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• Part 1: What are EBS Customizations?

  - by volker.eckardt(at)oracle.com

  Everything what is not shipped as Oracle standard may be called customization. And very often we differentiate between setup and customization, although setup can also be required when working with customizations.This highlights one of the first challenges, because someone needs to track setup brought over with customizations and this needs to be synchronized with the (standard) setup done manually. This is not only a tracking issue, but also a documentation issue. I will cover this in one of the following blogs in more detail.But back to the topic itself. Mainly our code pieces (java, pl/sql, sql, shell scripts), custom objects (tables, views, packages etc.) and application objects (concurrent programs, lookups, forms, reports, OAF pages etc.) are treated as customizations. In general we define two types: customization by extension and customization by modification. For sure we like to minimize standard code modifications, but sometimes it is just not possible to provide a certain functionality without doing it.Keep in mind that the EBS provides a number of alternatives for modifications, just to mention some:Files in file system    add your custom top before the standard top to the pathBI Publisher Report    add a custom layout and disable the standard layout, automatically yours will be taken.Form /OAF Change    use personalization or substitutionUsing such techniques you are on the safe site regarding standard patches, but for sure a retest is always required!Many customizations are growing over the time, initially it was just one file, but in between we have 5, 10 or 15 files in our customization pack. The more files you have, the more important is the installation order.Last but not least also personalization's are treated as customizations, although you may not use any deployment pack to transfer such personalisation's (but you can). For OAF personalization's you can use iSetup, I have also enabled iSetup to allow Forms personalizations to transport.Interfaces and conversion objects are quite often also categorized as customizations and I promote this decision. Your development standards are related to all these kinds of custom code whether we are exchanging data with users (via form or report) or with other systems (via inbound or outbound interface).To cover all these types of customizations two acronyms have been defined: RICE and CEMLI.RICE = Reports, Interfaces, Conversions, and ExtensionsCEMLI = Customization, Extension, Modification, Localization, IntegrationThe word CEMLI has been introduced by Oracle On Demand and is used within Oracle projects quite often, but also RICE is well known as acronym.It doesn't matter which acronym you are using, the main task here is to classify and categorize your customizations to allow everyone to understand when you talk about RICE- 211, CEMLI XXFI_BAST or XXOM_RPT_030.Side note: Such references are not automatically objects prefixes, but they are often used as such. I plan also to address this point in one other blog.Thank you!Volker

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• It's called College.

  - by jeffreyabecker

  Today I saw yet another 'GUID vs int as your primary key' article. Like most of the ones I've read this was filled with technical misrepresentations and out-right fallices. Chef's famous line that "There's a time and a place for everything children" applies here. GUIDs have distinct advantages and disadvantages which should be considered when choosing a data type for the primary key. Fallacy 1: "Its easier" An integer data type(tinyint, smallint, int, bigint) is a better artifical key than a GUID because its easier to remember. I'm a firm believer that your artifical primary keys should be opaque gibberish. PK's are an implementation detail which should never be exposed to the user or relied on for business logic. If you want things to come back in an order, add and ORDER BY clause and SortOrder fields. If you want a human-usable look-up add a business key with a unique constraint. If you want to know what order things were inserted into a table add a timestamp. Fallacy 2: "Size Matters" For many applications, the size of the artifical primary key is going to be irrelevant. The particular article which kicked this post off stated repeatedly that joining against an int has better performance than joining against a GUID. In computer science the performance of your algorithm is always a function of the number of data points. This still holds true for databases. Unless your table is very large, the performance difference between an int and a guid probably isnt going to be mesurable let alone noticeable. My personal experience is that the performance becomes an issue when you start having billions of rows in the table. At this point, you should probably start looking to move from int to bigint so the effective space/performance gain isnt as much as you'd think. GUID Advantages: Insert-ability / Mergeability: You can reliably insert guids into tables without key collisions. Database Independence: Saving entities to the database often requires knowing ids. With identity based ids the id must be selected back after every insert. GUIDs can be generated application-side allowing much faster inserts. GUID Disadvantages: Generatability: You can calculate the next id for an integer pk pretty easily in your head but will need a program to generate GUIDs. Solution: "Select top 100 newid() from sysobjects" Fragmentation: most GUID generation algorithms generate pseudo random GUIDs. This can cause inserts into the middle of your clustered index. Solutions: add a default of newsequentialid() or use GuidComb in NHibernate.

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• Compute directional light frustum from view furstum points and light direction

  - by Fabian

  I'm working on a friends engine project and my task is to construct a new frustum from the light direction that overlaps the view frustum and possible shadow casters. The project already has a function that creates a frustum for this but its way to big and includes way to many casters (shadows) which can't be seen in the view frustum. Now the only parameter of this function are the normalized light direction vector and a view class which lets me extract the 8 view frustum points in world space. I don't have any additional infos about the scene. I have read some of the related Questions here but non seem to fit very well to my problem as they often just point to cascaded shadow maps. Sadly i can't use DX or openGl functions directly because this engine has a dedicated math library. From what i've read so far the steps are: Transform view frustum points into light space and find min/max x and y values (or sometimes minima and maxima of all three axis) and create a AABB using the min/max vectors. But what comes after this step? How do i transform this new AABB back to world space? What i've done so far: CVector3 Points[8], MinLight = CVector3(FLT_MAX), MaxLight = CVector3(FLT_MAX); for(int i = 0; i<8;++i){ Points[i] = Points[i] * WorldToShadowMapMatrix; MinLight = Math::Min(Points[i],MinLight); MaxLight = Math::Max(Points[i],MaxLight); } AABox box(MinLight,MaxLight); I don't think this is the right way to do it. The near plain probably has to extend into the direction of the light source to include potentional shadow casters. I've read the Microsoft article about cascaded shadow maps http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ee416307%28v=vs.85%29.aspx which also includes some sample code. But they seem to use the scenes AABB to determine the near and far plane which I can't since i cant access this information from the funtion I'm working in. Could you guys please link some example code which shows the calculation of such frustum? Thanks in advance! Additional questio: is there a way to construct a WorldToFrustum matrix that represents the above transformation?

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• How should I pitch moving to an agile/iterative development cycle with mandated 3-week deployments?

