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  • Either, nginx+php-fpm bad config or nginx+php-fpm cannot handle high query?

    - by The Wolf
    I have wordpress installed in my server configured(hopefully with nginx+php-fpm+mariaDB). I am trying to import using wordpress importer a 1.5MB xml file. Everytime I try to upload it using the importer, it got cut of... meaning just blank screen result.. Here is my error log: actually I just posted 2 of the errors [error] 858#0: *1 connect() failed (111: Connection refused) while connecting to upstream, client: xx.xxx.xx.xx, server: xxx.com, request: "GET xxxx.html HTTP/1.1", upstream: "fastcgi://127.0.0.1:9000", host: "xxx.com" [error] 858#0: *13 connect() failed (111: Connection refused) while connecting to upstream, client: xxx.x.xx.xx, server: xxx.com, request: "GET xxxx.php HTTP/1.1", upstream: "fastcgi://127.0.0.1:9000", host: "xxx.com" I don't know what is the reason why it can't process the wordpress export .xml. I already increased max_file_upload & etc., but nothing happens. Hope somebody can help me. Here are my conf: nginx.conf user nginx; worker_processes 8; error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log warn; pid /var/run/nginx.pid; events { worker_connections 1024; } http { include /etc/nginx/mime.types; default_type application/octet-stream; log_format main '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] "$request" ' '$status $body_bytes_sent "$http_referer" ' '"$http_user_agent" "$http_x_forwarded_for"'; access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log main; sendfile on; #tcp_nopush on; server_tokens off; keepalive_timeout 65; fastcgi_read_timeout 500; #gzip on; client_max_body_size 2M; php-fpm.conf ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ; FPM Configuration ; ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ; All relative paths in this configuration file are relative to PHP's install ; prefix. ; Include one or more files. If glob(3) exists, it is used to include a bunch of ; files from a glob(3) pattern. This directive can be used everywhere in the ; file. include=/etc/php-fpm.d/*.conf ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ; Global Options ; ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; [global] ; Pid file ; Default Value: none pid = /var/run/php-fpm/php-fpm.pid ; Error log file ; Default Value: /var/log/php-fpm.log error_log = /var/log/php-fpm/error.log ; Log level ; Possible Values: alert, error, warning, notice, debug ; Default Value: notice ;log_level = notice ; If this number of child processes exit with SIGSEGV or SIGBUS within the time ; interval set by emergency_restart_interval then FPM will restart. A value ; of '0' means 'Off'. ; Default Value: 0 ;emergency_restart_threshold = 0 ; Interval of time used by emergency_restart_interval to determine when ; a graceful restart will be initiated. This can be useful to work around ; accidental corruptions in an accelerator's shared memory. ; Available Units: s(econds), m(inutes), h(ours), or d(ays) ; Default Unit: seconds ; Default Value: 0 ;emergency_restart_interval = 0 ; Time limit for child processes to wait for a reaction on signals from master. ; Available units: s(econds), m(inutes), h(ours), or d(ays) ; Default Unit: seconds ; Default Value: 0 ;process_control_timeout = 0 ; Send FPM to background. Set to 'no' to keep FPM in foreground for debugging. ; Default Value: yes daemonize = no ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ; Pool Definitions ; ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ; See /etc/php-fpm.d/*.conf [root@host etc]# vim php-fpm.conf [root@host etc]# vim php-fpm.conf ; Default Value: notice ;log_level = notice ; If this number of child processes exit with SIGSEGV or SIGBUS within the time ; interval set by emergency_restart_interval then FPM will restart. A value ; of '0' means 'Off'. ; Default Value: 0 ;emergency_restart_threshold = 0 ; Interval of time used by emergency_restart_interval to determine when ; a graceful restart will be initiated. This can be useful to work around ; accidental corruptions in an accelerator's shared memory. ; Available Units: s(econds), m(inutes), h(ours), or d(ays) ; Default Unit: seconds ; Default Value: 0 ;emergency_restart_interval = 0 ; Time limit for child processes to wait for a reaction on signals from master. ; Available units: s(econds), m(inutes), h(ours), or d(ays) ; Default Unit: seconds ; Default Value: 0 ;process_control_timeout = 0 ; Send FPM to background. Set to 'no' to keep FPM in foreground for debugging. ; Default Value: yes daemonize = no ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ; Pool Definitions ; ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ; See /etc/php-fpm.d/*.conf ps aux [root@host etc]# ps aux USER PID %CPU %MEM VSZ RSS TTY STAT START TIME COMMAND root 1 0.0 0.1 2900 1380 ? Ss Jun02 0:00 init root 2 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S Jun02 0:00 [kthreadd/9308] root 3 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S Jun02 0:00 [khelper/9308] root 124 0.0 0.0 2464 576 ? S<s Jun02 0:00 /sbin/udevd -d root 460 0.0 0.1 35976 1308 ? Sl Jun02 0:00 /sbin/rsyslogd -i /var/run/syslogd.pid -c 5 root 474 0.0 0.0 8940 1028 ? Ss Jun02 0:00 /usr/sbin/sshd root 481 0.0 0.0 3264 876 ? Ss Jun02 0:00 xinetd -stayalive -pidfile /var/run/xinetd.pid root 491 0.0 0.1 6268 1432 ? S Jun02 0:00 /bin/sh /usr/bin/mysqld_safe --datadir=/var/lib/mysql --pid-file=/var/lib/mysql/host.busilak.com. mysql 584 0.1 6.8 679072 71456 ? Sl Jun02 0:04 /usr/sbin/mysqld --basedir=/usr --datadir=/var/lib/mysql --plugin-dir=/usr/lib/mysql/plugin --use root 586 0.0 0.3 12008 3820 ? Ss Jun02 0:01 sshd: root@pts/0 root 629 0.0 0.0 9140 756 ? Ss Jun02 0:00 /usr/sbin/saslauthd -m /var/run/saslauthd -a pam -n 2 root 630 0.0 0.0 9140 520 ? S Jun02 0:00 /usr/sbin/saslauthd -m /var/run/saslauthd -a pam -n 2 root 645 0.0 0.1 12788 1928 ? Ss Jun02 0:01 sendmail: accepting connections smmsp 653 0.0 0.1 12576 1728 ? Ss Jun02 0:00 sendmail: Queue runner@01:00:00 for /var/spool/clientmqueue root 691 0.0 0.1 7148 1184 ? Ss Jun02 0:00 crond root 698 0.0 0.1 6272 1688 pts/0 Ss Jun02 0:00 -bash root 1006 0.0 0.0 7828 924 ? Ss 00:30 0:00 nginx: master process /usr/sbin/nginx -c /etc/nginx/nginx.conf nginx 1007 0.0 0.1 8156 1724 ? S 00:30 0:00 nginx: worker process nginx 1008 0.0 0.1 8024 1360 ? S 00:30 0:00 nginx: worker process nginx 1009 0.0 0.1 8020 1356 ? S 00:30 0:00 nginx: worker process nginx 1011 0.0 0.1 8024 1360 ? S 00:30 0:00 nginx: worker process nginx 1012 0.0 0.1 8024 1360 ? S 00:30 0:00 nginx: worker process nginx 1013 0.0 0.1 8024 1360 ? S 00:30 0:00 nginx: worker process nginx 1014 0.0 0.1 8024 1360 ? S 00:30 0:00 nginx: worker process nginx 1015 0.0 0.1 8024 1344 ? S 00:30 0:00 nginx: worker process root 1030 0.0 0.2 25396 2904 ? Ss 00:30 0:00 php-fpm: master process (/etc/php-fpm.conf) apache 1031 0.0 1.9 40700 20624 ? S 00:30 0:00 php-fpm: pool www apache 1032 0.0 2.0 41924 21888 ? S 00:30 0:01 php-fpm: pool www apache 1033 0.0 1.9 41212 20848 ? S 00:30 0:01 php-fpm: pool www apache 1034 0.0 1.9 40956 20792 ? S 00:30 0:01 php-fpm: pool www apache 1035 0.0 2.0 41560 21556 ? S 00:30 0:02 php-fpm: pool www apache 1040 0.0 1.8 39292 19120 ? S 00:30 0:00 php-fpm: pool www root 1125 0.0 0.0 6080 1040 pts/0 R+ 01:04 0:00 ps aux netstat -l [root@host etc]# netstat -l Active Internet connections (only servers) Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address State tcp 0 0 *:ssh *:* LISTEN tcp 0 0 localhost.localdomain:smtp *:* LISTEN tcp 0 0 localhost.locald:cslistener *:* LISTEN tcp 0 0 *:mysql *:* LISTEN tcp 0 0 *:http *:* LISTEN tcp 0 0 *:ssh *:* LISTEN Active UNIX domain sockets (only servers) Proto RefCnt Flags Type State I-Node Path unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 60575947 /var/run/saslauthd/mux unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 60574168 @/com/ubuntu/upstart unix 2 [ ACC ] STREAM LISTENING 60575873 /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock Hope somebody can help me to figure out what is the problem.

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  • Disconnect from PHP after output generated

    - by Oli
    I have a LEMP stack. Nginx sitting in front of PHP-FPM. Because some of the sites are heavy and there's OPCode caching, PHP is set up so that there are only 5 child processes running. The aim being that each child can deal with any request in less than half-a-second and then move onto the next request. One problem I've found is that if it's a big chunk of HTML that's getting sent out, and the user has a slow connection, that PHP thread stays occupied until they've finished downloading. Because of my current setup, I have a pretty unforgiving timeout inside PHP where the script is killed after 20 seconds. This is to make sure everybody gets a turn but on a slow connection, this can mean the user gets cut off with a 504 Gateway timeout. I was wondering if there was some sort of buffer solution that I could implement within or just behind Nginx that sent the request through and then... well... buffered the content into its own cache and feed that onto the client as and when they could download it. The aim being that the underlying PHP thread can be freed up. What I'm asking for doesn't have to be PHP-specific. Anything that deals with FastCGI, or even any Nginx-upstream might have a similar issue to this.

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  • Starting programs from terminal then exiting terminal exits started programs?

    - by sherrellbc
    I really was unsure how to phrase the question title. What I mean is that when I use the terminal to start a program, most of the time when the terminal is closed it also exits the programs started from it. Now this makes sense if we look at it from a hierarchical standpoint of the terminal being the parent process which spawns child processes, and any halt of the parent causes subsequent halting of the children as well. However, I've noticed this to not always be the case. For example, I downloaded Sublime Text Editor and created a symlink in PATH. I can start this program by issuing a sublime command from the terminal, but subsequent closure of the terminal program does nothing to sublime. However, other times either the child process that was started it also closed or it hangs up and causes problems. tl;dr: Is it always the case that programs started from a closed parent process will be closed when the parent is exited? And if so, is there way to start a program from the terminal and then close the terminal without exiting the started process? The whole point here is to start programs from the terminal so I do not overly-populate my desktop with symlinks.

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  • Can I nest a command string within another command string?

