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• Vertical text inside table headers using a JavaScript-based SVG library

  - by Oleg

  I use jqGrid with many columns containing boolean information, which are displayed as checkboxes inside the table (see http://www.ok-soft-gmbh.com/VerticalHeaders/TestFixedO.htm as an example). To display information more compactly I use vertical column headers. It works very well and works in jqGrid in all browsers (see my discussion with Tony Tomov in jqGrid forum http://www.trirand.com/blog/?page_id=393/feature-request/headers-with-vertical-orientation/), but in IE vertical text is blurred and doesn't look nice enough (open the link above in IE and you will see exactly what I mean). I was asked from users why the text displayed so strangely. So I'm thinking of using a JavaScript-based SVG library like SVG Web ( http://code.google.com/p/svgweb/ ) or Raphaël ( http://raphaeljs.com/ ). SVG is very powerful and it is difficult to find a good example. I need only to display vertical text (-90 grad, from the bottom up) and use if possible without working in mode of absolute positioning. So one more time my question: I need to have a possibility to display vertical text (-90 grad rotation) inside <td> elements of a table header. I want to use a JavaScript-based SVG library like SVG Web or Raphaël. The solution must support IE6. Does anybody have a good reference example which could help me do this? If somebody posts a whole solution of the problem I would be happy. To be exact here is my current solution: I define .rotate { -webkit-transform: rotate(-90deg); /* Safari 3.1+, Chrome */ -moz-transform: rotate(-90deg); /* Firefox 3.5+ */ -o-transform: rotate(-90deg); /* Opera starting with 10.50 */ /* Internet Explorer: */ filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.BasicImage(rotation=3); /* IE6, IE7 */ -ms-filter: "progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.BasicImage(rotation=3)" /* IE8 */; } define RotateCheckboxColumnHeaders function var RotateCheckboxColumnHeaders = function (grid, headerHeight) { // we use grid as context (if one have more as one table on tnhe page) var trHead = $("thead:first tr", grid.hdiv); var cm = grid.getGridParam("colModel"); $("thead:first tr th").height(headerHeight); headerHeight = $("thead:first tr th").height(); for (var iCol = 0; iCol < cm.length; iCol++) { var cmi = cm[iCol]; if (cmi.formatter === 'checkbox') { // we must set width of column header div BEFOR adding class "rotate" to // prevent text cutting based on the current column width var headDiv = $("th:eq(" + iCol + ") div", trHead); headDiv.width(headerHeight).addClass("rotate"); if (!$.browser.msie) { if ($.browser.mozilla) { headDiv.css("left", (cmi.width - headerHeight) / 2 + 3).css("bottom", 7); } else { headDiv.css("left", (cmi.width - headerHeight) / 2); } } else { var ieVer = jQuery.browser.version.substr(0, 3); // Internet Explorer if (ieVer !== "6.0" && ieVer !== "7.0") { headDiv.css("left", cmi.width / 2 - 4).css("bottom", headerHeight / 2); $("span", headDiv).css("left", 0); } else { headDiv.css("left", 3); } } } } }; And include a call like RotateCheckboxColumnHeaders(grid, 110); after creating jqGrid.

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• Designing different Factory classes (and what to use as argument to the factories!)

  - by devoured elysium

  Let's say we have the following piece of code: public class Event { } public class SportEvent1 : Event { } public class SportEvent2 : Event { } public class MedicalEvent1 : Event { } public class MedicalEvent2 : Event { } public interface IEventFactory { bool AcceptsInputString(string inputString); Event CreateEvent(string inputString); } public class EventFactory { private List<IEventFactory> factories = new List<IEventFactory>(); public void AddFactory(IEventFactory factory) { factories.Add(factory); } //I don't see a point in defining a RemoveFactory() so I won't. public Event CreateEvent(string inputString) { try { //iterate through all factories. If one and only one of them accepts //the string, generate the event. Otherwise, throw an exception. return factories.Single(factory => factory.AcceptsInputString(inputString)).CreateEvent(inputString); } catch (InvalidOperationException e) { throw new InvalidOperationException("No valid factory found to generate this kind of Event!", e); } } } public class SportEvent1Factory : IEventFactory { public bool AcceptsInputString(string inputString) { return inputString.StartsWith("SportEvent1"); } public Event CreateEvent(string inputString) { return new SportEvent1(); } } public class MedicalEvent1Factory : IEventFactory { public bool AcceptsInputString(string inputString) { return inputString.StartsWith("MedicalEvent1"); } public Event CreateEvent(string inputString) { return new MedicalEvent1(); } } And here is the code that runs it: static void Main(string[] args) { EventFactory medicalEventFactory = new EventFactory(); medicalEventFactory.AddFactory(new MedicalEvent1Factory()); medicalEventFactory.AddFactory(new MedicalEvent2Factory()); EventFactory sportsEventFactory = new EventFactory(); sportsEventFactory.AddFactory(new SportEvent1Factory()); sportsEventFactory.AddFactory(new SportEvent2Factory()); } I have a couple of questions: Instead of having to add factories here in the main method of my application, should I try to redesign my EventFactory class so it is an abstract factory? It'd be better if I had a way of not having to manually add EventFactories every time I want to use them. So I could just instantiate MedicalFactory and SportsFactory. Should I make a Factory of factories? Maybe that'd be over-engineering? As you have probably noticed, I am using a inputString string as argument to feed the factories. I have an application that lets the user create his own events but also to load/save them from text files. Later, I might want to add other kinds of files, XML, sql connections, whatever. The only way I can think of that would allow me to make this work is having an internal format (I choose a string, as it's easy to understand). How would you make this? I assume this is a recurrent situation, probably most of you know of any other more intelligent approach to this. I am then only looping in the EventFactory for all the factories in its list to check if any of them accepts the input string. If one does, then it asks it to generate the Event. If you find there is something wrong or awkward with the method I'm using to make this happen, I'd be happy to hear about different implementations. Thanks! PS: Although I don't show it in here, all the different kind of events have different properties, so I have to generate them with different arguments (SportEvent1 might have SportName and Duration properties, that have to be put in the inputString as argument).

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• ASP.Net/C# File Upload Progress Display

  - by Ioxp

  I am having a hard time figuring out how to do a "Please wait while file is uploading" message when the user submits the following form. So far the application works to specification with regards to checking files and uploading to the server. You will see some java script below, this is there to allow me to fake out the style of the file up load buttons so that it matches the rest of the site. I have tried to use the ASP.Net Ajax controls to do this however the updateprogress panel would not show up. In further reading it was explained that this has something to do with the Asynchronous transfer that the file upload control uses when you issue a PostedFile.SaveAs("filename") command. I also found a site that refereed to using an iframe to do the job. I'm not really sure if that's the best way to go about doing this or not so I'm asking you the professionals of stackoverflow for help to try and resolve this issue. I will be more than happy to post any spinets you need from my code to help me expedite a solution for this. <table border="0"> <tr> <td>File 1:&nbsp;</td> <td><div class="fileinputs"><input type="file" class="file" size="37" id="f1" runat="server" /></div></td> </tr> <tr> <td>File 2:&nbsp;</td> <td><div class="fileinputs"><input type="file" class="file" size="37" id="f2" runat="server" /></div></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="text-align:right;"><asp:ImageButton ID="ImageButton1" runat="server" ImageUrl="~/Images/Buttons/Upload_Files.gif" OnClick="Submit_Form" /></td> </tr> </table> <asp:Label ID="lblError" runat="server" Text=""></asp:Label> <script type="text/javascript"> var fakeFileUpload = document.createElement('div'); fakeFileUpload.className = 'fakefile'; var fakeInput = document.createElement('input'); fakeInput.style.width = '200px'; fakeFileUpload.appendChild(fakeInput); var image = document.createElement('img'); image.src='../Images/Buttons/Browse.gif'; fakeFileUpload.appendChild(image); var x = document.getElementsByTagName('input'); for (var i=0;i<x.length;i++) { if (x[i].type != 'file') continue; if (x[i].parentNode.className != 'fileinputs') continue; x[i].className = 'file hidden'; var clone = fakeFileUpload.cloneNode(true); x[i].parentNode.appendChild(clone); x[i].relatedElement = clone.getElementsByTagName('input')[0]; x[i].onchange = x[i].onmouseout = function () { this.relatedElement.value = this.value; } } </script>

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• Looking for best practise for writing a serial device communication app in C#

  - by cdotlister

  I am pretty new to serial comms, but would like advise on how to best achieve a robust application which speak to and listens to a serial device. I have managed to make use of System.IO.serialport, and successfully connected to, sent data to and recieved from my device. The way things work is this. My application connects to the Com Port and opens the port.... I then connect my device to the com port, and it detects a connectio to the PC, so sends a bit of text. it's really just copyright info, as well as the version of the firmware. I don't do anything with that, except display it in my 'activity' window. The device then waits. I can then query information, but sending a command such as 'QUERY PARAMETER1'. It then replies with something like: 'QUERY PARAMETER1\r\n\r\n76767\r\n\r\n' I then process that. I can then update it by sending 'SET PARAMETER1 12345', and it will reply with 'QUERY PARAMETER1\r\n\r\n12345\r\n\r\n'. All pretty basic. So, what I have done is created a Communication Class. this call is called in it's own thread, and sends data back to the main form... and also allows me to send messages to it. Sending data is easy. Recieving is a bit more tricky. I have employed the use of the datarecieved event, and when ever data comes in, I echo that to my screen. My problem is this: When I send a command, I feel I am being very dodgy in my handling. What I am doing is, lets say I am sending 'QUERY PARAMETER1'. I send the command to the device, I then put 'PARAMETER1' into a global variable, and I do a Thread.Sleep(100). On the data recieved, I then have a bit of logic that checks the incoming data, and sees if the string CONTAINS the value in the gloabl variable. As the reply may be 'QUERY PARAMETER1\r\n\r\n76767\r\n\r\n', it sees that it contains my parameter, parses the string, and returns the value I am looking for, but placing it into another global variable. My sending method was sleeping for 100ms. It then wakes, and checks the returned global variable. If it has data... then I'm happy, and I process the data. Problem is... if the sleep is too short.. it will fail. And I feel it's flakey.. putting stuff into variables.. then waiting... The other option is to use ReadLine instead, but that's very blocking. So I remove the datarecieved method, and instead... just send the data... then call ReadLine(). That may give me better results. There's no time, except when we connect initially, that data comes from the device, without me requesting it. So, maybe readline will be simpler and safer? Is this known as 'Blocking' reads? Also, can I set a timeout? Hopefully someone can guide me.

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• How to get Rid of this strange Border on JButton in Windows System look and Feel?

  - by Timo J.

  I have a small Problem with the Layout of my Frame. As You could see in a picture (if i would have my 10 rep ;) ) there is a small Border around my JButtons. I'm already searching long time on this topic and i finally decided to ask for help, i'm just out of ideas. Is this Part of the Windows Theme which shouldn't be changed? It just doesnt fit into my current Layout, as I'm Listing TextBoxes and Comboboxes on Page Axis without any Border. I would be very happy if there is solution for this issue. Thanks in advance! EDIT 1: I do not mean the Focus Border. I like the Highlighting of a focussed Element. What i mean is the Border in the Background Color which causes a small distance of background-colored space beetween a JButton and another Element. (Picture on Personnal Webspace: http://tijamocobs.no-ip.biz/border_jbutton.png) EDIT 2: I'm using the Windows 8 Look and Feel but saw this Problem on Windows 7 Look and Feel, too. short Example import javax.swing.BoxLayout; import javax.swing.JButton; import javax.swing.JFrame; import javax.swing.UIManager; import javax.swing.UnsupportedLookAndFeelException; public class TestFrame extends JFrame { public TestFrame(){ setLayout(new BoxLayout(getContentPane(), BoxLayout.PAGE_AXIS)); for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) { JButton btn = new JButton("."); // not working: // btn.setBorder(null); // btn.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder()); add(btn); } pack(); } public static void main(String[] args) throws ClassNotFoundException, InstantiationException, IllegalAccessException, UnsupportedLookAndFeelException { UIManager.setLookAndFeel(UIManager.getSystemLookAndFeelClassName()); TestFrame tiss = new TestFrame(); tiss.setVisible(true); } } Example Code (long version): import java.awt.BorderLayout; import java.awt.Container; import java.awt.Dimension; import javax.swing.Box; import javax.swing.BoxLayout; import javax.swing.JButton; import javax.swing.JComboBox; import javax.swing.JFrame; import javax.swing.JLabel; import javax.swing.JPanel; import javax.swing.UIManager; import javax.swing.UnsupportedLookAndFeelException; public class TestFrame extends JFrame { public TestFrame(){ JPanel muh = new JPanel(); muh.setLayout(new BoxLayout(muh, BoxLayout.PAGE_AXIS)); for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) { Container c = new JPanel(); c.setLayout(new BoxLayout(c, BoxLayout.LINE_AXIS)); Box bx = Box.createHorizontalBox(); final String[] tmp = {"anything1","anything2"}; JComboBox<String> cmbbx = new JComboBox<String>(tmp); cmbbx.setMinimumSize(new Dimension(80,20)); bx.add(cmbbx); JButton btn = new JButton("."); btn.setMinimumSize(new Dimension(cmbbx.getMinimumSize().height,cmbbx.getMinimumSize().height)); btn.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(30,30)); btn.setMaximumSize(new Dimension(30,30)); bx.add(btn); c.setMaximumSize(new Dimension(Integer.MAX_VALUE,30)); c.add(new JLabel("Just anything")); c.add(bx); muh.add(c); } add(muh,BorderLayout.CENTER); pack(); } public static void main(String[] args) throws ClassNotFoundException, InstantiationException, IllegalAccessException, UnsupportedLookAndFeelException { UIManager.setLookAndFeel(UIManager.getSystemLookAndFeelClassName()); TestFrame tiss = new TestFrame(); tiss.setVisible(true); } }

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• Looking for best practise for writing a serial device communication app

  - by cdotlister

  I am pretty new to serial comms, but would like advise on how to best achieve a robust application which speak to and listens to a serial device. I have managed to make use of System.IO.SerialPort, and successfully connected to, sent data to and recieved from my device. The way things work is this. My application connects to the Com Port and opens the port.... I then connect my device to the com port, and it detects a connection to the PC, so sends a bit of text. it's really just copyright info, as well as the version of the firmware. I don't do anything with that, except display it in my 'activity' window. The device then waits. I can then query information, but sending a command such as 'QUERY PARAMETER1'. It then replies with something like: 'QUERY PARAMETER1\r\n\r\n76767\r\n\r\n' I then process that. I can then update it by sending 'SET PARAMETER1 12345', and it will reply with 'QUERY PARAMETER1\r\n\r\n12345\r\n\r\n'. All pretty basic. So, what I have done is created a Communication Class. this call is called in it's own thread, and sends data back to the main form... and also allows me to send messages to it. Sending data is easy. Recieving is a bit more tricky. I have employed the use of the datarecieved event, and when ever data comes in, I echo that to my screen. My problem is this: When I send a command, I feel I am being very dodgy in my handling. What I am doing is, lets say I am sending 'QUERY PARAMETER1'. I send the command to the device, I then put 'PARAMETER1' into a global variable, and I do a Thread.Sleep(100). On the data received, I then have a bit of logic that checks the incoming data, and sees if the string CONTAINS the value in the global variable. As the reply may be 'QUERY PARAMETER1\r\n\r\n76767\r\n\r\n', it sees that it contains my parameter, parses the string, and returns the value I am looking for, but placing it into another global variable. My sending method was sleeping for 100ms. It then wakes, and checks the returned global variable. If it has data... then I'm happy, and I process the data. Problem is... if the sleep is too short.. it will fail. And I feel it's flaky.. putting stuff into variables.. then waiting... The other option is to use ReadLine instead, but that's very blocking. So I remove the data received method, and instead... just send the data... then call ReadLine(). That may give me better results. There's no time, except when we connect initially, that data comes from the device, without me requesting it. So, maybe ReadLine will be simpler and safer? Is this known as 'Blocking' reads? Also, can I set a timeout? Hopefully someone can guide me.

