Search Results

Search found 3060 results on 123 pages for 'ecm suite'.

Page 118/123 | < Previous Page | 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123  | Next Page >

• CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, September 03, 2012

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, September 03, 2012Popular ReleasesMetodología General Ajustada - MGA: 03.01.03: Cambios Aury: Ajuste del margen del reporte. Visualización de la columna de Supuestos en la parte del módulo de Decisión. Cambios John: Integración de código con cambios enviados por Aury Niño. Generación de instaladores. Soporte técnico por correo electrónico y telefónico.Iveely Search Engine: Iveely Search Engine （0.2.0）: ????ISE?0.1.0??，?????，ISE?0.2.0?????????，???????，????????20???follow?ISE，????，??ISE??????????，??????????，?????????，?????????0.2.0??????，??????????。 Iveely Search Engine ?0.2.0?????????“??????????”，??????，?????????，???????，???????????????????，????、????????????。???0.1.0????????????： 1. ??“????” ??。??????????，?????????，???????????????????。??：????????，????????????，??????????????????。??????。 2. ??“????”??。?0.1.0??????，???????，???????????????，?????????????，????????，?0.2.0?，???????...Thisismyusername's codeplex page.: HTML5 Mulititouch Fruit Ninja Proof of Concept: This is an example of how you could create a game such as Fruit Ninja using HTML5's multitouch capabilities. Sorry this example doesn't have great graphics. If I had my own webpage, I could store some graphics and upload the game there and it might look halfway decent, but since I'm only using a Codeplex page and most mobile devices can't open .zip files, the fruits are just circles. I hope you enjoy reading the source code anyway.GmailDefaultMaker: GmailDefaultMaker 3.0.0.2: Add QQ Mail BugfixSmart Data Access layer: Smart Data access Layer Ver 3: In this version support executing inline query is added. Check Documentation section for detail.TSQL Code Smells Finder: POC 1.01: Proof of concept 1.01 TSQLDomTest.ps1 and Errors.Txt are requiredConfuser: Confuser build 76542: This is a build of changeset 76542.Reactive State Machine: ReactiveStateMachine-beta: TouchStateMachine now supports Microsoft Surface 2.0 SDK. The TouchStateMachine is an extension to the Reactive State Machine. Reactive State Machine uses NuGet for dependency managementSharePoint Column & View Permission: SharePoint Column and View Permission v1.2: Version 1.2 of this project. If you will find any bugs please let me know at enti@zoznam.sk or post your findings in Issue TrackerMihmojsos OS: Mihmojsos OS 3 (Smart Rabbit): !Mihmojsos OS 3 Smart Rabbit Mihmojsos Smart Rabbit is now availableDotNetNuke Translator: 01.00.00 Beta: First release of the project.YNA: YNA 0.2 alpha: Wath's new since 0.1 alpha ? A lot of changes but there are the most interresting : StateManager is now better and faster Mouse events for all YnObjects (Sprites, Images, texts) A really big improvement for YnGroup Gamepad support And the news : Tiled Map support (need refactoring) Isometric tiled map support (need refactoring) Transition effect like "FadeIn" and "FadeOut" (YnTransition) Timers (YnTimer) Path management (YnPath, need more refactoring) Downloads All downloads...Audio Pitch & Shift: Audio Pitch And Shift 5.1.0.2: fixed several issues with streaming modeUrlPager: UrlPager 1.2: Fixed bug in which url parameters will lost after paging; ????????url???bug；Sofire Suite: Sofire v1.5.0.0: Sofire v1.5.0.0 ?? ???????? ?????： 1、?? 2、????EntLib.com????????: EntLib.com???????? v3.0: EntLib eCommerce Solution ???Microsoft .Net Framework?????????????????????。Coevery - Free CRM: Coevery 1.0.0.24: Add a sample database, and installation instructions.Math.NET Numerics: Math.NET Numerics v2.2.1: Major linear algebra rework since v2.1, now available on Codeplex as well (previous versions were only available via NuGet). Since v2.2.0: Student-T density more robust for very large degrees of freedom Sparse Kronecker product much more efficient (now leverages sparsity) Direct access to raw matrix storage implementations for advanced extensibility Now also separate package for signed core library with a strong name (we dropped strong names in v2.2.0) Also available as NuGet packages...Microsoft SQL Server Product Samples: Database: AdventureWorks Databases – 2012, 2008R2 and 2008: About this release This release consolidates AdventureWorks databases for SQL Server 2012, 2008R2 and 2008 versions to one page. Each zip file contains an mdf database file and ldf log file. This should make it easier to find and download AdventureWorks databases since all OLTP versions are on one page. There are no database schema changes. For each release of the product, there is a light-weight and full version of the AdventureWorks sample database. The light-weight version is denoted by ...Christoc's DotNetNuke Module Development Template: DotNetNuke Project Templates V1.1 for VS2012: This release is specifically for Visual Studio 2012 Support, distributed through the Visual Studio Extensions gallery at http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/ After you build in Release mode the installable packages (source/install) can be found in the INSTALL folder now, within your module's folder, not the packages folder anymore Check out the blog post for all of the details about this release. http://www.dotnetnuke.com/Resources/Blogs/EntryId/3471/New-Visual-Studio-2012-Projec...New ProjectsBPVote4PPT: BPVote For PowerPointCosmo OS: La semplicità in un OSFinancial Analytic Tools: C#.Net Financial Analytic ToolsGeminiMVC: An Open Source CMS written in ASP.net MVC 4 with speed, extensibility, and ease-of-us in mind.JQuery SharePoint Autocomplete People Picker: This JQUery bundle provides an autocomplete people picker based on SharePoint profiles. It can be hosted on the SharePoint itself or on remote applications.Kerbal Space Program PartModule Library: This project is designed to add various functionalities to custom parts for the space program simulation game Kerbal Space Program.KeyboardRemapper: This tool to remaps keys in the keyboard. If you have more than one keyboard or an additional keypad, you can remap the keys of the each keyboard independentlyKHStudent: ??????Localized DataAnnotations with T4 templates: Simplified DataAnnotations localization using T4 templates.MfcLightToolkit: Supports development for small and simple MFC application. Provides asynchronous programming model like .NET, file download, easy control resizing, and so on.Müslüm ÖZTÜRK Code Lib: Test amaçli olusturulan projemdirPolska: Testproject in how a polish grammerprogram can look like.QueueLessApp: Here is the codeRusIS.CMS: aaaSGPS: Projeto de controle de produtos e serviçosStemmersNet: Stemmers pack for .Net FrameworkTrabajo Final de Ingenieria - Javier Vallejos: Tesis Final de la carrera de Ingenieria - Universidad Abierta Interamericana.TSQL Code Smells Finder: TSQL 'smells' findersXNA and Data Driven Design: This project includes links for XNA and Data Driven DesignXNA and System Testing: This project includes code for XNA and System TestingYUGI-AR Project: an open source project for yugioh based augmented reality???????? ? ?????????????: ???? ??????? ??????? ?????????????? ??????????? ?????????? ??? ? ????? ?????? ? ? ??? ??? ????? ? ??? ?????????? ????????????.

  Read the article

• Windows Azure – Write, Run or Use Software

  - by BuckWoody

  Windows Azure is a platform that has you covered, whether you need to write software, run software that is already written, or Install and use “canned” software whether you or someone else wrote it. Like any platform, it’s a set of tools you can use where it makes sense to solve a problem. The primary location for Windows Azure information is located at http://windowsazure.com. You can find everything there from the development kits for writing software to pricing, licensing and tutorials on all of that. I have a few links here for learning to use Windows Azure – although it’s best if you focus not on the tools, but what you want to solve. I’ve got it broken down here into various sections, so you can quickly locate things you want to know. I’ll include resources here from Microsoft and elsewhere – I use these same resources in the Architectural Design Sessions (ADS) I do with my clients worldwide. Write Software Also called “Platform as a Service” (PaaS), Windows Azure has lots of components you can use together or separately that allow you to write software in .NET or various Open Source languages to work completely online, or in partnership with code you have on-premises or both – even if you’re using other cloud providers. Keep in mind that all of the features you see here can be used together, or independently. For instance, you might only use a Web Site, or use Storage, but you can use both together. You can access all of these components through standard REST API calls, or using our Software Development Kit’s API’s, which are a lot easier. In any case, you simply use Visual Studio, Eclipse, Cloud9 IDE, or even a text editor to write your code from a Mac, PC or Linux.  Components you can use: Azure Web Sites: Windows Azure Web Sites allow you to quickly write an deploy websites, without setting a Virtual Machine, installing a web server or configuring complex settings. They work alone, with other Windows Azure Web Sites, or with other parts of Windows Azure. Web and Worker Roles: Windows Azure Web Roles give you a full stateless computing instance with Internet Information Services (IIS) installed and configured. Windows Azure Worker Roles give you a full stateless computing instance without Information Services (IIS) installed, often used in a "Services" mode. Scale-out is achieved either manually or programmatically under your control. Storage: Windows Azure Storage types include Blobs to store raw binary data, Tables to use key/value pair data (like NoSQL data structures), Queues that allow interaction between stateless roles, and a relational SQL Server database. Other Services: Windows Azure has many other services such as a security mechanism, a Cache (memcacheD compliant), a Service Bus, a Traffic Manager and more. Once again, these features can be used with a Windows Azure project, or alone based on your needs. Various Languages: Windows Azure supports the .NET stack of languages, as well as many Open-Source languages like Java, Python, PHP, Ruby, NodeJS, C++ and more.   Use Software Also called “Software as a Service” (SaaS) this often means consumer or business-level software like Hotmail or Office 365. In other words, you simply log on, use the software, and log off – there’s nothing to install, and little to even configure. For the Information Technology professional, however, It’s not quite the same. We want software that provides services, but in a platform. That means we want things like Hadoop or other software we don’t want to have to install and configure.  Components you can use: Kits: Various software “kits” or packages are supported with just a few clicks, such as Umbraco, Wordpress, and others. Windows Azure Media Services: Windows Azure Media Services is a suite of services that allows you to upload media for encoding, processing and even streaming – or even one or more of those functions. We can add DRM and even commercials to your media if you like. Windows Azure Media Services is used to stream large events all the way down to small training videos. High Performance Computing and “Big Data”: Windows Azure allows you to scale to huge workloads using a few clicks to deploy Hadoop Clusters or the High Performance Computing (HPC) nodes, accepting HPC Jobs, Pig and Hive Jobs, and even interfacing with Microsoft Excel. Windows Azure Marketplace: Windows Azure Marketplace offers data and programs you can quickly implement and use – some free, some for-fee.   Run Software Also known as “Infrastructure as a Service” (IaaS), this offering allows you to build or simply choose a Virtual Machine to run server-based software.  Components you can use: Persistent Virtual Machines: You can choose to install Windows Server, Windows Server with Active Directory, with SQL Server, or even SharePoint from a pre-configured gallery. You can configure your own server images with standard Hyper-V technology and load them yourselves – and even bring them back when you’re done. As a new offering, we also even allow you to select various distributions of Linux – a first for Microsoft. Windows Azure Connect: You can connect your on-premises networks to Windows Azure Instances. Storage: Windows Azure Storage can be used as a remote backup, a hybrid storage location and more using software or even hardware appliances.   Decision Matrix With all of these options, you can use Windows Azure to solve just about any computing problem. It’s often hard to know when to use something on-premises, in the cloud, and what kind of service to use. I’ve used a decision matrix in the last couple of years to take a particular problem and choose the proper technology to solve it. It’s all about options – there is no “silver bullet”, whether that’s Windows Azure or any other set of functions. I take the problem, decide which particular component I want to own and control – and choose the column that has that box darkened. For instance, if I have to control the wiring for a solution (a requirement in some military and government installations), that means the “Networking” component needs to be dark, and so I select the “On Premises” column for that particular solution. If I just need the solution provided and I want no control at all, I can look as “Software as a Service” solutions. Security, Pricing, and Other Info  Security: Security is one of the first questions you should ask in any distributed computing environment. We have certification info, coding guidelines and more, even a general “Request for Information” RFI Response already created for you.   Pricing: Are there licenses? How much does this cost? Is there a way to estimate the costs in this new environment? New Features: Many new features were added to Windows Azure - a good roundup of those changes can be found here. Support: Software Support on Virtual Machines, general support.    

  Read the article

• BI Applications overview

  - by sv744

  Welcome to Oracle BI applications blog! This blog will talk about various features, general roadmap, description of functionality and implementation steps related to Oracle BI applications. In the first post we start with an overview of the BI apps and will delve deeper into some of the topics below in the upcoming weeks and months. If there are other topics you would like us to talk about, pl feel free to provide feedback on that. The Oracle BI applications are a set of pre-built applications that enable pervasive BI by providing role-based insight for each functional area, including sales, service, marketing, contact center, finance, supplier/supply chain, HR/workforce, and executive management. For example, Sales Analytics includes role-based applications for sales executives, sales management, as well as front-line sales reps, each of whom have different needs. The applications integrate and transform data from a range of enterprise sources—including Siebel, Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP, and others—into actionable intelligence for each business function and user role. This blog  starts with the key benefits and characteristics of Oracle BI applications. In a series of subsequent blogs, each of these points will be explained in detail. Why BI apps? Demonstrate the value of BI to a business user, show reports / dashboards / model that can answer their business questions as part of the sales cycle. Demonstrate technical feasibility of BI project and significantly lower risk and improve success Build Vs Buy benefit Don’t have to start with a blank sheet of paper. Help consolidate disparate systems Data integration in M&A situations Insulate BI consumers from changes in the OLTP Present OLTP data and highlight issues of poor data / missing data – and improve data quality and accuracy Prebuilt Integrations BI apps support prebuilt integrations against leading ERP sources: Fusion Applications, E- Business Suite, Peoplesoft, JD Edwards, Siebel, SAP Co-developed with inputs from functional experts in BI and Applications teams. Out of the box dimensional model to source model mappings Multi source and Multi Instance support Rich Data Model    BI apps have a very rich dimensionsal data model built over 10 years that incorporates best practises from BI modeling perspective as well as reflect the source system complexities  Thanks for reading a long post, and be on the lookout for future posts.  We will look forward to your valuable feedback on these topics as well as suggestions on what other topics would you like us to cover. I Conformed dimensional model across all business subject areas allows cross functional reporting, e.g. customer / supplier 360 Over 360 fact tables across 7 product areas CRM – 145, SCM – 47, Financials – 28, Procurement – 20, HCM – 27, Projects – 18, Campus Solutions – 21, PLM - 56 Supported by 300 physical dimensions Support for extensive calendars; Gregorian, enterprise and ledger based Conformed data model and metrics for real time vs warehouse based reporting  Multi-tenant enabled Extensive BI related transformations BI apps ETL and data integration support various transformations required for dimensional models and reporting requirements. All these have been distilled into common patterns and abstracted logic which can be readily reused across different modules Slowly Changing Dimension support Hierarchy flattening support Row / Column Hybrid Hierarchy Flattening As Is vs. As Was hierarchy support Currency Conversion :-  Support for 3 corporate, CRM, ledger and transaction currencies UOM conversion Internationalization / Localization Dynamic Data translations Code standardization (Domains) Historical Snapshots Cycle and process lifecycle computations Balance Facts Equalization of GL accounting chartfields/segments Standardized values for categorizing GL accounts Reconciliation between GL and subledgers to track accounted/transferred/posted transactions to GL Materialization of data only available through costly and complex APIs e.g. Fusion Payroll, EBS / Fusion Accruals Complex event Interpretation of source data – E.g. o    What constitutes a transfer o    Deriving supervisors via position hierarchy o    Deriving primary assignment in PSFT o    Categorizing and transposition to measures of Payroll Balances to specific metrics to support side by side comparison of measures of for example Fixed Salary, Variable Salary, Tax, Bonus, Overtime Payments. o    Counting of Events – E.g. converting events to fact counters so that for example the number of hires can easily be added up and compared alongside the total transfers and terminations. Multi pass processing of multiple sources e.g. headcount, salary, promotion, performance to allow side to side comparison. Adding value to data to aid analysis through banding, additional domain classifications and groupings to allow higher level analytical reporting and data discovery Calculation of complex measures examples: o    COGs, DSO, DPO, Inventory turns  etc o    Transfers within a Hierarchy or out of / into a hierarchy relative to view point in hierarchy. Configurability and Extensibility support  BI apps offer support for extensibility for various entities as automated extensibility or part of extension methodology Key Flex fields and Descriptive Flex support  Extensible attribute support (JDE)  Conformed Domains ETL Architecture BI apps offer a modular adapter architecture which allows support of multiple product lines into a single conformed model Multi Source Multi Technology Orchestration – creates load plan taking into account task dependencies and customers deployment to generate a plan based on a customers of multiple complex etl tasks Plan optimization allowing parallel ETL tasks Oracle: Bit map indexes and partition management High availability support    Follow the sun support. TCO BI apps support several utilities / capabilities that help with overall total cost of ownership and ensure a rapid implementation Improved cost of ownership – lower cost to deploy On-going support for new versions of the source application Task based setups flows Data Lineage Functional setup performed in Web UI by Functional person Configuration Test to Production support Security BI apps support both data and object security enabling implementations to quickly configure the application as per the reporting security needs Fine grain object security at report / dashboard and presentation catalog level Data Security integration with source systems  Extensible to support external data security rules Extensive Set of KPIs Over 7000 base and derived metrics across all modules Time series calculations (YoY, % growth etc) Common Currency and UOM reporting Cross subject area KPIs (analyzing HR vs GL data, drill from GL to AP/AR, etc) Prebuilt reports and dashboards 3000+ prebuilt reports supporting a large number of industries Hundreds of role based dashboards Dynamic currency conversion at dashboard level Highly tuned Performance The BI apps have been tuned over the years for both a very performant ETL and dashboard performance. The applications use best practises and advanced database features to enable the best possible performance. Optimized data model for BI and analytic queries Prebuilt aggregates& the ability for customers to create their own aggregates easily on warehouse facts allows for scalable end user performance Incremental extracts and loads Incremental Aggregate build Automatic table index and statistics management Parallel ETL loads Source system deletes handling Low latency extract with Golden Gate Micro ETL support Bitmap Indexes Partitioning support Modularized deployment, start small and add other subject areas seamlessly Source Specfic Staging and Real Time Schema Support for source specific operational reporting schema for EBS, PSFT, Siebel and JDE Application Integrations The BI apps also allow for integration with source systems as well as other applications that provide value add through BI and enable BI consumption during operational decision making Embedded dashboards for Fusion, EBS and Siebel applications Action Link support Marketing Segmentation Sales Predictor Dashboard Territory Management External Integrations The BI apps data integration choices include support for loading extenral data External data enrichment choices : UNSPSC, Item class etc. Extensible Spend Classification Broad Deployment Choices Exalytics support Databases :  Oracle, Exadata, Teradata, DB2, MSSQL ETL tool of choice : ODI (coming), Informatica Extensible and Customizable Extensible architecture and Methodology to add custom and external content Upgradable across releases

