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  • WebCenter Customer Spotlight: Azul Brazilian Airlines

    - by me
    Author: Peter Reiser - Social Business Evangelist, Oracle WebCenter  Solution SummaryAzul Linhas Aéreas Brasileiras (Azul Brazilian Airlines) is the third-largest airline in Brazil serving  42 destinations with a fleet of 49 aircraft and employs 4,500 crew members. The company wanted to offer an innovative site with a simple purchasing process for customers to search for and buy tickets and for the company’s marketing team to more effectively conduct its campaigns. To this end, Azul implemented Oracle WebCenter Sites, succeeding in gathering all of the site’s key information onto a single platform. Azul can now complete the Web site content updating process—which used to take approximately 48 hours—in less than five minutes. Company OverviewAzul Linhas Aéreas Brasileiras (Azul Brazilian Airlines) has established itself as the third-largest airline in Brazil, based on a business model that combines low prices with a high level of service. Azul serves 42 destinations with a fleet of 49 aircraft. It operates 350 daily flights with a team of 4,500 crew members. Last year, the company transported 15 million passengers, achieving a 10% share of the Brazilian market, according to the Agência Nacional de Aviação Civil (ANAC, or the National Civil Aviation Agency). Business ChallengesThe company wanted to offer an innovative site with a simple purchasing process for customers to search for and buy tickets and for the company’s marketing team to more effectively conduct its campaigns. Provide customers with an  innovative Web site with a simple process for purchasing flight tickets Bring dynamism to the Web site’s content updating process to provide autonomy to the airline’s strategic departments, such as marketing and product development Facilitate integration among the site’s different application providers, such as ticket availability and payment process, on which ticket sales depend Solution DeployedAzul worked with the  Oracle partner TQI to implement Oracle WebCenter Sites, succeeding in gathering all of the site’s key information onto a single platform. Previously, at least three servers and corporate information environments had directed data to the portal. The single Oracle-based platform now facilitates site updates, which are daily and constant. Business Results Gained development freedom in all processes—from implementation to content editing Gathered all of the Web site’s key information onto a single platform, facilitating its daily and constant updating, whereas the information was previously spread among at least three IT environments and had to go through a complex process to be made available online to customers Reduced time needed to update banners and other Web site content from an average of 48 hours to less than five minutes Simplified the flight ticket sales process thanks to tool flexibility that enabled the company to improve Website usability “Oracle WebCenter Sites provides an easy-to-use platform that enables our marketing department to spend less time updating content and more time on innovative activities. Previously, it would take 48 hours to update content on our Web site; now it takes less than five minutes. We have shown the market that we are innovators, enabling customer convenience through an improved flight ticket purchase process.” Kleber Linhares, Information Technology and E-Commerce Director, Azul Linhas Aéreas Brasileiras Additional Information Azul Brazilian Airlines Case Study Oracle WebCenter Sites Oracle WebCenter Sites Satellite Server

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  • WebCenter Customer Spotlight: Alberta Agriculture and Rural Developmen

    - by me
    Author: Peter Reiser - Social Business Evangelist, Oracle WebCenter  Solution SummaryAlberta Agriculture and Rural Development is a government ministry that works with producers and consumers to create a strong, competitive, and sustainable agriculture and food industry in the province of Alberta, Canada The primary business challenge faced by the Alberta Ministry of Agriculture was that of managing the rapid growth of their information.  They needed to incorporate a system that would work across 22 different divisions within the ministry and deliver an improved and more efficient experience for Desktop, Web and Mobile users, while addressing their regulatory compliance needs as part of the Canadian government. The customer implemented a centralized Enterprise Content Management solution based on Oracle WebCenter Content and developed a strong and repeatable information life cycle management methodology across all their 22 divisions and agencies. With the implemented solution, Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development  centrally manages over 20 million documents for 22 divisions and agencies and they have improved time required to find records,  reliability of information, improved speed and accuracy of reporting and data security. Company OverviewAlberta Agriculture and Rural Development is a government ministry that works with producers and consumers to create a strong, competitive, and sustainable agriculture and food industry in the province of Alberta, Canada.  Business ChallengesThe business users were overwhelmed by growth in documents (over 20 million files across 22 divisions and agencies) and it was difficult to find and manage documents and versions. There was a strong need for a personalized easy-to-use, secure and dependable method of managing and consuming content via desktop, Web, and mobile, while improving efficiency and maintaining regulatory compliance by removing the risk of non-uniform approaches to retention and disposition. Solution DeployedAs a first step Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development developed a business case with clear defined business drivers: Reduce time required to find records Locate “lost” records Capture knowledge lost through attrition Increase the ease of retrieval Reduce personal copies Increase reliability of information Improve speed and accuracy of reporting Improve data security The customer implemented a centralized Enterprise Content Management solution based on Oracle WebCenter Content. They used an incremental implementation approach aligned with their divisional and agency structure which allowed continuous process improvement. This led to a very strong and repeatable information life cycle management methodology across all their 22 divisions and agencies. Business ResultsAlberta Agriculture and Rural Development achieved impressive business results: Centrally managing over 20 million files for 22 divisions and agencies Federated model to manage documents in SharePoint and other applications Doing records management for both paper and electronic records Reduced time required to find records Increased the ease of retrieval Increased reliability of information Improved speed and accuracy of reporting Improved data security Additional Information Oracle Open World 2012 Presentation Oracle WebCenter Content

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  • JDK 8u20 Documentation Updates

    - by joni g.
    JDK 8u20 has been released and is available from the Java Downloads page. See the JDK 8u20 Update Release Notes for details. Highlights for this release: The Medium security level has been removed. Now only High and Very High levels are available. Applets that do not conform with the latest security practices can still be authorized to run by adding the sites that host them to the Exception Site List. See Security for more information. The javafxpackager tool has been renamed to javapackager, and supports both Java and JavaFX applications. The -B option has been added to the javapackager deploy command to enable arguments to be passed to the bundlers that are used to create self-contained applications. See javapackager for Windows or Linux and OS X for information. The <fx:bundleArgument> helper parameter argument has been added to enable arguments to be passed to the bundlers when using ant tasks. See JavaFX Ant Task Reference for more information. A new attribute is available for JAR file manifests. The Entry-Point attribute is used to identify the classes that are allowed to be used as entry points to your application. See Entry-Point Attribute for more information. A new Microsoft Windows Installer (MSI) Enterprise JRE Installer, which enables users to install the JRE across the enterprise, is available for Java SE Advanced or Java SE Suite licensees. See Downloading the Installer in JRE Installation For Microsoft Windows for more information. The following new configuration parameters are added to the installation process to support commercial features, for use by Java SE Advanced or Java SE Suite licensees only: USAGETRACKERCFG= DEPLOYMENT_RULE_SET= See Installing With a Configuration File for more information about these and other installer parameters. Documentation highlights: New Troubleshooting Guide combines and replaces the Desktop Technologies Troubleshooting Guide and the HotSpot Virtual Machine Troubleshooting Guide to provide a single location for diagnosing and solving problems that might occur with Java Client applications. New Deployment Guide combines and replaces the JavaFX Deployment Guide and the Java Rich Internet Applications Guide to provide a single location for information about the Java packaging tools, creating self-contained applications, and deploying Java and JavaFX applications. New Garbage Collection Tuning Guide describes the garbage collectors included with the Java HotSpot VM and helps you choose which one to use. The Java Tutorials have a new look.

