Search Results

Search found 15535 results on 622 pages for 'mat keep'.

Page 110/622 | < Previous Page | 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117  | Next Page >

• One single page showing 3 requests (also printing the headers)

  - by Korcholis

  Someone in my studio designed a webpage some years ago, and now the client decided to change the server (he moved to a Linux Apache server running Gen2 SMP, 64 bits, PHP version 5.3.8, Standard MYSQL version 5). It suddenly started to do weird things. When clicking on a link that requires login, the page redirects you to the login page using header() function in PHP. Curiously, the page shows this: OK The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request. Please contact the server administrator, [no address given] and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error. More information about this error may be available in the server error log. HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2012 17:27:32 GMT Server: Apache/2.2.22 (Unix) FrontPage/5.0.2.2635 X-Powered-By: PHP/5.3.8 Expires: Thu, 19 Nov 1981 08:52:00 GMT Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0 Pragma: no-cache Keep-Alive: timeout=5, max=399 Connection: Keep-Alive Transfer-Encoding: chunked Content-Type: text/html 232c Then the page itself, and then, another header: 0 1f4 OK The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request. Please contact the server administrator, [no address given] and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error. More information about this error may be available in the server error log. 0 What's most intriguing is that if you refresh the page or hit enter on the url, it loads correctly. I've been checking the logs, and it only blames of an inexisting favicon. I also checked the .htaccess, everything was correct (RewriteBase was / as intended, and the only stuff there is another rule that moves ^en/ requests to request?lang=en. Has anyone faced something like this? Edit: IE doesn't trigger these two headers. This is getting wierder.

  Read the article

• How to simulate browser form POST method using PHP/cURL

  - by user283266

  I'm trying to simulate browser with POST method using PHP/cURL. When I looked at that live Http header it shows Content-Type: multipart/form-data. I checked on the internet where it was suggested that cURL will send multipart/form-data when a custom headers is specified to Content-Type: multipart/form-data. $headers = array( 'Content-Type' => 'multipart/form-data; boundary='.$boundary ); This didn't work for me either when I print_r(curl_getinfo()) it showed [content_type] => text/html; charset=UTF-8 Which means cURL sent a default headers I also read that sending/uploading a file with cURL will cause data to be send as multipart/form-data. I created a file which curl uploaded but again when I ran curl_getinfo I got [content_type] => text/html; charset=UTF-8 $data_array = array("field" => "@c:\file_location.txt"); I also tried to read a file content so that the only thing sent would be content NOT ATTACHED FILE but this didn't work for me curl_getinfo shows [content_type] => text/html; charset=UTF-8. $data_array = array("field" => "<c:\file_location.txt"); // note @ replaced with < Do I miss somthing here? This is the referer url POST somepath HTTP/1.1 Host: www(dot)domain(dot)com User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows) Gecko/13081217 Firefox/3 Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8 Accept-Language: en-us,en;q=0.5 Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7 Keep-Alive: 300 Connection: keep-alive Referer: url/some-file.php Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=--------------------------$boundary Content-Length: $some_number ----------------------------$boundary Content-Disposition: form-data; name="$some_Value1" $some_text1 ----------------------------$boundary Content-Disposition: form-data; name="$some_Value2" $some_text2 ----------------------------$boundary Content-Disposition: form-data; name="$some_Value3" $some_text3 ----------------------------$boundary Content-Disposition: form-data; name="$some_Value4" $some_text4 ----------------------------$boundary Content-Disposition: form-data; name="$some_Value5" $some_text5 ----------------------------$boundary Content-Disposition: form-data; name="$some_Value6" $some_text6 ----------------------------$boundary Content-Disposition: form-data; name="$some_Value7" $some_text7 ----------------------------$boundary Content-Disposition: form-data; name="$some_Value8" $some_text8 ----------------------------$boundary Content-Disposition: form-data; name="$some_Value9" ----------------------------$boundary Content-Disposition: form-data; name="$some_Value10" ----------------------------$boundary-- Here is a piece of code. <? //Include files set_time_limit(0); include'body.php'; include'keyword.php'; include'bio.php'; include'summary.php'; include'headline.php'; include'category.php'; include'spin.php'; include'random-text.php'; $category = category(); $headline = headline() ; $summary = summary(); $keyword = keyword(); $body = body(); $bio = bio(); $target="url"; $ref ="url_ref"; $c = "Content-Disposition: form-data; name="; $boundary = "---------------------------".random_text(); $category = category(); $headline = headline() ; $summary = summary(); $keyword = keyword(); $body = body(); $bio = bio(); // emulating content form as it appears on livehttp header $data = "\r\n".$boundary."\r\n".$c."\"pen_id\"\r\n\r\n".$Auth_id."\r\n".$boundary."\r\n".$c."\"cat_id\"\r\n\r\n".category()."\r\n".$boundary."\r\n".$c."\"title\"\r\n\r\n".headline()."\r\n".$boundary."\r\n".$c."\"meta_desc\"\r\n\r\n".summary()."\r\n".$boundary."\r\n".$c."\"meta_keys\"\r\n\r\n".keyword()."\r\n".$boundary."\r\n".$c."\"content\"\r\n\r\n".body()."\r\n".$boundary."\r\n".$c."\"author_bio\"\r\n\r\n".bio()."\r\n".$boundary."\r\n".$c."\"allow_comments\"\r\n\r\ny\r\n".$boundary."\r\n".$c."\"id\"\r\n\r\n\r\n".$boundary."\r\n".$c."\"action\"\r\n\r\n\r\n".$boundary."--\r\n"; // inserting content into a file $file = "C:\file_path.txt"; $fh = fopen($file, 'w+') or die("Can't open file"); fwrite($fh,$data); fclose($fh); // pulling out content from a file as multipart/form-data $data_array = array ("field" => "<C:\file_path.txt"); $headers = array ( 'POST /myhome/article/new HTTP/1.1', 'Host: url', 'User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.20) Gecko/20081217 Firefox/2.0.0.20 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)', 'Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9;q=0.8', 'Accept-Language: en-us,en;q=0.5', 'Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate', 'Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7', 'Keep-Alive: 300', 'Connection: keep-alive', 'Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary='.$boundary, 'Content-Length: '.strlen($data), ); # Create the cURL session $ch = curl_init(); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $target); // Define target site curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST,1); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, $headers); // No http head //curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_REFERER, $ref); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_NOBODY, FALSE); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, TRUE); // Return page in string curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR, "c:\cookie\cookies.txt"); // Tell cURL where to write curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, "c:\cookie\cookies.txt"); // Tell cURL which cookies //curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, $agent); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, TRUE); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, "$data_array"); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, TRUE); // Follow redirects curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS, 4); # Execute the PHP/CURL session and echo the downloaded page $page = curl_exec($ch); $err = curl_error($ch); $info =curl_getinfo($ch); # Close the cURL session curl_close($ch); print_r($err); print_r($info); ?>

  Read the article

• Cumulative +1/-1 Cointoss crashes on 1000 iterations. Please advise; c++ boost random libraries

  - by user1731972

  following some former advice Multithreaded application, am I doing it right? I think I have a threadsafe number generator using boost, but my program crashes when I input 1000 iterations. The output .csv file when graphed looks right, but I'm not sure why it's crashing. It's using _beginthread, and everyone is telling me I should use the more (convoluted) _beingthreadex, which I'm not familiar with. If someone could recommend an example, I would greatly appreciate it. Also... someone pointed out I should be applying a second parameter to my _beginthread for the array counting start positions, but I have no idea how to pass more than one parameter, other than attempting to use a structure, and I've read structure's and _beginthread don't get along (although, I could just use the boost threads...) #include <process.h> #include <windows.h> #include <iostream> #include <fstream> #include <time.h> #include <random> #include <boost/random.hpp> //for srand48_r(time(NULL), &randBuffer); which doesn't work #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> //#include <thread> using namespace std; using namespace boost; using namespace boost::random; void myThread0 (void *dummy ); void myThread1 (void *dummy ); void myThread2 (void *dummy ); void myThread3 (void *dummy ); //for random seeds void initialize(); //from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7114043/random-number-generation-in-c11-how-to-generate-how-do-they-work uniform_int_distribution<> two(1,2); typedef std::mt19937 MyRNG; // the Mersenne Twister with a popular choice of parameters uint32_t seed_val; // populate somehow MyRNG rng1; // e.g. keep one global instance (per thread) MyRNG rng2; // e.g. keep one global instance (per thread) MyRNG rng3; // e.g. keep one global instance (per thread) MyRNG rng4; // e.g. keep one global instance (per thread) //only needed for shared variables //CRITICAL_SECTION cs1,cs2,cs3,cs4; // global int main() { ofstream myfile; myfile.open ("coinToss.csv"); int rNum; long numRuns; long count = 0; int divisor = 1; float fHolder = 0; long counter = 0; float percent = 0.0; //? //unsigned threadID; //HANDLE hThread; initialize(); HANDLE hThread[4]; const int size = 100000; int array[size]; printf ("Runs (uses multiple of 100,000) "); cin >> numRuns; for (int a = 0; a < numRuns; a++) { hThread[0] = (HANDLE)_beginthread( myThread0, 0, (void*)(array) ); hThread[1] = (HANDLE)_beginthread( myThread1, 0, (void*)(array) ); hThread[2] = (HANDLE)_beginthread( myThread2, 0, (void*)(array) ); hThread[3] = (HANDLE)_beginthread( myThread3, 0, (void*)(array) ); //waits for threads to finish before continuing WaitForMultipleObjects(4, hThread, TRUE, INFINITE); //closes handles I guess? CloseHandle( hThread[0] ); CloseHandle( hThread[1] ); CloseHandle( hThread[2] ); CloseHandle( hThread[3] ); //dump array into calculations //average array into fHolder //this could be split into threads as well for (int p = 0; p < size; p++) { counter += array[p] == 2 ? 1 : -1; //cout << array[p] << endl; //cout << counter << endl; } //this fHolder calculation didn't work //fHolder = counter / size; //so I had to use this cout << counter << endl; fHolder = counter; fHolder = fHolder / size; myfile << fHolder << endl; } } void initialize() { //seed value needs to be supplied //rng1.seed(seed_val*1); rng1.seed((unsigned int)time(NULL)); rng2.seed(((unsigned int)time(NULL))*2); rng3.seed(((unsigned int)time(NULL))*3); rng4.seed(((unsigned int)time(NULL))*4); }; void myThread0 (void *param) { //EnterCriticalSection(&cs1); //aquire the critical section object int *i = (int *)param; for (int x = 0; x < 25000; x++) { //doesn't work, part of merssene twister //i[x] = next(); i[x] = two(rng1); //original srand //i[x] = rand() % 2 + 1; //doesn't work for some reason. //uint_dist2(rng); //i[x] = qrand() % 2 + 1; //cout << i[x] << endl; } //LeaveCriticalSection(&cs1); // release the critical section object } void myThread1 (void *param) { //EnterCriticalSection(&cs2); //aquire the critical section object int *i = (int *)param; for (int x = 25000; x < 50000; x++) { //param[x] = rand() % 2 + 1; i[x] = two(rng2); //i[x] = rand() % 2 + 1; //cout << i[x] << endl; } //LeaveCriticalSection(&cs2); // release the critical section object } void myThread2 (void *param) { //EnterCriticalSection(&cs3); //aquire the critical section object int *i = (int *)param; for (int x = 50000; x < 75000; x++) { i[x] = two(rng3); //i[x] = rand() % 2 + 1; //cout << i[x] << endl; } //LeaveCriticalSection(&cs3); // release the critical section object } void myThread3 (void *param) { //EnterCriticalSection(&cs4); //aquire the critical section object int *i = (int *)param; for (int x = 75000; x < 100000; x++) { i[x] = two(rng4); //i[x] = rand() % 2 + 1; //cout << i[x] << endl; } //LeaveCriticalSection(&cs4); // release the critical section object }

  Read the article

• Dual Boot issues with Windows 7 and Ubuntu

  - by Michael

  I'm finding myself in a rather unique situation. I've read through just about every resource I can find about this and while things have helped me understand some background, I haven't yet been able to find a solution. So I'm asking here. I originally had just a Windows 7 64-bit OS installation on my desktop. Learning that I couldn't do anything with Apache, PHP and MySql from within a 64-bit system, I did some research and found out that I could use Ubuntu. I've installed the latest version: 11.04. I created a CD to install Ubuntu from and the install went just fine. I installed it side-by-side with Windows 7. I can boot into Ubuntu just fine through the dual-boot option. When I reboot to load Windows though, the Grub2 list shows Windows 7 (loader) and when I select this option the Windows System Recovery loads instead of the actual OS. I haven't made it past there because I didn't know what to do. I just shut the computer down and rebooted into Ubuntu. I've been working for the last hour and a half to try to figure out how to boot into the Windows 7 OS and I haven't got a clue. While I'm somewhat proficient with Windows 7, I'm totally new to Ubuntu, so if you do know what needs to happen, please keep it simple enough that I'll be able to understand. Thanks for all your help in advance. Here's the results after using the Boot Info Script: Boot Info Script 0.55 dated February 15th, 2010 ============================= Boot Info Summary: ============================== => Grub 2 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks on the same drive in partition #5 for cbh. => Windows is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb => Grub 2 is installed in the MBR of /dev/mapper/pdc_bdadcfbdif and looks on the same drive in partition #5 for cbh. sda1: _________________________________________________________________________ File system: ntfs Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7 Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block. Mounting failed: fuse: mount failed: Device or resource busy fuse: mount failed: Device or resource busy sda2: _________________________________________________________________________ File system: ntfs Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7 Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block. Mounting failed: fuse: mount failed: Device or resource busy fuse: mount failed: Device or resource busy fuse: mount failed: Device or resource busy fuse: mount failed: Device or resource busy sda3: _________________________________________________________________________ File system: ntfs Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7 Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block. Mounting failed: fuse: mount failed: Device or resource busy fuse: mount failed: Device or resource busy fuse: mount failed: Device or resource busy fuse: mount failed: Device or resource busy fuse: mount failed: Device or resource busy fuse: mount failed: Device or resource busy sdb1: _________________________________________________________________________ File system: ntfs Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7 Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block. Operating System: Boot files/dirs: /bootmgr /Boot/BCD sdb2: _________________________________________________________________________ File system: ntfs Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7 Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block. Operating System: Boot files/dirs: sdb3: _________________________________________________________________________ File system: ntfs Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7 Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block. Operating System: Boot files/dirs: /bootmgr /boot/BCD sdb4: _________________________________________________________________________ File system: Extended Partition Boot sector type: - Boot sector info: sdb5: _________________________________________________________________________ File system: ext4 Boot sector type: - Boot sector info: Operating System: Ubuntu 11.04 Boot files/dirs: /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab /boot/grub/core.img sdb6: _________________________________________________________________________ File system: swap Boot sector type: - Boot sector info: pdc_bdadcfbdif1: _________________________________________________________________________ File system: ntfs Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7 Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block. Operating System: Boot files/dirs: /bootmgr /Boot/BCD pdc_bdadcfbdif2: _________________________________________________________________________ File system: ntfs Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7 Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block. Operating System: Windows 7 Boot files/dirs: /bootmgr /Boot/BCD /Windows/System32/winload.exe pdc_bdadcfbdif3: _________________________________________________________________________ File system: Boot sector type: Unknown Boot sector info: Mounting failed: fuse: mount failed: Device or resource busy fuse: mount failed: Device or resource busy fuse: mount failed: Device or resource busy fuse: mount failed: Device or resource busy fuse: mount failed: Device or resource busy fuse: mount failed: Device or resource busy mount: unknown filesystem type '' =========================== Drive/Partition Info: ============================= Drive: sda ___________________ _____________________________________________________ Disk /dev/sda: 750.2 GB, 750156374016 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91201 cylinders, total 1465149168 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Partition Boot Start End Size Id System /dev/sda1 * 2,048 206,847 204,800 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/sda2 206,911 1,440,372,735 1,440,165,825 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/sda3 1,440,372,736 1,464,856,575 24,483,840 7 HPFS/NTFS Drive: sdb ___________________ _____________________________________________________ Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Partition Boot Start End Size Id System /dev/sdb1 * 2,048 206,847 204,800 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/sdb2 206,911 1,342,554,688 1,342,347,778 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/sdb3 1,930,344,448 1,953,521,663 23,177,216 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/sdb4 1,342,556,158 1,930,344,447 587,788,290 5 Extended /dev/sdb5 1,342,556,160 1,896,806,399 554,250,240 83 Linux /dev/sdb6 1,896,808,448 1,930,344,447 33,536,000 82 Linux swap / Solaris Drive: pdc_bdadcfbdif ___________________ _____________________________________________________ Disk /dev/mapper/pdc_bdadcfbdif: 750.0 GB, 749999947776 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91182 cylinders, total 1464843648 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Partition Boot Start End Size Id System /dev/mapper/pdc_bdadcfbdif1 * 2,048 206,847 204,800 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/mapper/pdc_bdadcfbdif2 206,911 1,440,372,735 1,440,165,825 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/mapper/pdc_bdadcfbdif3 1,440,372,736 1,464,856,575 24,483,840 7 HPFS/NTFS /dev/mapper/pdc_bdadcfbdif3 ends after the last sector of /dev/mapper/pdc_bdadcfbdif blkid -c /dev/null: ____________________________________________________________ Device UUID TYPE LABEL /dev/mapper/pdc_bdadcfbdif1 888E54CC8E54B482 ntfs SYSTEM /dev/mapper/pdc_bdadcfbdif2 C2766BF6766BEA1D ntfs OS /dev/mapper/pdc_bdadcfbdif: PTTYPE="dos" /dev/sda1 888E54CC8E54B482 ntfs SYSTEM /dev/sda2 C2766BF6766BEA1D ntfs OS /dev/sda3 BE6CA31D6CA2CF87 ntfs HP_RECOVERY /dev/sda promise_fasttrack_raid_member /dev/sdb1 20B65685B6565B7C ntfs SYSTEM /dev/sdb2 B4467A314679F508 ntfs HP /dev/sdb3 6E10B7A410B77227 ntfs FACTORY_IMAGE /dev/sdb4: PTTYPE="dos" /dev/sdb5 266f9801-cf4f-4acc-affa-2092be035f0c ext4 /dev/sdb6 1df35749-a887-45ff-a3de-edd52239847d swap /dev/sdb: PTTYPE="dos" error: /dev/mapper/pdc_bdadcfbdif3: No such file or directory error: /dev/sdc: No medium found error: /dev/sdd: No medium found error: /dev/sde: No medium found error: /dev/sdf: No medium found error: /dev/sdg: No medium found ============================ "mount | grep ^/dev output: =========================== Device Mount_Point Type Options /dev/sdb5 / ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro,commit=0) =========================== sdb5/boot/grub/grub.cfg: =========================== # # DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE # # It is automatically generated by grub-mkconfig using templates # from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub # ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ### if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then set have_grubenv=true load_env fi set default="0" if [ "${prev_saved_entry}" ]; then set saved_entry="${prev_saved_entry}" save_env saved_entry set prev_saved_entry= save_env prev_saved_entry set boot_once=true fi function savedefault { if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then saved_entry="${chosen}" save_env saved_entry fi } function recordfail { set recordfail=1 if [ -n "${have_grubenv}" ]; then if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then save_env recordfail; fi; fi } function load_video { insmod vbe insmod vga insmod video_bochs insmod video_cirrus } insmod part_msdos insmod ext2 set root='(/dev/sdb,msdos5)' search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 266f9801-cf4f-4acc-affa-2092be035f0c if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then set gfxmode=auto load_video insmod gfxterm fi terminal_output gfxterm insmod part_msdos insmod ext2 set root='(/dev/sdb,msdos5)' search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 266f9801-cf4f-4acc-affa-2092be035f0c set locale_dir=($root)/boot/grub/locale set lang=en_US insmod gettext if [ "${recordfail}" = 1 ]; then set timeout=-1 else set timeout=10 fi ### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ### set menu_color_normal=white/black set menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray if background_color 44,0,30; then clear fi ### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ### if [ ${recordfail} != 1 ]; then if [ -e ${prefix}/gfxblacklist.txt ]; then if hwmatch ${prefix}/gfxblacklist.txt 3; then if [ ${match} = 0 ]; then set linux_gfx_mode=keep else set linux_gfx_mode=text fi else set linux_gfx_mode=text fi else set linux_gfx_mode=keep fi else set linux_gfx_mode=text fi export linux_gfx_mode if [ "$linux_gfx_mode" != "text" ]; then load_video; fi menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.38-8-generic-pae' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os { recordfail set gfxpayload=$linux_gfx_mode insmod part_msdos insmod ext2 set root='(/dev/sdb,msdos5)' search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 266f9801-cf4f-4acc-affa-2092be035f0c linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-8-generic-pae root=UUID=266f9801-cf4f-4acc- affa-2092be035f0c ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7 initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.38-8-generic-pae } menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.38-8-generic-pae (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os { recordfail set gfxpayload=$linux_gfx_mode insmod part_msdos insmod ext2 set root='(/dev/sdb,msdos5)' search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 266f9801-cf4f-4acc-affa-2092be035f0c echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.38-8-generic-pae ...' linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-8-generic-pae root=UUID=266f9801-cf4f-4acc-affa-2092be035f0c ro single echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...' initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.38-8-generic-pae } ### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ### ### END /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ### menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" { insmod part_msdos insmod ext2 set root='(/dev/sdb,msdos5)' search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 266f9801-cf4f-4acc-affa-2092be035f0c linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin } menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" { insmod part_msdos insmod ext2 set root='(/dev/sdb,msdos5)' search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 266f9801-cf4f-4acc-affa-2092be035f0c linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8 } ### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ### menuentry "Windows 7 (loader) (on /dev/sdb1)" --class windows --class os { insmod part_msdos insmod ntfs set root='(/dev/sdb,msdos1)' search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 20B65685B6565B7C chainloader +1 } menuentry "Windows Recovery Environment (loader) (on /dev/sdb3)" --class windows --class os { insmod part_msdos insmod ntfs set root='(/dev/sdb,msdos3)' search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 6E10B7A410B77227 drivemap -s (hd0) ${root} chainloader +1 } ### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ### # This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the # menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change # the 'exec tail' line above. ### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/41_custom ### if [ -f $prefix/custom.cfg ]; then source $prefix/custom.cfg; fi ### END /etc/grub.d/41_custom ### =============================== sdb5/etc/fstab: =============================== # /etc/fstab: static file system information. # # Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier # for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name # devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5). # # <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass> proc /proc proc nodev,noexec,nosuid 0 0 # / was on /dev/sdb5 during installation UUID=266f9801-cf4f-4acc-affa-2092be035f0c / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1 # swap was on /dev/sdb6 during installation UUID=1df35749-a887-45ff-a3de-edd52239847d none swap sw 0 0 =================== sdb5: Location of files loaded by Grub: =================== 900.1GB: boot/grub/core.img 825.0GB: boot/grub/grub.cfg 688.7GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.38-8-generic-pae 688.0GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-8-generic-pae 688.7GB: initrd.img 688.0GB: vmlinuz =========================== Unknown MBRs/Boot Sectors/etc ======================= Unknown BootLoader on pdc_bdadcfbdif3 =======Devices which don't seem to have a corresponding hard drive============== sdc sdd sde sdf sdg =============================== StdErr Messages: =============================== ERROR: dos: partition address past end of RAID device hexdump: /dev/mapper/pdc_bdadcfbdif3: No such file or directory hexdump: /dev/mapper/pdc_bdadcfbdif3: No such file or directory ERROR: dos: partition address past end of RAID device