    - by Zach L
    Whenever I run the following command in an elevated command prompt, I get the 0x80070005 Access Denied error code. I'm assuming it's a permissions error for the child shell. I'm running the command in an elevated prompt on Winddows 7 Pro SP1. FORFILES /P %WINDIR%\servicing\Packages /M Microsoft-Windows-InternetExplorer-* 9.*.mum /c "cmd /c echo Uninstalling package @fname && start /w pkgmgr /up:@fname /norestart" Can place the "Runas" command within the already nested command in order to run the child shell as an admin? I don't think I can because of conflicts with quotation mark locations. If there's another way to do this, such as via a batch file, I'm open to alternative methods, although I do prefer running it as a single string. Sidenote1: Ignore the space after the first asterisk in the command string. It was added one for aesthetics & accuracy. Sub-question: Could I use this "fix" to circumnavigate the problem entirely? Prompt as Administrator? Reference for Runas #1 Reference for Runas #2

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  • #550 5.1.1 RESOLVER.ADR.ExRecipNotFound; not found ##

    - by gtaylor85
    I've searched serverfault and found this question pop-up quite a bit. Unfortunately others problems aren't exactly like mine, and because I'm a true beginner I wanted some more "specific to me" help. If you don't mind. I just set-up a new computer for a user. Copied over her auto-populate and archive emails. Her email, for the most part, works fine. But when she tries to send anything to [email protected] she gets the #550 5.1.1 error. If she uses the exchange webapp she does not have the issue. I can send email to BSMITH, and so can everyone else. The user, as far as I can tell from the EMC reports, is the only person having emails sent back to them and only from BSMITH. I have googled the crap out of this, and attempted some of the solutions to no avail. I've looked for the bmith account in the disabled accounts and copied and attempted to add "IMCEAEX-_O=CHILD+20STUDY+20CENTER_OU=FIRST+20ADMINISTRATIVE+20GROUP_CN=RECIPIENTS_CN=BSMITH@mydomain.com" as an X500 email. I honestly am just following instructions though and I don't really understand what it is I'm doing. Diagnostic information for administrators: Generating server: FS2.FS1D.local IMCEAEX-_O=CHILD+20STUDY+20CENTER_OU=FIRST+20ADMINISTRATIVE+20GROUP_CN=RECIPIENTS_CN=BSMITH@mydomain.com #550 5.1.1 RESOLVER.ADR.ExRecipNotFound; not found ## BTW I love this site and only found out about it a few weeks ago. My girlfriend now loves the photo.stackexchange. So thanks for such a helpful community.

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  • Apache Proxy Error AH00920 and AH01206

    - by Aptos
    I ran into this problem when trying to enable proxy function on apache http: My httpd.conf LoadModule proxy_module modules/mod_proxy.so LoadModule proxy_connect_module modules/mod_proxy_connect.so LoadModule proxy_ftp_module modules/mod_proxy_ftp.so LoadModule proxy_http_module modules/mod_proxy_http.so LoadModule proxy_fcgi_module modules/mod_proxy_fcgi.so LoadModule proxy_scgi_module modules/mod_proxy_scgi.so LoadModule proxy_ajp_module modules/mod_proxy_ajp.so LoadModule proxy_balancer_module modules/mod_proxy_balancer.so <VirtualHost localhost:57173> ServerName localhost <Location /balancer-manager> SetHandler balancer-manager Order Deny,Allow Deny from all Allow from localhost </Location> <Proxy balancer://mycluster> BalancerMember http://localhost:9999 BalancerMember http://localhost:9998 status=+H </Proxy> <Proxy *> Order Allow,Deny Allow From All </Proxy> ProxyPreserveHost On ProxyPass /balancer-manager ! ProxyPass / balancer://mycluster/ ProxyPassReverse / http://localhost:9999/ ProxyPassReverse / http://localhost:9998/ </VirtualHost> When I check the log: [Sat Oct 27 00:16:24.506220 2012] [proxy:crit] [pid 3153] (13)Permission denied: AH00920: Failed to reopen mutex balancer://mycluster in child [Sat Oct 27 00:16:24.506407 2012] [proxy_balancer:crit] [pid 3152] (13)Permission denied: AH01206: Failed to init balancer balancer://mycluster in child Can someone please help me :( I tri googling it but there was no answer for this problem. Thank you very much

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  • (Some) security perms in WinXP corrupted (shows GUID instead of username)

    - by Andy
    I've been using my Win XP machine (part of a domain) over the holiday period, so until yesterday it hadn't rebooted for about five days. I used it yesterday perfectly fine and shut it down. When I switched it on this morning the majority (but not all) of my shortcut links in the Quick Launch toolbar showed as generic file icons. If you open the folder and get properties on one of the failing shortcuts it says ''Target type: This is not a valid shortcut''. Then in Outlook I noticed my signature wasn't showing (I checked my sent folder and the sig was ok yesterday). Checking the signature folder, I can't see the security tab on any of the sig files, and I have an access denied message on trying to open them. I can see the security tab on the signature folder itself, just none of the contents. If I try and use the parent folder's security tab and ''Replace permission entries on all child objects with entries shown here that apply to child objects'' it appears to work fine, but makes no actual difference. I logged in as administrator and saw that the owner of the files showed up as a GUID (clearly should've been my account in its place). Any ideas what might have made that happen? So far I haven't heard any similar complaints from anyone else at the office...

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  • Avoid Jquery Plugin Conflict

    - by user1511579
    on the same page i'm using this plugin: $g=jQuery.noConflict(); $g(function() { /* number of fieldsets */ var fieldsetCount = $g('#formElem').children().length; /* current position of fieldset / navigation link */ var current = 1; /* sum and save the widths of each one of the fieldsets set the final sum as the total width of the steps element */ var stepsWidth = 0; var widths = new Array(); $g('#steps .step').each(function(i){ var $step = $g(this); widths[i]   = stepsWidth; stepsWidth += $step.width(); }); $g('#steps').width(stepsWidth); /* to avoid problems in IE, focus the first input of the form */ $g('#formElem').children(':first').find(':input:first').focus(); /* show the navigation bar */ $g('#navigation_form').show(); /* when clicking on a navigation link  the form slides to the corresponding fieldset */ $g('#navigation_form a').bind('click',function(e){ var $this = $g(this); var prev = current; $this.closest('ul').find('li').removeClass('selected'); $this.parent().addClass('selected'); /* we store the position of the link in the current variable */ current = $this.parent().index() + 1; /* animate / slide to the next or to the corresponding fieldset. The order of the links in the navigation is the order of the fieldsets. Also, after sliding, we trigger the focus on the first  input element of the new fieldset If we clicked on the last link (confirmation), then we validate all the fieldsets, otherwise we validate the previous one before the form slided */ $g('#steps').stop().animate({ marginLeft: '-' + widths[current-1] + 'px' },500,function(){ if(current == fieldsetCount) validateSteps(); else validateStep(prev); $g('#formElem').children(':nth-child('+ parseInt(current) +')').find(':input:first').focus(); }); e.preventDefault(); }); /* clicking on the tab (on the last input of each fieldset), makes the form slide to the next step */ $g('#formElem > fieldset').each(function(){ var $fieldset = $g(this); $fieldset.children(':last').find(':input').keydown(function(e){ if (e.which == 9){ $g('#navigation_form li:nth-child(' + (parseInt(current)+1) + ') a').click(); /* force the blur for validation */ $g(this).blur(); e.preventDefault(); } }); }); /* validates errors on all the fieldsets records if the Form has errors in $('#formElem').data() */ function validateSteps(){ var FormErrors = false; for(var i = 1; i < fieldsetCount; ++i){ var error = validateStep(i); if(error == -1) FormErrors = true; } $g('#formElem').data('errors',FormErrors); } /* validates one fieldset and returns -1 if errors found, or 1 if not */ function validateStep(step){ if(step == fieldsetCount) return; var error = 1; var hasError = false; $g('#formElem').children(':nth-child('+ parseInt(step) +')').find(':input:not(button)').each(function(){ var $this = $g(this); var valueLength = jQuery.trim($this.val()).length; if(valueLength == ''){ hasError = true; $this.css('background-color','#FFEDEF'); } else $this.css('background-color','#FFFFFF'); }); var $link = $g('#navigation_form li:nth-child(' + parseInt(step) + ') a'); $link.parent().find('.error,.checked').remove(); var valclass = 'checked'; if(hasError){ error = -1; valclass = 'error'; } $g('<span class="'+valclass+'"></span>').insertAfter($link); return error; } /* if there are errors don't allow the user to submit */ $g('#registerButton').bind('click',function(){ if($g('#formElem').data('errors')){ alert('Please correct the errors in the Form'); return false; } }); }); and this one: (function($){ $countCursos = 1; $countFormsA = 1; $countFormsB = 1; $.fn.addForms = function(idform){ var adicionar_curso = "<p>"+ " <label for='nome_curso'>Nome do Curso</label>"+ " <input id='nome_curso' name='nome_curso["+$countCursos+"]' type='text' />"+ " </p>"; var myform2 = "<table>"+ " <tr>"+ " <td>Field C</td>"+ " <td><input type='text' name='fieldc["+$countFormsA+"]'></td>"+ " <td>Field D ("+$countFormsA+"):</td>"+ " <td><textarea name='fieldd["+$countFormsA+"]'></textarea></td>"+ " <td><button>remove</button></td>"+ " </tr>"+ "</table>"; var myform3 = "<table>"+ " <tr>"+ " <td>Field C</td>"+ " <td><input type='text' name='fieldc["+$countFormsB+"]'></td>"+ " <td>Field D ("+$countFormsB+"):</td>"+ " <td><textarea name='fieldd["+$countFormsB+"]'></textarea></td>"+ " <td><button>remove</button></td>"+ " </tr>"+ "</table>"; if(idform=='novo_curso'){ alert(idform); adicionar_curso = $("<div>"+adicionar_curso+"</div>"); $("button", $(adicionar_curso)).click(function(){ $(this).parent().parent().remove(); }); $(this).append(adicionar_curso); $countCursos++; } if(idform=='mybutton1'){ alert(idform); myform2 = $("<div>"+myform2+"</div>"); $("button", $(myform2)).click(function(){ $(this).parent().parent().remove(); }); $(this).append(myform2); $countFormsA++; } if(idform=='mybutton2'){ alert(idform); myform3 = $("<div>"+myform3+"</div>"); $("button", $(myform3)).click(function(){ $(this).parent().parent().remove(); }); $(this).append(myform3); $countFormsB++; } }; })(jQuery); $(function(){ $("#mybutton1").bind("click", function(e){ e.preventDefault(); var idform=this.id; if($countFormsA<3){ $("#container1").addForms(idform); } }); }); $(function(){ $("#novo_curso").bind("click", function(e){ e.preventDefault(); var idform=this.id; alert(idform); if($countCursos<3){ $("#outro_curso").addForms(idform); } }); }); $(function(){ $("#mybutton2").bind("click", function(e){ e.preventDefault(); var idform=this.id; if($countFormsB<3){ $("#container2").addForms(idform); } }); }); My problem is the two are making conflict: I added previously the $g on the first to avoid conflict, but the truth is they don't work together, any hint how can i configure the second one to avoid this? Thanks in advance!

