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• Multiple viewport problem

  - by PSilo

  I'm setting up so I can switch between either one or four viewports but I got some trouble. In my bottom right viewport I got camera view, the same camera that I can switch to full view on. The other three viewports are working with fixed locations but the bottom right viewport is compressed on the y scale and half of the picture on the x scale is missing. void display(int what) { if(what==5){glViewport(0, 0, w, h); glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); glLoadIdentity(); ca.lookAt();} if(what==1){glViewport(0, 0, w/2, h/2); glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); glLoadIdentity(); gluLookAt(75,15,-5,0,5,-5,0,1,0);} if(what==2){glViewport(w/2, h/2, w, h); glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); glLoadIdentity(); gluLookAt(0,110,0,20,0,20,1,0,0);} if(what==3){glViewport(w/2, 0, w, h/2); glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION); glLoadIdentity(); gluPerspective(45.0f, float(320) / float(240), 0.1f, 100.0f); glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); glLoadIdentity(); ca.lookAt();} if(what==4){glViewport(0, h/2, w/2, h); glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); glLoadIdentity(); gluLookAt(185,75,25,0,28,0,0,1,0);} //glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); //glLoadIdentity(); ////gluLookAt(cos(shared.time) * shared.distance, 10, sin(shared.time) * shared.distance, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0); // Roterar kameran kring origo genom att skapa en ny vymatris varje bildruta ////ca.orbitYaw(0.05); //ca.lookAt(); glClearColor(0, 0, 0, 1); glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT|GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT); drawScene(); drawCamera(); glutSwapBuffers(); } void viewport(){ glEnable(GL_SCISSOR_TEST); if(!divided_view_port) { glViewport(0, 0, w, h); glScissor(0,0,640,480); glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION); glLoadIdentity(); gluPerspective(45.0f, w / h, 0.1f, 100.0f); display(5); } else { ////////////////////// bottom left - working glViewport(0, 0, w/2, h/2); glScissor(0,0,w/2,h/2); glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION); glLoadIdentity(); gluPerspective(45.0f, w / h, 0.1f, 300.0f); display(1); ////////////////////// ////////////////////// top right - working glViewport(w/2, h/2, w, h); glScissor(w/2,h/2,w,h); glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION); glLoadIdentity(); gluPerspective(45.0f, w / h, 0.1f, 300.0f); display(2); ////////////////////// ////////////////////// bottom right -working glViewport(w/2, 0, w, h/2); glScissor(w/2,0,w,h/2); glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION); glLoadIdentity(); gluPerspective(45.0f, w / h, 0.1f, 300.0f); display(3); //////////////////////// ////////////////////////// top left glViewport(0, h/2, w/2, h); glScissor(0,h/2,w/2,h); glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION); glLoadIdentity(); gluPerspective(45.0f, w / h, 0.1f, 300.0f); display(4); /////////////////////////// } glDisable(GL_SCISSOR_TEST); glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); }

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• Parallax backgrounds in OpenGL ES on the iPhone

  - by Scott

  I've got basically a 2d game on the iPhone and I'm trying to set up multiple backgrounds that scroll at different speeds (known as parallax backgrounds). So my thought was to just stick the backgrounds BEHIND the foreground using different z-coordinate planes, and just make them bigger than the foreground (in size) to accommodate, so that the whole thing can be scrolled (just at a different speed). And (as far as I know) I basically implemented that. The only problem is that it seems to entirely ignore whatever z-value I give it, or rather it just zeroes all of them. I see the background (I've only tested ONE background so far, to keep it simple...so for now I just have a foreground and I want one background scrolling at a different speed), but it scrolls 1:1 with my foreground, so it obviously doesn't look right, and most of it is cut off (cause it's bigger). And I've tried various z-values for the background and various near/far clipping planes...it's always the same. I'm probably just doing one simple thing wrong, but I can't figure it out. I'm wondering if it has to do with me using only 2 coordinates in glVertexPointer for the foreground? (Of course for the background I AM passing in 3) I'll post some code: This is some initial setup: glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION); glLoadIdentity(); glOrthof(-1.0f, 1.0f, -1.5f, 1.5f, -10.0f, 10.0f); glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); glLoadIdentity(); glEnableClientState(GL_VERTEX_ARRAY); //glEnableClientState(GL_COLOR_ARRAY); glEnableClientState(GL_TEXTURE_COORD_ARRAY); //transparency glEnable (GL_BLEND); glBlendFunc (GL_ONE, GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA); A little bit about my foreground's float array....it's interleaved. For my foreground it goes vertex x, vertex y, texture x, texture y, repeat. This all works just fine. This is my FOREGROUND rendering: glVertexPointer(2, GL_FLOAT, 4*sizeof(GLfloat), texes); <br> glTexCoordPointer(2, GL_FLOAT, 4*sizeof(GLfloat), (GLvoid*)texes + 2*sizeof(GLfloat)); <br> glDrawArrays(GL_TRIANGLES, 0, indexCount / 4); BACKGROUND rendering: Same drill here except this time it goes vertex x, vertex y, vertex z, texture x, texture y, repeat. Note the z value this time. I did make sure the data in this array was correct while debugging (getting the right z values). And again, it shows up...it's just not going far back in the distance like it should. glVertexPointer(3, GL_FLOAT, 5*sizeof(GLfloat), b1Texes); glTexCoordPointer(2, GL_FLOAT, 5*sizeof(GLfloat), (GLvoid*)b1Texes + 3*sizeof(GLfloat)); glDrawArrays(GL_TRIANGLES, 0, b1IndexCount / 5); And to move my camera, I just do a simple glTranslatef(x, y, 0.0f); I'm not understanding what I'm doing wrong cause this seems like the most basic 3D function imaginable...things further away are smaller and don't move as fast when the camera moves. Not the case for me. Seems like it should be pretty basic and not even really be affected by my projection and all that (though I've even tried doing glFrustum just for fun, no success). Please help, I feel like it's just one dumb thing. I will post more code if necessary.

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• Saving UIImagePickerController images to Core Data without crashing

  - by Gordon Fontenot

  I have been trying to minimize my memory footprint with UIImagePickerController, but I'm starting to think that the memory problems I am having are resulting from poor memory management, instead of a particular way to handle the UIImagePickerController object. My workflow is this: The "Edit Image" button is clicked, which presents a UIActionSheet. This action sheet allows you to delete, take a picture, choose from the library, or cancel. If you select Choose from the library or Take Picture, I alloc an instance of UIImagePickerController and present it, followed by a release of UIImagePickerController: -(void)actionSheet:(UIActionSheet *)actionSheet clickedButtonAtIndex:(NSInteger)buttonIndex { if (actionSheet.tag != 999) { UIImagePickerController *imagePicker = [[UIImagePickerController alloc] init]; imagePicker.delegate = self; BOOL pickImage = nil; if (actionSheet.tag == iPhoneWithDelete) { switch (buttonIndex) { case 0: object.objectImage = nil; pickImage = NO; break; case 1: imagePicker.sourceType = UIImagePickerControllerSourceTypeCamera; pickImage = YES; break; case 2: imagePicker.sourceType = UIImagePickerControllerSourceTypeSavedPhotosAlbum; pickImage = YES; break; default: pickImage = NO; break; } } else if (actionSheet.tag == iPhoneNoDelete) { switch (buttonIndex) { case 0: imagePicker.sourceType = UIImagePickerControllerSourceTypeCamera; pickImage = YES; break; case 1: imagePicker.sourceType = UIImagePickerControllerSourceTypeSavedPhotosAlbum; pickImage = YES; break; default: pickImage = NO; break; } } else if (actionSheet.tag == iPodWithDelete) { switch (buttonIndex) { case 0: object.objectImage = nil; pickImage = NO; break; case 1: imagePicker.sourceType = UIImagePickerControllerSourceTypeSavedPhotosAlbum; pickImage = YES; break; default: pickImage = NO; break; } } else if (actionSheet.tag == iPodNoDelete) { switch (buttonIndex) { case 0: imagePicker.sourceType = UIImagePickerControllerSourceTypeSavedPhotosAlbum; pickImage = YES; break; default: pickImage = NO; break; } } if (pickImage) { imagePicker.allowsEditing = YES; [self presentModalViewController:imagePicker animated:YES]; } else { [self setupImageButton]; [self setupChooseImageButton]; } [imagePicker release]; } } Once I get a selection back from the UIImagePickerController, I save 2 images, a resized version of the edited image to use for a thumbnail, and a 800x600 version of the original unedited image into a relationship attribute (Transformational, using the same UIImage to PNG transformations found in the Recipes demo code) for display use: (the resize methods are based on the one demoed in this SO post.) - (void)imagePickerController:(UIImagePickerController *)picker didFinishPickingMediaWithInfo:(NSDictionary *)info { [self dismissModalViewControllerAnimated:YES]; NSManagedObject *oldImage = object.imageFull; if (oldImage != nil) { [object.managedObjectContext deleteObject:oldImage]; } NSManagedObject *image = [NSEntityDescription insertNewObjectForEntityForName:@"Image" inManagedObjectContext:object.managedObjectContext]; object.imageFull = image; UIImage *rawImage = [info objectForKey:@"UIImagePickerControllerOriginalImage"]; CGSize size = CGSizeMake(800, 600); UIImage *fullImage = [UIImageManipulator scaleImage:rawImage toSize:size]; [image setValue:fullImage forKey:@"imageFull"]; UIImage *processedImage = [UIImageManipulator scaleImage:[info objectForKey:@"UIImagePickerControllerEditedImage"] toSize:CGSizeMake(75, 75)]; object.objectImage = processedImage; [self setupImageButton]; [self setupChooseImageButton]; rawImage = nil; fullImage = nil; processedImage = nil; } When I go through viewDidUnload I am setting self.object = nil, and [object release] during dealloc, but I'm still getting memory warnings after about 10 image changes, with a crash at around 20. It leads me to believe that I am not getting that full image out of memory the correct way. What am I missing here? And on a second note, does the Camera source use significantly more memory than the Photo Albums source? I tend to get more crashes when using the camera.

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• How do I record video to a local disk in AIR?

  - by Jim OHalloran

  I'm trying to record a webcam's video and audio to a FLV file stored on the users local hard disk. I have a version of this code working which uses NetConnection and NetStream to stream the video over a network to a FMS (Red5) server, but I'd like to be able to store the video locally for low bandwidth/flaky network situations. I'm using FLex 3.2 and AIR 1.5, so I don't believe there should be any sandbox restrictions which prevent this from occurring. Things I've seen: FileStream - Allows reading.writing local files but no .attachCamera and .attachAudio methids for creating a FLV. flvrecorder - Produces screen grabs from the web cam and creates it's own flv file. Doesn't support Audio. License prohibits commercial use. SimpleFLVWriter.as - Similar to flvrecorder without the wierd license. Doesn't support audio. This stackoverflow post - Which demonstrates the playback of a video from local disk using a NetConnection/NetStream. Given that I have a version already which uses NetStream to stream to the server I thought the last was most promising and went ahead and put together this demo application. The code compiles and runs without errors, but I don't have a FLV file on disk which the stop button is clicked. - <mx:Script> <![CDATA[ private var _diskStream:NetStream; private var _diskConn:NetConnection; private var _camera:Camera; private var _mic:Microphone; public function cmdStart_Click():void { _camera = Camera.getCamera(); _camera.setQuality(144000, 85); _camera.setMode(320, 240, 15); _camera.setKeyFrameInterval(60); _mic = Microphone.getMicrophone(); videoDisplay.attachCamera(_camera); _diskConn = new NetConnection(); _diskConn.connect(null); _diskStream = new NetStream(_diskConn); _diskStream.client = this; _diskStream.attachCamera(_camera); _diskStream.attachAudio(_mic); _diskStream.publish("file://c:/test.flv", "record"); } public function cmdStop_Click() { _diskStream.close(); videoDisplay.close(); } ]]> </mx:Script> <mx:VideoDisplay x="10" y="10" width="320" height="240" id="videoDisplay" /> <mx:Button x="10" y="258" label="Start" click="cmdStart_Click()" id="cmdStart"/> <mx:Button x="73" y="258" label="Stop" id="cmdStop" click="cmdStop_Click()"/> </mx:WindowedApplication> It seems to me that there's either something wrong with the above code which is preventing it from working, or NetStream just can't be abused in this wany to record video. What I'd like to know is, a) What (if anything) is wrong with the code above? b) If NetStream doesn't support recording to disk, are there any other alternatives which capture Audio AND Video to a file on the users local hard disk? Thanks in advance!

