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• Help finding missing mumble-server dependencies

  - by Otoris

  I'm trying to install the mumble-server package using apt-get install mumble-server on Ubuntu 11.10 Server Edition on Rackspace Cloud. Problem is it can't find dependencies it should have found because they exist on launchpad.net? Dependencies message: Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable distribution that some required packages have not yet been created or been moved out of Incoming. The following information may help to resolve the situation: The following packages have unmet dependencies: mumble-server : Depends: libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 (>= 0.6.16) but it is not installable Depends: libprotobuf7 but it is not installable Depends: libqt4-dbus (>= 4:4.5.3) but it is not installable Depends: libqt4-network (>= 4:4.5.3) but it is not installable Depends: libqt4-sql (>= 4:4.5.3) but it is not installable Depends: libqt4-xml (>= 4:4.5.3) but it is not installable Depends: libqtcore4 (>= 4:4.7.0~beta1) but it is not installable Depends: libqt4-sql-sqlite but it is not installable E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages. Any ideas on if I might be missing sources? I've been googling around and haven't found anyone else in this situation or anyone else not able to install the aforementioned packages. Thanks for your time! sources.list: deb http://mirror.rackspace.com/ubuntu/ oneiric restricted deb-src http://mirror.rackspace.com/ubuntu/ oneiric restricted ## Major bug fix updates produced after the final release of the ## distribution. deb http://mirror.rackspace.com/ubuntu/ oneiric-updates restricted deb-src http://mirror.rackspace.com/ubuntu/ oneiric-updates restricted ## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu ## team. Also, please note that software in universe WILL NOT receive any ## review or updates from the Ubuntu security team. deb http://mirror.rackspace.com/ubuntu/ oneiric universe deb-src http://mirror.rackspace.com/ubuntu/ oneiric universe deb http://mirror.rackspace.com/ubuntu/ oneiric-updates universe deb-src http://mirror.rackspace.com/ubuntu/ oneiric-updates universe ## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu ## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to ## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in ## multiverse WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu ## security team. deb http://mirror.rackspace.com/ubuntu/ oneiric multiverse deb-src http://mirror.rackspace.com/ubuntu/ oneiric multiverse deb http://mirror.rackspace.com/ubuntu/ oneiric-updates multiverse deb-src http://mirror.rackspace.com/ubuntu/ oneiric-updates multiverse ## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from the 'backports' ## repository. ## N.B. software from this repository may not have been tested as ## extensively as that contained in the release, although it includes ## newer versions of some applications which may provide useful features. ## Also, please note that software in backports WILL NOT receive any review ## or updates from the Ubuntu security team. # deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric-backports restricted universe multiverse # deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric-backports restricted universe multiverse ## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from Canonical's ## 'partner' repository. This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is ## offered by Canonical and the respective vendors as a service to Ubuntu ## users. # deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu oneiric partner # deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu oneiric partner deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu oneiric-security restricted deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu oneiric-security restricted deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu oneiric-security universe deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu oneiric-security universe deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu oneiric-security multiverse deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu oneiric-security multiverse # Cool Kid Webmin/Usermin Here Brah deb http://download.webmin.com/download/repository sarge contrib deb http://webmin.mirror.somersettechsolutions.co.uk/repository sarge contrib

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• Let Me Show You Something: Instagram, Vine and Snapchat for Brands

  - by Mike Stiles

  While brands are well aware of how much more impactful images are than text-only posts on social channels, today you’re additionally being presented with platform after additional platform for hosting, doctoring and sharing photos and videos.  Can you play in every sandbox? And if you do, can you be brilliant on all of them? As has usually been the case, so far brands are sticking their toes into new platforms while not actually committing to them, or strategizing for them, or resourcing them. TrackMaven found of the 123 F500 companies using Instagram, only 22% of them are active on it. Likewise, research from Simply Measured found brands are indeed jumping in, with the number establishing a presence on Instagram up 55% over the past year. Users want them there…brand engagement has exploded 350%, and over 1/3 of the top brands have at least 10,000 followers. BUT…the top 10 brands are generating 33% of all posts, reaping 83% of all engagement. Things are also growing on Twitter’s Vine, the 6-second looping video app that hit 40 million users in August. The 7th Chamber says 5 tweets a second contain a Vine link. Other studies say branded Vines are 4 times more likely to be shared and seen than rank-and-file branded videos. Why? Users know that even if a video is pure junk, they won’t get robbed of too much of their valuable time. Vine is always upgrading so you can make sure your videos are worth viewers’ time. You can now edit videos, and save & work on several projects concurrently. What you can’t do is upload a finely crafted video into Vine, but you can do that with Instagram. The key to success? Same as with all other content; make it of value. Deliver a laugh or a lesson or both. How-to, behind the scenes peeks, contests, demos, all make sense in the short video format. Or follow Nash Grier’s example, which is to just have fun with and connect to your viewers, earning their trust that your next Vine will be as good as the last. Nash is only 15, has over 1.4 million followers, and adds about 100,000 a week. He broke out when one of his videos was re-Vined by some other kid with 300,000 followers. Make good stuff, get it in front of influencers, and your brand Vines could break out as well. Then there’s Snapchat, the “this photo will self destruct” platform. How can that be of use to brands besides offering coupons that really expire? The jury is out. But with an audience of over 100 million and a valuation of $800 million, media-with-a-time-limit is compelling. Now there’s “Snapchat Stories” that can last 24 hours and be shared to the public at large. You might be able to capitalize on how much more focus gets put on content when there’s a time limit on its availability. The underlying truth to all of this is, these are all tools. Very cool, feature rich tools, but tools. You can give the exact same art kit to 5 different people and you’d get back 5 very different works, ranging from worthless garbage to masterpiece. Brands are being called upon to be still and moving image artists. That’s what your customers are used to seeing, from a variety of sources. Commit to communicating with them accordingly. @mikestiles Photo: stock.xchng

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• What's a good way to teach my son to program Java

