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• More on PHP and Oracle 11gR2 Improvements to Client Result Caching

  - by christopher.jones

  Oracle 11.2 brought several improvements to Client Result Caching. CRC is way for the results of queries to be cached in the database client process for reuse.  In an Oracle OpenWorld presentation "Best Practices for Developing Performant Application" my colleague Luxi Chidambaran had a (non-PHP generated) graph for the Niles benchmark that shows a DB CPU reduction up to 600% and response times up to 22% faster when using CRC. Sometimes CRC is called the "Consistent Client Cache" because Oracle automatically invalidates the cache if table data is changed.  This makes it easy to use without needing application logic rewrites. There are a few simple database settings to turn on and tune CRC, so management is also easy. PHP OCI8 as a "client" of the database can use CRC.  The cache is per-process, so plan carefully before caching large data sets.  Tables that are candidates for caching are look-up tables where the network transfer cost dominates. CRC is really easy in 11.2 - I'll get to that in a moment.  It was also pretty easy in Oracle 11.1 but it needed some tiny application changes.  In PHP it was used like: $s = oci_parse($c, "select /*+ result_cache */ * from employees"); oci_execute($s, OCI_NO_AUTO_COMMIT); // Use OCI_DEFAULT in OCI8 <= 1.3 oci_fetch_all($s, $res); I blogged about this in the past.  The query had to include a specific hint that you wanted the results cached, and you needed to turn off auto committing during execution either with the OCI_DEFAULT flag or its new, better-named alias OCI_NO_AUTO_COMMIT.  The no-commit flag rule didn't seem reasonable to me because most people wouldn't be specific about the commit state for a query. Now in Oracle 11.2, DBAs can now nominate tables for caching, either with CREATE TABLE or ALTER TABLE.  That means you don't need the query hint anymore.  As well, the no-commit flag requirement has been lifted.  Your code can now look like: $s = oci_parse($c, "select * from employees"); oci_execute($s); oci_fetch_all($s, $res); Since your code probably already looks like this, your DBA can find the top queries in the database and simply tune the system by turning on CRC in the database and issuing an ALTER TABLE statement for candidate tables.  Voila. Another CRC improvement in Oracle 11.2 is that it works with DRCP connection pooling. There is some fine print about what is and isn't cached, check the Oracle manuals for details.  If you're using 11.1 or non-DRCP "dedicated servers" then make sure you use oci_pconnect() persistent connections.  Also in PHP don't bind strings in the query, although binding as SQLT_INT is OK.

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• design a model for a system of dependent variables

  - by dbaseman

  I'm dealing with a modeling system (financial) that has dozens of variables. Some of the variables are independent, and function as inputs to the system; most of them are calculated from other variables (independent and calculated) in the system. What I'm looking for is a clean, elegant way to: define the function of each dependent variable in the system trigger a re-calculation, whenever a variable changes, of the variables that depend on it A naive way to do this would be to write a single class that implements INotifyPropertyChanged, and uses a massive case statement that lists out all the variable names x1, x2, ... xn on which others depend, and, whenever a variable xi changes, triggers a recalculation of each of that variable's dependencies. I feel that this naive approach is flawed, and that there must be a cleaner way. I started down the path of defining a CalculationManager<TModel> class, which would be used (in a simple example) something like as follows: public class Model : INotifyPropertyChanged { private CalculationManager<Model> _calculationManager = new CalculationManager<Model>(); // each setter triggers a "PropertyChanged" event public double? Height { get; set; } public double? Weight { get; set; } public double? BMI { get; set; } public Model() { _calculationManager.DefineDependency<double?>( forProperty: model => model.BMI, usingCalculation: (height, weight) => weight / Math.Pow(height, 2), withInputs: model => model.Height, model.Weight); } // INotifyPropertyChanged implementation here } I won't reproduce CalculationManager<TModel> here, but the basic idea is that it sets up a dependency map, listens for PropertyChanged events, and updates dependent properties as needed. I still feel that I'm missing something major here, and that this isn't the right approach: the (mis)use of INotifyPropertyChanged seems to me like a code smell the withInputs parameter is defined as params Expression<Func<TModel, T>>[] args, which means that the argument list of usingCalculation is not checked at compile time the argument list (weight, height) is redundantly defined in both usingCalculation and withInputs I am sure that this kind of system of dependent variables must be common in computational mathematics, physics, finance, and other fields. Does someone know of an established set of ideas that deal with what I'm grasping at here? Would this be a suitable application for a functional language like F#? Edit More context: The model currently exists in an Excel spreadsheet, and is being migrated to a C# application. It is run on-demand, and the variables can be modified by the user from the application's UI. Its purpose is to retrieve variables that the business is interested in, given current inputs from the markets, and model parameters set by the business.

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• Contract Lifecycle Management for Public Sector

  - by jeffrey.waterman

  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-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} One thing Oracle never seems to get enough credit for is its consistent quest to improve its products, even the ones as established as its back-office solutions. Here is another example of one of the latest improvements: Contract Lifecycle Management for Public Sector, or CLM. The latest EBS module geared specifically for the Federal acquisition community. Our existing customers have been asking Oracle for years to upgrade its Advanced Procurement Suite to meet the complex procurement processes of the Federal Government. You asked; we listened. Oracle, with direct input from Federal agencies, subject matter experts, integration partners, and the Federal acquisition community, has expanded and deepened its procurement suite to meet the unique demands of the Federal acquisition community. New benefits/features include: Contract Line Item/Sub-Line Item (CLIN/SLIN) structures Configurable Document Numbering Complex Pricing Contract Types ( as per FAR Part 16) Option lines and exercising of options Incremental Funding capability Support for multiple document types (delivery orders, BPA call orders, awards, agreements, IDIQ contracts) Requisition lines to fund modifications Workload assignment and milestones Contract Action Reporting to FPDS-NG I’ve been conducting many tests over the past few months and have been quite impressed with the depth of features and the seamless integration to Federal Financials, specifically the funds control within the financials. Again, thank you for reading. If you have suggestions for future posts, please leave them in the comments section and I’ll take it from there.

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• With AMD style modules in JavaScript is there any benefit to namespaces?

