bill seven - Page 9 - Developer IT

Extending UPK with Enablement Packs

- by bill.x.miller

We've mentioned in earlier posts that UPK Development keeps the tool up to date through the use of Enable Service Packs (ESP'S). Regular releases ensure that the UPK Developer supports updates to targeted applications as well as new Java updates. Installing an ESP is quick and easy. • Download the latest ESP from My Oracle Support (requires a My Oracle Support account). • Run the setup for each client machine that uses the UPK Developer • Run the Library Updates from one of the clients (multi-user only) Enablement Pack 1 for UPK 3.6.1 contains new features such as a new Tabbed Gateway, FireFox 3.6 support for the Player and SmartHelp, and several new target application versions. But a very exciting feature that is part of this ESP is now available to all Oracle E-Business Suite customers. Until now, a requirement for EBS customers who wish to record UPK content is to install delivered library files (CUSTOM.pll and ODPN.pll) on to the Oracle Application Server. These files were required to present context information to the UPK Developer so that content can be launched in a context sensitive manner. This requirement involved the Oracle system administrator to transfer, install and compile these libraries into the system. Usually a simple process, however, we understood the need to streamline the procedure. With ESP 1 for UPK 3.6.1, these pll files are no longer required. Now, a simple procedure from within the EBS application can make context available to the UPK recorder. From the System Profile, search for UPK: Change the Site field to Enable UPK Recording. Save the Form. Context information will now be made available to the UPK Recorder without involving the System Administrator or DBA. The setting you see here makes context available to all client machines recording content with UPK and does not affect the performance of your EBS application.

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Digital Storage for Airline Entertainment

- by Bill Evjen

by Thomas Coughlin Common flash memory cards The most common flash memory products currently in use are SD cards and derivative products (e.g. mini and micro-SD cards) Some compact flash used for professional applications (such as DSLR cameras) Evolution of leading flash formats Standardization –> market expansion Market expansion –> volume iNAND –> focus is on enabling embedded X3 iSSD –> ideal for thin form factor devices Flash memory applications Phones are the #1 user of flash memory Flash memory is used as embedded and removable storage in many mobile applications Flash memory is being used in computers as USB sticks and SSDs Possible use of flash memory in computer combined with HDDs (hybrid HDDs and paired or dual storage computers) It can be a removable card or an embedded card These devices can only handle a specific number of writes Flash memory reads considerably quicker than hard drives Hybrid and dual storage in computers SSDs can provide fast performance but they are expensive HDDs can provide cheap storage but they are relatively slow Combining some flash memory with a HDD can provide costs close to those of HDDs and performance close to flash memory Seagate Momentus XT hybrid HDD Various dual storage offerings putting flash memory with HDDs Other common flash memory devices USB sticks All forms and colors Used for moving files around Some sold with content on them (Sony Movies on USB sticks) Solid State Drives (SSDs) Floating Gate Flash Memory Cell When a bit is programmed, electrons are stored upon the floating gate This has the effect of offsetting the charge on the control gate of the transistor If there is no charge upon the floating gate, then the control gate’s charge determines whether or not a current flows through the channel A strong charge on the control gate assumes that no current flows. A weak charge will allow a strong current to flow through. Similar to HDDs, flash memory must provide: Bit error correction Bad block management NAND and NOR memories are treated differently when it comes to managing wear In many NOR-based systems no management is used at all, since the NOR is simply used to store code, and data is stored in other devices. In this case, it would take a near-infinite amount of time for wear to become an issue since the only time the chip would see an erase/write cycle is when the code in the system is being upgraded, which rarely if ever happens over the life of a typical system. NAND is usually found in very different application than is NOR Flash memory wears out This is expected to get worse over time Retention: Disappearing data Bits fade away Retention decreases with increasing read/writes Bits may change when adjacent bits are read Time and traffic are concerns Controllers typically groom read disturb errors Like DRAM refresh Increases erase/write frequency Application characteristics Music – reads high / writes very low Video – r high / writes very low Internet Cache – r high / writes low On airplanes Many consumers now have their own content viewing devices – do they need the airlines? Is there a way to offer more to consumers, especially with their own viewers Additional special content tie into airplane network access to electrical power, internet Should there be fixed embedded or removable storage for on-board airline entertainment? Is there a way to leverage personal and airline viewers and content in new and entertaining ways?

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First steps into css - aligning data insite one DIV [on hold]

- by Andrew

I am trying to move away from tables, and start doing CSS. Here is my HTML code that I currently trying to place into a nice looking container. <div> <div> <h2>ID: 4000 | SSN#: 4545</h2> </div> <div> <img src="./images/tenant/unknown.png"> </div> <div> <h3>Names Used</h3> Will Smith<br> Bill Smmith<br> John Smith<br> Will Smith<br> Bill Smmith<br> John Smith<br> Will Smith<br> Bill Smmith<br> John Smith<br> </div> <div> <h3>Phones Used</h3> 123456789<br> 123456789<br> 123456789<br> 123456789<br> 123456789<br> 123456789<br> 123456789<br> 123456789<br> </div> <div> <h3>Addresses Used</h3> 125 Main Evanston IL 60202<br> 465 Greenwood St. Schaumburg null 60108<br> 125 Main Evanston IL 60202<br> 465 Greenwood St. Schaumburg null 60108<br> 125 Main Evanston IL 60202<br> 465 Greenwood St. Schaumburg null 60108<br> 125 Main Evanston IL 60202<br> 465 Greenwood St. Schaumburg null 60108<br> 125 Main Evanston IL 60202<br> 465 Greenwood St. Schaumburg null 60108<br> </div> </div> I now understand now I create classes and assign classes to elements. I have no issues doing colors. But I am very confused with elements alignments. Could you suggest a nice way to pack it together with some CSS which I can analyze and take as a CSS starting learning point?

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Can LittleBigPlanet2's engine be used for other ?

- by Bill

LittleBigPlanet2 just came out. I've worked with the original LBP level editor a bit and really enjoyed it. I've read that LBP2's featureset in the game is much richer; is it possible to use these advanced features to create different sorts of game other than just a regular platformer? I imagine that something along the lines of a Breakout clone would definitely be manageable, but I'm interested in hearing more about the capabilities of the platform.