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  • How to autosum value on dropdown and radio select

    - by Wilf
    I'm working on an auto calculation form which is a total column will change after a radio and a dropdown is clicked. I can make the total change for both dropdowns but the problem occurs when I tried to add a radio option. Here is my code. HTML Ages 10+: <select id="Adult" name="Adult"> <option selected="selected" value="0">0</option> <option value="1">1</option> <option value="2">2</option> <option value="3">3</option> <option value="4">4</option> <option value="5">5</option> <option value="6">6</option> <option value="7">7</option> <option value="8">8</option> <option value="9">9</option> </select> <br />Ages 3-9: <select id="Child" name="Child"> <option selected="selected" value="0">0</option> <option value="1">1</option> <option value="2">2</option> <option value="3">3</option> <option value="4">4</option> <option value="5">5</option> <option value="6">6</option> <option value="7">7</option> <option value="8">8</option> <option value="9">9</option> </select> <br />Food <input type="radio" name="food" id="food0" value="0" /> <label for="food0">No</label> <input type="radio" name="food" id="food1" value="10" /> <label for="food1">Yes</label> <table width="100%" border="1" align="center"> <tr> <td>Product</td> <td>Ages 10+</td> <td>Ages 3-9</td> <td>Food</td> <td>Price</td> </tr> <tr> <td>2 Day Ticket</td> <td>$235.00</td> <td>$223.00</td> <td><span id="food">0</span> </td> <td>$<span class="amount" id="2DayTotal"></span> </td> </tr> <tr> <td>3 Day Ticket</td> <td>$301.00</td> <td>$285.00</td> <td><span id="food">0</span> </td> <td>$<span class="amount" id="3DayTotal"></span> </td> </tr> <tr> <td>4 Day Ticket</td> <td>$315.00</td> <td>$298.00</td> <td><span id="food">0</span> </td> <td>$<span class="amount" id="4DayTotal"></span> </td> </tr> <tr> <td>5 Day Ticket</td> <td>$328.00</td> <td>$309.00</td> <td><span id="food">0</span> </td> <td>$<span class="amount" id="5DayTotal"></span> </td> </tr> </table> JavaScript var numAdult = 0; var numChild = 0; $("#Adult").change(function () { numAdult = $("#Adult").val(); calcTotals(); }); $("#Child").change(function () { numChild = $("#Child").val(); calcTotals(); }); $('input[type=radio]').change(function(evt) { $('#food').html($(this).val()); }); function calcTotals() { $("#2DayTotal").text(235 * numAdult + 223 * numChild); $("#3DayTotal").text(301 * numAdult + 285 * numChild); $("#4DayTotal").text(315 * numAdult + 298 * numChild); $("#5DayTotal").text(328 * numAdult + 309 * numChild); } The issues are: I'd like the food column change to it's value when a radio is click. It works only the first id. After a radio is clicked. A fumction calcTotals() is called to sum an additional food cost. Demo here : http://jsfiddle.net/4Jegn/178/ Please be advice.

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  • HTG Reviews the CODE Keyboard: Old School Construction Meets Modern Amenities

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    There’s nothing quite as satisfying as the smooth and crisp action of a well built keyboard. If you’re tired of  mushy keys and cheap feeling keyboards, a well-constructed mechanical keyboard is a welcome respite from the $10 keyboard that came with your computer. Read on as we put the CODE mechanical keyboard through the paces. What is the CODE Keyboard? The CODE keyboard is a collaboration between manufacturer WASD Keyboards and Jeff Atwood of Coding Horror (the guy behind the Stack Exchange network and Discourse forum software). Atwood’s focus was incorporating the best of traditional mechanical keyboards and the best of modern keyboard usability improvements. In his own words: The world is awash in terrible, crappy, no name how-cheap-can-we-make-it keyboards. There are a few dozen better mechanical keyboard options out there. I’ve owned and used at least six different expensive mechanical keyboards, but I wasn’t satisfied with any of them, either: they didn’t have backlighting, were ugly, had terrible design, or were missing basic functions like media keys. That’s why I originally contacted Weyman Kwong of WASD Keyboards way back in early 2012. I told him that the state of keyboards was unacceptable to me as a geek, and I proposed a partnership wherein I was willing to work with him to do whatever it takes to produce a truly great mechanical keyboard. Even the ardent skeptic who questions whether Atwood has indeed created a truly great mechanical keyboard certainly can’t argue with the position he starts from: there are so many agonizingly crappy keyboards out there. Even worse, in our opinion, is that unless you’re a typist of a certain vintage there’s a good chance you’ve never actually typed on a really nice keyboard. Those that didn’t start using computers until the mid-to-late 1990s most likely have always typed on modern mushy-key keyboards and never known the joy of typing on a really responsive and crisp mechanical keyboard. Is our preference for and love of mechanical keyboards shining through here? Good. We’re not even going to try and hide it. So where does the CODE keyboard stack up in pantheon of keyboards? Read on as we walk you through the simple setup and our experience using the CODE. Setting Up the CODE Keyboard Although the setup of the CODE keyboard is essentially plug and play, there are two distinct setup steps that you likely haven’t had to perform on a previous keyboard. Both highlight the degree of care put into the keyboard and the amount of customization available. Inside the box you’ll find the keyboard, a micro USB cable, a USB-to-PS2 adapter, and a tool which you may be unfamiliar with: a key puller. We’ll return to the key puller in a moment. Unlike the majority of keyboards on the market, the cord isn’t permanently affixed to the keyboard. What does this mean for you? Aside from the obvious need to plug it in yourself, it makes it dead simple to repair your own keyboard cord if it gets attacked by a pet, mangled in a mechanism on your desk, or otherwise damaged. It also makes it easy to take advantage of the cable routing channels in on the underside of the keyboard to  route your cable exactly where you want it. While we’re staring at the underside of the keyboard, check out those beefy rubber feet. By peripherals standards they’re huge (and there is six instead of the usual four). Once you plunk the keyboard down where you want it, it might as well be glued down the rubber feet work so well. After you’ve secured the cable and adjusted it to your liking, there is one more task  before plug the keyboard into the computer. On the bottom left-hand side of the keyboard, you’ll find a small recess in the plastic with some dip switches inside: The dip switches are there to switch hardware functions for various operating systems, keyboard layouts, and to enable/disable function keys. By toggling the dip switches you can change the keyboard from QWERTY mode to Dvorak mode and Colemak mode, the two most popular alternative keyboard configurations. You can also use the switches to enable Mac-functionality (for Command/Option keys). One of our favorite little toggles is the SW3 dip switch: you can disable the Caps Lock key; goodbye accidentally pressing Caps when you mean to press Shift. You can review the entire dip switch configuration chart here. The quick-start for Windows users is simple: double check that all the switches are in the off position (as seen in the photo above) and then simply toggle SW6 on to enable the media and backlighting function keys (this turns the menu key on the keyboard into a function key as typically found on laptop keyboards). After adjusting the dip switches to your liking, plug the keyboard into an open USB port on your computer (or into your PS/2 port using the included adapter). Design, Layout, and Backlighting The CODE keyboard comes in two flavors, a traditional 87-key layout (no number pad) and a traditional 104-key layout (number pad on the right hand side). We identify the layout as traditional because, despite some modern trapping and sneaky shortcuts, the actual form factor of the keyboard from the shape of the keys to the spacing and position is as classic as it comes. You won’t have to learn a new keyboard layout and spend weeks conditioning yourself to a smaller than normal backspace key or a PgUp/PgDn pair in an unconventional location. Just because the keyboard is very conventional in layout, however, doesn’t mean you’ll be missing modern amenities like media-control keys. The following additional functions are hidden in the F11, F12, Pause button, and the 2×6 grid formed by the Insert and Delete rows: keyboard illumination brightness, keyboard illumination on/off, mute, and then the typical play/pause, forward/backward, stop, and volume +/- in Insert and Delete rows, respectively. While we weren’t sure what we’d think of the function-key system at first (especially after retiring a Microsoft Sidewinder keyboard with a huge and easily accessible volume knob on it), it took less than a day for us to adapt to using the Fn key, located next to the right Ctrl key, to adjust our media playback on the fly. Keyboard backlighting is a largely hit-or-miss undertaking but the CODE keyboard nails it. Not only does it have pleasant and easily adjustable through-the-keys lighting but the key switches the keys themselves are attached to are mounted to a steel plate with white paint. Enough of the light reflects off the interior cavity of the keys and then diffuses across the white plate to provide nice even illumination in between the keys. Highlighting the steel plate beneath the keys brings us to the actual construction of the keyboard. It’s rock solid. The 87-key model, the one we tested, is 2.0 pounds. The 104-key is nearly a half pound heavier at 2.42 pounds. Between the steel plate, the extra-thick PCB board beneath the steel plate, and the thick ABS plastic housing, the keyboard has very solid feel to it. Combine that heft with the previously mentioned thick rubber feet and you have a tank-like keyboard that won’t budge a millimeter during normal use. Examining The Keys This is the section of the review the hardcore typists and keyboard ninjas have been waiting for. We’ve looked at the layout of the keyboard, we’ve looked at the general construction of it, but what about the actual keys? There are a wide variety of keyboard construction techniques but the vast majority of modern keyboards use a rubber-dome construction. The key is floated in a plastic frame over a rubber membrane that has a little rubber dome for each key. The press of the physical key compresses the rubber dome downwards and a little bit of conductive material on the inside of the dome’s apex connects with the circuit board. Despite the near ubiquity of the design, many people dislike it. The principal complaint is that dome keyboards require a complete compression to register a keystroke; keyboard designers and enthusiasts refer to this as “bottoming out”. In other words, the register the “b” key, you need to completely press that key down. As such it slows you down and requires additional pressure and movement that, over the course of tens of thousands of keystrokes, adds up to a whole lot of wasted time and fatigue. The CODE keyboard features key switches manufactured by Cherry, a company that has manufactured key switches since the 1960s. Specifically the CODE features Cherry MX Clear switches. These switches feature the same classic design of the other Cherry switches (such as the MX Blue and Brown switch lineups) but they are significantly quieter (yes this is a mechanical keyboard, but no, your neighbors won’t think you’re firing off a machine gun) as they lack the audible click found in most Cherry switches. This isn’t to say that they keyboard doesn’t have a nice audible key press sound when the key is fully depressed, but that the key mechanism isn’t doesn’t create a loud click sound when triggered. One of the great features of the Cherry MX clear is a tactile “bump” that indicates the key has been compressed enough to register the stroke. For touch typists the very subtle tactile feedback is a great indicator that you can move on to the next stroke and provides a welcome speed boost. Even if you’re not trying to break any word-per-minute records, that little bump when pressing the key is satisfying. The Cherry key switches, in addition to providing a much more pleasant typing experience, are also significantly more durable than dome-style key switch. Rubber dome switch membrane keyboards are typically rated for 5-10 million contacts whereas the Cherry mechanical switches are rated for 50 million contacts. You’d have to write the next War and Peace  and follow that up with A Tale of Two Cities: Zombie Edition, and then turn around and transcribe them both into a dozen different languages to even begin putting a tiny dent in the lifecycle of this keyboard. So what do the switches look like under the classicly styled keys? You can take a look yourself with the included key puller. Slide the loop between the keys and then gently beneath the key you wish to remove: Wiggle the key puller gently back and forth while exerting a gentle upward pressure to pop the key off; You can repeat the process for every key, if you ever find yourself needing to extract piles of cat hair, Cheeto dust, or other foreign objects from your keyboard. There it is, the naked switch, the source of that wonderful crisp action with the tactile bump on each keystroke. The last feature worthy of a mention is the N-key rollover functionality of the keyboard. This is a feature you simply won’t find on non-mechanical keyboards and even gaming keyboards typically only have any sort of key roller on the high-frequency keys like WASD. So what is N-key rollover and why do you care? On a typical mass-produced rubber-dome keyboard you cannot simultaneously press more than two keys as the third one doesn’t register. PS/2 keyboards allow for unlimited rollover (in other words you can’t out type the keyboard as all of your keystrokes, no matter how fast, will register); if you use the CODE keyboard with the PS/2 adapter you gain this ability. If you don’t use the PS/2 adapter and use the native USB, you still get 6-key rollover (and the CTRL, ALT, and SHIFT don’t count towards the 6) so realistically you still won’t be able to out type the computer as even the more finger twisting keyboard combos and high speed typing will still fall well within the 6-key rollover. The rollover absolutely doesn’t matter if you’re a slow hunt-and-peck typist, but if you’ve read this far into a keyboard review there’s a good chance that you’re a serious typist and that kind of quality construction and high-number key rollover is a fantastic feature.  The Good, The Bad, and the Verdict We’ve put the CODE keyboard through the paces, we’ve played games with it, typed articles with it, left lengthy comments on Reddit, and otherwise used and abused it like we would any other keyboard. The Good: The construction is rock solid. In an emergency, we’re confident we could use the keyboard as a blunt weapon (and then resume using it later in the day with no ill effect on the keyboard). The Cherry switches are an absolute pleasure to type on; the Clear variety found in the CODE keyboard offer a really nice middle-ground between the gun-shot clack of a louder mechanical switch and the quietness of a lesser-quality dome keyboard without sacrificing quality. Touch typists will love the subtle tactile bump feedback. Dip switch system makes it very easy for users on different systems and with different keyboard layout needs to switch between operating system and keyboard layouts. If you’re investing a chunk of change in a keyboard it’s nice to know you can take it with you to a different operating system or “upgrade” it to a new layout if you decide to take up Dvorak-style typing. The backlighting is perfect. You can adjust it from a barely-visible glow to a blazing light-up-the-room brightness. Whatever your intesity preference, the white-coated steel backplate does a great job diffusing the light between the keys. You can easily remove the keys for cleaning (or to rearrange the letters to support a new keyboard layout). The weight of the unit combined with the extra thick rubber feet keep it planted exactly where you place it on the desk. The Bad: While you’re getting your money’s worth, the $150 price tag is a shock when compared to the $20-60 price tags you find on lower-end keyboards. People used to large dedicated media keys independent of the traditional key layout (such as the large buttons and volume controls found on many modern keyboards) might be off put by the Fn-key style media controls on the CODE. The Verdict: The keyboard is clearly and heavily influenced by the needs of serious typists. Whether you’re a programmer, transcriptionist, or just somebody that wants to leave the lengthiest article comments the Internet has ever seen, the CODE keyboard offers a rock solid typing experience. Yes, $150 isn’t pocket change, but the quality of the CODE keyboard is so high and the typing experience is so enjoyable, you’re easily getting ten times the value you’d get out of purchasing a lesser keyboard. Even compared to other mechanical keyboards on the market, like the Das Keyboard, you’re still getting more for your money as other mechanical keyboards don’t come with the lovely-to-type-on Cherry MX Clear switches, back lighting, and hardware-based operating system keyboard layout switching. If it’s in your budget to upgrade your keyboard (especially if you’ve been slogging along with a low-end rubber-dome keyboard) there’s no good reason to not pickup a CODE keyboard. Key animation courtesy of Geekhack.org user Lethal Squirrel.       

