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How can I be a Guru? Is it possible? [closed]

- by Kev

Before 1999, I heard about computer. But, I don't know what it look like. TV? Maybe! Before 2001, I only saw it in book. It looks like a TV. Before 2005, I touched it in reality. It still looks like a TV + Black Box. In 2005, I entered university. I had a cource about Mathematica.I loved programming since then. In 2006, I owned a computer. I was coding C every day. if...else..., for..., while..., switch... entered my life. Since 2007, I have learned Data Structures, Algorithms...Then, C#, Java, Python, HTML/CSS/JavaScript, F#... A lot of languages. I'm still learning new lang. Unfortunately, I only know syntax! I'm always a novice(??)! I know some guru start programming at age of 8 or 12. I admire these gurus who are compiler writers, language designers, architecture designers, Linux hackers... Is it possible to become a guru like me. If possible, how? what should I do now? Any advice? Thank you very much.

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Do I need to echo html inside included php file

- by UmeRonaldo

I just learned how to include php .Here's the index or main php file <!DOCTYPE HTML> <html> <head> </head> <body> <?php include 'header.php'; ?> </body> </html> now in header.php file which way is better to print html Way 1 directly use html without php <header> <h1>Header</h1> </header> Way 2 Using php and echo <?php echo ' <header> <h1>Header</h1> </header> ' ?> Another quick question. Will it work if I use .html for the base or index file ?? sorry for my bad english

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Why doesn't my processor have built-in BigInt support?

- by ol

As far as I understood it, BigInts are usually implemented in most programming languages as strings containing numbers, where, eg.: when adding two of them, each digit is added one after another like we know it from school, e.g.: 246 816 * * ---- 1062 Where * marks that there was an overflow. I learned it this way at school and all BigInt adding functions I've implemented work similar to the example above. So we all know that our processors can only natively manage ints from 0 to 2^32 / 2^64. That means that most scripting languages in order to be high-level and offer arithmetics with big integers, have to implement/use BigInt libraries that work with integers as strings like above. But of course this means that they'll be far slower than the processor. So what I've asked myself is: Why doesn't my processor have a built-in BigInt function? It would work like any other BigInt library, only (a lot) faster and at a lower level: Processor fetches one digit from the cache/RAM, adds it, and writes the result back again. Seems like a fine idea to me, so why isn't there something like that?

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Clarification on ZVals

- by Beachhouse

I was reading this: http://www.dereleased.com/2011/04/27/the-importance-of-zvals-and-circular-references/ And there's an example that lost me a bit. $foo = &$bar; $bar = &$foo; $baz = 'baz'; $foo = &$baz; var_dump($foo, $bar); /* string(3) "baz" NULL */ If you’ve been following along, this should make perfect sense. $foo is created, and pointed at a ZVal location identified by $bar; when $bar is created, it points at the same place $foo was pointed. That location, of course, is null. When $foo is reassigned, the only thing that changes is to which ZVal $foo points; if we had assigned a different value to $foo first, then $bar would still retain that value. I learned to program in C. I understand that PHP is different and it uses ZVals instead of memory locations as references. But when you run this code: $foo = &$bar; $bar = &$foo; It seems to me that there would be two ZVals. In C there would be two memory locations (and the values would be of the opposite memory location). Can someone explain?

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when will come the new C++ standard? C++0x

- by Oops

Hi, when will the new C++ standard became official? C++ was standardized in 1998 and the standard is called C++98 the C++ standard was updated in 2003 and is called C++03 so the unofficial name "C++0x" lead us to the wrong conclusion that it will come within the first decade of the 20th century. Have u also mentioned that we all make the year 2000 bug again? Now we have 2010 so if you take the X as the latin sign for 10 it should come out this year. But no, also this would be wrong. The answer: The name of the language was always part of the language itself. As we all know the ++ operator means: one more But we have learned in some situations it would be better to write ++C so the other way around often is better. and what does the characters 0x mean in the C++ language? Right it's the prefix for a hexadecimal number. Now the question is easy to answer, it's meaning is: 0x++C int main(){ std::cout << "When will the new C++ standard come out? " << std::endl; int x0_ = 0x7D0, _0x = x0_, C = 0xC, Y1 = C+++_0x, Y2 = x0_+++C; std::cout << "it will be standardized between the Years: " << Y1 << " and " << Y2 << std::endl; char c; std::cin >> c; return 0; } do you agree? regards Oops

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Printing a JFrame and its components

- by Alex Terreaux

I have been working in a big program and one of its functionalities should be to print the contents of the main window. I checked the API and found this example: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/2d/printing/gui.html it was very helpful, I tried to use that code in my program by placing this inside the actionperformed method of my print button: PrinterJob job = PrinterJob.getPrinterJob(); job.setPrintable(this); boolean ok = job.printDialog(); if (ok) { try { job.print(); } catch (PrinterException ex) { /* The job did not successfully complete */ } } If I click the print button, I get a printer dialog and when I tell it to print, it just prints a blank document. I know the above code is not all I need, as I've seen in the API's examples there is a print() method, but apparently they never call it, so it is pretty confusing. I've tried calling and using it many times, but with no success. Also, I think that when I finally get it to print, my window will need to be printed in the landscape orientation, it even may need some scaling. Any ideas on how to do that? I would like any useful help to help me implement this code successfully. I know I should be able to do it by myself just by checking the documentation (I've tried for almost 2 days now) but I can't get it to work. I've learned all the programming I know through the internet. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

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SQL SERVER – Weekly Series – Memory Lane – #033

- by Pinal Dave

Here is the list of selected articles of SQLAuthority.com across all these years. Instead of just listing all the articles I have selected a few of my most favorite articles and have listed them here with additional notes below it. Let me know which one of the following is your favorite article from memory lane. 2007 Spatial Database Definition and Research Documents Here is the definition from Wikipedia about spatial database : A spatial database is a database that is optimized to store and query data related to objects in space, including points, lines and polygons. While typical databases can understand various numeric and character types of data, additional functionality needs to be added for databases to process spatial data types. Select Only Date Part From DateTime – Best Practice A very common question which I receive is how to only get Date or Time part from datetime value. In this blog post I explain the same in very simple words. T-SQL Paging Query Technique Comparison (OVER and ROW_NUMBER()) – CTE vs. Derived Table I have received few emails and comments about my post SQL SERVER – T-SQL Paging Query Technique Comparison – SQL 2000 vs SQL 2005. The main question was is this can be done using CTE? Absolutely! What about Performance? It is identical! Please refer above mentioned article for the history of paging. SQL SERVER – Cannot resolve collation conflict for equal to operation One of the very first error I ever encountered in my career was to resolve this conflict. I have blogged about it and I have realized that many others like me who are facing this error. LEN and DATALENGTH of NULL Simple Example Here is the question for you what is the LEN of NULL value? Well it is very easy – just read the blog. Recovery Models and Selection Very simple and easy explanation of the Database Backup Recovery Model and how to select the best option for you. Explanation SQL SERVER Hash Join Hash join gives best performance when two more join tables are joined and at-least one of them have no index or is not sorted. It is also expected that smaller of the either of table can be read in memory completely (though not necessary). Easy Sequence of SELECT FROM JOIN WHERE GROUP BY HAVING ORDER BY SELECT yourcolumns FROM tablenames JOIN tablenames WHERE condition GROUP BY yourcolumns HAVING aggregatecolumn condition ORDER BY yourcolumns NorthWind Database or AdventureWorks Database – Samples Databases In this blog post we learn how to install Northwind database. I also shared the source where one can download this database as that is used in many examples on MSDN help files. sp_HelpText for sp_HelpText – Puzzle A simple quick puzzle – do you know the answer of it? If not, go ahead and read the blog. 2008 SQL SERVER – 2008 – Step By Step Installation Guide With Images When SQL Server 2008 was newly introduced lots of people had no clue how to install SQL Server 2008 and the amount of the question which I used to receive were so much. I wrote this blog post with the spirit that this will help all the newbies to install SQL Server 2008 with the help of images. Still today this blog post has been bible for all of the people who are confused with SQL Server installation. Inline Variable Assignment I loved this feature. I have always wanted this feature to be present in SQL Server. The last time when I met developers from Microsoft SQL Server, I had talked about this feature. I think this feature saves some time but make the code more readable. Introduction to Policy Management – Enforcing Rules on SQL Server If our company policy is to create all the Stored Procedure with prefix ‘usp’ that developers should be just prevented to create Stored Procedure with any other prefix. Let us see a small tutorial how to create conditions and policy which will prevent any future SP to be created with any other prefix. 2009 Performance Counters from System Views – By Kevin Mckenna Many of you are not aware of this fact that access to performance information is readily available in SQL Server and that too without querying performance counters using a custom application or via perfmon. Till now, this fact has remained undisclosed but through this post I would like to explain you can easily access SQL Server performance counter information. Without putting much effort you will come across the system viewsys.dm_os_performance_counters. As the name suggests, this provides you easy access to the SQL Server performance counter information that is passed on to perfmon, but you can get at it via tsql. Customize Toolbar – Remove Debug Button from Toolbar I was fond of SQL Server Debugger feature in SQL Server 2000. To my utter disappointment, this feature was withdrawn from SQL Server 2005. The button of the debugger is similar to a play button and is used to run debugging commands of Visual Studio. Because of this reason, it gets very much infuriating for developers when they are developing on both – Visual Studio and SSMS. Let us now see how we can remove debugging button from SQL Server Management Studio. Effect of Normalization on Index and Performance A very interesting conversation which started from twitter. If you want to read one link this is the link I encourage you to read it. SSMS Feature – Multi-server Queries Using SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) DBAs can now query multiple servers from one window. It is quite common for DBAs with large amount of servers to maintain and gather information from multiple SQL Servers and create report. This feature is a blessing for the DBAs, as they can now assemble all the information instantaneously without going anywhere. Query Optimizer Hint ROBUST PLAN – Question to You “ROBUST PLAN” is a kind of query hint which works quite differently than other hints. It does not improve join or force any indexes to use; it just makes sure that a query does not crash due to over the limit size of row. Let me elaborate upon it in the blog post. 2010 Do you really know the difference between various date functions available in SQL Server 2012? Here is a three part story where we explored the same with examples: Fastest Way to Restore the Database Difference Between DATETIME and DATETIME2 Difference Between DATETIME and DATETIME2 – WITH GETDATE Shrinking NDF and MDF Files – Readers’ Opinion Shrinking Database always creates performance degradation and increases fragmentation in the database. I suggest that you keep that in mind before you start reading the following comment. If you are going to say Shrinking Database is bad and evil, here I am saying it first and loud. Now, the comment of Imran is written while keeping in mind only the process showing how the Shrinking Database Operation works. Imran has already explained his understanding and requests further explanation. I have removed the Best Practices section from Imran’s comments, as there are a few corrections. 2011 Solution – Puzzle – SELECT * vs SELECT COUNT(*) This is very interesting question and I am very confident that not every one knows the answer to this question. Let me ask you again – Which will be faster SELECT* or SELECT COUNT (*) or do you think this is apples and oranges comparison. 2012 Service Broker and CAP_CPU_PERCENT – Limiting SQL Server Instances to CPU Usage In SQL Server 2012 there are a few enhancements with regards to SQL Server Resource Governor. One of the enhancement is how the resources are allocated. Let me explain you with examples. Let us understand the entire discussion with the help of three different examples. Finding Size of a Columnstore Index Using DMVs One of the very common question I often see is need of the list of columnstore index along with their size and corresponding table name. I quickly re-wrote a script using DMVs sys.indexes and sys.dm_db_partition_stats. This script gives the size of the columnstore index on disk only. I am sure there will be advanced script to retrieve details related to components associated with the columnstore index. However, I believe following script is sufficient to start getting an idea of columnstore index size. Developer Training Resources and Summary Roundup Developer Training - Importance and Significance - Part 1 In this part we discussed the importance of training in the real world. The most important and valuable resource any company is its employee. Employees who have been well-trained will be better at their jobs and produce a better product. An employee who is well trained obviously knows more about their job and all the technical aspects. I have a very high opinion about training employees and it is the most important task. Developer Training – Employee Morals and Ethics – Part 2 In this part we discussed the most crucial components of training. Often employees are expecting the company to pay for their training and the company expresses no interest in training the employee. Quite often training expenses are the real issue for both the employee and employer. Developer Training – Difficult Questions and Alternative Perspective - Part 3 This part was the most difficult to write as I tried to address a few difficult questions and answers. Training is such a sensitive issue that many developers when not receiving chance for training think about leaving the organization. Developer Training – Various Options for Developer Training – Part 4 In this part I tried to explore a few methods and options for training. The generic feedback I received on this blog post was short and I should have explored each of the subject of the training in details. I believe there are two big buckets of training 1) Instructor Lead Training and 2) Self Lead Training. Developer Training – A Conclusive Summary- Part 5 There is no better motivation than a personal desire to learn new technology. Honestly there is nothing more personal learning. That “change is the only constant” and “adapt & overcome” are the essential lessons of life. One cannot stop the learning and resist the change. In the IT industry “ego of knowing all” and the “resistance to change” are the most challenging issues. A Quick Look at Logging and Ideas around Logging Question: What is the first thing comes to your mind when you hear the word “Logging”? Strange enough I got a different answer every single time. Let me just list what answer I got from my friends. Let us go over them one by one. Beginning Performance Tuning with SQL Server Execution Plan Solution of Puzzle – Swap Value of Column Without Case Statement Earlier this week I asked a question where I asked how to Swap Values of the column without using CASE Statement. Read here: SQL SERVER – A Puzzle – Swap Value of Column Without Case Statement. I have proposed 3 different solutions in the blog posts itself. I had requested the help of the community to come up with alternate solutions and honestly I am stunned and amazed by the qualified entries. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Memory Lane, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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Day 6 - Game Menuing Woes and Future Screen Sneak Peeks

