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  • Guide to the web development ecosystem

    - by acjohnson55
    I'm a long-time software developer, and I've been thrown in the deep, deep end of developing from the ground up what will hopefully be a highly scalable and interactive web application. I've been out of the web game for about 8 years, and even when I was last in it, I wasn't exactly on the cutting edge. I think I've made judicious design decisions and I'm quite happy with the progress I've been making so far, but new, hot web technologies keep crawling out of the woodwork and into my headspace, forcing me to continually revalidate my implementation decisions. Complicating things even further is the preponderance of out-of-date information and the difficulty of knowing what is out of date in the first place. What I'm wondering is, are there any comprehensive books or guides dedicated to compiling and comparing the technologies out there, end-to-end in the web application stack? I'm happy to learn new techs on demand, but I don't like learning about them after I've already spent time going in another direction. I'm looking for the sort of executive info a CTO might read to make sure the best architectural decisions are being made. And just to be clear, this is a question about resources, not about specific technology suggestions.

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  • What is an effective git process for managing our central code library?

    - by Mathew Byrne
    Quick background: we're a small web agency (3-6 developers at any one time) developing small to medium sized Symfony 1.4 sites. We've used git for a year now, but most of our developers have preferred Subversion and aren't used to a distributed model. For the past 6 months we've put a lot of development time into a central Symfony plugin that powers our custom CMS. This plugin includes a number of features, helpers, base classes etc. that we use to build custom functionality. This plugin is stored in git, but branches wildly as the plugin is used in various products and is pulled from/pushed to constantly. The repository is usually used as a submodule within a major project. The problems we're starting to see now are a large number of Merge conflicts and backwards incompatible changes brought into the repository by developers adding custom functionality in the context of their own project. I've read Vincent Driessen's excellent git branching model and successfully used it for projects in the past, but it doesn't seem to quite apply well to our particular situation; we have a number of projects concurrently using the same core plugin while developing new features for it. What we need is a strategy that provides the following: A methodology for developing major features within the code repository. A way of migrating those features into other projects. A way of versioning the core repository, and of tracking which version each major project uses. A plan for migrating bug fixes back to older versions. A cleaner history that's easier to see where changes have come from. Any suggestions or discussion would be greatly appreciated.

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  • Difference between Detach/Attach and Restore/BackUp a DB

    - by SAMIR BHOGAYTA
    Transact-SQL BACKUP/RESTORE is the normal method for database backup and recovery. Databases can be backed up while online. The backup file size is usually smaller than the database files since only used pages are backed up. Also, in the FULL or BULK_LOGGED recovery model, you can reduce potential data loss by performing transaction log backups. Detaching a database removes the database from SQL Server while leaving the physical database files intact. This allows you to rename or move the physical files and then re-attach. Although one could perform cold backups using this technique, detach/attach isn't really intended to be used as a backup/recovery process. Commonly it is recommended that you use BACKUP/RESTORE for disaster recovery (DR) scenario and copying data from one location to another. But this is not absolute, sometimes for a very large database, if you want to move it from one location to another, backup/restore process may spend a lot of time which you do not like, in this case, detaching/attaching a database is a better way since you can attach a workable database very fast. But you need to aware that detaching a database will bring it offline for a short time and detaching/attaching does not provide DR function. For more information about detaching and attaching databases, you can refer to: Detaching and Attaching Databases http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms190794.aspx

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  • What to watch out for when writing code at an Interview?

    - by Philip
    Hi, I have read that at a lot of companies you have to write code at an interview. On the one hand I see that it makes sense to ask for a work sample. On the other hand: What kind of code do you expect to be written in 5 minutes? And what if they tell me "Write an algorithm that does this and that" but I cannot think of a smart solution or even write code that doesn't semantically work? I am particularly interested in that question because I do not have that much commercial programming experience, 2 years part-time, one year full-time. (But I am interested in programming languages since nearly 15 years though usually I was more concentrated in playing with the language rather than writing large applications...) And actually I consider my debugging and problem solving skills much better than my coding skills. I sometimes see myself not writing the most beautiful code when looking back, but on the other hand I often come up with solutions for hard problems. And I think I am very good at optimizing, fixing, restructuring existing code, but I have problems with writing new applications from scratch. The software design sucks... ;-) Therefore I don't feel comfortable when thinking about this code writing situation at an interview... So what do the interviewers expect? What kind of information about my code writing are they interested in? Philip

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  • FMw Diagnostic Framework : Automatic Capture of Diagnostic Data Upon First Failure!

