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Google AdSense Program Policies

2009-09-02T23:47:00.000-07:00

Google AdSense Program Policies

Publishers participating in the AdSense program are required to adhere to the following policies, so please read them carefully. If you fail to comply with these policies, we reserve the right to disable ad serving to your site and/or disable your AdSense account at any time. If your account is disabled, you will not be eligible for further participation in the AdSense program.

Because we may change our policies at any time, please check here often for updates. Pursuant to our Terms and Conditions, it's your responsibility to keep up to date with, and adhere to, the policies posted here.

Invalid Clicks and Impressions
Publishers may not click their own ads or use any means to inflate impressions and/or clicks artificially, including manual methods.
Learn more

Clicks on Google ads must result from genuine user interest. Any method that artificially generates clicks or impressions on your Google ads is strictly prohibited. These prohibited methods include, but are not limited to, repeated manual clicks or impressions, automated click and impression generating tools and the use of robots or deceptive software. Please note that clicking your own ads for any reason is prohibited.

Encouraging Clicks
Publishers may not ask others to click their ads or use deceptive implementation methods to obtain clicks. This includes, but is not limited to, offering compensation to users for viewing ads or performing searches, promising to raise money for third parties for such behavior or placing images next to individual ads.
Learn more

In order to ensure a good experience for users and advertisers, publishers participating in the AdSense program may not:

* Compensate users for viewing ads or performing searches, or promise compensation to a third party for such behavior.
* Encourage users to click the Google ads using phrases such as "click the ads", "support us", "visit these links" or other similar language.
* Direct user attention to the ads using arrows or other graphical gimmicks.
* Place misleading images alongside individual ads.
* Place ads in a floating box script.
* Format ads so that they become indistinguishable from other content on that page.
* Format site content so that it is difficult to distinguish it from ads.
* Place misleading labels above Google ad units. For instance, ads may be labelled "Sponsored Links" or "Advertisements", but not "Favourite Sites" or "Today's Top Offers".

Content Guidelines
Publishers may not place AdSense code on pages with content that violates any of our content guidelines. Some examples include content that is adult, violent or advocating racial intolerance.
View full content policies.

Sites with Google ads may not include or link to:

* Pornography, adult or mature content
* Violent content
* Content related to racial intolerance or advocacy against any individual, group or organisation
* Excessive profanity
* Hacking/cracking content
* Gambling or casino-related content
* Illicit drugs and drug paraphernalia content
* Sales of beer or hard alcohol
* Sales of tobacco or tobacco-related products
* Sales of prescription drugs
* Sales of weapons or ammunition (e.g. firearms, firearm components, fighting knives, stun guns)
* Sales of products that are replicas or imitations of designer goods
* Sales or distribution of coursework or student essays
* Content regarding programs which compensate users for clicking ads or offers, performing searches, surfing websites or reading emails
* Any other content that is illegal, promotes illegal activity or infringes on the legal rights of others

Publishers are also not permitted to place AdSense code on pages with content primarily in an unsupported language.

Copyrighted Material
AdSense publishers may not display Google ads on webpages with content protected by copyright law unless they have the necessary legal rights to display that content. Please see our DMCA policy for more information.

Webmaster Guidelines
AdSense publishers are required to adhere to the webmaster quality guidelines.
View excerpts

* Do not place excessive, repetitive or irrelevant keywords in the content or code of webpages.
* Avoid hidden text or hidden links.
* Avoid "doorway" pages created just for search engines or other "cookie cutter" approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content.
* Do not include deceptive or manipulative content or construction to improve your site's search engine ranking (e.g. your site's PageRank).
* Create a useful, information-rich site and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content.

Traffic Sources
Google ads may not be placed on pages receiving traffic from certain sources. For example, publishers may not participate in paid-to-click programs, send unwanted emails or display ads as the result of the action of any software application. Also, publishers using online advertising must ensure that their pages comply with Google's Landing Page Quality Guidelines.
Learn more

To ensure a positive experience for Internet users and Google advertisers, sites displaying Google ads may not:

* Use third-party services that generate clicks or impressions such as paid-to-click, paid-to-surf, autosurf and click-exchange programs.
* Be promoted through unsolicited mass emails or unwanted advertisements on third-party websites.
* Display Google ads, search boxes or search results as a result of the actions of software applications such as toolbars.
* Be loaded by any software that can trigger pop-ups, redirect users to unwanted websites, modify browser settings or otherwise interfere with site navigation. It is your responsibility to ensure that no ad network or affiliate uses such methods to direct traffic to pages that contain your AdSense code.
* Receive traffic from online advertising unless the site complies with the spirit of Google's Landing Page Quality Guidelines. For instance, users should easily be able to find what your ad promises.

Ad Behavior
AdSense code may not be altered, nor may the standard behavior, targeting or delivery of ads be manipulated in any way that is not explicitly permitted by Google. For instance, clicking Google ads may not result in a new browser window being launched.

Ad Placement
Publishers are encouraged to experiment with a variety of placements and ad formats. However, AdSense code may not be placed in inappropriate places such as pop-ups, emails or software. Publishers must also adhere to the policies for each product used.
View full ad placement policies.

Google ads, search boxes or search results may not be:

* Integrated into a software application of any kind, including toolbars.
* Displayed in pop-ups or pop-unders.
* Placed in emails or in email programs.
* Obscured by elements on a page.
* Placed on any non-content-based page.
* Placed on pages published specifically for the purpose of showing ads.
* Placed on pages whose content or URL could confuse users into thinking it is associated with Google due to the misuse of logos, trademarks or other brand features.
* Placed on, within or alongside other Google products or services in a manner that violates the policies of that product or service.

Site Behavior
Sites showing Google ads should be easy for users to navigate. Sites may not change user preferences, redirect users to unwanted websites, initiate downloads, include malware or contain pop-ups or pop-unders that interfere with site navigation.

Competitive Ads and Services
In order to prevent user confusion, publishers may not display Google ads or search boxes on websites that also contain other ads or services formatted to use the same layout and colours as the Google ads or search boxes on that site. Although you may sell ads directly on your site, it is your responsibility to ensure that these ads cannot be confused with Google ads.

Google Advertising Cookies
AdSense publishers must have and abide by a privacy policy that discloses that third parties may be placing and reading cookies on your users' browsers, or using web beacons to collect information as a result of ad serving on your website.
Learn more

Google uses the DoubleClick DART cookie on publisher websites displaying AdSense for content ads. Subject to any applicable laws, rules and regulations, you will have the sole and exclusive right to use all data derived from your use of the DoubleClick DART cookie for any purpose related to your business, provided that Google may use and disclose this data subject to the terms of Google's advertising privacy policies and any applicable laws, rules and regulations.

If your current advertising services contract with Google or DoubleClick already has a specific provision defining data ownership, that provision instead of this policy will govern with regard to the data collected under that contract.

Learn more about preparing your privacy policy.

Product-Specific Policies
AdSense for content: Up to three ad units and three link units may be placed on each page.

AdSense for search: A maximum of two Google AdSense for search boxes may be placed per page. Also, a single link unit or a search box, but no other Google ads, may be placed on pages with AdSense for search results. Queries must originate from users inputting data directly into the search box and cannot be modified. This includes pre-populating the search box with terms or hard-coding direct links to search results pages. AdSense for search code may not be integrated into any software application such as a toolbar.

SEO Tutorial 4: Promoting your site

2009-09-02T20:31:00.000-07:00

SEO Tutorial 4: Promoting your site

Promoting your site has a lot to do with off page search engine optimization strategies.

These strategies will develop backlinks to your website as well as increase traffic and your

authority in your topic area.

1. Submit your website to the three major search engines

Submitting your site to a search engine does not mean you will be automatically included in

the search engine's index. By doing this you alert the search engine to your website's

presence and are added to a list of sites to be crawled.

Here are links to submit your site to Google, Yahoo and MSN:

* Submit your site to Google
http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl
* Submit your site to Yahoo
http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit
* Submit your site to MSN
http://www.bing.com/docs/submit.aspx

2. Verify your site with Google Webmaster Tools and submit a sitemap

We have an excellent tutorial that will step you through this process. Please see Google

Webmaster Tutorial for instructions on verifying your site and submitting a sitemap.

3. Submit your site to Google Local Business Center

If you have a business you can submit your site to Google's Local Business Center Submitting

your site to Google's Local Business Center is FREE! When potential customers search Maps

for local information, they'll find your business. Here is a link to learn more about Google

Local Business Center.

4. Do link exchanges

Link building is an extremely important part of SEO. The search engines will look at the

amount of links that come into your site as well as the status of the sites that link to you

(the amount of traffic those sites get). Although the search engines look more favorably on

links that are not reciprocal, exchanging links is a great place to start!

* Find other websites that have the same topic as your site and send an email to the

webmaster asking if he or she would like to do a link exchange.
* Ask local organizations such as your Chamber of Commerce or Visitor's Bureau if a link

exchange could be done.
* Ask your friends and family members with a website if they would like to exchange

links.

5. Submit your site to website directories

There are numerous directories on the Internet that accept paid and un-paid website

submissions. You’ll be able to give your listing a title, short description and link to your

website. Don’t ever pay someone to “submit your website to 200 directories,” this is not

looked highly upon by search engines.

A few web directories to get you started:

* Dmoz.com
* Jayde.com
* Exactseek.com

6. Get involved in social networking

A great way to develop a following for your website is to get involved in the social

networking arena. Becoming active on social networking sites will bring traffic to your site

as well as develop back links. The goal of this is to get social with others on the web

while promoting your site at the same time.

A few hot social networking sites right now:

* Twitter.com
* Facebook.com
* Myspace.com

There are many more options including niche focuses social networking sites to get involved

in.

7. Submit articles to article directories

There are many article directories on the Internet that accept un-paid submissions of

articles for inclusion in their article database. When you submit articles you have written

to an article directory you give other people permission to reprint your article in their

Internet publications as long as the Author Bio is included with the links back to your

website.

In your Author bio use descriptive text links and also make sure to include the full url.

Here is an example of an Author Bio.

Jane Smith is an accomplished and loved children's book author with numerous credits to her

name. She specializes in books for developmentally challenged children which provide not

only entertainment but activity as well. You can find her on the web as

http://janesgreatbooks.com.

A few article directories to get you started:

* Ideamarketers.com
* Ezinearticles.com
* Articlealley.com

8. Consistently add more content

Building up more content on your site is an extremely important part of search engine

optimization. When you add more content to your site you are:

* Providing visitors to your site a great reason to come back.
* Giving search engines a reason to visit your site often. Search engines want to keep

the most updated version of sites in their index and they also want to consistently add new

and improved information to it as well.
* Adding to the searchablility of your site. The more pages your site has in the search

engine's index, the more possibilities your site has of being found for keywords searches.

9. Write a blog

Blogging is an exceptional way to consistently add new content to your site! We have a great

tutorial that will step you through the process of creating a blog: Blogging With Yola.

There you have it... the basics of search engine optimization; it’s a bit of science, art

and marketing mingled together. Nothing is a "given" in the world of search engine

optimization; it's not a short process, it is ever-evolving, and it is something that we can

help with by providing information and ideas, but do not have control over. We have created

these tutorials because we want to see you succeed. Good luck and please share your

thoughts, successes and questions with us.

How To Generate Traffic Using Only Free Methods

2009-08-27T23:05:00.000-07:00

Setting up a company would naturally require numerous things, to get directly to the point, you require a capital. To make money commands money also. But naturally, with the versatility the internet offers, there are many ways you are able to find that
Another great idea is swapping links with other sites. You don’t have to spend a penny. All you have to do is reach an arrangement with another webmaster. With exchanging links, the endeavors both sites do will benefit both sites. Every traffic that goes to the site could possibly click on the link of your site and visit the other site as well. This works well especially when both sites feature the same niche.

Write articles that could pique the attention of people that have interest in your product. Try writing articles that will provide tips and guides to other aficionados. Writing articles that provide good service and knowledge to other people would provide the essential mileage your traffic flow demands.

A lot of sites offer free submission and posting of your articles. Once people find interest in your articles they have a good chance of following the track by finding out where the article originated. Include a link or a brief description of your company with the article and there’s a great chance that they'll go to your site.

Occupation: Internet Marketer
I am a Internet Marketer and I been doing this for 2 years now.
I try to help people with online marketing and affiliate marketing.

Software Development: Choose An Effective Technique

2009-08-27T22:59:00.000-07:00

Software Development: Choose An Effective Technique

Author: kmanish

If your company has been incurring unswerving losses due to non-synchronization of processes, as outdated software is involved in the execution process, then it’s the right time to go for Software product development – in order to consolidate your position by streamlining your processes and work. It might appear as a sort of taxing task, but if you back yourself up with a qualified and trained team, favorable results would certainly come. Before going for a full-fledged software development procedure, you need to do a critical examination of all the present practices and technologies – revolving in and around the overall development of software industry. In fact, you need a qualified and experienced project manager, who can examine every important aspect involved in software development.

Your project manager should chalk out a feasible plan to keep an eye on the step-by-step advancement of online software development. At the same time, you should be aware about the potential risks and threats involved in the project. You can formulate a few solutions in the very beginning to ensure that your project will not suffer in a longer run. Besides, you need to make sure that every team member has been contributing as per the assigned tasks to develop the whole application in predefined time limits. At the same time, related guidelines and specifications should be followed to avoid any sort of confusion at any stage of the development.

An experienced team supported by a qualified team manager can easily sort out some of the most complex problems by distributing the individual tasks – as per the capabilities of each team member. Sometimes, things really take an ugly shape, when we move on without conducting the feasibility test. Prior to go for the development process, you have to do a feasibility analysis of prospective tools and functionalities. The way things have been shaping up in the world of software development, you need to keep yourself updated to avoid any sort of confusion – at any stage. You can get the best software development service in India. Just surf the Internet and know more about the leading software development companies of India.

Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_1052679_11.html

Blogging Made Easy

2009-08-27T22:49:00.000-07:00

Blogging Made Easy

Author: BWyse

So what is blogging? In its simplest terms, the act of blogging is the setting up of a type of website where you and your visitors continually post (add) information in the form of textual content, videos and graphics. Most blogs also allow visitors to post their comments on what you or others have previously added to the website. Entries are displayed from most recent to oldest. Most blogs tend to be focused around one theme or area of interest determined by the person who created this type of website. The owner of the blog is able to control what is acceptable on their blogging site and can delete what they decide is inappropriate content submitted by other visitors.

Blogging is something that numerous people hope to begin doing, but do not recognize what to do, where to begin, or how to keep their blog going. With the numerous free blogging tools, both hosted and self-hosted, there's very minimal expense involved with beginning a blog. The monumental array of topics, plugins and optimization instruments make the amount of vigour needed in starting a new blog unbelievably low, bringing down the barrier for entry for any fledgling blogger. All the same, a lot of folks are unacquainted with the fundamentals of blogging, and just require a minor guide to assist them on their path to becoming a successful blogger, which also helps them to start to make money blogging if they so desire.

The accompanying strategies are rudimentary for bloggers, both veteran and beginners, and review the most basic components of a successful blog.

First of all, you will need to determine how you'd like to host your blog. With numerous free independently hosted alternatives available, including Wordpress.com, hosting your blog on someone else's server is simple and prompt, necessitating minimal upkeep on the part of the blogger. Utilizing these services has additional major rewards as well -- your blog is automatically submitted to search engines, and introductory analytics tools are supplied without involving a difficult installation.

On the other hand, self-hosting your blog permits you a very much increased level of control, permitting you to tailor-make your design, alter your blog's structure, and bring in cash making measures such as associate links and promoting. If it's control you are after, such as a professional blog or commercial enterprise based blog, be sure to self-host your blog on your own server. Moreover, if you're planning on monetizing your blog at some stage through page advertisements, it's best to go on your own server, as a lot of hosted blogging services don't permit advertising.

Deciding on which blogging system to use can be a confusing and complex experience for novices. The crucial thing to entertain is whether you require a free service or not. Numerous hosted blogging systems call for a monthly payment, which may dishearten freshman bloggers. If you are after a low-priced personal blog, be sure to select a free blogging service such as Wordpress. Likewise, it is significant to think about what level of customization you demand in your blogging software package. If you are expecting to make extra pages, be sure that your blogging platform lets you to create them, along with the power to apply whatever plugins you require.

One significant consideration when you're considering using a free blogging service such as Wordpress is that you don't have ultimate mastery over your blog. Consequently if an individual should file a charge concerning your blog subject matter or if it is viewed "spam" by the webmaster, your full blog might be erased. Most professional bloggers commonly want to get their own personal blog made as part of their paid internet site URL hosting service, thereby getting rid of the risk of their blog being canceled by a distressed webmaster.

There's a monumental range of complimentary and paid themes useable for all various types of blogging software. Be sure to choose a theme that spotlights your subject matter, in whatever format it may be. Whenever you are producing a video blog, do not select a theme that's configured to contain huge volumes of textual content. Exceptional video blog topics are available, and would probably accommodate your requirements more accurately than a non-specific blog would. As well, make certain to choose a blog that boasts well-defined, easy to scan textual matter if your focal point is on textual content.

Whatever you are blogging on, there is a variety of software, addons, and hosting providers accessible to make your blogging venture the most enjoyable that it possibly can be. Make sure to look into this free guidebook on blogging hints and tricks, in order to maximize your blogging adventures as well as learning how to make money blogging.

To learn more about blogging, check out the free Atomic Blogging report. Feel free to distribute this article in any form as long as you include this resource box.

Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_1041254_13.html

Get MIT aStore

2009-08-25T20:10:00.000-07:00

frameborder="0" scrolling="no">

How to upload large file in php ?

2009-08-17T23:51:00.000-07:00

I have one form my aim was to upload big files from local disk to server.

but when i click on upload button it does not upload the file without showing
any error. then Ii searched for a solution from web site and for this solution

then i found solution by changing environment variable of php.ini

To find ound where php.ini file, is located run this small code

phpinfo();

?>

and search "Configuration File (php.ini) Path " row , there will
be an in output window and this which will contain path of php.ini file
in your PC

and in this php.ini file, change the variable size as per requirement

upload_max_filesize = (size)M

post_max_size = (size)M

new in php 5

max_input_time = (value) //in second

max_input_time variable which sets a time limit in seconds
for receiving input data through POST, GET, and PUT. If your application is
running over a slow link,

it is sometimes worthwhile to explore increasing this value to allow the
script more time to receive input data. or you can change this variable at
run time through programme

example

ini_set('post_max_size','9M')

now post_max_size variable is 9 MB set.

using

string ini_set ( string varname, string newvalue )

now i added client side validation for restricting user to upload more than
particular file size.

value="30000" />

use this hidden variable and its value contain how many bytes allow to be
upload.

if you want store file in mysql Long blog data type.

set the variable

max_allowed_packet = (byte)

The above steps solved my problem and i can upload big file without any hurdle..

Author:

By Jayesh Sorathia

Jayesh Sorathia is working as a Jr. Programmer at Semaphore Infotech Pvt. Ltd, India. He has 8 months Experience. You can contact on email: jayesh@semaphore-software.com.

This article is copyright
Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_129604_11.html

Digital Line Detect

2009-08-17T23:34:00.000-07:00

Digital Line Detect (DLG.exe) – Malicious program or not?

Author: qwertystudios

Dlg.exe is included into BVRP Phone Tools software suite which provides fax, phone book, e-mail and other sevices. It runs itself at Windows startup, resides in system memory and detects when you plug or unplug digital telephone line. Digital Line Detect is usually pre-installed by Dell and other computer vendors. It is also known to be included into Connexant V.92 and Broadcom modem drivers.

Some time ago Dlg.exe publisher produced spyware and that is why Digital Line Detect is sometimes treated as spyware. You should definitely delete it if you have some old version of Dlg.exe on your PC. However, now it is not spyware anymore. But note that even newer versions of Dlg.exe process can cause problems, system instability, memory and performance loss. Digital Line Detect is often classified as Non-Malicious Problemware.

If you’re an advanced user you can solve problems related to Digital Line Detect software manually. To completely solve "Digital Line Detect Dlg.exe" problem you should:

1) Turn off Dlg.exe autostart option in all related programs (modem drivers or BVRP Phone Tools software suite)

2) Kill Dlg.exe process

3) Use Msconfig.exe utility to permanently remove Dgl.exe from startup list.

4) (Optional) Locate and delete Dlg.exe file

However, there is also a quick solution to remove dlg.exe by using True Sword which finds and eliminates this problem and more than 180 000 other dangerous threats including trojans, spyware, adware, riskware, problemware, keyloggers, dialers and other kinds of malicious programs in several seconds. True Sword protects your computer against malicious programs that do harm to a computer and break information privacy.

Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_154684_11.html

Realizing Benefits of Integrated Solutions

2009-07-16T01:01:00.000-07:00

Business Value of Virtualization : Realizing Benefits of Integrated Solutions
Sponsored : HP

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The use of x86 server configurations is quickly becoming an outdated concept
with the introduction of modern solutions based on blade architectures, which can
offer both intelligent configuration and management and the ability to perform
physical-to-virtual migration to promote uptime and efficient resource usage.
When combined with the quickly maturing x86 hypervisor technologies available from
a variety of solution providers, the synergy of blade architectures and virtualization
offers customers the ability to dramatically increase utilization of their server
investments, boost uptime, provide a more resilient and available infrastructure, and
roll out new infrastructure and services more quickly.

But equally important, these same technologies can also lower costs both directly,
through an immediate reduction in power and cooling costs, and indirectly (but not
with a lesser impact), through a reduction in IT administrative costs associated with
server hardware and the layers of infrastructure software management.
IDC analysis of the potential to lower IT costs by moving to a virtualized infrastructure
finds that the savings can be significant:
Adopting a simple virtualized infrastructure can result in a reduction of up to 35%
of total annual server costs per user compared with an unvirtualized x86
server configuration (see the Appendix for included cost items). Described in this
IDC White Paper as "basic virtualization," this starting point of virtualization refers
to basic x86 server consolidation using virtualization software. It is commonly
applied to test and development environments, along with at least some
production use.
Our research finds that the use of more advanced virtualization technology, along
with increasingly sophisticated systems management tools that manage both the
guest environments and the virtualization engines themselves, can further extend
the benefits of virtualization significantly.
An optimally managed or "advanced virtualization" infrastructure, described as an
infrastructure that includes penetration of virtualized servers of more than 25%,
storage virtualization, and the use of systems management tools, can deliver a total reduction of up to 52% per user per year.

[ Poliwall ] How to Filter an Entire Country

2009-07-16T00:15:00.000-07:00

North Korea, RRC and Russia are making themselves nuisances on the Internet. They create the majority or malware, exploit vulnerabilities, are major cyber-criminals, and are now trying to attack our infrastructure using cyber terrorism.

If we do our jobs, we can capture addresses and filter them out at the firewall. However, there might be thousands of entries and, needless to say, your firewall would grind to a crawl. Another option would be to put in a range of addresses. Again, there would be a huge amount of entries and performance would be an issue.

Fujitsu Store

Would it be great to be able to filter out an entire country? Techguard, a small security company that addresses National Cyber Defense initiatives, makes a device called PoliWall that can filter Internet Registries, network ranges, or an entire country with just a click of a button. You can click on a country from a map or select from a list a country to block.

The device uses a proprietary High-speed Internet Protocol Packet Inspection Engine (HIPPIE) for filtering capabilities. HIPPIE allows granular filtering control across the entire address space.

