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  • Stark Expo Needs You

    - by [email protected]
    Train to Become a Master Cloud Operative Can't wait until September to get your Oracle fix? Then come visit us at the Stark Expo now. Marvel Entertainment has turned itself into one of the hottest media companies of the digital age, and at the heart of Marvel's growth and transformation is Oracle technology. Now, this successful collaboration finds its way to the big screen, as Oracle joins forces with Marvel to launch a special showcase Website and movie trailer for the upcoming Iron Man 2. In Iron Man 2, Oracle is a proud sponsor of Stark Expo, a world-class tradeshow that depends on a cloud computing architecture to ensure that systems are free from overload. Starting today, visitors to the showcase Website are invited to become Master Cloud Operatives and keep Stark Expo up and running. Complete your training, test your troubleshooting skills in the Oracle Pavilion, and qualify to receive a free movie poster.

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  • ?Oracle??HCM????Tony Kender???7???

    - by user758881
    Oracle?????Tony Kender,????HCM?????????,??????????????????????? ?: ????????HCM????,???????????? Kender: ?HCM?????????,????????????????Oracle??????????? ?????,?? ERP, Supply Chain, EPM, ? CX,??????,????????????????HCM? ?: ????????????????HCM???? Kender:????,??????????????,?????????????????????????HCM????????——??????????????????????????????????????????????????????HCM???,????????????,?????,?????????,??????????HR?Payroll??? ?: ??????????HCM????,??????? Kende:????????????????,????????,????????????????????????HCM??3??4????5??????????????????????????????????????????,???????????HCM???????????,??????HR??,????????????????????????????????Oracle????????????????HCM?????????????????? ?: Oracle HCM?????????? Kender:???,Oracle?HCM????????HCM???????????????????HCM?,?????????,???????JD Edwards, PeopleSoft ?Oracle E-Business Suite HCM??????????????HCM?????????????,??????????? ?: ??????????Oracle HCM?? Kender:??,?????????????????,???????????Oracle HCM????????????HCM????,??????????????????????IT????????,??????????????????——?????????????????,???????????????????,?? Customer 2 Cloud,?????Oracle HCM on premise???????????Oracle HCM???? ?: ?????????HCM???????? Kender:??,???????????:“?????????????????????????,???????????????????????????????????” Oracle HCM?????????????????????????????,????????????Larry Ellison?Oracle HCM World? keynote ??:“?Facebook?????”? ?: ????????HCM?????,???????????? Kender:????????,????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????,????????????????????????????,???????90????????,??????????????Oracle HCM????????????????? ??,????????,???????????????????????????????????????????????,?????????????????????????,???????????????????????Oracle HCM?,??????????????????HCM????????——?????????????????,???on premise ??????????

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  • Java Spotlight Episode 86: Tony Printezis on Garbage Collection First

    - by Roger Brinkley
    Interview with Tony Printezis on Garbage Collection First (GC1). Joining us this week on the Java All Star Developer Panel is Arun Gupta, Java EE Guy. Right-click or Control-click to download this MP3 file. You can also subscribe to the Java Spotlight Podcast Feed to get the latest podcast automatically. If you use iTunes you can open iTunes and subscribe with this link:  Java Spotlight Podcast in iTunes. Show Notes News JSR 358: A major revison of the Java Community Process - JCP 3.Next JAX-RS 2.0 Early Draft- Third Edition Events June 11-14, Cloud Computing Expo, New York City June 12, Boulder JUG June 13, Denver JUG June 13, Eclipse Juno DemoCamp, Redwoood Shore June 13, JUG Münster June 14, Java Klassentreffen, Vienna, Austria June 18-20, QCon, New York City June 19, CJUG, Chicago June 20, 1871, Chicago June 26-28, Jazoon, Zurich, Switzerland Jun 27, Houston JUG ?? July 5, Java Forum, Stuttgart, Germany Jul 13-14, IndicThreads, Delhi July 30-August 1, JVM Language Summit, Santa Clara Feature InterviewTony Printezis is a Principal Member of Technical Staff at Oracle, based in Burlington, MA. He has been contributing to the Java HotSpot Virtual Machine since 2006. He spends most of his time working on dynamic memory management for the Java platform, concentrating on performance, scalability, responsiveness, parallelism, and visualization of garbage collectors. He obtained a Ph.D. in 2000 and a BSc (Hons) in 1995, both from the University of Glasgow in Scotland. In addition, he is a JavaOne Rock Star, a title awarded for his highly rated JavaOne session on GC. Mail Bag What’s Cool JavaOne content selection is complete. Notifications done.

