cory house - Page 63 - Developer IT

Experienced developer trying to get outsourcing contract with current client.

- by Mike

I work for a major bank as a contract software developer. I've been there a few months, and without exception this place has the worst software practices I've ever seen. The software my team makes has no formal testing, terrible code (not reusable, hard to read, etc), minimal documentation, no defined development process and an absolutely sickening amount of waste due to bureaucratic overhead. Part of my contract is to maintain a group of thousands of very poorly written batch jobs. When one of the jobs fails (read: crashes), it's a developers job to look at the source, figure out what's wrong, fix it, and check it in. There is no quality assurance process or auditing of the results whatsoever. Once the developer says "it works" a manager signs off and it goes into production. What's disturbing is that these jobs essentially grab market data and put it into a third-party risk management system, which provides the bank with critical intelligence. I've discovered the disturbing truth that this has been happening since the 90s and nobody really has evidence the system is getting the correct data! Without going into details, an issue arose on Friday that was so horrible I actually stormed out of the place. I was ready to quit, but I decided to just get out to calm my nerves and possibly go back Monday. I've been reflecting today on how to handle this. I have realized that, in probably less than 6 months, I could (with 2 other developers) remake a large component of this system. The new system would provide them with, as primary benefits, a maintainable codebase less prone to error and a solid QA framework. To do it properly I would have to be outside the bank, the internal bureaucracy is just too much. And moreover, I think a bank is fundamentally not a place that can make good software. This is my plan. Write a report explaining in depth all the problems with their current system Explain why their software practices fail and generate a tremendous amount of error and waste. Use this as the basis for claiming the project must be developed externally. Write a high level development plan, including what resources I will require Hand 1,2,3 to my manager, hopefully he passes it up the chain. Worst case he fires me, but this isn't so bad. Convinced Executive decides to award my company a contract for the new system I have 8 years experience as a software contractor and have delivered my share of successful software products, but all working in-house for small/medium sized companies. When I read this over, I think I have a dynamite plan. But since this is the first time doing something this bold so I have my doubts. My question is, is this a good idea? If you think not, please spare no detail.

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WCF Duplex Interaction with Web Server

- by Mark Struzinski

Here is my scenario, and it is causing us a considerable amount of grief at the moment: We have a vendor web service which provides base level telephony functionality. This service has a SOAP api, which we are leveraging to build up a custom UI that is integrated into our in house web apps. The api functions on 2 levels. You make standard client calls into the service to initiate actions, such as Login, Place Call, Hang Up, etc. On a different thread, the service sends events back to the client to alert the user of things that are occurring on the system (agent successfully logged in, call was disconnected, etc). I implemented a WCF service to sit between the web server and the vendor service. This WCF service operates in duplex mode, establishing a 2 way connection with the web server. The web server makes outbound calls to the WCF service, which routes them to the vendor's web service. Events are received back to the WCF service, which passes them onto the web server via a callback channel on the WCF client. As events are received on the web server, they are placed into a hash table with the user's name as the key, and a .NET queue as the value to hold the event. Each event is enqueued to the agent who owns it. On a 2 second interval, the web page polls the web server via an ajax request to get new events for the logged in user. It hits the hash table for the user key, dequeues any events that are present, and serializes them back up to the web page. From there, they are processed in order and appropriate messages are displayed to the user. This implementation performs well in a single user scenario. The second I put more than 1 user on the system, I start getting frequent timeouts with the following CommunicationException: A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond We are running Windows Server 2008 R2 both servers. Both the web app and WCF service are running on .NET 3.5. The WCF service is running under the net.tcp protocol in duplex mode. The web app is ASP.NET MVC 2. Has anyone dealt with anything like this scenario? Is there a more efficient way (or a widely accepted pattern) to implement this?

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How can I make Swig correctly wrap a char* buffer that is modified in C as a Java Something-or-other

- by Ukko

I am trying to wrap some legacy code for use in Java and I was quite happy to see that Swig was able to handle the header file and it generate a great wrapper that almost works. Now I am looking for the deep magic that will make it really work. In C I have a function that looks like this DLL_IMPORT int DustyVoodoo(char *buff, int len, char *curse); This integer returned by this function is an error code in case it fails. The arguments are buff is a character buffer len is the length of the data in the buffer curse the another character buffer that contains the result of calling DustyVoodoo So, you can see where this is going, the result is actually coming back via the third argument. Also len is confusing since it may be the length of both buffers, they are always allocated as being the same size in calling code but given what DustyVoodoo does I don't think that they need be the same. To be safe both buffers should be the same size in practice, say 512 chars. The C code generated for the binding is as follows: SWIGEXPORT jint JNICALL Java_pemapiJNI_DustyVoodoo(JNIEnv *jenv, jclass jcls, jstring jarg1, jint jarg2, jstring jarg3) { jint jresult = 0 ; char *arg1 = (char *) 0 ; int arg2 ; char *arg3 = (char *) 0 ; int result; (void)jenv; (void)jcls; arg1 = 0; if (jarg1) { arg1 = (char *)(*jenv)->GetStringUTFChars(jenv, jarg1, 0); if (!arg1) return 0; } arg2 = (int)jarg2; arg3 = 0; if (jarg3) { arg3 = (char *)(*jenv)->GetStringUTFChars(jenv, jarg3, 0); if (!arg3) return 0; } result = (int)PemnEncrypt(arg1,arg2,arg3); jresult = (jint)result; if (arg1) (*jenv)->ReleaseStringUTFChars(jenv, jarg1, (const char *)arg1); if (arg3) (*jenv)->ReleaseStringUTFChars(jenv, jarg3, (const char *)arg3); return jresult; } It is correct for what it does; however, it misses the fact that cursed is not just an input, it is altered by the function and should be returned as an output. It also does not know that the java Strings are really buffers and should be backed by a suitably sized array. I think that Swig can do the right thing here, I just can't figure out from the documentation how to tell Swig what it needs to know. Any typemap masers in the house?

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php split array into smaller even arrays

- by SoulieBaby

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Programming a callback function within a jQuery plugin

- by ILMV

I'm writing a jQuery plug-in so I can reuse this code in many places as it is a very well used piece of code, the code itself adds a new line to a table which has been cloned from a hidden row, it continues to perform a load of manipulations on the new row. I'm currently referencing it like this: $(".abc .grid").grid(); But I want to include a callback so each area the plug-in is called from can do something a bit more unique when the row has been added. I've used the jQuery AJAX plug-in before, so have used the success callback function, but cannot understand how the code works in the background. Here's what I want to achieve: $(".abc .grid").grid({ row_added: function() { // do something a bit more specific here } }); Here's my plug-in code (function($){ $.fn.extend({ //pass the options variable to the function grid: function() { return this.each(function() { grid_table=$(this).find('.grid-table > tbody'); grid_hidden_row=$(this).find('.grid-hidden-row'); //console.debug(grid_hidden_row); $(this).find('.grid-add-row').click(function(event) { /* * clone row takes a hidden dummy row, clones it and appends a unique row * identifier to the id. Clone maintains our jQuery binds */ // get the last id last_row=$(grid_table).find('tr:last').attr('id'); if(last_row===undefined) { new_row=1; } else { new_row=parseInt(last_row.replace('row',''),10)+1; } // append element to target, changes it's id and shows it $(grid_table).append($(grid_hidden_row).clone(true).attr('id','row'+new_row).removeClass('grid-hidden-row').show()); // append unique row identifier on id and name attribute of seledct, input and a $('#row'+new_row).find('select, input, a').each(function(id) { $(this).appendAttr('id','_row'+new_row); $(this).replaceAttr('name','_REPLACE_',new_row); }); // disable all the readonly_if_lines options if this is the first row if(new_row==1) { $('.readonly_if_lines :not(:selected)').attr('disabled','disabled'); } }); $(this).find('.grid-remove-row').click(function(event) { /* * Remove row does what it says on the tin, as well as a few other house * keeping bits and pieces */ // remove the parent tr $(this).parents('tr').remove(); // recalculate the order value5 //calcTotal('.net_value ','#gridform','#gridform_total'); // if we've removed the last row remove readonly locks row_count=grid_table.find('tr').size(); console.info(row_count); if(row_count===0) { $('.readonly_if_lines :disabled').removeAttr('disabled'); } }); }); } }); })(jQuery); I've done the usually searching on elgooG... but I seem to be getting a lot of noise with little result, any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

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Calling cdecl Functions That Have Different Number of Arguments

- by KlaxSmashing

I have functions that I wish to call based on some input. Each function has different number of arguments. In other words, if (strcmp(str, "funcA") == 0) funcA(a, b, c); else if (strcmp(str, "funcB") == 0) funcB(d); else if (strcmp(str, "funcC") == 0) funcC(f, g); This is a bit bulky and hard to maintain. Ideally, these are variadic functions (e.g., printf-style) and can use varargs. But they are not. So exploiting the cdecl calling convention, I am stuffing the stack via a struct full of parameters. I'm wondering if there's a better way to do it. Note that this is strictly for in-house (e.g., simple tools, unit tests, etc.) and will not be used for any production code that might be subjected to malicious attacks. Example: #include <stdio.h> typedef struct __params { unsigned char* a; unsigned char* b; unsigned char* c; } params; int funcA(int a, int b) { printf("a = %d, b = %d\n", a, b); return a; } int funcB(int a, int b, const char* c) { printf("a = %d, b = %d, c = %s\n", a, b, c); return b; } int funcC(int* a) { printf("a = %d\n", *a); *a *= 2; return 0; } typedef int (*f)(params); int main(int argc, char**argv) { int val; int tmp; params myParams; f myFuncA = (f)funcA; f myFuncB = (f)funcB; f myFuncC = (f)funcC; myParams.a = (unsigned char*)100; myParams.b = (unsigned char*)200; val = myFuncA(myParams); printf("val = %d\n", val); myParams.c = (unsigned char*)"This is a test"; val = myFuncB(myParams); printf("val = %d\n", val); tmp = 300; myParams.a = (unsigned char*)&tmp; val = myFuncC(myParams); printf("a = %d, val = %d\n", tmp, val); return 0; } Output: gcc -o func func.c ./func a = 100, b = 200 val = 100 a = 100, b = 200, c = This is a test val = 200 a = 300 a = 600, val = 0

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Spring's JdbcDaoSupport (using MySQL Connector/J) fails after executing sql that adds FK

