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• Skechers Leverages Oracle Applications, Business Intelligence and On Demand Offerings to Drive Long-Term Growth

  - by user801960

  This month Oracle Retail in the USA announced that Skechers - a world leading lifestyle footwear retailer - would be adopting several Oracle Retail products as part of their global growth strategy and to maximise business efficiency.  While based primarily in the USA, Skechers is a respected retailer across the world and has been an Oracle customer since 1997.  The key information about the announcement is below.  To find out more about Skechers visit their website: http://www.skechers.com/  Skechers U.S.A. Inc., an award-winning global leader in the lifestyle footwear industry, has upgraded and expanded its Oracle® Applications investment, implemented Oracle Database and moved to Oracle On Demand, Oracle’s premier cloud service to support rapid growth across its retail and wholesale channels. The new business information systems are part of a larger initiative for the billion-dollar-plus footwear company to fuel growth, reduce total cost of ownership and enable the business to respond faster to market opportunities. With more than 3,000 styles of shoes to design, develop and market, Skechers upgraded to Oracle’s PeopleSoft Enterprise Financial Management and PeopleSoft Supply Chain Management to increase operational efficiencies and improve controls by establishing an integrated, industry-specific platform. An Oracle customer since 1997, Skechers implemented PeopleSoft Enterprise Real Estate Management to meet the rapid growth of its retail stores worldwide. The company is the first customer to go live on the Real Estate Management module and worked closely with Oracle to provide development insight. Skechers also implemented Oracle Fusion Governance, Risk, and Compliance applications. This deployment enabled the company to leverage its existing corporate governance and compliance efforts throughout the global enterprise and more effectively manage the audit processes across multiple business units, processes and systems while reducing audit costs. Next, Skechers leveraged Oracle Financial Analytics, a pre-built Oracle Business Intelligence Application and PeopleSoft Enterprise Project Costing and PeopleSoft Enterprise Contracts to develop a custom Royalty Management dashboard, providing managers with better financial visibility to the company’s licensing contracts. The company switched to Oracle Database and moved database hosting and management to Oracle On Demand to reduce maintenance, implementation and system administration costs. As a result, Skechers is also achieving a better response time and is delivering a higher level of 24x7 support. OSI Consulting, a Platinum partner in Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN), provided implementation and integration services to Skechers.   To view the full announcement please click here

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• New Demos SOA Suite (11.1.1.6) & SOA Suite Foundation Pack (11.1.1.6)

  - by JuergenKress

  For access to the Oracle demo systems please visit OPN and talk to your Partner Expert GSE: SOA & FP (11.1.1.6) Platforms Portable Version – Available SOA 11g Platform FP 11g Platform All SOA/BPM 11g Solutions OFM Demos Corner GSE Offerings Scheduling Demos on GSE Support GSE is pleased to announce the availability of SOA and Foundation Pack 11g (11.1.1.6) Platform Portable images. Portable images now come as a VBox appliance. SOA 11.1.1.6 Platform Portable Version This portable image comes with latest SOA Suite products installed and configured. Vbox appliance facilitates easy maintenance of the image. Click here to download the portable image. FP 11.1.1.6 Platform Portable Version Foundation Pack installed and configured on SOA image and stands as a base for building cross-application integrations. Click here to download the portable image. In addition to Portable images, Global Sales Engineering would like to inform availability of Hosted version of SOA & BPM 11g (11.1.1.6) Solutions. Click here for more information. SOA Suite Foundation Pack Demo Demo Overview Business Process Artifacts Demo Architecture Bill of Materials Demo Collateral DSS Offerings OFM Demos Corner Scheduling Demos on DSS DSS Support The Foundation Pack(FP) demo showcases various tools and utilities of Foundation Pack like Project Lifecycle Workbench(PLW) JDeveloper - Service Constructor Harvesting services to PLW/ Oracle Enterprise Repository Generation of Bill of Materials (BOM) Creation of Deployment Plans / Harvestor Settings Track Foundation Pack Fusion Order demo flow in Enterprise Manager Console For more information on the demo click here. SOA & BPM Partner Community For regular information on Oracle SOA Suite become a member in the SOA & BPM Partner Community for registration please visit  www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa (OPN account required) If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center. Blog Twitter LinkedIn Mix Forum Technorati Tags: SOA DEmo System,DSS,SOA,sales,SOA Community,Oracle SOA,Oracle BPM,Community,OPN,Jürgen Kress

