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• Exciting product releases (and one disappointing thing) with Mix10

  - by Jeff

  Sadly, I'm not at Mix this year, for the first time in a few years. It's a little harder to go if you work for Microsoft, oddly enough. And then there's this little guy next to me, who at ten days old really needs his daddy to be around! But oh, the excitement of what Microsoft has in store! It's great to finally see all of these major releases coming together for Microsoft developer products. There is a great deal of excitement among people internally no matter where you work, because there is so much cool stuff in the pipe. In case you live under a rock...Visual Studio 2010 - Great to see all of the positive feedback on the Twitter and what not. I've been using it on one of my home products for awhile, and I really like it. The newer nightly builds of ReSharper also seem to be gaining speed in quality as well. I like the new debugging features, and the text readability is not imagined. Love it.Silverlight 4 - I've been running a couple of minor SL3 apps on my personal sites for awhile now, and I'm thrilled with the platform. With a couple of key concepts down, .NET folk like you and me can do some stellar things with this, and if you're a Mac nerd (like me), it's all kinds of awesome to be able to build stuff for it without the agony of Objective-C and X Code.Windows Phone 7 Series - A few weeks ago you got to see the shiny new UI that went beyond the icon grid, and now you've got the developer story as well. That I can adapt my existing Silverlight apps with minimal effort to work on the phone is pretty powerful. Millions of .NET devs just because phone developers, using the tools they already know. How great is that?ASP.NET MVC2 - The final bits shipped last week, and there was much rejoicing. I love this framework because of the testability and the real ability to get to the true mechanics of HTTP. The other cool thing is the speed at which the framework has evolved. v2 in less than a year is pretty "un-Microsoft" in a lot of eyes.The video of keynotes and sessions is starting to appear on the Mix site, but for reasons I can't understand, they're WMV downloads. For real? Not that helpful for Mac folk. Why wouldn't they be using a Silverlight player?In any case, the thing that continues to motivate me is that getting what you imagine on to the Internet gets easier every year. This is not a new revelation for me. I've only been at Microsoft for four months, but I've felt this way for years. I'm thrilled to be a part of it.

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• Simple Mouse Move Event in F# with Winforms

  - by MarkPearl

  This evening I had the pleasure of reading one of ThomasP’s blog posts on first class events. It was an excellent read, and I thought I would make a brief derivative of his post to explore some of the basics. In Thomas’s post he has a form with an ellipse on it that when he clicks on the ellipse it pops up a message box with the button clicked… awesome. Something that got me on the post though was the code similar to the one below… // React to Mouse Move events on the form let evtMessages = frm.MouseMove |> Event.map (fun mi -> mi.Location.ToString()) |> Event.map (sprintf "Hey, you clicked on the ellipse.\nUsing: %s") |> Event.add (MessageBox.Show >> ignore) The MessageBox is a function with a string passed into it. What if I wanted to rather change a mutable value holder instead, how would the syntax go for that? Immediately the thought came to me of anonymous functions. I’ve used them before to do something like this… let HelloPerson personName = "Hello " + personName |> fun(x) -> Console.WriteLine(x) So using the same approach I adapted the event code to instead of showing a Message Box with a string passed in to it, to rather change the forms header. |> Event.map (sprintf "Your mouse position is %s") |> Event.add(fun(x) -> frm.Text <- x) Okay… it looks a bit weird with the –> x <- syntax, but makes sense and works… The next thing I wanted to do was change Thomas’s code sample from having an ellipse, and reacting to the position of the mouse and click, to rather trigger the event whenever the mouse moved. This simple involved removing some filtering code. Finally I wanted the code to work as a FSharp Project without having to run through the F# interactive. To achieve this I just needed to find out how to trigger the window event loop. This can be achieved with the code below… // Program eventloop while frm.Created do Application.DoEvents()   So lets look at the complete code sample… #light open System open System.Drawing open System.Windows.Forms // Create the main form let frm = new Form(ClientSize=Size(600,400)) // React to Mouse Move events on the form let evtMessages = frm.MouseMove |> Event.map (fun mi -> mi.Location.ToString()) |> Event.map (sprintf "Your mouse position is %s") |> Event.add(fun(x) -> frm.Text <- x) // Show the form frm.Show() // Program eventloop while frm.Created do Application.DoEvents()

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• How do you exclude yourself from Google Analytics on your website using cookies?

  - by Keoki Zee

  I'm trying to set up an exclusion filter with a browser cookie, so that my own visits to my don't show up in my Google Analytics. I tried 3 different methods and none of them have worked so far. I would like help understanding what I am doing wrong and how I can fix this. Method 1 First, I tried following Google's instructions, http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55481, for excluding traffic by Cookie Content: Create a new page on your domain, containing the following code: <body onLoad="javascript:pageTracker._setVar('test_value');"> Method 2 Next, when that didn't work, I googled around and found this Google thread, http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google%20Analytics/thread?tid=4741f1499823fcd5&hl=en, where the most popular answer says to use a slightly different code: SHS Analytics wrote: <body onLoad="javascript:_gaq.push(['_setVar','test_value']);"> Thank you! This has now set a __utmv cookie containing "test_value", whereas the original: pageTracker._setVar('test_value') (which Google is still recommending) did not manage to do that for me (in Mac Safari 5 and Firefox 3.6.8). So I tried this code, but it didn't work for me. Method 3 Finally, I searched StackOverflow and came across this thread, http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3495270/exclude-my-traffic-from-google-analytics-using-cookie-with-subdomain, which suggests that the following code might work: <script type="text/javascript"> var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setVar', 'exclude_me']); _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-xxxxxxxx-x']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); // etc... </script> This script appeared in the head element in the example, instead of in the onload event of the body like in the previous 2 examples. So I tried this too, but still had no luck with trying to exclude myself from Google Analytics. Re-iterate question So, I tried all 3 methods above with no success. Am I doing something wrong? How can I exclude myself from my Google Analytics using an exclusion cookie for my browser?

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• Beware of const members

  - by nmarun

  I happened to learn a new thing about const today and how one needs to be careful with its usage. Let’s say I have a third-party assembly ‘ConstVsReadonlyLib’ with a class named ConstSideEffect.cs: 1: public class ConstSideEffect 2: { 3: public static readonly int StartValue = 10; 4: public const int EndValue = 20; 5: } In my project, I reference the above assembly as follows: 1: static void Main(string[] args) 2: { 3: for (int i = ConstSideEffect.StartValue; i < ConstSideEffect.EndValue; i++) 4: { 5: Console.WriteLine(i); 6: } 7: Console.ReadLine(); 8: } You’ll see values 10 through 19 as expected. Now, let’s say I receive a new version of the ConstVsReadonlyLib. 1: public class ConstSideEffect 2: { 3: public static readonly int StartValue = 5; 4: public const int EndValue = 30; 5: } If I just drop this new assembly in the bin folder and run the application, without rebuilding my console application, my thinking was that the output would be from 5 to 29. Of course I was wrong… if not you’d not be reading this blog. The actual output is from 5 through 19. The reason is due to the behavior of const and readonly members. To begin with, const is the compile-time constant and readonly is a runtime constant. Next, when you compile the code, a compile-time constant member is replaced with the value of the constant in the code. But, the IL generated when you reference a read-only constant, references the readonly variable, not its value. So, the IL version of the Main method, after compilation actually looks something like: 1: static void Main(string[] args) 2: { 3: for (int i = ConstSideEffect.StartValue; i < 20; i++) 4: { 5: Console.WriteLine(i); 6: } 7: Console.ReadLine(); 8: } I’m no expert with this IL thingi, but when I look at the disassembled code of the exe file (using IL Disassembler), I see the following: I see our readonly member still being referenced by the variable name (ConstVsReadonlyLib.ConstSideEffect::StartValue) in line 0001. Then there’s the Console.WriteLine in line 000b and finally, see the value of 20 in line 0017. This, I’m pretty sure is our const member being replaced by its value which marks the upper bound of the ‘for’ loop. Now you know why the output was from 5 through 19. This definitely is a side-effect of having const members and one needs to be aware of it. While we’re here, I’d like to add a few other points about const and readonly members: const is slightly faster, but is less flexible readonly cannot be declared within a method scope const can be used only on primitive types (numbers and strings) Just wanted to share this before going to bed!

