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• Installing Lubuntu 14.04.1 fails, upowerd appears to hang

  - by Rantanplan

  On the live-CD session, I tried installing Lubuntu double clicking on the install button on the desktop. Here, the CD starts running but then stops running and nothing happens. Next, I rebooted and tried installing Lubuntu directly from the boot menu screen using forcepae again. After a while, I receive the following error message: The installer encountered an unrecoverable error. A desktop session will now be run so that you may investigate the problem or try installing again. Hitting Enter brings me to the desktop. For what errors should I search? And how? Thanks for some hints! On Lubuntu 12.04: uname -a Linux humboldt 3.2.0-67-generic #101-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jul 15 17:45:51 UTC 2014 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux lsb_release -a No LSB modules are available. Distributor ID: Ubuntu Description: Ubuntu 12.04.5 LTS Release: 12.04 Codename: precise upowerd appears to hang: Aug 25 10:53:28 lubuntu kernel: [ 367.920272] INFO: task upowerd:3002 blocked for more than 120 seconds. Aug 25 10:53:28 lubuntu kernel: [ 367.920288] Tainted: G S C 3.13.0-32-generic #57-Ubuntu Aug 25 10:53:28 lubuntu kernel: [ 367.920294] "echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message. Aug 25 10:53:28 lubuntu kernel: [ 367.920300] upowerd D e21f9da0 0 3002 1 0x00000000 Aug 25 10:53:28 lubuntu kernel: [ 367.920314] e21f9dfc 00000086 f5ef7094 e21f9da0 c1050272 c1a8d540 c1920a00 00000000 Aug 25 10:53:28 lubuntu kernel: [ 367.920333] c1a8d540 c1920a00 d9e44da0 f5ef6540 c1129061 00000002 000001c1 0001c37b Aug 25 10:53:28 lubuntu kernel: [ 367.920351] 00000000 00000002 00000000 e2276240 00000000 00000040 c12b0ec5 c19975a8 Aug 25 10:53:28 lubuntu kernel: [ 367.920368] Call Trace: Aug 25 10:53:28 lubuntu kernel: [ 367.920389] [<c1050272>] ? kmap_atomic_prot+0x42/0x100 Aug 25 10:53:28 lubuntu kernel: [ 367.920404] [<c1129061>] ? get_page_from_freelist+0x2a1/0x600 Aug 25 10:53:28 lubuntu kernel: [ 367.920417] [<c12b0ec5>] ? process_measurement+0x65/0x240 Aug 25 10:53:28 lubuntu kernel: [ 367.920432] [<c1654c73>] schedule_preempt_disabled+0x23/0x60 Aug 25 10:53:28 lubuntu kernel: [ 367.920443] [<c16565bd>] __mutex_lock_slowpath+0x10d/0x171 Aug 25 10:53:28 lubuntu kernel: [ 367.920454] [<c1655aec>] mutex_lock+0x1c/0x28 Aug 25 10:53:28 lubuntu kernel: [ 367.920478] [<f857223a>] acpi_smbus_transaction+0x48/0x210 [sbshc] Aug 25 10:53:28 lubuntu kernel: [ 367.920489] [<c11858e1>] ? do_last+0x1b1/0xf60 Aug 25 10:53:28 lubuntu kernel: [ 367.920504] [<f857242f>] acpi_smbus_read+0x2d/0x33 [sbshc] Aug 25 10:53:28 lubuntu kernel: [ 367.920520] [<f881e0f1>] acpi_battery_get_state+0x74/0x8b [sbs] Aug 25 10:53:28 lubuntu kernel: [ 367.920535] [<f881e8a9>] acpi_sbs_battery_get_property+0x2a/0x233 [sbs] Aug 25 10:53:28 lubuntu kernel: [ 367.920549] [<c14fa61f>] power_supply_show_property+0x3f/0x240 Aug 25 10:53:28 lubuntu kernel: [ 367.920561] [<c114664f>] ? handle_mm_fault+0x64f/0x8d0 Aug 25 10:53:28 lubuntu kernel: [ 367.920573] [<c14fa5e0>] ? power_supply_store_property+0x60/0x60 Aug 25 10:53:28 lubuntu kernel: [ 367.920586] [<c1407d20>] ? dev_uevent_name+0x30/0x30 Aug 25 10:53:28 lubuntu kernel: [ 367.920597] [<c1407d38>] dev_attr_show+0x18/0x40 Aug 25 10:53:28 lubuntu kernel: [ 367.920608] [<c11dad15>] sysfs_seq_show+0xe5/0x1c0 Aug 25 10:53:28 lubuntu kernel: [ 367.920621] [<c119846e>] seq_read+0xce/0x370 Aug 25 10:53:28 lubuntu kernel: [ 367.920633] [<c11983a0>] ? seq_hlist_next_percpu+0x90/0x90 Aug 25 10:53:28 lubuntu kernel: [ 367.920644] [<c1179238>] vfs_read+0x78/0x140 Aug 25 10:53:28 lubuntu kernel: [ 367.920654] [<c11799a9>] SyS_read+0x49/0x90 Aug 25 10:53:28 lubuntu kernel: [ 367.920667] [<c165efcd>] sysenter_do_call+0x12/0x28 /var/log/installer/debug shows upower related error: Ubiquity 2.18.8 Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "overlay-scrollbar" Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "overlay-scrollbar" ERROR:dbus.proxies:Introspect error on :1.23:/org/freedesktop/UPower: dbus.exceptions.DBusException: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken. Exception in GTK frontend (invoking crash handler): Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/lib/ubiquity/bin/ubiquity", line 636, in <module> main(oem_config) File "/usr/lib/ubiquity/bin/ubiquity", line 622, in main install(query=options.query) File "/usr/lib/ubiquity/bin/ubiquity", line 260, in install wizard = ui.Wizard(distro) File "/usr/lib/ubiquity/ubiquity/frontend/gtk_ui.py", line 290, in __init__ mod.ui = mod.ui_class(mod.controller) File "/usr/lib/ubiquity/plugins/ubi-prepare.py", line 93, in __init__ upower.setup_power_watch(self.prepare_power_source) File "/usr/lib/ubiquity/ubiquity/upower.py", line 21, in setup_power_watch power_state_changed() File "/usr/lib/ubiquity/ubiquity/upower.py", line 18, in power_state_changed not misc.get_prop(upower, UPOWER_PATH, 'OnBattery')) File "/usr/lib/ubiquity/ubiquity/misc.py", line 809, in get_prop return obj.Get(iface, prop, dbus_interface=dbus.PROPERTIES_IFACE) File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/dbus/proxies.py", line 70, in __call__ return self._proxy_method(*args, **keywords) File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/dbus/proxies.py", line 145, in __call__ **keywords) File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/dbus/connection.py", line 651, in call_blocking message, timeout)

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• XNA Notes 007

  - by George Clingerman

  Every week I keep wondering if there’s going to be enough activity in the community to keep doing these notes on a weekly basis and every week I’m reminded of just how awesome and active the XNA community is. There’s engines being made, tutorials being created, games being crafted. There’s information being shared, questions being answered and then there’s another whole community around the Xbox LIVE Indie Games themselves. It’s really incredibly to just watch all that’s going on and I’m glad I’m playing a small part in all of this. So here’s what I noticed happening in the XNA community last week. If there’s things I’m missing, always feel free to let me know. I love learning about new corners of the XNA community that I wasn’t aware of or just have been missing! XNA Developers: Uditha Bandara held an XNA Game Development Workshops at Singapore Universities http://uditha.wordpress.com/2011/02/18/xna-game-development-workshops-at-singapore-universities-event-update/ Binary Tweed gives his talks about Indie City and gives his opinion on the false promise of digital distribution http://www.develop-online.net/news/37053/OPINION-The-false-promise-of-digital-distribution Kris Steele posts his Trivia or Die postmortem http://www.krissteele.net/blogdetails.aspx?id=246 @MadNinjaSkills (James Johnston) posts his feelings on testing for XBLIG http://www.ezmuze.co.uk/101 Simon (@DDReaper) posts hints and tips for XNA developers to help get the size of their projects down http://twitter.com/#!/DDReaper/status/38279440924545024 http://xna-uk.net/blogs/darkgenesis/archive/2011/02/17/look-at-the-size-of-that-thing.aspx Michael B. McLaughlin proving why he should be an XNA MVP posts the list of commonly used value types in XNA games http://geekswithblogs.net/mikebmcl/archive/2011/02/17/list-of-commonly-used-value-types-in-xna-games.aspx http://twitter.com/#!/mikebmcl/status/38166541354811392 Paul Powell (@ITSligoPaul) posts about a common sprite batch as a game service http://itspaulsblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/xna-common-sprite-batch-as-game-service.html @SigilXNA (John Defenbaugh) posts his new level editor video for the sequel to Opac’s Journey http://twitter.com/SigilXNA/statuses/36548174373982209 http://twitter.com/#!/SigilXNA/status/36548174373982209 http://youtu.be/QHbmxB_2AW8 @jwatte updates kW Animation for XNA 4.0 http://www.enchantedage.com/xna-animation @DSebJ posts Blender to SunBurn http://twitter.com/#!/DSebJ/status/36564920224976896 http://dsebj.evolvingsoftware.com/?p=187 Ads and WP7 Games - @mechaghost shares his revenue data for his ad based games http://www.occasionalgamer.com/2011/02/09/ads-and-wp7-games/ Xbox LIVE Indie Games (XBLIG): Steven Hurdle posts day 100 of his quest to find a fantastic XBLIG purchase every day http://writingsofmassdeduction.com/2011/02/17/day-100-radiangames-ballistic/ Xbox 360 Indie Game Buying Guide - 12 games for $60 including several Xbox LIVE Indie games! (although if the XNA community was asked we could have recommended 60 games for $60...) http://www.indiegamemag.com/xbox360-indie-games-buying-guide/ The best selling Xbox LIVE Indie games of 2010 http://www.1up.com/news/xbox-live-most-popular-games I’d buy that for a dollar! - the California Literary Review points out a few gems on the XBLIG marketplace (and other places) where you can game on the cheap. http://calitreview.com/14125 Armless Octopus Episode 39 - The Indie Gem Octocast http://www.armlessoctopus.com/2011/02/17/armless-octocast-episode-39-the-indie-gem-octocast/ Ska Studios posts a plethora of updates http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/02/11/good-morning-gato-49/ http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/02/14/vampire-smile-valentines/ http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/02/16/the-dishwasher-vs-finds-a-home/ Kotaku posts about the Xbox LIVE Indie Game that makes you go Pew Pew Pew Pew Pew Pew http://kotaku.com/#!5760632/the-game-that-makes-you-go-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew GameMarx continues to be active and doing a ton for the XBLIG community reviews and Top 5 indie games of the week 2/4-2/10 http://www.gamemarx.com/video/the-show/22/ep-9-february-11-2010.aspx a new podcast Xbox Indie New Releases http://twitter.com/#!/gamemarx/status/36888849107910656 http://www.gamemarx.com/news/2011/02/13/a-new-podcast-xbox-indie-new-releases.aspx @MasterBlud uploads Indocalypse XBLIG Collections #2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzCZSv075mc&feature=youtu.be&a http://twitter.com/#!/MasterBlud/status/37100029697064960 Just Press Start interviews Michael Hicks from MichaelArts, 18 year old creator of Honor in Vengeance http://justpressstart.net/?p=465 Achievement Locked interviews Kris Steele of FunInfused Games http://xboxindies.wordpress.com/2011/02/11/interview-fun-infused-games/ XNA Game Development: XNA -UK launches their XAP test service to help the XNA community http://xna-uk.net/blogs/news/archive/2011/02/18/xna-uk-xap-test-service-now-live.aspx Transmute shows off a video of the standard character editor http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqH6gErG948&feature=youtu.be Microsoft Tech Student introduces their first tech student of the month.  Meet Daniel Van Tassel from the University of Utah and learn how he created an Xbox LIVE Indie Game using XNA Studio http://blogs.msdn.com/b/techstudent/archive/2010/12/22/introducing-our-first-tech-student-of-the-month-daniel-van-tassel.aspx XNA for Silverlight Developers Part 3 - Animation (transforms) http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/XNA-for-Silverlight-developers-Part-3-Animation-transforms.aspx XNA for Silverlight Developers Part 4 - Animation (frame based) http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/XNA-for-Silverlight-developers-Part-4-Animation-frame-based.aspx @suhinini tweets about an XNA Sprite Font generation tool http://twitter.com/#!/suhinini/status/36841370131890176 http://www.nubik.com/SpriteFont/ XNATouch 1.5 is out and in it’s words is faster, simpler, more reliable and has the XNA 4.0 API http://monogame.codeplex.com/releases/view/60815 IndieCity is hosting marketing workshops for Indie Developers (UK and US) http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/p/75197/457654.aspx#457654 New York Students - Learn XNA and Silverlight for Xbox 360 and Windows Phone 7 http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/p/72753/456964.aspx#456964 http://blogs.msdn.com/b/andrewparsons/archive/2011/01/13/learn-to-build-your-own-games-for-xbox-360-and-windows-phone-7.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/andrewparsons/archive/2011/01/13/build-a-game-in-48-hours-win-a-kinect-or-windows-phone-7.aspx Extra Credits: Videogame Music http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/2019-Videogame-Music Steve Pavlina posts an article with useful information for all XNA/XBLIG developers http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2011/02/completion-vs-perfection/

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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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• EBS Techstack Sessions at OAUG/Collaborate 2010

