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• XNA Notes 010

  - by George Clingerman

  With GDC 2011 wrapping up there were a LOT of great interviews and posts with and about XNA and XBLIG and some of our more notorious developers. Definitely worth spending many, many hours watching, listening and reading all those. Very inspiring! Also, don’t forget to get signed up for Dream Build Play! And just as an early warning reminder do NOT, I repeat do NOT wait to submit your game the last day. There are major issues submitting the last day every year and you do not want all your hard work to be hanging on whether your entry actually went through in that last day. Plan on submitting a few days if not a week before. I’m serious, you’ll thank yourself later! Now on to what’s happening in the XNA community! Time Critical XNA News: PAX East Meet Up (really wish I was going!) http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/p/71921/439262.aspx Want to stay panicked about the countdown to Dream Build Play? Mike McLaughlin shares his DBP countdown clock http://twitter.com/#!/mikebmcl/status/44454458960252928 XNA Team: Nick Gravelyn Only needs less than 600 new users in his unique marketing plan for Pixel Man 2 http://nickgravelyn.com/pixelman2/ And hares his ad revenue numbers with his XNA WP7 games http://theoneswiththelight.com/2011/my-results-with-ad-revenue-for-wp7-games/ XNA MVPs: Andy “The ZMan” Dunn posts his 15,000th App Hub forum post and shares a few thoughts on the MVP summit http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/t/77625.aspx Chris Williams shares his thoughts on the MVP summit http://geekswithblogs.net/cwilliams/archive/2011/03/07/144229.aspx XNA Developers: Nathan Fouts of Mommy’s Best games Wraps up GDC http://mommysbest.blogspot.com/2011/03/gdc-2011-wrapped.html And shares the wonderful screenshots from Serious Sam. (I’m so jealous people at PAX East willl be playing a demo of this game!) http://mommysbest.blogspot.com/2011/03/serious-sam-double-d.html James Silva of Ska Studios announces http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/03/09/vampire-smile-at-hotel-sierra/ http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/03/08/vengeance-begins-april-6th/ http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/03/04/good-morning-gato-52/ Michael McLaughlin writes an extremely useful set of tips for XNA WP7 developers http://geekswithblogs.net/mikebmcl/archive/2011/03/10/tips-for-xna-wp7-developers.aspx Robert Boyd “the one man XBLIG improving machine” posts his 9 tips for marketing an Xbox LIVE Indie Gam http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RobertBoyd/20110309/7183/9_Tips_for_XBLIG_Marketing.php http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/p/77534/470586.aspx#470586 And shares his day by day experience at GDC this year http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RobertBoyd/20110301/7118/GDC_Saves_the_World__Impressions_Day_1.php http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RobertBoyd/20110301/7123/GDC_Saves_the_World__Impressions_Day_2.php http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RobertBoyd/20110303/7129/GDC_Saves_the_World__Impressions_Day_3.php http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RobertBoyd/20110307/7133/GDC_Saves_the_World__Impressions_Day_4.php http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RobertBoyd/20110307/7160/GDC_Saves_the_World__Impressions_Day_5.php Phillipe Da Silva releases new IGF Pong Sample preview http://www.vimeo.com/20904070 Xbox LIVE Indie Games (XBLIG): Gamergeddon posts XBox Indie Game Roundup for March 6th http://www.gamergeddon.com/2011/03/06/xbox-indie-game-round-up-march-6th/ Dealspwn interviews FortressCraft developer Projector Games http://www.dealspwn.com/fortresscraft-developer-interview-minecraft-clones-venting-haters-part-1/ http://www.dealspwn.com/fortresscraft-developer-interview-part-2-trials-tribulations-indie-development/ Writings of Mass Destruction continues the Xbox LIVE Indie Game a day campaign, here’s his take on FishCraft (be sure to check out his other posts!) http://writingsofmassdeduction.com/2011/03/05/day-116-fishcraft/ Tom Ogburn shares his GDC notes on the XBLIG panel jotted quickly while attending the panel http://twitter.com/#!