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  • Authorize.Net, Silent Posts, and URL Rewriting Don't Mix

    The too long, didn't read synopsis: If you use Authorize.Net and its silent post feature and it stops working, make sure that if your website uses URL rewriting to strip or add a www to the domain name that the URL you specify for the silent post matches the URL rewriting rule because Authorize.Net's silent post feature won't resubmit the post request to URL specified via the redirect response. I have a client that uses Authorize.Net to manage and bill customers. Like many payment gateways, Authorize.Net supports recurring payments. For example, a website may charge members a monthly fee to access their services. With Authorize.Net you can provide the billing amount and schedule and at each interval Authorize.Net will automatically charge the customer's credit card and deposit the funds to your account. You may want to do something whenever Authorize.Net performs a recurring payment. For instance, if the recurring payment charge was a success you would extend the customer's service; if the transaction was denied then you would cancel their service (or whatever). To accomodate this, Authorize.Net offers a silent post feature. Properly configured, Authorize.Net will send an HTTP request that contains details of the recurring payment transaction to a URL that you specify. This URL could be an ASP.NET page on your server that then parses the data from Authorize.Net and updates the specified customer's account accordingly. (Of course, you can always view the history of recurring payments through the reporting interface on Authorize.Net's website; the silent post feature gives you a way to programmatically respond to a recurring payment.) Recently, this client of mine that uses Authorize.Net informed me that several paying customers were telling him that their access to the site had been cut off even though their credit cards had been recently billed. Looking through our logs, I noticed that we had not shown any recurring payment log activity for over a month. I figured one of two things must be going on: either Authorize.Net wasn't sending us the silent post requests anymore or the page that was processing them wasn't doing so correctly. I started by verifying that our Authorize.Net account was properly setup to use the silent post feature and that it was pointing to the correct URL. Authorize.Net's site indicated the silent post was configured and that recurring payment transaction details were being sent to http://example.com/AuthorizeNetProcessingPage.aspx. Next, I wanted to determine what information was getting sent to that URL.The application was setup tolog the parsed results of the Authorize.Net request, such as what customer the recurring payment applied to; however,we were not logging the actual HTTP request coming from Authorize.Net. I contacted Authorize.Net's support to inquire if they logged the HTTP request send via the silent post feature and was told that they did not. I decided to add a bit of code to log the incoming HTTP request, which you can do by using the Request object's SaveAs method. This allowed me to saveevery incoming HTTP request to the silent post page to a text file on the server. Upon the next recurring payment, I was able to see the HTTP request being received by the page: GET /AuthorizeNetProcessingPage.aspx HTTP/1.1Connection: CloseAccept: */*Host: www.example.com That was it. Two things alarmed me: first, the request was obviously a GET and not a POST; second, there was no POST body (obviously), which is where Authorize.Net passes along thedetails of the recurring payment transaction.What stuck out was the Host header, which differed slightly from the silent post URL configured in Authorize.Net. Specifically, the Host header in the above logged request pointed to www.example.com, whereas the Authorize.Net configuration used example.com (no www). About a month ago - the same time these recurring payment transaction detailswere no longer being processed by our ASP.NET page - we had implemented IIS 7's URL rewriting feature to permanently redirect all traffic to example.com to www.example.com. Could that be the problem? I contacted Authorize.Net's support again and asked them if their silent post algorithmwould follow the301HTTP response and repost the recurring payment transaction details. They said, Yes, the silent post would follow redirects. Their reports didn't jive with my observations, so I went ahead and updated our Authorize.Net configuration to point to http://www.example.com/AuthorizeNetProcessingPage.aspx instead of http://example.com/AuthorizeNetProcessingPage.aspx. And, I'm happy to report, recurring payments and correctly being processed again! If you use Authorize.Net and the silent post feature, and you notice that your processing page is not longer working, make sure you are not using any URL rewriting rules that may conflict with the silent post URL configuration. Hope this saves someone the time it took me to get to the bottom of this. Happy Programming!Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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  • Integrating Oracle Forms Applications 11g Into SOA (4-6/Mai/10)

    - by Claudia Costa
    Workshop Description This is a Free workshop of 3 days is targeted at Oracle Forms professionals interested in integrating Oracle Forms into a Service Oriented Architecture. The workshop highlights how Forms can be part of a Service Oriented Architecture, how the Oracle Forms functionalities make it possible to integrate existing (or new) Forms applications with new or existing development utilizing the Service Oriented Architecture concepts. The goal is to understand the incremental approach that Forms provides to developers who need to extend their business platform to JEE, allowing Oracle Forms customers to retain their investment in Oracle Forms while leveraging the opportunities offered by complementing technologies. During the event the attendees will implement the Oracle Forms functionalities that make it possible to integrate with SOA. Register Now! Prerequisites ·         Knowledge of the Oracle Forms development environment (mandatory) ·         Basic knowledge of the Oracle database ·         Basic knowledge of the Java Programming Language ·         Basic knowledge of Oracle Jdeveloper or another Java IDE   System Requirements   This workshop requires attendees to provide their own laptops for this class. Attendee laptops must meet the following minimum hardware/software requirements:   ·         Laptop/PC with minimum 4 GB RAM ·         Oracle Database ·         Oracle Forms 11g R1 PS1 (WebLogic Server 10.1.3.2 + Portal, Forms, Reports and Discoverer ) ·         Oracle JDeveloper 11g R1 PS1 http://download.oracle.com/otn/java/jdeveloper/1112/jdevstudio11112install.exe ·         TCP-IP Loopback Adapter Installation (before the SOASuite installation) ·         Oracle SOASuite 11g R1 PS1 (without BAM component) When asked for an admin password, please use 'welcome1 http://download.oracle.com/otn/nt/middleware/11g/ofm_rcu_win_11.1.1.2.0_disk1_1of1.zip http://download.oracle.com/otn/nt/middleware/11g/ofm_soa_generic_11.1.1.2.0_disk1_1of1.zip ·         Oracle BI Publisher 10.1.3.4.1 http://download.oracle.com/otn/nt/ias/101341/bipublisher_windows_x86_101341.zip ·         Oracle BI Publisher Desktop 10.1.3.4. http://download.oracle.com/otn/nt/ias/101341/bipublisher_desktop_windows_x86_101341.zip   ·         At least 1 Oracle Forms solution already upgraded to the Oracle FMW 11g platform.   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   Horário e Local:   4-6 de Maio / 9:30-18:00h Oracle, Porto Salvo Register Here Para mais informação por favor contacte: [email protected]

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  • Top 10 Tips & Tricks for Oracle SQL Developer

    - by thatjeffsmith
    Being a short week due to the holiday, and with everyone enjoying their Summer vacations (apologies Southern Hemispherians), I reckoned it was a great time to do one of those lazy recap-Top 10-Reader’s Digest type posts. I’ve been sharing 1-3 tips or ‘tricks’ a week since I started blogging about SQL Developer, and I have more than enough content to write a book. But since I’m lazy, I’m just going to compile a list of my favorite ‘must know’ tips instead. I always have to leave out a few tips when I do my presentations, so now I can refer back to this list to make sure I’m not forgetting anything. So without further ado… 1. Configure Your Preferences Yes, there are a LOT of options. But you don’t need to worry about all of them just yet. I do recommend you take a quick look at these ones in particular. Whether you’re new to the tool or have been using it for 5 years, don’t overlook these settings! 2. Disable Extensions You Aren’t Using If you’re not using Data Miner, or if you’re not working on a Migration – disable those extensions! SQL Developer will run leaner & meaner, plus the user interface will be a bit more simplified making the tool easier to navigate as well. 3. SQL Recall via Keyboard Access your history via the keyboard! Cycle through your recent SQL statements just using these magic key strokes! Ctrl+Up or Ctrl+Down. 4. Format Your Query Output Directly to CSV, XML, HTML, etc Have the query results pre-formatted in the format of your choice! Too lazy to run the Export wizard for your query result sets? Just add the SQL Developer output hints to your statement and have the output auto-magically formatted to the style of your choice! 5. Drag & Drop Multiple Tables to the Worksheet SQL Developer will auto-join the related objects. You can then toggle over to the Query Builder to toggle off the columns you don’t want to query. I guarantee this tip will save you time if you’re joining 3 or more tables! 6. Drag & Drop Multiple Tables to a Relational Model A pretty picture is worth a few dozen DDL scripts? SQL Developer does data modeling! If you ctrl-drag a table to a model, it will take that table and any related tables and reverse engineer them to a relational model! You can then print it out or export it to HTML, PDF, etc. 7. View Your PL/SQL Execution Output Automatically Function returns a refcursor? Procedure had 3 out parameters? When you run these programs via the Procedure Editor, we automatically capture the output and place them into one or more data grids for you to browse. 8. Disable Automatic Code Insight and Use It On-Demand Code Editor – Completion Insight – Enable Completion Auto-Popup (Keyword being Auto) Some folks really don’t like it when their IDEs or word-processors try to do ‘too much’ for them. Thankfully SQL Developer allows you to either increase the delay before it attempts to auto-complete your text OR to disable the automatic bit. Instead, you can invoke it on-demand. 9. Interactive Debugging – Change Your Variable Values as You Step Through Your PLSQL Watches aren’t just for watching. You can actually interact with your programs and ‘see what happens’ when X = 256 instead of 1. 10. Ditch the Tree View for the Schema Browser There’s nothing wrong with the Connection tree for browsing your database objects. But some folks just can’t seem to get comfortable with it. So, we built them a Schema Browser that uses a drop down control instead for changing up your schema and object types. Already Know This Stuff, Want More? Just check out my SQL Developer resource page, it’s one of the main links on the top of this page. Or if you can’t find something, just drop me a note in the form of a comment on this page and I’ll do my best to find it or write it for you.

