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  • Moms on Mobile: Are They Way Ahead of You?

    - by Mike Stiles
    You may have no idea how much and how fast moms are embracing mobile. Of all the demographics that can be targeted by marketers, moms have always been at or near the top of the list. And why not? They’re running households, they’re all over town, they’re making buying decisions, and they’re influencing family and friends. They, out of necessity, become masters of efficiency and time management. So when a technology tool, like mobile, comes along that assists with that efficiency and time management, we would obviously expect them to take advantage of it. So if it’s obvious, why are so many big, sophisticated brands left choking on the dust of moms who have zoomed past them in the adoption of mobile, and social on mobile? Let’s break down some hard truths as presented by a Mojiava report: -Moms spend 6.1 hours per day on average on their smartphones – more than magazines, TV or radio. -46% took action after seeing a mobile ad. -51% self-identify as “addicted” to their smartphone. -Households with an income of $25K-$50K have about the same mobile penetration among moms as those with incomes of $50K-$75K. So mobile is regarded as a necessity for middle-class moms. -Even moms without smartphones spend 2.5 hours on average per day on some connected mobile device. -Of moms with such devices, 9.8% have an iPad, 9.5% a Kindle and 5.7% an iPod Touch. -Of tablet-owning moms, 97% bought something using their tablet in the last month. -31% spend over 10 hours per week on their tablet, but less than 2 hours per week on their PCs. -62% of connected moms use shopping apps. -46% want to get info on their mobile while in a store. -Half of connected moms use social on their mobile. And they’re engaged. 81% are brand fans, 86% post updates, and 84% comment. If women and moms are one of your primary targets and you find yourself with no strong social channels where content is driving engagement and relationship-building, with sites not optimized for mobile, or with no tablet or smartphone apps, you have been solidly left behind by your customers and prospects. And their adoption of mobile and social on mobile is only exponentially speeding up, not slowing down. How much sense does it make when your customer is ready to act on your mobile ad, wants to user your iPad app to buy something from you, wants to be your fan on Facebook, wants to get messages and deals from you while they’re in your store…but you’re completely absent? I’ll help you cheat on the test by giving you the answer…no sense at all. Catch up to momma.

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  • XSLt.transform gives me "d»z"

    - by phenevo
    Hi, I have XML: <results> <Countries country="Albania"> <Regions region="Centralna Albania"> <Provinces province="Durres i okolice"> <Cities city="Durres" cityCode="2B66E0ACFAEF78734E3AF1194BFA6F8DEC4C5760"> <IndividualFlagsWithForObjects Status="1" /> <IndividualFlagsWithForObjects Status="0" /> <IndividualFlagsWithForObjects status="2" /> </Cities> </Provinces> </Regions> </Countries> <Countries .... Which is result of this part of query: SELECT Countries.FileSystemName as country, Regions.DefaultName as region , Provinces.DefaultName as province, cities.defaultname as city, cities.code as cityCode, IndividualFlagsWithForObjects.value as Status I have xslt: <xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"> <xsl:output method="text" encoding="iso-8859-1"/> <xsl:param name="delim" select="string(',')" /> <xsl:param name="quote" select="string('&quot;')" /> <xsl:param name="break" select="string('&#xD;')" /> <xsl:template match="/"> <xsl:apply-templates select="results/countries" /> </xsl:template> <xsl:template match="countries"> <xsl:apply-templates /> <xsl:if test="following-sibling::*"> <xsl:value-of select="$break" /> </xsl:if> </xsl:template> <xsl:template match="*"> <!-- remove normalize-space() if you want keep white-space at it is --> <xsl:value-of select="concat($quote, normalize-space(.), $quote)" /> <xsl:if test="following-sibling::*"> <xsl:value-of select="$delim" /> </xsl:if> </xsl:template> <xsl:template match="text()" /> </xsl:stylesheet> And is part of code XmlReader reader = cmd.ExecuteXmlReader(); doc.LoadXml("<results></results>"); XmlNode newNode = doc.ReadNode(reader); while (newNode != null) { doc.DocumentElement.AppendChild(newNode); newNode = doc.ReadNode(reader); } doc.Save(@"c:\listOfCities.xml"); XslCompiledTransform XSLT = new XslCompiledTransform(); XsltSettings settings = new XsltSettings(); settings.EnableScript = true; XSLT.Load(@"c:\xsltfile1.xslt", settings, new XmlUrlResolver()); XSLT.Transform(doc.OuterXml,@"c:\myCities.csv"); Why now I have in my csv only one cell with value : d»z

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  • MXMLC Ant task results in java.lang.OutOFMemoryError

    - by Mims H. Wright
    I'm making a change to a set of code for a Flex project that I didn't write and was set up to compile using ant tasks. I assume that the codebase was stable at the last checkin but I'm running into memory issues when trying to build a project using MXMLC and ant (see stack trace below). Before, I was just getting an out of memory error. I tried using a different machine and got this more verbose exception (including problems with the image fetcher). I've tried using various versions of the SDK, I've tried replacing the <mxmlc> tag with <exec executable="mxmlc"> with no luck. Here is my java version in case that has anything to do with it: » java -version java version "1.6.0_20" Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_20-b02-279-10M3065) Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 16.3-b01-279, mixed mode) Any help would be appreciated. Thanks! Buildfile: build.xml compileSWF: [echo] Compiling main.swf... [mxmlc] Loading configuration file /Applications/Adobe Flash Builder 4 Plug-in/sdks/4.0.0beta2/frameworks/flex-config.xml [mxmlc] Exception in thread "Image Fetcher 0" java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space [mxmlc] at java.awt.image.PixelGrabber.setDimensions(PixelGrabber.java:360) [mxmlc] at sun.awt.image.ImageDecoder.setDimensions(ImageDecoder.java:62) [mxmlc] at sun.awt.image.JPEGImageDecoder.sendHeaderInfo(JPEGImageDecoder.java:71) [mxmlc] at sun.awt.image.JPEGImageDecoder.readImage(Native Method) [mxmlc] at sun.awt.image.JPEGImageDecoder.produceImage(JPEGImageDecoder.java:119) [mxmlc] at sun.awt.image.InputStreamImageSource.doFetch(InputStreamImageSource.java:246) [mxmlc] at sun.awt.image.ImageFetcher.fetchloop(ImageFetcher.java:172) [mxmlc] at sun.awt.image.ImageFetcher.run(ImageFetcher.java:136) [mxmlc] /src/com/amtrak/components/map/MapAsset.mxml: Error: exception during transcoding: Failed to grab pixels for image /src/assets/embed_assets/images/zoomed_map_wide.jpg [mxmlc] [mxmlc] /src/com/amtrak/components/map/MapAsset.mxml: Error: Unable to transcode /assets/embed_assets/images/zoomed_map_wide.jpg. [mxmlc] [mxmlc] Error: Java heap space [mxmlc] [mxmlc] java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space [mxmlc] at java.util.ArrayList.<init>(ArrayList.java:112) [mxmlc] at macromedia.asc.util.ObjectList.<init>(ObjectList.java:30) [mxmlc] at macromedia.asc.parser.ArgumentListNode.<init>(ArgumentListNode.java:30) [mxmlc] at macromedia.asc.parser.NodeFactory.argumentList(NodeFactory.java:116) [mxmlc] at macromedia.asc.parser.NodeFactory.argumentList(NodeFactory.java:97) [mxmlc] at flex2.compiler.mxml.ImplementationGenerator.generateBinding(ImplementationGenerator.java:563) [mxmlc] at flex2.compiler.mxml.ImplementationGenerator.generateBindingsSetupFunction(ImplementationGenerator.java:864) [mxmlc] at flex2.compiler.mxml.ImplementationGenerator.generateBindingsSetup(ImplementationGenerator.java:813) [mxmlc] at flex2.compiler.mxml.ImplementationGenerator.generateInitializerSupportDefs(ImplementationGenerator.java:1813) [mxmlc] at flex2.compiler.mxml.ImplementationGenerator.generateClassDefinition(ImplementationGenerator.java:1005) [mxmlc] at flex2.compiler.mxml.ImplementationGenerator.<init>(ImplementationGenerator.java:201) [mxmlc] at flex2.compiler.mxml.ImplementationCompiler.generateImplementationAST(ImplementationCompiler.java:498) [mxmlc] at flex2.compiler.mxml.ImplementationCompiler.parse1(ImplementationCompiler.java:196) [mxmlc] at flex2.compiler.mxml.MxmlCompiler.parse1(MxmlCompiler.java:168) [mxmlc] at flex2.compiler.CompilerAPI.parse1(CompilerAPI.java:2851) [mxmlc] at flex2.compiler.CompilerAPI.parse1(CompilerAPI.java:2804) [mxmlc] at flex2.compiler.CompilerAPI.batch2(CompilerAPI.java:446) [mxmlc] at flex2.compiler.CompilerAPI.batch(CompilerAPI.java:1274) [mxmlc] at flex2.compiler.CompilerAPI.compile(CompilerAPI.java:1488) [mxmlc] at flex2.compiler.CompilerAPI.compile(CompilerAPI.java:1375) [mxmlc] at flex2.tools.Mxmlc.mxmlc(Mxmlc.java:282) [mxmlc] at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) [mxmlc] at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39) [mxmlc] at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25) [mxmlc] at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597) [mxmlc] at flex.ant.FlexTask.executeInProcess(FlexTask.java:280) [mxmlc] at flex.ant.FlexTask.execute(FlexTask.java:225) [mxmlc] at org.apache.tools.ant.UnknownElement.execute(UnknownElement.java:288) [mxmlc] at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) [mxmlc] at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39) [mxmlc] at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25) [mxmlc] at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597) BUILD FAILED /src/build.xml:49: mxmlc task failed

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  • Mobile App Data Syncronization

