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  • The Best Articles for Backing Up and Syncing Your Data

    - by Lori Kaufman
    World Backup Day is March 31st and we decided to provide you with some useful information to make backing up your data easier. We’ve published articles about backing up various types of data and settings both offline and online. There’s all kinds of settings on your computer to backup in addition to your personal data, such as Wi-Fi passwords, drivers, and settings for programs like web browsers, Office, and Windows Live Writer. There are also many tools available to help you keep your data and settings backed up. Make Your Own Windows 8 Start Button with Zero Memory Usage Reader Request: How To Repair Blurry Photos HTG Explains: What Can You Find in an Email Header?

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  • What are some reasonable stylistic limits on type inference?

    - by Jon Purdy
    C++0x adds pretty darn comprehensive type inference support. I'm sorely tempted to use it everywhere possible to avoid undue repetition, but I'm wondering if removing explicit type information all over the place is such a good idea. Consider this rather contrived example: Foo.h: #include <set> class Foo { private: static std::set<Foo*> instances; public: Foo(); ~Foo(); // What does it return? Who cares! Just forward it! static decltype(instances.begin()) begin() { return instances.begin(); } static decltype(instances.end()) end() { return instances.end(); } }; Foo.cpp: #include <Foo.h> #include <Bar.h> // The type need only be specified in one location! // But I do have to open the header to find out what it actually is. decltype(Foo::instances) Foo::instances; Foo() { // What is the type of x? auto x = Bar::get_something(); // What does do_something() return? auto y = x.do_something(*this); // Well, it's convertible to bool somehow... if (!y) throw "a constant, old school"; instances.insert(this); } ~Foo() { instances.erase(this); } Would you say this is reasonable, or is it completely ridiculous? After all, especially if you're used to developing in a dynamic language, you don't really need to care all that much about the types of things, and can trust that the compiler will catch any egregious abuses of the type system. But for those of you that rely on editor support for method signatures, you're out of luck, so using this style in a library interface is probably really bad practice. I find that writing things with all possible types implicit actually makes my code a lot easier for me to follow, because it removes nearly all of the usual clutter of C++. Your mileage may, of course, vary, and that's what I'm interested in hearing about. What are the specific advantages and disadvantages to radical use of type inference?

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  • Big Data Learning Resources

    - by Lara Rubbelke
    I have recently had several requests from people asking for resources to learn about Big Data and Hadoop. Below is a list of resources that I typically recommend. I'll update this list as I find more resources. Let's crowdsource this... Tell me your favorite resources and I'll get them on the list! Books and Whitepapers Planning for Big Data Free e-book Great primer on the general Big Data space. This is always my recommendation for people who are new to Big Data and are trying to understand it....(read more)

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  • Create association between informations

    - by Andrea Girardi
    I deployed a project some days ago that allow to extract some medical articles using the results of a questionnaire completed by a user. For instance, if I reply on questionnaire I'm affected by Diabetes type 2 and I'm a smoker, my algorithm extracts all articles related to diabetes bubbling up all articles contains information about Diabetes type 2 and smoking. Basically we created a list of topic and, for every topic we define a kind of "guideline" that allows to extract and order informations for a user. I'm quite sure there are some better way to put on relationship two content but I was not able to find them on network. Could you suggest my a model, algorithm or paper to better understand this kind of problem and that helps me to find a faster, and more accurate way to extract information for an user?

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  • Data Loading Issues? Try the new Demantra Data Load Guided Resolution

    - by user702295
    Hello!   Do you have data loading issues?  Perhaps you are trying the new partial schema export tool.   New to Demantra, the Data Load Guided Resolution, document 1461899.1.  This interactive guide will help you locate known solutions to previously discovered issues quickly.  From performance, ORA and ODPM errors to collections related issues that have no known hard number error.   This guide includes the diagnosis of data being imported into Demantra and data being exported from Demantra.  Contact me with any questions or suggestions.   Thank You!