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  • CRMIT Solution´s CRM++ Asterisk Telephony Connector Achieves Oracle Validated Integration with Oracle Sales Cloud

    - by Richard Lefebvre
    To achieve Oracle Validated Integration, Oracle partners are required to meet a stringent set of requirements that are based on the needs and priorities of the customers. Based on a Telephony Application Programming Interface (TAPI) framework the CRM++ Asterisk Telephony Connector integrates the Asterisk telephony solutions with Oracle® Sales Cloud. "The CRM++ Asterisk Telephony Connector for Oracle® Sales Cloud showcases CRMIT Solutions focus and commitment to extend the Customer Experience (CX) expertise to our existing and potential customers," said Vinod Reddy, Founder & CEO, CRMIT Solutions. "Oracle® Validated Integration applies a rigorous technical review and test process," said Kevin O’Brien, senior director, ISV and SaaS Strategy, Oracle®. "Achieving Oracle® Validated Integration through Oracle® PartnerNetwork gives our customers confidence that the CRM++ Asterisk Telephony Connector for Oracle® Sales Cloud has been validated and that the products work together as designed. This helps reduce deployment risk and improves the user experience for our joint customers." CRM++ is a suite of native Customer Experience solutions for Oracle® CRM On Demand, Oracle® Sales Cloud and Oracle® RightNow Cloud Service. With over 3000+ users the CRM++ framework helps extend the Customer Experience (CX) and the power of Customer Relations Management features including Email WorkBench, Self Service Portal, Mobile CRM, Social CRM and Computer Telephony Integration.. About CRMIT Solutions CRMIT Solutions is a pioneer in delivering SaaS-based customer experience (CX) consulting and solutions. With more than 200 certified customer relationship management (CRM) consultants and more than 175 successful CRM deployments globally, CRMIT Solutions offers a range of CRM++ applications for accelerated deployments including various rapid implementation and migration utilities for Oracle® Sales Cloud, Oracle® CRM On Demand, Oracle® Eloqua, Oracle® Social Relationship Management and Oracle® RightNow Cloud Service. About Oracle Validated Integration Oracle Validated Integration, available through the Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN), gives customers confidence that the integration of complementary partner software products with Oracle Applications and specific Oracle Fusion Middleware solutions have been validated, and the products work together as designed. This can help customers reduce risk, improve system implementation cycles, and provide for smoother upgrades and simpler maintenance. Oracle Validated Integration applies a rigorous technical process to review partner integrations. Partners who have successfully completed the program are authorized to use the “Oracle Validated Integration” logo. For more information, please visit Oracle.com at http://www.oracle.com/us/partnerships/solutions/index.html.

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  • Agile isn’t always Agile

    - by BuckWoody
    I want to make a disclaimer before I dive into this topic – At Microsoft we use all kinds of development methodologies, and I’ve worked in lots of other shops using lots of methodologies. This is one of those “religious” topics like which programming language or database is best, and is bound to generate some heat. But this isn’t pointed towards one particular event or company. But I really don’t like Agile. In particular, I really don’t like Scrum. Let me explain. Agile is a methodology for developing software that emphasizes adapting to change more so than the traditional “waterfall” method of developing software. Within Agile is a process called a “scrum” meeting. The pitch goes that in this quick, stand-up meeting the people involved in the development project (which should include the DBA, but very often doesn’t) go around the room stating what they are working on, when that will be finished and what is keeping them from getting finished (“blockers”, these are called). Sounds all very non-threatening – we’re just “enabling” the developers to work more efficiently. And that’s what we all want, isn’t it? Except it doesn’t work. In my experience (and yours might be VERY different) this just turns into a micro-management environment, where devs have to defend their daily work. Of all the work environments I hate the most, micro-management environments are THE worst. I don’t like workign in them, and I don’t like creating them. The other issue I have with Scrum is that it makes your whole team task-focused. Everyone wants to make sure that they are not the “long pole” in the meeting (meaning that they aren’t the one that gets all the attention) so they only focus on safe, quick tasks. And although you have all of the boxes checked, the project does not go well at all – even when it does finish. Before you comment (and please do comment) I fully realize that Agile <> Scrum. But in my experience, it sometimes turns into that. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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  • SQL SERVER – Automated Type Conversion using Expressor Studio

    - by pinaldave
    Recently I had an interesting situation during my consultation project. Let me share to you how I solved the problem using Expressor Studio. Consider a situation in which you need to read a field, such as customer_identifier, from a text file and pass that field into a database table. In the source file’s metadata structure, customer_identifier is described as a string; however, in the target database table, customer_identifier is described as an integer. Legitimately, all the source values for customer_identifier are valid numbers, such as “109380”. To implement this in an ETL application, you probably would have hard-coded a type conversion function call, such as: output.customer_identifier=stringToInteger(input.customer_identifier) That wasn’t so bad, was it? For this instance, programming this hard-coded type conversion function call was relatively easy. However, hard-coding, whether type conversion code or other business rule code, almost always means that the application containing hard-coded fields, function calls, and values is: a) specific to an instance of use; b) is difficult to adapt to new situations; and c) doesn’t contain many reusable sub-parts. Therefore, in the long run, applications with hard-coded type conversion function calls don’t scale well. In addition, they increase the overall level of effort and degree of difficulty to write and maintain the ETL applications. To get around the trappings of hard-coding type conversion function calls, developers need an access to smarter typing systems. Expressor Studio product offers this feature exactly, by providing developers with a type conversion automation engine based on type abstraction. The theory behind the engine is quite simple. A user specifies abstract data fields in the engine, and then writes applications against the abstractions (whereas in most ETL software, developers develop applications against the physical model). When a Studio-built application is run, Studio’s engine automatically converts the source type to the abstracted data field’s type and converts the abstracted data field’s type to the target type. The engine can do this because it has a couple of built-in rules for type conversions. So, using the example above, a developer could specify customer_identifier as an abstract data field with a type of integer when using Expressor Studio. Upon reading the string value from the text file, Studio’s type conversion engine automatically converts the source field from the type specified in the source’s metadata structure to the abstract field’s type. At the time of writing the data value to the target database, the engine doesn’t have any work to do because the abstract data type and the target data type are just the same. Had they been different, the engine would have automatically provided the conversion. ?Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Database, Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology Tagged: SSIS

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  • Silverlight Cream for April 03, 2010 -- #829

    - by Dave Campbell
    In this Issue: Scott Marlowe, Nokola, SilverLaw, Brad Abrams, Jeff Wilcox, Jesse Liberty, Alexey Zakharov, ondrejsv, Ward Bell, and David Anson. Shoutouts: Bart Czernicki has a post up about the latest with HTML5: HTML 5 is Born Old - Quake in HTML 5 I was sent a link to shoebox360 a while back and had to sign up to see the Silverlight use, but it does work very nice. I like the panoramic carousel in the viewer: shoebox360 Jeff Handley has a post up on RIA Services - Documentation Guidance and Community Samples... the team is looking for feedback from all of us Shawn Wildermuth posted his My MIX Talks' Source Code Laurent Bugnion posted his Sample code and slides for my TechDays10 (Belgium) talks From SilverlightCream.com: Silverlight to WCF Cross Domain SecurityException Scott Marlowe wrote an article about an often-encountered security exception having to do with cross-domain policies. He details the problem, the response, the solution, and yet another problem/solution associated... good stuff, Scott! Simple Functions for HTML Interop You've seen Nokola's graphic work... how about some HTML Interop from him? He's exposing the code he uses in his work. New Video: ChildWindow Styling - Silverlight 3 SilverLaw has a new video tutorial on Silerlight 3 ChildWindow Styling up - in German - but the video is language-agnostic :) Silverlight 4 + RIA Services - Ready for Business: Exposing WCF (SOAP\WSDL) Services Brad Abrams' continuation in his RIA series is this one demonstrating exposing RIA Services as a Soap\WSDL service Silverlight 4: New parser implementation. New parser features. Jeff Wilcox has a post up highlighting some of the new features in Silverlight 4 such as a new parser implementation with new XAML features. New Video Series – Getting Started With Silverlight Jesse Liberty is starting a new video tutorial series that's going to build out to be a "complete survey of Silverlight programming". The first two are in this post and are Getting Started and Adding Controls to a Silverlight App... looks like good material, Jesse, and all the source is there for the taking as well. Silverlight layout hack: Centered content with fixed maxwidth Alexey Zakharov has a quick tip up on creating centered content with fixed maxwidth. He calls it a dirty trick... looks like code to me :) Silverlight DataForm’s autogenerated fields send empty strings to database ondrejsv points up a problem he had with the Toolkit's DataForm, and his solution to it... with code for all of us following along behind :) DevForce Extensibility With MEF InheritedExport Ward Bell has a post up describing how they got DevForce MEF'd up, and looks like a good post to get you all excited about MEF as well... lots of external links and good info. Tip: Read-only custom DependencyProperties don't exist in Silverlight, but can be closely approximated David Anson's latest Tip is about Read-only custom DependencyProperties in Silverlight -- which strictly is not possible, but he has a code example up that gets close. Stay in the 'Light! Twitter SilverlightNews | Twitter WynApse | WynApse.com | Tagged Posts | SilverlightCream Join me @ SilverlightCream | Phoenix Silverlight User Group Technorati Tags: Silverlight    Silverlight 3    Silverlight 4    Windows Phone MIX10

