Troubleshooting WebSphere Security-related Issues

It is not uncommon to run into issues when global security is first enabled in a WebSphere environment. Some of those situations may occur due to performing tasks out of order. Other problematic conditions related to security configuration may take place due to inadvertently omitting one or more steps in a set up process. Moreover, a third category of errors that may happen due to security configuration is caused by using the wrong values to one or more parameters.

In the previous article by Omar Siliceo, author of IBM WebSphere Application Server v7.0 Security, we took a look at tuning websphere security. In this article we will be presented by a set of some conditions that may appear in a WebSphere Application Server ND version 7 (WAS ND7) when global security is first enabled. The first subsection covers circumstances that may come about during the configuration phase. Next, a subsection is included that presents circumstances that may happen at runtime.

Understanding and Developing Node Modules

Node is a newly-developed software platform that liberates JavaScript from the web browser, enabling it to be used as a general software development platform in server-side applications. It runs atop the ultra-fast JavaScript engine from the Chrome browser, V8, and adds in a fast and robust library of asynchronous network I/O modules. The primary focus of Node is on building high performance, highly scalable server and client applications for the "Real Time Web".

In this article by David Herron, author of Node Web Development, we shall:

• Learn what a module is
• Learn about the CommonJS module specification
• Learn how Node finds modules

GLSL 4.0: Discarding Fragments to Create a Perforated Look

Fragment shaders can make use of the discard keyword to "throw away" fragments. Use of this keyword causes the fragment shader to stop execution, without writing anything (including depth) to the output buffer. This provides a way to create holes in polygons without using blending. In fact, since fragments are completely discarded, there is no dependence on the order in which objects are drawn, saving us the trouble of doing any depth sorting that might have been necessary if blending was used. In this recipe by David Wolff, author of OpenGL 4.0 Shading Language Cookbook, we'll draw a teapot, and use the discard keyword to remove fragments selectively based on texture coordinates.

GLSL 4.0: Using Subroutines to Select Shader Functionality

In GLSL, a subroutine is a mechanism for binding a function call to one of a set of possible function definitions based on the value of a variable. Subroutines therefore provide a way to select alternate implementations at runtime without swapping shader programs and/or recompiling, or using if statements along with a uniform variable.

In this article by David Wolff, author of OpenGL 4.0 Shading Language Cookbook, we'll demonstrate the use of subroutines by rendering a teapot twice. The first teapot will be rendered with the full ADS shading model described earlier. The second teapot will be rendered with diffuse shading only. A subroutine uniform will be used to choose between the two shading techniques.

Terms and Concepts Related to MDX

MDX is a powerful, yet complex language. Many terms and concepts need to be understood well enough if you want to master it. In order to help you in that mission, this article will provide with a short explanation of all important terms related to MDX.

In this article by Tomislav Piasevoli, author of MDX with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services Cookbook, we start by explaining what MDX queries are made of, followed by the terms and concepts specific to the execution of MDX queries. The middle part of the article covers the most important things related to dimension design, cube design, and MDX script. Next, we explain terms related to query optimization and finally finish the article with types of queries that can be used with SQL Server Analysis Services.

Android 3.0 Application Development: Multimedia Management

As the computing power of mobile devices has increased, so has their ability to play and record a variety of media such as audio and video. Android provides some useful tools for managing multimedia.

In this article by Kyle Merrifield Mew, author of Android 3.0 Application Development Cookbook, we will cover the following recipes:

• Playing an audio file from within an application
• Playing back video from external memory
• Playing multiple sounds with a SoundPool

Autoscaling with the Windows Azure Service Management REST API

One of the attractions of cloud computing is the financial saving gained through the elastic provision of compute services, that is, the ability to scale up and down the number of instances of a hosted service.

In this article by Neil Mackenzie, author of Microsoft Windows Azure Development Cookbook, we will see how the Windows Azure Service Management REST API can be used to autoscale a hosted service, so that it can handle the current and predicted load depending on the day of the week. By autoscale we mean the ability of a hosted service to scale itself elastically by modifying automatically the number of running instances.