    - by Daniel Mortimer
    Introduction There is nothing more frustrating than a problem that "cannot be reproduced". Logs, configuration files have been analysed but there just isn't enough information to establish the root cause. The issue maybe closed, but you are left with the feeling that the problem will raise its ugly head again in the future. Trouble is, to resolve such issues you need to capture diagnostic data at the exact time the incident occurs. Step forward Fusion Middleware Diagnostic Framework!  Diagnostic Framework monitors WebLogic Managed Servers and delivers "Automatic capture of diagnostic data upon first failure". To quote fromOracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide 11g Release 1 (11.1.1)Chapter 13 Diagnosing Problems "When a critical error occurs ... the Diagnostic Framework automatically collects diagnostics, such as thread dumps, DMS metric dumps, and WebLogic Diagnostics Framework (WLDF) server image dumps ... The data is stored in a file-based repository and is accessible with command-line utilities." In other words the data collected upon first failure - especially the thread and image dumps - provides a snapshot of the system as or immediately after the problem occurs. The table below shows the type of WebLogic Server issues which fall into the scope of Diagnostic Framework How to Configure Diagnostic Framework? Depending on your Fusion Middleware product choice you may not need to do anything! Diagnostic Framework is automatically installed, configured and initiated for any WebLogic Domain which has the Oracle Java Required Files (JRF) template applied. This template is applied by default whenever you configure WebLogic Managed Servers for products such as Portal / Forms / Reports / Discoverer Identity Management ( OID , OAM , OIM etc) WebCenter SOA Check your WebLogic Domain directory structure. If you have an "adr" sub directory under DOMAIN_HOME/servers/<servername>/ then JRF template has been applied and Diagnostic Framework will be in play. Should the "adr" sub directory not exist, review the advice given in My Oracle Support article How to Apply FMW ( EM ) Control and JRF to a WebLogic Domain and Managed Servers [ID 947043.1] If you are working with a standalone WebLogic Server solution and applying Oracle JRF is not acceptable, consider using WLDF - WebLogic Diagnostic Framework. (Fusion Middleware Diagnostic Framework makes use of WLDF under the covers.) Couple of useful links about WLDF are listed below Configuring and Using the Diagnostics Framework for Oracle WebLogic Server 11g WebLogic Diagnostics Framework-A Very Useful Tool [A nice blog which describes a WLDF use case] How to Get Started With Diagnostic Framework To be frank, the Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide is the best place to start your learning Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide 11g Release 1 (11.1.1)Chapter 13 Diagnosing Problems A lot of reading here,  but if you are in hurry and just want to get the right information to Oracle Support to help resolve your issue, check out the next section below. How to Upload Diagnostic Framework Incident Data to Oracle Support Some Background Information There are three interfaces to the Repository: Enterprise Manager Cloud Control (Support Workbench) WLST (Command Line) ADRCI (Command Line) The Enterprise Manager Cloud Control does provide a nice GUI interface to search, view and package diagnostic framework incidents. However, this software is not to be confused with Fusion Middleware (EM) Control. Cloud Control (formerly known as Grid Control) is part of the Enterprise Manager media package. EM Cloud Control has it's own install and configuration story. Therefore, for the benefit of those yet to install and play with Cloud Control, I am going to describe how to use the command line tools. Ideally, you would only need to one command line interface, but currently I suggest using both - mainly due to the fact that ADRCI SHOW INCIDENTS does not reveal the description behind the Diagnostic Framework error code. Instructions: Note: WLST and ADRCI are case sensitive when it comes to handling parameter values. If you make a mistake, expect an unfriendly syntax error message. 1) Find the incident Note: The managed server which you are troubleshooting must be up and running. If the managed server is down, ensure the domain's Admin Server is accessible. If you cannot connect to the Admin Server or the Managed Server the example WLST commands will not work. a) Launch WLST  Note: Use the WLST which resides in the "oracle_common" directory (not WL_HOME/common/bin) otherwise you will get a syntax error like the one below Traceback (innermost last):  File "<console>", line 1, in ?NameError: listIncidents MW_HOME/oracle_common/common/bin/wlst.sh b) Connect to the managed server or the admin server e.g. wls:/offline> connect('weblogic','welcome1','t3://localhost:7020') c) Run the command wls:/MyDomain/serverConfig> listIncidents() This will list the incidents for the server to which you have connected. If you have connected to the Admin Server and want to list the incidents for a managed server within the domain, use the command wls:/MyDomain/serverConfig> listIncidents(adrHome='diag\ofm\MyDomain\MyManagedServer' ,server='MyManagedServer') Example output Incident Id     Problem Key              Incident Time         1       DFW-99998 [java.lang.NullPointerException] [oracle.error.simulator.ErrorSimulator.createNullPointerException][errorWebApp_1-0-0-0]        Fri Nov 02 10:38:46 GMT 2012  The piece highlighted in bold is the description you do not see when using the ADRCI 'SHOW INCIDENT' command. Make a note of the incident id. You are ready to move to step 2 2. Package the incident a) Set up the environment - example commands below are for Unix cd <DOMAIN_HOME>/bin . ./setDomainEnv.sh If you want ADRCI to run a Remote Diagnostic Agent collection (recommended) at generate package time, point ORACLE_HOME at oracle_common ORACLE_HOME=$MW_HOME/oracle_common; export ORACLE_HOME To prevent ADRCI from running RDA at generate package time, point ORACLE_HOME at WL_HOME/server/adr directory.  ORACLE_HOME=$WL_HOME/server/adr; export ORACLE_HOME b) Launch adrci $WL_HOME/server/adr/adrci c) Set BASE and HOMEPATH adrci> SET BASE /oracle/middleware/user_projects/domains/ mydomain/servers/mymanagedserver/adr adrci> SET HOMEPATH diag/ofm/mydomain/mymanagedserver d)  Optionally run SHOW INCIDENTS e.g. adrci> SHOW INCIDENTS -MODE DETAIL ADR Home = /oracle/middleware/user_projects/domains/mydomain/ servers/mymanagedserver/adr/diag/ofm/mydomain/mymanagedserver:***********************************************************************************************************************************INCIDENT INFO RECORD 1**********************************************************   INCIDENT_ID                   1   STATUS                        ready   CREATE_TIME                   2012-11-02 10:38:46.468000 +00:00   PROBLEM_ID                    1   CLOSE_TIME                    <NULL>   FLOOD_CONTROLLED              none   ERROR_FACILITY                DFW   ERROR_NUMBER                  99998   ERROR_ARG1                    <NULL>   ERROR_ARG2                    <NULL>   ERROR_ARG3                    <NULL>   ERROR_ARG4                    <NULL>   ERROR_ARG5                    <NULL>   ERROR_ARG6                    <NULL>   ERROR_ARG7                    <NULL>   ERROR_ARG8                    <NULL>   ERROR_ARG9                    <NULL>   ERROR_ARG10                   <NULL>   ERROR_ARG11                   <NULL>   ERROR_ARG12                   <NULL>   SIGNALLING_COMPONENT          <NULL>   SIGNALLING_SUBCOMPONENT       <NULL>   SUSPECT_COMPONENT             <NULL>   SUSPECT_SUBCOMPONENT          <NULL>   ECID                          5162744c6a2eea5e:155ff445:13ac0aae7cb:-8000-0000000000000325   IMPACTS                       01 rows fetched e)  Create a logical package IPS CREATE PACKAGE INCIDENT incident_number e.g. adrci> IPS CREATE PACKAGE INCIDENT 1Created package 1 based on incident id 1, correlation level typical f) Generate the package IPS GENERATE PACKAGE package_number IN path e.g. adrci> IPS GENERATE PACKAGE 1 IN /tmp Generated package 1 in file /tmp/DFW99998j_20121102113633_COM_1.zip, mode complete Note: If the generate package command hangs, ADRCI may be experiencing an issue when running RDA. To avoid such trouble, exit ADRCI and point the ORACLE_HOME environment variable at WL_HOME/server/adr 3) Upload the package zip to Oracle Support via your Service Request a) Log into My Oracle Support and locate your Service Request b) Click on "Add Attachments c) And upload the zip file

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  • Dynamically changing DVT Graph at Runtime

    - by mona.rakibe(at)oracle.com
    I recently came across this requirement where the customer wanted to change the graph type at run-time based on some selection. After some internal discussions we realized this can be best achieved by using af:switcher to toggle between multiple graphs. In this blog I will be sharing the sample that I build to demonstrate this.[Note] : In the below sample, every-time user changes graph type there is a server trip, so please use this approach with performance implications in mind.This sample can be downloaded  from DynamicGraph.zipSet-up: Create a BAM data control using employees DO (sample)(Refer this entry)Steps:Create the View Create a new JSF page .From component palette drag and drop "Select One Radio" into this page Enter some Label and click "Finish"In Property Editor set the "AutoSubmit" property to trueNow drag and drop "Switcher" from components into this page.In the Structure pane select the af:switcher right click and surround with "PanelGroupLayout"In Property Editor set the "PartialTriggers"  property of PanelGroupLayout to the id of af:selectOneRadioAgain in the Structure pane select the af:switcher right click and select "Insert inside af:switcher->facet"Enter Facet name (ex: pie)Again in the Structure pane select the af:switcher right click and select "Insert inside af:switcher->facet" Enter  another Facet name (ex: bar)From "Data Controls" drag and drop "Employees->Query"  into the pie facet as "Graph->Pie" (Pie: Sales_Number and Slices: Salesperson)From "Data Controls" drag and drop "Employees->Query"  into the bar facet as "Graph->Bar" (Bars :Sales_Number and X-axis : Salesperson).Now wire the switcher to the af:selectOneRadio using their "facetName" and "value" property respectively.Now run the page, notice that graph renders as per the selection by user.

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  • Duck checker in Python: does one exist?

