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• How to deal with overly aggressive "Link Take Down Demands"?

  - by Eoin

  I've been receiving a large number of emails recently requesting I clean from link spam from my forum. Initially the emails were very polite and professional, and I was happy to remove the links. Recently the email have gotten very abrasive, here is a particularly rude example: From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Hi, This is the second time we are reaching out to you regarding your link to our site hxxp://www.company-two.com from hxxp://www.my-forum.com/some-topic-id. We really do need to remove this link. We have to report to Google any link we were unable to remove, and I wouldn't want to have to include your site in the list. Could you please remove our link from this page and any other page on your site? Thank You, Name Changed Behind the superficial pleasantries I feel there is some very real maliciousness. Note the email address, DMCA Violations, I don't see how the DMCA is involved here, except as a word which tends to strike fear in many people. Also relating to the email address, it doesn't match the company being linked to at all. How am I to trust they are truely operating on behalf of company-two when they don't even use one of it's email addresses. My email is hidden by privacypost. While a service with legitimate uses, I feel it's highly unprofessional for communications between to companies. The claim "This is the second time..." Every email I've received has started like this, but a check of my spam filters has never revealed a 1st mail. Initially I gave them the benefit of the doubt, by now though it's clear this is a cheap ploy to start me off on the defensive. And finally worst of all- the threats of reporting me to Google if I don't do everything they ask. I sent a polite reply asking for more information. I have no idea if the email address was even valid but I never received any response. Much later I got this followup mail From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Hi, This is the final time we are reaching out to you regarding your link to our site hxxp://www.company-two.com from hxxp://www.my-forum.com/some-topic-id. We will soon be reporting to Google any link we were unable to remove, and currently your site will have to be on the list. Could you please remove our link from this page and any other page on your site? I appreciate your urgent attention to this matter. Thank You, Name Changed This time the from address was more personal, though still not obviously connected to the spammed company. Lets be honest, I don't for one second believe that the companies were the victim of a 3rd party spammer as they claim. The links in questions were generated well over a year ago, and I firmly believe the companies were directly responsible for the spam links in question, a type of spam that has plagued my forum. Now they have the audacity to demand I spend my time cleaning up their mess, using threats to ensure they get their way. Have recent changes in Googles algorithms meant all the cash they spent spamming the web has now turned into a liability? If so I can see why these companies are all of a sudden running scared. Frankly, cleaning up my forum is a good things, but the threats they are using sickens me. So my question here is specifically about the threats: Are they vaild, and would such reports to Google destroy my page rankings? Is there a way I can report this abusive behaviour to Google?

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• What Counts For a DBA – Depth

  - by Louis Davidson

  SQL Server offers very simple interfaces to many of its features. Most people could open up SSMS, connect to a server, write a simple query and see the results. Even several of the core DBA tasks are deceptively straightforward. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to perform a basic database backup or run a trace (even using the newfangled Extended Events!). However, appearances can be deceptive, and often times it is really important that a DBA understands not just the basics of how to perform a task, but why we do a task, and how that task works. As an analogy, consider a child walking into a darkened room. Most would know that they need to turn on the light, and how to do it, so they flick the switch. But what happens if light fails to shine forth. Most would immediately tell you that you need to consider changing the light bulb. So you hop in the car and take them to the local home store and instruct them to buy a replacement. Confronted with a 40 foot display of light bulbs, how will they decide which of the hundreds of types of bulbs, of different types, fittings, shapes, colors, power and efficiency ratings, is the right choice? Obviously the main lesson the child is going to learn this day is how to use their cell phone as a flashlight so they don’t have to ask for help the next time. Likewise, when the metaphorical toddlers who use your database server have issues, they will instinctively know something is wrong, and may even have some idea what caused it, but will have no depth of knowledge to figure out the right solution. That is where the DBA comes in and attempts to save the day. However, when one looks beneath the shiny UI, SQL Server has its own “40 foot display of light bulbs”, in the form of the tremendous number of tools and the often-bewildering amount of information they can present to the DBA, to help us find issues. Unfortunately, resorting to guesswork, to trying different “bulbs” over and over, hoping to stumble on the answer. This is where the right depth of knowledge goes a long way. If we need to write a SELECT statement, then knowing the syntax and where to find the data is not enough. Knowledge of indexes and query plans is essential. Without it, we might hit on a query that “works”, but we are basically still a user, not a programmer, because we have no real control over our platform. Is that level of knowledge deep enough? Probably not, since knowledge of the underlying metadata and structures would be very useful in helping us make sense of any query plan. Understanding the structure of an index makes the “key lookup” operator not sound like what you do when someone tapes your car key to the ceiling. So is even this level of understanding deep enough? Do we need to understand the memory architecture used to process the query? It might be a comforting level of knowledge, and will doubtless come in handy at some point, but is not strictly necessary in most cases. Beyond that lies (more or less) full knowledge of SQL language and the intricacies of every step the SQL Server engine takes to process our query. My personal theory is that, as a professional, our knowledge of a given task should extend, at a minimum, one level deeper than is strictly necessary to perform the task. Anything deeper can be left to the ridiculously smart, or obsessive, or both. As an example. tasked with storing an integer value between 0 and 99999999, it’s essential that I know that choosing an Integer over Decimal(8,0) will likely offer performance benefits. It is then useful that I also understand the value of adding a CHECK constraint, to make sure the values are valid to the desired range; and comforting that I know a little about the underlying processors, registers and computer math. Anything further, I leave to the likes of Joe Chang, whose recent blog post on the topic offers depth by the bucketful!  