  - by Wayne M

  I'm part of a small team of four, and I'm the unofficial team lead (I'm lead in all but title, basically). We've largely been a "cowboy" environment, with no architecture or structure and everyone doing their own thing. Previously, our production deployments would be every few months without being on a set schedule, as things were added/removed to the task list of each developer. Recently, our CIO (semi-technical but not really a programmer) decided we will do deployments every three weeks; because of this I instantly thought that adopting an iterative development process (not necessarily full-blown Agile/XP, which would be a huge thing to convince everyone else to do) would go a long way towards helping manage expectations properly so there isn't this far-fetched idea that any new feature will be done in three weeks. IMO the biggest hurdle is that we don't have ANY kind of development approach in place right now (among other things like no CI or automated tests whatsoever). We don't even use Waterfall, we use "Tell Developer X to do a task, expect him to do everything and get it done". Are there any pointers that would help me start to ease us towards an iterative approach and A) Get the other developers on board with it and B) Get management to understand how iterative works? So far my idea involves trying to set up a CI server and get our build process automated (it takes about 10-20 minutes right now to simply build the application to put it on our development server), since pushing tests and/or TDD will be met with a LOT of resistance at this point, and constantly force us to break larger projects into smaller chunks that could be done iteratively in a three-week cycle; my only concern is that, unless I'm misunderstanding, an agile/iterative process may or may not release the software (depending on the project scope you might have "working" software after three weeks, but there isn't enough of it that works to let users make use of it), while I think the expectation here from management is that there will always be something "ready to go" in three weeks, and that disconnect could cause problems. On that note, is there any literature or references that explains the agile/iterative approach from a business standpoint? Everything I've seen only focuses on the developers, how to do it, but nothing seems to describe it from the perspective of actually getting the buy-in from the businesspeople.

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• Clone an Azure VM using Powershell

  - by jamiet

  In a few months time I will, in association with Technitrain, be running a training course entitled Introduction to SQL Server Data Tools. I am currently working on putting together some hands-on lab material for the course delegates and have decided that in order to save time in asking people to install software during the course I am simply going to prepare a virtual machine (VM) containing all the software and lab material for each delegate to use. Given that I am an MSDN subscriber it makes sense to use Windows Azure to host those VMs given that it will be close to, if not completely, free to do so. What I don’t want to do however is separately build a VM for each delegate, I would much rather build one VM and clone it for each delegate. I’ve spent a bit of time figuring out how to do this using Powershell and in this blog post I am sharing a script that will: Prompt for some information (Azure credentials, Azure subscription name, VM name, username & password, etc…) Create a VM on Azure using that information Prompt you to sysprep the VM and image it (this part can’t be done with Powershell so has to be done manually, a link to instructions is provided in the script output) Create three new VMs based on the image Remove those three VMs Simply download the script and execute it within Powershell, assuming you have an Azure account it should take about 20minutes to execute (spinning up VMs and shutting the down isn’t instantaneous). If you experience any issues please do let me know. There are additional notes below. Hope this is useful! @Jamiet  Notes: Obviously there isn’t a lot of point in creating some new VMs and then instantly deleting them. However, this demo script does provide everything you need should you want to do any of these operations in isolation. The names of the three VMs that get created will be suffixed with 001, 002, 003 but you can edit the script to call them whatever you like. The script doesn’t totally clean up after itself. If you specify a service name & storage account name that don’t already exist then it will create them however it won’t remove them when everything is complete. The created image file will also not be deleted. Removing these items can be done by visiting http://manage.windowsazure.com. When creating the image, ensure you use the correct name (the script output tells you what name to use): Here are some screenshots taken from running the script: When the third and final VM gets removed you are asked to confirm via this dialog: Select ‘Yes’

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• How does I/O work for large graph databases?

  - by tjb1982

  I should preface this by saying that I'm mostly a front end web developer, trained as a musician, but over the past few years I've been getting more and more into computer science. So one idea I have as a fun toy project to learn about data structures and C programming was to design and implement my own very simple database that would manage an adjacency list of posts. I don't want SQL (maybe I'll do my own query language? I'm just having fun). It should support ACID. It should be capable of storing 1TB let's say. So with that, I was trying to think of how a database even stores data, without regard to data structures necessarily. I'm working on linux, and I've read that in that world "everything is a file," including hardware (like /dev/*), so I think that that obviously has to apply to a database, too, and it clearly does--whether it's MySQL or PostgreSQL or Neo4j, the database itself is a collection of files you can see in the filesystem. That said, there would come a point in scale where loading the entire database into primary memory just wouldn't work, so it doesn't make sense to design it with that mindset (I assume). However, reading from secondary memory would be much slower and regardless some portion of the database has to be in primary memory in order for you to be able to do anything with it. I read this post: Why use a database instead of just saving your data to disk? And I found it difficult to understand how other databases, like SQLite or Neo4j, read and write from secondary memory and are still very fast (faster, it would seem, than simply writing files to the filesystem as the above question suggests). It seems the key is indexing. But even indexes need to be stored in secondary memory. They are inherently smaller than the database itself, but indexes in a very large database might be prohibitively large, too. So my question is how is I/O generally done with large databases like the one I described above that would be at least 1TB storing a big adjacency list? If indexing is more or less the answer, how exactly does indexing work--what data structures should be involved?

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• TDD vs. Productivity

  - by Nairou

  In my current project (a game, in C++), I decided that I would use Test Driven Development 100% during development. In terms of code quality, this has been great. My code has never been so well designed or so bug-free. I don't cringe when viewing code I wrote a year ago at the start of the project, and I have gained a much better sense for how to structure things, not only to be more easily testable, but to be simpler to implement and use. However... it has been a year since I started the project. Granted, I can only work on it in my spare time, but TDD is still slowing me down considerably compared to what I'm used to. I read that the slower development speed gets better over time, and I definitely do think up tests a lot more easily than I used to, but I've been at it for a year now and I'm still working at a snail's pace. Each time I think about the next step that needs work, I have to stop every time and think about how I would write a test for it, to allow me to write the actual code. I'll sometimes get stuck for hours, knowing exactly what code I want to write, but not knowing how to break it down finely enough to fully cover it with tests. Other times, I'll quickly think up a dozen tests, and spend an hour writing tests to cover a tiny piece of real code that would have otherwise taken a few minutes to write. Or, after finishing the 50th test to cover a particular entity in the game and all aspects of it's creation and usage, I look at my to-do list and see the next entity to be coded, and cringe in horror at the thought of writing another 50 similar tests to get it implemented. It's gotten to the point that, looking over the progress of the last year, I'm considering abandoning TDD for the sake of "getting the damn project finished". However, giving up the code quality that came with it is not something I'm looking forward to. I'm afraid that if I stop writing tests, then I'll slip out of the habit of making the code so modular and testable. Am I perhaps doing something wrong to still be so slow at this? Are there alternatives that speed up productivity without completely losing the benefits? TAD? Less test coverage? How do other people survive TDD without killing all productivity and motivation?