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Changing the BizTalk message output file name

- by Bill Osuch

By default, BizTalk creates the filename of the message dropped to a send port as %MessageID%, which is the unique identifier (GUID) of the message. What if you want to create your own filename? To start, create a simple schema, and a basic orchestration that will receive the message and send it right back out, like this: If you deploy this and wire up the ports, you can drop an xml file into your receive port and have it come out at your send port named something like {7A63CAF8-317B-49D5-871F-9FD57910C3A0}.xml. Now, we'll create a new message with a custom filename. First, create a new orchestration variable called NewFileName, of the type System.String. Next, create a second message using the same schema as the message you're receiving in the Receive shape. Now, drag a Construct Message shape to the orchestration. In the shape's properties, set Messages Constructed to be the new message you just created. Double click the Message Assignment shape (inside the Construct shape...) and paste in the following code: Message_2 = Message_1; NewFileName = Message_1(FILE.ReceivedFileName); NewFileName = NewFileName.Replace(".xml","_"); NewFileName = NewFileName + "output_" + System.DateTime.Now.Year.ToString() + "-" + System.DateTime.Now.Month.ToString(); Message_2(FILE.ReceivedFileName) = NewFileName; Here we make a copy of the received message, get it's original file name (ReceivedFileName), replace its extension with an underscore, and date-stamp it. Finally, add a Send shape and a Port to the surface, and configure them to send the message you just created. You should wind up with an orchestration like this: Deploy it, and create a new send port. It should be just about identical to the first send port, except this time the file name will be "%SourceFileName%.xml" (without the quotes of course). Fire up the application, drop in a test file, and you should now get both the xml file named with a GUID, and a second file named something along the lines of "MySchemaTestFile_output_2011-6.xml".

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Getting SQL table row counts via sysindexes vs. sys.indexes

- by Bill Osuch

Among the many useful SQL snippets I regularly use is this little bit that will return row counts in a table: SELECT so.name as TableName, MAX(si.rows) as [RowCount] FROM sysobjects so JOIN sysindexes si ON si.id = OBJECT_ID(so.name) WHERE so.xtype = 'U' GROUP BY so.name ORDER BY [RowCount] DESC This is handy to find tables that have grown wildly, zero-row tables that could (possibly) be dropped, or other clues into the data. Right off the bat you may spot some "non-ideal" code - I'm using sysobjects rather than sys.objects. What's the difference? In SQL Server 2005 and later, sysobjects is no longer a table, but a "compatibility view", meant for backward compatibility only. SELECT * from each and you'll see the different data that each returns. Microsoft advises that sysindexes could be removed in a future version of SQL Server, but this has never really been an issue for me since my company is still using SQL 2000. However, there are murmurs that we may actually migrate to 2008 some year, so I might as well go ahead and start using an updated version of this snippet on the servers that can handle it: SELECT so.name as TableName, ddps.row_count as [RowCount] FROM sys.objects so JOIN sys.indexes si ON si.OBJECT_ID = so.OBJECT_ID JOIN sys.dm_db_partition_stats AS ddps ON si.OBJECT_ID = ddps.OBJECT_ID AND si.index_id = ddps.index_id WHERE si.index_id < 2 AND so.is_ms_shipped = 0 ORDER BY ddps.row_count DESC

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Android - passing data between Activities

- by Bill Osuch

(To follow along with this, you should understand the basics of starting new activities: Link ) The easiest way to pass data from one activity to another is to create your own custom bundle and pass it to your new class. First, create two new activities called Search and SearchResults (make sure you add the second one you create to the AndroidManifest.xml file!), and create xml layout files for each. Search's file should look like this: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:orientation="vertical"> <TextView android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:text="Name:"/> <EditText android:id="@+id/edittext" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content"/> <TextView android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:text="ID Number:"/> <EditText android:id="@+id/edittext2" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content"/> <Button android:id="@+id/btnSearch" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:text="Search" /> </LinearLayout> and SearchResult's should look like this: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:orientation="vertical"> <TextView android:id="@+id/txtName" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content"/> <TextView android:id="@+id/txtState" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:text="No data"/> </LinearLayout> Next, we'll override the OnCreate method of Search: @Override public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.search); Button search = (Button) findViewById(R.id.btnSearch); search.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() { public void onClick(View view) { Intent intent = new Intent(Search.this, SearchResults.class); Bundle b = new Bundle(); EditText txt1 = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.edittext); EditText txt2 = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.edittext2); b.putString("name", txt1.getText().toString()); b.putInt("state", Integer.parseInt(txt2.getText().toString())); //Add the set of extended data to the intent and start it intent.putExtras(b); startActivity(intent); } }); } This is very similar to the previous example, except here we're creating our own bundle, adding some key/value pairs to it, and adding it to the intent. Now, to retrieve the data, we just need to grab the Bundle that was passed to the new Activity and extract our values from it: @Override public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.search_results); Bundle b = getIntent().getExtras(); int value = b.getInt("state", 0); String name = b.getString("name"); TextView vw1 = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.txtName); TextView vw2 = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.txtState); vw1.setText("Name: " + name); vw2.setText("State: " + String.valueOf(value)); }

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Android - Create a custom multi-line ListView bound to an ArrayList