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• Polished DIY Projector Is Painted Right onto the Wall

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  If you’re contemplating building a projector screen but find yourself not entirely unhappy with just projecting right onto the wall, this simple paint-it-on-the-wall upgrade is for you. Check out the above video to see the steps required to patch, paint, and frame a space on your wall to serve as a projection screen. You’ll need spackle, sandpaper, white paint, and some very basic carpentry skills to complete the simple wood frame for your painted-on screen. If you’d like to create a screen using the same technique but make it removable (for adjustments or to take it with you when you move out) you can just as easily use the paint-it-on technique with a piece of hardboard instead of the drywall. [via Hack A Day] HTG Explains: Is ReadyBoost Worth Using? HTG Explains: What The Windows Event Viewer Is and How You Can Use It HTG Explains: How Windows Uses The Task Scheduler for System Tasks

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• Is there a low carbon future for the retail industry?

  - by user801960

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

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• 11 Extinct Technology Sounds

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Extinction isn’t exclusively a biological function; here’s a roundup of 11 sounds that have gone the way of the Dodo. Mental_Floss shares a roundup of 11 technological sounds lost to the ages, including rotary telephones–see above–flash cube snaps, television warmups, TV station sign offs, and more. One thing we’re shocked they didn’t include is the sound of an acoustic modem connection–but in fairness quite a few people are still using dial-up to connect to the Internet. 11 Sounds Your Kids Have Probably Never Heard [Mental_Floss via BoingBoing] Amazon’s New Kindle Fire Tablet: the How-To Geek Review HTG Explains: How Hackers Take Over Web Sites with SQL Injection / DDoS Use Your Android Phone to Comparison Shop: 4 Scanner Apps Reviewed

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• Oracle Service Bus duplicate message check using Coherence by Jan van Zoggel

  - by JuergenKress

  In a situation where you need some sort of duplicate message check for an Oracle Service Bus project you would need some custom code. Since the Oracle Service Bus is stateless, when it handles a proxy service call it will not know if this specific message was handled before. So there needs to be some sort of logic in your service for validating it’s a new unique message id. Read the full article here. SOA & BPM Partner Community For regular information on Oracle SOA Suite become a member in the SOA & BPM Partner Community for registration please visit  www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa (OPN account required) If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center. Blog Twitter LinkedIn Mix Forum Technorati Tags: OSB,SOA Community,Oracle SOA,Oracle BPM,BPM,Community,OPN,Jürgen Kress,Jan van Zoggel

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• Oracle Supply Chain Sessions at Collaborate 2010

  - by Paul Homchick

  Oracle SCM executives will be presenting more than thirty sessions at the Collaborate 2010 Oracle Users' Group Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, April 18-22.Charles Phillips, President of Oracle will give a keynote address on Monday "Transforming Customer Value -- Delivering Highest Customer Service."A list of the Oracle SCM sessions to be presented at Collaborate 2010 is presented after the break...

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• DIY Sunrise Alarm Clock Sports a Polished Build and Perfect Time Keeping

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  We’ve seen our fair share of sunrise simulators, but by far this one is the most polished build–everything from the atomic clock circuit to the LEDs are all packed cleanly in a frosted acrylic case. Renaud Schleck, the tinker behind the build, describes the guts: This is an alarm clock simulating the sunrise, which means that a few minutes before the alarm goes off, it shines some light whose brightness increases over time. The alarm clock is built around a MSP430G2553 microcontroller compatible with the MSP430 Launchpad from Texas Instrument. It features a DCF77 module which sets the clock automatically through radio waves. How to Factory Reset Your Android Phone or Tablet When It Won’t Boot Our Geek Trivia App for Windows 8 is Now Available Everywhere How To Boot Your Android Phone or Tablet Into Safe Mode

