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• I spy a Live Framework portal

  - by jamiet

  Those that have followed my blogs for a while may know that I have a slightly banal interest in Windows Live and, more specifically, the Live Services developer platform'; if that doesn’t sound interesting to you then stop reading now. My interest mainly stems from the Live Mesh technology that was announced a couple of years ago and the data synchronisation platform API that underpins it; that platform is called the Live Framework or LiveFX for short. At the Professional Developer’s Conference (PDC) 2008 Microsoft made LiveFX available to the public as a Tech Preview and I spent some time learning to use it and also built a few test apps on it too. In August 2009 an announcement came that that tech preview was getting shut down: "At the Professional Developer Conference 2008, we gave the developer community access to the technical preview of the Live Framework. The Live Framework is core to our vision of providing you with a consistent programming interface. Now we are working to integrate existing services, controls and the Live Framework into the next release of Windows Live. Your feedback continues to help us build the best possible offerings for Windows Live users, for you and for your customers. " Since then news on LiveFX has disappeared save for a throwaway session at PDC09 and I was hoping that news was going to appear at this week’s MIX conference but nothing was forthcoming. Instead though today I stumbled upon an unannounced portal for future LiveFX applications on Microsoft’s Azure portal at http://live.azure.com. Check it out: I consider this to be very good news. This Azure portal was built after the LiveFX tech preview was decommissioned so seeing Live Services existing so prominently alongside Microsoft’s other cloud efforts like Windows Azure and SQL Azure vindicates my early investment in the platform and gives me hope that we’re going to see something get released very very soon. I believe that the potential uses for this platform are extremely compelling and I’m looking forward to trying some out in the near future. I am also expecting LiveFX to have a heavy dependency on the OData protocol that I talked about yesterday in my post OData.org updated - gives clues about future sql azure enhancements so you can tell where my interest in that stems from. In case you’re wondering the projects that you see listed above (Basic List Sample, JT-proj etc…) are projects that I built on the old Tech Preview platform so clearly that stuff has not gone for good which is also good news; not just because it means I’ll have access to the code I wrote before but I also assume it means that LiveFX won’t have changed much since its tech preview incarnation. I know there are other LiveFX buffs out there and hopefully this news reaches some of them. If you are one of them the please put a comment below and let me know your thoughts! @Jamiet Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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• User Experience Highlights in Siebel: Direct from George Jacob

  - by mvaughan

  By Misha Vaughan and Kathy Miedema, Oracle Applications User Experience This is the first in a series of blog posts on the user experience (UX) highlights coming in various Oracle product families. You’ll see themes around productivity and efficiency, as well as a thoughtful approach to pushing UX capabilities into the underlying tooling. Of course, you can also expect to get an early look at the latest mobile offerings coming through these product lines.Today’s post is on Siebel. To learn more about what’s ahead, attend Siebel OpenWorld presentations. Our first interview is with George Jacob, the Group Vice President for CRM Applications. George Jacob Q: How would you describe the vision you have for the user experience of Siebel? A: Contemporary: Siebel runs in all browsers and all browser-capable devices using the latest web technology standards, such as Javascript, CSS, and HTML 5.Productive: Siebel is designed for a user experience that reduces clutter and user keystrokes.User-sensitive: The user experience enables Siebel to adapt easily to site and user preferences.Q: How are the UX features you have delivered so far resonating with customers? A:  Customers are very excited about our refresh of the Siebel user interface framework; the Siebel roadmap and user interface sessions at Oracle OpenWorld last year overflowed. We have had to turn back customer requests to participate in the early adopter program because we had more than we could handle. Customers are calling this a game-changer for Siebel.Q: So the UX highlights are popular? A: Yes, the UX highlights are very popular, although to a certain extent we expected this!  Q: What’s coming in Siebel on a mobile platform? A: Our current mobile offering is based on Windows Mobile (native application), and is fairly mature (over 5 years). The new Siebel Open User Interface Framework, by virtue of working on all browsers, will run – when it is released this year – on tablets and smartphones. This is one of the reasons a number of customers are most excited about our UX changes. Views of Siebel data on mobile devices Q: What are you working on now that you think is going to be exciting to customers at OOW? A: We are working on the Siebel Open User Interface Framework, to be released this year in the Siebel 2012 8.1.1.9 & 8.2.2.2 innovation packs. We are also working on Connected Mobile applications for Sales, Service, Consumer Goods and Pharmaceuticals, and Disconnected Mobile applications for Pharmaceuticals in the same release. We are building specialized applications that exploit the new UI framework for Telco Order Capture and for Life Sciences healthcare professional visits. Our 2012 delivery will be the foundation for further user experience enhancements, next year and beyond.Q: What do you want Siebel customers to know? A:  We are excited to be focused on improving the user experience of Siebel applications, and it is encouraging to see the positive feedback from Siebel customers and partners.If you would like to see more in the Siebel user experience, be sure to check out these sessions at OpenWorld: CON9700 - Siebel CRM Overview, Strategy, and Roadmap CON9703 - User Interface Innovations with the New Siebel “Open UI” CON9705 - Unleash the Power of “Open UI” CON9697 - Mobile Solutions for Siebel CRM

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• Travelling MVP #4: DevReach 2012

  - by DigiMortal

  Our next stop after Varna was Sofia where DevReach happens. DevReach is one of my favorite conferences in Europe because of sensible prices and strong speakers line-up. Also they have VIP-party after conference and this is good event to meet people you don’t see every day, have some discussion with speakers and find new friends. Our trip from Varna to Sofia took about 6.5 hours on bus. As I was tired from last evening it wasn’t problem for me as I slept half the trip. After smoking pause in Velike Tarnovo I watched movies from bus TV. We had supper later in city center Happy’s – place with good meat dishes and nice service. And next day it begun…. :) DevReach 2012 DevReach is held usually in Arena Mladost. It’s near airport and Telerik office. The event is organized by local MVP Martin Kulov together with Telerik. Two days of sessions with strong speakers is good reason enough for me to go to visit some event. Some topics covered by sessions: Windows 8 development web development SharePoint Windows Azure Windows Phone architecture Visual Studio Practically everybody can find some interesting session in every time slot. As the Arena is not huge it is very easy to go from one sessions to another if selected session for time slot is not what you expected. On the second floor of Arena there are many places where you can eat. There are simple chunk-food places like Burger King and also some restaurants. If you are hungry you will find something for your taste for sure. Also you can buy beer if it is too hot outside :) Weather was very good for October – practically Estonian summer – 25C and over. Sessions I visited Here is the list of sessions I visited at DevReach 2012: DevReach 2012 Opening & Welcome Messsage with Martin Kulov and Stephen Forte Principled N-Tier Solution Design with Steve Smith Data Patterns for the Cloud with Brian Randell .NET Garbage Collection Performance Tips with Sasha Goldshtein Building Secured, Scalable, Low-latency Web Applications with the Windows Azure Platform with Ido Flatow It’s a Knockout! MVVM Style Web Applications with Charles Nurse Web Application Architecture – Lessons Learned from Adobe Brackets with Brian Rinaldi Demystifying Visual Studio 2012 Performance Tools with Martin Kulov SPvNext – A Look At All the Exciting And New Features In SharePoint with Sahil Malik Portable Libraries – Why You Should Care with Lino Tadros I missed some sessions because of some death march projects that are going and that I have to coordinate but it was not big loss as I had time to walk around in session venue neighborhood and see Sofia Business Park. Next year again! I will be there again next year and hopefully more guys from Estonia will join me. I think it’s good idea to take short vacation for DevReach time and do things like we did this time – Bucharest, Varna, Sofia. It’s only good idea to plan some more free time so we are not very much in hurry and also we have no work stuff to do on the trip. This far this trip has been one of best trips I have organized and I will go and meet all those guys in this region again! :)

