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  • Ten Benefits to Video Game Play [Video]

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    Want to justify spending the whole weekend playing video games? We’re here to help. Courtesy of AllTime10, this video rounds up ten benefits to playing video games ranging from improved dexterity to pain relief. Want to highlight a benefit not listed in the video? Sound off in the comments. [via Geeks Are Sexy] Why Does 64-Bit Windows Need a Separate “Program Files (x86)” Folder? Why Your Android Phone Isn’t Getting Operating System Updates and What You Can Do About It How To Delete, Move, or Rename Locked Files in Windows

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  • UPK for Testing Webinar Recording Now Available!

    - by Karen Rihs
    For anyone who missed last week’s event, a recording of the UPK for Testing webinar is now available.  As an implementation and enablement tool, Oracle’s User Productivity Kit (UPK) provides value throughout the software lifecycle.  Application testing is one area where customers like Northern Illinois University (NIU) are finding huge value in UPK and are using it to validate their systems.  Hear Beth Renstrom, UPK Product Manager and Bettylynne Gregg, NIU ERP Coordinator, discuss how the Test It Mode, Test Scripts, and Test Cases of UPK can be used to facilitate applications testing.

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  • Tesla Coil Fights Combines Electricity and Choreography [Video]

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    We’ve seen quite a few Tesla-coil tricks over the years but never choreographed fighting between two guys balanced on Tesla coils. This definitely falls deeply into the don’t try this at home category–two guys in special suits are standing atop Tesla coils and directing the blasts of electricity at each other in a type of stylized combat. While their suits are clearly acting as Faraday cages to protect them from the electricity, we prefer our Faraday cages to be beefier and not attached directly to our skin. [via Obvious Winner] HTG Explains: Why It’s Good That Your Computer’s RAM Is Full 10 Awesome Improvements For Desktop Users in Windows 8 How To Play DVDs on Windows 8

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  • March 2010 Meeting of Israel Dot Net Developers User Group (IDNDUG)

    - by Jackie Goldstein
    Note the special date of this meeting - Wednesday March 24, 2010 For our March 2010 meeting of the Israel Dot Net Developers User Group we have the opportunity for a special meeting with Brad Abrams from Microsoft Corp, who will in Israel for the Developer Academy 4 event. Our user group meeting will be held on Wednesday March 24, 2010 .   This meeting will focus on building Line of Business applications with Silverlight 4, RIA Services and VS2010. Abstract: Building Business Applications...(read more)

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  • Grab your popcorn and watch the latest AutoVue Movie. Now available on YouTube!

    - by [email protected]
    Just released is: Oracle's AutoVue Visualization Solutions and Primavera P6 integration Movie Watch it now (9:24). This is sure to be a box office sensation. And if you have time for a double, triple or even quadruple feature don't forget these other AutoVue movies available on YouTube: AutoVue Work Online and Offline movie Watch it now (5:01). AutoVue 3D Walkthrough movie Watch it now (6:01). AutoVue 2D Compare Movie Watch it now (4:14). Enjoy the movies.

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  • Developing in Notepad

    - by thycotic
    Kevin has posted about his experiences while developing a .NET app in Notepad while on vacation recently.  Personally I have found such simple exercises to be very useful in learning the fundamentals of a new platform (compiling, runtimes, etc) but I don’t ever like to be far from my IDE and my productivity add-ins such as keyboard shortcuts, Resharper, etc.     Jonathan Cogley is the CEO of Thycotic Software, an agile software services and product development company based in Washington DC.  Secret Server is our flagship enterprise password vault.

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  • Izenda Reports 6.3 Top 10 Features

