multi tenant - Page 138

In a Windows forms application, how can I use a listbox in a DataGridView coloumn instead of a combo

- by Alex

I'm working on a windows forms application that uses a DataGridView. Some of the cells contain a DataGridViewComboBox. In some cases, I have several values to display in the combobox. For that scenario, it would be better to use a ListBox instead of a ComboBox. Is it possible to use a multi-column listbox within a DataGridView instead of a ComboBox? If so, can you point me in the right direction? Thanks much. Al D.

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Loading Unmanaged C++ in C#. Error Attempted to read or write protected memory

- by Thatoneguy

I have a C++ function that looks like this __declspec(dllexport) int ___stdcall RegisterPerson(char const * const szName) { std::string copyName( szName ); // Assign name to a google protocol buffer object // Psuedo code follows.. Protobuf::Person person; person->set_name(copyName); // Error Occurs here... std::cerr << person->DebugString() << std::endl; } The corresponding C# code looks like this... [DllImport(@"MyLibrary.dll", SetLastError = true)] public static unsafe extern int RegisterPerson([MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPTStr)]string szName) Not sure why this is not working. My C++ library is compiled as Multi Threaded DLL with MultiByte encoding. Any help would be appreciated. I saw this is a common problem online but no answers lead me to a solution for my problem.

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Possible to exclude a column from `*` ?

- by Earlz

Is it possible to exclude a column from a select * from table statement with SQL Server? I have a need for this and this is my only option other than parsing a raw SQL string to get out the required field names (I really don't want to do that). Just to be bold. When the query is made I do not have access to the list of fields needed from the table but I do know which field I do not need. This is part of a complex multi-part query. Surely there must be some way even if it's "hackish" such as using table variables or views

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Windows Form Components Access

- by rxm0203

What is the best way to access components (e.g. imagelist, timer) from a form instance? I am working on multi form windows forms application on .NET Compact Framework version 3.5 SP1 with C#. I have a Controller class associated with each form for MVC implementation. Here is my sample Controller class. public class Controller { public void Init(Form f) { //f.Controls will allow access to all controls //How shall I access imagelist, timer on form f. } } My question is how can I access non visual components without taking a performance hit of reflection? Any code snippets are welcome. If reflection is only way, then can you provide me optimal way for components access please? Thanks,

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Portable Socket programming in C/C++ possible?

- by questions

I am thinking of creating a multi-platform portable C++ server-client application. Is it even possible while using only standard libraries? If no, what other libraries are there? Are there any improvements in this direction in C++11x? Like for threads, now we have std::threads. To make it more clear.. I want something like boost::thread, which provides multiplatform portable multithreading, for networking. And why C++ doesn't have libraries(standard) for such basic things like networking?

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Will Haskell be a good choice for my task?

- by Narzanka

I'm starting a new project and don't know which language to use. My 'must have' requirements are: Be able to run on Windows/LinuxMacOs natively (native executable) - user should be able to just run the exe (when on Windows for example) and see the results. No runtimes/interpreters (no jvm, clr, etc) - one file download should be enough to run the application. Full unicode support. Be able to manipulate OS threads (create them, run multiple tasks in parallel on multi-core CPUs, etc). Be reasonably fast (Python level performance and better). To have some kind of standard library that does low-level, mundane tasks. Not very niche and have some community behind it to be able to ask questions. My 'nice to have' requirements are: Language should be functional It should have good string manipulation capabilities (not necessarily regex) Not extremely hard to learn I'm thinking about Haskell now but keeping in mind OCaml as well. Please advice if my choice is correct.

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port an iOS (iPhone) app to mac?

- by William Jockusch

Is there a preferred way to go about this? The app in question is not too large . . . single-player game that I wrote over the course of a couple of months. EDIT: I should add that I have no experience with mac development . . . outside of what comes naturally with being an iOS developer. EDIT: Classes heavily used in the game: subclasses of NSObject, UIView, and UIViewController. I don't know much about NSView, but I'm pretty sure all the UIView stuff will work in that class. Also some use of UITableViewController. I do also have Game Center, but I can leave that part out for now. There is no multi-touch.