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  • Working with PivotTables in Excel

    - by Mark Virtue
    PivotTables are one of the most powerful features of Microsoft Excel.  They allow large amounts of data to be analyzed and summarized in just a few mouse clicks. In this article, we explore PivotTables, understand what they are, and learn how to create and customize them. Note:  This article is written using Excel 2010 (Beta).  The concept of a PivotTable has changed little over the years, but the method of creating one has changed in nearly every iteration of Excel.  If you are using a version of Excel that is not 2010, expect different screens from the ones you see in this article. A Little History In the early days of spreadsheet programs, Lotus 1-2-3 ruled the roost.  Its dominance was so complete that people thought it was a waste of time for Microsoft to bother developing their own spreadsheet software (Excel) to compete with Lotus.  Flash-forward to 2010, and Excel’s dominance of the spreadsheet market is greater than Lotus’s ever was, while the number of users still running Lotus 1-2-3 is approaching zero.  How did this happen?  What caused such a dramatic reversal of fortunes? Industry analysts put it down to two factors:  Firstly, Lotus decided that this fancy new GUI platform called “Windows” was a passing fad that would never take off.  They declined to create a Windows version of Lotus 1-2-3 (for a few years, anyway), predicting that their DOS version of the software was all anyone would ever need.  Microsoft, naturally, developed Excel exclusively for Windows.  Secondly, Microsoft developed a feature for Excel that Lotus didn’t provide in 1-2-3, namely PivotTables.  The PivotTables feature, exclusive to Excel, was deemed so staggeringly useful that people were willing to learn an entire new software package (Excel) rather than stick with a program (1-2-3) that didn’t have it.  This one feature, along with the misjudgment of the success of Windows, was the death-knell for Lotus 1-2-3, and the beginning of the success of Microsoft Excel. Understanding PivotTables So what is a PivotTable, exactly? Put simply, a PivotTable is a summary of some data, created to allow easy analysis of said data.  But unlike a manually created summary, Excel PivotTables are interactive.  Once you have created one, you can easily change it if it doesn’t offer the exact insights into your data that you were hoping for.  In a couple of clicks the summary can be “pivoted” – rotated in such a way that the column headings become row headings, and vice versa.  There’s a lot more that can be done, too.  Rather than try to describe all the features of PivotTables, we’ll simply demonstrate them… The data that you analyze using a PivotTable can’t be just any data – it has to be raw data, previously unprocessed (unsummarized) – typically a list of some sort.  An example of this might be the list of sales transactions in a company for the past six months. Examine the data shown below: Notice that this is not raw data.  In fact, it is already a summary of some sort.  In cell B3 we can see $30,000, which apparently is the total of James Cook’s sales for the month of January.  So where is the raw data?  How did we arrive at the figure of $30,000?  Where is the original list of sales transactions that this figure was generated from?  It’s clear that somewhere, someone must have gone to the trouble of collating all of the sales transactions for the past six months into the summary we see above.  How long do you suppose this took?  An hour?  Ten?  Probably. If we were to track down the original list of sales transactions, it might look something like this: You may be surprised to learn that, using the PivotTable feature of Excel, we can create a monthly sales summary similar to the one above in a few seconds, with only a few mouse clicks.  We can do this – and a lot more too! How to Create a PivotTable First, ensure that you have some raw data in a worksheet in Excel.  A list of financial transactions is typical, but it can be a list of just about anything:  Employee contact details, your CD collection, or fuel consumption figures for your company’s fleet of cars. So we start Excel… …and we load such a list… Once we have the list open in Excel, we’re ready to start creating the PivotTable. Click on any one single cell within the list: Then, from the Insert tab, click the PivotTable icon: The Create PivotTable box appears, asking you two questions:  What data should your new PivotTable be based on, and where should it be created?  Because we already clicked on a cell within the list (in the step above), the entire list surrounding that cell is already selected for us ($A$1:$G$88 on the Payments sheet, in this example).  Note that we could select a list in any other region of any other worksheet, or even some external data source, such as an Access database table, or even a MS-SQL Server database table.  We also need to select whether we want our new PivotTable to be created on a new worksheet, or on an existing one.  In this example we will select a new one: The new worksheet is created for us, and a blank PivotTable is created on that worksheet: Another box also appears:  The PivotTable Field List.  This field list will be shown whenever we click on any cell within the PivotTable (above): The list of fields in the top part of the box is actually the collection of column headings from the original raw data worksheet.  The four blank boxes in the lower part of the screen allow us to choose the way we would like our PivotTable to summarize the raw data.  So far, there is nothing in those boxes, so the PivotTable is blank.  All we need to do is drag fields down from the list above and drop them in the lower boxes.  A PivotTable is then automatically created to match our instructions.  If we get it wrong, we only need to drag the fields back to where they came from and/or drag new fields down to replace them. The Values box is arguably the most important of the four.  The field that is dragged into this box represents the data that needs to be summarized in some way (by summing, averaging, finding the maximum, minimum, etc).  It is almost always numerical data.  A perfect candidate for this box in our sample data is the “Amount” field/column.  Let’s drag that field into the Values box: Notice that (a) the “Amount” field in the list of fields is now ticked, and “Sum of Amount” has been added to the Values box, indicating that the amount column has been summed. If we examine the PivotTable itself, we indeed find the sum of all the “Amount” values from the raw data worksheet: We’ve created our first PivotTable!  Handy, but not particularly impressive.  It’s likely that we need a little more insight into our data than that. Referring to our sample data, we need to identify one or more column headings that we could conceivably use to split this total.  For example, we may decide that we would like to see a summary of our data where we have a row heading for each of the different salespersons in our company, and a total for each.  To achieve this, all we need to do is to drag the “Salesperson” field into the Row Labels box: Now, finally, things start to get interesting!  Our PivotTable starts to take shape….   With a couple of clicks we have created a table that would have taken a long time to do manually. So what else can we do?  Well, in one sense our PivotTable is complete.  We’ve created a useful summary of our source data.  The important stuff is already learned!  For the rest of the article, we will examine some ways that more complex PivotTables can be created, and ways that those PivotTables can be customized. First, we can create a two-dimensional table.  Let’s do that by using “Payment Method” as a column heading.  Simply drag the “Payment Method” heading to the Column Labels box: Which looks like this: Starting to get very cool! Let’s make it a three-dimensional table.  What could such a table possibly look like?  Well, let’s see… Drag the “Package” column/heading to the Report Filter box: Notice where it ends up…. This allows us to filter our report based on which “holiday package” was being purchased.  For example, we can see the breakdown of salesperson vs payment method for all packages, or, with a couple of clicks, change it to show the same breakdown for the “Sunseekers” package: And so, if you think about it the right way, our PivotTable is now three-dimensional.  Let’s keep customizing… If it turns out, say, that we only want to see cheque and credit card transactions (i.e. no cash transactions), then we can deselect the “Cash” item from the column headings.  Click the drop-down arrow next to Column Labels, and untick “Cash”: Let’s see what that looks like…As you can see, “Cash” is gone. Formatting This is obviously a very powerful system, but so far the results look very plain and boring.  For a start, the numbers that we’re summing do not look like dollar amounts – just plain old numbers.  Let’s rectify that. A temptation might be to do what we’re used to doing in such circumstances and simply select the whole table (or the whole worksheet) and use the standard number formatting buttons on the toolbar to complete the formatting.  The problem with that approach is that if you ever change the structure of the PivotTable in the future (which is 99% likely), then those number formats will be lost.  We need a way that will make them (semi-)permanent. First, we locate the “Sum of Amount” entry in the Values box, and click on it.  A menu appears.  We select Value Field Settings… from the menu: The Value Field Settings box appears. Click the Number Format button, and the standard Format Cells box appears: From the Category list, select (say) Accounting, and drop the number of decimal places to 0.  Click OK a few times to get back to the PivotTable… As you can see, the numbers have been correctly formatted as dollar amounts. While we’re on the subject of formatting, let’s format the entire PivotTable.  There are a few ways to do this.  Let’s use a simple one… Click the PivotTable Tools/Design tab: Then drop down the arrow in the bottom-right of the PivotTable Styles list to see a vast collection of built-in styles: Choose any one that appeals, and look at the result in your PivotTable:   Other Options We can work with dates as well.  Now usually, there are many, many dates in a transaction list such as the one we started with.  But Excel provides the option to group data items together by day, week, month, year, etc.  Let’s see how this is done. First, let’s remove the “Payment Method” column from the Column Labels box (simply drag it back up to the field list), and replace it with the “Date Booked” column: As you can see, this makes our PivotTable instantly useless, giving us one column for each date that a transaction occurred on – a very wide table! To fix this, right-click on any date and select Group… from the context-menu: The grouping box appears.  We select Months and click OK: Voila!  A much more useful table: (Incidentally, this table is virtually identical to the one shown at the beginning of this article – the original sales summary that was created manually.) Another cool thing to be aware of is that you can have more than one set of row headings (or column headings): …which looks like this…. You can do a similar thing with column headings (or even report filters). Keeping things simple again, let’s see how to plot averaged values, rather than summed values. First, click on “Sum of Amount”, and select Value Field Settings… from the context-menu that appears: In the Summarize value field by list in the Value Field Settings box, select Average: While we’re here, let’s change the Custom Name, from “Average of Amount” to something a little more concise.  Type in something like “Avg”: Click OK, and see what it looks like.  Notice that all the values change from summed totals to averages, and the table title (top-left cell) has changed to “Avg”: If we like, we can even have sums, averages and counts (counts = how many sales there were) all on the same PivotTable! Here are the steps to get something like that in place (starting from a blank PivotTable): Drag “Salesperson” into the Column Labels Drag “Amount” field down into the Values box three times For the first “Amount” field, change its custom name to “Total” and it’s number format to Accounting (0 decimal places) For the second “Amount” field, change its custom name to “Average”, its function to Average and it’s number format to Accounting (0 decimal places) For the third “Amount” field, change its name to “Count” and its function to Count Drag the automatically created field from Column Labels to Row Labels Here’s what we end up with: Total, average and count on the same PivotTable! Conclusion There are many, many more features and options for PivotTables created by Microsoft Excel – far too many to list in an article like this.  To fully cover the potential of PivotTables, a small book (or a large website) would be required.  Brave and/or geeky readers can explore PivotTables further quite easily:  Simply right-click on just about everything, and see what options become available to you.  There are also the two ribbon-tabs: PivotTable Tools/Options and Design.  It doesn’t matter if you make a mistake – it’s easy to delete the PivotTable and start again – a possibility old DOS users of Lotus 1-2-3 never had. We’ve included an Excel that should work with most versions of Excel, so you can download to practice your PivotTable skills. Download Our Practice Excel File Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Magnify Selected Cells In Excel 2007Share Access Data with Excel in Office 2010Make Excel 2007 Print Gridlines In Workbook FileMake Excel 2007 Always Save in Excel 2003 FormatConvert Older Excel Documents to Excel 2007 Format TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day, 3/23/10 New Stinger from McAfee Helps Remove ‘FakeAlert’ Threats Google Apps Marketplace: Tools & Services For Google Apps Users Get News Quick and Precise With Newser Scan for Viruses in Ubuntu using ClamAV Replace Your Windows Task Manager With System Explorer

