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  • Windows 7: moved system partition, need to update boot partition

    - by Actorclavilis
    So, I have a decently standard Windows7/Ubuntu dual-boot setup, and (since Ubuntu is my usual operating system) I found I needed to grow my Ubuntu partition and shrink my W7 partition. Originally, my system (500G) looked like this: W7 Boot Partition (1.5G) Ubuntu (around 240G) W7 (same as Ubuntu) (on an extended partition, all by itself) Swap (rest of disk, around 16G) Now I'm no stranger to partitioning and filesystem tools, especially GParted, which I used on a Linux boot disk. After my partition editing, the partitions are laid out the same, except the Ubuntu partition is now 407G and the W7 partition is smaller to compensate. I had supposed, based on http://www.gparted.org/faq.php, that I would be able to run the W7 install disk in recovery mode and have it deal with the rearrangement, then possibly reinstall GRUB or something. Well, now the W7 install disk doesn't even see my W7 installation. All my files are there, the NTFS is perfectly clean, no problems there, but the install disk won't notice it. (Of course, the GRUB entry works fine but the W7 boot partition (which I didn't change) refuses to boot it.) So, basically, any ideas on how to fix this? I don't especially want to rerun the entire install procedure because I'll have a bunch of programs to reinstall (never mind redoing GRUB), but I fear that might be the only option. Thanks.

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  • SQL Server: Network pauses after installing cheap SATA card: Is there a solution?

    - by samsmith
    At the risk of being assigned to the "bad DBA" club... I did something desperate, and may have to undo it. Problem: After installing a low cost eSATA board, my SQL Server is intermittently unresponsive (seemingly when there is a lot of IO to the eSATA drive). Questions: 1) Is there a solution to the intermittent unresponsiveness that allows me to keep the eSATA in place? 2) Whether or not (1==true): What is a decent, low cost way to add 1-3 TB storage to SQL for non-critical SQL DBs? Detail: Our SAN is full, and expanding it is costly and will take a month. I have a pressing need to add 1-3 TB for some development DBs (e.g. not mission critical; data loss is OK). As a bandaid, I threw a $20 eSATA PCI board in the Dell 1950 server, and attached an external 2TB eSATA drive. This seemed to work fine, but I notice that our production SQL DBs, and even remote desktop, now experience network "pauses" that they never did before (with both SQL client apps and remote desktop throwing "networking problem" errors). This SQL Server has lots of memory, and runs an instance of SQL 2005 (where all line of business apps reside) and an instance SQL 2008 (for development db's). SQL Server RAM has been appropriately configured, and this setup has run great for years. The server is: Dell 1950 Win2003 x64 14GB RAM PERC controller, 2 mirrored hd's internal Dell SAN over gbit ethernet, dual homed 2 PCIx slots (1 used by NIC for SAN, 1 now in use for eSATA board) Thank you for suggestions!

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  • How can I undo what I did when I accidentally booted linux host inside itself with VMware?

    - by ThomasGHenry
    Hello, I'm dual booting XP and Kubuntu. I wanted to boot to my existing raw scsi XP partition inside Kubuntu, not a virtual XP instance. I accidentally booted Kubuntu inside itself. I know this is a big mistake, so I interrupted the VM, which saved the state and closed. I rebooted the host and now I can't load the Kubuntu partition at boot time. I get a maintenance shell and the Kubuntu partition is read-only. I am able to boot XP as usual. I removed the HDD and tried to mount it on another computer as an external drive and neither partition (XP or Kubuntu) will be recognized, it just appears to be one device that still mounts and appears empty. From the maintenance shell I can see all the files are still on the Kubuntu partition. How can I undo what I did when I accidentally booted Kubuntu inside itself? Is it a matter of unlocking some files somewhere? how can I do that on a RO filesystem? Thanks!

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  • Hourly SQL Server 2005 Slowness (Possibly caused by SYSTEM)

    - by Zorlack
    We're trying to diagnose the cause of slowness on our Database server. We're running the latest rev SQL Server 2005 on Windows 2008x64. The behavior that we're seeing is this: We see the SYSTEM process spike one of the CPUs for about 2 minutes, during this time SQL server slows down by a factor of 10. The slowness lasts until SYSTEM is done, then in an hour everything starts again. During these slowdowns disk writes don't spike, paging doesn't spike, the only noticeable precursor we see is that SYSTEM maxes out one of the sixteen (HT)CPUs. Note that this doesn't happen at the top of the hour, it just happens once an hour, and it shifts a bit depending on the length of the incident. At the moment this is causing intermittent slowdowns, but when the server is really busy it can cause Worker Thread starvation. The server is a Dual Quad Dell R710 with 96GB of RAM and RAID10 data/log disks. Has anyone experienced this kind of problem? Does anyone know where we should look? Edit: SQL Server Version is 9.0.4035

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  • Debian boot problems

    - by psp
    I've got Debian server with one disk. No dual boot or anything fancy. Just Debian 6.0 (Squeeze). I rebooted the server today and now it doesn't boot. I get the following (from GRUB): error: hd0,msdos out of disk I then get a grub prompt grub rescue> I've been googling for ages with no luck. /etc/fstab > #/etc/fstab: static file system information. > # > # <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass> > aufs / aufs rw 0 0 > tmpfs /tmp tmpfs nosuid,nodev 0 0 I've run debian rescue mode and looked through the syslog. I see hundreds of entries like this: Jun 30 22:51:08 kernel: [ 615.217382] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Unhandled error code Jun 30 22:51:08 kernel: [ 615.217385] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Result: hostbyte=DID_BAD_TARGET driverbyte=DRIVER_OK Jun 30 22:51:08 kernel: [ 615.217389] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 08 00 Jun 30 22:51:08 kernel: [ 615.217399] end_request: I/O error, dev sda, logical block 0 Jun 30 22:51:08 kernel: [ 615.217402] Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 0

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  • System requirements for running windows 8 (basic office use) in virtualbox (ubuntu as host os)

    - by Tor Thommesen
    I want to run windows 8 as a guest os with virtualbox on some thinkpad (haven't bought one yet) running Ubuntu 12.04. Apart from virtualizing windows 8 (mostly just for use with the office suite app) my needs are very modest, I don't need much more than emacs and a browser. What I'd like to know is what kind of specs will be necessary to run windows 8 well as a vm, using the office apps. It would be a shame to waste money on overpowered hardware. Are there any official guidelines from oracle or windows on this? Would this lenovo x220, for example, be sufficiently strong? The specs below were taken from this review. Intel Core i5-2520M dual-core processor (2.5GHz, 3MB cache, 3.2GHz Turbo frequency) Windows 7 Professional (64-bit) 12.5-inch Premium HD (1366 x 768) LED Backlit Display (IPS) Intel Integrated HD Graphics 4GB DDR3 (1333MHz) 320GB Hitachi Travelstar hard drive (Z7K320) Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 (Taylor Peak) 2x2 AGN wireless card Intel 82579LM Gigabit Ethernet 720p High Definition webcam Fingerprint reader 6-cell battery (63Wh) and optional slice battery (65Wh) Dimensions: 12 (L) x 8.2 (W) x 0.5-1.5 (H) inches with 6-cell battery Weight: 3.5 pounds with 6-cell battery 4.875 pounds with 6-cell battery and optional external battery slice Price as configured: $1,299.00 (starting at $979.00)

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  • Allow more websocket connections

    - by Switz
    I want to load balance my node.js (DerbyJS to be specific) application on a basic Linode (512MB ram). It can probably take more than one process running at once. The querys/database does not concern me as I'm not doing anything intensive. The problem at the moment is that it can only handle up to ~40 websocket connections at once. I would love if I could get that number in the few hundred+ range. I anticipate a lot of traffic on launch due to the fact that it's a highly niche community with an engaged audience, but after it should be fine with just ~20-40 connections at once, which it handles perfectly as of now. I don't mind spending a bit of money for a week or two worth of running, but I also don't want to switch production environments. How can I test the process to see how many instances I am able to run on the box? Will increasing the number of processes increase the amount of websockets I can handle, or is that a limitation of the server's network? I have an old Macbook Pro running Linux sitting next to me that has 2GB ram and a 2.8 Dual Core Processor. Could I use this to handle some of the extra load? I could probably load balance with nginx to its IP. I'm on a FiOS home network. If you have any suggestions, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks

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  • Perfmon % Processor Time vs. task manager's CPU usage

    - by nat
    I'm new to using Perfmon and performance monitoring in general (so go easy on me please ;) I know that Perfmon doesn't have anything exactly like Task Manager's CPU usage display, but I'm trying to figure out how to monitor user's CPU usage via Perfmon in a similar way, and trying to understand the measurements (or how to convert the numbers to get a similar understanding) For example, if in Task Manager, a particular user is consistently using more than 5% CPU, I would want to contact the user about it. I learn best by example, so here is exactly what I'm trying to do, with a specific example: This is for a 32-bit Dual Quad Core Windows 2003 web server (8 CPUs), there are many web sites on the server, each running within their own application pool/worker process ID. Through other research here I learned of a registry change that I made so that the PID shows up with the w3wp process so I can easily identify the site later by cross-referencing it. I set up a counter with the following settings: Process -> % Processor Time -> all instances Here is an example. Say I'm interested in "black line" user in this graph below, as his process is spiking quite high compared to all the other users: (I wasn't allowed to post the image as I'm a new user on this site.. I've uploaded the image to:) http://i35.tinypic.com/106yn8k.jpg So... using this as an example, I see that they have an AVERAGE % PROCESSOR TIME of 23.264 , and have spiked as high as 103.124 So what exactly does this 23.264 number mean to me? Is it similar to an average of Task Manager's CPU reading for this user? Or, since this server has 8 CPUs, should I divide this number by 8? (23.264/8 = 2.9% AVERAGE CPU LOAD?) Thanks in advance.