- by dapostolov

So, after my last post on Day 5 I dabbled with my game class design. I took the approach where each game objects is tightly coupled with a graphic. The good news is I got the menu working but not without some hard knocks and game growing pains. I'll explain later, but for now...here is a class diagram of my first stab at my class structure and some code... Ok, there are few mistakes, however, I'm going to leave it as is for now... As you can see I created an inital abstract base class called GameSprite. This class when inherited will provide a simple virtual default draw method: public virtual void DrawSprite(SpriteBatch spriteBatch) { spriteBatch.Draw(Sprite, Position, Color.White); } The benefits of coding it this way allows me to inherit the class and utilise the method in the screen draw method...So regardless of what the graphic object type is it will now have the ability to render a static image on the screen. Example: public class MyStaticTreasureChest : GameSprite {} If you remember the window draw method from Day 3's post, we could use the above code as follows... protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime) { GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.CornflowerBlue); spriteBatch.Begin(SpriteBlendMode.AlphaBlend); foreach(var gameSprite in ListOfGameObjects) { gameSprite.DrawSprite(spriteBatch); } spriteBatch.End(); base.Draw(gameTime); } I have to admit the GameSprite object is pretty plain as with its DrawSprite method... But ... we now have the ability to render 3 static menu items on the screen ... BORING! I want those menu items to do something exciting, which of course involves animation... So, let's have a peek at AnimatedGameSprite in the above game diagram. The idea with the AnimatedGameSprite is that it has an image to animate...such as ... characters, fireballs, and... menus! So after inheriting from GameSprite class, I added a few more options such as UpdateSprite... public virtual void UpdateSprite(float elapsed) { _totalElapsed += elapsed; if (_totalElapsed > _timePerFrame) { _frame++; _frame = _frame % _framecount; _totalElapsed -= _timePerFrame; } } And an overidden DrawSprite... public override void DrawSprite(SpriteBatch spriteBatch) { int FrameWidth = Sprite.Width / _framecount; Rectangle sourcerect = new Rectangle(FrameWidth * _frame, 0, FrameWidth, Sprite.Height); spriteBatch.Draw(Sprite, Position, sourcerect, Color.White, _rotation, _origin, _scale, SpriteEffects.None, _depth); } With these two methods...I can animate and image, all I had to do was add a few more lines to the screens Update Method (From Day 3), like such: float elapsed = (float) gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.TotalSeconds; foreach (var item in ListOfAnimatedGameObjects) { item.UpdateSprite(elapsed); } And voila! My images begin to animate in one spot, on the screen... Hmm, but how do I interact with the menu items using a mouse...well the mouse cursor was easy enough... this.IsMouseVisible = true; But, to have it "interact" with an image was a bit more tricky...I had to perform collision detection! mouseStateCurrent = Mouse.GetState(); var uiEnabledSprites = (from s in menuItems where s.IsEnabled select s).ToList(); foreach (var item in uiEnabledSprites) { var r = new Rectangle((int)item.Position.X, (int)item.Position.Y, item.Sprite.Width, item.Sprite.Height); item.MenuState = MenuState.Normal; if (r.Intersects(new Rectangle(mouseStateCurrent.X, mouseStateCurrent.Y, 0, 0))) { item.MenuState = MenuState.Hover; if (mouseStatePrevious.LeftButton == ButtonState.Pressed && mouseStateCurrent.LeftButton == ButtonState.Released) { item.MenuState = MenuState.Pressed; } } } mouseStatePrevious = mouseStateCurrent; So, basically, what it is doing above is iterating through all my interactive objects and detecting a rectangle collision and the object , plays the state animation (or static image). Lessons Learned, Time Burned... So, I think I did well to start, but after I hammered out my prototype...well...things got sloppy and I began to realise some design flaws... At the time: I couldn't seem to figure out how to open another window, such as the character creation screen Input was not event based and it was bugging me My menu design relied heavily on mouse input and I couldn't use keyboard. Mouse input, is tightly bound with graphic rendering / positioning, so its logic will have to be in each scene. Menu animations would stop mid frame, then continue when the action occured again. This is bad, because...what if I had a sword sliding onthe screen? Then it would slide a quarter of the way, then stop due to another action, then render again mid-slide... it just looked sloppy. Menu, Solved!? To solve the above problems I did a little research and I found some great code in the XNA forums. The one worth mentioning was the GameStateManagementSample. With this sample, you can create a basic "text based" menu system which allows you to swap screens, popup screens, play the game, and quit....basic game state management... In my next post I'm going to dwelve a bit more into this code and adapt it with my code from this prototype. Text based menus just won't cut it for me, for now...however, I'm still going to stick with my animated menu item idea. A sneak peek using the Game State Management Sample...with no changes made... Cool Things to Mention: At work ... I tend to break out in random conversations every-so-often and I get talking about some of my challenges with this game (or some stupid observation about something... stupid) During one conversation I was discussing how I should animate my images; I explained that I knew I had to use the Update method provided, but I didn't know how (at the time) to render an image at an appropriate "pace" and how many frames to use, etc.. I also got thinking that if a machine rendered my images faster / slower, that was surely going to f-up my animations. To which a friend, Sheldon, answered, surely the Draw method is like a camera taking a snapshot of a scene in time. Then it clicked...I understood the big picture of the game engine... After some research I discovered that the Draw method attempts to keep a framerate of 60 fps. From what I understand, the game engine will even leave out a few calls to the draw method if it begins to slow down. This is why we want to put our sprite updates in the update method. Then using a game timer (provided by the engine), we want to render the scene based on real time passed, not framerate. So even the engine renders at 20 fps, the animations will still animate at the same real time speed! Which brings up another point. Why 60 fps? I'm speculating that Microsoft capped it because LCD's dont' refresh faster than 60 fps? On another note, If the game engine knows its falling behind in rendering...then surely we can harness this to speed up our games. Maybe I can find some flag which tell me if the game is lagging, and what the current framerate is, etc...(instead of coding it like I did last time) Sheldon, suggested maybe I can render like WoW does, in prioritised layers...I think he's onto something, however I don't think I'll have that many graphics to worry about such a problem of graphic latency. We'll see. People to Mention: Well,as you are aware I hadn't posted in a couple days and I was surprised to see a few emails and messenger queries about my game progress (and some concern as to why I stopped). I want to thank everyone for their kind words of support and put everyone at ease by stating that I do intend on completing this project. Granted I only have a few hours each night, but, I'll do it. Thank you to Garth for mailing in my next screen! That was a nice surprise! The Sneek Peek you've been waiting for... Garth has also volunteered to render me some wizard images. He was a bit shocked when I asked for them in 2D animated strips. He said I was going backward (and that I have really bad Game Development Lingo). But, I advised Garth that I will use 3D images later...for now...2D images. Garth also had some great game design ideas to add on. I advised him that I will save his ideas and include them in the future design document (for the 3d version?). Lastly, my best friend Alek, is going to join me in developing this game. This was a project we started eons ago but never completed because of our careers. Now, priorities change and we have some spare time on our hands. Let's see what trouble Alek and I can get into! Tonight I'll be uploading my prototypes and base game to a source control for both of us to work off of. D.

