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• How to start and maintain an after-work project

  - by Sam

  I work as a full time developer. My workplace, however, is very limiting in the technologies and programming languages I can use. All of the work is done in C++. It is clear that C++ is rapidly losing (or maybe already lost) its leading position. (please don't flame me, I have years and years of C++ experience, and I love this language, I am merely stating a fact). I have a few ideas for java/android projects as well as a project I would like to implement in C#. I see this as a way for me to stay current with the job market's trends and I hope that it will help me find my next job in a more up to date area. So here's the problem, my normal workday is 10-11 hours, after finishing with the kids and house chores I get about 1-2.5 hours before I am too tired to think much less code. at that point I am going to bed frustrated, disappointed with myself for not being able to stick with my plans, and then I wake up the next morning to do it all again. I have a few hours more during the weekends but clearly I would need to do something different if I want to reach any of my goals. Is there any way for me to make better use of the time I have? Did any of you guys have a similar problem, and had succefully resolved it?

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• How is determined an impact of a requirement change on the existing code?

  - by MainMa

  Hi, How companies working on large projects evaluate an impact of a single modification on an existing code? Since my question is probably not very clear, here's an example: Let's take a sample business application which deals with tasks. In the database, each task has a state, 0 being "Pending", ... 5 - "Finished". A new requirement adds a new state, between 2nd and 3rd one. It means that: A constraint on the values 1 - 5 in the database must be changed, Business layer and code contracts must be changed to add a new state, Data access layer must be changed to take in account that, for example the state StateReady is now 6 instead of 5, etc. The application must implement a new state visually, add new controls for it, new localized strings for tool-tips, etc. When an application is written recently by one developer, it's more or less easy to predict every change to do. On the other hand, when an application was written for years by many people, no single person can anticipate every change immediately, without any investigation. So since this situation (such changes in requirements) is very frequent, I imagine there are already some clever techniques and ways to predict the impact. Is there any? Do you know any books which deal about this subject? Note: my question is not related to How do you deal with changing requirements? question. In fact, I'm not interested in evaluating the cost of a change, but rather the way to predict the parts of an application which will be concerned by the change. What will be those changes and how difficult they are really doesn't matter in my question.

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• Naming conventions: camelCase versus underscore_case ? what are your thoughts about it?

  - by poelinca

  I've been using underscore_case for about 2 years and I recently switched to camelCase because of the new job (been using the later one for about 2 months and I still think underscore_case is better suited for large projects where there are alot of programmers involved, mainly because the code is easyer to read). Now everybody at work uses camelCase because (so they say) the code looks more elegant . What are you're thoughts about camelCase or underscore_case p.s. please excuse my bad english Edit Some update first: platform used is PHP (but I'm not expecting strict PHP platform related answers , anybody can share their thoughts on which would be the best to use , that's why I came here in the first place) I use camelCase just as everibody else in the team (just as most of you recomend) we use Zend Framework which also recommends camelCase Some examples (related to PHP) : Codeigniter framework recommends underscore_case , and honestly the code is easier to read . ZF recomends camelCase and I'm not the only one who thinks ZF code is a tad harder to follow through. So my question would be rephrased: Let's take a case where you have the platform Foo which doesn't recommend any naming conventions and it's the team leader's choice to pick one. You are that team leader, why would you pick camelCase or why underscore_case? p.s. thanks everybody for the prompt answers so far

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• Software Manager who makes developers do Project Management

  - by hdman

  I'm a software developer working in an embedded systems company. We have a Project Manager, who takes care of the overall project schedule (including electrical, quality, software and manufacturing) hence his software schedule is very brief. We also have a Software Manager, who's my boss. He makes me write and maintain the software schedule, design documents (high and low level design), SRS, change management, verification plans and reports, release management, reviews, and ofcourse the software. We only have one Test Engineer for the whole software team (10 members), and at any given time, there are a couple of projects going on. I'm spending 80% of my time making these documents. My boss comes from a Process background, and believes what we need is better documentation to improve software: (1) He considers the design to be paramount, coding is "just writing the design down", it shouldn't take too long, and "all the code should be written before the hardware is ready". (2) Doesn't understand the difference between a Central & Distributed Version control, even after we told him its easier to collaborate with a distributed model. (3) Doesn't understand code, and wants to understand every bug and its proposed solution. (4) Believes verification should be done by developer, and validation by the Tester. Thing is though, our verification only checks if implementation is correct (we don't write unit tests, its never considered in the schedule), and validation is black box testing, so the units tests are missing. I'm really confused. (1) Am I responsible for maintaining all these documents? It makes me feel like I'm doing the Software Project Management, in essence. (2) I don't really like creating documents, I want to solve problems and write code. In my experience, creating design documents only helps to an extent, its never the solution to better or faster code. (3) I feel the boss doesn't really care about making better products, but only about being a good manager in the eyes of the management. What can I do?

