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• Oracle celebrates a successful Oracle CloudWorld in Bogotá

  - by yaldahhakim

  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 written by: Diana Tamayo Tovar Oracle CloudWorld Bogotá began with scattered showers, rain and strong winds, inviting Colombians to spend a whole day in the social, mobile and complete world of Oracle Cloud. The event took place on November 6th with 807 attendees, 15 media representatives and 65 partners, who gathered to share the business value of Cloud along with Oracle executives and Colombian market leaders. Line-of-business leaders in sales and marketing, customer service and support, HR and talent management, and finance and operations, shared their ideas with Colombian customers, giving them a chance to learn, discover and engage with the tools, trends and concepts of Cloud. The highlights of the event included the presence of keynote speakers such as Bob Evans, Chief Communications Officer, and a customer testimonial session with top business leaders from insurance, finances, retail, communications and health Colombian industries, who shared their innovation experiences and success stories on workforce empowerment, talent management, cloud security, social engagement and productivity, providing best case scenarios on how Oracle has helped them transform their business with technologies like cloud, social collaboration and mobile applications. The keynote session was preceded by a customer success story from one of the largest virtual network operator in the country, providing an interesting case study of mobile banking innovation and a great customer testimonial of the importance of cross industry strategies and cloud technology. The event provided five different tracks on the main trends of how companies communicate and engage with different audiences, providing a different perspective on the importance of empowering brands through their customers, trusting and investing in technology for growth, while Oracle University shared their knowledge with “Oracle Cloud Fundamentals” a training lesson regarding Java Cloud, Database Cloud and other Oracle Cloud product technologies and solutions. The rainy day scenario included sideshows of aerial acrobatics and speed painting performances to recreate the environment of modern and flexible Cloud Solutions in a colorful and creative way. Oracle CloudWorld Bogotá was a great opportunity to expose invalid cloud Myths and the main concerns of the Colombian customers towards cloud, considering IDC Latin America studies stating that 93% of Colombian business leaders are interested in cloud but only 47% understand its business value. Spending a day in the cloud with 6 demogrounds stations, conference sessions, interesting case studies and customer testimonials will surely widen the endless market opportunities for Colombian customers, leaving them amazed with how Oracle Cloud works towards integration with other environments, non oracle applications, social media and mobile devices with bulletproof security infrastructure. /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}

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• Type of computer for a developer on the road

  - by nabucosound

  Hi developers: I am planning to be traveling through eurasia and asia (russia, china, korea, japan, south east asia...) for a while and, although there are plenty of marvelous things to see and to do, I must keep on working :(. I am a python developer, dedicated mainly to web projects. I use django, sqlite3, browsers, and ocassionaly (only if I have no choice) I install postgres, mysql, apache or any other servers commonly used in the internets. I do my coding on vim, use ssh to connect, lftp to transfer files, IRC, grep/ack... So I spend most of my time in the terminal shells. But I also use IM or Skype to communicate with my clients and peers, as well as some other software (that after all is not mandatory for my day-to-day work). I currently work with a Macbook Pro (3 years old now) and so far I am very happy with the performance. But I don't want to carry it if I am going to be "on transit" for long time, it is simply huge and heavy for what I am planning to load in my rather small backpack (while traveling, less is more, you know). So here I am reading all kind of opinions about netbooks, because at first sight this is the kind of computer I thought I had to choose. I am going to use Linux for it, Microsoft is not my cup of tea and Mac is not available for them, unless I were to buy a Macbook air, something that I won't do because if I am robbed or rain/dust/truck loaders break it I would burst in tears. I am concerned about wifi performance and connectivity, I am going to use one of those linux distros/tools to hack/test on "open" networks (if you know what I mean) in case I am not in a place with real free wifi access and I find myself in an emergency. CPU speed should be acceptable, but since I don't plan to run Photoshop or expensive IDEs, I guess most of the time I won't be overloading the machine. Apart from this, maybe (surely) I am missing other features to consider. With that said (sorry about the length) here it comes my question, raised from a deep ignorance regarding the wars betweeb betbooks vs notebooks (I assume tablet PCs are not for programming yet): If I buy a netbook will I have to throw it away after 1 month on the road and buy a notebook? Or will I be OK? Thanks! Hector Update I have received great feedback so far! I would like to insist on the fact that I will be traveling through many different countries and scenarios. I am sure that while in Japan I will be more than fine with anything related to technology, connectivity, etc. But consider that I will be, for example, on a train through Russia (transsiberian) and will cross Mongolia as well. I will stay in friends' places sometimes, but most of the time I will have to work from hostel rooms, trains, buses, beaches (hey this last one doesn't sound too bad hehe!). I think some of your answers guys seem to focus on the geek part but loose the point of this "on the road" fact. I am very aware and agree that netbooks suck compared to notebooks, but what I am trying to do here is to find a balance and discover your experiences with netbooks to see first hand if a netbook will be a fail in the mid-long term of the trip for my purposes. So I have resumed the main concepts expressed here on this small list, in no particular order: keyboard/touchpad feel: I use vim so no need of moving mouse pointers that much, unless I am browsing the web, but intensive use of keyboard screen real state: again, terminal work for most of the time battery life: I think something very important weight/size: also very important looks not worth stealing it, don't give a shit if it is lost/stolen/broken: this may depend on kind of person, your economy, etc. Also to prevent losing work, I will upload EVERYTHING to the cloud whenever I'll have a chance. wifi: don't want to discover my wifi is one of those that cannot deal with half the routers on this planet or has poor connectivity. Thanks again for your answers and comments!

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• Maven Multi-Module builds not honoring failsafe-maven-plugin?

  - by Mike Cornell

  I recently discovered that Hudson was not the problem. In actuality it was Maven itself as the multi-module build was causing the build failure, not Hudson. I just hadn't noticed where the issue actually existed. Leaving the original question here. I'm using the failsafe-maven-plugin to run some integration tests. The difference between failsafe and surefire is that failsafe allows failures and does not fail the build. On my nightly builds there are occasions that a service the integration tests use might be down. In normal builds, the failsafe plugin would let the build continue since the integration tests are allowed to fail. However, Hudson does not seem to respect this and stops the build and produces rain. I tried to turn the failsafe tests off on nightly builds using -DskipITs. This appears to fail since I'm in a multi module build. Any ideas on how to get Maven to respect that these tests can fail even though they're part of a specific module? The project structure is as follows: -parent \-jar \-jar (where integration tests run) \-war \-ear

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• Moral fits the story or suggest me a nice moral?

  - by Gobi

  A 25 year old son was sitting beside his old father in a train one day. When the train was about to leave, all the passengers started settling down in their seats. The son was filled with joy and anxiety. He was seated by the window. He put his hand out and felt the breeze and screamed, “ Papa look at all the trees, they are moving behind”. The old father smiled and admired his son’s feelings. Beside the old man, a couple was also travelling and observed this strange behavior. They found something awkward and childish in the behavior of this 25 year old man. All of a sudden, the son shouted again “Papa see! The clouds are moving about; there is a pond down and many cows are drinking it’s water”. It soon started drizzling. Once again, the young man felt exited and said “papa, I can see and feel the rain drops touching my hand”. The couple seeing this and feeling concerned, asked the old man “why don’t you consult a good doctor and treat your son; don’t you find something abnormally different in him ?” The old man replied, “Yes, I have provided the best treatment for my only boy. We are just returning from the hospital. I am happy for today is the day he has received his sense of sight. It’s for the first time my son is seeing and relishing these little wonders which we have been watching and ignoring in our routine life!” The couple had no words to reply and felt sorry for their remarks. Moral of the story: “ “don’t judge a book by its cover”. is this the moral fits the story or provide me some moral for this story :)

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• Can't add/remove items from a collection while foreach is iterating over it

  - by flockofcode

  If I make my own implementation of IEnumerator interface, then I am able ( inside foreach statement )to add or remove items from a albumsList without generating an exception.But if foreach statement uses IEnumerator supplied by albumsList, then trying to add/delete ( inside the foreach )items from albumsList will result in exception: class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { string[] rockAlbums = { "rock", "roll", "rain dogs" }; ArrayList albumsList = new ArrayList(rockAlbums); AlbumsCollection ac = new AlbumsCollection(albumsList); foreach (string item in ac) { Console.WriteLine(item); albumsList.Remove(item); //works } foreach (string item in albumsList) { albumsList.Remove(item); //exception } } class MyEnumerator : IEnumerator { ArrayList table; int _current = -1; public Object Current { get { return table[_current]; } } public bool MoveNext() { if (_current + 1 < table.Count) { _current++; return true; } else return false; } public void Reset() { _current = -1; } public MyEnumerator(ArrayList albums) { this.table = albums; } } class AlbumsCollection : IEnumerable { public ArrayList albums; public IEnumerator GetEnumerator() { return new MyEnumerator(this.albums); } public AlbumsCollection(ArrayList albums) { this.albums = albums; } } } a) I assume code that throws exception ( when using IEnumerator implementation A supplied by albumsList ) is located inside A? b) If I want to be able to add/remove items from a collection ( while foreach is iterating over it), will I always need to provide my own implementation of IEnumerator interface, or can albumsList be set to allow adding/removing items? thank you

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• Going to the Score Cards - Exceptional DBA Awards 2011

  - by Rodney

  This year marks my 4th year as a judge for the Exceptional DBA Awards, founded by Red Gate in 2008 to "recognize the essential but often overlooked contributions of DBAs, the unsung heroes of the IT community." As a professional DBA myself I have been honored to participate as a judge. It is not an easy job because there is a voluminous amount of nominees from all over the world. Each judge has to read through every word of the nominee's answers, deciding what makes each person special and stand out amongst their peers. What drives them? What single element of their submission will shine above all others? It is my hope that what I am about to divulge to you as a judge will prompt you to think about yourself or someone you know and decide that you may be the exceptional DBA who can take home the gold at this year's award ceremony in Seattle. We are more than a few weeks into the nomination process and there are quite a number of submissions already. I can not tell you how many as that would not be fair. I can say it is not 1 million or more. I can also say that it is not 100,000. But that is all I can say about that. However, I can tell you that it is enough this year that we are breaking records on the number of people who have been influenced, inspired or intrigued by the awards in the past. I remember them all like it were yesterday. fuzzy thought cloud here. It was a rainy day in Seattle (all memories for each award ceremony will start thusly) and I was in the hotel going over my notes on what I wanted to say about the winner of the 2008 Red Gate Exceptional DBA Award. The notes were on index cards that I had either bought or stolen from my wife, I do not recall, but I was nervous which was unlike me. This was, after all, a big night for the winner. Of course, we, the judges and the SQL community, had already decided the winner and now all that remained was to present the award. The room was packed. It was Casino night, sponsored by sqlservercentral.com. Money (fake), drinks (not fake) and camaraderie flowed through the room. Dan McClain won the award that year. He worked for Anheuser-Busch at the time. I promise that did not influence my decision. We presented Dan with the award. He was very proud of this achievement, rightfully so, as was the SQL community for him. I spoke with Dan throughout the conference and realized how huge this award was for him, not just personally but professionally. It was a rainy day in Seattle in 2009 and I was nervous. I was asked to speak to a group of people again as a judge for the Exceptional DBA Awards. This year, Josef Richberg would be the recipient of the award, but he would not be able to attend. We all prayed for him as he fought through an illness and congratulated him for his accomplishments as a DBA for his company. He got better and sallied forth and continued to give back to the SQL community that he saw as one big family. In 2010, and I am getting ahead of myself, he was asked to be a judge himself for the very award he had just received the year before. It was a sunny day in Seattle and I missed it, because it was in July and I was not there. It was a rainy day in Seattle and it is 2010 and Tracy Hamlin enters a submission that blows this judge away. She is managing a 50 Terabyte distributed database ("50 Gigabytes! Are you kidding me!!!", Rodney jokes.)  and loves her daily job as a DBA working with developers, mentoring them and teaching them best practices with kindness and patience. She is a people person who just happens to have 10+ years experience with RDBMS'. She wins the award and goes on to be recognized as famous at PASS. It will be a rainy day in Seattle this year when I sit amongst my old constituent judges and friends, Brad McGehee, http://www.simple-talk.com/books/sql-books/how-to-become-an-exceptional-dba,-2nd-edition/, Steve Jones, whom we all know and love at http://www.sqlservercentral.com and a young upstart to the SQL Community, this cat named Brent Ozar to announce the 2011 winner. I personally have not heard of Brent but I am told I have interviewed him for a DBA position several years ago and turned him down, http://www.brentozar.com/archive/2011/05/exceptional-dba-contest/ . I hope that did not jeopardize his future in the SQL world. I am a big hearted oaf and would feel horrible. Hopefully I will meet him at PASS and we can work this all out and I can help him get a DBA job. The rain has stopped and a new year is upon us. The stakes are high...the competition is fierce...the rewards are incredible. The entry form awaits you. http://www.exceptionaldba.com/ I very much look forward to meeting you and presenting the award to you in front of hundreds of your envious but proud peers as the new Exceptional DBA for 2011 at the PASS Summit. Here is what you could win: The Exceptional DBA of the Year receives full conference registration for the 2011 PSS Summit in Seattle, where the awards ceremony will take place, four nights' hotel accommodation, and $300 towards travel expenses. They will also be featured on Simple-Talk. Are you ready? Are you nervous?