    - by elliot42
    Python uses duck-typing, rather than static type checking. But many of the same concerns ultimately apply: does an object have the desired methods and attributes? Do those attributes have valid, in-range values? Whether you're writing constraints in code, or writing test cases, or validating user input, or just debugging, inevitably somewhere you'll need to verify that an object is still in a proper state--that it still "looks like a duck" and "quacks like a duck." In statically typed languages you can simply declare "int x", and anytime you create or mutate x, it will always be a valid int. It seems feasible to decorate a Python object to ensure that it is valid under certain constraints, and that every time that object is mutated it is still valid under those constraints. Ideally there would be a simple declarative syntax to express "hasattr length and length is non-negative" (not in those words. Not unlike Rails validators, but less human-language and more programming-language). You could think of this as ad-hoc interface/type system, or you could think of it as an ever-present object-level unit test. Does such a library exist to declare and validate constraint/duck-checking on Python-objects? Is this an unreasonable tool to want? :) (Thanks!) Contrived example: rectangle = {'length': 5, 'width': 10} # We live in a fictional universe where multiplication is super expensive. # Therefore any time we multiply, we need to cache the results. def area(rect): if 'area' in rect: return rect['area'] rect['area'] = rect['length'] * rect['width'] return rect['area'] print area(rectangle) rectangle['length'] = 15 print area(rectangle) # compare expected vs. actual output! # imagine the same thing with object attributes rather than dictionary keys.

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  • The Java Specialist: An Interview with Java Champion Heinz Kabutz

    - by Janice J. Heiss
    Dr. Heinz Kabutz is well known for his Java Specialists’ Newsletter, initiated in November 2000, where he displays his acute grasp of the intricacies of the Java platform for an estimated 70,000 readers; for his work as a consultant; and for his workshops and trainings at his home on the Island of Crete where he has lived since 2006 -- where he is known to curl up on the beach with his laptop to hack away, in between dips in the Mediterranean. Kabutz was born of German parents and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, where he developed a love of programming in junior high school through his explorations on a ZX Spectrum computer. He received a B.S. from the University of Cape Town, and at 25, a Ph.D., both in computer science. He will be leading a two-hour hands-on lab session, HOL6500 – “Finding and Solving Java Deadlocks,” at this year’s JavaOne that will explore what causes deadlocks and how to solve them. Q: Tell us about your JavaOne plans.A: I am arriving on Sunday evening and have just one hands-on-lab to do on Monday morning. This is the first time that a non-Oracle team is doing a HOL at JavaOne under Oracle's stewardship and we are all a bit nervous about how it will turn out. Oracle has been immensely helpful in getting us set up. I have a great team helping me: Kirk Pepperdine, Dario Laverde, Benjamin Evans and Martijn Verburg from jClarity, Nathan Reynolds from Oracle, Henri Tremblay of OCTO Technology and Jeff Genender of Savoir Technologies. Monday will be hard work, but after that, I will hopefully get to network with fellow Java experts, attend interesting sessions and just enjoy San Francisco. Oh, and my kids have already given me a shopping list of things to get, like a GoPro Hero 2 dive housing for shooting those nice videos of Crete. (That's me at the beginning diving down.) Q: What sessions are you attending that we should know about?A: Sometimes the most unusual sessions are the best. I avoid the "big names". They often are spread too thin with all their sessions, which makes it difficult for them to deliver what I would consider deep content. I also avoid entertainers who might be good at presenting but who do not say that much.In 2010, I attended a session by Vladimir Yaroslavskiy where he talked about sorting. Although he struggled to speak English, what he had to say was spectacular. There was hardly anybody in the room, having not heard of Vladimir before. To me that was the highlight of 2010. Funnily enough, he was supposed to speak with Joshua Bloch, but if you remember, Google cancelled. If Bloch has been there, the room would have been packed to capacity.Q: Give us an update on the Java Specialists’ Newsletter.A: The Java Specialists' Newsletter continues being read by an elite audience around the world. The apostrophe in the name is significant.  It is a newsletter for Java specialists. When I started it twelve years ago, I was trying to find non-obvious things in Java to write about. Things that would be interesting to an advanced audience.As an April Fool's joke, I told my readers in Issue 44 that subscribing would remain free, but that they would have to pay US$5 to US$7 depending on their geographical location. I received quite a few angry emails from that one. I would have not earned that much from unsubscriptions. Most readers stay for a very long time.After Oracle bought Sun, the Java community held its breath for about two years whilst Oracle was figuring out what to do with Java. For a while, we were quite concerned that there was not much progress shown by Oracle. My newsletter still continued, but it was quite difficult finding new things to write about. We have probably about 70,000 readers, which is quite a small number for a Java publication. However, our readers are the top in the Java industry. So I don't mind having "only" 70000 readers, as long as they are the top 0.7%.Java concurrency is a very important topic that programmers think they should know about, but often neglect to fully understand. I continued writing about that and made some interesting discoveries. For example, in Issue 165, I showed how we can get thread starvation with the ReadWriteLock. This was a bug in Java 5, which was corrected in Java 6, but perhaps a bit too much. Whereas we could get starvation of writers in Java 5, in Java 6 we could now get starvation of readers. All of these interesting findings make their way into my courseware to help companies avoid these pitfalls.Another interesting discovery was how polymorphism works in the Server HotSpot compiler in Issue 157 and Issue 158. HotSpot can inline methods from interfaces that have only one implementation class in the JVM. When a new subclass is instantiated and called for the first time, the JVM will undo the previous optimization and re-optimize differently.Here is a little memory puzzle for your readers: public class JavaMemoryPuzzle {  private final int dataSize =      (int) (Runtime.getRuntime().maxMemory() * 0.6);  public void f() {    {      byte[] data = new byte[dataSize];    }    byte[] data2 = new byte[dataSize];  }  public static void main(String[] args) {    JavaMemoryPuzzle jmp = new JavaMemoryPuzzle();    jmp.f();  }}When you run this you will always get an OutOfMemoryError, even though the local variable data is no longer visible outside of the code block.So here comes the puzzle, that I'd like you to ponder a bit. If you very politely ask the VM to release memory, then you don't get an OutOfMemoryError: public class JavaMemoryPuzzlePolite {  private final int dataSize =      (int) (Runtime.getRuntime().maxMemory() * 0.6);  public void f() {    {      byte[] data = new byte[dataSize];    }    for(int i=0; i<10; i++) {      System.out.println("Please be so kind and release memory");    }    byte[] data2 = new byte[dataSize];  }  public static void main(String[] args) {    JavaMemoryPuzzlePolite jmp = new JavaMemoryPuzzlePolite();    jmp.f();    System.out.println("No OutOfMemoryError");  }}Why does this work? When I published this in my newsletter, I received over 400 emails from excited readers around the world, most of whom sent me the wrong explanation. After the 300th wrong answer, my replies became unfortunately a bit curt. Have a look at Issue 174 for a detailed explanation, but before you do, put on your thinking caps and try to figure it out yourself. Q: What do you think Java developers should know that they currently do not know?A: They should definitely get to know more about concurrency. It is a tough subject that most programmers try to avoid. Unfortunately we do come in contact with it. And when we do, we need to know how to protect ourselves and how to solve tricky system errors.Knowing your IDE is also useful. Most IDEs have a ton of shortcuts, which can make you a lot more productive in moving code around. Another thing that is useful is being able to read GC logs. Kirk Pepperdine has a great talk at JavaOne that I can recommend if you want to learn more. It's this: CON5405 – “Are Your Garbage Collection Logs Speaking to You?” Q: What are you looking forward to in Java 8?A: I'm quite excited about lambdas, though I must confess that I have not studied them in detail yet. Maurice Naftalin's Lambda FAQ is quite a good start to document what you can do with them. I'm looking forward to finding all the interesting bugs that we will now get due to lambdas obscuring what is really going on underneath, just like we had with generics.I am quite impressed with what the team at Oracle did with OpenJDK's performance. A lot of the benchmarks now run faster.Hopefully Java 8 will come with JSR 310, the Date and Time API. It still boggles my mind that such an important API has been left out in the cold for so long.What I am not looking forward to is losing perm space. Even though some systems run out of perm space, at least the problem is contained and they usually manage to work around it. In most cases, this is due to a memory leak in that region of memory. Once they bundle perm space with the old generation, I predict that memory leaks in perm space will be harder to find. More contracts for us, but also more pain for our customers.

