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  • Scottish Visual Studio 2010 Launch event with Jason Zander

    - by Martin Hinshelwood
    Microsoft are hosting a launch event for Visual Studio 2010 on Friday 16th April in Edinburgh. The have managed to convince one of the head honchos from the Visual Studio product team to come to Scotland. With Scott Guthrie last week in Glasgow and now Jason Zander, Global General Manager for Visual Studio will be arriving in Edinburgh for the Launch event. There will be two speakers for the event, Jason will be up first and will be doing a session on Windows, Web, Cloud and Windows Phone 7 development with Visual Studio 2010. Second up is Giles Davis the UK’s Technical Specialist for Visual Studio ALM (formally Visual Studio Team System) who will be introducing the new Visual Studio 2010 Developer and tester collaboration features. LAUNCH AGENDA: 9.30am – 10.00am Arrival 10.00am - 11.30am Keynote & Q&A - Jason Zander, Global GM for Visual Studio 11.30am - 12.00pm Break 12.00pm - 1.00pm Developer & Tester Collaboration with Visual Studio 2010 - Giles Davies, Technical Specialist 1.00pm - 1.30pm Lunch DATE:              Friday, 16th April 2010 LOCATION: Microsoft Edinburgh, Waverley Gate, 2-4 Waterloo Place, Edinburgh, EH1 3EG I think Jason will be hanging out for the afternoon to answer questions and meet everyone. f you would like to attend, please email Nathan Davies on [email protected] with your name, company and email address   Technorati Tags: VS2010,TFS2010,Visual Studio,Visual Studio 2010

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  • Don&rsquo;t apply for your first job somewhere; apply for an experience at Oracle.

    - by cristian.condurache(at)oracle.com
    Hi! My name is Stijn and I currently work as a Business Development Consultant for Oracle in Dublin since November 2010. I’m originally from Belgium and I graduated last year from the Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School. In many ways you could say I’m living the life I asked for: an international career with global organization. I’m unbelievably grateful however, because opportunities like this don’t come by the dozen. Actually, going through university and business school my dreams of an international career were clouded quite quickly. Following all the ‘right’ steps wasn’t enough. The lack of offers for, and trust in, new starters to take on a challenge like this was a reality check for me and many of my friends. It takes a company that recognizes the opportunity of recruiting talented individuals by offering them something they actually want: a first job based abroad! My job is focused on generating demand for Oracle products over the phone. In only a few months, the amazing things I’ve experienced, the people I’ve talked to, the learning experiences I’ve had in and outside of work are too many to list. From having CEO’s on the phone, to having meetings with 15 different nationalities, to getting settled from scratch in a new country… it’s something that builds you as a person. But don’t be fooled though, it’s on you - where it starts. Although Oracle gives you the best training and resources to do your job and Ireland is a playground for everything else, it’s you that is responsible. You are in control and much is expected. What you get in return however, is beyond incredible. If you are interested in joining the same team as Stijn, please visit http://campus.oracle.com or contact [email protected] Technorati Tags: Oracle,opportunity,global organisation,career,Business Development Consultant

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  • Kansas City .NET UG March Meeting &ndash; Tonight!!!!

    - by John Alexander
    Meeting tonight!!! Food! Great giveaways including a full license of Infragistics for a year! See you there!! Meeting for March 23rd, 2010 WHERE: Centriq Training, 8700 State Line Road, Leawood, KS (Click WHEN: 6:00 PM TOPIC: Microsoft's Security Development Lifecycle for Agile development Microsoft recently added secure development guidance for agile methodologies within their SDL. During this presentation, Nick will summarize the new guidance and discuss what makes this guidance successful for Agile development. SPEAKER: Nick Coblentz Nick Coblentz is a senior consultant within AT&T Consulting Services' Application Security Practice. He focuses on helping organizations build mature application security programs and secure development processes. Nick has provided consulting services to fortune 500 companies within the retail, financial services, banking, and health care sectors. SPONSOR: TekSystems TEKsystems® is the leading IT staffing and services company. Our capabilities span a wide range of services: from technical staff augmentation and direct placement services, to full management of IT projects and comprehensive workforce management solutions. With over 25 years of experience, we are experts at connecting technical professionals. Whether you are looking for the best IT talent, an experienced IT outsourcing partner, or a career in the IT industry, TEKsystems delivers.

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  • The Best Tips and Tweaks for Getting the Most Out of Internet Explorer 9

    - by Lori Kaufman
    If you use Internet Explorer 9, we have many tips and tricks for you to improve your web surfing experience, from customizing the interface to using the many features, and to make your time online more secure with IE9’s many security and privacy enhancements. Surf or Search Using the One Box (Address Bar) In IE versions prior to 9, the address bar and search bar were separate. They are now combined into the One Box in IE9, allowing you to navigate to websites or start a search from a single place. According to Microsoft, if you enter a single word that represents a valid URL, such as “microsoft” or “howtogeek,” the word will be evaluated as a URL and you can click on the URL or press Shift + Enter to load that site. The One Box also provides inline autocomplete functionality, so you only have to type a few letters to quickly get to your favorite sites. IE9 autocompletes what you are typing with popular websites, as well as with items from your Favorites and History lists. HTG Explains: What Is Windows RT and What Does It Mean To Me? HTG Explains: How Windows 8′s Secure Boot Feature Works & What It Means for Linux Hack Your Kindle for Easy Font Customization

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  • Upgraded Linux, now CMS Made Simple is spewing errors

    - by Paul Tomblin
    I upgraded my host from Debian Lenny to Debian Squeeze, and now my CMS Made Simple site is spewing PHP errors all over the screen. I thought I'd upgrade the CMS because I haven't done so in a while, but Google Chrome tells me that the CMS Made Simple site is infested with malware. What are my options now? Example errors: Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in /www/danmurn/cms/include.php on line 73 Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in /www/danmurn/cms/include.php on line 162 Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in /www/danmurn/cms/include.php on line 240 Warning: session_start() [function.session-start]: Cannot send session cookie - headers already sent by (output started at /www/danmurn/cms/include.php:73) in /www/danmurn/cms/include.php on line 34 Warning: session_start() [function.session-start]: Cannot send session cache limiter - headers already sent (output started at /www/danmurn/cms/include.php:73) in /www/danmurn/cms/include.php on line 34 Deprecated: Function set_magic_quotes_runtime() is deprecated in /www/danmurn/cms/include.php on line 62 Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in /www/danmurn/cms/lib/classes/class.global.inc.php on line 184 Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in /www/danmurn/cms/lib/classes/class.global.inc.php on line 196

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  • So Singletons are bad, then what?

    - by Bobby Tables
    There has been a lot of discussion lately about the problems with using (and overusing) Singletons. I've been one of those people earlier in my career too. I can see what the problem is now, and yet, there are still many cases where I can't see a nice alternative - and not many of the anti-Singleton discussions really provide one. Here is a real example from a major recent project I was involved in: The application was a thick client with many separate screens and components which uses huge amounts of data from a server state which isn't updated too often. This data was basically cached in a Singleton "manager" object - the dreaded "global state". The idea was to have this one place in the app which keeps the data stored and synced, and then any new screens that are opened can just query most of what they need from there, without making repetitive requests for various supporting data from the server. Constantly requesting to the server would take too much bandwidth - and I'm talking thousands of dollars extra Internet bills per week, so that was unacceptable. Is there any other approach that could be appropriate here than basically having this kind of global data manager cache object? This object doesn't officially have to be a "Singleton" of course, but it does conceptually make sense to be one. What is a nice clean alternative here?

