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  • What are the boundaries of the product owner in scrum?

    - by Saeed Neamati
    In another question, I asked about why I feel scrum turns active developers into passive developers, and it seems that the overall problem is not scrumy (related to scrum), and rather it's related to the bad implementation of scrum. So, here I have some questions about the scope of the responsibilities of PO (product owner) and the limitations he/she shouldn't pass. Should PO interfere the UI design, when there are designers at work in scrum team? (an example of this which has happened to us, is to replace checkboxes with a drop down list with two items, namely, yes and no; or to make some boxes larger, or to left-align some content instead of centering them on the page, or stuff like that). If yeah, to what extent? Colors? Layout? Should PO interfere in Design and architecture of coding? This hasn't happened to us yet, but I'm really curious about the boundaries. For example does PO has the right to change the platform (moving from ASP.NET MVC to PHP, or something like that), or choosing the count of servers (tier architecture), etc. Should PO interfere in validation mechanisms? For example, this field should be required, or we don't need to get this piece of information from user. Sometimes, analyzers and designers confirm that something can be handled behind the scene, like extracting the user profile info from another source, instead of asking for it in UI. How granular could/should PO get into the analysis and design? For example, a user story might be: "As a customer, I'd like to be able to buy new domains online". However, scrum team can implement this user story in a wizard of five steps, or in one single page. To which level PO should monitor, or govern, or supervise the technical analysis, design, and implementation? I asked these questions to judge whether our implementation is right or wrong?

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  • Understanding Service Compensation part of Industrial SOA series

    - by JuergenKress
    Some of the most important SOA design patterns that we have successfully applied in projects will be described in this article. These include the Compensation pattern and the UI mediator pattern, the Common Data Format pattern and the Data Access pattern. All of these patterns are included in Thomas Erl's book, "SOA Design Patterns", and are presented here in detail, together with our practical experiences. We begin our "best of" SOA pattern collection with the Compensation pattern. Compensation is required in error situations in an SOA, as multiple atomic service operations cannot generally be linked with classic transactions this would violate the principle of loose coupling. An error situation of this sort will occur, particularly if service operations are combined into processes or new services during orchestration or by applying the Composite pattern, and the transaction bracket has to be expanded as a result. We need mechanisms to undo the effects of individual services (the status changes in the overall system) and to ensure that a consistent system state is maintained at all times, so as to preserve system integrity. For the Compensation pattern, we would like to address the following questions: Why is compensation important in relation to SOA? How is the topic of compensation linked with the topic of transactions? What are the challenges with regard to compensation... Read the full article in the Service Technology Magazine or at OTN. Share your comments and feedback on the Industrial SOA series by using the hashtag #industrialsoa. Missed an article of the Industrial SOA series visit the overview at OTN. SOA & BPM Partner Community For regular information on Oracle SOA Suite become a member in the SOA & BPM Partner Community for registration please visit www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa (OPN account required) If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center. Blog Twitter LinkedIn Facebook Wiki Mix Forum Technorati Tags: Industrial SOA,SOA,SOA Service Compensation,Community,Oracle SOA,Oracle BPM,OPN,Jürgen Kress

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  • What to expect when creating a style guide?

    - by ted.strauss
    My organization would like to create a full fledged style guide that will be applicable to internal & external web sites, print advertising, trade show design, and overall branding. This article lays out the scope we're aiming for, and has links to many great examples style guide PDFs. The goal is to create a style guide comparable to one of these. I'd like to set realistic expectations within my organization for creating this document. So I have a few of questions pertaining to this: We don't have design staff. Should we be looking for a design firm or freelancer to come in for a 2-6 month contract, or do we need a longer commitment? If we do go with a firm or freelancer, would the pay-scale be comparable to typical design work, or is a style guide a higher order of work? How long should it take a pro to create a style guide? To make estimates more concrete, let's say web only, including all custom graphics. Any red flags to watch out for? (Compare: a new coder who fails to use css properly would be a red flag.)