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• More Changes...

  - by MOSSLover

  Stuff has changed drastically for me in the past two to three years.  I moved over 1000 miles from Saint Louis.  I go outside and I get up in front of crowds with less issues.  Now I'm changing jobs again.  I'm not really sure what to say here.  I was obviously unhappy and I needed to do something different.  So quit two days ago and I guess it worked out that I end with B&R this Friday, then head to TEC and SPS Huntsville and a week from this Monday I start my new job at Gig Werks.  I'm not sure what to expect or where I'm heading, but I think it's a step in the right direction.  I won't really know what kind of impact this will have on my life for at least another 6 months to a year. For some reason I can't sleep tonight and I think it's really a reflection of my last day.  Tomorrow is an ending and a beginning at the same time.  So it's both kind of sad and exciting.  I don't know why I'm really excited to go to Disney Land for the second time ever in my life time.  I get to ride the Teacups.  For the longest time when I was a kid I wanted to go to Disney Land.  I wanted to ride the teacups.  In 2007, at the age of 25, I rode the teacups for my first ever visit to LA.  That was the start of finally syncing up with my childhood goals.  I wanted to live near a major city.  I wanted to visit all the major cities in the world.  I wanted to see everything and meet everyone.  This job change will probably turn into something great I just don't know it yet.  I'm walking again outside my comfort zone and stepping into uncharted territory.  In 2-3 years I'll probably write another blog post how this week lead to something great.  It just stinks when you have to leave behind something you know and love.  I will miss all my current colleagues, but I'm sure I'll gain some new ones and keep in touch with the old.  To 2010 being a great year for change and hopefully by the end of the year I can say I went to Europe.  To reaching my goals and my dreams.  Don't let anyone stop you from getting what you want in life (unless you are axe murderer please don't kill anyone that's just wrong).  Have a good weekend everyone!

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• OpenWorld Day 1

  - by Antony Reynolds

  A Day in the Life of an OpenWorld Attendee Part I Lots of people are blogging insightfully about OpenWorld so I thought I would provide some non-insightful remarks to buck the trend! With 50,000 attendees I didn’t expect to bump into too many people I knew, boy was I wrong!  I walked into the registration area and immediately was hailed by a couple of customers I had worked with a few months ago.  Moving to the employee registration area in a different hall I bumped into a colleague from the UK who was also registering.  As soon as I got my badge I bumped into a friend from Ireland!  So maybe OpenWorld isn’t so big after all! First port of call was Larrys Keynote.  As always Larry was provocative and thought provoking.  His key points were announcing the Oracle cloud offering in IaaS, PaaS and SaaS, pointing out that Fusion Apps are cloud enabled and finally announcing the 12c Database, making a big play of its new multi-tenancy features.  His contention was that multi-tenancy will simplify cloud development and provide better security by providing DB level isolation for applications and customers. Next day, Monday, was my first full day at OpenWorld.  The first session I attended was on monitoring of OSB, very interesting presentation on the benefits achieved by an Illinois area telco – US Cellular.  Great discussion of why they bought the SOA Management Packs and the benefits they are already seeing from their investment in terms of improved provisioning and time to market, as well as better performance insight and assistance with capacity planning. Craig Blitz provided a nice walkthrough of where Coherence has been and where it is going. Last night I attended the BOF on Managed File Transfer where Dave Berry replayed Oracles thoughts on providing dedicated Managed File Transfer as part of the 12c SOA release.  Dave laid out the perceived requirements and solicited feedback from the audience on what if anything was missing.  He also demoed an early version of the functionality that would simplify setting up MFT in SOA Suite and make tracking activity much easier. So much for Day 1.  I also ran into scores of old friends and colleagues and had a pleasant dinner with my friend from Ireland where I caught up on the latest news from Oracle UK.  Not bad for Day 1!

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• UPK Breakfast Event: "Getting It Done Right" - Independence, Ohio - November 8th

  - by Karen Rihs

  Join us for a UPK “Getting It Done Right” Breakfast Briefing Come for Breakfast. Leave Full of Knowledge. Join Oracle and Synaptis for a breakfast briefing event before you begin your day, and leave full with knowledge on how to reduce risk and increase user productivity. Oracle’s User Productivity Kit (UPK) can provide your organization with a single tool to provide learning and best practices for each area of the business and help ensure you’re “Getting It Done Right.”Learn from Deb Brown, Senior Solutions Consultant, Oracle, as she shows the UPK tool that can save project teams thousands of hours through automation as well as provide greater visibility into application rollouts and business processes. Also hear from a UPK Customer as they share their company’s success with Oracle UPK.  Learn how UPK insures rapid user adoption; significantly lowers development, system testing, and user enablement time and costs; and mitigates project risk. Finally, Pat Tierney, Oracle Practice Director - Synaptis and Jordan Collard, VP Sales - Synaptis, will conclude with an outline of their success as a UPK implementation partner. Register Now Thursday,November 8, 20127:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.Embassy Suites Cleveland – Rockside5800 Rockside Woods BoulevardIndependence, OH 44131Directions Agenda 7:30 a.m. Event Arrival / Registration. Breakfast Served. 8:00 a.m. Deb Brown, Senior Solutions Consultant, Oracle Oracle UPK – A Closer Look at Getting It Done, Right. Ensure End User Adoption. 8:40 a.m. UPK Customer Success Story 9:30 a.m. Pat Tierney, Oracle Practice Director - Synaptis and Jordan Collard, VP Sales - Synaptis – Implementation Partner - Using Oracle UPK Before, During and After Application Rollouts 9:50 a.m. Wrap Up   Don’t miss this special Breakfast Briefing and get a jump start on Oracle UPK technology. Please call 1.800.820.5592 ext. 11030 or Click here to RSVP for this exclusive event! Sponsored bySynaptisSynaptis is an Oracle Gold Partner, providing UPK training, implementation, content creation and post go-live support for organizations since 1999.     If you are an employee or official of a government organization, please click here for important ethics information regarding this event.  