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• Why doesn't it seem to be any development in the field of 3D VR gear, especially with regard to gaming?

  - by neuviemeporte

  I remember that way back around 1995, there was this big craze with VR in the media, a whole bunch of (mostly mediocre) games labeled as "virtual-reality-interactive-movie (...)" were published. If I recall correctly, the first 3D VR helmet was called VFX-1 and was sold bundled with Descent and some dedicated joystick. I never owned one, and I read just one review which was mostly enthusiastic, but pointed to some weak points, like the eyes getting tired after an hour or so of playing. Then the whole thing basically flickered down and died. I suppose the main reason it wasn't successful was that the hardware of the day was not powerful enough, the VR gear's design wasn't perfected to make it comfortable and natural to use, and the companies that made it failed to market it successfully. What I can't understand is why isn't there any development in the field today. There is some vr-ish hardware mostly targeted at the consoles (Kinect, Wii remote, TrackIR), but all projects of creating some 3d head-mounted display system seem to be in early infancy, appear once in a trade show somewhere and aren't heard of again. I think it could work great with head tracking and some of today's shooters, flight sims (trackIR is nice but the movement scale translation is awkward) and other games with an FPP POV. Is there any technological reason why decent vr headgear can't be made today, or is it just that nobody really cares/everyone is scared to repeat the '90s failure?

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• My Only Gripe With Programming

  - by David Espejo

  Is that im having trouble practicing problems. Even if I decide to practice the problems from my C++ book, they dont give any idea of the way the solution(program) should look like, so that I may compare to see if my program is similar in anyway. My book gives me to many generic "Write a program to do "this" " projects without really showing a concrete example of what "this" really is. In other words How Do I Know That I did "that". One problem in my book said to write a program that calculates the sales tax on a given item????? First of all slase tax differs on state(whats the state,) whats the item(a house, a dog,) How can I check this to see if im right. Programming books dont have answer keys! I know that there is no ABSOLUTE answer, thats just silly, programs can be written in many ways, but a sample of what one would look like based of the difficulty of the problem would really help! Is there a solution to this, maby a book that has worked out examples for the problems they give , or online sources that do something similar.(is there such thing as a programming book with an answer key?)

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• Best way to go for simple online multi-player games?

  - by Mr_CryptoPrime

  I want to create a trivia game for my website. The graphic design does not have to be too fancy, probably no more advanced than a typical flash game. It needs to be secure because I want users to be able to play for real money. It also needs to run fast so users don't spend their time frustrated with game freezing. Compatibility, as with almost all online products, is key because of the large target market. I am most acquainted with Java programming, but I don't want to do it in Java if there is something much better. I am assuming I will have to utilize a variety of different languages in order for everything to come together. If someone could point out the main structure of everything so I could get a good start that would be great! 1) Language choice for simple secure online multiplayer games? 2) Perhaps use a database like MySQL, stored on a secure server for the trivia questions? 3) Free educational resources and even simpler projects to practice? Any ideas or suggestions would be helpful...Thanks!