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  • SQL Rally Nordic & Amsterdam slides & demos

    - by Davide Mauri
    Last week I had the pleasure to speak at two GREAT conferences (as you can see from the wordcloud I’ve posted, here for Stockholm and here for Amsterdam. I used two different filtering techniques to produce the wordcloud, that’s why they look different. I’m playing a lot with R in these days…so I like to experiment different stuff). The workshop with my friend Thomas Kejser on “Data Warehouse Modeling – Making the Right Choices” and my sessions on “Automating DWH Patterns through Metadata” has been really appreciated by attendees, give the amount of good feedback I had on twitter and on some blog posts (Here and here). Of course many asked for slides & demos to download, so here you are! Automating DWH Patterns through Metadata – Stockholm http://sdrv.ms/1bcRAaW Automating DWH Patterns through Metadata – Amsterdam http://sdrv.ms/1cNDAex I’m still trying to understand if and how I can publicly post slides & demos of the workshop, so for that you have to wait a couple of days. I will post about it as soon as possible. Anyway, if you were in the workshop and would like to get the slide & demos ASAP, just send me an email, I’ll happily sent the protected link to my skydrive folder to you. Enjoy!

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  • What are some good resources for creating a game engine in XNA?

    - by Glasser
    I'm currently a student game programmer working on an indie project. We have a team of eleven people (five programmers, four artists, and two audio designers) aboard, all working hard to help design this game. We've been meeting for months now and so far we have a pretty buffed out Game Design Document as well as much audio/visual concept art. Our programmers are itching to progress on our own end. Each person in our programming team is well versed in C++, but is very familiar with C#. We have enough experience and skill that we're confident that we will be successful with our game, and we're looking to build our own game engine in XNA as it seems like it would be worth our time and effort in the end. The game itself will be a 2D beat 'em up style game to be released over xbox live and the PC. It's play style will be similar to that of Castle Crashers or Scott Pilgrim vs The World. We want to design the game engine to allow us to better implement our assets into the game as well as to simplify the creation of design elements/mechanics. Currently between our programmers, we have books such as "XNA 4.0" and "Game Coding Complete, Third Edition," but we'd still like more information on both XNA and (especially) building a game engine from scratch. What are any other good books, websites, or resources we could use to further map out and program our game engine?

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  • Lead Programmer definition clarification

    - by Junaid
    I am working on PHP and MySQL based web application for more than 5 years now. I started my career from Intern - Jr Developer - Software Developer - Sr. Software Engineer [Team Lead] that's what I am nowadays. I was looking at the link at Wikipedia regarding who is a lead programmer. The link states the following: A lead programmer is a software engineer in charge of one or more software projects. Alternative titles include Development Lead, Technical Lead, Senior Software Engineer, Software Design Engineer Lead (SDE Lead), Software Manager, or Senior Applications Developer. When primarily contributing in a high-level enterprise software design role, the title Software Architect (or similar) is often used. All of these titles can have different meanings depending on the context. My current job responsibilities are more or less like a Development Lead and to some extent near Software Architect because I usually design the core structure of new products and managing 2-3 project simultaneously and in the meantime involved in assisting other teams regarding the structural design of their projects, I am usually on call with clients along with project managers, I code most of the time when my team stuck somewhere / workload / integrating some third party API and etc. Primary reason of this writing is to know if I qualify for a Development Lead Title? in accordance with my above mentioned job descriptions?

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  • AI agents with FSM: a question regarding this

    - by Prog
    Finite State Machines implemented with the State design pattern are a common way to design AI agents. I am familiar with the State design pattern and know how to implement it. However I have a question regarding how this is used in games to design AI agents. Please consider a class Monster that represents an AI agent. Simplified it looks like this: class Monster{ State state; // other fields omitted public void update(){ // called every game-loop cycle state.execute(this); } public void setState(State state){ this.state = state; } // irrelevant stuff omitted } There are several State subclasses that implement execute() differently. So far classic State pattern. Here's my question: AI agents are subject to environmental effects and other objects communicating with them. For example an AI agent might tell another AI agent to attack (i.e. agent.attack()). Or a fireball might tell an AI agent to fall down. This means that the agent must have methods such as attack() and fallDown(), or commonly some message receiving mechanism to understand such messages. My question is divided to two parts: 1- Please say if this is correct: With an FSM, the current State of the agent should be the one taking care of such method calls - i.e. the agent delegates to the current state upon every event. Correct? Or wrong? 2- If correct, than how is this done? Are all states obligated by their superclass) to implement methods such as attack(), fallDown() etc., so the agent can always delegate to them on almost every event? Or is it done in some other way?

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  • Java desktop programmer starting to learn Android development: how different is it?

