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• New e learning course on Business Intelligence

  - by simonsabin

  I just got this from fello SQL MVP Chris Testa O'Neil   "I am pleased to announce the release of the Author Model eCourseCollection 6233 AE: Implementing and Maintaining Business Intelligence in Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008: Integration Services, Reporting Services and Analysis Services This 24-hour collection provides you with the skills and knowledge required for implementing and maintaining business intelligence solutions on SQL Server 2008. You will learn about the SQL Server technologies, such as Integration Services, Analysis Services, and Reporting Services. This collection also helps students to prepare for Exam 70-448 and can be accessed from: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/elearning/course/6233.mspx   

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• APress Deal of the Day 23/May/2014 - Pro WPF 4.5 in C#

  - by TATWORTH

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/TATWORTH/archive/2014/05/23/apress-deal-of-the-day-23may2014---pro-wpf-4.5.aspxToday’s $10 Deal of the Day from APress at http://www.apress.com/9781430243656 is Pro WPF 4.5 in C#. “This book shows you how Windows Presentation Foundation really works. It provides you with the no-nonsense, practical advice that you need in order to build high-quality WPF applications quickly and easily. Pro WPF 4.5 in C# provides a thorough, authoritative guide to how WPF really works. Packed with no-nonsense examples and practical advice you'll learn everything you need to know in order to use WPF in a professional setting. The book begins by building a firm foundation of elementary concepts, using your existing C# skills as a frame of reference, before moving on to discuss advanced concepts and demonstrate them in a hands-on way that emphasizes the time and effort savings that can be gained.”

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• Is there a way to use scala with html5?

  - by Maik Klein

  I want to create a very simple 2d multiplayer browsergame in html5. Something like Scalatron I mainly want to do this to improve my scala skills, the problem is I would have to code the clientside code in javascript and the serverside code in scala. This would result in duplicated code. Another option would be to ignore the html5 part and write it in opengl. But I would still prefer to have a html5 game. I could do this is in javascript, but then it would destroy the whole purpose of learning scala. Is there a way to use scala with html5? Or what would you recommend me to do?

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• Wine 1.2 crash after I start Mega 5.0

  - by Tomáš Šíma

  I installed Mega 5.0 by running "sudo sh MEGA5_Setup_deb_v2.sh" The application downloaded wine 1.2 as mega requires in order to work under Ubuntu. However every time I start the application through the icon provided, wine crashes asking me to send/save bug report, the problem is that if I choose to do so, megas starting window pops up covering the bug report window leaving me unable to do anything (as it won't move) The only solution I have come up with is to log out and log back in, as I cancels wine. I beg you following: Please post detailed step by step instructions how to deal with said problem Tell me if forceful log out, can damage computer of any of my data Please forgive me my weak English as it is not my native language. Also forgive me my weak skills concerning Ubuntu usage as I have me forced to switch to Ubuntu this very day. Thank you.

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• Must-do activities for a team leader, and time managing them

  - by MeLight

  This is a two part question Part one: I'm leading a small team of developers of mixed skills (juniors and seniors). I'm sometimes feeling that I focus too much on my own code, instead of seeing the big the picture, and managing the team. What would you say the most crucial non-coding activities for a team leader, related to his team members? Part two:Given that I know what other (non-coding stuff) I should be doing, what is a good time division between my own code writing and managing the other team members (code reviews, whiteboarding, meetings etc).

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• 13 Mobile Development Questions to Think About

  - by Eric Johnson

  Why is this important to our business? How is this different than how we develop today?   Why now? What new skills and technologies are required? What devices and standards should we target? Is context-awareness important? Where will applications be deployed? What enterprise capabilities are required to support mobile? What is the roadmap? How is this related or not related to the portal? Are we targeting internal apps, external apps, or both?   Who will consume the apps and with what? How does this change IT service offerings?

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• When is the best time to do self learning in relation with software management?