  - by Steven Chan

  We have a large contingent of E-Business Suite Applications Technology Group staff rolling out to the OAUG/Collaborate 2010 conference in Las Vegas new week.  Our Applications Technology Group staff will be appearing as guest speakers or full-speakers at the following E-Business Suite technology stack related sessions:Database Special Interest GroupSunday, April 18, 11:00 AM, Breakers FSIG Leaders:  Michael Brown, Colibri; Sandra Vucinic, Vlad GroupGuest Speaker:  Steven ChanCovering database upcoming and past desupport dates, and database support policies as they apply to E-Business Suite environments, general Q&A E-Business Suite Technology Stack Special Interest GroupSunday, April 18, 3:00 PM, Breakers FSIG Leaders:  Elke Phelps, Paul Jackson, HumanaGuest Speaker:  Steven ChanCovering the latest EBS technology stack certifications, roadmap, desupport noticesupgrade options for Discoverer, OID, SSO, Portal, general Q&A E-Business Suite Applications Technology Roadmap & VisionMonday, April 19, 8:00 AM, South Seas GOracle Speaker:  Uma PrabhalaLatest developments for SOA, AOL, OAF, Web ADI, SES, AMP, ACMP, security, and other technologies Oracle E-Business Suite Applications Strategy and General Manager UpdateMonday, April 19, 2:30 PM, Mandalay Bay Ballroom DOracle Speaker:  Cliff GodwinUpdate on the entire Oracle E-Business Suite product line. The session covers the value delivered by the current release of Oracle E-Business Suite applications, the momentum, and how Oracle E-Business Suite applications integrate into Oracle's overall applications strategy 10 Things You Can Do Today to Prepare for the Next Generation ApplicationsTuesday, April 20, 8:00 AM, South Seas FOracle Speaker:  Nadia Bendjedou"Common sense" and "practical" steps that can be taken today to increase the value of your Oracle Applications (E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, Siebel, and JDE) investments by using the latest Oracle solutions and technologiesReducing TCO using Oracle E-Business Suite Management PacksTuesday, April 20, 10:30 AM, South Seas EOracle Speaker:  Angelo RosadoLearn how you can reduce the Total Cost of Ownership by implementing Application Management Pack (AMP) and Application Change Management Pack (ACP) for E-Business Suite 11i, R12, R12.1. AMP is Oracle's next generation system manageability product offering that provides a centralized platform to manage and maintain EBS. ACP is Oracle's offering to monitor and manage E-Business Suite changes in the areas of E-Business Suite Customizations, Patches and Functional Setups. E-Business Suite Upgrade Special Interest GroupTuesday, April 20, 3:15 PM, South Seas ESIG Leaders:  John Stouffer; Sandra Vucinic, Vlad GroupGuest Speaker:  Steven ChanParticipating in general Q&A E-Business Suite Technology Essentials: Using the Latest Oracle Technologies with E-Business Suite Wednesday, April 21, 8:00 AM, South Seas HOracle Speaker:  Lisa ParekhOracle continues to build new functionality into the Oracle Database, Fusion Middleware, and Enterprise Manager. Come see how you can enhance the value of E-Business Suite for your users and lower your costs of ownership by utilizing the latest features of these Oracle technologies with E-Business Suite. Learn about the latest advanced E-Business Suite topologies and features, including new options for security, performance, third-party integration, SOA, virtualization, clouds, systems management, and much more How to Leverage the New E-Business Suite R12.1 Solutions Without Upgrading your 11.5.10 EnvironmentWednesday, April 21, 10:30 AMOracle Speaker:  Nadia Bendjedou, South Seas ELearn how you can use the latest E-Business Suite 12.1 standalone solutions without upgrading from your E-Business Suite 11.5.10 environment Web 2.0 User Experience and Oracle Fusion Middleware Integration with Oracle E-Business SuiteWednesday, April 21, 4:00 PM, South Seas FOracle Speaker:  Padmaprabodh AmbaleSee the next generation Oracle E-Business Suite OA framework improvements that will provide new rich interactions in components such as LOV, Tables and Attachments.  See  new components like the Rich Container that allows any Web 2.0 content like Flash or OBIEE to be embedded in OA Framework pages. Advanced Technology Deployment Architectures for E-Business Suite Wednesday, April 21, 2:15 PM, South Seas EOracle Speaker:  Steven ChanLearn how to take advantage of the latest version of Oracle Fusion Middleware with Oracle E-Business Suite. Learn how to utilize identity management systems and LDAP directories. In addition, come to this session for answers about advanced network deployments involving reverse proxy servers, load balancers, and DMZ's, and to see how you can take benefit from virtualization and new system management capabilities. Upgrading to Oracle E-Business Suite 12.1 - Best PracticesThursday, April 22, 11:00 AM, South Seas EOracle Speaker:  Lester Gutierrez, Udayan ParvateFundamental of upgrading to Release 12.1, which includes the technology stack components and differences, the upgrade path from various releases of Oracle E-Business Suite, upgrade steps, monitoring the upgrade, hints and tips for minimizing downtime and upgrade best practices for making the upgrade to Release 12.1 a success.  We look forward to seeing you there!

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• ODI 12c's Mapping Designer - Combining Flow Based and Expression Based Mapping

  - by Madhu Nair

  post by David Allan ODI is renowned for its declarative designer and minimal expression based paradigm. The new ODI 12c release has extended this even further to provide an extended declarative mapping designer. The ODI 12c mapper is a fusion of ODI's new declarative designer with the familiar flow based designer while retaining ODI’s key differentiators of: Minimal expression based definition, The ability to incrementally design an interface and to extract/load data from any combination of sources, and most importantly Backed by ODI’s extensible knowledge module framework. The declarative nature of the product has been extended to include an extensible library of common components that can be used to easily build simple to complex data integration solutions. Big usability improvements through consistent interactions of components and concepts all constructed around the familiar knowledge module framework provide the utmost flexibility. Here is a little taster: So what is a mapping? A mapping comprises of a logical design and at least one physical design, it may have many. A mapping can have many targets, of any technology and can be arbitrarily complex. You can build reusable mappings and use them in other mappings or other reusable mappings. In the example below all of the information from an Oracle bonus table and a bonus file are joined with an Oracle employees table before being written to a target. Some things that are cool include the one-click expression cross referencing so you can easily see what's used where within the design. The logical design in a mapping describes what you want to accomplish  (see the animated GIF here illustrating how the above mapping was designed) . The physical design lets you configure how it is to be accomplished. So you could have one logical design that is realized as an initial load in one physical design and as an incremental load in another. In the physical design below we can customize how the mapping is accomplished by picking Knowledge Modules, in ODI 12c you can pick multiple nodes (on logical or physical) and see common properties. This is useful as we can quickly compare property values across objects - below we can see knowledge modules settings on the access points between execution units side by side, in the example one table is retrieved via database links and the other is an external table. In the logical design I had selected an append mode for the integration type, so by default the IKM on the target will choose the most suitable/default IKM - which in this case is an in-built Oracle Insert IKM (see image below). This supports insert and select hints for the Oracle database (the ANSI SQL Insert IKM does not support these), so by default you will get direct path inserts with Oracle on this statement. In ODI 12c, the mapper is just that, a mapper. Design your mapping, write to multiple targets, the targets can be in the same data server, in different data servers or in totally different technologies - it does not matter. ODI 12c will derive and generate a plan that you can use or customize with knowledge modules. Some of the use cases which are greatly simplified include multiple heterogeneous targets, multi target inserts for Oracle and writing of XML. Let's switch it up now and look at a slightly different example to illustrate expression reuse. In ODI you can define reusable expressions using user functions. These can be reused across mappings and the implementations specialized per technology. So you can have common expressions across Oracle, SQL Server, Hive etc. shielding the design from the physical aspects of the generated language. Another way to reuse is within a mapping itself. In ODI 12c expressions can be defined and reused within a mapping. Rather than replicating the expression text in larger expressions you can decompose into smaller snippets, below you can see UNIT_TAX AMOUNT has been defined and is used in two downstream target columns - its used in the TOTAL_TAX_AMOUNT plus its used in the UNIT_TAX_AMOUNT (a recording of the calculation).  You can see the columns that the expressions depend on (upstream) and the columns the expression is used in (downstream) highlighted within the mapper. Also multi selecting attributes is a convenient way to see what's being used where, below I have selected the TOTAL_TAX_AMOUNT in the target datastore and the UNIT_TAX_AMOUNT in UNIT_CALC. You can now see many expressions at once now and understand much more at the once time without needlessly clicking around and memorizing information. Our mantra during development was to keep it simple and make the tool more powerful and do even more for the user. The development team was a fusion of many teams from Oracle Warehouse Builder, Sunopsis and BEA Aqualogic, debating and perfecting the mapper in ODI 12c. This was quite a project from supporting the capabilities of ODI in 11g to building the flow based mapping tool to support the future. I hope this was a useful insight, there is so much more to come on this topic, this is just a preview of much more that you will see of the mapper in ODI 12c.

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• WebLogic Server JMS WLST Script – Who is Connected To My Server

  - by james.bayer

  Ever want to know who was connected to your WebLogic Server instance for troubleshooting?  An email exchange about this topic and JMS came up this week, and I’ve heard it come up once or twice before too.  Sometimes it’s interesting or helpful to know the list of JMS clients (IP Addresses, JMS Destinations, message counts) that are connected to a particular JMS server.  This can be helpful for troubleshooting.  Tom Barnes from the WebLogic Server JMS team provided some helpful advice: The JMS connection runtime mbean has “getHostAddress”, which returns the host address of the connecting client JVM as a string.  A connection runtime can contain session runtimes, which in turn can contain consumer runtimes.  The consumer runtime, in turn has a “getDestinationName” and “getMemberDestinationName”.  I think that this means you could write a WLST script, for example, to dump all consumers, their destinations, plus their parent session’s parent connection’s host addresses.    Note that the client runtime mbeans (connection, session, and consumer) won’t necessarily be hosted on the same JVM as a destination that’s in the same cluster (client messages route from their connection host to their ultimate destination in the same cluster). Writing the Script So armed with this information, I decided to take the challenge and see if I could write a WLST script to do this.  It’s always helpful to have the WebLogic Server MBean Reference handy for activities like this.  This one is focused on JMS Consumers and I only took a subset of the information available, but it could be modified easily to do Producers.  I haven’t tried this on a more complex environment, but it works in my simple sandbox case, so it should give you the general idea. # Better to use Secure Config File approach for login as shown here http://buttso.blogspot.com/2011/02/using-secure-config-files-with-weblogic.html connect('weblogic','welcome1','t3://localhost:7001')   # Navigate to the Server Runtime and get the Server Name serverRuntime() serverName = cmo.getName()   # Multiple JMS Servers could be hosted by a single WLS server cd('JMSRuntime/' + serverName + '.jms' ) jmsServers=cmo.getJMSServers()   # Find the list of all JMSServers for this server namesOfJMSServers = '' for jmsServer in jmsServers: namesOfJMSServers = jmsServer.getName() + ' '   # Count the number of connections jmsConnections=cmo.getConnections() print str(len(jmsConnections)) + ' JMS Connections found for ' + serverName + ' with JMSServers ' + namesOfJMSServers   # Recurse the MBean tree for each connection and pull out some information about consumers for jmsConnection in jmsConnections: try: print 'JMS Connection:' print ' Host Address = ' + jmsConnection.getHostAddress() print ' ClientID = ' + str( jmsConnection.getClientID() ) print ' Sessions Current = ' + str( jmsConnection.getSessionsCurrentCount() ) jmsSessions = jmsConnection.getSessions() for jmsSession in jmsSessions: jmsConsumers = jmsSession.getConsumers() for jmsConsumer in jmsConsumers: print ' Consumer:' print ' Name = ' + jmsConsumer.getName() print ' Messages Received = ' + str(jmsConsumer.getMessagesReceivedCount()) print ' Member Destination Name = ' + jmsConsumer.getMemberDestinationName() except: print 'Error retrieving JMS Consumer Information' dumpStack() # Cleanup disconnect() exit() Example Output I expect the output to look something like this and loop through all the connections, this is just the first one: 1 JMS Connections found for AdminServer with JMSServers myJMSServer JMS Connection:   Host Address = 127.0.0.1   ClientID = None   Sessions Current = 16    Consumer:      Name = consumer40      Messages Received = 1      Member Destination Name = myJMSModule!myQueue Notice that it has the IP Address of the client.  There are 16 Sessions open because I’m using an MDB, which defaults to 16 connections, so this matches what I expect.  Let’s see what the full output actually looks like: D:\Oracle\fmw11gr1ps3\user_projects\domains\offline_domain>java weblogic.WLST d:\temp\jms.py   Initializing WebLogic Scripting Tool (WLST) ...   Welcome to WebLogic Server Administration Scripting Shell   Type help() for help on available commands   Connecting to t3://localhost:7001 with userid weblogic ... Successfully connected to Admin Server 'AdminServer' that belongs to domain 'offline_domain'.   Warning: An insecure protocol was used to connect to the server. To ensure on-the-wire security, the SSL port or Admin port should be used instead.   Location changed to serverRuntime tree. This is a read-only tree with ServerRuntimeMBean as the root. For more help, use help(serverRuntime)   1 JMS Connections found for AdminServer with JMSServers myJMSServer JMS Connection: Host Address = 127.0.0.1 ClientID = None Sessions Current = 16 Consumer: Name = consumer40 Messages Received = 2 Member Destination Name = myJMSModule!myQueue Consumer: Name = consumer34 Messages Received = 2 Member Destination Name = myJMSModule!myQueue Consumer: Name = consumer37 Messages Received = 2 Member Destination Name = myJMSModule!myQueue Consumer: Name = consumer16 Messages Received = 2 Member Destination Name = myJMSModule!myQueue Consumer: Name = consumer46 Messages Received = 2 Member Destination Name = myJMSModule!myQueue Consumer: Name = consumer49 Messages Received = 2 Member Destination Name = myJMSModule!myQueue Consumer: Name = consumer43 Messages Received = 1 Member Destination Name = myJMSModule!myQueue Consumer: Name = consumer55 Messages Received = 1 Member Destination Name = myJMSModule!myQueue Consumer: Name = consumer25 Messages Received = 1 Member Destination Name = myJMSModule!myQueue Consumer: Name = consumer22 Messages Received = 1 Member Destination Name = myJMSModule!myQueue Consumer: Name = consumer19 Messages Received = 1 Member Destination Name = myJMSModule!myQueue Consumer: Name = consumer52 Messages Received = 1 Member Destination Name = myJMSModule!myQueue Consumer: Name = consumer31 Messages Received = 1 Member Destination Name = myJMSModule!myQueue Consumer: Name = consumer58 Messages Received = 1 Member Destination Name = myJMSModule!myQueue Consumer: Name = consumer28 Messages Received = 1 Member Destination Name = myJMSModule!myQueue Consumer: Name = consumer61 Messages Received = 1 Member Destination Name = myJMSModule!myQueue Disconnected from weblogic server: AdminServer     Exiting WebLogic Scripting Tool. Thanks to Tom Barnes for the hints and the inspiration to write this up. Image of telephone switchboard courtesy of http://www.JoeTourist.net/ JoeTourist InfoSystems

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• Problem with apt-get update: failed to fetch error

