Search Results

Search found 22998 results on 920 pages for 'supervised users'.

Page 727/920 | < Previous Page | 723 724 725 726 727 728 729 730 731 732 733 734  | Next Page >

• Do I need to create my own or use a commercial server for the features and matchmaking options I want my game to support?

  - by baptzmoffire

  So I'm developing an indie turn-based game for iOS and, in coding up a Game Center matchmaking class, I'm starting to question whether Game Center is even the best choice for what I want this game to do. I need to figure out whether I need to create my own server, invest in a preexisting client or server service, or if I even need to use a server at all. If I do need to use a ready-made service other than Game Center, which server would accomodate my game's needs best? I have limited resources and funds. Here is the list of features I want my game to support, ideally: Turn-based gameplay (a la "with Friends" and "with Buddies" games) Smart matchmaking (matching users up with other players of comparable skill/achievements) Random matchmaking Facebook matchmaking Specific username matchmaking Contact list matchmaking A way to select what "type" of match you want to challenge an opponent to. (In random, smart, and Facebook matchmaking, there will be different "wagers" the player can make. [e.g. "I wanna play a random opponent for 1000 points. Now, I wanna play my Facebook buddy for 1,000,000 points."] There will be a predetermined range of amounts you can play for. It won't be customizable.) Buddies list capability (Game-buddies, as opposed to contacts and Facebook) A higher concurrent game cap than Game Center offers (which I still can't really find a straight answer on) Scalability (it should support 2 or 20,000,000 players) Objective-C compatibility Flexibility (for all the stuff I haven't thought of yet) Am I dreaming, here? Is there even a service that can handle all of these features? Do I need to invest months in learning a networking language to build my own? If so, how much would I need to spend on hardware? I've been looking around all morning and, so far, the only seemingly viable option is SmartFox. Under "Everything and the kitchen sink" section here, it says they support "virtual world with Zones, Rooms and RoomGroups, create complex game challenges, send invitations, manage buddy lists, create custom permission profiles, oversee the security aspects and tons more." http://www.smartfoxserver.com/overview/platform Is there an option that Im just overlooking? Thanks for any help anyone can provide. Sorry for the long poast. One last question: Does anyone know which server Dice with Buddies uses? I was experimenting with how many concurrent games I could get going and my ADHD kicked in at about 80 games. 80 concurrent games would be great for my game, but again, I need the other features I mentioned too. Thanks again.

  Read the article

• Business Insight, IT Execution: 9 Project Management Tips

  - by Sylvie MacKenzie, PMP

  Excerpt from Profit Magazine - by David Rosenbaum When Marcos Baccetto was first asked to be the business-side project lead on Eaton Corporation’s Vehicle Group South America (VGSA) Oracle project, the operations services manager responsible for running manufacturing was, he confesses, “a little afraid” because of his lack of IT experience. Today, Baccetto calls the project “a fantastic experience,” and he is a true believer in the benefits of a close relationship between IT implementers and their line-of-business peers. Through his partnership with Jesiele Lima, then VGSA IT manager, Baccetto and Eaton’s South American operations team came to understand several important principles of business and IT. Here he shares nine tips managers should consider when working on an enterprise technology project. 1. Make it a business project, not an IT project. All levels of functional management must have ownership, responsibility, and accountability for the success of the implementation. 2. Share responsibility. Business owners should sign off on tests and data conversion. 3. Clean your data. Dedicating a team to improve core data quality prior to project launch can be a significant time-saver. 4. Select resources properly. Have functional people who can translate business needs to IT and can influence organizational change. 5. Manage scope. Follow project management methodologies and disciplines. 6. Adopt common processes, global solutions. Avoid customized, local solutions. The big-picture business goals can get lost in the details. 7. Implement processes prior to the go-live date. Change management can be key. Keep the workforce informed and train users in advance. 8. Define metrics milestones. Assume there will be a crisis during deployment. Having baseline metrics to compare against will help implementers keep their cool—and the project moving forward. 9. The sponsor’s commitment is critical. It is needed to support the truly difficult decisions.

  Read the article

• ArchBeat Link-o-Rama for 2012-06-28

  - by Bob Rhubart

  Oracle Magazine Technologist of the Year Awards to honor architects at #OOW12 Seven of the ten categories in this year's Oracle Magazine Technologist of the Year Awards are designated to celebrate architects. The winners will be honored at Oracle OpenWorld -- and showered with adulation from their colleagues. Nominations for these awards close on Tuesday July 17, so make sure you submit your nominations right away. Oracle E-Business Suite 12 Certified on Additional Linux Platforms (Oracle E-Business Suite Technology) Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 (12.1.1 and higher) is now certified on the following additional Linux x86/x86-64 operating systems: Oracle Linux 6 (32-bit), Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (32-bit), Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (64-bit), and Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) version 11 (64-bit). FairScheduling Conventions in Hadoop (The Data Warehouse Insider)"If you're going to have several concurrent users and leverage the more interactive aspects of the Hadoop environment (e.g. Pig and Hive scripting), the FairScheduler is definitely the way to go," says Dan McClary. Learn how in his technical post. SOA Learning Library (SOA & BPM Partner Community Blog) The Oracle Learning Library offers a vast collection of e-learning resources covering a mind-boggling array of products and topics. And it's all free—if you have an Oracle.com membership. And if you don't, that's free, too. Could this be any easier? Oracle Fusion Middleware Security: LibOVD: when and how | Andre Correa Fusion Middleware A-Team blogger Andre Correa offers some background on LibOVD and shares technical tips for its use. Virtual Developer Day: Oracle Fusion Development Yes, it's called "Developer Day," but there's plenty for architects, too. This free event includes hands-on labs, live Q&A with product experts, and a dizzying amount of technical information about Oracle ADF and Fusion Development -- all without having to pack a bag or worry about getting stuck in a seat between two professional wrestlers. Tuesday, July 10, 2012 9:00 a.m. PT – 1:00 p.m. PT 11:00 a.m. CT – 3:00 p.m. CT 12:00 p.m. ET – 4:00 p.m. ET 1:00 p.m. BRT – 5:00 p.m. BRT Thought for the Day "Computers allow you to make more mistakes faster than any other invention in human history with the possible exception of handguns and tequila." — Mitch Ratcliffe Source: SoftwareQuotes.com