- by Bill Osuch

The Android HelloListView tutorial shows how to bind a ListView to an array of string objects, but you'll probably outgrow that pretty quickly. This post will show you how to bind the ListView to an ArrayList of custom objects, as well as create a multi-line ListView. Let's say you have some sort of search functionality that returns a list of people, along with addresses and phone numbers. We're going to display that data in three formatted lines for each result, and make it clickable. First, create your new Android project, and create two layout files. Main.xml will probably already be created by default, so paste this in: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:orientation="vertical" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent"> <TextView android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:text="Custom ListView Contents" android:gravity="center_vertical|center_horizontal" android:layout_width="fill_parent" /> <ListView android:id="@+id/ListView01" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_width="fill_parent"/> </LinearLayout> Next, create a layout file called custom_row_view.xml. This layout will be the template for each individual row in the ListView. You can use pretty much any type of layout - Relative, Table, etc., but for this we'll just use Linear: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:orientation="vertical" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent"> <TextView android:id="@+id/name" android:textSize="14sp" android:textStyle="bold" android:textColor="#FFFF00" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content"/> <TextView android:id="@+id/cityState" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content"/> <TextView android:id="@+id/phone" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content"/> </LinearLayout> Now, add an object called SearchResults. Paste this code in: public class SearchResults { private String name = ""; private String cityState = ""; private String phone = ""; public void setName(String name) { this.name = name; } public String getName() { return name; } public void setCityState(String cityState) { this.cityState = cityState; } public String getCityState() { return cityState; } public void setPhone(String phone) { this.phone = phone; } public String getPhone() { return phone; } } This is the class that we'll be filling with our data, and loading into an ArrayList. Next, you'll need a custom adapter. This one just extends the BaseAdapter, but you could extend the ArrayAdapter if you prefer. public class MyCustomBaseAdapter extends BaseAdapter { private static ArrayList<SearchResults> searchArrayList; private LayoutInflater mInflater; public MyCustomBaseAdapter(Context context, ArrayList<SearchResults> results) { searchArrayList = results; mInflater = LayoutInflater.from(context); } public int getCount() { return searchArrayList.size(); } public Object getItem(int position) { return searchArrayList.get(position); } public long getItemId(int position) { return position; } public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) { ViewHolder holder; if (convertView == null) { convertView = mInflater.inflate(R.layout.custom_row_view, null); holder = new ViewHolder(); holder.txtName = (TextView) convertView.findViewById(R.id.name); holder.txtCityState = (TextView) convertView.findViewById(R.id.cityState); holder.txtPhone = (TextView) convertView.findViewById(R.id.phone); convertView.setTag(holder); } else { holder = (ViewHolder) convertView.getTag(); } holder.txtName.setText(searchArrayList.get(position).getName()); holder.txtCityState.setText(searchArrayList.get(position).getCityState()); holder.txtPhone.setText(searchArrayList.get(position).getPhone()); return convertView; } static class ViewHolder { TextView txtName; TextView txtCityState; TextView txtPhone; } } (This is basically the same as the List14.java API demo) Finally, we'll wire it all up in the main class file: public class CustomListView extends Activity { @Override public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.main); ArrayList<SearchResults> searchResults = GetSearchResults(); final ListView lv1 = (ListView) findViewById(R.id.ListView01); lv1.setAdapter(new MyCustomBaseAdapter(this, searchResults)); lv1.setOnItemClickListener(new OnItemClickListener() { @Override public void onItemClick(AdapterView<?> a, View v, int position, long id) { Object o = lv1.getItemAtPosition(position); SearchResults fullObject = (SearchResults)o; Toast.makeText(ListViewBlogPost.this, "You have chosen: " + " " + fullObject.getName(), Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show(); } }); } private ArrayList<SearchResults> GetSearchResults(){ ArrayList<SearchResults> results = new ArrayList<SearchResults>(); SearchResults sr1 = new SearchResults(); sr1.setName("John Smith"); sr1.setCityState("Dallas, TX"); sr1.setPhone("214-555-1234"); results.add(sr1); sr1 = new SearchResults(); sr1.setName("Jane Doe"); sr1.setCityState("Atlanta, GA"); sr1.setPhone("469-555-2587"); results.add(sr1); sr1 = new SearchResults(); sr1.setName("Steve Young"); sr1.setCityState("Miami, FL"); sr1.setPhone("305-555-7895"); results.add(sr1); sr1 = new SearchResults(); sr1.setName("Fred Jones"); sr1.setCityState("Las Vegas, NV"); sr1.setPhone("612-555-8214"); results.add(sr1); return results; } } Notice that we first get an ArrayList of SearchResults objects (normally this would be from an external data source...), pass it to the custom adapter, then set up a click listener. The listener gets the item that was clicked, converts it back to a SearchResults object, and does whatever it needs to do. Fire it up in the emulator, and you should wind up with something like this:

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Ubuntu 11.04 and 10.04 hang with black screen while installing from USB disk

- by Bill

I've been trying to install Ubuntu 11.04 from a USB flash stick and each time I try to boot from the USB key one of two things happen: A) The screen that asks you what you would like to do (e.g. run Ubuntu from the USB key or install it) shows up and the countdown to the default option starts to count down but as soon as I either touch the keyboard (sometimes I press enter or the arrow keys to select an option) or the countdown gets to zero the screen just locks up and nothing happens no matter how long I wait. B) When I boot from the USB key the screen will flicker for a second and then go black with a flashing white underscore at the top left corner of the screen. Again it doesn't matter how long I wait, nothing happens and pressing keys doesn't do a thing. The very first time I tried to install it I got a terminal-like screen that said something about a directory called 'casper' having an error of some sort. I have tried installing from USB using both 11.04 and 10.10. I'm about to try 10.04. I have read tons of forum posts about this but so far I haven't seen anything in the solutions that apply to me. My intention is to dual boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu. I must keep Windows as I am required to use Visual Studio for one of my college courses. Right now I'm using Wubi but I really want a full install. I can't use LVPM because it doesn't work with the version of Wubi I used. So now I'm thinking my best bet is to try to get a clean install working. I'd also convert Wubi to a full install too but there's no solution as far as I've read. So could someone tell me a reason why this is happening or if there's something I can do to get around the problem? I'm using a Gateway LT2802u netbook with and Intel Atom N455 processor, 1GB RAM, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150 graphics card, and a 250GB HDD. I don't have anything on my current Wubi install that I can't replace so keep in mind when answering that I don't care if I lose my current settings and files from Wubi. Thanks everyone! UPDATE I just answered my own question so in case anyone else is having this same problem using similar hardware, do the following: When I first tried installing 11.04 I used the recommended universal installer tool to create the USB live/installation disk. That caused the original problem. Note that I had already downloaded the 11.04 ISO and did not use the included downloader from the USB creator. After that failed I used the same USB creator but had it download 10.10 for me. It also failed with the same issue. I repeated this process with unetbootin as well for both versions. Finally, I downloaded the Ubuntu 10.04 ISO and used the recommended USB creator once again. There was an error while creating the USB live install so I reformatted the USB key as FAT32 and tried again. It created the USB key. I then booted from the USB flash drive and selected "Install Ubuntu" (exact wording was different). It worked! It took me through the process that you see shown in pictures on the Ubuntu website. I let it create the appropriate partitions for me and it simply worked. I did get a few errors while the system tried to restart after it installed. It hung on a terminal-like screen but I pressed ENTER and it restarted. I booted into Windows 7, it checked the disks as it sensed that I messed with a partition, then it booted into Windows normally. Now I'm going to uninstall Wubi and update my new full install of Ubuntu! I'm excited to get the benefits of a full install now. So in the end, hopefully someone can learn from what I did.