  Read the article

• Partner Blog Series: PwC Perspectives - Looking at R2 for Customer Organizations

  - by Tanu Sood

  Welcome to the first of our partner blog series. November Mondays are all about PricewaterhouseCoopers' perespective on Identity and R2. In this series, we have identity management experts from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) share their perspective on (and experiences with) the recent identity management release, Oracle Identity Management R2. The purpose of the series is to discuss real world identity use cases that helped shape the innovations in the recent R2 release and the implementation strategies that customers are employing today with expertise from PwC. Part 1: Looking at R2 for Customer Organizations In this inaugural post, we will discuss some of the new features of the R2 release of Oracle Identity Manager that some of our customer organizations are implementing today and the business rationale for those. Oracle's R2 Security portfolio represents a solid step forward for a platform that is already market-leading.  Prior to R2, Oracle was an industry titan in security with reliable products, expansive compatibility, and a large customer base.  Oracle has taken their identity platform to the next level in their latest version, R2.  The new features include a customizable UI, a request catalog, flexible security, and enhancements for its connectors, and more. Oracle customers will be impressed by the new Oracle Identity Manager (OIM) business-friendly UI.  Without question, Oracle has invested significant time in responding to customer feedback about making access requests and related activities easier for non-IT users.  The flexibility to add information to screens, hide fields that are not important to a particular customer, and adjust web themes to suit a company's preference make Oracle's Identity Manager stand out among its peers.  Customers can also expect to carry UI configurations forward with minimal migration effort to future versions of OIM.  Oracle's flexible UI will benefit many organizations looking for a customized feel with out-of-the-box configurations. Organizations looking to extend their services to end users will benefit significantly from new usability features like OIM’s ‘Catalog.’  Customers familiar with Oracle Identity Analytics' 'Glossary' feature will be able to relate to the concept.  It will enable Roles, Entitlements, Accounts, and Resources to be requested through the out-of-the-box UI.  This is an industry-changing feature as customers can make the process to request access easier than ever.  For additional ease of use, Oracle has introduced a shopping cart style request interface that further simplifies the experience for end users.  Common requests can be setup as profiles to save time.  All of this is combined with the approval workflow engine introduced in R1 that provides the flexibility customers need to meet their compliance requirements. Enhanced security was also on the list of features Oracle wanted to deliver to its customers.  The new end-user UI provides additional granular access controls.  Common Help Desk use cases can be implemented with ease by updating the application profiles.  Access can be rolled out so that administrators can only manage a certain department or organization.  Further, OIM can be more easily configured to select which fields can be read-only vs. updated.  Finally, this security model can be used to limit search results for roles and entitlements intended for a particular department.  Every customer has a different need for access and OIM now matches this need with a flexible security model. One of the important considerations when selecting an Identity Management platform is compatibility.  The number of supported platform connectors and how well it can integrate with non-supported platforms is a key consideration for selecting an identity suite.  Oracle has a long list of supported connectors.  When a customer has a requirement for a platform not on that list, Oracle has a solution too.  Oracle is introducing a simplified architecture called Identity Connector Framework (ICF), which holds the potential to simplify custom connectors.  Finally, Oracle has introduced a simplified process to profile new disconnected applications from the web browser.  This is a useful feature that enables administrators to profile applications quickly as well as empowering the application owner to fulfill requests from their web browser.  Support will still be available for connectors based on previous versions in R2. Oracle Identity Manager's new R2 version has delivered many new features customers have been asking for.  Oracle has matured their platform with R2, making it a truly distinctive platform among its peers. In our next post, expect a deep dive into use cases for a customer considering R2 as their new Enterprise identity solution. In the meantime, we look forward to hearing from you about the specific challenges you are facing and your experience in solving those. Meet the Writers Dharma Padala is a Director in the Advisory Security practice within PwC.  He has been implementing medium to large scale Identity Management solutions across multiple industries including utility, health care, entertainment, retail and financial sectors.   Dharma has 14 years of experience in delivering IT solutions out of which he has been implementing Identity Management solutions for the past 8 years. Scott MacDonald is a Director in the Advisory Security practice within PwC.  He has consulted for several clients across multiple industries including financial services, health care, automotive and retail.   Scott has 10 years of experience in delivering Identity Management solutions. John Misczak is a member of the Advisory Security practice within PwC.  He has experience implementing multiple Identity and Access Management solutions, specializing in Oracle Identity Manager and Business Process Engineering Language (BPEL). Jenny (Xiao) Zhang is a member of the Advisory Security practice within PwC.  She has consulted across multiple industries including financial services, entertainment and retail. Jenny has three years of experience in delivering IT solutions out of which she has been implementing Identity Management solutions for the past one and a half years. Praveen Krishna is a Manager in the Advisory  Security practice within PwC.  Over the last decade Praveen has helped clients plan, architect and implement Oracle identity solutions across diverse industries.  His experience includes delivering security across diverse topics like network, infrastructure, application and data where he brings a holistic point of view to problem solving.

  Read the article

• “It’s only test code…”

  - by Chris George

  “Let me hack this in, it’s only test code”, “Don’t worry about getting it reviewed, it’s only test code”, “It doesn’t have to be elegant or efficient, it’s only test code”… do these phrases sound familiar? Chances are if you’ve working with test automation, at one point or other you will have heard these phrases, you have probably even used them yourself! What is certain is that code written under this “it’s only test code” mantra will come back and bite you in the arse! I’ve recently encountered a case where a test was giving a false positive, therefore hiding a real product bug because that test code was very badly written. Firstly it was very difficult to understand what the test was actually trying to achieve let alone how it was doing it, and this complexity masked a simple logic error. These issues are real and they do happen. Let’s take a step back from this and look at what we are trying to do. We are writing test code that tests product code, and we do this to create a suite of tests that will help protect our software against regressions. This test code is making sure that the product behaves as it should by employing some sort of expected result verification. The simple cases of these are generally not a problem. However, automation allows us to explore more complex scenarios in many more permutations. As this complexity increases then so does the complexity of the test code. It is at this point that code which has not been architected properly will cause problems.   Keep your friends close… So, how do we make sure we are doing it right? The development teams I have worked on have always had Test Engineers working very closely with their Software Engineers. This is something that I have always tried to take full advantage of. They are coding experts! So run your ideas past them, ask for advice on how to structure your code, help you design your data structures. This may require a shift in your teams viewpoint, as contrary to this section title and folklore, Software Engineers are not actually the mortal enemy of Test Engineers. As time progresses, and test automation becomes more and more ingrained in what we do, the two roles are converging more than ever. Over the 16 years I have spent as a Test Engineer, I have seen the grey area between the two roles grow significantly larger. This serves to strengthen the relationship and common bond between the two roles which helps to make test code activities so much easier!   Pair for the win Possibly the best thing you could do to write good test code is to pair program on the task. This will serve a few purposes. you will get the benefit of the Software Engineers knowledge and experience the Software Engineer will gain knowledge on the testing process. Sharing the love is a wonderful thing! two pairs of eyes are always better than one… And so are two brains. Between the two of you, I will guarantee you will derive more useful test cases than if it was just one of you.   Code reviews Another policy which certainly pays dividends is the practice of code reviews. By having one of your peers review your code before you commit it serves two purposes. Firstly, it forces you to explain your code. Just the act of doing this will often pick up errors in your code. Secondly, it gets yet another pair of eyes on your code! I cannot stress enough how important code reviews are. The benefits they offer apply as much to product code as test code. In short, Software and Test Engineers should all be doing them! It can be extended even further by getting test code reviewed by a Software Engineer and a Test Engineer, and likewise product code. This serves to keep both functions in the loop with changes going on within your code base.   Learn from your devs I briefly touched on this earlier but I’d like to go into more detail here. Pairing with your Software Engineers when writing your test code is such an amazing opportunity to improve your coding skills. As I sit here writing this article waiting to be called into court for jury service, it reminds me that it takes a lot of patience to be a Test Engineer, almost as much as it takes to be a juror! However tempting it is to go rushing in and start writing your automated tests, resist that urge. Discuss what you want to achieve then talk through the approach you’re going to take. Then code it up together. I find it really enlightening to ask questions like ‘is there a better way to do this?’ Or ‘is this how you would code it?’ The latter question, especially, is where I learn the most. I’ve found that most Software Engineers will be reluctant to show you the ‘right way’ to code something when writing tests because they perceive the ‘right way’ to be too complicated for the Test Engineer (e.g. not mentioning LINQ and instead doing something verbose). So by asking how THEY would code it, it unleashes their true dev-ness and advanced code usually ensues! I would like to point out, however, that you don’t have to accept their method as the final answer. On numerous occasions I have opted for the more simple/verbose solution because I found the code written by the Software Engineer too advanced and therefore I would find it unreadable when I return to the code in a months’ time! Always keep the target audience in mind when writing clever code, and in my case that is mostly Test Engineers.  

  Read the article

• Oracle B2B - Synchronous Request Reply

  - by cdwright

  Introduction So first off, let me say I didn't create this demo (although I did modify it some). I got it from a member of the B2B development technical staff. Since it came with only a simple readme file, I thought I would take some time and write a more detailed explanation about how it works. Beginning with Oracle SOA Suite PS5 (11.1.1.6), B2B supports synchronous request reply over http using the b2b/syncreceiver servlet. I’m attaching the demo to this blog which includes a SOA composite archive that needs to be deployed using JDeveloper, a B2B repository with two agreements that need to be deployed using the B2B console, and a test xml file that gets sent to the b2b/syncreceiver servlet using your favorite SOAP test tool (I'm using Firefox Poster here). You can download the zip file containing the demo here. The demo works by sending the sample xml request file (req.xml) to http://<b2bhost>:8001/b2b/syncreceiver using the SOAP test tool.  The syncreceiver servlet keeps the socket connection open between itself and the test tool so that it can synchronously send the reply message back. When B2B receives the inbound request message, it is passed to the SOA composite through the default B2B Fabric binding. A simple reply is created in BPEL and returned to B2B which then sends the message back to the test tool using that same socket connection. I’ll show you the B2B configuration first, then we’ll look at the soa composite. Configuring B2B No additional configuration necessary in order to use the syncreceiver servlet. It is already running when you start SOA. After importing the GC_SyncReqRep.zip repository file into B2B, you’ll have the typical GlobalChips host trading partner and the Acme remote trading partner. Document Management The repository contains two very simple custom XML document definitions called Orders and OrdersResponse. In order to determine the trading partner agreement needed to process the inbound Orders document, you need to know two things about it; what is it and where it came from. So let’s look at how B2B identifies the appropriate document definition for the message. The XSD’s for these two document definitions themselves are not particularly interesting. Whenever you're dealing with custom XML documents, B2B identifies the appropriate document definition for each XML message using an XPath Identification Expression. The expression is entered for each of these document definitions under the document administration tab in the B2B console. The full XPATH expression for the Orders document is  //*[local-name()='shiporder']/*[local-name()='shipto']/*[local-name()='name']/text(). You can see this path in the XSD diagram below and how it uniquely identifies this message. The OrdersReponse document is identified in the same way. The XPath expression for it is //*[local-name()='Response']/*[local-name()='Status']/text(). You can see how it’s path differs uniquely identifying the reply from the request. Trading Partner Profile The trading partner profiles are very simple too. For GlobalChips, a generic identifier is being used to identify the sender of the response document using the host trading partner name. For Acme, a generic identifier is also being used to identify the sender of the inbound request using the remote trading partner name. The document types are added for the remote trading partner as usual. So the remote trading partner Acme is the sender of the Orders document, and it is the receiver of the OrdersResponse document. For the remote trading partner only, there needs to be a dummy channel which gets used in the outbound response agreement. The channel is not actually used. It is just a necessary place holder that needs to be there when creating the agreement. Trading Partner Agreement The agreements are equally simple. There is no validation and translation is not an option for a custom XML document type. For the InboundAgreement (request) the document definition is set to OrdersDef. In the Agreement Parameters section the generic identifiers have been added for the host and remote trading partners. That’s all that is needed for the inbound transaction. For the OutboundAgreement (response), the document definition is set to OrdersResponseDef and the generic identifiers for the two trading partners are added. The remote trading partner dummy delivery channel is also added to the agreement. SOA Composite Import the SOA composite archive into JDeveloper as an EJB JAR file. Open the composite and you should have a project that looks like this. In the composite, open the b2bInboundSyncSvc exposed service and advance through the setup wizard. Select your Application Server Connection and advance to the Operations window. Notice here that the B2B binding is set to Receive. It is not set for Synchronous Request Reply. Continue advancing through the wizard as you normally would and select finish at the end. Now open BPELProcess1 in the composite. The BPEL process is set as a Synchronous Request Reply as you can see below. The while loop is there just to give the process something to do. The actual reply message is prepared in the assignResponseValues assignment followed by an Invoke of the B2B binding. Open the replyResponse Invoke and go to the properties tab. You’ll see that the fromTradingPartnerId, toTradingPartner, documentTypeName, and documentProtocolRevision properties have been set. Testing the Configuration To test the configuration, I used Firefox Poster. Enter the URL for the b2b/syncreceiver servlet and browse for the req.xml file that contains the test request message. In the Headers tab, add the property ‘from’ and give it the value ‘Acme’. This is how B2B will know where the message is coming from and it will use that information along with the document type name to find the right trading partner agreement. Now post the message. You should get back a response with a status of ‘200 OK’. That’s all there is to it.