  - by shankbond

  It all started from here. I have been following Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art (Best Practices (Microsoft)). The third chapter says that in Software Management: You cannot give too much time to software developers, if you give it to them, then it is likely that extra time given to them will be filled by some other tasks (in other words, the developers will eat that time :)) Parkinson's Law You can also not squeeze the time from their schedule because if you do that, it is likely that they will develop poor quality product, poor design and will hurt you in the long run, there will be a panic situation and total chaos in the project, lots of rework etc. My question is related to the first point. If you don't give enough time then will the typical software engineer learn his/her skills? The market is always coming with new technologies, you need to learn them. Even with the existing familiar technologies there are always best practices and dos and don'ts.

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• Using Live Data in Database Development Work

  - by Phil Factor

  Guest Editorial for Simple-Talk Newsletter... in which Phil Factor reacts with some exasperation when coming across a report that a majority of companies were still using financial and personal data for both developing and testing database applications. If you routinely test your development work using real production data that contains personal or financial information, you are probably being irresponsible, and at worst, risking a heavy financial penalty for your company. Surprisingly, over 80% of financial companies still do this. Plenty of data breaches and fraud have happened from the use of real data for testing, and a data breach is a nightmare for any organisation that suffers one. The cost of each data breach averages out at around $7.2 million in the US in notification, escalation, credit monitoring, fines, litigation, legal costs, and lost business due to customer churn, £1.9 million in the UK. 70% of data breaches are done from within the organisation. Real data can be exploited in a number of ways for malicious or criminal purposes. It isn't just the obvious use of items such as name and address, date of birth, social security number, and credit card and bank account numbers: Data can be exploited in many subtle ways, so there are excellent reasons to ensure that a high priority is given to the detection and prevention of any data breaches. You'll never successfully guess all the ways that real data can be exploited maliciously, or the ease with which it can be accessed. It would be silly to argue that developers never need access to a copy of the database containing live data. Developers sometimes need to track a bug that can only be replicated on the data from the live database. However, it has to be done in a very restrictive harness. The law makes no distinction between development and production databases when a data breach occurs, so the data has to be held with all appropriate security measures in place. In Europe, the use of personal data for testing requires the explicit consent of the people whose data is being held. There are federal standards such as GLBA, PCI DSS and HIPAA, and most US States have privacy legislation. The task of ensuring compliance and tight security in such circumstances is an expensive and time-consuming overhead. The developer is likely to suffer investigation if a data breach occurs, even if the company manages to stay in business. Ironically, the use of copies of live data isn't usually the most effective way to develop or test your data. Data is usually time-specific and isn't usually current by the time it is used for testing, Existing data doesn't help much for new functionality, and every time the data is refreshed from production, any test data is likely to be overwritten. Also, it is not always going to test all the 'edge' conditions that are likely to flush out bugs. You still have the task of simulating the dynamics of actual usage of the database, and here you have no alternative to creating 'spoofed' data. Because of the complexities of relational data, It used to be that there was no realistic alternative to developing and testing with live data. However, this is no longer the case. Real data can be obfuscated, or it can be created entirely from scratch. The latter process used to be impractical, now that there are plenty of third-party tools to choose from. The process of obfuscation isn't risk free. The process must access the live data, and the success of the obfuscation process has to be carefully monitored. Database data security isn't an exciting topic to you or I, but to a hacker it can be an all-consuming obsession, especially if there is financial or political gain involved. This is not the sort of adversary one would wish for and it is far better to accept, and work with, security restrictions that exist for using live data in database development work, especially when the tools exist to create large realistic database test data that can be better for several aspects of testing.

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• Where do you search/look for game developers for an indie game startup?