  Read the article

• Impressions from VMworld - Clearing up Misconceptions

  - by Monica Kumar

  Gorgeous sunny weather…none of the usual summer fog…the Oracle Virtualization team has been busy at VMworld in San Francisco this week. From the time exhibits opened on Sunday, our booth staff was fully engaged with visitors. It was great to meet with customers and prospects, and there were many…most with promises to meet again in October at Oracle OpenWorld 2012. Interests and questions ran the gamut - from implementation details to consolidating applications to how does Oracle VM enable rapid application deployment to Oracle support and licensing. All good stuff! Some inquiries are poignant and really help us get at the customer pain points. Some are just based on misconceptions. We’d like to address a couple of common misconceptions that we heard: 1) Rapid deployment of enterprise applications is great but I don’t do this all the time. So why bother? While production applications don’t get updated or upgraded as often, development and QA staging environments are much more dynamic. Also, in today’s Cloud based computing environments, end users expect an entire solution, along with the virtual machine, to be provisioned instantly, on-demand, as and when they need to scale. Whether it’s adding a new feature to meet customer demands or updating applications to meet business/service compliance, these environments undergo change frequently. The ability to rapidly stand up an entire application stack with all the components such as database tier, mid-tier, OS, and applications tightly integrated, can offer significant value. Hand patching, installation of the OS, application and configurations to ensure the entire stack works well together can take days and weeks. Oracle VM Templates provide a much faster path to standing up a development, QA or production stack in a matter of hours or minutes. I see lots of eyes light up as we get to this point of the conversation. 2) Oracle Software licensing on VMware vSphere In the world of multi-vendor IT stacks, understanding license boundaries and terms and conditions for each product in the stack can be challenging.  Oracle’s licensing, though, is straightforward.  Oracle software is licensed per physical processor in the server or cluster where the Oracle software is installed and/or running.  The use of third party virtualization technologies such as VMware is not allowed as a means to change the way Oracle software is licensed.  Exceptions are spelled out in the licensing document labeled “Hard Partitioning". Here are some fun pictures! Visitors to our booth told us they loved the Oracle SUV courtesy shuttles that are helping attendees get to/from hotels. Also spotted were several taxicabs sporting an Oracle banner! Stay tuned for more highlights across desktop and server virtualization as we wrap up our participation at VMworld.

  Read the article

• Wireframing: A Day In the Life of UX Workshop at Oracle

  - by ultan o'broin

  The Oracle Applications User Experience team's Day in the Life (DITL) of User Experience (UX) event was run in Oracle's Redwood Shores HQ for Oracle Usability Advisory Board (OUAB) members. I was charged with putting together a wireframing session, together with Director of Financial Applications User Experience, Scott Robinson (@scottrobinson). Example of stunning new wireframing visuals we used on the DITL events. We put on a lively show, explaining the basics of wireframing, the concepts, what it is and isn't, considerations on wireframing tool choice, and then imparting some tips and best practices. But the real energy came when the OUAB customers and partners in the room were challenge to do some wireframing of their own. Wireframing is about bringing your business and product use cases to life in real UX visual terms, by creating a low-fidelity drawing to iterate and agree on in advance of prototyping and coding what is to be finally built and rolled out for users. All the best people wireframe. Leonardo da Vinci used "cartoons" on some great works, tracing outlines first and using red ochre or charcoal dropped through holes in the tracing parchment onto the canvas to outline the subject. (Image distributed under Wikimedia commons license) Wireframing an application's user experience design enables you to: Obtain stakeholder buy-in. Enable faster iteration of different designs. Determine the task flow navigation paths (in Oracle Fusion Applications navigation is linked with user roles). Develop a content strategy (readability, search engine optimization (SEO) of content, and so on) Lay out the pages, widgets, groups of features, and so on. Apply usability heuristics early (no replacement for usability testing, but a great way to do some heavy-lifting up front). Decide upstream which functional user experience design patterns to apply (out of the box solutions that expedite productivity). Assess which Oracle Application Development Framework (ADF) or equivalent technology components can be used (again, developer productivity is enhanced downstream). We ran a lively hands-on exercise where teams wireframed a choice of application scenarios using the time-honored tools of pen and paper. Scott worked the floor like a pro, pointing out great use of features, best practices, innovations, and making sure that the whole concept of wireframing, the gestalt, transferred. "We need more buttons!" The cry of the energized. Not quite. The winning wireframe session (online shopping scenario) from the Applications UX DITL event shown. Great fun, great energy, and great teamwork were evident in the room. Naturally, there were prizes for the best wireframe. Well, actually, prizes were handed out to the other attendees too! An exciting, slightly different aspect to delivery of this session made the wireframing event one of the highlights of the day. And definitely, something we will repeat again when we get the chance. Thanks to everyone who attended, contributed, and helped organize.

  Read the article

• A brief note for customers running SOA Suite on AIX platforms

  - by christian

  When running Oracle SOA Suite with IBM JVMs on the AIX platform, we have seen performance slowdowns and/or memory leaks. On occasion, we have even encountered some OutOfMemoryError conditions and the concomittant Java coredump. If you are experiencing this issue, the resolution may be to configure -Dsun.reflect.inflationThreshold=0 in your JVM startup parameters. https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/j-nativememory-aix/ contains a detailed discussion of the IBM AIX JVM memory model, but I will summarize my interpretation and understanding of it in the context of SOA Suite, below. Java ClassLoaders on IBM JVMs are allocated a native memory area into which they are anticipated to map such things as jars loaded from the filesystem. This is an excellent memory optimization, as the file can be loaded into memory once and then shared amongst many JVMs on the same host, allowing for excellent horizontal scalability on AIX hosts. However, Java ClassLoaders are not used exclusively for loading files from disk. A performance optimization by the Oracle Java language developers enables reflectively accessed data to optimize from a JNI call into Java bytecodes which are then amenable to hotspot optimizations, amongst other things. This performance optimization is called inflation, and it is executed by generating a sun.reflect.DelegatingClassLoader instance dynamically to inject the Java bytecode into the virtual machine. It is generally considered an excellent optimization. However, it interacts very negatively with the native memory area allocated by the IBM JVM, effectively locking out memory that could otherwise be used by the Java process. SOA Suite and WebLogic are both very large users of reflection code. They reflectively use many code paths in their operation, generating lots of DelegatingClassLoaders in normal operation. The IBM JVM slowdown and subsequent OutOfMemoryError are as a direct result of the Java memory consumed by the DelegatingClassLoader instances generated by SOA Suite and WebLogic. Java garbage collection runs more frequently to try and keep memory available, until it can no longer do so and throws OutOfMemoryError. The setting sun.reflect.inflationThreshold=0 disables this optimization entirely, never allowing the JVM to generate the optimized reflection code. IBM JVMs are susceptible to this issue primarily because all Java ClassLoaders have this native memory allocation, which is shared with the regular Java heap. Oracle JVMs don't automatically give all ClassLoaders a native memory area, and my understanding is that jar files are never mapped completely from shared memory in the same way as IBM does it. This results in different behaviour characteristics on IBM vs Oracle JVMs.