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  • Podcast Show Notes: Toronto Architect Day Panel Discussion

    - by Bob Rhubart
    The latest Oracle Technology Network ArchBeat Podcast features a four-part series recorded live during the panel discussion at OTN Architect Day in Tornonto, April 21, 2011. More than 100 people attended the event, and the audience tossed a lot of great questions at a terrific panel. Listen for yourself... Listen to Part 1 Panel introduction and a discussion of the typical characteristics of Cloud early-adopters. Listen to Part 2 (June 22) The panelists respond to an audience question about what happens when data in the Cloud crosses international borders. Listen to Part 3 (June 29) The panel discusses public versus private cloud as the best strategy for small or start-up businesses. Listen to Part 4 (July 6) The panel responds to an audience question about how cloud computing changes performance testing paradigms. The Architect Day panel includes (listed alphabetically): Dr. James Baty: Vice President, Oracle Global Enterprise Architecture Program [LinkedIn] Dave Chappelle: Enterprise Architect, Oracle Global Enterprise Architecture Program [LinkedIn] Timothy Davis: Director, Enterprise Architecture, Oracle Enterprise Solutions Group [LinkedIn] Michael Glas: Director, Enterprise Architecture, Oracle [LinkedIn] Bob Hensle: Director, Oracle [LinkedIn] Floyd Marinescu: Co-founder & Chief Editor of InfoQ.com and the QCon conferences [LinkedIn | Twitter | Homepage] Cary Millsap: Oracle ACE Director; Founder, President, and CEO at Method R Corporation [LinkedIn | Blog | Twitter] Coming Soon IASA CEO Paul Preiss talks about architecture as a profession. Thomas Erl and Anne Thomas Manes discuss their new book SOA Governance: Governing Shared Services On-Premise & in the Cloud A discussion of women in architecture Stay tuned: RSS

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  • New Year's Resolutions and Keeping in Touch in 2011

    - by Brian Dayton
    The run-up to Oracle OpenWorld 2010 San Francisco--and the launch of Fusion Applications--was a busy time for many of us working on the applications business at Oracle. The great news was that the Oracle Applications general sessions, sessions, demogrounds and other programs were very well attended and well received. Unfortunately, for this blog, the work wasn't done there. Yes, there haven't been many additional blog entries since the previous one, which one industry analyst told us "That's a good post!" That being said, our New Year's Resolution is to blog more frequently about what's been keeping us busy since Oracle OpenWorld San Francisco. A quick summary: - A 4-part webcast series covering major elements of Oracle's Applications strategy - Oracle OpenWorld Brazil - Oracle OpenWorld China - A stellar fiscal Q2 for Oracle and our applications business - Engagement with many Oracle Fusion Applications Early Adopter customers (more on this in the coming year) Objectives for the Coming Year Looking forward at 2011 there are many ways in which we hope to continue making connections with our valued customers and partners, sharing information about where Oracle Applications are headed, and answering questions about how to manage your Oracle Applications roadmap. Things to look for in 2011: - Stay connected with Oracle Applications on a daily basis via our Facebook page. You don't have to be a member of Facebook---but if you are and "like" the page you'll have daily insights and updates delivered to your account http://www.facebook.com/OracleApps - Coming soon, an Oracle Applications strategy update World Tour---a global program that takes key updates and information to cities around the globe - Save the date: On February 3rd, Oracle will be hosting a global, online conference for Oracle Applications customers, partners and interested parties Happy New Year and look for us in 2011.

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  • ODI 11g – How to override SQL at runtime?

    - by David Allan
    Following on from the posting some time back entitled ‘ODI 11g – Simple, Powerful, Flexible’ here we push the envelope even further. Rather than just having the SQL we override defined statically in the interface design we will have it configurable via a variable….at runtime. Imagine you have a well defined interface shape that you want to be fulfilled and that shape can be satisfied from a number of different sources that is what this allows - or the ability for one interface to consume data from many different places using variables. The cool thing about ODI’s reference API and this is that it can be fantastically flexible and useful. When I use the variable as the option value, and I execute the top level scenario that uses this temporary interface I get prompted (or can get prompted to be correct) for the value of the variable. Note I am using the <@=odiRef.getObjectName("L","EMP", "SCOTT","D")@> notation for the table reference, since this is done at runtime, then the context will resolve to the correct table name etc. Each time I execute, I could use a different source provider (obviously some dependencies on KMs/technologies here). For example, the following groovy snippet first executes and the query uses SCOTT model with EMP, the next time it is from BOB model and the datastore OTHERS. m=new Properties(); m.put("DEMO.SQLSTR", "select empno, deptno from <@=odiRef.getObjectName("L","EMP", "SCOTT","D")@>"); s=new StartupParams(m); runtimeAgent.startScenario("TOP", null, s, null, "GLOBAL", 5, null, true); m2=new Properties(); m2.put("DEMO.SQLSTR", "select empno, deptno from <@=odiRef.getObjectName("L","OTHERS", "BOB","D")@>"); s2=new StartupParams(m); runtimeAgent.startScenario("TOP", null, s2, null, "GLOBAL", 5, null, true); You’ll need a patch to 11.1.1.6 for this type of capability, thanks to my ole buddy Ron Gonzalez from the Enterprise Management group for help pushing the envelope!

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  • UPK Professional Customer Success Story: Medtronic

    - by [email protected]
    In case you missed the live event, be sure to listen to last week's UPK Customer iSeminar featuring Medtronic. This was the first iSeminar in our quarterly series to showcase UPK Professional (UPK and Knowledge Pathways). Donna Miller and Staci Gilbert gave viewers an inside look at samples of Medtronic's content as they shared their experiences, methodology and best practices for use of the solution. Here are some highlights of the call: • Medtronic initially purchased UPK Professional to support a multi-year, global SAP rollout for 9,000 end users located in 24 countries. • As time went on, they expanded their use of UPK Professional to include several of their other enterprise applications: PeopleSoft, Siebel CRM, Hyperion Financial Management, a number of SAP bolt-ons, Documentum, TrackWise, and many others. • In combination with their Saba LMS, UPK Professional has allowed Medtronic to create, deploy, track and certify consistent end user training for critical transactions and processes across their organization worldwide - essential for a company in a heavily regulated industry. • For key pieces of content or certain end user populations, some Medtronic business units localize/translate the global UPK content. Staci demonstrated examples of their SAP content which has been translated into Japanese. • In the live SAP environment, end users rely on UPK's context sensitive in-application performance support. Medtronic has found this to be very helpful post go-live, giving just-in-time support so end users are confident in a new system or when performing tasks they don't often touch (at quarter or year end). UPK also serves as Medtronic's internal Google. • Medtronic has realized savings on many fronts: reduction in support calls due to in-application performance support, elimination of their training clients, and speedier training (1.5 days rather than 5-7 days) of temporary workers by moving from ILT to a blended solution that includes UPK simulations for eLearning. Thanks again to Donna and Staci for an exceptional presentation. They offered so many great examples for anyone who's looking for ways to get more out of UPK or interested in learning about UPK Professional: Knowledge Pathways. - Karen Rihs, Oracle UPK Outbound Product Management

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  • Tuning Red Gate: #5 of Multiple

    - by Grant Fritchey
    In the Tuning Red Gate series I've shown you how to look at a current load on the system and how to drill down to look at historical analysis of the system. I've also shown how you can see the top queries and other information from the current status of the system. I have one more thing I can show you before we need to start fixing things and showing how that affects the data collected, historical moments in time. For example, back in Post #3 I was looking at some spikes in some of the monitored resources that were taking place a couple of weeks back in time. Once I identify a moment in time that I'm interested in, I can go back to the first page of Monitor, Global Overview, and click on the icon: From this you can select the date and time you're interested in. For example, I saw some serious CPU queues last week: This then rolls back the time for all the information that's available to the Global Overview and the drill down to the server and the SQL Server instance there. This then allows me to look at the Top Queries running at this point, sort them by CPU and identify what was potentially the query that was causing the problem right when I saw the CPU queuing This ability to correlate a moment in time with the information available to you in the Analysis window makes for an excellent tool to investigate your systems going backwards in time. It really makes a huge difference in your knowledge. It's not enough to know that something happened at a particular time. You need to know what it was that was occurring. Remember, the key to tuning your systems is having enough knowledge about them. I'll post more on Tuning Red Gate as soon as I can get some queries rewritten. I'm working on that.

