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Archive for November, 2006
Start of the console wars
Now that the three consoles have been officially launched (in the US market, at least), their fight for dominance will be interesting to watch. The amount of hype and publicity something like this can generate is quite amazing. In the US, eager buyers slept in line in front of Best Buy and other stores for more than a week, braving icy weather and having to exercise inhuman bladder control. All that to spend USD 600 on a PS3 at midnight. Of course there were a number of unfortunate incidents: the trampling of hundreds rushing for one of ten seats to secure a PS3, robberies and even a shooting. That all makes the print ad for the PS3 almost prophetic:
Having played around with an XBox 360 after its release here and having seen the PS3 and Wii in the US, here’s my take.
Sony’s Playstation 3 is the console I favour. The ability to run Linux and make it a media centre, the ability to use my PSP as a rearview mirror for certain driving games and built-in storage and connectivity. The downside is its price and the reliance, once again, on Sony-owned media. This time, Blu-Ray takes centre stage. As a direct competitor to the Microsoft-backed HD-DVD, there’s another showdown looming to ensure consumers replace all their movies moving to a new, improved format. Prices for some Blu-Ray titles I saw at the Sony store where around the USD 37 mark. Awesome graphics when connected to the right TV set and Ridge Racer 7 – need I say more.
The Microsoft XBox 360 sports the biggest selection of titles together with a proven track record for online participation. A hard drive is included in the box, as is a wireless controller. But to upgrade to wireless costs USD 99! For a USB dongle. Would have been better built-in. Then, there’s the absence of anything but CD and DVD playback. Any other media must be connected by way of a Windows Media PC. What else! The HD-DVD drive is an add-on that retails at a whopping USD 180 and is almost as big as the XBox itself. So much for a small, discreet unit to hide under the TV set where the wife won’t see it 
Some great games, like Project Gotham Racing and Ridge Racer 6. Availability of wireless steering wheel controller. Excellent graphics and Microsoft build-quality. By the way, hackers have already managed to get the drive working on the PC and Mac.
The Nintendo Wii has the weirdest name (probably inspired by all those waiting in line for a PS3 for days) and strangest control mechanism. The controller is untethered and requires considerable gymnastics from gamers to control the action. Though the price is the lowest, there’s little else to entice: no media playback, no fancy graphics and the probability of many, many Mario titles. The graphics are so-so and the game titles uninspiring. Since it can’t double as a media hub, it’s not suitable for what I’m looking for.
The XBox is available in South Africa now, with the PS3 following sometime in March…decisions, decisions…
PS3 backwards compatibility problems
With just over 24 hours to go to the official US launch of the PS3, there are numerous reports of issues with PS2 games not working as they should. It seems as though Sony will have to issue a firmware upgrade once packaged units have been sold to eager buyers to resolve certain graphics and control issues.
According to Gamespot, Sony published a list of nine PlayStation 2 games, including Tekken 5 and Gauntlet: Dark Legacy, and 38 PlayStation games, including Resident Evil 2 and Worms, which have encountered problems playing on the silver PS2. The silver edition PS3 is the model to be launched in Japan at the end of November.
Reporting and Analytics 2006 – day 3
How to develop an effective migration strategy for SAP BW reporting objects as you consider or plan an upgrade to SAP Netweaver 2004s continued to the trend of giving presentations titles longer than the I-4 running southbound past the conference centre. For once, the confusion regarding the nomenclature of SAP’s business intelligence product was cleared up. Now, everyone needs to become aware of it and stop confusing customers. That includes SAP. It’s not BW, SAP BW, nor SAP BI 7.0. No. The official name is SAP Netweaver 2004s BI. In fact, the brand Netweaver 2004s applies to all software components under the Netweaver umbrella. So, there’s no more EP 6.0 either. That is renamed SAP Netweaver 2004s portal. That aside, the presentation provided an excellent overview of the newest updates to the BEx toolset, query designer, Excel runtimes and Web runtimes. Then some advice for upgrading existing 3.0 or 3.5 BW systems to the new NW04s BI product was provided. One interesting fact is that authorizations created in pre-NW04s BI cannot co-exist with the new release. A security migration has to be completed first and there’s an ABAP program to assist.