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• Why Apple’s New SDK Limitation is So Offensive

  - by TStewartDev

  I am not an Apple fanboy, nor have I ever been. However, I have owned a Mac, an iPod, and an iPhone in my lifetime, and for more than a decade, I have defended Apple against the untruths that the haters so enjoy spewing. I encouraged my wife to buy a MacBook when she needed a new laptop two years ago, and I often recommend them to my friends and relatives. I have proudly and happily used my first generation iPhone for nearly three years. Now, for the first time in well over ten years, I find myself ready to swear off Apple and encourage everyone I know to do the same. I was disappointed when Apple wouldn't allow native apps, but I still bought the iPhone. I've stomached their ambiguous app approval process even though it's apparent that Steve may just reject your app because he doesn't like you or feels threatened by you (I'm still lamenting the rejection of the Google Voice app). But, as a developer, I can no longer tolerate Apple's terms and the kind of totalitarian control they indicate Apple wants. In case you are not already familiar, Apple has dictated in their OS 4.0 SDK license agreement (the now infamous Section 3.3.1) that all apps developed for the iPhone must be coded in C, C++, or Objective C, and moreover, that using any cross-compiling platforms is a violation of the agreement. For those of you who aren't developers, let me try to illustrate why this angers those of us who are. Imagine you're a professional writer. You've had articles published in some journals and magazines, and you've got a couple popular books out there, too. You've got an idea for a new book, and so you take it to your publisher. Your publisher agrees that it's a good idea. "But," says the publisher, "we want to hold our books to a tighter standard so that our readers get the experience we want them to have. Therefore, from now on, all our writers may only use words from this list of the 10,000 most common English words. Furthermore, if you cite any other works or quote anyone, they must comply with that same list, or you'll have to rewrite the entire work as well in case our readers want to look up your citation." What do you do? If your work is a children's book, this probably isn't a big deal to you. If it's an autobiography, textbook, or even a novel, though, you're going to have a lot of trouble describing your content with only common words. It's going to take you longer to complete your book, too, since you'll be looking up less common words frequently to see if you can use them. You could always go to another publisher, but this one has the best ability to distribute your book. The next largest distributor can only do a quarter as much. You could abandon the project altogether, but then everyone loses. Isn't this a silly scenario? Who would put such a limitation on writers? Yet this is very much what Apple is doing. They are using their dominant position in the market to coerce developers to write their apps exclusively for the iPhone OS by making it too expensive to write for multiple platforms. It is at least a threefold attack, striking at Adobe who is set to release a compiler that lets Flash source be compiled to iPhone binaries; striking at Google whose Android platform stands the best chance at the moment of providing serious competition to the iPhone; and reinforcing their own strong position by keeping popular apps exclusively to iPhone. And while developers are already very upset about this, the sad fact is that most of us will cave and give in to Apple because consumers don't know any better. They will continue to buy Apple's toy forcing developers to play Apple's maniacal game in order to make any money, at least until Steve Jobs decides he doesn't like them or he intends to release a competing application (bye-bye OpenFeint). Apple has been kept in check on the desktop front by a very dominant Microsoft, but I'm afraid that their success with iPods, iTunes, and iPhones has created a monster that we may have to bear until it is slain by an anti-trust suit or dies with the retirement of Steve Jobs.

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• New PeopleSoft HCM 9.1 On Demand Standard Edition provides a complete set of IT services at a low, predictable monthly cost

  - by Robbin Velayedam

  At Oracle Open World last month, Oracle announced that we are extending our On Demand offerings with the general availability of PeopleSoft On Demand Standard Edition. Standard Edition represents Oracle’s commitment to providing customers a choice of solutions, technology, and deployment options commensurate with their business needs and future growth. The Standard Edition offering complements the traditional On Demand offerings (Enterprise and Professional Editions) by focusing on a low, predictable monthly cost model that scales with the size of your business.   As part of Oracle's open cloud strategy, customers can freely move PeopleSoft licensed applications between on premise and the various  on demand options as business needs arise.    In today’s business climate, aggressive and creative business objectives demand more of IT organizations. They are expected to provide technology-based solutions to streamline business processes, enable online collaboration and multi-tasking, facilitate data mining and storage, and enhance worker productivity. As IT budgets remain tight in a recovering economy, the challenge becomes how to meet these demands with limited time and resources. One way is to eliminate the variable costs of projects so that your team can focus on the high priority functions and better predict funding and resource needs two to three years out. Variable costs and changing priorities can derail the best laid project and capacity plans. The prime culprits of variable costs in any IT organization include disaster recovery, security breaches, technical support, and changes in business growth and priorities. Customers have an immediate need for solutions that are cheaper, predictable in cost, and flexible enough for long-term growth or capacity changes. The Standard Edition deployment option fulfills that need by allowing customers to take full advantage of the rich business functionality that is inherent to PeopleSoft HCM, while delegating all application management responsibility – such as future upgrades and product updates – to Oracle technology experts, at an affordable and expected price. Standard Edition provides the advantages of the secure Oracle On Demand hosted environment, the complete set of PeopleSoft HCM configurable business processes, and timely management of regular updates and enhancements to the application functionality and underlying technology. Standard Edition has a convenient monthly fee that is scalable by number of employees, which helps align the customer’s overall cost of ownership with its size and anticipated growth and business needs. In addition to providing PeopleSoft HCM applications' world class business functionality and Oracle On Demand's embassy-grade security, Oracle’s hosted solution distinguishes itself from competitors by offering customers the ability to transition between different deployment and service models at any point in the application ownership lifecycle. As our customers’ business and economic climates change, they are free to transition their applications back to on-premise at any time. HCM On Demand Standard Edition is based on configurability options rather than customizations, requiring no additional code to develop or maintain. This keeps the cost of ownership low and time to production less than a month on average. Oracle On Demand offers the highest standard of security and performance by leveraging a state-of-the-art data center with dedicated databases, servers, and secured URL all within a private cloud. Customers will not share databases, environments, platforms, or access portals with other customers because we value how mission critical your data are to your business. Oracle’s On Demand also provides a full breadth of disaster recovery services to provide customers the peace of mind that their data are secure and that backup operations are in place to keep their businesses up and running in the case of an emergency. Currently we have over 50 PeopleSoft customers delegating us with the management of their applications through Oracle On Demand. If you are a customer interested in learning more about the PeopleSoft HCM 9.1 Standard Edition and how it can help your organization minimize your variable IT costs and free up your resources to work on other business initiatives, contact Oracle or your Account Services Representative today.