    - by gt0084e1
    Izenda 6.3 Top 10 New Features and Capabilities 1. Izenda Maps Add-On The Izenda Maps add-on allows rapid visualization of geographic or geo-spacial data.  It is fully integrated with the the rest of Izenda report package and adds a Maps tab which allows users to add interactive maps to their reports. Contact your representative or [email protected] for limited time discounts. Izenda Maps even has rich drill-down capabilities that allow you to dive deeper with a simple hover (also requires dashboards). 2. Streamlined Pie Charts with "Other" Slices The advanced properties of the Pie Chart now allows you to combine the smaller slices into a single "Other" slice. This reduces the visual complexity without throwing off the scale of the chart. Compare the difference below. 3. Combined Bar + Line Charts The Bar chart now allows dual visualization of multiple metrics simultaneously by adding a line for secondary data. Enabled via AdHocSettings.AllowLineOnBar = true; 4. Stacked Bar Charts The stacked bar chart lets you see a breakdown of a measure based on categorical data.  It is enabled with the following code. AdHocSettings.AllowStackedBarChart = true; 5. Self-Joining Data Sources The self-join features allows for parent-child relationships to be accessed from the Data Sources tab. The same table can be used as a secondary child table within the Report Designer. 6. Report Design From Dashboard View Dashboards now sport both view and design icons to allow quick access to both. 7. Field Arithmetic on Dates Differences between dates can now be used as measures with the arithmetic feature. 8. Simplified Multi-Tenancy Integrating with multi-tenant systems is now easier than ever. The following APIs have been added to facilitate common scenarios. AdHocSettings.CurrentUserTenantId = value; AdHocSettings.SchedulerTenantID = value; AdHocSettings.SchedulerTenantField = "AccountID"; 9. Support For SQL 2008 R2 and SQL Azure Izenda now supports the latest version of Microsoft's database as well as the SQL Azure service. 10. Enhanced Performance and Compatibility for Stored Procedures Izenda now supports more stored procedures than ever and runs them faster too.

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  • Gartner: Magic Quadrant for Corporate Performance Management Suites, 2012

    - by Mike.Hallett(at)Oracle-BI&EPM
    Hyperion clearly leads the pack again in Gartner’s analysis of the CPM / EPM market, saying; “Oracle is a Leader in CPM suites, with one of the most widely distributed solutions in the market. Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management is recognized by CFOs worldwide. The vendor has a well-established partner channel, with both large and smaller CPM SI specialists. Hyperion skills are also plentiful among the independent consultant community, given the well-established products. “ “Oracle continues to innovate, bringing incremental improvements across the portfolio as well as new financial close management, disclosure management and predictive planning additions. Furthermore, Oracle has improved integration of Hyperion with the Oracle BI platform, and has improved planning performance, enabling Hyperion Planning to use Oracle Exalytics In-Memory Machine.” For the full article see here: Gartner: Magic Quadrant for Corporate Performance Management Suites, 2012 And if you missed it, here is also the MQ for BI: Gartner: Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence Platforms, 2012

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  • A Six Step Plan for Introducing Kids to Tabletop RPGs

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    Introducing your kids, nieces and nephews, or other budding geeks to your geeky hobbies like role-playing games can be tricky. This handy plan lays out some simple steps to make RPGs fun for younger kids. Courtesy of Ryan Carlson over at Geek Dad, the six-step primer covers topics like simplifying the rules, varying task difficulty, fun character creation ideas, and ensuring there are adequate opportunities for in-game success. Hit up the link below for the full guide. Have a RPG-introduction success story or tip to share? Add to the conversation in the comments below. Running an Introductory Roleplaying Game for Kids [GeekDad] How To Use USB Drives With the Nexus 7 and Other Android Devices Why Does 64-Bit Windows Need a Separate “Program Files (x86)” Folder? Why Your Android Phone Isn’t Getting Operating System Updates and What You Can Do About It

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  • Desktop Fun: Underwater Theme Wallpaper Collection Series 2

    - by Akemi Iwaya
    There is a whole new world waiting to be found underneath the waves, one filled with wonders untold, adventure, mystery, and danger for the unwary. Explore the unknown depths on your desktop with the second in our series of Underwater Theme Wallpaper collections. Underwater Theme Series 2 Note: Click on the picture to see the full-size image—these wallpapers vary in size so you may need to crop, stretch, or place them on a colored background in order to best match them to your screen’s resolution.                 More Underwater Theme Goodness for Your Desktop Desktop Fun: Underwater Theme Wallpaper Collection Series 1 For more great wallpapers make sure to look through our terrific collections in the Desktop Fun section.     