- by John

I am using Spring's JdbcDaoSupport class with a DriverManagerDataSource using the MySQL Connector/J 5.0 driver (driverClassName=com.mysql.jdbc.driver). allowMultiQueries is set to true in the url. My application is an in-house tool we recently developed that executes sql scripts in a directory one-by-one (allows us to re-create our schema and reference table data for a given date, etc, but I digress). The sql scripts sometime contain multiple statements (hence allowMultiQueries), so one script can create a table, add indexes for that table, etc. The problem happens when including a statement to add a foreign key constraint in one of these files. If I have a file that looks like... --(column/constraint names are examples) CREATE TABLE myTable ( fk1 BIGINT(19) NOT NULL, fk2 BIGINT(19) NOT NULL, PRIMARY KEY (fk1, fk2) ); ALTER TABLE myTable ADD CONSTRAINT myTable_fk1 FOREIGN KEY (fk1) REFERENCES myOtherTable (id) ; ALTER TABLE myTable ADD CONSTRAINT myTable_fk2 FOREIGN KEY (fk2) REFERENCES myOtherOtherTable (id) ; then JdbcTemplate.execute throws an UncategorizedSqlException with the following error message and stack trace: Exception in thread "main" org.springframework.jdbc.UncategorizedSQLException: StatementCallback; uncategorized SQLException for SQL [ THE SQL YOU SEE ABOVE LISTED HERE ]; SQL state [HY000]; error code [1005]; Can't create table 'myDatabase.myTable' (errno: 150); nested exception is java.sql.SQLException: Can't create table 'myDatabase.myTable' (errno: 150) at org.springframework.jdbc.support.AbstractFallbackSQLExceptionTranslator.translate(AbstractFallbackSQLExceptionTranslator.java:83) at org.springframework.jdbc.support.AbstractFallbackSQLExceptionTranslator.translate(AbstractFallbackSQLExceptionTranslator.java:80) at org.springframework.jdbc.support.AbstractFallbackSQLExceptionTranslator.translate(AbstractFallbackSQLExceptionTranslator.java:80) and the table and foreign keys are not inserted. Also, especially weird: if I take the foreign key statements out of the script I showed above and then place them in their own script that executes after (so I now have 1 script with just the create table statement, and 1 script with the add foreign key statements that executes after that) then what happens is: tool executes create table script, works fine, table is created tool executes add fk script, throws the same exception as seen above (except errno=121 this time), but the FKs actually get added (!!!) In other words, when the create table/FK statements are in the same script then the exception is thrown and nothing is created, but when they are different scripts a nearly identical exception is thrown but both things get created. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. Please let me know if you'd like me to clarify anything more.

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Best way to version control a WCF application with Git?

- by Sam

Suppose I have the following projects. The format is [ProjectName] : [ProjectDependency1, ProjectDependency2, etc.] // Service CoolLibrary WcfApp.Core WcfApp.Contracts WcfApp.Services : CoolLibrary, WcfApp.Core, WcfApp.Contracts // Clients CustomerX.App : WcfApp.Contracts CustomerY.App : WcfApp.Contracts CustomerZ.App : WcfApp.Contracts (On a side note, WcfApp.Contracts should not depend on WcfApp.Core, right? Else CustomerX.App would also depend on and thus be exposed to the service domain model?) (CoolLibrary is shared with other applications, so I can't just put it inside of WcfApp.Services.) All of this code is in-house. I was thinking of having 6 repositories for this. The format is [repository folder name] : [Projects included in repository.] 1. CoolLibrary.git : CoolLibrary 2. WcfApp.Contracts.git : WcfApp.Contracts 3. WcfApp.git : WcfApp.Core, WcfApp.Services 4. CustomerX.App.git : CustomerX.App 5. CustomerY.App.git : CustomerY.App 6. CustomerZ.App.git : CustomerZ.App How should I manage my project dependencies? I see three options: I could use binaries which I have to manually copy to each dependent repository. This would be easiest at the start, but my repositories would be a little bloated, and it'd become more tedious as I add more client apps for customers. I could import dependent code as submodules. This is what I will probably end up doing, although I keep reading on the web that submodules are a hassle. I also read that I can use something called the subtree merge strategy, but I am not sure how it is different from just cloning the repo into a subdirectory and adding the subdirectory to .gitignore. Is the difference that the subtree is recorded in the master repository, so (for example) cloning it from a different location will also pull the subtree? I know I asked a lot of questions in this post, but the most important two questions I have are: 1. Am I using the right number and layout of repositories? Should I use less or more? 2. Which of the three dependency management strategies would you recommend? Is there another strategy I haven't considered?

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Which is the "best" data access framework/approach for C# and .NET?

- by Frans

(EDIT: I made it a community wiki as it is more suited to a collaborative format.) There are a plethora of ways to access SQL Server and other databases from .NET. All have their pros and cons and it will never be a simple question of which is "best" - the answer will always be "it depends". However, I am looking for a comparison at a high level of the different approaches and frameworks in the context of different levels of systems. For example, I would imagine that for a quick-and-dirty Web 2.0 application the answer would be very different from an in-house Enterprise-level CRUD application. I am aware that there are numerous questions on Stack Overflow dealing with subsets of this question, but I think it would be useful to try to build a summary comparison. I will endeavour to update the question with corrections and clarifications as we go. So far, this is my understanding at a high level - but I am sure it is wrong... I am primarily focusing on the Microsoft approaches to keep this focused. ADO.NET Entity Framework Database agnostic Good because it allows swapping backends in and out Bad because it can hit performance and database vendors are not too happy about it Seems to be MS's preferred route for the future Complicated to learn (though, see 267357) It is accessed through LINQ to Entities so provides ORM, thus allowing abstraction in your code LINQ to SQL Uncertain future (see Is LINQ to SQL truly dead?) Easy to learn (?) Only works with MS SQL Server See also Pros and cons of LINQ "Standard" ADO.NET No ORM No abstraction so you are back to "roll your own" and play with dynamically generated SQL Direct access, allows potentially better performance This ties in to the age-old debate of whether to focus on objects or relational data, to which the answer of course is "it depends on where the bulk of the work is" and since that is an unanswerable question hopefully we don't have to go in to that too much. IMHO, if your application is primarily manipulating large amounts of data, it does not make sense to abstract it too much into objects in the front-end code, you are better off using stored procedures and dynamic SQL to do as much of the work as possible on the back-end. Whereas, if you primarily have user interaction which causes database interaction at the level of tens or hundreds of rows then ORM makes complete sense. So, I guess my argument for good old-fashioned ADO.NET would be in the case where you manipulate and modify large datasets, in which case you will benefit from the direct access to the backend. Another case, of course, is where you have to access a legacy database that is already guarded by stored procedures. ASP.NET Data Source Controls Are these something altogether different or just a layer over standard ADO.NET? - Would you really use these if you had a DAL or if you implemented LINQ or Entities? NHibernate Seems to be a very powerful and powerful ORM? Open source Some other relevant links; NHibernate or LINQ to SQL Entity Framework vs LINQ to SQL

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Insert Registration Data in MySQL using PHP

- by J M 4

I may not be asking this in the best way possible but i will try my hardest. Thank you ahead of time for your help: I am creating an enrollment website which allows an individual OR manager to enroll for medical testing services for professional athletes. I will NOT be using the site as a query DB which anybody can view information stored within the database. The information is instead simply stored, and passed along in a CSV format to our network provider so they can use as needed after the fact. There are two possible scenarios: Scenario 1 - Individual Enrollment If an individual athlete chooses to enroll him/herself, they enter their personal information, submit their payment information (credit/bank account) for processing, and their information is stored in an online database as Athlete1. Scenario 2 - Manager Enrollment If a manager chooses to enroll several athletes he manages/ promotes for, he enters his personal information, then enters the personal information for each athlete he wishes to pay for (name, address, ssn, dob, etc), then submits payment information for ALL athletes he is enrolling. This number can range from 1 single athlete, up to 20 athletes per single enrollment (he can return and complete a follow up enrollment for additional athletes). Initially, I was building the database to house ALL information regardless of enrollment type in a single table which housed over 400 columns (think 20 athletes with over 10 fields per athlete such as name, dob, ssn, etc). Now that I think about it more, I believe create multiple tables (manager(s), athlete(s)) may be a better idea here but still not quite sure how to go about it for the following very important reasons: Issue 1 If I list the manager as the parent table, I am afraid the individual enrolling athlete will not show up in the primary table and will not be included in the overall registration file which needs to be sent on to the network providers. Issue 2 All athletes being enrolled by a manager are being stored in SESSION as F1FirstName, F2FirstName where F1 and F2 relate to the id of the fighter. I am not sure technically speaking how to store multiple pieces of information within the same table under separate rows using PHP. For example, all athleteswill have a first name. The very basic theory of what i am trying to do is: If number_of_athletes 1, store F1FirstName in row 1, column 1 of Table "Athletes"; store F1LastName in row 1, column 2 of Table "Athletes"; store F2FirstName in row 2, column 1 of Table "Athletes"; store F2LastName in row 2, column 2 of table "Athletes"; Does this make sense? I know this question is very long and probably difficult so i appreciate the guidance.

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PHP Shared Sessions across Domain

- by bigstylee

Hi, I have seen a few answers to this on SOO but most of these are concerned with the use of subdomains, of which none have worked for me. The common one being that the use of session.cookie_domain, which from my understanding will only work with subdomains. I am interested in a solution that deals with deals with entirely different domains (and includes the possibility of subdomains). Unfortunately project deadlines being what they are, time is not on my side, so I turn to SOO's expertise and experience. The current project brief is to be able to log into one site which currently only stores the user_id in the session and then be able to retrieve this value while on a different domain within the same server enviroment. Session data is being stored/retrieved from a database where the session id is the primary key. I am hoping to find a "light wieght" and "easy" to implement solution. The system is utlising an in-house Model View Controller design pattern, so all requests (including different domains) are run through a single bootstrap script. Using the domain name as a variable, this determines what context to display to the user. One option that did look like to have potential is the use of a hidden image and using the alt tag to set the user id. My first impressions suggest this immediately seems "too easy" (if possible) and riddled with security flaws. Disscuss? Another option which I considered is using the IP and User Agent for authentication but again I feel this not going to be a reliable option due to shared networks and changing IP addresses. My third option (and preferred) which I considered and as yet not seen discussed is using htaccess to fool the user into thinking that they are on a different domain when infact apache is redirecting; something like www.foo.com/index.php?domain=bar.com&controller=news/categoires/1 but displays to the user as www.bar.com/news/categories/1 foo.com represents the "main site domain" which all requests are run through and bar.com is what the user thinks they are accessing. The controller request dictates the page and view being requested. Is this possible? Are there other options? Pros/Cons? Thanks in advanced!!!