  - by user171447

  I run an Ubuntu Server 12.04.3 LTS. Today, I wanted to update it, but I did not managed it (yes...), however upgrading worked well. I don't want you to solve my problem but it would be greatful if you could give me some hints. I googled hours, I fould a lot of this kind of errors, but not exactly this. Here is the output of apt-get update: Hit http://filepile.fastit.net precise Release.gpg Hit http://filepile.fastit.net precise Release Hit http://filepile.fastit.net precise/main amd64 Packages Hit http://filepile.fastit.net precise/restricted amd64 Packages Hit http://filepile.fastit.net precise/universe amd64 Packages Hit http://filepile.fastit.net precise/multiverse amd64 Packages Hit http://filepile.fastit.net precise/main i386 Packages Hit http://filepile.fastit.net precise/restricted i386 Packages Hit http://filepile.fastit.net precise/universe i386 Packages Hit http://filepile.fastit.net precise/multiverse i386 Packages Ign http://filepile.fastit.net precise/main TranslationIndex Ign http://filepile.fastit.net precise/multiverse TranslationIndex Ign http://filepile.fastit.net precise/restricted TranslationIndex Ign http://filepile.fastit.net precise/universe TranslationIndex Ign http://filepile.fastit.net precise/main Translation-en_GB Ign http://filepile.fastit.net precise/main Translation-en Ign http://filepile.fastit.net precise/main Translation-en_GB.UTF-8 Hit http://archive.canonical.com precise Release.gpg Ign http://filepile.fastit.net precise/multiverse Translation-en_GB Ign http://filepile.fastit.net precise/multiverse Translation-en Ign http://filepile.fastit.net precise/multiverse Translation-en_GB.UTF-8 Ign http://filepile.fastit.net precise/restricted Translation-en_GB Ign http://filepile.fastit.net precise/restricted Translation-en Ign http://filepile.fastit.net precise/restricted Translation-en_GB.UTF-8 Ign http://filepile.fastit.net precise/universe Translation-en_GB Ign http://filepile.fastit.net precise/universe Translation-en Ign http://filepile.fastit.net precise/universe Translation-en_GB.UTF-8 Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise Release.gpg Hit http://archive.canonical.com precise Release Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise Release Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/main Sources Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/restricted Sources Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/main i386 Packages Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/restricted i386 Packages Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/multiverse i386 Packages Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/main TranslationIndex Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/multiverse TranslationIndex Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/restricted TranslationIndex Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/main Translation-en_GB Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/main Translation-en Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/multiverse Translation-en_GB Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/multiverse Translation-en Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/restricted Translation-en_GB Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com precise/restricted Translation-en Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-security Release.gpg Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates Release.gpg Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-security Release Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates Release Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-security/main amd64 Packages Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-security/restricted amd64 Packages Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-security/universe amd64 Packages Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-security/multiverse amd64 Packages :W: Failed to fetch http://archive.canonical.com/dists/precise/Release Unable to find expected entry 'main/binary-amd64/Packages' in Release file (Wrong sources.list entry or malformed file) E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead. Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-security/main i386 Packages Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-security/restricted i386 Packages Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-security/universe i386 Packages Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-security/multiverse i386 Packages Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-security/main TranslationIndex Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-security/multiverse TranslationIndex Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-security/restricted TranslationIndex Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-security/universe TranslationIndex Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/main amd64 Packages Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/restricted amd64 Packages Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/universe amd64 Packages Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/multiverse amd64 Packages Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/main i386 Packages Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/restricted i386 Packages Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/universe i386 Packages Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/multiverse i386 Packages Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/main TranslationIndex Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/multiverse TranslationIndex Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/restricted TranslationIndex Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/universe TranslationIndex Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-security/main Translation-en Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-security/multiverse Translation-en Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-security/restricted Translation-en Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-security/universe Translation-en Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/main Translation-en_GB Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/main Translation-en Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/multiverse Translation-en_GB Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/multiverse Translation-en Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/restricted Translation-en_GB Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/restricted Translation-en Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/universe Translation-en_GB Hit http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates/universe Translation-en And here is my /etc/apt/sources.list: ###### Ubuntu Main Repos deb http://filepile.fastit.net/ubuntu/ precise main restricted universe multiverse # deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise main restricted universe multiverse deb http://archive.canonical.com/ precise main restricted universe multiverse ###### Ubuntu Update Repos deb http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-security main restricted universe multiverse deb http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates main restricted universe multiverse deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise main restricted multiverse deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise main restricted multiverse Thanks for your help!

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• Red Gate does Byte Night 2012

  - by red(at)work

  On the 5th of October 2012, a team of nine plucky Red Gaters braved the howling wind and the driving rain to sleep outside. No tents or mattresses were allowed – all we took for protection were sleeping bags, groundsheets, plastic sacks and Colin’s enormous fishing umbrella (a godsend in umbrella-y disguise). Why would we do such a thing? For Byte Night, an annual tech sector sleepout in support of Action for Children, who tackle the causes as well as the consequences of youth homelessness. Byte Night encourages technology professionals to do for one night a year what thousands of young people have to do every night – sleep rough.  We signed up for Byte Night in the warm, heady midst of the British summer, thinking it couldn’t possibly be all that bad. Even on the night itself – before the rain began to fall, sat in the comfort and warmth of a company canteen, drinking wine and eating chill and preparing to win the pub quiz – we were excited and optimistic about the night that lay ahead of us. All of that changed as soon as we stepped out into one of the worst rainstorms of the year. Brian, the team’s birthday boy, describes it best: Picture the scene: it’s 3 am on a Friday. I’m lying outside, fully clothed in a sleeping bag, wearing a raincoat, trussed up inside a large plastic pocket, on a ground sheet beneath a giant umbrella, wedged so tightly between two of my colleagues that I can’t move my arms. I’m wide awake, staring up at the grey sky beyond the edge of the umbrella; a limp, flickering white glow hints at a moon somewhere behind the drifting clouds. I haven’t slept since we first moved outside at 11 pm. Outside. Did I mention we were outside? I’m hung over. I need the loo. But there is no way on earth that I’m getting out of this sleeping bag. It’s cold. It’s raining. Not just raining, but chucking it down. It’s been doing this non-stop since 10pm. The rain sounds like a hyperactive drummer on the fishing umbrella, and the noise is loud and relentless. Puddles of water are forming all over the groundsheet, and, despite being ensconced inside the plastic pouch, I am wet. The fishing umbrella is protecting me from the worst of the driving rain, but not all of me is under it, and five hours of rain is no match for it. Everything is wet. My left side has become horribly damp. My trainers, which I placed next to my sleeping bag, are now completely soaked through. Mmm. That’ll be fun in the morning. My head is next to Colin’s head on one side, and a multi-pack of McCoy’s cheddar and onion crisps on the other. Don’t ask about the tub of hummus. That’s somewhere down by my ankles, abandoned to the night. Jess, who is lying next to me, rolls over onto her side. A mini waterfall cascades from her rain-pouch onto my face. Bah. I continue to stare into the heavens, willing the dawn to hurry up. Something lands on my face. It’s a mosquito. Great. Midnight, when this still seemed like fun – when we opened some champagne and my colleagues presented me with a caterpillar birthday cake, when everyone was drunk and jolly and full of stoic resolve – feels like a long time ago. Did I mention that today is my birthday? The remains of the caterpillar cake endure the same fate as the hummus, left out in the rain like a metaphor for sadness. It’s getting colder. I can see my breath. Silence has descended on the group, apart from the rustle of plastic. And the rain, obviously. Someone snores, and I envy whoever it is the sweet escape of sleep. I try to wriggle a bit further down inside my sleeping bag, but it doesn’t want to be wriggled into. Only 3 hours till dawn. 180 minutes. I begin to count them off, one at a time.  All nine of us got to go home in the morning, but thousands of children across the UK don’t have that luxury. If you’d like to sponsor the Red Gate Byte Night team, our JustGiving page can be found here.   Chris, before the outside bit actually happened. More photos from Byte Night Cambridge 2012 can be found here.

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• Superpower Your Touchpad Computer with Scrybe

  - by Matthew Guay

  Are you looking for a way to help your Touchpad computer make you more productive?  Here’s a quick look at Scrybe, a new application from Synaptics that lets you superpower it. Touchpad devices have become increasingly more interesting as they’ve included support for multi-touch gestures.  Scrybe takes it to the next level and lets you use your touchpad as an application launcher.  You can launch any application, website, or complete many common commands on your computer with a simple gesture.  Scrybe works with most modern Synaptics touchpads, which are standard on most laptops and netbooks.  It is optimized for newer multi-touch touchpads, but can also work with standard single-touch touchpads.  It works on Windows 7, Vista, and XP, so chances are it will work with your laptop or netbook. Get Started With Scrybe Head over to the Scrybe website and download the latest version (link below).  You are asked to enter your email address, name, and information about your computer…but you actually only have to enter your email address.  Click Download when finished. Run the installer when it’s download.  It will automatically download the latest Synaptics driver for your touchpad and any other components needed for Scrybe.  Note that the Scrybe installer will ask to install the Yahoo! toolbar, so uncheck this to avoid adding this worthless browser toolbar. Using Scrybe To open an application or website with a gesture, press 3 fingers on your touchpad at once, or if your touchpad doesn’t support multi-touch gestures, then press Ctrl+Alt and press 1 finger on your touchpad.  This will open the Scrype input pane; start drawing a gesture, and you’ll see it on the grey square.  The input pane shows some default gestures you can try. Here we drew an “M”, which opens our default Music player.  As soon as you finish the gesture and lift up your finger, Scrybe will open the application or website you selected. A notification balloon will let you know what gesture was preformed. When you’re entering your gesture, the input pane will show white “ink”.  The “ink” will turn blue if the command is recognized, but will turn red if it isn’t.  If Scrybe doesn’t recognize your command, press 3 fingers and try again. Scrybe Control Panel You can open the Scrybe Control panel to enter or change commands by entering a box-like gesture, or right-clicking the Scrybe icon in your system tray and selecting “Scrybe Control Panel”. Scrybe has many pre-configured gestures that you can preview and even practice. All of the gestures in the Popular tab are preset and cannot be changed.  However, the ones in the favorites tab can be edited.  Select the gesture you wish to edit, and click the gear icon to change it.  Here we changed the email gesture to open Hotmail instead of the default Yahoo Mail. Scrybe can also help you perform many common Windows commands such as Copy and Undo.  Select the Tools tab to see all of these commands.   Scrybe has many settings you may wish to change.  Select the Preferences button in the Control Panel to change these.  Here’s some of the settings we changed. Uncheck “Display a message” to turn off the tooltip notifications when you enter a gesture Uncheck “Show symbol hints” to turn off the sidebar on the input pane Select the search engine you want to open with the Search Gesture.  The default is Yahoo, but you can choose your favorite. Adding a new Scrybe Gesture The default Scrybe options are useful, but the best part is that you can assign gestures to your own programs or websites.  Open the Scrybe control panel, and click the plus sign on the bottom left corner.  Enter a name for your gesture, and then choose if it is for a website or an application. If you want the gesture to open a website, enter the address in the box. Alternately, if you want your gesture to open an application, select Launch Application and then either enter the path to the application, or click the button beside the Launch field and browse to it. Now click the down arrow on the blue box and choose one of the gestures for your application or website. Your new gesture will show up under the Favorites tab in the Scrybe control panel, and you can use it whenever you want from Scrybe, or practice the gesture by selecting the Practice button. Conclusion If you enjoy multi-touch gestures, you may find Scrybe very useful on your laptop or netbook.  Scrybe recognizes gestures fairly easily, even if you don’t enter them perfectly correctly.  Just like pinch-to-zoom and two-finger scroll, Scrybe can quickly become something you miss on other laptops. Download Scrybe (registration required) Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Fixing Firefox Scrolling Problems with Dell Synaptics TouchpadRemove Synaptics Touchpad Icon from System TrayRoll Back Troublesome Device Drivers in Windows VistaChange Your Computer Name in Windows 7 or VistaLet Somebody Use Your Computer Without Logging Off in Ubuntu 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 Acronis Online Backup DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows Fun with 47 charts and graphs Tomorrow is Mother’s Day Check the Average Speed of YouTube Videos You’ve Watched OutlookStatView Scans and Displays General Usage Statistics How to Add Exceptions to the Windows Firewall Office 2010 reviewed in depth by Ed Bott

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• SSAS Maestro Training in July 2012 #ssasmaestro #ssas

  - by Marco Russo (SQLBI)

  A few hours ago Chris Webb blogged about SSAS Maestro and I’d like to propagate the news, adding also some background info. SSAS Maestro is the premier certification on Analysis Services that selects the best experts in Analysis Services around the world. In 2011 Microsoft organized two rounds of training/exams for SSAS Maestros and up to now only 11 people from the first wave have been announced – around 10% of attendees of the course! In the next few days the new Maestros from the second round should be announced and this long process is caused by many factors that I’m going to explain. First, the course is just a step in the process. Before the course you receive a list of topics to study, including the slides of the course. During the course, students receive a lot of information that might not have been included in the slides and the best part of the course is class interaction. Students are expected to bring their experience to the table and comparing case studies, experiences and having long debates is an important part of the learning process. And it is also a part of the evaluation: good questions might be also more important than good answers! Finally, after the course, students have their homework and this may require one or two months to be completed. After that, a long (very long) evaluation process begins, taking into account homework, labs, participation… And for this reason the final evaluation may arrive months later after the course. We are going to improve and shorten this process with the next courses. The first wave of SSAS Maestro had been made by invitation only and now the program is opening, requiring a fee to participate in order to cover the cost of preparation, training and exam. The number of attendees will be limited and candidates will have to send their CV in order to be admitted to the course. Only experienced Analysis Services developers will be able to participate to this challenging program. So why you should do that? Well, only 10% of students passed the exam until now. So if you need 100% guarantee to pass the exam, you need to study a lot, before, during and after the course. But the course by itself is a precious opportunity to share experience, create networking and learn mission-critical enterprise-level best practices that it’s hard to find written on books. Oh, well, many existing white papers are a required reading *before* the course! The course is now 5 days long, and every day can be *very* long. We’ll have lectures and discussions in the morning and labs in the afternoon/evening. Plus some more lectures in one or two afternoons. A heavy part of the course is about performance optimization, capacity planning, monitoring. This edition will introduce also Tabular models, and don’t expect something you might find in the SSAS Tabular Workshop – only performance, scalability monitoring and optimization will be covered, knowing Analysis Services is a requirement just to be accepted! I and Chris Webb will be the teachers for this edition. The course is expensive. Applying for SSAS Maestro will cost around 7000€ plus taxes (reduced to 5000€ for students of a previous SSAS Maestro edition). And you will be locked in a training room for the large part of the week. So why you should do that? Well, as I said, this is a challenging course. You will not find the time to check your email – the content is just too much interesting to think you can be distracted by something else. Another good reason is that this course will take place in Italy. Well, the course will take place in the brand new Microsoft Innovation Campus, but in general we’ll be able to provide you hints to get great food and, if you are willing to attach one week-end to your trip, there are plenty of places to visit (and I’m not talking about the classic Rome-Florence-Venice) – you might really need to relax after such a week! Finally, the marking process after the course will be faster – we’d like to complete the evaluation within three months after the course, considering that 1-2 months might be required to complete the homework. If at this point you are not scared: registration will open in mid-April, but you can already write to [email protected] sending your CV/resume and a short description of your level of SSAS knowledge and experience. The selection process will start early and you may want to put your admission form on top of the FIFO queue!

