Computer Forensics

If you've been using Excel you'll know that macros are a great way to be more productive by automating repeated tasks. But to get the best out of Excel you need to know a little about the VBA language that enables you to edit and improve on macros and write your own routines.

This article looks at five simple ways to work with data and how it might be applied in your daily work with Excel.

1. The Do Loop Command

In programming, a common task is to repeat an operation until a certain condition is encountered or a series of changes are completed. Here's a simple example:

There are a few different varieties of the command; for example you can include an exit command within the loop when a condition is encountered.

An example might be to generate a list of 10 unique random numbers and exit the loop once the 10 numbers have been listed.

A word of warning about the do loop command; it's easy to overlook or program the condition status incorrectly and set up an endless loop which will cause your macro to run forever!

2. Searching Within A Text String To Find Some Other Text With Instr

If you're searching for a particular value in a worksheet sometimes you might want to see if your search text is partially contained in a cell. Here's the basic syntax:

The function inStr - you can remember it by thinking "in string" - tells you at what character number the search text starts in the target text; if it's greater than zero then you've found a match.

Alternatively, you can use the inStr command as a Boolean (true/false) value:

An example might be that you're searching for all the cell values that are "Las Vegas" but you're concerned some might be entered as "Los Vegas". You can use the inStr function to return the near matches:

3. Returning Part Of A Text String With Mid

Sometimes you'll just want to use part of a text value and discard the rest of the string.

The way to remember this function is "mid-string" - you're creating a new text value from mid-way through an old string and you can use other programming techniques to determine the value for first and last.

This example looks at what might be a telephone number and removes the area code:

4. Using The If Then Command To Determine An Action

A lot of programming is about making decisions within your code and the if then command is the most commonly used:

This code snippet is part of a looping routine that is searching though a column of phone numbers and stops when it finds an area code of "(06)"

5. Using For Next To Run A Series Of Commands

Similar to the do loop command for next is generally used when your code is able to act as a counter and exit when it reaches the upper limit:

Normally, you'd use the for next command when the value of the counter may determine the action within the loop. Here's a code example which examines a range determined by the first and last rows you specify.

Summary

In this article we've covered some of the basic VBA techniques and functions.

Sometimes there are several techniques available and it can be difficult to know which one to use. While it's tempting to say which ever one works is the best, a good rule of thumb is to use the technique which is most easily understandable after the code has been written.

Andy L Gibson is a former Web Site programmer rediscovering his interest in Excel applications for small business. His blog at http://solutions4business.wordpress.com/ holds the VBA code for all of his articles on Excel and is available for FREE download. He is developing an Excel application which will contain working examples of VBA methods and solutions.

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Excel users will often need to open a text file and convert the information into a spreadsheet format. For example data from another software application, such as a PDF text file might not be structured correctly to be read directly into Excel.

This article will show you how to write VBA code to open the text file and read the contents into a text string. If necessary you can then restructure the data so that it can be read in a spreadsheet format.

Using The VBA File System Object

Before accessing the text file you'll need to set up a reference enabling access to the file system.You do this by clicking the tools tab in the VBA code window and selecting the Microsoft Scripting Runtime library.

Our code will open the file, and read the contents line by line into a text string. What you do with the file contents is up to you, and this article will just focus on opening and reading the file.

We'll assume you have a file in a folder called "files" which is a sub-folder beneath the directory holding your main Excel file.

First, we'll set up variables to hold the file name, the output from the file and an object which will open the file for us.

Next, we define the file name and open it.

With the file open, we loop through it line by line, adding the contents to a text string before closing the file.

tmpText = tmpText & fso.ReadLine & "|"
Loop
fso.Close

We've added the pipe delimiter so that we can convert the text string into an array. You could just as easily write each line to an active sheet - it all depends on what you're trying to do.

Now we can convert the text string to an array and write each item to an active sheet. The advantage in using an array is that you can work with the contents of each line before adding it to the sheet.

For x = 0 To UBound(tmpText)

ActiveCell.Offset(x, 0).Value = tmpText(x)
Next

The difficulty is sometimes working out how to manipulate the text into a usable Excel format, but at least now you're able to access the data.

Summary
Opening and reading text files is a relatively straight-forward process but a good habit to get into is to build your own VBA code library so you don't need to remember the code and can concentrate instead on solving your own particular business problem.

Andy L Gibson is a former Web Site programmer rediscovering his interest in Excel applications for small business. His blog at http://solutions4business.wordpress.com/ holds the VBA code for all of his articles on Excel and is available for FREE download. He is developing an Excel application which will contain working examples of VBA methods and solutions.

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The Problem:

WordPress is notorious for "database bloat", in particular the "wp-options" table. This is where WordPress (WP) stores all info for plugins and themes, etc.

There are built-in functions for storing data in this table, so a lot of developers use it to store data that really should be in a separate table.

Also, most plugins don't clean up after themselves when you delete them.

To make things worse, WordPress stores a draft copy of EVERY post revision you make. This results in bloating of the "wp-posts" table.

Some Culprits:

I've come across TWO plugins that massively contribute to bloated wp-options tables:

Don't get me wrong, FWP is a fantastic plugin, BUT it stores "transient" records in wp-options, and then never cleans them up. Artiss does something similar.

PHASE 1: Database Cleanup.

A Solution:

There's a plugin called "Clean Options", which scans for wp-options records which are never referenced by your WP installation. It calls these "orphans", and you can tell it to remove them for you. Be careful, though: take a database backup before you delete ANYTHING. Select any options belonging to plugins you don't have installed any more. Be careful!

You should also be able to delete anything which starts with "_transient_".

A fly in the ointment:

If you have a wp-options table with 30000 records in it, then "Clean Options" isn't going to be able to cope. It will freeze-up. You won't be able to select records to delete.

Drastic Measures:

So where does that leave us? Manually deleting records from the wp-options table. Yes. That's scary. But it's the only way.

MAKE A BACKUP OF YOUR WP-OPTIONS TABLE

Use phpmyadmin to directly access your database, select the wp-options table, and use the "export" option to make a backup to your local machine.

Now execute the following sql statements:

select * from wp-options where wp-name like '_transient_%'

This will return all the transient records with names starting with "_transient_", and give you a tally of how many there are.

Check these records to make sure there's nothing else in there before you do anything drastic.

Like this:

delete from wp-options where wp-name like '_transient_%'

This deletes ALL records starting with "_transient_". You did check the results of the select statement, above, didn't you? No? That's OK, you DID make a backup copy. Didn't you?

You have just deleted (possibly) thousands of wp-options records (my record is 28000). Now, at this point, one of three things will happen:

If (3) happens, try adding "/license.txt" to the end of your site URL. If it displays the WP license agreement, your hosting is OK, but WP is having a breakdown.

Fix this by accessing the "active plugins" record in wp-options, (usually on page 2) and copying the contents somewhere safe. Now delete the contents (NOT the record itself!)

Now try accessing your site again. You should find that you can get into the admin panel and re-activate the plugins one-by-one until everything's back up.

(or paste the copy you made earlier back in)

Phase 2: Database Optimization.

You should now have a nice slimline wp-options table.

Next, we need to "optimize" the database.