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  • What is Inversion of control and why we need it?

    - by Jalpesh P. Vadgama
    Most of programmer need inversion of control pattern in today’s complex real time application world. So I have decided to write a blog post about it. This blog post will explain what is Inversion of control and why we need it. We are going to take a real world example so it would be better to understand. The problem- Why we need inversion of control? Before giving definition of Inversion of control let’s take a simple real word example to see why we need inversion of control. Please have look on the following code. public class class1 { private class2 _class2; public class1() { _class2=new class2(); } } public class class2 { //Some implementation of class2 } I have two classes “Class1” and “Class2”.  If you see the code in that I have created a instance of class2 class in the class1 class constructor. So the “class1” class is dependent on “class2”. I think that is the biggest issue in real world scenario as if we change the “class2” class then we might need to change the “class1” class also. Here there is one type of dependency between this two classes that is called Tight Coupling. Tight coupling will have lots of problem in real world applications as things are tends to be change in future so we have to change all the tight couple classes that are dependent of each other. To avoid this kind of issue we need Inversion of control. What is Inversion of Control? According to the wikipedia following is a definition of Inversion of control. “In software engineering, Inversion of Control (IoC) is an object-oriented programming practice where the object coupling is bound at run time by an assembler object and is typically not known at compile time using static analysis.” So if you read the it carefully it says that we should have object coupling at run time not compile time where it know what object it will create, what method it will call or what feature it will going to use for that. We need to use same classes in such way so that it will not tight couple with each other. There are multiple way to implement Inversion of control. You can refer wikipedia link for knowing multiple ways of implementing Inversion of control. In future posts we are going to see all the different way of implementing Inversion of control.

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  • Nerdstock 2012: A photo review of Microsoft TechEd North America 2012

    - by The Un-T Guy
    Not only could I not fathom that I would ever be attending a tech event of the magnitude of TechEd, neither could any of my co-workers.  As the least technical person in the history of Information Technology ever, I felt as though I were walking into the belly of the beast, fearing I’d not be allowed out until I could write SSIS packages, program in Visual Basic, or at least arm wrestle a DBA.  Most of my fears were unrealized.   But I made it.  I was here.  I even got to wear the Mark of the Geek neck package with schedule, eyeglass cleaners, name badge (company name obfuscated so they don’t fire me), and a pen.  The name  badge was seemingly the key element, as every vendor in the place wanted to scan it to capture name, email address, and numbers to show their bosses back home.  It also let me eat the food and drink the coffee so that’s a fair trade.   A recurring theme throughout the presentations and vendor demos was “the Cloud” and BYOD (bring your own device).  The below was a common site throughout the week, as attendees from all over the world brought their own devices and were able to (seemingly) seamlessly connect to the Worldwide Innerwebs.  Apparently proof that Microsoft and the event organizers were practicing what they were preaching.   “Cavernous” is one way to describe the downstairs facility itself.  “Freaking cavernous” might be more accurate.  Work sessions were held in classrooms on the second and third floors but the real action was happening downstairs.  Microsoft bookstore, blogger hub (shoutout to Geekswithblogs.net), The Wall (sans Pink Floyd, sadly), couches, recharging stations…   …a game zone with pool and air hockey tables, pinball machines, foosball…   …vintage video games…           …and a even giant chess board.  Looked like this guy was opening with the Kaspersky parry.   The blend of technology and fantasy even went so far as to bring childhood favorites to life.  Assuming, of course, your childhood was pre-video games (like mine) and you were stuck with electric football and Rock ‘em Sock ‘em robots:   And, lest the “combatants” become unruly or – God forbid – afternoon snacks were late, Orange County’s finest was on the scene to keep the peace.  On a high-tech mode of transport, of course.   She wasn’t the only one to think this was a swell way to transition from one concourse to the next.  Given the level of support provided by the entire Orange County Convention Center staff, I knew they had to have some secret.   Here’s one entrance to the vendor zone/”Technical Learning Center.”  Couldn’t help but think of them as the remora attached to the Whale Shark that is Microsoft…   …or perhaps planets orbiting the sun. Microsoft is just that huge and it seemed like every vendor in the industry looks forward to partnering with the tech behemoth.   Aside from the free stuff from the vendors, probably the most popular place in the house was the dining area.  Amazing spreads every day, multiple times a day.  While no attendance numbers were available at press time, literally thousands of attendees were fed, and fed well, every day.  And lest you think my post from earlier in the week exaggerated about the backpacks…   …or that I’m exaggerating about the lunch crowds.  This represents only about between 25-30% of the lunch crowd – it was all my camera could capture at once.  No one went away hungry.   The only thing missing was a a vat of Red Bull but apparently organizers went old school, with probably 100 urns of the original energy drink – coffee – all around the venue.   Of course, following lunch and afternoon sessions, some preferred the even older school method of re-energizing.  There were rumors that Microsoft was serving graham crackers and milk in this area.  But they were only rumors.   Cannot overstate the wonderful service provided by the Orange County Convention Center staff.  Coffee, soft drinks, juice, and water were available always.  Buffet meals were delicious with a wide range of healthy options available, in addition to hundreds (at least) special meal requests supported every day.  Ever tried to keep up with an estimated 9,000 hungry and thirsty IT-ers?  These folks did.  Kudos to all of the staff and many thanks!   And while I occasionally poke fun at the Whale Shark, if nothing else this experience convinced me of one thing:  Microsoft knows how to put on a professional event.  Hundreds of informative, professionally delivered sessions, covering a wide range of topics set at varying levels of expertise (some that even I was able to follow), social activities, vendor partnerships…they brought everything you could ask for to inform, educate, and inspire an entire IT industry.   So as I depart the belly of the beast, I can both take pride in the fact that I survived the week and marvel at the brilliance surrounding me.  The IT industry – or at least the segment associated with Microsoft – is in good, professional hands.  And what won’t fit in their hands can be toted in the Microsoft provided backpacks.  Win-win.   Until New Orleans…