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  • 2 Days of Share &amp; Point

    - by Mark Rackley
    Groovy man… SharePoint Saturday Ozarks is back for 2010, bigger and better than before. Join us for a far out time and learn more about SharePoint in one day than you could in a year from the man… Yes! SharePoint Saturday Ozarks is back! SharePoint Saturday Ozarks is the largest SharePoint conference in Arkansas, Southern Missouri, and the very north east tip of Oklahoma. Last year we had a great turn out with 20 speakers, 5 MVPs, and attendees coming from Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Indiana, Ohio, Alabama, Michigan, and Washington. Hey Man… what’s SharePoint Saturday anyway? Sounds like a conspiracy man… Not to worry, SharePoint Saturday is not an arm of the government bent on mind control or any attempt what-so-ever to bring you down man. SharePoint Saturday is grass roots effort started by Michael Lotter (http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/pages/about.aspx). It is a FREE one day event where the best SharePoint speakers gather to present their love, hatred, and frustrations of SharePoint to those lucky individuals who attend. Lessons are learned, contacts are made, prizes are won, food is eaten, assorted beverages are consumed until wee hours of the morning. SharePoint Saturday started with just a few sporadic one day events here and there. However, over the past year SharePoint Saturday has exploded and it’s hard to find a weekend where there is NOT a SharePoint Saturday event happing in some corner of the globe. There are even occasions where there are two SharePoint Saturdays on the same day! Many people are pleasantly surprised at the caliber of speakers at these SharePoint Saturday events. For the most part, these speakers are more eloquent, practiced, and practical than those speakers you find at the major multi-day conferences. These guys aren’t even paid to speak.. they do it out of love man… SharePoint Saturday Ozarks 2009 Alumni We had a star studded cast last year with many returning this year! Just check out the fun that they had… John Ferringer – Admin rockstar… I can still sense the awesomeness   SharePoint poster children Mike Watson & Laura Rogers     Lori Gowin spreading the SharePoint Love Eric Shupps is a little bit country and a little bit rock and roll       Cathy Dew, Sean McDonough, and JD Wade relaxing between gigs Actually, you can see real photos from last year’s SharePoint Saturday ozarks here:  picasaweb.google.com/mrackley/SharePointSaturdayOzarks#    What’s new for SharePoint Saturday Ozarks 2010 SharePoint Saturday Ozarks 2010 will totally blow your mind man. We’re getting the band back to together with many returning speakers and few new faces. Joel Oleson will be speaking this year, maybe he’ll grace us with his song stylings. Sadly, once again, Andrew Connell will not be able to attend SharePoint Saturday Ozarks, however he did feel the need to show his support in his own way. Prizes this year currently include books, software, a Zune HD, and much more! Wait Man… You said 2 days? I thought it was a one day event? Correct you are my herbal smelling friend… SharePoint Saturday Ozarks 2010 will spread the love an additional day this year. The first day will be all about the SharePoint love, on day 2 we will be taking a leisurely float down the Buffalo National River for those interested in a truly unique experience (no banjos allowed please).   Here are the details: WHAT 4 – 5 hour float down the Buffalo National River WHEN & WHERE Sunday June 13th. We will be leaving at 10am from the Parking Lot of: Gordon’s Motel & Canoe Rental Old Highway 7 Jasper, AR 72641 (870) 446-5252 Jasper is about 30 minutes south of Harrison, AR on Highway 7 South. You are responsible for bumming a ride to/from Gordon’s Motel, but they will be shuttling us to/from the river and providing canoes and a boxed lunch. WHAT ELSE? The float trip is dependent on the weather of course, we won’t be floating down the river in a thunderstorm, however I planned SPS Ozarks around a time of year ideal for floating. We aren’t talking class 5 rapids here, you don’t need any real skill, but you need to be okay with possibly tipping your canoe over once or twice. You can bring your own assorted beverages with you, but glass containers are not allowed on the river. I suggest a small cooler with extra snacks and drinks. Also bring clothing you can get wet in (these SharePoint people can get ornery). HOW DO I SIGN UP? When you register for SharePoint Saturday Ozarks, you will have the option to also sign up for the float trip. Seats are limited though! If you do not intend to go, please do not take someone else’s place.  The cost for the float trip will be about $35 dollars per person (which you are responsible for unless we find a sponsor). The price includes shuttle to/from river, canoe, life jackets, paddles, and boxed lunch. Far out man… how do I register??? You can register for SharePoint Saturday Ozarks by going to http://spsozarks.eventbrite.com/ We are limited to 200 people for the conference and 50 people for the float trip, so register today before we are sold out. Lodging for SharePoint Saturday Ozarks will once again take place at the Hotel Seville: Annex Suites are available for $103.20 This is So Groovy.. How can I help? I’m glad you asked! We are still looking for a few sponsors and one or two more speakers. If you are interested please let me know!  You can find out more information at http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/ozarks Hey… wait a minute…. what exactly IS SharePoint man??? Come to SharePoint Saturday Ozarks and find out!!  See you guys there!

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  • Self-signed certificates for a known community

    - by costlow
    Recently announced changes scheduled for Java 7 update 51 (January 2014) have established that the default security slider will require code signatures and the Permissions Manifest attribute. Code signatures are a common practice recommended in the industry because they help determine that the code your computer will run is the same code that the publisher created. This post is written to help users that need to use self-signed certificates without involving a public Certificate Authority. The role of self-signed certificates within a known community You may still use self-signed certificates within a known community. The difference between self-signed and purchased-from-CA is that your users must import your self-signed certificate to indicate that it is valid, whereas Certificate Authorities are already trusted by default. This works for known communities where people will trust that my certificate is mine, but does not scale widely where I cannot actually contact or know the systems that will need to trust my certificate. Public Certificate Authorities are widely trusted already because they abide by many different requirements and frequent checks. An example would be students in a university class sharing their public certificates on a mailing list or web page, employees publishing on the intranet, or a system administrator rolling certificates out to end-users. Managed machines help this because you can automate the rollout, but they are not required -- the major point simply that people will trust and import your certificate. How to distribute self-signed certificates for a known community There are several steps required to distribute a self-signed certificate to users so that they will properly trust it. These steps are: Creating a public/private key pair for signing. Exporting your public certificate for others Importing your certificate onto machines that should trust you Verify work on a different machine Creating a public/private key pair for signing Having a public/private key pair will give you the ability both to sign items yourself and issue a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) to a certificate authority. Create your public/private key pair by following the instructions for creating key pairs.Every Certificate Authority that I looked at provided similar instructions, but for the sake of cohesiveness I will include the commands that I used here: Generate the key pair.keytool -genkeypair -alias erikcostlow -keyalg EC -keysize 571 -validity 730 -keystore javakeystore_keepsecret.jks Provide a good password for this file. The alias "erikcostlow" is my name and therefore easy to remember. Substitute your name of something like "mykey." The sigalg of EC (Elliptical Curve) and keysize of 571 will give your key a good strong lifetime. All keys are set to expire. Two years or 730 days is a reasonable compromise between not-long-enough and too-long. Most public Certificate Authorities will sign something for one to five years. You will be placing your keys in javakeystore_keepsecret.jks -- this file will contain private keys and therefore should not be shared. If someone else gets these private keys, they can impersonate your signature. Please be cautious about automated cloud backup systems and private key stores. Answer all the questions. It is important to provide good answers because you will stick with them for the "-validity" days that you specified above.What is your first and last name?  [Unknown]:  First LastWhat is the name of your organizational unit?  [Unknown]:  Line of BusinessWhat is the name of your organization?  [Unknown]:  MyCompanyWhat is the name of your City or Locality?  [Unknown]:  City NameWhat is the name of your State or Province?  [Unknown]:  CAWhat is the two-letter country code for this unit?  [Unknown]:  USIs CN=First Last, OU=Line of Business, O=MyCompany, L=City, ST=CA, C=US correct?  [no]:  yesEnter key password for <erikcostlow>        (RETURN if same as keystore password): Verify your work:keytool -list -keystore javakeystore_keepsecret.jksYou should see your new key pair. Exporting your public certificate for others Public Key Infrastructure relies on two simple concepts: the public key may be made public and the private key must be private. By exporting your public certificate, you are able to share it with others who can then import the certificate to trust you. keytool -exportcert -keystore javakeystore_keepsecret.jks -alias erikcostlow -file erikcostlow.cer To verify this, you can open the .cer file by double-clicking it on most operating systems. It should show the information that you entered during the creation prompts. This is the file that you will share with others. They will use this certificate to prove that artifacts signed by this certificate came from you. If you do not manage machines directly, place the certificate file on an area that people within the known community should trust, such as an intranet page. Import the certificate onto machines that should trust you In order to trust the certificate, people within your known network must import your certificate into their keystores. The first step is to verify that the certificate is actually yours, which can be done through any band: email, phone, in-person, etc. Known networks can usually do this Determine the right keystore: For an individual user looking to trust another, the correct file is within that user’s directory.e.g. USER_HOME\AppData\LocalLow\Sun\Java\Deployment\security\trusted.certs For system-wide installations, Java’s Certificate Authorities are in JAVA_HOMEe.g. C:\Program Files\Java\jre8\lib\security\cacerts File paths for Mac and Linux are included in the link above. Follow the instructions to import the certificate into the keystore. keytool -importcert -keystore THEKEYSTOREFROMABOVE -alias erikcostlow -file erikcostlow.cer In this case, I am still using my name for the alias because it’s easy for me to remember. You may also use an alias of your company name. Scaling distribution of the import The easiest way to apply your certificate across many machines is to just push the .certs or cacerts file onto them. When doing this, watch out for any changes that people would have made to this file on their machines. Trusted.certs: When publishing into user directories, your file will overwrite any keys that the user has added since last update. CACerts: It is best to re-run the import command with each installation rather than just overwriting the file. If you just keep the same cacerts file between upgrades, you will overwrite any CAs that have been added or removed. By re-importing, you stay up to date with changes. Verify work on a different machine Verification is a way of checking on the client machine to ensure that it properly trusts signed artifacts after you have added your signing certificate. Many people have started using deployment rule sets. You can validate the deployment rule set by: Create and sign the deployment rule set on the computer that holds the private key. Copy the deployment rule set on to the different machine where you have imported the signing certificate. Verify that the Java Control Panel’s security tab shows your deployment rule set. Verifying an individual JAR file or multiple JAR files You can test a certificate chain by using the jarsigner command. jarsigner -verify filename.jar If the output does not say "jar verified" then run the following command to see why: jarsigner -verify -verbose -certs filename.jar Check the output for the term “CertPath not validated.”