By this, we mean delete all post revisions (you don't need them. You didn't know you HAD them, right?), spam comments, etc.

We also need to run standard database optimization routines on the core WP tables, remove table overheads etc..

Make a COMPLETE database backup before you start messing with this. (Same routine as before, but for ALL tables together).

We use the "wp-optimize" plugin, but there are others.

WP-Optimize has checkboxes for deleting post revisions, spam, and optimization.

We always run the optimization option ON IT'S OWN.. You DO NOT want a timeout at this point!

That's it. Hopefully nothing went horribly wrong.

If it did, it's YOUR problem. We told you to make backups several times.

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Computing Languages Overview

Computer languages can be categorized into three types.

Machine Language

It is a machine language of 0's and 1's and is the most flexible of all languages, but machine dependent and not portable

Assembly Language

It is a low level language of 0's and 1's but mnemonic codes are assigned for ease of learning.

Like cp=10010000 to copy data.

Structured Languages

The Structured languages use three structures for writing programming code.

Every modern language uses above three structures with difference in syntax.

They are near to human language instructions usually in English.

Sequence Structure

In sequence structure the code lines are executed or run in sequence or order line by line.

For example BASIC Language code to display name on screen.

CLS

Print "Please Enter your name:" Input $name

Print "My Name is " $name

End

Loop Structure

In Loop Structure the program lines are executed for specified times until a condition is true

CLS

For X=1 to 100

Print X

X=X+1

End For

End

The above code will be executed until X variable value is greater than 100.

Here FOR structure is used some languages uses DO WHILE or WHILE structure for loop.

Decision Structure

Decision Structure is for decision making.

For example the below code will take input from screen and display information upon input analysis.

Here IF structure is used

CLS

Print "Please your marital status S for single and M for married "

input $STATUS

IF $STATUS="S" THEN Print "Single"

Else

IF $STATUS="M" THEN PRINT "Married"

Else

Print "Not Valid Entry"

End

There are many structured languages few of them are:

BASIC

It stands for Beginners all purposes instructions code language.

It is English like language for easy understanding of beginners for various tasks like gaming, business and mathematical problems.

Pascal

Used for engineering and scientific calculations

FORTRAN

Stands for Formula Translation used for engineering and scientific calculations

COBOL

Stands for Common Business Oriented Language used for business applications

C Language

Developed by Bell lab used for system software development

C++

An extension of C Language uses OOP or object oriented programming for Application and system software.

OOP technology uses class structures for development as it uses existing codes/classes for re-use rather than to develop new one to reduce development time. Objects have properties and methods to handle them.

Visual BASIC

Extension of BASIC Language uses OOP designed for application development.

Java

It is like C++ designed to develop web page development and make them interactive through database linkages.

HTML

Stands for Hyper Text Markup Language used for web page development.

Joomla

Developed for Internet based applications.

PHP

Developed for Internet based server side applications

LISP

Stands for List processing developed for robotics.

All languages except machine language needs compilers to convert programming code into machine language of 1's and 0's understandable to machines.

Every language has its compiler made to convert it into machine code.

Some Languages uses interpreters and assembly language uses assembler to do these tasks.

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Enterprise Cloud Development (ECD) is being introduced as a new category or social construct within the software development industry. ECD is comprised of a five step pathway. The pathway isn't so much a market maturity model as it is a business line capability model. The five steps are defined as:

Step 1 - Embrace the Cloud. This step is about organizing your data and aggregating the data sets so that they can easily be traced or reported upon. Whether you are a new team member on a team or an attorney looking for code that has been listed in a lawsuit knowing where to find your data is the first step in being able to do something with that data.

Step 2 - Implement Community Architecture. As Brian Behlendorf (Founder of the Subversion and Apache open source projects) and Tim O'Reilly (founder of O'Reilly Media) explored in late 1990s there is a unique magic found in creating open source communities behind the corporate firewall. Through associations of data you can begin building conversations and architecting communities and threading stories around code, conversations or documents that relate to the software development lifecycle (SDLC). Since the late 1990s terms like Innersourcing grew from companies like Phillips (now NXP), Sun Microsystems or Motorola who implemented community architectures. In the late 2000s organizations like Red Hat, Inc. or the consultants at Olliance Group began adopting the term innersource and further validated Behlendorf and O'Reilly pioneering thought leadership. This work has been furthered by folks like Dan Pink who analyzed the open source industry to uncover the mysteries of what motivates and drives us to excel and innovate at work.

Step 3 - Codify Development Processes. Once your data has been aggregated and your innersourced community has been architected you can begin to contemplate how you do your work - this contemplation is often called process. Today Scrum, eXtreme Programming and Kanban are amongst some of the most popular processes to choose from for software development teams. What's more entire business lines or organizational transformations can began through Step 3. Process change agents believe that lasting organizational change can begin with process because of the link between process and culture.

Step 4 - Orchestrate DevOps. The idea is simply that development teams and traditional IT Operations groups are joining forces and will soon coexist on one team. One acid test of software development teams maturity is to see how close your development and IT Operations teams are. Here's a hint: the closer, the better.

Step 5 - Leverage Hybrid Cloud. Hybrid cloud infrastructures are infrastructure's that utilize both private (behind the firewall) and public (beyond the firewall) clouds to do different types of software development. For example developers on a team may utilize and internal tooling infrastructure to trace community based conversations but also utilize the Amazon.com EC2 public cloud for elastic on demand testing from seven global locations. Teams utilizing a hybrid strategy are seen as advanced.

Software development organizations can utilize this social construct or blueprint as a means of gaining capabilities and moving from one step to the next in the hopes of making technology or process improvements. Enterprise Cloud Development assessments are now becoming readily available.

About The Author:

Laszlo Szalvay currently serves as the VP Worldwide Scrum Business Line at CollabNet, Inc.

CollabNet leads the industry in Agile ALM in the Cloud. The company also offers training, including Certified ScrumMaster training, software development process improvement services, and an innovative community management approach to driving enterprise development success. As the founder of the open source Subversion project, CollabNet has collaborative development for distributed teams in our DNA.

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Anyone who has a great idea and wants to develop iPhone apps has a chance to do some very interesting things. At the same time, you also end up a potential victim of a scam if you hurry through and do not take the time to really understand the process. Lots of people sell lots of application creating systems and functions that actually do nothing to help you.

Before you embark on your application making journey, find out about the scams by signing up for a newsletter or email alert that will help to guide you in the right direction. You can have the best idea but until you can turn in into a functional application it just remains an idea. Some of the scams are even designed to find out what your idea it in case it is particularly profitable.

Most developers are pretty clear on the one thing you need the most. You need to be able to write code or be able to hire someone to write code. This is the one essential tool that can take you from the creative stages into the practical stages. Skipping this step in order to try to use a function that will turn your ideas into code may not lead you to where you want to go.

Code writing gives you specific control over the smallest of details. A simple application can be made into a fantastic one if the code is accurately and completely done. Your creativity can really come through when you have no limits to what can be created.

If you are unsure of where to find a developer you have a few options. There are websites that offer freelance services which may connect you with the right person. You almost always can find college kids who need a little money and are excellent in the field. You also can find independent developers online who have a very strong reputation, their own website, and samples to offer you.