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• Getting the DirectShow VideoRender filter to respond to MediaType changes on its Input Pin?

  - by Jonathan Websdale

  Below is the code extract from my decoder transform filter which takes in data from my source filter which is taking RTP network data from an IP camera. The source filter, decode filter can dynamically respond to changes in the camera image dimensions since I need to handle resolution changes in the decode library. I've used the 'ReceiveConnection' method as described in the DirectShow help, passing the new MediaType data in the next sample. However, I can't get the Video Mixing Renderer to accept the resolution changes dynamically even though the renderer will render the different resolution if the graph is stopped and restarted. Can anyone point out what I need to do to get the renderer to handle dynamic resolution changes? HRESULT CDecoder::Receive(IMediaSample* pIn) { //Input data does not necessarily correspond one-to-one //with output frames, so we must override Receive instead //of Transform. HRESULT hr = S_OK; //Deliver input to library long cBytes = pIn->GetActualDataLength(); BYTE* pSrc; pIn->GetPointer(&pSrc); try { hr = m_codec.Decode(pSrc, cBytes, (hr == S_OK)?&tStart : NULL); } catch (...) { hr = E_UNEXPECTED; } if (FAILED(hr)) { if (theLog.enabled()){theLog.strm() << "Decoder Error " << hex << hr << dec << " - resetting input"; theLog.write();} //Force reset of decoder m_bReset = true; m_codec.ResetInput(); //We have handled the error -- don't pass upstream or the source may stop. return S_OK; } //Extract and deliver any decoded frames hr = DeliverDecodedFrames(); return hr; } HRESULT CDecoder::DeliverDecodedFrames() { HRESULT hr = S_OK; for (;;) { DecodedFrame frame; bool bFrame = m_codec.GetDecodedFrame(frame); if (!bFrame) { break; } CMediaType mtIn; CMediaType mtOut; GetMediaType( PINDIR_INPUT, &mtIn); GetMediaType( PINDIR_OUTPUT, &mtOut); //Get the output pin's current image resolution VIDEOINFOHEADER* pvi = (VIDEOINFOHEADER*)mtOut.Format(); if( pvi->bmiHeader.biWidth != m_cxInput || pvi->bmiHeader.biHeight != m_cyInput) { HRESULT hr = GetPin(PINDIR_OUTPUT)->GetConnected()->ReceiveConnection(GetPin(PINDIR_OUTPUT), &mtIn); if(SUCCEEDED(hr)) { SetMediaType(PINDIR_OUTPUT, &mtIn); } } IMediaSamplePtr pOut; hr = m_pOutput->GetDeliveryBuffer(&pOut, 0, 0, NULL); if (FAILED(hr)) { break; } AM_MEDIA_TYPE* pmt; if (pOut->GetMediaType(&pmt) == S_OK) { CMediaType mt(*pmt); DeleteMediaType(pmt); SetMediaType(PINDIR_OUTPUT, &mt); pOut->SetMediaType(&mt); } // crop, tramslate and deliver BYTE* pDest; pOut->GetPointer(&pDest); m_pConverter->Convert(frame.Width(), frame.Height(), frame.GetY(), frame.GetU(), frame.GetV(), pDest); pOut->SetActualDataLength(m_pOutput->CurrentMediaType().GetSampleSize()); pOut->SetSyncPoint(true); if (frame.HasTimestamp()) { REFERENCE_TIME tStart = frame.Timestamp(); REFERENCE_TIME tStop = tStart+1; pOut->SetTime(&tStart, &tStop); } m_pOutput->Deliver(pOut); } return hr; }

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• Android Frame based animation memory problem

  - by madsleejensen

  Hi all Im trying to create a animation on top of a Camera Surface view. The animation if a box rotating, and to enable transparency i made a bunch of *.png files that i want to just switch out on top of the Camera view. The problem is Android wont allow me to allocate so many images (too much memory required) so the AnimationDrawable is not an option. Will i be able to allocate all the *.png bitmaps if i use OpenGL instead? then i would store all the *.png's as Textures and just make my own animation logic? is am i under the same restrictions there? Any ideas on how to solve this problem ? Ive made a Custom view that loads the image resource on every frame and discards it when next frame is to be displayed. But the performance is terrible. import android.app.Activity; import android.content.res.Resources; import android.graphics.drawable.Drawable; import android.os.SystemClock; import android.util.Log; import android.widget.ImageView; public class FrameAnimationView extends ImageView { private int mFramesPerSecond = 10; private int mTimeBetweenFrames = (1000 / mFramesPerSecond); private int mCurrentFrame = 1; private String[] mFrames; private Thread mAnimationThread; private Resources mResources; private String mIdentifierPrefix; private Activity mContext; private boolean mIsAnimating = false; private Integer[] mDrawableIndentifiers; public FrameAnimationView(Activity context, String[] frames) { super(context); mContext = context; mResources = context.getResources(); mFrames = frames; mIdentifierPrefix = context.getPackageName() + ":drawable/"; mDrawableIndentifiers = new Integer[frames.length]; } private void initAnimationThread() { mAnimationThread = new Thread(new Runnable() { @Override public void run() { while (mIsAnimating) { final int frameToShow = (mCurrentFrame - 1); //Log.e("frame", Integer.toString(frameToShow)); mContext.runOnUiThread(new Runnable() { @Override public void run() { if (mDrawableIndentifiers[frameToShow] == null) { String frameId = mFrames[frameToShow]; int drawableResourceId = mResources.getIdentifier(mIdentifierPrefix + frameId, null, null); mDrawableIndentifiers[frameToShow] = drawableResourceId; } Drawable frame = getResources().getDrawable(mDrawableIndentifiers[frameToShow]); setBackgroundDrawable(frame); if (mCurrentFrame < mFrames.length) { mCurrentFrame++; } else { mCurrentFrame = 1; } } }); try { Thread.sleep(mTimeBetweenFrames); } catch (InterruptedException e) { e.printStackTrace(); } } } }); } public void setFramesPerSecond(int fps) { mFramesPerSecond = fps; mTimeBetweenFrames = (1000 / mFramesPerSecond); } public void startAnimation() { if (mIsAnimating) return; mIsAnimating = true; initAnimationThread(); mAnimationThread.start(); } public void stopAnimation() { if (mIsAnimating) { Thread oldThread = mAnimationThread; mAnimationThread = null; oldThread.interrupt(); mIsAnimating = false; } } }

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• Convert OpenGL code to DirectX

  - by Fredrik Boston Westman

  First of all, this is kind of a follow up question on @byte56 excellent anwser on this question concerning picking algorithms. I'm trying to convert one of his code examples to directX 11 however I have run into some problems ( I can pick but the picking is way off), and I wanted to make sure I had done it right before moving on and checking the rest of my code. I am not that familiar with openGl but I can imagine openGl has different coordinations systems, and functions that alters how you must implement to code a bit. The getPickRay function on the answer linked is what I'm trying to convert. This is the part of my code that I think is giving me trouble when converting from openGl to directX Because I'm unsure on how their different coordination systems differs from one another. PRVecX = ((( 2.0f * mouseX) / ClientWidth ) - 1 ) * tan((viewAngle)/2); PRVecY = (1-(( 2.0f * mouseY) / ClientHeight)) * tan((viewAngle)/2); Another thing that I am unsure about is this part: XMVECTOR worldSpaceNear = XMVector3TransformCoord(cameraSpaceNear, invMat); XMVECTOR worldSpaceFar = XMVector3TransformCoord(cameraSpaceFar, invMat); A couple of notes: The mouse coordinates are already converted so that the top left corner of the client window would be (0,0) and the bottom right (800,600) ( or whatever resolution you would have) The viewAngle is the same angle that I used when setting the camera view with XMMatrixPerspectiveFovLH. I removed the variables aspectRatio and zoomFactor because I assumed that they were related to some specific function of his game. To summarize it up to questions : Does the openGL coordination system differ in such a way that this equation in the first of my code examples wouldn't be valid when used in DirectX 11 ( with its respective screen coordination system)? Is the openGL method Matrix4f.transform(a, b, c) equal to the directX method c = XMVector3TransformCoord(b,a)? (where a is a matrix and b,c are vectors). Because I know when it comes to matrices order is important.

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• Windows Azure: Import/Export Hard Drives, VM ACLs, Web Sockets, Remote Debugging, Continuous Delivery, New Relic, Billing Alerts and More