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• The Social Content Conundrum

  - by Mike Stiles

  Here’s the social content conundrum: people who are not entertainers are being asked to entertain. Despite a world of skilled MBAs, marketing savants, technological innovators, analysts, social strategists and consultants, every development in social for brands keeps boomeranging right back to the same unavoidable truth. Success hinges on having content creators who know how to entertain the target audience. You can’t make this all about business-processes. You can’t make this all about technology, though data is critical and helps inform content. This is about having human beings who know the audience, know what they’d love to see, and can create the magic that will draw and hold them. Since showing up in the News Feed is critical for exposition and engagement, and since social ads primarily serve to amplify content that’s performing well, I’m comfortable saying content creators are becoming exponentially recruited and valued. They will no longer be commodities. They’ll be your stars. Social has fundamentally changed the relationship between brand and consumer. No longer can the customer be told to sit down, shut up, and listen to our ads. It’s now all about what consumers are willing to watch or read. Their patience for subjecting themselves to material they aren’t interested in is waning. Therefore, brands must now be producers of entertainment and information content, not merely placers of ads within someone else’s content. Social has given you a huge stage, with an audience sitting out there waiting to see what you’re going to do. What are you putting on that stage? For most corporate environments, entertaining is alien. It’s risky and subjective. Most operate around two foundational principles: control and fear. To entertain and inform with branded content, some control has to go. You control the product. Past that, control is being transferred into the hands of the consumer. The “fear first” culture also has to yield. If you strive to never make waves, you will move absolutely nothing. Because most corporations don’t house entertainers, they must be found then trusted. They’re usually a little weird. The ideas they’ll bring may seem “out there.” But like any business professional, they’ve gone through the training and experiences that make them uniquely good at what they do, even if you don’t quite understand them. It’s okay. It’s what the audience thinks that matters. Get it right, and you’ll be generating one ambassador after another who’s proud to be identified with the brand and will regularly consume and share your content. Entertainment entities are able to shape our culture and succeed beyond their wildest dreams by being beholden to one thing…what the public likes and wants. When brands put the same emphasis on crowd-pleasing content, they too will enjoy brand fame the likes of which they’ve never seen. The stage is yours. Now get out there and go for that applause.

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• How can I work efficiently on a desktop sharing workflow?

  - by OSdave

  I am a freelance Magento developer, based in Spain. One of my clients is a Germany based web development company and they're asking me something I think it's impossible. OK, maybe not impossible but definitely not a preferred way of doing things. One of their clients has a Magento Entreprise installation, which is the paid (and I think proprietary) version of Magento. Their client has forbidden them to download the files from his server. My client is asking me now to study one particular module of the application in order to interact with it from a custom module I'll have to develop. As they have a read-only ssh access to their client's server, they came up with this solution: Set up a desktop/screen sharing session between one of their developer's station and mine, alongsides with a skype conversation. Their idea is that I'll say to the developer: show me file foo.php The developer will then open this foo.php file in his IDE. I'll have then to ask him to show me the bar method, the parent class, etc... Remember that it's a read-only session, so forget about putting a Zend_Debug::log() anywhere, and don't even think about a xDebug breakpoint (they don't use any kind of debugger, sic). Their client has also forbidden them to use any version control system... My first reaction when they explained to me this was (and I actually did say it outloud to them): Well, find another client. but they took it as a joke from me. I understand that in a business point of view rejecting a client is not a good practice, but I think that the condition of this assignment make it impossible to complete. At least according to my workflow. I mean, the way I work or learn a new framework/program is: download all files and copy of db on my pc create a git repository and a branch run the application locally use breakpoints use Zend_Debug::log() write the code and tests commit to git repo upload to (test/staging first if there is one, production if not) server I have agreed to try the desktop sharing session, although I think it will be a waste of time. On one hand I don't mind, they pay me for that time, but I know me and I don't like the sensation of loosing my time. On the other hand, I have other clients for whom I can work according to my workflow. I am about to say to them that I cannot (don't want to) do it. Well, I'll first try this desktop sharing session: maybe I'm wrong and it can actually work. But I like to consider myself as a professional, and I know that I don't know everything. So I try to keep an open mind and I am always willing to learn new stuff. So my questions are: Can this desktop-sharing workflow work? What should be done in order to take the most of it? Taking into account all the obstacles (geographic locations, no local, no git), is there another way for me to work on that project?

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• D&rsquo;Arcy&rsquo;s Book Club - The New Strategic Selling