Contracts and agreements can be signed to protect the integrity of your idea during the development process. This can ensure that you are the sole creator of the intellectual property you are planning on putting forth. Your idea may be covered in the agreement in such a way that allows you to expand on it without having to write up a new contract.

In order to develop iPhone apps that really pay off you want to find a developer that you can work with on a long term basis. This will give you the option of turning great ideas into a secondary or even primary income. Many of today's developers are finding that there is significant interest in the application market for business and personal use.

Visit Create-iphone-apps-now.com and learn how to develop iPhone apps with no programming experience. Discover the secret to successfully developing iPhone Apps and marketing them in the app store.

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Perhaps you have heard stories of people who knew how to develop iPhone apps and went on to cash in with their idea. You may be thinking that this is something you would really like to do, but do not know how you should go about it. There are resources to help you get the information that you want in order to take an idea and make it a reality.

The quality of the idea that you have will serve a big role in whether or not you can come through with your plan. Getting fresh ideas from blogs, magazines, and online sources is not likely to work because that is what everyone else is doing. In order to use an idea and turn it into an application the whole concept must be unique.

Some of the best ideas actually come from people who are already using the device. If you have a few friends who have one, get them together and then ask them what it is they would like to see their phones do. The answers might lead you down a great path of discovery.

You can ask yourself the same question. Once you have a good idea about what kind of application you are going to develop you need a programmer. Unless you can write code and specifically access the programming information that is necessary for iPhones, you will have to hire a professional. Sometimes an ace student will be available and can be less expensive.

Then it is time to plug into your resources. You must be able to find the Apple Development information in order to go any further. This is available for a fee and it opens the door into the application development world for Apple. The iOS Development Center is the one place where the programmers and the current input from the company converge to help you put together the information that you need.

Essentially, the development of an application like this is yours but the device is not. This requires you to meet the quality standards, follow all the rules, and place a well tested application on the appropriate web page. Even after all this you are not guaranteed success. However, a really good idea will take off and be one of the more popular applications.

If the idea is good enough it actually is not that hard to find success. A marginal idea will, of course, have marginal results. If you want to develop iPhone apps the one place you want to put the majority of your energy is the idea. Without a great idea the work will not pay off like you were hoping. With just one fantastic idea you will find the sky is the limit.

Visit Create-iphone-apps-now.com and discover how to start developing iPhone apps with no programming experience, and discover the secret to successfully develop iPhone apps in the app store.

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Learning a new programming language, if you already know how to program in a comprehensive language like C, C++, Java etc, is not difficult. That's because the concepts and principles of pretty much all languages are the same, they are used to instruct the computer to do meaningful things to the programmer. Computer (programming) languages are pretty much like human languages but they are a little bit more explicit. In order for the computer to do something, you should instruct them in detailed instructions. Before trying to lean a new programming language you should consider the 3 following things:

1) Is the language you are going to learn interpreted or compiled? Interpreted languages execute code by first reading one instruction, compiling it and then executing it. On the other side, compiled languages first compile the whole source code into binary code that is readable by the processor and then execute it step by step. Most of the programming languages fall into the compiled category. Knowing whether the language you are going to learn is complied or interpreted will have an impact on the development process.

2) The context the language is used in. There are programming languages for any kind of work. If you are going to program things related to statistics then you are most likely going to use R, if you are going to program for Windows then the most popular language is C#, for networking the language of choice would be C or Java. You should know in advance what you will use the language for. I have seen many students trying to just learn a new language without knowing what the language is used for.

3) The IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for the language. The times when you sat and opened the notepad to program are gone. There much more powerful environments to program than just notepad. I think the IDE has a great impact on the final product you are going to produce. Good IDEs provide color-coding, automatic filling and much much more controls. You should consult professional developers about a great IDE.

The last thing I would want you to know about is that programming is a lucrative job. It takes a lot of effort, experience, and time to become an experienced and professional developer. Some people say that you should have been exposed to programming since you were a "baby" but this is not true. Take the time to learn and practise, practise, practise.

To read more about programming and other useful computer stuff go to http://www.pctutorials.info/

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India is big. Really big. Really really big. According to the lazy man's research tool (aka Wikipedia) India has the 2nd largest population in the world at 1,200,000,000 a mere 200,000,000 less than China. After arriving late into Chennai Sunday around 2am and struggling with the 12.5 hours of jet lag differences from the West Coast I was able to get some rest of Sunday and then Monday I drove around (eh - I wasn't the one driving - but that's a different subject altogether) the streets of Chennai (population estimated at 11,000,000) where you can feel the bigness. With my company, I am lucky to have meetings with higher ups at the largest Systems Integrators (SIs) in the world. The folks running these companies are smart and competent. One SI startled me by telling me that he believed that the three largest SIs (Tata Consulting Services (TCS), Infosys, Wipro) have almost as many software engineers as the entire US software engineering labor pool. "Wow! I responded. That kinda sums it up." Keep in mind here, that that is only three - and just think - there are about a dozen or more super large SIs.

The quality versus quantity question is one that comes up with a lot of the managers I am meeting with. They understand the US consumer perception (Quantity High, Quality Low). What's surprising to me is that most of the management teams yield to the argument (there are some exceptions here - but they are exceptions). In fact - one CTO of a SI simply told me: "The quality of labor pool in India is bad, and it's getting worse each year." Paraphrasing the conversation continued - Churn (employee turnover) and quality plague my office. He went on to say - It's true you can find really great people, but in the US in may be 1/50 or 1/200. Here it's 1/5,000 or 1/20,000. Now - tell me - What's your recruiting strategy for that?

Later in the week I was able to confirm these recruiting challenges - as I went to the Infosys Wikipedia page. "In 2007, Infosys received over 1.3 million applications and hired fewer than 3% of applicants." Just think about the systems you need in place to review 3,562 resumes each calendar day or to hire 100 per calendar day every day. Clearly - Infosys has found a way to weed out the riffraff but my feeling is that this is more of anomaly than a norm.

What's your opinion here? Can Indian Scrum be successful using their labor surplus to drive strategic changes into how software development is done, or will the overwhelming size simply overwhelm?

About The Author:
Laszlo Szalvay currently serves as the VP Worldwide Scrum Business Line at CollabNet, Inc.

CollabNet leads the industry in Agile ALM in the Cloud. The company also offers training, including Certified ScrumMaster training, software development process improvement services, and an innovative community management approach to driving enterprise development success. As the founder of the open source Subversion project, CollabNet has collaborative development for distributed teams in our DNA.

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Accessing the Current Region is one of the most valuable VBA techniques in Excel. Not only can it select a data set or table, it enables you to access individual cells, rows and columns within the region; making it very useful for new Excel developers:

An Example Of Selecting The Current Region

The normal syntax for selecting the currentRegion is as follows:

While it makes sense to use the first cell of the table as the base for the region, any cell reference within the region can be used. Let's look at an example of how you can use the current region in real life.