  Read the article

• MVP Summit 2011 summary and thoughts: The &ldquo;I hope I don&rsquo;t cross a line and lose my MVP status&rdquo; post

  - by George Clingerman

  I've been wanting to write this post summarizing my thoughts about the MVP summit but have been dragging my feet since it's a very difficult one to write. However seeing Andy (http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/t/77625.aspx) and Catalin (http://www.catalinzima.com/2011/03/mvp-summit-2011/) and Chris (http://geekswithblogs.net/cwilliams/archive/2011/03/07/144229.aspx) post about it has encouraged me to finally take the plunge. I'm going to have to write carefully though because I'm going to be dancing around a ton of NDA mine fields as well as having to walk the tight-rope of not sending the wrong message or having people read too much into what I'm saying. I want to note that most of what I'm about to say is just based on my observations, they're not thoughts that Microsoft has asked me to pass along and they're not things I heard Microsoft say. It's just me sharing what I think after going to the MVP summit. Let's start off with a short imaginary question and answer session.     Has the App Hub forums and XBLIG management been rather poor by Microsoft? Yes.     Do I think we're going to see changes to that overnight? No.     Will it continue to look bad from the outside? Somewhat. Confusing right? Well that's kind of how things are right now. Lots of confusion. XNA is doing AWESOME. Like, really, really awesome. As a result of that awesomeness, XNA is on three major platforms: Xbox 360, WP7 and PC. This means that internally Microsoft is really excited and invested in the technology. That's fantastic for XNA and really should show you the future the framework has. It's here to stay. So why are Xbox LIVE Indie Game developers feeling so much pain? The ironic thing is that pain is being caused by the success of XNA. When XNA was just a small thing, there was more freedom and more focus. It was just us and them. We were an only child. Now our family has grown and everyone has and wants some time with XNA. This gets XNA pulled in all directions and as it moves onto new platforms, it plays catch up trying to get those platforms up to speed to where Xbox LIVE Indie Games has grown. Forums, documentation, educational content. They all need to be there because Xbox LIVE Indie Games has all of that and more. Along with the catch up in features/documentation/awesomeness there's the catch up that the people on the team have to play. New platforms and new areas of development mean new players and those new guys don't have the history of being around from the beginning. This leads to a lack of understanding at times just how important some things are because they seem so small and insignificant (Rich Text defaulting for new forum profiles would be one things that jumps to mind). If you're not aware that the forums have become more than just a basic Q&A, if you're not aware that they're a central hub to a very active community, then you don't understand why that small change should be prioritized over something else. New people have to get caught up and figure out how to make a framework and central forum site work for everyone it's now serving. So yeah, a lot of our pain this last year has been simply that XNA is doing well and XBLIG is doing well so the focus was shifted to catch other things up. It hurts when a parent seems to not have any time for you and they're spending some much time with your new baby brother. Growing pains. All families and in our case our product family experience it to some degree. I think as WP7 matures we'll see the team figuring out how to give everyone the right amount of attention. While we're talking about some of our growing pains, it is also important to note (although not really an excuse) that the Xbox LIVE Arcade developers complain about many of the same things that we do. If you paid attention to talks and information coming out of GDC 2011, most of the the XBLA guys were saying things that sounded eerily similar to what the XBLIG developers are saying (Scott Nichols from GayGamer.net noticed http://twitter.com/#!/NaviFairyGG/status/43540379206811650). Does this mean we should just accept the status quo since we're being treated exactly the same? No way. However it DOES show that the way we're being treated is no indication of the stability and future of the platform, it's just Microsoft dropping the communication ball on two playing fields. We're not alone and we're not even being treated worse. Not great, but also in a weird way a very good sign. Now on to a few tidbits I think I CAN share from the summit (I'm really crossing my fingers I'm not stepping over some NDA line I shouldn't be). First, I discovered that the XBLIG user base is bigger than I personally had originally estimated. I won't give the exact numbers (although we did beg Microsoft to release some of these numbers so maybe someday?) but it was much larger than my original guestimates and I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe some of you guys had the right number when you were guessing, but I know that mine was much too low. And even MORE importantly the number of users/shoppers is growing at a steady pace as well. Our market is growing! That was fantastic news and really something that I had to share. On to the community manager discussion. It was mentioned. I was mentioned. I blushed. Nothing more to report there than the blush in my cheeks was a light crimson color. If I ever see a job description posted for that position I have a resume waiting in the wings. I can't deny that I think that would be my dream job... ...so after I finished blushing, the MVPs did make it very, very clear that the communication has to improve. Community manager or not the single biggest pain point with the Xbox LIVE Indie Game community has been a lack of communication. I have seen dramatic improvement in the team responding to MVPs and I'm even seeing more communication from them on the forums so I'm hoping that's a long term change. I really think they understood the issue, the problem remains how to open that communication channel in a way that was sustainable. I think they'll get it figured out and hopefully that's sooner rather than later. During the summit, you may have seen me tweeting about how I was "that guy" (http://twitter.com/#!/clingermangw/status/42740432471470081). You also may have noticed that Andy and Catalin both mentioned me in their summit write ups. I may have come on a bit strong while I was there...went a little out of character for myself. I've been agitated for a while with the way things have been and I've been listening to you guys and hearing you guys be agitated. I'm also watching some really awesome indie game developers looking elsewhere and leaving the platform. Some of them we might not have been able to keep even with changes, but others are only leaving because of perceptions and lack of communication from Microsoft. And that pisses me off. And I let Microsoft know that I was pissed off. You made your list and I took that list and verbalized it. I verbalized the hell out of it. [It was actually mentioned that I'm a lot nicer on the forums and in email than I am in person...I felt bad about that, but I couldn't stay silent]. Hopefully it did something guys, I really did try hard to get the message across. Along with my agitation, I also brought some pride. I mentioned several things in person to the team that I was particularly proud of. From people in the community that are doing an awesome job, to the re-launch of XboxIndies that was going on that week and even gamers like Steven Hurdle (http://writingsofmassdeduction.com/) who have purchased one XBLIG every day for over 100 days now. The community is freaking rocking it and I made sure to highlight that. So in conclusion, I'd just like to say hang in there (you know, like that picture of the cat). If you've been worried about investing in Xbox LIVE Indie Games because you think it's on shaky ground. It's not. Dream Build Play being about the Xbox 360 should have helped a little to point that out. The team is really scrambling around trying to figure things out and make improvements all around. There’s quite a few new gals and guys and it's going to take them time to catch up and there are a lot of constantly shifting priorities. We all have one toy, one team and we're fighting for time with it. It's also time for the community to continue spreading our wings and going out on our own more often. The Indie Game Winter Uprising was a fantastic example of that. We took things into our own hands and it got noticed and Microsoft got behind it. They do every time we stand up and do something (look at how many Microsoft employees tweeted, wrote about the re-launch of XboxIndies.com or the support I've gotten from them for my weekly XNA Notes). XNA is here to stay, it's time for us to stop being scared of that and figure out how to make our own games the successes they should be. There's definitely a list of things that need to be fixed, things that should be improved and I think we should definitely keep vocal about that with Microsoft. Keep it short, focused and prioritized. There's also a lot of things we can do ourselves while we're waiting on them to fix and change things. Lots of ways we can compensate for particular weaknesses in the channel. The kind of stuff that we can step up and do ourselves. Do it on our own, you know, the way Indies always do. And I'm really looking forward to watching us do just that.

  Read the article

• Simple Branching and Merging with SVN

  Its a good idea not to do too much work without checking something into source control.  By too much work I mean typically on the order of a couple of hours at most, and certainly its a good practice to check in anything you have before you leave the office for the day.  But what if your changes break the build (on the build server you do have a build server dont you?) or would cause problems for others on your team if they get the latest code?  The solution with Subversion is branching and merging (incidentally, if youre using Microsoft Visual Studio Team System, you can shelve your changes and share shelvesets with others, which accomplishes many of the same things as branching and merging, but is a bit simpler to do). Getting Started Im going to assume you have Subversion installed along with the nearly ubiquitous client, TortoiseSVN.  See my previous post on installing SVN server if you want to get it set up real quick (you can put it on your workstation/laptop just to learn how it works easily enough). Overview When you know you are going to be working on something that you wont be able to check in quickly, its a good idea to start a branch.  Its also perfectly fine to create the branch after-the-fact (have you ever started something thinking it would be an hour and 4 hours later realized you were nowhere near done?).  In any event, the first thing you need to do is create a branch.  A branch is simply a copy of the current trunk (a typical subversion setup has root directories called trunk, tags, and branches its a good idea to keep this and to put your branches in the branches folder).  Once you have a new branch, you need to switch your working copy so that it is bound to your branch.  As you work,  you may want to merge in changes that are happening in the trunk to your branch, and ultimately when you are done youll want to merge your branch back into the trunk.  When done, you can delete your branch (or not, but it may add clutter).  To sum up: Create a new branch Switch your local working copy to the new branch Develop in the branch (commit changes, etc.) Merge changes from trunk into your branch Merge changes from branch into trunk Delete the branch Create a new branch From the root of your repository, right-click and select TortoiseSVN > Branch/tag as shown at right (click to enlarge).  This will bring up the Copy (Branch / Tag) interface.  By default the From WC at URL: should be pointing at the trunk of your repository.  I recommend (after ensuring that you have the latest version) that you choose to make the copy from the HEAD revision in the repository (the first radio button).  In the To URL: textbox, you should change the URL from /trunk to /branches/NAME_OF_BRANCH.  You can name the branch anything you like, but its often useful to give it your name (if its just for your use) or some useful information (such as a datestamp or a bug/issue ID from that it relates to, or perhaps just the name of the feature you are adding. When youre done with that, enter in a log message for your new branch.  If you want to immediately switch your local working copy to the new branch/tag, check the box at the bottom of the dialog (Switch working copy to new branch/tag).  You can see an example at right. Assuming everything works, you should very quickly see a window telling you the Copy finished, like the one shown below: Switch Local Working Copy to New Branch If you followed the instructions above and checked the box when you created your branch, you dont need to do this step.  However, if you have a branch that already exists and you would like to switch over to working on it, you can do so by using the Switch command.  Youll find it in the explorer context menu under TortoiseSVN > Switch: This brings up a dialog that shows you your current binding, and lets you enter in a new URL to switch to: In the screenshot above, you can see that Im currently bound to a branch, and so I could switch back to the trunk or to another branch.  If youre not sure what to enter here, you can click the [] next to the URL textbox to explore your repository and find the appropriate root URL to use.  Also, the dropdown will show you URLs that might be a good fit (such as the trunk of the current repository). Develop in the Branch Once you have created a branch and switched your working copy to use it,  you can make changes and Commit them as usual.  Your commits are now going into the branch, so they wont impact other users or the build server that are working off of the trunk (or their own branches).  In theory you can keep on doing this forever, but practically its a good idea to periodically merge the trunk into your branch, and/or keep your branches short-lived and merge them back into the trunk before they get too far out of sync. Merge Changes from Trunk into your Branch Once you have been working in a branch for a little while, change to the trunk will have occurred that youll want to merge into your branch.  Its much safer and easier to integrate changes in small increments than to wait for weeks or months and then try to merge in two very different codebases.  To perform the merge, simply go to the root of your branch working copy and right click, select TortoiseSVN->Merge.  Youll be presented with this dialog: In this case you want to leave the default setting, Merge a range of revisions.  Click Next.  Now choose the URL to merge from.  You should select the trunk of your current repository (which should be in the dropdownlist, or you can click the [] to browse your repository for the correct URL).  You can leave everything else blank since you want to merge everything: Click Next.  Again you can leave the default settings.  If you want to do something more granular than everything in the trunk, you can select a different Merge depth, to include merging just one item in the tree.  You can also perform a Test merge to see what changes will take place before you click Merge (which is often a good idea).  Heres what the dialog should look like before you click Merge: After clicking Merge (or Test merge) you should see a confirmation like this (it will say Test Only in the title if you click Test merge): Now you should build your solution, run all of your tests, and verify that your branch still works the way it should, given the updates that youve just integrated from the trunk.  Once everything works, Commit your changes, and then continue with your work on the branch.  Note that until you commit, nothing has actually changed in your branch on the server.  Other team members who may also be working in this branch wont be impacted, etc.  The Merge is purely a client-side operation until you perform a Commit. In a more real-world scenario, you may have conflicts.  When you do, youll be presented with a dialog like this one: Its up to you which option you want to go with.  The more frequently you Merge, the fewer of these youll have to deal with.  Also, be very sure that youre merging the right folders together.  If you try and merge your trunk with some subfolder in your branchs structure, youll end up with all kinds of conflicts and problems.  Fortunately, theyre only on your working copy (unless you commit them!) but if you see something like that, be sure to doublecheck your URL and your local file location. Merge Your Branch Back Into Trunk When youre done working in your branch, its time to pull it back into the trunk.  The first thing you should do is follow the previous steps instructions for merging the latest from the trunk into your branch.  This lets you ensure that what you have in your branch works correctly with the current trunk.  Once youve done that and committed your changes to your branch, youre ready to proceed with this step. Once youre confident your branch is good to go, you should go to its root folder and select TortoiseSVN->Merge (as above) from the explorer right-click menu.  This time, select Reintegrate a branch as shown below: Click Next.  Youll want it to merge with the trunk, which should be the default: Click Next. Leave the default settings: Click Test merge to see a test, and then if all looks good, click Merge.  Note that if you havent checked in your working copy changes, youll see something like this: If on the other hand things are successful: After this step, its likely you are finished working in your branch.  Dont forget to use the ToroiseSVN->Switch command to change your working copy back to the trunk. Delete the Branch You dont have to delete the branch, but over time your branches area of your repository will get cluttered, and in any event if theyre not actively being worked on the branches are just taking up space and adding to later confusion.  Keeping your branches limited to things youre actively working on is simply a good habit to get into, just like making sure your codebase itself remains tidy and not filled with old commented out bits of code. To delete the branch after youre finished with it, the simplest thing to do is choose TortoiseSVN->Repo Browser.  From there, assuming you did this from your branch, it should already be highlighted.  In any event, navigate to your branch in the treeview on the left, and then right-click and select Delete.  Enter a log message if youd like: Click OK, and its gone.  Dont be too afraid of this, though.  You can still get to the files by viewing the log for branches, and selecting a previous revision (anything before the delete action): If for some reason you needed something that was previously in this branch, you could easily get back to any changeset you checked in, so you should have absolutely no fear when it comes to deleting branches youre done with.   Resources If youre using Eclipse, theres a nice write-up of the steps required by Zach Cox that I found helpful here. Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

  Read the article

• Cryptographic Validation Explained

  - by MarkPearl

  We have been using LogicNP’s CryptoLicensing for some of our software and I was battling to understand how exactly the whole process worked. I was sent the following document which really helped explain it – so if you ever use the same tool it is well worth a read. Licensing Basics LogicNP CryptoLicensing For .Net is the most advanced and state-of-the art licensing and copy protection system you can use for your software. LogicNP CryptoLicensing System uses the latest cryptographic technology to generate and validate licenses. The cryptographic algorithm used is the RSA algorithm which consists of a pair of keys called as the generation key and the validation key. Data encrypted using the generation key can only be decrypted using the corresponding validation key. How does cryptographic validation work? When a new license project is created, a unique validation-generation key pair is created for the project. When LogicNP CryptoLicensing For .Net generates licenses, it encrypts the license settings using the generation key. The validation key can be safely distributed with your software and is used during validation. During license validation, LogicNP CryptoLicensing For .Net attempts to decrypt the encrypted license code using the validation key. If the decryption is successful, this means that the data was encrypted using the generation key, since only the corresponding validation key can decrypt data encrypted with the generation key. This further means that not only is the license valid but that it was generated by you and only you since nobody else has access to the generation key. Generation Key This key is used by CryptoLicensing Generator to generate encrypted license codes. This key is stored in the license project file, so the license project file must be kept secure and confidential and must be accorded the same care as any other critical asset such as source code. Validation Key This key is used for validating generated license codes. It is the same key displayed in the 'Get Validation Key And Code' dialog (Ctrl+K) and is used by your software when validating license codes (using LogicNP.CryptoLicensing.dll). Unlike the generation key, it is not necessary to keep this key secure and confidential. Note that the generation key pair is stored in the project file created by LogicNP CryptoLicensing For .Net, so it is very important to backup this file and to keep it secure. Once the file is lost, it is not possible to retrieve the key pair. FAQ Do I use the same validation key to validate all license codes? Yes, the validation key (and generation key) for the project remains the same; you use the same key to validate all license codes generated using the project. You can retrieve the validation key using the "Project" menu --> "Get Validation Key & Code" menu item. Can license codes generated using generation key from one project be validated using validation key of another project? No! Q. Is every generated license code unique? A. Yes, every license code generated by CryptoLicensing is guaranteed to be unique, even if you generate thousands of codes at a time. Q. What makes CryptoLicensing so secure? A. CryptoLicensing uses the latest cryptographic technology to generate and validate licenses. The cryptographic algorithm used is the RSA asymmetric key algorithm which can use upto 3072-bit keys. Given current computing power, it takes years to break a 3072-bit key. Q. Is is possible for a hacker to develop a keygen for my software? A. Impossible. The cryptographic algorithm used by CryptoLicensing consists of a pair of keys called as the generation key and the validation key. Data encrypted with one key can only be decrypted by the other key and vice versa. Licenses are generated using the generation key and validated using the validation key. Without the generation key, it is impossible to generate valid licenses. Q. What is the difference between validation key and generation key? Generation Key This key is used by CryptoLicensing Generator to generate encrypted license codes. This key is stored in the license project file, so the license project file must be kept secure and confidential and must be accorded the same care as any other critical asset such as source code. Validation Key This key is used for validating generated license codes. It is the same key displayed in the 'Get Validation Key And Code' dialog (Ctrl+K) and is used by your software when validating license codes (using LogicNP.CryptoLicensing.dll). Unlike the generation key, it is not necessary to keep this key secure and confidential. Q. Do I have to include the license project file (.licproj) with my software? A. No!!! This goes against the very essence of the security of the asymmetric cryptographic scheme because the project file contains both the validation and generation key. With your software, you only need to include the validation key which will be used to validate licenses generated by CryptoLicensing using the generation key. The license project file should be treated as any other valuable and confidential asset such as your source code. Q. Does the license service need the license project file? A. Yes. The license project file is needed whenever new licenses are generated (via the UI, via the API or via the license service). As just one example, the license service generates new machine-locked licenses when activated licenses are presented to it for activation, therefore the license service needs the license project file. Q. Is it possible to embed my own data in the generated licenses? A. Yes. You can embed any amount of additional data in the licenses. This data will have the same amount of security as the license code itself and will be tamper-proof. The embedded user data can be retrieved from your software. Q. What additional steps can I take to ensure that my software does not get cracked? A. There are many methods and techniques which can make it extremely difficult for a hacker to crack your software. See Writing Effective License Checking Code And Designing Effective Licenses for more information. Q. Why is the license service not working? A. The most common cause is not setting the CryptoLicense.LicenseServiceURL property before trying to validate a license. Make sure that this property is set to the correct URL where your license service is hosted. The most common cause after this is that the license project file on the web server where your license service is hosted is not the latest. This happens if you make changes to the license project (for example, set the 'Enable With Serials' setting for a profile), but don't upload the updated project file to your web server. Q. Why are my serials not working? Serial codes require the user of a license service. See Using Serial Codes for more details. Also see the earlier question 'Why is the license service not working?' Q. Is the same validation key used to validate license codes generated from different profiles. A. Yes. Profiles are just pre specified license settings for quickly generating licenses having those settings. The actual license code is still generated using the license project's cryptographic generation key and thus, can be validated using the project's validation key. Q. Why are changes made to a profile not getting saved? A. Simply changing license settings via UI and saving the license project does not save those license settings to the active profile. You must first save the license settings to a profile using the Save/Save As command from the Profiles menu (see above). Q. Why is validation of activated licenses failing from CryptoLicensing Generator, but works from my software? A. Make sure that you have specified the URL of the license service using the Project Properties Dialog. Also see the earlier question 'Why is the license service not working?' Q. How can I extend the trial period of my customer? A. To extend the evaluation period of the customer, simply send him a new license code specifying the desired evaluation limits. Evaluation information such as the current used days, executions, etc are stored in garbled form in a registry location which is derived from the license code. Therefore, when a new license code is used, the old evaluation information will not be used and a new evaluation period will be started.

