Search Results

Search found 8274 results on 331 pages for 'offtopic but important'.

Page 133/331 | < Previous Page | 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140  | Next Page >

  • Conducting Effective Web Meetings

    - by BuckWoody
    There are several forms of corporate communication. From immediate, rich communications like phones and IM messaging to historical transactions like e-mail, there are a lot of ways to get information to one or more people. From time to time, it's even useful to have a meeting. (This is where a witty picture of a guy sleeping in a meeting goes. I won't bother actually putting one here; you're already envisioning it in your mind) Most meetings are pointless, and a complete waste of time. This is the fault, completely and solely, of the organizer. It's because he or she hasn't thought things through enough to think about alternate forms of information passing. Here's the criteria for a good meeting - whether in-person or over the web: 100% of the content of a meeting should require the participation of 100% of the attendees for 100% of the time It doesn't get any simpler than that. If it doesn't meet that criteria, then don't invite that person to that meeting. If you're just conveying information and no one has the need for immediate interaction with that information (like telling you something that modifies the message), then send an e-mail. If you're a manager, and you need to get status from lots of people, pick up the phone.If you need a quick answer, use IM. I once had a high-level manager that called frequent meetings. His real need was status updates on various processes, so 50 of us would sit in a room while he asked each one of us questions. He believed this larger meeting helped us "cross pollinate ideas". In fact, it was a complete waste of time for most everyone, except in the one or two moments that they interacted with him. So I wrote some code for a Palm Pilot (which was a kind of SmartPhone but with no phone and no real graphics, but this was in the days when we had just discovered fire and the wheel, although the order of those things is still in debate) that took an average of the salaries of the people in the room (I guessed at it) and ran a timer which multiplied the number of people against the salaries. I left that running in plain sight for him, and when he asked about it, I explained how much the meetings were really costing the company. We had far fewer meetings after. Meetings are now web-enabled. I believe that's largely a good thing, since it saves on travel time and allows more people to participate, but I think the rule above still holds. And in fact, there are some other rules that you should follow to have a great meeting - and fewer of them. Be Clear About the Goal This is important in any meeting, but all of us have probably gotten an invite with a web link and an ambiguous title. Then you get to the meeting, and it's a 500-level deep-dive on something everyone expects you to know. This is unfair to the "expert" and to the participants. I always tell people that invite me to a meeting that I will be as detailed as I can - but the more detail they can tell me about the questions, the more detailed I can be in my responses. Granted, there are times when you don't know what you don't know, but the more you can say about the topic the better. There's another point here - and it's that you should have a clearly defined "win" for the meeting. When the meeting is over, and everyone goes back to work, what were you expecting them to do with the information? Have that clearly defined in your head, and in the meeting invite. Understand the Technology There are several web-meeting clients out there. I use them all, since I meet with clients all over the world. They all work differently - so I take a few moments and read up on the different clients and find out how I can use the tools properly. I do this with the technology I use for everything else, and it's important to understand it if the meeting is to be a success. If you're running the meeting, know the tools. I don't care if you like the tools or not, learn them anyway. Don't waste everyone else's time just because you're too bitter/snarky/lazy to spend a few minutes reading. Check your phone or mic. Check your video size. Install (and learn to use)  ZoomIT (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897434.aspx). Format your slides or screen or output correctly. Learn to use the voting features of the meeting software, and especially it's whiteboard features. Figure out how multiple monitors work. Try a quick meeting with someone to test all this. Do this *before* you invite lots of other people to your meeting.   Use a WebCam I'm not a pretty man. I have a face fit for radio. But after attending a meeting with clients where one Microsoft person used a webcam and another did not, I'm convinced that people pay more attention when a face is involved. There are tons of studies around this, or you can take my word for it, but toss a shirt on over those pajamas and turn the webcam on. Set Up Early Whether you're attending or leading the meeting, don't wait to sign on to the meeting at the time when it starts. I can almost plan that a 10:00 meeting will actually start at 10:10 because the participants/leader is just now installing the web client for the meeting at 10:00. Sign on early, go on mute, and then wait for everyone to arrive. Mute When Not Talking No one wants to hear your screaming offspring / yappy dog / other cubicle conversations / car wind noise (are you driving in a desert storm or something?) while the person leading the meeting is trying to talk. I use the Lync software from Microsoft for my meetings, and I mute everyone by default, and then tell them to un-mute to talk to the group. Share Collateral If you have a PowerPoint deck, mail it out in case you have a tech failure. If you have a document, share it as an attachment to the meeting. Don't make people ask you for the information - that's why you're there to begin with. Even better, send it out early. "But", you say, "then no one will come to the meeting if they have the deck first!" Uhm, then don't have a meeting. Send out the deck and a quick e-mail and let everyone get on with their productive day. Set Actions At the Meeting A meeting should have some sort of outcome (see point one). That means there are actions to take, a follow up, or some deliverable. Otherwise, it's an e-mail. At the meeting, decide who will do what, when things are needed, and so on. And avoid, if at all possible, setting up another meeting, unless absolutely necessary. So there you have it. Whether it's on-premises or on the web, meetings are a necessary evil, and should be treated that way. Like politicians, you should have as few of them as are necessary to keep the roads paved and public libraries open.

    Read the article

  • Windows Azure Virtual Machine Readiness and Capacity Assessment for SQL Server

    - by SQLOS Team
    Windows Azure Virtual Machine Readiness and Capacity Assessment for Windows Server Machine Running SQL Server With the release of MAP Toolkit 8.0 Beta, we have added a new scenario to assess your Windows Azure Virtual Machine Readiness. The MAP 8.0 Beta performs a comprehensive assessment of Windows Servers running SQL Server to determine you level of readiness to migrate an on-premise physical or virtual machine to Windows Azure Virtual Machines. The MAP Toolkit then offers suggested changes to prepare the machines for migration, such as upgrading the operating system or SQL Server. MAP Toolkit 8.0 Beta is available for download here Your participation and feedback is very important to make the MAP Toolkit work better for you. We encourage you to participate in the beta program and provide your feedback at [email protected] or through one of our surveys. Now, let’s walk through the MAP Toolkit task for completing the Windows Azure Virtual Machine assessment and capacity planning. The tasks include the following: Perform an inventory View the Windows Azure VM Readiness results and report Collect performance data for determine VM sizing View the Windows Azure Capacity results and report Perform an inventory: 1. To perform an inventory against a single machine or across a complete environment, choose Perform an Inventory to launch the Inventory and Assessment Wizard as shown below: 2. After the Inventory and Assessment Wizard launches, select either the Windows computers or SQL Server scenario to inventory Windows machines. HINT: If you don’t care about completely inventorying a machine, just select the SQL Server scenario. Click Next to Continue. 3. On the Discovery Methods page, select how you want to discover computers and then click Next to continue. Description of Discovery Methods: Use Active Directory Domain Services -- This method allows you to query a domain controller via the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) and select computers in all or specific domains, containers, or OUs. Use this method if all computers and devices are in AD DS. Windows networking protocols --  This method uses the WIN32 LAN Manager application programming interfaces to query the Computer Browser service for computers in workgroups and Windows NT 4.0–based domains. If the computers on the network are not joined to an Active Directory domain, use only the Windows networking protocols option to find computers. System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) -- This method enables you to inventory computers managed by System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM). You need to provide credentials to the System Center Configuration Manager server in order to inventory the managed computers. When you select this option, the MAP Toolkit will query SCCM for a list of computers and then MAP will connect to these computers. Scan an IP address range -- This method allows you to specify the starting address and ending address of an IP address range. The wizard will then scan all IP addresses in the range and inventory only those computers. Note: This option can perform poorly, if many IP addresses aren’t being used within the range. Manually enter computer names and credentials -- Use this method if you want to inventory a small number of specific computers. Import computer names from a files -- Using this method, you can create a text file with a list of computer names that will be inventoried. 4. On the All Computers Credentials page, enter the accounts that have administrator rights to connect to the discovered machines. This does not need to a domain account, but needs to be a local administrator. I have entered my domain account that is an administrator on my local machine. Click Next after one or more accounts have been added. NOTE: The MAP Toolkit primarily uses Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to collect hardware, device, and software information from the remote computers. In order for the MAP Toolkit to successfully connect and inventory computers in your environment, you have to configure your machines to inventory through WMI and also allow your firewall to enable remote access through WMI. The MAP Toolkit also requires remote registry access for certain assessments. In addition to enabling WMI, you need accounts with administrative privileges to access desktops and servers in your environment. 5. On the Credentials Order page, select the order in which want the MAP Toolkit to connect to the machine and SQL Server. Generally just accept the defaults and click Next. 6. On the Enter Computers Manually page, click Create to pull up at dialog to enter one or more computer names. 7. On the Summary page confirm your settings and then click Finish. After clicking Finish the inventory process will start, as shown below: Windows Azure Readiness results and report After the inventory progress has completed, you can review the results under the Database scenario. On the tile, you will see the number of Windows Server machine with SQL Server that were analyzed, the number of machines that are ready to move without changes and the number of machines that require further changes. If you click this Azure VM Readiness tile, you will see additional details and can generate the Windows Azure VM Readiness Report. After the report is generated, select View | Saved Reports and Proposals to view the location of the report. Open up WindowsAzureVMReadiness* report in Excel. On the Windows tab, you can see the results of the assessment. This report has a column for the Operating System and SQL Server assessment and provides a recommendation on how to resolve, if there a component is not supported. Collect Performance Data Launch the Performance Wizard to collect performance information for the Windows Server machines that you would like the MAP Toolkit to suggest a Windows Azure VM size for. Windows Azure Capacity results and report After the performance metrics are collected, the Azure VM Capacity title will display the number of Virtual Machine sizes that are suggested for the Windows Server and Linux machines that were analyzed. You can then click on the Azure VM Capacity tile to see the capacity details and generate the Windows Azure VM Capacity Report. Within this report, you can view the performance data that was collected and the Virtual Machine sizes.   MAP Toolkit 8.0 Beta is available for download here Your participation and feedback is very important to make the MAP Toolkit work better for you. We encourage you to participate in the beta program and provide your feedback at [email protected] or through one of our surveys. Useful References: Windows Azure Homepage How to guides for Windows Azure Virtual Machines Provisioning a SQL Server Virtual Machine on Windows Azure Windows Azure Pricing     Peter Saddow Senior Program Manager – MAP Toolkit Team

