windows Server 2003 R2 x64. Max Server memory is configured at 6GB and we think that this should be enough to handle the workload; or is it? This is a unique scenario because there are a couple of things happening inside of this system, and they all relate to what the root cause of the performance problem is on the system. If we were to query sys.dm_exec_query_stats for the TOP 10 queries, by max_physical_reads, max_logical_reads, and max_worker_time, we may be able to find some queries that were using excessive I/O and possibly CPU against the system in their worst single execution. We can also CROSS APPLY to sys.dm_exec_sql_text() and see the statement text, and also CROSS APPLY sys.dm_exec_query_plan() to get the execution plan stored in cache. Ok, quick check, the plans are pretty big, I see some large index seeks, that estimate 2.8GB of data movement between operators, but everything looks like it is optimized the best it can be. Nothing really stands out in the code, and the indexing looks correct, and I should have enough memory to handle this in cache, so it must be a disk I/O problem right? Not exactly! If we were to look at how much memory the plan cache is taking by querying sys.dm_os_memory_clerks for the CACHESTORE_SQLCP and CACHESTORE_OBJCP clerks we might be surprised at what we find. In SQL Server 2005 RTM and SP1, the plan cache was allowed to take up to 75% of the memory under 8GB. I’ll give you a second to go back and read that again. Yes, you read it correctly, it says 75% of the memory under 8GB, but you don’t have to take my word for it, you can validate this by reading Changes in Caching Behavior between SQL Server 2000, SQL Server 2005 RTM and SQL Server 2005 SP2. In this scenario the application uses an entirely adhoc workload against SQL Server and this leads to plan cache bloat, and up to 4.5GB of our 6GB of memory for SQL can be consumed by the plan cache in SQL Server 2005 SP1. This in turn reduces the size of the buffer cache to just 1.5GB, causing our 2.8GB of data movement in this expensive plan to cause complete flushing of the buffer cache, not just once initially, but then another time during the queries execution, resulting in excessive physical I/O from disk. Keep in mind that this is not the only query executing at the time this occurs. Remember the output of sys.dm_io_virtual_file_stats() showed high read stalls on the data files for our user databases versus higher write stalls for tempdb? The memory pressure is also forcing heavier use of tempdb to handle sorting and hashing in the environment as well. The real clue here is the Memory counters for the instance; Page Life Expectancy, Free List Pages, and Free List Stalls/sec. The fact that Page Life Expectancy is fluctuating between 50 and 150 constantly is a sign that the buffer cache is experiencing constant churn of data, once every minute to two and a half minutes. If you add to the Page Life Expectancy counter, the consistent bottoming out of Free List Pages along with Free List Stalls/sec consistently spiking over 10, and you have the perfect memory pressure scenario. All of sudden it may not be that our disk subsystem is the problem, but is instead an innocent bystander and victim. Side Note: The Page Life Expectancy counter dropping briefly and then returning to normal operating values intermittently is not necessarily a sign that the server is under memory pressure. The Books Online and a number of other references will tell you that this counter should remain on average above 300 which is the time in seconds a page will remain in cache before being flushed or aged out. This number, which equates to just five minutes, is incredibly low for modern systems and most published documents pre-date the predominance of 64 bit computing and easy availability to larger amounts of memory in SQL Servers. As food for thought, consider that my personal laptop has more memory in it than most SQL Servers did at the time those numbers were posted. I would argue that today, a system churning the buffer cache every five minutes is in need of some serious tuning or a hardware upgrade. Back to our problem and its investigation: There are two things really wrong with this server; first the plan cache is excessively consuming memory and bloated in size and we need to look at that and second we need to evaluate upgrading the memory to accommodate the workload being performed. In the case of the server I was working on there were a lot of single use plans found in sys.dm_exec_cached_plans (where usecounts=1). Single use plans waste space in the plan cache, especially when they are adhoc plans for statements that had concatenated filter criteria that is not likely to reoccur with any frequency.  SQL Server 2005 doesn’t natively have a way to evict a single plan from cache like SQL Server 2008 does, but MVP Kalen Delaney, showed a hack to evict a single plan by creating a plan guide for the statement and then dropping that plan guide in her blog post Geek City: Clearing a Single Plan from Cache. We could put that hack in place in a job to automate cleaning out all the single use plans periodically, minimizing the size of the plan cache, but a better solution would be to fix the application so that it uses proper parameterized calls to the database. You didn’t write the app, and you can’t change its design? Ok, well you could try to force parameterization to occur by creating and keeping plan guides in place, or we can try forcing parameterization at the database level by using ALTER DATABASE <dbname> SET PARAMETERIZATION FORCED and that might help. If neither of these help, we could periodically dump the plan cache for that database, as discussed as being a problem in Kalen’s blog post referenced above; not an ideal scenario. The other option is to increase the memory on the server to 16GB or 32GB, if the hardware allows it, which will increase the size of the plan cache as well as the buffer cache. In SQL Server 2005 SP1, on a system with 16GB of memory, if we set max server memory to 14GB the plan cache could use at most 9GB  [(8GB*.75)+(6GB*.5)=(6+3)=9GB], leaving 5GB for the buffer cache.  If we went to 32GB of memory and set max server memory to 28GB, the plan cache could use at most 16GB [(8*.75)+(20*.5)=(6+10)=16GB], leaving 12GB for the buffer cache. Thankfully we have SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2, 3, and 4 these days which include the changes in plan cache sizing discussed in the Changes to Caching Behavior between SQL Server 2000, SQL Server 2005 RTM and SQL Server 2005 SP2 blog post. In real life, when I was troubleshooting this problem, I spent a week trying to chase down the cause of the disk I/O bottleneck with our Server Admin and SAN Admin, and there wasn’t much that could be done immediately there, so I finally asked if we could increase the memory on the server to 16GB, which did fix the problem. It wasn’t until I had this same problem occur on another system that I actually figured out how to really troubleshoot this down to the root cause.  I couldn’t believe the size of the plan cache on the server with 16GB of memory when I actually learned about this and went back to look at it. SQL Server is constantly telling a story to anyone that will listen. As the DBA, you have to sit back and listen to all that it’s telling you and then evaluate the big picture and how all the data you can gather from SQL about performance relate to each other. One of the greatest tools out there is actually a free in the form of Diagnostic Scripts for SQL Server 2005 and 2008, created by MVP Glenn Alan Berry. Glenn’s scripts collect a majority of the information that SQL has to offer for rapid troubleshooting of problems, and he includes a lot of notes about what the outputs of each individual query might be telling you. When I read Pinal’s blog post SQL SERVER – ASYNC_IO_COMPLETION – Wait Type – Day 11 of 28, I noticed that he referenced Checking Memory Related Performance Counters in his post, but there was no real explanation about why checking memory counters is so important when looking at an I/O related wait type. I thought I’d chat with him briefly on Google Talk/Twitter DM and point this out, and offer a couple of other points I noted, so that he could add the information to his blog post if he found it useful.  Instead he asked that I write a guest blog for this. I am honored to be a guest blogger, and to be able to share this kind of information with the community. The information contained in this blog post is a glimpse at how I do troubleshooting almost every day of the week in my own environment. SQL Server provides us with a lot of information about how it is running, and where it may be having problems, it is up to us to play detective and find out how all that information comes together to tell us what’s really the problem. This blog post is written by Jonathan Kehayias (Blog | Twitter). Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: MVP, Pinal Dave, PostADay, Readers Contribution, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL Wait Stats, SQL Wait Types, T SQL, Technology

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  • What's brewing in the world of Java? (Dec 22nd 2010)

    - by Jacob Lehrbaum
    The nights are getting darker, the email traffic seems to be getting lighter and the holiday season feels like its right around the corner - but the world of Java is still as active as ever and shows no signs of taking a break!  Let's take a look at everything that has been brewing over the past couple of weeks:Product Updates and ResourcesJCP Approves JSRs for Java SE 7, Java SE 8, Project Coin and Lambda (read more)Java SE Update 23 Released, delivers improved performance and enhanced support for right-left languages. (read more or download)New Tutorial: JDK 7 Support in NetBeans IDE 7.0Java EE 6 and Glassfish 3.0 have celebrated their respective one year anniversaries!  (read more) So naturally, it's time to start talking about Java EE 7 (read more)WebcastsOn Demand: Developing Rich Clients for the Enterprise with the JavaFX Composer, Part 1Coming soon: Smarter Devices with Oracle's Embedded Java SolutionsPodcastsJava Spotlight Podcast Episode 7: Interview with Adam Messinger, Vice President of Java Development on Java One Brazil, Java SE Development, OpenJDK, JavaFX 2.0 and more!  The NetBeans team released Episode 53 of the NetBeans Podcast series on December 3rd marking the first episode in nearly 12 months.  Sign of things to come?Community and EventsJavaOne was held for the first time in Brazil this year, and by all accounts it was a great success!  Read more about this exciting first in the following posts from Tori Wieldt (JavaOne Latin America Underway) and Janice Heiss (JavaOne in Brazil)JavaOne was also held in Bejing for the first time last week and was also a huge success. Will try to include coverage of this event in the near futureArticles and InterviewsAn update on JavaServer Faces with Oracle's Ed Burns (read more)Interview with Java Champion Matjaz B. Juric on Cloud Computing, SOA, and Java EE 6 (read more)The 2010 JavaOne Java EE 6 Panel: Where We Are and Where We're Going (read more)Oracle MagazineThe latest issue of Oracle Magazine is up and in what will hopefully be a sign of the future, it includes a number of columns and articles on Java.  First is an editorial from Editor-in-Chief Tom Haunert who shares some insight into the long-standing relationship that Oracle has had with Java. Next up is a Oracle Technology Network Chief Justin Kestelyn's Community Bulletin entitled: Java Evolves.  And finally, Java Champion Adam Bien's feature on Java EE 6: Simplicity by DesignEnjoy!