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  • Exception Handling And Other Contentious Political Topics

    - by Justin Jones
    So about three years ago, around the time of my last blog post, I promised a friend I would write this post. Keeping promises is a good thing, and this is my first step towards easing back into regular blogging. I fully expect him to return from Pennsylvania to buy me a beer over this. However, it’s been an… ahem… eventful three years or so, and blogging, unfortunately, got pushed to the back burner on my priority list, along with a few other career minded activities. Now that the personal drama of the past three years is more or less resolved, it’s time to put a few things back on the front burner. What I consider to be proper exception handling practices is relatively well known these days. There are plenty of blog posts out there already on this topic which more or less echo my opinions on this topic. I’ll try to include a few links at the bottom of the post. Several years ago I had an argument with a co-worker who posited that exceptions should be caught at every level and logged. This might seem like sanity on the surface, but the resulting error log looked something like this: Error: System.SomeException Followed by small stack trace. Error: System.SomeException Followed by slightly bigger stack trace. Error: System.SomeException Followed by slightly bigger stack trace. Error: System.SomeException Followed by slightly bigger stack trace. Error: System.SomeException Followed by slightly bigger stack trace. Error: System.SomeException Followed by slightly bigger stack trace. Error: System.SomeException Followed by slightly bigger stack trace. Error: System.SomeException Followed by slightly bigger stack trace.   These were all the same exception. The problem with this approach is that the error log, if you run any kind of analytics on in, becomes skewed depending on how far up the stack trace your exception was thrown. To mitigate this problem, we came up with the concept of the “PreLoggedException”. Basically, we would log the exception at the very top level and subsequently throw the exception back up the stack encapsulated in this pre-logged type, which our logging system knew to ignore. Now the error log looked like this: Error: System.SomeException Followed by small stack trace. Much cleaner, right? Well, there’s still a problem. When your exception happens in production and you go about trying to figure out what happened, you’ve lost more or less all context for where and how this exception was thrown, because all you really know is what method it was thrown in, but really nothing about who was calling the method or why. What gives you this clue is the entire stack trace, which we’re losing here. I believe that was further mitigated by having the logging system pull a system stack trace and add it to the log entry, but what you’re actually getting is the stack for how you got to the logging code. You’re still losing context about the actual error. Not to mention you’re executing a whole slew of catch blocks which are sloooooooowwwww……… In other words, we started with a bad idea and kept band-aiding it until it didn’t suck quite so bad. When I argued for not catching exceptions at every level but rather catching them following a certain set of rules, my co-worker warned me “do yourself a favor, never express that view in any future interviews.” I suppose this is my ultimate dismissal of that advice, but I’m not too worried. My approach for exception handling follows three basic rules: Only catch an exception if 1. You can do something about it. 2. You can add useful information to it. 3. You’re at an application boundary. Here’s what that means: 1. Only catch an exception if you can do something about it. We’ll start with a trivial example of a login system that uses a file. Please, never actually do this in production code, it’s just concocted example. So if our code goes to open a file and the file isn’t there, we get a FileNotFound exception. If the calling code doesn’t know what to do with this, it should bubble up. However, if we know how to create the file from scratch we can create the file and continue on our merry way. When you run into situations like this though, What should really run through your head is “How can I avoid handling an exception at all?” In this case, it’s a trivial matter to simply check for the existence of the file before trying to open it. If we detect that the file isn’t there, we can accomplish the same thing without having to handle in in a catch block. 2. Only catch an exception if you can do something about it. Continuing with the poorly thought out file based login system we contrived in part 1, if the code calls a Login(…) method and the FileNotFound exception is thrown higher up the stack, the code that calls Login must account for a FileNotFound exception. This is kind of counterintuitive because the calling code should not need to know the internals of the Login method, and the data file is an implementation detail. What makes more sense, assuming that we didn’t implement any of the good advice from step 1, is for Login to catch the FileNotFound exception and wrap it in a new exception. For argument’s sake we’ll say LoginSystemFailureException. (Sorry, couldn’t think of anything better at the moment.) This gives us two stack traces, preserving the original stack trace in the inner exception, and also is much more informative to the calling code. 3. Only catch an exception if you’re at an application boundary. At some point we have to catch all the exceptions, even the ones we don’t know what to do with. WinForms, ASP.Net, and most other UI technologies have some kind of built in mechanism for catching unhandled exceptions without fatally terminating the application. It’s still a good idea to somehow gracefully exit the application in this case if possible though, because you can no longer be sure what state your application is in, but nothing annoys a user more than an application just exploding. These unhandled exceptions need to be logged, and this is a good place to catch them. Ideally you never want this option to be exercised, but code as though it will be. When you log these exceptions, give them a “Fatal” status (e.g. Log4Net) and make sure these bugs get handled in your next release. That’s it in a nutshell. If you do it right each exception will only get logged once and with the largest stack trace possible which will make those 2am emergency severity 1 debugging sessions much shorter and less frustrating. Here’s a few people who also have interesting things to say on this topic:  http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ericlippert/archive/2008/09/10/vexing-exceptions.aspx http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/9538/Exception-Handling-Best-Practices-in-NET I know there’s more but I can’t find them at the moment.

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  • Friday Fun: The Search For Wondla

    - by Asian Angel
    The best day of the week is finally here again, so it is time to have some fun while waiting to go home for the weekend. The game we have for you today takes you far into humanity’s future where you journey with Eva Nine in her quest to find other humans. Note: Today’s game comes with a double bonus! First, there is a sequel game that you can move on to once you have completed the first one. Second, there are three wallpapers available in multiple sizes for those who enjoy the characters and artwork presented in the game (see below). The Search For Wondla The object of the game is to find the differences between two similar looking images based on artwork from The Search For Wondla by Tony DiTerlizzi. Are you ready to join Eva Nine in her quest to find other humans in the future? Note: There is a version available for those who would like to play The Search For Wondla on their iPads! The first game has 28 levels of difference finding goodness for you to work through. Each level will list the minimum number of differences that you need to find to progress to the next level. If you need a hint along the way just click on the Shake or Reveal options at the bottom of the game play window. Get a level completed quickly enough and you get bonus points! There will also be differences in the images for individual levels each time you play the game, so have fun! Note: The second game has 12 levels to complete. To give you a good feel for the game we have covered the first six levels here and provided seven clues for each level (you are only required to find a minimum of five). Eva Nine viewing the holographic outdoor projections in the main hub of her living quarters… Eva Nine is in a grumpy mood as Muthr visits her at bedtime… Eva Nine in her secret hideaway visiting old “childhood friends” as she contemplates her recent survival test failure. Eva Nine viewing the entire set of floor plans for the underground sanctuary where she was born and has been growing up. Eva Nine’s escape to the surface as the underground sanctuary is attacked by the bounty hunter creature Besteel. Eva Nine on the surface for the first time in her young life. Will she be successful in her quest? There is only one way to find out! Play The Search For Wondla Part 1 Play The Search For Wondla Part 2 Bonus Content If you have enjoyed this game you can learn more about the book and download the three wallpapers shown here by visiting the link below! Note: The wallpapers come in the following sizes: 1024*768, 1280*800, 1280*1024, 1440*900, iPhone, iPhone4, and iPad (click on the Extras link at the bottom of the page). Visit the Search For Wondla Homepage Do you enjoy playing difference finding games? Then you will definitely want to have a look at another wonderful game that we have covered here: Friday Fun: Isis Latest Features How-To Geek ETC The How-To Geek Guide to Learning Photoshop, Part 8: Filters Get the Complete Android Guide eBook for Only 99 Cents [Update: Expired] Improve Digital Photography by Calibrating Your Monitor The How-To Geek Guide to Learning Photoshop, Part 7: Design and Typography How to Choose What to Back Up on Your Linux Home Server How To Harmonize Your Dual-Boot Setup for Windows and Ubuntu Hang in There Scrat! – Ice Age Wallpaper How Do You Know When You’ve Passed Geek and Headed to Nerd? On The Tip – A Lamborghini Theme for Chrome and Iron What if Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner were Human? [Video] Peaceful Winter Cabin Wallpaper Store Tabs for Later Viewing in Opera with Tab Vault

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  • What if &ldquo;Microsoft&rdquo; were in our shoes? About Windows Phone

    - by Vijaya Malla
    This is what I think about Microsoft Windows Phone. If Microsoft were in our shoes looking at various phones available their configurations, memory, front facing cameras etc. Microsoft disappointed the USA customer base again by not getting Nokia Lumia 800. The Past: If we talk few years ago, few business people were on their Blackberry’s and few Gadget lovers were on crappy Windows OS devices. The world was all going right till Apple came with a revolutionary device iPhone, which completely changed our perception towards phone and how great a smartphone can be. It’s not just phone but the whole technology industry. The romantic appealing of the phone and smooth touch and feel of it made everyone to get one of those bad boys. The sales went up for not just Apple for AT&T too. Even though everyone complained about the signal strength of AT&T, everyone wanted to be on it because they have iPhones. All world wanted iPhone back then except Microsoft with few comments on how it is not going to be in market. But it did great and rocked the industry. A few years later with iPhone and Android taking over the smartphone market Microsoft realized that it should be in the game too. Worked on the design of it, and gave us the best Mobile OS ever. Everyone thinks that iOS is a great OS for phones but if you have touched a Windows Phone and use it for real then you will realize the strengths of it. so last year we welcomed Windows Phone 7 The Present : Windows Phone 7 has the fastest growing market. The phones are cheap, you can buy from any carrier out there. The phone became smarter and smarter with the recent update “Mango (7.5)” and with the collaboration with Nokia, Microsoft created a new eco-system for smartphones with the best smartphone hardware and best smartphone software. Everyone in the world was excited about the collaboration. As we fly over cloud 9 imagining about Nokia made Windows Phones we all heard a good news from Nokia “Nokia World”. Nokia showed the world what a best hardware making company can do with Windows Phone 7.5 OS. Nokia Lumia 800 and 710 took the spotlight. Everyone here in USA and all over the world wanted to own a Nokia Lumia 800 because of the design, software, proprietary apps from Nokia (maps, ESPN, drive and music). If USA market had Nokia Lumia 800, then it would have been the best step Microsoft and Nokia had ever made in their history of smartphone market. With all the numbers going to Android and IPhone, its not clear on why Microsoft/Nokia did not release Lumia 800 here in USA. Its unclear if Microsoft had learnt the lesson or not. if it had learnt the lesson I guess Microsoft needs to get the Nokia Lumia 800 to the USA. The Future: This is where we hope we get the best form Microsoft. I was an iPhone user, I used 2G, 3G, 3GS, 4 and then moved to Windows Phone and never felt so happy with my iPhones’. From the day when Nokia announced the partnership with Microsoft and said that they going to come up with a new Nokia windows phone, I was dreaming for my Nokia Phone. but looks like it is not going to happen any time soon. My thoughts about the Market :  Nokia has the biggest market base in the world. Even though people moved to Android or iPhone over the years in other parts of the world like India and China, people still love to use Nokia. Everyone who uses a Windows Phone now will wait for that day when Nokia Lumia comes to the USA but what either or both of the companies should do for a better market share is to make a very aggressive move with the hardware and bet on the devices. I am pretty sure that it will work. everyone here in the USA will like to have a dual core windows phone with front facing camera and all other crazy things that android/apple phones offer. I think we just have to wait for that day and hope that day comes soon. Love Microsoft and Nokia Thank you for reading.