  - by gman

  Coming from C++ originally and seeing lots of Java programmers doing the same we brought namespaces to JavaScript. See Google's closure library as an example where they have a main namespace, goog and under that many more namespaces like goog.async, goog.graphics But now, having learned the AMD style of requiring modules it seems like namespaces are kind of pointless in JavaScript. Not only pointless but even arguably an anti-pattern. What is AMD? It's a way of defining and including modules that removes all direct dependencies. Effectively you do this // some/module.js define([ 'name/of/needed/module', 'name/of/someother/needed/module', ], function( RefToNeededModule, RefToSomeOtherNeededModule) { ...code... return object or function }); This format lets the AMD support code know that this module needs name/of/needed/module.js and name/of/someother/needed/module.js loaded. The AMD code can load all the modules and then, assuming no circular dependencies, call the define function on each module in the correct order, record the object/function returned by the module as it calls them, and then call any other modules' define function with references to those modules. This seems to remove any need for namespaces. In your own code you can call the reference to any other module anything you want. For example if you had 2 string libraries, even if they define similar functions, as long as they follow the AMD pattern you can easily use both in the same module. No need for namespaces to solve that. It also means there's no hard coded dependencies. For example in Google's closure any module could directly reference another module with something like var value = goog.math.someMathFunc(otherValue) and if you're unlucky it will magically work where as with AMD style you'd have to explicitly include the math library otherwise the module wouldn't have a reference to it since there are no globals with AMD. On top of that dependency injection for testing becomes easy. None of the code in the AMD module references things by namespace so there is no hardcoded namespace paths, you can easily mock classes at testing time. Is there any other point to namespaces or is that something that C++ / Java programmers are bringing to JavaScript that arguably doesn't really belong?

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• Can a 10-bit monitor connection preserve all tones in 8-bit sRGB gradients on a wide-gamut monitor?

  - by hjb981

  This question is about color management and the use of a higher color depth, 10 bits per channel (30 bits in total, resulting in 1.07 billion colors, or 1024 shades of gray, sometimes referred to as "deep color") compared to the standard of 8 bits per channel (24 bits in total, 16.7 million colors, 256 shades of gray, sometimes referred to as "true color"). Do not confuse with "32 bit color", which usually refers to standard 8 bit color with an extra channel ("alpha channel") for transparency (used to achieve effects like semi-transparent windows etc). The following can be assumed to be in place: 1: A wide-gamut monitor that supports 10-bit input. Further, it can be assumed that the monitor has been calibrated to its native gamut and that an ICC color profile has been created. 2: A graphics card that supports 10-bit output (and is connected to the monitor via DisplayPort). 3: Drivers for the graphics card that support 10-bit output. If applications that support 10-bit output and color profiles would be used, I would expect them to display images that were saved using different color spaces correctly. For example, both an sRGB and an adobeRGB image should be displayed correctly. If an sRGB image was saved using 8 bits per channel (almost always the case), then the 10-bit signal path would ensure that no tonal gradients were lost in the conversion from the sRGB of the image to the native color space of the monitor. For example: If the image contains a pixel that is pure red in 8 bits (255,0,0), the corresponding value in 10 bits would be (1023,0,0). However, since the monitor has a larger color space than sRGB, sending the signal (1023,0,0) to the monitor would result in a red that was too saturated. Therefore, according to the ICC color profile, the signal would be transformed into a different value with less red saturation, for example (987,0,0). Since there are still plenty of levels left between 0 and 987, all 256 values (0-255) for red in the sRGB color space of the file could be uniquely mapped to color-corrected 10-bit values in the monitor's native color space. However, if the conversion was done in 8 bits, (255,0,0) would be translated to (246,0,0), and there would now only be 247 available levels for the red channel instead of 256, degrading the displayed image quality. My question is: how does this work on Ubuntu? Let's say that I use Firefox (which is color-aware and uses ICC color profiles). Would I get 10-bit processing, thus preserving all levels of an 8-bit picture? What is the situation like for other applications, especially photo applications like Shotwell, Rawtherapee, Darktable, RawStudio, Photivo etc? Does Ubuntu differ from other operating systems (Linux and others) on this point?

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• Creating classed in JavaScript

  - by Renso

  Goal:Creating class instances in JavaScript is not available since you define "classes" in js with object literals. In order to create classical classes like you would in c#, ruby, java, etc, with inheritance and instances.Rather than typical class definitions using object literals, js has a constructor function and the NEW operator that will allow you to new-up a class and optionally provide initial properties to initialize the new object with.The new operator changes the function's context and behavior of the return statement.var Person = function(name) {   this.name = name;};   //Init the personvar dude= new Person("renso");//Validate the instanceassert(dude instanceof Person);When a constructor function is called with the new keyword, the context changes from global window to a new and empty context specific to the instance; "this" will refer in this case to the "dude" context.Here is class pattern that you will need to define your own CLASS emulation library:var Class = function() {   var _class = function() {      this.init.apply(this, arguments);   };   _class.prototype.init = function(){};   return _class;}var Person a new Class();Person.prototype.init = function() {};var person = new Person;In order for the class emulator to support adding functions and properties to static classes as well as object instances of People, change the emulator:var Class = function() {   var _class = function() {      this.init.apply(this, arguments);   };   _class.prototype.init = function(){};   _class.fn = _class.prototype;   _class.fn.parent = _class;   //adding class properties   _class.extend = function(obj) {      var extended = obj.extended;      for(var i in obj) {         _class[i] = obj[i];      };      if(extended) extended(_class);   };   //adding new instances   _class.include = function(obj) {      var included = obj.included;      for(var i in obj) {         _class.fn[i] = obj[i];      };      if(included) included(_class);   };   return _class;}Now you can use it to create and extend your own object instances://adding static functions to the class Personvar Person = new Class();Person.extend({   find: function(name) {/*....*/},      delete: function(id) {/*....*/},});//calling static function findvar person = Person.find('renso');   //adding properties and functions to the class' prototype so that they are available on instances of the class Personvar Person = new Class;Person.extend({   save: function(name) {/*....*/},   delete: function(id) {/*....*/}});var dude = new Person;//calling instance functiondude.save('renso');

