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  • Save the Date - Oracle Partner Community Forum: Exadata, Exalogic and Manageability, Vienna, 23-24 April 2013

    - by Javier Puerta
    Hardware and Software Engineered to Work Together .Ritu { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; } .Ritu { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; } .Ritu { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; } body,td,th { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; } .color { color: #F00; } .c { color: #F00; } .c { color: #F00; } .c { color: #000; font-size: xx-small; } .c a { color: #F00; } .c { color: #F00; } .cl { color: #F00; } .b { color: #000; font-size: xx-small; } .i { font-style: italic; } .i { font-style: italic; } .i { font-style: italic; } .i { font-style: italic; } .i { font-style: italic; } .c { color: #F00; font-size: small; } .b { font-weight: bold; font-size: x-small; } .c { color: #F00; font-size: x-small; } .clr { color: #F00; } .c { color: #F00; } inside the Click Here The order you must follow to make the colored link appear in browsers. If not the default window link will appear 1. Select the word you want to use for the link 2. Select the desired color, Red, Black, etc 3. Select bold if necessary ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Templates use two sizes of fonts and the sans-serif font tag for the email. All Fonts should be (Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif) tags Normal size reading body fonts should be set to the size of 2. Small font sizes should be set to 1 !!!!!!!DO NOT USE ANY OTHER SIZE FONT FOR THE EMAILS!!!!!!!! ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ -- Oracle PartnerNetwork | Account | Feedback SAVE THE DATE ORACLE PARTNER COMMUNITY FORUM: EXADATA, EXALOGIC AND MANAGEABILITY 23-24 APRIL 2013, VIENNA, AUSTRIA The 2013 event expands its scope to cover all the building blocks of the Cloud infrastructure: Exadata, Exalogic and Manageability! Dear partner I am delighted to announce the 2013 edition of the Exadata, Exalogic and Manageability Partner Community Forum for EMEA partners which will take place in Vienna, Austria, on April 23-24, 2013. After the experience of last year where we ran a joint Exadata and Manageability event, we received requests from many of you to add also Exalogic to the scope of the forum, and this way to cover the complete infrastructure architecture on the Exa platform. The continued market adoption of Exadata and Exalogic is being paralleled by a growth in the rate of projects sold and implemented by partners. Sharing customer cases and best-practices presented by other partners constitutes the core of this event. If you want to present an experience of your company around Exadata, Exalogic or Manageability that can be a learning experience for other partners, we still have some slots in the agenda. (Please contact Javier Puerta if you want to present.) Attending the Community Forum you will also have the opportunity to get Oracle’s insight on new products and market trends. And, of course, interact with the Oracle executives responsible for the Exadata, Exalogic and Manageability business. The atmosphere of beautiful Vienna will be the scenario of the event. Detailed venue and hotel booking information will be sent to you in January. Don't miss out on attending this key event! Save the date now - 23 & 24 April 2013, and watch out for your formal invitation coming soon. Kind regards, Javier Puerta Core Technology Partner Programs, Oracle EMEA E-Mail: [email protected] Jürgen Kress SOA Partner Adoption Oracle EMEA E-Mail: [email protected] Copyright © 2012, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Contact PBC | Legal Notices and Terms of Use | Privacy Oracle Corporation - Worldwide Headquarters, 500 Oracle Parkway, OPL - E-mail Services, Redwood Shores, CA 94065, United States

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  • Save the Date - Oracle Partner Community Forum: Exadata, Exalogic and Manageability, Vienna, 23-24 April 2013

    - by Javier Puerta
    Hardware and Software Engineered to Work Together .Ritu { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; } .Ritu { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; } .Ritu { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; } body,td,th { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; } .color { color: #F00; } .c { color: #F00; } .c { color: #F00; } .c { color: #000; font-size: xx-small; } .c a { color: #F00; } .c { color: #F00; } .cl { color: #F00; } .b { color: #000; font-size: xx-small; } .i { font-style: italic; } .i { font-style: italic; } .i { font-style: italic; } .i { font-style: italic; } .i { font-style: italic; } .c { color: #F00; font-size: small; } .b { font-weight: bold; font-size: x-small; } .c { color: #F00; font-size: x-small; } .clr { color: #F00; } .c { color: #F00; } inside the Click Here The order you must follow to make the colored link appear in browsers. If not the default window link will appear 1. Select the word you want to use for the link 2. Select the desired color, Red, Black, etc 3. Select bold if necessary ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Templates use two sizes of fonts and the sans-serif font tag for the email. All Fonts should be (Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif) tags Normal size reading body fonts should be set to the size of 2. Small font sizes should be set to 1 !!!!!!!DO NOT USE ANY OTHER SIZE FONT FOR THE EMAILS!!!!!!!! ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ -- Oracle PartnerNetwork | Account | Feedback SAVE THE DATE ORACLE PARTNER COMMUNITY FORUM: EXADATA, EXALOGIC AND MANAGEABILITY 23-24 APRIL 2013, VIENNA, AUSTRIA The 2013 event expands its scope to cover all the building blocks of the Cloud infrastructure: Exadata, Exalogic and Manageability! Dear partner I am delighted to announce the 2013 edition of the Exadata, Exalogic and Manageability Partner Community Forum for EMEA partners which will take place in Vienna, Austria, on April 23-24, 2013. After the experience of last year where we ran a joint Exadata and Manageability event, we received requests from many of you to add also Exalogic to the scope of the forum, and this way to cover the complete infrastructure architecture on the Exa platform. The continued market adoption of Exadata and Exalogic is being paralleled by a growth in the rate of projects sold and implemented by partners. Sharing customer cases and best-practices presented by other partners constitutes the core of this event. If you want to present an experience of your company around Exadata, Exalogic or Manageability that can be a learning experience for other partners, we still have some slots in the agenda. (Please contact Javier Puerta if you want to present.) Attending the Community Forum you will also have the opportunity to get Oracle’s insight on new products and market trends. And, of course, interact with the Oracle executives responsible for the Exadata, Exalogic and Manageability business. The atmosphere of beautiful Vienna will be the scenario of the event. Detailed venue and hotel booking information will be sent to you in January. Don't miss out on attending this key event! Save the date now - 23 & 24 April 2013, and watch out for your formal invitation coming soon. Kind regards, Javier Puerta Core Technology Partner Programs, Oracle EMEA E-Mail: [email protected] Jürgen Kress SOA Partner Adoption Oracle EMEA E-Mail: [email protected] Copyright © 2012, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Contact PBC | Legal Notices and Terms of Use | Privacy Oracle Corporation - Worldwide Headquarters, 500 Oracle Parkway, OPL - E-mail Services, Redwood Shores, CA 94065, United States

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  • Oracle Fusion CRM Implementation Bootcamp for EMEA Systems Integrators - Paris July 24-26th

    - by Richard Lefebvre
    To support partner success and increase win potential with Fusion CRM, we are organizing a unique bootcamp on Fusion CRM intended for Oracle EMEA partners on July 24th to 26th. Join us for this outstanding Bootcamp and learn from Oracle Corporation in-depth know-how on Fusion CRM. The official announcement will be forthcoming, yet we wanted you to determine the appropriate candidate to attend this workshop. Further to this we will send the actual invitation to the selected candidate. Due to the limited number of seats, we will be limiting the number of registrations per SI company and will be selecting the participants. If you are interested to have one or more representatives of your company to attend this bootcamp, please send an email to [email protected] by June 18th indicating the name and email address of the participants you would like to nominate, ranked by priority. What will we cover: This Bootcamp presents the fundamental concepts of the Oracle Fusion CRM applications. It introduces you to each functional area of the product, how it is used, and what you need to consider when implementing it for an organization. While we do examine implementation considerations, we do not address the detailed steps of implementation. Instead, we direct you to the relevant resources to learn more. Topics covered: Fusion CRM Introduction Fusion CRM Security Introduction Fusion Functional Setup Manager Introduction Customer Model Introduction Customer Center Introduction Customer Data Management Introduction Marketing & Campaigns Introduction Lead Management Introduction Territory Management Introduction Territory Modeling Introduction with Exercise Opportunity Management Introduction Forecasting Introduction Analytics Introduction CRM For Microsoft Outlook Introduction Customizing with Composers Introduction Roundtable Discussions, and time for hands-on labs (day 2, 3, 4) Next Steps, available resources, ongoing learning path, partner environments, keeping in touch and feedback Bootcamp Goals: Enable a new Fusion CRM implementation team member to: Describe the scope of Oracle Fusion CRM applications Describe the basic security model Describe the customer model Perform common sales and marketing user transactions Access and navigate the Functional Setup Manager Model territories in Fusion CRM using sample business requirements Do necessary planning before implementing the offerings and options Describe the analytics available with the Fusion CRM product Describe the basic page customizations that can be done to meet business requirements Find documentation and other courses to assist in performing setup tasks Expectations: This Bootcamp program should prime the SI organization implementation consultants to attain the basic skills necessary to support a consulting practice in the delivery, scoping, pricing, and planning of your Fusion CRM Implementations. Oracle University will begin to offer additional deep skill training, starting this summer, designed to follow the Introduction Bootcamp. Participants will be expected to participate in labs, exercises, workshops and roundtable discussions with the Oracle Product Managers. Who should attend: This class is designed for your lead CRM Implementation consultants, those who will support your Fusion CRM consulting practice as it grows. These individuals may be members of a centre of excellence, or skills leadership office. The individual who is attending the bootcamp must have prior experience implementing a CRM solution. Intended Audience: Oracle Diamond, Platinum and Gold Level SIs (Top SIs) with specialization in Oracle Applications CRM implementations, with a commitment to achieving Fusion CRM Implementation Specialization. Commitment expressed through an investment in a Center of Excellence/Innovation Center for Fusion CRM Applications. Individuals who will support the implementation practice as it is forming and will deliver Fusion CRM On Premise and Cloud Services implementations. Functional practice leaders, the future Fusion Application Wizards within the SI's organization. This Bootcamp is designed for people who: Will deliver Fusion CRM implementations Have had little or no exposure to Fusion CRM applications Are familiar with at least one other CRM application Have a business analyst level of technical background Prerequisites: Please note, that participants will be asked to take self-service-trainings (video format) and pass the related assessments prior to joining the Bootcamp. Fees: This event is FREE of charge for Oracle partners. When: 24 July – 26 July, 2012 (8:30 - 18:00 each day, including the last day; with recommended but optional evening events on all three days from 18:00 - 20:00 hrs) Where: Paris, France (Location to be defined) Travel: To make your travel hassel free, we kindly suggest you to plan your arrival to Paris on July 23rd and your departure on the 27th. Agenda: The final agenda and registration details will be issued closer to the event date.  