/TOgburn/status/44454191028125696 http://www.starlitskygames.com/blogs/site_news/archive/2011/03/06/802.aspx Dave Voyles of Armless Octopus has crazy good coverage on XNA and Xbox LIVE Indie Game developers at GDC 2011. Interviews and articles all extremely well done! http://www.armlessoctopus.com/2011/03/06/gdc-2011-successful-indie-developers-share-insight-on-microsofts-self-publishing-service/ There’s honestly so many posts and interviews you should just hit his front page and scroll down through all of the latest ones. http://www.armlessoctopus.com/ GameMarx Episode 12 http://www.gamemarx.com/video/the-show/27/ep-12-march-4-2011.aspx B.U.T.T.O.N now on Steam! http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2011/03/button_party_game_now_on_steam.php German Xbox Dashboard gets review program from GamePro http://www.armlessoctopus.com/2011/03/07/gamepo-indie-review-show-debuts-on-german-xbox-dashboard/ XboxIndies.com (one of the best XNA sites out there at this point!) continues to add review sites to it’s main review feed. (And don’t forget to play with that awesome XBLIG pivot control!) http://xboxindies.com/ Kris Steele of FunInfused Games shares early footage of his game World of Chalk http://twitter.com/#!/kriswd40/status/45007114371989504 Raymond Matthews of Darkstarmatryx reviews FunInfused Games Abduction Action http://www.darkstarmatryx.com/?p=264 TheVideoGamerRob reviews Zombie Football Carnage http://videogamerrob.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/xblig-review-zombie-football-carnage/ XBLIG Square Off Making the Jump to WP7 http://www.wp7connect.com/2011/03/08/xblig-square-off-will-make-the-jump-to-windows-phone/ Mommy’s Best Games making the news round with their Serious Sam announcement http://www.joystiq.com/2011/03/09/serious-sam-gets-serious-indie-cred-with-new-indie-series/ Most quoted and linked XBLIG article of the week with the least amount of actual facts and reporting. Shared only because it makes me sad that this is the best coverage we get. (Hey reporters, there’s LOT and LOTS of XBLIG and XNA experts you can contact if you need to check up on facts or wonder why on questions like, Why can’t XBLIGs have Nazis? There’s actually a real answer for that..) http://www.joystiq.com/2011/03/06/xblig-facts-nazi-killing-a-no-no-revenue-a-yes-yes/ XNA Development: Mort8088 has been in an XNA tutorial writing frenzy releasing 4 XNA 4.0 entry level tutorials this week! http://mort8088.com/2011/03/06/xna-4-0-tutorial-0-intro/ http://mort8088.com/2011/03/06/xna-4-0-tutorial-1-fonts/ http://mort8088.com/2011/03/06/xna-4-0-tutorial-2-sprites/ http://mort8088.com/2011/03/06/xna-4-0-tutorial-3-input-from-keyboard/ Interesting discussion on what it means to be a community (you do have to sign up to be a member of the XNA UK forums to read it...) http://twitter.com/#!/XNAUK/status/44705269254594560 Slyprid continues his incredible pace on Transmute and shares screens of his new Animation Builder http://twitter.com/#!/slyprid/status/45169271847911424 http://forgottenstarstudios.com/blog/ Philippe Da Silva wants to know who is using IGF for their games. If it’s you, drop him a note letting him know! http://twitter.com/#!/philippedasilva/status/44325893719588864 New Sunburn Video Tutorials released http://www.synapsegaming.com/blogs/fivesidedbarrel/archive/2011/03/07/new-documentation-video-tutorials.aspx Loading and rendering animated collada models using XNA 4.0 http://bunkernetz.wordpress.com/2011/03/09/loading-and-rendering-animated-collada-models-using-xna-4-0/ XNA for Silverlight Developers Part 6 Accelerometer Input http://buzzgamesnews.blogspot.com/2011/03/xna-for-silverlight-developers-part-6.html