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  • file error /boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod trying to repair boot, live dvd install probleml

    - by user179295
    I have seen that there are a lot of threads about this problem. I had Windows 8 installed on my series 3 samsung i5 computer and I tried to install ubuntu 13.04. This is what I did: Because of the secure boot I can't install ubuntu from the dvd. So I went in the bios and disabled secure boot and enabled ''CSM''. I went out of the bios and windows 8 couldn't boot more. So I follow a guide on this thread ( Installing on a Pre-Installed Windows 8 System (UEFI Supported) ) and on ubuntu I tried to repair the boot by inserting this code in the terminal: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install boot-repair Then I ran boot-repair and I follow all the steps. Then I reboot the sistem and saw the black screen that says: error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal mod' not found grub rescure> Now I saw a lot of guides about this problem but I can't understand how to reistall ubuntu trough the live dvd that I used to install it the first time... I put it in the computer but nothing appears.. so what should I do now? I'm a noob on ubuntu and I have read all the things about this grub 2 install and know where the problem comes from but how to start the dvd??

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  • Differentiate procedural language(c) from oop languages(c++)

    - by niko
    I have been trying to differentiate c and c++(or oop languages) but I don't understand where the difference is. Note I have never used c++ but I asked my friends and some of them to differentiate c and c++ They say c++ has oop concepts and also the public, private modes for definition of variables and which c does not have though. Seriously I have done vb.net programming for a while 2 to 3 months, I never faced a situation to use class concepts and modes of definition like public and private. So I thought what could be the use for these? My friend explained me a program saying that if a variable is public, it can be accessed anywhere I said why not declare it as a global variable like in c? He did not get back to my question and he said if a variable is private it cannot be accessed by some other functions I said why not define it as a local variable, even these he was unable to answer. No matter where I read private variables cannot be accessed whereas public variables can be then why not make public as global and private as local whats the difference? whats the real use of public and private ? please don't say it can be used by everyone, I suppose why not we use some conditions and make the calls? I have heard people saying security reasons, a friend said if a function need to be accessed it should be inherited first. He explained saying that only admin should be able to have some rights and not all so that functions are made private and inherited only by the admin to use Then I said why not we use if condition if ( login == "admin") invoke the function he still did not answer these question. Please clear me with these things, I have done vb.net and vba and little c++ without using oop concepts because I never found their real use while I was writing the code, I'm a little afraid am I too back in oop concepts?

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  • IOUG Webcast Series on Identity Management

    - by Tanu Sood
    Identity Management for Business Empowerment Identity Management has gone from the realm of IT tools to being a business solution. Security and Identity Management offer confidence in doing secure and compliant business. But more than that, Identity Management today contributes to business growth with secure social, cloud, mobile and internal & external ecosystem enablement. Cloud computing has heightened the interest in user access security, mobile computing brings access to information beyond the enterprise and a bring your own device culture in-house, social media has added a new dimension to user identity and increasing security compliance pressure has made organizations rethink their roles and entitlements strategy. To discuss the industry trends, maturity and framework for security, compliance and business empowerment with identity management, Oracle is proud to collaborate with IOUG to launch a series of live webcasts. Covering a span of topics from identity platform to entitlements managements, privilege access management and cloud, mobile and social security, these webcasts will provide direct access to subject matter experts and technology specialists. Hear first-hand about best practices, a pragmatic approach to security implementation, customer success stories and more. Register today for the individual webcasts or the series. And just a reminder that the conversation starts at COLLABORATE 12 in Las Vegas from April 22nd – 26th. In addition to our conference sessions, as an added value this year, we are offering a half-day deep dive session on Oracle Identity Management: Building a Security and Compliance Framework for Oracle Systems. The session is scheduled for Sunday, April 22nd from 9 am to 3 pm and will cover relevant topics such as: • A Primer on Identity Management • Security and Compliance with Oracle Identity Management • Security for Oracle Applications, Fusion Applications• Managing Identities in The Cloud and Mobile World • Best Practices: Building an Identity Roadmap and Getting Started To get a head start on your compliance and security program, pre-register for this session today.

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  • Host your own private git repository via SSH

    - by kerry
    If you are like me you have tons of projects you would like to keep private but track with git, but do not want to pay a git host for a private plan. One of the problems is that most hosts scale their plans by project instead of users. Luckily, it is easy to host your own git repositories on any el cheapo host that provides ssh access. In the interest of full disclosure, I learned this trick from this blog post. I decided to recreate it in case the source material vanishes for some reason. To setup your host, login via ssh and run the following commands: mkdir ~/git/yourprojectname.git cd ~/git/yourprojectname.git git --bare init Then in your project directory (on your local machine): # setup your user info git config --global user.name "Firstname Lastname" git config --global user.email "[email protected]" # initialize the workspace git init git add . git commit -m "initial commit" git add remote origin ssh://[email protected]/~/git/yourprojectname.git git push origin master It’s that easy! To keep from entering your password every time add your public key to the server: Generate your key with ‘ssh-keygen -t rsa‘ on your local machine.  Then add the contents of the generated file to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys on your server.

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  • Microsoft&rsquo;s new technical computing initiative