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• MSSQL: Copying data from one database to another

  - by DigiMortal

  I have database that has data imported from another server using import and export wizard of SQL Server Management Studio. There is also empty database with same tables but it also has primary keys, foreign keys and indexes. How to get data from first database to another? Here is the description of my crusade. And believe me – it is not nice one. Bugs in import and export wizard There is some awful bugs in import and export wizard that makes data imports and exports possible only on very limited manner: wizard is not able to analyze foreign keys, wizard wants to create tables always, whatever you say in settings. The result is faulty and useless package. Now let’s go step by step and make things work in our scenario. Database There are two databases. Let’s name them like this: PLAIN – contains data imported from remote server (no indexes, no keys, no nothing, just plain dumb data) CORRECT – empty database with same structure as remote database (indexes, keys and everything else but no data) Our goal is to get data from PLAIN to CORRECT. 1. Create import and export package In this point we will create faulty SSIS package using SQL Server Management Studio. Run import and export wizard and let it create SSIS package that reads data from CORRECT and writes it to, let’s say, CORRECT-2. Make sure you enable identity insert. Make sure there are no views selected. Make sure you don’t let package to create tables (you can miss this step because it wants to create tables anyway). Save package to SSIS. 2. Modify import and export package Now let’s clean up the package and remove all faulty crap. Connect SQL Server Management Studio to SSIS instance. Select the package you just saved and export it to your hard disc. Run Business Intelligence Studio. Create new SSIS project (DON’T MISS THIS STEP). Add package from disc as existing item to project and open it. Move to Control Flow page do one of following: Remove all preparation SQL-tasks and connect Data Flow tasks. Modify all preparation SQL-tasks so the existence of tables is checked before table is created (yes, you have to do it manually). Add new Execute-SQL task as first task in control flow: Open task properties. Assign destination connection as connection to use. Insert the following SQL as command:   EXEC sp_MSForEachTable 'ALTER TABLE ? NOCHECK CONSTRAINT ALL' GO   EXEC sp_MSForEachTable 'DELETE FROM ?' GO   Save task. Add new Execute-SQL task as last task in control flow: Open task properties. Assign destination connection as connection to use. Insert the following SQL as command:   EXEC sp_MSForEachTable 'ALTER TABLE ? CHECK CONSTRAINT ALL' GO   Save task Now connect first Execute-SQL task with first Data Flow task and last Data Flow task with second Execute-SQL task. Now move to Package Explorer tab and change connections under Connection Managers folder. Make source connection to use database PLAIN. Make destination connection to use database CORRECT. Save package and rebuilt the project. Update package using SQL Server Management Studio. Some hints: Make sure you take the package from solution folder because it is saved there now. Don’t overwrite existing package. Use numeric suffix and let Management Studio to create a new version of package. Now you are done with your package. Run it to test it and clean out all the errors you find. TRUNCATE vs DELETE You can see that I used DELETE FROM instead of TRUNCATE. Why? Because TRUNCATE has some nasty limits (taken from MSDN): “You cannot use TRUNCATE TABLE on a table referenced by a FOREIGN KEY constraint; instead, use DELETE statement without a WHERE clause. Because TRUNCATE TABLE is not logged, it cannot activate a trigger. TRUNCATE TABLE may not be used on tables participating in an indexed view.” As I am not sure what tables you have and how they are used I provided here the solution that should work for all scenarios. If you need better performance then in some cases you can use TRUNCATE table instead of DELETE. Conclusion My conclusion is bitter this time although I am very positive guy. It is A.D. 2010 and still we have to write stupid hacks for simple things. Simple tools that existed before are long gone and we have to live mysterious bloatware that is our only choice when using default tools. If you take a look at the length of this posting and the count of steps I had to do for one easy thing you should treat it as a signal that something has went wrong in last years. Although I got my job done I would be still more happy if out of box tools are more intelligent one day. References T-SQL Trick for Deleting All Data in Your Database (Mauro Cardarelli) TRUNCATE TABLE (MSDN Library) Error Handling in SQL 2000 – a Background (Erland Sommarskog) Disable/Enable Foreign Key and Check constraints in SQL Server (Decipher)

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• CSM DX11 issues

  - by KaiserJohaan

  I got CSM to work in OpenGL, and now Im trying to do the same in directx. I'm using the same math library and all and I'm pretty much using the alghorithm straight off. I am using right-handed, column major matrices from GLM. The light is looking (-1, -1, -1). The problem I have is twofolds; For some reason, the ground floor is causing alot of (false) shadow artifacts, like the vast shadowed area you see. I confirmed this when I disabled the ground for the depth pass, but thats a hack more than anything else The shadows are inverted compared to the shadowmap. If you squint you can see the chairs shadows should be mirrored instead. This is the first cascade shadow map, in range of the alien and the chair: I can't figure out why this is. This is the depth pass: for (uint32_t cascadeIndex = 0; cascadeIndex < NUM_SHADOWMAP_CASCADES; cascadeIndex++) { mShadowmap.BindDepthView(context, cascadeIndex); CameraFrustrum cameraFrustrum = CalculateCameraFrustrum(degreesFOV, aspectRatio, nearDistArr[cascadeIndex], farDistArr[cascadeIndex], cameraViewMatrix); lightVPMatrices[cascadeIndex] = CreateDirLightVPMatrix(cameraFrustrum, lightDir); mVertexTransformPass.RenderMeshes(context, renderQueue, meshes, lightVPMatrices[cascadeIndex]); lightVPMatrices[cascadeIndex] = gBiasMatrix * lightVPMatrices[cascadeIndex]; farDistArr[cascadeIndex] = -farDistArr[cascadeIndex]; } CameraFrustrum CalculateCameraFrustrum(const float fovDegrees, const float aspectRatio, const float minDist, const float maxDist, const Mat4& cameraViewMatrix) { CameraFrustrum ret = { Vec4(1.0f, 1.0f, -1.0f, 1.0f), Vec4(1.0f, -1.0f, -1.0f, 1.0f), Vec4(-1.0f, -1.0f, -1.0f, 1.0f), Vec4(-1.0f, 1.0f, -1.0f, 1.0f), Vec4(1.0f, -1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f), Vec4(1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f), Vec4(-1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f), Vec4(-1.0f, -1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f), }; const Mat4 perspectiveMatrix = PerspectiveMatrixFov(fovDegrees, aspectRatio, minDist, maxDist); const Mat4 invMVP = glm::inverse(perspectiveMatrix * cameraViewMatrix); for (Vec4& corner : ret) { corner = invMVP * corner; corner /= corner.w; } return ret; } Mat4 CreateDirLightVPMatrix(const CameraFrustrum& cameraFrustrum, const Vec3& lightDir) { Mat4 lightViewMatrix = glm::lookAt(Vec3(0.0f), -glm::normalize(lightDir), Vec3(0.0f, -1.0f, 0.0f)); Vec4 transf = lightViewMatrix * cameraFrustrum[0]; float maxZ = transf.z, minZ = transf.z; float maxX = transf.x, minX = transf.x; float maxY = transf.y, minY = transf.y; for (uint32_t i = 1; i < 8; i++) { transf = lightViewMatrix * cameraFrustrum[i]; if (transf.z > maxZ) maxZ = transf.z; if (transf.z < minZ) minZ = transf.z; if (transf.x > maxX) maxX = transf.x; if (transf.x < minX) minX = transf.x; if (transf.y > maxY) maxY = transf.y; if (transf.y < minY) minY = transf.y; } Mat4 viewMatrix(lightViewMatrix); viewMatrix[3][0] = -(minX + maxX) * 0.5f; viewMatrix[3][1] = -(minY + maxY) * 0.5f; viewMatrix[3][2] = -(minZ + maxZ) * 0.5f; viewMatrix[0][3] = 0.0f; viewMatrix[1][3] = 0.0f; viewMatrix[2][3] = 0.0f; viewMatrix[3][3] = 1.0f; Vec3 halfExtents((maxX - minX) * 0.5, (maxY - minY) * 0.5, (maxZ - minZ) * 0.5); return OrthographicMatrix(-halfExtents.x, halfExtents.x, -halfExtents.y, halfExtents.y, halfExtents.z, -halfExtents.z) * viewMatrix; } And this is the pixel shader used for the lighting stage: #define DEPTH_BIAS 0.0005 #define NUM_CASCADES 4 cbuffer DirectionalLightConstants : register(CBUFFER_REGISTER_PIXEL) { float4x4 gSplitVPMatrices[NUM_CASCADES]; float4x4 gCameraViewMatrix; float4 gSplitDistances; float4 gLightColor; float4 gLightDirection; }; Texture2D gPositionTexture : register(TEXTURE_REGISTER_POSITION); Texture2D gDiffuseTexture : register(TEXTURE_REGISTER_DIFFUSE); Texture2D gNormalTexture : register(TEXTURE_REGISTER_NORMAL); Texture2DArray gShadowmap : register(TEXTURE_REGISTER_DEPTH); SamplerComparisonState gShadowmapSampler : register(SAMPLER_REGISTER_DEPTH); float4 ps_main(float4 position : SV_Position) : SV_Target0 { float4 worldPos = gPositionTexture[uint2(position.xy)]; float4 diffuse = gDiffuseTexture[uint2(position.xy)]; float4 normal = gNormalTexture[uint2(position.xy)]; float4 camPos = mul(gCameraViewMatrix, worldPos); uint index = 3; if (camPos.z > gSplitDistances.x) index = 0; else if (camPos.z > gSplitDistances.y) index = 1; else if (camPos.z > gSplitDistances.z) index = 2; float3 projCoords = (float3)mul(gSplitVPMatrices[index], worldPos); float viewDepth = projCoords.z - DEPTH_BIAS; projCoords.z = float(index); float visibilty = gShadowmap.SampleCmpLevelZero(gShadowmapSampler, projCoords, viewDepth); float angleNormal = clamp(dot(normal, gLightDirection), 0, 1); return visibilty * diffuse * angleNormal * gLightColor; } As you can see I am using depth bias and a bias matrix. Any hints on why this behaves so wierdly?

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• My rhythm game runs choppy even with high frame rate

  - by felipedrl

  I'm coding a rhythm game and the game runs smoothly with uncapped fps. But when I try to cap it around 60 the game updates in little chunks, like hiccups, as if it was skipping frames or at a very low frame rate. The reason I need to cap frame rate is because in some computers I tested, the fps varies a lot (from ~80 - ~250 fps) and those drops are noticeable and degrade response time. Since this is a rhythm game this is very important. This issue is driving me crazy. I've spent a few weeks already on it and still can't figure out the problem. I hope someone more experienced than me could shed some light on it. I'll try to put here all the hints I've tried along with two pseudo codes for game loops I tried, so I apologize if this post gets too lengthy. 1st GameLoop: const uint UPDATE_SKIP = 1000 / 60; uint nextGameTick = SDL_GetTicks(); while(isNotDone) { // only false when a QUIT event is generated! if (processEvents()) { if (SDL_GetTicks() > nextGameTick) { update(UPDATE_SKIP); render(); nextGameTick += UPDATE_SKIP; } } } 2nd Game Loop: const uint UPDATE_SKIP = 1000 / 60; while (isNotDone) { LARGE_INTEGER startTime; QueryPerformanceCounter(&startTime); // process events will return false in case of a QUIT event processed if (processEvents()) { update(frameTime); render(); } LARGE_INTEGER endTime; do { QueryPerformanceCounter(&endTime); frameTime = static_cast<uint>((endTime.QuadPart - startTime.QuadPart) * 1000.0 / frequency.QuadPart); } while (frameTime < UPDATE_SKIP); } [1] At first I thought it was a timer resolution problem. I was using SDL_GetTicks, but even when I switched to QueryPerformanceCounter, supposedly less granular, I saw no difference. [2] Then I thought it could be due to a rounding error in my position computation and since game updates are smaller in high FPS that would be less noticeable. Indeed there is an small error, but from my tests I realized that it is not enough to produce the position jumps I'm getting. Also, another intriguing factor is that if I enable vsync I'll get smooth updates @60fps regardless frame cap code. So why not rely on vsync? Because some computers can force a disable on gfx card config. [3] I started printing the maximum and minimum frame time measured in 1sec span, in the hope that every a few frames one would take a long time but still not enough to drop my fps computation. It turns out that, with frame cap code I always get frame times in the range of [16, 18]ms, and still, the game "does not moves like jagger". [4] My process' priority is set to HIGH (Windows doesn't allow me to set REALTIME for some reason). As far as I know there is only one thread running along with the game (a sound callback, which I really don't have access to it). I'm using AudiereLib. I then disabled Audiere by removing it from the project and still got the issue. Maybe there are some others threads running and one of them is taking too long to come back right in between when I measured frame times, I don't know. Is there a way to know which threads are attached to my process? [5] There are some dynamic data being created during game run. But It is a little bit hard to remove it to test. Maybe I'll have to try harder this one. Well, as I told you I really don't know what to try next. Anything, I mean, anything would be of great help. What bugs me more is why at 60fps & vsync enabled I get an smooth update and at 60fps & no vsync I don't. Is there a way to implement software vsync? I mean, query display sync info? Thanks in advance. I appreciate the ones that got this far and yet again I apologize for the long post. Best Regards from a fellow coder.

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• Triangle Picking Picking Back faces

  - by Tangeleno

  I'm having a bit of trouble with 3D picking, at first I thought my ray was inaccurate but it turns out that the picking is happening on faces facing the camera and faces facing away from the camera which I'm currently culling. Here's my ray creation code, I'm pretty sure the problem isn't here but I've been wrong before. private uint Pick() { Ray cursorRay = CalculateCursorRay(); Vector3? point = Control.Mesh.RayCast(cursorRay); if (point != null) { Tile hitTile = Control.TileMesh.GetTileAtPoint(point); return hitTile == null ? uint.MaxValue : (uint)(hitTile.X + hitTile.Y * Control.Generator.TilesWide); } return uint.MaxValue; } private Ray CalculateCursorRay() { Vector3 nearPoint = Control.Camera.Unproject(new Vector3(Cursor.Position.X, Control.ClientRectangle.Height - Cursor.Position.Y, 0f)); Vector3 farPoint = Control.Camera.Unproject(new Vector3(Cursor.Position.X, Control.ClientRectangle.Height - Cursor.Position.Y, 1f)); Vector3 direction = farPoint - nearPoint; direction.Normalize(); return new Ray(nearPoint, direction); } public Vector3 Camera.Unproject(Vector3 source) { Vector4 result; result.X = (source.X - _control.ClientRectangle.X) * 2 / _control.ClientRectangle.Width - 1; result.Y = (source.Y - _control.ClientRectangle.Y) * 2 / _control.ClientRectangle.Height - 1; result.Z = source.Z - 1; if (_farPlane - 1 == 0) result.Z = 0; else result.Z = result.Z / (_farPlane - 1); result.W = 1f; result = Vector4.Transform(result, Matrix4.Invert(ProjectionMatrix)); result = Vector4.Transform(result, Matrix4.Invert(ViewMatrix)); result = Vector4.Transform(result, Matrix4.Invert(_world)); result = Vector4.Divide(result, result.W); return new Vector3(result.X, result.Y, result.Z); } And my triangle intersection code. Ripped mainly from the XNA picking sample. public float? Intersects(Ray ray) { float? closestHit = Bounds.Intersects(ray); if (closestHit != null && Vertices.Length == 3) { Vector3 e1, e2; Vector3.Subtract(ref Vertices[1].Position, ref Vertices[0].Position, out e1); Vector3.Subtract(ref Vertices[2].Position, ref Vertices[0].Position, out e2); Vector3 directionCrossEdge2; Vector3.Cross(ref ray.Direction, ref e2, out directionCrossEdge2); float determinant; Vector3.Dot(ref e1, ref directionCrossEdge2, out determinant); if (determinant > -float.Epsilon && determinant < float.Epsilon) return null; float inverseDeterminant = 1.0f/determinant; Vector3 distanceVector; Vector3.Subtract(ref ray.Position, ref Vertices[0].Position, out distanceVector); float triangleU; Vector3.Dot(ref distanceVector, ref directionCrossEdge2, out triangleU); triangleU *= inverseDeterminant; if (triangleU < 0 || triangleU > 1) return null; Vector3 distanceCrossEdge1; Vector3.Cross(ref distanceVector, ref e1, out distanceCrossEdge1); float triangleV; Vector3.Dot(ref ray.Direction, ref distanceCrossEdge1, out triangleV); triangleV *= inverseDeterminant; if (triangleV < 0 || triangleU + triangleV > 1) return null; float rayDistance; Vector3.Dot(ref e2, ref distanceCrossEdge1, out rayDistance); rayDistance *= inverseDeterminant; if (rayDistance < 0) return null; return rayDistance; } return closestHit; } I'll admit I don't fully understand all of the math behind the intersection and that is something I'm working on, but my understanding was that if rayDistance was less than 0 the face was facing away from the camera, and shouldn't be counted as a hit. So my question is, is there an issue with my intersection or ray creation code, or is there another check I need to perform to tell if the face is facing away from the camera, and if so any hints on what that check might contain would be appreciated.