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• What is SharePoint Out of the Box?

  - by Bil Simser

  It’s always fun in the blog-o-sphere and SharePoint bloggers always keep the pot boiling. Bjorn Furuknap recently posted a blog entry titled Why Out-of-the-Box Makes No Sense in SharePoint, quickly followed up by a rebuttal by Marc Anderson on his blog. Okay, now that we have all the players and the stage what’s the big deal? Bjorn started his post saying that you don’t use “out-of-the-box” (OOTB) SharePoint because it makes no sense. I have to disagree with his premise because what he calls OOTB is basically installing SharePoint and admiring it, but not using it. In his post he lays claim that modifying say the OOTB contacts list by removing (or I suppose adding) a column, now puts you in a situation where you’re no longer using the OOTB functionality. Really? Side note. Dear Internet, please stop comparing building software to building houses. Or comparing software architecture to building architecture. Or comparing web sites to making dinner. Are you trying to dumb down something so the general masses understand it? Comparing a technical skill to a construction operation isn’t the way to do this. Last time I checked, most people don’t know how to build houses and last time I checked people reading technical SharePoint blogs are generally technical people that understand the terms you use. Putting metaphors around software development to make it easy to understand is detrimental to the goal. </rant> Okay, where were we? Right, adding columns to lists means you are no longer using the OOTB functionality. Yeah, I still don’t get it. Another statement Bjorn makes is that using the OOTB functionality kills the flexibility SharePoint has in creating exactly what you want. IMHO this really flies in the absolute face of *where* SharePoint *really* shines. For the past year or so I’ve been leaning more and more towards OOTB solutions over custom development for the simple reason that its expensive to maintain systems and code and assets. SharePoint has enabled me to do this simply by providing the tools where I can give users what they need without cracking open up Visual Studio. This might be the fact that my day job is with a regulated company and there’s more scrutiny with spending money on anything new, but frankly that should be the position of any responsible developer, architect, manager, or PM. Do you really want to throw money away because some developer tells you that you need a custom web part when perhaps with some creative thinking or expectation setting with customers you can meet the need with what you already have. The way I read Bjorn’s terminology of “out-of-the-box” is install the software and tell people to go to a website and admire the OOTB system, but don’t change it! For those that know things like WordPress, DotNetNuke, SubText, Drupal or any of those content management/blogging systems, its akin to installing the software and setting up the “Hello World” blog post or page, then staring at it like it’s useful. “Yes, we are using WordPress!”. Then not adding a new post, creating a new category, or adding an About page. Perhaps I’m wrong in my interpretation. This leads us to what is OOTB SharePoint? To many people I’ve talked to the last few hours on twitter, email, etc. it is *not* just installing software but actually using it as it was fit for purpose. What’s the purpose of SharePoint then? It has many purposes, but using the OOTB templates Microsoft has given you the ability to collaborate on projects, author/share/publish documents, create pages, track items/contacts/tasks/etc. in a multi-user web based interface, and so on. Microsoft has pretty clear definitions of these different levels of SharePoint we’re talking about and I think it’s important for everyone to know what they are and what they mean. Personalization and Administration To me, this is the OOTB experience. You install the product and then are able to do things like create new lists, sites, edit and personalize pages, create new views, etc. Basically use the platform services available to you with Windows SharePoint Services (or SharePoint Foundation in 2010) to your full advantage. No code, no special tools needed, and very little user training required. Could you take someone who has never done anything in a website or piece of software and unleash them onto a site? Probably not. However I would argue that anyone who’s configured the Outlook reading layout or applied styles to a Word document probably won’t have too much difficulty in using SharePoint OUT OF THE BOX. Customization Here’s where things might get a bit murky but to me this is where you start looking at HTML/ASPX page code through SharePoint Designer, using jQuery scripts and plugging them into Web Part Pages via a Content Editor Web Part, and generally enhancing the site. The JavaScript debate might kick in here claiming it’s no different than C#, and frankly you can totally screw a site up with jQuery on a CEWP just as easily as you can with a C# delegate control deployed to the server file system. However (again, my blog, my opinion) the customization label comes in when I need to access the server (for example creating a custom theme) or have some kind of net-new element I add to the system that wasn’t there OOTB. It’s not content (like a new list or site), it’s code and does something functional. Development Here’s were the propeller hats come on and we’re talking algorithms and unit tests and compilers oh my. Software is deployed to the server, people are writing solutions after some kind of training (perhaps), there might be some specialized tools they use to craft and deploy the solutions, there’s the possibility of exceptions being thrown, etc. There are a lot of definitions here and just like customization it might get murky (do you let non-developers build solutions using development, i.e. jQuery/C#?). In my experience, it’s much more cost effective keeping solutions under the first two umbrellas than leaping into the third one. Arguably you could say that you can’t build useful solutions without *some* kind of code (even just some simple jQuery). I think you can get a *lot* of value just from using the OOTB experience and I don’t think you’re constraining your users that much. I’m not saying Marc or Bjorn are wrong. Like Obi-Wan stated, they’re both correct “from a certain point of view”. To me, SharePoint Out of the Box makes total sense and should not be dismissed. I just don’t agree with the premise that Bjorn is basing his statements on but that’s just my opinion and his is different and never the twain shall meet.