  Read the article

• Database Security: The First Step in Pre-Emptive Data Leak Prevention

  - by roxana.bradescu

  With WikiLeaks raising awareness around information leaks and the harm they can cause, many organization are taking stock of their own information leak protection (ILP) strategies in 2011. A report by IDC on data leak prevention stated: Increasing database security is one of the most efficient and cost-effective measures an organization can take to prevent data leaks. By utilizing the data protection, access control, account management, encryption, log management, and other security controls inherent in the database management system, entities can institute first-level control over the widest range of protected information. As a central repository for unstructured data, which is growing at leaps and bounds, the database should be the first layer providing information leakage protection. Unfortunately, most organizations are not taking sufficient steps to protect their databases according to a survey of the Independent Oracle User Group. For example, any operating system administrator or database administrator can access the all the data stored in the database in most organizations. Without any kind of auditing or monitoring. And it's not just administrators, database users can typically access the database with ad-hoc query tools from their desktop and by-pass any application level controls. Despite numerous regulations calling for controls to limit the powers of insiders, most organizations still put too many privileges in the hands of their employees. Time and time again these excess privileges have backfired. Internal agents were implicated in almost half of data breaches according to the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report and the rate is rising. Hackers also took advantage of these excess privileges very successfully using stolen credentials and SQL injection attacks. But back to the insiders. Who are these insiders and why do they do it? In 2002, the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) behavioral psychologists and CERT information security experts formed the Insider Threat Study team to examine insider threat cases that occurred in US critical infrastructure sectors, and examined them from both a technical and a behavioral perspective. A series of fascinating reports has been published as a result of this work. You can learn more by watching the ISSA Insider Threat Web Conference. So as your organization starts to look at data leak prevention over the coming year, start off by protecting your data at the source - your databases. IDC went on to say: Any enterprise looking to improve its competitiveness, regulatory compliance, and overall data security should consider Oracle's offerings, not only because of their database management capabilities but also because they provide tools that are the first layer of information leak prevention. Learn more about Oracle Database Security solutions and get the whitepapers, demos, tutorials, and more that you need to protect data privacy from internal and external threats.

  Read the article

• February 2011 Java SE and Java for Business Critical Patch Update Released

  - by eric.maurice

  Hello, this is Eric Maurice again. Oracle released the February 2011 Critical Patch Update for Java SE and Java for Business today. As discussed in a previous blog entry, Oracle currently maintains a separate Critical Patch Update schedule for Java SE and Java for Business because of commitments made prior to the Oracle acquisition in regards to the timing for the publication of Java fixes. Today's Java Critical Patch Update includes fixes for 21 vulnerabilities. The most severe CVSS Base Score for vulnerabilities fixed in this CPU is 10.0, and this Base Score affects 8 vulnerabilities. Out of these 21 vulnerabilities, 13 affect Java client deployments. 12 of these 13 vulnerabilities can be exploited through Untrusted Java Web Start applications and Untrusted Java Applets, which run in the Java sandbox with limited privileges. One of these 13 vulnerabilities can be exploited by running a standalone application. In addition, one of the client vulnerability affects Java Update, a Windows-specific component. 3 of the 21 vulnerabilities affect client and server deployments. These vulnerabilities can be exploited through Untrusted Java Web Start applications and Untrusted Java Applets, as well as be exploited by supplying malicious data to APIs in the specified components, such as, for example, through a web service. 3 vulnerabilities affect Java server deployments only. These vulnerabilities can be exploited by supplying malicious data to APIs in the specified Java components. Note that one of these vulnerabilities (CVE-2010-4476) was the subject of a Security Alert released on February 8th. Finally, one of these vulnerabilities is specific to Java DB, a component in the Java JDK, but not included in the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). As usual, because of the severity of the vulnerabilities fixed in this Critical Patch Update, Oracle recommends that Java customers apply it as soon as possible. The Critical Patch Advisory provides more details about the vulnerabilities addressed in the Critical Patch Update as well as instructions on how to install the fixes and where to get them. Home users should use the Java auto-update mechanism to install the latest version of the Java Runtime Environment 6 update 24 or higher (JRE), which includes the fix for this vulnerability. For More Information: The Critical Patch Updates and Security Alerts page is located at http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/alerts-086861.html More information on Oracle Software Security Assurance is located at http://www.oracle.com/us/support/assurance/index.html Consumers can go to http://www.java.com/en/download/installed.jsp to ensure that they have the latest version of Java running on their desktops. More information on Java Update is available at http://www.java.com/en/download/help/java_update.xml

  Read the article

• 2D camera perspective projection from 3D coordinates -- HOW?

  - by Jack

  I am developing a camera for a 2D game with a top-down view that has depth. It's almost a 3D camera. Basically, every object has a Z even though it is in 2D, and similarly to parallax layers their position, scale and rotation speed vary based on their Z. I guess this would be a perspective projection. But I am having trouble converting the objects' 3D coordinates into the 2D space of the screen so that everything has correct perspective and scale. I never learned matrices though I did dig the topic a bit today. I tried without using matrices thanks to this article but every attempt gave awkward results. I'm using ActionScript 3 and Flash 11+ (Starling), where the screen coordinates work like this: Left-handed coordinates system illustration I can explain further what I did if you want to help me sort out what's wrong, or you can directly tell me how you would do it properly. In case you prefer the former, read on. These are images showing the formulas I used: upload.wikimedia.org/math/1/c/8/1c89722619b756d05adb4ea38ee6f62b.png upload.wikimedia.org/math/d/4/0/d4069770c68cb8f1aa4b5cfc57e81bc3.png (Sorry new users can't post images, but both are from the wikipedia article linked above, section "Perspective projection". That's where you'll find what all variables mean, too) The long formula is greatly simplified because I believe a normal top-down 2D camera has no X/Y/Z rotation values (correct ?). Then it becomes d = a - c. Still, I can't get it to work. Maybe you could explain what numbers I should put in a(xyz), c(xyz), theta(xyz), and particularly, e(xyz) ? I don't quite get how e is different than c in my case. c.z is also an issue to me. If the Z of the camera's target object is 0, should the camera's Z be something like -600 ? ( = focal length of 600) Whatever I do, it's wrong. I only got it to work when I used arbitrary calculations that "looked" right, like most cameras with parallax layers seem to do, but that's fake! ;) If I want objects to travel between Z layers I might as well do it right. :) Thanks a lot for your help!

  Read the article

• How can I set up Friendly URL to Nginx?

