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• How to filter txt file by string with using batch

  - by Antediluvian

  Hello guys I know this kind of problem will be very easy for you but I am total beginner in batch mode. The question is how bat file code should look like to generate a new txt file from specific one . for example . I have report txt Displaying status for license file: 7788@Server01 License Server: server01 License In Use Free ------- ------ ---- Design* 1 6 (user1@host1) 127 server01 7788 4402 Assembly* 0 4 Pro 0 15 AdvSE 2 3 (user2@host2) AdvSE server01 7788 2706 (user3@host3) AdvSE server01 7788 1503 SingleSite_License 1 3 (user4@host4) SingleSite_License server01 7788 2003 Intra_CLIENT_License 1 4 (user2@host2) Intra_CLIENT_License server01 7788 2003 CAD 1 32 ^(user2@host2) CAD server01 7788 501 * = License Extensions - Available only on startup. ^ = Borrowed License. Press any key to continue . . . What I want to have in new file from this one are only lines : SingleSite_License 3 Intra_CLIENT_License 9 but both SingleSite_License and Intra_Client_License should be taken from 1st found string -other are not necessary. report txt can be different and licenses can be showed in different order . if it not possible - other solution can be just only Free value will be written in new txt file - f.e 3 and 9 . so the last string in line which contains specific words thank you for any tips

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• What about parallelism across network using multiple PCs?

  - by MainMa

  Parallel computing is used more and more, and new framework features and shortcuts make it easier to use (for example Parallel extensions which are directly available in .NET 4). Now what about the parallelism across network? I mean, an abstraction of everything related to communications, creation of processes on remote machines, etc. Something like, in C#: NetworkParallel.ForEach(myEnumerable, () => { // Computing and/or access to web ressource or local network database here }); I understand that it is very different from the multi-core parallelism. The two most obvious differences would probably be: The fact that such parallel task will be limited to computing, without being able for example to use files stored locally (but why not a database?), or even to use local variables, because it would be rather two distinct applications than two threads of the same application, The very specific implementation, requiring not just a separate thread (which is quite easy), but spanning a process on different machines, then communicating with them over local network. Despite those differences, such parallelism is quite possible, even without speaking about distributed architecture. Do you think it will be implemented in a few years? Do you agree that it enables developers to easily develop extremely powerfull stuff with much less pain? Example: Think about a business application which extracts data from the database, transforms it, and displays statistics. Let's say this application takes ten seconds to load data, twenty seconds to transform data and ten seconds to build charts on a single machine in a company, using all the CPU, whereas ten other machines are used at 5% of CPU most of the time. In a such case, every action may be done in parallel, resulting in probably six to ten seconds for overall process instead of forty.

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• A generic C++ library that provides QtConcurrent functionality?

  - by Lucas

  QtConcurrent is awesome. I'll let the Qt docs speak for themselves: QtConcurrent includes functional programming style APIs for parallel list processing, including a MapReduce and FilterReduce implementation for shared-memory (non-distributed) systems, and classes for managing asynchronous computations in GUI applications. For instance, you give QtConcurrent::map() an iterable sequence and a function that accepts items of the type stored in the sequence, and that function is applied to all the items in the collection. This is done in a multi-threaded manner, with a thread pool equal to the number of logical CPU's on the system. There are plenty of other function in QtConcurrent, like filter(), filteredReduced() etc. The standard CompSci map/reduce functions and the like. I'm totally in love with this, but I'm starting work on an OSS project that will not be using the Qt framework. It's a library, and I don't want to force others to depend on such a large framework like Qt. I'm trying to keep external dependencies to a minimum (it's the decent thing to do). I'm looking for a generic C++ framework that provides me with the same/similar high-level primitives that QtConcurrent does. AFAIK boost has nothing like this (I may be wrong though). boost::thread is very low-level compared to what I'm looking for. I know C# has something very similar with their Parallel Extensions so I know this isn't a Qt-only idea. What do you suggest I use?

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• .net mvc2 custom HtmlHelper extension unit testing

  - by alex

  My goal is to be able to unit test some custom HtmlHelper extensions - which use RenderPartial internally. http://ox.no/posts/mocking-htmlhelper-in-asp-net-mvc-2-and-3-using-moq I've tried using the method above to mock the HtmlHelper. However, I'm running into Null value exceptions. "Parameter name: view" Anyone have any idea?? Thanks. Below are the ideas of the code: [TestMethod] public void TestMethod1() { var helper = CreateHtmlHelper(new ViewDataDictionary()); helper.RenderPartial("Test"); // supposingly this line is within a method to be tested Assert.AreEqual("test", helper.ViewContext.Writer.ToString()); } public static HtmlHelper CreateHtmlHelper(ViewDataDictionary vd) { Mock<ViewContext> mockViewContext = new Mock<ViewContext>( new ControllerContext( new Mock<HttpContextBase>().Object, new RouteData(), new Mock<ControllerBase>().Object), new Mock<IView>().Object, vd, new TempDataDictionary(), new StringWriter()); var mockViewDataContainer = new Mock<IViewDataContainer>(); mockViewDataContainer.Setup(v => v.ViewData) .Returns(vd); return new HtmlHelper(mockViewContext.Object, mockViewDataContainer.Object); }

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• Improve a regex statement in order to be as efficient as it can be

  - by user551625

  I have a PHP program that, at some point, needs to analyze a big amount of HTML+javascript text to parse info. All I want to parse needs to be in two parts. Seperate all "HTML goups" to parse Parse each HTML group to get the needed information. In the 1st parse it needs to find: <div id="myHome" And start capturing after that tag. Then stop capturing before <span id="nReaders" And capture the number that comes after this tag and stop. In the 2nd parse use the capture nº 1 (0 has the whole thing and 2 has the number) from the parse made before and then find . I already have code to do that and it works. Is there a way to improve this, make it easier for the machine to parse? preg_match_all('%<div id="myHome"[^>]>(.*?)<span id="nReaders[^>]>([0-9]+)<"%msi', $data, $results, PREG_SET_ORDER); foreach($results AS $result){ preg_match_all('%<div class="myplacement".*?[.]php[?]((?:next|before))=([0-9]+).*?<tbody.*?<td[^>]>.*?[0-9]+"%msi', $result[1], $mydata, PREG_SET_ORDER); //takes care of the data and finish the program Note: I need this for a freeware program so it must be as general as possible and, if possible, not use php extensions ADD: I ommitted some parts here because I didn't expect for answers like those. There is also a need to parse text inside one of the tags that is in the document. It may be the 6th 7th or 8th tag but I know it is after a certain tag. The parser I've checked (thx profitphp) does work to find the script tag. What now? There are more than 1 tag with the same class. I want them all. But I want only with also one of a list of classes..... Where can I find instructions and demos and limitations of DOM parsers (like the one in http://simplehtmldom.sourceforge.net/)? I need something that will work on, at least, a big amount of free servers.