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  • XNA Notes 011

    - by George Clingerman
    Even with a lot of the XNA community working on Dream Build Play entries ( I swear I’m going to finish mine this year!) people are still finding time to do side projects and be amazingly active in the XNA and XBLIG community. With my one eye on my code and one eye on the community, here’s what I noticed these over achievers doing this past week! Time Critical XNA News: Xbox LIVE Indie Games sales data will be delayed March 17-20th due to some schedule maintenance http://create.msdn.com/en-us/news/indie_games_data_delay_march2011 GameMarx is releasing a series of videos to help raise donations for victims of the earthquakes and tsunami in Japan. Help out if you can! http://www.gamemarx.com/video/special/29/help-japan-sushido.aspx XNA MVPs: Catalin Zima shares his thoughts on the MVP summit and my book! http://www.catalinzima.com/2011/03/mvp-summit-2011/ Glenn Wilson (@mykre) helps the XNA team announce some new educational content that you don’t want to miss if you’re porting your app or game to Windows Phone 7 http://www.virtualrealm.com.au/Blog/tabid/62/EntryId/653/Porting-your-App-or-Game-to-Windows-Phone-7.aspx and Windows Phone 7 from scratch http://www.virtualrealm.com.au/Blog/tabid/62/EntryId/654/Windows-Phone-from-Scratch.aspx and shares a link to some free architectural models and textures http://twitter.com/#!/Mykre/status/46410160784158720 George (that’s me!) shares his MVP Summit 2011 summary and XBLIG thoughts http://geekswithblogs.net/clingermangw/archive/2011/03/15/144366.aspx XNA Developers: @SmallCaveGames shares a Code of Ethics for Xbox LIVE Indie Game Developers http://smallcavegames.blogspot.com/2011/03/unofficial-xblig-developers-code-of.html Derek S adds more Xbox LIVE Indie Game studios to his master list of XBLIG links http://twitter.com/#!/Mr_Deeke/status/46140996056125440 http://xbl-indieverse.blogspot.com/p/xblig-links.html Making games and want to help kids? Then share your story with GameFace: America! http://gameitupinitiative.com/about-the-initiative/programs/gameface-america/ Xbox LIVE Indie Games (XBLIG): XonaGames shares some video footage of their booth from GDC 2011 Video 1: http://youtu.be/lxIV9nk3Gq4 Video 2: http://youtu.be/GgfrjqkxR_o Video 3: http://youtu.be/yVcpXrTX7SQ Joystiq on Mommy’s Best Games Serious Sam Double D http://www.joystiq.com/2011/03/16/the-most-important-thing-about-serious-sam-double-d/ And The Escapist recommends that gamers start learning to avoid cleavage now http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/108543-Boobie-Bomber-Makes-First-Appearance-in-Serious-Sam-Double-D Magiko Gaming started a blog on the XBLIG dashboard daily Top 10 games in the US. Good way to go back in time and look at the history of which games were in the the Top 10. http://dailytop10indiegames.wordpress.com/ Where are they going now? XBLIG developers at a crossroads.. http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2011/03/where_are_they_going_now_xblig.php http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/33527/InDepth_Where_Are_They_Going_Now_XBLIG_Developers_At_A_Crossroads_.php BinaryTweed’s Clover: A Curious Tail is Xbox LIVE’s Deal of the Week! http://www.armlessoctopus.com/2011/03/15/what-luck-clover-a-curious-tale-is-half-price-this-week/ Looking for an Xbox LIVE Indie Game to buy? Writings of Mass Deduction has over 125 suggestions at this point! http://writingsofmassdeduction.com/ SkaStudios shares Vampire Smile Achievements AND their PAX East 2011 Both Setup video http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/03/14/vampire-smile-achievement/ http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/03/15/pax-booth-setup-time-lapse/ MasterBlud and VVGTV starts a new community for XBLIG developers and gamers to join http://vvgtv.forumotion.com/ Raymond Matthews (@DrakstarMatryx) covers Mommy’s Best Games getting Serious http://www.darkstarmatryx.com/?p=286 XNA Development: Dave Henry (@mort8088) posts the 4th tutorial in his series XNA 4.0 SpriteBatch extended http://mort8088.com/2011/03/11/xna-4-0-tutorial-4-spritebatch-extended/ Tutorial 5 - Creating a manual blank texture http://mort8088.com/2011/03/13/xna-4-tutorial-5-manual-blank-texture/ XNA 4.0 Tutorial 6 - Spritesheet Object http://mort8088.com/2011/03/18/xna-4-0-tutorial-6-spritesheet-object/ Jason Mitchell shares a tutorial on setting the alpha value for spritebatch in XNA 4.0 http://www.jason-mitchell.com/index.php/2011/03/13/setting-alpha-value-for-spritebatch-draw-in-xna-4/ XNA for Silverlight Developers: Part 7 - Collision Detection http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/XNA-for-Silverlight-developers-Part-7-Collision-detection.aspx Markus Ewald (@Cygon4) shares the full Ninject 2.0 binding for XNA and Sunburn http://twitter.com/#!/Cygon4/status/48330203826622464 Michael B. McLaughlin shares an AccelerometerInput XNA GameComponent he created (which I’m probably going to snag for a game I’m working on...) http://geekswithblogs.net/mikebmcl/archive/2011/03/17/accelerometerinput-xna-gamecomponent.aspx Extra Credit tackles the building of a good tutorial. Must watch for all Indie game devs (thanks for pointing it out Evan Johnson!) http://twitter.com/#!/johnsonevan/status/48452115680604160 http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/2921-Tutorials-101 ExEn is fully funded at this point so definitely something for XBLIG developers to keep an eye on as they consider releasing their games on other platforms http://rockethub.com/projects/752-exen-xna-for-iphone-android-and-silverlight Channel 9 and Greg Duncan post Mixing the Game State Management and Platformer XNA Recipes http://channel9.msdn.com/coding4fun/blog/Mixing-the-Game-State-Management-and-Platformer-XNA-Recipes Sgt. Conker has noticed Mike McLaughlin has been crazy productive and has done a recap of his recent posts http://www.sgtconker.com/2011/03/recap-of-mikebmcls-posts/

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  • SQLAuthority News – Book Review – Beginning T-SQL 2008 by Kathi Kellenberger

    - by pinaldave
    Beginning T-SQL 2008 by Kathi Kellenberger Amazon Link Detail Review: Beginning T-SQL 2008 is one of the best books on the market if you are just beginning to work with Microsoft SQL, or have a little bit of experience and need to learn more quickly. Each chapter of the book introduces a new subject, and builds upon topics covered in previous chapters.  The author of the book, Kathi Kellenberger understands that you need to form a solid foundation of knowledge before moving on to new topics, and sets up each subject nicely.  Because the chapters move in an orderly progression, you continue to use skills you learned earlier. One of the best features of Beginning T-SQL 2008 is that each chapter has multiple examples and exercises.  Many books introduce a topic and then never go back to it.  This book gives enough examples that you will be familiar with the subject when you come across it in real life.  The exercises at the end of the chapter mean that you will be using the skills you learned – and there is no better way to cement a subject in your brain. The book also includes discussions of the common errors that programmers will come across, how to avoid them, and how to fix them if they happen.  Ms. Kellenberger understands that not only do mistakes happen, but they are bound to happen if you aren’t trained properly.  Mistakes are part of the learning process! The book begins by discussions relational theory, so that programmers will understand the way T-SQL works from the ground up.  It also walks readers through writing accurate queries, combining set-based and procedural processing, embedding logic in stored functions, and so much more. Overall, the main goal of Beginning T-SQL 2008 is to introduce novices to SQL programming, and quickly familiarize them with the basics of running the program.  The book is written with the idea that readers will not know any of the technical terms or vocabulary.  However, if you are a little more familiar with SQL and looking to become better, you will still find this book very helpful. Ratting: 4.5+ Stars Summary: I must recommend Beginning T-SQL 2008 highly enough.  If you are going to buy any beginners guide to Transect-SQL, this is the one you should spend your money on.  You can save yourself a lot of time and effort later by using this very affordable manual to learn the basics, which will allow you to become an expert much faster. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority Book Review, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology

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  • Book Review: Oracle ADF Real World Developer’s Guide

    - by Frank Nimphius
    Recently PACKT Publishing published "Oracle ADF Real World Developer’s Guide" by Jobinesh Purushothaman, a product manager in our team. Though already the sixth book dedicated to Oracle ADF, it has a lot of great information in it that none of the previous books covered, making it a safe buy even for those who own the other books published by Oracle Press (McGrwHill) and PACKT Publishing. More than the half of the "Oracle ADF Real World Developer’s Guide" book is dedicated to Oracle ADF Business Components in a depth and clarity that allows you to feel the expertise that Jobinesh gained in this area. If you enjoy Jobinesh blog (http://jobinesh.blogspot.co.uk/) about Oracle ADF, then, no matter what expert you are in Oracle ADF, this book makes you happy as it provides you with detail information you always wished to have. If you are new to Oracle ADF, then this book alone doesn't get you flying, but, if you have some Java background, accelerates your learning big, big, big times. Chapter 1 is an introduction to Oracle ADF and not only explains the layers but also how it compares to plain Java EE solutions (page 13). If you are new to Oracle JDeveloper and ADF, then at the end of this chapter you know how to start JDeveloper and begin your ADF development Chapter 2 starts with what Jobinesh really is good at: ADF Business Components. In this chapter you learn about the architecture ingredients of ADF Business Components: View Objects, View Links, Associations, Entities, Row Sets, Query Collections and Application Modules. This chapter also provides a introduction to ADFBC SDO services, as well as sequence diagrams for what happens when you execute queries or commit updates. Chapter 3 is dedicated to entity objects and  is one of many chapters in this book you will enjoy and never want to miss. Jobinesh explains the artifacts that make up an entity object, how to work with entities and resource bundles, and many advanced topics, including inheritance, change history tracking, custom properties, validation and cursor handling.  Chapter 4 - you guessed it - is all about View objects. Comparable to entities, you learn about the XM files and classes that make a view object, as well as how to define and work with queries. List-of-values, inheritance, polymorphism, bind variables and data filtering are interesting - and important topics that follow. Again the chapter provides helpful sequence diagrams for you to understand what happens internally within a view object. Chapter 5 focuses on advanced view object and entity object topics, like lifecycle callback methods and when you want to override them. This chapter is a good digest of Jobinesh's blog entries (which most ADF developers have in their bookmark list). Really worth reading ! Chapter 6 then is bout Application Modules. Beside of what application modules are, this chapter covers important topics like properties, passivation, activation, application module pooling, how and where to write custom logic. In addition you learn about the AM lifecycle and request sequence. Chapter 7 is about the ADF binding layer. If you are new to Oracle ADF and got lost in the more advanced ADF Business Components chapters, then this chapter is where you get back into the game. In very easy terms, Jobinesh explains what the ADF binding is, how it fits into the JSF request lifecycle and what are the metadata file involved. Chapter 8 then goes into building data bound web user interfaces. In this chapter you get the basics of JavaServer Faces (e.g. managed beans) and learn about the interaction between the JSF UI and the ADF binding layer. Later this chapter provides advanced solutions for working with tree components and list of values. Chapter 9 introduces bounded task flows and ADF controller. This is a chapter you want to read if you are new to ADF of have started. Experts don't find anything new here, which doesn't mean that it is not worth reading it (I for example, enjoyed the controller talk very much) Chapter 10 is an advanced coverage of bounded task flow and talks about contextual events  Chapter 11 is another highlight and explains error handling, trains, transactions and more. I can only recommend you read this chapter. I am aware of many documents that cover exception handling in Oracle ADF (and my Oracle Magazine article for January/February 2013 does the same), but none that covers it in such a great depth. Chapter 12 covers ADF best practices, which is a great round-up of all the tips provided in this book (without Jobinesh to repeat himself). Its all cool stuff that helps you with your ADF projects. In summary, "Oracle ADF Real World Developer’s Guide" by Jobinesh Purushothaman is a great book and addition for all Oracle ADF developers and those who want to become one. Frank

