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  • Using recursion to find paths in a 2D array

    - by rikkit
    Hi, I'm working on a project for my A level. It involves finding the maximum flow of a network, and I'm using javascript. I have a 2D array, with values in the array representing a distance between the two points. An example of the array: 0 2 2 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 I think I need to use a recursive technique to find a path; below is some pseudocode, assuming that the array is 4x4. a is (0,0), b is (3,3). function search(a,b) from a to b if element(i,j) != 0 then store value of element search(j,3) I was wondering if that was the right construction for a depth first search. Thanks for any help.

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  • What are the Build Settings for a Universal iPhone and iPad Application

    - by McPragma
    What would be the settings to build and have accepted an universal app for both the iPad and iPhone? That is, what would be the settings in Project X Info Build for Architectures [ARCHS] ("Standard(armv6)" or "Optimized(armv6 armv7)" or other) Valid Architectures [VALID_ARCHS] ("armv6 armv7" or other) Build Active Architecture Only (checked or unchecked) and what would we select in the dropdown (Device - 3.2|Distribution|armv?) ? We're either getting warnings at build time that we haven't built for armv7, or the app upload is rejected on account of "The binary you uploaded was invalid. When supporting iPhone, the executable must include support for the armv6 architecture". Thank you for your help.

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  • Oracle Data Integrator 11.1.1.5 Complex Files as Sources and Targets

