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  • Segmenting and masking all shades of red from an image using opencv

    - by vrinda
    I am trying to segment all shades of red form an image using hue saturation values and use InRangeS function to create a mask which should have all red areas whitened and all others blacked(a new 1 channel image). Thwn Inpaint them to kind of obscure the segmented portions. My code is as given. However I am unable to get an output image, it doesnt segment the desired color range. Any pointers on my approach and why it isnt working. ? using namespace std; int main() { IplImage *img1=cvLoadImage("/home/techrascal/projects/test1/image2.jpeg"); //IplImage *img3; IplImage *imghsv; IplImage *img4; CvSize sz=cvGetSize(img1); imghsv=cvCreateImage(sz,IPL_DEPTH_8U,3); img4=cvCreateImage(sz,IPL_DEPTH_8U,1); int width = img1->width; int height = img1->height; int bpp = img1->nChannels; cvNamedWindow("original", 1); cvNamedWindow("hsv",1); cvNamedWindow("Blurred",1); int r,g,b; // create inpaint mask: img 4 will behave as mask cvCvtColor(img1,imghsv,CV_BGR2HSV); CvScalar hsv_min = cvScalar(0, 0, 0, 0); CvScalar hsv_max = cvScalar(255, 0, 0, 0); //cvShowImage("hsv",imghsv); cvInRangeS( imghsv, hsv_min, hsv_max, img4 ); cvInpaint(img1, img4, img1, 3,CV_INPAINT_NS ); cvShowImage("Blurred",img1); cvReleaseImage(&img1); cvReleaseImage(&imghsv); cvReleaseImage(&img4); //cvReleaseImage(&img3); char d=cvWaitKey(10000); cvDestroyAllWindows(); return 0;}

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  • Drawing an image in Java, slow as hell on a netbook.

    - by Norswap
    In follow-up to my previous questions (especially this one : http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2684123/java-volatileimage-slower-than-bufferedimage), i have noticed that simply drawing an Image (it doesn't matter if it's buffered or volatile, since the computer has no accelerated memory*, and tests shows it's doesn't change anything), tends to be very long. (*) System.out.println(GraphicsEnvironment.getLocalGraphicsEnvironment() .getDefaultScreenDevice().getAvailableAcceleratedMemory()); --> 0 How long ? For a 500x400 image, about 0.04 seconds. This is only drawing the image on the backbuffer (obtained via buffer strategy). Now considering that world of warcraft runs on that netbook (tough it is quite laggy) and that online java games seems to have no problem whatsoever, this is quite thought provoking. I'm quite certain I didn't miss something obvious, I've searched extensively the web, but nothing will do. So do any of you java whiz have an idea of what obscure problem might be causing this (or maybe it is normal, tough I doubt it) ? PS : As I'm writing this I realized this might be cause by my Linux installation (archlinux) tough I have the correct Intel driver. But my computer normally has "Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950", which would mean it should have accelerated video memory somehow. Any ideas about this side of things ?

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  • rabbitmq-erlang-client, using rebar friendly pkg, works on dev env fails on rebar release

    - by lfurrea
    I am successfully using the rebar-friendly package of rabbitmq-erlang-client for a simple Hello World rebarized and OTP "compliant" app and things work fine on the dev environment. I am able to fire up an erl console and do my application:start(helloworld). and connect to the broker, open up a channel and communicate to queues. However, then I proceed to do rebar generate and it builds up the release just fine, but when I try to fire up from the self contained release package then things suddenly explode. I know rebar releases are known to be an obscure art, but I would like to know what are my options as far as deployment for an app using the rabbitmq-erlang-client. Below you will find the output of the console on the crash: =INFO REPORT==== 18-Dec-2012::16:41:35 === application: session_record exited: {{{badmatch, {error, {'EXIT', {undef, [{amqp_connection_sup,start_link, [{amqp_params_network,<<"guest">>,<<"guest">>,<<"/">>, "127.0.0.1",5672,0,0,0,infinity,none, [#Fun<amqp_auth_mechanisms.plain.3>, #Fun<amqp_auth_mechanisms.amqplain.3>], [],[]}], []}, {supervisor2,do_start_child_i,3, [{file,"src/supervisor2.erl"},{line,391}]}, {supervisor2,handle_call,3, [{file,"src/supervisor2.erl"},{line,413}]}, {gen_server,handle_msg,5, [{file,"gen_server.erl"},{line,588}]}, {proc_lib,init_p_do_apply,3, [{file,"proc_lib.erl"},{line,227}]}]}}}}, [{amqp_connection,start,1, [{file,"src/amqp_connection.erl"},{line,164}]}, {hello_qp,start_link,0,[{file,"src/hello_qp.erl"},{line,10}]}, {session_record_sup,init,1, [{file,"src/session_record_sup.erl"},{line,55}]}, {supervisor_bridge,init,1, [{file,"supervisor_bridge.erl"},{line,79}]}, {gen_server,init_it,6,[{file,"gen_server.erl"},{line,304}]}, {proc_lib,init_p_do_apply,3, [{file,"proc_lib.erl"},{line,227}]}]}, {session_record_app,start,[normal,[]]}} type: permanent

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  • Which templating languages output HTML *as a tree of nodes*?

    - by alamar
    HTML is a tree of nodes, before all. It's not just a text. However, most templating engines handle their input and output as it was just a text; they don't care what happens around their tags, their {$foo}'s and <% bar() %>'s; also they don't care about what are they outputting. Sometimes they happen to produce a correct html, but that's just a coincidence; they didn't aim for that, all they wanted is to replace some funny marks in the text stream with their evaluation. There are a few templating engines which do treat their output as a set of nodes; XSLT and Haml come to mind. For some tasks, this has advantages: for example, you can automatically reformat (like, delete all empty text nodes; auto-indent; word-wrap). The result is guaranteed to be a correct xml/sgml unless you use a strict subset of operations that can break that. Also, such templating engine would automatically quote strings, differently in text nodes and in attributes, because it strictly knows whether you're writing an attribute or a text node. Moreover, it can conditionally remove a node from output because it knows where it does begin and end, which is useful, and do other non-trivial node operations. You might not like XSLT for its verbosiness or functionalness, but it's damn helps that your template is xmllint-able XML, and your output is a good sgml/xml. So the question is: Which template engines do you know that treat their output as a set of correct nodes, not just an unstructured text? I know XSLT, Haml and some obscure python-based one. Moar!

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  • How do the major C# DI/IoC frameworks compare?