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Android - Switching Activities with a Tab Layout

- by Bill Osuch

This post is based on the Tab Layout tutorial on the Android developers site, with some modifications. I wanted to get rid of the icons (they take up too much screen real estate), and modify the fonts on the tabs. First, create a new Android project, with an Activity called TabWidget. Then, create two additional Activities called TabOne and TabTwo. Throw a simple TextView on each one with a message identifying the tab, like this: public class TabTwo extends Activity { @Override public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); TextView tv = new TextView(this); tv.setText("This is tab 2"); setContentView(tv); } } And don't forget to add them to your AndroidManifest.xml file: <activity android:name=".TabOne"></activity> <activity android:name=".TabTwo"></activity> Now we'll create the tab layout - open the res/layout/main.xml file and insert the following: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <TabHost xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:id="@android:id/tabhost" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent"> <LinearLayout android:orientation="vertical" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent"> <TabWidget android:id="@android:id/tabs" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" /> <FrameLayout android:id="@android:id/tabcontent" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent" /> </LinearLayout> </TabHost> Finally, we'll create the code needed to populate the TabHost. Make sure your TabWidget class extends TabActivity rather than Activity, and add code to grab the TabHost and create an Intent to launch a new Activity: TabHost tabHost = getTabHost(); // The activity TabHost TabHost.TabSpec spec; // Reusable TabSpec for each tab Intent intent; // Reusable Intent for each tab // Create an Intent to launch an Activity for the tab (to be reused) intent = new Intent().setClass(this, TabOne.class); Add the first tab to the layout: // Initialize a TabSpec for each tab and add it to the TabHost spec = tabHost.newTabSpec("tabOne"); spec.setContent(intent); spec.setIndicator("Tab One"); tabHost.addTab(spec); It's pretty tall as-is, so we'll shorten it: // Squish the tab a little bit horizontally tabHost.getTabWidget().getChildAt(0).getLayoutParams().height = 40; But the text is a little small, so let's increase the font size: // Bump the text size up LinearLayout ll = (LinearLayout) tabHost.getChildAt(0); android.widget.TabWidget tw = (android.widget.TabWidget) ll.getChildAt(0); RelativeLayout rllf = (RelativeLayout) tw.getChildAt(0); TextView lf = (TextView) rllf.getChildAt(1); lf.setTextSize(20); Do the same for the second tab, and you wind up with this: @Override public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.main); TabHost tabHost = getTabHost(); // The activity TabHost TabHost.TabSpec spec; // Reusable TabSpec for each tab Intent intent; // Reusable Intent for each tab // Create an Intent to launch an Activity for the tab (to be reused) intent = new Intent().setClass(this, TabOne.class); // Initialize a TabSpec for each tab and add it to the TabHost spec = tabHost.newTabSpec("tabOne"); spec.setContent(intent); spec.setIndicator("Tab One"); tabHost.addTab(spec); // Squish the tab a little bit horizontally tabHost.getTabWidget().getChildAt(0).getLayoutParams().height = 40; // Bump the text size up LinearLayout ll = (LinearLayout) tabHost.getChildAt(0); android.widget.TabWidget tw = (android.widget.TabWidget) ll.getChildAt(0); RelativeLayout rllf = (RelativeLayout) tw.getChildAt(0); TextView lf = (TextView) rllf.getChildAt(1); lf.setTextSize(20); // Do the same for the other tabs intent = new Intent().setClass(this, TabTwo.class); spec = tabHost.newTabSpec("tabTwo"); spec.setContent(intent); spec.setIndicator("Tab Two"); tabHost.addTab(spec); tabHost.getTabWidget().getChildAt(1).getLayoutParams().height = 40; RelativeLayout rlrf = (RelativeLayout) tw.getChildAt(1); TextView rf = (TextView) rlrf.getChildAt(1); rf.setTextSize(20); tabHost.setCurrentTab(0); } Save and fire up the emulator, and you should be able to switch back and forth between your tabs!

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SQLAuthority News – 7th Anniversary of Blog – A Personal Note

- by Pinal Dave

Special Day Today is a very special day – seven years ago I blogged for the very first time. Seven years ago, I didn’t know what I was doing, I didn’t know how to blog, or even what a blog was or what to write. I was working as a DBA, and I was trying to solve a problem – at my job, there were a few issues I had to fix again and again and again. There were days when I was rewriting the same solution over and over, and there were times when I would get very frustrated because I could not write the same elegant solution that I had written before. I came up with a solution to this problem – posting these solutions online, where I could access them whenever I needed them. At that point, I had no idea what a blog was, or even how the internet worked, I had no idea that a blog would be visible to others. Can you believe it? Google it on Yahoo! After a few posts on this “blog,” there was a surprise for me – an e-mail saying that someone had left me a comment. I was surprised, because I didn’t even know you could comment on a blog! I logged on and read my comment. It said: “I like your script,but there is a small bug. If you could fix it, it will run on multiple other versions of SQL Server.” I was like, “wow, someone figured out how to find my blog, and they figured out how to fix my script!” I found the bug, I fixed the script, and a wrote a thank you note to the guy. My first question for him was: how did you figure it out – not the script, but how to find my blog? He said he found it from Yahoo Search (this was in the time before Google, believe it or not). From that day, my life changed. I wrote a few more posts, I got a few more comments, and I started to watch my traffic. People were reading, commenting, and giving feedback. At the end of the day, people enjoyed what I was writing. This was a fantastic feeling! I never thought I would be writing for others. Even today, I don’t feel like I am writing for others, but that I am simply posting what I am learning every day. From that very first day, I decided that I would not change my intent or my blog’s purpose. 72 Million Views – 2600 Posts – 57000 comments – 10 books – 9 courses Today, this blog is my habit, my addiction, my baby. Every day I try to learn something new, and that lesson gets posted on the blog. Lately there have been days where I am traveling for a full 24 hours, but even on those days I try to learn something new, and later when I have free time, I will still post it to the blog. Because of this habit, this blog has over 72 millions views, I have written more than 2600 posts, and there are 57,000 comments and counting. I have also written 10 books, 9 courses, and learned so many things. This blog has given me back so much more than I ever put it into it. It gave me an education, a reason to learn something new every day, and a way to connect to people. I like to think of it as a learning chain, a relay where we all pass knowledge from one to another. Never Ending Journey When I started the blog, I thought I would write for a few days and stop, but now after seven years I haven’t stopped and I have no intention of stopping! However, change happens, and for this blog it will start today. This blog started as a single resource for SQL Server, but now it has grown beyond, to Sharepoint, Personal Development, Developer Training, MySQL, Big Data, and lots of other things. Truly speaking, this blog is more than just SQL Server, and that was always my intention. I named it “SQL Authority,” not “SQL Server Authority”! Loudly and clearly, I would like to announce that I am going to go back to my roots and start writing more about SQL, more about big data, and more about the other technology like relational databases, MySQL, Oracle, and others. My goal is not to become a comprehensive resource for every technology, my goal is to learn something new every day – and now it can be so much more than just SQL Server. I will learn it, and post it here for you. I have written a very long post on this anniversary, but here is the summary: Thank You. You all have been wonderful. Seven years is a long journey, and it makes me emotional. I have been “with” this blog before I met my wife, before we had our daughter. This blog is like a fourth member of the family. Keep reading, keep commenting, keep supporting. Thank you all. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)Filed under: About Me, MySQL, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, T SQL