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• SharePoint Q&A With the MVP Gang

  - by Bil Simser

  Interested in getting some first hand knowledge about SharePoint and all of it’s quirks, oddities, and secrets? We’re hosting not one, but *two* SharePoint Q&A sessions with the MVP crowd. Here’s the official blurb: Do you have tough technical questions regarding SharePoint for which you're seeking answers? Do you want to tap into the deep knowledge of the talented Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals? The SharePoint MVPs are the same people you see in the technical community as authors, speakers, user group leaders and answerers in the MSDN forums. By popular demand, we have brought these experts together as a collective group to answer your questions live. So please join us and bring on the questions! This chat will cover WSS, MOSS and the SharePoint 2010. Topics include setup and administration, design, development and general questions. Here’s a rundown of the expected guests for the chats: Agnes Molnar, Andrew Connell, Asif Rehmani, Becky Bertram, Me, Bryan Phillips, Chris O'Brien, Clayton Cobb, Dan Attis, Darrin Bishop, David Mann, Gary Lapointe, John Ross, Mike Oryzak, Muhanad Omar, Paul Stork, Randy Drisgill, Rob Bogue, Rob Foster, Shane Young, Spence Harbar. Apologies for not linking to everyone’s blogs, I’m just not that ambitious tonight. Please note that not everyone listed here is guaranteed to make it to either chat and there may be additions/changes at the last minute so the names may change to protect the innocent. The chat sessions will be held April 27th, 2010 at 4PM (PST) and April 28th at 9AM (PST). You can find out more details about the chats here or click here to add the April 27th event to your calendar, or click here to add the April 28th event (assuming your calendar software supports ICS files). See you there!

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• A Perfect Example of Why You Never, Ever Buy a Used Keyboard [Humorous Image]

  - by Asian Angel

  Just go buy a new keyboard…unless you are into masochistic self-torture or other similar pursuits… Note: If you have the stomach for it, you can view the full-size version of the image here. I’m never going to buy a used keyboard ever again. [via Reddit Tech Support Gore] How to Fix a Stuck Pixel on an LCD Monitor How to Factory Reset Your Android Phone or Tablet When It Won’t Boot Our Geek Trivia App for Windows 8 is Now Available Everywhere

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• Async & Await in C# with Xamarin

  - by Wallym

   One of the great things about the .NET Framework is that Microsoft has worked long and hard to improve many features. Since the initial release of .NET 1.0, there has been support for threading via .NET threads as well as an application-level threadpool. This provided a great starting point when compared to Visual Basic 6 and classic ASP programming. The release of.NET 4 brought significant improvements in the area of threading, asynchronous operations and parallel operations. While the improvements made working with asynchronous operations easier, new problems were introduced, since many of these operations work based on callbacks. For example: How should a developer handle error checking? The program flow tends to be non-linear. Fixing bugs can be problematic. It is hard for a developer to get an understanding of what is happening within an application. The release of .NET 4.5 (and C# 5.0), in the fall of 2012, was a blockbuster update with regards to asynchronous operations and threads. Microsoft has added C# language keywords to take this non-linear callback-based program flow and turn it into a much more linear flow. Recently, Xamarin has updated Xamarin.Android and Xamarin.iOS to support async. This article will look at how Xamarin has implemented the .NET 4.5/C# 5 support into their Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android productions. There are three general areas that I'll focus on: A general look at the asynchronous support in Xamarin's mobile products. This includes async, await, and the implications that this has for cross-platform code. The new HttpClient class that is provided in .NET 4.5/Mono 3.2. Xamarin's extensions for asynchronous operations for Android and iOS. FYI: Be aware that sometimes the OpenWeatherMap API breaks, for no reason.  I found this out after I shipped the article in.