  - by MKK

  I'm trying to use dokuwiki with its Friendly URL on Nginx. The problem that I'm facing is, it doesn' show correct path to any link(even stylesheet, and images) on every page It looks that paths are missing wiki/ part. If I click on the image and show its destination, it shows this url http://foo-sample.com/lib/tpl/dokuwiki/images/logo.png But it has to be this below. http://foo-sample.com/wiki/lib/tpl/dokuwiki/images/logo.png and login URL is not working either. If I click on login link, it takes me to http://foo-sample.com/wiki/start?do=login&sectok=ff7d4a68936033ed398a8b82ac9 and it says 404 Not Found I took a look at this https://www.dokuwiki.org/rewrite#nginx and tried as much as possible. However it still doesn't work. Here's my conf files. How can I fix this problem? dokuwiki is set in /usr/share/wiki /etc/nginx/conf.d/rails.conf upstream sample { ip_hash; server unix:/var/run/unicorn/unicorn_foo-sample.sock fail_timeout=0; } server { listen 80; server_name foo-sample.com; root /var/www/html/foo-sample/public; location /wiki { alias /usr/share/wiki; index doku.php; } location ~ ^/wiki.+\.php$ { fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000; fastcgi_index doku.php; fastcgi_split_path_info ^/wiki(.+\.php)(.*)$; fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /usr/share/wiki$fastcgi_script_name; include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params; } } /usr/share/wiki/.htaccess ## Enable this to restrict editing to logged in users only ## You should disable Indexes and MultiViews either here or in the ## global config. Symlinks maybe needed for URL rewriting. #Options -Indexes -MultiViews +FollowSymLinks ## make sure nobody gets the htaccess files <Files ~ "^[\._]ht"> Order allow,deny Deny from all Satisfy All </Files> # Uncomment these rules if you want to have nice URLs using # $conf['userewrite'] = 1 - not needed for rewrite mode 2 # Not all installations will require the following line. If you do, # change "/dokuwiki" to the path to your dokuwiki directory relative # to your document root. # If you enable DokuWikis XML-RPC interface, you should consider to # restrict access to it over HTTPS only! Uncomment the following two # rules if your server setup allows HTTPS. RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on RewriteRule ^lib/exe/xmlrpc.php$ https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301] <IfModule mod_geoip.c> GeoIPEnable On Order deny,allow deny from all SetEnvIf GEOIP_COUNTRY_CODE JP AllowCountry Allow from .googlebot.com Allow from .yahoo.net Allow from .msn.com Allow from env=AllowCountry </IfModule>

  Read the article

• Why is my CPU being used while doing nothing?

  - by Jop

  I have installed Ubuntu GNOME in BIOS mode on my MacBook (BIOS mode so that the proprietary NVIDIA drivers work. I need them for gaming.). For some reason, a lot of CPU is being used while not really doing anything. It swings between 20-30% on both cores, usually. But when I look at the list of processes and sort by CPU usage, I do not see anything special. No processes intensively doing anything. How can I fix this? EDIT: Output of top command. jop@jop-MacBook:~$ top top - 17:08:02 up 41 min, 2 users, load average: 0,51, 0,69, 0,95 Tasks: 202 total, 2 running, 200 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie %Cpu(s): 11,9 us, 5,8 sy, 0,0 ni, 80,3 id, 0,5 wa, 0,0 hi, 1,5 si, 0,0 st KiB Mem: 7908316 total, 2919940 used, 4988376 free, 153248 buffers KiB Swap: 3906244 total, 0 used, 3906244 free, 1326544 cached PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 3785 root 20 0 195m 82m 26m S 22,9 1,1 2:43.77 Xorg 4429 jop 20 0 1543m 150m 60m S 7,3 1,9 1:26.26 compiz 4198 jop 20 0 633m 21m 11m S 1,7 0,3 0:04.96 unity-panel-ser 7425 jop 20 0 564m 18m 12m S 1,7 0,2 0:00.84 gnome-terminal 7019 jop 20 0 806m 89m 46m S 1,0 1,2 0:10.01 chrome 7323 jop 20 0 966m 93m 23m S 1,0 1,2 0:06.85 chrome 6742 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0,7 0,0 0:00.43 kworker/0:3 3 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0,3 0,0 0:06.01 ksoftirqd/0 7008 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0,3 0,0 0:00.27 kworker/1:3 7302 jop 20 0 972m 96m 28m S 0,3 1,2 0:06.32 chrome 7310 jop 20 0 382m 63m 39m S 0,3 0,8 0:00.34 chrome 7498 jop 20 0 24840 1600 1120 R 0,3 0,0 0:00.22 top 1 root 20 0 27176 2944 1412 S 0,0 0,0 0:01.58 init 2 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0,0 0,0 0:00.00 kthreadd 5 root 0 -20 0 0 0 S 0,0 0,0 0:00.00 kworker/0:0H 6 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0,0 0,0 0:00.00 kworker/u4:0 7 root rt 0 0 0 0 S 0,0 0,0 0:02.04 migration/0 Even when xorg isn't so busy like when I copied, CPU usage is higher then what the processes use.

  Read the article

• Hadoop, NOSQL, and the Relational Model

  - by Phil Factor

  (Guest Editorial for the IT Pro/SysAdmin Newsletter)Whereas Relational Databases fit the world of commerce like a glove, it is useless to pretend that they are a perfect fit for all human endeavours. Although, with SQL Server, we’ve made great strides with indexing text, in processing spatial data and processing markup, there is still a problem in dealing efficiently with large volumes of ephemeral semi-structured data. Key-value stores such as Cassandra, Project Voldemort, and Riak are of great value for ephemeral data, and seem of equal value as a data-feed that provides aggregations to an RDBMS. However, the Document databases such as MongoDB and CouchDB are ideal for semi-structured data for which no fixed schema exists; analytics and logging are obvious examples. NoSQL products, such as MongoDB, tackle the semi-structured data problem with panache. MongoDB is designed with a simple document-oriented data model that scales horizontally across multiple servers. It doesn’t impose a schema, and relies on the application to enforce the data structure. This is another take on the old ‘EAV’ problem (where you don’t know in advance all the attributes of a particular entity) It uses a clever replica set design that allows automatic failover, and uses journaling for data durability. It allows indexing and ad-hoc querying. However, for SQL Server users, the obvious choice for handling semi-structured data is Apache Hadoop. There will soon be an ODBC Driver for Apache Hive .and an Add-in for Excel. Additionally, there are now two Hadoop-based connectors for SQL Server; the Apache Hadoop connector for SQL Server 2008 R2, and the SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse (PDW) connector. We can connect to Hadoop process the semi-structured data and then store it in SQL Server. For one steeped in the culture of Relational SQL Databases, I might be expected to throw up my hands in the air in a gesture of contempt for a technology that was, judging by the overblown journalism on the subject, about to make my own profession as archaic as the Saggar makers bottom knocker (a potter’s assistant who helped the saggar maker to make the bottom of the saggar by placing clay in a metal hoop and bashing it). However, on the contrary, I find that I'm delighted with the advances made by the NoSQL databases in the past few years. Having the flow of ideas from the NoSQL providers will knock any trace of complacency out of the providers of Relational Databases and inspire them into back-fitting some features, such as horizontal scaling, with sharding and automatic failover into SQL-based RDBMSs. It will do the breed a power of good to benefit from all this lateral thinking.