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  • Welcome to the Oracle Retail International Blog

    - by sarah.taylor(at)oracle.com
    Welcome to the first post of the new Oracle Retail International Blog. Retail is an international business and today's successful retailers view themselves in the context of a global market. A niche fashion business in Tokyo will learn marketing strategies from the luxury brands of Milan, an independent grocer in Oslo will source the same global brands as a supermarket in Oklahoma, and every retailer in the world will measure their multi-channel operation against the international e-commerce giant Amazon.  Why? Because today's customer is a global customer with unparalleled expectations on choice, price and service. Today's consumers have access to more information on retail than ever before. Technology allows people to shop from their home, their office or from the phone in their pocket, wherever they are and at whatever time suits them. Customers are using the web to search for products and promotions. They are also using the web to develop their voice in commenting on products and services that have delighted or disappointed. In an information rich industry, this customer element creates a new world of data. The best retailers are developing eagle eyes for reading customer activity and turning it into profitable decisions. Ultimately, whether you choose to compete or shop on price, service, product innovation, excellent operations or all of the above - the international world of retail has become an inspiration for all - retailer and consumer alike.  Retail as an industry is growing and diversifying at a faster rate than ever before. Yet it is still the customer who picks the winners and the losers on the retail field. Economic circumstances transform the rules, but it is still the customer who dictates the game, the pace, the price, and the perception of the brand. Wise retailers never rest on their laurels. They are always shopping for ideas on how to improve and differentiate the offer at every touch point to meet the customer's needs better than anyone else and to gain each customer's loyalty at a time when loyalty can be cheap. With this blog, I hope that we might provide a hub for discussion around what unifies retail and how technology supports both the retailer and customer experience. Despite the competitive nature of this market, we hope that this will provide an opportunity to share experiences and lessons learnt with a view that knowledge can only help this industry to grow and develop. At Oracle we've been supporting retailers for many years. Many of us have worked within retail organisations all over the world, myself included. With this in mind, I don't feel it is too bold a statement to say that Oracle understands retail. We wouldn't be so heavily integrated in some of the biggest and most well-known names in retail if we didn't. With this blog, we intend to create a community of international retailers that can exchange ideas and experiences, debate collective challenges and drive a better understanding of this continually evolving industry. Events such as the World Retail Congress and NRF's Big Show bring enormous value to the retail industry providing platforms for discussion and learning but they happen once a year. We wanted to create a platform for discussion on a different level and that like retail, is always on. We hope not only to bring commitment to being not only the infrastructure that brings all of their systems together within a retail business, but an infrastructure that supports the industry internationally to grow and flourish through creating a platform for networking, discussion, creativity, vision and strategy. Please feel free to ask questions or comment using the comments functionality.  You might also want to visit our other Oracle Retail social media sites: Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/oracleretail YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/user/oracleretail Twitter - http://twitter.com/#!/oracleretailInsight-Driven Retailing Blog - http://blogs.oracle.com/retail/

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  • Jesse Liberty at the Montreal User Group, take 3

    - by pluginbaby
    This is our last attempt to get Jesse Liberty at the Montreal User Group (and there won’t be any take 4 as this is the very last meeting of the season), so we cross fingers that everything will be fine this time! RunAtServer Consulting is the proud sponsor of this event. What: Silverlight 4, MVVM and Test-Driven Development When: June 16, 2010 at 6:15pm. Where: Microsoft Montreal office at 2000 McGill College, 4th floor, Montreal, QC, H3A 3H3. Price: Free for members of the User Group, 5$ for anyone else.

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  • Attention Extension Developers: Your input wanted!

    - by John 'JB' Brock
    Your Input Wanted! I've posted a lot of different topics throughout 2011, and would really like to provide info that is most important to you, the extension developer, as we head for 2012. What are the most important areas that you want to learn more about? Post your requests for examples and topics in the comments section. Let me know what you are struggling with, or something that you worked out, but it took way to long to figure out.  I'll take the list and do my best to provide samples over the coming months. Please provide the version of JDeveloper that you want the topic to cover. Remember: 11gR1 = 11.1.1.x (e.g. 11.1.1.5.0) 11gR2 = 11.1.2.x (e.g. 11.1.2.1.0) Thanks in advance for your comments and suggestions.  Let's get the JDev Extension community going in 2012! --jb John "JB" BrockOracle Product Manager - JDev ESDK

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  • Network and Storage Devices Throughput Chart