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  • Logging connection strings

    If you some of the dynamic features of SSIS such as package configurations or property expressions then sometimes trying to work out were your connections are pointing can be a bit confusing. You will work out in the end but it can be useful to explicitly log this information so that when things go wrong you can just review the logs. You may wish to develop this idea further and encapsulate such logging into a custom task, but for now lets keep it simple and use the Script Task. The Script Task code below will raise an Information event showing the name and connection string for a connection. Imports System Imports Microsoft.SqlServer.Dts.Runtime Public Class ScriptMain Public Sub Main() Dim fireAgain As Boolean ' Get the connection string, we need to know the name of the connection Dim connectionName As String = "My OLE-DB Connection" Dim connectionString As String = Dts.Connections(connectionName).ConnectionString ' Format the message and log it via an information event Dim message As String = String.Format("Connection ""{0}"" has a connection string of ""{1}"".", _ connectionName, connectionString) Dts.Events.FireInformation(0, "Information", message, Nothing, 0, fireAgain) Dts.TaskResult = Dts.Results.Success End Sub End Class Building on that example it is probably more flexible to log all connections in a package as shown in the next example. Imports System Imports Microsoft.SqlServer.Dts.Runtime Public Class ScriptMain Public Sub Main() Dim fireAgain As Boolean ' Loop through all connections in the package For Each connection As ConnectionManager In Dts.Connections ' Get the connection string and log it via an information event Dim message As String = String.Format("Connection ""{0}"" has a connection string of ""{1}"".", _ connection.Name, connection.ConnectionString) Dts.Events.FireInformation(0, "Information", message, Nothing, 0, fireAgain) Next Dts.TaskResult = Dts.Results.Success End Sub End Class By using the Information event it makes it readily available in the designer, for example the Visual Studio Output window (Ctrl+Alt+O) or the package designer Execution Results tab, and also allows you to readily control the logging by choosing which events to log in the normal way. Now before somebody starts commenting that this is a security risk, I would like to highlight good practice for building connection managers. Firstly the Password property, or any other similar sensitive property is always defined as write-only, and secondly the connection string property only uses the public properties to assemble the connection string value when requested. In other words the connection string will never contain the password. I have seen a couple of cases where this is not true, but that was just bad development by third-parties, you won’t find anything like that in the box from Microsoft.   Whilst writing this code it made me wish that there was a custom log entry that you could just turn on that did this for you, but alas connection managers do not even seem to support custom events. It did however remind me of a very useful event that is often overlooked and fits rather well alongside connection string logging, the Execute SQL Task’s custom ExecuteSQLExecutingQuery event. To quote the help reference Custom Messages for Logging - Provides information about the execution phases of the SQL statement. Log entries are written when the task acquires connection to the database, when the task starts to prepare the SQL statement, and after the execution of the SQL statement is completed. The log entry for the prepare phase includes the SQL statement that the task uses. It is the last part that is so useful, how often have you used an expression to derive a SQL statement and you want to log that to make sure the correct SQL is being returned? You need to turn it one, by default no custom log events are captured, but I’ll refer you to a walkthrough on setting up the logging for ExecuteSQLExecutingQuery by Jamie.

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  • July, the 31 Days of SQL Server DMO’s – Day 22 (sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats)

    - by Tamarick Hill
    The sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats Dynamic Management Function is used to return information about the fragmentation levels, page counts, depth, number of levels, record counts, etc. about the indexes on your database instance. One row is returned for each level in a given index, which we will discuss more later. The function takes a total of 5 input parameters which are (1) database_id, (2) object_id, (3) index_id, (4) partition_number, and (5) the mode of the scan level that you would like to run. Let’s use this function with our AdventureWorks2012 database to better illustrate the information it provides. SELECT * FROM sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats(db_id('AdventureWorks2012'), NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL) As you can see from the result set, there is a lot of beneficial information returned from this DMF. The first couple of columns in the result set (database_id, object_id, index_id, partition_number, index_type_desc, alloc_unit_type_desc) are either self-explanatory or have been explained in our previous blog sessions so I will not go into detail about these at this time. The next column in the result set is the index_depth which represents how deep the index goes. For example, If we have a large index that contains 1 root page, 3 intermediate levels, and 1 leaf level, our index depth would be 5. The next column is the index_level which refers to what level (of the depth) a particular row is referring to. Next is probably one of the most beneficial columns in this result set, which is the avg_fragmentation_in_percent. This column shows you how fragmented a particular level of an index may be. Many people use this column within their index maintenance jobs to dynamically determine whether they should do REORG’s or full REBUILD’s of a given index. The fragment count represents the number of fragments in a leaf level while the avg_fragment_size_in_pages represents the number of pages in a fragment. The page_count column tells you how many pages are in a particular index level. From my result set above, you see the the remaining columns all have NULL values. This is because I did not specify a ‘mode’ in my query and as a result it used the ‘LIMITED’ mode by default. The LIMITED mode is meant to be lightweight so it does collect information for every column in the result set. I will re-run my query again using the ‘DETAILED’ mode and you will see we now have results for these rows. SELECT * FROM sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats(db_id('AdventureWorks2012'), NULL, NULL, NULL, ‘DETAILED’)   From the remaining columns, you see we get even more detailed information such as how many records are in a particular index level (record_count). We have a column for ghost_record_count which represents the number of records that have been marked for deletion, but have not physically been removed by the background ghost cleanup process. We later see information on the MIN, MAX, and AVG record size in bytes. The forwarded_record_count column refers to records that have been updated and now no longer fit within the row on the page anymore and thus have to be moved. A forwarded record is left in the original location with a pointer to the new location. The last column in the result set is the compressed_page_count column which tells you how many pages in your index have been compressed. This is a very powerful DMF that returns good information about the current indexes in your system. However, based on the mode you select, it could be a very resource intensive function so be careful with how you use it. For more information on this Dynamic Management Function, please see the below Books Online link: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms188917.aspx Follow me on Twitter @PrimeTimeDBA

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  • Logging connection strings

