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• If I use a facade class with generic methods to access the JPA API, how should I provide additional processing for specific types?

  - by Shaun

  Let's say I'm making a fairly simple web application using JAVA EE specs (I've heard this is possible). In this app, I only have about 10 domain/data objects, and these are represented by JPA Entities. Architecturally, I would consider the JPA API to perform the role of a DAO. Of course, I don't want to use the EntityManager directly in my UI (JSF) and I need to manage transactions, so I delegate these tasks to the so-called service layer. More specifically, I would like to be able to handle these tasks in a single DataService class (often also called CrudService) with generic methods. See this article by Adam Bien for an example interface: http://www.adam-bien.com/roller/abien/entry/generic_crud_service_aka_dao My project differs from that article in that I can't use EJBs, so my service classes are essentially just named beans and I handle transactions manually. Regardless, what I want is a single interface for simple CRUD operations on my data objects because having a different class for each data type would lead to a lot of duplicate and/or unnecessary code. Ideally, my views would be able to use a method such as public <T> List<T> findAll(Class<T> type) { ... } to retrieve data. Using JSF, it might look something like this: <h:dataTable value="#{dataService.findAll(data.class)}" var="d"> ... </h:dataTable> Similarly, after validating forms, my controller could submit the data with a method such as: public <T> void add(T entity) { ... } Granted, you'd probably actually want to return something useful to the caller. In any case, this works well if your data can be treated as homogenous in this manner. Alas, it breaks down when you need to perform additional processing on certain objects before passing them on to JPA. For example, let's say I'm dealing with Books and Authors which have a many-to-many relationship. Each Book has a set of IDs referring to its authors, and each Author has a set of IDs referring to their books. Normally, JPA can manage this kind of relationship for you, but in some cases it can't (for example, the google app engine JPA provider doesn't support this). Thus, when I persist a new book for example, I may need to update the corresponding author entities. My question, then, is if there's an elegant way to handle this or if I should reconsider the sanity of my whole design. Here's a couple ways I see of dealing with it: The instanceof operator. I could use this to target certain classes when special processing is needed. Perhaps maintainability suffers and it isn't beautiful code, but if there's only 10 or so domain objects it can't be all that bad... could it? Make a different service for each entity type (ie, BookService and AuthorService). All services would inherit from a generic DataService base class and override methods if special processing is needed. At this point, you could probably also just call them DAOs instead. As always, I appreciate the help. Let me know if any clarifications are needed, as I left out many smaller details.

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• [ASP.NET 4.0] Persisting Row Selection in Data Controls

  - by HosamKamel

  Data Control Selection Feature In ASP.NET 2.0: ASP.NET Data Controls row selection feature was based on row index (in the current page), this of course produce an issue if you try to select an item in the first page then navigate to the second page without select any record you will find the same row (with the same index) selected in the second page! In the sample application attached: Select the second row in the books GridView. Navigate to second page without doing any selection You will find the second row in the second page selected. Persisting Row Selection: Is a new feature which replace the old selection mechanism which based on row index to be based on the row data key instead. This means that if you select the third row on page 1 and move to page 2, nothing is selected on page 2. When you move back to page 1, the third row is still selected. Data Control Selection Feature In ASP.NET 3.5 SP1: The Persisting Row Selection was initially supported only in Dynamic Data projects Data Control Selection Feature In ASP.NET 4.0: Persisted selection is now supported for the GridView and ListView controls in all projects. You can enable this feature by setting the EnablePersistedSelection property, as shown below: Important thing to note, once you enable this feature you have to set the DataKeyNames property too because as discussed the full approach is based on the Row Data Key Simple feature but  is a much more natural behavior than the behavior in earlier versions of ASP.NET. Download Demo Project

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• SVN: Working with branches using the same working copy

  - by uXuf

  We've just moved to SVN from CVS. We have a small team and everyone checks in code on the trunk and we have never ever used branches for development. We each have directories on a remote dev server with the codebase checked out. Each developer works on their own sandbox with an associated URL to pull up the app in a browser (something like the setup here: Trade-offs of local vs remote development workflows for a web development team). I've decided that for my current project, I'll use a branch because it would span multiple releases. I've already cut a branch out, but I am using the same directory as the one originally checked out (i.e. for the trunk). Since it's the same directory (or working copy) for both the branch and the trunk, if for e.g. a bug pops up in the app I switch to the trunk and commit the change there, and then switch back to my branch for my project development. My questions are: Is this a sane way to work with branches? Are there any pitfalls that I need to be aware of? What would be the optimal way to work with branches if separate working copies are out of the question? I haven't had issues yet as I have just started doing this way but all the tutorials/books/blog posts I have seen about branching with SVN imply working with different working copies (or perhaps I haven't come across an explanation of mixed working copies in plain English). I just don't want to be sorry three months down the road when its time to integrate the branch back to the trunk.

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• SQL SERVER – Shrinking NDF and MDF Files – Readers’ Opinion