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  • BYOD is not a fashion statement; it’s an architectural shift - by Indus Khaitan

    - by Greg Jensen
    Ten years ago, if you asked a CIO, “how mobile is your enterprise?”. The answer would be, “100%, we give Blackberry to all our employees.”Few things have changed since then: 1.    Smartphone form-factors have matured, especially after the launch of iPhone. 2.    Rapid growth of productivity applications and services that enable creation and consumption of digital content 3.    Pervasive mobile data connectivityThere are two threads emerging from the change. Users are rapidly mingling their personas of an individual as well as an employee. In the first second, posting a picture of a fancy dinner on Facebook, to creating an expense report for the same meal on the mobile device. Irrespective of the dual persona, a user’s personal and corporate lives intermingle freely on a single hardware and more often than not, it’s an employees personal smartphone being used for everything. A BYOD program enables IT to “control” an employee owned device, while enabling productivity. More often than not the objective of BYOD programs are financial; instead of the organization, an employee pays for it.  More than a fancy device, BYOD initiatives have become sort of fashion statement, of corporate productivity, of letting employees be in-charge and a show of corporate empathy to not force an archaic form-factor in a world of new device launches every month. BYOD is no longer a means of effectively moving expense dollars and support costs. It does not matter who owns the device, it has to be protected.  BYOD brings an architectural shift.  BYOD is an architecture, which assumes that every device is vulnerable, not just what your employees have brought but what organizations have purchased for their employees. It's an architecture, which forces us to rethink how to provide productivity without comprising security.Why assume that every device is vulnerable? Mobile operating systems are rapidly evolving with leading upgrade announcement every other month. It is impossible for IT to catch-up. More than that, user’s are savvier than earlier.  While IT could install locks at the doors to prevent intruders, it may degrade productivity—which incentivizes user’s to bypass restrictions. A rapidly evolving mobile ecosystem have moving parts which are vulnerable. Hence, creating a mobile security platform, which uses the fundamental blocks of BYOD architecture such as identity defragmentation, IT control and data isolation, ensures that the sprawl of corporate data is contained. In the next post, we’ll dig deeper into the BYOD architecture. Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}

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  • Plymouth and GRUB do not show at all

    - by WarriorIng64
    I am using Ubuntu 11.04 64-bit as my only OS on my desktop computer, which used to only run Ubuntu 10.04 LTS until I had the time to upgrade it with a fresh install. It uses integrated NVIDIA graphics (listed as a GeForce 6150SE nForce 430 by the NVIDIA X Server Settings utility) with the current proprietary driver as provided by the Additional Drivers utility, and has a VGA connection to a 1680x1050 Acer monitor. I used to get the (ugly-looking version of) Plymouth graphical boot screen while under 10.04. It didn't look that great, but I was fine with it. Now, it doesn't show on 11.04 at all during boot (I just get an error message in a moving gray box from the monitor saying "Input Not Supported"), and only rarely it will show on shutdown, all garbled up. I could not get GRUB to show during boot while holding down Shift, either (same error message), but pressing Enter while it should be up starts the system normally. A picture of the error message I was getting: Once fully booted, the system still shows the login screen and desktop just fine. Any information on how to troubleshoot this would be appreciated. If there's any hardware-specific stuff I forgot to include here, let me know the relevant commands to run in a comment below. Things that I've tried: Running plymouth in a framebuffer: no effect Booting with nomodeset as my grub boot: option no effect Booting with nomodeset and plymouth in a framebuffer: no effect other than Plymouth showing during shutdown only Following the Softpedia instructions for fixing Plymouth's resolution: Problem mostly solved, except logo does not show in Plymouth during boot, and both grub and Plymouth are slightly off-center #4 above, but with nomodeset removed as a grub boot option: same effect as #4 #5 above, but with vt.handoff=7 added as a grub boot option: same effect as #4 I have added the current contents of /etc/default/grub as requested in the comments: # If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update # /boot/grub/grub.cfg. # For full documentation of the options in this file, see: # info -f grub -n 'Simple configuration' GRUB_DEFAULT=0 GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0 GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true GRUB_TIMEOUT=10 GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian` GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash video=uvesafb:mode_option=1280x1024-24,mtrr=3,scroll=ywrap" GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="" # Uncomment to enable BadRAM filtering, modify to suit your needs # This works with Linux (no patch required) and with any kernel that obtains # the memory map information from GRUB (GNU Mach, kernel of FreeBSD ...) #GRUB_BADRAM="0x01234567,0xfefefefe,0x89abcdef,0xefefefef" # Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only) #GRUB_TERMINAL=console # The resolution used on graphical terminal # note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE # you can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo' GRUB_GFXMODE=1280x1024 # Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass "root=UUID=xxx" parameter to Linux #GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true # Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries #GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true" # Uncomment to get a beep at grub start #GRUB_INIT_TUNE="480 440 1" CURRENT STATUS: I forgot to uncomment one line as per "things that I've tried" #4, so I took care of that. I can now see GRUB during startup when I hold Shift and a normal-looking Plymouth during shutdown...but Plymouth during boot is now just a solid purple screen. In each case, it's displayed a little off-center to the left, with a thin black bar running down the right side of the monitor. The error pictured above no longer shows. I'd say this problem is about 2/3 solved now. UPDATE: After Natty started freezing up on me, I decided to dual-boot with Oneiric, which unfortunately shows the same problems. Rather than trying all these workarounds though, I decided to do what I should have done from the start and file a pair of bug reports. LAST UPDATE: Bug 850908 has been confirmed as a legitimate nouveaufb bug. I have overwritten my 11.04 partition with 12.04 LTS, and I can confirm at this time that the issue is present there, as well. I will now flag this question to be closed, yet I hope it was helpful for anyone who experienced similar issues; if you are still having the same problem as me, please go there and mark yourself as affected. Thanks!

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  • Using the Onboard VGA output with a PCIe video card. Both nVidia

    - by sebikul
    I have 2 video cards, one On board, a nVidia 6150SE nForce 430 and a PCIe nVidia GeForce GT 220 1GB DDR2 RAM I have already configured the PCIe card to use the dual monitor feature, using the VGA and HDMI ports, but now I want to add a third monitor, using the On board VGA port I have managed to enable the On board graphics processor, which is taking 400MB of ram, but I cant manage to use it, nvidia-settings does not detect it, like it's not usable (but is there) My questions are the following: How can I manage to get the On board VGA display to work together with the PCIe graphics card? If possible, how can I recover those 400 MB the on board card is taking (even without being used) or how can I get it to use the PCIe card available memory? System Details: Linux 2.6.35-28-generic i686 Ubuntu 10.10 (All updates installed) NVIDIA Driver Version: 260.19.06 (Official) If more info is needed please let me know. Here is the lspci output when the On board card is disabled: 00:00.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP61 Memory Controller (rev a1) 00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 LPC Bridge (rev a2) 00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation MCP61 SMBus (rev a2) 00:01.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP61 Memory Controller (rev a2) 00:01.3 Co-processor: nVidia Corporation MCP61 SMU (rev a2) 00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP61 USB Controller (rev a3) 00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP61 USB Controller (rev a3) 00:04.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 PCI bridge (rev a1) 00:05.0 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP61 High Definition Audio (rev a2) 00:06.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP61 IDE (rev a2) 00:07.0 Bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 Ethernet (rev a2) 00:08.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP61 SATA Controller (rev a2) 00:09.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 PCI Express bridge (rev a2) 00:0b.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 PCI Express bridge (rev a2) 00:0c.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 PCI Express bridge (rev a2) 00:0d.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation C61 [GeForce 6150SE nForce 430] (rev a2) 00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration 00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map 00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller 00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control 01:09.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82557/8/9/0/1 Ethernet Pro 100 (rev 08) 02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GT216 [GeForce GT 220] (rev a2) 02:00.1 Audio device: nVidia Corporation High Definition Audio Controller (rev a1) And this is when both are enabled: 00:00.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP61 Memory Controller (rev a1) 00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 LPC Bridge (rev a2) 00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation MCP61 SMBus (rev a2) 00:01.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP61 Memory Controller (rev a2) 00:01.3 Co-processor: nVidia Corporation MCP61 SMU (rev a2) 00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP61 USB Controller (rev a3) 00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP61 USB Controller (rev a3) 00:04.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 PCI bridge (rev a1) 00:05.0 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP61 High Definition Audio (rev a2) 00:06.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP61 IDE (rev a2) 00:07.0 Bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 Ethernet (rev a2) 00:08.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP61 SATA Controller (rev a2) 00:09.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 PCI Express bridge (rev a2) 00:0b.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 PCI Express bridge (rev a2) 00:0c.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 PCI Express bridge (rev a2) 00:0d.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation C61 [GeForce 6150SE nForce 430] (rev a2) 00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration 00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map 00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller 00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control 01:09.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82557/8/9/0/1 Ethernet Pro 100 (rev 08) 02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GT216 [GeForce GT 220] (rev a2) 02:00.1 Audio device: nVidia Corporation High Definition Audio Controller (rev a1) Output of lshw -class display: *-display description: VGA compatible controller product: GT216 [GeForce GT 220] vendor: nVidia Corporation physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0 version: a2 width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0 resources: irq:18 memory:df000000-dfffffff memory:c0000000-cfffffff memory:da000000-dbffffff ioport:ef80(size=128) memory:def80000-deffffff *-display description: VGA compatible controller product: C61 [GeForce 6150SE nForce 430] vendor: nVidia Corporation physical id: d bus info: pci@0000:00:0d.0 version: a2 width: 64 bits clock: 66MHz capabilities: pm msi vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0 resources: irq:22 memory:dd000000-ddffffff memory:b0000000-bfffffff memory:dc000000-dcffffff memory:deb40000-deb5ffff If what I'm looking for is not possible, please tell me, so I can disable the On board card and recover those 400MB of wasted RAM Thanks for your help!