  Read the article

• Business Choices and Evony

  - by Robert May

  Recently, I’ve been playing a game called Evony, and I finally decided to quit the game and thought I should warn others who might be tempted.  I also find a lot of insight with this game as an example.  A few of the companies that I’ve worked with or worked for have been like this and they are NOT good places to be. Evony is a joke designed to milk as much money out of people as possible.  As a professional software developer who mentors teams on how to build better software, here's what I see: They obviously offshore all development and have little oversight over that offshore development, and they probably have a small team at that.  Evidenced by the poor grammar throughout the game. They're seeking to maximize revenue and pushing to do as little development as possible, which would mean a small team. They're horribly understaffed in the customer support department as evidenced by never replying to this forum and never responding to bug reports or help requests (I've had one open with no response AT ALL for over a month . . .) They have way inadequate testing, no CI, and probably no automated unit tests.  You can see this by the poor grammar throughout the game and the type of bugs that show up. They aren't following a formal development process (no Agile, Waterfall, or anything else) as evidenced by their lack of predictable release cycle and lack of visibility. I'm guessing that the internal code base is terrible, otherwise, there wouldn't be an "Age II" that had nothing more than a new visual interface and a few rule tweaks.  This is also evidenced by the itty bitty scope of bug fixes and their inability to really fix bugs. Their Architect sucks.  Really, 42k user is all you can handle on a single server?  Could you REALLY not come up with a better way to scale to handle users?  They've built isolated worlds, instead of a single continuous world. Back to milking people for money--to really progress, you have to spend money. All of this adds up to knowing, deliberate actions on the part of management.  They CHOOSE to do this (like AOL choosing to send more discs instead of improve quality). So, what can we learn? This game will never really improve, since the bosses don't care, they're only in it for the money. The game will never have good support.  Again, the owners don't care. Giving them money only perpetuates this scam (and yes, I've given them money, way too much money. :() They don't care if you quit.  There's a new sucker born every day. Don't EVER go to work for them.  I've worked both with and for people like this and the culture is NEVER good. Ah well. Technorati Tags: Evony

  Read the article

• Releasing the new Sample Browser Phone app

  - by Jialiang

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/Jialiang/archive/2014/06/05/releasing-the-new-sample-browser-phone-app.aspx Starting its journey in 2010, Sample Browser is achieving its tetralogy by releasing a Windows Phone version Sample Browser today. The new Windows Phone app is the fourth milestone of Sample Browser since we released the desktop version and the Visual Studio version in 2012 and the Windows Store version in 2013. This time, by providing a sample browser designed for a ‘walking’ platform in response to MVPs’ suggestions during last year’s MVP Global Summit, we are literally putting a world of code samples "at developers’ fingertips”. If you like to have a code gallery of over 7000 quality code samples in your pocket, then click here to download our Windows Phone Sample Browser and start a fantastic mobile experience. With Windows Phone version Sample Browser and the Internet, you can search for code samples on MSDN at anytime and anywhere you want, 24/7 and–even to bed. You can also check code sample details and share them with your friends. Compared to the other 3 pieces in the tetralogy (desktop version, Visual Studio version, and the Windows Store version), the Windows Phone version Sample Browser sells itself for convenience and instant connectivity. For those who need to reach code samples under mobile circumstances where no PCs is available, Windows Phone version Sample Browser will definitely be the right service you are seeking for. Aside from sharing samples via emails as the other 3 do, the Windows Phone version Sample Browser also allows you to share the sample via SMS and Near Field Communication (NFC).   What's Next Currently, the Windows Phone Sample Browser only supports online MSDN code searching, but we already plan to upgrade Sample Browser to allow users to do ‘Bing code search’, and add and manage their private code snippets.  We will also upgrade the app to universal app. Universal App is a new concept brought up in the Microsoft Build Developer Conference 2014. It is a new development model that allows for a single app to be deployed across multiple Windows devices such as Windows Phone, Windows 8.1, and XBox. Therefore, once we finish upgrading Sample Browser to a universal app, you can synchronize your own code snippets across different devices; You can also mark a code sample as favorite on your Windows Phone and continue to study the sample when you are on your desktop. By then, sharing data between platforms will be a piece of cake. Also, the user experience of Sample Browser on different platforms will be more consistent.  The best is yet to come!   We sincerely suggest you give Sample Browser a try (click here to download). If you love what you see in Sample Browser, please recommend it to your friends and colleagues. If you encounter any problems or have any suggestions for us, please contact us at [email protected]. Your precious opinions and comments are more than welcome.

  Read the article

• Reading a ZFS USB drive with Mac OS X Mountain Lion

  - by Karim Berrah

  The problem: I'm using a MacBook, mainly with Solaris 11, but something with Mac OS X (ML). The only missing thing is that Mac OS X can't read my external ZFS based USB drive, where I store all my data. So, I decided to look for a solution. Possible solution: I decided to use VirtualBox with a Solaris 11 VM as a passthrough to my data. Here are the required steps: Installing a Solaris 11 VM Install VirtualBox on your Mac OS X, add the extension pack (needed for USB) Plug your ZFS based USB drive on your Mac, ignore it when asked to initialize it. Create a VM for Solaris (bridged network), and before installing it, create a USB filter (in the settings of your Vbox VM, go to Ports, then USB, then add a new USB filter from the attached device "grey usb-connector logo with green plus sign")  Install a Solaris 11 VM, boot it, and install the Guest addition check with "ifconfg -a" the IP address of your Solaris VM Creating a path to your ZFS USB drive In MacOS X, use the "Disk Utility" to unmount the USB attached drive, and unplug the USB device. Switch back to VirtualBox, select the top of the window where your Solaris 11 is running plug your ZFS USB drive, select "ignore" if Mac OS invite you to initialize the disk In the VirtualBox VM menu, go to "Devices" then "USB Devices" and select from the dropping menu your "USB device" Connection your Solaris VM to the USB drive Inside Solaris, you might now check that your device is accessible by using the "format" cli command If not, repeat previous steps Now, with root privilege, force a zpool import -f myusbdevicepoolname because this pool was created on another system check that you see your new pool with "zpool status" share your pool with NFS: share -F NFS /myusbdevicepoolname Accessing the USB ZFS drive from Mac OS X This is the easiest step: access an NFS share from mac OS Create a "ZFSdrive" folder on your MacOS desktop from a terminal under mac OS: mount -t nfs IPadressofMySoalrisVM:/myusbdevicepoolname  /Users/yourusername/Desktop/ZFSdrive et voila ! you might access your data, on a ZFS USB drive, directly from your Mountain Lion Desktop. You might play with the share rights in order to alter any read/write rights as needed. You might activate compression, encryption inside the Solaris 11 VM ...