    - by Matt Rogish
    Let's say I have a mobile app that uses HTML5 SQLite DB (and/or the HTML5 key-value store). Assets (media files, PDFs, etc.) are stored locally on the mobile device. Luckily enough, the mobile device is a read-only copy of the "centralized" storage, so the mobile device won't have to propagate changes upstream. However, as the server changes assets (creates new ones, modifies existing, deletes old ones) I need to propagate those changes back to the mobile app. Assume that server changes are grouped into changesets (version number n) that contain some information (added element XYZ, deleted id = 45, etc.) and that the mobile device has limited CPU/bandwidth, so most of the processing has to take place on the server. I can think of a couple of methods to do this. All have trade-offs and at this point, I'm unsure which is the right course of action... Method 1: For change set n, store the "diff" of the current n and previous n-1. When a client with version y asks if there have been any changes, send the change sets from version y up to the current version. e.g. added item 334, contents: xxx. Deleted picture 44. Deleted PDF 11. Changed 33. added picture 99. Characteristics: Diffs take up space, although in theory would be kept small. However, all diffs must be kept around indefinitely (should a v1 app have not been updated for a year, must apply v2..v100). High latency devices (mobile apps) will incur a penalty to send lots of small files (assume cannot be zipped or tarr'd up into one file) Very few server CPU resources required, as all it does is send the client a list of files "Dumb" - if I change an item in change set 3, and change it to something else in 4, the client is going to perform both actions, even though #3 is rendered moot by #4. Or, if an asset is added in #4 and removed in #5 - the client will download a file just to delete it later. Method 2: Very similar to method 1 except on the server, do some sort of a diff between the change sets represented by the app version and server version. Package that up and send that single change set to the client. Characteristics: Client-efficient: The client only has to process one file, duplicate or irrelevant changes are stripped out. Server CPU/space intensive. The change sets must be diff'd and then written out to a file that is then sent to the client. Makes diff server scalability an issue. Possibly ways to cache the results and re-use them, but in the wild there's likely to be a lot of different versions so the diff re-use has a limit Diff algorithm is complicated. The change sets must be structured in such a way that an efficient and effective diff can be performed. Method 3: Instead of keeping diffs, write out the entire versioned asset collection to a mobile-database import file. When client requests an update, send the entire database to client and have them update their assets appropriately. Characteristics: Conceptually simple -- easy to develop and deploy Very inefficient as the client database is restored every update. If only one new thing was added, the whole database is refreshed. Server space and CPU efficient. Only the latest version DB needs kept around and the server just throws the file to the client. Others?? Thoughts? Thanks!!

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  • Recommended ASP.NET Shared Hosting (USA)

    - by coffeeaddict
    Ok, I have to admit I'm getting fed up with www.discountasp.net's pricing model and this annoyance has built up over the past 8 years or so. I've been with them for years and absolutely love them on the technical side, however it's getting ridiculously expensive for so little that you get. I mean here's my scenario: 1) I am running 2 SQL Server databases which costs me $10/ea per month so that's $20/month for 2 and I only get 500 mb disk space which is horrible 2) I am paying $10/mo just for the hosting itself which I only get 1 gig of disk space! I mean common! 3) I am simply running 2 small apps (Screwturn Wiki & Subtext Blog)...so I don't really care if it's up 99% or not, it's not worth paying a total of $300 just to keep these 2 apps running over discountasp.net Anyone else feel the same? Yes, I know they have great support, probably have great servers running behind this but in the end I really don't care as long as my site is up 95% or better. Yes, the hosting toolset rocks. But you know I bet you I can find a similar set somewhere else. I like how I can totally control IIS 7 at discountasp and I can control my own app pool etc. That's very powerful and essential. But anyone have any good alternatives to discountasp that gives me close to the same at a much more reasonable cost point? I mean http://www.m6.net/prices.aspx gives you 10 SQL Databases for $7 and 200 gigs disk space! I don't know about their tools or support but just looking at those numbers and some other hosts I've seen, I feel that discountasp.net is way out of line. They don't even offer any purchasing discounts such as it would be nice if my 2nd SQL Server is only $5/month not $10...stuff like this, to make it much more realistic and fair. Opinions (people who do have discountasp.net, people who have left them, or people who have another host they like)??? But geez $300 just to host a couple DBs and lightweight open source apps? Not worth the price they are charging. I'm almost at a price point that enables me to get a decent dedicated server! I really don't care about beta ASP.NET frameworks support. Not a big deal to me. If you have alternative suggestions rather than your experience with discountasp, I'd like to know how their toolset is. Do you have complete control over your DB in terms of adding users, and same goes for the web app pool, etc.? Discountasp.net's control panel rocks. I don't want to loose the ability to at least control and add virtual directories, recycle my dedicated app pool myself, backup my sql database myself, through tools which is what discountasp does give you. I'd also want to know that the hoster at least gets the latest and greatest in terms of non-beta ASP.NET related frameworks available to its shared hosters.

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  • XML to CSV using XSLT help.

    - by Adam Kahtava
    I'd like to convert XML into CSV using an XSLT, but when applying the XSL from the SO thread titled XML To CSV XSLT against my input: <WhoisRecord> <DomainName>127.0.0.1</DomainName> <RegistryData> <AbuseContact> <Email>[email protected]</Email> <Name>Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Number</Name> <Phone>+1-310-301-5820</Phone> </AbuseContact> <AdministrativeContact i:nil="true"/> <BillingContact i:nil="true"/> <CreatedDate/> <RawText>...</RawText> <Registrant> <Address>4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 330</Address> <City>Marina del Rey</City> <Country>US</Country> <Name>Internet Assigned Numbers Authority</Name> <PostalCode>90292-6695</PostalCode> <StateProv>CA</StateProv> </Registrant> <TechnicalContact> <Email>[email protected]</Email> <Name>Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Number</Name> <Phone>+1-310-301-5820</Phone> </TechnicalContact> <UpdatedDate>2010-04-14</UpdatedDate> <ZoneContact i:nil="true"/> </RegistryData> </WhoisRecord> I end up with: [email protected] Corporation for Assigned Names and Number+1-310-301-5820, , , , ..., 4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 330Marina del ReyUSInternet Assigned Numbers Authority90292-6695CA, [email protected] Corporation for Assigned Names and Number+1-310-301-5820, 2010-04-14, My problem is that, the resulting transformation is missing nodes (like the DomainName element containing the IP address) and some child nodes are concatenated without commas (like the children of AbuseContact). I'd like to see all the XML output in CVS form, and strings like: "[email protected] Corporation for Assigned Names and Number+1-310-301-5820," delimited by commas. My XSL is pretty rusty. Your help is appreciated. :) Here's the XSL I'm using: <xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"> <xsl:output method="text" encoding="iso-8859-1"/> <xsl:strip-space elements="*" /> <xsl:template match="/*/child::*"> <xsl:for-each select="child::*"> <xsl:if test="position() != last()"><xsl:value-of select="normalize-space(.)"/>, </xsl:if> <xsl:if test="position() = last()"><xsl:value-of select="normalize-space(.)"/><xsl:text> </xsl:text> </xsl:if> </xsl:for-each> </xsl:template> </xsl:stylesheet>

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  • Soft keyboard "del" key fails in EditText on Gallery widget

    - by droidful
    Hi, I am developing an application in Eclipse build ID 20090920-1017 using android SDK 2.2 and testing on a Google Nexus One. For the purposes of the tests below I am using the IME "Android keyboard" on a non-rooted phone. I have an EditText widget which exhibits some very strange behavior. I can type text, and then press the "del" key to delete that text; but after I enter a 'space' character, the "del" key will no longer remove characters before that space character. An example speaks a thousand words, so consider the following two incredibly simple applications... Example 1: An EditText in a LinearLayout widget: package com.example.linear.edit; import android.app.Activity; import android.os.Bundle; import android.view.ViewGroup.LayoutParams; import android.widget.EditText; import android.widget.Gallery; import android.widget.LinearLayout; public class LinearEdit extends Activity { @Override public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); LinearLayout layout = new LinearLayout(getApplicationContext()); layout.setLayoutParams(new Gallery.LayoutParams(Gallery.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, Gallery.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT)); EditText edit = new EditText(getApplicationContext()); layout.addView(edit, new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT)); setContentView(layout); } } Run the above application, enter text "edit example", then press the "del" key several times until the entire sentence is deleted. Everything Works fine. Now consider example 2: An EditText in a Gallery widget: package com.example.gallery.edit; import android.app.Activity; import android.os.Bundle; import android.view.View; import android.view.ViewGroup; import android.view.ViewGroup.LayoutParams; import android.widget.ArrayAdapter; import android.widget.EditText; import android.widget.Gallery; import android.widget.LinearLayout; public class GalleryEdit extends Activity { private final String[] galleryData = {"string1", "string2", "string3"}; @Override public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); Gallery gallery = new Gallery(getApplicationContext()); gallery.setAdapter(new ArrayAdapter(getApplicationContext(), android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1, galleryData) { @Override public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) { LinearLayout layout = new LinearLayout(getApplicationContext()); layout.setLayoutParams(new Gallery.LayoutParams(Gallery.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, Gallery.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT)); EditText edit = new EditText(getApplicationContext()); layout.addView(edit, new LinearLayout.LayoutParams(LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT)); return layout; } }); setContentView(gallery); } } Run the above application, enter text "edit example", then press the "del" key several times. If you are getting the same problem as me then you will find that you can't deleted past the 'space' character. All is not well. If anyone could shed some light on this issue I would be most appreciative. Regards

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  • Trouble Percent-Encoding Spaces in Java