  - by Software Monkey

  OK, so I've read through various posts about teaching beginner's to program, and there were some helpful things I will look at more closely. But what I want to know is whether there are any effective tools out there to teach a kid Java specifically? I want to teach him Java specifically because (a) with my strong background in C I feel that's too complex, (b) Java is the other language I know extremely well and therefore I can assist meaningfully without needing to teach myself a new but (to me) useless language, and (c) I feel that managed languages are the future, and lastly (d) Java is one of the simplest of all the languages I know well (aside from basic). I learned in basic, and I am open to teaching that first, but I am unaware of a decent free basic shell for Windows (though I haven't really searched, yet since it's not my first choice), and would anyway want to progress quickly to Java. My son is 8, so that's a couple of years earlier than I started - but he has expressed an interest in learning to program (possibly because I work from home a lot and he sees me programming all the time). If no-one can suggest a tool designed for this purpose, I will probably start him off with text/console based apps to teach the basics, and then progress to GUI building. Oh, one last thing, I am not a fan of IDE's (old school text editor type), so I would not be put off at all by a system that has him typing real code, and would likely prefer that to a toy drag/drop system. EDIT: Just to clarify; I really am specifically after ways to teach him Java; there are already a good many posts with good answers for other language alternatives - but that's not what I am looking for here. EDIT: What about Java frameworks for 2D video games - can anyone recommend any of them from personal experience? I like the idea of him starting with the mechanics in place (main game loop, scoring, etc) and adding the specifics for a game of his own imagining - that's what I did, though for me it was basic on a Commodore VIC-20 and a Sinclair ZX-81.

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• Ideas for OpenSource CMS in ASP.NET MVC

  - by rajesh pillai

  I am in the process of collecting ideas for building an opensource CMS based on ASP.net framework. I have choosen ASP.NET MVC with Jquery as the tool to develop this. I have made this as community wiki. Background: Most of the good CMS that is available is built on PHP, though off late CMS built on ASP.net framework seems to be cropping up. I would like to collect ideas/suggestion/expectations from an opensource CMS system for ASP.net platform. I am looking for expectation from technology and features that you wish could find in a modern CMS and any other thoughts/ideas that comes to your mind. Your input would be of great help in this direction. Meanwhile I am also reviewing many opensource CMS system built on ASP.net as well as MS Office Sharepoint to get ideas and I would update my findings here for your reference. The following are some of the opensource CMS/BlogEngines that I am in the process of reviewing. -Oxite (ASP.net MVC) : This is the new kid on the block -Wordpress -BlogEngine.net -Umbraco Some of the features that I can think of is noted below Simplified content creation Support Multiple content author Metadata feature Workflow engine Simplified deployment List based contents (sharepoint like) Customizable URL's Support content Caching Roles (contenauthor, contentpublisher etc) Support different types of content (like html, txt, document, image, videos) Skinnable (support extensible themes) Localization & Globalization Unlimited nesting of categories Readymade template for blog, forums,survey. Good documentation You can add your points or add some depth to any of the above feature.

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• How to explain to someone that a data structure should not draw itself, explaining separation of con

  - by leeand00

  I have another programmer who I'm trying to explain why it is that a UI component should not also be a data-structure. For instance say that you get a data-structure that contains a record-set from the "database", and you wish to display that record-set in a UI component within your application. According to this programmer (who will remain nameless, he's young and I'm teaching him...), we should subclass the data-structure into a class that will draw the UI component within our application!!!!!! And thus according to this logic, the record-set should manage the drawing of the UI. **Head Desk*** I know that asking a record-set to draw itself is wrong, because, if you wish to render the same data-structure on more than one type of component on your UI, you are going to have a real mess on your hands; you'll need to extend yet another class for each and every UI component that you render from the base-class of your record-set; I am well aware of the "cleanliness" of the of the MVC pattern (and by that what I really mean is you don't confuse your data (the Model) with your UI (the view) or the actions that take place on the data (the Controller more or less...okay not really the API should really handle that...and the Controller should just make as few calls to it as it can, telling it which view to render)) But it's certainly alot cleaner than using data-structures to render UI components! Is there any other advice I could send his way other than the example above? I understand that when you first learn OOP you go through "a stage" where you where just want to extend everything. Followed by a stage when you think that Design Patterns are the solution every single problem...which isn't entirely correct either...thanks Jeff. Is there a way that I can gently nudge this kid in the right direction? Do you have any more examples that might help explain my point to him?

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• How do I disable the network connection from .Net without needing admin priveledges?

  - by Brad Mathews

  I may be SOL on this but I thought I would give throw it out for possible solutions. I am writing a computer access control service to help me control my kids' computer use. Plan on open sourcing it when I have it working. It is written in VB.Net and needs to work on XP through 7. I am running into all sorts of security and desktop access issues on Windows 7. The service needs to run as admin to execute the NetSh command to disable the network. But I cannot interact with the desktop from the service so I IPC to a UI to handle other stuff, but I still cannot detect from the service if the desktop is locked. Argghh! I could get it all working from a hidden windows form app if I could just lick the one piece that needs admin permissions: disabling the network. It does no good if a kid logs on and denies the popup asking if the program should run as administrator and he says no. Also windows 7 will not start a program set to run as admin using HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run Anyone know how to get this working? Or have an outside the box solution? Thanks! Brad

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• How could I parse this HTML file?

  - by Sergio Tapia

  <div id="main"> <style type="text/css"> </style> <script language="JavaScript"> </script> <p style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0.5em;"><b>Media from&nbsp;<a onclick="(new Image()).src='/rg/find-media-title/media_strip/images/b.gif?link=/title/tt0087538/';" href="/title/tt0087538/">The Karate Kid</a> (1984)</b></p> <style type="text/css"> </style> <table style="border-collapse: collapse;"> </table> </div> I need to somehow extract the href value of the (new Image()). How exactly would I accomplish this with HtmlAgilityPack? I'm new to it, and so far I haven't found a useful tutorial on how to effectively use it for parsing. Thanks for the help!

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• Low-Hanging Fruit: Obfuscating non-critical values in JavaScript

  - by Piskvor

  I'm making an in-browser game of the type "guess what place/monument/etc. is in this satellite/aerial view", using Google Maps JS API v3. However, I need to protect against cheaters - you have to pass a google.maps.LatLng and a zoom level to the map constructor, which means a cheating user only needs to view source to get to this data. I am already unsetting every value I possibly can without breaking the map (such as center and the manipulation functions like setZoom()), and initializing the map in an anonymous function (so the object is not visible in global namespace). Now, this is of course in-browser, client-side, untrusted JavaScript; I've read much of the obfuscation tag and I'm not trying to make the script bullet-proof (it's just a game, after all). I only need to make the obfuscation reasonably hard against the 1337 Java5kryp7 haxz0rz - "kid sister encryption", as Bruce Schneier puts it. Anything harder than base64 encoding would deter most cheaters by eliminating the lowest-hanging fruit - if the cheater is smart and determined enough to use a JS debugger, he can bypass anything I can do (as I need to pass the value to Google Maps API in plaintext), but that's unlikely to happen on a mass scale (there will also be other, not-code-related ways to prevent cheating). I've tried various minimizers and obfuscators, but those will mostly deal with code - the values are still shown verbatim. TL;DR: I need to obfuscate three values in JavaScript. I'm not looking for bullet-proof armor, just a sneeze-guard. What should I use?