  Read the article

• Project Navigation and File Nesting in ASP.NET MVC Projects

  - by Rick Strahl

  More and more I’m finding myself getting lost in the files in some of my larger Web projects. There’s so much freaking content to deal with – HTML Views, several derived CSS pages, page level CSS, script libraries, application wide scripts and page specific script files etc. etc. Thankfully I use Resharper and the Ctrl-T Go to Anything which autocompletes you to any file, type, member rapidly. Awesome except when I forget – or when I’m not quite sure of the name of what I’m looking for. Project navigation is still important. Sometimes while working on a project I seem to have 30 or more files open and trying to locate another new file to open in the solution often ends up being a mental exercise – “where did I put that thing?” It’s those little hesitations that tend to get in the way of workflow frequently. To make things worse most NuGet packages for client side frameworks and scripts, dump stuff into folders that I generally don’t use. I’ve never been a fan of the ‘Content’ folder in MVC which is just an empty layer that doesn’t serve much of a purpose. It’s usually the first thing I nuke in every MVC project. To me the project root is where the actual content for a site goes – is there really a need to add another folder to force another path into every resource you use? It’s ugly and also inefficient as it adds additional bytes to every resource link you embed into a page. Alternatives I’ve been playing around with different folder layouts recently and found that moving my cheese around has actually made project navigation much easier. In this post I show a couple of things I’ve found useful and maybe you find some of these useful as well or at least get some ideas what can be changed to provide better project flow. The first thing I’ve been doing is add a root Code folder and putting all server code into that. I’m a big fan of treating the Web project root folder as my Web root folder so all content comes from the root without unneeded nesting like the Content folder. By moving all server code out of the root tree (except for Code) the root tree becomes a lot cleaner immediately as you remove Controllers, App_Start, Models etc. and move them underneath Code. Yes this adds another folder level for server code, but it leaves only code related things in one place that’s easier to jump back and forth in. Additionally I find myself doing a lot less with server side code these days, more with client side code so I want the server code separated from that. The root folder itself then serves as the root content folder. Specifically I have the Views folder below it, as well as the Css and Scripts folders which serve to hold only common libraries and global CSS and Scripts code. These days of building SPA style application, I also tend to have an App folder there where I keep my application specific JavaScript files, as well as HTML View templates for client SPA apps like Angular. Here’s an example of what this looks like in a relatively small project: The goal is to keep things that are related together, so I don’t end up jumping around so much in the solution to get to specific project items. The Code folder may irk some of you and hark back to the days of the App_Code folder in non Web-Application projects, but these days I find myself messing with a lot less server side code and much more with client side files – HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Generally I work on a single controller at a time – once that’s open it’s open that’s typically the only server code I work with regularily. Business logic lives in another project altogether, so other than the controller and maybe ViewModels there’s not a lot of code being accessed in the Code folder. So throwing that off the root and isolating seems like an easy win. Nesting Page specific content In a lot of my existing applications that are pure server side MVC application perhaps with some JavaScript associated with them , I tend to have page level javascript and css files. For these types of pages I actually prefer the local files stored in the same folder as the parent view. So typically I have a .css and .js files with the same name as the view in the same folder. This looks something like this: In order for this to work you have to also make a configuration change inside of the /Views/web.config file, as the Views folder is blocked with the BlockViewHandler that prohibits access to content from that folder. It’s easy to fix by changing the path from * to *.cshtml or *.vbhtml so that view retrieval is blocked:<system.webServer> <handlers> <remove name="BlockViewHandler"/> <add name="BlockViewHandler" path="*.cshtml" verb="*" preCondition="integratedMode" type="System.Web.HttpNotFoundHandler" /> </handlers> </system.webServer> With this in place, from inside of your Views you can then reference those same resources like this:<link href="~/Views/Admin/QuizPrognosisItems.css" rel="stylesheet" /> and<script src="~/Views/Admin/QuizPrognosisItems.js"></script> which works fine. JavaScript and CSS files in the Views folder deploy just like the .cshtml files do and can be referenced from this folder as well. Making this happen is not really as straightforward as it should be with just Visual Studio unfortunately, as there’s no easy way to get the file nesting from the VS IDE directly (you have to modify the .csproj file). However, Mads Kristensen has a nice Visual Studio Add-in that provides file nesting via a short cut menu option. Using this you can select each of the ‘child’ files and then nest them under a parent file. In the case above I select the .js and .css files and nest them underneath the .cshtml view. I was even toying with the idea of throwing the controller.cs files into the Views folder, but that’s maybe going a little too far :-) It would work however as Visual Studio doesn’t publish .cs files and the compiler doesn’t care where the files live. There are lots of options and if you think that would make life easier it’s another option to help group related things together. Are there any downside to this? Possibly – if you’re using automated minification/packaging tools like ASP.NET Bundling or Grunt/Gulp with Uglify, it becomes a little harder to group script and css files for minification as you may end up looking in multiple folders instead of a single folder. But – again that’s a one time configuration step that’s easily handled and much less intrusive then constantly having to search for files in your project. Client Side Folders The particular project shown above in the screen shots above is a traditional server side ASP.NET MVC application with most content rendered into server side Razor pages. There’s a fair amount of client side stuff happening on these pages as well – specifically several of these pages are self contained single page Angular applications that deal with 1 or maybe 2 separate views and the layout I’ve shown above really focuses on the server side aspect where there are Razor views with related script and css resources. For applications that are more client centric and have a lot more script and HTML template based content I tend to use the same layout for the server components, but the client side code can often be broken out differently. In SPA type applications I tend to follow the App folder approach where all the application pieces that make the SPA applications end up below the App folder. Here’s what that looks like for me – here this is an AngularJs project: In this case the App folder holds both the application specific js files, and the partial HTML views that get loaded into this single SPA page application. In this particular Angular SPA application that has controllers linked to particular partial views, I prefer to keep the script files that are associated with the views – Angular Js Controllers in this case – with the actual partials. Again I like the proximity of the view with the main code associated with the view, because 90% of the UI application code that gets written is handled between these two files. This approach works well, but only if controllers are fairly closely aligned with the partials. If you have many smaller sub-controllers or lots of directives where the alignment between views and code is more segmented this approach starts falling apart and you’ll probably be better off with separate folders in js folder. Following Angular conventions you’d have controllers/directives/services etc. folders. Please note that I’m not saying any of these ways are right or wrong  – this is just what has worked for me and why! Skipping Project Navigation altogether with Resharper I’ve talked a bit about project navigation in the project tree, which is a common way to navigate and which we all use at least some of the time, but if you use a tool like Resharper – which has Ctrl-T to jump to anything, you can quickly navigate with a shortcut key and autocomplete search. Here’s what Resharper’s jump to anything looks like: Resharper’s Goto Anything box lets you type and quick search over files, classes and members of the entire solution which is a very fast and powerful way to find what you’re looking for in your project, by passing the solution explorer altogether. As long as you remember to use (which I sometimes don’t) and you know what you’re looking for it’s by far the quickest way to find things in a project. It’s a shame that this sort of a simple search interface isn’t part of the native Visual Studio IDE. Work how you like to work Ultimately it all comes down to workflow and how you like to work, and what makes *you* more productive. Following pre-defined patterns is great for consistency, as long as they don’t get in the way you work. A lot of the default folder structures in Visual Studio for ASP.NET MVC were defined when things were done differently. These days we’re dealing with a lot more diverse project content than when ASP.NET MVC was originally introduced and project organization definitely is something that can get in the way if it doesn’t fit your workflow. So take a look and see what works well and what might benefit from organizing files differently. As so many things with ASP.NET, as things evolve and tend to get more complex I’ve found that I end up fighting some of the conventions. The good news is that you don’t have to follow the conventions and you have the freedom to do just about anything that works for you. Even though what I’ve shown here diverges from conventions, I don’t think anybody would stumble over these relatively minor changes and not immediately figure out where things live, even in larger projects. But nevertheless think long and hard before breaking those conventions – if there isn’t a good reason to break them or the changes don’t provide improved workflow then it’s not worth it. Break the rules, but only if there’s a quantifiable benefit. You may not agree with how I’ve chosen to divert from the standard project structures in this article, but maybe it gives you some ideas of how you can mix things up to make your existing project flow a little nicer and make it easier to navigate for your environment. © Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2014Posted in ASP.NET  MVC   Tweet !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();

  Read the article

• MVC Automatic Menu

  - by Nuri Halperin

  An ex-colleague of mine used to call his SQL script generator "Super-Scriptmatic 2000". It impressed our then boss little, but was fun to say and use. We called every batch job and script "something 2000" from that day on. I'm tempted to call this one Menu-Matic 2000, except it's waaaay past 2000. Oh well. The problem: I'm developing a bunch of stuff in MVC. There's no PM to generate mounds of requirements and there's no Ux Architect to create wireframe. During development, things change. Specifically, actions get renamed, moved from controller x to y etc. Well, as the site grows, it becomes a major pain to keep a static menu up to date, because the links change. The HtmlHelper doesn't live up to it's name and provides little help. How do I keep this growing list of pesky little forgotten actions reigned in? The general plan is: Decorate every action you want as a menu item with a custom attribute Reflect out all menu items into a structure at load time Render the menu using as CSS  friendly <ul><li> HTML. The MvcMenuItemAttribute decorates an action, designating it to be included as a menu item: [AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Method, AllowMultiple = true)] public class MvcMenuItemAttribute : Attribute {   public string MenuText { get; set; }   public int Order { get; set; }   public string ParentLink { get; set; }   internal string Controller { get; set; }   internal string Action { get; set; }     #region ctor   public MvcMenuItemAttribute(string menuText) : this(menuText, 0) { } public MvcMenuItemAttribute(string menuText, int order) { MenuText = menuText; Order = order; }       internal string Link { get { return string.Format("/{0}/{1}", Controller, this.Action); } }   internal MvcMenuItemAttribute ParentItem { get; set; } #endregion } The MenuText allows overriding the text displayed on the menu. The Order allows the items to be ordered. The ParentLink allows you to make this item a child of another menu item. An example action could then be decorated thusly: [MvcMenuItem("Tracks", Order = 20, ParentLink = "/Session/Index")] . All pretty straightforward methinks. The challenge with menu hierarchy becomes fairly apparent when you try to render a menu and highlight the "current" item or render a breadcrumb control. Both encounter an  ambiguity if you allow a data source to have more than one menu item with the same URL link. The issue is that there is no great way to tell which link a person click. Using referring URL will fail if a user bookmarked the page. Using some extra query string to disambiguate duplicate URLs essentially changes the links, and also ads a chance of collision with other query parameters. Besides, that smells. The stock ASP.Net sitemap provider simply disallows duplicate URLS. I decided not to, and simply pick the first one encountered as the "current". Although it doesn't solve the issue completely – one might say they wanted the second of the 2 links to be "current"- it allows one to include a link twice (home->deals and products->deals etc), and the logic of deciding "current" is easy enough to explain to the customer. Now that we got that out of the way, let's build the menu data structure: public static List<MvcMenuItemAttribute> ListMenuItems(Assembly assembly) { var result = new List<MvcMenuItemAttribute>(); foreach (var type in assembly.GetTypes()) { if (!type.IsSubclassOf(typeof(Controller))) { continue; } foreach (var method in type.GetMethods()) { var items = method.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(MvcMenuItemAttribute), false) as MvcMenuItemAttribute[]; if (items == null) { continue; } foreach (var item in items) { if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(item.Controller)) { item.Controller = type.Name.Substring(0, type.Name.Length - "Controller".Length); } if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(item.Action)) { item.Action = method.Name; } result.Add(item); } } } return result.OrderBy(i => i.Order).ToList(); } Using reflection, the ListMenuItems method takes an assembly (you will hand it your MVC web assembly) and generates a list of menu items. It digs up all the types, and for each one that is an MVC Controller, digs up the methods. Methods decorated with the MvcMenuItemAttribute get plucked and added to the output list. Again, pretty simple. To make the structure hierarchical, a LINQ expression matches up all the items to their parent: public static void RegisterMenuItems(List<MvcMenuItemAttribute> items) { _MenuItems = items; _MenuItems.ForEach(i => i.ParentItem = items.FirstOrDefault(p => String.Equals(p.Link, i.ParentLink, StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase))); } The _MenuItems is simply an internal list to keep things around for later rendering. Finally, to package the menu building for easy consumption: public static void RegisterMenuItems(Type mvcApplicationType) { RegisterMenuItems(ListMenuItems(Assembly.GetAssembly(mvcApplicationType))); } To bring this puppy home, a call in Global.asax.cs Application_Start() registers the menu. Notice the ugliness of reflection is tucked away from the innocent developer. All they have to do is call the RegisterMenuItems() and pass in the type of the application. When you use the new project template, global.asax declares a class public class MvcApplication : HttpApplication and that is why the Register call passes in that type. protected void Application_Start() { AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas(); RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);   MvcMenu.RegisterMenuItems(typeof(MvcApplication)); }   What else is left to do? Oh, right, render! public static void ShowMenu(this TextWriter output) { var writer = new HtmlTextWriter(output);   renderHierarchy(writer, _MenuItems, null); }   public static void ShowBreadCrumb(this TextWriter output, Uri currentUri) { var writer = new HtmlTextWriter(output); string currentLink = "/" + currentUri.GetComponents(UriComponents.Path, UriFormat.Unescaped);   var menuItem = _MenuItems.FirstOrDefault(m => m.Link.Equals(currentLink, StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase)); if (menuItem != null) { renderBreadCrumb(writer, _MenuItems, menuItem); } }   private static void renderBreadCrumb(HtmlTextWriter writer, List<MvcMenuItemAttribute> menuItems, MvcMenuItemAttribute current) { if (current == null) { return; } var parent = current.ParentItem; renderBreadCrumb(writer, menuItems, parent); writer.Write(current.MenuText); writer.Write(" / ");   }     static void renderHierarchy(HtmlTextWriter writer, List<MvcMenuItemAttribute> hierarchy, MvcMenuItemAttribute root) { if (!hierarchy.Any(i => i.ParentItem == root)) return;   writer.RenderBeginTag(HtmlTextWriterTag.Ul); foreach (var current in hierarchy.Where(element => element.ParentItem == root).OrderBy(i => i.Order)) { if (ItemFilter == null || ItemFilter(current)) {   writer.RenderBeginTag(HtmlTextWriterTag.Li); writer.AddAttribute(HtmlTextWriterAttribute.Href, current.Link); writer.AddAttribute(HtmlTextWriterAttribute.Alt, current.MenuText); writer.RenderBeginTag(HtmlTextWriterTag.A); writer.WriteEncodedText(current.MenuText); writer.RenderEndTag(); // link renderHierarchy(writer, hierarchy, current); writer.RenderEndTag(); // li } } writer.RenderEndTag(); // ul } The ShowMenu method renders the menu out to the provided TextWriter. In previous posts I've discussed my partiality to using well debugged, time test HtmlTextWriter to render HTML rather than writing out angled brackets by hand. In addition, writing out using the actual writer on the actual stream rather than generating string and byte intermediaries (yes, StringBuilder being no exception) disturbs me. To carry out the rendering of an hierarchical menu, the recursive renderHierarchy() is used. You may notice that an ItemFilter is called before rendering each item. I figured that at some point one might want to exclude certain items from the menu based on security role or context or something. That delegate is the hook for such future feature. To carry out rendering of a breadcrumb recursion is used again, this time simply to unwind the parent hierarchy from the leaf node, then rendering on the return from the recursion rather than as we go along deeper. I guess I was stuck in LISP that day.. recursion is fun though.   Now all that is left is some usage! Open your Site.Master or wherever you'd like to place a menu or breadcrumb, and plant one of these calls: <% MvcMenu.ShowBreadCrumb(this.Writer, Request.Url); %> to show a breadcrumb trail (notice lack of "=" after <% and the semicolon). <% MvcMenu.ShowMenu(Writer); %> to show the menu.   As mentioned before, the HTML output is nested <UL> <LI> tags, which should make it easy to style using abundant CSS to produce anything from static horizontal or vertical to dynamic drop-downs.   This has been quite a fun little implementation and I was pleased that the code size remained low. The main crux was figuring out how to pass parent information from the attribute to the hierarchy builder because attributes have restricted parameter types. Once I settled on that implementation, the rest falls into place quite easily.

  Read the article

• Making Thunar the default file browser without hiding the desktop icons

  - by Manu

  I really dislike Ubuntu's default file browser, nautilus, and decided to opt for a lighter alternative (Thunar or Xfe). I've used the following script to change the default to Thunar, but now all my icons are gone from the desktop ! The files are still there, in /home/myid/Desktop, but they do not appear. Is there a way to show them, or is this a consequence of removing nautilus as the default file browser ? Can I modify the following script* in order to keep the icons ? *copied from https://help.ubuntu.com/...: ## Originally written by aysiu from the Ubuntu Forums ## This is GPL'ed code ## So improve it and re-release it ## Define portion to make Thunar the default if that appears to be the appropriate action makethunardefault() { ## I went with --no-install-recommends because ## I didn't want to bring in a whole lot of junk, ## and Jaunty installs recommended packages by default. echo -e "\nMaking sure Thunar is installed\n" sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install thunar --no-install-recommends ## Does it make sense to change to the directory? ## Or should all the individual commands just reference the full path? echo -e "\nChanging to application launcher directory\n" cd /usr/share/applications echo -e "\nMaking backup directory\n" ## Does it make sense to create an entire backup directory? ## Should each file just be backed up in place? sudo mkdir nonautilusplease echo -e "\nModifying folder handler launcher\n" sudo cp nautilus-folder-handler.desktop nonautilusplease/ ## Here I'm using two separate sed commands ## Is there a way to string them together to have one ## sed command make two replacements in a single file? sudo sed -i -n 's/nautilus --no-desktop/thunar/g' nautilus-folder-handler.desktop sudo sed -i -n 's/TryExec=nautilus/TryExec=thunar/g' nautilus-folder-handler.desktop echo -e "\nModifying browser launcher\n" sudo cp nautilus-browser.desktop nonautilusplease/ sudo sed -i -n 's/nautilus --no-desktop --browser/thunar/g' nautilus-browser.desktop sudo sed -i -n 's/TryExec=nautilus/TryExec=thunar/g' nautilus-browser.desktop echo -e "\nModifying computer icon launcher\n" sudo cp nautilus-computer.desktop nonautilusplease/ sudo sed -i -n 's/nautilus --no-desktop/thunar/g' nautilus-computer.desktop sudo sed -i -n 's/TryExec=nautilus/TryExec=thunar/g' nautilus-computer.desktop echo -e "\nModifying home icon launcher\n" sudo cp nautilus-home.desktop nonautilusplease/ sudo sed -i -n 's/nautilus --no-desktop/thunar/g' nautilus-home.desktop sudo sed -i -n 's/TryExec=nautilus/TryExec=thunar/g' nautilus-home.desktop echo -e "\nModifying general Nautilus launcher\n" sudo cp nautilus.desktop nonautilusplease/ sudo sed -i -n 's/Exec=nautilus/Exec=thunar/g' nautilus.desktop ## This last bit I'm not sure should be included ## See, the only thing that doesn't change to the ## new Thunar default is clicking the files on the desktop, ## because Nautilus is managing the desktop (so technically ## it's not launching a new process when you double-click ## an icon there). ## So this kills the desktop management of icons completely ## Making the desktop pretty useless... would it be better ## to keep Nautilus there instead of nothing? Or go so far ## as to have Xfce manage the desktop in Gnome? echo -e "\nChanging base Nautilus launcher\n" sudo dpkg-divert --divert /usr/bin/nautilus.old --rename /usr/bin/nautilus && sudo ln -s /usr/bin/thunar /usr/bin/nautilus echo -e "\nRemoving Nautilus as desktop manager\n" killall nautilus echo -e "\nThunar is now the default file manager. To return Nautilus to the default, run this script again.\n" } restorenautilusdefault() { echo -e "\nChanging to application launcher directory\n" cd /usr/share/applications echo -e "\nRestoring backup files\n" sudo cp nonautilusplease/nautilus-folder-handler.desktop . sudo cp nonautilusplease/nautilus-browser.desktop . sudo cp nonautilusplease/nautilus-computer.desktop . sudo cp nonautilusplease/nautilus-home.desktop . sudo cp nonautilusplease/nautilus.desktop . echo -e "\nRemoving backup folder\n" sudo rm -r nonautilusplease echo -e "\nRestoring Nautilus launcher\n" sudo rm /usr/bin/nautilus && sudo dpkg-divert --rename --remove /usr/bin/nautilus echo -e "\nMaking Nautilus manage the desktop again\n" nautilus --no-default-window & ## The only change that isn't undone is the installation of Thunar ## Should Thunar be removed? Or just kept in? ## Don't want to load the script with too many questions? } ## Make sure that we exit if any commands do not complete successfully. ## Thanks to nanotube for this little snippet of code from the early ## versions of UbuntuZilla set -o errexit trap 'echo "Previous command did not complete successfully. Exiting."' ERR ## This is the main code ## Is it necessary to put an elseif in here? Or is ## redundant, since the directory pretty much ## either exists or it doesn't? ## Is there a better way to keep track of whether ## the script has been run before? if [[ -e /usr/share/applications/nonautilusplease ]]; then restorenautilusdefault else makethunardefault fi;