    - by behrk2
    Hi Everyone, I am using the URLUTF8Encoder.java class from W3C (www.w3.org/International/URLUTF8Encoder.java). Currently, it will encode any blank spaces ' ' into plus signs '+'. I am having difficulty modifying the code to percent-encode the blank space into '%20'. Unfortunately, I am not too familiar with hex. Can anyone help me out? I need to modify this snippet... else if (ch == ' ') { // space sbuf.append('+'); in the following code: final static String[] hex = { "%00", "%01", "%02", "%03", "%04", "%05", "%06", "%07", "%08", "%09", "%0A", "%0B", "%0C", "%0D", "%0E", "%0F", "%10", "%11", "%12", "%13", "%14", "%15", "%16", "%17", "%18", "%19", "%1A", "%1B", "%1C", "%1D", "%1E", "%1F", "%20", "%21", "%22", "%23", "%24", "%25", "%26", "%27", "%28", "%29", "%2A", "%2B", "%2C", "%2D", "%2E", "%2F", "%30", "%31", "%32", "%33", "%34", "%35", "%36", "%37", "%38", "%39", "%3A", "%3B", "%3C", "%3D", "%3E", "%3F", "%40", "%41", "%42", "%43", "%44", "%45", "%46", "%47", "%48", "%49", "%4A", "%4B", "%4C", "%4D", "%4E", "%4F", "%50", "%51", "%52", "%53", "%54", "%55", "%56", "%57", "%58", "%59", "%5A", "%5B", "%5C", "%5D", "%5E", "%5F", "%60", "%61", "%62", "%63", "%64", "%65", "%66", "%67", "%68", "%69", "%6A", "%6B", "%6C", "%6D", "%6E", "%6F", "%70", "%71", "%72", "%73", "%74", "%75", "%76", "%77", "%78", "%79", "%7A", "%7B", "%7C", "%7D", "%7E", "%7F", "%80", "%81", "%82", "%83", "%84", "%85", "%86", "%87", "%88", "%89", "%8A", "%8B", "%8C", "%8D", "%8E", "%8F", "%90", "%91", "%92", "%93", "%94", "%95", "%96", "%97", "%98", "%99", "%9A", "%9B", "%9C", "%9D", "%9E", "%9F", "%A0", "%A1", "%A2", "%A3", "%A4", "%A5", "%A6", "%A7", "%A8", "%A9", "%AA", "%AB", "%AC", "%AD", "%AE", "%AF", "%B0", "%B1", "%B2", "%B3", "%B4", "%B5", "%B6", "%B7", "%B8", "%B9", "%BA", "%BB", "%BC", "%BD", "%BE", "%BF", "%C0", "%C1", "%C2", "%C3", "%C4", "%C5", "%C6", "%C7", "%C8", "%C9", "%CA", "%CB", "%CC", "%CD", "%CE", "%CF", "%D0", "%D1", "%D2", "%D3", "%D4", "%D5", "%D6", "%D7", "%D8", "%D9", "%DA", "%DB", "%DC", "%DD", "%DE", "%DF", "%E0", "%E1", "%E2", "%E3", "%E4", "%E5", "%E6", "%E7", "%E8", "%E9", "%EA", "%EB", "%EC", "%ED", "%EE", "%EF", "%F0", "%F1", "%F2", "%F3", "%F4", "%F5", "%F6", "%F7", "%F8", "%F9", "%FA", "%FB", "%FC", "%FD", "%FE", "%FF" }; public static String encode(String s) { StringBuffer sbuf = new StringBuffer(); int len = s.length(); for (int i = 0; i < len; i++) { int ch = s.charAt(i); if ('A' <= ch && ch <= 'Z') { // 'A'..'Z' sbuf.append((char) ch); } else if ('a' <= ch && ch <= 'z') { // 'a'..'z' sbuf.append((char) ch); } else if ('0' <= ch && ch <= '9') { // '0'..'9' sbuf.append((char) ch); } else if (ch == ' ') { // space sbuf.append('+'); } else if (ch == '-' || ch == '_' // unreserved || ch == '.' || ch == '!' || ch == '~' || ch == '*' || ch == '\'' || ch == '(' || ch == ')') { sbuf.append((char) ch); } else if (ch <= 0x007f) { // other ASCII sbuf.append(hex[ch]); } else if (ch <= 0x07FF) { // non-ASCII <= 0x7FF sbuf.append(hex[0xc0 | (ch >> 6)]); sbuf.append(hex[0x80 | (ch & 0x3F)]); } else { // 0x7FF < ch <= 0xFFFF sbuf.append(hex[0xe0 | (ch >> 12)]); sbuf.append(hex[0x80 | ((ch >> 6) & 0x3F)]); sbuf.append(hex[0x80 | (ch & 0x3F)]); } } return sbuf.toString(); } Thanks!

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  • Have suggestions for these assembly mnemonics?

    - by Noctis Skytower
    Greetings! Last semester in college, my teacher in the Computer Languages class taught us the esoteric language named Whitespace. In the interest of learning the language better with a very busy schedule (midterms), I wrote an interpreter and assembler in Python. An assembly language was designed to facilitate writing programs easily, and a sample program was written with the given assembly mnemonics. Now that it is summer, a new project has begun with the objective being to rewrite the interpreter and assembler for Whitespace 0.3, with further developments coming afterwards. Since there is so much extra time than before to work on its design, you are presented here with an outline that provides a revised set of mnemonics for the assembly language. This post is marked as a wiki for their discussion. Have you ever had any experience with assembly languages in the past? Were there some instructions that you thought should have been renamed to something different? Did you find yourself thinking outside the box and with a different paradigm than in which the mnemonics were named? If you can answer yes to any of those questions, you are most welcome here. Subjective answers are appreciated! Stack Manipulation (IMP: [Space]) Stack manipulation is one of the more common operations, hence the shortness of the IMP [Space]. There are four stack instructions. hold N Push the number onto the stack copy Duplicate the top item on the stack copy N Copy the nth item on the stack (given by the argument) onto the top of the stack swap Swap the top two items on the stack drop Discard the top item on the stack drop N Slide n items off the stack, keeping the top item Arithmetic (IMP: [Tab][Space]) Arithmetic commands operate on the top two items on the stack, and replace them with the result of the operation. The first item pushed is considered to be left of the operator. add Addition sub Subtraction mul Multiplication div Integer Division mod Modulo Heap Access (IMP: [Tab][Tab]) Heap access commands look at the stack to find the address of items to be stored or retrieved. To store an item, push the address then the value and run the store command. To retrieve an item, push the address and run the retrieve command, which will place the value stored in the location at the top of the stack. save Store load Retrieve Flow Control (IMP: [LF]) Flow control operations are also common. Subroutines are marked by labels, as well as the targets of conditional and unconditional jumps, by which loops can be implemented. Programs must be ended by means of [LF][LF][LF] so that the interpreter can exit cleanly. L: Mark a location in the program call L Call a subroutine goto L Jump unconditionally to a label if=0 L Jump to a label if the top of the stack is zero if<0 L Jump to a label if the top of the stack is negative return End a subroutine and transfer control back to the caller halt End the program I/O (IMP: [Tab][LF]) Finally, we need to be able to interact with the user. There are IO instructions for reading and writing numbers and individual characters. With these, string manipulation routines can be written. The read instructions take the heap address in which to store the result from the top of the stack. print chr Output the character at the top of the stack print int Output the number at the top of the stack input chr Read a character and place it in the location given by the top of the stack input int Read a number and place it in the location given by the top of the stack Question: How would you redesign, rewrite, or rename the previous mnemonics and for what reasons?

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  • Are their any suggestions for this new assembly language?

    - by Noctis Skytower
    Greetings! Last semester in college, my teacher in the Computer Languages class taught us the esoteric language named Whitespace. In the interest of learning the language better with a very busy schedule (midterms), I wrote an interpreter and assembler in Python. An assembly language was designed to facilitate writing programs easily, and a sample program was written with the given assembly mnemonics. Now that it is summer, a new project has begun with the objective being to rewrite the interpreter and assembler for Whitespace 0.3, with further developments coming afterwards. Since there is so much extra time than before to work on its design, you are presented here with an outline that provides a revised set of mnemonics for the assembly language. This post is marked as a wiki for their discussion. Have you ever had any experience with assembly languages in the past? Were there some instructions that you thought should have been renamed to something different? Did you find yourself thinking outside the box and with a different paradigm than in which the mnemonics were named? If you can answer yes to any of those questions, you are most welcome here. Subjective answers are appreciated! Stack Manipulation (IMP: [Space]) Stack manipulation is one of the more common operations, hence the shortness of the IMP [Space]. There are four stack instructions. hold N Push the number onto the stack copy Duplicate the top item on the stack copy N Copy the nth item on the stack (given by the argument) onto the top of the stack swap Swap the top two items on the stack drop Discard the top item on the stack drop N Slide n items off the stack, keeping the top item Arithmetic (IMP: [Tab][Space]) Arithmetic commands operate on the top two items on the stack, and replace them with the result of the operation. The first item pushed is considered to be left of the operator. add Addition sub Subtraction mul Multiplication div Integer Division mod Modulo Heap Access (IMP: [Tab][Tab]) Heap access commands look at the stack to find the address of items to be stored or retrieved. To store an item, push the address then the value and run the store command. To retrieve an item, push the address and run the retrieve command, which will place the value stored in the location at the top of the stack. save Store load Retrieve Flow Control (IMP: [LF]) Flow control operations are also common. Subroutines are marked by labels, as well as the targets of conditional and unconditional jumps, by which loops can be implemented. Programs must be ended by means of [LF][LF][LF] so that the interpreter can exit cleanly. L: Mark a location in the program call L Call a subroutine goto L Jump unconditionally to a label if=0 L Jump to a label if the top of the stack is zero if<0 L Jump to a label if the top of the stack is negative return End a subroutine and transfer control back to the caller exit End the program I/O (IMP: [Tab][LF]) Finally, we need to be able to interact with the user. There are IO instructions for reading and writing numbers and individual characters. With these, string manipulation routines can be written. The read instructions take the heap address in which to store the result from the top of the stack. print chr Output the character at the top of the stack print int Output the number at the top of the stack input chr Read a character and place it in the location given by the top of the stack input int Read a number and place it in the location given by the top of the stack Question: How would you redesign, rewrite, or rename the previous mnemonics and for what reasons?

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  • Are there any suggestions for these new assembly mnemonics?