  Read the article

• Beyond Cloud Technology, Enabling A More Agile and Responsive Organization

  - by sxkumar

  This is the second part of the blog “Clouds, Clouds Everywhere But not a Drop of Rain”. In the first part,  I was sharing with you how a broad-based transformation makes cloud more than a technology initiative, I will describe in this section how it requires people (organizational) and process changes as well, and these changes are as critical as is the choice of right tools and technology. People: Most IT organizations have a fairly complex organizational structure. There are different groups, managing different pieces of the puzzle, and yet, they don't always work together. Provisioning a new application therefore may require a request to float endlessly through system administrators, DBAs and middleware admin worlds – resulting in long delays and constant finger pointing.  Cloud users expect end-to-end automation - which requires these silos to be greatly simplified, if not completely eliminated.  Most customers I talk to acknowledge this problem but are quick to admit that such a transformation is hard. As hard as it may be, I am afraid that the status quo is no longer an option. Sticking to an organizational structure that was created ages back will not only impede cloud adoption,  it also risks making the IT skills increasingly irrelevant in a world that is rapidly moving towards converged applications and infrastructure.   Process: Most IT organizations today operate with a mindset that they must fully "control" access to any and all types of IT services. This in turn leads to people clinging on to outdated manual approval processes .  While requiring approvals for scarce resources makes sense, insisting that every single request must be manually approved defeats the very purpose of cloud. Not only this causes delays, thereby at least partially negating the agility benefits, it also results in gross inefficiency. In a cloud environment, self-service access should be governed by policies, quotas that the administrators can define upfront . For a cloud initiative to be successful, IT organizations MUST be ready to empower users by giving them real control rather than insisting on brokering every single interaction between users and the cloud resources. Technology: From a technology perspective, cloud is about consolidation, standardization and automation. A consolidated and standardized infrastructure helps increase utilization and reduces cost. Additionally, it  enables a much higher degree of automation - thereby providing users the required agility while minimizing operational costs.  Obviously, automation is the key to cloud. Unfortunately it hasn’t received as much attention within enterprises as it should have.  Many organizations are just now waking up to the criticality of automation and it still often gets relegated to back burner in favor of other "high priority" projects. However, it is important to understand that without the right type and level of automation, cloud will remain a distant dream for most enterprises. This in turn makes the choice of the cloud management software extremely critical.  For a cloud management software to be effective in an enterprise environment, it must meet the following qualifications: Broad and Deep Solution It should offer a broad and deep solution to enable the kind of broad-based transformation we are talking about.  Its footprint must cover physical and virtual systems, as well as infrastructure, database and application tiers. Too many enterprises choose to equate cloud with virtualization. While virtualization is a critical component of a cloud solution, it is just a component and not the whole solution. Similarly, too many people tend to equate cloud with Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS). While it is perfectly reasonable to treat IaaS as a starting point, it is important to realize that it is just the first stepping stone - and on its own it can only provide limited business benefits. It is actually the higher level services, such as (application) platform and business applications, that will bring about a more meaningful transformation to your enterprise. Run and Manage Efficiently Your Mission Critical Applications It should not only be able to run your mission critical applications, it should do so better than before.  For enterprises, applications and data are the critical business assets  As such, if you are building a cloud platform that cannot run your ERP application, it isn't truly a "enterprise cloud".  Also, be wary of  vendors who try to sell you the idea that your applications must be written in a certain way to be able to run on the cloud. That is nothing but a bogus, self-serving argument. For the cloud to be meaningful to enterprises, it should adopt to your applications - and not the other way around.  Automated, Integrated Set of Cloud Management Capabilities At the root of many of the problems plaguing enterprise IT today is complexity. A complex maze of tools and technology, coupled with archaic  processes, results in an environment which is inflexible, inefficient and simply too hard to manage. Management tool consolidation, therefore, is key to the success of your cloud as tool proliferation adds to complexity, encourages compartmentalization and defeats the very purpose that you are building the cloud for. Decision makers ought to be extra cautious about vendors trying to sell them a "suite" of disparate and loosely integrated products as a cloud solution.  An effective enterprise cloud management solution needs to provide a tightly integrated set of capabilities for all aspects of cloud lifecycle management. A simple question to ask: will your environment be more or less complex after you implement your cloud? More often than not, the answer will surprise you.  At Oracle, we have understood these challenges and have been working hard to create cloud solutions that are relevant and meaningful for enterprises.  And we have been doing it for much longer than you may think. Oracle was one of the very first enterprise software companies to make our products available on the Amazon Cloud. As far back as in 2007, we created new cloud solutions such as Cloud Database Backup that are helping customers like Amazon save millions every year.  Our cloud solution portfolio is also the broadest and most deep in the industry  - covering public, private, hybrid, Infrastructure, platform and applications clouds. It is no coincidence therefore that the Oracle Cloud today offers the most comprehensive set of public cloud services in the industry.  And to a large part, this has been made possible thanks to our years on investment in creating cloud enabling technologies. I will dedicated the third and final part of the blog “Clouds, Clouds Everywhere But not a Drop of Rain” to Oracle Cloud Technologies Building Blocks and how they mapped into our vision of Enterprise Cloud. Stay Tuned.

  Read the article

• ???? ????? ????? ?????? ????? 10.2.0.4

  - by gadi.chen

  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE HE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} DBA's ?????? ?????? ???? ??? ????? ??? ?????? ???? ????? ????? ??? ?????. ??? ????? ???? ????? ???? ??????? 30-Apr-2011  ???? ???? ?????? ????? ???? ??????? 10.2.0.4. ?????? ????? EBS ?? ????? ????? ????? ????? ??? ??? ???? ????? ?????? extended support, ???? ???? 11.5.10.2 ??? ???? ? 01-Dec-2011 . ) ????? ?????? ????  Minimum Baseline For Extended Support ????? ?????: 883202.1) ???? ????? ????? ?????? ?????? ?? ????? ????? ????? ????????? ???? ?? :   # ATG.RUP6 # Forms6i Patchset 19 # JRE 1.6.0_03       ???? ???? ?????? EBS ?? ????? ?????? ?????? ????? ???? ?????? ?? ,?? ??? ????? ?? ???? ??????.   ????? ???? 10.2.0.4 ?? ???? ?patches ????? ????  30-Apr-2011 . ???? ????  patches ????? ?? ????? ????? 10.2.0.5   .   ???? ????? EBS ????? 3 ?????? ?????? ?? ???: 1.      ????? ????? 11.2.0.2 - ??? ???? ????? ??????? ?????? ??? EBS ??????? 11i   ? R12 2.      ????? ????? 11.1.0.7 -  ??? ???? ????? ?????? ????? ????? 11.1 ??? ?????. 3.      ?????/????? patch 10.2.0.5 -   ???? ????? ?????? ????? ?????? ????? 10gR2 . v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} Normal 0 false false false false EN-US X-NONE HE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";}   ?????? ??????? ???? ??????:     http://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/2011/01/ecs_10gr2_10204.html On Database Patching and Support: A Primer for E-Business Suite Users Oracle Database 10.2 End of Premier Support -- Frequently Asked Questions (Note 1130327.1)        

  Read the article

• SonicOS Enhanced 5.8.1.2 L2TP VPN Authentication Failed

  - by Dean A. Vassallo

  I have a SonicWall TZ 215 running SonicOS Enhanced 5.8.1.2-6o. I have configured the L2TP VPN using the default crypto suite ESP: 3DES/HMAC SHA1 (IKE). Proposals are as such: IKE (Phase 1) Proposal DH Group: Group 2 Encryption: 3DES Authentication: SHA1 Life Time (seconds): 28800 Ipsec (Phase 2) Proposal Protocol: ESP Encryption: 3DES Authentication: SHA1 Enable Perfect Forward Secrecy DISABLED Life Time (seconds): 28800 When attempting to connect via my Mac OS X client I get an authentication error. It appears to pass the pre-authentication but fails to complete. I am at a complete loss. I reconfigured from scratch multiple times...used simple usernames and passwords to verify this wasn't a miskeyed password issue. I have Here are the logs (noted IP has been removed for privacy): 7/1/13 8:19:05.174 PM pppd[1268]: setup_security_context server port: 0x1503 7/1/13 8:19:05.190 PM pppd[1268]: publish_entry SCDSet() failed: Success! 7/1/13 8:19:05.191 PM pppd[1268]: publish_entry SCDSet() failed: Success! 7/1/13 8:19:05.191 PM pppd[1268]: pppd 2.4.2 (Apple version 727.1.1) started by dean, uid 501 7/1/13 8:19:05.192 PM pppd[1268]: L2TP connecting to server ‘0.0.0.0’ (0.0.0.0)... 7/1/13 8:19:05.193 PM pppd[1268]: IPSec connection started 7/1/13 8:19:05.208 PM racoon[1269]: accepted connection on vpn control socket. 7/1/13 8:19:05.209 PM racoon[1269]: Connecting. 7/1/13 8:19:05.209 PM racoon[1269]: IPSec Phase 1 started (Initiated by me). 7/1/13 8:19:05.209 PM racoon[1269]: IKE Packet: transmit success. (Initiator, Main-Mode message 1). 7/1/13 8:19:05.209 PM racoon[1269]: >>>>> phase change status = Phase 1 started by us 7/1/13 8:19:05.231 PM racoon[1269]: >>>>> phase change status = Phase 1 started by peer 7/1/13 8:19:05.231 PM racoon[1269]: IKE Packet: receive success. (Initiator, Main-Mode message 2). 7/1/13 8:19:05.234 PM racoon[1269]: IKE Packet: transmit success. (Initiator, Main-Mode message 3). 7/1/13 8:19:05.293 PM racoon[1269]: IKE Packet: receive success. (Initiator, Main-Mode message 4). 7/1/13 8:19:05.295 PM racoon[1269]: IKE Packet: transmit success. (Initiator, Main-Mode message 5). 7/1/13 8:19:05.315 PM racoon[1269]: IKEv1 Phase 1 AUTH: success. (Initiator, Main-Mode Message 6). 7/1/13 8:19:05.315 PM racoon[1269]: IKE Packet: receive success. (Initiator, Main-Mode message 6). 7/1/13 8:19:05.315 PM racoon[1269]: IKEv1 Phase 1 Initiator: success. (Initiator, Main-Mode). 7/1/13 8:19:05.315 PM racoon[1269]: IPSec Phase 1 established (Initiated by me). 7/1/13 8:19:06.307 PM racoon[1269]: IPSec Phase 2 started (Initiated by me). 7/1/13 8:19:06.307 PM racoon[1269]: >>>>> phase change status = Phase 2 started 7/1/13 8:19:06.308 PM racoon[1269]: IKE Packet: transmit success. (Initiator, Quick-Mode message 1). 7/1/13 8:19:06.332 PM racoon[1269]: attribute has been modified. 7/1/13 8:19:06.332 PM racoon[1269]: IKE Packet: receive success. (Initiator, Quick-Mode message 2). 7/1/13 8:19:06.332 PM racoon[1269]: IKE Packet: transmit success. (Initiator, Quick-Mode message 3). 7/1/13 8:19:06.333 PM racoon[1269]: IKEv1 Phase 2 Initiator: success. (Initiator, Quick-Mode). 7/1/13 8:19:06.333 PM racoon[1269]: IPSec Phase 2 established (Initiated by me). 7/1/13 8:19:06.333 PM racoon[1269]: >>>>> phase change status = Phase 2 established 7/1/13 8:19:06.333 PM pppd[1268]: IPSec connection established 7/1/13 8:19:07.145 PM pppd[1268]: L2TP connection established. 7/1/13 8:19:07.000 PM kernel[0]: ppp0: is now delegating en0 (type 0x6, family 2, sub-family 3) 7/1/13 8:19:07.146 PM pppd[1268]: Connect: ppp0 <--> socket[34:18] 7/1/13 8:19:08.709 PM pppd[1268]: MS-CHAPv2 mutual authentication failed. 7/1/13 8:19:08.710 PM pppd[1268]: Connection terminated. 7/1/13 8:19:08.710 PM pppd[1268]: L2TP disconnecting... 7/1/13 8:19:08.711 PM pppd[1268]: L2TP disconnected 7/1/13 8:19:08.711 PM racoon[1269]: IPSec disconnecting from server 0.0.0.0 7/1/13 8:19:08.711 PM racoon[1269]: IKE Packet: transmit success. (Information message). 7/1/13 8:19:08.712 PM racoon[1269]: IKEv1 Information-Notice: transmit success. (Delete IPSEC-SA). 7/1/13 8:19:08.712 PM racoon[1269]: IKE Packet: transmit success. (Information message). 7/1/13 8:19:08.712 PM racoon[1269]: IKEv1 Information-Notice: transmit success. (Delete ISAKMP-SA). 7/1/13 8:19:08.713 PM racoon[1269]: glob found no matches for path "/var/run/racoon/*.conf" 7/1/13 8:19:08.714 PM racoon[1269]: pfkey DELETE failed: No such file or directory

  Read the article

• Unable to find valid certification path to requested target while CAS authentication

  - by Dmitriy Sukharev

  I'm trying to configure CAS authentication. It requires both CAS and client application to use HTTPS protocol. Unfortunately we should use self-signed certificate (with CN that doesn't have anything in common with our server). Also the server is behind firewall and we have only two ports (ssh and https) visible. As far as there're several application that should be visible externally, we use Apache for ajp reverse proxying requests to these applications. Secure connections are managed by Apache, and all Tomcat are not configured to work with SSL. But I obtained exception while authentication, therefore desided to set keystore in CATALINA_OPTS: export CATALINA_OPTS="-Djavax.net.ssl.keyStore=/path/to/tomcat/ssl/cert.pfx -Djavax.net.ssl.keyStoreType=PKCS12 -Djavax.net.ssl.keyStorePassword=password -Djavax.net.ssl.keyAlias=alias -Djavax.net.debug=ssl" cert.pfx was obtained from certificate and key that are used by Apache HTTP Server: $ openssl pkcs12 -export -out /path/to/tomcat/ssl/cert.pfx -inkey /path/to/apache2/ssl/server-key.pem -in /path/to/apache2/ssl/server-cert.pem When I try to authenticate a user I obtain the following exception: Caused by: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target at sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilder.engineBuild(SunCertPathBuilder.java:174) ~[na:1.6.0_32] at java.security.cert.CertPathBuilder.build(CertPathBuilder.java:238) ~[na:1.6.0_32] at sun.security.validator.PKIXValidator.doBuild(PKIXValidator.java:318) ~[na:1.6.0_32] Meanwhile I can see in catalina.out that Tomcat see certificate in cert.pfx and it's the same as the one that is used while authentication: 09:11:38.886 [http-bio-8080-exec-2] DEBUG o.j.c.c.v.Cas20ProxyTicketValidator - Constructing validation url: https://external-ip/cas/proxyValidate?pgtUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fexternal-ip%2Fclient%2Fj_spring_cas_security_proxyreceptor&ticket=ST-17-PN26WtdsZqNmpUBS59RC-cas&service=https%3A%2F%2Fexternal-ip%2Fclient%2Fj_spring_cas_security_check 09:11:38.886 [http-bio-8080-exec-2] DEBUG o.j.c.c.v.Cas20ProxyTicketValidator - Retrieving response from server. keyStore is : /path/to/tomcat/ssl/cert.pfx keyStore type is : PKCS12 keyStore provider is : init keystore init keymanager of type SunX509 *** found key for : 1 chain [0] = [ [ Version: V1 Subject: CN=wrong.domain.name, O=Our organization, L=Location, ST=State, C=Country Signature Algorithm: SHA1withRSA, OID = 1.2.840.113549.1.1.5 Key: Sun RSA public key, 1024 bits modulus: 13??a lot of digits here??19 public exponent: ????7 Validity: [From: Tue Apr 24 16:32:18 CEST 2012, To: Wed Apr 24 16:32:18 CEST 2013] Issuer: CN=wrong.domain.name, O=Our organization, L=Location, ST=State, C=Country SerialNumber: [ d??????? ????????] ] Algorithm: [SHA1withRSA] Signature: 0000: 65 Signature is here 0070: 96 . ] *** trustStore is: /jdk-home-folder/jre/lib/security/cacerts Here is a lot of trusted CAs. Here is nothing related to our certicate or our (not trusted) CA. ... 09:11:39.731 [http-bio-8080-exec-4] DEBUG o.j.c.c.v.Cas20ProxyTicketValidator - Retrieving response from server. Allow unsafe renegotiation: false Allow legacy hello messages: true Is initial handshake: true Is secure renegotiation: false %% No cached client session *** ClientHello, TLSv1 RandomCookie: GMT: 1347433643 bytes = { 63, 239, 180, 32, 103, 140, 83, 7, 109, 149, 177, 80, 223, 79, 243, 244, 60, 191, 124, 139, 108, 5, 122, 238, 146, 1, 54, 218 } Session ID: {} Cipher Suites: [SSL_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_MD5, SSL_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA, TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA, SSL_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA, SSL_DHE_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA, SSL_DHE_DSS_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA, SSL_RSA_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA, SSL_DHE_RSA_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA, SSL_DHE_DSS_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA, SSL_RSA_EXPORT_WITH_RC4_40_MD5, SSL_RSA_EXPORT_WITH_DES40_CBC_SHA, SSL_DHE_RSA_EXPORT_WITH_DES40_CBC_SHA, SSL_DHE_DSS_EXPORT_WITH_DES40_CBC_SHA, TLS_EMPTY_RENEGOTIATION_INFO_SCSV] Compression Methods: { 0 } *** http-bio-8080-exec-4, WRITE: TLSv1 Handshake, length = 75 http-bio-8080-exec-4, WRITE: SSLv2 client hello message, length = 101 http-bio-8080-exec-4, READ: TLSv1 Handshake, length = 81 *** ServerHello, TLSv1 RandomCookie: GMT: 1347433643 bytes = { 145, 237, 232, 63, 240, 104, 234, 201, 148, 235, 12, 222, 60, 75, 174, 0, 103, 38, 196, 181, 27, 226, 243, 61, 34, 7, 107, 72 } Session ID: {79, 202, 117, 79, 130, 216, 168, 38, 68, 29, 182, 82, 16, 25, 251, 66, 93, 108, 49, 133, 92, 108, 198, 23, 120, 120, 135, 151, 15, 13, 199, 87} Cipher Suite: SSL_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA Compression Method: 0 Extension renegotiation_info, renegotiated_connection: <empty> *** %% Created: [Session-2, SSL_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA] ** SSL_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA http-bio-8080-exec-4, READ: TLSv1 Handshake, length = 609 *** Certificate chain chain [0] = [ [ Version: V1 Subject: CN=wrong.domain.name, O=Our organization, L=Location, ST=State, C=Country Signature Algorithm: SHA1withRSA, OID = 1.2.840.113549.1.1.5 Key: Sun RSA public key, 1024 bits modulus: 13??a lot of digits here??19 public exponent: ????7 Validity: [From: Tue Apr 24 16:32:18 CEST 2012, To: Wed Apr 24 16:32:18 CEST 2013] Issuer: CN=wrong.domain.name, O=Our organization, L=Location, ST=State, C=Country SerialNumber: [ d??????? ????????] ] Algorithm: [SHA1withRSA] Signature: 0000: 65 Signature is here 0070: 96 . ] *** http-bio-8080-exec-4, SEND TLSv1 ALERT: fatal, description = certificate_unknown http-bio-8080-exec-4, WRITE: TLSv1 Alert, length = 2 http-bio-8080-exec-4, called closeSocket() http-bio-8080-exec-4, handling exception: javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target I tried to convert our pem certificate to der format and imported it to trustedKeyStore (cacerts) (without private key), but it didn't change anything. But I'm not confident that I did it rigth. Also I must inform you that I don't know passphrase for our servier-key.pem file, and probably it differs from password for keystore created by me. OS: CentOS 6.2 Architecture: x64 Tomcat version: 7 Apache HTTP Server version: 2.4 Is there any way to make Tomcat accepts our certificate?