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Big GRC: Turning Data into Actionable GRC Intelligence

- by Jenna Danko

While it’s no longer headline news that Governments have carried out large scale data-mining programmes aimed at terrorism detection and identifying other patterns of interest across a wide range of digital data sources, the debate over the ethics and justification over this action, will clearly continue for some time to come. What is becoming clear is that these programmes are a framework for the collation and aggregation of massive amounts of unstructured data and from this, the creation of actionable intelligence from analyses that allowed the analysts to explore and extract a variety of patterns and then direct resources. This data included audio and video chats, phone calls, photographs, e-mails, documents, internet searches, social media posts and mobile phone logs and connections. Although Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) professionals are not looking at the implementation of such programmes, there are many similar GRC “Big data” challenges to be faced and potential lessons to be learned from these high profile government programmes that can be applied a lot closer to home. For example, how can GRC professionals collect, manage and analyze an enormous and disparate volume of data to create and manage their own actionable intelligence covering hidden signs and patterns of criminal activity, the early or retrospective, violation of regulations/laws/corporate policies and procedures, emerging risks and weakening controls etc. Not exactly the stuff of James Bond to be sure, but it is certainly more applicable to most GRC professional’s day to day challenges. So what is Big Data and how can it benefit the GRC process? Although it often varies, the definition of Big Data largely refers to the following types of data: Traditional Enterprise Data – includes customer information from CRM systems, transactional ERP data, web store transactions, and general ledger data. Machine-Generated /Sensor Data – includes Call Detail Records (“CDR”), weblogs and trading systems data. Social Data – includes customer feedback streams, micro-blogging sites like Twitter, and social media platforms like Facebook. The McKinsey Global Institute estimates that data volume is growing 40% per year, and will grow 44x between 2009 and 2020. But while it’s often the most visible parameter, volume of data is not the only characteristic that matters. In fact, according to sources such as Forrester there are four key characteristics that define big data: Volume. Machine-generated data is produced in much larger quantities than non-traditional data. This is all the data generated by IT systems that power the enterprise. This includes live data from packaged and custom applications – for example, app servers, Web servers, databases, networks, virtual machines, telecom equipment, and much more. Velocity. Social media data streams – while not as massive as machine-generated data – produce a large influx of opinions and relationships valuable to customer relationship management as well as offering early insight into potential reputational risk issues. Even at 140 characters per tweet, the high velocity (or frequency) of Twitter data ensures large volumes (over 8 TB per day) need to be managed. Variety. Traditional data formats tend to be relatively well defined by a data schema and change slowly. In contrast, non-traditional data formats exhibit a dizzying rate of change. Without question, all GRC professionals work in a dynamic environment and as new services, new products, new business lines are added or new marketing campaigns executed for example, new data types are needed to capture the resultant information. Value. The economic value of data varies significantly. Typically, there is good information hidden amongst a larger body of non-traditional data that GRC professionals can use to add real value to the organisation; the greater challenge is identifying what is valuable and then transforming and extracting that data for analysis and action. For example, customer service calls and emails have millions of useful data points and have long been a source of information to GRC professionals. Those calls and emails are critical in helping GRC professionals better identify hidden patterns and implement new policies that can reduce the amount of customer complaints. Now on a scale and depth far beyond those in place today, all that unstructured call and email data can be captured, stored and analyzed to reveal the reasons for the contact, perhaps with the aggregated customer results cross referenced against what is being said about the organization or a similar peer organization on social media. The organization can then take positive actions, communicating to the market in advance of issues reaching the press, strengthening controls, adjusting risk profiles, changing policy and procedures and completely minimizing, if not eliminating, complaints and compensation for that specific reason in the future. In this one example of many similar ones, the GRC team(s) has demonstrated real and tangible business value. Big Challenges - Big Opportunities As pointed out by recent Forrester research, high performing companies (those that are growing 15% or more year-on-year compared to their peers) are taking a selective approach to investing in Big Data. "Tomorrow's winners understand this, and they are making selective investments aimed at specific opportunities with tangible benefits where big data offers a more economical solution to meet a need." (Forrsights Strategy Spotlight: Business Intelligence and Big Data, Q4 2012) As pointed out earlier, with the ever increasing volume of regulatory demands and fines for getting it wrong, limited resource availability and out of date or inadequate GRC systems all contributing to a higher cost of compliance and/or higher risk profile than desired – a big data investment in GRC clearly falls into this category. However, to make the most of big data organizations must evolve both their business and IT procedures, processes, people and infrastructures to handle these new high-volume, high-velocity, high-variety sources of data and be able integrate them with the pre-existing company data to be analyzed. GRC big data clearly allows the organization access to and management over a huge amount of often very sensitive information that although can help create a more risk intelligent organization, also presents numerous data governance challenges, including regulatory compliance and information security. In addition to client and regulatory demands over better information security and data protection the sheer amount of information organizations deal with the need to quickly access, classify, protect and manage that information can quickly become a key issue from a legal, as well as technical or operational standpoint. However, by making information governance processes a bigger part of everyday operations, organizations can make sure data remains readily available and protected. The Right GRC & Big Data Partnership Becomes Key The "getting it right first time" mantra used in so many companies remains essential for any GRC team that is sponsoring, helping kick start, or even overseeing a big data project. To make a big data GRC initiative work and get the desired value, partnerships with companies, who have a long history of success in delivering successful GRC solutions as well as being at the very forefront of technology innovation, becomes key. Clearly solutions can be built in-house more cheaply than through vendor, but as has been proven time and time again, when it comes to self built solutions covering AML and Fraud for example, few have able to scale or adapt appropriately to meet the changing regulations or challenges that the GRC teams face on a daily basis. This has led to the creation of GRC silo’s that are causing so many headaches today. The solutions that stand out and should be explored are the ones that can seamlessly merge the traditional world of well-known data, analytics and visualization with the new world of seemingly innumerable data sources, utilizing Big Data technologies to generate new GRC insights right across the enterprise.Ultimately, Big Data is here to stay, and organizations that embrace its potential and outline a viable strategy, as well as understand and build a solid analytical foundation, will be the ones that are well positioned to make the most of it. A Blueprint and Roadmap Service for Big Data Big data adoption is first and foremost a business decision. As such it is essential that your partner can align your strategies, goals, and objectives with an architecture vision and roadmap to accelerate adoption of big data for your environment, as well as establish practical, effective governance that will maintain a well managed environment going forward. Key Activities: While your initiatives will clearly vary, there are some generic starting points the team and organization will need to complete: Clearly define your drivers, strategies, goals, objectives and requirements as it relates to big data Conduct a big data readiness and Information Architecture maturity assessment Develop future state big data architecture, including views across all relevant architecture domains; business, applications, information, and technology Provide initial guidance on big data candidate selection for migrations or implementation Develop a strategic roadmap and implementation plan that reflects a prioritization of initiatives based on business impact and technology dependency, and an incremental integration approach for evolving your current state to the target future state in a manner that represents the least amount of risk and impact of change on the business Provide recommendations for practical, effective Data Governance, Data Quality Management, and Information Lifecycle Management to maintain a well-managed environment Conduct an executive workshop with recommendations and next steps There is little debate that managing risk and data are the two biggest obstacles encountered by financial institutions. Big data is here to stay and risk management certainly is not going anywhere, and ultimately financial services industry organizations that embrace its potential and outline a viable strategy, as well as understand and build a solid analytical foundation, will be best positioned to make the most of it. Matthew Long is a Financial Crime Specialist for Oracle Financial Services. He can be reached at matthew.long AT oracle.com.

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Oracle Application Server Performance Monitoring and Tuning (CPU load high)

- by Berkay

Oracle Application Server Performance Monitoring and Tuning (CPU load high) i have just hired by a company and my boss give me a performance issue to solve as soon as possible. I don't have any experience with the Java EE before at the server side. Let me begin what i learned about the system and still couldn't find the solution: We have an Oracle Application Server (10.1.) and Oracle Database server (9.2.), the software guys wrote a kind of big J2EE project (X project) using specifically JSF 1.2 with Ajax which is only used in this project. They actively use PL/SQL in their code. So, we started the application server (Solaris machine), everything seems OK. users start using the app starting Monday from different locations (app 200 have user accounts,i just checked and see that the connection pool is set right, the session are active only 15 minutes). After sometime (2 days) CPU utilization gets high,%60, at night it is still same nothing changed (the online user amount is nearly 1 or 2 at this time), even it starts using the CPU allocated for other applications on the same server because they freed If we don't restart the server, the utilization becomes %90 following 2 days, application is so slow that end users starts calling. The main problem is software engineers say that code is clear, and the System and DBA managers say that we have the correct configuration,the other applications seems OK why this problem happens only for X application. I start copying the DB to a test platform and upgrade it to the latest version, also did in same with the application server (Weblogic) if there is a bug or not. i only tested by myself only one user and weblogic admin panel i can track the threads and dump them. i noticed that there are some threads showing as a hogging. when i checked the manuals and control the trace i see that it directs me the line number where PL/SQL code is called from a .java file. The software eng. says that yes we have really complex PL/SQL codes but what's the relation with Application server? this is the problem of DB server, i guess they're right... I know the question has many holes, i'd like to give more in detail but i appreciate the way you guide me. Thanks in advance ... Edit: The server both in CPU and Memory enough to run more complex applications

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Will this RAID5 setup work (3TB Seagate Barracudas + Adaptec RAID 6405)?

- by Slayer537

As the title states, will this RAID combo work, and if not what needs to be changed? Overall opinions would be most helpful. I currently run a small file server of about 5TB or so. I keep outgrowing my needs and need to build a RAID setup that will allow me to expand as needed. I am new to RAID setups, especially one of the scale I have currently planned out, but I have being doing some research for the past couple of weeks and have come up with a build. Ideally, I'd have the setup completely built, but I'd like to keep the total cost around $1k and can't afford to go above $1.5k, so unfortunately that's not an option. 2 of my current drives are WD Caviar Blacks 2TB; however, I have recently learned that due to the lack of TLER those drives are awful for any RAID setup other than 0 or 1. That being said, my third drive is a Seagate Barracuda 3TB (ST300DM001) and I have found a RAID controller that states it supports it, so I'd like to use this same type of drive, if possible. Have any of you had any experience using this drive or a similar one in a RAID5 configuration? The manufacturer states that it supports it, but knowing that it is not an enterprise drive, I am slightly concerned that it could drop out of the array. I would just go with enterprise drives, but those are about double in cost... Parts list: Storage rack: http://www.ebay.com/itm/SGI-3U-Media-Storage-Server-16-Hard-Drive-Bay-SATA-SAS-Expander-Omnistor-SE3016-/140735776937?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20c48188a9 3 more HDs (for now..): http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Barracuda-3-5-Inch-Internal-ST3000DM001/dp/B005T3GRLY/ref=dp_return_2?ie=UTF8&n=172282&s=electronics Adaptec RAID 6405: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816103224 here's a link to the compatibility sheet if that helps: http://download.adaptec.com/pdfs/compatibility_report/arc-sas_cr_03-27-12_series6.pdf SAS expander cable: http://www.pc-pitstop.com/sas_cables_adapters/8887-2M.asp My plan is to install the RAID card in my computer and then route the SAS cable to the rack. Setup a RAID5 on 3 drives, transfer my data over from my other drive, and then add that drive to the array. Eventually, I'd like to get a 2U unit and run the file server on that and move the RAID card over to there, but that will have to happen later on. Side note: The computer the card would be going into will be running Windows 7 Pro with 24GB of DDR3-1600 and an i7-930.

