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  • Searching for the last logon of users in Active Directory

    - by Robert May
    I needed to clean out a bunch of old accounts at Veracity Solutions, and wanted to delete those that hadn’t used their account in more than a year. I found that AD has a property on objects called the lastLogonTimestamp.  However, this value isn’t exposed to you in any useful fashion.  Sure, you can pull up ADSI Edit and and eventually get to it there, but it’s painful. I spent some time searching, and discovered that there’s not much out there to help, so I thought a blog post showing exactly how to get at this information would be in order. Basically, what you end up doing is using System.DirectoryServices to search for accounts and then filtering those for users, doing some conversion and such to make it happen.  Basically, the end result of this is that you get a list of users with their logon information and you can then do with that what you will.  I turned my list into an observable collection and bound it into a XAML form. One important note, you need to add a reference to ActiveDs Type Library in the COM section of the world in references to get to LargeInteger. Here’s the class: namespace Veracity.Utilities { using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.DirectoryServices; using ActiveDs; using log4net; /// <summary> /// Finds users inside of the active directory system. /// </summary> public class UserFinder { /// <summary> /// Creates the default logger /// </summary> private static readonly ILog log = LogManager.GetLogger(typeof(UserFinder)); /// <summary> /// Finds last logon information /// </summary> /// <param name="domain">The domain to search.</param> /// <param name="userName">The username for the query.</param> /// <param name="password">The password for the query.</param> /// <returns>A list of users with their last logon information.</returns> public IList<UserLoginInformation> GetLastLogonInformation(string domain, string userName, string password) { IList<UserLoginInformation> result = new List<UserLoginInformation>(); DirectoryEntry entry = new DirectoryEntry(domain, userName, password, AuthenticationTypes.Secure); DirectorySearcher directorySearcher = new DirectorySearcher(entry); directorySearcher.PropertyNamesOnly = true; directorySearcher.PropertiesToLoad.Add("name"); directorySearcher.PropertiesToLoad.Add("lastLogonTimeStamp"); SearchResultCollection searchResults; try { searchResults = directorySearcher.FindAll(); } catch (System.Exception ex) { log.Error("Failed to do a find all.", ex); throw; } try { foreach (SearchResult searchResult in searchResults) { DirectoryEntry resultEntry = searchResult.GetDirectoryEntry(); if (resultEntry.SchemaClassName == "user") { UserLoginInformation logon = new UserLoginInformation(); logon.Name = resultEntry.Name; PropertyValueCollection timeStampObject = resultEntry.Properties["lastLogonTimeStamp"]; if (timeStampObject.Count > 0) { IADsLargeInteger logonTimeStamp = (IADsLargeInteger)timeStampObject[0]; long lastLogon = (long)((uint)logonTimeStamp.LowPart + (((long)logonTimeStamp.HighPart) << 32)); logon.LastLogonTime = DateTime.FromFileTime(lastLogon); } result.Add(logon); } } } catch (System.Exception ex) { log.Error("Failed to iterate search results.", ex); throw; } return result; } } } Some important things to note: Username and Password can be set to null and if your computer us part of the domain, this may still work. Domain should be set to something like LDAP://servername/CN=Users,CN=Domain,CN=com You’re actually getting a com object back, so that’s why the LongInteger conversions are happening.  The class for UserLoginInformation looks like this:   namespace Veracity.Utilities { using System; /// <summary> /// Represents user login information. /// </summary> public class UserLoginInformation { /// <summary> /// Gets or sets Name /// </summary> public string Name { get; set; } /// <summary> /// Gets or sets LastLogonTime /// </summary> public DateTime LastLogonTime { get; set; } /// <summary> /// Gets the age of the account. /// </summary> public TimeSpan AccountAge { get { TimeSpan result = TimeSpan.Zero; if (this.LastLogonTime != DateTime.MinValue) { result = DateTime.Now.Subtract(this.LastLogonTime); } return result; } } } } I hope this is useful and instructive. Technorati Tags: Active Directory

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  • Oracle Social Network -The Social Glue for Enterprise Applications

    - by kellsey.ruppel
    by Peter Reiser  - Social Business Evangelist, Oracle WebCenter  Tom Petrocelli of Enterprise Strategy Group published a report recently, “Oracle Social Network: The Social Glue for Enterprise Applications”, on Oracle Social Network (OSN) and how traditional social products create social silos whereas OSN is the “social glue” for enterprise applications.  This report supports the point of Oracle’s Social Business Strategy to seamless integrate social capabilities into the main business processes. Quote from report: “Oracle has adopted the correct approach to creating a social layer and socially enabled applications. Oracle Social Network is not simply another enterprise social network product; it is a complete social layer for the enterprise application stack. This approach will serve Oracle users well in the future.” OSN allow to capture the related Conversations of a business process right where it’s happens – within the respective Business application.  Fusion CRM is an excellent example for this approach. Quote from report: “Oracle’s new software, Oracle Social Network, is an example of a solution to the silo problem. While Oracle fields a typical enterprise social network application with microblogging, file sharing, shared documents or wikis, and activity streams, the front-end application is only a small part of what Oracle Social Network does. Instead, Oracle Social Network is a platform that provides social features as a service to other enterprise applications. In effect, Oracle Social Network socially enables all of Oracle’s enterprise applications—all enterprise applications really—with not only the same features, but also the same conversations. As a result, the social conversations act as a conduit for inter-application communication and collaboration.” Source: ESG Research Report, Oracle Social Network: The Social Glue for Enterprise Applications, August 2012. You can download the report here.

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  • JavaScript Intellisense with Telerik in ASP.NET Master Page Project with VS 2010

    - by Otto Neff
    Today I was looking for a solution to get finally the JScript/Javascript/jQuery Intellisense Featureworking with my ASP.Net Webform Project to work. I found some good articles: - JScript IntelliSense Overview- JScript IntelliSense: A Reference for the “Reference” Tag- Enabling JavaScript intellisense in VS.NET 2010 to work with SharePoint 2010- Rich IntelliSense for jQueryBUT, all of suggested solutions did not work right with my Master Page based Visual Studio 2010 Solution.Only with physical Javascript Files (Telerik includes certain Javascript Files like jQuery as Ressource) or/andconfigure always a new ASP.NET Scriptmanager / RadScriptManager on every page derived from the Master Page, wasn't exactly what I was looking for. So I came up with the following simple Solution, to Trick VS2010and still have the Project running with multiple runat="server" Scriptmanagers. In short:- New ASP.NET control derived from ScriptManager with emtpy overwritten OnInit() to use it as emtpy wrapper for VS2010. In detail:New RadScriptManager Classusing System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Web; using Telerik.Web.UI; namespace IntellisenseJavascript.Controls { public class IntelliJS : RadScriptManager { protected override void OnInit(EventArgs e) { } protected override void OnPreRender(EventArgs e) { } protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e) { } protected override void Render(System.Web.UI.HtmlTextWriter writer) { } public override void RenderControl(System.Web.UI.HtmlTextWriter writer) { } } } web.config<configuration> ... <system.web> ... <pages> <controls> <add tagPrefix="telerik" namespace="Telerik.Web.UI" assembly="Telerik.Web.UI, Version=2011.3.1115.40, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=121fae78165ba3d4"/> <add tagPrefix="VSFix" namespace="IntellisenseJavascript.Controls" assembly="IntellisenseJavascript"/> </controls> </pages> ... Master Page<%@ Master Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="Site.master.cs" Inherits="IntellisenseJavascript.Site" %> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html > <head id="head" runat="server"> <title></title> <telerik:RadStyleSheetManager ID="radStyleSheetManager" runat="server" /> </head> <body> <form id="form" runat="server"> <telerik:RadScriptManager ID="radScriptManager" runat="server"> <Scripts> <asp:ScriptReference Assembly="Telerik.Web.UI, Version=2011.3.1115.40, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=121fae78165ba3d4" Name="Telerik.Web.UI.Common.Core.js" /> <asp:ScriptReference Assembly="Telerik.Web.UI, Version=2011.3.1115.40, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=121fae78165ba3d4" Name="Telerik.Web.UI.Common.jQuery.js" /> <asp:ScriptReference Assembly="Telerik.Web.UI, Version=2011.3.1115.40, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=121fae78165ba3d4" Name="Telerik.Web.UI.Common.jQueryInclude.js" /> </Scripts> </telerik:RadScriptManager> <telerik:RadAjaxManager ID="radAjaxManager" runat="server"> </telerik:RadAjaxManager> <div> #MASTER CONTENT# <asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="contentPlaceHolder" runat="server"> </asp:ContentPlaceHolder> </div> </form> <script type="text/javascript"> $(function () { // Masterpage ready $('body').css('margin', '50px'); }); </script> </body> </html> ASPX Page<%@ Page Title="" Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/Site.Master" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="Default.aspx.cs" Inherits="IntellisenseJavascript.Default" %> <asp:Content ID="Content1" ContentPlaceHolderID="contentPlaceHolder" runat="server"> <VSFix:IntelliJS runat="server" ID="intelliJS"> <Scripts> <asp:ScriptReference Assembly="Telerik.Web.UI, Version=2011.3.1115.40, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=121fae78165ba3d4" Name="Telerik.Web.UI.Common.Core.js" /> <asp:ScriptReference Assembly="Telerik.Web.UI, Version=2011.3.1115.40, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=121fae78165ba3d4" Name="Telerik.Web.UI.Common.jQuery.js" /> <asp:ScriptReference Assembly="Telerik.Web.UI, Version=2011.3.1115.40, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=121fae78165ba3d4" Name="Telerik.Web.UI.Common.jQueryInclude.js" /> </Scripts> </VSFix:IntelliJS> <div style="border: 5px solid #FF9900;"> #PAGE CONTENT# </div> <script type="text/javascript"> $(function () { // Page ready $('body').css('border', '5px solid #888'); }); </script> </asp:Content> The Result I know, this is not the way it meant to be... but now at least you can have a Main ScriptManager for all Common Scripts and Settings, inject page specific Javascripts in PageLoad Event in normal ASPX Files and have JavaScript Intellisense for defined Scripts from JS Files or Assembly Ressouce in your Content Maybe, vNext will fix this.

