DVD Burning Tips
July 31, 2008
CD and DVD replication is a process that works by creating discs from scratch. Not to be confused with duplication (the act of burning information onto readymade, commercially-available blank CD-Rs and DVD-Rs), replication relies on the use of molds to produce actual discs that already contain digital data. It is the preferred and recommended mode of mass production for quantities in excess of 500 units.
Replication begins with a painstaking process called glass mastering. In this step, a laser is used to copy data onto a light-reactive glass plate. The plate’s photosensitive glaze reacts to the heat of the laser, thus etching several gigabytes worth of digital information for permanent storage.
The data encoded on the glass master comes in binary form, a series of 1s and 0s. While these 1s and 0s may seem like gobbledygook to the average human, it is the language that CD and DVD players understand. Once scored onto the plate via laser, binary information appears as very tiny depressions of varying depths, similar to the grooves on a vinyl record.
Microsoft CRM Integration with IBM Lotus Notes Domino ? Machinery Dealership Example
July 30, 2008
IBM Lotus Notes with Domino email server is traditional document workflow management solution for large corporate business, where you need audit trail on approval cycle and decision making. Microsoft Business Solutions CRM is very cost efficient solution to automate sales process. It might be surprising, but we see good strata of clients who are willing to deploy and integrate both systems: MS CRM and Lotus Domino. In our opinion these clients are balancing ERP platform risks and trying to protect and deploy investments into Lotus licenses, while deploying new and already leading CRM solution ? Microsoft CRM. In this small article we’ll give you the integration example ? European division of one of the well known machinery manufacturer dealership network.
? Custom Lotus Database. In our case client had custom database, which was designed back in the beginning of 1990th. Some dealers had Lotus Notes Domino 4.0 and some of them had 6.0 and 6.5. Technical excurse ? in Lotus Notes Domino 6.0 you can use Java 2 agents, and it seems to be platform independent (Microsoft Windows Server, IBM AS/400). To synch all the dealerships ? the decision was made to upgrade across the network to Lotus Notes Domino 6.0 (to be a bit conservative)
Not All Project Management Software is Created Equal
July 29, 2008
The purpose of Project Management Software is to provide an environment in which a group of people can work together on joint projects. Most projects involve the development and implementation of new ideas, and these ideas have to be presented, evaluated, and revised.
The role of Project Management Software is to help this collaborative effort along. Collaboration happens at various levels and it is up to the Project Management Software to facilitate all these levels.
A typical Project Management scenario
Consider a creative agency developing a marketing campaign for one of its major clients. The project team includes a number of individuals within the agency — the creative director, the copywriter, the illustrator, the graphic designer, etc. But it also includes personnel on the client’s staff: the product manager, the advertising manager, even the general manager if it is an important enough project.
And the team will usually include outside agents who have been hired specifically to deliver some component of the project: illustrators, photographers, voice over specialists, audio and video studio personnel…the list goes on.
All of these people have to be kept in the loop as the project proceeds.
What is Fleet Maintenance Management?
July 28, 2008
Fleet Maintenance Management is a critical position in any company that has a number of commercial vehicles. The individual responsible for the management and maintenance of fleet vehicles performs a variety of functions. It is imperative that companies such as delivery drivers or even taxi services know what is going on with their vehicles at all times. Preventative maintenance, order/vendor logging and fuel economy are among a few of the issues that fleet maintenance managers deal with on a daily basis.
One of the most important duties of a fleet maintenance manager is the maintenance of vehicles. With the number of vehicles many companies have on the road each day, maintaining quality vehicles is important. Regular and controlled fleet vehicle maintenance can assist in more efficient and lower cost repairs, fewer technical problems and more efficient tracking, management and budgeting of the fleet. An outstanding fleet vehicle maintenance program can save time and money by ensuring that vehicles are safe and on time.
Software Development in 2005 - Back to the Future
July 28, 2008
2005 ? Back to the Future.
What does the future hold? A big question and initially the answer is anything and everything. The predictions are sometimes close but most of the time they are far from the reality. Technology has moves on apace and the core players in the various sectors of the computing industry invest in research and development which increases the rate of technology introduction with performance improvements or benefits outweighing the previous technology that customers/users/consumers must take advantage of, or so that is what they tell us. What is the truth? And what is the future?
For the developer community I believe that things have not changed all that much other than there a more defined lines to be drawn between types of developers i.e. games vs corporate applications, mobile vs military. These differences are reflected in the methodologies and tools used by each group. However, the principles remain the same, identify a requirement and then satisfy that with some code. The implementation various by user requirements. I spent four years in the late 1980s working on Software Engineering and Systems Engineering products at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). The focus of the team I was part of was to build an integrated environment that utilised Independent Software vendors products in a framework that enabled the output of one product to flow into the others as needed. This was done with customer input through a direct mechanism of regular meetings and information flow to create a generic specification that could be used in industries such as Aerospace, Defense and Telco. This was the time for quality processes, analysis and design methods and a burgeoning open standards movement. This developed into the Open Source movement and the associated issues that brings, but that is another story!
Microsoft CRM Lotus Notes Domino Connector FAQ
July 27, 2008
Microsoft Business Solutions CRM and IBM Lotus Notes Domino, being two groupware products from competing software development leaders, however could coexist within one organization computer network and even work together in collaboration. There maybe multiple reason why corporation would use both products: licensing, commitment to IBM Lotus Notes as legacy product, risk balancing ? staking on both Microsoft and Java/EJB/J2EE platforms, deploying Lotus advanced workflow to automate document management, etc. The need to synchronize MS CRM and Lotus Notes Domino databases is dictated by the ERP market and the connector is available. In this small article we’ll answer on the frequently asked questions.