    Read the article

  • How I Work: Staying Productive Whilst Traveling

    - by BuckWoody
    I travel a lot. Not like some folks that are gone every week, mind you, although in the last month I’ve been to: Cambridge, UK; Anchorage, AK; San Jose, CA; Copenhagen, DK, Boston, MA; and I’m currently en-route to Anaheim, CA.  While this many places in a month is a bit unusual for me, I would say I travel frequently. I’ve travelled most of my 28+ years in IT, and at one time was a consultant traveling weekly.   With that much time away from my primary work location, I have to find ways to stay productive. Some might say “just rest – take a nap!” – but I’m not able to do that. For one thing, I’m a very light sleeper and I’ve never slept on a plane - even a 30+ hour trip to New Zealand in Business Class - so that just isn’t option. I also am not always in the plane, of course. There’s the hotel, the taxi/bus/train, the airport and then all that over again when I arrive. Since my regular jobs have many demands, I have to get work done.   Note: No, I’m not always focused on work. I need downtime just like everyone else. Sometimes I just think, watch a movie or listen to tunes – and I give myself permission to do that anytime – sometimes the whole trip. I have too fewheartbeats left in life to only focus on work – it’s just not that important, and neither am I. Some of these tasks are letters to friends and family, or other personal things. What I’m talking about here is a plan, not some task list I have to follow. When I get to the location I’m traveling to, I always build in as much time as I can to ensure I enjoy those sights and the people I’m with. I would find traveling to be a waste if not for that.   The Unrealistic Expectation As I would evaluate the trip I was taking – say a 6-8 hour flight – I would expect to get 10-12 hours of work done. After all, there’s the time at the airport, the taxi and so on, and then of course the time in the air with all of the room, power, internet and everything else I needed to get my work done. I would pile up tasks at home, pack my bags, and head happily to the magical land of the TSA.   Right. On return from the trip, I had accomplished little, had more e-mails and other work that had piled up, and I was tired, hungry, and unorganized. This had to change. So, I decided to do three things: Segment my work Set realistic expectations Plan accordingly  Segmenting By Available Resources The first task was to decide what kind of work I could do in each location – if any. I found that I was dependent on a few things to get work done, such as power, the Internet, and a place to sit down. Before I fly, I take some time at home to get all of the work I’d like to accomplish while away segmented into these areas, and print that out on paper, which goes in my suit-coat pocket along with a mechanical pencil. I print my tickets, and I’m all set for the adventure ahead. Then I simply do each kind of work whenever I’m in that situation. No power There are certain times when I don’t have power available. But not only that, I might not even be able to use most of my electronics. So I now schedule as many phone calls as I can for the taxi/bus/train ride and the airports as I can. I have a paper notebook (Moleskine, of course) and a pencil and I print out any notes or numbers I need prior to the trip. Once I’m airborne or at the airport, I work on my laptop. I check and respond to e-mails, create slides, write code, do architecture, whatever I can.  If I can’t use any electronics, or once the power runs out, I schedule time for reading. I can read at the airport or anywhere, actually, even in-flight or any other transport. I “read with a pencil”, meaning I take a lot of notes, which I liketo put in OneNote, but since in most cases I don’t have power, I use the Moleskine to do that. Speaking of which, sometimes as I’m thinking I come up with new topics, ideas, blog posts, or things to teach in my classes. Once again I take out the notebook and write it down. All of these notes get a check-mark when I get back to the office and transfer the writing to OneNote. I’ve tried those “smart pens” and so on to automate this, but it just never works out. Pencil and paper are just fine. As I mentioned, sometime I just need to think. I’ll do nothing, and let my mind wander, thinking of nothing in particular, or some math problem or science question I’m interested in. My only issue with this is that I communicate tothink, and I don’t want to drive people crazy by being that guy that won’t shut up, so I think in a different way. Power, but no Internet or Phone If I have power but no Internet or phone, I focus on the laptop and the tablet as before, and I also recharge my other gadgets. Power, Internet, Phone and a Place to Work At first I thought that when I arrived at the hotel or event I could get the same amount of work done that I do at the office. Not so. There’s simply too many distractions, things you need, or other issues that allow this. Of course, Ican work on any device, read, think, write or whatever, but I am simply not as productive as I am in my home office. So I plan for about 25-50% as much work getting done in this environment as I think I could really do. I’ve done some measurements, and this holds out to be true almost every time. The key is that I re-set my expectations (and my co-worker’s expectations as well) that this is the case. I use the Out-Of-Office notices to let people know that I’m just not going to be 100% at this time – it’s hard for everyone, but it’s more honest and realistic, and I’d rather they know that – and that I realize that – than to let them think I’m totally available. Because I’m not – I’m traveling. I don’t tend to put too much detail, because after all I don’t necessarily want to let people know when I’m not home :) but I do think it’s important to let people that depend on my know that I’ll get back with them later. I hope this helps you think through your own methodology of staying productive when you travel. Or perhaps you just go offline, and don’t worry about any of this – good for you! That’s completely valid as well.   (Oh, and yes, I wrote this at 35K feet, on Alaska Airlines on a trip. :)  Practice what you preach, Buck.)

    Read the article

  • First PC Build (Part 1)

    - by Anthony Trudeau
    Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/tonyt/archive/2014/08/05/157959.aspxA couple of months ago I made the decision to build myself a new computer. The intended use is gaming and for using the last real version of Photoshop. I was motivated by the poor state of console gaming and a simple desire to do something I haven’t done before – build a PC from the ground up. I’ve been using PCs for more than two decades. I’ve replaced a component hear and there, but for the last 10 years or so I’ve only used laptops. Therefore, this article will be written from the perspective of someone familiar with PCs, but completely new at building. I’m not an expert and this is not a definitive guide for building a PC, but I do hope that it encourages you to try it yourself. Component List Research There was a lot of research necessary, because building a PC is completely new to me, and I haven’t kept up with what’s out there. The first thing you want to do is nail down what your goals are. Your goals are going to be driven by what you want to do with your computer and personal choice. Don’t neglect the second one, because if you’re doing this for fun you want to get what you want. In my case, I focused on three things: performance, longevity, and aesthetics. The performance aspect is important for gaming and Photoshop. This will drive what components you get. For example, heavy gaming use is going to drive your choice of graphics card. Longevity is relevant to me, because I don’t want to be changing things out anytime soon for the next hot game. The consequence of performance and longevity is cost. Finally, aesthetics was my next consideration. I could have just built a box, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as fun for me. Aesthetics might not be important to you. They are for me. I also like gadgets and that played into at least one purchase for this build. I used PC Part Picker to put together my component list. I found it invaluable during the process and I’d recommend it to everyone. One caveat is that I wouldn’t trust the compatibility aspects. It does a pretty good job of not steering you wrong, but do your own research. The rest of it isn’t really sexy. I started out with what appealed to me and then I made changes and additions as I dived deep into researching each component and interaction I could find. The resources I used are innumerable. I used reviews, product descriptions, forum posts (praises and problems), et al. to assist me. I also asked friends into gaming what they thought about my component list. And when I got near the end I posted my list to the Reddit /r/buildapc forum. I cannot stress the value of extra sets of eyeballs and first hand experiences. Some of the resources I used: PC Part Picker Tom’s Hardware bit-tech Reddit Purchase PC Part Picker favors certain vendors. You should look at others too. In my case I found their favorites to be the best. My priorities were out-the-door price and shipping time. I knew that once I started getting parts I’d want to start building. Luckily, I timed it well and everything arrived within the span of a few days. Here are my opinions on the vendors I ended up using in alphabetical order. Amazon.com is a good, reliable choice. They have excellent customer service in my experience, and I knew I wouldn’t have trouble with them. However, shipping time is often a problem when you use their free shipping unless you order expensive items (I’ve found items over $100 ship quickly). Ultimately though, price wasn’t always the best and their collection of sales tax in my state turned me off them. I did purchase my case from them. I ordered the mouse as well, but I cancelled after it was stuck four days in a “shipping soon” state. I purchased the mouse locally. Best Buy is not my favorite place to do business. There’s a lot of history with poor, uninterested sales representatives and they used to have a lot of bad anti-consumer policies. That’s a lot better now, but the bad taste is still in my mouth. I ended up purchasing the accessories from them including mouse (locally) and headphones. NCIX is a company that I’ve never heard of before. It popped up as a recommendation for my CPU cooler on PC Part Picker. I didn’t do a lot of research on the company, because their policy on you buying insurance for your orders turned me off. That policy makes it clear to me that the company finds me responsible for the shipment once it leaves their dock. That’s not right, and may run afoul of state laws. Regardless they shipped my CPU cooler quickly and I didn’t have a problem. NewEgg.com is a well known company. I had never done business with them, but I’m glad I did. They shipped quickly and provided good visibility over everything. The prices were also the best in most cases. My main complaint is that they have a lot of exchange only return policies on components. To their credit those policies are listed in the cart underneath each item. The visibility tells me that they’re not playing any shenanigans and made me comfortable dealing with that risk. The vast majority of what I ordered came from them. Coming Next In the next part I’ll tackle my build experience.

    Read the article

  • Super constructor must be a first statement in Java constructor [closed]

    - by Val
    I know the answer: "we need rules to prevent shooting into your own foot". Ok, I make millions of programming mistakes every day. To be prevented, we need one simple rule: prohibit all JLS and do not use Java. If we explain everything by "not shooting your foot", this is reasonable. But there is not much reason is such reason. When I programmed in Delphy, I always wanted the compiler to check me if I read uninitializable. I have discovered myself that is is stupid to read uncertain variable because it leads unpredictable result and is errorenous obviously. By just looking at the code I could see if there is an error. I wished if compiler could do this job. It is also a reliable signal of programming error if function does not return any value. But I never wanted it do enforce me the super constructor first. Why? You say that constructors just initialize fields. Super fields are derived; extra fields are introduced. From the goal point of view, it does not matter in which order you initialize the variables. I have studied parallel architectures and can say that all the fields can even be assigned in parallel... What? Do you want to use the unitialized fields? Stupid people always want to take away our freedoms and break the JLS rules the God gives to us! Please, policeman, take away that person! Where do I say so? I'm just saying only about initializing/assigning, not using the fields. Java compiler already defends me from the mistake of accessing notinitialized. Some cases sneak but this example shows how this stupid rule does not save us from the read-accessing incompletely initialized in construction: public class BadSuper { String field; public String toString() { return "field = " + field; } public BadSuper(String val) { field = val; // yea, superfirst does not protect from accessing // inconstructed subclass fields. Subclass constr // must be called before super()! System.err.println(this); } } public class BadPost extends BadSuper { Object o; public BadPost(Object o) { super("str"); this. o = o; } public String toString() { // superconstructor will boom here, because o is not initialized! return super.toString() + ", obj = " + o.toString(); } public static void main(String[] args) { new BadSuper("test 1"); new BadPost(new Object()); } } It shows that actually, subfields have to be inilialized before the supreclass! Meantime, java requirement "saves" us from writing specializing the class by specializing what the super constructor argument is, public class MyKryo extends Kryo { class MyClassResolver extends DefaultClassResolver { public Registration register(Registration registration) { System.out.println(MyKryo.this.getDepth()); return super.register(registration); } } MyKryo() { // cannot instantiate MyClassResolver in super super(new MyClassResolver(), new MapReferenceResolver()); } } Try to make it compilable. It is always pain. Especially, when you cannot assign the argument later. Initialization order is not important for initialization in general. I could understand that you should not use super methods before initializing super. But, the requirement for super to be the first statement is different. It only saves you from the code that does useful things simply. I do not see how this adds safety. Actually, safety is degraded because we need to use ugly workarounds. Doing post-initialization, outside the constructors also degrades safety (otherwise, why do we need constructors?) and defeats the java final safety reenforcer. To conclude Reading not initialized is a bug. Initialization order is not important from the computer science point of view. Doing initalization or computations in different order is not a bug. Reenforcing read-access to not initialized is good but compilers fail to detect all such bugs Making super the first does not solve the problem as it "Prevents" shooting into right things but not into the foot It requires to invent workarounds, where, because of complexity of analysis, it is easier to shoot into the foot doing post-initialization outside the constructors degrades safety (otherwise, why do we need constructors?) and that degrade safety by defeating final access modifier When there was java forum alive, java bigots attecked me for these thoughts. Particularly, they dislaked that fields can be initialized in parallel, saying that natural development ensures correctness. When I replied that you could use an advanced engineering to create a human right away, without "developing" any ape first, and it still be an ape, they stopped to listen me. Cos modern technology cannot afford it. Ok, Take something simpler. How do you produce a Renault? Should you construct an Automobile first? No, you start by producing a Renault and, once completed, you'll see that this is an automobile. So, the requirement to produce fields in "natural order" is unnatural. In case of alarmclock or armchair, which are still chair and clock, you may need first develop the base (clock and chair) and then add extra. So, I can have examples where superfields must be initialized first and, oppositely, when they need to be initialized later. The order does not exist in advance. So, the compiler cannot be aware of the proper order. Only programmer/constructor knows is. Compiler should not take more responsibility and enforce the wrong order onto programmer. Saying that I cannot initialize some fields because I did not ininialized the others is like "you cannot initialize the thing because it is not initialized". This is a kind of argument we have. So, to conclude once more, the feature that "protects" me from doing things in simple and right way in order to enforce something that does not add noticeably to the bug elimination at that is a strongly negative thing and it pisses me off, altogether with the all the arguments to support it I've seen so far. It is "a conceptual question about software development" Should there be the requirement to call super() first or not. I do not know. If you do or have an idea, you have place to answer. I think that I have provided enough arguments against this feature. Lets appreciate the ones who benefit form it. Let it just be something more than simple abstract and stupid "write your own language" or "protection" kind of argument. Why do we need it in the language that I am going to develop?