  - by ScottGu

  Two weeks ago we released a giant set of improvements to Windows Azure, as well as a significant update of the Windows Azure SDK. This morning we released another massive set of enhancements to Windows Azure.  Today’s new capabilities include: Storage: Import/Export Hard Disk Drives to your Storage Accounts HDInsight: General Availability of our Hadoop Service in the cloud Virtual Machines: New VM Gallery, ACL support for VIPs Web Sites: WebSocket and Remote Debugging Support Notification Hubs: Segmented customer push notification support with tag expressions TFS & GIT: Continuous Delivery Support for Web Sites + Cloud Services Developer Analytics: New Relic support for Web Sites + Mobile Services Service Bus: Support for partitioned queues and topics Billing: New Billing Alert Service that sends emails notifications when your bill hits a threshold you define All of these improvements are now available to use immediately (note that some features are still in preview).  Below are more details about them. Storage: Import/Export Hard Disk Drives to Windows Azure I am excited to announce the preview of our new Windows Azure Import/Export Service! The Windows Azure Import/Export Service enables you to move large amounts of on-premises data into and out of your Windows Azure Storage accounts. It does this by enabling you to securely ship hard disk drives directly to our Windows Azure data centers. Once we receive the drives we’ll automatically transfer the data to or from your Windows Azure Storage account.  This enables you to import or export massive amounts of data more quickly and cost effectively (and not be constrained by available network bandwidth). Encrypted Transport Our Import/Export service provides built-in support for BitLocker disk encryption – which enables you to securely encrypt data on the hard drives before you send it, and not have to worry about it being compromised even if the disk is lost/stolen in transit (since the content on the transported hard drives is completely encrypted and you are the only one who has the key to it).  The drive preparation tool we are shipping today makes setting up bitlocker encryption on these hard drives easy. How to Import/Export your first Hard Drive of Data You can read our Getting Started Guide to learn more about how to begin using the import/export service.  You can create import and export jobs via the Windows Azure Management Portal as well as programmatically using our Server Management APIs. It is really easy to create a new import or export job using the Windows Azure Management Portal.  Simply navigate to a Windows Azure storage account, and then click the new Import/Export tab now available within it (note: if you don’t have this tab make sure to sign-up for the Import/Export preview): Then click the “Create Import Job” or “Create Export Job” commands at the bottom of it.  This will launch a wizard that easily walks you through the steps required: For more comprehensive information about Import/Export, refer to Windows Azure Storage team blog.  You can also send questions and comments to the [email protected] email address. We think you’ll find this new service makes it much easier to move data into and out of Windows Azure, and it will dramatically cut down the network bandwidth required when working on large data migration projects.  We hope you like it. HDInsight: 100% Compatible Hadoop Service in the Cloud Last week we announced the general availability release of Windows Azure HDInsight. HDInsight is a 100% compatible Hadoop service that allows you to easily provision and manage Hadoop clusters for big data processing in Windows Azure.  This release is now live in production, backed by an enterprise SLA, supported 24x7 by Microsoft Support, and is ready to use for production scenarios. HDInsight allows you to use Apache Hadoop tools, such as Pig and Hive, to process large amounts of data in Windows Azure Blob Storage. Because data is stored in Windows Azure Blob Storage, you can choose to dynamically create Hadoop clusters only when you need them, and then shut them down when they are no longer required (since you pay only for the time the Hadoop cluster instances are running this provides a super cost effective way to use them).  You can create Hadoop clusters using either the Windows Azure Management Portal (see below) or using our PowerShell and Cross Platform Command line tools: The import/export hard drive support that came out today is a perfect companion service to use with HDInsight – the combination allows you to easily ingest, process and optionally export a limitless amount of data.  We’ve also integrated HDInsight with our Business Intelligence tools, so users can leverage familiar tools like Excel in order to analyze the output of jobs.  You can find out more about how to get started with HDInsight here. Virtual Machines: VM Gallery Enhancements Today’s update of Windows Azure brings with it a new Virtual Machine gallery that you can use to create new VMs in the cloud.  You can launch the gallery by doing New->Compute->Virtual Machine->From Gallery within the Windows Azure Management Portal: The new Virtual Machine Gallery includes some nice enhancements that make it even easier to use: Search: You can now easily search and filter images using the search box in the top-right of the dialog.  For example, simply type “SQL” and we’ll filter to show those images in the gallery that contain that substring. Category Tree-view: Each month we add more built-in VM images to the gallery.  You can continue to browse these using the “All” view within the VM Gallery – or now quickly filter them using the category tree-view on the left-hand side of the dialog.  For example, by selecting “Oracle” in the tree-view you can now quickly filter to see the official Oracle supplied images. MSDN and Supported checkboxes: With today’s update we are also introducing filters that makes it easy to filter out types of images that you may not be interested in. The first checkbox is MSDN: using this filter you can exclude any image that is not part of the Windows Azure benefits for MSDN subscribers (which have highly discounted pricing - you can learn more about the MSDN pricing here). The second checkbox is Supported: this filter will exclude any image that contains prerelease software, so you can feel confident that the software you choose to deploy is fully supported by Windows Azure and our partners. Sort options: We sort gallery images by what we think customers are most interested in, but sometimes you might want to sort using different views. So we’re providing some additional sort options, like “Newest,” to customize the image list for what suits you best. Pricing information: We now provide additional pricing information about images and options on how to cost effectively run them directly within the VM Gallery. The above improvements make it even easier to use the VM Gallery and quickly create launch and run Virtual Machines in the cloud. Virtual Machines: ACL Support for VIPs A few months ago we exposed the ability to configure Access Control Lists (ACLs) for Virtual Machines using Windows PowerShell cmdlets and our Service Management API. With today’s release, you can now configure VM ACLs using the Windows Azure Management Portal as well. You can now do this by clicking the new Manage ACL command in the Endpoints tab of a virtual machine instance: This will enable you to configure an ordered list of permit and deny rules to scope the traffic that can access your VM’s network endpoints. For example, if you were on a virtual network, you could limit RDP access to a Windows Azure virtual machine to only a few computers attached to your enterprise. Or if you weren’t on a virtual network you could alternatively limit traffic from public IPs that can access your workloads: Here is the default behaviors for ACLs in Windows Azure: By default (i.e. no rules specified), all traffic is permitted. When using only Permit rules, all other traffic is denied. When using only Deny rules, all other traffic is permitted. When there is a combination of Permit and Deny rules, all other traffic is denied. Lastly, remember that configuring endpoints does not automatically configure them within the VM if it also has firewall rules enabled at the OS level.  So if you create an endpoint using the Windows Azure Management Portal, Windows PowerShell, or REST API, be sure to also configure your guest VM firewall appropriately as well. Web Sites: Web Sockets Support With today’s release you can now use Web Sockets with Windows Azure Web Sites.  This feature enables you to easily integrate real-time communication scenarios within your web based applications, and is available at no extra charge (it even works with the free tier).  Higher level programming libraries like SignalR and socket.io are also now supported with it. You can enable Web Sockets support on a web site by navigating to the Configure tab of a Web Site, and by toggling Web Sockets support to “on”: Once Web Sockets is enabled you can start to integrate some really cool scenarios into your web applications.  Check out the new SignalR documentation hub on www.asp.net to learn more about some of the awesome scenarios you can do with it. Web Sites: Remote Debugging Support The Windows Azure SDK 2.2 we released two weeks ago introduced remote debugging support for Windows Azure Cloud Services. With today’s Windows Azure release we are extending this remote debugging support to also work with Windows Azure Web Sites. With live, remote debugging support inside of Visual Studio, you are able to have more visibility than ever before into how your code is operating live in Windows Azure. It is now super easy to attach the debugger and quickly see what is going on with your application in the cloud. Remote Debugging of a Windows Azure Web Site using VS 2013 Enabling the remote debugging of a Windows Azure Web Site using VS 2013 is really easy.  Start by opening up your web application’s project within Visual Studio. Then navigate to the “Server Explorer” tab within Visual Studio, and click on the deployed web-site you want to debug that is running within Windows Azure using the Windows Azure->Web Sites node in the Server Explorer.  Then right-click and choose the “Attach Debugger” option on it: When you do this Visual Studio will remotely attach the debugger to the Web Site running within Windows Azure.  The debugger will then stop the web site’s execution when it hits any break points that you have set within your web application’s project inside Visual Studio.  For example, below I set a breakpoint on the “ViewBag.Message” assignment statement within the HomeController of the standard ASP.NET MVC project template.  When I hit refresh on the “About” page of the web site within the browser, the breakpoint was triggered and I am now able to debug the app remotely using Visual Studio: Note above how we can debug variables (including autos/watchlist/etc), as well as use the Immediate and Command Windows. In the debug session above I used the Immediate Window to explore some of the request object state, as well as to dynamically change the ViewBag.Message property.  When we click the the “Continue” button (or press F5) the app will continue execution and the Web Site will render the content back to the browser.  This makes it super easy to debug web apps remotely. Tips for Better Debugging To get the best experience while debugging, we recommend publishing your site using the Debug configuration within Visual Studio’s Web Publish dialog. This will ensure that debug symbol information is uploaded to the Web Site which will enable a richer debug experience within Visual Studio.  You can find this option on the Web Publish dialog on the Settings tab: When you ultimately deploy/run the application in production we recommend using the “Release” configuration setting – the release configuration is memory optimized and will provide the best production performance.  To learn more about diagnosing and debugging Windows Azure Web Sites read our new Troubleshooting Windows Azure Web Sites in Visual Studio guide. Notification Hubs: Segmented Push Notification support with tag expressions In August we announced the General Availability of Windows Azure Notification Hubs - a powerful Mobile Push Notifications service that makes it easy to send high volume push notifications with low latency from any mobile app back-end.  Notification hubs can be used with any mobile app back-end (including ones built using our Mobile Services capability) and can also be used with back-ends that run in the cloud as well as on-premises. Beginning with the initial release, Notification Hubs allowed developers to send personalized push notifications to both individual users as well as groups of users by interest, by associating their devices with tags representing the logical target of the notification. For example, by registering all devices of customers interested in a favorite MLB team with a corresponding tag, it is possible to broadcast one message to millions of Boston Red Sox fans and another message to millions of St. Louis Cardinals fans with a single API call respectively. New support for using tag expressions to enable advanced customer segmentation With today’s release we are adding support for even more advanced customer targeting.  You can now identify customers that you want to send push notifications to by defining rich tag expressions. With tag expressions, you can now not only broadcast notifications to Boston Red Sox fans, but take that segmenting a step farther and reach more granular segments. This opens up a variety of scenarios, for example: Offers based on multiple preferences—e.g. send a game day vegetarian special to users tagged as both a Boston Red Sox fan AND a vegetarian Push content to multiple segments in a single message—e.g. rain delay information only to users who are tagged as either a Boston Red Sox fan OR a St. Louis Cardinal fan Avoid presenting subsets of a segment with irrelevant content—e.g. season ticket availability reminder to users who are tagged as a Boston Red Sox fan but NOT also a season ticket holder To illustrate with code, consider a restaurant chain app that sends an offer related to a Red Sox vs Cardinals game for users in Boston. Devices can be tagged by your app with location tags (e.g. “Loc:Boston”) and interest tags (e.g. “Follows:RedSox”, “Follows:Cardinals”), and then a notification can be sent by your back-end to “(Follows:RedSox || Follows:Cardinals) && Loc:Boston” in order to deliver an offer to all devices in Boston that follow either the RedSox or the Cardinals. This can be done directly in your server backend send logic using the code below: var notification = new WindowsNotification(messagePayload); hub.SendNotificationAsync(notification, "(Follows:RedSox || Follows:Cardinals) && Loc:Boston"); In your expressions you can use all Boolean operators: AND (&&), OR (||), and NOT (!).  Some other cool use cases for tag expressions that are now supported include: Social: To “all my group except me” - group:id && !user:id Events: Touchdown event is sent to everybody following either team or any of the players involved in the action: Followteam:A || Followteam:B || followplayer:1 || followplayer:2 … Hours: Send notifications at specific times. E.g. Tag devices with time zone and when it is 12pm in Seattle send to: GMT8 && follows:thaifood Versions and platforms: Send a reminder to people still using your first version for Android - version:1.0 && platform:Android For help on getting started with Notification Hubs, visit the Notification Hub documentation center.  Then download the latest NuGet package (or use the Notification Hubs REST APIs directly) to start sending push notifications using tag expressions.  They are really powerful and enable a bunch of great new scenarios. TFS & GIT: Continuous Delivery Support for Web Sites + Cloud Services With today’s Windows Azure release we are making it really easy to enable continuous delivery support with Windows Azure and Team Foundation Services.  Team Foundation Services is a cloud based offering from Microsoft that provides integrated source control (with both TFS and Git support), build server, test execution, collaboration tools, and agile planning support.  It makes it really easy to setup a team project (complete with automated builds and test runners) in the cloud, and it has really rich integration with Visual Studio. With today’s Windows Azure release it is now really easy to enable continuous delivery support with both TFS and Git based repositories hosted using Team Foundation Services.  This enables a workflow where when code is checked in, built successfully on an automated build server, and all tests pass on it – I can automatically have the app deployed on Windows Azure with zero manual intervention or work required. The below screen-shots demonstrate how to quickly setup a continuous delivery workflow to Windows Azure with a Git-based ASP.NET MVC project hosted using Team Foundation Services. Enabling Continuous Delivery to Windows Azure with Team Foundation Services The project I’m going to enable continuous delivery with is a simple ASP.NET MVC project whose source code I’m hosting using Team Foundation Services.  I did this by creating a “SimpleContinuousDeploymentTest” repository there using Git – and then used the new built-in Git tooling support within Visual Studio 2013 to push the source code to it.  Below is a screen-shot of the Git repository hosted within Team Foundation Services: I can access the repository within Visual Studio 2013 and easily make commits with it (as well as branch, merge and do other tasks).  Using VS 2013 I can also setup automated builds to take place in the cloud using Team Foundation Services every time someone checks in code to the repository: The cool thing about this is that I don’t have to buy or rent my own build server – Team Foundation Services automatically maintains its own build server farm and can automatically queue up a build for me (for free) every time someone checks in code using the above settings.  This build server (and automated testing) support now works with both TFS and Git based source control repositories. Connecting a Team Foundation Services project to Windows Azure Once I have a source repository hosted in Team Foundation Services with Automated Builds and Testing set up, I can then go even further and set it up so that it will be automatically deployed to Windows Azure when a source code commit is made to the repository (assuming the Build + Tests pass).  Enabling this is now really easy.  To set this up with a Windows Azure Web Site simply use the New->Compute->Web Site->Custom Create command inside the Windows Azure Management Portal.  This will create a dialog like below.  I gave the web site a name and then made sure the “Publish from source control” checkbox was selected: When we click next we’ll be prompted for the location of the source repository.  We’ll select “Team Foundation Services”: Once we do this we’ll be prompted for our Team Foundation Services account that our source repository is hosted under (in this case my TFS account is “scottguthrie”): When we click the “Authorize Now” button we’ll be prompted to give Windows Azure permissions to connect to the Team Foundation Services account.  Once we do this we’ll be prompted to pick the source repository we want to connect to.  Starting with today’s Windows Azure release you can now connect to both TFS and Git based source repositories.  This new support allows me to connect to the “SimpleContinuousDeploymentTest” respository we created earlier: Clicking the finish button will then create the Web Site with the continuous delivery hooks setup with Team Foundation Services.  Now every time someone pushes source control to the repository in Team Foundation Services, it will kick off an automated build, run all of the unit tests in the solution , and if they pass the app will be automatically deployed to our Web Site in Windows Azure.  You can monitor the history and status of these automated deployments using the Deployments tab within the Web Site: This enables a really slick continuous delivery workflow, and enables you to build and deploy apps in a really nice way. Developer Analytics: New Relic support for Web Sites + Mobile Services With today’s Windows Azure release we are making it really easy to enable Developer Analytics and Monitoring support with both Windows Azure Web Site and Windows Azure Mobile Services.  We are partnering with New Relic, who provide a great dev analytics and app performance monitoring offering, to enable this - and we have updated the Windows Azure Management Portal to make it really easy to configure. Enabling New Relic with a Windows Azure Web Site Enabling New Relic support with a Windows Azure Web Site is now really easy.  Simply navigate to the Configure tab of a Web Site and scroll down to the “developer analytics” section that is now within it: Clicking the “add-on” button will display some additional UI.  If you don’t already have a New Relic subscription, you can click the “view windows azure store” button to obtain a subscription (note: New Relic has a perpetually free tier so you can enable it even without paying anything): Clicking the “view windows azure store” button will launch the integrated Windows Azure Store experience we have within the Windows Azure Management Portal.  You can use this to browse from a variety of great add-on services – including New Relic: Select “New Relic” within the dialog above, then click the next button, and you’ll be able to choose which type of New Relic subscription you wish to purchase.  For this demo we’ll simply select the “Free Standard Version” – which does not cost anything and can be used forever:  Once we’ve signed-up for our New Relic subscription and added it to our Windows Azure account, we can go back to the Web Site’s configuration tab and choose to use the New Relic add-on with our Windows Azure Web Site.  We can do this by simply selecting it from the “add-on” dropdown (it is automatically populated within it once we have a New Relic subscription in our account): Clicking the “Save” button will then cause the Windows Azure Management Portal to automatically populate all of the needed New Relic configuration settings to our Web Site: Deploying the New Relic Agent as part of a Web Site The final step to enable developer analytics using New Relic is to add the New Relic runtime agent to our web app.  We can do this within Visual Studio by right-clicking on our web project and selecting the “Manage NuGet Packages” context menu: This will bring up the NuGet package manager.  You can search for “New Relic” within it to find the New Relic agent.  Note that there is both a 32-bit and 64-bit edition of it – make sure to install the version that matches how your Web Site is running within Windows Azure (note: you can configure your Web Site to run in either 32-bit or 64-bit mode using the Web Site’s “Configuration” tab within the Windows Azure Management Portal): Once we install the NuGet package we are all set to go.  We’ll simply re-publish the web site again to Windows Azure and New Relic will now automatically start monitoring the application Monitoring a Web Site using New Relic Now that the application has developer analytics support with New Relic enabled, we can launch the New Relic monitoring portal to start monitoring the health of it.  We can do this by clicking on the “Add Ons” tab in the left-hand side of the Windows Azure Management Portal.  Then select the New Relic add-on we signed-up for within it.  The Windows Azure Management Portal will provide some default information about the add-on when we do this.  Clicking the “Manage” button in the tray at the bottom will launch a new browser tab and single-sign us into the New Relic monitoring portal associated with our account: When we do this a new browser tab will launch with the New Relic admin tool loaded within it: We can now see insights into how our app is performing – without having to have written a single line of monitoring code.  The New Relic service provides a ton of great built-in monitoring features allowing us to quickly see: Performance times (including browser rendering speed) for the overall site and individual pages.  You can optionally set alert thresholds to trigger if the speed does not meet a threshold you specify. Information about where in the world your customers are hitting the site from (and how performance varies by region) Details on the latency performance of external services your web apps are using (for example: SQL, Storage, Twitter, etc) Error information including call stack details for exceptions that have occurred at runtime SQL Server profiling information – including which queries executed against your database and what their performance was And a whole bunch more… The cool thing about New Relic is that you don’t need to write monitoring code within your application to get all of the above reports (plus a lot more).  The New Relic agent automatically enables the CLR profiler within applications and automatically captures the information necessary to identify these.  This makes it super easy to get started and immediately have a rich developer analytics view for your solutions with very little effort. If you haven’t tried New Relic out yet with Windows Azure I recommend you do so – I think you’ll find it helps you build even better cloud applications.  Following the above steps will help you get started and deliver you a really good application monitoring solution in only minutes. Service Bus: Support for partitioned queues and topics With today’s release, we are enabling support within Service Bus for partitioned queues and topics. Enabling partitioning enables you to achieve a higher message throughput and better availability from your queues and topics. Higher message throughput is achieved by implementing multiple message brokers for each partitioned queue and topic.  The  multiple messaging stores will also provide higher availability. You can create a partitioned queue or topic by simply checking the Enable Partitioning option in the custom create wizard for a Queue or Topic: Read this article to learn more about partitioned queues and topics and how to take advantage of them today. Billing: New Billing Alert Service Today’s Windows Azure update enables a new Billing Alert Service Preview that enables you to get proactive email notifications when your Windows Azure bill goes above a certain monetary threshold that you configure.  This makes it easier to manage your bill and avoid potential surprises at the end of the month. With the Billing Alert Service Preview, you can now create email alerts to monitor and manage your monetary credits or your current bill total.  To set up an alert first sign-up for the free Billing Alert Service Preview.  Then visit the account management page, click on a subscription you have setup, and then navigate to the new Alerts tab that is available: The alerts tab allows you to setup email alerts that will be sent automatically once a certain threshold is hit.  For example, by clicking the “add alert” button above I can setup a rule to send myself email anytime my Windows Azure bill goes above $100 for the month: The Billing Alert Service will evolve to support additional aspects of your bill as well as support multiple forms of alerts such as SMS.  Try out the new Billing Alert Service Preview today and give us feedback. Summary Today’s Windows Azure release enables a ton of great new scenarios, and makes building applications hosted in the cloud even easier. If you don’t already have a Windows Azure account, you can sign-up for a free trial and start using all of the above features today.  Then visit the Windows Azure Developer Center to learn more about how to build apps with it. Hope this helps, Scott P.S. In addition to blogging, I am also now using Twitter for quick updates and to share links. Follow me at: twitter.com/scottgu