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• Spotlight on Claims: Serving Customers Under Extreme Conditions

  - by [email protected]

  Oracle Insurance's director of marketing for EMEA, John Sinclair, recently attended the CII Spotlight on Claims event in London. Bad weather and its implications for the insurance industry have become very topical as the frequency and diversity of natural disasters - including rains, wind and snow - has surged across Europe this winter. On England's wettest day on record, the county of Cumbria was flooded with 12 inches of rain within 24 hours. Freezing temperatures wreaked havoc on European travel, causing high speed TVG trains to break down and stranding hundreds of passengers under the English Chanel in a tunnel all night long without heat or electricity. A storm named Xynthia thrashed France and surrounding countries with hurricane force, flooding ports and killing 51 people. After the Spring Equinox, insurers may have thought the worst had past. Then came along Eyjafjallajökull, spewing out vast quantities of volcanic ash in what is turning out to be one of most costly natural disasters in history. Such extreme events challenge insurance companies' ability to service their customers just when customers need their help most. When you add economic downturn and competitive pressures to the mix, insurers are further stretched and required to continually learn and innovate to meet high customer expectations with reduced budgets. These and other issues were hot topics of discussion at the recent "Spotlight on Claims" seminar in London, focused on how weather is affecting claims and the insurance industry. The event was organized by the CII (Chartered Insurance Institute), a group with 90,000 members. CII has been at the forefront in setting professional standards for the insurance industry for over a century. Insurers came to the conference to hear how they could better serve their customers under extreme weather conditions, learn from the experience of their peers, and hear about technological breakthroughs in climate modeling, geographic intelligence and IT. Customer case studies at the conference highlighted the importance of effective and constant communication in handling the overflow of catastrophe related claims. First and foremost is the need to rapidly establish initial communication with claimants to build their confidence in a positive outcome. Ongoing communication then needs to be continued throughout the claims cycle to mange expectations and maintain ownership of the process from start to finish. Strong internal communication to support frontline staff was also deemed critical to successful crisis management, as was communication with the broader insurance ecosystem to tap into extended resources and business intelligence. Advances in technology - such web based systems to access policies and enter first notice of loss in the field - as well as customer-focused self-service portals and multichannel alerts, are instrumental in improving customer satisfaction and helping insurers to deal with the claims surge, which often can reach four or more times normal workloads. Dynamic models of the global climate system can now be used to better understand weather-related risks, and as these models mature it is hoped that they will soon become more accurate in predicting the timing of catastrophic events. Geographic intelligence is also being used within a claims environment to better assess loss reserves and detect fraud. Despite these advances in dealing with catastrophes and predicting their occurrence, there will never be a substitute for qualified front line staff to deal with customers. In light of pressures to streamline efficiency, there was debate as to whether outsourcing was the solution, or whether it was better to build on the people you have. In the final analysis, nearly everybody agreed that in the future insurance companies would have to work better and smarter to keep on top. An appeal was also made for greater collaboration amongst industry participants in dealing with the extreme conditions and systematic stress brought on by natural disasters. It was pointed out that the public oftentimes judged the industry as a whole rather than the individual carriers when it comes to freakish events, and that all would benefit at such times from the pooling of limited resources and professional skills rather than competing in silos for competitive advantage - especially the end customer. One case study that stood out was on how The Motorists Insurance Group was able to power through one of the most devastating catastrophes in recent years - Hurricane Ike. The keys to Motorists' success were superior people, processes and technology. They did a lot of upfront planning and invested in their people, creating a healthy team environment that delivered "max service" even when they were experiencing the same level of devastation as the rest of the population. Processes were rapidly adapted to meet the challenge of the catastrophe and continually adapted to Ike's specific conditions as they evolved. Technology was fundamental to the execution of their strategy, enabling them anywhere access, on the fly reassigning of resources and rapid training to augment the work force. You can learn more about the Motorists experience by watching this video. John Sinclair is marketing director for Oracle Insurance in EMEA. He has more than 20 years of experience in insurance and financial services.

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• HDFC Bank's Journey to Oracle Private Database Cloud

  - by Nilesh Agrawal

  One of the key takeaways from a recent post by Sushil Kumar is the importance of business initiative that drives the transformational journey from legacy IT to enterprise private cloud. The journey that leads to a agile, self-service and efficient infrastructure with reduced complexity and enables IT to deliver services more closely aligned with business requirements. Nilanjay Bhattacharjee, AVP, IT of HDFC Bank presented a real-world case study based on one such initiative in his Oracle OpenWorld session titled "HDFC BANK Journey into Oracle Database Cloud with EM 12c DBaaS". The case study highlighted in this session is from HDFC Bank’s Lending Business Segment, which comprises roughly 50% of Bank’s top line. Bank’s Lending Business is always under pressure to launch “New Schemes” to compete and stay ahead in this segment and IT has to keep up with this challenging business requirement. Lending related applications are highly dynamic and go through constant changes and every single and minor change in each related application is required to be thoroughly UAT tested certified before they are certified for production rollout. This leads to a constant pressure in IT for rapid provisioning of UAT databases on an ongoing basis to enable faster time to market. Nilanjay joined Sushil Kumar, VP, Product Strategy, Oracle, during the Enterprise Manager general session at Oracle OpenWorld 2012. Let's watch what Nilanjay had to say about their recent Database cloud deployment. “Agility” in launching new business schemes became the key business driver for private database cloud adoption in the Bank. Nilanjay spent an hour discussing it during his session. Let's look at why Database-as-a-Service(DBaaS) model was need of the hour in this case  - Average 3 days to provision UAT Database for Loan Management Application Silo’ed UAT environment with Average 30% utilization Compliance requirement consume UAT testing resources DBA activities leads to $$ paid to SI for provisioning databases manually Overhead in managing configuration drift between production and test environments Rollout impact/delay on new business initiatives The private database cloud implementation progressed through 4 fundamental phases - Standardization, Consolidation, Automation, Optimization of UAT infrastructure. Project scoping was carried out and end users and stakeholders were engaged early on right from planning phase and including all phases of implementation. Standardization and Consolidation phase involved multiple iterations of planning to first standardize on infrastructure, db versions, patch levels, configuration, IT processes etc and with database level consolidation project onto Exadata platform. It was also decided to have existing AIX UAT DB landscape covered and EM 12c DBaaS solution being platform agnostic supported this model well. Automation and Optimization phase provided the necessary Agility, Self-Service and efficiency and this was made possible via EM 12c DBaaS. EM 12c DBaaS Self-Service/SSA Portal was setup with required zones, quotas, service templates, charge plan defined. There were 2 zones implemented - Exadata zone  primarily for UAT and benchmark testing for databases running on Exadata platform and second zone was for AIX setup to cover other databases those running on AIX. Metering and Chargeback/Showback capabilities provided business and IT the framework for cloud optimization and also visibility into cloud usage. More details on UAT cloud implementation, related building blocks and EM 12c DBaaS solution are covered in Nilanjay's OpenWorld session here. Some of the key Benefits achieved from UAT cloud initiative are - New business initiatives can be easily launched due to rapid provisioning of UAT Databases [ ~3 hours ] Drastically cut down $$ on SI for DBA Activities due to Self-Service Effective usage of infrastructure leading to  better ROI Empowering  consumers to provision database using Self-Service Control on project schedule with DB end date aligned to project plan submitted during provisioning Databases provisioned through Self-Service are monitored in EM and auto configured for Alerts and KPI Regulatory requirement of database does not impact existing project in queue This table below shows typical list of activities and tasks involved when a end user requests for a UAT database. EM 12c DBaaS solution helped reduce UAT database provisioning time from roughly 3 days down to 3 hours and this timing also includes provisioning time for database with production scale data (ranging from 250 G to 2 TB of data) - And it's not just about time to provision,  this initiative has enabled an agile, efficient and transparent UAT environment where end users are empowered with real control of cloud resources and IT's role is shifted as enabler of strategic services instead of being administrator of all user requests. The strong collaboration between IT and business community right from planning to implementation to go-live has played the key role in achieving this common goal of enterprise private cloud. Finally, real cloud is here and this cloud is accompanied with rain (business benefits) as well ! For more information, please go to Oracle Enterprise Manager  web page or  follow us at :  Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Linkedin | Newsletter

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• SQL SERVER – SSMS: Database Consistency History Report

  - by Pinal Dave

  Doctor and Database The last place I like to visit is always a hospital. With the monsoon season starting, intermittent rains, it has become sort of a routine to get a cycle of fever every other year (seriously I hate it). So when I visit my doctor, it is always interesting in the way he quizzes me. The routine question of – “How many days have you had this?”, “Is there any pattern?”, “Did you drench in rain?”, “Do you have any other symptom?” and so on. The idea here is that the doctor wants to find any anomaly or a pattern that will guide him to a viral or bacterial type. Most of the time they get it based on experience and sometimes after a battery of tests. So if there is consistent behavior to your problem, there is always a solution out. SQL Server has its way to find if the server data / files are in consistent state using the DBCC commands. Back to SQL Server In real life, Database consistency check is one of the critical operations a DBA generally doesn’t give much priority. Many readers of my blogs have asked many times, how do we know if the database is consistent? How do I read output of DBCC CHECKDB and find if everything is right or not? My common answer to all of them is – look at the bottom of checkdb (or checktable) output and look for below line. CHECKDB found 0 allocation errors and 0 consistency errors in database ‘DatabaseName’. Above is a “good sign” because we are seeing zero allocation and zero consistency error. If you are seeing non-zero errors then there is some problem with the database. Sample output is shown as below: CHECKDB found 0 allocation errors and 2 consistency errors in database ‘DatabaseName’. repair_allow_data_loss is the minimum repair level for the errors found by DBCC CHECKDB (DatabaseName). If we see non-zero error then most of the time (not always) we get repair options depending on the level of corruption. There is risk involved with above option (repair_allow_data_loss), that is – we would lose the data. Sometimes the option would be repair_rebuild which is little safer. Though these options are available, it is important to find the root cause to the problem. In standard report, there is a report which can show the history of checkdb executed for the selected database. Since this is a database level report, we need to right click on database, click Reports, click Standard Reports and then choose “Database Consistency History” report. The information in this report is picked from default trace. If default trace is disabled or there is no checkdb run or information is not there in default trace (because it’s rolled over), we would get report like below. As we can see report says it very clearly: Currently, no execution history of CHECKDB is available or default trace is not enabled. To demonstrate, I have caused corruption in one of the database and did below steps. Run CheckDB so that errors are reported. Fix the corruption by losing the data using repair option Run CheckDB again to check if corruption is cleared. After that I have launched the report and below is what we would see. If you are lazy like me and don’t want to run the report manually for each database then below query would be handy to provide same report for all database. This query is runs behind the scenes by the report. All I have done is remove the filter for database name (at the last – highlighted). DECLARE @curr_tracefilename VARCHAR(500); DECLARE @base_tracefilename VARCHAR(500); DECLARE @indx INT; SELECT @curr_tracefilename = path FROM sys.traces WHERE is_default = 1; SET @curr_tracefilename = REVERSE(@curr_tracefilename); SELECT @indx  = PATINDEX('%\%', @curr_tracefilename) ; SET @curr_tracefilename = REVERSE(@curr_tracefilename); SET @base_tracefilename = LEFT( @curr_tracefilename,LEN(@curr_tracefilename) - @indx) + '\log.trc'; SELECT  SUBSTRING(CONVERT(NVARCHAR(MAX),TEXTData),36, PATINDEX('%executed%',TEXTData)-36) AS command ,       LoginName ,       StartTime ,       CONVERT(INT,SUBSTRING(CONVERT(NVARCHAR(MAX),TEXTData),PATINDEX('%found%',TEXTData) +6,PATINDEX('%errors %',TEXTData)-PATINDEX('%found%',TEXTData)-6)) AS errors ,       CONVERT(INT,SUBSTRING(CONVERT(NVARCHAR(MAX),TEXTData),PATINDEX('%repaired%',TEXTData) +9,PATINDEX('%errors.%',TEXTData)-PATINDEX('%repaired%',TEXTData)-9)) repaired ,       SUBSTRING(CONVERT(NVARCHAR(MAX),TEXTData),PATINDEX('%time:%',TEXTData)+6,PATINDEX('%hours%',TEXTData)-PATINDEX('%time:%',TEXTData)-6)+':'+SUBSTRING(CONVERT(NVARCHAR(MAX),TEXTData),PATINDEX('%hours%',TEXTData) +6,PATINDEX('%minutes%',TEXTData)-PATINDEX('%hours%',TEXTData)-6)+':'+SUBSTRING(CONVERT(NVARCHAR(MAX),TEXTData),PATINDEX('%minutes%',TEXTData) +8,PATINDEX('%seconds.%',TEXTData)-PATINDEX('%minutes%',TEXTData)-8) AS time FROM::fn_trace_gettable( @base_tracefilename, DEFAULT) WHERE EventClass = 22 AND SUBSTRING(TEXTData,36,12) = 'DBCC CHECKDB' -- AND DatabaseName = @DatabaseName; Don’t get worried about the logic above. All it is doing is reading the trace files, parsing below entry and getting out information for underlined words. DBCC CHECKDB (CorruptedDatabase) executed by sa found 2 errors and repaired 0 errors. Elapsed time: 0 hours 0 minutes 0 seconds.  Internal database snapshot has split point LSN = 00000029:00000030:0001 and first LSN = 00000029:00000020:0001. Hopefully now onwards you would run checkdb and understand the importance of it. As responsible DBAs I am sure you are already doing it, let me know how often do you actually run them on you production environment? Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Server Management Studio, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL Tagged: SQL Reports

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• BIP and Mapviewer Mash Up I