    - by Alex Kotopoulis
    Overview ODI 11.1.1.5 adds the new Complex File technology for use with file sources and targets. The goal is to read or write file structures that are too complex to be parsed using the existing ODI File technology. This includes: Different record types in one list that use different parsing rules Hierarchical lists, for example customers with nested orders Parsing instructions in the file data, such as delimiter types, field lengths, type identifiers Complex headers such as multiple header lines or parseable information in header Skipping of lines  Conditional or choice fields Similar to the ODI File and XML File technologies, the complex file parsing is done through a JDBC driver that exposes the flat file as relational table structures. Complex files are mapped to one or more table structures, as opposed to the (simple) file technology, which always has a one-to-one relationship between file and table. The resulting set of tables follows the same concept as the ODI XML driver, table rows have additional PK-FK relationships to express hierarchy as well as order values to maintain the file order in the resulting table.   The parsing instruction format used for complex files is the nXSD (native XSD) format that is already in use with Oracle BPEL. This format extends the XML Schema standard by adding additional parsing instructions to each element. Using nXSD parsing technology, the native file is converted into an internal XML format. It is important to understand that the XML is streamed to improve performance; there is no size limitation of the native file based on memory size, the XML data is never fully materialized.  The internal XML is then converted to relational schema using the same mapping rules as the ODI XML driver. How to Create an nXSD file Complex file models depend on the nXSD schema for the given file. This nXSD file has to be created using a text editor or the Native Format Builder Wizard that is part of Oracle BPEL. BPEL is included in the ODI Suite, but not in standalone ODI Enterprise Edition. The nXSD format extends the standard XSD format through nxsd attributes. NXSD is a valid XML Schema, since the XSD standard allows extra attributes with their own namespaces. The following is a sample NXSD schema: <?xml version="1.0"?> <xsd:schema xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:nxsd="http://xmlns.oracle.com/pcbpel/nxsd" elementFormDefault="qualified" xmlns:tns="http://xmlns.oracle.com/pcbpel/demoSchema/csv" targetNamespace="http://xmlns.oracle.com/pcbpel/demoSchema/csv" attributeFormDefault="unqualified" nxsd:encoding="US-ASCII" nxsd:stream="chars" nxsd:version="NXSD"> <xsd:element name="Root">         <xsd:complexType><xsd:sequence>       <xsd:element name="Header">                 <xsd:complexType><xsd:sequence>                         <xsd:element name="Branch" type="xsd:string" nxsd:style="terminated" nxsd:terminatedBy=","/>                         <xsd:element name="ListDate" type="xsd:string" nxsd:style="terminated" nxsd:terminatedBy="${eol}"/>                         </xsd:sequence></xsd:complexType>                         </xsd:element>                 </xsd:sequence></xsd:complexType>         <xsd:element name="Customer" maxOccurs="unbounded">                 <xsd:complexType><xsd:sequence>                 <xsd:element name="Name" type="xsd:string" nxsd:style="terminated" nxsd:terminatedBy=","/>                         <xsd:element name="Street" type="xsd:string" nxsd:style="terminated" nxsd:terminatedBy="," />                         <xsd:element name="City" type="xsd:string" nxsd:style="terminated" nxsd:terminatedBy="${eol}" />                         </xsd:sequence></xsd:complexType>                         </xsd:element>                 </xsd:sequence></xsd:complexType> </xsd:element> </xsd:schema> The nXSD schema annotates elements to describe their position and delimiters within the flat text file. The schema above uses almost exclusively the nxsd:terminatedBy instruction to look for the next terminator chars. There are various constructs in nXSD to parse fixed length fields, look ahead in the document for string occurences, perform conditional logic, use variables to remember state, and many more. nXSD files can either be written manually using an XML Schema Editor or created using the Native Format Builder Wizard. Both Native Format Builder Wizard as well as the nXSD language are described in the Application Server Adapter Users Guide. The way to start the Native Format Builder in BPEL is to create a new File Adapter; in step 8 of the Adapter Configuration Wizard a new Schema for Native Format can be created:   The Native Format Builder guides through a number of steps to generate the nXSD based on a sample native file. If the format is complex, it is often a good idea to “approximate” it with a similar simple format and then add the complex components manually.  The resulting *.xsd file can be copied and used as the format for ODI, other BPEL constructs such as the file adapter definition are not relevant for ODI. Using this technique it is also possible to parse the same file format in SOA Suite and ODI, for example using SOA for small real-time messages, and ODI for large batches. This nXSD schema in this example describes a file with a header row containing data and 3 string fields per row delimited by commas, for example: Redwood City Downtown Branch, 06/01/2011 Ebeneezer Scrooge, Sandy Lane, Atherton Tiny Tim, Winton Terrace, Menlo Park The ODI Complex File JDBC driver exposes the file structure through a set of relational tables with PK-FK relationships. The tables for this example are: Table ROOT (1 row): ROOTPK Primary Key for root element SNPSFILENAME Name of the file SNPSFILEPATH Path of the file SNPSLOADDATE Date of load Table HEADER (1 row): ROOTFK Foreign Key to ROOT record ROWORDER Order of row in native document BRANCH Data BRANCHORDER Order of Branch within row LISTDATE Data LISTDATEORDER Order of ListDate within row Table ADDRESS (2 rows): ROOTFK Foreign Key to ROOT record ROWORDER Order of row in native document NAME Data NAMEORDER Oder of Name within row STREET Data STREETORDER Order of Street within row CITY Data CITYORDER Order of City within row Every table has PK and/or FK fields to reflect the document hierarchy through relationships. In this example this is trivial since the HEADER and all CUSTOMER records point back to the PK of ROOT. Deeper nested documents require this to identify parent elements. All tables also have a ROWORDER field to define the order of rows, as well as order fields for each column, in case the order of columns varies in the original document and needs to be maintained. If order is not relevant, these fields can be ignored. How to Create an Complex File Data Server in ODI After creating the nXSD file and a test data file, and storing it on the local file system accessible to ODI, you can go to the ODI Topology Navigator to create a Data Server and Physical Schema under the Complex File technology. This technology follows the conventions of other ODI technologies and is very similar to the XML technology. The parsing settings such as the source native file, the nXSD schema file, the root element, as well as the external database can be set in the JDBC URL: The use of an external database defined by dbprops is optional, but is strongly recommended for production use. Ideally, the staging database should be used for this. Also, when using a complex file exclusively for read purposes, it is recommended to use the ro=true property to ensure the file is not unnecessarily synchronized back from the database when the connection is closed. A data file is always required to be present  at the filename path during design-time. Without this file, operations like testing the connection, reading the model data, or reverse engineering the model will fail.  All properties of the Complex File JDBC Driver are documented in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Connectivity and Knowledge Modules Guide for Oracle Data Integrator in Appendix C: Oracle Data Integrator Driver for Complex Files Reference. David Allan has created a great viewlet Complex File Processing - 0 to 60 which shows the creation of a Complex File data server as well as a model based on this server. How to Create Models based on an Complex File Schema Once physical schema and logical schema have been created, the Complex File can be used to create a Model as if it were based on a database. When reverse-engineering the Model, data stores(tables) for each XSD element of complex type will be created. Use of complex files as sources is straightforward; when using them as targets it has to be made sure that all dependent tables have matching PK-FK pairs; the same applies to the XML driver as well. Debugging and Error Handling There are different ways to test an nXSD file. The Native Format Builder Wizard can be used even if the nXSD wasn’t created in it; it will show issues related to the schema and/or test data. In ODI, the nXSD  will be parsed and run against the existing test XML file when testing a connection in the Dataserver. If either the nXSD has an error or the data is non-compliant to the schema, an error will be displayed. Sample error message: Error while reading native data. [Line=1, Col=5] Not enough data available in the input, when trying to read data of length "19" for "element with name D1" from the specified position, using "style" as "fixedLength" and "length" as "". Ensure that there is enough data from the specified position in the input. Complex File FAQ Is the size of the native file limited by available memory? No, since the native data is streamed through the driver, only the available space in the staging database limits the size of the data. There are limits on individual field sizes, though; a single large object field needs to fit in memory. Should I always use the complex file driver instead of the file driver in ODI now? No, use the file technology for all simple file parsing tasks, for example any fixed-length or delimited files that just have one row format and can be mapped into a simple table. Because of its narrow assumptions the ODI file driver is easy to configure within ODI and can stream file data without writing it into a database. The complex file driver should be used whenever the use case cannot be handled through the file driver. Are we generating XML out of flat files before we write it into a database? We don’t materialize any XML as part of parsing a flat file, either in memory or on disk. The data produced by the XML parser is streamed in Java objects that just use XSD-derived nXSD schema as its type system. We use the nXSD schema because is the standard for describing complex flat file metadata in Oracle Fusion Middleware, and enables users to share schemas across products. Is the nXSD file interchangeable with SOA Suite? Yes, ODI can use the same nXSD files as SOA Suite, allowing mixed use cases with the same data format. Can I start the Native Format Builder from the ODI Studio? No, the Native Format Builder has to be started from a JDeveloper with BPEL instance. You can get BPEL as part of the SOA Suite bundle. Users without SOA Suite can manually develop nXSD files using XSD editors. When is the database data written back to the native file? Data is synchronized using the SYNCHRONIZE and CREATE FILE commands, and when the JDBC connection is closed. It is recommended to set the ro or read_only property to true when a file is exclusively used for reading so that no unnecessary write-backs occur. Is the nXSD metadata part of the ODI Master or Work Repository? No, the data server definition in the master repository only contains the JDBC URL with file paths; the nXSD files have to be accessible on the file systems where the JDBC driver is executed during production, either by copying or by using a network file system. Where can I find sample nXSD files? The Application Server Adapter Users Guide contains nXSD samples for various different use cases.