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  • How to Reuse Your Old Wi-Fi Router as a Network Switch

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    Just because your old Wi-Fi router has been replaced by a newer model doesn’t mean it needs to gather dust in the closet. Read on as we show you how to take an old and underpowered Wi-Fi router and turn it into a respectable network switch (saving your $20 in the process). Image by mmgallan. Why Do I Want To Do This? Wi-Fi technology has changed significantly in the last ten years but Ethernet-based networking has changed very little. As such, a Wi-Fi router with 2006-era guts is lagging significantly behind current Wi-Fi router technology, but the Ethernet networking component of the device is just as useful as ever; aside from potentially being only 100Mbs instead of 1000Mbs capable (which for 99% of home applications is irrelevant) Ethernet is Ethernet. What does this matter to you, the consumer? It means that even though your old router doesn’t hack it for your Wi-Fi needs any longer the device is still a perfectly serviceable (and high quality) network switch. When do you need a network switch? Any time you want to share an Ethernet cable among multiple devices, you need a switch. For example, let’s say you have a single Ethernet wall jack behind your entertainment center. Unfortunately you have four devices that you want to link to your local network via hardline including your smart HDTV, DVR, Xbox, and a little Raspberry Pi running XBMC. Instead of spending $20-30 to purchase a brand new switch of comparable build quality to your old Wi-Fi router it makes financial sense (and is environmentally friendly) to invest five minutes of your time tweaking the settings on the old router to turn it from a Wi-Fi access point and routing tool into a network switch–perfect for dropping behind your entertainment center so that your DVR, Xbox, and media center computer can all share an Ethernet connection. What Do I Need? For this tutorial you’ll need a few things, all of which you likely have readily on hand or are free for download. To follow the basic portion of the tutorial, you’ll need the following: 1 Wi-Fi router with Ethernet ports 1 Computer with Ethernet jack 1 Ethernet cable For the advanced tutorial you’ll need all of those things, plus: 1 copy of DD-WRT firmware for your Wi-Fi router We’re conducting the experiment with a Linksys WRT54GL Wi-Fi router. The WRT54 series is one of the best selling Wi-Fi router series of all time and there’s a good chance a significant number of readers have one (or more) of them stuffed in an office closet. Even if you don’t have one of the WRT54 series routers, however, the principles we’re outlining here apply to all Wi-Fi routers; as long as your router administration panel allows the necessary changes you can follow right along with us. A quick note on the difference between the basic and advanced versions of this tutorial before we proceed. Your typical Wi-Fi router has 5 Ethernet ports on the back: 1 labeled “Internet”, “WAN”, or a variation thereof and intended to be connected to your DSL/Cable modem, and 4 labeled 1-4 intended to connect Ethernet devices like computers, printers, and game consoles directly to the Wi-Fi router. When you convert a Wi-Fi router to a switch, in most situations, you’ll lose two port as the “Internet” port cannot be used as a normal switch port and one of the switch ports becomes the input port for the Ethernet cable linking the switch to the main network. This means, referencing the diagram above, you’d lose the WAN port and LAN port 1, but retain LAN ports 2, 3, and 4 for use. If you only need to switch for 2-3 devices this may be satisfactory. However, for those of you that would prefer a more traditional switch setup where there is a dedicated WAN port and the rest of the ports are accessible, you’ll need to flash a third-party router firmware like the powerful DD-WRT onto your device. Doing so opens up the router to a greater degree of modification and allows you to assign the previously reserved WAN port to the switch, thus opening up LAN ports 1-4. Even if you don’t intend to use that extra port, DD-WRT offers you so many more options that it’s worth the extra few steps. Preparing Your Router for Life as a Switch Before we jump right in to shutting down the Wi-Fi functionality and repurposing your device as a network switch, there are a few important prep steps to attend to. First, you want to reset the router (if you just flashed a new firmware to your router, skip this step). Following the reset procedures for your particular router or go with what is known as the “Peacock Method” wherein you hold down the reset button for thirty seconds, unplug the router and wait (while still holding the reset button) for thirty seconds, and then plug it in while, again, continuing to hold down the rest button. Over the life of a router there are a variety of changes made, big and small, so it’s best to wipe them all back to the factory default before repurposing the router as a switch. Second, after resetting, we need to change the IP address of the device on the local network to an address which does not directly conflict with the new router. The typical default IP address for a home router is 192.168.1.1; if you ever need to get back into the administration panel of the router-turned-switch to check on things or make changes it will be a real hassle if the IP address of the device conflicts with the new home router. The simplest way to deal with this is to assign an address close to the actual router address but outside the range of addresses that your router will assign via the DHCP client; a good pick then is 192.168.1.2. Once the router is reset (or re-flashed) and has been assigned a new IP address, it’s time to configure it as a switch. Basic Router to Switch Configuration If you don’t want to (or need to) flash new firmware onto your device to open up that extra port, this is the section of the tutorial for you: we’ll cover how to take a stock router, our previously mentioned WRT54 series Linksys, and convert it to a switch. Hook the Wi-Fi router up to the network via one of the LAN ports (consider the WAN port as good as dead from this point forward, unless you start using the router in its traditional function again or later flash a more advanced firmware to the device, the port is officially retired at this point). Open the administration control panel via  web browser on a connected computer. Before we get started two things: first,  anything we don’t explicitly instruct you to change should be left in the default factory-reset setting as you find it, and two, change the settings in the order we list them as some settings can’t be changed after certain features are disabled. To start, let’s navigate to Setup ->Basic Setup. Here you need to change the following things: Local IP Address: [different than the primary router, e.g. 192.168.1.2] Subnet Mask: [same as the primary router, e.g. 255.255.255.0] DHCP Server: Disable Save with the “Save Settings” button and then navigate to Setup -> Advanced Routing: Operating Mode: Router This particular setting is very counterintuitive. The “Operating Mode” toggle tells the device whether or not it should enable the Network Address Translation (NAT)  feature. Because we’re turning a smart piece of networking hardware into a relatively dumb one, we don’t need this feature so we switch from Gateway mode (NAT on) to Router mode (NAT off). Our next stop is Wireless -> Basic Wireless Settings: Wireless SSID Broadcast: Disable Wireless Network Mode: Disabled After disabling the wireless we’re going to, again, do something counterintuitive. Navigate to Wireless -> Wireless Security and set the following parameters: Security Mode: WPA2 Personal WPA Algorithms: TKIP+AES WPA Shared Key: [select some random string of letters, numbers, and symbols like JF#d$di!Hdgio890] Now you may be asking yourself, why on Earth are we setting a rather secure Wi-Fi configuration on a Wi-Fi router we’re not going to use as a Wi-Fi node? On the off chance that something strange happens after, say, a power outage when your router-turned-switch cycles on and off a bunch of times and the Wi-Fi functionality is activated we don’t want to be running the Wi-Fi node wide open and granting unfettered access to your network. While the chances of this are next-to-nonexistent, it takes only a few seconds to apply the security measure so there’s little reason not to. Save your changes and navigate to Security ->Firewall. Uncheck everything but Filter Multicast Firewall Protect: Disable At this point you can save your changes again, review the changes you’ve made to ensure they all stuck, and then deploy your “new” switch wherever it is needed. Advanced Router to Switch Configuration For the advanced configuration, you’ll need a copy of DD-WRT installed on your router. Although doing so is an extra few steps, it gives you a lot more control over the process and liberates an extra port on the device. Hook the Wi-Fi router up to the network via one of the LAN ports (later you can switch the cable to the WAN port). Open the administration control panel via web browser on the connected computer. Navigate to the Setup -> Basic Setup tab to get started. In the Basic Setup tab, ensure the following settings are adjusted. The setting changes are not optional and are required to turn the Wi-Fi router into a switch. WAN Connection Type: Disabled Local IP Address: [different than the primary router, e.g. 192.168.1.2] Subnet Mask: [same as the primary router, e.g. 255.255.255.0] DHCP Server: Disable In addition to disabling the DHCP server, also uncheck all the DNSMasq boxes as the bottom of the DHCP sub-menu. If you want to activate the extra port (and why wouldn’t you), in the WAN port section: Assign WAN Port to Switch [X] At this point the router has become a switch and you have access to the WAN port so the LAN ports are all free. Since we’re already in the control panel, however, we might as well flip a few optional toggles that further lock down the switch and prevent something odd from happening. The optional settings are arranged via the menu you find them in. Remember to save your settings with the save button before moving onto a new tab. While still in the Setup -> Basic Setup menu, change the following: Gateway/Local DNS : [IP address of primary router, e.g. 192.168.1.1] NTP Client : Disable The next step is to turn off the radio completely (which not only kills the Wi-Fi but actually powers the physical radio chip off). Navigate to Wireless -> Advanced Settings -> Radio Time Restrictions: Radio Scheduling: Enable Select “Always Off” There’s no need to create a potential security problem by leaving the Wi-Fi radio on, the above toggle turns it completely off. Under Services -> Services: DNSMasq : Disable ttraff Daemon : Disable Under the Security -> Firewall tab, uncheck every box except “Filter Multicast”, as seen in the screenshot above, and then disable SPI Firewall. Once you’re done here save and move on to the Administration tab. Under Administration -> Management:  Info Site Password Protection : Enable Info Site MAC Masking : Disable CRON : Disable 802.1x : Disable Routing : Disable After this final round of tweaks, save and then apply your settings. Your router has now been, strategically, dumbed down enough to plod along as a very dependable little switch. Time to stuff it behind your desk or entertainment center and streamline your cabling.     