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  • Craig Mundie's video

    - by GGBlogger
    Timothy recently posted “Microsoft Shows Off Radical New UI, Could Be Used In Windows 8” on Slashdot. I took such grave exception to his post that I found it necessary to my senses to write this blog. We need to go back many years to the days of hand cranked calculators and early main frame computers. These devices had singular purposes – they were “number crunchers” used to make accounting easier. The front facing display in early mainframes was “blinken lights.” The calculators did provide printing – in the form of paper tape and the mainframes used line printers to generate reports as needed. We had other metaphors to work with. The typewriter was/is a mechanical device that substitutes for a type setting machine. The originals go back to 1867 and the keyboard layout has remained much the same to this day. In the earlier years the Morse code telegraphs gave way to Teletype machines. The old ASR33, seen on the left in this photo of one of the first computers I help manufacture, used a keyboard very similar to the keyboards in use today. It also generated punched paper tape that we generated to program this computer in machine language. Everything considered this computer which dates back to the late 1960s has a keyboard for input and a roll of paper as output. So in a very rudimentary fashion little has changed. Oh – we didn’t have a mouse! The entire point of this exercise is to point out that we still use very similar methods to get data into and out of a computer regardless of the operating system involved. The Altair, IMSAI, Apple, Commodore and onward to our modern machines changed the hardware that we interfaced to but changed little in the way we input, view and output the results of our computing effort. The mouse made some changes and the advent of windowed interfaces such as Windows and Apple made things somewhat easier for the user. My 4 year old granddaughter plays here Dora games on our computer. She knows how to start programs, use the mouse, play the game and is quite adept so we have come some distance in making computers useable. One of my chief bitches is the constant harangues leveled at Microsoft. Yup – they are a money making organization. You like Apple? No problem for me. I don’t use Apple mostly because I’m comfortable in the Windows environment but probably more because I don’t like Apple’s “Holier than thou” attitude. Some think they do superior things and that’s also fine with me. Obviously the iPhone has not done badly and other Apple products have fared well. But they are expensive. I just build a new machine with 4 Terabytes of storage, an Intel i7 Core 950 processor and 12 GB of RAMIII. It cost me – with dual monitors – less than 2000 dollars. Now to the chief reason for this blog. I’m going to continue developing software for as long as I’m able. For that reason I don’t see my keyboard, mouse and displays changing much for many years. I also don’t think Microsoft is going to spoil that for me by making radical changes to my developer experience. What Craig Mundie does in his video here:  http://www.ispyce.com/2011/02/microsoft-shows-off-radical-new-ui.html is explore the potential future of computer interfaces for the masses of potential users. Using a computer today requires a person to have rudimentary capabilities with keyboards and the mouse. Wouldn’t it be great if all they needed was hand gestures? Although not mentioned it would also be nice if computers responded intelligently to a user’s voice. There is absolutely no argument with the fact that user interaction with these machines is going to change over time. My personal prediction is that it will take years for much of what Craig discusses to come to a cost effective reality but it is certainly coming. I just don’t believe that what Craig discusses will be the future look of a Window 8.

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  • Installation problem Ubuntu 12.04 Crashing hardware error

    - by user93640
    I am running on Ubuntu 8.04 for quite some time without many problems. About almost a year ago or so I have been trying to upgrade to 10.04 LTS, but without any success. Each time when trying to upgrade or even newly install the installation process crashed after about an hour or so (I forgot exactly how long). Now I wanted to try Ubuntu 12.04 (not even installing, but I only selected "Try Ubuntu without installing") and I got similar errors. I did not try to install it, because of earlier experience with 10.04 when after I also lost 8.04 and had to install from scratch again (after which it worked). I get the following screen (as I am not allowed to upload photos here the text): 26.767262] [Hardware Error]: CPU 0: Machine Check Exception: 0 Bank 5: b200001804000e0f 26.767279] [Hardware Error]: TSC 0 26.767287] [Hardware Error]: PROCESSOR 0:6f6 TIME 1349017924 SOCKET 0 APIC 0 microcode 44 26.767297] [Hardware Error]: Run the above through 'mcelog --ascii' 26.767307] [Hardware Error]: CPU 1: Machine Check Exception: 0 Bank 1: b200000000000175 26.767316] [Hardware Error]: TSC 0 26.767323] [Hardware Error]: PROCESSOR 0:6f6 TIME 1349017924 SOCKET 0 APIC 1 microcode 44 26.767331] [Hardware Error]: Run the above through 'mcelog --ascii' 26.767339] [Hardware Error]: CPU 1: Machine Check Exception: 0 Bank 5: b200003000000e0f 26.767348] [Hardware Error]: TSC 0 26.767354] [Hardware Error]: PROCESSOR 0:6f6 TIME 1349017924 SOCKET 0 APIC 1 microcode 44 26.767363] [Hardware Error]: Run the above through 'mcelog --ascii' 26.767371] [Hardware Error]: CPU 1: Machine Check Exception: 4 Bank 1: b200000000000175 26.767379] [Hardware Error]: TSC 1bf231e65f 26.767386] [Hardware Error]: PROCESSOR 0:6f6 TIME 1349017951 SOCKET 0 APIC 1 microcode 44 26.767395] [Hardware Error]: Run the above through 'mcelog --ascii' 26.767403] [Hardware Error]: CPU 1: Machine Check Exception: 4 Bank 5: b200003008000e0f 26.767413] [Hardware Error]: TSC 1bf231e65f 26.767421] [Hardware Error]: PROCESSOR 0:6f6 TIME 1349017951 SOCKET 0 APIC 1 microcode 44 26.767429] [Hardware Error]: Run the above through 'mcelog --ascii' 26.767437] [Hardware Error]: CPU 0: Machine Check Exception: 5 Bank 5: b200001806000e0f 26.767447] [Hardware Error]: RIP |INEXACT| 60:<00000000c1018b5c> {mwait_idle+0x7c/0x1d0} 26.767464] [Hardware Error]: TSC 1bf231e674 26.767471] [Hardware Error]: PROCESSOR 0:6f6 TIME 1349017951 SOCKET 0 APIC 0 microcode 44 26.767480] [Hardware Error]: Run the above through 'mcelog --ascii' 26.767487] [Hardware Error]: Machine check: Processor context corrupt 26.767495] Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal Machine check 26.767505] Pid: 579, comm: debconf-communi Tainted: G M 3.2.0.29-generic-pae #46-Ubuntu 26.767515] Call Trace: 26.767525] [<c158f812>] ? printk+0x2d/0x2f 26.767534] [<c158f6e0>] panic+0x5c/0x161 26.767542] [<c10247ef>] mce_panic.part.14+0x13f/0x170 26.767551] [<c1024872>] mce_panic+0x52/0x90 26.767558] [<c1024a18>] mce_reign+0x168/0x170 26.767565] [<c1024bb5>] mce_end+0x105/0x110 26.767572] [<c10252db>] do_machine_check+0x32b/0x4f0 26.767581] [<c1024fb0>] ? mce_log+0x120/0x120 26.767590] [<c15a5e47>] error_code+0x67/0x6c 26.767602] panic occurred, switching back to text console 26.768498] Rebooting in 30 seconds.. For information, I have also tried earlier Arch Linux. I can install it, but when I try to install a window manager (LXDE) again I got similar errors. Fedora also crashes when installing and also Mandriva did not work for me. Therefore I think something deep in the machine might be wrong. But as stated above I can (clean) install 8.04 and also 9.10 can be installed without problems. Also updates for 8.04 can be installed. My machine is dual boot with XP next to it on a different partition. My HW: Memory : 2.0 GiB; Processor 0: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6320 @ 1.86GHz; Processor 1: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6320 @ 1.86GHz; How can I install Ubuntu 12.04? Last option would be to completely format my machine and install everything from scratch, but even I am not sure if that would solve it in the end. Can anybody help me out?

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  • Code is not the best way to draw

    - by Bertrand Le Roy
    It should be quite obvious: drawing requires constant visual feedback. Why is it then that we still draw with code in so many situations? Of course it’s because the low-level APIs always come first, and design tools are built after and on top of those. Existing design tools also don’t typically include complex UI elements such as buttons. When we launched our Touch Display module for Netduino Go!, we naturally built APIs that made it easy to draw on the screen from code, but very soon, we felt the limitations and tedium of drawing in code. In particular, any modification requires a modification of the code, followed by compilation and deployment. When trying to set-up buttons at pixel precision, the process is not optimal. On the other hand, code is irreplaceable as a way to automate repetitive tasks. While tools like Illustrator have ways to repeat graphical elements, they do so in a way that is a little alien and counter-intuitive to my developer mind. From these reflections, I knew that I wanted a design tool that would be structurally code-centric but that would still enable immediate feedback and mouse adjustments. While thinking about the best way to achieve this goal, I saw this fantastic video by Bret Victor: The key to the magic in all these demos is permanent execution of the code being edited. Whenever a parameter is being modified, everything is re-executed immediately so that the impact of the modification is instantaneously visible. If you do this all the time, the code and the result of its execution fuse in the mind of the user into dual representations of a single object. All mental barriers disappear. It’s like magic. The tool I built, Nutshell, is just another implementation of this principle. It manipulates a list of graphical operations on the screen. Each operation has a nice editor, and translates into a bit of code. Any modification to the parameters of the operation will modify the bit of generated code and trigger a re-execution of the whole program. This happens so fast that it feels like the drawing reacts instantaneously to all changes. The order of the operations is also the order in which the code gets executed. So if you want to bring objects to the front, move them down in the list, and up if you want to move them to the back: But where it gets really fun is when you start applying code constructs such as loops to the design tool. The elements that you put inside of a loop can use the loop counter in expressions, enabling crazy scenarios while retaining the real-time edition features. When you’re done building, you can just deploy the code to the device and see it run in its native environment: This works thanks to two code generators. The first code generator is building JavaScript that is executed in the browser to build the canvas view in the web page hosting the tool. The second code generator is building the C# code that will run on the Netduino Go! microcontroller and that will drive the display module. The possibilities are fascinating, even if you don’t care about driving small touch screens from microcontrollers: it is now possible, within a reasonable budget, to build specialized design tools for very vertical applications. Direct feedback is a powerful ally in many domains. Code generation driven by visual designers has become more approachable than ever thanks to extraordinary JavaScript libraries and to the powerful development platform that modern browsers provide. I encourage you to tinker with Nutshell and let it open your eyes to new possibilities that you may not have considered before. It’s open source. And of course, my company, Nwazet, can help you develop your own custom browser-based direct feedback design tools. This is real visual programming…