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• WinMo&rsquo;s Demise: Notifying Next of &ldquo;Kin&rdquo;

  - by andrewbrust

  This past Monday, April 12th, Visual Studio 2010 was launched.  And on that same day, Microsoft also launched a new line of  mobile phone handsets, called Kin.  The two product launches are actually connected, but only by what they do not have in common, and what they commonly lack. On the former point: VS 2010 had released to manufacturing a couple weeks prior to its launch.  The Kin phones, meanwhile are not yet available.  We don’t even know what they will cost.  (And I think cost will be a major factor in Kin’s success…I told ChannelWeb’s Yara Souza so in this article). What do the two products both lack? Simple: Windows Mobile 6.x. For example, Kin seems to be based on the same platform as Windows Phone 7 (albeit a subset).  And VS 2010 does not support .NET Compact Framework development, which means no .NET development support for WinMo 6.x and earlier. So I guess April 12th marks Windows Phone “clean slate day.”  If you want to develop for the old phone platform, you will need to use the old version of Visual Studio (i.e. 2008).  Luckily VS 2010 and 2008 can be installed side-by-side.  But I doubt that’s much consolation to developers who still target WinMo 6.5 and earlier. Remember, WinMo isn’t just about the phone.  There are all sorts of non-telephony mobile devices, including ruggedized Pocket PC-style instruments, bar code readers and shop-floor-deployed units that don’t run Windows Phone 7 and couldn’t, even if they wanted to. Where will developers in these markets go?  I would guess some will stick with WinMo 6.x and earlier, until Windows Phone 7 can handle their workloads, assuming that does indeed happen.  Others will likely go to Google’s Android platform. For OEMs and developers who need a customizable mobile software stack, Android is turning out to be out-WinMo-ing WinMo.  As I wrote in this post, Google took Microsoft’s model (minus the licensing fees) and combined it with a modern SmartPhone feature set (rather than a late 90s/early oughts PDA paradigm), to great success.  You might say Google embraced and extended. You might also say Microsoft shunned and withdrew.

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• Best practices for logging and tracing in .NET

  - by Levidad

  I've been reading a lot about tracing and logging, trying to find some golden rule for best practices in the matter, but there isn't any. People say that good programmers produce good tracing, but put it that way and it has to come from experience. I've also read similar questions in here and through the internet and they are not really the same thing I am asking or do not have a satisfying answer, maybe because the questions lack some detail. So, folks say that tracing should sort of replicate the experience of debugging the application in cases where you can't attach a debugger. It should provide enough context so that you can see which path is taken at each control point in the application. Going deeper, you can even distinguish between tracing and event logging, in that "event logging is different from tracing in that it captures major states rather than detailed flow of control". Now, say I want to do my tracing and logging using only the standard .NET classes, those in the System.Diagnostics namespace. I figured that the TraceSource class is better for the job than the static Trace class, because I want to differentiate among the trace levels and using the TraceSource class I can pass in a parameter informing the event type, while using the Trace class I must use Trace.WriteLineIf and then verify things like SourceSwitch.TraceInformation and SourceSwitch.TraceErrors, and it doesn't even have properties like TraceVerbose or TraceStart. With all that in mind, would you consider a good practice to do as follows: Trace a "Start" event when begining a method, which should represent a single logical operation or a pipeline, along with a string representation of the parameter values passed in to the method. Trace an "Information" event when inserting an item into the database. Trace an "Information" event when taking one path or another in an important if/else statement. Trace a "Critical" or "Error" in a catch block depending on weather this is a recoverable error. Trace a "Stop" event when finishing the execution of the method. And also, please clarify when best to trace Verbose and Warning event types. If you have examples of code with nice trace/logging and are willing to share, that would be excelent. Note: I've found some good information here, but still not what I am looking for: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/ff714589.aspx Thanks in advance!

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• Unrated Easy iOS 6.1.4/6.1.3 Unlock/Jailbreak iPhone 5/4S/4/3GS Untehtered System

  - by user171772

  Popular jailbreak tool Unlock-Jailbreak.net – compiled by the iPhone Team – has just been updated with full support for Unlock/Jailbreak iPhone 5/4S/4/3GS iOS 6.1.4 and 6.1.3/6.0.1 Untethered. You may have caught our tutorial, which detailed how one could jailbreak their device tethered using Redsn0w, although since it was a pre-iOS 6.1.1 release, users needed to "point" the tool to the older firmware. Team Unlock-Jailbreak was established few years ago, combines some of the jailbreak and unlock community’s most talented developers all known for producing reliable jailbreaks in the past. This team was assembled in order to develop a reliable untethered jailbreak and unlock iphone 5,4S,4 iOS 6.1 for post-A5 devices, including the iPhone 5, the iPad mini and the latest-generation iPad. This has now been achieved with the just-released userland jailbreak tool, known as Unlock-Jailbreak.net. To Jailbreak and Unlock your iPhone 5/4/4S/3GS iOS 6.1.4 and 6.1.3 visit the official website http://www.Unlock-Jailbreak.net http://www.Unlock-Jailbreak.net was formed in mid 2008 and have successfully jailbroken over 250,000 iPhones worldwide. This is unparalleled by any other service in the industry. They have achieved this by combining a very simple solution with a fantastic customer service department that is available 24/7 through many forms of contact, including telephone. Unlock-Jailbreak from Unlock-Jailbreak.nethas been downloaded by over 250,000 customers located in over 145 countries. To further ensure customers of its products usability, Unlock-Jailbreak offers a 100% full money back guarantee on all orders. Customers dissatisfied with the company’s product will be given a full refund, no questions asked. One good advantage of the software is that the jailbreaking and unlocking process is coampletely reversible and there will be no evidence that the iPhone has been jailbroken and unlocked . iOS 6.1/6.1.4 and 6.1.3 comes with many new features and updates for multitasking and storage. By unlocking and jailbreaking the iPhone,Unlock/Jailbreak iPhone 5/4S/4/3GS iOS 6.1/6.1.4 and 6.1.3/6.0.1 Untethered unleash unlimited possibilities to improve this already fantastic experience and the iPhone FULL potential. Before going through any jailbreak process with Unlock-Jailbreak it is always good housekeeping to perform a full backup of all information on the device. It is unlikely that anything will go wrong during the process but when undertaking any process that modifies the internals of a file system it is always prudent to err on the side of caution.