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• Pragmas and exceptions

  - by Darryl Gove

  The compiler pragmas: #pragma no_side_effect(routinename) #pragma does_not_write_global_data(routinename) #pragma does_not_read_global_data(routinename) are used to tell the compiler more about the routine being called, and enable it to do a better job of optimising around the routine. If a routine does not read global data, then global data does not need to be stored to memory before the call to the routine. If the routine does not write global data, then global data does not need to be reloaded after the call. The no side effect directive indicates that the routine does no I/O, does not read or write global data, and the result only depends on the input. However, these pragmas should not be used on routines that throw exceptions. The following example indicates the problem: #include <iostream extern "C" { int exceptional(int); #pragma no_side_effect(exceptional) } int exceptional(int a) { if (a==7) { throw 7; } else { return a+1; } } int a; int c=0; class myclass { public: int routine(); }; int myclass::routine() { for(a=0; a<1000; a++) { c=exceptional(c); } return 0; } int main() { myclass f; try { f.routine(); } catch(...) { std::cout << "Something happened" << a << c << std::endl; } } The routine "exceptional" is declared as having no side effects, however it can throw an exception. The no side effects directive enables the compiler to avoid storing global data back to memory, and retrieving it after the function call, so the loop containing the call to exceptional is quite tight: $ CC -O -S test.cpp ... .L77000061: /* 0x0014 38 */ call exceptional ! params = %o0 ! Result = %o0 /* 0x0018 36 */ add %i1,1,%i1 /* 0x001c */ cmp %i1,999 /* 0x0020 */ ble,pt %icc,.L77000061 /* 0x0024 */ nop However, when the program is run the result is incorrect: $ CC -O t.cpp $ ./a.out Something happend00 If the code had worked correctly, the output would have been "Something happened77" - the exception occurs on the seventh iteration. Yet, the current code produces a message that uses the original values for the variables 'a' and 'c'. The problem is that the exception handler reads global data, and due to the no side effects directive the compiler has not updated the global data before the function call. So these pragmas should not be used on routines that have the potential to throw exceptions.

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• Upgrading 10.04LTS -> 10.10 using custom sources

  - by Boatzart

  I'm trying to upgrade to 10.10 from 10.04 LTS using a custom sources.list file that points to an unofficial mirror*. The mirror does have maverick, but I get the following output when upgrading: boatzart@somecomputer: > sudo do-release-upgrade Checking for a new ubuntu release Done Upgrade tool signature Done Upgrade tool Done downloading extracting 'maverick.tar.gz' authenticate 'maverick.tar.gz' against 'maverick.tar.gz.gpg' tar: Removing leading `/' from member names Reading cache Checking package manager Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Building data structures... Done Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Building data structures... Done Updating repository information WARNING: Failed to read mirror file No valid mirror found While scanning your repository information no mirror entry for the upgrade was found. This can happen if you run a internal mirror or if the mirror information is out of date. Do you want to rewrite your 'sources.list' file anyway? If you choose 'Yes' here it will update all 'lucid' to 'maverick' entries. If you select 'No' the upgrade will cancel. Continue [yN] y WARNING: Failed to read mirror file 96% [Working] Checking package manager Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Building data structures... Done Calculating the changes Calculating the changes Could not calculate the upgrade An unresolvable problem occurred while calculating the upgrade: The package 'update-manager-kde' is marked for removal but it is in the removal blacklist. This can be caused by: * Upgrading to a pre-release version of Ubuntu * Running the current pre-release version of Ubuntu * Unofficial software packages not provided by Ubuntu If none of this applies, then please report this bug against the 'update-manager' package and include the files in /var/log/dist-upgrade/ in the bug report. Restoring original system state Aborting Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Building data structures... Done Here is the relevant section from /var/log/dist-upgrade/main.log: 2010-11-18 14:05:52,117 DEBUG The package 'update-manager-kde' is marked for removal but it's in the removal blacklist 2010-11-18 14:05:52,136 ERROR Dist-upgrade failed: 'The package 'update-manager-kde' is marked for removal but it is in the removal blacklist.' 2010-11-18 14:05:52,136 DEBUG abort called *I'm located inside of USC, and for some crazy reason any sustained downloads to anywhere outside of the University are throttled down to 5kbps inside of my lab. Because of this I need to use the following sources.list: deb http://mirrors.usc.edu/pub/linux/distributions/ubuntu/ lucid main restricted universe multiverse deb http://mirrors.usc.edu/pub/linux/distributions/ubuntu/ lucid-updates main restricted universe multiverse deb http://mirrors.usc.edu/pub/linux/distributions/ubuntu/ lucid-backports main restricted universe multiverse deb http://mirrors.usc.edu/pub/linux/distributions/ubuntu/ lucid-security main restricted universe multiverse I've tried adding four more entries to the sources.list with s/lucid/maverick/ but that didn't help. Does anyone know how to fix this? Thanks!

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• Common SOA Problems by C2B2

  - by JuergenKress

  SOA stands for Service Oriented Architecture and has only really come together as a concrete approach in the last 15 years or so, although the concepts involved have been around for longer. Oracle SOA Suite is based around the Service Component Architecture (SCA) devised by the Open SOA collaboration of companies including Oracle and IBM. SCA, as used in SOA suite, is designed as a way to crystallise the concepts of SOA into a standard which ensures that SOA principles like the separation of application and business logic are maintained. Orchestration or Integration? A common thing to see with many people who are beginning to either build a new SOA based infrastructure, or move an old system to be service oriented, is confusion in the purpose of SOA technologies like BPEL and enterprise service buses. For a lot of problems, orchestration tools like BPEL or integration tools like an ESB will both do the job and achieve the right objectives; however it’s important to remember that, although a hammer can be used to drive a screw into wood, that doesn’t mean it’s the best way to do it. Service Integration is the act of connecting components together at a low level, which usually results in a single external endpoint for you to expose to your customers or other teams within your organisation – a simple product ordering system, for example, might integrate a stock checking service and a payment processing service. Process Orchestration, however, is generally a higher level approach whereby the (often externally exposed) service endpoints are brought together to track an end-to-end business process. This might include the earlier example of a product ordering service and couple it with a business rules service and human task to handle edge-cases. A good (but not exhaustive) rule-of-thumb is that integrations performed by an ESB will usually be real-time, whereas process orchestration in a SOA composite might comprise processes which take a certain amount of time to complete, or have to wait pending manual intervention. BPEL vs BPMN For some, with pre-existing SOA or business process projects, this decision is effectively already made. For those embarking on new projects it’s certainly an important consideration for those using Oracle SOA software since, due to the components included in SOA Suite and BPM Suite, the choice of which to buy is determined by what they offer. Oracle SOA suite has no BPMN engine, whereas BPM suite has both a BPMN and a BPEL engine. SOA suite has the ESB component “Mediator”, whereas BPM suite has none. Decisions must be made, therefore, on whether just one or both process modelling languages are to be used. The wrong decision could be costly further down the line. Design for performance: Read the complete article here. SOA & BPM Partner Community For regular information on Oracle SOA Suite become a member in the SOA & BPM Partner Community for registration please visit www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa (OPN account required) If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center. Blog Twitter LinkedIn Facebook Wiki Technorati Tags: C2B2,SOA best practice,SOA Community,Oracle SOA,Oracle BPM,Community,OPN,Jürgen Kress

