geeks with blogs - Page 130

WCF Operations and Multidimensional Arrays

- by JoshReuben

You cant pass MultiD arrays accross the wire using WCF - you need to pass jagged arrays. heres 2 extension methods that will allow you to convert prior to serialzation and convert back after deserialization: public static T[,] ToMultiD<T>(this T[][] jArray) { int i = jArray.Count(); int j = jArray.Select(x => x.Count()).Aggregate(0, (current, c) => (current > c) ? current : c); var mArray = new T[i, j]; for (int ii = 0; ii < i; ii++) { for (int jj = 0; jj < j; jj++) { mArray[ii, jj] = jArray[ii][jj]; } } return mArray; } public static T[][] ToJagged<T>(this T[,] mArray) { var cols = mArray.GetLength(0); var rows = mArray.GetLength(1); var jArray = new T[cols][]; for (int i = 0; i < cols; i++) { jArray[i] = new T[rows]; for (int j = 0; j < rows; j++) { jArray[i][j] = mArray[i, j]; } } return jArray; } enjoy!

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Dallas First Regionals 2012– For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology

- by T

Wow! That is all I have to say after the last 3 days. Three full fun filled days in a world that fed the geek, sparked the competitor, inspired the humanitarian, encouraged the inventor, and continuously warmed my heart. As part of the Dallas First Regionals, I was awed by incredible students who teach as much as they learn, inventive and truly caring mentors that make mentoring look easy, and completely passionate and dedicated volunteers that bring meaning to giving all that you have and making events fun and safe for all. If you have any interest in innovation, robotics, or highly motivated students, I can’t recommend anything any higher than visiting a First Robotics event. This is my third year with First and I was honored enough to serve the Dallas First Regionals as both a Web Site evaluator and as the East Field Volunteer Coordinator. This was also the first year my daughter volunteered with me. My daughter and I both recognize how different the First program is from other team events. The difference with First is that everyone is a first class citizen. It is a difference we can feel through experiencing and observing interactions between executives, respected engineers, students, and event staff. Even with a veracious competition, you still find a lot of cooperation and we never witnessed any belittling between teams or individuals. First Robotics coined the term “Gracious Professionalism”. It's a way of doing things that encourages high-quality work, emphasizes the value of others, and respects individuals and the community.1 I was introduced to this term as the Volunteer Coordinator when I was preparing the volunteer instructional speech. Through the next few days, I discovered it is truly core to everything that First does. One of the ways First accomplishes Gracious Professionalism is by utilizing another term they came up with which is “CoopertitionTM”. At FIRST, CoopertitionTM is displaying unqualified kindness and respect in the face of fierce competition.1 One of the things I never liked about sports was the need to “destroy” the other team. First has really found a way to integrate CoopertitionTM into the rules so teams can be competitive and part of that competition rewards cooperation. Oh and did I mention it has ROBOTS!!! This year it had basket ball playing Kinect connected, remote controlled, robots! There are not words for how exciting these games are. You HAVE to check out this years game, Rebound Rumble, on youtube or you can view live action on Dallas First Video (as of this posting, the recording haven’t posted yet but should be there soon). There are also some images below. Whatever it is, these students get it and exemplify it and these mentors ooze with it. I am glad that First supports these events so we can all learn and be inspired by these exceptional students and mentors. I know that no matter how much I give, it will never compare to what I gain volunteering at First. Even if you don’t have time to volunteer, you owe it to yourself to go check out one of these events. See what the future holds, be inspired, be encouraged, take some knowledge, leave some knowledge and most of all, have FUN. That is what First is all about and thanks to First, I get it. First Dallas Regionals 2012 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL 1. USFirst http://www.usfirst.org/aboutus/gracious-professionalism

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BizTalk: History of one project architecture