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• Mysql performance problem & Failed DIMM

  - by murdoch

  Hi I have a dedicated mysql database server which has been having some performance problems recently, under normal load the server will be running fine, then suddenly out of the blue the performance will fall off a cliff. The server isn't using the swap file and there is 12GB of RAM in the server, more than enough for its needs. After contacting my hosting comapnies support they have discovered that there is a failed 2GB DIMM in the server and have scheduled to replace it tomorow morning. My question is could a failed DIMM result in the performance problems I am seeing or is this just coincidence? My worry is that they will replace the ram tomorrow but the problems will persist and I will still be lost of explanations so I am just trying to think ahead. The reason I ask is that there is plenty of RAM in the server, more than required and simply missing 2GB should be a problem, so if this failed DIMM is causing these performance problems then the OS must be trying to access the failed DIMM and slowing down as a result. Does that sound like a credible explanation? This is what DELLs omreport program says about the RAM, notice one dimm is "Critical" Memory Information Health : Critical Memory Operating Mode Fail Over State : Inactive Memory Operating Mode Configuration : Optimizer Attributes of Memory Array(s) Attributes : Location Memory Array 1 : System Board or Motherboard Attributes : Use Memory Array 1 : System Memory Attributes : Installed Capacity Memory Array 1 : 12288 MB Attributes : Maximum Capacity Memory Array 1 : 196608 MB Attributes : Slots Available Memory Array 1 : 18 Attributes : Slots Used Memory Array 1 : 6 Attributes : ECC Type Memory Array 1 : Multibit ECC Total of Memory Array(s) Attributes : Total Installed Capacity Value : 12288 MB Attributes : Total Installed Capacity Available to the OS Value : 12004 MB Attributes : Total Maximum Capacity Value : 196608 MB Details of Memory Array 1 Index : 0 Status : Ok Connector Name : DIMM_A1 Type : DDR3-Registered Size : 2048 MB Index : 1 Status : Ok Connector Name : DIMM_A2 Type : DDR3-Registered Size : 2048 MB Index : 2 Status : Ok Connector Name : DIMM_A3 Type : DDR3-Registered Size : 2048 MB Index : 3 Status : Critical Connector Name : DIMM_B1 Type : DDR3-Registered Size : 2048 MB Index : 4 Status : Ok Connector Name : DIMM_B2 Type : DDR3-Registered Size : 2048 MB Index : 5 Status : Ok Connector Name : DIMM_B3 Type : DDR3-Registered Size : 2048 MB the command free -m shows this, the server seems to be using more than 10GB of ram which would suggest it is trying to use the DIMM total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 12004 10766 1238 0 384 4809 -/+ buffers/cache: 5572 6432 Swap: 2047 0 2047 iostat output while problem is occuring avg-cpu: %user %nice %system %iowait %steal %idle 52.82 0.00 11.01 0.00 0.00 36.17 Device: tps Blk_read/s Blk_wrtn/s Blk_read Blk_wrtn sda 47.00 0.00 576.00 0 576 sda1 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda2 1.00 0.00 32.00 0 32 sda3 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda4 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda5 46.00 0.00 544.00 0 544 avg-cpu: %user %nice %system %iowait %steal %idle 53.12 0.00 7.81 0.00 0.00 39.06 Device: tps Blk_read/s Blk_wrtn/s Blk_read Blk_wrtn sda 49.00 0.00 592.00 0 592 sda1 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda2 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda3 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda4 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda5 49.00 0.00 592.00 0 592 avg-cpu: %user %nice %system %iowait %steal %idle 56.09 0.00 7.43 0.37 0.00 36.10 Device: tps Blk_read/s Blk_wrtn/s Blk_read Blk_wrtn sda 232.00 0.00 64520.00 0 64520 sda1 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda2 159.00 0.00 63728.00 0 63728 sda3 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda4 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda5 73.00 0.00 792.00 0 792 avg-cpu: %user %nice %system %iowait %steal %idle 52.18 0.00 9.24 0.06 0.00 38.51 Device: tps Blk_read/s Blk_wrtn/s Blk_read Blk_wrtn sda 49.00 0.00 600.00 0 600 sda1 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda2 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda3 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda4 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda5 49.00 0.00 600.00 0 600 avg-cpu: %user %nice %system %iowait %steal %idle 54.82 0.00 8.64 0.00 0.00 36.55 Device: tps Blk_read/s Blk_wrtn/s Blk_read Blk_wrtn sda 100.00 0.00 2168.00 0 2168 sda1 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda2 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda3 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda4 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda5 100.00 0.00 2168.00 0 2168 avg-cpu: %user %nice %system %iowait %steal %idle 54.78 0.00 6.75 0.00 0.00 38.48 Device: tps Blk_read/s Blk_wrtn/s Blk_read Blk_wrtn sda 84.00 0.00 896.00 0 896 sda1 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda2 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda3 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda4 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda5 84.00 0.00 896.00 0 896 avg-cpu: %user %nice %system %iowait %steal %idle 54.34 0.00 7.31 0.00 0.00 38.35 Device: tps Blk_read/s Blk_wrtn/s Blk_read Blk_wrtn sda 81.00 0.00 840.00 0 840 sda1 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda2 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda3 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda4 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda5 81.00 0.00 840.00 0 840 avg-cpu: %user %nice %system %iowait %steal %idle 55.18 0.00 5.81 0.44 0.00 38.58 Device: tps Blk_read/s Blk_wrtn/s Blk_read Blk_wrtn sda 317.00 0.00 105632.00 0 105632 sda1 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda2 224.00 0.00 104672.00 0 104672 sda3 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda4 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda5 93.00 0.00 960.00 0 960 avg-cpu: %user %nice %system %iowait %steal %idle 55.38 0.00 7.63 0.00 0.00 36.98 Device: tps Blk_read/s Blk_wrtn/s Blk_read Blk_wrtn sda 74.00 0.00 800.00 0 800 sda1 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda2 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda3 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda4 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda5 74.00 0.00 800.00 0 800 avg-cpu: %user %nice %system %iowait %steal %idle 56.43 0.00 7.80 0.00 0.00 35.77 Device: tps Blk_read/s Blk_wrtn/s Blk_read Blk_wrtn sda 72.00 0.00 784.00 0 784 sda1 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda2 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda3 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda4 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda5 72.00 0.00 784.00 0 784 avg-cpu: %user %nice %system %iowait %steal %idle 54.87 0.00 6.49 0.00 0.00 38.64 Device: tps Blk_read/s Blk_wrtn/s Blk_read Blk_wrtn sda 80.20 0.00 855.45 0 864 sda1 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda2 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda3 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda4 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda5 80.20 0.00 855.45 0 864 avg-cpu: %user %nice %system %iowait %steal %idle 57.22 0.00 5.69 0.00 0.00 37.09 Device: tps Blk_read/s Blk_wrtn/s Blk_read Blk_wrtn sda 33.00 0.00 432.00 0 432 sda1 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda2 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda3 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda4 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda5 33.00 0.00 432.00 0 432 avg-cpu: %user %nice %system %iowait %steal %idle 56.03 0.00 7.93 0.00 0.00 36.04 Device: tps Blk_read/s Blk_wrtn/s Blk_read Blk_wrtn sda 41.00 0.00 560.00 0 560 sda1 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda2 2.00 0.00 88.00 0 88 sda3 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda4 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda5 39.00 0.00 472.00 0 472 avg-cpu: %user %nice %system %iowait %steal %idle 55.78 0.00 5.13 0.00 0.00 39.09 Device: tps Blk_read/s Blk_wrtn/s Blk_read Blk_wrtn sda 29.00 0.00 392.00 0 392 sda1 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda2 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda3 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda4 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda5 29.00 0.00 392.00 0 392 avg-cpu: %user %nice %system %iowait %steal %idle 53.68 0.00 8.30 0.06 0.00 37.95 Device: tps Blk_read/s Blk_wrtn/s Blk_read Blk_wrtn sda 78.00 0.00 4280.00 0 4280 sda1 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda2 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda3 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda4 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 sda5 78.00 0.00 4280.00 0 4280

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• nhibernate configure and buildsessionfactory time

  - by davidsleeps

  Hi, I'm using Nhibernate as the OR/M tool for an asp.net application and the startup performance is really frustrating. Part of the problem is definitely me in my lack of understanding but I've tried a fair bit (understanding is definitely improving) and am still getting nowhere. Currently ANTS profiler has that the Configure() takes 13-18 seconds and the BuildSessionFActory() as taking about 5 seconds. From what i've read, these times might actually be pretty good, but they were generally talking about hundreds upon hundreds of mapped entities...this project only has 10. I've combined all the mapping files into a single hbm mapping file and this did improve things but only down to the times mentioned above... I guess, are there any "Traps for young players" that are regularly missed...obvious "I did this/have you enabled that/exclude file x/mark file y as z" etc... I'll try the serialize the configuration thing to avoid the Configure() stage, but I feel that part shouldn't be that long for that amount of entities and so would essentially be hiding a current problem... I will post source code or configuration if necessary, but I'm not sure what to put in really... thanks heaps! edit (more info) I'll also add that once this is completed, each page is extremely quick... configuration code- hibernate.cfg.xml <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <configuration> <configSections> <section name="hibernate-configuration" type="NHibernate.Cfg.ConfigurationSectionHandler, NHibernate" /> </configSections> <hibernate-configuration xmlns="urn:nhibernate-configuration-2.2"> <session-factory> <property name="dialect">NHibernate.Dialect.MsSql2005Dialect</property> <property name="connection.provider">NHibernate.Connection.DriverConnectionProvider</property> <property name="connection.driver_class">NHibernate.Driver.SqlClientDriver</property> <property name="connection.connection_string_name">MyAppDEV</property> <property name="cache.provider_class">NHibernate.Caches.SysCache.SysCacheProvider, NHibernate.Caches.SysCache</property> <property name="cache.use_second_level_cache">true</property> <property name="show_sql">false</property> <property name="proxyfactory.factory_class">NHibernate.ByteCode.Castle.ProxyFactoryFactory, NHibernate.ByteCode.Castle</property> <property name="current_session_context_class">managed_web</property> <mapping assembly="MyApp.Domain"/> </session-factory> </hibernate-configuration> </configuration> My SessionManager class which is bound and unbound in a HttpModule for each request Imports NHibernate Imports NHibernate.Cfg Public Class SessionManager Private ReadOnly _sessionFactory As ISessionFactory Public Shared ReadOnly Property SessionFactory() As ISessionFactory Get Return Instance._sessionFactory End Get End Property Private Function GetSessionFactory() As ISessionFactory Return _sessionFactory End Function Public Shared ReadOnly Property Instance() As SessionManager Get Return NestedSessionManager.theSessionManager End Get End Property Public Shared Function OpenSession() As ISession Return Instance.GetSessionFactory().OpenSession() End Function Public Shared ReadOnly Property CurrentSession() As ISession Get Return Instance.GetSessionFactory().GetCurrentSession() End Get End Property Private Sub New() Dim configuration As Configuration = New Configuration().Configure() _sessionFactory = configuration.BuildSessionFactory() End Sub Private Class NestedSessionManager Friend Shared ReadOnly theSessionManager As New SessionManager() End Class End Class edit 2 (log4net results) will post bits that have a portion of time between them and will cut out the rest... 2010-03-30 23:29:40,898 [4] INFO NHibernate.Cfg.Environment [(null)] - Using reflection optimizer 2010-03-30 23:29:42,481 [4] DEBUG NHibernate.Cfg.Configuration [(null)] - dialect=NHibernate.Dialect.MsSql2005Dialect ... 2010-03-30 23:29:42,501 [4] INFO NHibernate.Cfg.Configuration [(null)] - Mapping resource: MyApp.Domain.Mappings.hbm.xml 2010-03-30 23:29:43,342 [4] INFO NHibernate.Dialect.Dialect [(null)] - Using dialect: NHibernate.Dialect.MsSql2005Dialect 2010-03-30 23:29:50,462 [4] INFO NHibernate.Cfg.XmlHbmBinding.Binder [(null)] - Mapping class: ... 2010-03-30 23:29:51,353 [4] DEBUG NHibernate.Connection.DriverConnectionProvider [(null)] - Obtaining IDbConnection from Driver 2010-03-30 23:29:53,136 [4] DEBUG NHibernate.Connection.ConnectionProvider [(null)] - Closing connection

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• What's the most unsound program you've had to maintain?

  - by Robert Rossney

  I periodically am called upon to do maintenance work on a system that was built by a real rocket surgeon. There's so much wrong with it that it's hard to know where to start. No, wait, I'll start at the beginning: in the early days of the project, the designer was told that the system would need to scale, and he'd read that a source of scalability problems was traffic between the application and database servers, so he made sure to minimize this traffic. How? By putting all of the application logic in SQL Server stored procedures. Seriously. The great bulk of the application functions by the HTML front end formulating XML messages. When the middle tier receives an XML message, it uses the document element's tag name as the name of the stored procedure it should call, and calls the SP, passing it the entire XML message as a parameter. It takes the XML message that the SP returns and returns it directly back to the front end. There is no other logic in the application tier. (There was some code in the middle tier to validate the incoming XML messages against a library of schemas. But I removed it, after ascertaining that 1) only a small handful of messages had corresponding schemas, 2) the messages didn't actually conform to these schemas, and 3) after validating the messages, if any errors were encountered, the method discarded them. "This fuse box is a real time-saver - it comes from the factory with pennies pre-installed!") I've seen software that does the wrong thing before. Lots of it. I've written quite a bit. But I've never seen anything like the steely-eyed determination to do the wrong thing, at every possible turn, that's embodied in the design and programming of this system. Well, at least he went with what he knew, right? Um. Apparently, what he knew was Access. And he didn't really understand Access. Or databases. Here's a common pattern in this code: SELECT @TestCodeID FROM TestCode WHERE TestCode = @TestCode SELECT @CountryID FROM Country WHERE CountryAbbr = @CountryAbbr SELECT Invoice.*, TestCode.*, Country.* FROM Invoice JOIN TestCode ON Invoice.TestCodeID = TestCode.ID JOIN Country ON Invoice.CountryID = Country.ID WHERE Invoice.TestCodeID = @TestCodeID AND Invoice.CountryID = @CountryID Okay, fine. You don't trust the query optimizer either. But how about this? (Originally, I was going to post this in What's the best comment in source code you have ever encountered? but I realized that there was so much more to write about than just this one comment, and things just got out of hand.) At the end of many of the utility stored procedures, you'll see code that looks like the following: -- Fix NULLs SET @TargetValue = ISNULL(@TargetValue, -9999) Yes, that code is doing exactly what you can't allow yourself to believe it's doing lest you be driven mad. If the variable contains a NULL, he's alerting the caller by changing its value to -9999. Here's how this number is commonly used: -- Get target value EXEC ap_GetTargetValue @Param1, @Param2, OUTPUT @TargetValue -- Check target value for NULL value IF @TargetValue = -9999 ... Really. For another dimension of this system, see the article on thedailywtf.com entitled I Think I'll Call Them "Transactions". I'm not making any of this up. I swear. I'm often reminded, when I work on this system, of Wolfgang Pauli's famous response to a student: "That isn't right. It isn't even wrong." This can't really be the very worst program ever. It's definitely the worst one I've worked

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• Is there a way to delay compilation of a stored procedure's execution plan?