Let's look at a scenario where we could use the device. Your administration team notices a large amount of ICMP requests at your firewall. They are able to capture the IP addresses that are sending them. They do an IP to geographic location lookup and see that the requests are coming from North Korea. Since the device is installed between the firewall and the external network, you are able to filter out the requests by clicking on North Korea and blocking them before they get to your firewall.

In my opinion, this device could save a company money by reducing firewall maintenance while maintaining network performance. How are you filtering out the bad guys at your firewall?

[ Six Sigma ] Business Intelligence: How To Define and Measuring Business Intelligence Quality

2009-07-15T23:54:00.000-07:00

Six Sigma Business Intelligence: Defining BI Quality

Perhaps the most difficult part of any Six Sigma program for business intelligence involves the initial definitions and metrics that provide the foundation. A Six Sigma BI initiative is focused on the customer and the customer requirements; a Six Sigma level of excellence in the product; and a rigorous, data-driven Six Sigma process to achieve quality and efficiency goals. There are three considerations:

What exactly is the business intelligence product?
How do we define and measure product quality?
Who are the customers?

Describing and defining the business intelligence product, and identifying the multiple customers for the business intelligence product, are the crucial bookends to determining the elusive business intelligence quality.

Defining the Business Intelligence Product

Identifying the business intelligence product, in all its myriad forms, can be a difficult process, especially with the growing number of stakeholders and uses. The term pervasive business intelligence has entered the industry terminology. There are myriad forms and varieties of business intelligence product. However, the core BI product is comprised of data, information and intelligence.

Data The raw material for the business intelligence product is data. Data are the facts and pieces of information collected by the organization from transactions with customers, other operations, research and knowledge arenas. This includes both structured and unstructured data.

Information The data is cleansed, integrated and translated into the intermediate product, which is business information.

Intelligence The intelligence end product is a result of the integration of the information and a person or system that has the expertise to use the information to make decisions related to management and/or operations of the business.

Defining and Measuring Business Intelligence Quality

Defining business intelligence product quality requires identifying the characteristics which the customer perceives as essential to product quality. In addition, we need to define the metrics that can be used to measure those critical to quality characteristics. (For example, query response time may be measured as seconds from key entry to reply.) BI quality means quality data, delivered in an easy-to-understand form to the right people and/or systems, at the right time. Effective management of business intelligence requires that we translate that general description for quality into specific characteristics and metrics that can be used to monitor and improve the product.

The customer most often considers quality of business intelligence to be linked to:

Functional requirements. How well does the BI product meet the defined (or not defined) functional requirements?

Quality of the information. Is it correct and to be trusted? (Note: the Master Data Management initiative, which is receiving extensive attention and resources across the industry, is focused on improving the quality of enterprise data. An MDM initiative can be an excellent first step in the creation of a lean Six Sigma BI program.)

Access and delivery of the information. Is it timely and in a format that is easy to understand and use?

In addition, the enterprise customer should be asking: Do the people (and, to a more limited extent, the systems) who are a critical component of the final business intelligence product have the attitude, the expertise and knowledge, as well as the freedom and empowerment to use the information well?

Who Are the Customers: Hearing the Voices

The success of Six Sigma in business has been based on efficiently producing a product that meets or exceeds the needs of the customer. Current best practices for business intelligence also focus on meeting customer requirements. For a Six Sigma BI program, however, we need to extend that customer focus to include defining and measuring the quality of the business intelligence product. The business intelligence customers, unlike those in the general business arena, are primarily internal to the organization. The first three groups of customers, the end user, the customer's customer, and the special needs group, are relatively easy to identify and to gather requirements from.

End users are the people and systems within the organization who create, use or in some way interface with business intelligence in doing their jobs. Gathering their requirements involves hearing them directly after identification. The customer's customers — or the customers of the organization — are the people external to the organization who use the systems and data that have been made available to them on a limited basis. Gathering requirements from these customers involves first gathering requirements from the internal customers who are making the data and/or systems available to the customer's customers, and then talking directly to them through focus groups and sampling. The special needs group are the end users who have important data and/or system needs, such as data mining or forecasting, which are not met in the course of satisfying the general needs of the remainder of the organization's users. Once they are identified, their requirements are gathered by hearing them directly.

The organization customer, in contrast to the first three, is a vague and rather hazy concept. The requirements of the organization refer most often to strategic and tactical plans and goals. For example, in gathering requirements for a support and maintenance engineering group for a utility, our development team quickly identified key members of the two groups of customers who would directly interface with the new business intelligence products. A third set of customers was revealed as we explored more functionality and expanded the vision for using the information. We found that a critical requirement was related to speedy access to extensive information on the correlation and communications of the maintenance activities with the supplies and inventory data. We had anticipated that having the specific timing data for the release and relief of inventory was essential. However, what we did not anticipate (and should have) was the critical nature and time restraints for geographic and hub-based information about the availability of inventories and resources.

Of course, that became painfully obvious after we had talked to several engineers and leads (who had lost valuable time) and some of the customer service reps (who had fielded the angry customer calls). This led us to a more detailed exploration of the needs of the organization as a whole. Finding and interviewing the right management and staff turned out to be a political nightmare. After several unproductive interviews and some brainstorming sessions with the rest of the team, including the project sponsor, we decided to attempt the creation of a virtual organization team to act as a voice for the organization.

It took some initial coercion and rather complicated political maneuvering. The team was created finally and included a senior analyst who worked in finance and budgets, an assistant to the enterprise architect, director-level reps from human resources and communications, and an IT manager who was responsible for some of the resource planning. That may not be the best make-up for most organizations, but it seemed to work in this case. It was rewarding to hear later that they turned that virtual organization team into a major contributor, with multiple roles, including strategic and tactical planning as well as management brainstorming. We had actually groped our way into a solution that was valuable to the requirements gathering for any BI project, and also proved to be successful for the organization in other ways.

How to Swing Golf

2009-07-15T21:36:00.000-07:00

How to Swing a Golf
A golf swing is a complex motion that must be smooth and seamless to produce
accuracy and power. To develop a good swing, you must master the grip, address,
backswing, and downswing.
The Golf Grip
Follow the guidelines below to grip a golf club correctly. (Left-handers should reverse
these instructions.)
1. Hold the club in your left hand so that the shaft meets the fingers (not the
palm) of your left hand. The back of the handle of the club should extend past
the end of your left hand just beneath your pinkie.

2. Bring the fingers of your left hand around the grip and your thumb against the
right center of the grip. The V-shaped crease between your thumb and
forefinger should point to your right shoulder.

How to golf

2009-07-14T01:12:00.000-07:00

technology is only as powerful as intelligence behind it

aligning strategy and technology has undeniable benefits. but how exactly does a business achieve it.

cmdb
qwgn

How to Set Your FB Privacy Settings

2009-07-14T00:33:00.000-07:00

When it comes to privacy, Facebook learned from its mistakes with the Beacon advertising incident, which alarmed privacy advocates who complained the move automatically broadcast users' activities outside the site to other users. Facebook has since rolled out one of the most robust security systems for any social network, which allows users to control who sees what information about them with great specificity. The stakes are high: Facebook's future growth will depend on people feeling safe to share lots of information (about their personal and professional interests) with others. Take a look at Facebook's privacy features and how to set yours.

Getting to the Privacy Settings
After you log into Facebook with your e-mail address and password, scroll your mouse over to the top right side of the page where it says "settings" and hold the mouse over the "settings" button. On the new Facebook design, two options will drop down, "account settings" and "privacy settings" (highlighted in blue). Click on the latter.
==
Privacy Main Menu
Now you're at the main privacy overview. It consists of four privacy controls: Profile, Search, News Feed and Wall, and Applications. Click on "Profile." It's a good place to start since it's your publicly facing site on Facebook. Start with the "Basic" tab.

[ News ] Cisco Networkers comes to Bahrain.

2009-07-13T23:29:00.000-07:00

Knowledge is Power * February 21-24 2010 * Bahrain
It is our pleasure to announce Cisco Networkers, the premier industry education event for IT, networking and communications professionals will be held for the first time in the Middle East from 21-24 February, 2010 at the Bahrain International Circuit (BIC).

Please mark your calendar now for this ‘must attend’ conference.

The theme for Cisco Networkers, 2010 is ‘Knowledge is Power’.

This conference provides a unique platform for attendees to build on their knowledge and skills, making this a great investment for any company or individual attending long after the conference ends.

For this first event, we are anticipating 2000 plus attendees coming from many different markets such as the Middle East, Africa, Russia and Asia regions.

If you are a technical or business stakeholder in your organisation, don’t miss this unique opportunity to meet with the companies that count in today’s fast changing world.

Why attend Cisco Networkers?

This leading conference will allow you as a company or individual to:

* Develop your strategic and technical expertise enabling creative solutions to economic, technology and business challenges
* Become a more valuable asset in the workplace
* Have an opportunity to participate in technical education
* Gain insight into the latest business and technology solutions, bringing enhanced value to your businesses
* Interact with skilled IT and Communication professionals to share ideas, discuss solutions and future needs
* Learn how innovations can be deployed within your organisation, now and in the future
* Understand the vision for current and future trends, essential to driving informed business decisions

The event offering includes:

* Visionary keynote presentations
* Extensive technical breakout sessions
* Case studies
* A vast exhibition and showcase area called: ‘World of Solutions’ – It is an interactive learning environment where Cisco and their partners can showcase the latest technology demonstrations

Forward this message to your wider community

Please feel free to forward this message to your colleagues and peers so they are fully aware of the conference dates and have an opportunity to opt-in for further Cisco Networkers communications via our web site. Delegate registration will open early October 2009 with special discounts for early bird registrations.

Visit the Cisco Networkers 2010, Bahrain web site to view more about Cisco’s flagship event for customer and partners in the emerging markets.

Kind Regards
The Cisco Networkers 2010, Bahrain Team

How to Use a Wireless Network

2009-07-10T02:40:00.000-07:00

Many computer users today have the ability to build a wireless network in their own home by purchasing a wireless router and installing wireless network cards in each computer. The wireless network can provide access to the Internet to each computer and can allow each computer to share files and printers on the network between the various computers.

Things You'll Need:
* Wireless network card
* Wireless network
* Wireless network login and password
1. Install a wireless network card in each computer. For tower or desktop units this will involve opening the computer and physically installing a new card into the computer where as on laptops it only requires plugging in a new PCMCIA card or installing a networking card by using a USB connection device.
2. Start your wireless network device and search for the wireless network in the area. Once you have found the network, you can join it by providing the login and password appropriate for that network.
3. Use the network to access the Internet, share files with other computers on the network or share a printer that is hooked to another computer that is part of the network.

How to Setup a Wireless Network in XP

2009-07-10T02:37:00.000-07:00

Wireless networks allow you to share data and Internet connections without the annoyance of cables. To setup a wireless network, you need at least two devices: a wireless signal broadcast device like a router, and a wireless signal receiver connected to your computer or other device. If you have Windows XP, follow the steps below to setup a wireless network in your home or business.

Instructions
Things You'll Need:
* Wireless network adapter (internal or external)

1. Connect your modem to the wireless router using a network cable. Many modern modems come with wireless broadcast capabilities. If this is the case, skip this Step.
2. Plug your USB flash drive into an open USB port on your computer.
3. Navigate to "Control Panel," "Network and Internet Connections" and "Wireless Network Setup Wizard."
4. Follow the onscreen instructions to name your wireless network and choose "use a USB flash drive" when prompted. Choose the drive letter and click "Next" to finish the Wizard.
5. Plug the USB flash drive into your router or router/modem. The router will flash a light three times when it has completed configuration. You can also just wait 30 seconds.
6. Remove the USB flash card and plug it into each device you want to setup for your wireless network. When plugging into other computers, select "Wireless Network Setup Wizard" when prompted by the computer. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the setup.

Tutorial 7 - Wireless Networking and Security

2009-07-10T02:27:00.003-07:00

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Tutorial 7 - Wireless Networking and Security

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Assembling a secure 802.11 wireless network

2009-07-10T02:27:00.001-07:00

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Assembling a secure 802.11 wireless network

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3rd Generation Wireless Networks

2009-07-10T02:26:00.001-07:00

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3rd Generation Wireless Networks

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How to Set up a Wireless Network

2009-07-10T02:04:00.000-07:00

A wireless network offers enhanced flexibility and mobility. Desktops, laptops and other devices connected to the wireless network can access the network anywhere in your home or office. Besides, you can share files, devices such as printers and an Internet connection through a wireless network. Wireless networks eliminate extensive cabling. Here’s how you can set up your own wireless network.

Setting Up the Wireless Network
1. Assess your requirements. Make a list of all devices required for creating the network. These include wireless routers, wireless network adapters and nodes, switches or hubs, cable modem, wireless LAN cards for desktops and laptops, antennas, amplifiers, firewalls, wireless bridges and cables. Three types of wireless network technologies widely used are 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g. All equipment you buy should support either of these technologies, preferably 802.11g — the best performing standard of the three. Some of the basic devices that you will require for setting up a wireless network and sharing Internet connection on all computers connected include a broadband modem (cable or DSL), a wireless router, wireless LAN cards for all desktops/laptops and/or wireless network adapter(s) (nodes).
2. Connect your broadband modem to the wireless router. You could connect the modem with the router using a cord (Ethernet or CAT5).
3. Connect the wireless router with the computers. If your computers have wireless LAN cards, you can set them up to communicate directly with the wireless router. If you do not have wireless LAN cards, you will require a wireless network adapter per computer. In such cases, the wireless router will communicate with the wireless network adapter(s), which in turn will be connected to each computer. USB network adapters are recommended. These can be connected to computers through the USB port. Other adapters require Ethernet cable.
4. Connect all computers in the network to each other. Again, if your computers have wireless LAN cards, you can set them up to communicate directly with each other. However, if they are not equipped with wireless LAN cards, you will need a wireless network adapter for each computer. In such cases, the network adapter (preferably one that has a USB interface) can be connected to each computer and its antenna can be used for transmitting wireless signals.
Configuring All Devices and Computers
5. Configure the wireless router. This can be done by connecting the wireless router to any computer. Usually, an Ethernet cable is provided with a wireless network. One end of the Ethernet cable should be connected to any of the ports of the wireless router (except for ports labeled Internet or WAN). The other end should be connected to the LAN port of the computer. Open your browser and type in the admin URL. This will be mentioned in the router’s user manual. It would also mention a login name and password required to access the router’s admin site. Once logged in, follow the instructions to configure your router and set up an SSID (a unique name for the wireless network).
6. Configure each wireless network adapter, if any. If you have Windows XP installed on your computers, the system will automatically detect the network adapter as soon as it is connected. In other cases, you may have to install specific drivers. Ensure that you get a drivers’ CD along with the network adapter. Next, you may have to insert the installation CD to configure the adapter. The CD will take you through the entire installation process.
7. Ensure that the broadband modem is configured for the Internet. It not, refer to the broadband modem’s user manual for the configuration process.
8. Once the network devices have been configured, your operating system should show a wireless network icon in the status bar (at the bottom of the screen). The process of connecting computers to a wireless network may differ depending on the operating system installed. Refer to your operating system’s help file for details. However, the connection process in Windows XP (and most other Windows operating systems) is explained below.
9. Click on the wireless network icon. A list of all wireless networks available should be displayed. This will include the wireless network you have set up. Look for the SSID entered while setting up the wireless router. If the network is not listed, refresh the screen or restart all devices.
10. Click "Connect" after selecting the wireless network. You may be prompted to set up a network key (a password) for accessing the wireless network. This key is required by all users to connect to the wireless network.

How does the Six Sigma methodology benefit IT?

2009-07-10T00:09:00.000-07:00

The Six Sigma methodology, while not new, is becoming more relevant to IT organizations as IT becomes more process and service driven.

Six Sigma is about people and processes. The Six Sigma methodology helps CIOs shift their focus from an internal view to an external view of how the IT architecture is affecting customers.

Within an organization, Six Sigma has the potential to improve the quality and reduce the costs of IT operations. In addition, Six Sigma can connect measurement systems to strategic objectives and help companies focus on the initiatives that will drive the most value for the customer.

Learn more below about the costs, certification options and customer-service benefits of using the Six Sigma methodology in the enterprise.

What is Six Sigma?

Six Sigma is a methodology used to focus an organization on reducing variations and errors in processes and driving quality improvement. Developed at Motorola Inc. in the early 1980s, it became well known in the '90s, when GE CEO Jack Welch evangelized it. The Six Sigma methodology works with any type of well-understood process with proven steps and metrics, such as the IT Infrastructure Library, COBIT and others.

Originally, most Six Sigma adherents were manufacturing companies, which were largely process driven. However, in recent years Six Sigma has taken off in more service-oriented industries like financial services, health care and insurance.

There are various Six Sigma levels. The standard metric for Six Sigma is 3.4 defects per million opportunities. So for instance, for every 1 million transactions that go through a system, you could have 3.4 errors and still achieve "six sigmas" -- a measurement that comes from a technical term used in statistics. However, not all companies need to achieve six sigmas. Four or five sigmas might be enough, and six can be something to strive for over time.

Learn more about the history and evolution of Six Sigma.

What are the costs and savings of using Six Sigma?

To justify the cost of using the Six Sigma methodology, "you must consider the cost of quality or the cost of doing something wrong," said Chris Lindstrom, managing partner at Ceptara Corp., a Mill Creek, Wash.-based management consulting and training firm that employs Lean and Six Sigma experts and project managers.

The costs of implementing a Six Sigma methodology are in tools and people. There are costs involved in training staff and providing them with Six Sigma certifications or otherwise hiring an outside consultant with expertise in the tools and processes. Six Sigma software and tools are also available to help implement the methodology.

Some companies have seen impressive cost savings from implementing the Six Sigma methodology. One example is Vytra Health Plans, a New York-based HMO. The company has used Six Sigma since 1997 and most recently reduced call center costs by more than $500,000 (16%).

Vytra wanted to improve customer service without increasing costs. However, the company couldn't accurately measure the real cost of each customer and call.

To remedy this problem, the Six Sigma team at Vytra -- led by the company's Black Belt chief technology officer -- implemented an Activity Information Modeling (AIM) tool. Using AIM with its Six Sigma methodology, Vytra was able to collect enough data points over a four-week period to determine actual costs of each call, by call type, product, line of business and customer type. These results helped the company identify which lines of business cost more than others and why and develop plans for new procedures and re-pricing strategies.

United Airlines is another company that has implemented Six Sigma and seen huge improvements in customer service satisfaction as a result.

Following a monthly customer survey in 2007, the company discovered customer satisfaction with United's customer relations process was below goal.

A team selected a Six Sigma problem-solving approach called DMAIC -- define, measure, analyze, improve and control -- to identify key metrics affecting customer satisfaction and understand the defects and root causes of the negative comments.

As a result of the project, negative comments were reduced by 71% and customer service satisfaction overall was improved significantly.

Read more about the winners of The Global Six Sigma & Business Improvement Awards.

What Six Sigma software and tools are available?

Six Sigma software is available for support with statistical and process analysis, program management and project collaboration. Some players and offerings in the market include Microsoft Visio, IBM WebSphere Business Modeler, SigmaXL, Statistica and JMP.

Pricing for Six Sigma software varies. For instance, statistical analysis software from SigmaXL starts at $199 per license. Business process modeling and analysis software like IBM's WebSphere Business Modeler costs $10,700 for a license.

Check out a list of more Six Sigma software providers.

What is a Six Sigma black belt?

There are four levels of Six Sigma certification and training. The first and most basic is the Green Belt. This level provides an introduction to the tools of Six Sigma and is geared toward the business or IT professional who participates in or owns a small-scale project with a potential a few thousand dollars to $10,000 in savings.

The next level of Six Sigma certification is the Black Belt. A Black Belt receives additional training and can work in any situation that involves Six Sigma, including mentoring a Green Belt. Training for Black Belts goes into more depth on designing experiments and scientific methods.

The final two levels of certification are Master and Champion. People at these levels have completely mastered the art of Six Sigma and have the certification to not only practice the methodology, but also mentor and teach it.

Six Sigma certification and training costs $500 for an individual Green Belt and up to $10,000 for advanced Black Belt certification.

For more information on the Six Sigma training and certification, visit the American Society for Quality.

How does Six Sigma improve customer service?

Six Sigma is all about the customer. "The start and end point is always the voice of the customer," said Jack Probst, managing consultant at Pink Elephant. "It [Six Sigma] focuses on what the customer wants and needs."

Six Sigma can improve customer service by reducing variations in the customer's experience. "People don't like change. They like predictability," Lindstrom said. Customers who are satisfied will come back. A well-run process with few to no errors on the back end will ensure better customer service and satisfaction on the front end.

For example, if your goal is to close a deal on the first sales call, anything that doesn't close then is considered a defect. Six Sigma helps you define these types of defects, figure out how to improve them and put measurements in place to track and ensure the improvements are working.

Read how one industry is striving to improve customer service with Six Sigma.

What is the difference between Lean and Six Sigma?
Six Sigma is a very disciplined methodology that focuses on ensuring the needs of the customer are met consistently over time through quality and lack of errors.

Lean Sigma, on the other hand, focuses on eliminating waste in processes. Lean, as a strategy, relies on five principles: adding value to the customer; aligning capabilities to services; bringing processes into the flow, without interruptions; letting customers pull value from services; and pursuing perfection.

"Lean doesn't mean everything skinnier," clarified Alexander Peters, a principal analyst at Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Mass. "It's just about delivering exactly what you're supposed to, not more or less."

Lean, like Six Sigma, took off initially in the manufacturing industry. However, today both are being adopted more in service industries. And as IT becomes more of a service industry, IT organizations are starting to see the benefits of using Lean to add value to the business.

Agile Requirement Management - July 2007

2009-07-09T23:49:00.001-07:00

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Agile Requirement Management - July 2007

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How to Write the Methodology Chapter of a Dissertation or Thesis

2009-07-09T23:42:00.000-07:00

The methodology chapter of the dissertation or thesis is an important component that essentially maps out the methods that you will utilize when researching and writing this large piece of work.

When writing a methodology chapter, you will need to include four basic parts. The first part of the methodology chapter is a simple review of the problems that need to be considered when tackling the subject at hand. In other words, you need to determine the question(s) that you are attempting to answer and the problems that you might face in finding answers.

Your methodology chapter also needs to include a general definition or some type of overview of the approach you will use in conducting your research. Next, you will need to provide a thorough description of how you will go about collecting the necessary data as well as the analytical procedure you will use to draw conclusions based on this information.

The methodology chapter of your dissertation or thesis is not necessarily meant to provide so much detail that the reader can completely recreate the process that you used to conduct your research. At the same time, it should be thorough enough that the reader can plainly see that you were thorough in your methods and that the methodology you utilized was sound. In other words, it should demonstrate that you took various variables into account and that you can be reasonably assured that the results are accurate.

As with any type of writing, your methodology chapter should include an introductory paragraph that describes the problem that you will be addressing through your methodology. The subsequent paragraphs should not go on to further address the issue, however. Rather, the paragraphs that follow should provide an explanation of the methods you will utilize to gather the data necessary to address the problem. In addition to describing these methods, you might also provide justification for selecting this method of research.

When providing justification for the method of research you are using, you might also provide an explanation for deciding not to utilize certain commonly accepted research methods. Or, you might provide an explanation for purposely including or excluding certain groups from your research. If writing a dissertation about the effects of feminism on American society, for example, you might choose to exclude a certain ethnic group or you may choose to focus solely on one group. In either case, you should provide a brief explanation for this decision and the impact this decision is expected to have on the outcome of the research.

