specific - Page 619 - Developer IT

Add Spell Checking to Your Favorite Windows Apps

- by Asian Angel

Some but not all Windows apps have built-in spell checking of some sort. If you want to add spell checking to all of your apps (or a select group) then join us as we look at tinySpell. Note: There is a paid version of this software (tinySpell+) available as well for those who want extra functionality. tinySpell in Action The installation process is simple and straightforward…as soon as you have finished installing tinySpell you will see your new “System Tray Icon”. You can see tinySpell’s “Context Menu” here. Before going any further you may want to have a look through the settings to make any desired display modifications. During our tests we found it very helpful to modify the Spelling Tip options…it will make for a much nicer and easier to read display when you have a spelling error. Clicking on the Applications… Command in the Context Menu will bring up the following window. You can really finesse how active tinySpell will be here: Create a special list of apps that tinySpell will not monitor Create a custom list of apps that tinySpell will monitor If you have any particular or unique words that you would like to add to tinySpell’s Dictionary ahead of time you can do that by clicking on the Dictionary… Command in the Context Menu. Want to check the spelling of a word ahead of time or find that you are just curious about how it is spelled? Click on Open spelling window in the Context Menu to access a special spell check window. For our example we misspelled “spelling” on purpose…notice that the word has turned red. Clicking on the Check Mark Button will open a drop-down list with suggested spellings for the word that you are inquiring about. Click on the appropriate listing if you intend to copy and paste the word. Next we moved on to Notepad. As we were typing tinySpell alerted us when we typed the word “app”. You will hear a small default system sound and see a small popup as shown here if tinySpell thinks a word has been misspelled. The System Tray Icon will also change to a yellow color. You can access the list of suggested spellings by either left clicking on the small popup or the System Tray Icon. If the word is a properly spelled “abbreviation” (or special/custom) like our word here you can select Add to dictionary. Going further in our text document we once again purposely misspelled “spelling”… Left clicking on the popup gave us access to the drop-down list of suggested spellings… And clicking on the correct spelling automatically inserted it into our document in place of the misspelled word. As you can see here tinySpell was even monitoring file names when we went to save the document. Very thorough indeed. Conclusion If your favorite app does not have built-in spell checking, then tinySpell will definitely be a welcome (and very helpful) addition to your Windows system. They offer a portable version as well so you can take it with you to any PC. Links Download tinySpell *Note: The download link is located approximately half-way down the page. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Quick Tip: Spell Check Firefox Text Input FieldsEdit the Windows Live Writer Custom DictionaryAccess Your Favorite Google Services in Chrome the Easy WayLaunch External Apps from FirefoxNinite Makes Installing Software Incredibly Simple TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips All My Movies 5.9 CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Snagit 10 VMware Workstation 7 OpenDNS Guide Google TV The iPod Revolution Ultimate Boot CD can help when disaster strikes Windows Firewall with Advanced Security – How To Guides Sculptris 1.0, 3D Drawing app

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The Evolution Of C#

- by Paulo Morgado

The first release of C# (C# 1.0) was all about building a new language for managed code that appealed, mostly, to C++ and Java programmers. The second release (C# 2.0) was mostly about adding what wasn’t time to built into the 1.0 release. The main feature for this release was Generics. The third release (C# 3.0) was all about reducing the impedance mismatch between general purpose programming languages and databases. To achieve this goal, several functional programming features were added to the language and LINQ was born. Going forward, new trends are showing up in the industry and modern programming languages need to be more: Declarative With imperative languages, although having the eye on the what, programs need to focus on the how. This leads to over specification of the solution to the problem in hand, making next to impossible to the execution engine to be smart about the execution of the program and optimize it to run it more efficiently (given the hardware available, for example). Declarative languages, on the other hand, focus only on the what and leave the how to the execution engine. LINQ made C# more declarative by using higher level constructs like orderby and group by that give the execution engine a much better chance of optimizing the execution (by parallelizing it, for example). Concurrent Concurrency is hard and needs to be thought about and it’s very hard to shoehorn it into a programming language. Parallel.For (from the parallel extensions) looks like a parallel for because enough expressiveness has been built into C# 3.0 to allow this without having to commit to specific language syntax. Dynamic There was been lots of debate on which ones are the better programming languages: static or dynamic. The fact is that both have good qualities and users of both types of languages want to have it all. All these trends require a paradigm switch. C# is, in many ways, already a multi-paradigm language. It’s still very object oriented (class oriented as some might say) but it can be argued that C# 3.0 has become a functional programming language because it has all the cornerstones of what a functional programming language needs. Moving forward, will have even more. Besides the influence of these trends, there was a decision of co-evolution of the C# and Visual Basic programming languages. Since its inception, there was been some effort to position C# and Visual Basic against each other and to try to explain what should be done with each language or what kind of programmers use one or the other. Each language should be chosen based on the past experience and familiarity of the developer/team/project/company and not by particular features. In the past, every time a feature was added to one language, the users of the other wanted that feature too. Going forward, when a feature is added to one language, the other will work hard to add the same feature. This doesn’t mean that XML literals will be added to C# (because almost the same can be achieved with LINQ To XML), but Visual Basic will have auto-implemented properties. Most of these features require or are built on top of features of the .NET Framework and, the focus for C# 4.0 was on dynamic programming. Not just dynamic types but being able to talk with anything that isn’t a .NET class. Also introduced in C# 4.0 is co-variance and contra-variance for generic interfaces and delegates. Stay tuned for more on the new C# 4.0 features.

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Create a Search Filter List in Google Chrome

- by Asian Angel

Are you tired of unwanted and/or non-relevant results cluttering up the search results at Bing, Yahoo, and Google? With the Search Filter extension for Chrome you can easily remove the unwanted “chaff” from your search results. Note: The extension only works on Bing, Yahoo, and Google at this time. Before For our example we conducted a search for “anime wallpapers” at Yahoo Singapore, Bing Singapore, and Google. In each set of results we decided to focus on results that would display either a yellow or red warning color from WOT. You can see our targeted result for Yahoo Singapore… The one for Bing Singapore… And the targeted result from Google. Search Filter in Action As soon as you install the extension you should take a quick look at the “Options”. At first the “Filters List Area” will be empty but will not remain so for long as you create your own filter list. The second part may or may not be of interest to you…the ability to opt into the filter service. If you opt in your filter list will be connected to your “Google Account” and will be available on any of your Chrome installs with the extension installed (and set to “Opt In”). Keep in mind that if you choose this option the filter list that you create will be aggregated anonymously and have a GUID number attached to it. After installing the extension we refreshed each of our three search pages…notice the small red circle button beside each search result link. Clicking on the red circle button will cause the entire browser window area to “shade out” temporarily while you decide between adding that website to the filter list or cancelling the action. If you add a website to the filter list that result will immediately disappear from the search results list without refreshing the webpage. Looks like we have another website at the bottom that we could add to the filter list… Click, click, click! After adding one website from each of the three search services you can see that our filter list has gotten off to a nice start. If for some reason you accidentally add a website to the list or change your mind about a website simply click on the red circle button to remove that particular listing. Conclusion If you are looking for an easy way to create a search filter list then this is definitely an extension that is worth taking the time to look at. Links Download the Search Filter extension (Google Chrome Extensions) Visit the Search Filter Hub Website to View Lists of Filtered Sites Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips How to Make Google Chrome Your Default BrowserGeek’s Spam Filter – Updated to Version 0.2Access Wolfram Alpha Search in Google ChromeGain Access to a Search Box in Google ChromeGeek’s Spam Filter – Updated to Version 0.3 TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Scan News With NY Times Article Skimmer SpeedyFox Claims to Speed up your Firefox Beware Hover Kitties Test Drive Mobile Phones Online With TryPhone Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day, 3/23/10 New Stinger from McAfee Helps Remove ‘FakeAlert’ Threats

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Bancassurers Seek IT Solutions to Support Distribution Model

- by [email protected]