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Network license control for a Java application

- by user1461615

I have been tasked with providing some form of network license control for a Java application. The app would be stored on a network drive and run from a client machine. The basic idea is that it will be able to work out how many times it is being run concurrently and prevent the N+1th user from running the software where N is the number of concurrent licenses the customer has purchased. Is this possible somehow with a Java application? I implemented a "solution" which relied on multi-cast UDP communication between the running instances of the application but this didn't work because on most networks this kind of communication is blocked by security measures. Is there a better way? I don't even mind if it requires JNI/JNA. N.B. The solution does not have to be that sophisticated or highly secure.

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Simulators for thread scheduling on multicore

- by shijie xu

I am seeking a simulator for thread scheduling at multi-core architecture, that is mapping threads to the cores at runtime. During runtime, simulator collects overall cache and IPC statistics. I checked below simulators, but seems there are not sufficient for me: Simplescalar: A simulator only for single core. SESC: multiprocessor simulator with detailed power, thermal, and performance models, QSim: provides instruction-level control of the emulated environment and detailed information about the executing instruction stream. It seems both SESC and QSim supports instructions scheduling instead of thread scheduling on the cores? Anyone can help provide some clues or share experience for this part?

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How to get top/left x/y of image map with javascript / jquery?

- by jpea

Using jQuery's position() or offset(), I can't seeme to get the top/left coordinates of an image map area. It works in FF, but nothing else - no webkit, IE, Opera. $('area').bind("click",function(){ alert($(this).position().left); }); <area shape="rect" coords="14,25,205,150" href="#"> Anyone know of a different way to access these? Normally I would just take the coords and split(",") but there are a bunch of multi-faceted area's on these pages.

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The Low Down Dirty Azure Blues