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• 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.

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• Oracle At QCon SF 2012

  - by Cassandra Clark - OTN

  Oracle Technology Network is a Platinum sponsor at QCon San Francisco.  (qconsf.com).  Don’t miss these great developer focused sessions: Shay ShmeltzerHow we simplified Web, Mobile and Cloud development for our own developers? - the Oracle StoryOver the past several years, Oracle has beendeveloping a new set of enterprise applications in what is probably one of thelargest Java based development project in the world. How do you take 3000 developers and make them productive? How do you insure the delivery of cutting edge UIs for both Mobile and Web channels? How do you enable Cloud baseddevelopment and deployment?  Come and learn how we did it at Oracle, and see how the same technologies and methodologies can apply to your development efforts. Dan SmithProject Lambda in Java 8Java SE 8 will include major enhancements to the Java Programming Language and its core libraries.  This suite of new features, known as Project Lambda in the OpenJDK community, includes lambda expressions, default methods, and parallel collections (and much more!).  The result will be a next-generation Java programming experience with more flexibility and better abstractions.   This talk will introduce the new Java features and offer a behind-the-scenes view of how they evolved and why they work the way that they do. Arun GuptaJSR 356: Building HTML5 WebSocket Applications in JavaThe family of HTML5 technologies has pushed the pendulum away from rich client technologies and toward ever-more-capable Web clients running on today’s browsers. In particular, WebSocket brings new opportunities for efficient peer-to-peer communication, providing the basis for a new generation of interactive and “live” Web applications. This session examines the efforts under way to support WebSocket in the Java programming model, from its base-level integration in the Java Servlet and Java EE containers to a new, easy-to-use API and toolset that are destined to become part of the standard Java platform. The full conference schedule is here: http://qconsf.com/sf2012/schedule/wednesday.jsp But wait, there’s more!  At the Oracle booth, we’ll also be covering: ·         Oracle ADF Mobile·         Oracle Developer Cloud Service·         Oracle ADF Essentials·         NetBeans Project Easel Lastly we’ll share the results of a short cloud survey at QConSF ater this week.  If you attended this year's Oracle OpenWorld and JavaOne conferences, it would be hard not to notice that Oracle is clearly "all-in" when it comes to the Cloud.  With Cloud computing being such a hot topic on many OTN members' minds, we'd like to know what you're doing in the cloud and invite you to take this short cloud survey.

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• Have you used the ExecutionValue and ExecValueVariable properties?

  The ExecutionValue execution value property and it’s friend ExecValueVariable are a much undervalued feature of SSIS, and many people I talk to are not even aware of their existence, so I thought I’d try and raise their profile a bit. The ExecutionValue property is defined on the base object Task, so all tasks have it available, but it is up to the task developer to do something useful with it. The basic idea behind it is that it allows the task to return something useful and interesting about what it has performed, in addition to the standard success or failure result. The best example perhaps is the Execute SQL Task which uses the ExecutionValue property to return the number of rows affected by the SQL statement(s). This is a very useful feature, something people often want to capture into a variable, and start using the result set options to do. Unfortunately we cannot read the value of a task property at runtime from within a SSIS package, so the ExecutionValue property on its own is a bit of a let down, but enter the ExecValueVariable and we have the perfect marriage. The ExecValueVariable is another property exposed through the task (TaskHost), which lets us select a SSIS package variable. What happens now is that when the task sets the ExecutionValue, the interesting value is copied into the variable we set on the ExecValueVariable property, and a variable is something we can access and do something with. So put simply if the ExecutionValue property value is of interest, make sure you create yourself a package variable and set the name as the ExecValueVariable. Have  look at the 3 step guide below: 1 Configure your task as normal, for example the Execute SQL Task, which here calls a stored procedure to do some updates. 2 Create variable of a suitable type to match the ExecutionValue, an integer is used to match the result we want to capture, the number of rows. 3 Set the ExecValueVariable for the task, just select the variable we created in step 2. You need to do this in Properties grid for the task (Short-cut key, select the task and press F4) Now when we execute the sample task above, our variable UpdateQueueRowCount will get the number of rows we updated in our Execute SQL Task. I’ve tried to collate a list of tasks that return something useful via the ExecutionValue and ExecValueVariable mechanism, but the documentation isn’t always great. Task ExecutionValue Description Execute SQL Task Returns the number of rows affected by the SQL statement or statements. File System Task Returns the number of successful operations performed by the task. File Watcher Task Returns the full path of the file found Transfer Error Messages Task Returns the number of error messages that have been transferred Transfer Jobs Task Returns the number of jobs that are transferred Transfer Logins Task Returns the number of logins transferred Transfer Master Stored Procedures Task Returns the number of stored procedures transferred Transfer SQL Server Objects Task Returns the number of objects transferred WMI Data Reader Task Returns an object that contains the results of the task. Not exactly clear, but I assume it depends on the WMI query used.