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  • SQL User Group Events coming - Cambridge, Leeds, Manchester and Edinburgh

    - by tonyrogerson
    Neil Hambly and myself are presenting next week in Cambridge, Neil will be showing us how to use tools at hand to determine the current activity on your database servers and I'll be doing a talk around Disaster Recovery and High Availability and the options we have at hand.The User Group is growing in size and spread, there is a Southampton event planned for the 9th Dec - make sure you keep your eyes peeled for more details - the best place is the UK SQL Server User Group LinkedIn area.Want removing from this email list? Then just reply with remove please on the subject line.Cambridge SQL UG - 25th Nov, EveningEvening Meeting, More info and registerNeil Hambly on Determining the current activity of your Database Servers, Product demo from Red-Gate, Tony Rogerson on HA/DR/Scalability(Backup/Recovery options - clustering, mirroring, log shipping; scaling considerations etc.)Leeds SQL UG - 8th Dec, EveningEvening Meeting, More info and registerNeil Hambly will be talking about Index Views and Computed Columns for Performance, Tony Rogerson will be showing some advanced T-SQL techniques.Manchester SQL UG - 9th Dec, EveningEvening Meeting, More info and registerEnd of year wrap up, networking, drinks, some discussions - more info to follow soon.Edinburgh SQL UG - 9th Dec, EveningEvening Meeting, More info and registerSatya Jayanty will give an X factor for a DBAs life and Tony Rogerson will talk about SQL Server internals.Many thanks,Tony Rogerson, SQL Server MVPUK SQL Server User Grouphttp://sqlserverfaq.com

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  • System cant mount root

    - by Tony Parkes
    Im running ubuntu 12.10, i have installed NETKIT as i need it for my university work. It is installed fine and the NETKIT configuration is ok when checked but when i try to launch a virtual machine it appears on screen for about half a second and then vanishes. I did a verbose launch and im told that the system cant mount root, i can however launch an xterm...any help would be greatly appreciated. Tony

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  • Tuesday 6th Manchester SQL User Group - Chris Testa-O'Neil (Loading a datawarehouse using SSIS) and

    - by tonyrogerson
    Chris will give a talk on Loading a datawarehouse using SQL Server Integration Services, Tony Rogerson will give a talk on Database Design: Normalisation/Denormalisation and using Surrogate Keys - practicalities/pitfalls and benefits in Microsoft SQL Server. Registration is essential which you can do here: http://sqlserverfaq.com?eid=218 . Come and join us for an evening of SQL Server discussion, as well as the two formal sessions by Chris Testa-O'Neil and Tony Rogerson there will be a chance...(read more)

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  • UG Session - Service Broker & Indexing

    - by NeilHambly
    SQL Server User Group Session in Reading this Wednesday (21st April 2010 6pm - 10pm) Along with Tony Rogerson MVP, I {Neil Hambly} will be presenting @ the forthcoming User Group meeting @ Microsoft Campus, Reading Tony will be presenting the session he gave @ SQLBits VI on Thinking Sets, Normalisation, Surrogate Keys, Referential Integrity This is very insightful and was a very popular session. I will be continuing my recent presentation on Indexed views @ London UG, this time i will be doing a...(read more)

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  • Google I/O 2012 - The Sensitive Side of Android

    Google I/O 2012 - The Sensitive Side of Android Tony Chan, Ankur Kotwal , Tim Bray, Tony Chan Android has a sensitive side. In this session, we will call out all the Android sensors: accelerometer, gyroscope, light, and more. We'll cover best practices for handling sensor data, with special focus on balancing battery life and usability. For all I/O 2012 sessions, go to developers.google.com From: GoogleDevelopers Views: 2157 35 ratings Time: 56:06 More in Science & Technology

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  • LSI SAS 9240-8i on Ubuntu 12.04 Hangs on Modprobe