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  • Error:couldn't read file-Kernel panic

    - by Thanos
    I have just installed ubuntu 12.04.1. To be honest I had to run installation several times until it was finished fine. When I finally managed to install it properly, I power on the laptop and the grub shoed up! I selected ubuntu generic. It takes some time to load and when it does I get an error message stating that error: couldn't read file Press any key to continue If I press any button nothing happens. If a leave it there, in a short while there is a black screen loading which gives some weird messages [0.946710] Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block (0,0) [0.946755] Pid: 1, comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 3.2.0-29-generic #46-Ubuntu [0.946792] Call Trace: [0.946831] [<ffffffff81640ec8>] panic+0x91/0x1a4 [0.946869] [<ffffffff81cfc01e>] mount_block_root+0xdc/0x18e [0.946909] [<ffffffff81002930>] ? populate_rootfs_wait+0x300/0x9d0 [0.946947] [<ffffffff81cfc257>] mount_root+0x54/0x59 [0.946982] [<ffffffff81cfcec9>] prepare_namespace+0x16d/0x1a6 [0.947019] [<ffffffff81cfbd63>] kernel_init+0x153/0x158 [0.947094] [<ffffffff81cfbc10>] ? start_kernel+0x3bd/0x3bd [0.947129] [<ffffffff81664030>] ? gs_change+0x13/0x13 The thing is that the laptop isn't mine. A friend tried to dual boot ubuntu alongside windows 7 but he didn't succeed. Ubuntu option was in grub, but when you tried to boot it rebooted from the start. So from a Live CD I erased ubuntu, started windows to check if something went wrong, and fortunately everything was OK. Windows started normally! So I tried to install ubuntu. Before installation was completed the installer crashed! I was afraid that he would lost windows, something that was true... At that point I tried to install windows but whichever distro(XP, 7{home, proffessional, ultimate},8) I tried it could never reach the end. So I tried to reinstall ubuntu but I was facing those weird messages. What can I do to move on? ______________________________________________________________________ EDIT1: I tried to check and fix(if possible) with GParted it took a lot of hours,although gparted displays only 01:14, I restarted the system and now I get not exactly the same messages. Numbers in braces [ ] are different [0.818189] Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block (0,0) [0.818235] Pid: 1, comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 3.2.0-29-generic #46-Ubuntu [0.818272] Call Trace: [0.818312] [<ffffffff81640ec8>] panic+0x91/0x1a4 [0.818351] [<ffffffff81cfc01e>] mount_block_root+0xdc/0x18e [0.818391] [<ffffffff81002930>] ? populate_rootfs_wait+0x300/0x9d0 [0.818428] [<ffffffff81cfc257>] mount_root+0x54/0x59 [0.818464] [<ffffffff81cfcec9>] prepare_namespace+0x16d/0x1a6 [0.818501] [<ffffffff81cfbd63>] kernel_init+0x153/0x158 [0.818574] [<ffffffff81cfbc10>] ? start_kernel+0x3bd/0x3bd [0.818610] [<ffffffff81664030>] ? gs_change+0x13/0x13 What on earth is going on? ______________________________________________________________________ EDIT2: I forgot to mention that my friend gave a punch to his laptop during a game. After that his cooler became to make a weird noise so I checked and it is a bit tortuous but it is working. What I beleive must be wrong is that his HDD makes a weird noise while trying to load ubuntu, which means he might need a new HDD. Could that be true?

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  • Unity 3d support for multiple X-screens

    - by stewbond
    I've installed Ubuntu 12.04 this weekend and have had problems getting Unity3d to work with my triple monitor set-up. I've installed the latest nVidia drivers for my 2 nVidia video cards and have used NVIDIA X Server Settings to configure everything. If I stick each monitor on a separate X screen, all but the primary X screen will appear white and the cursor will be a black X. I can start a terminal on this screen but cannot drag other windows to it. If I kill the "Nautilus" process, the white background disappears and I see my desktop background, but my cursor is still an X and I still cannot drag windows to it. If I enable TwinView, I can get one screen on two monitors to work properly, but the white screen remains on my third monitor. In addition, I don't like using TwinView because my full-screen applications get stretched. My current solution is to "Enable Xinerama", use all separate X screens and revert to Unity2d. I'd love a solution to this as Ubuntu 12.10 is not planned to support Unity-2d and prefer the aesthetics of 3d anyways. I can provide Xorg.conf for all configurations and any other suggested diagnostic information. Below is my closest-to-working xorg.conf: # nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings # nvidia-settings: version 295.33 (buildd@zirconium) Fri Mar 30 13:38:49 UTC 2012 Section "ServerLayout" Identifier "Layout0" Screen 0 "Screen0" RightOf "Screen2" Screen 1 "Screen1" RightOf "Screen0" Screen 2 "Screen2" 0 0 InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard" InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer" Option "Xinerama" "1" EndSection Section "Files" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Mouse0" Driver "mouse" Option "Protocol" "auto" Option "Device" "/dev/psaux" Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no" Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Keyboard0" Driver "kbd" EndSection Section "Monitor" Identifier "Monitor0" VendorName "Unknown" ModelName "Microvitec PLC MV191" HorizSync 30.0 - 81.0 VertRefresh 56.0 - 75.0 Option "DPMS" EndSection Section "Monitor" Identifier "Monitor1" VendorName "Unknown" ModelName "CRT-1" HorizSync 28.0 - 55.0 VertRefresh 43.0 - 72.0 Option "DPMS" EndSection Section "Monitor" Identifier "Monitor2" VendorName "Unknown" ModelName "Microvitec PLC MV191" HorizSync 30.0 - 81.0 VertRefresh 56.0 - 75.0 Option "DPMS" EndSection Section "Monitor" Identifier "Monitor3" VendorName "Unknown" ModelName "Microvitec PLC MV191" HorizSync 30.0 - 81.0 VertRefresh 56.0 - 75.0 EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Device0" Driver "nvidia" VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation" BoardName "GeForce GTS 450" BusID "PCI:1:0:0" Screen 0 EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Device1" Driver "nvidia" VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation" BoardName "GeForce 9500 GT" BusID "PCI:2:0:0" EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Device2" Driver "nvidia" VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation" BoardName "GeForce GTS 450" BusID "PCI:1:0:0" Screen 1 EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Device3" Driver "nvidia" VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation" BoardName "GeForce GTS 450" BusID "PCI:1:0:0" Screen 2 EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen0" Device "Device0" Monitor "Monitor0" DefaultDepth 24 Option "TwinView" "0" Option "metamodes" "DFP-0: 1280x1024_75 +0+0; DFP-0: 1280x1024 +0+0" SubSection "Display" Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen1" Device "Device1" Monitor "Monitor1" DefaultDepth 24 Option "TwinView" "0" Option "metamodes" "nvidia-auto-select +0+0" SubSection "Display" Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen2" Device "Device2" Monitor "Monitor2" DefaultDepth 24 Option "TwinView" "0" Option "metamodes" "DFP-2: 1280x1024_75 +0+0; DFP-2: nvidia-auto-select +0+0" SubSection "Display" Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen3" Device "Device3" Monitor "Monitor3" DefaultDepth 24 Option "TwinView" "0" Option "metamodes" "DFP-2: nvidia-auto-select +0+0" SubSection "Display" Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection Section "Extensions" Option "Composite" "Disable" EndSection Other people have had similar issues. I haven't been successful at any of the few suggestions submitted. Can not get Dual Monitors to work on Different GPUs http://askubuntu.com/questions/30412/3-monitors-with-2-video-cards-not-working?rq=1 How to get second display to work alongside primary display? http://askubuntu.com/questions/148007/multiple-monitors-only-work-with-unity-2d/201086#201086 xorg.conf and Unity3D?

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  • Stay on Schedule in Chrome with DayHiker

    - by Matthew Guay
    Do you keep your schedule and tasks in Google Calendar?  Here’s a handy extension for Google Chrome that can keep you on top of your appointments without having to open Google Calendar in another tab. Integrate Google Calendar with Chrome DayHiker is a handy extension for Google Chrome that can help you stay on schedule in your browser.  Desktop applications typically can keep you notified easier with popups or alerts, but webapps require you to visit them to view your information.  DayHiker takes the best of both, and can make your Google Calendar work more like a desktop application. To get started, open the DayHiker page from the Chrome Extensions Gallery (link below), and click Install.  Confirm you wish to install it at the prompt. Now you’ll have a new extension button in your Chrome toolbar.  Click the calendar icon to view your Google Calendar.  You’ll need to be signed into your Google account for your calendar to display; click the key icon to select your account if it doesn’t show your appointments automatically. If you’re signed into multiple Google accounts, such as your public Gmail and a Google Apps account, you can select the calendar you wish and click Continue. Now you can quickly see your upcoming appointments.  Simply hover over the icon to see your upcoming events.  Or, just glance at it to see if there are any appointments coming up, as the indicator icon will change colors to show how long you have until your next appointment. Click the icon to see more information about your appointments. Or, click the Add link to add a new appointment.  If you need to edit the appointment details, click Edit Details and the appointment will open in Google Calendar for you to edit. You can also view and manage your tasks in Google Calendar.  Click the checkmark icon, and then add or check-off tasks directly from the extension pane. You can also set an alarm clock in DayHiker.  Click the green circle icon, and then enter the time for the alarm to go off.  Strangely it will only chime if the extension pane is left open, so if you click anywhere else in the browser or even switch to another program it will not chime.   If you’d like to customize DayHiker’s settings, right-click on it and select Options, or select Options in the Chrome Extensions page.  Here you can customize your badges and the DayHiker icon, or enter a custom domain for your Google Apps Pro calendar.   Conclusion If you rely on Google Calendar to stay on top of your schedule, DayHiker can help you stay scheduled and know what’s coming up.  We wish DayHiker supported multiple calendars so we could combine our Google Apps calendars with our personal Google Calendar, but even still, it is a very useful tool.  Whether you’re a tightly scheduled person or just like to jot down to-dos and keep track of them, this extension will help you do this efficiently with familiar Google tools. Link Download DayHiker from the Chrome Extensions Gallery Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Configure Disk Defragmenter Schedule in Windows 7 or VistaSchedule Updates for Windows Media CenterOpen Multiple Sites Without Reopening the Menus in FirefoxFind a Website’s Actual Location with Chrome FlagsSubscribe to RSS Feeds in Chrome with a Single Click TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips HippoRemote Pro 2.2 Xobni Plus for Outlook All My Movies 5.9 CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Dual Boot Ubuntu and Windows 7 What is HTML5? Default Programs Editor – One great tool for Setting Defaults Convert BMP, TIFF, PCX to Vector files with RasterVect Free Identify Fonts using WhatFontis.com Windows 7’s WordPad is Actually Good

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  • How to set default xrandr settings?