  Read the article

• Clustering Basics and Challenges

  - by Karoly Vegh

  For upcoming posts it seemed to be a good idea to dedicate some time for cluster basic concepts and theory. This post misses a lot of details that would explode the articlesize, should you have questions, do not hesitate to ask them in the comments.  The goal here is to get some concepts straight. I can't promise to give you an overall complete definitions of cluster, cluster agent, quorum, voting, fencing, split brain condition, so the following is more of an explanation. Here we go. -------- Cluster, HA, failover, switchover, scalability -------- An attempted definition of a Cluster: A cluster is a set (2+) server nodes dedicated to keep application services alive, communicating through the cluster software/framework with eachother, test and probe health status of servernodes/services and with quorum based decisions and with switchover/failover techniques keep the application services running on them available. That is, should a node that runs a service unexpectedly lose functionality/connection, the other ones would take over the and run the services, so that availability is guaranteed. To provide availability while strictly sticking to a consistent clusterconfiguration is the main goal of a cluster.  At this point we have to add that this defines a HA-cluster, a High-Availability cluster, where the clusternodes are planned to run the services in an active-standby, or failover fashion. An example could be a single instance database. Some applications can be run in a distributed or scalable fashion. In the latter case instances of the application run actively on separate clusternodes serving servicerequests simultaneously. An example for this version could be a webserver that forwards connection requests to many backend servers in a round-robin way. Or a database running in active-active RAC setup.  -------- Cluster arhitecture, interconnect, topologies -------- Now, what is a cluster made of? Servers, right. These servers (the clusternodes) need to communicate. This of course happens over the network, usually over dedicated network interfaces interconnecting all the clusternodes. These connection are called interconnects.How many clusternodes are in a cluster? There are different cluster topologies. The most simple one is a clustered pair topology, involving only two clusternodes:  There are several more topologies, clicking the image above will take you to the relevant documentation. Also, to answer the question Solaris Cluster allows you to run up to 16 servers in a cluster. Where shall these clusternodes be placed? A very important question. The right answer is: It depends on what you plan to achieve with the cluster. Do you plan to avoid only a server outage? Then you can place them right next to eachother in the datacenter. Do you need to avoid DataCenter outage? In that case of course you should place them at least in different fire zones. Or in two geographically distant DataCenters to avoid disasters like floods, large-scale fires or power outages. We call this a stretched- or campus cluster, the clusternodes being several kilometers away from eachother. To cover really large distances, you probably need to move to a GeoCluster, which is a different kind of animal.  What is a geocluster? A Geographic Cluster in Solaris Cluster terms is actually a metacluster between two, separate (locally-HA) clusters.  -------- Cluster resource types, agents, resources, resource groups -------- So how does the cluster manage my applications? The cluster needs to start, stop and probe your applications. If you application runs, the cluster needs to check regularly if the application state is healthy, does it respond over the network, does it have all the processes running, etc. This is called probing. If the cluster deems the application is in a faulty state, then it can try to restart it locally or decide to switch (stop on node A, start on node B) the service. Starting, stopping and probing are the three actions that a cluster agent does. There are many different kinds of agents included in Solaris Cluster, but you can build your own too. Examples are an agent that manages (mounts, moves) ZFS filesystems, or the Oracle DB HA agent that cares about the database, or an agent that moves a floating IP address between nodes. There are lots of other agents included for Apache, Tomcat, MySQL, Oracle DB, Oracle Weblogic, Zones, LDoms, NFS, DNS, etc.We also need to clarify the difference between a cluster resource and the cluster resource group.A cluster resource is something that is managed by a cluster agent. Cluster resource types are included in Solaris cluster (see above, e.g. HAStoragePlus, HA-Oracle, LogicalHost). You can group cluster resources into cluster resourcegroups, and switch these groups together from one node to another. To stick to the example above, to move an Oracle DB service from one node to another, you have to switch the group between nodes, and the agents of the cluster resources in the group will do the following:  On node A Shut down the DB Unconfigure the LogicalHost IP the DB Listener listens on unmount the filesystem   Then, on node B: mount the FS configure the IP  startup the DB -------- Voting, Quorum, Split Brain Condition, Fencing, Amnesia -------- How do the clusternodes agree upon their action? How do they decide which node runs what services? Another important question. Running a cluster is a strictly democratic thing.Every node has votes, and you need the majority of votes to have the deciding power. Now, this is usually no problem, clusternodes think very much all alike. Still, every action needs to be governed upon in a productive system, and has to be agreed upon. Agreeing is easy as long as the clusternodes all behave and talk to eachother over the interconnect. But if the interconnect is gone/down, this all gets tricky and confusing. Clusternodes think like this: "My job is to run these services. The other node does not answer my interconnect communication, it must be down. I'd better take control and run the services!". The problem is, as I have already mentioned, clusternodes very much think alike. If the interconnect is gone, they all assume the other node is down, and they all want to mount the data backend, enable the IP and run the database. Double IPs, double mounts, double DB instances - now that is trouble. Also, in a 2-node cluster they both have only 50% of the votes, that is, they themselves alone are not allowed to run a cluster.  This is where you need a quorum device. According to Wikipedia, the "requirement for a quorum is protection against totally unrepresentative action in the name of the body by an unduly small number of persons.". They need additional votes to run the cluster. For this requirement a 2-node cluster needs a quorum device or a quorum server. If the interconnect is gone, (this is what we call a split brain condition) both nodes start to race and try to reserve the quorum device to themselves. They do this, because the quorum device bears an additional vote, that could ensure majority (50% +1). The one that manages to lock the quorum device (e.g. if it's an FC LUN, it SCSI reserves it) wins the right to build/run a cluster, the other one - realizing he was late - panics/reboots to ensure the cluster config stays consistent.  Losing the interconnect isn't only endangering the availability of services, but it also endangers the cluster configuration consistence. Just imagine node A being down and during that the cluster configuration changes. Now node B goes down, and node A comes up. It isn't uptodate about the cluster configuration's changes so it will refuse to start a cluster, since that would lead to cluster amnesia, that is the cluster had some changes, but now runs with an older cluster configuration repository state, that is it's like it forgot about the changes.  Also, to ensure application data consistence, the clusternode that wins the race makes sure that a server that isn't part of or can't currently join the cluster can access the devices. This procedure is called fencing. This usually happens to storage LUNs via SCSI reservation.  Now, another important question: Where do I place the quorum disk?  Imagine having two sites, two separate datacenters, one in the north of the city and the other one in the south part of it. You run a stretched cluster in the clustered pair topology. Where do you place the quorum disk/server? If you put it into the north DC, and that gets hit by a meteor, you lose one clusternode, which isn't a problem, but you also lose your quorum, and the south clusternode can't keep the cluster running lacking the votes. This problem can't be solved with two sites and a campus cluster. You will need a third site to either place the quorum server to, or a third clusternode. Otherwise, lacking majority, if you lose the site that had your quorum, you lose the cluster. Okay, we covered the very basics. We haven't talked about virtualization support, CCR, ClusterFilesystems, DID devices, affinities, storage-replication, management tools, upgrade procedures - should those be interesting for you, let me know in the comments, along with any other questions. Given enough demand I'd be glad to write a followup post too. Now I really want to move on to the second part in the series: ClusterInstallation.  Oh, as for additional source of information, I recommend the documentation: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E23623_01/index.html, and the OTN Oracle Solaris Cluster site: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/solaris-cluster/index.html

  Read the article

• MSCC: Purpose and benefits of Version Control Systems (VCS)

  Unfortunately, there was no monthly meetup during May. Which means that it was even more important and interesting to go forward with a great topic for this month. Earlier this year I already spoke to Nayar Joolfoo about doing a presentation on version control systems (VCS), and he gladly agreed since then. It was just about finding the right date for the action. Furthermore, it was also a great coincidence that Avinash Meetoo announced on social media networks that Knowledge 7 is about to have a new training on "Effective git" - which correlates to a book title Avinash is currently working on - all the best with your approach on this and reach out to our MSCC craftsmen for recessions. Once again a big Thank you to Orange Ebene Accelerator on providing the venue for us, and the MSCC members involved on securing the time slot for our event. Unfortunately, it's kind of tough to get an early confirmation for our meetups these days. I'll keep you posted on that one as there are some interesting and exciting options coming up soon. Okay, let's talk about the meeting and version control systems again. As usual, I'm going to put my first impression of the meetup: "Absolutely great topic, questions and discussions on version control systems, like git or VSO. I was also highly pleased by the number of first timers and female IT geeks. Hopefully, we will be able to keep this trend for future get-togethers." And I really have to emphasise the amount of fresh blood coming to our gathering. Also, during the initial phase it was surprising to see that exactly those first-timers, most of them students at various campuses here on the island, had absolutely no idea about version control systems. More about further down... Reactions of other attendees If I counted correctly, we had a total of 17 attendees this month, and I'd like to give you feedback from some of them: "Inspiring. Helped me understand more about GIT." -- Sean on event comments "Joined the meetup today with literally no idea what is a version control system. I have several reasons why I should be starting to use VCS as from NOW in my projects. Thanks Nayar, Jochen and other participants :)" -- Yudish on event comments "Was present today and I'm very satisfied.I was not aware if there was a such tool like git available. Thanks to those who contributed for this meetup.It was great. Learned a lot from this meetup!!" -- Leonardo on event comments "Seriously, I can see how it’s going to ease my task and help me save time. Gone are the issues with files backups.  And since I’ll be doing my dissertation this year, using Git would help me a lot for my backups and I’m grateful to Nayar for the great explanation." -- Swan-Iyah on MSCC meetup : Version Controls Hopefully, I'll be able to get some other sources - personal blogs preferred - on our meeting. Geeks, thank you so much for those encouraging comments. It's really great to experience that we, all members of the MSCC, are doing the right thing to get more IT information out, and to help each other to improve and evolve in our professional careers. Our agenda of the day Honestly, we had a bumpy start... First, I was battling a little bit with the movable room divider in order to maximize the space. I mean, we had 24 RSVPs and usually there might additional people coming along. Then, for what ever reason, we were facing power outages - actually twice in short periods. Not too good for the projector after all, but hey it went smooth for the rest of the time being. And last but not least... our first speaker Nayar got stuck somewhere on the road. ;-) Anyway, not a real show-stopper and we used the time until Nayar's arrival to introduce ourselves a little bit. It is always important for me to get to know the "newbies" a little bit, and as a result we had lots of students of university - first year, second year and recent graduates - among them. Surprisingly, none of them was ever in contact with version control systems at all. I mean, this is a shocking discovery! Similar to the ability of touch-typing I'd say that being able to use (and master) any kind of version control system is compulsory in any job in the IT industry. Seriously, I'm wondering what is being taught during the classes on the campus. All of them have to work on semester assessments or final projects, even in small teams of 2-4 people. That's the perfect occasion to get started with VCS. Already in this phase, we had great input from more experienced VCS users, like Sean, Avinash and myself. git - a modern approach to VCS - Nayar What a tour! Nayar gave us the full round of git from start to finish, even touching some more advanced techniques. First, he started to explain about the importance of version control systems as an essential tool for software developers, even working alone on a project, and the ability to have a kind of "time machine" that allows you to inspect and revert to a previous version of source code at any time. Then he showed how easy it is to install git on an Ubuntu based system but also mentioned that git is literally available for any operating system, like Windows, Mac OS X and of course other Linux distributions. Next, he showed us how to set the initial configuration values of user name and email address which simplifies the daily usage of the git client while working with your repositories. Then he initialised and added a new repository for some local development of a blogging software. All commands were done using the command line interface (CLI) so that they can be repeated on any system as reference. The syntax and the procedure is always the same, and Nayar clearly mentioned this to the attendees. Now, having a git repository in place it was about time to work on some "important" changes on the blogging software - just for the sake of demonstrating the ease of use and power of git. One interesting question came very early: "How many commands do we have to learn? It looks quite difficult at the moment" - Well, rest assured that during daily development circles you will need less than 10 git commands on a regular base: git add, commit, push, pull, checkout, and merge And Nayar demo'd all of them. Much to the delight of everyone he also showed gitk which is the git repository browser. It's an UI tool to display changes in a repository or a selected set of commits. This includes visualizing the commit graph, showing information related to each commit, and the files in the trees of each revision. Using gitk to display and browse information of a local git repository And last but not least, we took advantage of the internet connectivity and reached out to various online portals offering git hosting for free. Nayar showed us how to push the local repository into a remote system on github. Showing the web-based git browser and history handling, and then also explained and demo'd on how to connect to existing online repositories in order to get access to either your own source code or other people's open source projects. Next to github, we also spoke about bitbucket and gitlab as potential online platforms for your projects. Have a look at the conditions and details about their free service packages and what you can get additionally as a paying customer. Usually, you already get a lot of services for up to five users for free but there might be other important aspects that might have an impact on your decision. Anyways, moving git-based repositories between systems is a piece of cake, and changing online platforms is possible at any stage of your development. Visual Studio Online (VSO) - Jochen Well, Nayar literally covered all elements of working with git during his session, including the use of external online platforms. So, what would be the advantage of talking about Visual Studio Online (VSO)? First of all, VSO is "just another" online platform for hosting and managing git repositories on remote systems, equivalent to github, bitbucket, or any other web site. At the moment (of writing), Microsoft also provides a free package of up to five users / developers on a git repository but there is more in that package. Of course, it is related to software development on the Windows systems and the bonds are tightened towards the use of Visual Studio but out of experience you are absolutely not restricted to that. Connecting a Linux or Mac OS X machine with a git client or an integrated development environment (IDE) like Eclipse or Xcode works as smooth as expected. So, why should one opt in for VSO? Well, one of the main aspects that I would like to mention here is that VSO integrates the Application Life Cycle Methodology (ALM) of Microsoft in their platform. Meaning that you get agile project management with Backlogs, Sprints, Burn-down charts as well as the ability to track tasks, bug reports and work items next to collaborative team chats. It's the whole package of agile development you'll get. And, something I mentioned briefly during the begin of our meeting, VSO gives you the possibility of an automated continuous integrated (CI) process which builds and can run tests of your source code after each commit of changes. Having a proper CI strategy is also part of the Clean Code Developer practices - on Level Green actually -, and not only simplifies your life as a software developer but also reduces the sources of potential errors. Seamless integration and automated deployment between Microsoft Azure Web Sites and git repository But my favourite feature is the seamless continuous deployment to Microsoft Azure. Especially, while working on web projects it's absolutely astounishing that as soon as you commit your chances it just takes a couple of seconds until your modifications are deployed and available on your Azure-hosted web sites. Upcoming Events and networking Due to the adjusted times, everybody was kind of hungry and we didn't follow up on networking or upcoming events - very unfortunate to my opinion and this will have an impact on future planning of our meetups. Because I rather would like to see more conversations during and at the end of our meetings than everyone just packing their laptops, bags and accessories and rush off to grab some food. I was hoping to get some information regarding this year's Code Challenge - supposedly to be organised during July? Maybe someone could leave a comment on that - but I couldn't get any updates. Well, I'll keep digging... In case that you would like to get more into git and how to use it effectively, please check out Knowledge 7's upcoming course on "Effective git". Thanks Avinash for your vital input into today's conversation and I'm looking forward to get a grip on your book title very soon. My resume of the day Do not work in IT without any kind of version control system! Seriously, without a VCS in place you're doing it wrong. It's like driving a car without seat belts attached or riding your bike without safety helmet. You don't do that! End of discussion. ;-) Nowadays, having access to free (as in cost) tools to install on your machine and numerous online platforms to host your source code for free for up to five users it's a no-brainer to get yourself familiar with VCS. Today's sessions gave a good overview on how to start using git and how to connect to various remote services like github or VSO.

  Read the article

• SQL SERVER – Weekly Series – Memory Lane – #049

  - by Pinal Dave

  Here is the list of selected articles of SQLAuthority.com across all these years. Instead of just listing all the articles I have selected a few of my most favorite articles and have listed them here with additional notes below it. Let me know which one of the following is your favorite article from memory lane. 2007 Two Connections Related Global Variables Explained – @@CONNECTIONS and @@MAX_CONNECTIONS @@CONNECTIONS Returns the number of attempted connections, either successful or unsuccessful since SQL Server was last started. @@MAX_CONNECTIONS Returns the maximum number of simultaneous user connections allowed on an instance of SQL Server. The number returned is not necessarily the number currently configured. Query Editor – Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio This post may be very simple for most of the users of SQL Server 2005. Earlier this year, I have received one question many times – Where is Query Analyzer in SQL Server 2005? I wrote small post about it and pointed many users to that post – SQL SERVER – 2005 Query Analyzer – Microsoft SQL SERVER Management Studio. Recently I have been receiving similar question. OUTPUT Clause Example and Explanation with INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE SQL Server 2005 has a new OUTPUT clause, which is quite useful. OUTPUT clause has access to insert and deleted tables (virtual tables) just like triggers. OUTPUT clause can be used to return values to client clause. OUTPUT clause can be used with INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE to identify the actual rows affected by these statements. OUTPUT clause can generate a table variable, a permanent table, or temporary table. Even though, @@Identity will still work with SQL Server 2005, however I find the OUTPUT clause very easy and powerful to use. Let us understand the OUTPUT clause using an example. Find Name of The SQL Server Instance Based on database server stored procedures has to run different logic. We came up with two different solutions. 1) When database schema is very much changed, we wrote completely new stored procedure and deprecated older version once it was not needed. 2) When logic depended on Server Name we used global variable @@SERVERNAME. It was very convenient while writing migrating script which depended on the server name for the same database. Explanation of TRY…CATCH and ERROR Handling With RAISEERROR Function One of the developers at my company thought that we can not use the RAISEERROR function in new feature of SQL Server 2005 TRY… CATCH. When asked for an explanation he suggested SQL SERVER – 2005 Explanation of TRY… CATCH and ERROR Handling article as excuse suggesting that I did not give example of RAISEERROR with TRY…CATCH. We all thought it was funny. Just to keep records straight, TRY… CATCH can sure use RAISEERROR function. Different Types of Cache Objects Serveral kinds of objects can be stored in the procedure cache: Compiled Plans: When the query optimizer finishes compiling a query plan, the principal output is compiled plan. Execution contexts: While executing a compiled plan, SQL Server has to keep track of information about the state of execution. Cursors: Cursors track the execution state of server-side cursors, including the cursor’s current location within a resultset. Algebrizer trees: The Algebrizer’s job is to produce an algebrizer tree, which represents the logic structure of a query. Open SSMS From Command Prompt – sqlwb.exe Example This article is written by request and suggestion of Sr. Web Developer at my organization. Due to the nature of this article most of the content is referred from Book On-Line. sqlwbcommand prompt utility which opens SQL Server Management Studio. Squib command does not run queries from the command prompt. sqlcmd utility runs queries from command prompt, read for more information. 2008 Puzzle – Solution – Computed Columns Datatype Explanation Just a day before I wrote article SQL SERVER – Puzzle – Computed Columns Datatype Explanation which was inspired by SQL Server MVP Jacob Sebastian. I suggest that before continuing this article read the original puzzle question SQL SERVER – Puzzle – Computed Columns Datatype Explanation.The question was if the computed column was of datatype TINYINT how to create a Computed Column of datatype INT? 2008 – Find If Index is Being Used in Database It is very often I get a query that how to find if any index is being used in the database or not. If any database has many indexes and not all indexes are used it can adversely affect performance. If the number of indices are higher it reduces the INSERT / UPDATE / DELETE operation but increase the SELECT operation. It is recommended to drop any unused indexes from table to improve the performance. 2009 Interesting Observation – Execution Plan and Results of Aggregate Concatenation Queries If you want to see what’s going on here, I think you need to shift your point of view from an implementation-centric view to an ANSI point of view. ANSI does not guarantee processing the order. Figure 2 is interesting, but it will be potentially misleading if you don’t understand the ANSI rule-set SQL Server operates under in most cases. Implementation thinking can certainly be useful at times when you really need that multi-million row query to finish before the backup fire off, but in this case, it’s counterproductive to understanding what is going on. SQL Server Management Studio and Client Statistics Client Statistics are very important. Many a times, people relate queries execution plan to query cost. This is not a good comparison. Both parameters are different, and they are not always related. It is possible that the query cost of any statement is less, but the amount of the data returned is considerably larger, which is causing any query to run slow. How do we know if any query is retrieving a large amount data or very little data? 2010 I encourage all of you to go through complete series and write your own on the subject. If you write an article and send it to me, I will publish it on this blog with due credit to you. If you write on your own blog, I will update this blog post pointing to your blog post. SQL SERVER – ORDER BY Does Not Work – Limitation of the View 1 SQL SERVER – Adding Column is Expensive by Joining Table Outside View – Limitation of the View 2 SQL SERVER – Index Created on View not Used Often – Limitation of the View 3 SQL SERVER – SELECT * and Adding Column Issue in View – Limitation of the View 4 SQL SERVER – COUNT(*) Not Allowed but COUNT_BIG(*) Allowed – Limitation of the View 5 SQL SERVER – UNION Not Allowed but OR Allowed in Index View – Limitation of the View 6 SQL SERVER – Cross Database Queries Not Allowed in Indexed View – Limitation of the View 7 SQL SERVER – Outer Join Not Allowed in Indexed Views – Limitation of the View 8 SQL SERVER – SELF JOIN Not Allowed in Indexed View – Limitation of the View 9 SQL SERVER – Keywords View Definition Must Not Contain for Indexed View – Limitation of the View 10 SQL SERVER – View Over the View Not Possible with Index View – Limitations of the View 11 SQL SERVER – Get Query Running in Session I was recently looking for syntax where I needed a query running in any particular session. I always remembered the syntax and ha d actually written it down before, but somehow it was not coming to mind quickly this time. I searched online and I ended up on my own article written last year SQL SERVER – Get Last Running Query Based on SPID. I felt that I am getting old because I forgot this really simple syntax. Find Total Number of Transaction on Interval In one of my recent Performance Tuning assignments I was asked how do someone know how many transactions are happening on a server during certain interval. I had a handy script for the same. Following script displays transactions happened on the server at the interval of one minute. You can change the WAITFOR DELAY to any other interval and it should work. 2011 Here are two DMV’s which are newly introduced in SQL Server 2012 and provides vital information about SQL Server. DMV – sys.dm_os_volume_stats – Information about operating system volume DMV – sys.dm_os_windows_info – Information about Operating System SQL Backup and FTP – A Quick and Handy Tool I have used this tool extensively since 2009 at numerous occasion and found it to be very impressive. What separates it from the crowd the most – it is it’s apparent simplicity and speed. When I install SQLBackupAndFTP and configure backups – all in 1 or 2 minutes, my clients are always impressed. Quick Note about JOIN – Common Questions and Simple Answers In this blog post we are going to talk about join and lots of things related to the JOIN. I recently started office hours to answer questions and issues of the community. I receive so many questions that are related to JOIN. I will share a few of the same over here. Most of them are basic, but note that the basics are of great importance. 2012 Importance of User Without Login Question: “In recent version of SQL Server we can create user without login. What is the use of it?” Great question indeed. Let me first attempt to answer this question but after reading my answer I need your help. I want you to help him as well with adding more value to it. Preserve Leading Zero While Coping to Excel from SSMS Earlier I wrote two articles about how to efficiently copy data from SSMS to Excel. Since I wrote that post there are plenty of interest generated on this subject. There are a few questions I keep on getting over this subject. One of the question is how to get the leading zero preserved while copying the data from SSMS to Excel. Well it is almost the same way as my earlier post SQL SERVER – Excel Losing Decimal Values When Value Pasted from SSMS ResultSet. The key here is in EXCEL and not in SQL Server. Solution – 2 T-SQL Puzzles – Display Star and Shortest Code to Display 1 Earlier on this blog we had asked two puzzles. The response from all of you is nothing but Amazing. I have received 350+ responses. Many are valid and many were indeed something I had not thought about it. I strongly suggest you read all the puzzles and their answers here - trust me if you start reading the comments you will not stop till you read every single comment. Seriously trust me on it. Personally I have learned a lot from it. Identify Most Resource Intensive Queries – SQL in Sixty Seconds #028 – Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvlYy-TGaaA Importance of User Without Login – T-SQL Demo Script Earlier I wrote a blog post about SQL SERVER – Importance of User Without Login and my friend and SQL Expert Vinod Kumar has written excellent follow up blog post about Contained Databases inside SQL Server 2012. Now lots of people asked me if I can also explain the same concept again so here is the small demonstration for it. Let me show you how login without user can help. Before we continue on this subject I strongly recommend that you read my earlier blog post here. In following demo I am going to demonstrate following situation. Login using the System Admin account Create a user without login Checking Access Impersonate the user without login Checking Access Revert Impersonation Give Permission to user without login Impersonate the user without login Checking Access Revert Impersonation Clean up Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Memory Lane, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