When discussing the methods you will utilize to conduct your research, you should also discuss certain variables that may have an impact on the outcome of your research. If conducting research on women with diabetes that are over the age of 50, for example, you might acknowledge that certain lifestyle choices may have an impact on your results. As such, you should develop a dissertation methodology or thesis methodology that will account for these variables in order to still conduct useful research that will have a true impact upon the field.

Grown Up Digital: The Net Generation and the Future of Innovation

2009-07-09T23:39:00.001-07:00

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Grown Up Digital: The Net Generation and the Future of Innovation

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Teaching with Clickers

2009-07-09T23:38:00.001-07:00

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Teaching with Clickers

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CSS How To...

2009-07-09T22:48:00.000-07:00

How to Insert a Style Sheet

When a browser reads a style sheet, it will format the document according to it. There are three ways of inserting a style sheet:
External Style Sheet

An external style sheet is ideal when the style is applied to many pages. With an external style sheet, you can change the look of an entire Web site by changing one file. Each page must link to the style sheet using the tag. The tag goes inside the head section:

The browser will read the style definitions from the file mystyle.css, and format the document according to it.

An external style sheet can be written in any text editor. The file should not contain any html tags. Your style sheet should be saved with a .css extension. An example of a style sheet file is shown below:
hr {color:sienna}
p {margin-left:20px}
body {background-image:url("images/back40.gif")}

Remark Do not leave spaces between the property value and the units! "margin-left:20 px" (instead of "margin-left:20px") will only work in IE6, but it will not work in Firefox or Opera.
Internal Style Sheet

An internal style sheet should be used when a single document has a unique style. You define internal styles in the head section by using the

The browser will now read the style definitions, and format the document according to it.

Note: A browser normally ignores unknown tags. This means that an old browser that does not support styles, will ignore the

Inline Styles

An inline style loses many of the advantages of style sheets by mixing content with presentation. Use this method sparingly, such as when a style is to be applied to a single occurrence of an element.

To use inline styles you use the style attribute in the relevant tag. The style attribute can contain any CSS property. The example shows how to change the color and the left margin of a paragraph:

This is a paragraph.

Multiple Style Sheets

If some properties have been set for the same selector in different style sheets, the values will be inherited from the more specific style sheet.

For example, an external style sheet has these properties for the h3 selector:
h3
{
color:red;
text-align:left;
font-size:8pt
}

And an internal style sheet has these properties for the h3 selector:
h3
{
text-align:right;
font-size:20pt
}

If the page with the internal style sheet also links to the external style sheet the properties for h3 will be:
color:red;
text-align:right;
font-size:20pt

The color is inherited from the external style sheet and the text-alignment and the font-size is replaced by the internal style sheet.

How to Organize Your Kitchen

2009-07-09T21:51:00.000-07:00

You've got three half-full bottles of vinegar in your cupboard and your utensil drawer is a minefield of knife tips and mangled wire whisks. Time to get organized!

Instructions
Things You'll Need:

* Appliance Barns
* Drawer Liners
* Drawer Organizers
* Airtight Containers
* Kitchen Organizers
* Knife Racks
* Plastic Storage Containers
* Silverware Holders
* Spice Racks

1. Go through your kitchen and discard anything you don't use, along with any food, spices or medicines that are beyond their expiration dates.
2. Take everything out of your cupboards and drawers, and wash the insides with warm soapy water. Rinse, let dry and replace cupboard and drawer liners.
3. Store pots, pans and cooking utensils near the stove, nesting the pots and pans together to conserve space.

4. Store dishes and silverware near your eating area and/or dishwasher. Use racks and silverware holders to maximize use of space.
5. Be sure that children are able to reach items they use. Put things they should not use - such as sharp tools, alcohol and cleaning chemicals - well out of reach.
6. Alphabetize your spices and keep them near the stove on a spice rack or in a nearby cupboard on a revolving rack.
7. Remove large and seldom-used items from countertops and store them in a cupboard. For appliances that you use often, consider adding an 'appliance barn,' which can store toasters, blenders, juicers and other appliances on the countertop without clutter.
8. Store food items that you use on a daily basis in accessible spots, and store all like food items together - for example, tea and sugar.
9. Put food that may become infested with insects into sturdy plastic containers and seal them.
10. Use drawer dividers to organize utensils.

How to Record a Sound on a Windows Computer

2009-07-09T21:31:00.000-07:00

You can use the Windows Sound Recorder to record your own warning beeps or other sounds. You'll need a sound card that supports sound input, a microphone and speakers.

Instructions
Things You'll Need:
* Computer Microphones
* Microsoft Windows

1. If your computer has a sound card and speakers, as most do, you will only need to acquire a microphone (fewer computers come with them). Microphones range in price greatly; if you're just recording simple sounds and effects, buy a cheaper microphone.
2. Attach your microphone to the Sound In port on the back of your computer. (It might have a picture of a microphone next to it.)
3. If your microphone has an On button, turn it on. Otherwise, refer to the instruction sheet that came with it.
4. Open the Sound Recorder. (Open the Start menu and choose Programs, then Accessories, Entertainment and, finally, Sound Recorder.)

5. From the Sound Recorder, click New.
6. To begin recording, click Record - the circle that appears at the right-hand side of the Sound Recorder.
7. When you are finished recording, click Stop - the square that appears directly to the left of the circle.
8. use the Play, Rewind and Seek to End buttons to test your recording.
9. When you are satisfied, save your sound file using the Save As command in the File menu.

How to Set Up the Fax Functions on Your Desktop PC

2009-07-09T21:19:00.000-07:00

Your desktop PC can be set up to work with an external fax machine or to function as a fax machine itself. Faxing capabilities have been a part of the Windows operating system since Windows 95. In Windows XP, setting up fax services for your desktop PC only takes a few minutes.
Instructions
Things You'll Need:
* Telephone cable with RJ45 connectors
* Desktop PC
* Windows XP or other Windows OS
1. Step 1
Plug a phone line into the Line In (RJ45) connector of your desktop computer's internal modem.
2. Step 2
Plug your fax machine into the modem’s Line Out connector, if you are connecting an external fax machine.
3. Step 3
Click on your computer's "Start" menu. Select "Printer" and then "Faxes" to open the Printer folder.
4. Step 4
Click on “Install a Fax Printer” to prompt Windows XP to install the fax-service software.

5. Step 5
Fill out the information requested in each screen that follows.
6. Step 6
Enter the phone number of the telephone line connected to the computer when prompted for a telephone number.
7. Step 7
Click “Next” to fill out the properties for your fax service.
8. Step 8
Choose the printer that you want your incoming faxes to print out on. The fax machine may be designated as the default fax printer.
9. Step 9
Choose the folder where you want incoming faxes saved.
10. Step 10
Type the telephone number and your business name in the TSID box.
11. Step 11
Type your telephone number and your business name in the CSID box.
12. Step 12
Click "Finish" to exit the wizard.

How to Network Your Computers

2009-07-09T21:13:00.000-07:00

1. Step 1
A router relays data between your broadband Internet connection and your individual computers.
2. Step 2
A network adapter connects to each computer. It sends data from the computer to the router.
3. Step 3
An Internet protocol (IP) address is your computer's unique identification on the Internet. When you have a home network, all your computers share one IP address.
4. Step 4
A print server is a special network adapter that's used to connect a printer to a network. With a print server, several computers can share one printer.

Choose a network type
5. Step 1
Network your computers wirelessly over radio waves using a special type of router called an access point. One access point can serve most average-sized homes. The trade name for this technology is Wi-Fi or 802.11b, or its faster cousin, 802.11g. Wi-Fi products should be compatible with each other regardless of brand. Wireless networks work for people who move from room to room with their laptops, or want to use them in cafe's, airports and other places with wireless service.
6. Step 2
Use your home's electrical wiring to connect the router to each computer with a powerline network. The trade name for this technology is HomePlug. HomePlug networks are more secure than Wi-Fi networks and don't require special wiring. However, it's the newest technology and tends to be the most expensive.
7. Step 3
Hook up with the most secure home network, a wired network, sometimes called Ethernet, 10-Base-T or 100-Base-T. If your broadband connection, router and all computers are in one room, it's the best choice. But because of its special wiring, it's also the least flexible if your needs change.
Buy the equipment
8. Step 1
Get one router. If you're going wireless, this router is called an access point or base station.
9. Step 2
Get a network adapter for each computer. The simplest ones plug into the computer's universal serial bus (USB) port. If you're using a wired network, your computer probably already has an Ethernet network interface card (NIC) in it.
10. Step 3
Purchase extra-long Ethernet cables (also called Category 5 or Cat5 cables) if you're using a wired network.
11. Step 4
Buy a print server if you want to put a printer on your network. Make sure the connectors on your print server and printer match.
Set it up
12. Step 1
Start reading and experimenting. Many products have surprisingly good manuals and online support, and many Web sites are packed with good advice, such as HomeNetHelp.com, PracticallyNetworked.com and compnetworking.about.com. Many manufacturers offer online advice. Good technical support can make a huge difference in your installation, especially if you're not particularly patient or computer savvy.
13. Step 2
If you're putting in a wired network, run cables to your stereo or home theater. Many new home entertainment components including digital video recorders and game systems are Internet-enabled.

How To organize-directories-computer & backup-your-Hard-Drive

2009-07-09T20:49:00.000-07:00

Instructions
Things You'll Need:
1. Step 1
Use the Windows-created My Documents folder as the "root," or base level, folder for your documents, or create a new folder with a different name for the root file folder. (You can't change the name of the My Documents folder.)
2. Step 2
Create folders within the My Documents folder for the various categories of documents you work on: for example, photographs, letters, databases, Web pages and so on.
3. Step 3
Create subfolders within the category folders, going as many levels deep as you need. For example, in the Photographs folder, you might have a folder for each of your children, with subfolders for each year.

4. Step 4
When you save documents, make sure to change the save location so they are filed in the appropriate folder.
5. Step 5
Change your backup program to back up the My Documents folder and all its subfolders, rather than tracking down personal files all over your hard disk.
6. Step 6
Make a directory on your root drive called Web Downloads for Internet downloading.
7. Step 7
Change the default save location on your Web browser to Web Downloads.
8. Step 8
Create subfolders under Web Downloads for the different files commonly downloaded, such as image files, shareware programs, sound files or upgrades.
9. Step 9
This allows you to do fast checks with your anti-virus software on just one directory and easily back up downloaded files that you don't have a physical installation disk for.
10.Step 10
Install new programs into the Program Files folder, automatically created by Windows when it's installed. (Windows will make that folder anyway, so you might as well use it.)

Instructions
Things You'll Need:
* CD-R Discs
* CD-RW Burners
* CD-RW Discs
* Blank DVD Discs
* Hard Disks
* Microsoft Windows XP
1. Step 1
Insert your Windows XP CD into the drive and double click it when it pops up on your desktop.
2. Step 2
In Windows Explorer, double-click the ValueAdd folder, then Msft, and then Ntbackup.
3. Step 3
Double-click Ntbackup.msi to install the Backup utility.
4. Step 4
Click Backup to run Microsoft's Backup program.
How to Run the Backup Utility
5. Step 1
Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Backup to start the wizard.
6. Step 2
Click “Next” to skip past the opening page, choose Back up files and settings from the second page, and then click Next.
7. Step 3
Decide whether you want to back up everything or just certain things.
8. Step 4
Decide where you want the backups saved to.
9. Step 5
Set a schedule for regular backups.

How to Clean Computer Monitor Keyboard & Mouse

2009-07-09T20:34:00.000-07:00

Instructions
1. Step 1
Gather supplies: an anti-static rag or other soft cloth (scraps of old cotton clothing are good for this purpose), as well as an electrical appliance cleaner (such as Endust for Electronics), eyeglass cleaner, or fluid specially made for cleaning monitors.
2. Step 2
Check your owner's manual for specific instructions.
3. Step 3
Turn off the monitor.
4. Step 4
If using an aerosol product, follow the instructions on the can. Otherwise, spray a small amount of fluid onto the rag. Don't spray fluids anywhere near the ventilation holes on the monitor.
5. Step 5
Wipe the entire screen.
6. Step 6
Wipe the screen dry immediately with a dry portion of the rag or with a second rag.
7. Step 7
Repeat if necessary.
8. Step 8
Clean the monitor frame with the same product or with another product suitable for cleaning plastic.

Instructions
1. Step 1
Purchase any supplies you need: compressed air (in an aerosol can); a soft rag; Endust for Electronics, or any nonabrasive household cleaning fluid suitable for cleaning plastic; and a dust mask if you're allergic to dust.
2. Step 2
Check your owner's manual. If the manufacturer has provided specific instructions, follow them.
3. Step 3
Shut down the computer.
4. Step 4
Disconnect the keyboard.
5. Step 5
Use compressed air to clean between the keys. Spray at an angle to dislodge dust and grime.
6. Step 6
Shake loose dust gently out of the keyboard.
7. Step 7
If using Endust for Electronics or another aerosol cleaning fluid, follow the manufacturer's instructions. Otherwise, spray a small amount of fluid onto a rag.
8. Step 8
Wipe the keys and chassis.
9. Step 9
Wait until the keyboard is dry before reconnecting it to the computer.
10.Step 10
Reconnect the keyboard and restart the computer.

Instructions
Things You'll Need:
* Computer Mice
* Cotton Swabs
* Rubbing Alcohol
* Cotton Swabs
* Rubbing Alcohol
* Paper And Binder Clips
1. Step 1
Check your owner's manual. If the manufacturer has provided specific instructions, follow them.
2. Step 2
Shut down your computer.
3. Step 3
Disconnect the mouse from the PS2 or serial port.
4. Step 4
Turn the mouse upside down.
5. Step 5
Unlock the ball-cover ring by turning it in the direction shown by arrow icons in the plastic. If the mouse has no arrows, push and turn counterclockwise.
6. Step 6
Remove the ring and ball.
7. Step 7
Rinse the ball with warm water.
8. Step 8
Use a cotton swab covered with isopropyl alcohol to remove all dust.
9. Step 9
Carefully scrape the three rollers with a paper clip to remove rubber.
10.Step 10
Clean rollers with a swab dipped in alcohol.
11.Step 11
Reassemble mouse when all the parts are dry.
12.Step 12
Reconnect the mouse to your computer.

[ Metode ] SixSigma

2009-07-08T23:58:00.000-07:00

Six Sigma adalah strategi bisnis manajemen, pada awalnya diterapkan oleh Motorola, yang hari ini menikmati aplikasi meluas di berbagai sektor industri.

Six Sigma bertujuan untuk meningkatkan kualitas proses output dengan mengidentifikasi dan menghapus penyebab kesalahan dalam manufaktur dan proses bisnis. menggunakan satu set metode manajemen mutu, termasuk metode statistik, dan menciptakan infrastruktur dari orang-orang yang ahli dalam organisasi. Setiap proyek Six Sigma dilakukan dalam suatu langkah langkah organisasi dan memiliki target keuangan (pengurangan biaya atau peningkatan laba).
selengkapnya mengenai SixSigma for IT Management dan SixSigma for Quality & Productivity

Methods

Six Sigma has two key methods: DMAIC and DMADV, both inspired by Deming's Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle.
DMAIC is used to improve an existing business process; DMADV is used to create new product or process designs.

DMAIC

The basic method consists of the following five steps:

* Define high-level project goals and the current process.
* Measure key aspects of the current process and collect relevant data.
* Analyze the data to verify cause-and-effect relationships. Determine what the relationships are, and attempt to ensure that all factors have been considered.
* Improve or optimize the process based upon data analysis using techniques like Design of experiments.
* Control to ensure that any deviations from target are corrected before they result in defects. Set up pilot runs to establish process capability, move on to production, set up control mechanisms and continuously monitor the process.

DMADV

The basic method consists of the following five steps:

* Define design goals that are consistent with customer demands and the enterprise strategy.
* Measure and identify CTQs (characteristics that are Critical To Quality), product capabilities, production process capability, and risks.
* Analyze to develop and design alternatives, create a high-level design and evaluate design capability to select the best design.
* Design details, optimize the design, and plan for design verification. This phase may require simulations.
* Verify the design, set up pilot runs, implement the production process and hand it over to the process owners.

DMADV is also known as DFSS, an abbreviation of "Design For Six Sigma".

Implementation roles

One of the key innovations of Six Sigma is the professionalizing of quality management functions. Prior to Six Sigma, quality management in practice was largely relegated to the production floor and to statisticians in a separate quality department. Six Sigma borrows martial arts ranking terminology to define a hierarchy (and career path) that cuts across all business functions and a promotion path straight into the executive suite.

Six Sigma identifies several key roles for its successful implementation.

* Executive Leadership includes the CEO and other members of top management. They are responsible for setting up a vision for Six Sigma implementation. They also empower the other role holders with the freedom and resources to explore new ideas for breakthrough improvements.
* Champions are responsible for Six Sigma implementation across the organization in an integrated manner. The Executive Leadership draws them from upper management. Champions also act as mentors to Black Belts.
* Master Black Belts, identified by champions, act as in-house coaches on Six Sigma. They devote 100% of their time to Six Sigma. They assist champions and guide Black Belts and Green Belts. Apart from statistical tasks, their time is spent on ensuring consistent application of Six Sigma across various functions and departments.
* Black Belts operate under Master Black Belts to apply Six Sigma methodology to specific projects. They devote 100% of their time to Six Sigma. They primarily focus on Six Sigma project execution, whereas Champions and Master Black Belts focus on identifying projects/functions for Six Sigma.
* Green Belts are the employees who take up Six Sigma implementation along with their other job responsibilities. They operate under the guidance of Black Belts.

Quality management tools and methodologies used in Six Sigma

Six Sigma makes use of a great number of established quality management methods that are also used outside of Six Sigma. The following table shows an overview of the main methods used.

* 5 Whys
* Analysis of variance
* ANOVA Gauge R&R
* Axiomatic design
* Business Process Mapping
* Catapult exercise on variability
* Cause & effects diagram (also known as fishbone or Ishikawa diagram)
* Chi-square test of independence and fits
* Control chart
* Correlation
* Cost-benefit analysis
* CTQ tree
* Quantitative marketing research through use of Enterprise Feedback Management (EFM)
systems
* Design of experiments
* Failure mode and effects analysis
* General linear model
* Histograms
* Homoscedasticity
* Quality Function Deployment (QFD)
* Pareto chart
* Pick chart
* Process capability
* Regression analysis
* Root cause analysis
* Run charts
* SIPOC analysis (Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs, Customers)
* Stratification
* Taguchi methods
* Taguchi Loss Function
* Thought process map
* TRIZ

Software used for Six Sigma
Main article: List of Six Sigma software packages

List of Six Sigma companies
Main article: List of Six Sigma companies

Reception

Six Sigma has made a huge impact on industry and is widely employed as a business strategy for achieving and sustaining operational and service excellence. However, there have also been various criticisms of Six Sigma.

Lack of originality

Noted quality expert Joseph M. Juran has described Six Sigma as "a basic version of quality improvement," stating that "[t]here is nothing new there. It includes what we used to call facilitators. They've adopted more flamboyant terms, like belts with different colors. I think that concept has merit to set apart, to create specialists who can be very helpful. Again, that's not a new idea. The American Society for Quality long ago established certificates, such as for reliability engineers."

Role of consultants

The use of "Black Belts" as itinerant change agents is controversial as it has created a cottage industry of training and certification. Critics argue there is overselling of Six Sigma by too great a number of consulting firms, many of which claim expertise in Six Sigma when they only have a rudimentary understanding of the tools and techniques involved.

The expansion of the various "Belts" to include "Green Belts," "Master Black Belts" and "Gold Belts" is commonly seen as a parallel to the various "belt factories" that exist in martial arts.

Potential negative effects

A Fortune article stated that "of 58 large companies that have announced Six Sigma programs, 91 percent have trailed the S&P 500 since." The statement is attributed to "an analysis by Charles Holland of consulting firm Qualpro (which espouses a competing quality-improvement process)."The gist of the article is that Six Sigma is effective at what it is intended to do, but that it is "narrowly designed to fix an existing process" and does not help in "coming up with new products or disruptive technologies." Many of these claims have been argued as being in error or ill-informed.

A Business Week article says that James McNerney's introduction of Six Sigma at 3M may have had the effect of stifling creativity. It cites two Wharton School professors who say that Six Sigma leads to incremental innovation at the expense of blue-sky work. This phenomenon is further explored in the book, Going Lean, which provides data to show that Ford's "6 Sigma" program did little to change its fortunes.

Based on arbitrary standards

While 3.4 defects per million opportunities might work well for certain products/processes, it might not be ideal or cost-effective for others. A pacemaker process might need higher standards, for example, whereas a direct mail advertising campaign might need lower ones. The basis and justification for choosing 6 as the number of standard deviations is not clearly explained. In addition, the Six Sigma model assumes that the process data always conform to the normal distribution. The calculation of defect rates for situations where the normal distribution model does not apply is not properly addressed in the current Six Sigma literature.[1]

Criticism of the 1.5 sigma shift

Because of its arbitrary nature, the 1.5 sigma shift has been dismissed as "goofy" by the statistician Donald J. Wheeler.[18] Its universal applicability is seen as doubtful.

The 1.5 sigma shift has also been contentious because it results in stated "sigma levels" that reflect short-term rather than long-term performance: a process that has long-term defect levels corresponding to 4.5 sigma performance is, by Six Sigma convention, described as a "6 sigma process." The accepted Six Sigma scoring system thus cannot be equated to actual normal distribution probabilities for the stated number of standard deviations, and this has been a key bone of contention about how Six Sigma measures are defined.The fact that it is rarely explained that a "6 sigma" process will have long-term defect rates corresponding to 4.5 sigma performance rather than actual 6 sigma performance has led several commentators to express the opinion that Six Sigma is a confidence trick.

[ DMAIC ] Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control

2009-07-08T22:06:00.000-07:00

is its quality improvement process, divided into phases. The DMAIC helps improve a process by focusing on the customer/end-user’s experience through Voice of the Customer (VOC) — e.g. surveys, interviews, etc. By doing so, VOC helps identify Critical to Quality (CTQ) requirements of the customers. Each of the DMAIC phases has clear objectives, tasks, and proven techniques (see Table 1).

Executive Summary ERP Strategies and Trends

2009-07-08T21:22:00.000-07:00

CONTENTS
Executive Summary. . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Enterprise Resource Planning: Strategies and Trends. . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
The Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Why Consolidation Is Difficult. . . ..... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Why Innovation Is Difficult. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Why Outsourcing Is Difficult . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
The Solution to Becoming an Adaptive Enterprise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Embracing Innovation and Achieving Operational Excellence . . . . . . . . . . 10
Business and IT Consolidation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
– Example: Consolidating HCM as Shared Services . ....... . . . . . . . . . . 10
Business-Process Innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
– Example: Extending the Quotation Process to More Suppliers. . ..... . . . . 11
– Example: Reengineering the Employee On-Boarding Process. . . . . .. . . . . 12
– Example: Reengineering the Procure-to-Pay Process . . . . . ... . . . . . . 12
– Example: Integrating Desktop Productivity Tools with ERP Applications . . . 13
Business-Process Outsourcing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
– Example: Outsourcing Logistics Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Unlocking the Potential of ESA. . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
mySAP ERP and ESA: Aligning IT and Business to Achieve Operational Excellence 17
What’s Next?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Today, islands of automation, growing IT complexity, governance pressures, and budget reductions are IT realities that hamper the ability of small and large organizations to embrace new business practices and technological innovation.
As organizations look for better ways to achieve competitive differentiation, market responsiveness, and operational excellence, they often find their existing IT landscapes too complex, inflexible, and costly to adapt to evolving business conditions. Even if organizations can afford the resources, time, and effort it takes to change and enable new practices, all those might prove too extensive to justify the value of the investment. IT – often regarded as a monolithic, rigid, slowmoving, or foreign entity by many businesspeople – must be aligned with business needs and evolve with changing market demands to enable future innovation, agility, and excellence.