    - by Randy Walker
    I made a mental note from earlier in the year.  Microsoft literally buys computers by the truckload.  From what I understand, it’s a typical practice amongst large software vendors.  You plug a few wires in, you test it, and you instantly have mega tera tera flops (don’t hold me to that number).  Microsoft has been trying to plug away at their cloud services (named Azure).  Which, for the layman, means Microsoft runs your software on their computers, and as demand increases you can allocate more computing power on the fly. With this in mind, it doesn’t surprise me that I was recently sent an executive email concerning Microsoft’s new technical computing initiative.  I find it to be a great marketing idea with actual substance behind their real work.  From the programmer academic perspective, in college we dreamed about this type of processing power.  This has decades of computer science theory behind it. A copy of the email received.  (note that I almost deleted this email, thinking it was spam due to it’s length) We don't often think about how complex life really is. Take the relatively simple task of commuting to and from work: it is, in fact, a complicated interplay of variables such as weather, train delays, accidents, traffic patterns, road construction, etc. You can however, take steps to shorten your commute - using a good, predictive understanding of a few of these variables. In fact, you probably are already taking these inputs and instinctively building a predictive model that you act on daily to get to your destination more quickly. Now, when we apply the same method to very complex tasks, this modeling approach becomes much more challenging. Recent world events clearly demonstrated our inability to process vast amounts of information and variables that would have helped to more accurately predict the behavior of global financial markets or the occurrence and impact of a volcano eruption in Iceland. To make sense of issues like these, researchers, engineers and analysts create computer models of the almost infinite number of possible interactions in complex systems. But, they need increasingly more sophisticated computer models to better understand how the world behaves and to make fact-based predictions about the future. And, to do this, it requires a tremendous amount of computing power to process and examine the massive data deluge from cameras, digital sensors and precision instruments of all kinds. This is the key to creating more accurate and realistic models that expose the hidden meaning of data, which gives us the kind of insight we need to solve a myriad of challenges. We have made great strides in our ability to build these kinds of computer models, and yet they are still too difficult, expensive and time consuming to manage. Today, even the most complicated data-rich simulations cannot fully capture all of the intricacies and dependencies of the systems they are trying to model. That is why, across the scientific and engineering world, it is so hard to say with any certainty when or where the next volcano will erupt and what flight patterns it might affect, or to more accurately predict something like a global flu pandemic. So far, we just cannot collect, correlate and compute enough data to create an accurate forecast of the real world. But this is about to change. Innovations in technology are transforming our ability to measure, monitor and model how the world behaves. The implication for scientific research is profound, and it will transform the way we tackle global challenges like health care and climate change. It will also have a huge impact on engineering and business, delivering breakthroughs that could lead to the creation of new products, new businesses and even new industries. Because you are a subscriber to executive e-mails from Microsoft, I want you to be the first to know about a new effort focused specifically on empowering millions of the world's smartest problem solvers. Today, I am happy to introduce Microsoft's Technical Computing initiative. Our goal is to unleash the power of pervasive, accurate, real-time modeling to help people and organizations achieve their objectives and realize their potential. We are bringing together some of the brightest minds in the technical computing community across industry, academia and science at www.modelingtheworld.com to discuss trends, challenges and shared opportunities. New advances provide the foundation for tools and applications that will make technical computing more affordable and accessible where mathematical and computational principles are applied to solve practical problems. One day soon, complicated tasks like building a sophisticated computer model that would typically take a team of advanced software programmers months to build and days to run, will be accomplished in a single afternoon by a scientist, engineer or analyst working at the PC on their desktop. And as technology continues to advance, these models will become more complete and accurate in the way they represent the world. This will speed our ability to test new ideas, improve processes and advance our understanding of systems. Our technical computing initiative reflects the best of Microsoft's heritage. Ever since Bill Gates articulated the then far-fetched vision of "a computer on every desktop" in the early 1980's, Microsoft has been at the forefront of expanding the power and reach of computing to benefit the world. As someone who worked closely with Bill for many years at Microsoft, I am happy to share with you that the passion behind that vision is fully alive at Microsoft and is carried out in the creation of our new Technical Computing group. Enabling more people to make better predictions We have seen the impact of making greater computing power more available firsthand through our investments in high performance computing (HPC) over the past five years. Scientists, engineers and analysts in organizations of all sizes and sectors are finding that using distributed computational power creates societal impact, fuels scientific breakthroughs and delivers competitive advantages. For example, we have seen remarkable results from some of our current customers: Malaria strikes 300,000 to 500,000 people around the world each year. To help in the effort to eradicate malaria worldwide, scientists at Intellectual Ventures use software that simulates how the disease spreads and would respond to prevention and control methods, such as vaccines and the use of bed nets. Technical computing allows researchers to model more detailed parameters for more accurate results and receive those results in less than an hour, rather than waiting a full day. Aerospace engineering firm, a.i. solutions, Inc., needed a more powerful computing platform to keep up with the increasingly complex computational needs of its customers: NASA, the Department of Defense and other government agencies planning space flights. To meet that need, it adopted technical computing. Now, a.i. solutions can produce detailed predictions and analysis of the flight dynamics of a given spacecraft, from optimal launch times and orbit determination to attitude control and navigation, up to eight times faster. This enables them to avoid mistakes in any areas that can cause a space mission to fail and potentially result in the loss of life and millions of dollars. Western & Southern Financial Group faced the challenge of running ever larger and more complex actuarial models as its number of policyholders and products grew and regulatory requirements changed. The company chose an actuarial solution that runs on technical computing technology. The solution is easy for the company's IT staff to manage and adjust to meet business needs. The new solution helps the company reduce modeling time by up to 99 percent - letting the team fine-tune its models for more accurate product pricing and financial projections. Our Technical Computing direction Collaborating closely with partners across industry and academia, we must now extend the reach of technical computing even further to help predictive modelers and data explorers make faster, more accurate predictions. As we build the Technical Computing initiative, we will invest in three core areas: Technical computing to the cloud: Microsoft will play a leading role in bringing technical computing power to scientists, engineers and analysts through the cloud. Existing high- performance computing users will benefit from the ability to augment their on-premises systems with cloud resources that enable 'just-in-time' processing. This platform will help ensure processing resources are available whenever they are needed-reliably, consistently and quickly. Simplify parallel development: Today, computers are shipping with more processing power than ever, including multiple cores, but most modern software only uses a small amount of the available processing power. Parallel programs are extremely difficult to write, test and trouble shoot. However, a consistent model for parallel programming can help more developers unlock the tremendous power in today's modern computers and enable a new generation of technical computing. We are delivering new tools to automate and simplify writing software through parallel processing from the desktop... to the cluster... to the cloud. Develop powerful new technical computing tools and applications: We know scientists, engineers and analysts are pushing common tools (i.e., spreadsheets and databases) to the limits with complex, data-intensive models. They need easy access to more computing power and simplified tools to increase the speed of their work. We are building a platform to do this. Our development efforts will yield new, easy-to-use tools and applications that automate data acquisition, modeling, simulation, visualization, workflow and collaboration. This will allow them to spend more time on their work and less time wrestling with complicated technology. Thinking bigger There is so much left to be discovered and so many questions yet to be answered in the fascinating world around us. We believe the technical computing community will show us that we have not seen anything yet. Imagine just some of the breakthroughs this community could make possible: Better predictions to help improve the understanding of pandemics, contagion and global health trends. Climate change models that predict environmental, economic and human impact, accessible in real-time during key discussions and debates. More accurate prediction of natural disasters and their impact to develop more effective emergency response plans. With an ambitious charter in hand, this new team is ready to build on our progress to-date and execute Microsoft's technical computing vision over the months and years ahead. We will steadily invest in the right technologies, tools and talent, and work to bring together the technical computing community. I invite you to visit www.modelingtheworld.com today. We welcome your ideas and feedback. I look forward to making this journey with you and others who want to answer the world's biggest questions, discover solutions to problems that seem impossible and uncover a host of new opportunities to change the world we live in for the better. Bob

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  • Part 2&ndash;Load Testing In The Cloud