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  • Amazon S3 Tips: Quickly Add/Modify HTTP Headers To All Files Recursively

    - by Gopinath
    Amazon S3 is an dead cheap cloud storage service that offers unlimited storage in pay as you use model. Recently we moved all the images and other static files(scripts & css) of Tech Dreams to Amazon S3 to reduce load on VPS server. Amazon S3 is cheap, but monthly bill will shoot up if images/static files of the blog are not cached properly (more details). By adding caching HTTP Headers Cache-Control or Expires to all the files hosted on Amazon S3 we reduced the monthly bills and also load time of blog pages. Lets see how to add custom headers to files stored on Amazon S3 service. Updating HTTP Headers of one file at a time The web interface of Amazon S3 Management console allows adding custom HTTP headers to one file at a time  through “Properties”  window (to access properties, right on a file and select Properties menu). So if you have to add headers to 100s of files then this is not the way to go! Updating HTTP Headers of multiple files of a folder recursively To update HTTP headers of multiple files in a folder recursively, we can use CloudBerry Explorer freeware or Bucket Explorer trail ware applications. CloudBerry is my favourite as it’s a freeware and also it’s has excellent interface to access Amazon S3 from desktops. Adding HTTP Headers with CloudBerry application is straight forward – right click on the required folders and choose the option “Set HTTP Headers”. Download CloudBerry Explorer This article titled,Amazon S3 Tips: Quickly Add/Modify HTTP Headers To All Files Recursively, was originally published at Tech Dreams. Grab our rss feed or fan us on Facebook to get updates from us.

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  • Advise on how to move from a .net developer role to a web developer role

    - by dermd
    I've been working primarily as a .net developer for the past 4 years for a financial services company. I've worked on .net 1.1, 2.0, 3.5 and have done the 3.5 enterprise app developer cert (not that that's worth a whole lot!). Before that I worked as a java developer with a bit of Flex thrown in for just over a year. My educational background is an Electronic and computer engineering degree, a higher diploma in systems analysis as well as one in web development (this was mainly java - JSP, Spring, etc) and a science masters in software design and development. I really feel like a change and would like to move to a different field to experience something different. I've done some courses in RoR and played around with it a bit in my spare time. Similarly I've done various web and mobile courses and done up some mobile webapps along with android and ios equivalents (haven't tried pushing them up to the app stores yet but may be worth tidying them up and doing that). I currently work long enough hours so find it hard to find time to work on too many side projects to get a decent portfolio together. But when I do work on the web stuff I do find it really enjoyable so think it's something I'd like to do full time. However, since my experience is pretty much all .net and financial services I find it very hard to get my foot in the door anywhere or get past a phone screen unless their specifically looking for someone with .net knowledge. What is the best way to move into a web development role without starting from scratch again. I do think a lot of the skills I have translate over but I seem to just get paired with .net jobs whenever I look around? Apart from js, jquery, html5, objective C are there any other technologies I should be looking into?

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  • SQL SERVER – Interview Questions & Answers Needs Your Help

    - by pinaldave
    About an year ago, I had posted SQL Server related Interview Questions and Answers. It was very well received in community. I have received many comments, suggestions and emails on this subject. I am planning to upgrade the Interview Questions and Answers and take it to next level. Here, I need your help. Please your comments, suggestions, expectation or potential interview Question (along with answer) here. Your input will be very valuable. As time goes by we all learn and get better. There were few things missing at that time when those interview questions and answers were prepared, now is the time to complete the gap and make this interview questions more useful. If you know all, this Question and Answers are not for you. This are for those who is eager to learn and need help in the area. If you do not want to leave a comment, I suggest to send me email at pinal “at” SQLAuthority.com Following is the reproduction of original consolidation post for quick reference. SQL SERVER – 2008 – Interview Questions and Answers – Part 1 SQL SERVER – 2008 – Interview Questions and Answers – Part 2 SQL SERVER – 2008 – Interview Questions and Answers – Part 3 SQL SERVER – 2008 – Interview Questions and Answers – Part 4 SQL SERVER – 2008 – Interview Questions and Answers – Part 5 SQL SERVER – 2008 – Interview Questions and Answers – Part 6 SQL SERVER – 2008 – Interview Questions and Answers – Part 7 SQL SERVER – 2008 – Interview Questions and Answers – Part 8 Download SQL Server 2008 Interview Questions and Answers Complete List Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, Readers Contribution, Readers Question, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Documentation, SQL Download, SQL Interview Questions and Answers, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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  • CodePlex Daily Summary for Wednesday, March 10, 2010