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• Book Review: Programming Windows Identity Foundation

  - by DigiMortal

  Programming Windows Identity Foundation by Vittorio Bertocci is right now the only serious book about Windows Identity Foundation available. I started using Windows Identity Foundation when I made my first experiments on Windows Azure AppFabric Access Control Service. I wanted to generalize the way how people authenticate theirselves to my systems and AppFabric ACS seemed to me like good point where to start. My first steps trying to get things work opened the door to whole new authentication world for me. As I went through different blog postings and articles to get more information I discovered that the thing I am trying to use is the one I am looking for. As best security API for .NET was found I wanted to know more about it and this is how I found Programming Windows Identity Foundation. What’s inside? Programming WIF focuses on architecture, design and implementation of WIF. I think Vittorio is very good at teaching people because you find no too complex topics from the book. You learn more and more as you read and as a good thing you will find that you can also try out your new knowledge on WIF immediately. After giving good overview about WIF author moves on and introduces how to use WIF in ASP.NET applications. You will get complete picture how WIF integrates to ASP.NET request processing pipeline and how you can control the process by yourself. There are two chapters about ASP.NET. First one is more like introduction and the second one goes deeper and deeper until you have very good idea about how to use ASP.NET and WIF together, what issues you may face and how you can configure and extend WIF. Other two chapters cover using WIF with Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) band   Windows Azure. WCF chapter expects that you know WCF very well. This is not introductory chapter for beginners, this is heavy reading if you are not familiar with WCF. The chapter about Windows Azure describes how to use WIF in cloud applications. Last chapter talks about some future developments of WIF and describer some problems and their solutions. Most interesting part of this chapter is section about Silverlight. Who should read this book? Programming WIF is targeted to developers. It does not matter if you are beginner or old bullet-proof professional – every developer should be able to be read this book with no difficulties. I don’t recommend this book to administrators and project managers because they find almost nothing that is related to their work. I strongly recommend this book to all developers who are interested in modern authentication methods on Microsoft platform. The book is written so well that I almost forgot all things around me when I was reading the book. All additional tools you need are free. There is also Azure AppFabric ACS test version available and you can try it out for free. Table of contents Foreword Acknowledgments Introduction Part I Windows Identity Foundation for Everybody 1 Claims-Based Identity 2 Core ASP.NET Programming Part II Windows Identity Foundation for Identity Developers 3 WIF Processing Pipeline in ASP.NET 4 Advanced ASP.NET Programming 5 WIF and WCF 6 WIF and Windows Azure 7 The Road Ahead Index

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• Demonstration VM BIC2g 2013-10 Partner Edition for Download

  - by Mike.Hallett(at)Oracle-BI&EPM

  Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 UPDATED ! The “BIC2g” demo VM (now version 2013-10) is downloadable from our BIC2g Beehive Online Workspace portal for OPN member partners. Compared to the prior version, Bic2g 2013-04, the new Bic2g 2013-10 has: OBIEE was upgraded from 11.1.1.7.0 to 11.1.1.7.1. with BI Mobile Application Designer (BIMAD) added. TimesTen was upgraded from 11.2.2.3.0 to 11.2.2.5.0 ODI Client 11.1.1.7.0 was installed, including a Standalone agent and empty repositories, and the BI Applications 11g ODI Repositories were included (BIAPPS_11g) Informatica and DAC were removed from image There are additional demos for BI-Apps and for Endeca. The compact deployment of EPM is installed and configured, including: Hyperion Foundation, Essbase, Essbase Studio, Essbase Administration Services, Provider Services, Calculation Manager, Planning, Reporting and Analysis, Financial Reporting, Web Analysis, and Workspace. The access details, for OPN member partners only, to get added to the BIC2G Beehive Online Workspace portal are shown from this page @ BI Solutions Engineering Partner Portal. This Oracle Business Intelligence Linux VM virtual appliance (“BIC2g”) was developed to support Oracle OBI, BI-Apps and EPM Hyperion sales and Oracle partners in product demonstrations, training activities and POC activities.  If you do not need BI-Apps, then there is a slightly smaller VM OBI Sample-App you can get from OTN: see @ Oracle BI and EPM Demonstration SampleApp V309 on OTN. /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}

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• #MIX Day 2 Keynote: Put the Phone Down and Listen

  - by andrewbrust

  MIX day 1’s keynote was all about Windows Phone 7 (WP7).  MIX day 2’s was a reminder that Microsoft has much more going on than a new mobile platform.  Steven Sinofsky, Scott Guthrie, Doug Purdy and others showed us lots of other good things coming from Microsoft, mostly in the developer stack, that we certainly shouldn’t overlook.  These included the forthcoming IE9, its new JavaScript compiling engine and support for HTML 5 that takes full advantage of the local PC resources, including the Graphics Processing Unit.  The announcements also included important additions to ASP.NET (and one subtraction, in the form of lighter-weight ViewState technology) including almost-obsessive jQuery support.  That support is so good that John Resig, creator of the jQuery project, came on stage to tell us so.  Then Scott Guthrie told us that Microsoft would be contributing code to Open Source jQuery project. This is not your father’s Microsoft, it would seem. But to me, the crown jewel in today’s keynote were the numerous announcements around the Open Data Protocol (OData).  OData is nothing more than the protocol side of “Astoria” (now known as WCF Data Services, and until recently called ADO.NET Data Services) separated out and opened up as a platform-neutral standard.  The 2009 Professional Developers Conference (PDC) was Microsoft’s vehicle for first announcing OData, as well as project “Dallas,” an Azure-based cloud platform for publishing commercial OData feeds.  And we had already known about “bridges” for Astoria (and thus OData) for PHP and Java.  We also knew that PowerPivot, Microsoft’s forthcoming self-service BI plug-in for Excel 2010, will consume OData feeds and then facilitate drill-down analysis of their data.  And we recently found out that SQL Reporting Services reports (in the forthcoming SQL Server 2008 R2) and SharePoint 2010 lists will be consumable in OData format as well. So what was left to announce?  How about OData clients for Palm webOS and Apple iPhone/Objective C?  How about the release to Open Source of .NET’s OData client?  Or the ability to publish any SQL Azure database as an OData service by simply checking a checkbox at deployment?  Maybe even a Silverlight tool (code-named “Houston”) to create SQL Azure databases (and then publish them as OData) right in the browser?  And what if you you could get at NetFlix’s entire catalog in OData format?  You can – just go to http://odata.netflix.com/Catalog/ and see for yourself.  Douglas Purdy, who made these announcements said “we want OData to work on as many devices and platforms as possible.”  After all the cross-platform OData announcements made in about a half year’s time, it’s hard to dispute this. When Microsoft plays the data card, and plays it well, watch out, because data programmability is the company’s heritage.  I’ll be discussing OData at length in my April Redmond Review column.  I wrote that column two weeks ago, and was convinced then that OData was a big deal. Today upped the ante even more.  And following the Windows Phone 7 euphoria of yesterday was, I think, smart timing.  The phone, if it’s successful, will be because it’s a good developer platform play.  And developer platforms (as well as their creators) are most successful when they have a good data strategy.  OData is very Silverlight-friendly, and that means it’s WP7-friendly too.  Phone plus service-oriented data is a one-two punch.  A phone platform without data would have been a phone with no signal.