    - by Noctis Skytower
    Greetings! Last semester in college, my teacher in the Computer Languages class taught us the esoteric language named Whitespace. In the interest of learning the language better with a very busy schedule (midterms), I wrote an interpreter and assembler in Python. An assembly language was designed to facilitate writing programs easily, and a sample program was written with the given assembly mnemonics. Now that it is summer, a new project has begun with the objective being to rewrite the interpreter and assembler for Whitespace 0.3, with further developments coming afterwards. Since there is so much extra time than before to work on its design, you are presented here with an outline that provides a revised set of mnemonics for the assembly language. This post is marked as a wiki for their discussion. Have you ever had any experience with assembly languages in the past? Were there some instructions that you thought should have been renamed to something different? Did you find yourself thinking outside the box and with a different paradigm than in which the mnemonics were named? If you can answer yes to any of those questions, you are most welcome here. Subjective answers are appreciated! Stack Manipulation (IMP: [Space]) Stack manipulation is one of the more common operations, hence the shortness of the IMP [Space]. There are four stack instructions. hold N Push the number onto the stack copy Duplicate the top item on the stack copy N Copy the nth item on the stack (given by the argument) onto the top of the stack swap Swap the top two items on the stack drop Discard the top item on the stack drop N Slide n items off the stack, keeping the top item Arithmetic (IMP: [Tab][Space]) Arithmetic commands operate on the top two items on the stack, and replace them with the result of the operation. The first item pushed is considered to be left of the operator. add Addition sub Subtraction mul Multiplication div Integer Division mod Modulo Heap Access (IMP: [Tab][Tab]) Heap access commands look at the stack to find the address of items to be stored or retrieved. To store an item, push the address then the value and run the store command. To retrieve an item, push the address and run the retrieve command, which will place the value stored in the location at the top of the stack. save Store load Retrieve Flow Control (IMP: [LF]) Flow control operations are also common. Subroutines are marked by labels, as well as the targets of conditional and unconditional jumps, by which loops can be implemented. Programs must be ended by means of [LF][LF][LF] so that the interpreter can exit cleanly. L: Mark a location in the program call L Call a subroutine goto L Jump unconditionally to a label if=0 L Jump to a label if the top of the stack is zero if<0 L Jump to a label if the top of the stack is negative return End a subroutine and transfer control back to the caller halt End the program I/O (IMP: [Tab][LF]) Finally, we need to be able to interact with the user. There are IO instructions for reading and writing numbers and individual characters. With these, string manipulation routines can be written. The read instructions take the heap address in which to store the result from the top of the stack. print chr Output the character at the top of the stack print int Output the number at the top of the stack input chr Read a character and place it in the location given by the top of the stack input int Read a number and place it in the location given by the top of the stack Question: How would you redesign, rewrite, or rename the previous mnemonics and for what reasons?

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  • Do you have suggestions for these assembly mnemonics?

    - by Noctis Skytower
    Greetings! Last semester in college, my teacher in the Computer Languages class taught us the esoteric language named Whitespace. In the interest of learning the language better with a very busy schedule (midterms), I wrote an interpreter and assembler in Python. An assembly language was designed to facilitate writing programs easily, and a sample program was written with the given assembly mnemonics. Now that it is summer, a new project has begun with the objective being to rewrite the interpreter and assembler for Whitespace 0.3, with further developments coming afterwards. Since there is so much extra time than before to work on its design, you are presented here with an outline that provides a revised set of mnemonics for the assembly language. This post is marked as a wiki for their discussion. Have you ever had any experience with assembly languages in the past? Were there some instructions that you thought should have been renamed to something different? Did you find yourself thinking outside the box and with a different paradigm than in which the mnemonics were named? If you can answer yes to any of those questions, you are most welcome here. Subjective answers are appreciated! Stack Manipulation (IMP: [Space]) Stack manipulation is one of the more common operations, hence the shortness of the IMP [Space]. There are four stack instructions. hold N Push the number onto the stack copy Duplicate the top item on the stack copy N Copy the nth item on the stack (given by the argument) onto the top of the stack swap Swap the top two items on the stack drop Discard the top item on the stack drop N Slide n items off the stack, keeping the top item Arithmetic (IMP: [Tab][Space]) Arithmetic commands operate on the top two items on the stack, and replace them with the result of the operation. The first item pushed is considered to be left of the operator. add Addition sub Subtraction mul Multiplication div Integer Division mod Modulo Heap Access (IMP: [Tab][Tab]) Heap access commands look at the stack to find the address of items to be stored or retrieved. To store an item, push the address then the value and run the store command. To retrieve an item, push the address and run the retrieve command, which will place the value stored in the location at the top of the stack. save Store load Retrieve Flow Control (IMP: [LF]) Flow control operations are also common. Subroutines are marked by labels, as well as the targets of conditional and unconditional jumps, by which loops can be implemented. Programs must be ended by means of [LF][LF][LF] so that the interpreter can exit cleanly. L: Mark a location in the program call L Call a subroutine goto L Jump unconditionally to a label if=0 L Jump to a label if the top of the stack is zero if<0 L Jump to a label if the top of the stack is negative return End a subroutine and transfer control back to the caller halt End the program I/O (IMP: [Tab][LF]) Finally, we need to be able to interact with the user. There are IO instructions for reading and writing numbers and individual characters. With these, string manipulation routines can be written. The read instructions take the heap address in which to store the result from the top of the stack. print chr Output the character at the top of the stack print int Output the number at the top of the stack input chr Read a character and place it in the location given by the top of the stack input int Read a number and place it in the location given by the top of the stack Question: How would you redesign, rewrite, or rename the previous mnemonics and for what reasons?

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  • Stopping the animation after you let go of a key

    - by Michael Zeuner
    What I have right now is an animation that starts when I press space: if(input.isKeyDown(Input.KEY_SPACE)) player = movingRightSwingingSword; However when I stop clicking space my animation continues. until I move my player, how do I make it so it stops the animation right when you let go of space? A few lines Animation player, movingUp, movingDown, movingLeft, movingRight, movingRightSwingingSword; int[] duration = {200,200}; public void init(GameContainer gc, StateBasedGame sbg) throws SlickException { Image[] attackRight = {new Image("res/buckysRightSword1.png"), new Image("res/buckysRightSword2.png")}; movingRightSwingingSword = new Animation(attackRight, duration, true); } public void update(GameContainer gc, StateBasedGame sbg, int delta) throws SlickException { if(input.isKeyDown(Input.KEY_SPACE)) player = movingRightSwingingSword; } Full Code package javagame; import org.newdawn.slick.*; import org.newdawn.slick.state.*; public class Play extends BasicGameState { Animation player, movingUp, movingDown, movingLeft, movingRight, movingRightSwingingSword; Image worldMap; boolean quit = false; int[] duration = {200,200}; float playerPositionX = 0; float playerPositionY = 0; float shiftX = playerPositionX + 320; float shiftY = playerPositionY + 160; public Play(int state) { } public void init(GameContainer gc, StateBasedGame sbg) throws SlickException { worldMap = new Image("res/world.png"); Image[] walkUp = {new Image("res/buckysBack.png"), new Image("res/buckysBack.png")}; Image[] walkDown = {new Image("res/buckysFront.png"), new Image("res/buckysFront.png")}; Image[] walkLeft = {new Image("res/buckysLeft.png"), new Image("res/buckysLeft.png")}; Image[] walkRight = {new Image("res/buckysRight.png"), new Image("res/buckysRight.png")}; Image[] attackRight = {new Image("res/buckysRightSword1.png"), new Image("res/buckysRightSword2.png")}; movingUp = new Animation(walkUp, duration, false); movingDown = new Animation(walkDown, duration, false); movingLeft = new Animation(walkLeft, duration, false); movingRight = new Animation(walkRight, duration, false); //doesnt work! vvv movingRightSwingingSword = new Animation(attackRight, duration, true); player = movingDown; } public void render(GameContainer gc, StateBasedGame sbg, Graphics g) throws SlickException { worldMap.draw(playerPositionX, playerPositionY); player.draw(shiftX, shiftY); g.drawString("Player X: " + playerPositionX + "\nPlayer Y: " + playerPositionY, 400, 20); if (quit == true) { g.drawString("Resume (R)", 250, 100); g.drawString("MainMenu (M)", 250, 150); g.drawString("Quit Game (Q)", 250, 200); if (quit==false) { g.clear(); } } } public void update(GameContainer gc, StateBasedGame sbg, int delta) throws SlickException { Input input = gc.getInput(); if(input.isKeyDown(Input.KEY_UP)) { player = movingUp; playerPositionY += delta * .1f; if(playerPositionY>162) playerPositionY -= delta * .1f; } if(input.isKeyDown(Input.KEY_DOWN)) { player = movingDown; playerPositionY -= delta * .1f; if(playerPositionY<-600) playerPositionY += delta * .1f; } if(input.isKeyDown(Input.KEY_RIGHT)) { player = movingRight; playerPositionX -= delta * .1f; if(playerPositionX<-840) playerPositionX += delta * .1f; } if(input.isKeyDown(Input.KEY_LEFT)) { player = movingLeft; playerPositionX += delta * .1f; if(playerPositionX>318) playerPositionX -= delta * .1f; } if(input.isKeyDown(Input.KEY_SPACE)) player = movingRightSwingingSword; if(input.isKeyDown(Input.KEY_ESCAPE)) quit = true; if(input.isKeyDown(Input.KEY_R)) if (quit == true) quit = false; if(input.isKeyDown(Input.KEY_M)) if (quit == true) {sbg.enterState(0); quit = false;} if(input.isKeyDown(Input.KEY_Q)) if (quit == true) System.exit(0); } public int getID() { return 1; } }

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  • New line (in the code) after <li> element breaking layout

    - by BT643
    Weirdly, I've never come across this issue before, but I've just started making a site and the top navigation isn't playing nicely. I want a small amount of white space between each menu item, but when I have new lines between my <li> elements and my <a> elements in my IDE (Netbeans), the white space disappears, yet it looks fine if I have <li><a></a></li> all on the same line. I was always under the impression html ignored white space in the code. I've checked for any weird characters causing problems in other text editors and can't find anything. Here's the code... Like this the menu looks correct but code looks ugly (I know it looks fine when it's this simple, but I'm going be adding more complexity in which makes it look awful all on one line): <ul id="menu"> <li><a href="#">About</a></li> <li class="active"><a href="<?php echo site_url("tracklist"); ?>">Track List</a></li> <li><a href="<?php echo site_url("stats"); ?>">Stats</a></li> <li><a href="#">Stats</a></li> </ul> Like this the menu looks wrong but code looks fine: <ul id="menu"> <li> <a href="#">About</a> </li> <li class="active"> <a href="<?php echo site_url("tracklist"); ?>">Track List</a> </li> <li> <a href="<?php echo site_url("stats"); ?>">Stats</a> </li> <li> <a href="#">Stats</a> </li> </ul> Here's the css: #menu { float: right; } #menu li { display: inline-block; padding: 5px; background-color: #932996; border-bottom: solid 1px #932996; } #menu li:hover { border-bottom: solid 3px #FF0000; } #menu li.active { background-color: #58065e; } I'm sure it's something simple I'm doing wrong... but can someone shed some light on this for me? Sorry for the lengthy post (my first on stackoverflow).