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  • Built-in GZip/Deflate Compression on IIS 7.x

    - by Rick Strahl
    IIS 7 improves internal compression functionality dramatically making it much easier than previous versions to take advantage of compression that’s built-in to the Web server. IIS 7 also supports dynamic compression which allows automatic compression of content created in your own applications (ASP.NET or otherwise!). The scheme is based on content-type sniffing and so it works with any kind of Web application framework. While static compression on IIS 7 is super easy to set up and turned on by default for most text content (text/*, which includes HTML and CSS, as well as for JavaScript, Atom, XAML, XML), setting up dynamic compression is a bit more involved, mostly because the various default compression settings are set in multiple places down the IIS –> ASP.NET hierarchy. Let’s take a look at each of the two approaches available: Static Compression Compresses static content from the hard disk. IIS can cache this content by compressing the file once and storing the compressed file on disk and serving the compressed alias whenever static content is requested and it hasn’t changed. The overhead for this is minimal and should be aggressively enabled. Dynamic Compression Works against application generated output from applications like your ASP.NET apps. Unlike static content, dynamic content must be compressed every time a page that requests it regenerates its content. As such dynamic compression has a much bigger impact than static caching. How Compression is configured Compression in IIS 7.x  is configured with two .config file elements in the <system.WebServer> space. The elements can be set anywhere in the IIS/ASP.NET configuration pipeline all the way from ApplicationHost.config down to the local web.config file. The following is from the the default setting in ApplicationHost.config (in the %windir%\System32\inetsrv\config forlder) on IIS 7.5 with a couple of small adjustments (added json output and enabled dynamic compression): <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <configuration> <system.webServer> <httpCompression directory="%SystemDrive%\inetpub\temp\IIS Temporary Compressed Files"> <scheme name="gzip" dll="%Windir%\system32\inetsrv\gzip.dll" staticCompressionLevel="9" /> <dynamicTypes> <add mimeType="text/*" enabled="true" /> <add mimeType="message/*" enabled="true" /> <add mimeType="application/x-javascript" enabled="true" /> <add mimeType="application/json" enabled="true" /> <add mimeType="*/*" enabled="false" /> </dynamicTypes> <staticTypes> <add mimeType="text/*" enabled="true" /> <add mimeType="message/*" enabled="true" /> <add mimeType="application/x-javascript" enabled="true" /> <add mimeType="application/atom+xml" enabled="true" /> <add mimeType="application/xaml+xml" enabled="true" /> <add mimeType="*/*" enabled="false" /> </staticTypes> </httpCompression> <urlCompression doStaticCompression="true" doDynamicCompression="true" /> </system.webServer> </configuration> You can find documentation on the httpCompression and urlCompression keys here respectively: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms690689%28v=vs.90%29.aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa347437%28v=vs.90%29.aspx The httpCompression Element – What and How to compress Basically httpCompression configures what types to compress and how to compress them. It specifies the DLL that handles gzip encoding and the types of documents that are to be compressed. Types are set up based on mime-types which looks at returned Content-Type headers in HTTP responses. For example, I added the application/json to mime type to my dynamic compression types above to allow that content to be compressed as well since I have quite a bit of AJAX content that gets sent to the client. The UrlCompression Element – Enables and Disables Compression The urlCompression element is a quick way to turn compression on and off. By default static compression is enabled server wide, and dynamic compression is disabled server wide. This might be a bit confusing because the httpCompression element also has a doDynamicCompression attribute which is set to true by default, but the urlCompression attribute by the same name actually overrides it. The urlCompression element only has three attributes: doStaticCompression, doDynamicCompression and dynamicCompressionBeforeCache. The doCompression attributes are the final determining factor whether compression is enabled, so it’s a good idea to be explcit! The default for doDynamicCompression='false”, but doStaticCompression="true"! Static Compression is enabled by Default, Dynamic Compression is not Because static compression is very efficient in IIS 7 it’s enabled by default server wide and there probably is no reason to ever change that setting. Dynamic compression however, since it’s more resource intensive, is turned off by default. If you want to enable dynamic compression there are a few quirks you have to deal with, namely that enabling it in ApplicationHost.config doesn’t work. Setting: <urlCompression doDynamicCompression="true" /> in applicationhost.config appears to have no effect and I had to move this element into my local web.config to make dynamic compression work. This is actually a smart choice because you’re not likely to want dynamic compression in every application on a server. Rather dynamic compression should be applied selectively where it makes sense. However, nowhere is it documented that the setting in applicationhost.config doesn’t work (or more likely is overridden somewhere and disabled lower in the configuration hierarchy). So: remember to set doDynamicCompression=”true” in web.config!!! How Static Compression works Static compression works against static content loaded from files on disk. Because this content is static and not bound to change frequently – such as .js, .css and static HTML content – it’s fairly easy for IIS to compress and then cache the compressed content. The way this works is that IIS compresses the files into a special folder on the server’s hard disk and then reads the content from this location if already compressed content is requested and the underlying file resource has not changed. The semantics of serving an already compressed file are very efficient – IIS still checks for file changes, but otherwise just serves the already compressed file from the compression folder. The compression folder is located at: %windir%\inetpub\temp\IIS Temporary Compressed Files\ApplicationPool\ If you look into the subfolders you’ll find compressed files: These files are pre-compressed and IIS serves them directly to the client until the underlying files are changed. As I mentioned before – static compression is on by default and there’s very little reason to turn that functionality off as it is efficient and just works out of the box. The one tweak you might want to do is to set the compression level to maximum. Since IIS only compresses content very infrequently it would make sense to apply maximum compression. You can do this with the staticCompressionLevel setting on the scheme element: <scheme name="gzip" dll="%Windir%\system32\inetsrv\gzip.dll" staticCompressionLevel="9" /> Other than that the default settings are probably just fine. Dynamic Compression – not so fast! By default dynamic compression is disabled and that’s actually quite sensible – you should use dynamic compression very carefully and think about what content you want to compress. In most applications it wouldn’t make sense to compress *all* generated content as it would generate a significant amount of overhead. Scott Fortsyth has a great post that details some of the performance numbers and how much impact dynamic compression has. Depending on how busy your server is you can play around with compression and see what impact it has on your server’s performance. There are also a few settings you can tweak to minimize the overhead of dynamic compression. Specifically the httpCompression key has a couple of CPU related keys that can help minimize the impact of Dynamic Compression on a busy server: dynamicCompressionDisableCpuUsage dynamicCompressionEnableCpuUsage By default these are set to 90 and 50 which means that when the CPU hits 90% compression will be disabled until CPU utilization drops back down to 50%. Again this is actually quite sensible as it utilizes CPU power from compression when available and falling off when the threshold has been hit. It’s a good way some of that extra CPU power on your big servers to use when utilization is low. Again these settings are something you likely have to play with. I would probably set the upper limit a little lower than 90% maybe around 70% to make this a feature that kicks in only if there’s lots of power to spare. I’m not really sure how accurate these CPU readings that IIS uses are as Cpu usage on Web Servers can spike drastically even during low loads. Don’t trust settings – do some load testing or monitor your server in a live environment to see what values make sense for your environment. Finally for dynamic compression I tend to add one Mime type for JSON data, since a lot of my applications send large chunks of JSON data over the wire. You can do that with the application/json content type: <add mimeType="application/json" enabled="true" /> What about Deflate Compression? The default compression is GZip. The documentation hints that you can use a different compression scheme and mentions Deflate compression. And sure enough you can change the compression settings to: <scheme name="deflate" dll="%Windir%\system32\inetsrv\gzip.dll" staticCompressionLevel="9" /> to get deflate style compression. The deflate algorithm produces slightly more compact output so I tend to prefer it over GZip but more HTTP clients (other than browsers) support GZip than Deflate so be careful with this option if you build Web APIs. I also had some issues with the above value actually being applied right away. Changing the scheme in applicationhost.config didn’t show up on the site  right away. It required me to do a full IISReset to get that change to show up before I saw the change over to deflate compressed content. Content was slightly more compressed with deflate – not sure if it’s worth the slightly less common compression type, but the option at least is available. IIS 7 finally makes GZip Easy In summary IIS 7 makes GZip easy finally, even if the configuration settings are a bit obtuse and the documentation is seriously lacking. But once you know the basic settings I’ve described here and the fact that you can override all of this in your local web.config it’s pretty straight forward to configure GZip support and tweak it exactly to your needs. Static compression is a total no brainer as it adds very little overhead compared to direct static file serving and provides solid compression. Dynamic Compression is a little more tricky as it does add some overhead to servers, so it probably will require some tweaking to get the right balance of CPU load vs. compression ratios. Looking at large sites like Amazon, Yahoo, NewEgg etc. – they all use Related Content Code based ASP.NET GZip Caveats HttpWebRequest and GZip Responses © Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2011Posted in IIS7   ASP.NET  