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  • Grandparent – Parent – Child Reports in SQL Developer

    - by thatjeffsmith
    You’ll never see one of these family stickers on my car, but I promise not to judge…much. Parent – Child reports are pretty straightforward in Oracle SQL Developer. You have a ‘parent’ report, and then one or more ‘child’ reports which are based off of a value in a selected row or value from the parent. If you need a quick tutorial to get up to speed on the subject, go ahead and take 5 minutes Shortly before I left for vacation 2 weeks agao, I got an interesting question from one of my Twitter Followers: @thatjeffsmith any luck with the #Oracle awr reports in #SQLDeveloper?This is easy with multi generation parent>child Done in #dbvisualizer — Ronald Rood (@Ik_zelf) August 26, 2012 Now that I’m back from vacation, I can tell Ronald and everyone else that the answer is ‘Yes!’ And here’s how Time to Get Out Your XML Editor Don’t have one? That’s OK, SQL Developer can edit XML files. While the Reporting interface doesn’t surface the ability to create multi-generational reports, the underlying code definitely supports it. We just need to hack away at the XML that powers a report. For this example I’m going to start simple. A query that brings back DEPARTMENTs, then EMPLOYEES, then JOBs. We can build the first two parts of the report using the report editor. A Parent-Child report in Oracle SQL Developer (Departments – Employees) Save the Report to XML Once you’ve generated the XML file, open it with your favorite XML editor. For this example I’ll be using the build-it XML editor in SQL Developer. SQL Developer Reports in their raw XML glory! Right after the PDF element in the XML document, we can start a new ‘child’ report by inserting a DISPLAY element. I just copied and pasted the existing ‘display’ down so I wouldn’t have to worry about screwing anything up. Note I also needed to change the ‘master’ name so it wouldn’t confuse SQL Developer when I try to import/open a report that has the same name. Also I needed to update the binds tags to reflect the names from the child versus the original parent report. This is pretty easy to figure out on your own actually – I mean I’m no real developer and I got it pretty quick. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> <displays> <display id="92857fce-0139-1000-8006-7f0000015340" type="" style="Table" enable="true"> <name><![CDATA[Grandparent]]></name> <description><![CDATA[]]></description> <tooltip><![CDATA[]]></tooltip> <drillclass><![CDATA[null]]></drillclass> <CustomValues> <TYPE>horizontal</TYPE> </CustomValues> <query> <sql><![CDATA[select * from hr.departments]]></sql> </query> <pdf version="VERSION_1_7" compression="CONTENT"> <docproperty title="" author="" subject="" keywords="" /> <cell toppadding="2" bottompadding="2" leftpadding="2" rightpadding="2" horizontalalign="LEFT" verticalalign="TOP" wrap="true" /> <column> <heading font="Courier" size="10" style="NORMAL" color="-16777216" rowshading="-1" labeling="FIRST_PAGE" /> <footing font="Courier" size="10" style="NORMAL" color="-16777216" rowshading="-1" labeling="NONE" /> <blob blob="NONE" zip="false" /> </column> <table font="Courier" size="10" style="NORMAL" color="-16777216" userowshading="false" oddrowshading="-1" evenrowshading="-1" showborders="true" spacingbefore="12" spacingafter="12" horizontalalign="LEFT" /> <header enable="false" generatedate="false"> <data> null </data> </header> <footer enable="false" generatedate="false"> <data value="null" /> </footer> <security enable="false" useopenpassword="false" openpassword="" encryption="EXCLUDE_METADATA"> <permission enable="false" permissionpassword="" allowcopying="true" allowprinting="true" allowupdating="false" allowaccessdevices="true" /> </security> <pagesetup papersize="LETTER" orientation="1" measurement="in" margintop="1.0" marginbottom="1.0" marginleft="1.0" marginright="1.0" /> </pdf> <display id="null" type="" style="Table" enable="true"> <name><![CDATA[Parent]]></name> <description><![CDATA[]]></description> <tooltip><![CDATA[]]></tooltip> <drillclass><![CDATA[null]]></drillclass> <CustomValues> <TYPE>horizontal</TYPE> </CustomValues> <query> <sql><![CDATA[select * from hr.employees where department_id = EPARTMENT_ID]]></sql> <binds> <bind id="DEPARTMENT_ID"> <prompt><![CDATA[DEPARTMENT_ID]]></prompt> <tooltip><![CDATA[DEPARTMENT_ID]]></tooltip> <value><![CDATA[NULL_VALUE]]></value> </bind> </binds> </query> <pdf version="VERSION_1_7" compression="CONTENT"> <docproperty title="" author="" subject="" keywords="" /> <cell toppadding="2" bottompadding="2" leftpadding="2" rightpadding="2" horizontalalign="LEFT" verticalalign="TOP" wrap="true" /> <column> <heading font="Courier" size="10" style="NORMAL" color="-16777216" rowshading="-1" labeling="FIRST_PAGE" /> <footing font="Courier" size="10" style="NORMAL" color="-16777216" rowshading="-1" labeling="NONE" /> <blob blob="NONE" zip="false" /> </column> <table font="Courier" size="10" style="NORMAL" color="-16777216" userowshading="false" oddrowshading="-1" evenrowshading="-1" showborders="true" spacingbefore="12" spacingafter="12" horizontalalign="LEFT" /> <header enable="false" generatedate="false"> <data> null </data> </header> <footer enable="false" generatedate="false"> <data value="null" /> </footer> <security enable="false" useopenpassword="false" openpassword="" encryption="EXCLUDE_METADATA"> <permission enable="false" permissionpassword="" allowcopying="true" allowprinting="true" allowupdating="false" allowaccessdevices="true" /> </security> <pagesetup papersize="LETTER" orientation="1" measurement="in" margintop="1.0" marginbottom="1.0" marginleft="1.0" marginright="1.0" /> </pdf> <display id="null" type="" style="Table" enable="true"> <name><![CDATA[Child]]></name> <description><![CDATA[]]></description> <tooltip><![CDATA[]]></tooltip> <drillclass><![CDATA[null]]></drillclass> <CustomValues> <TYPE>horizontal</TYPE> </CustomValues> <query> <sql><![CDATA[select * from hr.jobs where job_id = :JOB_ID]]></sql> <binds> <bind id="JOB_ID"> <prompt><![CDATA[JOB_ID]]></prompt> <tooltip><![CDATA[JOB_ID]]></tooltip> <value><![CDATA[NULL_VALUE]]></value> </bind> </binds> </query> <pdf version="VERSION_1_7" compression="CONTENT"> <docproperty title="" author="" subject="" keywords="" /> <cell toppadding="2" bottompadding="2" leftpadding="2" rightpadding="2" horizontalalign="LEFT" verticalalign="TOP" wrap="true" /> <column> <heading font="Courier" size="10" style="NORMAL" color="-16777216" rowshading="-1" labeling="FIRST_PAGE" /> <footing font="Courier" size="10" style="NORMAL" color="-16777216" rowshading="-1" labeling="NONE" /> <blob blob="NONE" zip="false" /> </column> <table font="Courier" size="10" style="NORMAL" color="-16777216" userowshading="false" oddrowshading="-1" evenrowshading="-1" showborders="true" spacingbefore="12" spacingafter="12" horizontalalign="LEFT" /> <header enable="false" generatedate="false"> <data> null </data> </header> <footer enable="false" generatedate="false"> <data value="null" /> </footer> <security enable="false" useopenpassword="false" openpassword="" encryption="EXCLUDE_METADATA"> <permission enable="false" permissionpassword="" allowcopying="true" allowprinting="true" allowupdating="false" allowaccessdevices="true" /> </security> <pagesetup papersize="LETTER" orientation="1" measurement="in" margintop="1.0" marginbottom="1.0" marginleft="1.0" marginright="1.0" /> </pdf> </display> </display> </display> </displays> Save the file and ‘Open Report…’ You’ll see your new report name in the tree. You just need to double-click it to open it. Here’s what it looks like running A 3 generation family Now Let’s Build an AWR Text Report Ronald wanted to have the ability to query AWR snapshots and generate the AWR reports. That requires a few inputs, including a START and STOP snapshot ID. That basically tells AWR what time period to use for generating the report. And here’s where it gets tricky. We’ll need to use aliases for the SNAP_ID column. Since we’re using the same column name from 2 different queries, we need to use different bind variables. Fortunately for us, SQL Developer’s clever enough to use the column alias as the BIND. Here’s what I mean: Grandparent Query SELECT snap_id start1, begin_interval_time, end_interval_time FROM dba_hist_snapshot ORDER BY 1 asc Parent Query SELECT snap_id stop1, begin_interval_time, end_interval_time, :START1 carry FROM dba_hist_snapshot WHERE snap_id > :START1 ORDER BY 1 asc And here’s where it gets even trickier – you can’t reference a bind from outside the parent query. My grandchild report can’t reference a value from the grandparent report. So I just carry the selected value down to the parent. In my parent query SELECT you see the ‘:START1′ at the end? That’s making that value available to me when I use it in my grandchild query. To complicate things a bit further, I can’t have a column name with a ‘:’ in it, or SQL Developer will get confused when I try to reference the value of the variable with the ‘:’ – and ‘::Name’ doesn’t work. But that’s OK, just alias it. Grandchild Query Select Output From Table(Dbms_Workload_Repository.Awr_Report_Text(1298953802, 1,:CARRY, :STOP1)); Ok, and the last trick – I hard-coded my report to use my database’s DB_ID and INST_ID into the AWR package call. Now a smart person could figure out a way to make that work on any database, but I got lazy and and ran out of time. But this should be far enough for you to take it from here. Here’s what my report looks like now: Caution: don’t run this if you haven’t licensed Enterprise Edition with Diagnostic Pack. The Raw XML for this AWR Report <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> <displays> <display id="927ba96c-0139-1000-8001-7f0000015340" type="" style="Table" enable="true"> <name><![CDATA[AWR Start Stop Report Final]]></name> <description><![CDATA[]]></description> <tooltip><![CDATA[]]></tooltip> <drillclass><![CDATA[null]]></drillclass> <CustomValues> <TYPE>horizontal</TYPE> </CustomValues> <query> <sql><![CDATA[SELECT snap_id start1, begin_interval_time, end_interval_time FROM dba_hist_snapshot ORDER BY 1 asc]]></sql> </query> <display id="null" type="" style="Table" enable="true"> <name><![CDATA[Stop SNAP_ID]]></name> <description><![CDATA[]]></description> <tooltip><![CDATA[]]></tooltip> <drillclass><![CDATA[null]]></drillclass> <CustomValues> <TYPE>horizontal</TYPE> </CustomValues> <query> <sql><![CDATA[SELECT snap_id stop1, begin_interval_time, end_interval_time, :START1 carry FROM dba_hist_snapshot WHERE snap_id > :START1 ORDER BY 1 asc]]></sql> </query> <display id="null" type="" style="Table" enable="true"> <name><![CDATA[AWR Report]]></name> <description><![CDATA[]]></description> <tooltip><![CDATA[]]></tooltip> <drillclass><![CDATA[null]]></drillclass> <CustomValues> <TYPE>horizontal</TYPE> </CustomValues> <query> <sql><![CDATA[Select Output From Table(Dbms_Workload_Repository.Awr_Report_Text(1298953802, 1,:CARRY, :STOP1 ))]]></sql> </query> </display> </display> </display> </displays> Should We Build Support for Multiple Levels of Reports into the User Interface? Let us know! A comment here or a suggestion on our SQL Developer Exchange might help your case!