- by Leonid Ganeline

"In the beginning God made heaven and earth. Then he started to integrate." At the very start was the requirement: integrate two working systems. Small digging up: It was one system. It was good but IT guys want to change it to the new one, much better, chipper, more flexible, and more progressive in technologies, more suitable for the future, for the faster world and hungry competitors. One thing. One small, little thing. We cannot turn off the old system (call it A, because it was the first), turn on the new one (call it B, because it is second but not the last one). The A has a hundreds users all across a country, they must study B. A still has a lot nice custom features, home-made features that cannot disappear. These features have to be moved to the B and it is a long process, months and months of redevelopment. So, the decision was simple. Let’s move not jump, let’s both systems working side-by-side several months. In this time we could teach the users and move all custom A’s special functionality to B. That automatically means both systems should work side-by-side all these months and use the same data. Data in A and B must be in sync. That’s how the integration projects get birth. Moreover, the specific of the user tasks requires the both systems must be in sync in real-time. Nightly synchronization is not working, absolutely. First draft The first draft seems simple. Both systems keep data in SQL databases. When data changes, the Create, Update, Delete operations performed on the data, and the sync process could be started. The obvious decision is to use triggers on tables. When we are talking about data, we are talking about several entities. For example, Orders and Items [in Orders]. We decided to use the BizTalk Server to synchronize systems. Why it was chosen is another story. Second draft Let’s take an example how it works in more details. 1. User creates a new entity in the A system. This fires an insert trigger on the entity table. Trigger has to pass the message “Entity created”. This message includes all attributes of the new entity, but I focused on the Id of this entity in the A system. Notation for this message is id.A. System A sends id.A to the BizTalk Server. 2. BizTalk transforms id.A to the format of the system B. This is easiest part and I will not focus on this kind of transformations in the following text. The message on the picture is still id.A but it is in slightly different format, that’s why it is changing in color. BizTalk sends id.A to the system B. 3. The system B creates the entity on its side. But it uses different id-s for entities, these id-s are id.B. System B saves id.A+id.B. System B sends the message id.A+id.B back to the BizTalk. 4. BizTalk sends the message id.A+id.B to the system A. 5. System A saves id.A+id.B. Why both id-s should be saved on both systems? It was one of the next requirements. Users of both systems have to know the systems are in sync or not in sync. Users working with the entity on the system A can see the id.B and use it to switch to the system B and work there with the copy of the same entity. The decision was to store the pairs of entity id-s on both sides. If there is only one id, the entities are not in sync yet (for the Create operation). Third draft Next problem was the reliability of the synchronization. The synchronizing process can be interrupted on each step, when message goes through the wires. It can be communication problem, timeout, temporary shutdown one of the systems, the second system cannot be synchronized by some internal reason. There were several potential problems that prevented from enclosing the whole synchronization process in one transaction. Decision was to restart the whole sync process if it was not finished (in case of the error). For this purpose was created an additional service. Let’s call it the Resync service. We still keep the id pairs in both systems, but only for the fast access not for the synchronization process. For the synchronizing these id-s now are kept in one main place, in the Resync service database. The Resync service keeps record as: · Id.A · Id.B · Entity.Type · Operation (Create, Update, Delete) · IsSyncStarted (true/false) · IsSyncFinished (true/false0 The example now looks like: 1. System A creates id.A. id.A is saved on the A. Id.A is sent to the BizTalk. 2. BizTalk sends id.A to the Resync and to the B. id.A is saved on the Resync. 3. System B creates id.B. id.A+id.B are saved on the B. id.A+id.B are sent to the BizTalk. 4. BizTalk sends id.A+id.B to the Resync and to the A. id.A+id.B are saved on the Resync. 5. id.A+id.B are saved on the B. Resync changes the IsSyncStarted and IsSyncFinished flags accordingly. The Resync service implements three main methods: · Save (id.A, Entity.Type, Operation) · Save (id.A, id.B, Entity.Type, Operation) · Resync () Two Save() are used to save id-s to the service storage. See in the above example, in 2 and 4 steps. What about the Resync()? It is the method that finishes the interrupted synchronization processes. If Save() is started by the trigger event, the Resync() is working as an independent process. It periodically scans the Resync storage to find out “unfinished” records. Then it restarts the synchronization processes. It tries to synchronize them several times then gives up. One more thing, both systems A and B must tolerate duplicates of one synchronizing process. Say on the step 3 the system B was not able to send id.A+id.B back. The Resync service must restart the synchronization process that will send the id.A to B second time. In this case system B must just send back again also created id.A+id.B pair without errors. That means “tolerate duplicates”. Fourth draft Next draft was created only because of the aesthetics. As it always happens, aesthetics gave significant performance gain to the whole system. First was the stupid question. Why do we need this additional service with special database? Can we just master the BizTalk to do something like this Resync() does? So the Resync orchestration is doing the same thing as the Resync service. It is started by the Id.A and finished by the id.A+id.B message. The first works as a Start message, the second works as a Finish message. Here is a diagram the whole process without errors. It is pretty straightforward. The Resync orchestration is waiting for the Finish message specific period of time then resubmits the Id.A message. It resubmits the Id.A message specific number of times then gives up and gets suspended. It can be resubmitted then it starts the whole process again: waiting [, resubmitting [, get suspended]], finishing. Tuning up The Resync orchestration resubmits the id.A message with special “Resubmitted” flag. The subscription filter on the Resync orchestration includes predicate as (Resubmit_Flag != “Resubmitted”). That means only the first Sync orchestration starts the Resync orchestration. Other Sync orchestration instantiated by the resubmitting can finish this Resync orchestration but cannot start another instance of the Resync Here is a diagram where system B was inaccessible for some period of time. The Resync orchestration resubmitted the id.A two times. Then system B got the response the id.A+id.B and this finished the Resync service execution. What is interesting about this, there were submitted several identical id.A messages and only one id.A+id.B message. Because of this, the system B and the Resync must tolerate the duplicate messages. We also told about this requirement for the system B. Now the same requirement is for the Resunc. Let’s assume the system B was very slow in the first response and the Resync service had time to resubmit two id.A messages. System B responded not, as it was in previous case, with one id.A+id.B but with two id.A+id.B messages. First of them finished the Resync execution for the id.A. What about the second id.A+id.B? Where it goes? So, we have to add one more internal requirement. The whole solution must tolerate many identical id.A+id.B messages. It is easy task with the BizTalk. I added the “SinkExtraMessages” subscriber (orchestration with one receive shape), that just get these messages and do nothing. Real design Real architecture is much more complex and interesting. In reality each system can submit several id.A almost simultaneously and completely unordered. There are not only the “Create entity” operation but the Update and Delete operations. And these operations relate each other. Say the Update operation after Delete means not the same as Update after Create. In reality there are entities related each other. Say the Order and Order Items. Change on one of it could start the series of the operations on another. Moreover, the system internals are the “black boxes” and we cannot predict the exact content and order of the operation series. It worth to say, I had to spend a time to manage the zombie message problems. The zombies are still here, but this is not a problem now. And this is another story. What is interesting in the last design? One orchestration works to help another to be more reliable. Why two orchestration design is more reliable, isn’t it something strange? The Synch orchestration takes all the message exchange between systems, here is the area where most of the errors could happen. The Resync orchestration sends and receives messages only within the BizTalk server. Is there another design? Sure. All Resync functionality could be implemented inside the Sync orchestration. Hey guys, some other ideas?

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Force Blank TextBox with ASP.Net MVC Html.TextBox

- by Doug Lampe

I recently ran into a problem with the following scenario: I have data with a parent/child data with a one-to-many relationship from the parent to the child. I want to be able to update parent and existing child data AND add a new child record all in a single post. I don't want to create a model just to store the new values. One of the things I LOVE about MVC is how flexible it is in dealing with posted data. If you have data that isn't in your model, you can simply use the non-strongly-typed HTML helper extensions and pass the data into your actions as parameters or use the FormCollection. I thought this would give me the solution I was looking for. I simply used Html.TextBox("NewChildKey") and Html.TextBox("NewChildValue") and added parameters to my action to take the new values. So here is what my action looked like: [HttpPost] public ActionResult EditParent(int? id, string newChildKey, string newChildValue, FormCollection forms) { Model model = ModelDataHelper.GetModel(id ?? 0); if (model != null) { if (TryUpdateModel(model)) { if (ModelState.IsValid) { model = ModelDataHelper.UpdateModel(model); } string[] keys = forms.GetValues("ChildKey"); string[] values = forms.GetValues("ChildValue"); ModelDataHelper.UpdateChildData(id ?? 0, keys, values); ModelDataHelper.AddChildData(id ?? 0, newChildKey, newChildValue); model = ModelDataHelper.GetModel(id ?? 0); } return View(report); } return new EmptyResult(); } The only problem with this is that MVC is TOO smart. Even though I am not using a model to store the new child values, MVC still passes the values back to the text boxes via the model state. The fix for this is simple but not necessarily obvious, simply remove the data from the model state before returning the view: ModelState.Remove("NewChildKey"); ModelState.Remove("NewChildValue"); Two lines of code to save a lot of headaches.

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GuestPost: Announcing gmStudio V9.85 for VB6/ASP/COM re-engineering

- by Eric Nelson

Mark Juras of GreatMigrations.com kindly sent me an article on gmStudio which I have posted on my old VB focused goto100 site. gmStudio is a programmable VB6/ASP/COM re-engineering tool that enables an agile tool-assisted rewrite methodology and helps teams dramatically lower the total cost, risk, and disruption of ambitious migration projects without sacrificing quality, control, or time to market. You can find the rest of the article over on goto100. Figure 1: the gmStudio Main Form

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The one that got away

- by Kit Ong

A hell of an impact by one volcano http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyjafjallaj%C3%B6kull Looks like someone is desparate to get home...