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  • The Java Specialist: An Interview with Java Champion Heinz Kabutz

    - by Janice J. Heiss
    Dr. Heinz Kabutz is well known for his Java Specialists’ Newsletter, initiated in November 2000, where he displays his acute grasp of the intricacies of the Java platform for an estimated 70,000 readers; for his work as a consultant; and for his workshops and trainings at his home on the Island of Crete where he has lived since 2006 -- where he is known to curl up on the beach with his laptop to hack away, in between dips in the Mediterranean. Kabutz was born of German parents and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, where he developed a love of programming in junior high school through his explorations on a ZX Spectrum computer. He received a B.S. from the University of Cape Town, and at 25, a Ph.D., both in computer science. He will be leading a two-hour hands-on lab session, HOL6500 – “Finding and Solving Java Deadlocks,” at this year’s JavaOne that will explore what causes deadlocks and how to solve them. Q: Tell us about your JavaOne plans.A: I am arriving on Sunday evening and have just one hands-on-lab to do on Monday morning. This is the first time that a non-Oracle team is doing a HOL at JavaOne under Oracle's stewardship and we are all a bit nervous about how it will turn out. Oracle has been immensely helpful in getting us set up. I have a great team helping me: Kirk Pepperdine, Dario Laverde, Benjamin Evans and Martijn Verburg from jClarity, Nathan Reynolds from Oracle, Henri Tremblay of OCTO Technology and Jeff Genender of Savoir Technologies. Monday will be hard work, but after that, I will hopefully get to network with fellow Java experts, attend interesting sessions and just enjoy San Francisco. Oh, and my kids have already given me a shopping list of things to get, like a GoPro Hero 2 dive housing for shooting those nice videos of Crete. (That's me at the beginning diving down.) Q: What sessions are you attending that we should know about?A: Sometimes the most unusual sessions are the best. I avoid the "big names". They often are spread too thin with all their sessions, which makes it difficult for them to deliver what I would consider deep content. I also avoid entertainers who might be good at presenting but who do not say that much.In 2010, I attended a session by Vladimir Yaroslavskiy where he talked about sorting. Although he struggled to speak English, what he had to say was spectacular. There was hardly anybody in the room, having not heard of Vladimir before. To me that was the highlight of 2010. Funnily enough, he was supposed to speak with Joshua Bloch, but if you remember, Google cancelled. If Bloch has been there, the room would have been packed to capacity.Q: Give us an update on the Java Specialists’ Newsletter.A: The Java Specialists' Newsletter continues being read by an elite audience around the world. The apostrophe in the name is significant.  It is a newsletter for Java specialists. When I started it twelve years ago, I was trying to find non-obvious things in Java to write about. Things that would be interesting to an advanced audience.As an April Fool's joke, I told my readers in Issue 44 that subscribing would remain free, but that they would have to pay US$5 to US$7 depending on their geographical location. I received quite a few angry emails from that one. I would have not earned that much from unsubscriptions. Most readers stay for a very long time.After Oracle bought Sun, the Java community held its breath for about two years whilst Oracle was figuring out what to do with Java. For a while, we were quite concerned that there was not much progress shown by Oracle. My newsletter still continued, but it was quite difficult finding new things to write about. We have probably about 70,000 readers, which is quite a small number for a Java publication. However, our readers are the top in the Java industry. So I don't mind having "only" 70000 readers, as long as they are the top 0.7%.Java concurrency is a very important topic that programmers think they should know about, but often neglect to fully understand. I continued writing about that and made some interesting discoveries. For example, in Issue 165, I showed how we can get thread starvation with the ReadWriteLock. This was a bug in Java 5, which was corrected in Java 6, but perhaps a bit too much. Whereas we could get starvation of writers in Java 5, in Java 6 we could now get starvation of readers. All of these interesting findings make their way into my courseware to help companies avoid these pitfalls.Another interesting discovery was how polymorphism works in the Server HotSpot compiler in Issue 157 and Issue 158. HotSpot can inline methods from interfaces that have only one implementation class in the JVM. When a new subclass is instantiated and called for the first time, the JVM will undo the previous optimization and re-optimize differently.Here is a little memory puzzle for your readers: public class JavaMemoryPuzzle {  private final int dataSize =      (int) (Runtime.getRuntime().maxMemory() * 0.6);  public void f() {    {      byte[] data = new byte[dataSize];    }    byte[] data2 = new byte[dataSize];  }  public static void main(String[] args) {    JavaMemoryPuzzle jmp = new JavaMemoryPuzzle();    jmp.f();  }}When you run this you will always get an OutOfMemoryError, even though the local variable data is no longer visible outside of the code block.So here comes the puzzle, that I'd like you to ponder a bit. If you very politely ask the VM to release memory, then you don't get an OutOfMemoryError: public class JavaMemoryPuzzlePolite {  private final int dataSize =      (int) (Runtime.getRuntime().maxMemory() * 0.6);  public void f() {    {      byte[] data = new byte[dataSize];    }    for(int i=0; i<10; i++) {      System.out.println("Please be so kind and release memory");    }    byte[] data2 = new byte[dataSize];  }  public static void main(String[] args) {    JavaMemoryPuzzlePolite jmp = new JavaMemoryPuzzlePolite();    jmp.f();    System.out.println("No OutOfMemoryError");  }}Why does this work? When I published this in my newsletter, I received over 400 emails from excited readers around the world, most of whom sent me the wrong explanation. After the 300th wrong answer, my replies became unfortunately a bit curt. Have a look at Issue 174 for a detailed explanation, but before you do, put on your thinking caps and try to figure it out yourself. Q: What do you think Java developers should know that they currently do not know?A: They should definitely get to know more about concurrency. It is a tough subject that most programmers try to avoid. Unfortunately we do come in contact with it. And when we do, we need to know how to protect ourselves and how to solve tricky system errors.Knowing your IDE is also useful. Most IDEs have a ton of shortcuts, which can make you a lot more productive in moving code around. Another thing that is useful is being able to read GC logs. Kirk Pepperdine has a great talk at JavaOne that I can recommend if you want to learn more. It's this: CON5405 – “Are Your Garbage Collection Logs Speaking to You?” Q: What are you looking forward to in Java 8?A: I'm quite excited about lambdas, though I must confess that I have not studied them in detail yet. Maurice Naftalin's Lambda FAQ is quite a good start to document what you can do with them. I'm looking forward to finding all the interesting bugs that we will now get due to lambdas obscuring what is really going on underneath, just like we had with generics.I am quite impressed with what the team at Oracle did with OpenJDK's performance. A lot of the benchmarks now run faster.Hopefully Java 8 will come with JSR 310, the Date and Time API. It still boggles my mind that such an important API has been left out in the cold for so long.What I am not looking forward to is losing perm space. Even though some systems run out of perm space, at least the problem is contained and they usually manage to work around it. In most cases, this is due to a memory leak in that region of memory. Once they bundle perm space with the old generation, I predict that memory leaks in perm space will be harder to find. More contracts for us, but also more pain for our customers. Originally published on blogs.oracle.com/javaone.