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• Issue on dojo onlick event on html button

  - by Cuong Le

  I am a new kid with dojo, I got weird issue which I take lots of time and have not yet found out, assume I have 4 buttons: <button id="btnMoveFirst" data-dojo-type="dijit.form.Button" iconclass="plusIcon"> &lt; &lt;</button> <button id="btnMovePrev" data-dojo-type="dijit.form.Button" iconclass="plusIcon"> &lt;</button> <button id="btnMoveNext" data-dojo-type="dijit.form.Button" iconclass="plusIcon"> &gt;</button> <button id="btnMoveLast" data-dojo-type="dijit.form.Button" iconclass="plusIcon"> &gt; &gt;</button> And use dojo with event onclick as below: dojo.connect(dijit.registry.byId('btnMoveFirst'), "onclick", function(evt){ alert('test1'); }); dojo.connect(dijit.registry.byId('btnMovePrev'), "onclick", function(evt){ alert('test2'); }); dojo.connect(dijit.registry.byId('btnMoveNext'), "onclick", function(evt){ alert('test3'); }); dojo.connect(dijit.registry.byId('btnMoveLast'), "onclick", function(evt){ alert('test4'); }); But when I click any one of 4 buttons, or even any button in form, I got 4 alerts instead of only correct one. Does anyone know this?

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• Liquid Layout: 100% max-width img not applied - why?

  - by MEM

  I'm totally new to this liquid layout stuff. I've notice, as most of us, that while most of my layout components "liquify", images, unfortunately, don't. So I'm trying to use the max-width: 100% on images as suggested on several places. However, and despite the definition of max-width and min-height of the img container, the img don't scale. Sample code: CSS img { max-width: 100%; } article { float: left; margin: 30px 1%; max-width: 31%; min-height: 350px; } HTML <article> <header> <h2>some header</h2> </header> <img src="/images/thumb1.jpg" alt="thumb"> <p>Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Proin vel ante a orci tempus eleifend.</p> </article> Please have a look on the following link: http://tinyurl.com/d849f8x If you see it on a wide resolution, you will notice that the "kid image", for example, don't scale. Any clue about what could the issue be, why does that image not scale? Test case: Browsers: Firefox 15.0 / Chrome 21.0 IOS: MAC OS X Lion - 10.7.3 Resolution: 1920x1200 What I get: I get an image that doesn't scale until the end of it's container. The img width won't fit the article element that contains it. What I do expect: I expect the image to enlarge, until it reaches the end it's container. Visually, I'm expecting the image to be as wide as the paragraph immediately below, in a way that, the right side of the image stays vertically aligned with the right side of the paragraph below.

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• What is the IoC / "Springy" way to handle MVP in GWT? (Hint, probably not the Spring Roo 1.1 way)

  - by Ehrann Mehdan

  This is the Spring Roo 1.1 way of doing a factory that returns a GWT Activity (Yes, Spring Framework) public Activity getActivity(ProxyPlace place) { switch (place.getOperation()) { case DETAILS: return new EmployeeDetailsActivity((EntityProxyId<EmployeeProxy>)place.getProxyId(), requests, placeController, ScaffoldApp.isMobile() ? EmployeeMobileDetailsView.instance() : EmployeeDetailsView.instance()); case EDIT: return makeEditActivity(place); case CREATE: return makeCreateActivity(); } throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unknown operation " + place.getOperation()); } It seems to me that we just went back hundred of years if we use a switch case with constants to make a factory. Now this is official auto generated Spring roo 1.1 with GWT / GAE integration, I kid you not I can only assume this is some executives empty announcements because this is definitly not Spring It seems VMWare and Google were too fast to get something out and didn't quite finish it, isn't it? Am I missing something or this is half baked and by far not the way Spring + GWT MVP should work? Do you have a better example of how Spring, GWT (2.1 MVP approach) and GAE should connect? I would hate to do all the plumbing of managing history and activities like this. (no annotations? IOC?) I also would hate to reinvent the wheel and write my own Spring enhancement just to find someone else did the same, or worse, find out that SpringSource and Google will release roo 1.2 soon and make it right

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• A feeling that I'm not that good developer

  - by Karim

  Hi, Im having a strange feeling, but let me first introduce myself as a software developer. I started to program when I was still a kid, I had about 10 or 11 years. I really enjoy my work and never get bored from it. It's amazing how somebody could be paid for what he really likes to do and would be doing it anyway even for free. WHen I first started to program, I was feeling proud of what I was doing, each application I built was for me a success and after 2-3 year I had a feeling that I'm a coding guru. It was a nice feeling ;-) But the more I was in the field, the more types of software I started to develop I was starting to have a feeling that I'm completely wrong in that I'm guru. I felt that I'm not even a mediocre developer. Each new field I start to work on is giving me this feeling. Like when I once developed a device driver for a client, I saw how much I need to learn about device drivers. When I developed a video filter for an application, I saw how much do I still need to learn about DirectShow, Color Spaces, and all the theory behind that. The worst thing was when I started to learn algorithms. It was several years ago. I knew then the basic structures and algorithms like the sorting, some types of trees, some hashtables, strings etc.. and when I really wanted to learn a group of structures I learned about 5-6 new types and saw that in fact even this small group has several hundred subtypes of structures. It's depressing how little time people have in their lives to learn all this stuff. I'm now a software developer with about 10 years of experience and I still feel that I'm not a proficient developer when I think about things that others do in the industry. Is this normal what I'm experiencing or is it a sign of a destructive excessive ambition? Thanks in advance for any comments.

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• Career day in kindergarten

  - by Péter Török

  I was invited to the kindergarten group of my elder daughter to talk and answer the kids' questions about my profession. There are 26 kids of age 4-6 in the group, plus 3 teachers who are fairly scared of anything related to programming and IT themselves, but bold enough to learn new tricks. I would have about 20-30 minutes, without projector or anything. They have an old computer though, which by its look may be a 486, and I am not even sure if it's functioning. My research turned up excellent earlier threads, with lots of good tips: How would you explain your job to a 5-year old? Career Day: how do I make “computer programmer” sound cool to 8 year olds? What things can I teach a group of children about programming in one day? My situation is different from each of the above though: the latter ones are concerned with older children, while the first one is about talking to a single kid (or elder person)—a group of 20 is a whole different challenge. How can I teach the kids and their teachers about programming in a fun way?