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• Customer Experience Online Forum

  - by Christie Flanagan

  Missed Oracle’s Customer Experience Online Forum?  Don’t worry. You can still catch the sessions at your convenience. Watch the Customer Experience Online Forum on demand to hear from Bruce Tempkin, a leading expert in customer experience, as well as other thought leaders and they delve into topics such as the ROI of customer experience and strategies for winning over customers.  Simply register to gain access to these sessions and more: The Customer Experience RevolutionCustomer experience has become the most important and defensible differentiator for your business. The customer experience is a journey that transcends all customer touchpoints and stages of the customer lifecycle. Discover where you are in the journey, identify how to begin optimizing the experience you deliver your customers, and join the Revolution.The ROI of Customer ExperienceBruce Temkin, Customer Experience Transformist & Managing Partner, Temkin GroupResearch of US and UK customers demonstrates a high correlation between a positive customer experience and loyalty. A successful customer interaction increases the willingness to buy more and to recommend your company. US companies can gain $380 million over three years by providing an optimized customer experience. This session will help companies determine the business impact that customer experience has on their specific business. Integrating Marketing and Loyalty to Deliver Great Customer ExperiencesNew devices and channels, such as mobile, social and web, are creating radical shifts in the customer buying process and the ways your company can reach and communicate with existing and potential customers. Learn how leading brands are using Oracle's marketing solutions to harness big data and better understand their customers, extend their marketing reach into social channels, and retain their high value customers through more rewarding customer experience.Where to Start Your Organization's RevolutionThe process of crafting a great customer experience starts with understanding customers and their goals. This session helps you to begin mapping a sound customer experience strategy, describing the intended experience and kinds of processes that create differentiation. The ROI of Customer Experience: A Tempkin Group Insight Report Did you know that customer experience leaders have more than a 16 percentage point advantage over customer experience laggards in consumers’ willingness to buy more, their reluctance to switch business away, and their likelihood to recommend? Did you know that even a modest increase in customer experience can translate into millions of dollars gained? Learn more about the ROI of customer experience in this free report.

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• Silverlight Cream for May 13, 2010 -- #861

  - by Dave Campbell

  In this Issue: Sigurd Snørteland, Jeff Prosise, DaveDev, Joe Zhou, Chris Eargle, John Papa(-2-, -3-), and David Anson(-2-). Shoutouts: In with the links I've listed below, Sigurd Snørteland also sent a link to this app he's working on which is actually pretty cool to see: ZuneLight. The code is not yet available. He also has a no-code demo of a Silverlight Media Center Pieter Voloshyn, Luiz Thadeu, and Jhun Iti have a very nice Silverlight image editor up: Thumba From SilverlightCream.com: WP7 - Silverlight on mobile Sigurd Snørteland submitted some links for me that have been translated to English from his blog. I hope the pages come out good because he's got a lot of good stuff on there. This one has a link to a presentation he did, and 4 projects you can load up in the emulator that he's converted to the phone: weather, worldclock, coverflow, and solitaire ... pretty cool... thanks for the links Sigurd! Understanding Page Orientation in Silverlight for Windows Phone Jeff Prosise has a really nice post up on page orientation in WP7 ... what it means to your app, how to detect it, and example code for what to do then... also love a quote by Jeff: "Silverlight for Windows Phone is the hottest thing since color TV" Why you should check out Expression Blend Behaviors when using Silverlight DaveDev has a post up describing Behaviors and why we should use them, plus tons of external links to resources, blogs, videos... all good stuff... Fiddler inspector for WCF Silverlight Polling Duplex and WCF RIA Joe Zhou announces and provides a link to a new Fiddler inspector that understands the framing in Polling Duplex and also raw binary xml and binary SOAP. Windows Phone Controls v0.7 Chris Eargle reports the release of Version 0.7 of the Windows Phone Controls project on CodePlex ... this includes a Pivot Control and a Panorama Control... both very nicely done. Binding to Silverlight ComboBox and Using SelectedValue, SelectedValuePath and DisplayMemberPath John Papa responds to a user question and put up a nice post about binding to a ComboBox and then go from the selected item to some other property ... code included No More Boxes! Exploring the PathListBox (Silverlight TV #25) Silverlight TV 25 went up on Tuesday ... thought it was going to be Thursday?? anyway ... John Papa and Adam Kinney are discussing the PathListBox and looking at some cool demos thereof. Exposing SOAP, OData, and JSON Endpoints for RIA Services (Silverlight TV 26) Since today IS Thursday, we have a new Silverlight TV, number 26, and John Papa is chatting with Deepesh Mohnani of the WCF RIA Services team about exposing all sorts of endpoints... should be something in there for everybody :) Workaround for a Silverlight data binding bug affecting various scenarios - including DataGrid+ContextMenu David Anson details the rabbit-trail he and others on the team followed in response to a problem reported via Twitter where the binding on a DataGrid seemed off by a row(!) ... weird but true, validated, and SL3/4 are bug-for-bug compatible with this too! ... But David wouldn't leave us there.. he also has a workaround. Sharing the code for a simple Silverlight 4 REST-based cloud-oriented file management app for Azure and S3 David Anson had an opportunity to build an app he's wanted to build for a while and shares it with us: Blobstore -- a small, lightweight Silverlight 4 application that acts as a basic front-end for the Windows Azure Simple Data Storage and the Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) -- and remember I said he shared the source :) 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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• Oracle AutoVue Key Highlights from Oracle OpenWorld 2012

  - by Celine Beck

  We closed another successful Oracle Open World for AutoVue. Thanks to everyone who joined us this year. As usual, from customer presentations to evening networking activities, there was enough to keep us busy during the entire event. Here is a summary of some of the key highlights of the conference: Sessions:We had two AutoVue-specific sessions during Oracle Open World this year. The first session was part of the Product Lifecycle Management track and covered how AutoVue can be used to help drive effective decision making and streamline design for manufacturing processes. Attendees had the opportunity to learn from customer speaker GLOBALFOUNDRIES how they have been leveraging Oracle AutoVue within Agile PLM to enable high degree of collaboration during the exceptionally creative phases of their product development processes, securely, without risking valuable intellectual property. If you are interested, you can actually download the presentation by visiting launch.oracle.com/?plmopenworld2012.AutoVue was also featured as part of the Utilities track. This session focused on how visualization solutions play a critical role in effective plant optimization and configuration strategies defined by owners and operators of power generation facilities. Attendees learnt how integrated with document management systems, and enterprise applications like Oracle Primavera and Asset Lifecycle Management, AutoVue improves change management processes; minimizes risks by providing access to accurate engineering drawings which capture and reflect the as-maintained status of assets; and allows customers to drive complex maintenance projects to successful completion.Augmented Business Visualization for Agile PLMDuring Oracle Open World, we also showcased an Augmented Business Visualization-based solution for Oracle Agile PLM. An Augmented Business Visualization (ABV) solution is one where your structured data (from Oracle Agile PLM for instance) and your unstructured data (documents, designs, 3D models, etc) come together to allow you to make better decisions (check out our blog posts on the topic: Augment the Value of Your Data (or Time to replace the “attach” button) and Context is Everything ). As part of the Agile PLM, the idea is to support more effective decision-making by turning 3D assemblies into color-coded reports, and streamlining business processes like Engineering Change Management by enabling the automatic creation of engineering change requests in Agile PLM directly from documents being viewed in AutoVue. More on this coming soon...probably during the Oracle Value Chain Summit to be held in San Francisco, from Feb. 4-6, 2013 in San Francisco! Mark your calendars and stay tuned for more information! And thanks again for joining us at Oracle OpenWorld!

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• Mono for Android Book has been Released!!!!!