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• Repository/Updating/Upgrading Issue

  - by Jakob

  The other day I was asked to upgrade from 13.04 to 13.10, at the time I was busy and hit no. I can not upgrade/update at this point, I get (error -11) or a 404 in terminal. In the software updater I get 'failed to download repository information.' I have tried changing my "Download From" setting to "Best" to "Main" and even a few other countries. And in "Other Software" I have tried disabling packages, but doesn't seem to help what so ever. I have tried several of the other commands to try and fix it, such as -fix missing or sudo apt-get update clean. P.S. This has also affected my thunderbird client, I cannot send/receive emails. Here is my error log when trying to upgrade: jakob@Skeletor:~$ sudo update-manager -d gpg: /tmp/tmpvejqvl/trustdb.gpg: trustdb created gpg: /tmp/tmpnayby6/trustdb.gpg: trustdb created Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/defer/__init__.py", line 483, in _inline_callbacks result = gen.throw(excep) File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/UpdateManager/backend/InstallBackendAptdaemon.py", line 86, in commit True, close_on_done) File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/defer/__init__.py", line 483, in _inline_callbacks result = gen.throw(excep) File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/UpdateManager/backend/InstallBackendAptdaemon.py", line 158, in _run_in_dialog yield trans.run() aptdaemon.errors.TransactionFailed: Transaction failed: Package does not exist Package linux-headers-3.8.0-33 isn't available gpg: /tmp/tmp3kw_hl/trustdb.gpg: trustdb created. And let me throw in my sudo apt-get update too. Which this has been working variably too, but I don't know what to change my repositories to, and disabling does not effect: E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead. This is the short version, but looks exactly like this fairly consistently. Sometimes it downloads, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it tells me I have an update, and doesn't do anything. If it helps, I have recently had issues trying to install Samba as well, and connecting to the office's NAS Drive. Which works now, but I had to edit /etc/fstab/ and a few other things trying to get that to work as well. I understand it could also be a DNS problem, but this has been going on for a few days, as well as I've already tried changing my DNS server via my computer, however I am not allowed to alter the DNS on our company's router.

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• Programming and Ubiquitous Language (DDD) in a non-English domain

  - by Sandor Drieënhuizen

  I know there are some questions already here that are closely related to this subject but none of them take Ubiquitous Language as the starting point so I think that justifies this question. For those who don't know: Ubiquitous Language is the concept of defining a (both spoken and written) language that is equally used across developers and domain experts to avoid inconsistencies and miscommunication due to translation problems and misunderstanding. You will see the same terminology show up in code, conversations between any team member, functional specs and whatnot. So, what I was wondering about is how to deal with Ubiquitous Language in non-English domains. Personally, I strongly favor writing programming code in English completely, including comments but ofcourse excluding constants and resources. However, in a non-English domain, I'm forced to make a decision either to: Write code reflecting the Ubiquitous Language in the natural language of the domain. Translate the Ubiquitous Language to English and stop communicating in the natural language of the domain. Define a table that defines how the Ubiquitous Language translates to English. Here are some of my thoughts based on these options: 1) I have a strong aversion against mixed-language code, that is coding using type/member/variable names etc. that are non-English. Most programming languages 'breathe' English to a large extent and most of the technical literature, design pattern names etc. are in English as well. Therefore, in most cases there's just no way of writing code entirely in a non-English language so you end up with mixed languages anyway. 2) This will force the domain experts to start thinking and talking in the English equivalent of the UL, something that will probably not come naturally to them and therefore hinders communication significantly. 3) In this case, the developers communicate with the domain experts in their native language while the developers communicate with each other in English and most importantly, they write code using the English translation of the UL. I'm sure I don't want to go for the first option and I think option 3 is much better than option 2. What do you think? Am I missing other options? UPDATE Today, about year later, having dealt with this issue on a daily basis, I have to say that option 3 has worked out pretty well for me. It wasn't as tedious as I initially feared and translating in real time while talking to the client wasn't a problem either. I also found the following advantages to be true, based on my experience. Translating the UL makes you pay more attention to defining the UL and even the domain itself, especially when you don't know how to translate a term and you have to start looking through dictionaries etc. This has even caused me to reconsider domain modeling decisions a few times. It helps you make your knowledge of the English language more profound. Obviously, your code is much more pleasant to look at instead of being a mind boggling obscenity.

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• Good Scoop: The PeopleSoft/IBM Backstory

  - by [email protected]

  Sometimes you're searching for something online and you find an unrelated, bonus nugget. Last week I stumbled across an interesting blog post from Chris Heller of a PeopleSoft consulting shop in San Ramon, CA called Grey Sparling. I don't know these guys. But Chris, who apparently used to work on the PeopleTools team, wrote a great article on a pre-acquisition, would-be deal between IBM and PeopleSoft that would have standardized PeopleSoft on IBM technology. The behind-the-scenes perspective is interesting. His commentary on the challenges that the company and PeopleSoft customers would have encountered if the deal had gone through was also interesting: ·         "No common ownership. It's hard enough to get large groups of people to work together when they work for the same company, but with two separate companies it is much, much harder. Even within Oracle, progress on Fusion applications was slow until Thomas Kurian took over Fusion applications in addition to Fusion middleware." ·         "No customer buy-in. PeopleSoft customers weren't asking for a conversion to WebSphere, so the fact that doing that could have helped PeopleSoft stay independent wouldn't have meant much to them, especially since the cost of moving to whatever a "PeopleSoft built on WebSphere" would have been significant." ·         "No executive buy-in. This is related to the previous point, but it's worth calling out separately. If Oracle had walked away and the deal with IBM had gone through, and PeopleSoft customers got put through the wringer as part of WebSphere move, all of the PeopleSoft project teams would be put in the awkward position of explaining to their management why these additional costs and headaches were happening. Essentially they would need to "sell" the partnership internally to their own management team. That's not a fun conversation to have." I'm not surprised that something like this was in the works. But I did find the inside scoop and Heller's perspective on the challenges particularly interesting. Especially the advantages of aligning development of applications and infrastructure development under one roof. Here's a link to the whole blog entry.  

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• Leading an offshore team

  - by Chuck Conway

  I'm in a position where I am leading two teams of 4. Both teams are located in India. I am on the west coast of the U.S. I'm finding leading remote teams challenging: First, their command of the English language is weak. Second, I'm having difficultly understanding them through their accents. Third is timing, we are 12 hours apart. We use Skype to communicate. I have a month to get the project done. We've burned through a week just setting up the environments. At this point I'm considering working their hours, 11p PDT to 7a PDT, to get them up to speed, so that I can get the project off the ground. A 12 hour lag time is too much. I'm looking for steps I can take to be successful at leading an offshore team. Update The offshore team's primary task is coding, of course, most coding tasks do involve some design work. The offshore team's are composed of one lead, 2 mid level (4 to 5 years) developers and a junior (~2 years) developer. The project is classic waterfall. We've handed the offshore team a business and a technical design document. We are trying to manage the offshore in an agile way. We have daily conference calls with them and I'm requiring the teams to send me a daily scrum in the form of an email answering the following questions: What did I do today? What am I going to do tomorrow? What do I need from Chuck so I can do my job tomorrow? There is some ambiguity in the tasks. The intent was to give them enough direction for them to develop the task with out writing the code for them. I don't have a travel budget. I am using Fogbugz to track the tasks. Each task has been entered into Fogbugz and given a priority. Each team member has access to FogBugz and can choose what task they wish to complete. Related question: What can we do to improve the way outsourcing/offshoring works? Update 2 I've decided that I can not talk to the team once a day. I must work with them. Starting tonight I've started working the same hours they are. This makes me available to them when they have questions. It also allows me to gain their trust and respect. Stackoverflow question Leading an offshore team