- by SGWellens

Remember the SETI screen savers that used to be on everyone's computer? As far I as know, it was the first bona-fide use of "Cloud" computing…albeit an ad hoc cloud. I still think it was a brilliant leveraging of computing power. My interest in clouds was re-piqued when I went to a technical seminar at the local .Net User Group. The speaker was Mike Benkovitch and he expounded magnificently on the virtues of the Azure platform. Mike always does a good job. One killer reason he gave for cloud computing is instant scalability. Not applicable for most applications, but it is there if needed. I have a bunch of files stored on Microsoft's SkyDrive platform which is cloud storage. It is painfully slow. Accessing a file means going through layers and layers of software, redirections and security. Am I complaining? Hell no! It's free! So my opinions of Cloud Computing are both skeptical and appreciative. What intrigued me at the seminar, in addition to its other features, is that Azure can serve as a web hosting platform. I have a client with an Asp.Net web site I developed who is not happy with the performance of their current hosting service. I checked the cost of Azure and since the site has low bandwidth/space requirements the cost would be competitive with the existing host provider: Azure Pricing Calculator. And, Azure has a three month free trial. Perfect! I could try moving the website and see how it works for free. I went through the signup process. Everything was proceeding fine until I went to the MS SQL database management screen. A popup window informed me that I needed to install Silverlight on my machine. Silverlight? No thanks. Buh-Bye. I half-heartedly found the Azure support button and logged a ticket telling them I didn't want Silverlight on my machine. Within 4 to 6 hours (and a myriad (5) of automated support emails) they sent me a link to a database management page that did not require Silverlight. Thanks! I was able to create a database immediately. One really nice feature was that after creating the database, I was given a list of connection strings. I went to the current host provider, made a backup of the database and saved it to my machine. I attached to the remote database using SQL Server Studio 2012 and looked for the Restore menu item. It was missing. So I tried using the SQL command: RESTORE DATABASE MyDatabase FROM DISK ='C:\temp\MyBackup.bak' Msg 40510, Level 16, State 1, Line 1 Statement 'RESTORE DATABASE' is not supported in this version of SQL Server. Are you kidding me? Why on earth…? This can't be happening! I opened both the source database and destination database in SQL Management Studio. I right clicked the source database, selected "Tasks" and noticed a menu selection called "Deploy Database to SQL Azure" Are you kidding me? Could it be? Oh yes, it be! There was a small problem because the database already existed on the Azure machine, I deployed to a new name, deleted the existing database and renamed the deployed database to what I needed. It was ridiculously easy. Being able to attach SQL Management Studio to remote databases is an awesome but scary feature. You can limit the IP addresses that can access the database which enhances security but when you give people, any people, me included, that much power, one errant mouse click could bring a live system down. My Advice: Tread softly and carry a large backup thumb-drive. Then I created a web site, the URL it returned look something like this: http://MyWebSite.azurewebsites.net/ Azure supports FTP, but I couldn't figure out the settings until I downloaded the publishing profile. It was an XML file that contained the needed information. I still couldn't connect with my FTP client (FileZilla). After about an hour of messing around, I deleted the port number from the FileZilla setup page….and voila, I was in like Flynn. There are other options of deploying directly from Visual Studio, TFS, etc. but I do not like integrated tools that do things without my asking: It's usually hard to figure out what they did and how to undo it. I uploaded the aspx , cs , webconfig, etc. files. Bu it didn't run. The site I ported was in .NET 3.5. The Azure website configuration page gave me a choice between .NET 2.0 and 4.0. So, I switched to Visual Studio 2010, chose .NET 4.0 and upgraded the site. Of course I have the original version completely backed up and stored in a granite cave beneath the Nevada desert. And I have a backup CD under my pillow. The site uses ReportViewer to generate PDF documents. Of course it was the wrong version. I removed the old references to version 9 and added new references to version 10 (*see note below). Since the DLLs were not on the Azure Server, I uploaded them to the bin directory, crossed my fingers, burned some incense and gave it a try. After some fiddling around it ran. I don't know if I did anything particular to make it work or it just needed time to sort things out. However, one critical feature didn't work: ReportViewer could not programmatically generate PDF documents. I was getting this exception: "An error occurred during local report processing. Parameter is not valid." Rats. I did some searching and found other people were having the same problem, so I added a post saying I was having the same problem: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowsazurewebsitespreview/thread/b4a6eb43-0013-435f-9d11-00ee26a8d017 Currently they are looking into this problem and I am waiting for the results. Hence I had the time to write this BLOG entry. How lucky you are. This was the last message I got from the Microsoft person: Hi Steve, Windows Azure Web Sites is a multi-tenant environment. For security issue, we limited some API calls. Unfortunately, some GDI APIS required by the PDF converting function are in this list. We have noticed this issue, and still investigation the best way to go. At this moment, there is no news to share. Sorry about this. Will keep you posted. If I had to guess, I would say they are concerned with people uploading images and doing intensive graphics programming which would hog CPU time. But that is just a guess. Another problem. While trying to resolve the ReportViewer problem, I tried to write a file to the PDF directory to see if there was a permissions problem with some test code: String MyPath = MapPath(@"~\PDFs\Test.txt"); File.WriteAllText(MyPath, "Hello Azure"); I got this message: Access to the path <my path> is denied. After some research, I understood that since Azure is a cloud based platform, it can't allow web applications to save files to local directories. The application could be moved or replicated as scaling occurs and trying to manage local files would be problematic to say the least. There are other options: Use the Azure APIs to get a path. That way the location of the storage is separated from the application. However, the web site is then tied Azure and can't be moved to another hosting platform. Use the ApplicationData folder (not recommended). Write to BLOB storage. Or, I could try and stream the PDF output directly to the email and not save a file. I'm not going to work on a final solution until the ReportViewer is fixed. I am just sharing some of the things you need to be aware of if you decide to use Azure. I got this information from here. (Note the author of the BLOG added a comment saying he has updated his entry). Is my memory faulty? While getting this BLOG ready, I tried to write the test file again. And it worked. My memory is incorrect, or much more likely, something changed on the server…perhaps while they are trying to get ReportViewer to work. (Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it). *Note: Since Visual Studio 2010 Express doesn't include a Report Editor, I downloaded and installed SQL Server Report Builder 2.0. It is a standalone Report Editor to replace the one not in Visual Studio 2010 Express. I hope someone finds this useful. Steve Wellens CodeProject