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  • Nominations now open for the Oracle FMW Excellence Awards 2014

    - by Greg Jensen
    2014 Oracle Excellence Award NominationsWho Is the Innovative Leader for Identity Management? •    Is your organization leveraging one of Oracle’s Identity and Access Management solutions in your production environment?•    Are you a leading edge organization that has adopted a forward thinking approach to Identity and Access Management processes across the organization?•    Are you ready to promote and highlight the success of your deployment to your peers? •    Would you a chance to win FREE registration to Oracle OpenWorld 2014? Oracle is pleased to announce the call for nominations for the 2014 Oracle Excellence Awards: Oracle Fusion Middleware Innovation.  The Oracle Excellence Awards for Oracle Fusion Middleware Innovation honor organizations using Oracle Fusion Middleware to deliver unique business value.  This year, the awards will recognize customers across nine distinct categories, including Identity and Access Management.  Oracle customers, who feel they are pioneers in their implementation of at least one of the Oracle Identity and Access Management offerings in a production environment or active deployment, should submit a nomination.  If submitted by June 20th, 2014, you will have a chance to win a FREE registration to Oracle OpenWorld 2014 (September 28 - October 2) in San Francisco, CA.  Top customers will be showcased at Oracle OpenWorld and featured in Oracle publications.   The  Identity and Access Management Nomination Form Additional benefits to nomineesNominating your organization opens additional opportunities to partner with Oracle such as:•    Promotion of your Customer Success StoriesProvides a platform for you to share the success of your initiatives and programs to peer groups raising the overall visibility of your team and your organization as a leader in security•    Social Media promotion (Video, Blog & Podcast)Reach the masses of Oracle’s customers through sharing of success stories, or customer created blog content that highlights the advanced thought leadership role in security with co-authored articles on Oracle Blog page that reaches close to 100,000 subscribers. There are numerous options to promote activities on Facebook, Twitter and co-branded activities using Video and Audio. •    Live speaking opportunities to your peersAs a technology leader within your organization, you can represent your organization at Oracle sponsored events (online, in person or webcasts) to help share the success of your organizations efforts building out your team/organization brand and success. •    Invitation to the IDM Architect ForumOracle is able to invite the right customers into the IDM Architect Forum which is an invite only group of customers that meet monthly to hear technology driven presentations from their own peers (not from Oracle) on today’s trends.  If you want to hear privately what some of the most successful companies in every industry are doing about security, this is the forum to be in. All presentations are private and remain within the forum, and only members can see take advantage of the lessons gained from these meetings.  To date, there are 125 members. There are many more advantages to partnering with Oracle, however, it can start with the simple nomination form for Identity and Access Management category of the 2014 Oracle Excellence Award Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}

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  • Project Euler considered harmful

    - by xxxxxxx
    Hi, I've done some Project Euler problems and I was able to solve them very fast because I already knew all the theory behind them. I learned that "accidentaly" because I also had to learn it for university. I used to also solve olympiad problems, I wasn't very good but I was solving some of the problems. I've reached the conclusion that Project Euler problems are taken out of their context(and olympiad problems as well). That's why they are hard. Mathematics and it's theory is taught in order to make the problems easy. However, Project Euler apparently makes an invitation at making them hard again. Why ? I honestly think this is a complete waste of time. Mathematicians had centuries at their disposal in order to solve math problems and they developed theories to explain properly why certain things happen. I think olympiad problems and Project Euler problems are really useless. What's your take on Project Euler ? Do you get something out of it or do you just find formulas on some websites and implement the code fast and then get the result and solve the problem ?

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  • IRC Server configuration possibilities

    - by Katai
    I need to know a couple of things, concerning IRC servers that I couldnt directly find out over google (or werent clear enough for me to be sure if it actually works) I'm working at a larger community site, and wanted to deliver an in-page chat. Since it would be a nice feature to let people access it from outside too, over their own clients, I tought implementing an IRC Server would be the best solution (probably dedicated, I'll have to teach myself a couple of things for that) I plan to include a Web-based IRC client over an APE Client / Server. The problem is, I want to strip down the user rights, to disallow many functionalities that IRC would offer: Change of nicknames: The user logs in over the Page login, and I'll automatically create an IRC auth for this user with that password. So basically, he would connect to the IRC client over a button. And after connecting, he shouldnt be able to change his nickname at all Creating channels: I want the possibility to create channels, but not from 'normal' users. Basically, I would prefer to set up basic channels that are public, and if a user really creates an own channel, that one should be private and via invitation (is that possible?) Private conversations: private conversations should be filtered out from the allaround IRC client, into separate 'in-browser-windows' that I create over JS. I guess I just have to filter the stuff coming from IRC - or is there a better solution to that? Only 'registered' users have access: Like I said, if someone registers on the page, I would like to create an IRC 'account' for him. Users that arent registered on the page, cant access the IRC server at all (or get thrown out). Mainly to avoid spammers or bots from outside. Is this stuff solvable over IRC? I've read some FAQ's and Instructions for IRC OP's and servers, but I couldnt find a clear answer - it seems that everyone can do pretty much everything - I would like to configure it in a way that user possibilities are more cut down. Basically, giving users the possibility to chat, but not more. So the Question basically is, how possible / solvable this issues are allaround, or if I have to find other solutions for this.

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  • Javascript error: Object required...tough time fixing this

    - by rtnav2301
    The situation is this: a friend of mine asked me to help her with a website she's working on called www.KeepsakePartyInvitations.com. Her original designer created this code but didn't finish the project. So here I am to help save the day. Now, once a photo has been added to the party template and the mouse is placed over the image, an alternate text message appears to the right. The message informs the visitor how to reposition and resize the image, if necessary. I'm testing the procedure in the invitation to reposition the image. I follow the directions about moving the picture, but the mouse does not let go of the photo. Where ever the mouse moves, so does the image. The same thing occurs if you want to resize the image, you follow the directions but the image does not resize. I check the error message in IE 8 and it states: Message: Object required Line: 873 Char: 3 Code: 0 URI: http://www.keepsakepartyinvitations.com/Includes/JCode.js When I checked the Javascript file, the Line 873 states: tempX = e.clientX + document.body.scrollLeft If you review the javascript file, the function where the line is located is called: function getMouseXY(e). Please help me, it has been a long while since I've worked with Javascript and I'm motivated to get this fixed. Thank you!

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  • Multi-account sync with Dropbox API

    - by Dan
    I'm trying to create a web app that lets users share files with each other through Dropbox. At the moment, Dropbox handles all the sharing, and there's one central Dropbox account running on the web server that shares the folder with the people who want it. I'm trying to change it so people don't have to accept a new folder invitation each time. I'd like to have them authorize my app to access an app folder in their Dropbox account, and all their shared folders would go inside there. Any changes they make would get noticed by the app on the server and synced to everyone else's folders. There's a couple things I'm having trouble figuring out to make this work: Do I need to make repeated calls to /delta for every account? I can't think how else I'd do this, but that sounds like it would quickly turn into thousands of requests a minute just polling for updates. When someone adds a file, do I have to upload it once for each account? That seems like a huge waste of bandwidth. I've looked into using /copy_ref, which I think would add a file to another user's account without my app ever touching it, but my app's web interface also allows users to upload files directly to my server, which would then need to be synced with everyone else's folders. That file isn't on Dropbox's servers yet, so /copy_ref obviously wouldn't work. For a little extra context, my app is written in node.js, and I've been playing with this library to interface with Dropbox, which uses their REST API.

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  • JQM Nested Popups

    - by mcottingham
    I am having a hard time with the new Alpha release of JQM not showing nested popups. For example, I am displaying a popup form that the user is supposed to fill out, if the server side validation fails, I want to display an error popup. I am finding that the error popup is not being shown. I suspect that it is being shown below the original popup. function bindSongWriterInvite() { // Bind the click event of the invite button $("#invite-songwriter").click(function () { $("#songwriter-invite-popup").popup("open"); }); // Bind the invitation click event of the invite modal $("#songwriter-invite-invite").click(function () { if ($('#songwriter-invite').valid()) { $('#songwriter-invite-popup').popup('close'); $.ajax({ type: 'POST', async: true, url: '/songwriter/jsoncreate', data: $('#songwriter-invite').serialize() + "&songName=" + $("#Song_Title").val(), success: function (response) { if (response.state != "success") { alert("Should be showing error dialog"); mobileBindErrorDialog(response.message); } else { mobileBindErrorDialog("Success!"); } }, failure: function () { mobileBindErrorDialog("Failure!"); }, dataType: 'json' }); } }); // Bind the cancel click event of the invite modal $("#songwriter-invite-cancel").click(function () { $("#songwriter-invite-popup").popup("close"); }); } function mobileBindErrorDialog(errorMessage) { // Close all open popups. This is a work around as the JQM Alpha does not // open new popups in front of all other popups. var error = $("<div></div>").append("<p>" + errorMessage + "</p>") .popup(); $(error).popup("open"); } So, you can see that I attempt to show the error dialog regardless of whether the ajax post succeeds or fails. It just never shows up. Anyone have any thoughts? Mike

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  • SQLAuthority News – Author Visit Review – TechMela Nepal – March 29-30, 2010