  - by D'Arcy Lussier

  The New Strategic Selling Miller and Heiman Amazon.ca Amazon.com Chapters Everybody is a salesmen. Every day, without knowing it, we sell something to someone. Now, the typical vision people think of when they hear the word “sales” is the sleazy used car salesperson who does whatever they can to get you to buy the clunker on their lot. But selling is not an action tied to money and products. Selling is about convincing people to see your point of view and act on it. If you want your company to cover a trip to a conference, you may have to sell the idea to your boss. If you want to buy that new big screen TV, you have to sell the idea to your significant other. If you want to go on a weekend fishing trip with the boys you might be called in to help sell the idea to your buddies wife. We all sell, but we don’t all sell very well. So enter The New Strategic Selling, a book based on the sales course put on by the Miller-Heiman group. In fact, this isn’t really a “New” strategy to selling as its been around for a number of years. But the concepts they present, the ideas about selling, these are still very radical based on what most of us have experienced. Gone are the high pressure, win at all cost, GlenGarry-GlenRoss style of sales…instead the book presents a framework to switch to need-based selling. It’s the idea that instead of going in raving about a product or service, you build a relationship where the buyer expresses what their needs are and your response is to present a solution that best fits that need. Instead of focussing on the amount of money you can squeeze out of a client, you focus on whether everyone wins, that they receive win-results from the engagement, that repeat business is developed over time delivering value over and over again. The great thing about the book is that what it teaches…things like how to identify different buying influencers, how to prepare for meetings, techniques to solicit information about what the buyer is really thinking/feeling…these things are entirely applicable in *any* situation that you need to sell to someone…and remember: selling is convincing people to see your point of view and act on it. So that new big screen TV you want to buy but need to convince your wife on? This book can help you. That training opportunity you want your company to send you on? This book can help you. The upgrade to your community park that you want to lobby the local civic authorities for? This book can help you. The book is a bit wordy. I found that the length could have been reduced and the points still have gotten across. That’s really the only knock that I have though; the insight that it provides is so worthwhile that having to chew through extra words is well worth it. You definitely don’t have to be a professional salesperson to benefit from this book. Rating: 4/5

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• College Ratings via the Federal Government

  - by user9147039

  A few weeks back you might remember news about a higher education rating system proposal from the Obama administration. As I've discussed previously, political and stakeholder pressures to improve outcomes and increase transparency are stronger than ever before. The executive branch proposal is intended to make progress in this area. Quoting from the proposal itself, "The ratings will be based upon such measures as: Access, such as percentage of students receiving Pell grants; Affordability, such as average tuition, scholarships, and loan debt; and Outcomes, such as graduation and transfer rates, graduate earnings, and advanced degrees of college graduates.” This is going to be quite complex, to say the least. Most notably, higher ed is not monolithic. From community and other 2-year colleges, to small private 4-year, to professional schools, to large public research institutions…the many walks of higher ed life are, well, many. Designing a ratings system that doesn't wind up with lots of unintended consequences and collateral damage will be difficult. At best you would end up potentially tarnishing the reputation of certain institutions that were actually performing well against the metrics and outcome measures that make sense in their "context" of education. At worst you could spend a lot of time and resources designing a system that would lose credibility with its "customers". A lot of institutions I work with already have in place systems like the one described above. They are tracking completion rates, completion timeframes, transfers to other institutions, job placement, and salary information. As I talk to these institutions there are several constants worth noting: • Deciding on which metrics to measure is complicated. While employment and salary data are relatively easy to track, qualitative measures are more difficult. How do you quantify the benefit to someone who studies in one field that may not compensate him or her as well as another field but that provides huge personal fulfillment and reward is a difficult measure to quantify? • The data is available but the systems to transform the data into actual information that can be used in meaningful ways are not. Too often in higher ed information is siloed. As such, much of the data that need to be a part of a comprehensive system sit in multiple organizations, oftentimes outside the reach of core IT. • Politics and culture are big barriers. One of the areas that my team and I spend a lot of time talking about with higher ed institutions all over the world is the imperative to optimize for student success. This, like the tracking of the students’ achievement after graduation, requires a level or organizational capacity that does not currently exist. The primary barrier is the culture of "data islands" in higher ed, and the need for leadership to drive out the divisions between departments, schools, colleges, etc. and institute academy-wide analytics and data stewardship initiatives that will enable student success. • Data quality is a very big issue. So many disparate systems exist (some on premise, some "in the cloud") that keep data about "persons" using different means to identify them. Establishing a single source of truth about an individual and his or her data is difficult without some type of data quality policy and tools. Good tools actually exist but are seldom leveraged. Don't misunderstand - I think it's a great idea to drive additional transparency and accountability into the system of higher education. And not just at home, but globally. Students and parents need access to key data to make informed, responsible choices. The tools exist to not only enable this kind of information to be shared but to capture the very metrics stakeholders care most about and in a way that makes sense in the context of a given institution's "place" in the overall higher ed panoply.

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• How to introduce a computer illiterate 50-year old to programming [closed]

  - by sunday

  The other day my dad asked me a question that I would have never expected from him. "How can I learn C++?" My dad is turning 56 this year and computers are a distant concept for him. He doesn't know how to use a phone very well besides calling numbers (no speed dial or contacts); though he has started to learn computers a little better - to the point that he knows how to open the internet (in Windows) and browse around (and has successfully completed several job applications entirely on his own online, of which he was offered positions too). But still, these are too narrow-windowed experiences to mean much, really. While he may not have the background, my dad knows how to read. And I mean reading as a skill, not just an ability. He has little to no college education (financial problems, family, etc.) and was fortunate enough to finish high school, but still taught himself to become a master electrician and has been one for almost 30 years now. He did the same with guitar, learning to play at a very professional level and has been praised for his skill. In high school, he picked up a weight lifting book - and was the only person in his high school at the time to qualify officially as an "athlete" by national standards. In all cases, he just needed something to read. Something to teach him. He absorbs information like a sponge. I have no doubt in my dad's motivation or capability of doing this, so my general goal is simply: Get my dad into the world of computers, and get him on the road to programming. I strongly believe that once I get him through the fundamentals, his drive and reading skill will keep him going on this own. So I'm asking you all: where should I start with all this? And what are the best resources out there? Should I get him to start Linux instead of Windows? Is C++ a bad idea? Remember, he needs to (IMO) learn computers first, and then get that first grasp (the "Hello world" experience) of programming. For money's sake and at top preference, I'd like free online resources that he can read, but by all means any good suggestions in print or paid-for-online are welcome (that I could possibly look into later to purchase). And also, I intend to start him off with C++ (no Python, Java, etc.), because I know it the best and will be able to help him along the way with code. (I have minimal knowledge right now in other languages). Edit: I'm getting a lot of persistent suggestions to use Python. The only reason I wanted to do C++ is that I KNOW it and can be THERE when my dad needs help. My VERY FIRST exposure to programming ever was Java. I learned Java, and I got good at it. I open to other suggestions, but please provide an effective application of your suggestions. EDIT #2: I understand my approach/thinking/knowledge could be lacking here. I'm a sophomore level undergraduate CS major. If you don't agree with anything in my post, tell me why - give me ideas, information - that's why I'm asking in the first place. To narrow down my general goal to specific reachable goals.