    - by Slomojo
    At the risk of stepping into holy war territory, What are the strengths and weaknesses of these popular DI/IoC frameworks, and could one easily be considered the best? ..: Ninject Unity Castle.Windsor Autofac StructureMap Are there any other DI/IoC Frameworks for C# that I haven't listed here? In context of my use case, I'm building a client WPF app, and a WCF/SQL services infrastructure, ease of use (especially in terms of clear and concise syntax), consistent documentation, good community support and performance are all important factors in my choice. Update: The resources and duplicate questions cited appear to be out of date, can someone with knowledge of all these frameworks come forward and provide some real insight? I realise that most opinion on this subject is likely to be biased, but I am hoping that someone has taken the time to study all these frameworks and have at least a generally objective comparison. I am quite willing to make my own investigations if this hasn't been done before, but I assumed this was something at least a few people had done already. Second Update: If you do have experience with more than one DI/IoC container, please rank and summarise the pros and cons of those, thank you. This isn't an exercise in discovering all the obscure little containers that people have made, I'm looking for comparisons between the popular (and active) frameworks.

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  • Why am I getting a EXC_BAD_ACCESS in a NSTimer selector?

    - by AngeDeLaMort
    I've got quite a weird problem. To make it short, i'll write some pseudo-code: init: create a dictionary and insert n elements. create a "repeat timer" and add it to the currentRunLoop using the timerRefresh selector. timerRefresh: using a list of keys, find the items in the dictionary if the item exists -> call a function So, for an unknown reason, I get an EXC_BAD_ACCESS when I do: [item function]; But I traced the address I got from the dictionary items and it's ok. The ref count of the items in the dictionary is still 1. The {release, dealloc} of the items in the dictionary aren't called. Everything seems fine. Also, to make it worst, it works for some items. So, I'm wondering if there is a threading problem? or something else obscure? The callstack is quite simple: #0 0x93e0604b in objc_msgSend_fpret #1 0x00f3e6b0 in ?? #2 0x0001cfca in -[myObject functionm:] at myObject.m:000 #3 0x305355cd in __NSFireTimer #4 0x302454a0 in CFRunLoopRunSpecific #5 0x30244628 in CFRunLoopRunInMode #6 0x32044c31 in GSEventRunModal #7 0x32044cf6 in GSEventRun #8 0x309021ee in UIApplicationMain #9 0x000027e0 in main at main.m:14 So, any suggestion where to look would be appreciated.

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  • what's the performance difference between int and varchar for primary keys

    - by user568576
    I need to create a primary key scheme for a system that will need peer to peer replication. So I'm planning to combine a unique system ID and a sequential number in some way to come up with unique ID's. I want to make sure I'll never run out of ID's, so I'm thinking about using a varchar field, since I could always add another character if I start running out. But I've read that integers are better optimized for this. So I have some questions... 1) Are integers really better optimized? And if they are, how much of a performance difference is there between varchars and integers? I'm going to use firebird for now. But I may switch later. Or possibly support multiple db's. So I'm looking for generalizations, if that's possible. 2) If integers are significantly better optimized, why is that? And is it likely that varchars will catch up in the future, so eventually it won't matter anyway? My varchar keys won't have any meaning, except for the unique system ID part. But I may want to obscure that somehow. Also, I plan to efficiently use all the bits of each character. I don't, for example, plan to code the integer 123 as the character string "123". So I don't think varchars will require more space than integers.

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  • How to make a custom ear file in maven

    - by Zombies
    Here is my challenge, I need to make an ear file for a specific container. To be more specific on how this ear will be created: This is a standard j2ee ear file, with 1 WAR in it. The container it is deployed to will expect certain xml files (which can easily be found (somewhere) inside the source project). Here are my obstacles The source folder contains various container specific xml files. But, these files do not map directly to where the container expects them inside the EAR file. For example, there will be a file that this container expects to be in 'EARFILE.ear/config/connections.xml'. But this file is located (in the source) at /some/obscure/unrelated/directory. This is the case for about 5-7 files. I cannot change the original source project layout at all. So, how can I create the compliant EAR file that I need. There is NO plugin at this time for the container that I am using, I have certainly looked.

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  • User Defined Conversions in C++

    - by wash
    Recently, I was browsing through my copy of the C++ Pocket Reference from O'Reilly Media, and I was surprised when I came across a brief section and example regarding user-defined conversion for user-defined types: #include <iostream> class account { private: double balance; public: account (double b) { balance = b; } operator double (void) { return balance; } }; int main (void) { account acc(100.0); double balance = acc; std::cout << balance << std::endl; return 0; } I've been programming in C++ for awhile, and this is the first time I've ever seen this sort of operator overloading. The book's description of this subject is somewhat brief, leaving me with a few unanswered questions about this feature: Is this a particularly obscure feature? As I said, I've been programming in C++ for awhile and this is the first time I've ever come across this. I haven't had much luck finding more in-depth material regarding this. Is this relatively portable? (I'm compiling on GCC 4.1) Can user-defined conversions to user defined types be done? e.g. operator std::string () { /* code */ }

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  • Forms blank when rendering a partial when using a collection of objects. Help!

    - by dustmoo
    Alright, I know my title is a little obscure but it best describes the problem I am having. Essentially, I have a list of users, and want to be able to edit their information in-line using AJAX. Since the users are showing up in rows, I am using a partial to render the data and the forms (which will be hidden initially by the ajax), however, when the rows are rendered currently only the last item has it's form's fields populated. I suspect this has something to do with the fact that all the form fields have the same id's and it is confusing the DOM. But I don't know how to make sure the id's are unique. Here is a small example: In my view: <%= render :partial => 'shared/user', :collection => @users %> My partial (broke down to just the form) note that I am using the local variable "user" <% form_for user, :html => {:multipart => true} do |f| -%> <%= f.label :name, "Name*" %> <%= f.text_field :title, :class => "input" %> <%= f.label :Address, "Address" %> <%= f.text_field :address, :class => "input" %> <%= f.label :description, "Description*" %> <%= f.text_area :description, :class => "input" %> <% end -%> When the html is rendered each form has a unique id (for the id of the user) but the elements themselves all have the same id, and only the last user form is actually getting populated with values. Does anyone have any ideas?? :) Thanks in advance!