    - by pinaldave
    I was very fortunate to attend TechMela at Kathmandu, Nepal on 29th and 30th of March 2010. I would like to thank Allen Bailochan Tuladhar from Microsoft MDP Nepal for inviting me. Allen is a person with seemingly infinite energy and unlimited passion for Microsoft Technology. If you get an opportunity to spend just one hour with him, you will surely be more enthusiastic with regards to Microsoft Technology. And, I was lucky enough that I was able to spend about a total of 9 days with him in Kathmandu, working along with him in the Tech Community. TechMela Nepal Pinal at TechMela, Nepal TechMela is considered as one of the biggest events in Nepal, having been organized by Microsoft MDP Nepal. This event was attended by around 500 students and hundreds of Tech professionals. The event was handled very professionally and at very large scale. Every minor detail was properly planned and obviously thought out well. There were around 50+ volunteers from MS MDP who were monitoring this event systematically to make sure the event would run as smooth as planned. Attendees in Geek T-Shirts During this event, I was delighted to meet David Lim of Microsoft Singapore. He is very passionate in working for Microsoft Technology, as well as building deep relations with the Community. I was fortunate to spend my entire afternoon with him during the sight-seeing trip. We discussed various MS technologies and their community’s adoption as well as the way how each of us can be a part of the community activity. He also delivered excellent keynotes at the event. I must say that this is one of the most enjoyable keynotes I have ever attended. It was interesting and interactive, and I must say that I had the 70s feelings with all the fonts and graphics. I still remember him saying, “Yeah, I was a student and I know you.” Allen Tuladhar, David Lim, Pinal Dave and Guests After the keynote, everybody cheered when Allen came on stage to talk about the event and to introduce the agenda for the next two days. I must say that Allen is one of the most well-known people in Nepal. I was impressed with his popularity, and to prove this, when he got on the stage he had to wait for a long full minute before he was able to greet “Welcome” while the attendees were clapping and cheering. Technology Panelist at Techmela Kathmandu, Nepal This event was blessed with the top-of-the-top officials of various IT industries, Nepal ministries and the US Embassy. All the prominent personalities were present for panel discussion on the stage. The talk was done on various subjects. Also, the energy level which was set by Allen really echoed in the audience as they asked certain questions on different global as well local IT-related questions. The panel discussion really was discussion instead of usual monologue of one person. Pinal Dave presending at TechMela Kathmandu, Nepal This was a two-day event and my session was on either of the day. I had a great participation from the audience on both days. The place where the event was organized had a capacity of around 500+ audience. Both of my sessions were heavily attended and volunteers did a fabulous job helping the attendees find empty seats or arrange some additional seats. I was overwhelmed with the interaction I have received in the large hall. Attendees were not so shy to express their thoughts, so both the sessions were followed up by top notch one-on-one conversations for a couple of hours. Pinal Dave presending at TechMela Kathmandu, Nepal Pinal Dave presending at TechMela Kathmandu, Nepal Pinal Dave presending at TechMela Kathmandu, Nepal There are many questions that I have received during the event, and many of them can be interesting for all of us here so I will write detailed blog posts on these subjects. I also tried to participate in the gaming activities held at the event, but I felt I was kind of lost even if I was only playing for the very first minutes. This made me realize that I am really getting old for video games. Allen presending at TechMela Kathmandu, Nepal Allen’s session on Digital Photography was very impressive as he demonstrated so many features of the Windows Live Product that at one point I felt he is MVP for Windows Live. In fact, he demonstrated how all the Microsoft products work together to give users an excellent desktop experience; no wonder he is an MVP for Windows Desktop Experience. Pinal Dave presending at TechMela Kathmandu, Nepal Any event has two common dilemmas – food and logistics. However, this event had excellent food and state-of-the-art organization. I was very glad that this two-day event turned out to be one of the most successful events in Nepal. I also noticed that almost all attendees rate their experience as beyond expectation and truly exceptional. Pinal Dave and Allen Bailochan Tuladhar If you ever get invited by Allen in any of his event, I strongly suggest that you drop all your plans and scheduled stuff, and accept his invitation. For sure, the event will be a very memorable one and would be your once-in-a-lifetime experience. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: MVP, Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority Author Visit, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology

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  • SQLAuthority News – Author Visit Review – TechMela Nepal – March 29-30, 2010

    - by pinaldave
    I was very fortunate to attend TechMela at Kathmandu, Nepal on 29th and 30th of March 2010. I would like to thank Allen Bailochan Tuladhar from Microsoft MDP Nepal for inviting me. Allen is a person with seemingly infinite energy and unlimited passion for Microsoft Technology. If you get an opportunity to spend just one hour with him, you will surely be more enthusiastic with regards to Microsoft Technology. And, I was lucky enough that I was able to spend about a total of 9 days with him in Kathmandu, working along with him in the Tech Community. TechMela Nepal Pinal at TechMela, Nepal TechMela is considered as one of the biggest events in Nepal, having been organized by Microsoft MDP Nepal. This event was attended by around 500 students and hundreds of Tech professionals. The event was handled very professionally and at very large scale. Every minor detail was properly planned and obviously thought out well. There were around 50+ volunteers from MS MDP who were monitoring this event systematically to make sure the event would run as smooth as planned. Attendees in Geek T-Shirts During this event, I was delighted to meet David Lim of Microsoft Singapore. He is very passionate in working for Microsoft Technology, as well as building deep relations with the Community. I was fortunate to spend my entire afternoon with him during the sight-seeing trip. We discussed various MS technologies and their community’s adoption as well as the way how each of us can be a part of the community activity. He also delivered excellent keynotes at the event. I must say that this is one of the most enjoyable keynotes I have ever attended. It was interesting and interactive, and I must say that I had the 70s feelings with all the fonts and graphics. I still remember him saying, “Yeah, I was a student and I know you.” Allen Tuladhar, David Lim, Pinal Dave and Guests After the keynote, everybody cheered when Allen came on stage to talk about the event and to introduce the agenda for the next two days. I must say that Allen is one of the most well-known people in Nepal. I was impressed with his popularity, and to prove this, when he got on the stage he had to wait for a long full minute before he was able to greet “Welcome” while the attendees were clapping and cheering. Technology Panelist at Techmela Kathmandu, Nepal This event was blessed with the top-of-the-top officials of various IT industries, Nepal ministries and the US Embassy. All the prominent personalities were present for panel discussion on the stage. The talk was done on various subjects. Also, the energy level which was set by Allen really echoed in the audience as they asked certain questions on different global as well local IT-related questions. The panel discussion really was discussion instead of usual monologue of one person. Pinal Dave presenting at TechMela Kathmandu, Nepal This was a two-day event and my session was on either of the day. I had a great participation from the audience on both days. The place where the event was organized had a capacity of around 500+ audience. Both of my sessions were heavily attended and volunteers did a fabulous job helping the attendees find empty seats or arrange some additional seats. I was overwhelmed with the interaction I have received in the large hall. Attendees were not so shy to express their thoughts, so both the sessions were followed up by top notch one-on-one conversations for a couple of hours. Pinal Dave presenting at TechMela Kathmandu, Nepal Pinal Dave presenting at TechMela Kathmandu, Nepal There are many questions that I have received during the event, and many of them can be interesting for all of us here so I will write detailed blog posts on these subjects. I also tried to participate in the gaming activities held at the event, but I felt I was kind of lost even if I was only playing for the very first minutes. This made me realize that I am really getting old for video games. Allen presenting at TechMela Kathmandu, Nepal Allen’s session on Digital Photography was very impressive as he demonstrated so many features of the Windows Live Product that at one point I felt he is MVP for Windows Live. In fact, he demonstrated how all the Microsoft products work together to give users an excellent desktop experience; no wonder he is an MVP for Windows Desktop Experience. Pinal Dave presending at TechMela Kathmandu, Nepal Any event has two common dilemmas – food and logistics. However, this event had excellent food and state-of-the-art organization. I was very glad that this two-day event turned out to be one of the most successful events in Nepal. I also noticed that almost all attendees rate their experience as beyond expectation and truly exceptional. Pinal Dave and Allen Bailochan Tuladhar If you ever get invited by Allen in any of his event, I strongly suggest that you drop all your plans and scheduled stuff, and accept his invitation. For sure, the event will be a very memorable one and would be your once-in-a-lifetime experience. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: MVP, Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority Author Visit, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology

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  • Java Embedded @ JavaOne: Q & A

