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• BI Publisher at Collaborate 2010

  - by mike.donohue

  Noelle and I are heading to Collaborate 2010 next week. There are over two dozen sessions on BI Publisher including a Hands On Lab (see below). Very excited to see what our customers and partners will be presenting and how they are using BI Publisher to get better reports and reduce costs. My only regret is that many sessions are scheduled at the same time so I won't get to see all of them. Noelle and I will be presenting the following: Monday, April 19 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm Introduction to Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher Session: 227 Location: Reef F By: Mike 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm The Reporting Platform for Applications: Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher Session: 73170 Location: South Seas Ballroom J By: Noelle 3:45 pm - 4:45 pm Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher Hands On Lab (1) Session: 217 Location: Palm D By: Noelle and Mike Tuesday, April 20 8:00 am - 9:00 am Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher Best Practices Session: 218 Location: Palm D By: Noelle and Mike We will also be at the BI Technology demo pod in the exhibt hall so please stop by and say hello. All BI Publisher related Sessions Sunday, April 18 2:00 pm - 2:50 pm Customizing your Invoices in a Flash! 3:00 pm - 3:50 pm BI Publisher SIG Meeting - Part 1 4:00 pm - 4:50 pm BI Publisher SIG Meeting - Part 2 Monday, April 19 8:00 am - 9:00 am XML Publisher and FSG for Beginners 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm Introduction to Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm The Reporting Platform for Applications: Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm Bay Ballroom A What it Takes to Make Your Business Intelligence Implementation a Success 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm XML Publisher-More Than Just Form Letters 3:45 pm - 4:45 pm JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Reporting and Batch Discussions presented by Technology SIG 3:45 pm - 4:45 pm Hands On Lab: Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher (1) Tuesday, April 20 8:00 am - 9:00 am Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher Best Practices 8:00 am - 9:00 am Creating XML Publisher Documents with PeopleCode 10:30 am - 11:30 am Moving to BI Publisher, Now What? Automated Fax and Email from Oracle EBS 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm Smart Reporting in Oracle Financials Release 12.1 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm Custom Check Printing Framework using XML Publisher 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm BI Publisher and Oracle BI for JD Edwards Wednesday, April 21 8:00 am - 9:00 am XML Publisher Tips for PeopleTools 10:30 am - 11:30 am JD Edwards World - Technical Upgrade Considerations 10:30 am - 11:30 am Data Visualization Best Practices: Know how to design and improve your BI & EPM reports, dashboards, and queries 10:30 am - 11:30 am Oracle BIEE End-to-End 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm Empower JD Edwards Users with Oracle BI Publisher for Ad Hoc Reporting 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm BIP and JD Edwards World - Good Stuff! 2:15 pm - 3:15 pm Proven Strategies for Increasing ROI with PeopleSoft HCM 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm Using Oracle BI Delivers to Send Reports to JD Edwards Users Thursday, April 22 9:45 am - 10:45 am PeopleSoft Recruiting Enhancements You Can Use 9:45 am - 10:45 am Reducing Cost with Oracle's BI Publisher Note (1) the Hands On Lab was not showing in the joint scheduler as of this posting but, it is definitely ON.

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• ViewBag dynamic in ASP.NET MVC 3 - RC 2

  - by hajan

  Earlier today Scott Guthrie announced the ASP.NET MVC 3 - Release Candidate 2. I installed the new version right after the announcement since I was eager to see the new features. Among other cool features included in this release candidate, there is a new ViewBag dynamic which can be used to pass data from Controllers to Views same as you use ViewData[] dictionary. What is great and nice about ViewBag (despite the name) is that its a dynamic type which means you can dynamically get/set values and add any number of additional fields without need of strongly-typed classes. In order to see the difference, please take a look at the following examples. Example - Using ViewData Controller public ActionResult Index() {     List<string> colors = new List<string>();     colors.Add("red");     colors.Add("green");     colors.Add("blue");                 ViewData["listColors"] = colors;     ViewData["dateNow"] = DateTime.Now;     ViewData["name"] = "Hajan";     ViewData["age"] = 25;     return View(); } View (ASPX View Engine) <p>     My name is     <b><%: ViewData["name"] %></b>,     <b><%: ViewData["age"] %></b> years old.     <br />         I like the following colors: </p> <ul id="colors"> <% foreach (var color in ViewData["listColors"] as List<string>){ %>     <li>        <font color="<%: color %>"><%: color %></font>    </li> <% } %> </ul> <p>     <%: ViewData["dateNow"] %> </p> (I know the code might look cleaner with Razor View engine, but it doesn’t matter right? ;) ) Example - Using ViewBag Controller public ActionResult Index() {     List<string> colors = new List<string>();     colors.Add("red");     colors.Add("green");     colors.Add("blue");     ViewBag.ListColors = colors; //colors is List     ViewBag.DateNow = DateTime.Now;     ViewBag.Name = "Hajan";     ViewBag.Age = 25;     return View(); } You see the difference? View (ASPX View Engine) <p>     My name is     <b><%: ViewBag.Name %></b>,     <b><%: ViewBag.Age %></b> years old.     <br />         I like the following colors: </p> <ul id="colors"> <% foreach (var color in ViewBag.ListColors) { %>     <li>         <font color="<%: color %>"><%: color %></font>     </li> <% } %> </ul> <p>     <%: ViewBag.DateNow %> </p> In my example now I don’t need to cast ViewBag.ListColors as List<string> since ViewBag is dynamic type! On the other hand the ViewData[“key”] is object.I would like to note that if you use ViewData["ListColors"] = colors; in your Controller, you can retrieve it in the View by using ViewBag.ListColors. And the result in both cases is Hope you like it! Regards, Hajan

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• Sun Ray 3 Plus Appliance Announced

  - by [email protected]

  There were many of you out there wondering if Oracle was going to keep and add to the Sun Ray and Sun virtualized desktop product suite, there have been a number of affirmative statements over the last many months. However, none of them resound like this; the introduction of a new product pretty much proves the point. A couple minutes before 3:00, local time yesterday, Oracle announced the release of a new Sun Ray, appliance, the Sun Ray 3 Plus. This is the unit that will replace the SR 2 FS (which has been for sale now since the middle of last decade).  Physically it is about the same size as the 2 FS but there are some significant differences... As you can see there is no smart card reader in the front - that has moved to the top to ensure only one hand is required to insert the card.  There is also a larger surround on the card reader that lights up to show the user the card is being read (properly).  A new power on/off switch is on the front which essentially brings power consumption to ~0 watts, but there is also a new 'sleep' timer looking for 30 minutes of inactivity and then will drop the power consumption down to ~ 1watt. There are also 2 USB 2.0 ports are accessible on the front instead of one.  The standard mic in and headphone out ports are there as well.  There is even more interesting stuff on the back. From the top down there are two more USB 2.0 ports for a total of four, but then the Oracle "Peripheral Kit" keyboard includes a 3-port USB Hub, too.  There's a 10/100/1000 Ethernet port as well as a 1000 Mb SFP port.  Standard DB-9 Serial port and then two DVI ports.  Then there is the really big news.  Two DVI ports driving 2560 x 1600 resolution, each. Most PCs can't do that without adding an adapter card.Now the images I have here are ones taken on a prototype a couple months back.  They are essentially the same as the Production unit, but if you would like to see an image of the Production Sun Ray 3 Plus unit you can see one here. There is a full data sheet available here. So this is the first Oracle Sun Ray desktop appliance.  Proof that the product line lives on.  A very good start!

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• Silverlight Cream for April 03, 2010 -- #829

  - by Dave Campbell

  In this Issue: Scott Marlowe, Nokola, SilverLaw, Brad Abrams, Jeff Wilcox, Jesse Liberty, Alexey Zakharov, ondrejsv, Ward Bell, and David Anson. Shoutouts: Bart Czernicki has a post up about the latest with HTML5: HTML 5 is Born Old - Quake in HTML 5 I was sent a link to shoebox360 a while back and had to sign up to see the Silverlight use, but it does work very nice. I like the panoramic carousel in the viewer: shoebox360 Jeff Handley has a post up on RIA Services - Documentation Guidance and Community Samples... the team is looking for feedback from all of us Shawn Wildermuth posted his My MIX Talks' Source Code Laurent Bugnion posted his Sample code and slides for my TechDays10 (Belgium) talks From SilverlightCream.com: Silverlight to WCF Cross Domain SecurityException Scott Marlowe wrote an article about an often-encountered security exception having to do with cross-domain policies. He details the problem, the response, the solution, and yet another problem/solution associated... good stuff, Scott! Simple Functions for HTML Interop You've seen Nokola's graphic work... how about some HTML Interop from him? He's exposing the code he uses in his work. New Video: ChildWindow Styling - Silverlight 3 SilverLaw has a new video tutorial on Silerlight 3 ChildWindow Styling up - in German - but the video is language-agnostic :) Silverlight 4 + RIA Services - Ready for Business: Exposing WCF (SOAP\WSDL) Services Brad Abrams' continuation in his RIA series is this one demonstrating exposing RIA Services as a Soap\WSDL service Silverlight 4: New parser implementation. New parser features. Jeff Wilcox has a post up highlighting some of the new features in Silverlight 4 such as a new parser implementation with new XAML features. New Video Series – Getting Started With Silverlight Jesse Liberty is starting a new video tutorial series that's going to build out to be a "complete survey of Silverlight programming". The first two are in this post and are Getting Started and Adding Controls to a Silverlight App... looks like good material, Jesse, and all the source is there for the taking as well. Silverlight layout hack: Centered content with fixed maxwidth Alexey Zakharov has a quick tip up on creating centered content with fixed maxwidth. He calls it a dirty trick... looks like code to me :) Silverlight DataForm’s autogenerated fields send empty strings to database ondrejsv points up a problem he had with the Toolkit's DataForm, and his solution to it... with code for all of us following along behind :) DevForce Extensibility With MEF InheritedExport Ward Bell has a post up describing how they got DevForce MEF'd up, and looks like a good post to get you all excited about MEF as well... lots of external links and good info. Tip: Read-only custom DependencyProperties don't exist in Silverlight, but can be closely approximated David Anson's latest Tip is about Read-only custom DependencyProperties in Silverlight -- which strictly is not possible, but he has a code example up that gets close. Stay in the 'Light! Twitter SilverlightNews | Twitter WynApse | WynApse.com | Tagged Posts | SilverlightCream Join me @ SilverlightCream | Phoenix Silverlight User Group Technorati Tags: Silverlight    Silverlight 3    Silverlight 4    Windows Phone MIX10