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  • Welcome to my geeks blog

    - by bconlon
    Hi and welcome! I'm Bazza and this is my geeks blog. I have 20 years Visual Studio mainly C++, MFC,  ATL and now, thankfully, C# and I am embarking on the new world (well new to me) of WPF, so I thought I would try and capture my successful...and not so successful...WPF experiences with the geek world. So where to start? WPF? What I know so far... From wiki..."Windows Presentation Foundation (or WPF) is a graphical subsystem for rendering user interfaces in Windows-based applications." Hmm, great but didn't MFC, ATL (my head hurt with that one), and .Net all have APIs to allow me to code against the Windows Graphical Device Interface (GDI)? "Rather than relying on the older GDI subsystem, WPF utilizes DirectX. WPF attempts to provide a consistent programming model for building applications and provides a separation between the user interface and the business logic." OK, different drawing code, same Windows and weren't we always taught to separate our UI, Business Layer and Data Access Layer? "WPF employs XAML, a derivative of XML, to define and link various UI elements. WPF applications can be deployed as standalone desktop programs, or hosted as an embedded object in a website." Cool, now we're getting somewhere. So when they say separation they really mean separation. The crux of this appears to be that you can have creative people writing the UI and making it attractive and intuitive to use, whist the geeks concentrate on writing the Business and Data Access stuff. XAML (eXtensible Application Markup Language) maps XML elements and attributes directly to Common Language Runtime (CLR) object instances, properties and events. True separation of the View and Model. WPF also provides logical separation of a control from its appearance. In a traditional Windows system, all Controls have a base class containing a Windows handle and each Control knows how to render itself. In WPF, the controls are more like those in a Web Browser using Cascading Style Sheet, they are not wrappers for standard Windows Controls. Instead, they have a default 'template' that defines a visual theme which can easily be replaced by a custom template. But it gets better. WPF concentrates heavily on Data Binding where the client can bind directly to data on the server. I think this concept was first introduced in 'Classic' Visual Basic, where you could bind a list directly to a data from an Access database, and you could do similar in ASP .Net. However, the WPF implementation is far superior than it's predecessors. There are also other technologies that I want to look at like LINQ and the Entity Framework, but that's all for now. #

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  • The right way to start out in game development/design [closed]

    - by Marco Sacristão
    Greetings everyone I'm a 19 year old student looking for some help in the field of game development. This question may or may not seem a bit overused, but the fact is that game development has been my life long dream, and after several hours of search I've realized that I've been going in circles for the past three or four months whilst doing such research on how to really get down and dirty with game development, therefor I decided to ask you guys if you could help me out at all. Let me start off with some information about me and things i've already learned about GameDev which might help you out on helping me out (wordplay!): I'm not an expert programmer, but I do have knowledge on how to program in several languages including C and Java (Currently learning Java in my degree in Computer Engineering), but my methodology might not be most correct in terms of syntax (hence my difficulty in starting out, i'm afraid that the starting point might not be the most correct, and it would deploy a wrongful development methodology that would be to corrected later on, in terms of game development or other projects). I have yet to work in a project as large as a game, never in my learning curve of programming I've done a project to the scale of a video game, only very small software (PHP Front-ends and Back-ends, with some basic JQuery and CSS knowledge). I'm not the biggest mathematician or physicist, but I already know that is not a problem, because there are several game engines already available for use and integration with home-made projects (Box2D, etc). I've also learned about some libraries that could be included in said projects, to ease out some process in game development, like SDL for example. I do not know how sprites, states, particles or any specific game-related techniques work. With that being said, you can see that I have some ideas on game development, but I have absolutely no clue on how to design and produce a game, or even how game-like mechanics work. It does not have to be a complex game just to start out, I'd rather learn the basic of game design (Like 2D drawing, tiling, object collision) and test that out in a language that I feel comfortable in which could be later on migrated to other platforms, as long that what I've learned is the correct way to do things, and not just something that I've learned from some guy on Youtube by replicating that code on the video. I'm sorry if my question is not in the best format possible, but I've got so many questions on my mind that are still un-answered that I don't know were to start! Thank you for reading.

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  • Craftsmanship Tour: Day 3 &amp; 4 8th Light

    - by Liam McLennan
    Thursday morning the Illinois public transport system came through for me again. I took the Metra train north from Union Station (which was seething with inbound commuters) to Prairie Crossing (Libertyville). At Prairie Crossing I met Paul and Justin from 8th Light and then Justin drove us to the office. The 8th Light office is in an small business park, in a semi-rural area, surrounded by ponds. Upstairs there are two spacious, open areas for developers. At one end of the floor is Doug Bradbury’s walk-and-code station; a treadmill with a desk and computer so that a developer can get exercise at work. At the other end of the floor is a hammock. This irregular office furniture is indicative of the 8th Light philosophy, to pursue excellence without being limited by conventional wisdom. 8th Light have a wall covered in posters, each illustrating one person’s software craftsmanship journey. The posters are a fascinating visualisation of the similarities and differences between each of our progressions. The first thing I did Thursday morning was to create my own poster and add it to the wall. Over two days at 8th Light I did some pairing with the 8th Lighters and we shared thoughts on software development. I am not accustomed to such a progressive and enlightened environment and I found the experience inspirational. At 8th Light TDD, clean code, pairing and kaizen are deeply ingrained in the culture. Friday, during lunch, 8th Light hosted a ‘lunch and learn’ event. Paul Pagel lead us through a coding exercise using micro-pomodori. We worked in pairs, focusing on the pedagogy of pair programming and TDD. After lunch I recorded this interview with Paul Pagel and Justin Martin. We discussed 8th light, craftsmanship, apprenticeships and the limelight framework. Interview with Paul Pagel and Justin Martin My time at Didit, Obtiva and 8th Light has convinced me that I need to give up some of my independence and go back to working in a team. Craftsmen advance their skills by learning from each other, and I can’t do that working at home by myself. The challenge is finding the right team, and becoming a part of it.