    If you some of the dynamic features of SSIS such as package configurations or property expressions then sometimes trying to work out were your connections are pointing can be a bit confusing. You will work out in the end but it can be useful to explicitly log this information so that when things go wrong you can just review the logs. You may wish to develop this idea further and encapsulate such logging into a custom task, but for now lets keep it simple and use the Script Task. The Script Task code below will raise an Information event showing the name and connection string for a connection. Imports System Imports Microsoft.SqlServer.Dts.Runtime Public Class ScriptMain Public Sub Main() Dim fireAgain As Boolean ' Get the connection string, we need to know the name of the connection Dim connectionName As String = "My OLE-DB Connection" Dim connectionString As String = Dts.Connections(connectionName).ConnectionString ' Format the message and log it via an information event Dim message As String = String.Format("Connection ""{0}"" has a connection string of ""{1}"".", _ connectionName, connectionString) Dts.Events.FireInformation(0, "Information", message, Nothing, 0, fireAgain) Dts.TaskResult = Dts.Results.Success End Sub End Class Building on that example it is probably more flexible to log all connections in a package as shown in the next example. Imports System Imports Microsoft.SqlServer.Dts.Runtime Public Class ScriptMain Public Sub Main() Dim fireAgain As Boolean ' Loop through all connections in the package For Each connection As ConnectionManager In Dts.Connections ' Get the connection string and log it via an information event Dim message As String = String.Format("Connection ""{0}"" has a connection string of ""{1}"".", _ connection.Name, connection.ConnectionString) Dts.Events.FireInformation(0, "Information", message, Nothing, 0, fireAgain) Next Dts.TaskResult = Dts.Results.Success End Sub End Class By using the Information event it makes it readily available in the designer, for example the Visual Studio Output window (Ctrl+Alt+O) or the package designer Execution Results tab, and also allows you to readily control the logging by choosing which events to log in the normal way. Now before somebody starts commenting that this is a security risk, I would like to highlight good practice for building connection managers. Firstly the Password property, or any other similar sensitive property is always defined as write-only, and secondly the connection string property only uses the public properties to assemble the connection string value when requested. In other words the connection string will never contain the password. I have seen a couple of cases where this is not true, but that was just bad development by third-parties, you won’t find anything like that in the box from Microsoft.   Whilst writing this code it made me wish that there was a custom log entry that you could just turn on that did this for you, but alas connection managers do not even seem to support custom events. It did however remind me of a very useful event that is often overlooked and fits rather well alongside connection string logging, the Execute SQL Task’s custom ExecuteSQLExecutingQuery event. To quote the help reference Custom Messages for Logging - Provides information about the execution phases of the SQL statement. Log entries are written when the task acquires connection to the database, when the task starts to prepare the SQL statement, and after the execution of the SQL statement is completed. The log entry for the prepare phase includes the SQL statement that the task uses. It is the last part that is so useful, how often have you used an expression to derive a SQL statement and you want to log that to make sure the correct SQL is being returned? You need to turn it one, by default no custom log events are captured, but I’ll refer you to a walkthrough on setting up the logging for ExecuteSQLExecutingQuery by Jamie.

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  • Failing rspec Rails Tutorial Chapter 9.3

    - by greyghost24
    I am failing 3 tests and I have found numerous examples on here and on on the internet in general but I can't seem to find where I'm going wrong. Thanks for any help. 1) User pages signup with valid information edit page Failure/Error: before { visit edit_user_path(user) } ActionView::Template::Error: undefined method `model_name' for NilClass:Class # ./app/views/users/edit.html.erb:6:in `_app_views_users_edit_html_erb___4113112884365867193_70232486166220' # ./spec/requests/user_pages_spec.rb:96:in `block (5 levels) in <top (required)>' 2) User pages signup with valid information edit page Failure/Error: before { visit edit_user_path(user) } ActionView::Template::Error: undefined method `model_name' for NilClass:Class # ./app/views/users/edit.html.erb:6:in `_app_views_users_edit_html_erb___4113112884365867193_70232486166220' # ./spec/requests/user_pages_spec.rb:96:in `block (5 levels) in <top (required)>' 3) User pages signup with valid information edit page Failure/Error: before { visit edit_user_path(user) } ActionView::Template::Error: undefined method `model_name' for NilClass:Class # ./app/views/users/edit.html.erb:6:in `_app_views_users_edit_html_erb___4113112884365867193_70232486166220' # ./spec/requests/user_pages_spec.rb:96:in `block (5 levels) in <top (required)>' Finished in 0.26515 seconds 3 examples, 3 failures Failed examples: rspec ./spec/requests/user_pages_spec.rb:100 # User pages signup with valid information edit page rspec ./spec/requests/user_pages_spec.rb:99 # User pages signup with valid information edit page rspec ./spec/requests/user_pages_spec.rb:101 # User pages signup with valid information edit page authentication_pages_spec.rb require 'spec_helper' describe "Authentication" do subject { page } describe "signin page" do before { visit signin_path } it { should have_selector('h1', text: 'Sign in') } it { should have_selector('title', text: 'Sign in') } end describe "signin" do before { visit signin_path } describe "with invalid information" do before { click_button "Sign in" } it { should have_selector('title', text: 'Sign in') } it { should have_selector('div.alert.alert-error', text: 'Invalid') } describe "after visiting another page" do before { click_link "Home" } it { should_not have_selector('div.alert.alert-error') } end end describe "with valid information" do let(:user) { FactoryGirl.create(:user) } before do fill_in "Email", with: user.email fill_in "Password", with: user.password click_button "Sign in" end it { should have_selector('title', text: user.name) } it { should have_link('Profile', href: user_path(user)) } it { should have_link('Sign out', href: signout_path) } it { should_not have_link('Sign in', href: signin_path) } describe "followed by signout" do before { click_link "Sign out" } it { should have_link('Sign in') } end end end end Here is the users_controller: class UsersController < ApplicationController def show @user = User.find(params[:id]) end def new @user = User.new end def create @user = User.new(params[:user]) if @user.save sign_in @user flash[:success] = "Welcome to the Sample App!" redirect_to @user else render 'new' end end end def edit @user = User.find(params[:id]) end edit.html.erb: <% provide(:title, "Edit user") %> <h1>Update your profile</h1> <div class="row"> <div class="span6 offset3"> <%= form_for(@user) do |f| %> <%= render 'shared/error_messages' %> <%= f.label :name %> <%= f.text_field :name %> <%= f.label :email %> <%= f.text_field :email %> <%= f.label :password %> <%= f.password_field :password %> <%= f.label :password_confirmation, "Confirm Password" %> <%= f.password_field :password_confirmation %> <%= f.submit "Save changes", class: "btn btn-large btn-primary" %> <% end %> <%= gravatar_for @user %> <a href="http://gravatar.com/emails">change</a> </div> here is the user_pages_spec: require 'spec_helper' describe "User pages" do subject { page } describe "profile page" do let(:user) { FactoryGirl.create(:user) } before { visit user_path(user) } it { should have_selector('h1', text: user.name) } it { should have_selector('title', text: user.name) } end describe "signup page" do before { visit signup_path } it { should have_selector('h1', text: 'Sign up') } it { should have_selector('title', text: full_title('Sign up')) } end describe "signup" do before { visit signup_path } describe "with invalid information" do it "should not create a user" do expect { click_button "Create my account" }.not_to change(User, :count) end describe "error messages" do before { click_button "Create my account" } it { should have_selector('title', text: 'Sign up') } it { should have_content('error') } end end describe "with valid information" do before do fill_in "Name", with: "Example User" fill_in "Email", with: "[email protected]" fill_in "Password", with: "foobar" fill_in "Confirmation", with: "foobar" end it "should create a user" do expect do click_button "Create my account" end.to change(User, :count).by(1) end describe "after saving the user" do before { click_button "Create my account" } let(:user) { User.find_by_email('[email protected]') } it { should have_selector('title', text: user.name) } it { should have_selector('div.alert.alert-success', text: 'Welcome') } it { should have_link('Sign out') } end end end describe "signup page" do before { visit signup_path } it { should have_selector('h1', text: 'Sign up') } it { should have_selector('title', text: full_title('Sign up')) } end describe "signup" do before { visit signup_path } let(:submit) { "Create my account" } describe "with invalid information" do it "should not create a user" do expect { click_button submit }.not_to change(User, :count) end end describe "with valid information" do before do fill_in "Name", with: "Example User" fill_in "Email", with: "[email protected]" fill_in "Password", with: "foobar" fill_in "Confirmation", with: "foobar" end it "should create a user" do expect { click_button submit }.to change(User, :count).by(1) end describe "edit" do let(:user) { FactoryGirl.create(:user) } before { visit edit_user_path(user) } describe "page" do it { should have_selector('h1', text: "Update your profile") } it { should have_selector('title', text: "Edit user") } it { should have_link('change', href: 'http://gravatar.com/emails') } end describe "with invalid information" do before { click_button "Save changes" } it { should have_content('error') } end end end end end edit: users_controllers.rb was formatted incorrectly. It should look like this: class UsersController < ApplicationController def show @user = User.find(params[:id]) end def new @user = User.new end def create @user = User.new(params[:user]) if @user.save sign_in @user flash[:success] = "Welcome to the Sample App!" redirect_to @user else render 'new' end end def edit @user = User.find(params[:id]) end end