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  • How does java.util.Collections.contains() perform faster than a linear search?

    - by The111
    I've been fooling around with a bunch of different ways of searching collections, collections of collections, etc. Doing lots of stupid little tests to verify my understanding. Here is one which boggles me (source code further below). In short, I am generating N random integers and adding them to a list. The list is NOT sorted. I then use Collections.contains() to look for a value in the list. I intentionally look for a value that I know won't be there, because I want to ensure that the entire list space is probed. I time this search. I then do another linear search manually, iterating through each element of the list and checking if it matches my target. I also time this search. On average, the second search takes 33% longer than the first one. By my logic, the first search must also be linear, because the list is unsorted. The only possibility I could think of (which I immediately discard) is that Java is making a sorted copy of my list just for the search, but (1) I did not authorize that usage of memory space and (2) I would think that would result in MUCH more significant time savings with such a large N. So if both searches are linear, they should both take the same amount of time. Somehow the Collections class has optimized this search, but I can't figure out how. So... what am I missing? import java.util.*; public class ListSearch { public static void main(String[] args) { int N = 10000000; // number of ints to add to the list int high = 100; // upper limit for random int generation List<Integer> ints; int target = -1; // target will not be found, forces search of entire list space long start; long end; ints = new ArrayList<Integer>(); start = System.currentTimeMillis(); System.out.print("Generating new list... "); for (int i = 0; i < N; i++) { ints.add(((int) (Math.random() * high)) + 1); } end = System.currentTimeMillis(); System.out.println("took " + (end-start) + "ms."); start = System.currentTimeMillis(); System.out.print("Searching list for target (method 1)... "); if (ints.contains(target)) { // nothing } end = System.currentTimeMillis(); System.out.println(" Took " + (end-start) + "ms."); System.out.println(); ints = new ArrayList<Integer>(); start = System.currentTimeMillis(); System.out.print("Generating new list... "); for (int i = 0; i < N; i++) { ints.add(((int) (Math.random() * high)) + 1); } end = System.currentTimeMillis(); System.out.println("took " + (end-start) + "ms."); start = System.currentTimeMillis(); System.out.print("Searching list for target (method 2)... "); for (Integer i : ints) { // nothing } end = System.currentTimeMillis(); System.out.println(" Took " + (end-start) + "ms."); } }

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  • Parallelism in .NET – Part 2, Simple Imperative Data Parallelism

    - by Reed
    In my discussion of Decomposition of the problem space, I mentioned that Data Decomposition is often the simplest abstraction to use when trying to parallelize a routine.  If a problem can be decomposed based off the data, we will often want to use what MSDN refers to as Data Parallelism as our strategy for implementing our routine.  The Task Parallel Library in .NET 4 makes implementing Data Parallelism, for most cases, very simple. Data Parallelism is the main technique we use to parallelize a routine which can be decomposed based off data.  Data Parallelism refers to taking a single collection of data, and having a single operation be performed concurrently on elements in the collection.  One side note here: Data Parallelism is also sometimes referred to as the Loop Parallelism Pattern or Loop-level Parallelism.  In general, for this series, I will try to use the terminology used in the MSDN Documentation for the Task Parallel Library.  This should make it easier to investigate these topics in more detail. Once we’ve determined we have a problem that, potentially, can be decomposed based on data, implementation using Data Parallelism in the TPL is quite simple.  Let’s take our example from the Data Decomposition discussion – a simple contrast stretching filter.  Here, we have a collection of data (pixels), and we need to run a simple operation on each element of the pixel.  Once we know the minimum and maximum values, we most likely would have some simple code like the following: for (int row=0; row < pixelData.GetUpperBound(0); ++row) { for (int col=0; col < pixelData.GetUpperBound(1); ++col) { pixelData[row, col] = AdjustContrast(pixelData[row, col], minPixel, maxPixel); } } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } This simple routine loops through a two dimensional array of pixelData, and calls the AdjustContrast routine on each pixel. As I mentioned, when you’re decomposing a problem space, most iteration statements are potentially candidates for data decomposition.  Here, we’re using two for loops – one looping through rows in the image, and a second nested loop iterating through the columns.  We then perform one, independent operation on each element based on those loop positions. This is a prime candidate – we have no shared data, no dependencies on anything but the pixel which we want to change.  Since we’re using a for loop, we can easily parallelize this using the Parallel.For method in the TPL: Parallel.For(0, pixelData.GetUpperBound(0), row => { for (int col=0; col < pixelData.GetUpperBound(1); ++col) { pixelData[row, col] = AdjustContrast(pixelData[row, col], minPixel, maxPixel); } }); Here, by simply changing our first for loop to a call to Parallel.For, we can parallelize this portion of our routine.  Parallel.For works, as do many methods in the TPL, by creating a delegate and using it as an argument to a method.  In this case, our for loop iteration block becomes a delegate creating via a lambda expression.  This lets you write code that, superficially, looks similar to the familiar for loop, but functions quite differently at runtime. We could easily do this to our second for loop as well, but that may not be a good idea.  There is a balance to be struck when writing parallel code.  We want to have enough work items to keep all of our processors busy, but the more we partition our data, the more overhead we introduce.  In this case, we have an image of data – most likely hundreds of pixels in both dimensions.  By just parallelizing our first loop, each row of pixels can be run as a single task.  With hundreds of rows of data, we are providing fine enough granularity to keep all of our processors busy. If we parallelize both loops, we’re potentially creating millions of independent tasks.  This introduces extra overhead with no extra gain, and will actually reduce our overall performance.  This leads to my first guideline when writing parallel code: Partition your problem into enough tasks to keep each processor busy throughout the operation, but not more than necessary to keep each processor busy. Also note that I parallelized the outer loop.  I could have just as easily partitioned the inner loop.  However, partitioning the inner loop would have led to many more discrete work items, each with a smaller amount of work (operate on one pixel instead of one row of pixels).  My second guideline when writing parallel code reflects this: Partition your problem in a way to place the most work possible into each task. This typically means, in practice, that you will want to parallelize the routine at the “highest” point possible in the routine, typically the outermost loop.  If you’re looking at parallelizing methods which call other methods, you’ll want to try to partition your work high up in the stack – as you get into lower level methods, the performance impact of parallelizing your routines may not overcome the overhead introduced. Parallel.For works great for situations where we know the number of elements we’re going to process in advance.  If we’re iterating through an IList<T> or an array, this is a typical approach.  However, there are other iteration statements common in C#.  In many situations, we’ll use foreach instead of a for loop.  This can be more understandable and easier to read, but also has the advantage of working with collections which only implement IEnumerable<T>, where we do not know the number of elements involved in advance. As an example, lets take the following situation.  Say we have a collection of Customers, and we want to iterate through each customer, check some information about the customer, and if a certain case is met, send an email to the customer and update our instance to reflect this change.  Normally, this might look something like: foreach(var customer in customers) { // Run some process that takes some time... DateTime lastContact = theStore.GetLastContact(customer); TimeSpan timeSinceContact = DateTime.Now - lastContact; // If it's been more than two weeks, send an email, and update... if (timeSinceContact.Days > 14) { theStore.EmailCustomer(customer); customer.LastEmailContact = DateTime.Now; } } Here, we’re doing a fair amount of work for each customer in our collection, but we don’t know how many customers exist.  If we assume that theStore.GetLastContact(customer) and theStore.EmailCustomer(customer) are both side-effect free, thread safe operations, we could parallelize this using Parallel.ForEach: Parallel.ForEach(customers, customer => { // Run some process that takes some time... DateTime lastContact = theStore.GetLastContact(customer); TimeSpan timeSinceContact = DateTime.Now - lastContact; // If it's been more than two weeks, send an email, and update... if (timeSinceContact.Days > 14) { theStore.EmailCustomer(customer); customer.LastEmailContact = DateTime.Now; } }); Just like Parallel.For, we rework our loop into a method call accepting a delegate created via a lambda expression.  This keeps our new code very similar to our original iteration statement, however, this will now execute in parallel.  The same guidelines apply with Parallel.ForEach as with Parallel.For. The other iteration statements, do and while, do not have direct equivalents in the Task Parallel Library.  These, however, are very easy to implement using Parallel.ForEach and the yield keyword. Most applications can benefit from implementing some form of Data Parallelism.  Iterating through collections and performing “work” is a very common pattern in nearly every application.  When the problem can be decomposed by data, we often can parallelize the workload by merely changing foreach statements to Parallel.ForEach method calls, and for loops to Parallel.For method calls.  Any time your program operates on a collection, and does a set of work on each item in the collection where that work is not dependent on other information, you very likely have an opportunity to parallelize your routine.

