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  • Oracle Magazine - OWB 11gR2 and Heterogeneous Databases

    - by David Allan
    There's a nice article titled 'Oracle Warehouse Builder 11g Release 2 and Heterogeneous Databases' from Oracle ACE director and cofounder of Rittman Mead Consulting, Mark Rittman in the May/June 2010 Oracle Magazine that covers the heterogeneous database support in OWB 11gR2: http://www.oracle.com/technology/oramag/oracle/10-may/o30bi.html Big thanks to Mark for this write up. There is an Oracle white paper on the support here and for examples of this extensibility you can go to the OWB blog archive where there are quite a few posts. I would recommend the following interesting posts out of the archive architecture overview, bulk file loading, MySQL open connectivity and MySQL bulk extract as interesting posts amongst others.

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  • Can't (re)Install VLC (removed by update{again})

    - by David matthews
    I use VLC a lot, And When 2.0 came out Ubuntu did not update to that version, the REPO had the older version even months later, So I added the daily repo: http://ppa.launchpad.net/videolan/stable-daily/ubuntu and that worked for a while, after a few months later I received a 'Distribution upgrade' and when I installed it, it removed VLC. when I tried to re-install it gave me a bunch of unmet dependency's, so I disabled the source, ran apt-get update, and tried to install the older VLC, that did not work either. I eventually found a web page, and it helped me get it working, and I was also able to get the 'Stable Daily' working too But last night, I got another 'disto upgrade' and it uninstalled VLC again. when I try to reinstall from daily I get: The following packages have unmet dependencies: vlc : Depends: fonts-freefont-ttf but it is not installable Depends: vlc-nox (= 2.0.3+git20121005+r392-0~r42~precise1) but it is not going to be installed Depends: libvlccore5 (>= 2.0.0) but it is not going to be installed Recommends: vlc-plugin-notify (= 2.0.3+git20121005+r392-0~r42~precise1) but it is not going to be installed Recommends: vlc-plugin-pulse (= 2.0.3+git20121005+r392-0~r42~precise1) but it is not going to be installed E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages. and from the default source: vlc : Depends: vlc-nox (= 2.0.3-0ubuntu0.12.04.1) but it is not going to be installed Depends: libvlccore5 (>= 2.0.0) but it is not going to be installed Recommends: vlc-plugin-notify (= 2.0.3-0ubuntu0.12.04.1) but it is not going to be installed vlc-plugin-pulse : Depends: vlc-nox (= 2.0.3-0ubuntu0.12.04.1) but it is not going to be installed Depends: libvlccore5 (>= 2.0.0) but it is not going to be installed E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages. (and yes, I ran apt-get update after turning off daily) Any Ideas? (ubuntu 12.04 64bit)

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  • Are factors such as Intellisense support and strong typing enough to justify the use of an 'Anaemic Domain Model'?

    - by David Osborne
    It's easy to accept that objects should be used in all layers except a layer nominated as a data layer. However, it's just as easy to end-up with an 'anaemic domain model' that is just an object representation of data with no real functionality ( http://martinfowler.com/bliki/AnemicDomainModel.html ). However, using objects in this fashion brings the benefit of factors such as Intellisense support, strong typing, readability, discoverability, etc. Are these factors strong arguments for an otherwise, anaemic domain model?

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  • Turn your laptop into a wireless Access Point with Windows 7!

    - by David Nudelman
    Windows 7 offers a very cool feature where you can connect multiple devices to any wired and wireless network connection (hotel, cable, 3G, UMTS, EDGE, WIFI, RJ45, Ethernet, etc.) by turning your own laptop into a wireless AP (Access Point) to relay those devices not directly connected to the internet. For this just enter these two commands to an elevated (right click on CMD.EXE, run as administrator): netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=YOURFRIENDLYSSID key=SOMEPASSWORD netsh wlan start hostednetwork At this point, if Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) is setup, anyone can connect to your SoftAP (if they know the PWD of course) and the traffic will be sent through whatever adapter you want. You can actually bridge it across an entirely different adapter... or the same on a different Wifi LAN. A GUI to set this up can be downloaded for free here: http://www.connectify.me/

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  • 3D Ball Physics Theory: collision response on ground and against walls?