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• Beginners guide to developing optimization software

  - by Florenc

  I am novice in "serious" programming i.e. applications that deal with real-life applications and software projects that go beyond school assignments. My interests include optimization, operations research, algorithms and lately i discovered how much I do like software design/development/engineering. I have already developed some simple desktop applications for some "famous" problems like TSP using heuristc approaches, a VRP solver (in progress) and so on. While developing this kind of software I actually used basic concepts taught at school such as object-orientation analysis and design. But, I found these courses rather elementary and quite boring (for my expectations). So I decided to go a little further and start developing "real" software (and this is where I realized how important and interesting software engineering/design is.) Now, here's my issue: I can not find a "study guide" for developing software of this kind. Currently, there are numerous resources out there (books, websites, tutorials) in designing and developing complex IS, web applications, smartphone apps but I can't find a book for example entitled "optimization software development". Definetly, someone could claim that "design patterns apply to software in general" but that's not my point. My point is that I could simply use my imagination for "simple" implementations, but what happens, when my imagination can not go further? In other words I'm looking for a guide/path to bridge the gap between: Mathematics-Algorithm Design-Software Engineering-Optimization-Software development

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• Find Thousands of Oracle Jobs on oDesk

  - by Brandye Barrington

  We are happy to announce we have teamed up with oDesk, the world’s largest and fastest-growing online workplace, to bring thousands of job opportunities to the Oracle Certified community.  On oDesk, skilled independent professionals can tap into global demand for their skills by accessing hundreds of thousands of job opportunities around the world—more than 444,000 jobs were posted on oDesk in Q2 2012 alone.  And with the freedom to work whenever and wherever they like, on the projects they choose and at the rate they set, oDesk contractors are building their online reputations and taking control of their careers—oDesk data shows that contractors increase their rates by an average of 190% over three years. And with oDesk’s new Oracle Certified Group, contractors can set themselves apart by showcasing an Oracle Certified badge on their profile, giving them a competitive advantage when they apply to the thousands of open Oracle jobs on oDesk.  oDesk is free to join—as is the Oracle Certified Group—and guarantees payment for hourly work. With more than 480,000 businesses from around the world registered on the platform, professionals have a wide range of jobs to choose from, including those that require MySQL, Java, and many other types of Oracle skills. Learn more about Oracle job opportunities and join the Certified Group on oDesk here.

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• Open Source Project all dressed up but nowhere to go...

  - by Calanus

  Over the past 2 years myself and a colleague have built an online statistical analysis application using a mixture of silverlight, wcf and R. I (a c# programmer) wrote all the silverlight and wcf stuff whilst my colleague (a statistician) came up with the stats algorithms and wrote the R code. Now we think that this app is fairly unique - a rich gui online statistics application that is much more intuitive than all the other online stat apps that I've seen. But despite this we don't really know where to go with the project, mainly for the following reasons: 1) Its fairly complicated stuff - without the mix of programing and stats skills it would be difficult for anyone to "get into" the project and contribute. 2) We are stalled by a lack of a proper place to host the site. Currently it sits on the family windows 7 media centre, not exactly the best place to host it as it could interfere with the missus trying to watch Corrie/Friends/Oprah etc. Soo, anyone got any ideas on how to move forward with this? I guess that my strength is programing not marketing so despite working hard at this for the past couple of years I feel that I've reached a dead end! Also, does anyone know of any free windows hosting for open source projects? If I could find a proper place to put the app I might feel re-energised about the whole thing. The source code is on codeplex at: http://silverstats.codeplex.com, whilst the app is currently hosted at http://silverstats.co.uk

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• Changing the Default Windows Phone 7 Deployment Target In Visual Studio 2010

  - by mbcrump

  After you download and install the January 2011 Windows Phone update, you will notice one annoying thing. The default deployment target for Windows Phone Projects in Visual Studio changes to Windows Phone 7 Device. Before the update, it defaulted to the Emulator. I found this extremely annoying as I’m more than likely going to test with the emulator before putting it on my actual device. Now to make things fair, Microsoft told you they were going to switch the default and even provided a solution, but you will have to check a tiny paragraph in the release notes. The good news is that its very easy to do: Simply navigate out to : %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Phone Tools\CoreCon See the folder named, “10.0”? Go ahead and delete it. Now, the folder will be completely empty and if you fire up Visual Studio 2010 you will see we are now defaulting to the Emulator again. In my opinion, this should have been left at Emulator. Now, new WP7 developers will get a build error when they first start a WP7 project and will not know why until they read the error list.  Subscribe to my feed CodeProject

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• How to promote an open-source project?