  Read the article

• setting up Ubuntu 10.10 as paravirtualized guest in Xen on RHEL5 host - what kernel?

  - by kostmo

  I've discovered the tool ubuntu-vm-builder, which I've installed and then invoked on an Ubuntu workstation as: sudo vmbuilder xen ubuntu --suite maverick --flavour virtual --arch amd64 --mem=512 --rootsize 8192 This workstation is not the intended target host of the virtual machine, however; I would like to host the guest on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 machine that is running Xen 3.0.3. The output of this command appears to be a folder named ubuntu-xen containing three files: tmpXXXXXX, a very large file which I assume is the root partition image tmpYYYYYY, a somewhat large file which I assume is the swap partition image xen.conf, a text file I have copied the xen.conf file to the RHEL server's /etc/xen directory under the new name newvm, adjusting the paths of tempXXXXXX and tempYYYYYYin the file after also copying them from my local workstation to the RHEL server. When I launch the Virtual Machine Manager virt-manager, I can see the newvm virtual machine listed underneath the Dom0 machine. When I try to start newvm, I get the error: Error starting domain: virDomainCreate() failed POST operation failed: (xend.err 'Error creating domain: Kernel image does not exist: None') Indeed, there exists an entry kernel = 'None' in the xen.conf file. How do I find out what the path of the kernel should be? Is this path supposed to be to a kernel stored on the local filesystem of the RHEL5 host, or is it supposed to be a path inside the guest image? I see that the vmbuilder command provides for a --xen-kernel option, along with a --xen-ramdisk option, but I'm not sure what to use for either. I think I should be able to get this to work, since Ubuntu is said to be supported as a Xen guest, even though the Xen 4.0.1 docs state support for only a limited set of distributions, Ubuntu excluded. Update 1 When running vmbuilder on my local workstation, I did observe an output line saying: Calling hook: install_kernel and later, output lines saying: update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-23-virtual [...] run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools 2.6.35-23-virtual /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-23-virtual So in the xen.conf file, I tried setting the lines: kernel = '/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-23-virtual' ramdisk = '/boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-23-virtual' When trying to start the VM, I got an error similar to last time: Error starting domain: virDomainCreate() failed POST operation failed: (xend.err 'Error creating domain: Kernel image does not exist: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-23-virtual') This makes me think that the RHEL5 machine is looking for local files, rather than a file within the binary guest disk image. After running sudo updatedb on my workstation, neither of those files were found. If the vmbuilder tool had tried to install them, it must have failed. Update 2 I was able to extract the kernel and initrd images from the guest disk binary by mounting it: mkdir mnt_tmp sudo mount ubuntu-xen/tmpXXXXXX mnt_tmp/ -o loop cp mnt_tmp/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-23-virtual virtual_kernel_ubuntu cp mnt_tmp/boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-23-virtual virtual_initrd_ubuntu These two files I copied to the RHEL5 server, and edited the xen.conf file to point to them as kernel and ramdisk. With this done, I could "run" the newvm virtual machine from within virt-manager, but was met with the message Console Not Configured For Guest when I double clicked the entry to open the Virtual Machine Console. As suggested by a forum, I then added the line vfb = [ 'type=vnc' ] to the configuration file, recreated the virtual machine (a ~10 min process), and this time got the message: Connecting to console for guest This remained indefinitely; after selecting View - Serial Console, I found a kernel panic: [5442621.272173] Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill the idle task! [5442621.272179] Pid: 0, comm: swapper Tainted: G D 2.6.35-23-virtual #41-Ubuntu [5442621.272184] Call Trace: [5442621.272191] [<ffffffff815a1b81>] panic+0x90/0x111 [5442621.272199] [<ffffffff810652ee>] do_exit+0x3be/0x3f0 [5442621.272204] [<ffffffff815a5e20>] oops_end+0xb0/0xf0 [5442621.272211] [<ffffffff8100ddeb>] die+0x5b/0x90 [5442621.272216] [<ffffffff815a56c4>] do_trap+0xc4/0x170 [5442621.272221] [<ffffffff8100ba35>] do_invalid_op+0x95/0xb0 [5442621.272227] [<ffffffff8130851c>] ? intel_idle+0xac/0x180 [5442621.272232] [<ffffffff810072bf>] ? xen_restore_fl_direct_end+0x0/0x1 [5442621.272239] [<ffffffff815a48fe>] ? _raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore+0x1e/0x30 [5442621.272247] [<ffffffff8108dfb7>] ? tick_broadcast_oneshot_control+0xc7/0x120 [5442621.272253] [<ffffffff8100ad5b>] invalid_op+0x1b/0x20 [5442621.272259] [<ffffffff8130851c>] ? intel_idle+0xac/0x180 [5442621.272264] [<ffffffff813084e0>] ? intel_idle+0x70/0x180 [5442621.272269] [<ffffffff810072bf>] ? xen_restore_fl_direct_end+0x0/0x1 [5442621.272275] [<ffffffff8148a147>] cpuidle_idle_call+0xa7/0x140 [5442621.272281] [<ffffffff81008d93>] cpu_idle+0xb3/0x110 [5442621.272286] [<ffffffff815873aa>] rest_init+0x8a/0x90 [5442621.272291] [<ffffffff81b04c9d>] start_kernel+0x387/0x390 [5442621.272297] [<ffffffff81b04341>] x86_64_start_reservations+0x12c/0x130 [5442621.272303] [<ffffffff81b08002>] xen_start_kernel+0x55d/0x561 Update 3 I tried an i386 architecture instead of amd64, but got the same kernel panic. Also, it seems the Virtual Machine Manager pays attention to the format of the filename of the kernel; for the same kernel binary, I tried simply naming it vmlinuz-virtual, which threw out an error box about an invalid kernel. When I named it vmlinuz-2.6.35-23-virtual, it did not throw the error, but it did still result in the kernel panic shortly thereafter.

  Read the article

• Regular expression to remove one parameter from query string

  - by Kip

  I'm looking for a regular expression to remove a single parameter from a query string, and I want to do it in a single regular expression if possible. Say I want to remove the foo parameter. Right now I use this: /&?foo\=[^&]+/ That works as long as foo is not the first parameter in the query string. If it is, then my new query string starts with an ampersand. (For example, "foo=123&bar=456" gives a result of "&bar=456".) Right now, I'm just checking after the regex if the query string starts with ampersand, and chopping it off if it does. Example edge cases: Input | Output -------------------------+----------------- foo=123 | (empty string) foo=123&bar=456 | bar=456 bar=456&foo=123 | bar=456 abc=789&foo=123&bar=456 | abc=789&bar=456 Edit OK as pointed out in comments there are there are way more edge cases than I originally considered. I got the following regex to work with all of them: /&foo(\=[^&]*)?(?=&|$)|^foo(\=[^&]*)?(&|$)/ This is modified from Mark Byers's answer, which is why I'm accepting that one, but Roger Pate's input helped a lot too. Here is the full suite of test cases I'm using, and a Perl script which tests them. Input | Output -------------------------+------------------- foo | foo&bar=456 | bar=456 bar=456&foo | bar=456 abc=789&foo&bar=456 | abc=789&bar=456 foo= | foo=&bar=456 | bar=456 bar=456&foo= | bar=456 abc=789&foo=&bar=456 | abc=789&bar=456 foo=123 | foo=123&bar=456 | bar=456 bar=456&foo=123 | bar=456 abc=789&foo=123&bar=456 | abc=789&bar=456 xfoo | xfoo xfoo&bar=456 | xfoo&bar=456 bar=456&xfoo | bar=456&xfoo abc=789&xfoo&bar=456 | abc=789&xfoo&bar=456 xfoo= | xfoo= xfoo=&bar=456 | xfoo=&bar=456 bar=456&xfoo= | bar=456&xfoo= abc=789&xfoo=&bar=456 | abc=789&xfoo=&bar=456 xfoo=123 | xfoo=123 xfoo=123&bar=456 | xfoo=123&bar=456 bar=456&xfoo=123 | bar=456&xfoo=123 abc=789&xfoo=123&bar=456 | abc=789&xfoo=123&bar=456 foox | foox foox&bar=456 | foox&bar=456 bar=456&foox | bar=456&foox abc=789&foox&bar=456 | abc=789&foox&bar=456 foox= | foox= foox=&bar=456 | foox=&bar=456 bar=456&foox= | bar=456&foox= abc=789&foox=&bar=456 | abc=789&foox=&bar=456 foox=123 | foox=123 foox=123&bar=456 | foox=123&bar=456 bar=456&foox=123 | bar=456&foox=123 abc=789&foox=123&bar=456 | abc=789&foox=123&bar=456 Test script (Perl) @in = ('foo' , 'foo&bar=456' , 'bar=456&foo' , 'abc=789&foo&bar=456' ,'foo=' , 'foo=&bar=456' , 'bar=456&foo=' , 'abc=789&foo=&bar=456' ,'foo=123' , 'foo=123&bar=456' , 'bar=456&foo=123' , 'abc=789&foo=123&bar=456' ,'xfoo' , 'xfoo&bar=456' , 'bar=456&xfoo' , 'abc=789&xfoo&bar=456' ,'xfoo=' , 'xfoo=&bar=456' , 'bar=456&xfoo=' , 'abc=789&xfoo=&bar=456' ,'xfoo=123', 'xfoo=123&bar=456', 'bar=456&xfoo=123', 'abc=789&xfoo=123&bar=456' ,'foox' , 'foox&bar=456' , 'bar=456&foox' , 'abc=789&foox&bar=456' ,'foox=' , 'foox=&bar=456' , 'bar=456&foox=' , 'abc=789&foox=&bar=456' ,'foox=123', 'foox=123&bar=456', 'bar=456&foox=123', 'abc=789&foox=123&bar=456' ); @exp = ('' , 'bar=456' , 'bar=456' , 'abc=789&bar=456' ,'' , 'bar=456' , 'bar=456' , 'abc=789&bar=456' ,'' , 'bar=456' , 'bar=456' , 'abc=789&bar=456' ,'xfoo' , 'xfoo&bar=456' , 'bar=456&xfoo' , 'abc=789&xfoo&bar=456' ,'xfoo=' , 'xfoo=&bar=456' , 'bar=456&xfoo=' , 'abc=789&xfoo=&bar=456' ,'xfoo=123', 'xfoo=123&bar=456', 'bar=456&xfoo=123', 'abc=789&xfoo=123&bar=456' ,'foox' , 'foox&bar=456' , 'bar=456&foox' , 'abc=789&foox&bar=456' ,'foox=' , 'foox=&bar=456' , 'bar=456&foox=' , 'abc=789&foox=&bar=456' ,'foox=123', 'foox=123&bar=456', 'bar=456&foox=123', 'abc=789&foox=123&bar=456' ); print "Succ | Input | Output | Expected \n"; print "-----+--------------------------+--------------------------+-------------------------\n"; for($i=0; $i <= $#in; $i++) { $out = $in[$i]; $out =~ s/_PUT_REGEX_HERE_//; $succ = ($out eq $exp[$i] ? 'PASS' : 'FAIL'); #if($succ eq 'FAIL') #{ printf("%s | %- 24s | %- 24s | %- 24s\n", $succ, $in[$i], $out, $exp[$i]); #} }

  Read the article

• Configuring ant to run unit tests. Where should libraries be? How should classpath be configured? av

  - by chillitom

  Hi All, I'm trying to run my junit tests using ant. The tests are kicked off using a JUnit 4 test suite. If I run this direct from Eclipse the tests complete without error. However if I run it from ant then many of the tests fail with this error repeated over and over until the junit task crashes. [junit] java.util.zip.ZipException: error in opening zip file [junit] at java.util.zip.ZipFile.open(Native Method) [junit] at java.util.zip.ZipFile.(ZipFile.java:114) [junit] at java.util.zip.ZipFile.(ZipFile.java:131) [junit] at org.apache.tools.ant.AntClassLoader.getResourceURL(AntClassLoader.java:1028) [junit] at org.apache.tools.ant.AntClassLoader$ResourceEnumeration.findNextResource(AntClassLoader.java:147) [junit] at org.apache.tools.ant.AntClassLoader$ResourceEnumeration.nextElement(AntClassLoader.java:130) [junit] at org.apache.tools.ant.util.CollectionUtils$CompoundEnumeration.nextElement(CollectionUtils.java:198) [junit] at sun.misc.CompoundEnumeration.nextElement(CompoundEnumeration.java:43) [junit] at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.junit.JUnitTask.checkForkedPath(JUnitTask.java:1128) [junit] at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.junit.JUnitTask.executeAsForked(JUnitTask.java:1013) [junit] at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.junit.JUnitTask.execute(JUnitTask.java:834) [junit] at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.junit.JUnitTask.executeOrQueue(JUnitTask.java:1785) [junit] at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.junit.JUnitTask.execute(JUnitTask.java:785) [junit] at org.apache.tools.ant.UnknownElement.execute(UnknownElement.java:288) [junit] at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor1.invoke(Unknown Source) [junit] at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25) [junit] at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597) [junit] at org.apache.tools.ant.dispatch.DispatchUtils.execute(DispatchUtils.java:106) [junit] at org.apache.tools.ant.Task.perform(Task.java:348) [junit] at org.apache.tools.ant.Target.execute(Target.java:357) [junit] at org.apache.tools.ant.Target.performTasks(Target.java:385) [junit] at org.apache.tools.ant.Project.executeSortedTargets(Project.java:1337) [junit] at org.apache.tools.ant.Project.executeTarget(Project.java:1306) [junit] at org.apache.tools.ant.helper.DefaultExecutor.executeTargets(DefaultExecutor.java:41) [junit] at org.apache.tools.ant.Project.executeTargets(Project.java:1189) [junit] at org.apache.tools.ant.Main.runBuild(Main.java:758) [junit] at org.apache.tools.ant.Main.startAnt(Main.java:217) [junit] at org.apache.tools.ant.launch.Launcher.run(Launcher.java:257) [junit] at org.apache.tools.ant.launch.Launcher.main(Launcher.java:104) my test running task is as follows: <target name="run-junit-tests" depends="compile-tests,clean-results"> <mkdir dir="${test.results.dir}"/> <junit failureproperty="tests.failed" fork="true" showoutput="yes" includeantruntime="false"> <classpath refid="test.run.path" /> <formatter type="xml" /> <test name="project.AllTests" todir="${basedir}/test-results" /> </junit> <fail if="tests.failed" message="Unit tests failed"/> </target> I've verified that the classpath contains the following as well as all of the program code and libraries: ant-junit.jar ant-launcher.jar ant.jar easymock.jar easymockclassextension.jar junit-4.4.jar I've tried debugging to find out which ZipFile it is trying to open with no luck, I've tried toggling includeantruntime and fork and i've tried running ant with ant -lib test/libs where test/libs contains the ant and junit libraries. Any info about what causes this exception or how you've configured ant to successfully run unit tests is gratefully received. ant 1.7.1 (ubuntu), java 1.6.0_10, junit 4.4 Thanks. Update - Fixed Found my problem. I had included my classes directory in my path using a fileset as opposed to a pathelement this was causing .class files to be opened as ZipFiles which of course threw an exception.