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• 3D terrain map with Hexagon Grids

  - by Rob

  I'm working on a hobby project (I'm a web/backend developer by day) and I want to create a 3D Tile (terrain) engine. I'm using XNA, but I can use MonoGame, OpenGL, or straight DirectX, so the answer does not have to be XNA specific. I'm more looking for some high level advice on how to approach this problem. I know about creating height maps and such, there are thousands of references out there on the net for that, this is a bit more specific. I'm more concerned with is the approach to get a 3D hexagon tile grid out of my terrain (since the terrain, and all 3d objects, are basically triangles). The first approach I thought about is to basically draw the triangles on the screen in the following order (blue numbers) to give me the triangles for terrain (black triangles) and then make hexes out of the triangles (red hex). This approach seems complicated to me since i'm basically having to draw 4 different types of triangles. The next approach I thought of was to use the existing triangles like I did for a square grid and get my hexes from 6 triangles as follows This seems like the easier approach to me since there are only 2 types of triangles (i would have to play with the heights and widths to get a "perfect" hexagon, but the idea is the same. So I'm looking for: 1) Any suggestions on which approach I should take, and why. 2) How would I translate mouse position to a hexagon grid position (especially when moving the camera around), for example in the second image if the mouse pointer were the green circle, how would I determine to highlight that hexagon and then translating that into grid coordinates (assuming it is 0,0)? 3) Any references, articles, books, etc - to get me going in the right direction. Note: I've done hex grid's and mouse-grid coordinate conversion before in 2d. looking for some pointers on how to do the same in 3d. The result I would like to achieve is something similar to this video.

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• Function keys for ASUS n56vm not working

  - by Lars

  i have installed Ubuntu 12.10 (64bits) (3.5.0-18 kernel) on an ASUS N56VM. Most fn+key are working except for: brightness keys (fn+f5/fn+f6) don't work. fn+c - gamma keys fc+v - camera fn+space - toggle speed. I really like, at least, to have the brightness keys working. Can you help? Best Regards $ dmesg | grep -i asus [ 0.000000] DMI: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. N56VM/N56VM, BIOS N56VM.206 04/13/2012 [ 0.000000] ACPI: RSDP 00000000cafcc000 00024 (v02 _ASUS_) [ 0.000000] ACPI: XSDT 00000000cafcc078 00074 (v01 _ASUS_ Notebook 01072009 AMI 00010013) [ 0.000000] ACPI: FACP 00000000cafdf858 000F4 (v04 _ASUS_ Notebook 01072009 AMI 00010013) [ 0.000000] ACPI: DSDT 00000000cafcc188 136CA (v02 _ASUS_ Notebook 00000013 INTL 20091112) [ 0.000000] ACPI: APIC 00000000cafdf950 00092 (v03 _ASUS_ Notebook 01072009 AMI 00010013) [ 0.000000] ACPI: FPDT 00000000cafdf9e8 00044 (v01 _ASUS_ Notebook 01072009 AMI 00010013) [ 0.000000] ACPI: ECDT 00000000cafdfa30 000C1 (v01 _ASUS_ Notebook 01072009 AMI. 00000005) [ 0.000000] ACPI: MCFG 00000000cafdfaf8 0003C (v01 _ASUS_ Notebook 01072009 MSFT 00000097) [ 0.000000] ACPI: SLIC 00000000cafdfb38 00176 (v01 _ASUS_ Notebook 01072009 ASUS 00000001) [ 0.000000] ACPI: HPET 00000000cafdfcb0 00038 (v01 _ASUS_ Notebook 01072009 AMI. 00000005) [ 0.000000] ACPI: BGRT 00000000cafe1090 00038 (v00 _ASUS_ Notebook 01072009 ASUS 00010013) [ 9.670500] asus_wmi: ASUS WMI generic driver loaded [ 9.671627] asus_wmi: Initialization: 0x1asus_wmi: BIOS WMI version: 7.9 [ 9.671673] asus_wmi: SFUN value: 0x6a0877<6>[ 9.672086] input: Asus WMI hotkeys as /devices/platform/asus-nb-wmi/input/input4 [ 9.732438] Registered led device: asus::kbd_backlight [ 9.733242] asus_wmi: Backlight controlled by ACPI video driver

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• Buy HTC HD7 Windows Phone 7 From Airtel In India @ Rs. 29990

  - by Gopinath

  Are you looking for HTC HD 7 Windows Phone 7 in India? Head over to Airtel showroom near you to grab one. Airtel in partnership with HTC is offering HD 7 Windows Phone 7 for Rs. 29990 and users will get 2 GB of data usage for 6 months at Rs. 300. Mr. Shireesh Joshi, CMO-Mobile Services of Bharti Airtel,  in a press conference says We are delighted with the opportunity to bring the eagerly-awaited HTC HD7 Smartphone in India. Combining the strength of the airtel brand and network with the innovation and design of HTC and the great user-interface of Windows Phone 7, we are happy to bring another first for our customers that will take mobile communications to a whole new level. The HD7 has a 4.3-inch display, kickstand to rest your phone on a table, 5MP autofocus camera that allows you to record 720p videos, 1GHz processor, 576MB of RAM and has 16GB of internal memory. Even though this is the official launch of HTC HD7 in India, this phone is available in the market for quite sometime at an approximate price of Rs. 27000/-. So it’s your call to decide whether buy it at HTC authorized retailers like Airtel for Rs.29K  or in the market for Rs 27K. HTC HD 7 Promo Video Thanks Fonearena This article titled,Buy HTC HD7 Windows Phone 7 From Airtel In India @ Rs. 29990, was originally published at Tech Dreams. Grab our rss feed or fan us on Facebook to get updates from us.