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How to Name Linked Servers

- by Bill Graziano

I did another SQL Server migration over the weekend that dealt with linked servers. I’ve seen all kinds of odd naming schemes and there are a few I like and a few I suggest you avoid. Don’t name your linked server for its IP address. At some point whatever is on the other end of that IP address will move. You’ll probably need to point your linked server to a new IP address but not change the name of the linked server. And then you’ve completely lost any context around this. Bonus points if a new SQL Server eventually ends up at the old IP address further adding confusion when you’re trying to troubleshoot. Don’t name your linked server based on its instance name. This one is less obvious. It sounds nice to have a linked server named [VSRV1\SQLTRAN01]. You know what it is and it’s easy to use. It’s less nice when you’ve got 200 stored procedures that all reference this linked server but the database they reference has moved to a new instance. Now when you query this you’re actually querying a different instance. (Please note: I’m not saying it’s a good idea to have 200 stored procedures that all reference a linked server. I’m just saying it’s not all that uncommon.) Consider naming your linked server something that you can easily search on. See my note above. You can also get around this by always enclosing the name in brackets. That is harder to enforce unless you use some odd characters in it. Consider naming your linked server based on the function. For example, I’ve had some luck having a linked server named [DW] that points to our data warehouse server. That server can change names or physically move and all I need to do is update the linked server to point to the new destination. The descriptive name of the linked server is still accurate. No code needs to change and people still know what it is just by looking at it. Consider naming your linked server for the database. I’m still thinking through this one. It may mean you have multiple linked servers that point to the same instance. I’ve found that database names rarely change. It also makes it easier to move individual databases to new servers. Consider pointing your linked servers to DNS entries and not IP addresses. I’ve done this for reporting databases and had some success. Especially for read-only snapshots that can get created on the main database or on the mirror. What issues have you had with linked server names? What has worked for you? Where are the holes in my approach?

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XML and .NET Namespaces Collide in XAML

Namespace can get a little confusing these days, thankfully Bill Hatfield is here to help clear things up.

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The Evolution of Television and Home Entertainment

- by Bill Evjen

This is a group that is focused on entertainment in the aviation industry. I am attending their conference for the first time as it relates to my job at Swank Motion Pictures and what we do for our various markets. I will post my notes here. The Evolution of Television and Home Entertainment by Patrick Cosson, Veebeam TV has been the center of living rooms for sometime. Conversations and culture evolve around the TV. The way we consume this content has dramatically been changing. After TV, we had the MTV revolution of TV. It has created shorter attention spans, it made us more materialistic, narcissistic, and not easily impressed. Then we came to the Internet. The amount of content has expanded. It contains a ton of user-generated content, provides filtering, organization, distribution. We now have a problem. We are in the age of digital excess. We can access whatever we want. In conjunction with this – we are moving. The challenge we have now is curation. The trends we see: rapid shift from scheduled to on demand consumption. A move to Internet protocols from cable Rapid fragmentation of media a transition from the TV set to a variety of screens Social connections bring mediators and amplifiers. TiVo – the shift to on demand It is because of a time-crunch Provides personal experiences Once old consumption habits are changed, there is no way back! Experiences are that people are loading up content and then bringing it with them on planes, to hotels, etc. Rapid fragmentation of media sources Many new professional content sources and channels, the rise of digital distribution, and the rise of user-generated content contribute to the wealth of content sources and abundant choice. Netflix, BBC iPlayer, hulu, Pandora, iTunes, Amazon Video, Vudu, Voddler, Spotify (these companies didn’t exist 5 years ago). People now expect this kind of consumption. People are now thinking how to deliver all these tools. Transition from the TV set to multi-screens The TV screen has traditionally been the dominant consumption screen for TV and video. Now the PC, game consoles, and various mobile devices are rapidly becoming common video devices. Multi-screens are now the norm. Social connections becoming key mediators What increasingly funnels traffic on the web, social networking enablers, will become an integral part of the discovery, consumption and sharing model for Television. The revolution will be broadcasted on Facebook and Twitter. There is business disruption There are a lot of new entrants Rapid internationalization Increasing competition from existing media players A fragmenting audience base Web browser Freedom to access any site The fight over the walled garden Most devices are not powerful enough to support a full browser PC will always be present in the living room Wireless link between PC and TV Output 1080p, plays anything, secure Key players and their challenges Services Internet media is increasingly interconnected to social media and publicly shared UGC Content delivery moving to IPTV Rights management issues are creating silos and hindering a great user experience and growth Devices Devices are becoming people’s windows into all kinds of media from all kinds of sources There won’t be a consolidation of the device landscape, rather the opposite Finding the right niche makes the most sense. We are moving to an on demand world of streaming world. People want full access to anything.