  - by Tim Dexter

  I was out in Yellowstone last week soaking up various wildlife and a bit too much rain ... good to be back until the 95F heat yesterday. Taking a little break from the Excel templates; the dev folks are planing an Excel patch in the next week or so that will add a mass of new functionality. At the risk of completely mis leading you I'm going to hang back a while. What I have written so far holds true and will continue to do so. This week, I have been mostly eating 'mapviewer' ... answers on a post card please, TV show and character. I had a request to show how BIP can call mapviewer and render a dynamic map in an output. So I hit the books and colleagues for some answers. Mapviewer is Oracle's geographic information system, hereby known as GIS. I use it a lot in our BIEE demos where the interaction with the maps is very impressive. Need a map of California and its congressional districts? I have contacts; Jerry and David with their little black box of maps. Once in my possession I can build highly interactive, clickable maps that allow the user to drill into more information using a very friendly interface driving BIEE content and navigation. But what about maps in BIP output? Bryan Wise, who has written some articles on this blog did some work a while back with the PL/SQL API interface. The extract for the report called a function that in turn called the mapviewer server, passing a set of mapping requirements, it then returned a URL to a cached copy of that map. Easy to then have BIP render that image. Thats still very doable. You need to install a couple of packages and then load the mapviewer java APIs into the database. Then you can write your function to the APIs. A little involved? Maybe, but the database is doing all the heavy lifting for you. I thought I would investigate another method for getting the maps back into BIP. There is a URL interface you can call, this involves building an XML message to be passed to the mapviewer server. It's pretty straightforward to use on the mapviewer side. On the BIP side things are little more tricksy. After some unexpected messing about I finally got the ubiquitous Hello World map to render using the URL method. Not the most exciting map in the world, lots of ocean and a rather long URL to get it to render. http://127.0.0.1:9704/mapviewer/omserver?xml_request=%3Cmap_request%20title=%22Hello%20World%22%20datasource=%22cagis%22%20format=%22GIF_STREAM%22/%3E Notice all of the encoding in the URL string to handle the spaces, quotes, etc. All necessary to get BIP to make the call to the mapviewer server correctly without truncating the URL if it hits a real space rather than a %20. With that in mind constructing the URL was pretty simple. I'm not going to get into the content of the URL too much, for that you need to bone up on the mapviewer XML API. Check out the home page here and the documentation here. To make the template portable I used the standard CURRENT_SERVER_URL parameter from the BIP server and declared that in my template. <?param@begin:CURRENT_SERVER_URL;'myserver'?> Ignore the 'myserver', that was just a dummy value for testing at runtime it will resolve to: 'http://yourserver:port/xmlpserver' Not quite what we need as mapviewer has its own server path, in my case I needed 'mapviewer/omserver?xml_request=' as the fixed path to the mapviewer request URL. A little concatenation and substringing later I came up with <?param@begin:mURL;concat(substring($CURRENT_SERVER_URL,1,22),'mapviewer/omserver?xml_request=')?> Thats the basic URL that I can then build on. To get the Hello World map I need to add the following: <map_request title="Hello World" datasource="cagis" format="GIF_STREAM"/> Those angle brackets were the source of my headache, BIPs XSLT engine was attempting to process them rather than just pass them. Hok Min to the rescue ... again. I owe him lunch when I get out to HQ again! To solve the problem, I needed to escape all the characters and white space and then use native XSL to assign the string to a parameter. <xsl:param xdofo:ctx="begin"name="pXML">%3Cmap_request%20title=%22Hello%20World%22 %20datasource=%22cagis%22%20format=%22GIF_STREAM%22/%3E</xsl:param> I did not need to assign it to a parameter but I felt that if I were going to do anything more serious than Hello World like plotting points of interest on the map. I would need to dynamically build the URL, so using a set of parameters or variables that I then concatenated would be easier. Now I had the initial server string and the request all I then did was combine the two using a concat: concat($mURL,$pXML) Embedding that into an image tag: <fo:external-graphic src="url({concat($mURL,$pXML)})"/> and I was done. Notice the curly braces to get the concat evaluated prior to the image call. As you will see next time, building the XML message to go onto the URL can get quite complex but I have used it with some data. Ultimately, it would be easier to build an extension to BIP to handle the data to be plotted, it would then build the XML message, call mapviewer and return a URL to the map image for BIP to render. More on that next time ...

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• Waiting for Windows 8: A Long, Hot Summer

  - by andrewbrust

  Microsoft has revealed some things about Windows 8, and revealed a part of the developer story for new Windows 8 “tailored,” “immersive” applications.  In retrospect, very little was shared.  The bit that was revealed to us is that those applications can be developed using a combination of HTML 5 and JavaScript.  Not much else was said, except that additional details would be revealed at Microsoft’s //Build/ conference in Anaheim, California in September. This has left a lot of people in suspense, and it seems that suspended state is going to last all summer.  The problem, of course, is that in the absence of hard information, people fill the void with Speculation, Rumor and Gloom.  That’s a bit like Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt, except that it’s self-imposed by the Microsoft community and not planted by Microsoft’s competitors. This is a less-than-perfect situation.  Not only is it causing developers to worry about the value of their skill sets, but I am already hearing from consulting shops that customers are getting nervous too and, in extreme cases, opting for non-Microsoft tools for their projects as a result.  I’m also hearing from dev tool ISVs that sales have suffered as a result. It’s quite possible that the customers moving off .NET wanted to do so anyway and it’s also possible that dev tool ISVs are suffering slower sales this year due a slowed rate of economic recovery. Without hard information, tend to people interpret things negatively.  Actually, that’s the major point in all of this. While there is multitude of opinions about what the Windows 8 development platform will look like once fully revealed, there is an emerging consensus around one thing: it sure would help if Microsoft revealed more of its strategy…just enough to quash absurd rumors, stabilize the .NET ecosystem and get people to stay calm. We’ve had some reassurances thus far: there will be a Windows desktop mode; we’ll still have Windows Explorer, we’ll still run Office, we’ll still have a task bar, and all the skills and tools we use now will still work there.  But with reassurances like that…people still feel insecure.  Because telling us that Windows 8 will have what is essentially a “classic” mode sure makes it sound like today’s skill sets will soon be “classic” too…and then maybe they’ll just become obsolete. Humans find change scary; it’s natural.  And when left alone with their fears – because no one is saying anything to dispel them – people can go from frightened to paranoid, and can start to viewing things in a downright conspiratorial light.  It would be great if Microsoft stepped into the void now and told us what is coming – especially because whatever they tell us is bound to be at least a little better than what people think they are going to hear. I don’t know what the announcements will be, but I do have it on authority, from a number of sources, that Microsoft isn’t gong to talk until //Build/.  That means no news until September September 13th.  Nothing until after Labor Day.  You get zippo until after the Back-to-School sales are done. What to do?  Try not to let the dark voices of gloom and doom fill your head.  Even in the absence of answers, we still have some important facts: The .NET developer community is huge. Microsoft’s customers have major investments in .NET, and in .NET skills. Political infighting in Redmond might make for irrational decisions, but ultimately public companies can’t just alienate their advocates and piss off their customers.  Spite doesn’t trump fiduciary responsibility. The computing device markets are changing, software is changing, software business models are changing and developers are changing.  Microsoft has to keep up. The HTML + JavaScript community is huge too, and it includes many of the “changed” developers. Public companies can’t ignore new markets nor the popular standards that can help them enter those new markets.  Loyalty doesn’t trump fiduciary responsibility either. If Microsoft can appeal to new developers, then it should. If Microsoft can keep catering to its existing developers and customers -- not just through legacy support, but also through empowering futures -- then it probably will. You don’t have to shove your old friends out into the rain to make room for new ones; you can bring those new constituents in under a bigger tent.  I hope Microsoft will enlarge the tent, and I have trouble imagining why it would not.

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• Delphi - TPerlRegEx / RegExBuddy Problem

  - by Brad

  I've got a problem with RegEx and Delphi 2k9 (Win32). I get the following Error: First chance exception at $7C812AFB. Exception class Exception with message 'TPerlRegEx.Compile() - Please specify a regular expression in RegEx first'. I've got the latest version of TPerlRegEx from the website. Using its defualt settings (Using DLL) I'm including demo source code. It's using the code generated by RegExBuddy, latest version. http://www.4shared.com/file/236428923/97478b61/googleresultstestdata.html http://www.4shared.com/file/236439483/e0acbe6d/Unit2.html Delphi FORM http://www.4shared.com/file/236439473/6734a2a2/Unit2.html Delphi PAS Thanks for any help -Brad Data is from Google External Keyword Tool RegEx could use some refinement... but works in RegExBuddy not in Delphi unit Unit2; interface uses Windows, Messages, SysUtils, Variants, Classes, Graphics, Controls, Forms, Dialogs, StdCtrls, PerlRegEx; type TForm2 = class(TForm) Memo1: TMemo; Memo2: TMemo; Button1: TButton; procedure Button1Click(Sender: TObject); private { Private declarations } public { Public declarations } end; var Form2: TForm2; implementation {$R *.dfm} procedure TForm2.Button1Click(Sender: TObject); var Regex: TPerlRegEx; GroupIndex: Integer; begin Regex := TPerlRegEx.Create(nil); Regex.RegEx := 'criteria\.push\(new kpCriterion\(&#39;(?P<keyword>(.*?))&#39;, (?P<number1>(.*?)),'#13#10'''(?P<localsearch>(.*?))'', ''(?P<globalsearch>(.*?))'', (?P<localsearchnum>(.*?)), (?P<globalsearchnum>(.*?)), (.*+)'#13#10','#13#10'&#39;\$(?P<price>(.*?))&#39;, (?P<number2>(.*?)),'#13#10'&#39;(?P<range>(.*?))&#39;, (?P<number3>(.*+))'; Regex.Options := [preMultiLine]; Regex.Subject := memo1.text; if Regex.Match then begin memo2.Lines.Add('Matches Found'); repeat for GroupIndex := 0 to Regex.SubExpressionCount do begin memo2.lines.add( Regex.SubExpressions[GroupIndex]); //Add Results to memo // backreference text: Regex.SubExpressions[GroupIndex]; // backreference start: Regex.SubExpressionOffsets[GroupIndex]; // backreference length: Regex.SubExpressionLengths[GroupIndex]; end; until not Regex.MatchAgain; end else memo2.Lines.Add('No-Matches Found'); end; end. DFM object Form2: TForm2 Left = 0 Top = 0 Caption = 'Form2' ClientHeight = 247 ClientWidth = 480 Color = clBtnFace Font.Charset = DEFAULT_CHARSET Font.Color = clWindowText Font.Height = -11 Font.Name = 'Tahoma' Font.Style = [] OldCreateOrder = False PixelsPerInch = 96 TextHeight = 13 object Memo1: TMemo Left = 8 Top = 8 Width = 185 Height = 89 Lines.Strings = ( 'var showImpressions = false; var ' 'criteriaSuggestor = ' '&#39;sensei_keyword&#39;; var ' 'historicalTimePeriod = &#39;Mar ' '2009 - Feb 2010&#39;; var ' 'historicalStartMonth = 2; var ' 'impressionTimePeriod = ' '&#39;February&#39;; var ' 'criteriaGroupsArray = new Array(); ' 'var captchaError = false; var ' 'quotaExceeded = false;' 'var criteria = new Array();' 'var monthlyVariation = new ' 'Array();' 'monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.52' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.67' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.82' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '1.0' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.73' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.5' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.45' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.45' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.43' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.4' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.47' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.45' '));' 'criteria.push(new ' 'kpCriterion(&#39;thunderstorm&#3' '9;, 1.9117305278778076,' #39'201,000'#39', '#39'550,000'#39', 201000, ' '550000, 0.8666667' ',' '&#39;$0.49&#39;, 493102,' '&#39;1 - 3&#39;, 2' ',' '0' ',' '0' ',' 'monthlyVariation,' '5' ',' '&#39;&#39;' ',' 'kpView.MATCH_BROAD' ',' '0' ')); var monthlyVariation = new ' 'Array();' 'monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.57' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '1.0' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.7' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.57' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.45' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.42' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.47' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.46' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.43' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.36' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.45' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.43' '));' 'criteria.push(new ' 'kpCriterion(&#39;[thunderstorm]&' '#39;, 1.9117305278778076,' #39'33,100'#39', '#39'90,500'#39', 33100, 90500, ' '0.8666667' ',' '&#39;$0.49&#39;, 493102,' '&#39;1 - 3&#39;, 2' ',' '0' ',' '0' ',' 'monthlyVariation,' '3' ',' '&#39;&#39;' ',' 'kpView.MATCH_EXACT' ',' '0' ')); var monthlyVariation = new ' 'Array();' 'monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.52' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.67' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.82' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '1.0' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.73' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.5' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.45' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.45' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.43' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.4' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.47' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.45' '));' 'criteria.push(new ' 'kpCriterion(&#39;\42thunderstorm\' '042&#39;, 1.9117305278778076,' #39'201,000'#39', '#39'450,000'#39', 201000, ' '450000, 0.8666667' ',' '&#39;$0.49&#39;, 493102,' '&#39;1 - 3&#39;, 2' ',' '0' ',' '0' ',' 'monthlyVariation,' '5' ',' '&#39;&#39;' ',' 'kpView.MATCH_PHRASE' ',' '0' ')); var monthlyVariation = new ' 'Array();' 'monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.75' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.81' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '1.0' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.87' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.64' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.56' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.52' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.6' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.53' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.47' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.58' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.61' '));' 'criteria.push(new ' 'kpCriterion(&#39;thunderstorms&#' '39;, 1.8268921375274658,' #39'110,000'#39', '#39'201,000'#39', 110000, ' '201000, 0.8' ',' '&#39;$0.56&#39;, 559074,' '&#39;1 - 3&#39;, 2' ',' '0' ',' '0' ',' 'monthlyVariation,' '4' ',' '&#39;&#39;' ',' 'kpView.MATCH_BROAD' ',' '0' ')); var monthlyVariation = new ' 'Array();' 'monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.83' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.82' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '1.0' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.67' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.42' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.41' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.47' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.56' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.47' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.39' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.5' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.51' '));' 'criteria.push(new ' 'kpCriterion(&#39;[thunderstorms]&' '#39;, 1.8268921375274658,' #39'22,200'#39', '#39'40,500'#39', 22200, 40500, ' '0.8' ',' '&#39;$0.56&#39;, 559074,' '&#39;1 - 3&#39;, 2' ',' '0' ',' '0' ',' 'monthlyVariation,' '4' ',' '&#39;&#39;' ',' 'kpView.MATCH_EXACT' ',' '0' ')); var monthlyVariation = new ' 'Array();' 'monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.75' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.81' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '1.0' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.87' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.64' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.56' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.52' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.6' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.53' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.47' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.58' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.61' '));' 'criteria.push(new ' 'kpCriterion(&#39;\42thunderstorms' '\042&#39;, 1.8268921375274658,' #39'110,000'#39', '#39'165,000'#39', 110000, ' '165000, 0.8' ',' '&#39;$0.56&#39;, 559074,' '&#39;1 - 3&#39;, 2' ',' '0' ',' '0' ',' 'monthlyVariation,' '4' ',' '&#39;&#39;' ',' 'kpView.MATCH_PHRASE' ',' '0' ')); var monthlyVariation = new ' 'Array();' 'monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.71' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.73' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.82' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '1.0' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.87' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.92' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.82' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.7' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.75' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.68' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.77' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.79' '));' 'criteria.push(new ' 'kpCriterion(&#39;lightning ' 'storm&#39;, 1.774579644203186,' #39'49,500'#39', '#39'90,500'#39', 49500, 90500, ' '0.73333335' ',' '&#39;$0.54&#39;, 535666,' '&#39;1 - 3&#39;, 2' ',' '0' ',' '0' ',' 'monthlyVariation,' '5' ',' '&#39;&#39;' ',' 'kpView.MATCH_BROAD' ',' '0' ')); var monthlyVariation = new ' 'Array();' 'monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.76' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.87' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.97' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '1.0' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.87' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '1.0' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.98' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.87' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.84' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.68' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.86' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.81' '));' 'criteria.push(new ' 'kpCriterion(&#39;[lightning ' 'storm]&#39;, 1.774579644203186,' #39'12,100'#39', '#39'22,200'#39', 12100, 22200, ' '0.73333335' ',' '&#39;$0.54&#39;, 535666,' '&#39;1 - 3&#39;, 2' ',' '0' ',' '0' ',' 'monthlyVariation,' '5' ',' '&#39;&#39;' ',' 'kpView.MATCH_EXACT' ',' '0' ')); var monthlyVariation = new ' 'Array();' 'monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.68' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.72' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.81' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '1.0' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.85' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.92' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.81' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.67' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.71' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.65' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.76' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.73' '));' 'criteria.push(new ' 'kpCriterion(&#39;\42lightning ' 'storm\042&#39;, ' '1.774579644203186,' #39'33,100'#39', '#39'60,500'#39', 33100, 60500, ' '0.73333335' ',' '&#39;$0.54&#39;, 535666,' '&#39;1 - 3&#39;, 2' ',' '0' ',' '0' ',' 'monthlyVariation,' '5' ',' '&#39;&#39;' ',' 'kpView.MATCH_PHRASE' ',' '0' ')); var monthlyVariation = new ' 'Array();' 'monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.69' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.69' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.71' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.66' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.68' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.7' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.75' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.79' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.74' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.72' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '1.0' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.7' '));' 'criteria.push(new ' 'kpCriterion(&#39;rain storm&#39;, ' '1.7464053630828857,' #39'27,100'#39', '#39'49,500'#39', 27100, 49500, ' '0.6666667' ',' '&#39;$0.53&#39;, 526334,' '&#39;1 - 3&#39;, 2' ',' '0' ',' '0' ',' 'monthlyVariation,' '0' ',' '&#39;&#39;' ',' 'kpView.MATCH_BROAD' ',' '0' ')); var monthlyVariation = new ' 'Array();' 'monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '1.0' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.87' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.79' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.57' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.55' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.57' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.74' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.76' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.69' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.61' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.89' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.73' '));' 'criteria.push(new ' 'kpCriterion(&#39;[rain ' 'storm]&#39;, ' '1.7464053630828857,' #39'5,400'#39', '#39'8,100'#39', 5400, 8100, ' '0.6666667' ',' '&#39;$0.53&#39;, 526334,' '&#39;1 - 3&#39;, 2' ',' '0' ',' '0' ',' 'monthlyVariation,' '2' ',' '&#39;&#39;' ',' 'kpView.MATCH_EXACT' ',' '0' ')); var monthlyVariation = new ' 'Array();' 'monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.73' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.7' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.68' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.61' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.68' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.69' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.73' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.72' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.62' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.59' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '1.0' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.66' '));' 'criteria.push(new ' 'kpCriterion(&#39;\42rain ' 'storm\042&#39;, ' '1.7464053630828857,' #39'14,800'#39', '#39'27,100'#39', 14800, 27100, ' '0.6666667' ',' '&#39;$0.53&#39;, 526334,' '&#39;1 - 3&#39;, 2' ',' '0' ',' '0' ',' 'monthlyVariation,' '0' ',' '&#39;&#39;' ',' 'kpView.MATCH_PHRASE' ',' '0' ')); var monthlyVariation = new ' 'Array();' 'monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.82' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.87' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '1.0' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '1.0' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.78' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.82' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.84' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.79' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.77' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.61' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.92' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.82' '));' 'criteria.push(new ' 'kpCriterion(&#39;lightning ' 'storms&#39;, ' '1.6842896938323975,' #39'14,800'#39', '#39'27,100'#39', 14800, 27100, ' '0.73333335' ',' '&#39;$0.42&#39;, 417108,' '&#39;1 - 3&#39;, 2' ',' '0' ',' '0' ',' 'monthlyVariation,' '4' ',' '&#39;&#39;' ',' 'kpView.MATCH_BROAD' ',' '0' ')); var monthlyVariation = new ' 'Array();' 'monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.9' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.9' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '1.0' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.84' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.7' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.81' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.88' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.77' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.76' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.57' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.75' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.63' '));' 'criteria.push(new ' 'kpCriterion(&#39;[lightning ' 'storms]&#39;, ' '1.6842896938323975,' #39'3,600'#39', '#39'8,100'#39', 3600, 8100, ' '0.73333335' ',' '&#39;$0.42&#39;, 417108,' '&#39;1 - 3&#39;, 2' ',' '0' ',' '0' ',' 'monthlyVariation,' '4' ',' '&#39;&#39;' ',' 'kpView.MATCH_EXACT' ',' '0' ')); var monthlyVariation = new ' 'Array();' 'monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.8' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.86' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '1.0' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.99' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.77' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.83' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.85' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.78' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.77' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.6' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.91' ')); monthlyVariation.push(new ' 'kpMonthlyPopularity(' '0.81' '));' 'criteria.push(new ' 'kpCriterion(&#39;\42lightning ' 'storms\042&#39;, ' '1.6842896938323975,' #39'12,100'#39', '#39'22,200'#39', 12100, 22200, ' '0.73333335' ',' '&#39;$0.42&#39;, 417108,' '&#39;1 - 3&#39;, 2' ',' '0' ',' '0' ',' 'monthlyVariation,' '4' ',' '&#39;&#39;' ',' 'kpView.MATCH_PHRASE' ',' '0' ')); var monthlyVariation =