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• Apple’s Sep 10th event confirmed. iPhone 5S and low cost iPhone 5C launch is expected

  - by Gopinath

  The much rumored Apple event on September 10th is confirmed. Apple sent official event invitations to media houses and popular bloggers across the globe with the title "This should brighten your day". For the past couple of months there are a lot of speculations on next generation iPhone. Media and bloggers are dubbing it as iPhone 5S and rumored to have finger print sensor for biometric authentication, 12- or 13-megapixel camera with dual-LED flash, and a gold-colored variant. Another speculated surprise Apple may pull out is a low cost variant of iPhone called as iPhone 5C. In order to fight Android penetration, Apple is speculated to announce a plastic iPhone in multiple bold colors similar to the Nokia phones. The new iPhones will be running on iOS 7, a new flat UI which is drastically different from previous versions. iOS 7 is in beta for several months and it heavily barrowed user interface clues from Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system. What ever Apple is going to introduce on September 10th, gadget freaks and investors are eagerly waiting to see if Apple can continue innovating after Steve Jobs. Since 2011 this is the big launch

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• Here’s How to Create a Blue Screen of Death in Any Color You Want

  - by The Geek

  Everybody that’s ever used Windows has at least heard of the Blue Screen of Death, even if they have been lucky enough to never encounter one themselves. Here’s how to make a BSOD in any color you want, using a couple of clicks. Note: following the technique in this article WILL crash your PC, every single time. Without fail… it’s kinda the point, after all. Isn’t the black and green BSOD a lot more geeky? Keep reading at your own risk Latest Features How-To Geek ETC HTG Projects: How to Create Your Own Custom Papercraft Toy How to Combine Rescue Disks to Create the Ultimate Windows Repair Disk What is Camera Raw, and Why Would a Professional Prefer it to JPG? The How-To Geek Guide to Audio Editing: The Basics How To Boot 10 Different Live CDs From 1 USB Flash Drive The 20 Best How-To Geek Linux Articles of 2010 Lord of the Rings Movie Parody Double Feature [Video] Turn a Webpage into an Asteroids-Styled Shooting Game in Opera Dolphin Browser Mini Leaves Beta; Sports New GUI, Easy Bookmarking, and More Updated Google Goggles Scans Faster; Solves Sudoku Puzzles Snowy Castle Retreat in the Mountains Wallpaper Fix TV Show Sorting Issues on iOS Devices

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• Disable Ethernet permanently to speed up boot time

  - by Anwar Shah

  I do not use the wired Ethernet Card. It seems to me that, Ubuntu is always trying in boot time to check the network via eth0, Which consumes some times and I guess this may slow down the boot process a bit. My dmesg output is below (partial) 2012-06-11 23:06:47 Ubuntu-KDE kernel [ 1.985592] input: Video Bus as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0A08:00/LNXVIDEO:01/input/input5 2012-06-11 23:06:47 Ubuntu-KDE kernel [ 1.985651] ACPI: Video Device [GFX0] (multi-head: yes rom: no post: no) 2012-06-11 23:06:47 Ubuntu-KDE kernel [ 1.985693] [drm] Initialized i915 1.6.0 20080730 for 0000:00:02.0 on minor 0 2012-06-11 23:06:47 Ubuntu-KDE kernel [ 2.056261] firewire_core: created device fw0: GUID 00023f87af41fd7d, S400 2012-06-11 23:06:47 Ubuntu-KDE kernel [ 3.710435] EXT4-fs (sda9): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null) A big time here..... 2012-06-11 23:06:47 Ubuntu-KDE kernel [ 13.466642] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready 2012-06-11 23:06:47 Ubuntu-KDE kernel [ 14.125296] Adding 1050620k swap on /dev/sda6. Priority:-1 extents:1 across:1050620k 2012-06-11 23:06:47 Ubuntu-KDE kernel [ 14.226952] EXT4-fs (sda9): re-mounted. Opts: (null) 2012-06-11 23:06:47 Ubuntu-KDE kernel [ 14.335012] snd_hda_intel 0000:00:1b.0: PCI INT A - GSI 22 (level, low) - IRQ 22 2012-06-11 23:06:47 Ubuntu-KDE kernel [ 14.335091] snd_hda_intel 0000:00:1b.0: irq 45 for MSI/MSI-X 2012-06-11 23:06:47 Ubuntu-KDE kernel [ 14.335128] snd_hda_intel 0000:00:1b.0: setting latency timer to 64 2012-06-11 23:06:47 Ubuntu-KDE kernel [ 14.346410] input: Ideapad extra buttons as /devices/platform/ideapad/input/input6 2012-06-11 23:06:47 Ubuntu-KDE kernel [ 14.428551] input: HDA Intel Headphone as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0/input7 2012-06-11 23:06:47 Ubuntu-KDE kernel [ 14.436958] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain 2012-06-11 23:06:47 Ubuntu-KDE kernel [ 14.476550] Linux video capture interface: v2.00 2012-06-11 23:06:47 Ubuntu-KDE kernel [ 14.486385] uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device USB 2.0 Camera (04f2:b008) So, My question is How can I disable the Ethernet card completely, so that kernel will not try to use that?

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• SQL SERVER – Take the Quiz for a chance to win a Quadcopter Drone – Brain Teasers

  - by Pinal Dave

  It has been a long time since we ran quiz. So let us get ready for a quiz. The quiz has two parts. You have to get both the parts correct to win Quadcopter with Camera (we will call it drone). We will be giving away a total of 2 Quadcopters. The quiz is extremely easy and I will ship the Drone anywhere in the world where Amazon will ship it. Let us jump directly to the quiz. Please complete all the three questions of the contest.  Contest Part 1: Brain Teasers There are two questions for you in this part of the contest. Question: There are two 7s. How will you write select statement with a single operator that returns single 7? Hint: SELECT 7(Answer)7 Question: Write down the shortest code that produces 1 without using any numbers in the select statement? Hint: SELECT (Answer) Contest Part 2: Download and Activate Rapid SQL Question: Download and Activate Rapid SQL. Hint: You have to download and activate Rapid SQL. If you do not activate Rapid SQL, you will be disqualified for the contest. Why take risk, let us start! That’s it! Just answer above questions in the following comments area, in following format. Remember: Use comments area right below the blog to take participation in the contest Answer before June 5, 2014 midnight GMT. The winner will be announced on June 8. The winner will be selected randomly from all the valid answers. All the valid answers will be kept hidden till June 5, 2014. There will be a total of two winners. The contest is open for any country of the world where Amazon ships products. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Puzzle, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL

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• Curiosity’s Official Self-Portrait

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  NASA has released a high-resolution self portrait of Curiosity. The photo, a composite of images snapped by the rover’s agile arm and MAHLI camera, shows Curiosity in front of Mount Sharp. From the NASA release: The mosaic shows the rover at “Rocknest,” the spot in Gale Crater where the mission’s first scoop sampling took place. Four scoop scars can be seen in the regolith in front of the rover. The base of Gale Crater’s 3-mile-high (5-kilometer) sedimentary mountain, Mount Sharp, rises on the right side of the frame. Mountains in the background to the left are the northern wall of Gale Crater. The Martian landscape appears inverted within the round, reflective ChemCam instrument at the top of the rover’s mast. Self-portraits like this one document the state of the rover and allow mission engineers to track changes over time, such as dust accumulation and wheel wear. Due to its location on the end of the robotic arm, only MAHLI (among the rover’s 17 cameras) is able to image some parts of the craft, including the port-side wheels. HTG Explains: Why It’s Good That Your Computer’s RAM Is Full 10 Awesome Improvements For Desktop Users in Windows 8 How To Play DVDs on Windows 8

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• Couldn't pass the signin screen

  - by Amokrane

  I have an issue here with my computer using ubuntu 10.10 on a 64 bits machine. When I start it, I have the login screen, I enter my credentials but instead of starting the session it reloads the login screen again. I checked the disc using fsck and it seems clean. How should I proceed to diagnose and repair this issue? Thanks! [Edit] I went to the log files, this is what I got: auth.log pam_unix (gdm:session): session opened for user amokrane by (uid=0) pam_ck_connector (gdm:session): nox11 mode, ignoring PAM_TTY :0 pam_unix (gdm:session) :session closed for user amokrane messages.log No ACPI video bus found I also took a shot with my camera of the black screen that appears between the two login screens, it says something like: fsck from util-linux-ng 2.17.2 /dev/sdc4 : propre, xxxx files, xxxx blocs Starting AppArmor profiles Skipping profiles in /etc/apparmor.d/disable: usr.bin.firefox Setting sensors limits Starting postgreSQL ... /var/log/Xorg.0.log [ 25.375] (II) intel(0): Modeline "1920x1080"x60.0 172.80 ... [ 28.850] (II) Power Button: Close [ 28.850] (II) UnloadModule: "evdev" [ 29.910] (II) Power Button: Close [ 28.910] (II) UnloadModule: "evdev" [ 28.941] (II) AT Translated Set 2 keyboard: Close [ 29.000] (II) ImPS/2 Generic Wheel Mouse: Close [ 29.000] (II) UnloadModule: "evdev" [ 29.039] ddxSigGiveUp: Closing log Update I tried the following: Ctrl-Alt-F1 on the login screen (to runt the console). sudo pkill startx sudo rm /tmp/.X0-locl startx But it tells me that the x server is already running.