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  • Copying Columns from Grid to Clipboard in SQL Developer

    - by thatjeffsmith
    There are several ways to get data from a query or a table|view to the clipboard. You know the tried and true, copy and paste. But what if you only want one or more columns, not every column? There are several ways to do this, let’s see if we can’t identify all of them. Write your query to only include the data you want Obvious? Yes. Needed to be said? Definitely. The best tuning tip is to only ask for the data you need, only when you absolutely need it. But let’s look at a few more practical ways to do this. Hide the unwanted columns Mouse right click on an column header. In the context menu, select ‘Columns.’ Hide the columns you don’t want. Copy and paste. WYSIWYG Grids, Hide Columns and Filter Rows Mouse select the columns Obvious, but a bit painful. For a very large dataset, you’ll be holding down the Shift and PageDown buttons – but it works. Remember to use Ctrl+Shift+C to get the column headers with the data. Use the Export Wizard This used to be called ‘Unload’ – agreed, not a great name. So, we changed it. In a grid, right mouse click on the data, and on the context menu, select ‘Export…’ Select your format – I suggest ‘delimited’ or ‘fixed’ for copying data to the clipboard. You can export to the clipboard, yes you can! Click ‘Next.’ Click in the Columns dialog, and choose the columns you want copied. Trim the columns you don't want copied Click ‘Finish.’ Alt or Ctrl tab to your window or application of choice. And Paste! "FIRST_NAME" "LAST_NAME" "Donald" "OConnell" "Douglas" "Grant" "Jennifer" "Whalen" "Pat" "Fay" "Susan" "Mavris" "William" "Gietz" "Alexander" "Hunold" "Bruce" "Ernst" "David" "Austin" "Valli" "Pataballa" "Diana" "Lorentz" "Daniel" "Faviet" "John" "Chen" "Ismael" "Sciarra" "Jose Manuel" "Urman" "Luis" "Popp" "Alexander" "Khoo" "Shelli" "Baida" "Sigal" "Tobias" "Guy" "Himuro" "Karen" "Colmenares" "Matthew" "Weiss" "Adam" "Fripp" "Payam" "Kaufling" "Shanta" "Vollman" "Kevin" "Mourgos" "Julia" "Nayer" "Irene" "Mikkilineni" ... There’s probably at least 2 or 3 more ways, but… But, try these and let me know how we can improve things. I’ve already gotten a request to be able to include the SQL text used to populate the dataset on the the copy to clipboard, and it’s now on our to-do list

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  • Training on Demand Certification Packages for DBAs