    Read the article

  • How to begin? Windows 8 Development

    - by Dennis Vroegop
    Ok. I convinced you in my last post to do some Win8 development. You want a piece of that cake, or whatever your reasons may be. Good! Welcome to the club! Now let me ask you a question: what are you going to write? Ah. That’s the big one, isn’t it? What indeed? If you have been creating applications for computers before you’re in for quite a shock. The way people perceive apps on a tablet is quite different from what we know as applications. There’s a reason we call them apps instead of applications! Yes, technically they are applications but we don’t call them apps only because it sounds cool. The abbreviated form of the word applications itself is a pointer. Apps are small. Apps are focused. Apps are more lightweight. Apps do one thing but they do that one thing extremely good. In the ‘old’ days we wrote huge systems. We build ecosystems of services, screens, databases and more to create a system that provides value for the user. Think about it: what application do you use most at work? Can you in one sentence describe what it is, or what it does and yet still distinctively describe its purpose? I doubt you can. Let’s have a look at Outlouk. We all know it and we all love or hate it. But what is it? A mail program? No, there’s so much more there: calendar, contacts, RSS feeds and so on. Some call it a ‘collaboration’  application but that’s not really true as well. After all, why should a collaboration application give me my schedule for the day? I think the best way to describe Outlook is “client for Exchange”  although that isn’t accurate either. Anyway: Outlook is a great application but it’s not an ‘app’ and therefor not very suitable for WinRT. Ok. Disclaimer here: yes, you can write big applications for WinRT. Some will. But that’s not what 99.9% of the developers will do. So I am stating here that big applications are not meant for WinRT. If 0.01% of the developers think that this is nonsense then they are welcome to go ahead but for the majority here this is not what we’re talking about. So: Apps are small, lightweight and good at what they do but only at that. If you’re a Phone developer you already know that: Phone apps on any platform fit the description I have above. If you’ve ever worked in a large cooperation before you might have seen one of these before: the Mission Statement. It’s supposed to be a oneliner that sums up what the company is supposed to do. Funny enough: although this doesn’t work for large companies it does work for defining your app. A mission statement for an app describes what it does. If it doesn’t fit in the mission statement then your app is going to get to big and will fail. A statement like this should be in the following style “<your app name> is the best app to <describe single task>” Fill in the blanks, write it and go! Mmm.. not really. There are some things there we need to think about. But the statement is a very, very important one. If you cannot fit your app in that line you’re preparing to fail. Your app will become to big, its purpose will be unclear and it will be hard to use. People won’t download it and those who do will give it a bad rating therefor preventing that huge success you’ve been dreaming about. Stick to the statement! Ok, let’s give it a try: “PlanesAreCool” is the best app to do planespotting in the field. You might have seen these people along runways of airports: taking photographs of airplanes and noting down their numbers and arrival- and departure times. We are going to help them out with our great app! If you look at the statement, can you guess what it does? I bet you can. If you find out it isn’t clear enough of if it’s too broad, refine it. This is probably the most important step in the development of your app so give it enough time! So. We’ve got the statement. Print it out, stick it to the wall and look at it. What does it tell you? If you see this, what do you think the app does? Write that down. Sit down with some friends and talk about it. What do they expect from an app like this? Write that down as well. Brainstorm. Make a list of features. This is mine: Note planes Look up aircraft carriers Add pictures of that plane Look up airfields Notify friends of new spots Look up details of a type of plane Plot a graph with arrival and departure times Share new spots on social media Look up history of a particular aircraft Compare your spots with friends Write down arrival times Write down departure times Write down wind conditions Write down the runway they take Look up weather conditions for next spotting day Invite friends to join you for a day of spotting. Now, I must make it clear that I am not a planespotter nor do I know what one does. So if the above list makes no sense, I apologize. There is a lesson: write apps for stuff you know about…. First of all, let’s look at our statement and then go through the list of features. Remove everything that has nothing to do with that statement! If you end up with an empty list, try again with both steps. Note planes Look up aircraft carriers Add pictures of that plane Look up airfields Notify friends of new spots Look up details of a type of plane Plot a graph with arrival and departure times Share new spots on social media Look up history of a particular aircraft Compare your spots with friends Write down arrival times Write down departure times Write down wind conditions Write down the runway they take Look up weather conditions for next spotting day Invite friends to join you for a day of spotting. That's better. The things I removed could be pretty useful to a plane spotter and could be fun to write. But do they match the statement? I said that the app is for spotting in the field, so “look up airfields” doesn’t belong there: I know where I am so why look it up? And the same goes for inviting friends or looking up the weather conditions for tomorrow. I am at the airfield right now, looking through my binoculars at the planes. I know the weather now and I don’t care about tomorrow. If you feel the items you’ve crossed out are valuable, then why not write another app? One that says “SpotNoter” is the best app for preparing a day of spotting with my friends. That’s a different app! Remember: Win8 apps are small and very good at doing ONE thing, and one thing only! If you have made that list, it’s time to prepare the navigation of your app. The navigation is how users see your app and how they use it. We’ll do that next time!

    Read the article

  • FOUR questions to ask if you are implementing DATABASE-AS-A-SERVICE

    - by Sudip Datta
    During my ongoing tenure at Oracle, I have met all types of DBAs. Happy DBAs, unhappy DBAs, proud DBAs, risk-loving DBAs, cautious DBAs. These days, as Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS) becomes more mainstream, I find some complacent DBAs who are basking in their achievement of having implemented DBaaS. Some others, however, are not that happy. They grudgingly complain that they did not have much of a say in the implementation, they simply had to follow what their cloud architects (mostly infrastructure admins) offered them. In most cases it would be a database wrapped inside a VM that would be labeled as “Database as a Service”. In other cases, it would be existing brute-force automation simply exposed in a portal. As much as I think that there is more to DBaaS than those approaches and often get tempted to propose Enterprise Manager 12c, I try to be objective. Neither do I want to dampen the spirit of the happy ones, nor do I want to stoke the pain of the unhappy ones. As I mentioned in my previous post, I don’t deny vanilla automation could be useful. I like virtualization too for what it has helped us accomplish in terms of resource management, but we need to scrutinize its merit on a case-by-case basis and apply it meaningfully. For DBAs who either claim to have implemented DBaaS or are planning to do so, I simply want to provide four key questions to ponder about: 1. Does it make life easier for your end users? Database-as-a-Service can have several types of end users. Junior DBAs, QA Engineers, Developers- each having their own skillset. The objective of DBaaS is to make their life simple, so that they can focus on their core responsibilities without having to worry about additional stuff. For example, if you are a Developer using Oracle Application Express (APEX), you want to deal with schema, objects and PL/SQL code and not with datafiles or listener configuration. If you are a QA Engineer needing database copies for functional testing, you do not want to deal with underlying operating system patching and compliance issues. The question to ask, therefore, is, whether DBaaS makes life easier for those users. It is often convenient to give them VM shells to deal with a la Amazon EC2 IaaS, but is that what they really want? Is it a productive use of a developer's time if he needs to apply RPM errata to his Linux operating system. Asking him to keep the underlying operating system current is like making a guest responsible for a restaurant's decor. 2. Does it make life easier for your administrators? Cloud, in general, is supposed to free administrators from attending to mundane tasks like provisioning services for every single end user request. It is supposed to enable a readily consumable platform and enforce standardization in the process. For example, if a Service Catalog exposes DBaaS of specific database versions and configurations, it, by its very nature, enforces certain discipline and standardization within the IT environment. What if, instead of specific database configurations, cloud allowed each end user to create databases of their liking resulting in hundreds of version and patch levels and thousands of individual databases. Therefore the right question to ask is whether the unwanted consequence of DBaaS is OS and database sprawl. And if so, who is responsible for tracking them, backing them up, administering them? Studies have shown that these administrative overheads increase exponentially with new targets, and it could result in a management nightmare. That leads us to our next question. 3. Does it satisfy your Security Officers and Compliance Auditors? Compliance Auditors need to know who did what and when. They also want the cloud platform to be secure, so that end users have little freedom in tampering with it. Dealing with VM sprawl is not the easiest of challenges, let alone dealing with them as they keep getting reconfigured and moved around. This leads to the proverbial needle in the haystack problem, and all it needs is one needle to cause a serious compliance issue in the enterprise. Bottomline is, flexibility and agility should not come at the expense of compliance and it is very important to get the balance right. Can we have security and isolation without creating compliance challenges? Instead of a ‘one size fits all approach’ i.e. OS level isolation, can we think smartly about database isolation or schema based isolation? This is where the appropriate resource modeling needs to be applied. The usual systems management vendors out there with heterogeneous common-denominator approach have compromised on these semantics. If you follow Enterprise Manager’s DBaaS solution, you will see that we have considered different models, not precluding virtualization, for different customer use cases. The judgment to use virtual assemblies versus databases on physical RAC versus Schema-as-a-Service in a single database, should be governed by the need of the applications and not by putting compliance considerations in the backburner. 4. Does it satisfy your CIO? Finally, does it satisfy your higher ups? As the sponsor of cloud initiative, the CIO is expected to lead an IT transformation project, not merely a run-of-the-mill IT operations. Simply virtualizing server resources and delivering them through self-service is a good start, but hardly transformational. CIOs may appreciate the instant benefit from server consolidation, but studies have revealed that the ROI from consolidation would flatten out at 20-25%. The question would be: what next? As we go higher up in the stack, the need to virtualize, segregate and optimize shifts to those layers that are more palpable to the business users. As Sushil Kumar noted in his blog post, " the most important thing to note here is the enterprise private cloud is not just an IT project, rather it is a business initiative to create an IT setup that is more aligned with the needs of today's dynamic and highly competitive business environment." Business users could not care less about infrastructure consolidation or virtualization - they care about business agility and service level assurance. Last but not the least, lot of CIOs get miffed if we ask them to throw away their existing hardware investments for implementing DBaaS. In Oracle, we always emphasize on freedom of choosing a platform; hence Enterprise Manager’s DBaaS solution is platform neutral. It can work on any Operating System (that the agent is certified on) Oracle’s hardware as well as 3rd party hardware. As a parting note, I urge you to remember these 4 questions. Remember that your satisfaction as an implementer lies in the satisfaction of others.