SAP White Paper mySAP ERP
The growing importance of IT architectures has led many IT executives to rethink traditional approaches and seek better, smarter, and more efficient ways to serve their organization’s needs. The adoption of services-oriented architecture (SOA) is
central to becoming more responsive and agile. An SOA not only helps organizations address short-term needs – such as lowering IT costs, improving quality of service, and enhancing existing IT systems – but also, and more importantly, provides a flexible, adaptive, and open IT foundation that can accommodate changing business practices, market dynamics, and competitive challenges.

This white paper is intended for IT executives and line-ofbusiness management. It introduces business strategies, trends, and issues related to enterprise resource planning (ERP), financial management, operations management, and human
capital management (HCM) that drive the consideration of enterprise services architecture (ESA). It also examines the importance of such architecture and the role it plays in guiding organizations to create value, improve efficiency, and respond
to evolving business needs in ERP – on any scale and for any industry. The document then illustrates and compares a number of deployment examples with and without ESA and clarifies why businesses are adopting an enterprise services
approach to compete effectively in a dynamic marketplace.

ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING: STRATEGIES AND TRENDS

In the past, organizations deployed ERP software to gain internal efficiency in back-office operations, such as manufacturing, accounting, HCM, financial management, and purchasing. Such technological investments helped management reduce costs. But today’s businesses can no longer rely on automating back-office processes to achieve top-line growth and bottomline improvements.
This situation is well described in Living on the Fault Line by Geoffrey Moore. In the book, Moore frames the challenges of achieving continuous business innovation around an organization’s “core,” the business processes that differentiate
businesses in the eyes of their customers, and its “context,” which is everything else (see Figure 1). The purpose of an enterprise’s core is to drive business innovation and competitive differentiation to stimulate growth. The context’s primary
goal, according to Moore, is to operate as efficiently and productively as possible. The catch is that core remains core only as long as it differentiates the enterprise from the competition. Once it has been copied, it becomes context and
is no longer an innovation. At that point, the organization must refocus on improving the efficiency and productivity of the context.

Innovation
Invention
Standardization
Commoditization
Core
Focus on Differentiation
Courtesy of Geoffrey Moore’s Living on the Fault Line
Context Focus on Productivity
Mission - Critical
Activities
Enabling
Activities Invent
ScaleInsourceOut-Task
Retire
Consolidate
Compose
Figure 1: Business-Process Innovation – Core and Context
Common Experiences When Changing Business Practices
•Once the competition copies a differentiating activity from the core, efficiency and productivity become the primary purpose of the core.
•Consolidating common business and IT functions reduces costs and redundancy while it enforces global policies.
•Outsourcing nonstrategic processes enables an enter prise to focus on its strategic or core competency.
Businesses might want to leverage their ERP software for competitive differentiation by finding new ways to achieve greater efficiency in previously untried or unsuccessful areas.
They might also want to consider outsourcing standard processes to free up resources for strategic endeavors that lead to differentiation.

Examples of business practices that can enhance differentiation or improve productivity for an organization include the following:

• Implementing mass customization with geographically dispersed contract manufacturers and suppliers to reduce cycle times, rework, and inventory costs in the automotive or high-tech industry
• Extending an existing quotation management process to external suppliers to encourage more efficiency and responsiveness within the contract manufacturing process
• Improving new hire, employee transfer, termination, and other workforce management events to automate the exchange of information with third parties in accordance
with local and global policies
• Centralizing common operations as a shared service to enforce global policies and leverage economies of scale
• Outsourcing payroll and human capital management to third-party agencies

THE ISSUES

Given the complexity and nature of IT in many enterprises, these operational strategies are difficult to implement. Traditionally, organizations develop custom applications from scratch and use various platforms, but then find that they lack
the flexibility to accommodate change. Moving from core to context to consolidate common IT practices, for example, is difficult and expensive. To make the move, enterprises must analyze their IT landscape to determine which assets to replace,
upgrade, or make obsolete; acquire new skills; and support

Core Context

Custom Development Packaged Applications on a Tech Platform

Figure 2: Business-Process Innovation Hampered by IT

Why Consolidation Is Difficult

In many enterprises, consolidating common business and IT functions is difficult and costly for several reasons. For instance, applications are often implemented independently to address specific needs at a given time. This approach creates islands of automation that comprise different technologies and proprietary code that are too complex to integrate, that are too costly to adapt to changing business requirements, and that make it difficult to share critical business information. With evolving business conditions – such as mergers and acquisitions, company spin-offs, and reorganizations – fragmented information, inconsistent user interfaces, additional pockets of automation, and redundant systems not easily used by
other business units only complicate the IT landscape further.

Consider the example of an enterprise that has grown through acquisitions and now consists of a few independently operated HCM, financial, procurement, and IT groups, each with its own system to support local needs. Any policy changes required at
the global level – such as IT security policies, privacy laws, or contractual pricing – must be enforced separately at the local level.

The question? How can organizations in such a situation act effectively to comply with global and local regulations? The answer? Not easily. Many organizations look for better ways to centralize common functions as shared services, rid themselves
of redundancy, increase their operating efficiency, and enable reuse of their existing investments. Unfortunately, the growing complexity of the organization’s IT landscape often hampers these laudable goals.

Why Innovation Is Difficult

To achieve innovation, organizations often attempt to build upon existing IT investments. However, a number of issues impede their efforts. For instance, some organizations use enterprise application integration (EAI) tools to integrate
independent applications to support new or reengineered business processes. This approach relies upon proprietary interfaces to hardwire different applications. Although EAI tools have been used successfully for such linkage, they require
employees with specialized skills who understand the inner workings of the systems on both sides to create tightly coupled integration. In addition, skilled employees are also needed to maintain the integration over the useful life of the applications.
But the costs of up-front development and ongoing maintenance and efforts involved in integration can be avoided.

Consider a second example of the difficulty of process innovation. In many organizations, the need to reference structured (or online) data and unstructured (or offline) data is not only desirable to increase efficiency, but also mandatory
to satisfy regulatory requirements. This situation is especially true in the public sector, where agencies rely on traditional paper forms to conduct business with smaller companies that might not have online access. Because traditional systems do not
fully address the end-to-end process, the agencies create a wealth of offline data through administrative paperwork, e-mail, faxes, mail, and other methods of offline communication. The staff must then spend non-value-added time sorting the offline
information and tying it back to, or reentering the data into, appropriate systems for compliance purposes. To innovate this process and ensure compliance with federal regulations, agencies must invest in IT staff to develop the custom integration necessary for data exchange and in a team of contract administrators to govern the end-to-end process.

Why the Complexity of IT Systems Hinders
Excellence and Innovation

•Impedes the ability of organizations to respond to business change
•Requires additional investments to unite scattered or hidden information
•Increases the costs of building and maintaining integration
•Requires custom integration by personnel with scarce and expensive skills
•Forces employees to work with multiple systems to accomplish tasks

THE SOLUTION TO BECOMING AN ADAPTIVE ENTERPRISE

The need to respond rapidly to business demands, support new strategies, and improve the overall user experience is driving IT organizations to search for new ways to improve IT at a lower cost. IT organizations can overcome these challenges by adopting SOA. In general terms, SOA is a technical framework for building
software applications that use services available from a network like the Web. Applications in SOA are designed to use Web services as the standard means to communicate well-defined information with an array of other applications.

Enterprise services architecture, as defined by SAP, is a businessdriven approach to SOA that expands the concept of Web services into an architecture that supports enterprise-wide, service-enabled business architecture. However, SOA and ESA
are not one and the same. The difference between an SOA and an ESA comes from service enabling the most common business processes, such as procure to pay, order to cash, and hire to retire. Although SOA can be seen as a more technical concept, ESA can be thought of as the blueprint that enables flexibility, openness, and agility, which are critical elements for success in an adaptive enterprise. Simply put: ESA is a blueprint for a business-oriented approach to SOA.

Furthermore, although Web services are suitable for promoting syntax and protocol-level communications, they do not yet provide a way to ensure semantic interoperability. For example, the way a customer is defined in a product from Siebel Systems differs from the way it is defined in a solution from SAP.
Organizations need a way to resolve the data and process disparities between different Web services and to translate syntax and communications into business constructs that can be reused across different situations. The notion of enterprise
services does exactly that through the “semantic leveling” and “right sizing” of individual Web services. For example, an enterprise service can encapsulate incompatible and individual Web services that span the Siebel and SAP® systems into a
common business concept such as “retrieve customer information.” Various enterprise services can then be assembled to form a composite application.

Composite applications enable the orchestration of new business processes that leverage enterprise services from existing applications in ESA. Whether a composite application is designed for internal or partner use, it shows how any company can address new business needs and extend its existing processes by using
existing systems and applications based upon ESA.

EMBRACING INNOVATION AND ACHIEVING OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE

ERP solutions that adopt a services-oriented approach enable organizations to achieve competitive differentiation by allowing them to implement a variety of IT and business strategies, including business and IT consolidation, business-process
innovation, and business-process outsourcing. This section illustrates the value of an ERP system built upon ESA for helping organizations implement a number of processes under the following strategies:

Strategies Used to Achieve Competitive Differentiation
Strategy Examples
• Business and IT consolidation
•Consolidating HCM as shared services
• Business-process innovation or reengineering
•Extending the quotation process to more suppliers
•Reengineering the employee on-boarding process
•Reengineering the procure-to-pay process
•Integrating desktop productivity tools
• Business-process outsourcing
•Outsourcing logistics operations

Business and IT Consolidation

By consolidating business processes, organizations can reduce redundancy and increase cost savings. Organizations avoid the complexity and costs of a fragmented, heterogeneous environment by consolidating redundant applications and systems into
a single technology platform based upon ESA.
Example: Consolidating HCM as Shared Services
Consider the example of centralizing HCM functions for all employees. In a distributed scenario, local HCM teams are onsite to address specific issues and administrative tasks. The tasks might be as simple as executing an address change, enrolling in a 401(k) plan, or managing direct payroll deposits. But the
tasks might also be as complex as managing benefits planning through different providers using different systems on several continents.

In a centralized scenario, a self-service portal for employees is introduced globally to allow employees to perform simple HCM tasks or use an online employee handbook and other knowledge tools. The portal serves as an automated first line of support. The HCM department is readily accessible if the employee needs assistance with the task at hand or with using the portal. This new approach liberates the local HCM representative from a significant number of routine administrative tasks to focus on more strategic initiatives that can further improve employee satisfaction and reduce operating costs.

Existing Employee On-Boarding Process

Deployment of the employee self-service portal requires extensive proprietary integration with back-end systems. For example, to register an employee home address change, the update must need to be reflected across multiple systems, as
shown in the following table.

Information Used by Multiple Systems
Type of Information System Involved
Employee master information ERP system
Travel profile Third-party travel system
401(k) Third-party financial services system
Employee stock purchase plan Third-party investment system
American Express card Third-party credit and banking system
Payroll ERP system and third-party payroll
processing
Tax services Third-party tax services

Integration of an HCM solution without ESA requires the design, testing, deployment, and documentation of a multitude of custom proprietary interfaces. Changes to a given interface result in yet another wave of development, testing, and documentation. In time, this task becomes insupportable, because it is overly complex, cost prohibitive, and highly inefficient.

Enhanced Employee On-Boarding Process

An HCM solution built upon ESA can use enterprise services to exchange employee data securely and reliably with multiple systems. For example, when an employee submits a home address change through the self-service employee portal,
the appropriate change home address service is invoked to communicate real-time information to third-party systems.
Several systems can use the enterprise services developed upon open standards–based interfaces in the enterprise services repository. This flexibility reduces the time, effort, and cost required to build and maintain tightly coupled integration.

Business-Process Innovation

By reengineering existing processes and by composing and extending new applications, organizations can enable new business processes. Doing so is difficult without ESA, because innovation or changing existing business processes would require the IT organization to understand the inner workings of the underlying applications. With ESA, IT organizations can compose applications that leverage existing IT investments and accelerate the rate of change while eliminating the need for proprietary integration.

Example: Extending the Quotation Process to More Suppliers

Consider the example of a contract manufacturer that must extend the quotation management process to external suppliers to improve efficiency and responsiveness. Today, the process spans the line of organizational silos – the end customer, the
internal team, and the external suppliers. Numerous internal and external systems – including homegrown, third-party, and legacy systems – are in place to help address ERP, customer relationship management (CRM), supplier relationship management (SRM), HR, supply chain management (SCM), and financials.

The process starts with the receipt of a request for quotation (RFQ) from the end customer. The account manager enters the information into the CRM system and then assesses the opportunity. The internal team is notified of the opportunity and assembles pricing and material information from multiple internal and external sources. Depending upon the sourcing needs, the internal team might produce an RFQ to source more competitive quotations from suppliers. This situation can occur
when insufficient manufacturing capacity exists or when more competitive prices can be obtained.

Existing Quotation Management Process

The contract manufacturer relies upon its internal team as human integrators to bridge the flow of information manually between multiple systems and parties. The extended quotation management process requires extensive offline communication,
paperwork processing, data reentry, and other administrative tasks, all of which result in poor process governance and fragmented data. The process is clearly ineffective, reactive, unreliable, time-consuming, and difficult to manage for all
parties involved. Changes to the original RFQ require a wave of updates to the existing applications, which compromises responsiveness and data accuracy. The contract manufacturer can automate the process through hardwired integration
between its internal ERP systems and the supplier’s systems, but this approach is complex and difficult – especially considering the vast number of suppliers and proprietary systems with which the manufacturer might have to connect. And even worse, this type of integration increases the total cost of ownership by making the IT landscape more and more complex.

Enhanced Quotation Management Process

Using enterprise services, ERP systems can exchange businesscritical information between different systems, including SRM and third-party CRM systems, and even with other ERP systems. Examples of enterprise services include purchase order and contract status tracking, costing updates, sourcing, vendor quotes status tracking, and PO creation.

The new approach enables different systems to communicate using a common language and reduces the need for data reentry and offline communication. For example, the document controller receives supplier quotation information through vendor quotes developed specifically for a third-party CRM solution. Information is then automatically communicated to the manufacturer’s system with enterprise services.

Example: Reengineering the Employee On-Boarding Process

Consider the employee on-boarding process that affects personnel in a number of departments, including the hiring manager, human resources and facilities employees, IT administrators, and so on.

With ESA, organizations can compose new business processes by orchestrating and rearranging existing enterprise services into a composite application that automates the new-hire process as follows:

1. Initiate new-hire request (hiring manager)
2. Approve request (approver)
3. Generate offer letter and employee contract (automated)
4. Accept or reject offer (candidate)
5. Initiate service request to provision users on IT systems (automated)
6. Initiate purchase request to acquire new laptop and other supplies (automated)
7. Initiate facilities request for office, phone, furniture, and wiring to support TCP/IP (automated)
8. Provision services, including facilities, IT procurement, office space, and so on (automated)
9. Schedule new-hire orientation (hiring manager)
10. Enroll in benefits, submit W-4 forms, and so on (employee through third party)

With the composite application, activities can be automated and information can be exchanged in real time. Furthermore, the composite application provides a consistent look and feel that makes it simpler for employees to access the enterprise services
of the ERP system and other systems.

Example: Reengineering the Procure-to-Pay Process

Consider the example of a federal agency in the United States that acquires goods and services from suppliers. Today, federal agencies are mandated to use standard forms to conform to Federal Acquisitions Regulations (FAR). Depending upon certain
criteria, such as acquisition value and type, specific contractual and provisional clauses must be presented on any forms submitted to suppliers and contractors for bidding. (Agencies still rely upon standard forms to accommodate suppliers and
contractors who might not have online or Internet access.)

With ESA, agencies can submit standard forms as Adobe PDF files to suppliers and contractors (see Figure 3). Suppliers and contractors can print a form and fill it out offline, or enter the information directly into the PDF file and submit it.

Using enterprise services, the unstructured data in the PDF document is easily transported to ERP systems and stored as structured data. The benefit of this approach is that agencies can reuse existing online and offline forms to comply with
federal requirements. At the same time, the competitive bidding process is simplified for contractors and suppliers.

Figure 3: Sample RFQ in Adobe PDF Format
Example: Integrating Desktop Productivity Tools with ERP Applications

Time and attendance management offers a prime example of the need for a services-oriented approach. To manage time and attendance, employees must record their activities in HCM and financials systems and maintain the same information
using desktop tools such as Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Project. An abundance of information that, for compliance and control purposes, is scattered throughout the universe of available systems and is unnecessarily difficult to track further
complicates the process.

Using enterprise services, time and attendance information is automatically exchanged between third-party desktop tools, HCM systems, and financials systems, thus saving employees time and effort and greatly improving the accuracy of reporting.
Figure 4 illustrates how employees can improve productivity while meeting corporate compliance requirements by exchanging

real-time information between a desktop tool and a financials system in the context of managing appointments with Microsoft Outlook.

Schedule
Appointment
Assign
Project
ESA Integration
• Real-Time Access and Updates from Desktop Tools to ERP
• Data Integrity
• Corporate Governance
• Real-Time Insight
Submit and Charge Time
Time Recording Plan Execute Control
a new application that can span business and IT boundaries.

More >

Enterprise Services Architecture for Enterprise Resource Planning © Copyright 2006 SAP AG. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or for any purpose without the express permission of SAP AG. The information contained herein may be changed without prior notice.
Some software products marketed by SAP AG and its distributors contain proprietary software components of other software vendors.
Microsoft, Windows, Outlook, and PowerPoint are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
IBM, DB2, DB2 Universal Database, OS/2, Parallel Sysplex, MVS/ESA, AIX, S/390, AS/400, OS/390, OS/400, iSeries, pSeries, xSeries, zSeries, z/OS, AFP, Intelligent Miner, WebSphere, Netfinity, Tivoli, and Informix are trademarks or registered
trademarks of IBM Corporation.
Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation.
UNIX, X/Open, OSF/1, and Motif are registered trademarks of the Open Group.

Citrix, ICA, Program Neighborhood, MetaFrame, WinFrame, VideoFrame, and MultiWin are trademarks or registered trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc.

HTML, XML, XHTML and W3C are trademarks or registered trademarks of W3C®, World Wide Web Consortium, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Java is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.

JavaScript is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.,
used under license for technology invented and implemented by Netscape.

MaxDB is a trademark of MySQL AB, Sweden.

SAP, R/3, mySAP, mySAP.com, xApps, xApp, SAP NetWeaver, and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries all over
the world. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. Data contained in this document serves informational purposes only. National product specifications may vary.

These materials are subject to change without notice. These materials are provided by SAP AG and its affiliated companies (“SAP Group”) for informational purposes only, without representation or warranty of any kind, and SAP Group shall not be liable for errors or omissions with respect to the materials. The only warranties for SAP Group products and services are those that are set forth in the express warranty statements
accompanying such products and services, if any. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty.

How to Solution Againts DDOS Apache HTTP Server

2009-07-06T21:09:00.000-07:00

* The TimeOut directive should be lowered on sites that are subject to DoS attacks. Setting this to as low as a few seconds may be appropriate. As TimeOut is currently used for several different operations, setting it to a low value introduces problems with long running CGI scripts.
* The KeepAliveTimeout directive may be also lowered on sites that are subject to DoS attacks. Some sites even turn off the keepalives completely via KeepAlive, which has of course other drawbacks on performance.

* The values of various timeout-related directives provided by other modules should be checked.
* The directives LimitRequestBody, LimitRequestFields, LimitRequestFieldSize, LimitRequestLine, and LimitXMLRequestBody should be carefully configured to limit resource consumption triggered by client input.
* On operating systems that support it, make sure that you use the AcceptFilter directive to offload part of the request processing to the operating system. This is active by default in Apache httpd, but may require reconfiguration of your kernel.
* Tune the MaxClients directive to allow the server to handle the maximum number of simultaneous connections without running out of resources. See also the performance tuning documentation.
* The use of a threaded mpm may allow you to handle more simultaneous connections, thereby mitigating DoS attacks. Further, the experimental event mpm uses asynchronous processing to avoid devoting a thread to each connection. At the current point of time this is work in progress and not fully implemented. Especially the event mpm is currently incompatible with mod_ssl and other input filters.
* There are a number of third-party modules available through http://modules.apache.org/ that can restrict certain client behaviors and thereby mitigate DoS problems.

Here's an example which disables lookups except for .html and .cgi files:

HostnameLookups off

HostnameLookups on

But even still, if you just need DNS names in some CGIs you could consider doing the gethostbyname call in the specific CGIs that need it.

FollowSymLinks and SymLinksIfOwnerMatch

Wherever in your URL-space you do not have an Options FollowSymLinks, or you do have an Options SymLinksIfOwnerMatch Apache will have to issue extra system calls to check up on symlinks. One extra call per filename component. For example, if you had:

DocumentRoot /www/htdocs

Options SymLinksIfOwnerMatch

and a request is made for the URI /index.html. Then Apache will perform lstat(2) on /www, /www/htdocs, and /www/htdocs/index.html. The results of these lstats are never cached, so they will occur on every single request. If you really desire the symlinks security checking you can do something like this:

DocumentRoot /www/htdocs

Options FollowSymLinks

Options -FollowSymLinks +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch

This at least avoids the extra checks for the DocumentRoot path. Note that you'll need to add similar sections if you have any Alias or RewriteRule paths outside of your document root. For highest performance, and no symlink protection, set FollowSymLinks everywhere, and never set SymLinksIfOwnerMatch.
AllowOverride

Wherever in your URL-space you allow overrides (typically .htaccess files) Apache will attempt to open .htaccess for each filename component. For example,

DocumentRoot /www/htdocs

AllowOverride all

and a request is made for the URI /index.html. Then Apache will attempt to open /.htaccess, /www/.htaccess, and /www/htdocs/.htaccess. The solutions are similar to the previous case of Options FollowSymLinks. For highest performance use AllowOverride None everywhere in your filesystem.
Negotiation

If at all possible, avoid content-negotiation if you're really interested in every last ounce of performance. In practice the benefits of negotiation outweigh the performance penalties. There's one case where you can speed up the server. Instead of using a wildcard such as:

DirectoryIndex index

Use a complete list of options:

DirectoryIndex index.cgi index.pl index.shtml index.html

where you list the most common choice first.

Also note that explicitly creating a type-map file provides better performance than using MultiViews, as the necessary information can be determined by reading this single file, rather than having to scan the directory for files.

If your site needs content negotiation consider using type-map files, rather than the Options MultiViews directive to accomplish the negotiation. See the Content Negotiation documentation for a full discussion of the methods of negotiation, and instructions for creating type-map files.