  - by G.Campos

  Hey there I just recently saw stackoverflow had a game dev sister site so here I am, wondering if you experienced fellows know where one can search/look for game developers for an indie game startup? In other words: I have a game idea which I've written down with as much detail as possible (so anyone else can understand how it works) and now I'm looking for a heavy php programmer with whom to pair up in order to go from idea to reality. I'm a front-end/interface designer and an intermediate programmer. I recognize my project requires heavy programming skills which I do not have as of today =) So, what websites, communities or places do you recommend I go look into? Where do good programmers interested in indie games go look for projects if they don't have their own? Thanks in advance G.Campos

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• Catering for client's web-hosting needs, minus the headaches ?

  - by julien

  I'll be trying to sell my Ruby on Rails development skills to small local businesses. It seems I'd be shooting myself in the foot if I couldn't manage to put their apps into production, in fact catering for this would be a selling point. However, I do not want to bill every client monthly for the cost of their hosting, they would have to be the contract holders with the hosting service, and I'd only consult if they needed technical help when scaling. I've looked on one hand at cloud platforms, like engine yard, which seem like they would be too costly for the smaller clients, and on the other hand at vps providers which seem they would not be client friendly enough. Has anyone faced the same issue and come up with a decent solution ?

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• The first day of JavaOne is already over!

  - by delabassee

  In the past Sunday used to be a more relaxing day with ‘just’ some JavaOne activities going on. Sunday used to be a soft day to prepare yourself for an exhausting week. This is now over as JavaOne is expanding; Sunday is now an integral part of the conference. One of the side effect of this extra day is that some activities related to JavaOne and OpenWorld such as MySQL Connect are being push to start a day earlier on Saturday (can you spot the pattern here?). On the GlassFish front, Sunday was a very busy day! It started at the Moscone Center with the annual GlassFish Community Event where the Java EE 7 and GF 4 roadmaps were presented and discussed. During the event, different GlassFish users such as ZeroTurnaround (the JRebel guys), Grupo RBS and IDR Solutions shared their views on GF, why they like GF but also what could be improved. The event was also a forum for the GF community to exchange with some of the key Java EE / GlassFish Oracle Executives and the different GF team members. The Strategy keynote and the Technical keynote were held in the Masonic Auditorium later in the after-noon. Oracle executives have presented the plans for Java SE, Java FX and Java EE. As on-demand replays will be available soon, I will not summarize several hours of content but here are some personal takeaways from those keynotes. Modularity Modularity is a big deal. We know by now that Project Jigsaw will not be ready for Java SE 8 but in any case, it is already possible (and encouraged) to test Jigsaw today. In the future, Java EE plan to rely on the modularity features provided by Java SE, so Project Jigsaw is also relevant for Java EE developers. Shorter term, to cover some of the modular requirements, Java SE will adopt the approach that was used for Java EE 6 and the notion of Profiles. This approach does not define a module system per say; Profiles is a way to clearly define different subsets of Java SE to fulfill different needs (e.g. the full JRE is not required for a headless application). The introduction of different Profiles, from the Base profile (10mb) to the Full Profile (+50mb), has been proposed for Java SE 8. Embedded Embedded is a strong theme going forward for the Java Plaform. There is now a dedicated program : Java Embedded @ JavaOne Java by nature (e.g. platform independence, built-in security, ability easily talks to any back-end systems, large set of skills available on the market, etc.) is probably the most suited platform for the Internet of Things. You can quickly be up-to-speed and develop services and applications for that space just by using your current Java skills. All you need to start developing on ARM is a 35$ Raspberry Pi ARM board (25$ if you are cheap and can live without an ethernet connection) and the recently released JDK for Linux/ARM. Obviously, GlassFish runs on Raspberry Pi. If you wan to go further in the embedded space, you should take a look Java SE Embedded, an optimized, low footprint, Java environment that support the major embedded architectures (ARM, PPC and x86). Finally, Oracle has recently introduced Java Embedded Suite, a new solution that brings modern middleware capabilities to the embedded space. Java Embedded Suite is an optimized solution that leverage Java SE Embedded but also GlassFish, Jersey and JavaDB to deploy advanced value added capabilities (eg. sensor data filtering and) deeper in the network, closer to the devices. JavaFX JavaFX is going strong! Starting from Java SE 7u6, JavaFX is bundled with the JDK. JavaFX is now available for all the major desktop platforms (Windows, Linux and Mac OS X). JavaFX is now also available, in developer preview, for low end device running Linux/ARM. During the keynote, JavaFX was shown running on a Raspberry Pi! And as announced during the keynote, JavaFX should be fully open-sourced by the end of the year; contributions are welcome!. There is a strong momentum around JavaFX, it’s the ideal client solution for the Java platform. A client layer that works perfectly with GlassFish on the back-end. If you were not convince by JavaFX, it’s time to reconsider it! As an old Chinese proverb say “One tweet is worth a thousand words!” HTML5, Project Avatar and Java EE 7 HTML5 got a lot of airtime too, it was covered during the Java EE 7 section of the keynote. Some details about Project Avatar, Oracle’s incubator project for a TSA (Thin Server Architecture) solution, were diluted and shown during the keynote. On the tooling side, Project Easel running on NetBeans 7.3 beta was demo’ed, including a cool NetBeans debugging session running in Chrome! HTML 5, Project Avatar and Java EE 7 deserve separate posts... Feedback We need your feedback! There are many projects, JSRs and products cooking : GlassFish 4, Project Jigsaw, Concurrency Utilities for Java EE (JSR 236), OpenJFX, OpenJDK to name just a few. Those projects, those specifications will have a profound impact on the Java platform for the years to come! So if you have the opportunity, download, install, learn, tests them and give feedback! Remember, you can "Make the Future Java!" Finally, the traditional GlassFish Party at the Thirsty Bear concluded the first JavaOne day. This party is another place where the community can freely exchange with the GlassFish team in a more relaxed, more friendly (but sometime more noisy) atmosphere. Arun has posted a set of pictures to reflect the atmosphere of the keynotes and the GlassFish party. You can find more details on the others Java EE and GlassFish activities here.