    CodePlex Daily Summary for Wednesday, March 10, 2010New ProjectsASP.NET jQuery MessageBox: The ASP.NET jQuery it's an Web User Control that uses jQuery framework to enable diferent ways to present information to the user, by using these ...CommentRemover: Utility for removing comments from source codes. Support PL/SQL, Delphi, C/C#/C++ Developed in C# Requirement Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5DotNetNuke® RadMenu: DNNRadMenu makes it easy to create skins which use telerik RadMenu functionality. Licensing permits anyone (including designers) to use the compon...DotNetNuke® Skin AlphaBrisk: A DotNetNuke Design Challenge skin package submitted to the "Web Standards" category by dnnskin.net. Eight themes using transparent png, div, CSS, ...DotNetNuke® Skin Collaborate: A DotNetNuke Design Challenge skin package submitted to the "Modern Business" category by Cuong Dang of R2Integrated. This package is 100% XHTML an...DotNetNuke® Skin TR: A DotNetNuke Design Challenge skin package submitted to the "Out of the box" category by Tracy Wittenkeller of T-Worx. This package is 100% XHTML, ...Encrypted Notes: Encrypted Notes is similar to Notes, but uses Triple DES to encrypt text and files. It has a random key generator, and can save the key. It is deve...FalconLobby: FalconLobby is an authorized AddOn for Falcon 4.0 Allied Force which was created to support the multiplayer experience. FalconLobby retrieves the l...INETA Europe WebSite: Website for INETA EuropeInsert a Favorite (Bookmark) plugin for Windows Live Writer: This Windows Live Writer plugin allows you to select a Favorite (Bookmark) and insert it into your blog entry.Javascript Lib: an javascript libraryjqGrid ASP.Net MVC Control: A fully integrated ASP.Net MVC (2.0) grid control based on the successfull jqGrid plugin for the jQuery jscript framework. Among the features of...Mosaictor: Mosaictor is a per project of mine that I started halfway my education. It is a photo mosaic creator using locally saved files and files obtained t...Notes: Notes is a simple but fast text editor. It can save in many text formats, and includes many features, such as templates (soon to be customizable), ...notmuchweb: A web frontend for notmuchPervasiveID: The PID is actively involved in Open Source ID community-building and education. PID members frequently travel the world to attend ID conferences a...Proyect Electronica: Proyecto de electronicaRapidshare Downloader 2: Rapidshare Downloader 2ROAD is Rapid Oberon Application Development: A suite of integrated tools for the develpment of Oberon-2 applicationSDNTFSIntegration: TFS Integration.SilverlightImageUpload: SilverlightImageUploadSMIL - SharePoint Map Integration Layer: .Useful SharePoint Site Workflow Utilities: This project aims to make it easy use SharePoint 2010's Site Workflows as "event handlers" for various back end systems by providing ways to start ...Windows Media Autorization: Windows Media Autorizaton PlugIn for windows media 9 WinMo Twitter Widget StarterKit: This project will allow you to quickly create Widgets that run on a Windows Mobile 6.5 phone to allow you to view Tweets designated by a hash tag. ...XNA 3D World Studio Content Pipeline: XNA 3D World Studio Content Pipeline New ReleasesAPSales - CRM Software as a Service: APSales 0.1.2: This version add some interesting features to the project: Implements a Grid Control Custom View Query Use lastest version(2.0.2) of APEnnead.net ...ASP.NET jQuery MessageBox: ASP.NET jQuery MessageBox 0.1: Project Description The ASP.NET jQuery it's an Web User Control que uses jQuery framework to enable diferent ways to present information to the use...BTP Tools: CSBC+CUVC+HCSBC.dict files 2010-03-09: a space character should be only between <Strong Number Pattern> and <Count> like: <Text><Strong Number pattern><space character> <Count> The abov...Citrix HDX MediaStream for Flash System Verifier: HDX Flash Verifier Beta (v1.20): Reduced the number of exceptions that terminate the verification process.Code examples, utilities and misc from Lars Wilhelmsen [MVP]: LarsW.MexEdmxFixer 1.5: Added some missing sub elements from the EDMX file's Designer element; Connection and Output. Without them, some of the properties in the designer ...CommonLibrary.NET: CommonLibrary.NET 0.9.4 - Beta 2: A collection of very reusable code and components in C# 3.5 ranging from ActiveRecord, Csv, Command Line Parsing, Configuration, Holiday Calendars,...Encrypted Notes: Source Code: This has the all the code for Encrypted Notes in a Text file.Hybrid Windows Service: Release Assembly: Main Assembly. Usage: 1. Add reference to this dll in your 'Windows Service' project. 2. Replace references to ServiceBase to HybridServiceBase in...jqGrid ASP.Net MVC Control: Version 1.0.0.0: Initial Versionkdar: KDAR 0.0.16: KDAR - Kernel Debugger Anti Rootkit - KINTERRUPT object check added - load image notifier check addedlatex2mathml: 1.0 alpha: This is the first public release of Latex2MathML. Lots are left to add and fix. I encourage you to test it. If something goes wrong, send me the lo...MapWindow GIS: MapWindow 6.0 msi (March 9): This fixes a bug with saving and opening maps.Microsoft Research Biology Extension for Excel: MSR Biology Extension for Excel - Beta 2 (Update): This is an updated release for the Beta 2 Installer for the MSR Biology Extension for Excel. A couple of identified issues with the installation f...Notes: Notes 5.2: This is the latest version of Notes (5.2). It has an installer - it will create a directory 'CPascoe' in My Documents. Once you have extracted the...Notes: Source Code: This has the all the code for Notes in a Text file.RedBulb for XNA Framework: Tree Massacre XMAS Edition (Sample): Tree Massacre XMAS Edition Source Code and Creators Club Package http://bayimg.com/image/jalkiaacb.jpgRoTwee: RoTwee (7.0.2.0): Now color mode is introduced to RoTwee. Push change color button and you can change color mode of RoTwee. Recommended mode is active rainbow mode :)SharePoint Team-Mailer: SharePoint Team-Mailer v1.0: Recommended versionsPWadmin: pwAdmin v0.7_nightly: Nightly Build --------------------- + Target JRE -> 1.5.0_21 + Target ApplicationServer -> Apache Tomcat 5.5.28 + Added xml editor (only working fo...SQL Server PowerShell Extensions: 2.1 Production: Release 2.1 re-implements SQLPSX as PowersShell version 2.0 modules. SQLPSX consists of 9 modules with 133 advanced functions, 2 cmdlets and 7 scri...TMap for VS2010: TMap for VS2010 (MSF Agile) RC Release: Release of the TMap process template for VS2010 combined with the MSF Agile process template basd on the Release Candidate. The references to the g...TS3QueryLib.Net: TS3QueryLib.Net Version 0.19.14.0: Changelog Added property "IsClientRecording" to class "ClientListEntry" which is used in method "GetClientList" of QueryRunner class. (Change of Be...VCC: Latest build, v2.1.30309.0: Automatic drop of latest buildWinMo Twitter Widget StarterKit: Tweet Viewer Files: Files necessary to create your own Tweet ViewerWPF AutoComplete TextBox Control: Version 1.1: This release includes accumulated bug fixes since the initial release. Besides, adds experimental asynchronous support. Sample application gets...XNA 3D World Studio Content Pipeline: XNA 3DWS Content Pipeline: This is an rar file containing the latest content importer codeMost Popular ProjectsMetaSharpWBFS ManagerRawrAJAX Control ToolkitMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: DatabaseSilverlight ToolkitWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)ASP.NETMicrosoft SQL Server Community & SamplesASP.NET Ajax LibraryMost Active ProjectsUmbraco CMSRawrSDS: Scientific DataSet library and toolsjQuery Library for SharePoint Web ServicesBlogEngine.NETN2 CMSFasterflect - A Fast and Simple Reflection APIFarseer Physics Enginepatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryCaliburn: An Application Framework for WPF and Silverlight

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  • Mr Flibble: As Seen Through a Lens, Darkly

    - by Phil Factor
    One of the rewarding things about getting involved with Simple-Talk has been in meeting and working with some pretty daunting talents. I’d like to say that Dom Reed’s talents are at the end of the visible spectrum, but then there is Richard, who pops up on national radio occasionally, presenting intellectual programs, Andrew, master of the ukulele, with his pioneering local history work, and Tony with marathon running and his past as a university lecturer. However, Dom, who is Red Gate’s head of creative design and who did the preliminary design work for Simple-Talk, has taken the art photography to an extreme that was impossible before Photoshop. He’s not the first person to take a photograph of himself every day for two years, but he is definitely the first to weave the results into a frightening narrative that veers from comedy to pathos, using all the arts of Photoshop to create a fictional character, Mr Flibble.   Have a look at some of the Flickr pages. Uncle Spike The B-Men – Woolverine The 2011 BoyZ iN Sink reunion tour turned out to be their last Error 404 – Flibble not found Mr Flibble is not a normal type of alter-ego. We generally prefer to choose bronze age warriors of impossibly magnificent physique and stamina; superheroes who bestride the world, scorning the forces of evil and anarchy in a series noble and righteous quests. Not so Dom, whose Mr Flibble is vulnerable, and laid low by an addiction to toxic substances. His work has gained an international cult following and is used as course material by several courses in photography. Although his work was for a while ignored by the more conventional world of ‘art’ photography they became famous through the internet. His photos have received well over a million views on Flickr. It was definitely time to turn this work into a book, because the whole sequence of images has its maximum effect when seen in sequence. He has a Kickstarter project page, one of the first following the recent UK launch of the crowdfunding platform. The publication of the book should be a major event and the £45 I shall divvy up will be one of the securest investments I shall ever make. The local news in Cambridge picked up on the project and I can quote from the report by the excellent Cabume website , the source of Tech news from the ‘Cambridge cluster’ Put really simply Mr Flibble likes to dress up and take pictures of himself. One of the benefits of a split personality, however is that Mr Flibble is supported in his endeavour by Reed’s top notch photography skills, supreme mastery of Photoshop and unflinching dedication to the cause. The duo have collaborated to take a picture every day for the past 730-plus days. It is not a big surprise that neither Mr Flibble nor Reed watches any TV: In addition to his full-time role at Cambridge software house,Red Gate Software as head of creativity and the two to five hours a day he spends taking the Mr Flibble shots, Reed also helps organise the . And now Reed is using Kickstarter to see if the world is ready for a Mr Flibble coffee table book. Judging by the early response it is. At the time of writing, just a few days after it went live, ‘I Drink Lead Paint: An absurd photography book by Mr Flibble’ had raised £1,545 of the £10,000 target it needs to raise by the Friday 30 November deadline from 37 backers. Following the standard Kickstarter template, Reed is offering a series of rewards based on the amount pledged, ranging from a Mr Flibble desktop wallpaper for pledges of £5 or more to a signed copy of the book for pledges of £45 or more, right up to a starring role in the book for £1,500. Mr Flibble is unquestionably one of the more deranged Kickstarter hopefuls, but don’t think for a second that he doesn’t have a firm grasp on the challenges he faces on the road to immortalisation on 150 gsm stock. Under the section ‘risks and challenges’ on his Kickstarter page his statement begins: “An angry horde of telepathic iguanas discover the world’s last remaining stock of vintage lead paint and hold me to ransom. Gosh how I love to guzzle lead paint. Anyway… faced with such brazen bravado, I cower at the thought of taking on their combined might and die a sad and lonely Flibble deprived of my one and only true liquid love.” At which point, Reed manages to wrestle away the keyboard, giving him the opportunity to present slightly more cogent analysis of the obstacles the project must still overcome. We asked Reed a few questions about Mr Flibble’s Kickstarter adventure and felt that his responses were worth publishing in full: Firstly, how did you manage it – holding down a full time job and also conceiving and executing these ideas on a daily basis? I employed a small team of ferocious gerbils to feed me ideas on a daily basis. Whilst most of their ideas were incomprehensibly rubbish and usually revolved around food, just occasionally they’d give me an idea like my B-Men series. As a backup plan though, I found that the best way to generate ideas was to actually start taking photos. If I were to stand in front of the camera, pull a silly face, place a vegetable on my head or something else equally stupid, the resulting photo of that would typically spark an idea when I came to look at it. Sitting around idly trying to think of an idea was doomed to result in no ideas. I admit that I really struggled with time. I’m proud that I never missed a day, but it was definitely hard when you were late from work, tired or doing something socially on the same day. I don’t watch TV, which I guess really helps, because I’d frequently be spending 2-5 hours taking and processing the photos every day. Are there any overlaps between software development and creative thinking? Software is an inherently creative business and the speed that it moves ensures you always have to find solutions to new things. Everyone in the team needs to be a problem solver. Has it helped me specifically with my photography? Probably. Working within teams that continually need to figure out new stuff keeps the brain feisty I suppose, and I guess I’m continually exposed to a lot of possible sources of inspiration. How specifically will this Kickstarter project allow you to test the commercial appeal of your work and do you plan to get the book into shops? It’s taken a while to be confident saying it, but I know that people like the work that I do. I’ve had well over a million views of my pictures, many humbling comments and I know I’ve garnered some loyal fans out there who anticipate my next photo. For me, this Kickstarter is about seeing if there’s worth to my work beyond just making people smile. In an online world where there’s an abundance of freely available content, can you hope to receive anything from what you do, or would people just move onto the next piece of content if you happen to ask for some support? A book has been the single-most requested thing that people have asked me to produce and it’s something that I feel would showcase my work well. It’s just hard to convince people in the publishing industry just now to take any kind of risk – they’ve been hit hard. If I can show that people would like my work enough to buy a book, then it sends a pretty clear picture that publishers might hear, or it gives me the confidence enough to invest in myself a bit more – hard to do when you’re riddled with self-doubt! I’d love to see my work in the shops, yes. I could see it being the thing that someone flips through idly as they’re Christmas shopping and recognizing that it’d be just the perfect gift for their difficult to buy for friend or relative. That said, working in the software industry means I’m clearly aware of how I could use technology to distribute my work, but I can’t deny that there’s something very appealing to having a physical thing to hold in your hands. If the project is successful is there a chance that it could become a full-time job? At the moment that seems like a distant dream, as should this be successful, there are many more steps I’d need to take to reach any kind of business viability. Kickstarter seems exactly that – a way for people to help kick start me into something that could take off. If people like my work and want me to succeed with it, then taking a look at my Kickstarter page (and hopefully pledging a bit of support) would make my elbows blush considerably. So there is is. An opportunity to open the wallet just a bit to ensure that one of the more unusual talents sees the light in the format it deserves.  