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• GitLab on a fresh Ubuntu 13 EC2 instance

  - by Polly

  I've spun up a fresh Amazon EC2 instance for a micro Ubuntu 13 server to be used as a GitLab server. I know the specs are a little low, but it should serve well for my purposes. It has an elastic (static) IP address that I have created an A record for git.mydomain.com. The first thing I did to the instance was add 1GB of swap to keep it happy from a memory perspective. I then set the hostname of the box to be git.mydomain.com and followed https://github.com/gitlabhq/gitlabhq/blob/6-2-stable/doc/install/installation.md to the letter. Everything seems to have worked, except for the web server side of things. Doing a gitlab:check shows the following: Checking Environment ... Git configured for git user? ... yes Has python2? ... yes python2 is supported version? ... yes Checking Environment ... Finished Checking GitLab Shell ... GitLab Shell version >= 1.7.4 ? ... OK (1.7.4) Repo base directory exists? ... yes Repo base directory is a symlink? ... no Repo base owned by git:git? ... yes Repo base access is drwxrws---? ... yes update hook up-to-date? ... yes update hooks in repos are links: ... can't check, you have no projects Running /home/git/gitlab-shell/bin/check Check GitLab API access: /usr/local/lib/ruby/2.0.0/net/http.rb:878:in `initialize': Connection refused - connect(2) (Errno::ECONNREFUSED) from /usr/local/lib/ruby/2.0.0/net/http.rb:878:in `open' from /usr/local/lib/ruby/2.0.0/net/http.rb:878:in `block in connect' from /usr/local/lib/ruby/2.0.0/timeout.rb:52:in `timeout' from /usr/local/lib/ruby/2.0.0/net/http.rb:877:in `connect' from /usr/local/lib/ruby/2.0.0/net/http.rb:862:in `do_start' from /usr/local/lib/ruby/2.0.0/net/http.rb:851:in `start' from /home/git/gitlab-shell/lib/gitlab_net.rb:62:in `get' from /home/git/gitlab-shell/lib/gitlab_net.rb:29:in `check' from /home/git/gitlab-shell/bin/check:11:in `<main>' gitlab-shell self-check failed Try fixing it: Make sure GitLab is running; Check the gitlab-shell configuration file: sudo -u git -H editor /home/git/gitlab-shell/config.yml Please fix the error above and rerun the checks. Checking GitLab Shell ... Finished Checking Sidekiq ... Running? ... yes Number of Sidekiq processes ... 1 Checking Sidekiq ... Finished Checking GitLab ... Database config exists? ... yes Database is SQLite ... no All migrations up? ... yes GitLab config exists? ... yes GitLab config outdated? ... no Log directory writable? ... yes Tmp directory writable? ... yes Init script exists? ... yes Init script up-to-date? ... yes projects have namespace: ... can't check, you have no projects Projects have satellites? ... can't check, you have no projects Redis version >= 2.0.0? ... yes Your git bin path is "/usr/bin/git" Git version >= 1.7.10 ? ... yes (1.8.3) Checking GitLab ... Finished It seems like I'm very nearly there. Searching on this error I have only found advice that unfortunately hasn't helped. I'm not using any kind of SSL setup, which a lot of the posts I found were about. I have tried appending 127.0.0.1 git.mydomain.com to /etc/hosts and giving the instance a reboot but there was no change. My config/gitlab.yml file has host: git.mydomain.com in it, and my gitlab-shell/config.yml has gitlab_url: "http://git.mydomain.com/" in it. I'm sure I'm missing something simple, but I've been through every relevant link I can find and have had no positive results; thank you in advance for any help!

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• Please help fix and optimize this query

  - by user607217

  I am working on a system to find potential duplicates in our customers table (SQL 2005). I am using the built-in SOUNDEX value that our software computes when customers are added/updated, but I also implemented the double metaphone algorithm for better matching. This is the most-nested query I have created, and I can't help but think there is a better way to do it and I'd like to learn. In the inner-most query I am joining the customer table to the metaphone table I created, then finding customers that have identical pKey (primary phonetic key). I take that, union that with customers that have matching soundex values, and then proceed to score those matches with various text similarity functions. This is currently working, but I would also like to add a union of customers whose aKey (alternate phonetic key) match. This would be identical to "QUERY A" except to substitute on (c1Akey = c2Akey) for the join. However, when I attempt to include that, I get errors when I try to execute my query. Here is the code: --Create aggregate ranking select c1Name, c2Name, nDiff, c1Addr, c2Addr, aDiff, c1SSN, c2SSN, sDiff, c1DOB, c2DOB, dDiff, nDiff+aDiff+dDiff+sDiff as Score ,(sDiff+dDiff)*1.5 + (nDiff+dDiff)*1.5 + (nDiff+sDiff)*1.5 + aDiff *.5 + nDiff *.5 as [Rank] FROM ( --Create match scores for different fields SELECT c1Name, c2Name, c1Addr, c2Addr, c1SSN, c2SSN, c1LTD, c2LTD, c1DOB, c2DOB, dbo.Jaro(c1name, c2name) AS nDiff, dbo.JaroWinkler(c1addr, c2addr) AS aDiff, CASE WHEN c1dob = '1901-01-01' OR c2dob = '1901-01-01' OR c1dob = '1800-01-01' OR c2dob = '1800-01-01' THEN .5 ELSE dbo.SmithWaterman(c1dob, c2dob) END AS dDiff, CASE WHEN c1ssn = '000-00-0000' OR c2ssn = '000-00-0000' THEN .5 ELSE dbo.Jaro(c1ssn, c2ssn) END AS sDiff FROM -- Generate list of possible matches based on multiple phonetic matching fields ( select * from -- List of similar names from pKey field of ##Metaphone table --QUERY A BEGIN (select customers.custno as c1Custno, name as c1Name, haddr as c1Addr, ssn as c1SSN, lasttripdate as c1LTD, dob as c1DOB, soundex as c1Soundex, pkey as c1Pkey, akey as c1Akey from Customers WITH (nolock) join ##Metaphone on customers.custno = ##Metaphone.custno) as c1 JOIN (select customers.custno as c2Custno, name as c2Name, haddr as c2Addr, ssn as c2SSN, lasttripdate as c2LTD, dob as c2DOB, soundex as c2Soundex, pkey as c2Pkey, akey as c2Akey from Customers with (nolock) join ##Metaphone on customers.custno = ##Metaphone.custno) as c2 on (c1Pkey = c2Pkey) and (c1Custno < c2Custno) WHERE (c1Name <> 'PARENT, GUARDIAN') and c1soundex != c2soundex --QUERY A END union --List of similar names from pregenerated SOUNDEX field (select t1.custno, t1.name, t1.haddr, t1.ssn, t1.lasttripdate, t1.dob, t1.[soundex], 0, 0, t2.custno, t2.name, t2.haddr, t2.ssn, t2.lasttripdate, t2.dob, t2.[soundex], 0, 0 from Customers t1 WITH (nolock) join customers t2 with (nolock) on t1.[soundex] = t2.[soundex] and t1.custno < t2.custno where (t1.name <> 'PARENT, GUARDIAN')) ) as a ) as b where (sDiff+dDiff)*1.5 + (nDiff+dDiff)*1.5 + (nDiff+sDiff)*1.5 + aDiff *.5 + nDiff *.5 >= 7.5 order by [rank] desc, score desc Previously, I was using joins such as on c1.pkey = c2.pkey or c1.akey = c2.akey or c1.soundex = c2.soundex but the performance was horrendous, and using unions seems to be working a lot better. Out of 103K customers, tt is currently generating a list of 8.5M potential matches (based on the phonetic codes) in 2.25 minutes, and then taking another 2 to score, rank and filter those down to about 3000. So I am happy with the performance, I just can't help but think there is a better way to structure this, and I need help adding the extra union condition. Thanks!

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• Inheriting XML files and modifying values

  - by Veehmot

  This is a question about concept. I have an XML file, let's call it base: <base id="default"> <tags> <tag>tag_one</tag> <tag>tag_two</tag> <tag>tag_three</tag> </tags> <data> <data_a>blue</data_a> <data_b>3</data_b> </data> </base> What I want to do is to be able to extend this XML in another file, modifying individual properties. For example, I want to inherit that file and make a new one with a different data/data_a node: <base id="green" import="default"> <data> <data_a>green</data_a> </data> </base> So far it's pretty simple, it replaces the old data/data_a with the new one. I even can add a new node: <base id="ext" import="default"> <moredata> <data>extended version</data> </moredata> </base> And still it's pretty simple. The problem comes when I want to delete a node or deal with XML Lists (like the tags node). How should I reference a particular index on a list? I was thinking doing something like: <base id="diffList" import="default"> <tags> <tag index="1">this is not anymore tag_two</tag> </tags> </base> And for deleting a node / array index: <base id="deleting" import="default"> <tags> <tag index="2"/> </tags> <data/> </base> <!-- This will result in an XML containing these values: --> <base> <tag>tag_one</tag> <tag>tag_two</tag> </base> But I'm not happy with my solutions. I don't know anything about XSLT or other XML transformation tools, but I think someone must have done this before. The key goal I'm looking for is ease to write the XML by hand (both the base and the "extended"). I'm open to new solutions besides XML, if they are easy to write manually. Thanks for reading.

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• Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 406 (Not Acceptable)

  - by skip

  I am trying to send json data and get back json data as well. I've <annotation-driven /> configured in my servlet-context.xml and I am using Spring framework version 3.1.0.RELEASE. When I send the request the browser tells me that it is not happy with the data returned from the server and gives me 406 error. And when I see the response from the server I see the whole 406 page returned by tomcat 6 server. I have got following in my pom for Jackson/Jackson processor: <!-- Jackson --> <dependency> <groupId>org.codehaus.jackson</groupId> <artifactId>jackson-core-asl</artifactId> <version>1.9.4</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.codehaus.jackson</groupId> <artifactId>jackson-mapper-asl</artifactId> <version>1.9.4</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.codehaus.jackson</groupId> <artifactId>jackson-xc</artifactId> <version>1.9.4</version> </dependency> <!-- Jackson JSON Processor --> <dependency> <groupId>org.codehaus.jackson</groupId> <artifactId>jackson-mapper-asl</artifactId> <version>1.8.1</version> </dependency> Following is the jquery code I am using to send the json request: $(function(){$(".sutmit-button").click(function(){ var dataString=$("#app-form").serialize(); $.ajax({ type:"POST", url:"apply.json", data:dataString, success:function(data, textStatus, jqXHR){ console.log(jqXHR.status); console.log(data); $('.postcontent').html("<div id='message'></div>"); $('#message').html("<h3>Request Submitted</h3>").append("<p>Thank you for submiting your request.</p>").hide().fadeIn(1500,function(){$('#message');}); }, error:function(jqXHR, textStatus, errorThrown) { console.log(jqXHR.status); $('.postcontent').html("<div id='message'></div>"); $('#message').html("<h3>Request failed.</h3>").hide().fadeIn(1500,function(){$('#message');}); }, dataType: "json" }); return false;});}); Following is the Controller that is handling the request: @RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.POST, value="apply", headers="Accept=application/json") public @ResponseBody Application processFranchiseeApplicationForm(HttpServletRequest request) { //... Application application = new Application(...); //... logger.debug(application); return application; } I am not able to figure out the reason why I might be getting this error. Could someone help me understand why am I getting the given error? Thanks.