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• Getting Started with StreamInsight 2.1

  - by Roman Schindlauer

  If you're just beginning to get familiar with StreamInsight, you may be looking for a way to get started. What are the basics? How can I get my first StreamInsight application running so I can see how it works? Where is the 'front door' that will get me going? If that describes you, then this blog entry might be just what you need. If you're already a StreamInsight wiz, keep reading anyway - you may find some helpful links here that you weren't aware of. But here's what we'd like from you experienced readers in particular: if you know of other good resources that we missed, please feel free to add them in the comments below. We appreciate you sharing your expertise. The Book The basic documentation for StreamInsight is located in the MSDN Library (Microsoft StreamInsight 2.1). You'll notice that previous versions of StreamInsight are still there (1.2 and 2.0), but if you're just getting started you can stick to the 2.1 section. The documentation has been organized to function as reference material, which is fine after you're familiar with the technology. But if you're trying to learn the basics, you might want to take a different path instead of just starting at the top. The following is one map you can use. What Is StreamInsight? Here is a sequence of topics that should give you a good overview of what StreamInsight is and how it works: Overview answers the question, "what is it?" StreamInsight Server Architecture gives you a quick look at a high-level architectural drawing StreamInsight Concepts lays out an overview of the basic components Deploying StreamInsight Entities to a StreamInsight Server describes the mechanics of how these components work together Getting an Example Running Once you have this background, go ahead and install StreamInsight and get a basic example up and running: Installation download and install the software StreamInsight Examples walk through a set of 3 simple StreamInsight applications that work together to demonstrate what you learned in the topics above; you can copy and paste the code into Visual Studio, compile, and run That's it - you now have a real, functioning StreamInsight system! Now that you have a handle on the basics, you might want to start digging deeper. Digging Deeper Here's a suggested path through the documentation to help you understand the next layer of StreamInsight technologies: Using Event Sources and Event Sinks sources supply data and sinks consume it; this topic gives you an overview of how they work Publishing and Connecting to the StreamInsight Server practical details on how to set up a StreamInsight server A Hitchhiker’s Guide to StreamInsight 2.1 Queries queries are the heart of how StreamInsight performs data analytics, and this whitepaper will help you really understand how they work Using StreamInsight LINQ root through this section for technical details on specific query components Using the StreamInsight Event Flow Debugger in addition to troubleshooting, the debugger is a great way to learn more about what goes on inside a StreamInsight application And Even Deeper Finally, to get a handle on some of the more complex things you can do with StreamInsight, dig into these: Input and Output Adapters adapters can be useful for handling more complex sources and sinks Building Resilient StreamInsight Applications a resilient application is able to recover from system failures Operations this section will help you monitor and troubleshoot a running StreamInsight system The StreamInsight Community As you're designing and developing your StreamInsight solutions, you probably will find it helpful to see working examples or to learn tips and tricks from others. Or maybe you need a place to post a vexing question. Here are some community resources that we have found useful. If you know of others, please add them in the comments below. Code samples and tools Official StreamInsight code samples Introduction to LinqPad Driver for StreamInsight 2.1 - LinqPad is a very useful tool for developing queries The following case studies are based on earlier versions of StreamInsight, but they still are useful examples: Microsoft Media Analytics - real-time monitoring and analytic Edgenet - responding to information from multiple source ICONICS - managing energy usage Blogs Microsoft StreamInsight Ruminations of J.net Richard Seroter's Architecture Musings pluralsight Forums MSDN StreamInsight Forum stackoverflow Training Microsoft StreamInsight Fundamentals (“Introducing StreamInsight” is free) from pluralsight Twitter @streaminsight   You’re a StreamInsight Expert That should get you going. Please add any other resources you have found useful in the comments below.   Regards, The StreamInsight Team