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Identifying if a user is in the local administrators group

- by Adam Driscoll

My Problem I'm using PInvoked Windows API functions to verify if a user is part of the local administrators group. I'm utilizing GetCurrentProcess, OpenProcessToken, GetTokenInformationand LookupAccountSid to verify if the user is a local admin. GetTokenInformation returns a TOKEN_GROUPS struct with an array of SID_AND_ATTRIBUTES structs. I iterate over the collection and compare the user names returned by LookupAccountSid. My problem is that, locally (or more generally on our in-house domain), this works as expected. The builtin\Administrators is located within the group membership of the current process token and my method returns true. On another domain of another developer the function returns false. The LookupAccountSid functions properly for the first 2 iterations of the TOKEN_GROUPS struct, returning None and Everyone, and then craps out complaining that "A Parameter is incorrect." What would cause only two groups to work correctly? The TOKEN_GROUPS struct indicates that there are 14 groups. I'm assuming it's the SID that is invalid. Everything that I have PInvoked I have taken from an example on the PInvoke website. The only difference is that with the LookupAccountSid I have changed the Sid parameter from a byte[] to a IntPtr because SID_AND_ATTRIBUTESis also defined with an IntPtr. Is this ok since LookupAccountSid is defined with a PSID? LookupAccountSid PInvoke [DllImport("advapi32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)] static extern bool LookupAccountSid( string lpSystemName, IntPtr Sid, StringBuilder lpName, ref uint cchName, StringBuilder ReferencedDomainName, ref uint cchReferencedDomainName, out SID_NAME_USE peUse); Where the code falls over for (int i = 0; i < usize; i++) { accountCount = 0; domainCount = 0; //Get Sizes LookupAccountSid(null, tokenGroups.Groups[i].SID, null, ref accountCount, null, ref domainCount, out snu); accountName2.EnsureCapacity((int) accountCount); domainName.EnsureCapacity((int) domainCount); if (!LookupAccountSid(null, tokenGroups.Groups[i].SID, accountName2, ref accountCount, domainName, ref domainCount, out snu)) { //Finds its way here after 2 iterations //But only in a different developers domain var error = Marshal.GetLastWin32Error(); _log.InfoFormat("Failed to look up SID's account name. {0}", new Win32Exception(error).Message); continue; } If more code is needed let me know. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Week in Geek: USDA Chooses Microsoft for Cloud Services Edition

- by Asian Angel

This week we learned how to create geeky LED holiday lights with old bottles, dig deeper in Windows Defrag via the command prompt, use Google Chrome’s drag/drop feature to upload files easier, find great gift recommendations by looking through the How-To Geek holiday gift guide, and have fun adding Merry Christmas fonts to our computers. Photo by ntr23. Random Geek Links It has been a busy week, so we have extra news link goodness with information that is good for you to know. USDA making the move to Microsoft The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced that it has chosen Microsoft to host things like e-mail, instant messaging, and collaboration through the software giant’s Business Productivity Online Suite. Google says it was cut off from USDA project bid Google is claiming that it was not given a chance to bid on a cloud-computing project for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, for which the contract was awarded to rival Microsoft. Apache is being forced into a Java Fork When Oracle rolled over Apache and Google’s objections to its Java plans in December, the scene was set for Apache to leave and, eventually, force a Java code fork. Tumblr explains daylong outage After experiencing an outage that started on Sunday afternoon and stretched through most of the day yesterday, Tumblr has explained what happened. Google demos Chrome OS, launches pilot program During a press briefing this week in San Francisco, Google launched the Chrome application store and demonstrated Chrome OS, its browser-centric netbook operating system. Don’t expect Spotify in U.S. this holiday season As of last week, Spotify had yet to sign a single licensing deal with a major label, after spending more than a year negotiating, multiple music sources told CNET. December 2010 Patch Tuesday will come with most bulletins ever According to the Microsoft Security Response Center, Microsoft will issue 17 Security Bulletins addressing 40 vulnerabilities on Tuesday, December 14. It will also host a webcast to address customer questions the following day. Hacker plants back door in Symbian firmware Indian hacker Atul Alex has had a look at the firmware for Symbian S60 smartphones and come up with a back door for it. PC quarantines raise tough complexities The concept of quarantining PCs to prevent widespread infection is “interesting, but difficult to implement, with far too many problems”, said security experts. Symantec: DDoS attacks hard to defend It has surfaced that the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on Visa and MasterCard Web sites on Wednesday were carried out by a toolkit known as low orbit ion cannon (LOIC). Web Sockets and the risks of unfinished standards Enthusiasm for a promising new standard called Web Sockets has quickly cooled in some quarters as a potential security problem led some browser makers to hastily postpone support. Internet Explorer 9 to get tracking protection Microsoft is making changes to Internet Explorer 9’s security features that will better enable users to keep sites from tracking their activity across browsing sessions. NASA sold PCs with sensitive data NASA failed to remove sensitive data from computers that it sold, according to an audit report released this week. Cybercrooks create fake Amazon receipts The bad guys have created yet another online scam, this one involving fake Amazon receipts. World of Warcraft character move fees waived Until December 22, Blizzard will allow free realm transfers from 25 highly populated servers to alleviate log-in queues or performance issues. (The free transfers are one-way and one-time only.) SpaceX Dragon reaches orbit atop a Falcon with a fiery tail The Space Exploration Technologies corporation has become the first nongovernmental entity to put a vehicle into low Earth orbit. Geek Video of the Week If birds have wings, then why are the Angry Birds using slingshots? Photo by Dorkly Bits. Wait… Birds have Wings, Why are the Angry Ones Using Slingshots? Sysadmin Geek Tips How To Setup Email Alerts on Linux Using Gmail or SMTP Linux machines may require administrative intervention in countless ways, but without manually logging into them how would you know about it? Here’s how to setup emails to get notified when your machines want some tender love and attention. Random TinyHacker Links Red Panda Webcam Support Firefox and the Knoxville Zoo’s Red Panda program. Christmas Icons (Icons we like) Superb set of holiday icons by lgp85 at deviantArt. Download the .zip and use as .png or convert to .ico at Convertico.com or with tiny app Imagicon. Super User Questions Enjoy reading the great answers to this week’s popular questions from Super User Useful USB boot disks? DVD/CD burning .zip: is it more reliable, faster, longer lasting to burn a zip of files rather than the files as a folder? What are other ways to backup my files if I do not have an external drive? Anti virus what is the difference between these all? How can I block all Facebook elements/content? How-To Geek Weekly Article Recap Have you had a busy week between work and preparing for the holidays? Get caught up on your HTG reading with our hottest articles of the week. 20 Windows Keyboard Shortcuts You Might Not Know The 50 Best Registry Hacks that Make Windows Better LCD? LED? Plasma? The How-To Geek Guide to HDTV Technology HTG Explains: Which Linux File System Should You Choose? How to Use and Customize Google Chrome Web Apps One Year Ago on How-To Geek This week’s batch of retro geeky goodness is all about customizing Windows 7. ClassicShell Adds Classic Start Menu and Explorer Features to Windows 7 Get an Aero-Styled Classic Start Menu in Windows 7 Customize the Windows 7 Logon Screen Get the Classic Style Network Activity Indicator Back in Windows 7 How To Enable Check Boxes for Items In Windows 7 The Geek Note We would like you to join us in welcoming Jason Fitzpatrick to the writing staff here at How-To Geek. He started with us this past week, so take some time to read through his articles about the Wii, Kindle, & PlayStation 2 Peripherals and leave a friendly comment to say “Hi”! Got a great tip to share? Make sure to send it in to us at [email protected]. Photo by real00. Latest Features How-To Geek ETC The 50 Best Registry Hacks that Make Windows Better The How-To Geek Holiday Gift Guide (Geeky Stuff We Like) LCD? LED? Plasma? The How-To Geek Guide to HDTV Technology The How-To Geek Guide to Learning Photoshop, Part 8: Filters Improve Digital Photography by Calibrating Your Monitor Our Favorite Tech: What We’re Thankful For at How-To Geek Settle into Orbit with the Voyage Theme for Chrome and Iron Awesome Safari Compass Icons Set Escape from the Exploding Planet Wallpaper Move Your Tumblr Blog to WordPress Pytask is an Easy to Use To-Do List Manager for Your Ubuntu System Snowy Christmas House Personas Theme for Firefox

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How To Activate Your Free Office 2007 to 2010 Tech Guarantee Upgrade

- by Matthew Guay

Have you purchased Office 2007 since March 5th, 2010? If so, here’s how you can activate and download your free upgrade to Office 2010! Microsoft Office 2010 has just been released, and today you can purchase upgrades from most retail stores or directly from Microsoft via download. But if you’ve purchased a new copy of Office 2007 or a new computer that came with Office 2007 since March 5th, 2010, then you’re entitled to an absolutely free upgrade to Office 2010. You’ll need enter information about your Office 2007 and then download the upgrade, so we’ll step you through the process. Getting Started First, if you’ve recently purchased Office 2007 but haven’t installed it, you’ll need to go ahead and install it before you can get your free Office 2010 upgrade. Install it as normal. Once Office 2007 is installed, run any of the Office programs. You’ll be prompted to activate Office. Make sure you’re connected to the internet, and then click Next to activate. Get your Free Upgrade to Office 2010 Now you’re ready to download your upgrade to Office 2010. Head to the Office Tech Guarantee site (link below), and click Upgrade now. You’ll need to enter some information about your Office 2007. Check that you purchased your copy of Office 2007 after March 5th, select your computer manufacturer, and check that you agree to the terms. Now you’re going to need the Product ID number from Office 2007. To find this, open Word or any other Office 2007 application. Click the Office Orb, and select Options on the bottom. Select the Resources button on the left, and then click About. Near the bottom of this dialog, you’ll see your Product ID. This should be a number like: 12345-123-1234567-12345 Go back to the Office Tech Guarantee signup page in your browser, and enter this Product ID. Select the language of your edition of Office 2007, enter the verification code, and then click Submit. It may take a few moments to validate your Product ID. When it is finished, you’ll be taken to an order page that shows the edition of Office 2010 you’re eligible to receive. The upgrade download is free, but if you’d like to purchase a backup DVD of Office 2010, you can add it to your order for $13.99. Otherwise, simply click Continue to accept. Do note that the edition of Office 2010 you receive may be different that the edition of Office 2007 you purchased, as the number of editions has been streamlined in the Office 2010 release. Here’s a chart you can check to see what edition you’ll receive. Note that you’ll still be allowed to install Office on the same number of computers; for example, Office 2007 Home and Student allows you to install it on up to 3 computers in the same house, and your Office 2010 upgrade will allow the same. Office 2007 Edition Office 2010 Upgrade You’ll Receive Office 2007 Home and Student Office Home and Student 2010 Office Basic 2007Office Standard 2007 Office Home and Business 2010 Office Small Business 2007Office Professional 2007Office Ultimate 2007 Office Professional 2010 Office Professional 2007 AcademicOffice Ultimate 2007 Academic Office Professional Academic 2010 Sign in with your Windows Live ID, or create a new one if you don’t already have one. Enter your name, select your country, and click Create My Account. Note that Office will send Office 2010 tips to your email address; if you don’t wish to receive them, you can unsubscribe from the emails later. Finally, you’re ready to download Office 2010! Click the Download Now link to start downloading Office 2010. Your Product Key will appear directly above the Download link, so you can copy it and then paste it in the installer when your download is finished. You will additionally receive an email with the download links and product key, so if your download fails you can always restart it from that link. If your edition of Office 2007 included the Office Business Contact Manager, you will be able to download it from the second Download link. And, of course, even if you didn’t order a backup DVD, you can always burn the installers to a DVD for a backup. Install Office 2010 Once you’re finished downloading Office 2010, run the installer to get it installed on your computer. Enter your Product Key from the Tech Guarantee website as above, and click Continue. Accept the license agreement, and then click Upgrade to upgrade to the latest version of Office. The installer will remove all of your Office 2007 applications, and then install their 2010 counterparts. If you wish to keep some of your Office 2007 applications instead, click Customize and then select to either keep all previous versions or simply keep specific applications. By default, Office 2010 will try to activate online automatically. If it doesn’t activate during the install, you’ll need to activate it when you first run any of the Office 2010 apps. Conclusion The Tech Guarantee makes it easy to get the latest version of Office if you recently purchased Office 2007. The Tech Guarantee program is open through the end of September, so make sure to grab your upgrade during this time. Actually, if you find a great deal on Office 2007 from a major retailer between now and then, you could also take advantage of this program to get Office 2010 cheaper. And if you need help getting started with Office 2010, check out our articles that can help you get situated in your new version of Office! Link Activate and Download Your free Office 2010 Tech Guarantee Upgrade Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Remove Office 2010 Beta and Reinstall Office 2007Upgrade Office 2003 to 2010 on XP or Run them Side by SideCenter Pictures and Other Objects in Office 2007 & 2010Change the Default Color Scheme in Office 2010Show Two Time Zones in Your Outlook 2007 Calendar TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips HippoRemote Pro 2.2 Xobni Plus for Outlook All My Movies 5.9 CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Windows Media Player Plus! – Cool WMP Enhancer Get Your Team’s World Cup Schedule In Google Calendar Backup Drivers With Driver Magician TubeSort: YouTube Playlist Organizer XPS file format & XPS Viewer Explained Microsoft Office Web Apps Guide