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• Renewed as MVP

  - by Sahil Malik

  Ad:: SharePoint 2007 Training in .NET 3.5 technologies (more information). It is with great humbleness and honor that I accept Microsoft’s MVP award for 2010. This will be my .. I forget how many years, as an MVP. So suffice to say, I was a lot younger when I first got the MVP award, but also the excitement never dies. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still young, foolish and weird :). (and good looking, might I add) I’d like to share a few things with you on what I have learnt being a part of this very prestigious program that I am so unworthy of. Never aim to be an MVP. Let it be a consequence of what you already are. Always be down to earth, just because you’re an MVP doesn’t mean you’re better than anyone else. The biggest reward of the MVP program, yes much bigger than the free top notch MSDN subscription, is the amazing interaction you will have with other fellow MVPs, and incredibly smart people in the community in general. Get involved in the community, for your own sake! You will learn so much from your peers, it is a very very rewarding experience. Learn, Learn and Learn! Never under estimate the power of knowledge. Both technical and otherwise. I thank each one of you for all the attention you have given me over the past many years. And a very special thanks to my MVP lead, Melissa Travers, and my previous MVP lead Rafael Munoz (who isn’t with Microsoft anymore, but I am sure is kicking butt wherever he is). We are truly entering a very very exciting time in the technology space. Both Google and Apple are challenging Microsoft, forcing Microsoft to innovate at a pace like never before. Microsoft is coming out with an incredible amount of good, new and exciting stuff. Windows Mobile 7, Azure, .NET 4.0, Silverlight 4.0, IE9, and of course SharePoint 2010. The level of innovation in the tech industry is simply unprecedented. A truly exciting time for anyone who lives, breathes, sleeps and dreams of technology even when awake! (Like me!) As you know, I’ve been working on my SP2010 book lately. I’m happy to also inform that the book is DONE. WOOHOO!! :). So this means, I’ll have more time to blog, and cause more trouble in general. Once again! THANK YOU! Comment on the article ....

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• SQL SERVER – SSMS: Backup and Restore Events Report

  - by Pinal Dave

  A DBA wears multiple hats and in fact does more than what an eye can see. One of the core task of a DBA is to take backups. This looks so trivial that most developers shrug this off as the only activity a DBA might be doing. I have huge respect for DBA’s all around the world because even if they seem cool with all the scripting, automation, maintenance works round the clock to keep the business working almost 365 days 24×7, their worth is knowing that one day when the systems / HDD crashes and you have an important delivery to make. So these backup tasks / maintenance jobs that have been done come handy and are no more trivial as they might seem to be as considered by many. So the important question like: “When was the last backup taken?”, “How much time did the last backup take?”, “What type of backup was taken last?” etc are tricky questions and this report lands answers to the same in a jiffy. So the SSMS report, we are talking can be used to find backups and restore operation done for the selected database. Whenever we perform any backup or restore operation, the information is stored in the msdb database. This report can utilize that information and provide information about the size, time taken and also the file location for those operations. Here is how this report can be launched.   Once we launch this report, we can see 4 major sections shown as listed below. Average Time Taken For Backup Operations Successful Backup Operations Backup Operation Errors Successful Restore Operations Let us look at each section next. Average Time Taken For Backup Operations Information shown in “Average Time Taken For Backup Operations” section is taken from a backupset table in the msdb database. Here is the query and the expanded version of that particular section USE msdb; SELECT (ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY t1.TYPE))%2 AS l1 ,       1 AS l2 ,       1 AS l3 ,       t1.TYPE AS [type] ,       (AVG(DATEDIFF(ss,backup_start_date, backup_finish_date)))/60.0 AS AverageBackupDuration FROM backupset t1 INNER JOIN sys.databases t3 ON ( t1.database_name = t3.name) WHERE t3.name = N'AdventureWorks2014' GROUP BY t1.TYPE ORDER BY t1.TYPE On my small database the time taken for differential backup was less than a minute, hence the value of zero is displayed. This is an important piece of backup operation which might help you in planning maintenance windows. Successful Backup Operations Here is the expanded version of this section.   This information is derived from various backup tracking tables from msdb database.  Here is the simplified version of the query which can be used separately as well. SELECT * FROM sys.databases t1 INNER JOIN backupset t3 ON (t3.database_name = t1.name) LEFT OUTER JOIN backupmediaset t5 ON ( t3.media_set_id = t5.media_set_id) LEFT OUTER JOIN backupmediafamily t6 ON ( t6.media_set_id = t5.media_set_id) WHERE (t1.name = N'AdventureWorks2014') ORDER BY backup_start_date DESC,t3.backup_set_id,t6.physical_device_name; The report does some calculations to show the data in a more readable format. For example, the backup size is shown in KB, MB or GB. I have expanded first row by clicking on (+) on “Device type” column. That has shown me the path of the physical backup file. Personally looking at this section, the Backup Size, Device Type and Backup Name are critical and are worth a note. As mentioned in the previous section, this section also has the Duration embedded inside it. Backup Operation Errors This section of the report gets data from default trace. You might wonder how. One of the event which is tracked by default trace is “ErrorLog”. This means that whatever message is written to errorlog gets written to default trace file as well. Interestingly, whenever there is a backup failure, an error message is written to ERRORLOG and hence default trace. This section takes advantage of that and shows the information. We can read below message under this section, which confirms above logic. No backup operations errors occurred for (AdventureWorks2014) database in the recent past or default trace is not enabled. Successful Restore Operations This section may not be very useful in production server (do you perform a restore of database?) but might be useful in the development and log shipping secondary environment, where we might be interested to see restore operations for a particular database. Here is the expanded version of the section. To fill this section of the report, I have restored the same backups which were taken to populate earlier sections. Here is the simplified version of the query used to populate this output. USE msdb; SELECT * FROM restorehistory t1 LEFT OUTER JOIN restorefile t2 ON ( t1.restore_history_id = t2.restore_history_id) LEFT OUTER JOIN backupset t3 ON ( t1.backup_set_id = t3.backup_set_id) WHERE t1.destination_database_name = N'AdventureWorks2014' ORDER BY restore_date DESC,  t1.restore_history_id,t2.destination_phys_name Have you ever looked at the backup strategy of your key databases? Are they in sync and do we have scope for improvements? Then this is the report to analyze after a week or month of maintenance plans running in your database. Do chime in with what are the strategies you are using in your environments. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Backup and Restore, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Server Management Studio, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL Tagged: SQL Reports

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• Silverlight Cream for April 02, 2010 -- #828

  - by Dave Campbell

  In this Issue: Phil Middlemiss, Robert Kozak, Kathleen Dollard, Avi Pilosof, Nokola, Jeff Wilcox, David Anson, Timmy Kokke, Tim Greenfield, and Josh Smith. Shoutout: SmartyP has additional info up on his WP7 Pivot app: Preview of My Current Windows Phone 7 Pivot Work From SilverlightCream.com: A Chrome and Glass Theme - Part I Phil Middlemiss is starting a tutorial series on building a new theme for Silverlight, in this first one we define some gradients and color resources... good stuff Phil Intercepting INotifyPropertyChanged This is Robert Kozak's first post on this blog, but it's a good one about INotifyPropertyChanged and MVVM and has a solution in the post with lots of code and discussion. How do I Display Data of Complex Bound Criteria in Horizontal Lists in Silverlight? Kathleen Dollard's latest article in Visual Studio magazine is in answer to a question about displaying a list of complex bound criteria including data, child data, and photos, and displaying them horizontally one at a time. Very nice-looking result, and all the code. Windows Phone: Frame/Page navigation and transitions using the TransitioningContentControl Avi Pilosof discusses the built-in (boring) navigation on WP7, and then shows using the TransitionContentControl from the Toolkit to apply transitions to the navigation. EasyPainter: Cloud Turbulence and Particle Buzz Nokola returns with a couple more effects for EasyPainter: Cloud Turbulence and Particle Buzz ... check out the example screenshots, then go grab the code. Property change notifications for multithreaded Silverlight applications Jeff Wilcox is discussing the need for getting change notifications to always happen on the UI thread in multi-threaded apps... great diagrams to see what's going on. Tip: The default value of a DependencyProperty is shared by all instances of the class that registers it David Anson has a tip up about setting the default value of a DependencyProperty, and the consequence that may have depending upon the type. Building a “real” extension for Expression Blend Timmy Kokke's code is WPF, but the subject is near and dear to us all, Timmy has a real-world Expression Blend extension up... a search for controls in the Objects and Timelines pane ... and even if that doesn't interest you... it's the source to a Blend extension! XPath support in Silverlight 4 + XPathPad Tim Greenfield not only talks about XPath in SL4RC, but he has produced a tool, XPathPad, and provided the source... if you've used XPath, you either are a higher thinker than me(not a big stretch), or you need this :) Using a Service Locator to Work with MessageBoxes in an MVVM Application Josh Smith posted about a question that comes up a lot: showing a messagebox from a ViewModel object. This might not work for custom message boxes or unit testing. This post covers the Unit Testing aspect. Stay in the 'Light! Twitter SilverlightNews | Twitter WynApse | WynApse.com | Tagged Posts | SilverlightCream Join me @ SilverlightCream | Phoenix Silverlight User Group Technorati Tags: Silverlight    Silverlight 3    Silverlight 4    Windows Phone MIX10