Let's say we need to search an entire table starting at "A1" for a defined text string:

for each c in selection
if instr(c,myText) then
' match found
End if
next

Accessing Cells, Rows And Columns Within The Current Region

Because a region covers multiple rows and columns there are a few different techniques to access items within the region:

In a 2 row by 4 column table (2 x 4) you might want to know the address of the last cell in the table, so you can add data to the next row. This code identifies the next cell address for data input by finding the final row and moving to the next cell.

Similarly, if we wanted to format each row, we'd need to know how many columns were included in the region:

And if you had 3 columns and wanted to return the 2nd column to include as a series range in a chart you could use this line of code:

In a 3 x 4 table, this would return a value in the form $B$1:$B$4 which coincidentally is the format to include the column in a chart.

It might be useful to think of the Current Region as a collection, and the cells, rows and columns are items in the collection having their own properties. In this way when you need to access the items within the region you can do so intuitively, rather than relying on knowledge of specific properties and methods.

Summary

The Current Region is one the most useful tools for both new and experienced VBA developers. A good understanding of its methods and properties is essential for effective and productive Excel applications.

Andy L Gibson is a former Web Site programmer rediscovering his interest in software applications for small business.

Previously he has used AJAX, XML and ASPX to program Web Sites for restaurants, auction houses and Heath Authorities. He is keen to answer questions and explore business opportunities whereever they might present themselves. You can talk with Andy at his blog at http://solutions4business.wordpress.com/ including links to other articles on VBA issues he has written.

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While the tools in Excel for filtering data are good, they can be a little tricky to use and it might be worthwhile exploring a VBA solution for extracting the information you need from your spreadsheet.

In this article, we'll create a code snippet that hides data and toggles the filter on and off. While focused on a simple scenario the code could be enhanced to create your own filtering tool.

Creating A Simple Toggle Filter With VBA

The scenario we'll look at is simply to extract all the rows in a table that contain a certain customer name.

We'd just like the user to select a customer name in the table and the code should hide other rows not containing the name. If the code is run again the filter should be removed.

When the user clicks on a name to search for the code ensures the selected cell is in column 1:

Next, we select the column to search and loop through the data to find the search string:

Now we have to determine whether or not the filter is in place.

If the cell does not match the search text AND the row is hidden, then the filter is in place. Therefore, we make visible all the rows and exit the routine.

If the cell does is not a match AND the row is visible, then we hide the row and continue filtering the data.

While this is a simple code snippet it could be used "as is" in certain situations. For example if the same search is used repeatedly it might be a good candidate for creating a simple macro button to run the code, rather than implement a complicated solution involving VBA User Forms.

Summary

Although this code mimics filtering that is readily available in Excel, most users find that a little VBA knowledge will improve functionality relevant to particular situations rather than relying on a general solution.

Andy L Gibson is a former Web Site programmer rediscovering his interest in Excel applications for small business. His blog at http://solutions4business.wordpress.com/ holds the VBA code for all of his articles on Excel and is available for FREE download. He is developing an Excel application which will contain working examples of VBA methods and solutions.

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The price differential between Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition (Enterprise costs roughly four times more) makes value becomes a critical consideration. Enterprise's main selling point is AlwaysOn, a refined form of database mirroring designed to provide remote disaster recovery at a database level. Standard Edition, however, relies on log shipping instead of database mirroring, and the most industry experts consider the latter to be preferable in most cases, cost notwithstanding.

AlwaysOn does, in fact, offer several advantages over log shipping. These include automatic and rapid fail-over protection, automatic client redirection, easier configuration, full-text catalog support, built-in network encryption support, and less bandwidth use with asynchronous propagation. In addition, AlwaysOn improves on database mirroring by permitting the user to combine multiple databases into one unit that can be failed over together. It also permits up to four replicas for a database, whereas traditional database mirroring only allows one. Finally, while mirrored databases are always in a state of recovery that prevents the use of that database while actively mirroring, AlwaysOn can grant read-only access to said database for purposes of reporting and backup.

Even with all of these advantages, three notable cons exist. First, all database mirroring provides both synchronous and asynchronous operation modes; AlwaysOn is no exception. Synchronous roughly translates to high-safety mode, while asynchronous emphasizes performance. Organizations requiring heavy use of asynchronous operation will need to possess fast propagation interval time and bandwidth speed or face the possibility of data loss. Second, as mentioned above, AlwaysOn necessitates the licensing of SQL Server Enterprise Edition at quadruple the cost of the Standard Edition. Third, AlwaysOn requires Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) which is only supported in Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition or later editions.

With the possible financial and infrastructure cost of licensing Enterprise Edition, some organizations may consider Standard Edition a viable alternative, provided they understand the limitations and advantages of log shipping. As a means for disaster recovery, it requires more maintenance than AlwaysOn. Log shipping demands manual fail-over and the process can take longer than 30 minutes to complete. Likewise, client redirection and role change require manual input. Weaknesses aside, log shipping provides actual backup files as part of the process and supports multiple secondary databases.

Given the risk involved in the extra expense, businesses may face uncertainty when deciding which version to license. Organizations should consider implementing the full-featured 180-day trial from the Microsoft web site before reaching a final decision. Generally speaking, database mirroring is preferable to log shipping, and AlwaysOn's attempt to improve on it cannot responsibly be ignored.

For more information about SQL 2012 integration services, visit Magenic who have been one of the leading software development companies providing innovative custom software development to meet unique business challenges for some of the most recognized companies and organizations in the nation.

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When you're focused on writing an article it's easy to lose track of words that have been repeated. Typically, when you're writing about key words or phrases there's every chance those words will be repeated several times.

But, with Excel and VBA we can report on a passage of text to find any repetitions.

Turning The Text Into An Array

For an example we'll use the opening two paragraphs of this article.

First, we'll turn the text - which we've saved into a string variable called txt - into an array by using the split function with a space as the delimiter. We'll need to add a leading and trailing space to give the first and last words equality.

allWords = Split(myText, " ")

' count

allwordsCount = UBound(allWords) + 1

Remember that in VBA arrays have a starting base of 0, unless you use the option base statement to declare it as 1.

Now we need to loop through each word in the array, and see if it is used more than once throughout the text. We can do that by creating another array but using the search word as the delimiter:

word = allWords(x)

We can create the new array here and use ubound to calculate how many times the word appears in the text; because of the extra spaces we added it's just a straight count. We've added spaces around the search word to take into account words within words, for example "often" and "of".

Finally, if the count is greater than 1, we'll write the result to the immediate window. We've used the string repeated to record any repetitions so we only report on a repetition once using the instr function.

Here's the final report:

Enhancements And Problems With The Code

Some issues to think about with this code might include the following:

Variations of the code could cover phrases or multiple word searches, and length could be similarly restricted. The problem with punctuation such as commas and full stops is that any code would view "hello" and "hello," as two different words, so any commas and full stops might have to be removed with the replace function before running the code.

Summary

This code snippet is an example of using VBA to solve a problem seemingly unrelated to rows and columns. It's another reason to find out more about VBA and the numerous ways it can improve your productivity.

Andy L Gibson is a former Web Site programmer rediscovering his interest in Excel applications for small business. His blog at http://solutions4business.wordpress.com/ holds the VBA code for all of his articles on Excel and is available for FREE download. He is developing an Excel application which will contain working examples of VBA methods and solutions.