  - by pinaldave

  Previously, I had written a blog post about SQL SERVER – Shrinking NDF and MDF Files – A Safe Operation. After that, I have written the following blog post that talks about the advantage and disadvantage of Shrinking and why one should not be Shrinking a file SQL SERVER – SHRINKFILE and TRUNCATE Log File in SQL Server 2008. On this subject, SQL Server Expert Imran Mohammed left an excellent comment. I just feel that his comment is worth a big article itself. For everybody to read his wonderful explanation, I am posting this blog post here. Thanks Imran! Shrinking Database always creates performance degradation and increases fragmentation in the database. I suggest that you keep that in mind before you start reading the following comment. If you are going to say Shrinking Database is bad and evil, here I am saying it first and loud. Now, the comment of Imran is written while keeping in mind only the process showing how the Shrinking Database Operation works. Imran has already explained his understanding and requests further explanation. I have removed the Best Practices section from Imran’s comments, as there are a few corrections. Comments from Imran - Before I explain to you the concept of Shrink Database, let us understand the concept of Database Files. When we create a new database inside the SQL Server, it is typical that SQl Server creates two physical files in the Operating System: one with .MDF Extension, and another with .LDF Extension. .MDF is called as Primary Data File. .LDF is called as Transactional Log file. If you add one or more data files to a database, the physical file that will be created in the Operating System will have an extension of .NDF, which is called as Secondary Data File; whereas, when you add one or more log files to a database, the physical file that will be created in the Operating System will have the same extension as .LDF. The questions now are, “Why does a new data file have a different extension (.NDF)?”, “Why is it called as a secondary data file?” and, “Why is .MDF file called as a primary data file?” Answers: Note: The following explanation is based on my limited knowledge of SQL Server, so experts please do comment. A data file with a .MDF extension is called a Primary Data File, and the reason behind it is that it contains Database Catalogs. Catalogs mean Meta Data. Meta Data is “Data about Data”. An example for Meta Data includes system objects that store information about other objects, except the data stored by the users. sysobjects stores information about all objects in that database. sysindexes stores information about all indexes and rows of every table in that database. syscolumns stores information about all columns that each table has in that database. sysusers stores how many users that database has. Although Meta Data stores information about other objects, it is not the transactional data that a user enters; rather, it’s a system data about the data. Because Primary Data File (.MDF) contains important information about the database, it is treated as a special file. It is given the name Primary Data file because it contains the Database Catalogs. This file is present in the Primary File Group. You can always create additional objects (Tables, indexes etc.) in the Primary data file (This file is present in the Primary File group), by mentioning that you want to create this object under the Primary File Group. Any additional data file that you add to the database will have only transactional data but no Meta Data, so that’s why it is called as the Secondary Data File. It is given the extension name .NDF so that the user can easily identify whether a specific data file is a Primary Data File or a Secondary Data File(s). There are many advantages of storing data in different files that are under different file groups. You can put your read only in the tables in one file (file group) and read-write tables in another file (file group) and take a backup of only the file group that has read the write data, so that you can avoid taking the backup of a read-only data that cannot be altered. Creating additional files in different physical hard disks also improves I/O performance. A real-time scenario where we use Files could be this one: Let’s say you have created a database called MYDB in the D-Drive which has a 50 GB space. You also have 1 Database File (.MDF) and 1 Log File on D-Drive and suppose that all of that 50 GB space has been used up and you do not have any free space left but you still want to add an additional space to the database. One easy option would be to add one more physical hard disk to the server, add new data file to MYDB database and create this new data file in a new hard disk then move some of the objects from one file to another, and put the file group under which you added new file as default File group, so that any new object that is created gets into the new files, unless specified. Now that we got a basic idea of what data files are, what type of data they store and why they are named the way they are, let’s move on to the next topic, Shrinking. First of all, I disagree with the Microsoft terminology for naming this feature as “Shrinking”. Shrinking, in regular terms, means to reduce the size of a file by means of compressing it. BUT in SQL Server, Shrinking DOES NOT mean compressing. Shrinking in SQL Server means to remove an empty space from database files and release the empty space either to the Operating System or to SQL Server. Let’s examine this through an example. Let’s say you have a database “MYDB” with a size of 50 GB that has a free space of about 20 GB, which means 30GB in the database is filled with data and the 20 GB of space is free in the database because it is not currently utilized by the SQL Server (Database); it is reserved and not yet in use. If you choose to shrink the database and to release an empty space to Operating System, and MIND YOU, you can only shrink the database size to 30 GB (in our example). You cannot shrink the database to a size less than what is filled with data. So, if you have a database that is full and has no empty space in the data file and log file (you don’t have an extra disk space to set Auto growth option ON), YOU CANNOT issue the SHRINK Database/File command, because of two reasons: There is no empty space to be released because the Shrink command does not compress the database; it only removes the empty space from the database files and there is no empty space. Remember, the Shrink command is a logged operation. When we perform the Shrink operation, this information is logged in the log file. If there is no empty space in the log file, SQL Server cannot write to the log file and you cannot shrink a database. Now answering your questions: (1) Q: What are the USEDPAGES & ESTIMATEDPAGES that appear on the Results Pane after using the DBCC SHRINKDATABASE (NorthWind, 10) ? A: According to Books Online (For SQL Server 2000): UsedPages: the number of 8-KB pages currently used by the file. EstimatedPages: the number of 8-KB pages that SQL Server estimates the file could be shrunk down to. Important Note: Before asking any question, make sure you go through Books Online or search on the Google once. The reasons for doing so have many advantages: 1. If someone else already has had this question before, chances that it is already answered are more than 50 %. 2. This reduces your waiting time for the answer. (2) Q: What is the difference between Shrinking the Database using DBCC command like the one above & shrinking it from the Enterprise Manager Console by Right-Clicking the database, going to TASKS & then selecting SHRINK Option, on a SQL Server 2000 environment? A: As far as my knowledge goes, there is no difference, both will work the same way, one advantage of using this command from query analyzer is, your console won’t be freezed. You can do perform your regular activities using Enterprise Manager. (3) Q: What is this .NDF file that is discussed above? I have never heard of it. What is it used for? Is it used by end-users, DBAs or the SERVER/SYSTEM itself? A: .NDF File is a secondary data file. You never heard of it because when database is created, SQL Server creates database by default with only 1 data file (.MDF) and 1 log file (.LDF) or however your model database has been setup, because a model database is a template used every time you create a new database using the CREATE DATABASE Command. Unless you have added an extra data file, you will not see it. This file is used by the SQL Server to store data which are saved by the users. Hope this information helps. I would like to as the experts to please comment if what I understand is not what the Microsoft guys meant. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Readers Contribution, Readers Question, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• Autopostback select lists in ASP.NET MVC using jQuery

  - by rajbk

  This tiny snippet of code show you how to have your select lists autopostback its containing form when the selected value changes. When the DOM is fully loaded, we get all select nodes that have an attribute of “data-autopostback” with a value of “true”. We wire up the “change” JavaScript event to all these select nodes. This event is fired as soon as the user changes their selection with the mouse.  When the event is fired, we find the closest form tag for the select node that raised the event and submit the form. $(document).ready(function () { $("select:[data-autopostback=true]").change(function () { $(this).closest("form").submit(); }); }); A select tag with autopostback enabled will look like this <select id="selCategory" name="Category" data-autopostback="true"> <option value='1'>Electronics</option> <option value='2'>Books</option> </select> The reason I am using “data-" suffix in the attribute is to be HTML5 Compliant. A custom data attribute is an attribute in no namespace whose name starts with the string "data-", has at least one character after the hyphen, is XML-compatible, and contains no characters in the range U+0041 to U+005A (LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A to LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z). The snippet can be used with any HTML page.