    - by Prog
    I'm a Java programmer. All of my experience is on desktop applications, using Swing for the GUI. I spend a lot of time studying OOP, I have decent understanding of OO concepts and I design and program by the OO approach. I'm thinking of starting to learn Android development soon, and I'm wondering how different it is from desktop development. Obviously the GUI libraries will be different (not Swing), but other than that, I want to know if there are significant differences. I will divide this question to two parts: Apart from the GUI libraries, am I still going to use the standard Java libarary I'm used to? Aka same data structues, same utility classes, etc.? If not, what are the main differences between the libraries I'm used to and the libraries I'll be using? How different is Android development in regard to OO design? Are all of the familiar principles, design patterns, techniques and best pratices just as valid and used? Or is OOP and OOD in Android development significantly different than OO in desktop development? To summarize: apart from GUI design, how different is Java Android development than Java desktop development?

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  • how to solve run time error 'Failed to create writable database file with message 'The operation couldn’t be completed. (Cocoa error 260.)'.'?

    - by user1432045
    I am beginner of iPhone I have created database but that give run time error of Failed to create writable database file with message 'The operation couldn’t be completed my code is -(void)createdatabase { NSFileManager *fileManager=[NSFileManager defaultManager]; NSError *error; NSString *dbPath=[self getDBPath]; BOOL success=[fileManager fileExistsAtPath:dbPath]; if(!success) { NSString *defaultDBPath=[[[NSBundle mainBundle]resourcePath] stringByAppendingPathComponent:@"SQL.sqlite"]; success=[fileManager copyItemAtPath:defaultDBPath toPath:dbPath error:&error]; if(!success) { NSAssert1(0, @"Failed to create writable database file with message '%@'.", [error localizedDescription]); } } } give any suggestion and source code which is apply in my code

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  • Should I mix wxpython and pyobjc ?

    - by Anurag Uniyal
    I have a wxPython based app which I am porting to Mac OS X, in that I need to show some alerts which should look like native mac alerts, so I am using pyobjc for that e.g. import Cocoa import wx app = wx.PySimpleApp() frame = wx.Frame(None, title="mac alert test") app.SetTopWindow(frame) frame.Show() def onclick(event): Cocoa.CFUserNotificationDisplayAlert(0, 3, 0, 0, 0, "Should i mix wxpython and objc", "hmmm...", "Cool", "Not Cool", "Whatever") frame.Bind(wx.EVT_LEFT_DOWN, onclick) app.MainLoop() Is there any thing wrong in such mixing of wx and objc code, any failure points ?

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  • Could MacRuby / HotCocoa supplant the need to know Objective-C?

    - by frou
    I just discovered MacRuby / HotCocoa and really like the sound of what they're doing. I had essentially discounted the prospect of making Cocoa GUI applications myself because I have an aversion to spending time & effort learning yet another C-based language, Objective-C. I'm not saying it's bad, just not for me. Is it the case now, or in the probable future, that one will be able to make Cocoa GUI applications of substantial and first-class nature with MacRuby / HotCocoa alone while ignoring Objective-C completely?

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  • Refcounted pointers on iPhone

    - by anon
    1) Refcounted pointers need stack variables to have constructors / destructors called at predictable places. 2) Objective-C, afaik, does not support the above. 3) The cocoa libraries are bound in Objective-C, not C++. Thus, my question: is there a easy way to use the Cocoa libraries, yet still have most of my app in C++ (and thus use my refcounted pointers)? Thanks! (iPhone in the title since this is mainly targeted at the iPhone)

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  • Are Objective-C initializers allowed to share the same name?