For the most part, Apache implements this in a function called lingering_close (in http_main.c). The function looks roughly like this:

void lingering_close (int s)
{
char junk_buffer[2048];

/* shutdown the sending side */
shutdown (s, 1);

signal (SIGALRM, lingering_death);
alarm (30);

for (;;) {
select (s for reading, 2 second timeout);
if (error) break;
if (s is ready for reading) {
if (read (s, junk_buffer, sizeof (junk_buffer)) <= 0) {
break;
}
/* just toss away whatever is here */
}
}

close (s);
}

This naturally adds some expense at the end of a connection, but it is required for a reliable implementation. As HTTP/1.1 becomes more prevalent, and all connections are persistent, this expense will be amortized over more requests. If you want to play with fire and disable this feature you can define NO_LINGCLOSE, but this is not recommended at all. In particular, as HTTP/1.1 pipelined persistent connections come into use lingering_close is an absolute necessity (and pipelined connections are faster, so you want to support them).

[MySQL and PHP] How to make it work without killing your server

2009-07-06T21:01:00.000-07:00

Introduction
There are currently over 25 Million websites powered by PHP. If you had the time (and patience, nevermind the means) to check all of them, you would most certainly find that most use PHP in conjunction with a MySQL Database. The reasons for this is simple: they work extremely well together, they are relatively simple to integrate and they are flexible.
But in PHP's flexibility lies its greatest weakness. Just because it allows you to do almost anything you like in just about any way you like, does not mean that you are code is performing at it's best. If it has not happened to you already, the day will come that you start to ask yourself why your script is so slow, even on localhost!
Until you properly understand what happens in the background--on the server--while your code is being processed, you will not have the tools to eliminate slow server responses. I am not, however, talking about the actual machine process that happens on the server. I am simply talking about what happens when you type echo, or print, or foreach. What are you telling PHP to do?
Just before we actually get into it, a little note: This article assumes a basic level of understanding of PHP and MYSQL. We will not be rooting through the basics of coding before getting to our points. However, I will try to keep things as simple as possible as this topic is relative to developers of all levels.

PHP: Print, Echo, Strings, Variables and Loops
You will have undoubtably heard of the cardinal rule regarding echo vs. print. Certainly, I dont think any discussion on server resources would be complete without it. Its simple:

print $variable;
is slower than

echo $variable;
However, this difference is neglegible. My own script timer could not accurately time one faster than the other in a script that printed a simple string ten thousand times.
The crux of the matter lies in the fact that print always returns true, so that you can do things like:

$ret = print 'hello world';
and $ret will be 1. You can also do things like

$b ? print "true" : print "false";
According to the PHP Manual, print is also part of the precedence table which it needs to be if it is to be used within a complex expression. It is just about at the bottom of the precedence list though. Only "," AND, OR and XOR are lower. In my mind the much more important fact comes in use: print can only pass one paramater, where echo can pass multiple parameters. So, you could say:

echo $variable, $variable2, $variable3, $variable4;
but for the equivalent thing in print:

print "{$variable} {$variable2} {$variable3} {$variable4}";
Thus, it does not really matter which one you use, although the fact that print actually returns true, every time it is used, does seem like a waste of resources to me. If all you are trying to do is simply print some text to the screen, use echo.
On the topic of strings, it is a well known fact that the following examples are all valid:

echo "Hello World, this is my list: {$variable}, {$variable2}, {$variable3}, {$variable4}.";
echo "Hello World, this is my list: ".$variable.", ".$variable2.", ".$variable3.", ".$variable4.".";
echo 'Hello World, this is my list: '.$variable.', '.$variable2.', '.$variable3.', '.$variable4.'.';
but the fastest, lightest way of doing this is the third example. This is because PHP does not bother trying to parse anything inside single quotes, so it simply ignores the string part and just echoes the contents to the screen without really caring what they are. Then it parses the values outside of the single quotes normally. Again, these results are negligable should you be using a very small page, but on monolith frameworks that load something like 500 pages per individual pageload, these things certainly do add up.
Something to remember regarding for loops is that the maximum boundary should be calculated and stored inside a variable like this:

$max = count($var);

for($i=0; $i < $max; $i++)
{
// do something
}
rather than

for($i=0; $i < count($var); $i++)
{
// do something
}
Because in the second instance the maximum boundary is calculated through every iteration of the loop, severely wasting server resources.
Something else I would like to touch on lightly before moving on is that it is heavier on server resources to keep switching php on and off inside a script than to just print or echo the html. So, instead of this:

if(isset($var)){ ?>

hello world

}
?>
just do the following:

if(isset($var)){
echo '

hello world

';
}
?>
The idea is that opening and closing PHP twice uses more resources than just echoing a string once.
MySQL
MySQL queries probably slow down your pageloads more than anything else. A big server-killer comes from queries inside loops--sometimes unavoidable but in most cases there are things that could be done to lighten the server load.

A simple class
When you have built enough websites you will see that you use many things over and over again. At some point it just becomes simpler to chuck that into a class and store it in some sort of archive that way you can dip into whenever you lay out the structure of a new site. Being an OOP junkie, I have a simple class that first defines the array which creates my database connection.

File: dbConfig.php

Class dbConfig
{
public $config = array(
'db_server' => 'server_name',
'db_name' => 'database_name',
'db_username' => 'username',
'db_password' => 'password'
);
}
And then I keep a database class in my site library that references these configs and in turn supplies the site with a database connection as well as a few inbuilt functions that make sure my code is always perfect no matter what I do. The simplest version of my database class follows here:

File: db.php

Class db extends dbConfig
{
public $connection;

public function __construct()
{
$this->connect();
}

public function connect()
{
$this->connection=mysql_connect($this->config['db_server'],$this->config['db_username'],$this->config['db_password']);
if($this->connection):
@mysql_select_db($this->config['db_name'],$this->connection);
endif;
}

function updateTable($table, $field, $value, $id)
{
return mysql_query("update {$table} set {$field} = '{$value}' where id = {$id}", $this->connection);
}

function deleteFromTable($table, $id)
{
return mysql_query("delete from {$table} where id = {$id} limit 1", $this->connection);
}

function getArray($query)
{
if($result = @mysql_query($query, $this->connection))
{
while($tmp = @mysql_fetch_array($result))
$dbarray[]= $tmp;

if (isset($dbarray))
return $dbarray;
else return NULL;
}
return;
}

function query($query)
{
return mysql_query($query, $this->connection);
}
};

$db = new db;
In essence, this gives me a very simple database framework that allows me to manage the simple queries I need to do on the site. Since I have started working with MVC Frameworks, however, I have found that this way is not really workable. But for procedural coding it still works well. Simply include both the dbConfig.php and db.php files in your includes file or make sure your autoloader knows where to find them and you are set.

Data is data
When you get to the point that you are using the same data over and over on the same page, the time has come to save it into an array which can be referenced over repeatedly without having the resource of query after query wasted.
Begin by building the query from what you know you will need from the database. Let us assume we are going to print out user profile information for a specific user from the user table of our database.

$query = $db->getArray("select id, name, surname, age, email, country, city from user where id=6 limit 1");
You will have noticed the following from my code:

I did not use select *
This is important. If you dont need every single field from the database, dont waste server time by asking for it. Select only the fields you need.

I used limit 1
This speeds your query up nicely. If you are only looking for a single row as a result, using limit 1 simply tells mysql to stop looking once it has found a result. Not doing so means that MySQL will continue looping through the table anyway, wasting time and resources for no reason.
Now I have all the table data I will require safely stored in an array that I can reference any time I need it. The format of the array will look like this:

$id =$query[0]['id'];
$name =$query[0]['name'];
$surname =$query[0]['surname'];
$age =$query[0]['age'];
$email =$query[0]['email'];
$country =$query[0]['country'];
$city =$query[0]['city'];
In a similar vain, if we wanted to list all of the users in a list of lets say name, surname and age, we could do the following:

$query = $db->getArray("select name, surname, age from user order by name");
This query will return an array that can be manipulated as follows:

foreach($query as $user){
echo $user['name'].' '.$user['surname'].' '.('. $user['age'] .')';
echo '
';
}
The above will print a neat list like this:

John Arbuckle (32)
Kevin Smith (28)
Mike Carrigan (43)

And of course you could do tons more with that array, and you should not need much more than that in order to get the results you need.

In Conclusion
In this article we explored a few techniques that will not only improve our coding style, but help to make our scripts execute faster. We also had a short peak at a database management class that we will hopefully be able to have a closer look at in the near future. Part of our database optimization showed how to store database results in an array, thereby making scripts execute faster because there is no need for repeat queries. We also had a brief look at how to manipulate the resulting arrays.

Until next time, Good Luck!

http://www.phpbuilder.com/columns/

Marc Steven Plotz

[ CMMI ] Improving Software and Systems Development Processes Using Capability Maturity Model Integration

2009-07-05T19:44:00.000-07:00

Development of CMMI
2.1 History of CMMI
The CMMI was originally developed as a tool to assess software suppliers
for the American DoD. This work began in 1986 at the Software Engineer-
ing Institute (SEI) of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and in 1987
led to the Software Process Maturity Framework.
Its development was triggered by problems with the acquisition, or, to
be precise, the failure to deliver, the complex software systems, mainly in
connection with the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI).
Like the work on the ISO 9000 series that was performed at about the
same time, the SEI came to the conclusion that in order to reliably improve
the quality of work results, the quality of the processes used to create these
results must be improved. Under the direction of Watts Humphrey, a
working group at the SEI started to identify and collect those working
processes and procedures that distinguish successful projects from unsuc-
cessful ones. The best practices identified this way were then structured
using a framework based on the five (maturity) levels introduced by Phil
Crosby ([Cros80, chapter 3]).
During the following years, the model was developed further and was
published in 1991 as the Capability Maturity Model v.1.0. Based on experi-
ence with the use of this model, a new version 1.1 was published in 1993
and was in use for more than 10 years.
Although in 1997 there was a version 2.0 of CMMI, at the instigation
of the American DoD this version was withdrawn just weeks before the
planned release. The reason for the withdrawal was that as the approach of
CMMI had proved valuable, other CMMs had been developed in addition
to the CMMI for Software4
, e.g., for systems engineering. However, these
various Capability Maturity Models used different structures that were not

2.2 Development of CMMI
The objective of the CMMI project launched in 1997 was, first of all, to cre-
ate a common framework for a number of maturity models, and to inte-
grate these models in such a way as to allow them to be jointly applied. As
the first step, the following three models, all of which were in draft status
and never released individually, were to be integrated:
- CMM for Software (SW-CMM, version 2 – not the widespread version 1.1)
- Capability Model for Systems Engineering EIA/IS 731 developed by the
Electronics Industry Alliance
- CMM for Integrated Product Development (IPD-CMM)
Together, these three models formed the basis of the CMMI project.
Secondly, the new model was to incorporate the experience and ideas
for improvement accumulated in using the predecessor models in as far as
this had not already been done in the three draft models mentioned.
Further objectives in the development of CMMI were the following:
- Consistency and compatibility with ISO/IEC 15504 (SPICE)
- Easy extendibility to additional models and areas of applications
- Ease of migration from the predecessor models to CMMI
In autumn 2000, the pilot version 1.0 of this new CMMI was published
under the title Capability Maturity Model–Integrated, covering both soft-
ware engineering and systems engineering. Shortly thereafter, a new vari-
ant containing Integrated Product and Process Development (IPPD) in addi-
tion to software and systems engineering was released.
Capability Maturity Model
Integration v1.1
Feedback on this new model led to the revised version 1.1 of CMMI
(now under the same title Capability Maturity Model Integration as the
project for the creation of CMMI), covering software engineering and sys-
tems engineering as well as IPPD. This was published in January 2002
being intended for wider deployment and has been replaced by the three
predecessor models mentioned.
There was a transition period (“Sunset Period”) through the end of
2005, after which support by the SEI for the SW-CMM ended.
There was some resistance to this replacement of SW-CMM, and even
now a few companies still use SW-CMM. However, the large majority of
CMM users switched to CMMI at some time during the transition period.
One of the main reasons for resistance was the higher cost for assessments,
caused by the larger scope of the model as well as the enhanced require-
ments for checking data in assessments.
Acquisition In addition to the three models mentioned above, the Software Acqui-
sition CMM was integrated into CMMI, which described the acquisition
of software from the buyer’s point of view and had considerable overlap
with the CMM for Software. The outcome of this integration was CMMI-
SE/SW/IPPD/SS, where “SS” stands for Supplier Sourcing.
However, this variant of CMMI was too costly for implementation by
organizations that do not develop but only purchase software and systems.
Therefore, a heavily simplified version called Acquisition Module was cre-
ated, which is essentially is a reduced and abridged edition of CMMI.

The book “CMMI: Improving Software and Systems Development Processes Using Capability Maturity Model Integration” provides hands-on experience and will help readers gain an understanding of CMMI. Through numerous examples, it helps the reader to get started with CMMI and to understand the interrelationship among model components (practices, goals, and process areas).

The book, authored by Dr. Ralf Kneuper, is excerpted in the accompanying zip file. The excerpt contains the entire Chapter 2 entitled “Development of CMMI,” and part of Chapter 3entitled “Structure and Variants of CMMI.”
( Selengkapnya : CMMI )

Source Code Quiz

2009-06-30T20:03:00.000-07:00

<table>
<tr>
<td COLSPAN="2"><hr>

<INPUT TYPE=HIDDEN NAME="post_data" VALUE ="" >
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td COLSPAN="2"><b>1. "Do you go out _____ on weekends?"<BR>"Yes, we sometimes go out."</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

<input type="button" value="1" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 1, 1)"></td>
<td>every often</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="2" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 1, 2)"></td>
<td>in a time</td>
</tr>

<tr>

<td>
<input type="button" value="3" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 1,3)"></td>
<td>once upon a time</td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="4" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Correct!', 1, 1, 4)"></td>

<td>once in a while</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">

source code example
<table>
<tr>
<td COLSPAN="2"><hr>

<INPUT TYPE=HIDDEN NAME="post_data" VALUE ="" >
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td COLSPAN="2"><b>1. "Do you go out _____ on weekends?"<BR>"Yes, we sometimes go out."</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

<input type="button" value="1" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 1, 1)"></td>
<td>every often</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="2" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 1, 2)"></td>
<td>in a time</td>
</tr>

<tr>

<td>
<input type="button" value="3" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 1,3)"></td>
<td>once upon a time</td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="4" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Correct!', 1, 1, 4)"></td>

<td>once in a while</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">

<br><br>
<INPUT NAME="texts" SIZE="64" STYLE="background-color:#C0C0C0" >

</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr><br><br></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td COLSPAN="2"><b>2. The
Smiths will move to New York. But we hope to _____ with them.</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

<input type="button" value="1" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 2, 1)"></td>
<td>keep touch</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="2" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 2, 2)"></td>
<td>keep at touch</td>
</tr>

<tr>

<td>
<input type="button" value="3" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 2, 3)"></td>
<td>keep on touch</td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="4" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Correct!', 1, 2, 4)"></td>

<td>keep in touch</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">

<br><br>
<INPUT NAME="texts" SIZE="64" STYLE="background-color:#C0C0C0" >

</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr><br><br></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td COLSPAN="2"><b>3</b><b>.
Ann is very temperamental. How do you _____ her?</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

<input type="button" value="1" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Correct!', 1, 3, 1)"></td>
<td>put up with</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="2" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 3, 2)"></td>
<td>put with</td>
</tr>

<tr>

<td>
<input type="button" value="3" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 3, 3)"></td>
<td>put up to</td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="4" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 3, 4)"></td>

<td>putting up with</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">

<br><br>
<INPUT NAME="texts" SIZE="64" STYLE="background-color:#C0C0C0" >

</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr><br><br></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td COLSPAN="2"><b>4</b><b>.
"We should buy a new microwave."<BR>"But our old one will do for _____."</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>

<td>
<input type="button" value="1" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 4, 1)"></td>
<td>a time being</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="2" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Correct!', 1, 4, 2)"></td>
<td>the time being</td>

</tr>
<tr>

<td>
<input type="button" value="3" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 4, 3)"></td>
<td>a being time</td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>

<input type="button" value="4" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 4, 4)"></td>
<td>the being time</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">

<br><br>
<INPUT NAME="texts" SIZE="64" STYLE="background-color:#C0C0C0" >

</td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr><br><br></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td COLSPAN="2"><b>5</b><b>.
"Do you have any idea how you will achieve that objective?"<BR>"Yes, I have it all _____."</b></td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="1" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 5, 1)"></td>
<td>figures</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="2" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 5, 2)"></td>

<td>figured for</td>
</tr>
<tr>

<td>
<input type="button" value="3" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 5, 3)"></td>
<td>figured in</td>

</tr>

<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="4" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Correct!', 1, 5, 4)"></td>
<td>figured out</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">

<br><br>

<INPUT NAME="texts" SIZE="64" STYLE="background-color:#C0C0C0" >

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr><br><br></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td COLSPAN="2"><b>6</b><b>.
My parents often  _____ after dinner.</b></td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="1" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Correct!', 1, 6, 1)"></td>
<td>go for a walk</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

<input type="button" value="2" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 6, 2)"></td>
<td>walking</td>
</tr>
<tr>

<td>
<input type="button" value="3" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 6, 3)"></td>
<td>go a walk</td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="4" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 6, 4)"></td>
<td>go to walking</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">

<br><br>
<INPUT NAME="texts" SIZE="64" STYLE="background-color:#C0C0C0" >

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr><br><br></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td COLSPAN="2"><b>7</b><b>.
"Where _____ is the best place to park a car around here?"<BR>"I'm sorry. I don't
know."</b></td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="1" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 7, 1)"></td>
<td>are you suppose</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

<input type="button" value="2" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Correct!', 1, 7, 2)"></td>
<td>do you suppose</td>
</tr>
<tr>

<td>
<input type="button" value="3" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 7, 3)"></td>
<td>supposedly</td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="4" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 7, 4)"></td>
<td>you suppose</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">

<br><br>
<INPUT NAME="texts" SIZE="64" STYLE="background-color:#C0C0C0" >

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr><br><br></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td COLSPAN="2"><b>8</b><b>.
Every child has to _____ and respect other cultures.</b></td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="1" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 8, 1)"></td>
<td>acquaint with</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

<input type="button" value="2" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Correct!', 1, 8, 2)"></td>
<td>be acquainted with</td>
</tr>
<tr>

<td>
<input type="button" value="3" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 8, 3)"></td>
<td>get acquaint with</td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="4" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 8, 4)"></td>
<td>getting acquainted with</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">

<br><br>
<INPUT NAME="texts" SIZE="64" STYLE="background-color:#C0C0C0" >

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr><br><br></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td COLSPAN="2"><b>9</b><b>.
"Are you _____ in trying out the new diner?"<BR>"Yes, we are."</b></td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="1" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 9, 1)"></td>
<td>cared</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

<input type="button" value="2" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 9, 2)"></td>
<td>attended</td>
</tr>
<tr>

<td>
<input type="button" value="3" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 9, 3)"></td>
<td>concerned</td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="4" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Correct!', 1, 9, 4)"></td>
<td>interested</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">

<br><br>
<INPUT NAME="texts" SIZE="64" STYLE="background-color:#C0C0C0" >

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr><br><br></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td COLSPAN="2"><b>10</b><b>.
It will be hard to say goodbye to Bill and Anne. We are _____ at the aiport.</b></td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="1" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 10, 1)"></td>
<td>see them off</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

<input type="button" value="2" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 10, 2)"></td>
<td>see off them</td>
</tr>
<tr>

<td>
<input type="button" value="3" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Correct!', 1, 10, 3)"></td>
<td>seeing them off</td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="4" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 10, 4)"></td>
<td>seeing off them</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">

<br><br>
<INPUT NAME="texts" SIZE="64" STYLE="background-color:#C0C0C0" >

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr><br><br></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td COLSPAN="2"><b>11</b><b>.
"When did you get the bike?"<BR>"My father gave _____."</b></td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="1" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 11, 1)"></td>
<td>to me the bike last week</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

<input type="button" value="2" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Correct!', 1, 11, 2)"></td>
<td>me the bike last night</td>
</tr>
<tr>

<td>
<input type="button" value="3" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 11, 3)"></td>
<td>to me the bike last night</td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="4" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 11, 4)"></td>
<td>last night the bike to me</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">

<br><br>
<INPUT NAME="texts" SIZE="64" STYLE="background-color:#C0C0C0" >

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr><br><br></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td COLSPAN="2"><b>12</b><b>.
When John got home from work, _____.</b></td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="1" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Correct!', 1, 12, 1)"></td>
<td>she made a cup of coffee</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

<input type="button" value="2" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 12, 2)"></td>
<td>she was making a cup of coffee</td>
</tr>
<tr>

<td>
<input type="button" value="3" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 12, 3)"></td>
<td>she makes a cup of coffee</td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="4" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 12, 4)"></td>
<td>she has made a cup of coffee</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">

<br><br>
<INPUT NAME="texts" SIZE="64" STYLE="background-color:#C0C0C0" >

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr><br><br></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td COLSPAN="2"><b>13</b><b>.
Anne believes she is the _____ young lady in the world.</b></td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="1" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Correct!', 1, 13, 1)"></td>
<td>prettiest</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

<input type="button" value="2" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 13, 2)"></td>
<td>most pretty</td>
</tr>
<tr>

<td>
<input type="button" value="3" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 13, 3)"></td>
<td>most prettier</td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="4" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 13, 4)"></td>
<td>most prettiest</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">

<br><br>
<INPUT NAME="texts" SIZE="64" STYLE="background-color:#C0C0C0" >

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr><br><br></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td COLSPAN="2"><b>14</b><b>.
He managed _____ his way through the maze.</b></td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="1" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Correct!', 1, 14, 1)"></td>
<td>to find</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

<input type="button" value="2" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 14, 2)"></td>
<td>to find out</td>
</tr>
<tr>

<td>
<input type="button" value="3" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 14, 3)"></td>
<td>to found</td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="4" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 14, 4)"></td>
<td>to found out</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">

<br><br>
<INPUT NAME="texts" SIZE="64" STYLE="background-color:#C0C0C0" >

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr><br><br></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td COLSPAN="2"><b>15</b><b>.
Can you please _____ your feet from the coffee table?.</b></td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="1" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 15, 1)"></td>
<td>move</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

<input type="button" value="2" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 15, 2)"></td>
<td>move off</td>
</tr>
<tr>

<td>
<input type="button" value="3" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Correct!', 1, 15, 3)"></td>
<td>remove</td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="4" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 15, 4)"></td>
<td>remove off</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">

<br><br>
<INPUT NAME="texts" SIZE="64" STYLE="background-color:#C0C0C0" >

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr><br><br></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td COLSPAN="2"><b>16</b><b>.
I wasn't  _____ with my exam result.</b></td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="1" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 16, 1)"></td>
<td>please</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

<input type="button" value="2" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Correct!', 1, 16, 2)"></td>
<td>pleased</td>
</tr>
<tr>

<td>
<input type="button" value="3" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 16, 3)"></td>
<td>pleasing</td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="4" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 16, 4)"></td>
<td>pleasant</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">

<br><br>
<INPUT NAME="texts" SIZE="64" STYLE="background-color:#C0C0C0" >

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr><br><br></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td COLSPAN="2"><b>17</b><b>.
"When did Tom and Wendy arrive?"<BR>"They arrived here an hour _____ you did."</b></td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="1" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 17, 1)"></td>
<td>ago</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

<input type="button" value="2" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Correct!', 1, 17, 2)"></td>
<td>before</td>
</tr>
<tr>

<td>
<input type="button" value="3" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 17, 3)"></td>
<td>since</td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="4" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 17, 4)"></td>
<td>since before</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">

<br><br>
<INPUT NAME="texts" SIZE="64" STYLE="background-color:#C0C0C0" >

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr><br><br></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td COLSPAN="2"><b>18</b><b>.
After _____ his homework, Tom went out to play with his friends.</b></td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="1" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 18, 1)"></td>
<td>finish</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