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SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services - The Word is But a Stage (T-SQL Tuesday #006)

- by smisner

Host Michael Coles (blog|twitter) has selected LOB data as the topic for this month's T-SQL Tuesday, so I'll take this opportunity to post an overview of reporting with spatial data types. As part of my work with SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services, I've been exploring the use of spatial data types in the new map data region. You can create a map using any of the following data sources: Map Gallery - a set of Shapefiles for the United States only that ships with Reporting Services ESRI Shapefile - a .shp file conforming to the Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI) shapefile spatial data format SQL Server spatial data - a query that includes SQLGeography or SQLGeometry data types Rob Farley (blog|twitter) points out today in his T-SQL Tuesday post that using the SQL geography field is a preferable alternative to ESRI shapefiles for storing spatial data in SQL Server. So how do you get spatial data? If you don't already have a GIS application in-house, you can find a variety of sources. Here are a few to get you started: US Census Bureau Website, http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/ Global Administrative Areas Spatial Database, http://biogeo.berkeley.edu/gadm/ Digital Chart of the World Data Server, http://www.maproom.psu.edu/dcw/ In a recent post by Pinal Dave (blog|twitter), you can find a link to free shapefiles for download and a tutorial for using Shape2SQL, a free tool to convert shapefiles into SQL Server data. In my post today, I'll show you how to use combine spatial data that describes boundaries with spatial data in AdventureWorks2008R2 that identifies stores locations to embed a map in a report. Preparing the spatial data First, I downloaded Shapefile data for the administrative boundaries in France and unzipped the data to a local folder. Then I used Shape2SQL to upload the data into a SQL Server database called Spatial. I'm not sure of the reason why, but I had to uncheck the option to create a spatial index to upload the data. Otherwise, the upload appeared to run successfully, but no table appeared in my database. The zip file that I downloaded contained three files, but I didn't know what was in them until I used Shape2SQL to upload the data into tables. Then I found that FRA_adm0 contains spatial data for the country of France, FRA_adm1 contains spatial data for each region, and FRA_adm2 contains spatial data for each department (a subdivision of region). Next I prepared my SQL query containing sales data for fictional stores selling Adventure Works products in France. The Person.Address table in the AdventureWorks2008R2 database (which you can download from Codeplex) contains a SpatialLocation column which I joined - along with several other tables - to the Sales.Customer and Sales.Store tables. I'll be able to superimpose this data on a map to see where these stores are located. I included the SQL script for this query (as well as the spatial data for France) in the downloadable project that I created for this post. Step 1: Using the Map Wizard to Create a Map of France You can build a map without using the wizard, but I find it's rather useful in this case. Whether you use Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS) or Report Builder 3.0, the map wizard is the same. I used BIDS so that I could create a project that includes all the files related to this post. To get started, I added an empty report template to the project and named it France Stores. Then I opened the Toolbox window and dragged the Map item to the report body which starts the wizard. Here are the steps to perform to create a map of France: On the Choose a source of spatial data page of the wizard, select SQL Server spatial query, and click Next. On the Choose a dataset with SQL Server spatial data page, select Add a new dataset with SQL Server spatial data. On the Choose a connection to a SQL Server spatial data source page, select New. In the Data Source Properties dialog box, on the General page, add a connecton string like this (changing your server name if necessary): Data Source=(local);Initial Catalog=Spatial Click OK and then click Next. On the Design a query page, add a query for the country shape, like this: select * from fra_adm1 Click Next. The map wizard reads the spatial data and renders it for you on the Choose spatial data and map view options page, as shown below. You have the option to add a Bing Maps layer which shows surrounding countries. Depending on the type of Bing Maps layer that you choose to add (from Road, Aerial, or Hybrid) and the zoom percentage you select, you can view city names and roads and various boundaries. To keep from cluttering my map, I'm going to omit the Bing Maps layer in this example, but I do recommend that you experiment with this feature. It's a nice integration feature. Use the + or - button to rexize the map as needed. (I used the + button to increase the size of the map until its edges were just inside the boundaries of the visible map area (which is called the viewport). You can eliminate the color scale and distance scale boxes that appear in the map area later. Select the Embed map data in this report for faster rendering. The spatial data won't be changing, so there's no need to leave it in the database. However, it does increase the size of the RDL. Click Next. On the Choose map visualization page, select Basic Map. We'll add data for visualization later. For now, we have just the outline of France to serve as the foundation layer for our map. Click Next, and then click Finish. Now click the color scale box in the lower left corner of the map, and press the Delete key to remove it. Then repeat to remove the distance scale box in the lower right corner of the map. Step 2: Add a Map Layer to an Existing Map The map data region allows you to add multiple layers. Each layer is associated with a different data set. Thus far, we have the spatial data that defines the regional boundaries in the first map layer. Now I'll add in another layer for the store locations by following these steps: If the Map Layers windows is not visible, click the report body, and then click twice anywhere on the map data region to display it. Click on the New Layer Wizard button in the Map layers window. And then we start over again with the process by choosing a spatial data source. Select SQL Server spatial query, and click Next. Select Add a new dataset with SQL Server spatial data, and click Next. Click New, add a connection string to the AdventureWorks2008R2 database, and click Next. Add a query with spatial data (like the one I included in the downloadable project), and click Next. The location data now appears as another layer on top of the regional map created earlier. Use the + button to resize the map again to fill as much of the viewport as possible without cutting off edges of the map. You might need to drag the map within the viewport to center it properly. Select Embed map data in this report, and click Next. On the Choose map visualization page, select Basic Marker Map, and click Next. On the Choose color theme and data visualization page, in the Marker drop-down list, change the marker to diamond. There's no particular reason for a diamond; I think it stands out a little better than a circle on this map. Clear the Single color map checkbox as another way to distinguish the markers from the map. You can of course create an analytical map instead, which would change the size and/or color of the markers according to criteria that you specify, such as sales volume of each store, but I'll save that exploration for another post on another day. Click Finish and then click Preview to see the rendered report. Et voilà...c'est fini. Yes, it's a very simple map at this point, but there are many other things you can do to enhance the map. I'll create a series of posts to explore the possibilities. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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Stream Music and Video Over the Internet with Windows Media Player 12

- by DigitalGeekery

A new feature in Windows Media Player 12, which is included with Windows 7, is being able to stream media over the web to other Windows 7 computers. Today we will take a look at how to set it up and what you need to begin. Note: You will need to perform this process on each computer that you want to use. What You’ll Need Two computers running Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate. The host, or home computer that you will be streaming the media from, cannot be on a public network or part of domain. Windows Live ID UPnP or Port Forwarding enabled on your home router Media files added to your Windows Media Player library Windows Live ID Sign up online for a Windows Live ID if you do not already have one. See the link below for a link to Windows Live. Configuring the Windows 7 Computers Open Windows Media Player and go to the library section. Click on Stream and then “Allow Internet access to home media.” The Internet Home Media Access pop up window will prompt you to link your Windows Live ID to a user account. Click “Link an online ID.” If you haven’t already installed the Windows Live ID Sign-In Assistant, you will be taken to Microsoft’s website and prompted to download it. Once you have completed the Windows Live download assistant install, you will see Windows Live ID online provider appear in the “Link Online IDs” window. Click on “Link Online ID.” Next, you’ll be prompted for a Windows Live ID and password. Enter your Windows Live ID and password and click “Sign In.” A pop up window will notify you that you have successfully allowed Internet access to home media. Now, you will have to repeat the exact same configuration on the 2nd Windows 7 computer. Once you have completed the same configuration on your 2nd computer, you might also need to configure your home router for port forwarding. If your router supports UPnP, you may not need to manually forward any ports on your router. So, this would be a good time to test your connection. Go to a nearby hotspot, or perhaps a neighbor’s house, and test to see if you can stream your media. If not, you’ll need to manually forward the ports. You can always choose to forward the ports anyway, just in case. Note: We tested on a Linksys WRT54GL router, which supports UPnP, and found we still needed to manually forward the ports. Finding the ports to forward on the router Open Windows Media Player and make sure you are in Library view. Click on “Stream” on the top menu, and select “Allow Internet access to home media.” On the “Internet Home Media Access” window, click on “Diagnose connections.” The “Internet Streaming Diagnostic Tool” will pop up. Click on “Port forwarding information” near the bottom. On the “Port Forwarding Information” window you will find both the Internal and External Port numbers you will need to forward on your router. The Internal port number should always be 10245. The external number will be different depending on your computer. Microsoft also recommends forwarding port 443. Configuring the Router Next, you’ll need to configure Port Forwarding on your home router. We will show you the steps for a Linksys WRT54GL router, however, the steps for port forwarding will vary from router to router. On the Linksys configuration page, click on the Administration Tab along the top, click the “Applications & Gaming Tab, and then the “Port Range Forward” tab below it. Under “Application,” type in a name. It can be any name you choose. In both the “Start” and “End” boxes, type the port number. Enter the IP address of your home computer in the IP address column. Click the check box under “Enable.” Do this for both the internal and external port numbers and port 443. When finished, click the “Save Settings” button. Note: It’s highly recommended that you configure your home computer with a static IP address When you’re ready to play your media over the Internet, open up Windows Media Player and look for your host computer and username listed under “Other Libraries.” Click on it expand the list to see your media libraries. Choose a library and a file to play. Now you can enjoy your streaming media over the Internet. Conclusion We found media streaming over the Internet to work fairly well. However, we did see a loss of quality with streaming video. Also, Recorded TV .wtv and dvr-ms files did not play at all. Check out our previous article to see how to stream media share and stream media between Windows 7 computers on your home network. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Enable Media Streaming in Windows Home Server to Windows Media PlayerFixing When Windows Media Player Library Won’t Let You Add FilesShare Digital Media With Other Computers on a Home Network with Windows 7Share and Stream Digital Media Between Windows 7 Machines On Your Home NetworkLearning Windows 7: Manage Your Music with Windows Media Player TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Stormpulse provides slick, real time weather data Geek Parents – Did you try Parental Controls in Windows 7? 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SharePoint – The Most Important Feature

