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  • Multiple values for a specif custom variable in Google Analytics

    - by Nicola Pacini
    we're trying to get rid of a this question : would it be possible to setup more than one value in a custom variable in Google Analytics, at page level ? Eg: _gaq.push(['_setCustomVar',3,'Tag','Custom Variables',3]); We'd like to track most popular tags on a web site who publishes news, articles and stuff. Contents are categorized (each content belongs to one category) and tagged (1 or more tags for each article). So, we'd like to apply this code: _gaq.push(['_setCustomVar',3,'Tag','Custom Variables',3]); _gaq.push(['_setCustomVar',3,'Tag','Google Analytics',3]); in a page that shows an article with these two tags assigned. What do you think? Honestly I didn't find anything in documentation from Google and some other example sites. Many thanks! Nicola

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  • Why is prefixing column names considered bad practice?

    - by P.Brian.Mackey
    According to a popular SO post is it considered a bad practice to prefix table names. At my company every column is prefixed by a table name. This is difficult for me to read. I'm not sure the reason, but this naming is actually the company standard. I can't stand the naming convention, but I have no documentation to back up my reasoning. All I know is that reading AdventureWorks is much simpler. In this our company DB you will see a table, Person and it might have column name: Person_First_Name or maybe even Person_Person_First_Name (don't ask me why you see person 2x) Why is it considered a bad practice to pre-fix column names? Are underscores considered evil in SQL as well? Note: I own Pro SQL Server 2008 - Relation Database design and implementation. References to that book are welcome.

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  • Coherence Warnings in WLS

    - by john.graves(at)oracle.com
    With 11g (10.3.4 WLS), coherence is now built into many applications.  I’ve been noticing errors in my OSB logs like these:####<10/03/2011 10:45:40 AM EST> <Warning> <Coherence> <osb-jeos> <osb_server1> <Logger@324239121 3.6.0.4> <<anonymous>> <> <583c1 0bfdbd326ba:-8c38159:12e9d02c829:-8000-0000000000000003> <1299714340643> <BEA-000000> <Oracle Coherence 3.6.0.4 (member=n/a): Unic astUdpSocket failed to set receive buffer size to 714 packets (1023KB); actual size is 12%, 89 packets (127KB). Consult your OS do cumentation regarding increasing the maximum socket buffer size. Proceeding with the actual value may cause sub-optimal performanc e.> ####<10/03/2011 10:45:40 AM EST> <Warning> <Coherence> <osb-jeos> <osb_server1> <Logger@324239121 3.6.0.4> <<anonymous>> <> <583c1 0bfdbd326ba:-8c38159:12e9d02c829:-8000-0000000000000003> <1299714340650> <BEA-000000> <Oracle Coherence 3.6.0.4 (member=n/a): Pref erredUnicastUdpSocket failed to set receive buffer size to 1428 packets (1.99MB); actual size is 6%, 89 packets (127KB). Consult y our OS documentation regarding increasing the maximum socket buffer size. Proceeding with the actual value may cause sub-optimal p erformance.> ####<10/03/2011 10:45:40 AM EST> <Warning> <Coherence> <osb-jeos> <osb_server1> <Logger@324239121 3.6.0.4> <<anonymous>> <> <583c1 0bfdbd326ba:-8c38159:12e9d02c829:-8000-0000000000000003> <1299714340659> <BEA-000000> <Oracle Coherence 3.6.0.4 (member=n/a): Mult icastUdpSocket failed to set receive buffer size to 714 packets (1023KB); actual size is 12%, 89 packets (127KB). Consult your OS documentation regarding increasing the maximum socket buffer size. Proceeding with the actual value may cause sub-optimal performa nce.> I was able to “fix” this on my ubuntu system by adding the following lines to the /etc/sysctl.conf file:# Setup networking for coherence # maximum receive socket buffer size, default 131071 net.core.rmem_max = 2000000 # maximum send socket buffer size, default 131071 net.core.wmem_max = 1000000 # default receive socket buffer size, default 65535 net.core.rmem_default = 2524287 # default send socket buffer size, default 65535 net.core.wmem_default = 2524287 .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }   .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }

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  • check support of Universal TUN/TAP Device on ubuntu 12.04