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• The How-To Geek Holiday Gift Guide (Geeky Stuff We Like)

  - by The Geek

  Welcome to the very first How-To Geek Holiday Gift Guide, where we’ve put together a list of our absolute favorites to help you weed through all of the junk out there to pick the perfect gift for anybody. Though really, it’s just a list of the geeky stuff we want. We’ve got a whole range of items on the list, from cheaper gifts that most anybody can afford, to the really expensive stuff that we’re pretty sure nobody is giving us. Stocking Stuffers Here’s a couple of ideas for items that won’t break the bank. LED Keychain Micro-Light   Magcraft 1/8-Inch Rare Earth Cube Magnets Best little LED keychain light around. If they don’t need the penknife of the above item this is the perfect gift. I give them out by the handfuls and nobody ever says anything but good things about them. I’ve got ones that are years old and still running on the same battery.  Price: $8   Geeks cannot resist magnets. Jason bought this pack for his fridge because he was sick of big clunky magnets… these things are amazing. One tiny magnet, smaller than an Altoid mint, can practically hold a clipboard right to the fridge. Amazing. I spend more time playing with them on the counter than I do actually hanging stuff.  Price: $10 Lots of Geeky Mugs   Astronomy Powerful Green Laser Pointer There’s loads of fun, geeky mugs you can find on Amazon or anywhere else—and they are great choices for the geek who loves their coffee. You can get the Caffeine mug pictured here, or go with an Atari one, Canon Lens, or the Aperture mug based on Portal. Your choice. Price: $7   No, it’s not a light saber, but it’s nearly bright enough to be one—you can illuminate low flying clouds at night or just blind some aliens on your day off. All that for an extremely low price. Loads of fun. Price: $15       Geeky TV Shows and Books Sometimes you just want to relax and enjoy a some TV or a good book. Here’s a few choices. The IT Crowd Fourth Season   Doctor Who, Complete Fifth Series Ridiculous, funny show about nerds in the IT department, loved by almost all the geeks here at HTG. Justin even makes this required watching for new hires in his office so they’ll get his jokes. You can pre-order the fourth season, or pick up seasons one, two, or three for even cheaper. Price: $13   It doesn’t get any more nerdy than Eric’s pick, the fifth all-new series of Doctor Who, where the Daleks are hatching a new master plan from the heart of war-torn London. There’s also alien vampires, humanoid reptiles, and a lot more. Price: $52 Battlestar Galactica Complete Series   MAKE: Electronics: Learning Through Discovery Watch the epic fight to save the human race by finding the fabled planet Earth while being hunted by the robotic Cylons. You can grab the entire series on DVD or Blu-ray, or get the seasons individually. This isn’t your average sci-fi TV show. Price: $150 for Blu-ray.   Want to learn the fundamentals of electronics in a fun, hands-on way? The Make:Electronics book helps you build the circuits and learn how it all works—as if you had any more time between all that registry hacking and loading software on your new PC. Price: $21       Geeky Gadgets for the Gadget-Loving Geek Here’s a few of the items on our gadget list, though lets be honest: geeks are going to love almost any gadget, especially shiny new ones. Klipsch Image S4i Premium Noise-Isolating Headset with 3-Button Apple Control   GP2X Caanoo MAME/Console Emulator If you’re a real music geek looking for some serious quality in the headset for your iPhone or iPod, this is the pair that Alex recommends. They aren’t terribly cheap, but you can get the less expensive S3 earphones instead if you prefer. Price: $50-100   Eric says: “As an owner of an older version, I can say the GP2X is one of my favorite gadgets ever. Touted a “Retro Emulation Juggernaut,” GP2X runs Linux and may be the only open source software console available. Sounds too good to be true, but isn’t.” Price: $150 Roku XDS Streaming Player 1080p   Western Digital WD TV Live Plus HD Media Player If you do a lot of streaming over Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon’s Video on Demand, Pandora, and others, the Roku box is a great choice to get your content on your TV without paying a lot of money.  It’s also got Wireless-N built in, and it supports full 1080P HD. Price: $99   If you’ve got a home media collection sitting on a hard drive or a network server, the Western Digital box is probably the cheapest way to get that content on your TV, and it even supports Netflix streaming too. It’ll play loads of formats in full HD quality. Price: $99 Fujitsu ScanSnap S300 Color Mobile Scanner   Doxie, the amazing scanner for documents Trevor said: “This wonderful little scanner has become absolutely essential to me. My desk used to just be a gigantic pile of papers that I didn’t need at the moment, but couldn’t throw away ‘just in case.’ Now, every few weeks, I’ll run that paper pile through this and then happily shred the originals!” Price: $300   If you don’t scan quite as often and are looking for a budget scanner you can throw into your bag, or toss into a drawer in your desk, the Doxie scanner is a great alternative that I’ve been using for a while. It’s half the price, and while it’s not as full-featured as the Fujitsu, it might be a better choice for the very casual user. Price: $150       (Expensive) Gadgets Almost Anybody Will Love If you’re not sure that one of the more geeky presents is gonna work, here’s some gadgets that just about anybody is going to love, especially if they don’t have one already. Of course, some of these are a bit on the expensive side—but it’s a wish list, right? Amazon Kindle       The Kindle weighs less than a paperback book, the screen is amazing and easy on the eyes, and get ready for the kicker: the battery lasts at least a month. We aren’t kidding, either—it really lasts that long. If you don’t feel like spending money for books, you can use it to read PDFs, and if you want to get really geeky, you can hack it for custom screensavers. Price: $139 iPod Touch or iPad       You can’t go wrong with either of these presents—the iPod Touch can do almost everything the iPhone can do, including games, apps, and music, and it has the same Retina display as the iPhone, HD video recording, and a front-facing camera so you can use FaceTime. Price: $229+, depending on model. The iPad is a great tablet for playing games, browsing the web, or just using on your coffee table for guests. It’s well worth buying one—but if you’re buying for yourself, keep in mind that the iPad 2 is probably coming out in 3 months. Price: $500+ MacBook Air  The MacBook Air comes in 11” or 13” versions, and it’s an amazing little machine. It’s lightweight, the battery lasts nearly forever, and it resumes from sleep almost instantly. Since it uses an SSD drive instead of a hard drive, you’re barely going to notice any speed problems for general use. So if you’ve got a lot of money to blow, this is a killer gift. Price: $999 and up. Stuck with No Idea for a Present? Gift Cards! Yeah, you’re not going to win any “thoughtful present” awards with these, but you might just give somebody what they really want—the new Angry Birds HD for their iPad, Cut the Rope, or anything else they want. ITunes Gift Card   Amazon.com Gift Card Somebody in your circle getting a new iPod, iPhone, or iPad? You can get them an iTunes gift card, which they can use to buy music, games or apps. Yep, this way you can gift them a copy of Angry Birds if they don’t already have it. Or even Cut the Rope.   No clue what to get somebody on your list? Amazon gift cards let them buy pretty much anything they want, from organic weirdberries to big screen TVs. Yeah, it’s not as thoughtful as getting them a nice present, but look at the bright side: maybe they’ll get you an Amazon gift card and it’ll balance out. That’s the highlights from our lists—got anything else to add? Share your geeky gift ideas in the comments. Latest Features How-To Geek ETC The How-To Geek Holiday Gift Guide (Geeky Stuff We Like) LCD? LED? Plasma? The How-To Geek Guide to HDTV Technology The How-To Geek Guide to Learning Photoshop, Part 8: Filters Improve Digital Photography by Calibrating Your Monitor Our Favorite Tech: What We’re Thankful For at How-To Geek The How-To Geek Guide to Learning Photoshop, Part 7: Design and Typography Happy Snow Bears Theme for Chrome and Iron [Holiday] Download Full Command and Conquer: Tiberian Sun Game for Free Scorched Cometary Planet Wallpaper Quick Fix: Add the RSS Button Back to the Firefox Awesome Bar Dropbox Desktop Client 1.0.0 RC for Windows, Linux, and Mac Released Hang in There Scrat! – Ice Age Wallpaper