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• How to open a server port outside of an OpenVPN tunnel with a pf firewall on OSX (BSD)

  - by Timbo

  I have a Mac mini that I use as a media server running XBMC and serves media from my NAS to my stereo and TV (which has been color calibrated with a Spyder3Express, happy). The Mac runs OSX 10.8.2 and the internet connection is tunneled for general privacy over OpenVPN through Tunnelblick. I believe my anonymous VPN provider pushes "redirect_gateway" to OpenVPN/Tunnelblick because when on it effectively tunnels all non-LAN traffic in- and outbound. As an unwanted side effect that also opens the boxes server ports unprotected to the outside world and bypasses my firewall-router (Netgear SRX5308). I have run nmap from outside the LAN on the VPN IP and the server ports on the mini are clearly visible and connectable. The mini has the following ports open: ssh/22, ARD/5900 and 8080+9090 for the XBMC iOS client Constellation. I also have Synology NAS which apart from LAN file serving over AFP and WebDAV only serves up an OpenVPN/1194 and a PPTP/1732 server. When outside of the LAN I connect to this from my laptop over OpenVPN and over PPTP from my iPhone. I only want to connect through AFP/548 from the mini to the NAS. The border firewall (SRX5308) just works excellently, stable and with a very high throughput when streaming from various VOD services. My connection is a 100/10 with a close to theoretical max throughput. The ruleset is as follows Inbound: PPTP/1723 Allow always to 10.0.0.40 (NAS/VPN server) from a restricted IP range >corresponding to possible cell provider range OpenVPN/1194 Allow always to 10.0.0.40 (NAS/VPN server) from any Outbound: Default outbound policy: Allow Always OpenVPN/1194 TCP Allow always from 10.0.0.40 (NAS) to a.b.8.1-a.b.8.254 (VPN provider) OpenVPN/1194 UDP Allow always to 10.0.0.40 (NAS) to a.b.8.1-a.b.8.254 (VPN provider) Block always from NAS to any On the Mini I have disabled the OSX Application Level Firewall because it throws popups which don't remember my choices from one time to another and that's annoying on a media server. Instead I run Little Snitch which controls outgoing connections nicely on an application level. I have configured the excellent OSX builtin firewall pf (from BSD) as follows pf.conf (Apple App firewall tie-ins removed) (# replaced with % to avoid formatting errors) ### macro name for external interface. eth_if = "en0" vpn_if = "tap0" ### wifi_if = "en1" ### %usb_if = "en3" ext_if = $eth_if LAN="{10.0.0.0/24}" ### General housekeeping rules ### ### Drop all blocked packets silently set block-policy drop ### all incoming traffic on external interface is normalized and fragmented ### packets are reassembled. scrub in on $ext_if all fragment reassemble scrub in on $vpn_if all fragment reassemble scrub out all ### exercise antispoofing on the external interface, but add the local ### loopback interface as an exception, to prevent services utilizing the ### local loop from being blocked accidentally. ### set skip on lo0 antispoof for $ext_if inet antispoof for $vpn_if inet ### spoofing protection for all interfaces block in quick from urpf-failed ############################# block all ### Access to the mini server over ssh/22 and remote desktop/5900 from LAN/en0 only pass in on $eth_if proto tcp from $LAN to any port {22, 5900, 8080, 9090} ### Allow all udp and icmp also, necessary for Constellation. Could be tightened. pass on $eth_if proto {udp, icmp} from $LAN to any ### Allow AFP to 10.0.0.40 (NAS) pass out on $eth_if proto tcp from any to 10.0.0.40 port 548 ### Allow OpenVPN tunnel setup over unprotected link (en0) only to VPN provider IPs ### and port ranges pass on $eth_if proto tcp from any to a.b.8.0/24 port 1194:1201 ### OpenVPN Tunnel rules. All traffic allowed out, only in to ports 4100-4110 ### Outgoing pings ok pass in on $vpn_if proto {tcp, udp} from any to any port 4100:4110 pass out on $vpn_if proto {tcp, udp, icmp} from any to any So what are my goals and what does the above setup achieve? (until you tell me otherwise :) 1) Full LAN access to the above ports on the mini/media server (including through my own VPN server) 2) All internet traffic from the mini/media server is anonymized and tunneled over VPN 3) If OpenVPN/Tunnelblick on the mini drops the connection, nothing is leaked both because of pf and the router outgoing ruleset. It can't even do a DNS lookup through the router. So what do I have to hide with all this? Nothing much really, I just got carried away trying to stop port scans through the VPN tunnel :) In any case this setup works perfectly and it is very stable. The Problem at last! I want to run a minecraft server and I installed that on a separate user account on the mini server (user=mc) to keep things partitioned. I don't want this server accessible through the anonymized VPN tunnel because there are lots more port scans and hacking attempts through that than over my regular IP and I don't trust java in general. So I added the following pf rule on the mini: ### Allow Minecraft public through user mc pass in on $eth_if proto {tcp,udp} from any to any port 24983 user mc pass out on $eth_if proto {tcp, udp} from any to any user mc And these additions on the border firewall: Inbound: Allow always TCP/UDP from any to 10.0.0.40 (NAS) Outbound: Allow always TCP port 80 from 10.0.0.40 to any (needed for online account checkups) This works fine but only when the OpenVPN/Tunnelblick tunnel is down. When up no connection is possbile to the minecraft server from outside of LAN. inside LAN is always OK. Everything else functions as intended. I believe the redirect_gateway push is close to the root of the problem, but I want to keep that specific VPN provider because of the fantastic throughput, price and service. The Solution? How can I open up the minecraft server port outside of the tunnel so it's only available over en0 not the VPN tunnel? Should I a static route? But I don't know which IPs will be connecting...stumbles How secure would to estimate this setup to be and do you have other improvements to share? I've searched extensively in the last few days to no avail...If you've read this far I bet you know the answer :)

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• Why Do I See the "In Recovery" Msg, and How Can I Prevent it?

  - by John Hansen

  The project I'm working on creates a local copy of the SQL Server database for each SVN branch you work on. We're running SQL Server 2008 Express with Advanced Services on our local machine to host it. When we create a new branch, the build script will create a new database with the ID of that branch, creates the schema objects, and copies over a selection of data from the production shadow server. After the database is created, it, or other databases on the local machine, will often go into "In Recovery" mode for several minutes. After several refreshes it comes up and is happy, but will occasionally go back into "In Recovery" mode. The database is created in simple recovery mode. The file names aren't specified, so it uses default paths for files. The size of the database after loading data is ~400 megs. It is running in SQL Server 2005 compatibility mode. The command that creates the database is: sqlcmd -S $(DBServer) -Q "IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT [name] FROM sysdatabases WHERE [name] = '$(DBName)') BEGIN CREATE DATABASE [$(DBName)]; print 'Created $(DBName)'; END" ...where $(DBName) and $(DBServer) are MSBuild parameters. I got a nice clean log file this morning. When I turned on my computer it starts all five databases. However, two of them show transactions being rolled forward and backwards. The it just keeps trying to start up all five of the databases. 2010-06-10 08:24:59.74 spid52 Starting up database 'ASPState'. 2010-06-10 08:24:59.82 spid52 Starting up database 'CommunityLibrary'. 2010-06-10 08:25:03.97 spid52 Starting up database 'DLG-R8441'. 2010-06-10 08:25:05.07 spid52 2 transactions rolled forward in database 'DLG-R8441' (6). This is an informational message only. No user action is required. 2010-06-10 08:25:05.14 spid52 0 transactions rolled back in database 'DLG-R8441' (6). This is an informational message only. No user action is required. 2010-06-10 08:25:05.14 spid52 Recovery is writing a checkpoint in database 'DLG-R8441' (6). This is an informational message only. No user action is required. 2010-06-10 08:25:11.23 spid52 Starting up database 'DLG-R8979'. 2010-06-10 08:25:12.31 spid36s Starting up database 'DLG-R8441'. 2010-06-10 08:25:13.17 spid52 2 transactions rolled forward in database 'DLG-R8979' (9). This is an informational message only. No user action is required. 2010-06-10 08:25:13.22 spid52 0 transactions rolled back in database 'DLG-R8979' (9). This is an informational message only. No user action is required. 2010-06-10 08:25:13.22 spid52 Recovery is writing a checkpoint in database 'DLG-R8979' (9). This is an informational message only. No user action is required. 2010-06-10 08:25:18.43 spid52 Starting up database 'Rls QA'. 2010-06-10 08:25:19.13 spid46s Starting up database 'DLG-R8979'. 2010-06-10 08:25:23.29 spid36s Starting up database 'DLG-R8441'. 2010-06-10 08:25:27.91 spid52 Starting up database 'ASPState'. 2010-06-10 08:25:29.80 spid41s Starting up database 'DLG-R8979'. 2010-06-10 08:25:31.22 spid52 Starting up database 'Rls QA'. In this case it kept trying to start the databases continuously until I shut down SQL Server at 08:48:19.72, 23 minutes later. Meanwhile, I actually am able to use the databases much of the time.

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• Getting 404 in Android app while trying to get xml from localhost

  - by Patrick

  This must be something really stupid, trying to solve this issue for a couple of days now and it's really not working. I searched everywhere and there probably is someone with the same problem, but I can't seem to find it. I'm working on an Android app and this app pulls some xml from a website. Since this website is down a lot, I decided to save it and run it locally. Now what I did; - I downloaded the kWs app for hosting the downloaded xml file - I put the file in the right directory and could access it through the mobile browser, but not with my app (same code as I used with pulling it from some other website, not hosted by me, only difference was the URL obviously) So I tried to host it on my PC and access it with my app from there. Again the same results, the mobile browsers had no problem finding it, but the app kept saying 404 Not Found: "The requested URL /test.xml&parama=Someone&paramb= was not found on this server." Note: Don't mind the 2 parameters I am sending, I needed that to get the right stuff from the website that wasn't hosted by me. My code: public String getStuff(String name){ String URL = "http://10.0.0.8/test.xml"; ArrayList<NameValuePair> params = new ArrayList<NameValuePair>(2); params.add(new BasicNameValuePair("parama", name)); params.add(new BasicNameValuePair("paramb", "")); APIRequest request = new APIRequest(URL, params); try { RequestXML rxml = new RequestXML(); AsyncTask<APIRequest, Void, String> a = rxml.execute(request); ... } catch(Exception e) { e.printStackTrace(); } return null; } That should be working correctly. Now the RequestXML class part: class RequestXML extends AsyncTask<APIRequest, Void, String>{ @Override protected String doInBackground(APIRequest... uri) { HttpClient httpclient = new DefaultHttpClient(); String completeUrl = uri[0].url; // ... Add parameters to URL ... HttpGet request = null; try { request = new HttpGet(new URI(completeUrl)); } catch (URISyntaxException e1) { e1.printStackTrace(); } HttpResponse response; String responseString = ""; try { response = httpclient.execute(request); StatusLine statusLine = response.getStatusLine(); if(statusLine.getStatusCode() == HttpStatus.SC_OK){ // .. It crashes here, because statusLine.getStatusCode() returns a 404 instead of a 200. The xml is just plain xml, nothing special about it. I changed the contents of the .htaccess file into "ALLOW FROM ALL" (works, cause the browser on my mobile device can access it and shows the correct xml). I am running Android 4.0.4 and I am using the default browser AND chrome on my mobile device. I am using MoWeS to host the website on my PC. Any help would be appreciated and if you need to know anything before you can find an answer to this problem, I'll be more than happy to give you that info. Thank you for you time! Cheers.

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• Button with cell inside to big

  - by josh_24_2

  When i load it loads its cell with the button inside to big.Link to an example image: http://i.stack.imgur.com/x5j40.jpg. Also is there a way to change size of cells :) Please help me, If you need more info please must ask and I will be happy to give more information. <div class="content"> <?php $con = mysql_connect("","",""); if (!$con) { die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error()); } mysql_select_db("", $con); $result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM users ORDER by user_id"); echo "<link rel='stylesheet' href='<?php echo URL; ?>public/css/style.css' /><div class='CSSTableGenerator' > <table > <tr> <td> </td> <td> ID </td> <td > Username </td> <td> Email </td> <td> Admin </td> <td> User Active </td> </tr>"; while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) { if ($row['user_perm_level'] == "2") { $admin = 'Yes'; } else { $admin = 'No'; } if ($row['user_active'] == "1") { $active = 'Yes'; } else { $active = 'No'; } echo "<tr>"; echo "<td><input type='checkbox' name='1' value='1'></td>"; echo "<td>" . $row['user_id'] . "</td>"; echo "<td>" . $row['user_name'] . "</td>"; echo "<td>" . $row['user_email'] . "</td>"; echo "<td>" . $admin . "</td>"; echo "<td>" . $active . "</td>"; echo "</tr>"; } echo "</table></div>"; mysql_close($con); ?> </div> Thanks josh_24_2

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• Trying to reinvent the wheel of StackOverflow to have a good learning experience. Need some suggesti

  - by Legend

  I want to learn and am not able to do it unless I have a real "mission" to complete. SO is my favorite and I can't imagine a better experience than actually recreating it but not in ASP. I'd like to use PHP+MySQL+jQuery. So far, I have been a self-taught programmer but I would like to master one paradigm that forces you to adhere to the standards. For instance, recently, jQuery forced me to use some "rules". The plugins were supposed to be written in a particular way and that's it. When I started off, everything seemed like Greek and Latin but when I finished a very small plugin, I felt really happy because it forced me to program in a certain way. I am looking for something like this only in a larger project. I've heard a lot about MVC and all but I am confused about the various frameworks out there. Zend seems awesome but looks heavy at the same time and also requires you to have a lot more control over the web-server whereas CakePHP is a good and a fast framework that needs only little control. Do I use one of these or just write my own MVC? I have the following goals: Goals: Site should be fast - I know this depends on my coding skills but I will learn on my way. The framework itself should not slow me down) Setting up the site should not require you to use command-line - This requirement is ok during development. But some frameworks like Symphony require you to initialize certain things through command-line Should support pluggable modules - For instance, if I want to be able to use the FCK editor, I should be able to organize things in a good way. Should be possible to extend - For instance, SO is mainly a Q&A site but I should be able to logically extend it into an Idea Management System (optional but I'm curious). This goes more into code re-usability I guess. I am comfortable with MySQL so I should be done with database design etc. with some serious effort. As for PHP, I can write code on my own but haven't really used any frameworks that much. jQuery, I started off recently and love it. I would be glad if someone can guide me during these initial steps. Precisely, when designing something like SO, I have the following questions: Do I use a framework? If yes, should it be MVC? If MVC, which one is a good and a scalable one? (I'd love something like jQuery that will not die anytime soon) How do I balance the functionality? The same logic can sometimes be made server centric or client centric. (more Ajax?). Is it a good idea to make a heavy javascript site considering the recent advances on client-side JS processing? Just in case anyone is wondering, I am not interested in commercializing any of this. I need a reason to learn something :)

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• Can I execute a "variable statements" within a function and without defines.

  - by René Nyffenegger

  I am facing a problem that I cannot see how it is solvable without #defines or incuring a performance impact although I am sure that someone can point me to a solution. I have an algorithm that sort of produces a (large) series of values. For simplicity's sake, in the following I pretend it's a for loop in a for loop, although in my code it's more complex than that. In the core of the loop I need to do calculations with the values being produced. Although the algorithm for the values stays the same, the calculations vary. So basically, what I have is: void normal() { // "Algorithm" producing numbers (x and y): for (int x=0 ; x<1000 ; x++) { for (int y=0 ; y<1000 ; y++) { // Calculation with numbers being produced: if ( x+y == 800 && y > 790) { std::cout << x << ", " << y << std::endl; } // end of calculation }} } So, the only part I need to change is if ( x+y == 800 && y > 790) { std::cout << x << ", " << y << std::endl; } So, in order to solve that, I could construct an abstract base class: class inner_0 { public: virtual void call(int x, int y) = 0; }; and derive a "callable" class from it: class inner : public inner_0 { public: virtual void call(int x, int y) { if ( x+y == 800 && y > 790) { std::cout << x << ", " << y << std::endl; } } }; I can then pass an instance of the class to the "algorithm" like so: void O(inner i) { for (int x=0 ; x<1000 ; x++) { for (int y=0 ; y<1000 ; y++) { i.call(x,y); }} } // somewhere else.... inner I; O(I); In my case, I incur a performance hit because there is an indirect call via virtual function table. So I was thinking about a way around it. It's possible with two #defines: #define OUTER \ for (int x=0 ; x<1000 ; x++) { \ for (int y=0 ; y<1000 ; y++) { \ INNER \ }} // later... #define INNER \ if (x + y == 800 && y > 790) \ std::cout << x << ", " << y << std::endl; OUTER While this certainly works, I am not 100% happy with it because I don't necessarly like #defines. So, my question: is there a better way for what I want to achieve?