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• Beautifulsoup recursive attribute

  - by Marcos Placona

  Hi, trying to parse an XML with Beautifulsoup, but hit a brick wall when trying to use the "recursive" attribute with findall() I have a pretty odd xml format shown below: <?xml version="1.0"?> <catalog> <book id="bk101"> <author>Gambardella, Matthew</author> <title>XML Developer's Guide</title> <genre>Computer</genre> <price>44.95</price> <publish_date>2000-10-01</publish_date> <description>An in-depth look at creating applications with XML.</description> <catalog>true</catalog> </book> <book id="bk102"> <author>Ralls, Kim</author> <title>Midnight Rain</title> <genre>Fantasy</genre> <price>5.95</price> <publish_date>2000-12-16</publish_date> <description>A former architect battles corporate zombies, an evil sorceress, and her own childhood to become queen of the world.</description> <catalog>false</catalog> </book> </catalog> As you can see, the catalog tag repeats inside the book tag, which causes an error when I try to to something like: from BeautifulSoup import BeautifulStoneSoup as BSS catalog = "catalog.xml" def open_rss(): f = open(catalog, 'r') return f.read() def rss_parser(): rss_contents = open_rss() soup = BSS(rss_contents) items = soup.findAll('catalog', recursive=False) for item in items: print item.title.string rss_parser() As you will see, on my soup.findAll I've added recursive=false, which in theory would make it no recurse through the item found, but skip to the next one. This doesn't seem to work, as I always get the following error: File "catalog.py", line 17, in rss_parser print item.title.string AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'string' I'm sure I'm doing something stupid here, and would appreciate if someone could give me some help on how to solve this problem. Changing the HTML structure is not an option, this this code needs to perform well as it will potentially parse a large XML file. Thanks in advance, Marcos

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• Java - Highest, Lowest and Average

  - by Emily

  Hello, I've just started studying and I need help on one of my exercises. I need the end user to input a rain fall number for each month. I then need to out put the average rainfall, highest month and lowest month and the months which rainfall was above average. I keep getting the same number in the highest and lowest and I have no idea why. I am seriously pulling my hair out. Any help would be greatly appreciated. This is what I have so far: public class rainfall { /** * @param args */ public static void main(String[] args) { int[] numgroup; numgroup = new int [13]; ConsoleReader console = new ConsoleReader(); int highest; int lowest; int index; int tempVal; int minMonth; int minIndex; int maxMonth; int maxIndex; System.out.println("Welcome to Rainfall"); for(index = 1; index < 13; index = index + 1) { System.out.println("Please enter the rainfall for month " + index); tempVal = console.readInt(); while (tempVal>100 || tempVal<0) { System.out.println("The rating must be within 0...100. Try again"); tempVal = console.readInt(); } numgroup[index] = tempVal; } lowest = numgroup[0]; for(minIndex = 0; minIndex < numgroup.length; minIndex = minIndex + 1); { if (numgroup[0] < lowest) { lowest = numgroup[0]; minMonth = minIndex; } } highest = numgroup[1]; for(maxIndex = 0; maxIndex < numgroup.length; maxIndex = maxIndex + 1); { if (numgroup[1] > highest) { highest = numgroup[1]; maxMonth = maxIndex; } } System.out.println("The average monthly rainfall was "); System.out.println("The lowest monthly rainfall was month " + minIndex); System.out.println("The highest monthly rainfall was month " + maxIndex); System.out.println("Thank you for using Rainfall"); } private static ConsoleReader ConsoleReader() { return null; } } Thanks, Emily

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• StaX: Content not allowed in prolog

  - by RalfB

  I have the following (test) XML file below and Java code that uses StaX. I want to apply this code to a file that is about 30 GB large but with fairly small elements, so I thought StaX is a good choice. I am getting the following error: Exception in thread "main" javax.xml.stream.XMLStreamException: ParseError at [row,col]:[1,1] Message: Content is not allowed in prolog at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLStreamReaderImpl.next(XMLStreamReaderImpl.java:598) at at.tuwien.mucke.util.xml.staxtest.StaXTest.main(StaXTest.java:18) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57) at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:601) at com.intellij.rt.execution.application.AppMain.main(AppMain.java:120) <?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?> <catalog> <book id="bk101"> <author>Gambardella, Matthew</author> <title>XML Developer's Guide</title> <price>44.95</price> <description>An in-depth look at creating applications with XML.</description> </book> <book id="bk102"> <author>Ralls, Kim</author> <title>Midnight Rain</title> <price>5.95</price> <description>A former architect battles corporate zombies, an evil sorceress, and her own childhood to become queen of the world.</description> </book> </catalog> Here the code: package xml.staxtest; import java.io.*; import javax.xml.stream.*; public class StaXTest { public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception { XMLInputFactory xif = XMLInputFactory.newInstance(); XMLStreamReader streamReader = xif.createXMLStreamReader(new FileReader("D:/Data/testFile.xml")); while(streamReader.hasNext()){ int eventType = streamReader.next(); if(eventType == XMLStreamReader.START_ELEMENT){ System.out.println(streamReader.getLocalName()); } //... more to come here later ... } } }

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• Help with code optimization

  - by Ockonal

  Hello, I've written a little particle system for my 2d-application. Here is raining code: // HPP ----------------------------------- struct Data { float x, y, x_speed, y_speed; int timeout; Data(); }; std::vector<Data> mData; bool mFirstTime; void processDrops(float windPower, int i); // CPP ----------------------------------- Data::Data() : x(rand()%ScreenResolutionX), y(0) , x_speed(0), y_speed(0), timeout(rand()%130) { } void Rain::processDrops(float windPower, int i) { int posX = rand() % mWindowWidth; mData[i].x = posX; mData[i].x_speed = WindPower*0.1; // WindPower is float mData[i].y_speed = Gravity*0.1; // Gravity is 9.8 * 19.2 // If that is first time, process drops randomly with window height if (mFirstTime) { mData[i].timeout = 0; mData[i].y = rand() % mWindowHeight; } else { mData[i].timeout = rand() % 130; mData[i].y = 0; } } void update(float windPower, float elapsed) { // If this is first time - create array with new Data structure objects if (mFirstTime) { for (int i=0; i < mMaxObjects; ++i) { mData.push_back(Data()); processDrops(windPower, i); } mFirstTime = false; } for (int i=0; i < mMaxObjects; i++) { // Sleep until uptime > 0 (To make drops fall with randomly timeout) if (mData[i].timeout > 0) { mData[i].timeout--; } else { // Find new x/y positions mData[i].x += mData[i].x_speed * elapsed; mData[i].y += mData[i].y_speed * elapsed; // Find new speeds mData[i].x_speed += windPower * elapsed; mData[i].y_speed += Gravity * elapsed; // Drawing here ... // If drop has been falled out of the screen if (mData[i].y > mWindowHeight) processDrops(windPower, i); } } } So the main idea is: I have some structure which consist of drop position, speed. I have a function for processing drops at some index in the vector-array. Now if that's first time of running I'm making array with max size and process it in cycle. But this code works slower that all another I have. Please, help me to optimize it. I tried to replace all int with uint16_t but I think it doesn't matter.