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• Why Software Sucks...and What You Can Do About It – book review

  - by DigiMortal

      How do our users see the products we are writing for them and how happy they are with our work? Are they able to get their work done without fighting with cool features and crashes or are they just switching off resistance part of their brain to survive our software? Yeah, the overall picture of software usability landscape is not very nice. Okay, it is not even nice. But, fortunately, Why Software Sucks...and What You Can Do About It by David S. Platt explains everything. Why Software Sucks… is book for software users but I consider it as a-must reading also for developers and specially for their managers whose politics often kills all usability topics as soon as they may appear. For managers usability is soft topic that can be manipulated the way it is best in current state of project. Although developers are not UI designers and usability experts they are still very often forced to deal with these topics and this is how usability problems start (of course, also designers are able to produce designs that are stupid and too hard to use for users, but this blog here is about development). I found this book to be very interesting and funny reading. It is not humor book but it explains you all so you remember later very well what you just read. It took me about three evenings to go through this book and I am still enjoying what I found and how author explains our weird young working field to end users. I suggest this book to all developers – while you are demanding your management to hire or outsource usability expert you are at least causing less pain to end users. So, go and buy this book, just like I did. And… they thanks to mr. Platt :) There is one book more I suggest you to read if you are interested in usability - Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition by Steve Krug. Editorial review from Amazon Today’s software sucks. There’s no other good way to say it. It’s unsafe, allowing criminal programs to creep through the Internet wires into our very bedrooms. It’s unreliable, crashing when we need it most, wiping out hours or days of work with no way to get it back. And it’s hard to use, requiring large amounts of head-banging to figure out the simplest operations. It’s no secret that software sucks. You know that from personal experience, whether you use computers for work or personal tasks. In this book, programming insider David Platt explains why that’s the case and, more importantly, why it doesn’t have to be that way. And he explains it in plain, jargon-free English that’s a joy to read, using real-world examples with which you’re already familiar. In the end, he suggests what you, as a typical user, without a technical background, can do about this sad state of our software—how you, as an informed consumer, don’t have to take the abuse that bad software dishes out. As you might expect from the book’s title, Dave’s expose is laced with humor—sometimes outrageous, but always dead on. You’ll laugh out loud as you recall incidents with your own software that made you cry. You’ll slap your thigh with the same hand that so often pounded your computer desk and wished it was a bad programmer’s face. But Dave hasn’t written this book just for laughs. He’s written it to give long-overdue voice to your own discovery—that software does, indeed, suck, but it shouldn’t. Table of contents Acknowledgments xiii Introduction Chapter 1: Who’re You Calling a Dummy? Where We Came From Why It Still Sucks Today Control versus Ease of Use I Don’t Care How Your Program Works A Bad Feature and a Good One Stopping the Proceedings with Idiocy Testing on Live Animals Where We Are and What You Can Do Chapter 2: Tangled in the Web Where We Came From How It Works Why It Still Sucks Today Client-Centered Design versus Server-Centered Design Where’s My Eye Opener? It’s Obvious—Not! Splash, Flash, and Animation Testing on Live Animals What You Can Do about It Chapter 3: Keep Me Safe The Way It Was Why It Sucks Today What Programmers Need to Know, but Don’t A Human Operation Budgeting for Hassles Users Are Lazy Social Engineering Last Word on Security What You Can Do Chapter 4: Who the Heck Are You? Where We Came From Why It Still Sucks Today Incompatible Requirements OK, So Now What? Chapter 5: Who’re You Looking At? Yes, They Know You Why It Sucks More Than Ever Today Users Don’t Know Where the Risks Are What They Know First Milk You with Cookies? Privacy Policy Nonsense Covering Your Tracks The Google Conundrum Solution Chapter 6: Ten Thousand Geeks, Crazed on Jolt Cola See Them in Their Native Habitat All These Geeks Who Speaks, and When, and about What Selling It The Next Generation of Geeks—Passing It On Chapter 7: Who Are These Crazy Bastards Anyway? Homo Logicus Testosterone Poisoning Control and Contentment Making Models Geeks and Jocks Jargon Brains and Constraints Seven Habits of Geeks Chapter 8: Microsoft: Can’t Live With ’Em and Can’t Live Without ’Em They Run the World Me and Them Where We Came From Why It Sucks Today Damned if You Do, Damned if You Don’t We Love to Hate Them Plus ça Change Growing-Up Pains What You Can Do about It The Last Word Chapter 9: Doing Something About It 1. Buy 2. Tell 3. Ridicule 4. Trust 5. Organize Epilogue About the Author

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• Book Review: Oracle ADF Real World Developer’s Guide

  - by Frank Nimphius

  Recently PACKT Publishing published "Oracle ADF Real World Developer’s Guide" by Jobinesh Purushothaman, a product manager in our team. Though already the sixth book dedicated to Oracle ADF, it has a lot of great information in it that none of the previous books covered, making it a safe buy even for those who own the other books published by Oracle Press (McGrwHill) and PACKT Publishing. More than the half of the "Oracle ADF Real World Developer’s Guide" book is dedicated to Oracle ADF Business Components in a depth and clarity that allows you to feel the expertise that Jobinesh gained in this area. If you enjoy Jobinesh blog (http://jobinesh.blogspot.co.uk/) about Oracle ADF, then, no matter what expert you are in Oracle ADF, this book makes you happy as it provides you with detail information you always wished to have. If you are new to Oracle ADF, then this book alone doesn't get you flying, but, if you have some Java background, accelerates your learning big, big, big times. Chapter 1 is an introduction to Oracle ADF and not only explains the layers but also how it compares to plain Java EE solutions (page 13). If you are new to Oracle JDeveloper and ADF, then at the end of this chapter you know how to start JDeveloper and begin your ADF development Chapter 2 starts with what Jobinesh really is good at: ADF Business Components. In this chapter you learn about the architecture ingredients of ADF Business Components: View Objects, View Links, Associations, Entities, Row Sets, Query Collections and Application Modules. This chapter also provides a introduction to ADFBC SDO services, as well as sequence diagrams for what happens when you execute queries or commit updates. Chapter 3 is dedicated to entity objects and  is one of many chapters in this book you will enjoy and never want to miss. Jobinesh explains the artifacts that make up an entity object, how to work with entities and resource bundles, and many advanced topics, including inheritance, change history tracking, custom properties, validation and cursor handling.  Chapter 4 - you guessed it - is all about View objects. Comparable to entities, you learn about the XM files and classes that make a view object, as well as how to define and work with queries. List-of-values, inheritance, polymorphism, bind variables and data filtering are interesting - and important topics that follow. Again the chapter provides helpful sequence diagrams for you to understand what happens internally within a view object. Chapter 5 focuses on advanced view object and entity object topics, like lifecycle callback methods and when you want to override them. This chapter is a good digest of Jobinesh's blog entries (which most ADF developers have in their bookmark list). Really worth reading ! Chapter 6 then is bout Application Modules. Beside of what application modules are, this chapter covers important topics like properties, passivation, activation, application module pooling, how and where to write custom logic. In addition you learn about the AM lifecycle and request sequence. Chapter 7 is about the ADF binding layer. If you are new to Oracle ADF and got lost in the more advanced ADF Business Components chapters, then this chapter is where you get back into the game. In very easy terms, Jobinesh explains what the ADF binding is, how it fits into the JSF request lifecycle and what are the metadata file involved. Chapter 8 then goes into building data bound web user interfaces. In this chapter you get the basics of JavaServer Faces (e.g. managed beans) and learn about the interaction between the JSF UI and the ADF binding layer. Later this chapter provides advanced solutions for working with tree components and list of values. Chapter 9 introduces bounded task flows and ADF controller. This is a chapter you want to read if you are new to ADF of have started. Experts don't find anything new here, which doesn't mean that it is not worth reading it (I for example, enjoyed the controller talk very much) Chapter 10 is an advanced coverage of bounded task flow and talks about contextual events  Chapter 11 is another highlight and explains error handling, trains, transactions and more. I can only recommend you read this chapter. I am aware of many documents that cover exception handling in Oracle ADF (and my Oracle Magazine article for January/February 2013 does the same), but none that covers it in such a great depth. Chapter 12 covers ADF best practices, which is a great round-up of all the tips provided in this book (without Jobinesh to repeat himself). Its all cool stuff that helps you with your ADF projects. In summary, "Oracle ADF Real World Developer’s Guide" by Jobinesh Purushothaman is a great book and addition for all Oracle ADF developers and those who want to become one. Frank

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• Cannot find root device after latest kernel upgrade