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  • Pain Comes Instantly

    - by user701213
    When I look back at recent blog entries – many of which are not all that current (more on where my available writing time is going later) – I am struck by how many of them focus on public policy or legislative issues instead of, say, the latest nefarious cyberattack or exploit (or everyone’s favorite new pastime: coining terms for the Coming Cyberpocalypse: “digital Pearl Harbor” is so 1941). Speaking of which, I personally hope evil hackers from Malefactoria will someday hack into my bathroom scale – which in a future time will be connected to the Internet because, gosh, wouldn’t it be great to have absolutely everything in your life Internet-enabled? – and recalibrate it so I’m 10 pounds thinner. The horror. In part, my focus on public policy is due to an admitted limitation of my skill set. I enjoy reading technical articles about exploits and cybersecurity trends, but writing a blog entry on those topics would take more research than I have time for and, quite honestly, doesn’t play to my strengths. The first rule of writing is “write what you know.” The bigger contributing factor to my recent paucity of blog entries is that more and more of my waking hours are spent engaging in “thrust and parry” activity involving emerging regulations of some sort or other. I’ve opined in earlier blogs about what constitutes good and reasonable public policy so nobody can accuse me of being reflexively anti-regulation. That said, you have so many cycles in the day, and most of us would rather spend it slaying actual dragons than participating in focus groups on whether dragons are really a problem, whether lassoing them (with organic, sustainable and recyclable lassos) is preferable to slaying them – after all, dragons are people, too - and whether we need lasso compliance auditors to make sure lassos are being used correctly and humanely. (A point that seems to evade many rule makers: slaying dragons actually accomplishes something, whereas talking about “approved dragon slaying procedures and requirements” wastes the time of those who are competent to dispatch actual dragons and who were doing so very well without the input of “dragon-slaying theorists.”) Unfortunately for so many of us who would just get on with doing our day jobs, cybersecurity is rapidly devolving into the “focus groups on dragon dispatching” realm, which actual dragons slayers have little choice but to participate in. The general trend in cybersecurity is that powers-that-be – which encompasses groups other than just legislators – are often increasingly concerned and therefore feel they need to Do Something About Cybersecurity. Many seem to believe that if only we had the right amount of regulation and oversight, there would be no data breaches: a breach simply must mean Someone Is At Fault and Needs Supervision. (Leaving aside the fact that we have lots of home invasions despite a) guard dogs b) liberal carry permits c) alarm systems d) etc.) Also note that many well-managed and security-aware organizations, like the US Department of Defense, still get hacked. More specifically, many powers-that-be feel they must direct industry in a multiplicity of ways, up to and including how we actually build and deploy information technology systems. The more prescriptive the requirement, the more regulators or overseers a) can be seen to be doing something b) feel as if they are doing something regardless of whether they are actually doing something useful or cost effective. Note: an unfortunate concomitant of Doing Something is that often the cure is worse than the ailment. That is, doing what overseers want creates unfortunate byproducts that they either didn’t foresee or worse, don’t care about. After all, the logic goes, we Did Something. Prescriptive practice in the IT industry is problematic for a number of reasons. For a start, prescriptive guidance is really only appropriate if: • It is cost effective• It is “current” (meaning, the guidance doesn’t require the use of the technical equivalent of buggy whips long after horse-drawn transportation has become passé)*• It is practical (that is, pragmatic, proven and effective in the real world, not theoretical and unproven)• It solves the right problem With the above in mind, heading up the list of “you must be joking” regulations are recent disturbing developments in the Payment Card Industry (PCI) world. I’d like to give PCI kahunas the benefit of the doubt about their intentions, except that efforts by Oracle among others to make them aware of “unfortunate side effects of your requirements” – which is as tactful I can be for reasons that I believe will become obvious below - have gone, to-date, unanswered and more importantly, unchanged. A little background on PCI before I get too wound up. In 2008, the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Security Standards Council (SSC) introduced the Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS). That standard requires vendors of payment applications to ensure that their products implement specific requirements and undergo security assessment procedures. In order to have an application listed as a Validated Payment Application (VPA) and available for use by merchants, software vendors are required to execute the PCI Payment Application Vendor Release Agreement (VRA). (Are you still with me through all the acronyms?) Beginning in August 2010, the VRA imposed new obligations on vendors that are extraordinary and extraordinarily bad, short-sighted and unworkable. Specifically, PCI requires vendors to disclose (dare we say “tell all?”) to PCI any known security vulnerabilities and associated security breaches involving VPAs. ASAP. Think about the impact of that. PCI is asking a vendor to disclose to them: • Specific details of security vulnerabilities • Including exploit information or technical details of the vulnerability • Whether or not there is any mitigation available (as in a patch) PCI, in turn, has the right to blab about any and all of the above – specifically, to distribute all the gory details of what is disclosed - to the PCI SSC, qualified security assessors (QSAs), and any affiliate or agent or adviser of those entities, who are in turn permitted to share it with their respective affiliates, agents, employees, contractors, merchants, processors, service providers and other business partners. This assorted crew can’t be more than, oh, hundreds of thousands of entities. Does anybody believe that several hundred thousand people can keep a secret? Or that several hundred thousand people are all equally trustworthy? Or that not one of the people getting all that information would blab vulnerability details to a bad guy, even by accident? Or be a bad guy who uses the information to break into systems? (Wait, was that the Easter Bunny that just hopped by? Bringing world peace, no doubt.) Sarcasm aside, common sense tells us that telling lots of people a secret is guaranteed to “unsecret” the secret. Notably, being provided details of a vulnerability (without a patch) is of little or no use to companies running the affected application. Few users have the technological sophistication to create a workaround, and even if they do, most workarounds break some other functionality in the application or surrounding environment. Also, given the differences among corporate implementations of any application, it is highly unlikely that a single workaround is going to work for all corporate users. So until a patch is developed by the vendor, users remain at risk of exploit: even more so if the details of vulnerability have been widely shared. Sharing that information widely before a patch is available therefore does not help users, and instead helps only those wanting to exploit known security bugs. There’s a shocker for you. Furthermore, we already know that insider information about security vulnerabilities inevitably leaks, which is why most vendors closely hold such information and limit dissemination until a patch is available (and frequently limit dissemination of technical details even with the release of a patch). That’s the industry norm, not that PCI seems to realize or acknowledge that. Why would anybody release a bunch of highly technical exploit information to a cast of thousands, whose only “vetting” is that they are members of a PCI consortium? Oracle has had personal experience with this problem, which is one reason why information on security vulnerabilities at Oracle is “need to know” (we use our own row level access control to limit access to security bugs in our bug database, and thus less than 1% of development has access to this information), and we don’t provide some customers with more information than others or with vulnerability information and/or patches earlier than others. Failure to remember “insider information always leaks” creates problems in the general case, and has created problems for us specifically. A number of years ago, one of the UK intelligence agencies had information about a non-public security vulnerability in an Oracle product that they circulated among other UK and Commonwealth defense and intelligence entities. Nobody, it should be pointed out, bothered to report the problem to Oracle, even though only Oracle could produce a patch. The vulnerability was finally reported to Oracle by (drum roll) a US-based commercial company, to whom the information had leaked. (Note: every time I tell this story, the MI-whatever agency that created the problem gets a bit shirty with us. I know they meant well and have improved their vulnerability handling/sharing processes but, dudes, next time you find an Oracle vulnerability, try reporting it to us first before blabbing to lots of people who can’t actually fix the problem. Thank you!) Getting back to PCI: clearly, these new disclosure obligations increase the risk of exploitation of a vulnerability in a VPA and thus, of misappropriation of payment card data and customer information that a VPA processes, stores or transmits. It stands to reason that VRA’s current requirement for the widespread distribution of security vulnerability exploit details -- at any time, but particularly before a vendor can issue a patch or a workaround -- is very poor public policy. It effectively publicizes information of great value to potential attackers while not providing compensating benefits - actually, any benefits - to payment card merchants or consumers. In fact, it magnifies the risk to payment card merchants and consumers. The risk is most prominent in the time before a patch has been released, since customers often have little option but to continue using an application or system despite the risks. However, the risk is not limited to the time before a patch is issued: customers often need days, or weeks, to apply patches to systems, based upon the complexity of the issue and dependence on surrounding programs. Rather than decreasing the available window of exploit, this requirement increases the available window of exploit, both as to time available to exploit a vulnerability and the ease with which it can be exploited. Also, why would hackers focus on finding new vulnerabilities to exploit if they can get “EZHack” handed to them in such a manner: a) a vulnerability b) in a payment application c) with exploit code: the “Hacking Trifecta!“ It’s fair to say that this is probably the exact opposite of what PCI – or any of us – would want. Established industry practice concerning vulnerability handling avoids the risks created by the VRA’s vulnerability disclosure requirements. Specifically, the norm is not to release information about a security bug until the associated patch (or a pretty darn good workaround) has been issued. Once a patch is available, the notice to the user community is a high-level communication discussing the product at issue, the level of risk associated with the vulnerability, and how to apply the patch. The notices do not include either the specific customers affected by the vulnerability or forensic reports with maps of the exploit (both of which are required by the current VRA). In this way, customers have the tools they need to prioritize patching and to help prevent an attack, and the information released does not increase the risk of exploit. Furthermore, many vendors already use industry standards for vulnerability description: Common Vulnerability Enumeration (CVE) and Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS). CVE helps ensure that customers know which particular issues a patch addresses and CVSS helps customers determine how severe a vulnerability is on a relative scale. Industry already provides the tools customers need to know what the patch contains and how bad the problem is that the patch remediates. So, what’s a poor vendor to do? Oracle is reaching out to other vendors subject to PCI and attempting to enlist then in a broad effort to engage PCI in rethinking (that is, eradicating) these requirements. I would therefore urge all who care about this issue, but especially those in the vendor community whose applications are subject to PCI and who may not have know they were being asked to tell-all to PCI and put their customers at risk, to do one of the following: • Contact PCI with your concerns• Contact Oracle (we are looking for vendors to sign our statement of concern)• And make sure you tell your customers that you have to rat them out to PCI if there is a breach involving the payment application I like to be charitable and say “PCI meant well” but in as important a public policy issue as what you disclose about vulnerabilities, to whom and when, meaning well isn’t enough. We need to do well. PCI, as regards this particular issue, has not done well, and has compounded the error by thus far being nonresponsive to those of us who have labored mightily to try to explain why they might want to rethink telling the entire planet about security problems with no solutions. By Way of Explanation… Non-related to PCI whatsoever, and the explanation for why I have not been blogging a lot recently, I have been working on Other Writing Venues with my sister Diane (who has also worked in the tech sector, inflicting upgrades on unsuspecting and largely ungrateful end users). I am pleased to note that we have recently (self-)published the first in the Miss Information Technology Murder Mystery series, Outsourcing Murder. The genre might best be described as “chick lit meets geek scene.” Our sisterly nom de plume is Maddi Davidson and (shameless plug follows): you can order the paper version of the book on Amazon, or the Kindle or Nook versions on www.amazon.com or www.bn.com, respectively. From our book jacket: Emma Jones, a 20-something IT consultant, is working on an outsourcing project at Tahiti Tacos, a restaurant chain offering Polynexican cuisine: refried poi, anyone? Emma despises her boss Padmanabh, a brilliant but arrogant partner in GD Consulting. When Emma discovers His-Royal-Padness’s body (verdict: death by cricket bat), she becomes a suspect.With her overprotective family and her best friend Stacey providing endless support and advice, Emma stumbles her way through an investigation of Padmanabh’s murder, bolstered by fusion food feeding frenzies, endless cups of frou-frou coffee and serious surfing sessions. While Stacey knows a PI who owes her a favor, landlady Magda urges Emma to tart up her underwear drawer before the next cute cop with a search warrant arrives. Emma’s mother offers to fix her up with a PhD student at Berkeley and showers her with self-defense gizmos while her old lover Keoni beckons from Hawai’i. And everyone, even Shaun the barista, knows a good lawyer. Book 2, Denial of Service, is coming out this summer. * Given the rate of change in technology, today’s “thou shalts” are easily next year’s “buggy whip guidance.”