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• suggestions on syntax to express mathematical formula concisely

  - by aaa

  hello. I am developing functional domain specific embedded language within C++ to translate formulas into working code as concisely and accurately as possible. I post prototype in the comment, it is about 2 hundred lines long. Right now my language looks something like this (well, actually is going to look like): // implies two nested loops j=0:N, i=0,j (range(i) < j < N)[T(i,j) = (T(i,j) - T(j,i))/e(i+j)]; // implies summation over above expression sum(range(i) < j < N))[(T(i,j) - T(j,i))/e(i+j)]; I am looking for possible syntax improvements/extensions or just different ideas about expressing mathematical formulas as clearly and precisely as possible (in any language, not just C++). Can you give me some syntax examples relating to my question which can be accomplished in your language of choice which consider useful. In particular, if you have some ideas about how to translate the above code segments, I would be happy to hear them. Thank you just to clarify and give actual formula, my short-term goal is to express the following expression concisely where values in <> are already computed as 4-dimensional array

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• Find telephonenumbers - finding number with and without an phone extension

  - by nWorx

  Hello there I've a table with about 130 000 records with telephonenumbers. The numbers are all formated like this +4311234567. The numbers always include international country code, local area code and then the phonenumber and sometimes an extension. There is a webservice which checks for the caller's number in the table. That service works already. But now the client wants that also if someone calls from a company which number is already in the database but not his extension, that the service will return some result. Example for table. **id** | **telephonenumber** | **name** | 1 | +431234567 | company A | 2 | +431234567890 | employee in company A | 3 | +4398765432 | company b now if somebody from company A calls with a different extension for example +43123456777, than it should return id1. But the problem is, that I don't know how many digits the extensions have. It could have 3,4 or more digits. Are there any patterns for string kind of matchings? The data is stored in a sql2005 database. Thanks

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• How to find a particular string in a paragraph in android?

  - by user1448108

  In my project the data is stored in html format along with image tag. For example the following data is stored in html format and it contains 2 to 3 images. Mother Teresa as she is commonly known, was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. Although born on the 26 August 1910, she considered 27 August, the day she was baptized, to be her "true birthday". “By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus." img ----- src="image1.png" ---- Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic religious congregation, which in 2012 consisted of over 4,500 sisters and is active in 133 countries.img ----- src="image2.png" ----. She was the recipient of numerous honours including the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. She refused the conventional ceremonial banquet given to laureates, and asked that the $192,000 funds be given to the poor in India. img ----- src="image3.png" ---- Now from the above data I need to find how many images the paragraph has and need to get all the image names along with the extensions and should display them in android. Tried with splitting but did not work. Please help me regarding this. Thanks in advance

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• Download Remote File

  - by Abs

  Hello all, I have a function that will be passed in a link. The link is to a remote image. I thought I could just use the extension of the file in the URL to determine the type of image but some URLs won't have extensions in the URL. They probably just push headers to the browser and therefore I do not have an extension to parse from the URL. How can I test if the URL has an extension and if not then read the headers to determine the file type? Am I over complicating things here? Is there an easier way to do this? I am making use of Codeigniter maybe there is something already built in to do this? All I really want to do is download an image from a URL with the correct extension. This is what I have so far. function get_image($image_link){ $remoteFile = $image_link; $ext = ''; //some URLs might not have an extension $file = fopen($remoteFile, "r"); if (!$file) { return false; }else{ $line = ''; while (!feof ($file)) { $line .= fgets ($file, 4096); } $file_name = time().$ext; file_put_contents($file_name, $line); } fclose($file); } Thanks all for any help

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• Best way of creating lite and extended version of Git project

  - by Saif Bechan

  I have made a little framework for php. In this project I have the basic functionalities that I use for most of my projects. I have also inserted some sample data so I do not forget how it all works again. I have put the framework under version control using git. Everything works fine now and I want to further build on this. This is my first git project so I do not know which method I should use. Ok the first thing I want to do is creating 2 more versions of the project. As I explained before the version I have now has some sample data inside it. So the first version I want to create is a stripped down version, removing the sample data. I can use this version to create any new project. The second version I want to create is an extended version. This has the lite version, combined with the sample data, plus some more extensions on it. So in the end I have 3 version of the same project, small medium and large. Now what is the best way of doing this. Should I create 3 repositories for this, or can I use just one repository for all the versions.

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• [^.] causing headache in RewriteRule

  - by Ollie2893

  I am struggling with a very basic regex problem in my .htaccess file that I hope someone may be able to shed some light on. The basic premise is that I would like to teach Apache to switch any .html extension into a .var extension. I had thought that the rule would be positively trivial: RewriteRule ^([^.]+)\.html$ $1.var But the [^.] part simply doesn't work. Bizarrely, it works like so RewriteRule ^([^A-Z]+)\.html$ $1.var I do not understand why this latter rule works. Assume I am looking for a file called "index.html" then $1 should match to "index." and the ".html" bit should actually fail to match. To widen the scope of the question slightly, I am actually racking my brain on how to implement a multi-lingual site. I don't like Apache's MultiView option because it forces upon me a flat directory structure with file extensions that aren't recognizable to many development tools. I could go the .var type-map route but am finding that the default config for Apache doesn't support this all that well either (hence my excursions into regex land). So while I am using mod_rewrite, I am thinking that I might go the whole hog: whenever a request for a name.html file is received and this file does not exist, check whether there exists a XX/name.html file instead, where "XX" is the language code according to the user's preferences. This would give me a neater directory structure, though it does perhaps not perform as well as the .var approach in a situation where the language preference of the user's browser is not supported in by my site (in which situation .var would substitute EN or similar). Any thoughts? Thanks.

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• PHP: exif_imagetype() not working?