    - by Antoinette O'Sullivan
    The demand for Database Administrators continues to grow.*Almost two-thirds of IT hiring managers indicate that they highly value certifications in validatingIT skills and expertise.** * Job satisfaction and DBA work growth rate: CNN Money's 2011 Best Jobs in America survey.** Survey among nearly 1,700 respondents by CompTIA, the nonprofit trade association for the IT industry, cited in Certification Magazine, Feb. 14 th., 2012. Get Certified with Training on DemandAre you an experienced Database professional eager to achieve certification?Is time your most precious resource?Then try our new Training On Demand Certification Value Package with 20% discount. These all-in-one packages give you everything you need to get certified with success: Why Training On Demand:  Expert training from Oracle’s top instructors Sophisticated streaming video recording Available for 90 days, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week White boarding and training labs for hands-on experience Start, stop, pause, jump or rewind sections of the course as needed  Oracle University instructor Q&A  A full-text search leads to the right video fragment in a matter of seconds. Watch this demo to see how it works. Additional Certification resources: Benefits of Oracle Certification Database Certification Paths Available Database Certification Exams Getting certified has never been easier!For assistance contact your local Oracle University Service Desk. Many organizations deploy both Oracle Database and MySQL side by side to serve different needs, and as a database professional you can find training courses on both topics at Oracle University! Check out the upcoming Oracle Database 11g training courses and MySQL training courses. Even if you're only managing Oracle Databases at this point of time, getting familiar with MySQL Database will broaden your career path with growing job demand. These Value Packages are also available with the following training formats: In-Class, Live Virtual Class and Self Study: MySQL Database Administration Value Packages Your Savings plus get a FREE Retake  save 5% save 20% save 20% save 20%   In Class Edition Live Virtual Class Edition Self-Study Edition Training On Demand MySQL Database Administrator Certification Value Package View Package View Package View Package View Package MySQL Developer Value Packages Your Savings plus get a FREE Retake  save 5% save 20% save 20% save 20%   In Class Edition Live Virtual Class Edition Self-Study Edition Training On Demand       MySQL Developer Certification Value Package View Package View Package     Oracle Database 10g Value Packages Your Savings plus get a FREE Retake  save 5% save 20% save 20% save 20%   In Class Edition Live Virtual Class Edition Self-Study Edition Training On Demand Oracle Database 10g Administrator Certified Associate Certification Value Package View Package View Package View Package   Oracle Database 10g Administrator Certified Professional Certification Value Package View Package View Package View Package   Oracle Database 11g Value Packages Your Savings plus get a FREE Retake  save 5% save 20% save 20% save 20%   In Class Edition Live Virtual Class Edition Self-Study Edition Training On Demand Oracle Database 11g Administrator Certified Associate Certification Value Package View Package View Package View Package View Package Oracle Database 11g Administrator Certified Professional Certification Value Package View Package View Package View Package View Package Exam Prep Seminar Value Package: Oracle Database Admin 1       View Package Oracle Database 11g Administrator Certified Professional UPGRADE Certification Value Package       View Package Oracle Real Application Clusters 11g and Grid Infrastructure Administraton Certified Expert Certification Value Package       View Package Exam Prep Seminar Value Package: Oracle Database Admin 2        View Package Exam Prep Seminar Value Package: Oracle RAC 11g and Grid Infrastructure Administration       View Package Exam Prep Seminar Value Package: Upgrade Oracle Certified Professional (OCP) to Oracle Database 11g       View Package SQL and PL/SQL Value Packages Your Savings plus get a FREE Retake  save 5% save 20% save 20% save 20%   In Class Edition Live Virtual Class Edition Self-Study Edition Training On Demand Oracle Database Sql Expert Certification Value Package View Package View Package View Package View Package Exam Prep Seminar Value Package: Oracle Database SQL       View Package View our Certification Value Packages Mention this code at the time of booking: E1245 Connect For a full list of MySQL Training courses and events, go to http://oracle.com/education/mysql.

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  • Earthquake Locator - Live Demo and Source Code

    - by Bobby Diaz
    Quick Links Live Demo Source Code I finally got a live demo up and running!  I signed up for a shared hosting account over at discountasp.net so I could post a working version of the Earthquake Locator application, but ran into a few minor issues related to RIA Services.  Thankfully, Tim Heuer had already encountered and explained all of the problems I had along with solutions to these and other common pitfalls.  You can find his blog post here.  The ones that got me were the default authentication tag being set to Windows instead of Forms, needed to add the <baseAddressPrefixFilters> tag since I was running on a shared server using host headers, and finally the Multiple Authentication Schemes settings in the IIS7 Manager.   To get the demo application ready, I pulled down local copies of the earthquake data feeds that the application can use instead of pulling from the USGS web site.  I basically added the feed URL as an app setting in the web.config:       <appSettings>         <!-- USGS Data Feeds: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/catalogs/ -->         <!--<add key="FeedUrl"             value="http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/catalogs/1day-M2.5.xml" />-->         <!--<add key="FeedUrl"             value="http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/catalogs/7day-M2.5.xml" />-->         <!--<add key="FeedUrl"             value="~/Demo/1day-M2.5.xml" />-->         <add key="FeedUrl"              value="~/Demo/7day-M2.5.xml" />     </appSettings> You will need to do the same if you want to run from local copies of the feed data.  I also made the following minor changes to the EarthquakeService class so that it gets the FeedUrl from the web.config:       private static readonly string FeedUrl = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["FeedUrl"];       /// <summary>     /// Gets the feed at the specified URL.     /// </summary>     /// <param name="url">The URL.</param>     /// <returns>A <see cref="SyndicationFeed"/> object.</returns>     public static SyndicationFeed GetFeed(String url)     {         SyndicationFeed feed = null;           if ( !String.IsNullOrEmpty(url) && url.StartsWith("~") )         {             // resolve virtual path to physical file system             url = System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath(url);         }           try         {             log.Debug("Loading RSS feed: " + url);               using ( var reader = XmlReader.Create(url) )             {                 feed = SyndicationFeed.Load(reader);             }         }         catch ( Exception ex )         {             log.Error("Error occurred while loading RSS feed: " + url, ex);         }           return feed;     } You can now view the live demo or download the source code here, but be sure you have WCF RIA Services installed before running the application locally and make sure the FeedUrl is pointing to a valid location.  Please let me know if you have any comments or if you run into any issues with the code.   Enjoy!

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  • Outstanding Silverlight User Group Meeting last night

    - by Dave Campbell
    We had a great Silverlight User Group Meeting in Phoenix last night! Before I go any farther I want to say thanks again to David Silverlight and Kim Schmidt for coming to talk to us! And not to forget Victor Gaudioso over the wire :) David, Kim, and Victor talked to us about the Silverlight User Group Starter Kit they are working on with an extended stellar list of talented developers. Don't bypass looking at this by thinking it's only for a User Group... this is a solid community-supported full-up application using MVVM and Ria Services that you could take and modify for your own use. Take a look at the list of developers. Chances are you know some of them... send them an email of thanks for all the hard work over the last year! David and Kim discussed the architecture and code, demonstrating features as they went. Then Victor came in through the application itself on a high-intensity live webcast from his home in California. The audience of about 15 seemed focused and interested which says a lot about the subject and presentation. Tim Heuer came bearing some gifts (swag) ... a hard-copy of Josh Smith's Advanced MVVM , and couple cheaply upgradeable copies of VS2008 Pro that were snatched up very quickly. We also gave away a few copies of Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, some Arc mice, and some Office 2007 disks... so I don't think anyone left empty-handed. Personal thanks from me go out to Mike Palermo and Tim Heuer for the surprise they had waiting for me that's been over Twitter, and to Victor for only mentioning it at least 3 times in a 5-minute webcast. Thanks for a great evening, and I look forward to seeing all of you in a couple weeks at MIX10!

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  • Michael Stephenson joins CloudCasts

    - by Alan Smith
    Mike Stephenson has recorded a couple of webcasts focusing on build and test in BizTalk Server 2009. These are part of the “BizTalk Light & Easy” series of webcasts created by some of the BizTalk Server MVPs. Testing BizTalk Applications Implementing an Automated Build Process with BizTalk Server 2009

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  • Oracle on Oracle: How Oracle IT uses Oracle IDM

    - by Darin Pendergraft
    Sometimes, the toughest customers are your own employees.  Chirag Andani runs the Product Development Security IT Group - which means that his group is responsible for internal Identity Management and Security inside Oracle. Like a lot of large, global companies, Oracle has a complicated and dynamic IT infrastructure which continues to change as the company grows and acquires companies. I caught up with Chirag and asked him what kinds of problems his team faces, and asked him what he thinks about Oracle IDM, and 11gR2 in particular.Listen to the podcast interview here: podcast link

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  • Four Emerging Payment Stories