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  • Parsing Concerns

    - by Jesse
    If you’ve ever written an application that accepts date and/or time inputs from an external source (a person, an uploaded file, posted XML, etc.) then you’ve no doubt had to deal with parsing some text representing a date into a data structure that a computer can understand. Similarly, you’ve probably also had to take values from those same data structure and turn them back into their original formats. Most (all?) suitably modern development platforms expose some kind of parsing and formatting functionality for turning text into dates and vice versa. In .NET, the DateTime data structure exposes ‘Parse’ and ‘ToString’ methods for this purpose. This post will focus mostly on parsing, though most of the examples and suggestions below can also be applied to the ToString method. The DateTime.Parse method is pretty permissive in the values that it will accept (though apparently not as permissive as some other languages) which makes it pretty easy to take some text provided by a user and turn it into a proper DateTime instance. Here are some examples (note that the resulting DateTime values are shown using the RFC1123 format): DateTime.Parse("3/12/2010"); //Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT DateTime.Parse("2:00 AM"); //Sat, 01 Jan 2011 02:00:00 GMT (took today's date as date portion) DateTime.Parse("5-15/2010"); //Sat, 15 May 2010 00:00:00 GMT DateTime.Parse("7/8"); //Fri, 08 Jul 2011 00:00:00 GMT DateTime.Parse("Thursday, July 1, 2010"); //Thu, 01 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT Dealing With Inaccuracy While the DateTime struct has the ability to store a date and time value accurate down to the millisecond, most date strings provided by a user are not going to specify values with that much precision. In each of the above examples, the Parse method was provided a partial value from which to construct a proper DateTime. This means it had to go ahead and assume what you meant and fill in the missing parts of the date and time for you. This is a good thing, especially when we’re talking about taking input from a user. We can’t expect that every person using our software to provide a year, day, month, hour, minute, second, and millisecond every time they need to express a date. That said, it’s important for developers to understand what assumptions the software might be making and plan accordingly. I think the assumptions that were made in each of the above examples were pretty reasonable, though if we dig into this method a little bit deeper we’ll find that there are a lot more assumptions being made under the covers than you might have previously known. One of the biggest assumptions that the DateTime.Parse method has to make relates to the format of the date represented by the provided string. Let’s consider this example input string: ‘10-02-15’. To some people. that might look like ‘15-Feb-2010’. To others, it might be ‘02-Oct-2015’. Like many things, it depends on where you’re from. This Is America! Most cultures around the world have adopted a “little-endian” or “big-endian” formats. (Source: Date And Time Notation By Country) In this context,  a “little-endian” date format would list the date parts with the least significant first while the “big-endian” date format would list them with the most significant first. For example, a “little-endian” date would be “day-month-year” and “big-endian” would be “year-month-day”. It’s worth nothing here that ISO 8601 defines a “big-endian” format as the international standard. While I personally prefer “big-endian” style date formats, I think both styles make sense in that they follow some logical standard with respect to ordering the date parts by their significance. Here in the United States, however, we buck that trend by using what is, in comparison, a completely nonsensical format of “month/day/year”. Almost no other country in the world uses this format. I’ve been fortunate in my life to have done some international travel, so I’ve been aware of this difference for many years, but never really thought much about it. Until recently, I had been developing software for exclusively US-based audiences and remained blissfully ignorant of the different date formats employed by other countries around the world. The web application I work on is being rolled out to users in different countries, so I was recently tasked with updating it to support different date formats. As it turns out, .NET has a great mechanism for dealing with different date formats right out of the box. Supporting date formats for different cultures is actually pretty easy once you understand this mechanism. Pulling the Curtain Back On the Parse Method Have you ever taken a look at the different flavors (read: overloads) that the DateTime.Parse method comes in? In it’s simplest form, it takes a single string parameter and returns the corresponding DateTime value (if it can divine what the date value should be). You can optionally provide two additional parameters to this method: an ‘System.IFormatProvider’ and a ‘System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles’. Both of these optional parameters have some bearing on the assumptions that get made while parsing a date, but for the purposes of this article I’m going to focus on the ‘System.IFormatProvider’ parameter. The IFormatProvider exposes a single method called ‘GetFormat’ that returns an object to be used for determining the proper format for displaying and parsing things like numbers and dates. This interface plays a big role in the globalization capabilities that are built into the .NET Framework. The cornerstone of these globalization capabilities can be found in the ‘System.Globalization.CultureInfo’ class. To put it simply, the CultureInfo class is used to encapsulate information related to things like language, writing system, and date formats for a certain culture. Support for many cultures are “baked in” to the .NET Framework and there is capacity for defining custom cultures if needed (thought I’ve never delved into that). While the details of the CultureInfo class are beyond the scope of this post, so for now let me just point out that the CultureInfo class implements the IFormatInfo interface. This means that a CultureInfo instance created for a given culture can be provided to the DateTime.Parse method in order to tell it what date formats it should expect. So what happens when you don’t provide this value? Let’s crack this method open in Reflector: When no IFormatInfo parameter is provided (i.e. we use the simple DateTime.Parse(string) overload), the ‘DateTimeFormatInfo.CurrentInfo’ is used instead. Drilling down a bit further we can see the implementation of the DateTimeFormatInfo.CurrentInfo property: From this property we can determine that, in the absence of an IFormatProvider being specified, the DateTime.Parse method will assume that the provided date should be treated as if it were in the format defined by the CultureInfo object that is attached to the current thread. The culture specified by the CultureInfo instance on the current thread can vary depending on several factors, but if you’re writing an application where a single instance might be used by people from different cultures (i.e. a web application with an international user base), it’s important to know what this value is. Having a solid strategy for setting the current thread’s culture for each incoming request in an internationally used ASP .NET application is obviously important, and might make a good topic for a future post. For now, let’s think about what the implications of not having the correct culture set on the current thread. Let’s say you’re running an ASP .NET application on a server in the United States. The server was setup by English speakers in the United States, so it’s configured for US English. It exposes a web page where users can enter order data, one piece of which is an anticipated order delivery date. Most users are in the US, and therefore enter dates in a ‘month/day/year’ format. The application is using the DateTime.Parse(string) method to turn the values provided by the user into actual DateTime instances that can be stored in the database. This all works fine, because your users and your server both think of dates in the same way. Now you need to support some users in South America, where a ‘day/month/year’ format is used. The best case scenario at this point is a user will enter March 13, 2011 as ‘25/03/2011’. This would cause the call to DateTime.Parse to blow up since that value doesn’t look like a valid date in the US English culture (Note: In all likelihood you might be using the DateTime.TryParse(string) method here instead, but that method behaves the same way with regard to date formats). “But wait a minute”, you might be saying to yourself, “I thought you said that this was the best case scenario?” This scenario would prevent users from entering orders in the system, which is bad, but it could be worse! What if the order needs to be delivered a day earlier than that, on March 12, 2011? Now the user enters ‘12/03/2011’. Now the call to DateTime.Parse sees what it thinks is a valid date, but there’s just one problem: it’s not the right date. Now this order won’t get delivered until December 3, 2011. In my opinion, that kind of data corruption is a much bigger problem than having the Parse call fail. What To Do? My order entry example is a bit contrived, but I think it serves to illustrate the potential issues with accepting date input from users. There are some approaches you can take to make this easier on you and your users: Eliminate ambiguity by using a graphical date input control. I’m personally a fan of a jQuery UI Datepicker widget. It’s pretty easy to setup, can be themed to match the look and feel of your site, and has support for multiple languages and cultures. Be sure you have a way to track the culture preference of each user in your system. For a web application this could be done using something like a cookie or session state variable. Ensure that the current user’s culture is being applied correctly to DateTime formatting and parsing code. This can be accomplished by ensuring that each request has the handling thread’s CultureInfo set properly, or by using the Format and Parse method overloads that accept an IFormatProvider instance where the provided value is a CultureInfo object constructed using the current user’s culture preference. When in doubt, favor formats that are internationally recognizable. Using the string ‘2010-03-05’ is likely to be recognized as March, 5 2011 by users from most (if not all) cultures. Favor standard date format strings over custom ones. So far we’ve only talked about turning a string into a DateTime, but most of the same “gotchas” apply when doing the opposite. Consider this code: someDateValue.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy"); This will output the same string regardless of what the current thread’s culture is set to (with the exception of some cultures that don’t use the Gregorian calendar system, but that’s another issue all together). For displaying dates to users, it would be better to do this: someDateValue.ToString("d"); This standard format string of “d” will use the “short date format” as defined by the culture attached to the current thread (or provided in the IFormatProvider instance in the proper method overload). This means that it will honor the proper month/day/year, year/month/day, or day/month/year format for the culture. Knowing Your Audience The examples and suggestions shown above can go a long way toward getting an application in shape for dealing with date inputs from users in multiple cultures. There are some instances, however, where taking approaches like these would not be appropriate. In some cases, the provider or consumer of date values that pass through your application are not people, but other applications (or other portions of your own application). For example, if your site has a page that accepts a date as a query string parameter, you’ll probably want to format that date using invariant date format. Otherwise, the same URL could end up evaluating to a different page depending on the user that is viewing it. In addition, if your application exports data for consumption by other systems, it’s best to have an agreed upon format that all systems can use and that will not vary depending upon whether or not the users of the systems on either side prefer a month/day/year or day/month/year format. I’ll look more at some approaches for dealing with these situations in a future post. If you take away one thing from this post, make it an understanding of the importance of knowing where the dates that pass through your system come from and are going to. You will likely want to vary your parsing and formatting approach depending on your audience.