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  • Using external SOAP service in Workflow service

    - by whirlwin
    I am using the .NET 4 framework and have made a WCF Workflow Service Application. I want to use a SOAP web service (.NET 3.5) I have running in another instance of VS. The only method that is exposed is the following: [WebMethod] public string Reverse(string input) { char[] chars = input.ToCharArray(); Array.Reverse(chars); return new string(chars); } I have used the following steps to add the service in my Workflow: Add Service Reference Provided the WSDL (the operation shows in the Operations box as expected) Clicked OK Build the solution to ensure that the service shows in my toolbox Drag the service from the toolbox into the workflow However, when I look at the properties of the service in the workflow, there is no way to specify the input argument or where to store the result of the invocation of the service. I only have the option of specifying some obscure parameters such as Body:InArgument<ReverseRequestBody and outBody:OutArgument<ReverseResponseBody (none of which are strings). Here is a screenshot depicting the properties of the service in the workflow: My question is therefore: Is it possible at all to use the SOAP service by specifying a string as the input argument (like it is meant to be used), and also assign the result to a workflow variable?

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  • Customer wants some data to appear after you later delete rows. System giant / not my creation. Fast

    - by John Sullivan
    This is a fairly common problem, it probably has a name, I just don't know what it is. A.) User sees obscure piece of information in Row B of L_OBSCURE_INFO displayed on some screen at a certain point. It is in table L_Obscure_info. B.) Under certain circumstances we want to correctly delete data in L_OBSCURE_INFO. Unfortunately, nobody accounted for the fact that the user might want to backtrack and see some random piece of information that was most recently in L_OBSCURE_INFO. C.) The system is enormous and L_OBSCURE_INFO is used all the time. You have no idea what the ramifications are of implementing some kind of hack and whatever you do, you don't want to introduce more bugs. I think the best approach would be to create an L_OBSCURE_INFO_HISTORY table and record a record in there every time you change data. But god help your ensuring it's accurate in this system where L_OBSCURE_INFO is being touched everywhere and you don't have time to implement L_OBSCURE_INFO_HISTORY. Is there a particularly easy, clever design solution for this kind of problem -- basically an elegant database hack? If not, is this kind of design problem under a particular class of problems or have a name?

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  • Should I re-use UI elements across view controllers?

    - by Endemic
    In the iPhone app I'm currently working on, I'd like two navigation controllers (I'll call them A and B) to have toolbars that are identical in appearance and function. The toolbar in question will look like this: [(button) (flexible-space) (label)] For posterity's sake, the label is actually a UIBarButtonItem with a custom view. My design requires that A always appear directly before B on the navigation stack, so B will never be loaded without A having been loaded. Given this layout, I started wondering, "Is it worth it to re-use A's toolbar items in B's toolbar?" As I see it, my options are: 1. Don't worry about re-use, create the toolbar items twice 2. Create the toolbar items in A and pass them to B in a custom initializer 3. Use some more obscure method that I haven't thought of to hold the toolbar constant when pushing a view controller As far as I can see, option 1 may violate DRY, but guarantees that there won't be any confusion on the off chance that (for example) the button may be required to perform two different (no matter how similar) functions for either view controller in future versions of the app. Were that to happen, options 2 or 3 would require the target-action of the button to change when B is loaded and unloaded. Even if the button were never required to perform different functions, I'm not sure what its proper target would be under option 2. All in all, it's not a huge problem, even if I have to go with option 1. I'm probably overthinking this anyway, trying to apply the dependency injection pattern where it's not appropriate. I just want to know the best practice should this situation arise in a more extreme form, like if a long chain of view controllers need to use identical (in appearance and function) UI elements.

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  • Best strategies for reading J code

    - by estanford
    I've been using J for a few months now, and I find that reading unfamiliar code (e.g. that I didn't write myself) is one of the most challenging aspects of the language, particularly when it's in tacit. After a while, I came up with this strategy: 1) Copy the code segment into a word document 2) Take each operator from (1) and place it on a separate line, so that it reads vertically 3) Replace each operator with its verbal description in the Vocabulary page 4) Do a rough translation from J syntax into English grammar 5) Use the translation to identify conceptually related components and separate them with line breaks 6) Write a description of what each component from (5) is supposed to do, in plain English prose 7) Write a description of what the whole program is supposed to do, based on (6) 8) Write an explanation of why the code from (1) can be said to represent the design concept from (7). Although I learn a lot from this process, I find it to be rather arduous and time-consuming -- especially if someone designed their program using a concept I never encountered before. So I wonder: do other people in the J community have favorite ways to figure out obscure code? If so, what are the advantages and disadvantages of these methods?

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  • Cacti: "An internal Net-Snmp error condition detected in Cacti snmp_count"

    - by Recc
    There's the odd forum topic about an error similarly obscure as this, but I haven't seen any for snmp_count in particular. Also I don't see graphing problems, though I can't simply go and eyeball all graphs. However the poller does time out and has to be stopped by its internal process preventing overruns. If I filter out the flood of this error in the log I dont get anything else except the poller timeout: 06/12/2014 12:48:00 PM - POLLER: Poller[0] Maximum runtime of 58 seconds exceeded. Exiting. 06/12/2014 12:48:00 PM - SYSTEM STATS: Time:58.8566 Method:spine Processes:1 Threads:40 Hosts:1923 HostsPerProcess:1923 DataSources:61584 RRDsProcessed:0 06/12/2014 12:48:00 PM - SPINE: Poller[0] ERROR: Spine Timed Out While Processing Hosts Internal I saw in the running processes /usr/local/spine/spine 0 2053 that's always left behind. When I kill it the flooding of the error stops. Of course it's the same on the next poll run as it goes through the devices. 2053 is apparently the DB ID for a device. I deleted it completely to see if that stops it. It doesn't, instead 2052 is seen there. I suspect It'll be the same if I keep deleting devices which I will not do. This started happening midday when I wasn't doing anything to the cacti server. I have tried reducing Maximum Threads per Process to 1 and Number of PHP Script Servers to 1. I've been running it at 10 script servers / 40 threads for months with poll cycle time of about 20 sec. I just found out Running snmpwalk on any host would begin returning the values but then timeout halfway through. This doesn't happen from different servers on the network this Cacti is suggesting still that it's a problem with it locally. Any suggestions? For one polling cycle I changed to use cmd.php instead. then I started getting errors like CMDPHP: Poller[0] Host[45] DS[541] WARNING: Result from SNMP not valid. Partial Result: U Perhaps as expected. Looking closely I see that every snmpwalk I do is interrupted at the same place as if some byte limit is hit and the connection torn down.