    - by NattKatt
    I'm running into an odd issue in Objective-C when I have two classes using initializers of the same name, but differently-typed arguments. For example, let's say I create classes A and B: A.h: #import <Cocoa/Cocoa.h> @interface A : NSObject { } - (id)initWithNum:(float)theNum; @end A.m: #import "A.h" @implementation A - (id)initWithNum:(float)theNum { self = [super init]; if (self != nil) { NSLog(@"A: %f", theNum); } return self; } @end B.h: #import <Cocoa/Cocoa.h> @interface B : NSObject { } - (id)initWithNum:(int)theNum; @end B.m: #import "B.h" @implementation B - (id)initWithNum:(int)theNum { self = [super init]; if (self != nil) { NSLog(@"B: %d", theNum); } return self; } @end main.m: #import <Foundation/Foundation.h> #import "A.h" #import "B.h" int main (int argc, const char * argv[]) { NSAutoreleasePool * pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init]; A *a = [[A alloc] initWithNum:20.0f]; B *b = [[B alloc] initWithNum:10]; [a release]; [b release]; [pool drain]; return 0; } When I run this, I get the following output: 2010-04-26 20:44:06.820 FnTest[14617:a0f] A: 20.000000 2010-04-26 20:44:06.823 FnTest[14617:a0f] B: 1 If I reverse the order of the imports so it imports B.h first, I get: 2010-04-26 20:45:03.034 FnTest[14635:a0f] A: 0.000000 2010-04-26 20:45:03.038 FnTest[14635:a0f] B: 10 For some reason, it seems like it's using the data type defined in whichever @interface gets included first for both classes. I did some stepping through the debugger and found that the isa pointer for both a and b objects ends up the same. I also found out that if I no longer make the alloc and init calls inline, both initializations seem to work properly, e.g.: A *a = [A alloc]; [a initWithNum:20.0f]; If I use this convention when I create both a and b, I get the right output and the isa pointers seem to be different for each object. Am I doing something wrong? I would have thought multiple classes could have the same initializer names, but perhaps that is not the case.

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  • Why should I call self=[super init]

    - by Michael
    Let's say I create my class and its init method. Why should I call and return value of superclass init assigned to self? Which cases it covers? I would appreciate examples why would I need it for Cocoa superclass and non-Cocoa.

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  • The Complementary Roles of PLM and PIM

    - by Ulf Köster
    Oracle Product Value Chain Solutions (aka Enterprise PLM Solutions) are a comprehensive set of product management solutions that work together to provide Oracle customers with a broad array of capabilities to manage all aspects of product life: innovation, design, launch, and supply chain / commercialization processes beyond the capabilities and boundaries of traditional engineering-focused Product Lifecycle Management applications. They support companies with an integrated managed view across the product value chain: From Lab to Launch, From Farm to Fork, From Concept to Product to Customer, From Product Innovation to Product Design and Product Commercialization. Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) represents a broad suite of software solutions to improve product-oriented business processes and data. PLM success stories prove that PLM helps companies improve time to market, increase product-related revenue, reduce product costs, reduce internal costs and improve product quality. As a maturing suite of enterprise solutions, PLM is still evolving to realize the promise it can provide across all facets of a business and all phases of the product lifecycle. The vision for PLM includes everything from gathering early requirements for a product through multiple stages of the product lifecycle from product design, through commercialization and eventual product retirement or replacement. In discrete or process industries, PLM is typically more focused on Product Definition as items with respect to the technical view of a material or part, including specifications, bills of material and manufacturing data. With Agile PLM, this is specifically related to capabilities addressing Product Collaboration, Governance and Compliance, Product Quality Management, Product Cost Management and Engineering Collaboration. PLM today is mainly addressing key requirements in the early product lifecycle, in engineering changes or in the “innovation cycle”, and primarily adds value related to product design, development, launch and engineering change process. In short, PLM is the master for Product Definition, wherever manufacturing takes place. Product Information Management (PIM) is a product suite that has evolved in parallel to PLM. Product Information Management (PIM) can extend the value of PLM implementations by providing complementary tools and capabilities. More relevant in the area of Product Commercialization, the vision for PIM is to manage product information throughout an enterprise and supply chain to improve product-related knowledge management, information sharing and synchronization from multiple data sources. PIM success stories have shown the ability to provide multiple benefits, with particular emphasis on reducing information complexity and information management costs. Product Information in PIM is typically treated as the commercial view of a material or part, including sales and marketing information and categorization. PIM collects information from multiple manufacturing sites and multiple suppliers into its repository, but also provides integration tools to push the information back out to the other systems, serving as an active central repository with the aim to provide a holistic view on any product sold by a company (hence the name “Product Hub”). In short, PIM is the master of commercial Product Information. So PIM is quickly becoming mandatory because of its value in optimizing multichannel selling processes and relationships with customers, as you can see from the following table: Viewpoint PLM Current State PIM Key Benefits PIM adds to PLM Product Lifecycle Primarily R&D Front end Innovation Cycle Change process Primarily commercial / transactional state of lifecycle Provides a seamless information flow from design and manufacturing through the ultimate selling and servicing of products Data Primarily focused on “item” vs. “product” data Product structures Specifications Technical information Repository for all product information. Reaches out to entire enterprise and its various silos of product information and descriptions Provides a “trusted source” of accurate product information to the internal organization and trading partners Data Lifecycle Repository for all design iterations Historical information Released, current information, with version management and time stamping Provides a single location to track and audit historical product information Communication PLM release finished product to ERP PLM is the master for Product Definition Captures information from disparate sources, including in-house data stores Recognizes the reality of today’s data “mess” across information silos Provides the ability to package product information to its audience in the desired, relevant format to meet their exacting business requirements Departmental R&D Manufacturing Quality Compliance Procurement Strategic Marketing Focus on Marketing and Sales Gathering information from other Departments, multiple sites, multiple suppliers A singular enterprise solution that leverages existing information silos and data stores Supply Chain Multi-site internal collaboration Supplier collaboration Customer collaboration Works with customers, exchanges / data pools, and trading partners to provide relevant product information packaged the way the customer desires Provides ability to provide trading partners and internal customers with information in a manner they desire, continuously Tools Data Management Collaboration Innovation Management Cleansing Synchronization Hub functions Consistent, clean and complete commercial product information The goals of both PLM and PIM, put simply, are to help companies make more profit from their products. PLM and PIM solutions can be easily added as they share some of the same goals, while coming from two different perspectives: the definition of the product and the commercialization of the product. Both can serve as a form of product “system of record”, but take different approaches to delivering value. Oracle Product Value Chain solutions offer rich new strategies for executives to collectively leverage Agile PLM, Product Data Hub, together with Enterprise Data Quality for Products, and other industry leading Oracle applications to achieve further incremental value, like Oracle Innovation Management. This is unique on the market today.