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  • CAKeyframeAnimation - Examples

    - by Brian
    I have a a menu that is a CALayer that will slide across the screen to a given point. I want the effect where the menu will go a little past the point, then a little before the point, and then land on the point. I can move the menu by applying a transform, but I was hoping to get this bouncing effect to work. I was looking into CAKeyframeAnimation, but I'm having trouble locating an example/tutorial. Any links or help would be great. Thanks.

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  • ExtAsp or Coolite - ASP.NET wrappers around ExtJs

    - by Jon
    Hi, We are a small Microsoft shop looking into ExtJs and like the rapid building of complex and structured UIs that can be achieved with the toolkit. However we have been experimenting with ExtAsp.NET (CodePlex) which is an opensource layer of ASP.NET code which wraps around the ExtJs framework. We have also noticed the Coolite framework which looks good too and does the same thing. We have 2 options, either we purchase the ExtJs license which will be required if we use ExtAsp, or we purchase the Coolite kit which includes the ExtJs license. It looks like Coolite is actually it little cheaper than the ExtJs for some reason?? However, is it a little more risky as regards upgrade path if the Coolite framework becomes unsupported, whereas ExtAsp as an open source solution will have community backing? Just looking to make the right step.

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  • How to get objects to react to touches in Cocos2D?

    - by Wayfarer
    Alright, so I'm starting to learn more about Coco2D, but I'm kinda frusterated. A lot of the tutorials I have found are for outdated versions of the code, so when I look through and see how they do certain things, I can't translate it into my own program, because a lot has changed. With that being said, I am working in the latest version of Coco2d, version 0.99. What I want to do is create a sprite on the screen (Done) and then when I touch that sprite, I can have "something" happen. For now, let's just make an alert go off. Now, I got this code working with the help of a friend. Here is the header file: // When you import this file, you import all the cocos2d classes #import "cocos2d.h" // HelloWorld Layer @interface HelloWorld : CCLayer { CGRect spRect; } // returns a Scene that contains the HelloWorld as the only child +(id) scene; @end And here is the implementation file: // // cocos2d Hello World example // http://www.cocos2d-iphone.org // // Import the interfaces #import "HelloWorldScene.h" #import "CustomCCNode.h" // HelloWorld implementation @implementation HelloWorld +(id) scene { // 'scene' is an autorelease object. CCScene *scene = [CCScene node]; // 'layer' is an autorelease object. HelloWorld *layer = [HelloWorld node]; // add layer as a child to scene [scene addChild: layer]; // return the scene return scene; } // on "init" you need to initialize your instance -(id) init { // always call "super" init // Apple recommends to re-assign "self" with the "super" return value if( (self=[super init] )) { // create and initialize a Label CCLabel* label = [CCLabel labelWithString:@"Hello World" fontName:@"Times New Roman" fontSize:64]; // ask director the the window size CGSize size = [[CCDirector sharedDirector] winSize]; // position the label on the center of the screen label.position = ccp( size.width /2 , size.height/2 ); // add the label as a child to this Layer [self addChild: label]; CCSprite *sp = [CCSprite spriteWithFile:@"test2.png"]; sp.position = ccp(300,200); [self addChild:sp]; float w = [sp contentSize].width; float h = [sp contentSize].height; CGPoint aPoint = CGPointMake([sp position].x - (w/2), [sp position].y - (h/2)); spRect = CGRectMake(aPoint.x, aPoint.y, w, h); CCSprite *sprite2 = [CCSprite spriteWithFile:@"test3.png"]; sprite2.position = ccp(100,100); [self addChild:sprite2]; //[self registerWithTouchDispatcher]; self.isTouchEnabled = YES; } return self; } // on "dealloc" you need to release all your retained objects - (void) dealloc { // in case you have something to dealloc, do it in this method // in this particular example nothing needs to be released. // cocos2d will automatically release all the children (Label) // don't forget to call "super dealloc" [super dealloc]; } - (void)ccTouchesEnded:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event { UITouch *touch = [touches anyObject]; //CGPoint location = [[CCDirector sharedDirector] convertCoordinate:[touch locationInView:touch.view]]; CGPoint location = [touch locationInView:[touch view]]; location = [[CCDirector sharedDirector] convertToGL:location]; if (CGRectContainsPoint(spRect, location)) { UIAlertView *alert = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:@"Win" message:@"testing" delegate:nil cancelButtonTitle:@"okay" otherButtonTitles:nil]; [alert show]; [alert release]; NSLog(@"TOUCHES"); } NSLog(@"Touch got"); } However, this only works for 1 object, the sprite which I create the CGRect for. I can't do it for 2 sprites, which I was testing. So my question is this: How can I have all sprites on the screen react to the same event when touched? For my program, the same event needs to be run for all objects of the same type, so that should make it a tad easier. I tried making a subclass of CCNode and over write the method, but that just didn't work at all... so I'm doing something wrong. Help would be appreciated!

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  • Could the HTML 5 Video tag pick up an IP Multicast Stream?

    - by DrewBarbs
    I've been researching methods of getting an IP Multicast over UDP to the browser, and have found little that suggests I would be able to do it without using a plug-in like Java, Flash, or Silverlight in order to open a UDP port and (somehow) render the video. Checking out the HTML 5 <video> spec, there is (obviously) little in the way of specific implementation details, so as far as I can tell, there is nothing stopping a browser from parsing a address of the form "udp://224.1.1.1:8000" and joining a multicast group on that IP/port. Is this a correct understanding? Or must the resource pointed to by the <source> be a file?

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  • Code editor skins?

    - by Khalspi
    This is a kind of unorthodox question. Frankly, I won't lie to you. I am new to programming and am planning to improve myself. I enjoy coding but I need something to keep me going during the down times, so my question is: Is there such a thing as a code editor skin? A compiler skin? For example, you have the Command Prompt, it has a black background with white writing, it seems geeky, exactly what I want. I want a compiler that looks like command prompt...black with white writing (or green) or still has color coding (some compilers change color of text based on command). Yes, this is mainly for boasting, but I don't want to show someone something that basically looks like a text editor, I just want something that looks a little cooler. P.S (This question may seem a little unnecessary, it is because it is my first question, I'd like to warm up to this community before I start asking some real questions about code.)

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  • How to modify Toolbar Icon to show Text in FCKEditor

    - by justinl
    Does anyone know how I can add text into the toolbar? I would like to add some text to one of the buttons just like how the button for "Source" has the small icon, but also has the word "Source" beside it to describe what that button does. Basically none of my test users knows that the little mountain icon is used insert an image. Because of this, I would like to either replace that icon with the words "upload image" or I'd like to keep that little mountain icon, and have the words "upload image" beside it, to help people understand that's the icon for images.

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  • Keyboard for programmers

    - by Robert Höglund
    I'm trying to improve my working environment and I'm still searching for that perfect keyboard that practically types bug-free code all by itself. At the moment I'm using a Logitech Wave for my Windows need and an Apple Wireless Keyboard (the one without a numeric keypad) when doing OS X stuff. I'm quite happy with the Logitech Wave but I would prefer one without all the extra multimedia buttons. What I like most about the Apple Wireless Keyboard is that it is very similar to the Macbook's keyboard which for me makes it easier to write code when on my Macbook. What kind of keyboard would you recommend for going all out writing code until your fingers bleed? I have remapped the Caps Lock key to Ctrl which after a while feels really good, until I have to sit at another computer or when someone at work is going to show me something on my computer. Are there other little keyboard tricks that you use to get a little bit more productive? I have looked into switching to Dvorak but I have decided it's not for me.

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  • best practices for setting development environment

    - by Sharique
    I use Linux as primary OS. I need some suggestions regarding how should I set up my desktop and development. I do work on mostly .Net and Drupal, but some time on other lamp products and C/C++, Qt. I'm also interested in mobile (android..) and embedded development. Currently I install everything on my main OS, even I use it a little. I use VMs a little. Should I use separate VM for each kind of development (like one for .Net/Mono, another C++, one for mobile and one for db only, one for xyz things etc) Keep primary development environment on main os and moveothers in VM. main os should be messed up keep things easy to organize (must) performance should be optimal

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  • Jquery UI Sortable - Get the item being sorted.

    - by Smickie
    Hi, When using Jquery UI Sortable (which is great by the way) how do you get the item that is currently being sorted. When you use $(this); it return the actual sortable list, not the current sorted item. I want to do fancy-pants things with the widget when the user is dragging it around. E.g. Animate it when dragging between two lists. So how do I get the current item being sorted? There a little code below just to explain a little more... $(function() { $("#sortable_1").sortable({ start : function(event, ui){ //get current element being sorted }, stop : function(event, ui){ //get current element being sorted } }).disableSelection(); });

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