    - by terrencebarr
    There has been a lot of interest in Java Embedded @ JavaOne since it was announced a short while ago (see my previous post). As this is a new conference we did get a number of questions regarding the conference. So we put together a brief Q & A on audience focus, dates, registrations, pricing, submissions, etc. Hope this helps and, remember, the Call for Papers ends next week, Jul 18th 2012! Cheers, – Terrence    Java Embedded @ JavaOne : Q & A  Q. Where can I learn more about “Java Embedded @ JavaOne”? A. Please visit: http://oracle.com/javaone/embedded Q. What is the purpose of “Java Embedded @ JavaOne”? A. This net-new event is designed to provide business and technical decision makers, as well as Java embedded ecosystem partners, a unique occasion to come together and learn about how they can use Java Embedded technologies for new business opportunities. Q. What broad audiences would benefit by attending “Java Embedded @ JavaOne”? A. Java licensees; Government agencies; ISVs, Device Manufacturers; Service Providers such as Telcos, Utilities, Healthcare, Energy, Smart Grid/Smart Metering; Automotive/Telematics; Home/Building Automation; Factory Automation; Media/TV; and Payment vendors. Q. What business titles would benefit by attending “Java Embedded @ JavaOne”? A. The ideal audience for this event is business and technical decision makers (e.g. System Integrators, CTO, CXO, Chief Architects/Architects, Business Development Managers, Project Managers, Purchasing managers, Technical Leads, Senior Decision Makers, Practice Leads, R&D Heads, and Development Managers/Leads). Q. When is “Java Embedded @ JavaOne” taking place? A. The event takes place on Wednesday, Oct. 3th through Thursday, Oct. 4th. Q. Where is “Java Embedded @ JavaOne” taking place? A. The event takes place in the Hotel Nikko. Q. Won’t “Java Embedded @ JavaOne” impact the flagship JavaOne conference since the Hotel Nikko is one of the 3 flagship JavaOne conference’s venue hotels? A. No. Separate space in the Hotel Nikko will be used for “Java Embedded @ JavaOne” and will in no way impact scale and scope of the flagship JavaOne conference’s content mix. Q. Will there be a call for papers for “Java Embedded @ JavaOne”? A. Yes.  The call for papers has started but is ONLY for business focused submissions. Q. What type of business submissions can I make for “Java Embedded @ JavaOne”? A. We are accepting 3 types of business submissions: Best Practices: Java Embedded business solutions, methods, and techniques that consistently show results superior to those achieved with other means, as well as discussions on how Java Embedded can improve business operations, and increase competitive differentiation and profitability. Case Studies: Discussions with Oracle customers and partners that describe the unique business drivers that convinced them to implement Java Embedded as part of an infrastructure technology mix. The discussions will highlight the issues they faced, the decision making involved, and the implementation choices made to create value and improve business differentiation. Panel: Moderator-driven open discussion focused on the emerging opportunities Java Embedded offers businesses, as well as other topics such as strategy, overcoming common challenges, etc. Q. What is the call for papers timeline for “Java Embedded @ JavaOne”? A. The timeline is as follows: CFP Launched – June 18th Deadline for submissions – July 18th Notifications (Accepts/Declines) – week of July 29th Deadline for speakers to accept speaker invitation – August 10th Presentations due for review – August 31st Q. Where can I find more call for paper details for “Java Embedded @ JavaOne”? A. Please go to: http://www.oracle.com/javaone/embedded/call-for-papers/information/index.html Q. How much does it cost to attend “Java Embedded @ JavaOne”? A. The cost to attend is: $595.00 U.S. — Early Bird (Launch date – July 13, 2012) $795.00 U.S. — Pre-Registration (July 14 – September 28, 2012) $995.00 U.S. — Onsite Registration (September 29 – October 4, 2012) Q. Can an attendee of the flagship JavaOne event and Oracle OpenWorld attend “Java Embedded @ JavaOne”? ?A. Yes.  Attendees of both the flagship JavaOne event and Oracle OpenWorld can attend “Java Embedded @ JavaOne” by purchasing a $100.00 U.S. upgrade to their full conference pass. Filed under: Mobile & Embedded Tagged: Call for Papers, Java Embedded @ JavaOne, JavaOne San Francisco

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  • SOA, Empowerment and Continuous Improvement

    - by Tanu Sood
    Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} Rick Beers is Senior Director of Product Management for Oracle Fusion Middleware. Prior to joining Oracle, Rick held a variety of executive operational positions at Corning, Inc. and Bausch & Lomb. With a professional background that includes senior management positions in manufacturing, supply chain and information technology, Rick brings a unique set of experiences to cover the impact that technology can have on business models, processes and organizations. Rick will be hosting the IT Leader Editorial on a regular basis. I met my twin at Open World. We share backgrounds, experiences and even names. I hosted an invitation-only AppAdvantage Leadership Forum with an overcapacity 85 participants: 55 customers, 15 from the Oracle AppAdvantage team and 15 Partners. It was a lively, open and positive discussion of pace layered architectures and Oracle’s AppAdvantage approach to a unified view of Applications and Middleware. Rick Hassman from Pella was one of the customer panelists and during the pre event prep, Rick and I shared backgrounds and found that we had both been plant managers and led ERP deployments prior to leading IT itself. During the panel conversation I explored this with him, discussing the unique perspectives that this provides to CIO’s. He then hit on a point that I wasn’t able to fully appreciate until a week later. First though, some background. The week after the Forum, one of the participants emailed me with the following thoughts: “I am 150% behind this concept……but we are struggling with the concept of web services and the potential use of the Oracle Service Bus technology let alone moving into using the full SOA/BPM/BAM software to extend our JD Edwards application to both integrate and support business processes”. After thinking a bit I responded this way: While I certainly appreciate the degree of change and effort involved, perhaps I could offer the following: One of the underlying principles behind Oracle AppAdvantage is that more often than not, the choice between changing a business process and invasively customizing ERP represents a Hobson's Choice: neither is acceptable. In this case the third option, moving the process out of ERP, is the only acceptable one. Providing this choice typically requires end to end, real time interoperability across applications and/or services. This real time interoperability, to be sustainable over time requires a service oriented architecture. There's just no way around this. SOA adaptation is admittedly tough at the beginning. New skills, new technology and new headaches. But, like any radically new technology, it has a learning curve that drives cost down rather dramatically over time. Tough choices to be sure, but not entirely different than we face with every major technology cycle. Good points of course, but I felt that something was missing. The points were convincing, perhaps even a bit insightful, but they didn’t get at the heart of what Oracle AppAdvantage is focused upon: how the optimization of technology, applications, processes and relationships can change the very way that organizations operate. And then I thought back to the panel discussion with Rick Hassman at Oracle OpenWorld. Rick stressed that Continuous Improvement is a fundamental business strategy at Pella. I remember Continuous Improvement well as I suspect does everyone who was in American manufacturing during the 80’s. Pioneered by W. Edwards Deming in Japan (and still known alternatively as Kaizen), Continuous Improvement sets in place the business culture that we must not become complacent with success and resistant to the ongoing need for change. Many believe that this single handedly drove the renaissance in American manufacturing through the last two decades, which had become complacent during the 70’s and early 80’s. But what exactly does this have to do with SOA? It was Rick’s next point. He drew the connection that moving those business processes that need to continually change over time out of ERP and into edge applications and services enables continuous improvement by empowering people to continually strive for better ways of doing things rather than be being bound by workflows that cannot change. A compelling connection: that SOA, and the overall Oracle AppAdvantage framework of which it is an integral part, can empower people towards continuous improvement in business processes and as a result drive business leadership and business excellence. What better a case for technology innovation?

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  • Registration is open - JD Edwards Summit in Dubai

    - by Hartmut Wiese
    Dear all, the registration is now open for the 2nd ECEMEA JD Edwards Summit in Dubai. The event is taking place from NOV 17-21. Please see Agenda details and registration links on those two pages:  Partner and Employee Registration Page:eventreg.oracle.com/profile/web/index.cfm?PKWebId=0x285012625 Customer Registration Page:http://eventreg.oracle.com/profile/web/index.cfm?PKWebId=0x285012625 Partner have to pay a fee and with the registration each partner confirms to do his/her payment. Only accepted method of payment is through PayPal. You will receive a separate email after registration with additional details. Prices are the following: - NOV 17-18: USD 100 per Partner registration - NOV 20-21: USD 100 per Partner and Customer registration (NOV 19 is free of charge, Partner Sponsors can register up to 4 people free of charge for the whole event) After the registration you receive an automatic workflow message which is not the registration confirmation. We first have to check the capacity and once you are approved you will receive a separate email with your registration confirmation. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Speciality this year: An invitation letter can be created for Employees only. The fastest way for Customers/Partners to get a Visa is talking to your hotel or airline. This is an established process within this region Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} One workshop is pretty interesting for “JDE in a box” Partner. One standard training (Introduction to Oracle Solaris V.11) was used and we have added some specific content about how to create a “JDE in a box” solution for the X3-2 / T4-1 combination. A “JDE in a box” solution is a Partner Go-to-Market solution where Oracle is helping each partners in identifying the components to use and where we also want to leverage our experiences and help our Partner to successfully combine this to a Partner offering.Target audience are Partner with no or limited Solaris/Sparc knowledge.This is the first version of this training and we all will learn from this experiences. I hope to see a lot of JDEdwards interested people in Dubai during the five days of the event.

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  • Wednesday at OpenWorld: Identity Management

    - by Tanu Sood
    Divide and conquer! Yes, divide and conquer today at Oracle OpenWorld with your colleagues to make the most of all things Identity Management since there’s a lot going on. Here’ the line-up for today: Wednesday, October 3, 2012 CON9458: End End-User-Managed Passwords and Increase Security with Oracle Enterprise Single Sign-On Plus 10:15 a.m. – 11:15 a.m., Moscone West 3008 Most customers have a broad variety of applications (internal, external, web, client server, host etc) and single sign-on systems that extend to some, but not all systems. This session will focus on how customers are using enterprise single sign-on can help extend single sign-on to virtually any application, without costly application modification while laying a foundation that will enable integration with a broader identity management platform. CON9494: Sun2Oracle: Identity Management Platform Transformation 11:45 a.m. – 12:45 p.m., Moscone West 3008 Sun customers are actively defining strategies for how they will modernize their identity deployments. Learn how customers like Avea and SuperValu are leveraging their Sun investment, evaluating areas of expansion/improvement and building momentum. CON9631: Entitlement-centric Access to SOA and Cloud Services 11:45 a.m. – 12:45 p.m., Marriott Marquis, Salon 7 How do you enforce that a junior trader can submit 10 trades/day, with a total value of $5M, if market volatility is low? How can hide sensitive patient information from clerical workers but make it visible to specialists as long as consent has been given or there is an emergency? In this session, Uberether and HerbaLife take the stage with Oracle to demonstrate how you can enforce such entitlements on a service not just within your intranet but also right at the perimeter. CON3957 - Delivering Secure Wi-Fi on the Tube as an Olympics Legacy from London 2012 11:45 a.m. – 12:45 p.m., Moscone West 3003 In this session, Virgin Media, the U.K.’s first combined provider of broadband, TV, mobile, and home phone services, shares how it is providing free secure Wi-Fi services to the London Underground, using Oracle Virtual Directory and Oracle Entitlements Server, leveraging back-end legacy systems that were never designed to be externalized. As an Olympics 2012 legacy, the Oracle architecture will form a platform to be consumed by other Virgin Media services such as video on demand. CON9493: Identity Management and the Cloud 1:15 p.m. – 2:15 p.m., Moscone West 3008 Security is the number one barrier to cloud service adoption.  Not so for industry leading companies like SaskTel, ConAgra foods and UPMC. This session will explore how these organizations are using Oracle Identity with cloud services and how some are offering identity management as a cloud service. CON9624: Real-Time External Authorization for Middleware, Applications, and Databases 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m., Moscone West 3008 As organizations seek to grant access to broader and more diverse user populations, the importance of centrally defined and applied authorization policies become critical; both to identify who has access to what and to improve the end user experience.  This session will explore how customers are using attribute and role-based access to achieve these goals. CON9625: Taking Control of WebCenter Security 5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m., Moscone West 3008 Many organizations are extending WebCenter in a business to business scenario requiring secure identification and authorization of business partners and their users. Leveraging LADWP’s use case, this session will focus on how customers are leveraging, securing and providing access control to Oracle WebCenter portal and mobile solutions. EVENTS: Identity Management Customer Advisory Board 2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m., Four Seasons – Yerba Buena Room This invitation-only event is designed exclusively for Customer Advisory Board (CAB) members to provide product strategy and roadmap updates. Identity Management Meet & Greet Networking Event 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m., Meeting Session 4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m., Cocktail Reception Yerba Buena Room, Four Seasons Hotel, 757 Market Street, San Francisco The CAB meeting will be immediately followed by an open Meet & Greet event hosted by Oracle Identity Management executives and product management team. Do take this opportunity to network with your peers and connect with the Identity Management customers. For a complete listing, refer to the Focus on Identity Management document. And as always, you can find us on @oracleidm on twitter and FaceBook. Use #oow and #idm to join in the conversation.