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• Torchlight Black Screen and doesn't show up

  - by Lelouch Reyiz

  When I open it in full screen I get a black screen that covers whole screen,in windowed mode middle of screen.Here is a video: https://copy.com/fvrGw7QIJ8Z0 Terminal Output: alperen@alperen-Inspiron-N5010 /usr/local/games/Torchlight $ ./Torchlight.bin.x86_64 Creating resource group General Creating resource group Internal Creating resource group Autodetect SceneManagerFactory for type 'DefaultSceneManager' registered. Registering ResourceManager for type Material Registering ResourceManager for type Mesh Registering ResourceManager for type Skeleton MovableObjectFactory for type 'ParticleSystem' registered. OverlayElementFactory for type Panel registered. OverlayElementFactory for type BorderPanel registered. OverlayElementFactory for type TextArea registered. Registering ResourceManager for type Font ArchiveFactory for archive type FileSystem registered. ArchiveFactory for archive type Zip registered. FreeImage version: 3.13.1 This program uses FreeImage, a free, open source image library supporting all common bitmap formats. See http://freeimage.sourceforge.net for details Supported formats: bmp,ico,jpg,jif,jpeg,jpe,jng,koa,iff,lbm,mng,pbm,pbm,pcd,pcx,pgm,pgm,png,ppm,ppm,ras,tga,targa,tif,tiff,wap,wbmp,wbm,psd,cut,xbm,xpm,gif,hdr,g3,sgi,exr,j2k,j2c,jp2,pfm,pct,pict,pic,bay,bmq,cr2,crw,cs1,dc2,dcr,dng,erf,fff,hdr,k25,kdc,mdc,mos,mrw,nef,orf,pef,pxn,raf,raw,rdc,sr2,srf,arw,3fr,cine,ia,kc2,mef,nrw,qtk,rw2,sti,drf,dsc,ptx,cap,iiq,rwz DDS codec registering Registering ResourceManager for type HighLevelGpuProgram Registering ResourceManager for type Compositor MovableObjectFactory for type 'Entity' registered. MovableObjectFactory for type 'Light' registered. MovableObjectFactory for type 'BillboardSet' registered. MovableObjectFactory for type 'ManualObject' registered. MovableObjectFactory for type 'BillboardChain' registered. MovableObjectFactory for type 'RibbonTrail' registered. Loading library lib64/OGRE/RenderSystem_GL Installing plugin: GL RenderSystem OpenGL Rendering Subsystem created. Plugin successfully installed Loading library lib64/OGRE/Plugin_ParticleFX Installing plugin: ParticleFX Particle Emitter Type 'Point' registered Particle Emitter Type 'Box' registered Particle Emitter Type 'Ellipsoid' registered Particle Emitter Type 'Cylinder' registered Particle Emitter Type 'Ring' registered Particle Emitter Type 'HollowEllipsoid' registered Particle Affector Type 'LinearForce' registered Particle Affector Type 'ColourFader' registered Particle Affector Type 'ColourFader2' registered Particle Affector Type 'ColourImage' registered Particle Affector Type 'ColourInterpolator' registered Particle Affector Type 'Scaler' registered Particle Affector Type 'Rotator' registered Particle Affector Type 'DirectionRandomiser' registered Particle Affector Type 'DeflectorPlane' registered Plugin successfully installed Loading library lib64/OGRE/Plugin_OctreeSceneManager Installing plugin: Octree & Terrain Scene Manager Plugin successfully installed *-*-* OGRE Initialising *-*-* Version 1.6.5 (Shoggoth) terminate called after throwing an instance of 'std::out_of_range' what(): basic_string::substr Error: signal: 6 ./Torchlight.bin.x86_64(_ZN10LinuxUtils13crash_handlerEi+0x25)[0x17eb6f5] /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(+0x37000)[0x7fc647877000] /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(gsignal+0x39)[0x7fc647876f89] /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(abort+0x148)[0x7fc64787a398] /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6(_ZN9__gnu_cxx27__verbose_terminate_handlerEv+0x155)[0x7fc6481826b5] /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6(+0x5e836)[0x7fc648180836] /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6(+0x5e863)[0x7fc648180863] /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6(+0x5eaa2)[0x7fc648180aa2] /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6(_ZSt20__throw_out_of_rangePKc+0x67)[0x7fc6481d25d7] /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6(+0xbe3d3)[0x7fc6481e03d3] ./Torchlight.bin.x86_64(_ZN11CFileSystem21buildMassiveDataGroupEv+0x453)[0x1617805] ./Torchlight.bin.x86_64(_ZN11CFileSystemC1Eb+0x14be)[0x16145ae] ./Torchlight.bin.x86_64(_ZN22CMasterResourceManagerC1EP9CSettings+0x41a)[0xfe1d0a] ./Torchlight.bin.x86_64(_ZN5CGame5setupEb+0x79a)[0x73ceaa] ./Torchlight.bin.x86_64(_ZN5CGame5beginEPv+0x28d)[0x73b839] ./Torchlight.bin.x86_64(main+0x649)[0x146dbe4] /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xf5)[0x7fc647861ec5] ./Torchlight.bin.x86_64[0x739ca9]

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• RealTek RTL8188CE WiFi adapter doesn't connect reliably