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Error 80073701 when installing Windows 7 Service Pack 1

- by Wagner Maestrelli

I tried to install the Windows 7 Service Pack 1 using Windows Update and I got an error (code 80073701 - unknown error). I tried it again, same thing. Rebooted and tried again, same error. Before I tried to install the SP1 I had installed all the previous updates. I have Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bits. Has anyone gone through the same problem? Any ideas of what might be happening? Thanks! UPDATE: I installed the System Update Readiness Tool. Then, I tried to install the SP1 again, but the installation failed again with the same error. As I thought I was running out of options, I downloaded the SP1 package (500+ MB) and tried to install manually. Before that, I reinstalled the SUR Update. Well, the manual installation of the SP1 failed again. Then I learned about the c:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CheckSUR.log file (thanks Patches!). I checked it out. As I installed the SUR Update multiple times, the older logs are kept in the c:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CheckSUR.persist.log file. In the first time the SUR update was installed there was an error, which is said to have been fixed. In the subsequent logs, no errors were detected. The log with the error: ================================= Checking System Update Readiness. Binary Version 6.1.7600.20593 Package Version 7.0 2010-03-19 09:57 Checking Windows Servicing Packages Checking Package Manifests and Catalogs (f) CBS MUM Corrupt 0x800B0100 servicing\Packages\Microsoft-Windows-Client-LanguagePack-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~x86~pt-BR~6.1.7600.16385.mum servicing\Packages\Microsoft-Windows-Client-LanguagePack-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~x86~pt-BR~6.1.7600.16385.cat Package manifest cannot be validated by the corresponding catalog (fix) CBS MUM Corrupt CBS File Replaced Microsoft-Windows-Client-LanguagePack-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~x86~pt-BR~6.1.7600.16385.mum from Cabinet: C:\Windows\CheckSur\v1.0\windows6.1-rtm-client-cab3-x86.cab. (fix) CBS Paired File CBS File also Replaced Microsoft-Windows-Client-LanguagePack-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~x86~pt-BR~6.1.7600.16385.cat from Cabinet: C:\Windows\CheckSur\v1.0\windows6.1-rtm-client-cab3-x86.cab. Checking Package Watchlist Checking Component Watchlist Checking Packages Checking Component Store Summary: Seconds executed: 224 Found 1 errors Fixed 1 errors CBS MUM Corrupt Total count: 1 Fixed: CBS MUM Corrupt. Total count: 1 Fixed: CBS Paired File. Total count: 1 It seems it has something to do with the Brazilian Portuguese Language Pack, which happens to be my native language. Problem is I can't uninstall the language pack since it is my system default language. And I haven't found any place to download it so I could reinstall it manually. Well, any ideas? Thanks!

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HTTP not working EC2 instance with own domain name

- by bogdanvursu

I have this problem I've already posted on the Amazon AWS forum. Unfortunately I haven't got a clear answer I and I was hoping you guys could help. Here's the link: http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/thread.jspa?messageID=198238#198207 Basically I don't know why after associating an Elastic IP address and mapping it to one of my domains, FTP an ping work fine, but HTTP does a 302 redirect to the Amazon AWS hostname I had before associating the Elastic IP address. Here's the question from the AWS forum: I have an EC2 instance with HTTP and FTP installed. They both worked. Then I associated an Elastic IP address to that instance. Then I mapped that IP address to a name which is a subdomain of a domain I own. I think it's an A name (I didn't do the mapping personally). Now FTP works and HTTP doesn't. The AWS host name before the Elastic IP association: ec2-184-73-27-8.compute-1.amazonaws.com The AWS IP address and host name after the association: 174.129.7.254 and ec2-174-129-7-254.compute-1.amazonaws.com The domain which is mapped to 174.129.7.254 using an A record is: demo.flashxml.net FTP works means that I can connect to both 174.129.7.254, ec2-174-129-7-254.compute-1.amazonaws.com and demo.flashxml.net. HTTP doesn't work means that a HTTP request to 174.129.7.254, ec2-174-129-7-254.compute-1.amazonaws.com or demo.flashxml.net returns a 302 redirect to ec2-184-73-27-8.compute-1.amazonaws.com Here is my VirtualHost file: <VirtualHost *:80> DocumentRoot /home/ec2-user/public_html/wordpress ServerName demo.flashxml.net ErrorLog logs/ec2-user-error_log <Directory /home/ec2-user/public_html/wordpress> AllowOverride FileInfo Order Deny,Allow Allow from All </Directory> </VirtualHost> I finally figured out what was wrong. It's the fact that I installed Wordpress on the server using the hostname provided by Amazon. After associating the Elastic IP and updating the DNS records, the server was reachable - FTP working was the proof of that. The 302 redirect when accessing via HTTP was caused by Wordpress's hostname settings. So, what I've learned from all this was that I should setup my IP and DNS first and only after that install Wordpress or any other web app(s).

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Weird random application hang problem

- by haridsv

I am trying to understand an application hang problem that started up lately on my windows xp system. The system runs fine for days (sometimes) without ever shutting down or putting it to sleep, but the problem first shows up as one of the apps hanging. The application's UI stops responding or one or more background threads hang, so even though the GUI is responding, it is not doing anything (e.g., in VirtualDub's case, the UI responds fine, but the job doesn't progress and I won't even be able to abort it). The weirdness part comes from the fact that if I try to kill such an app, the program that is used to kill it goes into the same mode (i.e, that hangs instead of the original). E.g., if I use Process Explorer to kill it, the original program exits, but procexp now hangs. If I use another instance of procexp to kill the one that is hanging, this repeats, so there is always at least one program hanging in that state. This is not specific to procexp, I tried the native task manager and even the "End Process" dialog from windows explorer that shows up when you try to close a non-responsive GUI (in this case, the explorer itself hangs). The only program that didn't hang after the kill, is the command line taskkill. However, in this case, explorer hangs instead of taskkill. Also, once this problem starts manifesting, it soon ends up freezing the whole system to the extent that even a clean shutdown is not possible, so I have learned to reboot as soon as I notice this problem, however this is very inconvenient, as I often have encoding batch jobs going on which can't continue the job after the restart. The longer I leave the system running after seeing this problem, the more applications get into this state. I have tried to do a repair install but that didn't make any difference. I also uninstalled some of the newer installs, but again no difference. I tried to search online, but got inundating results for generic hang and crash related problems. Though I couldn't notice any pattern, it seems as though the problem is more frequent if I have some video encoding going on at that time. I had the system running for days when I only do browsing and internet audio/video chat before I decide to start encoding something and the problem starts to show up. I am not too sure if it is the encoding program that first hangs, though I almost always noticed that too hanging (like the VirtualDub stopping to make progress). I also had to reboot 3 times on one day when I was heavily experimenting with encoding. I would appreciate any help in narrowing down this problem and save me the trouble of reinstalling. I don't especially want to loose my gotd installs.

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Can someone explain RAID-0 in plain English?

- by Edward Tanguay

I've heard about and read about RAID throughout the years and understand it theoretically as a way to help e.g. server PCs reduce the chance of data loss, but now I am buying a new PC which I want to be as fast as possible and have learned that having two drives can considerably increase the perceived performance of your machine. In the question Recommendations for hard drive performance boost, the author says he is going to RAID-0 two 7200 RPM drives together. What does this mean in practical terms for me with Windows 7 installed, e.g. can I buy two drives, go into the device manager and "raid-0 them together"? I am not a network administrator or a hardware guy, I'm just a developer who is going to have a computer store build me a super fast machine next week. I can read the wikipedia page on RAID but it is just way too many trees and not enough forest to help me build a faster PC: RAID-0: "Striped set without parity" or "Striping". Provides improved performance and additional storage but no redundancy or fault tolerance. Because there is no redundancy, this level is not actually a Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks, i.e. not true RAID. However, because of the similarities to RAID (especially the need for a controller to distribute data across multiple disks), simple strip sets are normally referred to as RAID 0. Any disk failure destroys the array, which has greater consequences with more disks in the array (at a minimum, catastrophic data loss is twice as severe compared to single drives without RAID). A single disk failure destroys the entire array because when data is written to a RAID 0 drive, the data is broken into fragments. The number of fragments is dictated by the number of disks in the array. The fragments are written to their respective disks simultaneously on the same sector. This allows smaller sections of the entire chunk of data to be read off the drive in parallel, increasing bandwidth. RAID 0 does not implement error checking so any error is unrecoverable. More disks in the array means higher bandwidth, but greater risk of data loss. So in plain English, how can "RAID-0" help me build a faster Windows-7 PC that I am going to order next week?

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How to add IP range to a server?

- by Efe Cakinberk

Hello, First of all I must say that I'm ver inexperienced server and network user. But I rented a unmanaged dedicated server. Well I didn't know what unmanaged really means, then I learned it when I needed support. Well I must do everything by myself. I have a problem. I had already 4 IPs on my server when I rented it. But then I needed more Ips and my server assigned me 32 Ips in which I can only use 27 of them. 85.25.230.0 - 85.25.230.31 this is my Ip range and they say the following Ips must not be configured on the server: 85.25.230.0 - network address 85.25.230.1 - gateway address 85.25.230.2 - router redundancy 85.25.230.3 - router redundancy 85.25.230.31 - broadcast address But the problem is ok Ips are assigned to me but they are not setup on my server. How will I setup Ips to work on my server? I did this after my reseach on google: I used this command on command prompt: route add 85.25.230.0 mask 255.255.255.224 85.25.230.1 metric 1 if then it said OK!. and I thought they should be working. (btw, mask is given to me by my ISP and I don't know metric 1 and if means I just saw it on the net and write it here) I setup my domains via using Plesk Kontrol Panel. So i added one domain and setup one of my new Ips 85.25.230.5 to it. But no it is not working. When I visit the domain via browser, there is a Plesk page comes and says this domain is not configured on the server. Then I changed the domains Ip to one of my old Ips which are given to me with the server and which I have been using for my other domains for a long time. Ok in a second, domain started working. I set it back to my new Ip and domain did not work. As I said, I'm not an expert and do not now the logic. But I'm eager to learn. Can you tell me what might couse the problem and did I do wrong while setting up IP RANGE to my server, if so how can I set them up? Thank you, Efe

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SQL 2008 R2 Named Instance Client Connectivity Issues?