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• The Earth at Night [Video]

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  This fresh video from NASA provides the clearest view of the Earth at night ever seen, thanks to the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership Satellite. Check out the video and accompanying pics to see the stunning views. In daylight our big blue marble is all land, oceans and clouds. But the night – is electric. This view of Earth at night is a cloud-free view from space as acquired by the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership Satellite (Suomi NPP). A joint program by NASA and NOAA, Suomi NPP captured this nighttime image by the satellite’s Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS). The day-night band on VIIRS detects light in a range of wavelengths from green to near infrared and uses filtering techniques to observe signals such as city lights, gas flares, and wildfires. This new image is a composite of data acquired over nine days in April and thirteen days in October 2012. It took 312 satellite orbits and 2.5 terabytes of data to get a clear shot of every parcel of land surface. This video uses the Earth at night view created by NASA’s Earth Observatory with data processed by NOAA’s National Geophysical Data Center and combined with a version of the Earth Observatory’s Blue Marble: Next Generation. Hit up the link below for the full NASA press release, including more videos and photos. How to Factory Reset Your Android Phone or Tablet When It Won’t Boot Our Geek Trivia App for Windows 8 is Now Available Everywhere How To Boot Your Android Phone or Tablet Into Safe Mode

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• Bytes by MSDN - Let's talk Cloud

  - by Wallym

  While I was at DevConnections in Las Vegas, I was honored to be interviewed by Tim Huckaby for "Bytes by MSDN" on Cloud Computing. Here's a short intro from the talk:Do you believe in the Cloud? Wallace McClure, Founder and Architect of Scalable Development, Inc., does. His customers are extremely interested in the value and economies of scale that Cloud Computing, and more specifically, Windows Azure can bring. Building out an infrastructure that supports your web service or application can be expensive, complicated and time consuming. Or you could look to the Microsoft cloud. The Windows Azure platform is a flexible cloud–computing platform that lets you focus on solving business problems and addressing customer needs. Wally talks about all this, and more, in this interview with Tim Huckaby, and in his Windows Azure podcasts.

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• POV Christmas Tree Is a Holiday-Themed DIY Electronics Project

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  If you’re looking for an electronics project with a bit of holiday cheer, this clever POV Christmas tree combines LEDs, motors, and a simple vision hack to create a glowing Christmas tree. POV (or Persistence Of Vision) hacks rely on your visual circuit’s lag time. By taking advantage of that lag POV displays can create the illusion of shapes and words where there are none. In the case of this Christmas tree hack a spinning set of LED lights creates the illusion of a Christmas tree when, in reality, there is just a few LEDs suspended in space by wire. It’s not a beginner level project by any means but it is a great way to practice surface mounting electronics and polish up your PCB making skills. Hit up the link below for the full tutorial. POV Christmas Tree [Instructables] HTG Explains: Do You Really Need to Defrag Your PC? Use Amazon’s Barcode Scanner to Easily Buy Anything from Your Phone How To Migrate Windows 7 to a Solid State Drive

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• again again again…. it is Oracle Open World 2012

  - by JuergenKress

  Again… again I crashed my knee during kite surfing. Again the right knee, again the outside meniscus, again the same doctor, again the same operation, again they could sew my meniscus, again the same physiotherapy… again I will miss OOW. OOW session you should not miss Oracle PartnerNetwork Exchange Middleware stream Focus on SOA and BPM Focus on BPM For OFM Partner Advisory Councils please contact [email protected] Keynotes and General sessions to attend: Thomas Kurian: Tuesday, October 2 8:45 a.m. 9:45 a.m., Moscone North, Hall D Hasan Rizvi: General session middleware: Tuesday, October 3 10:15 am 11:15 am, Moscone North, Hall D If you can’t make it to San Francisco watch the keynotes live on-demand Tips and tricks for OOW Plan your visit well in advance! Which keynotes & session do you want to attend? Demo Grounds are highly recommended and the best of OOW! Which 1:1 meetings do you want to arrange? Attend a Partner or Customer Advisory Council? Attend a Country or Community Reception? Attire during OOW: casual clothing, comfortable shoes and light luggage! Do not forget to drink water. Sign an international travel and health insurance before you leave home! What we want from you! Send your tweets: twitter.com/soacommunity @soacommunity and share your pictures at http://www.facebook.com/soacommunity SOA & BPM Partner Community For regular information on Oracle SOA Suite become a member in the SOA & BPM Partner Community for registration please visit  www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa (OPN account required) If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center. Blog Twitter LinkedIn Mix Forum Technorati Tags: OOW,Oracle Open World,SOA Community,Oracle SOA,Oracle BPM,BPM,Community,OPN,Jürgen Kress