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• SQL SERVER – Extending SQL Azure with Azure worker role – Guest Post by Paras Doshi

  - by pinaldave

  This is guest post by Paras Doshi. Paras Doshi is a research Intern at SolidQ.com and a Microsoft student partner. He is currently working in the domain of SQL Azure. SQL Azure is nothing but a SQL server in the cloud. SQL Azure provides benefits such as on demand rapid provisioning, cost-effective scalability, high availability and reduced management overhead. To see an introduction on SQL Azure, check out the post by Pinal here In this article, we are going to discuss how to extend SQL Azure with the Azure worker role. In other words, we will attempt to write a custom code and host it in the Azure worker role; the aim is to add some features that are not available with SQL Azure currently or features that need to be customized for flexibility. This way we extend the SQL Azure capability by building some solutions that run on Azure as worker roles. To understand Azure worker role, think of it as a windows service in cloud. Azure worker role can perform background processes, and to handle processes such as synchronization and backup, it becomes our ideal tool. First, we will focus on writing a worker role code that synchronizes SQL Azure databases. Before we do so, let’s see some scenarios in which synchronization between SQL Azure databases is beneficial: scaling out access over multiple databases enables us to handle workload efficiently As of now, SQL Azure database can be hosted in one of any six datacenters. By synchronizing databases located in different data centers, one can extend the data by enabling access to geographically distributed data Let us see some scenarios in which SQL server to SQL Azure database synchronization is beneficial To backup SQL Azure database on local infrastructure Rather than investing in local infrastructure for increased workloads, such workloads could be handled by cloud Ability to extend data to different datacenters located across the world to enable efficient data access from remote locations Now, let us develop cloud-based app that synchronizes SQL Azure databases. For an Introduction to developing cloud based apps, click here Now, in this article, I aim to provide a bird’s eye view of how a code that synchronizes SQL Azure databases look like and then list resources that can help you develop the solution from scratch. Now, if you newly add a worker role to the cloud-based project, this is how the code will look like. (Note: I have added comments to the skeleton code to point out the modifications that will be required in the code to carry out the SQL Azure synchronization. Note the placement of Setup() and Sync() function.) Click here (http://parasdoshi1989.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/code-snippet-1-for-extending-sql-azure-with-azure-worker-role1.pdf ) Enabling SQL Azure databases synchronization through sync framework is a two-step process. In the first step, the database is provisioned and sync framework creates tracking tables, stored procedures, triggers, and tables to store metadata to enable synchronization. This is one time step. The code for the same is put in the setup() function which is called once when the worker role starts. Now, the second step is continuous (or on demand) synchronization of SQL Azure databases by propagating changes between databases. This is done on a continuous basis by calling the sync() function in the while loop. The code logic to synchronize changes between SQL Azure databases should be put in the sync() function. Discussing the coding part step by step is out of the scope of this article. Therefore, let me suggest you a resource, which is given here. Also, note that before you start developing the code, you will need to install SYNC framework 2.1 SDK (download here). Further, you will reference some libraries before you start coding. Details regarding the same are available in the article that I just pointed to. You will be charged for data transfers if the databases are not in the same datacenter. For pricing information, go here Currently, a tool named DATA SYNC, which is built on top of sync framework, is available in CTP that allows SQL Azure <-> SQL server and SQL Azure <-> SQL Azure synchronization (without writing single line of code); however, in some cases, the custom code shown in this blogpost provides flexibility that is not available with Data SYNC. For instance, filtering is not supported in the SQL Azure DATA SYNC CTP2; if you wish to have such a functionality now, then you have the option of developing a custom code using SYNC Framework. Now, this code can be easily extended to synchronize at some schedule. Let us say we want the databases to get synchronized every day at 10:00 pm. This is what the code will look like now: (http://parasdoshi1989.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/code-snippet-2-for-extending-sql-azure-with-azure-worker-role.pdf) Don’t you think that by writing such a code, we are imitating the functionality provided by the SQL server agent for a SQL server? Think about it. We are scheduling our administrative task by writing custom code – in other words, we have developed a “Light weight SQL server agent for SQL Azure!” Since the SQL server agent is not currently available in cloud, we have developed a solution that enables us to schedule tasks, and thus we have extended SQL Azure with the Azure worker role! Now if you wish to track jobs, you can do so by storing this data in SQL Azure (or Azure tables). The reason is that Windows Azure is a stateless platform, and we will need to store the state of the job ourselves and the choice that you have is SQL Azure or Azure tables. Note that this solution requires custom code and also it is not UI driven; however, for now, it can act as a temporary solution until SQL server agent is made available in the cloud. Moreover, this solution does not encompass functionalities that a SQL server agent provides, but it does open up an interesting avenue to schedule some of the tasks such as backup and synchronization of SQL Azure databases by writing some custom code in the Azure worker role. Now, let us see one more possibility – i.e., running BCP through a worker role in Azure-hosted services and then uploading the backup files either locally or on blobs. If you upload it locally, then consider the data transfer cost. If you upload it to blobs residing in the same datacenter, then no transfer cost applies but the cost on blob size applies. So, before choosing the option, you need to evaluate your preferences keeping the cost associated with each option in mind. In this article, I have shown that Azure worker role solution could be developed to synchronize SQL Azure databases. Moreover, a light-weight SQL server agent for SQL Azure can be developed. Also we discussed the possibility of running BCP through a worker role in Azure-hosted services for backing up our precious SQL Azure data. Thus, we can extend SQL Azure with the Azure worker role. But remember: you will be charged for running Azure worker roles. So at the end of the day, you need to ask – am I willing to build a custom code and pay money to achieve this functionality? I hope you found this blog post interesting. If you have any questions/feedback, you can comment below or you can mail me at Paras[at]student-partners[dot]com Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Azure, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• How to create a virtual network with Azure Connect