- by Bil Simser

Watching twitter and doing a search for SharePoint and you see a lot (almost one every few minutes) of tweets about the top 10 new features in SharePoint. What answer do you get when you ask the question, “What’s the most important feature in SharePoint?”. Chances are the answer will vary. Some will say it’s the collaboration aspect, others might say it’s the new ribbon interface, multi-item editing, external content types, faceted search, large list support, document versioning, Silverlight, etc. The list goes on. However I think most people might be missing the most important feature that’s sitting right under their noses all this time. The most important feature of SharePoint? It’s called User Empowerment. Huh? What? Is that something I find in the Site Actions menu? Nope. It’s something that’s always been there in SharePoint, you just need to get the word out and support it. How many times have you had a team ask you for a team site (assuming you had SharePoint up and running). Or to create them a contact list. Or how long have you employed that guy in the corner who’s been copying and pasting content from Corporate Communications into the web from a Word document. Let’s stop the insanity. It doesn’t have to be this way. SharePoint’s strongest feature isn’t anything you can find in the Site Settings screen or Central Admin. It’s all about empowering your users and letting them take control of their content. After all, SharePoint really is a bunch of tools to allow users to collaborate on content isn’t it? So why are you stepping in as IT and helping the user every moment along the way. It’s like having to ask users to fill out a help desk ticket or call up the Windows team to create a folder on their desktop or rearrange their Start menu. This isn’t something IT should be spending their time doing nor is it something the users should be burdened with having to wait until their friendly neighborhood tech-guy (or gal) shows up to help them sort the icons on their desktop. SharePoint IS all about empowerment. Site owners can create whatever lists and libraries they need for their team, and if the template isn’t there they can always turn to my friend and yours, the Custom List. From that can spew forth approval tracking systems, new hire checklists, and server inventory. You’re only limited by your imagination and needs. Users should be able to create new sites as they need. Want a blog to let everyone know what your team is up to? Go create one, here’s how. What’s a blog you ask? Here’s what it is and why you would use one. SharePoint is the shift in the balance of power and you need, and an IT group, let go of certain responsibilities and let your users run with the tools. A power user who knows how to create sites and what features are available to them can help a team go from the forming stage to the storming stage overnight. Again, this all hinges on you as an IT organization and what you can and empower your users with as far as features go. Running with tools is great if you know how to use them, running with scissors not recommended unless you enjoy trips to the hospital. With Great Power comes Great Responsibility so don’t go out on Monday and send out a memo to the organization saying “This Bil guy says you peeps can do anything so here it is, knock yourself out” (for one, they’ll have *no* idea who this Bil guy is). This advice comes with the task of getting your users ready for empowerment. Whether it’s through some kind of internal training sessions, in-house documentation; videos; blog posts; on how to accomplish things in SharePoint, or full blown one-on-one sit downs with teams or individuals to help them through their problems. The work is up to you. Helping them along also should be part of your governance (you do have one don’t you?). Just because you have InfoPath client deployed with your Office suite, doesn’t mean users should just start publishing forms all over your SharePoint farm. There should be some governance behind that in what you’ll support and what is possible. The other caveat to all this is that SharePoint is not everything for everyone. It can’t cook you breakfast and impregnate your cat or solve world hunger. It also isn’t suited for every IT solution out there. It’s a horrible source control system (even though some people try to use it as such) and really can’t do financials worth a darn. Again, governance is key here and part of that governance and your responsibility in setting up and unleashing SharePoint into your organization is to provide users guidance on what should be in SharePoint and (more importantly) what should not be in SharePoint. There are boundaries you have to set where you don’t want your end users going as they might be treading into trouble. Again, this is up to you to set these constraints and help users understand why these pylons are there. If someone understands why they can’t do something they might have a better understanding and respect for those that put them there in the first place. Of course you’ll always have the power-users who want to go skiing down dead mans curve so this doesn’t work for everyone, but you can catch the majority of the newbs who don’t wander aimlessly off the beaten path. At the end of the day when all things are going swimmingly your end users should be empowered to solve the needs they have on a day to day basis and not having to keep bugging the IT department to help them create a view to show only approved documents. I wouldn’t go as far as business users building out full blown solutions and handing the keys to SharePoint Designer or (worse) Visual Studio to power-users might not be a path you want to go down but you also don’t have to lock up the SharePoint system in a tight box where users can’t use what’s there. So stop focusing on the shiny things in SharePoint and maybe consider making a shift to what’s really important. Making your day job easier and letting users get the most our of your technology investment.

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Debian, 6rd tunnel, and connection troubles

- by Chris B

Long story short I am having issues with IPv6 using a 6rd tunnel with my ISP, charter business. They offer a 6rd tunnel that I think I have properly set up, but the server doesn’t reply to every ipv6 request. When the server has the network interfaces idle with no traffic for about 10 minutes, then IPv6 stops accepting inbound connections. to re-allow it, I must go into the server, and make it do a outbound ipv6 connection (normally a ping) to start it back up. Whats weird though i that if I run iptraf when its not working, it still shows a inbound ipv6 packet… the server is just not replying, and I can’t figure out why. Also, if I try to access my server over IPv6 from a house about 1 mile away on the same ISP, it is never able to connect. it always times out, but again the iptraf shows a ipv6 inbound packet. Again, it just does not reply. To test if my server is accessible through IPv6 I always have to use my vzw 4g phone (they use IPv6) or ipv6proxy dot net. Here is all of the configuration information my ISP gives on there tunnel server: 6rd Prefix = 2602:100::/32 Border Relay Address = 68.114.165.1 6rd prefix length = 32 IPv4 mask length = 0 Here is my /etc/network/interfaces for ipv6 (used x's to block real addresses) auto charterv6 iface charterv6 inet6 v4tunnel address 2602:100:189f:xxxx::1 netmask 32 ttl 64 gateway ::68.114.165.1 endpoint 68.114.165.1 local 24.159.218.xxx up ip link set mtu 1280 dev charterv6 here is my iptables config filter :INPUT DROP [0:0] :fail2ban-ssh – [0:0] :OUTPUT ACCEPT [0:0] :FORWARD DROP [0:0] :hold – [0:0] -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp —dport 22 -j fail2ban-ssh -A INPUT -m state —state RELATED,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -p tcp -m multiport -j ACCEPT —dports 80,443,25,465,110,995,143,993,587,465,22 -A INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp —dport 10000 -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp —dport 5900:5910 -j ACCEPT -A fail2ban-ssh -j RETURN -A INPUT -p icmp -j ACCEPT COMMIT and last here is my ip6tables firewall config filter :INPUT DROP [1653:339023] :FORWARD DROP [0:0] :OUTPUT ACCEPT [60141:13757903] :hold – [0:0] -A INPUT -m state —state RELATED,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -p tcp -m multiport —dports 80,443,25,465,110,995,143,993,587,465,22 -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp —dport 10000 -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp —dport 5900:5910 -j ACCEPT -A INPUT -p ipv6-icmp -j ACCEPT COMMIT So Summary: 1.iptraf always shows IPv6 traffic, so its always making it to the server 2.server stops replying on ipv6 after no traffic for awhile (10 minutesish) until a outbound connection is made, then the process repeats. 3.server is NEVER accessable vi same ISP (yet iptraf still shows ipv6 request) Notes: When I try to access it from the same ISP from across town, even with iptables and ip6tables allowing ALL inbound traffic, this is what iptraf shows. IPv6 (92 bytes) from 97.92.18.xxx to 24.159.218.xxx on eth0 ICMP dest unrch (port) (120 bytes) from 24.159.218.xxx to 97.92.18.xxx on eth1 its strange, like its trying to forward to LAN? (eth1 is LAN, eth0 is WAN) even with the IPv6 address being set in the hosts file to the servers domain name. With iptables set up normally with the above configurations it only says this: IPv6 (100 bytes) from 97.92.18.xxx to 24.159.218.xxx on eth0 Im REALLY stuck on this, and any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

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Top tweets SOA Partner Community – October 2012