  - by Shehi

  First of all, I apologize if this is the wrong section of network to post this question. If it is, please feel free to move it to more appropriate location... Question: I would like to hear your ideas regarding the ways of open source projects being started and run. I have an open-source content management system project and here some questions arise: How should I act? Shall I come up with a viable pre-alpha edition with working front- and back-ends first and then announce the project publicly? Or shall I announce it right away from the scratch? As a developer I know that one should use versioning system like Git or SVN, which I do, no problems there. And the merit of unit-testing is also something to remember, which, to be frank, I am not into at all... Project management - I am a beginner in that, at best. Coding techniques and experiences such as Agile development is something I want to explore... In short, any ideas for a developer who is new to open-source world, is most welcome.

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• What to do as a new team lead on a project with maintainability problems?

  - by Mr_E

  I have just been put in charge of a code project with maintainability problems. What things can I do to get the project on a stable footing? I find myself in a place where we are working with a very large multi-tiered .NET system that is missing a lot of the important things such as unit tests, IOC, MEF, too many static classes, pure datasets etc. I'm only 24 but I've been here for almost three years (this app has been in development for 5) and mostly due to time constraints we've been just adding in more crap to fit the other crap. After doing a number of projects in my free time I have begun to understand just how important all those concepts are. Also due to employee shifting I find myself to now be the team lead on this project and I really want to come up with some smart ways to improve this app. Ways where the value can be explained to management. I have ideas of what I would like to do but they all seem so overwhelming without much upfront gain. Any stories of how people have or would have dealt with this would be a very interesting read. Thanks.

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• Employee Engagement: Drive Business Value

  - by Kellsey Ruppel

  As we’ve been discussing this week, employee engagement is extremely important and you’ve probably realized that effectively engaging your employees is essential to driving business value. Your employees are the ones responsible for executing on the business’ objectives. Your employees (in the sales & service departments) are the ones interacting with your customers the most, so delivering on customer expectations and attaining high levels of customer engagement are simply not possible without successfully empowering these this stakeholder group. High employee and partner engagement can have many benefits including: Higher levels of employee productivity Longer employee retention Stronger, more enduring and more successful relationships Serving as ambassadors for an organization’s brand More likely to deliver excellent customer service Referring others for hire Recommending the organization’s products and services Sharing feedback with their colleagues In a way, engagement is a measure of employee investment in an organization’s mission and brand. And then you have the enablement piece of this as well.  It’s hard to imagine a high level of engagement existing among employees who don’t feel that they’ve been enabled to do their jobs very efficiently or effectively. You’re just not going to find high engagement among people if the everyday processes and technologies  they work with make it a challenge for them to access, share and manage the information  they need do their jobs or if they’re unable to effectively collaborate around the projects they’re working on. How does your organization measure on the employee engagement spectrum? We’ve got a number of different resources to help you get started! Portal Resource Center Video: Got a minute? WebCenter in Action Webcast Series Portal Engagement Webcast 

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• Recommended formats to store bitmaps in memory?

  - by Geotarget

  I'm working with general purpose image rendering, and high-performance image processing, and so I need to know how to store bitmaps in-memory. (24bpp/32bpp, compressed/raw, etc) I'm not working with 3D graphics or DirectX / OpenGL rendering and so I don't need to use graphics card compatible bitmap formats. My questions: What is the "usual" or "normal" way to store bitmaps in memory? (in C++ engines/projects?) How to store bitmaps for high-performance algorithms, such that read/write times are the fastest? (fixed array? with/without padding? 24-bpp or 32-bpp?) How to store bitmaps for applications handling a lot of bitmap data, to minimize memory usage? (JPEG? or a faster [de]compression algorithm?) Some possible methods: Use a fixed packed 24-bpp or 32-bpp int[] array and simply access pixels using pointer access, all pixels are allocated in one continuous memory chunk (could be 1-10 MB) Use a form of "sparse" data storage so each line of the bitmap is allocated separately, reusing more memory and requiring smaller contiguous memory segments Store bitmaps in its compressed form (PNG, JPG, GIF, etc) and unpack only when its needed, reducing the amount of memory used. Delete the unpacked data if its not used for 10 secs.