  - by Karem

  I have this extension checker: $upload_name = "file"; $max_file_size_in_bytes = 8388608; $extension_whitelist = array("jpg", "gif", "png", "jpeg"); /* checking extensions */ $path_info = pathinfo($_FILES[$upload_name]['name']); $file_extension = $path_info["extension"]; $is_valid_extension = false; foreach ($extension_whitelist as $extension) { if (strcasecmp($file_extension, $extension) == 0) { $is_valid_extension = true; break; } } if (!$is_valid_extension) { echo "{"; echo "error: 'ext not allowed!'\n"; echo "}"; exit(0); } And then i added this: if (exif_imagetype($_FILES[$upload_name]['name']) != IMAGETYPE_GIF OR exif_imagetype($_FILES[$upload_name]['name']) != IMAGETYPE_JPEG OR exif_imagetype($_FILES[$upload_name]['name']) != IMAGETYPE_PNG) { echo "{"; echo "error: 'This is no photo..'\n"; echo "}"; exit(0); } As soon when I added this to my imageupload function, the function stops working. I dont get any errors, not even the one i made myself "this is no photo", what could be wrong? Just checked with my host. They support the function exif_imagetype()

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• Chrome Extension - Console Log not firing

  - by coffeemonitor

  I'm starting to learn to make my own Chrome Extensions, and starting small. At the moment, I'm switching from using the alert() function to console.log() for a cleaner development environment. For some reason, console.log() is not displaying in my chrome console logs. However, the alert() function is working just fine. Can someone review my code below and perhaps tell me why console.log() isn't firing as expected? manifest.json { "manifest_version": 2, "name": "Sandbox", "version": "0.2", "description": "My Chrome Extension Playground", "icons": { "16": "imgs/16x16.png", "24": "imgs/24x24.png", "32": "imgs/32x32.png", "48": "imgs/48x48.png" }, "background": { "scripts": ["js/background.js"] }, "browser_action": { "default_title": "My Fun Sandbox Environment", "default_icon": "imgs/16x16.png" }, "permissions": [ "background", "storage", "tabs", "http://*/*", "https://*/*" ] } js/background.js function click(e) { alert("this alert certainly shows"); console.log("But this does not"); } // Fire a function, when icon is clicked chrome.browserAction.onClicked.addListener(click); As you can see, I kept it very simple. Just the manifest.json and a background.js file with an event listener, if the icon in the toolbar is clicked. As I mentioned, the alert() is popping up nicely, while the console.log() appears to be ignored.

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• Force calling the derived class implementation within a generic function in C#?

  - by Adam Hardy

  Ok so I'm currently working with a set of classes that I don't have control over in some pretty generic functions using these objects. Instead of writing literally tens of functions that essentially do the same thing for each class I decided to use a generic function instead. Now the classes I'm dealing with are a little weird in that the derived classes share many of the same properties but the base class that they are derived from doesn't. One such property example is .Parent which exists on a huge number of derived classes but not on the base class and it is this property that I need to use. For ease of understanding I've created a small example as follows: class StandardBaseClass {} // These are simulating the SMO objects class StandardDerivedClass : StandardBaseClass { public object Parent { get; set; } } static class Extensions { public static object GetParent(this StandardDerivedClass sdc) { return sdc.Parent; } public static object GetParent(this StandardBaseClass sbc) { throw new NotImplementedException("StandardBaseClass does not contain a property Parent"); } // This is the Generic function I'm trying to write and need the Parent property. public static void DoSomething<T>(T foo) where T : StandardBaseClass { object Parent = ((T)foo).GetParent(); } } In the above example calling DoSomething() will throw the NotImplemented Exception in the base class's implementation of GetParent(), even though I'm forcing the cast to T which is a StandardDerivedClass. This is contrary to other casting behaviour where by downcasting will force the use of the base class's implementation. I see this behaviour as a bug. Has anyone else out there encountered this?

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• Python script not working when run from browser directly

  - by splatterdash

  I'm trying to run this script: import re, os def build_pool(cwd): global xtn_pool, file_pool xtn, xtn_pool = re.compile('\\.[0-9a-zA-Z]{1,4}$'), [] file_pool = [files for files in os.listdir(cwd) if os.path.isfile(files) and xtn.search(files)] # Lists all the file extension in the folder for file in file_pool: if not xtn_pool.__contains__(xtn.search(file).group()): xtn_pool.append(xtn.search(file).group()) return xtn_pool.sort(), file_pool if __name__ == '__main__': import sys #if path is given, change working directory to path if len(sys.argv) >= 2: os.chdir(sys.argv[1]) build_pool(os.getcwd()) #if no path is given when running, do renaming in current folder else: build_pool(os.getcwd()) print('The folder contains the following extensions: ') for i in range(0, len(xtn_pool)): print(repr(i+1) + '. ' + xtn_pool[i][1:]) opt = int(input('Which one would you like to replace? ')) xtn_pick = xtn_pool[opt-1] # Lists all the file with the chosen extension xtn_file_pool = [file for file in file_pool if file.endswith(xtn_pick)] print('There are {0} files with the {1} extension.'.format(len(xtn_file_pool), xtn_pick)) xtn_new = input('Input replacement extension: ') # The actual renaming process for file in xtn_file_pool: os.rename(file, file[:-len(xtn_pick)+1] + xtn_new) directly from my file browser (Nautilus), but for some reason it's not working. When I run it from terminal (python3 scriptname.py) it works fine as intended. But when I just click the script file in Nautilus, choose 'Run in Terminal', it always stops after asking 'Input replacement extension: '. How can I make this script run without using the terminal?

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• Iterate over defined elements of a JS array

  - by sibidiba

  I'm using a JS array to Map IDs to actual elements, i.e. a key-value store. I would like to iterate over all elements. I tried several methods, but all have its caveats: for (var item in map) {...} Does iterates over all properties of the array, therefore it will include also functions and extensions to Array.prototype. For example someone dropping in the Prototype library in the future will brake existing code. var length = map.lenth; for (var i = 0; i < length; i++) { var item = map[i]; ... } does work but just like $.each(map, function(index, item) {...}); They iterate over the whole range of indexes 0..max(id) which has horrible drawbacks: var x = []; x[1]=1; x[10]=10; $.each(x, function(i,v) {console.log(i+": "+v);}); 0: undefined 1: 1 2: undefined 3: undefined 4: undefined 5: undefined 6: undefined 7: undefined 8: undefined 9: undefined 10: 10 Of course my IDs wont resemble a continuous sequence either. Moreover there can be huge gaps between them so skipping undefined in the latter case is unacceptable for performance reasons. How is it possible to safely iterate over only the defined elements of an array (in a way that works in all browsers and IE)?