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• Residual packages Ubuntu 12.04

  - by hydroxide

  I have an Asus Q500A with win8 and Ubuntu 12.04 64 bit; Linux kernel 3.8.0-32-generic. I have been having residual package issues which have been giving me trouble trying to reconfigure xserver-xorg-lts-raring. I tried removing all residual packages from synaptic but the following were not removed. Output of sudo dpkg -l | grep "^rc" rc gstreamer0.10-plugins-good:i386 0.10.31-1ubuntu1.2 GStreamer plugins from the "good" set rc libaa1:i386 1.4p5-39ubuntu1 ASCII art library rc libaio1:i386 0.3.109-2ubuntu1 Linux kernel AIO access library - shared library rc libao4:i386 1.1.0-1ubuntu2 Cross Platform Audio Output Library rc libasn1-8-heimdal:i386 1.6~git20120311.dfsg.1-2ubuntu0.1 Heimdal Kerberos - ASN.1 library rc libasound2:i386 1.0.25-1ubuntu10.2 shared library for ALSA applications rc libasyncns0:i386 0.8-4 Asynchronous name service query library rc libatk1.0-0:i386 2.4.0-0ubuntu1 ATK accessibility toolkit rc libavahi-client3:i386 0.6.30-5ubuntu2 Avahi client library rc libavahi-common3:i386 0.6.30-5ubuntu2 Avahi common library rc libavc1394-0:i386 0.5.3-1ubuntu2 control IEEE 1394 audio/video devices rc libcaca0:i386 0.99.beta17-2.1ubuntu2 colour ASCII art library rc libcairo-gobject2:i386 1.10.2-6.1ubuntu3 The Cairo 2D vector graphics library (GObject library) rc libcairo2:i386 1.10.2-6.1ubuntu3 The Cairo 2D vector graphics library rc libcanberra-gtk0:i386 0.28-3ubuntu3 GTK+ helper for playing widget event sounds with libcanberra rc libcanberra0:i386 0.28-3ubuntu3 simple abstract interface for playing event sounds rc libcap2:i386 1:2.22-1ubuntu3 support for getting/setting POSIX.1e capabilities rc libcdparanoia0:i386 3.10.2+debian-10ubuntu1 audio extraction tool for sampling CDs (library) rc libcroco3:i386 0.6.5-1ubuntu0.1 Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) parsing and manipulation toolkit rc libcups2:i386 1.5.3-0ubuntu8 Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - Core library rc libcupsimage2:i386 1.5.3-0ubuntu8 Common UNIX Printing System(tm) - Raster image library rc libcurl3:i386 7.22.0-3ubuntu4.3 Multi-protocol file transfer library (OpenSSL) rc libdatrie1:i386 0.2.5-3 Double-array trie library rc libdbus-glib-1-2:i386 0.98-1ubuntu1.1 simple interprocess messaging system (GLib-based shared library) rc libdbusmenu-qt2:i386 0.9.2-0ubuntu1 Qt implementation of the DBusMenu protocol rc libdrm-nouveau2:i386 2.4.43-0ubuntu0.0.3 Userspace interface to nouveau-specific kernel DRM services -- runtime rc libdv4:i386 1.0.0-3ubuntu1 software library for DV format digital video (runtime lib) rc libesd0:i386 0.2.41-10build3 Enlightened Sound Daemon - Shared libraries rc libexif12:i386 0.6.20-2ubuntu0.1 library to parse EXIF files rc libexpat1:i386 2.0.1-7.2ubuntu1.1 XML parsing C library - runtime library rc libflac8:i386 1.2.1-6 Free Lossless Audio Codec - runtime C library rc libfontconfig1:i386 2.8.0-3ubuntu9.1 generic font configuration library - runtime rc libfreetype6:i386 2.4.8-1ubuntu2.1 FreeType 2 font engine, shared library files rc libgail18:i386 2.24.10-0ubuntu6 GNOME Accessibility Implementation Library -- shared libraries rc libgconf-2-4:i386 3.2.5-0ubuntu2 GNOME configuration database system (shared libraries) rc libgcrypt11:i386 1.5.0-3ubuntu0.2 LGPL Crypto library - runtime library rc libgd2-xpm:i386 2.0.36~rc1~dfsg-6ubuntu2 GD Graphics Library version 2 rc libgdbm3:i386 1.8.3-10 GNU dbm database routines (runtime version) rc libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0:i386 2.26.1-1 GDK Pixbuf library rc libgif4:i386 4.1.6-9ubuntu1 library for GIF images (library) rc libgl1-mesa-dri-lts-quantal:i386 9.0.3-0ubuntu0.4~precise1 free implementation of the OpenGL API -- DRI modules rc libgl1-mesa-dri-lts-raring:i386 9.1.4-0ubuntu0.1~precise2 free implementation of the OpenGL API -- DRI modules rc libgl1-mesa-glx:i386 8.0.4-0ubuntu0.6 free implementation of the OpenGL API -- GLX runtime rc libgl1-mesa-glx-lts-quantal:i386 9.0.3-0ubuntu0.4~precise1 free implementation of the OpenGL API -- GLX runtime rc libgl1-mesa-glx-lts-raring:i386 9.1.4-0ubuntu0.1~precise2 free implementation of the OpenGL API -- GLX runtime rc libglapi-mesa:i386 8.0.4-0ubuntu0.6 free implementation of the GL API -- shared library rc libglapi-mesa-lts-quantal:i386 9.0.3-0ubuntu0.4~precise1 free implementation of the GL API -- shared library rc libglapi-mesa-lts-raring:i386 9.1.4-0ubuntu0.1~precise2 free implementation of the GL API -- shared library rc libglu1-mesa:i386 8.0.4-0ubuntu0.6 Mesa OpenGL utility library (GLU) rc libgnome-keyring0:i386 3.2.2-2 GNOME keyring services library rc libgnutls26:i386 2.12.14-5ubuntu3.5 GNU TLS library - runtime library rc libgomp1:i386 4.6.3-1ubuntu5 GCC OpenMP (GOMP) support library rc libgpg-error0:i386 1.10-2ubuntu1 library for common error values and messages in GnuPG components rc libgphoto2-2:i386 2.4.13-1ubuntu1.2 gphoto2 digital camera library rc libgphoto2-port0:i386 2.4.13-1ubuntu1.2 gphoto2 digital camera port library rc libgssapi-krb5-2:i386 1.10+dfsg~beta1-2ubuntu0.3 MIT Kerberos runtime libraries - krb5 GSS-API Mechanism rc libgssapi3-heimdal:i386 1.6~git20120311.dfsg.1-2ubuntu0.1 Heimdal Kerberos - GSSAPI support library rc libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-0:i386 0.10.36-1ubuntu0.1 GStreamer libraries from the "base" set rc libgstreamer0.10-0:i386 0.10.36-1ubuntu1 Core GStreamer libraries and elements rc libgtk2.0-0:i386 2.24.10-0ubuntu6 GTK+ graphical user interface library rc libgudev-1.0-0:i386 1:175-0ubuntu9.4 GObject-based wrapper library for libudev rc libhcrypto4-heimdal:i386 1.6~git20120311.dfsg.1-2ubuntu0.1 Heimdal Kerberos - crypto library rc libheimbase1-heimdal:i386 1.6~git20120311.dfsg.1-2ubuntu0.1 Heimdal Kerberos - Base library rc libheimntlm0-heimdal:i386 1.6~git20120311.dfsg.1-2ubuntu0.1 Heimdal Kerberos - NTLM support library rc libhx509-5-heimdal:i386 1.6~git20120311.dfsg.1-2ubuntu0.1 Heimdal Kerberos - X509 support library rc libibus-1.0-0:i386 1.4.1-3ubuntu1 Intelligent Input Bus - shared library rc libice6:i386 2:1.0.7-2build1 X11 Inter-Client Exchange library rc libidn11:i386 1.23-2 GNU Libidn library, implementation of IETF IDN specifications rc libiec61883-0:i386 1.2.0-0.1ubuntu1 an partial implementation of IEC 61883 rc libieee1284-3:i386 0.2.11-10build1 cross-platform library for parallel port access rc libjack-jackd2-0:i386 1.9.8~dfsg.1-1ubuntu2 JACK Audio Connection Kit (libraries) rc libjasper1:i386 1.900.1-13 JasPer JPEG-2000 runtime library rc libjpeg-turbo8:i386 1.1.90+svn733-0ubuntu4.2 IJG JPEG compliant runtime library. rc libjson0:i386 0.9-1ubuntu1 JSON manipulation library - shared library rc libk5crypto3:i386 1.10+dfsg~beta1-2ubuntu0.3 MIT Kerberos runtime libraries - Crypto Library rc libkeyutils1:i386 1.5.2-2 Linux Key Management Utilities (library) rc libkrb5-26-heimdal:i386 1.6~git20120311.dfsg.1-2ubuntu0.1 Heimdal Kerberos - libraries rc libkrb5-3:i386 1.10+dfsg~beta1-2ubuntu0.3 MIT Kerberos runtime libraries rc libkrb5support0:i386 1.10+dfsg~beta1-2ubuntu0.3 MIT Kerberos runtime libraries - Support library rc liblcms1:i386 1.19.dfsg-1ubuntu3 Little CMS color management library rc libldap-2.4-2:i386 2.4.28-1.1ubuntu4.4 OpenLDAP libraries rc libllvm3.0:i386 3.0-4ubuntu1 Low-Level Virtual Machine (LLVM), runtime library rc libllvm3.1:i386 3.1-2ubuntu1~12.04.1 Low-Level Virtual Machine (LLVM), runtime library rc libllvm3.2:i386 3.2-2ubuntu5~precise1 Low-Level Virtual Machine (LLVM), runtime library rc libltdl7:i386 2.4.2-1ubuntu1 A system independent dlopen wrapper for GNU libtool rc libmad0:i386 0.15.1b-7ubuntu1 MPEG audio decoder library rc libmikmod2:i386 3.1.12-2 Portable sound library rc libmng1:i386 1.0.10-3 Multiple-image Network Graphics library rc libmpg123-0:i386 1.12.1-3.2ubuntu1 MPEG layer 1/2/3 audio decoder -- runtime library rc libmysqlclient18:i386 5.5.32-0ubuntu0.12.04.1 MySQL database client library rc libnspr4:i386 4.9.5-0ubuntu0.12.04.1 NetScape Portable Runtime Library rc libnss3:i386 3.14.3-0ubuntu0.12.04.1 Network Security Service libraries rc libodbc1:i386 2.2.14p2-5ubuntu3 ODBC library for Unix rc libogg0:i386 1.2.2~dfsg-1ubuntu1 Ogg bitstream library rc libopenal1:i386 1:1.13-4ubuntu3 Software implementation of the OpenAL API (shared library) rc liborc-0.4-0:i386 1:0.4.16-1ubuntu2 Library of Optimized Inner Loops Runtime Compiler rc libosmesa6:i386 8.0.4-0ubuntu0.6 Mesa Off-screen rendering extension rc libp11-kit0:i386 0.12-2ubuntu1 Library for loading and coordinating access to PKCS#11 modules - runtime rc libpango1.0-0:i386 1.30.0-0ubuntu3.1 Layout and rendering of internationalized text rc libpixman-1-0:i386 0.24.4-1 pixel-manipulation library for X and cairo rc libproxy1:i386 0.4.7-0ubuntu4.1 automatic proxy configuration management library (shared) rc libpulse-mainloop-glib0:i386 1:1.1-0ubuntu15.4 PulseAudio client libraries (glib support) rc libpulse0:i386 1:1.1-0ubuntu15.4 PulseAudio client libraries rc libqt4-dbus:i386 4:4.8.1-0ubuntu4.4 Qt 4 D-Bus module rc libqt4-declarative:i386 4:4.8.1-0ubuntu4.4 Qt 4 Declarative module rc libqt4-designer:i386 4:4.8.1-0ubuntu4.4 Qt 4 designer module rc libqt4-network:i386 4:4.8.1-0ubuntu4.4 Qt 4 network module rc libqt4-opengl:i386 4:4.8.1-0ubuntu4.4 Qt 4 OpenGL module rc libqt4-qt3support:i386 4:4.8.1-0ubuntu4.4 Qt 3 compatibility library for Qt 4 rc libqt4-script:i386 4:4.8.1-0ubuntu4.4 Qt 4 script module rc libqt4-scripttools:i386 4:4.8.1-0ubuntu4.4 Qt 4 script tools module rc libqt4-sql:i386 4:4.8.1-0ubuntu4.4 Qt 4 SQL module rc libqt4-svg:i386 4:4.8.1-0ubuntu4.4 Qt 4 SVG module rc libqt4-test:i386 4:4.8.1-0ubuntu4.4 Qt 4 test module rc libqt4-xml:i386 4:4.8.1-0ubuntu4.4 Qt 4 XML module rc libqt4-xmlpatterns:i386 4:4.8.1-0ubuntu4.4 Qt 4 XML patterns module rc libqtcore4:i386 4:4.8.1-0ubuntu4.4 Qt 4 core module rc libqtgui4:i386 4:4.8.1-0ubuntu4.4 Qt 4 GUI module rc libqtwebkit4:i386 2.2.1-1ubuntu4 Web content engine library for Qt rc libraw1394-11:i386 2.0.7-1ubuntu1 library for direct access to IEEE 1394 bus (aka FireWire) rc libroken18-heimdal:i386 1.6~git20120311.dfsg.1-2ubuntu0.1 Heimdal Kerberos - roken support library rc librsvg2-2:i386 2.36.1-0ubuntu1 SAX-based renderer library for SVG files (runtime) rc librtmp0:i386 2.4~20110711.gitc28f1bab-1 toolkit for RTMP streams (shared library) rc libsamplerate0:i386 0.1.8-4 Audio sample rate conversion library rc libsane:i386 1.0.22-7ubuntu1 API library for scanners rc libsasl2-2:i386 2.1.25.dfsg1-3ubuntu0.1 Cyrus SASL - authentication abstraction library rc libsdl-image1.2:i386 1.2.10-3 image loading library for Simple DirectMedia Layer 1.2 rc libsdl-mixer1.2:i386 1.2.11-7 Mixer library for Simple DirectMedia Layer 1.2, libraries rc libsdl-net1.2:i386 1.2.7-5 Network library for Simple DirectMedia Layer 1.2, libraries rc libsdl-ttf2.0-0:i386 2.0.9-1.1ubuntu1 ttf library for Simple DirectMedia Layer with FreeType 2 support rc libsdl1.2debian:i386 1.2.14-6.4ubuntu3 Simple DirectMedia Layer rc libshout3:i386 2.2.2-7ubuntu1 MP3/Ogg Vorbis broadcast streaming library rc libsm6:i386 2:1.2.0-2build1 X11 Session Management library rc libsndfile1:i386 1.0.25-4 Library for reading/writing audio files rc libsoup-gnome2.4-1:i386 2.38.1-1 HTTP library implementation in C -- GNOME support library rc libsoup2.4-1:i386 2.38.1-1 HTTP library implementation in C -- Shared library rc libspeex1:i386 1.2~rc1-3ubuntu2 The Speex codec runtime library rc libspeexdsp1:i386 1.2~rc1-3ubuntu2 The Speex extended runtime library rc libsqlite3-0:i386 3.7.9-2ubuntu1.1 SQLite 3 shared library rc libssl0.9.8:i386 0.9.8o-7ubuntu3.1 SSL shared libraries rc libstdc++5:i386 1:3.3.6-25ubuntu1 The GNU Standard C++ Library v3 rc libstdc++6:i386 4.6.3-1ubuntu5 GNU Standard C++ Library v3 rc libtag1-vanilla:i386 1.7-1ubuntu5 audio meta-data library - vanilla flavour rc libtasn1-3:i386 2.10-1ubuntu1.1 Manage ASN.1 structures (runtime) rc libtdb1:i386 1.2.9-4 Trivial Database - shared library rc libthai0:i386 0.1.16-3 Thai language support library rc libtheora0:i386 1.1.1+dfsg.1-3ubuntu2 The Theora Video Compression Codec rc libtiff4:i386 3.9.5-2ubuntu1.5 Tag Image File Format (TIFF) library rc libtxc-dxtn-s2tc0:i386 0~git20110809-2.1 Texture compression library for Mesa rc libunistring0:i386 0.9.3-5 Unicode string library for C rc libusb-0.1-4:i386 2:0.1.12-20 userspace USB programming library rc libv4l-0:i386 0.8.6-1ubuntu2 Collection of video4linux support libraries rc libv4lconvert0:i386 0.8.6-1ubuntu2 Video4linux frame format conversion library rc libvisual-0.4-0:i386 0.4.0-4 Audio visualization framework rc libvorbis0a:i386 1.3.2-1ubuntu3 The Vorbis General Audio Compression Codec (Decoder library) rc libvorbisenc2:i386 1.3.2-1ubuntu3 The Vorbis General Audio Compression Codec (Encoder library) rc libvorbisfile3:i386 1.3.2-1ubuntu3 The Vorbis General Audio Compression Codec (High Level API) rc libwavpack1:i386 4.60.1-2 audio codec (lossy and lossless) - library rc libwind0-heimdal:i386 1.6~git20120311.dfsg.1-2ubuntu0.1 Heimdal Kerberos - stringprep implementation rc libwrap0:i386 7.6.q-21 Wietse Venema's TCP wrappers library rc libx11-6:i386 2:1.4.99.1-0ubuntu2.2 X11 client-side library rc libx11-xcb1:i386 2:1.4.99.1-0ubuntu2.2 Xlib/XCB interface library rc libxau6:i386 1:1.0.6-4 X11 authorisation library rc libxaw7:i386 2:1.0.9-3ubuntu1 X11 Athena Widget library rc libxcb-dri2-0:i386 1.8.1-1ubuntu0.2 X C Binding, dri2 extension rc libxcb-glx0:i386 1.8.1-1ubuntu0.2 X C Binding, glx extension rc libxcb-render0:i386 1.8.1-1ubuntu0.2 X C Binding, render extension rc libxcb-shm0:i386 1.8.1-1ubuntu0.2 X C Binding, shm extension rc libxcb1:i386 1.8.1-1ubuntu0.2 X C Binding rc libxcomposite1:i386 1:0.4.3-2build1 X11 Composite extension library rc libxcursor1:i386 1:1.1.12-1ubuntu0.1 X cursor management library rc libxdamage1:i386 1:1.1.3-2build1 X11 damaged region extension library rc libxdmcp6:i386 1:1.1.0-4 X11 Display Manager Control Protocol library rc libxext6:i386 2:1.3.0-3ubuntu0.1 X11 miscellaneous extension library rc libxfixes3:i386 1:5.0-4ubuntu4.1 X11 miscellaneous 'fixes' extension library rc libxft2:i386 2.2.0-3ubuntu2 FreeType-based font drawing library for X rc libxi6:i386 2:1.6.0-0ubuntu2.1 X11 Input extension library rc libxinerama1:i386 2:1.1.1-3ubuntu0.1 X11 Xinerama extension library rc libxml2:i386 2.7.8.dfsg-5.1ubuntu4.6 GNOME XML library rc libxmu6:i386 2:1.1.0-3 X11 miscellaneous utility library rc libxp6:i386 1:1.0.1-2ubuntu0.12.04.1 X Printing Extension (Xprint) client library rc libxpm4:i386 1:3.5.9-4 X11 pixmap library rc libxrandr2:i386 2:1.3.2-2ubuntu0.2 X11 RandR extension library rc libxrender1:i386 1:0.9.6-2ubuntu0.1 X Rendering Extension client library rc libxslt1.1:i386 1.1.26-8ubuntu1.3 XSLT 1.0 processing library - runtime library rc libxss1:i386 1:1.2.1-2 X11 Screen Saver extension library rc libxt6:i386 1:1.1.1-2ubuntu0.1 X11 toolkit intrinsics library rc libxtst6:i386 2:1.2.0-4ubuntu0.1 X11 Testing -- Record extension library rc libxv1:i386 2:1.0.6-2ubuntu0.1 X11 Video extension library rc libxxf86vm1:i386 1:1.1.1-2ubuntu0.1 X11 XFree86 video mode extension library rc odbcinst1debian2:i386 2.2.14p2-5ubuntu3 Support library for accessing odbc ini files rc skype-bin:i386 4.2.0.11-0ubuntu0.12.04.2 client for Skype VOIP and instant messaging service - binary files rc sni-qt:i386 0.2.5-0ubuntu3 indicator support for Qt rc wine-compholio:i386 1.7.4~ubuntu12.04.1 The Compholio Edition is a special build of the popular Wine software rc xaw3dg:i386 1.5+E-18.1ubuntu1 Xaw3d widget set