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  • Audio not working

    - by user3215
    Anybody could help me in troubleshooting audio problem on ubutnu 9.04 desktop edition?. For some reason I've to keep this os not upgraded and I'm trying to fix the audio problem on this for months. It works well on upgraded version(9.10,10.04) but not on jaunty. aplay -l: **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices **** card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC883 Analog [ALC883 Analog] Subdevices: 0/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: ALC883 Digital [ALC883 Digital] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 lsmod | grep snd: snd_hda_intel 436148 7 snd_pcm_oss 46336 0 snd_mixer_oss 22656 1 snd_pcm_oss snd_pcm 83076 4 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss snd_seq_dummy 10756 0 snd_seq_oss 37760 0 snd_seq_midi 14336 0 snd_rawmidi 29696 1 snd_seq_midi snd_seq_midi_event 15104 2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi snd_seq 56880 6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event snd_timer 29704 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq snd_seq_device 14988 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq snd 62756 21 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_seq_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device soundcore 15200 1 snd snd_page_alloc 16904 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm cat /proc/asound/cards: 0 [Intel ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel HDA Intel at 0xe1280000 irq 16 cat /proc/asound/version: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.18rc3. vim /etc/modules: # /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time. # # This file contains the names of kernel modules that should be loaded # at boot time, one per line. Lines beginning with "#" are ignored. lp Audio Settings:

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  • Give Chromium-Based Browser Desktop Notifications a Native System Look in Ubuntu

    - by Asian Angel
    Desktop notifications from Chromium-based browsers are an awesome feature, but they do not blend in well at all with the native system theming in Ubuntu. Now you can fix that small problem using the wonderful Chromify-OSD extension created by Marco Ceppi. Once you get the extension installed you can give it a quick test run using the link and information we have listed below. As you can see in the image above the new notification style looks absolutely wonderful. Chromify-OSD (Chrome Web Store) [via OMG! Ubuntu!] You can test the new look of the notifications for yourself using the following webpage. Keep in mind that the extension needs to be installed first before this will work though. Note: Enter the following image URL into the Icon Blank (http://www.rgraph.net/images/logo.png) or the URL for an appropriate image, otherwise the notification may not work properly during your test. Chromify Sample HTML5 Notification Test Page The wallpaper shown in the screenshot above can be downloaded here: anime sport [DesktopNexus] Latest Features How-To Geek ETC How to Enable User-Specific Wireless Networks in Windows 7 How to Use Google Chrome as Your Default PDF Reader (the Easy Way) How To Remove People and Objects From Photographs In Photoshop Ask How-To Geek: How Can I Monitor My Bandwidth Usage? Internet Explorer 9 RC Now Available: Here’s the Most Interesting New Stuff Here’s a Super Simple Trick to Defeating Fake Anti-Virus Malware The Citroen GT – An Awesome Video Game Car Brought to Life [Video] Final Man vs. Machine Round of Jeopardy Unfolds; Watson Dominates Give Chromium-Based Browser Desktop Notifications a Native System Look in Ubuntu Chrome Time Track Is a Simple Task Time Tracker Google Sky Map Turns Your Android Phone into a Digital Telescope Walking Through a Seaside Village Wallpaper

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  • Semi Fixed-timestep ported to javascript

    - by abernier
    In Gaffer's "Fix Your Timestep!" article, the author explains how to free your physics' loop from the paint one. Here is the final code, written in C: double t = 0.0; const double dt = 0.01; double currentTime = hires_time_in_seconds(); double accumulator = 0.0; State previous; State current; while ( !quit ) { double newTime = time(); double frameTime = newTime - currentTime; if ( frameTime > 0.25 ) frameTime = 0.25; // note: max frame time to avoid spiral of death currentTime = newTime; accumulator += frameTime; while ( accumulator >= dt ) { previousState = currentState; integrate( currentState, t, dt ); t += dt; accumulator -= dt; } const double alpha = accumulator / dt; State state = currentState*alpha + previousState * ( 1.0 - alpha ); render( state ); } I'm trying to implement this in JavaScript but I'm quite confused about the second while loop... Here is what I have for now (simplified): ... (function animLoop(){ ... while (accumulator >= dt) { // While? In a requestAnimation loop? Maybe if? ... } ... // render requestAnimationFrame(animLoop); // stand for the 1st while loop [OK] }()) As you can see, I'm not sure about the while loop inside the requestAnimation one... I thought replacing it with a if but I'm not sure it will be equivalent... Maybe some can help me.

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  • Xubuntu 12.04 : Random boot to black screen

    - by Thibaud Ruelle
    My xubuntu 12.04 has worked flawlessly since install in September. However, lately I randomly have the following boot issue : The computer boots to grub, and after choosing xubuntu either boots normally or boots to a black screen. Here are some observations I have made : The black screen seems to happen randomly. The black screen does not seem to happen in safe mode (- nomodeset in grub). The black screen does not allow me to ctrl + alt + F1-6 into a terminal. The black screen allows me to use SysRq keys (Alt + SysRq + K does not work though). The black screen often happens on first boot in several hours and the computer usually boots normally after a RSEINUB. When the computer boots I get "SP5100 TCO timer: mmio address 0xfec000f0 already in use" at startup and "Could not write bytes: broken pipe" at shutdown. However research on these errors did not yield answers to my particular issue. Comparing Xorg.0.log (successful boot) and Xorg.0.log.old (black screen), and reading the answers to similar problem, it seems that I might have a X driver issue. However the system worked flawlessly since lately. Additional info on my system : ACER AO722 C62kk Operating system : 3.2.0-31-generic ubuntu Edit : I made a fresh install of Xubuntu 12.04 x64, the issue is still there ... (I have a separate /home so config. files were not erased). Edit 2 : I followed troubleshooting blank screen, so my new observations are without quiet and splash in grub : When the system boots normally, the screen goes black after grub then lights up and displays text information then goes to login screen. (After that the desktop starting time vary substantially, which is new and may be a separate issue ?). When the boot fails, after grub the screen goes black, lights up, goes black, lights up again and most times goes black again. At this point it responds to Alt+SysReq K by lighting up but no more, and has to be rebooted through Alt+SysReq+ RSEINUB. Thank you for your time and attention in advance ! Thibaud Ruelle

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  • Will Your Brand Survive the Age of Digital Darwinism?