Oracle Insurance's director of marketing for EMEA, John Sinclair, attended the third annual Bancassurance Forum in Vienna last month. He reports that the outlook for bancassurance in EMEA remains positive, despite changing market conditions that have led a number of bancassurers to re-examine their business models. Vienna is at the crossroads between mature Western European markets, where bancassurance is now an established best practice, and more recently tapped Eastern European markets that offer the greatest growth potential. Attendance at the Bancassurance Forum was good, with 87 bancassurance attendees, most in very senior positions in the industry. The conference provided the chance for a lively discussion among bancassurers looking to keep abreast of the latest trends in one of Europe's most successful distribution models for insurance. Even under normal business conditions, there is a great demand for best practice sharing within the industry as there is no standard formula for success. Each company has to chart its own course and choose the strategies for sales, products development and the structure of ownership that make sense for their business, and as soon as they get it right bancassurers need to adapt the mix to keep up with ever changing regulations, completion and economic conditions. To optimize the overall relationship between banking and insurance for mutual benefit, a balance needs to be struck between potentially conflicting interests. The banking side of the house is looking for greater wallet share from its customers and the ability to increase profitability by bundling insurance products with higher margins - especially in light of the recent economic crisis, where margins for traditional banking products are low and completion high. The insurance side of the house seeks access to new customers through a complementary distribution channel that is efficient and cost effective. To make the relationship work, it is important that both sides of the same house forge strategic and long term relationships - irrespective of whether the underlying business model is supported by a distribution agreement, cross-ownership or other forms of capital structure. However, this third annual conference was not held under normal business conditions. The conference took place in challenging, yet interesting times. ING's forced spinoff of its insurance operations under pressure by the EU Commission and the troubling losses suffered by Allianz as a result of the Dresdner bank sale were fresh in everyone's mind. One year after markets crashed, there is now enough hindsight to better understand the implications for bancassurance and best practices that are emerging to deal with them. The loan-driven business that has been crucial to bancassurance up till now evaporated during the crisis, leaving bancassurers grappling with how to change their overall strategy from a loan-driven to a more diversified model. Attendees came to the conference to learn what strategies were working - not only to cope with the market shift, but to take advantage of it as markets pick up. Over the course of 14 customer case studies and numerous analyst presentations, topical issues ranging from getting the business model right to the impact on capital structuring of Solvency II were debated openly. Many speakers alluded to the need to specifically design insurance products with the banking distribution channel in mind, which brings with it specific requirements such as a high degree of standardization to achieve efficiency and reduce training costs. Moreover, products must be engineered to suit end consumers who consider banks a one-stop shop. The importance of IT to the successful implementation of bancassurance strategies was a theme that surfaced regularly throughout the conference. The cross-selling opportunity - that will ultimately determine the success or failure of any bancassurance model - can only be fully realized through a flexible IT architecture that enables banking and insurance processes to be integrated and presented to front-line staff through a common interface. However, the reality is that most bancassurers have legacy IT systems, which constrain the businesses' ability to implement new strategies to maintaining competitiveness in turbulent times. My colleague Glenn Lottering, who chaired the conference, believes that the primary opportunities for bancassurers to extract value from their IT infrastructure investments lie in distribution management, risk management with the advent of Solvency II, and achieving operational excellence. "Oracle is ideally suited to meet the needs of bancassurance," Glenn noted, "supplying market-leading software for both banking and insurance. Oracle provides adaptive systems that let customers easily integrate hybrid business processes from both worlds while leveraging existing IT infrastructure." Overall, the consensus at the conference was that the outlook for bancassurance in EMEA remains positive, despite changing market conditions that have led a number of bancassurers to re-examine their business models. John Sinclair is marketing director for Oracle Insurance in EMEA. He has more than 20 years of experience in insurance and financial services.

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Three Easy Ways of Providing Feedback to the Oracle AutoVue Team

- by Celine Beck

Customer feedback is essential in helping us deliver best-in-class Enterprise Visualization solutions which are centered around real-world usage. As the Oracle AutoVue Product Management team is busy prioritizing the next round of improvements, enhancements and new innovation to the AutoVue platform, I thought it would be a good idea to provide our blog-readers with a recap of how best to provide product feedback to the AutoVue Product Management team. This gives you the opportunity to help shape our future agenda and make our solutions better for you. Enterprise Visualization Special Interest Group (EV SIG): the AutoVue EV SIG is a customer-driven initiative that has recently been created to share knowledge and information between members and discuss common and best practices around Enterprise Visualization. The EV SIG also serves as a mechanism for establishing and communicating to AutoVue Product Management users’ collective priorities for the future development, direction and enhancement of the AutoVue product family with the objective of ensuring their continuous improvement. Essentially, EV SIG members meet in order to share and prioritize feedback and use this input to begin dialog with the AutoVue Product Management team on what they deem to be the most important improvements to Enterprise Visualization solutions. The AutoVue EV SIG is by far the best platform for sharing and relaying feedback to our Product Strategy / Management team regarding general product enhancements, industry-specific scenarios, new use cases, usability, support, deployability, etc, and helping us shape the future direction of Enterprise Visualization solutions. We strongly encourage ALL our customers to sign up for the SIG; here is how you can do so: Sign up for the EVSIG mailing list b. Visit the group’s website c. Contact Dennis Walker at Harris Corporation directly should you have any questions: dwalke22-AT-harris-DOT-com Customer / Partner Advisory Boards: The AutoVue Product Strategy / Management team also periodically runs Customer and Partner Advisory Boards. These invitation-only events bring together individuals chosen from Oracle AutoVue’s top customers that are using AutoVue at the enterprise level, as well as strategic partners. The idea here is to establish open lines of communication between top customers and partners and the Oracle AutoVue Product Strategy team, help us communicate AutoVue’s product direction, share perspectives on today and tomorrow’s challenges and needs for Enterprise Visualization, and validate that proposed additions to the product are valid industry solutions. Our next Customer / Partner Advisory Board will be held in San Francisco during Oracle Open World, please contact your account manager to find out more about the CAB Members’ nomination process. Enhancement Requests: Enhancement requests are request logged by customers or partners with Product Development for a feature that is not currently available in Oracle AutoVue. Enhancement requests (ER) can be logged easily via the My Oracle Support portal. This is the best way to share feedback with us at the functionality level; for instance if you would like to see a new format supported in AutoVue or make suggestions as per how certain functionality can be improved or should behave. Once the ER is logged, it is then evaluated by Product Management based on feasibility, product adequation and business justification. Product Management then decides whether to consider this ER for future release or not. What helps accelerate the process is hearing from a large number of customers who urgently need a particular feature or configuration. Hence the importance of logging Metalink Service Requests, and describing in details your business expectations. You can include key milestones dates and justifications as to why this request is important and the benefits your organization stands to gain should this request be accepted. Again, feedback from customers and partners is critical to ensure we offer solutions that have the biggest impact on customers’ business processes and day-to-day operations. All feedback is welcome,. So please don’t be shy!

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Is there a low carbon future for the retail industry?

- by user801960

Recently Oracle published a report in conjunction with The Future Laboratory and a global panel of experts to highlight the issue of energy use in modern industry and the serious need to reduce carbon emissions radically by 2050. Emissions must be cut by 80-95% below the levels in 1990 – but what can the retail industry do to keep up with this? There are three key aspects to the retail industry where carbon emissions can be cut: manufacturing, transport and IT. Manufacturing Naturally, manufacturing is going to be a big area where businesses across all industries will be forced to make considerable savings in carbon emissions as well as other forms of pollution. Many retailers of all sizes will use third party factories and will have little control over specific environmental impacts from the factory, but retailers can reduce environmental impact at the factories by managing orders more efficiently – better planning for stock requirements means economies of scale both in terms of finance and the environment. The John Lewis Partnership has made detailed commitments to reducing manufacturing and packaging waste on both its own-brand products and products it sources from third party suppliers. It aims to divert 95 percent of its operational waste from landfill by 2013, which is a huge logistics challenge. The John Lewis Partnership’s website provides a large amount of information on its responsibilities towards the environment. Transport Similarly to manufacturing, tightening up on logistical planning for stock distribution will make savings on carbon emissions from haulage. More accurate supply and demand analysis will mean less stock re-allocation after initial distribution, and better warehouse management will mean more efficient stock distribution. UK grocery retailer Morrisons has introduced double-decked trailers to its haulage fleet and adjusted distribution logistics accordingly to reduce the number of kilometers travelled by the fleet. Morrisons measures route planning efficiency in terms of cases moved per kilometre and has, over the last two years, increased the number of cases per kilometre by 12.7%. See Morrisons Corporate Responsibility report for more information. IT IT infrastructure is often initially overlooked by businesses when considering environmental efficiency. Datacentres and web servers often need to run 24/7 to handle both consumer orders and internal logistics, and this both requires a lot of energy and puts out a lot of heat. Many businesses are lowering environmental impact by reducing IT system fragmentation in their offices, while an increasing number of businesses are outsourcing their datacenters to cloud-based services. Using centralised datacenters reduces the power usage at smaller offices, while using cloud based services means the datacenters can be based in a more environmentally friendly location. For example, Facebook is opening a massive datacentre in Sweden – close to the Arctic Circle – to reduce the need for artificial cooling methods. In addition, moving to a cloud-based solution makes IT services more easily scaleable, reducing redundant IT systems that would still use energy. In store, the UK’s Carbon Trust reports that on average, lighting accounts for 25% of a retailer’s electricity costs, and for grocery retailers, up to 50% of their electricity bill comes from refrigeration units. On a smaller scale, retailers can invest in greener technologies in store and in their offices. The report concludes that widely shared objectives of energy security, reduced emissions and continued economic growth are dependent on the development of a smart grid capable of delivering energy efficiency and demand response, as well as integrating renewable and variable sources of energy. The report is available to download from http://emeapressoffice.oracle.com/imagelibrary/detail.aspx?MediaDetailsID=1766I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on the report.

