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  • [GEEK SCHOOL] Network Security 1: Securing User Accounts and Passwords in Windows

    - by Matt Klein
    This How-To Geek School class is intended for people who want to learn more about security when using Windows operating systems. You will learn many principles that will help you have a more secure computing experience and will get the chance to use all the important security tools and features that are bundled with Windows. Obviously, we will share everything you need to know about using them effectively. In this first lesson, we will talk about password security; the different ways of logging into Windows and how secure they are. In the proceeding lesson, we will explain where Windows stores all the user names and passwords you enter while working in this operating systems, how safe they are, and how to manage this data. Moving on in the series, we will talk about User Account Control, its role in improving the security of your system, and how to use Windows Defender in order to protect your system from malware. Then, we will talk about the Windows Firewall, how to use it in order to manage the apps that get access to the network and the Internet, and how to create your own filtering rules. After that, we will discuss the SmartScreen Filter – a security feature that gets more and more attention from Microsoft and is now widely used in its Windows 8.x operating systems. Moving on, we will discuss ways to keep your software and apps up-to-date, why this is important and which tools you can use to automate this process as much as possible. Last but not least, we will discuss the Action Center and its role in keeping you informed about what’s going on with your system and share several tips and tricks about how to stay safe when using your computer and the Internet. Let’s get started by discussing everyone’s favorite subject: passwords. The Types of Passwords Found in Windows In Windows 7, you have only local user accounts, which may or may not have a password. For example, you can easily set a blank password for any user account, even if that one is an administrator. The only exception to this rule are business networks where domain policies force all user accounts to use a non-blank password. In Windows 8.x, you have both local accounts and Microsoft accounts. If you would like to learn more about them, don’t hesitate to read the lesson on User Accounts, Groups, Permissions & Their Role in Sharing, in our Windows Networking series. Microsoft accounts are obliged to use a non-blank password due to the fact that a Microsoft account gives you access to Microsoft services. Using a blank password would mean exposing yourself to lots of problems. Local accounts in Windows 8.1 however, can use a blank password. On top of traditional passwords, any user account can create and use a 4-digit PIN or a picture password. These concepts were introduced by Microsoft to speed up the sign in process for the Windows 8.x operating system. However, they do not replace the use of a traditional password and can be used only in conjunction with a traditional user account password. Another type of password that you encounter in Windows operating systems is the Homegroup password. In a typical home network, users can use the Homegroup to easily share resources. A Homegroup can be joined by a Windows device only by using the Homegroup password. If you would like to learn more about the Homegroup and how to use it for network sharing, don’t hesitate to read our Windows Networking series. What to Keep in Mind When Creating Passwords, PINs and Picture Passwords When creating passwords, a PIN, or a picture password for your user account, we would like you keep in mind the following recommendations: Do not use blank passwords, even on the desktop computers in your home. You never know who may gain unwanted access to them. Also, malware can run more easily as administrator because you do not have a password. Trading your security for convenience when logging in is never a good idea. When creating a password, make it at least eight characters long. Make sure that it includes a random mix of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. Ideally, it should not be related in any way to your name, username, or company name. Make sure that your passwords do not include complete words from any dictionary. Dictionaries are the first thing crackers use to hack passwords. Do not use the same password for more than one account. All of your passwords should be unique and you should use a system like LastPass, KeePass, Roboform or something similar to keep track of them. When creating a PIN use four different digits to make things slightly harder to crack. When creating a picture password, pick a photo that has at least 10 “points of interests”. Points of interests are areas that serve as a landmark for your gestures. Use a random mixture of gesture types and sequence and make sure that you do not repeat the same gesture twice. Be aware that smudges on the screen could potentially reveal your gestures to others. The Security of Your Password vs. the PIN and the Picture Password Any kind of password can be cracked with enough effort and the appropriate tools. There is no such thing as a completely secure password. However, passwords created using only a few security principles are much harder to crack than others. If you respect the recommendations shared in the previous section of this lesson, you will end up having reasonably secure passwords. Out of all the log in methods in Windows 8.x, the PIN is the easiest to brute force because PINs are restricted to four digits and there are only 10,000 possible unique combinations available. The picture password is more secure than the PIN because it provides many more opportunities for creating unique combinations of gestures. Microsoft have compared the two login options from a security perspective in this post: Signing in with a picture password. In order to discourage brute force attacks against picture passwords and PINs, Windows defaults to your traditional text password after five failed attempts. The PIN and the picture password function only as alternative login methods to Windows 8.x. Therefore, if someone cracks them, he or she doesn’t have access to your user account password. However, that person can use all the apps installed on your Windows 8.x device, access your files, data, and so on. How to Create a PIN in Windows 8.x If you log in to a Windows 8.x device with a user account that has a non-blank password, then you can create a 4-digit PIN for it, to use it as a complementary login method. In order to create one, you need to go to “PC Settings”. If you don’t know how, then press Windows + C on your keyboard or flick from the right edge of the screen, on a touch-enabled device, then press “Settings”. The Settings charm is now open. Click or tap the link that says “Change PC settings”, on the bottom of the charm. In PC settings, go to Accounts and then to “Sign-in options”. Here you will find all the necessary options for changing your existing password, creating a PIN, or a picture password. To create a PIN, press the “Add” button in the PIN section. The “Create a PIN” wizard is started and you are asked to enter the password of your user account. Type it and press “OK”. Now you are asked to enter a 4-digit pin in the “Enter PIN” and “Confirm PIN” fields. The PIN has been created and you can now use it to log in to Windows. How to Create a Picture Password in Windows 8.x If you log in to a Windows 8.x device with a user account that has a non-blank password, then you can also create a picture password and use it as a complementary login method. In order to create one, you need to go to “PC settings”. In PC Settings, go to Accounts and then to “Sign-in options”. Here you will find all the necessary options for changing your existing password, creating a PIN, or a picture password. To create a picture password, press the “Add” button in the “Picture password” section. The “Create a picture password” wizard is started and you are asked to enter the password of your user account. You are shown a guide on how the picture password works. Take a few seconds to watch it and learn the gestures that can be used for your picture password. You will learn that you can create a combination of circles, straight lines, and taps. When ready, press “Choose picture”. Browse your Windows 8.x device and select the picture you want to use for your password and press “Open”. Now you can drag the picture to position it the way you want. When you like how the picture is positioned, press “Use this picture” on the left. If you are not happy with the picture, press “Choose new picture” and select a new one, as shown during the previous step. After you have confirmed that you want to use this picture, you are asked to set up your gestures for the picture password. Draw three gestures on the picture, any combination you wish. Please remember that you can use only three gestures: circles, straight lines, and taps. Once you have drawn those three gestures, you are asked to confirm. Draw the same gestures one more time. If everything goes well, you are informed that you have created your picture password and that you can use it the next time you sign in to Windows. If you don’t confirm the gestures correctly, you will be asked to try again, until you draw the same gestures twice. To close the picture password wizard, press “Finish”. Where Does Windows Store Your Passwords? Are They Safe? All the passwords that you enter in Windows and save for future use are stored in the Credential Manager. This tool is a vault with the usernames and passwords that you use to log on to your computer, to other computers on the network, to apps from the Windows Store, or to websites using Internet Explorer. By storing these credentials, Windows can automatically log you the next time you access the same app, network share, or website. Everything that is stored in the Credential Manager is encrypted for your protection.