  - by ken.ganong

  I recently bought a new system76 laptop which came pre-installed with Ubuntu 11.10. I've been having trouble with my wireless connectivity. It seems that my connection with my wireless network keeps going in and out. It is not my network--I have seen the same problem on multiple WiFi networks and at different distances and reported link qualities. OS version: Ubuntu 11.10 oneiric kernel version: 3.0.0-14-generic lspci: lspci -nnk | grep -iA2 net 04:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8188CE 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter [10ec:8176] (rev 01) Subsystem: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device [10ec:9196] Kernel driver in use: rtl8192ce -- 05:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: JMicron Technology Corp. JMC250 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [197b:0250] (rev 05) Subsystem: CLEVO/KAPOK Computer Device [1558:2500] Kernel driver in use: jme iwconfig: iwconfig lo no wireless extensions. eth0 no wireless extensions. wlan0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:"peppermintpatty" Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: 98:FC:11:6C:E0:22 Bit Rate=72.2 Mb/s Tx-Power=20 dBm Retry long limit:7 RTS thr=2347 B Fragment thr:off Power Management:off Link Quality=49/70 Signal level=-61 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:1103 Missed beacon:0 lshw: sudo lshw -class network *-network description: Wireless interface product: RTL8188CE 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:04:00.0 logical name: wlan0 version: 01 serial: 00:1c:7b:a1:95:04 width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rtl8192ce driverversion=3.0.0-14-generic firmware=N/A ip=192.168.1.106 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn resources: irq:18 ioport:e000(size=256) memory:f7d00000-f7d03fff *-network description: Ethernet interface product: JMC250 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller vendor: JMicron Technology Corp. physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:05:00.0 logical name: eth0 version: 05 serial: 00:90:f5:c0:42:b3 size: 10Mbit/s capacity: 1Gbit/s width: 32 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm pciexpress msix msi bus_master cap_list rom ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=jme driverversion=1.0.8 duplex=half latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=MII speed=10Mbit/s resources: irq:56 memory:f7c20000-f7c23fff ioport:d100(size=128) ioport:d000(size=256) memory:f7c10000-f7c1ffff memory:f7c00000-f7c0ffff Any help would be appreciated. The last time I've dealt with wireless issues, the most given solution was NDIS wrapper and I seem sorely out-of-date.

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• Justification for learning/implementing newer Microsoft technologies

  - by Darren

  I work at a large healthcare organization as a mid-level software developer. I have over 10 years experience in the IT industry using Microsoft technologies (ASP.NET & SQL Server). When I go to conferences, code camps, .net user group meetings, I hear of all kinds of new tools and technologies: MVC, LINQ, Entity Framework, WCF Web Services, etc. I guess you could say I'm in my comfort zone using the same old stuff from asp.net 2.0. I use typed datasets for my data access layer. I use web forms and feature rich server controls with master pages. I know how to use plain old SQL and create queries in my typed datasets to get at data my applications need. Throughout my career, I'm always sensitive to not become obsolete with my skill set. What I currently use works fine and my development time is fast. But I'm concerned that if I were to be laid off, I would be asked in interviews how many MVC apps I've written. Or how I am with LINQ or WCF web services. I know that it doesn't matter how many conferences, books, or videos I watch on some new technology...I have to implement/use it or it simply won't sink in. Also, managers who interview don't care how much someone reads up on something, only real use and experience with a technology. I have a new project to write. I've gone to my manager and have asked for additional time for the project for learning/implementing technology I may not be familiar with. Our organization encourages its employees to "learn and grow" and to continue are education. But I always get resistance when I ask for more time to ramp up on something new to implement. My manager is asking for concrete business reasons for implementing these new technologies. I don't have business reasons. My reasons are because I don't want to become obsolete. I could say it would make the project more maintainable in the future by other developers since at some point people could stop using these older technologies, but that' about all I can think of. Does Linq/Entity Framework/MCV apps perform better? So much so that the customers (users in departments I'm creating this app for) need? I doubt it. I'm interested in you guy's thoughts on this. Do many of you have similar plights with trying to use newer upcoming technologies? I doubt I'm on the bleeding edge of technology, either. Are there "business reasons" that you would bring to light for using these technologies? Thanks in advance! Sorry for the long wall of text.

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• A Bad Day at Work

  - by TehGrumpyCoder

  There's lots of ways of having a bad day at work... I suppose for many people, just being *at* work makes it a bad day, but I happen to be one of those people that found a way to do something I like for a living. I've always said "if you're not having fun, what's the point?" ... on the latest Zune podcast, they were interviewing someone from the WP7 team and he said they're mantra is "It's not done until it's fun" ... I like that too. But, even when you're doing what you like for a living, it can get tedious. There were times that I didn't look forward to going out and playing guitar on a Friday or Saturday night, and some nights I was looking at my watch just waiting for it to be over. Well, that was today... like Steve Martin in "The Jerk" ... the first hour was like a regular hour, but then the rest of the morning was like a day, and the afternoon has been like a week. I've got a list of stuff I need to get into my head, and it's tough when the highest technology you have during 9 hours of your day is .NET 2.0 and you can only run what IT installed. I get wrapped around the power take-off reading something and dearly want to write some code to try, but with the state of technology here, it's like trying to teach jazz chords to someone that showed up for their lesson with that stupid plastic guitar from Guitar Hero. I tried to watch a training video... downloaded it zipped so maybe it wouldn't be noticed like it might if I streamed it. Then nothing on this machine would play the video... dang! Well, if someone doesn't take me out on the drive tonight or back in tomorrow, maybe it'll be a better day... or maybe I'll d/l a bunch of training videos in a different format, or bring in a decent viewer, or download them to my Zune maybe... that would work. I suppose at age 61 there are worse things than feeling stifled... for instance, so far I've lived 2 years longer than my father... but at the same time, he's the one that pointed out that in my first letter home from Boot Camp "He's complaining, he's fine"... guess he had my number :) I think he'd appreciate "Teh Grumpy Coder"

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• Windows Azure Recipe: Big Data