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  • How to set permissions on MSMQ Cluster queues?

    - by JorgeSandoval
    I've got a cluster with functioning private MSMQ 3.0 queues. I'm trying to programmatically set the permissions, but can't seem to connect via System.Messaging on the queues. The code below works just fine when working with local queues (and using .\ nomenclature for the local queue). How to programmatically set the permissions on the clustered queues? Powershell code executed from the active node function set-msmqpermission ([string] $queuepath,[string] $account, [string] $accessright) { if (!([System.Messaging.MessageQueue]::Exists($queuepath))){ throw "$queuepath could not be found." } $q=New-Object System.Messaging.MessageQueue($queuepath) $q.SetPermissions($account,[System.Messaging.MessageQueueAccessRights]::$accessright, [System.Messaging.AccessControlEntryType]::Set) } set-msmqpermission "clusternetworkname\private$\qa1ack" "UserAccount" "FullControl" Exception calling "SetPermissions" with "3" argument(s): "Invalid queue path name." At line:30 char:19 + $q.SetPermissions <<<< ($account,[System.Messaging.MessageQueueAccessRights]::$accessright, + CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodInvocationException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : DotNetMethodException

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  • URL BNF search part does not make sense

    - by Asaf Mesika
    Hi, While implementing a Java regular expression for URL based on the URL BNF published by W3C, I've failed to understand the search part. As quoted: httpaddress h t t p : / / hostport [ / path ] [ ? search ] search xalphas [ + search ] xalphas xalpha [ xalphas ] xalpha alpha | digit | safe | extra | escape alpha a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | digit 0 |1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 safe $ | - | _ | @ | . | & | + | - extra ! | * | " | ' | ( | ) | , Search claims it is xalphas seperated by a plus sign. xalphas can contain plus signs by it self, as claimed by safe. Thus according to my understanding , it should be: search xalphas Where am I wrong here?

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  • warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function ‘xyz’

    - by Alex Reynolds
    I'm getting a number of these warnings when compiling a few binaries: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function ‘strcpy’ warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function ‘strlen’ warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function ‘exit’ To try to resolve this, I have added #include <stdlib.h> at the top of the C files associated with this warning, in addition to compiling with the following flags: CFLAGS = -fno-builtin-exit -fno-builtin-strcat -fno-builtin-strncat -fno-builtin-strcpy -fno-builtin-strlen -fno-builtin-calloc I am using GCC 4.1.2: $ gcc --version gcc (GCC) 4.1.2 20080704 What should I do to resolve these warnings? Thanks for your advice.