    - by nmaybar
    I am trying to setup Appgate Ip tunneling driver on my ubuntu 12.04 by following appgate instructions listed below: Installation, Linux Make sure the kernel has support for the Universal TUN/TAP device driver, and then log in as root and create a new directory somewhere, and copy the files ag_iptd add_route add_gw_route add_hosts_entry ag_iptd clean_hosts_file del_route del_gw_route del_hosts_entry interface_down interface_up remove_dns_server set_dns_server fix_localhost into that directory. Then start the IPTD daemon by doing modprobe tun <directory-somewhere>/ag_iptd There is also an init script 'ag_iptd.init' that can be installed to automatically start the IPTD daemon every time the OS is loaded.Please check the documentation of your Linux distribution on howto do this. so is there any way to checkif my ubuntu 12.04 kernel has support for the Universal TUN/TAP device driver? and how to do so? Thanks,

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  • How a "Collision System" should be implemented?

    - by nathan
    My game is written using a entity system approach using Artemis Framework. Right know my collision detection is called from the Movement System but i'm wondering if it's a proper way to do collision detection using such an approach. Right know i'm thinking of a new system dedicated to collision detection that would proceed all the solid entities to check if they are in collision with another one. I'm wondering if it's a correct way to handle collision detection with an entity system approach? Also, how should i implement this collision system? I though of an IntervalEntitySystem that would check every 200ms (this value is chosen regarding the Artemis documentation) if some entities are colliding. protected void processEntities(ImmutableBag<Entity> ib) { for (int i = 0; i < ib.size(); i++) { Entity e = ib.get(i); //check of collision with other entities here } }

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  • Working with CPU cycles in Gameboy Advance

    - by Preston Sexton
    I am working on an GBA emulator and stuck at implementing CPU cycles. I just know the basic knowledge about it, each instruction of ARM and THUMB mode as each different set of cycles for each instructions. Currently I am simply saying every ARM instructions cost 4 cycles and THUMB instructions cost 2 cycles. But how do you implement it like the CPU documentation says? Does instruction cycles vary depending on which section of the memory it's currently accessing to? http://nocash.emubase.de/gbatek.htm#cpuinstructioncycletimes According to the above specification, it says different memory areas have different waitstates but I don't know what it exactly mean. Furthermore, what are Non-sequential cycle, Sequential cycle, Internal Cycle, Coprocessor Cycle for? I saw in some GBA source code that they are using PC to figure out how many cycles each instruction takes to complete, but how are they doing it?

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  • Apple Developer Enterprise Program?

    - by Gnial0id
    I'm building an iOS application for a client (not an enterprise but non-profit association with under than 500 employess), distributed in a free version and a "paid" one. The free version will be available with iTunes/AppStore, no problem with that. But about the paid one... the distribution my client wants is different. They want to distribute it to their clients as a bonus in their subscription, and so, to control this distribution. The first answer would be "iOS Developer Enterprise Program", but it's not an enterprise and have less than 500 employees. Will the fact that my client will distribute the app' with a subscription be a problem ? I spend a lot of time to read documentation, but it is not very clear. I'm a bit lost, I admit it. Any help would grateful.

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  • The Google Maps API and Chrome DevTools

    The Google Maps API and Chrome DevTools Learn how the Chrome Developer Tools can make development with the Maps API faster and easier. If you'd like to know more, see the links below. Chrome DevTools documentation: goo.gl Google Maps API V3 reference: goo.gl For more DevTools screencasts than you can handle: www.html5rocks.com From the jQuery Docs: "jQuery() — which can also be written as $() — searches through the DOM for any matching elements and *creates a new jQuery object that references these elements*." api.jquery.com From: GoogleDevelopers Views: 145 12 ratings Time: 12:16 More in Science & Technology

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  • New promising webdevelopment language?

    - by Rick
    I'm looking for a new language focused on webdevelopment. I know there are many current language/framework combination that are very suited for webdevelopment; ASP.Net, Ruby on Rails, PHP with numerous frameworks, etc... I like shiny new things! I like digging through language documentation or even an interpreter to figure out why something is not working the way I expect it to. Sure I could use an existing solution, but that wouldn't be fun! Are there any new up and coming language focused to webdevelopment (optionally language + webframework setup would be fine too)?

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  • Managed code and the Shell – Do?