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• DIY CFL-Based Photography Light Is Bright and Cheap

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  This DIY build combines a bunch of off-the-shelf hardware parts for a cheap–both to build and run–continuous lighting studio lamp. The build guide is heavy on details regarding the construction of the body but light on wiring details so you’ll definitely want to brush up on your basic socket wiring skills before tackling it. Otherwise, it’s a great guide to building an inexpensive continuous lighting setup. Build A CFL Based Continuous Light Source [DIY Photography] How To Be Your Own Personal Clone Army (With a Little Photoshop) How To Properly Scan a Photograph (And Get An Even Better Image) The HTG Guide to Hiding Your Data in a TrueCrypt Hidden Volume

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• Better Programming By Programming Better?

  - by ahmed

  I am not convinced by the idea that developers are either born with it or they are not. Where’s the empirical evidence to support these types of claims? Can a programmer move from say the 50th to 90th percentile? However, most developers are not in the 99th or even 90th percentile (by definition), and thus still have room for improvement in programming ability, along with the important skills.The belief in innate talent is “lacking in hard evidence to substantiate it” as well.So how do I reconcile these seemingly contradictory statements? I think the lesson for software developers who wish to keep on top of their game and become experts is to keep exercising the mind via effortful studying. I read a lot technical books, but many of them aren’t making me better as a developer.

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• Next in Concurrency

  - by Jatin

  For past year I have been working a lot on concurrency in Java and have build and worked on many concurrent packages. So in terms of development in the concurrent world, I am quite confident. Further I am very much interested to learn and understand more about concurrent programming. But I am unable to answer myself what next? What extra should I learn or work on to inherit more skills related to Multi-core processing. If there is any nice book (read and enjoyed 'concurrency in practice' and 'concurrent programming in java') or resource's related to Multi-core processing so that I can go to the next level?