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  • links for 2010-12-20

    - by Bob Rhubart
    Oracle BI Applications - Security "I recently had to dig into the standard Oracle BI Applications Security Oracle delivers out of the box. The clients had two security requirements..." - Daan Bakboord (tags: oracle security businessintelligence) Changing DataSource Details Using WLST (Multiple Domains) Jay Sensharma shares a script that will make it "easy for WebLogic Administrator to change all the DataSource UserName and Passwords." (tags: weblogic oracle wlst) Richard Veryard on Architecture: Complexity and Power 2 "Power and complexity are higher-order examples of so-called non-functional requirements. Architects need to be able to reason about the composition and decomposition of non-functional requirements." - Richard Veryard (tags: entarch complexity enterprisearchitecture) Anti-Search patterns - SQL to look for what is NOT there - Part One Oracle ACE Director Lucas Jellema discusses a number of situations in which "you are looking for records that do not exist" and demonstrates several "anti-queries." (tags: oracle otn oracleace sql) SOA & Middleware: Canceling a running composite in SOA Suite 11g Niall Commiskey offers a simple scenario. (tags: oracle soa) SOA Design Patterns in the Cloud | SOA World Magazine Srinivasan Sundara Raja attempts to clear up the "confusion in the air about the applicability of SOA in a Cloud managed environment and whether Cloud is the next generation of SOA." (tags: oracle soa cloud) Mark Nelson: Using WebLogic as a Load Balancer "There are a number of good options available to set up a software load balancer in the test environment," says Mark Nelson. "In this post, we will explore one such option – using the HTTP Cluster Servlet that is included with WebLogic Server." (tags: weblogic oracle otn)

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  • When runs a product out of support?

    That is a question I get regularly from customers. Microsoft has a great site where you can find that information. Unfortunately this site is not easy to find, and a lot of people are not aware of this site. A good reason to promote it a little. So if you ever get a question on this topic, go to http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/search/Default.aspx. At that site, you can find also the details of the policy Microsoft Support Lifecycle Policy The Microsoft Support Lifecycle policy took effect in October 2002, and applies to most products currently available through retail purchase or volume licensing and most future release products. Through the policy, Microsoft will offer a minimum of: 10 years of support (5 years Mainstream Support and 5 years Extended Support) at the supported service pack level for Business and Developer products 5 years Mainstream Support at the supported service pack level for Consumer/Hardware/Multimedia products 3 years of Mainstream Support for products that are annually released (for example, Money, Encarta, Picture It!, and Streets & Trips) Phases of the Support Lifecycle Mainstream Support Mainstream Support is the first phase of the product support lifecycle. At the supported service pack level, Mainstream Support includes: Incident support (no-charge incident support, paid incident support, support charged on an hourly basis, support for warranty claims) Security update support The ability to request non-security hotfixes Please note: Enrollment in a maintenance program may be required to receive these benefits for certain products Extended Support The Extended Support phase follows Mainstream Support for Business and Developer products. At the supported service pack level, Extended Support includes: Paid support Security update support at no additional cost Non-security related hotfix support requires a separate Extended Hotfix Support Agreement to be purchased (per-fix fees also apply) Please note: Microsoft will not accept requests for warranty support, design changes, or new features during the Extended Support phase Extended Support is not available for Consumer, Hardware, or Multimedia products Enrollment in a maintenance program may be required to receive these benefits for certain products Self-Help Online Support Self-Help Online Support is available throughout a product's lifecycle and for a minimum of 12 months after the product reaches the end of its support. Microsoft online Knowledge Base articles, FAQs, troubleshooting tools, and other resources, are provided to help customers resolve common issues. Please note: Enrollment in a maintenance program may be required to receive these benefits for certain products (source: http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/#tab1)

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  • Is there a way to track data structure dependencies from the database, through the tiers, all the way out to a web page?