    Back in 2006 I wrote a blog post titled: Managed code and the Shell – Don't!. Please visit that post to see why that advice was given.The crux of the issue has been addressed in the latest CLR via In-Process Side-by-Side Execution. In addition to the MSDN documentation I just linked, there is also an MSDN article on the topic: In-Process Side-by-Side.Now, even though the major technical impediment seems to be removed, I don’t know if Microsoft is now officially supporting managed extensions to the shell. Either way, I noticed a CodePlex project that is marching ahead to enable exactly that: Managed Mini Shell Extension Framework. Not much activity there, but maybe it will grow once .NET 4 is released... Comments about this post welcome at the original blog.

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  • cannot run c compiled programs. if you meant to cross compile use --host' Ubuntu

    - by Ali.A
    I'm completely new to Ubuntu I downloaded and unpacked a tar.gz package, after extraction, it is said in its documentation : "type ./configure --disable-gts" But when i run this command alone it tells me "Permission Denied" error. Then i tried to use "sh ./configure --disable-gts" insted, but this time i faced this error: configure: error: cannot run C compiled programs. If you meant to cross compile, use `--host'. How can i overcome these two problems? (I mean permission and compile error) I'm just a rookie and i need urgent help. Thanx

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  • monotouch 2d pixel with correct resolution

    - by acidzombie24
    I am writing up a game that is size sensitive. It needs to be pixel perfect. I believe the resolution is 480x320 pixels with the iphone being twice the width and height. My code is grid based with images exactly 16x16pixels. I found samples of opengl in the past but I never found any good tutorial that had 0,0 the top left and was the correct size in resolution (which made images look terrible) What can I use? I'd like to write the code in C# (or C++ but C# is preferred) and use monotouch. I don't know any libraries for 2d graphics. I'll figure out sound and such afterwards and I seen documentation on monotouch for input.

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  • What percentage of software developers work solo?

    - by JMather
    I'm trying to put together some ideas for a talk, and one of the things that occurred to me, is if there's any documentation or research into how many programmers work as the lone developer within their team. I think this is an important distinction because individual developers (and perhaps small team developers) end up having to wear many more hats than developers part of a large developer group. It could give us some better insight to career development and transition tactics, as well. I've tried some generally googling, and wasn't able to turn up anything, so I'm hoping maybe someone has seen (or studied) something related to this. Thanks in advance!

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  • Microsoft`s FUSE Labs Unveils Spindex Social Networking Tool

    Microsoft s FUSE Labs has been busy lately with researching and creating new products. One such product was introduced this week at San Francisco s Web 2. Expo. The product is Spindex a social networking tool that allows users to simplify their social networking lives. At the moment Spindex is in its infancy with its preview being limited to those attending the Web 2. Expo. What has been released so far however is promising and should give social networking fans something to look forward to.... Transportation Design - AutoCAD Civil 3D Design Road Projects 75% Faster with Automatic Documentation Updates!

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  • Decision for Unchecked Exceptions in Scala

    - by Jatin
    As a java programmer, I have always been critical of Unchecked Exceptions. Mostly programmers use it as an en-route to coding easiness only to create trouble later. Also the programs (though untidy) with checked exceptions are much robust compared to unchecked counterparts. Surprisingly in Scala, there is nothing called Checked Exceptions. All the Java checked and unchecked are unchecked in Scala. What is the motivation behind this decision? For me it opens wide range of problems when using any external code. And if by chance the documentation is poor, it results in KILL.

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  • Destroy guest OS using php

    - by Alee
    I am using libvirt-php to manage my virtual machines, and I need to shutdown/destroy domU. For this I used the following php script: < ? php $conn=libvirt_connect("xen:///"); $name=libvirt_domain_lookup_by_id($conn,4); $dest=libvirt_domain_destroy($name); echo $dest; ? When I run this on xampp server i get the following output: Warning: libvirt_domain_destroy() [function.libvirt-domain-destroy]: operation virDomainDestroy forbidden for read only access in /opt/lampp/htdocs/xampp/byname.php on line 5. Here is the documentation: http://libvirt.org/php/api-reference.html#libvirt_domain_destroy

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  • Converting LINQ to Twitter to Twitter API v1.1