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Enable Full Screen Mode in Media Center Without Trapping the Mouse

- by DigitalGeekery

If you have a dual monitor setup and use Windows Media Center, you’re probably aware that when WMC is in full screen mode, it traps the mouse so you can’t work on a second monitor. Here we look at how to solve the annoyance. The Maxifier is an application that allows you to open Media Center in full screen mode without restricting the mouse. It relieves the annoyance of WMC capturing your mouse on a dual monitor setup. Note: If you don’t have two monitors attached, most of The Maxifier’s functions won’t work. Installation and Use Download, extract, and install The Maxifier. (See the download link below) The Maxifier runs minimized in the system tray and you access the options by right-clicking on the icon. If Media Center is not already open, you can choose Start Media Center to start WMC on the main start screen. Or, choose one of the other selections to open another area of Media Center. By default, Maxifier opens Media Center in full screen mode on the secondary monitor. When Media Center is open in full screen mode, you’ll notice you can now freely move your mouse around your multi-monitor setup. When Media Center is open, you’ll see five additional options. The Fit Screen options simply fits Media Center to the full screen, but still show the Windows borders. Full screen options put WMC in full screen mode. The Maxifier Options allow you to choose from the various start up options. Selecting Watch for Media Center starting will prompt Maxifier to open WMC to the main start page in full screen mode on the secondary monitor automatically, even if you open Media Center without using The Maxifier. (You may need to restart for this to take effect) If you have more than 2 monitors, you can define on which monitor to open Media Center, and which monitor you consider to be the main screen. You can also define a number of Hotkeys in The Maxifier settings. First, select the Enable Hotkeys checkbox. To create a Hotkey, click in the text field and then press the keys to use as the Hotkey. To remove a Hotkey, click in the field and press the Delete key. Conclusion The Maxifier is a simple program that enables Media Center users to take full advantage of a multi-monitor workspace. It works with both Vista and Windows 7. Version 1.4 is a stable application for Vista, and Version 1.5b is a beta application for Windows 7. Looking for more Media Center tips and tweaks? Check out some startup customizations for Windows 7 Media Center, how to automatically mount and view ISO’s in WMC, and how to add background images and themes to Windows 7 Media Center. Link Download the Maxifier Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Startup Customizations for Media Center in Windows 7Using Netflix Watchnow in Windows Vista Media Center (Gmedia)Lock The Screen While in Full-Screen Mode in Windows Media PlayerSwitch Windows by Hovering the Mouse Over a Window in Windows 7 or VistaIntegrate Boxee with Media Center in Windows 7 TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips HippoRemote Pro 2.2 Xobni Plus for Outlook All My Movies 5.9 CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Steve Jobs’ iPhone 4 Keynote Video Watch World Cup Online On These Sites Speed Up Windows With ReadyBoost Awesome World Cup Soccer Calendar Nice Websites To Watch TV Shows Online 24 Million Sites

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Clone a Hard Drive Using an Ubuntu Live CD

- by Trevor Bekolay

Whether you’re setting up multiple computers or doing a full backup, cloning hard drives is a common maintenance task. Don’t bother burning a new boot CD or paying for new software – you can do it easily with your Ubuntu Live CD. Not only can you do this with your Ubuntu Live CD, you can do it right out of the box – no additional software needed! The program we’ll use is called dd, and it’s included with pretty much all Linux distributions. dd is a utility used to do low-level copying – rather than working with files, it works directly on the raw data on a storage device. Note: dd gets a bad rap, because like many other Linux utilities, if misused it can be very destructive. If you’re not sure what you’re doing, you can easily wipe out an entire hard drive, in an unrecoverable way. Of course, the flip side of that is that dd is extremely powerful, and can do very complex tasks with little user effort. If you’re careful, and follow these instructions closely, you can clone your hard drive with one command. We’re going to take a small hard drive that we’ve been using and copy it to a new hard drive, which hasn’t been formatted yet. To make sure that we’re working with the right drives, we’ll open up a terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal) and enter in the following command sudo fdisk –l We have two small drives, /dev/sda, which has two partitions, and /dev/sdc, which is completely unformatted. We want to copy the data from /dev/sda to /dev/sdc. Note: while you can copy a smaller drive to a larger one, you can’t copy a larger drive to a smaller one with the method described below. Now the fun part: using dd. The invocation we’ll use is: sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdc In this case, we’re telling dd that the input file (“if”) is /dev/sda, and the output file (“of”) is /dev/sdc. If your drives are quite large, this can take some time, but in our case it took just less than a minute. If we do sudo fdisk –l again, we can see that, despite not formatting /dev/sdc at all, it now has the same partitions as /dev/sda. Additionally, if we mount all of the partitions, we can see that all of the data on /dev/sdc is now the same as on /dev/sda. Note: you may have to restart your computer to be able to mount the newly cloned drive. And that’s it…If you exercise caution and make sure that you’re using the right drives as the input file and output file, dd isn’t anything to be scared of. Unlike other utilities, dd copies absolutely everything from one drive to another – that means that you can even recover files deleted from the original drive in the clone! Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Reset Your Ubuntu Password Easily from the Live CDHow to Browse Without a Trace with an Ubuntu Live CDRecover Deleted Files on an NTFS Hard Drive from a Ubuntu Live CDCreate a Bootable Ubuntu 9.10 USB Flash DriveWipe, Delete, and Securely Destroy Your Hard Drive’s Data the Easy Way TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Xobni Plus for Outlook All My Movies 5.9 CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Snagit 10 Windows Media Player Glass Icons (icons we like) How to Forecast Weather, without Gadgets Outlook Tools, one stop tweaking for any Outlook version Zoofs, find the most popular tweeted YouTube videos Video preview of new Windows Live Essentials 21 Cursor Packs for XP, Vista & 7

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Plymouth and GRUB do not show at all

- by WarriorIng64

I am using Ubuntu 11.04 64-bit as my only OS on my desktop computer, which used to only run Ubuntu 10.04 LTS until I had the time to upgrade it with a fresh install. It uses integrated NVIDIA graphics (listed as a GeForce 6150SE nForce 430 by the NVIDIA X Server Settings utility) with the current proprietary driver as provided by the Additional Drivers utility, and has a VGA connection to a 1680x1050 Acer monitor. I used to get the (ugly-looking version of) Plymouth graphical boot screen while under 10.04. It didn't look that great, but I was fine with it. Now, it doesn't show on 11.04 at all during boot (I just get an error message in a moving gray box from the monitor saying "Input Not Supported"), and only rarely it will show on shutdown, all garbled up. I could not get GRUB to show during boot while holding down Shift, either (same error message), but pressing Enter while it should be up starts the system normally. A picture of the error message I was getting: Once fully booted, the system still shows the login screen and desktop just fine. Any information on how to troubleshoot this would be appreciated. If there's any hardware-specific stuff I forgot to include here, let me know the relevant commands to run in a comment below. Things that I've tried: Running plymouth in a framebuffer: no effect Booting with nomodeset as my grub boot: option no effect Booting with nomodeset and plymouth in a framebuffer: no effect other than Plymouth showing during shutdown only Following the Softpedia instructions for fixing Plymouth's resolution: Problem mostly solved, except logo does not show in Plymouth during boot, and both grub and Plymouth are slightly off-center #4 above, but with nomodeset removed as a grub boot option: same effect as #4 #5 above, but with vt.handoff=7 added as a grub boot option: same effect as #4 I have added the current contents of /etc/default/grub as requested in the comments: # If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update # /boot/grub/grub.cfg. # For full documentation of the options in this file, see: # info -f grub -n 'Simple configuration' GRUB_DEFAULT=0 GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0 GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true GRUB_TIMEOUT=10 GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian` GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash video=uvesafb:mode_option=1280x1024-24,mtrr=3,scroll=ywrap" GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="" # Uncomment to enable BadRAM filtering, modify to suit your needs # This works with Linux (no patch required) and with any kernel that obtains # the memory map information from GRUB (GNU Mach, kernel of FreeBSD ...) #GRUB_BADRAM="0x01234567,0xfefefefe,0x89abcdef,0xefefefef" # Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only) #GRUB_TERMINAL=console # The resolution used on graphical terminal # note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE # you can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo' GRUB_GFXMODE=1280x1024 # Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass "root=UUID=xxx" parameter to Linux #GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true # Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries #GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true" # Uncomment to get a beep at grub start #GRUB_INIT_TUNE="480 440 1" CURRENT STATUS: I forgot to uncomment one line as per "things that I've tried" #4, so I took care of that. I can now see GRUB during startup when I hold Shift and a normal-looking Plymouth during shutdown...but Plymouth during boot is now just a solid purple screen. In each case, it's displayed a little off-center to the left, with a thin black bar running down the right side of the monitor. The error pictured above no longer shows. I'd say this problem is about 2/3 solved now. UPDATE: After Natty started freezing up on me, I decided to dual-boot with Oneiric, which unfortunately shows the same problems. Rather than trying all these workarounds though, I decided to do what I should have done from the start and file a pair of bug reports. LAST UPDATE: Bug 850908 has been confirmed as a legitimate nouveaufb bug. I have overwritten my 11.04 partition with 12.04 LTS, and I can confirm at this time that the issue is present there, as well. I will now flag this question to be closed, yet I hope it was helpful for anyone who experienced similar issues; if you are still having the same problem as me, please go there and mark yourself as affected. Thanks!