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• CIO Magazine's State of the CIO and its Impact on Your EA

  - by david.olivencia(at)oracle.com

  CIO Magazine today released its State of the CIO report.  As most Enterpise Architects report to (or report very close to) the CIO, the report provides interesting insights as to where most CIOs minds and priorities are.  The information will allow Enterprise Architects  to better align plans, approaches, models, and stratagies. The report's summary can be found here:  http://assets.cio.com/documents/cache/pdfs/2011/dec15_gatefold.pdf   Specifically the article highlights: * How IT Makes A Difference * Critical Leadership Skills * Business Focused CIOs * Areas of Increasing Responsibility * Plans for 2015   Enterprise Architects what insights from this report will alter they way you successfully lead in 2011?   David Olivencia | Solution Director, Enterprise Architecture & Exa ServicesOracle Consulting Latin America and Caribbean

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• Is it more difficult to upgrade your certification from SQL Server 2008 to 2012 than to get it from scratch?

  - by Diego

  I was wondering about the new MCSA certification on SQL 2012 and how it seems to be more difficult to upgrade your certification from 2008 to 2012 than to get the 2012 from scratch. Reason I think that is true is because anyone with any MCTS SQL Server 2008 certification can upgrade it to a MCSA 2012 by passing 2 tests (457 and 458). If you try to get it from scratch, you need to pass 3 tests (461, 462 and 463 - which are pretty much the same as 432, 433 and 448 for SQL 2008). But the thing is, even though its one test less to upgrade, all the skills necessary to pass 461, 462 and 463 are squeezed on 457 and 458 so, it seems easier to get from scratch than upgrade. Any thoughts?

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• Future of Programmers [closed]

  - by Brian Paul

  Possible Duplicate: Will programmers be around in a few years? I have a passion of web development, but have been wondering of late, what is the future of web programming, and just programming in general. I will give an example to illustrate this, companies now most of them buy/ are willing to spend more money to implement enterprise level products, coming from big companies, than hiring a programmer, because when you look at the long term,instead of paying this programmer, and being tied to his ideas and skills, better buy a product, which you are guaranteed high level functions and support. Therefore what will be the future to programmers?

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• The Best How-To Geek Articles for November 2011

  - by Asian Angel

  It has been a busy month here at HTG where we covered topics such as how to see which websites your computer is secretly connecting to, reviewed the new Amazon Kindle Fire Tablet, learned how to improve your Google search skills, and more. Join us as we look back at the most popular articles from this past month. Note: Articles are listed as #10 through #1. Beyond Barrel Roll: 10 Hidden Google Tricks If Google’s recent Easter Egg–query “do a barrel roll” if you haven’t tried it already–has you curious about other search tricks, this collection of Easter Eggs will keep you busy for awhile. HTG Explains: Understanding Routers, Switches, and Network Hardware How to Use Offline Files in Windows to Cache Your Networked Files Offline How to See What Web Sites Your Computer is Secretly Connecting To

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• Gartner: Magic Quadrant for Corporate Performance Management Suites, 2012

  - by Mike.Hallett(at)Oracle-BI&EPM

  Hyperion clearly leads the pack again in Gartner’s analysis of the CPM / EPM market, saying; “Oracle is a Leader in CPM suites, with one of the most widely distributed solutions in the market. Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management is recognized by CFOs worldwide. The vendor has a well-established partner channel, with both large and smaller CPM SI specialists. Hyperion skills are also plentiful among the independent consultant community, given the well-established products. “ “Oracle continues to innovate, bringing incremental improvements across the portfolio as well as new financial close management, disclosure management and predictive planning additions. Furthermore, Oracle has improved integration of Hyperion with the Oracle BI platform, and has improved planning performance, enabling Hyperion Planning to use Oracle Exalytics In-Memory Machine.” For the full article see here: Gartner: Magic Quadrant for Corporate Performance Management Suites, 2012 And if you missed it, here is also the MQ for BI: Gartner: Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence Platforms, 2012

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• What's the most important trait of a programmer desired by peer programmers [closed]

  - by greengit

  Questions here talk about most important programming skills someone is supposed to possess, and, a lot of great answers spring up. The answers and the questioners seem mostly interested on qualities related to getting a better job, nailing some interview, things desired by boss or management, or improving your programming abilities. One thing that often gets blown over is the genuine consideration for what traits peers want. They don't much value things like you're one of those 'gets things done' people for the company, or you never miss a deadline, or your code is least painful to review and debug, or you're team player with fantastic leading abilities. They probably care more if you're helpful, are a refreshing person to talk to, you're fun to program in pair with, everybody wants you to review their code, or something of that nature. I, for one, would care that I come off to my peers as a pleasurable programmer to work with, as much as I care about my impression on my boss or management. Is this really significant, and if yes, what are the most desirable traits peers want from each other.