    - by Sean Mickey
    When we design applications, we generally end up with the same tiered sets of data structures: A persistent data structure that is described using DDL and implemented as RDBMS tables and columns. A set of domain objects that consist primarily of data structures, usually combined with business-rule level logic, that are implemented in a programming language such as Java. A set of service layer interfaces that directly support use case implementations (which use the domain data structures as parameters), implemented as EJBs or something equivalent in another programming language. UI screens that allow users to C reate, R etrieve, U pdate, and (maybe) D elete all manner of data structures and graphs of data structures, with numerous screens and with multiple UI widgets, all structured to support the same data structures. But if you want to change the data structures in any of these tiers, it always seems extremely difficult to assess the impact(s) the change will have across the application. UML can help, but tracing through diagram after diagram is not a real solution to this problem. The best I have ever seen was a homespun data tracking spreadsheet document that listed all of the data structures and walked the relationships from tier-to-tier. Is there a tool or accepted approach that makes it easy to identify a data structure in any tier and easily obtain a list of all dependent: database table and column data structures domain object data structures service layer interface methods and parameter data structures screen & UI component data structures

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  • Electric Dreams: Picking Out a Vintage 1980s Computer [Video]

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    What if you had to pick out a 1980s era computer for use in your home today? BBC show Electric Dreams walks us through the history with a “time traveling” family. Electric Dreams is a show based on the novel premise that an average British family is starting, technologically speaking, in the 1970s and progressing over a month to the year 2000–restricted each step of the way to using technology available only in the era they are emulating. In the above video clip they’ve reached 1982 and visit the National Museum of Computing to pick out a vintage computer. It’s interesting to see the kids interact with the computer and experience programming for, presumably, the first time. Have a vintage computer memory (mine is programming on a Timex Sinclair); let’s hear about it in the comments. Electric Dreams – The 1980s ‘The Micro Home Computer Of 1982′ [via O'Reilly Radar] How To Encrypt Your Cloud-Based Drive with BoxcryptorHTG Explains: Photography with Film-Based CamerasHow to Clean Your Dirty Smartphone (Without Breaking Something)

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  • Nuggets of wisdom?

    - by Bill Karwin
    There are many quotes from famous computer scientists that have become the wisdom that guides our profession. For example: "Premature optimization is the root of all evil in programming." Donald Knuth (citing Hoare's Dictum) "Everyone knows that debugging is twice as hard as writing a program in the first place. So if you're as clever as you can be when you write it, how will you ever debug it?" Brian Kernighan And so on. My question is, what are your favorite words of wisdom about programming from someone who is not famous? Was it a friend, a coworker, or a teacher, or a family member? For example, a technical writer friend of mine said: "You can't get the right answers unless you ask the right questions." Thanks for all the contributions! The answer I selected was (a) specifically coding-related, and (b) stated by someone who is not technically famous (though he has a popular blog and a podcast and runs StackOverflow). I.e. he's no Bill Gates or Yogi Berra.

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  • Bulletin Board System with tagging, email notification

    - by user678220
    I am looking for nice BBS system, Bulletin Board System, Discussion Board, or nice in-company communication platform. There are lots of people, about 30 people, joining in our project. We would like to share idea among us on that platform. We can post questions and concerns related with the project, and we would like to respond each other. Here is my list of functionality I want: Tagging Thread e.g) Announcement, Finance, Legal, Idea. One thread can have multiple Tags. members can set on/off to receive email when new comments are posted. They can set on/off on each Tag. e.g) one member on to receive email related with "Announcement", but off to receive "Finance". Thread owner can change threads' tag any time. Thread can have several type of post. Thread can be "vote" thread. Everyone can vote their opinion. Thread can be "action plan" thread. In this thread, "who" will "what" remains in the thread. By viewing all "action plan" thread, all action plans needed in the company is visualized.

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  • Online scoreboard in Python?

    - by CorundumGames
    So my friend and I are working on an arcade-style game in Python and Pygame. We're beginning to look at the feasibility of an online leaderboard, given our current programming backgrounds. Such a leaderboard would have the following requirements/features; The ability to search through demographics like region, country, platform, game mode, recentness ("best scores this month") and difficulty. (e.g. to make it possible for someone to say "I'm the best player in Italy!" or "I'm the best Linux player in South America!") Our game will not have online multiplayer, so no need to worry about that. We don't expect the game to be a million-dollar hit. We want the scores to be accessible both from in-game and the website. We would like some semblance of security to make sure no one plugs fake scores into the system. This is our present situation; Neither I nor my friend have any network programming background. All I really know is that sockets are low-level, HTTP is high-level. I happen to know that the Google App Engine might be useful for something like this, and I'm really thinking about going with that. We're not sure how we would store all the high score data. Our game will be free and open source (though we might keep the components that submit the high scores closed-source). Aside from all of this, we don't really have any idea where to begin. Any thoughts?

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  • Visual Studio LightSwitch: Yes, these are the droids you&rsquo;re looking for

    - by Jim Duffy
    With all the news and focus on the new features coming in Silverlight 5 I thought I’d take a few minutes to remind folks about the work that Microsoft has done on LightSwitch since the applications created by LightSwitch are Silverlight applications. LightSwitch makes it easier for non-coders to build business applications and easier for coders to maintain them. For those not familiar with LightSwitch, it is a new tool that provides a easier and quicker way for coder and non-coder types alike to create line-of-business applications for the desktop, the web, and the cloud. The target audience for this tool are those power-user types who create Access applications for their organization. While those Access applications fill an immediate need, they typically aren’t very scalable, extendable and/or maintainable by the development staff of the organization. LightSwitch creates applications based on technologies built into Visual Studio thus making it easier for corporate developers to extend and maintain them. LightSwitch is currently in beta but it will ultimately become a new addition to the Visual Studio line of products. Go ahead and download the beta to get a better idea of what the product can do for your organization. The LightSwitch Developer Center contains links to download the beta links to instructional videos links to tutorials links to the LightSwitch Training Kit Another quality resource for LightSwitch information is the Visual Studio LightSwitch Team Blog. My good friend Beth Massi is on the LightSwitch team and has additional valuable content on her blog. Have a day.