- by Jerry Dodge

We're upgrading our software from using SQL 2000 to 2008 R2. Our customers will be installing an update which uninstalls 2000 and installs 2008 R2 under the same instance. So if no instance existed, then no instance name will be set (default). However, the problem starts with the customers which have a named SQL instance. Starting in 2008 R2 (not sure of ones before), for some reason, a client connecting to the server by its instance name is unsuccessful. I'm testing from the Management Studio - if I can't connect this, then nothing can connect. I browse network servers, and find the specific server\instance in the list. But, upon trying to connect to an instance name like MyServer\INST, I get: A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. (provider: SQL Network Interfaces, error: 26 - Error Locating Server/Instance Specified) (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: -1) I do in fact have TCP/IP and Named Pipes protocols enabled, this is the first thing I did. When I connect to the server using a comma (,) and port number like MyServer, 49195, it works just fine. So it appears that client computers are just unable to identify the instance names. This has happened on all our installations of SQL 2008 R2 and from all client computers, including Win 7, XP, Vista, Server 2008, and Server 2003. We never experienced such issues on earlier versions of SQL. The problem even persists if the firewalls and antiviruses are all disabled. Now, this is a large update which we will be distributing soon to all our customers, and we want to minimize the interaction they need with us to get this installed. We absolutely hate the idea of using a port number, because it will always be different, and we would have to modify each client to point to this server/port. Some of our customers may have hundreds of client computers. How do I make client connections to a named SQL instance work again? After all, this is the whole purpose of named instances, and if a client can't connect to this instance by its name, then what is it even named for? EDIT It was mentioned to make sure SQL Browser is running, so I checked, and it is running. The server is also able to connect to its self (locally) - just external connections are refused. UPDATE After more careful checking, I learned the firewall wasn't completely disabled when testing, and upon disabling it completely, this works. So it appears that SQL Browser is being blocked by the firewall from external clients from accessing.

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centos 6 ps aux hangs up

- by Guntis

I have problem with my server. Server is running centos 6 (CloudLinux Server release 6.2). uname -a = 2.6.32-320.4.1.lve1.1.4.el6.x86_64 That is a kvm guest. On host is debian 6. If i run command ps aux, it stuck on random process (shows some processes only), top command is working fine. htop doesn't work too (black screen). top - 12:11:51 up 34 min, 1 user, load average: 4.26, 6.71, 16.15 Tasks: 201 total, 7 running, 192 sleeping, 0 stopped, 2 zombie Cpu(s): 7.9%us, 2.8%sy, 0.0%ni, 87.5%id, 1.6%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.2%si, 0.0%st Mem: 9862044k total, 2359484k used, 7502560k free, 171720k buffers Swap: 10485720k total, 0k used, 10485720k free, 1336872k cached server has one Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5606 @ 2.13GHz, free -m total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 9630 2336 7293 0 170 1324 -/+ buffers/cache: 841 8789 Swap: 10239 0 10239 php -v PHP 5.3.19 (cli) (built: Nov 28 2012 10:03:07) Copyright (c) 1997-2012 The PHP Group Zend Engine v2.3.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2012 Zend Technologies with the ionCube PHP Loader v4.2.2, Copyright (c) 2002-2012, by ionCube Ltd., and with Zend Guard Loader v3.3, Copyright (c) 1998-2010, by Zend Technologies with Suhosin v0.9.33, Copyright (c) 2007-2012, by SektionEins GmbH mysql Server version: 5.1.63-cll php -i disable_functions => apache_child_terminate, apache_setenv, define_syslog_variables, escapeshellarg, escapeshellcmd, eval, exec, fp, fput, ftp_connect, ftp_e xec, ftp_get, ftp_login, ftp_nb_fput, ftp_put, ftp_raw, ftp_rawlist, highlight_file, ini_alter, ini_get_all, ini_restore, inject_code, openlog, passthru, php _uname, phpAds_remoteInfo, phpAds_XmlRpc, phpAds_xmlrpcDecode, phpAds_xmlrpcEncode, popen, posix_getpwuid, posix_kill, posix_mkfifo, posix_setpgid, posix_set sid, posix_setuid, posix_setuid, posix_uname, proc_close, proc_get_status, proc_nice, proc_open, proc_terminate, shell_exec, syslog, system, xmlrpc_entity_de code, xmlrpc_server_create, putenv, show_source,mail => apache_child_terminate, apache_setenv, define_syslog_variables, escapeshellarg, escapeshellcmd, eval, exec, fp, fput, ftp_connect, ftp_exec, ftp_get, ftp_login, ftp_nb_fput, ftp_put, ftp_raw, ftp_rawlist, highlight_file, ini_alter, ini_get_all, ini_restore, inject_code, openlog, passthru, php_uname, phpAds_remoteInfo, phpAds_XmlRpc, phpAds_xmlrpcDecode, phpAds_xmlrpcEncode, popen, posix_getpwuid, posix_kill, pos ix_mkfifo, posix_setpgid, posix_setsid, posix_setuid, posix_setuid, posix_uname, proc_close, proc_get_status, proc_nice, proc_open, proc_terminate, shell_exe c, syslog, system, xmlrpc_entity_decode, xmlrpc_server_create, putenv, show_source,mail ... suhosin.executor.disable_eval => Off => Off suhosin.executor.eval.blacklist => include,include_once,require,require_once,curl_init,fpassthru,base64_encode,base64_decode,mail,exec,system,proc_open,leak, syslog,pfsockopen,shell_exec,ini_restore,symlink,stream_socket_server,proc_nice,popen,proc_get_status,dl, pcntl_exec, pcntl_fork, pcntl_signal,pcntl_waitpid, pcntl_wexitstatus, pcntl_wifexited, pcntl_wifsignaled,pcntl_wifstopped, pcntl_wstopsig, pcntl_wtermsig, socket_accept,socket_bind, socket_connect, socket_cr eate, socket_create_listen,socket_create_pair,link,register_shutdown_function,register_tick_function,gzinflate => include,include_once,require,require_once,c url_init,fpassthru,base64_encode,base64_decode,mail,exec,system,proc_open,leak,syslog,pfsockopen,shell_exec,ini_restore,symlink,stream_socket_server,proc_nic e,popen,proc_get_status,dl, pcntl_exec, pcntl_fork, pcntl_signal,pcntl_waitpid, pcntl_wexitstatus, pcntl_wifexited, pcntl_wifsignaled,pcntl_wifstopped, pcntl _wstopsig, pcntl_wtermsig, socket_accept,socket_bind, socket_connect, socket_create, socket_create_listen,socket_create_pair,link,register_shutdown_function, register_tick_function,gzinflate Sometimes i cannot kill httpd process. I run kill -9 PID even several times, and nothing happens. php runs via suphp. I learned somewhere that it can be trojan. I ran strace ps aux and it stops on open("/proc/PID/cmdline", O_RDONLY) If i reboot server, problem is gone but after some time it is back again .. :( Thanks.

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How can I change how OS X's 'say' command pronounces a word?

- by jwhitlock

OS X's say command is useful for some tasks (such as Skype's 'notify me when a contact comes online), but it is pronouncing some names incorrectly. Is there a way to teach say to pronounce a word differently? For example, try: say "Hi, Joel Spolsky" The 'ol' sounds like 'ball' rather than 'old'. I'd like to add an exception that say "Pronounce Spolsky like this", rather than try to teach new linguistic rules. I bet there is a way since it can pronounce "iphone" as Apple wants. Update - After some research, here's what I've learned: Text-to-speech is split between turning the text to phonemes, and then the phonemes are turned into audio using a voice. Changing the voice doesn't effect the phonemes. The Speech Synthesis Manager has some functions for turning text to phonemes, and a method for registering a speech dictionary that will add new text-phoneme maps. However, Apple's speech dictionary must be in a binary form - I didn't find any plist XML. Using dtrace while running say, I found some interesting files opened in /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SpeechDictionary.framework/Resources. This is probably the speech dictionary, but they are all binary, except for Homophones, which is XML. Adding entries to Homophones does nothing - it is probably used in speech-to-text. They are also code signed by Apple - changing them may prevent some programs from working. PrefixDictionary CartNames CartLite SymbolDictionary Homophones There are ways to add text versions of application interface elements so VoiceOver works, a lot of which a developer gets for free, but there are tricky bits. The standard here appears to be to use a phonetic spelling as needed. My guesses are: say is a light layer of code on top of the Speech Synthesis Manager. It would be easy for the Apple devs to add a command line option to take the path to a speech dictionary plist for alternate phoneme mapping, but they didn't. It may be a useful open-source project to write a better say. Skype probably uses Speech Synthesis Manager directly, leaving no hooks to change the way my friend's names are pronounced, other than spelling them phonetically, which is silly. The easiest way to make a command line version of say is how JRobert suggested. Here's my quick implementation, using Doug Harris's spelling suggestion: #!/bin/sh echo $@ | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]' | sed "s/spolsky/spowlsky/g" | /usr/bin/say Finally, some fun command line stuff: # Apple is weird sqlite3 /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SpeechDictionary.framework/Resources/Tuples .dump # Get too much information about what files are being opened sudo dtrace -n 'syscall::open*:entry { printf("%s %s",execname,copyinstr(arg0)); }' # Just fun say -v bad "Joel Spolsky Spolsky Spolsky Spolsky Spolsky, Joel Spolsky Spolsky Spolsky Spolsky Spolsky" echo "scale=1000; 4*a(1)" | bc -l | say

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What's the best scenario for using a wireless router with Comcast Business Class

- by Buck

Just had Comcast Business Class internet installed (usage details at bottom of post). During the call to order I asked about the hardware they'd be providing and was told it was a docsis 3 modem that I'd have to pay $7.00/month for. Figuring I'd have to buy a router anyway, I decided to get my own modem - a Surfboard SB6121 Docsis 3. I called in to tech support to ask some questions and learned that the modem they would have provided DID have a router built in. It's an SMCD3G-CCR. It's not wireless (we need wireless). The guy explained that it was better to have their hardware here because if there's a problem with our service and we're using our own hardware, chances are they'll blame it on our hardware and do nothing since they don't support it. He explained that I could still hang my own wireless router off their modem/router and if we ever had any service problems, we'd be able to plug directly into their hardware and they'd be able to tell where the problem is and they wouldn't be able to pawn it off onto "customer provided equipment". That all said, a few questions: 1. Am I better off returning my Surfboard modem and getting the Comcast one? If I get a wireless router and plug into one of the ethernet ports of the Comcast device, should I NOT plug anything else into the Comcast device since it would be a different network from anything connecting via the wireless router? Is that correct? Given that I know VERY LITTLE about networking and setting up hardware like this... since I need wireless and will HAVE to get a wireless router to work with this Comcast device, do I need to do anything with the settings of the Comcast device? Do I use security on the Comcast device or the wireless router or both? Any suggestions or anything I need to think about, given this scenario, in order to use a business-type voip service like RingCentral or Jive or Nextiva? Any recommendations on a wireless router for this scenario? We are running 2 PCs (possibly 3-4 in the future) - could be wired for the time being if needed but would prefer wireless; would like to have a networked hard drive and a networked printer; NEED business-type VOIP service asap for 2 phone lines. Would like to hook up some IP cameras at some point (but not the kind that require static IPs since I don't have one nor do I plan to pay Comcast another $15/month for one). I don't have or plan to have any type of web servers or anything like that. Want to use WPA or WPA2 security and take advantage of the NAT feature of the router for additional protection (that's the extent of my networking knowledge).

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Educate me - should I buy these prebuilt NAS (which is better) or make my own?