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• Five new junior developers and lots of complex tasks. What's now?

  - by mxe

  Our company has hired five new junior developers to help me to developer our product. Unfortunately the new features and incoming bug fixes usually require deeper knowledge than a recently graduated developer usually has (threading/concurrency, debugging performance bottlenecks in a complex system, etc.) Delegating (and planning) tasks which they (probably) can solve, answering their questions, mentoring/managing them, reviewing their code use up all of my time and I often feel that I could solve the issues less time than the whole delegating process takes (counting only my time). In addition I don't have time to solve the tasks which require deeper system knowledge/more advanced skills and it does not seem that it will change in the near future. So, what's now? What should I do to use their and my time effectively?

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• Free tools versus paid tools.

  - by Dennis Vroegop

  We live in a strange world. Information should be free. Tools should be free. Software should be free (and I mean free as in free beer, not as in free speech). Of course, since I make my living (and pay my mortgage) by writing software I tend to disagree. Or rather: I want to get paid for the things I do in the daytime. Next to that I also spend time on projects I feel are valuable for the community, which I do for free. The reason I can do that is because I get paid enough in the daytime to afford that time. It gives me a good feeling, I help others and it’s fun to do. But the baseline is: I get paid to write software. I am sure this goes for a lot of other developers. We get paid for what we do during the daytime and spend our free time giving back. So why does everyone always make a fuzz when a company suddenly starts to charge for software? To me, this seems like a very reasonable decision. Companies need money: they have staff to pay, buildings to rent, coffee to buy, etc. All of this doesn’t come free so it makes sense that they charge their customers for the things they produce. I know there’s a very big Open Source market out there, where companies give away (parts of) their software and get revenue out of the services they provide. But this doesn’t work if your product doesn’t need services. If you build a great tool that is very easy to use, and you give it away for free you won’t get any money by selling services that no user of your tool really needs. So what do you do? You charge money for your tool. It’s either that or stop developing the tool and turn to other, more profitable projects. Like it or not, that’s simple economics at work. You have something other people want, so you charge them for it. This week it was announced that what I believe is the most used tool for .net developers (besides Visual Studio of course),namely Red Gates .net reflector, will stop being a free tool. They will charge you $35 for the next version. Suddenly twitter was on fire and everyone was mad about it. But why? The tool is downloaded by so many developers that it must be valuable to them. I know of no serious .net developer who hasn’t got it on his or her machine. So apparently the tool gives them something they need. So why do they expect it to be free? There are developers out there maintaining and extending the tool, building new and better versions of it. And the price? $35 doesn’t seem much. If I think of the time the tool saved me the 35 dollars were earned back in a day. If by spending this amount of money I can rely on great software that helps me do my job better and faster, I have no problems by spending it. I know that there is a great team behind it, (the Red Gate tools are a must have when developing SQL systems, for instance), and I do believe they are in their right to charge this. So.. there you have it. This is of course, my opinion. You may think otherwise. Please let me know in the comments what you think! Tags van Technorati: redgate,reflector,opensource

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• Should Swing knowledge be required from Java programmers?

  - by Anto

  Swing is an integral part of the Java API. It is also the most popular GUI framework for Java. I still wonder, should every Java programmer still know, or at least be pretty familiar with, Swing (possibly excluding web developers)? There are alternatives (e.g. SWT), but they are not very widely used (compared to Swing). What do you think about requiring Swing knowledge from Java programmers? If such knowledge is important, to what degree? Are the basics enough or not? The reason I wonder is because I really don't like Swing but wonder if I still should brush up my skills in it. I'm able to create simple GUIs in it, but I would definitely not say that I know Swing well.