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• Software and/(x)or Hardware Projects for Pre-School Kids

  - by haylem

  I offered to participate at my kid's pre-school for various activities (yes, I'm crazy like that), and one of them is to help them discover extra-curricular (big word for a pre-school, but by lack of a better one... :)) hobbies, which may or may not relate to a professional activity. At first I thought that it wouldn't be really easy to have pre-schoolers relate to programming or the internal workings of a computer system in general (and I'm more used to teaching middle-school to university-level students), but then I thought there must be a way. So I'm trying to figure out ways to introduce very young kids (3yo) to computer systems in a fun and preferably educational way. Of course, I don't expect them to start smashing the stack for fun and profit right away (or at least not voluntarily, though I could use the occasion for some toddler tests...), but I'm confident there must be ways to get them interested in both: using the systems, becoming curious about understanding what they do, interacting with the systems to modify them. I guess this setting is not really relevant after all, it's pretty much the same as if you were aiming to achieve the same for your own kids at home. Ideas Considering we're talking 3yo pre-schoolers here, and that at this age some kids are already quite confident using a mouse (some even a keyboard, if not for typing, at least to press some buttons they've come to associate with actions) while others have not yet had any interaction with computers of any kind, it needs to be: rather basic, demonstrated and played with in less then 5 or 10 minutes, doable in in groups or alone, scalable and extendable in complexity to accommodate their varying abilities. The obvious options are: basic smallish games to play with, interactive systems like LOGO, Kojo, Squeak and clones (possibly even simpler than that), or thngs like Lego Systems. I guess it can be a thing to reflect on both at the software and the hardware levels: it could be done with a desktop or laptop machine, a tablet, a smartphone (or a crap-phone, for that matter, as long as you can modify it), or even get down to building something from scratch (Raspberry Pi and Arduino being popular options at the moment). I can probably be in the form of games, funny visualizations (which are pretty much games) w/ Prototype, virtual worlds to explore. I also thought on the moment (and I hope this won't offend anyone) that some approaches to teaching pets could work (reward systems, haptic feedback and such things could quickly point a kid in the right direction to understanding how things work, in a similar fashion - I'm not suggesting to shock the kids!). Hmm, Is There an Actual Question in There? What type of systems do you think might be a good fit, both in terms of hardware and software? Do you have seen such systems, or have anything in mind to work on? Are you aware of some research in this domain, with tangible results? Any input is welcome. It's not that I don't see options: there are tons, but I have a harder time pinpointing a more concrete and definite type of project/activity, so I figure some have valuable ideas or existing ones. Note: I am not advocating that every kid should learn to program, be interested in computer systems, or that all of them in a class would even care enough to follow such an introduction with more than a blank stare. I don't buy into the "everybody would benefit from learning to program" thing. Wouldn't hurt, but not necessary in any way. But if I can walk out of there with a few of them having smiled using the thing (or heck, cried because others took them away from them), that'd be good enough. Related Questions I've seen and that seem to complement what I'm looking for, but not exactly for the same age groups or with the same goals: Teaching Programming to Kids Recommendations for teaching kids math concepts & skills for programming?

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• ASP.NET Web Site Administration Tool unkown Error ASP.NET 4 VS 2010

  - by Gabriel Guimarães

  I was following the MVCMusic tutorial with an machine with full sql server 2008 r2 and full visual studio professional and when I got to the page where it sets up membership (near page 66) the Web administration tool wont work, i got the following error: An error was encountered. Please return to the previous page and try again. my web config is like this: <connectionStrings> <clear /> <add name="MvcMusicStoreCN" connectionString="Data Source=.;Initial Catalog=MvcMusicStore;Integrated Security=True" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" /> <add name="MvcMusicStoreEntities" connectionString="metadata=res://*/Models.Store.csdl|res://*/Models.Store.ssdl|res://*/Models.Store.msl;provider=System.Data.SqlClient;provider connection string=&quot;Data Source=.;Initial Catalog=MvcMusicStore;Integrated Security=True;MultipleActiveResultSets=True&quot;" providerName="System.Data.EntityClient" /> </connectionStrings> <system.web> <membership defaultProvider="AspNetSqlMembershipProvider"> <providers> <clear /> <add name="AspNetSqlMembershipProvider" type="System.Web.Security.SqlMembershipProvider" connectionStringName="MvcMusicStoreCN" enablePasswordRetrieval="false" enablePasswordReset="true" requiresQuestionAndAnswer="true" requiresUniqueEmail="false" maxInvalidPasswordAttempts="5" minRequiredPasswordLength="6" minRequiredNonalphanumericCharacters="0" passwordAttemptWindow="10" applicationName="/" passwordFormat="Hashed" /> </providers> </membership> <profile> <providers> <clear /> <add name="AspNetSqlProfileProvider" type="System.Web.Profile.SqlProfileProvider" connectionStringName="MvcMusicStoreCN" applicationName="/" /> </providers> </profile> <roleManager enabled="true" defaultProvider="MvcMusicStoreCN"> <providers> <clear /> <add connectionStringName="MvcMusicStoreCN" applicationName="/" name="AspNetSqlRoleProvider" type="System.Web.Security.SqlRoleProvider" /> <add applicationName="/" name="AspNetWindowsTokenRoleProvider" type="System.Web.Security.WindowsTokenRoleProvider" /> </providers> </roleManager> </system.web>