    - by Tarun Arora
    Welcome to Part 2, In Part 1 we discussed the advantages of creating a Test Rig in the cloud, the Azure edge and the Test Rig Topology we want to get to. In Part 2, Let’s start by understanding the components of Azure we’ll be making use of followed by manually putting them together to create the test rig, so… let’s get down dirty start setting up the Test Rig.  What Components of Azure will I be using for building the Test Rig in the Cloud? To run the Test Agents we’ll make use of Windows Azure Compute and to enable communication between Test Controller and Test Agents we’ll make use of Windows Azure Connect.  Azure Connect The Test Controller is on premise and the Test Agents are in the cloud (How will they talk?). To enable communication between the two, we’ll make use of Windows Azure Connect. With Windows Azure Connect, you can use a simple user interface to configure IPsec protected connections between computers or virtual machines (VMs) in your organization’s network, and roles running in Windows Azure. With this you can now join Windows Azure role instances to your domain, so that you can use your existing methods for domain authentication, name resolution, or other domain-wide maintenance actions. For more details refer to an overview of Windows Azure connect. A very useful video explaining everything you wanted to know about Windows Azure connect.  Azure Compute Windows Azure compute provides developers a platform to host and manage applications in Microsoft’s data centres across the globe. A Windows Azure application is built from one or more components called ‘roles.’ Roles come in three different types: Web role, Worker role, and Virtual Machine (VM) role, we’ll be using the Worker role to set up the Test Agents. A very nice blog post discussing the difference between the 3 role types. Developers are free to use the .NET framework or other software that runs on Windows with the Worker role or Web role. Developers can also create applications using languages such as PHP and Java. More on Windows Azure Compute. Each Windows Azure compute instance represents a virtual server... Virtual Machine Size CPU Cores Memory Cost Per Hour Extra Small Shared 768 MB $0.04 Small 1 1.75 GB $0.12 Medium 2 3.50 GB $0.24 Large 4 7.00 GB $0.48 Extra Large 8 14.00 GB $0.96   You might want to review the Windows Azure Pricing FAQ. Let’s Get Started building the Test Rig… Configuration Machine Role Comments VM – 1 Domain Controller for Playpit.com On Premise VM – 2 TFS, Test Controller On Premise VM – 3 Test Agent Cloud   In this blog post I would assume that you have the domain, Team Foundation Server and Test Controller Installed and set up already. If not, please refer to the TFS 2010 Installation Guide and this walkthrough on MSDN to set up your Test Controller. You can also download a preconfigured TFS 2010 VM from Brian Keller's blog, Brian also has some great hands on Labs on TFS 2010 that you may want to explore. I. Lets start building VM – 3: The Test Agent Download the Windows Azure SDK and Tools Open Visual Studio and create a new Windows Azure Project using the Cloud Template                   Choose the Worker Role for reasons explained in the earlier post         The WorkerRole.cs implements the Run() and OnStart() methods, no code changes required. You should be able to compile the project and run it in the compute emulator (The compute emulator should have been installed as part of the Windows Azure Toolkit) on your local machine.                   We will only be making changes to WindowsAzureProject, open ServiceDefinition.csdef. Ensure that the vmsize is small (remember the cost chart above). Import the “Connect” module. I am importing the Connect module because I need to join the Worker role VM to the Playpit domain. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceDefinition name="WindowsAzureProject2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceDefinition"> <WorkerRole name="WorkerRole1" vmsize="Small"> <Imports> <Import moduleName="Diagnostics" /> <Import moduleName="Connect"/> </Imports> </WorkerRole> </ServiceDefinition> Go to the ServiceConfiguration.Cloud.cscfg and note that settings with key ‘Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.%%%%’ have been added to the configuration file. This is because you decided to import the connect module. See the config below. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceConfiguration serviceName="WindowsAzureProject2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceConfiguration" osFamily="1" osVersion="*"> <Role name="WorkerRole1"> <Instances count="1" /> <ConfigurationSettings> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Diagnostics.ConnectionString" value="UseDevelopmentStorage=true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.ActivationToken" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Refresh" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.WaitForConnectivity" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Upgrade" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.EnableDomainJoin" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainFQDN" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainControllerFQDN" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainAccountName" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainPassword" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainOU" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Administrators" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainSiteName" value="" /> </ConfigurationSettings> </Role> </ServiceConfiguration>             Let’s go step by step and understand all the highlighted parameters and where you can find the values for them.       osFamily – By default this is set to 1 (Windows Server 2008 SP2). Change this to 2 if you want the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system. The Advantage of using osFamily = “2” is that you get Powershell 2.0 rather than Powershell 1.0. In Powershell 2.0 you could simply use “powershell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted ./myscript.ps1” and it will work while in Powershell 1.0 you will have to change the registry key by including the following in your command file “reg add HKLM\Software\Microsoft\PowerShell\1\ShellIds\Microsoft.PowerShell /v ExecutionPolicy /d Unrestricted /f” before you can execute any power shell. The other reason you might want to move to os2 is if you wanted IIS 7.5.       Activation Token – To enable communication between the on premise machine and the Windows Azure Worker role VM both need to have the same token. Log on to Windows Azure Management Portal, click on Connect, click on Get Activation Token, this should give you the activation token, copy the activation token to the clipboard and paste it in the configuration file. Note – Later in the blog I’ll be showing you how to install connect on the on premise machine.                       EnableDomainJoin – Set the value to true, ofcourse we want to join the on windows azure worker role VM to the domain.       DomainFQDN, DomainControllerFQDN, DomainAccountName, DomainPassword, DomainOU, Administrators – This information is specific to your domain. I have extracted this information from the ‘service manager’ and ‘Active Directory Users and Computers’. Also, i created a new Domain-OU namely ‘CloudInstances’ so all my cloud instances joined to my domain show up here, this is optional. You can encrypt the DomainPassword – refer to the instructions here. Or hold fire, I’ll be covering that when i come to certificates and encryption in the coming section.       Now once you have filled all this information up, the configuration file should look something like below, <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceConfiguration serviceName="WindowsAzureProject2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceConfiguration" osFamily="2" osVersion="*"> <Role name="WorkerRole1"> <Instances count="1" /> <ConfigurationSettings> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Diagnostics.ConnectionString" value="UseDevelopmentStorage=true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.ActivationToken" value="45f55fea-f194-4fbc-b36e-25604faac784" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Refresh" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.WaitForConnectivity" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Upgrade" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.EnableDomainJoin" value="true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainFQDN" value="play.pit.com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainControllerFQDN" value="WIN-KUDQMQFGQOL.play.pit.com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainAccountName" value="playpit\Administrator" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainPassword" value="************************" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainOU" value="OU=CloudInstances, DC=Play, DC=Pit, DC=com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Administrators" value="Playpit\Administrator" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainSiteName" value="" /> </ConfigurationSettings> </Role> </ServiceConfiguration> Next we will be enabling the Remote Desktop module in to the ServiceDefinition.csdef, we could make changes manually or allow a beautiful wizard to help us make changes. I prefer the second option. So right click on the Windows Azure project and choose Publish       Now once you get the publish wizard, if you haven’t already you would be asked to import your Windows Azure subscription, this is simply the Msdn subscription activation key xml. Once you have done click Next to go to the Settings page and check ‘Enable Remote Desktop for all roles’.       As soon as you do that you get another pop up asking you the details for the user that you would be logging in with (make sure you enter a reasonable expiry date, you do not want the user account to expire today). Notice the more information tag at the bottom, click that to get access to the certificate section. See screen shot below.       From the drop down select the option to create a new certificate        In the pop up window enter the friendly name for your certificate. In my case I entered ‘WAC – Test Rig’ and click ok. This will create a new certificate for you. Click on the view button to see the certificate details. Do you see the Thumbprint, this is the value that will go in the config file (very important). Now click on the Copy to File button to copy the certificate, we will need to import the certificate to the windows Azure Management portal later. So, make sure you save it a safe location.                                Click Finish and enter details of the user you would like to create with permissions for remote desktop access, once you have entered the details on the ‘Remote desktop configuration’ screen click on Ok. From the Publish Windows Azure Wizard screen press Cancel. Cancel because we don’t want to publish the role just yet and Yes because we want to save all the changes in the config file.       Now if you go to the ServiceDefinition.csdef file you will see that the RemoteAccess and RemoteForwarder roles have been imported for you. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceDefinition name="WindowsAzureProject2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceDefinition"> <WorkerRole name="WorkerRole1" vmsize="Small"> <Imports> <Import moduleName="Diagnostics" /> <Import moduleName="Connect" /> <Import moduleName="RemoteAccess" /> <Import moduleName="RemoteForwarder" /> </Imports> </WorkerRole> </ServiceDefinition> Now go to the ServiceConfiguration.Cloud.cscfg file and you see a whole bunch for setting “Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.%%%” values added for you. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceConfiguration serviceName="WindowsAzureProject2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceConfiguration" osFamily="2" osVersion="*"> <Role name="WorkerRole1"> <Instances count="1" /> <ConfigurationSettings> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Diagnostics.ConnectionString" value="UseDevelopmentStorage=true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.ActivationToken" value="45f55fea-f194-4fbc-b36e-25604faac784" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Refresh" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.WaitForConnectivity" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Upgrade" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.EnableDomainJoin" value="true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainFQDN" value="play.pit.com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainControllerFQDN" value="WIN-KUDQMQFGQOL.play.pit.com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainAccountName" value="playpit\Administrator" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainPassword" value="************************" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainOU" value="OU=CloudInstances, DC=Play, DC=Pit, DC=com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Administrators" value="Playpit\Administrator" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainSiteName" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.Enabled" value="true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.AccountUsername" value="Administrator" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.AccountEncryptedPassword" value="MIIBnQYJKoZIhvcNAQcDoIIBjjCCAYoCAQAxggFOMIIBSgIBADAyMB4xHDAaBgNVBAMME1dpbmRvd 3MgQXp1cmUgVG9vbHMCEGa+B46voeO5T305N7TSG9QwDQYJKoZIhvcNAQEBBQAEggEABg4ol5Xol66Ip6QKLbAPWdmD4ae ADZ7aKj6fg4D+ATr0DXBllZHG5Umwf+84Sj2nsPeCyrg3ZDQuxrfhSbdnJwuChKV6ukXdGjX0hlowJu/4dfH4jTJC7sBWS AKaEFU7CxvqYEAL1Hf9VPL5fW6HZVmq1z+qmm4ecGKSTOJ20Fptb463wcXgR8CWGa+1w9xqJ7UmmfGeGeCHQ4QGW0IDSBU6ccg vzF2ug8/FY60K1vrWaCYOhKkxD3YBs8U9X/kOB0yQm2Git0d5tFlIPCBT2AC57bgsAYncXfHvPesI0qs7VZyghk8LVa9g5IqaM Cp6cQ7rmY/dLsKBMkDcdBHuCTAzBgkqhkiG9w0BBwEwFAYIKoZIhvcNAwcECDRVifSXbA43gBApNrp40L1VTVZ1iGag+3O1" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.AccountExpiration" value="2012-11-27T23:59:59.0000000+00:00" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteForwarder.Enabled" value="true" /> </ConfigurationSettings> <Certificates> <Certificate name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.PasswordEncryption" thumbprint="AA23016CF0BDFC344400B5B82706B608B92E4217" thumbprintAlgorithm="sha1" /> </Certificates> </Role> </ServiceConfiguration>          Okay let’s look at them one at a time,       Enabled - Yes, we would like to enable Remote Access.       