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Share Files and Folders and Internet between Guest OS and the Host in Hyper-V

- by Manesh Karunakaran

For those who are familiar with the VirtualPC, vmWare and VirtualBox environments will be quite irritated to find out that there is no direct way to share files from the Host machine to the Virtualized guest environment. This is a good thing from a CIO perspective because there’s excellent isolation for the virtualized environments this way, but for the developer junkies like us, this is an irritant, especially for those who have nuked their Windows 7 OS and installed Windows Server 2008 R2 for all the the SharePoint friendliness that it offers. Here’s a quick 5 minutes howto on Enabling Shared Folders and Internet Access for the Hyper-V images, for those who are still struggling with this. Step 1: Add a Virtual Network Adapter to your Guest OS For this, shut down the guest machine, go to its settings and add a Virtual Network Adapter as given in the images below Step 2: Enable Virtual Networking in Hyper-V Setting this up is very easy. In the Hyper-V Manager, under Actions (right panel), click the Virtual Network Manager. In the Virtual Network Manager in the Create virtual network panel, select Internal and click the Add button. At this point if you open Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network Connections you will be able to see the new Network Adapter, Now name it to something meaningful other than Network Adapter X. Now you can add this network to each of your virtual machines, but at this point, unless you assign an IP address in each connection, you won't be able to do much. Step 3: Enable Internet Connection Sharing so that Guest OS’es also can connect to the internet. To enable ICS follow these steps: Click on the network icon in the tray of your host machine and select Network and Sharing Center. From there click Manage network connections. Select the network adapter that you use to access the Internet. Right click it and select Properties. In the properties dialog select the Sharing tab. On this tab check the box that says "Allow other network users..." and then set the Home networking connection to be the network adapter that was created above (now you see why I said to rename it to something useful). Now your virtual machines that have this network connection will automatically get an IP address and will be able to connect to the Internet (provided your internet connection is working). Because each adapter also gets an automatic address you can now share files and folders between your host and your virtual machines which is important since you can't just drag-and-drop files like you can with Virtual PC. Step 4: Create a Shared Folder in the Host Machine and use it in the Guest machine. Right click on the folder that you want to Share and select ‘Share with\Specific People’ and specify who all can access the share. Open the Guest OS from Hyper V Navigate to Start > Run and type in the Address of the Share (Or Map a Drive to the Share) Bingo! The Share opens!! :) Now you can share as many files and folders as you want between the host and the guest, and you also have internet access inside the Virtual machines. Hope that helps. Technorati Tags: Shared folder,Hyper-V,Share Files,Share files and folders between guest and host,Hyper-V Networking,Share Internet Access in Hyper-V,Internet,Files,Shared folders in Hyper-V

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Test and Report Add-on Compatibility in Firefox

- by Asian Angel

Now that the new version of Firefox is out you probably have a favorite extension or two that has not updated yet. You can get that extension working again, test it, and report back to Mozilla on how well it does with the Add-on Compatibility Reporter extension. Before For our example we chose a great extension that unfortunately has not been updated yet. As you can see here Firefox is refusing to let the extension install. After As soon as you install Add-on Compatibility Reporter you will be presented with an information page on how the extension works and what you can do with it. You should definitely take a moment to read this as it is very helpful. After trying our non-compatible extension again we were able to proceed with the install process. Notice at the bottom that “compatibility checking” has been overridden. Success! As soon as we restarted our browser it was easy to see the “non-compatible icon” in the “Add-ons Manager Window”…but the extension did install though (terrific!). Clicking on the extension’s entry will reveal a new button in the lower right corner. Using the “Compatibility Drop-Down Menu” you can report if the extension is working as well as before or if it is actually having problems. The extension that we used for our example had no problems whatsoever so good news there. Whichever option you choose you will be presented with a small “Report Window” with information about the extension, your browser’s version number, and your operating system. Click “Submit Report” to send it on its’ way. You will see a confirmation message letting you know that your report was successfully submitted. While the extension itself has not been altered in any form at least you have it working again and have helped verify whether it still works well or not. Notice the “notation” present now in place of the “Compatibility Button” that lets you know that you have already taken care of that particular extension. Looking great… Conclusion If you have a favorite extension that you miss using in the newest release of Firefox then this is definitely an extension to add to your browser. Not only will your extension start working again but you can let Mozilla know how well it is working and (hopefully) help get the extension updated. Links Download the Add-on Compatibility Reporter extension (Mozilla Add-ons) Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Firefox 3.6 Release Candidate Available, Here’s How to Fix Your Incompatible ExtensionsUsing Windows 7 or Vista Compatibility ModeMysticgeek Blog: Generate A System Health Report In VistaCheck Extension Compatibility for Upcoming Firefox ReleasesMake Safari Stop Crashing Every 20 Seconds on Windows Vista TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Make your Joomla & Drupal Sites Mobile with OSMOBI Integrate Twitter and Delicious and Make Life Easier Design Your Web Pages Using the Golden Ratio Worldwide Growth of the Internet How to Find Your Mac Address Use My TextTools to Edit and Organize Text

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Create Custom Windows Key Keyboard Shortcuts in Windows

- by Asian Angel

Nearly everyone uses keyboard shortcuts of some sort on their Windows system but what if you could create new ones for your favorite apps or folders? You might just be amazed at how simple it can be with just a few clicks and no programming using WinKey. WinKey in Action During the installation process you will see this window that gives you a good basic idea of just what can be accomplished with this wonderful little app. As soon as the installation process has finished you will see the “Main App Window”. It provides a simple straightforward listing of all the keyboard shortcuts that it is currently managing. Note: WinKey will automatically add an entry to the “Startup Listing” in your “Start Menu” during installation. To see the regular built-in Windows keyboard shortcuts that it is managing click “Standard Shortcuts” to select it and then click on “Properties”. For those who are curious WinKey does have a “System Tray Icon” that can be disabled if desired. Now onto creating those new keyboard shortcuts… For our example we decided to create a keyboard shortcut for an app rather than a folder. To create a shortcut for an app click on the small “Paper Icon” as shown here. Once you have done that browse to the appropriate folder and select the exe file. The second step will be choosing which keyboard shortcut you would like to associate with that particular app. You can use the drop-down list to choose from a listing of available keyboard combinations. For our example we chose “Windows Key + A”. The final step is choosing the “Run Mode”. There are three options available in the drop-down list…choose the one that best suits your needs. Here is what our example looked like once finished. All that is left to do at this point is click “OK” to finish the process. And just like that your new keyboard shortcut is now listed in the “Main App Window”. Time to try out your new keyboard shortcut! One quick use of our new keyboard shortcut and Iron Browser opened right up. WinKey really does make creating new keyboard shortcuts as simple as possible. Conclusion If you have been wanting to create new keyboard shortcuts for your favorite apps and folders then it really does not get any simpler than with WinKey. This is definitely a recommended app for anyone who loves “get it done” software. Links Download WinKey at Softpedia Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Show Keyboard Shortcut Access Keys in Windows VistaCreate a Keyboard Shortcut to Access Hidden Desktop Icons and FilesKeyboard Ninja: 21 Keyboard Shortcut ArticlesAnother Desktop Cube for Windows XP/VistaHow-To Geek on Lifehacker: Control Your Computer with Shortcuts & Speed Up Vista Setup TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Recycle ! Find That Elusive Icon with FindIcons Looking for Good Windows Media Player 12 Plug-ins? Find Out the Celebrity You Resemble With FaceDouble Whoa ! Use Printflush to Solve Printing Problems

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Monitoring the Application alongside SQL Server

- by Tony Davis

Sometimes, on Simple-Talk, it takes a while to spot strange and unexpected patterns of user activity, or small bugs. For example, one morning we spotted that an article’s comment count had leapt to 1485, but that only four were displayed. With some rooting around in Google Analytics, and the endlessly annoying Community Server admin-interface, we were able to work out that a few days previously the article had been subject to a spam attack and that the comment count was for some reason including both accepted and unaccepted comments (which in turn uncovered a bug in the SQL). This sort of incident made us a lot keener on monitoring Simple-talk website usage more effectively. However, the metrics we wanted are troublesome, because they are far too specific for Google Analytics to measure, and the SQL Server backend doesn’t keep sufficient information to enable us to plot trends. The latter could provide, for example, the total number of comments made on, or votes cast for, articles, over all time, but not the number that occur by hour over a set time. We lacked a baseline, in other words. We couldn’t alter the database, as it is a bought-in package. We had neither the resources nor inclination to build-in dedicated application monitoring. Possibly, we could investigate a third-party tool to do the job; but then it occurred to us that we were already using a monitoring tool (SQL Monitor) to keep an eye on the database. It stored data, made graphs and sent alerts. Could we get it to monitor some aspects of the application as well? Of course, SQL Monitor’s single purpose is to check and monitor SQL Server, over time, rather than to monitor applications that use SQL Server. However, how different is the business of gathering and plotting SQL Server Wait Stats, from gathering and plotting various aspects of user activity on the site? Not a lot, it turns out. The latest version allows us to write our own custom monitoring scripts, meaning that we could now monitor any metric in the application that returns an integer. It took little time to write a simple SQL Query that collects basic metrics of the total number of subscribers, votes cast, comments made, or views of articles, over time. The SQL Monitor database polls Simple-Talk every second or so in order to get the latest totals, and can then store and plot this information, or even correlate SQL Server usage to application usage. You can see the live data by visiting monitor.red-gate.com. Click the "Analysis" tab, and select one of the "Simple-talk:" entries in the "Show" box and an appropriate data range (e.g. last 30 days). It’s nascent, and we’re still working on it, but it’s already given us more confidence that we’ll spot quickly trends, bugs, or bursts of ‘abnormal’ activity. If there is a sudden rise in comments, we get an alert, and if it’s due to a spam attack, we can moderate or ban the perpetrator very quickly. We’ve often argued that a tool should perform a single job well rather than turn into a Swiss-army knife, but ironically we’ve rather appreciated being able to make best use of what’s there anyway for a slightly different purpose. Is this a good or common practice? What do you think? Cheers, Tony.