    Read the article

  • Beyond Cloud Technology, Enabling A More Agile and Responsive Organization

    - by sxkumar
    This is the second part of the blog “Clouds, Clouds Everywhere But not a Drop of Rain”. In the first part,  I was sharing with you how a broad-based transformation makes cloud more than a technology initiative, I will describe in this section how it requires people (organizational) and process changes as well, and these changes are as critical as is the choice of right tools and technology. People: Most IT organizations have a fairly complex organizational structure. There are different groups, managing different pieces of the puzzle, and yet, they don't always work together. Provisioning a new application therefore may require a request to float endlessly through system administrators, DBAs and middleware admin worlds – resulting in long delays and constant finger pointing.  Cloud users expect end-to-end automation - which requires these silos to be greatly simplified, if not completely eliminated.  Most customers I talk to acknowledge this problem but are quick to admit that such a transformation is hard. As hard as it may be, I am afraid that the status quo is no longer an option. Sticking to an organizational structure that was created ages back will not only impede cloud adoption,  it also risks making the IT skills increasingly irrelevant in a world that is rapidly moving towards converged applications and infrastructure.   Process: Most IT organizations today operate with a mindset that they must fully "control" access to any and all types of IT services. This in turn leads to people clinging on to outdated manual approval processes .  While requiring approvals for scarce resources makes sense, insisting that every single request must be manually approved defeats the very purpose of cloud. Not only this causes delays, thereby at least partially negating the agility benefits, it also results in gross inefficiency. In a cloud environment, self-service access should be governed by policies, quotas that the administrators can define upfront . For a cloud initiative to be successful, IT organizations MUST be ready to empower users by giving them real control rather than insisting on brokering every single interaction between users and the cloud resources. Technology: From a technology perspective, cloud is about consolidation, standardization and automation. A consolidated and standardized infrastructure helps increase utilization and reduces cost. Additionally, it  enables a much higher degree of automation - thereby providing users the required agility while minimizing operational costs.  Obviously, automation is the key to cloud. Unfortunately it hasn’t received as much attention within enterprises as it should have.  Many organizations are just now waking up to the criticality of automation and it still often gets relegated to back burner in favor of other "high priority" projects. However, it is important to understand that without the right type and level of automation, cloud will remain a distant dream for most enterprises. This in turn makes the choice of the cloud management software extremely critical.  For a cloud management software to be effective in an enterprise environment, it must meet the following qualifications: Broad and Deep Solution It should offer a broad and deep solution to enable the kind of broad-based transformation we are talking about.  Its footprint must cover physical and virtual systems, as well as infrastructure, database and application tiers. Too many enterprises choose to equate cloud with virtualization. While virtualization is a critical component of a cloud solution, it is just a component and not the whole solution. Similarly, too many people tend to equate cloud with Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS). While it is perfectly reasonable to treat IaaS as a starting point, it is important to realize that it is just the first stepping stone - and on its own it can only provide limited business benefits. It is actually the higher level services, such as (application) platform and business applications, that will bring about a more meaningful transformation to your enterprise. Run and Manage Efficiently Your Mission Critical Applications It should not only be able to run your mission critical applications, it should do so better than before.  For enterprises, applications and data are the critical business assets  As such, if you are building a cloud platform that cannot run your ERP application, it isn't truly a "enterprise cloud".  Also, be wary of  vendors who try to sell you the idea that your applications must be written in a certain way to be able to run on the cloud. That is nothing but a bogus, self-serving argument. For the cloud to be meaningful to enterprises, it should adopt to your applications - and not the other way around.  Automated, Integrated Set of Cloud Management Capabilities At the root of many of the problems plaguing enterprise IT today is complexity. A complex maze of tools and technology, coupled with archaic  processes, results in an environment which is inflexible, inefficient and simply too hard to manage. Management tool consolidation, therefore, is key to the success of your cloud as tool proliferation adds to complexity, encourages compartmentalization and defeats the very purpose that you are building the cloud for. Decision makers ought to be extra cautious about vendors trying to sell them a "suite" of disparate and loosely integrated products as a cloud solution.  An effective enterprise cloud management solution needs to provide a tightly integrated set of capabilities for all aspects of cloud lifecycle management. A simple question to ask: will your environment be more or less complex after you implement your cloud? More often than not, the answer will surprise you.  At Oracle, we have understood these challenges and have been working hard to create cloud solutions that are relevant and meaningful for enterprises.  And we have been doing it for much longer than you may think. Oracle was one of the very first enterprise software companies to make our products available on the Amazon Cloud. As far back as in 2007, we created new cloud solutions such as Cloud Database Backup that are helping customers like Amazon save millions every year.  Our cloud solution portfolio is also the broadest and most deep in the industry  - covering public, private, hybrid, Infrastructure, platform and applications clouds. It is no coincidence therefore that the Oracle Cloud today offers the most comprehensive set of public cloud services in the industry.  And to a large part, this has been made possible thanks to our years on investment in creating cloud enabling technologies. I will dedicated the third and final part of the blog “Clouds, Clouds Everywhere But not a Drop of Rain” to Oracle Cloud Technologies Building Blocks and how they mapped into our vision of Enterprise Cloud. Stay Tuned.