    - by Francois Stark
    I used the LSI 9240-8i card on a smaller Intel motherboard with no problems in Ubuntu, with ZFS. However, we rebuilt the server to allow for more disks, using the ASROCK X79 Extreme 11 motherboard. It has 7 PCIe slots, and a LSI 2008 on-board. At first I thought the LSI 9240, when plugged in to PCIe, clashed with the on-board LSI 2008. Every time I plugged in the LSI 9240, modprobe would hang. Then I completely disabled the on-board LSI 2008, and the problem persisted. Last night it booted perfectly ONCE - all LSI cards and connected disks visible... However, all subsequent reboots failed. Both LSI cards' bios scans appear and they both see the disks connected to them, but Ubuntu modprobe hangs. Some selected dmesg lines, with both LSI cards enabled: [ 190.752100] megasas: [ 0]waiting for 1 commands to complete [ 195.772071] megasas: [ 5]waiting for 1 commands to complete [ 200.792079] megasas: [10]waiting for 1 commands to complete [ 205.812078] megasas: [15]waiting for 1 commands to complete [ 210.832037] megasas: [20]waiting for 1 commands to complete [ 215.852077] megasas: [25]waiting for 1 commands to complete [ 220.872072] megasas: [30]waiting for 1 commands to complete [ 225.892078] megasas: [35]waiting for 1 commands to complete [ 230.912086] megasas: [40]waiting for 1 commands to complete [ 235.932075] megasas: [45]waiting for 1 commands to complete [ 240.306157] usb 2-1.5: USB disconnect, device number 7 [ 240.952076] megasas: [50]waiting for 1 commands to complete [ 240.960034] INFO: task modprobe:233 blocked for more than 120 seconds. [ 240.960055] "echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message. [ 240.960067] modprobe D ffffffff81806200 0 233 146 0x00000004 [ 240.960075] ffff880806ae3b48 0000000000000086 ffff880806ae3ae8 ffffffff8101adf3 [ 240.960083] ffff880806ae3fd8 ffff880806ae3fd8 ffff880806ae3fd8 0000000000013780 [ 240.960090] ffffffff81c0d020 ffff880806acae00 ffff880806ae3b58 ffff880808961720 [ 240.960096] Call Trace: [ 240.960107] [<ffffffff8101adf3>] ? native_sched_clock+0x13/0x80 [ 240.960116] [<ffffffff816579cf>] schedule+0x3f/0x60 [ 240.960137] [<ffffffffa00093f5>] megasas_issue_blocked_cmd+0x75/0xb0 [megaraid_sas] [ 240.960144] [<ffffffff8108aa50>] ? add_wait_queue+0x60/0x60 [ 240.960154] [<ffffffffa000a6c9>] megasas_get_seq_num+0xd9/0x260 [megaraid_sas] [ 240.960164] [<ffffffffa000ab31>] megasas_start_aen+0x31/0x60 [megaraid_sas] [ 240.960174] [<ffffffffa00136f1>] megasas_probe_one+0x69a/0x81c [megaraid_sas] [ 240.960182] [<ffffffff813345bc>] local_pci_probe+0x5c/0xd0 [ 240.960189] [<ffffffff81335e89>] __pci_device_probe+0xf9/0x100 [ 240.960197] [<ffffffff8130ce6a>] ? kobject_get+0x1a/0x30 [ 240.960205] [<ffffffff81335eca>] pci_device_probe+0x3a/0x60 [ 240.960212] [<ffffffff813f5278>] really_probe+0x68/0x190 [ 240.960217] [<ffffffff813f5505>] driver_probe_device+0x45/0x70 [ 240.960223] [<ffffffff813f55db>] __driver_attach+0xab/0xb0 [ 240.960227] [<ffffffff813f5530>] ? driver_probe_device+0x70/0x70 [ 240.960233] [<ffffffff813f5530>] ? driver_probe_device+0x70/0x70 [ 240.960237] [<ffffffff813f436c>] bus_for_each_dev+0x5c/0x90 [ 240.960243] [<ffffffff813f503e>] driver_attach+0x1e/0x20 [ 240.960248] [<ffffffff813f4c90>] bus_add_driver+0x1a0/0x270 [ 240.960255] [<ffffffffa001e000>] ? 0xffffffffa001dfff [ 240.960260] [<ffffffff813f5b46>] driver_register+0x76/0x140 [ 240.960266] [<ffffffffa001e000>] ? 0xffffffffa001dfff [ 240.960271] [<ffffffff81335b66>] __pci_register_driver+0x56/0xd0 [ 240.960277] [<ffffffffa001e000>] ? 0xffffffffa001dfff [ 240.960286] [<ffffffffa001e09e>] megasas_init+0x9e/0x1000 [megaraid_sas] [ 240.960294] [<ffffffff81002040>] do_one_initcall+0x40/0x180 [ 240.960301] [<ffffffff810a82fe>] sys_init_module+0xbe/0x230 [ 240.960307] [<ffffffff81661ec2>] system_call_fastpath+0x16/0x1b [ 240.960314] INFO: task scsi_scan_7:349 blocked for more than 120 seconds.

