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• Is there a switch that will connect directly to my modem and allow my router to serve only as a WiFi connection?

  - by Abner

  Details . . Devices . Internets -50Mbps Cable Internet Modem - Motorola Surfboard Extreme Router - Netgear WNDR3700v3 Switch - D-Link DGS-1008G Wired Ethernet Cable - Cat6_24Awg_ Device Configuration - Modem\Router\Switch . . Internet Usage . Wired Demand XBOX 360 1 Gaming PC 2 PC - HD video . WiFi Demand 3 android + 1 Laptop for browsing and group video chat simultaneously . . Specifics . I am experiencing problems with network speeds and reliability on both wired and wireless connections. On many occasions I experience WiFi Speeds that vary between the 15mbps to 0.50 mbs (or less) and ping ranging from 15ms to 500ms. These results are from when I notice problems with internet lag and run speedtest.net to get details of problems. I have a stretched out floor-plan and old building materials drastically affecting my cellphone signal strength as well). After Reading the "Known Issues" Section on the webpage below http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Netgear_WNDR3700#Known_Issues I bought the switch and Cat6 cable to increase speed and relieve stress on router in an attempt to fix the symptoms. I thought I'd use the router in a Modem\Switch\Router configuration. I thought I'd only have to use the router for mobile WiFi connections like android or Laptops when necessary (hopefully eliminating the problem caused by the router when subjected to all those demanding Ethernet connections) When I started unboxing the switch, I noticed the manual of this DGS-1008G shows it being connected in the Modem\Router\Switch order and not in the Modem\Switch\Router configuration I was aiming for. I have not been able to find a solid plan to remedy my specific problem without buying another expensive router. I would like to get the speeds I am paying for without buying another router. (My WiFi Adapters would also need to be updated if new router is required, meaning more $$$). I can always sell the switch and get a better one that will bypass the router because my most demanding internet connections are Wired. . . Questions Can I accomplish a Modem\Switch\Router configuration with current switch? Is there a different way to get the wired speed I need while providing WiFi only when necessary? . .

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• Educate me - should I buy these prebuilt NAS (which is better) or make my own?

  - by user29336

  I'm trying to learn as much as possible, and I think I've learned quite a bit so bear with me here under my confusion. I found a coupe NAS setups. I'm not sure if one is better than the other, other than the price being higher on some, and some coming with drives VS not. Let me list my setup so you can get an idea of what I want to provide: Macbook Pro Macbook Mini for Media streaming (so far) Windows 7 Gaming Computer Xbox 360 I'd like to provide a storage system for all these devices so they can access files very easily, I'd also like any of these devices to be able to stream media from this storage system. I'd like this storage system to be hassle free in terms of my confidence in the data integrity. If a drive fails, I want to know that I can replace the drive and all my files will still exist. I'd like to access this storage system OUTSIDE of my LAN. If I'm out on a job for work I'd like to go in, or be able to have people DL some files. This brings me to a question, is this what iSCSI is? I'd like this data system to be able to download torrents. I want to mount any drive on this storage system onto my OSX laptop as if it were a local drive attached. (Is this with iSCSI is?) I'd like this system to have a GOOD web based GUI. I don't want to install software to use it. I believe those are the most of my requirements. If I'm missing something that I have no knowledge about, can someone educate me? Here are the systems I found: $729ish on Newegg Lacie 5Big Network 2 (comes with 5TB of space. iSCSI / mac compatible, torrents, nice ui, + others?) Is this overpriced for what it provides? It almost seems like a great deal to me because of the 5TB of space it comes with vs the other NAS systems that don't come with storage but cost $600-700. Should I get a different NAS system? Netgear? Others? Do they have same features? Better? Is it better to buy your own disks? What about making my own? I'm tech savy all around. It seems cheaper to buy a premade one especially with the support/warranty it provides...

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• Logitech Optical Mouse Frozen In Middle of Windows XP Pro Screen

  - by Code Sherpa

  Hi. I have a Logitech Optical Mouse/Keyboard. I have been using them just fine with the system drivers for almost a year now. I recently updated my Kaspersky software and rebooted. Now the mouse is frozen in the middle of my screen. I am not able to login to the Windows XP Pro box that has the frozen mouse (because i can't work the mouse) but am able to remote desktop to this computer. Things I know / have tried: When I boot on the problem computer, I am able to use the keyboard, but not the mouse. I have installed the latest version of Logitech's SetPoint (with the updated drivers) on the problem computer (via remote desktop) and that didn't seem to matter. I bought new batteries for the mouse and that didn't matter. I have tried the mouse/keyboard on another computer and the mouse works just fine there. My suspicion is that the Kaspersky install has overwritten a driver of some sort. Things I have not done (and would appreciate detailed steps if you feel this is the way to go): 1) Uninstalled all the mouse drivers on the machine and reboot. Then, reinstall. Note: When I get to the Device Manager I don't see an option for Human Interface Devices (where the mouse device is). Here are my options: Computer, Disk Drives, DVD/CD-Rom drives, Floppy controllers, IDE ATA/ATAPI, Imaging devices, Network Adapters, Other devices, Ports, Processors, Sound, video, and gaming, System devices, USB controllers. Also, I should point out that Video Controller is the only thing under Other devices and it has a yellow exclamation mark. The same is true for all the items under Universal Serial Bus controllers. I think this means I have to update my BIOS but, since my mouse was working just fine without doing that, I don't think that is my problem. So, how do I get to my Mouse Device? 2) Update my BIOS. Note: As pointed out above, I don't think this matters as my mouse was working just fine under my computer's current BIOS version. Thanks for your help.

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• Choosing parts for a high-spec custom PC - feedback required [closed]

  - by James

  I'm looking to build a high-spec PC costing under ~£800 (bearing in mind I can get the CPU half price). This is my first time doing this so I have plenty of questions! I have been doing lots of research and this is what I have come up with: http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/p/j4lE Usage: I will be using it for Adobe CS6, rendering in 3DS Max, particle simulations in Realflow and for playing games like GTA IV (and V when it comes out), Crysis 1/2, Saints Row The Third, Deus Ex HR, etc. Questions: Can you see any obvious problem areas with the current setup? Will it be sufficient for the above usage? I won't be doing any overclocking initially. Is it worth buying the H60 liquid cooler, or will the fan that comes with the CPU be sufficient? Is water cooling generally quieter? Is the chosen motherboard good for the current components? And is it future-proof? I read that the HDD is often the bottleneck when it comes to gaming. I presume this is true to other high-end applications? If so, is my selection good? I keep changing my mind about the GPU; first the 560, now the 660. Can anyone shed some light on how to choose? I read mixed opinions about matching the GPU to the CPU. Will the 560 or the 660 be sufficient for my required usage? Atm I'm basing my choice on the PassMark benchmarks and how much they cost. The specs on the GeForce website state that the 560 and the 660 both require 450W. Is this a good figure to base the wattage of my PSU on? If so, how do you decide? Do I really need 750W? The latest GTX 690 requires 650W. Is it a good idea to buy a 750W PSU now to future-proof myself?