AccountUserName – This is the user name you entered while you were on the publish windows azure role screen, as detailed above.       AccountEncrytedPassword – Try and decode that, the certificate is used to encrypt the password you specified for the user account. Remember earlier i said, either use the instructions or wait and i’ll be showing you encryption, now the user account i am using for rdp has the same password as my domain password, so i can simply copy the value of the AccountEncryptedPassword to the DomainPassword as well.       AccountExpiration – This is the expiration as you specified in the wizard earlier, make sure your account does not expire today.       Remote Forwarder – Check out the documentation, below is how I understand it, -- One role in an application that implements a remote desktop connection must import the RemoteForwarder module. The two modules work together to enable the remote desktop connections to role instances. -- If you have multiple roles defined in the service model, it does not matter which role you add the RemoteForwarder module to, but you must add it to only one of the role definitions.       Certificate – Remember the certificate thumbprint from the wizard, the on premise machine and windows azure role machine that need to speak to each other must have the same thumbprint. More on that when we install Windows Azure connect Endpoints on the on premise machine. As i said earlier, in this blog post, I’ll be showing you the manual process so i won’t be scripting any star up tasks to install the test agent or register the test agent with the TFS Server. I’ll be showing you all this cool stuff in the next blog post, that’s because it’s important to understand the manual side of it, it becomes easier for you to troubleshoot in case something fails. Having said that, the changes we have made are sufficient to spin up the Windows Azure Worker Role aka Test Agent VM, have it connected with the play.pit.com domain and have remote access enabled on it. Before we deploy the Test Agent VM we need to set up Windows Azure Connect on the TFS Server. II. Windows Azure Connect: Setting up Connect on VM – 2 i.e. TFS & Test Controller Glad you made it so far, now to enable communication between the on premise TFS/Test Controller and Azure-ed Test Agent we need to enable communication. We have set up the Azure connect module in the Test Agent configuration, now the connect end points need to be enabled on the on premise machines, let’s have a look at how we can do this. Log on to VM – 2 running the TFS Server and Test Controller Log on to the Windows Azure Management Portal and click on Virtual Network Click on Virtual Network, if you already have a subscription you should see the below screen shot, if not, you would be asked to complete the subscription first        Click on Install Local Endpoints from the top left on the panel and you get a url appended with a token id in it, remember the token i showed you earlier, in theory the token you get here should match the token you added to the Test Agent config file.        Copy the url to the clip board and paste it in IE explorer (important, the installation at present only works out of IE and you need to have cookies enabled in order to complete the installation). As stated in the pop up, you can NOT download and run the software later, you need to run it as is, since it contains a token. Once the installation completes you should see the Windows Azure connect icon in the system tray.                         Right click the Azure Connect icon, choose Diagnostics and refer to this link for diagnostic detail terminology. NOTE – Unfortunately I could not see the Windows Azure connect icon in the system tray, a bit of binging with Google revealed that the azure connect icon is only shown when the ‘Windows Azure Connect Endpoint’ Service is started. So go to services.msc and make sure that the service is started, if not start it, unfortunately again, the service did not start for me on a manual start and i realised that one of the dependant services was disabled, you can look at the service dependencies and start them and then start windows azure connect. Bottom line, you need to start Windows Azure connect service before you can proceed. Please refer here on MSDN for more on Troubleshooting Windows Azure connect. (Follow the next step as well)   Now go back to the Windows Azure Management Portal and from Groups and Roles create a new group, lets call it ‘Test Rig’. Make sure you add the VM – 2 (the TFS Server VM where you just installed the endpoint).       Now if you go back to the Azure Connect icon in the system tray and click ‘Refresh Policy’ you will notice that the disconnected status of the icon should change to ready for connection. III. Importing Certificate in to Windows Azure Management Portal But before that you need to import the certificate you created in Step I in to the Windows Azure Management Portal. Log on to the Windows Azure Management Portal and click on ‘Hosted Services, Storage Accounts & CDN’ and then ‘Management Certificates’ followed by Add Certificates as shown in the screen shot below        Browse to the location where you saved the certificate earlier, remember… Refer to Step I in case you forgot.        Now you should be able to see the imported certificate here, make sure the thumbprint of the certificate matches the one you inserted in the config files        IV. Publish Windows Azure Worker Role aka Test Agent Having completed I, II and III, you are ready to publish the Test Agent VM – 3 to the cloud. Go to Visual Studio and right click the Windows Azure project and select Publish. Verify the infomration in the wizard, from the advanced settings tab, you can also enabled capture of intellitrace or profiling information.         Click Next and Click Publish! From the view menu bar select the Windows Azure Activity Log window.       Now you should be able to see the deployment progress in real time.             In the Windows Azure Management Portal, you should also be able to see the progress of creation of a new Worker Role.       Once the deployment is complete you should be able to RDP (go to run prompt type mstsc and in the pop up the machine name) in to the Test Agent Worker Role VM from the Playpit network using the domain admin user account. In case you are unable to log in to the Test Agent using the domain admin user account it means the process of joining the Test Agent to the domain has failed! But the good news is, because you imported the connect module, you can connect to the Test Agent machine using Windows Azure Management Portal and troubleshoot the reason for failure, you will be able to log in with the user name and password you specified in the config file for the keys ‘RemoteAccess.AccountUsername, RemoteAccess.EncryptedPassword (just that enter the password unencrypted)’, fix it or manually join the machine to the domain. Once you have managed to Join the Test Agent VM to the Domain move to the next step.      So, log in to the Test Agent Worker Role VM with the Playpit Domain Administrator and verify that you can log in, the machine is connected to the domain and the connect service is successfully running. If yes, give your self a pat on the back, you are 80% mission accomplished!         Go to the Windows Azure Management Portal and click on Virtual Network, click on Groups and Roles and click on Test Rig, click Edit Group, the edit the Test Rig group you created earlier. In the Connect to section, click on Add to select the worker role you have just deployed. Also, check the ‘Allow connections between endpoints in the group’ with this you will enable to communication between test controller and test agents and test agents/test agents. Click Save.      Now, you are ready to deploy the Test Agent software on the Worker Role Test Agent VM and configure it to work with the Test Controller. V. Configuring VM – 3: Installing Test Agent and Associating Test Agent to Controller Log in to the Worker Role Test Agent VM that you have just successfully deployed, make sure you log in with the domain administrator account. Download the All Agents software from MSDN, ‘en_visual_studio_agents_2010_x86_x64_dvd_509679.iso’, extract the iso and navigate to where you have extracted the iso. In my case, i have extracted the iso to “C:\Resources\Temp\VsAgentSetup”. Open the Test Agent folder and double click on setup.exe. Once you have installed the Test Agent you should reach the configuration window. If you face any issues installing TFS Test Agent on the VM, refer to the walkthrough on MSDN.       Once you have successfully installed the Test Agent software you will need to configure the test agent. Right click the test agent configuration tool and run as a different user. i.e. an Administrator. This is really to run the configuration wizard with elevated privileges (you might have UAC block something's otherwise).        In the run options, you can select ‘service’ you do not need to run the agent as interactive un less you are running coded UI tests. I have specified the domain administrator to connect to the TFS Test Controller. In real life, i would never do that, i would create a separate test user service account for this purpose. But for the blog post, we are using the most powerful user so that any policies or restrictions don’t block you.        Click the Apply Settings button and you should be all green! If not, the summary usually gives helpful error messages that you can resolve and proceed. As per my experience, you may run in to either a permission or a firewall blocking communication issue.        And now the moment of truth! Go to VM –2 open up Visual Studio and from the Test Menu select Manage Test Controller       Mission Accomplished! You should be able to see the Test Agent that you have just configured here,         VI. Creating and Running Load Tests on your brand new Azure-ed Test Rig I have various blog posts on Performance Testing with Visual Studio Ultimate, you can follow the links and videos below, Blog Posts: - Part 1 – Performance Testing using Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate - Part 2 – Performance Testing using Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate - Part 3 – Performance Testing using Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate Videos: - Test Tools Configuration & Settings in Visual Studio - Why & How to Record Web Performance Tests in Visual Studio Ultimate - Goal Driven Load Testing using Visual Studio Ultimate Now that you have created your load tests, there is one last change you need to make before you can run the tests on your Azure Test Rig, create a new Test settings file, and change the Test Execution method to ‘Remote Execution’ and select the test controller you have configured the Worker Role Test Agent against in our case VM – 2 So, go on, fire off a test run and see the results of the test being executed on the Azur-ed Test Rig. Review and What’s next? A quick recap of the benefits of running the Test Rig in the cloud and what i will be covering in the next blog post AND I would love to hear your feedback! Advantages Utilizing the power of Azure compute to run a heavy virtual user load. Benefiting from the Azure flexibility, destroy Test Agents when not in use, takes < 25 minutes to spin up a new Test Agent. Most important test Network Latency, (network latency and speed of connection are two different things – usually network latency is very hard to test), by placing the Test Agents in Microsoft Data centres around the globe, one can actually test the lag in transferring the bytes not because of a slow connection but because the page has been requested from the other side of the globe. Next Steps The process of spinning up the Test Agents in windows Azure is not 100% automated. I am working on the Worker process and power shell scripts to make the role deployment, unattended install of test agent software and registration of the test agent to the test controller automated. In the next blog post I will show you how to make the complete process unattended and automated. Remember to subscribe to http://feeds.feedburner.com/TarunArora. Hope you enjoyed this post, I would love to hear your feedback! If you have any recommendations on things that I should consider or any questions or feedback, feel free to leave a comment. See you in Part III.   Share this post : CodeProject