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  • how to recover deleted ntfs patition with data entirely while installing ubuntu 13.04

    - by Anson Varghese
    I've installed ubuntu 13.04 onto my hp 2231tx computer. During installation all of my data was erased. I didn't know all of my three partitions would be deleted. I was shocked after finding out that all of my personal data was erased. I didn't know what to do to resolve this problem so I search google for an answer. I found a program called testdisk and I used it to recover about half of my data. Among this data weren't my personal photos and videos. Is there a way to recover the other half?

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  • E-Book on big data (featuring Analysts, Customers and more)

    - by Jean-Pierre Dijcks
    As we are gearing up for Openworld, here is a nice E-book on big data to start paging through. It contains Gartner's take on big data, customer and partner interviews and a lot more good info. Enjoy the read so you come prepared for Openworld!! Read the E-Book here. For those coming to Oracle Openworld (or the Americas Cup races around the same time), you can find big data sessions via this URL. Enjoy!!

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  • Choices in Architecture, Design, Algorithms, Data Structures for effective RDF Reasoning and Querying in a Big Data Environment [on hold]

    - by user2891213
    As part of my academic project I would like to know what choices in Architecture, Design, Algorithms, Data Structures do we need in order to provide effective and efficient RDF Reasoning and Querying in a Big Data Environment. Basically I want to get info regarding below points: What are the Systems and Software to get appropriate Architecture? What kind of API layer(s) would we need on top of the Big Data stores, to make this possible? The Indexing structures we will need. The appropriate Algorithms, and appropriate Algorithms for Query Planning across Big Data stores. The Performance Analysis and Cost Models we will need to justify the design decisions we have made along the way. Can anyone please provide pointers.. Thanks, David

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  • Creating limited user account on Windows 7

    - by serena
    I'm sharing my PC (Win 7 x64 Home Premium) with a friend, and I wanna create a guest user for her. I don't want her to reach my files, Windows settings, program adjustments etc. She should just surf the net, create/edit her own Word, Excel documents, and simple things like these. How can I create this user account and make the necessary arrangements for limitations?

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  • Enforce user time restrictions to log out or off from Windows 7

    - by javamonkey79
    How can I limit the time spent on the computer or force a log out from a Windows 7 machine? I used to use Windows Steady State to limit users (kids) from being on too long but SteadyState does not work with Windows 7 Home Premium and is discontinued. Is there a way to set this up in Windows 7 where it will kick off a user after a set time? Or perhaps there's an alternative program that can help limit the time one user is at the computer.

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  • How to assign an user account to a client machine in Windows Small Business Server 2003

    - by videador
    How to assign an user account to a client machine in Windows Small Business Server 2003. I read here how to do that in 2011 (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc527565.aspx) but I can't find the documentation in 2003. I've examine the properties in the client computer list in the admin server tools, and also in the users list, but I don't see any tab for machine or user assignation. Thank you.

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  • User account that is not allowed to edit one file on Ubuntu

    - by spacemonkey
    Hi, I wanted to ask if it is possible to create a user account on Ubuntu so that it had all powers and rights of root account except it would be impossible to edit a certain file. What I intend to do is to edit host file in order to block access of certain websites, and then create a user account which would be the same as root account except it would be not able to edit host file. Maybe there is an easier way to block an access of certain sites forever? Thanks!

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  • How do I convince my team that a requirements specification is unnecessary if we adopt user-stories?

    - by Nupul
    We are planning to adopt user-stories to capture stakeholder 'intent' in a lightweight fashion rather than a heavy SRS (software requirements specifications). However, it seems that though they understand the value of stories, there is still a desire to 'convert' the stories into an SRS-like language with all the attributes, priorities, input, outputs, source, destination etc. User-stories 'eliminate' the need for a formal SRS like artifact to begin with so what's the point in having an SRS? How should I convince my team (who are all very qualified CS folks by the way - both by education and practice) that the SRS would be 'eliminated' if we adopted user-stories for capturing the functional requirements of the system? (NFRs etc can be captured too, but that's not the intent of the question). So here's my 'work-flow' argument: Capture initial requirements as user-stories and later elaborate them to use-cases (which are required to be documented at a low level i.e. describing interactions with the UI prototypes/mockups and are a deliverable post deployment). Thus going from user-stories to use-cases rather than user-stories to SRS to use-cases. How are you all currently capturing user-stories at your workplace (if at all) and how do you suggest I 'make a case' for absence of SRS in presence of user-stories?