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Customizing Spaces UI

- by vijaykumar.yenne

In most common scenarios we stumble up on use cases to customize the Web center spaces UI. Is the Spaces UI customizable? What is the extent to which we can customize? How do i customize it? These are some questions that developers/architects normally come across. Well to clear the air, OOTB spaces comes with some default "site templates" and it also gives a flexibility to create custom site templates suiting the organization needs. The site templates concept has been introduced in the latest PS1 release of webcenter and to customize/create the the new site template, we have to leverage the Extend Spaces Project available on OTN. You could download the the project from here. Also there is white paper available on what all can be customized/extended from spaces perspective listed here . There is a specific details outlined on how to create custom site template in the Customizing Site Template white paper. One of the things the white paper high lights is "While you can create new site templates and modify the sample site templates but you cannot modify either of the out-of-the-box site templates ie the default and maximized. So if my need is to either increase the size of header to fit in a bigger logo or introduce couple of extra links on the default/maximized lay out how do i achieve this? All you need to do is customize the OOTB shell (shell-config.xml). 1. Copy the shell config's available in the Source Files Directory of the extended spaces unzipped directory into the CustomSite Template Project ExtendWebCenterSpaces\CustomSiteTemplate\custom\oracle\webcenter\webcenterapp\metadata\shell 2. Modify the appropriate shell 3. Deploy the CustomSite Template as ADF Jar 4. ensure you have the profile dependency on the aboproject int he custom webcenter spaces project 5. Deploy the Spaces Extension on the Webcenter Spaces Instance. (Details in the first white paper). You should see the changes immediately. eg: In the default shell, i have changed the height from 30 to 60 to increase the header size height="60" This is what i get to see : If you have worked on the R1 release time frame, where you created a custom shell/chrome, how do we make them compatible and make it available in the Spaces PS1 instance? All you need to do is the following: 1. Copy the custom shell in to the shell directory of the custom site template project 2. Register the shell with WCSiteTemplates.xml available in the same project. Eg : Yo can add the below entry pagePath="/oracle/webcenter/webcenterapp/view/templates/MyShellTemplate.jspx" pageDefPath="/oracle/webcenter/webcenterapp/bindings/pageDefs/oracle_webcenter_webcenterapp_view_templates_WebCenterAppShellTemplatePageDef.xml" displayName="myShell" chromeLevel="myShell"/ Note : pagePath - Absolute path of the template JSPX file. This path must be unique. So you might have to do the following to get your custom chrome working absolutely fine with no problems at all: 1. Create a jspx page, say /custom/mysite/SiteTemplate.jspx 2. Include the the default jspx in the new site template like following SiteTemplate.jspx ------------------ 3. Add the newly created site template in the WCSiteTemplate.xml file like following - pagePath="/custom/mysite/SiteTemplate.jspx" pageDefPath="/oracle/webcenter/webcenterapp/bindings/pageDefs/oracle_webcenter_webcenterapp_view_templates_WebCenterAppShellTemplatePageDef.xml" displayName="myShell" chromeLevel="myShell"/

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Oracle Database 11.2.0.4 Certified with EBS on Microsoft Windows Server

- by John Abraham

As a follow up to to a previous announcement, Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2.0.4) is now certified with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i and Release 12 on the following Microsoft Windows Server operating systems: Release 12.2 (12.2.3 and higher): Microsoft Windows x64 (64-bit) (2008 R2) Release 12.1 (12.1.1 and higher): Microsoft Windows Server (32-bit) (2003, 2008) Microsoft Windows x64 (64-bit) (20031, 20081, 2008 R22) Release 12.0 (12.0.4 and higher): Microsoft Windows Server (32-bit) (2003) Microsoft Windows x64 (64-bit) (2003, 2008, 2008 R2)1 Release 11i (11.5.10.2 + ATG PF.H RUP 6 and higher):: Microsoft Windows Server (32-bit) (2003, 20081) Microsoft Windows x64 (64-bit) (2003, 2008, 2008 R2)1 Notes: 1: This OS is a 'database tier only' or 'split tier configuration' platform where the application tier must be on a fully certified E-Business Suite platform. 2: This OS is a 'database tier only' platform for Release 11i. For 12.1.1 or higher, it is also supported on the application tier via the migration process outlined in My Oracle Support Document 1188535.1. This announcement for Oracle E-Business Suite 11i and R12 includes: Oracle Database 11gR2 version 11.2.0.4 Oracle Database 11gR2 version 11.2.0.4 Real Application Clusters (RAC) Oracle Database Vault 11gR2 version 11.2.0.4 Transparent Data Encryption (Column Encryption) using Oracle Database 11gR2 version 11.2.0.4 TDE Tablespace Encryption using Oracle Database 11gR2 version 11.2.0.4 Advanced Security Option (ASO)/Advanced Networking Option (ANO) with Oracle Database 11gR2 version 11.2.0.4 Export/Import Process for Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i and Release 12 Database Instances Transportable Database and Transportable Tablespaces Data Migration Processes for Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i and Release 12 Certification data in My Oracle Support (http://support.oracle.com) has been updated with this certification - please review the documents below for all requirements and additional details: Where can I find more information? MOS Document 881505.1 - Interoperability Notes - Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i with Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2.0) MOS Document 1058763.1 - Interoperability Notes - Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 with Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2.0) MOS Dcoument 1623879.1 - Interoperability Notes - Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2 with Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2.0) MOS Document 1091086.1 - Integrating Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i with Oracle Database Vault 11gR2 MOS Document 1091083.1 - Integrating Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 with Oracle Database Vault 11gR2 MOS Document 216205.1 - Database Initialization Parameters for Oracle E-Business Suite 11i MOS Document 396009.1 - Database Initialization Parameters for Oracle Applications Release 12 MOS Document 823586.1 - Using Oracle 11g Release 2 Real Application Clusters with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i MOS Document 823587.1 - Using Oracle 11g Release 2 Real Application Clusters with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 MOS Document 946413.1 - Using Oracle Applications with a Split Configuration Database Tier on Oracle Release 11g Release 2 MOS Document 403294.1 - Using Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) Column Encryption with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i MOS Document 732764.1 - Using Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) Column Encryption with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 MOS Document 828223.1 - Using TDE Tablespace Encryption with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i MOS Document 828229.1 - Using TDE Tablespace Encryption with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 MOS Document 391248.1 - Encrypting Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i Network Traffic using Advanced Security Option and Advanced Networking Option MOS Document 376700.1 - Enabling SSL in Oracle Application Release 12 MOS Document 732764.1 - Using Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) Column Encryption with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 MOS Document 557738.1 - Export/Import Process for Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i Database Instances Using Oracle Database 11g Release 1 or 11g Release 2 MOS Document 741818.1 - Export/Import Process for Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 Database Instances Using Oracle Database 11g Release 1 or 11g Release 2 MOS Document 1366265.1 - Using Transportable Tablespaces to Migrate Oracle Applications 11i Using Oracle Database 11g Release 2 MOS Document 1311487.1 - Using Transportable Tablespaces to Migrate Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 Using Oracle Database 11g Release 2 MOS Document 729309.1 - Using Transportable Database to Migrate Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i Using Oracle Database 10g Release 2 or 11g MOS Document 734763.1 - Using Transportable Database to Migrate Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 Using Oracle Database 10g Release 2 or 11g MOS Document 1188535.1 - Migrating Oracle E-Business Suite R12 to Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 MOS Dcoument 1349240.1 - Database Preparation Guidelines for an Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2 Upgrade MOS Document 1594274.1 - Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2: Consolidated List of Patches and Technology Bug Fixes Please also review the platform-specific Oracle Database Installation Guides for operating system and other prerequisites.