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• Hosed Windows 7 permissons

  - by Anthony

  Here is the most interesting thing I've noticed since the problems started: If I go into a control panel/system module (in this case the Resource Monitor) that has a "Check Online" type option, Firefox (my default browser) opens right up without a problem. But if I just start Firefox from any shortcuts (start menu, desktop, etc), the Firefox process starts up (and the start menu icon starts glowing) only to end without notice a few seconds later. Possibly related: If I start up in Safe-Mode (w/o Networking, but haven't tried with yet), I can start up FF or Chrome just fine, but if I attempt to open Chrome normally, I get a permissions error. Opera and Safari seem to be okay (mostly). Safari crashes when I try to download any files. All of the above leads me to believe that some (but clearly not all) core files have messed up permissions. Or rather, that I no longer have permission. System still does, based on Firefox opening without fail when the system initiates it. I've run MS Forefront once in normal mode, Malwarebytes twice in normal mode and once in safe-mode. One trojan found and deleted, but the problem persists. Two other things worth mentioning: I accidentally duplicated my library... I thought I'd try to add the "Internet" folder to my start menu, next to music and downloads. The first advanced thing I tried was "create new library". I clearly misunderstood what this means. I thought it was a way to add virtual folders to the library (which I thought, in turn, would allow me to choose it as a link on the start menu), but instead it recreated my already existing user folder, AppData and all. I didn't notice this until today. Then I tried setting permissions for my User folder to full control, recursively... Confused but not giving up,I thought I could maybe create a shortcut to the NetHood folder manually, but instead got hit with an access denied error. So I tried to change the permission levels for all sub-folders to my user folder so that I had full control. I got several access denied errors along the way. At this point I gave up, went out, ended up caught in the rain and stuck on a friend's couch and showing up late for work the next day. Thanks for nothing, Microsoft. When I finally got home today (20 hours later), I noticed that Firefox was acting really strange. I tried opening Chrome to see if the problem was client side or server side, and instead got the above-mentioned "you don't have permission to open this program" alert. And I think that's the whole story. Oh, I also did a system restore, but not chose a point from this morning (an auto update), and it worked but the problem wasn't fixed. And then all the earlier restore points were gone. So the questions are: a) is there a way to set the admin and user privs back to "default"? b) would this, in anyone's expert opinion, fix the problems I'm having? c) how come being logged in as an admin isn't the same as being logged in with admin privs? It seems that half the time I have to do run as admin for fairy standard things because i'm being treated as me-theuser and not me-theadmin. Thanks for reading.

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• I Hereby Resolve… (T-SQL Tuesday #14)

  - by smisner

  It’s time for another T-SQL Tuesday, hosted this month by Jen McCown (blog|twitter), on the topic of resolutions. Specifically, “what techie resolutions have you been pondering, and why?” I like that word – pondering – because I ponder a lot. And while there are many things that I do already because of my job, there are many more things that I ponder about doing…if only I had the time. Then I ponder about making time, but then it’s back to work! In 2010, I was moderately more successful in making time for things that I ponder about than I had been in years past, and I hope to continue that trend in 2011. If Jen hadn’t settled on this topic, I could keep my ponderings to myself and no one would ever know the outcome, but she’s egged me on (and everyone else that chooses to participate)! So here goes… For me, having resolve to do something means that I wouldn’t be doing that something as part of my ordinary routine. It takes extra effort to make time for it. It’s not something that I do once and check off a list, but something that I need to commit to over a period of time. So with that in mind, I hereby resolve… To Learn Something New… One of the things I love about my job is that I get to do a lot of things outside of my ordinary routine. It’s a veritable smorgasbord of opportunity! So what more could I possibly add to that list of things to do? Well, the more I learn, the more I realize I have so much more to learn. It would be much easier to remain in ignorant bliss, but I was born to learn. Constantly. (And apparently to teach, too– my father will tell you that as a small child, I had the neighborhood kids gathered together to play school – in the summer. I’m sure they loved that – but they did it!) These are some of things that I want to dedicate some time to learning this year: Spatial data. I have a good understanding of how maps in Reporting Services works, and I can cobble together a simple T-SQL spatial query, but I know I’m only scratching the surface here. Rob Farley (blog|twitter) posted interesting examples of combining maps and PivotViewer, and I think there’s so many more creative possibilities. I’ve always felt that pictures (including charts and maps) really help people get their minds wrapped around data better, and because a lot of data has a geographic aspect to it, I believe developing some expertise here will be beneficial to my work. PivotViewer. Not only is PivotViewer combined with maps a useful way to visualize data, but it’s an interesting way to work with data. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out this interactive demonstration using Netflx OData feed. According to Rob Farley, learning how to work with PivotViewer isn’t trivial. Just the type of challenge I like! Security. You’ve heard of the accidental DBA? Well, I am the accidental security person – is there a word for that role? My eyes used to glaze over when having to study about security, or  when reading anything about it. Then I had a problem long ago that no one could figure out – not even the vendor’s tech support – until I rolled up my sleeves and painstakingly worked through the myriad of potential problems to resolve a very thorny security issue. I learned a lot in the process, and have been able to share what I’ve learned with a lot of people. But I’m not convinced their eyes weren’t glazing over, too. I don’t take it personally – it’s just a very dry topic! So in addition to deepening my understanding about security, I want to find a way to make the subject as it relates to SQL Server and business intelligence more accessible and less boring. Well, there’s actually a lot more that I could put on this list, and a lot more things I have plans to do this coming year, but I run the risk of overcommitting myself. And then I wouldn’t have time… To Have Fun! My name is Stacia and I’m a workaholic. When I love what I do, it’s difficult to separate out the work time from the fun time. But there are some things that I’ve been meaning to do that aren’t related to business intelligence for which I really need to develop some resolve. And they are techie resolutions, too, in a roundabout sort of way! Photography. When my husband and I went on an extended camping trip in 2009 to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, I had a nice little digital camera that took decent pictures. But then I saw the gorgeous cameras that other tourists were toting around and decided I needed one too. So I bought a Nikon D90 and have started to learn to use it, but I’m definitely still in the beginning stages. I traveled so much in 2010 and worked on two book projects that I didn’t have a lot of free time to devote to it. I was very inspired by Kimberly Tripp’s (blog|twitter) and Paul Randal’s (blog|twitter) photo-adventure in Alaska, though, and plan to spend some dedicated time with my camera this year. (And hopefully before I move to Alaska – nothing set in stone yet, but we hope to move to a remote location – with Internet access – later this year!) Astronomy. I have this cool telescope, but it suffers the same fate as my camera. I have been gone too much and busy with other things that I haven’t had time to work with it. I’ll figure out how it works, and then so much time passes by that I forget how to use it. I have this crazy idea that I can actually put the camera and the telescope together for astrophotography, but I think I need to start simple by learning how to use each component individually. As long as I’m living in Las Vegas, I know I’ll have clear skies for nighttime viewing, but when we move to Alaska, we’ll be living in a rain forest. I have no idea what my opportunities will be like there – except I know that when the sky is clear, it will be far more amazing than anything I can see in Vegas – even out in the desert - because I’ll be so far away from city light pollution. I’ve been contemplating putting together a blog on these topics as I learn. As many of my fellow bloggers in the SQL Server community know, sometimes the best way to learn something is to sit down and write about it. I’m just stumped by coming up with a clever name for the new blog, which I was thinking about inaugurating with my move to Alaska. Except that I don’t know when that will be exactly, so we’ll just have to wait and see which comes first!

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• Master Data Management and Cloud Computing

  - by david.butler(at)oracle.com

  Cloud Computing is all the rage these days. There are many reasons why this is so. But like its predecessor, Service Oriented Architecture, it can fall on hard times if the underlying data is left unmanaged. Master Data Management is the perfect Cloud companion. It can materially increase the chances for successful Cloud initiatives. In this blog, I'll review the nature of the Cloud and show how MDM fits in.   Here's the National Institute of Standards and Technology Cloud definition: •          Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.   Cloud architectures have three main layers: applications or Software as a Service (SaaS), Platforms as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). SaaS generally refers to applications that are delivered to end-users over the Internet. Oracle CRM On Demand is an example of a SaaS application. Today there are hundreds of SaaS providers covering a wide variety of applications including Salesforce.com, Workday, and Netsuite. Oracle MDM applications are located in this layer of Oracle's On Demand enterprise Cloud platform. We call it Master Data as a Service (MDaaS). PaaS generally refers to an application deployment platform delivered as a service. They are often built on a grid computing architecture and include database and middleware. Oracle Fusion Middleware is in this category and includes the SOA and Data Integration products used to connect SaaS applications including MDM. Finally, IaaS generally refers to computing hardware (servers, storage and network) delivered as a service.  This typically includes the associated software as well: operating systems, virtualization, clustering, etc.    Cloud Computing benefits are compelling for a large number of organizations. These include significant cost savings, increased flexibility, and fast deployments. Cost advantages include paying for just what you use. This is especially critical for organizations with variable or seasonal usage. Companies don't have to invest to support peak computing periods. Costs are also more predictable and controllable. Increased agility includes access to the latest technology and experts without making significant up front investments.   While Cloud Computing is certainly very alluring with a clear value proposition, it is not without its challenges. An IDC survey of 244 IT executives/CIOs and their line-of-business (LOB) colleagues identified a number of issues:   Security - 74% identified security as an issue involving data privacy and resource access control. Integration - 61% found that it is hard to integrate Cloud Apps with in-house applications. Operational Costs - 50% are worried that On Demand will actually cost more given the impact of poor data quality on the rest of the enterprise. Compliance - 49% felt that compliance with required regulatory, legal and general industry requirements (such as PCI, HIPAA and Sarbanes-Oxley) would be a major issue. When control is lost, the ability of a provider to directly manage how and where data is deployed, used and destroyed is negatively impacted.  There are others, but I singled out these four top issues because Master Data Management, properly incorporated into a Cloud Computing infrastructure, can significantly ameliorate all of these problems. Cloud Computing can literally rain raw data across the enterprise.   According to fellow blogger, Mike Ferguson, "the fracturing of data caused by the adoption of cloud computing raises the importance of MDM in keeping disparate data synchronized."   David Linthicum, CTO Blue Mountain Labs blogs that "the lack of MDM will become more of an issue as cloud computing rises. We're moving from complex federated on-premise systems, to complex federated on-premise and cloud-delivered systems."    Left unmanaged, non-standard, inconsistent, ungoverned data with questionable quality can pollute analytical systems, increase operational costs, and reduce the ROI in Cloud and On-Premise applications. As cloud computing becomes more relevant, and more data, applications, services, and processes are moved out to cloud computing platforms, the need for MDM becomes ever more important. Oracle's MDM suite is designed to deal with all four of the above Cloud issues listed in the IDC survey.   Security - MDM manages all master data attribute privacy and resource access control issues. Integration - MDM pre-integrates Cloud Apps with each other and with On Premise applications at the data level. Operational Costs - MDM significantly reduces operational costs by increasing data quality, thereby improving enterprise business processes efficiency. Compliance - MDM, with its built in Data Governance capabilities, insures that the data is governed according to organizational standards. This facilitates rapid and accurate reporting for compliance purposes. Oracle MDM creates governed high quality master data. A unified cleansed and standardized data view is produced. The Oracle Customer Hub creates a single view of the customer. The Oracle Product Hub creates high quality product data designed to support all go-to-market processes. Oracle Supplier Hub dramatically reduces the chances of 'supplier exceptions'. Oracle Site Hub masters locations. And Oracle Hyperion Data Relationship Management masters financial reference data and manages enterprise hierarchies across operational areas from ERP to EPM and CRM to SCM. Oracle Fusion Middleware connects Cloud and On Premise applications to MDM Hubs and brings high quality master data to your enterprise business processes.   An independent analyst once said "Poor data quality is like dirt on the windshield. You may be able to drive for a long time with slowly degrading vision, but at some point, you either have to stop and clear the windshield or risk everything."  Cloud Computing has the potential to significantly degrade data quality across the enterprise over time. Deploying a Master Data Management solution prior to or in conjunction with a move to the Cloud can insure that the data flowing into the enterprise from the Cloud is clean and governed. This will in turn insure that expected returns on the investment in Cloud Computing will be realized.       Oracle MDM has proven its metal in this area and has the customers to back that up. In fact, I will be hosting a webcast on Tuesday, April 10th at 10 am PT with one of our top Cloud customers, the Church Pension Group. They have moved all mainline applications to a hosted model and use Oracle MDM to insure the master data is managed and cleansed before it is propagated to other cloud and internal systems. I invite you join Martin Hossfeld, VP, IT Operations, and Danette Patterson, Enterprise Data Manager as they review business drivers for MDM and hosted applications, how they did it, the benefits achieved, and lessons learned. You can register for this free webcast here.  Hope to see you there.