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• Mouse Error Code 24. Windows 7

  - by Cj.

  I've had the same mouse for a while, and it's been working fine until one day, it started giving me a message about a device not working properly. I tried updating the drivers, and re-installing, I even deleted old drivers in case my computer should be a little confused. It never made a difference, and my mouse seemed to be working just fine despite getting the permanent error in my device manager, I looked it up several times online, but I never found anything I could actually use, when I go to official websites, I always get the same response "plug in so so into a different place - drivers - install silverlight before you can watch this tutorial, try it on a different machine". so I gave up on that. But now is where I have a real problem, lately, my little strange error evolved into a fullblown Error 24, and my mouse is starting to turn on and off randomely, especially when it is being used, but I do hear it go "badum..dadum" when I'm off doing something else. when I looked up error code 24, I really didn't find much other than it meaning: Code 24 This device is not present, is not working properly, or does not have all its drivers installed. (Code 24) Cause The device is installed incorrectly. The problem could be a hardware failure, or a new driver might be needed. Devices stay in this state if they have been prepared for removal. After you remove the device, this error disappears. But, I have tried uninstalling the device entirely several times, and it'll go right back to its previous state with error 24, and turning on and off randomely. what do I do? I cannot afford taking it to a repair place, I can't really afford a new mouse either, I refuse to buy cheap ones as I am a gamer, in need of more than 3 buttons, and a good grip is important. Could there possibly be some confusion in the registry? I do remember having gotten some early problems after I converted my vista to windows7. But I hardly dare going in there unless I'm 100% certain of what I'm going for, and I can honestly say I am at a loss here. Edit: it is a USB mouse we're talking about here. MX™518 Optical Gaming Mouse (logitech) Edit2: I am seeing no rupture, so it must be on the inside of my mouse, or inside the rubber, protecting the cable, that would be really inconvenient to search for

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• How to prevent dual booted OSes from damaging each other?

  - by user1252434

  For better compatibility and performance in games I'm thinking about installing Windows additionally to Linux. I have security concerns about this, though. Note: "Windows" in the remaining text includes not only the OS but also any software running on it. Regardless of whether it comes included or is additionally installed, whether it is started intentionally or unintentionally (virus, malware). Is there an easy way to achieve the following requirements: Windows MUST NOT be able to kill my linux partition or my data disk neither single files (virus infection) nor overwriting the whole disk Windows MUST NOT be able to read data disk (- extra protection against spyware) Linux may or may not have access to the windows partition both Linux and Windows should have full access to the graphics card this rules out desktop VM solutions for gaming I want the manufacturer's windows graphics card driver Regarding Windows to be unable to destroy my linux install: this is not just the usual paranoia, that has happened to me in the past. So I don't accept "no ext4 driver" as an argument. Once bitten, twice shy. And even if destruction targeted at specific (linux) files is nearly impossible, there should be no way to shred the whole partition. I may accept the risk of malware breaking out of a barrier (e.g. VM) around the whole windows box, though. Currently I have a system disk (SSD) and a data disk (HDD), both SATA. I expect I have to add another disk. If i don't: even better. My CPU is a Intel Core i5, with VT-x and VT-d available, though untested. Ideas I've had so far: deactivate or hide other HDs until reboot at low level possible? can the boot loader (grub) do this for me? tiny VM layer: load windows in a VM that provides access to almost all hardware, except the HDs any ready made software solution for this? Preferably free. as I said: the main problem seems to be to provide full access to the graphics card hardware switch to cut power to disks commercial products expensive and lots of warnings against cheap home built solutions preferably all three hard disks with one switch (one push) mobile racks - won't wear of daily swapping be a problem?

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• SQLAuthority News – Author Visit Review – TechMela Nepal – March 29-30, 2010

  - by pinaldave

  I was very fortunate to attend TechMela at Kathmandu, Nepal on 29th and 30th of March 2010. I would like to thank Allen Bailochan Tuladhar from Microsoft MDP Nepal for inviting me. Allen is a person with seemingly infinite energy and unlimited passion for Microsoft Technology. If you get an opportunity to spend just one hour with him, you will surely be more enthusiastic with regards to Microsoft Technology. And, I was lucky enough that I was able to spend about a total of 9 days with him in Kathmandu, working along with him in the Tech Community. TechMela Nepal Pinal at TechMela, Nepal TechMela is considered as one of the biggest events in Nepal, having been organized by Microsoft MDP Nepal. This event was attended by around 500 students and hundreds of Tech professionals. The event was handled very professionally and at very large scale. Every minor detail was properly planned and obviously thought out well. There were around 50+ volunteers from MS MDP who were monitoring this event systematically to make sure the event would run as smooth as planned. Attendees in Geek T-Shirts During this event, I was delighted to meet David Lim of Microsoft Singapore. He is very passionate in working for Microsoft Technology, as well as building deep relations with the Community. I was fortunate to spend my entire afternoon with him during the sight-seeing trip. We discussed various MS technologies and their community’s adoption as well as the way how each of us can be a part of the community activity. He also delivered excellent keynotes at the event. I must say that this is one of the most enjoyable keynotes I have ever attended. It was interesting and interactive, and I must say that I had the 70s feelings with all the fonts and graphics. I still remember him saying, “Yeah, I was a student and I know you.” Allen Tuladhar, David Lim, Pinal Dave and Guests After the keynote, everybody cheered when Allen came on stage to talk about the event and to introduce the agenda for the next two days. I must say that Allen is one of the most well-known people in Nepal. I was impressed with his popularity, and to prove this, when he got on the stage he had to wait for a long full minute before he was able to greet “Welcome” while the attendees were clapping and cheering. Technology Panelist at Techmela Kathmandu, Nepal This event was blessed with the top-of-the-top officials of various IT industries, Nepal ministries and the US Embassy. All the prominent personalities were present for panel discussion on the stage. The talk was done on various subjects. Also, the energy level which was set by Allen really echoed in the audience as they asked certain questions on different global as well local IT-related questions. The panel discussion really was discussion instead of usual monologue of one person. Pinal Dave presenting at TechMela Kathmandu, Nepal This was a two-day event and my session was on either of the day. I had a great participation from the audience on both days. The place where the event was organized had a capacity of around 500+ audience. Both of my sessions were heavily attended and volunteers did a fabulous job helping the attendees find empty seats or arrange some additional seats. I was overwhelmed with the interaction I have received in the large hall. Attendees were not so shy to express their thoughts, so both the sessions were followed up by top notch one-on-one conversations for a couple of hours. Pinal Dave presenting at TechMela Kathmandu, Nepal Pinal Dave presenting at TechMela Kathmandu, Nepal There are many questions that I have received during the event, and many of them can be interesting for all of us here so I will write detailed blog posts on these subjects. I also tried to participate in the gaming activities held at the event, but I felt I was kind of lost even if I was only playing for the very first minutes. This made me realize that I am really getting old for video games. Allen presenting at TechMela Kathmandu, Nepal Allen’s session on Digital Photography was very impressive as he demonstrated so many features of the Windows Live Product that at one point I felt he is MVP for Windows Live. In fact, he demonstrated how all the Microsoft products work together to give users an excellent desktop experience; no wonder he is an MVP for Windows Desktop Experience. Pinal Dave presending at TechMela Kathmandu, Nepal Any event has two common dilemmas – food and logistics. However, this event had excellent food and state-of-the-art organization. I was very glad that this two-day event turned out to be one of the most successful events in Nepal. I also noticed that almost all attendees rate their experience as beyond expectation and truly exceptional. Pinal Dave and Allen Bailochan Tuladhar If you ever get invited by Allen in any of his event, I strongly suggest that you drop all your plans and scheduled stuff, and accept his invitation. For sure, the event will be a very memorable one and would be your once-in-a-lifetime experience. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: MVP, Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority Author Visit, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology

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• SQLAuthority News – Author Visit Review – TechMela Nepal – March 29-30, 2010

  - by pinaldave

  I was very fortunate to attend TechMela at Kathmandu, Nepal on 29th and 30th of March 2010. I would like to thank Allen Bailochan Tuladhar from Microsoft MDP Nepal for inviting me. Allen is a person with seemingly infinite energy and unlimited passion for Microsoft Technology. If you get an opportunity to spend just one hour with him, you will surely be more enthusiastic with regards to Microsoft Technology. And, I was lucky enough that I was able to spend about a total of 9 days with him in Kathmandu, working along with him in the Tech Community. TechMela Nepal Pinal at TechMela, Nepal TechMela is considered as one of the biggest events in Nepal, having been organized by Microsoft MDP Nepal. This event was attended by around 500 students and hundreds of Tech professionals. The event was handled very professionally and at very large scale. Every minor detail was properly planned and obviously thought out well. There were around 50+ volunteers from MS MDP who were monitoring this event systematically to make sure the event would run as smooth as planned. Attendees in Geek T-Shirts During this event, I was delighted to meet David Lim of Microsoft Singapore. He is very passionate in working for Microsoft Technology, as well as building deep relations with the Community. I was fortunate to spend my entire afternoon with him during the sight-seeing trip. We discussed various MS technologies and their community’s adoption as well as the way how each of us can be a part of the community activity. He also delivered excellent keynotes at the event. I must say that this is one of the most enjoyable keynotes I have ever attended. It was interesting and interactive, and I must say that I had the 70s feelings with all the fonts and graphics. I still remember him saying, “Yeah, I was a student and I know you.” Allen Tuladhar, David Lim, Pinal Dave and Guests After the keynote, everybody cheered when Allen came on stage to talk about the event and to introduce the agenda for the next two days. I must say that Allen is one of the most well-known people in Nepal. I was impressed with his popularity, and to prove this, when he got on the stage he had to wait for a long full minute before he was able to greet “Welcome” while the attendees were clapping and cheering. Technology Panelist at Techmela Kathmandu, Nepal This event was blessed with the top-of-the-top officials of various IT industries, Nepal ministries and the US Embassy. All the prominent personalities were present for panel discussion on the stage. The talk was done on various subjects. Also, the energy level which was set by Allen really echoed in the audience as they asked certain questions on different global as well local IT-related questions. The panel discussion really was discussion instead of usual monologue of one person. Pinal Dave presending at TechMela Kathmandu, Nepal This was a two-day event and my session was on either of the day. I had a great participation from the audience on both days. The place where the event was organized had a capacity of around 500+ audience. Both of my sessions were heavily attended and volunteers did a fabulous job helping the attendees find empty seats or arrange some additional seats. I was overwhelmed with the interaction I have received in the large hall. Attendees were not so shy to express their thoughts, so both the sessions were followed up by top notch one-on-one conversations for a couple of hours. Pinal Dave presending at TechMela Kathmandu, Nepal Pinal Dave presending at TechMela Kathmandu, Nepal Pinal Dave presending at TechMela Kathmandu, Nepal There are many questions that I have received during the event, and many of them can be interesting for all of us here so I will write detailed blog posts on these subjects. I also tried to participate in the gaming activities held at the event, but I felt I was kind of lost even if I was only playing for the very first minutes. This made me realize that I am really getting old for video games. Allen presending at TechMela Kathmandu, Nepal Allen’s session on Digital Photography was very impressive as he demonstrated so many features of the Windows Live Product that at one point I felt he is MVP for Windows Live. In fact, he demonstrated how all the Microsoft products work together to give users an excellent desktop experience; no wonder he is an MVP for Windows Desktop Experience. Pinal Dave presending at TechMela Kathmandu, Nepal Any event has two common dilemmas – food and logistics. However, this event had excellent food and state-of-the-art organization. I was very glad that this two-day event turned out to be one of the most successful events in Nepal. I also noticed that almost all attendees rate their experience as beyond expectation and truly exceptional. Pinal Dave and Allen Bailochan Tuladhar If you ever get invited by Allen in any of his event, I strongly suggest that you drop all your plans and scheduled stuff, and accept his invitation. For sure, the event will be a very memorable one and would be your once-in-a-lifetime experience. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: MVP, Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority Author Visit, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology

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• 8 Things You Can Do In Android’s Developer Options