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  • Google I/O 2010 - Creating positive user experiences

    Google I/O 2010 - Creating positive user experiences Google I/O 2010 - Beyond design: Creating positive user experiences Tech Talks John Zeratsky, Matt Shobe Good user experience isn't just about good design. Learn how to create a positive user experience by being fast, open, engaged, surprising, polite, and, well... being yourself. Chock full of examples from the web and beyond, this talk is a practical introduction for developers who are passionate about user experience but may not have a background in design. For all I/O 2010 sessions, please go to code.google.com From: GoogleDevelopers Views: 185 6 ratings Time: 52:11 More in Science & Technology

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  • OpenWorld Session: Oracle Unified BPM Suite Development Best Practices

    - by Ajay Khanna
    Blog by David Read Earlier today,  Sushil Shukla, Yogeshwar Kuntawar, and I (David Read) delivered an OpenWorld  session that covered BPM development best practices.  It was well attended.  Last year we had a session that covered end-to-end lifecycle best practices for BPM.  This year we narrowed the focus to the development portion of the lifecycle.  We started with an overview of development process best practices, then focused on a few key design topics where we’ve seen common questions from customers and partners. Data Design Using EDN Multi-Instance Activity Using the Spring Component Human Task Integration We wrapped up with an overview of key concepts for effective error handling, including error handling within the process design, and using declarative fault policies. We hope you found the session useful, and as noted in the session, please be sure to try to attend Prasen’s session to see more details about approaches for testing Oracle Business Rules: CON8606  Oracle Business Rules Use Cases, 10/3/2012, 3:30PM  

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  • Do employers hiring for Software jobs care about the classes you took in CS masters program?

    - by Joey Green
    I'm torn between two classes right now for next semester( Software Design and Advanced Computer Graphics ). I would enjoy Advanced Computer Graphics more, but I feel the software design class would help me when approaching anything I ever build for the rest of my career. I feel though I could just buy the book( I already have both books actually ) of the Software Design class and go through it, if I wanted. But think it would be a bit tougher to pick up the Advanced Computer Graphics class on my own. So do employers look at the graduate classes you've taken to decide if you would be a good fit or not? I think more importantly what I'm wanting to know is if I wanted to work for a high-end software company like Apple or Google would a company like that be more impressed by someone that took software engineering classes or hardcore CS classes?