  Read the article

• "bad record MAC" SSL error between Java and PortgreSQL

  - by Stéphane Bagnier

  Hello there ! We've got here a problem of random disconnections between our Java apps and our PostgreSQL 8.3 server with a "bad record MAC" SSL error. We run Debian / Lenny on both side. On the client side, we see : 2010-03-09 02:36:27,980 WARN org.hibernate.util.JDBCExceptionReporter.logExceptions(JDBCExceptionReporter.java:100) - SQL Error: 0, SQLState: 08006 2010-03-09 02:36:27,980 ERROR org.hibernate.util.JDBCExceptionReporter.logExceptions(JDBCExceptionReporter.java:101) - An I/O error occured while sending to the backend. 2010-03-09 02:36:27,981 ERROR org.hibernate.transaction.JDBCTransaction.toggleAutoCommit(JDBCTransaction.java:232) - Could not toggle autocommit org.postgresql.util.PSQLException: An I/O error occured while sending to the backend. at org.postgresql.core.v3.QueryExecutorImpl.execute(QueryExecutorImpl.java:220) at org.postgresql.jdbc2.AbstractJdbc2Connection.executeTransactionCommand(AbstractJdbc2Connection.java:650) at org.postgresql.jdbc2.AbstractJdbc2Connection.commit(AbstractJdbc2Connection.java:670) at org.postgresql.jdbc2.AbstractJdbc2Connection.setAutoCommit(AbstractJdbc2Connection.java:633) at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor5.invoke(Unknown Source) at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597) at org.springframework.jdbc.datasource.SingleConnectionDataSource$CloseSuppressingInvocationHandler.invoke(SingleConnectionDataSource.java:336) at $Proxy17.setAutoCommit(Unknown Source) at org.hibernate.transaction.JDBCTransaction.toggleAutoCommit(JDBCTransaction.java:228) at org.hibernate.transaction.JDBCTransaction.rollbackAndResetAutoCommit(JDBCTransaction.java:220) at org.hibernate.transaction.JDBCTransaction.rollback(JDBCTransaction.java:196) at org.hibernate.ejb.TransactionImpl.rollback(TransactionImpl.java:85) at org.springframework.orm.jpa.JpaTransactionManager.doRollback(JpaTransactionManager.java:482) at org.springframework.transaction.support.AbstractPlatformTransactionManager.processRollback(AbstractPlatformTransactionManager.java:823) at org.springframework.transaction.support.AbstractPlatformTransactionManager.rollback(AbstractPlatformTransactionManager.java:800) at org.springframework.transaction.interceptor.TransactionAspectSupport.completeTransactionAfterThrowing(TransactionAspectSupport.java:339) at org.springframework.transaction.interceptor.TransactionInterceptor.invoke(TransactionInterceptor.java:110) at org.springframework.aop.framework.ReflectiveMethodInvocation.proceed(ReflectiveMethodInvocation.java:171) at org.springframework.aop.framework.Cglib2AopProxy$DynamicAdvisedInterceptor.intercept(Cglib2AopProxy.java:635) ... Caused by: javax.net.ssl.SSLException: Connection has been shutdown: javax.net.ssl.SSLException: bad record MAC at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.checkEOF(SSLSocketImpl.java:1255) at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.checkWrite(SSLSocketImpl.java:1267) at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.AppOutputStream.write(AppOutputStream.java:43) at java.io.BufferedOutputStream.flushBuffer(BufferedOutputStream.java:65) at java.io.BufferedOutputStream.flush(BufferedOutputStream.java:123) at org.postgresql.core.PGStream.flush(PGStream.java:508) at org.postgresql.core.v3.QueryExecutorImpl.sendSync(QueryExecutorImpl.java:692) at org.postgresql.core.v3.QueryExecutorImpl.execute(QueryExecutorImpl.java:193) ... 22 more Caused by: javax.net.ssl.SSLException: bad record MAC at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.Alerts.getSSLException(Alerts.java:190) at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.fatal(SSLSocketImpl.java:1611) at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.fatal(SSLSocketImpl.java:1569) at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.readRecord(SSLSocketImpl.java:850) at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.readDataRecord(SSLSocketImpl.java:746) at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.AppInputStream.read(AppInputStream.java:75) at org.postgresql.core.VisibleBufferedInputStream.readMore(VisibleBufferedInputStream.java:135) at org.postgresql.core.VisibleBufferedInputStream.ensureBytes(VisibleBufferedInputStream.java:104) at org.postgresql.core.VisibleBufferedInputStream.read(VisibleBufferedInputStream.java:186) at org.postgresql.core.PGStream.Receive(PGStream.java:445) at org.postgresql.core.PGStream.ReceiveTupleV3(PGStream.java:350) at org.postgresql.core.v3.QueryExecutorImpl.processResults(QueryExecutorImpl.java:1322) at org.postgresql.core.v3.QueryExecutorImpl.execute(QueryExecutorImpl.java:194) at org.postgresql.jdbc2.AbstractJdbc2Statement.execute(AbstractJdbc2Statement.java:451) at org.postgresql.jdbc2.AbstractJdbc2Statement.executeWithFlags(AbstractJdbc2Statement.java:350) at org.postgresql.jdbc2.AbstractJdbc2Statement.executeQuery(AbstractJdbc2Statement.java:254) at org.hibernate.jdbc.AbstractBatcher.getResultSet(AbstractBatcher.java:208) at org.hibernate.loader.Loader.getResultSet(Loader.java:1808) at org.hibernate.loader.Loader.doQuery(Loader.java:697) at org.hibernate.loader.Loader.doQueryAndInitializeNonLazyCollections(Loader.java:259) at org.hibernate.loader.Loader.loadCollection(Loader.java:2015) at org.hibernate.loader.collection.CollectionLoader.initialize(CollectionLoader.java:59) at org.hibernate.persister.collection.AbstractCollectionPersister.initialize(AbstractCollectionPersister.java:587) at org.hibernate.event.def.DefaultInitializeCollectionEventListener.onInitializeCollection(DefaultInitializeCollectionEventListener.java:83) at org.hibernate.impl.SessionImpl.initializeCollection(SessionImpl.java:1743) at org.hibernate.collection.AbstractPersistentCollection.initialize(AbstractPersistentCollection.java:366) at org.hibernate.collection.PersistentSet.add(PersistentSet.java:212) ... the cypher suite SSL_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA was used. We tried on the client side : the OpenJDK package the sun JDK package the sun tar package the libbcprov-java package the PostgreSQL driver 8.3 instead of 8.4 On the server side we see : 2010-03-01 08:26:05 CET [18513]: [161833-1] LOG: SSL error: sslv3 alert bad record mac 2010-03-01 08:26:05 CET [18513]: [161834-1] LOG: could not receive data from client: Connection reset by peer 2010-03-01 08:26:05 CET [18513]: [161835-1] LOG: unexpected EOF on client connection the error type seams to be SSL_R_SSLV3_ALERT_BAD_RECORD_MAC. the SSL layer is configured with : ssl_ciphers = 'ALL:!ADH:!LOW:!EXP:!MD5:@STRENGTH' and on the server side we changed the cipher suites to : 'ALL:!SSLv2:!MEDIUM:!AES:!ADH:!LOW:!EXP:!MD5:@STRENGTH' but none of these changes fixed the problem. Suggestions appreciated !

  Read the article

• Why are transactions not rolling back when using SpringJUnit4ClassRunner/MySQL/Spring/Hibernate

  - by Trevor

  I am doing unit testing and I expect that all data committed to the MySQL database will be rolled back... but this isn't the case. The data is being committed, even though my log was showing that the rollback was happening. I've been wrestling with this for a couple days so my setup has changed quite a bit, here's my current setup. LoginDAOTest.java: @RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class) @ContextConfiguration(locations={"file:web/WEB-INF/applicationContext-test.xml", "file:web/WEB-INF/dispatcher-servlet-test.xml"}) @TransactionConfiguration(transactionManager = "transactionManager", defaultRollback = true) public class UserServiceTest { private UserService userService; @Test public void should_return_true_when_user_is_logged_in () throws Exception { String[] usernames = {"a","b","c","d"}; for (String username : usernames) { userService.logUserIn(username); assertThat(userService.isUserLoggedIn(username), is(equalTo(true))); } } ApplicationContext-Text.xml: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:p="http://www.springframework.org/schema/p" xmlns:aop="http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop" xmlns:tx="http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-2.5.xsd http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop/spring-aop-2.5.xsd http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx/spring-tx-2.5.xsd"> <bean id="dataSource" class="org.apache.commons.dbcp.BasicDataSource" destroy-method="close"> <property name="driverClassName" value="com.mysql.jdbc.Driver"/> <property name="url" value="jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/test"/> <property name="username" value="root"/> <property name="password" value="Ecosim07"/> </bean> <tx:annotation-driven transaction-manager="transactionManager"/> <bean id="userService" class="Service.UserService"> <property name="userDAO" ref="userDAO"/> </bean> <bean id="userDAO" class="DAO.UserDAO"> <property name="hibernateTemplate" ref="hibernateTemplate"/> </bean> <bean id="sessionFactory" class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.LocalSessionFactoryBean"> <property name="dataSource" ref="dataSource"/> <property name="mappingResources"> <list> <value>/himapping/User.hbm.xml</value> <value>/himapping/setup.hbm.xml</value> <value>/himapping/UserHistory.hbm.xml</value> </list> </property> <property name="hibernateProperties"> <props> <prop key="hibernate.dialect">org.hibernate.dialect.SQLServerDialect</prop> <prop key="hibernate.show_sql">true</prop> </props> </property> </bean> <bean id="transactionManager" class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.HibernateTransactionManager" p:sessionFactory-ref="sessionFactory"/> <bean id="hibernateTemplate" class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.HibernateTemplate"> <property name="sessionFactory"> <ref bean="sessionFactory"/> </property> </bean> </beans> I have been reading about the issue, and I've already checked to ensure that the MySQL database tables are setup to use InnoDB. Also I have been able to successfully implement rolling back of transactions outside of my testing suite. So this must be some sort of incorrect setup on my part. Any help would be greatly appreciated :)

  Read the article

• Anything wrong with this function for comparing floats?

  - by Michael Borgwardt

  When my Floating-Point Guide was yesterday published on slashdot, I got a lot of flak for my suggested comparison function, which was indeed inadequate. So I finally did the sensible thing and wrote a test suite to see whether I could get them all to pass. Here is my result so far. And I wonder if this is really as good as one can get with a generic (i.e. not application specific) float comparison function, or whether I still missed some edge cases. import static org.junit.Assert.assertFalse; import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue; import org.junit.Test; public class NearlyEqualsTest { public static boolean nearlyEqual(float a, float b) { final float epsilon = 0.000001f; final float absA = Math.abs(a); final float absB = Math.abs(b); final float diff = Math.abs(a-b); if (a*b==0) { // a or b or both are zero // relative error is not meaningful here return diff < Float.MIN_VALUE / epsilon; } else { // use relative error return diff / (absA+absB) < epsilon; } } /** Regular large numbers - generally not problematic */ @Test public void big() { assertTrue(nearlyEqual(1000000f, 1000001f)); assertTrue(nearlyEqual(1000001f, 1000000f)); assertFalse(nearlyEqual(10000f, 10001f)); assertFalse(nearlyEqual(10001f, 10000f)); } /** Negative large numbers */ @Test public void bigNeg() { assertTrue(nearlyEqual(-1000000f, -1000001f)); assertTrue(nearlyEqual(-1000001f, -1000000f)); assertFalse(nearlyEqual(-10000f, -10001f)); assertFalse(nearlyEqual(-10001f, -10000f)); } /** Numbers around 1 */ @Test public void mid() { assertTrue(nearlyEqual(1.0000001f, 1.0000002f)); assertTrue(nearlyEqual(1.0000002f, 1.0000001f)); assertFalse(nearlyEqual(1.0002f, 1.0001f)); assertFalse(nearlyEqual(1.0001f, 1.0002f)); } /** Numbers around -1 */ @Test public void midNeg() { assertTrue(nearlyEqual(-1.000001f, -1.000002f)); assertTrue(nearlyEqual(-1.000002f, -1.000001f)); assertFalse(nearlyEqual(-1.0001f, -1.0002f)); assertFalse(nearlyEqual(-1.0002f, -1.0001f)); } /** Numbers between 1 and 0 */ @Test public void small() { assertTrue(nearlyEqual(0.000000001000001f, 0.000000001000002f)); assertTrue(nearlyEqual(0.000000001000002f, 0.000000001000001f)); assertFalse(nearlyEqual(0.000000000001002f, 0.000000000001001f)); assertFalse(nearlyEqual(0.000000000001001f, 0.000000000001002f)); } /** Numbers between -1 and 0 */ @Test public void smallNeg() { assertTrue(nearlyEqual(-0.000000001000001f, -0.000000001000002f)); assertTrue(nearlyEqual(-0.000000001000002f, -0.000000001000001f)); assertFalse(nearlyEqual(-0.000000000001002f, -0.000000000001001f)); assertFalse(nearlyEqual(-0.000000000001001f, -0.000000000001002f)); } /** Comparisons involving zero */ @Test public void zero() { assertTrue(nearlyEqual(0.0f, 0.0f)); assertFalse(nearlyEqual(0.00000001f, 0.0f)); assertFalse(nearlyEqual(0.0f, 0.00000001f)); } /** Comparisons of numbers on opposite sides of 0 */ @Test public void opposite() { assertFalse(nearlyEqual(1.000000001f, -1.0f)); assertFalse(nearlyEqual(-1.0f, 1.000000001f)); assertFalse(nearlyEqual(-1.000000001f, 1.0f)); assertFalse(nearlyEqual(1.0f, -1.000000001f)); assertTrue(nearlyEqual(10000f*Float.MIN_VALUE, -10000f*Float.MIN_VALUE)); } /** * The really tricky part - comparisons of numbers * very close to zero. */ @Test public void ulp() { assertTrue(nearlyEqual(Float.MIN_VALUE, -Float.MIN_VALUE)); assertTrue(nearlyEqual(-Float.MIN_VALUE, Float.MIN_VALUE)); assertTrue(nearlyEqual(Float.MIN_VALUE, 0)); assertTrue(nearlyEqual(0, Float.MIN_VALUE)); assertTrue(nearlyEqual(-Float.MIN_VALUE, 0)); assertTrue(nearlyEqual(0, -Float.MIN_VALUE)); assertFalse(nearlyEqual(0.000000001f, -Float.MIN_VALUE)); assertFalse(nearlyEqual(0.000000001f, Float.MIN_VALUE)); assertFalse(nearlyEqual(Float.MIN_VALUE, 0.000000001f)); assertFalse(nearlyEqual(-Float.MIN_VALUE, 0.000000001f)); assertFalse(nearlyEqual(1e20f*Float.MIN_VALUE, 0.0f)); assertFalse(nearlyEqual(0.0f, 1e20f*Float.MIN_VALUE)); assertFalse(nearlyEqual(1e20f*Float.MIN_VALUE, -1e20f*Float.MIN_VALUE)); } }