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First Foray–About timeout

- by SQLMonger

It has been quite a while since I signed up for this blog site and high time that something was posted. I have a list of topics that I will be working through and posting. Some I am sure will have been posted by others, but I will be sticking to the technical problems and challenges that I’ve recently faced, and the solutions that worked for me. My motto when learning something new has always been “My kingdom for an example!”, and I plan on delivering useful examples here so others can learn from my efforts, failures and successes. A bit of background about me… My name is Clayton Groom. I am a founding partner of a consulting firm in St. Louis Missouri, Covenant Technology Partners, LLC and focus on SQL Server Data Warehouse design, Analysis Services and Enterprise Reporting solutions. I have been working with SQL Server since the early nineties, when it still only ran on OS/2. I love solving puzzles and technical challenges. Enough about me… On to a real problem… SSIS Connection Time outs versus Command Time outs Last week, I was working on automating the processing for a large Analysis Services cube. I had reworked an SSIS package and script task originally posted by Vidas Matelis that automates the process of adding new and dropping old partitions to/from an Analysis Services cube. I had the package working great, tested, and ready for deployment. It basically performs a query against the source system to determine if there is new data in the warehouse that will require a new partition to be added to the cube, and it checks the cube to see if there are any partitions that are present that are no longer needed in a rolling 60 month window. My client uses Tivoli for running all their production jobs, and not SQL Agent, so I had to build a command line file for Tivoli to use to run the package. Everything was going great. I had tested the command file from my development workstation using an XML configuration file to pass in server-specific parameters into the package when executed using the DTExec utility. With all the pieces ready, I updated the dtsconfig file to point to the UAT environment and started working with the Tivoli developer to test the job. On the first run, the job failed, and from what I could see in the SSIS log, it had failed because of a timeout. Other errors in the log made me think that perhaps the connection string had not been passed into the package correctly. We bumped the Connection Manager timeout values from 20 seconds to 120 seconds and tried again. The job still failed. After changing the command line to use the /SET option instead of the /CONFIGFILE option, we tested again, and again failure. After a number more failed attempts, and getting the Teradata DBA involved to monitor and see if we were connecting and failing or just failing to connect, we determined that the job was indeed connecting to the server and then disconnecting itself after 30 seconds. This seemed odd, as we had the timeout values for the connection manager set to 180 seconds by then. At this point one of the DBA’s found a post on the Teradata forum that had the clues to the puzzle: There is a separate “CommandTimeout” custom property on the Data source object that may needed to be adjusted for longer running queries. I opened up the SSIS package, opened the data flow task that generated the partition list table and right-clicked on the data source. from the context menu, I selected “Show Advanced Editor” and found the property. Sure enough, it was set to 30 seconds. The CommandTimeout property can also be edited in the SSIS Properties sheet. In order to determine how long the timeout needed to be, I ran the query from the task in the development environment and received a response in a matter of seconds. I then tried the same query against the production database and waited several minutes for a response. This did not seem to be a reasonable response time for the query involved, and indeed it wasn’t. The Teradata DBA’s adjusted the query governor settings for the service account I was testing with, and we were able to get the response back down under a minute. Still, I set the CommandTimeout property to a much higher value in case the job was ever started during a time of high-demand on the production server. With this change in place, the job finally completed successfully. The lesson learned for me was two-fold: Always compare query execution times between development and production environments, and don’t assume that production will always be faster. With higher user demands, query governors, and a whole lot more data, the execution time of even what might seem to be simple queries can vary greatly. SSIS Connection time out settings do not affect command time outs. Connection timeouts control how long the package will wait for a response from the server before assuming the server is not available or is not responding. Command time outs control how long a task will wait for results to start being returned before deciding that the server is not responding. Both lessons seem pretty straight forward, and I felt pretty sheepish once I finally figured out what the issue was. To be fair though, In the 5+ years that I have been working with SSIS, I could only recall one other time where I had to set the CommandTimeout property, and that memory only resurfaced while I was penning this post.

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Quick Script for Adding Skype Groups

- by Robert May

So, I needed to add about 30 people to several different Skype groups today, and I didn’t want to repeat the /add [skypename] thing over and over and over. Building the list was a pain . . . I couldn’t find a good way to extract all of the users in an existing group. There’s probably an api or something, but I just did that part by hand. Adding them to the groups was pretty easy with Windows Scripting Host. Basically, I just ran this: <package> <job id="vbs"> <script language="VBScript"> set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell") WshShell.AppActivate 4484 WScript.Sleep 100 WshShell.SendKeys "/add user1~" WScript.Sleep 100 … WshShell.SendKeys "/add usern~" WScript.Sleep 100 </script> </job> </package> Add as many users as you need by copying the sendkeys and sleep lines. Then, save the script to a .wsf file. The AppActivate line needs to be changed to have the process id of skype instead of the number there. To get that, open up Task Manager, click on Processes, then find skype.exe and find it’s PID. Before you double click on the file in windows explorer, you’ll need to have created the groups in skype. For each group, open the group, and click in the chat window of the group. Then double click on the WSF file. If you don’t click in the chat window, you will likely get the add user dialog box instead of just adding the users. Technorati Tags: Skype,Script

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Rawr Code Clone Analysis–Part 0

- by Dylan Smith

Code Clone Analysis is a cool new feature in Visual Studio 11 (vNext). It analyzes all the code in your solution and attempts to identify blocks of code that are similar, and thus candidates for refactoring to eliminate the duplication. The power lies in the fact that the blocks of code don't need to be identical for Code Clone to identify them, it will report Exact, Strong, Medium and Weak matches indicating how similar the blocks of code in question are. People that know me know that I'm anal enthusiastic about both writing clean code, and taking old crappy code and making it suck less. So the possibilities for this feature have me pretty excited if it works well - and thats a big if that I'm hoping to explore over the next few blog posts. I'm going to grab the Rawr source code from CodePlex (a World Of Warcraft gear calculator engine program), run Code Clone Analysis against it, then go through the results one-by-one and refactor where appropriate blogging along the way. My goals with this blog series are twofold: Evaluate and demonstrate Code Clone Analysis Provide some concrete examples of refactoring code to eliminate duplication and improve the code-base Here are the initial results: Code Clone Analysis has found: 129 Exact Matches 201 Strong Matches 300 Medium Matches 193 Weak Matches Also indicated is that there was a total of 45,181 potentially duplicated lines of code that could be eliminated through refactoring. Considering the entire solution only has 109,763 lines of code, if true, the duplicates lines of code number is pretty significant. In the next post we’ll start examining some of the individual results and determine if they really do indicate a potential refactoring.

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Issues with ILMerge, Lambda Expressions and VS2010 merging?