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  • CQRS &ndash; Questions and Concerns

    - by Dylan Smith
    I’ve been doing a lot of learning on CQRS and Event Sourcing over the last little while and I have a number of questions that I haven’t been able to answer. 1. What is the benefit of CQRS when compared to a typical DDD architecture that uses Event Sourcing and properly captures intent and behavior via verb-based commands? (other than Scalability) 2. When using CQRS what do you do with complex query-based logic? I’m going to elaborate on #1 in this blog post and I’ll do a follow-up post on #2. I watched through Greg Young’s video on the business benefits of CQRS + Event Sourcing and first let me say that I thought it was an excellent presentation that really drives home a lot of the benefits to this approach to architecture (I watched it twice in a row I enjoyed it so much!). But it didn’t answer some of my questions fully (I wish I had been there to ask these of Greg in person!). So let me pick apart some of the points he makes and how they relate to my first question above. I’m completely sold on the idea of event sourcing and have a clear understanding of the benefits that it brings to the table, so I’m not going to question that. But you can use event sourcing without going to a CQRS architecture, so my main question is around the benefits of CQRS + Event Sourcing vs Event Sourcing + Typical DDD architecture Architecture with Event Sourcing + Commands on Left, CQRS on Right Greg talks about how the stereotypical architecture doesn’t support DDD, but is that only because his diagram shows DTO’s coming up from the client. If we use the same diagram but allow the client to send commands doesn’t that remove a lot of the arguments that Greg makes against the stereotypical architecture? We can now introduce verbs into the system. We can capture intent now (storing it still requires event sourcing, but you can implement event sourcing without doing CQRS) We can create a rich domain model (as opposed to an anemic domain model) Scalability is obviously a benefit that CQRS brings to the table, but like Greg says, very few of the systems we create truly need significant scalability Greg talks about the ability to scale your development efforts. He says CQRS allows you to split the system into 3 parts (Client, Domain/Commands, Reads) and assign 3 teams of developers to work on them in parallel; letting you scale your development efforts by 3x with nearly linear gains. But in the stereotypical architecture don’t you already have 2 separate modules that you can split your dev efforts between: The client that sends commands/queries and receives DTO’s, and the Domain which accepts commands/queries, and generates events/DTO’s. If this is true it’s not really a 3x scaling you achieve with CQRS but merely a 1.5x scaling which while great doesn’t sound nearly as dramatic (“I can do it with 10 devs in 12 months – let me hire 5 more and we can have it done in 8 months”). Making the Query side “stupid simple” such that you can assign junior developers (or even outsource it) sounds like a valid benefit, but I have some concerns over what you do with complex query-based logic/behavior. I’m going to go into more detail on this in a follow-up blog post shortly. He also seemed to focus on how “stupid-simple” it is doing queries against the de-normalized data store, but I imagine there is still significant complexity in the event handlers that interpret the events and apply them to the de-normalized tables. It sounds like Greg suggests that because we’re doing CQRS that allows us to apply Event Sourcing when we otherwise wouldn’t be able to (~33:30 in the video). I don’t believe this is true. I don’t see why you wouldn’t be able to apply Event Sourcing without separating out the Commands and Queries. The queries would just operate against the domain model instead of the database. But you’d still get the benefits of Event Sourcing. Without CQRS the queries would only be able to operate against the current state rather than the event history, but even in CQRS the domain behaviors can only operate against the current state and I don’t see that being a big limiting factor. If some query needs to operate against something that is not captured by the current state you would just have to update the domain model to capture that information (no different than if that statement were made about a Command under CQRS). Some of the benefits I do see being applicable are that your domain model might end up being simpler/smaller since it only needs to represent the state needed to process commands and not worry about the reads (like the Deactivate Inventory Item and associated comment example that Greg provides). And also commands that can be handled in a Transaction Script style manner by the command handler simply generating events and not touching the domain model. It also makes it easier for your senior developers to focus on the command behavior and ignore the queries, which is usually going to be a better use of their time. And of course scalability. If anybody out there has any thoughts on this and can help educate me further, please either leave a comment or feel free to get in touch with me via email:

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  • Friday Fun: Factory Balls – Christmas Edition

    - by Asian Angel
    Your weekend is almost here, but until the work day is over we have another fun holiday game for you. This week your job is to correctly decorate/paint the ornaments that go on the Christmas tree. Simple you say? Maybe, but maybe not! Factory Balls – Christmas Edition The object of the game is to correctly decorate/paint each Christmas ornament exactly as shown in the “sample image” provided for each level. What starts off as simple will quickly have you working to figure out the correct combination or sequence to complete each ornament. Are you ready? The first level serves as a tutorial to help you become comfortable with how to decorate/paint the ornaments. To move an ornament to a paint bucket or cover part of it with one of the helper items simply drag the ornament towards that area. The ornament will automatically move back to its’ starting position when the action is complete. First, a nice coat of red paint followed by covering the middle area with a horizontal belt. Once the belt is on move the ornament to the bucket of yellow paint. Next, you will need to remove the belt, so move the ornament back to the belt’s original position. One ornament finished! As soon as you complete decorating/painting an ornament, you move on to the next level and will be shown the next “sample Image” in the upper right corner. Starting with a coat of orange paint sounds good… Pop the little serrated edge cap on top… Add some blue paint… Almost have it… Place the large serrated edge cap on top… Another dip in the orange paint… And the second ornament is finished. Level three looks a little bit tougher…just work out your pattern of helper items & colors and you will definitely get it! Have fun decorating/painting those ornaments! Note: Starting with level four you will need to start using a combination of two helper items combined at times to properly complete the ornaments. Play Factory Balls – Christmas Edition Latest Features How-To Geek ETC The Complete List of iPad Tips, Tricks, and Tutorials The 50 Best Registry Hacks that Make Windows Better The How-To Geek Holiday Gift Guide (Geeky Stuff We Like) LCD? LED? Plasma? The How-To Geek Guide to HDTV Technology The How-To Geek Guide to Learning Photoshop, Part 8: Filters Improve Digital Photography by Calibrating Your Monitor Exploring the Jungle Ruins Wallpaper Protect Your Privacy When Browsing with Chrome and Iron Browser Free Shipping Day is Friday, December 17, 2010 – National Free Shipping Day Find an Applicable Quote for Any Programming Situation Winter Theme for Windows 7 from Microsoft Score Free In-Flight Wi-Fi Courtesy of Google Chrome

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  • Java Spotlight Episode 139: Mark Heckler and José Pereda on JES based Energy Monitoring @MkHeck @JPeredaDnr

    - by Roger Brinkley
    Interview with Mark Heckler and José Pereda on using JavaSE Embedded with the Java Embedded Suite on a RaspberryPI along with a JavaFX client to monitor an energy production system and their JavaOne Tutorial- Java Embedded EXTREME MASHUPS: Building self-powering sensor nets for the IoT Right-click or Control-click to download this MP3 file. You can also subscribe to the Java Spotlight Podcast Feed to get the latest podcast automatically. If you use iTunes you can open iTunes and subscribe with this link: Java Spotlight Podcast in iTunes. Show Notes News Java Virtual Developer Day Session Videos Available JavaFX Maven Plugin 2.0 Released JavaFX Scene Builder 1.1 build b28 FXForm 2 release 0.2.2 OpenJDK8/Zero cross compile build for Foundation model HSAIL-based GPU offload: the Quest for Java Performance Begins Progress on Moving to Gradle Java EE 7 Launch Keynote Replay Java EE 7 Technical Breakouts Replay Java EE 7 support in NetBeans 7.3.1 Java EE 7 support in Eclipse 4.3 Java Magazine - May/June Events Jul 16-19, Uberconf, Denver, USA Jul 22-24, JavaOne Shanghai, China Jul 29-31, JVM Language Summit, Santa Clara Sep 11-12, JavaZone, Oslo, Norway Sep 19-20, Strange Loop, St. Louis Sep 22-26 JavaOne San Francisco 2013, USA Feature Interview Mark Heckler is an Oracle Corporation Java/Middleware/Core Tech Engineer with development experience in numerous environments. He has worked for and with key players in the manufacturing, emerging markets, retail, medical, telecom, and financial industries to develop and deliver critical capabilities on time and on budget. Currently, he works primarily with large government customers using Java throughout the stack and across the enterprise. He also participates in open-source development at every opportunity, being a JFXtras project committer and developer of DialogFX, MonologFX, and various other projects. When Mark isn't working with Java, he enjoys writing about his experiences at the Java Jungle website (https://blogs.oracle.com/javajungle/) and on Twitter (@MkHeck). José Pereda is a Structural Engineer working in the School of Engineers in the University of Valladolid in Spain for more than 15 years, and his passion is related to applying programming to solve real problems. Being involved with Java since 1999, José shares his time between JavaFX and the Embedded world, developing commercial applications and open source projects (https://github.com/jperedadnr), and blogging (http://jperedadnr.blogspot.com.es/) or tweeting (@JPeredaDnr) of both. What’s Cool AquaFX 0.1 - Mac OS X skin for JavaFX by Claudine Zillmann DromblerFX adds a docking framework Part 2 of Gerrit’s taming the Nashorn for writing JavaFX apps in Javascript Tool from mihosoft called JSelect for quickly switching JDKs Apache Maven Javadoc Plugin 2.9.1 Released Proposal: Java Concurrency Stress tests (jcstress) Slide-free Code-driven session at SV JUG JavaOne approvals/rejects gone out

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  • Quickly Preview Songs in Windows Media Center 12 in Windows 7