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• Visual Studio 2008 SignTool.exe not found

  - by Maslow

  I can't publish in 2008, I was previously using 2005 and it published just fine. Error 2 An error occurred while signing: SignTool.exe not found. I know there are tons of hits for a search on signtool.exe on google. The ones I've found involve copying the file to X,Y,Z locations and ensuring signtool matches up with your VS command prompt path. When I run my start- program files - visual studio 2008 - Visual Studio Tools - Visual Studio Command prompt. and type signtool.exe it finds the file just fine. I have Visual Studio 2005 professional edition, Visual studio 2008 profession edition, Visual studio 2005 SDK February 2007, just installed Visial Studio 2008 SDK1.1 to see if that would fix it, no luck. I have copied signtool.exe to lots of places that were suggested on the google searches, it is now located at all of the following: C:\Program Files\Visual Studio 2005 SDK\2007.02 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\Tools C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VB\Bin C:\WINNT\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5 C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\Bin C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\Tools\Bin C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\Bin C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\SDK\v3.5\Bin C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VB\Bin\1033 C:\Program Files\Visual Studio 2005 SDK\2007.02\VisualStudioIntegration\Tools\Bin I'm on windows XP 2009-06-12 update I can only publish if I copy signtool.exe to the project folder I'm publishing now.

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• VS2010 Ultimate - Unable to launch ASP.NET Development Server

  - by sohum

  I've worked with ASP.NET once before and had a project where it was potentially useful, so I started creating an ASP.NET website as part of a solution that contained several C# class libraries. I'm using Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate Edition and Windows 7 Professional x64. The issue is that when I try to debug my website project, I get the following error message: Unable to launch the ASP.NET Development Server There's no other information (it seems a popular variant is the "port in use" error). Interestingly, I can run single pages on the application by right-clicking on the ASPX and selecting "View in Browser". This does not allow me to debug into my breakpoints, though. I have no clue what the problem could be. I'm running VS2010 in Administrator mode. One of the questions that popped up here suggested I uncomment the "127.0.0.1 localhost" line from my HOSTS file, which I did, and restarted VS with no luck. I also tried both setting a static port for the web server to run on as well as let it dynamically generate one. Both do not help the situation. Any help? Thanks.

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• Why to build own CMS?

  - by ile

  On my first job interview, I was asked why did I build my own CMS? Why not to use one of existing CMS, Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal...? At first, I was stunned. I couldn't immediately recall all of my reasons for building my own CMS, but this was definitely one of the main reasons: It's my code and if I want to change something in that CMS (which I often have to do, because each website I build needs CMS with different functions) it's not a big problem. For some time I've been using Wordpress and one of the main things that distracted me from using it was discovering bugs in code that wasn't written by me and this bugs were often, especially if I made some changes to CMS or added a plugin... Here, I can find these 8 reasons why NOT to build own CMS: It won’t meet users’ needs It’s too much work It won’t be a standard solution It won’t be extendible fast enough It won’t be tested well enough It won’t be easily changeable It won’t add any value Create content, not functionality Quote from the same page: So the main question to ask yourself is: ‘Why am I really trying to re-solve a problem that has already been solved before?’ Well, I definitely agree that it's hard to invent CMS that hasn't been already invented, but on other hand, I think every CMS is (or should be) individual... it maybe won't have a million of functions, it will have 3 functions but their usage will be clear (to a user) and do all that one site needs to have. I think also that it is not good to give to a client a CMS with a lot of functions that are never used and it looks probably more professional when website and CMS together look like one product. I would also like to comment some quote parts: "It’s too much work" - I agree, but when using existing CMS and customizing it to website needs and can sometimes be very hard job or mission impossible. "It won’t be easily changeable" - I disagree with this one. What is your opinion on this one, why did you develop or didn't develop your own CMS? Ile

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• Flash CS3 -- tahoma text loading differently than on client's computer.

  - by codemonkey613

  A client has sent me a Flash CS3 website template she was working on. I'm supposed to do some work on it. When I load it, it displays incorrectly. The body type appears incorrectly. It's different then what it appears on her computer. Causing all the body text to overlap each other. She has Windows Vista with Flash CS3. I'm using Windows XP Professional with Flash CS4. When I open the file, it says that 'tahoma' font is missing on my computer. And asks me to select a replacement. Obviously, I have Tahoma on my computer -- everyone does. I even got her to send her version of Tahoma to me from her Windows Font Folder. When I tried to install it, it says "font already installed". So, I pointed it to my Tahoma font as a replacement. This could be the problem. But why does it not recognize my version of tahoma? Anyone know what's going on, or how I can fix it? I'm supposed to be working on this website, but can't proceed because I might be wasting time if it doesn't match up.

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• Recommendations on developing a WPF application without using MVVM or similar

  - by Metro Smurf

  We were building out the next version of an in-house thick-client application using WPF/Prism (Composite Application Library). As we were nearly done with the client our team was put under new management and shortly thereafter: We were then directed to drop the Prism framework to keep things simple. This includes not using any type of Inversion of Control. We were directed to build out the WPF application without using MVVM or similar; and more along the lines of a traditional WinForm application. The idea is that if a developer sees a control in Visual Studio’s designer view, then (s)he should be able to click on the control and see exactly what it's doing without having to traverse through a view-model (or similar). We have now been tasked with building out the WPF application using one primary Window, use a Frame Control to contain the content, and use a Ribbon outside of the frame for the menu items. Reason we were provided to use Frame Control: a. We will show a view in the Frame with a Page (not a user control) and then load the page in the Frame. b. When a new view is to be shown in the Frame, the current view (Page) will be closed/disposed and the new view (Page) will take its place in the Frame. c. When a developer looks at the Page in design view, (s)he will be able to click on any control and see exactly what is being done. Given the restrictions of 1 and 2 above, we’d like to present another method of building out the application that: Can be presented as an alternative to using the “Frame Methodology” (item 3 above) but still provides the same type of functionality. Does not use MVVM (see #1 and #2 above). Provided the direction we’ve been given, any suggestions as to an alternative we can present? I’d request that the responses be kept on the professional level and thank you in advance.