- by JuergenKress

Send your tweets @soacommunity #soacommunity and follow us at http://twitter.com/soacommunity SOA Community Deploying Fusion Order Demo on 11.1.1.6 by Antony Reynolds http://wp.me/p10C8u-vA leonsmiers ?Cant wait to test it >> 't waiRT @OracleSOA: Case Management patterns, session coverage from #OOW #OracleBPM #ACM #BPM http://bit.ly/OdcZL6 Danilo Schmiedel Bye bye San Francisco. #oow was a great conference in a wonderful city! Thanks! @soacommunity pic.twitter.com/lcYSe9xC OPITZ CONSULTING ?The Journey towards #Oracle #BPM @OpenWorld 2012 - Slides by @t_winterberg & H. Normann: http://ow.ly/edkWE #oow demed Full house at the SOA Customer Advisory Board! #oow12 http://instagr.am/p/QX9B8eLMLS/ Danilo Schmiedel "@whitehorsesnl: Had some great talks with the BPM guys at the DEMOgrounds. It is one of the best things at #oow" -> I agree!! @soacommunity Mark Simpson ?Fusion Middleware Global Innovation Awards: nice to pick up a soa and bpm with our customer. #oow Mark Simpson ?RT @SOASimone: #oraclesoa #oow hands on lab fully booked pic.twitter.com/pwI94Ew7 <--quick, provision some more compute power on the cloud! Oracle SOA ?Join us for BPM and Analytics: Process Dashboards. BAM, and Intelligent OptimizationMoscone South - 308#OracleBPM #OOW Oracle SOA ?Real-time public safety demo! License plate recognition and processing in London via Oracle Event Processing. #oow pic.twitter.com/WufesDBq Marc ?Nice session on customer success stories on #SOA11g on with @SOASimone Pro and cons and architectural overview. #oow pic.twitter.com/bzuhsujm Lucas Jellema Full length Keynote on Middleware #oow : http://medianetwork.oracle.com/video/player/1873556035001 … #oow_amis OracleBlogs ?Why Fusion Middleware matters to Oracle Applications and Fusion Applications customers? http://ow.ly/2stVQ0 OracleBlogs ?Open World Session - BPM, SOA and ADF Combined:Patterns learned from Fusion Applications http://ow.ly/2suhzf Ronald Luttikhuizen ?VENNSTER BLOG | Presentations at OpenWorld 2012 | http://blog.vennster.nl/2012/10/presentations-at-openworld-2012.html … Andrejus Baranovskis @dschmied @soacommunity next OOW for sure, and may be SOA community event ! @soacommunity Danilo Schmiedel ?@andrejusb Thanks Andrejus - I really enjoyed having a session with you at #oow. When is next time :-) ? @soacommunity Lionel Dubreuil ?@soacommunity #oow12 Today-1:15pm-Marriott Marquis Salon 7 Jump-starting Integration with Oracle Foundation Pack http://bit.ly/QKKJzF Ronald Luttikhuizen ?Impression from our fault handling session in OSB and SOA Suite from the audience @soacommunity @gschmutz #oow pic.twitter.com/WSg1Z89E Marc Nice session on Oracle Virtual Assembly for #SOA11g, @soacommunity Works with #exalogic but not required SOA Community ?Send your #soacommunity #oow pictures and blog posts @soacommunity or http://www.facebook.com/soacommunity Enjoy OOW ;-) Jon petter hjulstad Oracle BPM- Big leap forward in 11.1.1.7 ! Whitehorses ?Common BPM Use Cases from Oracle #bpm #oow pic.twitter.com/ofOv04EF Whitehorses ?Oracle BPM 11.1.1.7 top new features. Interesting #oow #oowbenelux pic.twitter.com/HY9QN5un SOA Community Industrialized SOA - topic of Business Technology Magazine http://wp.me/p10C8u-vi orclateamsoa ?A-Team Blog #ateam: The curious case of SOA Human tasks' automatic completion http://ow.ly/1mq6YU Simone Geib Look for this sign #oow #oraclesoa pic.twitter.com/MJsPV4PO Lucas Jellema My summary of Larry Ellison's keynote at #oow on the AMIS Blog: http://technology.amis.nl/2012/10/01/oow-2012-larry-ellisons-keynote-announcements-exa-cloud-database/ … #oow_amis gschmutz ?Join my #oow session "Five Cool Use Cases for the Spring Component" to see the power of Spring and SOA Suite combined! Moscone 310 - 3:15 PM Ronald Luttikhuizen Thanks to @soacommunity for great SOA/BPM dinner event yesterday night! #oow pic.twitter.com/v7x3i0DC OracleBlogs ?OSB, Service Callouts and OQL http://ow.ly/2sq6B2 OracleBlogs ?Cloud and On-Premises Applications Integration using Oracle Integration Adapters http://ow.ly/2sqiDy OracleBlogs ?Adapters, SOA Suite and More @Openworld 2012 http://ow.ly/2srdTg Eric Elzinga ?OSB, Service Callouts and OQL - Part 3, http://see.sc/JodzEx #oracleservicebus Donatas Valys interesting articles about soa industrialization to read #soa #industrialization http://it-republik.de/business-technology/bt-magazin-ausgaben/Industrialized-SOA-000516.html … gschmutz ?“@techsymp: 2012 Symposium Presentation Download Page Now Available! 75% of presentations published. http://www.servicetechsymposium.com ” find mine there.. Oracle BPM Customer Experience and BPM – From Efficiency to Engagement #bpm #oraclebpm #processmanagement #socialbpm http://pub.vitrue.com/Tahi SOA Community ?@soacommunity SOA Community Newsletter September 2012 http://wp.me/p10C8u-wa SOA Community again again again.... it is Oracle Open World 2012 http://wp.me/p10C8u-wk OracleBlogs ?SOA Proactive support http://ow.ly/2smrSJ demed ?@gschmutz on NoSQL at @techsymp http://lockerz.com/s/247601661 demed ?Just finished "#BigData and its impact on #SOA" talk @techsymp. Really enjoyed getting out of beaten path. #london #oep http://lockerz.com/s/247636974 OTNArchBeat ?Need help selling SOA to business stakeholders? Give them this free eBook. #soasuite http://pub.vitrue.com/hsQY SOA Community top Tweets SOA Partner Community – September 2012 http://wp.me/p10C8u-vc SOA Community Move Data into the grid for scalable, predictable response times http://wp.me/p10C8u-vv ServiceTechSymposium ?The September issue of the Service Technology Magazine is now published with six new items! Read them at http://www.servicetechmag.com Marc ?Reviewed @Packt_OracleFMW new book on SOA11g administration! Very good ! http://tinyurl.com/8pzd5ww SOA Community ?BPM Solution Catalogue–promote your process templates http://wp.me/p10C8u-vt OTNArchBeat ?BPM ADF Task forms: Checking whether the current user is in a BPM Swimlane | @ChrisKarlChan http://pub.vitrue.com/aPMG OTNArchBeat ?Cloud, automation drive new growth in SOA governance market | @JoeMcKendrick http://pub.vitrue.com/hNPv Simon Haslam ?Looking for "oak style"(!) advanced content but you're a middleware specialist? See #ukoug2012 #middlewaresunday http://2012.ukoug.org/default.asp?p=9355 … Simon Haslam ?The #ukoug2012 agenda is "go, go, go!" (as Murray would say!) http://2012.ukoug.org/agendagrid Germán Gazzoni SOA Spezial II verfügbar – Industralized SOA: Die überarbeitete und ergänzte Neuauflage des SOA Spezial Sonderhe... http://bit.ly/PAWwN9 Oracle SOA ?Flip thru new interactive "Oracle SOA Suite eBook-In the Customers Words" #middleware #soa #oraclesoa http://pub.vitrue.com/NzFZ SOA Community Follow SOA Community on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/soacommunity #soacommunity #opn 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 Mix Forum Technorati Tags: SOA Community twitter,SOA Community,Oracle SOA,Oracle BPM,BPM Community,OPN,Jürgen Kress

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Developer’s Life – Disaster Lessons – Notes from the Field #039

- by Pinal Dave

[Note from Pinal]: This is a 39th episode of Notes from the Field series. What is the best solution do you have when you encounter a disaster in your organization. Now many of you would answer that in this scenario you would have another standby machine or alternative which you will plug in. Now let me ask second question – What would you do if you as an individual faces disaster? In this episode of the Notes from the Field series database expert Mike Walsh explains a very crucial issue we face in our career, which is not technical but more to relate to human nature. Read on this may be the best blog post you might read in recent times. Howdy! When it was my turn to share the Notes from the Field last time, I took a departure from my normal technical content to talk about Attitude and Communication.(http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2014/05/08/developers-life-attitude-and-communication-they-can-cause-problems-notes-from-the-field-027/) Pinal said it was a popular topic so I hope he won’t mind if I stick with Professional Development for another of my turns at sharing some information here. Like I said last time, the “soft skills” of the IT world are often just as important – sometimes more important – than the technical skills. As a consultant with Linchpin People – I see so many situations where the professional skills I’ve gained and use are more valuable to clients than knowing the best way to tune a query. Today I want to continue talking about professional development and tell you about the way I almost got myself hit by a train – and why that matters in our day jobs. Sometimes we can learn a lot from disasters. Whether we caused them or someone else did. If you are interested in learning about some of my observations in these lessons you can see more where I talk about lessons from disasters on my blog. For now, though, onto how I almost got my vehicle hit by a train… The Train Crash That Almost Was…. My family and I own a little schoolhouse building about a 10 mile drive away from our house. We use it as a free resource for families in the area that homeschool their children – so they can have some class space. I go up there a lot to check in on the property, to take care of the trash and to do work on the property. On the way there, there is a very small Stop Sign controlled railroad intersection. There is only two small freight trains a day passing there. Actually the same train, making a journey south and then back North. That’s it. This road is a small rural road, barely ever a second car driving in the neighborhood there when I am. The stop sign is pretty much there only for the train crossing. When we first bought the building, I was up there a lot doing renovations on the property. Being familiar with the area, I am also familiar with the train schedule and know the tracks are normally free of trains. So I developed a bad habit. You see, I’d approach the stop sign and slow down as I roll through it. Sometimes I’d do a quick look and come to an “almost” stop there but keep on going. I let my impatience and complacency take over. And that is because most of the time I was going there long after the train was done for the day or in between the runs. This habit became pretty well established after a couple years of driving the route. The behavior reinforced a bit by the success ratio. I saw others doing it as well from the neighborhood when I would happen to be there around the time another car was there. Well. You already know where this ends up by the title and backstory here. A few months ago I came to that little crossing, and I started to do the normal routine. I’d pretty much stopped looking in some respects because of the pattern I’d gotten into. For some reason I looked and heard and saw the train slowly approaching and slammed on my brakes and stopped. It was an abrupt stop, and it was close. I probably would have made it okay, but I sat there thinking about lessons for IT professionals from the situation once I started breathing again and watched the cars loaded with sand and propane slowly labored down the tracks… Here are Those Lessons… It’s easy to get stuck into a routine – That isn’t always bad. Except when it’s a bad routine. Momentum and inertia are powerful. Once you have a habit and a routine developed – it’s really hard to break that. Make sure you are setting the right routines and habits TODAY. What almost dangerous things are you doing today? How are you almost messing up your production environment today? Stop doing that. Be Deliberate – (Even when you are the only one) – Like I said – a lot of people roll through that stop sign. Perhaps the neighbors or other drivers think “why is he fully stopping and looking… The train only comes two times a day!” – they can think that all they want. Through deliberate actions and forcing myself to pay attention, I will avoid that oops again. Slow down. Take a deep breath. Be Deliberate in your job. Pay attention to the small stuff and go out of your way to be careful. It will save you later. Be Observant – Keep your eyes open. By looking around, observing the situation and understanding what your servers, databases, users and vendors are doing – you’ll notice when something is out of place. But if you don’t know what is normal, if you don’t look to make sure nothing has changed – that train will come and get you. Where can you be more observant? What warning signs are you ignoring in your environment today? In the IT world – trains are everywhere. Projects move fast. Decisions happen fast. Problems turn from a warning sign to a disaster quickly. If you get stuck in a complacent pattern of “Everything is okay, it always has been and always will be” – that’s the time that you will most likely get stuck in a bad situation. Don’t let yourself get complacent, don’t let your team get complacent. That will lead to being proactive. And a proactive environment spends less money on consultants for troubleshooting problems you should have seen ahead of time. You can spend your money and IT budget on improving for your customers. If you want to get started with performance analytics and triage of virtualized SQL Servers with the help of experts, read more over at Fix Your SQL Server. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)Filed under: Notes from the Field, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL

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Microsoft TechEd 2010 - Day 3 @ Bangalore