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  • top Tweets SOA Partner Community – August 2012

    - by JuergenKress
    Send your tweets @soacommunity #soacommunity and follow us at http://twitter.com/soacommunity Lucas Jellema ?Published an article about organizing Fusion Middleware Administration: http://technology.amis.nl/2012/07/31/organizing-fusion-middleware-administration-in-a-smart-and-frugal-way … - many organizations are struggling with this. ServiceTechSymposium Countdown to the Early Bird Registration Discount deadline. Only 4 days left! http://ow.ly/cBCiv demed ?Good chatting w Bob Rhubart, Thomas Erl & Tim Hall on SOA & Cloud Symposium https://blogs.oracle.com/archbeat/entry/podcast_show_notes_thomas_erl … @soaschool @OTNArchBeat -- CU in London! SOA Community top Tweets SOA Partner Community July 2012 - are you one of them? If yes please rt! https://soacommunity.wordpress.com/2012/07/30/top-tweets-soa-partner-community-july-2012/ … #soacommunity SOA Community ?Are You a facebook member - do You follow http://www.facebook.com/soacommunity ? #soacommunity #soa SOA Community ?SOA 24/7 - Home Page: http://soa247.com/#.UBJsN8n3kyk.twitter … #soacommunity OracleBlogs ?Handling Large Payloads in SOA Suite 11g http://ow.ly/1lFAih OracleBlogs ?SOA Community Newsletter July 2012 http://ow.ly/1lFx6s OTNArchBeat Podcast Show Notes: Thomas Erl on SOA, Cloud, and Service Technology http://bit.ly/OOHTUJ SOA Community SOA Community Newsletter July 2012 http://wp.me/p10C8u-s7 OTNArchBeat ?OTN ArchBeat Podcast: Thomas Erl on SOA, Cloud, and Service Technology - Part 1 http://pub.vitrue.com/fMti OProcessAccel ?Just released! White Paper: Oracle Process Accelerators Best Practices http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/bpm/learnmore/processaccelbestpracticeswhitepaper-1708910.pdf … OTNArchBeat ?SOA, Cloud, and Service Technologies - Part 1 of 4 - A conversation with SOA, Cloud, and Service Technology Symposiu... http://ow.ly/1lDyAK OracleBlogs ?SOA Suite 11g PS5 Bundled Patch 3 (11.1.1.6.3) http://ow.ly/1lCW1S Simon Haslam My write-up of the virtues of the #ukoug App Server & Middleware SIG http://bit.ly/LMWdfY What's important to you for our next meeting? SOA Community SOA Partner Community Survey 2012 http://wp.me/p10C8u-qY Simone Geib ?RT @jswaroop: #Oracle positioned in the Leader's quadrant - Gartner Magic Quadrants for Application Infrastructure (SOA & SOA Gov)... ServiceTechSymposium New Supporting Organization, IBTI has joined the Symposium! http://www.servicetechsymposium.com/ orclateamsoa ?A-Team Blog #ateam: BPM 11g Task Form Version Considerations http://ow.ly/1lA7XS OTNArchBeat Oracle content at SOA, Cloud and Service Technology Symposium (and discount code!) http://pub.vitrue.com/FPcW OracleBlogs ?BPM 11g Task Form Version Considerations http://ow.ly/1lzOrX OTNArchBeat BPM 11g #ADF Task Form Versioning | Christopher Karl Chan #fusionmiddleware http://pub.vitrue.com/0qP2 OTNArchBeat Lightweight ADF Task Flow for BPM Human Tasks Overview | @AndrejusB #fusionmiddleware http://pub.vitrue.com/z7x9 SOA Community Oracle Fusion Middleware Summer Camps in Lisbon report by Link Consulting http://middlewarebylink.wordpress.com/2012/07/20/oracle-fusion-middleware-summer-camps-in-lisbon/ … #ofmsummercamps #soa #bpm SOA Community ?Clemens Utschig-Utschig & Manas Deb The Successful Execution of the SOA and BPM Vision Using a Business Capability Framework: Concepts… Simone Geib ?RT @oprocessaccel: Just released! White Paper: Oracle Process Accelerators Best Practices http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/bpm/learnmore/processaccelbestpracticeswhitepaper-1708910.pdf … jornica ?Report from Oracle Fusion Middleware Summer Camps in Munich: SOA Suite 11g advanced training experiences @soacommunity http://bit.ly/Mw3btE Simone Geib ?Bruce Tierney: Update - SOA & BPM Customer Insights Webcast Series: | https://blogs.oracle.com/SOA/entry/update_soa_bpm_customer_insights … OTNArchBeat Business SOA: Thinking is Dead | @mosesjones http://pub.vitrue.com/k8mw esentri ?had 3 great days in Munich at #Oracle #soacommunity Summercamp! Special thanks to Geoffroy de Lamalle from eProseed! Danilo Schmiedel ?Used my time in train to setup the ps5 soa/bpm vbox-image.Works like a dream. Setup-Readme is perfect! Saves a lot of time!!! @soacommunity 18 Jul SOA Community ?THANKS for the excellent OFM summer camps - save trip home - share your pictures at http://www.facebook.com/soacommunity #ofmsummercamps #soacommunity doors BBQ-party with Oracle @soacommunity. 5Star! #lovemunich #ofmsummercamps pic.twitter.com/ztfcGn2S leonsmiers ?New #Capgemini blog post "Continuous Improvement of Business Agility" http://bit.ly/Lr0EwG #bpm #yam Eric Elzinga ?MDS Explorer utility, http://see.sc/4qdb43 #soasuite ServiceTechSymposium ?@techsymp New speaker Demed L’Her from Oracle has been added to the symposium calendar. http://ow.ly/cjnyw SOA Community ?Last day of the Fusion Middleware summer camps - we continue at 9.00 am. send us your barbecue pictures! #ofmsummercamps #soacommunity SOA Community ?Delivering SOA Governance with EAMS and Oracle Enterprise Repository by Link Consulting http://middlewarebylink.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/delivering-soa-governance-with-eams-and-oracle-enterprise-repository/ … #soacommunity #soa #oer OracleBlogs ?Process Accelerator Kit http://ow.ly/1loaCw 15 Jul SOA Community ?Sun is back in Munich! Send your pictures Middleware summer camps! #ofmsummercamps We start tomorrow 11.00 at Oracle pic.twitter.com/6FStxomk Walter Montantes ?Gracias, Obrigado, Thank you, Danke a Lisboa y a @soacommunity @wlscommunity. From the Mexican guys!! cc @mikeintoch #ofmsummercamps Andrejus Baranovskis Tips & Tricks How to Run Oracle BPM 11g PS5 Workspace from Custom ADF 11g Application http://fb.me/1zOf3h2K8 JDeveloper & ADF ?Fusion Apps Enterprise Repository - Explained http://dlvr.it/1rpjWd Steve Walker ?Oracle #Exalogic is the logical choice for running business applications. Exalogic Software 2.0 launches 7/25. Reg at http://bit.ly/NedQ9L A. Chatziantoniou ?Landed in rainy Amsterdam after a great week in Lisbon for the #ofmsummercamps - multo obrigado for Jürgen for another fantastic event SOA Community ?Teams present #BPM11g POC results at #ofmsummercamps - great job! #soacommunity pic.twitter.com/0d4txkWF Sabine Leitner ?#DOAG SIG Middleware 29.08.2012 Köln über MW, Administration, Monitoring http://bit.ly/P47w82 @soacommunity @OracleMW @OracleFMW 12 Jul philmulhall ?Thanks @soacommunity for a great week at the #ofmsummercamps. Hard work done so time for a few cold ones in Lisboa. pic.twitter.com/LVUUuwTh peter230769 ?RT: andrea_rocco_31: RT @soacommunity: Enjoy the networking event at #ofmsummercamps want to attend next time ... pic.twitter.com/D1HRndi4 Niels Gorter ?#ofmsummercamps dinner in Lisbon. Great weather, scenery, training, people, on and on. Big THANKS @soacommunity JDeveloper & ADF ?Running Oracle BPM 11g PS5 Worklist Task Flow and Human Task Form on Non-SOA Domain http://dlvr.it/1r0c2j Andrea Rocco ?RT @soacommunity: Jamy pastry at cafe Belem - who is the ghost there?!? http://via.me/-2x33uk6 Simon Haslam ?Sounds great - sorry I couldn't make it. RT @soacommunity: 6pm BPM advanced training hard work to build the POC #ofmsummercamps philmulhall ?A well earned rest after a hard days work @soacommunity #summercamps pic.twitter.com/LKK7VOVS philmulhall ?Some more hard working delegates @soacommunity #summercamps pic.twitter.com/gWpk1HZh SOA Community ?Error message at the BPM POC - will The #ace director understand the message and solve it? #ofmsummercamps pic.twitter.com/LFTEzNck Daniel Kleine-Albers ?posted on the #thecattlecrew blog: Assigning more memory to JDeveloper http://thecattlecrew.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/jdeveloper-quicktip-assigning-more-memory/ … OTNArchBeat ?BAM design pointers | Kavitha Srinivasan http://pub.vitrue.com/TOhP SOA Community ?Did you receive the July SOA community newsletter? read it! Want to become a member http://www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa #soacommunity #soa #opn OracleBlogs ?Markus Zirn, Big Data with CEP and SOA @ SOA, Cloud &amp; Service Technology Symposium 2012 http://ow.ly/1lcSkb Andrejus Baranovskis Running Oracle BPM 11g PS5 Worklist Task Flow and Human Task Form on Non-SOA Eric Elzinga ?Service Facade design pattern in OSB, http://bit.ly/NnOExN Eric Elzinga ?New BPEL Thread Pool in SOA 11g for Non-Blocking Invoke Activities from 11.1.1.6 (PS5), http://bit.ly/NnOc2G Gilberto Holms New Post: Siebel Connection Pool in Oracle Service Bus 11g http://wp.me/pRE8V-2z Oracle UPK & Tutor ?UPK Pre-Built Content Update: UPK pre-built content development efforts are always underway and growing. Ove... http://bit.ly/R2HeTj JDeveloper & ADF ?Troubleshooting BPMN process editor problems in 11.1.1.6 http://dlvr.it/1p0FfS orclateamsoa ?A-Team Blog #ateam: BAM design pointers - In working recently with a large Oracle customer on SOA and BAM, I discove... http://ow.ly/1kYqES SOA Community BPMN process editor problems in 11.1.1.6 by Mark Nelson http://redstack.wordpress.com/2012/06/27/bpmn-process-editor-problems-in-11-1-1-6 … #soacommunity #bpm OTNArchBeat ?SOA Learning Library: free short, topic-focused training on Oracle SOA & BPM products | @SOACommunity http://pub.vitrue.com/NE1G Andrejus Baranovskis ?ADF 11g PS5 Application with Customized BPM Worklist Task Flow (MDS Seeded Customization) http://fb.me/1coX4r1X1 OTNArchBeat ?A Universal JMX Client for Weblogic –Part 1: Monitoring BPEL Thread Pools in SOA 11g | Stefan Koser http://pub.vitrue.com/mQVZ OTNArchBeat ?BPM – Disable DBMS job to refresh B2B Materialized View | Mark Nelson http://pub.vitrue.com/3PR0 SOA & BPM Partner Community For regular information on Oracle SOA Suite become a member in the SOA & BPM Partner Community for registration please visit  www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa (OPN account required) If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center. Blog Twitter LinkedIn Mix Forum Technorati Tags: SOA Community twitter,SOA Community,Oracle SOA,Oracle BPM,BPM Community,OPN,Jürgen Kress