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• Selenium - Wait for network traffic

  - by Joel

  We're using Selenium with the Java API and some Javascript user extensions. We use a lot of AJAX calls in our app. A lot of our tests fail randomly because sometimes the AJAX calls finish slower than other times so the page isn't fully loaded. We fix that by waiting for specific elements or Thread.sleep. I was trying to find a way to instead just wait for the network traffic to finish. So that we could do this: selenium.click("some JS button"); selenium.waitForNetwork(); assertTrue(something); That way we can get rid of the thread sleep and have tests pass faster when the server responds faster and not have so many tests fail due to timing issues. I haven't been able to find a way to do this searching Google. Does anyone have any ideas how we can accomplish this? (Preferably either through Javascript or the Java API but all suggestions are welcome). Note: the other variations of "waitFor" are not what I'm looking for. We're already using those in clicks and other things. I'm looking for something that waits for the NETWORK TRAFFIC. Thanks for all the feedback, I'll be trying out a couple of the suggestions, but I'm still open to other ideas. Thanks.

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• MVC3 Custom view engine

  - by eth0

  I have a custom View Engine that derives from WebFormViewEngine. There's a lot of stuff going on in here, mostly caching. I want to be able to use WebFormViewEngine AND RazorViewEngine at the same time, is this possible? Ideally I'd like to do; ViewEngines.Add(new MyViewEngine<WebFormsViewEngine>()); ViewEngines.Add(new MyViewEngine<RazorViewEngine>()); if a .ascx/.aspx/.master file exists then use WebForms, otherwise use Razor is a .cshtml file exists. EDIT: I should of worded my question better. As my custom view engine derives from WebFormViewEngine it obviously uses WebForms, I can't derive from two classes. I can derive from RazorViewEngine but then I'll loose WebForms. I can duplicate my code entirely, derive from RazorViewEngine and edit the views file extensions, etc. but as I said I've got a lot of custom code in my view engine and would be duplicating hundreds of lines. WebFormViewEngine and RazorViewEngine derive from BuildManagerViewEngine which in turn implements IViewEngine. The problem with that is I have to implement methods CreatePartialView() and CreateView() but how would I know what to return (WebForms/Razor?) using generics?

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• UIComponent in Swc

  - by mustISignUp

  In Flash, if i create a custom Movieclip, and compile it to a SWC, i can use it in .fla files (by linking to the .swc).. var mcInstance = new CustomMovieClip(); addChild(mcInstance); All the arrangement of graphics on the custom movieClip's layers is preserved. If i subclass UIComponent and compile to a swc, I can use the custom Class in my .fla file, but the new instance doesn't seem to construct the children arranged on the layers. I know that the correct way to make a custom component is to have the two frames, first to specify bounding box, second frame for assets, and that the first graphic in frame 1 is removed at runtime. But i'm not really trying to make a reusable component - i just want to use the UIComponent class (It seems to have some nice extensions to Sprite). As i really want some hand-positioned layers inside the component i figured i could have the bounding box as the first element on frame 1 (knowing that it would be removed), but any other items i put on frame 1 would be preserved - buttons, images, lines, etc. Is this possible?

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• Serving files (800MB) results in an empty file

  - by azz0r

  Hello, with the following code, small files are served fine, however large (see, 800MB and above) result in empty files! Would I need to do something with apache to solve this? <?php class Model_Download { function __construct($path, $file_name) { $this->full_path = $path.$file_name; } public function execute() { if ($fd = fopen ($this->full_path, "r")) { $fsize = filesize($this->full_path); $path_parts = pathinfo($this->full_path); $ext = strtolower($path_parts["extension"]); switch ($ext) { case "pdf": header("Content-type: application/pdf"); // add here more headers for diff. extensions header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"".$path_parts["basename"]."\""); // use 'attachment' to force a download break; default; header("Content-type: application/octet-stream"); header("Content-Disposition: filename=\"".$path_parts["basename"]."\""); break; } header("Content-length: $fsize"); header("Cache-control: private"); //use this to open files directly while(!feof($fd)) { $buffer = fread($fd, 2048); echo $buffer; } } fclose ($fd); exit; } }

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• Add keyboard languages to XP, Vista, and Windows 7