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• FP for simulation and modelling

  - by heaptobesquare

  I'm about to start a simulation/modelling project. I already know that OOP is used for this kind of projects. However, studying Haskell made me consider using the FP paradigm for modelling a system of components. Let me elaborate: Let's say I have a component of type A, characterised by a set of data (a parameter like temperature or pressure,a PDE and some boundary conditions,etc.) and a component of type B, characterised by a different set of data(different or same parameter, different PDE and boundary conditions). Let's also assume that the functions/methods that are going to be applied on each component are the same (a Galerkin method for example). If I were to use an OOP approach, I would create two objects that would encapsulate each type's data, the methods for solving the PDE(inheritance would be used here for code reuse) and the solution to the PDE. On the other hand, if I were to use an FP approach, each component would be broken down to data parts and the functions that would act upon the data in order to get the solution for the PDE. This approach seems simpler to me assuming that linear operations on data would be trivial and that the parameters are constant. What if the parameters are not constant(for example, temperature increases suddenly and therefore cannot be immutable)? In OOP, the object's (mutable) state can be used. I know that Haskell has Monads for that. To conclude, would implementing the FP approach be actually simpler,less time consuming and easier to manage (add a different type of component or new method to solve the pde) compared to the OOP one? I come from a C++/Fortran background, plus I'm not a professional programmer, so correct me on anything that I've got wrong.

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• Employers and intellectual property 2

  - by Rick

  I have a question about intellectual property, I am currently a manager in a small manufacturing firm. The owners are driven by greed and don't appreciate the development process of complex machinery and are happy just to send things out half done. I on the other hand think that it should be done properly as breakdown in the field can be costly, embarrassing. They seem to have all of us running around doing most of the work out of hours using the attitude of "Be grateful to have a job" yet no one has a contract or any security or any agreement in place. For a couple of the projects i am using PLC's and doing the code in my own time and the testing during company time, and i am aware that they cannot support their own machines if i left, but as i created the code in my own time who owns it? The have asked my to put in a shutdown code for a maintenance request after a given length of time, could this be classed as criminal damage or anything illegal apart from immoral? (we sell the machines with 12 month warrantee, shut down after) But as time goes on I'm getting rather fed up of the companies attitude toward the client. I am considering keeping the clients as my own and get them to contact me directly In the shutdown code. By doing something like this is a trial version contact me for a full license? I wouldn't feel bad for my current employer as he is not afraid to S***t on people as he has been evolved in numerous law suits and has over 30 failed companies leaving people and customers high and dry, we have took the company this far on the reputation of the workers and and i can see things heading like all the other companies he has owned and taking our reputations with him. So i suppose now i have set the scene, if i code into it to contact me directly in the shutdown could there be any legal impact on me, as i rightly or wrongly think i own the code and designs? Cheers R

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• Is learning C# as a first language a mistake?

  - by JuniorDeveloper1208

  I know there are similar questions on here, which I've read, but I recently read this post by Joel Spolsky: How can I teach a bright person, with no programming experience, how to program? And it got me thinking about my way of learning and whether it might actually be harmful in the long run. I've dabbled with various languages but C# is my first serious one, I've read "Head First C#" and created a few projects. But after reading the post above I've found it a bit disheartening that I may be going about it all wrong, obviously I respect Joel's opinion which is what has thrown me a bit. I've started reading "Code" as recommended in the reading list and I'm finding it pretty hard going, although enjoyable. I feel like it's taken the shine off of my "noobish hacking about" in Visual Studio. So now I'm unsure as to what path I should take? Should I take a step back and follow Joel's advice and start reading? I guess my main aim is just to become a good programmer, like everyone else, but I don't want to be going into bad practice by learning a .NET language when someone who's opinion I respect thinks that it is harmful. Thoughts?