    - by DigitalGeekery
    Do you ever wish you could quickly preview a song without having to play it? Today we look at a quick and easy way to do that in Windows Media Player 12. Open Windows Media Player in Library Mode and select your Music library. Hover your cursor over the Title of the song and a Preview pop-up window will appear after a few seconds.    Click on the Preview in the pop-up window and the song will begin to play. As the preview begins to play, you will see the Skip link and a song timer. Click on Skip to jump ahead 15 seconds in the song. When you are finished previewing the song, simply move your mouse away from the preview window to stop playback. Automatically Preview Songs You can adjust settings in Windows Media Player to automatically preview songs when you hover your cursor over the title. Select Tools  from the menu and click Options. On the Options window, select the Library tab and click on Automatically preview songs on title hover. Click OK.   Now when you simply hover your cursor over the song title the preview window will appear and playback will begin automatically. This feature works just as well in Details view as it does in Expanded Tile view. Would you like to stream your music to other computers on your network? Check out our article on how to stream media to other Windows 7 computers. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Using Netflix Watchnow in Windows Vista Media Center (Gmedia)Add Color Coding to Windows 7 Media Center Program GuideSchedule Updates for Windows Media CenterIntegrate Hulu Desktop and Windows Media Center in Windows 7Integrate Boxee with Media Center in Windows 7 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 Follow Finder Finds You Twitter Users To Follow Combine MP3 Files Easily QuicklyCode Provides Cheatsheets & Other Programming Stuff Download Free MP3s from Amazon Awe inspiring, inter-galactic theme (Win 7) Case Study – How to Optimize Popular Wordpress Sites

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  • SQL SERVER – Automation Process Good or Ugly

    - by pinaldave
    This blog post is written in response to T-SQL Tuesday hosted by SQL Server Insane Asylum. The idea of this post really caught my attention. Automation – something getting itself done after the initial programming, is my understanding of the subject. The very next thought was – is it good or evil? The reality is there is no right answer. However, what if we quickly note a few things, then I would like to request your help to complete this post. We will start with the positive parts in SQL Server where automation happens. The Good If I start thinking of SQL Server and Automation the very first thing that comes to my mind is SQL Agent, which runs various jobs. Once I configure any task or job, it runs fine (till something goes wrong!). Well, automation has its own advantages. We all have used SQL Agent for so many things – backup, various validation jobs, maintenance jobs and numerous other things. What other kinds of automation tasks do you run in your database server? The Ugly This part is very interesting, because it can get really ugly(!). During my career I have found so many bad automation agent jobs. Client had an agent job where he was dropping the clean buffers every hour Client using database mail to send regular emails instead of necessary alert related emails The best one – A client used new Missing Index and Unused Index scripts in SQL Agent Job to follow suggestions 100%. Believe me, I have never seen such a badly performing and hard to optimize database. (I ended up dropping all non-clustered indexes on the development server and ran production workload on the development server again, then configured with optimal indexes). Shrinking database is performance killer. It should never be automated. SQL SERVER – Shrinking Database is Bad – Increases Fragmentation – Reduces Performance The one I hate the most is AutoShrink Database. It has given me hard time in my career quite a few times. SQL SERVER – SHRINKDATABASE For Every Database in the SQL Server Automation is necessary but common sense is a must when creating automation. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology

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  • Big Data – Role of Cloud Computing in Big Data – Day 11 of 21

    - by Pinal Dave
    In yesterday’s blog post we learned the importance of the NewSQL. In this article we will understand the role of Cloud in Big Data Story What is Cloud? Cloud is the biggest buzzword around from last few years. Everyone knows about the Cloud and it is extremely well defined online. In this article we will discuss cloud in the context of the Big Data. Cloud computing is a method of providing a shared computing resources to the application which requires dynamic resources. These resources include applications, computing, storage, networking, development and various deployment platforms. The fundamentals of the cloud computing are that it shares pretty much share all the resources and deliver to end users as a service.  Examples of the Cloud Computing and Big Data are Google and Amazon.com. Both have fantastic Big Data offering with the help of the cloud. We will discuss this later in this blog post. There are two different Cloud Deployment Models: 1) The Public Cloud and 2) The Private Cloud Public Cloud Public Cloud is the cloud infrastructure build by commercial providers (Amazon, Rackspace etc.) creates a highly scalable data center that hides the complex infrastructure from the consumer and provides various services. Private Cloud Private Cloud is the cloud infrastructure build by a single organization where they are managing highly scalable data center internally. Here is the quick comparison between Public Cloud and Private Cloud from Wikipedia:   Public Cloud Private Cloud Initial cost Typically zero Typically high Running cost Unpredictable Unpredictable Customization Impossible Possible Privacy No (Host has access to the data Yes Single sign-on Impossible Possible Scaling up Easy while within defined limits Laborious but no limits Hybrid Cloud Hybrid Cloud is the cloud infrastructure build with the composition of two or more clouds like public and private cloud. Hybrid cloud gives best of the both the world as it combines multiple cloud deployment models together. Cloud and Big Data – Common Characteristics There are many characteristics of the Cloud Architecture and Cloud Computing which are also essentially important for Big Data as well. They highly overlap and at many places it just makes sense to use the power of both the architecture and build a highly scalable framework. Here is the list of all the characteristics of cloud computing important in Big Data Scalability Elasticity Ad-hoc Resource Pooling Low Cost to Setup Infastructure Pay on Use or Pay as you Go Highly Available Leading Big Data Cloud Providers There are many players in Big Data Cloud but we will list a few of the known players in this list. Amazon Amazon is arguably the most popular Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provider. The history of how Amazon started in this business is very interesting. They started out with a massive infrastructure to support their own business. Gradually they figured out that their own resources are underutilized most of the time. They decided to get the maximum out of the resources they have and hence  they launched their Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) service in 2006. Their products have evolved a lot recently and now it is one of their primary business besides their retail selling. Amazon also offers Big Data services understand Amazon Web Services. Here is the list of the included services: Amazon Elastic MapReduce – It processes very high volumes of data Amazon DynammoDB – It is fully managed NoSQL (Not Only SQL) database service Amazon Simple Storage Services (S3) – A web-scale service designed to store and accommodate any amount of data Amazon High Performance Computing – It provides low-tenancy tuned high performance computing cluster Amazon RedShift – It is petabyte scale data warehousing service Google Though Google is known for Search Engine, we all know that it is much more than that. Google Compute Engine – It offers secure, flexible computing from energy efficient data centers Google Big Query – It allows SQL-like queries to run against large datasets Google Prediction API – It is a cloud based machine learning tool Other Players Besides Amazon and Google we also have other players in the Big Data market as well. Microsoft is also attempting Big Data with the Cloud with Microsoft Azure. Additionally Rackspace and NASA together have initiated OpenStack. The goal of Openstack is to provide a massively scaled, multitenant cloud that can run on any hardware. Thing to Watch The cloud based solutions provides a great integration with the Big Data’s story as well it is very economical to implement as well. However, there are few things one should be very careful when deploying Big Data on cloud solutions. Here is a list of a few things to watch: Data Integrity Initial Cost Recurring Cost Performance Data Access Security Location Compliance Every company have different approaches to Big Data and have different rules and regulations. Based on various factors, one can implement their own custom Big Data solution on a cloud. Tomorrow In tomorrow’s blog post we will discuss about various Operational Databases supporting Big Data. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Big Data, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL

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  • Initial Review - Mastering Unreal Technology I: Introduction to Level Design with Unreal Engine 3