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  • How do I link against Intel TBB on Mac OS X with GCC?

    - by SilverSun
    I can't for the life of me figure out how to compile and link against the Intel TBB library on my Mac. I've run the commercial installer and the tbbvars.sh script but I can't figure this out. I have a feeling it is something really obvious and it's just been a bit too long since I've done this kind of thing. tbb_test.cpp #include <tbb/concurrent_queue.h> int main() { tbb::concurrent_queue<int> q; } g++ tbb_test.cpp -I /Library/Frameworks/TBB.framework/Headers -ltbb ...can't find the symbols. Cheers!

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  • What's the best way to create a Windows Mobile application with multiple screens in C#

    - by Joseph Earl
    I am creating a Windows Mobile Application in C# and Visual Studio 2008. The application will have 5-6 main 'screens'. There will also be bar (/area) with information (e.g. a title, whether the app is busy, etc) above the screens, and a toolbar (or similar control) below the screens with 5-6 buttons (with images) to change the active screen (i.e. the screens will share the top bar and toolbar) What is the best way to implement this? Use multiple forms, and just include the toolbar and top-bar in each Use a single form and something like the Tab control (but customised) to contain the screens Something else? Keeping in mind a) memory usage and b) time to switch screens. Thanks in advance. Any links, pointers etc are much appreciated.

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  • How do the young start programming nowadays

    - by PP
    Back in the late 80s/early 90s I learned GWBasic on MS-DOS. Then Turbo Pascal. Then Turbo C/Asm. Later I stumbled into PHP and finally made a career out of Perl programming. I'm curious how actual under-25s found their way into programming. There is a lot of discussion about what path you would steer your children if you wanted them to learn programming, but I would like to hear from the newer generation to find out their more modern experiences about becoming a programmer. Note: no stories from people who first discovered programming at university.

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  • "this device cannot start error code 10" ?

    - by Neo
    I am trying to install GPS driver for gmm-u1lp.I think which is just a virtual com port driver. It just contains following INF file: [Version] Signature="$Windows NT$" Class=Ports ClassGuid={4D36E978-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} Provider=%MTK% ;LayoutFile=layout.inf DriverVer=06/12/2007,1.0.0.1 [Manufacturer] %MTK%=MTK [MTK] %MTK3329%=Reader,USB\Vid_0e8d&Pid_3329 [Reader_Install.NTx86] ;Windows2000 [DestinationDirs] DefaultDestDir=12 Reader.NT.Copy=12 [Reader.NT] Include=mdmcpq.inf CopyFiles=FakeModemCopyFileSection AddReg=Reader.NT.AddReg [Reader.NT.AddReg] HKR,,DevLoader,,*ntkern HKR,,NTMPDriver,,usbser.sys HKR,,EnumPropPages32,,"MsPorts.dll,SerialPortPropPageProvider" [Reader.NT.Services] AddService = usbser, 0x00000002, Service_Inst [Service_Inst] DisplayName = %Serial.SvcDesc% ServiceType = 1 ; SERVICE_KERNEL_DRIVER StartType = 3 ; SERVICE_DEMAND_START ErrorControl = 1 ; SERVICE_ERROR_NORMAL ServiceBinary = %12%\usbser.sys LoadOrderGroup = Base [Strings] MTK = "Media Tek Inc." MTK3329 = "GPS USB Serial Interface Driver" Serial.SvcDesc = "GPS USB Serial Interface Driver" After installing this Inf,device details shows:"device cannot start error code 10". What is the exact problem? Do I need to test this after connecting the Device?

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  • MongoDB, Carrierwave, GridFS and prevention of files' duplication

    - by Arkan
    I am dealing with Mongoid, carrierwave and gridFS to store my uploads. For example, I have a model Article, containing a file upload(a picture). class Article include Mongoid::Document field :title, :type => String field :content, :type => String mount_uploader :asset, AssetUploader end But I would like to only store the file once, in the case where I'll upload many times the same file for differents articles. I saw GridFS has a MD5 checksum. What would be the best way to prevent duplication of identicals files ? Thanks

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  • JavaScript Same Origin Policy - How does it apply to different subdomains

    - by DaveDev
    How does the Same Origin Policy apply to the following two domains? http://server1.MyDomain.com http://server2.MyDomain.com Can I run JS on a page hosted on server1, if the content is retreived from server2? edit according to Daniel's answer below, I can include scripts between different subdomains using the <script> tag, but what about asynchronous requests? What if I download a script from server2 onto the page hosted on server1. Can I use the script to communicate asynchronously with a service on server2?