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  • Event receiver on Content Type not triggered on WikiPageLibrary

    - by Ciprian Grosu
    Hello all, I created a new content type for a wiki page library. I added this content type to library by code (the interface did not allow this). Next, I added an event receiver to this content type (on ItemAdded and ItemAdding). My problem is that no event is trrigered. If I add this events directly to the wiki page library all works fine. Is there a limitation/bug/trick ? I looked at the content type attached to the library with SharePoint Manager and in his schema the part for event receiver is missing...I know that there should be something like: <XmlDocuments> <XmlDocument NamespaceURI="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/events"> <spe:Receivers xmlns:spe="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/events"> <Receiver> <Name> </Name> <Type>1</Type> <SequenceNumber>10000</SequenceNumber> <Assembly>RssFeedWP, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=f6722cbeba696def</Assembly> <Class>RssFeedWP.ItemEventReceiver</Class> <Data> </Data> <Filter> </Filter> </Receiver> <Receiver> <Name> </Name> <Type>10001</Type> <SequenceNumber>10000</SequenceNumber> <Assembly>RssFeedWP, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=f6722cbeba696def</Assembly> <Class>RssFeedWP.ItemEventReceiver</Class> <Data> </Data> <Filter> </Filter> </Receiver> </spe:Receivers> </XmlDocument> If I look with SPM to the content type added to site I see this part into schema. Here is my code: public override void FeatureActivated(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties) { using (SPWeb web = (SPWeb)properties.Feature.Parent) { // create RssWiki content type SPContentType rssFeedContentType = new SPContentType(web.AvailableContentTypes["Wiki Page"], web.ContentTypes, "RssFeed Wiki Page"); // add rssfeed url field to the new content type AddFieldToContentType(web, rssFeedContentType, "RssFeed Url", SPFieldType.Note); // add use xslt check box field to the new content type AddFieldToContentType(web, rssFeedContentType, "Use Xslt", SPFieldType.Boolean); // add xslt url field to the new content type AddFieldToContentType(web, rssFeedContentType, "Xslt Url", SPFieldType.Note); web.ContentTypes.Add(rssFeedContentType); rssFeedContentType.Update(); web.Update(); AddContentTypeToList(web, rssFeedContentType); AddEventReceiversToCT(rssFeedContentType); //AddEventReceiverToList(web); } } private void AddFieldToContentType(SPWeb web, SPContentType ct, string fieldName, SPFieldType fieldType) { SPField rssUrlField = null; try { rssUrlField = web.Fields.GetField(fieldName); } catch (Exception ex) { if (rssUrlField == null) { web.Fields.Add(fieldName, fieldType, false); } } SPFieldLink rssUrlFieldLink = new SPFieldLink(web.Fields[fieldName]); ct.FieldLinks.Add(rssUrlFieldLink); } private static void AddContentTypeToList(SPWeb web, SPContentType ct) { SPList wikiList = web.Lists[listName]; wikiList.ContentTypesEnabled = true; wikiList.ContentTypes.Add(ct); wikiList.Update(); } private static void AddEventReceiversToCT(SPContentType ct) { //add event receivers string assemblyName = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().FullName; string ctReceiverName = "RssFeedWP.ItemEventReceiver"; ct.EventReceivers.Add(SPEventReceiverType.ItemAdding, assemblyName, ctReceiverName); ct.EventReceivers.Add(SPEventReceiverType.ItemAdded, assemblyName, ctReceiverName); ct.Update(); } Thx !