- by user29336

I'm trying to learn as much as possible, and I think I've learned quite a bit so bear with me here under my confusion. I found a coupe NAS setups. I'm not sure if one is better than the other, other than the price being higher on some, and some coming with drives VS not. Let me list my setup so you can get an idea of what I want to provide: Macbook Pro Macbook Mini for Media streaming (so far) Windows 7 Gaming Computer Xbox 360 I'd like to provide a storage system for all these devices so they can access files very easily, I'd also like any of these devices to be able to stream media from this storage system. I'd like this storage system to be hassle free in terms of my confidence in the data integrity. If a drive fails, I want to know that I can replace the drive and all my files will still exist. I'd like to access this storage system OUTSIDE of my LAN. If I'm out on a job for work I'd like to go in, or be able to have people DL some files. This brings me to a question, is this what iSCSI is? I'd like this data system to be able to download torrents. I want to mount any drive on this storage system onto my OSX laptop as if it were a local drive attached. (Is this with iSCSI is?) I'd like this system to have a GOOD web based GUI. I don't want to install software to use it. I believe those are the most of my requirements. If I'm missing something that I have no knowledge about, can someone educate me? Here are the systems I found: $729ish on Newegg Lacie 5Big Network 2 (comes with 5TB of space. iSCSI / mac compatible, torrents, nice ui, + others?) Is this overpriced for what it provides? It almost seems like a great deal to me because of the 5TB of space it comes with vs the other NAS systems that don't come with storage but cost $600-700. Should I get a different NAS system? Netgear? Others? Do they have same features? Better? Is it better to buy your own disks? What about making my own? I'm tech savy all around. It seems cheaper to buy a premade one especially with the support/warranty it provides...

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SQLite, python, unicode, and non-utf data

- by Nathan Spears

I started by trying to store strings in sqlite using python, and got the message: sqlite3.ProgrammingError: You must not use 8-bit bytestrings unless you use a text_factory that can interpret 8-bit bytestrings (like text_factory = str). It is highly recommended that you instead just switch your application to Unicode strings. Ok, I switched to Unicode strings. Then I started getting the message: sqlite3.OperationalError: Could not decode to UTF-8 column 'tag_artist' with text 'Sigur Rós' when trying to retrieve data from the db. More research and I started encoding it in utf8, but then 'Sigur Rós' starts looking like 'Sigur RÃ³s' note: My console was set to display in 'latin_1' as @John Machin pointed out. What gives? After reading this, describing exactly the same situation I'm in, it seems as if the advice is to ignore the other advice and use 8-bit bytestrings after all. I didn't know much about unicode and utf before I started this process. I've learned quite a bit in the last couple hours, but I'm still ignorant of whether there is a way to correctly convert 'ó' from latin-1 to utf-8 and not mangle it. If there isn't, why would sqlite 'highly recommend' I switch my application to unicode strings? I'm going to update this question with a summary and some example code of everything I've learned in the last 24 hours so that someone in my shoes can have an easy(er) guide. If the information I post is wrong or misleading in any way please tell me and I'll update, or one of you senior guys can update. Summary of answers Let me first state the goal as I understand it. The goal in processing various encodings, if you are trying to convert between them, is to understand what your source encoding is, then convert it to unicode using that source encoding, then convert it to your desired encoding. Unicode is a base and encodings are mappings of subsets of that base. utf_8 has room for every character in unicode, but because they aren't in the same place as, for instance, latin_1, a string encoded in utf_8 and sent to a latin_1 console will not look the way you expect. In python the process of getting to unicode and into another encoding looks like: str.decode('source_encoding').encode('desired_encoding') or if the str is already in unicode str.encode('desired_encoding') For sqlite I didn't actually want to encode it again, I wanted to decode it and leave it in unicode format. Here are four things you might need to be aware of as you try to work with unicode and encodings in python. The encoding of the string you want to work with, and the encoding you want to get it to. The system encoding. The console encoding. The encoding of the source file Elaboration: (1) When you read a string from a source, it must have some encoding, like latin_1 or utf_8. In my case, I'm getting strings from filenames, so unfortunately, I could be getting any kind of encoding. Windows XP uses UCS-2 (a Unicode system) as its native string type, which seems like cheating to me. Fortunately for me, the characters in most filenames are not going to be made up of more than one source encoding type, and I think all of mine were either completely latin_1, completely utf_8, or just plain ascii (which is a subset of both of those). So I just read them and decoded them as if they were still in latin_1 or utf_8. It's possible, though, that you could have latin_1 and utf_8 and whatever other characters mixed together in a filename on Windows. Sometimes those characters can show up as boxes, other times they just look mangled, and other times they look correct (accented characters and whatnot). Moving on. (2) Python has a default system encoding that gets set when python starts and can't be changed during runtime. See here for details. Dirty summary ... well here's the file I added: \# sitecustomize.py \# this file can be anywhere in your Python path, \# but it usually goes in ${pythondir}/lib/site-packages/ import sys sys.setdefaultencoding('utf_8') This system encoding is the one that gets used when you use the unicode("str") function without any other encoding parameters. To say that another way, python tries to decode "str" to unicode based on the default system encoding. (3) If you're using IDLE or the command-line python, I think that your console will display according to the default system encoding. I am using pydev with eclipse for some reason, so I had to go into my project settings, edit the launch configuration properties of my test script, go to the Common tab, and change the console from latin-1 to utf-8 so that I could visually confirm what I was doing was working. (4) If you want to have some test strings, eg test_str = "ó" in your source code, then you will have to tell python what kind of encoding you are using in that file. (FYI: when I mistyped an encoding I had to ctrl-Z because my file became unreadable.) This is easily accomplished by putting a line like so at the top of your source code file: # -*- coding: utf_8 -*- If you don't have this information, python attempts to parse your code as ascii by default, and so: SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\xf3' in file _redacted_ on line 81, but no encoding declared; see http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0263.html for details Once your program is working correctly, or, if you aren't using python's console or any other console to look at output, then you will probably really only care about #1 on the list. System default and console encoding are not that important unless you need to look at output and/or you are using the builtin unicode() function (without any encoding parameters) instead of the string.decode() function. I wrote a demo function I will paste into the bottom of this gigantic mess that I hope correctly demonstrates the items in my list. Here is some of the output when I run the character 'ó' through the demo function, showing how various methods react to the character as input. My system encoding and console output are both set to utf_8 for this run: '?' = original char <type 'str'> repr(char)='\xf3' '?' = unicode(char) ERROR: 'utf8' codec can't decode byte 0xf3 in position 0: unexpected end of data 'ó' = char.decode('latin_1') <type 'unicode'> repr(char.decode('latin_1'))=u'\xf3' '?' = char.decode('utf_8') ERROR: 'utf8' codec can't decode byte 0xf3 in position 0: unexpected end of data Now I will change the system and console encoding to latin_1, and I get this output for the same input: 'ó' = original char <type 'str'> repr(char)='\xf3' 'ó' = unicode(char) <type 'unicode'> repr(unicode(char))=u'\xf3' 'ó' = char.decode('latin_1') <type 'unicode'> repr(char.decode('latin_1'))=u'\xf3' '?' = char.decode('utf_8') ERROR: 'utf8' codec can't decode byte 0xf3 in position 0: unexpected end of data Notice that the 'original' character displays correctly and the builtin unicode() function works now. Now I change my console output back to utf_8. '?' = original char <type 'str'> repr(char)='\xf3' '?' = unicode(char) <type 'unicode'> repr(unicode(char))=u'\xf3' '?' = char.decode('latin_1') <type 'unicode'> repr(char.decode('latin_1'))=u'\xf3' '?' = char.decode('utf_8') ERROR: 'utf8' codec can't decode byte 0xf3 in position 0: unexpected end of data Here everything still works the same as last time but the console can't display the output correctly. Etc. The function below also displays more information that this and hopefully would help someone figure out where the gap in their understanding is. I know all this information is in other places and more thoroughly dealt with there, but I hope that this would be a good kickoff point for someone trying to get coding with python and/or sqlite. Ideas are great but sometimes source code can save you a day or two of trying to figure out what functions do what. Disclaimers: I'm no encoding expert, I put this together to help my own understanding. I kept building on it when I should have probably started passing functions as arguments to avoid so much redundant code, so if I can I'll make it more concise. Also, utf_8 and latin_1 are by no means the only encoding schemes, they are just the two I was playing around with because I think they handle everything I need. Add your own encoding schemes to the demo function and test your own input. One more thing: there are apparently crazy application developers making life difficult in Windows. #!/usr/bin/env python # -*- coding: utf_8 -*- import os import sys def encodingDemo(str): validStrings = () try: print "str =",str,"{0} repr(str) = {1}".format(type(str), repr(str)) validStrings += ((str,""),) except UnicodeEncodeError as ude: print "Couldn't print the str itself because the console is set to an encoding that doesn't understand some character in the string. See error:\n\t", print ude try: x = unicode(str) print "unicode(str) = ",x validStrings+= ((x, " decoded into unicode by the default system encoding"),) except UnicodeDecodeError as ude: print "ERROR. unicode(str) couldn't decode the string because the system encoding is set to an encoding that doesn't understand some character in the string." print "\tThe system encoding is set to {0}. See error:\n\t".format(sys.getdefaultencoding()), print ude except UnicodeEncodeError as uee: print "ERROR. Couldn't print the unicode(str) because the console is set to an encoding that doesn't understand some character in the string. See error:\n\t", print uee try: x = str.decode('latin_1') print "str.decode('latin_1') =",x validStrings+= ((x, " decoded with latin_1 into unicode"),) try: print "str.decode('latin_1').encode('utf_8') =",str.decode('latin_1').encode('utf_8') validStrings+= ((x, " decoded with latin_1 into unicode and encoded into utf_8"),) except UnicodeDecodeError as ude: print "The string was decoded into unicode using the latin_1 encoding, but couldn't be encoded into utf_8. See error:\n\t", print ude except UnicodeDecodeError as ude: print "Something didn't work, probably because the string wasn't latin_1 encoded. See error:\n\t", print ude except UnicodeEncodeError as uee: print "ERROR. Couldn't print the str.decode('latin_1') because the console is set to an encoding that doesn't understand some character in the string. See error:\n\t", print uee try: x = str.decode('utf_8') print "str.decode('utf_8') =",x validStrings+= ((x, " decoded with utf_8 into unicode"),) try: print "str.decode('utf_8').encode('latin_1') =",str.decode('utf_8').encode('latin_1') except UnicodeDecodeError as ude: print "str.decode('utf_8').encode('latin_1') didn't work. The string was decoded into unicode using the utf_8 encoding, but couldn't be encoded into latin_1. See error:\n\t", validStrings+= ((x, " decoded with utf_8 into unicode and encoded into latin_1"),) print ude except UnicodeDecodeError as ude: print "str.decode('utf_8') didn't work, probably because the string wasn't utf_8 encoded. See error:\n\t", print ude except UnicodeEncodeError as uee: print "ERROR. Couldn't print the str.decode('utf_8') because the console is set to an encoding that doesn't understand some character in the string. See error:\n\t",uee print print "Printing information about each character in the original string." for char in str: try: print "\t'" + char + "' = original char {0} repr(char)={1}".format(type(char), repr(char)) except UnicodeDecodeError as ude: print "\t'?' = original char {0} repr(char)={1} ERROR PRINTING: {2}".format(type(char), repr(char), ude) except UnicodeEncodeError as uee: print "\t'?' = original char {0} repr(char)={1} ERROR PRINTING: {2}".format(type(char), repr(char), uee) print uee try: x = unicode(char) print "\t'" + x + "' = unicode(char) {1} repr(unicode(char))={2}".format(x, type(x), repr(x)) except UnicodeDecodeError as ude: print "\t'?' = unicode(char) ERROR: {0}".format(ude) except UnicodeEncodeError as uee: print "\t'?' = unicode(char) {0} repr(char)={1} ERROR PRINTING: {2}".format(type(x), repr(x), uee) try: x = char.decode('latin_1') print "\t'" + x + "' = char.decode('latin_1') {1} repr(char.decode('latin_1'))={2}".format(x, type(x), repr(x)) except UnicodeDecodeError as ude: print "\t'?' = char.decode('latin_1') ERROR: {0}".format(ude) except UnicodeEncodeError as uee: print "\t'?' = char.decode('latin_1') {0} repr(char)={1} ERROR PRINTING: {2}".format(type(x), repr(x), uee) try: x = char.decode('utf_8') print "\t'" + x + "' = char.decode('utf_8') {1} repr(char.decode('utf_8'))={2}".format(x, type(x), repr(x)) except UnicodeDecodeError as ude: print "\t'?' = char.decode('utf_8') ERROR: {0}".format(ude) except UnicodeEncodeError as uee: print "\t'?' = char.decode('utf_8') {0} repr(char)={1} ERROR PRINTING: {2}".format(type(x), repr(x), uee) print x = 'ó' encodingDemo(x) Much thanks for the answers below and especially to @John Machin for answering so thoroughly.