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  • SSAS Maestro Training in July 2012 #ssasmaestro #ssas

    - by Marco Russo (SQLBI)
    A few hours ago Chris Webb blogged about SSAS Maestro and I’d like to propagate the news, adding also some background info. SSAS Maestro is the premier certification on Analysis Services that selects the best experts in Analysis Services around the world. In 2011 Microsoft organized two rounds of training/exams for SSAS Maestros and up to now only 11 people from the first wave have been announced – around 10% of attendees of the course! In the next few days the new Maestros from the second round should be announced and this long process is caused by many factors that I’m going to explain. First, the course is just a step in the process. Before the course you receive a list of topics to study, including the slides of the course. During the course, students receive a lot of information that might not have been included in the slides and the best part of the course is class interaction. Students are expected to bring their experience to the table and comparing case studies, experiences and having long debates is an important part of the learning process. And it is also a part of the evaluation: good questions might be also more important than good answers! Finally, after the course, students have their homework and this may require one or two months to be completed. After that, a long (very long) evaluation process begins, taking into account homework, labs, participation… And for this reason the final evaluation may arrive months later after the course. We are going to improve and shorten this process with the next courses. The first wave of SSAS Maestro had been made by invitation only and now the program is opening, requiring a fee to participate in order to cover the cost of preparation, training and exam. The number of attendees will be limited and candidates will have to send their CV in order to be admitted to the course. Only experienced Analysis Services developers will be able to participate to this challenging program. So why you should do that? Well, only 10% of students passed the exam until now. So if you need 100% guarantee to pass the exam, you need to study a lot, before, during and after the course. But the course by itself is a precious opportunity to share experience, create networking and learn mission-critical enterprise-level best practices that it’s hard to find written on books. Oh, well, many existing white papers are a required reading *before* the course! The course is now 5 days long, and every day can be *very* long. We’ll have lectures and discussions in the morning and labs in the afternoon/evening. Plus some more lectures in one or two afternoons. A heavy part of the course is about performance optimization, capacity planning, monitoring. This edition will introduce also Tabular models, and don’t expect something you might find in the SSAS Tabular Workshop – only performance, scalability monitoring and optimization will be covered, knowing Analysis Services is a requirement just to be accepted! I and Chris Webb will be the teachers for this edition. The course is expensive. Applying for SSAS Maestro will cost around 7000€ plus taxes (reduced to 5000€ for students of a previous SSAS Maestro edition). And you will be locked in a training room for the large part of the week. So why you should do that? Well, as I said, this is a challenging course. You will not find the time to check your email – the content is just too much interesting to think you can be distracted by something else. Another good reason is that this course will take place in Italy. Well, the course will take place in the brand new Microsoft Innovation Campus, but in general we’ll be able to provide you hints to get great food and, if you are willing to attach one week-end to your trip, there are plenty of places to visit (and I’m not talking about the classic Rome-Florence-Venice) – you might really need to relax after such a week! Finally, the marking process after the course will be faster – we’d like to complete the evaluation within three months after the course, considering that 1-2 months might be required to complete the homework. If at this point you are not scared: registration will open in mid-April, but you can already write to [email protected] sending your CV/resume and a short description of your level of SSAS knowledge and experience. The selection process will start early and you may want to put your admission form on top of the FIFO queue!

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  • Deep in the Heart of Texas

    - by Applications User Experience
    Author: Erika Webb, Manager, Fusion Applications UX User Assistance When I was first working in the usability field, the only way I could consider conducting a usability study was to bring a potential user to a lab environment where I could show them whatever I was interested in learning more about and ask them questions. While I hate to reveal just how long I have been working in this field, let's just say that pads of paper and a stopwatch were key tools for any test I conducted. Over the years, I have worked in simple labs with basic video taping equipment and not much else, and I have worked in corporate environments with sophisticated usability labs and state-of-the-art equipment. Years ago, we conducted all usability studies at the location of the user. If we wanted to see if there were any differences between users in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, we went to those places to run the test. A lab environment is very useful for many test situations. However, there has always been a debate in the usability field about whether bringing someone into a lab environment, however friendly we make it, somehow intrinsically changes the behavior of the user as compared to having them work in their own environment, at their own desk, and on their own computer. We developed systems to create a portable usability lab, so that we could go to the users that we needed to test.  Do lab environments change user behavior patterns? Then 9/11 hit. You may not remember, but no planes flew for weeks afterwards. Companies all over the world couldn't fly-in employees for meetings. Suddenly, traveling to the location of the users had an additional difficulty. The company I was working for at the time had usability specialists stuck in New York for days before they could finally rent a car and drive home to Colorado. This changed the world pretty suddenly, and technology jumped on the change. Companies offering Internet meeting tools were strugglinguntil no one could travel. The Internet boomed with collaboration tools that enabled people to work together wherever they happened to be. This change in technology has made a huge difference in my world. We use collaborative tools to bring our product concepts and ideas to the user across the Internet. As a global company, we benefit from having users from all over the world inform our designs. We now run usability studies with users all over the world in a single day, a feat we couldn't have accomplished 10 years ago by plane! Other technology companies have started to do more of this type of usability testing, since the tools have improved so dramatically. Plus, in our busy world, it's not always easy to find users who can take the time away from their jobs to come to our labs. reaching users where it is convenient for them greatly improves the odds that people do participate. I manage a team of usability specialists who live in India and California, whlie I live in Colorado. We have wonderful labs that we bring users into to show them our products. But very often, we run our studies remotely. We used to take the lab to the users now we use the labs, but we let the users stay where they are. We gain users who might not have been able to leave work to come to our labs, and they get to use the system they are familiar with. And we gain users nearly anywhere that we can set up an Internet connection, as long as the users have a phone, a broadband connection, and a compatible Web browser (with no pop-up blockers). After we recruit participants in a traditional manner, we send them an invitation to participate through the use of a telephone conference call and Web conferencing tool. At Oracle, we use Oracle Web Conference part of Oracle Collaboration Suite, which enables us to give the user control of the mouse, while we present a prototype or wireframe pictures. We can record the sessions over the Web and phone conference. We send the users instructions, plus tips to ensure that we won't have problems sharing screens. In some cases, when time is tight, we even run a five-minute "test session" with users a day in advance to be sure that we can connect. Prior to the test, we send users a participant script that contains information about the study, including any questionnaires. This is exactly the same script we give to participants who come to the labs. We ask users to print this before the beginning of the session. We generally run these studies by having a usability engineer in our usability labs, so that we can record the session as though the user were in the lab with us. Roughly 80% of our application software usability testing at Oracle is performed using remote methods. The probability of getting a   remote test participant decreases the higher up the person is in the target organization. We have a methodology checklist available to help our usability engineers work through the remote processes.

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  • Columnstore Case Study #2: Columnstore faster than SSAS Cube at DevCon Security