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• Build vs Rebuild

  - by prash

  Build means compile and link only the source files that have changed since the last build, while Rebuild means compile and link all source files regardless of whether they changed or not. Build is the normal thing to do and is faster. Sometimes the versions of project target components can get out of sync and rebuild is necessary to make the build successful. In practice, you never need to Clean. Build or Rebuild Solution builds or rebuilds all projects in the your solution, while Build or Rebuild <project name> builds or rebuilds the StartUp project. To set the StartUp project, right click on the desired project name in the Solution Explorer tab and select Set as StartUp project. The project name now appears in bold. Compile just compiles the source file currently being edited. Useful to quickly check for errors when the rest of your source files are in an incomplete state that would prevent a successful build of the entire project. Ctrl-F7 is the shortcut key for Compile. All source files that have changed are saved when you request a build/rebuild, so you don't have to save them first. When you run your executable (F5 or Ctrl-F5), Visual Studio saves all your changed source files and builds anything that changed, so you don't need to explicitly do those steps every time. This allows for quick "trial and error" debugging. Incidentally, if you like those little Visual Studio keyboard shortcuts, you can download posters of the C# and the VB.Net ones, respectively (I am personally a big fan of using keyboard shortcuts :) ).   Visual Studio 2010 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=92ced922-d505-457a-8c9c-84036160639f   Visual Studio 2005 C#: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c15d210d-a926-46a8-a586-31f8a2e576fe&DisplayLang=en VB.NET: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6bb41456-9378-4746-b502-b4c5f7182203&DisplayLang=en

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• XNA on the TechNet Wiki

  - by Michael B. McLaughlin

  Many months ago I came across an interesting Microsoft website, the TechNet Wiki, when I was looking for information about something that I can’t even remember anymore. I noticed at the time that its section on gaming technologies was sparse and even exchanged a few emails with one of the friendly Microsoft employees who contributes there regularly about some ideas I had for the site. I seem to recall mentioning my intentions to add some articles on XNA when I found the time but between one thing and another it seemed like I was busy from the end of last Summer straight through ‘til now. Yesterday I came across the TechNet Wiki link in my miscellaneous links collection and remembered my intentions many months ago. I decided that adding XNA pages to it would make a nice project to work on while taking breaks from my other projects. So I wrote my first two articles for it: XNA Framework Overview and Content Pipeline Overview. I hope to add more in the coming days and weeks. I’d be delighted if some of my fellow XNA enthusiasts out there joined in, time permitting. Anyone else who’d like to add a page or two on a topic area you’re familiar with, this seems like a great opportunity to contribute to the community and help build a nice knowledge base to benefit all of us who are always interested in learning something new!

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• Endeca Information Discovery 3-Day Hands-on Training Boot-Camp

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

  For Oracle Partners, on October 15-17, 2012 in Paris, France: Register here. The Oracle Endeca Information Discovery (OEID) Boot-Camp is designed to give partners an understanding of OEID’s features, and how it complements the existing Oracle Business Intelligence suite. Participants will learn how to develop & implement solutions using a Data Discovery method.  Training is in English. What will be covered? The Oracle Endeca Information Discovery (OEID) Boot Camp is a three-day class with a combination of lecture and hands-on exercises, tailored to make participants aware of the Oracle Endeca Information Discovery platform, and to gain valuable skills for the implementation of projects.   Prerequisites You must bring a laptop with you for the Hands-on labs: Attendees should have experience and familiarity with the basic concepts of business intelligence and be OPN Partners with Gold or above membership.  This training is free to OPN Partners. Click here for more information. Where and When ? Monday, October 15th until Wednesday, October 17th included  9:00 - 18:00 Oracle France 15, boulevard Charles de Gaulle 92715 Colombes: Access Venue Map Register here  : NOTE there is a Limited number of seats, you will get confirmation within 2 weeks.

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• Advice on designing web application with a 40+ year lifetime

  - by user2708395

  Scenario Currently, I am apart of a health care project whose main requirement is to capture data with unknown attributes using user generated forms by health care providers. The second requirement is that data integrity is key and that the application will be used for 40+ years. We are currently migrating the client's data from the past 40 years from various sources (Paper, Excel, Access, etc...) to the database. Future requirements are: Workflow management of forms Schedule management of forms Security/Role based management Reporting engine Mobile/Tablet support Situation Only 6 months in, the current (contracted) architect/senior programmer has taken the "fast" approach and has designed a poor system. The database is not normalized, the code is coupled, the tiers have no dedicated purpose and data is starting to go missing since he has designed some beans to perform "deletes" on the database. The code base is extremely bloated and there are jobs just to synchronize data since the database is not normalized. His approach has been to rely on backup jobs to restore missing data and doesn't seem to believe in re-factoring. Having presented my findings to the PM, the architect will be removed when his contract ends. I have been given the task to re-architect this application. My team consists of me and one junior programmer. We have no other resources. We have been granted a 6-month requirement freeze in which we can focus on re-building this system. I suggested using a CMS system like Drupal, but for policy reasons at the client's organization, the system must be built from scratch. This is the first time that I will be designing a system with a 40+ lifespan. I have only worked on projects with 3-5 year lifespans, so this situation is very new, yet exciting. Questions What design considerations will make the system more "future proof"? What experiences have you had in designing such systems - both failures and successes? What questions should be asked to the client/PM to make the system more "future proof"?