    - by Joe Mayo
    Twitter recently updated their API to v1.1 (Current status: API v1.1). Naturally, LINQ to Twitter  needed to be updated too. This blog post outlines the changes made to LINQ to Twitter during this conversion and highlights important features that LINQ to Twitter developers will want to know. Overall Impact Generally speaking, Twitter API v1.1 is semantically very much the same as it’s predecessor. The base URL changed and so did a few resource segments, but the resources themselves are still intact. The good news is that LINQ to Twitter has always shielded the developer from this plumbing, so the entities, types, and filters didn’t change much at all.  The following sections describe what did  change. Authentication In Twitter API v1.0 authentication was not required for some resources, such as user timelines and search. However, that’s all changed because *all* queries must be authenticated in Twitter API v1.1. LINQ to Twitter has various types of authorizers you can use, supporting whatever OAuth options are available via Twitter.  You can see the LINQ to Twitter documentation, Securing Your Applications, for more info on OAuth support. The New Search One of the larger changes to the API was Search. To be more specific, the Search entity now contains a List<Status>, named Statuses, to hold results.  Additionally, any meta-data associated with the search is now in a property named SearchMetaData. The change to the Search entity and responses is the big change, but the good news is that your Search query syntax doesn’t change. Different Rate Limits The issue of rate limits itself is contentious, but this discussion is focused on the coding experience and I’ll leave the politics to those who prefer to engage in that activity. What’s important here is that both headers and resources have changed. You should review Twitter’s Rate Limit documentation to understand what the changes mean.  A quick explanation is that rate limits are applied individually to each resource in 15 minute time intervals. In LINQ to Twitter these changes surface on the Help entity, via HelpType.RateLimits. The RateLimits query has a Resources filter where you can specify a comma-separated list of categories to return rate limit info for.  The results materialize in the RateLimits dictionary, keyed on category. The Help entity also has a RateLimitsAuthorizationContext, holding the Access Token for the user performing queries – and to whom the rate limits apply. In addition to the new RateLimits query, there are new RateLimit headers that appear in the query response, whose HTTP header name is of the form X-Rate-Limit… which is different from the previous header name. LINQ to Twitter surfaces these headers via the existing properties of the TwitterContext instance. For anyone who retrieved rate limit information via the Headers property of TwitterContext, you should be aware of the new header names.  I haven’t done anything with Feature rate limit properties yet, but they appear to no longer be available – this will require more follow-up. Error Handling Twitter API v1.1 has a new format for Error Codes & Responses. LINQ to Twitter wraps these messages in the TwitterQueryException, which has been updated appropriately. The Message property of TwitterQueryException now reflects the Twitter error message, when available. There’s also a new ErrorCode that’s populated with the message error code. Parameters Most parameters stayed the same, but one of interest is Include Entities (different from LINQ to Twitter data object entities). Entities are metadata hanging off tweets, that provide start/end position in the tweet and other information for mentions, urls, hash tags, and media. Entities used to not be included unless you specified you wanted them. Now, in v1.1, entities are included by default for all APIs that return a Status.  If you were always setting IncludeEntities to true, then you won’t see a change. However, be aware that you’ll now be receiving additional data in your response from Twitter, which will explain a sudden increase in bandwidth utilization. This might or might not  matter to you  depending on the requirements of your application, but you should be aware of it. Everything Else There might be small changes here and there that I haven’t mentioned, but these were the ones you should be most aware of.  Streams didn’t change, but Twitter will be deprecating username/password authentication on public streams, in favor of OAuth, so you’ll be seeing me make that change some time in the future.  Also, Twitter will continue to evolve the API and you can expect that LINQ to Twitter will change accordingly. Summary The big changes to Twitter API were Authentication, Search, Rate Limits, and Error Handling. All API calls must be authenticated. You’ll need to change your code to read Search results differently, but the query is much the same as you use now. There’s a new RateLimits API, one of the Help queries.  Also, the new error messages are integrated into TwitterQueryException. Besides these changes, I expect  most others to be small or affect a smaller percentage of developers.  You can get the latest version of LINQ to Twitter from NuGet or visit the LINQ to Twitter download page at CodePlex.com.   @JoeMayo

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  • MonoGame; reliable enough to be accepted on iOS, Win 8 and Android stores?