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• Sleep – Why We Need It and What Happens Without It

  - by Akemi Iwaya

  We spend approximately one-third of our lives sleeping, but why do our bodies need sleep? What is happening in our brains and bodies during our awake and sleeping periods? Could we get by with little to no sleep? Learn the answers to these questions and more with SciShow’s information-packed video about sleep! Sleep: Why We Need It and What Happens Without It [YouTube]     

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• D Bitly Shortens Links on Android Phones

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  If you share a lot of links from your Android phone (or would share more if it was easier) D Bitly is an unofficial Bitly client that makes short work of URL shrinking. Not only can you shorten URLs with D Bitly but you can also access your URL shortening history at Bit.ly. Shared a link via IM or email earlier in the day and want to share it right now from your Android device? You can pull it up and one-click share it from D Bitly. Want to shorten a new URL? You can shorten it, share it, and add it to your shortened URL history. Hit up the link below to grab a free copy and take it for a test drive. D Bitly [Android Market via Addictive Tips] HTG Explains: Photography with Film-Based CamerasHow to Clean Your Dirty Smartphone (Without Breaking Something)What is a Histogram, and How Can I Use it to Improve My Photos?

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• jQuery Mobile Download Builder

  - by Yousef_Jadallah

  Now you can customize your jQuery Mobile download by selecting the specific modules you need by using jQuery Mobile Download Builder that was released yesterday June 30, 2012. You can select specific form element, transition type, widget and some core functionalities and Utilites.. Here you can find jQuery Mobile Download Builder RC1. http://jquerymobile.com/download-builder Thanks for jQuery Mobile team for there efforts....(read more)

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• Intel Recreates Animusic’s Pipe Dream Music Machine in Real Life

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  In 2001 there was a wildly popular CGI video created by Animusic called Pipe Dream that featured an awesome Rube-Goldberg’esque music making machine. Intel built a equally as awesome real world version of it, check out this video to see it in action. So how does it compare to the original video? Pretty darn well if we do say so; check out the original Animusic animation here: Not a bad CGI-to-reality conversion, eh? You can check out more videos of the Intel project here. [via Neatorama] Reader Request: How To Repair Blurry Photos HTG Explains: What Can You Find in an Email Header? The How-To Geek Guide to Getting Started with TrueCrypt

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• RUIN: A Post-Apocalyptic Short Animation [Video]

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  If your coffee has failed to perk you up this morning, this action-packed post-apocalyptic animation–a trailer for a work-in-progress CGI movie–most certainly will. Courtesy of Oddball Animation, RUIN is a polished bit of animation that could easily stand alone as a short film.  The studio is in the process of shopping it around to extend it into a full length movie which, if it looks as good as it does in the short form, will be worth the price of admission. RUIN [via Neatorama] The HTG Guide to Hiding Your Data in a TrueCrypt Hidden Volume Make Your Own Windows 8 Start Button with Zero Memory Usage Reader Request: How To Repair Blurry Photos

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• Watch Awesome CGI Effects from ‘Game of Thrones – Season 2' Unfold in Front of Your Eyes [Video]

  - by Asian Angel

  CGI technology is pure awesomeness when it comes to adding scenic views and effects to our favorites TV shows and movies. Watch the process unfold right in front of your eyes with this terrific video that focuses on the second season of Game of Thrones! CGI VFX Breakdowns: “Game of Thrones” by Pixomondo [via Nerd Bastards] How To Create a Customized Windows 7 Installation Disc With Integrated Updates How to Get Pro Features in Windows Home Versions with Third Party Tools HTG Explains: Is ReadyBoost Worth Using?