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  • [Haskell] Problem when mixing type classes and type families

    - by Giuseppe Maggiore
    Hi! This code compiles fine: {-# LANGUAGE MultiParamTypeClasses, FunctionalDependencies, FlexibleInstances, UndecidableInstances, FlexibleContexts, EmptyDataDecls, ScopedTypeVariables, TypeOperators, TypeSynonymInstances, TypeFamilies #-} class Sel a s b where type Res a s b :: * instance Sel a s b where type Res a s b = (s -> (b,s)) instance Sel a s (b->(c,a)) where type Res a s (b->(c,a)) = (b -> s -> (c,s)) but as soon as I add the R predicate ghc fails: {-# LANGUAGE MultiParamTypeClasses, FunctionalDependencies, FlexibleInstances, UndecidableInstances, FlexibleContexts, EmptyDataDecls, ScopedTypeVariables, TypeOperators, TypeSynonymInstances, TypeFamilies #-} class Sel a s b where type Res a s b :: * instance Sel a s b where type Res a s b = (s -> (b,s)) class R a where type Rec a :: * cons :: a -> Rec a elim :: Rec a -> a instance Sel a s (b->(c,Rec a)) where type Res a s (b->(c,Rec a)) = (b -> s -> (c,s)) complaining that: Illegal type synonym family application in instance: b -> (c, Rec a) In the instance declaration for `Sel a s (b -> (c, Rec a))' what does it mean and (most importantly) how do I fix it? Thanks

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  • How to deal with multiple sub-type of one super-type in Django admin

    - by Henri
    What would be the best solution for adding/editing multiple sub-types. E.g a super-type class Contact with sub-type class Client and sub-type class Supplier. The way shown here works, but when you edit a Contact you get both inlines i.e. sub-type Client AND sub-type Supplier. So even if you only want to add a Client you also get the fields for Supplier of vice versa. If you add a third sub-type , you get three sub-type field groups, while you actually only want one sub-type group, in the mentioned example: Client. E.g.: class Contact(models.Model): contact_name = models.CharField(max_length=128) class Client(models.Model): contact = models.OneToOneField(Contact, primary_key=True) user_name = models.CharField(max_length=128) class Supplier(models.Model): contact.OneToOneField(Contact, primary_key=True) company_name = models.CharField(max_length=128) and in admin.py class ClientInline(admin.StackedInline): model = Client class SupplierInline(admin.StackedInline): model = Supplier class ContactAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin): inlines = (ClientInline, SupplierInline,) class ClientAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin): ... class SupplierAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin): ... Now when I want to add a Client, i.e. only a Client I edit Contact and I get the inlines for both Client and Supplier. And of course the same for Supplier. Is there a way to avoid this? When I want to add/edit a Client that I only see the Inline for Client and when I want to add/edit a Supplier that I only see the Inline for Supplier, when adding/editing a Contact? Or perhaps there is a different approach. Any help or suggestion will be greatly appreciated.

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  • configure apache/webdav readonly for user x, read/write for user y

    - by user82296
    I'm using Apache 2.2 on RHEL 6.x. I can get webdav setup as readonly for user x or readwrite for user x but can't figure out how to make it read only for user x and read/write for user y. I just have a single folder /var/www/html/davtest owned by apache:apache and I want myUser to have readonly access and myAdmin to have read/write access. So far I've only been able to control this by modifying the permissions on the dir /var/www/html/davtest (e.g. if apache has rw then no matter how I set limitExcept below either user can read/write Is this in general possible? <Directory /var/www/html/davtest > DAV on Options Indexes AuthType Digest AuthName myAuth AuthDigestDomain /myD/ http://mysys.x.y/davtest AuthDigestProvider file AuthUserFile /var/www/davDigest/dav_pw require user readOnlyUser <limitExcept get head options> require user myAdmin </limitExcept> </Directory> I've tried various permutations with Limit, LimitExcept and it appears that the only thing that determines who can read/write to the share are the permissions on the files/folders in the share. any guidance, pointers to docs would be greatly appreciated. thanks