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• I still think Twitter is dead &hellip; but

  - by Randy Walker

  Twitter finally hit the mainstream about 8 months ago, but I’ve been saying for a couple of years now, without a real way for the company to earn money, what’s the future fate of Twitter?  On the personal side, where is the real value for the users?  For the most part, Twitter has replaced most people’s IM (instant messaging), at least in the technology circles I run in.  It still has value for users as a communication tool.  But I see it more as a fad.  My prediction is over the next 6 months we’ll start seeing a usage drop (if we haven’t already started to see it). On the business side, how does Twitter make money?  It doesn’t.  If you use the text messaging capabilities, you see a few ads.  But most smart phone and PC users, won’t ever see them.  I still think Twitter has the best chance to make money by forcing the “collectors” to pay money.  You know what I mean by “collector”, those people that collect tons of followers or friends.  If Twitter caps the number of followers and makes you pay to have more, would you?  The normal twitter user doesn’t have that many followers, and this is where my title comes in … BUT The financial value for Twitter is really seen through businesses connecting with their customers.  I’ve seen 3 effective ways this has been accomplished. 1. Giving your customers a coupon or announcing a sale My favorite is @amazonmp3, Being a huge music lover, I get notified when they put music on sale. Various restaurants like @ruthschris_ARK will let their favorite customers know about certain specials @BluefinMemphis I was traveling through Memphis once looking for a sushi restaurant when they had %50 off if we mentioned we saw them on Twitter.  It was their first attempt at trying to encourage customers in the door, and after talking with the management, it was a huge success 2. Giveaways @namecheap Several companies have started huge marketing campaigns, but my favorite is watching companies post trivia questions, and the first person to respond wins a prize. 3. Responding to Customer Complaints I once posted a complaint about American Express (a company that I have slowly come to really dislike) but they actually had someone contact me to try and resolve the issue.  I give them credit for paying attention, but still dislike them for their horrible credit practices.

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• What Am I doing for my 5 months 1 week old baby for his first cold?

  - by Rekha

  With my limited friends circle with babies, I heard that babies in their fifth month usually gets affected by cold all of a sudden. This is unavoidable and I feel it is good for the babies as they start developing their immune system right on. We usually take our son for a small walk so that he is able to explore the world out there. We have been taking him for a stroll almost everyday since we was 3 months old. But only now he is getting his first cold. So things happen only now I think. Till that day I had somehow brought some routine for him for his feed and naps during day time. Night time is still sleepless ones anyway. So when he first got his cold, that night it went on as usual getting up every few hours. From the next day on, he stopped feeding at the usual time. In the night he goes for 8-10 hours between feeds but still wakes up every two hours and cries for about 10 minutes and when we lift him for sometime, he goes back to sleep. Now to the point what all to expect: * Babies starts feeding frequently * Babies spit up increases * They dislike the food they liked before (we have just started solid foods as per our pediatricians advice) * Since they cannot breathe properly, they cannot sleep for a long time *Pees and poops less frequently. What all we did for our baby to make him comfortable during this time: * Feed the baby less quantity and more frequently whenever they expect to feed (Do not follow the schedule) * When the quantity is less, spit ups is also less * If the baby does not like the food (vegetable or fruit), avoid them till they get back to normal * Try to elevate their head while sleeping ( we used the cradle – sitting position, bouncer, car seat and finally all four sides we placed firm pillows so that he does not roll and kept a pillow for his head till his hip – this one is recommended usually but we have an eye on him always) * No need for any medicines – it will take a week for them to get back to normal whether or not we gives medicines * We applied home made Cold Reliever (heat 2 teaspoons of coconut oil with a small camphor piece till the camphor disappears – then cool the mixture) on his chest, back, neck and feet and covered the feet with socks in the nights * Bathe him everyday – hot (that your baby can withstand) *  Whenever possible give him a steam bath (open the hot showers for sometime in the bathroom and close the doors. When the steam is bearable, close the shower and take the baby inside the bathroom for sometime) * Also use a bulb syringe provided in the hospital to clear the nose (use some saline water drops for ease) * Cuddle him when he cries But please do take him to his doctor if he has fever and other symptoms other than cold or the cold persists for more than 5 – 7 days. Image Credit : MiriamBJDolls

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• Using the latest (stable release) of Oracle Developer Tools for Visual Studio 11.1.0.7.20.

  - by mbcrump

  +  = Simple and safe Data connections.   This guide is for someone wanting to use the latest ODP.NET quickly without reading the official documentation. This guide will get you up and running in about 15 minutes. I have reviewed my referral link to my simple Setting up ODP.net with Win7 x64 and noticed most people were searching for one of the following terms: “how to use odp.net with vs” “setup connection odp.net” “query db using odp and vs” While my article provided links and a sample tnsnames.ora file, it really didn’t tell you how to use it. I’m hoping that this brief tutorial will help. So before we get started, you will need the following: Download the following: www.oracle.com/technology/software/tech/dotnet/utilsoft.html from oracle and install it. It is the first one on the page. Visual Studio 2008 or 2010. It should be noted that The System.Data.OracleClient namespace is the OLD .NET Framework Data Provider for Oracle. It should not be used anymore as it has been depreciated. The latest version which is what we are using is Oracle.DataAccess.Client. First things first, Add a reference to the Oracle.DataAccess.Client after you install ODP.NET   Copy and paste the following C# code into your project and replace the relevant info including the query string and you should be able to return data. I have commented several lines of code to assist in understanding what it is doing.   Lambda Expression. using System; using System.Data; using Oracle.DataAccess.Client;   namespace ConsoleApplication1 {     class Program     {         static void Main(string[] args)         {           try         {             //Setup DataSource             string oradb = "Data Source=(DESCRIPTION ="                                    + "(ADDRESS_LIST = (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = hostname)(PORT = 1521)))"                                    + "(CONNECT_DATA = (SERVICE_NAME = SERVICENAME))) ;"                                    + "Persist Security Info=True;User ID=USER;Password=PASSWORD;";                        //Open Connection to Oracle - this could be moved outside the try.             OracleConnection conn = new OracleConnection(oradb);             conn.Open();               //Create cmd and use parameters to prevent SQL injection attacks.             OracleCommand cmd = new OracleCommand();             cmd.Connection = conn;               cmd.CommandText = "select username from table where username = :username";               OracleParameter p1 = new OracleParameter("username", OracleDbType.Varchar2);             p1.Value = username;             cmd.Parameters.Add(p1);               cmd.CommandType = CommandType.Text;               OracleDataReader dr = cmd.ExecuteReader();             dr.Read();               //Contains the value of the datarow             Console.WriteLine(dr["username"].ToString());               //Disposes of objects.             dr.Dispose();             cmd.Dispose();             conn.Dispose();         }           catch (OracleException ex) // Catches only Oracle errors         {             switch (ex.Number)             {                 case 1:                     Console.WriteLine("Error attempting to insert duplicate data.");                     break;                 case 12545:                     Console.WriteLine("The database is unavailable.");                     break;                 default:                     Console.WriteLine(ex.Message.ToString());                     break;             }         }           catch (Exception ex) // Catches any error not previously caught         {                   Console.WriteLine("Unidentified Error: " + ex.Message.ToString());              }         }       }           } At this point, you should have a working Program that returns data from an oracle database. If you are still having trouble then drop me a line and I will be happy to assist. As of this writing, oracle has announced the latest beta release of ODP.NET 11.2.0.1.1 Beta.  This release includes .NET Framework 4 and .NET Framework 4 Client Profile support. You may want to hold off on this version for a while as its BETA, and I wouldn’t want any production code using any BETA software.