  - by Herve Roggero

  If you are trying to establish a virtual network between machines located in disparate networks, you can either use VPN, Virtual Network or Azure Connect. If you want to establish a connection between machines located in Windows Azure, you should consider using the Virtual Network service. If you want to establish a connection between local machines and Virtual Machines in Windows Azure, you may be able to use your existing VPN device (assuming you have one), as long as the device is supported by Microsoft. If the VPN device you are using isn’t supported, or if you are trying to create a virtual network between machines from disparate networks (such as machines located in another cloud provider), you can use Azure Connect. This blog post explains how Azure Connect can help you create virtual networks between multiple servers in the cloud, various servers in different cloud environments, and on-premise. Note: Azure Connect is currently in Technical Preview. About Azure Connect Let’s do a quick review of Azure Connect. This technology implements an IPSec tunnel from machines to to a relay service located in the Microsoft cloud (Azure). So in essence, Azure Connect doesn’t provide a point-to-point connection between machines; the network communication is tunneled through the relay service. The relay service in turn offers a mechanism to enforce basic communication rules that you define through Groups. We will review this later. You could network two or more VMs in the Azure cloud (although you should consider using a Virtual Network if you go this route), or servers in the Azure cloud and other machines in the Amazon cloud for example, or even two or more on-premise servers located in different locations for which a direct network connection is not an option. You can place any number of machines in your topology. Azure Connect gives you great flexibility on how you want to build your virtual network across various environments. So Azure Connect makes sense when you want to: Connect machines located in different cloud providers Connect on-premise machines running in different locations Connect Azure VMs with on-premise (if you do not have a VPN device, or if your device is not supported) Connect Azure Roles (Worker Roles, Web Roles) with on-premise servers or in other cloud providers The diagram below shows you a high level network topology that involves machines in the Windows Azure cloud, other cloud providers and on-premise. You should note that the only required component in this diagram is the Relay itself. The other machines are optional (although your network is useful only if you have two or more machines involved). Relay agents are currently available in three geographic areas: US, Europe and Asia. You can change which region you want to use in the Windows Azure management portal. High Level Network Topology With Azure Connect Azure Connect Agent Azure Connect establishes a virtual network and creates virtual adapters on your machines; these virtual adapters communicate through the Relay using IPSec. This is achieved by installing an agent (the Azure Connect Agent) on all the machines you want in your network topology. However, you do not need to install the agent on Worker Roles and Web Roles; that’s because the agent is already installed for you. Any other machine, including Virtual Machines in Windows Azure, needs the agent installed.  To install the agent, simply go to your Windows Azure portal (http://windows.azure.com) and click on Networks on the bottom left panel. You will see a list of subscriptions under Connect. If you select a subscription, you will be able to click on the Install Local Endpoint icon on top. Clicking on this icon will begin the download and installation process for the agent. Activating Roles for Azure Connect As previously mentioned, you do not need to install the Azure Connect Agent on Worker Roles and Web Roles because it is already loaded. However, you do need to activate them if you want the roles to participate in your network topology. To do this, you will need to click on the Get Activation Token icon. The activation token must then be copied and placed in the configuration file of your roles. For more information on how to perform this step, visit MSDN at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/gg432964.aspx. Firewall Rules Note that specific firewall rules must exist to allow the agent to communicate through the Relay. You will need to allow TCP 443 and ICMPv6. For additional information, please visit MSDN at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/gg433061.aspx. CA Certificates You can optionally require agents to sign their activation request with the Relay using a trusted certificate issued by a Certificate Authority (CA). Click on Activation Options to learn more. Groups To create your network topology you must first create a group. A group represents a logical container of endpoints (or machines) that can communicate through the Relay. You can create multiple groups allowing you to manage network communication differently. For example you could create a DEVELOPMENT group and a PRODUCTION group. To add an endpoint you must first install an agent that will create a virtual adapter on the machine on which it is installed (as discussed in the previous section). Once you have created a group and installed the agents, the machines will appear in the Windows Azure management portal and you can start assigning machines to groups. The next figure shows you that I created a group called LocalGroup and assigned two machines (both on-premise) to that group. Groups and Computers in Azure Connect As I mentioned previously you can allow these machines to establish a network connection. To do this, you must enable the Interconnected option in the group. The following diagram shows you the definition of the group. In this topology I chose to include local machines only, but I could also add worker roles and web roles in the Azure Roles section (you must first activate your roles, as discussed previously). You could also add other Groups, allowing you to manage inter-group communication. Defining a Group in Azure Connect Testing the Connection Now that my agents have been installed on my two machines, the group defined and the Interconnected option checked, I can test the connection between my machines. The next screenshot shows you that I sent a PING request to DEVLAP02 from DEVDSK02. The PING request was successful. Note however that the time is in the hundreds of milliseconds on average. That is to be expected because the machines are connecting through the Relay located in the cloud. Going through the Relay introduces an extra hop in the communication chain, so if your systems rely on high performance, you may want to conduct some basic performance tests. Sending a PING Request Through The Relay Conclusion As you can see, creating a network topology between machines using the Azure Connect service is simple. It took me less than five minutes to create the above configuration, including the time it took to install the Azure Connect agents on the two machines. The flexibility of Azure Connect allows you to create a virtual network between disparate environments, as long as your operating systems are supported by the agent. For more information on Azure Connect, visit the MSDN website at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/gg432997.aspx. About Herve Roggero Herve Roggero, Windows Azure MVP, is the founder of Blue Syntax Consulting, a company specialized in cloud computing products and services. Herve's experience includes software development, architecture, database administration and senior management with both global corporations and startup companies. Herve holds multiple certifications, including an MCDBA, MCSE, MCSD. He also holds a Master's degree in Business Administration from Indiana University. Herve is the co-author of "PRO SQL Azure" from Apress and runs the Azure Florida Association (on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=4177626). For more information on Blue Syntax Consulting, visit www.bluesyntax.net. Special Thanks I would like thank those that helped me figure out how Azure Connect works: Marcel Meijer - http://blogs.msmvps.com/marcelmeijer/ Michael Wood - Http://www.mvwood.com Glenn Block - http://www.codebetter.com/glennblock Yves Goeleven - http://cloudshaper.wordpress.com/ Sandrino Di Mattia - http://fabriccontroller.net/ Mike Martin - http://techmike2kx.wordpress.com

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• PHP/APC fatal error, apc_mmap: mmap failed

  - by Sudowned

  I'm seeing some intermittent CPU usage spikes to 100%, sort of correlated to these log entries: [27-Feb-2012 13:29:29] PHP Fatal error: PHP Startup: apc_mmap: mmap failed: in Unknown on line 0 [27-Feb-2012 13:29:30] PHP Fatal error: PHP Startup: apc_mmap: mmap failed: in Unknown on line 0 [27-Feb-2012 13:29:31] PHP Fatal error: PHP Startup: apc_mmap: mmap failed: in Unknown on line 0 [27-Feb-2012 13:29:31] PHP Fatal error: PHP Startup: apc_mmap: mmap failed: in Unknown on line 0 phpinfo() indicates that APC is set up, and as far as I can tell this error doesn't cause visible 500 errors on the live site, which is a WordPress install that gets about 600k views monthly. Google's been unhelpful so far, and I was hoping that someone here had some insight as to what's causing this and how to fix it. Curiously, this error only shows up /usr/local/apache2/logs/error_log and not the error_log for the cpanel-configured site.

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• Windows 7: how to let AutoConfigURL change be effective immediately?