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  • 3D zooming technique to maintain the relative position of an object on screen

    - by stark
    Is it possible to zoom to a certain point on screen by modifying the field of view and rotating the view of the camera as to keep that point/object in the same place on screen while zooming ? Changing the camera position is not allowed. I projected the 3D pos of the object on screen and remembered it. Then on each frame I calculate the direction to it in camera space and then I construct a rotation matrix to align this direction to Z axis (in cam space). After this, I calculate the direction from the camera to the object in world space and transform this vector with the matrix I obtained earlier and then use this final vector as the camera's new direction. And it's actually "kinda working", the problem is that it is more/less off than the camera's rotation before starting to zoom depending on the area you are trying to zoom in (larger error on edges/corners). It looks acceptable, but I'm not settling for only this. Any suggestions/resources for doing this technique perfectly? If some of you want to explain the math in detail, be my guest, I can understand these things well.

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  • Interesting 3d zooming technique

    - by stark
    Is it possible to zoom to a certain point on screen by modifying the field of view and rotating the camera as to keep that point/object in the same place on screen while zooming ? Changing the camera position is not allowed.. I projected the 3d pos of the object on screen and remembered it. Then on each frame I calculate the direction to it in camera space and then I construct a rotation matrix to align this direction to Z axis (in cam space). After this, I calculate the direction from the camera to the object in world space and transform this vector with the matrix I obtained earlier and then use this final vector as the camera's new direction. And it's actually "kinda working", the problem is that it is more/less off than the camera's rotation before starting to zoom depending on the area you are trying to zoom in (larger error on edges/corners). It looks acceptable, but I'm not settling for only this. Any suggestions/resources for doing this technique perfectly ? If some of you want to explain the math in detail, be my guests, I can understand these things well. Thanks. Edit: I'll check often for responses, I'm really curious about this :D

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  • Programming methodologies at stackoverflow

    - by Prototype Stark
    I am in the middle of starting up a software company where we would use ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET WebAPI extensively at shop. We will be a group of 4 and no more than 10 will work on any particular project at any point in time(these are ground rules). I would like to know, what programming methodologies best suit a small(guerilla) team. Specifically, I would also like to know which ones are being used at famous ASP.NET MVC shops like Stackoverflow. The ones I know are: Scrum and Waterfall(I know its bad). But what's the recommended way of development for smaller, group of 9-10 team. Also, will Test Driven Development help such a team in producing quality software? Are there any other techniques the team will have to know to be good at producing quality software?

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  • PASS 13 Dispatches: Memory Optimized = On

    - by Tony Davis
    I'm at the PASS Summit in Charlotte for the Day 1 keynote by Quentin Clarke, Corporate VP of the data platform group at Microsoft. He's talking about how SQL Server 2014 is “pushing boundaries” and first up is SQL Server 2014's In-Memory OLTP technology (former codename “hekaton”) It is a feature that provokes a lot of interest and for good reason as, without any need for application rewrites or hardware updates, it can enable us to ensure that an application can find in memory most or all of the data it needs, and can lead to huge improvements in processing times. A good recent hekaton use cases article talks about applications that need a “Shock Absorber” when either spikes or just a high rate of incoming workload (including data in ETL scenarios) become a primary bottleneck. To get a really deep look at this technology, I would check out David DeWitt's summit keynote tomorrow (it will be live streamed). Other than that, to get started I'd recommend Kalen Delaney's whitepaper. She offers a lot of insight into how it works and how to start to define memory-optimized tables, and natively compiled stored procedures. These memory-optimized tables uses completely optimistic multi-version concurrency control – no waiting on locks! After that, Tom LaRock has compiled a useful set of links to drill deeper, and includes one to Microsoft's AMR tool to help you gauge the tables that might benefit most. Tony.