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  • SQLAuthority News – Technical Review of Learning at Koenig Solutions

    - by pinaldave
    Yesterday I finished my 3 days fast track in person learning of course End to End SQL Server Business Intelligence at Koenig Solutions. You can read my previous article over here regarding why am I learning SQL Server. Yesterday I blogged about my experience of arriving to Training Center and my induction with the center. The Training Days I had enrolled for three days training so my routine each of the three days was very much same. However, the content every day was different as I was learning something new every day. Let me describe a few of the interesting details of my daily routine. A Single Student Batch The best part of my training was that in my training batch, I am single student. Koenig is known to smaller batches and often they have single student batches as well. I was very much delighted to know that I will have dedicated access and attention from my trainer in my batch as I will be single student in my batch. In most of the labs I have observed there are no more than 4 students at any time. Prakash and Pinal 7:30 AM Breakfast Talk We all students gather at 7:30 in breakfast area. The best time of the day. I was the only Indian student in the group. The other students were from USA, Canada, Nigeria, Bhutan, Tanzania, and a few others from other countries. I immediately become the source of information and reference manual. Though the distance between Delhi and Bangalore is 2000+ KM I was considered as a local guy. 8:30 AMHeading to Training Center Every day without fail at 8:30 the van started from our accommodation to the training center. As mentioned in an earlier blog post the distance is about 5 minutes and we were able to reach at the location before 8:45. This gave us some time settle in before our class starts at 9:00 AM. 9:00 AM Order Lunch Food Well it may sound funny that we just had breakfast 30 minutes but the first thing everybody has to do is to order lunch as soon as the class starts. There is an online training portal to order food for the day. Everybody has to place their order early during the day so the food arrives on time during lunch time. Everybody can order whatever they want to order using an online ordering system. The options are plenty and everybody can order what they like. 9:05 AM Learning Starts After deciding the lunch we started the learning. I was very fortunate to have a very experienced trainer - Prakash Chheatry. Though I have never met him before I have heard a lot about Prakash. He is known as the top most SQL Server Trainer in India. His student list contains some of the very well known SQL Server Experts of the world and few of SQL Server “best seller” book authors. Learning continues till 1:00 PM with one tea-coffee break in between. 1:00 PM Lunch The lunch time is again the fun time. We all students get together in the afternoon and tell the stories of the world. Indeed the best part of the day beside learning new stuff. 4:55 PM Ready to Return We stop at 4:55 as at precisely 5:00 PM the van stops by the institute which takes us back to our accommodation. Trust me seriously long long day always but the amount of the learning is the win of the day. 7:30 PM Dinner Time After coming back to the accommodation I study till 7:30 and then rush for dinner. Dinner is world cuisine and deserts are really delicious. After dinner every day I have written a blog and retired early as the next day is always going to be busier than the present day. What did I learn As I mentioned earlier I know SQL Server fairly well. I had expressed the same in my conversation as well. This is the reason I was assigned a fairly senior trainer and we learned everything quite quickly. As I know quite a few things we went pretty fast in many topics. There were a few things, I wanted to learn in detail as well practice on the labs. We slowed down where we wanted and rush through the concepts where I was very comfortable. Here is the list of the things which we covered in action pack three days. Introduction to Business Intelligence (Intro) SQL Server Analysis Service (Theory and Lab) SQL Server Integration Service  (Theory and Lab) SQL Server Reporting Service  (Theory and Lab) SQL Server PowerPivot (Lab) UDM (Theory) SharePoint Concepts (Theory) Power View (Demo) Business Intelligence and Security (Discussion) Well, I was delighted that I was able to refresh lots of concepts during these three days. Thanks to my trainer and my friend who helped me to have a good learning experience. I believe all the learning  will help me in my growth and future career. With this I end my this experience. I am planning to have another online learning experience later this month. I will blog about my experience as I begin it. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL Training, T SQL, Technology

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  • Create a Smoother Period Close