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Developing iPhone app ideas can be a highly lucrative path. You may have ideas that are just bursting to get out or you may simply be looking for a way to make some money while enhancing your own application access. The beauty of iPhone applications is that each one must be endorsed by Apple, which is a statement of quality coming from the company.

Before you start seeking the right contacts, make sure you have the right concept. Spend some time with your phone and seek out new and unusual ways that it could be more useful. Check out the applications that are available even if you do not have them. The reality is that many people are trying to get applications created this way, and you need to be sure no one else has beaten your thought to the mat.

Always pay attention to the things that you have to either use a different device for or hear your friends say they wish they could do with their phone. There are millions of ideas that can come forth simply by thinking through the everyday actions that people go through. Daily use functions are essential for maintaining a high level of competition with Android, so these are definitely the applications that are given a greater priority.

In order to actually create the application you have to be able to follow the predetermined guidelines which Apple has set forth. In order to this, you must be a registered member of Apple iOS developers. This is where the guidelines can be found.

Once you have completed this step, you can then proceed with the development of the plan. If you cannot do your own developing you need to hire someone who can. Once you have a great developer, the pair of you will then start the creation process. This process is generally not difficult or terribly time consuming for a high quality developer.

Once the application is completed you then have to test it. Testing it means ensuring that it works outside of its original platform. You need to experiment on the phone in order to be sure that the testing is complete. Placing it on the application site is the final step.

In order to place it in the site you need a certificate. This you can get through the same website that offers the developers' guidelines. You can also get it through the Apple website. The certificate is required in order to allow the application to go public. Creating iPhone app ideas is actually a lot of fun. Follow through with only the best so that you can reap the financial rewards of your efforts.

Visit Create-iphone-apps-now.com and discover how to start developing iPhone app ideas with no programming experience, and discover the secret to successfully marketing your iPhone app ideas in the app store.

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Excel's charting tools are fairly sophisticated but one area where some expertise might help is positioning the chart on your worksheet correctly. For example, you don't want a chart overlapping your data table or covering different pages when printing.

The problem is that a chart is an object in Excel and has no direct relationship in terms of position with any rows or columns.

Position Properties Of An Excel Chart

The chart object in Excel has measurement units rather than direct cell references, and this is where moving the chart to the correct location presents a challenge.

You can return some of the position properties of a chart through VBA code, something like this:

'return the chart height, width, distance from the top and the left of the sheet
chartHeight=c.height
chartTop=c.top
chartLeft=c.left
chartWidth=c.width

Okay, but how does that help us position the chart? Well it depends on want you want to do. Luckily, a cell reference can also return position properties:

Positioning The Chart In Relationship To The Data Set

Let's take the scenario where you'd like to position the chart two rows below the data set and one column in. The easiest way is to use some simple maths to determine the size of the objects and position the chart accordingly.

First, we'll select the data range and determine the height and width of the first cell in the final row.

r.Select

cellWidth = Selection.Columns(1).Width

cellHeight = Selection.Rows(Selection.Count).Height

Now, we'll calculate where we want to chart to be positioned - 2 cells below the data set and 1 row in.

fromLeft = cellWidth

And, finally we'll select the chart and apply the positional modifications.

Set c = ActiveChart.Parent

c.Left = fromLeft

c.Top = fromTop

There are many other ways you might want to position your chart; for example to align with a page break, or underneath a summary comment. The concept is similar; determine the position properties for each object and apply the appropriate changes.

Summary

This article has demonstrated how to change the location of a chart produced either by Excel's charting tools or through VBA. It's a good example of fine tuning the functionality of Excel with a little knowledge of VBA.

Andy L Gibson is a former Web Site programmer rediscovering his interest in software applications for small business.

Previously he has used AJAX, XML and ASPX to program Web Sites for restaurants, auction houses and Heath Authorities. He is keen to answer questions and explore business opportunities whereever they might present themselves. You can talk with Andy at his blog at http://solutions4business.wordpress.com/ including links to other articles on VBA issues he has written.

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Using ASP.NET, a programmer can build a dynamic web site. The framework was developed by Microsoft. It uses the Common Language Runtime for writing code on any supported .NET language. Applications can be built using web form pages that are contained in ".aspx" extension files. The files have static markup language. They also define the server-side web control as well as the user side.

The technology can provide great websites for e-commerce, social media and for any other purpose. Many companies provide their services for developing websites using such platform. The technology offers programmers better performance in comparison to the script-based technologies. It compiles the server-side code in many DDL files on the web server. Such compiling relieves the developer the need to do another compilation and offers an easy method of developing websites with scripting languages and compiled binary.

Unlike the classic ASP; The ASP.NET makes it easier for developers to transition from windows application development to web development. They can make pages with controls identical to a window user interface. Comparing with the classic ASP, the .NET can run applications faster, it is also possible to use separate business logic presentation by using the code-behind the development mode and it is also possible to make use of an object-oriented design. it also offers improved run-time error handling, it has better performance by being able to cache the entire page or just parts of the page; with such technology, it is possible to reset session values and not lose them and it can be saved in Microsoft SQL server database as well as in another process running on the same machine. There is also the possibility of rapidly building application and have user-defined controls.

The technology can be used for making desktop applications, high quality web applications, applications for mobile phones, and more. It offers excellent functionality with attractive graphics and a very pleasant user's experience.

ASP.NET was launched by Microsoft in 2002 as the first version of the.NET framework. Version 1.1 was released in 2003 which improved further the functionality of ASP.NET support for mobile services. Extension frameworks that use the ASP.NET functionality include the ASP.NET AJAX, ASP.NET MVC. Currently there are seven different version of the ASP.NET version that have been released. The latest version is 4.5 which had been released in August of this year. Each releases have made some improve on the previous version either for mobile phones or for web development.

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Why does every error seem to have some sort of obscure number rather than a true explanation of what just went wrong when you tried to pull up a website or load your email? But numbers are the norm, and figuring out what's wrong with your computer requires digging just a bit deeper than we might prefer. Interestingly enough, many errors have similar causes or - at the very least - similar solutions.

Error 400

When you see a message that looks like "400:Bad Request" or more specifically "HTTP Error 400 - Bad Request" you can trust what you see. The request you made was faulty in some way. Typing a URL in your browser is a sign to the computer that you're requesting a page from another computer, or server. When something is wrong in the URL you typed, it can't load and it gives you an error.

While a typo is certainly a strong possibility for Error 400, it may also be that the page you're trying to reach has been deleted, the URL was copied down wrong or is missing key elements. The website may have been updated as well.

Error 401

"401: Unauthorized" means you're not the person the website was hoping to see when you tried to log in. Error 401 is a simple error - the virtual door was just slammed in your face by the website security. If you didn't log into a website that requires users to enter their username and password, you'll see Error 401. If you did attempt to login, but the website server didn't recognize you, you mistyped something or some other odd twist of fate, you won't be allowed to proceed and you'll be staring down Error 401 as well.

Error 403

You naughty thing! When you get an Error 403 message, it means you've tried to access part of a website that is absolutely, positively forbidden. Who knows what the webmaster is trying to hide behind the virtual brick wall you just slammed into, but one thing is for sure - you're not going to go any farther with that particular URL. At least not right now.