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  • News about Oracle Documaker Enterprise Edition

    - by Susanne Hale
    Updates come from the Documaker front on two counts: Oracle Documaker Awarded XCelent Award for Best Functionality Celent has published a NEW report entitled Document Automation Solution Vendors for Insurers 2011. In the evaluation, Oracle received the XCelent award for Functionality, which recognizes solutions as the leader in this category of the evaluation. According to Celent, “Insurers need to address issues related to the creation and handling of all sorts of documents. Key issues in document creation are complexity and volume. Today, most document automation vendors provide an array of features to cope with the complexity and volume of documents insurers need to generate.” The report ranks ten solution providers on Technology, Functionality, Market Penetration, and Services. Each profile provides detailed information about the vendor and its document automation system, the professional services and support staff it offers, product features, insurance customers and reference feedback, its technology, implementation process, and pricing.  A summary of the report is available at Celent’s web site. Documaker User Group in Wisconsin Holds First Meeting Oracle Documaker users in Wisconsin made the first Documaker User Group meeting a great success, with representation from eight companies. On April 19, over 25 attendees got together to share information, best practices, experiences and concepts related to Documaker and enterprise document automation; they were also able to share feedback with Documaker product management. One insurer shared how they publish and deliver documents to both internal and external customers as quickly and cost effectively as possible, since providing point of sale documents to the sales force in real time is crucial to obtaining and maintaining the book of business. They outlined best practices that ensure consistent development and testing strategies processes are in place to maximize performance and reliability. And, they gave an overview of the supporting applications they developed to monitor and improve performance as well as monitor and track each transaction. Wisconsin User Group meeting photos are posted on the Oracle Insurance Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/OracleInsurance. The Wisconsin User Group will meet again on October 26. If you and other Documaker customers in your area are interested in setting up a user group in your area, please contact Susanne Hale ([email protected]), (703) 927-0863.

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  • SQL SERVER – Effect of Collation on Resultset – SQL in Sixty Seconds #026 – Video

    - by pinaldave
    Collation is a very important concept but often ignored. I have often seen developers either not understanding this or ignored it – this is plain wrong. In simple word we can say Collation is the language or interpreting done by SQL Server. Well, in today’s SQL in Sixty Seconds we are going to observe how collation affects the resultset. Today’s blog post is inspired from my earlier blog post SQL SERVER – Effect of Case Sensitive Collation on Resultset. I strongly encourage you to read this earlier blog post for sample code as well additional explanation related to the concept shared in today’s SQL in Sixty Seconds. Here is the code used in the video. USE TempDB GO -- Sample Data Building CREATE TABLE ColTable (Col1 VARCHAR(15) COLLATE Latin1_General_CI_AS, Col2 VARCHAR(14) COLLATE Latin1_General_CS_AS) ; INSERT ColTable(Col1, Col2) VALUES ('Apple','Apple'), ('apple','apple'), ('pineapple','pineapple'), ('Pineapple','Pineapple'); GO -- Retrieve Data SELECT * FROM ColTable GO -- Retrieve Data SELECT * FROM ColTable ORDER BY Col1 GO -- Retrieve Data SELECT * FROM ColTable ORDER BY Col2 GO -- Clean up DROP TABLE ColTable GO Related Tips in SQL in Sixty Seconds: SQL SERVER – Effect of Case Sensitive Collation on Resultset Example of Width Sensitive and Width Insensitive Collation Collation and Collation Sensitivity – Quiz – Puzzle – 6 of 31 Change Collation of Database Column – T-SQL Script Find Collation of Database and Table Column Using T-SQL Default Collation of SQL Server 2008 Cannot resolve collation conflict for equal to operation If we like your idea we promise to share with you educational material. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Database, Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL in Sixty Seconds, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Server Management Studio, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology, Video

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  • Component Development within SOA

    How do the concepts of component development work within SOA? Let’s first break this question down by defining what component development is. Component development is the process of implementing specific functionality in the form of small units of complied code that can be reused across multiple applications or product families. Typically, components are integrated with other components forming composite components. In general, most interaction between components is done through interfaces to promote loose coupling. The concept of loose coupling refers to the interconnections of components in a system so that their component dependences based on contracts defined by interfaces. A real life example of this can be experienced while using Legos to build a structure. If we consider each Lego block as a component, then when two more Legos are connected they form a composite component due to the fact that the structure is made up of multiple components.   It is important to note that composite components can be made from standard components and other composite components. Eventually as various components and composite components become interconnected a structure begins to form in the shape of an application or in the case of Legos in the form of Lego structure. Software components can loosely be defined as small units of related implemented functionality that can communicate with other components or may have dependencies on other components. Based on the definitions provide above, it is my personal opinion that SOA works well with the concepts of component development. The SOA architectural style focuses on creating loosely coupled services. Each service much like a component offers related functionality that can be accessed by various requesting clients.  In addition services can be derived just like components in that services can be built on other services to form composite services. In summary, the concepts of component development can work within SOA based on the example above.

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  • What design patters are the worst or most narrowly defined?

    - by Akku
    For every programming project, Managers with past programming experience try to shine when they recommend some design patterns for your project. I like design patterns when they make sense or if you need a scalbale solution. I've used Proxies, Observers and Command patterns in a positive way for example, and do so every day. But I'm really hesitant to use say a Factory pattern if there's only one way to create an object, as a factory might make it all easier in the future, but complicates the code and is pure overhead. So, my question is in respect to my future career and my answer to manager types throwing random pattern-names around: Which design patterns did you use, that threw you back overall? Which are the worst design patterns, that you shouldn't have a look at if it's not that only single situation where it makes sense (read: which design patterns are very narrowly defined)? (It's like I was looking for the negative reviews of an overall good product of amazon to see what bugged people most in using design patterns). And I'm not talking about Anti-Patterns here, but about Patterns that are usually thought of as "good" patterns.

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  • Are today's general purpose languages at the right level of abstarction ?

    - by KeesDijk
    Today Uncle Bob Martin, a genuine hero, showed this video In this video Bob Martin claims that our programming languages are at the right level for our problems at this time. One of the reasons I get from this video as that he Bob Martin sees us detail managers and our problems are at the detail level. This is the first time I have to disagree with Bob Martin and was wondering what the people at programmers think about this. First there is a difference between MDA and MDE MDA in itself hasn't worked and I blame way to much formalisation at a level you can't formalize these kind of problems. MDE and MDD are still trying to prove themselves and in my mind show great promise. e.g. look at MetaEdit The detail still needs to be management in my mind, but you do so in one place (framework or generators) instead of at multiple places. Right for our kind of problems ? I think depends on what problems you look at. Do the current programming languages keep up with the current demands on time to market ? Are they good at bridging the business IT communication gap ? So what do you think ?