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HR Executive's Article on Oracle Fusion HCM

- by jay.richey

Curious about Fusion? Didn't make it to the HR Technology Conference in Chicago this past fall to hear Gretchen Alarcon and Bill Kutik discuss it in a candid one-on-one session? Human Resource Executive has posted the transcript of that session in an online article entitled "Fusion Unveiled". Gretchen, Vice President of Fusion HCM Applications Strategy, sat down with Bill to both discuss the mechanics of how Fusion was developed and how it works, and the benefits organizations will realize, along with a live demo of the software. Read more at http://www.hreonline.com/HRE/story.jsp?storyId=533326589 And learn more about Oracle Fusion Applications at http://www.oracle.com/fusion

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Six Unusual Blogs I Like

- by Bill Graziano

I subscribe to and read over 100 SQL Server blogs every day. I link to posts that I think are interesting. I also read a fair number of non-SQL Server blogs. Here are a few that I think are interesting. danah boyd. She is a researcher with Microsoft and writes about privacy, social media and teenagers. I discovered her blog while looking for strategies to keep my personal and professional life separate. (I haven’t found a good solution to that yet.) Her stories of how teenagers use Facebook and other social media tools are fascinating. Clayton’s Web Snacks. Steve Clayton works at Microsoft and has a variety of blogs out there. This one focuses on … hmmm. His latest posts are on graffiti, infographics, paper tweets, cartoons and slow motion videos. It’s mostly visual and you never really know what you’ll get. It’s always interesting though and I like what he posts. It’s good creative stuff. Seth Godin. Seth writes about Marketing. I read him for motivation to get off my butt and get things done. He’s a great motivator who encourages you to think big. And do something! Ask the Pilot. Patrick Smith is a commercial airline pilot writing about the airline industry. He’s a great debunker of myths (no they don’t reduce oxygen in the cabin to keep you docile). My favorite topics include the TSA, flying myths, airport reviews and flight delays. My old favorite flight blog used to be enplaned. No one knew who wrote it. It focused on the economics of the airline industry. It was fascinating stuff. One day it was gone. The entire blog was deleted. Someone tracked down some partial archives and put them online. The Agent’s Journal. Jack Bechta is an NFL agent. He writes about the business side of the NFL, the draft and free agency. Lately he’s been writing about the potential lockout. He has a distinct lack of hype which I find very refreshing. xkcd. I call this the comic for smart people. A little math, some IT and internet privacy thrown in all make an unusual comic. Funny and intelligent.

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How do people deal with Android fragmentation?

- by Bill

I've spent the past few years working on iOS apps, and I'm now giving some serious consideration to creating an Android port of one of my apps. I'm sure that complaints about fragmentation are a frustrating cliche to experienced Android programmers, but as an iOS programmer, I'm quite honestly overwhelmed by the number of configurations and devices that my app might end up running on. There are literally thousands of Android devices in the wild, but I know there are successful Android developers in the world and I know they're not testing or developing for thousands of different devices. So how can a relatively small company deal with fragmentation? Is it possible to pick the five or six most popular devices, focus on those and prevent the app from being installed on any other devices? Are there any other strategies for practically dealing with the number of different configurations an app will face?

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Extract derived 3D scaling from a 3D Sprite to set to a 2D billboard

- by Bill Kotsias

I am trying to get the derived position and scaling of a 3D Sprite and set them to a 2D Sprite. I have managed to do the first part like this: var p:Point = sprite3d.local3DToGlobal(new Vector3D(0,0,0)); billboard.x = p.x; billboard.y = p.y; But I can't get the scaling part correctly. I am trying this: var mat:Matrix3D = sprite3d.transform.getRelativeMatrix3D(stage); // get derived matrix(?) var scaleV:Vector3D = mat.decompose()[2]; // get scaling vector from derived matrix var scale:Number = scaleV.length; billboard.scaleX = scale; billboard.scaleY = scale; ...but the result is apparently wrong. PS. One might ask what I am trying to achieve. I am trying to create "billboard" 3D sprites, i.e. sprites which are affected by all 3D transformations except rotations, thus they always face the "camera".

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La loi de Moore a-t-elle encore un avenir ? Oui, répond un ingénieur, si les développeurs se mettent

La loi de Moore est elle encore pertinente ? Plus pour les CPU, répond un responsable de Nvidia qui appelle au développement de la programmation parallèle Bill Dally est un des ingénieurs les plus importants de Nvidia. Dans une tribune publiée dans le magasine Forbes, l'ingénieur en chef doute fortement que la loi de Moore puisse encore s'appliquer aux processeurs (CPU) : « Les performances des CPUs ne peuvent plus doubler tous les 18 mois », constate-t-il, « et cela va poser un grave problème à de nombreuses industries qui reposent sur cette croissance des performances ». Optimiste, Bill Dally en tire cependant une raison d'espérer « La bonne nouvelle, c'e...

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I got my z-5 Logitech speakers to work, but whenever I restart, I have to reconfigure them

- by The Bill

This is the content of my alsa-base.conf file (for some reason, the entries preceded by # are bolded--anyway): autoloader aliases install sound-slot-0 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-0 install sound-slot-1 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-1 install sound-slot-2 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-2 install sound-slot-3 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-3 install sound-slot-4 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-4 install sound-slot-5 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-5 install sound-slot-6 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-6 install sound-slot-7 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-7 Cause optional modules to be loaded above generic modules install snd /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-ioctl32 ; /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-seq ; } # Workaround at bug #499695 (reverted in Ubuntu see LP #319505) install snd-pcm /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-pcm $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-pcm-oss ; : ; } install snd-mixer /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-mixer $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-mixer-oss ; : ; } install snd-seq /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-seq $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-seq-midi ; /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-seq-oss ; : ; } # install snd-rawmidi /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-rawmidi $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-seq-midi ; : ; } Cause optional modules to be loaded above sound card driver modules install snd-emu10k1 /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-emu10k1 $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-emu10k1-synth ; } install snd-via82xx /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-via82xx $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-seq ; } Load saa7134-alsa instead of saa7134 (which gets dragged in by it anyway) install saa7134 /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install saa7134 $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist saa7134-alsa ; : ; } Prevent abnormal drivers from grabbing index 0 options bt87x index=-2 options cx88_alsa index=-2 options saa7134-alsa index=-2 options snd-atiixp-modem index=-2 options snd-intel8x0m index=-2 options snd-via82xx-modem index=-2 options snd-usb-audio index=-2 options snd-usb-caiaq index=-2 options snd-usb-ua101 index=-2 options snd-usb-us122l index=-2 options snd-usb-usx2y index=-2 alias snd-card-0 snd-usb-audio alias snd-card-1 snd-hda-intel options snd-usb-audio index=0 options snd-hda-intel index=1 Ubuntu #62691, enable MPU for snd-cmipci options snd-cmipci mpu_port=0x330 fm_port=0x388 Keep snd-pcsp from being loaded as first soundcard options snd-pcsp index=-2 options snd-usb-audio index=-2 options snd-usb-audio index=0 alias snd-card-0 snd-usb-audio alias snd-card-1 snd-hda-intel options snd-hda-intel index=1 I deleted a line that said something like "#Keep usb-audio from being loaded as first soundcard" and that made the speakers work for the first time (before this, they never showed up). I also added the last four lines. Anyway, what can I add to this so that I don't have to reconfigure them each time I restart? Currently, I have to open Sound Settings, then under the hardware tab, select Analog Stereo Output, and then unplug my USB speakers and plug them back in. This makes them pop up so that I can see them. Otherwise, it will not show my Z-5 speakers as a device that can be configured.