<input type="button" value="2" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 18, 2)"></td>
<td>to finish</td>
</tr>
<tr>

<td>
<input type="button" value="3" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Correct!', 1, 18, 3)"></td>
<td>finishing</td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="4" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 18, 4)"></td>
<td>the finish of</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">

<br><br>
<INPUT NAME="texts" SIZE="64" STYLE="background-color:#C0C0C0" >

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr><br><br></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td COLSPAN="2"><b>19</b><b>.
_____ go on holiday to California or Florida?</b></td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="1" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 19, 1)"></td>
<td>Do you rather</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

<input type="button" value="2" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 19, 2)"></td>
<td>Will you rather</td>
</tr>
<tr>

<td>
<input type="button" value="3" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Correct!', 1, 19, 3)"></td>
<td>Would you rather</td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="4" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 19, 4)"></td>
<td>Won't you rather</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">

<br><br>
<INPUT NAME="texts" SIZE="64" STYLE="background-color:#C0C0C0" >

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr><br><br></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td COLSPAN="2"><b>20.
"Who was the woman I saw you laughing with yesterday?"<BR>"She was _____."</b></td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="1" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Correct!', 1, 20, 1)"></td>
<td>the woman next door</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

<input type="button" value="2" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 20, 2)"></td>
<td>the next door woman</td>
</tr>
<tr>

<td>
<input type="button" value="3" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 20, 3)"></td>
<td>the woman next to the door</td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="4" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 20, 4)"></td>
<td>the woman next by the door</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">

<br><br>
<INPUT NAME="texts" SIZE="64" STYLE="background-color:#C0C0C0" >

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr><br><br></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td COLSPAN="2"><b>21.
Such news is always _____ to be true.</b></td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="1" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 21, 1)"></td>
<td>good</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

<input type="button" value="2" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 21, 2)"></td>
<td>very good</td>
</tr>
<tr>

<td>
<input type="button" value="3" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 21, 3)"></td>
<td>so good</td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="4" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Correct!', 1, 21, 4)"></td>
<td>too good</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">

<br><br>
<INPUT NAME="texts" SIZE="64" STYLE="background-color:#C0C0C0" >

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr><br><br></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td COLSPAN="2"><b>22.
Is it important that everyone _____ his/her bit for the team?</b></td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="1" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Correct!', 1, 22, 1)"></td>
<td>do</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

<input type="button" value="2" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 22, 2)"></td>
<td>does</td>
</tr>
<tr>

<td>
<input type="button" value="3" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 22, 3)"></td>
<td>did</td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="4" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 22, 4)"></td>
<td>must do</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">

<br><br>
<INPUT NAME="texts" SIZE="64" STYLE="background-color:#C0C0C0" >

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr><br><br></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td COLSPAN="2"><b>23.
This is the place _____ the body was found.</b></td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="1" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 23, 1)"></td>
<td>that</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

<input type="button" value="2" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 23, 2)"></td>
<td>which</td>
</tr>
<tr>

<td>
<input type="button" value="3" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Correct!', 1, 23, 3)"></td>
<td>where</td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="4" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 23, 4)"></td>
<td>there</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">

<br><br>
<INPUT NAME="texts" SIZE="64" STYLE="background-color:#C0C0C0" >

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr><br><br></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td COLSPAN="2"><b>24.
You should buy a computer. _____ you would be able to send emails. </b></td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="1" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 24, 1)"></td>
<td>So</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

<input type="button" value="2" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Correct!', 1, 24, 2)"></td>
<td>Then</td>
</tr>
<tr>

<td>
<input type="button" value="3" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 24, 3)"></td>
<td>Well</td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="4" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 24, 4)"></td>
<td>Therefore</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">

<br><br>
<INPUT NAME="texts" SIZE="64" STYLE="background-color:#C0C0C0" >

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr><br><br></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td COLSPAN="2"><b>25.
David seems to be _____.</b></td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="1" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 25, 1)"></td>
<td>in hurry</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>

<input type="button" value="2" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Correct!', 1, 25, 2)"></td>
<td>in a hurry</td>
</tr>
<tr>

<td>
<input type="button" value="3" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 25, 3)"></td>
<td>on a hurry</td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<input type="button" value="4" name="knopke" onClick="checkAnswer('Sorry, that's not right. Try again. ', 0, 25, 4)"></td>
<td>hurrying</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">

<br><br>
<INPUT NAME="texts" SIZE="64" STYLE="background-color:#C0C0C0" >

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><hr><br><br></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>

</tr>
</table>

[ Strategy ] Battle for Wesnoth

2009-06-28T21:42:00.000-07:00

Fantasy Turn-Based Strategy Game

A high Fantasy-themed turn-based strategy game. Battle for control of villages, using a variety of units which have advantages and disadvantages in different types of terrain and against different types of attacks.

Units gain experience and advance levels, and are carried over from one scenario to the next in a campaign. Network/hotseat multiplayer is available, with a server to meet and other players on.

License: free

Additional System Requirements:

* Simple Directmedia Layer >= 1.2.7
* SDL_ttf >= 2.0.8
* SDL_image >= 1.2 (with png support)
* SDL_mixer >= 1.2 (with Vorbis support)
* SDL_net
* libfontconfig >= 2.4.1
* libpango (with cairo backend) >= 1.14.8
* Boost (iostreams and regex) >= 1.33.0
* libz

TOC Strategic IT Planning and Governance

2009-06-26T01:49:00.000-07:00

Introduction ... 9
Aligning IT With Business Goals ... 14
Scope, Competencies, Governance ... 15
The Importance of Governance ... 16
The Agility Paradox ... 17
How This Methodology Works: ... 19

Stage 1> Plan the Plan ... 21
Step 1: Set Strategic Planning Goals ... 22
Step 2: Establish a Planning Group ... 25
Step 3: Hold a Kick-off Meeting ... 27
Step 4: Create a Preliminary Report ... 28
Stage Summary ... 30
Background > Making the Case for Strategic IT Planning ... 31
The Most Important Constituent: Senior Management ... 32
The Importance of Communication ... 33
More Notes on Agility ... 35
Co-opting the Power User ... 36

Stage 2> Document Your Business Strategy ... 39
Step 1: Describe the Company and Its Background ... 42
Step 2: Conduct an Industry Analysis ... 43
Step 3: Document Vision, Mission, and Core Values ... 44
Step 4: Define Core Business and Its Boundaries ... 45
Step 5: Create a Financial Picture ... 46
Step 6: List Strategic Objectives ... 47
Stage Summary ... 48
Background > Analyzing Business Strategy ... 49
A Company’s Value Chain ... 49
The Supply Chain ... 51
Industry Lifecycles ... 52
Porter’s Five Forces Model ... 54
Environmental Analysis (PEST) ... 55
Identify Your Organization’s Core Competencies ... 55
Key Success Factors ... 57

Stage 3> Assess the Current IT Situation ... 59
Step 1: Document Your IT Organizational Infrastructure ... 62
Step 2: Document Your Hardware and Software Infrastructure ... 63
Step 3: Audit Current IT Projects ... 64
Step 4: Understand the IT Environment ... 66
Stage Summary ... 68
Background > Mapping IT Assets ... 69
Thoughts on Staffing Needs ... 69
Skills Development ... 70
Business Benefits of Asset Management ... 70
Rolling Out an Asset Management Initiative ... 71
Conducting a Hardware Asset Inventory ... 73
Conducting a Software Asset Inventory ... 75
Change Management ... 76
Asset Management Best Practices ... 78
Understanding the IT Environment ... 79

Stage 4> Propose a New IT Situation ... 81
Step 1: Analyze IT Strengths and Weaknesses ... 83
Step 2: Brainstorm Technology Opportunities ... 86
Step 3: Document Your Results ... 88
Stage Summary ... 90
Background > The Art of Brainstorming ... 91
Brainstorm of One (Brainwriting) ... 92

Stage 5> Perform a Gap Analysis ... 93
Step 1: Analyze Alignment Gaps ... 95
Step 2: Analyze Infrastructure Gaps ... 96
Step 3: Summarize and Resolve Gaps ... 97
Stage Summary ... 98

Stage 6> Propose a Strategic Vision and Governance Model ... 99
Step 1: Hold a Vision Meeting With Stakeholders ... 101
Step 2: Establish a Strategic IT Vision ... 102
Step 3: Propose a Governance Structure ... 103
Stage Summary ... 104
Background > One Vision for All ... 105
Reigning In Rogue IT ... 106
Building Your Steering Committee ... 109

Stage 7> Build a Strategic Decision Making Framework ... 111
Step 1: Set Strategic Goals and Measures ... 113
Step 2: Perform a Budget Analysis ... 116
Step 3: Identify Your Options ... 117
Step 4: Prioritize Your Projects ... 120
Stage Summary ... 124
Background > Types of Goals IT Should Set ... 125
Financial ... 125
Organizational Goals ... 126
Technology Operations ... 128
Customer Service Goals ... 129
IT Governance Goals ... 130
Getting Buy-In for Your Goals ... 131
Using Your Budget as a Management Tool ... 132
Dealing with Budget Cuts ... 133

Stage 8> Publish, Promote, Maintain Your Strategy ... 135
Step 1: Build Your Strategic Plan Materials ... 137
Step 2: Present Your Plan to Senior Management ... 138
Step 3: Communicate and Manage Change ... 139
Stage Summary ... 141
Background> A Guide to Killer Boardroom Presentations ... 142
Guide to Developing a Communications Plan ... 143
Design the Roll-Out Plan ... 146
The Rollercoaster of Change ... 147
Adjusting Your Current Organizational Structure ... 149
Tips For On-going IT Strategic Governance ... 150

Conclusion ... 152

Quality of Connections, Not Quantity, Key to Social Marketing

2009-06-26T01:15:00.000-07:00

by Ann All, IT Business Edge
Jun 18, 2009 1:42:59 PM

Ann All spoke with Zsolt Katona, a professor of marketing at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley. Along with Peter Pal Zubcsek, a Ph.D. candidate at France’s INSEAD, and Miklos Sarvary, INSEAD marketing professor, he authored a paper titled “Network Effects and Personal Influences: Diffusion of an Online Social Network.”

All: In your research, you found something that seems counterintuitive. As an individual’s number of online contacts increases, the person’s “influential power” decreases. Is this because people must spread their available time across their connections, thus in theory reducing the value they bring to the relationships?
Katona: It’s important to make a distinction between the total influential power a person has and the average influential power the person has on his or her friends. As you say, the more friends or contacts a person has, the more it limits the amount of time that can be spent with each one. You can’t exert the same amount of influence on each of your friends.

In some, more superficial contexts, this person might still have influence. But for higher-impact decisions that would require more involvement, such as convincing someone to buy a car, a deeper connection is required. So targeting people with lots of connections for these kinds of marketing campaigns might not make sense. I think the threshold for the high-involvement products is very low.

All: Can you explain your methodology?
Katona: We got data from a European social networking site. According to the numbers, most of the country’s Internet users are on there, millions of users. We analyzed the adoption as a function of the network. We had some demographic variables, but our main interest was how the network structure itself affected adoption. We found that a person who had lots of friends who had already adopted something had a higher probability of adopting it themselves. Not as obvious is the density of your network. If you have five friends who use a certain product or service, then one extra friend has the same effect on your adoption as one extra friendship between your five friends.

All: Does this reinforce the concept that you have greater influence on friends with whom you spend more time?
Katona: Sure. But another phenomenon is that if two of your friends know each other, they may have additional influence over you because they can mention the other friend. That’s been shown before in other sociological studies, that two people who know each other can more easily convince a third person, but it hasn’t been shown in this context.

All: I believe you also found that search engine marketing may be more effective than marketing via social networks, at least for now. Why?
Katona: Well, not in all cases. Marketing within social networks is in an early stage. Search engine marketing, on the other hand, is very established. People often go there with a specific idea in mind, maybe even searching for a certain product. It’s a whole different dynamic in social networks. In the future, marketers may be able to suggest products for you through your social connections or friends. It’s an entirely different idea. You may not be looking for something, you may be just hanging out with your friends. Of course, there are privacy issues associated with this. You may not want your friends to know what ads you click on, what products you are interested in. With search engines, they can find things you are looking for. But I think they will also move more toward making suggestions, based on what you were looking for before, perhaps.

All: If a company is interested in marketing its goods or services on social networks, what factors should they consider?
Katona: It may not matter how many people there are. A lot of people may see your product on TV, but it may not be that easy to convince them to buy it. If you can find closely connected groups on social networks, it will be much easier to convince people. Simple friendships won’t mean as much as these groups. Many people divide their friends on social networks into different categories: family, colleagues, friends. Defining those categories would make marketing much more efficient.

[ HPC ] DataDirect

2009-06-26T00:43:00.000-07:00

With clustering technology driving commodity systems closer and closer to the processing realms of the top-performers, the push is on to extend HPC's prowess into uncharted territory.

DataDirect, for example, has come out with a new storage platform that leverages 10 GB performance and an active/active design to provide a simplified block and file backbone for highly scalable environments. The Storage Fusion Architecture (SFA) 1000 offers 10 GBps read and write speeds to deliver more than 1 million IOPS on up to 2.4 petabytes of storage. The system is designed for multicore, multi-threaded environments that value transactional throughput rather than simple streaming capability to accommodate high-volume data flows. The system also supports a mirrored cache, multiple RAID and SSD levels and 8 Gbps Fibre Channel and 40 Gb InfiniBand.

Sun, in a sign that it has no intention of giving up the high end as it prepares for the Oracle merger, is bringing out a range of new technologies for the Sun Constellation system, including an advanced networking architecture and new Linux software. The Datacenter InfiniBand QDR 648 switch offers up to 648 non-blocking ports using a third of the cabling of DDR systems, while the new HPC Software, Linux Edition 2.0 provides an integrated Linux stack for easy installation of popular OS's like SUSE 10, CentOS and Red Hat.

HPC technologies are also finding their way onto the cloud. Platform Computing recently came out with a private cloud management system that it calls Platform ISF. It essentially provides a shared IT infrastructure across physical and virtual pools that is used to host applications under pre-defined workload and scheduling policies. The system uses the same virtual machine and resource-sharing technology found on Platform's HPC products, with added capabilities like self-service and reporting/billing modules to reduce IT costs and increase utilization.

HPC technology will always be reserved for the well-heeled, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have an impact on the full IT spectrum. Advanced technologies have a way of trickling down to the lower ends, as evidenced by virtualization itself, which started out as a mainframe solution.

An Essential Strategic Advantage for Your IT Team

2009-06-26T00:34:00.000-07:00

Building a comprehensive strategic IT plan that aligns with your organization's business strategy is essential to ensuring the success of your department. For many IT professionals, the amount of time it takes to develop such a plan, and the unknown process required to complete it, makes strategic IT planning a daunting task.

But Info~Tech has had extensive experience in developing such plans, and they've channeled all that expertise into a step-by-step guide that will allow you to independently walk though the process of creating a strategically-aligned IT plan.

Packed with Benefits
for Your Business
Strategic IT Planning and Governance provides more information and tools than any mere book could ever hope to. It's packed with detailed information and practical tools. In it, you'll find:

* Detailed tasks and action steps for each phase of the strategic IT planning process
* Learning guides and resources to keep you up-to-speed on the latest issues concerning IT strategy and governance
* Interactive tools and templates to help you efficiently complete the required tasks

Interactive Planning Tool
The Strategic IT Planning and Governance Best Practices Guide uses an interactive PowerPoint slide show to guide you through the entire planning process. At each step along the way, the Guide links to other Microsoft Office tools and templates. Click here to see a detailed list of all the tools and templates included in the Strategic IT Planning and Governance Best Practices Guide.

invites applications for the WISE Awards 2009

2009-06-11T00:45:00.000-07:00

Qatar Foundation WISE Awards 2009

Application Deadline: July 15, 2009 Application Deadline: 15 Juli 2009

Qatar Foundation invites applications for the WISE Awards 2009 to support outstanding practice and achievements within the themes of Pluralism, Sustainability and Innovation in education. Two prizes will be awarded for each of these three themes.

Each of the six laureates will receive a WISE Prize Award of $20,000 at the Gala Dinner on November 17, 2009. Laureates will also be given the opportunity to showcase their projects during the WISE Forum.

The WISE Awards application process is open to individuals or teams of individuals from across the world and in all education sectors, to be supported by a letter of endorsement from senior management of their organization.

Laureates will be selected by a pre-jury then by an international jury consisting of 10 of the world's leading experts in pluralism, sustainability and innovation in education, drawn from public institutions, civil society, the private sector, international organizations, universities and social entrepreneurs.

Applications should be submitted on the official application form downloadable from the website with a closing date of July 15, 2009. No late applications will be considered.

To submit, follow the instructions at www.wise-qatar.org/en/submission .

Course title : Post-master Software Technology

2009-05-26T01:56:00.000-07:00

Course title : Post-master Software Technology
Characteristics : Postgraduate degree course : A postgraduate programme is any programme above the bachelor's degree level, for example a master's degree. Foreign Accreditation Organization: Institutions may offer bachelor’s, master’s and other programmes that have not been accredited by the NVAO, but have been accredited by an recognized accreditation organization in another country. Research University Government-funded: An institution funded by the Government, entitled to award officially recognized degrees and legally protected titles to graduates of their accredited programmes. The list of all government-funded institutions can be found in CROHO, the Central Register of Higher Education Programmes (www.ib-groep.nl, in Dutch).
Institution : Eindhoven University of Technology / Stan Ackermans Institute
Department Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Correspondence P.O. Box 513 , 5600 MB, Eindhoven
Phone 31 - (0)40-2474334
Fax 31 - (0)40-2475895
E-mail : ooti@tue.nl w.w.p.warringa@tue.nl
Internet www.3tu.nl/en/education/sai/programmes/

Information about the institution The technological designer programmes of the 3TU School for Technological Design, Stan Ackermans Institute were initiated at the request of the Dutch high-tech industry. High-tech companies need professionals who can design and develop complex new products and processes and offer innovative solutions. All programmes work closely together with high-tech industry, offering the trainees the opportunity to participate in large-scale, interdisciplinary design projects under industrial circumstances. With this unique cooperation we provide our trainees with a valuable network of contacts in industry. The programmes employ a strict selection process, accepting only excellent young professionals and graduates with at least a Master of Science diploma of a (technological) university. Stan Ackermans Institute has ten two-year full-time programmes, leading to a Professional Doctorate in Engineering (PDEng). Our programmes offer the opportunity to broaden your knowledge and experience by means of a personal and practical design assignment, under the supervision of experienced design professionals. You will be appointed for the duration of the programme for a maximum of two years. You will also become a member of the scientific staff of the university and receive a salary.The technological designer programmes of the 3TU School for Technological Design, Stan Ackermans Institute were initiated at the request of the Dutch high-tech industry. High-tech companies need professionals who can design and develop complex new products and processes and offer innovative solutions. All programmes work closely together with high-tech industry, offering the trainees the opportunity to participate in large-scale, interdisciplinary design projects under industrial circumstances. With this unique cooperation we provide our trainees with a valuable network of contacts in industry. The programmes employ a strict selection process, accepting only excellent young professionals and graduates with at least a Master of Science diploma of a (technological) university. Stan Ackermans Institute has ten two-year full-time programmes, leading to a Professional Doctorate in Engineering (PDEng). Our programmes offer the opportunity to broaden your knowledge and experience by means of a personal and practical design assignment, under the supervision of experienced design professionals. You will be appointed for the duration of the programme for a maximum of two years. You will also become a member of the scientific staff of the university and receive a salary.The technological designer programmes of the 3TU School for Technological Design, Stan Ackermans Institute were initiated at the request of the Dutch high-tech industry. High-tech companies need professionals who can design and develop complex new products and processes and offer innovative solutions. All programmes work closely together with high-tech industry, offering the trainees the opportunity to participate in large-scale, interdisciplinary design projects under industrial circumstances. With this unique cooperation we provide our trainees with a valuable network of contacts in industry. The programmes employ a strict selection process, accepting only excellent young professionals and graduates with at least a Master of Science diploma of a (technological) university. Stan Ackermans Institute has ten two-year full-time programmes, leading to a Professional Doctorate in Engineering (PDEng). Our programmes offer the opportunity to broaden your knowledge and experience by means of a personal and practical design assignment, under the supervision of experienced design professionals. You will be appointed for the duration of the programme for a maximum of two years. You will also become a member of the scientific staff of the university and receive a salary.
Course type Postgraduate degree course
Type of qualification Other
Language of instruction English
Tuition fee € 0 per year
Tuition fee includes
ECTS points 120
Duration 2 year(s)
Next course dates
Start date End date Deadline for application Date deadline for
01 September 2009 31 August 2011 01 April 2009 All Students
01 March 2010 28 February 2012 01 October 2009 All Students

Educational requirements MSc in computer science or a strongly related field with computer science elements. BSc in computer science (excellent scores & relevant experience).
Professional experience required If BSc level: 3 years significant professional experience.
Language requirements TOEFL (minimum score: paper based: 550, computer based: 213, internet based: 80); IELTS (minimum score: overall band: 6.5, listening: 6.0, reading: 6.0, writing: 6.0, speaking: 6.0)
Other requirements Better than good social and communicative skills, problem-solving attitude, team work has to be favoured.
Objectives To strengthen the competencies of highly motivated and ambitious recently graduated students and young professionals to be able to effectively and efficiently participate in high performance teams in the field of design and development of software for resource-constrained software-intensive systems (e.g. real-time embedded systems) in (Dutch) industry.
Subjects Requirements engineering; usage modelling; distributed systems; real-time scheduling; design real-time systems; object-oriented analysis & modelling; design patterns; system, software & hardware architecture; workshop formal methods in software life cycle; test methodology & quality assurance; project management; personal software process/software process improvement; professional development.
Modes of instruction Team work, individual work, projects, excursions, presentations, seminars; lectures.
Scholarships no
Cooperating institutions
Remarks During this two year program, students earn a salary and don't have to pay tuition fee

Course title Post-master Mathematics for Industry
Institution Eindhoven University of Technology / Stan Ackermans Institute
Department Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Correspondence P.O. Box 513 , 5600 MB, Eindhoven
Phone 31 - (0)40-2474334
Fax 31 - (0)40-2475895
E-mail ooti@tue.nl w.w.p.warringa@tue.nl
Internet www.3tu.nl/en/education/sai/programmes/
Information about the institution The technological designer programmes of the 3TU School for Technological Design, Stan Ackermans Institute were initiated at the request of the Dutch high-tech industry. High-tech companies need professionals who can design and develop complex new products and processes and offer innovative solutions. All programmes work closely together with high-tech industry, offering the trainees the opportunity to participate in large-scale, interdisciplinary design projects under industrial circumstances. With this unique cooperation we provide our trainees with a valuable network of contacts in industry. The programmes employ a strict selection process, accepting only excellent young professionals and graduates with at least a Master of Science diploma of a (technological) university. Stan Ackermans Institute has ten two-year full-time programmes, leading to a Professional Doctorate in Engineering (PDEng). Our programmes offer the opportunity to broaden your knowledge and experience by means of a personal and practical design assignment, under the supervision of experienced design professionals. You will be appointed for the duration of the programme for a maximum of two years. You will also become a member of the scientific staff of the university and receive a salary.The technological designer programmes of the 3TU School for Technological Design, Stan Ackermans Institute were initiated at the request of the Dutch high-tech industry. High-tech companies need professionals who can design and develop complex new products and processes and offer innovative solutions. All programmes work closely together with high-tech industry, offering the trainees the opportunity to participate in large-scale, interdisciplinary design projects under industrial circumstances. With this unique cooperation we provide our trainees with a valuable network of contacts in industry. The programmes employ a strict selection process, accepting only excellent young professionals and graduates with at least a Master of Science diploma of a (technological) university. Stan Ackermans Institute has ten two-year full-time programmes, leading to a Professional Doctorate in Engineering (PDEng). Our programmes offer the opportunity to broaden your knowledge and experience by means of a personal and practical design assignment, under the supervision of experienced design professionals. You will be appointed for the duration of the programme for a maximum of two years. You will also become a member of the scientific staff of the university and receive a salary.The technological designer programmes of the 3TU School for Technological Design, Stan Ackermans Institute were initiated at the request of the Dutch high-tech industry. High-tech companies need professionals who can design and develop complex new products and processes and offer innovative solutions. All programmes work closely together with high-tech industry, offering the trainees the opportunity to participate in large-scale, interdisciplinary design projects under industrial circumstances. With this unique cooperation we provide our trainees with a valuable network of contacts in industry. The programmes employ a strict selection process, accepting only excellent young professionals and graduates with at least a Master of Science diploma of a (technological) university. Stan Ackermans Institute has ten two-year full-time programmes, leading to a Professional Doctorate in Engineering (PDEng). Our programmes offer the opportunity to broaden your knowledge and experience by means of a personal and practical design assignment, under the supervision of experienced design professionals. You will be appointed for the duration of the programme for a maximum of two years. You will also become a member of the scientific staff of the university and receive a salary.
Course type Postgraduate degree course
Type of qualification Other
Language of instruction English
Tuition fee € 0 per year
Tuition fee includes
ECTS points 120
Duration 2 year(s)
Next course dates
Start date End date Deadline for application Date deadline for
01 September 2009 31 August 2011 01 April 2009 All Students
01 March 2010 28 February 2012 01 October 2009 All Students

Educational requirements Students on a Master level in mathematics, physics, econometry and electrical engineering.
Professional experience required
Language requirements TOEFL (minimum score: paper based: 550, computer based: 213, internet based: 80); IELTS (minimum score: overall band: 6.5, listening: 6.0, reading: 6.0, writing: 6.0, speaking: 6.0)
Other requirements Applicants should have a problem-solving attitude and the capability to develop this further.
Objectives To provide students of graduate level with a broad postgraduate education qualifying them for mathematics-oriented positions in industry; e.g. in the design of industrial products or in business processes.
Subjects Mathematical modeling; social and communicative skills; advanced mathematical physics; advanced operations research; queueing theory; statistics computational mechanics system theory; signal analysis; software engineering.
Modes of instruction Group work, lectures, practical assignment, project work.
Scholarships no
Cooperating institutions
Remarks During this two year program, students earn a salary and don't have to pay tuition fee.