  Read the article

• Updating nested attributes causes duplicate entries

  - by params_noob

  I have a has_many and belongs_to relationship between Job and Address. When I try to update Job and Address in the same form, it updates job but creates a duplicate entry for Address. Am I missing something here? The Edit and Update Actions from Jobs: def edit @job = Job.find(params[:id]) end def update @job = Job.find(params[:id]) if @job.update_attributes(job_params) flash[:success] = "Job Updated" redirect_to current_user else render 'edit' end end The edit form: <h1>Edit Job Information</h1> <div class="row"> <div class="span6 offset3"> <%= form_for(@job) do |f| %> <%= render 'shared/error_messages' %> <%= f.label :recipient %> <%= f.text_field :recipient %> <%= f.label :age %> <%= f.text_field :age %> <%= f.label :gender %> <%= f.text_field :gender %> <%= f.label :ethnicity %> <%= f.text_field :ethnicity %> <%= f.label :height %> <%= f.text_field :height %> <%= f.label :weight %> <%= f.text_field :weight %> <%= f.label :hair %> <%= f.text_field :hair %> <%= f.label :eyes %> <%= f.text_field :eyes %> <%= f.label :other_info %> <%= f.text_field :other_info %> <h3> Address Information </h3> <%= f.fields_for :addresses do |address| %> <%= address.label :label, "Label" %> <%= address.text_field :label %> <%= address.label :addy, "Address" %> <%= address.text_field :addy %> <%= address.label :apt, "Apt/Suite/etc" %> <%= address.text_field :apt %> <%= address.label :city, "City" %> <%= address.text_field :city %> <%= address.label :state, "State" %> <%= address.text_field :state %> <%= address.label :zip, "Zip code" %> <%= address.text_field :zip %> <% end %> <%= f.label :instructions, "Service Instructions" %> <%= f.text_field :instructions %> <%= check_box_tag(:rush) %> <%= label_tag(:rush, "Rush?") %> <%= f.submit "Update Job", class: "btn btn-large btn-primary" %> <% end %> </div> </div>

  Read the article

• jQuery encoding values differently than expected for jQuery.ajax data elements

  - by Adam Tuttle

  I'm using jQuery.ajax() to make a PUT request to a REST web service, but seeing some really strange serialization behavior. (Before you say it: Yes, I know that not all browsers support PUT -- this is just an example implementation for an api/framework, and ultimately will not be called by a browser, but rather by a server-side library that does support the extra http verbs.) Here's the form: <form action="/example/api/artist" method="put" id="update"> First Name: <input type="text" name="firstname" /><br/> Last Name: <input type="text" name="lastname" /><br/> Address: <input type="text" name="address" /><br/> City: <input type="text" name="city" /><br/> State: <input type="text" name="state" /><br/> Postal Code: <input type="text" name="postalcode" /><br/> Email: <input type="text" name="email" /><br/> Phone: <input type="text" name="phone" /><br/> Fax: <input type="text" name="fax" /><br/> Password: <input type="text" name="thepassword" /><br/> <input type="hidden" name="debug" value="true" /> <input type="submit" value="Update Artist" /> <input type="reset" value="Cancel" id="updateCancel" /> </form> And the JS: $("#update").submit(function(e){ e.preventDefault(); var frm = $(this); $.ajax({ url: frm.attr('action'), data:{ firstname: $("#update input[name=firstname]").val(), lastname: $("#update input[name=lastname]").val(), address: $("#update input[name=address]").val(), city: $("#update input[name=city]").val(), state: $("#update input[name=state]").val(), postalcode: $("#update input[name=postalcode]").val(), email: $("#update input[name=email]").val(), phone: $("#update input[name=phone]").val(), fax: $("#update input[name=fax]").val(), thepassword: $("#update input[name=thepassword]").val() }, type: frm.attr('method'), dataType: "json", contentType: "application/json", success: function (data, textStatus, xhr){ console.log(data); reloadData(); }, error: function (xhr, textStatus, err){ console.log(textStatus); console.log(err); } }); }); When using FireBug, I see the request go through as this: firstname=Austin&lastname=Weber&address=25463+Main+Street%2C+Suite+C&city=Berkeley&state=CA&postalcode=94707-4513&email=austin%40life.com&phone=555-513-4318&fax=510-513-4888&thepassword=nopolyes That's not horrible, but ideally I'd rather get %20 instead of + for spaces. I tried wrapping each field value lookup in an escape: firstname: escape($("#update input[name=firstname]").val()) But that makes things worse: firstname=Austin&lastname=Weber&address=25463%2520Main%2520Street%252C%2520Suite%2520C&city=Berkeley&state=CA&postalcode=94707-4513&email=austin%40life.com&phone=555-513-4318&fax=510-513-4888&thepassword=nopolyes In this case, the value is being escaped twice; so first the space is encoded to %20, and then the % sign is escaped to %25 resulting in the %2520 for spaces, and %252C for the comma in the address field. What am I doing wrong here?

  Read the article

• mine phrases (up to 3 words) from a given text

  - by DS_web_developer

  I asked before for a simple solution to my problem (using sphinx search service) but I got nowhere... someone has kindly provided me with this code <?php /** * $Project: GeoGraph $ * $Id$ * * GeoGraph geographic photo archive project * This file copyright (C) 2005 Barry Hunter ([email protected]) * * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or * modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License * as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 * of the License, or (at your option) any later version. * * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the * GNU General Public License for more details. * * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License * along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software * Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. */ /** * Provides the methods for updating the worknet tables * * @package Geograph * @author Barry Hunter <[email protected]> * @version $Revision$ */ function addTwoLetterPhrase($phrase) { global $w2; $w2[$phrase] = (isset($w2[$phrase]))?($w2[$phrase]+1):1; } function addThreeLetterPhrase($phrase) { global $w3; $w3[$phrase] = (isset($w3[$phrase]))?($w3[$phrase]+1):1; } function updateWordnet(&$db,$text,$field,$id) { global $w1,$w2,$w3; $alltext = strtolower(preg_replace('/\W+/',' ',str_replace("'",'',$text))); if (strlen($text)< 1) return; $words = preg_split('/ /',$alltext); $w1 = array(); $w2 = array(); $w3 = array(); //build a list of one word phrases foreach ($words as $word) { $w1[$word] = (isset($w1[$word]))?($w1[$word]+1):1; } //build a list of two word phrases $text = $alltext; $text = preg_replace('/(\w+) (\w+)/e','addTwoLetterPhrase("$1 $2")',$text); $text = $alltext; $text = preg_replace('/(\w+)/','',$text,1); $text = preg_replace('/(\w+) (\w+)/e','addTwoLetterPhrase("$1 $2")',$text); //build a list of three word phrases $text = $alltext; $text = preg_replace('/(\w+) (\w+) (\w+)/e','addThreeLetterPhrase("$1 $2 $3")',$text); $text = $alltext; $text = preg_replace('/(\w+)/','',$text,1); $text = preg_replace('/(\w+) (\w+) (\w+)/e','addThreeLetterPhrase("$1 $2 $3")',$text); $text = $alltext; $text = preg_replace('/(\w+) (\w+)/','',$text,1); $text = preg_replace('/(\w+) (\w+) (\w+)/e','addThreeLetterPhrase("$1 $2 $3")',$text); foreach ($w1 as $word=>$count) { $db->Execute("insert into wordnet1 set gid = $id,words = '$word',$field = $count");// ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE $field=$field+$count"); } foreach ($w2 as $word=>$count) { $db->Execute("insert into wordnet2 set gid = $id,words = '$word',$field = $count"); } foreach ($w3 as $word=>$count) { $db->Execute("insert into wordnet3 set gid = $id,words = '$word',$field = $count"); } } ?> It works fine and does almost exactly what I need....... except.... it is not utf8 friendly... I mean... it splits whole words into parts (on special chars) where it shouldn't! so my guess is I should use multibyte functions instead of regular preg_replace... I tried to replace preg_replace with mb_ereg_replace but it is not working as it should... at least not for 2 and 3 words phrases any ideas?

  Read the article

• Remotely Schedule and Stream Recorded TV in Windows 7 Media Center

  - by DigitalGeekery

  Have you ever been away from home and suddenly realized you forgot to record your favorite program? Now Windows 7 Media Center, users can schedule recordings remotely from their phones or mobile devices with Remote Potato. How it Works Remote Potato installs server software on the host computer running Windows 7 Media Center. Once the software is installed, we’ll need to do some port forwarding on the router and setup an optional dynamic DNS address. When setup is completed, we will access the application through a web based interface. Silverlight is required for Streaming recorded TV, but scheduling recordings can be done through an HTML interface. Installing Remote Potato Download and install Remote Potato on the Media Center PC. (See download link below) If you plan to stream any Recorded TV, you’ll also want to install the streaming pack located on the same page. It isn’t required to stream all shows, only shows that require the AC3 audio codec. Click Yes to allow Remote Potato to add rules to the Windows Firewall for remote access. You’ll likely need to accept a few UAC prompts. When notified that the rules were added, click OK. Remote Potato will then prompt you to allow administrator privileges to reserve a URL for it’s web server. Click Yes. Remote Potato server will start. Click on the configuration button at the right to to reveal the settings tabs.   One the General tab, you’ll have the option to run Remote Potato on startup and minimized in the System Tray. If you’re running Media Center on a dedicated HTPC, you’ll probably want to enable both startup options. Forwarding Ports on Your Router You’ll need to forward a couple ports on your router. By default, these will be ports 9080 and 9081. In this example we’re using a Linksys WRT54GL router, however, the steps for port forwarding will vary from router to router. On the Linksys configuration page, click on the Applications & Gaming Tab, and then the Port Range Forward tab. Under Application, type in a name of your choosing. In both the Start and End boxes, type the port number 9080. Enter the local IP address of your Media Center computer in the IP address column. Click the check box under Enable. Repeat the process on the next line, but this time use port 9081. When finished, click the Save Settings button. Note: It’s highly recommended that you configure the home computer running Media Center & Remote Potato with a static IP address.   Find your IP Address You’ll need to find the IP address assigned to your router from your ISP. There are many ways to do this but a quick and easy way is to visit a site like checkip.dyndns.org (link available below) The current external IP address of your router will be displayed in the browser.   Dynamic DNS This is an optional step, but  it’s highly recommended. Many routers, such as the Linksys WRT54GL we are using, support Dynamic DNS (DDNS). What Dynamic DNS allows you to do is affiliate your home router’s external IP address to a domain name. Every time your home router is assigned a a new IP address by your ISP, the domain name is updated to point to your new IP address. Remote Potato’s user interface is accessed over the Internet is by connecting to your router’s IP address followed by a colon and the port number. (Ex: XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX:9080) Instead of constantly having to look up and remember an IP address, you can use DDNS along with a 3rd party provider like DynDNS.com, to sign up for a free domain name and configure it to be updated each time your router is assigned a new IP address. Go to the DynDNS.com website (See link at the end of the article) and sign up for a free Domain name. You’ll need to register and confirm by email.   Once you’ve signed in and selected your domain name click Activate Services. You’ll get a confirmation message that your domain name has been activated.    On the Linksys WRT54GL click on the Setup tab an then DDNS. Select DynDNS.org, or TZO.com if you prefer to use their service, from the drop down list.   With DynDNS, you’ll need to fill in your username and password you signed up with at the DynDNS website and the hostname you chose. Note: You can connect over your local network with the IP Address of the computer running Remote Potato followed by a colon and the port number. Ex: 192.168.1.2:9080 Logging in Remote Potato and Recording a Show Once you connect, you’ll see the start page. To view the TV listings, click on TV Guide. You’ll then see your guide listings. There are a few ways to navigate the listings. At the top left, you can click on any of the preset time buttons to jump to  the listings at that time of the day.  Click on the arrows to the right and left of the day and date at the top center to proceed to the previous or next day. Or, jump to a specific day with the date and date buttons at the top right.   To setup a recording, click on a program.   You can choose to record the individual show or the entire series by clicking on Record Show or Record Series.   Remote Potato on Mobile Devices Perhaps the coolest feature of Remote Potato is the ability to schedule recording from your phone or mobile device. Note: For any devices or computers without Silverlight, you will be prompted to view the HTML page. Select Browse Listings. Select your program to record. In the Program Details, select Record Show to record the single episode or Record Series to record all instances of the series. You will then see a red dot on the program listing to indicate that the show is scheduled for recording.   Streaming Recorded TV Click on Recorded TV from the home screen to access your previously recorded TV programs. Click on the selection you wish to stream. Click on Play. If you receive this error message, you’ll need to install the streaming pack for Remote Potato. This is found on the same download page as installation files. (See link below) The Begin from slider allows you to start playback from the start (by default) or a different time of the program by moving the slider. The Quality (bitrate) setting  allows you to choose the quality of the playback. We found the video quality on the Normal setting to be pretty lousy, and Low was just pointless. High was the best overall viewing experience as it provided smooth quality video playback. We experienced significant stuttering during playback using the Ultra High setting.   Click Start when you are ready to begin. When playback begins you’ll see a slider at the top right.   Move the slider left or right to increase or decrease the size of the video. There’s also a button to switch to full screen.   Media Center users who travel frequently or are always on the go will likely find Remote Potato to be a blessing. Since being released earlier this year, updates for Remote Potato have come fast and furious. The latest beta release includes support for streaming music and photos. If you like those nice network TV logos, check out our article on adding TV channel logos to Windows Media Center. Downloads and Links Download Remote Potato and Streaming Pack Find your IP address Sign Up for a Domain Name at DynDNS.com Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Schedule Updates for Windows Media CenterUsing Netflix Watchnow in Windows Vista Media Center (Gmedia)Add a Sleep Timer to Windows 7 Media CenterStartup Customizations for Media Center in Windows 7Enable Media Streaming in Windows Home Server to Windows Media Player TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 FoxClocks adds World Times in your Statusbar (Firefox) Have Fun Editing Photo Editing with Citrify Outlook Connector Upgrade Error Gadfly is a cool Twitter/Silverlight app Enable DreamScene in Windows 7 Microsoft’s “How Do I ?” Videos

  Read the article

• How To Run XP Mode in VirtualBox on Windows 7 (sort of)