  - by Wallym

  If I understand things correctly, and I make no guarantees that I do, our Mono for Android book has been RELEASED!  I'm not quite sure what this means, but my guess is that that it has been printed and is being shipped to various book sellers.So, if you have pre-ordered a copy, its now up to Amazon to send it to you.  Its fully out of my control, Wrox, Wiley, as well as everyone but Amazon.If you haven't bought a copy already, why?  Seriously, go order 8-10 copies for the ones you love.  They'll make great romantic gifts for the ones you love.  Just think at the look on the other person's face when you give them a copy of our book. Here's a little about the book:The wait is over! For the millions of .NET/C# developers who have been eagerly awaiting the book that will guide them through the white-hot field of Android application programming, this is the book. As the first guide to focus on Mono for Android, this must-have resource dives into writing applications against Mono with C# and compiling executables that run on the Android family of devices.Putting the proven Wrox Professional format into practice, the authors provide you with the knowledge you need to become a successful Android application developer without having to learn another programming language. You'll explore screen controls, UI development, tables and layouts, and MonoDevelop as you become adept at developing Android applications with Mono for Android.Develop Android apps using tools you already know—C# and .NETAimed at providing readers with a thorough, reliable resource that guides them through the field of Android application programming, this must-have book shows how to write applications using Mono with C# that run on the Android family of devices. A team of authors provides you with the knowledge you need to become a successful Android application developer without having to learn another programming language. You'll explore screen controls, UI development, tables and layouts, and MonoDevelop as you become adept at planning, building, and developing Android applications with Mono for Android.Professional Android Programming with Mono for Android and .NET/C#:Shows you how to use your existing C# and .NET skills to build Android appsDetails optimal ways to work with data and bind data to controlsExplains how to program with Android device hardwareDives into working with the file system and application preferencesDiscusses how to share code between Mono for Android, MonoTouch, and Windows® Phone 7Reveals tips for globalizing your apps with internationalization and localization supportCovers development of tablet apps with Android 4Wrox Professional guides are planned and written by working programmers to meet the real-world needs of programmers, developers, and IT professionals. Focused and relevant, they address the issues technology professionals face every day. They provide examples, practical solutions, and expert education in new technologies, all designed to help programmers do a better job.Now, go buy a bunch of copies!!!!!If you are interested in iPhone and Android and would like to get a little more knowledgeable in the area of development, you can purchase the 3 pack of books from Wrox on Mobile Development with Mono.  This will cover MonoTouch, Mono for Android, and cross platform methods for using both tools.  A great package in and of itself.  The name of that package is: Wrox Cross Platform Android and iOS Mobile Development Three-Pack 

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• Web application / Domain model integration using JSON capable DTOs [on hold]

  - by g-makulik

  I'm a bit confused about architectural choices for the web-applications/java/python world. For c/c++ world the available (open source) choices to implement web applications is pretty limited to zero, involving java or python the choices explode to a,- hard to sort out -, mess of available 'frameworks' and application approaches. I want to sort out a clean MVC model, where the M stands for a fully blown (POCO, POJO driven) domain model (according M.Fowler's EAA pattern) using a mature OO language (Java,C++) for implementation. The background is: I have a system with certain hardware components (that introduce system immanent active behavior) and a configuration database for system meta and HW-components configuration data (these are even usually self contained, since the HW-components are capable to persist their configuration data anyway). For realization of the configuration/status data exchange protocol with the HW-components we have chosen the Google Protobuf format, which works well for the directly wired communication with these components. This protocol is already used successfully with a Java based GUI application via TCP/IP connection to the main system controlling HW-component. This application has some drawbacks and design flaws for historical reasons. Now we want to develop an abstract model (domain model) for configuration and monitoring those HW-components, that represents a more use case oriented view to the overall system behavior. I have the feeling that a plain Java class model would fit best for this (c++ implementation seems to have too much implementation/integration overhead with viable language-bridge interfaces). Google Protobuf message definitions could still serve well to describe DTO objects used to interact with a domain model API. But integrating Google Protobuf messages client side for e.g. data binding in the current view doesn't seem to be a good choice. I'm thinking about some extra serialization features, e.g. for JSON based data exchange with the views/controllers. Most lightweight solutions seem to involve a python based presentation layer using JSON based data transfer (I'm at least not sure to be fully informed about this). Is there some lightweight (applicable for a limited ARM Linux platform) framework available, supporting such architecture to realize a web-application? UPDATE: According to my recent research and comments of colleagues I've noticed that using Java (and some JVM) might not be the preferable choice for integration with python on a limited linux system as we have (running on ARM9 with hard to discuss memory and MCU costs), but C/C++ modules would do well for this (since this forms the native interface to python extensions, doesn't it?). I can imagine to provide a domain model from an appropriate C/C++ API (though I still think it's more efforts and higher skill requirements for the involved developers to do with these languages). Still I'm searching for a good approach that supports such architecture. I'll appreciate any pointers!

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• Silverlight Cream for April 20, 2010 -- #842

  - by Dave Campbell

  In this Issue: Zoltan Arvai, Svetla Stoycheva, Alexey Zakharov, Chris Rouw, David Anson(-2-), Bill Reiss, John Papa and Adam Kinney, Chris Klug, CorrinaB, and Mike Snow. Shoutouts: Pete Brown interviewed David Kelley at MIX10: Pete at MIX10: David Kelley on the Prototype WPF and Silverlight Retail Experience Pete Brown also interviewed Emil Stoychev at MIX10: Pete at MIX10: Emil Stoychev on the CompletIT Silverlight Site SilverlightShow has a MIX10 Review by SilverlightShow Live Reporter Cigdem Patlak SilverlightShow also has an Interview with SilverlightShow Article Author Andrej Tozon From SilverlightCream.com: Implementing Push Notifications in Windows Phone 7 Zoltan Arvai has a post up on SilverlightShow discussing Push Notification on WP7 ... what it is, and how to use it. Completit.com - the challenges behind building a corporate website in Silverlight Svetla Stoycheva shows off the new CompleteIT corporate website which is pretty darn cool... and disucusses some of the challenges and solutions Introducing to Halcyone - Silverlight Application Framework: Silverlight Rest Extensions Alexey Zakharov has a tutorial up on a Silverlight application framework he's working on called Halcyone which is available on CodePlex Using the Tag Property during Silverlight Binding Chris Rouw details his SL3 to SL4 conversion and some issues he had, and how he was able to resolve a binding problem using the tag property. Using ContextMenu to implement SplitButton and MenuButton for Silverlight (or WPF) David Anson has a cool discussion up of using the ContextMenu code he put up previously to build a Split button, and includes all the code as usual. Silverlight/WPF Data Visualization Development Release 4 and Windows Phone 7 Charting sample! David Anson updated his Data Visualization because of the new releases, and this time he's including WP7... charting in WP7... ! Space Rocks game step 10: More fun with rocks In episode 10, Bill Reiss shows how to deal with multiple asteroids and all the interaction. Silverlight Training Course (Silverlight 4) Get your serious Silverlight 4 Mojo on with a new SL4 Training kit on Channel 9 ... buncha folks, spearheaded (it looks like) by John Papa and Adam Kinney... Plug-ins and composite applications in Silverlight – pt 3 Chris Klug is back with part 3 of his series on extensions and plug-in loading. So far he's covered a roll-your-own concept and MEF, now he digs into Prism. Transitions, Animations, and Effects with Blend - Part One How cool to have CorrinaB speak at your User Group meeting! ... She did just that in Portland, and instead of simply dropping a deck and some code in her blog, she's giving the run-down on her presentation... always good stuff, Corrina! Tip of the Day #110 – Using Static Resources in Class Libraries Mike Snow's latest tip is about how to create and use a Resource Dictionary. 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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• SQL SERVER – Various Leap Year Logics