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• Ways to implement tags - pros and cons of each

  - by bobobobo

  Related Using SO as an example, what is the most sensible way to manage tags if you anticipate they will change often? Way 1: Seriously denormalized (comma delimited) table posts +--------+-----------------+ | postId | tags | +--------+-----------------+ | 1 | c++,search,code | Here tags are comma delimited. Pros: Tags are retrieved at once with a single select query. Updating tags is simple. Easy and cheap to update. Cons: Extra parsing on tag retrieval, difficult to count how many posts use which tags. (alternatively, if limited to something like 5 tags) table posts +--------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+ | postId | tag_1 | tag_2 | tag_3 | tag_4 | tag_5 | +--------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+ | 1 | c++ |search | code | | | Way 2: "Slightly normalized" (separate table, no intersection) table posts +--------+-------------------+ | postId | title | +--------+-------------------+ | 1 | How do u tag? | table taggings +--------+---------+ | postId | tagName | +--------+---------+ | 1 | C++ | | 1 | search | Pros: Easy to see tag counts (count(*) from taggings where tagName='C++'). Cons: tagName will likely be repeated many, many times. Way 3: The cool kid's (normalized with intersection table) table posts +--------+---------------------------------------+ | postId | title | +--------+---------------------------------------+ | 1 | Why is a raven like a writing desk? | table tags +--------+---------+ | tagId | tagName | +--------+---------+ | 1 | C++ | | 2 | search | | 3 | foofle | table taggings +--------+---------+ | postId | tagId | +--------+---------+ | 1 | 1 | | 1 | 2 | | 1 | 3 | Pros: No repeating tag names. More girls will like you. Cons: More expensive to change tags than way #1.

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• Begin game programming basics

  - by AJ

  My 14 year old kid brother wants to learn to program games. He has never programmed but would like to learn programming. His interest lies with games and game programming and he understands that it can be difficult but he wants to do that. So, obviously, I turned to SO folks to know what you feel on how he should go about it. Remember, please suggest on Areas that beginners can choose, how to begin in that area, what to read in the beginning, initial languages in the beginning etc. Once the beginning part is taken care of, you may also suggest the intermediate and advanced stuff but this question is about very beginning level. If there are areas like Web games Vs. console games Vs generic computer games, then please advice on the areas. As I said he has never programmed, he might want to try all the areas and choose the one he likes the best. I hope this is not too much to ask for someone who is in this field but if this question is huge, please advice on how to break it into multiple questions. ~Thanks.

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• best REGEXP friendly Text Editors + most powerful REGEXP syntax?

  - by John

  I am fluent with Microsoft Visual 2005 regular expressions and they are a big time saver. I seem to learn them best by having a vaguely organized cheat sheet thrown at me, at which point I read just a little and play with them until I understand what's going on. That learning approach has worked well for me, for now. I would really like to take this to the next level though. Basically -- What is the REGEXP convention that is generally regarded as the most open-ended and powerful? VS2005 Regexps seem kind of gimped, so maybe I'm a kid playing in a sandbox. Are there text editors out there that can perform a highlight all matches, list lines containing string, or some kind of powerful function like that in conjunction with the very strongest REGEXP language? If not I can just use multiple programs and a weird technique but I'd like to avoid that. I wonder if a stronger REGEXP language or a "stronger" regEXP writer might be able to have his search match all results on all lines even by clicking a "find next" by adding some simple criteria to the search. Anyway, please provide advice!

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• Should I Teach My Son Programming? What approaches should I take? [closed]

  - by DaveDev

  I was wondering if it's a good idea to teach object oriented programming to my son? I was never really good at math as a kid, but I think since I've started programming it's given me a greater ability to understand math by being better able to visualise relationships between abstract models. I thought it might give him a better advantage in learning & applying logical & mathematical concepts throughout his life if he was able to take advantage of the tools available to programmers. what would be the best programming fields, techniques and/or concepts? What approach should I take? what concepts should I avoid? what fields of mathematics would he find this benfits him most? He's only 2 now so it wouldn't be for another few years before I do this, (and even at that, only from a very high level point of view). I thought I'd put it to the programming community and see what you guys thought? Possible Duplicate: What are some recommended programming resources for pre-teens?

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• my multi boot can't boot to XP 'resumeobject' is missing

  - by GwenKillerby

  In my multi boot set up, booting to vista and 7 goes fine, but when I try to boot to XP, i get an error Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. To fix the problem: 1. Insert your Windows installation disc and restart your computer. 2. Choose your language settings, and then click "Next." 3. Click "Repair your computer." If you do not have this disc, contact your system administrator or computer manufacturer for assistance. File: \NTLDR Status: 0xc000000e Info: The selected entry could not be loaded because the application is missing or corrupt. See below. Clearly the resumeobject seems to be missing in the XP entry ("Real Mode Boot sector"), only I don't know how to restore it. Vista is on **C:**, Win7 is on **F:** (as is the bootmgr ??? ) and WinXP is on **E:** What I've tried: [1] I've used about 5 windows discs, that is the Recovery Consoles from real XP install CD's and 3 virtual Recovery Consoles. All failed. The real CD's work ONE time, but won't let me finish, I only got as far as [b]fixboot E:[/b] Then they shut the laptop down, I kid you not. On a next startup, all 5 CD's ask me for some Admin password that I've never added! [2] I have VisualBCD and EasyBCD, but the most obvious things I tried there didn't solve the problem. So know I don't exactly know what to do with them. [3] I CAN boot into XP with the FIX NTLDR workaround of http://milescomer.com/tinyempire.com/notes/ntldrismissing.htm, but it doesn't fix it permanently QUESTION: How do I fix it permanently? bcdedit /enum output: Windows Boot Manager -------------------- identifier {bootmgr} device partition=F: path \bootmgr description Windows Boot Manager locale en-US default {current} displayorder {current} {812e27a9-27b7-11e4-8fb4-dfa8174ae8dc} {812e27ac-27b7-11e4-8fb4-dfa8174ae8dc} timeout 30 resume No Windows Boot Loader ------------------- identifier {current} device partition=C: path \Windows\system32\winload.exe description Vista locale nl-NL osdevice partition=C: systemroot \Windows resumeobject {73d8b5bc-2764-11e4-b181-806e6f6e6963} Windows Boot Loader ------------------- identifier {812e27a9-27b7-11e4-8fb4-dfa8174ae8dc} device partition=F: path \Windows\system32\winload.exe description Daisy Etta locale en-US osdevice partition=F: systemroot \Windows resumeobject {b8c234a4-27b0-11e4-b8b3-806e6f6e6963} Real-mode Boot Sector --------------------- identifier {812e27ac-27b7-11e4-8fb4-dfa8174ae8dc} device partition=E: path \NTLDR description XP Thank you.