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  • Changing the message (or exception) in WPF ValidatesOnException binding

    - by Emad
    I have a WPF application using MVVM. I am using binding to a POCO object. The Textbox is bound to a property in the object like: <TextBox.Text> <Binding Path="CertainProperty" Mode="TwoWay" > <Binding.ValidationRules> <ExceptionValidationRule/> </Binding.ValidationRules> </Binding> </TextBox.Text> Now this property is a a int property and when the user tried to enter a non-numeric value, they get the "input string was not in a correct format". What I need to do is customize this message to a more user friendly one. How can I do that ?

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  • Problem with #ifndef and #pragma once

    - by Xaver
    I want write the program with next struct stdafx.h - contains some #define defenitions of program constants and #include of headers wich uses in all project. frmMain.h - contatins code of Form1 also can Show form2 and uses some code from BckHeadr.h and some functions call that headers included in stdafx.h. frmIniPrgs.h - contatins code of Form2 and uses some code from BckHeadr.h and some functions call that headers included in stdafx.h. BckHeadr.h - contatins some definitions of functions and some functions call that headers included in stdafx.h. I know what i must use #ifndef or #pragma once directives. But i can not decided this problem. I included in stdafx.h: frmIniPrgs.H, BckHeadr.h, frmMain.h. And use #ifndef in all modules. I uset it like this: #ifndef MYMODULE_H #define MYMODULE_H //module code #endif

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  • PHP Exec command - How to pass input to a series of questions

    - by user556597
    I have a program on my linux server that asks the same series of questions each time it executes and then provides several lines of output. My goal is to automate the input and output with a php script. I know how to capture the output in an array by writing: $out = array(); exec("my/path/program",$out); But how do I handle the input? Assume the program asks 3 questions and valid answers are: left 120 n What is the easiest way using php to pass that input to the program? Can I do it somehow on the exec line? I’m not a php noob but simply have never needed to do this before. Alas, my googling is going in circles.

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  • Problem with Gallio and TeamCity and the new Visual Studio 2010 release

    - by Bernard Larouche
    I am running TeamCity on a virtual machine. I have installed the new Visual Studio 2010 release yesterday and converted my VS 2008 projects. I also have installed .NET Framework 4 on my virtual machine. Before yesterday all my projects were building succesfully on the CI server but since I installed VS 2010 I get the following error message : error MSB5014: File format version is not recognized. MSBuild can only read solution files between versions 7.0 and 9.0, inclusive. I did change my config on Team City to take into account the new .NET 4 framework : Build Runner : MSBuild Build File Path : CFT.msbuild MSBuild version : Microsoft.NET Framework 4.0 MSBuild ToolsVersion : 4.0 Run Platform : x86 I think it has something to do with the fact that now MSBuild must refer to .NET 4 framwork but it seems that it keeps refering to 2.0.

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  • Why callback functions needs to be static when declared in class

    - by Dave17
    I was trying to declare a callback function in class and then somewhere i read the function needs to be static but It didn't explain why? #include <iostream> using std::cout; using std::endl; class Test { public: Test() {} void my_func(void (*f)()) { cout << "In My Function" << endl; f(); //Invoke callback function } static void callback_func() {cout << "In Callback function" << endl;} }; int main() { Test Obj; Obj.my_func(t.callback_func); }

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  • Understanding the value of Customer Experience & Loyalty for the Telecommunications Industry