    - by aspiringgeek
    Preamble This is the second in a series of posts documenting big wins encountered using columnstore indexes in SQL Server 2012 & 2014.  Many of these can be found in my big deck along with details such as internals, best practices, caveats, etc.  The purpose of sharing the case studies in this context is to provide an easy-to-consume quick-reference alternative. See also Columnstore Case Study #1: MSIT SONAR Aggregations Why Columnstore? As stated previously, If we’re looking for a subset of columns from one or a few rows, given the right indexes, SQL Server can do a superlative job of providing an answer. If we’re asking a question which by design needs to hit lots of rows—DW, reporting, aggregations, grouping, scans, etc., SQL Server has never had a good mechanism—until columnstore. Columnstore indexes were introduced in SQL Server 2012. However, they're still largely unknown. Some adoption blockers existed; yet columnstore was nonetheless a game changer for many apps.  In SQL Server 2014, potential blockers have been largely removed & they're going to profoundly change the way we interact with our data.  The purpose of this series is to share the performance benefits of columnstore & documenting columnstore is a compelling reason to upgrade to SQL Server 2014. The Customer DevCon Security provides home & business security services & has been in business for 135 years. I met DevCon personnel while speaking to the Utah County SQL User Group on 20 February 2012. (Thanks to TJ Belt (b|@tjaybelt) & Ben Miller (b|@DBADuck) for the invitation which serendipitously coincided with the height of ski season.) The App: DevCon Security Reporting: Optimized & Ad Hoc Queries DevCon users interrogate a SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services cube via SSRS. In addition, the SQL Server 2012 relational back end is the target of ad hoc queries; this DW back end is refreshed nightly during a brief maintenance window via conventional table partition switching. SSRS, SSAS, & MDX Conventional relational structures were unable to provide adequate performance for user interaction for the SSRS reports. An SSAS solution was implemented requiring personnel to ramp up technically, including learning enough MDX to satisfy requirements. Ad Hoc Queries Even though the fact table is relatively small—only 22 million rows & 33GB—the table was a typical DW table in terms of its width: 137 columns, any of which could be the target of ad hoc interrogation. As is common in DW reporting scenarios such as this, it is often nearly to optimize for such queries using conventional indexing. DevCon DBAs & developers attended PASS 2012 & were introduced to the marvels of columnstore in a session presented by Klaus Aschenbrenner (b|@Aschenbrenner) The Details Classic vs. columnstore before-&-after metrics are impressive. Scenario Conventional Structures Columnstore ? SSRS via SSAS 10 - 12 seconds 1 second >10x Ad Hoc 5-7 minutes (300 - 420 seconds) 1 - 2 seconds >100x Here are two charts characterizing this data graphically.  The first is a linear representation of Report Duration (in seconds) for Conventional Structures vs. Columnstore Indexes.  As is so often the case when we chart such significant deltas, the linear scale doesn’t expose some the dramatically improved values corresponding to the columnstore metrics.  Just to make it fair here’s the same data represented logarithmically; yet even here the values corresponding to 1 –2 seconds aren’t visible.  The Wins Performance: Even prior to columnstore implementation, at 10 - 12 seconds canned report performance against the SSAS cube was tolerable. Yet the 1 second performance afterward is clearly better. As significant as that is, imagine the user experience re: ad hoc interrogation. The difference between several minutes vs. one or two seconds is a game changer, literally changing the way users interact with their data—no mental context switching, no wondering when the results will appear, no preoccupation with the spinning mind-numbing hurry-up-&-wait indicators.  As we’ve commonly found elsewhere, columnstore indexes here provided performance improvements of one, two, or more orders of magnitude. Simplified Infrastructure: Because in this case a nonclustered columnstore index on a conventional DW table was faster than an Analysis Services cube, the entire SSAS infrastructure was rendered superfluous & was retired. PASS Rocks: Once again, the value of attending PASS is proven out. The trip to Charlotte combined with eager & enquiring minds let directly to this success story. Find out more about the next PASS Summit here, hosted this year in Seattle on November 4 - 7, 2014. DevCon BI Team Lead Nathan Allan provided this unsolicited feedback: “What we found was pretty awesome. It has been a game changer for us in terms of the flexibility we can offer people that would like to get to the data in different ways.” Summary For DW, reports, & other BI workloads, columnstore often provides significant performance enhancements relative to conventional indexing.  I have documented here, the second in a series of reports on columnstore implementations, results from DevCon Security, a live customer production app for which performance increased by factors of from 10x to 100x for all report queries, including canned queries as well as reducing time for results for ad hoc queries from 5 - 7 minutes to 1 - 2 seconds. As a result of columnstore performance, the customer retired their SSAS infrastructure. I invite you to consider leveraging columnstore in your own environment. Let me know if you have any questions.

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  • Speakers, Please Check Your Time

    - by AjarnMark
    Woodrow Wilson was once asked how long it would take him to prepare for a 10 minute speech. He replied "Two weeks". He was then asked how long it would take for a 1 hour speech. "One week", he replied. 2 hour speech? "I'm ready right now," he replied.  Whether that is a true story or an urban legend, I don’t really know, but either way, it is a poignant reminder for all speakers, and particularly apropos this week leading up to the PASS Community Summit. (Cross-posted to the PASS Professional Development Virtual Chapter blog #PASSProfDev.) What’s the point of that story?  Simply this…if you have plenty of time to do your presentation, you don’t need to prepare much because it is easy to throw in more and more material to stretch out to your allotted time.  But if you are on a tight time constraint, then it will take significant preparation to distill your talk down to only the essential points. I have attended seven of the last eight North American Summit events, and every one of them has been fantastic.  The speakers are great, the material is timely and relevant, and the networking opportunities are awesome.  And every year, there is one little thing that just bugs me…speakers going over their allotted time.  Why does it bother me so?  Well, if you look at a typical schedule for a Summit, you’ll see that there are six or more sessions going on at the same time, and only 15 minutes to move from one to another.  If you’re trying to maximize your training dollar by attending something during every session time slot, and you don’t want to be the last guy trying to squeeze into the middle of the row, then those 15 minutes can be critical.  All the more so if you need to stop and use the bathroom or if you have to hike to the opposite end of the convention center.  It is really a bad position to find yourself having to choose between learning the last key points of Speaker A who is going over time, and getting over to Speaker B on time so you don’t miss her key opening remarks. And frankly, I think it is just rude.  Yes, the speakers are the function, after all they are bringing the content that the rest of us are paying to learn.  But it is also an honor to be given the opportunity to speak at a conference like this, and no one speaker is so important that the conference would be a disaster without him.  Speakers know when they submit their abstract, long before the conference, how much time they will have.  It has been the same pattern at the Summit for at least the last eight years.  Program Sessions are 75 minutes long.  Some speakers who have a good track record, and meet other qualifying criteria, are extended an invitation to present a Spotlight Session which is 90 minutes (a 20% increase).  So there really is no excuse.  It’s not like you were promised a 2-hour segment and then discovered when you got here that it was only 75 minutes.  In fact, it’s not like PASS advertised 90-minute sessions for everyone and then a select few were cut back to only 75.  As a speaker, you know well before you get here which type of session you are doing and how long it is, so as a professional, you should plan accordingly. Now you might think that this only happens to rookies, but I’ll tell you that some of the worst offenders are big-name veterans who draw huge attendance numbers for their sessions.  Some attendees blow this off as, “Hey, it’s so-and-so, and I’d stay here for hours and listen to him/her talk.”  To which I would reply, “Then they should have submitted for a pre- or post-conference day-long seminar instead, but don’t try to squeeze your day-long talk into a 90-minute session.”  Now I don’t really believe that these speakers are being malicious or just selfishly trying to extend their time in the spotlight.  I think that most of them are merely being undisciplined and did not trim their presentation sufficiently, or allowed themselves to get off-track (often in a generous attempt to help someone in the audience with a question or problem that really should have been noted for further discussion after the session). So here is my recommendation…my plea, even.  TRIM THE FAT!  Now.  Before it’s too late.  Before you even get on the airplane, take a long, hard look at your presentation and eliminate some of the points that you originally thought you had to make, but in reality are not truly crucial to your main topic.  Delete a few slides.  Test your demos and have them already scripted rather than typing them during your talk.  It is better to cut out too much and end up with plenty of time at the end for Questions & Answers.  And you can always keep some notes on the stuff that you cut out so that you could fill it back in at the end as bonus material if you really do end up with a whole bunch of time on your hands.  But I don’t think you will.  And if you do, that will look even better to the audience as it will look like you’re giving them something extra that not every audience gets.  And they will thank you for that.

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  • uninitialized constant Active Scaffold rails 2.3.5

    - by Kiva
    Hi guy, I update my rails application 2.0.2 to 2.3.5. I use active scaffold for the administration part. I change nothing in my code but a problem is coming with the update. I have a controller 'admin/user_controller' to manage users. Here is the code of the controller: class Admin::UserController < ApplicationController layout 'admin' active_scaffold :user do |config| config.columns.exclude :content, :historique_content, :user_has_objet, :user_has_arme, :user_has_entrainement, :user_has_mission, :mp, :pvp, :user_salt, :tchat, :notoriete_by_pvp, :invitation config.list.columns = [:user_login, :user_niveau, :user_mail, :user_bloc, :user_valide, :group_id] #:user_description, :race, :group, :user_lastvisited, :user_nextaction, :user_combats_gagner, :user_combats_perdu, :user_combats_nul, :user_password, :user_salt, :user_combats, :user_experience, :user_mana, :user_vie config.create.link.page = true config.update.link.page = true config.create.columns.add :password, :password_confirmation config.update.columns.add :password, :password_confirmation config.create.columns.exclude :user_password, :user_salt config.update.columns.exclude :user_password, :user_salt config.list.sorting = {:user_login => 'ASC'} config.subform.columns = [] end end This code hasn't change with the update, but when I go in this page, I got this error: uninitialized constant Users /Users/Kiva/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.5/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:443:in `load_missing_constant' /Users/Kiva/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.5/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:80:in `const_missing' /Users/Kiva/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.5/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:92:in `const_missing' /Users/Kiva/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.5/lib/active_support/inflector.rb:361:in `constantize' /Users/Kiva/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.5/lib/active_support/inflector.rb:360:in `each' /Users/Kiva/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.5/lib/active_support/inflector.rb:360:in `constantize' /Users/Kiva/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.5/lib/active_support/core_ext/string/inflections.rb:162:in `constantize' /Users/Kiva/Documents/Projet-rpg/jeu/vendor/plugins/active_scaffold/lib/extensions/reverse_associations.rb:28:in `reverse_matches_for' /Users/Kiva/Documents/Projet-rpg/jeu/vendor/plugins/active_scaffold/lib/extensions/reverse_associations.rb:24:in `each' /Users/Kiva/Documents/Projet-rpg/jeu/vendor/plugins/active_scaffold/lib/extensions/reverse_associations.rb:24:in `reverse_matches_for' /Users/Kiva/Documents/Projet-rpg/jeu/vendor/plugins/active_scaffold/lib/extensions/reverse_associations.rb:11:in `reverse' /Users/Kiva/Documents/Projet-rpg/jeu/vendor/plugins/active_scaffold/lib/active_scaffold/data_structures/column.rb:117:in `autolink?' /Users/Kiva/Documents/Projet-rpg/jeu/vendor/plugins/active_scaffold/lib/active_scaffold.rb:107:in `links_for_associations' /Users/Kiva/Documents/Projet-rpg/jeu/vendor/plugins/active_scaffold/lib/active_scaffold/data_structures/columns.rb:62:in `each' /Users/Kiva/Documents/Projet-rpg/jeu/vendor/plugins/active_scaffold/lib/active_scaffold/data_structures/columns.rb:62:in `each' /Users/Kiva/Documents/Projet-rpg/jeu/vendor/plugins/active_scaffold/lib/active_scaffold.rb:106:in `links_for_associations' /Users/Kiva/Documents/Projet-rpg/jeu/vendor/plugins/active_scaffold/lib/active_scaffold.rb:59:in `active_scaffold' /Users/Kiva/Documents/Projet-rpg/jeu/app/controllers/admin/user_controller.rb:11 I search since 2 days but I don't find the problem, can you help me please.