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• Design pattern to handle queries using multiple models

  - by coderkane

  I am presented with a dilemma while trying to re-designing the class structure for my PHP/MySQL application to make it more elegant and conform it to the SOLID principle. The problem goes like this: Let as assume, there is an abstract class called person which has certain properties to define a generic person, such as name, age, date of birth etc. There are two classes, student, and teacher, that implements this abstract class. They add their own unique properties to it. I have designed all the three classes to include all the operational logic (details of which are not relevant in context of the question). Now, I need to create views/reports/data grids which contain details from multiple classes, for example, say, a list of all students doing projects in Chemistry mentored by a teacher whose name is the parameter to the query. This is just one example of a view, there are many different views in the application, which uses data from 3-4 tables, and each of them have multiple input parameters to generate them. Considering this particular example, I have written the relevant query using JOIN and the results are as expected and proper, now here is the dilemma: Keeping in mind the single responsibility principle, where should I keep this query? It does not belong to either Student class, or Teacher class or any other classes currently present. a) Should I create a new class, say dataView class, and design it as a MVC pattern and keep the query there? What about the other views? how do they fit in this architecture? b) Should I not keep the query in code at all, and make it DB View ? c) Am I completely wrong in the approach? If so what is the right approach? My considerations are as follows: a) should be easy to add new views later on if requirement comes, without having to copy-paste-modify code b) would like to make it as loosely coupled as possible so that if minor db structure changes happen, it does not break I did google searches on report design and OOP report generators, but all the result seem to focus on the visual design of the report rather than fetching the data. I have already taken care of the visual aspect of the report using MVC with html templates. I am sure this is a very fundamental problem with known solution, but I am somehow not able to find it (maybe searching with wrong keyword). Edit1: Modified the title to make it more relevant Edit2: The accepted answer got me thinking in the right direction and identify my design flaws, which eventually led me to find this question and the solution in Stack Overflow which gave me the detailed answer to clear the confusion.

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• Drawing 2D Grid in 3D View - Need help with method

  - by Deukalion

  I'm trying to draw a simple 2D grid for an editor, to able to navigate more clearly around the 3D space, but I can't render it: Grid2D class, creates a grid of a certain size at a location and should just draw lines. public class Grid2D : IShape { private VertexPositionColor[] _vertices; private Vector2 _size; private Vector3 _location; private int _faces; public Grid2D(Vector2 size, Vector3 location, Color color) { float x = 0, y = 0; if (size.X < 1f) { size.X = 1f; } if (size.Y < 1f) { size.Y = 1f; } _size = size; _location = location; List<VertexPositionColor> vertices = new List<VertexPositionColor>(); _faces = 0; for (y = -size.Y; y <= size.Y; y++) { vertices.Add(new VertexPositionColor(location + new Vector3(-size.X, y, 0), color)); vertices.Add(new VertexPositionColor(location + new Vector3(size.X, y, 0), color)); _faces++; } for (x = -size.X; x <= size.X; x++) { vertices.Add(new VertexPositionColor(location + new Vector3(x, -size.Y, 0), color)); vertices.Add(new VertexPositionColor(location + new Vector3(x, size.Y, 0), color)); _faces++; } _vertices = vertices.ToArray(); } public void Render(GraphicsDevice device) { device.DrawUserPrimitives<VertexPositionColor>(PrimitiveType.LineList, _vertices, 0, _faces); } } Like this: +----+----+----+----+ | | | | | +----+----+----+----+ | | | | | +----+----+----+----+ | | | | | +----+----+----+----+ | | | | | +----+----+----+----+ Anyone knows what I'm doing wrong? If I add a Shape without texture, it's set automatically to VertexColorEnabled and TextureEnabled = false. This is how I render it: foreach (RenderObject render in _renderObjects) { render.Effect.Projection = projection; render.Effect.View = view; render.Effect.World = world; foreach (EffectPass pass in render.Effect.CurrentTechnique.Passes) { pass.Apply(); try { // Could be a Grid2D render.Shape.Render(_device); } catch { throw; } } } Exception is thrown: The current vertex shader declaration does not include all the elements required by the current Vertex Shader. Normal0 is missing. Simply put, I can't figure out how to draw a few lines. I want to draw them one at a time and I guess that's the problem I haven't figured out, and even when I tried rendering vertices[i], vertices[i+1] and primitiveCount = 1, vertices = 2, and so on it didn't work either. Any suggestions?

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• Configuring trace file size and number in WebCenter Content 11g

  - by Kyle Hatlestad

  Lately I've been doing a lot of debugging using the System Output tracing in WebCenter Content 11g.  This is built-in tracing in the content server which provides a great level of detail on what's happening under the hood.  You can access the settings as well as a view of the tracing by going to Administration -> System Audit Information.  From here, you can select the tracing sections to include.  Some of my personal favorites are searchquery,  systemdatabase, userstorage, and indexer.  Usually I'm trying to find out some information regarding a search, database query, or user information.  Besides debugging, it's also very helpful for performance tuning. One of the nice tricks with the tracing is it honors the wildcard (*) character.  So you can put in 'schema*' and gather all of the schema related tracing.  And you can notice if you select 'all' and update, it changes to just a *.   To view the tracing in real-time, you simply go to the 'View Server Output' page and the latest tracing information will be at the bottom. This works well if you're looking at something pretty discrete and the system isn't getting much activity.  But if you've got a lot of tracing going on, it would be better to go after the trace log file itself.  By default, the log files can be found in the <content server instance directory>/data/trace directory. You'll see it named 'idccs_<managed server name>_current.log.  You may also find previous trace logs that have rolled over.  In this case they will identified by a date/time stamp in the name.  By default, the server will rotate the logs after they reach 1MB in size.  And it will keep the most recent 10 logs before they roll off and get deleted.  If your server is in a cluster, then the trace file should be configured to be local to the node per the recommended configuration settings. If you're doing some extensive tracing and need to capture all of the information, there are a couple of configuration flags you can set to control the logs. #Change log size to 10MB and number of logs to 20FileSizeLimit=10485760FileCountLimit=20 This is set by going to Admin Server -> General Configuration and entering them in the Additional Configuration Variables: section.  Restart the server and it should take on the new logging settings. 

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• How to manage a Closed Source High-Risk Project?