    - by Serguei Fedorov
    I love XNA; it simplifies rendering code to where I don't have to deal with it, it runs on C# and has very fairly large community and documentation. I would love to be able to use it for games across many platforms. However, I am a little bit concerned about how well it will be met by platform owners; Apple has very tight rules about code base but Android does not. Microsoft's new Windows 8 platforms seems to be pretty lenient but I am not sure oh how they would respond to an XNA project being pushed to the app store (given they suddenly decided to dump it and force developers to use C++/Direct3D). So the bottom line is; is it safe to invest time and energy into a project that runs on MonoGame? In the end, is is possible to see my game on multiple platforms and not be shot down with a useless product?

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  • Can't access Windos 7 OS in Ubuntu

    - by Myers
    When I try and Access my Windows 7 OS I get the following memo and I have no idea what to make of the code. Error mounting /dev/sda2 at /media/name/Windows7_OS: Command-line `mount -t "ntfs" -o "uhelper=udisks2,nodev,nosuid,uid=1000,gid=1000,dmask=0077,fmask=0177" "/dev/sda2" "/media/name/Windows7_OS"' exited with non-zero exit status 13: ntfs_attr_pread_i: ntfs_pread failed: Input/output error Failed to read NTFS $Bitmap: Input/output error NTFS is either inconsistent, or there is a hardware fault, or it's a SoftRAID/FakeRAID hardware. In the first case run chkdsk /f on Windows then reboot into Windows twice. The usage of the /f parameter is very important! If the device is a SoftRAID/FakeRAID then first activate it and mount a different device under the /dev/mapper/ directory, (e.g. /dev/mapper/nvidia_eahaabcc1). Please see the 'dmraid' documentation for more details. What should I do ?

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  • Tiled/TMX C++ Library/Parser

    - by Ben
    Where can I find an easy to use and up to date C++ parser/library for the .tmx map format (used by the Tiled Map Editor) ? EDIT: David's comment, 'Unless you want to build your game around the format of the parser..', got me thinking... So I have downloaded pugixml, which is an easy to use xml-parser with very straightforward documentation. Together with the spec for the TMX Map Format, I think I'll give it a try myself. I'll probably compare with Cocos2d-x's CCTMXTiledMap at some point.

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  • What does Symfony Framework offer that Zend Framework does not?

    - by Fatmuemoo
    I have professionally working with Zend Framework for about a year. No major complaints. With some modifications, it has done a good job. I'm beginning to work on a side project where I want to heavily rely on MongoDb and Doctrine. I thought it might be a good idea to broaden my horizons and learn another enterprise level framework. There seems to be a lot a buzz about Symfony. After quickly looking over the site and documentation, I must say I came away pretty underwhelmed. I'm woundering what, if anything, Symfony has to offer that Zend doesn't? What would the advantage be in choosing Symfony?

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  • Which simple Java JPA ORM tool to use ?

    - by Guillaume
    What Java ORM library implementing JPA that match following criteria would you recommend and why ? free & open source alive (at least bug fixes and a mailing list) with good documentation simple (simpler than hibernate) I need to select a simple ORM tool that can be set up in minutes, without too much configuration and easy to understand, for setting simple CRUD DAOs. A query builder will be an interesting plus. Later I can have to move to Hibernate, that's why being JPA compliant is a must. I have found some candidates on the web, but not so much feedback, so I will gladly take your advices on the topic. ----- EDIT --------- I have been successfully testing ebean/avaje with a small test cases. Any one has a feedback on using these tools in production ?

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  • Sharepoint 2010, People Picker (peoplepicker-searchadforests), 1 way Active Directory trust .... process monitor to the rescue!

    - by steve schofield
    If you run Sharepoint 2010 in one forest, users in another forest and a 1-way forest in-place.  There is some additional configuration needed in Sharepoint 2010.  I included links below that discuss the details.  My post is not to be in-depth how to setup, rather share a tidbit not discussed in documentation (not that I could find).  Thanks to a smart co-worker and process monitor, it was found there is a registry entry, the application pool needs READ access.  You can either manually grant permissions on the server or add registry permission in AD Group Policy.  Hope this helps. People Picker overview (SharePoint Server 2010)http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg602068.aspx Configure People Picker (SharePoint Server 2010)http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg602075(d=lightweight).aspx Peoplepicker-searchadforests: Stsadm property (Office SharePoint Server)http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263460.aspx Application Pool needs read accessMACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\14.0\Secure Multi Forest/Cross Forest People Pickerhttp://blogs.msdn.com/b/joelo/archive/2007/01/18/multi-forest-cross-forest-people-picker-peoplepicker-searchadcustomquery.aspx Process Monitorhttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx Steve SchofieldMicrosoft MVP - IIS