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• What Counts For A DBA: ESP

  - by Louis Davidson

  Now I don’t want to get religious here, and I’m not going to, but what I’m going to describe in this ‘What Counts for a DBA’ installment sometimes feels like magic. Often  I will spend hours thinking about the solution to a design issue or coding problem, working diligently to try to come up with a solution and then finally just give up with the feeling that I’m not even qualified to be a data entry clerk, much less a data architect.  At this point I often take a walk (or sometimes a nap), and then it hits me. I realize that I have the answer just sitting in my brain, ready to implement.  This phenomenon is not limited to walks either; it can happen almost any time after I stop my obsession about a problem. I call this phenomena ESP (or Extra-Sensory Programming.)  Another term for this could be ‘sleeping on it’, and while the idiom tends to mean to let time pass to actively think about a problem, sleeping on a problem also lets you relax and let your brain do the work. I first noticed this back in my college days when I would play video games for hours on end. We would get stuck deep in some dungeon unable to find a way out, playing for days on end until we were beaten down tired. Once we gave up and walked away, the solution would usually be there waiting for one of us before we came back to play the next day.  Sometimes it would be in the form of a dream, and sometimes it would just be that the problem was now easy to solve when we started to play again.  While it worked great for video games, it never occurred when I studied English Literature for hours on end, or even when I worked for the same sort of frustrating hours attempting to solve a homework problem in Calculus.  I believe that the difference was that I was passionate about the video game, and certainly far less so about homework where people used the word “thou” instead of “you” or x to represent a number. This phenomenon occurs somewhat more often in my current work as a professional data programmer, because I am very passionate about SQL and love those aspects of my career choice.  Every day that I get to draw a new data model to solve a customer issue, or write a complex SELECT statement to ferret out the answer to a complex data question, is a great day. I hope it is the same for any reader of this blog.  But, unfortunately, while the day on a whole is great, a heck of a lot of noise is generated in work life. There are the typical project deadlines, along with the requisite project manager sitting on your shoulders shouting slogans to try to make you to go faster: Add in office politics, and the occasional family issues that permeate the mind, and you lose the ability to think deeply about any problem, not to mention occasionally forgetting your own name.  These office realities coupled with a difficult SQL problem staring at you from your widescreen monitor will slowly suck the life force out of your body, making it seem impossible to solve the problem This is when the walk starts; or a nap. Maybe you hide from the madness under your desk like George Costanza hides from Steinbrenner on Seinfeld.  Forget about the problem. Free your mind from the insanity of the problem and your surroundings. Then let your training and education deep in your brain take over and see if it will passively do the rest for you. If you don’t end up with a solution, the worst case scenario is that you have a bit of exercise or rest, and you won’t have heard the phrase “better is the enemy of good enough” even once…which certainly will do your brain some good. Once you stop expecting whipping your brain for information, inspiration may just strike and instead of a humdrum solution you find a solution you hadn’t even considered, almost magically. So, my beloved manager, next time you have an urgent deadline and you come across me taking a nap, creep away quietly because I’m working, doing some extra-sensory programming.

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• Oracle BPM: Adding an attachment during the Human Task Initialization

  - by kyap

  Recently I had the requirement from a customer to instantiate a Human Task, which can accept a payload containing a binary attribute (base64) representing an actual document. According to the same requirement, this attribute should be shown as a hyperlink in the Worklist UI to the assignee(s), from which the assignees can download the document on the local machine for review. Multiple options have been leverage, but most required heavy customization.  In order to leverage as much as possible Oracle BPM out-of-the box functionalities, I decided to add this document as a readonly attachment. We can easily achieve this operation within Worklist Application, but it is a bit more challenging when we want to attach the document during the Human Task initialization.  After some investigations (on BPM 11g PS4FP and PS5), here's the way to go: 1. Create an asynchronous BPM process, and use this xsd to create 2 Business Objects FullPayload and PartialPayload : 2. Create 2 process variables 'vFullPayload' and 'vPartialPayload' using this Business Objects created above 3. Implement the Start Event with the initial Data Association, with an input argument using 'FullPayload' Business Object type 4. Drag in an User Task into the process. Implement the User Task as usual by using 'vPartialPayload' type as the input type and assign the task to your favorite tester (mine is jcooper) 5. Here's the main course - Start the Data Association and map the payload into 'execData' as follow: FROM TO  vFullPayload.attachment.mimetype  execData.attachment[1].mimeType  vFullPayload.attachment.filename  execData.attachment[1].name  bpmn:getDataObject('vFullPayload')/ns:attachment/ns:content  execData.attachment[1].content  'BPM'  execData.attachment[1].attachmentScope false()  execData.attachment[1].doesBelongToParent 'weblogic'  execData.attachment[1].updateBy  xp20:current-dateTime()  execData.attachment[1].updateDate (Note: Check the <Humantask>WorkflowTask.xsd file in your project xsd folder to discover the different options for attachmentScope & storageType) 6. Your process is completed. Just build a standard ADF UI and deploy the process/UI onto your BPM Server for the testing. Here's an example, with a base64 encoded pdf file: application-pdf.txt 7. Finally, go to the BPM Worklist application to check the result ! Please note that Oracle BPM, by default, limits the attachment document size to 2Mb. If you are planning to have bigger attachments in your process, it is recommended to store your documents in a Content Management server (such as Oracle UCM) and pass the reference instead. It is possible to configure Oracle BPM to store attachment directly into Oracle UCM too, and I believe we can use the storageType, ucmMetadataItem attributes for this purpose.... I will confirm once I have access onto an Oracle UCM for the testing :)

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• Congratulations to the 2012 Oracle Spatial Award Winners!

  - by Mandy Ho

  I just returned from the 2012 Location Intelligence and Oracle Spatial User conference in Washington, DC, held by Directions Magazine. It was a great conference with presentations from across the country and globe, networking with Oracle Spatial users and meeting new customers and partners. As part of the yearly event, Oracle recognizes special customers and partners for their contributions to advancing mainstream solutions using geospatial technology. This was the 8th year that Oracle has recognized innovative, industry leaders.   The awards were given in three categories: Education/Research, Innovator and Partnership. Here's a little on each of the award winners. Education and Research Award Winner: Technical University of Berlin The Institute for Geodesy and Geoinformation Science of the Technical University of Berlin (TU Berlin) was selected for its leading research work in mapping of urban and regional space onto virtual 3D-city and landscape models, and use of Oracle Spatial, including 3D Vector and Georaster type support, as the data management platform. Innovator Award Winner:  Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Istanbul is the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe. One of their greatest challenges is organizing efficient public transportation for citizens and visitors. There are 15 types of transportations organized by 8 different agencies. To solve this problem, the Directorate of GIS of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality has created a multi-model itinerary system to help citizens in their decision process for using public transport or their private cars. They choose to use Oracle Spatial Network Model as the solution in our system together with Java and SOAP web services.  Partnership Award Winners: CSoft Group and OSCARS. The Partnership award is given to the ISV or integrator who have demonstrated outstanding achievements in partnering with Oracle on the development side, in taking solutions to market.  CSoft Group- the largest Russion integrator and consultancy provider in CAD and GIS. CSoft was selected by the Oracle Spatial product development organization for the key role in delivering geospatial solutions based on Oracle Database and Fusion Middleware to the Russian market. OSCARS - Provides consulting/training in France, Belgium and Luxembourg. With only 3 full time staff, they have achieved significant success with leading edge customer implementations leveraging the latest Oracle Spatial/MapViewer technologies, and delivering training throughout Europe.  Finally, we also awarded two Special Recognition awards for two partners that helped contribute to the Oracle Partner Network Spatial Specialization. These two partners provided insight and technical expertise from a partner perspective to help launch the new certification program for Oracle Spatial Technologies. Award Winners: ThinkHuddle and OSCARS  For more pictures on the conference and the awards, visit our facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/OracleDatabase