    - by raul.goycoolea
    Worried by economic woes and market forces, especially in mature markets, communications service providers (CSPs) increasingly focus on improving customer experience. In fact, it seems difficult to find a major message by a C-level executive in the developed world that does not include something on "meeting and exceeding customers' needs". Frequently in customer satisfaction studies by prominent firms, CSPs fall short of the leadership demonstrated by other industries that take customer-centric approaches to their bottom-line strategies. Consider the following:Despite the continued impact of global economic crisis, in July 2010, Apple Computer posted record revenue and net quarterly profit. Those who attribute the results primarily to the iPhone 4 launch should note that Apple also shipped around 30% more Macintosh computers than the same period the previous year. Even sales of the iPod line increased by 8% in a highly commoditized, shrinking media player market. Finally, Apple began selling iPads during the quarter, with total sales of more than 3 million units. What does Apple have that the others lack? Well, some great products (and services) to be sure, but it also excels at customer service and support, marketing, and distribution, and has one of the strongest brands globally. Its products are useful, simple to use, easy to acquire and augment, high quality, and considered very cool. They also evoke such an emotional response from many of Apple's customers, which they turn up their noses at competitive products.In other words, Apple appears to have mastered virtually every aspect of customer experience and the resultant loyalty of its customer base - even in difficult financial times. Through that unwavering customer focus, Apple continues to drive its revenues and profits to new heights. Other customer loyalty leaders like Wal-Mart, Google, Toyota and Honda are also doing well by focusing on customer experience as an essential driver of profitability. Service providers should note this performance and ask themselves how they might leverage the same principles to increase their own profitability. After all, that is what customer experience and loyalty are all about: profitability.To successfully manage all the critical touch points of customer experience, CSPs must shun the one-size-fits-all approach. They can no longer afford to view customer service fundamentally as an act of altruism - which mentality dates back to the industry's civil service days, when CSPs were typically government organizations that were critical to economic development and public safety.As regulators and public officials have pushed, and continue to push, service providers to new heights of reliability - using incentives and punishments - most CSPs already have some of the fundamental building blocks of customer service in place. Yet despite that history and experience, service providers still lag other industries in providing what is seen as good customer service.As we observed in the TMF's 2009 Insights Research report, Customer Experience Management: Driving Loyalty & Profitability there has been resurgence in interest by CSPs. More and more of them have stated ambitions to catch up other industries, and they are realizing that good customer service is a powerful strategy for increasing business performance and profitability, not an act of good will.CSPs are recognizing the connection between customer experience and profitability, as demonstrated in many studies. For example, according to research by Bain & Company, a 5 percent improvement in customer retention rates can yield as much as a 75 percent increase in profits for companies across a range of industries.After decades of customer experience strategy formulation, Bain partner and business author, Frederick Reichheld, considers "would you recommend us to a friend?" as the ultimate question for a customer. How many times have you or your friends recommended an iPod, iPhone or a Mac? What do your children recommend to their peers? Their peers to them?There are certain steps service providers have to take to create more personalized relationships with their customers, as well as reduce churn and increase profitability, all while becoming leaner and more agile. First, they have to define customer experience, we define it as the result of the sum of observations, perceptions, thoughts and feelings arising from interactions and relationships between customers and their service provider(s). Virtually every customer touch point - whether directly or indirectly linked to service providers and their partners - contributes to customer perception, satisfaction, loyalty, and ultimately profitability. Gaining leadership in customer experience and satisfaction will not be a simple task, as it is affected by virtually every customer-facing aspect of the service provider, and in turn impacts the service provider deeply - especially on the all-important bottom line. The scope of issues affecting customer experience is complex and dynamic.With new services, devices and applications extending the basis of customer experience to domains beyond the direct control of the service provider, it is likely to increase in complexity and dynamism.Customer loyalty = increased profitsAs stated earlier, customer experience programs are not fundamentally altruistic exercises, but a strategic means of improving competitiveness and profitability in the short and long term. Loyalty is essential to deriving long term profits from customers.Some of the earliest loyalty programs date back to the 1930s, when packaged goods companies offered embedded coupons for rewards to buyers, and eventually retail chains began offering reward programs to frequent shoppers. These programs continued for decades but were leapfrogged in the 1980s by more aggressive programs from the airlines.This movement was led by American Airlines, which launched the first full-scale loyalty marketing program of the modern era with the AAdvantage frequent flyer scheme. It was the first to reward frequent fliers with notional air miles that could be accumulated and later redeemed for free travel. Figure 1: Opportunities example of Customer loyalty driven profitOther airlines and travel providers were quick to grasp the incredible value of providing customers with an incentive to use their company exclusively. Within a few years, dozens of travel industry companies launched similar initiatives and now loyalty programs are achieving near-ubiquity in many service industries, especially those in which it is difficult to differentiate offerings by product attributes.The belief is that increased profitability will result from customer retention efforts because:•    The cost of acquisition occurs only at the beginning of a relationship: the longer the relationship, the lower the amortized cost;•    Account maintenance costs decline as a percentage of total costs, or as a percentage of revenue, over the lifetime of the relationship;•    Long term customers tend to be less inclined to switch and less price sensitive which can result in stable unit sales volume and increases in dollar-sales volume;•    Long term customers may initiate word-of-mouth promotions and referrals, which cost