    - by David
    I'm really struggling to get a strong grasp on how I should be handling collision response in a game engine I'm building around a 3D ball physics concept. Think Monkey Ball as an example of the type of gameplay. I am currently using sphere-to-sphere broad phase, then AABB to OBB testing (the final test I am using right now is one that checks if one of the 8 OBB points crosses the planes of the object it is testing against). This seems to work pretty well, and I am getting back: Plane that object is colliding against (with a point on the plane, the plane's normal, and the exact point of intersection. I've tried what feels like dozens of different high-level strategies for handling these collisions, without any real success. I think my biggest problem is understanding how to handle collisions against walls in the x-y axes (left/right, front/back), which I want to have elasticity, and the ground (z-axis) where I want an elastic reaction if the ball drops down, but then for it to eventually normalize and be kept "on the ground" (not go into the ground, but also not continue bouncing). Without kluging something together, I'm positive there is a good way to handle this, my theories just aren't getting me all the way there. For physics modeling and movement, I am trying to use a Euler based setup with each object maintaining a position (and destination position prior to collision detection), a velocity (which is added onto the position to determine the destination position), and an acceleration (which I use to store any player input being put on the ball, as well as gravity in the z coord). Starting from when I detect a collision, what is a good way to approach the response to get the expected behavior in all cases? Thanks in advance to anyone taking the time to assist... I am grateful for any pointers, and happy to post any additional info or code if it is useful. UPDATE Based on Steve H's and eBusiness' responses below, I have adapted my collision response to what makes a lot more sense now. It was close to right before, but I didn't have all the right pieces together at the right time! I have one problem left to solve, and that is what is causing the floor collision to hit every frame. Here's the collision response code I have now for the ball, then I'll describe the last bit I'm still struggling to understand. // if we are moving in the direction of the plane (against the normal)... if (m_velocity.dot(intersection.plane.normal) <= 0.0f) { float dampeningForce = 1.8f; // eventually create this value based on mass and acceleration // Calculate the projection velocity PVRTVec3 actingVelocity = m_velocity.project(intersection.plane.normal); m_velocity -= actingVelocity * dampeningForce; } // Clamp z-velocity to zero if we are within a certain threshold // -- NOTE: this was an experimental idea I had to solve the "jitter" bug I'll describe below float diff = 0.2f - abs(m_velocity.z); if (diff > 0.0f && diff <= 0.2f) { m_velocity.z = 0.0f; } // Take this object to its new destination position based on... // -- our pre-collision position + vector to the collision point + our new velocity after collision * time // -- remaining after the collision to finish the movement m_destPosition = m_position + intersection.diff + (m_velocity * intersection.tRemaining * GAMESTATE->dt); The above snippet is run after a collision is detected on the ball (collider) with a collidee (floor in this case). With a dampening force of 1.8f, the ball's reflected "upward" velocity will eventually be overcome by gravity, so the ball will essentially be stuck on the floor. THIS is the problem I have now... the collision code is running every frame (since the ball's z-velocity is constantly pushing it a collision with the floor below it). The ball is not technically stuck, I can move it around still, but the movement is really goofy because the velocity and position keep getting affected adversely by the above snippet. I was experimenting with an idea to clamp the z-velocity to zero if it was "close to zero", but this didn't do what I think... probably because the very next frame the ball gets a new gravity acceleration applied to its velocity regardless (which I think is good, right?). Collisions with walls are as they used to be and work very well. It's just this last bit of "stickiness" to deal with. The camera is constantly jittering up and down by extremely small fractions too when the ball is "at rest". I'll keep playing with it... I like puzzles like this, especially when I think I'm close. Any final ideas on what I could be doing wrong here? UPDATE 2 Good news - I discovered I should be subtracting the intersection.diff from the m_position (position prior to collision). The intersection.diff is my calculation of the difference in the vector of position to destPosition from the intersection point to the position. In this case, adding it was causing my ball to always go "up" just a little bit, causing the jitter. By subtracting it, and moving that clamper for the velocity.z when close to zero to being above the dot product (and changing the test from <= 0 to < 0), I now have the following: // Clamp z-velocity to zero if we are within a certain threshold float diff = 0.2f - abs(m_velocity.z); if (diff > 0.0f && diff <= 0.2f) { m_velocity.z = 0.0f; } // if we are moving in the direction of the plane (against the normal)... float dotprod = m_velocity.dot(intersection.plane.normal); if (dotprod < 0.0f) { float dampeningForce = 1.8f; // eventually create this value based on mass and acceleration? // Calculate the projection velocity PVRTVec3 actingVelocity = m_velocity.project(intersection.plane.normal); m_velocity -= actingVelocity * dampeningForce; } // Take this object to its new destination position based on... // -- our pre-collision position + vector to the collision point + our new velocity after collision * time // -- remaining after the collision to finish the movement m_destPosition = m_position - intersection.diff + (m_velocity * intersection.tRemaining * GAMESTATE->dt); UpdateWorldMatrix(m_destWorldMatrix, m_destOBB, m_destPosition, false); This is MUCH better. No jitter, and the ball now "rests" at the floor, while still bouncing off the floor and walls. The ONLY thing left is that the ball is now virtually "stuck". He can move but at a much slower rate, likely because the else of my dot product test is only letting the ball move at a rate multiplied against the tRemaining... I think this is a better solution than I had previously, but still somehow not the right idea. BTW, I'm trying to journal my progress through this problem for anyone else with a similar situation - hopefully it will serve as some help, as many similar posts have for me over the years.