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• Create my own database system

  - by Xananax

  Ok so before I get bashed: I know it's something huge for one person; I don't care if the end product can actually be used or not. I need to learn how databases work in order to use them more efficiently, and my way of learning is by doing. So I want to create my own database system. I am not referring to creating a pseudo-database that would use query to parse files; this would simply be a filesystem interface with a query language. I am talking about the actual structure of a database engine. And since what I have in mind is neither relational nor document-oriented (it's "node-oriented", if that even exists), I would need any resource to be as abstract and high-level as possible. So how would I go about creating that? What resources/tutorials/books can I read to understand? The language does not matter in the slightest. Ideally, the code would be pseudo-code to illustrate the concept, not tied to a particular language, but anything would do. I was not able to find anything on the matter on google (since I am so illiterate on the subject, maybe I am just not entering the right search). If such resources are not available, then I guess something about how to create a client would at least be a step in the right direction.

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• Database version control resources

  - by Wes McClure

  In the process of creating my own DB VCS tool tsqlmigrations.codeplex.com I ran into several good resources to help guide me along the way in reviewing existing offerings and in concepts that would be needed in a good DB VCS.  This is my list of helpful links that others can use to understand some of the concepts and some of the tools in existence.  In the next few posts I will try to explain how I used these to create TSqlMigrations.   Blogs entries Three rules for database work - K. Scott Allen http://odetocode.com/blogs/scott/archive/2008/01/30/three-rules-for-database-work.aspx Versioning databases - the baseline http://odetocode.com/blogs/scott/archive/2008/01/31/versioning-databases-the-baseline.aspx Versioning databases - change scripts http://odetocode.com/blogs/scott/archive/2008/02/02/versioning-databases-change-scripts.aspx Versioning databases - views, stored procedures and the like http://odetocode.com/blogs/scott/archive/2008/02/02/versioning-databases-views-stored-procedures-and-the-like.aspx Versioning databases - branching and merging http://odetocode.com/blogs/scott/archive/2008/02/03/versioning-databases-branching-and-merging.aspx Evolutionary Database Design - Martin Fowler http://martinfowler.com/articles/evodb.html Are database migration frameworks worth the effort? - Good challenges http://www.ridgway.co.za/archive/2009/01/03/are-database-migration-frameworks-worth-the-effort.aspx Continuous Integration (in general) http://martinfowler.com/articles/continuousIntegration.html http://martinfowler.com/articles/originalContinuousIntegration.html Is Your Database Under Version Control? http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000743.html 11 Tools for Database Versioning http://secretgeek.net/dbcontrol.asp How to do database source control and builds http://mikehadlow.blogspot.com/2006/09/how-to-do-database-source-control-and.html .Net Database Migration Tool Roundup http://flux88.com/blog/net-database-migration-tool-roundup/ Books Book Description Refactoring Databases: Evolutionary Database Design Martin Fowler signature series on refactoring databases. Book site: http://databaserefactoring.com/ Recipes for Continuous Database Integration: Evolutionary Database Development (Digital Short Cut) A good question/answer layout of common problems and solutions with database version control. http://www.informit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=032150206X

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• Accessing and Updating Data in ASP.NET: Filtering Data Using a CheckBoxList

  Filtering Database Data with Parameters, an earlier installment in this article series, showed how to filter the data returned by ASP.NET's data source controls. In a nutshell, the data source controls can include parameterized queries whose parameter values are defined via parameter controls. For example, the SqlDataSource can include a parameterized SelectCommand, such as: SELECT * FROM Books WHERE Price > @Price. Here, @Price is a parameter; the value for a parameter can be defined declaratively using a parameter control. ASP.NET offers a variety of parameter controls, including ones that use hard-coded values, ones that retrieve values from the querystring, and ones that retrieve values from session, and others. Perhaps the most useful parameter control is the ControlParameter, which retrieves its value from a Web control on the page. Using the ControlParameter we can filter the data returned by the data source control based on the end user's input. While the ControlParameter works well with most types of Web controls, it does not work as expected with the CheckBoxList control. The ControlParameter is designed to retrieve a single property value from the specified Web control, but the CheckBoxList control does not have a property that returns all of the values of its selected items in a form that the CheckBoxList control can use. Moreover, if you are using the selected CheckBoxList items to query a database you'll quickly find that SQL does not offer out of the box functionality for filtering results based on a user-supplied list of filter criteria. The good news is that with a little bit of effort it is possible to filter data based on the end user's selections in a CheckBoxList control. This article starts with a look at how to get SQL to filter data based on a user-supplied, comma-delimited list of values. Next, it shows how to programmatically construct a comma-delimited list that represents the selected CheckBoxList values and pass that list into the SQL query. Finally, we'll explore creating a custom parameter control to handle this logic declaratively. Read on to learn more! Read More >

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• “Full House” at the ArcSig Ft. Lauderdale March meeting at the Microsoft Office!

  - by Rainer

  “Full House” at the ArcSig Ft. Lauderdale March meeting at the Microsoft Office! After all participants had the opportunity to get free pizza and soft drinks, Quent Herschelman gave an excellent presentation about Architecture Tools in Visual Studio 2010. He started with a brief introduction to the new MSDN subscriptions, the different versions of Visual Studio, and the full circle of application and solution integration for the new Team Foundation Server. I like the new structure of the MSDN subscriptions and the new options the Team Foundation Server offers! Quent continued his presentation with excellent information and demos of the Architecture Tools, focusing on Architecture Explorer and UML. INTERTECH donated a trainings certificate for $2495 for the first price and a Barnes & Noble Gift card in the amount of $50 for the second price to our monthly raffle! Congratulations to the two winners! Microsoft donated books, t-shirts and great info material for MSDN and Visual Studio 2010, as well as the pizza and soft drinks! Thank you very much to Quent Herschelman for the excellent presentation, to Intertech for the prizes, and to Microsoft for the hosting and food! Pre-Session Pizza Quent is ready to "go"! Quent at work! Thank you all for coming! Rainer Habermann ArcSig Fort Lauderdale Site Director