  - by abel

  I am currently planning to develop a J2EE website and wish to bring in 1 developer and 1 web designer to assist me. The project is a financial app with a niche market. I plan to keep the source closed . However, I fear that my would-be employees could easily copy the codebase and use it /sell it to a third party especially when they switch jobs. The app development will take 4-6months and perhaps more and I may have to bring in people after the app goes live. How do I keep the source to myself. Are there techniques companies use to guard their source. I foresee disabling pendrives and dvd writers on my development machines, but uploading data or attaching the code in one's mail would still be possible. My question is incomplete. But programmers who have been in my situation, please advice. How should I go about this? Building a team, maintaining code-secrecy,etc. I am looking forward to sign a secrecy contract with the employees if needed too. (Please add relevant tags) Update Thank you for all the answers. I certainly won't be disabling all USB ports and DVD writers now. But I think I should be logging activity(How exactly should I do that?) I am wary of scalpers who would join and then run off with the existing code. I haven't met any, but I have been advised to be wary of them. I would include a secrecy clause, but given this is a startup with almost no funding and in a highly competitive business niche with bigger players in the field, I doubt I would be able to detect or pursue any scalpers. How do I hire people I trust, when I don't know them personally. Their resume will be helpful but otherwise trust will develop only with time. But finally even if they do run away with the code, it is service that matters after the sale is made. So I am not really worried for the long term.

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• Improving the performance of JDeveloper11g (part 2) and JVMs in general

  - by asantaga

  Just received an email from one of our JVM developers who read my blog entry on Performance tuning JDeveloper11g and he's confirmed that all of the above parameters are totally supported :-) He's also provided a description of the parameters so we can learn what magic is actually being applied. - -XX:+AggressiveOpts -- this enables the latest and greatest JVM optimizations. It will likely help most Java applications. It's fully supported. The downside of it is that because it has the latest and greatest optimizations, there is some small probability that it may not offer as good of an experience. As those features enabled with this command line option have "matured", they are made the default in a future JDK release. So, you can think of this command line option as the place where the newest optimizations get introduced. Some time later they are moved out from under AggressiveOpts to become default behavior. -XX:+OptimizeStringConcat -- only works with the -server JVM. It may be enabled by the default in a future JDK 7 update release. This option delays the construction of a StringBuilder/StringBuffer and attempts to avoid re-sizing the underlying char[] by attempting to detect the size of the char[] to allocate based on what's being appended to the StringBuilder/StringBuffer. -XX:+UseStringCache -- I would not suggest using this unless you knew that JDeveloper allocated the same string over and over again. And, the string that's allocated over and over again is one of the first 100,000 allocated strings. In short, I'd recommend against using it. And, in fact, in Java 7 (currently) does not include this feature. -XX:+UseCompressedOops -- applicable to 64-bit JVMs. And, if you're using a 64-bit JVM, I'd suggest you use it. It's auto enabled in JDK 7 64-bit JVMs and later JDK 6 64-bit JVMs enable it by default too. -XX:+UseGCOverheadLimit -- by default this option is already enabled. One other command line option to consider is -XX:+TieredCompilation for a JDK 6 Update 25 or later, or JDK 7. This gives you the startup of a -client JVM and the peak performance of a -server JVM. Awesome-ness!  Finally, Charlies also pointed out to me a "new" book he's just published where he goes into the details of JVM tuning, a must for all Fusion Middleware tuning exercises..  (click the book)  Thanks Charlie!

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• 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.

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• Obtaining the correct Client IP address when a Physical Load Balancer and a Web Server Configured With Proxy Plug-in Are Between The Client And Weblogic

  - by adejuanc

  Some Load Balancers like Big-IP have build in interoperability with Weblogic Cluster, this means they know how Weblogic understand a header named 'WL-Proxy-Client-IP' to identify the original client ip.The problem comes when you have a Web Server configured with weblogic plug-in between the Load Balancer and the back-end weblogic servers - WL-Proxy-Client-IP this is not designed to go to Web server proxy plug-in. The plug-in will not use a WL-Proxy-Client-IP header that came in from the previous hop (which is this case is the Physical Load Balancer but could be anything), in order to prevent IP spoofing, therefore the plug-in won't pass on what Load Balancer has set for it.So unfortunately under this Architecture the header will be useless. To get the client IP from Weblogic you need to configure extended log format and create a custom field that gets the appropriate header containing the IP of the client.On WLS versions prior to 10.3.3 use these instructions:You can also create user-defined fields for inclusion in an HTTP access log file that uses the extended log format. To create a custom field you identify the field in the ELF log file using the Fields directive and then you create a matching Java class that generates the desired output. You can create a separate Java class for each field, or the Java class can output multiple fields. For a sample of the Java source for such a class, seeJava Class for Creating a Custom ELF Field to import weblogic.servlet.logging.CustomELFLogger;import weblogic.servlet.logging.FormatStringBuffer;import weblogic.servlet.logging.HttpAccountingInfo;/* This example outputs the X-Forwarded-For field into a custom field called MyOriginalClientIPField */public class MyOriginalClientIPField implements CustomELFLogger{ public void logField(HttpAccountingInfo metrics,  FormatStringBuffer buff) {   buff.appendValueOrDash(metrics.getHeader("X-Forwarded-For");  }}In this case we are using 'X-Forwarded-For' but it could be changed for the header that contains the data you need to use.Compile the class, jar it, and prepend it to the classpath.In order to compile and package the class: 1. Navigate to <WLS_HOME>/user_projects/domains/<SOME_DOMAIN>/bin2. Set up an environment by executing: $ . ./setDomainEnv.sh This will include weblogic.jar into classpath, in order to use any of the libraries included under package weblogic.*3. Compile the class by copying the content of the code above and naming the file as:MyOriginalClientIPField.java4. Run javac to compile the class.$javac MyOriginalClientIPField.java5. Package the compiled class into a jar file by executing:$jar cvf0 MyOriginalClientIPField.jar MyOriginalClientIPField.classExpected output is:added manifestadding: MyOriginalClientIPField.class(in = 711) (out= 711)(stored 0%)6. This will produce a file called:MyOriginalClientIPField.jar This way you will be able to get the real client IP when the request is passing through a Load Balancer and a Web server before reaching WLS. Since 10.3.3 it is possible to configure a specific header that WLS will check when getRemoteAddr is called. That can be set on the WebServer Mbean. In this case, set that to be X-Forwarded-For header coming from Load Balancer as well.