  Read the article

• Stuff I learned at Innovate 2011

  - by David Dorf

  After returning from the NRF Innovate 2011 conference, I picked up few nuggets I thought I'd share here.  These thoughts are a bit random, but I hope they're useful nonetheless.Kevin Kelly opened the conference with six verbs that represent the future.  They were Screening, Interacting, Sharing, Accessing, Flowing, and Generating.  It struck me that these are all ways in which we merge the digital and physical worlds.  The internet of things continues to gain momentum.Some buzzwords:  deal economy, subscription commerce, discovery (instead of search), curationThat last one, curation, came up over and over.  Retailers, especially those in fashion, are finding value in helping their customers organize and present their own collections.  Social media has made sharing such collections easy, and mobile lets them take those ideas into the stores.  Mannequins are becoming less relevant.I heard from both HauteLook and Gilt Groupe (flash sale retailers) that a large percentage of their visits come from mobile devices, and most of those are iOS devices.  I find it interesting that even though Android has passed iPhone in units shipped (and will eventually pass iOS as a whole), its still the Apple crowd that leads the way.RadioShack mentioned their Holiday Heroes campaigned was very successful.  They asked their Foursquare users to check-in at a gym, coffee shop, and transportation hub as part of being a hero.  For this feat, customers were awarded a special badge that was worth 20% off at their next store visit. They claim a 3.5x increase in ticket size vs. regular check-in customers, and a 5x increase vs those that don't check-in at all.I also learned of RadioShack's #28 campaign, which is apparently one of the largest Twitter trends ever.  Their partnership with LIVESTRONG has gotten them followers, impressions, and credit for supporting the fight against cancer.The guys at Invodo showed the importance of video to e-commerce.  They gave compelling examples of how video can show customers the value of products better than just words.The highlight of the show was Guy Kawasaki's talk on innovation, which was not only informative but also peppered with humor and personality.  Back in the early days of the internet boom, Guy turned down the CEO position at Yahoo! because the commute was too long.  By his calculation, that was a $2B mistake.There are other good accounts of the conference at the NRF Blog.

  Read the article

• BIP 10.1.3.4.x June 2010 Update Available

  - by Tim Dexter

  A new patchset for 10.1.3.4.0 and 10.1.3.4.1 is available on Metalink. some notes: The patch number is 9791839. This patchset includes 28 new bug fixes since the last patchset release on March 31. This is a culmulative update that includes all the fixes and enhancements from previous updates. The patch will supercede the other two updates. Install instructions are in the readme inside the patch There is also a new BIP client patch available, 9821068. No new template building features to my knowledge but there is an update to the template viewer to allow you to test and debug you siny new Excel templates. Server 8529759XMLP_TEMPLATE_DESIGNER CANNOT SAVE / UPLOAD TEMPLATE 8566455 BI PUBLISHER SCHEDULER DOES NOT START WITH JNDI DATA SOURCE 9295667RESPONSE OF GETSCHEDULEDREPORTINFO RETURNS STATUS AS 'UNKNOWN' INSTEAD OF 'SCHED 9542413 UNABLE TO CREATE A NEW TEMPLATE FROM UI 9546137 EXCEL ANALYZER TEMPLATE FAILS FOR A STRUCTURED XML WHEN IT IS UPLOADED 9556338 SIEBEL - BIP PARAMETERS SORT ORDER 9560562 BI PUBLISHER CACHE DIRECTORY FILLING UP AND POINTING TO INVALID DIRECTORY 9646599 USER ROLE DEFINED AS PRIMARYGROUP IN ACTIVEDIRECTORY GROUP ARE NOT RECOGNIZED 9664768 ER: NEED TO BIND USER ATTRIBUTE VALUES DEFINED IN ACTIVEDIRECTORY IN DATA QUERY 9665075 BI PUBLISHER AFTER 9546699 NOTIFICATIONS FOR REPORTS FAIL 9669973 ER: NEED TO SUPPORT PRE-PROCESSING XML WITH XSL FOR EXCEL TEMPLATE 9704401 ER: NEED TO SUPPORT DEFAULT GROUP FOR ALL USERS IN LDAP/AD SECURITY 9711899 SEARCH PARAMETER IS NOT VISIBLE WHEN SCHEDULE A REPORT 9753736 SOME ROLES FROM ACTIVEDIRECTORY ARE NOT LISTED IN ADMIN ROLE-FOLDER MAPPING 9771354 MULTIPLE PARAMETERS IN 10.1.3.4.1 DATA TEMPLATE ACT ACT DIFFERENTLY FROM 10.1.3. 9772982 "REFRESH OTHER PARAMETERS ON CHANGE" DOESN'T WORK PROPERLY Core  8599646 ER:EXTRA SPACE ADDED BELOW IMAGE IN A TABLE CELL OF TEMPLATE IN FIREFOX 9377593 SOME ROWS HEIGHT IN HTML/EXCEL OUTPUT ARE TOO BIG IN BI PUBLISHER 9487030 NAVIGATION TREE REPEATING TWICE IN PDF DCCUMENT CREATED BY BI PUBLISHER 9509432 PERFORMANCE ISSUE WHEN USING PDF TEMPLATE 9534424 PS: DOCUMENT-REPEAT-FULLPATH-ELEMENTNAME SHOULDNT USE DOT "." AS PATH SEPARATOR 9553360 FORMPROCESSOR CANNOT PARSE SOME PDF TEMPLATES 9554959 TEXT IN AUTOSHAPE IS NOT PROPERLY CUT OFF FOR LINE WRAPPING 9569417 AFTER APPLYING PATCH 9509432 PDF TEMPLATES WITH DBDRV PRODUCE NO OUTPUT 9571670 ER: EXCEL TEMPLATE TO SUPPORT XSLT LOGIC AND XSL CUSTOM EXTENTIONS 9589809 XSL:CALL-TEMPLATE IS MISSING IN GENERATED XSL FILE 9605920 BOOKMARK TESTCASE FAILED DUE TO ER9283933 9689634 PRINT FLOW CHART USING ACROSS 3 DOWN 0 GIVES EXTRA BLANK PAGES You might have noticed some fixes and ehancements to the Excel templates so I can get back on those now. There is a part two to the Mapviewer BIP Mashup coming ... just need aanother 4 hours in the day to squeeze it in.

  Read the article

• Turnkey with LightSwitch

  - by Laila

  Microsoft has long wanted to find a replacement for Microsoft Access. The best attempt yet, which is due out in, or before, September is Visual Studio LightSwitch, with which it is said to be as 'easy as flipping a switch' to use Silverlight to create simple form-driven business applications. It is easy to get confused by the various initiatives from Microsoft. No, this isn't WebMatrix. There is no 'Razor', for this isn't meant for cute little ecommerce sites, but is designed to build simple database-applications of the card-box type. It is more clearly a .NET-based solution to the problem that every business seems to suffer from; the plethora of Access-based, and Excel-based 'private' and departmental database-applications. These are a nightmare for any IT department since they are often 'stealth' applications built by the business in the teeth of opposition from the IT Department zealots. As they are undocumented, it is scarily easy to bring a whole department into disarray by decommissioning a PC tucked under a desk somewhere. With LightSwitch, it is easy to re-write such applications in a standard, maintainable, way, using a SQL Server database, deployed somewhere reasonably safe such as Azure. Even Sharepoint or Windows Communication Foundation can be used as data sources. Oracle's ApEx has taken off remarkably well, and has shaken the perception that, for the business user, Oracle must remain a mystic force accessible only to the priests and acolytes. Microsoft, by comparison had only Access, which was first released in 1992, the year of the Madonna conical bustier. It looks just as dated. Microsoft badly needed an entirely new solution to the same business requirement that led to Access's and Foxpro's long-time popularity, but which had the same allure as ApEx. LightSwitch is sound in its ideas, and comfortingly conventional in its architecture. By giving an easy access to SQL Server databases, and providing a 'thumb and blanket' migration path to Access-heads, LightSwitch seems likely to offer a simple way of pulling more Microsoft users into the .NET community. If Microsoft puts its weight behind it, then it will give some glimmer of hope to the many Silverlight developers that Microsoft is capable of seeing through its .NET revolution.