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  • ADSIEdit Cleanup After Exchange 2003 Crash During Transition To Exchange 2010

    - by ThaKidd
    Hello all. I would value some input from a few Exchange 2010 experts. I have almost completed the transition from Exchange 2003 Standard to Exchange 2010 Standard. Everything went smoothly until I tried to uninstall Exchange 2003. At that point the server bit the dust and died completely. I now have NO access to the old Exchange System Management MMC as I am running Windows 2008 SR2 and Windows 7 only. I can only fix this with ADSIEdit, EMShell, and EMConsole. I have used the 2010 shell to move/remove/verify that all mailboxes, public folders and OAB are hosted on Exchange 2010. I also verified that the routing connector has been deleted. The only two things that were not done was to remove the Recipient Update Service and actually perform the removal of the 2003 software. I have spent a lot of time going through ASDIedit and have located the old Administrative Group and the Exchange 2003 server listed under it. I also located the Recipient Update Service which includes two entries; Enterprise and my domain name. I have read that it is an unwise idea to remove the old administrative group so I won't bother messing with that. I am repeatedly getting three warnings in the Application Log. Both are from MSExchangeTransport EventID 5006 (Cannot find route to Mailbox Server OLDSERVER) and 5020 (The topology doesn't contain a route to Exchange 2000 Server or Exchange Server 2003) So my questions are: To clean out AD of the old Exchange 2003 info, can I delete the server name folder (Configuration - Services - Microsoft Exchange - ExchOrg - Administrative Groups - First Administrative Group - Servers - Old Server) and also delete the Update Recipient Service (Enterprise) and Update Recipient Service (DOMAIN) containers safely? Are there any additional items I need to address to ensure the AD is clean? Thanks in advance for your help!

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  • ASDIEdit Cleanup After Exchange 2003 Crash During Transition To Exchange 2010

    - by ThaKidd
    Hello all. I would value some input from a few experts. I have almost completed the transition from Exchange 2003 Standard to Exchange 2010 Standard. Everything went smoothly until I tried to uninstall Exchange 2003. At that point the server bit the dust and died completely. I now have NO access to the old Exchange System Management MMC as I am running Windows 2008 SR2 and Windows 7 only. I can only fix this with ASDIEdit, EMShell, and EMConsole. I have used the 2010 shell to move/remove/verify that all mailboxes, public folders and OAB are hosted on Exchange 2010. I also verified that the routing connector has been deleted. The only two things that were not done was to remove the Recipient Update Service and actually perform the removal of the 2003 software. I have spent a lot of time going through ASDIedit and have located the old Administrative Group and the Exchange 2003 server listed under it. I also located the Recipient Update Service which includes two entries; Enterprise and my domain name. I have read that it is an unwise idea to remove the old administrative group so I won't bother messing with that. I am repeatedly getting three warnings in the Application Log. Both are from MSExchangeTransport EventID 5006 (Cannot find route to Mailbox Server OLDSERVER) and 5020 (The topology doesn't contain a route to Exchange 2000 Server or Exchange Server 2003) So my questions are: To clean out AD of the old Exchange 2003 info, can I delete the server name folder (Configuration - Services - Microsoft Exchange - ExchOrg - Administrative Groups - First Administrative Group - Servers - Old Server) and also delete the Update Recipient Service (Enterprise) and Update Recipient Service (DOMAIN) containers safely? Are there any additional items I need to address to ensure the AD is clean? Thanks in advance for your help!

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  • SOA Suite Integration: Part 2: A basic BPEL process

    - by Anthony Shorten
    This is the next in the series about SOA Suite integration with Oracle Utilities Application Framework. One of the first scenarios I am going to illustrate in this series is building a basic BPEL process using Web Service calls to the Oracle Utilities Application Framework. The scenario is this. I will pass in the userid and the BPEL process will call our the AS-User Web Service we created in Part 1. This is just a basic test and illustrate how to import the Web Service into SOA Suite. To use this scenario, you will need access to Oracle SOA Suite, access to a copy of any Oracle Utilities Application Framework based product and Oracle JDeveloper (to build the process). First of all you need to start Oracle JDeveloper and create a new SOA Project to house the BPEL process in. For the purposes of this example I will call the project simpleBPEL and verify that SOA is part of the project. I will select "Composite with BPEL" to denote it as a BPEL process. I can also the same process to create a Mediator or OSB project (refer to the JDeveloper documentation on these technologies). For this example I will use BPEL 1.1 as my specification standard (BPEL 2.0 can also be used if desired). I give the individual BPEL process as simpleBPEL (you can use a different name but I wanted to keep the project and process the same for this example). I will also build a Synchronous BPEL Process as I want a response from the Web Service. I will leave the defaults to save time. I have no have a blank canvas to build my BPEL process against. Note: for simplicity I am going to use as much defaulting as possible. In fact I am not going to specify an input schema for the incoming call as I will use the basic single field used by BPEL as default. The first step is to import the AS-User Web Service into my BPEL project. To do this I use the standard Web Service BPEL component from the Component Palette to import the WSDL into the BPEL project. Now the tricky part (a joke), you drag and drop the component from the Palette onto the right side of the canvas in the Partner Links swim lane. This swim lane is reserved for Partner Links that have a Partner Role (i.e. being called rather than calling). When you drop the Web Service onto the canvas the Create Web Service wizard is invoked to ask for details of the Web Service. At this point you give the BPEL node a name. I have used the name RetrieveUser as a name. I placed the WSDL URL from the XAI Inbound Service screen in the WSDL URL. Once you specify the URL you can press the Find existing WSDL's button to load the information into BPEL from the call. You will notice the Port Type is prefilled with the port from the WSDL. I also suggest that you check copy wsdl and it's dependent artifacts into the project if you intending to work on the BPEL process offline. If you do not check this your target application must be accessible when you work on the BPEL process (that is not always convenient). Note: For the perceptive of you will notice that the URL specified in this example is different to the URL in the last post. The reason is for the demonstrations I shifted to a new server and did not redo all of the past screen captures. If you copy the WSDL into the project you will get an information screen about Localize Files. It is just a confirmation screen. The last confirmation screen is a summary of the partner link (the main tab is locked for editing at this stage). At this stage you have successfully imported the Web Service. To complete the setup of the Web Service you need to set the credentials for the Web Service to use. Refer to the past post on how to do that. Now to use the Web Service. To call the Web Service (as it is just imported not connected to the BPEL process yet), you must add an Invoke action to your BPEL Process. To do this, select Invoke action from the BPEL Constructs zone on the Component Palette and drop it on the edit nodes between the receiveInput and replyOutput nodes This will create an empty Invoke action. You will notice some connectors on the Invoke node. Grab the node closest to your Web Service and drag it to connect the Invoke to your Web Service. This instructs BPEL to use the Invoke to call the Web Service. Once the Invoke action is connected to the Web Service an Edit Invoke edit dialog is displayed. At this point I suggest you name the Invoke node. It is important to name the nodes straightaway and name them appropriately for you to trace the logic. I used InvokeUser as the name in this example. To complete the node configuration you must create Variables to hold the input and output for the call. To do this clock on Automatically Create Input Variable on the Edit Invoke dialog. You will be presented with a default variable name. It uses the node name (that is why it is important to name the node before hitting this button) as a prefix. You can name the variable anything but I usually take the default. Repeat the same for the output variable. You now have a completed node for invoking the service. You have a very basic BPEL process which contains an input, invoke and output node. It is not complete yet though. You need to tell the BPEL process how to pass data from the input to the invoke step and how to take the output from the service call and pass it back to the service. You need to now add an Assign node to assign the input to the Web Service. To do this select Assign activity from BPEL Constructs zone in the Component Palette. Drag and drop the Assign activity between the receiveInput and InvokeUser nodes as you want to pass data between these two nodes. You have now added a new Assign node to your BPEL process Double clicking the node allows you to specify the name of the node. I use AssignUser to describe that I am assigning user data. On the Copy Rules tab you can specify the mapping between the input variable InputVariable/payload/process/input string and the input variable for the Web Service call. We are passing data from the input to BPEL to the relevant input variable on the Web Service. This is simply drag and drop between the two data structures. In the example, I am using the input to pass to the user element in my Web Service as the user is the primary key for the object. The fields become linked (which means data from source will be copied to target). Almost there. You now need to process the output from the Web Service call to the outputVariable of the client call. I have decided to pass back one piece of data, the name associated with the user by concatenating the firstName and lastName elements from the Web Service call. To do this I will use a Transform as it is not just a matter of an Assign action. It is a concatenation operation. This also illustrates how you can use BPEL functionality to transform data from a Web Service call. As with the other components you drag and drop the Transform component to the appropriate place in the BPEL process. In this case we want to transform the output from the Web Service call so we want it after the InvokeUser action and the replyOutput action. The Transform component is actually part of the Oracle Extensions to the BPEL specification. Double clicking the Transform node will allow you to name the node.  In this example I used TransformName. To complete the transform I need to tell the product the source of the transformation and the target of the transform. In the example this is the InvokeUser output variable. I also named the mapper file to TransformName. By clicking the + or pencil icon next to the map I can create the map. The mapping screen is shows the source and target schemas for me to map across. As with the assign I can map the relevant elements. In my example, I first map the firstName from the Web Service to the result element. As I want to concatenate the names, I drop the concat function on the call line. I now attach the last name to the function to indicate the concatenation of the field. By default the names will be concatenated with no space. To make the name legible I add a space between the field by clicking the function and adding a space in the call. I now have a completed mapping. I can now save the whole project as my BPEL process is now complete. As you can see the following happens: We accept input from the client (the userid for the call) in the receiveInput step. We assign that value to the input parameters for the Web Service call in the AssignUser step. We invoke the Web Service call to retrieve the data from the product in the InvokeUser step. We take the output from the InvokeUser step and concatenate the names in the TransformName step. We pass back the data in the replyOutput step. At this point we can deploy the BPEL process to the SOA Suite server. I will not cover this aspect as it really all SOA Suite specific (it is all done via Oracle JDeveloper). Now we need to test the service in SOA Suite. We will use the Fusion Middleware Control test facility. I will assume that credentials have also been setup as per our previous post (else you will get a 401 error). You navigate to the deployed BPEL process within Fusion Middleware Control and select the Test Service option. Specify some test data on the payload at the bottom of the Test Service screen. In my case I am returning my own userid information. On the response tab you will see the result. It works. You can verify the steps using the Audit trace facility on individual calls. As you can see this is a basic BPEL but you get the idea of importing the Web Service is pretty straightforward. You can create more sophisticated BPEL processes using the full facilities in Oracle SOA Suite. I just showed you the basic principals.