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  • XP OEM licensing when reinstalling Windows XP

    - by mindas
    My wife has managed to buy a Dell laptop she was using at her ex-employer that just went bust. The problem with it is the OS (Windows XP) which takes ages to boot and is generally disproportionally slow to the hardware of the machine. So my aim is to sacrifice a day and reinstall it. The problem I am slightly worried about is the licensing/registration/activation hell. Apart from the sticker (with WinXP license key), the laptop has no other paperwork proving this license is legitimate. I believe this was originally an OEM license. Unfortunately, I don't have the the installation CD. This computer also has MS Office installed (which I would like to retain) but it none of MS Office apps would launch due to some obscure error complaining about lack of free disk space (which computer has plenty of). I have absolutely no clue what kind of license this MS Office was. And because the company has gone into the administration, there is no way of getting this information nor installable media. I believe that by buying the hardware I have also acquired the software which I can use as I see fit. Correct me if I'm wrong. Above said, my question would be: What is the easiest way of reinstalling the XP? By easiest I mean avoiding spending my time to prove Microsoft support I've got the right to use the software (insert your computer says noooo joke here) but still being able to get to fresh virgin activated legal state of the XP. I used to work as a sysadmin many years ago so I am not afraid of any technical difficulties. The same question applies to MS Office. I imagine the process would consist of backing up all the data, pulling some bits from the registry and using that on the fresh install. As for reinstall I'd expect to use some sort of OEM Windows repair CD from Dell, right? Are those freely available? My other box (HP) has such a thing and it can't be used on any other brand. I'm sure somebody had to go through this licensing hell and could share his/her tips. Thanks in advance.

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  • XP OEM licensing when reinstalling Windows XP

    - by mindas
    My wife has managed to buy a Dell laptop she was using at her ex-employer that just went bust. The problem with it is the OS (Windows XP) which takes ages to boot and is generally disproportionally slow to the hardware of the machine. So my aim is to sacrifice a day and reinstall it. The problem I am slightly worried about is the licensing/registration/activation hell. Apart from the sticker (with WinXP license key), the laptop has no other paperwork proving this license is legitimate. I believe this was originally an OEM license. Unfortunately, I don't have the the installation CD. This computer also has MS Office installed (which I would like to retain) but it none of MS Office apps would launch due to some obscure error complaining about lack of free disk space (which computer has plenty of). I have absolutely no clue what kind of license this MS Office was. And because the company has gone into the administration, there is no way of getting this information nor installable media. I believe that by buying the hardware I have also acquired the software which I can use as I see fit. Correct me if I'm wrong. Above said, my question would be: What is the easiest way of reinstalling the XP? By easiest I mean avoiding spending my time to prove Microsoft support I've got the right to use the software (insert your computer says noooo joke here) but still being able to get to fresh virgin activated legal state of the XP. I used to work as a sysadmin many years ago so I am not afraid of any technical difficulties. The same question applies to MS Office. I imagine the process would consist of backing up all the data, pulling some bits from the registry and using that on the fresh install. As for reinstall I'd expect to use some sort of OEM Windows repair CD from Dell, right? Are those freely available? My other box (HP) has such a thing and it can't be used on any other brand. I'm sure somebody had to go through this licensing hell and could share his/her tips. Thanks in advance.

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  • Trouble setting up PATH for Java on Debian

    - by milkmansrevenge
    I am trying to get Oracle Java 7 update 3 working correctly on Debian 6. I have downloaded and set up the files in /usr/java/jre1.7.0_03. I have also set the following two lines at the end of /etc/bash.bashrc: export JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/jre1.7.0_03 export PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin Logging in as other users and root is fine, Java can be found: chris@mc:~$ java -version java version "1.7.0_03" Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_03-b04) Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 22.1-b02, mixed mode) However there are two cases where Java cannot be found as detailed below. Note that both of these worked fine when I have previously installed OpenJDK Java 6 via aptitude, but I need Oracle Java 7 for various reasons. Most importantly, I cannot run commands as another user via su, despite the PATH showing that Java should be present. The user was created with adduser chris root@mc:~# su chris -c "echo $PATH" /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/java/jre1.7.0_03/bin:/bin root@mc:~# su chris -c "java -version" bash: java: command not found root@mc:~# su chris -c "/usr/java/jre1.7.0_03/bin/java -version" java version "1.7.0_03" ... How can it be in the PATH but not be found? Update 05/04/2012: explained by Daniel, to do with it being a non-interactive shell so files such as /etc/profile and /etc/bash.bashrc are not executed. Doing a full swap to that user and running Java works: root@mc:~# su chris chris@mc:/root$ java -version java version "1.7.0_03" ... I run a script on start up which exhibits similar but slightly different problems. The script is located in /etc/init.d/start-mystuff.sh and calls a jar: #!/bin/bash # /etc/init.d/start-mystuff.sh java -jar /opt/Mars.jar I can confirm that the script runs on start up and the exit code is 127, which indicates command not found. Inserting a line to print/save the PATH shows that it is: /sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin This second problem isn't as important because I can just point directly to the Java executable in the script, but I am still curious! I have tried setting the full PATH and JAVA_HOME explicitly in /etc/environment which didn't help. I have also tried setting them in /etc/profile which doesn't seem to help either. I have tried logging in and out again after setting PATH in the various locations (duh!). Anyway, long post for what will probably have a simple one line solution :( Any help with this would be greatly appreciated, I have spent far too long trying to fix it by myself. Motivation The first problem may seem obscure but in my system I have users that are not allowed SSH access yet I still want to run processes as them. I have a ton of scripts operating in this way and don't want to have to change them all.

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  • How to unlock and remove a protected partition from Prestigio USB stick?

    - by mr.b
    Ok, so, I have one of those fancy schmancy devices, which is given to me by a frustrated friend of mine. Device is a Prestigio Leather 8GB, which identifies itself to Linux host as: Bus 001 Device 006: ID 1307:0165 Transcend Information, Inc. 2GB/4GB Flash Drive Kernel messages as USB device is plugged in: kernel: [ 2769.580042] usb 1-9: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 7 kernel: [ 2769.714782] scsi8 : usb-storage 1-9:1.0 kernel: [ 2770.713937] scsi 8:0:0:0: Direct-Access 8192MB flash drive 1.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2 kernel: [ 2770.714535] scsi 8:0:0:1: Direct-Access 8192MB flash drive 1.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2 kernel: [ 2770.715734] sd 8:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0 kernel: [ 2770.716108] sd 8:0:0:1: Attached scsi generic sg4 type 0 kernel: [ 2770.722175] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] 962560 512-byte logical blocks: (492 MB/470 MiB) kernel: [ 2770.722657] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is on kernel: [ 2770.731078] sd 8:0:0:1: [sdd] 14012416 512-byte logical blocks: (7.17 GB/6.68 GiB) kernel: [ 2770.731215] sdc: kernel: [ 2770.738251] sd 8:0:0:1: [sdd] Write Protect is off kernel: [ 2770.880328] kernel: [ 2770.885876] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk kernel: [ 2770.887442] sdd: unknown partition table kernel: [ 2771.049605] sd 8:0:0:1: [sdd] Attached SCSI removable disk So, symptoms are typical for U3-like devices: two separate devices inside of a single flash device. Windows sees it also as two identical usb devices, and mounts two separate drives to system, whereas first one presents itself as a CDROM device, holding a write-protected content, and second is a regular flash-disk partition, that "can" be written to. However, it seems like it's broken in some weird way, since it won't let me write anything to it, format it, nothing, but that's not the issue right now. Question: How can I unlock entire USB stick so it appears to system as a single, 8GB device which can be partitioned and used normally, without restrictions? Since it appeared to be an U3 device, I have tried standard utilities: both U3 Uninstaller by u3.com (found on SoftPedia), and opensource u3_tool from sourceforge (on both Windows and Linux). First utility failed to even detect USB stick as U3 device (simply stood idle while I re-plugged stick several times), while second tool failed with some obscure error about SCSI command unable to do something (I might be able to provide exact errors when I switch back to windows). u3_tool -i /dev/sg3 (Display device info) fails with u3_partition_info() failed: Device reported command failed: status 1 ...and every other option fails with same error, minus first part which states which command precisely has failed. So, apparently, this isn't a U3 device. Or, if it is, it doesn't behave like one. I read on a few occasions that this device protection is done by special command sent to device which tells it to lock itself, and so there should be an unlock command, that would set drive straight. Does anyone have any idea about what could I do to this device to fix it? P.S. I also mentioned a problem with being unable to use second "drive", but I'll tackle that problem when (and if) I manage to merge those two devices into one...