  - by Clint Edmonson

  As the name implies, what we’re talking about here is the explosion of electronic data that comes from huge volumes of transactions, devices, and sensors being captured by businesses today. This data often comes in unstructured formats and/or too fast for us to effectively process in real time. Collectively, we call these the 4 big data V’s: Volume, Velocity, Variety, and Variability. These qualities make this type of data best managed by NoSQL systems like Hadoop, rather than by conventional Relational Database Management System (RDBMS). We know that there are patterns hidden inside this data that might provide competitive insight into market trends.  The key is knowing when and how to leverage these “No SQL” tools combined with traditional business such as SQL-based relational databases and warehouses and other business intelligence tools. Drivers Petabyte scale data collection and storage Business intelligence and insight Solution The sketch below shows one of many big data solutions using Hadoop’s unique highly scalable storage and parallel processing capabilities combined with Microsoft Office’s Business Intelligence Components to access the data in the cluster. Ingredients Hadoop – this big data industry heavyweight provides both large scale data storage infrastructure and a highly parallelized map-reduce processing engine to crunch through the data efficiently. Here are the key pieces of the environment: Pig - a platform for analyzing large data sets that consists of a high-level language for expressing data analysis programs, coupled with infrastructure for evaluating these programs. Mahout - a machine learning library with algorithms for clustering, classification and batch based collaborative filtering that are implemented on top of Apache Hadoop using the map/reduce paradigm. Hive - data warehouse software built on top of Apache Hadoop that facilitates querying and managing large datasets residing in distributed storage. Directly accessible to Microsoft Office and other consumers via add-ins and the Hive ODBC data driver. Pegasus - a Peta-scale graph mining system that runs in parallel, distributed manner on top of Hadoop and that provides algorithms for important graph mining tasks such as Degree, PageRank, Random Walk with Restart (RWR), Radius, and Connected Components. Sqoop - a tool designed for efficiently transferring bulk data between Apache Hadoop and structured data stores such as relational databases. Flume - a distributed, reliable, and available service for efficiently collecting, aggregating, and moving large log data amounts to HDFS. Database – directly accessible to Hadoop via the Sqoop based Microsoft SQL Server Connector for Apache Hadoop, data can be efficiently transferred to traditional relational data stores for replication, reporting, or other needs. Reporting – provides easily consumable reporting when combined with a database being fed from the Hadoop environment. Training These links point to online Windows Azure training labs where you can learn more about the individual ingredients described above. Hadoop Learning Resources (20+ tutorials and labs) Huge collection of resources for learning about all aspects of Apache Hadoop-based development on Windows Azure and the Hadoop and Windows Azure Ecosystems SQL Azure (7 labs) Microsoft SQL Azure delivers on the Microsoft Data Platform vision of extending the SQL Server capabilities to the cloud as web-based services, enabling you to store structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data. See my Windows Azure Resource Guide for more guidance on how to get started, including links web portals, training kits, samples, and blogs related to Windows Azure.

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• Ajaxy

  - by Chris Skardon

  Today is the big day, the day I attempt to use Ajax in the app… I’ve never done this (well, tell a lie, I’ve done it in a ‘tutorial’ site, but that was a while ago now), so it’s going to be interesting.. OK, basics first, let’s start with the @Ajax.ActionLink Right, first stab: @Ajax.ActionLink("Click to get latest", "LatestEntry", new AjaxOptions { UpdateTargetId = "ajaxEntrant", InsertionMode = InsertionMode.Replace, HttpMethod = "GET" }) As far as I’m aware, I’m asking to get the ‘LatestEntry’ from the current controller, and in doing so, I will replace the #ajaxEntrant DOM bit with the result. So. I guess I’d better get the result working… To the controller! public PartialResult LatestEntry() { var entrant =_db.Entrants.OrderByDescending(e => e.Id).Single(); return PartialView("_Entrant", entrant); } Pretty simple, just returns the last entry in a PartialView… but! I have yet to make my partial view, so onto that! @model Webby.Entrant <div class="entrant"> <h4>@Model.Name</h4> </div> Again, super simple, (I’m really just testing at this point)… All the code is now there (as far as I know), so F5 and in… And once again, in the traditionally disappointing way of the norm, it doesn’t work, sure… it opens the right view, but it doesn’t replace the #ajaxEntry DOM element, rather it replaces the whole page… The source code (again, as far as I know) looks ok: <a data-ajax="true" data-ajax-method="GET" data-ajax-mode="replace" data-ajax-update="#ajaxEntrants" href="/Entrants/LatestEntrant">Click to get latest</a> Changing the InsertionMode to any of the other modes has the same effect.. It’s not the DOM name either, changing that has the same effect.. i.e. none. It’s not the partial view either, just making that a <p> has (again) no effect… Ahhhhh --- what a schoolboy error… I had neglected (ahem) to actually put the script bit into the calling page (another save from stackoverflow): <script src="@Url.Content("~/Scripts/jquery.unobtrusive-ajax.js")" type="text/javascript"></script> I’ve now stuck that into the _Layout.cshtml view temporarily to aid the development process… :) Onwards and upwards! Chris

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• What changes were made to a document

  - by Daniel Moth

  Part of my job is writing functional specs. Due to the inevitable iterative and incremental nature of software design/development, these specs need to be updated with additions/deletions/changes over a period of time. When the time comes for a developer to implement features or update their design document (or a tester to test the feature or update their test specs) they need to be doing that against the latest spec. The problem is that if they have reviewed this document already, they need a quick way to find the delta from the last time they reviewed it to see what changes exist and how their existing plans may be affected (instead of having to read the entire document again). Doing that is very easy assuming your Word documents are hosted on SharePoint. 1. Every time you review a document note the SharePoint version and/or date (if it is a printed copy, make sure your printout includes the date in the footer – all my specs do) 2. When you need to see what changed, open the document (make sure you are not using a cached or local offline copy) and on the ribbon go to the "Review" tab and then  click on the "Compare" button. 3. Click on the "Specific Version…" option. In the dialog that pops up pick the last version you reviewed and click the "Compare" button. [TIP for authors: before checkin of your document, always compare against the "Last Version" on the SharePoint so you can add appropriate more complete check in comments] 4. What you see now is that in addition to the document you have open, two other documents just opened up. One is in the background (flashing on your task bar) – close that one as it is the old version. 5. The other document is in the foreground and contains all the changes between the old version and the latest one. Be sure not to make edits to this document, use it only for reading the changes. To find all the changes, on the ribbon under the "Review" tab, click on the "Reviewing Pane" to open the reviewing pane on the left. You can now click on each pink change to see what it is. 6. When you are done reviewing changes close the document and don't save any changes (remember if you want to make edits/additions/comments make them in the original document which is still open). And now I have a URL to point to people that keep asking about this – enjoy  :-) Comments about this post welcome at the original blog.

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• Is Java viable for serious game development?

  - by tehtros

  Ever since I was a little kid, my dream has been to develop games. Well, now that I am older, more mature, and have some programming experience, I would like to start. However, I would like to turn this into a career. The problem, is that my language of choice is Java. Now, I am not intending this to be a Java vs. C++ question, but rather, is Java an acceptable language for serious game development, instead of lower level languages like C++. By serious, I mean high quality graphics, and being able to play a game with said high quality graphics, without much lag on decent computers. Also, eventually, possible making it to consoles. I have scoured the internet, but there are not very many resources for Java game development, not nearly as many as C++. In fact, most engines are written in C++. Once, I tried to play a made with jMonkeyEngine. The game was terribly slow, to the point where my computer froze. I had no other Java applications running and nothing too resource intensive. Keep in mind, that my computer can play most modern 3D games with ease. So, I am really serious about game development, is Java still a viable choice? I have tried multiple times to learn C++, but I don't really like the language. I don't really know why, but usually, whenever I try to learn, I can never grasp the topics. Also, my most of my friends know Java, and one is even anti-C++, saying that no one knows how to use it right. Then, he goes to say that "there is no right way to use C++, that it can not be used correctly. The nature of the language prevents good code." Also, if I continue to learn and improve Java now, and it turns out that later I am required to learn C++, will making the switch be difficult? So, in short, can Java be taken serious, for serious game development. This includes heavy graphics, fast game play without lag, and possibly, and easy switch to consoles?