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• It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice

  - by BuckWoody

  I’ve been a little “preachy” lately, telling you that you should let people finish their sentences, and always check a problem out before you tell a user that their issue is “impossible”. Well, I’ll round that out with one more tip today. Keep in mind that all of these things are actions I’ve been guilty of, hopefully in the past. I’m kind of a “work in progress”. And yes, I know these tips are coming from someone who picks on people in presentations, but that is of course done in fun, and (hopefully) with the audience’s knowledge.   (No, this isn’t aimed at any one person or event in particular – I just see it happen a lot)   I’ve seen, unfortunately over and over, someone in authority react badly to someone who is incorrect, or at least perceived to be incorrect. This might manifest itself in a comment, post, question or whatever, but the point is that I’ve seen really intelligent people literally attack someone they view as getting something wrong. Don’t misunderstand me; if someone posts that you should always drop a production database in the middle of the day I think you should certainly speak up and mention that this might be a bad idea!  No, I’m talking about generalizations or even incorrect statements done in good faith. Let me explain with an example.   Suppose someone makes the statement: “If you don’t have enough space on your system, you can just use a DBCC command to shrink the database”. Let’s take two responses to this statement.   Response One: “That’s insane. Everyone knows that shrinking a database is a stupid idea, you’re just going to fragment your indexes all over the place.” Response Two: “That’s an interesting take – in my experience and from what I’ve read here (someurl.com) I think this might not be a universal best practice.”   Of course, both responses let the person making the statement and those reading it know that you don’t agree, and that it’s probably wrong. But the person you responded to and the general audience hearing you (or reading your response) might form two different opinions of you.   The first response says to me “this person really needs to be right, and takes arguments personally. They aren’t thinking of the other person at all, or the folks reading or hearing the exchange. They turned an incorrect technical statement into a personal attack. They haven’t left the other party any room to ‘save face’, and they have potentially turned what could be a positive learning experience for everyone into a negative. Also, they sound more than just a little arrogant.”   The second response says to me “this person has left room for everyone to save face, has presented evidence to the contrary and is thinking about moving the ball forward and getting it right rather than attacking someone for getting it wrong.” It’s the idea of questioning a statement rather than attacking a person.   Perhaps you have a different take. Maybe you think the “direct” approach is best – and maybe that’s worked for you. Something to consider is what you’ve really accomplished while using that first method. Sure, the info you provide is correct, and perhaps someone out there won’t shrink a database because of your response – but perhaps you’ve turned a lot more people off, and now they won’t listen to your other valuable information. You’ll be an expert, but another one of the nameless, arrogant jerks in technology. And I don’t think anyone likes to be thought of that way.   OK, I’ll get down off of the high-horse now. And I’ll keep the title of this entry (said to me by my grandmother when I was a little kid) in mind when I dismount. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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• It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice

  - by BuckWoody

  I’ve been a little “preachy” lately, telling you that you should let people finish their sentences, and always check a problem out before you tell a user that their issue is “impossible”. Well, I’ll round that out with one more tip today. Keep in mind that all of these things are actions I’ve been guilty of, hopefully in the past. I’m kind of a “work in progress”. And yes, I know these tips are coming from someone who picks on people in presentations, but that is of course done in fun, and (hopefully) with the audience’s knowledge.   (No, this isn’t aimed at any one person or event in particular – I just see it happen a lot)   I’ve seen, unfortunately over and over, someone in authority react badly to someone who is incorrect, or at least perceived to be incorrect. This might manifest itself in a comment, post, question or whatever, but the point is that I’ve seen really intelligent people literally attack someone they view as getting something wrong. Don’t misunderstand me; if someone posts that you should always drop a production database in the middle of the day I think you should certainly speak up and mention that this might be a bad idea!  No, I’m talking about generalizations or even incorrect statements done in good faith. Let me explain with an example.   Suppose someone makes the statement: “If you don’t have enough space on your system, you can just use a DBCC command to shrink the database”. Let’s take two responses to this statement.   Response One: “That’s insane. Everyone knows that shrinking a database is a stupid idea, you’re just going to fragment your indexes all over the place.” Response Two: “That’s an interesting take – in my experience and from what I’ve read here (someurl.com) I think this might not be a universal best practice.”   Of course, both responses let the person making the statement and those reading it know that you don’t agree, and that it’s probably wrong. But the person you responded to and the general audience hearing you (or reading your response) might form two different opinions of you.   The first response says to me “this person really needs to be right, and takes arguments personally. They aren’t thinking of the other person at all, or the folks reading or hearing the exchange. They turned an incorrect technical statement into a personal attack. They haven’t left the other party any room to ‘save face’, and they have potentially turned what could be a positive learning experience for everyone into a negative. Also, they sound more than just a little arrogant.”   The second response says to me “this person has left room for everyone to save face, has presented evidence to the contrary and is thinking about moving the ball forward and getting it right rather than attacking someone for getting it wrong.” It’s the idea of questioning a statement rather than attacking a person.   Perhaps you have a different take. Maybe you think the “direct” approach is best – and maybe that’s worked for you. Something to consider is what you’ve really accomplished while using that first method. Sure, the info you provide is correct, and perhaps someone out there won’t shrink a database because of your response – but perhaps you’ve turned a lot more people off, and now they won’t listen to your other valuable information. You’ll be an expert, but another one of the nameless, arrogant jerks in technology. And I don’t think anyone likes to be thought of that way.   OK, I’ll get down off of the high-horse now. And I’ll keep the title of this entry (said to me by my grandmother when I was a little kid) in mind when I dismount. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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• On Life and TechEd&hellip;