- by sathya

Microsoft TechEd 2010 - Day 3 @ Bangalore Sorry for my delayed post on day 3 because I had to travel from Blore to Chennai So I couldnt write for the past two days. On day 3 as usual we had lot of simultaneous tracks on various sessions. This day I choose the Your Data, Our Platform Track. It had sessions on the following 5 topics : Developing Data-tier Applications in Visual Studio 2010 - by Sanjay Nagamangalam SQL Server Query Optimization, Execution and Debugging Query Performance - by Vinod Kumar M SQL Server Utility - Its about more than 1 SQL Server - by Vinod Kumar Jagannathan Data Recovery / Consistency with CheckDB - by Vinod Kumar M Developing with SQL Server Spatial and Deep dive into Spatial Indexing - by Pinal Dave Developing Data-tier Applications in Visual Studio 2010 - by Sanjay Nagamangalam This was one of the superb sessions i have attended. He explained all the concepts in detail with a demo. The important thing in this is there is something called Data-Tier application project which is newly introduced in this VS2010 with which we can manage all our data along with our application inside our VS itself. We can create DB,Tables,Procs,Views etc. here itself and once we deploy it creates a compressed file called .dacpac which stores all the changes in Table Schema,Created procs, etc. on to that single file which reduces our (developer's) effort in preparing the deployment scripts and giving it to the DBA. It also has some policy configurations which can be managed easily by checking some rules like in outlook. For Ex : IF the SQL Server Version > 10 then deploy else dont. This rule specifies that even if we try to deploy on SQL Server DB with version less than 10 It will not do it. And if we deploy some .dacpac to SQL server production db with the option upgrade DB with this dacpac once everything completes successfully it will say success else it rollsback to the prior version. Even if it gets deployed successfully and later @ a point of time you wish to revert it back to the prior version, you can go ahead and delete the existing dacpac version so that it reverts to the older version of the db changes. And for the good questions that were asked in the session T-Shirts were given. SQL Server Query Optimization, Execution and Debugging Query Performance - by Vinod Kumar M This one too was the best session. The speaker Vinod explained everything very much clearly. This was really useful session and you dont believe, as per my knowledge, in the total 3 days in the TechEd except the Keynote, for this session seats were full (House FULL) People were even standing out to attend this session. Such a great one it was. The speaker did a deep dive in to the Query Plan section and showed which actually causes the problem. Its all about the thing that we need to understand about the execution of SQL server Queries. We think in a way and SQL Server never executes in that way. We need to understand that first. He also told about there might be two plans generated for a single query at a point of time because of parallel processors in the system. The Key is here in every query. There is something called Estimated Row Count and Actual Row Count in the query plan. If the estimated row count by SQL server tallies with the actual row count your performance will be awesome. He said some tweaks to achieve the same. After this as usual we had lunch SQL Server Utility - Its about more than 1 SQL Server - by Vinod Kumar Jagannathan This was more of a DBA's session. Am really sorry I was totally blank and I was not interested to attend this session and walked out to attend Migrating to the cloud by Harish Ranganathan (My favorite Speaker) but unfortunately that was some other persons session. There the speaker was telling about how to configure the connection strings in such a way that we can connect to the SQL Azure platform from our VS and also showed us how to deploy the same in to Windows Azure. In between there were lot of technical problems like laptop hang, user locked and he was switching between systems, also i came in the half so i wasnt able to listen that fully. In between, Since I got an MCTS certification they gave me T-Shirt with the lines 'Iam Certified. Are you?' and they asked me to wear that. If we wear that we might get spotted and they would give us some goodies So on the 3rd day I was wearing that T-Shirt. I got spotted by the person Tarun who was coordinating things about the certification, and he was accompanied with a cameraman and they interviewed me about the certification and I was shown live in the Teched and was seen by 60000 live viewers of the TechEd. I was really happy on that. Data Recovery / Consistency with CheckDB - by Vinod Kumar M This was one of the best sessions too in the TechEd. This guy is really amazing. In front of us he crashed a DB and showed how to recover the same in 6 different ways for different no of failures. Showed about Different types of error msgs like : 823,824,825 msdb..suspect_pages DBCC CheckDB (different parameters to it) I am really waiting for his session to get uploaded live in the Teched Website. Here is his contact info If you wish to connect to him : Twitter : @vinodk_sql Website : www.ExtremeExperts.com Blog : http://blogs.sqlxml.org/vinodkumar Developing with SQL Server Spatial and Deep dive into Spatial Indexing - by Pinal Dave Pinal Dave is a King in SQL and he is a SQL MVP and he is the owner of SQLAuthority.com He took the session on Spatial Databases from the start. Showed about the different types of Spatial : Geometric and Geographic Geometric : x and y axis its a planar surface Geographic : Spherical surface with 3600 as the maximum which is used to represent the geographic points on the earth and easy to draw maps of different kinds. He had a lot of obstacles during his session like rain coming inside the hall, mic wires got bursted due to rain, Videos off on the display screens. In spite of that he asked the audience to come in the front rows and managed to take a good session without ppts and finally we got the displays on and he was showing demos on the same what he explained orally. That was really a fun filled informative session. He gave some books for the persons who asked good questions and answered well for his questions and I got one too (It was a book on Data Mining - Wrox Publishers) And finally after all these things there was Keynote session for close of the TechEd. and we all assembled in a big hall where Mr.Ashok Soota, a man of age around 70 co-founder of Mindtree was called to give some lecture on his successes. He was explaining about his past and what all companies he switched and for what reasons and what are all his successes and what are all his failures and the learnings of him from his past failures. and his success and failures on his partnerships with the other concern. And there were some questions for him like What is your suggestion on young entrepreneur? How did you learn from past failures? What is reiterating your success? What is your suggestion on partnerships? How to choose partnerships? etc. And they said @ 7.30 Pm there would be a party night, but unfortunately i was not able to attend that because I had to catch my train and before that i had to pack things, so I started @ 7 itself. Thats it about the TechED!!! Stay tuned for further Technology updates.

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TechEd 2010 Day One – How I Travel

- by BuckWoody

Normally when I blog on the first day of a conference, well, there hasn’t been a first day yet. So I talk about the value of a conference or some other facet. And normally in my (non-conference) blogs, I show you how I have learned to be a data professional – things I’ve learned how to do over the years. But in all that time, I don’t think I’ve ever talked about a big part of my job – traveling. I’ve traveled a lot throughout the years, when I’ve taught, gone to conferences, consulted and in my current role assisting Microsoft customers with large-scale database system designs. So I’ll share a few thoughts about what I do. Keep in mind that I travel for short durations, just a day or so, and sometimes I travel internationally. For those I prepare differently – what I’m talking about here is what I do for a multi-day, same-country trip. Hopefully you find it useful. I’ll tag a few other travelers I know to add their thoughts. Preparing for Travel When I’m notified of a trip, I begin researching the location. I find the flights, hotel and (if I have to) a car to use while I’m away. We have an in-house system we use to book the travel, but when I travel not-for-Microsoft I use Expedia and Kayak to find what I need. Traveling on Sunday and Friday is the worst. I have to do it sometimes (like this week) and it’s always a bad idea. But you can blunt the impact by booking as early as you can stand it. That means I have to be up super-early, but the flights are normally on time. I stay flexible, and always have a backup plan in case the flights are delayed or canceled. For the hotel, I tend to go on the cheaper side, and I look for older hotels that have been renovated, or quirky ones. For instance, in Boise, ID recently I stayed at a 60’s-themed (think Mad-Men) hotel that was very cool. Always I go on the less expensive side – I find the “luxury” hotels nail me for Internet, food, everything. The cheaper places include all kinds of things, and even have breakfasts, shuttles and all kinds of things that start to add up. I even call ahead to make sure there’s an iron and ironing board available, since I’ll need those when I get there. I find any way I can not to get a car. I use mass-transit wherever possible, and try to make friends and pay their gas to take me places. In a pinch, I’ll use a taxi. It ends up being cheaper, faster, and less stressful all around. Packing Over the years I’ve learned never to check luggage whenever I can. To do that, I lay out everything I want to take with me on the bed, and then try and make sure I’m really going to use it. I wear a dark wool set of pants, which I can clean and wear in hot and cold climates. I bring undies and socks of course, and for most places I have to wear “dress up” shirts. I bring at least two print T-Shirts in case I want to dress down for something while I’m gone, but I only bring one set of shoes. All the clothes are rolled as tightly as possible as I learned in the military. Then I use those to cushion the electronics I take. For toiletries I bring a shaver, toothpaste and toothbrush, D/O and a small brush. Everything else the hotel will provide. For entertainment, I take a small Zune, a full PC-Headset (so I can make IP calls on the road) and my laptop. I don’t take books or anything else – everything is electronic. I use E-books (downloaded from our Library), Audio-Books (on the Zune) and I also bring along a Kaossilator (more here) to play music in the hotel room or even on the plane without being heard. If I can, I pack into one roll-on bag. There’s not a lot better than this one, but I also have a Bag I was given as a prize for something or other here at Microsoft. Either way, I like something with less pockets and more big, open compartments. Everything gets rolled up and packed in, with all of the wires and charges in small bags my wife made for me. The laptop (and anything I don’t want gate-checked) goes on top or in an outside pouch so I can grab it quickly if I have to gate-check the bag. As much as I can, I try to go in one bag. When I can’t (like this week) I use this bag since it can expand, roll up, crush and even be put away later. It’s super-heavy canvas and worth the price. This allows me to not check a bag. Journey Logistics The day of the trip, I have everything ready since I’m getting up early. I pack a few small snacks inside a plastic large-mouth water bottle, which protects the snacks and lets me get water in the terminal. I bring along those little powdered drink mixes to add to the water. At the airport, I make a beeline for the power-outlets. I charge up my laptop and phone, and download all my e-mails so I can work on them off-line in the air. I don’t travel as often as I used to – just every month or so now, so I don’t have a membership to an airline club. If I travel much more, I’ll invest in one again – they are WELL worth the money, for the wifi, food and quiet if for nothing else. I print out my logistics on paper and put that in my pocket – flight numbers, hotel addresses and phones for everything. That way if I have to make a change, I don’t have to boot up anything or even have power to be able to roll with the punches if things change. Working While Away While I’m away I realize I’m going to be swamped with things at the conference or with my clients. So I turn on Out-Of-Office notifications to let people know I won’t be as responsive, and I keep my Outlook calendar up to date so my co-workers know what I’m up to. I even update it with hotel and phone info in case they really need to reach me. I share my calendar with my wife so my family knows what I’m doing as well. I check my e-mail during breaks, but I only respond to them in the evening or early morning at the hotel. I tweet during conferences. The point is to be as present as possible during the event or when I’m at the clients. Both deserve it. So those are my initial thoughts. I’ll tag Brent Ozar, Brad McGeHee and Paul Randal, and they can tag whomever they wish. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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DCOM Authentication Fails to use Kerberos, Falls back to NTLM

- by Asa Yeamans

I have a webservice that is written in Classic ASP. In this web service it attempts to create a VirtualServer.Application object on another server via DCOM. This fails with Permission Denied. However I have another component instantiated in this same webservice on the same remote server, that is created without problems. This component is a custom-in house component. The webservice is called from a standalone EXE program that calls it via WinHTTP. It has been verified that WinHTTP is authenticating with Kerberos to the webservice successfully. The user authenticated to the webservice is the Administrator user. The EXE to webservice authentication step is successful and with kerberos. I have verified the DCOM permissions on the remote computer with DCOMCNFG. The default limits allow administrators both local and remote activation, both local and remote access, and both local and remote launch. The default component permissions allow the same. This has been verified. The individual component permissions for the working component are set to defaults. The individual component permissions for the VirtualServer.Application component are also set to defaults. Based upon these settings, the webservice should be able to instantiate and access the components on the remote computer. Setting up a Wireshark trace while running both tests, one with the working component and one with the VirtualServer.Application component reveals an intresting behavior. When the webservice is instantiating the working, custom, component, I can see the request on the wire to the RPCSS endpoint mapper first perform the TCP connect sequence. Then I see it perform the bind request with the appropriate security package, in this case kerberos. After it obtains the endpoint for the working DCOM component, it connects to the DCOM endpoint authenticating again via Kerberos, and it successfully is able to instantiate and communicate. On the failing VirtualServer.Application component, I again see the bind request with kerberos go to the RPCC endpoing mapper successfully. However, when it then attempts to connect to the endpoint in the Virtual Server process, it fails to connect because it only attempts to authenticate with NTLM, which ultimately fails, because the webservice does not have access to the credentials to perform the NTLM hash. Why is it attempting to authenticate via NTLM? Additional Information: Both components run on the same server via DCOM Both components run as Local System on the server Both components are Win32 Service components Both components have the exact same launch/access/activation DCOM permissions Both Win32 Services are set to run as Local System The permission denied is not a permissions issue as far as I can tell, it is an authentication issue. Permission is denied because NTLM authentication is used with a NULL username instead of Kerberos Delegation Constrained delegation is setup on the server hosting the webservice. The server hosting the webservice is allowed to delegate to rpcss/dcom-server-name The server hosting the webservice is allowed to delegate to vssvc/dcom-server-name The dcom server is allowed to delegate to rpcss/webservice-server The SPN's registered on the dcom server include rpcss/dcom-server-name and vssvc/dcom-server-name as well as the HOST/dcom-server-name related SPNs The SPN's registered on the webservice-server include rpcss/webservice-server and the HOST/webservice-server related SPNs Anybody have any Ideas why the attempt to create a VirtualServer.Application object on a remote server is falling back to NTLM authentication causing it to fail and get permission denied? Additional information: When the following code is run in the context of the webservice, directly via a testing-only, just-developed COM component, it fails on the specified line with Access Denied. COSERVERINFO csi; csi.dwReserved1=0; csi.pwszName=L"terahnee.rivin.net"; csi.pAuthInfo=NULL; csi.dwReserved2=NULL; hr=CoGetClassObject(CLSID_VirtualServer, CLSCTX_ALL, &csi, IID_IClassFactory, (void **) &pClsFact); if(FAILED( hr )) goto error1; // Fails here with HRESULT_FROM_WIN32(ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED) hr=pClsFact->CreateInstance(NULL, IID_IUnknown, (void **) &pUnk); if(FAILED( hr )) goto error2; Ive also noticed that in the Wireshark Traces, i see the attempt to connect to the service process component only requests NTLMSSP authentication, it doesnt even attmept to use kerberos. This suggests that for some reason the webservice thinks it cant use kerberos...