  - by Matthew Guay

  A few weeks ago we showed you how to run XP Mode on a Windows 7 computer without Hardware Virtualization using VMware. Some of you have been asking if it can be done in Virtual Box as well. The answer is “Yes!” and here we’ll show you how. Editor Update: Apparently there isn’t a way to activate XP Mode through VirtualBox using this method. You will however, be able to run it for 30 days. We have a new updated article on how to Install XP Mode with VirtualBox Using the VMLite Plugin.   Earlier we showed you how to run XP mode on windows 7 machines without hardware virtualization capability. Since then, a lot of you have been asking to a write up a tutorial about doing the same thing using VirtualBox.  This makes it another great way to run XP Mode if your computer does not have hardware virtualization.  Here we’ll see how to import the XP Mode from Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate into VirtualBox so you can run XP in it for free. Note: You need to have Windows 7 Professional or above to use XP Mode in this manner. In our tests we were able to get it to run on Home Premium as well, but you’ll be breaking Windows 7 licensing agreements. Getting Started First, download and install XP Mode (link below).  There is no need to download Virtual PC if your computer cannot run it, so just download the XP Mode from the link on the left. Install XP mode; just follow the default prompts as usual. Now, download and install VirtualBox 3.1.2 or higher(link below).  Install as normal, and simply follow the default prompts. VirtualBox may notify you that your network connection will be reset during the installation.  Press Yes to continue. During the install, you may see several popups asking you if you wish to install device drivers for USB and Network interfaces.  Simply click install, as these are needed for VirtualBox to run correctly. Setup only took a couple minutes, and doesn’t require a reboot. Setup XP Mode in VirtualBox: First we need to copy the default XP Mode so VirtualBox will not affect the original copy.  Browse to C:\Program Files\Windows XP Mode, and copy the file “Windows XP Mode base.vhd”.  Paste it in another folder of your choice, such as your Documents folder. Once you’ve copied the file, right-click on it and click Properties. Uncheck the “Read-only” box in this dialog, and then click Ok. Now, in VirtualBox, click New to create a new virtual machine. Enter the name of your virtual machine, and make sure the operating system selected is Windows XP. Choose how much memory you want to allow the virtual machine to use.  VirtualBox’ default is 192 Mb ram, but for better performance you can select 256 or 512Mb. Now, select the hard drive for the virtual machine.  Select “Use existing hard disk”, then click the folder button to choose the XP Mode virtual drive. In this window, click Add, and then browse to find the copy of XP Mode you previously made. Make sure the correct virtual drive is selected, then press Select. After selecting the VHD your screen should look like the following then click Next. Verify the settings you made are correct. If not, you can go back and make any changes. When everything looks correct click Finish. Setup XP Mode Now, in VirtualBox, click start to run XP Mode. The Windows XP in this virtual drive is not fully setup yet, so you will have to go through the setup process.   If you didn’t uncheck the “Read-only” box in the VHD properties before, you may see the following error.  If you see it, go back and check the file to makes sure it is not read-only. When you click in the virtual machine, it will capture your mouse by default.  Simply press the right Ctrl key to release your mouse so you can go back to using Windows 7.  This will only be the case during the setup process; after the Guest Additions are installed, the mouse will seamlessly move between operating systems. Now, accept the license agreement in XP.   Choose your correct locale and keyboard settings. Enter a name for your virtual XP, and an administrative password. Check the date, time, and time zone settings, and adjust them if they are incorrect.  The time and date are usually correct, but the time zone often has to be corrected. XP will now automatically finish setting up your virtual machine, and then will automatically reboot. After rebooting, select your automatic update settings. You may see a prompt to check for drivers; simply press cancel, as all the drivers we need will be installed later with the Guest Additions. Your last settings will be finalized, and finally you will see your XP desktop in VirtualBox. Please note that XP Mode may not remain activated after importing it into VirtualBox. When you activate it, use the key that is located at C:\Program Files\Windows XP Mode\key.txt.  Note: During our tests we weren’t able to get the activation to go through. We are looking into the issue and will have a revised article showing the correct way to get XP Mode in VirutalBox working correctly soon.    Now we have one final thing to install – the VirtualBox Guest Additions.  In the VirtualBox window, click “Devices” and then select “Install Guest Additions”. This should automatically launch in XP; if it doesn’t, click Start, then My Computer, and finally double-click on the CD drive which should say VirtualBox Guest Additions. Simply install with the normal presets. You can select to install an experimental 3D graphics driver if you wish to try to run games in XP in VirtualBox; however, do note that this is not fully supported and is currently a test feature. You may see a prompt informing you that the drivers have not passed Logo testing; simply press “Continue Anyway” to proceed with the installation.   When installation has completed, you will be required to reboot your virtual machine. Now, you can move your mouse directly from Windows XP to Windows 7 without pressing Ctrl. Integrating with Windows 7 Once your virtual machine is rebooted, you can integrate it with your Windows 7 desktop.  In the VirtualBox window, click Machine and then select “Seamless Mode”.   In Seamless mode you’ll have the XP Start menu and taskbar sit on top of your Windows 7 Start and Taskbar. Here we see XP running on Virtual Box in Seamless Mode. We have the old XP WordPad sitting next to the new Windows 7 version of WordPad. Another view of everything running seamlessly together on the same Windows 7 desktop. Hover the pointer over the XP taskbar to pull up the Virtual Box menu items. You can exit out of Seamless Mode from the VirtualBox menu or using “Ctrl+L”. Then you go back to having it run separately on your desktop again. Conclusion Running XP Mode in a Virtual Machine is a great way to experience the feature on computers without Hardware Virtualization capabilities. If you prefer VMware Player, then you’ll want to check out our articles on how to run XP Mode on Windows 7 machines without Hardware Virtualization, and how to create an XP Mode for Windows 7 Home Premium and Vista. Download VirtualBox Download XP Mode Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Install XP Mode with VirtualBox Using the VMLite PluginUsing Windows 7 or Vista Compatibility ModeMake Safari Stop Crashing Every 20 Seconds on Windows VistaForce Windows 7 / Vista to Boot Into Safe Mode Without Using the F8 KeyHow To Run Chrome OS in VirtualBox TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Enable Check Box Selection in Windows 7 OnlineOCR – Free OCR Service Betting on the Blind Side, a Vanity Fair article 30 Minimal Logo Designs that Say More with Less LEGO Digital Designer – Free Create a Personal Website Quickly using Flavors.me

  Read the article

• How To Run XP Mode in VirtualBox on Windows 7 (sort of)

  - by Matthew Guay

  A few weeks ago we showed you how to run XP Mode on a Windows 7 computer without Hardware Virtualization using VMware. Some of you have been asking if it can be done in Virtual Box as well. The answer is “Yes!” and here we’ll show you how. Editor Update: Apparently there isn’t a way to activate XP Mode through VirtualBox using this method. You will however, be able to run it for 30 days. We have a new updated article on how to Install XP Mode with VirtualBox Using the VMLite Plugin.   Earlier we showed you how to run XP mode on windows 7 machines without hardware virtualization capability. Since then, a lot of you have been asking to a write up a tutorial about doing the same thing using VirtualBox.  This makes it another great way to run XP Mode if your computer does not have hardware virtualization.  Here we’ll see how to import the XP Mode from Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate into VirtualBox so you can run XP in it for free. Note: You need to have Windows 7 Professional or above to use XP Mode in this manner. In our tests we were able to get it to run on Home Premium as well, but you’ll be breaking Windows 7 licensing agreements. Getting Started First, download and install XP Mode (link below).  There is no need to download Virtual PC if your computer cannot run it, so just download the XP Mode from the link on the left. Install XP mode; just follow the default prompts as usual. Now, download and install VirtualBox 3.1.2 or higher(link below).  Install as normal, and simply follow the default prompts. VirtualBox may notify you that your network connection will be reset during the installation.  Press Yes to continue. During the install, you may see several popups asking you if you wish to install device drivers for USB and Network interfaces.  Simply click install, as these are needed for VirtualBox to run correctly. Setup only took a couple minutes, and doesn’t require a reboot. Setup XP Mode in VirtualBox: First we need to copy the default XP Mode so VirtualBox will not affect the original copy.  Browse to C:\Program Files\Windows XP Mode, and copy the file “Windows XP Mode base.vhd”.  Paste it in another folder of your choice, such as your Documents folder. Once you’ve copied the file, right-click on it and click Properties. Uncheck the “Read-only” box in this dialog, and then click Ok. Now, in VirtualBox, click New to create a new virtual machine. Enter the name of your virtual machine, and make sure the operating system selected is Windows XP. Choose how much memory you want to allow the virtual machine to use.  VirtualBox’ default is 192 Mb ram, but for better performance you can select 256 or 512Mb. Now, select the hard drive for the virtual machine.  Select “Use existing hard disk”, then click the folder button to choose the XP Mode virtual drive. In this window, click Add, and then browse to find the copy of XP Mode you previously made. Make sure the correct virtual drive is selected, then press Select. After selecting the VHD your screen should look like the following then click Next. Verify the settings you made are correct. If not, you can go back and make any changes. When everything looks correct click Finish. Setup XP Mode Now, in VirtualBox, click start to run XP Mode. The Windows XP in this virtual drive is not fully setup yet, so you will have to go through the setup process.   If you didn’t uncheck the “Read-only” box in the VHD properties before, you may see the following error.  If you see it, go back and check the file to makes sure it is not read-only. When you click in the virtual machine, it will capture your mouse by default.  Simply press the right Ctrl key to release your mouse so you can go back to using Windows 7.  This will only be the case during the setup process; after the Guest Additions are installed, the mouse will seamlessly move between operating systems. Now, accept the license agreement in XP.   Choose your correct locale and keyboard settings. Enter a name for your virtual XP, and an administrative password. Check the date, time, and time zone settings, and adjust them if they are incorrect.  The time and date are usually correct, but the time zone often has to be corrected. XP will now automatically finish setting up your virtual machine, and then will automatically reboot. After rebooting, select your automatic update settings. You may see a prompt to check for drivers; simply press cancel, as all the drivers we need will be installed later with the Guest Additions. Your last settings will be finalized, and finally you will see your XP desktop in VirtualBox. Please note that XP Mode may not remain activated after importing it into VirtualBox. When you activate it, use the key that is located at C:\Program Files\Windows XP Mode\key.txt.  Note: During our tests we weren’t able to get the activation to go through. We are looking into the issue and will have a revised article showing the correct way to get XP Mode in VirutalBox working correctly soon.    Now we have one final thing to install – the VirtualBox Guest Additions.  In the VirtualBox window, click “Devices” and then select “Install Guest Additions”. This should automatically launch in XP; if it doesn’t, click Start, then My Computer, and finally double-click on the CD drive which should say VirtualBox Guest Additions. Simply install with the normal presets. You can select to install an experimental 3D graphics driver if you wish to try to run games in XP in VirtualBox; however, do note that this is not fully supported and is currently a test feature. You may see a prompt informing you that the drivers have not passed Logo testing; simply press “Continue Anyway” to proceed with the installation.   When installation has completed, you will be required to reboot your virtual machine. Now, you can move your mouse directly from Windows XP to Windows 7 without pressing Ctrl. Integrating with Windows 7 Once your virtual machine is rebooted, you can integrate it with your Windows 7 desktop.  In the VirtualBox window, click Machine and then select “Seamless Mode”.   In Seamless mode you’ll have the XP Start menu and taskbar sit on top of your Windows 7 Start and Taskbar. Here we see XP running on Virtual Box in Seamless Mode. We have the old XP WordPad sitting next to the new Windows 7 version of WordPad. Another view of everything running seamlessly together on the same Windows 7 desktop. Hover the pointer over the XP taskbar to pull up the Virtual Box menu items. You can exit out of Seamless Mode from the VirtualBox menu or using “Ctrl+L”. Then you go back to having it run separately on your desktop again. Conclusion Running XP Mode in a Virtual Machine is a great way to experience the feature on computers without Hardware Virtualization capabilities. If you prefer VMware Player, then you’ll want to check out our articles on how to run XP Mode on Windows 7 machines without Hardware Virtualization, and how to create an XP Mode for Windows 7 Home Premium and Vista. Download VirtualBox Download XP Mode Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Install XP Mode with VirtualBox Using the VMLite PluginUsing Windows 7 or Vista Compatibility ModeMake Safari Stop Crashing Every 20 Seconds on Windows VistaForce Windows 7 / Vista to Boot Into Safe Mode Without Using the F8 KeyHow To Run Chrome OS in VirtualBox TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Enable Check Box Selection in Windows 7 OnlineOCR – Free OCR Service Betting on the Blind Side, a Vanity Fair article 30 Minimal Logo Designs that Say More with Less LEGO Digital Designer – Free Create a Personal Website Quickly using Flavors.me

  Read the article

• How to Upgrade Your Netbook to Windows 7 Home Premium

  - by Matthew Guay

  Would you like more features and flash in Windows on your netbook?  Here’s how you can easily upgrade your netbook to Windows 7 Home Premium the easy way. Most new netbooks today ship with Windows 7 Starter, which is the cheapest edition of Windows 7.  It is fine for many computing tasks, and will run all your favorite programs great, but it lacks many customization, multimedia, and business features found in higher editions.  Here we’ll show you how you can quickly upgrade your netbook to more full-featured edition of Windows 7 using Windows Anytime Upgrade.  Also, if you want to upgrade your laptop or desktop to another edition of Windows 7, say Professional, you can follow these same steps to upgrade it, too. Please note: This is only for computers already running Windows 7.  If your netbook is running XP or Vista, you will have to run a traditional upgrade to install Windows 7. Upgrade Advisor First, let’s make sure your netbook can support the extra features, such as Aero Glass, in Windows 7 Home Premium.  Most modern netbooks that ship with Windows 7 Starter can run the advanced features in Windows 7 Home Premium, but let’s check just in case.  Download the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor (link below), and install as normal. Once it’s installed, run it and click Start Check.   Make sure you’re connected to the internet before you run the check, or otherwise you may see this error message.  If you see it, click Ok and then connect to the internet and start the check again. It will now scan all of your programs and hardware to make sure they’re compatible with Windows 7.  Since you’re already running Windows 7 Starter, it will also tell you if your computer will support the features in other editions of Windows 7. After a few moments, the Upgrade Advisor will show you want it found.  Here we see that our netbook, a Samsung N150, can be upgraded to Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate. We also see that we had one issue, but this was because a driver we had installed was not recognized.  Click “See all system requirements” to see what your netbook can do with the new edition. This shows you which of the requirements, including support for Windows Aero, your netbook meets.  Here our netbook supports Aero, so we’re ready to go upgrade. For more, check out our article on how to make sure your computer can run Windows 7 with Upgrade Advisor. Upgrade with Anytime Upgrade Now, we’re ready to upgrade our netbook to Windows 7 Home Premium.  Enter “Anytime Upgrade” in the Start menu search,and select Windows Anytime Upgrade. Windows Anytime Upgrade lets you upgrade using product key you already have or one you purchase during the upgrade process.  And, it installs without any downloads or Windows disks, so it works great even for netbooks without DVD drives. Anytime Upgrades are cheaper than a standard upgrade, and for a limited time, select retailers in the US are offering Anytime Upgrades to Windows 7 Home Premium for only $49.99 if purchased with a new netbook.  If you already have a netbook running Windows 7 Starter, you can either purchase an Anytime Upgrade package at a retail store or purchase a key online during the upgrade process for $79.95.  Or, if you have a standard Windows 7 product key (full or upgrade), you can use it in Anytime upgrade.  This is especially nice if you can purchase Windows 7 cheaper through your school, university, or office. Purchase an upgrade online To purchase an upgrade online, click “Go online to choose the edition of Windows 7 that’s best for you”.   Here you can see a comparison of the features of each edition of Windows 7.  Note that you can upgrade to either Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate.  We chose home Premium because it has most of the features that home users want, including Media Center and Aero Glass effects.  Also note that the price of each upgrade is cheaper than the respective upgrade from Windows XP or Vista.  Click buy under the edition you want.   Enter your billing information, then your payment information.  Once you confirm your purchase, you will directly be taken to the Upgrade screen.  Make sure to save your receipt, as you will need the product key if you ever need to reinstall Windows on your computer. Upgrade with an existing product key If you purchased an Anytime Upgrade kit from a retailer, or already have a Full or Upgrade key for another edition of Windows 7, choose “Enter an upgrade key”. Enter your product key, and click Next.  If you purchased an Anytime Upgrade kit, the product key will be located on the inside of the case on a yellow sticker. The key will be verified as a valid key, and Anytime Upgrade will automatically choose the correct edition of Windows 7 based on your product key.  Click Next when this is finished. Continuing the Upgrade process Whether you entered a key or purchased a key online, the process is the same from here on.  Click “I accept” to accept the license agreement. Now, you’re ready to install your upgrade.  Make sure to save all open files and close any programs, and then click Upgrade. The upgrade only takes about 10 minutes in our experience but your mileage may vary.  Any available Microsoft updates, including ones for Office, Security Essentials, and other products, will be installed before the upgrade takes place. After a couple minutes, your computer will automatically reboot and finish the installation.  It will then reboot once more, and your computer will be ready to use!  Welcome to your new edition of Windows 7! Here’s a before and after shot of our desktop.  When you do an Anytime Upgrade, all of your programs, files, and settings will be just as they were before you upgraded.  The only change we noticed was that our pinned taskbar icons were slightly rearranged to the default order of Internet Explorer, Explorer, and Media Player.  Here’s a shot of our desktop before the upgrade.  Notice that all of our pinned programs and desktop icons are still there, as well as our taskbar customization (we are using small icons on the taskbar instead of the default large icons). Before, with the Windows 7 Starter background and the Aero Basic theme: And after, with Aero Glass and the more colorful default Windows 7 background.   All of the features of Windows 7 Home Premium are now ready to use.  The Aero theme was activate by default, but you can now customize your netbook theme, background, and more with the Personalization pane.  To open it, right-click on your desktop and select Personalize. You can also now use Windows Media Center, and can play-back DVD movies using an external drive. One of our favorite tools, the Snipping Tool, is also now available for easy screenshots and clips. Activating you new edition of Windows 7 You will still need to activate your new edition of Windows 7.  To do this right away, open the start menu, right-click on Computer, and select Properties.   Scroll to the bottom, and click “Activate Windows Now”. Make sure you’re connected to the internet, and then select “Activate Windows online now”. Activation may take a few minutes, depending on your internet connection speed. When it is done, the Activation wizard will let you know that Windows is activated and genuine.  Your upgrade is all finished! Conclusion Windows Anytime Upgrade makes it easy, and somewhat cheaper, to upgrade to another edition of Windows 7.  It’s useful for desktop and laptop owners who want to upgrade to Professional or Ultimate, but many more netbook owners will want to upgrade from Starter to Home Premium or another edition.  Links Download the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor Windows Team Blog: Anytime Upgrade Special with new PC purchase Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips How To Upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 Home Premium EditionAnother Blog You Should Subscribe ToMysticgeek Blog: Turn Vista Home Premium Into Ultimate (Part 3) – Shadow CopyUpgrade Ubuntu from Breezy to DapperHow to Upgrade the Windows 7 RC to RTM (Final Release) TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Get Your Delicious Bookmarks In Firefox’s Awesome Bar Manage Photos Across Different Social Sites With Dropico Test Drive Windows 7 Online Download Wallpapers From National Geographic Site Spyware Blaster v4.3 Yes, it’s Patch Tuesday