  - by MOSSLover

  I haven’t been writing here I know.  I am very sorry, but I am just too busy trying to make my personal life just as good as my SharePoint life.  So I was at TechEd again helping with the hands on labs, but I had a very long couple of weeks.  I will have a long week again.  I started out going to my friend, Randy Walker’s, wedding and I ended up at my grandmother’s condo in Fort Lauderdale.  It was a very trying week.  I had to drive 5 1/2 hours to the wedding from St. Louis and back.  So Randy is an awesome person.  He is a great guy and he was the first person ever to nominate me for MVP.  I knew it probably wasn’t going anywhere, but it was the thought that count.  I met Randy in 2008 at Tulsa Techfest.  We had fun jamming out to Rockband.  I knew he was good people back then.  He has let me vent and I have let him vent over countless personal problems.  He has always been a great friend.  So it was a no brainer when I decided to go to his wedding no matter how much driving or stress or lack of sleep it was worth it.  I am incredibly happy for him to finally find a diamond amongst a lot of coal.  To take part in his celebration was so awesome.  I thank him again for letting me participate in this ceremony. Now after Randy’s wedding I drove 5 1/2 hours landed in St. Louis, fed a cat an asthma pill hidden in wet cat food, and slept for 4 hours.  I immediately saw my best friend who dropped me off at the airport and proceeded to TechEd.  I slept 1 hour on each flight, then ended up working a 3 hour shift at TechEd.  The rest of the week was a haze of connecting with people and sleeping very little.  I got to see my friend Tasha and her husband Casey plus a billion other people.  It was a great week and then I got a call from my grandmother.  It turns out her husband was admitted to the hospital. My grandparents on my dad's side have been divorced since the 60s, which means I never got to see them together.  I always felt like they never cliqued.  When I was a kid we would always spend half our time in Chicago at grandma’s and half our time at grandpa’s houses.  We would hang out with my grandpa’s wife Bobbi and my grandma’s husband Leo.  My cousin’s always called Leo by Pappa and my brother and I would use Leo.  My cousins lived in Chicago up until my cousin Gavi was born then they moved to Philadelphia.  I remember complaining to my dad that we never visited anywhere cool just Chicago and Kansas City.  I also remember Leo teaching me and my brother, Sam, how to climb a tree and play tennis on the back of the apartment wall.  My grandfather’s was kind of stuffy and boring, but we always enjoyed my grandmother’s.  She had games and Disney Movies and toys.  Leo always made it a ton of fun to visit.  I’m not sure a lot of people knew this fact, but when I was 16 years old I saw my grandfather on my mother’s side slowly die of congestive heart failure in a nursing home.  When I was 18 I saw my grandmother on my mother’s side slowly die of an infection over a 30 day period.  I hate hospitals and I hate nursing homes, but sometimes you have to suck in your gut and be strong.  I tried to do that this weekend and I hope I did an ok job.  I really hope things get better, but if they don’t I really appreciate everything he has given me in life.  I am a terrible tennis player and I haven’t climbed a tree in ages, but they both encouraged me when encouragement from my parents was lacking.  It was Father’s Day today and I have to at least pay tribute to Leo Morris, because he has been a good person to me all my life.  Technorati Tags: TechEd,Grandparents,Father's Day

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• Dynamic Data Connections

  - by Tim Dexter

  I have had a long running email thread running between Dan and David over at Valspar and myself. They have built some impressive connectivity between their in house apps and BIP using web services. The crux of their problem has been that they have multiple databases that need the same report executed against them. Not such an unusual request as I have spoken to two customers in the last month with the same situation. Of course, you could create a report against each data connection and just run or call the appropriate report. Not too bad if you have two or three data connections but more than that and it becomes a maintenance nightmare having to update queries or layouts. Ideally you want to have just a single report definition on the BIP server and to dynamically set the connection to be used at runtime based on the user or system that the user is in. A quick bit of digging and help from Shinji on the development team and I had an answer. Rather embarassingly, the solution has been around since the Oct 2010 rollup patch last year. Still, I grabbed the latest Jan 2011 patch - check out Note 797057.1 for the latest available patches. Once installed, I used the best web service testing tool I have yet to come across - SoapUI. Just point it at the WSDL and you can check out the available services and their parameters and then test them too. The XML packet has a new dynamic data source entry. You can set you own custom JDBC connection or just specify an existing data source name thats defined on the server. <pub:runReport> <pub:reportRequest> <pub:attributeFormat>xml</pub:attributeFormat> <pub:attributeTemplate>0</pub:attributeTemplate> <pub:byPassCache>true</pub:byPassCache> <pub:dynamicDataSource> <pub:JDBCDataSource> <pub:JDBCDriverClass></pub:JDBCDriverClass> <pub:JDBCDriverType></pub:JDBCDriverType> <pub:JDBCPassword></pub:JDBCPassword> <pub:JDBCURL></pub:JDBCURL> <pub:JDBCUserName></pub:JDBCUserName> <pub:dataSourceName>Conn1</pub:dataSourceName> </pub:JDBCDataSource> </pub:dynamicDataSource> <pub:reportAbsolutePath>/Test/Employee Report/Employee Report.xdo</pub:reportAbsolutePath> </pub:reportRequest> <pub:userID>Administrator</pub:userID> <pub:password>Administrator</pub:password> </pub:runReport> So I have Conn1 and Conn2 defined that are connections to different databases. I can just flip the name, make the WS call and get the appropriate dataset in my report. Just as an example, here's my web service call java code. Just a case of bringing in the BIP java libs to my java project. publicReportServiceService = new PublicReportServiceService(); PublicReportService publicReportService = publicReportServiceService.getPublicReportService_v11(); String userID = "Administrator"; String password = "Administrator"; ReportRequest rr = new ReportRequest(); rr.setAttributeFormat("xml"); rr.setAttributeTemplate("1"); rr.setByPassCache(true); rr.setReportAbsolutePath("/Test/Employee Report/Employee Report.xdo"); rr.setReportOutputPath("c:\\temp\\output.xml"); BIPDataSource bipds = new BIPDataSource(); JDBCDataSource jds = new JDBCDataSource(); jds.setDataSourceName("Conn1"); bipds.setJDBCDataSource(jds); rr.setDynamicDataSource(bipds); try { publicReportService.runReport(rr, userID, password); } catch (InvalidParametersException e) { e.printStackTrace(); } catch (AccessDeniedException e) { e.printStackTrace(); } catch (OperationFailedException e) { e.printStackTrace(); } } Note, Im no java whiz kid or whizzy old bloke, at least not unless Ive had a coffee. JDeveloper has a nice feature where you point it at the WSDL and it creates everything to support your calling code for you. Couple of things to remember: 1. When you call the service, remember to set the bypass the cache option. Forget it and much scratching of your head and taking my name in vain will ensue. 2. My demo actually hit the same database but used two users, one accessed the base tables another views with the same name. For far too long I thought the connection swapping was not working. I was getting the same results for both users until I realized I was specifying the schema name for the table/view in my query e.g. select * from EMP.EMPLOYEES. So remember to have a generic query that will depend entirely on the connection. Its a neat feature if you want to be able to switch connections and only define a single report and call it remotely. Now if you want the connection to be set dynamically based on the user and the report run via the user interface, thats going to be more tricky ... need to think about that one!