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SQLite, python, unicode, and non-utf data

- by Nathan Spears

I started by trying to store strings in sqlite using python, and got the message: sqlite3.ProgrammingError: You must not use 8-bit bytestrings unless you use a text_factory that can interpret 8-bit bytestrings (like text_factory = str). It is highly recommended that you instead just switch your application to Unicode strings. Ok, I switched to Unicode strings. Then I started getting the message: sqlite3.OperationalError: Could not decode to UTF-8 column 'tag_artist' with text 'Sigur Rós' when trying to retrieve data from the db. More research and I started encoding it in utf8, but then 'Sigur Rós' starts looking like 'Sigur RÃ³s' note: My console was set to display in 'latin_1' as @John Machin pointed out. What gives? After reading this, describing exactly the same situation I'm in, it seems as if the advice is to ignore the other advice and use 8-bit bytestrings after all. I didn't know much about unicode and utf before I started this process. I've learned quite a bit in the last couple hours, but I'm still ignorant of whether there is a way to correctly convert 'ó' from latin-1 to utf-8 and not mangle it. If there isn't, why would sqlite 'highly recommend' I switch my application to unicode strings? I'm going to update this question with a summary and some example code of everything I've learned in the last 24 hours so that someone in my shoes can have an easy(er) guide. If the information I post is wrong or misleading in any way please tell me and I'll update, or one of you senior guys can update. Summary of answers Let me first state the goal as I understand it. The goal in processing various encodings, if you are trying to convert between them, is to understand what your source encoding is, then convert it to unicode using that source encoding, then convert it to your desired encoding. Unicode is a base and encodings are mappings of subsets of that base. utf_8 has room for every character in unicode, but because they aren't in the same place as, for instance, latin_1, a string encoded in utf_8 and sent to a latin_1 console will not look the way you expect. In python the process of getting to unicode and into another encoding looks like: str.decode('source_encoding').encode('desired_encoding') or if the str is already in unicode str.encode('desired_encoding') For sqlite I didn't actually want to encode it again, I wanted to decode it and leave it in unicode format. Here are four things you might need to be aware of as you try to work with unicode and encodings in python. The encoding of the string you want to work with, and the encoding you want to get it to. The system encoding. The console encoding. The encoding of the source file Elaboration: (1) When you read a string from a source, it must have some encoding, like latin_1 or utf_8. In my case, I'm getting strings from filenames, so unfortunately, I could be getting any kind of encoding. Windows XP uses UCS-2 (a Unicode system) as its native string type, which seems like cheating to me. Fortunately for me, the characters in most filenames are not going to be made up of more than one source encoding type, and I think all of mine were either completely latin_1, completely utf_8, or just plain ascii (which is a subset of both of those). So I just read them and decoded them as if they were still in latin_1 or utf_8. It's possible, though, that you could have latin_1 and utf_8 and whatever other characters mixed together in a filename on Windows. Sometimes those characters can show up as boxes, other times they just look mangled, and other times they look correct (accented characters and whatnot). Moving on. (2) Python has a default system encoding that gets set when python starts and can't be changed during runtime. See here for details. Dirty summary ... well here's the file I added: \# sitecustomize.py \# this file can be anywhere in your Python path, \# but it usually goes in ${pythondir}/lib/site-packages/ import sys sys.setdefaultencoding('utf_8') This system encoding is the one that gets used when you use the unicode("str") function without any other encoding parameters. To say that another way, python tries to decode "str" to unicode based on the default system encoding. (3) If you're using IDLE or the command-line python, I think that your console will display according to the default system encoding. I am using pydev with eclipse for some reason, so I had to go into my project settings, edit the launch configuration properties of my test script, go to the Common tab, and change the console from latin-1 to utf-8 so that I could visually confirm what I was doing was working. (4) If you want to have some test strings, eg test_str = "ó" in your source code, then you will have to tell python what kind of encoding you are using in that file. (FYI: when I mistyped an encoding I had to ctrl-Z because my file became unreadable.) This is easily accomplished by putting a line like so at the top of your source code file: # -*- coding: utf_8 -*- If you don't have this information, python attempts to parse your code as ascii by default, and so: SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\xf3' in file _redacted_ on line 81, but no encoding declared; see http://www.python.org/peps/pep-0263.html for details Once your program is working correctly, or, if you aren't using python's console or any other console to look at output, then you will probably really only care about #1 on the list. System default and console encoding are not that important unless you need to look at output and/or you are using the builtin unicode() function (without any encoding parameters) instead of the string.decode() function. I wrote a demo function I will paste into the bottom of this gigantic mess that I hope correctly demonstrates the items in my list. Here is some of the output when I run the character 'ó' through the demo function, showing how various methods react to the character as input. My system encoding and console output are both set to utf_8 for this run: '?' = original char <type 'str'> repr(char)='\xf3' '?' = unicode(char) ERROR: 'utf8' codec can't decode byte 0xf3 in position 0: unexpected end of data 'ó' = char.decode('latin_1') <type 'unicode'> repr(char.decode('latin_1'))=u'\xf3' '?' = char.decode('utf_8') ERROR: 'utf8' codec can't decode byte 0xf3 in position 0: unexpected end of data Now I will change the system and console encoding to latin_1, and I get this output for the same input: 'ó' = original char <type 'str'> repr(char)='\xf3' 'ó' = unicode(char) <type 'unicode'> repr(unicode(char))=u'\xf3' 'ó' = char.decode('latin_1') <type 'unicode'> repr(char.decode('latin_1'))=u'\xf3' '?' = char.decode('utf_8') ERROR: 'utf8' codec can't decode byte 0xf3 in position 0: unexpected end of data Notice that the 'original' character displays correctly and the builtin unicode() function works now. Now I change my console output back to utf_8. '?' = original char <type 'str'> repr(char)='\xf3' '?' = unicode(char) <type 'unicode'> repr(unicode(char))=u'\xf3' '?' = char.decode('latin_1') <type 'unicode'> repr(char.decode('latin_1'))=u'\xf3' '?' = char.decode('utf_8') ERROR: 'utf8' codec can't decode byte 0xf3 in position 0: unexpected end of data Here everything still works the same as last time but the console can't display the output correctly. Etc. The function below also displays more information that this and hopefully would help someone figure out where the gap in their understanding is. I know all this information is in other places and more thoroughly dealt with there, but I hope that this would be a good kickoff point for someone trying to get coding with python and/or sqlite. Ideas are great but sometimes source code can save you a day or two of trying to figure out what functions do what. Disclaimers: I'm no encoding expert, I put this together to help my own understanding. I kept building on it when I should have probably started passing functions as arguments to avoid so much redundant code, so if I can I'll make it more concise. Also, utf_8 and latin_1 are by no means the only encoding schemes, they are just the two I was playing around with because I think they handle everything I need. Add your own encoding schemes to the demo function and test your own input. One more thing: there are apparently crazy application developers making life difficult in Windows. #!/usr/bin/env python # -*- coding: utf_8 -*- import os import sys def encodingDemo(str): validStrings = () try: print "str =",str,"{0} repr(str) = {1}".format(type(str), repr(str)) validStrings += ((str,""),) except UnicodeEncodeError as ude: print "Couldn't print the str itself because the console is set to an encoding that doesn't understand some character in the string. See error:\n\t", print ude try: x = unicode(str) print "unicode(str) = ",x validStrings+= ((x, " decoded into unicode by the default system encoding"),) except UnicodeDecodeError as ude: print "ERROR. unicode(str) couldn't decode the string because the system encoding is set to an encoding that doesn't understand some character in the string." print "\tThe system encoding is set to {0}. See error:\n\t".format(sys.getdefaultencoding()), print ude except UnicodeEncodeError as uee: print "ERROR. Couldn't print the unicode(str) because the console is set to an encoding that doesn't understand some character in the string. See error:\n\t", print uee try: x = str.decode('latin_1') print "str.decode('latin_1') =",x validStrings+= ((x, " decoded with latin_1 into unicode"),) try: print "str.decode('latin_1').encode('utf_8') =",str.decode('latin_1').encode('utf_8') validStrings+= ((x, " decoded with latin_1 into unicode and encoded into utf_8"),) except UnicodeDecodeError as ude: print "The string was decoded into unicode using the latin_1 encoding, but couldn't be encoded into utf_8. See error:\n\t", print ude except UnicodeDecodeError as ude: print "Something didn't work, probably because the string wasn't latin_1 encoded. See error:\n\t", print ude except UnicodeEncodeError as uee: print "ERROR. Couldn't print the str.decode('latin_1') because the console is set to an encoding that doesn't understand some character in the string. See error:\n\t", print uee try: x = str.decode('utf_8') print "str.decode('utf_8') =",x validStrings+= ((x, " decoded with utf_8 into unicode"),) try: print "str.decode('utf_8').encode('latin_1') =",str.decode('utf_8').encode('latin_1') except UnicodeDecodeError as ude: print "str.decode('utf_8').encode('latin_1') didn't work. The string was decoded into unicode using the utf_8 encoding, but couldn't be encoded into latin_1. See error:\n\t", validStrings+= ((x, " decoded with utf_8 into unicode and encoded into latin_1"),) print ude except UnicodeDecodeError as ude: print "str.decode('utf_8') didn't work, probably because the string wasn't utf_8 encoded. See error:\n\t", print ude except UnicodeEncodeError as uee: print "ERROR. Couldn't print the str.decode('utf_8') because the console is set to an encoding that doesn't understand some character in the string. See error:\n\t",uee print print "Printing information about each character in the original string." for char in str: try: print "\t'" + char + "' = original char {0} repr(char)={1}".format(type(char), repr(char)) except UnicodeDecodeError as ude: print "\t'?' = original char {0} repr(char)={1} ERROR PRINTING: {2}".format(type(char), repr(char), ude) except UnicodeEncodeError as uee: print "\t'?' = original char {0} repr(char)={1} ERROR PRINTING: {2}".format(type(char), repr(char), uee) print uee try: x = unicode(char) print "\t'" + x + "' = unicode(char) {1} repr(unicode(char))={2}".format(x, type(x), repr(x)) except UnicodeDecodeError as ude: print "\t'?' = unicode(char) ERROR: {0}".format(ude) except UnicodeEncodeError as uee: print "\t'?' = unicode(char) {0} repr(char)={1} ERROR PRINTING: {2}".format(type(x), repr(x), uee) try: x = char.decode('latin_1') print "\t'" + x + "' = char.decode('latin_1') {1} repr(char.decode('latin_1'))={2}".format(x, type(x), repr(x)) except UnicodeDecodeError as ude: print "\t'?' = char.decode('latin_1') ERROR: {0}".format(ude) except UnicodeEncodeError as uee: print "\t'?' = char.decode('latin_1') {0} repr(char)={1} ERROR PRINTING: {2}".format(type(x), repr(x), uee) try: x = char.decode('utf_8') print "\t'" + x + "' = char.decode('utf_8') {1} repr(char.decode('utf_8'))={2}".format(x, type(x), repr(x)) except UnicodeDecodeError as ude: print "\t'?' = char.decode('utf_8') ERROR: {0}".format(ude) except UnicodeEncodeError as uee: print "\t'?' = char.decode('utf_8') {0} repr(char)={1} ERROR PRINTING: {2}".format(type(x), repr(x), uee) print x = 'ó' encodingDemo(x) Much thanks for the answers below and especially to @John Machin for answering so thoroughly.