  - by Jeroen Pluimers

  I want to set both the script and the "Use automatic configuration script" checkbox in Windows 7 using a script that immediately affects anything using wininet.dll (Internet Explorer, Chrome, .NET apps, etc). I've done a before/after registry diff, and tried doing this through the registry, but things like the reg files below require the apps to be restarted. Chaning the settings by pressing the "LAN Settings" button through this Control panel shortcut has immediate affect: %windir%\system32\control.exe Inetcpl.cpl,,4 How can I script this immediate effect? These are the registry script files: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings] “AutoConfigURL”=”http://www.company.com/proxy.pac” (registry scripts borrowed from http://danny.quantumspark.net/wordpress/) [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings] “AutoConfigURL”=- --jeroen (who is checking out the notify function at superuser.com)

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• Choice of operating systems for a Rackspace cloud installation

  - by riteshmnayak

  I am planning to use Rackspace cloud services to host a java web application and also run apace for wordpress and trac. What would be a stable operating system to host such an application. My requirements are that the core OS bundle should be minimalistic (so I can install only what I want), consume very little memory and be performant. I would also need it to contain softwares for the common lamp stack, J2EE stack etc. A supported package manager would be lovely. My choices are listed below. RHEL 5.3 or 5.4 Debian Lenny Ubuntu 8.04 onwards Centos 5.3 or 5.4 Arch 2009.02 Gentoo 2008.0 or 10.1 Fedora 11 or 12 PS: can somebody add the rackspace tag to this? Edit to remove this line as well. Thanks

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• 404 Error Behavior on Godaddy

  - by liciousx

  My goDaddy account for hosting and on that host i have multiple domains. goDaddy offers me only one 404 redirect for all of my domains: domain1.com/gadfgsdf (nonexistent link) is redirected to domain1.com domain2.com/gadf (nonexistent link) is redirected to domain1.com domain.com/sagsdg (nonexistent link) is redirected to domain1.com I need for one of my domains to make the redirect on the same domain: domain4.com/gsdhgfhf (nonexistent link) to be redirected to domain4.com I am on Windows and i am using Wordpress on all of my domains. I looked for the web.config file but didn't find it. I new at this and i would really appreciate it if you can explain more detailed. Thanks

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• Is there a Unix/Linux platform equivalent to Telligent Community?

  - by Scott A. Lawrence

  Telligent Community combines blogs, wikis, forums, and file-sharing capabilities into a single product with single sign-on, using all Microsoft technologies. Is there an equivalent offering that runs on Unix/Linux? Or would I have to pick and choose individual product offerings and figure out another option for single sign-on across them? Are there plug-ins for something like WordPress or MovableType that might add the necessary functionality? A friend of mine is looking to add a "members-only" area to her company's website, and since they're hosted on Dreamhost (and can't afford StackExchange pricing yet), I'm trying to find other options for them.

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• Centos Virtual host loading default page

  - by ntechi

  I have asked a question which was related to this but not same, I have a centos VPS, which has two wordpress websites, one is mbas.co.in and another is onlinemba123.com, now for virtual hosting using just ONE IP ADDRESS, first I started mbas.co.in, which is working fine, when I added onlinemba123.com then, it is loading default Centos page instead of my website, and I am just testing my onlinemba123 website, I haven't configured DNS for it, I am testing it through editing my PC's hosts file, My website folder names are also same as in the conf file below Now my question is how can I load my website instead of Default page, is my virtual host config fine? My virtual host config: NameVirtualHost *:80 <VirtualHost *:80> ServerAdmin [email protected] DocumentRoot /var/www/html/www.mbas.co.in ServerName mbas.co.in ErrorLog logs/mbas.co.in-error_log CustomLog logs/mbas.co.in-access_log common </VirtualHost> <VirtualHost *:80> ServerAdmin [email protected] DocumentRoot /var/www/html/www.onlinemba123.com ServerName www.onlinemba123.com ErrorLog logs/onlinemba123-error_log CustomLog logs/onlinemba123-access_log common </VirtualHost> My computers host file is: xx.xxx.xxx.xxx www.onlinemba123.com

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• Extract reply to addresses from all emails in an outlook folder

  - by RodH257

  I've got to send a bulk email out to a bunch of people in reply to emails they sent me. I've got all the original emails stored in a single outlook folder. I want to extract all of the reply-to addresses from the emails in that folder so I can send an email to all of them. http://thetechieguy.wordpress.com/2008/04/22/extracting-email-address-from-outlook-2007-folder/ shows you how to export the FROM address of these emails, however a large amount of them came from a web service that sends emails 'on behalf of' the person I'm trying to mail to. So I need the reply-to address, and the export wizard doesn't do that. Does anyone have a tip on how to do this? This is Outlook 2007 on Exchange 2010.

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• Postfix Not Sending Email to Some Addresses?

  - by Jake

  I'm using Jetpack on Wordpress, and it wasn't working. I was getting the following error: Diagnostic-Code: X-Postfix; unknown user: "jake" --60FD1138CAD.1354039466/example.com Content-Description: Undelivered Message (example.com substituted for our domain) We set up a test mail function, and that wasn't sending either. We changed the email to an outside email and it worked. Any thoughts why it won't send to an email that is at the same domain? Or why it sends to some emails but not others? Upon running postconf -n, I get the following: alias_database = hash:/etc/aliases alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases append_dot_mydomain = no biff = no config_directory = /etc/postfix inet_interfaces = all inet_protocols = all mailbox_size_limit = 0 mydestination = example.com, Example, localhost.localdomain, localhost myhostname = example.com mynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8 [::ffff:127.0.0.0]/104 [::1]/128 myorigin = /etc/mailname readme_directory = no recipient_delimiter = + relayhost = smtp_tls_session_cache_database = btree:${data_directory}/smtp_scache smtpd_banner = $myhostname ESMTP $mail_name (Ubuntu) smtpd_tls_cert_file = /etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem smtpd_tls_key_file = /etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key smtpd_tls_session_cache_database = btree:${data_directory}/smtpd_scache smtpd_use_tls = yes