  Read the article

• Complete Guide to Symbolic Links (symlinks) on Windows or Linux

  - by Matthew Guay

  Want to easily access folders and files from different folders without maintaining duplicate copies?  Here’s how you can use Symbolic Links to link anything in Windows 7, Vista, XP, and Ubuntu. So What Are Symbolic Links Anyway? Symbolic links, otherwise known as symlinks, are basically advanced shortcuts. You can create symbolic links to individual files or folders, and then these will appear like they are stored in the folder with the symbolic link even though the symbolic link only points to their real location. There are two types of symbolic links: hard and soft. Soft symbolic links work essentially the same as a standard shortcut.  When you open a soft link, you will be redirected to the folder where the files are stored.  However, a hard link makes it appear as though the file or folder actually exists at the location of the symbolic link, and your applications won’t know any different. Thus, hard links are of the most interest in this article. Why should I use Symbolic Links? There are many things we use symbolic links for, so here’s some of the top uses we can think of: Sync any folder with Dropbox – say, sync your Pidgin Profile Across Computers Move the settings folder for any program from its original location Store your Music/Pictures/Videos on a second hard drive, but make them show up in your standard Music/Pictures/Videos folders so they’ll be detected my your media programs (Windows 7 Libraries can also be good for this) Keep important files accessible from multiple locations And more! If you want to move files to a different drive or folder and then symbolically link them, follow these steps: Close any programs that may be accessing that file or folder Move the file or folder to the new desired location Follow the correct instructions below for your operating system to create the symbolic link. Caution: Make sure to never create a symbolic link inside of a symbolic link. For instance, don’t create a symbolic link to a file that’s contained in a symbolic linked folder. This can create a loop, which can cause millions of problems you don’t want to deal with. Seriously. Create Symlinks in Any Edition of Windows in Explorer Creating symlinks is usually difficult, but thanks to the free Link Shell Extension, you can create symbolic links in all modern version of Windows pain-free.  You need to download both Visual Studio 2005 redistributable, which contains the necessary prerequisites, and Link Shell Extension itself (links below).  Download the correct version (32 bit or 64 bit) for your computer. Run and install the Visual Studio 2005 Redistributable installer first. Then install the Link Shell Extension on your computer. Your taskbar will temporally disappear during the install, but will quickly come back. Now you’re ready to start creating symbolic links.  Browse to the folder or file you want to create a symbolic link from.  Right-click the folder or file and select Pick Link Source. To create your symlink, right-click in the folder you wish to save the symbolic link, select “Drop as…”, and then choose the type of link you want.  You can choose from several different options here; we chose the Hardlink Clone.  This will create a hard link to the file or folder we selected.  The Symbolic link option creates a soft link, while the smart copy will fully copy a folder containing symbolic links without breaking them.  These options can be useful as well.   Here’s our hard-linked folder on our desktop.  Notice that the folder looks like its contents are stored in Desktop\Downloads, when they are actually stored in C:\Users\Matthew\Desktop\Downloads.  Also, when links are created with the Link Shell Extension, they have a red arrow on them so you can still differentiate them. And, this works the same way in XP as well. Symlinks via Command Prompt Or, for geeks who prefer working via command line, here’s how you can create symlinks in Command Prompt in Windows 7/Vista and XP. In Windows 7/Vista In Windows Vista and 7, we’ll use the mklink command to create symbolic links.  To use it, we have to open an administrator Command Prompt.  Enter “command” in your start menu search, right-click on Command Prompt, and select “Run as administrator”. To create a symbolic link, we need to enter the following in command prompt: mklink /prefix link_path file/folder_path First, choose the correct prefix.  Mklink can create several types of links, including the following: /D – creates a soft symbolic link, which is similar to a standard folder or file shortcut in Windows.  This is the default option, and mklink will use it if you do not enter a prefix. /H – creates a hard link to a file /J – creates a hard link to a directory or folder So, once you’ve chosen the correct prefix, you need to enter the path you want for the symbolic link, and the path to the original file or folder.  For example, if I wanted a folder in my Dropbox folder to appear like it was also stored in my desktop, I would enter the following: mklink /J C:\Users\Matthew\Desktop\Dropbox C:\Users\Matthew\Documents\Dropbox Note that the first path was to the symbolic folder I wanted to create, while the second path was to the real folder. Here, in this command prompt screenshot, you can see that I created a symbolic link of my Music folder to my desktop.   And here’s how it looks in Explorer.  Note that all of my music is “really” stored in C:\Users\Matthew\Music, but here it looks like it is stored in C:\Users\Matthew\Desktop\Music. If your path has any spaces in it, you need to place quotes around it.  Note also that the link can have a different name than the file it links to.  For example, here I’m going to create a symbolic link to a document on my desktop: mklink /H “C:\Users\Matthew\Desktop\ebook.pdf”  “C:\Users\Matthew\Downloads\Before You Call Tech Support.pdf” Don’t forget the syntax: mklink /prefix link_path Target_file/folder_path In Windows XP Windows XP doesn’t include built-in command prompt support for symbolic links, but we can use the free Junction tool instead.  Download Junction (link below), and unzip the folder.  Now open Command Prompt (click Start, select All Programs, then Accessories, and select Command Prompt), and enter cd followed by the path of the folder where you saved Junction. Junction only creates hard symbolic links, since you can use shortcuts for soft ones.  To create a hard symlink, we need to enter the following in command prompt: junction –s link_path file/folder_path As with mklink in Windows 7 or Vista, if your file/folder path has spaces in it make sure to put quotes around your paths.  Also, as usual, your symlink can have a different name that the file/folder it points to. Here, we’re going to create a symbolic link to our My Music folder on the desktop.  We entered: junction -s “C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\Music” “C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\My Music” And here’s the contents of our symlink.  Note that the path looks like these files are stored in a Music folder directly on the Desktop, when they are actually stored in My Documents\My Music.  Once again, this works with both folders and individual files. Please Note: Junction would work the same in Windows 7 or Vista, but since they include a built-in symbolic link tool we found it better to use it on those versions of Windows. Symlinks in Ubuntu Unix-based operating systems have supported symbolic links since their inception, so it is straightforward to create symbolic links in Linux distros such as Ubuntu.  There’s no graphical way to create them like the Link Shell Extension for Windows, so we’ll just do it in Terminal. Open terminal (open the Applications menu, select Accessories, and then click Terminal), and enter the following: ln –s file/folder_path link_path Note that this is opposite of the Windows commands; you put the source for the link first, and then the path second. For example, let’s create a symbolic link of our Pictures folder in our Desktop.  To do this, we entered: ln -s /home/maguay/Pictures /home/maguay/Desktop   Once again, here is the contents of our symlink folder.  The pictures look as if they’re stored directly in a Pictures folder on the Desktop, but they are actually stored in maguay\Pictures. Delete Symlinks Removing symbolic links is very simple – just delete the link!  Most of the command line utilities offer a way to delete a symbolic link via command prompt, but you don’t need to go to the trouble.   Conclusion Symbolic links can be very handy, and we use them constantly to help us stay organized and keep our hard drives from overflowing.  Let us know how you use symbolic links on your computers! Download Link Shell Extension for Windows 7, Vista, and XP Download Junction for XP Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Using Symlinks in Windows VistaHow To Figure Out Your PC’s Host Name From the Command PromptInstall IceWM on Ubuntu LinuxAdd Color Coding to Windows 7 Media Center Program GuideSync Your Pidgin Profile Across Multiple PCs with Dropbox TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Gadfly is a cool Twitter/Silverlight app Enable DreamScene in Windows 7 Microsoft’s “How Do I ?” Videos Home Networks – How do they look like & the problems they cause Check Your IMAP Mail Offline In Thunderbird Follow Finder Finds You Twitter Users To Follow

  Read the article

• Turn Photos and Home Videos into Movies with Windows Live Movie Maker

  - by DigitalGeekery

  Are you looking for an easy way to take your digital photos and videos and turn them into a movie or slideshow? Today we’ll take a detailed look at how to do use Windows Live Movie Maker. Installation Windows Live Movie Maker comes bundled as part of the Windows Live Essentials suite (link below). However, you don’t have to install any of the programs you may not want. Take notice of the You’re almost done screen. Before clicking Continue, be sure to uncheck the boxes to set your search provider and homepage. Adding Pictures and Videos Open Windows Live Movie Maker. You can add videos or photos by simply dragging and dropping them onto the storyboard area. You can also click on the storyboard area or on the Add videos and photos button on the Home tab to browse for videos and photos. Windows Live Movie Maker supports most video, image, and audio file types. Select your files and add click Open to add them to Windows Live Movie Maker. By default WLMM doesn’t allow you to add files from network locations…so check out our article on how to add network support to Windows Live MovieMaker if the files you want to add are on a network drive. Layout All of your added clips will appear in the storyboard area on the right, while the currently selected clip will appear in the preview window on the left. You can adjust the size of the two areas by clicking and dragging the dividing line in the middle.    Make the clips on the storyboard bigger or smaller by clicking on the thumbnail size icon. The slider at the lower right adjusts the zoom time scale.   Previewing your Movie At any time, you can playback your movie and preview how it will look in the Preview window by clicking the space bar, or by pushing the play button under the preview window. You can also manually move the preview bar slider across the storyboard to view the clips as the video progresses. Adjusting Clips on the Storyboard You can click and drag clips on the storyboard to change the order in which the photos and videos appear.   Adding Music Nothing brings a movie to life quite like music. Selecting Add music will add your music to the beginning of the movie. Select Add music at the current point to include it in the movie to the current location of your preview bar slider, then browse for your music clip. WLMM supports many common audio files such as WAV, MP3, M4A, WMA, AIFF, and ASF. The music clip will appear above the video / photos clips on the storyboard.   You can change the location of music clips by clicking and dragging them to a different location on the storyboard. Add Titles, Captions, and Credits To add a Title screen to your movie, click the Title button on the Home tab. Type your title directly into the text box on the preview screen. The title will be placed at the location of the preview slider on the storyboard. However, you can change the location by clicking and dragging title to other areas of the storyboard. On the Format tab, there are a handful of text settings. You can change the font, color, size, alignment,  and transparency. The Adjust group allows you to change the background color, edit the text, and set the length of time the Title will appear in the movie.   The Effects group on the Format tab allows you to select an effect for your title screen. By hovering your cursor over each option, you will get a live preview of how each effect will appear in the preview window. Click to apply any of the effects. For captions, select where you want your caption to appear with the preview slider on the storyboard, then click the captions button on the Home tab. Just like the title, you type your caption directly into the text box on the preview screen, and you can make any adjustments by using the Font and Paragraph, Adjust, and Effects groups above. Credits are done the same as titles and captions, except they are automatically placed at the end of the movie.   Transitions Go to the Animation tab on the ribbon to apply transitions. Select a clip from the storyboard and hover over one of the transition to see it in the preview window. Click on the transition to apply it to the clip. You can apply transitions separately to clips or hold down Ctrl button while clicking to select multiple clips to which to apply the same transition. Pan and zoom effects are also located on the Animations tab, but can be applied to photos only. Like transition, you can apply them individually to a clip or hold down Ctrl button while clicking to select multiple clips to which to apply the same pan and zoom effect. Once applied, you can adjust the duration of the transitions and pan and zoom effects. You can also click the dropdown for additional transitions or effects. Visual Effects Similar to Pan and Zoom and Transitions, you can apply a variety of Visual Effects to individual or multiple clips. Editing Video and Music Note: This does not actually edit the original video you imported into your Windows Live Movie Maker project, only how it appears in your WLMM project. There are some very basic editing tools located on the Home tab. The Rotate left and Rotate right button will adjust any clip that may be oriented incorrectly. The Fit to music button will automatically adjust the duration of the photos (if you have any in your project) to fit the length of the music in your movie. Audio mix allows you to change the volume level   You can also do some slightly more advanced editing from the Edit tab. Select the video clip on the storyboard and click the Trim tool to edit or remove portions of a video clip. Next, click and drag the sliders in the preview windows to select the are you wish to keep. For example, the area outside the sliders is the area trimmed from the movie. The area inside is the section that is kept in the movie. You can also adjust the Start and End points manually on the ribbon.   When you are finished, click Save trim. You can also split your video clips. Move the preview slider to the location in the video clip where you’d like to split it, and select Split. Your video will be split into separate sections. Now you can apply different effects or move them to different locations on the storyboard. Editing Music Clips Select the music clip on the storyboard and then the Options tab on the ribbon. You can adjust the music volume by moving the slider right and left.   You can also choose to have your music clip fade in or out at the beginning and end of your movie. From the Fade in and Fade out dropdowns, select None, Slow, Medium, or Fast. To adjust the sound of your audio clips, click on the Edit tab, select the Video volume button, and adjust the slider. Move it all the way to the left to mute any background noise in your video clips.   AutoMovie As you have seen, Windows Live Movie Maker allows you to add effects, transitions, titles, and more. If you don’t want to do any of that stuff yourself, AutoMovie will automatically add title, credits, cross fade transitions between items, pan and zoom effects to photos, and fit your project to the music. Just select the AutoMovie button on the Home tab. You can go from zero to movie in literally a couple minutes.   Uploading to YouTube You can share your video on YouTube directly from Windows Live Movie Maker. Click on the YouTube icon in the Sharing group on the Home tab. You’ll be prompted for your YouTube username and password. Fill in the details about your movie and click Publish. The movie will be converted to WMV before being uploaded to YouTube. As soon as the YouTube conversion is complete, you’re new movie is live and ready to be viewed. Saving your Movie as a Video File Select the icon at the top left, then select Save movie. As you hover your mouse over each of the options, you will see the output display size, aspect ratio, and estimated file size per minute of video. All of these settings will output your movie as a WMV file. (Unfortunately, the only option is to save a movie as a WMV file.) The only difference is how they are encoded based on preset common settings. The Burn to DVD option also outputs a WMV file, but then opens Windows DVD Maker and walks you through the process of creating and burning a DVD.   If you choose the Burn to DVD option, close this window when the WMV file conversion is complete and the Windows DVD Maker will prompt you to begin. When your movie is finished, it’s time to relax and enjoy.   Conclusion Windows Live Movie Maker makes it easy for the average person to quickly churn out nice looking movies and slideshows from there own pictures and videos. However, long time users of previous editions (formerly called Windows Movie Maker) will likely be disappointed by some features missing in Windows Live Movie Maker that existed in earlier editions. Looking for details on burning your new project to DVD, check out our article on how to create and author DVDs with Windows DVD Maker. Download Windows Live Movie Maker Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Family Fun: Share Photos with Photo Gallery and Windows Live SpacesCreate and Author DVDs in Windows 7Rotate a Video 90 degrees with VLC or Windows Live Movie MakerInstall Windows Live Essentials In Windows 7How to Make/Edit a movie with Windows Movie Maker in Windows Vista TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Snagit 10 VMware Workstation 7 Acronis Online Backup Windows Firewall with Advanced Security – How To Guides Sculptris 1.0, 3D Drawing app AceStock, a Tiny Desktop Quote Monitor Gmail Button Addon (Firefox) Hyperwords addon (Firefox) Backup Outlook 2010

  Read the article

< Previous Page | 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123  | Next Page >