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  • Are today's general purpose languages at the right level of abstraction ?

    - by KeesDijk
    Today Uncle Bob Martin, a genuine hero, showed this video In this video Bob Martin claims that our programming languages are at the right level for our problems at this time. One of the reasons I get from this video as that Bob Martin sees us as detail managers and our problems are at the detail level. This is the first time I have to disagree with Bob Martin and was wondering what the people at programmers think about this. First there is a difference between MDA and MDE MDA in itself hasn't worked and I blame way to much formalisation at a level you can't formalize these kind of problems. MDE and MDD are still trying to prove themselves and in my mind show great promise. e.g. look at MetaEdit The detail still needs to be management in my mind, but you do so in one place (framework or generators) instead of at multiple places. Right for our kind of problems ? I think depends on what problems you look at. Do the current programming languages keep up with the current demands on time to market ? Are they good at bridging the business IT communication gap ? So what do you think ?

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  • Async & Await in C# with Xamarin

    - by Wallym
     One of the great things about the .NET Framework is that Microsoft has worked long and hard to improve many features. Since the initial release of .NET 1.0, there has been support for threading via .NET threads as well as an application-level threadpool. This provided a great starting point when compared to Visual Basic 6 and classic ASP programming. The release of.NET 4 brought significant improvements in the area of threading, asynchronous operations and parallel operations. While the improvements made working with asynchronous operations easier, new problems were introduced, since many of these operations work based on callbacks. For example: How should a developer handle error checking? The program flow tends to be non-linear. Fixing bugs can be problematic. It is hard for a developer to get an understanding of what is happening within an application. The release of .NET 4.5 (and C# 5.0), in the fall of 2012, was a blockbuster update with regards to asynchronous operations and threads. Microsoft has added C# language keywords to take this non-linear callback-based program flow and turn it into a much more linear flow. Recently, Xamarin has updated Xamarin.Android and Xamarin.iOS to support async. This article will look at how Xamarin has implemented the .NET 4.5/C# 5 support into their Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android productions. There are three general areas that I'll focus on: A general look at the asynchronous support in Xamarin's mobile products. This includes async, await, and the implications that this has for cross-platform code. The new HttpClient class that is provided in .NET 4.5/Mono 3.2. Xamarin's extensions for asynchronous operations for Android and iOS. FYI: Be aware that sometimes the OpenWeatherMap API breaks, for no reason.  I found this out after I shipped the article in.

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  • SQL SERVER – Cleaning Up SQL Server Indexes – Defragmentation, Fillfactor – Video

    - by pinaldave
    Storing data non-contiguously on disk is known as fragmentation. Before learning to eliminate fragmentation, you should have a clear understanding of the types of fragmentation. When records are stored non-contiguously inside the page, then it is called internal fragmentation. When on disk, the physical storage of pages and extents is not contiguous. We can get both types of fragmentation using the DMV: sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats. Here is the generic advice for reducing the fragmentation. If avg_fragmentation_in_percent > 5% and < 30%, then use ALTER INDEX REORGANIZE: This statement is replacement for DBCC INDEXDEFRAG to reorder the leaf level pages of the index in a logical order. As this is an online operation, the index is available while the statement is running. If avg_fragmentation_in_percent > 30%, then use ALTER INDEX REBUILD: This is replacement for DBCC DBREINDEX to rebuild the index online or offline. In such case, we can also use the drop and re-create index method.(Ref: MSDN) Here is quick video which covers many of the above mentioned topics. While Vinod and I were planning about Indexing course, we had plenty of fun and learning. We often recording few of our statement and just left it aside. Afterwords we thought it will be really funny Here is funny video shot by Vinod and Myself on the same subject: Here is the link to the SQL Server Performance:  Indexing Basics. Here is the additional reading material on the same subject: SQL SERVER – Fragmentation – Detect Fragmentation and Eliminate Fragmentation SQL SERVER – 2005 – Display Fragmentation Information of Data and Indexes of Database Table SQL SERVER – De-fragmentation of Database at Operating System to Improve Performance Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Index, SQL Performance, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology, Video

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  • Questions, Knowledge Checks and Assessments

    - by ted.henson
    Questions should be used to reinforce concepts throughout the title. You have the option to include questions in the course, in assessments, in Knowledge Checks, or in any combination. Questions are required for creating knowledge checks and assessments. It is important to remember that questions that are not in assessments are not tracked. Be sure to structure your outline so that questions are added to the appropriate assignable unit. I usually recommend that questions appear directly below their relative section. This serves two purposes. First, it helps ensure that the related content and question stay relative to one another. Secondly, it ensures that when the "link to subject" option is used it will relate back to the relative content. Knowledge checks are created using the questions that have been added to the related assignable unit. Use Knowledge Checks to give users an additional opportunity to review what they have learned. Knowledge Check allows users to check their own knowledge without being tracked or scored. Many users like having this self check option, especially if they know they are going to be tested later. Each assignable unit can have its own Knowledge Check. Assessments provide a way to measure knowledge or understanding of the course material. The results of each assessment are scored and tracked. Assessments are created using the questions that have been added to the relative assignable unit(s). Each assignable unit, including the Title AU, can have multiple assessments. Consider how your knowledge paths will be structured when planning your assessments. For instance, you can create a multiple-activity knowledge path, with multiple assessments from the same title or assignable unit. Also remember, in Manager an assessment can be either a pre or post assessment. Pre-assessments allow the student to discover what is already known in a specific topic or subject and important if the personal course feature is being used. Post-assessments allow you test the student knowledge or understanding after completing the material.