    - by David Dorf
    The world of alternate payments has been moving fast of late.  Innovation in this area will help both consumers and retailers, but probably hurt the banks (at least that's the plan).  Here are four recent news items in this area: Dwolla, a start-up in Iowa, is trying to make credit cards obsolete.  Twelve guys in Des Moines are using $1.3M they raised to allow businesses to skip the credit card networks and avoid the fees.  Today they move about $1M a day across their network with an average transaction size of $500. Instead of charging merchants 2.9% plus $.30 per transaction, Dwolla charges a quarter -- yep, that coin featuring George Washington. Dwolla (Web + Dollar = Dwolla) avoids the credit networks and connects directly to bank accounts using the bank's ACH network.  They are signing up banks and merchants targeting both B2B and C2B as well as P2P payments.  They leverage social networks to notify people they have a money transfer, and also have a mobile app that uses GPS location. However, all is not rosy.  There have been complaints about unexpected chargebacks and with debit fees being reduced by the big banks, the need is not as pronounced.  The big banks are working on their own network called clearXchange that could provide stiff competition. VeriFone just bought European payment processor Point for around $1B.  By itself this would not have caught my attention except for the fact that VeriFone also announced the acquisition of GlobalBay earlier this month.  In addition to their core business of selling stand-beside payment terminals, with GlobalBay they get employee-operated mobile selling tools and with Point they get a very big payment processing platform. MasterCard and Intel announced a partnership around payments, starting with PayPass, MasterCard's new payment technology.  Intel will lend its expertise to add additional levels of security, which seems to be the biggest barrier for consumer adoption.  Everyone is scrambling to get their piece of cash transactions, which still represents 85% of all transactions. Apple was awarded another mobile payment patent further cementing the rumors that the iPhone 5 will support NFC payments.  As usual, Apple is upsetting the apple cart (sorry) by moving control of key data from the carriers to Apple.  With Apple's vast number of iTunes accounts, they have a ready-made customer base to use the payment infrastructure, which I bet will slowly transition people away from credit cards and toward cheaper ACH.  Gary Schwartz explains the three step process Apple is taking to become a payment processor. Below is a picture I drew representing payments in the retail industry. There's certainly a lot of innovation happening.

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  • Silverlight Cream Top Posted Authors June to November, 2010

    - by Dave Campbell
    It's just past the first of December, but I've been busy and it's now time to recognize devs that have a large number of posts in Silverlight Cream. Ground Rules I pick what posts are on the blog Only posts that go in the database are included The author has to appear in SC at least 4 of the 6 months considered I averaged the monthly posts and am only showing Authors with an average greater than 1. Here are the Top Posted Authors at Silverlight Cream for June 1, 2010 through November 30, 2010: It is my intention to post a new list sometime shortly after the 1st of every month to recognize the top posted in the previous 6 months, so next up is January 1! Some other metrics for Silverlight Cream: At the time of this posting there are 7087 articles aggregated and searchable by partial Author, partial Title, keywords (in the synopsis), or partial URL. There are also 116 tags by which the articles can be searched. At the time of this posting there are 664 articles tagged wp7dev. Stay in the 'Light!

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  • Fusion Middleware 11g (11.1.1.5.0)

    - by Hiro
    2011?7? (2011/07/12 ??)?Fusion Middleware 11gR1 ??????????11.1.1.5.0?????????????????????11.1.1.5.0?????????????????? 1. 11.1.1.5.0???????11.1.1.5.0???????·?????????????????????????????????????????????????11.1.1.5.0???????????????????????? Oracle WebLogic Server 11g (10.3.5) Oracle SOA Suite 11g (11.1.1.5.0)  - BAM, BPEL, BPM?? Oracle WebCenter Suite 11g (11.1.1.5.0) Oracle JDeveloper 11g (11.1.1.5.0) Oracle Identity Management 11g (11.1.1.5.0)  - OID, OIF, OVD?? Oracle Fusion Middleware Repository Creation Utility 11g (11.1.1.5.0) Oracle Enterprise Repository 11g (11.1.1.5.0) Oracle Enterprise Content Management 11g (11.1.1.5.0) Oracle Service Bus 11g (11.1.1.5.0) Oracle Fusion Middleware Web Tier Utilities 11g (11.1.1.5.0) Oracle Data Integrator 11g (11.1.1.5.0) 2. 11.1.1.5.0????????????????????????????????????????? Oracle Complex Event Processing 11g (11.1.1.4.0) Oracle Portal, Forms, Reports and Discoverer 11g (11.1.1.4.0) Oracle Business Process Analysis Suite 11g (11.1.1.3.0) Oracle Service Registry 11g (11.1.1.2.0) Oracle Identity and Access Management 11g (11.1.1.3.0)  - OAM, OAAM, OIM?? Oracle Tuxedo 11g (11.1.1.2.0) 3. Sparse Release (??????)?????????????(11.1.1.4 ???????)????????????????????????????????? Oracle Identity Management 11g (11.1.1.5.0) Oracle Fusion Middleware Web Tier Utilities 11g (11.1.1.5.0) ??????????? ?Oracle Fusion Middleware ?????????????????ReadMe 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.5.0)????????? 4. ???????Fixed Bugs List????????????Note#1316076.1 ?????????? (Note????????????????????) ?????

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  • SSO in Weblogic server

    - by Tridib Samanta
    Configuring Single Sign-On in Oracle Fusion Middleware ReferenceOracle Fusion Middleware Security OverviewOracle Fusion Middleware Security GuideOracle Fusion Middleware Securing Oracle WebLogic Server

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  • The Complementary Roles of PLM and PIM

    - by Ulf Köster
    Oracle Product Value Chain Solutions (aka Enterprise PLM Solutions) are a comprehensive set of product management solutions that work together to provide Oracle customers with a broad array of capabilities to manage all aspects of product life: innovation, design, launch, and supply chain / commercialization processes beyond the capabilities and boundaries of traditional engineering-focused Product Lifecycle Management applications. They support companies with an integrated managed view across the product value chain: From Lab to Launch, From Farm to Fork, From Concept to Product to Customer, From Product Innovation to Product Design and Product Commercialization. Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) represents a broad suite of software solutions to improve product-oriented business processes and data. PLM success stories prove that PLM helps companies improve time to market, increase product-related revenue, reduce product costs, reduce internal costs and improve product quality. As a maturing suite of enterprise solutions, PLM is still evolving to realize the promise it can provide across all facets of a business and all phases of the product lifecycle. The vision for PLM includes everything from gathering early requirements for a product through multiple stages of the product lifecycle from product design, through commercialization and eventual product retirement or replacement. In discrete or process industries, PLM is typically more focused on Product Definition as items with respect to the technical view of a material or part, including specifications, bills of material and manufacturing data. With Agile PLM, this is specifically related to capabilities addressing Product Collaboration, Governance and Compliance, Product Quality Management, Product Cost Management and Engineering Collaboration. PLM today is mainly addressing key requirements in the early product lifecycle, in engineering changes or in the “innovation cycle”, and primarily adds value related to product design, development, launch and engineering change process. In short, PLM is the master for Product Definition, wherever manufacturing takes place. Product Information Management (PIM) is a product suite that has evolved in parallel to PLM. Product Information Management (PIM) can extend the value of PLM implementations by providing complementary tools and capabilities. More relevant in the area of Product Commercialization, the vision for PIM is to manage product information throughout an enterprise and supply chain to improve product-related knowledge management, information sharing and synchronization from multiple data sources. PIM success stories have shown the ability to provide multiple benefits, with particular emphasis on reducing information complexity and information management costs. Product Information in PIM is typically treated as the commercial view of a material or part, including sales and marketing information and categorization. PIM collects information from multiple manufacturing sites and multiple suppliers into its repository, but also provides integration tools to push the information back out to the other systems, serving as an active central repository with the aim to provide a holistic view on any product sold by a company (hence the name “Product Hub”). In short, PIM is the master of commercial Product Information. So PIM is quickly becoming mandatory because of its value in optimizing multichannel selling processes and relationships with customers, as you can see from the following table: Viewpoint PLM Current State PIM Key Benefits PIM adds to PLM Product Lifecycle Primarily R&D Front end Innovation Cycle Change process Primarily commercial / transactional state of lifecycle Provides a seamless information flow from design and manufacturing through the ultimate selling and servicing of products Data Primarily focused on “item” vs. “product” data Product structures Specifications Technical information Repository for all product information. Reaches out to entire enterprise and its various silos of product information and descriptions Provides a “trusted source” of accurate product information to the internal organization and trading partners Data Lifecycle Repository for all design iterations Historical information Released, current information, with version management and time stamping Provides a single location to track and audit historical product information Communication PLM release finished product to ERP PLM is the master for Product Definition Captures information from disparate sources, including in-house data stores Recognizes the reality of today’s data “mess” across information silos Provides the ability to package product information to its audience in the desired, relevant format to meet their exacting business requirements Departmental R&D Manufacturing Quality Compliance Procurement Strategic Marketing Focus on Marketing and Sales Gathering information from other Departments, multiple sites, multiple suppliers A singular enterprise solution that leverages existing information silos and data stores Supply Chain Multi-site internal collaboration Supplier collaboration Customer collaboration Works with customers, exchanges / data pools, and trading partners to provide relevant product information packaged the way the customer desires Provides ability to provide trading partners and internal customers with information in a manner they desire, continuously Tools Data Management Collaboration Innovation Management Cleansing Synchronization Hub functions Consistent, clean and complete commercial product information The goals of both PLM and PIM, put simply, are to help companies make more profit from their products. PLM and PIM solutions can be easily added as they share some of the same goals, while coming from two different perspectives: the definition of the product and the commercialization of the product. Both can serve as a form of product “system of record”, but take different approaches to delivering value. Oracle Product Value Chain solutions offer rich new strategies for executives to collectively leverage Agile PLM, Product Data Hub, together with Enterprise Data Quality for Products, and other industry leading Oracle applications to achieve further incremental value, like Oracle Innovation Management. This is unique on the market today.