    - by Get Proactive Customer Adoption Team
    Untitled Document Do You Use Oracle E-Business Suite Products Involved in Accounting Period Closes? We understand that closing the periods in your system at the end of an accounting period enables your company to make the right business decisions. We also know this requires prior preparation, good procedures, and quality data. To help you meet that need, Oracle E-Business Suite’s proactive support team developed the Period Close Advisor to help your organization conduct a smooth period close for its Oracle E-Business Suite 12 products. The Period Close Advisor is composed of logical steps you can follow, aligned by the business requirement flow. It will help with an orderly close of the product sub-ledgers before posting to the General Ledger. It combines recommendations and industry best practices with tips from subject matter experts for troubleshooting. You will find patches needed and references to assist you during each phase. Get to know the E-Business Suite Period Close Advisor The Period Close Advisor does more than help the users of Oracle E-Business Suite products close their period. You can use it before and throughout the period to stay on track. Proactively it assists you as you set up your company’s period close process. During the period, it helps evaluate your system’s readiness for initiating the period close procedures and prepare the system for a smooth period close experience. The Period Close Advisor gets you to answers when you have questions and gives you the latest news from us on Oracle E-Business Suite’s period close. The Period Close Advisor is the right place to start. How to Use the E-Business Suite Period Close The Period Close Advisor graphically guides you through your period close. The tabs show you the products (also called applications or sub-ledgers) covered, and the product order required for the processing to handle any dependencies between the products. Users of all the products it covers can benefit from the information it contains. Structure of the Period Close Advisor Clicking on a tab gives you the details for that particular step in the process. This includes an overview, showing how the products fit into the overall period close process, and step-by-step information on each phase needed to complete the period close for the tab. You will also find multimedia training and related resources you can access if you need more information. Once you click on any of the phases, you see guidance for that phase. This can include: Tips from the subject-matter experts—here are examples from a Cash Management specialist: “For organizations with high transaction volumes bank statements should be loaded and reconciled on a daily basis.” “The automatic reconciliation process can be set up to create miscellaneous transactions automatically.” References to useful Knowledge Base documents: Information Centers for the products and features FAQs on functionality Known Issues and patches with both the errors and their solutions How-to documents that explain in detail how to use a feature or complete a process White papers that give overview of a feature, list setup required to use the feature, etc. Links to diagnosticsthat help debug issues you may find in a process Additional information and alerts about a process or reports that can help you prevent issues from surfacing This excerpt from the “Process Transaction” phase for the Receivables product lists documents you’ll find helpful. How to Get Started with the Period Close Advisor The Period Close Advisor is a great resource that can be used both as a proactive tool (while setting up your period end procedures) and as the first document to refer to when you encounter an issue during the period close procedures! As mentioned earlier, the order of the product tabs in the Period Close Advisor gives you the recommended order of closing. The first thing to do is to ensure that you are following the prescribed order for closing the period, if you are using more than one sub-ledger. Next, review the information shared in the Evaluate and Prepare and Process Transactions phases. Make sure that you are following the recommended best practices; you have applied the recommended patches, etc. The Reconcile phase gives you the recommended steps to follow for reconciling a sub-ledger with the General Ledger. Ensure that your reconciliation procedure aligns with those steps. At any stage during the period close processing, if you encounter an issue, you can revisit the Period Close Advisor. Choose the product you have an issue with and then select the phase you are in. You will be able to review information that can help you find a solution to the issue you are facing. Stay Informed Oracle updates the Period Close Advisor as we learn of new issues and information. Bookmark the Oracle E-Business Suite Period Close Advisor [ID 335.1] and keep coming back to it for the latest information on period close

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  • How do I replace a modal view controller?

    - by Theory
    I'm using a modal view controller to allow a user to select an address book entry and email address. The ABPeoplePickerNavigationController object is displayed via presentModalViewController:animated: [self presentModalViewController:picker animated:YES]; What I want to do is keep the modal dialog up, but when the user selects the email address, it should cross-fade to a different controller that displays a message composition window. I've tried various approaches in peoplePickerNavigationController:shouldContinueAfterSelectingPerson:property:identifier: to dismiss the picker and set my custom composition controller as the modal view. I can do it any number of ways, but never does it fade smoothly from the picker to the composition controller -- unless I make the composition controller a modal dialog of the picker, in which case the picker re-appears when I dismiss the composition controller. I don't want that, either. There must be some way to smoothly replace one controller and its view with another controller and its view, all within the context of a modal dialog, and preferably with a cross fade. Suggestions greatly appreciated.

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  • Design/Architecture Advice Needed

    - by Rachel
    Summary: I have different components on homepage and each components shows some promotion to the user. I have Cart as one Component and depending upon content of the cart promotion are show. I have to track user online activities and send that information to Omniture for Report Generation. Now my components are loaded asynchronously basically are loaded when AjaxRequest is fired up and so there is not fix pattern or rather information on when components will appear on the webpages. Now in order to pass information to Omniture I need to call track function on $(document).(ready) and append information for each components(7 parameters are required by Omniture for each component). So in the init:config function of each component am calling Omniture and passing paramters but now no. of Omniture calls is directly proportional to no. of Components on the webpage but this is not acceptable as each call to Omniture is very expensive. Now I am looking for a way where in I can club the information about 7 parameters and than make one Call to Omniture wherein I pass those information. Points to note is that I do not know when the components are loaded and so there is no pre-defined time or no. of components that would be loaded. The thing is am calling track function when document is ready but components are loaded after call to Omniture has been made and so my question is Q: How can I collect the information for all the components and than just make one call to Omniture to send those information ? As mentioned, I do not know when the components are loaded as they are done on the Ajax Request. Hope I am able to explain my challenge and would appreciate if some one can provide from Design/Architect Solutions for the Challenge.

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  • How do I use a modalViewController Identically in Two Controllers?

    - by Theory
    I'm using the Three20 TTMessageController in my app. I've figured out how to use it, adding on a bunch of other stuff (including TTMessageControllerDelegate methods and ABPeoplePickerNavigationControllerDelegate methods). It works great for me, after a bit of a struggle to figure it out. The trouble I'm having now is a design issue: I want to use it identically in two different places, including with the same delegate methods. My current approach is that I've put all the code into a single class inheriting from NSObject, called ComposerProxy, and I'm just having the two controllers that use it use the proxy, like so: ComposerProxy *proxy = [[ComposerProxy alloc] initWithController:this]; [proxy go]; The go method constructs the TTMessageController, configures it, adds it to a UINavigationController, and presents it: [self.controller presentModalViewController: navController animated: YES]; This works great, as I have all my code nicely encapsulated in ComposerProxy and I need only the above two lines anywhere I want to use it. The downside, though, is that I can't dealloc the proxy variable without getting crashes. I can't autorelease it, either: same problem. So I'm wondering if my proxy approach is a poor one. How does one normally encapsulate a bunch of behaviors like this without requiring a lot of duplicate code in the classes that use it? Do I need to add a delegate class to my ComposerProxy and make the controller responsible for dismissing the modal view controller in a hypothetical composerDidFinish method or some such? Many TIA!

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  • How do I specify the emergency location in CDP?

    - by chrish
    In the LLDP-MED and Cisco Discovery Protocol whitepaper, it compares LLDP-MED and CDP. The part I am interested in is emergency location configuration. In LLDP-MED, I can specify the Emergency Line Indentification Number (ELIN) and that number will be used by some IP Phones (e.g. Aastra) when placing emergency calls. The whitepaper states: Location Identification Discovery This capability is important because it normally provides location information from the switch to the phone. (If the phone is configured with location information or can determine its location, then it may send this information to the switch. However, the real value is getting this information from the switch to the phone for phones that cannot determine their own location.) Location identification discovery allows the phone to be aware of its location-information that can be used for location-based applications on the phone. More importantly, this capability can be used to provide location information when making emergency calls. Both Cisco Discovery Protocol and LLDP-MED support the transportation of location information. However, LLDP-MED has more supported data formats than Cisco Discovery Protocol. I have found the documentation on how to set the location and associate the location to the interfaces for LLDP-MED. How is this done for CDP? Is ELIN supported for CDP?

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  • I have two choices of Master's classes this fall. Which is the most useful?