  Read the article

• Monitor the Weather from Your Windows 7 Taskbar

  - by Asian Angel

  Keeping up with the weather forecast can be hard when you are extra busy with work. If you need a simple but nice looking way to integrate weather monitoring into your Taskbar then join us as we look at WeatherBar. Setting Up & Using WeatherBar To get started unzip the following files, place them in an appropriate “Program Files Folder”, and create a shortcut. When you start WeatherBar for the first time you will be presented with the following window and a random/default location. To get WeatherBar set up for your location there are only two settings to adjust (using the “Pencil & Gear Buttons”). Clicking on the “Pencil Button” will open up this small window…enter the name of your location and click “OK”. Next click on the “Gear Button” where you can choose the “Update Interval” and “Measurement Format” that best suits your needs. Click “OK” when finished and WeatherBar will be ready to go. That definitely looks nice. When you are finished viewing this window minimize it to the “Taskbar Icon” instead of clicking on the “Close Button”…otherwise the entire app will close. Left click on the “Taskbar Icon” to bring the window back up… Hovering the mouse over the “Taskbar Icon” provides a nice thumbnail of the weather forecast. Right clicking on the “Taskbar Icon” will display a nice mini forecast. Conclusion While WeatherBar may not be for everyone it does provide a nice easy way to monitor the weather from your “Taskbar” without taking up a lot of room. Links Download WeatherBar Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Monitor the Weather for Your Location in ChromeCheck Weather Conditions in Real-time with Weather WatcherMonitor CPU, Memory, and Disk IO In Windows 7 with Taskbar MetersTaskbar Eliminator Does What the Name Implies: Hides Your Windows TaskbarBring Misplaced Off-Screen Windows Back to Your Desktop (Keyboard Trick) TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Home Networks – How do they look like & the problems they cause Check Your IMAP Mail Offline In Thunderbird Follow Finder Finds You Twitter Users To Follow Combine MP3 Files Easily QuicklyCode Provides Cheatsheets & Other Programming Stuff Download Free MP3s from Amazon

  Read the article

• Accessing SQL Server data from iOS apps

  - by RobertChipperfield

  Almost all mobile apps need access to external data to be valuable. With a huge amount of existing business data residing in Microsoft SQL Server databases, and an ever-increasing drive to make more and more available to mobile users, how do you marry the rather separate worlds of Microsoft's SQL Server and Apple's iOS devices? The classic answer: write a web service layer Look at any of the questions on this topic asked in Internet discussion forums, and you'll inevitably see the answer, "just write a web service and use that!". But what does this process gain? For a well-designed database with a solid security model, and business logic in the database, writing a custom web service on top of this just to access some of the data from a different platform seems inefficient and unnecessary. Desktop applications interact with the SQL Server directly - why should mobile apps be any different? The better answer: the iSql SDK Working along the lines of "if you do something more than once, make it shared," we set about coming up with a better solution for the general case. And so the iSql SDK was born: sitting between SQL Server and your iOS apps, it provides the simple API you're used to if you've been developing desktop apps using the Microsoft SQL Native Client. It turns out a web service remained a sensible idea: HTTP is much more suited to the Big Bad Internet than SQL Server's native TDS protocol, removing the need for complex configuration, firewall configuration, and the like. However, rather than writing a web service for every app that needs data access, we made the web service generic, serving only as a proxy between the SQL Server and a client library integrated into the iPhone or iPad app. This client library handles all the network communication, and provides a clean API. OSQL in 25 lines of code As an example of how to use the API, I put together a very simple app that allowed the user to enter one or more SQL statements, and displayed the results in a rather primitively formatted text field. The total amount of Objective-C code responsible for doing the work? About 25 lines. You can see this in action in the demo video. Beta out now - your chance to give us your suggestions! We've released the iSql SDK as a beta on the MobileFoo website: you're welcome to download a copy, have a play in your own apps, and let us know what we've missed using the Feedback button on the site. Software development should be fun and rewarding: no-one wants to spend their time writing boiler-plate code over and over again, so stop writing the same web service code, and start doing exciting things in the new world of mobile data!

  Read the article

• Career Development: What should I learn next after Python? and Why? [closed]

  - by Josh

  Hi all I'm currently learning Python. I want to know what should I learn next out of these programming langauages: PHP Actionscript 3 Objective-C (iPhone applications) I work in the Multimedia industry and have decided to learn Python as a first programming language seriously because I would like to learn the basics of programming, to mainly write scripts at work that Automate task (eg. Edit multiple XML files quickly) At work we have a senior developer who knows Actionscript and PHP very well (although knows PHP better). We also have been developing iPhone applications for 2 weeks, Our senior developer could learn it although we have lots of work currently with PHP and Actionscript 3 type work and haven't had time or reason to pick up iOS development. Here are the reasons I want to learn each language, But I cannot decide what I'll learn next: PHP: I want to learn PHP because it will help with Web Development. PHP is very wanted by employers. Senior developer at work writes everything in it web sites, CMS etc. (including XML checks and scripts), I will learn a lot from him (once I learn the basics). However, I don't want to learn Web because you have to deal with lots of cross-browser problems. Actionscript 3: At work we are looking to put on another developer to help with online activities and very small games (using Actionscript 3.0 and Flash CS5) for (eg. First Aid Activities etc) I would like to do things that have a element of design as I'm better at Photoshop then developing. I want to be creative, I like to interact with users in a fun way. Objective-C (iPhone applications): We are a all mac office, we may get more iPhone, iPad application work(jobs) that need to be created. Work has found it nearly impossible to find good iPhone developers. I like apple products (Macs and iPhones), I would like to make my own games, applications in my spare time(if I knew how). Should I learn Actionscript first because it would be easier to learn then Objective-C? Should I learn PHP because it is very widely used? Should I learn Objective-C because it is really wanted by employers now?

  Read the article

• How to handle encryption key conflicts when synchronizing data?