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  • Can notes/to-dos in code comments sent to code-reviews result in an effective refactoring process?

    - by dukeofgaming
    I want to start/improve a culture of collective code ownership at my company but at a geographically distributed level... I'd say there is some current collective code-ownership mentality, but only at single geographical sites. This is a follow-up to this question: What is the politically correct way of refactoring other's code? I'm just wondering if submitting *just code comments* for code reviews (we have ReviewBoard, possibly upgrading to Crucible) could actually be an effective mechanism to get the conversation started on improving code, without having others feel territorial about their code. For example, if I add: //ToDo: Refactor this code and that code because of reasons X and Y Then, submit it for code review, and it gets accepted... it could be considered as an agreement (which I think is sometimes harder to get with new code up front). At the same time, the author (and others) might have an easier time digesting and accepting the proposal; rejecting a proposal because it might break things will not longer be a valid reason and therefore the fear of making a change is lost... and at the same time, do not invest 10 hours optimizing something that no one thinks it is worth it and opposes to it just out of fear. This is all conjecture, but I'm feeling something like this (submitting refactoring notes in code comments at the code-review process) would work. Has anyone done something like this in practice?, if so, what have been the results?

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  • So long and thanks for the fish&hellip;

    - by Geoff N. Hiten
    This marks my last post as a SQLPASS Board member.  I learned a lot during my year of service and I thank everyone involved for this opportunity.  I would especially like to thank the Chapter leaders and Regional Mentors for Virtual Chapters who (mostly) patiently taught me about Virtual Chapters.   I hope the changes I put in place will help strengthen and grow VCs and PASS going forward.  I would also like to thank every one who encouraged me to reach beyond my comfort zone and accept a leadership position within the PASS organization.  My overall principle was to be a good steward of the PASS community.  Could I have done more?  Always. Did I do enough?  I hope so.  But PASS is a volunteer organization and my time, like yours, is limited.  I have other obligations in life that supersede PASS.  Now I have more time for some of those.  I won’t be going away or leaving the SQL Community.  I will still contribute to the community and support PASS, just in a different role.  Time to let somebody else enjoy the hot seat for a while. Finally, everyone who voted (not just for me) deserves a thanks.  More voters and more engaged voters, strong candidates, and a vigorous debate were all I wanted out of declaring as a candidate last year. This year the SQL community got exactly that. Thank you..

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  • Ada and 'The Book'