  - by Matthew Guay

  Do you regularly need to type in multiple languages in Windows?  Here we’ll show you the easy way to add and change input languages to your keyboard in XP, Vista, and Windows 7. Windows Vista and 7 come preinstalled with support for viewing a wide variety of languages, so adding an input language is fairly simply.  Adding an input language is slightly more difficult in XP, and requires installing additional files if you need an Asian or Complex script language.  First we show how to add an input language in Windows Vista and 7; it’s basically the same in both versions.  Then, we show how to add a language to XP, and also how to add Complex Script support.  Please note that this is only for adding an input language, which will allow you to type in the language you select.  This does not change your user interface language. Change keyboard language in Windows 7 and Vista It is fairly simple to add or change a keyboard language in Windows 7 or Vista.  In Windows 7, enter “keyboard language” in the Start menu search box, and select “Change keyboards or other input methods”. In Windows Vista, open Control Panel and enter “input language” in the search box and select “Change keyboards or other input methods”.  This also works in Windows 7. Now, click Change Keyboards to add another keyboard language or change your default one. Our default input language is US English, and our default keyboard is the US keyboard layout.  Click Add to insert another input language while still leaving your default input language installed. Here we selected the standard Thai keyboard language (Thai Kedmanee), but you can select any language you want.  Windows offers almost any language you can imagine, so just look for the language you want, select it, and click Ok. Alternately, if you want, you can click Preview to see your layout choice before accepting it.  This is only the default characters, not ones that will be activated with Shift or other keys (many Asian languages use many more characters than English, and require the use of Shift and other keys to access them all).  Once your finished previewing, click close and then press Ok on the previous dialog. Now you will see both of your keyboard languages in the Installed services box.  You can click Add to go back and get more, or move your selected language up or down (to change its priority), or simply click Apply to add the new language. Also, you can now change the default input language from the top menu.  This is the language that your keyboard will start with when you boot your computer.  So, if you mainly use English but also use another language, usually it is best to leave English as your default input language. Once you’ve pressed Apply or Ok, you will see a new icon beside your system tray with the initials of your default input language. If you click it, you can switch between input languages.  Alternately you can switch input languages by pressing Alt+Shift on your keyboard. Some complex languages, such as Chinese, may have extra buttons to change input modes to accommodate their large alphabet. If you would like to change the keyboard shortcut for changing languages, go back to the Input Languages dialog, and select the “Advanced Key Settings” tab.  Here you can change settings for Caps Lock and change or add key sequences to change between languages. Also, the On-Screen keyboard will display the correct keyboard language (here the keyboard is displaying Thai), which can be a helpful reference if your physical keyboard doesn’t have your preferred input language printed on it.  To open this, simply enter “On-Screen keyboard” in the start menu search, or click All Programs>Accessories>On-Screen keyboard. Change keyboard language in Windows XP The process for changing the keyboard language in Windows XP is slightly different.  Open Control Panel, and select “Date, Time, Language, and Regional Options”.   Select “Add other languages”. Now, click Details to add another language.  XP does not include support for Asian and complex languages by default, so if you need to add one of those languages we have details for that below. Click Add to add an input language. Select your desired language from the list, and choose your desired keyboard layout if your language offers multiple layouts.  Here we selected Canadian French with the default layout. Now you will see both of your keyboard languages in the Installed services box.  You can click Add to go back and add more, or move your selected language up or down (to change its priority), or simply click Apply to add the new language. Once you’ve pressed Apply or Ok, you will see a new icon beside your system tray with the initials of your default input language. If you click it, you can switch between input languages.  Alternately you can switch input languages by pressing Alt+Shift on your keyboard. If you would like to change the keyboard shortcut for changing languages, go back to the Input Languages dialog, and click the “Key Settings” button on the bottom of the dialog.  Here you can change settings for Caps Lock and change or add key sequences to change between languages. Add support to XP for Asian and Complex script languages Windows XP does not include support for Asian and Complex script languages by default, but you can easily add them to your computer.  This is useful if you wish to type in one of these languages, or simply want to read text written in these languages, since XP will not display these languages correctly if they are not installed.  If you wish to install Chinese, Japanese, and/or Korean, check the “Install files for East Asian languages” box.  Or, if you need to install a complex script language (including Arabic, Armenian, Georgian, Hebrew, the Indic languages, Thai, and Vietnamese), check the “Install files for complex script and right-to-left languages” box.   Choosing either of these options will open a prompt reminding you that this option will take up more disk space.  Support for complex languages will require around 10Mb of hard drive space, but East Asian language support may require 230 Mb or more free disk space.  Click Ok, and click apply to install your language files. You may have to insert your XP CD into your CD drive to install these files.  Insert the disk, and then click Ok. Windows will automatically copy the files, including fonts for these languages… …and then will ask you to reboot your computer to finalize the settings.  Click Yes, and then reopen the “Add other languages” dialog when your computer is rebooted, and add a language as before.     Now you can add Complex and/or Asian languages to XP, just as above.  Here is the XP taskbar language selector with Thai installed. Conclusion Unfortunately we haven’t found a way to add Asian and complex languages in XP without having an XP disc. If you know of a way, let us know in the comments. (No downloading the XP disc from torrent site answers please) Adding an input language is very important for bilingual individuals, and can also be useful if you simply need to occasionally view Asian or Complex languages in XP.  And by following the correct instructions for your version of Windows, it should be very easy to add, change, and remove input languages. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Show Keyboard Shortcut Access Keys in Windows VistaKeyboard Ninja: 21 Keyboard Shortcut ArticlesAnother Desktop Cube for Windows XP/VistaThe "Up" Keyboard Shortcut for Windows 7 or Vista ExplorerWhat is ctfmon.exe And Why Is It Running? TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Make your Joomla & Drupal Sites Mobile with OSMOBI Integrate Twitter and Delicious and Make Life Easier Design Your Web Pages Using the Golden Ratio Worldwide Growth of the Internet How to Find Your Mac Address Use My TextTools to Edit and Organize Text

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• Our Look at Opera 10.50 Web Browser

  - by Asian Angel

  Everyone has been talking about the newest version of Opera recently but perhaps you have not looked at it too closely yet. Today we will take a look at 10.50 and let you see what this “new browser” is all about. The New Engines Carakan JavaScript Engine: Runs web applications up to 7 times faster than its predecessor Futhark Vega Graphics Library: Enables super fast and smooth graphics on everything from tab switching to webpage animation Presto 2.5: Provides support for HTML5, CSS2.1 and the latest CSS3 standards A Look at the Features Available If you have installed or used older versions of Opera before then the default look after a clean install will probably seem rather different. The main differences in appearance are mainly located within the “glass border” areas of the browser. The “Speed Dial” setup looks and works just as well as in previous versions. You can set a favorite wallpaper or image as your background and choose the number of “dials” using the “Configure Speed Dial Command”. One of the “standout” differences is the “O Button”. All of the menus have been condensed into this single access point but it only takes a few moments to find what you are looking for. If you have used the style before in earlier versions of Opera some of the items have been moved around. For those who prefer the “Menu Bar” that can be easily restored using the “Show Menu Bar Command”. If desired you can actually “extend” the “Tab Bar” downwards to display thumbnails of your open tabs. Just use your mouse to grab the bottom of the “Tab Bar” and adjust it to suit your personal needs. The only problem with this feature is that it will quickly use up a good sized portion of your available UI and browser window space. The “Password Manager” is ready to access when needed…the background for the button will turn a shiny metallic blue when you open a webpage that you have “Login Information” saved for. One of the new features is a small “Recycle Bin Button” in the upper right corner. Clicking on this will display a list of recently closed tabs letting you have easy access to any tabs that you may have accidentally closed. This is definitely a great feature to have as an easy access button. For those who were used to how the “Zoom Feature” looked before it has a new “look” to it. Instead of the pop-up menu-type listing of “view sizes” present before you now have a slider button that you can use to adjust the zooming level. For our default setup here the “Sidebar Panels” available were: “Bookmarks, Widgets, Unite, Notes, Downloads, History, & Panels”. Additional panels such as “Links, Windows, Search, Info, etc.” are available if you want and/or need them (accessible using the “Panels Plus Sign Button”). The “Opera Link Button” makes it easy for you to synchronize your “Speed Dial, Bookmarks, Personal Bar, Custom Searches, History & Notes”. Note: “Opera Link” requires an account and can be signed up for using the link provided below. Want to share files with your family and friends? “Unite” allows you to do that and more. With “Unite” you can: “Stream Music, Show Photo Galleries, Share Files and/or Folders, & host webpages directly from your browser”. We have a more in-depth look at “Unite” in our article here. Note: Use of “Unite” requires an Opera account. Got a slow internet connection? “Opera Turbo” can help with that by running the web traffic through their “compression servers” to speed up your web browsing. Keep in mind that “Opera Turbo” will not engage if you are accessing a secure website (i.e. your bank’s website) thus preserving your security. Note: “Opera Turbo” can be set up to automatically detect slow internet connections (i.e. crowded Wi-Fi in a cafe). Opera has a built-in “Private Browsing Mode” now for those who prefer anonymous browsing and want to keep the “history records clean” on their computer. To access it go to “Tabs and windows” and select “New private tab” or “New private window” as desired. When you open your new “Private Tab or Window” you will see the following message with details on how Opera will handle browsing information and a large “door hanger symbol”. Notice that the one tab is locked into “Private Browsing Mode” while the others are still working in “Regular Browsing Mode”. Very nice! A miniature version of the “door hanger symbol” will be present on any tab that is locked into “Private Browsing Mode”. If you are using Windows 7 then you will love how things look from your “Taskbar”. Here you can see four very nice looking thumbnails for the tabs that we had open. All that you have to do is click on the desired thumbnail… The “Context Menu” looks just as lovely as the thumbnails and definitely has some terrific functionality built into it. Add Enhanced Aero Capability If you love “Aero” and want more for your new Opera install then we have the perfect theme for you. The theme’s name is Z1-AV69 and once you have downloaded it you will need to place it in the “Skins Subfolder” in Opera’s “Program Files Folder”. Note: For our example we used version 1.10 but version 2.00 is now available (link provided below). Once you have restarted Opera, go to the “O Menu” and select “Appearance”. When the “Appearance Window” opens click on “Z1-Glass Skin” and then click “OK”. All of a sudden you will have more “Aero Goodness” to enjoy. Compare this screenshot with the one at the top of this article…the only part that is not transparent now is the browser window area itself. Want even more “Aero Goodness”? Right click on the “Tab Bar” and set “Tab Bar Placement” to “Left”. Note: You can achieve the same effect by setting the “Tab Bar Placement” to “Right”. With the “Speed Dial” visible you will be able to see your wallpaper with ease. While this is obviously not for everyone it does make for a great visual trick. Portable Versions Perhaps you need this wonderful new version of Opera to go with you wherever you do during the day. Not a problem…just visit the Opera USB website to choose a version that works best for you. You can select from “Zip or Exe” setup files and if needed update an older portable version using a “Zipped Update Files Package”. If you are updating an older version keep in mind that you will need to delete the old “OperaUSB.exe. File” due to changes with the new setup files. During our tests updating older portable versions went well for the most part but we did experience a few “odd UI quirks” here and there…so we recommend setting up a clean install if possible. Conclusion The new 10.50 release is a pleasure to use and is a recommended install for your system. Whether you are considering trying Opera for the first time or have been using it for a bit we think that you will pleased with everything that the 10.50 release has to offer. For those who would like to add User Scripts to Opera be certain to look at our how-to article here. Links Download Opera 10.50 for your location (Windows) Get the latest Snapshot versions for Linux & Mac Sign up for an Opera Link account View In-Depth detail on Opera 10.50’s features Download the Z1-AV69 Aero Theme Download Portable Opera 10.50 Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Set the Speed Dial as the Opera Startup PageSet Up User Scripts in Opera BrowserScan Files for Viruses Before You Download With Dr.WebTurn Your Computer into a File, Music, and Web Server with Opera UniteSet the Default Browser on Ubuntu From the Command Line TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Make your Joomla & Drupal Sites Mobile with OSMOBI Integrate Twitter and Delicious and Make Life Easier Design Your Web Pages Using the Golden Ratio Worldwide Growth of the Internet How to Find Your Mac Address Use My TextTools to Edit and Organize Text