  Read the article

• 8 Reasons Why Even Microsoft Agrees the Windows Desktop is a Nightmare

  - by Chris Hoffman

  Let’s be honest: The Windows desktop is a mess. Sure, it’s extremely powerful and has a huge software library, but it’s not a good experience for average people. It’s not even a good experience for geeks, although we tolerate it. Even Microsoft agrees about this. Microsoft’s Surface tablets with Windows RT don’t support any third-party desktop apps. They consider this a feature — users can’t install malware and other desktop junk, so the system will always be speedy and secure. Malware is Still Common Malware may not affect geeks, but it certainly continues to affect average people. Securing Windows, keeping it secure, and avoiding unsafe programs is a complex process. There are over 50 different file extensions that can contain harmful code to keep track of. It’s easy to have theoretical discussions about how malware could infect Mac computers, Android devices, and other systems. But Mac malware is extremely rare, and has  generally been caused by problem with the terrible Java plug-in. Macs are configured to only run executables from identified developers by default, whereas Windows will run everything. Android malware is talked about a lot, but Android malware is rare in the real world and is generally confined to users who disable security protections and install pirated apps. Google has also taken action, rolling out built-in antivirus-like app checking to all Android devices, even old ones running Android 2.3, via Play Services. Whatever the reason, Windows malware is still common while malware for other systems isn’t. We all know it — anyone who does tech support for average users has dealt with infected Windows computers. Even users who can avoid malware are stuck dealing with complex and nagging antivirus programs, especially since it’s now so difficult to trust Microsoft’s antivirus products. Manufacturer-Installed Bloatware is Terrible Sit down with a new Mac, Chromebook, iPad, Android tablet, Linux laptop, or even a Surface running Windows RT and you can enjoy using your new device. The system is a clean slate for you to start exploring and installing your new software. Sit down with a new Windows PC and the system is a mess. Rather than be delighted, you’re stuck reinstalling Windows and then installing the necessary drivers or you’re forced to start uninstalling useless bloatware programs one-by-one, trying to figure out which ones are actually useful. After uninstalling the useless programs, you may end up with a system tray full of icons for ten different hardware utilities anyway. The first experience of using a new Windows PC is frustration, not delight. Yes, bloatware is still a problem on Windows 8 PCs. Manufacturers can customize the Refresh image, preventing bloatware rom easily being removed. Finding a Desktop Program is Dangerous Want to install a Windows desktop program? Well, you’ll have to head to your web browser and start searching. It’s up to you, the user, to know which programs are safe and which are dangerous. Even if you find a website for a reputable program, the advertisements on that page will often try to trick you into downloading fake installers full of adware. While it’s great to have the ability to leave the app store and get software that the platform’s owner hasn’t approved — as on Android — this is no excuse for not providing a good, secure software installation experience for typical users installing typical programs. Even Reputable Desktop Programs Try to Install Junk Even if you do find an entirely reputable program, you’ll have to keep your eyes open while installing it. It will likely try to install adware, add browse toolbars, change your default search engine, or change your web browser’s home page. Even Microsoft’s own programs do this — when you install Skype for Windows desktop, it will attempt to modify your browser settings t ouse Bing, even if you’re specially chosen another search engine and home page. With Microsoft setting such an example, it’s no surprise so many other software developers have followed suit. Geeks know how to avoid this stuff, but there’s a reason program installers continue to do this. It works and tricks many users, who end up with junk installed and settings changed. The Update Process is Confusing On iOS, Android, and Windows RT, software updates come from a single place — the app store. On Linux, software updates come from the package manager. On Mac OS X, typical users’ software updates likely come from the Mac App Store. On the Windows desktop, software updates come from… well, every program has to create its own update mechanism. Users have to keep track of all these updaters and make sure their software is up-to-date. Most programs now have their act together and automatically update by default, but users who have old versions of Flash and Adobe Reader installed are vulnerable until they realize their software isn’t automatically updating. Even if every program updates properly, the sheer mess of updaters is clunky, slow, and confusing in comparison to a centralized update process. Browser Plugins Open Security Holes It’s no surprise that other modern platforms like iOS, Android, Chrome OS, Windows RT, and Windows Phone don’t allow traditional browser plugins, or only allow Flash and build it into the system. Browser plugins provide a wealth of different ways for malicious web pages to exploit the browser and open the system to attack. Browser plugins are one of the most popular attack vectors because of how many users have out-of-date plugins and how many plugins, especially Java, seem to be designed without taking security seriously. Oracle’s Java plugin even tries to install the terrible Ask toolbar when installing security updates. That’s right — the security update process is also used to cram additional adware into users’ machines so unscrupulous companies like Oracle can make a quick buck. It’s no wonder that most Windows PCs have an out-of-date, vulnerable version of Java installed. Battery Life is Terrible Windows PCs have bad battery life compared to Macs, IOS devices, and Android tablets, all of which Windows now competes with. Even Microsoft’s own Surface Pro 2 has bad battery life. Apple’s 11-inch MacBook Air, which has very similar hardware to the Surface Pro 2, offers double its battery life when web browsing. Microsoft has been fond of blaming third-party hardware manufacturers for their poorly optimized drivers in the past, but there’s no longer any room to hide. The problem is clearly Windows. Why is this? No one really knows for sure. Perhaps Microsoft has kept on piling Windows component on top of Windows component and many older Windows components were never properly optimized. Windows Users Become Stuck on Old Windows Versions Apple’s new OS X 10.9 Mavericks upgrade is completely free to all Mac users and supports Macs going back to 2007. Apple has also announced their intention that all new releases of Mac OS X will be free. In 2007, Microsoft had just shipped Windows Vista. Macs from the Windows Vista era are being upgraded to the latest version of the Mac operating system for free, while Windows PCs from the same era are probably still using Windows Vista. There’s no easy upgrade path for these people. They’re stuck using Windows Vista and maybe even the outdated Internet Explorer 9 if they haven’t installed a third-party web browser. Microsoft’s upgrade path is for these people to pay $120 for a full copy of Windows 8.1 and go through a complicated process that’s actaully a clean install. Even users of Windows 8 devices will probably have to pay money to upgrade to Windows 9, while updates for other operating systems are completely free. If you’re a PC geek, a PC gamer, or someone who just requires specialized software that only runs on Windows, you probably use the Windows desktop and don’t want to switch. That’s fine, but it doesn’t mean the Windows desktop is actually a good experience. Much of the burden falls on average users, who have to struggle with malware, bloatware, adware bundled in installers, complex software installation processes, and out-of-date software. In return, all they get is the ability to use a web browser and some basic Office apps that they could use on almost any other platform without all the hassle. Microsoft would agree with this, touting Windows RT and their new “Windows 8-style” app platform as the solution. Why else would Microsoft, a “devices and services” company, position the Surface — a device without traditional Windows desktop programs — as their mass-market device recommended for average people? This isn’t necessarily an endorsement of Windows RT. If you’re tech support for your family members and it comes time for them to upgrade, you may want to get them off the Windows desktop and tell them to get a Mac or something else that’s simple. Better yet, if they get a Mac, you can tell them to visit the Apple Store for help instead of calling you. That’s another thing Windows PCs don’t offer — good manufacturer support. Image Credit: Blanca Stella Mejia on Flickr, Collin Andserson on Flickr, Luca Conti on Flickr     

  Read the article

• MySQL Connect Only 10 Days Away - Focus on InnoDB Sessions

  - by Bertrand Matthelié

  Time flies and MySQL Connect is only 10 days away! You can check out the full program here as well as in the September edition of the MySQL newsletter. Mat recently blogged about the MySQL Cluster sessions you’ll have the opportunity to attend, and below are those focused on InnoDB. Remember you can plan your schedule with Schedule Builder. Saturday, 1.00 pm, Room Golden Gate 3: 10 Things You Should Know About InnoDB—Calvin Sun, Oracle InnoDB is the default storage engine for Oracle’s MySQL as of MySQL Release 5.5. It provides the standard ACID-compliant transactions, row-level locking, multiversion concurrency control, and referential integrity. InnoDB also implements several innovative technologies to improve its performance and reliability. This presentation gives a brief history of InnoDB; its main features; and some recent enhancements for better performance, scalability, and availability. Saturday, 5.30 pm, Room Golden Gate 4: Demystified MySQL/InnoDB Performance Tuning—Dimitri Kravtchuk, Oracle This session covers performance tuning with MySQL and the InnoDB storage engine for MySQL and explains the main improvements made in MySQL Release 5.5 and Release 5.6. Which setting for which workload? Which value will be better for my system? How can I avoid potential bottlenecks from the beginning? Do I need a purge thread? Is it true that InnoDB doesn't need thread concurrency anymore? These and many other questions are asked by DBAs and developers. Things are changing quickly and constantly, and there is no “silver bullet.” But understanding the configuration setting’s impact is already a huge step in performance improvement. Bring your ideas and problems to share them with others—the discussion is open, just moderated by a speaker. Sunday, 10.15 am, Room Golden Gate 4: Better Availability with InnoDB Online Operations—Calvin Sun, Oracle Many top Web properties rely on Oracle’s MySQL as a critical piece of infrastructure for serving millions of users. Database availability has become increasingly important. One way to enhance availability is to give users full access to the database during data definition language (DDL) operations. The online DDL operations in recent MySQL releases offer users the flexibility to perform schema changes while having full access to the database—that is, with minimal delay of operations on a table and without rebuilding the entire table. These enhancements provide better responsiveness and availability in busy production environments. This session covers these improvements in the InnoDB storage engine for MySQL for online DDL operations such as add index, drop foreign key, and rename column. Sunday, 11.45 am, Room Golden Gate 7: Developing High-Throughput Services with NoSQL APIs to InnoDB and MySQL Cluster—Andrew Morgan and John Duncan, Oracle Ever-increasing performance demands of Web-based services have generated significant interest in providing NoSQL access methods to MySQL (MySQL Cluster and the InnoDB storage engine of MySQL), enabling users to maintain all the advantages of their existing relational databases while providing blazing-fast performance for simple queries. Get the best of both worlds: persistence; consistency; rich SQL queries; high availability; scalability; and simple, flexible APIs and schemas for agile development. This session describes the memcached connectors and examines some use cases for how MySQL and memcached fit together in application architectures. It does the same for the newest MySQL Cluster native connector, an easy-to-use, fully asynchronous connector for Node.js. Sunday, 1.15 pm, Room Golden Gate 4: InnoDB Performance Tuning—Inaam Rana, Oracle The InnoDB storage engine has always been highly efficient and includes many unique architectural elements to ensure high performance and scalability. In MySQL 5.5 and MySQL 5.6, InnoDB includes many new features that take better advantage of recent advances in operating systems and hardware platforms than previous releases did. This session describes unique InnoDB architectural elements for performance, new features, and how to tune InnoDB to achieve better performance. Sunday, 4.15 pm, Room Golden Gate 3: InnoDB Compression for OLTP—Nizameddin Ordulu, Facebook and Inaam Rana, Oracle Data compression is an important capability of the InnoDB storage engine for Oracle’s MySQL. Compressed tables reduce the size of the database on disk, resulting in fewer reads and writes and better throughput by reducing the I/O workload. Facebook pushes the limit of InnoDB compression and has made several enhancements to InnoDB, making this technology ready for online transaction processing (OLTP). In this session, you will learn the fundamentals of InnoDB compression. You will also learn the enhancements the Facebook team has made to improve InnoDB compression, such as reducing compression failures, not logging compressed page images, and allowing changes of compression level. Not registered yet? You can still save US$ 300 over the on-site fee – Register Now!

  Read the article

• New Replication, Optimizer and High Availability features in MySQL 5.6.5!

  - by Rob Young

  As the Product Manager for the MySQL database it is always great to announce when the MySQL Engineering team delivers another great product release.  As a field DBA and developer it is even better when that release contains improvements and innovation that I know will help those currently using MySQL for apps that range from modest intranet sites to the most highly trafficked web sites on the web.  That said, it is my pleasure to take my hat off to MySQL Engineering for today's release of the MySQL 5.6.5 Development Milestone Release ("DMR"). The new highlighted features in MySQL 5.6.5 are discussed here: New Self-Healing Replication ClustersThe 5.6.5 DMR improves MySQL Replication by adding Global Transaction Ids and automated utilities for self-healing Replication clusters.  Prior to 5.6.5 this has been somewhat of a pain point for MySQL users with most developing custom solutions or looking to costly, complex third-party solutions for these capabilities.  With 5.6.5 these shackles are all but removed by a solution that is included with the GPL version of the database and supporting GPL tools.  You can learn all about the details of the great, problem solving Replication features in MySQL 5.6 in Mat Keep's Developer Zone article.  New Replication Administration and Failover UtilitiesAs mentioned above, the new Replication features, Global Transaction Ids specifically, are now supported by a set of automated GPL utilities that leverage the new GTIDs to provide administration and manual or auto failover to the most up to date slave (that is the default, but user configurable if needed) in the event of a master failure. The new utilities, along with links to Engineering related blogs, are discussed in detail in the DevZone Article noted above. Better Query Optimization and ThroughputThe MySQL Optimizer team continues to amaze with the latest round of improvements in 5.6.5. Along with much refactoring of the legacy code base, the Optimizer team has improved complex query optimization and throughput by adding these functional improvements: Subquery Optimizations - Subqueries are now included in the Optimizer path for runtime optimization.  Better throughput of nested queries enables application developers to simplify and consolidate multiple queries and result sets into a single unit or work. Optimizer now uses CURRENT_TIMESTAMP as default for DATETIME columns - For simplification, this eliminates the need for application developers to assign this value when a column of this type is blank by default. Optimizations for Range based queries - Optimizer now uses ready statistics vs Index based scans for queries with multiple range values. Optimizations for queries using filesort and ORDER BY.  Optimization criteria/decision on execution method is done now at optimization vs parsing stage. Print EXPLAIN in JSON format for hierarchical readability and Enterprise tool consumption. You can learn the details about these new features as well all of the Optimizer based improvements in MySQL 5.6 by following the Optimizer team blog. You can download and try the MySQL 5.6.5 DMR here. (look under "Development Releases")  Please let us know what you think!  The new HA utilities for Replication Administration and Failover are available as part of the MySQL Workbench Community Edition, which you can download here .Also New in MySQL LabsAs has become our tradition when announcing DMRs we also like to provide "Early Access" development features to the MySQL Community via the MySQL Labs.  Today is no exception as we are also releasing the following to Labs for you to download, try and let us know your thoughts on where we need to improve:InnoDB Online OperationsMySQL 5.6 now provides Online ADD Index, FK Drop and Online Column RENAME.  These operations are non-blocking and will continue to evolve in future DMRs.  You can learn the grainy details by following John Russell's blog.InnoDB data access via Memcached API ("NotOnlySQL") - Improved refresh of an earlier feature releaseSimilar to Cluster 7.2, MySQL 5.6 provides direct NotOnlySQL access to InnoDB data via the familiar Memcached API. This provides the ultimate in flexibility for developers who need fast, simple key/value access and complex query support commingled within their applications.Improved Transactional Performance, ScaleThe InnoDB Engineering team has once again under promised and over delivered in the area of improved performance and scale.  These improvements are also included in the aggregated Spring 2012 labs release:InnoDB CPU cache performance improvements for modern, multi-core/CPU systems show great promise with internal tests showing:    2x throughput improvement for read only activity 6x throughput improvement for SELECT range Read/Write benchmarks are in progress More details on the above are available here. You can download all of the above in an aggregated "InnoDB 2012 Spring Labs Release" binary from the MySQL Labs. You can also learn more about these improvements and about related fixes to mysys mutex and hash sort by checking out the InnoDB team blog.MySQL 5.6.5 is another installment in what we believe will be the best release of the MySQL database ever.  It also serves as a shining example of how the MySQL Engineering team at Oracle leads in MySQL innovation.You can get the overall Oracle message on the MySQL 5.6.5 DMR and Early Access labs features here. As always, thanks for your continued support of MySQL, the #1 open source database on the planet!