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• Dynamic Type to do away with Reflection

  - by Rick Strahl

  The dynamic type in C# 4.0 is a welcome addition to the language. One thing I’ve been doing a lot with it is to remove explicit Reflection code that’s often necessary when you ‘dynamically’ need to walk and object hierarchy. In the past I’ve had a number of ReflectionUtils that used string based expressions to walk an object hierarchy. With the introduction of dynamic much of the ReflectionUtils code can be removed for cleaner code that runs considerably faster to boot. The old Way - Reflection Here’s a really contrived example, but assume for a second, you’d want to dynamically retrieve a Page.Request.Url.AbsoluteUrl based on a Page instance in an ASP.NET Web Page request. The strongly typed version looks like this: string path = Page.Request.Url.AbsolutePath; Now assume for a second that Page wasn’t available as a strongly typed instance and all you had was an object reference to start with and you couldn’t cast it (right I said this was contrived :-)) If you’re using raw Reflection code to retrieve this you’d end up writing 3 sets of Reflection calls using GetValue(). Here’s some internal code I use to retrieve Property values as part of ReflectionUtils: /// <summary> /// Retrieve a property value from an object dynamically. This is a simple version /// that uses Reflection calls directly. It doesn't support indexers. /// </summary> /// <param name="instance">Object to make the call on</param> /// <param name="property">Property to retrieve</param> /// <returns>Object - cast to proper type</returns> public static object GetProperty(object instance, string property) { return instance.GetType().GetProperty(property, ReflectionUtils.MemberAccess).GetValue(instance, null); } If you want more control over properties and support both fields and properties as well as array indexers a little more work is required: /// <summary> /// Parses Properties and Fields including Array and Collection references. /// Used internally for the 'Ex' Reflection methods. /// </summary> /// <param name="Parent"></param> /// <param name="Property"></param> /// <returns></returns> private static object GetPropertyInternal(object Parent, string Property) { if (Property == "this" || Property == "me") return Parent; object result = null; string pureProperty = Property; string indexes = null; bool isArrayOrCollection = false; // Deal with Array Property if (Property.IndexOf("[") > -1) { pureProperty = Property.Substring(0, Property.IndexOf("[")); indexes = Property.Substring(Property.IndexOf("[")); isArrayOrCollection = true; } // Get the member MemberInfo member = Parent.GetType().GetMember(pureProperty, ReflectionUtils.MemberAccess)[0]; if (member.MemberType == MemberTypes.Property) result = ((PropertyInfo)member).GetValue(Parent, null); else result = ((FieldInfo)member).GetValue(Parent); if (isArrayOrCollection) { indexes = indexes.Replace("[", string.Empty).Replace("]", string.Empty); if (result is Array) { int Index = -1; int.TryParse(indexes, out Index); result = CallMethod(result, "GetValue", Index); } else if (result is ICollection) { if (indexes.StartsWith("\"")) { // String Index indexes = indexes.Trim('\"'); result = CallMethod(result, "get_Item", indexes); } else { // assume numeric index int index = -1; int.TryParse(indexes, out index); result = CallMethod(result, "get_Item", index); } } } return result; } /// <summary> /// Returns a property or field value using a base object and sub members including . syntax. /// For example, you can access: oCustomer.oData.Company with (this,"oCustomer.oData.Company") /// This method also supports indexers in the Property value such as: /// Customer.DataSet.Tables["Customers"].Rows[0] /// </summary> /// <param name="Parent">Parent object to 'start' parsing from. Typically this will be the Page.</param> /// <param name="Property">The property to retrieve. Example: 'Customer.Entity.Company'</param> /// <returns></returns> public static object GetPropertyEx(object Parent, string Property) { Type type = Parent.GetType(); int at = Property.IndexOf("."); if (at < 0) { // Complex parse of the property return GetPropertyInternal(Parent, Property); } // Walk the . syntax - split into current object (Main) and further parsed objects (Subs) string main = Property.Substring(0, at); string subs = Property.Substring(at + 1); // Retrieve the next . section of the property object sub = GetPropertyInternal(Parent, main); // Now go parse the left over sections return GetPropertyEx(sub, subs); } As you can see there’s a fair bit of code involved into retrieving a property or field value reliably especially if you want to support array indexer syntax. This method is then used by a variety of routines to retrieve individual properties including one called GetPropertyEx() which can walk the dot syntax hierarchy easily. Anyway with ReflectionUtils I can  retrieve Page.Request.Url.AbsolutePath using code like this: string url = ReflectionUtils.GetPropertyEx(Page, "Request.Url.AbsolutePath") as string; This works fine, but is bulky to write and of course requires that I use my custom routines. It’s also quite slow as the code in GetPropertyEx does all sorts of string parsing to figure out which members to walk in the hierarchy. Enter dynamic – way easier! .NET 4.0’s dynamic type makes the above really easy. The following code is all that it takes: object objPage = Page; // force to object for contrivance :) dynamic page = objPage; // convert to dynamic from untyped object string scriptUrl = page.Request.Url.AbsolutePath; The dynamic type assignment in the first two lines turns the strongly typed Page object into a dynamic. The first assignment is just part of the contrived example to force the strongly typed Page reference into an untyped value to demonstrate the dynamic member access. The next line then just creates the dynamic type from the Page reference which allows you to access any public properties and methods easily. It also lets you access any child properties as dynamic types so when you look at Intellisense you’ll see something like this when typing Request.: In other words any dynamic value access on an object returns another dynamic object which is what allows the walking of the hierarchy chain. Note also that the result value doesn’t have to be explicitly cast as string in the code above – the compiler is perfectly happy without the cast in this case inferring the target type based on the type being assigned to. The dynamic conversion automatically handles the cast when making the final assignment which is nice making for natural syntnax that looks *exactly* like the fully typed syntax, but is completely dynamic. Note that you can also use indexers in the same natural syntax so the following also works on the dynamic page instance: string scriptUrl = page.Request.ServerVariables["SCRIPT_NAME"]; The dynamic type is going to make a lot of Reflection code go away as it’s simply so much nicer to be able to use natural syntax to write out code that previously required nasty Reflection syntax. Another interesting thing about the dynamic type is that it actually works considerably faster than Reflection. Check out the following methods that check performance: void Reflection() { Stopwatch stop = new Stopwatch(); stop.Start(); for (int i = 0; i < reps; i++) { // string url = ReflectionUtils.GetProperty(Page,"Title") as string;// "Request.Url.AbsolutePath") as string; string url = Page.GetType().GetProperty("Title", ReflectionUtils.MemberAccess).GetValue(Page, null) as string; } stop.Stop(); Response.Write("Reflection: " + stop.ElapsedMilliseconds.ToString()); } void Dynamic() { Stopwatch stop = new Stopwatch(); stop.Start(); dynamic page = Page; for (int i = 0; i < reps; i++) { string url = page.Title; //Request.Url.AbsolutePath; } stop.Stop(); Response.Write("Dynamic: " + stop.ElapsedMilliseconds.ToString()); } The dynamic code runs in 4-5 milliseconds while the Reflection code runs around 200+ milliseconds! There’s a bit of overhead in the first dynamic object call but subsequent calls are blazing fast and performance is actually much better than manual Reflection. Dynamic is definitely a huge win-win situation when you need dynamic access to objects at runtime.© Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2010Posted in .NET  CSharp  

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• Ajax Control Toolkit July 2011 Release and the New HTML Editor Extender

  - by Stephen Walther

  I’m happy to announce the July 2011 release of the Ajax Control Toolkit which includes important bug fixes and a completely new HTML Editor Extender control. You can download the July 2011 Release by visiting the Ajax Control Toolkit CodePlex site at: http://AjaxControlToolkit.CodePlex.com Using the New HTML Editor Extender Control You can use the new HTML Editor Extender to extend any standard ASP.NET TextBox control so that it supports rich formatting such as bold, italics, bulleted lists, numbered lists, typefaces and different foreground and background colors. The following code illustrates how you can extend a standard ASP.NET TextBox control with the HtmlEditorExtender: <%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="Simple.aspx.cs" Inherits="WebApplication1.Simple" %> <%@ Register TagPrefix="asp" Namespace="AjaxControlToolkit" Assembly="AjaxControlToolkit" %> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head runat="server"> <title>Simple</title> </head> <body> <form id="form1" runat="server"> <asp:ToolkitScriptManager runat="Server" /> <asp:TextBox ID="txtComments" TextMode="MultiLine" Columns="60" Rows="8" runat="server" /> <asp:HtmlEditorExtender TargetControlID="txtComments" runat="server" /> </form> </body> </html> This page has the following three controls: ToolkitScriptManager – The ToolkitScriptManager renders all of the scripts required by the Ajax Control Toolkit. TextBox – The TextBox control is a standard ASP.NET TextBox which is set to display multiple lines (a TextArea instead of an Input element). HtmlEditorExtender – The HtmlEditorExtender is set to extend the TextBox control. You can use the standard TextBox Text property to read the rich text entered into the TextBox control on the server. Lightweight and HTML5 The HTML Editor Extender works on all modern browsers including the most recent versions of Mozilla Firefox (Firefox 5), Google Chrome (Chrome 12), and Apple Safari (Safari 5). Furthermore, the HTML Editor Extender is compatible with Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 and newer. The HTML Editor Extender is very lightweight. It takes advantage of the HTML5 ContentEditable attribute so it does not require an iframe or complex browser workarounds. If you select View Source in your browser while using the HTML Editor Extender, we hope that you will be pleasantly surprised by how little markup and script is generated by the HTML Editor Extender. Customizable Toolbar Buttons Depending on the web application that you are building, you will want to display different toolbar buttons with the HTML Editor Extender. One of the design goals of the HTML Editor Extender was to make it very easy for you to customize the toolbar buttons. Imagine, for example, that you want to use the HTML Editor Extender when accepting comments on blog posts. In that case, you might want to restrict the type of formatting that a user can display. You might want to enable a user to format text as bold or italic but you do not want the user to make any other formatting changes. The following page illustrates how you can customize the HTML Editor Extender toolbar: <%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="CustomToolbar.aspx.cs" Inherits="WebApplication1.CustomToolbar" %> <%@ Register TagPrefix="asp" Namespace="AjaxControlToolkit" Assembly="AjaxControlToolkit" %> <html> <head runat="server"> <title>Custom Toolbar</title> </head> <body> <form id="form1" runat="server"> <asp:ToolkitScriptManager Runat="server" /> <asp:TextBox ID="txtComments" TextMode="MultiLine" Columns="50" Rows="10" Text="Hello <b>world!</b>" Runat="server" /> <asp:HtmlEditorExtender TargetControlID="txtComments" runat="server"> <Toolbar> <asp:Bold /> <asp:Italic /> </Toolbar> </asp:HtmlEditorExtender> </form> </body> </html> Notice that the HTML Editor Extender in the page above has a Toolbar subtag. You can list the toolbar buttons which you want to appear within the subtag. In the case above, only Bold and Italic buttons are displayed. Here is a complete list of the Toolbar buttons currently supported by the HTML Editor Extender: Undo Redo Bold Italic Underline StrikeThrough Subscript Superscript JustifyLeft JustifyCenter JustifyRight JustifyFull InsertOrderedList InsertUnorderedList CreateLink UnLink RemoveFormat SelectAll UnSelect Delete Cut Copy Paste BackgroundColorSelector ForeColorSelector FontNameSelector FontSizeSelector Indent Outdent InsertHorizontalRule HorizontalSeparator Of course the HTML Editor Extender was designed to be extensible. You can create your own buttons and add them to the control. Compatible with the AntiXSS Library When using the HTML Editor Extender on a public facing website, we strongly recommend that you use the HTML Editor Extender with the AntiXSS Library. If you allow users to submit arbitrary HTML, and you don’t take any action to strip out malicious markup, then you are opening your website to Cross-Site Scripting Attacks (XSS attacks). The HTML Editor Extender uses the Provider Model to support different Sanitizer Providers. The July 2011 release of the Ajax Control Toolkit ships with a single Sanitizer Provider which uses the AntiXSS library (see http://AntiXss.CodePlex.com ). A Sanitizer Provider is responsible for sanitizing HTML markup by removing any malicious elements, attributes, and attribute values. For example, the AntiXss Sanitizer Provider will take the following block of HTML: <b><a href=""javascript:doEvil()"">Visit Grandma</a></b> <script>doEvil()</script> And return the following sanitized block of HTML: <b><a href="">Visit Grandma</a></b> Notice that the JavaScript href and <SCRIPT> tag are both stripped out. Be aware that there are a depressingly large number of ways to sneak evil markup into your HTML. You definitely want a Sanitizer as a safety net. Before you can use the AntiXSS Sanitizer Provider, you must add three assemblies to your web application: AntiXSSLibrary.dll, HtmlSanitizationLibrary.dll, and SanitizerProviders.dll. All three assemblies are included with the CodePlex download of the Ajax Control Toolkit in the SanitizerProviders folder. Here’s how you modify your web.config file to use the AntiXSS Sanitizer Provider: <configuration> <configSections> <sectionGroup name="system.web"> <section name="sanitizer" requirePermission="false" type="AjaxControlToolkit.Sanitizer.ProviderSanitizerSection, AjaxControlToolkit"/> </sectionGroup> </configSections> <system.web> <compilation targetFramework="4.0" debug="true"/> <sanitizer defaultProvider="AntiXssSanitizerProvider"> <providers> <add name="AntiXssSanitizerProvider" type="AjaxControlToolkit.Sanitizer.AntiXssSanitizerProvider"></add> </providers> </sanitizer> </system.web> </configuration> You can detect whether the HTML Editor Extender is using the AntiXSS Sanitizer Provider by checking the HtmlEditorExtender SanitizerProvider property like this: if (MyHtmlEditorExtender.SanitizerProvider == null) { throw new Exception("Please enable the AntiXss Sanitizer!"); } When the SanitizerProvider property has the value null, you know that a Sanitizer Provider has not been configured in the web.config file. Because the AntiXSS library requires Full Trust, you cannot use the AntiXSS Sanitizer Provider with most shared website hosting providers. Because most shared hosting providers only support Medium Trust and not Full Trust, we do not recommend using the HTML Editor Extender with a public website hosted with a shared hosting provider. Why a New HTML Editor Control? The Ajax Control Toolkit now includes two HTML Editor controls. Why did we introduce a new HTML Editor control when there was already an existing HTML Editor? We think you will like the new HTML Editor much more than the previous one. We had several goals with the new HTML Editor Extender: Lightweight – We wanted to leverage HTML5 to create a lightweight HTML Editor. The new HTML Editor generates much less markup and script than the previous HTML Editor. Secure – We wanted to make it easy to integrate the AntiXSS library with the HTML Editor. If you are creating a public facing website, we strongly recommend that you use the AntiXSS Provider. Customizable – We wanted to make it easy for users to customize the toolbar buttons displayed by the HTML Editor. Compatibility – We wanted to ensure that the HTML Editor will work with the latest versions of the most popular browsers (including Internet Explorer 6 and higher). The old HTML Editor control is still included in the Ajax Control Toolkit and continues to live in the AjaxControlToolkit.HTMLEditor namespace. We have not modified the control and you can continue to use the control in the same way as you have used it in the past. However, we hope that you will consider migrating to the new HTML Editor Extender for the reasons listed above. Summary We’ve introduced a new Ajax Control Toolkit control with this release. I want to thank the developers and testers on the Superexpert team for the huge amount of work which they put into this control. It was a non-trivial task to build an entirely new control which has the complexity of the HTML Editor in less than 6 weeks. Please let us know what you think! We want to hear your feedback. If you discover issues with the new HTML Editor Extender control, or you have questions about the control, or you have ideas for how it can be improved, then please post them to this blog. Tomorrow starts a new sprint