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• apache performance improvements and maxclients

  - by updog

  I know this has been asked a few (thousand) times around the internet but I was hoping someone whose in the know might be able to comment on my particular setup. I have a web server hosting one site (php/codeigniter) with a wordpress blog in a sub directory. The server has 2GB RAM, 3GHz CPU and I have offloaded the static assets to CloudFlare which is has reduced bandwidth for the actual server by almost 75%. The problem I have is when an email campaign is sent out that links to the site or blog, it slows down. Below is my settings in apache2.conf. Average apache process size is 80M and there is 1.5GB available for apache. <IfModule mpm_prefork_module> StartServers 8 MinSpareServers 5 MaxSpareServers 20 MaxClients 20 MaxRequestsPerChild 2000 </IfModule> I have already setup and installed apc and built some caching into the site and used w3totalcache on the blog. The number of concurrent users is around 2-300 when there is a campaign, are there any further optimisations before

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• Recovering/Rebuilding MySQL .FRM, .MY* files from IBDATA1

  - by Synetech

  I recently had an incident in which several MySQL files were wiped out (mostly from WordPress, but also a few of MySQL’s own files). The IBDATA1 file is unaffected, but several .frm are gone as are a few .myi and .myd files. So now I need to find out if there is a way to rebuild the missing files from IBDATA1. I tried Googling it, assuming that such an issue has come up before, and indeed there were numerous search results (including this question), but all of the ones I looked at were the opposite, about recovering from .frm and .my* files or somehow required these files. Is there a way to rebuild these files? I know I have a relatively recent backup (a .SQL file) if there isn’t, but I’m hoping that these are the kind of files that are rebuilt if missing or outdated.

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• open_basedir vs sessions

  - by liquorvicar

  On a virtual hosting server I have the open_basedir set to .:/path/to/vhost/web:/tmp:/usr/share/pear for each virtual host. I have a client who's running WordPress and he's complaining about open_basedir errors thus: PHP WARNING: file_exists() [function.file-exists]: open_basedir restriction in effect. File(/var/lib/php/session/sess_42k7jn3vjenj43g3njorrnrmf2) is not within the allowed path(s): (.:/path/to/vhost/web:/tmp:/usr/share/pear) So the PHP session save_path isn't included in open_basedir but sessions across all sites on the server seems to be working fine apart from in this intermittent instance. I thought that perhaps the default session handler ignored open_basedir and this warning was caused by WP accessing the session file directly. However from what I can see PHP 5.2.4 introduced open_basedir checking to the session.save_path config: http://www.php.net/ChangeLog-5.php#5.2.4 (I am on PHP 5.2.13). Any ideas?

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• Are there any tools for monitoring individual Apache virtual hosts in real-time?

  - by Dave Forgac

  I'm looking for a way to monitor and record Apache traffic, separated by virtual host. I am currently using Munin to capture this and other data for the entire server however I can't seem to find a way to do this by vhost. This link describes using a module called mod_watch which is apparently no longer in development: http://www.freshnet.org/wordpress/2007/03/08/monitoring-apaches-virtualhost-with-munin/ The file that is listed as being compatible with Apache 2.x is reported to have problems with missing vhosts an reporting data correctly. Does anyone know of a reliable way to determine real-time traffic per vhost? If I can find this it should be easy enough to write a new Munin plugin. Edit: What I'd really like to see is something similar to the Apache server-status scoreboard page with the number of connections / requests separated by virtual host. This would give me the ability to check which vhost may be experiencing a spike in traffic in real time and would also provide the data needed for a Munin module (or some alternative performance monitoring / analysis system.)

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• MediaTemple tcpsndbuf QoS Alerts

  - by theturninggate

  I'm hosting with MediaTemple on a (dv) Dedicated-Virtual 3.5 server. My site consists of a Wordpress blog, some custom PHP pages (nothing too intense), and I server 500-700 unique visitors per day. Despite my pretty modest numbers, I suffer from regular Apache crashes on account of QoS Alerts, mostly flagged as "tcpsndbuf". MediaTemple support -- usually tops -- has been pretty useless on this matter. I'm looking for answers as to how/why this is happening, advice on how to stop it. My website is a good portion of my livelihood, and downtime equates to lost income. Any and all help much appreciated. -Matt

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• What comment-spam filtering service works?

  - by Charles Stewart

  From an answer I gave to another question: There are comment filtering services out there that can analyse comments in a manner similar to mail spam filters (all links to the client API page, organised from simplest API to most complex): Steve Kemp (again) has an xml-rpc-based comment filter: it's how Debian filters comments, and the code is free software, meaning you can run your own comment filtering server if you like; There's Akismet, which is from the WordPress universe; There's Mollom, which has an impressive list of users. It's closed source; it might say "not sure" about comments, intended to suggest offering a captcha to check the user. For myself, I'm happy with offline by-hand filtering, but I suggested Kemp's service to someone who had an underwhelming experience with Mollom, and I'd like to pass on more reports from anyone who has tried these or other services.