  - by Chris Hoffman

  The Developer Options menu in Android is a hidden menu with a variety of advanced options. These options are intended for developers, but many of them will be interesting to geeks. You’ll have to perform a secret handshake to enable the Developer Options menu in the Settings screen, as it’s hidden from Android users by default. Follow the simple steps to quickly enable Developer Options. Enable USB Debugging “USB debugging” sounds like an option only an Android developer would need, but it’s probably the most widely used hidden option in Android. USB debugging allows applications on your computer to interface with your Android phone over the USB connection. This is required for a variety of advanced tricks, including rooting an Android phone, unlocking it, installing a custom ROM, or even using a desktop program that captures screenshots of your Android device’s screen. You can also use ADB commands to push and pull files between your device and your computer or create and restore complete local backups of your Android device without rooting. USB debugging can be a security concern, as it gives computers you plug your device into access to your phone. You could plug your device into a malicious USB charging port, which would try to compromise you. That’s why Android forces you to agree to a prompt every time you plug your device into a new computer with USB debugging enabled. Set a Desktop Backup Password If you use the above ADB trick to create local backups of your Android device over USB, you can protect them with a password with the Set a desktop backup password option here. This password encrypts your backups to secure them, so you won’t be able to access them if you forget the password. Disable or Speed Up Animations When you move between apps and screens in Android, you’re spending some of that time looking at animations and waiting for them to go away. You can disable these animations entirely by changing the Window animation scale, Transition animation scale, and Animator duration scale options here. If you like animations but just wish they were faster, you can speed them up. On a fast phone or tablet, this can make switching between apps nearly instant. If you thought your Android phone was speedy before, just try disabling animations and you’ll be surprised how much faster it can seem. Force-Enable FXAA For OpenGL Games If you have a high-end phone or tablet with great graphics performance and you play 3D games on it, there’s a way to make those games look even better. Just go to the Developer Options screen and enable the Force 4x MSAA option. This will force Android to use 4x multisample anti-aliasing in OpenGL ES 2.0 games and other apps. This requires more graphics power and will probably drain your battery a bit faster, but it will improve image quality in some games. This is a bit like force-enabling antialiasing using the NVIDIA Control Panel on a Windows gaming PC. See How Bad Task Killers Are We’ve written before about how task killers are worse than useless on Android. If you use a task killer, you’re just slowing down your system by throwing out cached data and forcing Android to load apps from system storage whenever you open them again. Don’t believe us? Enable the Don’t keep activities option on the Developer options screen and Android will force-close every app you use as soon as you exit it. Enable this app and use your phone normally for a few minutes — you’ll see just how harmful throwing out all that cached data is and how much it will slow down your phone. Don’t actually use this option unless you want to see how bad it is! It will make your phone perform much more slowly — there’s a reason Google has hidden these options away from average users who might accidentally change them. Fake Your GPS Location The Allow mock locations option allows you to set fake GPS locations, tricking Android into thinking you’re at a location where you actually aren’t. Use this option along with an app like Fake GPS location and you can trick your Android device and the apps running on it into thinking you’re at locations where you actually aren’t. How would this be useful? Well, you could fake a GPS check-in at a location without actually going there or confuse your friends in a location-tracking app by seemingly teleporting around the world. Stay Awake While Charging You can use Android’s Daydream Mode to display certain apps while charging your device. If you want to force Android to display a standard Android app that hasn’t been designed for Daydream Mode, you can enable the Stay awake option here. Android will keep your device’s screen on while charging and won’t turn it off. It’s like Daydream Mode, but can support any app and allows users to interact with them. Show Always-On-Top CPU Usage You can view CPU usage data by toggling the Show CPU usage option to On. This information will appear on top of whatever app you’re using. If you’re a Linux user, the three numbers on top probably look familiar — they represent the system load average. From left to right, the numbers represent your system load over the last one, five, and fifteen minutes. This isn’t the kind of thing you’d want enabled most of the time, but it can save you from having to install third-party floating CPU apps if you want to see CPU usage information for some reason. Most of the other options here will only be useful to developers debugging their Android apps. You shouldn’t start changing options you don’t understand. If you want to undo any of these changes, you can quickly erase all your custom options by sliding the switch at the top of the screen to Off.     

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• XNA Notes 011

  - by George Clingerman

  Even with a lot of the XNA community working on Dream Build Play entries ( I swear I’m going to finish mine this year!) people are still finding time to do side projects and be amazingly active in the XNA and XBLIG community. With my one eye on my code and one eye on the community, here’s what I noticed these over achievers doing this past week! Time Critical XNA News: Xbox LIVE Indie Games sales data will be delayed March 17-20th due to some schedule maintenance http://create.msdn.com/en-us/news/indie_games_data_delay_march2011 GameMarx is releasing a series of videos to help raise donations for victims of the earthquakes and tsunami in Japan. Help out if you can! http://www.gamemarx.com/video/special/29/help-japan-sushido.aspx XNA MVPs: Catalin Zima shares his thoughts on the MVP summit and my book! http://www.catalinzima.com/2011/03/mvp-summit-2011/ Glenn Wilson (@mykre) helps the XNA team announce some new educational content that you don’t want to miss if you’re porting your app or game to Windows Phone 7 http://www.virtualrealm.com.au/Blog/tabid/62/EntryId/653/Porting-your-App-or-Game-to-Windows-Phone-7.aspx and Windows Phone 7 from scratch http://www.virtualrealm.com.au/Blog/tabid/62/EntryId/654/Windows-Phone-from-Scratch.aspx and shares a link to some free architectural models and textures http://twitter.com/#!/Mykre/status/46410160784158720 George (that’s me!) shares his MVP Summit 2011 summary and XBLIG thoughts http://geekswithblogs.net/clingermangw/archive/2011/03/15/144366.aspx XNA Developers: @SmallCaveGames shares a Code of Ethics for Xbox LIVE Indie Game Developers http://smallcavegames.blogspot.com/2011/03/unofficial-xblig-developers-code-of.html Derek S adds more Xbox LIVE Indie Game studios to his master list of XBLIG links http://twitter.com/#!/Mr_Deeke/status/46140996056125440 http://xbl-indieverse.blogspot.com/p/xblig-links.html Making games and want to help kids? Then share your story with GameFace: America! http://gameitupinitiative.com/about-the-initiative/programs/gameface-america/ Xbox LIVE Indie Games (XBLIG): XonaGames shares some video footage of their booth from GDC 2011 Video 1: http://youtu.be/lxIV9nk3Gq4 Video 2: http://youtu.be/GgfrjqkxR_o Video 3: http://youtu.be/yVcpXrTX7SQ Joystiq on Mommy’s Best Games Serious Sam Double D http://www.joystiq.com/2011/03/16/the-most-important-thing-about-serious-sam-double-d/ And The Escapist recommends that gamers start learning to avoid cleavage now http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/108543-Boobie-Bomber-Makes-First-Appearance-in-Serious-Sam-Double-D Magiko Gaming started a blog on the XBLIG dashboard daily Top 10 games in the US. Good way to go back in time and look at the history of which games were in the the Top 10. http://dailytop10indiegames.wordpress.com/ Where are they going now? XBLIG developers at a crossroads.. http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2011/03/where_are_they_going_now_xblig.php http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/33527/InDepth_Where_Are_They_Going_Now_XBLIG_Developers_At_A_Crossroads_.php BinaryTweed’s Clover: A Curious Tail is Xbox LIVE’s Deal of the Week! http://www.armlessoctopus.com/2011/03/15/what-luck-clover-a-curious-tale-is-half-price-this-week/ Looking for an Xbox LIVE Indie Game to buy? Writings of Mass Deduction has over 125 suggestions at this point! http://writingsofmassdeduction.com/ SkaStudios shares Vampire Smile Achievements AND their PAX East 2011 Both Setup video http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/03/14/vampire-smile-achievement/ http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/03/15/pax-booth-setup-time-lapse/ MasterBlud and VVGTV starts a new community for XBLIG developers and gamers to join http://vvgtv.forumotion.com/ Raymond Matthews (@DrakstarMatryx) covers Mommy’s Best Games getting Serious http://www.darkstarmatryx.com/?p=286 XNA Development: Dave Henry (@mort8088) posts the 4th tutorial in his series XNA 4.0 SpriteBatch extended http://mort8088.com/2011/03/11/xna-4-0-tutorial-4-spritebatch-extended/ Tutorial 5 - Creating a manual blank texture http://mort8088.com/2011/03/13/xna-4-tutorial-5-manual-blank-texture/ XNA 4.0 Tutorial 6 - Spritesheet Object http://mort8088.com/2011/03/18/xna-4-0-tutorial-6-spritesheet-object/ Jason Mitchell shares a tutorial on setting the alpha value for spritebatch in XNA 4.0 http://www.jason-mitchell.com/index.php/2011/03/13/setting-alpha-value-for-spritebatch-draw-in-xna-4/ XNA for Silverlight Developers: Part 7 - Collision Detection http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/XNA-for-Silverlight-developers-Part-7-Collision-detection.aspx Markus Ewald (@Cygon4) shares the full Ninject 2.0 binding for XNA and Sunburn http://twitter.com/#!/Cygon4/status/48330203826622464 Michael B. McLaughlin shares an AccelerometerInput XNA GameComponent he created (which I’m probably going to snag for a game I’m working on...) http://geekswithblogs.net/mikebmcl/archive/2011/03/17/accelerometerinput-xna-gamecomponent.aspx Extra Credit tackles the building of a good tutorial. Must watch for all Indie game devs (thanks for pointing it out Evan Johnson!) http://twitter.com/#!/johnsonevan/status/48452115680604160 http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/2921-Tutorials-101 ExEn is fully funded at this point so definitely something for XBLIG developers to keep an eye on as they consider releasing their games on other platforms http://rockethub.com/projects/752-exen-xna-for-iphone-android-and-silverlight Channel 9 and Greg Duncan post Mixing the Game State Management and Platformer XNA Recipes http://channel9.msdn.com/coding4fun/blog/Mixing-the-Game-State-Management-and-Platformer-XNA-Recipes Sgt. Conker has noticed Mike McLaughlin has been crazy productive and has done a recap of his recent posts http://www.sgtconker.com/2011/03/recap-of-mikebmcls-posts/