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• Dynamic Bind9 + DHCP

  - by AcidRod75

  i have been working on setup a server for my internal network, so far i have a working isc-dhcp-server that can upgrade a chrooted BIND9 (on the same machine), i need to add some static entries on the DNS, so users can resolve the websites that resides in our DMZ. What i had tryed all ready was to modify the /etc/bind/named.conf.local with this info: // // Do any local configuration here // // Consider adding the 1918 zones here, if they are not used in your // organization //include "/etc/bind/zones.rfc1918"; key DHCP_UPDATER { algorithm HMAC-MD5.SIG-ALG.REG.INT; secret "MySuperSecretHash"; (this is not the real value BTW) }; zone "quality.internal" IN { type master; file "/var/lib/bind/quality.internal.db"; allow-update { key DHCP_UPDATER; }; }; zone "0.10.10.in-addr.arpa" { type master; file "/var/lib/bind/rev.10.10.0.in-addr.arpa"; allow-update { key DHCP_UPDATER; }; }; logging { channel query.log { file "/var/log/named/query.log"; severity debug 3; }; category queries { query.log; }; }; --- EOF ---- then i added this 2 entries: zone "ourserver.internal" IN { type master; file "/var/lib/bind/ourserver.internal.db"; }; zone "0.16.172.in-addr.arpa" { type master; file "/var/lib/bind/rev.172.16.0.in-addr.arpa"; }; ---- EOF ---- So.. i created the files ourserver.internal.db and rev.172.16.0.in-addr.arpa placed them BOTH in /var/lib/bind/ and changed the permisions so the bind user can access them, restated the service... when i do a NSLOOKUP www.ourserver.internal i get: Server: 127.0.0.1 Address: 127.0.0.1#53 ** server can't find www.ourserver.internal: NXDOMAIN BUT when i do a reverse lookup.... Server: 127.0.0.1 Address: 127.0.0.1#53 5.0.16.172.in-addr.arpa name = www.ourserver.internal I do not understand what's wrong. Some help with this will save me from installing a new DNS server at the DMZ JUST to host internal site names- TY in advance BTW: the server i'm using has Ubuntu Server 11.10 fully patched.

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• Speaker Notes...

  - by wulfers

  At a .Net User Group meeting this week, I experienced two poorly prepared speakers floundering through presentations….  As a Lead Technologist at the company I work for, I have experience training technical staff and also giving presentations at code camps.  Here are a few guidelines for aspiring speakers you might find helpful…   1.       Do not stand in front of your audience and read your slides.  This is  offensive to your audience and not what they came for...  Your slides are there to reinforce the information you are presenting and to give the audience a little clarification on some terms you may use and as a visual aid for some complicated issues. 2.       Have someone review your presentation (slides, notes, …) who speaks the language you will be presenting in fluently.  Also record at least ten minutes of your presentation and have that same person review that.  One of the speakers this week used the word “Basically” fifty times in less than thirty minutes…  I started to flinch every time he used the term. 3.       Be Prepared  -  before the presentation begins.  Don’t make any last minute changes to your presentation or demo code the night before.  Don’t patch your laptop or demo servers the night before.  If possible create a virtual image that you only use for presentations and use that (refreshed before every presentation). 4.       Know the level of expertise of your audience.  Speaking above or below their abilities will make or break your presentation. 5.       Deliver what you promise. The presentation this week was supposed to be on BDD (Behavior Driven Develpment).  The presenter completely ran off track and 90% of the discussion was how his team mistakenly used TDD (Test Driven Development), and was unhappy with the results.  Based on his loss of focus we only heard a rushed 10 minute presentation on DBB which was a disservice to the audience. 6.       Practice your presentation with your own small team before you try this on a room full of people you don’t know.  A side benefit of doing this with your own team is that you can get candid feedback from your team and also get kudos for training your own team.  I find I can also turn my presentations into technical white papers and get a third benefit from the work I’ve put into a presentation. 7.       Sharpen your own saw.  Pick a topic that is fairly current.  Something you would like to learn about and would benefit your current career path. 8.       Have fun doing it.

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• Pro SharePoint 2010 Business Intelligence Solutions

  - by Sahil Malik

  Ad:: SharePoint 2007 Training in .NET 3.5 technologies (more information). Oh yeah baby, it’s out finally! This book is what I wanted to write for so long now, but never really got a chance to. For SharePoint 2007, I authored the SharePoint section of “Smart BI Solutions with SQL Server 2008” for MS Press. But never really got the time, to author a full book that this topic deserved. Until SharePoint 2010, we actually have a full book on this topic. So first things first, I didn’t actually write it. My role was limited to the overall concept, the outline, the layout, completion of it, code samples, identifying what we need in here, vouching for technical accuracy, identifying authors etc. The real work was done by Srini (5 chapters), and Steve (1 chapter). So credit given where it is due. But, with that said, this is a pretty good book. It has always been a challenge to find the superman that knows both, data ware housing concepts, and SharePoint concepts. The data ware housing concepts include basic stuff you need to know to work in the BI area such as cubes, MDX queries, etc. So chapter 1 covers that – and if you’re a hardcore DBA, feel free to skip Chapter 1. Then beyond that, we take every single SharePoint 2010 BI topic, and slice and dice it in detail. The topics we deal with are - Visio Services Reporting services Business Connectivity Services Excel Services PerformancePoint Services And in covering each of these topics, we ensure that a general layout was followed for each topic, to ensure completeness of content. We make sure we cover Setup related issues and advice Point and click usage Code usage, i.e. extensibility using visual studio and a walkthrough of the administration side of things, including powershell. (Yes, I insisted on that in being there in every chapter). Writing a book is always a lot of work, so we hope you find it useful. And it should go very well with the other book I just reviewed, which is Microsoft ADO.NET 4, step by step. Comment on the article ....