- by John Blumenauer

A little Background For quite some time now, it’s been possible to merge multiple .NET assemblies into a single assembly using ILMerge in Visual Studio 2008. This is especially helpful when writing wrapper assemblies for 3rd-party libraries where it’s desirable to minimize the number of assemblies for distribution. During the merge process, ILMerge will take a set of assemblies and merge them into a single assembly. The resulting assembly can be either an executable or a DLL and is identified as the primary assembly. Issue During a recent project, I discovered using ILMerge to merge assemblies containing lambda expressions in Visual Studio 2010 is resulting in invalid primary assemblies. The code below is not where the initial issue was identified, I will merely use it to illustrate the problem at hand. In order to describe the issue, I created a console application and a class library for calculating a few math functions utilizing lambda expressions. The code is available for download at the bottom of this blog entry. MathLib.cs using System; namespace MathLib { public static class MathHelpers { public static Func<double, double, double> Hypotenuse = (x, y) => Math.Sqrt(x * x + y * y); static readonly Func<int, int, bool> divisibleBy = (int a, int b) => a % b == 0; public static bool IsPrimeNumber(int x) { { for (int i = 2; i <= x / 2; i++) if (divisibleBy(x, i)) return false; return true; }; } } } Program.cs using System; using MathLib; namespace ILMergeLambdasConsole { class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { int n = 19; if (MathHelpers.IsPrimeNumber(n)) { Console.WriteLine(n + " is prime"); } else { Console.WriteLine(n + " is not prime"); } Console.ReadLine(); } } } Not surprisingly, the preceding code compiles, builds and executes without error prior to running the ILMerge tool. ILMerge Setup In order to utilize ILMerge, the following changes were made to the project. The MathLib.dll assembly was built in release configuration and copied to the MathLib folder. The following folder hierarchy was used for this example: The project file for ILMergeLambdasConsole project file was edited to add the ILMerge post-build configuration. The following lines were added near the bottom of the project file: <Target Name="AfterBuild" Condition="'$(Configuration)' == 'Release'"> <Exec Command=""..\..\lib\ILMerge\Ilmerge.exe" /ndebug /out:@(MainAssembly) "@(IntermediateAssembly)" @(ReferenceCopyLocalPaths->'"%(FullPath)"', ' ')" /> <Delete Files="@(ReferenceCopyLocalPaths->'$(OutDir)%(DestinationSubDirectory)%(Filename)%(Extension)')" /> </Target> The ILMergeLambdasConsole project was modified to reference the MathLib.dll located in the MathLib folder above. ILMerge and ILMerge.exe.config was copied into the ILMerge folder shown above. The contents of ILMerge.exe.config are: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <configuration> <startup useLegacyV2RuntimeActivationPolicy="true"> <requiredRuntime safemode="true" imageVersion="v4.0.30319" version="v4.0.30319"/> </startup> </configuration> Post-ILMerge After compiling and building, the MathLib.dll assembly will be merged into the ILMergeLambdasConsole executable. Unfortunately, executing ILMergeLambdasConsole.exe now results in a crash. The ILMerge documentation recommends using PEVerify.exe to validate assemblies after merging. Executing PEVerify.exe against the ILMergeLambdasConsole.exe assembly results in the following error: Further investigation by using Reflector reveals the divisibleBy method in the MathHelpers class looks a bit questionable after the merge. Prior to using ILMerge, the same divisibleBy method appeared as the following in Reflector: It’s pretty obvious something has gone awry during the merge process. However, this is only occurring when building within the Visual Studio 2010 environment. The same code and configuration built within Visual Studio 2008 executes fine. I’m still investigating the issue. If anyone has already experienced this situation and solved it, I would love to hear from you. However, as of right now, it looks like something has gone terribly wrong when executing ILMerge against assemblies containing Lambdas in Visual Studio 2010. Solution Files ILMergeLambdaExpression

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Less is more: The making of a 37 signals style pizza

- by Liam McLennan

For years now we have been hearing from 37 signals that the way to bake a great web app is to build less – well the same is true of pizza. Our western hedonism has led us to pursue ever cheesier and more stuffed crusts at the expense of the simple flavours. All we are left with is a fatty, salty heart attack in waiting. The Italians know that the secret to great taste is simplicity. With that in mind I decided to base my pizza masterpiece on these simple flavours: tomato sopressa (spicy aged salami) mozzarella garlic basil Of course the first thing one needs when making pizza is a base. A freshly made base is extremely important but unfortunately I was too lazy. Next up is the tomato sauce. My wife made the sauce by reducing some tomatoes and adding herbs and sugar. We had selected some fine ingredients to make our topping: sopressa salami, fresh basil and the best mozzarella we could find. It is, according to google, important to bake pizza at a high temperature, so I set the oven to 250C (480F). Here are the before and after shots: Meanwhile, the dog did nothing.

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New BIDSHelper Release - 1.4.3.0

- by Darren Gosbell

Today we released an update for BIDSHelper which you can download from here This release addresses the following issues: For some people the BIDS Helper extensions to the Project Properties page for the SSIS Deploy plugin was not available. Copy and Paste in errors in SSIS packages Updates to Parent-Child Dim Naturalizer The following features are new in this release: Analysis Services Many-to-Many Matrix Compression Roles Report General Preferences If you are interested to find out what else BIDSHelper can do, full documentation of all the features is available on the project website here: http://bidshelper.codeplex.com

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A Generic Boolean Value Converter

- by codingbloke

On fairly regular intervals a question on Stackoverflow like this one: Silverlight Bind to inverse of boolean property value appears. The same answers also regularly appear. They all involve an implementation of IValueConverter and basically include the same boilerplate code. The required output type sometimes varies, other examples that have passed by are Boolean to Brush and Boolean to String conversions. Yet the code remains pretty much the same. There is therefore a good case to create a generic Boolean to value converter to contain this common code and then just specialise it for use in Xaml. Here is the basic converter:- BoolToValueConverter using System; using System.Windows.Data; namespace SilverlightApplication1 { public class BoolToValueConverter<T> : IValueConverter { public T FalseValue { get; set; } public T TrueValue { get; set; } public object Convert(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture) { if (value == null) return FalseValue; else return (bool)value ? TrueValue : FalseValue; } public object ConvertBack(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture) { return value.Equals(TrueValue); } } } With this generic converter in place it easy to create a set of converters for various types. For example here are all the converters mentioned so far:- Value Converters using System; using System.Windows; using System.Windows.Media; namespace SilverlightApplication1 { public class BoolToStringConverter : BoolToValueConverter<String> { } public class BoolToBrushConverter : BoolToValueConverter<Brush> { } public class BoolToVisibilityConverter : BoolToValueConverter<Visibility> { } public class BoolToObjectConverter : BoolToValueConverter<Object> { } } With the specialised converters created they can be specified in a Resources property on a user control like this:- <local:BoolToBrushConverter x:Key="Highlighter" FalseValue="Transparent" TrueValue="Yellow" /> <local:BoolToStringConverter x:Key="CYesNo" FalseValue="No" TrueValue="Yes" /> <local:BoolToVisibilityConverter x:Key="InverseVisibility" TrueValue="Collapsed" FalseValue="Visible" />

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#altnetseattle – MEF, What is it?

- by GeekAgilistMercenary

I dived into the MEF session with Glenn Block, Sourabh Mathur, Brian Henderson, and others. Glenn covered the basic architectural ideas of MEF and then dived into a few examples. Is a framework around decoupling components. Built around the idea of discoverable type systems. Traditional extensibility mechanisms have a host and the respective extensions, commonly linking these two aspects with a form of registration. MEF removes the need for the registration part of the architecture and uses a contract. At some point with MEF you get down to parts, which removes even the complexity of a host or extensions, but a truly evolvable architecture based on natural growth of parts. Also referred to as the framework that removes the "new" keyword. The idea is that parts pull together other parts that they need. Between each part is a contract. Each part has imports or exports for the parts it needs or the things it offers. If one checks out the MEF Codeplex Site you will find a host of additional information. The framework download also has some decent examples that help one get kick started.