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  • Your Experience Platform

    - by David Dorf
    Crosstalk once again exceeded my expectations, improving upon last year's conference in terms of venue, knowledge sharing, and entertainment.  Its great to see the Oracle Retail family continues to grow, especially outside the US.  I had a great time talking to retailers, analysts, press, and colleagues from around the world. Because the economy, demographics, technology, etc. are constantly changing, retailers must always be evolving their business to capture the next market.  But it takes guts to change something that appears to be working, and it takes a bit of luck to get the timing right.  To a large extent, innovation is about "guts and luck." To help retailers innovate, Oracle Retail provides all the necessary software to create Your Experience Platform.  There is no "Oracle Experience Platform" as each retailer needs something different to deliver on their brand promise.  We provide the actionable insight, optimized operations, and connected interactions, but its still up to the retailer to make it theirs. One such retailer is Masters, a home improvement retailer in Australia formed through a partnership between Woolworths and Lowes.  Woolworths is an established retailer in Australia, so they are already close to their customers and able to understand their needs.  In Australia 74% of dwellings are detached houses and the population is continues to "move up" into bigger and bigger homes. Masters is using Oracle Retail's software to create their experience platform that will deliver on their brand promise, which includes everyday low prices, wide range of products, smarter self-service, and an inviting store environment.  The Oracle Retail software provides the foundation that allows them to rapidly deliver on this promise -- Masters is engineered for success.

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  • Compiz command plugin won't register keyboard shortcuts

    - by David Moles
    Per this discussion I've enabled the Compiz commands plugin in order to try to bind some keyboard shortcuts to wmctrl actions. CCSM captures my keystrokes just fine, but no matter what keystroke I try or what command I bind it to (everything from my original intention of binding Super-1, Super-2 etc. to wmctrl -o 0,0, wmctrl -o 2560,0, etc., to binding Ctrl-Alt-Shift-L to gnome-terminal). Basic compiz shortcuts for window switching and so on -- even custom ones -- seem to work fine, but the command plugin doesn't seem to be working at all. I also notice the following symptom: when I open the keyboard shortcut tab in CCSM, the keyboard shortcuts often at first appear blank, though if you click on the blank button, the correct value is still there. Also possibly related, I've noticed that gnome-terminal doesn't seem to notice the Super key, though other apps (e.g. CCSM, Emacs) register it fine. Anyway, it seems like something's eating my keystrokes. Any ideas?

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  • How to change eclipse font sizes

    - by David M. Karr
    I'm trying to reduce the font sizes used in Eclipse. I've read several notes talking about how to do this, but none of them have made a difference. Obviously, changing it in Eclipse preferences doesn't do it. The common answers about using "Appearance-Fonts" doesn't work, because there is no "Fonts" tab. I believe I saw one person say that the "Fonts" tab isn't supposed to be there anymore. The next suggestion is to install MyUnity and change the font settings there. That appeared to change the fonts used in other apps, like gnome-terminal and window headers, but it still has had no effect on Eclipse.

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  • Keeping Aspect Screen Ratio While Stays in Center

    - by David Dimalanta
    I sqw and I tried this suggestion on PISTACHIO BRAINSTORMIN* on how to make a good and adaptive screen ration. For every different screen size, let's say I put the perfect circle as a Texture in LibGDX and played it on screen. Here's the blueberry image example and it's perfectly rounded: When I played it on the Google Nexus 7, the circle turn into a slightly oblonng shape, resembling as it was being flatten a bit. Please observe this snapshot below and you can see the blueberry is almost but slightly not perfectly rounded: Now, when I tried the suggested code for aspect ratio, the perfect circle retained but another problem is occured. The problem is that I expecting for a view on center but instead it's been moved to the right offset leaving with a half black screen. This would be look like this: Here is my code using the suggested screen aspect ratio code: Class' Field // Ingredients Needed for Screen Aspect Ratio private static final int VIRTUAL_WIDTH = 720; private static final int VIRTUAL_HEIGHT = 1280; private static final float ASPECT_RATIO = ((float) VIRTUAL_WIDTH)/((float) VIRTUAL_HEIGHT); private Camera Mother_Camera; private Rectangle Viewport; render() // Camera updating... Mother_Camera.update(); Mother_Camera.apply(Gdx.gl10); // Reseting viewport... Gdx.gl.glViewport((int) Viewport.x, (int) Viewport.y, (int) Viewport.width, (int) Viewport.height); // Clear previous frame. Gdx.gl.glClearColor(0, 0, 0, 1); Gdx.gl.glClear(GL10.GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT); show() Mother_Camera = new OrthographicCamera(VIRTUAL_WIDTH, VIRTUAL_HEIGHT); Was this code useful for screen aspect ratio-proportion fixing or it is statically dependent on actual device's width and height? *see http://blog.acamara.es/2012/02/05/keep-screen-aspect-ratio-with-different-resolutions-using-libgdx/#comment-317

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  • authorize.net SIM PCI compliance

    - by David
    Does anyone know if authorize.net's SIM rids you of having to be PCI compliant? The payment form is hosted on authorize.net's site and they're processing the payment. I know you can do a relay response which basically puts some of the transaction details in a url that goes back to your website(to display a receipt). I'm not sure what all information gets put into the url though. I'm wondering if that makes you have to become PCI compliant?