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  • Adding local users / passwords on Kerberized Linux box

    - by Brian
    Right now if I try to add a non-system user not in the university's Kerberos realm I am prompted for a Kerberos password anyway. Obviously there is no password to be entered, so I just press enter and see: passwd: Authentication token manipulation error passwd: password unchanged Typing passwd newuser has the same issue with the same message. I tried using pwconv in the hopes that only a shadow entry was needed, but it changed nothing. I want to be able to add a local user not in the realm and give them a local password without being bothered about Kerberos. I am on Ubuntu 10.04. Here are my /etc/pam.d/common-* files (the defaults that Ubuntu's pam-auth-update package generates): account # here are the per-package modules (the "Primary" block) account [success=1 new_authtok_reqd=done default=ignore] pam_unix.so # here's the fallback if no module succeeds account requisite pam_deny.so # prime the stack with a positive return value if there isn't one already; # this avoids us returning an error just because nothing sets a success code # since the modules above will each just jump around account required pam_permit.so # and here are more per-package modules (the "Additional" block) account required pam_krb5.so minimum_uid=1000 # end of pam-auth-update config auth # here are the per-package modules (the "Primary" block) auth [success=2 default=ignore] pam_krb5.so minimum_uid=1000 auth [success=1 default=ignore] pam_unix.so nullok_secure try_first_pass # here's the fallback if no module succeeds auth requisite pam_deny.so # prime the stack with a positive return value if there isn't one already; # this avoids us returning an error just because nothing sets a success code # since the modules above will each just jump around auth required pam_permit.so # and here are more per-package modules (the "Additional" block) # end of pam-auth-update config password # here are the per-package modules (the "Primary" block) password requisite pam_krb5.so minimum_uid=1000 password [success=1 default=ignore] pam_unix.so obscure use_authtok try_first_pass sha512 # here's the fallback if no module succeeds password requisite pam_deny.so # prime the stack with a positive return value if there isn't one already; # this avoids us returning an error just because nothing sets a success code # since the modules above will each just jump around password required pam_permit.so # and here are more per-package modules (the "Additional" block) # end of pam-auth-update config session # here are the per-package modules (the "Primary" block) session [default=1] pam_permit.so # here's the fallback if no module succeeds session requisite pam_deny.so # prime the stack with a positive return value if there isn't one already; # this avoids us returning an error just because nothing sets a success code # since the modules above will each just jump around session required pam_permit.so # and here are more per-package modules (the "Additional" block) session optional pam_krb5.so minimum_uid=1000 session required pam_unix.so # end of pam-auth-update config

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  • May 20th Links: ASP.NET MVC, ASP.NET, .NET 4, VS 2010, Silverlight