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• What Would a CyberWar Do To Your Business?

  - by [email protected]

  In mid-February the Bipartisan Policy Center in the United States hosted Cyber ShockWave, a simulation of how the country might respond to a catastrophic cyber event. An attack takes place, they can't isolate where it came from or who did it, simulated press reports and market impacts...and the participants in the exercise have to brief the President and advise him/her on what to do. Last week, Former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff who participated in the exercise summarized his findings in Federal Computer Weekly. The article, given FCW's readership and the topic is obviously focused on the public sector and US Federal policies. However, it touches on some broader issues that impact the private sector as well--which are applicable to any government and country/region-- such as: · How would the US (or any) government collaborate to identify and defeat such an attack? Chertoff calls this out as a current gap. How do the public and private sector collaborate today? How would the massive and disparate collection of agencies and companies act together in a crunch? · What would the impact on industries and global economies be? Chertoff, and a companion article in Government Computer News, only touch briefly on the subject--focusing on the impact on capital markets. "There's no question this has a disastrous impact on the economy," said Stephen Friedman, former director of the National Economic Council under President George W. Bush who played the role of treasury secretary. "You have financial markets shut down at this point, ordinary transactions are dramatically depleted, there's no question that this has a major impact on consumer confidence." That Got Me Thinking · How would it impact Oracle's customers? I know they have business continuity plans--is this one of their scenarios? What if it's not? How would it impact manufacturing lines, ATM networks, customer call centers... · How would it impact me and the companies I rely on? The supermarket down the street, my Internet Service Provider, the service station where I bought gas last night. I sure don't have any answers, and neither do Chertoff or the participants in the exercise. "I have to tell you that ... we are operating in a bit of unchartered territory." said Jamie Gorelick, a former deputy attorney general who played the role of attorney general in the exercise. But it is a good thing that governments and businesses are considering this scenario and doing what they can to prevent it from happening.

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• How much freedom should a programmer have in choosing a language and framework?

  - by Spencer

  I started working at a company that is primarily a C# oriented. We have a few people who like Java and JRuby, but a majority of programmers here like C#. I was hired because I have a lot of experience building web applications and because I lean towards newer technologies like JRuby on Rails or nodejs. I have recently started on a project building a web application with a focus on getting a lot of stuff done in a short amount of time. The software lead has dictated that I use mvc4 instead of rails. That might be OK, except I don't know mvc4, I don't know C# and I am the only one responsible for creating the web application server and front-end UI. Wouldn't it make sense to use a framework that I already know extremely well (Rails) instead of using mvc4? The two reasons behind the decision was that the tech lead doesn't know Jruby/rails and there would be no way to reuse the code. Counter arguments: He won't be contributing to the code and is frankly, not needed on this project. So, it doesn't really matter if he knows JRuby/rails or not. We actually can reuse the code since we have a lot of java apps that JRuby can pull code from and vice-versa. In fact, he has dedicated some resources to convert a Java library to C#, instead of just running the Java library on the JRuby on Rails app. All because he doesn't like Java or JRuby I have built many web applications, but using something unfamiliar is causing some spin-up and I am unable to build an awesome application in as short of a time that I'm used to. This would be fine, learning new technologies is important in this field. The problem is, for this project, we need to get a lot done in a short period of time. At what point should a developer be allowed to choose his tools? Is this dependent on the company? Does my company suck or is this considered normal? Do greener pastures exist? Am I looking at this the wrong way? Bonus: Should I just keep my head down and move along at a snails pace, or defy orders and go with what I know in order to make this project more successful? Edit: I had actually created a fully function rails application (on my own time) and showed it to the team and it did not seem to matter. I am currently porting it to mvc4 (slowly).

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• Handy SQL Server Function Series: Part 1

  - by Most Valuable Yak (Rob Volk)

  I've been preparing to give a presentation on SQL Server for a while now, and a topic that was recommended was SQL Server functions.  More specifically, the lesser-known functions (like @@OPTIONS), and maybe some interesting ways to use well-known functions (like using PARSENAME to split IP addresses)  I think this is a veritable goldmine of useful information, and researching for the presentation has confirmed that beyond my initial expectations.I even found a few undocumented/underdocumented functions, so for the first official article in this series I thought I'd start with 2 of each, COLLATIONPROPERTY() and COLLATIONPROPERTYFROMID().COLLATIONPROPERTY() provides information about (wait for it) collations, SQL Server's method for handling foreign character sets, sort orders, and case- or accent-sensitivity when sorting character data.  The Books Online entry for  COLLATIONPROPERTY() lists 4 options for code page, locale ID, comparison style and version.  Used in conjunction with fn_helpcollations():SELECT *, COLLATIONPROPERTY(name,'LCID') LCID, COLLATIONPROPERTY(name,'CodePage') CodePage, COLLATIONPROPERTY(name,'ComparisonStyle') ComparisonStyle, COLLATIONPROPERTY(name,'Version') Version FROM fn_helpcollations()You can get some excellent information. (c'mon, be honest, did you even know about fn_helpcollations?)Collations in SQL Server have a unique name and ID, and you'll see one or both in various system tables or views like syscolumns, sys.columns, and INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS.  Unfortunately they only link the ID and name for collations of existing columns, so if you wanted to know the collation ID of Albanian_CI_AI_WS, you'd have to declare a column with that collation and query the system table.While poking around the OBJECT_DEFINITION() of sys.columns I found a reference to COLLATIONPROPERTYFROMID(), and the unknown property "Name".  Not surprisingly, this is how sys.columns finds the name of the collation, based on the ID stored in the system tables.  (Check yourself if you don't believe me)Somewhat surprisingly, the "Name" property also works for COLLATIONPROPERTY(), although you'd already know the name at that point.  Some wild guesses and tests revealed that "CollationID" is also a valid property for both functions, so now:SELECT *, COLLATIONPROPERTY(name,'LCID') LCID, COLLATIONPROPERTY(name,'CodePage') CodePage, COLLATIONPROPERTY(name,'ComparisonStyle') ComparisonStyle, COLLATIONPROPERTY(name,'Version') Version, COLLATIONPROPERTY(name,'CollationID') CollationID FROM fn_helpcollations() Will get you the collation ID-name link you…probably didn't know or care about, but if you ever get on Jeopardy! and this question comes up, feel free to send some of your winnings my way. :)And last but not least, COLLATIONPROPERTYFROMID() uses the same properties as COLLATIONPROPERTY(), so you can use either one depending on which value you have available.Keep an eye out for Part 2!

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