SAP is pushing strongly to make their application become more accessible to a wider audience. We’ve heard enough about their collaboration with Microsoft to create Duet, and the presentation Ease user analytics and reporting challenges with Duet provided the evidence that companies with a large user community will need to consider additional solutions to make data available through application integration. Especially when these applications are in use by virtually every corporate computer user. Microsoft Outlook provides folders that are generated through the interface to a dedicated Duet server. This server is used to interface with the Microsoft Exchange server and to provide an authentication mechanism. Special software components must be deployed to each workstation to enable the features of Duet. One of the great features is the ability for end users to schedule their own reports. The administrator has the control over the time periods these reports may be scheduled for, though. Automatic triggers may be set to automatically refresh and resend reports that are dependent on data in the BI cubes or structures. For users who have no need to access SAP directly, or to save on training costs, Duet seems to be the answer and is certainly a product that is being pushed by SAP for quick user adoption.
An equally interesting and informative session was how to Decide if, where and how SAP BW fits into your enterprise data warehouse solution architecture. Note how the presenters themselves are not keeping up with the latest naming conventions. The detail provided in this presentation was of high value, focusing on a number of practical design issues and architectures. It is without doubt an absolute fact that BI solutions fail if data consistency and integrity in backend systems is not up to scratch. The presentation highlighted this fact and furthermore provided some alternatives to the implementation of a business intelligence solution in a large, globally-spread company. Too much detail to provide in a few short sentences here! As with most other presentations that we’ve attended, the BIA had to be mentioned. With the ability to drive and complete a query returning millions of rows in a few seconds, there is certainly a case for large, aggregated NW04s BI systems.
Continuing the theme of the BIA was the last presentation titled Guidelines to determine if you could or should leverage SAP BI Accelerator to improve your SAP BW reporting performance. Again: NW04s BI, not SAP BW, but that’s getting old. The BI Applicance or Accelerator is an Intel blade-based system with some serious cache and RAM onboard. Running Suse Linux (and only Suse Linux), the BIA is sold according to the size of the NW04s BI system it has to connect to using GB ethernet. One BIA for every NW04s BI system is required, and HP or IBM are able to assist with the sizing and box drop. The TREX indexes the BI data and provides blazingly fast query response times. An ABAP dashboard for the BIA is provided. The BIA may be restarted or re-indexed from the ABAP interface and provides detailed performance information to the administrator. Some real-world benchmarks are rather impressive: from 19 minute query runtimes to less than 5 seconds. That’s not bad for an extinct dinosaur!
Microsoft Zune launched
What a week. Friday sees the release of the Playstation 3 and the 007 movie Casino Royale. Two days later, the launch of the Nintendo Wii will make potential purchasers of a gaming console scratch their heads to decide which one of the three (XBox, PS3, Wii) to buy.
Microsoft has launched the Zune music player to rival Apple’s iPod. Considering the Zune’s affinity to DRM everything, whether purchased or self-made, I have little interest. For those wanting to help M$ make even more $’s, it’s an additional product choice.
Reporting and Analytics 2006 – day 2
What’s new with SAP Netweaver BI information broadcasting provided an overview of the broadcasting features available in NW04s BI – what else? Too much slideware made this a bit dull. Nevertheless, the ability to set automatic broadcasting and dissemination of BI reports is handy. The BEx Broadcaster provides the functionality to set up all broadcasting features. Users are able to schedule their own events using the Broadcasting Wizard. No radio stations, yet…
An amusing fact regarding the Guidelines for integrating SAP BW reports, R/3 and third-party data data into the SAP Netweaver Portal is that the NW04s BI release effectively provides portal functionality. With SAP moving more and more content and functionality to web-based interfaces and architectures, the requirement for an actual portal for certain uses is starting to become harder to justify. The Visual Composer will become the primary tool for generating interfaces, produce reports and coding environment. SAP is already working on integrating the Visual Composer with the existing development environment for Web Dynpro. The rest of the talk focused on the the Visual Composer, iViews and the like.