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Ok it has been pointed out to me

- by Ratman21

That it seems my blog is more of poor me or pity me or I deserve a job blog. Hmmm I wont say, I have not wined here as I have used this blog to vent my frustration on the whole out of work thing (lack of money, self worth, family issues and the never end bills coming my way) but, it was also me trying to reach to others in the same boat as well as advertising, hay I am out here, employers. It was also said, that I don’t have any thing listed here on me, like a cover letter or resume. Well there is but, it was so many months and post ago. Also what I had posted is not current. So here is my most current cover and resume. Scott L Newman 45219 Dutton Way Callahan, Fl. 32011 To Whom It May Concern: I am really interested in the IT vacancie that you have listed for your company. Maybe I don’t have all the qualifications you want (hold on don’t hit delete yet) yet! But maybe I do, as I have over 20 + years experience in "IT” RIGHT NOW. Read the rest of my cover and my resume. You will see what my “IT” skills are and it will Show that I can to this work! I can bring to your company along with my, can do attitude, a broad range of skills, including: Certified CompTIA A+, Security+ and Network+ Technician § 2.5 years (NOC) Network experience on large Cisco based Wan – UK to Austria § 20 years experience MIS/DP – Yes I can do IBM mainframes and Tandem non-stops too § 18 years experience as technical Help Desk support – panicking users, no problem § 18 years experience with PC/Server based system, intranet and internet systems § 10+ years experienced on: Microsoft Office, Windows XP and Data Network Fundamentals (YES I do windows) § Strong trouble shooting skills for software, hard ware and circuit issues (and I can tell you what kind of horrors I had to face on all of them). § Very experienced on working with customers on problems – again panicking users, no problem § Working experience with Remote Access (VPN/SecurID) – I didn’t just study them I worked on/with them § Skilled in getting info for and creating documentation for Operation procedures (I don’t just wait for them to give it to me I go out and get it. Waiting for info on working applications is, well dumb) Multiple software languages (Hey I have done some programming) And much more experiences in “IT” (Mortgage, stocks and financial information systems experience and have worked “IT” in a hospital) Can multitask, also have ability to adapt to change and learn quickly. (once was put in charge of a system that I had not worked with for over two years. Talk about having to relearn and adapt to changes but, I did it.) I would welcome the opportunity to further discuss this position with you. If you have questions or would like to schedule an interview, please contact me by phone at 904-879-4880 or on my cell 352-356-0945 or by e-mail at [email protected] or leave a message on my web site (http://beingscottnewman.webs.com/). I have enclosed/attached my resume for your review and I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you for taking a moment to consider my cover letter and resume. I appreciate how busy you are. Sincerely, Scott L. Newman Scott L. Newman 45219 Dutton Way, Callahan, FL 32011? H (904)879-4880 C (352)356-0945 ? [email protected] Web - http://beingscottnewman.webs.com/ ______ OBJECTIVE To obtain a Network Operation or Helpdesk position. PROFILE Information Technology Professional with 20+ years of experience. Volunteer website creator and back-up sound technician at True Faith Christian Fellowship. CompTIA A+, Network+ and Security+ Certified. TECHNICAL AND PROFESSIONAL SKILLS § Technical Support § Frame Relay § Microsoft Office Suite § Inventory Management § ISDN § Windows NT/98/XP § Client/Vendor Relations § CICS § Cisco Routers/Switches § Networking/Administration § RPG § Helpdesk § Website Design/Dev./Management § Assembler § Visio § Programming § COBOL IV § EDUCATION ? New HorizonsComputerLearningCenter, Jacksonville, Florida – CompTIA A+, Security+ and Network+ Certified. Currently working on CCNA Certification ?MottCommunity College, Flint, Michigan – Associates Degree - Data Processing and General Education ? Currently studying Japanese PROFESSIONAL TrueFaithChristianFellowshipChurch – Callahan, FL, October 2009 – Present Web site Tech · Web site Creator/tech, back up song leader and back up sound technician. Note church web site is (http://ambassadorsforjesuschrist.webs.com/) U.S. Census (temp employee) Feb. 23 to March 8, 2010 · Enumerator for NassauCounty ThomasCreekBaptistChurch – Callahan, FL, June 2008 – September 2009 Churchsound and video technician · sound and video technician Fidelity National Information Services ? Jacksonville, FL ? February 01, 2005 to October 28, 2008 Client Server Dev/Analyst I · Monitored Multiple Debit Card sites, Check Authorization customers and the Card Auth system (AuthNet) for problems with the sites, connections, servers (on our LAN) and/or applications · Night (NOC) Network operator for a large Wide Area Network (WAN) · Monitored Multiple Check Authorization customers for problems with circuits, routers and applications · Resolved circuit and/or router issues or assist circuit carrier in resolving issue · Resolved application problems or assist application support in resolution · Liaison between customer and application support · Maintained and updated the NetOps Operation procedures Guide · Kept the listing of equipment on the raised floor updated · Involved in the training of all Night Check and Card server operation operators · FNIS acquired Certegy in 2005. Was one of 3 kept on. Certegy ? St.Pete, FL ? August 31, 2003 to February 1, 2005 Senior NetOps Operator(FNIS acquired Certegy in 2005 all of above jobs/skills were same as listed in FNIS) · Converting Documentation to Adobe format · Sole trainer of day/night shift System Management Center operators (SMC) · Equifax spun off Card/Check Dept. as Certegy. Certegy terminated contract with EDS. One of six in the whole IT dept that was kept on. EDS (Certegy Account) ? St.Pete, FL ? July 1, 1999 to August 31, 2003 Senior NetOps Operator · Equifax outsourced the NetOps dept. to EDS in 1999. · Same job skills as listed above for FNIS. Equifax ? St.Pete&Tampa, FL ? January 1, 1991 to July 1, 1999 NetOps/Tandem Operator · All of the above for FNIS, except for circuit and router issues · Operated, monitored and trouble shot Tandem mainframe and servers on LAN · Supported in the operation of the Print, Tape and Microfiche rooms · Equifax acquired TelaCredit in 1991. TelaCredit ? Tampa, FL ? June 28, 1989 to January 1, 1991 Tandem Operator · Operated and monitored Tandem Non-stop systems for Card and Check Auths · Operated multiple high-speed Laser printers and Microfiche printers · Mounted, filed and maintained 18 reel-to-reel mainframe tape drives, cartridges tape drives and tape library.

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Speaking at SPTechCon Boston 2012

- by Brian Jackett

I will be speaking at SPTechCon Boston 2012. This will be my 3rd time speaking at SPTechCon and 4th time attending. The conference has steadily been growing over the past few years and is one of the biggest non-Microsoft run conferences for SharePoint in the US. I’ll be presenting two topics which I have given before but this time around with some updated content. Registration is currently open and you can save $200 (on top of the current early bird discount of $400) by using the code "JACKETT” during registration. I highly recommend joining for valuable learning and networking. Where: SPTechCon Boston 2012 Title: PowerShell for the SharePoint 2010 Developer Audience and Level: Developer, Intermediate Abstract: PowerShell is not just for SharePoint 2010 administrators. Developers also get access to a wide range of functionality with PowerShell. In this session we will dive into using PowerShell with the .Net framework, web services, and native SharePoint commandlets. We will also cover some of the more intermediate to advanced techniques available within PowerShell that will improve your work efficiency. Not only will you learn how to automate your work but also learn ways to prototype solutions faster. This session is targeted to developers and assumes a basic familiarity with PowerShell. Slides and Code download: coming soon Title: Integrating Line-of-Business Applications with SharePoint 2010 Audience and Level: Developer, Intermediate Abstract: One of the biggest value-adding enhancements in SharePoint 2010 is the Business Connectivity Services (BCS). In this session, we will overview the BCS, demonstrate connecting line-of-business applications and external systems to SharePoint through external content types, and walk through surfacing that data with external lists. This session is targeted at developers. No prior experience with the BCS is required, but a basic understanding of SharePoint Designer 2010 and SharePoint solutions is suggested. Slides and Code download: coming soon -Frog Out

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Adventures in Lab Management Configuration: Part 2 of 3