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  • Ubuntu eats itself after I followed updater instruction

    - by Tony Martin
    Updater (I assume) put a no entry style alert icon on the panel which informed me that certain package dependencies were not up to snuff. Upgrades were thereafter only partial. The dialogue advised that I (and this is from noob memory) sudo apt-get install -f. I did this and typed in the confirmation phrase and watched apt-get systematically remove every component of linux, both the stuff I installed and the core ubuntu packages. I could only assume at this stage that this was for a fresh install but of course, I know better now. There's much complaint about Windows, but I've never met with advice from Microsoft tools to wipe out the operating system because of a couple of missing .dlls. So what gives? This was a 64 bit install of 12.04. All that is left is grub pointing to a couple of windows recovery partitions on the hard drive. I'm tempted, but I have hopes of recovering the data that I had enough misguided faith to trust to the linux ext4 partition. I've tried pen driving back into it with a 32 bit iso but I'm simply informed that ubuntu is running in low graphics mode and get to watch the dots cycle indefinitely. EDIT: Thanks for the advice vis positive request. I've got onto the machine with a 64 bit stick and can see the file structure left behind by the installation. My first instinct was to run install from the stick but it did not seem to offer a recovery option. My question then: is there a way to recover the current installation so that if I reinstall the packages I had they will pick up the original settings. I'm particularly worried about losing email from evolution - the rest I could probably lash back together. I would also be interested how this disaster came about. I see people in the know recommending this same procedure in similar circumstances. Thanks for your attention, Tony Martin

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  • Copy wrongs and Copyright

    - by Tony Davis
    Recently, a Chinese blog website copied, wholesale and without permission, a Simple-Talk article on troubleshooting locking and blocking. Our initial reaction was exasperation and anger, tempered slightly by the fact that there was, at the top, a clear link to the original, and the book from which it was extracted. On the day the copy was posted, our original article saw a 30K spike in visits, so the site clearly has a substantial following! This made us pause for thought. Indeed, we wondered whether it might not be more profitable, and certainly more enjoyable, to notify the offender of similar content and serve a "put up" notice, rather than the usual DMCA "take down" . The DMCA request, issued to protect our and our authors' assets, is a necessary but tiresome, chore. So often, simple communication and negotiation could have averted the need for it. We are, after all, in the business of presenting knowledge, information and help to the SQL Server Community. If only they had asked! Of course, one's attitude changes according to the motivation behind the copying of content. One of the motivations seems to be pure vanity; they do it to try to enhance their CV, or their company's expertise, by pretending to expertise they don't possess. There is a class of plagiariser, however, that is doing it purely for money, getting advertising revenue by attracting hapless readers to their site. Not content with stealing content, sites can invest in services that provide 'load-testing' for websites that is so realistic that even the search engines can be fooled. Stolen content, fake visitors, swindled advertisers. Zero-tolerance is really the only way of dealing with plagiarism, and action will only be completely effective once Bing, Google, and the other search engines strike out from their listings the rogue sites that refuse to take down plagiarised content. It is, after all in everyone else's interests. Cheers, Tony.

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  • iTunes contact sync issue

    - by Tony
    Last night when I sync my contacts to my iPhone, it wiped 95% of my contacts on my iPhone :( I have tried to re-sync many times but no joy. I've even exported all my contacts into Windows Contacts (im using Vista), then tried to re-sync in iTunes using that. Note: I have the lastest iTunes and iPhone updates. Many thanks! Tony.

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  • Event on SQL Server 2008 Disk IO and the new Complex Event Processing (StreamInsight) feature in R2

    - by tonyrogerson
    Allan Mitchell and myself are doing a double act, Allan is becoming one of the leading guys in the UK on StreamInsight and will give an introduction to this new exciting technology; on top of that I'll being talking about SQL Server Disk IO - well, "Disk" might not be relevant anymore because I'll be talking about SSD and IOFusion - basically I'll be talking about the underpinnings - making sure you understand and get it right, how to monitor etc... If you've any specific problems or questions just ping me an email [email protected]. To register for the event see: http://sqlserverfaq.com/events/217/SQL-Server-and-Disk-IO-File-GroupsFiles-SSDs-FusionIO-InRAM-DBs-Fragmentation-Tony-Rogerson-Complex-Event-Processing-Allan-Mitchell.aspx 18:15 SQL Server and Disk IOTony Rogerson, SQL Server MVPTony's Blog; Tony on TwitterIn this session Tony will talk about RAID levels, how SQL server writes to and reads from disk, the effect SSD has and will talk about other options for throughput enhancement like Fusion IO. He will look at the effect fragmentation has and how to minimise the impact, he will look at the File structure of a database and talk about what benefits multiple files and file groups bring. We will also touch on Database Mirroring and the effect that has on throughput, how to get a feeling for the throughput you should expect.19:15 Break19:45 Complex Event Processing (CEP)Allan Mitchell, SQL Server MVPhttp://sqlis.com/sqlisStreamInsight is Microsoft’s first foray into the world of Complex Event Processing (CEP) and Event Stream Processing (ESP).  In this session I want to show an introduction to this technology.  I will show how and why it is useful.  I will get us used to some new terminology but best of all I will show just how easy it is to start building your first CEP/ESP application.