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• Task failed because "sgen.exe" was not found

  - by Kinze

  I am getting the following error when attempting to build my project in Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition: *Task failed because “sgen.exe” was not found, or the correct Microsoft Windows SDK is not installed. The task is looking for “sgen.exe” in the “bin” subdirectory beneath the location specified in the InstallationFolder value of the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A. You may be able to solve the problem by doing one of the following: 1) Install the Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows Server 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5. 2) Install Visual Studio 2008. 3) Manually set the above registry key to the correct location. 4) Pass the correct location into the “ToolPath” parameter of the task.* I tried downloading Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows Server 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5, and still get the error. I also tried downloading the Windows 7 SDK and .NET Framework 3.5 and still same result. I also tried to manually editing the registry to change the InstallationFolder and I tried repairing the Visual Studio install. The project was originally created on WinXP and I am trying to compile on a reformatted machine running Windows 7 Enterprise.

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• Is LaTeX worth learning today?

  - by Ender

  I know that LaTeX is big in the world of academia, and was probably a big name in desktop publishing before the glory days of WordPerfect and Microsoft Office but as a Windows user that is interested in the power of LaTeX and the general smoothness of a LaTeX generated page is it really worth learning? In a couple of months I'll be starting my final year in Computer Science and LaTeX has been bounced around the campus by many of the Linux geeks. In reality, is there any need to use it today? What will I actually gain from it and will I enjoy using it? Finally, how does one use LaTeX on a Windows machine? What software do I really need? I've read a couple of guides but many of them seem like overkill. Please help break a LaTeX newbie into the world of professional academic publishing! EDIT: I've toyed with LaTeX for a while, and have even learned that it's pronounced "lay-tech", not "lay-tecks". I'll agree once again with the accepted answer in saying that MiKTeX is the best solution for Windows users.

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• Microsoft Ajax Control Toolkit vs. jQuery

  - by Juri

  Hi, we are currently developing a couple of custom asp.net server controls. Now we'd like to add some Ajax support to some of them. Now basically there would be two options Microsoft Ajax & Microsoft Ajax Control Toolkit jQuery I worked already with the Control Toolkit, writing a complete Extender and it was quite intuitive, once you understand the story behind. But I also like the simplicity of jQuery. So I'd like to hear some of you what you would like to go for (advantages/disadvantages of each of them), considering also that we're mainly dealing with Microsoft technologies. Would you go more for the toolkit or jQuery,...or both? //Edit: I just made some tests and I have to admit that at the moment I find the Toolkit better due to the integration. My purpose is mainly for using it on the server controls, so with the toolkit I have corresponding classes on the server-side where I can do something like CalendarExtender toolkitCalendarExtender = new CalendarExtender(); toolkitCalendarExtender.TargetControlID.... ... this.Controls.Add(toolkitCalendarExtender); This is really nice because in this way I don't have to deal with rendering predefined JavaScript which I construct somehow as string inside my custom server control. With jQuery I would have to do so (except for the toolkit Nicolas mentioned, but the support there is too weak for using it in a professional environment) Thanks a lot.

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• Increasing Max Upload File Size on IIS7/Win7 Pro

  - by Jay Querido

  I'm setting up a server for a client (something I don't typically do), and I'm running into issues with uploading larger files (11MB). The server is running Windows 7 Professional with IIS added. In web.config I've tried setting <system.web> <httpRuntime maxRequestLength="65536" /> <!-- 64MB --> </system.web> ... and that doesn't work. I've set <system.webSecurity> <security> <requestFiltering> <requestLimits maxAllowedContentLength="68157440" /> </requestFiltering> </security> </system.webSecurity> ... and that doesn't work either. What am I missing here? As I've said, I don't typically set up servers, so I may be missing something obvious... no suggestion will be scoffed at! Thanks in advance.

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• How does Visual Studio decide the order in which stack variables should be allocated?

  - by Jason

  I'm trying to turn some of the programs in gera's Insecure Programming by example into client/server applications that could be used in capture the flag scenarios to teach exploit development. The problem I'm having is that I'm not sure how Visual Studio (I'm using 2005 Professional Edition) decides where to allocate variables on the stack. When I compile and run example 1: int main() { int cookie; char buf[80]; printf("buf: %08x cookie: %08x\n", &buf, &cookie); gets(buf); if (cookie == 0x41424344) printf("you win!\n"); } I get the following result: buf: 0012ff14 cookie: 0012ff64 buf starts at an address eighty bytes lower than cookie, and any four bytes that are copied in buf after the first eighty will appear in cookie. The problem I'm having is when I place this code in some other function. When I compile and run the following code, I get a different result: buf appears at an address greater than cookie's. void ClientSocketHandler(SOCKET cs){ int cookie; char buf[80]; char stringToSend[160]; int numBytesRecved; int totalNumBytes; sprintf(stringToSend,"buf: %08x cookie: %08x\n",&buf,&cookie); send(cs,stringToSend,strlen(stringToSend),NULL); The result is: buf: 0012fd00 cookie: 0012fcfc Now there is no way to set cookie to arbitrary data via overwriting buf. Is there any way to tell Visual Studio to allocate cookie before buf? Is there any way to tell beforehand how the variables will be allocated? Thanks, Jason

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• General Web Programming/designing Question: ?