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  • SQL SERVER – Identify Most Resource Intensive Queries – SQL in Sixty Seconds #029 – Video

    - by pinaldave
    There are a few questions I often get asked. I wonder how interesting is that in our daily life all of us have to often need the same kind of information at the same time. Here is the example of the similar questions: How many user created tables are there in the database? How many non clustered indexes each of the tables in the database have? Is table Heap or has clustered index on it? How many rows each of the tables is contained in the database? I finally wrote down a very quick script (in less than sixty seconds when I originally wrote it) which can answer above questions. I also created a very quick video to explain the results and how to execute the script. Here is the complete script which I have used in the SQL in Sixty Seconds Video. SELECT [schema_name] = s.name, table_name = o.name, MAX(i1.type_desc) ClusteredIndexorHeap, COUNT(i.TYPE) NoOfNonClusteredIndex, p.rows FROM sys.indexes i INNER JOIN sys.objects o ON i.[object_id] = o.[object_id] INNER JOIN sys.schemas s ON o.[schema_id] = s.[schema_id] LEFT JOIN sys.partitions p ON p.OBJECT_ID = o.OBJECT_ID AND p.index_id IN (0,1) LEFT JOIN sys.indexes i1 ON i.OBJECT_ID = i1.OBJECT_ID AND i1.TYPE IN (0,1) WHERE o.TYPE IN ('U') AND i.TYPE = 2 GROUP BY s.name, o.name, p.rows ORDER BY schema_name, table_name Related Tips in SQL in Sixty Seconds: Find Row Count in Table – Find Largest Table in Database Find Row Count in Table – Find Largest Table in Database – T-SQL Identify Numbers of Non Clustered Index on Tables for Entire Database Index Levels, Page Count, Record Count and DMV – sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats Index Levels and Delete Operations – Page Level Observation What would you like to see in the next SQL in Sixty Seconds video? Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Database, Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL in Sixty Seconds, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Server Management Studio, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology, Video Tagged: Excel

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  • New Whitepaper: Upgrading your Customizations to Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12

    - by Sara
    The prospect of upgrading from Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i to Release 12 might seem intimidating if you have customized your EBS 11i environment. When considering this upgrade, one of the first things you need to do is review your customizations systematically. I am pleased to announce the availability of a new white paper that will help you do that: Upgrading your Customizations to Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1 (Note 1435894.1) This white paper provides an overview of you can manage and upgrade existing Release 11i customizations to Release 12.1. It covers identifying the various types of customizations you might have--such as personalizations, Oracle Forms, Web ADI, and mod_plsql--and how to handle them during your upgrade. The document discusses upgrading Oracle E-Business Suite customizations in the context of the following cycle: Creating an inventory of your existing customizations Comparing customizations to standard Release 12 functionality Upgrading customizations Reimplementing customizations Creating future customizations The paper also provides recommendations on customization technologies such as Oracle Application Framework (OAF), Oracle Application Express (APEX), and Oracle Application Development Framework (ADF). This white paper is written for Oracle E-Business Suite system administrators, DBAs, developers, and implementers. Related Webcast Upgrading E-Business Suite 11i Customizations to R12 (Presentation) Related Articles Whitepaper Update: Planning Your E-Business Suite 11i Upgrade to R12.1 (Third Edition) ATG Live Webcast: Upgrading your EBS 11i Customizations to Release 12 Extended Support Fees Waived for E-Business Suite 11i and 12.0 Best Practices for Combining EBS Upgrades with Platform Migrations Quarterly E-Business Suite Upgrade Recommendations: January 2012 Edition New Whitepaper: Upgrading EBS 11i Forms + OA Framework Personalizations to EBS 12 Forms Personalization - Get It While It's Hot! To Customize or Not to Customize?

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  • Using Microsoft's Chart Controls In An ASP.NET Application: Serializing Chart Data

    In most usage scenarios, the data displayed in a Microsoft Chart control comes from some dynamic source, such as from a database query. The appearance of the chart can be modified dynamically, as well; past installments in this article series showed how to programmatically customize the axes, labels, and other appearance-related settings. However, it is possible to statically define the chart's data and appearance strictly through the control's declarative markup. One of the demos examined in the Getting Started article rendered a column chart with seven columns whose labels and values were defined statically in the <asp:Series> tag's <Points> collection. Given this functionality, it should come as no surprise that the Microsoft Chart Controls also support serialization. Serialization is the process of persisting the state of a control or an object to some other medium, such as to disk. Deserialization is the inverse process, and involves taking the persisted data and recreating the control or object. With just a few lines of code you can persist the appearance settings, the data, or both to a file on disk or to any stream. Likewise, it takes just a few lines of codes to reconstitute a chart from the persisted information. This article shows how to use the Microsoft Chart Control's serialization functionality by examining a demo application that allows users to create custom charts, specifying the data to plot and some appearance-related settings. The user can then save a "snapshot" of this chart, which persists its appearance and data to a record in a database. From another page, users can view these saved chart snapshots. Read on to learn more! Read More >

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  • Common mistakes which lead to corrupted invariants

    - by Dave B.
    My main source of income is web development and through this I have come to enjoy the wonders of programming as my knowledge of different languages has increased over the years through work and personal play. At some point I reached a decision that my college education was not enough and that I wanted to go back to school to get a university degree in either computer science or software engineering. I have tried a number of things in my life and it took me a while before I found something that I feel is a passion and this is it. There is one aspect of this area of study that I find throws me off though. I find the formal methods of proving program correctness a challenge. It is not that I have trouble writing code correctly, I can look at an algorithm and see how it is correct or flawed but I struggle sometimes to translate this into formal definitions. I have gotten perfect or near perfect marks on every programming assignment I have done at the college level but I recently got a swath of textbooks from a guy from univeristy of waterloo and found that I have had trouble when it comes to a few of the formalisms. Well at this point its really just one thing specifically, It would really help me if some of you could provide to me some good examples of common mistakes which lead to corrupted invariants, especially in loops. I have a few software engineering and computer science textbooks but they only show how things should be. I would like to know how things go wrong so that it is easier to recognize when it happens. Its almost embarrassing to broach this subject because formalisms are really basic foundations upon which matters of substance are built. I want to overcome this now so that it does not hinder me later.