    Read the article

  • Position:absolute

    - by Andrew
    I have I have a div called logo. I want the logo to be on top of other areas and to overlap into the the preface top of a drupal site, the logo currently sits in the header area. I looked up position absolute and I think that what I need to use but when I use position absolute the logo disappears, I can see it if I use position fixed, relative etc. I thought the logo was being hidden because I was not using a z-index but even with that I cant see the logo. What am I doing wrong? #logo { position: absolute; top: 30px; /* 30 pixels from the top of the page */ left: 80px; /* 80 pixels from the left hand side */ z-index:1099; border: 1px solid red; /* So we can see what is happening */ } Also does anyone know of a really good free online css course? Here is some additional information, namely the CSS and the page.tpl.php: <?php // $Id: page.tpl.php,v 1.1.2.5 2010/04/08 07:02:59 sociotech Exp $ ?><!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="<?php print $language->language; ?>" xml:lang="<?php print $language->language; ?>"> <head> <title><?php print $head_title; ?></title> <?php print $head; ?> <?php print $styles; ?> <?php print $setting_styles; ?> <!--[if IE 8]> <?php print $ie8_styles; ?> <![endif]--> <!--[if IE 7]> <?php print $ie7_styles; ?> <![endif]--> <!--[if lte IE 6]> <?php print $ie6_styles; ?> <![endif]--> <?php print $local_styles; ?> <?php print $scripts; ?> </head> <body id="<?php print $body_id; ?>" class="<?php print $body_classes; ?>"> <div id="page" class="page"> <div id="page-inner" class="page-inner"> <div id="skip"> <a href="#main-content-area"><?php print t('Skip to Main Content Area'); ?></a> </div> <!-- header-top row: width = grid_width --> <?php print theme('grid_row', $header_top, 'header-top', 'full-width', $grid_width); ?> <!-- header-group row: width = grid_width --> <div id="header-group-wrapper" class="header-group-wrapper full-width"> <div id="header-group" class="header-group row <?php print $grid_width; ?>"> <div id="header-group-inner" class="header-group-inner inner clearfix"> <?php print theme('grid_block', theme('links', $secondary_links), 'secondary-menu'); ?> <?php print theme('grid_block', $search_box, 'search-box'); ?> <?php if ($logo || $site_name || $site_slogan): ?> <div id="header-site-info" class="header-site-info block"> <div id="header-site-info-inner" class="header-site-info-inner inner"> <?php if ($logo): ?> <div id="logo"> <a href="<?php print check_url($front_page); ?>" title="<?php print t('Home'); ?>"><img src="<?php print $logo; ?>" alt="<?php print t('Home'); ?>" /></a> </div> <?php endif; ?> <?php if ($site_name || $site_slogan): ?> <div id="site-name-wrapper" class="clearfix"> <?php if ($site_name): ?> <span id="site-name"><a href="<?php print check_url($front_page); ?>" title="<?php print t('Home'); ?>"><?php print $site_name; ?></a></span> <?php endif; ?> <?php if ($site_slogan): ?> <span id="slogan"><?php print $site_slogan; ?></span> <?php endif; ?> </div><!-- /site-name-wrapper --> <?php endif; ?> </div><!-- /header-site-info-inner --> </div><!-- /header-site-info --> <?php endif; ?> <?php print $header; ?> <?php print theme('grid_block', $primary_links_tree, 'primary-menu'); ?> </div><!-- /header-group-inner --> </div><!-- /header-group --> </div><!-- /header-group-wrapper --> <!-- preface-top row: width = grid_width --> <?php print theme('grid_row', $preface_top, 'preface-top', 'full-width', $grid_width); ?> <!-- main row: width = grid_width --> <div id="main-wrapper" class="main-wrapper full-width<?php if ($is_front) { print ' front'; } ?>"> <div id="main" class="main row <?php print $grid_width; ?>"> <div id="main-inner" class="main-inner inner clearfix"> <?php print theme('grid_row', $sidebar_first, 'sidebar-first', 'nested', $sidebar_first_width); ?> <!-- main group: width = grid_width - sidebar_first_width --> <div id="main-group" class="main-group row nested <?php print $main_group_width; ?>"> <div id="main-group-inner" class="main-group-inner inner"> <?php print theme('grid_row', $preface_bottom, 'preface-bottom', 'nested'); ?> <div id="main-content" class="main-content row nested"> <div id="main-content-inner" class="main-content-inner inner"> <!-- content group: width = grid_width - (sidebar_first_width + sidebar_last_width) --> <div id="content-group" class="content-group row nested <?php print $content_group_width; ?>"> <div id="content-group-inner" class="content-group-inner inner"> <?php print theme('grid_block', $breadcrumb, 'breadcrumbs'); ?> <?php if ($content_top || $help || $messages): ?> <div id="content-top" class="content-top row nested"> <div id="content-top-inner" class="content-top-inner inner"> <?php print theme('grid_block', $help, 'content-help'); ?> <?php print theme('grid_block', $messages, 'content-messages'); ?> <?php print $content_top; ?> </div><!-- /content-top-inner --> </div><!-- /content-top --> <?php endif; ?> <div id="content-region" class="content-region row nested"> <div id="content-region-inner" class="content-region-inner inner"> <a name="main-content-area" id="main-content-area"></a> <?php print theme('grid_block', $tabs, 'content-tabs'); ?> <div id="content-inner" class="content-inner block"> <div id="content-inner-inner" class="content-inner-inner inner"> <?php if ($title): ?> <h1 class="title"><?php print $title; ?></h1> <?php endif; ?> <?php if ($content): ?> <div id="content-content" class="content-content"> <?php print $content; ?> <?php print $feed_icons; ?> </div><!-- /content-content --> <?php endif; ?> </div><!-- /content-inner-inner --> </div><!-- /content-inner --> </div><!-- /content-region-inner --> </div><!-- /content-region --> <?php print theme('grid_row', $content_bottom, 'content-bottom', 'nested'); ?> </div><!-- /content-group-inner --> </div><!-- /content-group --> <?php print theme('grid_row', $sidebar_last, 'sidebar-last', 'nested', $sidebar_last_width); ?> </div><!-- /main-content-inner --> </div><!-- /main-content --> <?php print theme('grid_row', $postscript_top, 'postscript-top', 'nested'); ?> </div><!-- /main-group-inner --> </div><!-- /main-group --> </div><!-- /main-inner --> </div><!-- /main --> </div><!-- /main-wrapper --> <!-- postscript-bottom row: width = grid_width --> <?php print theme('grid_row', $postscript_bottom, 'postscript-bottom', 'full-width', $grid_width); ?> <!-- footer row: width = grid_width --> <?php print theme('grid_row', $footer, 'footer', 'full-width', $grid_width); ?> <!-- footer-message row: width = grid_width --> <div id="footer-message-wrapper" class="footer-message-wrapper full-width"> <div id="footer-message" class="footer-message row <?php print $grid_width; ?>"> <div id="footer-message-inner" class="footer-message-inner inner clearfix"> <?php print theme('grid_block', $footer_message, 'footer-message-text'); ?> </div><!-- /footer-message-inner --> </div><!-- /footer-message --> </div><!-- /footer-message-wrapper --> </div><!-- /page-inner --> </div><!-- /page --> <?php print $closure; ?> </body> </html> CSS /* $Id: style.css,v 1.1.2.11 2010/07/02 22:11:04 sociotech Exp $ */ /* Margin, Padding, Border Resets -------------------------------------------------------------- */ html, body, div, span, p, dl, dt, dd, ul, ol, li, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, form, fieldset, input, textarea { margin: 0; padding: 0; } img, abbr, acronym { border: 0; } /* HTML Elements -------------------------------------------------------------- */ p { margin: 1em 0; } h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 { margin: 0 0 0.5em 0; } h1 { color: white !important; text-shadow: black !important; } ul, ol, dd { margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 2em; /* LTR */ } li ul, li ol { margin-bottom: 0; } ul { list-style-type: disc; } ol { list-style-type: decimal; } a { margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: none; } a:link, a:visited { } a:hover, a:focus, a:active { text-decoration: underline; } blockquote { } hr { height: 1px; border: 1px solid gray; } /* tables */ table { border-spacing: 0; width: 100%; } tr.even td, tr.odd td { background-color: #FFFFFF; border: 1px solid #dbdbdb; } caption { text-align: left; } th { margin: 0; padding: 0 10px 0 0; } th.active img { display: inline; } thead th { padding-right: 10px; } td { margin: 0; padding: 3px; } /* Remove grid block styles from Drupal's table ".block" class */ td.block { border: none; float: none; margin: 0; } /* Maintain light background/dark text on dragged table rows */ tr.drag td, tr.drag-previous td { background: #FFFFDD; color: #000; } /* Accessibility /-------------------------------------------------------------- */ /* skip-link to main content, hide offscreen */ #skip a, #skip a:hover, #skip a:visited { height: 1px; left: 0px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: -500px; width: 1px; } /* make skip link visible when selected */ #skip a:active, #skip a:focus { background-color: #fff; color: #000; height: auto; padding: 5px 10px; position: absolute; top: 0; width: auto; z-index: 99; } #skip a:hover { text-decoration: none; } /* Helper Classes /-------------------------------------------------------------- */ .hide { display: none; visibility: hidden; } .left { float: left; } .right { float: right; } .clear { clear: both; } /* clear floats after an element */ /* (also in ie6-fixes.css, ie7-fixes.css) */ .clearfix:after, .clearfix .inner:after { clear: both; content: "."; display: block; font-size: 0; height: 0; line-height: 0; overflow: auto; visibility: hidden; } /* Grid Layout Basics (specifics in 'gridnn_x.css') -------------------------------------------------------------- */ /* center page and full rows: override this for left-aligned page */ .page, .row { margin: 0 auto; } /* fix layout/background display on floated elements */ .row, .nested, .block { overflow: hidden; } /* full-width row wrapper */ div.full-width { width: 100%; } /* float, un-center & expand nested rows */ .nested { float: left; /* LTR */ margin: 0; width: 100%; } /* allow Superfish menus to overflow */ #sidebar-first.nested, #sidebar-last.nested, div.superfish { overflow: visible; } /* sidebar layouts */ .sidebars-both-first .content-group { float: right; /* LTR */ } .sidebars-both-last .sidebar-first { float: right; /* LTR */ } /* Grid Mask Overlay -------------------------------------------------------------- */ #grid-mask-overlay { display: none; left: 0; opacity: 0.75; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 100%; z-index: 997; } #grid-mask-overlay .row { margin: 0 auto; } #grid-mask-overlay .block .inner { background-color: #e3fffc; outline: none; } .grid-mask #grid-mask-overlay { display: block; } .grid-mask .block { overflow: visible; } .grid-mask .block .inner { outline: #f00 dashed 1px; } #grid-mask-toggle { background-color: #777; border: 2px outset #fff; color: #fff; cursor: pointer; font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: normal; left: 0; -moz-border-radius: 5px; padding: 0 5px 2px 5px; position: absolute; text-align: center; top: 22px; -webkit-border-radius: 5px; z-index: 998; } #grid-mask-toggle.grid-on { border-style: inset; font-weight: bold; } /* Site Info -------------------------------------------------------------- */ #header-site-info { width: auto; } #site-name-wrapper { float: left; /* LTR */ } #site-name, #slogan { display: block; } #site-name a:link, #site-name a:visited, #site-name a:hover, #site-name a:active { text-decoration: none; } #site-name a { outline: 0; } /* Regions -------------------------------------------------------------- */ /* Header Regions -------------------------------------------------------------- */ #header-group { overflow: visible; } /* Content Regions (Main) -------------------------------------------------------------- */ .node-bottom { margin: 1.5em 0 0 0; } /* Clear floats on regions -------------------------------------------------------------- */ #header-top-wrapper, #header-group-wrapper, #preface-top-wrapper, #main-wrapper, #preface-bottom, #content-top, #content-region, #content-bottom, #postscript-top, #postscript-bottom-wrapper, #footer-wrapper, #footer-message-wrapper { clear: both; } /* Drupal Core /-------------------------------------------------------------- */ /* Lists /-------------------------------------------------------------- */ .item-list ul li { margin: 0; } .block ul, .block ol { margin-left: 2em; /* LTR */ padding: 0; } .content-inner ul, .content-inner ol { margin-bottom: 1.5em; } .content-inner li ul, .content-inner li ol { margin-bottom: 0; } .block ul.links { margin-left: 0; /* LTR */ } /* Menus /-------------------------------------------------------------- */ ul.menu li, ul.links li { margin: 0; padding: 0; } /* Primary Menu /-------------------------------------------------------------- */ /* use ID to override overflow: hidden for .block, dropdowns should always be visible */ #primary-menu { overflow: visible; } /* remove left margin from primary menu list */ #primary-menu.block ul { margin-left: 0; /* LTR */ } /* remove bullets, float left */ .primary-menu ul li { float: left; /* LTR */ list-style: none; position: relative; } /* style links, and unlinked parent items (via Special Menu Items module) */ .primary-menu ul li a, .primary-menu ul li .nolink { display: block; padding: 0.75em 1em; text-decoration: none; } /* Add cursor style for unlinked parent menu items */ .primary-menu ul li .nolink { cursor: default; } /* remove outline */ .primary-menu ul li:hover, .primary-menu ul li.sfHover, .primary-menu ul a:focus, .primary-menu ul a:hover, .primary-menu ul a:active { outline: 0; } /* Secondary Menu /-------------------------------------------------------------- */ .secondary-menu-inner ul.links { margin-left: 0; /* LTR */ } /* Skinr styles /-------------------------------------------------------------- */ /* Skinr selectable helper classes */ .fusion-clear { clear: both; } div.fusion-right { float: right; /* LTR */ } div.fusion-center { float: none; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } .fusion-center-content .inner { text-align: center; } .fusion-center-content .inner ul.menu { display: inline-block; text-align: center; } /* required to override drupal core */ .fusion-center-content #user-login-form { text-align: center; } .fusion-right-content .inner { text-align: right; /* LTR */ } /* required to override drupal core */ .fusion-right-content #user-login-form { text-align: right; /* LTR */ } /* Large, bold callout text style */ .fusion-callout .inner { font-weight: bold; } /* Extra padding on block */ .fusion-padding .inner { padding: 30px; } /* Adds 1px border and padding */ .fusion-border .inner { border-width: 1px; border-style: solid; padding: 10px; } /* Single line menu with separators */ .fusion-inline-menu .inner ul.menu { margin-left: 0; /* LTR */ } .fusion-inline-menu .inner ul.menu li { border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; display: inline; margin: 0; padding: 0; white-space: nowrap; } .fusion-inline-menu .inner ul.menu li a { padding: 0 8px 0 5px; /* LTR */ } .fusion-inline-menu .inner ul li.last { border: none; } /* Hide second level (and beyond) menu items */ .fusion-inline-menu .inner ul li.expanded ul { display: none; } /* Multi-column menu style with bolded top level menu items */ .fusion-multicol-menu .inner ul { margin-left: 0; /* LTR */ text-align: left; /* LTR */ } .fusion-multicol-menu .inner ul li { border-right: none; display: block; font-weight: bold; } .fusion-multicol-menu .inner ul li.last { border-right: none; } .fusion-multicol-menu .inner ul li.last a { padding-right: 0; /* LTR */ } .fusion-multicol-menu .inner ul li.expanded, .fusion-multicol-menu .inner ul li.leaf { float: left; /* LTR */ list-style-image: none; margin-left: 50px; /* LTR */ } .fusion-multicol-menu .inner ul.menu li.first { margin-left: 0; /* LTR */ } .fusion-multicol-menu .inner ul li.expanded li.leaf { float: none; margin-left: 0; /* LTR */ } .fusion-multicol-menu .inner ul li.expanded ul { display: block; margin-left: 0; /* LTR */ } .fusion-multicol-menu .inner ul li.expanded ul li { border: none; margin-left: 0; /* LTR */ text-align: left; /* LTR */ } .fusion-multicol-menu .inner ul.menu li ul.menu li { font-weight: normal; } /* Split list across multiple columns */ .fusion-2-col-list .inner .item-list ul li, .fusion-2-col-list .inner ul.menu li { float: left; /* LTR */ width: 50%; } .fusion-3-col-list .inner .item-list ul li, .fusion-3-col-list .inner ul.menu li { float: left; /* LTR */ width: 33%; } .fusion-2-col-list .inner .item-list ul.pager li, .fusion-3-col-list .inner .item-list ul.pager li { float: none; width: auto; } /* List with bottom border Fixes a common issue when list items have bottom borders and appear to be doubled when nested lists end and begin. This removes the extra border-bottom */ .fusion-list-bottom-border .inner ul li { list-style: none; list-style-type: none; list-style-image: none; } .fusion-list-bottom-border .inner ul li, .fusion-list-bottom-border .view-content div.views-row { padding: 0 0 0 10px; /* LTR */ border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; line-height: 216.7%; /* 26px */ } .fusion-list-bottom-border .inner ul { margin: 0; } .fusion-list-bottom-border .inner ul li ul { border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; } .fusion-list-bottom-border .inner ul li ul li.last { border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; margin-bottom: -1px; margin-top: -1px; } #views_slideshow_singleframe_pager_slideshow-page_2 .pager-item { display:block; } #views_slideshow_singleframe_pager_slideshow-page_2 { position:absolute; right:0; top:0; } #header-group-wrapper { background: none; } #page { background-color:#F3F3F3; background-image:url('/sites/all/themes/fusion/fusion_core/images/runswithgradient.jpg'); background-repeat:no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; width: auto; } #views_slideshow_singleframe_pager_slideshow-page_2 div a img { top:0px; height:60px; width:80px; padding-right:10px; padding-bottom:19px; } #mycontent{ width: 720px; } .product-body { -moz-border-radius: 4px 4px 4px 4px; margin: 0 0 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 20px; background: none repeat scroll 0 0 #F7F7F7; border: 1px solid #000000; border-style:solid; border-width:thin; color:#000000; } #product-details { background: none repeat scroll 0 0 #F7F7F7 !important; border: 1px solid #000000 !important; color: #8E8E8E; } #logo { position: relative; top: 30px; /* 30 pixels from the top of the page */ left: 80px; /* 80 pixels from the left hand side */ z-index:1099; border: 1px solid red; /* So we can see what is happening */ } #breadcrumbs-inner { background: none; border-color: transparent; border-style: none; } #block-views-new_products-block_1{ height:200px; } /* List with no bullet and extra padding This is a common style for menus, which removes the bullet and adds more vertical padding for a simple list style */ .fusion-list-vertical-spacing .inner ul, .fusion-list-vertical-spacing div.views-row-first { margin-left: 0; margin-top: 10px; } .fusion-list-vertical-spacing .inner ul li, .fusion-list-vertical-spacing div.views-row { line-height: 133.3%; /* 16px/12px */ margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0; } .fusion-list-vertical-spacing .inner ul li { list-style: none; list-style-image: none; list-style-type: none; } .fusion-list-vertical-spacing .inner ul li ul { margin-left: 10px; /* LTR */ } /* Bold all links */ .fusion-bold-links .inner a { font-weight: bold; } /* Float imagefield images left and add margin */ .fusion-float-imagefield-left .field-type-filefield, .fusion-float-imagefield-left .image-insert, .fusion-float-imagefield-left .imagecache { float: left; /* LTR */ margin: 0 15px 15px 0; /* LTR */ } /* Clear float on new Views item so each row drops to a new line */ .fusion-float-imagefield-left .views-row { clear: left; /* LTR */ } /* Float imagefield images right and add margin */ .fusion-float-imagefield-right .field-type-filefield, .fusion-float-imagefield-right .image-insert .fusion-float-imagefield-right .imagecache { float: right; /* LTR */ margin: 0 0 15px 15px; /* LTR */ } /* Clear float on new Views item so each row drops to a new line */ .fusion-float-imagefield-right .views-row { clear: right; /* LTR */ } /* Superfish: all menus */ .sf-menu li { list-style: none; list-style-image: none; list-style-type: none; } /* Superfish: vertical menus */ .superfish-vertical { position: relative; z-index: 9; } ul.sf-vertical { background: #fafafa; margin: 0; width: 100%; } ul.sf-vertical li { border-bottom: 1px solid #ccc; font-weight: bold; line-height: 200%; /* 24px */ padding: 0; width: 100%; } ul.sf-vertical li a:link, ul.sf-vertical li a:visited, ul.sf-vertical li .nolink { margin-left: 10px; padding: 2px; } ul.sf-vertical li a:hover, ul.sf-vertical li a.active { text-decoration: underline; } ul.sf-vertical li ul { background: #fafafa; border-top: 1px solid #ccc; margin-left: 0; width: 150px; } ul.sf-vertical li ul li.last { border-top: 1px solid #ccc; margin-bottom: -1px; margin-top: -1px; } ul.sf-vertical li ul { border-top: none; padding: 4px 0; } ul.sf-vertical li ul li { border-bottom: none; line-height: 150%; /* 24px */ More below but I can't paste that much Thanks for the suggestion I've tried this #header-group { position: relative; z-index: 9; } #logo { position: abosolute; top: 230px; /* 30 pixels from the top of the page */ left: 10px; /* 80 pixels from the left hand side */ z-index: 999; } but it's not working. I've taken a screen shot of the div to show the structure. http://i.stack.imgur.com/ff4DP.png