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How to Watch NCAA March Madness Online

- by DigitalGeekery

You’ve filled out your brackets and now you are ready for one of America’s most popular sporting events. But what if you are you stuck at work or away from your TV? Or your local affiliate is showing a different game? Today we show how to catch all the March Madness online. March Madness on Demand You’ll need a broadband connection, 512 MB RAM or higher, with cookies and Javascript enabled in your browser. March Madness on Demand offers two viewing options, a Standard Player and a High Quality player. The High Quality player is not, unfortunately, high definition. Standard Player Requirements Windows XP/Vista/7 or Mac OS X IE 6+ (We also successfully tested it in Firefox, Chrome, & Opera) Adobe Flash Player 9 or higher High Quality Player Requirements 2.4 GHz Pentium 4 or Intel-based Macintosh Mac OS 10.4.8+ (Intel-based) Windows: XP SP2, Vista, Server 2003, Server 2008, Windows 7 Firefox 1.5+ or IE 6/7/8 Silverlight 3 browser plug-in Watching March Madness on Demand Go to the March Madness on Demand website. (Link below) Check the “Watch in High Quality” section to see if your browser is ready and compatible for the High Quality viewer. If not, you’ll see a message indicating either your browser and system are incompatible… Or that you need to install Silverlight. To install Silverlight, click on the “Get HQ” button and follow the prompts to download and install Silverlight. To launch the player, click the large red “Launch Player” button. At the top of the screen, you’ll see the current and upcoming games. Click on “Watch Now” below to begin watching. At the bottom left, is where you click to watch with the High Quality player. If to many people are watching the High Quality player, you’ll see the following message and have to go back to the Standard Player. At the lower right are volume controls, a “Full Screen” button, and a “Share” button which allows you to share the game you are watching on various social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Perhaps most importantly for those who want to steal a bit of viewing time while at work is the “Boss Button” at the top right. Clicking on the “Boss Button” will open a fake Office document so it may appear at first glance like you’re actually doing legitimate work. To return to the game, click anywhere on the screen with your mouse. You’ll be able to catch every single game of the tournament from the first round all the way through the championship with March Madness on Demand. If your computer and Internet connection can handle it, you can even watch multiple games at the same time by opening March Madness on Demand in multiple browser windows. Watch March Madness online Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Weekend Fun: Watch Television on Your PC with AnyTVWatch NFL Sunday Night Football On Your PCWatch TV On Your PC with FreeZ Online TVGeek Fun: Download Favorite NBC Programs for FreeDitch the RealPlayer Bloat with Real Alternative TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional How to Browse Privately in Firefox Kill Processes Quickly with Process Assassin Need to Come Up with a Good Name? Try Wordoid StockFox puts a Lightweight Stock Ticker in your Statusbar Explore Google Public Data Visually The Ultimate Excel Cheatsheet

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SQLSaturday 33 Observations

- by Geoff N. Hiten

Along with a lot of my colleagues, I went to SQLSaturday #33 in Charlotte this last weekend. Overall a really good event, especially for a first-time organizer. There is some controversy over certain events where my name got mentioned so I thought I would clear the air. Before I get to the core controversy, let's get the details out of the way. The Microsoft Offices in Charlotte were an excellent venue for this event. I really appreciated the Microsoft employees that helped out by letting us in and out of normally secure areas. This is definitely above and beyond on their part. Thanks to the organizers (especially Greg and Peter) for the great hospitality they showed to the speakers. Now for the specifics. Like most events of this type, there was a raffle at the end for some cool swag. As a speaker I got raffle tickets just like any other attendee. The raffle was clearly promoted as "must be present to win". The problem is that for various reasons, the raffle kicked off immediately after the last speaker finished in the largest room. That room was across the parking lot from all the other rooms for the event. I happened to have one of the last sessions of the day, and not in the main room. I also ran long since the audience was very interactive and there were a lot of follow-up questions. (BTW, thanks to everyone who came and stayed for my session. Sorry it cost you the chance to win too.). My name was drawn for an very nice piece of swag (iPod Touch if you insist). Since I wasn't there, I didn't win. Several folks mentioned I was still speaking and was "here" (as in at the event) just not "here in the room". Yes, I was mad when I found out about it. I think that was handled poorly. I personally lost out as did my audience (dunno if anyone specific lost anything, but it is the idea that counts). It was a mistake. Mistakes happen. Nobody acted maliciously. Heck, the guys running the event who made the decision are my friends and remain so. I got over my mad. We talked about this privately and we are all OK with what happened. I am not going to let a gadget get in the way of a couple of good friendships. I think the mistake was mostly due to a lack of unity between the venue buildings Pam Shaw had a similar challenge in Tampa a few weeks ago, including a speaker who ran long on the last session (not me that time). She had a couple of teenage volunteers to act as gofers/runners. They counted heads in sessions, pointed people to last-minute room and session changes, and generally helped connect the organizers to what was actually happening. Note that this was not Pam's first SQLSaturday event. She knew but the knowledge had not been institutionalized. We (The SQL community in general and SQLSaturday organizers in particular) now know how essential gofers are to success. I know I spent most of this post focusing on the controversy, but I wanted to clear everything up. I don't want to let a minor mistake, made in good faith, overshadow what was a tremendously good event for the community. As for the iPod Touch, someone in the SQL community is enjoying it, so it is not a total loss. And if losing out on it is the price I pay so we can learn this, then that is what a community leader does. Consider it a gift. Besides, I really wanted a Zune 120 :)

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SQL SERVER – Guest Post – Glenn Berry – Wait Type – Day 26 of 28

- by pinaldave

Glenn Berry works as a Database Architect at NewsGator Technologies in Denver, CO. He is a SQL Server MVP, and has a whole collection of Microsoft certifications, including MCITP, MCDBA, MCSE, MCSD, MCAD, and MCTS. He is also an Adjunct Faculty member at University College – University of Denver, where he has been teaching since 2000. He is one wonderful blogger and often blogs at here. I am big fan of the Dynamic Management Views (DMV) scripts of Glenn. His script are extremely popular and the reality is that he has inspired me to start this series with his famous DMV which I have mentioned in very first wait stats blog post (I had forgot to request his permission to re-use the script but when asked later on his whole hearty approved it). Here is is his excellent blog post on this subject of wait stats: Analyzing cumulative wait stats in SQL Server 2005 and above has become a popular and effective technique for diagnosing performance issues and further focusing your troubleshooting and diagnostic efforts. Rather than just guessing about what resource(s) that SQL Server is waiting on, you can actually find out by running a relatively simple DMV query. Once you know what resources that SQL Server is spending the most time waiting on, you can run more specific queries that focus on that resource to get a better idea what is causing the problem. I do want to throw out a few caveats about using wait stats as a diagnostic tool. First, they are most useful when your SQL Server instance is experiencing performance problems. If your instance is running well, with no indication of any resource pressure from other sources, then you should not worry that much about what the top wait types are. SQL Server will always be waiting on some resource, but many wait types are quite benign, and can be safely ignored. In spite of this, I quite often see experienced DBAs obsessing over the top wait type, even when their SQL Server instance is running extremely well. Second, I often see DBAs jump to the wrong conclusion based on seeing a particular well-known wait type. A good example is CXPACKET waits. People typically jump to the conclusion that high CXPACKET waits means that they should immediately change their instance-level MADOP setting to 1. This is not always the best solution. You need to consider your workload type, and look carefully for any important “missing” indexes that might be causing the query optimizer to use a parallel plan to compensate for the missing index. In this case, correcting the index problem is usually a better solution than changing MAXDOP, since you are curing the disease rather than just treating the symptom. Finally, you should get in the habit of clearing out your cumulative wait stats with the DBCC SQLPERF(‘sys.dm_os_wait_stats’, CLEAR); command. This is especially important if you have made an configuration or index changes, or if your workload has changed recently. Otherwise, your cumulative wait stats will be polluted with the old stats from weeks or months ago (since the last time SQL Server was started or the stats were cleared). If you make a change to your SQL Server instance, or add an index, you should clear out your wait stats, and then wait a while to see what your new top wait stats are. At any rate, enjoy Pinal Dave’s series on Wait Stats. This blog post has been written by Glenn Berry (Twitter | Blog) Read all the post in the Wait Types and Queue series. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: 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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Use Any Folder For Your Ubuntu Desktop (Even a Dropbox Folder)

- by Trevor Bekolay

By default, Ubuntu creates a folder called Desktop in your home directory that gets displayed on your desktop. What if you want to use something else, like your Dropbox folder? Here we look at how to use any folder for your desktop. Not only can you change your desktop folder, you can change the location of any other folder Ubuntu creates for you in your home folder, like Documents or Music – and this works in any Linux distribution using the Gnome desktop manager. In this example, we’re going to change desktop to show our Dropbox folder. Open your home folder in a File Browser by clicking on Places > Home Folder. In the Home Folder, open the .config folder. By default, .config is hidden, so you may have to show hidden folders (temporarily) by clicking on View > Show Hidden Files. Then open the .config folder by double-clicking on it. Now open the user-dirs.dirs file… If double-clicking on it does not open it in a text editor, right-click on it and choose Open with Other Application… and find a text editor like Gedit. Change the entry associated with XDG_DESKTOP_DIR to the folder you want to be shown as your desktop. In our case, this is $HOME/Dropbox. Note: The “~” shortcut for the home directory won’t work in this file (use $HOME for that), but an absolute path (i.e. a path starting with “/”) will work. Feel free to change the locations of the other folders as well. Save and close user-dirs.dirs. At this point you can either log off and then log back on to get your desktop back, or open a terminal window Applications > Accessories > Terminal and enter: killall nautilus Nautilus (the file manager in Gnome) will restart itself and display your newly chosen folder as the desktop! This is a cool trick to use any folder for your Ubuntu desktop. What did you use as your desktop folder? Let us know in the comments! Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Sync Your Pidgin Profile Across Multiple PCs with DropboxAdd "My Dropbox" to Your Windows 7 Start MenuCreate a Keyboard Shortcut to Access Hidden Desktop Icons and FilesAdd "My Computer" to Your Windows 7 / Vista TaskbarCheck your Disk Usage on Ubuntu with Disk Usage Analyzer TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips VMware Workstation 7 Acronis Online Backup DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Use Flixtime To Create Video Slideshows Creating a Password Reset Disk in Windows Bypass Waiting Time On Customer Service Calls With Lucyphone MELTUP – "The Beginning Of US Currency Crisis And Hyperinflation" Enable or Disable the Task Manager Using TaskMgrED Explorer++ is a Worthy Windows Explorer Alternative