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  • EOL of MySQL Forge

    - by Keith Larson
    Forge was intended to be a community wiki resource for sharing information with each other.   However, over the last few years, we have seen Forge used less and less by MySQL Community, and more by spammers. What happened? MySQL Worklogs and MySQL Internals documentation will be moved to dev.mysql.com and with new anti spam measures in place. The MySQL Wiki, which was the primary focus of forge.mysql.com has been migrated to https://wikis.oracle.com/display/mysql MySQL Forge will EOL on August 1st 2012.

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  • Books are Dead! Long Live the Books!

    - by smisner
    We live in interesting times with regard to the availability of technical material. We have lots of free written material online in the form of vendor documentation online, forums, blogs, and Twitter. And we have written material that we can buy in the form of books, magazines, and training materials. Online videos and training – some free and some not free – are also an option. All of these formats are useful for one need or another. As an author, I pay particular attention to the demand for books, and for now I see no reason to stop authoring books. I assure you that I don’t get rich from the effort, and fortunately that is not my motivation. As someone who likes to refer to books frequently, I am still a big believer in books and have evidence from book sales that there are others like me. If I can do my part to help others learn about the technologies I work with, I will continue to produce content in a variety of formats, including books. (You can view a list of all of my books on the Publications page of my site and my online training videos at Pluralsight.) As a consumer of technical information, I prefer books because a book typically can get into a topic much more deeply than a blog post, and can provide more context than vendor documentation. It comes with a table of contents and a (hopefully accurate) index that helps me zero in on a topic of interest, and of course I can use the Search feature in digital form. Some people suggest that technology books are outdated as soon as they get published. I guess it depends on where you are with technology. Not everyone is able to upgrade to the latest and greatest version at release. I do assume, however, that the SQL Server 7.0 titles in my library have little value for me now, but I’m certain that the minute I discard the book, I’m going to want it for some reason! Meanwhile, as electronic books overtake physical books in sales, my husband is grateful that I can continue to build my collection digitally rather than physically as the books have a way of taking over significant square footage in our house! Blog posts, on the other hand, are useful for describing the scenarios that come up in real-life implementations that wouldn’t fit neatly into a book. As many years that I have working with the Microsoft BI stack, I still run into new problems that require creative thinking. Likewise, people who work with BI and other technologies that I use share what they learn through their blogs. Internet search engines help us find information in blogs that simply isn’t available anywhere else. Another great thing about blogs, also, is the connection to community and the dialog that can ensue between people with common interests. With the trend towards electronic formats for books, I imagine that we’ll see books continue to adapt to incorporate different forms of media and better ways to keep the information current. At the moment, I wish I had a better way to help readers with my last two Reporting Services books. In the case of the Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2005 Reporting Services Step by Step book, I have heard many cases of readers having problems with the sample database that shipped on CD – either the database was missing or it was corrupt. So I’ve provided a copy of the database on my site for download from http://datainspirations.com/uploads/rs2005sbsDW.zip. Then for the Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2008 Reporting Services Step by Step book, we decided to avoid the database problem by using the AdventureWorks2008 samples that Microsoft published on Codeplex (although code samples are still available on CD). We had this silly idea that the URL for the download would remain constant, but it seems that expectation was ill-founded. Currently, the sample database is found at http://msftdbprodsamples.codeplex.com/releases/view/37109 but I have no idea how long that will remain valid. My latest books (#9 and #10 which are milestones I never anticipated), Building Integrated Business Intelligence Solutions with SQL Server 2008 R2 and Office 2010 (McGraw Hill, 2011) and Business Intelligence in Microsoft SharePoint 2010 (Microsoft Press, 2011), will not ship with a CD, but will provide all code samples for download at a site maintained by the respective publishers. I expect that the URLs for the downloads for the book will remain valid, but there are lots of references to other sites that can change or disappear over time. Does that mean authors shouldn’t make reference to such sites? Personally, I think the benefits to be gained from including links are greater than the risks of the links becoming invalid at some point. Do you think the time for technology books has come to an end? Is the delivery of books in electronic format enough to keep them alive? If technological barriers were no object, what would make a book more valuable to you than other formats through which you can obtain information?

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