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• Polygonal Triangulation - algorithm with O(n log n) complexity

  - by Arthur Wulf White

  I wish to triangulate a polygon I only have the outline of (p0, p1, p2 ... pn) like described in this question: polygon triangulation algorithm and this webpage: http://cgm.cs.mcgill.ca/~godfried/teaching/cg-projects/97/Ian/algorithm2.html I do not wish to learn the subject and have a deep understanding of it at the moment. I only want to see an effective algorithm that can be used out of the box. The one described in the site seems to be of somewhat high complexity O(n) for finding one ear. I heard this could be done in O(n log n) time. Is there any well known easy to use algorithm that I can translate port to use in my engine that runs with somewhat reasonable complexity? The reason I need to triangulate is that I wish to feel out a 2d-outline and render it 3d. Much like we fill out a 2d-outline in paint. I could use sprites. This would not serve cause I am planning to play with the resulting model on the z-axis, giving it different heights in the different areas. I would love to try the books that were mentioned, although I suspect that is not the answer most readers are hoping for when they read this Q & A format. Mostly I like to see a code snippet I can cut and paste with some modifications and start running.

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• Want to learn/dive into Java Web Development—where to start?

  - by ernesto che

  Hi folks, I want to dive into Java Web Development, but I don’t know where to start because I am overwhelmed with Frameworks, JSRs, modules and the like. Coming from a PHP and Ruby (on Rails) background, it may seem awkward to go the other way ’round—still there are a lot of places where Java is (and probably will be) prevalent. I know basic Java concepts, syntax and OOP, and I have done (too much) nonsense in existing projects in JSP. I am already using SVN and GIT, but like coding PHP and Ruby mostly via VIM, i’ve also done versioning from the command line. But this time I want to learn to build a new project from the ground up, in a more, let’s say, academic way (instead of the hackery to date). Looking at e. g. Eclipse frightens me. Then there is Struts, Spring, JPA, Hibernate, Seam, just to throw in some buzzwords, that I cannot put into clear relation to each other. Can you point me to some tutorials or books that could help me? What are the technologies you absolutely have to know, the JSRs that are widely implemented in the industry? Or, if you are an employer: What does a “Junior Java Web developer” have to know? Thanks for your suggestions!

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• SQLAuthority News – Happy Deepavali and Happy News Year

  - by pinaldave

  Diwali or Deepavali is popularly known as the festival of lights. It literally means “array of light” or “row of lamps“. Today we build a small clay maps and fill it with oil and light it up. The significance of lighting the lamp is the triumph of good over evil. I work every single day in a year but today I am spending my time with family and little one. I make sure that my daughter is aware of our culture and she learns to celebrate the festival with the same passion and values which I have. Every year on this day, I do not write a long blog post but rather write a small post with various SQL Tips and Tricks. After reading them you should quickly get back to your friends and family – it is the most important festival day. Here are a few tips and tricks: Take regular full backup of your database Avoid cursors if they can be replaced by set based process Keep your index maintenance script handy and execute them at intervals Consider Solid State Drive (SDD) for crucial database and tempdb placement Update statistics for OLTP transactions at intervals I guess that’s it for today. If you still have more time to learn. Here are few things you should consider. Get FREE Books by Sign up for tomorrow’s webcast by Rick Morelan Watch SQL in Sixty Seconds Series – FREE SQL Learning Read my earlier 2300+ articles Well, I am sure that will keep you busy for the rest of the day! Happy Diwali to All of You! Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: About Me, Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology

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• Is Learning C++ Through The Qt Framework Really Learning C++

  - by user866190

  The problem I have, is that most of the C++ books I read spend almost forever on syntax and the basics of the language, e.g. for and loops while, arrays, lists, pointers, etc. But they never seem to build anything that is simple enough to use for learning, yet practical enough to get you to understand the philosophy and power of the language. Then I stumbled upon QT which is an amazing library! But working through the demos they have, it seems like I am now in the reverse dilemma. I feel like the rich man's son driving round in a sports car subsidized by the father. Like I could build fantastic software, but have no clue what's going on under the hood. As an example of my dilemma take the task of building a simple web browser. In pure C++, I wouldn't even know where to start, yet with the Qt library it can be done within a few lines on code. I am not complaining about this. I am just wondering how to fill the knowledge void between the basic structure of the language and the high level interface that the Qt framework provides?

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• How does Comparison Sites work?

  - by Vijay

  Need your thinking on how does these Comparision Sites actually work. Sites like Junglee.com policybazaar.com and there are many like these which provides comaprision of products , fares etc. grabbed from different websites. I had read a little about it and what i found is-: These sites uses Feeds of the sites data. These sites uses APIs of the sites which are actually provided by those sites. And for some sites which do not have any of these two posibility then the Comparision sites uses web-crawler to crawl their data. This is what i have found out. If you think there is more things to it please do give your own views. But i want to know these for my learning purpose and a little for curiosity- how does they actually matches the crawled data , feeds, and other so that there is no duplicacy. What is the process or algorithms for it. And where should i go to learn these concepts. References for books , articles or anything else.

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• 3D terrain map with Hexagon Grids

  - by Rob

  I'm working on a hobby project (I'm a web/backend developer by day) and I want to create a 3D Tile (terrain) engine. I'm using XNA, but I can use MonoGame, OpenGL, or straight DirectX, so the answer does not have to be XNA specific. I'm more looking for some high level advice on how to approach this problem. I know about creating height maps and such, there are thousands of references out there on the net for that, this is a bit more specific. I'm more concerned with is the approach to get a 3D hexagon tile grid out of my terrain (since the terrain, and all 3d objects, are basically triangles). The first approach I thought about is to basically draw the triangles on the screen in the following order (blue numbers) to give me the triangles for terrain (black triangles) and then make hexes out of the triangles (red hex). This approach seems complicated to me since i'm basically having to draw 4 different types of triangles. The next approach I thought of was to use the existing triangles like I did for a square grid and get my hexes from 6 triangles as follows This seems like the easier approach to me since there are only 2 types of triangles (i would have to play with the heights and widths to get a "perfect" hexagon, but the idea is the same. So I'm looking for: 1) Any suggestions on which approach I should take, and why. 2) How would I translate mouse position to a hexagon grid position (especially when moving the camera around), for example in the second image if the mouse pointer were the green circle, how would I determine to highlight that hexagon and then translating that into grid coordinates (assuming it is 0,0)? 3) Any references, articles, books, etc - to get me going in the right direction. Note: I've done hex grid's and mouse-grid coordinate conversion before in 2d. looking for some pointers on how to do the same in 3d. The result I would like to achieve is something similar to this video.