the company nothing and arguably are the most effective form of advertising;•    Long-term customers are more likely to buy ancillary products and higher margin supplemental products;•    Long term customers tend to be satisfied with their relationship with the company and are less likely to switch to competitors, making market entry or competitors gaining market share difficult;•    Regular customers tend to be less expensive to service, as they are familiar with the processes involved, require less 'education', and are consistent in their order placement;•    Increased customer retention and loyalty makes the employees' jobs easier and more satisfying. In turn, happy employees feed back into higher customer satisfaction in a virtuous circle. Figure 2: The virtuous circle of customer loyaltyFigure 2 represents a high-level example of a virtuous cycle driven by customer satisfaction and loyalty, depicting how superiority in product and service offerings, as well as strong customer support by competent employees, lead to higher sales and ultimately profitability. As stated above, this is not a new concept, but succeeding with it is difficult. It has eluded many a company driven to achieve profitability goals. Of course, for this circle to be virtuous, the customer relationship(s) must be profitable.Trying to maintain the loyalty of unprofitable customers is not a viable business strategy. It is, therefore, important that marketers can assess the profitability of each customer (or customer segment), and either improve or terminate relationships that are not profitable. This means each customer's 'relationship costs' must be understood and compared to their 'relationship revenue'. Customer lifetime value (CLV) is the most commonly used metric here, as it is generally accepted as a representation of exactly how much each customer is worth in monetary terms, and therefore a determinant of exactly how much a service provider should be willing to spend to acquire or retain that customer.CLV models make several simplifying assumptions and often involve the following inputs:•    Churn rate represents the percentage of customers who end their relationship with a company in a given period;•    Retention rate is calculated by subtracting the churn rate percentage from 100;•    Period/horizon equates to the units of time into which a customer relationship can be divided for analysis. A year is the most commonly used period for this purpose. Customer lifetime value is a multi-period calculation, often projecting three to seven years into the future. In practice, analysis beyond this point is viewed as too speculative to be reliable. The model horizon is the number of periods used in the calculation;•    Periodic revenue is the amount of revenue collected from a customer in a given period (though this is often extended across multiple periods into the future to understand lifetime value), such as usage revenue, revenues anticipated from cross and upselling, and often some weighting for referrals by a loyal customer to others; •    Retention cost describes the amount of money the service provider must spend, in a given period, to retain an existing customer. Again, this is often forecast across multiple periods. Retention costs include customer support, billing, promotional incentives and so on;•    Discount rate means the cost of capital used to discount future revenue from a customer. Discounting is an advanced method used in more sophisticated CLV calculations;•    Profit margin is the projected profit as a percentage of revenue for the period. This may be reflected as a percentage of gross or net profit. Again, this is generally projected across the model horizon to understand lifetime value.A strong focus on managing these inputs can help service providers realize stronger customer relationships and profits, but there are some obstacles to overcome in achieving accurate calculations of CLV, such as the complexity of allocating costs across the customer base. There are many costs that serve all customers which must be properly allocated across the base, and often a simple proportional allocation across the whole base or a segment may not accurately reflect the true cost of serving that customer;  This is made worse by the fragmentation of customer information, which is likely to be across a variety of product or operations groups, and may be difficult to aggregate due to different representations.In addition, there is the complexity of account relationships and structures to take into consideration. Complex account structures may not be understood or properly represented. For example, a profitable customer may have a separate account for a second home or another family member, which may appear to be unprofitable. If the service provider cannot relate the two accounts, CLV is not properly represented and any resultant cancellation of the apparently unprofitable account may result in the customer churning from the profitable one.In summary, if service providers are to realize strong customer relationships and their attendant profits, there must be a very strong focus on data management. This needs to be coupled with analytics that help business managers and those who work in customer-facing functions offer highly personalized solutions to customers, while maintaining profitability for the service provider. It's clear that acquiring new customers is expensive. Advertising costs, campaign management expenses, promotional service pricing and discounting, and equipment subsidies make a serious dent in a new customer's profitability. That is especially true given the rising subsidies for Smartphone users, which service providers hope will result in greater profits from profits from data services profitability in future.  The situation is made worse by falling prices and greater competition in mature markets.Customer acquisition through industry consolidation isn't cheap either. A North American service provider spent about $2,000 per subscriber in its acquisition of a smaller company earlier this year. While this has allowed it to leapfrog to become the largest mobile service provider in the country, it required a total investment of more than $28 billion (including assumption of the acquiree's debt).While many operating cost synergies clearly made this deal more attractive to the acquiring company, this is certainly an expensive way to acquire customers: the cost per subscriber in this case is not out of line with the prices others have paid for acquisitions.While growth by acquisition certainly increases overall revenues, it often creates tremendous challenges for profitability. Organic growth through increased customer loyalty and retention is a more effective driver of profit, as well as a stronger predictor of future profitability. Service providers, especially those in mature markets, are increasingly recognizing this and taking steps toward a creating a more personalized, flexible and satisfying experience for their customers.In summary, the clearest path to profitability for companies in virtually all industries is through customer retention and maximization of lifetime value. Service providers would do well to recognize this and focus attention on profitable customer relationships.