  - by DisgruntledGoat

  I'm running Ubuntu 13.04. Yesterday I tried to install updates but there was an error, and it suggested running apt-get -f install which I did. Now when I try to boot, I get an error "Gave up waiting for root device". The text is almost identical to the text shown in this and this question. However, the "built-in shell" simply doesn't work! Nothing I type shows up on the screen or does anything. I tried adding a rootdelay to grub but it just waits longer and shows the same screen. Loading the previous kernel works (although there are a few graphics glitches) but as far as I can tell, it should be booting the exact same stuff. The new kernel is 3.8.0-31-generic and the previous working one is 3.8.0-25-generic. Here is my entire /boot/grub/menu.lst file, comments removed: default 0 timeout 3 title Ubuntu 13.04, kernel 3.8.0-31-generic uuid c690c1e6-beb9-46e7-85c2-145cd07d44ac kernel /boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-31-generic root=UUID=c690c1e6-beb9-46e7-85c2-145cd07d44ac rootdelay=120 ro quiet splash initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.8.0-31-generic quiet title Ubuntu 13.04, kernel 3.8.0-31-generic (recovery mode) uuid c690c1e6-beb9-46e7-85c2-145cd07d44ac kernel /boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-31-generic root=UUID=c690c1e6-beb9-46e7-85c2-145cd07d44ac ro single initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.8.0-31-generic title Ubuntu 13.04, kernel 3.8.0-25-generic uuid c690c1e6-beb9-46e7-85c2-145cd07d44ac kernel /boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-25-generic root=UUID=c690c1e6-beb9-46e7-85c2-145cd07d44ac ro quiet splash initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.8.0-25-generic quiet title Ubuntu 13.04, kernel 3.8.0-25-generic (recovery mode) uuid c690c1e6-beb9-46e7-85c2-145cd07d44ac kernel /boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-25-generic root=UUID=c690c1e6-beb9-46e7-85c2-145cd07d44ac ro single initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.8.0-25-generic title Ubuntu 13.04, kernel 3.8.0-23-generic uuid c690c1e6-beb9-46e7-85c2-145cd07d44ac kernel /boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-23-generic root=UUID=c690c1e6-beb9-46e7-85c2-145cd07d44ac ro quiet splash initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.8.0-23-generic quiet title Ubuntu 13.04, kernel 3.8.0-23-generic (recovery mode) uuid c690c1e6-beb9-46e7-85c2-145cd07d44ac kernel /boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-23-generic root=UUID=c690c1e6-beb9-46e7-85c2-145cd07d44ac ro single initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.8.0-23-generic title Ubuntu 13.04, memtest86+ uuid c690c1e6-beb9-46e7-85c2-145cd07d44ac kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin quiet title -------------------------------- root title Windows Vista rootnoverify (hd0,2) savedefault makeactive chainloader +1 As you can see the UUID is the same for all kernels. Why am I getting this problem, and what can I do to fix it?

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• Using the “Settings.settings” functionalities in VB.NET can be tricky…

  - by Vincent Grondin

  Sometime you’re searching for something forever and when you find it, you realize it was right under your nose.  Maybe you were distracted by other things around… or maybe that thing right under your nose was so well hidden that it deserves a blog post…   That happened to me a few days ago while using the “Settings.settings” functionalities in my VB.NET application…  I thought it was a cool feature and I decided to use it…  So there I am adding new settings with “USER” scope and StringCollection as the data type, testing my application and everything works perfectly fine...  That was before I decided to modify the “Value” of one of my settings…  After changing the value of one of my settings, I start my application again and, to my surprise, my new values aren’t showing!  Hmmm… That’s odd…  My setting was a pretty long list of strings so I was rather angry at myself for not saving my work after I was done…  So I open up the Settings.setting in the designer and click the ellipsis symbol to enter my string collection again, but to my great pleasure (and disbelief) my strings are there!!!  Alright, you rock VB.NET!  You’ve just save me a bunch of typing time and I’m thinking it’s just a simple Visual Studio glitch…  I hit “Save” then “Save All” (just in case) and finally I rebuild everything and fire up my app once again.  Huh?  Where are my darn strings????????  Ok there’s a bug there…  I open up the app.config and my new strings are there!!!  Alright, let’s recap…  My new strings are in the app.config, they show correctly in the Settings.settings designer UI but they aren’t showing at runtime…  Hmmmm?  Let’s try something else…  Let’s start the application but outside Visual Studio this time… I fire up the exe and BAM!  My strings where there!  I “alt-tab” and hit “F5” and BOOM, no strings!  So it’s a bug in the Visual Studio environment… or could it be a FEATURE?  I must admit that I’m a little confused over what’s a bug and what’s a feature in Visual Studio… lol!   Finally I found out there’s a “cache” for your Visual Studio located here:  C:\Users\<your username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\<your app name and a very weird temp ID>\<your app version>\user.config When using the “Settings.settings” with a setting of scope “user”, this file is out of sync with your app.config until you manually decide to update it… The button is right there… under your nose… at the top left corner of your screen in the settings designer…  See the big “Synchronize” button there?  Yep…  Now that’s user friendly isn’t it?  Oh, and wait until you see what it does when you click it…  It prompts you and basically says:  “Would you like your settings to start working inside Visual Studio now that you found out that I exist?” and of course the right answer is yes… or rather “OK”…  Unfortunately, you have to do this every time you edit a value… On the other hand, adding and removing settings seem to work flawlessly without having to click this magical button… go figure!  Oh and I almost forgot… this great “feature” is only available for VB.NET…  A project in C# using Settings.settings will work perfectly EVEN when editing values… Here’s a screenshot that shows this important button: Button Using other data types appears to work perfectly well…   Maybe it’s simply related to the StringCollection data type?  If you are a VB.NET programmer, you should pay attention to this when you plan on using the settings functionalities and your scope is “user” and your data type is StringCollection… Happy coding all!

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• On Life and TechEd&hellip;

  - by MOSSLover

  I haven’t been writing here I know.  I am very sorry, but I am just too busy trying to make my personal life just as good as my SharePoint life.  So I was at TechEd again helping with the hands on labs, but I had a very long couple of weeks.  I will have a long week again.  I started out going to my friend, Randy Walker’s, wedding and I ended up at my grandmother’s condo in Fort Lauderdale.  It was a very trying week.  I had to drive 5 1/2 hours to the wedding from St. Louis and back.  So Randy is an awesome person.  He is a great guy and he was the first person ever to nominate me for MVP.  I knew it probably wasn’t going anywhere, but it was the thought that count.  I met Randy in 2008 at Tulsa Techfest.  We had fun jamming out to Rockband.  I knew he was good people back then.  He has let me vent and I have let him vent over countless personal problems.  He has always been a great friend.  So it was a no brainer when I decided to go to his wedding no matter how much driving or stress or lack of sleep it was worth it.  I am incredibly happy for him to finally find a diamond amongst a lot of coal.  To take part in his celebration was so awesome.  I thank him again for letting me participate in this ceremony. Now after Randy’s wedding I drove 5 1/2 hours landed in St. Louis, fed a cat an asthma pill hidden in wet cat food, and slept for 4 hours.  I immediately saw my best friend who dropped me off at the airport and proceeded to TechEd.  I slept 1 hour on each flight, then ended up working a 3 hour shift at TechEd.  The rest of the week was a haze of connecting with people and sleeping very little.  I got to see my friend Tasha and her husband Casey plus a billion other people.  It was a great week and then I got a call from my grandmother.  It turns out her husband was admitted to the hospital. My grandparents on my dad's side have been divorced since the 60s, which means I never got to see them together.  I always felt like they never cliqued.  When I was a kid we would always spend half our time in Chicago at grandma’s and half our time at grandpa’s houses.  We would hang out with my grandpa’s wife Bobbi and my grandma’s husband Leo.  My cousin’s always called Leo by Pappa and my brother and I would use Leo.  My cousins lived in Chicago up until my cousin Gavi was born then they moved to Philadelphia.  I remember complaining to my dad that we never visited anywhere cool just Chicago and Kansas City.  I also remember Leo teaching me and my brother, Sam, how to climb a tree and play tennis on the back of the apartment wall.  My grandfather’s was kind of stuffy and boring, but we always enjoyed my grandmother’s.  She had games and Disney Movies and toys.  Leo always made it a ton of fun to visit.  I’m not sure a lot of people knew this fact, but when I was 16 years old I saw my grandfather on my mother’s side slowly die of congestive heart failure in a nursing home.  When I was 18 I saw my grandmother on my mother’s side slowly die of an infection over a 30 day period.  I hate hospitals and I hate nursing homes, but sometimes you have to suck in your gut and be strong.  I tried to do that this weekend and I hope I did an ok job.  I really hope things get better, but if they don’t I really appreciate everything he has given me in life.  I am a terrible tennis player and I haven’t climbed a tree in ages, but they both encouraged me when encouragement from my parents was lacking.  It was Father’s Day today and I have to at least pay tribute to Leo Morris, because he has been a good person to me all my life.  Technorati Tags: TechEd,Grandparents,Father's Day

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• ASP.NET, HTTP 404 and SEO

  - by paxer

  The other day our SEO Manager told me that he is not happy about the way ASP.NET application return HTTP response codes for Page Not Found (404) situation. I've started research and found interesting things, which could probably help others in similar situation.  1) By default ASP.NET application handle 404 error by using next web.config settings           <customErrors defaultRedirect="GenericError.htm" mode="On">             <error statusCode="404" redirect="404.html"/>           </customErrors> However this approach has a problem, and this is actually what our SEO manager was talking about. This is what HTTP return to request in case of Page not Found situation. So first of all it return HTTP 302 Redirect code and then HTTP 200 - ok code. The problem : We need to have HTTP 404 response code at the end of response for SEO purposes.  Solution 1 Let's change a bit our web.config settings to handle 404 error not on static html page but on .aspx page      <customErrors defaultRedirect="GenericError.htm" mode="On">             <error statusCode="404" redirect="404.aspx"/>           </customErrors> And now let's add in Page_Load event on 404.aspx page next lines     protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)             {                 Response.StatusCode = 404;             } Now let's run our test again Now it has got better, last HTTP response code is 404, but my SEO manager still was not happy, becouse we still have 302 code before it, and as he said this is bad for Google search optimization. So we need to have only 404 HTTP code alone. Solution 2 Let's comment our web.config settings     <!--<customErrors defaultRedirect="GenericError.htm" mode="On">             <error statusCode="404" redirect="404.html"/>           </customErrors>--> Now, let's open our Global.asax file, or if it does not exist in your project - add it. Then we need to add next logic which will detect if server error code is 404 (Page not found) then handle it.       protected void Application_Error(object sender, EventArgs e)             {                            Exception ex = Server.GetLastError();                 if (ex is HttpException)                 {                     if (((HttpException)(ex)).GetHttpCode() == 404)                         Server.Transfer("~/404.html");                 }                 // Code that runs when an unhandled error occurs                 Server.Transfer("~/GenericError.htm");                  } Cool, now let's start our test again... Yehaa, looks like now we have only 404 HTTP response code, SEO manager and Google are happy and so do i:) Hope this helps!  