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• I Know What I Did This Summer: Put Down Trex Decking

  - by thatjeffsmith

  If you’re wondering why I would bore everyone with my pictures and frequent status updates/tweets from the past week – it’s so I could document the process of refurbishing my deck, or what some would call a porch. When we go to take a vacation, buy a car, do anything – we also read personal blogs to get the real story. So, if you’re curious about what it takes to tackle this sort of project, read on. Skills/Equipment/Manpower We Possessed I took the old decking out by myself. I’m about 230 lbs, more than 6′ tall, and I’m pretty healthy. This took about 8 hours over two afternoons. Three of us put the deck back together. My wife has two engineering degrees. Her father also has two engineering degrees. Lots of brainpower available here. Also, her dad ran the public works department for a country for more than 20 years – so lots and lots of practical experience on hand. We had a compound mitre saw, a skilsaw, 2-3 crowbars, a framing hammer, 3 cordless drills, a corded drill, lots of sawhorses, a power sander, an angle grinder, a 10×10 Coleman canopy tent, a Ford F-150 pickup truck, outdoor speakers and lots of iTunes playlists, plenty of water and cold beer. Why We Did This Our deck was relatively young – it was built in 2005. However, the pressure treated boards must not have been adequately maintained before we bought the house. I had powerwashed the deck every other year and had it stained a few times. The boards just rotted. We’re going to be in the house for a long time, and we wanted something that would look nice and require little maintenance. More bad deck boards The deck boards were in bad shape Things We Learned The two most important things: The hidden fasteners have to be put in JUST right. Wedge them into the grooved board, then bend down the bit that is screwed down. We didn’t do this on the first board and couldn’t get the second board to fit nearly close enough. Watching the official TREX YouTube video helped immensely, and we should have watched that first. When pre-drilling holes for the boards that need screwed down – DO NOT pre-drill through the underlying framing wood. ONLY pre-drill through the TREX itself. The screw won’t seat in the board properly. Instead of sitting down flush with the board, it will stop at the top of the board and just spin. I had to call the the place that sold me the screws to find this out. So about a third of our screws look like crap. If it doesn’t look or feel right – stop everything and pick up your computer or your phone. It’s not right, and it will be much easier to stop and find out why. We didn’t do this, and now I’m going to see every screw that’s not flush with the boards and get upset. Oh well. The Process How much time did it take? Well I spent about 8 hours taking the deck apart. And then the 3 of use spent 8 hours the first day, 10 hours the second day, 8 hours the third, and another 6 hours on the fourth day. That’s like 104 man-hours. We supposedly saved four or five thousand dollars in labor, but don’t do the math here or you might get a bit upset. The main thing is that we got what we wanted, and there won’t be any surprises later. Now for some pictures… This 6”+ pry bar made the destruction of the old deck much easier Most of the joists, once exposed, were OK. This joist wasn’t sitting on ANYTHING before. We think a lazy gas person cut the board to sneak a gas line in. Awesome… These monster lag bolts had to be accounted for when putting in the additional framing The border pattern Sheri wanted to put in required a lot more framing. These were the first boards to go down – we screwed them in as there was no way to attach clips I sat, kicked in the boards, and then drilled these clips in – but my wife was able to go MUCH faster by using her hands to lock the boards in and drill on her knees. I liked locking the board in with my feet when they needed to be ‘encouraged’ to go straight. The first board took FOREVER to go in, but then when we got rolling, we were able to put in a 20′ board in less than 10 minutes. This was end of construction day #2 – we got much further than we thought we would. Ah, the dreaded last 10% – what to do here? Remember those ‘floating’ stringers? Yeah, we fixed that up a bit, too. My wife used a website (and her brain) to calculate exactly how to cut the stringers to give us the rise/run we needed with the proper clearance and all that jazz. The stairs with stringers and toe kicks – this was worth the effort It started raining on us as I screwed down the steps – this we managed to get our shade tent up on the deck to protect us from the rain too The stairs, finished Finished, mostly Good corner shot The top of the stairs Stairs, looking down Celebratory beer In Summary There are a few things we’re not happy with. I think we can fix them up – but later. I have a few things left to finish, rewire the lighting, get the gas grille put back in, and rehang some screen doors. I was expecting this to be a lot worse than it was. If I didn’t have the help, I would have never done it myself. But I’m glad that I did have that help and did do that project. It’s not often you get to spend that kind of qualify time with family and building cool stuff.

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• NINE Questions with Michelle Juett

  - by NINEQuestions

  Michelle Juett is one of the more interesting people I know, even though we’ve never met face to face. She’s part artist, part techie and all cool. We “met” via my good buddy George Clingerman and have plotting to take over the world, errr… I mean “collaborating” ever since. If you happen to live in the Seattle area, you can catch her and her work at Sakura Con on April 2-4, 2010 and various other gamer and art cons throughout the year. You can also find her on Twitter as @Shelldragon. Now that you know a little bit, I’ll let her tell you the rest of the story in these NINE Questions: 1. Where are you from? I was born in Clearwater, Florida. I like to tell people I'm from the Bermuda Triangle, it just makes explaining myself so much easier. My family moved to Washington when I was 5 and I've been in the Pacific Northwest ever since. We like to QQ about the rain but we really love the green trees and clean water. 2. What do you do? I fight evil by moonlight and win love by daylight.. or something like that.  I’ve been in quality assurance for games during the day since January 2008 and an artist for life. I currently work in QA for a really awesome game company in Bellevue.  At home, I work on personal digital art, making game assets as well as other random freelance projects as they pop up. 3. How did you get to where you are now? I'm still not where I want to be but I'm getting closer. The biggest piece of advice I can give is to work hard and never settle for the minimum required. I tend to overwork myself but I've never regretted it. You can want something really bad but if you aren't willing to work for it, then you can't expect it to just happen. I've always drawn and had an unhealthy love for video games that I was told I’d grow out of.  I knew I would not ‘grow out’ of games and that real adults make them and I could too. After I graduated, in searching for jobs, I discovered game testing. I figured this would be a good way to get my foot in the door and start networking. I’ve worked with consoles, websites and now, PC games.  I stuck with my journey, although it has been a rocky one, daylighting as a tester and moonlighting as an artist. I'm still on that journey but I wouldn't have it any other way. Test has given me a perspective that is difficult, if not impossible, to obtain any other way. It gives an unconditional respect for other hard working testers and an insight into creative problem solving. 4. So video game testing probably sounds WAY cooler than the reality. What's it like? What's a given day for you? Game testers don't get a lot of respect because of their stigmas and the fact most people don't actually know what we do.  People hear about the opening and closing disc trays all day. Many places do treat their testers like numbers. It all depends on where you work and how awesome your company is. I've had to deal with a lot of bad work situations to get to a really good one. QA exists to ensure the game is as flawless and enjoyable as it can be by the time it has to leave the nest and go out into the world. This includes everything obvious: “can I beat the level and save the princess?” to the more obscure: ‘What happens when I lose internet connection while trying to save right before falling into a pit to my death while holding the jump key then my cat pulls out my memory card and hides it in her litter box?” On the dev side, for developers, testers can be very scary people. Especially when the test team is not in house and you can’t see each other’s faces.  I've seen both sides. We don't mean to hurt your feelings. We really DO love you and want your game to be the best it can be! It can be some serious tough love. 5. You are also an accomplished artist. Got any major projects right now you'd like to talk about? LOL, I don't know if I’d say I'm an accomplished artist just yet. I’m still a long way from where I want to be. I figure that’s what makes you grow though: the desire to never stop improving. I like QA but I want to be a full time artist. I was lucky enough to register for a table at Sakura Con in the 11 second window that the tables sold out. As such, I’ll be selling my wares in the Artist Alley April 2-4th. Part of preparing for this is actually making the art to be sold there. Anime is a fun pass time but I don’t draw a whole lot of it so I’m making up for lost time. As I seem to enjoy burying myself in work, I’m an art lead for a secret project that’s so secret I might be killed tonight for even mentioning it. I also take on various freelance projects and do what I can to help out indie games. I discovered the XNA community a year and a half ago and developed a love for Indies when I was writing a weekly newsletter on XBLA news. I’m a little late to the party but I find myself in a unique position where I am an artist and also have technical skills in games. While not programmer myself, I have a lot of game sense and experience. I hope to make some awesome happen. Lastly, I have an ongoing web comic Shell’s Angels) that tends to get neglected when I get busy. I still love drawing comics and keep a little book with me to sketch down ideas as they pop into my head. I may pick it back up again as a larger project sometime in the future. 6. Can you talk about any of the other freelance projects you're doing or are you sworn to secrecy on those too? We wouldn't want a team of game developer ninjas to take you out or anything. All my projects are currently 2d. I have personal projects such as the ongoing comic as well as a graphic novel I've been picking at here and there. My main focus until April is Sakura Con, Sakura Con, Sakura Con.  I see it as a great way to get exposure and convention experience. I found out I love conventions a couple years ago and I want to get more involved in them. 7. As an artist, what is your weapon of choice? What do you use to get most of your stuff done? I am a Photoshop Hero and I have the hoodie to prove it. (http://www.pennyarcademerch.com/pah090011.html) I've dabbled in other paint programs but I always gravitate back to Photoshop. She is my one true love. I'd like to learn programs like Flash or Anime Studio when I get a bit more time because of their animation abilities. I've worked on frame by frame animation forever but I would love to learn 2d rigging. Still, nothing can compare to a simple sketchpad and a pencil. I always have one on me in case I come across or think of something interesting and can't get to a computer. If the Courier ever comes to exist it will be an ideal weapon for me. 8. You did some videos too, depicting the art creation process. What was the motivation behind those? The creative process is just as important as the final product, if not more so.  I've always loved watching speed paint videos and wanted to try it out myself. Turns out it's a lot of work and time but it's definitely fun to go back and rewatch them. Art isn't always the end result and is more often the process itself. 9. Got any interesting tattoos? Designed any for yourself or other people? Not yet, but not for lack of desire. I've toiled over what and where for years. Last year, I finally decided the back of my shoulders would be the place. Like anything permanent, I want it to have meaning. I thought of somehow incorporating games but I couldn't find something I felt would stand the test of time even with all the classic sprite games. I'm very picky so we'll see if I can get something solid decided. Come see me at Sakura Con April 2 -4!!!

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• SQL Cruise Alaska 2011

  - by Grant Fritchey

  I had the extreme good fortune to get sent on the last SQL Cruise to Alaska. I love my job. In case you don't what this is, SQL Cruise is a trip on a cruise ship during which you get to attend classes while on the boat, learning all about SQL Server and related topics as well as network with the instructors and the other Cruisers. Frankly, it's amazing. Classes ran from Monday, 5/30, to Saturday, 6/4. The networking was constant, between classes, at night on cruise ship, out on excursions in Alaskan rainforests and while snorkeling in ocean waters. Here's a run down of the experience from my point of view. Because I couldn't travel out 2 days early, I missed the BBQ that occurred the day before the cruise when many of the Cruisers received their swag bags. Some of that swag came from Red Gate. I researched what was useful on a cruise like this and purchased small flashlights and binoculars for all the Cruisers. The flashlights were because, depending on your cabin, ships can be very dark. The binoculars were so that the cruisers could watch all the beautiful landscape as it flowed by. I would have liked to have been there when the bags were opened, but I heard from several people that they appreciated the gifts. Cruisers "In" the hot tub. Pictured: Marjory Woody, Michele Grondin, Kyle Brandt, Grant Fritchey, John Halunen Sunday I went to board the ship with my wife. We had a bit of an adventure because I messed up our documents. It all worked out and we got on board to meet up at the back of the boat at one of the outdoor bars with the other Cruisers, thanks to tweets letting everyone know where to go. That was the end of electronic coordination on the trip (connectivity in Alaska was horrible for everyone except AT&T). The Cruisers were a great bunch of people and it was a real honor to meet them and get to spend time with them. After everyone settled into their cabins, our very first activity was a contest, sponsored by Red Gate. The Cruisers, in an effort to get to know each other and the ship, were required to go all over taking various photographs, some of them hilarious. The winning team of three would all win prizes. Some of the significant others helped out and I tagged along with a team that tied for first but lost the coin toss. The winning team consisted of Christina Leo (blog|twitter), Ryan Malcom (twitter), Neil Hambly (blog|twitter). They then had to do math and identify the cabin with the lowest prime number, oh, and get a picture of it and be the first to get back up to the bar where we were waiting. Christina came in first and very happily carried home an Ipad2. Ryan won a 1TB portable hard drive and Neil won a wireless mouse (picture below, note my special SQL Server Central Friday Shirt. Thanks Steve (blog|twitter)). Winners: Christina Leo, Neil Hambly, Ryan Malcolm. Just Lucky: Grant Fritchey Monday morning classes started. Buck Woody (blog|twitter) was a special guest speaker on this cruise. His theme was "Three C's on the High Seas: Career, Communication and Cloud." The first session was all on Career. I'm not going to type out all my notes from the session, but let's just say, if you get the chance to hear Buck talk about how to manage your career, I suggest you attend. I have a ton of blog posts that I'll be putting together over the next several months (yes, months) both here and over on ScaryDBA. I also have a bunch of work I'm going to be doing to get my career performance bumped up a notch or two (and let's face it, that won't be easy). Later on Monday, Tim Ford (blog|twitter) did a session on DMOs. Specifically the session was on Tim's Period Table of DMOs that he has put together, and how to use some of the more interesting DMOs in your day to day job. It was a great session, packed with good information. Next, Brent Ozar (blog|twitter) did a session on how to monitor and guide SAN configuration for the DBA that doesn't have access to the SAN. That was some seriously useful information. Tuesday morning we only had a single class. Kendra Little (blog|twitter) taught us all about "No Lock for Yes Fun".  It was all about the different transaction isolation levels and how they work. There is so often confusion in this area and Kendra does a great job in clarifying the information. Also, she tosses in her excellent drawings to liven up the presentation. Then it was excursion time in Juneau. My wife and I, along with several other Cruisers, took a hike up around the Mendenhall Glacier. It was absolutely beautiful weather and walking through the Alaskan rain forest was a treat. Our guide, Jason, was a great guy and it was a good day of hiking. Wednesday was an all day excursion in Skagway. My wife and I took the "Ghost and Good Time Girls" walking tour that ended up at a bar that used to be a brothel, the Red Onion. It was a great history of the town. We went back out and hit a few museums and exhibits. We also hiked up the side of the mountain to see the Dewey Lake and some great views of the town. Finally we hiked out to the far side of town to see the Gold Rush cemetery. Hiking done we went back to the boat and had a quiet dinner on our own. Thursday we cruised through Glacier Bay and saw at least four different glaciers including sitting next to the Marjory Glacier for  about an hour. It was amazing. Then it got better. We went into class with Buck again, this time to talk about Communication. Again, I've got pages of notes that I'm going to be referring back to for some time to come. This was an excellent opportunity to learn. Snorkelers: Nicole Bertrand, Aaron Bertrand, Grant Fritchey, Neil Hambly, Christina Leo, John Robel, Yanni Robel, Tim Ford Friday we pulled into Ketchikan. A bunch of us went snorkeling. Yes, snorkeling. Yes, in Alaska. Yes, snorkeling in the ocean in Alaska. It was fantastic. They had us put on 7mm thick wet suits (an adventure all by itself) so it was basically warm the entire time we were in the water (except for the occasional squirt of cold water down my back). Before we got in the water a bald eagle flew up and landed about 15 feet in front of us, which was just an incredible event. Then our guide pointed out about 14 other eagles in the area, hanging out in the trees. Wow! The water was pretty clear and there was a ton of things to see. That was absolutely a blast. Back on the boat I presented a session called Execution Plans: The Deep Dive (note the nautical theme). It seemed to go over well and I had several good questions come out of the session that will lead to new blog posts. After I presented, it was Aaron Bertrand's (blog|twitter) turn. He did a session on "What's New in Denali" that provided a lot of great information. He was able to incorporate new things straight out of Tech-Ed, so this was expanded beyond his usual presentation. The man really knows what he's talking about and communicates it well. Saturday we were travelling so there was time for a bunch of classes. Jeremiah Peschka (blog|twitter) did a great overview of some of the NoSQL databases and what they should be used for. The session was called "The Database is Dead" but it was really about how there are specific uses for these databases that SQL Server doesn't fill, but also that these databases can't replace SQL Server in other areas. Again, good material. Brent Ozar presented again with a session on Defensive Indexing. It was an overview of how indexes work and a deep dive into how to apply them appropriately in your databases to better support access. A good session, as you would expect. Then we pulled into Victoria, BC, in Canada and had a nice dinner with several of the Cruisers, including Denny Cherry (blog|twitter). After that it was back to Seattle on Sunday. By the way, the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle isn't a Science Fiction Museum any more. I was very disappointed to discover this. Overall, it was a great experience. I'm extremely appreciative of Red Gate for sending me and for Tim, Brent, Kendra and Jeremiah for having me. The other Cruisers were all amazing people and it was an honor & privilege to meet them and spend time with them. While this was a seriously fun time, it was also a very serious training opportunity with solid information coming from seasoned industry pros.