    - by zroiy
    With all of the different storage and network devices that surround our day to day life, understanding these devices data transfer speeds can be somewhat confusing. Think about trying to identify your weakest link in the a chain that starts with an external USB hard drive (or a flash drive) that's connected to a 802.11g wifi router, can you quickly come up with an answer of where's the bottle neck in that chain , is it the router or the storage devices ? . Well, the following chart should give you an idea understanding different devices, protocols and interfaces maximum throughput speeds. Though these numbers can fluctuate (mostly for worse, but sometimes for the better) due to different kind of factors such as OS overhead (or caching and optimization) , multiple users or processes and so on , the chart can still serve to provide basic information on the theoretical throughput different devices and protocols can get to.. Enjoy.  Link to the full size chart   References:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sata#SATA_revision_1.0_.28SATA_1.5_Gbit.2Fs.29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usbhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usb_3http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/802.11http://mashable.com/2011/09/21/fastest-download-speeds-infographic/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt_(interface)http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9220434/Thunderbolt_vs._SuperSpeed_USB_3.0  Icons:http://openiconlibrary.sourceforge.net/gallery2/?./Icons/devices/drive-harddisk-3.png      

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  • OS Analytics Post and Discussion

    - by Owen Allen
    Eran Steiner has written an interesting piece over on the Enterprise Manager blog about the OS Analytics feature of Ops Center. OS Analytics gives you a huge amount of information about the characteristics of managed operating systems and lets you track changes to these characteristics over time. Take a look; it's a useful feature. The OS Analytics feature is also the subject of the community call this week (Eran is leading that one too). It's at 11 am EST. To join the conference: Go to https://oracleconferencing.webex.com/oracleconferencing/j.php?ED=209833067&UID=1512092402&PW=NY2JhMmFjMmFh&RT=MiMxMQ%3D%3D If requested, enter your name and email address. If a password is required, enter the meeting password: oracle123 Click Join. To dial into the conference, dial 1-866-682-4770 (US/Canada) or go here for the numbers in other countries. The conference code is 7629343# and the security code is 7777#.

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  • Toolbox Mod Makes the Wii Ultra Portable

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    Given the social nature of most Wii games, modifying a toolbox to serve as a Wii briefcase to make toting it to a friend’s house easy is only fitting. Courtesy of tinker SpicaJames, we find this simple but effective toolbox modification. James originally started his search by investigating getting a Pelican case for his Wii and accessories. When he found the $125 price tag prohibitive (as many of us would for such a side project) he sought out alternatives. A cheap $12 toolbox, a little impact foam, and some handy work with a pair of tin snips to cut out shapes for the Wiimotes, and he had a super cheap and easy to pack and unpack Wii briefcase. Hit up the link below to check out the pictures of his build. Wii Briefcase (translated by Google Translate) [via Hack A Day] Can Dust Actually Damage My Computer? What To Do If You Get a Virus on Your Computer Why Enabling “Do Not Track” Doesn’t Stop You From Being Tracked

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  • Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down – Intel Debuts Prototype Palm-Reading Tech to Replace Passwords [Poll]

    - by Asian Angel
    This week Intel debuted prototype palm-reading tech that could serve as a replacement for our current password system. Our question for you today is do you think this is the right direction to go for better security or do you feel this is a mistake? Photo courtesy of Jane Rahman. Needless to say password security breaches have been a hot topic as of late, so perhaps a whole new security model is in order. It would definitely eliminate the need to remember a large volume of passwords along with circumventing the problem of poor password creation/selection. At the same time the new technology would still be in the ‘early stages’ of development and may not work as well as people would like. Long-term refinement would definitely improve its performance, but would it really be worth pursuing versus the actual benefits? From the blog post: Intel researcher Sridhar Iyendar demonstrated the technology at Intel’s Developer Forum this week. Waving a hand in front of a “palm vein” detector on a computer, one of Iyendar’s assistants was logged into Windows 7, was able to view his bank account, and then once he moved away the computer locked Windows and went into sleeping mode. How to Get Pro Features in Windows Home Versions with Third Party Tools HTG Explains: Is ReadyBoost Worth Using? HTG Explains: What The Windows Event Viewer Is and How You Can Use It

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  • Tour the Cosmos with 100,000 Stars

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    The newest Google Chrome Experiment, 100,000 Stars, combines web technologies to serve up a 3D star map you can manually zoom about or sit back and enjoy a star tour. From the automated tour that explores the Milky Way with an ever increasing scale to manually moving about the cloud of stars using the zoom and pan feature, the interactive map makes it easy to explore the 100,000 closest stars to our Sun in style. Hit up the link to take it for a spin. 100,000 Stars [Google Chrome Experiments] Why Your Android Phone Isn’t Getting Operating System Updates and What You Can Do About It How To Delete, Move, or Rename Locked Files in Windows HTG Explains: Why Screen Savers Are No Longer Necessary