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  • Oracle Security Webcast - today

    - by Alex Blyth
    Hi AllHere are the details for today's (12th May 2010) webcast on "Oracle Database Security"  -  beginning at 1.30pm (Sydney, Australia Time) :Webcast is at http://strtc.oracle.com (IE6, 7 & 8 supported only)Conference ID for the webcast is 6690429Conference Key: securityEnrollment is required. Please click here to enroll.Please use your real name in the name field (just makes it easier for us to help you out if we can't answer your questions on the call)Audio details:NZ Toll Free - 0800 888 157 orAU Toll Free - 1800420354 (or +61 2 8064 0613Meeting ID: 7914841Meeting Passcode: 12052010Talk to you all at 1.30CheersAlex

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  • Flashing your Windows Phone Dummies

    - by Martin Hinshelwood
    The rate at which vendors release new updates for the HD2 is ridiculously slow. You have to wait for Microsoft to release the new OS, then you wait for HTC to build it into a ROM, and then you have to wait up to 6 months for your operator to badly customise it for their network. Once Windows Phone 7 is released this problem should go away as Microsoft is likely to be able to update the phone over the air, but what do we do until then? I want Windows Mobile 6.5.5 now!   I’m an early adopter. If there is a new version of something then that’s the version I want. As long as you accept that you are using something on a “let the early adopter beware” and accept that there may be bugs, sometimes serious crippling bugs the go for it. Note that I won't be responsible if you end up bricking your phone, unlocking or flashing your radio or ROM can be risky. If you follow the instructions then you should be fine, I've flashed my phones (SPV, M300, M1000, M2000, M3100, TyTN, TyTN 2, HD2) hundreds of times without any problems! I have been using Windows Mobile 6.5.5 before it was called 6.5.5 and for long enough that I don’t even remember when I first started using it. I was using it on my HTC TyTN 2 before I got an HD2 a couple of months before Christmas, and the first custom ROM’s for the HD2 were a couple of months after that. I always update to the latest ROM that I like, and occasionally I go back to the stock ROM’s to have a look see, but I am always disappointed. Terms: Soft Reset: Same as pulling out the battery, but is like a reboot for your phone Hard Reset: Reinstalls the Operating system from the Image that is stored on it ROM: This is Image that is loaded onto your phone and it is used to reinstall your phone whenever you do a “hard reset”. Stock ROM: A ROM from the original vendor… So HTC Cook a ROM: Referring to Cooking a ROM is the process a ROM developer goes through to take all of the parts (OS, Drivers and Applications) that make up a running phone and compiling them into a ROM. ROM Kitchen: A place where you get an SDK and all the component parts of the phone: OD, Drivers and Application. There are usually lots of Tools for making it easier to compile and build the image. Flashing: The process of updating one of the layers of your phone with a new layer Bricked: This is what happens when flashing goes wrong. Your phone is now good for only one thing… stopping paper blowing away in a windy place. You can “cook” you own ROM using one of the many good “ROM Kitchens” or you can use a ROM built and tested by someone else. I have cooked my own ROM before, and while the tutorials are good, it is a lot of hassle. You can only Flash new ROM’s that are specifically for your phone only so find a ROM for your phone and XDA Developers is the best place to look. It has a forum based structure and you can find your phone quite easily. XDA Developer Forum Installing a new ROM does have its risks. In the past there have been stories about phones being “bricked” but I have not heard of a bricked phone for quite some years. if you follow the instructions carefully you should not have any problems. note: Most of the tools are written by people for whom English is not their first language to you will need concentrate hard to understand some of the instructions. Have you ever read a manual that was just literally translated from another language? Enough said… There are a number of layers on your phone that you will need to know about: SPL: This is the lowest level, like a BIOS on a PC and is the Operating Systems gateway to the hardware Radio: I think of this as the hardware drivers, and you will need a different Radio for CDMA than GSM networks ROM: This is like your Windows CD, but it is stored internally to the Phone. Flashing your phone consists of replacing one Image with another and then wiping your phone and automatically reinstall from the Image. Sometimes when you download an Image wither it is for a Radio or for ROM you only get a file called *.nbh. What do you do with this? Well you need an RUU application to push that Image to your phone. The RUU’s are different per phone, but there is a CustomRUU for the HD2 that will update your phone with any *.nbh placed in the same directory. Download and Instructions for CustomRUU #1 Flash HardSPL An SPL is kind of like a BIOS, and the default one has checks to make sure that you are only installing a signed ROM. This would prevent you from installing one that comes from any other source but the vendor. NOTE: Installing a HARD SPL invalidates your warranty so remember to Flash your phone with a “stock” vendor ROM before trying to send your phone in for repairs. Is the warranty reinstated when you go back to a stock ROM? I don’t know… Updating your SPL to a HardSPL effectively unlocks your phone so you can install anything you like. I would recommend the HardSPL2. Download and Instructions for HardSPL2 #2 Task29 One of the problems that has been seen on the HD2 when flashing new ROM’s is that things are left over from the old ROM. For a while the recommendation was to Flash a stock ROM first, but some clever cookies have come up with “Task29” which formats your phone first. After running this your phone will be blank and will only boot to the white HTC logo and no further. You should follow the instructions and reboot (remove battery) and hold down the “volume down” button while turning you HD2 on to enter the bootloader. From here you can run CustomRUU once the USB message appears. Download and Instructions for Task29 #2 Flash Radio You may need to play around with this one, there is no good and bad version and the latest is not always the best. You know that annoying thing when you hit “end call” on your phone and nothing happens? Well that's down to the Radio. Get this version right for you and you may even be able to make calls. From a Windows Mobile as well Download There are no instructions here, but they are the same as th ROM, but you use this *.nbh file. #3 Flash ROM If you have gotten this far then you are probably a pro by now Just download the latest ROM below and Flash to your phone. I have been really impressed by the Artemis line of ROM’s but it is no way the only choice. I like this one as the developer builds them as close to the stock ROM as possible while updating to the latest of everything. Download and Instructions for  Artemis HD2 vXX Conclusion While updating your ROM is not for the faint hearted it provides more options than the Stock ROM’s and quicker feature updates than waiting… Technorati Tags: WM6

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  • C#/.NET Little Pitfalls: The Dangers of Casting Boxed Values