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• Brightness Crash and Fan issues in 12.04.1

  - by S.A. McIntosh

  I would just like to state beforehand that I am a total novice in using Ubuntu when it comes to the more complex issues. So I thought it would be best to finally come here and ask for help before being re-directed or closed out for a solution. I have already looked high and low on this board for one but nothing came up for my particular case, so I might as well take a shot asking for the first time here. This is what I have at the moment: -Dell Insprion 1764 w/ 64-bit Intel i5 Core -Dual Boot: Windows 7/Ubuntu 12.04.1 32-bit (from 12.04 install) -Unity shell -Linux kernel: 3.2.0-32 generic-pae ...and this is my fglrxinfo: OpenGL vendor string: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. OpenGL renderer string: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5000 Series OpenGL version string: 4.2.11627 Compatibility Profile Context The one issue I have with using Ubuntu is brightness. With the driver in every time I use the slider in the brightness and lock settings or use the keyboard function, it freezes, goes black and comes up with a scrambled colors page like this in the video. So I have looked all over this board and the web for answers looking for a solution that might have an answer. This is what I have done so far to fix this: -First Solution: Looking around, I found this small fix using terminal: sudo gedit /etc/rc.local followed by adding this into "rc.local" echo # > /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness This works rarely with the graphics driver still in and I often get lucky say during restart but reboot would only snap back the brightness at max. -Second Solution Simply remove the graphics driver while leaving the solution of first behind. This solves the issue but results in having the monitor flicker and flash at startup which in itself is not a problem to me but maybe not so good for monitor health. Also it causes the fan to speed up throughout the session and render any program that needs the driver useless. -Third Solution This is the most obvious. Just simply use the brightness on AMD Catalyst Control Center software that came with the driver, and I can say that it's form of brightness is HORRIBLE compared to the actual settings. Which leads up to where I am now, back to the driver to stop the fan speed-up and seems that the only solution to the brightness crash is to use the keyboard-controlled brightness at the login screen NOT the desktop if I want the issued effect but will just snap at max bright again if I restart. Fan speed problem is dealt with but now run the risk of crashing my computer if I so much touch the brightness settings. Speaking of which I found this on launchpad and it seems that the issue has been going far since June of 2012. Any help, redirect link or reference would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

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• What is the SharePoint Action Framework and Why do I need it ?

  - by SAF

  For those out there that are a little curious as to whether SAF is any use to your organisation, please read this FAQ.  What is SAF ? SAF is free to use. SAF is the "SharePoint Action Framework", it was built by myself and Hugo (plus a few others along the way). SAF is written entirely in C# code available from : http://saf.codeplex.com.   SAF is a way to automate SharePoint configuration changes. An Action is a command/class/task/script written in C# that performs a unit of execution against SharePoint such as "CreateWeb"  or "AddLookupColumn". A SAF Macro is collection of one or more Actions. SAF Macro can be run from Msbuild, a Feature, StsAdm or common plain old .Net code. Parameters can be passed to a Macro at run-time from a variety of sources such as "Environment Variable", "*.config", "Msbuild Properties", Feature Properties, command line args, .net code. SAF emits lots of trace statements at run-time, these can be viewed using "DebugView". One Action can pass parameters to another Action. Parameters can be set using Expression Syntax such as "DateTime.Now".  You should consider SAF is you suffer from one of the following symptoms... "Our developers write lots of code to deploy changes at release time - it's always rushed" "I don't want my developers shelling out to Powershell or Stsadm from a Feature". "We have loads of Console applications now, I have lost track of where they are, or what they do" "We seem to be writing similar scripts against SharePoint in lots of ways, testing is hard". "My scripts often have lots of errors - they are done at the last minute". "When something goes wrong - I have no idea what went wrong or how to solve it". "Our Features get stuck and bomb out half way through - there no way to roll them back". "We have tons of Features now - I can't keep track". "We deploy Features to run one-off tasks" "We have a library of reusable scripts, but, we can only run it in one way, sometimes we want to run it from MSbuild and a Feature". "I want to automate the deployment of changes to our development environment". "I would like to run a housekeeping task on a scheduled basis"   So I like the sound of SAF - what's the problems ?  Realistically, there are few things that need to be considered: Someone on your team will need to spend a day or 2 understanding SAF and deciding exactly how you want to use it. I would suggest a Tech Lead, SysAdm or SP Architect will need to download it, try out the examples, look through the unit tests. Ask us questions. Although, SAF can be downloaded and set to go in a few minutes, you will still need to address issues such as - "Do you want to execute your Macros in MsBuild or from a Feature ?" You will need to decide who is going to do your deployments - is it each developer to themself, or do you require a dedicated Build Manager ? As most environments (Dev, QA, Live etc) require different settings (e.g. Urls, Database names, accounts etc), you will more than likely want to define these and set a properties file up for each environment. (These can then be injected into Saf at run-time). There may be no Action to solve your particular problem. If this is the case, suggest it to us - we can try and write it, or write it yourself. It's very easy to write a new Action - we have an approach to easily unit test it, document it and author it. For example, I wrote one to deploy  a WSP in 2 hours the other day. Alternatively, Saf can also call Stsadm commands and Powershell scripts.   Anyway, I do hope this helps! If you still need help, or a quick start, we can also offer consultancy around SAF. If you want to know more give us a call or drop an email to [email protected]

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• What source code organization approach helps improve modularity and API/Implementation separation?