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• Office Communicator and cannot sync Address book error

  - by Noah

  We are trying to get OCS 2007 R2 up and running. The clients login fine, but when I let it sit for a while, we still get the address book sync error message of: "Cannot synchronize with the corporate address book. This may be because the proxy server setting in your web browser does not allow access to the address book. If the problem persists, contact your system administrator". When I try and download the file locally, this error comes up: Could not load file or assembly 'ABServerHttpHandler, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' or one of its dependencies. Failed to grant minimum permission requests. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131417) I googled and came across this post (http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/ocsaddressbook/thread/c28ff2d8-66a4-456c-a5ad-e445a667e8ed) which suggests removing and reinstalling .NET 2.0 but that didn't seem to resolve the issue either. When we run abserver.exe -validateDB it works properly. We even tried the suggestion from Greg's Blog (http://blogs.technet.com/greganth/archive/2009/03/11/office-communicator-notifications-cannot-synchronize-address-book.aspx) about restarting the web component services but that didn't work either. Still seeing the same issue. So does anyone have an idea of where we go from here?

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• Giving Select Windows Domain Users Symbolic Link Privilege

  - by fp0n

  I would like to setup select users on our domain to have the ability to create symbolic links on local NTFS drives and network shares without needing to run as Administrator, as part of an application with will call the CreateSymbolicLink() API directly. The default configuration for our users is to be Administrator of their computer and I think I am fighting UAC to make the privileges work the way that I want because of that. I found this link on MSDN: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-SG/windowssdk/thread/fa504848-a5ea-4e84-99b7-0eb4e469cbef which describes the interaction between the SeCreateSymbolicLinkPrivilege, UAC and a domain but really does not have a solution. Here's the three options I've come up with: 1) Create a new group, give the SeCreateSymbolicLinkPrivilege to the group and assign users to the group 2) Give each individual user (2 now, more later) the privilege 3) Give the privilege to the default User group which opens it up to all Users 4) Change config so Users are not Admins by default (probably would work but not likely) Based on my testing, only 3 works for me and that is the least desirable but I've only got a local server to test with, not a domain. I need to recommend to the admin how to set this up and also have something that we can easily explain to other users of our application that are on their own domain or not on a domain. The other option seems to be to create a Service that runs with a SYSTEM account that creates the links for the application but I'd rather not go that route. Thanks.

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• Tools to (privately) annotate/markup a website for maintenance

  - by rob

  I've been tasked with updating a website. Rather than proofreading and updating each page (one at a time), I want to make a single pass over the entire website, marking graphics/images/videos that need to be rewritten, removed, or updated. I thought about taking screenshots, marking those up, and putting them in our bug-tracking database, but that seems like an extremely tedious solution. Some of the content is similar on various pages across the website, and the entire site itself is localized into several languages (so any changes made to the English version will have corresponding changes for other languages). I also want all of my markup to remain private (that is, if it's stored online somewhere, I should be the only person who can see my comments). I found an article that lists several website annotation services, but it's not clear whether they allow private annotations, or whether these tools are even appropriate for website maintenance (many of them look more geared toward social networking). I've started making a list of some necessary and desired features below, and may add more as necessary. Annotations/markup/comments remain private (only visible to me) Comment history/tagging (so I can reuse the same comment for shared footers, items requiring similar updates, etc.) Ability to print/export a list or report of all comments for the entire website Ability to produce a categorized list of changes (e.g., to produce a list of images that need updating, which I can send to the graphic designer) What processes and tools do you use to keep track of all the changes that need to be made to a website? What features are painfully absent from the tools you use?

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• How do you install .net4 on a Server 2008 r2 machine through psremoting in powershell?

  - by Jake

  I need to write a script that installs .net 4 remotely using powershell to a group of Server 2008 R2 machines. I based my script off of http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverpowershell/thread/3045eb24-7739-4695-ae94-5aa7052119fd/. enter-pssession -computername localhost $arglist = "/q /norestart /log C:\Users\tempuser\Desktop\dotnetfx4" $filepath = "C:\Users\tempuser\Desktop\dotNetFx40_Full_setup.exe" Start-Process -FilePath $filepath -ArgumentList $arglist -Wait -PassThru After running the command I would get the following log errors (running the same lines locally would install .net without error): Action: Downloading Item Failed to CreateJob : hr= 0x80200014 Action: Performing actions on all Items Action: Performing Action on Exe at C:\Users\tempuser\Desktop\dotnetfx4\SetupUtility.exe Exe (C:\Users\tempuser\Desktop\dotnetfx4\SetupUtility.exe) succeeded. Exe Log File: dd_SetupUtility.txt Action complete Action: ServiceControl - Stop clr_optimization_v2.0.50727_32 ServiceControl operation succeeded! Action complete Action: ServiceControl - Stop clr_optimization_v2.0.50727_64 ServiceControl operation succeeded! Action complete Action: Performing Action on Exe at C:\Users\tempuser\AppData\Local\Temp\Microsoft .NET Framework 4 Setup_4.0.30319\Windows6.1-KB958488-v6001-x64.msu Exe (C:\Users\tempuser\AppData\Local\Temp\Microsoft .NET Framework 4 Setup_4.0.30319\Windows6.1-KB958488-v6001-x64.msu) failed with 0x5 - Access is denied. . PerformOperation on exe returned exit code 5 (translates to HRESULT = 0x5) Action complete OnFailureBehavior for this item is to Rollback. Action: Performing actions on all Items Action complete Action complete Action: Downloading http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=164184&clcid=0x409 using WinHttp WinHttpDetectAutoProxyConfigUrl failed with error: 12180 Unable to retrieve Proxy information although WinHttpGetIEProxyConfigForCurrentUser called succeeded Action complete C:\Users\tempuser\AppData\Local\Temp\Microsoft .NET Framework 4 Setup_4.0.30319\TMPF279.tmp.exe: Verifying signature for netfx_Core.mzz C:\Users\tempuser\AppData\Local\Temp\Microsoft .NET Framework 4 Setup_4.0.30319\TMPF279.tmp.exe Signature verified successfully for netfx_Core.mzz Action complete Decompression completed with code: 16389 Decompression of payload failed: C:\Users\tempuser\AppData\Local\Temp\Microsoft .NET Framework 4 Setup_4.0.30319\netfx_Core.mzz Action complete Final Result: Installation failed with error code: (0x80074005) (Elapsed time: 0 00:00:28). Is there some security setting or perhaps something else I've missed?