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  • Community Conversation

    - by ultan o'broin
    Applications User Experience members (Erika Webb, Laurie Pattison, and I) attended the User Assistance Europe Conference in Stockholm, Sweden. We were impressed with the thought leadership and practical application of ideas in Anne Gentle's keynote address "Social Web Strategies for Documentation". After the conference, we spoke with Anne to explore the ideas further. Applications User Experience Senior Director Laurie Pattison (left) with Anne Gentle at the User Assistance Europe Conference In Anne's book called Conversation and Community: The Social Web for Documentation, she explains how user assistance is undergoing a seismic shift. The direction is away from the old print manuals and online help concept towards a web-based, user community-driven solution using social media tools. User experience professionals now have a vast range of such tools to start and nurture this "conversation": blogs, wikis, forums, social networking sites, microblogging systems, image and video sharing sites, virtual worlds, podcasts, instant messaging, mashups, and so on. That user communities are a rich source of user assistance is not a surprise, but the extent of available assistance is. For example, we know from the Consortium for Service Innovation that there has been an 'explosion' of user-generated content on the web. User-initiated community conversations provide as much as 30 times the number of official help desk solutions for consortium members! The growing reliance on user community solutions is clearly a user experience issue. Anne says that user assistance as conversation "means getting closer to users and helping them perform well. User-centered design has been touted as one of the most important ideas developed in the last 20 years of workplace writing. Now writers can take the idea of user-centered design a step further by starting conversations with users and enabling user assistance in interactions." Some of Anne's favorite examples of this paradigm shift from the world of traditional documentation to community conversation include: * Writer Bob Bringhurst's blog about Adobe InDesign and InCopy products and Adobe's community help * The Microsoft Development Network Community Center * ·The former Sun (now Oracle) OpenDS wiki, NetBeans Ruby and other community approaches to engage diverse audiences using screencasts, wikis, and blogs. * Cisco's customer support wiki, EMC's community, as well as Symantec and Intuit's approaches * The efforts of Ubuntu, Mozilla, and the FLOSS community generally Adobe Writer Bob Bringhurst's Blog Oracle is not without a user community conversation too. Besides the community discussions and blogs around documentation offerings, we have the My Oracle Support Community forums, Oracle Technology Network (OTN) communities, wiki, blogs, and so on. We have the great work done by our user groups and customer councils. Employees like David Haimes are reaching out, and enthusiastic non-employee gurus like Chet Justice (OracleNerd), Floyd Teter and Eddie Awad provide great "how-to" information too. But what does this paradigm shift mean for existing technical writers as users turn away from the traditional printable PDF manual deliverables? We asked Anne after the conference. The writer role becomes one of conversation initiator or enabler. The role evolves, along with the process, as the users define their concept of user assistance and terms of engagement with the product instead of having it pre-determined. It is largely a case now of "inventing the job while you're doing it, instead of being hired for it" Anne said. There is less emphasis on formal titles. Anne mentions that her own title "Content Stacker" at OpenStack; others use titles such as "Content Curator" or "Community Lead". However, the role remains one essentially about communications, "but of a new type--interacting with users, moderating, curating content, instead of sitting down to write a manual from start to finish." Clearly then, this role is open to more than professional technical writers. Product managers who write blogs, developers who moderate forums, support professionals who update wikis, rock star programmers with a penchant for YouTube are ideal. Anyone with the product knowledge, empathy for the user, and flair for relationships on the social web can join in. Some even perform these roles already but do not realize it. Anne feels the technical communicator space will move from hiring new community conversation professionals (who are already active in the space through blogging, tweets, wikis, and so on) to retraining some existing writers over time. Our own research reveals that the established proponents of community user assistance even set employee performance objectives for internal content curators about the amount of community content delivered by people outside the organization! To take advantage of the conversations on the web as user assistance, enterprises must first establish where on the spectrum their community lies. "What is the line between community willingness to contribute and the enterprise objectives?" Anne asked. "The relationship with users must be managed and also measured." Anne believes that the process can start with a "just do it" approach. Begin by reaching out to existing user groups, individual bloggers and tweeters, forum posters, early adopter program participants, conference attendees, customer advisory board members, and so on. Use analytical tools to measure the level of conversation about your products and services to show a return on investment (ROI), winning management support. Anne emphasized that success with the community model is dependent on lowering the technical and motivational barriers so that users can readily contribute to the conversation. Simple tools must be provided, and guidelines, if any, must be straightforward but not mandatory. The conversational approach is one where traditional style and branding guides do not necessarily apply. Tools and infrastructure help users to create content easily, to search and find the information online, read it, rate it, translate it, and participate further in the content's evolution. Recognizing contributors by using ratings on forums, giving out Twitter kudos, conference invitations, visits to headquarters, free products, preview releases, and so on, also encourages the adoption of the conversation model. The move to conversation as user assistance is not free, but there is a business ROI. The conversational model means that customer service is enhanced, as user experience moves from a functional to a valued, emotional level. Studies show a positive correlation between loyalty and financial performance (Consortium for Service Innovation, 2010), and as customer experience and loyalty become key differentiators, user experience professionals cannot explore the model's possibilities. The digital universe (measured at 1.2 million petabytes in 2010) is doubling every 12 to 18 months, and 70 percent of that universe consists of user-generated content (IDC, 2010). Conversation as user assistance cannot be ignored but must be embraced. It is a time to manage for abundance, not scarcity. Besides, the conversation approach certainly sounds more interesting, rewarding, and fun than the traditional model! I would like to thank Anne for her time and thoughts, and recommend that all user assistance professionals read her book. You can follow Anne on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/annegentle. Oracle's Acrolinx IQ deployment was used to author this article.