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  • Silverlight Cream for November 21, 2011 -- #1171

    - by Dave Campbell
    In this Issue: Colin Eberhardt, Sumit Dutta, Morten Nielsen, Jesse Liberty, Jeff Blankenburg(-2-), Brian Noyes, and Tony Champion. Above the Fold: Silverlight: "PV Basics : Client-side Collections" Tony Champion WP7: "Pushpin Clustering with the Windows Phone 7 Bing Map control" Colin Eberhardt Shoutouts: Michael Palermo's latest Desert Mountain Developers is up Michael Washington's latest Visual Studio #LightSwitch Daily is up From SilverlightCream.com: Pushpin Clustering with the Windows Phone 7 Bing Map control Colin Eberhardt is back discussing Pushpins for a BingMaps app on WP7 and provides a utility class that clusters pushpins, allowing you to render 1000s of pins on an app ... all the explanation and all the code Part 22 - Windows Phone 7 - Tile Push Notification Part 22 in Sumit Dutta's WP7 series is about Tile Push Notification... nice tutorial with all the code listed Correctly displaying your current location Morten Nielsen demonstrates formatting the information from the GPS on your WP7 into something intelligible and useful Spiking the Pomodoro Timer Jesse Liberty put up a quick and dirty version of a Pomodoro timer for WP7.1 to explore the technical challenges of the Full Stack Phase 2 he's cranking up 31 Days of Mango | Day #11: Network Jeff Blankenburg's Number 10 in his 31 Days quest of WP7.1 is about the NetworkInformation namespace which gives you all sorts of info on the user's device network connection availability, type, etc. 31 Days of Mango | Day #11: Live Tiles Jeff Blankenburg takes off on Live Tiles for Day 11... big topic for a 1 day post, but he takes off on it... updating and Live Tiles too Working with Prism 4 Part 2: MVVM Basics and Commands Brian Noyes has part 2 of his Prism/MVVM series up at SilverlightShow... very nice tutorial on the basics of getting a view and viewmodel up, and setting up an ICommand to launch an Edit View... plus the code to peruse. PV Basics : Client-side Collections Tony Champion is startig a series on Silverlight 5 and Pivot Viewer... First up is some basics in dealing with the control in SL5 and talking about Client-side Collections... great informative tutorial and all the code Stay in the 'Light! Twitter SilverlightNews | Twitter WynApse | WynApse.com | Tagged Posts | SilverlightCream Join me @ SilverlightCream | Phoenix Silverlight User Group Technorati Tags: Silverlight    Silverlight 3    Silverlight 4    Windows Phone MIX10

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  • Need to Know

    - by Tony Davis
    Sometimes, I wonder whether writers of documentation, tutorials and articles stop to ask themselves one very important question: Does the reader really need to know this? I recently took on the task of writing a concise series of articles about the transaction log, what is it, how it works and why it's important. It was an enjoyable task; rather like peering inside a giant, complex clock mechanism. Initially, one sees only the basic components, which work to guarantee the integrity of database transactions, and preserve these transactions so that data can be restored to a previous point in time. On closer inspection, one notices all of small, arcane mechanisms that are necessary to make this happen; LSNs, virtual log files, log chains, database checkpoints, and so on. It was engrossing, escapist, stuff; what I'd written looked weighty and steeped in mysterious significance. Suddenly, however, I jolted myself back to reality with the awful thought "does anyone really need to know all this?" The driver of a car needs only to be dimly aware of what goes on under the hood, however exciting the mechanism is to the engineer. Similarly, while everyone who uses SQL Server ought to be aware of the transaction log, its role in guaranteeing the ACID properties, and how to control its growth, the intricate mechanisms ticking away under its clock face are a world away from the daily work of the harassed developer. The DBA needs to know more, such as the correct rituals for ensuring optimal performance and data integrity, setting the appropriate growth characteristics, backup routines, restore procedures, and so on. However, even then, the average DBA only needs to understand enough about the arcane processes to spot problems and react appropriately, or to know how to Google for the best way of dealing with it. The art of technical writing is tied up in intimate knowledge of your audience and what they need to know at any point. It means serving up just enough at each point to help the reader in a practical way, but not to overcook it, or stuff the reader with information that does them no good. When I think of the books and articles that have helped me the most, they have been full of brief, practical, and well-informed guidance, based on experience. This seems far-removed from the 900-page "beginner's guides" that one now sees everywhere. The more I write and edit, the more I become convinced that the real art of technical communication lies in knowing what to leave out. In what areas do the SQL Server technical materials suffer from "information overload"? Where else does it seem that concise, practical advice is drowned out by endless discussion of the "clock mechanisms"? Cheers, Tony.