  - by pinaldave

  Earlier I wrote one article on Leap Year and created one video about Leap Year. My point of view was to demonstrate how we can use SQL Server 2012 features to identify Leap year. How ever during the conversation I had some really good conversation. Here are updates for those who have missed reading the excellent comments on the blog. Incorrect Logic There are so many people still think Leap Year is the event which is consistently happening at every four year and the way to find it is divide the year with 4 and if the remainder is 0. That year is leap year. Well, it is not correct. Comment by David Bridge Check out this excerpt from wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_year “most years that are evenly divisible by 4 are leap years…” “…Some exceptions to this rule are required since the duration of a solar year is slightly less than 365.25 days. Years that are evenly divisible by 100 are not leap years, unless they are also evenly divisible by 400, in which case they are leap years. For example, 1600 and 2000 were leap years, but 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not. Similarly, 2100, 2200, 2300, 2500, 2600, 2700, 2900 and 3000 will not be leap years, but 2400 and 2800 will be.” If you use logic of divide by 4 and remainder is 0 to find leap year, you will may end up with inaccurate result. The correct way to identify the year is to figure out the days of February and if the count is 29, the year is for sure leap year. Valid Alternate Solutions Comment by sainswor99insworth IIF((@Year%4=0 AND @Year%100 != 0) OR @Year%400=0, 1,0) Comment by Madhivanan Madhivanan has written a blog post about an year ago where he listed multiple ways to find leap year. Comment by Jayan DECLARE @year INT SET @year = 2012 IF (((@year % 4 = 0) AND (@year % 100 != 0)) OR (@year % 400 = 0)) PRINT ’1' ELSE print ’0' Comment by David DECLARE @Year INT = 2012 SELECT ISDATE('2/29/' + CAST(@Year AS CHAR(4))) Comment by David Bridge Incidentally – Another approach would be to take one day off March 1st and see if it is 29. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL DateTime, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• OOW 2013 Summary for Fusion Middleware Architects & Administrators by Simon Haslam

  - by JuergenKress

  OOW 2013 Summary for Fusion Middleware Architects & Administrators by Simon Haslam This September during Oracle OpenWorld 2013 the weather in San Francisco, as you see can from the photo, was exceptionally sunny. The dramatic final few days of the Americas Cup sailing competition, being held every day in the bay, coincided with the conference and meant that there was almost a holiday feel to the whole event. Here's my annual round-up of what I think was most interesting at OpenWorld 2013 for Fusion Middleware architects and administrators; I hope you find it useful and if you think I've missed something please add a comment! WebLogic and Cloud Application Foundation (CAF) The big WebLogic release of the year has already happened a few months ago with 12.1.2 so I won't duplicate that here. Will Lyons discussed the WebLogic and Coherence roadmap which essentially is that 12.1.3 will probably be released to coincide with SOA 12c next year and that 12.1.4, the next feature-rich WebLogic release, is more likely to be in 2015. This latter release will probably include full Java EE 7 support, have enhancements for multi-tenancy and further auto-scaling features to support increased density (i.e. more WebLogic usage for the same amount of hardware). There's a new Oracle Virtual Assembly Builder (OVAB) out already and an Oracle Traffic Director (OTD) 12c release round the corner too. Also of relevance to administrators is that Oracle has increased the support lifetime for Fusion Middleware 11g (e.g. WebLogic 10.3.6) so that Premier Support will now run to the end of 2018 and Extended Support until 2021 - this should remove any Oracle-driven pressure to upgrade at least. Java Mission Control Java Mission Control (JMC) is the HotSpot Java 7 version of JRockit 6 Mission Control, a very nice performance monitoring tool from Oracle's BEA acquisition. Flight Recorder is a feature built into the JVM which records diagnostic events into, typically, a circular buffer which can then be used for historical analysis, particularly in the case of a JVM crash or hang. It's been available separately for WebLogic only for perhaps a year now but, more significantly, it now includes JVM events and was bundled in with JDK7 Update 40 a few weeks ago. I attended a couple of interesting Java One sessions on JMC/Flight Recorder and have to say it's looking really good - it has all the previous JRMC features except for memory leak detector, plus some enhancements around operative sets and ECID filtering I think. Marcus also showed how you could add your own events into flight recorder by building your own event class - they are then available for graphing alongside all the other events in JMC. This uses a currently an unsupported/undocumented API, but it's also the same one that WebLogic uses for WLDF events so I imagine it is stable. I'm not sure quite whether this would be useful to custom applications, as opposed to infrastructure services or ISV packaged applications, but it was a very nice demonstration. I've been testing JMC / FR enabling on several environments recently and my confidence is growing - it feels robust and I think could very soon be part of my standard builds. Read the full article here. WebLogic Partner Community For regular information become a member in the WebLogic Partner Community please visit: http://www.oracle.com/partners/goto/wls-emea ( OPN account required). If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center. Blog Twitter LinkedIn Mix Forum Wiki Technorati Tags: OOW,Simon Haslam,Oracle OpenWorld,WebLogic,WebLogic Community,Oracle,OPN,Jürgen Kress

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• BI Publisher - Hottest Show in Vegas

  - by mike.donohue

  Two days down, two to go. Monday was a very busy and rewarding day. Attended "XML Publisher and FSG for Beginners" given by Susan Behn and Alyssa Johnson from Solution Beacon. It was packed, standing room only ... even though it was at 8:00 am. Later in the afternoon, despite being at the same time and in conflict with other Publisher related sessions, Noelle's session, "The Reporting Platform for Applications: Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher" and my session, "Introduction to Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher" were both very well attended. Immediately following our presentations we ran the BI Publisher Hands On Lab which was great fun. The turnout was so large that unfortunately we could not accommodate everyone who came to the lab. There were as many as 5 people huddled around each of the 20 machines. All the the groups completed the 2 main exercises. Some groups even took the product for an off-road test drive. Look at all the fun we had ... For those who could not attend or want the Hands On Lab document: Hands On Lab Oracle BI Publisher Collaborate 2010.pdf Note that these lab instructions assume a specific set up and files that you may not have in your environment. You can download and install a trial license version of BI Publisher from the download page. Highly recommend taking a look at the additional Tutorials available on OTN. Big thanks to Dan Vlamis and Jonathan Clark from Vlamis Software Solutions and to the Oracle BIWA SIG for setting up these machines and getting the time and space to run this lab. It was inspiring to see all of the attendees successfully creating reports. On Tuesday morning we were up early again for a rousing session of BI Publisher Best Practices that was also, very well attended especially considering the 8 am start. Later that morning saw Ben Bruno from STR Software and two of his customers speak on the additional functionality and ROI they have achieved by using Publisher within EBS and AventX to FAX and Email Publisher generated documents. Spent the afternoon staffing the BI Technology demo pod and had a steady flow of people dropping by with questions. Having a great conference so far and looking forward to the rest of it.

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• What’s the Difference Between Succession Management and Talent Reviews?