You may hit Error 403 rather innocently, of course, but typing something wrong in the URL or perhaps just trying to access the website at the wrong time of the day. This error doesn't mean you did anything with a sinister motive... unless you were doing something with a sinister motive.

Error 404

You might see any number of unique messages for Error 404, but they will all have something along the lines of "Error 404: Page Not Found". You'll see the Error 404 message when you try to pull up a webpage that isn't actually located on the server.

In very general terms, Error 404 is supposedly your fault, but in reality not all Error 404 messages appear because of user error. Pages may be down on a website or you may have been trying to reach a page that the website owner took down or changed, and nobody can blame that on you.

Error 408

Error 408 is a particularly frustrating stumbling block on the internet. You type in the URL or click on a link. And you wait. And you wait. And then the website returns an error rather than the site you were trying to reach. This is Error 408 - you've "Timed Out."

When you send a request for a website and it doesn't load fast enough, the server gives up. Rather than loading the site in question, it coughs up an error. Sometimes a quick refresh helps, but other times more drastic interaction is required. To Refresh your browser, click on the circular arrow near the address bar.

RESOLVING THE ERRORS

While there are many numbers attributed to the various internet errors above, many will have the same or similar solutions. When you're not getting to the website you're attempting to reach, solving the problem involves something of a drill down technique.

Check the Internet Connection

Do a quick check that you're getting full internet access by pulling up a search page and searching for something random. If you get results and you're able to click through to those sites, you can cross faulty internet off your list of possible problems. If you aren't getting to any new websites, you would do well to reset your router and restart your computer to be sure you're fully connected to the internet.

Check for obvious mistakes

Look over the address you just typed and look for obvious mistakes - long URLs especially are hard to type correctly. If you miss one letter or dot, you won't be going far. Check also, especially on Error 403 where passwords would be encrypted, that you don't have Caps Lock turned on. Check also that Number Lock is set as you normally have it. If you do discover an honest mistake, simply correct it and try again. The solution may be that simple.

Restart your computer

While it's allegedly the internet giving you trouble, not your computer, it never hurts to restart the computer. When you restart your computer may update some critical software or reset the connection to the router so that your internet works correctly or at a higher speed. It's an easy possible fix, and worth the few minutes it takes.

Update your browser

If you notice that you're having a lot of internet problems and seeing quite a few issues spring up, check to be sure that your internet browser is fully up to date. Your browser is probably set to automatically update as new versions become available, but if you've put off updating or missed an update, you can get caught up by going to Windows Update for Internet Explorer, and by going to the Tools menu for Firefox and Chrome.

Update plug-ins

If your browser is totally up-to-date, check to be sure that plug-ins that are commonly used are up to date as well. Among common plug-in for websites are things like ActiveX and Flash. You may see a message on the website to update the plug-in or you might manually update these by visiting the websites and downloading the offending applications to update or install the plug-ins. Firefox offers a plug-in check page here as well to get ideas for what may be causing the problem.

Check back later

Finally, if nothing else seems to be working, you can always throw your hands up and walk away. But be sure to come back later. Often websites have their own issues that can cause these errors and simply waiting five minutes will be all you need to do in order to have things working correctly again.

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Businesses are developing websites to reach a wider market with minimum efforts and investment. However, the efforts can turn out to be fruitful only if the website is able to attract the target market successfully. This is one of the primary reasons for which businesses hire .NET web development companies. Such.net web application development companies have a team of .NET developers who handle simple to complex projects with ease.

While you are on a look out for a suitable custom web application development service provider, you must know an appropriate way so as to make your search quicker, reliable and successful. There are many service providers that are working from offshore, near-shore and onshore locations. You can use the following ways to evaluate the right development company:

1. Cost: It plays a major role in selection of a .NET development company. If you get robust, secure and quality solutions at a lower price from an offshore location, you can of course hire .NET developers from an offshore development company. However, you need to evaluate other factors so as to assure that you will get returns from your investment.

2. Experience: When you have chosen the location, you would have to find out the relevant experience of the company. You can look for a company that has experience to work on multiple .NET development projects. The company with a higher experience will give you the best results possible for your business enterprise.

3. Expertise: You must ensure that the selected company has expertise in using different programming languages used on .NET framework. If they are not comfortable in working on any of the language, you can't be sure of the solution.

4. Recognition: You can consider their testimonials and case studies to find out their success stories. If they are highly recognized by big brands, they will of course be ready to provide you quality .NET website and web development solutions.

5. Development Team: The company must have a big development team to handle your simple to big business requirements at ease. In addition, they must have a provision to provide dedicated .NET developers so that you can streamline your development process as per the requirement.

Once you are sure that the company is capable enough to meet your requirements within time and money, you can go ahead with the written deal with them. A non-disclosure agreement is regarded as the best way to keep your private company information secure.

OffshoreDotNetDevelopment is an offshore web development company in India that provides quality custom web application development solutions to businesses worldwide.

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Using functions and sub-routines in VBA can be confusing for new Excel developers. But efficient organization of your code can be dramatically improved by the use of functions and subs.

What Are VBA Functions And Sub-Routines?

A function or sub is simply a way to minimize unnecessary coding and make your code easier to follow. Here's a simple example of a sub which clears the contents from sheet(1).

' branch to new sub here
clearContents(1)
end sub

sub clearContents(s)
sheets(s).clearContents
end sub

The difference between a sub and function is that a sub generally performs a task whereas a function returns a value. Here's a function that tells you how many rows are in a current region:

Function curRegRows(s As Long, r As String)
Sheets(s).Activate
Range(r).Activate
ActiveCell.CurrentRegion.Select
curRegRows = Selection.Rows.Count
End Function

Fairly straightforward and you might wonder why bother with the extra sub. The truth is, most coding is written "on the fly" as most programming tasks appear simple to begin with. But in the code to clear the content from a sheet,we might also need to reset formatting, column widths and delete any charts as well:

x = ActiveSheet.ChartObjects.Count
If x > 0 Then

For Each s In ActiveSheet.ChartObjects
s.Delete
Next
End If

The code can quickly become difficult to follow and yet all it's doing is clearing a worksheet before the rest of the code can run.

Organizing Functions And Subs

The way forward is to create your own code library where you save fully tested functions and subs to be called as needed by any new code.

In the above scenario where we wanted to clear the contents from sheet(1), instead of writing the code, we could simply call the sub which is saved elsewhere in the code window.

The idea is for your main sub to be a series of statements rather than a jumble of code. A typical scenario might be that you are importing data from another Excel file and creating a chart from the data:

With your subs and functions already written your main routine should look something like this:

Summary

There are many reasons why it makes sense to use functions and sub-routines. Apart from reducing errors and bugs, organizing your code efficiently makes your own programming easier to follow.

Andy L Gibson is a former Web Site programmer rediscovering his interest in Excel applications for small business. His blog at http://solutions4business.wordpress.com/ holds the VBA code for all of his articles on Excel and is available for FREE download. He is developing an Excel application which will contain working examples of VBA methods and solutions.

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Every professional wants to earn big bucks but not every one of them succeed. However, there is a course that offers high salaries as one qualification moves its graduate up the professional ladder. This is the licensed practical nurses qualification which offers great LPN salaries to those who qualify with experience, skills and hard work.