    - by Matt Christian
    Recently I purchased 3 large volumes on using the Unreal 3 Engine to create levels and custom games.  This past weekend I cracked the spine of the first and started reading.  Here are my early impressions (I'm ~250 pages into it, with appendices it's about 900). Pros Interestingly, the book starts with an overview of the Unreal engines leading up to Unreal 3 (including Gears of War) and follows with some discussion on planning a mod and what goes into the game development process.  This is nice for an intro to the book and is much preferred rather than a simple chapter detailing what is on the included CD, how to install and setup UnrealEd, etc...  While the chapter on Unreal history and planning can be considered 'fluff', it's much less 'fluffy' than most books provide. I need to mention one thing here that is pretty crucial in the way I'm going to continue reviewing this book.  Most technical books like this are used as a shelf reference; as a thick volume you use for looking up techniques every now and again.  Even so, I prefer reading from cover to cover, including chapters I may already be knowledgable on (I'm sure this is typical for most people).  If there was a chapter on installing UnrealEd (the previously mentioned 'fluff'), I would probably force myself to read it, even though I've installed the game and engine multiple times on different systems. Chapter 3 is where we really get to the introduction piece of UnrealEd, creating your first basic level.  This large chapter details creating two small rooms, adding static meshes, adding lighting, creating and adding particle emitters, creating a door that animates with Unreal Matinee and Kismet, static meshes with physics, and other little additions to make your level look less beginner.  This really is a chapter that overviews the entire rest of the book, as each chapter following details the creation and intermediate usages of Static Meshes, Materials, Lighting, etc... One other very nice part to this book is the way the tutorials are setup.  Each tutorial builds off the previous and all are step-by-step.  If you haven't completed one yet, you can find all the starting files on the CD that comes with the book. Cons While the description of the overview chapter (Chapter 3) is fresh in your mind, let me start the cons by saying this chapter is setup extremely confusing for the noob.  At one point, you end up creating a door mesh and setting it up as a InteropMesh so that it is ready to be animated, only to switch to particles and spend a good portion of time working on a different piece of the level.  Yes, this is actually how I develop my levels (jumping back and forth), though it's very odd for a book to jump out of sequence. The next item might be a positive or a negative depending on your skill level with UnrealEd.  Most of the introduction to the editor layout is found in one of the Appendices instead of before Chapter 3.  For new readers, this might lead to confusion as Appendix A would typically be read between Chapter 2 and 3.  However, this is a positive for those with some experience in UnrealEd as they don't have to force themselves through a 'learn every editor button' chapter.  I'm listing this in the Cons section as the book is 'Introduction to...' and is probably going to be directed toward a lot of very beginner developers. Finally, there's a lack of general description to a lot of the underlying engine and what each piece in UnrealEd is or does.  Sometimes you'll be performing Tutorial after Tutorial with barely a paragraph in between describing ANY of what you've just done.  Tutorial 1.1 Step 6 says to press Button X, so you do.  But why?  This is in part a problem with the structure of the tutorials rather than the content of the book.  Since the tutorials are so focused on a step-by-step (or procedural) description of a process, you learn the process and not why you're doing that.  For example, you might learn how to size a material to a surface, but will only learn what buttons to press and not what each one does. This becomes extremely apparent in the chapter on Static Meshes as most of the chapter is spent in 3D Studio Max.  Since there are books on 3DSM and modelling, the book really only tells you the steps and says to go grab a book on modelling if you're really interested in 3DSM.  Again, I've learned the process to develop my own meshes in 3DSM, but I don't know the why behind the steps. Conclusion So far the book is very good though I would have a hard time recommending it to a complete beginner.  I would suggest anyone looking at this book (obviously including the other 2, more advanced volumes) to pick up a copy of UDK or Unreal 3 (available online or via download services such as Steam) and watch some online tutorials and play with it first.  You'll find plenty of online videos available that were created by the authors and may suit as a better introduction to the editor.

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  • Creating a bare bone web-browser: After the html parser, javascript parser, etc have done their work, how do I display the content of the webpage?

    - by aste123
    This is a personal project to learn computer programming. I took a look at this: https://www.udacity.com/course/viewer#!/c-cs262 The following is the approach taken in it: Abstract Syntax Tree is created. But javascript is still not completely broken down in order not to confuse with the html tags. Then the javascript interpreter is called on it. Javascript interpreter stores the text from the write() and document.write() to be used later. Then a graphics library in Python is called which will convert everything to a pdf file and then we convert it into png or jpeg and then display it. My Question: I want to display the actual text in a window (which I will design later) like firefox or chrome does instead of image files so that the data can be selected, copied, etc by the user of the browser. How do I accomplish this? In other words, what are the other elements of a bare bone web browser that I am missing? I would prefer to implement most of the stuff in C++ although if things seem too complicated I might go with Python to save time and create a prototype and later creating another bare bone browser in C++ and add more features. This is a project to learn more. I do realize we already have lots of reliable browsers like firefox, etc. The way I feel it is done: I think after all the broken down contents have been created by the parsers and interpreters, I will need to access them individually from within the window's code (like qt) and then decide upon a good way to display them. I am not sure if it is the way this should be done. Additions after useful comment by Kilian Foth: I found this page: http://friendlybit.com/css/rendering-a-web-page-step-by-step/ 14. A DOM tree is built out of the broken HTML 15. New requests are made to the server for each new resource that is found in the HTML source (typically images, style sheets, and JavaScript files). Go back to step 3 and repeat for each resource. 16. Stylesheets are parsed, and the rendering information in each gets attached to the matching node in the DOM tree 17. Javascript is parsed and executed, and DOM nodes are moved and style information is updated accordingly 18. The browser renders the page on the screen according to the DOM tree and the style information for each node 19. You see the page on the screen I need help with step 18. How do I do that? How much work do Webkit and Gecko do? I want to use a readymade layout renderer for step number 18 and not for anything that comes before that.

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  • Multi-Threaded Application vs. Single Threaded Application

    Why would we use a multi threaded application vs. a single threaded application? First we must define multithreading. Multithreading is a feature of an operating system that allows programs to run subcomponents or threads in parallel. Typically most applications only need to use one thread because they do not perform time consuming tasks. The use of multiple threads allows an application to distribute long running tasks so that they can be executed in parallel. This gives the user the perceived appearance that the application is working faster due to the fact that while one thread is waiting on an IO process the remaining tasks can make use of the available CPU. The allows working threads to execute in tandem so that they can be competed sooner. Multithreading Benefits Improved responsiveness — Users usually report improved responsiveness compared to single thread applications. Faster applications — Multiple threads can lead to improved application performance. Prioritization — Threads can be assigned a priority which would allow higher priority tasks to take precedence over lower priority tasks. Single Threading Benefits Programming and debugging —These activities are easier compared to multithreaded applications due to the reduced complexity Less Overhead — Threads add overhead to an application When developing multi-threaded applications, the following must be considered. Deadlocks occur when two threads hold a monitor that the other one requires. In essence each task is blocking the other and both tasks are waiting for the other monitor to be released. This forces an application to hang or deadlock. Resource allocation is used to prevent deadlocks because the system determines if approving the resource request will render the system in an unsafe state. An unsafe state could result in a deadlock. The system only approves requests that will lead to safe states. Thread Synchronization is used when multiple threads use the same instance of an object. The threads accessing the object can then be locked and then synchronized so that each task can interact with the static object on at a time.

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  • Java Spotlight Episode 58: Peter Korn and Ofir Leitner on ME Accessibility

    - by Roger Brinkley
    Tweet Interview with Peter Korn and Ofir Leitner on Mobile and Embedded Accessibility. Joining us this week on the Java All Star Developer Panel are Dalibor Topic, Java Free and Open Source Software Ambassador and Alexis Moussine-Pouchkine, Java EE Developer Advocate. Right-click or Control-click to download this MP3 file. You can also subscribe to the Java Spotlight Podcast Feed to get the latest podcast automatically. If you use iTunes you can open iTunes and subscribe with this link: Java Spotlight Podcast in iTunes. Show Notes News Announcing Oracle WebLogic 12c Geronimo 3 beta - Another Apache project now compatible with Java EE 6 NetBeans 7.1 RC1 is out JavaFX links of the weeks JavaFX videos on Parleys: Nicolas Lorain's Introduction to JavaFX 2.0 from JavaOne 2011 & Richard Bair on JavaFX Architecture and Programming Model Events Dec 4, SOUJava Geek Bike Ride 2011, Sao Paulo  Dec 5-7, UKOUG, Birmingham, UK Dec 6-8, Java One Brazil, Sao Paulo Dec 9 UAIJUG, Uberlandia Dec 9 CEJUG, Fortaleza/CE Dec 10 GUJAVA, Florianopolis Dec 10 ALJUG, Maceio/AL Dec 11 Javaneiros, Campo Grande/MS Dec 12 GOJAVA, Goiania/GO Dec 13 RioJUG, Rio de Janeiro Feature interview Peter Korn is Oracle's Accessibility Principal – their senior individual contributor on accessibility. He is also Technical Manager of the AEGIS project, leading an EC-funded €12.6m investment building accessibility into future mainstream ICT (FP7-ICT224348). Mr. Korn co-developed and co-implemented the Java Accessibility API, and developed the Java Access Bridge for Windows. He helped design the open source GNOME Accessibility architecture found on most modern UNIX and GNU/Linux systems, and consulted on accessibility support for OpenOffice.org, Firefox, Thunderbird, and other applications. Prior to Sun/Oracle, Peter co-developed the outSPOKEN for Windows screen reader. Mr. Korn represented Sun/Oracle on TEITAC for the Section 508/255 refresh, co-led the OASIS ODF Accessibility subcommittee, and sits on INCITS V2 where he is contributing to ISO 13066: defining AT-IT interoperability standards including specifically the Java Accessibility API. Ofir Leitner is the architect of one of LWUIT's key features - the HTMLComponent which allows rendering HTML within LWUIT applications and to embed web-flows inside apps. Ofir is also responsible for LWUIT's bidirectional and RTL support and for the accessibility work that is being done these days in LWUIT. Mail Bag What's Cool Devoxx 2011 (Alexis) Eclipsecon Europe Talk by Andrew Overholt: IcedTea & IcedTea-Web Geek bike ride & Rio 500 Twitter followers @JavaSpotlight Show Transcripts Transcript for this show is available here when available.

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