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  • College Courses through distance learning

    - by Matt
    I realize this isn't really a programming question, but didn't really know where to post this in the stackexchange and because I am a computer science major i thought id ask here. This is pretty unique to the programmer community since my degree is about 95% programming. I have 1 semester left, but i work full time. I would like to finish up in December, but to make things easier i like to take online classes whenever I can. So, my question is does anyone know of any colleges that offer distance learning courses for computer science? I have been searching around and found a few potential classes, but not sure yet. I would like to gather some classes and see what i can get approval for. Class I need: Only need one C SC 437 Geometric Algorithms C SC 445 Algorithms C SC 473 Automata Only need one C SC 452 Operating Systems C SC 453 Compilers/Systems Software While i only need of each of the above courses i still need to take two more electives. These also have to be upper 400 level classes. So i can take multiple in each category. Some other classes I can take are: CSC 447 - Green Computing CSC 425 - Computer Networking CSC 460 - Database Design CSC 466 - Computer Security I hoping to take one or two of these courses over the summer. If not, then online over the regular semester would be ok too. Any help in helping find these classes would be awesome. Maybe you went to a college that offered distance learning. Some of these classes may be considered to be graduate courses too. Descriptions are listed below if you need. Thanks! Descriptions Computer Security This is an introductory course covering the fundamentals of computer security. In particular, the course will cover basic concepts of computer security such as threat models and security policies, and will show how these concepts apply to specific areas such as communication security, software security, operating systems security, network security, web security, and hardware-based security. Computer Networking Theory and practice of computer networks, emphasizing the principles underlying the design of network software and the role of the communications system in distributed computing. Topics include routing, flow and congestion control, end-to-end protocols, and multicast. Database Design Functions of a database system. Data modeling and logical database design. Query languages and query optimization. Efficient data storage and access. Database access through standalone and web applications. Green Computing This course covers fundamental principles of energy management faced by designers of hardware, operating systems, and data centers. We will explore basic energy management option in individual components such as CPUs, network interfaces, hard drives, memory. We will further present the energy management policies at the operating system level that consider performance vs. energy saving tradeoffs. Finally we will consider large scale data centers where energy management is done at multiple layers from individual components in the system to shutting down entries subset of machines. We will also discuss energy generation and delivery and well as cooling issues in large data centers. Compilers/Systems Software Basic concepts of compilation and related systems software. Topics include lexical analysis, parsing, semantic analysis, code generation; assemblers, loaders, linkers; debuggers. Operating Systems Concepts of modern operating systems; concurrent processes; process synchronization and communication; resource allocation; kernels; deadlock; memory management; file systems. Algorithms Introduction to the design and analysis of algorithms: basic analysis techniques (asymptotics, sums, recurrences); basic design techniques (divide and conquer, dynamic programming, greedy, amortization); acquiring an algorithm repertoire (sorting, median finding, strong components, spanning trees, shortest paths, maximum flow, string matching); and handling intractability (approximation algorithms, branch and bound). Automata Introduction to models of computation (finite automata, pushdown automata, Turing machines), representations of languages (regular expressions, context-free grammars), and the basic hierarchy of languages (regular, context-free, decidable, and undecidable languages). Geometric Algorithms The study of algorithms for geometric objects, using a computational geometry approach, with an emphasis on applications for graphics, VLSI, GIS, robotics, and sensor networks. Topics may include the representation and overlaying of maps, finding nearest neighbors, solving linear programming problems, and searching geometric databases.

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  • My Right-to-Left Foot (T-SQL Tuesday #13)