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• Using JS script for "raining images". Can't seem to hide pre-loaded image

  - by user1813605

  I am trying to hide an image in a script pre-loading on the page. Below script makes images "rain" down the screen onClick. It functions well, but it displays the pre-loaded image itself on the page before the button is clicked. I'm trying to hide the image until the button is pressed. If anyone has any insight on how to hide the image until the function dispenseMittens() runs, I'd be eternally grateful :) Thanks! <script language="javascript"> var pictureSrc = 'mitten.gif'; //the location of the mittens var pictureWidth = 40; //the width of the mittens var pictureHeight = 46; //the height of the mittens var numFlakes = 10; //the number of mittens var downSpeed = 0.01; var lrFlakes = 10; var EmergencyMittens = false; //safety checks. Browsers will hang if this is wrong. If other values are wrong there will just be errors if( typeof( numFlakes ) != 'number' || Math.round( numFlakes ) != numFlakes || numFlakes < 1 ) { numFlakes = 10; } //draw the snowflakes for( var x = 0; x < numFlakes; x++ ) { if( document.layers ) { //releave NS4 bug document.write('<layer id="snFlkDiv'+x+'"><img src="'+pictureSrc+'" height="'+pictureHeight+'" width="'+pictureWidth+'" alt="*" border="0"></layer>'); } else { document.write('<div style="position:absolute;" id="snFlkDiv'+x+'"><img src="'+pictureSrc+'" height="'+pictureHeight+'" width="'+pictureWidth+'" alt="*" border="0"></div>'); } } //calculate initial positions (in portions of browser window size) var xcoords = new Array(), ycoords = new Array(), snFlkTemp; for( var x = 0; x < numFlakes; x++ ) { xcoords[x] = ( x + 1 ) / ( numFlakes + 1 ); do { snFlkTemp = Math.round( ( numFlakes - 1 ) * Math.random() ); } while( typeof( ycoords[snFlkTemp] ) == 'number' ); ycoords[snFlkTemp] = x / numFlakes; } //now animate function mittensFall() { if( !getRefToDivNest('snFlkDiv0') ) { return; } var scrWidth = 0, scrHeight = 0, scrollHeight = 0, scrollWidth = 0; //find screen settings for all variations. doing this every time allows for resizing and scrolling if( typeof( window.innerWidth ) == 'number' ) { scrWidth = window.innerWidth; scrHeight = window.innerHeight; } else { if( document.documentElement && ( document.documentElement.clientWidth || document.documentElement.clientHeight ) ) { scrWidth = document.documentElement.clientWidth; scrHeight = document.documentElement.clientHeight; } else { if( document.body && ( document.body.clientWidth || document.body.clientHeight ) ) { scrWidth = document.body.clientWidth; scrHeight = document.body.clientHeight; } } } if( typeof( window.pageYOffset ) == 'number' ) { scrollHeight = pageYOffset; scrollWidth = pageXOffset; } else { if( document.body && ( document.body.scrollLeft || document.body.scrollTop ) ) { scrollHeight = document.body.scrollTop; scrollWidth = document.body.scrollLeft; } else { if( document.documentElement && ( document.documentElement.scrollLeft || document.documentElement.scrollTop ) ) { scrollHeight = document.documentElement.scrollTop; scrollWidth = document.documentElement.scrollLeft; } } } //move the snowflakes to their new position for( var x = 0; x < numFlakes; x++ ) { if( ycoords[x] * scrHeight > scrHeight - pictureHeight ) { ycoords[x] = 0; } var divRef = getRefToDivNest('snFlkDiv'+x); if( !divRef ) { return; } if( divRef.style ) { divRef = divRef.style; } var oPix = document.childNodes ? 'px' : 0; divRef.top = ( Math.round( ycoords[x] * scrHeight ) + scrollHeight ) + oPix; divRef.left = ( Math.round( ( ( xcoords[x] * scrWidth ) - ( pictureWidth / 2 ) ) + ( ( scrWidth / ( ( numFlakes + 1 ) * 4 ) ) * ( Math.sin( lrFlakes * ycoords[x] ) - Math.sin( 3 * lrFlakes * ycoords[x] ) ) ) ) + scrollWidth ) + oPix; ycoords[x] += downSpeed; } } //DHTML handlers function getRefToDivNest(divName) { if( document.layers ) { return document.layers[divName]; } //NS4 if( document[divName] ) { return document[divName]; } //NS4 also if( document.getElementById ) { return document.getElementById(divName); } //DOM (IE5+, NS6+, Mozilla0.9+, Opera) if( document.all ) { return document.all[divName]; } //Proprietary DOM - IE4 return false; } function dispenseMittens() { if (EmergencyMittens) { window.clearInterval(EmergencyMittens); } else { EmergencyMittens = window.setInterval('mittensFall();',100); } } </script>

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• Windows Azure: Import/Export Hard Drives, VM ACLs, Web Sockets, Remote Debugging, Continuous Delivery, New Relic, Billing Alerts and More