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ArcGIS–Getting the Legend Labels out

- by Avner Kashtan

Working with ESRI’s ArcGIS package, especially the WPF API, can be confusing. There’s the REST API, the SOAP APIs, and the WPF classes themselves, which expose some web service calls and information, but not everything. With all that, it can be hard to find specific features between the different options. Some functionality is handed to you on a silver platter, while some is maddeningly hard to implement. Today, for instance, I was working on adding a Legend control to my map-based WPF application, to explain the different symbols that can appear on the map. This is how the legend looks on ESRI’s own map-editing tools: but this is how it looks when I used the Legend control, supplied out of the box by ESRI: Very pretty, but unfortunately missing the option to display the name of the fields that make up the symbology. Luckily, the WPF controls have a lot of templating/extensibility points, to allow you to specify the layout of each field: 1: <esri:Legend> 2: <esri:Legend.MapLayerTemplate> 3: <DataTemplate> 4: <TextBlock Text="{Binding Layer.ID}"/> 5: </DataTemplate> 6: </esri:Legend.MapLayerTemplate> 7: </esri:Legend> but that only replicates the same built in behavior. I could now add any additional fields I liked, but unfortunately, I couldn’t find them as part of the Layer, GraphicsLayer or FeatureLayer definitions. This is the part where ESRI’s lack of organization is noticeable, since I can see this data easily when accessing the ArcGis Server’s web-interface, but I had no idea how to find it as part of the built-in class. Is it a part of Layer? Of LayerInfo? Of the LayerDefinition class that exists only in the SOAP service? As it turns out, neither. Since these fields are used by the symbol renderer to determine which symbol to draw, they’re actually a part of the layer’s Renderer. Since I already had a MyFeatureLayer class derived from FeatureLayer that added extra functionality, I could just add this property to it: 1: public string LegendFields 2: { 3: get 4: { 5: if (this.Renderer is UniqueValueRenderer) 6: { 7: return (this.Renderer as UniqueValueRenderer).Field; 8: } 9: else if (this.Renderer is UniqueValueMultipleFieldsRenderer) 10: { 11: var renderer = this.Renderer as UniqueValueMultipleFieldsRenderer; 12: return string.Join(renderer.FieldDelimiter, renderer.Fields); 13: } 14: else return null; 15: } For my scenario, all of my layers used symbology derived from a single field or, as in the examples above, from several of them. The renderer even kindly supplied me with the comma to separate the fields with. Now it was a simple matter to get the Legend control in line – assuming that it was bound to a collection of MyFeatureLayer: 1: <esri:Legend> 2: <esri:Legend.MapLayerTemplate> 3: <DataTemplate> 4: <StackPanel> 5: <TextBlock Text="{Binding Layer.ID}"/> 6: <TextBlock Text="{Binding Layer.LegendFields}" Margin="10,0,0,0" TextStyle="Italic"/> 7: </StackPanel> 8: </DataTemplate> 9: </esri:Legend.MapLayerTemplate> 10: </esri:Legend> and get the look I wanted – the list of fields below the layer name, indented.

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Tips to Make Your Website Cell Phone Friendly

- by Aditi

Working on a new website design? or Redesigning your website? There is a lot more to consider now a days not just user experience, clean code, CSS etc. one of the important attribute one must not miss, which is making them mobile friendly! With the growing use of handhelds & unlimited data plans, people browse on their cellphones! and All come in different sizes! it is tough to make a website that would look great not just on a high resolution widescreen monitor/LCD, but also should look equally impressive on the low resolutions of cellphones. We are today going to discuss about such factors that can help you make a website Cellphone Friendly. Fluid Width Layouts As we start discussing about this, Most people speak of the Fluid Width Layouts as vital step in moving your website to be mobile friendly. Fluid width allows the width of your website stretch or shrink depending on the browser size. However, having a layout which flows with the width of the screen’s resolution is certainly convenient, more often than not the website was originally laid out for a desktop in mind. Compressing a fluid layout to 320 pixels can do some serious damage to layout, Thus some people strongly believe it is far better to have a mobile style sheet and lay out the content specifically for that screen and have more control on the display. The best thing to do is to detect the type of platform that is connected to your website and disabling or changing some tools and effects to make it look better if not perfect. Keep Your Web Pages Short length One must avoid long pages on their website, a lot of scroll makes it very non user friendly for people, especially on mobile devices this is a huge draw back because of the longer load time it takes to download the webpage. Everyone likes crisp & concise content such pages are easier to load & browse. This makes your website accessible across all platforms. Also try to keep shorter urls, if they have to type..save them from that much work especially if someone is using a cellphone with no QWERTY keyboard it can be tough. Usable Navigation & Search Unlike Desktops, your website’s Navigation won’t super work on a cellphone. Keep in mind the user experience for cellphone users as you design your Navigation. Try to keep your content centered as they do have difficulty in reading the webpage. I always look upto Google and their pages as available on mobile as a great example. Keeping a functional & very visible search bar helps mobile users navigate by searching. Understanding Clean Website Code : Evolved for Mobile Clean code is important when you consider the diversity out there for handheld devices. Some cell phones may only understand WAP. More capable phones may understand WAP2, which allows rendering websites with XHTML and CSS. Most mobiles won’t display tables, floats, frames, JavaScript, and dynamic menus. Most cellphone will not support cookies. Devices at the high end of the mobile market such as BlackBerry, Palm, or the upcoming iPhone are highly capable and support nearly as much as a standard computer..but masses still do not have such phones. You can use specific emulators to test your website on mobile devices. Make sure your color combinations provide good contrast between foreground and background colors, particularly for devices with fewer color options.

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Preview Before You Paste with Live Preview in Office 2010

- by DigitalGeekery

Do you often find yourself frustrated that content you just copied and pasted didn’t turn out the way you expected? With the new Live Preview in Office 2010, you can preview how copied content will look when it’s pasted even between Office applications. Not every paste preview option will be available in every circumstance. The available options will be based on the applications being used and what content is copied. Copy your content like normal by right-clicking and selecting Copy, pressing Crtl + C, or selecting Copy from the Home tab. Next, select your location to paste the content. Now you can access the Paste Preview buttons either by selecting the Paste dropdown list from the Home tab… …Or by right-clicking. As you hover your cursor over each of the Paste Options buttons, you will see a preview of what it will look like if you paste using that option. Click the corresponding button when you find the paste option you like. The “Paste” will paste all the content and formatting as you can see below. Values will paste values only, no formatting. Formatting will paste only the formatting, no values. Hover over Paste Special to reveal any additional paste options. The process is similar in other Office applications. As you can see in the Word document below, Keep Text Only will paste the text, but not the orange color format from the original text. Even after you’ve pasted, there is still time to change your mind. After you paste content you’ll see a Paste Option button near your content. If you don’t, you can pull it up by pressing the Ctrl key. Note: This is also available after using Ctrl + V to paste. Click to enable the dropdown and select one of the available options. Using Live Paste Preview between multiple applications is just as easy. If we preview pasting the content from our Word document into PowerPoint by using the Keep Source Formatting option, we’ll see that the outcome looks awful. Selecting the Use Destination Theme will merge the text into the theme of the PowerPoint document and looks a lot better on our slide. Live Paste Preview is a nice addition to Office 2010 and is sure to save time spent undoing the unexpected consequences of pasting content. Looking for more Office 2010 tips? Check out some of our other Office 2010 posts like how to create a customized tab on the Office 2010 ribbon, and how to use the streamlined printing features in Office 2010. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Edit Microsoft Word 2007 Documents in Print PreviewPreview Documents Without Opening Them In Word 2007How to See Where a TinyUrl Is Really Linking ToHow To Upload Office 2010 Documents to Web Apps Technical PreviewPreview Links and Images in Google Chrome TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Acronis Online Backup DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows Check these Awesome Chrome Add-ons iFixit Offers Gadget Repair Manuals Online Vista style sidebar for Windows 7 Create Nice Charts With These Web Based Tools Track Daily Goals With 42Goals Video Toolbox is a Superb Online Video Editor

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Adventures in MVVM – ViewModel Location and Creation