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  • July SQL Server UG Event in Manchester

    I will be speaking at the SQL Server UK User Group event in Manchester on 16.07.2009.  I am going to be talking about data mining again and how it isn’t all statistics and people with PhDs from Oxford.  Come join me and the excellent Chris Testa-O’Neill.  More details and registration can be found here

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  • export web page data to excel using javascript [on hold]

    - by Sreevani sri
    I have created web page using html.When i clicked on submit button it will export to excel. using javascript i wnt to export thadt data to excel. my html code is 1. Please give your Name:<input type="text" name="Name" /><br /> 2. Area where you reside:<input type="text" name="Res" /><br /> 3. Specify your age group<br /> (a)15-25<input type="text" name="age" /> (b)26-35<input type="text" name="age" /> (c)36-45<input type="text" name="age" /> (d) Above 46<input type="text" name="age" /><br /> 4. Specify your occupation<br /> (a) Student<input type="checkbox" name="occ" value="student" /> (b) Home maker<input type="checkbox" name="occ" value="home" /> (c) Employee<input type="checkbox" name="occ" value="emp" /> (d) Businesswoman <input type="checkbox" name="occ" value="buss" /> (e) Retired<input type="checkbox" name="occ" value="retired" /> (f) others (please specify)<input type="text" name="others" /><br /> 5. Specify the nature of your family<br /> (a) Joint family<input type="checkbox" name="family" value="jfamily" /> (b) Nuclear family<input type="checkbox" name="family" value="nfamily" /><br /> 6. Please give the Number of female members in your family and their average age approximately<br /> Members Age 1 2 3 4 5<br /> 8. Please give your highest level of education (a)SSC or below<input type="checkbox" name="edu" value="ssc" /> (b) Intermediate<input type="checkbox" name="edu" value="int" /> (c) Diploma <input type="checkbox" name="edu" value="dip" /> (d)UG degree <input type="checkbox" name="edu" value="deg" /> (e) PG <input type="checkbox" name="edu" value="pg" /> (g) Doctorial degree<input type="checkbox" name="edu" value="doc" /><br /> 9. Specify your monthly income approximately in RS <input type="text" name="income" /><br /> 10. Specify your time spent in making a purchase decision at the outlet<br /> (a)0-15 min <input type="checkbox" name="dis" value="0-15 min" /> (b)16-30 min <input type="checkbox" name="dis" value="16-30 min" /> (c) 30-45 min<input type="checkbox" name="dis" value="30-45 min" /> (d) 46-60 min<input type="checkbox" name="dis" value="46-60 min" /><br /> <input type="submit" onclick="exportToExcel()" value="Submit" /> </div> </form>