    - by smisner
    As a business intelligence consultant, I often encounter the situation described in this month's T-SQL Tuesday, hosted by Steve Jones ( Blog | Twitter) – “What the Business Says Is Not What the  Business Wants.” Steve posed the question, “What issues have you had in interacting with the business to get your job done?” My profession requires me to have one foot firmly planted in the technology world and the other foot planted in the business world. I learned long ago that the business never says exactly what the business wants because the business doesn't have the words to describe what the business wants accurately enough for IT. Not only do technological-savvy barriers exist, but there are also linguistic barriers between the two worlds. So how do I cope? The adage "a picture is worth a thousand words" is particularly helpful when I'm called in to help design a new business intelligence solution. Many of my students in BI classes have heard me explain ("rant") about left-to-right versus right-to-left design. To understand what I mean about these two design options, let's start with a picture: When we design a business intelligence solution that includes some sort of traditional data warehouse or data mart design, we typically place the data sources on the left, the new solution in the middle, and the users on the right. When I've been called in to help course-correct a failing BI project, I often find that IT has taken a left-to-right approach. They look at the data sources, decide how to model the BI solution as a _______ (fill in the blank with data warehouse, data mart, cube, etc.), and then build the new data structures and supporting infrastructure. (Sometimes, they actually do this without ever having talked to the business first.) Then, when they show what they've built to the business, the business says that is not what we want. Uh-oh. I prefer to take a right-to-left approach. Preferably at the beginning of a project. But even if the project starts left-to-right, I'll do my best to swing it around so that we’re back to a right-to-left approach. (When circumstances are beyond my control, I carry on, but it’s a painful project for everyone – not because of me, but because the approach just doesn’t get to what the business wants in the most effective way.) By using a right to left approach, I try to understand what it is the business is trying to accomplish. I do this by having them explain reports to me, and explaining the decision-making process that relates to these reports. Sometimes I have them explain to me their business processes, or better yet show me their business processes in action because I need pictures, too. I (unofficially) call this part of the project "getting inside the business's head." This is starting at the right side of the diagram above. My next step is to start moving leftward. I do this by preparing some type of prototype. Depending on the nature of the project, this might mean that I simply mock up some data in a relational database and build a prototype report in Reporting Services. If I'm lucky, I might be able to use real data in a relational database. I'll either use a subset of the data in the prototype report by creating a prototype database to hold the sample data, or select data directly from the source. It all depends on how much data there is, how complex the queries are, and how fast I need to get the prototype completed. If the solution will include Analysis Services, then I'll build a prototype cube. Analysis Services makes it incredibly easy to prototype. You can sit down with the business, show them the prototype, and have a meaningful conversation about what the BI solution should look like. I know I've done a good job on the prototype when I get knocked out of my chair so that the business user can explore the solution further independently. (That's really happened to me!) We can talk about dimensions, hierarchies, levels, members, measures, and so on with something tangible to look at and without using those terms. It's not helpful to use sample data like Adventure Works or to use BI terms that they don't really understand. But when I show them their data using the BI technology and talk to them in their language, then they truly have a picture worth a thousand words. From that, we can fine tune the prototype to move it closer to what they want. They have a better idea of what they're getting, and I have a better idea of what to build. So right to left design is not truly moving from the right to the left. But it starts from the right and moves towards the middle, and once I know what the middle needs to look like, I can then build from the left to meet in the middle. And that’s how I get past what the business says to what the business wants.

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  • DB Documentation Tool

    - by Hisham El-bereky
     Recently I have uploaded new project to codeplex site, DbDocument or DbDoc project is a helper tool used side by side with MS SQL server management studio tool, you can design your DB Tables in visualized way through Diagrams and then use “DbDoc” tool to generate design document in MS Word format, the generated file can be used in design review process or as history reference, the tool facilitate and reduce the time of writing DB structure documentthe current version is not so sophisticated which is intend to generate word document in table format with all tables in DB illustrating its structure and constraints, but for now it seems to be good.   For more details check DbDoc document or go immediately to DbDoc home page http://dbdocument.codeplex.com/

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  • How does TDD address interaction between objects?

    - by Gigi
    TDD proponents claim that it results in better design and decoupled objects. I can understand that writing tests first enforces the use of things like dependency injection, resulting in loosely coupled objects. However, TDD is based on unit tests - which test individual methods and not the integration between objects. And yet, TDD expects design to evolve from the tests themselves. So how can TDD possibly result in a better design at the integration (i.e. inter-object) level when the granularity it addresses is finer than that (individual methods)?

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  • Thought Oracle Usability Advisory Board Was Stuffy? Wrong. Justification for Attending OUAB: ROI