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• September 2011 Release of the Ajax Control Toolkit

  - by Stephen Walther

  I’m happy to announce the release of the September 2011 Ajax Control Toolkit. This release has several important new features including: Date ranges – When using the Calendar extender, you can specify a start and end date and a user can pick only those dates which fall within the specified range. This was the fourth top-voted feature request for the Ajax Control Toolkit at CodePlex. Twitter Control – You can use the new Twitter control to display recent tweets associated with a particular Twitter user or tweets which match a search query. Gravatar Control – You can use the new Gravatar control to display a unique image for each user of your website. Users can upload custom images to the Gravatar.com website or the Gravatar control can display a unique, auto-generated, image for a user. You can download this release this very minute by visiting CodePlex: http://AjaxControlToolkit.CodePlex.com Alternatively, you can execute the following command from the Visual Studio NuGet console: Improvements to the Ajax Control Toolkit Calendar Control The Ajax Control Toolkit Calendar extender control is one of the most heavily used controls from the Ajax Control Toolkit. The developers on the Superexpert team spent the last sprint focusing on improving this control. There are three important changes that we made to the Calendar control: we added support for date ranges, we added support for highlighting today’s date, and we made fixes to several bugs related to time zones and daylight savings. Using Calendar Date Ranges One of the top-voted feature requests for the Ajax Control Toolkit was a request to add support for date ranges to the Calendar control (this was the fourth most voted feature request at CodePlex). With the latest release of the Ajax Control Toolkit, the Calendar extender now supports date ranges. For example, the following page illustrates how you can create a popup calendar which allows a user only to pick dates between March 2, 2009 and May 16, 2009. <%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="CalendarDateRange.aspx.cs" Inherits="WebApplication1.CalendarDateRange" %> <%@ Register TagPrefix="asp" Namespace="AjaxControlToolkit" Assembly="AjaxControlToolkit" %> <html> <head runat="server"> <title>Calendar Date Range</title> </head> <body> <form id="form1" runat="server"> <asp:ToolkitScriptManager ID="tsm" runat="server" /> <asp:TextBox ID="txtHotelReservationDate" runat="server" /> <asp:CalendarExtender ID="Calendar1" TargetControlID="txtHotelReservationDate" StartDate="3/2/2009" EndDate="5/16/2009" SelectedDate="3/2/2009" runat="server" /> </form> </body> </html> This page contains three controls: an Ajax Control Toolkit ToolkitScriptManager control, a standard ASP.NET TextBox control, and an Ajax Control Toolkit CalendarExtender control. Notice that the Calendar control includes StartDate and EndDate properties which restrict the range of valid dates. The Calendar control shows days, months, and years outside of the valid range as struck out. You cannot select days, months, or years which fall outside of the range. The following video illustrates interacting with the new date range feature: If you want to experiment with a live version of the Ajax Control Toolkit Calendar extender control then you can visit the Calendar Sample Page at the Ajax Control Toolkit Sample Site. Highlighted Today’s Date Another highly requested feature for the Calendar control was support for highlighting today’s date. The Calendar control now highlights the user’s current date regardless of the user’s time zone. Fixes to Time Zone and Daylight Savings Time Bugs We fixed several significant Calendar extender bugs related to time zones and daylight savings time. For example, previously, when you set the Calendar control’s SelectedDate property to the value 1/1/2007 then the selected data would appear as 12/31/2006 or 1/1/2007 or 1/2/2007 depending on the server time zone. For example, if your server time zone was set to Samoa (UTC-11:00), then setting SelectedDate=”1/1/2007” would result in “12/31/2006” being selected in the Calendar. Users of the Calendar extender control found this behavior confusing. After careful consideration, we decided to change the Calendar extender so that it interprets all dates as UTC dates. In other words, if you set StartDate=”1/1/2007” then the Calendar extender parses the date as 1/1/2007 UTC instead of parsing the date according to the server time zone. By interpreting all dates as UTC dates, we avoid all of the reported issues with the SelectedDate property showing the wrong date. Furthermore, when you set the StartDate and EndDate properties, you know that the same StartDate and EndDate will be selected regardless of the time zone associated with the server or associated with the browser. The date 1/1/2007 will always be the date 1/1/2007. The New Twitter Control This release of the Ajax Control Toolkit introduces a new twitter control. You can use the Twitter control to display recent tweets associated with a particular twitter user. You also can use this control to show the results of a twitter search. The following page illustrates how you can use the Twitter control to display recent tweets made by Scott Hanselman: <%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="TwitterProfile.aspx.cs" Inherits="WebApplication1.TwitterProfile" %> <%@ Register TagPrefix="asp" Namespace="AjaxControlToolkit" Assembly="AjaxControlToolkit" %> <html > <head runat="server"> <title>Twitter Profile</title> </head> <body> <form id="form1" runat="server"> <asp:ToolkitScriptManager ID="tsm" runat="server" /> <asp:Twitter ID="Twitter1" ScreenName="shanselman" runat="server" /> </form> </body> </html> This page includes two Ajax Control Toolkit controls: the ToolkitScriptManager control and the Twitter control. The Twitter control is set to display tweets from Scott Hanselman (shanselman): You also can use the Twitter control to display the results of a search query. For example, the following page displays all recent tweets related to the Ajax Control Toolkit: Twitter limits the number of times that you can interact with their API in an hour. Twitter recommends that you cache results on the server (https://dev.twitter.com/docs/rate-limiting). By default, the Twitter control caches results on the server for a duration of 5 minutes. You can modify the cache duration by assigning a value (in seconds) to the Twitter control's CacheDuration property. The Twitter control wraps a standard ASP.NET ListView control. You can customize the appearance of the Twitter control by modifying its LayoutTemplate, StatusTemplate, AlternatingStatusTemplate, and EmptyDataTemplate. To learn more about the new Twitter control, visit the live Twitter Sample Page. The New Gravatar Control The September 2011 release of the Ajax Control Toolkit also includes a new Gravatar control. This control makes it easy to display a unique image for each user of your website. A Gravatar is associated with an email address. You can visit Gravatar.com and upload an image and associate the image with your email address. That way, every website which uses Gravatars (such as the www.ASP.NET website) will display your image next to your name. For example, I visited the Gravatar.com website and associated an image of a Koala Bear with the email address [email protected]. The following page illustrates how you can use the Gravatar control to display the Gravatar image associated with the [email protected] email address: <%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="GravatarDemo.aspx.cs" Inherits="WebApplication1.GravatarDemo" %> <%@ Register TagPrefix="asp" Namespace="AjaxControlToolkit" Assembly="AjaxControlToolkit" %> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head id="Head1" runat="server"> <title>Gravatar Demo</title> </head> <body> <form id="form1" runat="server"> <asp:ToolkitScriptManager ID="tsm" runat="server" /> <asp:Gravatar ID="Gravatar1" Email="[email protected]" runat="server" /> </form> </body> </html> The page above simply displays the Gravatar image associated with the [email protected] email address: If a user has not uploaded an image to Gravatar.com then you can auto-generate a unique image for the user from the user email address. The Gravatar control supports four types of auto-generated images: Identicon -- A different geometric pattern is generated for each unrecognized email. MonsterId -- A different image of a monster is generated for each unrecognized email. Wavatar -- A different image of a face is generated for each unrecognized email. Retro -- A different 8-bit arcade-style face is generated for each unrecognized email. For example, there is no Gravatar image associated with the email address [email protected]. The following page displays an auto-generated MonsterId for this email address: <%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="GravatarMonster.aspx.cs" Inherits="WebApplication1.GravatarMonster" %> <%@ Register TagPrefix="asp" Namespace="AjaxControlToolkit" Assembly="AjaxControlToolkit" %> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head id="Head1" runat="server"> <title>Gravatar Monster</title> </head> <body> <form id="form1" runat="server"> <asp:ToolkitScriptManager ID="tsm" runat="server" /> <asp:Gravatar ID="Gravatar1" Email="[email protected]" DefaultImageBehavior="MonsterId" runat="server" /> </form> </body> </html> The page above generates the following image automatically from the supplied email address: To learn more about the properties of the new Gravatar control, visit the live Gravatar Sample Page. ASP.NET Connections Talk on the Ajax Control Toolkit If you are interested in learning more about the changes that we are making to the Ajax Control Toolkit then please come to my talk on the Ajax Control Toolkit at the upcoming ASP.NET Connections conference. In the talk, I will present a summary of the changes that we have made to the Ajax Control Toolkit over the last several months and discuss our future plans. Do you have ideas for new Ajax Control Toolkit controls? Ideas for improving the toolkit? Come to my talk – I would love to hear from you. You can register for the ASP.NET Connections conference by visiting the following website: Register for ASP.NET Connections   Summary The previous release of the Ajax Control Toolkit – the July 2011 Release – has had over 100,000 downloads. That is a huge number of developers who are working with the Ajax Control Toolkit. We are really excited about the new features which we added to the Ajax Control Toolkit in the latest September sprint. We hope that you find the updated Calender control, the new Twitter control, and the new Gravatar control valuable when building your ASP.NET Web Forms applications.

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Sunday, March 14, 2010

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Sunday, March 14, 2010New ProjectsBeerMath.net: BeerMath.net lets brewers calculate expected values for their recipes. Written entirely in C#, it can be used in any .Net language.Bible Study: Данный проект предусматривает создание программного обеспечения, предоставляющего пользователю гибкие и мощные инструменты для чтения и изучения Пи...E-Messenger: Description détaillé du sujet : Développement d'une application (client lourd) de messagerie instantané et de partage de fichier interne à ESPRIT....Facebook Azure Toolkit: The Facebook Azure Toolit provides a flexible and scalable hosting platform for the smallest and largest of Facebook applications. This toolkit hel...Gherkin editor: A simple text editor to write specifications using Gherkin. The editor supports code completion, syntax highlighting, spell checker and more.Mydra Center: Mydra Center is a Media center with the particularity to be very flexible, allowing developers to extend it and add new features. The philosophy be...MyTwits - A rich Twitter client for Windows powered by WPF: MyTwits is a free Twitter client for Windows XP/Vista/7 powered by WPF which gives you freedom to twit right from your desktop. You can do almost a...na laborke: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssssssssssddddddddddddddddddddfffffffffffffNMTools: The "Network Management Tools" (NMTools) complete OpenSLIM CMDB capa­bil­i­ties with Network Discovery, Automa­tion and Con­fig­u­ra­tion Man­age­m...orionSRO: This project aims to make a fully functional server.Project Naduvar: Project Naduvar, is a centralized Locking Service in distribute systems. You can use this service in any of your existing distributed application. ...Silverlight Input Keyboard: Silverlight Input Keyboard and Behaviorsuh: uh.py is a command line tool that helps developers porting native projects from a case-insensitive filesystem to a case-sensitive filesystem by sea...New ReleasesAmiBroker Plug-ins with C#. A non official AmiBroker Plug-in SDK: AmiBroker Plug-in SDK v0.0.3: Small changesAmiBroker Plug-ins with C#. A non official AmiBroker Plug-in SDK: AmiBroker Plug-in SDK v0.0.4: Small updatesAStyle AddIn for SharpDevelop (Alex): 2.0 Production: #D 3.* add in with updated GUI elements.Coding Cockerel code samples: Validation with ASP .NET MVC and jQuery: Code sample related to the following blog post, http://codingcockerel.co.uk/consistent-validation-with-asp-net-mvc-and-jquery/.CoreSystem Library: Release - 1.0.3725.10575: This release contains a new class Crypto which makes encryption and descryption of string easy, it uses TripleDESCrystal Mapper: Release - 2.0.3725.11614: This is preview if release 2.0* that I promised, it contains following new features Tracking dirty entities and provide Save function to save all ...Digital Media Processing Project 1: Image Processor: Image Processor Alpha: First Release Features Include: Curve Adjustment Tool Region Growing Segmetation Threshold Segmentation Guassian/Butterworth High/Low pass filter...Exepack.NET: Exepack.NET version 0.03 beta: Exepack.NET is executable file compressor for .NET Framework. It allows to package your .NET application consisting of an executable file and sever...Export code as Code Snippet - Addin for Visual Studio 2008/2010 RC: VS 2010 Release Candidate: This release targets Visual Studio 2010 Release Candidate. It includes full Visual Basic 2010 source code. Fixes already available in previous ve...Facebook Azure Toolkit: 0.9 Beta: This is the initial beta releaseFamily Tree Analyzer: Version 1.0.5.0: Version 1.0.5.0 Change the way Census & Individual reports columns are sized so that user can resize later. Add filter to exclude individuals over...Home Access Plus+: v3.1.2.1: Version 3.1.2.1 Release Change Log: Added SSL SMTP Added SSL Authentication File Changes: ~/bin/CHS Extranet.dll ~/bin/CHS Extranet.pdb ~/we...Home Access Plus+: v3.1.3.1: Version 3.1.3.1 Release Change Log: Fixed Help Desk File Changes: ~/bin/CHS Extranet.dll ~/bin/CHS Extranet.pdb ~/helpdesk/*.htmIceChat: IceChat 2009 Alpha 11.6 Full Install: IceChat 2009 Alpha 11.6 - Full Installer, installs IceChat 2009, and the Emoticons, and will also download .Net Framework 2.0 if needed.IceChat: IceChat 2009 Alpha 11.6 Simple Binaries: This simply the IceChat2009.exe and the IPluginIceChat.dll needed to run IceChat 2009. Is not an installer, does not include emoticons.IceChat: IceChat 2009 Alpha 11.6 Source Code: IceChat 2009 Alpha 11.6 Source CodeLunar Phase Silverlight Gadget: Lunar Phase RC: Stable release. 6 languages Auto refresh. Name / Light problem fixedMiracle OS: Miracle OS Alpha 0.001: Our first release is the Alpha 0.001. Miracle OS doens't work at all, but we work on it. You to? Please help us.MyTwits - A rich Twitter client for Windows powered by WPF: MyTwits BETA 1: I'm happy to release first BETA version of MyTwits. Just download the zip file attached and run setup.exe and you are done! If you've any problem...MyTwits - A rich Twitter client for Windows powered by WPF: MyTwits Source BETA 1: I'm providing you just a project file, I'll upload complete source code once I fine tuned the code.NMock3: NMock3 - Beta 5, .NET 3.5: Hilights of this releaseTutorials have been updated and are in a much better place now. (they compile) Public API is getting locked down. Void me...Project Naduvar: com.declum.naduvar.locking: First ReleaseQueryToGrid Module for DotNetNuke®: QueryToGrid Module version 01.00.01: This module is a proof of concept for both using AJAX in a DotNetNuke® module, and for using SQL in a module. »»» IMPORTANT NOTE ««« Using this mo...SCSI Interface for Multimedia and Block Devices: Release 10 - Almost like a commercial burner!!: I made many changes in the ISOBurn program in this version, making it much more user-friendly than before. You can now add, rename, and delete file...Silverlight Input Keyboard: Initial Release: For more information see http://www.orktane.com/Blog/post/2009/11/09/Virtual-Input-Keyboard-Behaviours-for-Silverlight.aspxThe Silverlight Hyper Video Player [http://slhvp.com]: RC: The release candidate is now in place. Unfortunately, because there are aspects of it that I'm not yet ready to discuss, the code for the RC will...twNowplaying: twNowplaying 1.0.0.3: Press the Twitter icon to get started, don't forget to submit bugs to the issue tracker. What's new This release has some minor UI fixes.uh: 1.0: This is the first stable release. It isn't super full featured but it does the basics.UriTree: UriTree 2.0.0: This release is the WPF version of this application.VCC: Latest build, v2.1.30313.0: Automatic drop of latest buildVr30 OS: Blackra1n: The software was made by blackra1n for jailbreak iphone and ipod touch. Is not the Vr30 OS Team ProjectVr30 OS: Vr30 Operating System Live Cd 1.0: The Operating system linux made by team. For more information go to http://vr30os.tuxfamily.orgWatchersNET.TagCloud: WatchersNET.TagCloud 01.01.00: Whats New Decide between Tags generated from the Search words, or create your own Tag List Custom Tag list changes Small BugfixesZeta Resource Editor: Source code release 2010-03-13: New sources, some small fixes.ZipStorer - A Pure C# Class to Store Files in Zip: ZipStorer 2.35: Improved UTF-8 Support Correct writting of modification time for extracted filesMost Popular ProjectsMetaSharpWBFS ManagerRawrAJAX Control ToolkitMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: DatabaseSilverlight ToolkitWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)ASP.NET Ajax LibraryASP.NETMicrosoft SQL Server Community & SamplesMost Active ProjectsRawrN2 CMSBlogEngine.NETpatterns & practices – Enterprise LibrarySharePoint Team-MailerFasterflect - A Fast and Simple Reflection APICaliburn: An Application Framework for WPF and SilverlightjQuery Library for SharePoint Web ServicesCalcium: A modular application toolset leveraging PrismFarseer Physics Engine