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• E-Business Suite Technology Stack Roadmap (April 2010) Now Available

  - by Steven Chan

  Keeping up with our E-Business Suite technology stack roadmap can be challenging.  Regular readers of this blog know that we certify new combinations and versions of Oracle products with the E-Business Suite every few weeks.  We also update our certification plans and roadmap as new third-party products like Microsoft Office 2010 and Firefox are announced or released.  Complicating matters further, various Oracle products leave Premier Support or are superceded by more-recent versions.This constant state of change means that any static representation of our roadmap is really a snapshot in time, and a snapshot that might begin to yellow and fade fairly quickly.  With that caveat in mind, here's this month's snapshot that I presented at the OAUG/Collaborate 2010 conference in Las Vegas last week:EBS Technology Stack Roadmap (April 2010)

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• DIY Tablet Stands Prop Up Your Tablet On-The-Cheap

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  You shelled out a pile of money for your tablet computer already; skip the expensive stands and prop things up with a DIY model. Unpluggd shares a roundup of 5 DIY stands. The best part about the roundup is that three out of the five require no more DIY action than simply buying the product and using it in an unconventional way. Hit up the link below to check out their tablet-stand solutions. Have a clever solution of your own to share? Let’s hear about it in the comments. The Best of the DIY Tablet Stands [Unpluggd] Use Amazon’s Barcode Scanner to Easily Buy Anything from Your Phone How To Migrate Windows 7 to a Solid State Drive Follow How-To Geek on Google+

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• What’s Outt Showcases What’s New in Theaters, TV, Music, Books, Games, and More

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  It’s tough to keep on top of all the new media that comes out; What’s Outt gathers current and future releases for everything from in-theater movies to console games. You can check out the current week, up to two weeks into the future, and–if you’re a bit behind the new release wave–you can page your way back through the archives to catch up. In addition to the web interface, What’s Outt has a simple once-a-week mailing list to keep you updated on the newest releases across all the categories they tracks. What’s Outt [via MakeUseOf] How to Own Your Own Website (Even If You Can’t Build One) Pt 2 How to Own Your Own Website (Even If You Can’t Build One) Pt 1 What’s the Difference Between Sleep and Hibernate in Windows?

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• Announcing Windows Azure Mobile Services