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• A (slight) Change of Focus

  - by StuartBrierley

  When I started this blog in September 2009 I was working as a BizTalk developer for a financial institution based in the South West of England.  At the time I was developing using BizTalk Server 2004 and intended to use my blog to collate and share any useful information and experiences that I had using this version of BizTalk (and occasionally other technologies) in an effort to bring together as many useful details as I could in one place. Since then my circumstances have changed and I am no longer working in the financial industry using BizTalk 2004.  Instead I have recently started a new post in the logistics industry, in the North of England, as "IT Integration Manager".  The company I now work for has identified a need to boost their middleware/integration platform and have chosen BizTalk Server 2009 as their platform of choice; this is where I come in. To start with my role is to provide the expertise with BizTalk that they currently lack, design and direct the initial BizTalk 2009 implementation and act as lead developer on all pending BizTalk projects.  Following this it is my hope that we will be able to build on the initial BizTalk "proof of concept" and eventually implement a fully robust enterprise level BizTalk 2009 environment. As such, this blog is going to see a shift in focus from BizTalk 2004 to BizTalk 2009 and at least initially is likely to include posts on the design and installation of our BizTalk environment - assuming of course that I have the time to write them! The last post I made was the start of a chapter by chapter look at the book SOA Patterns with BizTalk Server 2009.  Due to my change of job I am currently "paused" half way through this book, and my lack of posts on the subject are directly as a result of the job move and the pending relocation of my family.  I am hoping to write about my overall opinion of this book sometime soon; so far it certainly looks like it will be a positive one. Thanks for reading; I'm off to manage some integration.

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• It is inconsiderate to place editor settings inside code files?

  - by Carlos Campderrós

  I know this is kind of a subjective question, but I'm curious if there's any good reason to place (or not place) editor settings inside code files. I'm thinking in vi modelines, but it is possible that this applies to other editors. In short, a vi modeline is a line inside a file that tells vi how to behave (indent with spaces or tabs, set tabwidth to X, autoindent by default or not, ...) that is placed inside a comment, so it won't affect the program/compiler when running. In a .c file it could be similar to // vim: noai:ts=4:sw=4 On one hand, I think this shouldn't be inside the file, as it is an editor setting and so belongs to an editor configuration file or property. On the other hand, for projects involving developers outside one company (that are not imposed an editor/settings) or collaborators on github/bitbucket/... it is an easy way to avoid breaking the code style (tabs vs spaces for example), but only for the ones that use that editor though. I cannot see any powerful enough reason to decide for or against this practice, so I am in doubt of what to do.

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• Transitioning from Internal to Public Speaking

  - by TJB

  For whatever reason, I've always enjoyed giving presentations. As a developer, I've grown from giving the rare presentation when asked to frequently doing 'brown bag' talks and other presentations on new technology, projects etc. I'd like to expand as a presenter and start giving talks in public, outside of just my workplace, and I'm looking for tips on how to get there. At a high level, I'd love to know a good path to take & useful tips to help me grow from just giving internal talks to my group (10-20 people) to eventually be a presenter at medium-large sized conferences. Here are some specific questions, but I will take any advice you can offer: 1. How much experience do I need to speak at user groups etc? I've been in industry for around 5 years, which pales in comparison to most speakers that I normally see. 2. What is a good venue for my 1st public talk? 3. What surprises can I expect when transistioning from speaking to a small group of friends to presenting in public to strangers? I live in southern California and my background is mostly .net / web, so if you have any specific user group / venues those are also greatly appreciated.

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