    - by echo-flow
    I'm trying to enable dual monitors in Ubuntu. This is working fine, but every time I do it, desktop effects is disabled. I think I've found the reason why, though: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Config/Multihead/ As with the GNOME XRandR configuration method, setting Virtual to too large a value may result in a loss of hardware acceleration, and thus an inability to use Compiz and its desktop effects. When I use the GNOME monitor applet, or the Monitors configuration in the System menu, the default xrandr settings puts the second monitor to the right of the first, and, as I found with this bug, for most monitors this creates a virtual desktop larger than the maximum 2048 horizontal resolution needed for hardware acceleration on my netbook hardware. So, it seems like if I can modify xrandr's default settings so that it places the new desktop above or below (north or south of) the main LVDS display, then hardware acceleration, and therefore compiz will continue to work. Can anyone tell me, what is the easiest way to achieve this? UPDATE: I have confirmed that multihead support with desktop effects and hardware acceleration works when I move the external monitor display north of the main LVDS display. Right now this involves the following process: plugging in the external monitor, starting the Monitors configuration menu, desktop effects are disabled automatically (and all of the windows on my workspaces are moved to the first workspace), repositioning the external display so that it is north of LVDS display and clicking apply, and then navigating to the Appearance menu and telling it to reenable desktop effects. Is there a simpler way do this? UPDATE 2: OK, so I thought that perhaps the GNOME Monitors configuration screen was trying to be clever, and might be disbling desktop effects. So, I just tried using the xrandr command-line client instead, as follows: xrandr --output VGA1 --above LVDS1 When I do that, desktop effects are still disabled, and I need to manually reenable them. This, despite the fact that hardware acceleration works, and there is never a point where hardware acceleration stops working because the horizontal dimension of the virtual display is too large. So what program is trying to be clever, and is turning off desktop effects when it doesn't need to? And how do I make it stop? If there were a way to re-enable desktop effects from the command line, which I could then put into a script along with the proper xrandr invocation, I would accept that as a workaround. UPDATE 3: OK, here's my script to enable a second monitor with desktop effects. It might be evil, I'm not sure: second-monitor.sh xrandr --output VGA1 --above LVDS1 sleep 3 compiz --replace & The sleep statement might not be necessary. If there's a better way to do this, please let me know. UPDATE 4: This is a Dell Mini Inspiron 1012. Here are my system specifications: lspci -vv 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation N10 Family Integrated Graphics Controller Subsystem: Dell Device 041a Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx+ Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx- Latency: 0 Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 29 Region 0: Memory at f0b00000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512K] Region 1: I/O ports at 18d0 [size=8] Region 2: Memory at d0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M] Region 3: Memory at f0900000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1M] Capabilities: <access denied> Kernel driver in use: i915 Kernel modules: i915 00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation N10 Family Integrated Graphics Controller Subsystem: Dell Device 041a Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx- Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx- Latency: 0 Region 0: Memory at f0b80000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512K] Capabilities: <access denied> lsmod | grep i915 i915 287458 2 drm_kms_helper 29329 1 i915 drm 162409 3 i915,drm_kms_helper intel_agp 24375 2 i915 i2c_algo_bit 5028 1 i915 video 17375 1 i915

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  • MacGyver Moments

    - by Geoff N. Hiten
    Denny Cherry tagged me to write about my best MacGyver Moment.  Usually I ignore blogosphere fluff and just use this space to write what I think is important.  However, #MVP10 just ended and I have a stronger sense of community.  Besides, where else would I mention my second best Macgyver moment was making a BIOS jumper out of a soda can.  Aluminum is conductive and I didn't have any real jumpers lying around. My best moment is probably my entire home computer network.  Every system but one is hand-built, usually cobbled together out of spare parts and 'adapted' from its original purpose. My Primary Domain Controller is a Dell 2300.   The Service Tag indicates it was shipped to the original owner in 1999.  Box has a PERC/1 RAID controller.  I acquired this from a previous employer for $50.  It runs Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition.  Does DNS, DHCP, and RADIUS services as a bonus.  RADIUS authentication is used for VPN and Wireless access.  It is nice to sign in once and be done with it. The Secondary Domain Controller is an old desktop.  Dual P-III 933 with some extra drives. My VPN box is a P-II 250 with 384MB of RAM and a 21 GB hard drive.  I did a P-to-V to my Hyper-V box a year or so ago and retired the hardware again.  Dynamic DNS lets me connect no matter how often Comcast shuffles my IP. The Hyper-V box is a desktop system with 8GB RAM and an AMD Athlon 5000+ processor.  Cost me less than $500 to put together nearly two years ago.  I reasoned that if Vista and Windows 2008 were the same code then Vista 64-bit certified meant the drivers for Vista would load into Windows 2008.  Turns out I was right. Later I added three 1TB drives but wasn't too happy with how that turned out.  I recovered two of the drives yesterday and am building an iSCSI storage unit. (Much thanks to Starwind.  Great product).  I am using an old AMD 1.1GhZ box with 1.5 GB RAM (cobbled together from three old PCs) as my storave server.  The Hyper-V box is slated for an OS rebuild to 2008 R2 once I get the storage system worked out.  maybe in a week or two. A couple of DLink Gigabit switches ties everything together. Add in the Vonage box, the three PCs, the Wireless-N Access Point, the two notebooks and the XBox and you have gone from MacGyver to darn near Rube Goldberg. The only thing I really spend money on is power supplies and fans.  I buy top-of-the-line for both. I even pull and crimp my own cables. Oh, and if my kids hose up a PC, I have all of their data on a server elsewhere.  Every PC and laptop is pretty much interchangable for email and basic workstation tasks.  That helps a lot too. Of course I will tag SQLVariant.

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  • Extending Oracle CEP with Predictive Analytics