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• Spolskism or Twitterism: A Doctor writes...

  - by Phil Factor

  "I never realized I had a problem. I just 'twittered' because it was a social thing to do. All my mates were doing it. It made me feel good to have 'followers'; it bolstered my self-esteem. Of course, you don't think of the long-term effects on your work and on the way you think. There's no denying that it impairs your judgment…" Yes, this story is typical. Hundreds of people are waking up to the long term effects of twittering, and seeking help. Dave, who wishes to remain anonymous, told our reporter… "I started using Twitter at work. Just a few minutes now and then, throughout the day. A lot of my colleagues were doing it and I thought 'Well, that's cool; it must be part of what I should be doing at work'. Soon, I was avidly reading every twitter that came my way, and counting the minutes between my own twitters. I tried to kid myself that it was all about professional development and getting other people to help you with work-related problems, but in truth I had become addicted to the buzz of the social network. The worse thing was that it made me seem busy even when I was really just frittering my time away. Inevitably, I started to get behind with my real work." Experts have identified the syndrome and given it a name: 'Twitterism', sometimes referred to as 'Spolskism', after the person who first drew attention to the pernicious damage to well-being that the practice caused, and who had the courage to take the pledge of rejecting it. According to one expert… "The occasional Twitter does little harm to the participant, and can be an adaptive way of dealing with stress. Unfortunately, it rarely stops there. The addictive qualities of the practice have put a strain on the caring professions who are faced with a flood of people making that first bold step to seeking help". Dave is one of those now seeking help for his addiction… "I had lost touch with reality. Even though I twittered my work colleagues constantly, I found I actually spoke to them less and less. Even when out socializing, I would frequently disengage from the conversation, in order to twitter. I stopped blogging. I stopped responding to emails; the only way to reach me was through the world of Twitter. Unfortunately, my denial about the harm that twittering was doing to me, my friends, and my work-colleagues was so strong that I truly couldn't see that I had a problem." Like other addictions, the help and support of others who are 'taking the cure' is important. There is a common bond between those who have 'been through hell and back' and are once more able to experience the joys of actually conversing and socializing, rather than the false comfort of solitary 'twittering'. Complete abstinence is essential to the cure. Most of those who risk even an occasional twitter face a headlong slide back into 'binge' twittering. Tom, another twitterer who has managed to kick the habit explains… "My twittering addiction now seems more like a bad dream. You get to work, and switch on the PC. You say to yourself, just open up the browser, just for a minute, just to see what people are saying on Twitter. The next thing you know, half the day has gone by. The worst thing is that when you're addicted, you get good at covering up the habit; I spent so much time looking at the screen and typing on the keyboard, people just assumed I was working hard.I know that I must never forget what it was like then, and what it's like now that I've kicked the habit. I now have more time for productive work and a real social life." Like many addictions, Spolskism has its most detrimental effects on family, friends and workmates, rather than the addict. So often nowadays, we hear the sad stories of Twitter-Widows; tales of long lonely evenings spent whilst their partners are engrossed in their twittering into their 'mobiles' or indulging in their solitary spolskistic habits in privacy, under cover of 'having to do work at home'. Workmates suffer too, when the addicts even take their laptops or mobiles into meetings in order to 'twitter' with their fellow obsessives, even stooping to complain to their followers how boring the meeting is. No; The best advice is to leave twittering to the birds. You know it makes sense.

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• JavaOne pictures and Community Commentary on JCP Awards