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• User Permissions: Daemon and User

  - by Eddie Parker

  Hello: I often run into this issue on Linux, and I'd love to know the proper way of solving it. Say I have a daemon running. In my example, I'll use LigHTTPD, a webserver. Some software, like Wordpress, enjoys having read/write access to files for updating applications via a web interface, which I think is quite handy. At the same time, I enjoy being able to hack on my files using vim, using my local user account, 'eddie'. Herein lies the rub. Either I chown everything to lighttpd or eddie and a shared group between them both, and chmod it 660, or perpetually sudo to edit the damned things. The former isn't a bad solution, until I create a new file in which case I have to remember to chmod it appropriately, or create some hack like a cron job that chmods for me. Is there an easier way of doing this? Have I overlooked something? Cheers, -e-

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• Is there a Unix/Linux platform equivalent of Telligent Community (formerly Community Server)?

  - by Scott A. Lawrence

  Telligent Community combines blogs, wikis, forums, and file-sharing capabilities into a single product with single sign-on, using all Microsoft technologies. Is there an equivalent offering that runs on Unix/Linux? Or would I have to pick and choose individual product offerings and figure out another option for single sign-on across them? Are there plug-ins for something like WordPress or MovableType that might add the necessary functionality? A friend of mine is looking to add a "members-only" area to her company's website, and since they're hosted on Dreamhost (and can't afford StackExchange pricing yet), I'm trying to find other options for them.

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• Adding Blogger template to predefined list

  - by espais

  I am working on updating a Blogger layout for a friend's website, and haven't had much luck in searching for this. Essentially, I want to create the template and show them before pushing it live. At present, there are lists of sample templates (Simple, Dynamic, etc), and I'd like to add mine as a clickable button for them to preview. When I attempt to import it, it is automatically published as the live template...but I don't want it to be seen before they review it. I want them to be able to switch between the current version and my version to see what is preferred. Is this even possible? It would be extraordinarily straightforward in WordPress, but I've never used blogger before...

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• SharePoint 2010 Server Configuration Error -> "Cannot connect to database master"

  - by Chrish Riis

  I recieve the following error when I try to configure SharePoint 2010 Server: "Cannot connect to the database master at SQL server at [computer.domain]. The database might not exist, or the current user does not have permission to connect to it." I run the following setup: Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard with SP1 and all the updates SQL Server 2008 R2 with SP1 SharePoint Server 2010 with SP1 Everything is installed on the same server (it's a testserver) I have tried the following: Rebooting the server Checking the install account's DB rights (dbcreator, securityadmin - I even let it have sysadmin) Opened up the firewall on port 1433 and 1434 Uninstalled both SQL and SP, then reinstalled the both Enabled all client protocols in SQL Server Configuration Made sure I used the correct account for installing SharePoint (local admin) Useful links: TCP/IP settings – http:// blog.vanmeeuwen-online.nl/2010/10/cannot-connect-to-database-master-at.html http:// ybbest.wordpress.com/2011/04/22/cannot-connect-to-database-master-at-sql-server-at-sql2008r2/ Wrong slash - http:// yakimadev.com/2010/11/cannot-connect-to-database-master-at-sql-server-at-serverdbname-error-during-sharepoint-2010-products-configuration-wizard-and-installation/ Port error - http:// www.knowsharepoint.com/2011/08/error-connecting-to-database-server.html

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• Encrypted passwords for better security on server

  - by Ke

  Hi, I use wordpress and other CMS's and all these have plain text passwords in their config files e.g. in wp-config.php I wonder is this the normal way an administrator would protect security? I realise its possible to move the wp-config outside of the root web directory, but still if the server itself is compromised, its possible to find the wp-config file and the password inside, then the system is comprimised. Is there a way to encrypt all passwords on the system, so that in the web applications config files it uses the encrypted pass and not just plain text? Is there a sensible way of keeping plain-text passwords off the server? PS i use linux vps ubuntu servers Cheers Ke

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• Different color prompts for different machines when using terminal/ssh?

  - by bcrawl

  I have 5 machines I constantly ssh into to do work. Its getting increasingly frustrating when I am issuing wrong commands on wrong boxes. Luckily I havent done anything bad yet. I wanted to know if there is any hack which I can hardcode which will display my prompt in different colors based on the machine I am ssh into? Such as blue for desktop1, purple for laptop, red for server etc? Is this possible? Currently I am using this command export PS1="\e[0;31m[\u@\h \W]\$ \e[m " taken from here http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/bash-shell-change-the-color-of-my-shell-prompt-under-linux-or-unix/ but it obviously doesnt work across ssh. Also, if you have any other cool bash tips for helping me ease my sight will be wonderful. I got this tip which colors the man pages. http://linuxtidbits.wordpress.com/2009/03/23/less-colors-for-man-pages/

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• PHP cgi locks up and times out.

  - by Oli

  I've got a dozen wordpress sites hosted on a nginx/php-cgi setup. After a variable amount of time (usually not that long, and occasionally very fast) PHP locks up and after 2 minutes (the timeout I set in nginx), it get a 504 timeout. I've tried everything I can think of. I've been using an init script to launch php-cgi but I compiled out php-fpm and tried that for a day with various configurations with the same results. I've tried a low number of PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN. I've tried as high as my RAM will let me. I've tried various settings for PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS. xcache seemed to exacerbate the issue, so I removed it. The server is a VPS but it has over a gig of ram dedicated to it. All suggestions are welcome at this juncture because I'm desperate.

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