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  • Sweden: Hot Java in the Winter

    - by Tori Wieldt
    No, it's not global warming, but for some reason Sweden is a hotbed of great Java developers and great Java conferences in the winter. First, all three Swedish Java Champions are on Computer Sweden's 100 Best Swedish Developers List. You can read the full Sweden's Top 100 Developers article *if* you can read Swedish (or want to use Google Translate). Congratulations to:  Jonas Bonér, CTO Typesafe Skills: In recent years worked with solutions for scalability and availability. Previously, most between programs and compilers. Other qualifications: Located behind the framework Aspectwerkz and Akka platform for developing parallel, scalable and fault-tolerant software in Scala and Java. Rickard Oberg, Neo Technology Skills: Java, and the framework in Java EE and graph databases. Other qualifications: Founder of open source projects Xdoclet and Webwork. The latter is now called Struts second Rickard Oberg wrote the basics of the application server JBoss. Founder of Senselogic and architect of CMS and portal product SiteVision. Launched frameworkQi4j. Been a speaker at Java Zone JavaPolis, Jfokus, Øredev. Mattias Karlsson Skills: Java. Good at agile system development methods and architecture. Activity: telecom, banking, finance and insurance. Other qualifications: Runs Javaforum Stockholm. Arranges the conference Jfokus.  Frequent speaker at major international conferences such as JavaOne. Holds the title Java Champion. Also, Sweden is home to some top-notch Java Developer conferences during the Winter: jDays Gothenburg, Sweden, Dec 3-5. jDays, a dynamic Java developer conference, comes to Gothenburg. In addition to conference and presentations, visitors can join any courses in Java and related technologies for free.  Jfokus Stockholm, Sweden, Feb 4-6. Jfokus is the largest annual conference for everyone who works with Java in Sweden. The conference is arranged together with Javaforum, the Stockholm JUG.  Thanks to all the Java community who keep the Java hot in Sweden!

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  • Developer Profile: Marcelo Quinta

    - by Tori Wieldt
    As the Java developer community lead for Oracle, the best part of my job is going to conferences and meeting Java developers. I’ve had the pleasure to meet men and women who are smart, fun and passionate about Java—they make the Java community happen. The current issue of Java Magazine provides profiles of other young Java developers around the world. Subscribe to read them! Marcelo Quinta Age: 24Occupation: Professor, Federal University of GoiasLocation: Goias, Brazil Twitter: @mrquinta Marcelo (white polo shirt, center) and class OTN: When did you realize that you were good at programming? When I was in graduate school, I developed a Java system that displayed worked out the logics of getting the maximum coverage using the fewest resources (for example, the minimum number of soldiers [and positions] needed for a battlefield. It may seems not difficult, but it's a hard problem to solve, mathematically. Here I was, a freshman, who came up with an app  "solving" it. Some Master's students use my software today. It was then I began to believe in what I could do.OTN: What most inspires you about programming?I'm really inspired by the challenges and tension that comes from solving a complicated problems. Lately, I've been doing a new system focused on education and digital inclusion and was very gratifying to see it working and the results. I felt useful for the community. OTN: What are some things you would like to accomplish using Java?Java is a very strong platform and that gives us power to develop applications for different devices and purposes, from home automation with little microcontrollers to systems in big servers. I would like to build more systems that integrate the people life or different business contexts, from PCs to cell phones and tablets, ubiquitously. I think IT has reached a level where the current challenge is to make systems that leverage existing technologies that are present in daily life. Java gives us a very interesting set of options to put it into practice, especially in systems that require more strength.OTN: What technical insights into Java technology have been most important to you?I have really enjoyed the way that Java has evolved with Oracle, with new features added, many of them which were suggested by the community. Java 7 came with substantial improvements in the language syntax and it seems that Java 8 takes it even further. I also made some applications in JavaFX and liked the new version. The Java GUI is on a higher level than is offered out there. I saw some JavaFX prototypes running in modern tablets and I got excited. OTN: What would you like to be doing 10 years from now?I want my work to make a difference for individuals or an institution. It would be interesting to be improving one of the systems that I am making today. Recently I've been mixing my hobbies and work, playing with Arduino and home automation. The JHome project, winner of the Duke's Choice Award in 2011, is very interesting to me.OTN: Do you listen to music when you write code? If so, what kind?Absolutely! I usually listen to electronic music (Prodigy, Fatboy Slim and Paul Oakenfold), rock (Metallica, Strokes, The Black Keys) and a bit of local alternative music. I live in Goiânia, "The Brazilian Seattle" and I profit from it very well. OTN: What do you do when you're not programming?I like to play guitar and to fish. Last year I sold my economy car and bought a old jeep. Some people called me crazy, but since then I've been having a great time and having adventures on the backroads of Brazil. Once I broke my glasses in a funny game involving my car's suspension and the airbags. OTN: Does your girlfriend think you are crazy?Crazy is someone who doesn't have courage to do strange things! My girlfriend likes my style. =D Subscribe to the free Java Magazine to read profiles of other young Java developers. Visit the Java channel on YouTube to see a video of Marcelo in action.