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• How To Skip Commercials in Windows 7 Media Center

  - by DigitalGeekery

  If you use Windows 7 Media Center to record live TV, you’re probably interested in skipping through commercials. After all, a big reason to record programs is to avoid commercials, right? Today we focus on a fairly simple and free way to get you skipping commercials in no time. In Windows 7, the .wtv file format has replaced the dvr-ms file format used in previous versions of Media Center for Recorded TV. The .wtv file format, however, does not work very well with commercial skipping applications.  The Process Our first step will be to convert the recorded .wtv files to the previously used dvr-ms file format. This conversion will be done automatically by WtvWatcher. It’s important to note that this process deletes the original .wtv file after successfully converting to .dvr-ms. Next, we will use DVRMSToolBox with the DTB Addin to handle commercials skipping. This process does not “cut” or remove the commercials from the file. It merely skips the commercials during playback. WtvWatcher Download and install the WTVWatcher (link below). To install WtvWatcher, you’ll need to have Windows Installer 3.1 and .NET Framework 3.5 SP1. If you get the Publisher cannot be verified warning you can go ahead and click Install. We’ve completely tested this app and it contains no malware and runs successfully.   After installing, the WtvWatcher will pop up in the lower right corner of your screen. You will need to set the path to your Recorded TV directory. Click on the button for “Click here to set your recorded TV path…”   The WtvWatcher Preferences window will open…   …and you’ll be prompted to browse for your Recorded TV folder. If you did not change the default location at setup, it will be found at C:\Users\Public\Recorded TV. Click “OK” when finished. Click the “X” to close the Preferences screen. You should now see WtvWatcher begin to convert any existing WTV files.   The process should only take a few minutes per file. Note: If WtvWatcher detects an error during the conversion process, it will not delete the original WTV file.    You will probably want to run WtvWatcher on startup. This will allow WtvWatcher too constantly scan for new .wtv files to convert. There is no setting in the application to run on startup, so you’ll need to copy the WTV icon from your desktop into your Windows start menu “Startup” directory. To do so, click on Start > All Programs, right-click on Startup and click on Open all users. Drag and drop, or cut and paste, the WtvWatcher desktop shortcut into the Startup folder. DVRMSToolBox and DTBAddIn Next, we need to download and install the DVRMSToolBox and the DTBAddIn. These two pieces of software will do the actual commercial skipping. After downloading the DVRMSToolBox zip file, extract it and double-click the setup.exe file.  Click “Next” to begin the installation.   Unless DVRMSToolBox will only be used by Administrator accounts, check the “Modify File Permissions” box. Click “Next.” When you get to the Optional Components window, uncheck Download/Install ShowAnalyzer. We will not be using that application. When the installation is complete, click “Close.”    Next we need to install the DTBAddin. Unzip the download folder and run the appropriate .msi file for your system. It is available in 32 & 64 bit versions. Just double click on the file and take the default options. Click “Finish” when the install is completed. You will then be prompted to restart your computer. After your computer has restarted, open DVRMSToolBox settings by going to Start > All Programs, DVRMSToolBox, and click on DVRMStoMPEGSettings. On the MC Addin tab, make sure that Skip Commercials is checked. It should be by default.   On the Commercial Skip tab, make sure the Auto Skip option is selected. Click “Save.”   If you try to watch recorded TV before the file conversion and commercial indexing process is complete you’ll get the following message pop up in Media Center. If you click Yes, it will start indexing the commercials if WtvWatcher has already converted it to dvr-ms. Now you’re ready to kick back and watch your recorded tv without having to wait through those long commercial breaks. Conclusion The DVRMSToolBox is a powerful and complex application with a multitude of features and utilities. We’ve showed you a quick and easy way to get your Windows Media Center setup to skip commercials. This setup, like virtually all commercial skipping setups, is not perfect. You will occasionally find a commercial that doesn’t get skipped. Need help getting your Windows 7 PC configured for TV? Check out our previous tutorial on setting up live TV in Windows Media Center. Links Download WTV Watcher Download DVRMSToolBox Download DTBAddin Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Using Netflix Watchnow in Windows Vista Media Center (Gmedia)Increase Skip and Replay Intervals in Windows 7 Media CenterSchedule Updates for Windows Media CenterIntegrate Hulu Desktop and Windows Media Center in Windows 7Add Color Coding to Windows 7 Media Center Program Guide TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Make your Joomla & Drupal Sites Mobile with OSMOBI Integrate Twitter and Delicious and Make Life Easier Design Your Web Pages Using the Golden Ratio Worldwide Growth of the Internet How to Find Your Mac Address Use My TextTools to Edit and Organize Text