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  • July SQL Server UG Event in Manchester

    I will be speaking at the SQL Server UK User Group event in Manchester on 16.07.2009.  I am going to be talking about data mining again and how it isn’t all statistics and people with PhDs from Oxford.  Come join me and the excellent Chris Testa-O’Neill.  More details and registration can be found here

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  • Oracle Fusion Supply Chain Management (SCM) Designs May Improve End User Productivity

    - by Applications User Experience
    By Applications User Experience on March 10, 2011 Michele Molnar, Senior Usability Engineer, Applications User Experience The Challenge: The SCM User Experience team, in close collaboration with product management and strategy, completely redesigned the user experience for Oracle Fusion applications. One of the goals of this redesign was to increase end user productivity by applying design patterns and guidelines and incorporating findings from extensive usability research. But a question remained: How do we know that the Oracle Fusion designs will actually increase end user productivity? The Test: To answer this question, the SCM Usability Engineers compared Oracle Fusion designs to their corresponding existing Oracle applications using the workflow time analysis method. The workflow time analysis method breaks tasks into a sequence of operators. By applying standard time estimates for all of the operators in the task, an estimate of the overall task time can be calculated. The workflow time analysis method has been recently adopted by the Applications User Experience group for use in predicting end user productivity. Using this method, a design can be tested and refined as needed to improve productivity even before the design is coded. For the study, we selected some of our recent designs for Oracle Fusion Product Information Management (PIM). The designs encompassed tasks performed by Product Managers to create, manage, and define products for their organization. (See Figure 1 for an example.) In applying this method, the SCM Usability Engineers collaborated with Product Management to compare the new Oracle Fusion Applications designs against Oracle’s existing applications. Together, we performed the following activities: Identified the five most frequently performed tasks Created detailed task scenarios that provided the context for each task Conducted task walkthroughs Analyzed and documented the steps and flow required to complete each task Applied standard time estimates to the operators in each task to estimate the overall task completion time Figure 1. The interactions on each Oracle Fusion Product Information Management screen were documented, as indicated by the red highlighting. The task scenario and script provided the context for each task.  The Results: The workflow time analysis method predicted that the Oracle Fusion Applications designs would result in productivity gains in each task, ranging from 8% to 62%, with an overall productivity gain of 43%. All other factors being equal, the new designs should enable these tasks to be completed in about half the time it takes with existing Oracle Applications. Further analysis revealed that these performance gains would be achieved by reducing the number of clicks and screens needed to complete the tasks. Conclusions: Using the workflow time analysis method, we can expect the Oracle Fusion Applications redesign to succeed in improving end user productivity. The workflow time analysis method appears to be an effective and efficient tool for testing, refining, and retesting designs to optimize productivity. The workflow time analysis method does not replace usability testing with end users, but it can be used as an early predictor of design productivity even before designs are coded. We are planning to conduct usability tests later in the development cycle to compare actual end user data with the workflow time analysis results. Such results can potentially be used to validate the productivity improvement predictions. Used together, the workflow time analysis method and usability testing will enable us to continue creating, evaluating, and delivering Oracle Fusion designs that exceed the expectations of our end users, both in the quality of the user experience and in productivity. (For more information about studying productivity, refer to the Measuring User Productivity blog.)

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