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  • ODI 11g - Cleaning control characters and User Functions

    - by David Allan
    In ODI user functions have a poor name really, they should be user expressions - a way of wrapping common expressions that you may wish to reuse many times - across many different technologies is an added bonus. To illustrate look at the problem of how to remove control characters from text. Users ask these types of questions over all technologies - Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, DB2 and for many years - how do I clean a string, how do I tokenize a string and so on. After some searching around you will find a few ways of doing this, in Oracle there is a convenient way of using the TRANSLATE and REPLACE functions. So you can convert some text using the following SQL; replace( translate('This is my string'||chr(9)||' which has a control character', chr(3)||chr(4)||chr(5)||chr(9), chr(3) ), chr(3), '' ) If you had many columns to perform this kind of transformation on, in the Oracle database the natural solution you'd go to would be to code this as a PLSQL function since you don't want the code splattered everywhere. Someone tells you that there is another control character that needs added equals a maintenance headache. Coding it as a PLSQL function will incur a context switch between SQL and PLSQL which could prove costly. In ODI user functions let you capture this expression text and reference it many times across your mappings. This will protect the expression from being copy-pasted by developers and make maintenance much simpler - change the expression definition in one place. Firstly define a name and a syntax for the user function, I am calling it UF_STRIP_BAD_CHARACTERS and it has one parameter an input string;  We then can define an implementation for each technology we will use it, I will define Oracle's using the inputString parameter and the TRANSLATE and REPLACE functions with whatever control characters I want to replace; I can then use this inside mapping expressions in ODI, below I am cleaning the ENAME column - a fabricated example but you get the gist.  Note when I use the user function the function name remains in the text of the mapping, the actual expression is not substituted until I generate the scenario. If you generate the scenario and export the scenario you can have a peak at the code that is processed in the runtime - below you can see a snippet of my export scenario;  That's all for now, hopefully a useful snippet of info.

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  • ODI 12c - Aggregating Data

    - by David Allan
    This posting will look at the aggregation component that was introduced in ODI 12c. For many ETL tool users this shouldn't be a big surprise, its a little different than ODI 11g but for good reason. You can use this component for composing data with relational like operations such as sum, average and so forth. Also, Oracle SQL supports special functions called Analytic SQL functions, you can use a specially configured aggregation component or the expression component for these now in ODI 12c. In database systems an aggregate transformation is a transformation where the values of multiple rows are grouped together as input on certain criteria to form a single value of more significant meaning - that's exactly the purpose of the aggregate component. In the image below you can see the aggregate component in action within a mapping, for how this and a few other examples are built look at the ODI 12c Aggregation Viewlet here - the viewlet illustrates a simple aggregation being built and then some Oracle analytic SQL such as AVG(EMP.SAL) OVER (PARTITION BY EMP.DEPTNO) built using both the aggregate component and the expression component. In 11g you used to just write the aggregate expression directly on the target, this made life easy for some cases, but it wan't a very obvious gesture plus had other drawbacks with ordering of transformations (agg before join/lookup. after set and so forth) and supporting analytic SQL for example - there are a lot of postings from creative folks working around this in 11g - anything from customizing KMs, to bypassing aggregation analysis in the ODI code generator. The aggregate component has a few interesting aspects. 1. Firstly and foremost it defines the attributes projected from it - ODI automatically will perform the grouping all you do is define the aggregation expressions for those columns aggregated. In 12c you can control this automatic grouping behavior so that you get the code you desire, so you can indicate that an attribute should not be included in the group by, that's what I did in the analytic SQL example using the aggregate component. 2. The component has a few other properties of interest; it has a HAVING clause and a manual group by clause. The HAVING clause includes a predicate used to filter rows resulting from the GROUP BY clause. Because it acts on the results of the GROUP BY clause, aggregation functions can be used in the HAVING clause predicate, in 11g the filter was overloaded and used for both having clause and filter clause, this is no longer the case. If a filter is after an aggregate, it is after the aggregate (not sometimes after, sometimes having).  3. The manual group by clause let's you use special database grouping grammar if you need to. For example Oracle has a wealth of highly specialized grouping capabilities for data warehousing such as the CUBE function. If you want to use specialized functions like that you can manually define the code here. The example below shows the use of a manual group from an example in the Oracle database data warehousing guide where the SUM aggregate function is used along with the CUBE function in the group by clause. The SQL I am trying to generate looks like the following from the data warehousing guide; SELECT channel_desc, calendar_month_desc, countries.country_iso_code,       TO_CHAR(SUM(amount_sold), '9,999,999,999') SALES$ FROM sales, customers, times, channels, countries WHERE sales.time_id=times.time_id AND sales.cust_id=customers.cust_id AND   sales.channel_id= channels.channel_id  AND customers.country_id = countries.country_id  AND channels.channel_desc IN   ('Direct Sales', 'Internet') AND times.calendar_month_desc IN   ('2000-09', '2000-10') AND countries.country_iso_code IN ('GB', 'US') GROUP BY CUBE(channel_desc, calendar_month_desc, countries.country_iso_code); I can capture the source datastores, the filters and joins using ODI's dataset (or as a traditional flow) which enables us to incrementally design the mapping and the aggregate component for the sum and group by as follows; In the above mapping you can see the joins and filters declared in ODI's dataset, allowing you to capture the relationships of the datastores required in an entity-relationship style just like ODI 11g. The mix of ODI's declarative design and the common flow design provides for a familiar design experience. The example below illustrates flow design (basic arbitrary ordering) - a table load where only the employees who have maximum commission are loaded into a target. The maximum commission is retrieved from the bonus datastore and there is a look using employees as the driving table and only those with maximum commission projected. Hopefully this has given you a taster for some of the new capabilities provided by the aggregate component in ODI 12c. In summary, the actions should be much more consistent in behavior and more easily discoverable for users, the use of the components in a flow graph also supports arbitrary designs and the tool (rather than the interface designer) takes care of the realization using ODI's knowledge modules. Interested to know if a deep dive into each component is interesting for folks. Any thoughts? 