    - by Christie Flanagan
    It’s the end of business as usual.  Trends such as the mobile web, social media, gamification and real-time are forcing businesses to rethink the way they operate.  At the same time, people are embracing a new digital culture across ever expanding networks.  Together, these trends have given rise to a new breed of connected consumer, one that is ready to shake the very foundation of business today.  This is the age of Digital Darwinism – where society and technology evolve faster than your ability to adapt.  How well poised is your brand to survive and thrive in this new environment? Attend this webcast to hear Altimeter Group digital analyst and futurist, Brian Solis, discuss the rise of connected consumerism and learn how brands can survive Digital Darwinism by better understanding customer expectations, disruptive technology, and the new opportunities that arise from them. You will learn: How brands are being redefined in the digital consumer landscape and what they can do to create and steer these experiences Why consumer influence is growing and how businesses can use this to their advantage How to connect with a rising audience through new touchpoints between consumers, brands, and influencers Why you need to create a culture of change to earn trust, influence and significance among today’s connected customers Register now.

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  • If not gamedev, what do I do !

    - by brainydexter
    Hi, I am a game dev who was working in the game-industry and then..got laid off. Ever since then, life couldn't get less stressful! During this time, I have met so many other devs who have also been laid off irrespective of the number of years they have been in the game. Now, the problem really gets worse, since I am not a US citizen (yes, I am in US) , and am on an international visa here, I might have to soon pack my bags and go back to my native country. Going back is not bad at all, apart from the fact, that gamedev is still in a very nascent stage there. There just aren't many opportunities. So, employment is the key to maintain a valid visa status. After giving it a lot of thought, I am thinking of staying away from gamedev jobs for the time being, given its job unstablity. This brings me to my current problem. I can't think of a domain/place where I can use my game development skills. I know graphics/simulation/visualization is huge, but I can't think straight and am left clueless where to go from here. What are some of the domains/companies where I can use my skills ? I'd appreciate any insight on this (and I apologize if this is not the place to post this kind of a question).

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  • How do I align my partition table properly?

    - by Jorge Castro
    I am in the process of building my first RAID5 array. I've used mdadm to create the following set up: root@bondigas:~# mdadm --detail /dev/md1 /dev/md1: Version : 00.90 Creation Time : Wed Oct 20 20:00:41 2010 Raid Level : raid5 Array Size : 5860543488 (5589.05 GiB 6001.20 GB) Used Dev Size : 1953514496 (1863.02 GiB 2000.40 GB) Raid Devices : 4 Total Devices : 4 Preferred Minor : 1 Persistence : Superblock is persistent Update Time : Wed Oct 20 20:13:48 2010 State : clean, degraded, recovering Active Devices : 3 Working Devices : 4 Failed Devices : 0 Spare Devices : 1 Layout : left-symmetric Chunk Size : 64K Rebuild Status : 1% complete UUID : f6dc829e:aa29b476:edd1ef19:85032322 (local to host bondigas) Events : 0.12 Number Major Minor RaidDevice State 0 8 16 0 active sync /dev/sdb 1 8 32 1 active sync /dev/sdc 2 8 48 2 active sync /dev/sdd 4 8 64 3 spare rebuilding /dev/sde While that's going I decided to format the beast with the following command: root@bondigas:~# mkfs.ext4 /dev/md1p1 mke2fs 1.41.11 (14-Mar-2010) /dev/md1p1 alignment is offset by 63488 bytes. This may result in very poor performance, (re)-partitioning suggested. Filesystem label= OS type: Linux Block size=4096 (log=2) Fragment size=4096 (log=2) Stride=16 blocks, Stripe width=48 blocks 97853440 inodes, 391394047 blocks 19569702 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user First data block=0 Maximum filesystem blocks=0 11945 block groups 32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group 8192 inodes per group Superblock backups stored on blocks: 32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208, 4096000, 7962624, 11239424, 20480000, 23887872, 71663616, 78675968, 102400000, 214990848 Writing inode tables: ^C 27/11945 root@bondigas:~# ^C I am unsure what to do about "/dev/md1p1 alignment is offset by 63488 bytes." and how to properly partition the disks to match so I can format it properly.

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  • iPhone/iPad: Get Alerts When Paid Apps Go Free

    - by Gopinath
    iPhone users has thousands of cool applications to choose. These apps are either paid or absolutely free. Many of the paid applications goes free for either a limited time or forever depending on the mood of their developers. Will it not be cool to get alerts whenever a paid app goes free? Yeah, it will be great. Free App Alert is a handy website that checks iTunes store regularly and sends alerts to it’s subscribers about the apps that have gone from paid to free. You can receive the alerts by following them on twitter, facebook or subscribing to the traditional RSS feeds(yeah RSS is a traditional technology). The home page of this website shows the apps that have gone free today and you can browse through the previous day free apps listing with the help of links available at the bottom. Free App Alert is definitely a cool site to check out for iPhone/iPod/iPad users and certainly easier than scrolling through iTunes store and checking prices. Tip: Immediately download the app that have gone from paid to free as many apps are free for limited time. You can see many free apps going back to paid version if you go through the previous pages the website. Join us on Facebook to read all our stories right inside your Facebook news feed.

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  • Friday Fun: Wake Up the Box

    - by Mysticgeek
    Another Friday and it’s time to waste the rest of your Friday playing a  fun flash game online. Today we take a look at a relaxing physic based puzzle game called Wake Up the Box. Wake Up the Box This goal of this game is to wake up the box character by attaching parts of existing wood objects in each stage. You can start a new game or continue your progress from where you left off. At the beginning you get a tutorial showing what you need to do to wake the box. You get wood parts and can attach them to other wood pieces but not metal or brick. After successfully waking up Mr. Box, you can go to the next level or restart a level at any time if your having problems figuring out the puzzle. Each level gets more difficult and the puzzles are more challenging. Wake Up the Box is a relaxing and challenging game that will allow you to have fun, not working on TPS reports until the whistle blows. Play Wake Up the Box at FreeWebArcade Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Stop the Mouse From Waking Up Your Computer from Sleep ModeFix "Sleep Mode Randomly Waking Up" Issue in Windows VistaStop Your Mouse from Waking Up Your Windows 7 ComputerPrevent Windows Asking for a Password on Wake Up from Sleep/StandbyUse Sleep.FM to Wake Up with the Web TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Microsoft’s “How Do I ?” Videos Home Networks – How do they look like & the problems they cause Check Your IMAP Mail Offline In Thunderbird Follow Finder Finds You Twitter Users To Follow Combine MP3 Files Easily QuicklyCode Provides Cheatsheets & Other Programming Stuff

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  • Perl - can't flush STDOUT or STDERR

    - by Jim Salter
    Perl 5.14 from stock Ubuntu Precise repos. Trying to write a simple wrapper to monitor progress on copying from one stream to another: use IO::Handle; while ($bufsize = read (SOURCE, $buffer, 1048576)) { STDERR->printflush ("Transferred $xferred of $sendsize bytes\n"); $xferred += $bufsize; print TARGET $buffer; } This does not perform as expected (writing a line each time the 1M buffer is read). I end up seeing the first line (with a blank value of $xferred), and then the 7th and 8th lines (on an 8MB transfer). Been pounding my brains out on this for hours - I've read the perldocs, I've read the classic "Suffering from Buffering" article, I've tried everything from select and $|++ to IO::Handle to binmode (STDERR, "::unix") to you name it. I've also tried flushing TARGET with each line using IO::Handle (TARGET-flush). No dice. Has anybody else ever encountered this? I don't have any ideas left. Sleeping one second "fixes" the problem, but obviously I don't want to sleep a second every time I read a buffer just so my progress will output on the screen! FWIW, the problem is exactly the same whether I'm outputting to STDERR or STDOUT.