  - by Prasad

  hi, I have been in web programming for 2 years (Self taught - a biology researcher by profession). I designed a small wiki with needed functionalities and a scientific RTE - ofcourse lot is expected. I used mootools framework and AJAX extensively. I was always curious when ever I saw the query strings passed from URL. Long encrypted query string directly getting passed to the server. Especially Google's design is such. I think this is the start of providing a Web Service to a client - I guess. Now, my question is : is this a special, highly professional, efficient / advanced web design technique to communicate queries via the URL ? I always felt that direct URL based communication is faster. I tried my bit and could send a query through the URL directly. here is the link: http://sgwiki.sdsc.edu/getSGMPage.php?8 By this , the client can directly link to the desired page instead of searching and / or can automate. There are many possibilities. The next request: Can I be pointed to such technique of web programming? oops: I am sorry, If I have not been able to convey my request clearly. Prasad.

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• Error when instantiating .NET/COM interop class via classic ASP

  - by Lee D

  Hi all, I am having a problem when trying to instantiate a C# .NET class that's been exposed to COM in a classic ASP application. I've used tlbexp to generate a typelib and registered it in Component Services; now when trying to create the object as such: Server.CreateObject("The.Class.Name") I am getting the error: Server object error 'ASP 0177 : 80131534' Server.CreateObject Failed I've searched around online for information on this error, and found numerous discussions but no solution. The error code 0x80131534 apparently means "COR_E_TYPEINITIALIZATION, a type failed to initialize", which would suggest the problem would be in the constructor. The constructor of the class in question sets a private field to an instance of another class from the same assembly, and then reads some configuration settings from an XML file. This behaviour is unit tested and I've checked that the file exists; I can't see anything else that could be breaking in there. A few other points which may or may not be of use: A test .NET project referencing the DLL can instantiate the class just fine; however a test VB6 project referencing the TLB blows up with the same error. Both the DLL and the TLB are in the same location. This application is running locally, on Windows XP Professional SP3 and IIS 5.1. The .NET assembly is built with .NET Framework 2.0, although 3.5 is installed on the machine. I know other people who don't get this error on their builds, so I believe it may be something environmental. Any suggestions are welcome as I've been struggling to fix this for some time. Thanks in advance.

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• sproutcore vs javascriptMVC for web app development

  - by swami

  Hi, I want to use a javascript framework with MVC for a complex web application (which will be one of a set of related apps and pages) for an intranet in a digital archives. I have been looking at SproutCore and JavascriptMVC. I want to choose one framework and stick with it. Does anybody know what the distinguishing features are when comparing these two? I want something that is simple, straightforward that I can customize/hack easily, and that doesn't get in my way too much, but that at the same time gives me a basis for keeping my code nicely organized, and event-driven. I also plan on using jquery substantially. I know sproutcore is backed by Apple, and looks like it is getting more popular by the day, and it has a nice green website :), whereas JavascriptMVC looks less professional, with less of a following and less momentum behind it. I've done the tutorials for both and I was impressed by SproutCore more (in the JMVC tutorial you don't really do anything substantial) - but somewhere in the back of my mind I feel that JMVC might just be better because it doesn't try and do too much - it just gives you MVC functionality based on a couple of jquery plugins, and you can use jquery for everything else, so its flexible. Whereas SproutCore seems to have more of its own API etc... which is also nice in a way... but then you're kind of stuck within that.... hmmm I'm confused :). Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

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• Com server build using Python on 64-bit Windows 7 machine

  - by Vijayendra Bapte

  Original post is here: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-win32/2010-December/011011.html I am using: OS: 64 bit Windows 7 Professional Python: python-2.7.1.amd64 Python win32 extensions: pywin32-214.win-amd64-py2.7 Py2exe: py2exe-0.6.9.win64-py2.7.amd64 I am trying to build icon overlay for Windows. It has worked fine on 32 bit Windows but not working on 64 bit Windows 7. Here are the Python modules I have created for testing: test_icon_overlay.py: ( http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-win32/attachments/20101229/bb8c78a4/attachment-0002.obj ) com server created in Python for icon overlay which adds check mark overlay icon(C:\icons\test.ico) on "C:\icons" folder setup_VI.py: ( http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-win32/attachments/20101229/bb8c78a4/attachment-0003.obj ) setup file which creates test_icon_overlay.dll for distribution. icons.zip: ( http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-win32/attachments/20101229/bb8c78a4/attachment-0001.zip ) for testing you should extract icons.zip inside C:\ Icon overlay appears on C:\icons folder when I execute python test_icon_overlay.py on Windows command prompt and restarts explorer.exe. But its not working with the dll file created using setup_VI.py I have created dll file using python setup_VI.py py2exe and then tried to register it using regsvr32 test_icon_overlay.dll. Registration fails with windows error message Error 0x80040201 while registering shell extension. Then I turned on logger in Python27/Lib/site-packages/py2exe/boot_com_servers.py and here is the traceback which I am getting in comerror.txt on regsvr32 test_icon_overlay.dll PATH is ['C:\\root\\avalon\\module\\sync\\python\\src\\dist\\library.zip'] Traceback (most recent call last): File "boot_com_servers.py", line 37, in <module> pywintypes.error: (126, 'GetModuleFileName', 'The specified module could not be found.') Traceback (most recent call last): File "<string>", line 1, in <module> NameError: name 'DllRegisterServer' is not defined Looks like there might be a problem with win32api.GetModuleFileName(sys.frozendllhandle) or with the dll build on 64-bit Windows 7. Also, I saw that installation of pywin32-214.win-amd64-py2.7 on 64-bit Windows 7 finish with the error message: Snapshot close failed in file object destructor: sys.excepthook is missing lost sys.stderr Is there anything which I am doing wrong? Any help on this is highly appreciated.

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