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• 500 Metro Style WP7 Icons

  - by Bil Simser

  I was inspired by The Noun Project, a project that offers up “Metro-style” icons in SVG format. The project is licensed under a public domain license and while it’s a great project, all of the content is in SVG format. Jon Galloway has a great post (from 2007) talking about the differences between SVG and XAML so I highly recommend that for some background. I thought it would be helpful to the WPF/Windows Phone 7/Silverlight community to provide the content in alternative formats for use in your applications. The Goods I’ve put together a package of the 500 icons (502 actually) in PNG, XAML and the original SVG format along with a couple of sample projects so you can see them in action. There’s a WPF desktop app: And a Windows Phone 7 app: Building It To get all the content first I wrote up a quick program to suck the original SVG files. Luckily they’re all in a common path just named 1.SVG, 2.SVG, and so on. Easy sleazy to grab the contents. Once I had 500 SVG files I used the latest copy of XamlTune, an open source CodePlex project that has a command line conversion tool to convert the directory of SVG files into XAML (the tool also created a PNG file of each SVG so that’s just icing on the cake). Conversions The conversion from SVG to XAML isn’t 100%. While you can just drop the content into a WPF app, it doesn’t work that way for WP7. There are just some small adjustments I made to each format so you’ll have to do the same. Follow the information below or refer to the sample applications. As a sample, here’s an icon we want to use: Here’s the original SVG file: <svg version="1.0" id="Layer_1" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" x="0px" y="0px" width="100px" height="94.616px" viewBox="0 0 100 94.616" enable-background="new 0 0 100 94.616" xml:space="preserve"> <path d="M25.076,15.639c4.324,0.009,7.824-3.488,7.82-7.82C32.9,3.512,29.4,0.012,25.076,0c-4.313,0.012-7.814,3.512-7.821,7.819 C17.262,12.15,20.763,15.648,25.076,15.639L25.076,15.639z"/> <path d="M4.593,43.388h6.861l4.137-15.135h1.716L13.22,43.388h24.318l-4.389-15.135h1.817l2.32,7.415 c1.08,3.131,3.852,3.851,6.003,1.162l8.375-10.142c2.651-3.42-2.104-7.021-4.844-4.035l-4.993,5.952 c0.007,0.095-0.96-3.278-0.96-3.278c-1.135-3.978-4.918-7.903-10.595-7.922H19.576c-5.071,0.019-9.043,4.434-9.888,7.214 L4.593,43.388L4.593,43.388z"/> <polygon points="56.206,22.753 56.206,7.163 49.192,7.163 49.192,22.753 56.206,22.753 "/> <path d="M79.87,15.738c4.332-0.014,7.831-3.516,7.82-7.82c0.011-4.332-3.488-7.833-7.82-7.82c-4.306-0.013-7.806,3.488-7.821,7.82 C72.064,12.222,75.564,15.725,79.87,15.738L79.87,15.738z"/> <path d="M89.759,89.556v-43.19h5.751V22.804c0.007-3.079-2.757-5.448-6.71-5.449H70.436c-3.65,0.001-4.539,1.186-5.551,2.168 L49.597,37.889c-3.098,3.848,2.428,8.333,5.55,4.743L69.88,25.226v64.43c-0.019,6.475,9.06,6.686,9.081,0.201v-36.58h1.765v36.379 C80.748,96.109,89.772,96.13,89.759,89.556L89.759,89.556z"/> <polygon points="100,54.035 100,45.155 0,45.155 0,54.035 100,54.035 "/> </svg> Here’s the XAML that XamlTune created. It can be used in any WPF app without any changes: <Canvas Name="Layer_1" Width="100" Height="94.616" ClipToBounds="True" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"> <Path Fill="#FF000000"> <Path.Data> <PathGeometry FillRule="Nonzero" Figures="M25.076,15.639C29.4,15.648 32.9,12.151 32.896,7.819 32.9,3.512 29.4,0.012 25.076,0 20.763,0.012 17.262,3.512 17.255,7.819 17.262,12.15 20.763,15.648 25.076,15.639L25.076,15.639z" /> </Path.Data> </Path> <Path Fill="#FF000000"> <Path.Data> <PathGeometry FillRule="Nonzero" Figures="M4.593,43.388L11.454,43.388 15.591,28.253 17.307,28.253 13.22,43.388 37.538,43.388 33.149,28.253 34.966,28.253 37.286,35.668C38.366,38.799,41.138,39.519,43.289,36.83L51.664,26.688C54.315,23.268,49.56,19.667,46.82,22.653L41.827,28.605C41.834,28.7 40.867,25.327 40.867,25.327 39.732,21.349 35.949,17.424 30.272,17.405L19.576,17.405C14.505,17.424,10.533,21.839,9.688,24.619L4.593,43.388 4.593,43.388z" /> </Path.Data> </Path> <Path Fill="#FF000000"> <Path.Data> <PathGeometry FillRule="Nonzero" Figures="M56.206,22.753L56.206,7.163 49.192,7.163 49.192,22.753 56.206,22.753z" /> </Path.Data> </Path> <Path Fill="#FF000000"> <Path.Data> <PathGeometry FillRule="Nonzero" Figures="M79.87,15.738C84.202,15.724 87.701,12.222 87.69,7.918 87.701,3.586 84.202,0.0849999999999991 79.87,0.097999999999999 75.564,0.084999999999999 72.064,3.586 72.049,7.918 72.064,12.222 75.564,15.725 79.87,15.738L79.87,15.738z" /> </Path.Data> </Path> <Path Fill="#FF000000"> <Path.Data> <PathGeometry FillRule="Nonzero" Figures="M89.759,89.556L89.759,46.366 95.51,46.366 95.51,22.804C95.517,19.725,92.753,17.356,88.8,17.355L70.436,17.355C66.786,17.356,65.897,18.541,64.885,19.523L49.597,37.889C46.499,41.737,52.025,46.222,55.147,42.632L69.88,25.226 69.88,89.656C69.861,96.131,78.94,96.342,78.961,89.857L78.961,53.277 80.726,53.277 80.726,89.656C80.748,96.109,89.772,96.13,89.759,89.556L89.759,89.556z" /> </Path.Data> </Path> <Path Fill="#FF000000"> <Path.Data> <PathGeometry FillRule="Nonzero" Figures="M100,54.035L100,45.155 0,45.155 0,54.035 100,54.035z" /> </Path.Data> </Path> </Canvas> The XAML works AS-IS in a WPF application but there are some changes I did to get it to work in a WP7 app. Here’s the modified XAML in a WP7 application: <Canvas Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="0" Name="Icon_1" Width="100" Height="94.616"> <Path Fill="#FF000000" Data="M25.076,15.639C29.4,15.648 32.9,12.151 32.896,7.819 32.9,3.512 29.4,0.012 25.076,0 20.763,0.012 17.262,3.512 17.255,7.819 17.262,12.15 20.763,15.648 25.076,15.639L25.076,15.639z"> </Path> <Path Fill="#FF000000" Data="M4.593,43.388L11.454,43.388 15.591,28.253 17.307,28.253 13.22,43.388 37.538,43.388 33.149,28.253 34.966,28.253 37.286,35.668C38.366,38.799,41.138,39.519,43.289,36.83L51.664,26.688C54.315,23.268,49.56,19.667,46.82,22.653L41.827,28.605C41.834,28.7 40.867,25.327 40.867,25.327 39.732,21.349 35.949,17.424 30.272,17.405L19.576,17.405C14.505,17.424,10.533,21.839,9.688,24.619L4.593,43.388 4.593,43.388z"> </Path> <Path Fill="#FF000000" Data="M56.206,22.753L56.206,7.163 49.192,7.163 49.192,22.753 56.206,22.753z"> </Path> <Path Fill="#FF000000" Data="M79.87,15.738C84.202,15.724 87.701,12.222 87.69,7.918 87.701,3.586 84.202,0.0849999999999991 79.87,0.097999999999999 75.564,0.084999999999999 72.064,3.586 72.049,7.918 72.064,12.222 75.564,15.725 79.87,15.738L79.87,15.738z"> </Path> <Path Fill="#FF000000" Data="M89.759,89.556L89.759,46.366 95.51,46.366 95.51,22.804C95.517,19.725,92.753,17.356,88.8,17.355L70.436,17.355C66.786,17.356,65.897,18.541,64.885,19.523L49.597,37.889C46.499,41.737,52.025,46.222,55.147,42.632L69.88,25.226 69.88,89.656C69.861,96.131,78.94,96.342,78.961,89.857L78.961,53.277 80.726,53.277 80.726,89.656C80.748,96.109,89.772,96.13,89.759,89.556L89.759,89.556z"> </Path> <Path Fill="#FF000000" Data="M100,54.035L100,45.155 0,45.155 0,54.035 100,54.035z"> </Path> </Canvas> All I did was take the data portion and put it directly into a Data attribute on the Path. Note that while it does show up in the app (on the emulator or device) it wouldn’t show up in Visual Studio for me. Maybe some XAML guru out there can tell me why. You can just as easily use the PNG files in WP7 but if you want the crispness of vector graphics, go for the XAML version. Of course with XamlTune being open source you could always modify the output of that program to cater it to your app. If you do make a change that’s worthy please consider submitting a patch to the project so everyone can benefit. Hope this helps and happy programming! Resources and Links Sample Project and Icons XamlTune an open source project to convert SVG to XAML The Noun Project source of the original files Jon Galloways post on SVG and XAML StackOverflow question on converting SVG to XAML

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• When should I use Areas in TFS instead of Team Projects