- by Enrique Lima

The first post was the high level overview. Now it is time for the details on what was done to the existing CMMI Project based on CMMI v 4.2. The first step was to go into Visual Studio, then from the Team Project Collection Settings and then to the Process Template Manager. Once there, it was a matter of selecting the appropriate template (MSF for CMMI Process Improvement v5.0) and download to a point I could reference later (for example C:\Templates). Then on to using the steps from the guidance post. Since I was using an x64 deployment, I will make reference to the path as <toolpath>, however the actual path to reference in a 64-bit environment is “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE”. As I mentioned on the previous post, make sure to first perform a backup of the Configuration, Collection and Warehouse DBs. If you did not apply any changes to the names and such, then you will find those as tfs_Configuration, tfs_DefaultCollection and tfs_Warehouse. Now, the work needed with the witadmin tool: That includes the uploading of the structures that differ from v4.2 to v5.0 There is likely going to be an issue with the naming of some fields. For example, TFS 2010 likes something along the lines of “Area ID”, whereas TFS 2008 would have had it as “AreaID”. So, this will need to be corrected. Some posts will have you go through this after the errors pop up. I would recommend doing this process prior to executing the importwitd process. witadmin listfields /collection:<path to collection> > c:\ListFields.txt Review the following fields: AreaID, review the Name property and validate if it states “AreaID”, the you will need to rename the Name field to reflect “Area ID”. ExternalLinkCount, RelatedLinkCount, HyperLinkCount, AttachedFileCount and IterationID would be the other fields to check. To correct the issue, then execute the following: witadmin changefield /collection:<path to collection> /n:"System.ExternalLinkCount" /name:"External Link Count" Repeat for Area ID, Related Link Count, Hyperlink Count, Attached File Count and Iteration ID. Once this is done, proceed with the commands below. witadmin importwitd /collection:<path to collection> /p:<project> /f:"<path to downloaded template>\MSF for CMMI Process Improvement v5.0\WorkItem Tracking\TypeDefinitions\TestCase.xml" witadmin importwitd /collection:<path to collection> /p:<project> /f:"<path to downloaded template>\MSF for CMMI Process Improvement v5.0\WorkItem Tracking\TypeDefinitions\SharedStep.xml" witadmin importcategories /collection:<path to collection> /p:<project> /f:"<path to downloaded template>\MSF for CMMI Process Improvement v5.0\WorkItem Tracking\categories.xml" Modifications to the Bug Definition: First step is to export the existing definition. witadmin exportwitd /collection<path to collection> /p:<project> /n:bug /f:"<path to downloaded template>\MSF for CMMI Process Improvement v5.0\MyBug.xml" Make modifications to recently exported MyBug.xml file. Details for the modification are here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff452591.aspx#ModifyTask Once the changes are done, proceed with the import command witadmin importwitd /collection:<path to collection> /p: <project> /f:"<path to downloaded template>\MSF for CMMI Process Improvement v5.0\MyBug.xml" Repeat the process for the the Scenario or Requirement Type Definition witadmin exportwitd /collection<path to collection> /p:<project> /n:requirement /f:"<path to downloaded template>\MSF for CMMI Process Improvement v5.0\MyRequirement.xml" Make modifications to recently exported MyRequirement.xml file. Details for the modification are here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff452591.aspx#ModifyTask Once the changes are done, proceed with the import command witadmin importwitd /collection:<path to collection> /p: <project> /f:"<path to downloaded template>\MSF for CMMI Process Improvement v5.0\MyRequirement.xml" Provide the Bug Field Mapping definition, after creating the file as specified here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff452591.aspx#TCMBugFieldMapping tcm bugfieldmapping /import /mappingfile:"<path to downloaded template>\MSF for CMMI Process Improvement v5.0\bugfieldmappings.xml" /collection:<path to collection> /teamproject:<project name>

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Something in the world of Firewall Hosted SSL VPN's

- by AreYouSerious

I run a Physical firewall at my residence. Call me paranoid, but I appreciate the added security. I have been working to get the VPN to work properly, but had until today not managed this. I worked with ensuring that the VPN configurations were correct, that the port filters were correct, I could connect to the Firewall GUI, but never to the VPN. Turns out that in W7, if you add a key, it suddenly works.Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNELAdd DWORD(32-bit) - SendExtraRecord --> value 2 and voila, suddenly your presented with the login screen. I won't mention the specific vendor, as they don't have this listed in their fixes... but there are several venders where this is an issue. So, if you are having an issue connecting to an SSL VPN (web vpn) this might just be the solution that you need.

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APress Deal of the Day 18/May/2014 - Pro ASP.NET Web API

- by TATWORTH

Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/TATWORTH/archive/2014/05/18/apress-deal-of-the-day-18may2014---pro-asp.net-web.aspxToday’s $10 Deal of the Day from APress at http://www.apress.com/9781430247258 is Pro ASP.NET Web API. “With the new ASP.NET Web API framework, HTTP has become a first-class citizen of .NET. Pro ASP.NET Web API shows you how to put this new technology into practice to build flexible, extensible web services that run seamlessly on a range of operating systems and devices.”

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BizTalk 2009 - The Community ODBC Adapter: Receive Location

- by Stuart Brierley

I have previously talked about the installation of the Community ODBC adapter and also using the ODBC adapter to generate schemas. But what about creating a receive location? An ODBC receive location will periodically poll the configured database using the stored procedure or SQL string defined in your request schema. If you need to, begin by adding a new receive port to your BizTalk configuration. Create a new receive location and select to use the ODBC adapter and click Address. You will now be shown the ODBC Community Adapter Transport properties window. Select connection string and you will be shown the Choose data Source window. If you have already created the Test Database source when generating a schema from ODBC this will be shown (if not go and take a look in my previous post to see how this is done). You will then need to choose the SQL command that will be run by the recieve port. In this case I have deployed the Test Mapping schemas that I created previously and selected the Request schema. You should now have populated the appropriate properties for the ODBC Com Adapter. Finally set the standard receive location properties and your ODBC receive location is now ready.