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• SQL SERVER – Fix – Agent Starting Error 15281 – SQL Server blocked access to procedure ‘dbo.sp_get_sqlagent_properties’ of component ‘Agent XPs’ because this component is turned off as part of the security configuration for this server

  - by Pinal Dave

  SQL Server Agent fails to start because of the error 15281 is a very common error. When you start to restart SQL Agent sometimes it will give following error. SQL Server blocked access to procedure ‘dbo.sp_get_sqlagent_properties’ of component ‘Agent XPs’ because this component is turned off as part of the security configuration for this server. A system administrator can enable the use of ‘Agent XPs’ by using sp_configure. For more information about enabling ‘Agent XPs’, search for ‘Agent XPs’ in SQL Server Books Online. (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 15281) To resolve this error, following script has to be executed on the server. sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1; GO RECONFIGURE; GO sp_configure 'Agent XPs', 1; GO RECONFIGURE GO When you run above script, it will give a very similar output as following on the screen. Now, if you try to restart SQL Agent it will just work fine. That’s it! Sometimes there is a simpler solution to complicated error. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Error Messages, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL Tagged: SQL Server Agent

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• Discount Codes Galore

  - by Cassandra Clark

  Saving money is at the top of everyones list right now. With this in mind the Oracle Technology Network team has compiled a list of discounts available at the Oracle Store. We are also introducing an Oracle Technology Network member discount from O'Reilly Media. If you subscribe to any of the Oracle Technology newsletters you also saw special discounts from CRC Press, Packt Publishing and Apress. We are going to do our best to bring you more offers like this every month. Now on to the discounts... Oracle Store offers - all below expiring May 31st 2010. Don't miss out! Expand Your Productivity with Oracle Open Office and Save 15%? Enter OTNOffice at checkout. Buy Now! Drive Business Agility and Performance with Industry-leading Oracle Database Management Packs.  Save 10% when you purchase them at the Oracle Store. Enter OTNDBMP at checkout. Buy Now! 15% Savings on Oracle Virtualization and Unbreakable Linux Support at the Oracle Store Enter code OTNLinuxVM at checkout. Buy Now! 20% Savings on Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler Use OTNSQL at checkout. Buy Now! O'Reilly Oracle Technology Network Member Offer O'Reilly is generously offering Oracle Technology Network Members 35% off for print books and 40% off of eBooks. Browse Oracle titles at- http://oreilly.com/pub/topic/oracle. Use discount code TECNT at checkout.

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• Migrating from SQL Trace to Extended Events