    - by ahplummer
    (For background purposes and context): I am a Software Engineer, and manage other Software Engineers currently. I kind of wear two hats right now: one of a programmer, and one as a 'team lead'. In this regard, I've started going back to school to get my Master's degree with an emphasis in Computer Science. I already have a Bachelor's in Computer Science, and have been working in the field for about 13 years. Our primary development environment is a Windows environment, writing in .NET, Delphi, and SQL Server. Choice #1: CST 798 DATA VISUALIZATION Course Description: Basically, this is a course on the "Processing" language: http://processing.org/ Choice #2: CST 711 INFORMATICS Course Description: (From catalog): Informatics is the science of the use and processing of data, information, and knowledge. This course covers a variety of applied issues from information technology, information management at a variety of levels, ranging from simple data entry, to the creation, design and implementation of new information systems, to the development of models. Topics include basic information representation, processing, searching, and organization, evaluation and analysis of information, Internet-based information access tools, ethics and economics of information sharing.

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  • I like the way they Design/Architecture it but how do I implement this

    - by Rachel
    Summary: I have different components on homepage and each components shows some promotion to the user. I have Cart as one Component and depending upon content of the cart promotion are show. I have to track user online activities and send that information to Omniture for Report Generation. Now my components are loaded asynchronously basically are loaded when AjaxRequest is fired up and so there is not fix pattern or rather information on when components will appear on the webpages. Now in order to pass information to Omniture I need to call track function on $(document).(ready) and append information for each components(7 parameters are required by Omniture for each component). So in the init:config function of each component am calling Omniture and passing paramters but now no. of Omniture calls is directly proportional to no. of Components on the webpage but this is not acceptable as each call to Omniture is very expensive. Now I am looking for a way where in I can club the information about 7 parameters and than make one Call to Omniture wherein I pass those information. Points to note is that I do not know when the components are loaded and so there is no pre-defined time or no. of components that would be loaded. The thing is am calling track function when document is ready but components are loaded after call to Omniture has been made and so my question is Q: How can I collect the information for all the components and than just make one call to Omniture to send those information ? As mentioned, I do not know when the components are loaded as they are done on the Ajax Request. Hope I am able to explain my challenge and would appreciate if some one can provide from Design/Architect Solutions for the Challenge.

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  • Why Doesn't UIWebView release all of its memory?

    - by Theory
    I have a graphic-intensive iPad app that features a UIWebView. Using the simulator (iOS 4.2.1), I can see Real Mem increase quite a lot as I browse. The more I browse, the more RAM it uses. When I close the UIWebView and release it, some of the memory it used is freed, but not all of it. This is annoying. Okay, so maybe it's because it isn't deallocated right away. Fine. But then I would expect the system to do some cleanup when there's a memory warning. However, if I browse around, then close the UIWebView (and release it), then trigger a memory warning in the simulator, Real Mem does not change! WTF? So why is this? Why isn't UIWebView better at releasing memory back to the system? And why doesn't it appear to respond to memory warnings? Am I missing something?

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  • When i run rake db:create ,Error rake aborted! uninitialized constant Cucumber

    - by Big Bang Theory
    Hi I am trying to experiment on an open source application application . when i run $ rake db:create Following is the stacktrace rake aborted! uninitialized constant Cucumber /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.2/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:443:in `load_missing_constant' /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.2/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:80:in `const_missing' /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.2/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:92:in `const_missing' /home/BigBangTheory/Desktop/spot-us/lib/tasks/cucumber.rake:13 /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:1882:in `in_namespace' /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:910:in `namespace' /home/BigBangTheory/Desktop/spot-us/lib/tasks/cucumber.rake:12 /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.2/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:145:in `load_without_new_constant_marking' /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.2/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:145:in `load' /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.2/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:521:in `new_constants_in' /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.2/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:145:in `load' /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.2/lib/tasks/rails.rb:8 /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.2/lib/tasks/rails.rb:8:in `each' /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.2/lib/tasks/rails.rb:8 /usr/local/lib/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:in `gem_original_require' /usr/local/lib/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:in `require' /home/BigBangTheory/Desktop/spot-us/Rakefile:9 /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2383:in `load' /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2383:in `raw_load_rakefile' /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2017:in `load_rakefile' /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2068:in `standard_exception_handling' /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2016:in `load_rakefile' /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2000:in `run' /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2068:in `standard_exception_handling' /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:1998:in `run' /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/bin/rake:31 /usr/bin/rake:19:in `load' /usr/bin/rake:19 Any help ?

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  • How to Iterate in ruby ?

    - by Big Bang Theory
    Hi I would like to iterate @some_value outputs the following result {"Meta"=>{"Query"=>"java", "ResultOffset"=>"1", "NumResults"=>"1", "TotalResults"=>"21931"}} i need to retrieve the Value of each individual value for example java 1 1 21931

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  • As a PHP developer thinking of making Perl a secondary strong suit, what do I need to know?

    - by Hexagon Theory
    I consider myself quite fluent in PHP and am rather familiar with nearly all of the important aspects and uses, as well as its pratfalls. This in mind, I think the major problem in taking on Perl is going to be with the syntax. Aside from this (a minor hindrance, really, as I'm rather sold on the fact that Perl's is far more readable), what are some key differences you think I should make myself aware of prior to taking on the language?

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  • Can a website see/know my MAC address even if I use a VPN?

    - by ilhan
    I have searched other results and read many of them but I could not get an enough information. My question is that can a website see my MAC address or can they have an information about that I'm the same person under these conditions: I am using a VPN and I use two IPs: first one is normal one, the second one is the VPN's IP. I use two browsers to hide behind browser fingerprinting. I use both browsers with Incognito Mode. I always use one for normal IP, one for the VPN IP. I do not know that if the website uses cookies or not. But can they collect an enough information to prove that these two identities belong to same person? Is there any other way for them to see that I am the same person? I use different IPs, different browsers and I use both browsers in incognito mode. I even changed one of browsers language to only English. So even if they collect my info from browser, they will see two browsers using different languages. (Addition after edit): So I have changed my IP and browser information and the website can not reach this information anymore to prove that I am the same person using two accounts. Then let's come to the title: Can they see my MAC address? Because I think that it is the last way that they can identify me and my main question is that. I wrote the information above to mention that I changed IPs and I have some precautions to avoid browser fingerprinting (btw my VPN provider already has a service about blocking it). I wrote them because I read similar advices in some related questions but my question is that can they see my MAC address (or anything else that can make me detected) despite all these precautions. And lastly, Is there an extra way to be anonymized that I can do? For example, can my system clock or anything else give an information? Thanks in advance.