  - by Martin Hinshelwood

  Well, it depends…. If you are a small company that creates a finite number of internal projects then you will find it easier to create a single project for each of your products and have TFS do the heavy lifting with reporting, SharePoint sites and Version Control. But what if you are not… Update 9th March 2010 Michael Fourie gave me some feedback which I have integrated. Ed Blankenship via @edblankenship offered encouragement and a nice quote. Ewald Hofman gave me a couple of Cons, and maybe a few more soon. Ewald’s company, Avanade, currently uses Areas, but it looks like the manual management is getting too much and the project is getting cluttered. What if you are likely to have hundreds of projects, possibly with a multitude of internal and external projects? You might have 1 project for a customer or 10. This is the situation that most consultancies find themselves in and thus they need a more sustainable and maintainable option. What I am advocating is that we should have 1 “Team Project” per customer, and use areas to create “sub projects” within that single “Team Project”. "What you describe is what we generally do internally and what we recommend. We make very heavy use of area path to categorize the work within a larger project." - Brian Harry, Microsoft Technical Fellow & Product Unit Manager for Team Foundation Server   "We tend to use areas to segregate multiple projects in the same team project and it works well." - Tiago Pascoal, Visual Studio ALM MVP   "In general, I believe this approach provides consistency [to multi-product engagements] and lowers the administration and maintenance costs. All good." - Michael Fourie, Visual Studio ALM MVP   “@MrHinsh BTW, I'm very much a fan of very large, if not huge, team projects in TFS. Just FYI :) Use Areas & Iterations.” Ed Blankenship, Visual Studio ALM MVP   This would mean that SSW would have a single Team Project called “SSW” that contains all of our internal projects and consequently all of the Areas and Iteration move down one hierarchy to accommodate this. Where we would have had “\SSW\Sprint 1” we now have “\SSW\SqlDeploy\Sprint1” with “SqlDeploy” being our internal project. At the moment SSW has over 70 internal projects and more than 170 total projects in TFS. This method has long term benefits that help to simplify the support model for companies that often have limited internal support time and many projects. But, there are implications as TFS does not provide this model “out-of-the-box”. These implications stretch across Areas, Iterations, Queries, Project Portal and Version Control. Michael made a good comment, he said: I agree with your approach, assuming that in a multi-product engagement with a client, they are happy to adopt the same process template across all products. If they are not, then it’ll either be easy to convince them or there is a valid reason for having a different template - Michael Fourie, Visual Studio ALM MVP   At SSW we have a standard template that we use and this is applied across the board, to all of our projects. We even apply any changes to the core process template to all of our existing projects as well. If you have multiple projects for the same clients on multiple templates and you want to keep it that way, then this approach will not work for you. However, if you want to standardise as we have at SSW then this approach may benefit you as well. Implications around Areas Areas should be used for topological classification/isolation of work items. You can think of this as architecture areas, organisational areas or even the main features of your application. In our scenario there is an additional top level item that represents the Project / Product that we want to chop our Team Project into. Figure: Creating a sub area to represent a product/project is easy. <teamproject> <teamproject>\<Functional Area/module whatever> Becomes: <teamproject> <teamproject>\<ProjectName>\ <teamproject>\<ProjectName>\<Functional Area/module whatever> Implications around Iterations Iterations should be used for chronological classification/isolation of work items. This could include isolated time boxes, milestones or release timelines and really depends on the logical flow of your project or projects. Due to the new level in Area we need to add the same level to Iteration. This is primarily because it is unlikely that the sprints in each of your projects/products will start and end at the same time. This is just a reality of managing multiple projects. Figure: Adding the same Area value to Iteration as the top level item adds flexibility to Iteration. <teamproject>\Sprint 1 Or <teamproject>\Release 1\Sprint 1 Becomes: <teamproject>\<ProjectName>\Sprint 1 Or <teamproject>\<ProjectName>\Release 1\Sprint 1 Implications around Queries Queries are used to filter your work items based on a specified level of granularity. There are a number of queries that are built into a project created using the MSF Agile 5.0 template, but we now have multiple projects and it would be a pain to have to edit all of the work items every time we changed project, and that would only allow one team to work on one project at a time.   Figure: The Queries that are created in a normal MSF Agile 5.0 project do not quite suit our new needs. In order for project contributors to be able to query based on their project we need a couple of things. The first thing I did was to create an “_Area Template” folder that has a copy of the project layout with all the queries setup to filter based on the “_Area Template” Area and the “_Sprint template” you can see in the Area and Iteration views. Figure: The template is currently easily drag and drop, but you then need to edit the queries to point at the right Area and Iteration. This needs a tool. I then created an “Areas” folder to hold all of the area specific queries. So, when you go to create a new TFS Sub-Project you just drag “_Area Template” while holding “Ctrl” and drop it onto “Areas”. There is a little setup here. That said I managed it in around 10 minutes which is not so bad, and I can imagine it being quite easy to build a tool to create these queries Figure: These new queries can be configured in around 10 minutes, which includes setting up the Area and Iteration as well. Version Control What about your source code? Well, that is the easiest of the lot. Just create a sub folder for each of your projects/products.   Figure: Creating sub folders in source control is easy as “Right click | Create new folder”. <teamproject>\DEV\Main\ Becomes: <teamproject>\<ProjectName>\DEV\Main\ Conclusion I think it is up to each company to make a call on how you want to configure your Team Projects and it depends completely on how many projects/products you are going to have for each customer including yourself. If we decide to utilise this route it will require some configuration to get our 170+ projects into this format, and I will probably be writing some tools to help. Pros You only have one project to upgrade when a process template changes – After going through an upgrade of over 170 project prior to the changes in the RC I can tell you that that many projects is no fun. Standardises your Process Template – You will always have the same Process implementation across projects/products without exception You get tighter control over the permissions – Yes, you can do this on a standard Team Project, but it gets a lot easier with practice. You can “move” work items from one “product” to another – Have we not always wanted to do that. You can rename your projects – Wahoo: everyone wants to do this, now you can. One set of Reporting Services reports to manage – You set an area and iteration to run reports anyway, so you may as well set both. Simplified Check-In Policies– There is only one set of check-in policies per client. This simplifies administration of policies. Simplified Alerts – As alerts are applied across multiple projects this simplifies your alert rules as per client. Cons All of these cons could be mitigated by a custom tool that helps automate creation of “Sub-projects” within Team Projects. This custom tool could create areas, Iteration, permissions, SharePoint and queries. It just does not exist yet :) You need to configure the Areas and Iterations You need to configure the permissions You may need to configure sub sites for SharePoint (depends on your requirement) – If you have two projects/products in the same Team Project then you will not see the burn down for each one out-of-the-box, but rather a cumulative for the Team Project. This is not really that much of a problem as you would have to configure your burndown graphs for your current iteration anyway. note: When you create a sub site to a TFS linked portal it will inherit the settings of its parent site :) This is fantastic as it means that you can easily create sub sites and then set the Area and Iteration path in each of the reports to be the correct one. Every team wants their own customization (via Ewald Hofman) - small teams of 2 persons against teams of 30 – or even outsourcing – need their own process, you cannot allow that because everybody gets the same work item types. note: Luckily at SSW this is not a problem as our template is standardised across all projects and customers. Large list of builds (via Ewald Hofman) – As the build list in Team Explorer is just a flat list it can get very cluttered. note: I would mitigate this by removing any build that has not been run in over 30 days. The build template and workflow will still be available in version control, but it will clean the list. Feedback Now that I have explained this method, what do you think? What other pros and cons can you see? What do you think of this approach? Will you be using it? What tools would you like to support you?   Technorati Tags: Visual Studio ALM,TFS Administration,TFS,Team Foundation Server,Project Planning,TFS Customisation

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• The How-To Geek Holiday Gift Guide (Geeky Stuff We Like)

  - by The Geek

  Welcome to the very first How-To Geek Holiday Gift Guide, where we’ve put together a list of our absolute favorites to help you weed through all of the junk out there to pick the perfect gift for anybody. Though really, it’s just a list of the geeky stuff we want. We’ve got a whole range of items on the list, from cheaper gifts that most anybody can afford, to the really expensive stuff that we’re pretty sure nobody is giving us. Stocking Stuffers Here’s a couple of ideas for items that won’t break the bank. LED Keychain Micro-Light   Magcraft 1/8-Inch Rare Earth Cube Magnets Best little LED keychain light around. If they don’t need the penknife of the above item this is the perfect gift. I give them out by the handfuls and nobody ever says anything but good things about them. I’ve got ones that are years old and still running on the same battery.  Price: $8   Geeks cannot resist magnets. Jason bought this pack for his fridge because he was sick of big clunky magnets… these things are amazing. One tiny magnet, smaller than an Altoid mint, can practically hold a clipboard right to the fridge. Amazing. I spend more time playing with them on the counter than I do actually hanging stuff.  Price: $10 Lots of Geeky Mugs   Astronomy Powerful Green Laser Pointer There’s loads of fun, geeky mugs you can find on Amazon or anywhere else—and they are great choices for the geek who loves their coffee. You can get the Caffeine mug pictured here, or go with an Atari one, Canon Lens, or the Aperture mug based on Portal. Your choice. Price: $7   No, it’s not a light saber, but it’s nearly bright enough to be one—you can illuminate low flying clouds at night or just blind some aliens on your day off. All that for an extremely low price. Loads of fun. Price: $15       Geeky TV Shows and Books Sometimes you just want to relax and enjoy a some TV or a good book. Here’s a few choices. The IT Crowd Fourth Season   Doctor Who, Complete Fifth Series Ridiculous, funny show about nerds in the IT department, loved by almost all the geeks here at HTG. Justin even makes this required watching for new hires in his office so they’ll get his jokes. You can pre-order the fourth season, or pick up seasons one, two, or three for even cheaper. Price: $13   It doesn’t get any more nerdy than Eric’s pick, the fifth all-new series of Doctor Who, where the Daleks are hatching a new master plan from the heart of war-torn London. There’s also alien vampires, humanoid reptiles, and a lot more. Price: $52 Battlestar Galactica Complete Series   MAKE: Electronics: Learning Through Discovery Watch the epic fight to save the human race by finding the fabled planet Earth while being hunted by the robotic Cylons. You can grab the entire series on DVD or Blu-ray, or get the seasons individually. This isn’t your average sci-fi TV show. Price: $150 for Blu-ray.   Want to learn the fundamentals of electronics in a fun, hands-on way? The Make:Electronics book helps you build the circuits and learn how it all works—as if you had any more time between all that registry hacking and loading software on your new PC. Price: $21       Geeky Gadgets for the Gadget-Loving Geek Here’s a few of the items on our gadget list, though lets be honest: geeks are going to love almost any gadget, especially shiny new ones. Klipsch Image S4i Premium Noise-Isolating Headset with 3-Button Apple Control   GP2X Caanoo MAME/Console Emulator If you’re a real music geek looking for some serious quality in the headset for your iPhone or iPod, this is the pair that Alex recommends. They aren’t terribly cheap, but you can get the less expensive S3 earphones instead if you prefer. Price: $50-100   Eric says: “As an owner of an older version, I can say the GP2X is one of my favorite gadgets ever. Touted a “Retro Emulation Juggernaut,” GP2X runs Linux and may be the only open source software console available. Sounds too good to be true, but isn’t.” Price: $150 Roku XDS Streaming Player 1080p   Western Digital WD TV Live Plus HD Media Player If you do a lot of streaming over Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon’s Video on Demand, Pandora, and others, the Roku box is a great choice to get your content on your TV without paying a lot of money.  It’s also got Wireless-N built in, and it supports full 1080P HD. Price: $99   If you’ve got a home media collection sitting on a hard drive or a network server, the Western Digital box is probably the cheapest way to get that content on your TV, and it even supports Netflix streaming too. It’ll play loads of formats in full HD quality. Price: $99 Fujitsu ScanSnap S300 Color Mobile Scanner   Doxie, the amazing scanner for documents Trevor said: “This wonderful little scanner has become absolutely essential to me. My desk used to just be a gigantic pile of papers that I didn’t need at the moment, but couldn’t throw away ‘just in case.’ Now, every few weeks, I’ll run that paper pile through this and then happily shred the originals!” Price: $300   If you don’t scan quite as often and are looking for a budget scanner you can throw into your bag, or toss into a drawer in your desk, the Doxie scanner is a great alternative that I’ve been using for a while. It’s half the price, and while it’s not as full-featured as the Fujitsu, it might be a better choice for the very casual user. Price: $150       (Expensive) Gadgets Almost Anybody Will Love If you’re not sure that one of the more geeky presents is gonna work, here’s some gadgets that just about anybody is going to love, especially if they don’t have one already. Of course, some of these are a bit on the expensive side—but it’s a wish list, right? Amazon Kindle       The Kindle weighs less than a paperback book, the screen is amazing and easy on the eyes, and get ready for the kicker: the battery lasts at least a month. We aren’t kidding, either—it really lasts that long. If you don’t feel like spending money for books, you can use it to read PDFs, and if you want to get really geeky, you can hack it for custom screensavers. Price: $139 iPod Touch or iPad       You can’t go wrong with either of these presents—the iPod Touch can do almost everything the iPhone can do, including games, apps, and music, and it has the same Retina display as the iPhone, HD video recording, and a front-facing camera so you can use FaceTime. Price: $229+, depending on model. The iPad is a great tablet for playing games, browsing the web, or just using on your coffee table for guests. It’s well worth buying one—but if you’re buying for yourself, keep in mind that the iPad 2 is probably coming out in 3 months. Price: $500+ MacBook Air  The MacBook Air comes in 11” or 13” versions, and it’s an amazing little machine. It’s lightweight, the battery lasts nearly forever, and it resumes from sleep almost instantly. Since it uses an SSD drive instead of a hard drive, you’re barely going to notice any speed problems for general use. So if you’ve got a lot of money to blow, this is a killer gift. Price: $999 and up. Stuck with No Idea for a Present? Gift Cards! Yeah, you’re not going to win any “thoughtful present” awards with these, but you might just give somebody what they really want—the new Angry Birds HD for their iPad, Cut the Rope, or anything else they want. ITunes Gift Card   Amazon.com Gift Card Somebody in your circle getting a new iPod, iPhone, or iPad? You can get them an iTunes gift card, which they can use to buy music, games or apps. Yep, this way you can gift them a copy of Angry Birds if they don’t already have it. Or even Cut the Rope.   No clue what to get somebody on your list? Amazon gift cards let them buy pretty much anything they want, from organic weirdberries to big screen TVs. Yeah, it’s not as thoughtful as getting them a nice present, but look at the bright side: maybe they’ll get you an Amazon gift card and it’ll balance out. That’s the highlights from our lists—got anything else to add? Share your geeky gift ideas in the comments. Latest Features How-To Geek ETC The How-To Geek Holiday Gift Guide (Geeky Stuff We Like) LCD? LED? Plasma? The How-To Geek Guide to HDTV Technology The How-To Geek Guide to Learning Photoshop, Part 8: Filters Improve Digital Photography by Calibrating Your Monitor Our Favorite Tech: What We’re Thankful For at How-To Geek The How-To Geek Guide to Learning Photoshop, Part 7: Design and Typography Happy Snow Bears Theme for Chrome and Iron [Holiday] Download Full Command and Conquer: Tiberian Sun Game for Free Scorched Cometary Planet Wallpaper Quick Fix: Add the RSS Button Back to the Firefox Awesome Bar Dropbox Desktop Client 1.0.0 RC for Windows, Linux, and Mac Released Hang in There Scrat! – Ice Age Wallpaper

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• What You Need to Know About Windows 8.1