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  • SQL Constraints &ndash; CHECK and NOCHECK

    - by David Turner
    One performance issue i faced at a recent project was with the way that our constraints were being managed, we were using Subsonic as our ORM, and it has a useful tool for generating your ORM code called SubStage – once configured, you can regenerate your DAL code easily based on your database schema, and it can even be integrated into your build as a pre-build event if you want to do this.  SubStage also offers the useful feature of being able to generate DDL scripts for your entire database, and can script your data for you too. The problem came when we decided to use the generate scripts feature to migrate the database onto a test database instance – it turns out that the DDL scripts that it generates include the WITH NOCHECK option, so when we executed them on the test instance, and performed some testing, we found that performance wasn’t as expected. A constraint can be disabled, enabled but not trusted, or enabled and trusted.  When it is disabled, data can be inserted that violates the constraint because it is not being enforced, this is useful for bulk load scenarios where performance is important.  So what does it mean to say that a constraint is trusted or not trusted?  Well this refers to the SQL Server Query Optimizer, and whether it trusts that the constraint is valid.  If it trusts the constraint then it doesn’t check it is valid when executing a query, so the query can be executed much faster. Here is an example base in this article on TechNet, here we create two tables with a Foreign Key constraint between them, and add a single row to each.  We then query the tables: 1 DROP TABLE t2 2 DROP TABLE t1 3 GO 4 5 CREATE TABLE t1(col1 int NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY) 6 CREATE TABLE t2(col1 int NOT NULL) 7 8 ALTER TABLE t2 WITH CHECK ADD CONSTRAINT fk_t2_t1 FOREIGN KEY(col1) 9 REFERENCES t1(col1) 10 11 INSERT INTO t1 VALUES(1) 12 INSERT INTO t2 VALUES(1) 13 GO14 15 SELECT COUNT(*) FROM t2 16 WHERE EXISTS17 (SELECT *18 FROM t1 19 WHERE t1.col1 = t2.col1) This all works fine, and in this scenario the constraint is enabled and trusted.  We can verify this by executing the following SQL to query the ‘is_disabled’ and ‘is_not_trusted’ properties: 1 select name, is_disabled, is_not_trusted from sys.foreign_keys This gives the following result: We can disable the constraint using this SQL: 1 alter table t2 NOCHECK CONSTRAINT fk_t2_t1 And when we query the constraints again, we see that the constraint is disabled and not trusted: So the constraint won’t be enforced and we can insert data into the table t2 that doesn’t match the data in t1, but we don’t want to do this, so we can enable the constraint again using this SQL: 1 alter table t2 CHECK CONSTRAINT fk_t2_t1 But when we query the constraints again, we see that the constraint is enabled, but it is still not trusted: This means that the optimizer will check the constraint each time a query is executed over it, which will impact the performance of the query, and this is definitely not what we want, so we need to make the constraint trusted by the optimizer again.  First we should check that our constraints haven’t been violated, which we can do by running DBCC: 1 DBCC CHECKCONSTRAINTS (t2) Hopefully you see the following message indicating that DBCC completed without finding any violations of your constraint: Having verified that the constraint was not violated while it was disabled, we can simply execute the following SQL:   1 alter table t2 WITH CHECK CHECK CONSTRAINT fk_t2_t1 At first glance this looks like it must be a typo to have the keyword CHECK repeated twice in succession, but it is the correct syntax and when we query the constraints properties, we find that it is now trusted again: To fix our specific problem, we created a script that checked all constraints on our tables, using the following syntax: 1 ALTER TABLE t2 WITH CHECK CHECK CONSTRAINT ALL

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  • NRF Big Show 2011 -- Part 1