  Read the article

• Ubuntu 12.04 + Raid0 + Windows 7 not loading

  - by Douglas

  please someone help me.... (Sorry for my english) Hi, I have a Pc with 2 Hd (1Tb each) on Raid0. I had a Windows 7 64bits working for several months. When I installed the Windows I let a 100Gb partition empty to install Ubuntu someday. I was using Linux on a Virtualbox, but this week I tried to install Ubuntu 12.04 in this 100Gb partition. I used the Ubuntu alternate cd, because the 'normal' cd was giving me trouble with the Raid0. The grub installation always reported a error. After a lot of work I found that I nedded to install grub on partition /dev/mapper/isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid1 (see Bootinfo below). The Windows installation created a 100Mb boot partition, so I needed to install grub in this partition. Now I have the Ubuntu working 100% ok. The problem is, the Windows is not booting! The windows option is present on the grub menu, but when I choose the windows option there is a black screen and after that the grub is reloaded. My Bootinfo is: Boot Info Script 0.61 [1 April 2012] ============================= Boot Info Summary: =============================== => Grub2 (v1.99) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks at sector 1 of the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and looks in partition 1 for /boot/grub. => Grub2 (v1.99) is installed in the MBR of /dev/mapper/isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid and looks at sector 1 of the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and looks in partition 1 for /boot/grub. sda1: __________________________________________________________________________ File system: Boot sector type: Unknown Boot sector info: Mounting failed: mount: unknown filesystem type '' sda2: __________________________________________________________________________ File system: Boot sector type: Unknown Boot sector info: Mounting failed: mount: unknown filesystem type '' mount: unknown filesystem type '' sda3: __________________________________________________________________________ File system: Extended Partition Boot sector type: Unknown Boot sector info: isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid1: ________________________________________________________ File system: ntfs Boot sector type: Grub2 (v1.99) Boot sector info: Grub2 (v1.99) is installed in the boot sector of isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid1 and looks at sector 3841862992 of the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and looks for (,msdos5)/boot/grub on this drive. No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block. Operating System: Boot files: /grldr /bootmgr /Boot/BCD /grldr isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid2: ________________________________________________________ File system: ntfs Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7: NTFS Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block. Operating System: Windows 7 Boot files: /Windows/System32/winload.exe isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid3: ________________________________________________________ File system: Extended Partition Boot sector type: - Boot sector info: isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid5: ________________________________________________________ File system: ext4 Boot sector type: - Boot sector info: Operating System: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Boot files: /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab /boot/grub/core.img isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid6: ________________________________________________________ File system: swap Boot sector type: - Boot sector info: ============================ Drive/Partition Info: ============================= Drive: sda _____________________________________________________________________ Partition Boot Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System /dev/sda1 * 2,048 206,847 204,800 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS /dev/sda2 206,848 3,686,402,047 3,686,195,200 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS /dev/sda3 3,686,402,558 3,907,039,743 220,637,186 5 Extended Invalid MBR Signature found. EBR refers to a location outside the hard drive. /dev/sda2 ends after the last sector of /dev/sda /dev/sda3 ends after the last sector of /dev/sda Drive: isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid _____________________________________________________________________ Disk /dev/mapper/isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid: 2000.4 GB, 2000404348928 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907039744 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Partition Boot Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System /dev/mapper/isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid1 * 2,048 206,847 204,800 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS /dev/mapper/isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid2 206,848 3,686,402,047 3,686,195,200 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS /dev/mapper/isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid3 3,686,402,558 3,907,039,743 220,637,186 5 Extended /dev/mapper/isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid5 3,686,402,560 3,881,876,479 195,473,920 83 Linux /dev/mapper/isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid6 3,881,876,992 3,907,039,743 25,162,752 82 Linux swap / Solaris "blkid" output: ________________________________________________________________ Device UUID TYPE LABEL /dev/mapper/isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid1 C89C73D19C73B910 ntfs Reservado pelo Sistema /dev/mapper/isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid2 6830883A3088116C ntfs /dev/mapper/isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid5 bbab868a-ea53-4be3-ba7d-2737fe6cb24c ext4 /dev/mapper/isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid6 7a830a3c-88fb-4cba-80dc-f32e08abfd5b swap /dev/sda isw_raid_member /dev/sdb isw_raid_member /dev/sr0 iso9660 Windows7x86x64SK ========================= "ls -R /dev/mapper/" output: ========================= /dev/mapper: control isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid1 isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid2 isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid3 isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid5 isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid6 ================================ Mount points: ================================= Device Mount_Point Type Options /dev/mapper/isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid5 / ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro) /dev/sr0 /media/Windows7x86x64SK iso9660 (ro,nosuid,nodev,uid=1000,gid=1000,iocharset=utf8,mode=0400,dmode=0500,uhelper=udisks) ================= isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid1/grldr embedded menu: ================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ================== isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid5/boot/grub/grub.cfg: ================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- # # DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE # # It is automatically generated by grub-mkconfig using templates # from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub # ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ### if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then set have_grubenv=true load_env fi set default="0" if [ "${prev_saved_entry}" ]; then set saved_entry="${prev_saved_entry}" save_env saved_entry set prev_saved_entry= save_env prev_saved_entry set boot_once=true fi function savedefault { if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then saved_entry="${chosen}" save_env saved_entry fi } function recordfail { set recordfail=1 if [ -n "${have_grubenv}" ]; then if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then save_env recordfail; fi; fi } function load_video { insmod vbe insmod vga insmod video_bochs insmod video_cirrus } insmod part_msdos insmod ext2 set root='(/dev/mapper/isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid3,msdos1)' search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root bbab868a-ea53-4be3-ba7d-2737fe6cb24c if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then set gfxmode=auto load_video insmod gfxterm insmod part_msdos insmod ext2 set root='(/dev/mapper/isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid3,msdos1)' search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root bbab868a-ea53-4be3-ba7d-2737fe6cb24c set locale_dir=($root)/boot/grub/locale set lang=en_US insmod gettext fi terminal_output gfxterm if [ "${recordfail}" = 1 ]; then set timeout=-1 else set timeout=10 fi ### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ### set menu_color_normal=white/black set menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray if background_color 44,0,30; then clear fi ### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ### function gfxmode { set gfxpayload="$1" if [ "$1" = "keep" ]; then set vt_handoff=vt.handoff=7 else set vt_handoff= fi } if [ ${recordfail} != 1 ]; then if [ -e ${prefix}/gfxblacklist.txt ]; then if hwmatch ${prefix}/gfxblacklist.txt 3; then if [ ${match} = 0 ]; then set linux_gfx_mode=keep else set linux_gfx_mode=text fi else set linux_gfx_mode=text fi else set linux_gfx_mode=keep fi else set linux_gfx_mode=text fi export linux_gfx_mode if [ "$linux_gfx_mode" != "text" ]; then load_video; fi menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.2.0-24-generic-pae' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os { recordfail gfxmode $linux_gfx_mode insmod gzio insmod part_msdos insmod ext2 set root='(/dev/mapper/isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid3,msdos1)' search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root bbab868a-ea53-4be3-ba7d-2737fe6cb24c linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-24-generic-pae root=UUID=bbab868a-ea53-4be3-ba7d-2737fe6cb24c ro quiet splash $vt_handoff initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-24-generic-pae } menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.2.0-24-generic-pae (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os { recordfail insmod gzio insmod part_msdos insmod ext2 set root='(/dev/mapper/isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid3,msdos1)' search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root bbab868a-ea53-4be3-ba7d-2737fe6cb24c echo 'Loading Linux 3.2.0-24-generic-pae ...' linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-24-generic-pae root=UUID=bbab868a-ea53-4be3-ba7d-2737fe6cb24c ro recovery nomodeset echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...' initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-24-generic-pae } submenu "Previous Linux versions" { menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.2.0-23-generic-pae' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os { recordfail gfxmode $linux_gfx_mode insmod gzio insmod part_msdos insmod ext2 set root='(/dev/mapper/isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid3,msdos1)' search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root bbab868a-ea53-4be3-ba7d-2737fe6cb24c linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-23-generic-pae root=UUID=bbab868a-ea53-4be3-ba7d-2737fe6cb24c ro quiet splash $vt_handoff initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-23-generic-pae } menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.2.0-23-generic-pae (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os { recordfail insmod gzio insmod part_msdos insmod ext2 set root='(/dev/mapper/isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid3,msdos1)' search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root bbab868a-ea53-4be3-ba7d-2737fe6cb24c echo 'Loading Linux 3.2.0-23-generic-pae ...' linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-23-generic-pae root=UUID=bbab868a-ea53-4be3-ba7d-2737fe6cb24c ro recovery nomodeset echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...' initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-23-generic-pae } } ### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ### ### END /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ### menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" { insmod part_msdos insmod ext2 set root='(/dev/mapper/isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid3,msdos1)' search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root bbab868a-ea53-4be3-ba7d-2737fe6cb24c linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin } menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" { insmod part_msdos insmod ext2 set root='(/dev/mapper/isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid3,msdos1)' search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root bbab868a-ea53-4be3-ba7d-2737fe6cb24c linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8 } ### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober_proxy ### menuentry "Windows 7 (loader) (on /dev/mapper/isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid1)" --class windows --class os { insmod part_msdos insmod ntfs set root='(sda,msdos1)' search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root C89C73D19C73B910 chainloader +1 } ### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober_proxy ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ### # This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the # menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change # the 'exec tail' line above. ### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/41_custom ### if [ -f $prefix/custom.cfg ]; then source $prefix/custom.cfg; fi ### END /etc/grub.d/41_custom ### -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ====================== isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid5/etc/fstab: ======================= -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- # /etc/fstab: static file system information. # # Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a # device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices # that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5). # # <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass> proc /proc proc nodev,noexec,nosuid 0 0 /dev/mapper/isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid5 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1 /dev/mapper/isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid6 none swap sw 0 0 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ========== isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid5: Location of files loaded by Grub: =========== GiB - GB File Fragment(s) = boot/grub/core.img 1 = boot/grub/grub.cfg 1 = boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-23-generic-pae 2 = boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-24-generic-pae 2 = boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-23-generic-pae 1 = boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-24-generic-pae 1 = initrd.img 2 = initrd.img.old 2 = vmlinuz 1 = vmlinuz.old 1 ======================== Unknown MBRs/Boot Sectors/etc: ======================== Unknown BootLoader on sda1 Unknown BootLoader on sda2 Unknown BootLoader on sda3 =============================== StdErr Messages: =============================== xz: (stdin): Compressed data is corrupt xz: (stdin): Compressed data is corrupt hexdump: /dev/sda1: No such file or directory hexdump: /dev/sda1: No such file or directory hexdump: /dev/sda2: No such file or directory hexdump: /dev/sda2: No such file or directory hexdump: /dev/sda3: No such file or directory hexdump: /dev/sda3: No such file or directory xz: (stdin): Compressed data is corrupt awk: cmd. line:36: Math support is not compiled in awk: cmd. line:36: Math support is not compiled in awk: cmd. line:36: Math support is not compiled in awk: cmd. line:36: Math support is not compiled in awk: cmd. line:36: Math support is not compiled in awk: cmd. line:36: Math support is not compiled in awk: cmd. line:36: Math support is not compiled in awk: cmd. line:36: Math support is not compiled in awk: cmd. line:36: Math support is not compiled in awk: cmd. line:36: Math support is not compiled in How we can see the Windows part at grub is: menuentry "Windows 7 (loader) (on /dev/mapper/isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid1)" --class windows --class os { insmod part_msdos insmod ntfs set root='(sda,msdos1)' search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root C89C73D19C73B910 chainloader +1 } I tried a lot of combinations at the line: set root='(sda,msdos1)' , but no success I tried to change uuid to the /dev/mapper/isw_chjbfeec_DougRaid2 uuid, but the grub reports a error. I dont know what to do now. I really need to boot my windows partition. Someone knows what to do? Thanks........

  Read the article

• How To Make Hundreds of Complex Photo Edits in Seconds With Photoshop Actions

  - by Eric Z Goodnight

  Have a huge folder of images needing tweaks? A few hundred adjustments may seem like a big, time consuming job—but read one to see how Photoshop can do repetitive tasks automatically, even if you don’t know how to program! Photoshop Actions are a simple way to program simple routines in Photoshop, and are a great time saver, allowing you to re-perform tasks over and over, saving you minutes or hours, depending on the job you have to work on. See how any bunch of images and even some fairly complicated photo tweaking can be done automatically to even hundreds of images at once. When Can I use Photoshop Actions? Photoshop actions are a way of recording the tools, menus, and keys pressed while using the program. Each time you use a tool, adjust a color, or use the brush, it can be recorded and played back over any file Photoshop can open. While it isn’t perfect and can get very confused if not set up correctly, it can automate editing hundreds of images, saving you hours and hours if you have big jobs with complex edits. The image illustrated above is a template for a polaroid-style picture frame. If you had several hundred images, it would actually be a simple matter to use Photoshop Actions to create hundreds of new images inside the frame in almost no time at all. Let’s take a look at how a simple folder of images and some Image editing automation can turn lots of work into a simple and easy job. Creating a New Action Actions is a default part of the “Essentials” panel set Photoshop begins with as a default. If you can’t see the panel button under the “History” button, you can find Actions by going to Window > Actions or pressing Alt + F9. Click the in the Actions Panel, pictured in the previous illustration on the left. Choose to create a “New Set” in order to begin creating your own custom Actions. Name your action set whatever you want. Names are not relevant, you’ll simply want to make it obvious that you have created it. Click OK. Look back in the layers panel. You’ll see your new Set of actions has been added to the list. Click it to highlight it before going on. Click the again to create a “New Action” in your new set. If you care to name your action, go ahead. Name it after whatever it is you’re hoping to do—change the canvas size, tint all your pictures blue, send your image to the printer in high quality, or run multiple filters on images. The name is for your own usage, so do what suits you best. Note that you can simplify your process by creating shortcut keys for your actions. If you plan to do hundreds of edits with your actions, this might be a good idea. If you plan to record an action to use every time you use Photoshop, this might even be an invaluable step. When you create a new Action, Photoshop automatically begins recording everything you do. It does not record the time in between steps, but rather only the data from each step. So take your time when recording and make sure you create your actions the way you want them. The square button stops recording, and the circle button starts recording again. With these basics ready, we can take a look at a sample Action. Recording a Sample Action Photoshop will remember everything you input into it when it is recording, even specific photographs you open. So begin recording your action when your first photo is already open. Once your first image is open, click the record button. If you’re already recording, continue on. Using the File > Place command to insert the polaroid image can be easier for Actions to deal with. Photoshop can record with multiple open files, but it often gets confused when you try it. Keep your recordings as simple as possible to ensure your success. When the image is placed in, simply press enter to render it. Select your background layer in your layers panel. Your recording should be following along with no trouble. Double click this layer. Double clicking your background layer will create a new layer from it. Allow it to be renamed “Layer 0” and press OK. Move the “polaroid” layer to the bottom by selecting it and dragging it down below “Layer 0” in the layers panel. Right click “Layer 0” and select “Create Clipping Mask.” The JPG image is cropped to the layer below it. Coincidentally, all actions described here are being recorded perfectly, and are reproducible. Cursor actions, like the eraser, brush, or bucket fill don’t record well, because the computer uses your mouse movements and coordinates, which may need to change from photo to photo. Click the to set your Photograph layer to a “Screen” blending mode. This will make the image disappear when it runs over the white parts of the polaroid image. With your image layer (Layer 0) still selected, navigate to Edit > Transform > Scale. You can use the mouse to resize your Layer 0, but Actions work better with absolute numbers. Visit the Width and Height adjustments in the top options panel. Click the chain icon to link them together, and adjust them numerically. Depending on your needs, you may need to use more or less than 30%. Your image will resize to your specifications. Press enter to render, or click the check box in the top right of your application. + Click on your bottom layer, or “polaroid” in this case. This creates a selection of the bottom layer. Navigate to Image > Crop in order to crop down to your bottom layer selection Your image is now resized to your bottommost layer, and Photoshop is still recording to that effect. For additional effect, we can navigate to Image > Image Rotation > Arbitrary to rotate our image by a small tilt. Choosing 3 degrees clockwise , we click OK to render our choice. Our image is rotated, and this step is recorded. Photoshop will even record when you save your files. With your recording still going, find File > Save As. You can easily tell Photoshop to save in a new folder, other than the one you have been working in, so that your files aren’t overwritten. Navigate to any folder you wish, but do not change the filename. If you change the filename, Photoshop will record that name, and save all your images under whatever you type. However, you can change your filetype without recording an absolute filename. Use the pulldown tab and select a different filetype—in this instance, PNG. Simply click “Save” to create a new PNG based on your actions. Photoshop will record the destination and the change in filetype. If you didn’t edit the name of your file, it will always use the variable filename of any image you open. (This is very important if you want to edit hundreds of images at once!) Click File > Close or the red “X” in the corner to close your filetype. Photoshop can record that as well. Since we have already saved our image as a JPG, click “NO” to not overwrite your original image. Photoshop will also record your choice of “NO” for subsequent images. In your Actions panel, click the stop button to complete your action. You can always click the record button to add more steps later, if you want. This is how your new action looks with its steps expanded. Curious how to put it into effect? Read on to see how simple it is to use that recording you just made. Editing Lots of Images with Your New Action Open a large number of images—as many as you care to work with. Your action should work immediately with every image on screen, although you may have to test and re-record, depending on how you did. Actions don’t require any programming knowledge, but often can get confused or work in a counter-intuitive way. Record your action until it is perfect. If it works once without errors, it’s likely to work again and again! Find the “Play” button in your Actions Panel. With your custom action selected, click “Play” and your routine will edit, save, and close each file for you. Keep bashing “Play” for each open file, and it will keep saving and creating new files until you run out of work you need to do. And in mere moments, a complicated stack of work is done. Photoshop actions can be very complicated, far beyond what is illustrated here, and can even be combined with scripts and other actions, creating automated creation of potentially very complex files, or applying filters to an entire portfolio of digital photos. Have questions or comments concerning Graphics, Photos, Filetypes, or Photoshop? Send your questions to [email protected], and they may be featured in a future How-To Geek Graphics article. Image Credits: All images copyright Stephanie Pragnell and author Eric Z Goodnight, protected under Creative Commons. Latest Features How-To Geek ETC How To Make Hundreds of Complex Photo Edits in Seconds With Photoshop Actions How to Enable User-Specific Wireless Networks in Windows 7 How to Use Google Chrome as Your Default PDF Reader (the Easy Way) How To Remove People and Objects From Photographs In Photoshop Ask How-To Geek: How Can I Monitor My Bandwidth Usage? Internet Explorer 9 RC Now Available: Here’s the Most Interesting New Stuff Smart Taskbar Is a Thumb Friendly Android Task Launcher Comix is an Awesome Comics Archive Viewer for Linux Get the MakeUseOf eBook Guide to Speeding Up Windows for Free Need Tech Support? Call the Star Wars Help Desk! [Video Classic] Reclaim Vertical UI Space by Adding a Toolbar to the Left or Right Side of Firefox Androidify Turns You into an Android-style Avatar

  Read the article

• How to get rid of grub menu after boot?