  - by ScottGu

  I’m excited to announce a new capability we are adding to Windows Azure today: Windows Azure Mobile Services Windows Azure Mobile Services makes it incredibly easy to connect a scalable cloud backend to your client and mobile applications.  It allows you to easily store structured data in the cloud that can span both devices and users, integrate it with user authentication, as well as send out updates to clients via push notifications. Today’s release enables you to add these capabilities to any Windows 8 app in literally minutes, and provides a super productive way for you to quickly build out your app ideas.  We’ll also be adding support to enable these same scenarios for Windows Phone, iOS, and Android devices soon. Read this getting started tutorial to walkthrough how you can build (in less than 5 minutes) a simple Windows 8 “Todo List” app that is cloud enabled using Windows Azure Mobile Services.  Or watch this video of me showing how to do it step by step. Getting Started If you don’t already have a Windows Azure account, you can sign up for a no-obligation Free Trial.  Once you are signed-up, click the “preview features” section under the “account” tab of the www.windowsazure.com website and enable your account to support the “Mobile Services” preview.   Instructions on how to enable this can be found here. Once you have the mobile services preview enabled, log into the Windows Azure Portal, click the “New” button and choose the new “Mobile Services” icon to create your first mobile backend.  Once created, you’ll see a quick-start page like below with instructions on how to connect your mobile service to an existing Windows 8 client app you have already started working on, or how to create and connect a brand-new Windows 8 client app with it: Read this getting started tutorial to walkthrough how you can build (in less than 5 minutes) a simple Windows 8 “Todo List” app  that stores data in Windows Azure. Storing Data in the Cloud Storing data in the cloud with Windows Azure Mobile Services is incredibly easy.  When you create a Windows Azure Mobile Service, we automatically associate it with a SQL Database inside Windows Azure.  The Windows Azure Mobile Service backend then provides built-in support for enabling remote apps to securely store and retrieve data from it (using secure REST end-points utilizing a JSON-based ODATA format) – without you having to write or deploy any custom server code.  Built-in management support is provided within the Windows Azure portal for creating new tables, browsing data, setting indexes, and controlling access permissions. This makes it incredibly easy to connect client applications to the cloud, and enables client developers who don’t have a server-code background to be productive from the very beginning.  They can instead focus on building the client app experience, and leverage Windows Azure Mobile Services to provide the cloud backend services they require.  Below is an example of client-side Windows 8 C#/XAML code that could be used to query data from a Windows Azure Mobile Service.  Client-side C# developers can write queries like this using LINQ and strongly typed POCO objects, which are then translated into HTTP REST queries that run against a Windows Azure Mobile Service.   Developers don’t have to write or deploy any custom server-side code in order to enable client-side code below to execute and asynchronously populate their client UI: Because Mobile Services is part of Windows Azure, developers can later choose to augment or extend their initial solution and add custom server functionality and more advanced logic if they want.  This provides maximum flexibility, and enables developers to grow and extend their solutions to meet any needs. User Authentication and Push Notifications Windows Azure Mobile Services also make it incredibly easy to integrate user authentication/authorization and push notifications within your applications.  You can use these capabilities to enable authentication and fine grain access control permissions to the data you store in the cloud, as well as to trigger push notifications to users/devices when the data changes.  Windows Azure Mobile Services supports the concept of “server scripts” (small chunks of server-side script that executes in response to actions) that make it really easy to enable these scenarios. Below are some tutorials that walkthrough common authentication/authorization/push scenarios you can do with Windows Azure Mobile Services and Windows 8 apps: Enabling User Authentication Authorizing Users  Get Started with Push Notifications Push Notifications to multiple Users Manage and Monitor your Mobile Service Just like with every other service in Windows Azure, you can monitor usage and metrics of your mobile service backend using the “Dashboard” tab within the Windows Azure Portal. The dashboard tab provides a built-in monitoring view of the API calls, Bandwidth, and server CPU cycles of your Windows Azure Mobile Service.   You can also use the “Logs” tab within the portal to review error messages.  This makes it easy to monitor and track how your application is doing. Scale Up as Your Business Grows Windows Azure Mobile Services now allows every Windows Azure customer to create and run up to 10 Mobile Services in a free, shared/multi-tenant hosting environment (where your mobile backend will be one of multiple apps running on a shared set of server resources).  This provides an easy way to get started on projects at no cost beyond the database you connect your Windows Azure Mobile Service to (note: each Windows Azure free trial account also includes a 1GB SQL Database that you can use with any number of apps or Windows Azure Mobile Services). If your client application becomes popular, you can click the “Scale” tab of your Mobile Service and switch from “Shared” to “Reserved” mode.  Doing so allows you to isolate your apps so that you are the only customer within a virtual machine.  This allows you to elastically scale the amount of resources your apps use – allowing you to scale-up (or scale-down) your capacity as your traffic grows: With Windows Azure you pay for compute capacity on a per-hour basis – which allows you to scale up and down your resources to match only what you need.  This enables a super flexible model that is ideal for new mobile app scenarios, as well as startups who are just getting going.  Summary I’ve only scratched the surface of what you can do with Windows Azure Mobile Services – there are a lot more features to explore.  With Windows Azure Mobile Services you’ll be able to build mobile app experiences faster than ever, and enable even better user experiences – by connecting your client apps to the cloud. Visit the Windows Azure Mobile Services development center to learn more, and build your first Windows 8 app connected with Windows Azure today.  And read this getting started tutorial to walkthrough how you can build (in less than 5 minutes) a simple Windows 8 “Todo List” app that is cloud enabled using Windows Azure Mobile Services. Hope this helps, Scott P.S. In addition to blogging, I am also now using Twitter for quick updates and to share links. Follow me at: twitter.com/scottgu

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