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• OWB 11gR2 &ndash; Flexible and extensible

  - by David Allan

  The Oracle data integration extensibility capabilities are something I love, nothing more frustrating than a tool or platform that is very constraining. I think extensibility and flexibility are invaluable capabilities in the data integration arena. I liked Uli Bethke's posting on some extensibility capabilities with ODI (see Nesting ODI Substitution Method Calls here), he has some useful guidance on making customizations to existing KMs, nice to learn by example. I thought I'd illustrate the same capabilities with ODI's partner OWB for the OWB community. There is a whole new world of potential. The LKM/IKM/CKM/JKMs are the primary templates that are supported (plus the Oracle Target code template), so there is a lot of potential for customizing and extending the product in this release. Enough waffle... Diving in at the deep end from Uli's post, in OWB the table operator has a number of additional properties in OWB 11gR2 that let you annotate the column usage with ODI-like properties such as the slowly changing usage or for your own user-defined purpose as in Uli's post, below you see for the target table SALES_TARGET we can use the UD5 property which when assigned the code template (knowledge module) which has been modified with Uli's change we can do custom things such as creating indices - provides The code template used by the mapping has the additional step which is basically the code illustrated from Uli's posting just used directly, the ODI 10g substitution references also supported from within OWB's runtime. Now to see whether this does what we expect before we execute it, we can check out the generated code similar to how the traditional mapping generation and preview works, you do this by clicking on the 'Inspect Code' button on the execution units code template assignment. This then  creates another tab with prefix 'Code - <mapping name>' where the generated code is put, scrolling down we find the last step with the indices being created, looks good, so we are ready to deploy and execute. After executing the mapping we can then use the 'Audit Information' panel (select the mapping in the designer tree and click on View/Audit Information), this gives us a view of the execution where we can drill into the tasks that were executed and inspect both the template and the generated code that was executed and any potential errors. Reflecting back on earlier versions of OWB, these were the kinds of features that were always highly desirable, getting under the hood of the code generation and tweaking bit and pieces - fun and powerful stuff! We can step it up a bit here and explore some further ideas. The example below is a daisy-chained set of execution units where the intermediate table is a target of one unit and the source for another. We want that table to be a global temporary table, so can tweak the templates. Back to the copy of SQL Control Append (for demo purposes) we modify the create target table step to make the table a global temporary table, with the option of on commit preserve rows. You can get a feel for some of the customizations and changes possible, providing some great flexibility and extensibility for the data integration tools.

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• Using Web Services from an XNA 4.0 WP7 Game

  - by Michael Cummings

  Now that the Windows Phone 7 development tools have been out for a while, let’s talk about how you can use them. Windows Phone 7 ( WP7 ) has two application types that you can create, either Silverlight or XNA, and you can’t really mix the two together. The development environment for WP7 is a special edition of Visual Studio 2010 called Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone. This edition will be installed with the WP7 tools, even if you have a full edition of VS2010 already installed. While you can use your full edition of VS2010 to do WP7 development, this astute developer has noticed that there are a few things that you can only do in the Express for Windows Phone edition. So lets start by discussing WP7 networking. On the WP7 platform the only networking available is through Web Services using WCF or if you’re really masochistic, you’ll use the WebClient to do http. In Silverlight, it’s fairly easy to wire up a WCF proxy to call a web service and get some data. In the XNA projects, not so much. Create WCF Service First, we’ll create our service that will return some information that we need in our game. Open Visual Studio 2010, and create a new WCF Web Service project. We’ll use the default implementation as we only need to see how to use a service, we are not interested in creating a really cool service at this point. However you may want to follow the instructions in the comments of Service1.svc.cs to change the name to something better, I used DataService and IDataService for the interface. You should now be able to run the project and the WCF Test Client will load and properly enumerate your service. At this point we have a functional service that can be consumed by our XNA game. Consume the WCF Service Open Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone and create a new XNA Game Studio 4.0 Windows Phone Game project. Now if you try to add a service reference to the project, you’ll notice that the option is not available. However, if you add a Silverlight application to your solution, you’ll notice that you can create a service reference there. So using the Silverlight project, we can create the service reference. Unfortunately you can’t reference the Silverlight project from the XNA Game project, so using Windows Explorer copy the Service References folder from the Silverlight project directory to the XNA Game project directory, then add the folder to your XNA Game project. You’ll need to set the property Build Action to None for all the files, except for Reference.cs, which should be Build. Truely, we only need Reference.cs but I find it easier to copy the whole folder. If you try to compile at this point, you’ll notice that we are missing  a couple of references, System.Runtime.Serialization, System.Net and System.ServiceModel. Add these to the XNA Game project and you should build successfully. You’ll also need to copy the ServiceReference.ClientConfig file and add it to your project. The WCF infrastructure looks for this file and will complain if it can’t find it. You’ll need to set the Copy to Output Directory property to Copy if Newer. We now need to add the code to call the service and display the results on the screen. Go ahead and add a SpriteFont resource to the Content project and load it in the Game project. There’s nothing here that’s changed much from 3.1 other than your Content project is now under the Solution node and not the Project node. While you’re at it, add a string field to store the result of the service call, and intialize it to string.Empty. Then in the Draw method, write the string out to the screen, only if it does not equal string.Empty. Now to wrap this up, lets create a new field that’s of the type DataServiceClient. In the Initialize Method, create a new instance of this type using its default contructor, then in the LoadContent we can call the service. Since we can only call the GetData method of our service asynchronously we need to set up a Completed event handler first. Thankfully, Visual Studio helps out a lot there just create, using the tab key whatever VS says to. In the GetDataAsyncCompleted event handler assign the service result ( e.Result) to your string field. If you run your game, you should get something like this : Enjoy!

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• box2D simulation doesn't work

  - by shadow_of__soul

  has been a while since last time i used box2D, and i needed to make some stuff, and i saw that my simulation don't worked (compiles, but do anything). i haven't been able to even have working the examples or this simple example i'm pasting below: package { import flash.display.Sprite; import flash.events.Event; import Box2D.Common.Math.b2Vec2; import Box2D.Dynamics.b2World; import Box2D.Dynamics.b2BodyDef; import Box2D.Dynamics.b2Body; import Box2D.Collision.Shapes.b2CircleShape; import Box2D.Dynamics.b2Fixture; import Box2D.Dynamics.b2FixtureDef; import org.flashdevelop.utils.FlashConnect; import flash.events.TimerEvent; import flash.utils.Timer; public class Main extends Sprite { public var world:b2World; public var wheelBody:b2Body; public var stepTimer:Timer; public function Main():void { if (stage) init(); else addEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE, init); } private function init(e:Event = null):void { removeEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE, init); var gravity:b2Vec2 = new b2Vec2(0, 10); world = new b2World(gravity, true); var wheelBodyDef:b2BodyDef = new b2BodyDef(); wheelBodyDef.type = b2Body.b2_dynamicBody; wheelBody = world.CreateBody(wheelBodyDef); var circleShape:b2CircleShape = new b2CircleShape(5); var wheelFixtureDef:b2FixtureDef = new b2FixtureDef(); wheelFixtureDef.shape = circleShape; var wheelFixture:b2Fixture = wheelBody.CreateFixture(wheelFixtureDef); stepTimer = new Timer(0.025 * 1000); stepTimer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, onTick); FlashConnect.trace(wheelBody.GetPosition().x, wheelBody.GetPosition().y); stepTimer.start(); // entry point } private function onTick(a_event:TimerEvent):void { world.Step(0.025, 10, 10); FlashConnect.trace(wheelBody.GetPosition().x, wheelBody.GetPosition().y); } } } on this, the object should fall down, but the positions reported me by the trace method, are always 0. so is not a display problem, that i see everything freeze, is why the simulation is not working, and i have no idea why :( can anyone point me to the right direction of where i need to look for the problem? my settings are: windows 7 flashdevelop 4.2.1 SDK: 4.6.0 compiling for flash 10, but i tried every target i have available (till flash 11.5) project set at 30fps

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• Knockoutjs - stringify to handling observables and custom events