An aging population today spikes up the need for qualified LPN staff as research reveals; this trend is expected to rise for some time in the near future. Hence, the salaries of LPN qualified medical staff are expected to increase according to the growing demand. This expectancy would prompt more takers on LPN courses whether on campus or online mode.

There are many advantages in taking on LPN programs; especially those which are conducted on the web which gives the learner flexibility in securing the qualification. LPN programs are very hands on which prepares the graduate for the real working environment. Salaries of LPN graduates depend on various factors which would depend on the LPN graduate's receptivity; where there is a higher demand for such skilled workers, the salary would be on a higher scale.

Advantages
Any individual who is interested in nursing can consider a LPN certificate which is only 9 months long. With this first level qualification, one can embark on an enlightening medical career with a lot of practical. There are lots of hands on with the LPN course that would benefit the learner. With discipline, one can be skilled in the practical aspects of LPN to care and nurture a patient back to good health. Besides the monetary rewards, there is the emotional satisfaction of LPN qualified nurses.

Online LPN programs offer the same syllabus as on campus LPN programs which allow the online students to get through the course at their own pace and time. These students can also use their related work experience as part of the required practical to fulfill the syllabus.

Future Opportunities
A successful LPN career can take one up to a staggering $50,000 annual salary and more through hard work and dedication with meticulous skill and knowledge as the qualified keeps refreshing themselves with the latest LPN skills and knowledge. There is no limit to the amount one can achieve with the progressive qualifications after LPN.

LPN graduates can move on to being a Registered Nurse and still keep climbing the medical profession ladder. There are many nursing specialties that LPN graduates can specialize in to advance their career opportunities and correspondingly their salaries.

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A quantitative developer, or quant dev, is an individual working at a private fund (often a hedge fund), an investment bank or other asset manager, employed to implement quantitative/financial models or quantitative trading infrastructure. The term is extremely diverse and covers a wide spectrum of responsibilities.

At one end quant of the quant dev spectrum, developers will be tasked with taking a mathematical model already designed by a quantitative researcher and implementing, maintaining and optimising the model in production code. At the other end, quant developers will be obtaining financial pricing data feeds, cleaning the data, preparing its storage and allowing access in a straightforward manner to other individuals who make require it.

A quantitative developer who implements financial models will need to be mathematically astute, and possess experience in scientific programming, usually in an object-oriented language such as C++, MATLAB, Python or R. Their day to day responsibilities will revolve around the firms' quantitative library - maintenance, improvement, optimisation or adding new models. Not only that, but the traders will want these models/prices exposed in other formats such as Excel. It is the responsibility of the developer to construct these interfaces.

Other quant developers are more data-oriented. They will be tasked with building systems to obtain various forms of financial data, such as pricing feeds (equities, forex, fixed income etc), macroeconomic data and internal/external trading signals. They will then have the responsibility of storing this data, either in a RDBMS (relational database management system) such as SQL Server, Oracle or MySQL, or into a proprietary time-series database such as KDB+. This data will need to be accessed in a timely fashion by multiple stakeholders. It is also the quant dev's responsibility to ensure this happens in a reliable fashion.

So how should a prospective quant developer prepare for their career? The best approach is to begin working on large data sets requiring rapid data analysis. This could be for a piece of hobby code, an open source project or a smaller consulting gig. This will flex a prospective quant dev's statistical, computational and software developmental skills in a production environment and provide experience in handling financial data sets. One of the best approaches is to begin implementing a few derivatives pricing or quantitative trading strategies in multiple languages, to get a feel for the advantages and disadvantages.

Quantitative developers are always in strong demand, as financial modelling and implementation requires a sophisticated computational skillset. Expertise in algorithm implementation, database optimisation, API design, systems administration and specific languages such as C++, Java, MATLAB, R and Python will always be useful. Needless to say, a career in quantitative development can be very lucrative and rewarding for those that enjoy utilising their computational skills.

For a list of quantitative developer roles, please visit QuantStart, a site dedicated to helping everyone begin and advance their career as a financial engineer. Browse our list of top tier investment bank and hedge fund quant developer jobs today!

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If you have a unique and exciting idea for a brand new iPhone application, you may want to dive right in, but the biggest problem is that you do not know where or how to start. To create iPhone apps you need to consider a few functional, program and design factors. It is necessary to take the time to conduct research into the options available to you and to prepare for the development of a successful application.

Regardless of the platform you are designing the particular app for, consider the reasons for building it, the target market and the plan including strategies to complete the program. Determining the need for the software and the available market will increase the likelihood of success. Consider the fact that thousands of applications have been created therefore you need to think about the reasons your idea is appealing to a selective audience.

Once you have conducted research into your target market and determined a considerable demand for the application, the next step is to plan how to build it. Develop the properties and the features supported. This means detailing every function from screens to buttons.

Assess the pros and cons of a native application versus a web based program. The native applications have become increasingly popular as these are designed to access phone data for a modern and social experience. Consider the marketing strategy you will use to increase awareness of the application for download.

There is also the option to receive equity from the sales of an application through the brand store or subscription services. Do not release the software without having it tested as bad reviews or system bugs could ruin any chances of successful publishing. Once you have spent time on defining functions and planning development, it is time to build the application.

If you are not familiar with the technical side of things, visit the websites providing tools for application creation. Be sure to join the developer program of the brand and download the latest software providing development details. There is also the option to hire designers to create the detailed layout you desire or you could download a program including the coding required to bring the application to life.

To successfully create apps for iPhone as one of the most popular mobile platforms requires a significant amount of research and planning. Once you have developed an effective strategy, consider downloading software and implementing the design tools needed for publication. Always be sure to monitor the release of an app and address any system issues for a desirable outcome.

Visit Create-iphone-apps-now.com and get info on how to create iPhone apps with no programming experience. Discover the secret to successfully creating iPhone apps and marketing them in the app store.

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While it may sound like a very technical undertaking, anyone with a good knowledge of object oriented computer programming can easily develop iPhone apps. However, due to restrictions placed by Apple, not all object oriented programming languages are suitable for would be developers. Here is a detailed guide on what programming language is best and how best to approach the task.

Apple restricts all apps meant for launching on its Apple stores to be based on Objective C as a programming code. Objective C is a hybridized form of the more universal C programming code. It is possible to create passable applications using other languages and then using a wrapper API to make it look like Objective C but this may not always work.

In order to develop a good app that will get enough popularity with iPhone users, you need to use a Mac computer. For the best results, go for one with an Intel based processor, preferably running MAC OS X. As such, you will not have to trouble yourself with thoughts about compatibility of the applications you develop as they will already be optimized for use on iOS devices.

The next step is actually easy. After setting up your MAC, go and download the iPhone app developer SDK (Software Development Kit) from the Apple website. Apple provides the SDK free of charge and it contains everything you need to begin including the environment XCode as well as the simulator that allows you to test the apps before launching them.

Brush up on your OOP (Object Oriented Programming) skills especially as they apply to Objective C. It has in many ways similarities with Java as it hides the complexity of the underlying hardware leaving you to concentrate on the technical aspects of the application itself and not the platform on which it will run. Today there are plenty of free online tutorials to guide you.