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Visual Studio 2010 Is Here!

- by Bill Evjen

I think back to the days of the first versions of Visual Studio (when it was called Visual Studio .NET, remember?) and I think about how far Microsoft has come with this IDE. It really is the best IDE on the market. There is so much to this IDE it is amazing. It now can really handle managing your complete software application development lifecycle. For me, it is (besides Windows 7) the best and most successful product Microsoft has developed. You can obviously get this now and it is available on MSDN and some other places: MSDN Visual Studio Trial Editions Visual Studio 2010 Express Editions (free) You will also find great info at the Visual Studio Developer Center. Some other interesting tidbits of info: JetBrain’s ReSharper 5.0 has been released for VS2010 Oracle will have the new Oracle Dev Tools for VS2010 within one month - http://bit.ly/9gC9NE Visual Studio 64-bit - Why there is no 64-bit version of VS - http://bit.ly/dhhwAj In installing this version of Visual Studio, if you have been working on the previous RC builds, then you are going to want to uninstall these previous editions of the 2010 product. You can do this through the Add Remove Programs dialog and you are going to want to select the appropriate item from the long list of Visual Studio items. You are then going to want to step through the Visual Studio dialog (it will seem as if you are installing it again) – and you will then come to a point where you can select the option to Uninstall the entire application. If you have installed the Silverlight 4 RC stuff, then you are also going to want to uninstall this and you are also going to want to uninstall the “Update for Visual Studio 2010 (KB976272)” before installing Silverlight RC2 – which you can find on www.silverlight.net. Technorati Tags: vs2010,.net,visualstudio,microsoft

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When should a bullet texture be loaded in XNA?

- by Bill

I'm making a SpaceWar!-esque game using XNA. I want to limit my ships to 5 active bullets at any time. I have a Bullet DrawableGameComponent and a Ship DrawableGameComponent. My Ship has an array of 5 Bullet. What is the best way to manage the Bullet textures? Specifically, when should I be calling LoadTexture? Right now, my solution is to populate the Bullet array in the Ship's constructor, with LoadTexture being called in the Bullet constructor. The Bullet objects will be disabled/not visible except when they are active. Does the texture really need to be loaded once for each individual instance of the bullet object? This seems like a very processor-intensive operation. Note: This is a small-scale project, so I'm OK with not implementing a huge texture-management framework since there won't be more than half a dozen or so in the entire game. I'd still like to hear about scalable solutions for future applications, though.

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Speaking in St. Louis on June 14th

- by Bill Graziano

I’m going back to speak in St. Louis next month. I didn’t make it last year and I’m looking forward to it. You can find additional details on the St. Louis SQL Server user group web site. The meeting will be held at the Microsoft office and I’ll be speaking at 1PM. I’ll be speaking on the procedure cache. As people get better and better tuning queries this is the next major piece to understand. We’ll talk about how and when query plans are reused. The most common issue I see around odd query plans are stored procedures that use one query plan but the queries run completely different when you extract the SQL and hard code the parameters. That’s just one of the common issues that I’ll address. There will be a second speaker after I’m done, then a short vendor presentation and a drawing for a netbook.