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• Convert a DVD Movie Directly to AVI with FairUse Wizard 2.9

  - by DigitalGeekery

  Are you looking for a way to backup your DVD movie collection to AVI?  Today we’ll show you how to rip a DVD movie directly to AVI with FairUse Wizard. About FairUse Wizard FairUse Wizard 2.9 uses the DivX, Xvid, or h.264 codec to convert DVD to an AVI file. It comes in both a free version and commercial version. The free, or “Light” version, can create files up 700MB while the commercial version can output a 1400MB file. This will allow you to back up your movies to CD, or even multiple movies on a single DVD. FairUse Wizard states that it does not work on copy protected discs, but we’ve seen it work on all but some of the most recent copy protection. For this tutorial we’re using the free Light Edition to convert a DVD to AVI. They also offer a commercial version that you can get for $29.99 and it offers even more encoding possibilities for converting video to you portable digital devices. Installation and Configuration Download and install FairUse Wizard. (Download link below). Once the install is complete, open FairUse Wizard by going to Start > All Programs >  FairUse Wizard 2 >  FairUse Wizard 2.   FairUse Wizard will open on the new project screen. Select “Create a new project” and type a project name into the text box. This will be used as the file output name.  Ex: A project name of Simpsons Movie will give you an output file of Simpsons Movie.avi.   Next, browse for a destination folder for the output file and temp files. Note that you will need a minimum of 6 GB of free disk space for the conversion process. Note: Much of that 6 GB will be used for temporary files that we will delete after the conversion process.   Click on the Options button at the bottom.   Under Preferences, choose your preferred video codec and file output size. XviD and x264 are installed by default. If you prefer to use DivX, you will have to install it separately. Also note the “Two pass” option. Checking the “Two pass” box will encode your video twice for higher quality, but will take more time. Un-checking the box will speed up the conversion process.   Under Audio track, note that English subtitles are enabled by default, so to remove the subtitles, you will need to change the dropdown list so it shows only a dash (-). You can also select “Use TV Mode” if your primary playback will be on a 4:3 TV screen. Click “Next.” Full Auto Mode vs. Manual Mode You should now be back to the initial screen. Next, we’ll need to determine whether or not we can use “Full Auto Mode” to convert the movie. The difference is that “Full Auto Mode” will automatically perform a few steps that you will otherwise have to do manually. If you choose the “Full Auto Mode” option, FairUse Wizard will look for the video on the DVD with the longest duration and assume it is the chain that it should convert to AVI. It’s possible, however, your disc may contain a few chains of similar size, such as a theatrical cut and director’s cut, and the longest chain may not be the one you wish to convert. Make sure that “Full auto mode” is not checked yet, and click “Next.”   FairUse Wizard will parse the IFO files and display all video chains longer than 60  seconds. In most cases, you will only find that the largest chain is the one closely matching the duration of the movie. In these instances, you can use “Full Auto Mode.” If you find more than one chain that are close in duration to the length of the movie, consult the literature on the DVD case, or search online, to find the actual running time of the movie. If the proper file chain is not the longest chain, you won’t be able to use “Full Auto Mode.”   Full Auto Mode To use “Full Auto Mode,” simply click the “Back” button to return to the initial screen Now, place a check in the “Full auto mode” check box. Click “Next.” You will then be prompted to chose your DVD drive, then click “OK.” FairUse Wizard will parse the IFO files… … and then prompt you to Select your drive that contains the DVD one more time before beginning the conversion process. Click “OK.”   Manual Mode If you cannot (or don’t wish to) use Full Auto Mode, choose the appropriate video chain and click “Next.” FairUse Wizard will first go through the process of indexing the video. Note: If you get a runtime error during this portion of the process, it likely means that FairUse Wizard cannot handle the copy protection, and thus cannot convert the DVD. FairUse Wizard will automatically detect a cropping region. If necessary, you can edit the cropping region by adjusting the cropping region settings to the left. Click “Next.” Next, click “Auto Detect” to choose the proper field combination. Click “OK” on the pop up window that displays your Field Mode. Then click “Next.” This next screen is mainly comprised of settings from the Options screen. You can make changes at this point such as codec or output size. Click “Next” when ready.   Video Conversion Now the video conversion process will begin. This may take a few hours depending on your system’s hardware. Note: There is a check box to “Shutdown computer when done” if you choose to run the conversion overnight or before leaving for work. The first phase will be video encoding… Then the audio… If you chose the “Two Pass” option, your video video will be encoded again on 2nd pass. Then you’re finished. Unfortunately, FairUse Wizard doesn’t clean up after itself very well. After the process is complete, you’ll want to browse to your output directory and delete all the temporary files as they take up a considerable amount of hard drive space. Now you’re ready to enjoy your movie. Conclusion FairUse Wizard is a nice way to backup your DVD movies to good quality .avi files. You can store them on your hard drive, watch them on a media PC, or burn them to disc. Many DVD players even allow for playback of DivX or XviD encoded video from a CD or DVD. For those of you with children, you can burn that AVI file to CD for your kids, and keep your original DVDs stored safely out of harms way. Download Download FairUse Wizard 2.9 LE Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Kantaris is a Unique Media Player Based on VLCHow to Make/Edit a movie with Windows Movie Maker in Windows VistaAutomatically Mount and View ISO files in Windows 7 Media CenterTune Your ClearType Font Settings in Windows VistaAdd Images and Metadata to Windows 7 Media Center Movie Library TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Make your Joomla & Drupal Sites Mobile with OSMOBI Integrate Twitter and Delicious and Make Life Easier Design Your Web Pages Using the Golden Ratio Worldwide Growth of the Internet How to Find Your Mac Address Use My TextTools to Edit and Organize Text