Start by writing simple programs. Being too ambitious to begin with can cause you numerous problems in the future. It is best to play it safe by beginning with a set of manageable projects and gradually qualifying to more complex and challenging tasks as your skills and confidence increases. Unlike more safe OOP languages like Java, a single misplaced byte in an Objective C code may lead to your program crashing as a whole.

After testing your application sufficiently on the simulator, you need to migrate to the real iOS environment. To do this, you need to register first with the official iPhone developer program. You will need to pay a joining fee of $99. After you have signed the agreement to abide by Apple's code of conduct, return the form to begin testing your application on a real iPhone environment.

Becoming a good Apple devices application developer is more about having the right skills and tools rather than being a professional programmer. Learning the right object oriented coding will help you to develop iPhone apps that are ready to launch on the actual devices. Once you get registered as a developer, you can launch them online and await them to be downloaded by enthusiasts.

Visit Create-iphone-apps-now.com and discover how to start developing iPhone apps with no programming experience. Discover the secret to developing iPhone apps and successfully marketing them in the app store.

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One of the boons for web application development at the turn of the century has been the open source revolution. With their seeds sown in the 90's, open source technologies changed the face of web applications by reducing development timeframes, simplifying programming conundrums and eliminating tons of bugs plaguing the SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle). Almost all of these technologies have had their code base in PHP, which as everyone knows is the preferred programming standard across the globe.

In this article, we showcase some of these technologies as a token of our respect to their invaluable contribution to the PHO development community. Many a PHP Development Company could have differing opinions on this list and we accept them graciously.

First up, the godfather of them all; PHPNuke launched somewhere in 1999. This technology literally was and is the basis of a majority of the CMSs (Content Management Systems). Just a little prior to this release saw the inception of phpMyAdmin that was conceived for web-based administration of MySQL. Its later releases supported creation and dropping of databases and tables, fields, managing keys and privileges and a lot more.

A standard-based webmail package, SquirrelMail made its way to the market with integrated PHP support for IMAP and SMTP mail protocols. Wide browser compatibility using HTML 4.0 made it an instant favorite with PHP MySQL development communities across the globe. The turn of the century saw the dawn of osCommerce, an open source e-commerce solution that featured out-of-the-box installation allowing online merchants to easily set up e-tailing stores with minimum effort. Integrating the potent combination of PHP, Apache web server and MySQL database server, this technology created quite a sensation with its robust and stable architecture.

Another technology to take root around the same time was OpenX, inheriting its properties from phpAdsNew originating from Tobias Ratschiller's efforts in 1988. A free ad server designed by the web publishing community for themselves, it provided complete management tools for online advertising. Swapping of paid banners with in-house advertisements was made easy, as was the integration of third-party advertising banners. Gallery was launched in 2001; an online web-based photo album utility providing users with a sleek UI to create and maintain photo albums online. Then comes, probably one of the most popular CMSs till date; Drupal. A modular CMS, it was ideally suited for forums, blogs, and community engines with a database-driven structure supporting MySQL, MySQLi and PostgreSQL. The year 2003 saw the launch of the WordPress, a cutting-edge personal publishing platform with capabilities far exceeding just blogging. Integrating high flexibility, WordPress supports link management, file attachments, XFN support, support for stand-alone pages, Atom and RSS feeds for both, content and comments, blogging API support, spam block, and most importantly; a flexible theme system.

The need for an open source CRM was addressed by SugarCRM. Joomla!, launched in 2005 is an award-winning online CMS with separate front end content and backend admin access, along with group-based access control. The open source e-commerce front was further bolstered by the entry of Magento, a widely flexible e-commerce CMS with complete control in the hands of e-tailers. With the growth and acceptance of cloud computing, eyeOS announced itself to the world providing a web-based desktop with 67 apps and multiple system utilities.

The list is endless and there can be many more technologies, such as Symfony, CakePHP, CodeIgniter, etc. that can be added to this list. But nothing is more consistent with the fact that PHP has been and will always be at the crux of all the latest developments have happened and will happen for some time to come.

We are GoodCore, a web application development company that is always primed to gain expertise in the newest technologies to breach the market and extend their development advantages to our clients across the world. If you need any PHP-based solution, you can hire PHP programmers from us. These individual are hand-picked for their vast repertoire of skills and talent, when it comes to developing and deploying state-of-the-art web applications in a cost-effective and timely manner. If it's a PHP solution you need, GoodCore is the answer!

Fahad Ali is technical writer and specialized in software development technologies. He has past five years experience of technical content writing and ASP.NET Development and working in a reputable Offshore Software Development Company.

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If one browses the Adobe AIR 3 web page that is a part of the Adobe's main website, one would come across encouraging testimonials written by the users of the technology. From them, it becomes extremely clear that Adobe AIR runtime can help businesses to deliver internet rich applications to their respective clients. Adobe AIR is a development environment formed through the convergence of market-recognized technologies and therefore, proves to be effective for the development of the business critical new age applications. With Adobe AIR, enterprises can create native applications that extend beyond the boundaries of the browsers and are extremely interoperable across different mobile platforms. The runtime not only helps an enterprise generate superior ROIs but also leverage existing IT infrastructure. As a result, there is an increasing trend in the market to hire an Adobe AIR developer with great industry exposure and relevant certifications.

The path for developing AIR applications is mostly similar to the other development environment. Inspite of that, there are some features that are unique with this particular runtime environment. Let us take a close look at the native application (desktop oriented application) development lifecycle with Adobe AIR. The native application development follows six important functions and they are:

• Establishing a workflow- The workflow comprises of following steps such as coding, compiling, testing, and packaging into an installer file. A developer can write the application code in Flash, Flex, ActionScript, and compile-using Adobe based technologies such as Flash Professional as well as Flash Builder. The developer can then test the applications with the ADL tool and integrate with Flash Debugger. Furthermore, he or she will package each AIR application into the installer file. The workflows slightly differ in the types of applications such as:

. SWF-based applications

. HTML-based applications

• Setting up the application properties- It is important to specify the version of the Runtime required by an application, and one does this by using the namespace of the AIR descriptor file. This namespace is responsible for the features of this particular application. Then the developer needs to set up the application identity and the version. Then the developer needs to set the main window property such as content, depthAndStencil, height, maximizable, maxSize, minimizable, minSize, and renderMode.

• Debugging- For debugging an application, a developer has to first run the application with ADL, print trace statements, and connect to the Flash debugger. The importance of ADL lies in the fact that it prints trace statements and enables HTML parsing.

• Packaging the AIR installation file - Every Adobe developer has to ensure that a native application has an application descriptor file and either a main swf or an HTML file. The authoring tools that a knowledgeable developer uses for this purpose are Flex Builder, Flash Builder, Flash Professional, and Dreamweaver.

• Distributing application packages- The process of distribution involves four major steps such as:

. Installation and subsequent running of AIR applications on the desktop

. Installation and running desktop applications from a web

. Deployment on desktops

. Installation of logs on the desktops

All these differentiations and subsequent customization can be only possible if an enterprise hire Adobe AIR developer with a good development background.

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