  - by umpirsky

  Here is my /etc/default/grub: # If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update # /boot/grub/grub.cfg. GRUB_DEFAULT=0 GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0 GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true GRUB_TIMEOUT=10 GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian` GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="" # Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only) #GRUB_TERMINAL=console # The resolution used on graphical terminal # note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE # you can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo' #GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480 # Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass "root=UUID=xxx" parameter to Linux #GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true # Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries #GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_RECOVERY="true" # Uncomment to get a beep at grub start #GRUB_INIT_TUNE="480 440 1" I tried various things including: How do I hide the GRUB menu showing up in the beginning of boot? How to disable Grub's menu from showing up after failed boot http://www.itworld.com/software/306238/disable-grub-boot-menu-ubuntu-1210 But I still get grub menu each time I boot. My generated /boot/grub/grub.cfg: # # DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE # # It is automatically generated by grub-mkconfig using templates # from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub # ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ### if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then set have_grubenv=true load_env fi if [ "${next_entry}" ] ; then set default="${next_entry}" set next_entry= save_env next_entry set boot_once=true else set default="0" fi if [ x"${feature_menuentry_id}" = xy ]; then menuentry_id_option="--id" else menuentry_id_option="" fi export menuentry_id_option if [ "${prev_saved_entry}" ]; then set saved_entry="${prev_saved_entry}" save_env saved_entry set prev_saved_entry= save_env prev_saved_entry set boot_once=true fi function savedefault { if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then saved_entry="${chosen}" save_env saved_entry fi } function recordfail { set recordfail=1 if [ -n "${have_grubenv}" ]; then if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then save_env recordfail; fi; fi } function load_video { if [ x$feature_all_video_module = xy ]; then insmod all_video else insmod efi_gop insmod efi_uga insmod ieee1275_fb insmod vbe insmod vga insmod video_bochs insmod video_cirrus fi } if [ x$feature_default_font_path = xy ] ; then font=unicode else insmod part_gpt insmod ext2 if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 fi font="/usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2" fi if loadfont $font ; then set gfxmode=auto load_video insmod gfxterm set locale_dir=$prefix/locale set lang=en_US insmod gettext fi terminal_output gfxterm if [ "${recordfail}" = 1 ] ; then set timeout=-1 else if [ x$feature_timeout_style = xy ] ; then set timeout_style=hidden set timeout=0 # Fallback hidden-timeout code in case the timeout_style feature is # unavailable. elif sleep --interruptible 0 ; then set timeout=0 fi fi ### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ### set menu_color_normal=white/black set menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray if background_color 45,51,53; then clear fi ### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ### function gfxmode { set gfxpayload="${1}" if [ "${1}" = "keep" ]; then set vt_handoff=vt.handoff=7 else set vt_handoff= fi } if [ "${recordfail}" != 1 ]; then if [ -e ${prefix}/gfxblacklist.txt ]; then if hwmatch ${prefix}/gfxblacklist.txt 3; then if [ ${match} = 0 ]; then set linux_gfx_mode=keep else set linux_gfx_mode=text fi else set linux_gfx_mode=text fi else set linux_gfx_mode=keep fi else set linux_gfx_mode=text fi export linux_gfx_mode menuentry 'Ubuntu' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-simple-ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460' { recordfail load_video gfxmode $linux_gfx_mode insmod gzio insmod part_gpt insmod ext2 if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 fi linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-29-generic.efi.signed root=UUID=ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 ro quiet splash $vt_handoff initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-29-generic } submenu 'Advanced options for Ubuntu' $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-advanced-ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460' { menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.13.0-29-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-3.13.0-29-generic-advanced-ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460' { recordfail load_video gfxmode $linux_gfx_mode insmod gzio insmod part_gpt insmod ext2 if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 fi echo 'Loading Linux 3.13.0-29-generic ...' linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-29-generic.efi.signed root=UUID=ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 ro quiet splash $vt_handoff echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...' initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-29-generic } menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.13.0-29-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-3.13.0-29-generic-recovery-ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460' { recordfail load_video insmod gzio insmod part_gpt insmod ext2 if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 fi echo 'Loading Linux 3.13.0-29-generic ...' linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-29-generic.efi.signed root=UUID=ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 ro recovery nomodeset echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...' initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-29-generic } menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.13.0-24-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-3.13.0-24-generic-advanced-ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460' { recordfail load_video gfxmode $linux_gfx_mode insmod gzio insmod part_gpt insmod ext2 if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 fi echo 'Loading Linux 3.13.0-24-generic ...' linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-24-generic.efi.signed root=UUID=ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 ro quiet splash $vt_handoff echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...' initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-24-generic } menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.13.0-24-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-3.13.0-24-generic-recovery-ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460' { recordfail load_video insmod gzio insmod part_gpt insmod ext2 if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 fi echo 'Loading Linux 3.13.0-24-generic ...' linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-24-generic.efi.signed root=UUID=ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 ro recovery nomodeset echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...' initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-24-generic } } ### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ### ### END /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ### ### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ### menuentry 'Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (14.04) (on /dev/mapper/isw_beaaegcdjh_ASUS_OS2)' --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'osprober-gnulinux-simple-ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460' { insmod part_gpt insmod ext2 if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 fi linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-29-generic.efi.signed root=UUID=ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 ro splash quiet quiet splash $vt_handoff initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-29-generic } submenu 'Advanced options for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (14.04) (on /dev/mapper/isw_beaaegcdjh_ASUS_OS2)' $menuentry_id_option 'osprober-gnulinux-advanced-ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460' { menuentry 'Ubuntu (on /dev/mapper/isw_beaaegcdjh_ASUS_OS2)' --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'osprober-gnulinux-/boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-29-generic.efi.signed--ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460' { insmod part_gpt insmod ext2 if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 fi linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-29-generic.efi.signed root=UUID=ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 ro splash quiet quiet splash $vt_handoff initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-29-generic } menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.13.0-29-generic (on /dev/mapper/isw_beaaegcdjh_ASUS_OS2)' --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'osprober-gnulinux-/boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-29-generic.efi.signed--ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460' { insmod part_gpt insmod ext2 if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 fi linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-29-generic.efi.signed root=UUID=ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 ro splash quiet quiet splash $vt_handoff initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-29-generic } menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.13.0-29-generic (recovery mode) (on /dev/mapper/isw_beaaegcdjh_ASUS_OS2)' --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'osprober-gnulinux-/boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-29-generic.efi.signed-root=UUID=ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 ro recovery nomodeset splash quiet-ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460' { insmod part_gpt insmod ext2 if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 fi linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-29-generic.efi.signed root=UUID=ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 ro recovery nomodeset splash quiet initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-29-generic } menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.13.0-24-generic (on /dev/mapper/isw_beaaegcdjh_ASUS_OS2)' --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'osprober-gnulinux-/boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-24-generic.efi.signed--ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460' { insmod part_gpt insmod ext2 if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 fi linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-24-generic.efi.signed root=UUID=ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 ro splash quiet quiet splash $vt_handoff initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-24-generic } menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.13.0-24-generic (recovery mode) (on /dev/mapper/isw_beaaegcdjh_ASUS_OS2)' --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'osprober-gnulinux-/boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-24-generic.efi.signed-root=UUID=ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 ro recovery nomodeset splash quiet-ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460' { insmod part_gpt insmod ext2 if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 else search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 fi linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-24-generic.efi.signed root=UUID=ed6b32bc-ec1d-444c-a000-282fddd6d460 ro recovery nomodeset splash quiet initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-24-generic } } set timeout_style=menu if [ "${timeout}" = 0 ]; then set timeout=10 fi ### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_uefi-firmware ### menuentry 'System setup' $menuentry_id_option 'uefi-firmware' { fwsetup } ### END /etc/grub.d/30_uefi-firmware ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ### # This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the # menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change # the 'exec tail' line above. ### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ### ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/41_custom ### if [ -f ${config_directory}/custom.cfg ]; then source ${config_directory}/custom.cfg elif [ -z "${config_directory}" -a -f $prefix/custom.cfg ]; then source $prefix/custom.cfg; fi ### END /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###

  Read the article

• Log Blog

  - by PointsToShare

  © 2011 By: Dov Trietsch. All rights reserved Logging – A log blog In a another blog (Missing Fields and Defaults) I spoke about not doing a blog about log files, but then I looked at it again and realized that this is a nice opportunity to show a simple yet powerful tool and also deal with static variables and functions in C#. My log had to be able to answer a few simple logging rules:   To log or not to log? That is the question – Always log! That is the answer  Do we share a log? Even when a file is opened with a minimal lock, it does not share well and performance greatly suffers. So sharing a log is not a good idea. Also, when sharing, it is harder to find your particular entries and you have to establish rules about retention. My recommendation – Do Not Share!  How verbose? Your log can be very verbose – a good thing when testing, very terse – a good thing in day-to-day runs, or somewhere in between. You must be the judge. In my Blog, I elect to always report a run with start and end times, and always report errors. I normally use 5 levels of logging: 4 – write all, 3 – write more, 2 – write some, 1 – write errors and timing, 0 – write none. The code sample below is more general than that. It uses the config file to set the max log level and each call to the log assigns a level to the call itself. If the level is above the .config highest level, the line will not be written. Programmers decide which log belongs to which level and thus we can set the .config differently for production and testing.  Where do I keep the log? If your career is important to you, discuss this with the boss and with the system admin. We keep logs in the L: drive of our server and make sure that we have a directory for each app that needs a log. When adding a new app, add a new directory. The default location for the log is also found in the .config file Print One or Many? There are two options here:   1.     Print many, Open but once once – you start the stream and close it only when the program ends. This is what you can do when you perform in “batch” mode like in a console app or a stsadm extension.The advantage to this is that starting a closing a stream is expensive and time consuming and because we use a unique file, keeping it open for a long time does not cause contention problems. 2.     Print one entry at a time or Open many – every time you write a line, you start the stream, write to it and close it. This work for event receivers, feature receivers, and web parts. Here scalability requires us to create objects on the fly and get rid of them as soon as possible.  A default value of the onceOrMany resides in the .config.  All of the above applies to any windows or web application, not just SharePoint.  So as usual, here is a routine that does it all, and a few simple functions that call it for a variety of purposes.   So without further ado, here is app.config  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <configuration>     <configSections>         <sectionGroup name="applicationSettings" type="System.Configuration.ApplicationSettingsGroup, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, ublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" >         <section name="statics.Properties.Settings" type="System.Configuration.ClientSettingsSection, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" requirePermission="false" />         </sectionGroup>     </configSections>     <applicationSettings>         <statics.Properties.Settings>             <setting name="oneOrMany" serializeAs="String">                 <value>False</value>             </setting>             <setting name="logURI" serializeAs="String">                 <value>C:\staticLog.txt</value>             </setting>             <setting name="highestLevel" serializeAs="String">                 <value>2</value>             </setting>         </statics.Properties.Settings>     </applicationSettings> </configuration>   And now the code:  In order to persist the variables between calls and also to be able to persist (or not to persist) the log file itself, I created an EventLog class with static variables and functions. Static functions do not need an instance of the class in order to work. If you ever wondered why our Main function is static, the answer is that something needs to run before instantiation so that other objects may be instantiated, and this is what the “static” Main does. The various logging functions and variables are created as static because they do not need instantiation and as a fringe benefit they remain un-destroyed between calls. The Main function here is just used for testing. Note that it does not instantiate anything, just uses the log functions. This is possible because the functions are static. Also note that the function calls are of the form: Class.Function.  using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using System.IO; namespace statics {       class Program     {         static void Main(string[] args)         {             //write a single line             EventLog.LogEvents("ha ha", 3, "C:\\hahafile.txt", 4, true, false);             //this single line will not be written because the msgLevel is too high             EventLog.LogEvents("baba", 3, "C:\\babafile.txt", 2, true, false);             //The next 4 lines will be written in succession - no closing             EventLog.LogLine("blah blah", 1);             EventLog.LogLine("da da", 1);             EventLog.LogLine("ma ma", 1);             EventLog.LogLine("lah lah", 1);             EventLog.CloseLog(); // log will close             //now with specific functions             EventLog.LogSingleLine("one line", 1);             //this is just a test, the log is already closed             EventLog.CloseLog();         }     }     public class EventLog     {         public static string logURI = Properties.Settings.Default.logURI;         public static bool isOneLine = Properties.Settings.Default.oneOrMany;         public static bool isOpen = false;         public static int highestLevel = Properties.Settings.Default.highestLevel;         public static StreamWriter sw;         /// <summary>         /// the program will "print" the msg into the log         /// unless msgLevel is > msgLimit         /// onceOrMany is true when once - the program will open the log         /// print the msg and close the log. False when many the program will         /// keep the log open until close = true         /// normally all the arguments will come from the app.config         /// called by many overloads of logLine         /// </summary>         /// <param name="msg"></param>         /// <param name="msgLevel"></param>         /// <param name="logFileName"></param>         /// <param name="msgLimit"></param>         /// <param name="onceOrMany"></param>         /// <param name="close"></param>         public static void LogEvents(string msg, int msgLevel, string logFileName, int msgLimit, bool oneOrMany, bool close)         {             //to print or not to print             if (msgLevel <= msgLimit)             {                 //open the file. from the argument (logFileName) or from the config (logURI)                 if (!isOpen)                 {                     string logFile = logFileName;                     if (logFileName == "")                     {                         logFile = logURI;                     }                     sw = new StreamWriter(logFile, true);                     sw.WriteLine("Started At: " + DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"));                     isOpen = true;                 }                 //print                 sw.WriteLine(msg);             }             //close when instructed             if (close || oneOrMany)             {                 if (isOpen)                 {                     sw.WriteLine("Ended At: " + DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"));                     sw.Close();                     isOpen = false;                 }             }         }           /// <summary>         /// The simplest, just msg and level         /// </summary>         /// <param name="msg"></param>         /// <param name="msgLevel"></param>         public static void LogLine(string msg, int msgLevel)         {             //use the given msg and msgLevel and all others are defaults             LogEvents(msg, msgLevel, "", highestLevel, isOneLine, false);         }                 /// <summary>         /// one line at a time - open print close         /// </summary>         /// <param name="msg"></param>         /// <param name="msgLevel"></param>         public static void LogSingleLine(string msg, int msgLevel)         {             LogEvents(msg, msgLevel, "", highestLevel, true, true);         }           /// <summary>         /// used to close. high level, low limit, once and close are set         /// </summary>         /// <param name="close"></param>         public static void CloseLog()         {             LogEvents("", 15, "", 1, true, true);         }           }     }   }   That’s all folks!

  Read the article

• How Mature is Your Database Change Management Process?

  - by Ben Rees

  .dbd-banner p{ font-size:0.75em; padding:0 0 10px; margin:0 } .dbd-banner p span{ color:#675C6D; } .dbd-banner p:last-child{ padding:0; } @media ALL and (max-width:640px){ .dbd-banner{ background:#f0f0f0; padding:5px; color:#333; margin-top: 5px; } } -- Database Delivery Patterns & Practices Further Reading Organization and team processes How do you get your database schema changes live, on to your production system? As your team of developers and DBAs are working on the changes to the database to support your business-critical applications, how do these updates wend their way through from dev environments, possibly to QA, hopefully through pre-production and eventually to production in a controlled, reliable and repeatable way? In this article, I describe a model we use to try and understand the different stages that customers go through as their database change management processes mature, from the very basic and manual, through to advanced continuous delivery practices. I also provide a simple chart that will help you determine “How mature is our database change management process?” This process of managing changes to the database – which all of us who have worked in application/database development have had to deal with in one form or another – is sometimes known as Database Change Management (even if we’ve never used the term ourselves). And it’s a difficult process, often painfully so. Some developers take the approach of “I’ve no idea how my changes get live – I just write the stored procedures and add columns to the tables. It’s someone else’s problem to get this stuff live. I think we’ve got a DBA somewhere who deals with it – I don’t know, I’ve never met him/her”. I know I used to work that way. I worked that way because I assumed that making the updates to production was a trivial task – how hard can it be? Pause the application for half an hour in the middle of the night, copy over the changes to the app and the database, and switch it back on again? Voila! But somehow it never seemed that easy. And it certainly was never that easy for database changes. Why? Because you can’t just overwrite the old database with the new version. Databases have a state – more specifically 4Tb of critical data built up over the last 12 years of running your business, and if your quick hotfix happened to accidentally delete that 4Tb of data, then you’re “Looking for a new role” pretty quickly after the failed release. There are a lot of other reasons why a managed database change management process is important for organisations, besides job security, not least: Frequency of releases. Many business managers are feeling the pressure to get functionality out to their users sooner, quicker and more reliably. The new book (which I highly recommend) Lean Enterprise by Jez Humble, Barry O’Reilly and Joanne Molesky provides a great discussion on how many enterprises are having to move towards a leaner, more frequent release cycle to maintain their competitive advantage. It’s no longer acceptable to release once per year, leaving your customers waiting all year for changes they desperately need (and expect) Auditing and compliance. SOX, HIPAA and other compliance frameworks have demanded that companies implement proper processes for managing changes to their databases, whether managing schema changes, making sure that the data itself is being looked after correctly or other mechanisms that provide an audit trail of changes. We’ve found, at Red Gate that we have a very wide range of customers using every possible form of database change management imaginable. Everything from “Nothing – I just fix the schema on production from my laptop when things go wrong, and write it down in my notebook” to “A full Continuous Delivery process – any change made by a dev gets checked in and recorded, fully tested (including performance tests) before a (tested) release is made available to our Release Management system, ready for live deployment!”. And everything in between of course. Because of the vast number of customers using so many different approaches we found ourselves struggling to keep on top of what everyone was doing – struggling to identify patterns in customers’ behavior. This is useful for us, because we want to try and fit the products we have to different needs – different products are relevant to different customers and we waste everyone’s time (most notably, our customers’) if we’re suggesting products that aren’t appropriate for them. If someone visited a sports store, looking to embark on a new fitness program, and the store assistant suggested the latest $10,000 multi-gym, complete with multiple weights mechanisms, dumb-bells, pull-up bars and so on, then he’s likely to lose that customer. All he needed was a pair of running shoes! To solve this issue – in an attempt to simplify how we understand our customers and our offerings – we built a model. This is a an attempt at trying to classify our customers in to some sort of model or “Customer Maturity Framework” as we rather grandly term it, which somehow simplifies our understanding of what our customers are doing. The great statistician, George Box (amongst other things, the “Box” in the Box-Jenkins time series model) gave us the famous quote: “Essentially all models are wrong, but some are useful” We’ve taken this quote to heart – we know it’s a gross over-simplification of the real world of how users work with complex legacy and new database developments. Almost nobody precisely fits in to one of our categories. But we hope it’s useful and interesting. There are actually a number of similar models that exist for more general application delivery. We’ve found these from ThoughtWorks/Forrester, from InfoQ and others, and initially we tried just taking these models and replacing the word “application” for “database”. However, we hit a problem. From talking to our customers we know that users are far less further down the road of mature database change management than they are for application development. As a simple example, no application developer, who wants to keep his/her job would develop an application for an organisation without source controlling that code. Sure, he/she might not be using an advanced Gitflow branching methodology but they’ll certainly be making sure their code gets managed in a repo somewhere with all the benefits of history, auditing and so on. But this certainly isn’t the case (yet) for the database – a very large segment of the people we speak to have no source control set up for their databases whatsoever, even at the most basic level (for example, keeping change scripts in a source control system somewhere). By the way, if this is you, Red Gate has a great whitepaper here, on the barriers people face getting a source control process implemented at their organisations. This difference in maturity is the same as you move in to areas such as continuous integration (common amongst app developers, relatively rare for database developers) and automated release management (growing amongst app developers, very rare for the database). So, when we created the model we started from scratch and biased the levels of maturity towards what we actually see amongst our customers. But, what are these stages? And what level are you? The table below describes our definitions for four levels of maturity – Baseline, Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. As I say, this is a model – you won’t fit any of these categories perfectly, but hopefully one will ring true more than others. We’ve also created a PDF with a flow chart to help you find which of these groups most closely matches your team:  Download the Database Delivery Maturity Framework PDF here   Level D1 – Baseline Work directly on live databases Sometimes work directly in production Generate manual scripts for releases. Sometimes use a product like SQL Compare or similar to do this Any tests that we might have are run manually Level D2 – Beginner Have some ad-hoc DB version control such as manually adding upgrade scripts to a version control system Attempt is made to keep production in sync with development environments There is some documentation and planning of manual deployments Some basic automated DB testing in process Level D3 – Intermediate The database is fully version-controlled with a product like Red Gate SQL Source Control or SSDT Database environments are managed Production environment schema is reproducible from the source control system There are some automated tests Have looked at using migration scripts for difficult database refactoring cases Level D4 – Advanced Using continuous integration for database changes Build, testing and deployment of DB changes carried out through a proper database release process Fully automated tests Production system is monitored for fast feedback to developers   Does this model reflect your team at all? Where are you on this journey? We’d be very interested in knowing how you get on. We’re doing a lot of work at the moment, at Red Gate, trying to help people progress through these stages. For example, if you’re currently not source controlling your database, then this is a natural next step. If you are already source controlling your database, what about the next stage – continuous integration and automated release management? To help understand these issues, there’s a summary of the Red Gate Database Delivery learning program on our site, alongside a Patterns and Practices library here on Simple-Talk and a Training Academy section on our documentation site to help you get up and running with the tools you need to progress. All feedback is welcome and it would be great to hear where you find yourself on this journey! This article is part of our database delivery patterns & practices series on Simple Talk. Find more articles for version control, automated testing, continuous integration & deployment.

  Read the article

• Working with Timelines with LINQ to Twitter

  - by Joe Mayo

  When first working with the Twitter API, I thought that using SinceID would be an effective way to page through timelines. In practice it doesn’t work well for various reasons. To explain why, Twitter published an excellent document that is a must-read for anyone working with timelines: Twitter Documentation: Working with Timelines This post shows how to implement the recommended strategies in that document by using LINQ to Twitter. You should read the document in it’s entirety before moving on because my explanation will start at the bottom and work back up to the top in relation to the Twitter document. What follows is an explanation of SinceID, MaxID, and how they come together to help you efficiently work with Twitter timelines. The Role of SinceID Specifying SinceID says to Twitter, “Don’t return tweets earlier than this”. What you want to do is store this value after every timeline query set so that it can be reused on the next set of queries.  The next section will explain what I mean by query set, but a quick explanation is that it’s a loop that gets all new tweets. The SinceID is a backstop to avoid retrieving tweets that you already have. Here’s some initialization code that includes a variable named sinceID that will be used to populate the SinceID property in subsequent queries: // last tweet processed on previous query set ulong sinceID = 210024053698867204; ulong maxID; const int Count = 10; var statusList = new List<status>(); Here, I’ve hard-coded the sinceID variable, but this is where you would initialize sinceID from whatever storage you choose (i.e. a database). The first time you ever run this code, you won’t have a value from a previous query set. Initially setting it to 0 might sound like a good idea, but what if you’re querying a timeline with lots of tweets? Because of the number of tweets and rate limits, your query set might take a very long time to run. A caveat might be that Twitter won’t return an entire timeline back to Tweet #0, but rather only go back a certain period of time, the limits of which are documented for individual Twitter timeline API resources. So, to initialize SinceID at too low of a number can result in a lot of initial tweets, yet there is a limit to how far you can go back. What you’re trying to accomplish in your application should guide you in how to initially set SinceID. I have more to say about SinceID later in this post. The other variables initialized above include the declaration for MaxID, Count, and statusList. The statusList variable is a holder for all the timeline tweets collected during this query set. You can set Count to any value you want as the largest number of tweets to retrieve, as defined by individual Twitter timeline API resources. To effectively page results, you’ll use the maxID variable to set the MaxID property in queries, which I’ll discuss next. Initializing MaxID On your first query of a query set, MaxID will be whatever the most recent tweet is that you get back. Further, you don’t know what MaxID is until after the initial query. The technique used in this post is to do an initial query and then use the results to figure out what the next MaxID will be.  Here’s the code for the initial query: var userStatusResponse = (from tweet in twitterCtx.Status where tweet.Type == StatusType.User && tweet.ScreenName == "JoeMayo" && tweet.SinceID == sinceID && tweet.Count == Count select tweet) .ToList(); statusList.AddRange(userStatusResponse); // first tweet processed on current query maxID = userStatusResponse.Min( status => ulong.Parse(status.StatusID)) - 1; The query above sets both SinceID and Count properties. As explained earlier, Count is the largest number of tweets to return, but the number can be less. A couple reasons why the number of tweets that are returned could be less than Count include the fact that the user, specified by ScreenName, might not have tweeted Count times yet or might not have tweeted at least Count times within the maximum number of tweets that can be returned by the Twitter timeline API resource. Another reason could be because there aren’t Count tweets between now and the tweet ID specified by sinceID. Setting SinceID constrains the results to only those tweets that occurred after the specified Tweet ID, assigned via the sinceID variable in the query above. The statusList is an accumulator of all tweets receive during this query set. To simplify the code, I left out some logic to check whether there were no tweets returned. If  the query above doesn’t return any tweets, you’ll receive an exception when trying to perform operations on an empty list. Yeah, I cheated again. Besides querying initial tweets, what’s important about this code is the final line that sets maxID. It retrieves the lowest numbered status ID in the results. Since the lowest numbered status ID is for a tweet we already have, the code decrements the result by one to keep from asking for that tweet again. Remember, SinceID is not inclusive, but MaxID is. The maxID variable is now set to the highest possible tweet ID that can be returned in the next query. The next section explains how to use MaxID to help get the remaining tweets in the query set. Retrieving Remaining Tweets Earlier in this post, I defined a term that I called a query set. Essentially, this is a group of requests to Twitter that you perform to get all new tweets. A single query might not be enough to get all new tweets, so you’ll have to start at the top of the list that Twitter returns and keep making requests until you have all new tweets. The previous section showed the first query of the query set. The code below is a loop that completes the query set: do { // now add sinceID and maxID userStatusResponse = (from tweet in twitterCtx.Status where tweet.Type == StatusType.User && tweet.ScreenName == "JoeMayo" && tweet.Count == Count && tweet.SinceID == sinceID && tweet.MaxID == maxID select tweet) .ToList(); if (userStatusResponse.Count > 0) { // first tweet processed on current query maxID = userStatusResponse.Min( status => ulong.Parse(status.StatusID)) - 1; statusList.AddRange(userStatusResponse); } } while (userStatusResponse.Count != 0 && statusList.Count < 30); Here we have another query, but this time it includes the MaxID property. The SinceID property prevents reading tweets that we’ve already read and Count specifies the largest number of tweets to return. Earlier, I mentioned how it was important to check how many tweets were returned because failing to do so will result in an exception when subsequent code runs on an empty list. The code above protects against this problem by only working with the results if Twitter actually returns tweets. Reasons why there wouldn’t be results include: if the first query got all the new tweets there wouldn’t be more to get and there might not have been any new tweets between the SinceID and MaxID settings of the most recent query. The code for loading the returned tweets into statusList and getting the maxID are the same as previously explained. The important point here is that MaxID is being reset, not SinceID. As explained in the Twitter documentation, paging occurs from the newest tweets to oldest, so setting MaxID lets us move from the most recent tweets down to the oldest as specified by SinceID. The two loop conditions cause the loop to continue as long as tweets are being read or a max number of tweets have been read.  Logically, you want to stop reading when you’ve read all the tweets and that’s indicated by the fact that the most recent query did not return results. I put the check to stop after 30 tweets are reached to keep the demo from running too long – in the console the response scrolls past available buffer and I wanted you to be able to see the complete output. Yet, there’s another point to be made about constraining the number of items you return at one time. The Twitter API has rate limits and making too many queries per minute will result in an error from twitter that LINQ to Twitter raises as an exception. To use the API properly, you’ll have to ensure you don’t exceed this threshold. Looking at the statusList.Count as done above is rather primitive, but you can implement your own logic to properly manage your rate limit. Yeah, I cheated again. Summary Now you know how to use LINQ to Twitter to work with Twitter timelines. After reading this post, you have a better idea of the role of SinceID - the oldest tweet already received. You also know that MaxID is the largest tweet ID to retrieve in a query. Together, these settings allow you to page through results via one or more queries. You also understand what factors affect the number of tweets returned and considerations for potential error handling logic. The full example of the code for this post is included in the downloadable source code for LINQ to Twitter.   @JoeMayo