  - by Ian Henry

  (At first glance this may look like a duplicate of http://stackoverflow.com/questions/421275 or http://stackoverflow.com/questions/414336, but my actual question is a bit different) Alright, this one's had me stumped for a few hours. My example here is ridiculously abstracted, so I doubt it will be possible to recreate locally, but it provides context for my question (Also, I'm running SQL Server 2005). I have a stored procedure with basically two steps, constructing a temp table, populating it with very few rows, and then querying a very large table joining against that temp table. It has multiple parameters, but the most relevant is a datetime "@MinDate." Essentially: create table #smallTable (ID int) insert into #smallTable select (a very small number of rows from some other table) select * from aGiantTable inner join #smallTable on #smallTable.ID = aGiantTable.ID inner join anotherTable on anotherTable.GiantID = aGiantTable.ID where aGiantTable.SomeDateField > @MinDate If I just execute this as a normal query, by declaring @MinDate as a local variable and running that, it produces an optimal execution plan that executes very quickly (first joins on #smallTable and then only considers a very small subset of rows from aGiantTable while doing other operations). It seems to realize that #smallTable is tiny, so it would be efficient to start with it. This is good. However, if I make that a stored procedure with @MinDate as a parameter, it produces a completely inefficient execution plan. (I am recompiling it each time, so it's not a bad cached plan...at least, I sure hope it's not) But here's where it gets weird. If I change the proc to the following: declare @LocalMinDate datetime set @LocalMinDate = @MinDate --where @MinDate is still a parameter create table #smallTable (ID int) insert into #smallTable select (a very small number of rows from some other table) select * from aGiantTable inner join #smallTable on #smallTable.ID = aGiantTable.ID inner join anotherTable on anotherTable.GiantID = aGiantTable.ID where aGiantTable.SomeDateField > @LocalMinDate Then it gives me the efficient plan! So my theory is this: when executing as a plain query (not as a stored procedure), it waits to construct the execution plan for the expensive query until the last minute, so the query optimizer knows that #smallTable is small and uses that information to give the efficient plan. But when executing as a stored procedure, it creates the entire execution plan at once, thus it can't use this bit of information to optimize the plan. But why does using the locally declared variables change this? Why does that delay the creation of the execution plan? Is that actually what's happening? If so, is there a way to force delayed compilation (if that indeed is what's going on here) even when not using local variables in this way? More generally, does anyone have sources on when the execution plan is created for each step of a stored procedure? Googling hasn't provided any helpful information, but I don't think I'm looking for the right thing. Or is my theory just completely unfounded? Edit: Since posting, I've learned of parameter sniffing, and I assume this is what's causing the execution plan to compile prematurely (unless stored procedures indeed compile all at once), so my question remains -- can you force the delay? Or disable the sniffing entirely? The question is academic, since I can force a more efficient plan by replacing the select * from aGiantTable with select * from (select * from aGiantTable where ID in (select ID from #smallTable)) as aGiantTable Or just sucking it up and masking the parameters, but still, this inconsistency has me pretty curious.

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• PASS Summit Feedback

  - by Rob Farley

  PASS Feedback came in last week. I also saw my dentist for some fillings... At the PASS Summit this year, I delivered a couple of regular sessions and a Lightning Talk. People told me they enjoyed it, but when the rankings came out, they showed that I didn’t score particularly well. Brent Ozar was keen to discuss it with me. Brent: PASS speaker feedback is out. You did two sessions and a Lightning Talk. How did you go? Rob: Not so well actually, thanks for asking. Brent: Ha! Sorry. Of course you know that's why I wanted to discuss this with you. I was in one of your sessions at SQLBits in the UK a month before PASS, and I thought you rocked. You've got a really good and distinctive delivery style.  Then I noticed your talks were ranked in the bottom quarter of the Summit ratings and wanted to discuss it. Rob: Yeah, I know. You did ask me if we could do this...  I should explain – my presentation style is not the stereotypical IT conference one. I throw in jokes, and try to engage the audience thoroughly. I find many talks amazingly dry, and I guess I try to buck that trend. I also run training courses, and find that I get a lot of feedback from people thanking me for keeping things interesting. That said, I also get feedback criticising me for my style, and that’s basically what’s happened here. For the rest of this discussion, let’s focus on my talk about the Incredible Shrinking Execution Plan, which I considered to be my main talk. Brent: I thought that session title was the very best one at the entire Summit, and I had it on my recommended sessions list.  In four words, you managed to sum up the topic and your sense of humor.  I read that and immediately thought, "People need to be in this session," and then it didn't score well.  Tell me about your scores. Rob: The questions on the feedback form covered the usefulness of the information, the speaker’s presentation skills, their knowledge of the subject, how well the session was described, the amount of time allocated, and the quality of the presentation materials. Brent: Presentation materials? But you don’t do slides.  Did they rate your thong? Rob: No-one saw my flip-flops in this talk, Brent. I created a script in Management Studio, and published that afterwards, but I think people will have scored that question based on the lack of slides. I wasn’t expecting to do particularly well on that one. That was the only section that didn’t have 5/5 as the most popular score. Brent: See, that sucks, because cookbook-style scripts are often some of my favorites.  Adam Machanic's Service Broker workbench series helped me immensely when I was prepping for the MCM.  As an attendee, I'd rather have a commented script than a slide deck.  So how did you rank so low? Rob: When I look at the scores that you got (based on your blog post), you got very few scores below 3 – people that felt strong enough about your talk to post a negative score. In my scores, between 5% and 10% were below 3 (except on the question about whether I knew my stuff – I guess I came as knowledgeable). Brent: Wow – so quite a few people really didn’t like your talk then? Rob: Yeah. Mind you, based on the comments, some people really loved it. I’d like to think that there would be a certain portion of the room who may have rated the talk as one of the best of the conference. Some of my comments included “amazing!”, “Best presentation so far!”, “Wow, best session yet”, “fantastic” and “Outstanding!”. I think lots of talks can be “Great”, but not so many talks can be “Outstanding” without the word losing its meaning. One wrote “Pretty amazing presentation, considering it was completely extemporaneous.” Brent: Extemporaneous, eh? Rob: Yeah. I guess they don’t realise how much preparation goes into coming across as unprepared. In many ways it’s much easier to give a written speech than to deliver a presentation without slides as a prompt. Brent: That delivery style, the really relaxed, casual, college-professor approach was one of the things I really liked about your presentation at SQLbits.  As somebody who presents a lot, I "get" it - I know how hard it is to come off as relaxed and comfortable with your own material.  It's like improv done by jazz players and comedians - if you've never tried it, you don't realize how hard it is.  People also don't realize how hard it is to make a tough subject fun. Rob: Yeah well... There will be people writing comments on this post that say I wasn't trying to make the subject fun, and that I was making it all about me. Sometimes the style works, sometimes it doesn't. Most of the comments mentioned the fact that I tell jokes, some in a nice way, but some not so much (and it wasn't just a PASS thing - that's the mix of feedback I generally get). One comment at PASS was: “great stand up comedian - not what I'm looking for at pass”, and there were certainly a few that said “too many jokes”. I’m not trying to do stand-up – jokes are my way of engaging with the audience while I demonstrate some of the amazing things that the Query Optimizer can do if you write your queries the right way. Some people didn’t think it was technical enough, but I’ve also had some people tell me that the concepts I’m explaining are deep and profound. Brent: To me, that's a hallmark of a great explanation - when someone says, "But of course it has to work that way - how could it work any other way?  It seems so simple and logical."  Well, sure it does when it's explained correctly, but now pick up any number of thick SQL Server books and try to understand the Redundant Joins concept.  I guarantee it'll take more than 45 minutes. Rob: Some people in my audiences realise that, but definitely not everyone. There's only so much you can tell someone that something is profound. Generally it's something that they either have an epiphany on or not. I like to lull my audience into knowing what's going on, and do something that surprises them. Gain their trust, build a rapport, and then show them the deeper truth of what just happened. Brent: So you've learned your lesson about presentation scores, right?  From here on out, you're going to be dry, humorless, and all your presentations will consist of you reading bullet points off the screen. Rob: No Brent, I’m not. I'm also not going to suggest that most presentations at PASS are like that. No-one tries to present like that. There's a big space to occupy between what "dry and humourless" and me. My difference is to focus on the relationship I have with the crowd, rather than focussing on delivering the perfect session. I want to see people smiling and know they're relaxed. I think most presenters focus on the material, which is completely reasonable and safe. I remember once hearing someone talking about product creation. They talked about mediocrity. They said that one of the worst things that people can ever say about your product is that it’s “good”. What you want is for 10% of the world to love it enough to want to buy it. If 10% the world gave me a dollar, I’d have more money than I could ever use (assuming it wasn’t the SAME dollar they were giving me I guess). Brent: It's the Raving Fans theory.  It's better to have a small number of raving customers than a large number of almost-but-not-really customers who don't care that much about your product or service.  I know exactly how you feel - when I got survey feedback from my Quest video presentation when I was dressed up in a Richard Simmons costume, some of the attendees said I was unprofessional and distracting.  Some of the attendees couldn't get enough and Photoshopped all kinds of stuff into the screen captures.  On a whole, I probably didn't score that well, and I'm fine with that.  It sucks to look at the scores though - do those lower scores bother you? Rob: Of course they do. It hurts deeply. I open myself up and give presentations in a very personal way. All presenters do that, and we all feel the pain of negative feedback. I hate coming 146th & 162nd out of 185, but have to acknowledge that many sessions did worse still. Plus, once I feel the wounds have healed, I’ll be able to remember that there are people in the world that rave about my presentation style, and figure that people will hopefully talk about me. One day maybe those people that don’t like my presentation style will stay away and I might be able to score better. You don’t pay to hear country music if you prefer western... Lots of people find chili too spicy, but it’s still a popular food. Brent: But don’t you want to appeal to everyone? Rob: I do, but I don’t want to be lukewarm as in Revelation 3:16. I’d rather disgust and be discussed. Well, maybe not ‘disgust’, but I don’t want to conform. Conformity just isn’t the same any more. I’m not sure I’ve ever been one to do that. I try not to offend, but definitely like to be different. Brent: Count me among your raving fans, sir.  Where can we see you next? Rob: Considering I live in Adelaide in Australia, I’m not about to appear at anyone’s local SQL Saturday. I’m still trying to plan which events I’ll get to in 2011. I’ve submitted abstracts for TechEd North America, but won’t hold my breath. I’m also considering the SQLBits conferences in the UK in April, PASS in October, and I’m sure I’ll do some LiveMeeting presentations for user groups. Online, people download some of my recent SQLBits presentations at http://bit.ly/RFSarg and http://bit.ly/Simplification though. And they can download a 5-minute MP3 of my Lightning Talk at http://www.lobsterpot.com.au/files/Collation.mp3, in which I try to explain the idea behind collation, using thongs as an example. Brent: I was in the audience for http://bit.ly/RFSarg. That was a great presentation. Rob: Thanks, Brent. Now where’s my dollar?

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• So…is it a Seek or a Scan?