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  • Open Source Security packages for Rails

    - by Edwin
    I'm currently creating a complete web application using Rails 3 to familiarize myself with its inner workings and to gain a better appreciation of a working web application's moving parts. (Plus, since I'm still working on my degree, I hope that it will give me a better idea of what's BS in my education requirements and which weaknesses/skills I should focus on.) The example application I'm working on is an ecommerce site, and I've already configured the backend, routes, controllers, and so on. As part of the application, I'd like to integrate a second layer of security on top of the one Rails already provides for user authentication. However, I've been unable to find any on Google, with the exception of OAuth - which, from my understanding, is meant to secure API calls. While I could roll my own secure authentication system, I'm only in my second year of college and recognize that A) I know little about security, and B) there are developers that know much more about security that are working on open-source projects. What are some actively developed open-source security packages or frameworks that can be easily added to Rails? Pros and cons are not necessary, as I can do the research myself. P.S. I'm not sure whether I posted this in the right SE site; please migrate to SO or Security if it is more appropriate there.

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  • cPanel's Web Disk - Security issues?

    - by Tim Sparks
    I'm thinking of using Web Disk (built into the later versions of cPanel) to allow a Windows or Mac computer to map a network drive that is actually a folder on our website (above the public_html folder). We currently use an antiquated local server to store information, but it is only accessible from one location - we would like to be able to access it from other locations as well. I understand that folders above public_html are not accessible via http, but I want to know how secure is the access to these folders as a network drive? There is potentially sensitive information that we need to decide whether it is appropriate to store here. The map network drive option seems to work well as it behaves as if the files are on your own computer (i.e. you can open and save files without then having to upload them - as it happens automatically). We have used Dropbox for similar purposes, but space is a issue with them, as is accountability and so we haven't used it for sensitive information. Are there any notable security concerns with using Web Disk as a secure file server?