    - by ScottGu
    Here is the latest in my link-listing series.  Also check out my VS 2010 and .NET 4 series and ASP.NET MVC 2 series for other on-going blog series I’m working on. [In addition to blogging, I am also now using Twitter for quick updates and to share links. Follow me at: twitter.com/scottgu] ASP.NET MVC How to Localize an ASP.NET MVC Application: Michael Ceranski has a good blog post that describes how to localize ASP.NET MVC 2 applications. ASP.NET MVC with jTemplates Part 1 and Part 2: Steve Gentile has a nice two-part set of blog posts that demonstrate how to use the jTemplate and DataTable jQuery libraries to implement client-side data binding with ASP.NET MVC. CascadingDropDown jQuery Plugin for ASP.NET MVC: Raj Kaimal has a nice blog post that demonstrates how to implement a dynamically constructed cascading dropdownlist on the client using jQuery and ASP.NET MVC. How to Configure VS 2010 Code Coverage for ASP.NET MVC Unit Tests: Visual Studio enables you to calculate the “code coverage” of your unit tests.  This measures the percentage of code within your application that is exercised by your tests – and can give you a sense of how much test coverage you have.  Gunnar Peipman demonstrates how to configure this for ASP.NET MVC projects. Shrinkr URL Shortening Service Sample: A nice open source application and code sample built by Kazi Manzur that demonstrates how to implement a URL Shortening Services (like bit.ly) using ASP.NET MVC 2 and EF4.  More details here. Creating RSS Feeds in ASP.NET MVC: Damien Guard has a nice post that describes a cool new “FeedResult” class he created that makes it easy to publish and expose RSS feeds from within ASP.NET MVC sites. NoSQL with MongoDB, NoRM and ASP.NET MVC Part 1 and Part 2: Nice two-part blog series by Shiju Varghese on how to use MongoDB (a document database) with ASP.NET MVC.  If you are interested in document databases also make sure to check out the Raven DB project from Ayende. Using the FCKEditor with ASP.NET MVC: Quick blog post that describes how to use FCKEditor – an open source HTML Text Editor – with ASP.NET MVC. ASP.NET Replace Html.Encode Calls with the New HTML Encoding Syntax: Phil Haack has a good blog post that describes a useful way to quickly update your ASP.NET pages and ASP.NET MVC views to use the new <%: %> encoding syntax in ASP.NET 4.  I blogged about the new <%: %> syntax – it provides an easy and concise way to HTML encode content. Integrating Twitter into an ASP.NET Website using OAuth: Scott Mitchell has a nice article that describes how to take advantage of Twiter within an ASP.NET Website using the OAuth protocol – which is a simple, secure protocol for granting API access. Creating an ASP.NET report using VS 2010 Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3: Raj Kaimal has a nice three part set of blog posts that detail how to use SQL Server Reporting Services, ASP.NET 4 and VS 2010 to create a dynamic reporting solution. Three Hidden Extensibility Gems in ASP.NET 4: Phil Haack blogs about three obscure but useful extensibility points enabled with ASP.NET 4. .NET 4 Entity Framework 4 Video Series: Julie Lerman has a nice, free, 7-part video series on MSDN that walks through how to use the new EF4 capabilities with VS 2010 and .NET 4.  I’ll be covering EF4 in a blog series that I’m going to start shortly as well. Getting Lazy with System.Lazy: System.Lazy and System.Lazy<T> are new features in .NET 4 that provide a way to create objects that may need to perform time consuming operations and defer the execution of the operation until it is needed.  Derik Whittaker has a nice write-up that describes how to use it. LINQ to Twitter: Nifty open source library on Codeplex that enables you to use LINQ syntax to query Twitter. Visual Studio 2010 Using Intellitrace in VS 2010: Chris Koenig has a nice 10 minute video that demonstrates how to use the new Intellitrace features of VS 2010 to enable DVR playback of your debug sessions. Make the VS 2010 IDE Colors look like VS 2008: Scott Hanselman has a nice blog post that covers the Visual Studio Color Theme Editor extension – which allows you to customize the VS 2010 IDE however you want. How to understand your code using Dependency Graphs, Sequence Diagrams, and the Architecture Explorer: Jennifer Marsman has a nice blog post describes how to take advantage of some of the new architecture features within VS 2010 to quickly analyze applications and legacy code-bases. How to maintain control of your code using Layer Diagrams: Another great blog post by Jennifer Marsman that demonstrates how to setup a “layer diagram” within VS 2010 to enforce clean layering within your applications.  This enables you to enforce a compiler error if someone inadvertently violates a layer design rule. Collapse Selection in Solution Explorer Extension: Useful VS 2010 extension that enables you to quickly collapse “child nodes” within the Visual Studio Solution Explorer.  If you have deeply nested project structures this extension is useful. Silverlight and Windows Phone 7 Building a Simple Windows Phone 7 Application: A nice tutorial blog post that demonstrates how to take advantage of Expression Blend to create an animated Windows Phone 7 application. If you haven’t checked out my Windows Phone 7 Twitter Tutorial I also recommend reading that. Hope this helps, Scott P.S. If you haven’t already, check out this month’s "Find a Hoster” page on the www.asp.net website to learn about great (and very inexpensive) ASP.NET hosting offers.

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  • The ASP.NET Daily Community Spotlight - How posts get there, and how to make it your Visual Studio Start Page

    - by Jon Galloway
    One really cool part of my job is selecting the articles for the Daily Community Spotlight, on the home page of the ASP.NET website. The spotlight highlights a new post about ASP.NET development every day from a member of the ASP.NET community. You can find it on the home page of the ASP.NET site, at http://asp.net These posts aren't automatically drawn from a pool of RSS feeds or anything - I pick a new post for each day of the year. How I pick the posts I have a few important selection criteria: Interesting to well rounded ASP.NET developers The ASP.NET website has a lot of material for all skill and experience levels, from download / get started to advanced. I try to select community spotlight posts to round that out with fresh and timely information that working ASP.NET developers can really use. Posts highlight solutions to common problems, clever projects and code that helps you leverage ASP.NET, and important announcements about things you can use today. As part of that, I try to mix between ASP.NET MVC, Web Forms, and Web Pages (a.k.a. WebMatrix). As a professional developer, I want to keep on top of all of my options for ASP.NET development, and the common platform base they all share generally means that good ASP.NET code is good ASP.NET code. Exposing new and non-Microsoft community members as much as possible The exercise of selecting good ASP.NET community posts every day of the year has made me think about what the community is. Given the choice, I'll always favor non-Microsoft employees, but since Microsoft often hires ASP.NET community members and MVP's (myself included), I really think that the ASP.NET community includes developers who are using and writing about ASP.NET, both inside and outside of Microsoft. I'm especially excited about the opportunity to highlight new and lesser known bloggers. Usually being featured on the ASP.NET Community Spotlight gives a pretty good traffic bump, and I love being able to both provide great content to the community and encourage lesser known community members by giving them some (much deserved) attention. Announcements only when they're useful to working developers - not marketing Some of the posts are announcements about new releases, such as Scott Hanselman's post on ASP.NET Universal Providers for Session, Memebership, and Roles. I include those when I think they're interesting and of immediate use to you on projects. I occasionally get asked to link to new content from a team at Microsoft; if it's useful and timely content I'll ask them to point me to a blog post by an actual person rather than a faceless team. How the posts are managed This feed used to be managed by an internal spreadsheet on a Sharepoint site, which was painful for a lot of reasons. I took a cue from Jon Udell, who uses of a public Delicious feed feed for his Elm City project, and we moved the management of these posts over to a Delicious feed as well. You can hear more about Jon's use of Delicious in Elm City in our Herding Code interview - still one of my favorite interviews. We ended up with a simpler scenario, but Note: I watched the Yahoo/Delicious news over the past year and was happy to see that Delicious was recently acquired by the founders of YouTube. I investigated several other Delicious competitors, but am happy with Delicious for now. My Delicious feed here: http://www.delicious.com/jon_galloway You can also browse through this past year's ASP.NET Community Spotlight posts using the (pretty cool) Delicious Browse Bar Submitting articles I'm always on the lookout for new articles to feature. The best way to get them to me is to share them via Delicious. It's pretty easy - sign up for an account, then you can add a post and share it to me. Alternatively, you can send them to me via Twitter (@jongalloway) or e-mail (). If you do e-mail me, it helps to include a short description and your full name so I can credit you. Way too many developer blogs don't include names and pictures; if I can't find them I can't feature the post. Subscribing to the Community Spotlight feed The Community Spotlight is available as an RSS feed, so you might want to subscribe to it: http://www.asp.net/rss/spotlight Setting the ASP.NET Community Spotlight feed as your Visual Studio start page If you're an ASP.NET developer, you might consider setting the ASP.NET Community Spotlight as the content for your Visual Studio Start Page. It's really easy - here's how to do it in Visual Studio 2010: Display the Visual Studio Start Page if it's not already showing (View / Start Page) Click on the Latest News tab and enter the following RSS URL: http://www.asp.net/rss/spotlight If you didn't previously have RSS feeds enabled for your start page, click the Enable RSS Feed button Now, every time you start up Visual Studio you'll see great content from members of the ASP.NET community: You can also configure - and disable, if you'd like - the Visual Studio start page in the Tools / Options / Environment / Startup dialog. Credits I'll do a follow-up highlighting some places I commonly find great content for the feed, but I'd like to specifically point out two of them: Elijah Manor posts a lot of great content, which is available in his Twitter feed at @elijahmanor, on his Delicious feed, and on a dedicated website - Web Dev Tweets Chris Alcock's The Morning Brew is a must-read blog which highlights each day's best blog posts across the .NET community. He's an absolute machine, and no matter how obscure the post I find, I can guarantee he'll find it as well if he hasn't already. Did I say must read?