    Read the article

  • MySQL Syslog Audit Plugin

    - by jonathonc
    This post shows the construction process of the Syslog Audit plugin that was presented at MySQL Connect 2012. It is based on an environment that has the appropriate development tools enabled including gcc,g++ and cmake. It also assumes you have downloaded the MySQL source code (5.5.16 or higher) and have compiled and installed the system into the /usr/local/mysql directory ready for use.  The information provided below is designed to show the different components that make up a plugin, and specifically an audit type plugin, and how it comes together to be used within the MySQL service. The MySQL Reference Manual contains information regarding the plugin API and how it can be used, so please refer there for more detailed information. The code in this post is designed to give the simplest information necessary, so handling every return code, managing race conditions etc is not part of this example code. Let's start by looking at the most basic implementation of our plugin code as seen below: /*    Copyright (c) 2012, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.    Author:  Jonathon Coombes    Licence: GPL    Description: An auditing plugin that logs to syslog and                 can adjust the loglevel via the system variables. */ #include <stdio.h> #include <string.h> #include <mysql/plugin_audit.h> #include <syslog.h> There is a commented header detailing copyright/licencing and meta-data information and then the include headers. The two important include statements for our plugin are the syslog.h plugin, which gives us the structures for syslog, and the plugin_audit.h include which has details regarding the audit specific plugin api. Note that we do not need to include the general plugin header plugin.h, as this is done within the plugin_audit.h file already. To implement our plugin within the current implementation we need to add it into our source code and compile. > cd /usr/local/src/mysql-5.5.28/plugin > mkdir audit_syslog > cd audit_syslog A simple CMakeLists.txt file is created to manage the plugin compilation: MYSQL_ADD_PLUGIN(audit_syslog audit_syslog.cc MODULE_ONLY) Run the cmake  command at the top level of the source and then you can compile the plugin using the 'make' command. This results in a compiled audit_syslog.so library, but currently it is not much use to MySQL as there is no level of api defined to communicate with the MySQL service. Now we need to define the general plugin structure that enables MySQL to recognise the library as a plugin and be able to install/uninstall it and have it show up in the system. The structure is defined in the plugin.h file in the MySQL source code.  /*   Plugin library descriptor */ mysql_declare_plugin(audit_syslog) {   MYSQL_AUDIT_PLUGIN,           /* plugin type                    */   &audit_syslog_descriptor,     /* descriptor handle               */   "audit_syslog",               /* plugin name                     */   "Author Name",                /* author                          */   "Simple Syslog Audit",        /* description                     */   PLUGIN_LICENSE_GPL,           /* licence                         */   audit_syslog_init,            /* init function     */   audit_syslog_deinit,          /* deinit function */   0x0001,                       /* plugin version                  */   NULL,                         /* status variables        */   NULL,                         /* system variables                */   NULL,                         /* no reserves                     */   0,                            /* no flags                        */ } mysql_declare_plugin_end; The general plugin descriptor above is standard for all plugin types in MySQL. The plugin type is defined along with the init/deinit functions and interface methods into the system for sharing information, and various other metadata information. The descriptors have an internally recognised version number so that plugins can be matched against the api on the running server. The other details are usually related to the type-specific methods and structures to implement the plugin. Each plugin has a type-specific descriptor as well which details how the plugin is implemented for the specific purpose of that plugin type. /*   Plugin type-specific descriptor */ static struct st_mysql_audit audit_syslog_descriptor= {   MYSQL_AUDIT_INTERFACE_VERSION,                        /* interface version    */   NULL,                                                 /* release_thd function */   audit_syslog_notify,                                  /* notify function      */   { (unsigned long) MYSQL_AUDIT_GENERAL_CLASSMASK |                     MYSQL_AUDIT_CONNECTION_CLASSMASK }  /* class mask           */ }; In this particular case, the release_thd function has not been defined as it is not required. The important method for auditing is the notify function which is activated when an event occurs on the system. The notify function is designed to activate on an event and the implementation will determine how it is handled. For the audit_syslog plugin, the use of the syslog feature sends all events to the syslog for recording. The class mask allows us to determine what type of events are being seen by the notify function. There are currently two major types of event: 1. General Events: This includes general logging, errors, status and result type events. This is the main one for tracking the queries and operations on the database. 2. Connection Events: This group is based around user logins. It monitors connections and disconnections, but also if somebody changes user while connected. With most audit plugins, the principle behind the plugin is to track changes to the system over time and counters can be an important part of this process. The next step is to define and initialise the counters that are used to track the events in the service. There are 3 counters defined in total for our plugin - the # of general events, the # of connection events and the total number of events.  static volatile int total_number_of_calls; /* Count MYSQL_AUDIT_GENERAL_CLASS event instances */ static volatile int number_of_calls_general; /* Count MYSQL_AUDIT_CONNECTION_CLASS event instances */ static volatile int number_of_calls_connection; The init and deinit functions for the plugin are there to be called when the plugin is activated and when it is terminated. These offer the best option to initialise the counters for our plugin: /*  Initialize the plugin at server start or plugin installation. */ static int audit_syslog_init(void *arg __attribute__((unused))) {     openlog("mysql_audit:",LOG_PID|LOG_PERROR|LOG_CONS,LOG_USER);     total_number_of_calls= 0;     number_of_calls_general= 0;     number_of_calls_connection= 0;     return(0); } The init function does a call to openlog to initialise the syslog functionality. The parameters are the service to log under ("mysql_audit" in this case), the syslog flags and the facility for the logging. Then each of the counters are initialised to zero and a success is returned. If the init function is not defined, it will return success by default. /*  Terminate the plugin at server shutdown or plugin deinstallation. */ static int audit_syslog_deinit(void *arg __attribute__((unused))) {     closelog();     return(0); } The deinit function will simply close our syslog connection and return success. Note that the syslog functionality is part of the glibc libraries and does not require any external factors.  The function names are what we define in the general plugin structure, so these have to match otherwise there will be errors. The next step is to implement the event notifier function that was defined in the type specific descriptor (audit_syslog_descriptor) which is audit_syslog_notify. /* Event notifier function */ static void audit_syslog_notify(MYSQL_THD thd __attribute__((unused)), unsigned int event_class, const void *event) { total_number_of_calls++; if (event_class == MYSQL_AUDIT_GENERAL_CLASS) { const struct mysql_event_general *event_general= (const struct mysql_event_general *) event; number_of_calls_general++; syslog(audit_loglevel,"%lu: User: %s Command: %s Query: %s\n", event_general->general_thread_id, event_general->general_user, event_general->general_command, event_general->general_query ); } else if (event_class == MYSQL_AUDIT_CONNECTION_CLASS) { const struct mysql_event_connection *event_connection= (const struct mysql_event_connection *) event; number_of_calls_connection++; syslog(audit_loglevel,"%lu: User: %s@%s[%s] Event: %d Status: %d\n", event_connection->thread_id, event_connection->user, event_connection->host, event_connection->ip, event_connection->event_subclass, event_connection->status ); } }   In the case of an event, the notifier function is called. The first step is to increment the total number of events that have occurred in our database.The event argument is then cast into the appropriate event structure depending on the class type, of general event or connection event. The event type counters are incremented and details are sent via the syslog() function out to the system log. There are going to be different line formats and information returned since the general events have different data compared to the connection events, even though some of the details overlap, for example, user, thread id, host etc. On compiling the code now, there should be no errors and the resulting audit_syslog.so can be loaded into the server and ready to use. Log into the server and type: mysql> INSTALL PLUGIN audit_syslog SONAME 'audit_syslog.so'; This will install the plugin and will start updating the syslog immediately. Note that the audit plugin attaches to the immediate thread and cannot be uninstalled while that thread is active. This means that you cannot run the UNISTALL command until you log into a different connection (thread) on the server. Once the plugin is loaded, the system log will show output such as the following: Oct  8 15:33:21 machine mysql_audit:[8337]: 87: User: root[root] @ localhost []  Command: (null)  Query: INSTALL PLUGIN audit_syslog SONAME 'audit_syslog.so' Oct  8 15:33:21 machine mysql_audit:[8337]: 87: User: root[root] @ localhost []  Command: Query  Query: INSTALL PLUGIN audit_syslog SONAME 'audit_syslog.so' Oct  8 15:33:40 machine mysql_audit:[8337]: 87: User: root[root] @ localhost []  Command: (null)  Query: show tables Oct  8 15:33:40 machine mysql_audit:[8337]: 87: User: root[root] @ localhost []  Command: Query  Query: show tables Oct  8 15:33:43 machine mysql_audit:[8337]: 87: User: root[root] @ localhost []  Command: (null)  Query: select * from t1 Oct  8 15:33:43 machine mysql_audit:[8337]: 87: User: root[root] @ localhost []  Command: Query  Query: select * from t1 It appears that two of each event is being shown, but in actuality, these are two separate event types - the result event and the status event. This could be refined further by changing the audit_syslog_notify function to handle the different event sub-types in a different manner.  So far, it seems that the logging is working with events showing up in the syslog output. The issue now is that the counters created earlier to track the number of events by type are not accessible when the plugin is being run. Instead there needs to be a way to expose the plugin specific information to the service and vice versa. This could be done via the information_schema plugin api, but for something as simple as counters, the obvious choice is the system status variables. This is done using the standard structure and the declaration: /*  Plugin status variables for SHOW STATUS */ static struct st_mysql_show_var audit_syslog_status[]= {   { "Audit_syslog_total_calls",     (char *) &total_number_of_calls,     SHOW_INT },   { "Audit_syslog_general_events",     (char *) &number_of_calls_general,     SHOW_INT },   { "Audit_syslog_connection_events",     (char *) &number_of_calls_connection,     SHOW_INT },   { 0, 0, SHOW_INT } };   The structure is simply the name that will be displaying in the mysql service, the address of the associated variables, and the data type being used for the counter. It is finished with a blank structure to show that there are no more variables. Remember that status variables may have the same name for variables from other plugin, so it is considered appropriate to add the plugin name at the start of the status variable name to avoid confusion. Looking at the status variables in the mysql client shows something like the following: mysql> show global status like "audit%"; +--------------------------------+-------+ | Variable_name                  | Value | +--------------------------------+-------+ | Audit_syslog_connection_events | 1     | | Audit_syslog_general_events    | 2     | | Audit_syslog_total_calls       | 3     | +--------------------------------+-------+ 3 rows in set (0.00 sec) The final connectivity piece for the plugin is to allow the interactive change of the logging level between the plugin and the system. This requires the ability to send changes via the mysql service through to the plugin. This is done using the system variables interface and defining a single variable to keep track of the active logging level for the facility. /* Plugin system variables for SHOW VARIABLES */ static MYSQL_SYSVAR_STR(loglevel, audit_loglevel,                         PLUGIN_VAR_RQCMDARG,                         "User can specify the log level for auditing",                         audit_loglevel_check, audit_loglevel_update, "LOG_NOTICE"); static struct st_mysql_sys_var* audit_syslog_sysvars[] = {     MYSQL_SYSVAR(loglevel),     NULL }; So now the system variable 'loglevel' is defined for the plugin and associated to the global variable 'audit_loglevel'. The check or validation function is defined to make sure that no garbage values are attempted in the update of the variable. The update function is used to save the new value to the variable. Note that the audit_syslog_sysvars structure is defined in the general plugin descriptor to associate the link between the plugin and the system and how much they interact. Next comes the implementation of the validation function and the update function for the system variable. It is worth noting that if you have a simple numeric such as integers for the variable types, the validate function is often not required as MySQL will handle the automatic check and validation of simple types. /* longest valid value */ #define MAX_LOGLEVEL_SIZE 100 /* hold the valid values */ static const char *possible_modes[]= { "LOG_ERROR", "LOG_WARNING", "LOG_NOTICE", NULL };  static int audit_loglevel_check(     THD*                        thd,    /*!< in: thread handle */     struct st_mysql_sys_var*    var,    /*!< in: pointer to system                                         variable */     void*                       save,   /*!< out: immediate result                                         for update function */     struct st_mysql_value*      value)  /*!< in: incoming string */ {     char buff[MAX_LOGLEVEL_SIZE];     const char *str;     const char **found;     int length;     length= sizeof(buff);     if (!(str= value->val_str(value, buff, &length)))         return 1;     /*         We need to return a pointer to a locally allocated value in "save".         Here we pick to search for the supplied value in an global array of         constant strings and return a pointer to one of them.         The other possiblity is to use the thd_alloc() function to allocate         a thread local buffer instead of the global constants.     */     for (found= possible_modes; *found; found++)     {         if (!strcmp(*found, str))         {             *(const char**)save= *found;             return 0;         }     }     return 1; } The validation function is simply to take the value being passed in via the SET GLOBAL VARIABLE command and check if it is one of the pre-defined values allowed  in our possible_values array. If it is found to be valid, then the value is assigned to the save variable ready for passing through to the update function. static void audit_loglevel_update(     THD*                        thd,        /*!< in: thread handle */     struct st_mysql_sys_var*    var,        /*!< in: system variable                                             being altered */     void*                       var_ptr,    /*!< out: pointer to                                             dynamic variable */     const void*                 save)       /*!< in: pointer to                                             temporary storage */ {     /* assign the new value so that the server can read it */     *(char **) var_ptr= *(char **) save;     /* assign the new value to the internal variable */     audit_loglevel= *(char **) save; } Since all the validation has been done already, the update function is quite simple for this plugin. The first part is to update the system variable pointer so that the server can read the value. The second part is to update our own global plugin variable for tracking the value. Notice that the save variable is passed in as a void type to allow handling of various data types, so it must be cast to the appropriate data type when assigning it to the variables. Looking at how the latest changes affect the usage of the plugin and the interaction within the server shows: mysql> show global variables like "audit%"; +-----------------------+------------+ | Variable_name         | Value      | +-----------------------+------------+ | audit_syslog_loglevel | LOG_NOTICE | +-----------------------+------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec) mysql> set global audit_syslog_loglevel="LOG_ERROR"; Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec) mysql> show global status like "audit%"; +--------------------------------+-------+ | Variable_name                  | Value | +--------------------------------+-------+ | Audit_syslog_connection_events | 1     | | Audit_syslog_general_events    | 11    | | Audit_syslog_total_calls       | 12    | +--------------------------------+-------+ 3 rows in set (0.00 sec) mysql> show global variables like "audit%"; +-----------------------+-----------+ | Variable_name         | Value     | +-----------------------+-----------+ | audit_syslog_loglevel | LOG_ERROR | +-----------------------+-----------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec)   So now we have a plugin that will audit the events on the system and log the details to the system log. It allows for interaction to see the number of different events within the server details and provides a mechanism to change the logging level interactively via the standard system methods of the SET command. A more complex auditing plugin may have more detailed code, but each of the above areas is what will be involved and simply expanded on to add more functionality. With the above skeleton code, it is now possible to create your own audit plugins to implement your own auditing requirements. If, however, you are not of the coding persuasion, then you could always consider the option of the MySQL Enterprise Audit plugin that is available to purchase.