    - by David Dorf
    When Apple decided to open retail stores, they came to 360Commerce (now part of Oracle Retail) to help with the secret project. Similarly, when Disney Stores decided to reinvent itself, they also came to us for their POS system. In both cases visiting a store is an experience where sales take a backseat to entertainment, exploration, and engagement This quote from a recent Stores Magazine article says it all: "We compete based on an experience, emotion and immersion like Disney," says Neal Lassila, vice president of global information technology for Disney. "That's opposed to [competing] on price and hawking a doll for $19.99. There is no sales pressure technique." Instead, it's about delivering "a great time." While you're attending the NRF conference in New York next week, you'll definitely want to stop by the new 20,000 square-foot Disney store in Times Square. If you're not attending, you can always check out the videos to get a feel for the stores' vibe. This year we've invited Disney Stores to open a pop-up store within the Oracle Retail booth. There will be lots of items on sale that fit in your suitcase, and there's no better way to demonstrate our POS, including the mobile POS running on an iPod Touch. You should also plan to attend Tuesday morning's super-session The Magic of the Disney Store: An Immersive Retail Experience with Steve Finney. In the case of Apple and Disney, less POS is actually a good thing. In both cases it was important to make the checkout process fast and easy so as not to detract from the overall experience. There will be ample opportunities to see this play out in New York next week, so I hope you take advantage.

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  • Stop Saying "Multi-Channel!"

    - by David Dorf
    I keep hearing the term "multi-channel" in our industry, but its time to move on. It kinda reminds me of the term "ECR" or electronic cash register. Long ago ECR was a leading-edge term, but nowadays its rarely used because its table-stakes. After all, what cash register today isn't electronic? The same logic applies to multi-channel, at least when we're talking about tier-1 and tier-2 retailers. If you're still talking about multi-channel retailing, you're in big trouble. Some have switched over to the term "cross-channel," and that's a step in the right direction but still falls short. Its kinda like saying, "I upgraded my ECR to accept debit cards!" Yawn. Who hasn't? Today's retailers need to focus on omni-channel, which I first heard from my friends over at RSR but was originally coined at IDC. First retailers added e-commerce to their store and catalog channels yielding multi-channel retailing. Consumers could use the channel that worked best for them. Then some consumers wanted to combine channels with features like buy-on-the-Web, pickup-in-the-store. Thus began the cross-channel initiatives to breakdown the silos and enable the channels to communicate with each other. But the multi-channel architecture is full of duplication that thwarts efforts of providing a consistent experience. Each has its own cart, its own pricing, and often its own CRM. This was an outcrop of trying to bring the independent channels to market quickly. Rather than reusing and rebuilding existing components to meet the new demands, silos were created that continue to exist today. Today's consumers want omni-channel retailing. They want to interact with brands in a consistent manner that is channel transparent, yet optimized for that particular interaction. The diagram below, from the soon-to-be-released NRF Mobile Blueprint v2, shows this progression. For retailers to provide an omni-channel experience, there needs to be one logical representation of products, prices, promotions, and customers across all channels. The only thing that varies is the presentation of the content based on the delivery mechanism (e.g. shelf labels, mobile phone, web site, print, etc.) and often these mechanisms can be combined in various ways. I'm looking forward to the day in which I can use my phone to scan QR-codes in a catalog to create a shopping cart of items. Then do some further research on the retailer's Web site and be told about related items that might interest me. Be able to easily solicit opinions and reviews from social sites, and finally enter the store to pickup my items, knowing that any applicable coupons have been applied. In this scenario, I the consumer are dealing with a single brand that is aware of me and my needs throughout the entire transaction. Nirvana.

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  • Turn off all sounds from websites

    - by David Oneill
    Often, I am listening to music of my choosing. Is there a way to preemptively turn off all sounds originating from websites? I don't want to click the 'mute' button once the page loads. And sometimes, it won't even have a mute. :-/ I use Chromium and FireFox. ~~EDIT~~ I use XFCE, so my menu options are different. Is this a gnome-specific utility? Or, what is the command for this utility?

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  • MacOSX VirtualHost: "You don't have permission to access / on this server" error

    - by David Casillas
    The Apache instalation of MacOSX is running Ok. I have tried to create a VirtualHost called test.local, but as soon as I uncomment from /private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf the line Include /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf , and try to access test.local virtualhost I get an error "You don't have permission to access / on this server". The VirtualHost configuration in /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf is: <VirtualHost *:80> ServerName test.local DocumentRoot "/Users/username/Sites/Test/public" <Directory "/Users/username/Sites/Test/public"> Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes AllowOverride All Order allow,deny Allow from all </Directory> </VirtualHost> I have also include the VirtualHost in hosts file: 127.0.0.1 test.local

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  • Unity 3d (Using Blender) - anime/manga/cel-shaded style characters

    - by David Archer
    Making a game using Blender for 3D models and Unity for the game engine. Just wondering if anyone knows any links to pages that give a tutorial on Japanese anime style 3D modelling, texturing and shading through blender. I'm actually looking to create a cel-shaded look eventually (read: Okami/Jet Set Radio style) and I'm kind of stuck with the design stuff. I'm not a Blender expert by any means, and still kind of new to the design side of things (I'm a programmer by trade), so please don't vote me down too hard. I've tried googling, but there doesn't seem to be much in the way of what I'm after. The only thing I've found really is a plugin for blender called freestyle, or using the ToonShader shading tool. If there are any good tutorials or anything, I'm really happy to sit through them - just want to learn :) Thanks for any help :)

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  • Analytics in an Omni-Channel World