  - by Berin Loritsch

  Few languages are as restrictive as Java with file naming standards and project structure. In that language, the file name must match the public class declared in the file, and the file must live in a directory structure matching the class package. I have mixed feelings about that approach. While I never have to guess where a file lives, there's still a lot of empty directories and artificial constraints. There's several languages that define everything about a class in one file, at least by convention. C#, Python (I think), Ruby, Erlang, etc. The commonality in most these languages is that they are object oriented, although that statement can probably be rebuffed (there is one non-OO language in the list already). Finally, there's quite a few languages mostly in the C family that have a separate header and implementation file. For C I think this makes sense, because it is one of the few ways to separate the API interface from implementations. With C it seems that feature is used to promote modularity. Yet, with C++ the way header and implementation files are split seems rather forced. You don't get the same clean API separation that you do with C, and you are forced to include some private details in the header you would rather keep only in the implementation. There's quite a few languages that have a concept that overlaps with interfaces like Java, C#, Go, etc. Some languages use what feels like a hack to provide the same concept like C# using pure virtual abstract classes. Still others don't really have an interface concept and rely on "duck" typing--for example Ruby. Ruby has modules, but those are more along the lines of mixing in behaviors to a class than they are for defining how to interact with a class. In OO terms, interfaces are a powerful way to provide separation between an API client and an API implementation. So to hurry up and ask the question, from a personal experience point of view: Does separation of header and implementation help you write more modular code, or does it get in the way? (it helps to specify the language you are referring to) Does the strict file name to class name scheme of Java help maintainability, or is it unnecessary structure for structure's sake? What would you propose to promote good API/Implementation separation and project maintenance, how would you prefer to do it?

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• What are the default mount settings for mount / fstab?

  - by John Craick

  What are the default mounting options for a non root partition ? The man entry for mount says ... defaults - use default options: rw, suid, dev, exec, auto, nouser, and async. ... so that might be what we expect to see. But, unless I'm missing something, that's not what happens. I have an ext3 partition labelled "NewHome20G" which is seen as /dev/sdc6 by the system. This we can see from ... root@john-pc1204:~# blkid | grep NewHome20G /dev/sdc6: LABEL="NewHome20G" UUID="d024bad5-906c-46c0-b7d4-812daf2c9628" TYPE="ext3" I have an entry in fstab as follows ... root@john-pc1204:~# cat /etc/fstab | grep NewHome LABEL=NewHome20G /media/NewHome20G ext3 rw,nosuid,nodev,exec,users 0 2 Note the option settings that are specified in that fstab line. Now I look at how the partition is actually mounted after boot up ... root@john-pc1204:~# mount -l | grep sdc6 /dev/sdc6 on /media/NewHome20G type ext3 (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev) [NewHome20G] ... so, when the filesystem gets mounted the exec & users options I specified seem to have been ignored. Just to be sure, I unmount sdc6, remount it and look at the mount options again ... root@john-pc1204:~# umount /dev/sdc6 root@john-pc1204:~# mount /dev/sdc6 root@john-pc1204:~# mount -l | grep sdc6 /dev/sdc6 on /media/NewHome20G type ext3 (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev) [NewHome20G] .... same result Now I unmount the partition again, remount it specifying the exec option and look at the result ... root@john-pc1204:~# umount /dev/sdc6 root@john-pc1204:~# mount /dev/sdc6 -o exec root@john-pc1204:~# mount -l | grep sdc6 /dev/sdc6 on /media/NewHome20G type ext3 (rw,nosuid,nodev) [NewHome20G] ... and here the exec option has finally taken effect and the noexec setting has vanished. Just for interest, I re-mount the partition with the defaults option root@john-pc1204:~# umount /dev/sdc6 root@john-pc1204:~# mount /dev/sdc6 -o defaults root@john-pc1204:~# mount -l | grep sdc6 /dev/sdc6 on /media/NewHome20G type ext3 (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev) [NewHome20G] The noexec is back, so it looks very like rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev are the default options which is NOT what man says. Why does this matter ? I have a folder full of useful scripts stored on a data disk. Because that disk is mounted noexec those scripts won't run, even though they have all been set with chmod 777. I can work round this in several ways but it's disappointing that the man entry seems to be wrong. Have I missed something obvious here or have the default options in Ubuntu changed from what they were a few versions ago ?

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• Arrive steering behavior

  - by dbostream

  I bought a book called Programming game AI by example and I am trying to implement the arrive steering behavior. The problem I am having is that my objects oscillate around the target position; after oscillating less and less for awhile they finally come to a stop at the target position. Does anyone have any idea why this oscillating behavior occur? Since the examples accompanying the book are written in C++ I had to rewrite the code into C#. Below is the relevant parts of the steering behavior: private enum Deceleration { Fast = 1, Normal = 2, Slow = 3 } public MovingEntity Entity { get; private set; } public Vector2 SteeringForce { get; private set; } public Vector2 Target { get; set; } public Vector2 Calculate() { SteeringForce.Zero(); SteeringForce = SumForces(); SteeringForce.Truncate(Entity.MaxForce); return SteeringForce; } private Vector2 SumForces() { Vector2 force = new Vector2(); if (Activated(BehaviorTypes.Arrive)) { force += Arrive(Target, Deceleration.Slow); if (!AccumulateForce(force)) return SteeringForce; } return SteeringForce; } private Vector2 Arrive(Vector2 target, Deceleration deceleration) { Vector2 toTarget = target - Entity.Position; double distance = toTarget.Length(); if (distance > 0) { //because Deceleration is enumerated as an int, this value is required //to provide fine tweaking of the deceleration.. double decelerationTweaker = 0.3; double speed = distance / ((double)deceleration * decelerationTweaker); speed = Math.Min(speed, Entity.MaxSpeed); Vector2 desiredVelocity = toTarget * speed / distance; return desiredVelocity - Entity.Velocity; } return new Vector2(); } private bool AccumulateForce(Vector2 forceToAdd) { double magnitudeRemaining = Entity.MaxForce - SteeringForce.Length(); if (magnitudeRemaining <= 0) return false; double magnitudeToAdd = forceToAdd.Length(); if (magnitudeToAdd > magnitudeRemaining) magnitudeToAdd = magnitudeRemaining; SteeringForce += Vector2.NormalizeRet(forceToAdd) * magnitudeToAdd; return true; } This is the update method of my objects: public void Update(double deltaTime) { Vector2 steeringForce = Steering.Calculate(); Vector2 acceleration = steeringForce / Mass; Velocity = Velocity + acceleration * deltaTime; Velocity.Truncate(MaxSpeed); Position = Position + Velocity * deltaTime; } If you want to see the problem with your own eyes you can download a minimal example here. Thanks in advance.

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• Web.NET: A Brief Retrospective

  - by Chris Massey

  It’s been several weeks since I had the pleasure of visiting Milan, and joining 150 enthusiastic web developers for a day of server-side frameworks and JavaScript. Lucky for me, I keep good notes. Overall the day went smoothly, with some solid logistics and very attentiveorganizerss, and an impressively diverse audience drawn by the fact that the event was ambitiously run in English. This was great in that it drew a truly pan-European audience (11 countries were represented on the day, and at least 1 visa had to be procured to get someone there!) It was trouble because, in some cases, it pushed speakers outside their comfort zone. Thankfully, despite a slightly rocky start, every session I attended was very well presented, and the consensus on the day was that the speakers were excellent. While I felt that a lot of the speakers had more that they wanted to cover, the topics were well-chosen, every room constantly had a stack of people in it, and all the sessions were pleasingly focused on code & demos. For all that the language barriers occasionally made networking a little challenging,organizerss Simone & Ugo nailed the logistics. Registration was slick, lunch was plentiful, and session management was great. The very generous Rui was kind enough to showcase a short video about Glimpse in his session, which seemed to go down well (Although the audio in the rooms was a little under-powered). Because I think you might need a mid-week chuckle, here are some out-takes.: And lets not forget the Hackathon. The idea was what having just learned about a stack of interesting technologies, attendees could spend an evening (fuelled by pizza and some good Github beer) hacking something together using them. Unfortunately, after a (great)10-hour day, and in many cases facing international travel in the morning, many of the attendees headed straight for their hotel rooms. This idea could work so beautifully, and I’m excited to see how it pans out in 2013. On top of the slick sessions, getting to finally meet Ugo and Simone in the flesh as a pleasure, as was the serendipitous introduction to the most excellent Rui. They’re all fantastic guys who are passionate about the web, and I’m looking forward to finding opportunities to work with them. Simone & Ugo put on a great event, and I’m excited to see what they do next year.