  - by heathervc

  We posted some pictures from JCP related events at JavaOne 2012 on the JCP Facebook page today.  The 2012 JCP Program Award winners and some of the nominees responded to the community recognition of their achievements during some of the JCP events last week.     “Our job on the EC is to balance the need of innovation – so we don’t standardize too early, or too late. We try to find that sweet spot that makes innovation and standardization work together, and not against each other.”- Ben Evans, CEO of jClarity and Executive Committee (EC) representative of the London Java Community, 2012 JCP Member/Participant of the Year Winner“SouJava has been evangelizing the Java platform, promoting the Java ecosystem in Brazil, and contributing to JSRs for several years. It’s very gratifying to have our work recognized, on behalf of many developers and Java User Groups around the world. This really is the work of a large group of people, represented by the few that can be here tonight.”- Michael Santos, representative of SouJava, 2012 JCP Member/Participant of the Year Winner "In the last years Credit Suisse has contributed to the development of Java EE specifications through participation in many customer advisory boards, through statements of requirements for extensions to the core Java related products in use, and active participation in JSRs. Winning the JCP Outstanding Spec Lead Award 2012 is very encouraging for our engagement and also demonstrates the level of expertise and commitment to drive the evolution of Java. Victor Grazi is happy and honored to receive this award." - Susanne Cech Previtali, Executive Committee (EC) representative of Credit Suisse, accepting award for 2012 JCP Outstanding Spec Lead Winner "Managing a JSR is difficult. There are so many decisions to be made and so many good and varied opinions, you never really know if you have decided correctly. The key to success is transparency and collaboration. I am truly humbled by receiving this award, there are so many other active JSRs.” Victor added that going forward in the JCP EC, they would like to simplify and open the process of participation – being addressed in the JCP.Next initiative of the JCP EC. "We would also like to encourage the engagement of universities, professors and students – as an important part of the Java community. While innovation is the lifeblood of our community and industry, without strong standards and compatibility requirements, we all end up in a maze of technology where everything is slightly different and doesn’t quite work with everything else." Victo Grazi, Executive Committee (EC) representative of Credit Suisse, 2012 JCP Outstanding Spec Lead Winner“I am very pleased, of course, to accept this award, but the credit really should go to all of those who have participated in the work of the JCP, while pushing for changes in the way it operates.  JCP.Next represents three JSRs. The first two are done, but the final step, JSR 358, is the complicated one, and it will bring in the lawyers. Just to give you an idea of what we’re dealing with, it affects licensing, intellectual property, patents, implementations not based on the Reference Implementation (RI), the role of the RI, compatibility policy, possible changes to the Technical Compatibility Kit (TCK), transparency, where do individuals fit in, open source, and more.”- Patrick Curran, JCP Chair, Spec Lead on JCP.Next JSRs (JSR 348, JSR 355 and JSR 358), 2012 JCP Most Significant JSR Winner“I’m especially glad to see the JCP community recognize JCP.Next for its importance. The governance work it represents is KEY to moving the Java platform forward and the success of the technology.”- John Rizzo, Executive Committee (EC) representative of Aplix Corporation, JSR Expert Group Member “I am deeply honored to be nominated. I had the privilege to receive two awards on behalf of Expert Groups and Spec Leads two years ago. But this time, I am nominated personally, which values my own contribution to the JCP, and of course, participation in JSRs and the EC work. I’m a fan of Agile Principles and Values Working. Being an Agile Coach and Consultant, I use it for some of the biggest EC Member companies and projects. It fuels my ability to help the JCP become more agile, lean and transparent as part of the JCP.Next effort.” - Werner Keil, Individual Executive Committee (EC) Member, a 2012 JCP Member/Participant of the Year Nominee, JSR Expert Group Member“The JCP ever has been some kind of institution for me,” Markus said. “If in technical doubt, I go there, look for the specifications of the implementation I work with at the moment and verify what I had observed. Since the beginning of my Java journey more than 12 years back now, I always had a strong relationship with the JCP. Shaping the future of a technology by joining the JCP – giving feedback and contributing to the road ahead through individual JSRs – that brings you to a whole new level.”Calling himself, “the new kid on the block,” he explained that for years he was afraid to join the JCP and contribute. But in reality, “Every single one of the big names I meet from the different Expert Groups is a nice person. People you can actually work with,” he says. “And nobody blames you for things you don't know. As long as you are committed and bring what is worth the most: passion, experiences and the desire to make a difference.” - Markus Eisele, a 2012 JCP Member of the Year Nominee, JSR Expert Group MemberCongratulations again to all of the nominees and winners of the JCP Program Awards.  Next year, we will add another award for the group of JUG members (not an entire JUG) that makes the best contribution to the Adopt-a-JSR program.  Let us know if you have other suggestions or improvements.

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• Vacations on Rodrigues 2014

  And now something completely different compared to the usual technical or community related articles here on this blog. Yes, this time I'm writing some lines on my (and my family's) activities during our long weekend stay on Rodrigues. So, please bear with me, it's eventually a bit more personal... Grab a soda, some popcorn and a cosy place to continue to read. var googleAlbumLink = "https://plus.google.com/photos/117698191428446859536/albums/6047895311458281985"; //optional----------------------- var mySlideWidth = 580; var mySlideHeight = 340; var mySlideDelay = 7000; //delay in milliseconds Special promotions during school holidays Originally, our children started to ask more frequently about going on the plane again. Obviously, after their aunty from Germany was around during May, they were really eager to travel again. So, we decided that it might be a great opportunity to book some vacations during their school holidays. And just in time the local hotels and hotel groups started to advertise their special promotions for citizens and residents. After collecting multiple brochures over several days, we got attracted by various hotel packages on Rodrigues - most interestingly the expenses for the stay and flight ticket were less compared to other resorts here on the main island. As we have been to Rodrigues already back in 2008, we followed up on this idea and got in touch with a couple travel agencies. Well, I have to report that you should be really careful about the promotions from some of them. We had a very negative experience with Shamal Travel Agency in Quatre Bornes regarding their adverts and the actual price levels and age definition for children. Please, stay away from them if you are interested in transparent cost and services. Anyway, after some arrangements with two other close families we managed to confirm our stay at the Cotton Bay Hotel in Rodrigues. Given the fact that we already stayed there, and the hotel has been renovated recently, and it is under new management all looked very promising and relaxed for our vacation. Counting the days... As we already booked in July our children were counting down the days. And it got more interesting as soon as they were on school holidays finally. Well, the day arrived and waking them up at 2:30 hrs wasn't a problem after all. Quite the opposite it was fascinating for us parents to watch them waiting for the transport and later on during the airport transfer. Despite the early hours both didn't fall asleep and it was all so exciting. We are taking the plane! Well organised by the Cotton Bay Hotel Honestly, it was a breeze and a smooth ride during our stay at the hotel. From the airport transfer, the cleanliness of our bungalow, the organisation of our day trips, and the SPA - all very well and enjoyable. The children had great fun, and although it was a bit too windy to plunge into the pool they had a lot of fun with other activities on the beach and at the Kid's Club. Oh, and we had our private petting zoo with cows, sheep and goats just close to the terrace. Some of us went to check out the SPA facilities and I have to admit that the services regarding Hammam and Sauna are better than at some other hotels in Mauritius. I don't know after how many months or years I was once again enjoying a very hot sauna. Little draw-back but nothing to worry about... There is no cold water or at least ice cubes to cool down the body, but hey there was a nice breeze coming over the hills. Some day trips to mention Based on a friend's recommendation we walked to a "restaurant" called Chez Solange & Robert. Hahaha, restaurant is widely stretched in this case, as we enjoyed a great BBQ with fresh lobster, whole fish, and pieces of chicken breast in an open cottage. Just some wooden structure covered with dried palm leaves on the roof - island feeling pure! The other day we went to the Giant Tortoise & Cave Reserve Francois Leguat to observe the giant Aldabra turtles and to visit the Grande Caverne. The biggest limestone cave on the island. Compared to our last visit this was a novelty after checking out the Caverne Partate. The formations of stalactites and stalagmites are very impressive and imaginative. Our guide had lots of funny terms and despite the low light conditions the kids had a great time wandering around on the narrow wooden paths and stairs. And last but not least, we decided to check out the Tyrodrig zip lines... Everyone was allowed to join the trip through the air, and our little ones stayed close to our field guides. But finally went on their own on the very last traversal. Puuuh, it was astounishing to glide over the valley, and for sure something to repeat next time. Impressions of our vacation on Rodrigues 2014   Next stay has been discussed already Oh yes, Rodrigues baby! We are going to come again! Tentative dates have been discussed already and now it's up to us to earn enough our next holiday on that wonderful remote piece of paradise. Eventually, a little bit longer than this time. We'll see...

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