    - by James Michael Hare
    Starting a new series to parallel the Little Wonders series.  In this series, I will examine some of the small pitfalls that can occasionally trip up developers. Introduction: Of Casts and Conversions What happens when we try to assign from an int and a double and vice-versa? 1: double pi = 3.14; 2: int theAnswer = 42; 3:  4: // implicit widening conversion, compiles! 5: double doubleAnswer = theAnswer; 6:  7: // implicit narrowing conversion, compiler error! 8: int intPi = pi; As you can see from the comments above, a conversion from a value type where there is no potential data loss is can be done with an implicit conversion.  However, when converting from one value type to another may result in a loss of data, you must make the conversion explicit so the compiler knows you accept this risk.  That is why the conversion from double to int will not compile with an implicit conversion, we can make the conversion explicit by adding a cast: 1: // explicit narrowing conversion using a cast, compiler 2: // succeeds, but results may have data loss: 3: int intPi = (int)pi; So for value types, the conversions (implicit and explicit) both convert the original value to a new value of the given type.  With widening and narrowing references, however, this is not the case.  Converting reference types is a bit different from converting value types.  First of all when you perform a widening or narrowing you don’t really convert the instance of the object, you just convert the reference itself to the wider or narrower reference type, but both the original and new reference type both refer back to the same object. Secondly, widening and narrowing for reference types refers the going down and up the class hierarchy instead of referring to precision as in value types.  That is, a narrowing conversion for a reference type means you are going down the class hierarchy (for example from Shape to Square) whereas a widening conversion means you are going up the class hierarchy (from Square to Shape).  1: var square = new Square(); 2:  3: // implicitly convers because all squares are shapes 4: // (that is, all subclasses can be referenced by a superclass reference) 5: Shape myShape = square; 6:  7: // implicit conversion not possible, not all shapes are squares! 8: // (that is, not all superclasses can be referenced by a subclass reference) 9: Square mySquare = (Square) myShape; So we had to cast the Shape back to Square because at that point the compiler has no way of knowing until runtime whether the Shape in question is truly a Square.  But, because the compiler knows that it’s possible for a Shape to be a Square, it will compile.  However, if the object referenced by myShape is not truly a Square at runtime, you will get an invalid cast exception. Of course, there are other forms of conversions as well such as user-specified conversions and helper class conversions which are beyond the scope of this post.  The main thing we want to focus on is this seemingly innocuous casting method of widening and narrowing conversions that we come to depend on every day and, in some cases, can bite us if we don’t fully understand what is going on!  The Pitfall: Conversions on Boxed Value Types Can Fail What if you saw the following code and – knowing nothing else – you were asked if it was legal or not, what would you think: 1: // assuming x is defined above this and this 2: // assignment is syntactically legal. 3: x = 3.14; 4:  5: // convert 3.14 to int. 6: int truncated = (int)x; You may think that since x is obviously a double (can’t be a float) because 3.14 is a double literal, but this is inaccurate.  Our x could also be dynamic and this would work as well, or there could be user-defined conversions in play.  But there is another, even simpler option that can often bite us: what if x is object? 1: object x; 2:  3: x = 3.14; 4:  5: int truncated = (int) x; On the surface, this seems fine.  We have a double and we place it into an object which can be done implicitly through boxing (no cast) because all types inherit from object.  Then we cast it to int.  This theoretically should be possible because we know we can explicitly convert a double to an int through a conversion process which involves truncation. But here’s the pitfall: when casting an object to another type, we are casting a reference type, not a value type!  This means that it will attempt to see at runtime if the value boxed and referred to by x is of type int or derived from type int.  Since it obviously isn’t (it’s a double after all) we get an invalid cast exception! Now, you may say this looks awfully contrived, but in truth we can run into this a lot if we’re not careful.  Consider using an IDataReader to read from a database, and then attempting to select a result row of a particular column type: 1: using (var connection = new SqlConnection("some connection string")) 2: using (var command = new SqlCommand("select * from employee", connection)) 3: using (var reader = command.ExecuteReader()) 4: { 5: while (reader.Read()) 6: { 7: // if the salary is not an int32 in the SQL database, this is an error! 8: // doesn't matter if short, long, double, float, reader [] returns object! 9: total += (int) reader["annual_salary"]; 10: } 11: } Notice that since the reader indexer returns object, if we attempt to convert using a cast to a type, we have to make darn sure we use the true, actual type or this will fail!  If the SQL database column is a double, float, short, etc this will fail at runtime with an invalid cast exception because it attempts to convert the object reference! So, how do you get around this?  There are two ways, you could first cast the object to its actual type (double), and then do a narrowing cast to on the value to int.  Or you could use a helper class like Convert which analyzes the actual run-time type and will perform a conversion as long as the type implements IConvertible. 1: object x; 2:  3: x = 3.14; 4:  5: // if you want to cast, must cast out of object to double, then 6: // cast convert. 7: int truncated = (int)(double) x; 8:  9: // or you can call a helper class like Convert which examines runtime 10: // type of the value being converted 11: int anotherTruncated = Convert.ToInt32(x); Summary You should always be careful when performing a conversion cast from values boxed in object that you are actually casting to the true type (or a sub-type). Since casting from object is a widening of the reference, be careful that you either know the exact, explicit type you expect to be held in the object, or instead avoid the cast and use a helper class to perform a safe conversion to the type you desire. Technorati Tags: C#,.NET,Pitfalls,Little Pitfalls,BlackRabbitCoder

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  • AIIM Best Practice Awards to Two Oracle Customers

    - by [email protected]
    On Tuesday night at the AIIM Awards Banquet, two Oracle customers and their implementation partners won awards for their Oracle Enterprise 2.0 implementations. The Bureau of Indian Affairs, a division of the Department of Interior, won a Carl E. Nelson Best Practices Award for their implementation of Oracle WebCenter and Oracle Content Management to provide an interactive social media environment to engage and inform their constituent communities. The BIA Citizen Portal provides all the services of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to the community of 564 federally recognized tribes that include over 1.9 million American Indians and Alaska Natives. This integration was achieved with the support of Oracle partner Mythics. The Charles Town Police Department integrated Oracle Content Management to integrate with and support their police evidence system. This integration was created in partnership with Oracle partner EDAC Systems Inc. Diane Hoppe of EDAC Systems Inc. was on hand to receive the award for Charles Town Police Department. You can see pictures of our award winners here: Linus Chow, Oracle; John Mancini, President of AIIM; and Diane Hoppe, EDACS - Charles Town Police: John Mancini, President of AIIM; Linus Chow, Oracle; Chris Baker, Mythics; and Bureau of Indian Affairs Oracle, EDACS, Mythics, BIA You can read more in the AIIM press release.

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  • Good ol fashioned debugging

    - by Tim Dexter
    I have been helping out one of our new customers over the last day or two and I have even managed to get to the bottom of their problem FTW! They use BIEE and BIP and wanted to mount a BIP report in a dashboard page, so far so good, BIP does that! Just follow the instructions in the BIEE user guide. The wrinkle is that they want to enter some fixed instruction strings into the dashboard prompts to help the user. These are added as fixed values to the prompt as the default values so they appear first. Once the user makes a selection, the default strings disappear. Its a fair requirement but the BIP report chokes Now, the BIP report had been setup with the Autorun checkbox, unchecked. I expected the BIP report to wait for the Go button to be hit but it was trying to run immediately and failing. That was the first issue. You can not stop the BIP report from trying to run in a dashboard. Even if the Autorun is turned off, it seems that dashboard still makes the request to BIP to run the report. Rather than BIP refusing because its waiting for input it goes ahead anyway, I guess the mechanism does not check the autorun flag when the request is coming from the dashboard. It appears that between BIEE and BIP, they collectively ignore the autorun flag. A bug? might be, at least an enhancement request. With that in mind, how could we get BIP to not at least not fail? This fact was stumping me on the parameter error, if the autorun flag was being respected then why was BIP complaining about the parameter values it should not even be doing anything until the Go button is clicked. I now knew that the autorun flag was being ignored, it was a simple case of putting BIP into debug mode. I use the OC4J server on my laptop so debug msgs are routed through the dos box used to start the OC4J container. When I changed a value on the dashboard prompt I spotted some debug text rushing by that subsequently disappeared from the log once the operation was complete. Another bug? I needed to catch that text as it went by, using the print screen function with some software to grab multiple screens as the log appeared and then disappeared. The upshot is that when you change the dashboard prompt value, BIP validates the value against its own LOVs, if its not in the list then it throws the error. Because 'Fill this first' and 'Fill this second' ie fixed strings from the dashboard prompts, are not in the LOV lists and because the report is auto running as soon as the dashboard page is brought up, the report complains about invalid parameters. To get around this, I needed to get the strings into the LOVs. Easily done with a UNION clause: select 'Fill this first' from SH.Products Products UNION select Products."Prod Category" as "Prod Category" from SH.Products Products Now when BIP wants to validate the prompt value, the LOV query fires and finds the fixed string -> No Error. No data, but definitely no errors :0) If users do run with the fixed values, you can capture that in the template. If there is no data in the report, either the fixed values were used or the parameters selected resulted in no rows. You can capture this in the template and display something like. 'Either your parameter values resulted in no data or you have not changed the default values' Thats the upside, the downside is that if your users run the report in the BP UI they re going to see the fixed strings. You could alleviate that by having BIP display the fixed strings in top of its parameter drop boxes (just set them as the default value for the parameter.) But they will not disappear like they do in the dashboard prompts, see below. If the expected autorun behaviour worked ie wait for the Go button, then we would not have to workaround it but for now, its a pretty good solution. It was an enjoyable hour or so for me, took me back to my developer daze, when we used to race each other for the most number of bug fixes. I used to run a distant 2nd behind 'Bugmeister Chen Hu' but led the chasing pack by a reasonable distance.