- by Brian Genisio's House Of Bilz

More Adventures in MVVM In this post, I am going to explore how I prefer to attach ViewModels to my Views. I have published the code to my ViewModelSupport project on CodePlex in case you'd like to see how it works along with some examples. Some History My approach to View-First ViewModel creation has evolved over time. I have constructed ViewModels in code-behind. I have instantiated ViewModels in the resources sectoin of the view. I have used Prism to resolve ViewModels via Dependency Injection. I have created attached properties that use Dependency Injection containers underneath. Of all these approaches, I continue to find issues either in composability, blendability or maintainability. Laurent Bugnion came up with a pretty good approach in MVVM Light Toolkit with his ViewModelLocator, but as John Papa points out, it has maintenance issues. John paired up with Glen Block to make the ViewModelLocator more generic by using MEF to compose ViewModels. It is a great approach, but I don’t like baking in specific resolution technologies into the ViewModelSupport project. I bring these people up, not to name drop, but to give them credit for the place I finally landed in my journey to resolve ViewModels. I have come up with my own version of the ViewModelLocator that is both generic and container agnostic. The solution is blendable, configurable and simple to use. Use any resolution mechanism you want: MEF, Unity, Ninject, Activator.Create, Lookup Tables, new, whatever. How to use the locator 1. Create a class to contain your resolution configuration: public class YourViewModelResolver: IViewModelResolver { private YourFavoriteContainer container = new YourFavoriteContainer(); public YourViewModelResolver() { // Configure your container } public object Resolve(string viewModelName) { return container.Resolve(viewModelName); } } Examples of doing this are on CodePlex for MEF, Unity and Activator.CreateInstance. 2. Create your ViewModelLocator with your custom resolver in App.xaml: <VMS:ViewModelLocator x:Key="ViewModelLocator"> <VMS:ViewModelLocator.Resolver> <local:YourViewModelResolver /> </VMS:ViewModelLocator.Resolver> </VMS:ViewModelLocator> 3. Hook up your data context whenever you want a ViewModel (WPF): <Border DataContext="{Binding YourViewModelName, Source={StaticResource ViewModelLocator}}"> This example uses dynamic properties on the ViewModelLocator and passes the name to your resolver to figure out how to compose it. 4. What about Silverlight? Good question. You can't bind to dynamic properties in Silverlight 4 (crossing my fingers for Silverlight 5), but you CAN use string indexing: <Border DataContext="{Binding [YourViewModelName], Source={StaticResource ViewModelLocator}}"> But, as John Papa points out in his article, there is a silly bug in Silverlight 4 (as of this writing) that will call into the indexer 6 times when it binds. While this is little more than a nuisance when getting most properties, it can be much more of an issue when you are resolving ViewModels six times. If this gets in your way, the solution (as pointed out by John), is to use an IndexConverter (instantiated in App.xaml and also included in the project): <Border DataContext="{Binding Source={StaticResource ViewModelLocator}, Converter={StaticResource IndexConverter}, ConverterParameter=YourViewModelName}"> It is a bit uglier than the WPF version (this method will also work in WPF if you prefer), but it is still not all that bad. Conclusion This approach works really well (I suppose I am a bit biased). It allows for composability from any mechanisim you choose. It is blendable (consider serving up different objects in Design Mode if you wish... or different constructors… whatever makes sense to you). It works in Cider. It is configurable. It is flexible. It is the best way I have found to manage View-First ViewModel hookups. Thanks to the guys mentioned in this article for getting me to something I love using. Enjoy.

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Oracle’s New Approach to Cloud-based Applications User Experiences

- by Oracle OpenWorld Blog Team

By Misha Vaughan It was an exciting Oracle OpenWorld this year for customers and partners, as they got to see what their input into the Oracle user experience research and development process has produced for cloud-delivered applications. The result of all this engagement and listening is a focus on simplicity, mobility, and extensibility. These were the core themes across Oracle OpenWorld sessions, executive roundtables, and analyst briefings given by Jeremy Ashley, Oracle's vice president of user experience. The highlight of every meeting with a customer featured the new simplified UI for Oracle’s cloud applications. Attendees at some sessions and events also saw a vision of what is coming next in the Oracle user experience, and they gave direct feedback on whether this would help solve their business problems. What did attendees think of what they saw this year? Rebecca Wettemann of Nucleus Research was part of an analyst briefing on next-generation user experiences from Oracle. Here’s what she told CRM Buyer in an interview just after the event: “Many of the improvements are incremental, which is not surprising, as Oracle regularly updates its application,” Rebecca Wettemann, vice president of Nucleus Research, told CRM Buyer. "Still, there are distinct themes to this latest set of changes. One is usability. Oracle Sales Cloud, for example, is designed to have zero training for onboarding sales reps, which it does," she explained. "It is quite impressive, actually—the intuitive nature of the application and the design work they have done with this goal in mind. The software uses as few buttons and fields as possible," she pointed out. "The sales rep doesn't have to ask, 'what is the next step?' because she can see what it is." What else did we hear? Oracle OpenWorld is a time when we can take a broader pulse of our customers’ and partners’ concerns. This year we heard some common user experience themes on the following: · A desire to continue to simplify widely used self-service tasks · A need to understand how customers or partners could take some of the UX lessons learned on simplicity and mobility into their own custom areas and projects · The continuing challenge of needing to support bring-your-own-device and corporate-provided mobile devices to end users · A desire to harmonize user experiences across platforms for specific business-use cases What does this mean for next year? Well, there were a lot of things we could only show to smaller groups of customers in our Oracle OpenWorld usability labs and HQ lab tours, to partners at our Expo, and to analysts under non-disclosure agreements. But we used these events as a way to get some early feedback about where we are focusing for the year ahead. Attendees gave us a positive response: @bkhan Saw some excellent UX innovations at the expo “@usableapps: Great job @mishavaughan and @vinoskey on #oow13 UX partner expo!” @WarnerTim @usableapps @mishavaughan @vinoskey @ultan Thanks for an interesting afternoon definitely liked the UX tool kits for partners. You can expect Oracle to continue pushing themes of simplicity, mobility, and extensibility even more aggressively in the next year. If you are interested to find out what really goes on in the UX labs, such as what we are doing with smartphones, tablets, heads-up displays, and the AppsLab robots, feel free to reach out to me for more information: Misha Vaughan or on Twitter: @mishavaughan.

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BizTalk 2009 - BizTalk Benchmark Wizard: Running a Test

- by StuartBrierley

The BizTalk Benchmark Wizard is a ultility that can be used to gain some validation of a BizTalk installation, giving a level of guidance on whether it is performing as might be expected. It should be used after BizTalk Server has been installed and before any solutions are deployed to the environment. This will ensure that you are getting consistent and clean results from the BizTalk Benchmark Wizard. The BizTalk Benchmark Wizard applies load to the BizTalk Server environment under a choice of specific scenarios. During these scenarios performance counter information is collected and assessed against statistics that are appropriate to the BizTalk Server environment. For details on installing the Benchmark Wizard see my previous post. The BizTalk Benchmarking Wizard provides two simple test scenarios, one for messaging and one for Orchestrations, which can be used to test your BizTalk implementation. Messaging Loadgen generates a new XML message and sends it over NetTCP A WCF-NetTCP Receive Location receives a the xml document from Loadgen. The PassThruReceive pipeline performs no processing and the message is published by the EPM to the MessageBox. The WCF One-Way Send Port, which is the only subscriber to the message, retrieves the message from the MessageBox The PassThruTransmit pipeline provides no additional processing The message is delivered to the back end WCF service by the WCF NetTCP adapter Orchestrations Loadgen generates a new XML message and sends it over NetTCP A WCF-NetTCP Receive Location receives a the xml document from Loadgen. The XMLReceive pipeline performs no processing and the message is published by the EPM to the MessageBox. The message is delivered to a simple Orchestration which consists of a receive location and a send port The WCF One-Way Send Port, which is the only subscriber to the Orchestration message, retrieves the message from the MessageBox The PassThruTransmit pipeline provides no additional processing The message is delivered to the back end WCF service by the WCF NetTCP adapter Below is a quick outline of how to run the BizTalk Benchmark Wizard on a single server, although it should be noted that this is not ideal as this server is then both generating and processing the load. In order to separate this load out you should run the "Indigo" service on a seperate server. To start the BizTalk Benchmark Wizard click Start > All Programs > BizTalk Benchmark Wizard > BizTalk Benchmark Wizard. On this screen click next, you will then get the following pop up window. Check the server and database names and check the "check prerequsites" check-box before pressing ok. The wizard will then check that the appropriate test scenarios are installed. You should then choose the test scenario that wish to run (messaging or orchestration) and the architecture that most closely matches your environment. You will then be asked to confirm the host server for each of the host instances. Next you will be presented with the prepare screen. You will need to start the indigo service before pressing the Test Indigo Service Button. If you are running the indigo service on a separate server you can enter the server name here. To start the indigo service click Start > All Programs > BizTalk Benchmark Wizard > Start Indigo Service. While the test is running you will be presented with two speed dial type displays - one for the received messages per second and one for the processed messages per second. The green dial shows the current rate and the red dial shows the overall average rate. Optionally you can view the CPU usage of the various servers involved in processing the tests. For my development environment I expected low results and this is what I got. Although looking at the online high scores table and comparing to the quad core system listed, the results are perhaps not really that bad. At some time I may look at what improvements I can make to this score, but if you are interested in that now take a look at Benchmark your BizTalk Server (Part 3).

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