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  • Can't remove burg theme packages

    - by Lassi
    Today after trying to install and remove BURG and few themes I faced an issue. Now I can't install or remove anything. Here is the output (unfortunately partly in Finnish, I couldn't change language since it also seems to depend on package listings: lassi@lassi-ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get autoremove Luetaan pakettiluetteloita... Valmis Muodostetaan riippuvuussuhteiden puu Luetaan tilatietoja... Valmis Seuraavat paketit POISTETAAN: burg-theme-fortune burg-theme-gnome burg-theme-picchio 0 päivitetty, 0 uutta asennusta, 3 poistettavaa ja 0 päivittämätöntä. 3 ei asennettu kokonaan tai poistettiin. Toiminnon jälkeen vapautuu 7 180 k t levytilaa. Haluatko jatkaa [K/e]? k (Luetaan tietokantaa... 166462 files and directories currently installed.) Poistetaan pakettia burg-theme-fortune... sudo: update-burg: command not found dpkg: virhe käsiteltäessä burg-theme-fortune (--remove): aliprosessi installed post-removal script palautti virhetilakoodin 1 Poistetaan pakettia burg-theme-gnome... sudo: update-burg: command not found dpkg: virhe käsiteltäessä burg-theme-gnome (--remove): aliprosessi installed post-removal script palautti virhetilakoodin 1 Poistetaan pakettia burg-theme-picchio... sudo: update-burg: command not found dpkg: virhe käsiteltäessä burg-theme-picchio (--remove): aliprosessi installed post-removal script palautti virhetilakoodin 1 Käsittelyssä tapahtui liian monta virhettä: burg-theme-fortune burg-theme-gnome burg-theme-picchio E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) Basically what seems to happen is this: It creates the package lists, then tries to remove packet burg-theme-fortune. This fails as update-burg command was not found. Then dpkg reports an error while processing the packet. Same goes with all 3 packages. In the end it claims that there were too many errors, and packages stay installed. I also tried installing burg as it tries to run command update-burg, but appears that it tries to delete these packages always when I try to install or remove or do anything with apt. Any ideas how I could solve this issue? Edit: Here is the output of apt-get install burg (tried installing again to get English output) lassi@lassi-ubuntu:~$ LC_ALL=C sudo apt-get install burg [sudo] password for lassi: Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done burg is already the newest version. 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. 3 not fully installed or removed. Need to get 0 B/6169 kB of archives. After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y (Reading database ... 167497 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to replace burg-theme-fortune 0.5.0-1 (using .../burg-theme-fortune_0.5.0-1_all.deb) ... Unpacking replacement burg-theme-fortune ... Generating burg.cfg ... /usr/sbin/burg-probe: error: cannot stat `/boot/burg/locale'. No path or device is specified. Try `/usr/sbin/burg-probe --help' for more information. dpkg: warning: subprocess old post-removal script returned error exit status 1 dpkg - trying script from the new package instead ... Generating burg.cfg ... /usr/sbin/burg-probe: error: cannot stat `/boot/burg/locale'. No path or device is specified. Try `/usr/sbin/burg-probe --help' for more information. dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/burg-theme-fortune_0.5.0-1_all.deb (--unpack): subprocess new post-removal script returned error exit status 1 Generating burg.cfg ... /usr/sbin/burg-probe: error: cannot stat `/boot/burg/locale'. No path or device is specified. Try `/usr/sbin/burg-probe --help' for more information. dpkg: error while cleaning up: subprocess new post-removal script returned error exit status 1 Preparing to replace burg-theme-gnome 0.5.0-1 (using .../burg-theme-gnome_0.5.0-1_all.deb) ... Unpacking replacement burg-theme-gnome ... Generating burg.cfg ... /usr/sbin/burg-probe: error: cannot stat `/boot/burg/locale'. No path or device is specified. Try `/usr/sbin/burg-probe --help' for more information. dpkg: warning: subprocess old post-removal script returned error exit status 1 dpkg - trying script from the new package instead ... Generating burg.cfg ... /usr/sbin/burg-probe: error: cannot stat `/boot/burg/locale'. No path or device is specified. Try `/usr/sbin/burg-probe --help' for more information. dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/burg-theme-gnome_0.5.0-1_all.deb (--unpack): subprocess new post-removal script returned error exit status 1 Generating burg.cfg ... /usr/sbin/burg-probe: error: cannot stat `/boot/burg/locale'. No path or device is specified. Try `/usr/sbin/burg-probe --help' for more information. dpkg: error while cleaning up: subprocess new post-removal script returned error exit status 1 Preparing to replace burg-theme-picchio 0.5.0-1 (using .../burg-theme-picchio_0.5.0-1_all.deb) ... Unpacking replacement burg-theme-picchio ... Generating burg.cfg ... /usr/sbin/burg-probe: error: cannot stat `/boot/burg/locale'. No path or device is specified. Try `/usr/sbin/burg-probe --help' for more information. dpkg: warning: subprocess old post-removal script returned error exit status 1 dpkg - trying script from the new package instead ... Generating burg.cfg ... /usr/sbin/burg-probe: error: cannot stat `/boot/burg/locale'. No path or device is specified. Try `/usr/sbin/burg-probe --help' for more information. dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/burg-theme-picchio_0.5.0-1_all.deb (--unpack): subprocess new post-removal script returned error exit status 1 Generating burg.cfg ... /usr/sbin/burg-probe: error: cannot stat `/boot/burg/locale'. No path or device is specified. Try `/usr/sbin/burg-probe --help' for more information. dpkg: error while cleaning up: subprocess new post-removal script returned error exit status 1 Errors were encountered while processing: /var/cache/apt/archives/burg-theme-fortune_0.5.0-1_all.deb /var/cache/apt/archives/burg-theme-gnome_0.5.0-1_all.deb /var/cache/apt/archives/burg-theme-picchio_0.5.0-1_all.deb E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) lassi@lassi-ubuntu:~$

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  • Designing for the future