SQL QUIZ

2009-05-18T21:05:00.002-07:00

SQL QUIZ http://www.w3schools.com

1. What does SQL stand for?

Structured Question Language
Strong Question Language
Structured Query Language
2. Which SQL statement is used to extract data from a database?

OPEN
GET
SELECT
EXTRACT
3. Which SQL statement is used to update data in a database?

MODIFY
UPDATE
SAVE
SAVE AS
4. Which SQL statement is used to delete data from a database?

REMOVE
DELETE
COLLAPSE
5. Which SQL statement is used to insert new data in a database?

ADD RECORD
ADD NEW
INSERT INTO
INSERT NEW

With SQL, how do you select a column named "FirstName" from a table named "Persons"?

SELECT FirstName FROM Persons
SELECT Persons.FirstName
EXTRACT FirstName FROM Person
With SQL, how do you select all the columns from a table named "Persons"?

SELECT Persons
SELECT * FROM Persons
SELECT [all] FROM Persons
SELECT *.Persons
With SQL, how do you select all the records from a table named "Persons" where the value of the column "FirstName" is "Peter"?

SELECT [all] FROM Persons WHERE FirstName='Peter'
SELECT [all] FROM Persons WHERE FirstName LIKE 'Peter'
SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName='Peter'
SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName<>'Peter'
With SQL, how do you select all the records from a table named "Persons" where the value of the column "FirstName" starts with an "a"?

SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName='a'
SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName LIKE '%a'
SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName='%a%'
SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName LIKE 'a%'
The OR operator displays a record if ANY conditions listed are true. The AND operator displays a record if ALL of the conditions listed are true

True
False
With SQL, how do you select all the records from a table named "Persons" where the "FirstName" is "Peter" and the "LastName" is "Jackson"?

SELECT FirstName='Peter', LastName='Jackson' FROM Persons
SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName='Peter' AND LastName='Jackson'
SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE FirstName<>'Peter' AND LastName<>'Jackson'
With SQL, how do you select all the records from a table named "Persons" where the "LastName" is alphabetically between (and including) "Hansen" and "Pettersen"?

SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE LastName>'Hansen' AND LastName<'Pettersen'
SELECT LastName>'Hansen' AND LastName<'Pettersen' FROM Persons
SELECT * FROM Persons WHERE LastName BETWEEN 'Hansen' AND 'Pettersen'

Total 20 questions Time spent 3:30

DreamTemplate

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The PHP Certificate documents your knowledge of PHP and SQL (MySQL).

Which SQL statement is used to return only different values?

SELECT DISTINCT
SELECT DIFFERENT
SELECT UNIQUE

Which SQL keyword is used to sort the result-set?

SORT BY
ORDER
SORT
ORDER BY
With SQL, how can you return all the records from a table named "Persons" sorted descending by "FirstName"?

SELECT * FROM Persons ORDER BY FirstName DESC
SELECT * FROM Persons SORT 'FirstName' DESC
SELECT * FROM Persons ORDER FirstName DESC
SELECT * FROM Persons SORT BY 'FirstName' DESC

With SQL, how can you insert a new record into the "Persons" table?

INSERT INTO Persons VALUES ('Jimmy', 'Jackson')
INSERT ('Jimmy', 'Jackson') INTO Persons
INSERT VALUES ('Jimmy', 'Jackson') INTO Persons
With SQL, how can you insert "Olsen" as the "LastName" in the "Persons" table?

INSERT INTO Persons (LastName) VALUES ('Olsen')
INSERT INTO Persons ('Olsen') INTO LastName
INSERT ('Olsen') INTO Persons (LastName)
How can you change "Hansen" into "Nilsen" in the "LastName" column in the Persons table?

UPDATE Persons SET LastName='Hansen' INTO LastName='Nilsen'
UPDATE Persons SET LastName='Nilsen' WHERE LastName='Hansen'
MODIFY Persons SET LastName='Hansen' INTO LastName='Nilsen
MODIFY Persons SET LastName='Nilsen' WHERE LastName='Hansen'
With SQL, how can you delete the records where the "FirstName" is "Peter" in the Persons Table?

DELETE ROW FirstName='Peter' FROM Persons
DELETE FirstName='Peter' FROM Persons
DELETE FROM Persons WHERE FirstName = 'Peter'
With SQL, how can you return the number of records in the "Persons" table?

SELECT COUNT() FROM Persons
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM Persons
SELECT COLUMNS(*) FROM Persons
SELECT COLUMNS() FROM Persons

Computer Science Invite

2009-05-15T22:15:00.001-07:00

You are invited to apply for the Computer Professionals Program to earn a Master of Science in Computer Science (MSCS) degree and work in the United States of America.

All international students receive financial aid for their tuition, housing, and meals, and work for two years in a full-paying practical training job in the USA. Visit http://admin.cs.mum.edu/Admissions/da07.html for more information and to apply online.

The Computer Professionals Program is available at only one accredited university - Maharishi University of Management in the USA.

Here's a brief summary:

* You will earn an MSCS degree from a highly respected, accredited university that integrates the study of computer science with a scientifically proven technology for awakening your total brain potential.
* Hiring remains strong even in today’s economy. In the past six months, more than 70 technology companies in America have hired our students at an average starting salary of $57,000 per year.
* A recent InfoWorld compensation survey found that the average salary of IT professionals in America with an MSCS degree is an extra $14,525 per year than the average salary of those without the degree.
* The University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. The United States government has awarded the University more than $20,000,000 in federal research grants.
* The University is renowned for its harmonious campus in the friendly city of Fairfield, Iowa in the central USA. Many students come from other countries, living and learning together as a world family.

For full details on the program, visit us online at http://admin.cs.mum.edu/Admissions/da07.html.

You can apply online. There is no application fee.

Maharishi University of Management is located at 1000 N 4th St., Fairfield, IA 52557 USA.

Questions regarding the program can be answered at
http://mum.edu/compro/ask.html.

Admission Requirements

Before applying, please carefully read all requirements below. Admission requirements are subject to change.

Upon arrival all students are tested to confirm that they meet the entrance requirements as per their application materials. If they are unable to demonstrate their stated level, they will be deferred until they can remedy these deficiencies.

There are three main areas of requirements:

(1) Academic and undergraduate degree

(2) English proficiency

(3) GRE & TOEFL (optional)

Please read all requirement details carefully.

If you meet the admissions requirements, please apply online. There is no application fee required.

If you are unsure whether you meet the above requirements, you may still apply online and we will be happy to review your application and let you know if you qualify.

(1) Academic Requirements

You must possess an undergraduate (Bachelor's) degree in computer science or a related field from an accredited college, university, or institute.

* A 4-year degree is the standard minimum requirement.
* Candidates with a 3-year degree will be considered for acceptance only if they have a minimum of 3 years of verifiable paid professional IT experience, and a high grade average in prerequisite computer science courses.

Your degree should include courses in the main areas of study typical to a Computer Science degree, including:

Computer Programming and Software Design

* Object Oriented Programming
* Fundamentals of programming: variables, loops, conditionals, blocks, functions, arrays, pointers/references.

Programming Languages or Compilers

* Basic concepts and definitions of programming languages, Binding, scope, lifetime, argument passing
* Pointers, references, values, expressions, declarations

Data Structures

* Stacks & queues
* Linked lists, trees & graphs
* Hash tables

Computer System Architecture and Organization

Systems Programming or Operating Systems

In some cases, professional experience may be substituted for academic courses if the applicant has gained sufficient knowledge of the subject.

Applicants with adequate preparation in most academic areas but missing some of these entrance requirements in the area of programming can apply to the alternate Preparatory Track. See the entry tracks page.

A high grade average (or percentage) in your previous computer science courses is required.

(2) English Proficiency

All international applicants are interviewed (by telephone or in person) to assess their English fluency. Here are the criteria used in the assessment:

* You need to speak English well enough to be understood by the listener without difficulty. An accent is acceptable if it does not prevent the listener from easily understanding you. A few minor errors in speech are permissible.
* You need to understand English when it is spoken to you in a normal conversational speed.
* You need to read and write English with little or no difficulty.

If you do not yet have the level of English proficiency described above, you are encouraged to obtain intensive English training from Americans (or other native English-speaking instructors) in your home country before applying. It is important that you select a school or teacher with a very good reputation for improving spoken English skills.

(3) TOEFL and GRE Tests

Applicants are not required to take GRE for admission to our program, but we strongly encourage them to take it. A high GRE score may decrease the amount you are expected to pay upon enrollment. Also, taking the GRE increases the likelihood of obtaining a student visa for our program. A GRE score is a good way to indicate your overall strength, and even if it is not required, it will be an asset to your application.

Information on TOEFL is available at http://www.toefl.org
Information on GRE is available at http://www.gre.org
Age
There is no age restriction for this program. We do not discriminate based on age.

C Programming Questions

2009-05-15T00:15:00.001-07:00

Questions

1. What is a compiler?
2. How is a C program run?
3. How is a C program compiled usually?
4. Are upper and lower case equivalent in C?
5. What the two different kinds of error which can be in a program?

Questions

1. Write a command to print out the message "Wow big deal".
2. Write a command to print out the number 22?
3. Write two commands to print out "The 3 Wise Men" two different ways.
4. Why are there only a few reserved command words in C?

Questions

1. What is an operating system for?
2. What is a pseudo-device name?
3. If you had a C source program which you wanted to call `accounts' what name would you save it under?
4. What would be the name of the file produced by the compiler of the program in 3?
5. How would this program be run?

Questions

1. How is a library file incorporated into a C program?
2. Name the most common library file in C.
3. Is it possible to define new functions with the same names as standard library functions?
4. What is another name for a library file?

Questions

1. What is a block?
2. Name the six basic things which make up a C program.
3. Does a C program start at the beginning? (Where is the beginning?)
4. What happens when a program comes to a } character? What does this character signify?
5. What vital piece of punctuation goes at the end of every simple C statement?

Question

1. What happens if a comment is not ended? That is if the programmer types /* .. to start but forgets the ..*/ to close?

Questions

1. Write a function which takes two values a and b and returns the value of (a*b).
2. Is there anything wrong with a function which returns no value?
3. What happens if a function returns a value but it is not assigned to anything?
4. What happens if a function is assigned to an object but that function returns no value?
5. How can a function be made to quit early?

Questions

1. What is an identifier?
2. Say which of the following are valid C identifiers:
1. Ralph23
2. 80shillings
3. mission_control
4. A%
5. A$
6. _off
3. Write a statement to declare two integers called i and j.
4. What is the difference between the types floa and double.
5. What is the difference between the types int and unsigned int?
6. Write a statement which assigns the value 67 to the integer variable "I".
7. What type does a C function return by default?
8. If we want to declare a function to return long float, it must be done in, at least, two places. Where are these?
9. Write a statement, using the cast operator, to print out the integer part of the number 23.1256.
10. Is it possible to have an automatic global variable?

Questions

1. Name two ways that values and results can be handed back from a function.
2. Where are parameters declared?
3. Can a function be used directly as a value parameter?
4. Does it mean anything to use a function directly as a variable parameter?
5. What do the symbols * and & mean, when they are placed in front of an identifier?
6. Do actual and formal parameters need to have the same names?

Questions

1. What is a global variable?
2. What is a local variable?
3. What is meant by calling a block (enclosed by braces {} ) a "sealed capsule"?
4. Do parameters make functions leaky? i.e. Do they spoil them by letting the variables leak out into other functions?
5. Write a program which declares 4 variables. Two integer variables called number_of_hats,counter which are GLOBAL and two float variables called x_coord,y_coord which are LOCAL inside the function main(). Then add another function called another() and pass x_coord,y_coord to this function. How many different storage spaces are used when this program runs? (Hint: are x_coord,y_coord and their copies the same?)

Questions

1. Define a macro called "birthday" which describes the day of the month upon which your birthday falls.
2. Write an instruction to the preprocessor to include to maths library math.h.
3. A macro is always a number. True or false?
4. A macro is always a constant. True or false?

Questions

1. What is a pointer?
2. How is a variable declared to be a pointer?
3. What data types can pointers "point to"?
4. Write a statement which converts a pointer to a character into a pointer to a double type. (This is not as pointless as it seems. It is useful in dealing with unions and memory allocation functions.)
5. Why is it incorrect to declare: float *number = 2.65; ?

Questions

1. Write a program which simply prints out: 6.23e+00
2. Investigate what happens when you type the wrong conversion specifier in a program. e.g. try printing an integer with %f or a floating point number with %c. This is bound to go wrong - but how will it go wrong?
3. What is wrong with the following statements?
1. printf (x);
2. printf ("%d");
3. printf ();
4. printf ("Number = %d");
Hint: if you don't know, try them in a program!

Questions

1. What is a white space character?
2. Write a program which fetches two integers from the user and multiplies them together. Print out the answer. Try to make the input as safe as possible.
3. Write a program which just echoes all the input to the output.
4. Write a program which strips spaces out of the input and replaces them with a single newline character.
5. scanf always takes pointer arguments. True or false?

Questions

1. Is the following statement possible? (It could depend upon your compiler: try it!)

putchar(getchar());

What might this do? (Hint: re-read the chapter about the pre-processor.)
2. Re write the statement in question 1, assuming that putchar() and getchar() are macros.

Questions

1. What is an operand?
2. Write a statement which prints out the remainder of 5 divided by 2.
3. Write a short statement which assigns the remainder of 5 divided by 2 to a variable called "rem".
4. Write a statement which subtracts -5 from 10.
5. Write in C: if 1 is not equal to 23, print out "Thank goodness for mathematics!"

Questions

1. How many kinds of loop does C offer, and what are they?
2. When is the condition tested in each of the loops?
3. Which of the loops is always executed once?
4. Write a program which copies all input to output line by line.
5. Write a program to get 10 numbers from the user and add them together.

Questions

1. Given any array, how would you find a pointer to the start of it?
2. How do you pass an array as a parameter? When the parameter is received by a function does C allocate space for a local variable and copy the whole array to the new location?
3. Write a statement which declares an array of type double which measures 4 by 5. What numbers can be written in the indicies of the array?

Questions

1. What are the two main ways of declaring strings in a program?
2. How would you declare a static array of strings?
3. Write a program which gets a number between 0 and 9 and prints out a different message for each number. Use a pre-initialized array to store the strings.

Questions

1. What type of data is returned from mathematical functions?
2. All calculations are performed using long variables. True or false?
3. What information is returned by strlen()?
4. What action is performed by strcat()?
5. Name five kinds of error which can occur in a mathematical function.

Questions

1. Which operators can be hidden inside other statements?
2. Give a reason why you would not want to do this in every possible case.
3. Hidden operators can be used in return statements .e.g

return (++x);

Would there be any point in writing:

return (x++);

Questions

1. Is FILE a reserved word? If so why is it in upper case?
2. Write a statement which declares a file pointer called fp.
3. Enumerated data are given values by the compiler so that it can do arithmetic with them. True or false?
4. Does void do anything which C cannot already do without this type?
5. What type might a timer device be declared if it were to be called by a variable name?
6. Write a statement which declares a new type "real" to be like the usual type "double".
7. Variables declared const can be of any type. True or false?

Questions

1. What is the difference between a structure and a union?
2. What is a member?
3. If x is a variable, how would you find out the value of a member called mem.
4. If ptr is a pointer to a structure, how would you find out the value of a member called mem.
5. A union is a group of variables in a single package. True or false?

Questions

1. What is a structure diagram?
2. How are data linked together to make a data structure?
3. Every separate struct type in a data structure has its own variable name. True or false?
4. How are the members of structures accessed in a data structure?
5. Write a statement which creates a new structure of type "struct BinaryTree" and finds its address. Store that address in a variable which is declared as follows:

struct BinaryTree *ptr;

6. Write a small program which makes a linked list, three structures long and assigns all their data to be zero. Can you automate this program with a loop? Can you make it work for any number of structures?

C Programming Questions

2009-05-15T00:15:00.000-07:00

C++ Programming

2009-05-14T21:11:00.001-07:00

What do I mean? C++ is a programming language--it will allow you to control your computer, making it do what you want it to do. This programming tutorial series is all about helping you take advantage of C++.
Getting Set Up - C++ Compilers
The very first thing you need to do, before starting out in C++, is to make sure that you have a compiler. What is a compiler, you ask? A compiler turns the program that you write into a executable that your computer can actually understand and run. If you're taking a course, you probably have one provided through your school. If you're starting out on your own, your best bet is to use Code::Blocks. Our page on setting up Code::Blocks will take you through setting up the Code::Blocks compiler in great detail.
Advanced Compiler Details
If you've got some prior experience, or just want a menu of choices, you should know that there are several common compilers. If you're new to programming, just skip this section!

Some common compilers include Borland C++, Microsoft C++, and GNU C++.

There are also many front-end environments for the different compilers--the most common is Dev-C++ around GNU's G++ compiler. Some, such as G++, are free, while others are not. Please see the compiler listing for more information on how to get a compiler and set it up.

Each of these compilers is slightly different. Each one should support the ANSI/ISO standard C++ functions, but each compiler will also have nonstandard functions (these functions are similar to slang spoken in different parts of a country). Sometimes the use of nonstandard functions will cause problems when you attempt to compile source code (the actual C++ written by a programmer and saved as a text file) with a different compiler. These tutorials use ANSI/ISO standard C++ and should not suffer from this problem (with sufficiently modern compilers). Note that if you are using an older compiler, such as TCLite, you should read check out some compatability issues.

Intro to the C++ Language
A C++ program is a collection of commands, which tell the computer to do "something". This collection of commands is usually called C++ source code, source code or just code. Commands are either "functions" or "keywords". Keywords are a basic building block of the language, while functions are, in fact, usually written in terms of simpler functions--you'll see this in our very first program, below. (Confused? Think of it a bit like an outline for a book; the outline might show every chapter in the book; each chapter might have its own outline, composed of sections. Each section might have its own outline, or it might have all of the details written up.) Thankfully, C++ provides a great many common functions and keywords that you can use.

But how does a program actually start? Every program in C++ has one function, always named main, that is always called when your program first executes. From main, you can also call other functions whether they are written by us or, as mentioned earlier, provided by the compiler.

So how do you get access to those prewritten functions? To access those standard functions that comes with the compiler, you include a header with the #include directive. What this does is effectively take everything in the header and paste it into your program. Let's look at a working program:

#include

using namespace std;

int main()
{
cout<<"HEY, you, I'm alive! Oh, and Hello World!\n";
cin.get();
}

C Programming

2009-05-14T20:41:00.001-07:00

The Compiler

A C program is made by running a compiler which takes the typed source program and converts it into an object file that the computer can execute. A compiler usually operates in two or more phases (and each phase may have stages within it). These phases must be executed one after the other. As we shall see later, this approach provides a flexible way of compiling programs which are split into many files. img/1.4.jpg

A two-phase compiler works in the following way:

* Phase 1 scans a source program, perhaps generating an intermediate code (quadruples or pcode) which helps to simplify the grammar of the language for subsequent processing. It then converts the intermediate code into a file of object code (though this is usually not executable yet). A separate object file is built for each separate source file. In the GNU C compiler, these two stages are run with the command gcc -c; the output is one or more .o files.
* Phase 2 is a Linker. This program appends standard library code to the object file so that the code is complete and can "stand alone". A C compiler linker suffers the slightly arduous task of linking together all the functions in the C program. Even at this stage, the compiler can fail, if it finds that it has a reference to a function which does not exist. With the GNU C compiler this stage is activated by the command gcc -o or ld.

To avoid the irritation of typing two or three separate commands (which are often cumbersome) you will normally find a simple interface for executing compiler. Traditionally this is an executable program called cc for C Compiler:

cc filename

gcc filename

On GNU systems, this results in the creation of an executable program with the default name a.out. To tell the compiler what you would like the executable program to be called, use the -o option for setting the name of the object code:

gcc -o program-name filname

For example, to create a program called myprog from a file called myprog.c, write

gcc -o myprog myprog.c

The printf() function

One invaluable function provided by the standard input/output library is called printf or `print-formatted'. It provides an superbly versatile way of printing text. The simplest way to use it is to print out a literal string:

printf ("..some string...");

Text is easy, but we also want to be able to print out the contents of variables. These can be inserted into a text string by using a `control sequence' inside the quotes and listing the variables after the string which get inserted into the string in place of the control sequence. To print out an integer, the control sequence %d is used:

printf ("Integer = %d",someinteger);

The variable someinteger is printed instead of %d. The printf function is described in full detail in the relevant chapter, but we'll need it in many places before that. The example program below is a complete program. If you are reading this in Info, you can copy this to a file, compile and execute it.