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  • Intel Core i7 QuadCore on HP Pavilion dv7 Overheating Issues

    - by kellax
    I bought a brand new HP notebook: HP Pavilion dv7-6b21em BeatsAudio edition. The notebook is about 2 months old and has pretty nasty overheating problem. I mainly use it for development however i do play some games. The disturbing thing is that the computer is loud on pretty simple tasks. Here are the specs: CPU: Intel Core i7-2670QM QuadCore ( 8 threads ) @ 2.20 GHz RAM: ( 8GB ) 2x 4GB @ 1066 HDD: 1TB 7200 GPU: ATI Radeon HD 6770M 1GB Dedicated DDR OS: Windows 7 64bit Enterprise I have an external monitor runing on VGA port an 22' Samsung SyncMaster S24B300 CPU Heat Statistics Platform: rPGA 988B (Socket G2) Frequency: cca. 3000 Mhz VID: 1.1809 - 1.2059 v Revision: D2 CPUID: 0x206A7 TDP: 45.0 Wats, Lithographu: 32 nm Heat: Tj. Max: 100*C, Power 4.5 - 5.9 Wats Core #0: 63*C Load on all is about 0 to 2% Core #1: 65*C Core #2: 66*C Core #3: 67*C I opened the notebook the fan is working fine there is no dust but still right now the fan is pretty loud even tho all i have open is FireFox. When i run a game the heat jumps to whopping 90-97*C. It has not shut down due to overheating yet but the loud fan is pretty annoying considering I'm not really doing anything stressfull. Is there anything i can do to fix this is it maybe a BIOS issue ? I have all drivers updated tho to the latest. I have very few background processes running consuming bare 2GB of RAM and about 2% of CPU. I had it serviced they said there is nothing wrong with it. But i feel that a Notebook that costs 1.2k Euros cant be like this.

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  • Begin the Clone Wars Have!

    - by Antony Reynolds
    Creating a New Virtual Machine from an Existing Virtual Disk In previous posts I described how I set up an OEL6 machine under VirtualBox that can run an 11gR2 database and FMW 11.1.1.5.  That is great if you want the DB and FMW running in the same virtual image and it has served me well for some proof of concepts and also for some testing of different JVMs.  However I also wanted to run some testing of FMW with the database running on a separate physical machine.  So in this post I will show how to take a VirtualBox image and create a new image based on the disks from that original image. What are my Options? There is more than one way to skin a cat, or in this case to create two separate VMs that can run on different hardware.  Some of the options include: Create new virtual disk images for each new VM. Clone the existing disk images and point the new VM at the cloned images. Point the new VM at the existing snapshots. #1 is too much like hard work, install OEL twice, install a database again, install FMW again, run RCU again!  Life is too short! #2 is probably the safest way of doing things.  VirtualBox allows you to clone a disk image for use in a separate machine.  However this of course duplicates the disk and means that it is now occupying 3 times the space, once for the original disk and twice more for the two clones I would need. #3 is the most space efficient way of doing things.  It does mean however that I can only run the new “cloned” images if I have access to the original image because that is where the base snapshots reside.  However this is not a problem for me as long as I remember to keep all threee images together.  So this is the approach we will follow. Snapshot, What Snapshot? As we are going to create new virtual machines based on existing snapshots we need to figure out which snapshot to use.  We do this by opening the “Media Manager” from within VirtualBox and moving the mouse over the snapshot images until we find the snapshots we want – the snapshot name is identified in the “Attached to:” comment.  In my case I wanted the FMW installed snapshot because that had a database configured for FMW alongside the FMW software.  I made a note of the filename of that snapshot (actually I just noted the first 5 characters as that was all that was needed to uniquely identify the snapshot file). When we create the new machines we will point them at the snapshot filename we have just checked. Network or NotWork? Because we want the two new machines to communicate with each other when hosted in different physical machines we can’t use the default NAT networking mode without a lot of hassle.  But at the same time we need them to have fixed IP addresses relative to each other so that they can see each other whilst also being able to see the outside world. To achieve all these requirements I created two network adapters for each machine.  Adapter 1 was a standard NAT mapping.  This will allow each machine to get a dynamic IP address (10.0.2.15 by default) that can be used to access the external world through the VBox provided NAT gateway.  This is the same as the existing configuration. The second adapter I created as a bridged adapter.  This gives the virtual machine direct access to the host network card and by using fixed IP addresses each machine can see the other.  It is important to choose fixed IP addresses that are not routable across your internal network so you don’t get any clashes with other machines on your network.  Of course you could always get proper fixed IP addresses from your network people, but I have serveral people using my images and as long as I don’t have two instances of the same VM on the same network segment this is easier and avoids reconfiguring the network every time someone wants a copy of my VM.  If it is available I would suggest using the 10.0.3.* network as 10.0.2.* is the default NAT network.  You can check availability by pinging 10.0.3.1 and 10.0.3.2 from your host machine.  If it times out then you are probably safe to use that. Creating the New VMs Now that I had collected the data that I needed I went ahead and created the new VMs. When asked for a “Boot Hard Disk” I used the “Choose a virtual hard disk file…” link to find the snapshot I had previously selected and set that to be the existing hard disk.  I chose the previously existing SOA 11.1.1.5 install for both the new DB and FMW machines because that snapshot had the database with the RCU completed that I wanted for my DB machine and it had the SOA software installed which I wanted for my FMW machine. After the initial creation of the virtual machine go into the network setting section and enable a second adapter which will be bridged.  Make a note of the MAC addresses (the last four digits should be sufficient) of the two adapters so that you can later set the bridged adapter to use fixed IP and the NAT adapter to use DHCP. We are now ready to start the VMs and reconfigure Linux. Reconfiguring Linux Because I now have two new machines I need to change their network configuration.  In particular I need to change the hostname, update the hosts file and change the network settings. Changing the Hostname I renamed both hosts by running the hostname command as root: hostname vboxfmw.oracle.com I also edited the /etc/sysconfig file and set the correct hostname in there. HOSTNAME=vboxfmw.oracle.com Changing the Network Settings I needed to change the network configuration to give the bridged network a fixed IP address.  I first explicitly set the MAC addresses of the two adapters, because the order of the virtual adapters in the VirtualBox Manager is not necessarily the same as the order of the adapters in the guest OS.  So I went in to the System->Preferences->Network Connections screen and explicitly set the “Device MAC address” for the two adapters. Having correctly mapped the Linux adapters to the VirtualBox adapters I then set the Bridged adapter to use fixed IP addressing rather than DHCP.  There is no need for additional routing or default gateways because we expect the two machine to be on the same LAN segment. Updating the Hosts File Having renamed the machines and reconfigured the network I then updated the /etc/hosts file to refer to the new machine name add a new line to the hosts file to provide an additional IP address for my server (the new fixed IP address) add a new line for the fixed IP address of the other virtual machine 10.0.3.101      vboxdb.oracle.com       vboxdb  # Added by NetworkManager 10.0.2.15       vboxdb.oracle.com       vboxdb  # Added by NetworkManager 10.0.3.102      vboxfmw.oracle.com      vboxfmw # Added by NetworkManager 127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain   localhost ::1     vboxdb.oracle.com       vboxdb  localhost6.localdomain6 localhost6 To make sure everything takes effect I restarted the server. Reconfiguring the Database on the DB Machine Because we changed the hostname the listener and the EM console no longer start so I need to modify the listener.ora to use the new hostname and I also need to rebuild the EM configuration because it also relies on the hostname. I edited the $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin/listener.ora and changed the listening address to the new hostname:       (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = vboxdb.oracle.com)(PORT = 1521)) After changing the listener.ora I was able to start the listener using: lsnrctl start I also had to reconfigure the EM database control.  I first deconfigured it using the command: emca -deconfig dbcontrol db -repos drop This drops the repository and removes any existing registered dbcontrols. I then re-configured it using the following command: emca -config dbcontrol db -repos create This creates the EM repository and then configures and starts dbcontrol. Now my database machine is ready so I can close it down and take a snapshot. Disabling the Database on the FMW Machine I set up the database to start automatically by creating a service called “dbora”.  On the FMW machine I do not need the database running so I can prevent it auto-starting by running the following command: chkconfig –del dbora Note that because I am using a snapshot it is not a waste of disk space to have the DB installed but not used.  As long as I don’t run it, it won’t cost me anything. I can now close the FMW machine down and take a snapshot. Creating a New Domain The FMW machine is now ready to create a new domain.  When creating the domain I can point it at the second machine which is running the database.  I can potentially run these machines on two separate physical machines as long as I have the original virtual machine available to both of the physical machines. Gotchas in Snapshotting VirtualBox does not support the concept of linked machines in a network like some virtualization technologies so when creating a snapshot it is a good idea to shut both VMs down and then take a snapshot on both of them.  This is because we want to keep the database in sync with the middleware.  One way to make sure that this happens would be to place all the domain configuration files on the database server via an NFS share, this would mean that all we would need to snapshot would be the database machine because that would hold all the state and configuration. The Sky’s the Limit We have covered a simple case of having just two machines.  I have a more complicated configuration in which two machine run a RAC database off the same base OS image, and two more machines run a SOA cluster based on the same OS image.  Just remember what machine holds state and what are the consequences of taking a snapshot.

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  • My hard drive seems to be overheating... what should I do?

    - by George Edison
    After a cold boot, the hard drive in my notebook jumps to 56? within an hour or so of idling. Is 56? a cause for alarm? Notes: The notebook is on a flat desk and none of the vents are obstructed. The video card is currently at 55? and the CPU at 50?. It's a Western Digital 250GB hard drive. SMART reports the drive healthy but does warn that: Edit: this problem had a very surprise ending. I inverted the notebook and unscrewed some of the panels on the back (there was one covering the hard drive, and one that provided access to the memory). I couldn't see any dust, so I simply screwed everything back together and powered it on... and it worked! The temperature is now staying at 46?, and it feels notable cooler to the touch. So I can only assume that some internal fan was malfunctioning or something. Whatever the case, it's working now so I won't complain. Edit: I have an SSD now, so temperature isn't as big an issue as it was when I had a mechanical drive.