  - by extended_events

  In SQL Server codenamed “Denali” we are moving our diagnostic tracing capabilities forward by building a system on top of Extended Events. With every new system you face the specter of migration which is always a bit of a hassle. I’m obviously motivated to see everyone move their diagnostic tracing systems over to the new extended events based system, so I wanted to make sure we lowered the bar for the migration process to help ease your trials. In my initial post on Denali CTP 1 I described a couple tables that we created that will help map the existing SQL Trace Event Classes to the equivalent Extended Events events. In this post I’ll describe the tables in a bit more details, explain the relationship between the SQL Trace objects (Event Class & Column) and Extended Event objects (Events & Actions) and at the end provide some sample code for a managed stored procedure that will take an existing SQL Trace session (eg. a trace that you can see in sys.Traces) and converts it into event session DDL. Can you relate? In some ways, SQL Trace and Extended Events is kind of like the Standard and Metric measuring systems in the United States. If you spend too much time trying to figure out how to convert between the two it will probably make your head hurt. It’s often better to just use the new system without trying to translate between the two. That said, people like to relate new things to the things they’re comfortable with, so, with some trepidation, I will now explain how these two systems are related to each other. First, some terms… SQL Trace is made up of Event Classes and Columns. The Event Class occurs as the result of some activity in the database engine, for example, SQL:Batch Completed fires when a batch has completed executing on the server. Each Event Class can have any number of Columns associated with it and those Columns contain the data that is interesting about the Event Class, such as the duration or database name. In Extended Events we have objects named Events, EventData field and Actions. The Event (some people call this an xEvent but I’ll stick with Event) is equivalent to the Event Class in SQL Trace since it is the thing that occurs as the result of some activity taking place in the server. An  EventData field (from now on I’ll just refer to these as fields) is a piece of information that is highly correlated with the event and is always included as part of the schema of an Event. An Action is something that can be associated with any Event and it will cause some additional “action” to occur when ever the parent Event occurs. Actions can do a number of different things for example, there are Actions that collect additional data and, take memory dumps. When mapping SQL Trace onto Extended Events, Columns are covered by a combination of both fields and Actions. Knowing exactly where a Column is covered by a field and where it is covered by an Action is a bit of an art, so we created the mapping tables to make you an Artist without the years of practice. Let me draw you a map. Event Mapping The table dbo.trace_xe_event_map exists in the master database with the following structure: Column_name Type trace_event_id smallint package_name nvarchar xe_event_name nvarchar By joining this table sys.trace_events using trace_event_id and to the sys.dm_xe_objects using xe_event_name you can get a fair amount of information about how Event Classes are related to Events. The most basic query this lends itself to is to match an Event Class with the corresponding Event. SELECT     t.trace_event_id,     t.name [event_class],     e.package_name,     e.xe_event_name FROM sys.trace_events t INNER JOIN dbo.trace_xe_event_map e     ON t.trace_event_id = e.trace_event_id There are a couple things you’ll notice as you peruse the output of this query: For the most part, the names of Events are fairly close to the original Event Class; eg. SP:CacheMiss == sp_cache_miss, and so on. We’ve mostly stuck to a one to one mapping between Event Classes and Events, but there are a few cases where we have combined when it made sense. For example, Data File Auto Grow, Log File Auto Grow, Data File Auto Shrink & Log File Auto Shrink are now all covered by a single event named database_file_size_change. This just seemed like a “smarter” implementation for this type of event, you can get all the same information from this single event (grow/shrink, Data/Log, Auto/Manual growth) without having multiple different events. You can use Predicates if you want to limit the output to just one of the original Event Class measures. There are some Event Classes that did not make the cut and were not migrated. These fall into two categories; there were a few Event Classes that had been deprecated, or that just did not make sense, so we didn’t migrate them. (You won’t find an Event related to mounting a tape – sorry.) The second class is bigger; with rare exception, we did not migrate any of the Event Classes that were related to Security Auditing using SQL Trace. We introduced the SQL Audit feature in SQL Server 2008 and that will be the compliance and auditing feature going forward. Doing this is a very deliberate decision to support separation of duties for DBAs. There are separate permissions required for SQL Audit and Extended Events tracing so you can assign these tasks to different people if you choose. (If you’re wondering, the permission for Extended Events is ALTER ANY EVENT SESSION, which is covered by CONTROL SERVER.) Action Mapping The table dbo.trace_xe_action_map exists in the master database with the following structure: Column_name Type trace_column_id smallint package_name nvarchar xe_action_name nvarchar You can find more details by joining this to sys.trace_columns on the trace_column_id field. SELECT     c.trace_column_id,     c.name [column_name],     a.package_name,     a.xe_action_name FROM sys.trace_columns c INNER JOIN    dbo.trace_xe_action_map a     ON c.trace_column_id = a.trace_column_id If you examine this list, you’ll notice that there are relatively few Actions that map to SQL Trace Columns given the number of Columns that exist. This is not because we forgot to migrate all the Columns, but because much of the data for individual Event Classes is included as part of the EventData fields of the equivalent Events so there is no need to specify them as Actions. Putting it all together If you’ve spent a bunch of time figuring out the inner workings of SQL Trace, and who hasn’t, then you probably know that the typically set of Columns you find associated with any given Event Class in SQL Profiler is not fix, but is determine by the contents of the table sys.trace_event_bindings. We’ve used this table along with the mapping tables to produce a list of Event + Action combinations that duplicate the SQL Profiler Event Class definitions using the following query, which you can also find in the Books Online topic How To: View the Extended Events Equivalents to SQL Trace Event Classes. USE MASTER; GO SELECT DISTINCT    tb.trace_event_id,    te.name AS 'Event Class',    em.package_name AS 'Package',    em.xe_event_name AS 'XEvent Name',    tb.trace_column_id,    tc.name AS 'SQL Trace Column',    am.xe_action_name as 'Extended Events action' FROM (sys.trace_events te LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.trace_xe_event_map em    ON te.trace_event_id = em.trace_event_id) LEFT OUTER JOIN sys.trace_event_bindings tb    ON em.trace_event_id = tb.trace_event_id LEFT OUTER JOIN sys.trace_columns tc    ON tb.trace_column_id = tc.trace_column_id LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.trace_xe_action_map am    ON tc.trace_column_id = am.trace_column_id ORDER BY te.name, tc.name As you might imagine, it’s also possible to map an existing trace definition to the equivalent event session by judicious use of fn_trace_geteventinfo joined with the two mapping tables. This query extracts the list of Events and Actions equivalent to the trace with ID = 1, which is most likely the Default Trace. You can find this query, along with a set of other queries and steps required to migrate your existing traces over to Extended Events in the Books Online topic How to: Convert an Existing SQL Trace Script to an Extended Events Session. USE MASTER; GO DECLARE @trace_id int SET @trace_id = 1 SELECT DISTINCT el.eventid, em.package_name, em.xe_event_name AS 'event'    , el.columnid, ec.xe_action_name AS 'action' FROM (sys.fn_trace_geteventinfo(@trace_id) AS el    LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.trace_xe_event_map AS em       ON el.eventid = em.trace_event_id) LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.trace_xe_action_map AS ec    ON el.columnid = ec.trace_column_id WHERE em.xe_event_name IS NOT NULL AND ec.xe_action_name IS NOT NULL You’ll notice in the output that the list doesn’t include any of the security audit Event Classes, as I wrote earlier, those were not migrated. But wait…there’s more! If this were an infomercial there’d by some obnoxious guy next to me blogging “Well Mike…that’s pretty neat, but I’m sure you can do more. Can’t you make it even easier to migrate from SQL Trace?”  Needless to say, I’d blog back, in an overly excited way, “You bet I can' obnoxious blogger side-kick!” What I’ve got for you here is a Extended Events Team Blog only special – this tool will not be sold in any store; it’s a special offer for those of you reading the blog. I’ve wrapped all the logic of pulling the configuration information out of an existing trace and and building the Extended Events DDL statement into a handy, dandy CLR stored procedure. Once you load the assembly and register the procedure you just supply the trace id (from sys.traces) and provide a name for the event session. Run the procedure and out pops the DDL required to create an equivalent session. Any aspects of the trace that could not be duplicated are included in comments within the DDL output. This procedure does not actually create the event session – you need to copy the DDL out of the message tab and put it into a new query window to do that. It also requires an existing trace (but it doesn’t have to be running) to evaluate; there is no functionality to parse t-sql scripts. I’m not going to spend a bunch of time explaining the code here – the code is pretty well commented and hopefully easy to follow. If not, you can always post comments or hit the feedback button to send us some mail. Sample code: TraceToExtendedEventDDL   Installing the procedure Just in case you’re not familiar with installing CLR procedures…once you’ve compile the assembly you can load it using a script like this: -- Context to master USE master GO -- Create the assembly from a shared location. CREATE ASSEMBLY TraceToXESessionConverter FROM 'C:\Temp\TraceToXEventSessionConverter.dll' WITH PERMISSION_SET = SAFE GO -- Create a stored procedure from the assembly. CREATE PROCEDURE CreateEventSessionFromTrace @trace_id int, @session_name nvarchar(max) AS EXTERNAL NAME TraceToXESessionConverter.StoredProcedures.ConvertTraceToExtendedEvent GO Enjoy! -Mike

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• Microsoft Silverlight MVP one more time

  - by pluginbaby

  Another wonderful first email of the year… announcing that I’ve just been re-awarded Most Valuable Professional (MVP) by Microsoft for Silverlight. This is my 5th year as an MVP in a row and I am still very honoured and excited! In 2010 I had the pleasure to be involved in many community events around Silverlight, speaking at Microsoft conferences and user groups (doing the launch of the Vancouver Silverlight User Group was fun!), as well as taking part in worldwide conference like MIX Las Vegas and the MVP Summit in Redmond. Also I did new kind of activities in 2010: I wrote questions for the first Microsoft Silverlight certification exam (70-506), and I was Technical reviewer of 3 Silverlight books. I finally started to share more on Twitter @LaurentDuveau. In 2010 the content of this blog was mostly about Silverlight, I expect it to be the same in 2011, plus a touch of Windows Phone as well. I already know that 2011 will be hell of a good year.. I’ll be at the next MVP Summit in Seattle, also speaker at DevTeach which comes back to Montreal (at last!) and have some nice Silverlight trainings plans for France and Tunisia. More than that, my business RunAtServer is healthy (proud of my team!) and I have insane news and a very big surprise coming on that front.... stay tuned! Happy New Year!