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  • So it comes to PASS…

    - by Tony Davis
    How does your company gauge the benefit of attending a technical conference? What's the best change you made as a direct result of attendance? It's time again for the PASS Summit and I, like most people go with a set of general goals for enhancing technical knowledge; to learn more about PowerShell, to drill into SQL Server performance tuning techniques, and so on. Most will write up a brief report on the event for the rest of the team. Ideally, however, it will go a bit further than that; each conference should result in a specific improvement to one of your systems, or in the way you do your job. As co-editor of Simple-talk.com, and responsible for the majority of our SQL books, my “high level” goals don't vary much from conference to conference. I'm always on the lookout for good new authors. I target interesting new technologies and tools and try to learn more. I return with a list of actions, new articles to commission, and potential new authors. Three years ago, however, I started setting myself the goal of implementing “one new thing” after each conference. After one, I adopted Kanban for managing my workload, a technique that places strict limits on “work in progress” and makes the overall workload, and backlog, highly visible. After another I trialled a community book project. At PASS 2010, one of my general goals was to delve deeper into SQL Server transaction log mechanics, but on top of that, I set a specific goal of writing something useful on the topic. I started a Stairway series and, ultimately, it's turned into a book! If you're attending the PASS Summit this year, take some time to consider what specific improvement or change you'll implement as a result. Also, try to drop by the Red Gate booth (#101). During the Vendor event on Wednesday evening, Gail Shaw and I will be there to discuss, and hand out copies of the book. Cheers, Tony.  

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  • Emoti-phrases

    - by Tony Davis
    Surely the next radical step in the development of User-interface design is for applications to react appropriately to the rising tide of bewilderment, frustration or antipathy of the users. When an application understands that rapport is lost, it should respond accordingly. When we, for example, become confused by an unforgiving interface, shouldn't there be a way of signalling our bewilderment and having the application respond appropriately? There is surprisingly little in the current interface standards that would help. If we're getting frustrated with an unresponsive application, perhaps we could let it know of our increasing irritation by means of an "I'm getting angry and exasperated" slider. Although, by 'responding appropriately', I don't include playing a "we are experiencing unusually heavy traffic: your application usage is important to us" message, accompanied by calming muzak. When confronted with a tide of wizards, 'are you sure?' messages, or page-after-page of tiresome and barely-relevant options, how one yearns for a handy 'JFDI' (Just Flaming Do It) button. One click and the application miraculously desists with its annoying questions and just gets on with the job, using the defaults, or whatever we selected last time. Much more satisfying, and more direct to most developers and DBAs, however, would be the facility to communicate to the application via a twitter-style input field, or via parameters to command-line applications ("I don't want a wide-ranging debate with you; just open the bl**dy PDF!" or, or "Don't forget which of us has the close button"). Although to avoid too much cultural-dependence, perhaps we should take the lead from emoticons, and use a set of standardized emoti-phrases such as 'sez you', 'huh?', 'Pshaw!', or 'meh', which could be used to vent a range of feelings in any given application, whether it be SQL Server stubbornly refusing to give us the result we are expecting, or when an online-survey is getting too personal. Or a 'Lingua Glaswegia' perhaps: 'Atsabelter' ("very good") 'Atspish' ("must try harder") 'AnThenYerArsFellAff ' ("I don't quite trust these results") 'BileYerHeid' or 'ShutYerGub' ("please stop these inane questions") There would, of course, have to be an ANSI standards body to define the phrases that were acceptable. Presumably, there would be a tussle amongst the different international standards organizations. Meanwhile Oracle, Microsoft and Apple would each release non-standard extensions. Time then, surely, to plant emoti-phrases on the lot of them and develop a user-driven consensus. Send us your suggestions! The best one will win an iPod nano! Cheers! Tony.