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  • Would you expect this error ?

    - by GrumpyOldDBA
    Now I know why, but what I'm thinking is that if I create an error should I get valid data returned? To explain, I was browsing through the dmvs for queries which might benefit from tuning and I identified a query with two clustered index scans ( table scans ). I don't know all the schema off by heart and I was looking for a select by a LoginID column. I assumed this would be numeric and promptly entered an integer value to examine the query plan, yeah I should have looked at the table definition...(read more)

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  • Google Rolls Out a New and Compact Navigation Bar

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    Earlier this spring Google introduced the black navigation bar; now they’ve updated the bar to take up less space and be more useful. Although the black bar is useful in-so-far as it gives you quick access to Google services (useful, of course, only if you use those services) the new navigation bar–seen in the video above–includes an improved layout. Rather than use the bar space to spread out links which the user may or may not use the service links are now tucked into a mouse-over menu accessed by hovering on the Google logo. The majority of the space previously just taken up by links and the black bar itself is now a a search box. If you don’t already see the new interface, look for it to appear in your Google account within the next few days. Hit up the link below to read the official announcement. The Next Stage In Our Redesign [The Official Google Blog] HTG Explains: Understanding Routers, Switches, and Network Hardware How to Use Offline Files in Windows to Cache Your Networked Files Offline How to See What Web Sites Your Computer is Secretly Connecting To

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  • Upcoming DotNetNuke Training for January 2011

    - by Chris Hammond
    With the New Year, why not resolve to learn more about DotNetNuke ? DotNetNuke is the most successful and widely adopted open source project on the Microsoft Stack. Its been around for eight years and isn’t going away anytime soon. While the software itself is written in VB.Net you are not limited to VB.Net when developing custom extensions for the platform, in fact, when I do my module development I do it primarily in C# out of preference. If you’re a developer out there who shuns learning a framework...(read more)

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  • Pet Peeves with the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace