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  • uninitialized constant Active Scaffold rails 2.3.5

    - by Kiva
    Hi guy, I update my rails application 2.0.2 to 2.3.5. I use active scaffold for the administration part. I change nothing in my code but a problem is coming with the update. I have a controller 'admin/user_controller' to manage users. Here is the code of the controller: class Admin::UserController < ApplicationController layout 'admin' active_scaffold :user do |config| config.columns.exclude :content, :historique_content, :user_has_objet, :user_has_arme, :user_has_entrainement, :user_has_mission, :mp, :pvp, :user_salt, :tchat, :notoriete_by_pvp, :invitation config.list.columns = [:user_login, :user_niveau, :user_mail, :user_bloc, :user_valide, :group_id] #:user_description, :race, :group, :user_lastvisited, :user_nextaction, :user_combats_gagner, :user_combats_perdu, :user_combats_nul, :user_password, :user_salt, :user_combats, :user_experience, :user_mana, :user_vie config.create.link.page = true config.update.link.page = true config.create.columns.add :password, :password_confirmation config.update.columns.add :password, :password_confirmation config.create.columns.exclude :user_password, :user_salt config.update.columns.exclude :user_password, :user_salt config.list.sorting = {:user_login => 'ASC'} config.subform.columns = [] end end This code hasn't change with the update, but when I go in this page, I got this error: uninitialized constant Users /Users/Kiva/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.5/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:443:in `load_missing_constant' /Users/Kiva/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.5/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:80:in `const_missing' /Users/Kiva/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.5/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:92:in `const_missing' /Users/Kiva/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.5/lib/active_support/inflector.rb:361:in `constantize' /Users/Kiva/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.5/lib/active_support/inflector.rb:360:in `each' /Users/Kiva/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.5/lib/active_support/inflector.rb:360:in `constantize' /Users/Kiva/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.5/lib/active_support/core_ext/string/inflections.rb:162:in `constantize' /Users/Kiva/Documents/Projet-rpg/jeu/vendor/plugins/active_scaffold/lib/extensions/reverse_associations.rb:28:in `reverse_matches_for' /Users/Kiva/Documents/Projet-rpg/jeu/vendor/plugins/active_scaffold/lib/extensions/reverse_associations.rb:24:in `each' /Users/Kiva/Documents/Projet-rpg/jeu/vendor/plugins/active_scaffold/lib/extensions/reverse_associations.rb:24:in `reverse_matches_for' /Users/Kiva/Documents/Projet-rpg/jeu/vendor/plugins/active_scaffold/lib/extensions/reverse_associations.rb:11:in `reverse' /Users/Kiva/Documents/Projet-rpg/jeu/vendor/plugins/active_scaffold/lib/active_scaffold/data_structures/column.rb:117:in `autolink?' /Users/Kiva/Documents/Projet-rpg/jeu/vendor/plugins/active_scaffold/lib/active_scaffold.rb:107:in `links_for_associations' /Users/Kiva/Documents/Projet-rpg/jeu/vendor/plugins/active_scaffold/lib/active_scaffold/data_structures/columns.rb:62:in `each' /Users/Kiva/Documents/Projet-rpg/jeu/vendor/plugins/active_scaffold/lib/active_scaffold/data_structures/columns.rb:62:in `each' /Users/Kiva/Documents/Projet-rpg/jeu/vendor/plugins/active_scaffold/lib/active_scaffold.rb:106:in `links_for_associations' /Users/Kiva/Documents/Projet-rpg/jeu/vendor/plugins/active_scaffold/lib/active_scaffold.rb:59:in `active_scaffold' /Users/Kiva/Documents/Projet-rpg/jeu/app/controllers/admin/user_controller.rb:11 I search since 2 days but I don't find the problem, can you help me please.

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  • How to avoid my this facebook app api login page?

    - by user1035140
    I got a problem regrading with my apps which is once I go to my apps, it sure will show me a login page instead of allow page? it always display the login page 1st then only display allow page, I had tried other apps, if I am 1st time user, It sure will appear the allow page only, it did not show me the login page. my question is how to I avoid my login page direct go to allow page? here is my login page picture here is my apps link https://apps.facebook.com/christmas_testing/ here is my facebook php jdk api coding <?php $fbconfig['appid' ] = "XXXXXXXXXXXXX"; $fbconfig['secret'] = "XXXXXXXXXXXXX"; $fbconfig['baseUrl'] = "myserverlink"; $fbconfig['appBaseUrl'] = "http://apps.facebook.com/christmas_testing/"; if (isset($_GET['code'])){ header("Location: " . $fbconfig['appBaseUrl']); exit; } if (isset($_GET['request_ids'])){ //user comes from invitation //track them if you need header("Location: " . $fbconfig['appBaseUrl']); } $user = null; //facebook user uid try{ include_once "facebook.php"; } catch(Exception $o){ echo '<pre>'; print_r($o); echo '</pre>'; } // Create our Application instance. $facebook = new Facebook(array( 'appId' => $fbconfig['appid'], 'secret' => $fbconfig['secret'], 'cookie' => true, )); //Facebook Authentication part $user = $facebook->getUser(); $loginUrl = $facebook->getLoginUrl( array( 'scope' => 'email,publish_stream,user_birthday,user_location,user_work_history,user_about_me,user_hometown' ) ); if ($user) { try { // Proceed knowing you have a logged in user who's authenticated. $user_profile = $facebook->api('/me'); } catch (FacebookApiException $e) { //you should use error_log($e); instead of printing the info on browser d($e); // d is a debug function defined at the end of this file $user = null; } } if (!$user) { echo "<script type='text/javascript'>top.location.href = '$loginUrl';</script>"; exit; } //get user basic description $userInfo = $facebook->api("/$user"); function d($d){ echo '<pre>'; print_r($d); echo '</pre>'; } ?

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  • How to Organize a Programming Language Club

    - by Ben Griswold
    I previously noted that we started a language club at work.  You know, I searched around but I couldn’t find a copy of the How to Organize a Programming Language Club Handbook. Maybe it’s sold out?  Yes, Stack Overflow has quite a bit of information on how to learn and teach new languages and there’s also a good number of online tutorials which provide language introductions but I was interested in group learning.  After   two months of meetings, I present to you the Unofficial How to Organize a Programming Language Club Handbook.  1. Gauge interest. Start by surveying prospects. “Excuse me, smart-developer-whom-I-work-with-and-I-think-might-be-interested-in-learning-a-new-coding-language-with-me. Are you interested in learning a new language with me?” If you’re lucky, you work with a bunch of really smart folks who aren’t shy about teaching/learning in a group setting and you’ll have a collective interest in no time.  Simply suggesting the idea is the only effort required.  If you don’t work in this type of environment, maybe you should consider a new place of employment.  2. Make it official. Send out a “Welcome to the Club” email: There’s been talk of folks itching to learn new languages – Python, Scala, F# and Haskell to name a few.  Rather than taking on new languages alone, let’s learn in the open.  That’s right.  Let’s start a languages club.  We’ll have everything a real club needs – secret handshake, goofy motto and a high-and-mighty sense that we’re better than everybody else. T-shirts?  Hell YES!  Anyway, I’ve thrown this idea around the office and no one has laughed at me yet so please consider this your very official invitation to be in THE club. [Insert your ideas about how the club might be run, solicit feedback and suggestions, ask what other folks would like to get out the club, comment about club hazing practices and talk up the T-shirts even more. Finally, call out the languages you are interested in learning and ask the group for their list.] 3.  Send out invitations to the first meeting.  Don’t skimp!  Hallmark greeting cards for everyone.  Personalized.  Hearts over the I’s and everything.  Oh, and be sure to include the list of suggested languages with vote count.  Here the list of languages we are interested in: Python 5 Ruby 4 Objective-C 3 F# 2 Haskell 2 Scala 2 Ada 1 Boo 1 C# 1 Clojure 1 Erlang 1 Go 1 Pi 1 Prolog 1 Qt 1 4.  At the first meeting, there must be cake.  Lots of cake. And you should tackle some very important questions: Which language should we start with?  You can immediately go with the top vote getter or you could do as we did and designate each person to provide a high-level review of each of the proposed languages over the next two weeks.  After all presentations are completed, vote on the language. Our high-level review consisted of answers to a series of questions. Decide how often and where the group will meet.  We, for example, meet for a brown bag lunch every Wednesday.  Decide how you’re going to learn.  We determined that the best way to learn is to just dive in and write code.  After choosing our first language (Python), we talked about building an application, or performing coding katas, but we ultimately choose to complete a series of Project Euler problems.  We kept it simple – each member works out the same two problems each week in preparation of a code review the following Wednesday. 5.  Code, Review, Learn.  Prior to the weekly meeting, everyone uploads their solutions to our internal wiki.  Each Project Euler problem has a dedicated page.  In the meeting, we use a really fancy HD projector to show off each member’s solution.  It is very important to use an HD projector.  Again, don’t skimp!  Each code author speaks to their solution, everyone else comments, applauds, points fingers and laughs, etc.  As much as I’ve learned from solving the problems on my own, I’ve learned at least twice as much at the group code review.  6.  Rinse. Lather. Repeat.  We’ve hosted the language club for 7 weeks now.  The first meeting just set the stage.  The next two meetings provided a review of the languages followed by a first language selection.  The remaining meetings focused on Python and Project Euler problems.  Today we took a vote as to whether or not we’re ready to switch to another language and/or another problem set.  Pretty much everyone wants to stay the course for a few more weeks at least.  Until then, we’ll continue to code the next two solutions, review and learn. Again, we’ve been having a good time with the programming language club.  I’m glad it got off the ground.  What do you think?  Would you be interested in a language club?  Any suggestions on what we might do better?