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• Searching for the Perfect Developer&rsquo;s Laptop.

  - by mbcrump

  I have been in the market for a new computer for several months. I set out with a budget of around $1200. I knew up front that the machine would be used for developing applications and maybe some light gaming. I kept switching between buying a laptop or a desktop but the laptop won because: With a Laptop, I can carry it everywhere and with a desktop I can’t. I searched for about 2 weeks and narrowed it down to a list of must-have’s : i7 Processor (I wasn’t going to settle for an i5 or AMD. I wanted a true Quad-core machine, not 2 dual-core fused together). 15.6” monitor SSD 128GB or Larger. – It’s almost 2011 and I don’t want an old standard HDD in this machine. 8GB of DDR3 Ram. – The more the better, right? 1GB Video Card (Prefer NVidia) – I might want to play games with this. HDMI Port – Almost a standard on new Machines. This would be used when I am on the road and want to stream Netflix to the HDTV in the Hotel room. Webcam Built-in – This would be to video chat with the wife and kids if I am on the road. 6-Cell Battery. – I’ve read that an i7 in a laptop really kills the battery. A 6-cell or 9-cell is even better. That is a pretty long list for a budget of around $1200. I searched around the internet and could not buy this machine prebuilt for under $1200. That was even with coupons and my company’s 10% Dell discount. The only way that I would get a machine like this was to buy a prebuilt and replace parts. I chose the  Lenovo Y560 on Newegg to start as my base. Below is a top-down picture of it.   Part 1: The Hardware The Specs for this machine: Color :  GrayOperating System : Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bitCPU Type : Intel Core i7-740QM(1.73GHz)Screen : 15.6" WXGAMemory Size : 4GB DDR3Hard Disk : 500GBOptical Drive : DVD±R/RWGraphics Card : ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5730Video Memory : 1GBCommunication : Gigabit LAN and WLANCard slot : 1 x Express Card/34Battery Life : Up to 3.5 hoursDimensions : 15.20" x 10.00" x 0.80" - 1.30"Weight : 5.95 lbs. This computer met most of the requirements above except that it didn’t come with an SSD or have 8GB of DDR3 Memory. So, I needed to start shopping except this time for an SSD. I asked around on twitter and other hardware forums and everyone pointed me to the Crucial C300 SSD. After checking prices of the drive, it was going to cost an extra $275 bucks and I was going from a spacious 500GB drive to 128GB. After watching some of the SSD videos on YouTube I started feeling better. Below is a pic of the Crucial C300 SSD. The second thing that I needed to upgrade was the RAM. It came with 4GB of DDR3 RAM, but it was slow. I decided to buy the Crucial 8GB (4GB x 2) Kit from Newegg. This RAM cost an extra $120 and had a CAS Latency of 7. In the end this machine delivered everything that I wanted and it cost around $1300. You are probably saying, well your budget was $1200. I have spare parts that I’m planning on selling on eBay or Anandtech.  =) If you are interested then shoot me an email and I will give you a great deal mbcrump[at]gmail[dot]com. 500GB Laptop 7200RPM HDD 4GB of DDR3 RAM (2GB x 2) faceVision HD 720p Camera – Unopened In the end my Windows Experience Rating of the SSD was 7.7 and the CPU 7.1. The max that you can get is a 7.9. Part 2: The Software I’m very lucky that I get a lot of software for free. When choosing a laptop, the OS really doesn’t matter because I would never keep the bloatware pre-installed or Windows 7 Home Premium on my main development machine. Matter of fact, as soon as I got the laptop, I immediately took out the old HDD without booting into it. After I got the SSD into the machine, I installed Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit. The BIOS was out of date, so I updated that to the latest version and started downloading drivers off of Lenovo’s site. I had to download the Wireless Networking Drivers to a USB-Key before I could get my machine on my wireless network. I also discovered that if the date on your computer is off then you cannot join the Windows 7 Homegroup until you fix it. I’m aware that most people like peeking into what programs other software developers use and I went ahead and listed my “essentials” of a fresh build. I am a big Silverlight guy, so naturally some of the software listed below is specific to Silverlight. You should also check out my master list of Tools and Utilities for the .NET Developer. See a killer app that I’m missing? Feel free to leave it in the comments below. My Software Essential List. CPU-Z Dropbox Everything Search Tool Expression Encoder Update Expression Studio 4 Ultimate Foxit Reader Google Chrome Infragistics NetAdvantage Ultimate Edition Keepass Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 Microsoft Security Essentials 2  Mindscape Silverlight Elements Notepad 2 (with shell extension) Precode Code Snippet Manager RealVNC Reflector ReSharper v5.1.1753.4 Silverlight 4 Toolkit Silverlight Spy Snagit 10 SyncFusion Reporting Controls for Silverlight Telerik Silverlight RadControls TweetDeck Virtual Clone Drive Visual Studio 2010 Feature Pack 2 Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate VS KB2403277 Update to get Feature Pack 2 to work. Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit Windows Live Essentials 2011 Windows Live Writer Backup. Windows Phone Development Tools That is pretty much it, I have a new laptop and am happy with the purchase. If you have any questions then feel free to leave a comment below.  Subscribe to my feed

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• How to disable auto insert notification in Windows 7?

  - by White Phoenix

  Alright, here's the problem. My hard drive activity light on my custom built PC is blinking exactly once every second. Microsoft has this to say on the issue: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/138598 There has been discussion on this issue several months ago: Why does my hard drive LED light blink every second? The problem seems to stem from primarily Windows 7 polling the CD-ROM/DVD drive every second to see if something is inserted. The Windows 7 users in the thread that was linked in the superuser question, https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/fi-FI/w7itprohardware/thread/4f6f63b3-4b58-4154-9298-1566100f9d00, have confirmed that this IS a known issue with Windows 7. Some people point at the motherboard circuitry causing the CD-ROM and SATA activity to both be linked to that hard drive activity, but whatever the case, the temporary solution seems to be to disable the CD/DVD-ROM drive in Device Manager. In fact, disabling the CD/DVD-ROM does stop the blinking, but of course this solution is counterproductive, because I shouldn't have to entirely disable a device to fix this problem. I've done the following suggestions in that thread: Change the autorun registry entry to 0 Completely disable autoplay in the autoplay control panel Disable autoplay in the Local Group Policy Editor. None of these stop the blinking from happening - apparently these solutions work for both XP and Vista, but it seems to be different in Windows 7. So I'm wondering if anyone has found out how to completely disable the polling in Windows 7, or if this will just have to be an issue we will have to deal with. There's no option to disable the auto insert notification when you go to the device within device manager (there was in XP), so I got no idea where this option is hidden, or if there's a registry key entry I could change to stop the polling. Anyone have any idea?