  - by HCM-Oracle

  By Marcie Van Houten Is there a difference or are they pieces of one holistic strategic talent process? And can you have one without the other?  First, let me give a quick definition of each.  Succession planning (or management) is about creating succession slates or talent pools in support of a critical job or position or sets thereof. And then using those plans to help mitigate risk and plan talent needs for the organization.  Talent reviews (known by other names often) are sets of meetings where managers and executives come together to review, discuss and often heatedly debate the merits and potential of their employees, and then place and sometimes calibrate that talent on a performance to potential matrix.  These are some of the most strategic conversations happening in conference rooms across the globe. I speak with a lot of organizations about their practices in this area and the answers to these questions are as varied and nuanced as there are organizations thinking about them.  Some are passionate about their talent review processes and have a very evolved and thoughtful approach.  They really know their people, where their talent is, and the opportunities they plan to offer them.  And to them that is their succession process.  They may never create a slate of named candidates for a job or assign employees to formal talent pools.   On the flip side there are other organizations that create slates and slates and often multiple talent pools to support their strategic positions.  Through these, they are able to mitigate the risk associated with having a key player leave their organization.  And for them, that is their succession process.  Some will start from the lower levels of their organization and roll up their succession plans, while other organizations only cover their top 200 executives and key positions with plans.  And then there are organizations that leverage some of all of these.  Ultimately, the goals are to increase employee engagement, reduce talent-related risk, ensure the right talent is aligned to the strategic initiatives and to drive business value.  The approaches are as unique as the organizations they represent and the business opportunities they are looking to seize upon.   And that's ok.  It's great in fact. Because one thing that is common is the recognition that the need to know your people and align your top talent to the future needs of the organization is mission critical. Sure, there are a set of commonly recognized best practices and guiding principles for all of this.  There is no one right or perfect answer.  And that is what makes this all so much darn fun.  With Talent Review and Succession Management from Oracle HCM Cloud, we’ve blended the ability to support your strategic talent review conversations with both succession plans and talent pools allowing for one very seamless and interactive process. So whether you create a lot of succession plans, only focus on talent pools, have a robust talent review process, or all of the above, Oracle has you covered. I’m looking forward to spending time with our customers at the upcoming OHUG Global Conference 2014 happening June 9-13 in Las Vegas.  It’s an opportunity for me to talk to customers about their business and how they are doing strategic talent processes like talent reviews and succession.  I hope to see you there. Marcie Van Houten brings over 20 years of management consulting, information systems and human capital management experience to her role as director of product strategy at Oracle. Ms. Van Houten has spent the past several years at Oracle working closely with customers to help drive the direction of the company's talent and succession management applications. Additionally, she spent nine years at PeopleSoft as Director of Information Systems leading human capital management implementation projects. Marcie Van Houten lives in Walnut Creek, California, and holds a MBA from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.  You can follow her on Twitter: @MarcieVH

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• Oracle Coherence 3.5 : Create Internet-scale applications using Oracle's high-performance data grid

  - by frederic.michiara

  Oracle Coherence Coherence provides replicated and distributed (partitioned) data management and caching services on top of a reliable, highly scalable peer-to-peer clustering protocol. Coherence has no single points of failure; it automatically and transparently fails over and redistributes its clustered data management services when a server becomes inoperative or is disconnected from the network. When a new server is added, or when a failed server is restarted, it automatically joins the cluster and Coherence fails back services to it, transparently redistributing the cluster load. Coherence includes network-level fault tolerance features and transparent soft re-start capability to enable servers to self-heal. For the ones looking at an easy reading and first good approach to Oracle Coherence, I would recommend reading the following book : Overview of Oracle Coherence 3.5 Build scalable web sites and Enterprise applications using a market-leading data grid product Design and implement your domain objects to work most effectively with Coherence and apply Domain Driven Designs (DDD) to Coherence applications Leverage Coherence events and continuous queries to provide real-time updates to client applications Successfully integrate various persistence technologies, such as JDBC, Hibernate, or TopLink, with Coherence Filled with numerous examples that provide best practice guidance, and a number of classes you can readily reuse within your own applications This book is targeted to Architects and developers, and as in our team we're more about Solutions Architects than developers I found interest in this book as it help to understand better Oracle Coherence and its value. The only point I may not agree with the authors is that Oracle Coherence is not an alternative to Oracle RAC in providing High Availability, but combining both Oracle RAC and Oracle Coherence will help Architects and Customers to reach higher level of service and high-availability. This book is available on https://www.packtpub.com/oracle-coherence-3-5/book Need to find out about Table of contents : https://www.packtpub.com/toc/oracle-coherence-35-table-contents Discover a sample chapter : https://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/6125_Oracle%20Coherence_SampleChapter.pdf Read also articles from the Authors on http://www.packtpub.com/ : Working with Aggregators in Oracle Coherence 3.5 Working with Value Extractors and Simplifying Queries in Oracle Coherence 3.5 Querying the Data Grid in Coherence 3.5: Obtaining Query Results and Using Indexes Installing Coherence 3.5 and Accessing the Data Grid: Part 1 Installing Coherence 3.5 and Accessing the Data Grid: Part 2 For more information on Oracle Coherence : What Oracle Coherence Can Do for You... : http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/coherence/coherencedatagrid/coherence_solutions.html Oracle Coherence on OTN : http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/coherence/index.html Oracle Coherence Knowledge Base : http://coherence.oracle.com/display/COH/Oracle+Coherence+Knowledge+Base+Home

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• JSR 360 and JSR 361: A Big Leap for Java ME 8

  - by terrencebarr

  It might have gone unnoticed to some, but Java ME took a big leap forward a couple of weeks ago with the filing of two new JSRs: JSR 360: “Connected Limited Device Configuration 8″ (aka CLDC 8) JSR 361: “Java ME Embedded Profile” (aka ME EP) Together, these two JSRs will significantly update, enhance, and modernize the Java ME platform, and specifically small embedded Java, with a host of new features and functionality. JSR 360 – Connected Limited Device Configuration 8 CLDC 8 is based on JSR 139 (CLDC 1.1) and updates the core Java ME VM, language support, libraries, and features to be aligned with Java SE 8. This will include: VM updated to comply with the JVM language specification version 2 Support for SE 7/8 language features like Generics, Assertions, Annotations, Try-with-Resources, and more New libraries such as Collections, NIO subset, Logging API subset A consolidated and enhanced Generic Connection Framework for multi-protocol I/O With CLDC 8, Java ME and Java SE are entering their next phase of alignment – making Java the only technology today that truly scales application development, code re-use, and tooling across the whole range of IT platforms, from small embedded to large enterprise. JSR 361 – Java ME Embedded Profile ME EP is based on JSR 228 (IMP-NG) and updates the specification in key areas to provide a powerful and flexible application environment for small embedded Java platforms, building on the features of CLDC 8:  A new, lightweight component and services model Shared libraries Multi-application concurrency, inter-application communication, and event system Application management API optionality, to address low-footprint use cases With ME EP, application developers will have a modern application environment which allows development and deployment of  modular, robust, sophisticated, and footprint-optimized solutions for a wide range of embedded use cases and devices. Summary While these JSRs are still under development, it’s clear that there are exciting new times ahead for Java ME – turning into a serious application platform while maintaining the focus on resource-constrained devices to address the expected explosion of small, smart, and connected embedded platforms. To learn more, click on the above links for JSR 360 and JSR 361. Or review the JavaOne 2012 online presentations on the topic: CON11300: Expanding the reach of the Java ME Platform CON5943: Java ME 8 Service Platform And stay tuned for more in this space! Cheers, – Terrence Filed under: Mobile & Embedded Tagged: "jsr 360", "jsr 361", "me 8", embedded, Embedded Java, JCP

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• JSR 360 and JSR 361: A Big Leap for Java ME 8