  - by Renso

  Goal: Once you viewmodel has been built and populated with data, at some point it goal of it all is to persist the data to the database (or some other media). Regardless of where you want to save it, your client-side viewmodel needs to be converted to a JSON string and sent back to the server. Environment considerations: jQuery 1.4.3+ Knockoutjs version 1.1.2   How to: So let’s set the stage, you are using Knockoutjs and you have a viewmodel with some Knockout dependencies. You want to make sure it is in the proper JSON format and via ajax post it to the server for persistence.   First order of business is to deal with the viewmodel (JSON) object. To most the JSON stringifier sounds familiar. The JSON stringifier converts JavaScript data structures into JSON text. JSON does not support cyclic data structures, so be careful to not give cyclical structures to the JSON stringifier. You may ask, is this the best way to do it? What about those observables and other Knockout properties that I don’t want to persist or want their actual value persisted and not their function, etc. Not sure if you were aware, but KO already has a method; ko.utils.stringifyJson() - it's mostly just a wrapper around JSON.stringify. (which is native in some browsers, and can be made available by referencing json2.js in others). What does it do that the regular stringify does not is that it automatically converts observable, dependentObservable, or observableArray to their underlying value to JSON. Hold on! There is a new feature in this version of Knockout, the ko.toJSON. It is part of the core library and it will clone the view model’s object graph, so you don’t mess it up after you have stringified  it and unwrap all its observables. It's smart enough to avoid reference cycles. Since you are using the MVVM pattern it would assume you are not trying to reference DOM nodes from your view. Wait a minute. I can already see this info on the http://knockoutjs.com/examples/contactsEditor.html website, why mention it all here? First of this is a much nicer blog, no orange ? At this time, you may want to have a look at the blog and see what I am talking about. See the save event, how they stringify the view model’s contacts only? That’s cool but what if your view model is a representation of your object you want to persist, meaning it has no property that represents the json object you want to persist, it is the view model itself. The example in http://knockoutjs.com/examples/contactsEditor.html assumes you have a list of contacts you may want to persist. In the example here, you want to persist the view model itself. The viewmodel here looks something like this:     var myViewmodel = {         accountName: ko.observable(""),         accountType: ko.observable("Active")     };     myViewmodel.isItActive = ko.dependentObservable(function () {         return myViewmodel.accountType() == "Active";     });     myViewmodel.clickToSaveMe = function() {         SaveTheAccount();     }; Here is the function in charge of saving the account: Function SaveTheAccount() {     $.ajax({         data: ko.toJSON(viewmodel),         url: $('#ajaxSaveAccountUrl').val(),         type: "POST",         dataType: "json",         async: false,         success: function (result) {             if (result && result.Success == true) {                 $('#accountMessage').html('<span class="fadeMyContainerSlowly">The account has been saved</span>').show();                 FadeContainerAwaySlowly();             }         },         error: function (xmlHttpRequest, textStatus, errorThrown) {             alert('An error occurred: ' + errorThrown);         }     }); //ajax }; Try run this and your browser will eventually freeze up or crash. Firebug will tell you that you have a repetitive call to the first function call in your model that keeps firing infinitely.  What is happening is that Knockout serializes the view model to a JSON string by traversing the object graph and firing off the functions, again-and-again. Not sure why it does that, but it does. So what is the work around: Nullify your function calls and then post it:         var lightweightModel = viewmodel.clickToSaveMe = null;         data: ko.toJSON(lightweightModel), So then I traced the JSON string on the server and found it having issues with primitive types. C#, by the way. So I changed ko.toJSON(model) to ko.toJS(model), and that solved my problem. Of course you could just create a property on the viewmodel for the account itself, so you only have to serialize the property and not the entire viewmodel. If that is an option then that would be the way to go. If your view model contains other properties in the view model that you also want to post then that would not be an option and then you’ll know what to watch out for. Hope this helps.

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• SQL – Quick Start with Explorer Sections of NuoDB – Query NuoDB Database

  - by Pinal Dave

  This is the third post in the series of the blog posts I am writing about NuoDB. NuoDB is very innovative and easy-to-use product. I can clearly see how one can scale-out NuoDB with so much ease and confidence. In my very first blog post we discussed how we can install NuoDB (link), and in my second post I discussed how we can manage the NuoDB database transaction engines and storage managers with a few clicks (link). Note: You can Download NuoDB from here. In this post, we will learn how we can use the Explorer feature of NuoDB to do various SQL operations. NuoDB has a browser-based Explorer, which is very powerful and has many of the features any IDE would normally have. Let us see how it works in the following step-by-step tutorial. Let us go to the NuoDBNuoDB Console by typing the following URL in your browser: http://localhost:8080/ It will bring you to the QuickStart screen. Make sure that you have created the sample database. If you have not created sample database, click on Create Database and create it successfully. Now go to the NuoDB Explorer by clicking on the main tab, and it will ask you for your domain username and password. Enter the username as a domain and password as a bird. Alternatively you can also enter username as a quickstart and password as a quickstart. Once you enter the password you will be able to see the databases. In our example we have installed the Sample Database hence you will see the Test database in our Database Hierarchy screen. When you click on database it will ask for the database login. Note that Database Login is different from Domain login and you will have to enter your database login over here. In our case the database username is dba and password is goalie. Once you enter a valid username and password it will display your database. Further expand your database and you will notice various objects in your database. Once you explore various objects, select any database and click on Open. When you click on execute, it will display the SQL script to select the data from the table. The autogenerated script displays entire result set from the database. The NuoDB Explorer is very powerful and makes the life of developers very easy. If you click on List SQL Statements it will list all the available SQL statements right away in Query Editor. You can see the popup window in following image. Here is the cool thing for geeks. You can even click on Query Plan and it will display the text based query plan as well. In case of a SELECT, the query plan will be much simpler, however, when we write complex queries it will be very interesting. We can use the query plan tab for performance tuning of the database. Here is another feature, when we click on List Tables in NuoDB Explorer.  It lists all the available tables in the query editor. This is very helpful when we are writing a long complex query. Here is a relatively complex example I have built using Inner Join syntax. Right below I have displayed the Query Plan. The query plan displays all the little details related to the query. Well, we just wrote multi-table query and executed it against the NuoDB database. You can use the NuoDB Admin section and do various analyses of the query and its performance. NuoDB is a distributed database built on a patented emergent architecture with full support for SQL and ACID guarantees.  It allows you to add Transaction Engine processes to a running system to improve the performance of your system.  You can also add a second Storage Engine to your running system for redundancy purposes.  Conversely, you can shut down processes when you don’t need the extra database resources. NuoDB also provides developers and administrators with a single intuitive interface for centrally monitoring deployments. If you have read my blog posts and have not tried out NuoDB, I strongly suggest that you download it today and catch up with the learnings with me. Trust me though the product is very powerful, it is extremely easy to learn and use. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)   Filed under: Big Data, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology Tagged: NuoDB

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• Silverlight Cream for March 27, 2010 -- #822

  - by Dave Campbell

  In this Issue: MSDN, Bill Reiss, Charlie Kindel(-2-), SilverLaw, Scott Marlowe, Kenny Young, Andrea Boschin, Mike Taulty, Damon Payne, and Jeff Handley(-2-). Shoutouts: Scott Morrison has his material up for his talk at MIX 10: Silverlight 4 Business Applications Matthias Shapiro posted his MIX10 “Information Visualization in Silverlight” Slides and Code for MIX10 Information Visualization Talk Demos Dan Wahlin has his MIX10 material all posted as well: Syncing Audio, Video and Animations in Silverlight Timmy Kokke has an interesting MEF post up: Building extensions for Expression Blend 4 using MEF From SilverlightCream.com: How to: Add an Application Bar to Your Application In case you missed this MSDN post on adding an Application Bar to your WP7 app Simulating accelerometer data in the Windows Phone 7 emulator Got a Wii? How about a Wii remote? Bill Reiss shows how to use the Wii remote to simulate accelerometer data on the WP7 emulator ... really! Windows Phone 7 Series Icon Pack Charlie Kindel announced the release of a WP7 Icon pack ... great external MSDN link on using them as well. Windows Phone Developer Documentation Charlie Kindel also posted WP7 Documentation, and a quick overview of what you'll find ... samples, references, all good stuff to check out and download. GlossyTextblock Custom Control - Silverlight 3 SilverLaw has his GlossyTextblock rebuilt as a Custom Control and in the Expresseion Gallery. Check the blog for a screenshot. A Windows Phone 7 Silverlight TagList Scott Marlowe has a great post up for WP7 accessing his blog tag list via WCF and displaying the data on the emulator... wow! Dynamic Layout and Transitions in Expression Blend 4 Kenny Young has a great companion blog post to a demo app on Expression Gallery. There's also a link on the page to Kenny's MIX10 session Using XmlDefinition and XmlPrefix to better organize namespaces Andrea Boschin comes to our rescue about the maze of namespaces in XAML by using a solution from the RC: XmlDefinition and XmlPrefix Silverlight 4 RC – Socket Security Changes Mike Taulty is discussing changes in the RC with regard to sockets that have come about since he did his series of posts. Lots of good code. Cascading ItemsSource Bindings in Silverlight Damon Payne addresses an issue he came acros with multiple DataGrids on the same screen. He demonstrates the problem, and then demonstrates his solution. ContosoSales Application for RIA Services RC Jeff Handley posted about the refresh to the ContosoSales application shown in the PDC keynote, and details the changes. Lots of good code and links. DomainDataSource Filters and Parameters Jeff Handley has another post up about RIA Services and the fact that ControlParameter is gone... and he shows how to use ElementName binding instead. Stay in the 'Light! Twitter SilverlightNews | Twitter WynApse | WynApse.com | Tagged Posts | SilverlightCream Join me @ SilverlightCream | Phoenix Silverlight User Group Technorati Tags: Silverlight    Silverlight 3    Silverlight 4    Windows Phone MIX10