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• Java EE 7 turns one today!

  - by delabassee

  "Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." (Benjamin Franklin) Today marks the first year anniversary of Java EE 7. The JSR 342 specification was finalised on May 28, 2013 with the official launch taking place on June 12, 2013 (original press release). As of today, there are already 3 Java EE 7 compatible Application Servers, coming from different 'vendors' (Oracle, TmaxSoft and Red Hat). Two of those Java EE 7 Application Servers are free and open source. We expect the list of Java EE 7 compatible Application Servers to grow over the coming months. Source: RebelLabs - 'Java Tools and Technologies Landscape for 2014' According to a recent independent survey, one third of the Java EE users who participated in that survey is already using Java EE 7. This is a good sign but it also means that a lot of people are not yet on Java EE 7. So if you haven't yet embarked on Java EE 7, now is really the time to do so! There are various ways to learn Java EE 7, in no particular order ... Continue to read The Aquarium. Through this blog, we are relaying Java EE news but we are also doing our best to highlight relevant technical contents such as articles, community tutorials, etc. Watch the GlassFish YouTube channel. Amongst others, it contains the different videos of the Java EE 7 launch, those videos will give you good technical update on Java EE and its different components specifications (JMS 2.0, JAX-RS 2.0, EJB 3.2, etc.) Take a formal training. Oracle University is starting to roll-out Java EE 7 trainings like the 'Java EE 7: New Features' class.  Attend conferences and JUGs sessions. On that note, we have spent a lot of time to create a strong JavaOne 'Server-Side Java' track. It's still possible to benefit from the early bird JavaOne pricing but don't wait too much! Read books. There are more than 25 (!) books related to Java EE 7 or to one of the Java EE 7 component specification.  There are many more ways to learn Java EE but if I have to suggest one and only one way, I would recommend the Java EE 7 Tutorial. It's exhaustive and clear, it's free and it continues to evolve. And finally as the introductory quote suggest, participation is key to learning. Participate in JUGs,  participate in Adopt-a-JSR, get involved in the different open source communities evolving around Java EE, participate in the JCP... in one word, participate!

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• Windows Azure Diagnostics: Next to Useless?

  - by Your DisplayName here!

  To quote my good friend Christian: “Tracing is probably one of the most discussed topics in the Windows Azure world. Not because it is freaking cool – but because it can be very tedious and partly massively counter-intuitive.” <rant> The .NET Framework has this wonderful facility called TraceSource. You define a named trace and route that to a configurable listener. This gives you a lot of flexibility – you can create a single trace file – or multiple ones. There is even nice tooling around that. SvcTraceViewer from the SDK let’s you open the XML trace files – you can filter and sort by trace source and event type, aggreate multiple files…blablabla. Just what you would expect from a decent tracing infrastructure. Now comes Windows Azure. I was already were grateful that starting with the SDK 1.2 we finally had a way to do tracing and diagnostics in the cloud (kudos!). But the way the Azure DiagnosticMonitor is currently implemented – could be called flawed. The Azure SDK provides a DiagnosticsMonitorTraceListener – which is the right way to go. The only problem is, that way this works is, that all traces (from all sources) get written to an ETW trace. Then the DiagMon listens to these traces and copies them periodically to your storage account. So far so good. But guess what happens to your nice trace files: the trace source names get “lost”. They appear in your message text at the end. So much for filtering and sorting and aggregating (regex #fail or #win??). Every trace line becomes an entry in a Azure Storage Table – the svclog format is gone. So much for the existing tooling. To solve that problem, one workaround was to write your own trace listener (!) that creates svclog files inside of local storage and use the DiagMon to copy those. Christian has a blog post about that. OK done that. Now it turns out that this mechanism does not work anymore in 1.3 with FullIIS (see here). Quoting: “Some IIS 7.0 logs not collected due to permissions issues...The root cause to both of these issues is the permissions on the log files.” And the workaround: “To read the files yourself, log on to the instance with a remote desktop connection.” Now then have fun with your multi-instance deployments…. </rant>

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• Shadows shimmer when camera moves

  - by Chad Layton

  I've implemented shadow maps in my simple block engine as an exercise. I'm using one directional light and using the view volume to create the shadow matrices. I'm experiencing some problems with the shadows shimmering when the camera moves and I'd like to know if it's an issue with my implementation or just an issue with basic/naive shadow mapping itself. Here's a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyprATt5BBg&feature=youtu.be Here's the code I use to create the shadow matrices. The commented out code is my original attempt to perfectly fit the view frustum. You can also see my attempt to try clamping movement to texels in the shadow map which didn't seem to make any difference. Then I tried using a bounding sphere instead, also to no apparent effect. public void CreateViewProjectionTransformsToFit(Camera camera, out Matrix viewTransform, out Matrix projectionTransform, out Vector3 position) { BoundingSphere cameraViewFrustumBoundingSphere = BoundingSphere.CreateFromFrustum(camera.ViewFrustum); float lightNearPlaneDistance = 1.0f; Vector3 lookAt = cameraViewFrustumBoundingSphere.Center; float distanceFromLookAt = cameraViewFrustumBoundingSphere.Radius + lightNearPlaneDistance; Vector3 directionFromLookAt = -Direction * distanceFromLookAt; position = lookAt + directionFromLookAt; viewTransform = Matrix.CreateLookAt(position, lookAt, Vector3.Up); float lightFarPlaneDistance = distanceFromLookAt + cameraViewFrustumBoundingSphere.Radius; float diameter = cameraViewFrustumBoundingSphere.Radius * 2.0f; Matrix.CreateOrthographic(diameter, diameter, lightNearPlaneDistance, lightFarPlaneDistance, out projectionTransform); //Vector3 cameraViewFrustumCentroid = camera.ViewFrustum.GetCentroid(); //position = cameraViewFrustumCentroid - (Direction * (camera.FarPlaneDistance - camera.NearPlaneDistance)); //viewTransform = Matrix.CreateLookAt(position, cameraViewFrustumCentroid, Up); //Vector3[] cameraViewFrustumCornersWS = camera.ViewFrustum.GetCorners(); //Vector3[] cameraViewFrustumCornersLS = new Vector3[8]; //Vector3.Transform(cameraViewFrustumCornersWS, ref viewTransform, cameraViewFrustumCornersLS); //Vector3 min = cameraViewFrustumCornersLS[0]; //Vector3 max = cameraViewFrustumCornersLS[0]; //for (int i = 1; i < 8; i++) //{ // min = Vector3.Min(min, cameraViewFrustumCornersLS[i]); // max = Vector3.Max(max, cameraViewFrustumCornersLS[i]); //} //// Clamp to nearest texel //float texelSize = 1.0f / Renderer.ShadowMapSize; //min.X -= min.X % texelSize; //min.Y -= min.Y % texelSize; //min.Z -= min.Z % texelSize; //max.X -= max.X % texelSize; //max.Y -= max.Y % texelSize; //max.Z -= max.Z % texelSize; //// We just use an orthographic projection matrix. The sun is so far away that it's rays are essentially parallel. //Matrix.CreateOrthographicOffCenter(min.X, max.X, min.Y, max.Y, -max.Z, -min.Z, out projectionTransform); } And here's the relevant part of the shader: if (CastShadows) { float4 positionLightCS = mul(float4(position, 1.0f), LightViewProj); float2 texCoord = clipSpaceToScreen(positionLightCS) + 0.5f / ShadowMapSize; float shadowMapDepth = tex2D(ShadowMapSampler, texCoord).r; float distanceToLight = length(LightPosition - position); float bias = 0.2f; if (shadowMapDepth < (distanceToLight - bias)) { return float4(0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f); } } The shimmer is slightly better if I drastically reduce the view volume but I think that's mostly just because the texels become smaller and it's harder to notice them flickering back and forth. I'd appreciate any insight, I'd very much like to understand what's going on before I try other techniques.