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  • Rockmelt, the technology adoption model, and Facebook's spare internet

    - by Roger Hart
    Regardless of how good it is, you'd have to have a heart of stone not to make snide remarks about Rockmelt. After all, on the surface it looks a lot like some people spent two years building a browser instead of just bashing out a Chrome extension over a wet weekend. It probably does some more stuff. I don't know for sure because artificial scarcity is cool, apparently, so the "invitation" is still in the post*. I may in fact never know for sure, because I'm not wild about Facebook sign-in as a prerequisite for anything. From the video, and some initial reviews, my early reaction was: I have a browser, I have a Twitter client; what on earth is this for? The answer, of course, is "not me". Rockmelt is, in a way, quite audacious. Oh, sure, on launch day it's Bay Area bar-chat for the kids with no lenses in their retro specs and trousers that give you deep-vein thrombosis, but it's not really about them. Likewise,  Facebook just launched Google Wave, or something. And all the tech snobbery and scorn packed into describing it that way is irrelevant next to what they're doing with their platform. Here's something I drew in MS Paint** because I don't want to get sued: (see: The technology adoption lifecycle) A while ago in the Guardian, John Lanchester dusted off the idiom that "technology is stuff that doesn't work yet". The rest of the article would be quite interesting if it wasn't largely about MySpace, and he's sort of got a point. If you bolt on the sentiment that risk-averse businessmen like things that work, you've got the essence of Crossing the Chasm. Products for the mainstream market don't look much like technology. Think for  a second about early (1980s ish) hi-fi systems, with all the knobs and fiddly bits, their ostentatious technophile aesthetic. Then consider their sleeker and less (or at least less conspicuously) functional successors in the 1990s. The theory goes that innovators and early adopters like technology, it's a hobby in itself. The rest of the humans seem to like magic boxes with very few buttons that make stuff happen and never trouble them about why. Personally, I consider Apple's maddening insistence that iTunes is an acceptable way to move files around to be more or less morally unacceptable. Most people couldn't care less. Hence Rockmelt, and hence Facebook's continued growth. Rockmelt looks pointless to me, because I aggregate my social gubbins with Digsby, or use TweetDeck. But my use case is different and so are my enthusiasms. If I want to share photos, I'll use Flickr - but Facebook has photo sharing. If I want a short broadcast message, I'll use Twitter - Facebook has status updates. If I want to sell something with relatively little hassle, there's eBay - or Facebook marketplace. YouTube - check, FB Video. Email - messaging. Calendaring apps, yeah there are loads, or FB Events. What if I want to host a simple web page? Sure, they've got pages. Also Notes for blogging, and more games than I can count. This stuff is right there, where millions and millions of users are already, and for what they need it just works. It's not about me, because I'm not in the big juicy area under the curve. It's what 1990s portal sites could never have dreamed of achieving. Facebook is AOL on speed, crack, and some designer drugs it had specially imported from the future. It's a n00b-friendly gateway to the internet that just happens to serve up all the things you want to do online, right where you are. Oh, and everybody else is there too. The price of having all this and the social graph too is that you have all of this, and the social graph too. But plenty of folks have more incisive things to say than me about the whole privacy shebang, and it's not really what I'm talking about. Facebook is maintaining a vast, and fairly fully-featured training-wheels internet. And it makes up a large proportion of the online experience for a lot of people***. It's the entire web (2.0?) experience for the early and late majority. And sure, no individual bit of it is quite as slick or as fully-realised as something like Flickr (which wows me a bit every time I use it. Those guys are good at the web), but it doesn't have to be. It has to be unobtrusively good enough for the regular humans. It has to not feel like technology. This is what Rockmelt sort of is. You're online, you want something nebulously social, and you don't want to faff about with, say, Twitter clients. Wow! There it is on a really distracting sidebar, right in your browser. No effort! Yeah - fish nor fowl, much? It might work, I guess. There may be a demographic who want their social web experience more simply than tech tinkering, and who aren't just getting it from Facebook (or, for that matter, mobile devices). But I'd be surprised. Rockmelt feels like an attempt to grab a slice of Facebook-style "Look! It's right here, where you already are!", but it's still asking the mature market to install a new browser. Presumably this is where that Facebook sign-in predicate comes in handy, though it'll take some potent awareness marketing to make it fly. Meanwhile, Facebook quietly has the entire rest of the internet as a product management resource, and can continue to give most of the people most of what they want. Something that has not gone un-noticed in its potential to look a little sinister. But heck, they might even make Google Wave popular.     *This was true last week when I drafted this post. I got an invite subsequently, hence the screenshot. **MS Paint is no fun any more. It's actually good in Windows 7. Farewell ironically-shonky diagrams. *** It's also behind a single sign-in, lending a veneer of confidence, and partially solving the problem of usernames being crummy unique identifiers. I'll be blogging about that at some point.

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  • Columnstore Case Study #2: Columnstore faster than SSAS Cube at DevCon Security

    - by aspiringgeek
    Preamble This is the second in a series of posts documenting big wins encountered using columnstore indexes in SQL Server 2012 & 2014.  Many of these can be found in my big deck along with details such as internals, best practices, caveats, etc.  The purpose of sharing the case studies in this context is to provide an easy-to-consume quick-reference alternative. See also Columnstore Case Study #1: MSIT SONAR Aggregations Why Columnstore? As stated previously, If we’re looking for a subset of columns from one or a few rows, given the right indexes, SQL Server can do a superlative job of providing an answer. If we’re asking a question which by design needs to hit lots of rows—DW, reporting, aggregations, grouping, scans, etc., SQL Server has never had a good mechanism—until columnstore. Columnstore indexes were introduced in SQL Server 2012. However, they're still largely unknown. Some adoption blockers existed; yet columnstore was nonetheless a game changer for many apps.  In SQL Server 2014, potential blockers have been largely removed & they're going to profoundly change the way we interact with our data.  The purpose of this series is to share the performance benefits of columnstore & documenting columnstore is a compelling reason to upgrade to SQL Server 2014. The Customer DevCon Security provides home & business security services & has been in business for 135 years. I met DevCon personnel while speaking to the Utah County SQL User Group on 20 February 2012. (Thanks to TJ Belt (b|@tjaybelt) & Ben Miller (b|@DBADuck) for the invitation which serendipitously coincided with the height of ski season.) The App: DevCon Security Reporting: Optimized & Ad Hoc Queries DevCon users interrogate a SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services cube via SSRS. In addition, the SQL Server 2012 relational back end is the target of ad hoc queries; this DW back end is refreshed nightly during a brief maintenance window via conventional table partition switching. SSRS, SSAS, & MDX Conventional relational structures were unable to provide adequate performance for user interaction for the SSRS reports. An SSAS solution was implemented requiring personnel to ramp up technically, including learning enough MDX to satisfy requirements. Ad Hoc Queries Even though the fact table is relatively small—only 22 million rows & 33GB—the table was a typical DW table in terms of its width: 137 columns, any of which could be the target of ad hoc interrogation. As is common in DW reporting scenarios such as this, it is often nearly to optimize for such queries using conventional indexing. DevCon DBAs & developers attended PASS 2012 & were introduced to the marvels of columnstore in a session presented by Klaus Aschenbrenner (b|@Aschenbrenner) The Details Classic vs. columnstore before-&-after metrics are impressive. Scenario   Conventional Structures   Columnstore   Δ SSRS via SSAS 10 - 12 seconds 1 second >10x Ad Hoc 5-7 minutes (300 - 420 seconds) 1 - 2 seconds >100x Here are two charts characterizing this data graphically.  The first is a linear representation of Report Duration (in seconds) for Conventional Structures vs. Columnstore Indexes.  As is so often the case when we chart such significant deltas, the linear scale doesn’t expose some the dramatically improved values corresponding to the columnstore metrics.  Just to make it fair here’s the same data represented logarithmically; yet even here the values corresponding to 1 –2 seconds aren’t visible.  The Wins Performance: Even prior to columnstore implementation, at 10 - 12 seconds canned report performance against the SSAS cube was tolerable. Yet the 1 second performance afterward is clearly better. As significant as that is, imagine the user experience re: ad hoc interrogation. The difference between several minutes vs. one or two seconds is a game changer, literally changing the way users interact with their data—no mental context switching, no wondering when the results will appear, no preoccupation with the spinning mind-numbing hurry-up-&-wait indicators.  As we’ve commonly found elsewhere, columnstore indexes here provided performance improvements of one, two, or more orders of magnitude. Simplified Infrastructure: Because in this case a nonclustered columnstore index on a conventional DW table was faster than an Analysis Services cube, the entire SSAS infrastructure was rendered superfluous & was retired. PASS Rocks: Once again, the value of attending PASS is proven out. The trip to Charlotte combined with eager & enquiring minds let directly to this success story. Find out more about the next PASS Summit here, hosted this year in Seattle on November 4 - 7, 2014. DevCon BI Team Lead Nathan Allan provided this unsolicited feedback: “What we found was pretty awesome. It has been a game changer for us in terms of the flexibility we can offer people that would like to get to the data in different ways.” Summary For DW, reports, & other BI workloads, columnstore often provides significant performance enhancements relative to conventional indexing.  I have documented here, the second in a series of reports on columnstore implementations, results from DevCon Security, a live customer production app for which performance increased by factors of from 10x to 100x for all report queries, including canned queries as well as reducing time for results for ad hoc queries from 5 - 7 minutes to 1 - 2 seconds. As a result of columnstore performance, the customer retired their SSAS infrastructure. I invite you to consider leveraging columnstore in your own environment. Let me know if you have any questions.

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