  - by terrencebarr

  It might have gone unnoticed to some, but Java ME took a big leap forward a couple of weeks ago with the filing of two new JSRs: JSR 360: “Connected Limited Device Configuration 8″ (aka CLDC 8) JSR 361: “Java ME Embedded Profile” (aka ME EP) Together, these two JSRs will significantly update, enhance, and modernize the Java ME platform, and specifically small embedded Java, with a host of new features and functionality. JSR 360 – Connected Limited Device Configuration 8 CLDC 8 is based on JSR 139 (CLDC 1.1) and updates the core Java ME VM, language support, libraries, and features to be aligned with Java SE 8. This will include: VM updated to comply with the JVM language specification version 2 Support for SE 7/8 language features like Generics, Assertions, Annotations, Try-with-Resources, and more New libraries such as Collections, NIO subset, Logging API subset A consolidated and enhanced Generic Connection Framework for multi-protocol I/O With CLDC 8, Java ME and Java SE are entering their next phase of alignment – making Java the only technology today that truly scales application development, code re-use, and tooling across the whole range of IT platforms, from small embedded to large enterprise. JSR 361 – Java ME Embedded Profile ME EP is based on JSR 228 (IMP-NG) and updates the specification in key areas to provide a powerful and flexible application environment for small embedded Java platforms, building on the features of CLDC 8:  A new, lightweight component and services model Shared libraries Multi-application concurrency, inter-application communication, and event system Application management API optionality, to address low-footprint use cases With ME EP, application developers will have a modern application environment which allows development and deployment of  modular, robust, sophisticated, and footprint-optimized solutions for a wide range of embedded use cases and devices. Summary While these JSRs are still under development, it’s clear that there are exciting new times ahead for Java ME – turning into a serious application platform while maintaining the focus on resource-constrained devices to address the expected explosion of small, smart, and connected embedded platforms. To learn more, click on the above links for JSR 360 and JSR 361. Or review the JavaOne 2012 online presentations on the topic: CON11300: Expanding the reach of the Java ME Platform CON5943: Java ME 8 Service Platform And stay tuned for more in this space! Cheers, – Terrence Filed under: Mobile & Embedded Tagged: "jsr 360", "jsr 361", "me 8", embedded, Embedded Java, JCP

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• Giving a Bomberman AI intelligent bomb placement

  - by Paul Manta

  I'm trying to implement an AI algorithm for Bomberman. Currently I have a working but not very smart rudimentary implementation (the current AI is overzealous in placing bombs). This is the first AI I've ever tried implementing and I'm a bit stuck. The more sophisticated algorithms I have in mind (the ones that I expect to make better decisions) are too convoluted to be good solutions. What general tips do you have for implementing a Bomberman AI? Are there radically different approaches for making the bot either more defensive or offensive? Edit: Current algorithm My current algorithm goes something like this (pseudo-code): 1) Try to place a bomb and then find a cell that is safe from all the bombs, including the one that you just placed. To find that cell, iterate over the four directions; if you can find any safe divergent cell and reach it in time (eg. if the direction is up or down, look for a cell that is found to the left or right of this path), then it's safe to place a bomb and move in that direction. 2) If you can't find and safe divergent cells, try NOT placing a bomb and look again. This time you'll only need to look for a safe cell in only one direction (you don't have to diverge from it). 3) If you still can't find a safe cell, don't do anything. for $(direction) in (up, down, left, right): place bomb at current location if (can find and reach divergent safe cell in current $(direction)): bomb = true move = $(direction) return for $(direction) in (up, down, left, right): do not place bomb at current location if (any safe cell in the current $(direction)): bomb = false move = $(direction) return else: bomb = false move = stay_put This algorithm makes the bot very trigger-happy (it'll place bombs very frequently). It doesn't kill itself, but it does have a habit of making itself vulnerable by going into dead ends where it can be blocked and killed by the other players. Do you have any suggestions on how I might improve this algorithm? Or maybe I should try something completely different? One of the problems with this algorithm is that it tends to leave the bot with very few (frequently just one) safe cells on which it can stand. This is because the bot leaves a trail of bombs behind it, as long as it doesn't kill itself. However, leaving a trail of bombs behind leaves few places where you can hide. If one of the other players or bots decide to place a bomb somewhere near you, it often happens that you have no place to hide and you die. I need a better way to decide when to place bombs.

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• How can I troubleshoot flash player/hardware conflict?

  - by sparthikas

  OBJECTIVE: Have a web browser on my Ubuntu install that can play youtube and hulu videos. Also would like to understand problem so that I can fix it again if I change software. Workarounds welcome, technical understanding and solution preferable. SYMPTOMS: Flash does not run - cannot make the right-click menu appear, an empty box is where video should be, changes to black box when hovering over other links. The "The Adobe Flash plugin has crashed" message does not appear with its sad lego face. cannot activate proprietary graphics driver - causes system to reboot to a prompt. SOLUTIONS TRIED: Replaced OS (tried slackware 13.37, fedora 17, linuxmint 13 maya, gentoo, lubuntu, and even winXP. lubuntu confirmed to work, don't remember how much tweaking, if any, this required. Slack, fedora, mint, and gentoo all failed to run flash just like ubuntu) many reinstalls of flash player via different methods, including cleaning up old installs first, also tried gnash and lightspark. replaced graphics card (replaced HIS IceQ Radeon HD 4670 AGP with older GeForce 5700 LE no change in problem) flash does successfully work on winXP installation with Catalyst AGP hotfix driver applied, however I consider windows wholly unacceptable for web browsing due to lack of security. Lubuntu install also works, however I do not want to be tied down to just using Lubuntu on this computer. SYSINFO: Have latest versions of Ubuntu, Firefox, and Flash on fresh Ubuntu install. Using Gigabyte 7s748 motherboard with Athlon XP 2800+ and 3 GB of RAM with Radeon HD 4670 AGP card, also a Dell soundblaster live series sound card (due to malfunction of onboard sound on motherboard) Wired internet connection, Maxtor 6Y120L3 HDD, Sony DVD RW AW-Q170A, Dell M993s monitor. NOTES: I do not know if the graphics driver issue and the flash troubles are linked. Substitution of older graphics card having same flash troubles seems to suggest they aren't. My troubleshooting method is rather reductionist, consisting mainly of "replace things until you find out what was causing the error by process of elimination" only it seems that this must be a conflict which arises when software decides how to configure itself on my hardware. That is, I know the hardware can run Flash, and I know that on other systems the same software can too, but somehow the combination fails. Consequently I feel out of my depth. I will keep trying things off and on, but I have spent probably about 30 man-hours in the last 4 months working on this problem with no joy other than the lubuntu workaround. Any help will be appreciated, I will be checking back and posting updates. Any pertinent questions regarding me or my computer will be answered, outputs from config files can be accessed and posted (IDK which ones or what parts to post).

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• The Oscar of Java Programming

  - by Tori Wieldt

  Why bother nominating a peer, yourself or your company for a Duke's Choice Award? I asked Duke's Choice Award winner Fabiane Nardon, whose team won in 2005 for the Healthcare Information System they created for the Brazilian government, what it was like winning the award and if it had any impact on her career. Here's what she told me: 1) What was it like to win a Duke's Choice Award? For me it was like winning an Oscar or a Grammy :-) I think that for a Java developer, a Duke's Choice Award is probably the highest award you can get, so it was really an honor. We had an amazing team working on that project and the team really deserved it. We were all very happy when we got that email with the announcement. That moment was one of the most important moments of my career. 2) What benefits have you gotten from being a "Duke's Choice Award Winner?" I think the most important benefit you get from winning a Duke is the fact that you become known by your peers. This opens many doors, since you are approached by more people, get invitations to speak in more conferences, you meet people with the same technical interests you have and so on. I certainly benefited a lot from it. We were lucky that in 2005, when we got our award, the winners were featured in the JavaOne keynote, with short documentaries produced about each one. So, we could be on the stage and talk a little about the project. We got lots of press at the time. We see  today's winners benefiting a lot from the press coverage. 3) How is the the Brazilian Healthcare Information System project doing today? Still running and getting new features every year. I'm not involved on the project anymore, but there are good people taking care of it. We opened the code since the beginning, so different cities could use and add features to it. There are many new developers working on that code base right now and I hope they can take the whole system to a new level. 4) What are you up to these days? I worked in the healthcare field for many years and a few years ago I decided that it was time to move on and take the experience I got designing large scale and mission critical systems to other fields. Since then I have been working with high access internet applications. I also co-founded ToolsCloud, a company that provides a development environment with open source tools in the cloud. We just launched ToolsCloud in USA, so other companies can get the same bundle of tools, hassle free, that several companies are successfully using in Brazil. Besides that, right now I'm personally working on the coolest project I ever worked on. It combines several technical challenges with a good dose of social impact. We should launch it in the second semester and I should keep it as a secret for now. Hopefully it will be useful to many people and disruptive enough to maybe get us a new Duke's Choice Award. Who knows? Read more about Fabiane in the "Heroes of Java" series by Markus Eisele. Her Twitter handle is @FabianeNardon. The Duke's Choice Awards celebrate extreme innovation in the world of Java technology. Nominate an individual, a group or company who show the best in Java innovation. Nominate via the easy online form at www.Java.net/dukeschoice. Nominations are open until June 15, 2012.