    - by Dennis Vroegop
    User interfaces and user experience design is a fast moving field. It’s something that changes pretty quick: what feels fresh today will look outdated tomorrow. I remember the day I first got a beta version of Windows 95 and I felt swept away by the user interface of the OS. It felt so modern! If I look back now, it feels old. Well, it should: the design is 17 years old which is an eternity in our field. Of course, this is not limited to UI. Same goes for many industries. I want you to think back of the cars that amazed you when you were in your teens (if you are in your teens then this may not apply to you). Didn’t they feel like part of the future? Didn’t you think that this was the ultimate in designs? And aren’t those designs hopelessly outdated today (again, depending on your age, it may just be me)? Let’s review the Win95 design: And let’s compare that to Windows 7: There are so many differences here, I wouldn’t even know where to start explaining them. The general feeling however is one of more usability: studies have shown Windows 7 is much easier to understand for new users than the older versions of Windows did. Of course, experienced Windows users didn’t like it: people are usually afraid of changes and like to stick to what they know. But for new users this was a huge improvement. And that is what UX design is all about: make a product easier to use, with less training required and make users feel more productive. Still, there are areas where this doesn’t hold up. There are plenty examples of designs from the past that are still fresh today. But if you look closely at them, you’ll notice some subtle differences. This differences are what keep the designs fresh. A good example is the signs you’ll find on the road. They haven’t changed much over the years (otherwise people wouldn’t recognize them anymore) but they have been changing gradually to reflect changes in traffic. The same goes for computer interfaces. With each new product or version of a product, the UI and UX is changed gradually. Every now and then however, a bigger change is needed. Just think about the introduction of the Ribbon in Microsoft Office 2007: the whole UI was redesigned. A lot of old users (not in age, but in times of using older versions) didn’t like it a bit, but new users or casual users seem to be more efficient using the product. Which, of course, is exactly the reason behind the changes. I believe that a big engine behind the changes in User Experience design has been the web. In the old days (i.e. before the explosion of the internet) user interface design in Windows applications was limited to choosing the margins between your battleship gray buttons. When the web came along, and especially the web 2.0 where the browsers started to act more and more as application platforms, designers stepped in and made a huge impact. In the browser, they could do whatever they wanted. In the beginning this was limited to the darn blink tag but gradually people really started to think about UX. Even more so: the design of the UI and the whole experience was taken away from the developers and put into the hands of people who knew what they were doing: UX designers. This caused some problems. Everyone who has done a web project in the early 2000’s must have had the same experience: the designers give you a set of Photoshop files and tell you to translate it to HTML. Which, of course, is very hard to do. However, with new tooling and new standards this became much easier. The latest version of HTML and CSS has taken the responsibility for the design away from the developers and placed them in the capable hands of the designers. And that’s where that responsibility belongs, after all, I don’t want a designer to muck around in my c# code just as much as he or she doesn’t want me to poke in the sites style definitions. This change in responsibilities resulted in good looking but more important: better thought out user interfaces in websites. And when websites became more and more interactive, people started to expect the same sort of look and feel from their desktop applications. But that didn’t really happen. Most business applications still have that battleship gray look and feel. Ok, they may use a different color but we’re not talking colors here but usability. Now, you may not be able to read the Dutch captions, but even if you did you wouldn’t understand what was going on. At least, not when you first see it. You have to scan the screen, read all the labels, see how they are related to the other elements on the screen and then figure out what they do. If you’re an experienced user of this application however, this might be a good thing: you know what to do and you get all the information you need in one single screen. But for most applications this isn’t the case. A lot of people only use their computer for a limited time a day (a weird concept for me, but it happens) and need it to get something done and then get on with their lives. For them, a user interface experience like the above isn’t working. (disclaimer: I just picked a screenshot, I am not saying this is bad software but it is an example of about 95% of the Windows applications out there). For the knowledge worker, this isn’t a problem. They use one or two systems and they know exactly what they need to do to achieve their goal. They don’t want any clutter on their screen that distracts them from their task, they just want to be as efficient as possible. When they know the systems they are very productive. The point is, how long does it take to become productive? And: could they be even more productive if the UX was better? Are there things missing that they don’t know about? Are there better ways to achieve what they want to achieve? Also: could a system be designed in such a way that it is not only much more easy to work with but also less tiring? in the example above you need to switch between the keyboard and mouse a lot, something that we now know can be very tiring. The goal of most applications (being client apps or websites on any kind of device) is to provide information. Information is data that when given to the right people, on the right time, in the right place and when it is correct adds value for that person (please, remember that definition: I still hear the statement “the information was wrong” which doesn’t make sense: data can be wrong, information cannot be). So if a system provides data, how can we make sure the chances of becoming information is as high as possible? A good example of a well thought-out system that attempts this is the Zune client. It is a very good application, and I think the UX is much better than it’s main competitor iTunes. Have a look at both: On the left you see the iTunes screenshot, on the right the Zune. As you notice, the Zune screen has more images but less chrome (chrome being visuals not part of the data you want to show, i.e. edges around buttons). The whole thing is text oriented or image oriented, where that text or image is part of the information you need. What is important is big, what’s less important is smaller. Yet, everything you need to know at that point is present and your attention is drawn immediately to what you’re trying to achieve: information about music. You can easily switch between the content on your machine and content on your Zune player but clicking on the image of the player. But if you didn’t know that, you’d find out soon enough: the whole UX is designed in such a way that it invites you to play around. So sooner or later (probably sooner) you’d click on that image and you would see what it does. In the iTunes version it’s harder to find: the discoverability is a lot lower. For inexperienced people the Zune player feels much more natural than the iTunes player, and they get up to speed a lot faster. How does this all work? Why is this UX better? The answer lies in a project from Microsoft with the codename (it seems to be becoming the official name though) “Metro”. Metro is a design language, based on certain principles. When they thought about UX they took a good long look around them and went out in search of metaphors. And they found them. The team noticed that signage in streets, airports, roads, buildings and so on are usually very clear and very precise. These signs give you the information you need and nothing more. It’s simple, clearly understood and fast to understand. A good example are airport signs. Airports can be intimidating places, especially for the non-experienced traveler. In the early 1990’s Amsterdam Airport Schiphol decided to redesign all the signage to make the traveller feel less disoriented. They developed a set of guidelines for signs and implemented those. Soon, most airports around the world adopted these ideas and you see variations of the Dutch signs everywhere on the globe. The signs are text-oriented. Yes, there are icons explaining what it all means for the people who can’t read or don’t understand the language, but the basic sign language is text. It’s clear, it’s high-contrast and it’s easy to understand. One look at the sign and you know where to go. The only thing I don’t like is the green sign pointing to the emergency exit, but since this is the default style for emergency exits I understand why they did this. If you look at the Zune UI again, you’ll notice the similarities. Text oriented, little or no icons, clear usage of fonts and all the information you need. This design language has a set of principles: Clean, light, open and fast Content, not chrome Soulful and alive These are just a couple of the principles, you can read the whole philosophy behind Metro for Windows Phone 7 here. These ideas seem to work. I love my Windows Phone 7. It’s easy to use, it’s clear, there’s no clutter that I do not need. It works for me. And I noticed it works for a lot of other people as well, especially people who aren’t as proficient with computers as I am. You see these ideas in a lot other places. Corning, a manufacturer of glass, has made a video of possible usages of their products. It’s their glimpse into the future. You’ll notice that a lot of the UI in the screens look a lot like what Microsoft is doing with Metro (not coincidentally Corning is the supplier for the Gorilla glass display surface on the new SUR40 device (or Surface v2.0 as a lot of people call it)). The idea behind this vision is that data should be available everywhere where you it. Systems should be available at all times and data is presented in a clear and light manner so that you can turn that data into information. You don’t need a lot of fancy animations that only distract from the data. You want the data and you want it fast. Have a look at this truly inspiring video that made: This is what I believe the future will look like. Of course, not everything is possible, or even desirable. But it is a nice way to think about the future . I feel very strongly about designing applications in such a way that they add value to the user. Designing applications that turn data into information. Applications that make the user feel happy to use them. So… when are you going to drop the battleship-gray designs? Tags van Technorati: surface,design,windows phone 7,wp7,metro

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  • Apache's httpd.exe won't run on my Windows 7

    - by alexus
    I went to apache.org and downloaded httpd server for my Windows7, after successful install, I try to run it and I get following message: Problem signature: Problem Event Name: APPCRASH Application Name: httpd.exe Application Version: 2.2.15.0 Application Timestamp: 4b8fed95 Fault Module Name: php5ts.dll Fault Module Version: 5.3.2.0 Fault Module Timestamp: 4b8ebac2 Exception Code: c0000005 Exception Offset: 000e6d2c OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1 Locale ID: 1033 Additional Information 1: 0a9e Additional Information 2: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789 Additional Information 3: 0a9e Additional Information 4: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789 I’m confused, what am I doing wrong, and/or how do I fix it? Thanks in advance!

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