This is a read from the blog post by Julian James. iOS continuous integration builds can be setup with HockeyApp, OSX Mavericks, Server and XCode. These are installed first and Xcode remote repositories point to source control. BotRuns are stored in their own folder. Project scheme can be edited to include pre-action and post-action schemes.Bots can be specified with a schedule and a target. OCMock and OCHamcrest can be used for unit-testing. Archive post-action completion signals the availability of the latest build. Instruments can then be run with Javascript file to test the UI. Then when the bot is run, it could show the number of tests passed.
Javascript for UI automation can make use of the iOS UI automation library reference. This has an object model for all the UI elements and document navigation. Workflows are automated using the different methods on these objects and UIANavigationBar. The target is obtained with UIATarget, the application is referred to with UIAApplication, pages are available via UIAPageIndicator etc. A variety of controls are available via UIAButton, UIAElement, UIAPicker, UIAPickerWheel, UIAPopover, UIASearchBar, UIASecureTextField, UIATabBar, and UIAWebView. Organzation of UI elements can be used with UIATableCell, UIATableGroup and UIATableView to access the individual cells. UIATabGroup allows navigation between tabs.

A recap of on five progressive steps by Barry Wise to database normalization
We start out with an example where we store user's name, company, company address, and personal  urls - say url1 and url2
The zero form is when all of this is in a single table and no normalization has occurred.
The first normal form is achieved by
1) eliminating repeating groups in individual tables
2) creating a separate table for each set of data
3) identify each set of related data with a primary key
so this yields a table where the user information is repeated for each url so url field limitation is solved
The Second normal form is achieved by
1) Creating separate tables for a set of values that apply to multiple records
2) Relate these tables with a foreign key
Basically, we break the url values into a separate table so we can add more in the future
The third normal form is achieved by
1) eliminating fields that do not depend on the key
Company name and address have nothing to do with the user id, so they are broken off into their own table
The fourth and higher form depend on data relationships involving one-one, one-to-many and many-to-many.
The Fourth normal form is
1) In many to many relationship, independent entities cannot be stored in the same table.
To get many users related to many urls, we define a url_relations where they user id and url id are paired.
The next normal form is the Fifth normal form which suggests that
1) The original table must be reconstructed from the tables into which it has been broken down. This is a way to check that no new columns have been added.
As always, remember that denormalization has its benefits as well.
Also, Litt's tips additionally mentions the following :
1) create a table for each list. More than likely every list will have additional information
2) create non-meaningful identifiers.
This is to make sure that business rule changes do not affect the primary identifier 

Barry Wise on five progressive steps to database normalization
We start out with an example where we store user's name, company, company address, and personal  urls - say url1 and url2
The zero form is when all of this is in a single table and no normalization has occured.
The first normal form is achieved by
1) eliminating repeating groups in individual tables
2) creating a separate table for each set of data
3) identify each set of related data with a primary key
so this yields a table where the user information is repeated for each url so url field limitation is solved
The Second normal form is achieved by
1) Creating separate tables for a set of values that apply to multiple records
2) Relate these tables with a foreign key
Basically, we break the url values into a separate table so we can add more in the future
The third normal form is achieved by
1) eliminating fields that do not depend on the key
Company name and address have nothing to do with the user id, so they are broken off into their own table
The fourth and higher form depend on data relationships involving one-one, one-to-many and many-to-many.
The Fourth normal form is
1) In many to many relationship, independent entities cannot be stored in the same table.
To get many users related to many urls, we define a url_relations where they user id and url id are paired.
The next normal form is the Fifth normal form which suggests that
1) The original table must be reconstructed from the tables into which it has been broken down. This is a way to check that no new columns have been added.
As always, remember that denormalization has its benefits as well.
Also, Litt's tips additionally mentions the following :
1) create a table for each list. More than likely every list will have additional information
2) create non-meaningful identifiers.
This is to make sure that business rule changes do not affect the primary identifier 

Some T-SQL queries
SELECT t.name as tour_name, COUNT(*)
FROM Upfall u INNER JOIN trip t
on u.id = t.stop
GROUP BY t.name
HAVING COUNT(*) > 6
Aggregate funcions - AVG(), MAX(), MIN(), MEDIAN(), COUNT(), STDEV(), SUM(), VARIANCE()