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  • Querying Networking Statistics: dlstat(1M)

    - by user12612042
    Oracle Solaris 11 took another big leap forward in networking technologies providing a reliable, secure and scalable infrastructure to meet the growing needs of today's datacenter implementations. Oracle Solaris 11 introduced a new and powerful network stack architecture, also known as Project Crossbow. From Solaris 11 onwards, we introduced a command line tool viz. dlstat(1M) to query network statistics. dlstat (for datalink statistics) is a statistics querying counterpart for dladm(1M) - the datalink administration tool. The tool is very easy to get started. Just type dlstat on a shell prompt on Solaris 11 (or later). For example,: # dlstat LINK IPKTS RBYTES OPKTS OBYTES net0 834.11K 145.91M 575.19K 104.24M net1 7.87K 2.04M 0 0 In this example, the system has two datalinks net0 and net1. The output columns denote input packets/bytes as well as output packets/bytes. The numbers are abbreviated in xxx.xxUnit format. However, one could get the actual counts by simply running dlstat -u R (R for raw): # dlstat -u R LINK IPKTS RBYTES OPKTS OBYTES net0 834271 145931244 575246 104242934 net1 7869 2036958 0 0 In addition, dlstat also supports various subcommands dlstat help The following subcommands are supported: Stats : show-aggr show-ether show-link show-phys show-bridge For more info, run: dlstat help {default|} I will only describe couple of interesting subcommands/options here. For a comprehensive description of all the dlstat subcommands refer dlstat's official manual . For NICs that support multiple rings (e.g. ixgbe), dlstat show-phys -r allows us to query per Rx ring statistics. For example: dlstat show-phys -r net4 LINK TYPE INDEX IPKTS RBYTES net4 rx 0 0 0 net4 rx 1 0 0 net4 rx 2 0 0 net4 rx 3 0 0 net4 rx 4 0 0 net4 rx 5 0 0 net4 rx 6 0 0 net4 rx 7 0 0 In this case, net4 is just a vanity name for an ixgbe datalink. This view is especially useful if one wants to look at the network traffic spread across all the available rings. Furthermore, any of the dlstat commands could be run with -i option to periodically query and display stats. For example, running dlstat show-phys -r net4 -i 5 will emit per Rx ring stats every 5 seconds. This is especially useful while analyzing a live system. Similarly, dlstat show-phys -t could be used to query per Tx ring stats. -r and -t could also be combined as dlstat show-phys -rt to query both Rx as well as Tx stats at the same time. Finally, there is also a quick way to dump ALL the stats. Just run dlstat -A. You probably want to redirect this output to a file because you are going to get a whole load of stats :-).

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  • IPS Facets and Info files

    - by mkupfer
    One of the unusual things about IPS is its "facet" feature. For example, if you're a developer using the foo library, you don't install a libfoo-dev package to get the header files. Intead, you install the libfoo package, and your facet.devel setting controls whether you get header files. I was reminded of this recently when I tried to look at some documentation for Emacs Org mode. I was surprised when Emacs's Info browser said it couldn't find the top-level Info directory. I poked around in /usr/share but couldn't find any info files. $ ls -l /usr/share/info ls: cannot access /usr/share/info: No such file or directory Was I was missing a package? $ pkg list -a | egrep "info|emacs" editor/gnu-emacs 23.1-0.175.0.0.0.2.537 i-- editor/gnu-emacs/gnu-emacs-gtk 23.1-0.175.0.0.0.2.537 i-- editor/gnu-emacs/gnu-emacs-lisp 23.1-0.175.0.0.0.2.537 --- editor/gnu-emacs/gnu-emacs-no-x11 23.1-0.175.0.0.0.2.537 --- editor/gnu-emacs/gnu-emacs-x11 23.1-0.175.0.0.0.2.537 i-- system/data/terminfo 0.5.11-0.175.0.0.0.2.1 i-- system/data/terminfo/terminfo-core 0.5.11-0.175.0.0.0.2.1 i-- text/texinfo 4.7-0.175.0.0.0.2.537 i-- x11/diagnostic/x11-info-clients 7.6-0.175.0.0.0.0.1215 i-- $ Hmm. I didn't have the gnu-emacs-lisp package. That seemed an unlikely place to stick the Info files, and pkg(1) confirmed that the info files were not there: $ pkg contents -r gnu-emacs-lisp | grep info usr/share/emacs/23.1/lisp/info-look.el.gz usr/share/emacs/23.1/lisp/info-xref.el.gz usr/share/emacs/23.1/lisp/info.el.gz usr/share/emacs/23.1/lisp/informat.el.gz usr/share/emacs/23.1/lisp/org/org-info.el.gz usr/share/emacs/23.1/lisp/org/org-jsinfo.el.gz usr/share/emacs/23.1/lisp/pcvs-info.el.gz usr/share/emacs/23.1/lisp/textmodes/makeinfo.el.gz usr/share/emacs/23.1/lisp/textmodes/texinfo.el.gz $ Well, if I have what look like the right packages but don't have the right files, the next thing to check are the facets. The first check is whether there is a facet associated with the Info files: $ pkg contents -m gnu-emacs | grep usr/share/info dir facet.doc.info=true group=bin mode=0755 owner=root path=usr/share/info file [...] chash=[...] facet.doc.info=true group=bin mode=0444 owner=root path=usr/share/info/mh-e-1 [...] file [...] chash=[...] facet.doc.info=true group=bin mode=0444 owner=root path=usr/share/info/mh-e-2 [...] [...] Yes, they're associated with facet.doc.info. Now let's look at the facet settings on my desktop: $ pkg facet FACETS VALUE facet.locale.en* True facet.locale* False facet.doc.man True facet.doc* False $ Oops. I've got man pages and various English documentation files, but not the Info files. Let's fix that: # pkg change-facet facet.doc.info=True Packages to update: 970 Variants/Facets to change: 1 Create boot environment: No Create backup boot environment: Yes Services to change: 1 DOWNLOAD PKGS FILES XFER (MB) Completed 970/970 181/181 9.2/9.2 PHASE ACTIONS Install Phase 226/226 PHASE ITEMS Image State Update Phase 2/2 PHASE ITEMS Reading Existing Index 8/8 Indexing Packages 970/970 # Now we have the info files: $ ls -F /usr/share/info a2ps.info dir@ flex.info groff-2 regex.info aalib.info dired-x flex.info-1 groff-3 remember ...

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  • IDC Analyst Mike Fauscette Writes About Oracle And The Cloud

    - by Roxana Babiciu
    "It's becoming clear that cloud is now a core part of Oracle's strategy," says analyst Michael Fauscette in his post-OpenWorld article in Seeking Alpha. He believes we have a well-rounded portfolio "with a cloud platform/infrastructure, a broad selection of apps, and a partner marketplace." From his numerous conversations with customers, he highlights their continual interest in hybrid deployments and also in shifting apps to the cloud. Read more.

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  • IDC Analyst Mike Fauscette Writes About Oracle and The Cloud

    - by Cinzia Mascanzoni
    "It's becoming clear that cloud is now a core part of Oracle's strategy," says analyst Michael Fauscette in his post-OpenWorld article in Seeking Alpha. He believes we have a well-rounded portfolio "with a cloud platform/infrastructure, a broad selection of apps, and a partner marketplace." From his numerous conversations with customers, he highlights their continual interest in hybrid deployments and also in shifting apps to the cloud. Read more.

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  • Urban Turtle is such an awesome product !

    - by Vincent Grondin
    Mario Cardinal, the host of the Visual Studio Talk Show, is quite happy these days. He works with the Urban Turtle team and they received significant support from Microsoft. Brian Harry, who is the Product Unit Manager for Team Foundation Server, has published an outstanding blog post about Urban Turtle that says: "...awesome Scrum experience for TFS.” You can read Brian Harry's blog post at the following URL: http://urbanturtle.com/awesome.

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