Example Listing

/***********************************************************/
/* Short Poem */
/***********************************************************/

#include

/***********************************************************/

main () /* Poem */

{
printf ("Astronomy is %dderful \n",1);
printf ("And interesting %d \n",2);
printf ("The ear%d volves around the sun \n",3);
printf ("And makes a year %d you \n",4);
printf ("The moon affects the sur %d heard \n",5);
printf ("By law of phy%d great \n",6);
printf ("It %d when the the stars so bright \n",7);
printf ("Do nightly scintill%d \n",8);
printf ("If watchful providence be%d \n",9);
printf ("With good intentions fraught \n");
printf ("Should not keep up her watch divine \n");
printf ("We soon should come to %d \n",0);
}

Output

Astronomy is 1derful \n"
And interesting 2
The ear3 volves around the sun
And makes a year 4 you
The moon affects the sur 5 heard
By law of phy6d great
It 7 when the the stars so bright
Do nightly scintill8
If watchful providence be9
With good intentions fraught
Should not keep up her watch divine
We soon should come to 0

Questions

1. Write a command to print out the message "Wow big deal".
2. Write a command to print out the number 22?
3. Write two commands to print out "The 3 Wise Men" two different ways.
4. Why are there only a few reserved command words in C?

Libraries are files of ready-compiled code which we can merge with a C program at compilation time. Each library comes with a number of associated header files which make the functions easier to use. For example, there are libraries of mathematical functions, string handling functions and input/output functions and graphics libraries. It is up to every programmer to make sure that libraries are added at compilation time by typing an optional string to the compiler. For example, to merge with the math library libm.a you would type

cc -o program_name prog.c -lm

when you compile the program. The -lm means: add in libm. If we wanted to add in the socket library libsocket.a to do some network programming as well, we would type

cc -o program_name prog.c -lm -lsocket

and so on.

The most commonly used header file is the standard input/output library which is called stdio.h. This belongs to a subset of the standard C library which deals with file handling. The math.h header file belongs to the mathematics library libm.a. Header files for libraries are included by adding to the source code:

#include header.h

at the top of a program file. For instance:

#include "myheader.h"

includes a personal header file which is in the current directory. Or

#include

includes a file which lies in a standard directory like /usr/include.

The #include directive is actually a command to the C preprocessor, which is dealt with more fully later, See Preprocessor.

Some functions can be used without having to include library files or special libraries explicitly since every program is always merged with the standard C library, which is called libc.

#include

main ()

{
printf ("C standard I/O file is included\n");
printf ("Hello world!");
}

A program wishing to use a mathematical function such as cos would need to include a mathematics library header file.

#include
#include

main ()

{ double x,y;

y = sin (x);
printf ("Maths library ready");
}

A particular operating system might require its own special library for certain operations such as using a mouse or for opening windows in a GUI environment, for example. These details will be found in the local manual for a particular C compiler or operating system.

The next most simple C program is perhaps a program which calls a function do_nothing and then ends.

/******************************************************/
/* */
/* Program : do nothing */
/* */
/******************************************************/

main() /* Main program */

{
do_nothing();
}

/******************************************************/

do_nothing() /* Function called */

{
}

The skeleton plan of a program, shown below, helps to show how the elements of a C program relate. The following chapters will then expand upon this as a kind of basic plan.

/****************************************************/
/* */
/* Skeleton program plan */
/* */
/****************************************************/

#include /* Preprocessor defns */
#include

#define SCREAM "arghhhhh"
#define NUMBER_OF_BONES 123

/****************************************************/

main () /* Main program & start */

{ int a,b; /* declaration */

a=random();
b=function1();
function2(a,b);
}

/****************************************************/

function1 () /* Purpose */

{
....
}

/****************************************************/

function2 (a,b) /* Purpose */

int a,b;

{
....
}

Questions

1. What is a block?
2. Name the six basic things which make up a C program.
3. Does a C program start at the beginning? (Where is the beginning?)
4. What happens when a program comes to a } character? What does this character signify?
5. What vital piece of punctuation goes at the end of every simple C statement?

Example 1

main () /* The almost trivial program */

{

/* This little line has no effect */
/* This little line has none */
/* This little line went all the way down
to the next line */
/* And so on ... */

}

Example 2

#include /* header file */

#define NOTFINISHED 0

/**********************************************/

/* A bar like the one above can be used to */
/* separate functions visibly in a program */

main ()

{ int i; /* declarations */

do

{
/* Nothing !!! */
}

while (NOTFINISHED);

}

Functions help us to organize a program in a simple way; in Kernighan & Ritchie C they are always written in the following form:

identifier (parameter1,parameter2,..)

types of parameters

{ variable declarations

statements..
......
....

}

For example

Pythagoras(x,y,z)

double x,y,z;

{ double d;

d = sqrt(x*x+y*y+z*z);

printf("The distance to your point was %f\n",d);
}

In the newer ANSI standard, the same function is written slightly differently:

Pythagoras(double x, double y, double z)

{ double d;

d = sqrt(x*x+y*y+z*z);

printf("The distance to your point was %f\n",d);
}

The name of a function in C can be anything from a single letter to a long word. The name of a function must begin with an alphabetic letter or the underscore _ character but the other characters in the name can be chosen from the following groups:

a .. z
(any letter from a to z)
A .. Z
(any letter from A to Z)
0 .. 9
(any digit from 0 to 9)
_
(the underscore character)

This means that sensible names can easily be chosen for functions making a program easy to read. Here is a real example function which adds together two integer numbers a and b and prints the result c. All the variables are chosen to be integers to keep things simple and the result is printed out using the print-formatted function printf, from the the standard library, with a "%d" to indicate that it is printing a integer.

Add_Two_Numbers (a,b) /* Add a and b */

int a,b;

{ int c;

c = a + b;
printf ("%d",c);

}

This function is not much use standing alone. It has to be called from somewhere. A function is called (i.e. control is passed to the function) by using its name with the usual brackets () to follow it, along with the values which are to be passed to the function:

main ()

{ int c,d;

c = 1;
d = 53;

Add_Two_Numbers (c,d);
Add_Two_Numbers (1,2);

}

Structure diagram

Level 0: main ()

|

Level 1: DownOne ()

/ \
/ \

Level 2: DownLeft() DownRight()

Program Listing

/***********************************************/
/* */
/* Function Snakes & Ladders */
/* */
/***********************************************/

#include

/***********************************************/
/* Level 0 */
/***********************************************/

main ()

{
printf ("This is level 0: the main program\n");
printf ("About to go down a level \n");

DownOne ();

printf ("Back at the end of the start!!\n");
}

/************************************************/
/* Level 1 */
/************************************************/

DownOne () /* Branch out! */

{
printf ("Down here at level 1, all is well\n");

DownLeft (2);
printf ("Through level 1....\n");
DownRight (2);

printf ("Going back up a level!\n");
}

/************************************************/
/* Level 2 */
/************************************************/

DownLeft (a) /* Left branch */

int a;

{
printf ("This is deepest level %d\n",a);
printf ("On the left branch of the picture\n");
printf ("Going up!!");
}

/************************************************/

DownRight (a) /* Right branch */

int a;

{
printf ("And level %d again!\n",a);
}
file sumber 1
file sumber 2

A Framework for Distributed Trust Management

2009-05-11T21:28:00.001-07:00

Lalana Kagal, Scott Cost, Timothy Finin, Yun Peng
Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Department
University of Maryland Baltimore County
1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250

.
email : lkagal1,rcost1,finin,ypeng@cs.umbc.edu
phone : 410-455-3971
fax : 410-455-3969

Abstract

This paper discusses our infrastructure for handling distributed security and trust. It outlines a method for access control
across domains that handles complex inter domain trust relationships. We have developed a flexible representation of trust
information in Prolog, that can model permissions and delegations. We are currently working on modeling obligations,
entitlements, and prohibitions as well. This paper describes a scheme for restricting re-delegation without using a specific
delegation depth. Using examples, this paper explains the internal working of our system and the trust information that flows
within it.

Keywords

Authorization, security, distributed trust, agents, X.509 certificates, knowledge representation, role based

1 Introduction

Authorization in a distributed systems is quite different from that in centralized systems. Various schemes for decentralized
security have been suggested like Access Control Lists, Role based Access Control, PolicyMaker [1] etc. Though the
above mentioned mechanisms are powerful, individually they are unable to meet the all requirements of trust management.
Generally security systems should not only authenticate users, but also allow users to delegate their rights and beliefs to other
users securely and have a flexible mechanism for this delegation. Most schemes either only support authentication, ignoring
delegation altogether, or support delegation to some extent without providing the flexibility needed, or do not provide
sufficient restrictions on delegation of rights.

We have tried to solve this problem through the application of a chain of trust using rights and delegations [5]. In our
system, we model permissions as the rights of an agent. We associate rights with actions, so possession of a right permits the
corresponding agent to perform a certain action. These permissions can be extended by delegation from an authorized agent.

This paper is organized as follows : 2 discusses other similar approaches, while 3 discusses the problem and the two
scenarios we target. We then explain our infrastructure in brief in 4. We subsequently discuss the syntax used in the system
including rights and delegations in 5. 6 expands on the architecture in greater detail giving a brief example, and section 7
discusses our ontology. 8 talks a little bit about the policy and how it is used. We describe the working of our system with
examples in 9. 10 is a discussion of future research directions, and 11 contains the summary.

2 Related Work

Blaze, who coined the term Distributed Trust Management, tries to solve the problem by simple access control, but without
any authentication or delegation. [1, 2]. The Simple Public Key Infrastructure (SPKI) was the first proposed standard for

1

distributed trust management [4]. This solution, though simple and elegant, does not help in delegations. W.Johnston’s Use-
Condition Centered Approach [10] uses certificates for use-conditions that are created by those responsible for the resources.
This approach can only be used when the resource is simple enough to be described by use-conditions, but in large systems
there could be many types of access like read, write, execute etc. Another system we looked at was TE [11] from IBM. But
we found that it was inadequate because it only considers role authorization. Delegation logics [12, 18] from IBM is very
similar to our approach, but is not able to capture adequately the constraints associated with rights and delegations.

Although the above mentioned models are very powerful, individually they were unable to meet the all requirements of
trust management. Generally security systems should not only authenticate users, but also allow them to delegate their rights
and beliefs to other users securely. The systems mentioned above either support only authentication ignoring delegation altogether,
or support delegation to some extent without providing the flexibility needed, or do not provide sufficient restrictions
on the delegation of rights.

We drew on the key points of most of the above-mentioned schemes and put together an infrastructure that uses X.509
certificates and policies to enforce security. A policy contains basic or axiomatic rights, rights associated with roles, rules for
delegation, and rules for checking validity of requests.

One of the most important features of our system is that it allows agents to delegate any right that they may have. Whether
these delegations are honored depends on the policy. Constraints can be added to both the actual delegation and to the
delegatee, tightening control on the rights and permissions, and we use a redelegatable flag that controls whether the right
can be further delegated.

3 The Problem

We have tried to solve the problem of trust management in a system which has widely distributed resources and agents.
There are two scenarios that we have tackled, a Home/Office Automation model, and an electronic Supply Chain Management
system like EECOMS [35]. We have successfully implemented the EECOMS scenario and are currently working on the
SmartOffice scenario with portable devices.

3.1 EECOMS : IBM project
This work was sponsored by the CIIMPLEX consortium [35] for the Extended Enterprise COalition for Integrated Collaborative
Manufacturing Systems (EECOMS) project which is aimed at providing a set of technologies for integrated supply
chain and business to business electronic commerce.

We implemented a distributed trust mechanism for a Supply Chain Management system for the CIIMPLEX EECOMS
project [6]. A supply chain management system consists of groups of agents that are either vendors or clients. These agents
need to access resources in each others’ domains. For example, a software consultant may need to access the database of its
client. Each group of agents that are part of the same company form a policy domain and follow the same security policy.
The policy in each domain is enforced by special agents called security agents. Agents are identified by an ID certificate,
which is an X.509 certificate. All communication in the system is via signed messages. Security agents are able to reason
about these signed messages and policies to provide authorization.

Agents can make requests, either for certain actions or to ask for permission to perform some action, and they attach all
their credentials, i.e. ID certificate, authorization certificates etc. to these requests. The security agents generate authorization
certificates, which can be used as ’tickets’ to access a certain resource. The authorization certificates are generated as the
result of a request for permission, if the request is valid. Policies consist of rules about authorization, delegation and some
basic knowledge about the agents. This knowledge could be about the role of the agents, and permissions associated with the
agents or the roles. An agent is allowed to execute any action that it has the permission to execute, or if the ability has been
delegated to it by an agent with the right to delegate. In our system we view ’delegation’ as a permission itself. Only an agent
with the right to delegate a certain action can actually delegate the action, and the ability to delegate itself can be delegated.

We have developed a representation of trust information in Prolog, that allows flexibility in describing requests and delegations.
Delegations can be constrained by specifying whether the delegatee has the permission to delegate and to whom it
can redelegate.

This system is currently being extended by the addition of entitlements, prohibitions and obligations and the ability to
delegate them.

3.2 Home/Office Automation
Our architecture could apply to the wireless world in the following scenario. If a visiting lecturer at a University needs to
use a projector in a lecture hall, she/he needs to be delegated the right by some authorized personnel. If the policy states that
all professors can use the projector and that professors can delegate this right to the lecturer, the lecturer can obtain the ’token’
from a professor. Using a hand-held device such as a PDA, mobile phone etc. the visitor beams her/his identifying token to
the projector along with the delegation token. The projector may or may not have the processing power to reason about these
certificates and rights. If it does not have the capability, the agent in the projector sends the token (using wireless or wire line
communication) to a ’smart’ agent that evaluates the request and returns the result. The agent that does the reasoning needs to
check the identity of the requester and then make sure that the requester has the right to access the projector. In this case, the
requester has been delegated the right by a professor, so the agent should verify that the professor has the right to delegate.
Once the request is validated, the visitor can beam her/his slides to the projector agent that starts up the presentation.

We have started experimenting with Bluetooth [34] and believe that the above scenario is not too far in the future [25, 20].

4 Infrastructure

Our architecture assumes that each group of agents is protected by special security agents that trust each other. These
agents are responsible for authorizing access to services/resources within that group. All delegations are stored by the
security agent, which has the ability to reason about them. An agent (requester) can execute a right or access a resource by
providing its identity and/or authorization information to the security agent. The security agent checks this information for
validity, and reads its policies to verify that the requester has the right. If the requesting agent does not have the right, the
security agent returns an error message, otherwise it forwards the request to the agent in charge of the resource, accessor
agent, along with a message saying that the request is authorized by the security agent. As the security agent is trusted by
every other agent in the system, the requesting agent is granted access. If the accessor agent has the computing power to
reason about certificates, rights and delegations the request can be sent directly to it, instead of via the security agent.

The requester can also obtain access to a certain resource that it previously could not access, through a delegation from an
authorized agent (delegator). An authorized delegator (an agent with the right to delegate a certain right) delegates the right
by sending a message to the security agent. The delegation has to be approved by the security agent and should conform to its
policies. The requester approaches the security agent with its identity information and a request for permission to access the
right. The security agent verifies the identity of the requester and checks with its policies to make sure that the requester can
be given access to the resource. The new delegation makes the request valid. The security agent generates a authorization
certificate which contains a Prolog [36] like statement giving the requester permission to access the resource. This message
is sent to the requesting agent. These statements are dated and are valid only for a certain period. While the statements are
valid, the requesting agent can use them as tickets to access the resource. This causes the entire process of verification and
reasoning to be skipped, and the requester gets access to the resource as soon as the authorizing statement is recognized and
verified by the accessor agent.

5 Syntax

We use a number of predicates to represent the information flowing in the system.

5.1 Rights
Our system encodes rights into a logical form in Prolog as the following

rightToDo(agentName, Action, Constraint)

agentName : uri for the agent

Action : representation of the ability i.e. accessDB(db5)

Constraint : restriction on the right, i.e. employee(agentName,XYZ)

Using this statement, all kinds of rights can be specified. An agent is given the right to perform a certain action based on
a constraint. An agent can execute the action only if is satisfies all the constraints.

5.2 Delegation
An agent can execute any right, that is either an axiomatic right specified in the policy or that has been delegated to it. It
can also delegate this right to other agents, if it has been given the right to subsequently delegate it. A delegation itself is a
right which can be delegated. So, an agent could be given the right to perform some action but not to further delegate it or
given the right to some action and the right to delegate it, or the right to delegate some action but not the right to execute it.

So, an agent can delegate any ’delegatable’ right. This leads to a chain of delegation, and if any one link is no longer valid
the access is denied. We also allow for constraints on rights, delegations and ability to re-delegate.

One of the main features in our system is that false delegations are not rejected as soon as they enter the system, but
are stored for later evaluation of a possible security breach. An agent has the ability to make any delegation, but whether
it is honored depends on various factors, including the security policy, the agent’s rights, and the rights of the agents in the
delegation chain.

The statement that is used to describe delegations and constraints on delegations is

delegate(IssueTime, StartTime, EndTime, From, To,
canDo(X, Action, CDC), IDC, Redelegatable)

IssueTime : when the statement was issued

StartTime : when the delegation becomes valid

EndTime : when the delegation becomes invalid

From : delegator agent

To : delegatee agent

canDo(X,Action,Action, CDC) : delegated action, X has the right to the action, only if X satisfies the condition CDC

IDC : condition on the delegation

Redelegatable : true if the To can re-delegate the action

5.2.1 Types of delegations
Our work in the EECOMS scenario involved several different types of delegations which we describe here and give simple
examples.

Time Bound Delegation : This is a delegation that is valid only for a certain time period

delegate(1105001120,1105001121, 1110001120, From, X,
canDo(Y, Action, CDC), employee(X,abc), Flag)

The delegation is only valid between 1105001121 and 1110001120.

Group Delegation : This can be used to delegate to agents from a group who satisfy certain conditions

delegate(IssueTime, StartTime, EndTime, From, X,
canDo(Y, Action, CDC), (employee(X,abc),age(X,24)), Flag)

This delegates to all employees of abc who are 24 years old, the ability to perform a certain action.

Action Restricted Delegation : This is a delegation that requires the delegatee to satisfy certain conditions before the
action can be carried out.

delegate(IssueTime, StartTime, EndTime, From, X,
canDo(Y, Action, name(Y,john) ), (employee(X,abc),age(X,24)), Flag)

Only employees of abc who are 24 and named John can execute this action, even if all employees aged 24 have been
delegated the right.

Redelegatable Delegation : In this delegation, a right can be delegated along with the permission to re-delegate the
right.

delegate(IssueTime, StartTime, EndTime, From, To,
canDo(X, Action, CDC), IDC, true)

This statement allows the recipient to further delegate the right.

Strictly Redelegatable Delegation : This statement allows a right to be re-delegated without giving the delegatee the
right to actually execute the action.

delegate(IssueTime, StartTime, EndTime, From, john,
canDo(Y, Action, notname(Y,john)), IDC, true)

John is given the right to further delegate the Action, but John cannot execute the action himself.

6 Implementation

We have applied our approach to a electronic commerce multi-agent system, EECOMS, for evaluation. We use X.509
certificates created by a Certificate Authority (CA) as identity certificates and X.509 certificates containing signed Prolog
statements as authorizing statements.

When an agent needs to access a resource, it contacts its security agent with a Signed Message Object, SMO, (refer to
Data Structure) containing its ID certificate and the request. If the security agent is convinced that the requester has the
right and the request is within the company, it is allowed to go through. If the resource belongs to another company, the
security agent creates an authorization certificate and returns it to the requester. The requester sends a request to the other
company’s security agent, along with its ID certificate and its authorization certificate. The resource’s security agent verifies
all the certificates and as security agents are trusted across companies, allows the request to go through. This authorization
certificate can be used for a certain time period after which it expires. Then the agent has to request a new authorization
certificate. By having very short time periods, revocations can be handled .

If an agent wants to delegate a certain right, it sends a Signed Message Object containing the delegation and its certificate
to the security agent. As delegations can be made to a group of agents, it is not possible to send the delegation to each agent.
When one of these agents, for example agent1, needs to use the right, it approaches the security agent with a Signed Message
Object. The security agent knows that agent1 has been delegated the right, so it is authorized. The security agent returns a
delegation certificate containing an authorization statement in Prolog, giving the agent with the corresponding id certificate
the right. If the resource belongs to another company, the requester sends the request with the delegation and ID certificates
to the security agent of the other company. The security agent of the other company verifies the certificates and checks the
delegation chain. If it is satisfied, the access is allowed to go through and the request is forwarded to the agent responsible
for the resource. Similar to authorization certificates, delegation certificates are valid for a short period, after which the agent
has to get a new certificate.

6.1 Data Structure
Each agent communication is a series of objects, based on a simple Agent Communication Language (ACL) [23, 38],
known as Signed Message Objects (SMO). Each SMO consists of a list of certificates, the request or the authorization
statement signed with the senders private key, and other required fields. The relevant certificates are included as part of the
communication data structure to expedite the authorization process; message, signed message. Each SMO should contain
the ID certificate used to sign the message. The message field contains Prolog statements, which can be either requests
or delegations. The signed message field, as its name suggests, contains the signed version of the Prolog statement. The
requesting agent sends long with his request, other credentials that will strengthen his request.

To verify the validity of a Signed Message Object the following items are checked : The certificate that has been used to
sign the message should to be issued by a trusted Certificate Authority and should be still active. All other certificates are
verified as well. After this, the signed message is matched with the clear text message to make sure that the message was
indeed signed by the attached certificate. The SMO is also time bound, so that has to be checked as well.

(Abstrak

Makalah ini membahas infrastruktur kami didistribusikan untuk menangani keamanan dan kepercayaan. It mencantumkan metode untuk kontrol akses
di seluruh domain yang menangani kompleks hubungan antar domain kepercayaan. Kami telah mengembangkan fleksibel keterwakilan kepercayaan
Prolog informasi, yang dapat model perizinan dan delegasi. Kami sedang bekerja pada pemodelan kewajiban,
hak, dan prohibitions juga. Makalah ini menjelaskan program untuk membatasi kembali delegasi tanpa menggunakan tertentu
delegasi mendalam. Menggunakan contoh, makalah ini menjelaskan internal bekerja dari sistem kami kepercayaan dan informasi yang mengalir
yang ada.

Kata kunci

Otorisasi, keamanan, didistribusikan kepercayaan, agen, sertifikat X.509, representasi pengetahuan, berdasarkan peran

1 Pendahuluan

Otorisasi didistribusikan dalam sistem ini sangat berbeda dari yang di sistem sentralisasi. Berbagai skema untuk desentralisasi
keamanan telah diusulkan seperti Access Control Lists, Peranan berbasis Access Control, pemimpin [1] Meskipun dll
disebutkan di atas mekanisme yang kuat, secara individu mereka tidak dapat memenuhi semua persyaratan kepercayaan manajemen.
Umumnya sistem keamanan seharusnya tidak hanya mengotentikasi pengguna, namun juga memungkinkan pengguna untuk melimpahkan hak-hak mereka dan kepercayaan lainnya
users aman dan memiliki mekanisme fleksibel untuk delegasi. Skema paling baik hanya mendukung otentikasi, mengabaikan
delegasi sekaligus, atau dukungan delegasi ke beberapa taraf tanpa memberikan fleksibilitas diperlukan, atau tidak memberikan
cukup membatasi hak-hak delegasi.)

A Framework for Distributed Trust Management

2009-05-11T21:28:00.000-07:00