  - by Chris Hoffman

  Windows 8.1 is available to everyone starting today, October 19. The latest version of Windows improves on Windows 8 in every way. It’s a big upgrade, whether you use the desktop or new touch-optimized interface. The latest version of Windows has been dubbed “an apology” by some — it’s definitely more at home on a desktop PC than Windows 8 was. However, it also offers a more fleshed out and mature tablet experience. How to Get Windows 8.1 For Windows 8 users, Windows 8.1 is completely free. It will be available as a download from the Windows Store — that’s the “Store” app in the Modern, tiled interface. Assuming upgrading to the final version will be just like upgrading to the preview version, you’ll likely see a “Get Windows 8.1″ pop-up that will take you to the Windows Store and guide you through the download process. You’ll also be able to download ISO images of Windows 8.1, so can perform a clean install to upgrade. On any new computer, you can just install Windows 8.1 without going through Windows 8. New computers will start to ship with Windows 8.1 and boxed copies of Windows 8 will be replaced by boxed copies of Windows 8.1. If you’re using Windows 7 or a previous version of Windows, the update won’t be free. Getting Windows 8.1 will cost you the same amount as a full copy of Windows 8 — $120 for the standard version. If you’re an average Windows 7 user, you’re likely better off waiting until you buy a new PC with Windows 8.1 included rather than spend this amount of money to upgrade. Improvements for Desktop Users Some have dubbed Windows 8.1 “an apology” from Microsoft, although you certainly won’t see Microsoft referring to it this way. Either way, Steven Sinofsky, who presided over Windows 8′s development, left the company shortly after Windows 8 was released. Coincidentally, Windows 8.1 contains many features that Steven Sinofsky and Microsoft refused to implement. Windows 8.1 offers the following big improvements for desktop users: Boot to Desktop: You can now log in directly to the desktop, skipping the tiled interface entirely. Disable Top-Left and Top-Right Hot Corners: The app switcher and charms bar won’t appear when you move your mouse to the top-left or top-right corners of the screen if you enable this option. No more intrusions into the desktop. The Start Button Returns: Windows 8.1 brings back an always-present Start button on the desktop taskbar, dramatically improving discoverability for new Windows 8 users and providing a bigger mouse target for remote desktops and virtual machines. Crucially, the Start menu isn’t back — clicking this button will open the full-screen Modern interface. Start menu replacements will continue to function on Windows 8.1, offering more traditional Start menus. Show All Apps By Default: Luckily, you can hide the Start screen and its tiles almost entirely. Windows 8.1 can be configured to show a full-screen list of all your installed apps when you click the Start button, with desktop apps prioritized. The only real difference is that the Start menu is now a full-screen interface. Shut Down or Restart From Start Button: You can now right-click the Start button to access Shut down, Restart, and other power options in just as many clicks as you could on Windows 7. Shared Start Screen and Desktop Backgrounds; Windows 8 limited you to just a few Steven Sinofsky-approved background images for your Start screen, but Windows 8.1 allows you to use your desktop background on the Start screen. This can make the transition between the Start screen and desktop much less jarring. The tiles or shortcuts appear to be floating above the desktop rather than off in their own separate universe. Unified Search: Unified search is back, so you can start typing and search your programs, settings, and files all at once — no more awkwardly clicking between different categories when trying to open a Control Panel screen or search for a file. These all add up to a big improvement when using Windows 8.1 on the desktop. Microsoft is being much more flexible — the Start menu is full screen, but Microsoft has relented on so many other things and you’d never have to see a tile if you didn’t want to. For more information, read our guide to optimizing Windows 8.1 for a desktop PC. These are just the improvements specifically for desktop users. Windows 8.1 includes other useful features for everyone, such as deep SkyDrive integration that allows you to store your files in the cloud without installing any additional sync programs. Improvements for Touch Users If you have a Windows 8 or Windows RT tablet or another touch-based device you use the interface formerly known as Metro on, you’ll see many other noticeable improvements. Windows 8′s new interface was half-baked when it launched, but it’s now much more capable and mature. App Updates: Windows 8′s included apps were extremely limited in many cases. For example, Internet Explorer 10 could only display ten tabs at a time and the Mail app was a barren experience devoid of features. In Windows 8.1, some apps — like Xbox Music — have been redesigned from scratch, Internet Explorer allows you to display a tab bar on-screen all the time, while apps like Mail have accumulated quite a few useful features. The Windows Store app has been entirely redesigned and is less awkward to browse. Snap Improvements: Windows 8′s Snap feature was a toy, allowing you to snap one app to a small sidebar at one side of your screen while another app consumed most of your screen. Windows 8.1 allows you to snap two apps side-by-side, seeing each app’s full interface at once. On larger displays, you can even snap three or four apps at once. Windows 8′s ability to use multiple apps at once on a tablet is compelling and unmatched by iPads and Android tablets. You can also snap two of the same apps side-by-side — to view two web pages at once, for example. More Comprehensive PC Settings: Windows 8.1 offers a more comprehensive PC settings app, allowing you to change most system settings in a touch-optimized interface. You shouldn’t have to use the desktop Control Panel on a tablet anymore — or at least not as often. Touch-Optimized File Browsing: Microsoft’s SkyDrive app allows you to browse files on your local PC, finally offering a built-in, touch-optimized way to manage files without using the desktop. Help & Tips: Windows 8.1 includes a Help+Tips app that will help guide new users through its new interface, something Microsoft stubbornly refused to add during development. There’s still no “Modern” version of Microsoft Office apps (aside from OneNote), so you’ll still have to head to use desktop Office apps on tablets. It’s not perfect, but the Modern interface doesn’t feel anywhere near as immature anymore. Read our in-depth look at the ways Microsoft’s Modern interface, formerly known as Metro, is improved in Windows 8.1 for more information. In summary, Windows 8.1 is what Windows 8 should have been. All of these improvements are on top of the many great desktop features, security improvements, and all-around battery life and performance optimizations that appeared in Windows 8. If you’re still using Windows 7 and are happy with it, there’s probably no reason to race out and buy a copy of Windows 8.1 at the rather high price of $120. But, if you’re using Windows 8, it’s a big upgrade no matter what you’re doing. If you buy a new PC and it comes with Windows 8.1, you’re getting a much more flexible and comfortable experience. If you’re holding off on buying a new computer because you don’t want Windows 8, give Windows 8.1 a try — yes, it’s different, but Microsoft has compromised on the desktop while making a lot of improvements to the new interface. You just might find that Windows 8.1 is now a worthwhile upgrade, even if you only want to use the desktop.     

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, April 12, 2010

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, April 12, 2010New Projects3 Hour Game Design Contest: The 3 Hour Game Design Contest is a programming contest for making simple games in 3 hours. 3 hours may not seem like enough time to make a game, b...BI Monkey SSIS ETL Framework: The BI Monkey SSIS ETL Framework is an ETL Execution, Control and Logging system for ETL projects using SSIS. It is supported by a SQL Server metad...Blend Sample Data Helpers: Helper behavior classes to generate sample images and data from Internet sources such as Flickr images. Bold TCP for Delphi 7: Open Sourcing the Bold TCP for Delphi 7.cfThreadingTools: This library project contains classes and extensions which will allow easy handling of multi-threaded UI-accesses.CuBiX_SDL: CuBiX_SDL : CuBiX est un projet personnel.Draglets: Draglets makes it easier for editors and CMS-developers to move and reorder content at their web sites. It's developed in ASP.NET, C# with WCF and ...DSQLT - Dynamic SQL Templates: DSQLT - Dynamic SQL Templates Use Stored Procedures as templates for dynamic SQL statements. Substitute parameters @0-@9 with values like objectna...Edtter: Edtter is a sample web application built on ASP.NET MVC 2 Framework. (Japanese Version Only)Forms Based Authentication Management - SharePoint2007FBA: This is my own update to Stacy Draper's FBABasic project for Forms Based Authentication in MOSS 2007. In additon to managing your fba user's roles,...Height Map to 3D World at XNA: Height Map to 3D World is a XNA project that developed firstly by Eric Grossinger and secondly improved by Karadeniz Technical University Computer ...HouseFly: A simple contact and note taking applicationITM 495 - iPhone Web App: School ProjectKaufleute: This will be finished laterLR: this project is about connecting toPowerShell Integration Services: A set of tools aimed at Extract Transform and Load tasks. Focused on getting the most common ETL tasks done without SSIS. Salient: A collection of, hopefully, useful libraries.Samurai.Validation: Extensible and flexible .Net object validation frameworkSamurai.Workflow: Samurai Workflow is a slim, easy-to-use workflow framework for WPF applications.SharePoint User Management WebPart: SharePoint User Management WebPartUrl shorte(ne)r: It's simple Url Shortener (like: http://tinyurl.com) Currently only Polish language is supported. In future will be provided multi language suppor...Yasbg: Yasbg (pronounced yas-bug) is Yet Another Static Blog Generator. It is made in C# using MarkdownSharp for markdown. Currently in alpha. New Releases.NET Extensions - Extension Methods Library: Release 2010.06: Added an universal approach for grouping extension methods like conversions. Conversion are now available on any data type (it's actually extension...3 Hour Game Design Contest: 3H-GDC mVII: This is the collection of game files for the 7th 3H-GDCB&W Port Scanner: Black`n`White Port Scanner 3.0: B&W Port Scanner 3 includes FTP Server detection tool, Better stability, Optimized memory management, Saving & Opening Result sets ... and more new...BI Monkey SSIS ETL Framework: Framework v1 Alpha: This Alpha release is not fully tested and some functionality is not operating as intended.Bluetooth Radar: Version 1.7: UI Changes Device UserControl Randomly placed devices.BugTracker.NET: BugTracker.NET 3.4.1: For the tasks/time tracking feature, added a way of viewing all the tasks at once, not just the tasks for one bug. Also added a way of exporting a...cfThreadingTools: cfThreadingTools 0.1.1.8: This is the first public available release. Following items are included: BaseTools-class which allows thread-safe setting of properties and callin...DeepZoom Pivot Constructor: DeepZoom Pivot Constructor v0.1: This is a test release of the library platform - Targets .NET 3.5 No samples yet, etc., but it works well :-)DSQLT - Dynamic SQL Templates: Initial release with License Included: nothing changed but license print procedure included the zip file contains database backup SQL script readmeForms Based Authentication Management - SharePoint2007FBA: SharePoint2007FBA 1.0.0.0: Downloads for the Project solution and the WSP package. Please read the Setup Guide. If you are unfamiliar with setting up Forms Based Authenticati...Foursquare BlogEngine Widget: foursquare widget for BlogEngine.NET version 0.3: To see the changes which have been made, visit http://philippkueng.ch/post/Foursquare-BlogEngineNET-widget-version-03.aspx For installation instruc...Framework Detector: FrameworkDetect Support .NET 4 v2: FrameworkDetect Support .NET 4Happy Turtle Plugins for BVI :: Repository Based Versioning for Visual Studio: Happy Turtle 1.0.46860: This is the second beta release of the SVN based version incrementor. Please feel free to create a thread in the discussion tabs and provide feedb...Height Map to 3D World at XNA: 3DWorld: Just open .rar file and extract it any folder and run Proje2Dto3D.exe file.HTML Ruby: 6.20.2: Removed rubyLineSpace option Improved options panel Fixed ruby text font-size rendering issue with complex ruby annotation Removed more waste...HTML Ruby: 6.20.3: Removed unused code Temporary partial fix for Firefox 3.7a4pre nightly buildHTML Ruby: 6.21.0: Added support for current HTML5 ruby annotation format. All ruby annotations are converted to XHTML 1.1 complex ruby annotation.Kooboo HTML form: Kooboo HTML Form Module for 2.1.0.0: Compatible with Kooboo cms 2.1.0.0 Upgrade to MVC 2Kooboo Menu: Kooboo CMS Menu for 2.1.0.0: Compatible with Kooboo cms 2.1.0.0 Upgrade to MVC 2Kooboo Meta: Kooboo Meta Module for 2.1.0.0: Compatible with Kooboo cms 2.1.0.0 Upgrade to MVC 2Kooboo PageMenu: Kooboo CMS PageMenu for 2.1.0.0: Compatible with Kooboo cms 2.1.0.0 Upgrade to MVC 2Kooboo Search: Kooboo CMS Search module for 2.1.0.0: Compatible with Kooboo cms 2.1.0.0 Upgrade to MVC 2Numina Application/Security Framework: Numina.Framework Core 50212: Added bulk import user page Added General settings page for updating Company Name, Theme, and API Key Add/Edit application calls Full URL to h...Rawr: Rawr 2.3.14: - Rawr3: Tons of fixes for Rawr3 compatability and UI. - Significant performance improvements all around. - More fixes and improvements to Wowhea...Rich Ajax empowered Web/Cloud Applications: 6.4 beta 2: The first fully featured version of Visual webGui offering web/cloud development tool that puts all ASP.NET Ajax limits behind with enhanced perfor...SharePoint User Management WebPart: User Management Web part 1.0: Most of the organization have one SharePoint Site which is configured with windows authenticated which is for internal employees having AD authenti...SkeinLibManaged: SkeinLibManaged 1.1.0.0 (Beta): This is the compiled DLL with XML documentation, so there should be plenty of context sensitive help and Intellisense. This is the Release version,...VCC: Latest build, v2.1.30411.0: Automatic drop of latest buildVFPX: Code References 1.1 Beta: Visit the Code References Info Page for complete information about this release.VisioAutomation: VisioAutomation 2.5.0: VisioAutomation 2.5.0- General cleanup/bugfixes - Many low-level changes the the VisioAutomation extension methods - these are far fewer now - This...Visual Studio DSite: English To Spanish Translator (Visual C++ 2008): A simple english to spanish translator made in visual c 2008, using the Google Translate API.WatchersNET CKEditor™ Provider for DotNetNuke: CKEditor Provider 1.10.00: Whats NewFile Browser: Inherits Folder Permissions from DotNetNuke Updated the Editor to Version 3.2.1 revision 5372 Added CkEditor jQuery Adap...Web/Cloud Applications Development Framework | Visual WebGui: 6.4 beta 2: The first fully featured version of Visual webGui offering web/cloud development tool that puts all ASP.NET Ajax limits behind with unique develope...WPF Data Virtualization: 1.0.0.0: First ReleaseYasbg: Yasbg Alpha: ReadmeYet Another Static Blog Generator is a command line utility that generates static html files for blogs. Currently, it is NOT feed enabled. I...異世界の新着動画: Ver. 10-04-12: ニコ生の仕様変更に対応 アンケート時間の設定追加Most Popular ProjectsWBFS ManagerRawrASP.NET Ajax LibraryMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: DatabaseAJAX Control ToolkitSilverlight ToolkitWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)ASP.NETMicrosoft SQL Server Community & SamplesFacebook Developer ToolkitMost Active ProjectsRawrnopCommerce. Open Source online shop e-commerce solution.AutoPocopatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryShweet: SharePoint 2010 Team Messaging built with PexFarseer Physics EngineNB_Store - Free DotNetNuke Ecommerce Catalog ModuleIonics Isapi Rewrite FilterBlogEngine.NETBeanProxy

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