    - by vikram.shukla(at)oracle.com
    Introduction: OCEP is often used as a business rules engine to execute a set of business logic rules via CQL statements, and take decisions based on the outcome of those rules. There are times where configuring rules manually is sufficient because an application needs to deal with only a small and well-defined set of static rules. However, in many situations customers don't want to pre-define such rules for two reasons. First, they are dealing with events with lots of columns and manually crafting such rules for each column or a set of columns and combinations thereof is almost impossible. Second, they are content with probabilistic outcomes and do not care about 100% precision. The former is the case when a user is dealing with data with high dimensionality, the latter when an application can live with "false" positives as they can be discarded after further inspection, say by a Human Task component in a Business Process Management software. The primary goal of this blog post is to show how this can be achieved by combining OCEP with Oracle Data Mining® and leveraging the latter's rich set of algorithms and functionality to do predictive analytics in real time on streaming events. The secondary goal of this post is also to show how OCEP can be extended to invoke any arbitrary external computation in an RDBMS from within CEP. The extensible facility is known as the JDBC cartridge. The rest of the post describes the steps required to achieve this: We use the dataset available at http://blogs.oracle.com/datamining/2010/01/fraud_and_anomaly_detection_made_simple.html to showcase the capabilities. We use it to show how transaction anomalies or fraud can be detected. Building the model: Follow the self-explanatory steps described at the above URL to build the model.  It is very simple - it uses built-in Oracle Data Mining PL/SQL packages to cleanse, normalize and build the model out of the dataset.  You can also use graphical Oracle Data Miner®  to build the models. To summarize, it involves: Specifying which algorithms to use. In this case we use Support Vector Machines as we're trying to find anomalies in highly dimensional dataset.Build model on the data in the table for the algorithms specified. For this example, the table was populated in the scott/tiger schema with appropriate privileges. Configuring the Data Source: This is the first step in building CEP application using such an integration.  Our datasource looks as follows in the server config file.  It is advisable that you use the Visualizer to add it to the running server dynamically, rather than manually edit the file.    <data-source>         <name>DataMining</name>         <data-source-params>             <jndi-names>                 <element>DataMining</element>             </jndi-names>             <global-transactions-protocol>OnePhaseCommit</global-transactions-protocol>         </data-source-params>         <connection-pool-params>             <credential-mapping-enabled></credential-mapping-enabled>             <test-table-name>SQL SELECT 1 from DUAL</test-table-name>             <initial-capacity>1</initial-capacity>             <max-capacity>15</max-capacity>             <capacity-increment>1</capacity-increment>         </connection-pool-params>         <driver-params>             <use-xa-data-source-interface>true</use-xa-data-source-interface>             <driver-name>oracle.jdbc.OracleDriver</driver-name>             <url>jdbc:oracle:thin:@localhost:1522:orcl</url>             <properties>                 <element>                     <value>scott</value>                     <name>user</name>                 </element>                 <element>                     <value>{Salted-3DES}AzFE5dDbO2g=</value>                     <name>password</name>                 </element>                                 <element>                     <name>com.bea.core.datasource.serviceName</name>                     <value>oracle11.2g</value>                 </element>                 <element>                     <name>com.bea.core.datasource.serviceVersion</name>                     <value>11.2.0</value>                 </element>                 <element>                     <name>com.bea.core.datasource.serviceObjectClass</name>                     <value>java.sql.Driver</value>                 </element>             </properties>         </driver-params>     </data-source>   Designing the EPN: The EPN is very simple in this example. We briefly describe each of the components. The adapter ("DataMiningAdapter") reads data from a .csv file and sends it to the CQL processor downstream. The event payload here is same as that of the table in the database (refer to the attached project or do a "desc table-name" from a SQL*PLUS prompt). While this is for convenience in this example, it need not be the case. One can still omit fields in the streaming events, and need not match all columns in the table on which the model was built. Better yet, it does not even need to have the same name as columns in the table, as long as you alias them in the USING clause of the mining function. (Caveat: they still need to draw values from a similar universe or domain, otherwise it constitutes incorrect usage of the model). There are two things in the CQL processor ("DataMiningProc") that make scoring possible on streaming events. 1.      User defined cartridge function Please refer to the OCEP CQL reference manual to find more details about how to define such functions. We include the function below in its entirety for illustration. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <jdbcctxconfig:config     xmlns:jdbcctxconfig="http://www.bea.com/ns/wlevs/config/application"     xmlns:jc="http://www.oracle.com/ns/ocep/config/jdbc">        <jc:jdbc-ctx>         <name>Oracle11gR2</name>         <data-source>DataMining</data-source>               <function name="prediction2">                                 <param name="CQLMONTH" type="char"/>                      <param name="WEEKOFMONTH" type="int"/>                      <param name="DAYOFWEEK" type="char" />                      <param name="MAKE" type="char" />                      <param name="ACCIDENTAREA"   type="char" />                      <param name="DAYOFWEEKCLAIMED"  type="char" />                      <param name="MONTHCLAIMED" type="char" />                      <param name="WEEKOFMONTHCLAIMED" type="int" />                      <param name="SEX" type="char" />                      <param name="MARITALSTATUS"   type="char" />                      <param name="AGE" type="int" />                      <param name="FAULT" type="char" />                      <param name="POLICYTYPE"   type="char" />                      <param name="VEHICLECATEGORY"  type="char" />                      <param name="VEHICLEPRICE" type="char" />                      <param name="FRAUDFOUND" type="int" />                      <param name="POLICYNUMBER" type="int" />                      <param name="REPNUMBER" type="int" />                      <param name="DEDUCTIBLE"   type="int" />                      <param name="DRIVERRATING"  type="int" />                      <param name="DAYSPOLICYACCIDENT"   type="char" />                      <param name="DAYSPOLICYCLAIM" type="char" />                      <param name="PASTNUMOFCLAIMS" type="char" />                      <param name="AGEOFVEHICLES" type="char" />                      <param name="AGEOFPOLICYHOLDER" type="char" />                      <param name="POLICEREPORTFILED" type="char" />                      <param name="WITNESSPRESNT" type="char" />                      <param name="AGENTTYPE" type="char" />                      <param name="NUMOFSUPP" type="char" />                      <param name="ADDRCHGCLAIM"   type="char" />                      <param name="NUMOFCARS" type="char" />                      <param name="CQLYEAR" type="int" />                      <param name="BASEPOLICY" type="char" />                                     <return-component-type>char</return-component-type>                                                      <sql><![CDATA[             SELECT to_char(PREDICTION_PROBABILITY(CLAIMSMODEL, '0' USING *))               AS probability             FROM (SELECT  :CQLMONTH AS MONTH,                                            :WEEKOFMONTH AS WEEKOFMONTH,                          :DAYOFWEEK AS DAYOFWEEK,                           :MAKE AS MAKE,                           :ACCIDENTAREA AS ACCIDENTAREA,                           :DAYOFWEEKCLAIMED AS DAYOFWEEKCLAIMED,                           :MONTHCLAIMED AS MONTHCLAIMED,                           :WEEKOFMONTHCLAIMED,                             :SEX AS SEX,                           :MARITALSTATUS AS MARITALSTATUS,                            :AGE AS AGE,                           :FAULT AS FAULT,                           :POLICYTYPE AS POLICYTYPE,                            :VEHICLECATEGORY AS VEHICLECATEGORY,                           :VEHICLEPRICE AS VEHICLEPRICE,                           :FRAUDFOUND AS FRAUDFOUND,                           :POLICYNUMBER AS POLICYNUMBER,                           :REPNUMBER AS REPNUMBER,                           :DEDUCTIBLE AS DEDUCTIBLE,                            :DRIVERRATING AS DRIVERRATING,                           :DAYSPOLICYACCIDENT AS DAYSPOLICYACCIDENT,                            :DAYSPOLICYCLAIM AS DAYSPOLICYCLAIM,                           :PASTNUMOFCLAIMS AS PASTNUMOFCLAIMS,                           :AGEOFVEHICLES AS AGEOFVEHICLES,                           :AGEOFPOLICYHOLDER AS AGEOFPOLICYHOLDER,                           :POLICEREPORTFILED AS POLICEREPORTFILED,                           :WITNESSPRESNT AS WITNESSPRESENT,                           :AGENTTYPE AS AGENTTYPE,                           :NUMOFSUPP AS NUMOFSUPP,                           :ADDRCHGCLAIM AS ADDRCHGCLAIM,                            :NUMOFCARS AS NUMOFCARS,                           :CQLYEAR AS YEAR,                           :BASEPOLICY AS BASEPOLICY                 FROM dual)                 ]]>         </sql>        </function>     </jc:jdbc-ctx> </jdbcctxconfig:config> 2.      Invoking the function for each event. Once this function is defined, you can invoke it from CQL as follows: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <wlevs:config xmlns:wlevs="http://www.bea.com/ns/wlevs/config/application">   <processor>     <name>DataMiningProc</name>     <rules>        <query id="q1"><![CDATA[                     ISTREAM(SELECT S.CQLMONTH,                                   S.WEEKOFMONTH,                                   S.DAYOFWEEK, S.MAKE,                                   :                                         S.BASEPOLICY,                                    C.F AS probability                                                 FROM                                 StreamDataChannel [NOW] AS S,                                 TABLE(prediction2@Oracle11gR2(S.CQLMONTH,                                      S.WEEKOFMONTH,                                      S.DAYOFWEEK,                                       S.MAKE, ...,                                      S.BASEPOLICY) AS F of char) AS C)                       ]]></query>                 </rules>               </processor>           </wlevs:config>   Finally, the last stage in the EPN prints out the probability of the event being an anomaly. One can also define a threshold in CQL to filter out events that are normal, i.e., below a certain mark as defined by the analyst or designer. Sample Runs: Now let's see how this behaves when events are streamed through CEP. We use only two events for brevity, one normal and other one not. This is one of the "normal" looking events and the probability of it being anomalous is less than 60%. Event is: eventType=DataMiningOutEvent object=q1  time=2904821976256 S.CQLMONTH=Dec, S.WEEKOFMONTH=5, S.DAYOFWEEK=Wednesday, S.MAKE=Honda, S.ACCIDENTAREA=Urban, S.DAYOFWEEKCLAIMED=Tuesday, S.MONTHCLAIMED=Jan, S.WEEKOFMONTHCLAIMED=1, S.SEX=Female, S.MARITALSTATUS=Single, S.AGE=21, S.FAULT=Policy Holder, S.POLICYTYPE=Sport - Liability, S.VEHICLECATEGORY=Sport, S.VEHICLEPRICE=more than 69000, S.FRAUDFOUND=0, S.POLICYNUMBER=1, S.REPNUMBER=12, S.DEDUCTIBLE=300, S.DRIVERRATING=1, S.DAYSPOLICYACCIDENT=more than 30, S.DAYSPOLICYCLAIM=more than 30, S.PASTNUMOFCLAIMS=none, S.AGEOFVEHICLES=3 years, S.AGEOFPOLICYHOLDER=26 to 30, S.POLICEREPORTFILED=No, S.WITNESSPRESENT=No, S.AGENTTYPE=External, S.NUMOFSUPP=none, S.ADDRCHGCLAIM=1 year, S.NUMOFCARS=3 to 4, S.CQLYEAR=1994, S.BASEPOLICY=Liability, probability=.58931702982118561 isTotalOrderGuarantee=true\nAnamoly probability: .58931702982118561 However, the following event is scored as an anomaly with a very high probability of  89%. So there is likely to be something wrong with it. A close look reveals that the value of "deductible" field (10000) is not "normal". What exactly constitutes normal here?. If you run the query on the database to find ALL distinct values for the "deductible" field, it returns the following set: {300, 400, 500, 700} Event is: eventType=DataMiningOutEvent object=q1  time=2598483773496 S.CQLMONTH=Dec, S.WEEKOFMONTH=5, S.DAYOFWEEK=Wednesday, S.MAKE=Honda, S.ACCIDENTAREA=Urban, S.DAYOFWEEKCLAIMED=Tuesday, S.MONTHCLAIMED=Jan, S.WEEKOFMONTHCLAIMED=1, S.SEX=Female, S.MARITALSTATUS=Single, S.AGE=21, S.FAULT=Policy Holder, S.POLICYTYPE=Sport - Liability, S.VEHICLECATEGORY=Sport, S.VEHICLEPRICE=more than 69000, S.FRAUDFOUND=0, S.POLICYNUMBER=1, S.REPNUMBER=12, S.DEDUCTIBLE=10000, S.DRIVERRATING=1, S.DAYSPOLICYACCIDENT=more than 30, S.DAYSPOLICYCLAIM=more than 30, S.PASTNUMOFCLAIMS=none, S.AGEOFVEHICLES=3 years, S.AGEOFPOLICYHOLDER=26 to 30, S.POLICEREPORTFILED=No, S.WITNESSPRESENT=No, S.AGENTTYPE=External, S.NUMOFSUPP=none, S.ADDRCHGCLAIM=1 year, S.NUMOFCARS=3 to 4, S.CQLYEAR=1994, S.BASEPOLICY=Liability, probability=.89171554529576691 isTotalOrderGuarantee=true\nAnamoly probability: .89171554529576691 Conclusion: By way of this example, we show: real-time scoring of events as they flow through CEP leveraging Oracle Data Mining.how CEP applications can invoke complex arbitrary external computations (function shipping) in an RDBMS.

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