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• SQLAuthority News – Training and Consultancy and Travel – Story of 30 Last 30 Days

  - by pinaldave

  Today’s blog post is not technical as usual. Here, I present a real story, and I also invite you all to share your thoughts or opinions on this post. I am a professional SQL Server Trainer; I also do consultation in the area of the Performance Tuning and Query Optimizations. In any month, I like the mix of both in my schedule. I prefer to do training for one week, and then commit the next week for some consultation work. Due to the advancement in technology, for most of the consultation works, there is no client location visit or first time visit for understanding the project. Usually, I conduct high-end training sessions or 400 level training, and these training sessions are very intensive most of the time. Always after completing the training for 5 days straight away at 400 level, I make sure to take out some time to cool down and relax. During this time, I prefer to work on optimization projects. Consultancy is great as it keeps me updated regarding what is going on in the real world. As we all know, all those trainers who have real world experience are always considered to be the best trainers. My learning is immense during my consultations with the real client and while resolving real problems. I share the same with my students the very next week when I go for training sessions. For the same reason, every class is different from the previous ones. An experience trainer would tell you that the class is best if it is driven by Students the way instructor wants! The best scenario is as described above; but you won’t get the best scenario all the time. I was on road for nearly 25 days out of the last 30 days and involved in doing various SQL Server-related trainings. Here is what I have done in the last 30 days. I have gathered the following details from my expenditure reports, which are maintained by my wife. There are few points related to my personal expenses and few other related to business. I maintain a separate list for each of these expenses, but here I have aggregated them. Last 30 days - Training 23 days - 4 – two days training classes – 8 days of training 3 – five days training classes – 15 days of training 1 – one day training classes – 2 days of training Flights 18 flights - 8 – Kingfisher 6 – Spicejet 2 – Jet light 2 – Jet connect Stay in different cities Hyderabad – 16 days Chennai – 6 days Bangalore – 2 days Ahmedabad – 6 days (Hometown) Meals – 54 (Averaging less than 2 per day) Room Services – 16 times Training Campuses – 20 times Restaurants – 6 times Home – 12 times Taxi/Cabs – 64 times (Averaging more than 2 per day) Hotel Cab – 34 times Meru Cab – 8 times Easy Cabs – 10 times Auto Rickshaw – 2 times Looking at the above statistics, I can see that I have eaten less than what I should have, which is not good, and traveled in taxi more than what I should have. Also the temperatures in different cities were very different, not to mention the humidity as well. I missed my family, especially my little girl (9 months). When I was at home, I used to have a proper healthy meal every single day; however, when I was traveling, the food was something I had to compromise on. I have previously written about my travel experience with different airlines, my opinion is still same about them. Well, I have question to all of you road warriors, how do you manage your health and enthusiasm during situations I am going through. I have couple of time stomach upset as well sour throat. I drink lots of water and do my best to keep up. Any idea? Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: About Me, Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• Comix is an Awesome Comics Archive Viewer for Linux

  - by Asian Angel

  Do you have a terrific collection of comics in electronic form but need a great app to view them with? If you have a Linux system then we have the perfect app for you…Comix, the open source comic reading powerhouse. For our example we installed Comix on our Ubuntu 10.10 system. Just go to the Ubuntu Software Center and conduct a quick search. When you go to install Comix in the Ubuntu Software Center, make sure to scroll all the way to the bottom and select Unarchiver for .rar files. The listing appears as a “non-free version” for some reason, but displays as free once selected. Odd, but nothing to worry about in the end… Once Comix is installed you can find it in the Graphics Section of the Ubuntu Menu. Comix also comes with a nice set of options to let you customize the app to best suit those important comic reading needs. Here is a comprehensive list of the features this little comic reading powerhouse packs into one easy to use package: Fullscreen mode, double page mode, fit-to-screen mode, zooming and scrolling, rotation and mirroring, magnification lens, changeable image scaling quality, image enhancement, can read right-to-left to fit manga, etc., caching for faster page flipping, bookmarks support, customizable GUI, archive comments support, archive converter, thumbnail browser, standards compliant, available in multiple languages (English, Swedish, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, & German), reads “JPEG, PNG, TIFF, GIF, BMP, ICO, XPM, & XBM” image formats, reads “ZIP & tar archives natively, RAR archives through the unrar program” runs on Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and virtually any other UNIX-like OS, and more! Have fun reading those comics on your favorite Linux system! Interested in learning more about Comix? Then be certain to drop by the homepage! Comix Homepage Latest Features How-To Geek ETC How to Enable User-Specific Wireless Networks in Windows 7 How to Use Google Chrome as Your Default PDF Reader (the Easy Way) How To Remove People and Objects From Photographs In Photoshop Ask How-To Geek: How Can I Monitor My Bandwidth Usage? Internet Explorer 9 RC Now Available: Here’s the Most Interesting New Stuff Here’s a Super Simple Trick to Defeating Fake Anti-Virus Malware Comix is an Awesome Comics Archive Viewer for Linux Get the MakeUseOf eBook Guide to Speeding Up Windows for Free Need Tech Support? Call the Star Wars Help Desk! [Video Classic] Reclaim Vertical UI Space by Adding a Toolbar to the Left or Right Side of Firefox Androidify Turns You into an Android-style Avatar Reader for Android Updates; Now with Feed Widgets and More

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• Learn About Oracle’s Strategy for a Simple, Modern User Experience at OpenWorld 2012

  - by Applications User Experience

  By Kathy Miedema, Oracle Applications User Experience If you’re interested in what the best possible user experience looks like, you’ll want to hear what Oracle’s Applications User Experience team is planning for OpenWorld 2012, Sept. 30-Oct. 4 in San Francisco. This year, we will talk Fusion, Fusion, Fusion. We were among the first to show Oracle Fusion Applications in the last couple of years, and we’ll be showing it again this year so you can see what Oracle is planning for the next generation of enterprise applications. Attend our sessions to learn more about the user experience strategy in which Oracle is investing. Simplicity is the driving force behind the demos that we are unveiling now, which you can see at OpenWorld. We want to create opportunities for productivity and efficiency, and deliver enterprise data across devices to help you do your work in the way best suited to your job and needs, said Jeremy Ashley, Vice President, Oracle Applications User Experience. You can see the new look for Fusion Applications at a general session led by Ashley at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 3. You’ll also have the chance to learn more about tailoring in Oracle Fusion Applications, and gain a new understanding of the investment in the user experience behind Fusion Applications at our sessions (see session information below). Inside the Oracle Applications User Experience team’s on-site lab at Oracle OpenWorld 2011. Head to the demogrounds to see new demos from the Applications User Experience team, including the new look for Fusion Applications and what we’re building for mobile platforms. Take a spin on our eye tracker, a very cool tool that we use to research the usability of a particular design. Visit the Usable Apps OpenWorld page to find out where our demopods will be located. We are also recruiting participants for our on-site lab, in which we gather feedback on new user experience designs, and taking reservations for a charter bus that will bring you to Oracle headquarters for a lab tour Thursday, Oct. 4, or Friday, Oct. 5. Tours leave at 10 a.m. and 1:45 p.m. from the Moscone Center in San Francisco. You’ll see more of our newest designs at the lab tour, and some of our research tools in action. Can’t participate in a customer feedback session or take a lab tour this time around? Visit Usable Apps to participate or book a tour another time. For more information on any OpenWorld sessions, check the content catalog – also available at www.oracle.com/openworld. For information on Applications User Experience (Apps UX) sessions and activities, go to the Usable Apps OpenWorld page. APPS UX OPENWORLD SESSIONS Oracle’s Roadmap to a Simple, Modern User Experience Presenter: Jeremy Ashley, Vice President Applications User Experience, Oracle; with Debra Lilley, Fujitsu Consulting; Basheer Khan, Innowave; and Edward Roske, InterRelSession ID: CON9467Date: Wednesday, Oct. 3 Time: 3:30 - 4:30 p.m.Location: Moscone West - 3002/3004 Jeremy Ashley Oracle Fusion Applications: Transforming Insight into Action Presenters: Killian Evers and Kristin Desmond, OracleSession ID: CON8718Date: Thursday, Oct. 4Time: 11:15 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.Location: Moscone West - 2008 “FRIENDS OF UX” OPENWORLD SESSIONS Sessions by the Oracle Usability Advisory Board (OUAB) members: Advances in Oracle Enterprise Governance, Risk, and Compliance Manager  Presenters: Koen Delaure, KPMG Advisory NV, and Oracle Usability Advisory Board member; Russell Stohr, Oracle Session ID: CON9389Date: Tuesday, Oct. 2Time: 1:15 - 2:15 p.m.Location: Palace Hotel - Concert Optimize Oracle E-Busines Suite Procure-to-Pay: Cut Inefficiences/Fraud with Oracle GRC Apps Presenters: Koen Delaure, KPMG Advisory NV, and Solveig Wagner, Seadrill Management AS, both Oracle Usability Advisory Board members; and Swarnali Bag, OracleSession ID: CON9401Date: Monday, Oct. 1Time: 12:15 - 1:15 p.m.Location: Intercontinental - Sutter Showcase of JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Mobility Presenters: Jon Wells, Westmoreland Coal Co., Oracle Usability Advisory Board member; Rob Mills and Liz Davson, Town of Oakville; Keith Sholes and Louise Farner, Oracle Session ID: CON9123Date: Tuesday, Oct. 2Time: 1:15 - 2:15 p.m.Location: InterContinental - Grand Ballroom B Sessions by the Fusion User Experience Adovcates (FXA) Usability and Features of Oracle Fusion Applications, Built upon Oracle Fusion Middleware Presenters: Debra Lilley, Fujitsu Consulting and Oracle Usability Advisory Board member; John King, King Training ResourcesSession ID: UGF10371Date: Sunday, Sept. 30Time: 11 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. Location: Moscone West – 2010 Ten Things to Love About Oracle Fusion Project Portfolio Management  Presenter: Floyd Teter, EiS TechnologiesSession ID: CON6021Date: Tuesday, Oct. 2Time: 10:15 - 11:15 a.m.Location: Moscone West – 2003