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  • How to make screenshots using VMWare tool "vmrun"?

    - by youllknow
    Hi everybody! I'm currently working with the vmrun-Tool, to control VMWare Virtual Machines. I'm using VMWareWorkstation 7.0.0/7.0.1 and VMWarePlayer 3.0.0 on Windows 7 x64. I simply want to take a screenshot of each virtual machine which is powered on. Listing the power-on virtual machines is quite simply and works! (vmrun list) But the captureScreen command doesn't work. I have tryed serveral commandline options. for example: vmrun -T ws captureScreen %VMPATH% %OUTPUTPATH% I get no error message, but the console is blocked (and the command never finishes). I have also tryed to include -gu USERNAME and -gp PASSWORD, but it result in the same problem. Sorry for my English and thanks for your help in advance!!!

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  • How to organize a large number of objects

    - by shane
    We have a large number of documents and metadata (xml files) associated with these documents. What is the best way to organize them? Currently we put them into a series of nested folders: /repository/category/date(when they were loaded into our db)/document_number.pdf and .xml We use the path as a unique identifier for the document in our system. This is more versatile than putting them all in a single flat folder. also it is independent from our database/application, so we can reload them in case of failure. Yet, it introduces some limitations. for example we can't move the files once they've been placed in this structure, also it takes work to put them this way. What is the best practice? How websites such as Scribd deal with this problem?

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  • How to automate a build for a Visual FoxPro project?

    - by jpierson
    I'm interested in figuring out how to automate a build from Visual FoxPro similar to how we can build .NET projects from the command line using MSBuild. It seems that it is possible to pass command line arguments to VFP.exe which may include the ability to specify some initial startup prg that runs however it is unclear how well starting up the IDE will work from non-interactive accounts such as the Network Service on Windows which is likely where an automated build would run. Has anybody attempt this before or read about anybody attempting to script a VFP build like this? I would be grateful for any pointers that may lead me to a solution.

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  • Stack Overflow-like tag selector for Rails

    - by David Tildon
    I want to use tags for a model in my Rails application, and I'd like to have the same kind of tag selection mechanism that Stack Overflow has when asking a question. I.e. I type in 'rails' and it drops down a list of tags that include 'rails', and I can go on to add more tags from there. Is there a plugin that can do this? I'm comfortable putting together the tag model and migrations myself, that isn't an issue. I just need something to handle the AJAX and javascript. I'm using prototype and Rails 2.3.

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  • How to make QT support HTML 5 database?

    - by Mickey Shine
    I am using Qt 4.7.1 and embedded a webview in my app. But I got the following error when trying to visit http://webkit.org/demos/sticky-notes/ to test the HTML 5 database feature Failed to open the database on disk. This is probably because the version was bad or there is not enough space left in this domain's quota I compiled my static Qt library with the following command: configure --prefix=/usr/local/qt-static-release-db --accessibility --multimedia --audio-backend --svg --webkit --javascript-jit --script --scripttools --declarative --release -nomake examples -nomake demos --static --openssl -I /usr/local/ssl/include -L /usr/local/ssl/lib -confirm-license -sql-qsqlite -sql-qmysql -sql-qodbc

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  • UnitTest++ constructing fixtures multiple times?

    - by Peter
    I'm writing some unit tests in UnitTest++ and want to write a bunch of tests which share some common resources. I thought that this should work via their TEST_FIXTURE setup, but it seems to be constructing a new fixture for every test. Sample code: #include <UnitTest++.h> struct SomeFixture { SomeFixture() { // this line is hit twice } }; TEST_FIXTURE(SomeFixture, FirstTest) { } TEST_FIXTURE(SomeFixture, SecondTest) { } I feel like I must be doing something wrong; I had thought that the whole point of having the fixture was so that the setup/teardown code only happens once. Am I wrong on this? Is there something else I have to do to make it work that way?

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  • Does there exist a jQuery plugin or JavaScript library that allows Venn Diagram presentation?

    - by knowncitizen
    I'm writing a jQuery application to allow analysis of data with the help of visual cues. My data is retrieved via XMLHttpRequest in the form of JSON. The visual cues include histograms, spark lines, and various other graph types. The idea is that the user is able to narrow their data via these various visual views. My question is thus - aside from the Google Charts API, does there exist a JavaScript way of presenting a Venn Diagram? Requirement: no Flash. Canvas is acceptable.

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