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• Communities - The importance of exchange and discussion

  Communication with your environment is an essential part of everyone's life. And it doesn't matter whether you are actually living in a rural area in the middle of nowhere, within the pulsating heart of a big city, or in my case on a wonderful island in the Indian Ocean. The ability to exchange your thoughts, your experience and your worries with another person helps you to get different points of view and new ideas on how to resolve an issue you might be confronted with. Benefits of community work What happens to be common sense in your daily life, also applies to your work environment. Working in IT, or ICT as it is called in Mauritius, requires a lot of reading and learning. Not only during your lectures at the university but with your colleagues in a project assignment and hopefully with 'unknown' pals in the universe of online communities. At least I can say that I learned quite a lot from other developers code, their responses in various forums, their numerous blog articles, and while attending local user group meetings. When I started to work as a professional software developer (or engineer some may say) years ago I immediately checked the existence of communities on the programming language, the database technology and other vital information on software development in general. Luckily, it wasn't too difficult to find. My employer had a subscription of the monthly magazines and newsletters of a national organisation which also run the biggest forum in that area. Getting in touch with other developers and reading their common problems but also solutions was a huge benefit to my growth. Image courtesy of Michael Kappel (CC BY-NC 2.0) Active participation and regular contribution to this community gave me some nice advantages, too. Within three years I was listed as a conference speaker at the annual developer's conference and provided several sessions on different topics during consecutive years. Back in 2004, I took over the responsibility and management of the monthly meetings of a regional user group, and organised it for more than two years. Furthermore, I was invited to the newly-founded community program of Microsoft Germany (Community Leader/Insider Program - CLIP). My website on Active FoxPro Pages was nominated in the second batch of online communities. Due to my community work and providing advice to others, I had the honour to be awarded as Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) - Visual Developer for Visual FoxPro in the years 2006 and 2007. It was a great experience to meet with other like-minded people and I'm really grateful for that. Just in case, more details are listed in my Curriculum Vitae. But this all changed when I moved to Mauritius... Cyber island Mauritius? During the first months in Mauritius I was way too busy to think about community activities at all. First of all, there was the new company that had to be set up, the new staff had to be trained and of course the communication work-flows and so on with the project managers back in Germany had to be sorted out, too. Second, I had to get a grip of my private matters like getting the basics for my new household or exploring the neighbourhood, and last but not least I needed a break from the hectic and intensive work prior to my departure. As soon as the sea literally calmed down, I started to have conversations with my colleagues about communities and user groups. Sadly, it turned out that there were none, or at least no one was aware of any at that time. Oh oh, what did I do? Anyway, having this kind of background and very positive experience with off-line and on-line activities I decided for myself that some day I'm going to found a community in Mauritius for all kind of IT/ICT-related fields. The main focus might be on software development but not on a certain technology or methodology. It was clear to me that it should be an open infrastructure and anyone is welcome to join, to experience, to share and to contribute if they would like to. That was the idea at that time... Ok, fast-forward to recent events. At the end of October 2012 I was invited to an event called Open Days organised by Microsoft Indian Ocean Islands together with other local partners and resellers. There I got in touch with local Technical Evangelist Arnaud Meslier and we had a good conversation on communities during the breaks. Eventually, I left a good impression on him, as we are having chats on Facebook or Skype irregularly. Well, seeing that my personal and professional surroundings have been settled and running smooth, having that great exchange and contact with Microsoft IOI (again), and being really eager to re-animate my intentions from 2007, I recently founded a new community: Mauritius Software Craftsmanship Community - #MSCC It took me a while to settle down with the name but it was obvious that the community should not be attached to one single technology, like ie. .NET user group, Oracle developers, or Joomla friends (these are fictitious names). There are several other reasons why I came up with 'Craftsmanship' as the core topic of this community. The expression of 'engineering' didn't feel right with the fields covered. Software development in all kind of facets is a craft, and therefore demands a lot of practice but also guidance from more experienced developers. It also includes the process of designing, modelling and drafting the ideas. Has to deal with various types of tests and test methodologies, and of course should be focused on flexible and agile ways of acting. In order to meet and to excel a customer's request for a solution. Next, I was looking for an easy way to handle the organisation of events and meeting appointments. Using all kind of social media platforms like Google+, LinkedIn, Facebook, Xing, etc. I was never really confident about their features of event handling. More by chance I stumbled upon Meetup.com and in combination with the other entities (G+ Communities, FB Pages or in Groups) I am looking forward to advertise and manage all future activities here: Mauritius Software Craftsmanship Community This is a community for those who care and are proud of what they do. For those developers, regardless how experienced they are, who want to improve and master their craft. This is a community for those who believe that being average is just not good enough. I know, there are not many 'craftsmen' yet but it's a start... Let's see how it looks like by the end of the year. There are free smartphone apps for Android and iOS from Meetup.com that allow you to keep track of meetings and to stay informed on latest updates. And last but not least, there will be a Trello workspace to collect and share ideas and provide downloads of slides, etc. Sharing is caring! As mentioned, the #MSCC is present in various social media networks in order to cover as many people as possible here in Mauritius. Following is an overview of the current networks: Twitter - Latest updates and quickies Google+ - Community channel Facebook - Community Page LinkedIn - Community Group Trello - Collaboration workspace to share and develop ideas Hopefully, this covers the majority of computer-related people in Mauritius. Please spread the word about the #MSCC between your colleagues, your friends and other interested 'geeks'. Your future looks bright Running and participating in a user group or any kind of community usually provides quite a number of advantages for anyone. On the one side it is very joyful for me to organise appointments and get in touch with people that might be interested to present a little demo of their projects or their recent problems they had to tackle down, and on the other side there are lots of companies that have various support programs or sponsorships especially tailored for user groups. At the moment, I already have a couple of gimmicks that I would like to hand out in small contests or raffles during one of the upcoming meetings, and as said, companies provide all kind of goodies, books free of charge, or sometimes even licenses for communities. Meeting other software developers or IT guys also opens up your point of view on the local market and there might be interesting projects or job offers available, too. A community like the Mauritius Software Craftsmanship Community is great for freelancers, self-employed, students and of course employees. Meetings will be organised on a regular basis, and I'm open to all kind of suggestions from you. Please leave a comment here in blog or join the conversations in the above mentioned social networks. Let's get this community up and running, my fellow Mauritians!

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