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• Geek it Up

  - by BuckWoody

  I’ve run into a couple of kinds of folks in IT. Some really like technology a lot – a whole lot –and others treat it more as a job. For those of you in the second camp, you can go back to your drab, meaningless jobs – this post is for the first group. I’m a geek. Not a little bit of a geek, a really big one. I love technology, I get excited about science and electronics in general, and I read math books when I don’t have to. Yes, I have a Star Trek item or two around the house. My daughter is fluent in both Monty Python AND Serenity. I totally admit it. So if you’re like me (OK, maybe a little less geeky than that), then go for it. Put those toys in your cubicle, wear your fan shirt, but most of all, geek up your tools. No, this isn’t an April Fool’s post – I really mean it. I’ve noticed that when I get the larger monitor, better mouse, cooler keyboard, I LIKE coming to work. It’s a way to reward yourself – I’ve even found that it makes work easier if I have the kind of things I enjoy around to work with. So buy that old “clicky” IBM keyboard, get three monitors, and buy a nice headset so that you can set all of your sounds to Monty Python WAV’s. And get to work. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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• DDD Melbourne -lessons leant

  - by Michael Freidgeim

  I've attended DDD Melbourne and want to list the interesting points, that I've leant and want to follow. To read more: * Moles-Mocking Isolation framework for .NET. Documentation is here.   (See also Mocking frameworks comparison created October 4, 2009 ) * WebFormsMVP * PluralSight   http://www.pluralsight-training.net/offers/default.aspx?cc=trial   * ELMAH: Error Logging Modules and Handlers *Rhino.Mocks   * VS UI Test Recorder -see posts Visual Studio 2010 Coded UI Test User Guide. Note that Microsoft Test Manager (MTM) toolis a separate application, that can be started from Program files/VS 2010 menu.It is not a menu inside Visual Studio.   * CodeContract- seems great in Debug. Will be good if in production  will be possible runtime configuration, ability to log instead of throw exception. Current recommendation to customize Debug.Assert is not trivial The programmer is free to use the customization provided by Debug.Assert using assert listeners to obtain whatever runtime behavior they desire (e.g., ignoring the error, logging it, or throwing an exception).   // Clears the existing list of assert listener (the default pop-up box) System.Diagnostics.Debug.Listeners.Clear(); // Install your own listener System.Diagnostics.Debug.Listeners.Add(MyTraceListener); Note that you can't catch specific ContractException, but can catch generic Exception(see How come you cannot catch Code Contract exceptions?)   Books recommended "Working effectively with legacy code" by Michael Feathers (corresponding article)   Fowler, Martin Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code, slides http://jaoo.dk/jaoo1999/schedule/MartinFowlerRefractoring.pdf

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• Idea for a physics–computer science joint curriculum and textbook

  - by Ami

  (I apologize in advance if this question is off topic or too vague) I want to write (and have starting outlining) a physics textbook which assumes its reader is a competent computer programmer. Normal physics textbooks teach physical formulas and give problems that are solved with pen, paper and calculator. I want to provide a book that emphasizes computational physics, how computers can model physical systems and gives problems of the kind: write a program that can solve a set of physics problems based on user input. Third party open source libraries would be used to handle most of the computation and I want to use a high-level language like Java or C#. Besides the fact I'd enjoy working on this, I think a physics-computer science joint curriculum should be offered in schools and this is part of a large agenda to make this happen. I think physics students (like myself) should be learning how to use and leverage computers to solve abstract problems and sets of problems. I think programming languages should be thought of as a useful medium for engaging in many areas of inquiry. Is this an idea worth pursuing? Is the merger of these two subjects in the form of an undergraduate college curriculum feasible? Are there any specific tools I should be leveraging or pitfalls I should be aware of? Has anyone heard of college courses or otherwise that assume this methodology? Are there any books/textbooks out there like the one I'm describing (for physics or any other subject)?

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• Retro Video Game Collection

  - by Matt Christian

  Recently I've decided, in true nerd fashion, to collect either comic books or video games.  Considering I'm much more versed in the technological arts and not in ACTUAL art, I thought collecting old video games would be an interesting venture.  After all, I am a self-described compulsive shopper (my bank statement at the end of the month has a purchase every few days).  (Don't worry, I'm not in debt and still pay my bills on time!) I went to a local video game store in Stevens Point called Gaming Generations which is a neat little shop with loads of old games for great prices.  For example, any NES cartridge on the shelf (not behind glass) is, at most, $4.99 with the cheaper ones around $1.99.  During my first round at GG, I picked up the following: NES: - Fester's Quest - Adventures of Link (Zelda 2, grey cart) - Little Nemo - Total Recall - The Goonies 2 PSX: - Galerians N64: - Mission: Impossible - Hybrid Heaven I was a little cautious, would I even like collecting old games?  As soon as I popped a few of those games in I knew right away the answer was an astounding YES!  Not only is it fun to bring back memories of all these old games, but searching for them in stores is also a blast and saying 'I have that one, I need the second one.' After finding such joy in buying these games, I decided to go search through 4-5 stores in Wausau for old games as well.  While the prices were a bit higher and selection smaller, the search was still fun.  I found the following: NES: - Maniac Mansion - T&C Surf - Chip N Dale: Rescue Rangers - TMNT (the first one) - Mission: Impossible N64: - Turok - Turok 2 Genesis: - Sonic the Hedgehog Dreamcast: - Shenmue And I found a Gamegear for $5!  Now I just need to find games for it... Tonight I will go on one more small expedition into the used, once again stopping at GG and another second hand store to see if I can find any items for my collection.

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• How do I completely self study computer science?

  - by Optimus

  Being a completely self taught programmer I would like it if I could better myself by self-learning computer science course taught to a typical CS grad. Finding different resources on internet has been easy, there is of course MIT open course ware, and there are Coursera courses from Stanford and other universities. There are numerous other open resources scattered around the Internet and some good books that are repeatedly recommended. I have been learning a lot but my study is heavily fragmented, which really bugs me, I would love If somewhere I could find a path I should follow and a stack I should limit myself to so that I can be sure about what essential parts of computer science I have studied and systematically approach those I haven't. The problem with Wikipedia is it doesn't tell you whats essential but insists on being a complete reference. MIT open course ware for Computer science and Electrical Engg. has a huge list of courses also not telling you what courses are essential and what optional as per person's interest/requirement. I found no mention of an order in which one should study different subjects. What I would love is to create a list that I can follow like this dummy one SUBJECTS DONE Introduction to Computer Science * Introduction to Algorithms * Discrete Mathematics Adv. Discrete Mathematics Data structures * Adv. Algorithms ... As you can clearly see I have little idea of what specific subjects computer science consists of. It would be hugely helpful even if some one pointed out essential courses from MIT Course ware ( + essential subjects not present at MIT OCW) in a recommended order of study. I'll list the Posts I already went through (and I didn't get what I was looking for there) Computer science curriculum for non-CS major? - top answer says it isn't worth studying cse How can a self-taught programmer learn more about Computer Science? - points to MIT OCW Studying computer science - what am I getting myself into? Overview of computer science, programming

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