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Master Data Management and Cloud Computing

- by david.butler(at)oracle.com

Cloud Computing is all the rage these days. There are many reasons why this is so. But like its predecessor, Service Oriented Architecture, it can fall on hard times if the underlying data is left unmanaged. Master Data Management is the perfect Cloud companion. It can materially increase the chances for successful Cloud initiatives. In this blog, I'll review the nature of the Cloud and show how MDM fits in. Here's the National Institute of Standards and Technology Cloud definition: • Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. Cloud architectures have three main layers: applications or Software as a Service (SaaS), Platforms as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). SaaS generally refers to applications that are delivered to end-users over the Internet. Oracle CRM On Demand is an example of a SaaS application. Today there are hundreds of SaaS providers covering a wide variety of applications including Salesforce.com, Workday, and Netsuite. Oracle MDM applications are located in this layer of Oracle's On Demand enterprise Cloud platform. We call it Master Data as a Service (MDaaS). PaaS generally refers to an application deployment platform delivered as a service. They are often built on a grid computing architecture and include database and middleware. Oracle Fusion Middleware is in this category and includes the SOA and Data Integration products used to connect SaaS applications including MDM. Finally, IaaS generally refers to computing hardware (servers, storage and network) delivered as a service. This typically includes the associated software as well: operating systems, virtualization, clustering, etc. Cloud Computing benefits are compelling for a large number of organizations. These include significant cost savings, increased flexibility, and fast deployments. Cost advantages include paying for just what you use. This is especially critical for organizations with variable or seasonal usage. Companies don't have to invest to support peak computing periods. Costs are also more predictable and controllable. Increased agility includes access to the latest technology and experts without making significant up front investments. While Cloud Computing is certainly very alluring with a clear value proposition, it is not without its challenges. An IDC survey of 244 IT executives/CIOs and their line-of-business (LOB) colleagues identified a number of issues: Security - 74% identified security as an issue involving data privacy and resource access control. Integration - 61% found that it is hard to integrate Cloud Apps with in-house applications. Operational Costs - 50% are worried that On Demand will actually cost more given the impact of poor data quality on the rest of the enterprise. Compliance - 49% felt that compliance with required regulatory, legal and general industry requirements (such as PCI, HIPAA and Sarbanes-Oxley) would be a major issue. When control is lost, the ability of a provider to directly manage how and where data is deployed, used and destroyed is negatively impacted. There are others, but I singled out these four top issues because Master Data Management, properly incorporated into a Cloud Computing infrastructure, can significantly ameliorate all of these problems. Cloud Computing can literally rain raw data across the enterprise. According to fellow blogger, Mike Ferguson, "the fracturing of data caused by the adoption of cloud computing raises the importance of MDM in keeping disparate data synchronized." David Linthicum, CTO Blue Mountain Labs blogs that "the lack of MDM will become more of an issue as cloud computing rises. We're moving from complex federated on-premise systems, to complex federated on-premise and cloud-delivered systems." Left unmanaged, non-standard, inconsistent, ungoverned data with questionable quality can pollute analytical systems, increase operational costs, and reduce the ROI in Cloud and On-Premise applications. As cloud computing becomes more relevant, and more data, applications, services, and processes are moved out to cloud computing platforms, the need for MDM becomes ever more important. Oracle's MDM suite is designed to deal with all four of the above Cloud issues listed in the IDC survey. Security - MDM manages all master data attribute privacy and resource access control issues. Integration - MDM pre-integrates Cloud Apps with each other and with On Premise applications at the data level. Operational Costs - MDM significantly reduces operational costs by increasing data quality, thereby improving enterprise business processes efficiency. Compliance - MDM, with its built in Data Governance capabilities, insures that the data is governed according to organizational standards. This facilitates rapid and accurate reporting for compliance purposes. Oracle MDM creates governed high quality master data. A unified cleansed and standardized data view is produced. The Oracle Customer Hub creates a single view of the customer. The Oracle Product Hub creates high quality product data designed to support all go-to-market processes. Oracle Supplier Hub dramatically reduces the chances of 'supplier exceptions'. Oracle Site Hub masters locations. And Oracle Hyperion Data Relationship Management masters financial reference data and manages enterprise hierarchies across operational areas from ERP to EPM and CRM to SCM. Oracle Fusion Middleware connects Cloud and On Premise applications to MDM Hubs and brings high quality master data to your enterprise business processes. An independent analyst once said "Poor data quality is like dirt on the windshield. You may be able to drive for a long time with slowly degrading vision, but at some point, you either have to stop and clear the windshield or risk everything." Cloud Computing has the potential to significantly degrade data quality across the enterprise over time. Deploying a Master Data Management solution prior to or in conjunction with a move to the Cloud can insure that the data flowing into the enterprise from the Cloud is clean and governed. This will in turn insure that expected returns on the investment in Cloud Computing will be realized. Oracle MDM has proven its metal in this area and has the customers to back that up. In fact, I will be hosting a webcast on Tuesday, April 10th at 10 am PT with one of our top Cloud customers, the Church Pension Group. They have moved all mainline applications to a hosted model and use Oracle MDM to insure the master data is managed and cleansed before it is propagated to other cloud and internal systems. I invite you join Martin Hossfeld, VP, IT Operations, and Danette Patterson, Enterprise Data Manager as they review business drivers for MDM and hosted applications, how they did it, the benefits achieved, and lessons learned. You can register for this free webcast here. Hope to see you there.

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My Thoughts On the Xbox 180

- by Chris Gardner

Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/freestylecoding/archive/2013/06/21/my-thoughts-on-the-xbox-180.aspx Everyone seems to be putting their 0.00237 cents into the wishing well over Microsoft's recent decision to reverse the DRM policy on the Xbox One. However, there have been a few issues that nobody has touched. As such, I have decided to dig 0.00237 cents out of my pocket. First, let me be clear about this point. I do not support the decision to reverse the DRM policy on the Xbox One. I wanted that point to be expressed first and unambiguously. I will say it again. I do not support the decision to reverse the DRM policy on the Xbox One. Now that I have that out of the way, let me go into my rationale. This decision removes most of the cool features that enticed me to pre-order the console. No, I didn't cancel my pre-order. There is still five months before the release of the console, and there is still a plethora of information that we, as consumers, do not have. With that, it should be noted that much of the talk in this post is speculation and rhetoric. I do not have any insider information that you do not possess. The persistent connection would have allowed the console to do many of the functions for which we have been begging. That demo where someone was playing Ryse, seamlessly accepted a multiplayer challenge in Killer Instinct, played the match (and a rematch,) and then jumped back into Ryse. That's gone, if you bought the game on disc. The new, DRM free system will require the disc in the system to play a game. That bullet point where one Xbox Live account could have up to 10 slave accounts so families could play together, no matter where they were located. That's gone as well. The promise of huge, expansive, dynamically changing worlds that was brought to us with the power of cloud computing. Well, "the people" didn't want there to be a forced, persistent connection. As such, developers can't rely on a connection and, as such, that feature is gone. This is akin to the removal of the hard drive on the Xbox 360. The list continues, but the enthusiast press has enumerated the list far better than I wish. All of this is because the Xbox team saw the HUGE success of Steam and decided to borrow a few ideas. Yes, Steam. The service that everyone hated for the first six months (for the same reasons the Xbox One is getting flack.) There was an initial growing pain. However, it is now lauded as the way games distribution should be handled. Unless you are Microsoft. I do find it curious that many of the features were originally announced for the PS4 during its unveiling. However, much of that was left strangely absent for Sony's E3 press conference. Instead, we received a single, static slide that basically said the exact opposite of Microsoft's plans. It is not farfetched to believe that slide came into existence during the approximately seven hours between the two media briefings. The thing that majorly annoys me over this whole kerfuffle is that the single thing that caused the call to arms is, really, not an issue. Microsoft never said they were going to block used sales. They said it was up to the publisher to make that decision. This would have allowed publishers to reclaim some of the costs of development in subsequent sales of the product. If you sell your game to GameStop for 7 USD, GameStop is going to sell it for 55 USD. That is 48 USD pure profit for them. Some publishers asked GameStop for a small cut. Was this a huge, money grubbing scheme? Well, yes, but the idea was that they have to handle server infrastructure for dormant accounts, etc. Of course, GameStop flatly refused, and the Online Pass was born. Fortunately, this trend didn’t last, and most publishers have stopped the practice. The ability to sell "licenses" has already begun to be challenged. Are you living in the EU? If so, companies must allow you to sell digital property. With this precedent in place, it's only a matter of time before other areas follow suit. If GameStop were smart, they should have immediately contacted every publisher out there to get the rights to become a clearing house for these licenses. Then, they keep their business model and could reduce their brick and mortar footprint. The digital landscape is changing. We need to not block this process. As Seth MacFarlane best said "Some issues are so important that you should drag people kicking and screaming." I believe this was said on an episode of Real Time with Bill Maher about the issue of Gay Marriages. Much like the original source, this is an issue that we need to drag people to the correct, progressive position. Microsoft, as a company, actually has the resources to weather the transition period. They have a great pool of first and second party developers that can leverage this new framework to prove the validity. Over time, the third party developers will get excited to use these tools. As an old C++ guy, I resisted C# for years. Now, I think it's one of the best languages I've ever used. I have a server room and a Co-Lo full of servers, so I originally didn't see the value in Azure. Now, I wish I could move every one of my projects into the cloud. I still LOVE getting physical packaging, which my music and games collection will proudly attest. However, I have started to see the value in pure digital, and have found ways to integrate this into the ways I consume those products. I can, honestly, understand how some parts of the population would be very apprehensive about this new landscape. There were valid arguments about people with no internet access. There are ways to combat these problems. These methods do not require us to throw the baby out with the bathwater. However, the number of people in the computer industry that I have seen cry foul is truly appalling. We are the forward looking people that help show how technology can improve people's lives. If we can't see the value of the brief pain involved with an exciting new ecosystem, than who will?

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