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  • Simultaneously calling multiple methods on a WCF service from silverlight

    - by ola karlsson
    A while back I had to debug some performance issues in an existing Silverlight app, as the problem / solution was a bit obscure and finding info about it was quite tricky, I thought I’d share, maybe it can help the next person with this problem. The App On start, the app would do a number of calls to different methods on a WCF service, this to populate the UI with the necessary data. Recently one of those services had been changed and was now taking quite a bit longer than it used to. This was resulting in quite a long loading time for the whole UI, which was set up so it wouldn’t let the user interact with anything, until all the service calls had finished. First I broke out the longer running service call from the others, then removed the constraint that it had to be loaded for the UI in general to become responsive. I also added a loading indicator just on that area of the UI, thinking that the main UI would load while this particular section could keep loading independently. The Problem However this is where things started to get a bit strange. I found that even after these changes, the main UI wouldn’t activate until the long running call returned. So now, I did what I should have done to start with, I got Fiddler out and had a look at what was really happening. What I found was that, once the call to the long running service method was placed, all subsequent call were waiting for that one to return before executing. Not having really worked with WCF previously or knowing much about it in general, I was stumped… I knew of the issues where Silverlight is restricted by the browsers networking features in regards to number of simultaneous connections etc. However that just didn’t seem to be the issue here, you can clearly see in Fiddler that there’s numerous calls, but they’re just not returning. I thought of the problem maybe being in the WCF service, but the calls were really not that complicated and surely the service should be able to handle a lot more than what I was throwing at it! So I did what every developer does in this type of scenario, I hit the search engines. I did a whole bunch of searching on things like “multiple simultaneous WCF calls from Silverlight” and “Calling long running WCF services from Silverlight” etc. etc. This however, pretty much got me nowhere, I found a whole heap of resources on how to do WCF calls from Silverlight but most of them were very basic and of no use what so ever. The fog is clearing It wasn’t until I came across the term “ WCF blocking calls” and started incorporating that in my searches I started to get somewhere. Those searches quite quickly brought me to the following thread in the Silverlight forum “Long-running WCF call blocking subsequent calls” which discussed the exact problem I was facing and the best part, one of the guys there had the solution! The short answer is in the forum post and the guys answering, has also done a more extensive blog post about it called “Silverlight, WCF, and ASP.Net Configuration Gotchas” which covers it very well.  So come on what’s the solution?! I heard you ask, unless you’ve already gone to the links and looked it up ;) The Solution Well, it turns out that the issue is founded in a mix of Silverlight, Asp.Net and WCF, basically if you’re doing multiple calls to a single WCF web-service and you have Asp.Net session state enabled, the calls will be executed sequentially by the service, hence any long running calls will block subsequent ones. So why is Asp.Net session state effecting us, we’re working in Silverlight, right? We'll as mentioned earlier, by default Silverlight uses the browsers networking stack when doing service calls, hence to the WCF service, the call looks like it might as well be coming from a normal Asp.Net. To get around this, we look to a feature introduced in Silverlight 3, namely the Client HTTP Stack. The Client HTTP Stack to the rescue By using the following syntax (for example in our App.xaml.cs, Application_Startup method) WebRequest.RegisterPrefix("http://", WebRequestCreator.ClientHttp); we can set our Silverlight application to use the Client HTTP Stack, which incidentally solves our problem! By using Silverlights own networking stack, rather than that of the browser, we get around the Asp.Net - WCF session state issue. The above code specifies that all calls to addresses starting with “http://” should go through the client stack, this can actually be set more granular and you can specify it to be used only for certain domains etc. Summary The actual solution is well covered in the forum and blog posts I link to above. This post is more about sharing my experience, hopefully helping to spread the word about this and maybe make it a bit easier for the next poor guy with this issue to find the solution. Until next time, Ola

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  • Scripting out Contained Database Users

    - by Argenis
      Today’s blog post comes from a Twitter thread on which @SQLSoldier, @sqlstudent144 and @SQLTaiob were discussing the internals of contained database users. Unless you have been living under a rock, you’ve heard about the concept of contained users within a SQL Server database (hit the link if you have not). In this article I’d like to show you that you can, indeed, script out contained database users and recreate them on another database, as either contained users or as good old fashioned logins/server principals as well. Why would this be useful? Well, because you would not need to know the password for the user in order to recreate it on another instance. I know there is a limited number of scenarios where this would be necessary, but nonetheless I figured I’d throw this blog post to show how it can be done. A more obscure use case: with the password hash (which I’m about to show you how to obtain) you could also crack the password using a utility like hashcat, as highlighted on this SQLServerCentral article. The Investigation SQL Server uses System Base Tables to save the password hashes of logins and contained database users. For logins it uses sys.sysxlgns, whereas for contained database users it leverages sys.sysowners. I’ll show you what I do to figure this stuff out: I create a login/contained user, and then I immediately browse the transaction log with, for example, fn_dblog. It’s pretty obvious that only two base tables touched by the operation are sys.sysxlgns, and also sys.sysprivs – the latter is used to track permissions. If I connect to the DAC on my instance, I can query for the password hash of this login I’ve just created. A few interesting things about this hash. This was taken on my laptop, and I happen to be running SQL Server 2014 RTM CU2, which is the latest public build of SQL Server 2014 as of time of writing. In 2008 R2 and prior versions (back to 2000), the password hashes would start with 0x0100. The reason why this changed is because starting with SQL Server 2012 password hashes are kept using a SHA512 algorithm, as opposed to SHA-1 (used since 2000) or Snefru (used in 6.5 and 7.0). SHA-1 is nowadays deemed unsafe and is very easy to crack. For regular SQL logins, this information is exposed through the sys.sql_logins catalog view, so there is really no need to connect to the DAC to grab an SID/password hash pair. For contained database users, there is (currently) no method of obtaining SID or password hashes without connecting to the DAC. If we create a contained database user, this is what we get from the transaction log: Note that the System Base Table used in this case is sys.sysowners. sys.sysprivs is used as well, and again this is to track permissions. To query sys.sysowners, you would have to connect to the DAC, as I mentioned previously. And this is what you would get: There are other ways to figure out what SQL Server uses under the hood to store contained database user password hashes, like looking at the execution plan for a query to sys.dm_db_uncontained_entities (Thanks, Robert Davis!) SIDs, Logins, Contained Users, and Why You Care…Or Not. One of the reasons behind the existence of Contained Users was the concept of portability of databases: it is really painful to maintain Server Principals (Logins) synced across most shared-nothing SQL Server HA/DR technologies (Mirroring, Availability Groups, and Log Shipping). Often times you would need the Security Identifier (SID) of these logins to match across instances, and that meant that you had to fetch whatever SID was assigned to the login on the principal instance so you could recreate it on a secondary. With contained users you normally wouldn’t care about SIDs, as the users are always available (and synced, as long as synchronization takes place) across instances. Now you might be presented some particular requirement that might specify that SIDs synced between logins on certain instances and contained database users on other databases. How would you go about creating a contained database user with a specific SID? The answer is that you can’t do it directly, but there’s a little trick that would allow you to do it. Create a login with a specified SID and password hash, create a user for that server principal on a partially contained database, then migrate that user to contained using the system stored procedure sp_user_migrate_to_contained, then drop the login. CREATE LOGIN <login_name> WITH PASSWORD = <password_hash> HASHED, SID = <sid> ; GO USE <partially_contained_db>; GO CREATE USER <user_name> FROM LOGIN <login_name>; GO EXEC sp_migrate_user_to_contained @username = <user_name>, @rename = N’keep_name’, @disablelogin = N‘disable_login’; GO DROP LOGIN <login_name>; GO Here’s how this skeleton would look like in action: And now I have a contained user with a specified SID and password hash. In my example above, I renamed the user after migrated it to contained so that it is, hopefully, easier to understand. Enjoy!