Case studies are interesting. Avnet’s talk on How Avnet empowers its users with self-service financial reporting using SAP BW and SAP BPS was an excellent overview of how BW has been implemented in the real world. Having been run as a project in the domain of business, the implementation seems to have been very successful. Considering the fact that these beancounters managed to code some VBA scripts to automate the delivery of reports by E-mail and that they have a sense of humour is even more incredible.
Tomorrow, no keynote…
Reporting and Analytics 2006 – day 1
The presentation on Microsoft’s BI use case study had a title longer than my arm. Focusing on the technical aspects of running a SAP environment tightly coupled with a business intelligence solution, there was an obvious bias towards a certain set of products: Windows Server and SQL Server. At least Microsoft is making utilizing one decent software product in-house With the speaker droning on about standard SAP Basis procedures and configurations, there was little to take home from this one. Except, maybe the tip that individual user programs should be restricted in terms of the resources they can grap in a 64-bit environment. Setting the parameters abap/heap_area_dia and ztta/roll_extension to suitable values will prevent a single user process from grabbing the entire server’s memory space.
Guidelines to determine the proper roles of R/3 and SAP BW in your company’s overall reporting and BI strategy identified a key aspect of BI implementations: never forget that certain reporting requirements may still be satisfied by utilizing existing, if slightly outdated and less modern, systems. Often, BI solutions are set in place with the intent of translating all reporting requirements into the BI solution. But that may not always be best for the system’s use and its users. Given the plethora of reporting and output options available in the new release of Netweaver 2004s, the selection of which reporting tool to use becomes critical. A useful technique discussed in this presentation was the planning and examination of reporting requirements by mapping user types, reporting requirements and available technologies. The map provides a good indication of which reporting tools to use and what the technology requirements are. Core SAP systems should also be utilized more in the role of a data staging layer, as this provides better and more reliable data extraction for BI systems. The use of the BI Accelerator appliance is encouraged for systems with high throughput and utilization. An interesting point regarding the use of the new BI 7.0 release in conjunction with the new Visual Composer was made – in many instances, this combination may deliver exactly what SAP SCM would be used for.
A detailed presentation of some of the new features provided in the Netweaver 2004s Business Explorer was provided in the presentation titled What’s new in the SAP Business Explorer Suite with SAP Netweaver 2004s. Overall, most enhancements are usability focused. Things like multiple selections, more panes and easier drag-and-drop functionality makes the new BEx easier to use. Adobe PDF documents may be generated without the need for a plug-in, making reporting distribution easier and more convenient. A really useful tool provided within the BEx architecture is the Central Alert Framework which works in conjunction with the BEx Broadcaster to enable sending of messages by E-mail, Fax or even SMS. This is a useful engine to distribute information in an enterprise of mobile individuals or one that is spread geographically. With the ability to build rules, certain information may be sent to only certain individuals, depending on the parameters of the message.
Best practices to provide users with a better SAP BW reporting experience examined the reasons for organizations failing to leverage their expensive toys, primarily BI systems. The presenter is of the opinion that most users are not well-versed with the capabilities of the BEx toolset and that the older BEx implementation was not entirely user-friendly. In many cases, systems are inadequately sized and provide poor response times, frustrating users. Four key areas should be examined: how to embed users in the migration to the BI solution, defining a front-end strategy, developing an ad-hoc reporting strategy and the formulation of a migration plan. Of interest in this presentation was the point that BI should not be considered the only option for reporting. Many reporting requirements can, and should, be met using existing SAP backend systems and maybe even existing non-SAP reporting add-ons.
With that, it’s on to day two.