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• Friday Fun: Play Your Favorite 8-Bit NES Games Online

  - by Mysticgeek

  We finally made it to another Friday and once again we bring you some NES fun to waste the rest of the day before the weekend. Today we take a look at a site that contains a lot of classic NES games you can play online. vNES VirtualNES.com contains hundreds of vintage NES games you can play online. If you’re old enough to remember, when the NES came out, it breathed life back into home console gaming. Here we will take a look at a few of the games they offer that will certainly bring back memories. Super Mario Bros 3 which is a personal favorite from the 8-bit era.   Play Super Mario Bros 3 Excite Bike was one of the coolest dirt bike racing games at the time as it even allowed you to create your own tracks.   Play ExciteBike Of course The Legend of Zelda was one of the first fantasy games many an hour have been spent on. Play The Legend of Zelda We’d be remiss if we didn’t bring up Pac-man since the game recently celebrated it’s 30th anniversary. Play Pac-Man If you don’t like the default keyboard controls you can change them on the Options page. Join their forum and more…this site will definitely bring you back to the good old 8-bit NES days.   The site contains hundreds of different games for you to get on your old school NES fix. If you’re sick of waiting for the whistle to blow, this site will bring you back to the good old days when you had nothing to do but mash buttons all day. Play NES Games at virtualnes.com Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Friday Fun: Get Your Mario OnFriday Fun: Go Retro with PacmanFriday Fun: Five More Time Wasting Online GamesFriday Fun: Online Flash Games to Usher in the WeekendFriday Fun: Online Sports Flash Games TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips HippoRemote Pro 2.2 Xobni Plus for Outlook All My Movies 5.9 CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Awesome World Cup Soccer Calendar Nice Websites To Watch TV Shows Online 24 Million Sites Windows Media Player Glass Icons (icons we like) How to Forecast Weather, without Gadgets Outlook Tools, one stop tweaking for any Outlook version

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• How to Deal with a Difficult Boss?

  - by Anonymous

  I have some problems with my boss, it's quite a long story :) About one year ago, I'm working as team leader of project X. Everything work fine until one of my fellow (staff) flame me that I have problem with ALL member in our team, that guy also flame me to other staff that I report them with a poor performance. My boss call me and blame me without ask a single question. I try to explain everything to my boss but she doesn't listen to me. One month later, we have a meeting. This is only team leader's meeting, my boss talk about this problem with other team leader. There are two person who have worked with this guy, they all say "This guy cannot trust". That guy had do same thing same problem with his former team leader. Finally, everything's clear and I think I gain some trust from her. I can say that I'm the best team leader in her hand, as only project that archive more than 120% profit. Then I move to new project, this is bigger project and I can manage it quite good. But I have a problem again. One of my staff always leave and does not follow our company rule, I call him to talk and tell him that you cannot do this because that's not allow in our company. He also changed working time record file of himself, then I call him to warn again. This time he ask me to move to another project so I go to talk to my boss. She come to my building when I'm not there (other staff call me) and talk with that guy (who have problem with me); I think she still not trust me. And AGAIN, she believe what that guy said and I got blamed. I want to know how can I deal with this kind of boss, or is it better to find a new job, or any other suggestion about this problem? Thank you :) Additional information: Even my job title is "Team Leader" but it's my responsibility to manage staff working time and their behavior. This responsible is my company's rule.

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• links for 2011-02-10

  - by Bob Rhubart

  Manish Devgan: Extending WebCenter Spaces Using JDeveloper In addition to being able to customize WebCenter Spaces using the browser-based tools, you can now also customize and “extend” WebCenter Spaces in many ways in JDeveloper.  (tags: oracle enterprise2.0 webcenter jdeveloper) Oracle University: New Personalized Training Catalog "Searching for training classes just got easier with Oracle University's new Personalized Training Catalog. View upcoming course schedules for the topics that you select in your preferred locations. Browse courses when you need to or request your personalized catalog to be emailed to you." (tags: oracle oracleuniversity) René van Wijk: Hibernate and Coherence « Middleware Magic "A major justification for the claim that applications using an object/relational persistence layer are expected to outperform applications built using direct JDBC is the potential for caching." - René van Wijk (tags: oracle coherence middleware) Sten Vesterli on Fusion Applications: " It’s (almost) here!" Speaking of Fusion Applications, Oracle ACE Director Sten Vesterli says: "The usability revolution has finally caught up with enterprise applications; they will no longer be built based on the capabilities of the database, but on the needs of users." (tags: oracle otn oracleace fusionapplications) The Myth of Oracle Fusion | The ORACLE-BASE Blog "I can totally understand when people on the outside of our little goldfish bowl have a really bad and confused impression of anything containing the term “Fusion”, because it does have a very long and sordid history." Oracle ACE Director Tim Hall (tags: oracle otn oracleace fusionapplications) The Other Side of XBRL (Enterprise Performance Management Blog) With the United States SEC's mandate for XBRL filings entering its third year, and impacting over 7000 additional companies in 2011, there's a lot of buzz in the industry about how companies should address the new reporting requirements. (tags: oracle xbrl compliance) Database Vault integration available (The Shorten Spot) Anthony Shorten shares information on the Database Vault solution included in the Oracle Utilities Application Framework. (tags: oracle database) SOASuite 11.1.1.4 : Error Logging into BPM11g Composer? (Angelo Santagata's Blog) Angelo Santagata shares simple solutions to a few minor SOA Suite 11.1.1.4 issues. (tags: oracle soa soasuite bpm) Thierry Vergult: No electricity, but the application is up "Dakar is having more troubles then normal with electricity. Never thought that the SaaS model would be that useful when the light goes out. And the extra battery in the office dies, and the router goes down. But you still can access the application over your smartphone and finish your payroll run." (tags: oracle cloud saas)

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