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• Share OneNote 2010 Notebooks with OneNote 2007

  - by Matthew Guay

  OneNote is the new star of the Office Suite, and is included in every edition of Office 2010.  OneNote’s file format has been changed in the 2010 version, so here’s how you can still share your notebooks with those using OneNote 2007. Convert your OneNote Notebooks to 2007 Format If you open a notebook from OneNote 2010 in OneNote 2007, you may see this warning informing you that the notebook was created in a newer version of OneNote and cannot be opened. To make your 2010 notebooks compatible with OneNote 2007, you need to convert them inside OneNote 2010.  In OneNote 2010, open the File menu; this should open to the Info tab by default.  Select the Settings button beside the notebook you want to use in OneNote 2007, and select Properties. In the properties dialog, click “Convert to 2007”. You may see a warning that some formatting, content, and history that is incompatible with OneNote 2007 will be removed.  Click Ok to continue. OneNote will automatically convert everything in this notebook to 2007 format.  If your notebook is very large, this may take a few minutes. Once the conversion is completed, you can re-open the properties dialog to see the change.  The format is listed as OneNote 2007 format, and you have the option to convert to 2010.  Your 2007 formatted notebook is still fully usable in OneNote 2010, but you may not be able to use some of the newer features in it. Now that your notebook is in 2007 format, you can share it with OneNote 2007 users.  Here’s our notebook, the OneNote 2010 guide, open in OneNote 2007 after the conversion. Conclusion OneNote can be a great collaboration tool, and with this simple trick you can collaborate with those using older versions of OneNote.  Additionally, if you are currently running Office 2010 beta but plan to switch back to Office 2007 when the beta expires, then make sure to do this to any new notebooks you’ve created so you can still use them. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips OCR anything with OneNote 2007 and 2010How To Upload Office 2010 Documents to Web Apps Technical PreviewShare Your Calendar in Outlook 2003 / Exchange EnvironmentSee Where a Package is Installed on UbuntuClear All Browsing History in Safari 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 DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 QuicklyCode Provides Cheatsheets & Other Programming Stuff Download Free MP3s from Amazon Awe inspiring, inter-galactic theme (Win 7) Case Study – How to Optimize Popular Wordpress Sites Restore Hidden Updates in Windows 7 & Vista Iceland an Insurance Job?

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• Friday Fun: Factory Balls – Christmas Edition

  - by Asian Angel

  Your weekend is almost here, but until the work day is over we have another fun holiday game for you. This week your job is to correctly decorate/paint the ornaments that go on the Christmas tree. Simple you say? Maybe, but maybe not! Factory Balls – Christmas Edition The object of the game is to correctly decorate/paint each Christmas ornament exactly as shown in the “sample image” provided for each level. What starts off as simple will quickly have you working to figure out the correct combination or sequence to complete each ornament. Are you ready? The first level serves as a tutorial to help you become comfortable with how to decorate/paint the ornaments. To move an ornament to a paint bucket or cover part of it with one of the helper items simply drag the ornament towards that area. The ornament will automatically move back to its’ starting position when the action is complete. First, a nice coat of red paint followed by covering the middle area with a horizontal belt. Once the belt is on move the ornament to the bucket of yellow paint. Next, you will need to remove the belt, so move the ornament back to the belt’s original position. One ornament finished! As soon as you complete decorating/painting an ornament, you move on to the next level and will be shown the next “sample Image” in the upper right corner. Starting with a coat of orange paint sounds good… Pop the little serrated edge cap on top… Add some blue paint… Almost have it… Place the large serrated edge cap on top… Another dip in the orange paint… And the second ornament is finished. Level three looks a little bit tougher…just work out your pattern of helper items & colors and you will definitely get it! Have fun decorating/painting those ornaments! Note: Starting with level four you will need to start using a combination of two helper items combined at times to properly complete the ornaments. Play Factory Balls – Christmas Edition Latest Features How-To Geek ETC The Complete List of iPad Tips, Tricks, and Tutorials The 50 Best Registry Hacks that Make Windows Better The How-To Geek Holiday Gift Guide (Geeky Stuff We Like) LCD? LED? Plasma? The How-To Geek Guide to HDTV Technology The How-To Geek Guide to Learning Photoshop, Part 8: Filters Improve Digital Photography by Calibrating Your Monitor Exploring the Jungle Ruins Wallpaper Protect Your Privacy When Browsing with Chrome and Iron Browser Free Shipping Day is Friday, December 17, 2010 – National Free Shipping Day Find an Applicable Quote for Any Programming Situation Winter Theme for Windows 7 from Microsoft Score Free In-Flight Wi-Fi Courtesy of Google Chrome

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• Agile Testing Days 2012 – Day 1 – The birth of the #unicorn…

  - by Chris George

  Still riding the high from the tutorial day, I arrived at the conference venue eager to get cracking with the days talks. The opening Keynote was “Disciplined Agile Delivery: The Foundation for Scaling Agile” presented by Scott Ambler. The general ideas behind the methodology such as not re-inventing the wheel, and being goal driven, not prescriptive in how you work certainly struck chords with how we are trying to work in my team. Scott made some interesting observations about how scrum is quite prescriptive and is this really agile? I agreed with quite a few of his points on how what works for one team may not work for another. How a team works should be driven by context and reflection, not process and prescription. However was somewhat dubious about some of the statistics he rolled out towards the end. However, out of this keynote was born something that was to transcend this one presentation. During the talk, Scott mentioned on more than one occasion “In the real world”, and at one point made reference to people living in the land of unicorns and rainbows. The challenge was then laid down on twitter for all speakers to include a unicorn in their presentations… and for the most part this happened! It became an identity for this years conference, and I’m sure something that any attendee will always associate with Agile Testing Days 2012! Following this keynote, I attended “Going agile with Automated GUI Testing – Some personal insights” by Jan Zdunek from codecentric on the vendor track. My speciality is test automation, and in particular GUI testing, so this drew me to this talk more than the others. Thankfully, it was made clear from the very start that this was not peddling any particular product (even though it was on the vendor track), and Jan faithfully stuck to that. Most of the content was not new to me, but it was really comforting to hear someone else with very similar experiences to my own. In particular, things like how GUI testing is hard and is not a silver bullet; how record & replay is NOT a good thing to do (which drew a somewhat inflammatory tweet from an automation company when I tweeted that!). Something that I have started hearing around the place, and has certainly been murmuring at work is to push more of the automation coding onto the developers. After all they are the coding experts. I agree with this to a degree, but I personally enjoy coding and find it very rewarding doing so, therefore I’d be reluctant to give it up. I think there are some better alternatives such as pairing with a developer. Lastly, Jan mentioned, almost in passing, that we should consider virtualisation for gui testing for covering configuration combinations. On my project we’ve been running our win32/.NET GUI tests in cloud virtualisation for a couple of years now… I really should write about that! After lunch the second keynote of the day was by Lisa Crispin and Janet Gregory,”Myths about Agile Testing, De-Bunked”. It started off well… with the two ladies donning Medusa style head bands whilst they disbanding several myths about agile testing! I got the impression that it was perhaps not as slick as they would have liked, but then Janet was suffering with a very sore throat so kept losing her voice. Nevertheless, the presentation was captivating, and they debunked several myths such as : “Testing is dead”, “Testers must write code”, “Agile teams always deliver faster”. I didn’t take many notes for this because it was being recorded, but unfortunately the recordings have not been posted yet so I’ll write more about this when they are. The TestLab was held during a somewhat free for all time during most of the afternoon. It looked intriguing and proved to be one of the surprising experiences of the conference for me. Run by James Lyndsay and Bart Knaack, it consisted of a number of ‘stations’ that offered different testing problems. I opted for testing a mathematical drawing app call Geogebra, the task being to pair up and exploratory test it. After an allotted time, we discussed issues we’d found and decided if we wanted to continue ‘playing’ to which we all agreed! It was fun! The last track talk of the day was “Developers Exploratory Testing – Raising the bar” by Sigge Birgisson. One of the teams at Red Gate have tried Dev or Team exploratory testing a couple of times, and I was really interested to go to the presentation that prompted that. I was not disappointed! Sigge gave a first class presentation, and not only explained what DET was all about, but also how to go about implementing it. Little tips like calling it a ‘workshop’ rather than ‘testing’ I can really see working! Monday evening saw the presentation of the award for the Most Influential Agile Testing Professional Person go to a much deserved Lisa Crispin. The evening was great, with acrobatics, magic and music. My Takeaway Triple from Day 1:  Some of the cool stuff that was suggested in the GUI Testing talk, we are already doing. I should write about that! Testing is not dead! Perhaps testing will become more of a skill than a specific role, but it is certainly not dead. Team/Developer exploratory testing… seems like a no-brainer assuming you have a team who is willing.  Day 2 – Coming soon…

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