Air travel and security
Terrorists have done their job rather well: the amount of time wasted and spent on so-called security checks is absolutely ridiculous. This time, that was more evident than usual. At OR Tambo, there are two passport and Visa checks prior to boarding and a third at the boarding gate. That includes an additional scan of hand luggage with the now well-known throw out all liquids procedure. Each passenger is handed a numbered card prior to boarding. This card is handed back to the aircraft crew prior to getting on board – that’s about 30m down the corridor. Since passenger sequence can’t be guaranteed, what’s the point? In any case, do they really believe anyone’s going to hide under the advertising boards?
Land in Dakar eight hours later. Three passengers should be getting off. Only two do… The solution? Ask everyone in the plane to get their hand luggage, place it on their laps, then sit down on their assigned seat. Generally, a passenger manifest should be capable of indicating where everyone should be sitting, but that’s possibly too simple a solution. One hour of additional security checks – security guards searching through seatback pockets and overhead stowage. Asking passengers what’s theirs and where do they sit. They’ve lost before they’ve started: no way they can even begin to find anything that’s out of place. Somehow, things seem to be sorted out. Whether or not the lone passenger eventually gets off, was never on the flight or is escorted out, who knows. So much for the initial passenger numbering.
Eight hours to Washington, then three hours to transfer to the Orlando flight. Those three hours are taken up standing in line, waiting to converse with a boarder security official, giving away first the left then the right hand index finger thumbprint and a photograph. Having a passport stamped and running for the next gate…only to stand in line, take off shoes, belts, watches, remove notebook computer for additional security check. This, after having had another two checks of the passport and boarding pass.
By now, you’d think they know who you are. Get to Orlando and, prior to collecting your luggage, hear that the threat level has escalated to orange – heightened security checks may be required. Things can only get worse…
In Mickey’s backyard
5 years ago
by manfred
in Moblogging
In Mickey’s backyard
Originally uploaded by MHertenberger.
I’ll be spending the next week in close vicinity to this guy’s home.
Mindstorms – landed
5 years ago
by manfred
in Moblogging
Mindstorms – landed
Originally uploaded by MHertenberger.
At ZAR 2900, that’s a bit pricey for a Lego set!
Upgraded to Edgy Eft
5 years ago
by manfred
in Linux/Unix
The upgrade from Dapper Drake to Edgy Eft was rather seamless. Though I haven’t had too much time to play around, the new Firefox is a welcome addition! As is usual with my Linux upgrades, something no longer worked. In this case, X was broken again, as was the HSDPA connection. The upgrade procedure was seamless except for these issues: pop in the CD with the alternate ISO image, wait for the package manager to recognize it and allow the system to be upgraded.
The GUI not starting up is a common issue and is something I find rather odd. When installing a new system, everything is detected without an issue. Almost every upgrade causes some trouble with the detection or configuration requiring manual intervention. In this case, the X server simply had to be installed from the installation CD again. I had to do this after booting into repair mode. X no longer permitted any interaction with the console:
-
sudo apt-cdrom add because I created a CD from the ISO image
sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg to re-install the xserver package
After this, all was in order and I was greeted by the new welcoming jingle and my familiar Mac OS X lookalike desktop. I’m disappointed by the startup and shutdown speed of Edgy. Having heard so much hype regarding the acceleration of these operations I have to say that my system is not noticeably faster in shutting down or starting up.
The second issue I encountered was the usual non-functioning pon connection for my HSDPA card. The usual cause after an upgrade is the re-assignment of a new ttyUSB port to the Huawei card. In my case from ttyUSB2 back to ttyUSB0. The fix is a simple change of the relevant entry using sudo pppconfig.
F-Spot is a really great addition and boasts impressive scrolling and re-sizing of images a la Apple’s iPhoto. Included are some basic image manipulation functions such as red-eye reduction and being able to easily apply sepia tones.
Edgy Eft certainly seems stable, living up to the standards set by the Dapper Drake release.
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