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What’s new in MVVM Light V3

- by Laurent Bugnion

V3 of the MVVM Light Toolkit was released during MIX10, after quite a long alpha stage. This post lists the new features in MVVM Light V3. Compatibility MVVM Light Toolkit V3 can be installed for the following tools and framework versions: Visual Studio 2008 SP1, Expression Blend 3 Windows Presentation Foundation 3.5 SP1 Silverlight 3 Visual Studio 2010 RC, Expression Blend 4 beta Windows Presentation Foundation 3.5 SP1 Windows Presentation Foundation 4 RC Silverlight 3 Silverlight 4 RC For more information about installing the MVVM Light Toolkit V3, please visit this page. For cleaning up existing installation, see this page. New in V3 RTM The following features have been added after V3 alpha3: Project template for the Windows Phone 7 series (Silverlight) This new template allows you to create a new MVVM Light application in Visual Studio 2010 RC and to run it in the Windows Phone 7 series emulator. This template uses the Silverlight 3 version of the MVVM Light Toolkit V3. At this time, only the essentials features of the GalaSoft.MvvmLight.dll assembly are supported on the phone. New in V3 alpha3 The following features have been added after V3 alpha2: New logo An awesome logo has been designed for MVVM Light by Philippe Schutz. DispatcherHelper class (in GalaSoft.MvvmLight.Extras.dll) This class is useful when you work on multi-threaded WPF or Silverlight applications. Initializing: The DispatcherHelper class must be initialized in the UI thread. For example, you can initialize the class in a Silverlight application’s Application_Startup event handler, or in the WPF application’s static App constructor (in App.xaml). // Initializing in Silverlight (in App.xaml) private void Application_Startup( object sender, StartupEventArgs e) { RootVisual = new MainPage(); DispatcherHelper.Initialize(); } // Initializing in WPF (in App.xaml) static App() { DispatcherHelper.Initialize(); } Verifying if a property exists The ViewModelBase.RaisePropertyChanged method now checks if a given property name exists on the ViewModel class, and throws an exception if that property cannot be found. This is useful to detect typos in a property name, for example during a refactoring. Note that the check is only done in DEBUG mode. Replacing IDisposable with ICleanup The IDisposable implementation in the ViewModelBase class has been marked obsolete. Instead, the ICleanup interface (and its Cleanup method) has been added. Implementing IDisposable in a ViewModel is still possible, but must be done explicitly. IDisposable in ViewModelBase was a bad practice, because it supposes that the ViewModel is garbage collected after Dispose is called. instead, the Cleanup method does not have such expectation. The ViewModelLocator class (created when an MVVM Light project template is used in Visual Studio or Expression Blend) exposes a static Cleanup method, which should in turn call each ViewModel’s Cleanup method. The ViewModel is free to override the Cleanup method if local cleanup must be performed. Passing EventArgs to command with EventToCommand The EventToCommand class is used to bind any event to an ICommand (typically on the ViewModel). In this case, it can be useful to pass the event’s EventArgs parameter to the command in the ViewModel. For example, for the MouseEnter event, you can pass the MouseEventArgs to a RelayCommand<MouseEventArgs> as shown in the next listings. Note: Bringing UI specific classes (such as EventArgs) into the ViewModel reduces the testability of the ViewModel, and thus should be used with care. Setting EventToCommand and PassEventArgsToCommand: <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot"> <i:Interaction.Triggers> <i:EventTrigger EventName="MouseEnter"> <cmd:EventToCommand Command="{Binding MyCommand}" PassEventArgsToCommand="True" /> </i:EventTrigger> </i:Interaction.Triggers> </Grid> Getting the EventArgs in the command public RelayCommand<MouseEventArgs> MyCommand { get; private set; } public MainViewModel() { MyCommand = new RelayCommand<MouseEventArgs>(e => { // e is of type MouseEventArgs }); } Changes to templates Various changes have been made to project templates and item templates to make them more compatible with Silverlight 4 and to improve their visibility in Visual Studio and Expression Blend. Bug corrections When a message is sent through the Messenger class using the method Messenger.Default.Send<T>(T message, object token), and the token is a simple value (for example int), the message was not sent correctly. This bug is now corrected. New in V3 The following features have been added after V2. Sending messages with callback Certain classes have been added to the GalaSoft.MvvmLight.Messaging namespace, allowing sending a message and getting a callback from the recipient. These classes are: NotificationMessageWithCallback: Base class for messages with callback. NotificationMessageAction: A class with string notification, and a parameterless callback. NotificationMessageAction<T>: A class with string notification, and a callback with a parameter of type T. To send a message with callback, use the following code: var message = new NotificationMessageAction<bool>( "Hello world", callbackMessage => { // This is the callback code if (callbackMessage) { // ... } }); Messenger.Default.Send(message); To register and receive a message with callback, use the following code: Messenger.Default.Register<NotificationMessageAction<bool>>( this, message => { // Do something // Execute the callback message.Execute(true); }); Messenger.Default can be overriden The Messenger.Default property can also be replaced, for example for unit testing purposes, by using the Messenger.OverrideDefault method. All the public methods of the Messenger class have been made virtual, and can be overridden in the test messenger class. Sending messages to interfaces In V2, it was possible to deliver messages targeted to instances of a given class. in V3 it is still possible, but in addition you can deliver a message to instances that implement a certain interface. The message will not be delivered to other recipients. Use the overload Messenger.Default.Send<TMessage, TTarget>(TMessage message) where TTarget is, in fact, an interface (for example IDisposable). Of course the recipient must register to receive the type of message TMessage. Sending messages with a token Messages can now be sent through the Messenger with a token. To send a message with token, use the method overload Send<TMessage>(TMessage message, object token). To receive a message with token, use the methods Register<TMessage>(object recipient, object token, Action<TMessage> action) or Register<TMessage>(object recipient, object token, bool receiveDerivedMessagesToo, Action<TMessage> action) The token can be a simple value (int, string, etc…) or an instance of a class. The message is not delivered to recipients who registered with a different token, or with no token at all. Renaming CommandMessage to NotificationMessage To avoid confusion with ICommand and RelayCommand, the CommandMessage class has been renamed to NotificationMessage. This message class can be used to deliver a notification (of type string) to a recipient. ViewModelBase constructor with IMessenger The ViewModelBase class now accepts an IMessenger parameter. If this constructor is used instead of the default empty constructor, the IMessenger passed as parameter will be used to broadcast a PropertyChangedMessage when the method RaisePropertyChanged<T>(string propertyName, T oldValue, T newValue, bool broadcast) is used. In the default ViewModelBase constructor is used, the Messenger.Default instance will be used instead. EventToCommand behavior The EventToCommand behavior has been added in V3. It can be used to bind any event of any FrameworkElement to any ICommand (for example a RelayCommand located in the ViewModel). More information about the EventToCommand behavior can be found here and here. Updated the project templates to remove the sample application The project template has been updated to remove the sample application that was created every time that a new MVVM Light application was created in Visual Studio or Blend. This makes the creation of a new application easier, because you don’t need to remove code before you can start writing code. Bug corrections Some bugs that were in Version 2 have been corrected: In some occasions, an exception could be thrown when a recipient was registered for a message at the same time as a message was received. New names for DLLs If you upgrade an existing installation, you will need to change the reference to the DLLs in C:\Program Files\Laurent Bugnion (GalaSoft)\Mvvm Light Toolkit\Binaries. The assemblies have been moved, and the versions for Silverlight 4 and for WPF4 have been renamed, to avoid some confusion. It is now easier to make sure that you are using the correct DLL. WPF3.5SP1, Silverlight 3 When using the DLLs, make sure that you use the correct versions. WPF4, Silverlight 4 When using the DLLs, make sure that you use the correct versions. Laurent Bugnion (GalaSoft) Subscribe | Twitter | Facebook | Flickr | LinkedIn

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Microsoft Codename Dallas

- by kaleidoscope

Dallas is Microsoft’s Information Service offering which allows developers and information workers to find, acquire and consume published datasets and web services. Users subscribe to datasets and web services of interest and can integrate the information into their own applications via a standardized set of API’s. Data can also be analyzed online using the Dallas Service Explorer or externally using the Power Pivot Add-In for Excel. We can explore all the datasets and subscribe to the catalog for using the data. Dallas Developer Portal https://www.sqlazureservices.com More information can be found at: http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/Azure/Dallas/IntroToDallas/Overview/ Lokesh, M

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Future Trends and Challenges for Aircraft Cabins