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• DNS Resolution doesn't work after uninstalling Cisco VPN & Deterministic Network Enhancer in Win 7

  - by Craig M

  I just upgraded my home PC to Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit. After trying various methods to get the Cisco VPN client to work, I gave up and decided to just run it in XP mode. The last steps I tried were in this article ( http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itproappcompat/thread/d880dfe5-7f44-4955-8620-2a9355d8ea8b/ ) After that, I uninstalled the Cisco client and rebooted. I uninstalled the Deterministic Network Enhancer and rebooted again. Both uninstalled successfully, but now I'm not able to resolve any DNS. The only way I can resolve DNS is to reinstall the DNE, reboot, and uninstall the DNE. Then I am able to resolve DNS lookups until I reboot again. Once it's rebooted, no more DNS. Any ideas? Edit: I completely forgot I'd asked this question until harrymc posted his answer. I've since found out that to fix this problem, I need to disable my Local Area Connection and re-enable it. Once I do that I have no trouble making network connections until the next time I reboot at which point I repeat the process. It's annoying, but manageable since I reboot very infrequently.

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• What is the collaborative screen shot/diagramming application recently featured on Hacker News and p

  - by wonsungi

  A few days ago, I saw this video for a screen capture application. I'm pretty sure I followed a link from Hacker News, possibly to a Life Hacker article. The video was very short, but demonstrated how the application could be used: The application was basically a movable/resize-able view port with a button. When the button is pressed, the contents of the view port are saved to an image (basically a screen capture.) The interesting thing is what you could do after that point. One of the specific examples from the video browsed to Google maps street view, grabbed a photo of an intersection, then scribbled notes about where to meet and where the restaurant was in colored "marker." Another example shown was grabbing a house layout from from CAD tool, then scribbling notes on it. The last part of the video showed several possible uses being scrolled through the application's view port. Now, it seemed it was very easy to share these images with other people because there was some type of integration, either with their own site and/or common social websites/chat services. The application was shown running on both Windows and Mac. edit: I think there was an iPhone app, as well. Anyone know what this application is? I tried searching Google, Hacker News, and Life Hacker already. It is not Jing.

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• What is the latest on Microsoft Expression Studio licensing?

  - by DanM

  In the past, there's been an issue with Microsoft not allowing you to deactivate an Expression Studio key. Basically, you get two keys per license. If you assign both keys (say one to a desktop and one to a laptop), then you upgrade to a new machine (say you replace your laptop or upgrade some of the hardware), you have to buy a new copy of Expression Studio ($600 for Ultimate). This seems ludicrous to me, and I'm wondering if anyone knows if this policy is still in place. I can't seem to find a EULA online anywhere, so I don't know where to find this information. I know my laptop is due for replacement soon, and I want to know if I'm going to have to sink $600 into a software product I already purchased. For background, please refer to this thread on the Microsoft Expression forums: http://social.expression.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/general/thread/da5587bc-b098-4c6a-9a56-af3608d940d0 Note that this thread is locked. Microsoft doesn't seem to want people to discuss this. This is one reason I'm posting here rather than on that site.

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• How to give wife emergency access to logins, passwords, etc.?

  - by Torben Gundtofte-Bruun

  I'm the digital guru in my household. My wife is good with email and forum websites but she trusts me with all our important digital stuff -- such as online banking and other things that require passwords, but also family photos and the plethora of other digital things in a modern home. We discuss relevant actions but it's always me that executes the actions. If I should get "hit by a bus" then my wife would be thoroughly stranded -- she would have no idea what digital stuff is where on our computer, how to access it, what online accounts we have, and their login credentials are. It would also leave my many public appearances (personal websites, email accounts, social networks, etc.) unresolved. To complicate things, I'm one of those people who don't use password as my password everywhere; I use a mix of SuperGenPass and LastPass, and also two-factor authentication whenever possible. I don't have much hope that she would find her way through a written explanation of all that in a stressful situation. I could just tell her that she should ask my tech-savvy twin brother and then entrust him with my LastPass master passphrase. I feel that would have a high chance of success, but it's inelegant and leaves my wife without control of the information. How can I ensure that my wife has access to my digital remains?

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• What is the latest on Microsoft Expressoin Studio licensing?

  - by DanM

  In the past, there's been an issue with Microsoft not allowing you to deactivate an Expression Studio key. Basically, you get two keys per license. If you assign both keys (say one to a desktop and one to a laptop), then you upgrade to a new machine (say you replace your laptop or upgrade some of the hardware), you have to buy a new copy of Expression Studio ($600 for Ultimate). This seems ludicrous to me, and I'm wondering if anyone knows if this policy is still in place. I can't seem to find a EULA online anywhere, so I don't know where to find this information. I know my laptop is due for replacement soon, and I want to know if I'm going to have to sink $600 into a software product I already purchased. For background, please refer to this thread on the Microsoft Expression forums: http://social.expression.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/general/thread/da5587bc-b098-4c6a-9a56-af3608d940d0 Note that this thread is locked. Microsoft doesn't seem to want people to discuss this. This is one reason I'm posting here rather than on that site.

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• How to add a privilege to an account in Windows?

  - by mark

  Given: A VM running Windows 2008 I am logged on there using my domain account (SHUNRANET\markk) I have added the "Create global objects" privilege to my domain account: The VM is restarted (I know logout/logon is enough, but I had to restart) I logon again using the same domain account. It seems still to have the privilege: I run some process and examine its Security properties using the Process Explorer. The account does not seem to have the privilege: This is not an idle curiousity. I have a real problem, that without this privilege the named pipe WCF binding works neither on Windows 2008 nor on Windows 7! Here is an interesting discussion on this matter - http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/wcf/thread/b71cfd4d-3e7f-4d76-9561-1e6070414620. Does anyone know how to make this work? Thanks. EDIT BTW, when I run the process elevated, everything is fine and the process explorer does display the privilege as expected: But I do not want to run it elevated. EDIT2 I equally welcome any solution. Be it configuration only or mixed with code. EDIT3 I have posted the same question on MSDN forums and they have redirected me to this page - http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;132958. I am yet to determine the relevance of it, but it looks promising. Notice also that it is a completely coding solution that they propose, so whoever moved this post to the ServerFault - please reinstate it back in the StackOverflow.