    - by ultan o'broin
    Looking for reasons tell your boss why your organization needs to join the Oracle Usability Advisory Board or why you need approval to attend one of its meetings (see the requirements)? Try phrases such as "Continued Return on Investment (ROI)", "Increased Productivity" or "Happy Workers". With OUAB your participation is about realizing and sustaining ROI across the entire applications life-cycle from input to designs to implementation choices and integration, usage and performance and on measuring and improving the onboarding and support experience. If you think this is a boring meeting of middle-aged people sitting around moaning about customizing desktop forms and why the BlackBerry is here to stay, think again! How about this for a rich agenda, all designed to engage the audience in a thought-provoking and feedback-illiciting day of swirling interactions, contextual usage, global delivery, mobility, consumerizationm, gamification and tailoring your implementation to reflect real users doing real work in real environments.  Foldable, rollable ereader devices provide a newspaper-like UK for electronic news. Or a way to wrap silicon chips, perhaps. Explored at the OUAB Europe Meeting (photograph from Terrace Restaurant in TVP. Nom.) At the 7 December 2012 OUAB Europe meeting in Oracle Thames Valley Park, UK, Oracle partners and customers stepped up to the mic and PPT decks with a range of facts and examples to astound any UX conference C-level sceptic. Over the course of the day we covered much ground, but it was all related in a contextual, flexibile, simplication, engagement way aout delivering results for business: that means solving problems. This means being about the user and their tasks and how to make design and technology transforms work into a productive activity that users and bean counters will be excited by. The sessions really gelled for me: 1. Mobile design patterns and the powerful propositions for customers and partners offered by using the design guidance with Oracle ADF Mobile. Customers' and partners' developers existing ADF developers are now productive, efficient ADF Mobile developers applying proven UX guidance using ADF Mobile components and other Oracle Fusion Middleware in the development toolkit. You can find the Mobile UX Design Patterns and Guidance on Building Mobile Apps on OTN. 2. Oracle Voice and Apps. How this medium offers so much potentual in the enterprise and offers a window in Fusion Apps cloud webservices, Oracle RightNow NLP and Nuance technology. Exciting stuff, demoed live on a mobile phone. Stay tuned for more features and modalities and how you can tailor your own apps experience.  3. Oracle RightNow Natural Language Processing (NLP) Virtual Assistant technology (Ella): how contextual intervention and learning from users sessions delivers a great personalized UX for users interacting with Ella, a fifth generation VA to solve problems and seek knowledge. 4. BYOD Keynote: A balanced keynote address contrasting Fujitsu's explaining of the conceprt, challenges, and trends and setting the expectation that BYOD must be embraced in a flexible way,  with the resolute, crafted high security enterprise requirements that nuancing the BYOD concept and proposals with the realities of their world of water tight information and device sharing policies. Fascinating stuff, as well providing anecdotes to make us thing about out own DYOD Deployments. One size does not fit all. 5. Icon Cultural Surveys Results and Insights Arising: Ever wondered about the cultural appropriateness of icons used in software UIs and how these icons assessed for global use? Or considered that social media "Like" icons might be  unacceptable hand gestures in culture or enterprise? Or do the old world icons like Save floppy disk icons still find acceptable? Well the survey results told you. Challenges must be tested, over time, and context of use is critical now, including external factors such as the internet and social media adoption. Indeed the fears about global rejection of the face and hand icons was not borne out, and some of the more anachronistic icons (checkbooks, microphones, real-to-real tape decks, 3.5" floppies for "save") have become accepted metaphors for current actions. More importantly the findings brought into focus the reason for OUAB - engage with and illicit feedback though working groups before we build anything. 6. EReaders and Oracle iBook: What is the uptake and trends of ereaders? And how about a demo of an iBook with enterprise apps content?  Well received by the audience, the session included a live running poll of ereader usage. 7. Gamification Design Jam: Fun, hands on event for teams of Oracle staff, partners and customers, actually building gamified flows, a practice that can be applied right away by customers and partners.  8. UX Direct: A new offering of usability best practices, coming to an external website for you in 2013. FInd a real user, observe their tasks, design and approve, build and measure. Simple stuff to improve apps implications no end. 9. FUSE (an internal term only, basically Fusion Simplified Experience): demo of the new Face of Fusion Applications: inherently mobile, simple to use, social, personalizable and FAST, three great demos from the HCM, CRM and ICT world on how these UX designs can be used in different ways. So, a powerful breadth and depth of UX solutions and opporunities for customers and partners to engage with and explore how they can make their users happy and benefit their business reaping continued ROI from those apps investments. Find out more about the OUAB and how to get involved here ... 

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  • What are some good resources for learning about file systems? [closed]

    - by Daniel
    I'd like to learn about file system design at a very detailed level. I'm currently in a graduate level operating systems course, and we're currently going over file systems. We mostly discuss papers and such, but our semester long project is to implement a log-structured file system using fuse and a virtual disk. Are there any good books that focus heavily on file system design and implementation? I have some conceptual clouding on things that seem very basic such as "when we say that an inode has pointers to blocks, do we mean anything besides the inode keeping track of block numbers? Is there any other format for 'disk pointers'?" I'm actually looking at file system design to start my career, so I'm probably going to try to implement a more traditional file system with fuse and our virtual disk format after this course is over.

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