? Messaging. Can MS CRM use Lotus Domino instead of Microsoft Exchange? Yes. MS CRM Lotus Domino connector allows you send messages from MS CRM objects: Lead, Account, Contact and all the future object, including Sales and Service modules
? Outgoing Messaging. When Microsoft CRM send email from Account, Contact, Lead ? connector takes control over and sends email through Lotus Domino server. It has Java Agent at the Lotus side and MS CRM SDK custom piece at the MS CRM side. If you compare outgoing messaging with standard MS CRM Exchange connector, then mechanism is slightly different. Microsoft CRM Exchange connector places GUID in the message header and uses this GUID to identify the object in the responding email to push it back to CRM and attach. MS CRM Lotus connector doesn’t use GUID ? instead it scans MS CRM objects (Accounts, Contacts, Leads) in smart cached way
40/sec to 500/sec
July 26, 2008
Introduction
Surprised, by the title? well, this is a tour of how we cracked the scalability jinx from handling a meagre 40 records per second to 500 records per second. Beware, most of the problems we faced were straight forward, so experienced people might find this superfluous. Contents
* 1.0 Where were we?
1.1 Memory hits the sky 1.2 Low processing rate 1.3 Data loss 
1.4 Mysql pulls us down 1.5 Slow Web Client
* 2.0 Road to Nirvana
2.1 Controlling memory! 2.2 Streamlining processing rate 2.3 What data loss uh-uh? 2.4 Tuning SQL Queries 2.5 Tuning database schema 2.5 Mysql helps us forge ahead! 2.6 Faster…faster Web Client
* 3.0 Bottom line
Where were we?
Initially we had a system which could scale only upto 40 records /sec. I could even recollect the discussion, about “what should be the ideal rate of records? “. Finally we decided that 40/sec was the ideal rate for a single firewall. So when we have to go out, we atleast needed to support 3 firewalls. Hence we decided that 120/sec would be the ideal rate. Based on the data from our competitor(s) we came to the conclusion that, they could support around 240/sec. We thought it was ok! as it was our first release. Because all the competitors talked about the number of firewalls he supported but not on the rate.
Antivirus Software ? Get The Bugs Before They Get You!
July 25, 2008
You turn on your computer, and it doesn’t look quite right. Maybe your icons have changed, or the background picture is wrong. Some options are disabled. Even worse, you may not be able to boot your computer up at all. Guess what ? it’s probably got a virus.
In today’s online world, protecting your computer from all the nasty things online is vital. Viruses can cause obvious issues, as described above, but they can also run silently in the background, propagating themselves across your computer and transferring on to the computers of people you know. Mostly, you only know you have a virus when substantial damage has already been done.
Some common signs of a virus include:
- Programs working erratically
- Computer locks up
- Greyed out options
- The browser home page has changed
- Icons have changed
- Difficulties starting up the computer
There is a solution! Antivirus software is readily available, and the good ones are very efficient at dealing with viruses in all their many and varied mutations. Basically, if you’re online, you need this type of software.
ERP System of the Future: Database, Business Logic and Interface
July 24, 2008
We will base our prognosis on our Microsoft Business Solutions ERP consulting practice: Microsoft Great Plains, Navision, Axapta, MS CRM. Also we’ve analyzed Oracle products: Oracle Financials, JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, and IBM Lotus Notes Domino. The trends could be seen in both: so-called functional consulting, dealing with overall system implementation and user training and customization ? customization tools, open vs. proprietary technologies, etc. Our ideas are addressed to large corporate business IT departments, because in our opinion these professionals are under the highest pressure to foresee the future and make proper selection decision today.
? No more new ERPs. The best time to launch software development company with the aim to create new ERP was 1980th. Those days we saw the dominance of Hardware & OS (UNIX, Solaris, DOS, Mac OS). Each platform was selfish and usually non-compatible with the others (somebody may point out to EDI interfaces ? yes, this was probably the only way of making different platforms talk to each other)
Microsoft Great Plains Payroll Module Customization Scenarios
July 23, 2008
It is now common thing when large corporation selects mid-market ERP or so-called standard functionality MRP solution as its corporate accounting system. Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains is very good candidate. As all MBS ERPs it has MS SQL Server 2000/2005 database platform and allows you to deploy customizable and altered solution, serving large corporation HR department. If you use US / Canadian Payroll module as paycheck solution for internal employees ? you probably don’t need custom logic. In this small article we’ll show you the way of tailored integrated solution for nation-wide placement agency.
? The Market. There is huge placement market in healthcare ? registered/certified nurses, also we see growing placement market in other industries, especially looking for temporary workforce: wholesale & retail, manufacturing, agriculture, etc.
? Paychecks. Temps might work for one or several of your regional clients and they may decide to walk in to one of your regional offices to request immediate paycheck for their weekly work. Each office should be capable to issue paycheck immediately and the problem is to process and post it in Great Plains. Definitely you can use eConnect to create work checks, but eConnect doesn’t allow you to post transactions, this is why you need custom solution. If you are large company ? you may have a need to issue several thousand checks per day ? automatic posting is the must.