    - by David Dorf
    Retail has been around ever since mankind started bartering.  The earliest transactions were very specific to the individuals buying and selling, then someone had the bright idea to open a store.  Those transactions were a little more generic, but the store owner still knew his customers and what they wanted.  As the chains rolled out, customer intimacy was sacrificed for scale, and retailers began to rely on segments and clusters.  But thanks to the widespread availability of data and the technology to convert said data into information, retailers are getting back to details. The retail industry is following a maturity model for analytics that is has progressed through five stages, each delivering more value than the previous. Store Analytics Brick-and-mortar retailers (and pure-play catalogers as well) that collect anonymous basket-level data are able to get some sense of demand to help with allocation decisions.  Promotions and foot-traffic can be measured to understand marketing effectiveness and perhaps focus groups can help test ideas.  But decisions are influenced by the majority, using faceless customer segments and aggregated industry data points.  Loyalty programs help a little, but in many cases the cost outweighs the benefits. Web Analytics The Web made it much easier to collect data on specific, yet still anonymous consumers using cookies to track visits. Clickstreams and product searches are analyzed to understand the purchase journey, gauge demand, and better understand up-selling opportunities.  Personalization begins to allow retailers target market consumers with recommendations. Cross-Channel Analytics This phase is a minor one, but where most retailers probably sit today.  They are able to use information from one channel to bolster activities in another. However, there are technical challenges combining data silos so its not an easy task.  But for those retailers that are able to perform analytics on both sources of data, the pay-off is pretty nice.  Revenue per customer begins to go up as customers have a better brand experience. Mobile & Social Analytics Big data technologies are enabling a 360-degree view of the customer by incorporating psychographic data from social sites alongside traditional demographic data.  Retailers can track individual preferences, opinions, hobbies, etc. in order to understand a consumer's motivations.  Using mobile devices, consumers can interact with brands anywhere, anytime, accessing deep product information and reviews.  Mobile, combined with a loyalty program, presents an opportunity to put shopping into geographic context, understanding paths to the store, patterns within the store, and be an always-on advertising conduit. Omni-Channel Analytics All this data along with the proper technology represents a new paradigm in which the clock is turned back and retail becomes very personal once again.  Rich, individualized data better illuminates demand, allows for highly localized assortments, and helps tailor up-selling.  Interactions with all channels help build an accurate profile of each consumer, and allows retailers to tailor the retail experience to meet the heightened expectations of today's sophisticated shopper.  And of course this culminates in greater customer satisfaction and business profitability.

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  • Whats the greatest most impressive programing feat you ever witnessed? [closed]

    - by David Reis
    Everyone knows of the old adage that the best programmers can be orders of magnitude better than the average. I've personally seen good code and programmers, but never something so absurd. So the questions is, what is the most impressive feat of programming you ever witnessed or heard of? You can define impressive by: The scope of the task at hand e.g. John single handedly developed the framework for his company, a work comparable in scope to what the other 200 employed were doing combined. Speed e.g. Stu programmed an entire real time multi-tasking app OS on an weekened including its own C compiler and shell command line tools Complexity e.g. Jane rearchitected our entire 10 millon LOC app to work in a cluster of servers. And she did it in an afternoon. Quality e.g. Charles's code had a rate of defects per LOC 100 times lesser than the company average. Furthermore he code was clean and understandable by all. Obviously, the more of these characteristics combined, and the more extreme each of them, the more impressive is the feat. So, let me have it. What's the most absurd feat you can recount? Please provide as much detail as possible and try to avoid urban legends or exaggerations. Post only what you can actually vouch for. Bonus questions: Was the herculean task a one-of, or did the individual regularly amazed people? How do you explain such impressive performance? How was the programmer recognized for such awesome work?

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  • Auto Save and Auto Load Game onto the Device's Storage Concept Question

    - by David Dimalanta
    I'm trying to make a simple app that will test the save and load state. Is it a good idea to make an app that has an auto save and load game feature only every time the newbies open the first app then continues it on the other day? I tried making a sprite that is moving, starting at the center. When I close and re-open the app, the sprite goes back to the center instead of the last coordinate where the sprite land on this part (i.e. at the top). The thing I want to know how the sequence of saving and loading goes like this: I open the app The starting sprite at the center. It displays a coordinate of the sprite plus number of times does the sprite move. I exit the app that automatically saves the game without notice. Finally, when I re-opened it, it automatically loads the game retaining the number of times the sprite move, coordinates, and the sprite's area landed. These steps above are similar, but not the sprite movement test app, to the sequence of saving and loading the game's level and record in Jewel Stackers for the Android app. And, by default, if there is no SD card in any tab or phone that runs on Android, does it automatically save/load onto the internal drive or the APK file itself? Is it also useful to use auto save and auto load feature for protecting and fetching informations (i.e. fastest time, last time where the sprite is located via coordinates, etc.)?