    Read the article

  • Phonegap / jquery mobile slide transition not workign properly on first call

    - by Alexander Casassovici
    I have an awkward visual glitch. I want nice transition when changing pages on the app. Unfortunately first time i change to another page, Instead of sliding current pagg out and new page in , current page is immediately replaces by the new page, then slides out... and when it's out of view it's the new page is shown... the second time around it works like a charm though !!! This is running on iphone with jquery mobile + phonegap I made a video to make the issue clear: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ybvzh_wTnSE <body style="background-color: #000;"> <div id="container" style="display:none;"> <div id="side-menu" style="display:none;"> <div id="header_top"></div> <a href="#dives" onclick="showdives();"><div id="header_dives" class="selected"></div></a> <div id="header_spacer1"></div> <a href="#explore" onclick="showexplore();"><div id="header_explore"></div></a> <div id="header_spacer2"></div> <a href="#search" onclick="showsearch();"><div id="header_search"></div></a> <div id="header_spacer3"></div> <a href="#settings" onclick="showsettings();"><div id="header_settings"></div></a> <div id="header_bottom"></div> </div> <div id="slide_mask"> <!-- START of LOGIN page --> <div data-role="page" id="login"> <div id="home_frame"> <div id="home_logo"></div> <div id="home_fblogin" onclick="login()"></div> <div class="home_login"> <p>Email: <input type="text" name="user[email]" size="30"/></p> <p>Password: <input type="password" name="user[password]" size="30"/></p> <button onclick="show_page_home();">LOGIN</button> </div> </div> </div> <!-- END of LOGIN page --> <!-- START of LOGIN page --> <div data-role="page" id="dives" class="right_pane"> <p>My dives !</p> </div><!-- /content --> <div data-role="page" id="explore" class="hidden right_pane"> <p>My explore !</p> </div><!-- /content --> <div data-role="page" id="search" class="hidden right_pane"> <p>My search !</p> </div><!-- /content --> <div data-role="page" id="settings" class="hidden right_pane"> <p>My settings !</p> <button onclick="logout_db();">logout</button> </div><!-- /content --> <!-- END of LOGIN page --> </div> </div> <div id="log"></div> <div id="data"></div> </body> And the relevant CSS: body {margin: 0; font: 18px Helvetica; text-align: center; background-color: #000; background: url(../img/bg_big.png) repeat; -webkit-user-select: none; /* prevent copy paste for all elements */ } #container { width:320px; height:460px; overflow: hidden;} input{ -webkit-user-select: text; /* enable copy paste for elements with this class */} a {-webkit-user-select: none; /* prevent copy paste for all elements */} span {-webkit-user-select: none; /* prevent copy paste for all elements */} #side-menu {z-index: 1000 !important; position: fixed; height: 460px; width: 56.5px; background: url(../img/bg_big.png) no-repeat; display: inline-block; overflow: hidden; top: 0px; left: 0px; } #header_top {background: url(../img/header/header_top.png) no-repeat; background-size: 56.5px 48.96px; width: 56.5px; height: 48.96px; display: block;} #header_dives {background: url(../img/header/dives.png) no-repeat; background-size: 56.5px 51.75px; width: 56.5px; height: 51.75px; display: block;} #header_dives.selected{background: url(../img/header/dives_selected.png) no-repeat;} #header_spacer1{background: url(../img/header/header_space1.png) no-repeat; background-size: 56.5px 13.9px; width: 56.5px; height: 13.9px; display: block;} #header_explore{background: url(../img/header/explore.png) no-repeat; background-size: 56.5px 51.75px; width: 56.5px; height: 51.75px; display: block;} #header_explore.selected{background: url(../img/header/explore_selected.png) no-repeat;} #header_spacer2{background: url(../img/header/header_space2.png) no-repeat; background-size: 56.5px 15.33px; width: 56.5px; height: 15.33px; display: block;} #header_search{background: url(../img/header/search.png) no-repeat; background-size: 56.5px 51.75px; width: 56.5px; height: 51.75px; display: block;} #header_search.selected{background: url(../img/header/search_selected.png) no-repeat;} #header_spacer3{background: url(../img/header/header_space3.png) no-repeat; background-size: 56.5px 17.73px; width: 56.5px; height: 17.73px; display: block;} #header_settings{background: url(../img/header/settings.png) no-repeat; background-size: 56.5px 51.75px; width: 56.5px; height: 51.75px; display: block;} #header_settings.selected{background: url(../img/header/settings_selected.png) no-repeat;} #header_bottom{background: url(../img/header/header_bottom.png) no-repeat; background-size: 56.5px 160px; width: 56.5px; height: 160px; display: block;} .hidden {display: none;} .right_pane{width: 263.5px !important; background: url(../img/right_bg.png) no-repeat; background-size:263.5px 460px; width: 263.5px; height: 460px; left: 56.5px !important;} #slide_mask{ display: inline-block; overflow: hidden; padding-left: 56.5px; width: 263.5px; height: 460px; top: 0;} and the bit of JS: /////////////////////////////////// //MENU MECHANICS /////////////////////////////////// function showdives(){ $("#side-menu .selected").removeClass("selected"); $("#header_dives").addClass("selected"); } function showexplore(){ $("#side-menu .selected").removeClass("selected"); $("#header_explore").addClass("selected"); } function showsearch(){ $("#side-menu .selected").removeClass("selected"); $("#header_search").addClass("selected"); } function showsettings(){ $("#side-menu .selected").removeClass("selected"); $("#header_settings").addClass("selected"); } the onclick only add/remove the "selected" class to the menu items so... any hint ? been trying eveything for hours and still can't get it neat .. :(

    Read the article

  • trying to center a css menu made on purecssmenu.com

    - by Party Mcfly
    i have a menu that i generated on purecssmenu.com and im having trouble trying to center it on my page here is the code... <!-- Start PureCSSMenu.com STYLE --> <style> #pcm{display:none;} ul.pureCssMenu ul{display:none} ul.pureCssMenu li:hover>ul{display:block} ul.pureCssMenu ul{position: absolute;left:-1px;top:98%;} ul.pureCssMenu ul ul{position: absolute;left:98%;top:-2px;} ul.pureCssMenu,ul.pureCssMenu ul { margin:0px; list-style:none; padding:0px 2px 2px 0px; background-color:#000000; background-repeat:repeat; border-color:#000000; border-width:1px; border-style:solid; } ul.pureCssMenu table {border-collapse:collapse}ul.pureCssMenu { display:block; zoom:1; float: left; } ul.pureCssMenu ul{ width:80.85000000000001px; } ul.pureCssMenu li{ display:block; margin:2px 0px 0px 2px; font-size:0px; } ul.pureCssMenu a:active, ul.pureCssMenu a:focus { outline-style:none; } ul.pureCssMenu a, ul.pureCssMenu li.dis a:hover, ul.pureCssMenu li.sep a:hover { display:block; vertical-align:middle; background-color:#000000; border-width:1px; border-color:#000000; border-style:solid; text-align:left; text-decoration:none; padding:2px 5px 2px 10px; _padding-left:0; font:11px Arial; color: #969696; text-decoration:none; cursor:default; } ul.pureCssMenu span{ overflow:hidden; } ul.pureCssMenu li { float:left; } ul.pureCssMenu ul li { float:none; } ul.pureCssMenu ul a { text-align:left; white-space:nowrap; } ul.pureCssMenu li.sep{ text-align:left; padding:0px; line-height:0; height:100%; } ul.pureCssMenu li.sep span{ float:none; padding-right:0; width:3px; height:100%; display:inline-block; background-color:#cccccc #111111 #111111 #cccccc; background-image:none;} ul.pureCssMenu ul li.sep span{ width:100%; height:3px; } ul.pureCssMenu li:hover{ position:relative; } ul.pureCssMenu li:hover>a{ background-color:#000000; border-color:#000000; border-style:solid; font:11px Arial; color: #ffa500; text-decoration:none; } ul.pureCssMenu li a:hover{ position:relative; background-color:#000000; border-color:#000000; border-style:solid; font:11px Arial; color: #ffa500; text-decoration:none; } ul.pureCssMenu li.dis a { color: #666 !important; } ul.pureCssMenu img {border: none;float:left;_float:none;margin-right:2px;width:16px; height:16px; } ul.pureCssMenu ul img {width:16px; height:16px; } ul.pureCssMenu img.over{display:none} ul.pureCssMenu li.dis a:hover img.over{display:none !important} ul.pureCssMenu li.dis a:hover img.def {display:inline !important} ul.pureCssMenu li:hover > a img.def {display:none} ul.pureCssMenu li:hover > a img.over {display:inline} ul.pureCssMenu a:hover img.over,ul.pureCssMenu a:hover ul img.def,ul.pureCssMenu a:hover a:hover img.over{display:inline} ul.pureCssMenu a:hover img.def,ul.pureCssMenu a:hover ul img.over,ul.pureCssMenu a:hover a:hover img.def{display:none} ul.pureCssMenu a:hover ul{display:block} ul.pureCssMenu span{ display:block; background-image:url(./images/arr_white.gif); background-position:right center; background-repeat: no-repeat; padding-right:12px;} ul.pureCssMenu li:hover>a>span{ background-image:url(./images/arrv_white.gif); } ul.pureCssMenu a:hover span{ _background-image:url(./images/arrv_white.gif)} ul.pureCssMenu ul span,ul.pureCssMenu a:hover table span{background-image:url(./images/arr_white.gif)} </style> <!-- End PureCSSMenu.com STYLE --> and here is the html, witch is probably not even needed in this posted but i figure i would include it.. i just want that menu centered inside my website. <!-- Start PureCSSMenu.com MENU --> <ul class="pureCssMenu pureCssMenum"> <li class="pureCssMenui"><a class="pureCssMenui" href="home.html" target="scare">home</a></li> <li class="pureCssMenui"><a class="pureCssMenui" href="#">about</a></li> <li class="pureCssMenui"><a class="pureCssMenui" href="#"><span>haunts</span><![if gt IE 6]></a><![endif]><!--[if lte IE 6]><table><tr><td><![endif]--> <ul class="pureCssMenum"> <li class="pureCssMenui"><a class="pureCssMenui" href="#">2009</a></li> <li class="pureCssMenui"><a class="pureCssMenui" href="#">2010</a></li> <li class="pureCssMenui"><a class="pureCssMenui" href="#">2011</a></li> <li class="pureCssMenui"><a class="pureCssMenui" href="#">2012</a></li> </ul> <!--[if lte IE 6]></td></tr></table></a><![endif]--></li> <li class="pureCssMenui"><a class="pureCssMenui" href="#">studio</a></li> <li class="pureCssMenui"><a class="pureCssMenui" href="#"><span>products</span><![if gt IE 6]></a><![endif]><!--[if lte IE 6]><table><tr><td><![endif]--> <ul class="pureCssMenum"> <li class="pureCssMenui"><a class="pureCssMenui" href="#">nightmares</a></li> <li class="pureCssMenui"><a class="pureCssMenui" href="#">hauntworks</a></li> <li class="pureCssMenui"><a class="pureCssMenui" href="#">atmosfears</a></li> <li class="pureCssMenui"><a class="pureCssMenui" href="#">frightwears</a></li> </ul> <!--[if lte IE 6]></td></tr></table></a><![endif]--></li> <li class="pureCssMenui"><a class="pureCssMenui" href="#"><span>links</span><![if gt IE 6]></a><![endif]><!--[if lte IE 6]><table><tr><td><![endif]--> <ul class="pureCssMenum"> <li class="pureCssMenui"><a class="pureCssMenui" href="#">haunts</a></li> <li class="pureCssMenui"><a class="pureCssMenui" href="#">suppliers</a></li> <li class="pureCssMenui"><a class="pureCssMenui" href="#">resources</a></li> </ul> <!--[if lte IE 6]></td></tr></table></a><![endif]--></li> <li class="pureCssMenui"><a class="pureCssMenui" href="#">contact</a></li> </ul> <a id="pcm" href="http://www.purecssmenu.com/">CSS Drop Down Menu by PureCSSMenu.com</a> <!-- End PureCSSMenu.com MENU --> thanks in advance for your time.