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• How can I transfer files to a Kindle Fire with a Micro-USB cable?

  - by Jeff

  I'm running Ubuntu 11.10, and when I connect my Kindle Fire to my computer via micro usb, it is not recognized automatically. Other usb devices, such as my ipod and digital camera, are recognized just fine. It does not appear to be a usb power issue, since the Kindle Fire wakes up from sleeping when it is plugged in. I never get the message on the Kindle telling me it is ready to accept files from the computer, though. Here are the last 15 lines of dmesg after plugging the kindle in: jeff@prime:~$ dmesg | tail -n 15 [45918.269671] ieee80211 phy0: wl_ops_bss_info_changed: arp filtering: enabled true, count 1 (implement) [45929.072149] wlan0: no IPv6 routers present [46743.224217] usb 1-1: new high speed USB device number 5 using ehci_hcd [46743.364623] scsi8 : usb-storage 1-1:1.0 [46744.366102] scsi 8:0:0:0: Direct-Access Amazon Kindle 0001 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2 [46744.366356] scsi: killing requests for dead queue [46744.372494] scsi: killing requests for dead queue [46744.384510] scsi: killing requests for dead queue [46744.392348] scsi: killing requests for dead queue [46744.392731] scsi: killing requests for dead queue [46744.396853] scsi: killing requests for dead queue [46744.397214] scsi: killing requests for dead queue [46744.400795] scsi: killing requests for dead queue [46744.401589] sd 8:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0 [46744.407520] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk And here are my mounted filesystems: jeff@prime:~$ df Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on /dev/sda1 298594984 174663712 108763480 62% / udev 1407684 4 1407680 1% /dev tmpfs 566924 896 566028 1% /run none 5120 0 5120 0% /run/lock none 1417308 300 1417008 1% /run/shm /home/jeff/.Private 298594984 174663712 108763480 62% /home/jeff I should note that, since I got Dropbox working on my Kindle, the usb is no longer strictly necessary, but as a matter of principle I'd love to get it working.