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  • Two Candidates + One Job = Two Different Outcomes

    - by david.talamelli
    Recruiters have always headhunted (sidenote: I do not like this word, in general I think the type of people who use the phrase “headhunting” are the ones who are trying to sound more important than what they likely are). Any serious Recruiter engages in direct recruiting activity, it is part and parcel of the business it is not something unique. With the uptake in Social Media the past 4-5 years, we have seen an increase in the number of Recruiters proactively reaching out to people about job opportunities. We have also seen this activity increase across all levels of hire, from help desk roles to C-Level Executives. While getting approached about a role can be a nice boost to a person’s ego, do not let it give you an inflated sense of entitlement. It is The way that people handle themselves during these calls and subsequent interviews will have a large impact on their potential to land that job. Last week I spoke to two very different candidates, both about the same position and both with very different outcomes. On paper, Candidate #1 looked fantastic; they ticked many of the boxes that we were looking for. The person is working at global IT company and working in a similar role as the one we were hiring for but not in as senior as the role we had. This role would have been the perfect step to getting involved in more complex work for the person. Candidate #2 had less polished IT experience, ticked some of the boxes we were looking for and on paper in comparison to Candidate #1 was not as close a fit as Candidate #1 was. It seemed like I was comparing apples and oranges. After speaking to both candidates it turns out I was comparing apples and oranges except the person better suited for our role was not the one I was expecting it would be. The first candidate on paper looked great – they had the experience we were looking for and appeared to be just right for the role, but after talking to them, they gave me the impression that they thought the world owed them. The impression I was left with was that they did not equate success with hard work, they seemed more interested in “what is in it for me”. Rather than having a proper conversation with me, I was often cut off and asked to hurry it up when explaining our business, what we are doing, etc... . This person seemed more interested in the job title and money than how rather than think about ways to make the role successful. Candidate #2 who had limited experience, made up for any perceived lack of experience and them some with a demonstrated motivation to succeed and do the things needed to make that happen. Candidate #2 made a great first impression, they did not seem afraid of hard work and demonstrated a “team player” attitude. In talking to them they kept me engaged, listened and asked thoughtful questions that made me think this is the type of person who creates their own luck and who would thrive in a place like Oracle. Skills, capabilities, experience and a good resume can certainly get your foot in the door, but the wrong attitude or approach to work can close those opportunities just as easily. On the other hand, hard work, effort and a genuine work ethic may help open those doors that would otherwise closed for you. A resume with all the credentials gets you in the front door but that is just the beginning of the process. It is not how we start the race that is important, it’s how things end that matter most.

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  • OWB 11gR2 &ndash; Parallel DML and Query

    - by David Allan
    A quick post illustrating conventional (non direct path) parallel inserts and query using OWB following on from some recent posts from Jean-Pierre and Randolf on this topic. The mapping configuration properties is where you can define these hints in OWB, taking JP’s simplistic illustration, the parallel query hints in OWB are defined on the ‘Extraction hint’ property for the source, and the parallel DML hints are defined on the ‘Loading hint’ property on the target table operator. If we then generate the code you can see the intermediate code generated below… Finally…remember the parallel enabled session for this all to fly… Anyway, hope this helps join a few dots….

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  • OWB 11gR2 &ndash; JDBC Helper Utility

    - by David Allan
    One of the common queries when importing the tables via JDBC with 11gR2 is determining why the import wizard doesn’t display the tables that you think it should. I often just use the script below to dump out the schemas, tables and columns that the JDBC driver is returning. This is useful in a few areas; to figure out what the schema name is returned to double check with the schema name you have used in the location (this is used in the DatabaseMetaData.getTables API call within the basic JDBC metadata import. to figure out the data types returned from the JDBC driver when you see columns skipped because of no datatype supported messages. also…I can do it via scripting and don’t need to recompile classes and stuff :-) Edit the tcl script and set the JDBC driver, the connection URL and the username and password (they are at the bottom of the script), the script then calls a basic tcl procedure which writes to standard out the schemas, tables and columns with various properties. For example I executed it using the XML JDBC driver from ODI over a simple customers XML file and it writes the following metadata; You can add more details as you need and execute from the OMBPlus panel within OWB. Download the sample tcl jdbc script here There is a bunch of really useful stuff on OTN documenting this area (start with the white paper here) that is worth checking out all related to the OWB SDK covering everything from platform definitions, custom metadata importers, application adapters, code templates etc. You can find a bunch of goodies on the OWB SDK here.

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  • Saving and Loading the Game (Automatically or Manually) via Internal Storage Only (Tablet PC Issues)

    - by David Dimalanta
    Here is my question. When making a game app for Android, I considered first the device. It's no problem to save progress everything (from levels to records) on a smartphone because it has an SD Card slot. Exception to this, the tablet PC, it can really nothing but on internal only storage. For example, I'm using this tutorial for audio spectrum (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cN1VzZXcdo) that involves copying from internal to external in order to detect frequency. It works on the desktop but not on the Android device (Tablets only [i.e. Google Nexus Tablet]). Is there a way to optimize save/load game problems due to internal/external device issues? Plus, additionally, what's the reason why my device won't work on tablets, except the desktop, while testing the audio spectrum code and why? Also, is it the same with saving/loading game?

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