- by Bill Evjen

Ingo Wuggetzer The aircraft cabin changes from the 60s till now has worsened. First class is actually premium / economy is still moving down in quality The challenge is to do efficiency and comfort Graying population is a challenge will be 14% of the world’s population soon Obesity increasingly becoming an all-milieu core societal problem Will have impact on seat sizes Female forces – women will increasingly influence business and lifestyle There are now more women in college than men People want to be green and this reflects into aircrafts. You can now buy carbon-offsets when you buy a ticket in some airlines 20% are willing to pay for green products 13% would like to but are not doing it yet Seamless Connectivity Internet is obviously mainstream and the influence of our daily lives 2 billion users in 2010 One direction is going mobile Another direction is going social computing We have to explore this to use more with our products Convergence of products iPad usage on Finair , Virgin, Jetstar iPhone share 2% Other smartphones – 11% Feature Phone – 87% Plans to invest in technology trends within the next 3 years connectivity to/from aircraft – 21% major investment / 47% R&D nominal investment Web 2.0 – 22% major investment / 57% R&D nominal investment Cabin technical investments Lighting Wireless Sensors Displays People want to use technologies on the plane that they can use on the ground Planes have moved to digital in the last decade – now they are moving to wireless Data volumes are going through the roof – (Moore’s Law)

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The best Windows 7 virtual desktop tool by far… Dexpot

- by Eric Nelson

[Oh – and Windows XP, Vista etc] Every so often I yearn for the virtual desktop functionality that is implemented so well under Linux. Unfortunately every time I start looking for a great tool for Windows I ultimately end up disappointed. But … I think this time around I have actually found one that will outlast the first day or two and become a must have. Check out http://www.dexpot.de/ So far this is 100% stable, 100% sensible and offers awesome functionality, yet still is very simple to use. There is a detailed look at the many features on the site but a couple that do it for me: Desktop Manager and next/previous tray icons make it easy to navigate around: Announcement of Desktop as a desktop takes focus: And best of all, Windows 7 preview integration And… it is FREE for private use and you get 30 days to try it out for professional use (e.g. me)

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first install for windows eight.....da beta

- by raysmithequip

The W8 preview is now installed and I am enjoying it. I remember the learning curve of my first unix machine back in the eighties, this ain't that.It is normal for me to do the first os install with a keyboard and low end monitor...you never know what you'll encounter out in the field. The OS took like a fish to water. I used a low end INTEL motherboard dp55w I gathered on the cheap, an 1157 i5 from the used bin a pair of 6 gig ddr3 sticks, a rosewell 550 watt power supply a cheap used twenty buck sub 200g wd sata drive, a half working dvd burner and an asus fanless nvidia vid card, not a great one but Sub 50.00 on newey eggey...I did have to hunt the ms forums for a key and of course to activate the thing, if dos would of needed this outmoded ritual, we would still be on cpm and osborne would be a household name, of course little do people know that this ritual was common as far back as the seventies on att unix installs....not, but it was possible, I used to joke about when I ran a bbs, what hell would of been wrought had dos 3.2 machines been required to dial into my bbs to send fido mail to ms and wait for an acknowledgement. All in all the thing was pushing a seven on the ms richter scale, not including the vid card, sadly it came in at just a tad over three....I wanted to evaluate it for a possible replacement on critical machines that in the past went down due to a vid card fan failure....you have no idea what a customer thinks when you show them a failed vid card fan..."you mean that little plastic piece of junk caused all this!!??!!!"...yea man. Some production machines don't need any sort of vid, I will at least keep it on the maybe list for those, MTBF is a very important factor, some big box stores should put percentage of failure rate within 24 month estimates on the outside of the carton for sure. And a warning that the power supplies are already at their limit. Let's face it, today even 550w can be iffy.A few neat eye candy improvements over the earlier windows is nice, the metro screen is nice, anyone who has used a newer phone recently will intuitively drag their fingers across the screen....lot of good that was with no mouse or touch screen though. Lucky me, I have been using windows since day one, I still have a copy of win 2.0 (and every other version) for no good reason. Still the old ix collection of disks is much larger, recompiling any kernal is another silly ritual, same machine, different day, same recompile...argh. Rh is my all time fav, mandrake was always missing something, like it rewrote the init file or something, novell is ok as long as you stay on the beaten path and of course ubuntu normally recompiles with the same errors consistantly....makes life easy that way....no errors on windows eight, just a screen that did not match the installed hardware, natuarally I alt tabbed right out of it, then hit the flag key to find the start menu....no start button. I miss the start button already. Keyboard cowboy funnin and I was browsing the harddrive, nothing stunning there, I like that, means I can find stuff. Only I can't find what I want, the start button....the start menu is that first screen for touch tablets. No biggie for useruser, that is where they will want to be, I can see that. Admins won't want to be there, it is easy enough to get the control panel a bazzilion other ways though, just not the start button. (see a pattern here?). Personally, from the keyboard I find it fun to hit the carets along the location bar at the top of the explorer screen with tabs and arrows and choose SHOW ALL CONTROL PANEL ITEMS, or thereabouts. Bottom line, I love seven and I'll love eight even more!...very happy I did not have to follow the normal rule of thumb (a customer watching me build a system and asking questions said "oh I get it, so every piece you put in there is basically a hundred bucks, right?)...ok, sure, pretty much, more or less, well, ya dude. It will be WAY past october till I get a real touch screen but I did pick up a pair of cheap tatungs so I can try the NEW main start screen, I parse a lot of folders and have a vision of how a pair of touch screens will be easier than landing a rover on mars. Ok. fine, they are way smallish, and I don't expect multitouch to work but we are talking a few percent of a new 21 inch viewsonic touch screen. Will this OS be a game changer? I don't know. Bottom line with all the pads and droids in the world, it is more of a catch up move at first glance. Not something ms is used to. An app store? I can see ms's motivation, the others have it. I gather there will not be gadgets there, go ahead and see what ms did to the once populated gadget page...go ahead, google gadgets and take a gander, used to hundreds of gadgets, they are already gone. They replaced gadgets? sort of, I'll drop that, it's a bit of a sore point for me. More of interest was what happened when I downloaded stuff off codeplex and some other normal programs that I like, like orbitron, top o' my list!!...cardware it is...anyways, click on the exe, get a screen, normal for windows, this one indicated that I was not running a normal windows program and had a button for exit the install, naw, I hit details, a hidden run program anyways came into view....great, my path to the normal windows has detected a program tha.....yea ok, acl is on, fine, moving along I got orbitron installed in record time and was tracking the iss on the newest Microsoft OS, beta of course, felt like the first time I setup bsd all those year ago...FUN!!...I suppose I gotta start to think about budgeting for the real os when it comes out in october, by then I should have a rasberry pi and be done with fedora remixed. Of course that sounds like fun too!! I would use this OS on a tablet or phone. I don't like the idea of being hearded to an app store, don't like that on anything, we are americans and want real choices not marketed hype, lest you are younger with opm (other peoples money). This os would be neat on a zune, but I suspect the zune is a gonner, I am rooting for microsoft, after all their default password is not admin anymore, nor alpine, it's blank. Others force a password, my first fawn password was so long I could not even log into it with the password in front of me, who the heck uses %$# anyways, and if I was writing a brute force attack what the heck kinda impasse is that anyways at .00001 microseconds of a code execution cycle (just a non qualified number, not a real clock speed)....AI is where it will be before too long, MS is on that path, perhaps soon someone will sit down and write an app for the kinect that watches your eyes while you scan the new main start screen, clicking on the big E icon when you blink.....boy is that going to be fun!!!! sure. Blink,dammit,blink,dammit...... OPM no doubt.I like windows eight, we are moving forwards, better keep a close eye on ubuntu. The real clinch comes when open source becomes paid source......don't blink, I already see plenty of very expensive 'ix apps, some even in app stores already. more to come.......

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