    - by Phil Factor
    The long friendship between Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace created one of the most exciting and mysterious of collaborations ever to have resulted in a technological breakthrough. The fireworks that created by the collision of two prodigious mathematical and creative talents resulted in an invention, the Analytical Engine, which went on to change society fundamentally. However, beyond that, we just don't know what the bulk of their collaborative work was about:;  it was done in strictest secrecy. Even the known outcome of their friendship, the first programmable computer, was shrouded in mystery. At the time, nobody, except close friends and family, had any idea of Ada Byron's contribution to the invention of the ‘Engine’, and how to program it. Her great insight was published in August 1843, under the initials AAL, standing for Ada Augusta Lovelace, her title then being the Countess of Lovelace. It was contained in a lengthy ‘note’ to her translation of a publication that remains the best description of Babbage's amazing Analytical Engine. The secret identity of the person behind those enigmatic initials was finally revealed by Prince de Polignac who, seventy years later, wrote to Ada's daughter to seek confirmation that her mother had, indeed, been the author of the brilliant sentences that described so accurately how Babbage's mechanical computer could be programmed with punch-cards. L.F. Menabrea's paper on the Analytical Engine first appeared in the 'Bibliotheque Universelle de Geneve' in October 1842, and Ada translated it anonymously for Taylor's 'Scientific Memoirs'. Charles Babbage was surprised that she had not written an original paper as she already knew a surprising amount about the way the machine worked. He persuaded her to at least write some explanatory notes. These notes ended up extending to four times the length of the original article and represented the first published account of how a machine could be programmed to perform any calculation. Her example of programming the Bernoulli sequence would have worked on the Analytical engine had the device’s construction been completed, and gave Ada an unassailable claim to have invented the art of programming. What was the reason for Ada's secrecy? She was the only legitimate child of Lord Byron, who was probably the best known celebrity of the age, so she was already famous. She was a senior aristocrat, with titles, a fortune in money and vast estates in the Midlands. She had political influence, and was the cousin of Lord Melbourne, who was the Prime Minister at that time. She was friendly with the young Queen Victoria. Her mathematical activities were a pastime, and not one that would be considered by others to be in keeping with her roles and responsibilities. You wouldn't dare to dream up a fictional heroine like Ada. She was dazzlingly beautiful and talented. She could speak several languages fluently, and play some musical instruments with professional skill. Contemporary accounts refer to her being 'accomplished in science, art and literature'. On top of that, she was a brilliant mathematician, a talent inherited from her mother, Annabella Milbanke. In her mother's circle of literary and scientific friends was Charles Babbage, and Ada's friendship with him dates from her teenage zest for Mathematics. She was one of the first people he'd ever met who understood what he had attempted to achieve with the 'Difference Engine', and with whom he could converse as intellectual equals. He arranged for her to have an education from the most talented academics in the country. Ada melted the heart of the cantankerous genius to the point that he became a faithful and loyal father-figure to her. She was one of the very few who could grasp the principles of the later, and very different, ‘Analytical Engine’ which was designed from the start to tackle a variety of tasks. Sadly, Ada Byron's life ended less than a decade after completing the work that assured her long-term fame, in November 1852. She was dying of cancer, her gambling habits had caused her to run up huge debts, she'd had more than one affairs, and she was being blackmailed. Her brilliant but unempathic mother was nursing her in her final illness, destroying her personal letters and records, and repaying her debts. Her husband was distraught but helpless. Charles Babbage, however, maintained his steadfast paternalistic friendship to the end. She appointed her loyal friend to be her executor. For years, she and Babbage had been working together on a secret project, known only as 'The Book'. We have a clue to what it was in a letter written by her nine years earlier, on 11th August 1843. It was a joint project by herself and Lord Lovelace, her husband, and was intended to involve Babbage's 'undivided energies'. It involved 'consulting your Engine' (it required Babbage’s computer). The letter gives no hint about the project except for the high-minded nature of its purpose, and its highly mathematical nature.  From then on, the surviving correspondence between the two gives only veiled references to 'The Book'. There isn't much, since Babbage later destroyed any letters that could have damaged her reputation within the Establishment. 'I cannot spare the book today, which I am very sorry for. At the moment I want it for constant reference, but I think you can have it tomorrow' (Oct 1844)  And 'I will send you the book directly, and you can say, when you receive it, how long you will want to keep it'. (Nov 1844)  The two of them were obviously intent on the work: She writes, four years later, 'I have an engagement for Wednesday which will prevent me from attending to your wishes about the book' (Dec 1848). This was something that they both needed to work on, but could not do in parallel: 'I will send the book on Tuesday, and it can be left with you till Friday' (11 Feb 1849). After six years work, it had been so well-handled that it was beginning to fall apart: 'Don't forget the new cover you promised for the book. The poor book is very shabby and wants one' (20 Sept 1849). So what was going on? The word 'book' was not a code-word: it was a real book, probably a 'printer's blank', plain paper, but properly bound so printers and publishers could show off how the published work might look. The hints from the correspondence are of advanced mathematics. It is obvious that the book was travelling between them, back and forth, each one working on it for less than a week before passing it back. Ada and her husband were certainly involved in gambling large sums of money on the horses, and so most biographers have concluded that the three of them were trying to calculate the mathematical odds on the horses. This theory has three large problems. Firstly, Ada's original letter proposing the project refers to its high-minded nature. Babbage was temperamentally opposed to gambling and would scarcely have given so much time to the project, even though he was devoted to Ada. Secondly, Babbage would have very soon have realized the hopelessness of trying to beat the bookies. This sort of betting never attracts his type of intellectual background. The third problem is that any work on calculating the odds on horses would not need a well-thumbed book to pass back and forth between them; they would have not had to work in series. The original project was instigated by Ada, along with her husband, William King-Noel, 1st Earl of Lovelace. Charles Babbage was invited to join the project after the couple had come up with the idea. What could William have contributed? One might assume that William was a Bertie Wooster character, addicted only to the joys of the turf, but this was far from the truth. He was a scientist, a Cambridge graduate who was later elected to be a Fellow of the Royal Society. After Eton, he went to Trinity College, Cambridge. On graduation, he entered the diplomatic service and acted as secretary under Lord Nugent, who was Lord Commissioner of the Ionian Islands. William was very friendly with Babbage too, able to discuss scientific matters on equal terms. He was a capable engineer who invented a process for bending large timbers by the application of steam heat. He delivered a paper to the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1849, and received praise from the great engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. As well as being Lord Lieutenant of the County of Surrey for most of Victoria's reign, he had time for a string of scientific and engineering achievements. Whatever the project was, it is unlikely that William was a junior partner. After Ada's death, the project disappeared. Then, two years later, Babbage, through one of his occasional outbursts of temper, demonstrated that he was able to decrypt one of the most powerful of secret codes, Vigenère's autokey cipher.  All contemporary diplomatic and military messages used a variant of this cipher. Babbage had made three important discoveries, namely, the mathematical law of this cipher, the principle of the key periodicity, and the technique of the symmetry of position. The technique is now known as the Kasiski examination, also called the Kasiski test, but Babbage got there first. At one time, he listed amongst his future projects, the writing of a book 'The Philosophy of Decyphering', but it never came to anything. This discovery was going to change the course of history, since it was used to decipher the Russians’ military dispatches in the Crimean war. Babbage himself played a role during the Crimean War as a cryptographical adviser to his friend, Rear-Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort of the Admiralty. This is as much as we can be certain about in trying to make sense of the bulk of the time that Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace worked together. Nine years of intensive work, involving the 'Engine' and a great deal of mathematics and research seems to have been lost: or has it? I've argued in the past http://www.simple-talk.com/community/blogs/philfactor/archive/2008/06/13/59614.aspx that the cracking of the Vigenère autokey cipher, was a fundamental motive behind the British Government's support and funding of the 'Difference Engine'. The Duke of Wellington, whose understanding of the military significance of being able to read enemy dispatches, was the most steadfast advocate of the project. If the three friends were actually doing the work of cracking codes by mathematical techniques that used the techniques of key periodicity, and symmetry of position (the use of a book being passed quickly to and fro is very suggestive), intending to then use the 'Engine' to do the routine cracking of each dispatch, then this is a rather different story. The project was Ada and William's idea. (William had served in the diplomatic service and would be familiar with the use of codes). This makes Ada Lovelace the initiator of a project which, by giving both Britain, and probably the USA, a diplomatic and military advantage in the second part of the Nineteenth century, changed world history. Ada would never have wanted any credit for cracking the cipher, and developing the method that rendered all contemporary military and diplomatic ciphering techniques nugatory; quite the reverse. And it is clear from the gaps in the record of the letters between the collaborators that the evidence was destroyed, probably on her request by her irascible but intensely honorable executor, Charles Babbage. Charles Babbage toyed with the idea of going public, but the Crimean war put an end to that. The British Government had a valuable secret, and intended to keep it that way. Ada and Charles had quite often discussed possible moneymaking projects that would fund the development of the Analytic Engine, the first programmable computer, but their secret work was never in the running as a potential cash cow. I suspect that the British Government was, even then, working on the concealment of a discovery whose value to the nation depended on it remaining so. The success of code-breaking in the Crimean war, and the American Civil war, led to the British and Americans  subsequently giving much more weight and funding to the science of decryption. Paradoxically, this makes Ada's contribution even closer to the creation of Colossus, the first digital computer, at Bletchley Park, specifically to crack the Nazi’s secret codes.

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  • First Stable Version of Opera 15 has been Released

    - by Akemi Iwaya
    Opera has just released the first stable version of their revamped browser and will be proceeding at a rapid pace going forward. There is also news concerning the three development streams they will maintain along with news of an update for the older 12.x series for those who are not ready to update to 15.x just yet. The day is full of good news for Opera users whether they have already switched to the new Blink/Webkit Engine version or are still using the older Presto Engine version. First, news of the new development streams… Opera has released details outlining their three new release streams: Opera (Stable) – Released every couple of weeks, this is the most solid version, ready for mission-critical daily use. Opera Next – Updated more frequently than Stable, this is the feature-complete candidate for the Stable version. While it should be ready for daily use, you can expect some bugs there. Opera Developer – A bleeding edge version, you can expect a lot of fancy stuff there; however, some nasty bugs might also appear from time to time. From the Opera Desktop Team blog post: When you install Opera from a particular stream, your installation will stick to it, so Opera Stable will be always updated to Opera Stable, Opera Next to Opera Next and so on. You can choose for yourself which stream is the best for you. You can even follow a couple of them at the same time! Of particular interest is the announcement of continued development for the 12.x series. A new version (12.16) is due to be released soon to help keep the older series up to date and secure while the transition process from 12.x to 15.x continues.    

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  • Implementing fog of war in opengl es 2.0 game

    - by joxnas
    Hi game development community, this is my first question here! ;) I'm developing a tactics/strategy real time android game and I've been wondering for some time what's the best way to implement an efficient and somewhat nice looking fog of war to incorporate in it. My experience with OpenGL or Android is not vast by any means, but I think it is sufficient for what I'm asking here. So far I have thought in some solutions: Draw white circles to a dark background, corresponding to the units visibility, then render to a texture, and then drawing a quad with that texture with blend mode set to multiply. Will this approach be efficient? Will it take too much memory? (I don't know how to render to texture and then use the texture. Is it too messy?) Have a grid object with a vertex shader which has an array of uniforms having the coordinates of all units, and another array which has their visibility range. The number of units will very probably never be bigger then 100. The vertex shader needs to test for each considered vertex, if there is some unit which can see it. In order to do this it, will have to loop the array with the coordinates and do some calculations based on distance. The efficiency of this is inversely proportional to the looks of it. A more dense grid will result in a more beautiful fog of war... but will require a greater amount of vertexes to be checked. Is it possible to find a nice compromise or is this a bad solution from the start? Which solution is the best? Are there better alternatives? Which ones? Thank you for your time.