  - by Paul White

  You’re probably most familiar with the terms ‘Seek’ and ‘Scan’ from the graphical plans produced by SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS).  The image to the left shows the most common ones, with the three types of scan at the top, followed by four types of seek.  You might look to the SSMS tool-tip descriptions to explain the differences between them: Not hugely helpful are they?  Both mention scans and ranges (nothing about seeks) and the Index Seek description implies that it will not scan the index entirely (which isn’t necessarily true). Recall also yesterday’s post where we saw two Clustered Index Seek operations doing very different things.  The first Seek performed 63 single-row seeking operations; and the second performed a ‘Range Scan’ (more on those later in this post).  I hope you agree that those were two very different operations, and perhaps you are wondering why there aren’t different graphical plan icons for Range Scans and Seeks?  I have often wondered about that, and the first person to mention it after yesterday’s post was Erin Stellato (twitter | blog): Before we go on to make sense of all this, let’s look at another example of how SQL Server confusingly mixes the terms ‘Scan’ and ‘Seek’ in different contexts.  The diagram below shows a very simple heap table with two columns, one of which is the non-clustered Primary Key, and the other has a non-unique non-clustered index defined on it.  The right hand side of the diagram shows a simple query, it’s associated query plan, and a couple of extracts from the SSMS tool-tip and Properties windows. Notice the ‘scan direction’ entry in the Properties window snippet.  Is this a seek or a scan?  The different references to Scans and Seeks are even more pronounced in the XML plan output that the graphical plan is based on.  This fragment is what lies behind the single Index Seek icon shown above: You’ll find the same confusing references to Seeks and Scans throughout the product and its documentation. Making Sense of Seeks Let’s forget all about scans for a moment, and think purely about seeks.  Loosely speaking, a seek is the process of navigating an index B-tree to find a particular index record, most often at the leaf level.  A seek starts at the root and navigates down through the levels of the index to find the point of interest: Singleton Lookups The simplest sort of seek predicate performs this traversal to find (at most) a single record.  This is the case when we search for a single value using a unique index and an equality predicate.  It should be readily apparent that this type of search will either find one record, or none at all.  This operation is known as a singleton lookup.  Given the example table from before, the following query is an example of a singleton lookup seek: Sadly, there’s nothing in the graphical plan or XML output to show that this is a singleton lookup – you have to infer it from the fact that this is a single-value equality seek on a unique index.  The other common examples of a singleton lookup are bookmark lookups – both the RID and Key Lookup forms are singleton lookups (an RID lookup finds a single record in a heap from the unique row locator, and a Key Lookup does much the same thing on a clustered table).  If you happen to run your query with STATISTICS IO ON, you will notice that ‘Scan Count’ is always zero for a singleton lookup. Range Scans The other type of seek predicate is a ‘seek plus range scan’, which I will refer to simply as a range scan.  The seek operation makes an initial descent into the index structure to find the first leaf row that qualifies, and then performs a range scan (either backwards or forwards in the index) until it reaches the end of the scan range. The ability of a range scan to proceed in either direction comes about because index pages at the same level are connected by a doubly-linked list – each page has a pointer to the previous page (in logical key order) as well as a pointer to the following page.  The doubly-linked list is represented by the green and red dotted arrows in the index diagram presented earlier.  One subtle (but important) point is that the notion of a ‘forward’ or ‘backward’ scan applies to the logical key order defined when the index was built.  In the present case, the non-clustered primary key index was created as follows: CREATE TABLE dbo.Example ( key_col INTEGER NOT NULL, data INTEGER NOT NULL, CONSTRAINT [PK dbo.Example key_col] PRIMARY KEY NONCLUSTERED (key_col ASC) ) ; Notice that the primary key index specifies an ascending sort order for the single key column.  This means that a forward scan of the index will retrieve keys in ascending order, while a backward scan would retrieve keys in descending key order.  If the index had been created instead on key_col DESC, a forward scan would retrieve keys in descending order, and a backward scan would return keys in ascending order. A range scan seek predicate may have a Start condition, an End condition, or both.  Where one is missing, the scan starts (or ends) at one extreme end of the index, depending on the scan direction.  Some examples might help clarify that: the following diagram shows four queries, each of which performs a single seek against a column holding every integer from 1 to 100 inclusive.  The results from each query are shown in the blue columns, and relevant attributes from the Properties window appear on the right: Query 1 specifies that all key_col values less than 5 should be returned in ascending order.  The query plan achieves this by seeking to the start of the index leaf (there is no explicit starting value) and scanning forward until the End condition (key_col < 5) is no longer satisfied (SQL Server knows it can stop looking as soon as it finds a key_col value that isn’t less than 5 because all later index entries are guaranteed to sort higher). Query 2 asks for key_col values greater than 95, in descending order.  SQL Server returns these results by seeking to the end of the index, and scanning backwards (in descending key order) until it comes across a row that isn’t greater than 95.  Sharp-eyed readers may notice that the end-of-scan condition is shown as a Start range value.  This is a bug in the XML show plan which bubbles up to the Properties window – when a backward scan is performed, the roles of the Start and End values are reversed, but the plan does not reflect that.  Oh well. Query 3 looks for key_col values that are greater than or equal to 10, and less than 15, in ascending order.  This time, SQL Server seeks to the first index record that matches the Start condition (key_col >= 10) and then scans forward through the leaf pages until the End condition (key_col < 15) is no longer met. Query 4 performs much the same sort of operation as Query 3, but requests the output in descending order.  Again, we have to mentally reverse the Start and End conditions because of the bug, but otherwise the process is the same as always: SQL Server finds the highest-sorting record that meets the condition ‘key_col < 25’ and scans backward until ‘key_col >= 20’ is no longer true. One final point to note: seek operations always have the Ordered: True attribute.  This means that the operator always produces rows in a sorted order, either ascending or descending depending on how the index was defined, and whether the scan part of the operation is forward or backward.  You cannot rely on this sort order in your queries of course (you must always specify an ORDER BY clause if order is important) but SQL Server can make use of the sort order internally.  In the four queries above, the query optimizer was able to avoid an explicit Sort operator to honour the ORDER BY clause, for example. Multiple Seek Predicates As we saw yesterday, a single index seek plan operator can contain one or more seek predicates.  These seek predicates can either be all singleton seeks or all range scans – SQL Server does not mix them.  For example, you might expect the following query to contain two seek predicates, a singleton seek to find the single record in the unique index where key_col = 10, and a range scan to find the key_col values between 15 and 20: SELECT key_col FROM dbo.Example WHERE key_col = 10 OR key_col BETWEEN 15 AND 20 ORDER BY key_col ASC ; In fact, SQL Server transforms the singleton seek (key_col = 10) to the equivalent range scan, Start:[key_col >= 10], End:[key_col <= 10].  This allows both range scans to be evaluated by a single seek operator.  To be clear, this query results in two range scans: one from 10 to 10, and one from 15 to 20. Final Thoughts That’s it for today – tomorrow we’ll look at monitoring singleton lookups and range scans, and I’ll show you a seek on a heap table. Yes, a seek.  On a heap.  Not an index! If you would like to run the queries in this post for yourself, there’s a script below.  Thanks for reading! IF OBJECT_ID(N'dbo.Example', N'U') IS NOT NULL BEGIN DROP TABLE dbo.Example; END ; -- Test table is a heap -- Non-clustered primary key on 'key_col' CREATE TABLE dbo.Example ( key_col INTEGER NOT NULL, data INTEGER NOT NULL, CONSTRAINT [PK dbo.Example key_col] PRIMARY KEY NONCLUSTERED (key_col) ) ; -- Non-unique non-clustered index on the 'data' column CREATE NONCLUSTERED INDEX [IX dbo.Example data] ON dbo.Example (data) ; -- Add 100 rows INSERT dbo.Example WITH (TABLOCKX) ( key_col, data ) SELECT key_col = V.number, data = V.number FROM master.dbo.spt_values AS V WHERE V.[type] = N'P' AND V.number BETWEEN 1 AND 100 ; -- ================ -- Singleton lookup -- ================ ; -- Single value equality seek in a unique index -- Scan count = 0 when STATISTIS IO is ON -- Check the XML SHOWPLAN SELECT E.key_col FROM dbo.Example AS E WHERE E.key_col = 32 ; -- =========== -- Range Scans -- =========== ; -- Query 1 SELECT E.key_col FROM dbo.Example AS E WHERE E.key_col <= 5 ORDER BY E.key_col ASC ; -- Query 2 SELECT E.key_col FROM dbo.Example AS E WHERE E.key_col > 95 ORDER BY E.key_col DESC ; -- Query 3 SELECT E.key_col FROM dbo.Example AS E WHERE E.key_col >= 10 AND E.key_col < 15 ORDER BY E.key_col ASC ; -- Query 4 SELECT E.key_col FROM dbo.Example AS E WHERE E.key_col >= 20 AND E.key_col < 25 ORDER BY E.key_col DESC ; -- Final query (singleton + range = 2 range scans) SELECT E.key_col FROM dbo.Example AS E WHERE E.key_col = 10 OR E.key_col BETWEEN 15 AND 20 ORDER BY E.key_col ASC ; -- === TIDY UP === DROP TABLE dbo.Example; © 2011 Paul White email: [email protected] twitter: @SQL_Kiwi

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• SQL SERVER – Weekly Series – Memory Lane – #033

  - by Pinal Dave

  Here is the list of selected articles of SQLAuthority.com across all these years. Instead of just listing all the articles I have selected a few of my most favorite articles and have listed them here with additional notes below it. Let me know which one of the following is your favorite article from memory lane. 2007 Spatial Database Definition and Research Documents Here is the definition from Wikipedia about spatial database : A spatial database is a database that is optimized to store and query data related to objects in space, including points, lines and polygons. While typical databases can understand various numeric and character types of data, additional functionality needs to be added for databases to process spatial data types. Select Only Date Part From DateTime – Best Practice A very common question which I receive is how to only get Date or Time part from datetime value. In this blog post I explain the same in very simple words. T-SQL Paging Query Technique Comparison (OVER and ROW_NUMBER()) – CTE vs. Derived Table I have received few emails and comments about my post SQL SERVER – T-SQL Paging Query Technique Comparison – SQL 2000 vs SQL 2005. The main question was is this can be done using CTE? Absolutely! What about Performance? It is identical! Please refer above mentioned article for the history of paging. SQL SERVER – Cannot resolve collation conflict for equal to operation One of the very first error I ever encountered in my career was to resolve this conflict. I have blogged about it and I have realized that many others like me who are facing this error. LEN and DATALENGTH of NULL Simple Example Here is the question for you what is the LEN of NULL value? Well it is very easy – just read the blog. Recovery Models and Selection Very simple and easy explanation of the Database Backup Recovery Model and how to select the best option for you. Explanation SQL SERVER Hash Join Hash join gives best performance when two more join tables are joined and at-least one of them have no index or is not sorted. It is also expected that smaller of the either of table can be read in memory completely (though not necessary). Easy Sequence of SELECT FROM JOIN WHERE GROUP BY HAVING ORDER BY SELECT yourcolumns FROM tablenames JOIN tablenames WHERE condition GROUP BY yourcolumns HAVING aggregatecolumn condition ORDER BY yourcolumns NorthWind Database or AdventureWorks Database – Samples Databases In this blog post we learn how to install Northwind database. I also shared the source where one can download this database as that is used in many examples on MSDN help files. sp_HelpText for sp_HelpText – Puzzle A simple quick puzzle – do you know the answer of it? If not, go ahead and read the blog. 2008 SQL SERVER – 2008 – Step By Step Installation Guide With Images When SQL Server 2008 was newly introduced lots of people had no clue how to install SQL Server 2008 and the amount of the question which I used to receive were so much. I wrote this blog post with the spirit that this will help all the newbies to install SQL Server 2008 with the help of images. Still today this blog post has been bible for all of the people who are confused with SQL Server installation. Inline Variable Assignment I loved this feature. I have always wanted this feature to be present in SQL Server. The last time when I met developers from Microsoft SQL Server, I had talked about this feature. I think this feature saves some time but make the code more readable. Introduction to Policy Management – Enforcing Rules on SQL Server If our company policy is to create all the Stored Procedure with prefix ‘usp’ that developers should be just prevented to create Stored Procedure with any other prefix. Let us see a small tutorial how to create conditions and policy which will prevent any future SP to be created with any other prefix. 2009 Performance Counters from System Views – By Kevin Mckenna Many of you are not aware of this fact that access to performance information is readily available in SQL Server and that too without querying performance counters using a custom application or via perfmon. Till now, this fact has remained undisclosed but through this post I would like to explain you can easily access SQL Server performance counter information. Without putting much effort you will come across the system viewsys.dm_os_performance_counters. As the name suggests, this provides you easy access to the SQL Server performance counter information that is passed on to perfmon, but you can get at it via tsql. Customize Toolbar – Remove Debug Button from Toolbar I was fond of SQL Server Debugger feature in SQL Server 2000. To my utter disappointment, this feature was withdrawn from SQL Server 2005. The button of the debugger is similar to a play button and is used to run debugging commands of Visual Studio. Because of this reason, it gets very much infuriating for developers when they are developing on both – Visual Studio and SSMS. Let us now see how we can remove debugging button from SQL Server Management Studio. Effect of Normalization on Index and Performance A very interesting conversation which started from twitter. If you want to read one link this is the link I encourage you to read it. SSMS Feature – Multi-server Queries Using SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) DBAs can now query multiple servers from one window. It is quite common for DBAs with large amount of servers to maintain and gather information from multiple SQL Servers and create report. This feature is a blessing for the DBAs, as they can now assemble all the information instantaneously without going anywhere. Query Optimizer Hint ROBUST PLAN – Question to You “ROBUST PLAN” is a kind of query hint which works quite differently than other hints. It does not improve join or force any indexes to use; it just makes sure that a query does not crash due to over the limit size of row. Let me elaborate upon it in the blog post. 2010 Do you really know the difference between various date functions available in SQL Server 2012? Here is a three part story where we explored the same with examples: Fastest Way to Restore the Database Difference Between DATETIME and DATETIME2 Difference Between DATETIME and DATETIME2 – WITH GETDATE Shrinking NDF and MDF Files – Readers’ Opinion Shrinking Database always creates performance degradation and increases fragmentation in the database. I suggest that you keep that in mind before you start reading the following comment. If you are going to say Shrinking Database is bad and evil, here I am saying it first and loud. Now, the comment of Imran is written while keeping in mind only the process showing how the Shrinking Database Operation works. Imran has already explained his understanding and requests further explanation. I have removed the Best Practices section from Imran’s comments, as there are a few corrections. 2011 Solution – Puzzle – SELECT * vs SELECT COUNT(*) This is very interesting question and I am very confident that not every one knows the answer to this question. Let me ask you again – Which will be faster SELECT* or SELECT COUNT (*) or do you think this is apples and oranges comparison. 2012 Service Broker and CAP_CPU_PERCENT – Limiting SQL Server Instances to CPU Usage In SQL Server 2012 there are a few enhancements with regards to SQL Server Resource Governor. One of the enhancement is how the resources are allocated. Let me explain you with examples. Let us understand the entire discussion with the help of three different examples. Finding Size of a Columnstore Index Using DMVs One of the very common question I often see is need of the list of columnstore index along with their size and corresponding table name. I quickly re-wrote a script using DMVs sys.indexes and sys.dm_db_partition_stats. This script gives the size of the columnstore index on disk only. I am sure there will be advanced script to retrieve details related to components associated with the columnstore index. However, I believe following script is sufficient to start getting an idea of columnstore index size. Developer Training Resources and Summary Roundup Developer Training - Importance and Significance - Part 1 In this part we discussed the importance of training in the real world. The most important and valuable resource any company is its employee. Employees who have been well-trained will be better at their jobs and produce a better product.  An employee who is well trained obviously knows more about their job and all the technical aspects. I have a very high opinion about training employees and it is the most important task. Developer Training – Employee Morals and Ethics – Part 2 In this part we discussed the most crucial components of training. Often employees are expecting the company to pay for their training and the company expresses no interest in training the employee. Quite often training expenses are the real issue for both the employee and employer. Developer Training – Difficult Questions and Alternative Perspective - Part 3 This part was the most difficult to write as I tried to address a few difficult questions and answers. Training is such a sensitive issue that many developers when not receiving chance for training think about leaving the organization. Developer Training – Various Options for Developer Training – Part 4 In this part I tried to explore a few methods and options for training. The generic feedback I received on this blog post was short and I should have explored each of the subject of the training in details. I believe there are two big buckets of training 1) Instructor Lead Training and 2) Self Lead Training. Developer Training – A Conclusive Summary- Part 5 There is no better motivation than a personal desire to learn new technology. Honestly there is nothing more personal learning. That “change is the only constant” and “adapt & overcome” are the essential lessons of life. One cannot stop the learning and resist the change. In the IT industry “ego of knowing all” and the “resistance to change” are the most challenging issues. A Quick Look at Logging and Ideas around Logging Question: What is the first thing comes to your mind when you hear the word “Logging”? Strange enough I got a different answer every single time. Let me just list what answer I got from my friends. Let us go over them one by one. Beginning Performance Tuning with SQL Server Execution Plan Solution of Puzzle – Swap Value of Column Without Case Statement Earlier this week I asked a question where I asked how to Swap Values of the column without using CASE Statement. Read here: SQL SERVER – A Puzzle – Swap Value of Column Without Case Statement. I have proposed 3 different solutions in the blog posts itself. I had requested the help of the community to come up with alternate solutions and honestly I am stunned and amazed by the qualified entries. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Memory Lane, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Weekly Series – Memory Lane – #049