  - by ScottGu

  Two weeks ago we released a giant set of improvements to Windows Azure, as well as a significant update of the Windows Azure SDK. This morning we released another massive set of enhancements to Windows Azure.  Today’s new capabilities include: Storage: Import/Export Hard Disk Drives to your Storage Accounts HDInsight: General Availability of our Hadoop Service in the cloud Virtual Machines: New VM Gallery, ACL support for VIPs Web Sites: WebSocket and Remote Debugging Support Notification Hubs: Segmented customer push notification support with tag expressions TFS & GIT: Continuous Delivery Support for Web Sites + Cloud Services Developer Analytics: New Relic support for Web Sites + Mobile Services Service Bus: Support for partitioned queues and topics Billing: New Billing Alert Service that sends emails notifications when your bill hits a threshold you define All of these improvements are now available to use immediately (note that some features are still in preview).  Below are more details about them. Storage: Import/Export Hard Disk Drives to Windows Azure I am excited to announce the preview of our new Windows Azure Import/Export Service! The Windows Azure Import/Export Service enables you to move large amounts of on-premises data into and out of your Windows Azure Storage accounts. It does this by enabling you to securely ship hard disk drives directly to our Windows Azure data centers. Once we receive the drives we’ll automatically transfer the data to or from your Windows Azure Storage account.  This enables you to import or export massive amounts of data more quickly and cost effectively (and not be constrained by available network bandwidth). Encrypted Transport Our Import/Export service provides built-in support for BitLocker disk encryption – which enables you to securely encrypt data on the hard drives before you send it, and not have to worry about it being compromised even if the disk is lost/stolen in transit (since the content on the transported hard drives is completely encrypted and you are the only one who has the key to it).  The drive preparation tool we are shipping today makes setting up bitlocker encryption on these hard drives easy. How to Import/Export your first Hard Drive of Data You can read our Getting Started Guide to learn more about how to begin using the import/export service.  You can create import and export jobs via the Windows Azure Management Portal as well as programmatically using our Server Management APIs. It is really easy to create a new import or export job using the Windows Azure Management Portal.  Simply navigate to a Windows Azure storage account, and then click the new Import/Export tab now available within it (note: if you don’t have this tab make sure to sign-up for the Import/Export preview): Then click the “Create Import Job” or “Create Export Job” commands at the bottom of it.  This will launch a wizard that easily walks you through the steps required: For more comprehensive information about Import/Export, refer to Windows Azure Storage team blog.  You can also send questions and comments to the [email protected] email address. We think you’ll find this new service makes it much easier to move data into and out of Windows Azure, and it will dramatically cut down the network bandwidth required when working on large data migration projects.  We hope you like it. HDInsight: 100% Compatible Hadoop Service in the Cloud Last week we announced the general availability release of Windows Azure HDInsight. HDInsight is a 100% compatible Hadoop service that allows you to easily provision and manage Hadoop clusters for big data processing in Windows Azure.  This release is now live in production, backed by an enterprise SLA, supported 24x7 by Microsoft Support, and is ready to use for production scenarios. HDInsight allows you to use Apache Hadoop tools, such as Pig and Hive, to process large amounts of data in Windows Azure Blob Storage. Because data is stored in Windows Azure Blob Storage, you can choose to dynamically create Hadoop clusters only when you need them, and then shut them down when they are no longer required (since you pay only for the time the Hadoop cluster instances are running this provides a super cost effective way to use them).  You can create Hadoop clusters using either the Windows Azure Management Portal (see below) or using our PowerShell and Cross Platform Command line tools: The import/export hard drive support that came out today is a perfect companion service to use with HDInsight – the combination allows you to easily ingest, process and optionally export a limitless amount of data.  We’ve also integrated HDInsight with our Business Intelligence tools, so users can leverage familiar tools like Excel in order to analyze the output of jobs.  You can find out more about how to get started with HDInsight here. Virtual Machines: VM Gallery Enhancements Today’s update of Windows Azure brings with it a new Virtual Machine gallery that you can use to create new VMs in the cloud.  You can launch the gallery by doing New->Compute->Virtual Machine->From Gallery within the Windows Azure Management Portal: The new Virtual Machine Gallery includes some nice enhancements that make it even easier to use: Search: You can now easily search and filter images using the search box in the top-right of the dialog.  For example, simply type “SQL” and we’ll filter to show those images in the gallery that contain that substring. Category Tree-view: Each month we add more built-in VM images to the gallery.  You can continue to browse these using the “All” view within the VM Gallery – or now quickly filter them using the category tree-view on the left-hand side of the dialog.  For example, by selecting “Oracle” in the tree-view you can now quickly filter to see the official Oracle supplied images. MSDN and Supported checkboxes: With today’s update we are also introducing filters that makes it easy to filter out types of images that you may not be interested in. The first checkbox is MSDN: using this filter you can exclude any image that is not part of the Windows Azure benefits for MSDN subscribers (which have highly discounted pricing - you can learn more about the MSDN pricing here). The second checkbox is Supported: this filter will exclude any image that contains prerelease software, so you can feel confident that the software you choose to deploy is fully supported by Windows Azure and our partners. Sort options: We sort gallery images by what we think customers are most interested in, but sometimes you might want to sort using different views. So we’re providing some additional sort options, like “Newest,” to customize the image list for what suits you best. Pricing information: We now provide additional pricing information about images and options on how to cost effectively run them directly within the VM Gallery. The above improvements make it even easier to use the VM Gallery and quickly create launch and run Virtual Machines in the cloud. Virtual Machines: ACL Support for VIPs A few months ago we exposed the ability to configure Access Control Lists (ACLs) for Virtual Machines using Windows PowerShell cmdlets and our Service Management API. With today’s release, you can now configure VM ACLs using the Windows Azure Management Portal as well. You can now do this by clicking the new Manage ACL command in the Endpoints tab of a virtual machine instance: This will enable you to configure an ordered list of permit and deny rules to scope the traffic that can access your VM’s network endpoints. For example, if you were on a virtual network, you could limit RDP access to a Windows Azure virtual machine to only a few computers attached to your enterprise. Or if you weren’t on a virtual network you could alternatively limit traffic from public IPs that can access your workloads: Here is the default behaviors for ACLs in Windows Azure: By default (i.e. no rules specified), all traffic is permitted. When using only Permit rules, all other traffic is denied. When using only Deny rules, all other traffic is permitted. When there is a combination of Permit and Deny rules, all other traffic is denied. Lastly, remember that configuring endpoints does not automatically configure them within the VM if it also has firewall rules enabled at the OS level.  So if you create an endpoint using the Windows Azure Management Portal, Windows PowerShell, or REST API, be sure to also configure your guest VM firewall appropriately as well. Web Sites: Web Sockets Support With today’s release you can now use Web Sockets with Windows Azure Web Sites.  This feature enables you to easily integrate real-time communication scenarios within your web based applications, and is available at no extra charge (it even works with the free tier).  Higher level programming libraries like SignalR and socket.io are also now supported with it. You can enable Web Sockets support on a web site by navigating to the Configure tab of a Web Site, and by toggling Web Sockets support to “on”: Once Web Sockets is enabled you can start to integrate some really cool scenarios into your web applications.  Check out the new SignalR documentation hub on www.asp.net to learn more about some of the awesome scenarios you can do with it. Web Sites: Remote Debugging Support The Windows Azure SDK 2.2 we released two weeks ago introduced remote debugging support for Windows Azure Cloud Services. With today’s Windows Azure release we are extending this remote debugging support to also work with Windows Azure Web Sites. With live, remote debugging support inside of Visual Studio, you are able to have more visibility than ever before into how your code is operating live in Windows Azure. It is now super easy to attach the debugger and quickly see what is going on with your application in the cloud. Remote Debugging of a Windows Azure Web Site using VS 2013 Enabling the remote debugging of a Windows Azure Web Site using VS 2013 is really easy.  Start by opening up your web application’s project within Visual Studio. Then navigate to the “Server Explorer” tab within Visual Studio, and click on the deployed web-site you want to debug that is running within Windows Azure using the Windows Azure->Web Sites node in the Server Explorer.  Then right-click and choose the “Attach Debugger” option on it: When you do this Visual Studio will remotely attach the debugger to the Web Site running within Windows Azure.  The debugger will then stop the web site’s execution when it hits any break points that you have set within your web application’s project inside Visual Studio.  For example, below I set a breakpoint on the “ViewBag.Message” assignment statement within the HomeController of the standard ASP.NET MVC project template.  When I hit refresh on the “About” page of the web site within the browser, the breakpoint was triggered and I am now able to debug the app remotely using Visual Studio: Note above how we can debug variables (including autos/watchlist/etc), as well as use the Immediate and Command Windows. In the debug session above I used the Immediate Window to explore some of the request object state, as well as to dynamically change the ViewBag.Message property.  When we click the the “Continue” button (or press F5) the app will continue execution and the Web Site will render the content back to the browser.  This makes it super easy to debug web apps remotely. Tips for Better Debugging To get the best experience while debugging, we recommend publishing your site using the Debug configuration within Visual Studio’s Web Publish dialog. This will ensure that debug symbol information is uploaded to the Web Site which will enable a richer debug experience within Visual Studio.  You can find this option on the Web Publish dialog on the Settings tab: When you ultimately deploy/run the application in production we recommend using the “Release” configuration setting – the release configuration is memory optimized and will provide the best production performance.  To learn more about diagnosing and debugging Windows Azure Web Sites read our new Troubleshooting Windows Azure Web Sites in Visual Studio guide. Notification Hubs: Segmented Push Notification support with tag expressions In August we announced the General Availability of Windows Azure Notification Hubs - a powerful Mobile Push Notifications service that makes it easy to send high volume push notifications with low latency from any mobile app back-end.  Notification hubs can be used with any mobile app back-end (including ones built using our Mobile Services capability) and can also be used with back-ends that run in the cloud as well as on-premises. Beginning with the initial release, Notification Hubs allowed developers to send personalized push notifications to both individual users as well as groups of users by interest, by associating their devices with tags representing the logical target of the notification. For example, by registering all devices of customers interested in a favorite MLB team with a corresponding tag, it is possible to broadcast one message to millions of Boston Red Sox fans and another message to millions of St. Louis Cardinals fans with a single API call respectively. New support for using tag expressions to enable advanced customer segmentation With today’s release we are adding support for even more advanced customer targeting.  You can now identify customers that you want to send push notifications to by defining rich tag expressions. With tag expressions, you can now not only broadcast notifications to Boston Red Sox fans, but take that segmenting a step farther and reach more granular segments. This opens up a variety of scenarios, for example: Offers based on multiple preferences—e.g. send a game day vegetarian special to users tagged as both a Boston Red Sox fan AND a vegetarian Push content to multiple segments in a single message—e.g. rain delay information only to users who are tagged as either a Boston Red Sox fan OR a St. Louis Cardinal fan Avoid presenting subsets of a segment with irrelevant content—e.g. season ticket availability reminder to users who are tagged as a Boston Red Sox fan but NOT also a season ticket holder To illustrate with code, consider a restaurant chain app that sends an offer related to a Red Sox vs Cardinals game for users in Boston. Devices can be tagged by your app with location tags (e.g. “Loc:Boston”) and interest tags (e.g. “Follows:RedSox”, “Follows:Cardinals”), and then a notification can be sent by your back-end to “(Follows:RedSox || Follows:Cardinals) && Loc:Boston” in order to deliver an offer to all devices in Boston that follow either the RedSox or the Cardinals. This can be done directly in your server backend send logic using the code below: var notification = new WindowsNotification(messagePayload); hub.SendNotificationAsync(notification, "(Follows:RedSox || Follows:Cardinals) && Loc:Boston"); In your expressions you can use all Boolean operators: AND (&&), OR (||), and NOT (!).  Some other cool use cases for tag expressions that are now supported include: Social: To “all my group except me” - group:id && !user:id Events: Touchdown event is sent to everybody following either team or any of the players involved in the action: Followteam:A || Followteam:B || followplayer:1 || followplayer:2 … Hours: Send notifications at specific times. E.g. Tag devices with time zone and when it is 12pm in Seattle send to: GMT8 && follows:thaifood Versions and platforms: Send a reminder to people still using your first version for Android - version:1.0 && platform:Android For help on getting started with Notification Hubs, visit the Notification Hub documentation center.  Then download the latest NuGet package (or use the Notification Hubs REST APIs directly) to start sending push notifications using tag expressions.  They are really powerful and enable a bunch of great new scenarios. TFS & GIT: Continuous Delivery Support for Web Sites + Cloud Services With today’s Windows Azure release we are making it really easy to enable continuous delivery support with Windows Azure and Team Foundation Services.  Team Foundation Services is a cloud based offering from Microsoft that provides integrated source control (with both TFS and Git support), build server, test execution, collaboration tools, and agile planning support.  It makes it really easy to setup a team project (complete with automated builds and test runners) in the cloud, and it has really rich integration with Visual Studio. With today’s Windows Azure release it is now really easy to enable continuous delivery support with both TFS and Git based repositories hosted using Team Foundation Services.  This enables a workflow where when code is checked in, built successfully on an automated build server, and all tests pass on it – I can automatically have the app deployed on Windows Azure with zero manual intervention or work required. The below screen-shots demonstrate how to quickly setup a continuous delivery workflow to Windows Azure with a Git-based ASP.NET MVC project hosted using Team Foundation Services. Enabling Continuous Delivery to Windows Azure with Team Foundation Services The project I’m going to enable continuous delivery with is a simple ASP.NET MVC project whose source code I’m hosting using Team Foundation Services.  I did this by creating a “SimpleContinuousDeploymentTest” repository there using Git – and then used the new built-in Git tooling support within Visual Studio 2013 to push the source code to it.  Below is a screen-shot of the Git repository hosted within Team Foundation Services: I can access the repository within Visual Studio 2013 and easily make commits with it (as well as branch, merge and do other tasks).  Using VS 2013 I can also setup automated builds to take place in the cloud using Team Foundation Services every time someone checks in code to the repository: The cool thing about this is that I don’t have to buy or rent my own build server – Team Foundation Services automatically maintains its own build server farm and can automatically queue up a build for me (for free) every time someone checks in code using the above settings.  This build server (and automated testing) support now works with both TFS and Git based source control repositories. Connecting a Team Foundation Services project to Windows Azure Once I have a source repository hosted in Team Foundation Services with Automated Builds and Testing set up, I can then go even further and set it up so that it will be automatically deployed to Windows Azure when a source code commit is made to the repository (assuming the Build + Tests pass).  Enabling this is now really easy.  To set this up with a Windows Azure Web Site simply use the New->Compute->Web Site->Custom Create command inside the Windows Azure Management Portal.  This will create a dialog like below.  I gave the web site a name and then made sure the “Publish from source control” checkbox was selected: When we click next we’ll be prompted for the location of the source repository.  We’ll select “Team Foundation Services”: Once we do this we’ll be prompted for our Team Foundation Services account that our source repository is hosted under (in this case my TFS account is “scottguthrie”): When we click the “Authorize Now” button we’ll be prompted to give Windows Azure permissions to connect to the Team Foundation Services account.  Once we do this we’ll be prompted to pick the source repository we want to connect to.  Starting with today’s Windows Azure release you can now connect to both TFS and Git based source repositories.  This new support allows me to connect to the “SimpleContinuousDeploymentTest” respository we created earlier: Clicking the finish button will then create the Web Site with the continuous delivery hooks setup with Team Foundation Services.  Now every time someone pushes source control to the repository in Team Foundation Services, it will kick off an automated build, run all of the unit tests in the solution , and if they pass the app will be automatically deployed to our Web Site in Windows Azure.  You can monitor the history and status of these automated deployments using the Deployments tab within the Web Site: This enables a really slick continuous delivery workflow, and enables you to build and deploy apps in a really nice way. Developer Analytics: New Relic support for Web Sites + Mobile Services With today’s Windows Azure release we are making it really easy to enable Developer Analytics and Monitoring support with both Windows Azure Web Site and Windows Azure Mobile Services.  We are partnering with New Relic, who provide a great dev analytics and app performance monitoring offering, to enable this - and we have updated the Windows Azure Management Portal to make it really easy to configure. Enabling New Relic with a Windows Azure Web Site Enabling New Relic support with a Windows Azure Web Site is now really easy.  Simply navigate to the Configure tab of a Web Site and scroll down to the “developer analytics” section that is now within it: Clicking the “add-on” button will display some additional UI.  If you don’t already have a New Relic subscription, you can click the “view windows azure store” button to obtain a subscription (note: New Relic has a perpetually free tier so you can enable it even without paying anything): Clicking the “view windows azure store” button will launch the integrated Windows Azure Store experience we have within the Windows Azure Management Portal.  You can use this to browse from a variety of great add-on services – including New Relic: Select “New Relic” within the dialog above, then click the next button, and you’ll be able to choose which type of New Relic subscription you wish to purchase.  For this demo we’ll simply select the “Free Standard Version” – which does not cost anything and can be used forever:  Once we’ve signed-up for our New Relic subscription and added it to our Windows Azure account, we can go back to the Web Site’s configuration tab and choose to use the New Relic add-on with our Windows Azure Web Site.  We can do this by simply selecting it from the “add-on” dropdown (it is automatically populated within it once we have a New Relic subscription in our account): Clicking the “Save” button will then cause the Windows Azure Management Portal to automatically populate all of the needed New Relic configuration settings to our Web Site: Deploying the New Relic Agent as part of a Web Site The final step to enable developer analytics using New Relic is to add the New Relic runtime agent to our web app.  We can do this within Visual Studio by right-clicking on our web project and selecting the “Manage NuGet Packages” context menu: This will bring up the NuGet package manager.  You can search for “New Relic” within it to find the New Relic agent.  Note that there is both a 32-bit and 64-bit edition of it – make sure to install the version that matches how your Web Site is running within Windows Azure (note: you can configure your Web Site to run in either 32-bit or 64-bit mode using the Web Site’s “Configuration” tab within the Windows Azure Management Portal): Once we install the NuGet package we are all set to go.  We’ll simply re-publish the web site again to Windows Azure and New Relic will now automatically start monitoring the application Monitoring a Web Site using New Relic Now that the application has developer analytics support with New Relic enabled, we can launch the New Relic monitoring portal to start monitoring the health of it.  We can do this by clicking on the “Add Ons” tab in the left-hand side of the Windows Azure Management Portal.  Then select the New Relic add-on we signed-up for within it.  The Windows Azure Management Portal will provide some default information about the add-on when we do this.  Clicking the “Manage” button in the tray at the bottom will launch a new browser tab and single-sign us into the New Relic monitoring portal associated with our account: When we do this a new browser tab will launch with the New Relic admin tool loaded within it: We can now see insights into how our app is performing – without having to have written a single line of monitoring code.  The New Relic service provides a ton of great built-in monitoring features allowing us to quickly see: Performance times (including browser rendering speed) for the overall site and individual pages.  You can optionally set alert thresholds to trigger if the speed does not meet a threshold you specify. Information about where in the world your customers are hitting the site from (and how performance varies by region) Details on the latency performance of external services your web apps are using (for example: SQL, Storage, Twitter, etc) Error information including call stack details for exceptions that have occurred at runtime SQL Server profiling information – including which queries executed against your database and what their performance was And a whole bunch more… The cool thing about New Relic is that you don’t need to write monitoring code within your application to get all of the above reports (plus a lot more).  The New Relic agent automatically enables the CLR profiler within applications and automatically captures the information necessary to identify these.  This makes it super easy to get started and immediately have a rich developer analytics view for your solutions with very little effort. If you haven’t tried New Relic out yet with Windows Azure I recommend you do so – I think you’ll find it helps you build even better cloud applications.  Following the above steps will help you get started and deliver you a really good application monitoring solution in only minutes. Service Bus: Support for partitioned queues and topics With today’s release, we are enabling support within Service Bus for partitioned queues and topics. Enabling partitioning enables you to achieve a higher message throughput and better availability from your queues and topics. Higher message throughput is achieved by implementing multiple message brokers for each partitioned queue and topic.  The  multiple messaging stores will also provide higher availability. You can create a partitioned queue or topic by simply checking the Enable Partitioning option in the custom create wizard for a Queue or Topic: Read this article to learn more about partitioned queues and topics and how to take advantage of them today. Billing: New Billing Alert Service Today’s Windows Azure update enables a new Billing Alert Service Preview that enables you to get proactive email notifications when your Windows Azure bill goes above a certain monetary threshold that you configure.  This makes it easier to manage your bill and avoid potential surprises at the end of the month. With the Billing Alert Service Preview, you can now create email alerts to monitor and manage your monetary credits or your current bill total.  To set up an alert first sign-up for the free Billing Alert Service Preview.  Then visit the account management page, click on a subscription you have setup, and then navigate to the new Alerts tab that is available: The alerts tab allows you to setup email alerts that will be sent automatically once a certain threshold is hit.  For example, by clicking the “add alert” button above I can setup a rule to send myself email anytime my Windows Azure bill goes above $100 for the month: The Billing Alert Service will evolve to support additional aspects of your bill as well as support multiple forms of alerts such as SMS.  Try out the new Billing Alert Service Preview today and give us feedback. Summary Today’s Windows Azure release enables a ton of great new scenarios, and makes building applications hosted in the cloud even easier. If you don’t already have a Windows Azure account, you can sign-up for a free trial and start using all of the above features today.  Then visit the Windows Azure Developer Center to learn more about how to build apps with it. Hope this helps, Scott P.S. In addition to blogging, I am also now using Twitter for quick updates and to share links. Follow me at: twitter.com/scottgu

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