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  • CodePlex Daily Summary for Friday, July 19, 2013

    CodePlex Daily Summary for Friday, July 19, 2013Popular ReleasesuComponents: uComponents v5.5.0: Following on from our 101355 release, we bring you... v5.5.0! Resolved issues The following issues have been resolved in 5.5.0: 14634 14848 DataType Grid 14840 14842 14845 UpgradingThe best way to upgrade uComponents is to re-install via Umbraco's back-office package installer, (either from the package repository or a local package upload). Do not uninstall an existing uComponents package, as this may lead to data loss! Umbraco compatibilityThis release is compatible with Umbraco 4...51Degrees.mobi - Mobile Device Detection and Redirection: 2.1.19.4: One Click Install from NuGet This release introduces the 51Degrees.mobi IIS Vary Header Fix. When Compression and Caching is used in IIS, the Vary header is overwritten, making intelligent caching with dynamic content impossible. Find out more about installing the Vary Header fix. Changes to Version 2.1.19.4Handlers now have a ‘Count’ property. This is an integer value that shows how many devices in the dataset that use that handler. Provider.cs -> GetDeviceInfoByID to address a problem w...SalarDbCodeGenerator: SalarDbCodeGenerator v2.1.2013.0719: Version 2.1.2013.0719 2013/7/19 Pattern Changes: * DapperContext pattern is added. * All patterns are updated to work with one-to-one relations. Changes: * One-to-one relation is supported. * Minor bug fixes.Scryber PDF Generation: Scryber.Installer.v0.8.3: This one has tables! A significant update to the scryber library, with the inclusion of tables. There is no column span, or row span, and nested tables are not fully supported. But - they overflow nicely and are well styled. And they can be data bound. Other updates The Link element has inner components directly as a child, rather than in a Content element. The existing files will still continue to work, but are invalid wrt the schema. Databinding is now supported at the document level, r...Player Framework by Microsoft: Player Framework for Windows and WP (v1.3 beta 2): Includes all changes in v1.3 beta 1 Additional support for Windows 8.1 Preview New API (JS): addTextTrack New API (JS): msKeys New API (JS): msPlayToPreferredSourceUri New API (JS): msSetMediaKeys New API (JS): onmsneedkey New API (Xaml): SetMediaStreamSource method New API (Xaml): Stretch property New API (Xaml): StretchChanged event New API (Xaml): AreTransportControlsEnabled property New API (Xaml): IsFullWindow property New API (Xaml): PlayToPreferredSourceUri proper...Outlook 2013 Add-In: Multiple Calendars: As per popular request, this new version includes: - Support for multiple calendars. This can be enabled in the configuration by choosing which ones to show/hide appointments from. In some cases (public folders) it may time out and crash, and so far it only supports "My Calendars", so not shared ones yet. Also they're currently shown in the same font/color so there are no confusions with color categories, but please drop me a line on any suggestions you'd like to see implemented. - Added fri...GoAgent GUI: GoAgent GUI 1.2.0 ???: *???????,??????????????,?????????????? ????????* ????????(Beta) Beta????:https://goagent.codeplex.com/workitem/list/basic ??????:uygw@outlook.com ????:https://goagent.codeplex.com/documentation ?????????????????。Circuit Diagram: Circuit Diagram 2.0 Beta 2: New in this release: Show grid in editor Cut/copy/paste support Bug fixesAscend 3D: Ascend (2013-07-17): Ascend 2.1 Animation bugfixes and speed/robustness improvements Added compatibility for multiple top-level bones on armatures Ascend Blender Exporter 2.1 Removed need to create parent-child relationship between armature and skinning mesh Added support for exporting multiple top-level bones on armatures AscendViewer 1.0.4 Updated to use latest version of Ascend libraryCommunity TFS Build Extensions: July 2013: The July 2013 release contains VS2010 Activities(target .NET 4.0) VS2012 Activities (target .NET 4.5) VS2013 Activities (target .NET 4.5.1) Community TFS Build Manager VS2012 The Community TFS Build Manager can also be found in the Visual Studio Gallery here where updates will first become available. A version supporting VS2010 is also available in the Gallery here.smoketestgit1: new release: Wiki Markup Guide bold italics underline Heading 1 Heading 2 Bullet List Bullet List 2 Number List Number List 2 http://www.example.com Do not apply formattingsmoketesthg: new release: Wiki Markup Guide bold italics underline Heading 1 Heading 2 Bullet List Bullet List 2 Number List Number List 2 http://www.example.com Do not apply formattingsmoketesttfs: new release: Wiki Markup Guide bold italics underline Heading 1 Heading 2 Bullet List Bullet List 2 Number List Number List 2 http://www.example.com Do not apply formattingdatajs - JavaScript Library for data-centric web applications: datajs version 1.1.1: datajs is a cross-browser and UI agnostic JavaScript library that enables data-centric web applications with the following features: OData client that enables CRUD operations including batching and metadata support using both ATOM and JSON payloads. Single store abstraction that provides a common API on top of HTML5 local storage technologies. Data cache component that allows reading data ranges from a collection and storing them locally to reduce the number of network requests. Changes ...Orchard Project: Orchard 1.7 RC: Planning releasedTerminals: Version 3.1 - Release: Changes since version 3.0:15992 Unified usage of icons in user interface Added context menu in Organize favorites grid Fixed:34219 34210 34223 33981 34209 Install notes:No changes in database (use database from release 3.0) No upgrade of configuration, passwords, credentials or favorites See also upgrade notes for release 3.0Media Companion: Media Companion MC3.573b: XBMC Link - Let MC update your XBMC Library Fixes in place, Enjoy the XBMC Link function Well, Phil's been busy in the background, and come up with a Great new feature for Media Companion. Currently only implemented for movies. Once we're happy that's working with no issues, we'll extend the functionality to include TV shows. All the help for this is build into the application. Go to General Preferences - XBMC Link for details. Help us make it better* Currently only tested on local and ...Wsus Package Publisher: Release v1.2.1307.15: Fix a bug where WPP crash if 'ShowPendingUpdates' is start with wrong credentials. Fix a bug where WPP crash if ArrivalDateAfter and ArrivalDateBefore is equal in the ComputerView. Add a filter in the ComputerView. (Thanks to NorbertFe for this feature request) Add an option, when right-clicking on a computer, you can ask for display the current logon user of the remote computer. Add an option in settings to choose if WPP ping remote computers using IPv4, IPv6 or IPv6 and, if fail, IP...Lab Of Things: vBeta1: Initial release of LoTVidCoder: 1.4.23: New in 1.4.23 Added French translation. Fixed non-x264 video encoders not sticking in video tab. New in 1.4 Updated HandBrake core to 0.9.9 Blu-ray subtitle (PGS) support Additional framerates: 30, 50, 59.94, 60 Additional sample rates: 8, 11.025, 12 and 16 kHz Additional higher bitrates for audio Same as Source Constant Framerate 24-bit FLAC encoding Added Windows Phone 8 and Apple TV 3 presets Introduced process isolation for encodes. Now if HandBrake crashes, VidCoder will ...New Projects[C#]A Complete MySQL Manager Project: An open-source MySQL database manager oriented to multi-threading environments, supporting to create an entire database from scratch and edit it.bCal Javascript Calendar Generator: Using this simple javascript library, you can create simple navigable calendars in your website with just one line of user code.Better Network: Tools to delete network profile and network lists in Windows 8.C# Intellisense for Notepad++: 'CS-Script Intellisense' is a real C# intellisense solution based on CS-Script and ICSharpCode.NRefactory/Mono.Cecil.DARF: Dynamic Application Runtime Framework: A set of tools and libraries which help software developers create fully distributed and component-based applications. FeiXinV5: Just TestFollower Catcher: Game made for the 2012 Windows 8 Megathon. Second place in Madrid's local competition.MeeOS .NET: El primer sistema operativo GNU GPL en español.Music Vault: Music Vault is program to store your favorite music in one place, you can in any time move all your music library by moving only one file.MVC uTorrent: This is an ASP.NET MVC uTorrent front end, that utilises the uTorrent API. The main features: - Single page application - Can be hosted in IISMyTaskManager: This project Related to distribute the task to log in users OO2RDF: OO2RDF is a framework for data triplification. P(y)rotein Subcellular Location Image Database: A library that allows communication with an OMERO database, an open-source software for storage and manipulation of biological images.PE Toolbox: PE Toolbox ? ????? ?? ???????????, ????? ??????? ??? ??????????? ?? ?????. ???? ????? ??????????? ???????: - PE IFE (Importing from Excel) PeGscan: *PeGscan*ScriptZilla: ScriptZilla is an Free Editor for Windows with more Than 23 Languages.Sharepoint : Reconciliate SSRS Reports and Datasets with datasources Powershell: Powershell to link datasources to SSRS reports and datasetsSync-Moped: The idea behind the "Sync-Moped" is to synchronize two directories with backup functionality.System.Time: System.Time provides a type for .NET that allows the managing of a time in System.String, System.DateTime and System.TimeSpan form at the same time.Text Analytics: Project summary will be added later.Tibia Universal MC .NET: This tool was written as an attempt to port the [url:http://code.google.com/p/xenomc/] to the .NET Framework.VRFramework: VR Framework is a system for creating a virtual reality games using your PC, and Android smart phone, and Unity 3D.

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