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Developer’s Life – Summary of Superhero Articles

- by Pinal Dave

Earlier this year, I wrote an article series where I talked about developer’s life and compared it with Superhero. I have got amazing response to this series and I have been receiving quite a lots of email suggesting that I should write more blog post about them. Currently I am not planning to write more blog post but I will soon continue another series. In this blog post, I have summarized the entire series. Let me know if you want me to write about any superhero. I will see what I can do about that hero. Developer’s Life – Every Developer is a Captain America Captain America was first created as a comic book character in the 1940’s as a way to boost morale during World War II. Aimed at a children’s audience, his legacy faded away when the war ended. However, he has recently has a major reboot to become a popular movie character that deals with modern issues. Developer’s Life – Every Developer is the Incredible Hulk The Incredible Hulk is possibly one of the scariest superheroes out there. All superheroes are meant to be “out of this world” and awe-inspiring, but I think most people will agree with I say The Hulk takes this to the next level. He is the result of an industrial accident, which is scary enough in it’s own right. Plus, when mild-mannered Bruce Banner is angered, he goes completely out-of-control and transforms into a destructive monster that he cannot control and has no memories of. Developer’s Life – Every Developer is a Wonder Woman We have focused a lot lately on this “superhero series.” I love fantasy books and movies, and I feel like there is a lot to be learned from them. As I am writing this series, though, I have noticed that every super hero I write about is a man. So today, I would like to talk about the major female super hero – Wonder Woman. Developer’s Life – Every Developer is a Harry Potter Harry Potter might not be a superhero in the traditional sense, but I believe he still has a lot to teach us and show us about life as a developer. If you have been living under a rock for the last 17 years, you might not know that Harry Potter is the main character in an extremely popular series of books and movies documenting the education and tribulation of a young wizard (and his friends). Developer’s Life – Every Developer is Like Transformers Transformers may not be superheroes – they don’t wear capes, they don’t have amazing powers outside of their size and folding ability, they’re not even human (technically). Part of their enduring popularity is that while we are enjoying over-the-top movies, we are learning about good leadership and strong personal skills. Developer’s Life – Every Developer is a Iron Man Iron Man is another superhero who is not naturally “super,” but relies on his brain (and money) to turn him into a fighting machine. While traditional superheroes are still popular, a three-movie franchise and incorporation into the new Avengers series shows that Iron Man is popular enough on his own. Developer’s Life – Every Developer is a Sherlock Holmes I have been thinking a lot about how developers are like super heroes, and I have written two blog posts now comparing them to Spiderman and Superman. I have a lot of love and respect for developers, and I hope that they are enjoying these articles, and others are learning a little bit about the profession. There is another fictional character who, while not technically asuper hero, is very powerful, and I also think stands as a good example of a developer. That character is Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes is a British detective, first made popular at the turn of the 19thcentury by author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The original Sherlock Holmes was a brilliant detective who could solve the most mind-boggling crime through simple observations and deduction. Developer’s Life – Every Developer is a Chhota Bheem Chhota Bheem is a cartoon character that is extremely popular where I live. He is my daughter’s favorite characters. I like to say that children love Chhota Bheem more than their parents – it is lucky for us he is not real! Children love Chhota Bheem because he is the absolute “good guy.” He is smart, loyal, and strong. He and his friends live in Dholakpur and fight off their many enemies – and always win – in every episode. In each episode, they learn something about friendship, bravery, and being kind to others. Chhota Bheem is a good role model for children, and I think that he is a good role model for developers are well. Developer’s Life – Every Developer is a Batman Batman is one of the darkest superheroes in the fantasy canon. He does not come to his powers through any sort of magical coincidence or radioactive insect, but through a lot of psychological scarring caused by witnessing the death of his parents. Despite his dark back story, he possesses a lot of admirable abilities that I feel bear comparison to developers. Developer’s Life – Every Developer is a Superman I enjoyed comparing developers to Spiderman so much, that I have decided to continue the trend and encourage some of my favorite people (developers) with another favorite superhero – Superman. Superman is probably the most famous superhero – and one of the most inspiring. Developer’s Life – Every Developer is a Spiderman I have to admit, Spiderman is my favorite superhero. The most recent movie recently was released in theaters, so it has been at the front of my mind for some time. Spiderman was my favorite superhero even before the latest movie came out, but of course I took my whole family to see the movie as soon as I could! Every one of us loved it, including my daughter. We all left the movie thinking how great it would be to be Spiderman. So, with that in mind, I started thinking about how we are like Spiderman in our everyday lives, especially developers. I would like to know which Superhero is your favorite hero! Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL Tagged: Developer, Superhero

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SQLAuthority News – Meeting with Allen Bailochan Tuladhar – An Unlimited Experience

- by pinaldave

Allen Tuladhar I recently came back from my 9-day trip in Nepal and I must say that this is one of the best trips I had in my lifetime. Allen Bailochan Tuladhar is a wonderful person and an extreme enthusiast for Microsoft Technology. Allen is the Chief Executive Officer of Unlimited Technologies Pvt Ltd., Country Manager of Microsoft MDP Nepal, the Member Secretary of Nepali Language in Information Technology, and member of the Steering Committee of the Government of Nepal. He is the person who keeps the Nepal’s Tech Community constantly motivating and taking it to the next level. I have met Allen for many times before, but this was the first time I was with him in Kathmandu, Nepal. I was very impressed with the amount of the work he does in the community. During my 9 days of stay, every single day was a new lesson for me. I was amazed and overwhelmed with the many things he does every single day. Not only he does he work closely with Government of Nepal ministry, but he is also the most known person in the Student Community. His expertise in the technical subject matter is not limited to one technology; rather, I have seen him actively engaging himself in discussions of various tech topics. Allen presending at TechMela Kathmandu, Nepal Allen is currently active in working out to localize Windows and Office and incorporate it using the Nepali language. I was able to witness and experience how the localization works, as well as the procedure on how to do such. If you know the whole localization process, you must have realized how big and daunting of a process it is. I was glad that I became a part of it. Prominent Personality of Nepal on Panel Discussion Another great opportunity I had when I was at Allen’s office is that I have learned how the radio technology talk show works. Nepali Radio station has the weekly program in their local language, in which MS technology is discussed and industry leaders are invited to talk about their experience with the technology. I found the program so interesting because it has so much variety in terms of technology subjects. Well, my understanding of Nepali language is limited but I did understand quite a bit. Ravi, Nutan, Pinal, Gandip I got the chance to meet lots of Database Professionals as well. People in Nepal are very polite even though they are very strong in their technology fundamentals. I had in-depth discussion regarding High Availability scenarios, as well Query Tuning. Database professionals from the leading financial sectors of Nepal wanted me to visit their Data Center and help them out with a few advances. In no time, Allen organized a visit for me. He sent me a Nepali-speaking expert from his own organization to accompany me in overcoming any difficulties while I was on my way helping this financial district. Pinal (SQLAuthority) and Deependra (Unlimited) When I was going to Nepal, I was really not sure if I would be able to stay busy for 9 days straight in Community-related activity. However, on the 9th day I realize that I can still stay here for more than 9 days because in every single day, I feel enthusiastic enough to do something new. Allen Bailochan Tuladhar Even though I was working very hard every day, I hardly had the chance to work with and talk to him one-on-one for the first few days. One of the evenings, Allen invited me to his home and we discussed about his future ideas. I was really surprised to see how much a man can do for his technical community and for his country. When I asked Allen’s wife and daughter if they ever think it’s getting too much with regards to Allen putting tough efforts to the community, their answer was something I did not expect. I found out that Allen’s wife manages all the back office and logistics of the community events and his daughter manages the websites. I felt that they do not have any complain, and instead, their whole family is in this activity as deeply as it can get, which I thought is a very good thing. Pinal and Allen I want to end this post with an interesting story that happened during our lunch hour at one of the Nepali restaurants. While we were having our lunch and having some chitchat, Allen suddenly stood up and called several people walking along the pavement. He introduced them all to me as Microsoft Student Partners. He asked all of them to order their favorite dish and called the waiter to inform that he will pick up their tab. Figuring out the question written on my face, he just said one sentence: “They are all future technology professionals who are going to make all of us proud.” I guess I have a lot of things to learn. Hats off to Allen! Pinal and Allen at Microsoft MDP Unlimited Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: MVP, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority Author Visit, T SQL, Technology

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