  - by Pinal Dave

  Here is the list of selected articles of SQLAuthority.com across all these years. Instead of just listing all the articles I have selected a few of my most favorite articles and have listed them here with additional notes below it. Let me know which one of the following is your favorite article from memory lane. 2007 Two Connections Related Global Variables Explained – @@CONNECTIONS and @@MAX_CONNECTIONS @@CONNECTIONS Returns the number of attempted connections, either successful or unsuccessful since SQL Server was last started. @@MAX_CONNECTIONS Returns the maximum number of simultaneous user connections allowed on an instance of SQL Server. The number returned is not necessarily the number currently configured. Query Editor – Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio This post may be very simple for most of the users of SQL Server 2005. Earlier this year, I have received one question many times – Where is Query Analyzer in SQL Server 2005? I wrote small post about it and pointed many users to that post – SQL SERVER – 2005 Query Analyzer – Microsoft SQL SERVER Management Studio. Recently I have been receiving similar question. OUTPUT Clause Example and Explanation with INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE SQL Server 2005 has a new OUTPUT clause, which is quite useful. OUTPUT clause has access to insert and deleted tables (virtual tables) just like triggers. OUTPUT clause can be used to return values to client clause. OUTPUT clause can be used with INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE to identify the actual rows affected by these statements. OUTPUT clause can generate a table variable, a permanent table, or temporary table. Even though, @@Identity will still work with SQL Server 2005, however I find the OUTPUT clause very easy and powerful to use. Let us understand the OUTPUT clause using an example. Find Name of The SQL Server Instance Based on database server stored procedures has to run different logic. We came up with two different solutions. 1) When database schema is very much changed, we wrote completely new stored procedure and deprecated older version once it was not needed. 2) When logic depended on Server Name we used global variable @@SERVERNAME. It was very convenient while writing migrating script which depended on the server name for the same database. Explanation of TRY…CATCH and ERROR Handling With RAISEERROR Function One of the developers at my company thought that we can not use the RAISEERROR function in new feature of SQL Server 2005 TRY… CATCH. When asked for an explanation he suggested SQL SERVER – 2005 Explanation of TRY… CATCH and ERROR Handling article as excuse suggesting that I did not give example of RAISEERROR with TRY…CATCH. We all thought it was funny. Just to keep records straight, TRY… CATCH can sure use RAISEERROR function. Different Types of Cache Objects Serveral kinds of objects can be stored in the procedure cache: Compiled Plans: When the query optimizer finishes compiling a query plan, the principal output is compiled plan. Execution contexts: While executing a compiled plan, SQL Server has to keep track of information about the state of execution. Cursors: Cursors track the execution state of server-side cursors, including the cursor’s current location within a resultset. Algebrizer trees: The Algebrizer’s job is to produce an algebrizer tree, which represents the logic structure of a query. Open SSMS From Command Prompt – sqlwb.exe Example This article is written by request and suggestion of Sr. Web Developer at my organization. Due to the nature of this article most of the content is referred from Book On-Line. sqlwbcommand prompt utility which opens SQL Server Management Studio. Squib command does not run queries from the command prompt. sqlcmd utility runs queries from command prompt, read for more information. 2008 Puzzle – Solution – Computed Columns Datatype Explanation Just a day before I wrote article SQL SERVER – Puzzle – Computed Columns Datatype Explanation which was inspired by SQL Server MVP Jacob Sebastian. I suggest that before continuing this article read the original puzzle question SQL SERVER – Puzzle – Computed Columns Datatype Explanation.The question was if the computed column was of datatype TINYINT how to create a Computed Column of datatype INT? 2008 – Find If Index is Being Used in Database It is very often I get a query that how to find if any index is being used in the database or not. If any database has many indexes and not all indexes are used it can adversely affect performance. If the number of indices are higher it reduces the INSERT / UPDATE / DELETE operation but increase the SELECT operation. It is recommended to drop any unused indexes from table to improve the performance. 2009 Interesting Observation – Execution Plan and Results of Aggregate Concatenation Queries If you want to see what’s going on here, I think you need to shift your point of view from an implementation-centric view to an ANSI point of view. ANSI does not guarantee processing the order. Figure 2 is interesting, but it will be potentially misleading if you don’t understand the ANSI rule-set SQL Server operates under in most cases. Implementation thinking can certainly be useful at times when you really need that multi-million row query to finish before the backup fire off, but in this case, it’s counterproductive to understanding what is going on. SQL Server Management Studio and Client Statistics Client Statistics are very important. Many a times, people relate queries execution plan to query cost. This is not a good comparison. Both parameters are different, and they are not always related. It is possible that the query cost of any statement is less, but the amount of the data returned is considerably larger, which is causing any query to run slow. How do we know if any query is retrieving a large amount data or very little data? 2010 I encourage all of you to go through complete series and write your own on the subject. If you write an article and send it to me, I will publish it on this blog with due credit to you. If you write on your own blog, I will update this blog post pointing to your blog post. SQL SERVER – ORDER BY Does Not Work – Limitation of the View 1 SQL SERVER – Adding Column is Expensive by Joining Table Outside View – Limitation of the View 2 SQL SERVER – Index Created on View not Used Often – Limitation of the View 3 SQL SERVER – SELECT * and Adding Column Issue in View – Limitation of the View 4 SQL SERVER – COUNT(*) Not Allowed but COUNT_BIG(*) Allowed – Limitation of the View 5 SQL SERVER – UNION Not Allowed but OR Allowed in Index View – Limitation of the View 6 SQL SERVER – Cross Database Queries Not Allowed in Indexed View – Limitation of the View 7 SQL SERVER – Outer Join Not Allowed in Indexed Views – Limitation of the View 8 SQL SERVER – SELF JOIN Not Allowed in Indexed View – Limitation of the View 9 SQL SERVER – Keywords View Definition Must Not Contain for Indexed View – Limitation of the View 10 SQL SERVER – View Over the View Not Possible with Index View – Limitations of the View 11 SQL SERVER – Get Query Running in Session I was recently looking for syntax where I needed a query running in any particular session. I always remembered the syntax and ha d actually written it down before, but somehow it was not coming to mind quickly this time. I searched online and I ended up on my own article written last year SQL SERVER – Get Last Running Query Based on SPID. I felt that I am getting old because I forgot this really simple syntax. Find Total Number of Transaction on Interval In one of my recent Performance Tuning assignments I was asked how do someone know how many transactions are happening on a server during certain interval. I had a handy script for the same. Following script displays transactions happened on the server at the interval of one minute. You can change the WAITFOR DELAY to any other interval and it should work. 2011 Here are two DMV’s which are newly introduced in SQL Server 2012 and provides vital information about SQL Server. DMV – sys.dm_os_volume_stats – Information about operating system volume DMV – sys.dm_os_windows_info – Information about Operating System SQL Backup and FTP – A Quick and Handy Tool I have used this tool extensively since 2009 at numerous occasion and found it to be very impressive. What separates it from the crowd the most – it is it’s apparent simplicity and speed. When I install SQLBackupAndFTP and configure backups – all in 1 or 2 minutes, my clients are always impressed. Quick Note about JOIN – Common Questions and Simple Answers In this blog post we are going to talk about join and lots of things related to the JOIN. I recently started office hours to answer questions and issues of the community. I receive so many questions that are related to JOIN. I will share a few of the same over here. Most of them are basic, but note that the basics are of great importance. 2012 Importance of User Without Login Question: “In recent version of SQL Server we can create user without login. What is the use of it?” Great question indeed. Let me first attempt to answer this question but after reading my answer I need your help. I want you to help him as well with adding more value to it. Preserve Leading Zero While Coping to Excel from SSMS Earlier I wrote two articles about how to efficiently copy data from SSMS to Excel. Since I wrote that post there are plenty of interest generated on this subject. There are a few questions I keep on getting over this subject. One of the question is how to get the leading zero preserved while copying the data from SSMS to Excel. Well it is almost the same way as my earlier post SQL SERVER – Excel Losing Decimal Values When Value Pasted from SSMS ResultSet. The key here is in EXCEL and not in SQL Server. Solution – 2 T-SQL Puzzles – Display Star and Shortest Code to Display 1 Earlier on this blog we had asked two puzzles. The response from all of you is nothing but Amazing. I have received 350+ responses. Many are valid and many were indeed something I had not thought about it. I strongly suggest you read all the puzzles and their answers here - trust me if you start reading the comments you will not stop till you read every single comment. Seriously trust me on it. Personally I have learned a lot from it. Identify Most Resource Intensive Queries – SQL in Sixty Seconds #028 – Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvlYy-TGaaA Importance of User Without Login – T-SQL Demo Script Earlier I wrote a blog post about SQL SERVER – Importance of User Without Login and my friend and SQL Expert Vinod Kumar has written excellent follow up blog post about Contained Databases inside SQL Server 2012. Now lots of people asked me if I can also explain the same concept again so here is the small demonstration for it. Let me show you how login without user can help. Before we continue on this subject I strongly recommend that you read my earlier blog post here. In following demo I am going to demonstrate following situation. Login using the System Admin account Create a user without login Checking Access Impersonate the user without login Checking Access Revert Impersonation Give Permission to user without login Impersonate the user without login Checking Access Revert Impersonation Clean up Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Memory Lane, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• QR Code encoding and decoding using zxing

  - by helixed

  Okay, so I'm going to take the off chance that someone here has used zxing before. I'm developing a Java application, and one of the things it needs to do is encode a byte array of data into a QR Code and then decode it at a later time. Here's an example of what my encoder looks like: byte[] b = {0x48, 0x45, 0x4C, 0x4C, 0x4F}; //convert the byte array into a UTF-8 string String data; try { data = new String(b, "UTF8"); } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) { //the program shouldn't be able to get here return; } //get a byte matrix for the data ByteMatrix matrix; com.google.zxing.Writer writer = new QRCodeWriter(); try { matrix = writer.encode(data, com.google.zxing.BarcodeFormat.QR_CODE, width, height); } catch (com.google.zxing.WriterException e) { //exit the method return; } //generate an image from the byte matrix int width = matrix.getWidth(); int height = matrix.getHeight(); byte[][] array = matrix.getArray(); //create buffered image to draw to BufferedImage image = new BufferedImage(width, height, BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_RGB); //iterate through the matrix and draw the pixels to the image for (int y = 0; y < height; y++) { for (int x = 0; x < width; x++) { int grayValue = array[y][x] & 0xff; image.setRGB(x, y, (grayValue == 0 ? 0 : 0xFFFFFF)); } } //write the image to the output stream ImageIO.write(image, "png", outputStream); The beginning byte array in this code is just used to test it. The actual byte data will be varied. Here's what my decoder looks like: //get the data from the input stream BufferedImage image = ImageIO.read(inputStream); //convert the image to a binary bitmap source LuminanceSource source = new BufferedImageLuminanceSource(image); BinaryBitmap bitmap = new BinaryBitmap(new HybridBinarizer(source)); //decode the barcode QRCodeReader reader = new QRCodeReader(); Result result; try { result = reader.decode(bitmap, hints); } catch (ReaderException e) { //the data is improperly formatted throw new MCCDatabaseMismatchException(); } byte[] b = result.getRawBytes(); System.out.println(ByteHelper.convertUnsignedBytesToHexString(result.getText().getBytes("UTF8"))); System.out.println(ByteHelper.convertUnsignedBytesToHexString(b)); convertUnsignedBytesToHexString(byte) is a method which converts an array of bytes in a string of hexadecimal characters. When I try to run these two blocks of code together, this is the output: 48454c4c4f 202b0b78cc00ec11ec11ec11ec11ec11ec11ec Clearly the text is being encoded, but the actual bytes of data are completely off. Any help would be appreciated here. Thanks, helixed

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• Making a ViewFlipper like the Home Screen using MotionEvent.ACTION_MOVE

  - by DJTripleThreat

  Ok I have a ViewFlipper with three LinearLayouts nested inside it. It defaults to showing the first one. This code: // Assumptions in my Activity class: // oldTouchValue is a float // vf is my view flipper @Override public boolean onTouchEvent(MotionEvent touchEvent) { switch (touchEvent.getAction()) { case MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN: { oldTouchValue = touchEvent.getX(); break; } case MotionEvent.ACTION_UP: { float currentX = touchEvent.getX(); if (oldTouchValue < currentX) { vf.setInAnimation(AnimationHelper.inFromLeftAnimation()); vf.setOutAnimation(AnimationHelper.outToRightAnimation()); vf.showNext(); } if (oldTouchValue > currentX) { vf.setInAnimation(AnimationHelper.inFromRightAnimation()); vf.setOutAnimation(AnimationHelper.outToLeftAnimation()); vf.showPrevious(); } break; } case MotionEvent.ACTION_MOVE: { // TODO: Some code to make the ViewFlipper // act like the home screen. break; } } return false; } public static class AnimationHelper { public static Animation inFromRightAnimation() { Animation inFromRight = new TranslateAnimation( Animation.RELATIVE_TO_PARENT, +1.0f, Animation.RELATIVE_TO_PARENT, 0.0f, Animation.RELATIVE_TO_PARENT, 0.0f, Animation.RELATIVE_TO_PARENT, 0.0f); inFromRight.setDuration(350); inFromRight.setInterpolator(new AccelerateInterpolator()); return inFromRight; } public static Animation outToLeftAnimation() { Animation outtoLeft = new TranslateAnimation( Animation.RELATIVE_TO_PARENT, 0.0f, Animation.RELATIVE_TO_PARENT, -1.0f, Animation.RELATIVE_TO_PARENT, 0.0f, Animation.RELATIVE_TO_PARENT, 0.0f); outtoLeft.setDuration(350); outtoLeft.setInterpolator(new AccelerateInterpolator()); return outtoLeft; } // for the next movement public static Animation inFromLeftAnimation() { Animation inFromLeft = new TranslateAnimation( Animation.RELATIVE_TO_PARENT, -1.0f, Animation.RELATIVE_TO_PARENT, 0.0f, Animation.RELATIVE_TO_PARENT, 0.0f, Animation.RELATIVE_TO_PARENT, 0.0f); inFromLeft.setDuration(350); inFromLeft.setInterpolator(new AccelerateInterpolator()); return inFromLeft; } public static Animation outToRightAnimation() { Animation outtoRight = new TranslateAnimation( Animation.RELATIVE_TO_PARENT, 0.0f, Animation.RELATIVE_TO_PARENT, +1.0f, Animation.RELATIVE_TO_PARENT, 0.0f, Animation.RELATIVE_TO_PARENT, 0.0f); outtoRight.setDuration(350); outtoRight.setInterpolator(new AccelerateInterpolator()); return outtoRight; } } ... handles the view flipping but the animations are very "on/off". I'm wondering if someone can help me out with the last part. Assuming that I can access the LinearLayouts, is there a way where I can set the position of the layouts based on deltaX and deltaY? Someone gave me this link: https://android.git.kernel.org/?p=platform/frameworks/base.git;a=blob;f=core/java/android/view/animation/TranslateAnimation.java;h=d2ff754ac327dda0fe35e610752abb78904fbb66;hb=HEAD and said I should refer to the applyTransformation method for hints on how to do this but I don't know how to repeat this same behavior.

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• How to add SQLite (SQLite.NET) to my C# project

  - by Lirik

  I followed the instructions in the documentation: Scenario 1: Version Independent (does not use the Global Assembly Cache) This method allows you to drop any new version of the System.Data.SQLite.DLL into your application's folder and use it without any code modifications or recompiling. Add the following code to your app.config file: <configuration> <system.data> <DbProviderFactories> <remove invariant="System.Data.SQLite"/> <add name="SQLite Data Provider" invariant="System.Data.SQLite" description=".Net Framework Data Provider for SQLite" type="System.Data.SQLite.SQLiteFactory, System.Data.SQLite" /> </DbProviderFactories> </system.data> </configuration> My app.config file now looks like this: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <configuration> <configSections> <sectionGroup name="userSettings" type="System.Configuration.UserSettingsGroup, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" > <section name="DataFeed.DataFeedSettings" type="System.Configuration.ClientSettingsSection, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" allowExeDefinition="MachineToLocalUser" requirePermission="false" /> </sectionGroup> </configSections> <userSettings> <DataFeed.DataFeedSettings> <setting name="eodData" serializeAs="String"> <value>False</value> </setting> </DataFeed.DataFeedSettings> </userSettings> <system.data> <DbProviderFactories> <remove invariant="System.Data.SQLite"/> <add name="SQLite Data Provider" invariant="System.Data.SQLite" description=".Net Framework Data Provider for SQLite" type="System.Data.SQLite.SQLiteFactory, System.Data.SQLite" /> </DbProviderFactories> </system.data> </configuration> My project is called "DataFeed": using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using System.Data.SQLite; //<-- Causes compiler error namespace DataFeed { class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { } } } The error I get is: .\dev\DataFeed\Program.cs(5,19): error CS0234: The type or namespace name 'SQLite' does not exist in the namespace 'System.Data' (are you missing an assembly reference?) I'm not using the GAC, I simply dropped the System.Data.SQLite.dll into my .\dev\DataFeed\ folder. I thought that all I needed to do is add the DLL to the project folder as it was mentioned in the documentation. Any hints on how to actually make this work?

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