  Read the article

• Session Evaluations

  - by BuckWoody

  I do a lot of public speaking. I write, teach, present and communicate at many levels. I love to do those things. And I love to get better at them. And one of the ways you get better at something is to get feedback on how you did. That being said, I have to confess that I really despise the “evaluations” I get at most venues. From college to technical events to other locations, at Microsoft and points in between, I find these things to be just shy of damaging, and most certainly useless. And it’s not always your fault. Ouch. That seems harsh. But let me ask you one question – and be as honest as you can with the answer – think about it first: “What is the point of a session evaluation?” I’m not saying there isn’t one. In fact, I think there’s a really important reason for them. In my mind, it’s really this: To make the speaker / next session better. Now, if you look at that, you can see right away that most session evals don’t accomplish this goal – not even a little. No, the way that they are worded and the way you (and I) fill them out, it’s more like the implied goal is this: Tell us how you liked this speaker / session. The current ones are for you, not for the speaker or the next person. It’s a popularity contest. Don’t get me wrong. I want to you have a good time. I want you to learn. I want (desperately, oh, please oh please) for you to like me. But in fact, that’s probably not why you went to the session / took the class / read that post. No, you want to learn, and to learn for a particular reason. Remember, I’m talking about college classes, sessions and other class environments here, not a general public event. Most – OK, all – session evaluations make you answer the second goal, not the first. Let’s see how: First, they don’t ask you why you’re there. They don’t ask you if you’re even qualified to evaluate the session or speaker. They don’t ask you how to make it better or keep it great. They use odd numeric scales that are meaningless. For instance, can someone really tell me the difference between a 100-level session and a 200-level one? Between a 400-level and a 500? Is it “internals” (whatever that means) or detail, or length or code, or what? I once heard a great description: A 100-level session makes me say, “wow - I’m smart.” A 500-level session makes me say “wow – that presenter is smart.” And just what is the difference between a 6 and a 7 answer on this question: How well did the speaker know the material? 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10 Oh. My. Gosh. How does that make the next session better, or the speaker? And what criteria did you use to answer? And is a “10” better than a “1” (not always clear, and various cultures answer this differently). When it’s all said and done, a speaker basically finds out one thing from the current session evals: “They liked me. They really really liked me.” Or, “Wow. I think I may need to schedule some counseling for the depression I’m about to go into.” You may not think that’s what the speaker hears, but trust me, they do. Those are the only two reactions to the current feedback sheets they get. Either they keep doing what they are doing, or they get their feelings hurt. They just can’t use the information provided to do better. Sorry, but there it is. Keep in mind I do want your feedback. I want to get better. I want you to get your money and time’s worth, probably as much as any speaker alive. But I want those evaluations to be accurate, specific and actionable. I want to know if you had a good time, sure, but I also want to know if I did the right things, and if not, if I can do something different or better. And so, for your consideration, here is the evaluation form I would LOVE for you to use. Feel free to copy it and mail it to me any time. I’m going to put some questions here, and then I’ll even include why they are there. Notice that the form asks you a subjective question right away, and then makes you explain why. That’s work on your part. Notice also that it separates the room and the coffee and the lights and the LiveMeeting from the presenter. So many presenters are faced with circumstances beyond their control, and yet are rated high or low personally on those things. This form helps tease those apart. It’s not numeric. Numbers are easier for the scoring committees but are useless for you and me. So I don’t have any numbers. We’re actually going to have to read these things, not put them in a machine. Hey, if you put in the work to write stuff down, the least we could do is take the time to read it. It’s not anonymous. If you’ve got something to say, say it, and own up to it. People are not “more honest” when they are anonymous, they are less honest. So put your name on it. In fact – this is radical – I posit that these evaluations should be publicly available. Forever. Just like replies to a blog post. Hey, if I’m an organizer, I would LOVE to be able to have access to specific, actionable information on the attendees and the speakers. So if you want mine to be public, go for it. I’ll take the good and the bad. Enjoy. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Session Evaluation – Date, Time, Location, Topic Thanks for giving us your time today. We know that’s valuable, and we hope you learned something you can use from the session. If you can answer these questions as completely as you can, it will help the next person who attends a session here. Your Name: What you do for a living: (We Need your background to evaluate your evaluation) How long you have been doing that: (Again, we need your background to evaluate your evaluation) Paste Session Description Here: (This is what I said I would talk about) Did you like the session?                     No        Meh        Yes (General subjective question – overall “feeling”. You’ll tell us why in a minute.)  Tell us about the venue. Temperature, lights, coffee, or the online sound, performance, anything other than the speaker and the material. (Helps the logistics to be better or as good for the next person) 1. What did you expect to learn in this session? (How did you interpret that extract – did you have expectations that I should work towards for the next person?) 2. Did you learn what you expected to learn? Why? Be very specific. (This is the most important question there is. It tells us how to make the session better for someone like you.) 3. If you were giving this presentation, would you have done anything differently? What? (Helps us to gauge you, the listener, and might give us a great idea on how to do something better. Thanks!) 4. What will you do with the information you got? (Every presenter wants you to learn, and learn something useful. This will help us do that as well or better)  

  Read the article

• Python Mechanize unable to avoid redirect when Post

  - by Enric Geijo

  I am trying to crawl a site using mechanize. The site provides search results in different pages. When posting to get the next set of results, something is wrong and the server redirects me to the first page, asking mechanize to update the SearchSession Cookie. I have been debugging the requests using Firefox and they look quite the same, and I am unable to find the problem. Any suggestion? Below the requests: ----------- FIRST THE RIGHT SEQUENCE, USING TAMPER IN FIREFOX ------------------------- POST XXX/JobSearch/Results.aspx?Keywords=Python&LTxt=London%2c+South+East&Radius=0&LIds2=ZV&clid=1621&cltypeid=2&clName=London Load Flags[LOAD_DOCUMENT_URI LOAD_INITIAL_DOCUMENT_URI ] Content Size[-1] Mime Type[text/html] Request Headers: Host[www.cwjobs.co.uk] User-Agent[Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.1.9) Gecko/20100401 Ubuntu/9.10 (karmic) Firefox/3.5.9] Accept[text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,/;q=0.8] Accept-Language[en-us,en;q=0.5] Accept-Encoding[gzip,deflate] Accept-Charset[ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7] Keep-Alive[300] Connection[keep-alive] Referer[XXX/JobSearch/Results.aspx?Keywords=Python&LTxt=London%2c+South+East&Radius=0&LIds2=ZV&clid=1621&cltypeid=2&clName=London] Cookie[ecos=774803468-0; AnonymousUser=MemberId=acc079dd-66b6-4081-9b07-60d6955ee8bf&IsAnonymous=True; PJBIPPOPUP=; WT_FPC=id=86.181.183.106-2262469600.30073025:lv=1272812851736:ss=1272812789362; SearchSession=SessionGuid=71de63de-3bd0-4787-895d-b6b9e7c93801&LogSource=NAT] Post Data: __EVENTTARGET[srpPager%24btnForward] __EVENTARGUMENT[] hdnSearchResults[BV%2CA%2CC0P5x%2COou-%2CB4S-%2CBuC-%2CDzx-%2CHwn-%2CKPP-%2CIVA-%2CC9D-%2CH6X-%2CH7x-%2CJ0x-%2CCvX-%2CCra-%2COHa-%2CHhP-%2CCoj-%2CBlM-%2CE9W-%2CIm8-%2CBqG-%2CPFy-%2CN%2Fm-%2Ceaa%2CCvj-%2CCtJ-%2CCr7-%2CBpu-%2Cmh%2CMb6-%2CJ%2Fk-%2CHY8-%2COJ7-%2CNtF-%2CEya-%2CErT-%2CEo4-%2CEKU-%2CDnL-%2CC5M-%2CCyB-%2CBsD-%2CBrc-%2CBpU-%2Col%2C30%2CC1%2Cd4N%2COo8-%2COi0-%2CLz%2F-%2CLxP-%2CFyp-%2CFVR-%2CEHL-%2CPrP-%2CLmE-%2CK3H-%2CKXJ-%2CFyn%2CIcq-%2CIco-%2CIK4-%2CIIg-%2CH2k-%2CH0N-%2CHwp-%2CHvF-%2CFij-%2CFhl-%2CCwj-%2CCb5-%2CCQj-%2CCQh-%2CB%2B2-%2CBc6-%2ChFo%2CNLq-%2CNI%2F-%2CFzM-%2Cdu-%2CHg2-%2CBug-%2CBse-%2CB9Q-] __VIEWSTATE[%2FwEPDwUKLTkyMzI2ODA4Ng9kFgYCBA8WBB4EaHJlZgWJAWh0dHA6Ly93d3cuY3dqb2JzLmNvLnVrL0pvYlNlYXJjaC9SU1MuYXNweD9LZXl3b3Jkcz1QeXRob24mTFR4dD1Mb25kb24lMmMrU291dGgrRWFzdCZSYWRpdXM9MCZMSWRzMj1aViZjbGlkPTE2MjEmY2x0eXBlaWQ9MiZjbE5hbWU9TG9uZG9uHgV0aXRsZQUkTGF0ZXN0IFB5dGhvbiBqb2JzIGZyb20gQ1dKb2JzLmNvLnVrZAIGDxYCHgRUZXh0BV48bGluayByZWw9ImNhbm9uaWNhbCIgaHJlZj0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy5jd2pvYnMuY28udWsvSm9iU2Vla2luZy9QeXRob25fTG9uZG9uX2wxNjIxX3QyLmh0bWwiIC8%2BZAIIEGRkFg4CBw8WAh8CBV9Zb3VyIHNlYXJjaCBvbiA8Yj5LZXl3b3JkczogUHl0aG9uOyBMb2NhdGlvbjogTG9uZG9uLCBTb3V0aCBFYXN0OyA8L2I%2BIHJldHVybmVkIDxiPjg1PC9iPiBqb2JzLmQCCQ8WAh4HVmlzaWJsZWhkAgsPFgIfAgUoVGhlIG1vc3QgcmVsZXZhbnQgam9icyBhcmUgbGlzdGVkIGZpcnN0LmQCEw8PFgIeC05hdmlnYXRlVXJsBQF%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%3D] Refinesearch%24txtKeywords[Python] Refinesearch%24txtLocation[London%2C+South+East] Refinesearch%24ddlRadius[0] ddlCompanyType[0] ddlSort[1] Response Headers: Cache-Control[private] Date[Sun, 02 May 2010 16:09:27 GMT] Content-Type[text/html; charset=utf-8] Expires[Sat, 02 May 2009 16:09:27 GMT] Server[Microsoft-IIS/6.0] X-SiteConHost[P310] X-Powered-By[ASP.NET] X-AspNet-Version[2.0.50727] Set-Cookie[SearchSession=SessionGuid=71de63de-3bd0-4787-895d-b6b9e7c93801&LogSource=NAT; path=/] Content-Encoding[gzip] Vary[Accept-Encoding] Transfer-Encoding[chunked] -------- NOW WHAT I'AM SENDING USING MECHANIZE, SOME HEADERS ADDED, ETC ----------- POST /JobSearch/Results.aspx?Keywords=Python&LTxt=London%2c+South+East&Radius=0&LIds2=ZV&clid=1621&cltypeid=2&clName=London HTTP/1.1\r\nContent-Length: 2424\r\n Accept-Language: en-us,en;q=0.5\r\n Accept-Encoding: gzip\r\n Host: www.cwjobs.co.uk\r\n Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,/;q=0.8\r\n Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7\r\n Connection: keep-alive\r\n Cookie: AnonymousUser=MemberId=8fa5ddd7-17ed-425e-b189-82693bfbaa0c&IsAnonymous=True; SearchSession=SessionGuid=33e4e439-c2d6-423f-900f-574099310d5a&LogSource=NAT\r\n Referer: XXX/JobSearch/Results.aspx?Keywords=Python&LTxt=London%2c+South+East&Radius=0&LIds2=ZV&clid=1621&cltypeid=2&clName=London\r\n Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n\r\n' '__EVENTTARGET=srpPager%24btnForward& __EVENTARGUMENT=& hdnSearchResults=BV%2CA%2CC0eif%2CMwc%2CM6s%2COou%2CK09%2CG4H%2CEZf%2CGTu%2CLrr%2CGuX%2CGs9%2CEz9%2CL5X%2CL9U%2ChU%2CHHf%2CMAL%2CNDi%2CJrY%2CGBy%2CM%2Bo%2CdE-%2CpI%2CtDI%2CL5L%2CL7l%2CL8z%2CM%2FA%2CPPP%2CCM0%2CEpK%2CHPy%2Cez%2C7p%2CJ2U%2CJ9b%2CJ%2F2%2CKea%2CLBj%2CLvi%2CL2t%2CM8r%2CM9S%2CM%2Fa%2CPRT%2CPgi%2Csg7%2CF6%2CI2F%2CJTd%2CO-%2CC0v%2CC3f%2CDCq%2CDxn%2CERl%2CUbV%2CGME%2CGMG%2CGd2%2CGgO%2CGyK%2CG0h%2CG4F%2CG5p%2CJGL%2CJHJ%2CKhj%2CL4L%2CMM1%2CMYL%2CMYN%2CMp4%2CNL0%2COrj%2CvuW%2CBdE%2CBfv%2CI1i%2CBCh-%2COLA%2CHH4%2CM6O%2CM8Q%2CMre& __VIEWSTATE=%2FwEPDwUKLTkyMzI2ODA4Ng9kFgYCBA8WBB4EaHJlZgWJAWh0dHA6Ly93d3cuY3dqb2JzLmNvLnVrL0pvYlNlYXJjaC9SU1MuYXNweD9LZXl3b3Jkcz1QeXRob24mTFR4dD1Mb25kb24lMmMrU291dGgrRWFzdCZSYWRpdXM9MCZMSWRzMj1aViZjbGlkPTE2MjEmY2x0eXBlaWQ9MiZjbE5hbWU9TG9uZG9uHgV0aXRsZQUkTGF0ZXN0IFB5dGhvbiBqb2JzIGZyb20gQ1dKb2JzLmNvLnVrZAIGDxYCHgRUZXh0BV48bGluayByZWw9ImNhbm9uaWNhbCIgaHJlZj0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy5jd2pvYnMuY28udWsvSm9iU2Vla2luZy9QeXRob25fTG9uZG9uX2wxNjIxX3QyLmh0bWwiIC8%2BZAIIEGRkFg4CBw8WAh8CBV9Zb3VyIHNlYXJjaCBvbiA8Yj5LZXl3b3JkczogUHl0aG9uOyBMb2NhdGlvbjogTG9uZG9uLCBTb3V0aCBFYXN0OyA8L2I%2BIHJldHVybmVkIDxiPjg1PC9iPiBqb2JzLmQCCQ8WAh4HVmlzaWJsZWhkAgsPFgIfAgUoVGhlIG1vc3QgcmVsZXZhbnQgam9icyBhcmUgbGlzdGVkIGZpcnN0LmQCEw8PFgIeC05hdmlnYXRlVXJsBQF%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%3D& Refinesearch%24txtKeywords=Python& Refinesearch%24txtLocation=London%2CSouth+East& Refinesearch%24ddlRadius=0& Refinesearch%24btnSearch=Search& ddlCompanyType=0& ddlSort=1'

  Read the article

• Saving images only available when logged in

  - by James

  Hi, I've been having some trouble getting images to download when logged into a website that requires you to be logged in. The images can only be viewed when you are logged in to the site, but you cannot seem to view them directly in the browser if you copy its location into a tab/new window (it redirects to an error page - so I guess the containing folder has be .htaccess-ed). Anyway, the code I have below allows me to log in and grab the HTML content, which works well - but I cannot grab the images ... this is where I need help! <? // curl.php class Curl { public $cookieJar = ""; public function __construct($cookieJarFile = 'cookies.txt') { $this->cookieJar = $cookieJarFile; } function setup() { $header = array(); $header[0] = "Accept: text/xml,application/xml,application/xhtml+xml,"; $header[0] .= "text/html;q=0.9,text/plain;q=0.8,image/gif;q=0.8,image/x-bitmap;q=0.8,image/jpeg;q=0.8,image/png,*/*;q=0.5"; $header[] = "Cache-Control: max-age=0"; $header[] = "Connection: keep-alive"; $header[] = "Keep-Alive: 300"; $header[] = "Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7"; $header[] = "Accept-Language: en-us,en;q=0.5"; $header[] = "Pragma: "; // browsers keep this blank. curl_setopt($this->curl, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.2; en-US; rv:1.8.1.7) Gecko/20070914 Firefox/2.0.0.7'); curl_setopt($this->curl, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $header); curl_setopt($this->curl, CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR, $this->cookieJar); curl_setopt($this->curl, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, $this->cookieJar); curl_setopt($this->curl, CURLOPT_AUTOREFERER, true); curl_setopt($this->curl, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true); curl_setopt($this->curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true); } function get($url) { $this->curl = curl_init($url); $this->setup(); return $this->request(); } function getAll($reg, $str) { preg_match_all($reg, $str, $matches); return $matches[1]; } function postForm($url, $fields, $referer = '') { $this->curl = curl_init($url); $this->setup(); curl_setopt($this->curl, CURLOPT_URL, $url); curl_setopt($this->curl, CURLOPT_POST, 1); curl_setopt($this->curl, CURLOPT_REFERER, $referer); curl_setopt($this->curl, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $fields); return $this->request(); } function getInfo($info) { $info = ($info == 'lasturl') ? curl_getinfo($this->curl, CURLINFO_EFFECTIVE_URL) : curl_getinfo($this->curl, $info); return $info; } function request() { return curl_exec($this->curl); } } ?> And below is the page that uses it. <? // data.php include('curl.php'); $curl = new Curl(); $url = "http://domain.com/login.php"; $newURL = "http://domain.com/go_here.php"; $username = "user"; $password = "pass"; $fields = "user=$username&pass=$password"; // Calling URL $referer = "http://domain.com/refering_page.php"; $html = $curl->postForm($url, $fields, $referer); $html = $curl->get($newURL); echo $html; ?> I've tried putting the direct URL for the image into $newURL but that doesn't get the image - it simply returns an error saying since that folder is not available to view directly. I've tried varying the above in different ways, but I haven't been successful in getting an image, though I have managed to get a screen through basically saying error 405 and/or 406 (but not the image I want). Any help would be great!

  Read the article

< Previous Page | 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117  | Next Page >