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  • Interacting with clients using project management systems

    - by Keyo
    I work in web development, that involves a lot of smaller custom projects rather than one large product. Requirements and specifications are always coming from outside the company. We've setup a ticket tracking system (Active Collab, which is rubbish compared to redmine btw) and given access to clients so they can submit issues. The idea being that less time is taken up with long phone conversations and emails. I think it can work really well if done right. However I'm not so sure it's always a good thing. Feature requests have gone up a lot on some projects. The system also needs to be friendly to non-developers while having the many features that developers use. Developers' tickets do not always map 1-to-1 with the tickets clients will create. So the requirements and broader tickets need to be separated from the more specific developer (specification) related tickets. Perhaps we could use two systems, one for clients to submit their requirements or describe a bug, and one for developers to create tickets like implement method x in class y. Maybe this can be achieved by structuring tickets into more appropriate categories or creating sub-tickets under a feature request ticket. I've briefly looked into Pivotal Tracker and it has a fundamentally different workflow. I would like to know how others are communicating with clients and keeping the technical workflow separate from the non-technical workflow. What tools do you use and how do you use them?

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  • Microsoft Channel 9 Interviews Mei Liang to Introduce Sample Browser Extension for Visual Studio 2012 and 2010

    - by Jialiang
    This morning, Microsoft Channel 9 interviewed Mei Liang - Group Manager of Microsoft All-In-One Code Framework - to introduce the newest Sample Browser extension for Visual Studio 2012 &2010.   This extension provides a way for developers to search and download more than 4500 code samples from within Visual Studio, including over 700 Windows 8 samples and more than 1000 All-In-One Code Framework customer-driven code samples. Mei shows us not only the extension, but also the standalone version of the Sample Browser.   http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/Visual-Studio-Toolbox/Sample-Browser-Visual-Studio-Extension   Microsoft All-In-One Code Framework, working in close partnership with the Visual Studio product team and MSDN Samples Gallery, developed the Sample Browser extension for both Visual Studio 2012 and Visual Studio 2010.  As an effort to evolve the code sample use experience and improve developers' productivity, the Sample Browser allows programmers to search, download and open over 4500 code samples from within Visual Studio with just a few simple clicks.  If no existing code sample can meet the needs, developers can even request a code sample easily from Microsoft thanks to the free “Sample Request Service” offered by Microsoft All-In-One Code Framework.  Through innovations, the teams hope to put the power of tens of thousands of code samples at developers’ fingertips. In short 3 months, the Sample Browser Visual Studio Extension has been installed by 100K global users.  It is also selected as one of the six most highly regarded and commonly used tools for Visual Studio that will make your programming experience feel like never before.   Got to love the All-In-One Code Framework team! You guys know this is THE go to source for code samples. Get this extension and you'll never need to leave VS2012 (well except for bathroom trips, but that's TMI anyway... ;) Read More... From: Greg Duncan (Author of CoolThingOfTheDay) 9/6/2011 12:00 AM The one software design pattern that I have used in just about every application I’ve written is “cut-and-paste,” so the new “Sample Browser” – read sample as a noun not an adjective – is a great boon to my productivity. Read More... From: Jim O'Neil (Microsoft Developer Evangelist) 9/28/2011 12:00 AM Install: http://aka.ms/samplebrowservsx Microsoft All-In-One Code Framework also offers the standalone version of Sample Browser.   The standalone version is particularly useful to Visual Studio Express edition or Visual Studio 2008 users, who cannot install the Sample Browser Visual Studio extension.   From Grassroots’ Passion for Developers to the Innovation of Sample Browser This Sample Browser has come a very long way improving the code sample use experience.  The history can be traced back to a grass-root innovation three years ago.   In early 2009, a few MSDN forum support engineers observed that lots of developers were struggling to work in Visual Studio without adequate code samples. Programming tasks seem harder than they should be when you only read through the documentation.  Just a couple of lines of sample code could answer a lot of questions.   They had a brilliant idea: What if we produce code samples based on developers’ frequently asked programming tasks in forums, social networks and support incidents, and then aggregate all our sample code in a one-stop library to benefit developers?  And what if developers can request code samples directly from Microsoft, free of charge?  This small group of grassroots at Microsoft devoted their nights and weekends to prototyping such a customer-driven code sample library.  This simple idea eventually turned into “Microsoft All-In-One Code Framework”, aka. OneCode.  With the support from more and more passionate developers at Microsoft and the leaders in the Community and Online Support team and Microsoft Commercial Technical Services (CTS), the idea has become a continually growing library with over 1000 customer-driven code samples covering almost all Microsoft development technologies.  These code samples originated from developers’ common pains and needs should be able to help many developers.  However, if developers cannot easily discover the code samples, the effort would still be in vain.  So in early 2010, the team started the idea of Sample Browser to ease the discovery and access of these samples.  In just two months, the first version of Sample Browser was finished and released by a passionate developer.  It was a very simple application, only supporting the basic sample offline search.  Users had to download the whole 100MB sample package containing all samples first, and run the Sample Browser to search locally.   Though developers could not search and download samples on-demand, this simple application laid a solid foundation for the team’s continuous innovations of Sample Browsing experience. In 2011, MSDN Samples Gallery had a big refresh.  The online sample experience was brought to a new level thanks to its PM Steven Wilssens and the gallery team’s effort.  Microsoft All-In-One Code Framework Team saw the opportunity to realize the “on-demand” sample search and download feature with the new gallery.  The two teams formed a strong partnership to upload all the customer-driven code samples to MSDN Samples Gallery, and released the new version of Sample Browser to support “on-demand” sample downloading in April, 2011.  Mei Liang, the Group Manager of Microsoft All-In-One Code Framework, was interviewed by Channel 9 to demo the Sample Browser.  Customers love the effort and the innovation!!  This can be clearly seen from the user comments in the publishing page.   It was very encouraging to the team of All-In-One Code Framework. The team continues innovating and evolving the Sample Browser.  They found the Visual Studio product team this time, and integrated the Sample Browsing experience into the latest Visual Studio 2012.  The newly released Sample Browser Visual Studio extension makes good use of Visual Studio 2012 IDE such as the new Quick Launch bar, the code editor, the toolbar and menus to offer easy access to thousands of code samples from within the development environment.   The Visual Studio Senior Program Manager Lead - Anthony Cangialosi, the Program Manager - Murali Krishna Hosabettu Kamalesha, the MSDN Samples Gallery PM – Steven Wilssens, and the Visual Studio Senior Escalation Engineer - Ed Dore shared lots of insightful suggestions with the team.  Thanks to the brilliant cross-group collaboration inside Microsoft, tens of new features including “Local Language Support” and “Favorite Samples”, as well as a face-lifted user interface, were added to further enhance the user experience. Since the new Sample Browser Visual Studio extension was released, it has received over 100 thousand downloads and five-star ratings.  A customer told the team that he officially falls in LOVE with Microsoft All-In-One Code Framework.   The Sample Browser Innovation for Developers Never Stops! The teams would never stop improving the Sample Browser for developers’ easier lives.   The Microsoft All-In-One Code Framework, Visual Studio and MSDN Samples Gallery teams are working closely to develop the next version of Sample Browser.  Here are the key functions in development or in discussion.  We hope to learn your feedback of the effort.  You can submit your suggestions to the official Visual Studio UserVoice site.  We look forward to hearing from you! 1) Offline Sample Search This is one of the top feature requests that we have received for Sample Browser.   The Sample Browser will support the offline search mode so that developers can search downloaded code samples when they do not have internet access.  This is particularly useful to developers in Enterprises with strict proxy settings. 2) Code Snippet Support and Visual Studio Editor Integration Today, the Sample Browser supports downloading and opening sample project.   However, when developers are searching for code samples, a better user experience would be to see the code snippets in the search result first.  Developers can quickly decide if the code snippet is relevant.   They can also drag and drop the code snippet into the Visual Studio Editor to solve some simple programming tasks.  If developers want to learn more about the sample, they can then choose to download the sample project and open it in Visual Studio. 3) Enterprise Sample Sharing and Searching Large enterprises have many code samples for their own internal tools and APIs that are not appropriate to be shared publicly in MSDN Samples Gallery.   In that case, today’s Sample Browser and MSDN Samples Gallery cannot help these Enterprise developers.  The idea is to create a Code Sample Repository in TFS, and provide an additional Visual Studio extension for Enterprise developers to quickly share code samples to TFS.  The Sample Browser can be configured to connect to the TFS Code Sample Repository to search for and download code samples.  This would potentially enable the Enterprise developers to be more productive. 4) Windows Store Sample Browser With the upcoming release of Windows RT and Microsoft Surface, developers are facing a completely new world of application platform.   Not like laptop, people would often use Microsoft Surface in commute and in travel.  Internet may not be available.  Today’s Visual Studio cannot be installed and run on Windows RT, however, our enthusiastic developers would hope to spend every minute on code.  They love code!   The idea is to create a Windows Store version of Sample Browser. Search and download samples from the online Samples Gallery when the user has internet access. Browse the sample code files and learn the sample documentation of downloaded samples with or without internet access.   In addition to the "browse” function, the Sample Browser could further support “bookmark”, “learning notes”, “code review”, and “quick social sharing". Make full use of the new touch and Windows Store App UI to give developers a new “relaxing” code browsing and learning experience, anytime, anywhere. With Windows Store Sample Browser, developers can enjoy A new relaxing and enjoyable experience for developers to learn code samples You do not have to sit in front of desk and formally open Visual Studio to read code samples.  Many developers get sub-health due to staying in front of desk for a very long time.  With Windows RT, Microsoft Surface and this Windows Store Sample Browser combining with the online MSDN Samples Gallery, developers can sit in a sofa, relaxingly hold the tablet and enjoy to learn their beloved sample code with detailed documentation. Anytime, anywhere Whether you have internet access or not, whether you are at home, in office, or in commute/airplane, developers can always easily access and browse the sample code. Lightweight and fast Particularly for learning a small sample project, the Windows Store Sample Browser would be more lightweight and faster to open and browse the sample code. Please submit your feedback and suggestion to Visual Studio UserVoice.  We look forward to hearing from you and deliver a better and better sample use experience.  Happy Coding!   Special Thanks to People working behind the latest release of Sample Browser Visual Studio Extension and the great partnerships!