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  • Laptops with easy heat sink service?

    - by Niten
    Can you recommend a current laptop model with easy heat sink access – or better yet, a removable air intake filter – making it easy to periodically clean out the dust and lint that always packs up in these things? Every laptop I've owned has eventually overheated on account of a clogged heat sink. (I suppose it doesn't help that I have a cat who loves to hang out where I'm working, or that my laptop is almost always running.) One of the things I really love about my current system, a Dell Inspiron 1420n, is how easy it is to service its cooling system: whenever I notice the fan starting to work harder and the CPU temperature climbing higher than it should be, I merely have to unscrew a single panel from the bottom of the machine, clean out the heat sink, and then I'm good for another few months. Which current models of the "business laptop" variety offer similar easy cooling system service? I'm looking for something roughly along the lines of: 14- or 15-inch display Nehalem-based CPU Solid construction – magnesium chassis or better (like the Inspiron) TPM (for BitLocker) ideal, but not mandatory Docking adapter ideal, but not mandatory Good battery life For example, the ThinkPad T410 would have been my top choice, but it seems like it would be a serious chore to service its heat sink. For the current MacBook Pros it looks downright impossible. No matter how nice the laptop is in other respects, it'll be of no use to me when it's overheating. So, any suggestions? Thanks in advance... (I'm constantly surprised that customers and manufacturers don't pay more attention to this feature, at least in the business laptop subcategory. In the last couple months I've fixed two friends' laptops which were also overheating due to clogged cooling systems; clearly I'm not the only one affected by this.)

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  • Surface RT: To Be Or Not To Be (Part 1)

    - by smehaffie
    So the Surface RT has been out for 9 months and Microsoft just declared a $900 million dollar write-down. So how did this happen and what does it mean for Microsoft’s efforts to break into the tablet market? I have been thinking a lot about most of the information below since the Surface product line was released. If you are looking for a “Microsoft Is Dead” story, then don’t read any further. But if you want an honest look at what I think led Microsoft to this point and what I think can be done to make Surface RT devices better, then please continue reading. What Led Microsoft To The $900 Million Write-Down Surface Unveiling:Microsoft totally missed the boat when they unveiled the Surface product line on June 18th, 2012. Microsoft should’ve been ready to post the specifications of both devices that night. Microsoft should’ve had a site up and running right after the event so people could pre-order the devices. This would have given them a good idea what the interest was in each device.  They could also have used this data to make a better estimate for the number of units to to have available for the launch and beyond.  They also lost out on taking advantage of the excitement generated by the Surface RT and Surface Pro announcement. They could have thrown in a free touch keyboard to anyone who pre-ordered. The advertising should have started right after the announcement and gotten bigger as launch day approached. Push for as many pre-order as possible and build excitement for the launch. Actual Launch (Surface RT): By this time all excitement was gone from the initial announcement, except for the Micorsoft faithful. Microsoft should have been ready to sell the Surface in as many markets as possible at launch. The limited market release was a real letdown for a lot of people.  A limited release right after the initial announce is understandable, but not at the official launch of the product. Microsoft overpriced the device and now they are lowering it to what it should have been to start with. The $349 price is within the range I suggested it should be at before pricing was announced. (Surface Tablets: The Price Must Be Right). Limited ordering options online was also a killer. User should have been able to buy the base unit of each device and then add on whatever keyboard they wanted to (this applies more to the Surface Pro).  There should have also been a place where users could order any additional add-ins that they wanted to buy (covers, extra power supplies, etc.) Marketing was better and the dancing “Click In” commercial was cool, but the ads comparing the iPad with Siri should have been on the air from day one of the announcement (or at least the launch).  Consumers want to know why you tablet is better, not just that is has a clickable keyboard and built-in kickstand. They could have also compared it to some of the other mid-range tablets if they had not overprices it to begin with. Stock Applications (Mail, People, Calendar, Music, Video, Reader and IE): This is where Microsoft really blew it. They had all the time in the world to make these applications the best of breed and instead we got applications that seemed thrown together.  Some updates have made these application better, but they are all still lacking in features that should have been there from day one. This did not help to enhance a new users experience any. ** I will admit that the applications that were data driven were first class citizen’s and that makes it even more perplexing why MS could knock it out of the park with the Weather, Travel, Finance, Bing, etc.) and fail so miserably on the core applications users would use the most on a tablet. Desktop on Tablet: The desktop just is so out of place on the tablet  I understand it was needed for Office but think it would have been better to not have the desktop in Windows RT, but instead open up the Office applications in full screen mode, in a desktop shell (same goes for  IE11).That way the user wouldn’t realize they are leaving Metro and going to the desktop. The other option would have been to just not include Office on Windows RT devices. Instead they could have made awesome Widows Store Apps for Word, Excel, OneNote and PowerPoint. In addition, they could have made the stock Mail, People, and Calendar applications contain all the functions that Outlook gives desktop users. Having some of the settings in desktop mode and others under “Change PC Settings” made Windows RT seemed unfinished and rushed to market. What Can Be Done To Make Windows RT Based Tablets Better (At least in my opinion) Either eliminate the desktop all together from Windows RT or at least make the user experience better by hiding the fact the user is running Office/IE in the desktop. Personally I ‘d like them to totally get rid of it and just make awesome Windows Store Application version of Word, Excel PowerPoint & OneNote.  This might also make the OS smaller and give the user more available disk space. I doubt there will ever be a Windows Store App versions of Office, but I still think it is a good idea. Make is so users can easily direct their documents, picture, videos and music to their extra storage and can access these files from the standard libraries.  A user should not have to create a VM on their microSD card or create symbolic links to get this to work properly. Most consumers would not be able to do this. Then users get frustrated when they run out or room on their main storage because nothing is automatically save to their microSD card when saved to libraries.  This is a major bug that needs to be fixed, otherwise Microsoft’s selling point of having a microSD slot is worthless. Allows users to uninstall and re-install any of the Office product that come with the Surface. That way people can free up storage space by uninstalling the Office applications they do not need. Everyone’s needs are different, so make the options flexible. Don’t take up storage space for applications the user will not use. Make the Core applications the “Cream of the Crop” Windows App Store applications. The should set the bar for all other Store applications. Improve performance as much as possible, if it seems to be sluggish on a tablet consumer will not buy it. They need to price the next line of Surface product very aggressive to undercut not only iPad but also Android low end tablets (Nook, Kindle Fire, and Nexus, etc.) Give developers incentives to write quality applications for the devices. Don’t reward developers for cranking out cookie cutter, low quality applications. I’d even suggest Microsoft consider implementing some new store certification guideline to stop these type of applications being published. Allow users to easily move the recover disk “partition between their microSD card and main storage. My Predictions for the Surface RT and Windows RT I honestly think even with all the missteps MS has made since the announcement  about the Surface product line, that they are on the right path. I was excited the Surface tablets when they were announced, and I still am. The truth be told, Windows 8 on a tablet (aka: Windows RT) is better than both iOS and Android. My nephew who is an Apple fan boy told me after he saw and used Windows 8 (he got the beta running on his iPad), that Windows 8 kicked Apples butt as a tablet OS. So there is hope for all Windows RT based tablets. I agree with my nephew and that is why whenever anyone asks me about my Surface, I love showing it off and recommend it. The 6 keys to gaining market share in the tablet market are; Aggressive pricing by both Microsoft and their OEM’s Good quality devices put out by Microsoft and their OEM’s (there are some out there, but not enough) Marketing, Marketing, Marketing from both Microsoft and their OEM’s (Need more ads showing why windows based tablets are better than iPads and Android tablets) Getting Widows tablets in retails stores all over, and giving sales people incentive to sell them. Consumers like to try electronics out before they buy them, and most will listen to what the sales person suggest. Microsoft needs sales people in retail stores directing people to buy windows based tablets over iPads and Android tablets. I think the Microsoft Stores within Best Buy is a good start, but they also need to get prominent displays in Walmart, Target, etc.. Release a smaller form factor Surface, Hopefully the 8”-10” next generation Surface is not a rumor. Make “Surface” the brand name for all Microsoft tablets and hybrid devices that they come out with. They cannot change the name with each new release.  Make Surface synonymous with quality, the same way that iPad  is for Apple. Well, that is my 2 cents on the subject. Let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment below. Soon to follow will be my thought on the Surface Pro, so keep an eye out for it. var addthis_pub="smehaffie"; var addthis_options="email, print, digg, slashdot, delicious, twitter, live, myspace, facebook, google, stumbleupon, newsvine";

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  • I keep losing wireless connection

    - by posfan12
    I have a WRT54GL v1.1 wireless router and a WUSB54G v4 wireless adapter, both made by Linksys. The router is in the living room by the TV and the my computer is in the bedroom. My ISP is Brighthouse. Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1 CPU Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 2.40GHz 36 °C Conroe 65nm Technology RAM 3.00GB Single-Channel DDR2 @ 333MHz (5-4-4-14) Motherboard eMachines EMCP73VT-PM (CPU 1) 26 °C Graphics ASUS VS247 (1920x1080@60Hz) 767MB GeForce GTX 460 (nVidia) 43 °C Hard Drives 466GB Seagate ST350041 8AS SCSI Disk Device (SATA) 35 °C Optical Drives HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH41N SCSI CdRom Device Audio High Definition Audio Device The problem is that my Internet connection will work fine for 15 minutes or so. Then the data will just stop flowing. Windows says I am still connected, and the systray icon still shows five bars. But Comodo Firewall will stop showing up and down traffic, and another of my systray applications complains about a lack of connection. What I usually do is either disconnect from the network manually, or unplug and re-plug the USB adapter. At which point the connection will work properly for another 15 minutes. I've tried unplugging my router for 30 seconds and letting it reboot. I've also tried looking for a newer driver for my adapter but I seem to have the latest version 3.1.3.0. This is a recent problem starting about a week ago. For the previous several months things were working just fine. I haven't made any changes to my system that I am aware of. The only thing I did was open my case to blow the dust out of it, then put everything back together. How do I fix this issue?

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