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• A* navigational mesh path finding

  - by theguywholikeslinux

  So I've been making this top down 2D java game in this framework called Greenfoot [1] and I've been working on the AI for the guys you are gonna fight. I want them to be able to move around the world realistically so I soon realized, amongst a couple of other things, I would need some kind of pathfinding. I have made two A* prototypes. One is grid based and then I made one that works with waypoints so now I need to work out a way to get from a 2d "map" of the obstacles/buildings to a graph of nodes that I can make a path from. The actual pathfinding seems fine, just my open and closed lists could use a more efficient data structure, but I'll get to that if and when I need to. I intend to use a navigational mesh for all the reasons out lined in this post on ai-blog.net [2]. However, the problem I have faced is that what A* thinks is the shortest path from the polygon centres/edges is not necessarily the shortest path if you travel through any part of the node. To get a better idea you can see the question I asked on stackoverflow [3]. I got a good answer concerning a visibility graph. I have since purchased the book (Computational Geometry: Algorithms and Applications [4]) and read further into the topic, however I am still in favour of a navigational mesh (See "Managing Complexity" [5] from Amit’s Notes about Path-Finding [6]). (As a side note, maybe I could possibly use Theta* to convert multiple waypoints into one straight line if the first and last are not obscured. Or each time I move back check to the waypoint before last to see if I can go straight from that to this) So basically what I want is a navigational mesh where once I have put it through a funnel algorithm (e.g. this one from Digesting Duck [7]) I will get the true shortest path, rather than get one that is the shortest path following node to node only, but not the actual shortest given that you can go through some polygons and skip nodes/edges. Oh and I also want to know how you suggest storing the information concerning the polygons. For the waypoint prototype example I made I just had each node as an object and stored a list of all the other nodes you could travel to from that node, I'm guessing that won't work with polygons? and how to I tell if a polygon is open/traversable or if it is a solid object? How do I store which nodes make up the polygon? Finally, for the record: I do want to programme this by myself from scratch even though there are already other solutions available and I don't intend to be (re) using this code in anything other than this game so it does not matter that it will inevitably be poor quality. http://greenfoot.org http://www.ai-blog.net/archives/000152.html http://stackoverflow.com/q/7585515/ http://www.cs.uu.nl/geobook/ http://theory.stanford.edu/~amitp/GameProgramming/MapRepresentations.html http://theory.stanford.edu/~amitp/GameProgramming/ http://digestingduck.blogspot.com/2010/03/simple-stupid-funnel-algorithm.html

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• Engagement: Don’t Forget Your Employees!

  - by Kellsey Ruppel

  By Mark Brown, Sr. Director, Oracle WebCenter  This week we want to focus on Employee Engagement, and how it is critical to your business. Today we hear and read a great deal about “Customer Engagement” – and rightly so, it is those customers, whether they be traditional paying customers, citizens, students, club members, or whomever it is that are “paying the bills”.  A more engaged customer is more likely to make it easier to pay those bills by buying more, giving good reviews, or spreading the word of how wonderful their experience was. But what about those who are providing those services, those who design and make those goods; why is it that all too often they are left out of conversations concerning engagement? In fact, it is critical that we consider our employees as customers since they are using internal systems that run your organization the same way customers use external systems. Studies have shown that an organization in which the employees feel “engaged” or better able to make decisions, do their jobs, and are connected to their peers have better return to their stakeholders. (shareholders).  On the surface this seems obvious, happy employees are more productive employees. But it leads to the question – how many of our existing policies, systems and processes are actually reducing that level of engagement? Let’s look at a couple examples. If posting new information that may be of great value to everyone in the larger organization is hard to do because we use an antiquated system, then we’re making it hard to share and increasing the potential for duplicate work. If it is not trivially obvious how to create and publish this post, then chances are very high that I’ll put it on the bottom of my queue. And finally, when critical information is spread across various systems, intranet sites, workgroups and peoples inboxes, then it is very hard to learn and grow from that information.  These may sound trivial, but how often do we push things off not because it is intellectually challenging, we may have the answer at our fingertips, but because it is hard to make that information readily available.  If an engaged employee is a productive employee, then what can we do to increase their level of engagement? We can start by looking for opportunities to provide self-documenting self-service solutions. Our newer employees grew up using simplified web interfaces everyday and they loathe calling a help-desk unless it is the last resort. Sadly, many of our enterprise applications have not kept pace and we all still have processes that are based on sending an email -- like discount approvals, vacation requests, or even offer-letter approvals.   My suggestion is to pick one highly visible, high-impact process where employees are either reticent to execute on the process or openly complain about how cumbersome it is and look at the mechanism for that process. If there are better ways, streamlined steps, better UIs that could be done, then you have a candidate to reconfigure that process and make it more engaging. Looking to better engage your employees? Start here!

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• Cutting Paper through Visualization and Collaboration

  - by [email protected]

  It's hard not to hear about "Going Green" these days. Many are working to be more environmentally conscious in their personal lives, and this has extended to the corporate world as well. I know I'm always looking for new ways. Environmental responsibility is important at Oracle too, and we have an entire section of our website dedicated to our solutions around the Eco-Enterprise. You can check it out here: http://www.oracle.com/green/index.html Perhaps the biggest and most obvious challenge in the world of business is the fact that we use so much paper. There are many good reasons why we print today too. For example: Printing off a document, spreadsheet, or CAD design that will be reviewed and marked up while on a plane Having a printout of a facility when a field engineer performs on-site maintenance During a multi-party design review where a number of people will review a drawing in a meeting room, scribbling onto a large scale drawing print to provide their collaborative comments These are just a few potential use cases, and they're valid ones. However, there's a way in which you can turn these paper processes into digital ones. AutoVue allows you to view, mark-up, and collaborate on all the data you would print. Indeed, this is the core of what AutoVue does. So if we take the examples above, we could address each as follows: Allow you to view the document, spreadsheet, or CAD drawing in AutoVue on your laptop. Even if you originally had this data vaulted in some time of system of record (like an ECM solution) and view your data from there, AutoVue allows you to "Work Offline" and take the documents you need to review on your laptop. From there, the many annotation tools in AutoVue will give you what you need to comment upon the documents that you are reviewing. The challenge with the mobile workforce is always access to information. People who perform maintenance and repair operations often are in locations with little to no Internet connectivity. However, technology is coming to these people in the form of laptops, tablet PCs, and other portable devices too. AutoVue can address situations with limited bandwidth through our streaming technology for viewing, meaning that the most up to date information can be pulled up from the central server - without the need for large data transfer. When there is no connectivity at all, the "Work Offline" option will handle this. For a design review session, the Real-Time Collaboration capabilities of AutoVue will let all the participants view the same document in a synchronized view, allowing each person to be able to mark-up the document at the same time. Since this is done in a web-based manner, not only is it not necessary to print the document, but you benefit by reducing the travel needed for these sessions. Not only are trees spared, but jet fuel as well. There are many steps involved with "Going Green", but each step is a necessary one. What we do today will directly influence our future generations, and we're looking to help.

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