    Read the article

  • API server not function ["The connection has been reset"]

    - by Miguel Beltrán
    I'm having some troubles with one of my servers. I've done an application with two servers, one the frontend that grabs the data of server API (Ubuntu server). Well, yesterday had a lot of visits and the API server stop functioning but: -I can do stuff in MySQL by SSH. -The memory usage is ok. -The logs are ok. -The bandwitch usage is ok. -If i restart the server or Apache2, function by some time (3-4 minutes). And the most important i think if i tries to access to API (Is rest-style with http) it puts me the Firefox error "The connection has been reset". I'd tried: -Restart the server -Restart Apache2 -Restart MySQL -Viewed the logs of Apache2/MySQL I don't know too much about systems so i don't know what to do more.

    Read the article

  • What is the importance of the .DFSFolderLink

    - by Swift
    I am currently building a new DFS namespace setup. My folder E:\CommonStuff\ is already shared on the fileserver. And now it is also shared as \DOMAIN\CommonStuff I got 3 questions: I see .DFSFolderLink records in all folders I create in the DFS Managment console. But all folders that was in E:\CommonStuff allready does not contain these records. Are the .DFSFolderLink records important? Does it make any difference if I create subfolders "the old way" in the E:\Commonstuff\ or if I do it within the DFS Managment console?

    Read the article

  • Proxmox VE cluster not working

    - by JJ56
    I have been using a Proxmox VE 2.0 cluster (2 servers) for months. Today, I had the "bright idea" to install a GUI on one of the servers. I used tasksel, and selected the graphical desktop environment (Gnome). When I rebooted the server, neither of the servers on the cluster could see each other (shows a red light by the server on the sidebar, no statistics). The VMs on each server are working fine, individually. pvecm status on the broken server shows cman_tool: cannot open connection to cman, is it running ?. Running it on the other server outputs a lot of lines (here: http://pastebin.com/HpQfUHTU), but I assume the important bit is expected votes:2 total votes: 1 Trying pvecm delnode (othernode) on either server outputs: cluster not ready - no quorum? Any suggestions as to how I can fix this? Thanks in advance!

    Read the article

  • HTTP response time profiling

    - by Sparsh Gupta
    Hello I have a nginx reverse proxy. The server is close to serving 600-700 requests per second. I have a Munin HTTP load time plugin which is outputting this: http://monitor.wingify.com/munin/visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/lb1.visualwebsiteoptimizer.com-http_loadtime.html Now, the problem is I am seeing some spikes in the graph. Expected response times should always be under 200ms. I am keeping an eye on syslog and messages but I am unable to figure out the actual cause of this. I was wondering if there is any good HTTP response time profiling system which I can install / embed with this nginx server and get a detailed reports / logs on the breakup of time taken by different things and what exactly is the cause of the spikes. The profiling system would also help me understand bottlenecks and how can I further optimize the latency. Most important right now is to investigate the cause of the spikes in the HTTP load time graphs (similar pattern is reported by external monitors - Pingdom) and to fix it to get consistent response times Thanks

    Read the article

  • Windows 7 upgrade on XP and Vista

    - by icc97
    I am upgrading a Windows XP (32-bit) machine and a Windows Vista (32-bit) machine to Windows 7 (32-bit). The most important files and accounts are on the Windows XP machine. What I would like to do is the following: backup the XP machine using Windows Easy Transfer upgrade the Windows Vista machine to a fresh install of Windows 7 install the XP backup on the Vista machine and see if everything is working Is this possible? I would have thought its possible as once the Vista machine is upgraded to Windows 7 it should be the same as if I had upgraded the XP machine, but I don't want to waste my time if its not. Thanks

    Read the article

  • Windows 7 upgrade on XP and Vista

    - by icc97
    I am upgrading a Windows XP (32-bit) machine and a Windows Vista (32-bit) machine to Windows 7 (32-bit). The most important files and accounts are on the Windows XP machine. What I would like to do is the following: backup the XP machine using Windows Easy Transfer upgrade the Windows Vista machine to a fresh install of Windows 7 install the XP backup on the Vista machine and see if everything is working Is this possible? I would have thought its possible as once the Vista machine is upgraded to Windows 7 it should be the same as if I had upgraded the XP machine, but I don't want to waste my time if its not. Thanks

    Read the article

  • Sending emails from PHP - email providers vs GAE

    - by nrph
    I need to send emails from my social service (this is continuation of Experiences in mailing to registered users). I got strong feeling that it's better to avoid problems with email server configuration and maintance and to choose email provider which will take care of all painful problems. So several offers were compared: http://imgur.com/JkK2X.jpg Three of them look very attractive: Postageapp / Sendgrid / CritSend As alternative i'm considering setup GAE app. Email provider is quite easy to start work with, but have no idea how much effort require GAE to integrate with PHP. So my question is: which option is better to choose: email provider GAE ? Two factors are important here: business background (therefore prices are mentioned), work required to setup and maintain desired solution. Preferably i would love to avoid all email-related problems (like black lists and so on).

    Read the article

  • Any problems usinga GoDaddy SSL certificate on a Cisco ASA firewall?

    - by Richard West
    I need to purchase and install a SSL certificate on my Cisco ASA firewall. This will allow my VPN users to connect to my ASA without receiving the certificate error from the untrusted self assigned SSL certificate that is currently on the ASA. I had good experiences with the SSL certificates that GoDaddy sells. However, I'm concerned about using them. On my web servers I have to also install GoDaddy's "intermediate certificate bundle". On the ASA I do not think that I will be able to preform anything like this. I do not fully understand what the "intermediate certificate bundle" does, but obviously it's important. So my question is can I use a GoDaddy SSL certificate on an ASA without my users getting any type of warning or error about connecting to a site that using an untrusted SSL certificate. I need this to be as simple as possible for my end users and warning messages are always scary :) Thanks!

    Read the article

  • SQL Cluster on Hyper V Failover Cluster

    - by Chris W
    We have a VM running SQL Server on a 6 node cluster of blades. The VM's data files are stored a SAN attached using a direct iSCSI connection. As this SQL server will be running a number of important databases we're debating whether we should be clustering the SQL Server or will the fact that the VM is running in the cluster itself sufficient to give us high availability. I'm used to running SQL clusters when dealing with physical servers but I'm a bit sketchy on what is best practice when all the servers are just VMs sat on Hyper V. If a blade running the VM fails I presume the VM will be started up on another load. I'm guessing the only benefit that adding a SQL cluster to the setup will give us it that the recovery time after a failure will be a little quicker? Are there any other benefits?

    Read the article

  • Recommendations on laptops - long battery life, slim, Windows 7

    - by molecule
    Hi, I have been looking at a couple of laptops... The most important requirement is long battery life, slim & light, and runs Windows 7. One that seems to fit the bill is the Sony Vaio Z series laptops. They claim to have long battery life, have some really impressive specs (on paper) and a very nice design. They are not on sale where I am yet but has seen/used them? Second would be the Lenovo Thinkpad IBM x301 For business users, Thinkpad seems to be the way to go. I have also considered Dell Alienware M11x but may not be completely appropriate for business use? What would you recommend with a budget of USD1500-2000?

    Read the article

  • Cheap dvr media server

    - by Tester101
    I would like to build a new computer to be used as a DVR and media server. I am thinking of using mythtv as the DVR software, but short of that decision I am completely open to suggestions. Requirements: Must be cheap. Must have low power consumption (since it will always be on). Should be quiet. Should be small. I'm really not sure where to start with this project, and am open to any hardware/software suggestions. Is it possible to build a small quiet and cheap system? *Keep in mind I am working on this project because I am tired of Cable rate increases, but I can't imagine living without a DVR so cost is very important and I would like the system to be sub $200.00. The system also needs to handle the new digital broadcast system. Thanks for the help,

    Read the article

  • iChat Screen Sharing - Keyboard shortcut to switch back to my computer without messing with the mous

    - by Sergio Oliveira Jr.
    When you are watching a screen sharing session commanded by the other user, in other words, you are watching the other user doing stuff in his computer, how do I switch back to my computer without disrupting the other user by stealing the mouse to click on the "My Computer" window? Put simply: To go back to my computer I have to click in the "My computer" little window at the bottom, but that requires me to use the mouse which is being used by the other user. There must be a way to use a keyboard shortcut to perform that action without bothering the other user who is using the mouse to do something important. Anyone? Thanks, -Sergio

    Read the article

  • STUN-server using AWS

    - by Yrlec
    We are about to hire some consultants to help us set up an AWS-based server environment that will enable us to handle NAT Traversal for our P2P application. One important part of the NAT Traversal infrastructure is the STUN-server (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STUN). They just told us that in order for the STUN-server to work you must have two public static IP-addresses pointing to the same server. To more specific they said this: It appears that you need 2 static IPs for each server for the STUN to work. Please note, these IPs have to be put into the configuration file, therefore, each time you restart the instance you have to make sure you either use the same IPs or you have to update configuration. As you plan to use AWS for your installation, please confirm that you can have 2 static IP for each server. Our question is if this is possible using AWS and if so, how? If not, do you know any other way to set up a STUN-server using AWS?

    Read the article

< Previous Page | 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140  | Next Page >