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• 5 Things I Learned About the IT Labor Shortage

  - by Oracle Accelerate for Midsize Companies

  by Jim Lein | Sr. Principal Product Marketing Director | Oracle Midsize Programs | @JimLein Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} 5 Things I Learned About the IT Labor Shortage A gentle autumn breeze is nudging the last golden leaves off the aspen trees. It’s time to wrap up the series that I started back in April, “The Growing IT Labor Shortage: Are You Feeling It?” Even in a time of relatively high unemployment, labor shortages exist depending on many factors, including location, industry, IT requirements, and company size. According to Manpower Groups 2013 Talent Shortage Survey, 35% of hiring managers globally are having difficulty filling jobs. Their top three challenges in filling jobs are: 1. lack of technical competencies (hard skills) 2. Lack of available applicants 3. Lack of experience The same report listed Technicians as the most difficult position to fill in the United States For most companies, Human Capital and Talent Management have never been more strategic and they are striving for ways streamline processes, reduce turnover, and lower costs (see this Oracle whitepaper, “ Simplify Workforce Management and Increase Global Agility”). Everyone I spoke to—partner, customer, and Oracle experts—agreed that it can be extremely challenging to hire and retain IT talent in today’s labor market. And they generally agreed on the causes: a. IT is so pervasive that there are myriad moving parts requiring support and expertise, b. thus, it’s hard for university graduates to step in and contribute immediately without experience and specialization, c. big IT companies generally aren’t the talent incubators that they were in the freewheeling 90’s due to bottom line pressures that require hiring talent that can hit the ground running, and d. it’s often too expensive for resource-strapped midsize companies to invest the time and money required to get graduates up to speed. Here are my top lessons learned from my conversations with the experts. 1. A Better Title Would Have Been, “The Challenges of Finding and Retaining IT Talent That Matches Your Requirements” There are more applicants than jobs but it’s getting tougher and tougher to find individuals that perfectly fit each and every role. Top performing companies are increasingly looking to hire the “almost ready”, striving to keep their existing talent more engaged, and leveraging their employee’s social and professional networks to quickly narrow down candidate searches (here’s another whitepaper, “A Strategic Approach to Talent Management”). 2. Size Matters—But So Does Location Midsize companies must strive to build cultures that compete favorably with what large enterprises can offer, especially when they aren’t within commuting distance of IT talent strongholds. They can’t always match the compensation and benefits offered by large enterprises so it's paramount to offer candidates high quality of life and opportunities to build their resumes in alignment with their long term career aspirations. 3. Get By With a Little Help From Your Friends It doesn’t always make sense to invest time and money in training an employee on a task they will not perform frequently. Or get in a bidding war for talent with skills that are rare and in high demand. Many midsize companies are finding that it makes good economic sense to contract with partners for remote support rather than trying to divvy up each and every role amongst their lean staff. Internal staff can be assigned to roles that will have the highest positive impact on achieving organizational goals. 4. It’s Actually Both “What You Know” AND “Who You Know” If I was hiring someone today I would absolutely leverage the social and professional networks of my co-workers. Period. Most research shows that hiring in this manner is less expensive and time consuming AND produces better results. There is also some evidence that suggests new hires from employees’ networks have higher job performance and retention rates. 5. I Have New Respect for Recruiters and Hiring Managers My hats off to them—it’s not easy hiring and retaining top talent with today’s challenges. Check out the infographic, “A New Day: Taking HR from Chaos to Control”, on Oracle’s Human Capital Management solutions home page. You can also explore all of Oracle’s HCM solutions from that page based on your role. You can read all the posts in this series by clicking on the links in the right sidebar. Stay tuned…we’ll continue to post thought leadership on HCM and Talent Management topics.

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