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  • Logging library for (c++) games

    - by Klaim
    I know a lot of logging libraries but didn't test a lot of them. (GoogleLog, Pantheios, the coming boost::log library...) In games, especially in remote multiplayer and multithreaded games, logging is vital to debugging, even if you remove all logs in the end. Let's say I'm making a PC game (not console) that needs logs (multiplayer and multithreaded and/or multiprocess) and I have good reasons for looking for a library for logging (like, I don't have time or I'm not confident in my ability to write one correctly for my case). Assuming that I need : performance ease of use (allow streaming or formating or something like that) reliable (don't leak or crash!) cross-platform (at least Windows, MacOSX, Linux/Ubuntu) Wich logging library would you recommand? Currently, I think that boost::log is the most flexible one (you can even log to remotely!), but have not good performance update: is for high performance, but isn't released yet. Pantheios is often cited but I don't have comparison points on performance and usage. I've used my own lib for a long time but I know it don't manage multithreading so it's a big problem, even if it's fast enough. Google Log seems interesting, I just need to test it but if you already have compared those libs and more, your advice might be of good use. Games are often performance demanding while complex to debug so it would be good to know logging libraries that, in our specific case, have clear advantages.

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  • DNS - domain conflict?

    - by Stefanos.Ioannou
    I was given two domains: domain.com & domain.info (they are on GoDaddy). And I was also given two servers, 107.105.38.99 - Rails app and 107.107.90.17 - Wordpress platform, on Digital Ocean. At first, I was instructed to associate domain.com with the 107.107.38.99 (Rails app). Then I was instructed to de-associate this IP with domain.com and associated the 107.107.90.17 with the domain name domain.com. Then I was instructed to associated domain.info with the 107.107.38.99 (Rails app). Right now, when I go to domain.com the WordPress platform (107.107.90.17) loads fine and that is what is expected. But when I go to domain.info for the Rails app (107.107.38.99) I get redirected to domain.com. This is not expected and this is really weird for me. When I ping domain.info I get this: PING domain.info (107.107.38.99): 56 data bytes 64 bytes from 107.107.38.99: icmp_seq=0 ttl=50 time=74.601 ms Which is the expected result showing the correct IP but I don't understand why I get redirected to domain.com...(which when I ping is:) domain 64 bytes from 107.107.90.17: icmp_seq=0 ttl=50 time=75.057 ms The PTR Records on Digital Ocean are as follows: IP Address PTR Record 107.107.38.99 domain.info. 107.107.90.17 domain.com. and the DNS configurations on Digital Ocean are: domain.com A: @ 107.107.90.17 CNAME: * @ domain.info A: @ 107.107.38.99 CNAME: * @ I am not sure what the issue is, if you have any clue please let me know, I will be really grateful. If you need any other info let me know.

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  • Is it possible to build a single game to run in Facebook & Google+?

    - by Songo
    I was asked by my customer to build a Facebook game. The game would be something similar to Mafiawars.com where the game is hosted on a server and run through a frame on Facebook. The thing is after several days of negotiations with the customer and near the finalization of the requirements he mentioned something strange. He said that if the game was successful on Facebook then we may add it to Google+ too. I thought he meant that we'll develop a new version for Google+, but he refused as he argued that the game should be able to support both sites and he won't pay for the same game twice. Now I haven't developed neither Facebook nor Google+ games before, so I don't know if it is possible to build a single Facebook/Google+ game. How would you react to such requirement? How would you design such an application? Notes I confirmed with the customer that he wasn't talking about using Open ID he wanted full integration (sharing post, friend requests,..etc.) I really don't want to lose that customer for numerous reasons (He even agreed to extend the project time to compensate for the time I need to learn Facebook/Google+ APIs)

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  • Organizing Connections with Folders in Oracle SQL Developer

    - by thatjeffsmith
    How many Oracle databases do you work with on a regular basis? I’m guessing the answer for most of you lies between 1 and 500. This post is really geared for those of you who deal with more than just a handful (5) of database connections. Filters are nice when you need to work with a subset of table data, or even a list of tables. So why wouldn’t they be just as useful for organizing your connections? Here’s my complete list of databases: The folders aren’t there by default, you add them as you need them. Now this isn’t an overly large connection list. But when I need to fire up an impromptu demo for a customer, it’s very nice to be able to drill down into JUST those ‘safe’ environments. This actually saves me a few seconds every time I need to connect to one of my databases. So while it’s a very simple feature, it’s one of those things that I recommend EVERYONE take advantage of as it will save them hours of time over the long haul. Easier to find means I get to work a few seconds faster. This also helps me from making mistakes in ‘production’ environments! How to Add a Connection Folder Select a connection you want to organize. Mouse-right-click, and choose ‘Add to folder.’ You can throw it into a new container or an existing one. Lather, rinse, and repeat as necessary. The only trick is remembering to right-click! Special thanks to @dresendi for today’s topic! He asked how to do this and I realized I hadn’t blogged the topic yet

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  • Designing a large database with multiple sources

    - by CatchingMonkey
    I have been tasked with redesigning, or at worst optimising the structure of a database for a data warehouse. Currently, the database has 4 other source databases (which is due to expand to X number of others), all of which have their own data structures, naming conventions etc. At the moment an overnight SSIS package pulls the data from the various source and then for each source coverts the data into a standardised, usable format. These tables are then appended to each other creating a 60m row, 40 column beast!. This table is then used in a variety of ways from an OLAP cube to a web front end. The structure has been in place for a very long time, and the work I have been able to prove the advantages of normalisation, and this is the way I would like to go. The problem for me is that the overnight process takes so long I don't then want to spend additional time normalising the last table into something usable. Can anyone offer any insight or ideas into the best way to restructure or optimise the database efficiently? Edit: All the databases are MS SQL Server 2008 R2 Thanks in advance CM

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  • New Enhancements for InnoDB Memcached