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  • Is Openness at the heart of the EU Digital Agenda?

    - by trond-arne.undheim
    At OpenForum Europe Summit 2010, to be held in Brussels, Autoworld, 11 Parc du Cinquantenaire on Thursday 10 June 2010, a number of global speakers will discuss whether it indeed provides an open digital market as a catalyst for economic growth and if it will deliver a truly open e-government and digital citizenship (see Summit 2010). In 2008, OpenForum Europe, a not-for-profit champion of openness through open standards, hosted one of the most cited speeches by Neelie Kroes, then Commissioner of Competition. Her forward-looking speech on openness and interoperability as a way to improve the competitiveness of ICT markets set the EU on a path to eradicate lock-in forever. On the two-year anniversary of that event, Vice President Kroes, now the first-ever Commissioner of the Digital Agenda, is set to outline her plans for delivering on that vision. Much excitement surrounds open standards, given that Kroes is a staunch believer. The EU's Digital Agenda promises IT standardization reform in Europe and vows to recognize global standards development organizations (fora/consortia) by 2010. However, she avoided the term "open standards" in her new strategy. Markets are, of course, asking why she is keeping her cards tight on this crucial issue. Following her speech, Professor Yochai Benkler, award-winning author of "The Wealth of Networks", and Professor Nigel Shadbolt, appointed by the UK Government to work alongside Sir Tim Berners-Lee to help transform public access to UK Government information join dozens of speakers in the quest to analyse, entertain and challenge European IT policy, people, and documents. Speakers at OFE Summit 2010 include David Drummond, Senior VP Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer, Google; Michael Karasick, VP Technology and Strategy, IBM; Don Deutsch, Vice President, Standards Strategy and Architecture for Oracle Corp; Thomas Vinje, Partner Clifford Chance; Jerry Fishenden, Director, Centre for Policy Research, and Rishab Ghosh, head, collaborative creativity group, UNU-MERIT, Maastricht (see speakers). Will openness stay at the heart of EU Digital Agenda? Only time will show.

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  • Identity Management as a Controls Infrastructure

    - by Darin Pendergraft
    Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Identity systems are indispensable to managing online resources, and are becoming increasingly more complex as businesses adapt their current infrastructures to support a broad user population across a wide range of devices. Adding point products to solve problems addresses the short term need, but complicates the longer term management outlook. Download the latest whitepaper HERE to see how Oracle is taking a platform approach to building a scalable and secure controls infrastructure that enables businesses to engage customers and gives employees secure access to corporate resources from anywhere.

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  • Thursday at OpenWorld: Identity Management

    - by Tanu Sood
    Before you know it, we are at the last day at Oracle OpenWorld. But just the same, Thursday is packed with informational, educational and networking opportunities. Here’s what is in store for you today: Thursday, October 4, 2012 CON5749: Solutions for Migration of Oracle Waveset to Oracle Identity Manager 11:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m., Moscone West 3008 Many customers of Oracle Waveset (formerly Sun Identity Manager) are planning a migration to the strategic provisioning product Oracle Identity Manager. There are several approaches to migrating to Oracle Identity Manager. Presented by Hub City Media and Oracle, this session covers these various approaches to help you select the optimum choice for your implementation. CON9640: Evolving Identity Management 12:45 p.m. – 1:45 p.m., Moscone West 3008 Identity management requirements have evolved and are continuing to evolve as organizations seek to secure cloud and mobile access.  Customers are seeing good success reducing costs and supporting business growth with by embracing a service-oriented, platform approach to addressing identity management requirements.  This session will explore these emerging requirements and share best practices for evolving your implementation. CON9662: Securing Oracle Applications with the Oracle Enterprise Identity Management Platform 2:15 p.m. – 3:15 p.m., Moscone West 3008 Oracle Enterprise Identity Management solutions are designed to secure access and simplify compliance to Oracle Applications.  Whether you are an EBS customer looking to upgrade from Oracle Single Sign-on or a Fusion Application customer seeking to leverage the Identity instance as an enterprise security platform, this session with Qualcomm and Oracle will help you understand how to get the most out of your investment. HOL10479: Integrated Identity Governance 12:45 p.m. – 1:45 p.m., Marriott Marquis – Salon 1/2 This hands-on lab demonstrates Oracle’s integrated and self-service-oriented identity governance solution, which includes simple access request, business-user-friendly access certification, closed-loop remediation, and both standard and privileged accounts. For a complete listing, refer to the Focus on Identity Management document. And as always, you can find us on @oracleidm on twitter and FaceBook. Use #oow and #idm to join in the conversation.

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  • Securing ClickOnce hosted with Amazon S3 Storage

    - by saifkhan
    Well, since my post on hosting ClickOnce with Amazon S3 Storage, I've received quite a few emails asking how to secure the deployment. At the time of this post I regret to say that there is no way to secure your ClickOnce deployment hosted with Amazon S3. The S3 storage is secured by ACL meaning that a username and password will have to be provided before access. The Amazon CloudFront, which sits on top of S3, allows you to apply security settings to your CloudFront distribution by Applying an encryption to the URL. Restricting by IP. The problem with the CloudFront is that the encryption of the URL is mandatory. ClickOnce does not provide a way to pass the "Amazon Public Key" to the CloudFront URL (you probably can if you start editing the XML and HTML files ClickOnce generate but that defeats the porpose of ClickOnce all together). What would be nice is if Amazon can allow users to restrict by IP addresses or IP Blocks. I'd sent them an email and received a response that this is something they are looking into...I won't hold my breadth though. Alternative I suggest you look at Rack Space Cloud hosting http://www.rackspacecloud.com they have very competitive pricing and recently started hosting Windows Virtual Servers. What you can do is rent a virtual server, setup IIS to host your ClickOnce applications. You can then use IIS security setting to restrict what IP/Blocks can access your ClickOnce payloads. Note: You don't really need Windows Server to host ClickOnce. Any web server can do. If you are familiar with Linux you can run that VM with rackspace for half the price of Windows. I hope you found this information helpful.

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  • Defense Manpower Data Center Wins Award for Excellence in the Workforce

    - by Peggy Chen
    The Defense Manpower Data Center milConnect website recently won the 2012 Excellence.gov Award for Excellence in the Workforce. Defense Manpower Data Center milConnect is a centralized, online resource that provides military service members (active and retired) and their families (over 42 million in total) quick access to their profile, health care enrollments, benefits, and other military-related topics. An easy to use, safe and secure website, milConnect also provides service members with convenient access their personnel and service-related information. The self-service website allow users to quickly and easily find and, where applicable, update their information in the Defense Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS) and milConnect transmits information to and from one reliable source safely and securely.  The Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) maintains the largest, most comprehensive central repository of personnel, manpower, casualty, pay, entitlement, personnel security, person identity and attributes, survey, testing, training, and financial data in the Department of Defense (DoD).  This is one of the largest systems of record in the world. milConnect had the challenge of modernizing the user experience for over 42 million users. With records in over 22 applications and 25 interfaces in hundreds of existing systems, milConnect needed to reduce the complexity of multiple authentication sources as well as consolidating access to existing systems with sensitive information. It accomplished this using a service-orientated architecture, enterprise security and access and identity management for self-service access on a massive scale. By providing 24x7x365 secure access and handling over 5 million transactions daily, not only has milConnect, built on Oracle WebCenter, streamlined and improved the customer experience for military personnel and families. it has also done so while cutting costs, allowing self-service access, and promoting electronic government. Congrats to Defense Manpower Data Center and milConnect! 

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