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  • CIC 2010 - Ghost Stories and Model Based Design

    - by warren.baird
    I was lucky enough to attend the collaboration and interoperability congress recently. The location was very beautiful and interesting, it was held in the mountains about two hours outside Denver, at the Stanley hotel, famous both for inspiring Steven King's novel "The Shining" and for attracting a lot of attention from the "Ghost Hunters" TV show. My visit was prosaic - I didn't get to experience the ghosts the locals promised - but interesting, with some very informative sessions. I noticed one main theme - a lot of people were talking about Model Based Design (MBD), which is moving design and manufacturing away from 2d drawings and towards 3d models. 2d has some pretty deep roots in industrial manufacturing and there have been a lot of challenges encountered in making the leap to 3d. One of the challenges discussed in several sessions was how to get model information out to the non-engineers in the company, which is a topic near and dear to my heart. In the 2D space, people without access to CAD software (for example, people assembling a product on the shop floor) can be given printouts of the design - it's not particularly efficient, and it definitely isn't very green, but it tends to work. There's no direct equivalent in the 3D space. One of the ways that AutoVue is used in industrial manufacturing is to provide non-CAD users with an easy to use, interactive 3D view of their products - in some cases it's directly used by people on the shop floor, but in cases where paper is really ingrained in the process, AutoVue can be used by a technical publications person to create illustrative 2D views that can be printed that show all of the details necessary to complete the work. Are you making the move to model based design? Is AutoVue helping you with your challenges? Let us know in the comments below.

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