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• Metro: Understanding the default.js File

  - by Stephen.Walther

  The goal of this blog entry is to describe — in painful detail — the contents of the default.js file in a Metro style application written with JavaScript. When you use Visual Studio to create a new Metro application then you get a default.js file automatically. The file is located in a folder named \js\default.js. The default.js file kicks off all of your custom JavaScript code. It is the main entry point to a Metro application. The default contents of the default.js file are included below: // For an introduction to the Blank template, see the following documentation: // http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=232509 (function () { "use strict"; var app = WinJS.Application; app.onactivated = function (eventObject) { if (eventObject.detail.kind === Windows.ApplicationModel.Activation.ActivationKind.launch) { if (eventObject.detail.previousExecutionState !== Windows.ApplicationModel.Activation.ApplicationExecutionState.terminated) { // TODO: This application has been newly launched. Initialize // your application here. } else { // TODO: This application has been reactivated from suspension. // Restore application state here. } WinJS.UI.processAll(); } }; app.oncheckpoint = function (eventObject) { // TODO: This application is about to be suspended. Save any state // that needs to persist across suspensions here. You might use the // WinJS.Application.sessionState object, which is automatically // saved and restored across suspension. If you need to complete an // asynchronous operation before your application is suspended, call // eventObject.setPromise(). }; app.start(); })(); There are several mysterious things happening in this file. The purpose of this blog entry is to dispel this mystery. Understanding the Module Pattern The first thing that you should notice about the default.js file is that the entire contents of this file are enclosed within a self-executing JavaScript function: (function () { ... })(); Metro applications written with JavaScript use something called the module pattern. The module pattern is a common pattern used in JavaScript applications to create private variables, objects, and methods. Anything that you create within the module is encapsulated within the module. Enclosing all of your custom code within a module prevents you from stomping on code from other libraries accidently. Your application might reference several JavaScript libraries and the JavaScript libraries might have variables, objects, or methods with the same names. By encapsulating your code in a module, you avoid overwriting variables, objects, or methods in the other libraries accidently. Enabling Strict Mode with “use strict” The first statement within the default.js module enables JavaScript strict mode: 'use strict'; Strict mode is a new feature of ECMAScript 5 (the latest standard for JavaScript) which enables you to make JavaScript more strict. For example, when strict mode is enabled, you cannot declare variables without using the var keyword. The following statement would result in an exception: hello = "world!"; When strict mode is enabled, this statement throws a ReferenceError. When strict mode is not enabled, a global variable is created which, most likely, is not what you want to happen. I’d rather get the exception instead of the unwanted global variable. The full specification for strict mode is contained in the ECMAScript 5 specification (look at Annex C): http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/files/ECMA-ST/ECMA-262.pdf Aliasing the WinJS.Application Object The next line of code in the default.js file is used to alias the WinJS.Application object: var app = WinJS.Application; This line of code enables you to use a short-hand syntax when referring to the WinJS.Application object: for example,  app.onactivated instead of WinJS.Application.onactivated. The WinJS.Application object  represents your running Metro application. Handling Application Events The default.js file contains an event handler for the WinJS.Application activated event: app.onactivated = function (eventObject) { if (eventObject.detail.kind === Windows.ApplicationModel.Activation.ActivationKind.launch) { if (eventObject.detail.previousExecutionState !== Windows.ApplicationModel.Activation.ApplicationExecutionState.terminated) { // TODO: This application has been newly launched. Initialize // your application here. } else { // TODO: This application has been reactivated from suspension. // Restore application state here. } WinJS.UI.processAll(); } }; This WinJS.Application class supports the following events: · loaded – Happens after browser DOMContentLoaded event. After this event, the DOM is ready and you can access elements in a page. This event is raised before external images have been loaded. · activated – Triggered by the Windows.UI.WebUI.WebUIApplication activated event. After this event, the WinRT is ready. · ready – Happens after both loaded and activated events. · unloaded – Happens before application is unloaded. The following default.js file has been modified to capture each of these events and write a message to the Visual Studio JavaScript Console window: (function () { "use strict"; var app = WinJS.Application; WinJS.Application.onloaded = function (e) { console.log("Loaded"); }; WinJS.Application.onactivated = function (e) { console.log("Activated"); }; WinJS.Application.onready = function (e) { console.log("Ready"); } WinJS.Application.onunload = function (e) { console.log("Unload"); } app.start(); })(); When you execute the code above, a message is written to the Visual Studio JavaScript Console window when each event occurs with the exception of the Unload event (presumably because the console is not attached when that event is raised).   Handling Different Activation Contexts The code for the activated handler in the default.js file looks like this: app.onactivated = function (eventObject) { if (eventObject.detail.kind === Windows.ApplicationModel.Activation.ActivationKind.launch) { if (eventObject.detail.previousExecutionState !== Windows.ApplicationModel.Activation.ApplicationExecutionState.terminated) { // TODO: This application has been newly launched. Initialize // your application here. } else { // TODO: This application has been reactivated from suspension. // Restore application state here. } WinJS.UI.processAll(); } }; Notice that the code contains a conditional which checks the Kind of the event (the value of e.detail.kind). The startup code is executed only when the activated event is triggered by a Launch event, The ActivationKind enumeration has the following values: · launch · search · shareTarget · file · protocol · fileOpenPicker · fileSavePicker · cacheFileUpdater · contactPicker · device · printTaskSettings · cameraSettings Metro style applications can be activated in different contexts. For example, a camera application can be activated when modifying camera settings. In that case, the ActivationKind would be CameraSettings. Because we want to execute our JavaScript code when our application first launches, we verify that the kind of the activation event is an ActivationKind.Launch event. There is a second conditional within the activated event handler which checks whether an application is being newly launched or whether the application is being resumed from a suspended state. When running a Metro application with Visual Studio, you can use Visual Studio to simulate different application execution states by taking advantage of the Debug toolbar and the new Debug Location toolbar.  Handling the checkpoint Event The default.js file also includes an event handler for the WinJS.Application checkpoint event: app.oncheckpoint = function (eventObject) { // TODO: This application is about to be suspended. Save any state // that needs to persist across suspensions here. You might use the // WinJS.Application.sessionState object, which is automatically // saved and restored across suspension. If you need to complete an // asynchronous operation before your application is suspended, call // eventObject.setPromise(). }; The checkpoint event is raised when your Metro application goes into a suspended state. The idea is that you can save your application data when your application is suspended and reload your application data when your application resumes. Starting the Application The final statement in the default.js file is the statement that gets everything going: app.start(); Events are queued up in a JavaScript array named eventQueue . Until you call the start() method, the events in the queue are not processed. If you don’t call the start() method then the Loaded, Activated, Ready, and Unloaded events are never raised. Summary The goal of this blog entry was to describe the contents of the default.js file which is the JavaScript file which you use to kick off your custom code in a Windows Metro style application written with JavaScript. In this blog entry, I discussed the module pattern, JavaScript strict mode, handling first chance exceptions, WinJS Application events, and activation contexts.

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• The Worst of CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in 2011

  - by Justin Garrison

  This year, How-To Geek’s own Justin was on-site at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where every gadget manufacturer shows off their latest creations, and he was able to sit down and get hands-on with most of them. Here’s the ones that just didn’t make the cut. Make sure you also read our Best of CES 2011 post, where we cover the greatest gadgets that we found. Keep reading to take a look at the best of the worst products, that might have initially appeared good but showed their true colors after we spent some time with them Latest Features How-To Geek ETC HTG Projects: How to Create Your Own Custom Papercraft Toy How to Combine Rescue Disks to Create the Ultimate Windows Repair Disk What is Camera Raw, and Why Would a Professional Prefer it to JPG? The How-To Geek Guide to Audio Editing: The Basics How To Boot 10 Different Live CDs From 1 USB Flash Drive The 20 Best How-To Geek Linux Articles of 2010 Arctic Theme for Windows 7 Gives Your Desktop an Icy Touch Install LibreOffice via PPA and Receive Auto-Updates in Ubuntu Creative Portraits Peek Inside the Guts of Modern Electronics Scenic Winter Lane Wallpaper to Create a Relaxing Mood Access Your Web Apps Directly Using the Context Menu in Chrome The Deep – Awesome Use of Metal Objects as Deep Sea Creatures [Video]

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• Apple iPhone 3GS 8GB now available for Rs 19,990

  - by samsudeen

  Well it is almost 2 years after the original launch, Apple has re-launched its  iPhone 3GS 8GB model for a much cheaper price of Rs.19,990 in India. This is an quite interesting move by Apple to wow the Indian smart phone market which is dominated by the cheaper android phones from Samsung , HTC and others. These are the specifications of the iPhone 3GS version ( just in case you have forgotten as it is too old) 3.5″ capacitive display with pixel dimensions of 320×480 3 MP camera with auto focus High speed connectivity up to 7.2 Mbps on 3G HSDPA 600 MHz  processor speed iOS 4.3 unlocked and upgradable to iOS 5.0 Hardware support for 3D graphics Millions of apps which are unique to iPhone. With only few months left for release of the much anticipated “iPhone 5″ and a market which is already loaded with a wide range of cheaper & feature rich smart phones the competition is going to be tougher for Apple This article titled,Apple iPhone 3GS 8GB now available for Rs 19,990, was originally published at Tech Dreams. Grab our rss feed or fan us on Facebook to get updates from us.

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• Use Your Chart-Drawing Skills to Win a Free Chrome Cr-48 Notebook

  - by ETC

  Today Google announced that they are partnering with a number of Chrome web application developers to distribute a number of their Chrome OS Notebooks to lucky fans. That’s when we noticed something interesting that can greatly increase your odds of getting one. Unlike Box, MOG, and Zoho, who are doing random giveaways, the LucidChart giveaway is based on a contest of skill – they are picking the best drawings using their flowchart tool and giving away Chrome Notebooks to the winners. So all you have to do is create one of the most interesting drawings / charts, and you will get your hands on one. We’ve also confirmed this with the fine people at LucidChart, who told us “any user who spends a bit of time and effort to do something creative has a good shot at winning one.” How great is the Chrome Cr-48 Notebook? What’s it all about? We wouldn’t know, since Google hasn’t given us here at How-To Geek an opportunity to use one, despite our attempts. It’s sad, since we’re huge fans of the Chrome browser, that we can’t share our Chrome notebook experiences with hundreds of thousands of daily subscribers and millions of monthly visitors. Hint. Hint. Win a Chrome Cr-48 notebook from LucidChart [LucidChart] Latest Features How-To Geek ETC How To Create Your Own Custom ASCII Art from Any Image How To Process Camera Raw Without Paying for Adobe Photoshop How Do You Block Annoying Text Message (SMS) Spam? How to Use and Master the Notoriously Difficult Pen Tool in Photoshop HTG Explains: What Are the Differences Between All Those Audio Formats? How To Use Layer Masks and Vector Masks to Remove Complex Backgrounds in Photoshop Bring Summer Back to Your Desktop with the LandscapeTheme for Chrome and Iron The Prospector – Home Dash Extension Creates a Whole New Browsing Experience in Firefox KinEmote Links Kinect to Windows Why Nobody Reads Web Site Privacy Policies [Infographic] Asian Temple in the Snow Wallpaper 10 Weird Gaming Records from the Guinness Book

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• Keystone Correction using 3D-Points of Kinect

  - by philllies

  With XNA, I am displaying a simple rectangle which is projected onto the floor. The projector can be placed at an arbitrary position. Obviously, the projected rectangle gets distorted according to the projectors position and angle. A Kinect scans the floor looking for the four corners. Now my goal is to transform the original rectangle such that the projection is no longer distorted by basically pre-warping the rectangle. My first approach was to do everything in 2D: First compute a perspective transformation (using OpenCV's warpPerspective()) from the scanned points to the internal rectangle's points und apply the inverse to the rectangle. This seemed to work but was too slow as it couldn't be rendered on the GPU. The second approach was to do everything in 3D in order to use XNA's rendering features. First, I would display a plane, scan its corners with Kinect and map the received 3D-Points to the original plane. Theoretically, I could apply the inverse of the perspective transformation to the plane, as I did in the 2D-approach. However, in since XNA works with a view and projection matrix, I can't just call a function such as warpPerspective() and get the desired result. I would need to compute the new parameters for the camera's view and projection matrix. Question: Is it possible to compute these parameters and split them into two matrices (view and projection)? If not, is there another approach I could use?

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• 5.1 sound in Unity3d 3.5

  - by N0xus

  I'm trying to implement 5.1 surround sound in my game. I've set Unity's AudioManager to a default of 5.1 surround and loaded in a 6 channel audio clip that should play a sound in each of the different audio spots. However, when I go to run my game, all I get is flat sound coming out of my front two speakers. Even then, these don't play the sound they should (front speaker should play "front speaker" right should play "right speaker" and so). Both speakers just end up playing the entire sound file. I've tried looking to see if there is a parameter that I have missed, but information on how to set up 5.1 sound in Unity is lacking (or my google skills aren't that good) and I can't get it to work as intended. Could someone please either tell me what I'm missing, or point me in the right direction? My audio source is situated at point (0, 0, 0) with my camera also being in the same point. I've moved about the scene but the same thing happens as I've already described.

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