    - by Calvin Sun
    In MySQL 5.6, we continued our development on InnoDB Memcached and completed a few widely desirable features that make InnoDB Memcached a competitive feature in more scenario. Notablely, they are 1) Support multiple table mapping 2) Added background thread to auto-commit long running transactions 3) Enhancement in binlog performance  Let’s go over each of these features one by one. And in the last section, we will go over a couple of internally performed performance tests. Support multiple table mapping In our earlier release, all InnoDB Memcached operations are mapped to a single InnoDB table. In the real life, user might want to use this InnoDB Memcached features on different tables. Thus being able to support access to different table at run time, and having different mapping for different connections becomes a very desirable feature. And in this GA release, we allow user just be able to do both. We will discuss the key concepts and key steps in using this feature. 1) "mapping name" in the "get" and "set" command In order to allow InnoDB Memcached map to a new table, the user (DBA) would still require to "pre-register" table(s) in InnoDB Memcached “containers” table (there is security consideration for this requirement). If you would like to know about “containers” table, please refer to my earlier blogs in blogs.innodb.com. Once registered, the InnoDB Memcached will then be able to look for such table when they are referred. Each of such registered table will have a unique "registration name" (or mapping_name) corresponding to the “name” field in the “containers” table.. To access these tables, user will include such "registration name" in their get or set commands, in the form of "get @@new_mapping_name.key", prefix "@@" is required for signaling a mapped table change. The key and the "mapping name" are separated by a configurable delimiter, by default, it is ".". So the syntax is: get [@@mapping_name.]key_name set [@@mapping_name.]key_name  or  get @@mapping_name set @@mapping_name Here is an example: Let's set up three tables in the "containers" table: The first is a map to InnoDB table "test/demo_test" table with mapping name "setup_1" INSERT INTO containers VALUES ("setup_1", "test", "demo_test", "c1", "c2", "c3", "c4", "c5", "PRIMARY");  Similarly, we set up table mappings for table "test/new_demo" with name "setup_2" and that to table "mydatabase/my_demo" with name "setup_3": INSERT INTO containers VALUES ("setup_2", "test", "new_demo", "c1", "c2", "c3", "c4", "c5", "secondary_index_x"); INSERT INTO containers VALUES ("setup_3", "my_database", "my_demo", "c1", "c2", "c3", "c4", "c5", "idx"); To switch to table "my_database/my_demo", and get the value corresponding to “key_a”, user will do: get @@setup_3.key_a (this will also output the value that corresponding to key "key_a" or simply get @@setup_3 Once this is done, this connection will switch to "my_database/my_demo" table until another table mapping switch is requested. so it can continue issue regular command like: get key_b  set key_c 0 0 7 These DMLs will all be directed to "my_database/my_demo" table. And this also implies that different connections can have different bindings (to different table). 2) Delimiter: For the delimiter "." that separates the "mapping name" and key value, we also added a configure option in the "config_options" system table with name of "table_map_delimiter": INSERT INTO config_options VALUES("table_map_delimiter", "."); So if user wants to change to a different delimiter, they can change it in the config_option table. 3) Default mapping: Once we have multiple table mapping, there should be always a "default" map setting. For this, we decided if there exists a mapping name of "default", then this will be chosen as default mapping. Otherwise, the first row of the containers table will chosen as default setting. Please note, user tables can be repeated in the "containers" table (for example, user wants to access different columns of the table in different settings), as long as they are using different mapping/configure names in the first column, which is enforced by a unique index. 4) bind command In addition, we also extend the protocol and added a bind command, its usage is fairly straightforward. To switch to "setup_3" mapping above, you simply issue: bind setup_3 This will switch this connection's InnoDB table to "my_database/my_demo" In summary, with this feature, you now can direct access to difference tables with difference session. And even a single connection, you can query into difference tables. Background thread to auto-commit long running transactions This is a feature related to the “batch” concept we discussed in earlier blogs. This “batch” feature allows us batch the read and write operations, and commit them only after certain calls. The “batch” size is controlled by the configure parameter “daemon_memcached_w_batch_size” and “daemon_memcached_r_batch_size”. This could significantly boost performance. However, it also comes with some disadvantages, for example, you will not be able to view “uncommitted” operations from SQL end unless you set transaction isolation level to read_uncommitted, and in addition, this will held certain row locks for extend period of time that might reduce the concurrency. To deal with this, we introduce a background thread that “auto-commits” the transaction if they are idle for certain amount of time (default is 5 seconds). The background thread will wake up every second and loop through every “connections” opened by Memcached, and check for idle transactions. And if such transaction is idle longer than certain limit and not being used, it will commit such transactions. This limit is configurable by change “innodb_api_bk_commit_interval”. Its default value is 5 seconds, and minimum is 1 second, and maximum is 1073741824 seconds. With the help of such background thread, you will not need to worry about long running uncommitted transactions when set daemon_memcached_w_batch_size and daemon_memcached_r_batch_size to a large number. This also reduces the number of locks that could be held due to long running transactions, and thus further increase the concurrency. Enhancement in binlog performance As you might all know, binlog operation is not done by InnoDB storage engine, rather it is handled in the MySQL layer. In order to support binlog operation through InnoDB Memcached, we would have to artificially create some MySQL constructs in order to access binlog handler APIs. In previous lab release, for simplicity consideration, we open and destroy these MySQL constructs (such as THD) for each operations. This required us to set the “batch” size always to 1 when binlog is on, no matter what “daemon_memcached_w_batch_size” and “daemon_memcached_r_batch_size” are configured to. This put a big restriction on our capability to scale, and also there are quite a bit overhead in creating destroying such constructs that bogs the performance down. With this release, we made necessary change that would keep MySQL constructs as long as they are valid for a particular connection. So there will not be repeated and redundant open and close (table) calls. And now even with binlog option is enabled (with innodb_api_enable_binlog,), we still can batch the transactions with daemon_memcached_w_batch_size and daemon_memcached_r_batch_size, thus scale the write/read performance. Although there are still overheads that makes InnoDB Memcached cannot perform as fast as when binlog is turned off. It is much better off comparing to previous release. And we are continuing optimize the solution is this area to improve the performance as much as possible. Performance Study: Amerandra of our System QA team have conducted some performance studies on queries through our InnoDB Memcached connection and plain SQL end. And it shows some interesting results. The test is conducted on a “Linux 2.6.32-300.7.1.el6uek.x86_64 ix86 (64)” machine with 16 GB Memory, Intel Xeon 2.0 GHz CPU X86_64 2 CPUs- 4 Core Each, 2 RAID DISKS (1027 GB,733.9GB). Results are described in following tables: Table 1: Performance comparison on Set operations Connections 5.6.7-RC-Memcached-plugin ( TPS / Qps) with memcached-threads=8*** 5.6.7-RC* X faster Set (QPS) Set** 8 30,000 5,600 5.36 32 59,000 13,000 4.54 128 68,000 8,000 8.50 512 63,000 6.800 9.23 * mysql-5.6.7-rc-linux2.6-x86_64 ** The “set” operation when implemented in InnoDB Memcached involves a couple of DMLs: it first query the table to see whether the “key” exists, if it does not, the new key/value pair will be inserted. If it does exist, the “value” field of matching row (by key) will be updated. So when used in above query, it is a precompiled store procedure, and query will just execute such procedures. *** added “–daemon_memcached_option=-t8” (default is 4 threads) So we can see with this “set” query, InnoDB Memcached can run 4.5 to 9 time faster than MySQL server. Table 2: Performance comparison on Get operations Connections 5.6.7-RC-Memcached-plugin ( TPS / Qps) with memcached-threads=8 5.6.7-RC* X faster Get (QPS) Get 8 42,000 27,000 1.56 32 101,000 55.000 1.83 128 117,000 52,000 2.25 512 109,000 52,000 2.10 With the “get” query (or the select query), memcached performs 1.5 to 2 times faster than normal SQL. Summary: In summary, we added several much-desired features to InnoDB Memcached in this release, allowing user to operate on different tables with this Memcached interface. We also now provide a background commit thread to commit long running idle transactions, thus allow user to configure large batch write/read without worrying about large number of rows held or not being able to see (uncommit) data. We also greatly enhanced the performance when Binlog is enabled. We will continue making efforts in both performance enhancement and functionality areas to make InnoDB Memcached a good demo case for our InnoDB APIs. Jimmy Yang, September 29, 2012

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