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The Changing Face of PASS

- by Bill Graziano

I’m starting my sixth year on the PASS Board. I served two years as the Program Director, two years as the Vice-President of Marketing and I’m starting my second year as the Executive Vice-President of Finance. There’s a pretty good chance that if PASS has done something you don’t like or is doing something you don’t like, that I’m involved in one way or another. Andy Leonard asked in a comment on his blog if the Board had ever reversed itself based on community input. He asserted that it hadn’t. I disagree. I’m not going to try and list all the changes we make inside portfolios based on feedback from and meetings with the community. I’m going to focus on major governance issues since I was elected to the Board. Management Company The first big change was our management company. Our old management company had a standard approach to running a non-profit. It worked well when PASS was launched. Having a ready-made structure and process to run the organization enabled the organization to grow quickly. As time went on we were limited in some of the things we wanted to do. The more involved you were with PASS, the more you saw these limitations. Key volunteers were regularly providing feedback that they wanted certain changes that were difficult for us to accomplish. The Board at that time wanted changes that were difficult or impossible to accomplish under that structure. This was not a simple change. Imagine a $2.5 million dollar company letting all its employees go on a Friday and starting with a new staff on Monday. We also had a very narrow window to accomplish that so that we wouldn’t affect the Summit – our only source of revenue. We spent the year after the change rebuilding processes and putting on the Summit in Denver. That’s a concrete example of a huge change that PASS made to better serve its members. And it was a change that many in the community were telling us we needed to make. Financials We heard regularly from our members that they wanted our financials posted. Today on our web site you can find audited financials going back to 2004. We publish our budget at the start of each year. If you ask a question about the financials on the PASS site I do my best to answer it. I’m also trying to do a better job answering financial questions posted in other locations. (And yes, I know I owe a few of you some blog posts.) That’s another concrete example of a change that our members asked for that the Board agreed was a good decision. Minutes When I started on the Board the meeting minutes were very limited. The minutes from a two day Board meeting might fit on one page. I think we did the bare minimum we were legally required to do. Today Board meeting minutes run from 5 to 12 pages and go into incredible detail on what we talk about. There are certain topics that are NDA but where possible we try to list the topic we discussed but that the actual discussion was under NDA. We also publish the agenda of Board meetings ahead of time. This is another specific example where input from the community influenced the decision. It was certainly easier to have limited minutes but I think the extra effort helps our members understand what’s going on. Board Q&A At the 2009 Summit the Board held its first public Q&A with our members. We’d always been available individually to answer questions. There’s a benefit to getting us all in one room and asking the really hard questions to watch us squirm. We learn what questions we don’t have good answers for. We get to see how many people in the crowd look interested in the various questions and answers. I don’t recall the genesis of how this came about. I’m fairly certain there was some community pressure though. Board Votes Until last November, the Board only reported the vote totals and not how individual Board members voted. That was one of the topics at a great lunch I had with Tim Mitchell and Kendal van Dyke at the Summit. That was also the topic of the first question asked at the Board Q&A by Kendal. Kendal expressed his opposition to to anonymous votes clearly and passionately and without trying to paint anyone into a corner. Less than 24 hours later the PASS Board voted to make individual votes public unless the topic was under NDA. That’s another area where the Board decided to change based on feedback from our members. Summit Location While this isn’t actually a governance issue it is one of the more public decisions we make that has taken some public criticism. There is a significant portion of our members that want the Summit near them. There is a significant portion of our members that like the Summit in Seattle. There is a significant portion of our members that think it should move around the country. I was one that felt strongly that there were significant, tangible benefits to our attendees to being in Seattle every year. I’m also one that has been swayed by some very compelling arguments that we need to have at least one outside Seattle and then revisit the decision. I can’t tell you how the Board will vote but I know the opinion of our members weighs heavily on the decision. Elections And that brings us to the grand-daddy of all governance issues. My thesis for this blog post is that the PASS Board has implemented policy changes in response to member feedback. It isn’t to defend or criticize our election process. It’s just to say that is has been under going continuous change since I’ve been on the Board. I ran for the Board in the fall of 2005. I don’t know much about what happened before then. I was actively volunteering for PASS for four years prior to that as a chapter leader and on the program committee. I don’t recall any complaints about elections but that doesn’t mean they didn’t occur. The questions from the Nominating Committee (NomCom) were trivial and the selection process rudimentary (For example, “Tell us about your accomplishments”). I don’t even remember who I ran against or how many other people ran. I ran for the VP of Marketing in the fall of 2007. I don’t recall any significant changes the Board made in the election process for that election. I think a lot of the changes in 2007 came from us asking the management company to work on the election process. I was expecting a similar set of puff ball questions from my previous election. Boy, was I in for a shock. The NomCom had found a much better set of questions and really made the interview portion difficult. The questions were much more behavioral in nature. I’d already written about my vision for PASS and my goals. They wanted to know how I handled adversity, how I handled criticism, how I handled conflict, how I handled troublesome volunteers, how I motivated people and how I responded to motivation. And many, many other things. They grilled me for over an hour. I’ve done a fair bit of technical sales in my time. I feel I speak well under pressure addressing pointed questions. This interview intentionally put me under pressure. In addition to wanting to know about my interpersonal skills, my work experience, my volunteer experience and my supervisory experience they wanted to see how I’d do under pressure. They wanted to see who would respond under pressure and who wouldn’t. It was a bit of a shock. That was the first big change I remember in the election process. I know there were other improvements around the process but none of them stick in my mind quite like the unexpected hour-long grilling. The next big change I remember was after the 2009 elections. Andy Warren was unhappy with the election process and wanted to make some changes. He worked with Hannes at HQ and they came up with a better set of processes. I think Andy moved PASS in the right direction. Nonetheless, after the 2010 election even more people were very publicly clamoring for changes to our election process. In August of 2010 we had a choice to make. There were numerous bloggers criticizing the Board and our upcoming election. The easy change would be to announce that we were changing the process in a way that would satisfy our critics. I believe that a knee-jerk response to criticism is seldom correct. Instead the Board spent August and September and October and November listening to the community. I visited two SQLSaturdays and asked questions of everyone I could. I attended chapter meetings and asked questions of as many people as they’d let me. At Summit I made it a point to introduce myself to strangers and ask them about the election. At every breakfast I’d sit down at a table full of strangers and ask about the election. I’m happy to say that I left most tables arguing about the election. Most days I managed to get 2 or 3 breakfasts in. I spent less time talking to people that had already written about the election. They were already expressing their opinion. I wanted to talk to people that hadn’t spoken up. I wanted to know what the silent majority thought. The Board all attended the Q&A session where our members expressed their concerns about a variety of issues including the election. The PASS Board also chose to create the Election Review Committee. We wanted people from the community that had been involved with PASS to look at our election process with fresh eyes while listening to what the community had to say and give us some advice on how we could improve the process. I’m a part of this as is Andy Warren. None of the other members are on the Board. I’ve sat in numerous calls and interviews with this group and attended an open meeting at the Summit. We asked anyone that wanted to discuss the election to come speak with us. The ERC held an open meeting at the Summit and invited anyone to attend. There are forums on the ERC web site where we’ve invited people to participate. The ERC has reached to key people involved in recent elections. The years that I haven’t mentioned also saw minor improvements in the election process. Off the top of my head I don’t recall what exact changes were made each year. Specifically since the 2010 election we’ve gone out of our way to seek input from the community about the process. I’m not sure what more we could have done to invite feedback from the community. I think to say that we haven’t “fixed” the election process isn’t a fair criticism at this time. We haven’t rushed any changes through the process. If you don’t see any changes in our election process in July or August then I think it’s fair to criticize us for ignoring the community or ask for an explanation for what we’ve done. In Summary Andy’s main point was that the PASS Board hasn’t changed in response to our members wishes. I think I’ve shown that time and time again the PASS Board has changed in response to what our members want. There are only two outstanding issues: Summit location and elections. The 2013 Summit location hasn’t been decided yet. Our work on the elections is also in progress. And at every step in the election review we’ve gone out of our way to listen to the community and incorporate their feedback on the process. I also hope I’m not encouraging everyone that wants some change in the organization to organize a “blog rush” against the Board. We take public suggestions very seriously but we also take the time to evaluate those suggestions and learn what the rest of our members think and make a measured decision.

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