    - by Bil Simser
    Have you ever noticed how something things just gnaw at your very being. This is the case with the WP7 marketplace, the Zune software, and the things that drive me batshit crazy with a side of fries. To go. I wanted to share. XBox Live is Not the Centre of the Universe Okay, it’s fine that the Zune software has an XBox live tag for games so can see them clearly but do we really need to have it shoved down our throats. On every click? Click on Games in the marketplace: The first thing that it defaults to on the filters on the right is XBox Live: Okay. Fine. However if you change it (say to Paid) then click onto a title when you come back from that title is the filter still set to Paid? No. It’s back to XBox Live again. Really? Give us a break. If you change to any filter on any other genre then click on the selected title, it doesn’t revert back to anything. It stays on the selection you picked. Let’s be fair here. The Games genre should behave just like every other one. If I pick Paid then when I come back to the list please remember that. Double Dipping On the subject of XBox Live titles, Microsoft (and developers who have an agreement with Microsoft to produce Live titles, which generally rules out indie game developers) is double dipping with regards to exposure of their titles. Here’s the Puzzle and Trivia Game section on the Marketplace for XBox Live titles: And here’s the same category filtered on Paid titles: See the problem? Two indie titles while the rest are XBox Live ones. So while XBL has it’s filter, they also get to showcase their wares in the Paid and Free filters as well. If you’re going to have an XBox Live filter then use it and stop pushing down indie titles until they’re off the screen (on some genres this is already the case). Free and Paid titles should be just that and not include XBox Live ones. If you’re really stoked that people can’t find the Free XBox Live titles vs. the paid ones, then create a Free XBox Live filter and a Paid XBox Live filter. I don’t think we would mind much. Whose Trial is it Anyways? You might notice apps in the marketplace with titles like “My Fart App Professional Lite” or “Silicon Lamb Spleen Builder Free”. When you submit and app to the marketplace it can either be free or paid. If it’s a paid app you also have the option to submit it with Trial capabilities. It’s up to you to decide what you offer in the trial version but trial versions can be purchased from within the app so after someone trys out your app (for free) and wants to unlock the Super Secret Obama Spy Ring Level, they can just go to the marketplace from your app (if you built that functionality in) and upgrade to the paid version. However it creates a rift of sorts when it comes to visibility. Some developers go the route of the paid app with a trial version, others decide to submit *two* apps instead of one. One app is the “Free” or “Lite” verions and the other is the paid version. Why go to the hassle of submitting two apps when you can just create a trial version in the same app? Again, visibility. There’s no way to tell Paid apps with Trial versions and ones without (it’s an option, you don’t have to provide trial versions, although I think it’s a good idea). However there is a way to see the Free apps from the Paid ones so some submit the two apps and have the Free version have links to buy the paid one (again through the Marketplace tasks in the API). What we as developers need for visibility is a new filter. Trial. That’s it. It would simply filter on Paid apps that have trial capabilities and surface up those apps just like the free ones. If Microsoft added this filter to the marketplace, it would eliminate the need for people to submit their “Free” and “Lite” versions and make it easier for the developer not to have to maintain two systems. I mean, is it really that hard? Can’t be any more difficult than the XBox Live Filter that’s already there. Location is Everything The last thing on my bucket list is about location. When I launch Zune I’m running in my native location setting, Canada. What’s great is that I navigate to the Travel Tools section where I have one of my apps and behold the splendour that I see: There are my apps in the number 1 and number 4 slot for top selling in that category. I show it to my wife to make up for the sleepless nights writing this stuff and we dance around and celebrate. Then I change my location on my operation system to United States and re-launch Zune. WTF? My flight app has slipped to the 10th spot (I’m only showing 4 across here out of the 7 in Zune) and my border check app that was #1 is now in the 32nd spot! End of celebration. Not only is relevance being looked at here, I value the comments people make on may apps as do most developers. I want to respond to them and show them that I’m listening. The next version of my border app will provide multiple camera angles. However when I’m running in my native Canada location, I only see two reviews. Changing over to United States I see fourteen! While there are tools out there to provide with you a unified view, I shouldn’t have to rely on them. My own Zune desktop software should allow me to see everything. I realize that some developers will submit an app and only target it for some locations and that’s their choice. However I shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to see what apps are ahead of mine, or see people comments and ratings. Another proposal. Either unify the marketplace (i.e. when I’m looking at it show me everything combined) or let me choose a filter. I think the first option might be difficult as you’re trying to average out top selling apps across all markets and have to deal with some apps that have been omitted from some markets. Although I think you could come up with a set of use cases that would handle that, maybe that’s too much work. At the very least, let us developers view the markets in a drop down or something from within the Zune desktop. Having to shut down Zune, change our location, and re-launch Zune to see other perspectives is just too onerous. A Call to Action These are just one mans opinion. Do you agree? Disagree? Feel hungry for a bacon sandwich? Let everyone know via the comments below. Perhaps someone from Microsoft will be reading and take some of these ideas under advisement. Maybe not, but at least let’s get the word out that we really want to see some change. Egypt can do it, why not WP7 developers!

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  • An Alternate Vision of the Original Mario Movie [Video]

    - by Asian Angel
    In this alternate vision of the original movie, Joe Nicolosi shows us a Mario who is down and out on his luck and has lost his girlfriend to a yuppie, but refuses to give up. Can Mario turn things around? Warning: Video contains language that may be considered inappropriate. “Mario” – SXSW 2011 Film Bumper [via Geeks are Sexy] How to Enable Google Chrome’s Secret Gold IconHow to Create an Easy Pixel Art Avatar in Photoshop or GIMPInternet Explorer 9 Released: Here’s What You Need To Know

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