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• HP G61 Laptop wont boot- display stays off, caps and num lock indicators blink repeatedly

  - by Benguy12

  I had my HP G61 laptop running in sleep for a while. When I came back to it about a half-hour later, it was no longer in sleep mode - the power light and the Wi-Fi indicator light were on (I keep Wi-Fi off becuase I use a wired connection) - but nothing was showing on screen. In fact, the display wasn't even turned on. So I let it sit for about 10 minutes but nothing happened. I did a force shut down and rebooted. Instead of a normal boot, the display didnt turn on, the Wi-Fi indicator was off, and the Caps Lock and Num Lock lights just blinked repeatedly. On the external keyboard i use, none of the light indicators were blinking or even on. I tried force shut-down again 10 times, then unplugged all connections except for the power cable (my laptop battery dosent hold a charge for more than 2 minutes, so I always must have a wall connection) and tried to boot again but still nothing happened. I unplugged the battery and even then nothing happened. I also tried booting with the disk drive open, and then with it closed again. On the time it was closed, I was able to successfully boot into Windows, but recieved a "Windows did not shut-down sucessfully" notice. Does anybody know why this may have happened? My PC's specs: Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit 4GB of physical RAM, 8GB of vRAM (on a flash drive) AMD Vision x64 processor (don't know any other specs about it) ATI Radeon graphics card, 392 MB DVD-R/W lightscribe drive 2 External hard-disks (first one is 1.5TB, second one is 1TB) custom boot-screen and boot-annimation Standard BIOS apps running before sleep: firefox 10.4 itunes 10.6 adobe photoshop extended CS5.1 rockstar games social club (running in background) microsoft powerpoint 2010 professional edition google chrome I was NOT running Aero or any fancy themes - I was using the normal windows classic theme. I have a desktop icon manager application called Stardock Fences that was also running (it runs as a service/process).

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• PHP crashing during oAuth scripts

  - by FunkyChicken

  I just installed Nginx 1.2.4 and PHP 5.4.0 (from svn) (php fpm). CentOs 5.8 64 The problem I have is that PHP crashes the moment I run any social oAuth scripts. I have tried to log into Facebook, Twitter and Google with various scripts that I know work on my other servers. When I load the scripts I get a 502 error from Nginx. And I find these errors in the log: in php-fpm log: WARNING: [pool www] child 23821 exited on signal 11 (SIGSEGV) after 1132.862984 seconds from start in nginx log: ERROR: recv() failed (104: Connection reset by peer) while reading response header from upstream From what I can see, it goes wrong when PHP tries to make a request to any of the oAuth servers. https://github.com/mahmudahsan/PHP-SDK-3.0---Graph-API-base-Facebook-Connect-Tutorial-Source for example is one of the scripts that works perfectly on my other machines, but causes PHP to crash. I found: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3616191/nginx-php-fpm-502-bad-gateway which seems to be a similar problem, but I cannot find a way to solve it. +++ UPDATE +++ Now I have been doing some debugging in 1 of the scripts that is playing up. If you go to line 808 http://pastebin.com/gSnzRtXb it runs the curl_exec() command. When that is ran, it crashes. If i echo'test';exit; just above that line, it echo's correctly, if i do it below that line, php crashes. Which means it's that line 808 which causes the crash. So I made a very simple script to do some testing: http://pastebin.com/Rshnyhcm which also uses curl_exec, but that runs just fine. So I started to dig deeper into that query from the facebook script to see what values the $opts array contains from line 806. Output of that array is: http://pastebin.com/Cq9ffd3R What the problem is, I still have no clue :(

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• Extra Life 2012 - The Final Plea ... Until the Next One

  - by Chris Gardner

  I thought I'd share the email stream that my friends and family get about the event.So, here we are again. We scream closer to the event, and the goal is not met.I was approached by the ghost of feral platypii past last night. Well, approached is putting it lightly. I was mugged by the ghost of platypii past last night. He reminded me, in no uncertain terms that I have only reached the midway point of my fundraising goal. He then reminded me, in even less uncertain terms, that we are one week away from the event. There were other reminders past that, but this is a family broadcast. *shudder*Now, let us be serious for a moment. The event organizers claim a personal story helps to tug heart strings, whatever those are...I've been to Children's Hospital of Birmingham. I had to take Spawn, the Latter, there to verify she was not going to die. Instead, she's just a ticking time bomb for the next generation, but I digress.While I was there, I saw things. I saw child after child after child waiting for their appointment. I saw the most sublime displays of children's art juxtaposed with hospital sterilization that I could ever possibly imagine. I saw and heard things that only occur in the nightmares of parents, and I was only in the waiting rooms.But I will never forget the 10-ish year old girl that came in for her regularly scheduled dialysis appointment ... as if it was just another Friday afternoon. She had her school books, a little snack, a book to read for pleasure, and a DVD, in case she finished her homework a little early. You know, everything you'd need for an afternoon hooked up to a huge medical machine that going to clean out all the toxins in your blood. As she entered the secured area, she warmly greeted all the doctors and nurses with the same familiarity that I would greet the staff of my favorite coffee shop as I stopped in for my morning cup of coffee.I don't know the status of that little girl. I don't know if she's healthy or, quite frankly, alive. I don't even know her name, as I only heard it in passing for the 37 seconds our paths crossed. However, I do remember being incredibly moved and touched by her upbeat attitude about the situations, and I hope that my efforts last two Octobers got her, in some way, a little comfort.And, if she is still with us, I hope we can get her a little more.=== PREVIOUS MESSAGE FOLLOWS ===Greetings (Again),If you are receiving this updated message, then you didn't feel generous the first time. Now, I tried to be nice the first time. I tried to send a simple, unobtrusive email message to get you into the spirit. Well, much like the bell ringers that I ignore in front of the Wal-Mart, you ignored me.I probably should have seen that coming...However, unlike those poor souls, I know how to contact you. And I can find out where you live. So, so, so, you better feel lucky that I'm too lazy to terrorize you people, but cause I could do it.Remember, it's not for me, it's for those poor kids... and the feral platypii.  Because, we can make more children, but platypii are hard to come by.=== ORIGINAL MESSAGE FOLLOWS ===It's that time of year again. The time when I beg you for money for charity. See, unlike those bell ringers outside Wal-Mart, I don't do it when you have ten bazillion holiday obligations...Once again, I will be enduring a 24-hour marathon of gaming to raise money for Children Hospital in Birmingham. All the money goes straight to them, and you get to tell Uncie Samuel that you're good for that money. I'd REALLY like to break $1000 this year, as I have come REALLY close for the past 2 year to doing so.This year, the event will take place on October 20th, beginning at 8 A.M. Once again, I will try to provide some web streams, etc, if you want to point and laugh (especially if I have to result to playing Dance Central at 4 AM to stay awake for the last part.)Look at it this way, I'm going to badger you about this for the next month. You might as well donate some money so you can righteously tell me to shut the Smurf up.You can place your bid at the link below. Feel free to spread the word to anyone and everyone.I thank you. The children thank you. Several breeds of feral platypus thank you. Maybe, just maybe, doing so will help you feel the love felt by re-fried beans when lovingly hugged in a warm tortilla.Enjoy your burrito.http://www.extra-life.org/participant/cgardner

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