  - by Rafael

  Assume that there is data that gets synchronized between several devices. The data is protected with a symmetric encryption algorithm and a key. The key is stored on each device and encrypted with a password. When a user changes the password only the key gets re-encrypted. Under normal circumstances, when there is a good network connection to other peers, the current key gets synchronized and all data on the new device gets encrypted with the same key. But how to handle situations where a new device doesn’t have a network connection and e.g. creates its own new, but incompatible key? How to keep the usability as high as possible under such circumstances? The application could detect that there is no network and hence refuse to start. That’s very bad usability in my opinion, because the application isn’t functional at all in this case. I don’t consider this a solution. The application could ignore the missing network connection and create a new key. But what to do when the application gains a network connection? There will be several incompatible keys and some parts of the underlying data could only be encrypted with one key and other parts with another key. The situation would get worse if there would be more keys than just two and the application would’ve to ask every time for a password when another object that should get decrypted with another key would be needed. It is very messy and time consuming to try to re-encrypt all data that is encrypted with another key with a main key. What should be the main key at all in this case? The oldest key? The key with the most encrypted objects? What if the key got synchronized but not all objects that got encrypted with this particular key? How should the user know for which particular password the application asks and why it takes probably very long to re-encrypt the data? It’s very hard to describe encryption “issues” to users. So far I didn’t find an acceptable solution, nor some kind of generic strategy. Do you have some hints about a concrete strategy or some books / papers that describe synchronization of symmetrically encrypted data with keys that could cause conflicts?

  Read the article

• Make the Taskbar Buttons Switch to the Last Active Window in Windows 7

  - by The Geek

  The new Windows 7 taskbar’s Aero Peek feature, with the live thumbnails of every window, is awesome… but sometimes you just want to be able to click the taskbar button and have the last open window show up instead. Here’s a quick hack to make it work better. To better understand the problem, imagine having nine windows of the same type open on your screen, but you are primarily working in just one of the windows at a time. So every time you want to switch back, you have to click the taskbar button, and then choose the one you are using from the list, which can be pretty annoying… Now if you know your Windows 7 shortcuts, you’d know that you can simply hold down the Ctrl key while clicking on the taskbar button, and the last window will show up. In fact, you can keep holding down the Ctrl key and keep clicking, and Windows will cycle through the open windows. It’s a useful shortcut, but hardly something you want to do every single time. Instead, we’ll use a quick registry hack to make the normal click switch to the last open window—if you still want to see the thumbnail list, just hover your mouse over the button for half a second to see the full list. Manual Registry Hack for Last Active Window Open up regedit.exe through the start menu search or run box, and then head down to the following registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced Once you’re there, create a new 32-bit DWORD value on the right hand side, give it the name LastActiveClick, and set the value to 1. Once you are done, it should look something like this: Once you are done, you’ll have to log off and back on, or you can kill Explorer.exe through Task Manager and re-open it. Download the Registry Hack Instead Since you probably don’t feel like registry hacking, we’ve provided you an easy downloadable version. You can simply download the file, extract it, and then double-click on the LastActiveClick.reg file. Once you are done, you’ll have to log off and back on, just like with the manual registry hack. Download LastActiveClick Registry Hack from howtogeek.com Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Make the Windows 7 Taskbar Work More Like Windows XP or VistaStupid Geek Tricks: Select Multiple Windows on the TaskbarReorganize Your Taskbar Buttons and Tray Icons in XP/VistaKeyboard Ninja: Create a Hotkey to Switch to Your Open Outlook WindowTaskbar Eliminator Does What the Name Implies: Hides Your Windows Taskbar TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Gadfly is a cool Twitter/Silverlight app Enable DreamScene in Windows 7 Microsoft’s “How Do I ?” Videos Home Networks – How do they look like & the problems they cause Check Your IMAP Mail Offline In Thunderbird Follow Finder Finds You Twitter Users To Follow

  Read the article

• Creating Corporate Windows Phone Applications

  - by Tim Murphy

  Most developers write Windows Phone applications for their own gratification and their own wallets.  While most of the time I would put myself in the same camp, I am also a consultant.  This means that I have corporate clients who want corporate solutions.  I recently got a request for a system rebuild that includes a Windows Phone component.  This brought up the questions of what are the important aspects to consider when building for this situation. Let’s break it down in to the points that are important to a company using a mobile application.  The company want to make sure that their proprietary software is safe from use by unauthorized users.  They also want to make sure that the data is secure on the device. The first point is a challenge.  There is no such thing as true private distribution in the Windows Phone ecosystem at this time.  What is available is the ability to specify you application for targeted distribution.  Even with targeted distribution you can’t ensure that only individuals within your organization will be able to load you application.  Because of this I am taking two additional steps.  The first is to register the phone’s DeviceUniqueId within your system.  Add a system sign-in and that should cover access to your application. The second half of the problem is securing the data on the phone.  This is where the ProtectedData API within the System.Security.Cryptography namespace comes in.  It allows you to encrypt your data before pushing it to isolated storage on the device. With the announcement of Windows Phone 8 coming this fall, many of these points will have different solutions.  Private signing and distribution of applications will be available.  We will also have native access to BitLocker.  When you combine these capabilities enterprise application development for Windows Phone will be much simpler.  Until then work with the above suggestions to develop your enterprise solutions. del.icio.us Tags: Windows Phone 7,Windows Phone,Corporate Deployment,Software Design,Mango,Targeted Applications,ProtectedData API,Windows Phone 8

  Read the article

• Is it okay to have people with multiple roles in a Scrum team?

  - by Wayne M

  I'm evaluating some Agile-style methodologies for possible introduction to my team. With Scrum, is it allowable to have the same person perform multiple roles? We have a small team of four developers and a web designer; we don't really have a lead (I fulfill this role), QA testers or business analysts, and all of our development tasks come from the CIO. Automated testing is seen as a total waste of time, and everything focuses on speed and not quality. What will happen is the CIO will come up with a development task (whether a feature or a bug) and give it to a developer (not to the whole team, to an individual, often in private or out of the blue) who is then expected to get it completed. The CIO doesn't gather requirements beyond the initial idea (and this has bitten us before as we'll implement something only to find out that none of the end users can use the feature, because they weren't consulted or even informed about it before we developed it, and in a panic we'll be told to revert the change) but requires say in/approval of everything that we do. First things first, is a Scrum style something to consider to introduce some standards and practices? From reading, Scrum seems to rely on a bit more trust and communication and focuses more on project management than on development, which is something we are completely devoid of as we don't have any semblance of project management at present. Second, if it can work is it unreasonable for someone, let's say myself, to act as both ScrumMaster and a developer? Or for a developer to also be the Product Owner (although chances are this will be the CIO, who isn't a developer)? I realize the Scrum Master and the Product Owner should be different people but at the same time I don't think we have anyone who has the qualities of a Product Owner (chances are it would turn into a "I need all these stories, I don't care how but get it done" type of deal and/or any freeze would be unfrozen on a whim). It seems to me that I might need to pick and choose pieces of Scrum/XP/Lean to compensate for how things are done currently, as it's highly unlikely that the mentality can be changed; for instance Pair Programming would never fly (seen as a waste, you get half the tasks done if you need two people for everything), TDD would be a hard sell, but short cycles would be welcomed.

  Read the article

< Previous Page | 723 724 725 726 727 728 729 730 731 732 733 734  | Next Page >