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  • Session Report - Modern Software Development Anti-Patterns

    - by Janice J. Heiss
    In this standing-room-only session, building upon his 2011 JavaOne Rock Star “Diabolical Developer” session, Martijn Verburg, this time along with Ben Evans, identified and explored common “anti-patterns” – ways of doing things that keep developers from doing their best work. They emphasized the importance of social interaction and team communication, along with identifying certain psychological pitfalls that lead developers astray. Their emphasis was less on technical coding errors and more how to function well and to keep one’s focus on what really matters. They are the authors of the highly regarded The Well-Grounded Java Developer and are both movers and shakers in the London JUG community and on the Java Community Process. The large room was packed as they gave a fast-moving, witty presentation with lots of laughs and personal anecdotes. Below are a few of the anti-patterns they discussed.Anti-Pattern One: Conference-Driven DeliveryThe theme here is the belief that “Real pros hack code and write their slides minutes before their talks.” Their response to this anti-pattern is an expression popular in the military – PPPPPP, which stands for, “Proper preparation prevents piss-poor performance.”“Communication is very important – probably more important than the code you write,” claimed Verburg. “The more you speak in front of large groups of people the easier it gets, but it’s always important to do dry runs, to present to smaller groups. And important to be members of user groups where you can give presentations. It’s a great place to practice speaking skills; to gain new skills; get new contacts, to network.”They encouraged attendees to record themselves and listen to themselves giving a presentation. They advised them to start with a spouse or friends if need be. Learning to communicate to a group, they argued, is essential to being a successful developer. The emphasis here is that software development is a team activity and good, clear, accessible communication is essential to the functioning of software teams. Anti-Pattern Two: Mortgage-Driven Development The main theme here was that, in a period of worldwide recession and economic stagnation, people are concerned about keeping their jobs. So there is a tendency for developers to treat knowledge as power and not share what they know about their systems with their colleagues, so when it comes time to fix a problem in production, they will be the only one who knows how to fix it – and will have made themselves an indispensable cog in a machine so you cannot be fired. So developers avoid documentation at all costs, or if documentation is required, put it on a USB chip and lock it in a lock box. As in the first anti-pattern, the idea here is that communicating well with your colleagues is essential and documentation is a key part of this. Social interactions are essential. Both Verburg and Evans insisted that increasingly, year by year, successful software development is more about communication than the technical aspects of the craft. Developers who understand this are the ones who will have the most success. Anti-Pattern Three: Distracted by Shiny – Always Use the Latest Technology to Stay AheadThe temptation here is to pick out some obscure framework, try a bit of Scala, HTML5, and Clojure, and always use the latest technology and upgrade to the latest point release of everything. Don’t worry if something works poorly because you are ahead of the curve. Verburg and Evans insisted that there need to be sound reasons for everything a developer does. Developers should not bring in something simply because for some reason they just feel like it or because it’s new. They recommended a site run by a developer named Matt Raible with excellent comparison spread sheets regarding Web frameworks and other apps. They praised it as a useful tool to help developers in their decision-making processes. They pointed out that good developers sometimes make bad choices out of boredom, to add shiny things to their CV, out of frustration with existing processes, or just from a lack of understanding. They pointed out that some code may stay in a business system for 15 or 20 years, but not all code is created equal and some may change after 3 or 6 months. Developers need to know where the code they are contributing fits in. What is its likely lifespan? Anti-Pattern Four: Design-Driven Design The anti-pattern: If you want to impress your colleagues and bosses, use design patents left, right, and center – MVC, Session Facades, SOA, etc. Or the UML modeling suite from IBM, back in the day… Generate super fast code. And the more jargon you can talk when in the vicinity of the manager the better.Verburg shared a true story about a time when he was interviewing a guy for a job and asked him what his previous work was. The interviewee said that he essentially took patterns and uses an approved book of Enterprise Architecture Patterns and applied them. Verburg was dumbstruck that someone could have a job in which they took patterns from a book and applied them. He pointed out that the idea that design is a separate activity is simply wrong. He repeated a saying that he uses, “You should pay your junior developers for the lines of code they write and the things they add; you should pay your senior developers for what they take away.”He explained that by encouraging people to take things away, the code base gets simpler and reflects the actual business use cases developers are trying to solve, as opposed to the framework that is being imposed. He told another true story about a project to decommission a very long system. 98% of the code was decommissioned and people got a nice bonus. But the 2% remained on the mainframe so the 98% reduction in code resulted in zero reduction in costs, because the entire mainframe was needed to run the 2% that was left. There is an incentive to get rid of source code and subsystems when they are no longer needed. The session continued with several more anti-patterns that were equally insightful.

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