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• How can I achieve a 3D-like effect with spritebatch's rotation and scale parameters

  - by Alic44

  I'm working on a 2d game with a top-down perspective similar to Secret of Mana and the 2D Final Fantasy games, with one big difference being that it's an action rpg using a 3-dimensional physics engine. I'm trying to draw an aimer graphic (basically an arrow) at my characters' feet when they're aiming a ranged weapon. At first I just converted the character's aim vector to radians and passed that into spritebatch, but there was a problem. The position of every object in my world is scaled for perspective when it's drawn to the screen. So if the physics engine coordinates are (1, 0, 1), the screen coords are actually (1, .707) -- the Y and Z axis are scaled by a perspective factor of .707 and then added together to get the screen coordinates. This meant that the direction the aimer graphic pointed (thanks to its rotation value passed into spritebatch) didn't match up with the direction the projectile actually traveled over time. Things looked fine when the characters fired left, right, up, or down, but if you fired on a diagonal the perspective of the physics engine didn't match with the simplistic way I was converting the character's aim direction to a screen rotation. Ok, fast forward to now: I've got the aimer's rotation matched up with the path the projectile will actually take, which I'm doing by decomposing a transform matrix which I build from two rotation matrices (one to represent the aimer's rotation, and one to represent the camera's 45 degree rotation on the x axis). My question is, is there a way to get not just rotation from a series of matrix transformations, but to also get a Vector2 scale which would give the aimer the appearance of being a 3d object, being warped by perspective? Orthographic perspective is what I'm going for, I think. So, the aimer arrow would get longer when facing sideways, and shorter when facing north and south because of the perspective. At the same time, it would get wider when facing north and south, and less wide when facing right or left. I'd like to avoid actually drawing the aimer texture in 3d because I'm still using spritebatch's layerdepth parameter at this point in my project, and I don't want to have to figure out how to draw a 3d object within the depth sorting system I already have. I can provide code and more details if this is too vague as a question... This is my first post on stack exchange. Thanks a lot for reading! Note: (I think) I realize it can't be a technically correct 3D perspective, because the spritebatch's vector2 scaling argument doesn't allow for an object to be skewed the way it actually should be. What I'm really interested in is, is there a good way to fake the effect, or should I just drop it and not scale at all? Edit to clarify without the help of a picture (apparently I can't post them yet): I want the aimer arrow to look like it has been painted on the ground at the character's feet, so it should appear to be drawn on the ground plane (in my case the XZ plane) which should be tilted at a 45 degree angle (around the X axis) from the viewing perspective. Alex

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• Games at Work Part 1: Introduction to Gamification and Applications

  - by ultan o'broin

  Games Are Everywhere How many of you (will admit to) remember playing Pong? OK then, do you play Angry Birds on your phone during work hours? Thought about why we keep playing online, video, and mobile games and what this "gamification" business we're hearing about means for the enterprise applications user experience? In Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World, Jane McGonigal says that playing computer and online games now provides more rewards for people than their real lives do. Games offer intrinsic rewards and happiness to the players as they pursue more satisfying work and the success, social connection, and meaning that goes with it. Yep, Gran Turismo, Dungeons & Dragons, Guitar Hero, Mario Kart, Wii Boxing, and the rest are all forms of work it seems. Games are, in fact, work taken so seriously that governments now move to limit the impact of virtual gaming currencies on the real financial system. Anyone who spends hours harvesting crops on FarmVille realizes it’s hard work too. Yet games evoke a positive emotion in players who voluntarily stay engaged with games for hours, day after day. Some 183 million active gamers in the United States play on average 13 hours per week. Weekly, 5 million of those gamers play for longer than a working week (45 hours). So why not harness the work put into games to solve real-world problems? Or, in the case of our applications users, real-world work problems? What’s a Game? Jane explains that all games have four defining traits: a goal, rules, a feedback system, and voluntary participation. We need to look at what motivational ideas behind the dynamics of the game—what we call gamification—are appropriate for our users. Typically, these motivators are achievement, altruism, competition, reward, self-expression, and status). Common game techniques for leveraging these motivations include: Badging and avatars Points and awards Leader boards Progress charts Virtual currencies or goods Gifting and giving Challenges and quests Some technology commentators argue for a game layer on top of everything, but this layer is already part of our daily lives in many instances. We see gamification working around us already: the badging and kudos offered on My Oracle Support or other Oracle community forums, becoming a Dragon Slayer implementor of Atlassian applications, being made duke of your favorite coffee shop on Yelp, sharing your workout details with Nike+, or donating to Japanese earthquake relief through FarmVille, for example. And what does all this mean for the applications that you use in your work? Read on in part two...

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• Proven Approach to Financial Progress Using Modern Best Practice

  - by Oracle Accelerate for Midsize Companies

  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE by Larry Simcox, Sr. Director, Oracle Midsize Programs Top performing organizations generate 25 percent higher profit margins and grow at twice the rate of their competitors. How do they do it? Recently, Dr. Stephen G. Timme, President of FinListics Solutions and Adjunct Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, joined me on a webcast to answer that question. I've know Dr. Timme since my days at G-log when we worked together to help customers determine the ROI of transportation management solutions. We were also joined by Steve Cox, Vice President of Oracle Midsize Programs, who recently published an Oracle E-book, "Modern Best Practice Explained". In this webcast, Cox provides his perspective on how best performing companies are moving from best practice to modern best practice.  Watch the webcast replay and you'll learn about the easy to follow, top down approach to: Identify processes that should be targeted for improvement Leverage a modern best practice maturity model to start a path to progress Link financial performance gaps to operational KPIs Improve cash flow by benchmarking key financial metrics Develop intelligent estimates of achievable cash flow benefits Click HERE to watch a replay of the webcast. You might also be interested in the following: Video: Modern Best Practices Defined  AppCast: Modern Best Practices for Growing Companies Looking for more news and information about Oracle Solutions for Midsize Companies? Read the latest Oracle for Midsize Companies Newsletter Sign-up to receive the latest communications from Oracle’s industry leaders and experts Larry Simcox Senior Director, Oracle Midsize Programs responsible for supporting and creating marketing content ,communications, sales and partner program support for Oracle's go to market activities for midsize companies. I have over 17 years experience helping customers identify the value and ROI from their IT investment. I live in Charlotte NC with my family and my dog Dingo. The views expressed here are my own, and not necessarily those of Oracle. /* 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-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}

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