--Summarizing rows with rollup
SELECT t.name AS tour_name, c.name as county_name COUNT(*) as falls_count
FROM upfall u INNER JOIN trip t
ON U.id = t.stop
INNER JOIN county c ON u.county_id = c.id
GROUP BY t.name, c.name with ROLLUP

SELECT t.name as tour_name,
c.name as county_name
COUNT(*) as falls_count
GROUPING(t.name) as n1 -- test null from cube
GROUPING(t.name) as n2 -- test null from cube
from upfall u INNER JOIN trip t
ON u.id = t.stop
INNER JOIN county c
ON u.county_id = c.id
WHERE t.name = 'Munising'
GROUP BY t.name,c.name WITH CUBE

--RECURSIVE QUERIES
WITH recursiveGov
(level, id, parent_id, name, type) AS
(SELECT 1, parent.id, parent.parent_id, parent.name, parent.type
FROM gov_unit parent
WHERE parent.parent_id IS NULL
UNION ALL
SELECT parent.level + 1, child.id, child.parent_id, child.name, child.type
FROM recursiveGov parent, gov_unit child
WHERE child.parent_id = parent.id)
SELECT level, id, parent_id, name, type
FROM recursiveGov

CREATE TABLE COUNTRY(
ID int identity (1,1),
NAME varchar(15) NOT NULL,
CODE Varchar(2) DEFAULT 'CA'
CONSTRAINT code_not_null NOT NULL
CONSTRAINT code_check
CHECK (country IN ('CA', 'US')),
indexed_name VARCHAR(15),
CONSTRAINT country_pk
PRIMARY KEY(ID)
CONSTRAINT country_fk01
FOREIGN KEY (name,code)
REFERENCES parent_example (name,country),
CONSTRAINT country_u01
UNIQUE(name,country)
CONSTRAINT country_index_upper
CHECK(indexed_name = UPPER(name))
);

This post is about one of the interview questions and is a coding problem :
bool IsMatch(string input, string pattern);
string input can be "ABCDBDXYZ"
string pattern can be "A*B?D*Z"
* and ? are the usual wild card for 0 or more and only one char respectively.
Here are some possible implementation:
bool IsMatch(string input, string pattern)
{
return Regex.Matches(input, pattern).Count > 0;
}

A brief review of programming interviews exposed book.
Bitwise operations - OR(any), AND(both) and XOR(same=0,different=1)
Shift operations - Base 2 right shift => divide by 2 and left shift => multiply by 1
Rectangle overlap is written as a.ul.x <= b.lr.x && a.ul.y >= b.lr.y && a.lr.x >= b.ul.x && a.lr.y <= b.ul.y
union{
int theInteger
char singleByte;
} endianTest;
endianTest.theInteger = 1
return endianTest.singleByte;
Permutations proceeds with an array of booleans for each element that denotes whether it is used
Combinations proceeds with varying start
Tackle graphical and spatial problems with pictures and over time.
Tackle Nodes and lists with previous, current and next variables during traversal.
Trees and Graphs are best tackled with traversals.

The red-black tree insert is very much like a tree insert except that its colored red before fix up.
The red-black tree delete considers four cases corresponding to
the fix up sibling w is red => color w to black and left-rotate
x's sibling w is black and both of w's children are black => color w to red.
x's sibling w is black and w's left child is red and right child is black => exchange color of w and its left child and right-rotate
x's sibling w is black and w's right child is red => change w's color and its parent and perform a left rotation
Now on to networking technologies:
SNMP - manages states such as address translation tables, routing tables, TCP connection states etc using MIB
Resolution occurs with different levels of identifiers : domain names, IP addresses, and physical network addresses. First, users specify domain names when interacting with the application. Second, application engages DNS to translate domain names to IP address and lastly IP engages ARP to translate the next hop IP address to physical address.
TLS session involves Client and Server communication where server sends certificate to client with its public key, client sends session keys, initialization vectors etc with encryption using the public key, server decrypts messages with its private key.
A certificate is a document with a digital signature and is signed by a Certification Authority. Keyed MD5 produces a cryptographic checksum for a message as m + MD5(m + k)
Public Key Authentication happens with A sending E(x, Public-B) to B and B sending back the decrypted x.
Kerberos provides a third party authentication by initiating, intercepting and closing the handshake.
Transmission Control Protocol  provides ordered reliable error free transmission with flow control and congestion management. This it does with sequence numbers, sliding window and window scaling. Sequence numbers, selective acknowledgements, receive window fields and persist timers help manage the flow.