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  • On Writing Blogs

    - by Tony Davis
    Why are so many blogs about IT so difficult to read? Over at SQLServerCentral.com, we do a special subscription-only newsletter called Database Weekly. Every other week, it is my turn to look through all the blogs, news and events that might be of relevance to people working with databases. We provide the title, with the link, and a short abstract of what you can expect to read. It is a popular service with close to a million subscribers. You might think that this is a happy and fascinating task. Sometimes, yes. If a blog comes to the point quickly, and says something both interesting and original, then it has our immediate attention. If it backs up what it says with supporting material, then it is more-or-less home and dry, featured in DBW's list. If it also takes trouble over the formatting and presentation, maybe with an illustration or two and any code well-formatted, then we are agog with joy and it is marked as a must-visit destination in our blog roll. More often, however, a task that should be fun becomes a routine chore, and the effort of trawling so many badly-written blogs is enough to make any conscientious Health & Safety officer whistle through their teeth at the risk to the editor's spiritual and psychological well-being. And yet, frustratingly, most blogs could be improved very easily. There is, I believe, a simple formula for a successful blog. First, choose a single topic that is reasonably fresh and interesting. Second, get to the point quickly; explain in the first paragraph exactly what the blog is about, and then stay on topic. In writing the first paragraph, you must picture yourself as a pilot, hearing the smooth roar of the engines as your plane gracefully takes air. Too often, however, the accompanying sound is that of the engine stuttering before the plane veers off the runway into a field, and a wheel falls off. The author meanders around the topic without getting to the point, and takes frequent off-radar diversions to talk about themselves, or the weather, or which friends have recently tagged them. This might work if you're J.D Salinger, or James Joyce, but it doesn't help a technical blog. Sometimes, the writing is so convoluted that we are entirely defeated in our quest to shoehorn its meaning into a simple summary sentence. Finally, write simply, in plain English, and in a conversational way such that you can read it out loud, and sound natural. That's it! If you could also avoid any references to The Matrix then this is a bonus but is purely personal preference. Cheers, Tony.

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  • A Plea for Plain English

    - by Tony Davis
    The English language has, within a lifetime, emerged as the ubiquitous 'international language' of scientific, political and technical communication. On the one hand, learning a single, common language, International English, has made it much easier to participate in and adopt new technologies; on the other hand it must be exasperating to have to use English at international conferences, or on community sites, when your own language has a long tradition of scientific and technical usage. It is also hard to master the subtleties of using a foreign language to explain advanced ideas. This requires English speakers to be more considerate in their writing. Even if you’re used to speaking English, you may be brought up short by this sort of verbiage… "Business Intelligence delivering actionable insights is becoming more critical in the enterprise, and these insights require large data volumes for trending and forecasting" It takes some imagination to appreciate the added hassle in working out what it means, when English is a language you only use at work. Try, just to get a vague feel for it, using Google Translate to translate it from English to Chinese and back again. "Providing actionable business intelligence point of view is becoming more and more and more business critical, and requires that these insights and projected trends in large amounts of data" Not easy eh? If you normally use a different language, you will need to pause for thought before finally working out that it really means … "Every Business Intelligence solution must be able to help companies to make decisions. In order to detect current trends, and accurately predict future ones, we need to analyze large volumes of data" Surely, it is simple politeness for English speakers to stop peppering their writing with a twisted vocabulary that renders it inaccessible to everyone else. It isn’t just the problem of writers who use long words to give added dignity to their prose. It is the use of Colloquial English. This changes and evolves at a dizzying rate, adding new terms and idioms almost daily; it is almost a new and separate language. By contrast, ‘International English', is gradually evolving separately, at its own, more sedate, pace. As such, all native English speakers need to make an effort to learn, and use it, switching from casual colloquial patter into a simpler form of communication that can be widely understood by different cultures, even if it gives you less credibility on the street. Simple-Talk is based, at least in part, on the idea that technical articles can be written simply and clearly in a form of English that can be easily understood internationally, and that they can be written, with a little editorial help, by anyone, and read by anyone, regardless of their native language. Cheers, Tony.

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