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Juju Openstack bundle: Can't launch an instance

- by user281985

Deployed bundle:~makyo/openstack/2/openstack, on top of 7 physical boxes and 3 virtual ones. After changing vip_iface strings to point to right devices, e.g., br0 instead of eth0, and defining "/mnt/loopback|30G", in Cinder's block-device string, am able to navigate through openstack dashboard, error free. Following http://docs.openstack.org/grizzly/openstack-compute/install/apt/content/running-an-instance.html instructions, attempted to launch cirros 0.3.1 image; however, novalist shows the instance in error state. ubuntu@node7:~$ nova --debug boot --flavor 1 --image 28bed1bc-bc1c-4533-beee-8e0428ad40dd --key_name key2 --security_group default cirros REQ: curl -i http://keyStone.IP:5000/v2.0/tokens -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -H "Accept: application/json" -H "User-Agent: python-novaclient" -d '{"auth": {"tenantName": "admin", "passwordCredentials": {"username": "admin", "password": "openstack"}}}' INFO (connectionpool:191) Starting new HTTP connection (1): keyStone.IP DEBUG (connectionpool:283) "POST /v2.0/tokens HTTP/1.1" 200 None RESP: [200] {'date': 'Tue, 10 Jun 2014 00:01:02 GMT', 'transfer-encoding': 'chunked', 'vary': 'X-Auth-Token', 'content-type': 'application/json'} RESP BODY: {"access": {"token": {"expires": "2014-06-11T00:01:02Z", "id": "3eefa1837d984426a633fe09259a1534", "tenant": {"description": "Created by Juju", "enabled": true, "id": "08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239", "name": "admin"}}, "serviceCatalog": [{"endpoints": [{"adminURL": "http://nova.cloud.controller:8774/v1.1/08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239", "region": "RegionOne", "internalURL": "http://nova.cloud.controller:8774/v1.1/08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239", "publicURL": "http://nova.cloud.controller:8774/v1.1/08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239"}], "endpoints_links": [], "type": "compute", "name": "nova"}, {"endpoints": [{"adminURL": "http://nova.cloud.controller:9696", "region": "RegionOne", "internalURL": "http://nova.cloud.controller:9696", "publicURL": "http://nova.cloud.controller:9696"}], "endpoints_links": [], "type": "network", "name": "quantum"}, {"endpoints": [{"adminURL": "http://nova.cloud.controller:3333", "region": "RegionOne", "internalURL": "http://nova.cloud.controller:3333", "publicURL": "http://nova.cloud.controller:3333"}], "endpoints_links": [], "type": "s3", "name": "s3"}, {"endpoints": [{"adminURL": "http://i.p.s.36:9292", "region": "RegionOne", "internalURL": "http://i.p.s.36:9292", "publicURL": "http://i.p.s.36:9292"}], "endpoints_links": [], "type": "image", "name": "glance"}, {"endpoints": [{"adminURL": "http://i.p.s.39:8776/v1/08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239", "region": "RegionOne", "internalURL": "http://i.p.s.39:8776/v1/08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239", "publicURL": "http://i.p.s.39:8776/v1/08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239"}], "endpoints_links": [], "type": "volume", "name": "cinder"}, {"endpoints": [{"adminURL": "http://nova.cloud.controller:8773/services/Cloud", "region": "RegionOne", "internalURL": "http://nova.cloud.controller:8773/services/Cloud", "publicURL": "http://nova.cloud.controller:8773/services/Cloud"}], "endpoints_links": [], "type": "ec2", "name": "ec2"}, {"endpoints": [{"adminURL": "http://keyStone.IP:35357/v2.0", "region": "RegionOne", "internalURL": "http://keyStone.IP:5000/v2.0", "publicURL": "http://i.p.s.44:5000/v2.0"}], "endpoints_links": [], "type": "identity", "name": "keystone"}], "user": {"username": "admin", "roles_links": [], "id": "b3730a52a32e40f0a9500440d1ef1c7d", "roles": [{"id": "e020001eb9a049f4a16540238ab158aa", "name": "Admin"}, {"id": "b84fbff4d5554d53bbbffdaad66b56cb", "name": "KeystoneServiceAdmin"}, {"id": "129c8b49d42b4f0796109aaef2069aa9", "name": "KeystoneAdmin"}], "name": "admin"}}} REQ: curl -i http://nova.cloud.controller:8774/v1.1/08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239/images/28bed1bc-bc1c-4533-beee-8e0428ad40dd -X GET -H "X-Auth-Project-Id: admin" -H "User-Agent: python-novaclient" -H "Accept: application/json" -H "X-Auth-Token: 3eefa1837d984426a633fe09259a1534" INFO (connectionpool:191) Starting new HTTP connection (1): nova.cloud.controller DEBUG (connectionpool:283) "GET /v1.1/08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239/images/28bed1bc-bc1c-4533-beee-8e0428ad40dd HTTP/1.1" 200 719 RESP: [200] {'date': 'Tue, 10 Jun 2014 00:01:03 GMT', 'x-compute-request-id': 'req-7f3459f8-d3d5-47f1-97a3-8407a4419a69', 'content-type': 'application/json', 'content-length': '719'} RESP BODY: {"image": {"status": "ACTIVE", "updated": "2014-06-09T22:17:54Z", "links": [{"href": "http://nova.cloud.controller:8774/v1.1/08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239/images/28bed1bc-bc1c-4533-beee-8e0428ad40dd", "rel": "self"}, {"href": "http://nova.cloud.controller:8774/08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239/images/28bed1bc-bc1c-4533-beee-8e0428ad40dd", "rel": "bookmark"}, {"href": "http://External.Public.Port:9292/08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239/images/28bed1bc-bc1c-4533-beee-8e0428ad40dd", "type": "application/vnd.openstack.image", "rel": "alternate"}], "id": "28bed1bc-bc1c-4533-beee-8e0428ad40dd", "OS-EXT-IMG-SIZE:size": 13147648, "name": "Cirros 0.3.1", "created": "2014-06-09T22:17:54Z", "minDisk": 0, "progress": 100, "minRam": 0, "metadata": {}}} REQ: curl -i http://nova.cloud.controller:8774/v1.1/08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239/flavors/1 -X GET -H "X-Auth-Project-Id: admin" -H "User-Agent: python-novaclient" -H "Accept: application/json" -H "X-Auth-Token: 3eefa1837d984426a633fe09259a1534" INFO (connectionpool:191) Starting new HTTP connection (1): nova.cloud.controller DEBUG (connectionpool:283) "GET /v1.1/08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239/flavors/1 HTTP/1.1" 200 418 RESP: [200] {'date': 'Tue, 10 Jun 2014 00:01:04 GMT', 'x-compute-request-id': 'req-2c153110-6969-4f3a-b51c-8f1a6ce75bee', 'content-type': 'application/json', 'content-length': '418'} RESP BODY: {"flavor": {"name": "m1.tiny", "links": [{"href": "http://nova.cloud.controller:8774/v1.1/08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239/flavors/1", "rel": "self"}, {"href": "http://nova.cloud.controller:8774/08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239/flavors/1", "rel": "bookmark"}], "ram": 512, "OS-FLV-DISABLED:disabled": false, "vcpus": 1, "swap": "", "os-flavor-access:is_public": true, "rxtx_factor": 1.0, "OS-FLV-EXT-DATA:ephemeral": 0, "disk": 0, "id": "1"}} REQ: curl -i http://nova.cloud.controller:8774/v1.1/08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239/servers -X POST -H "X-Auth-Project-Id: admin" -H "User-Agent: python-novaclient" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -H "Accept: application/json" -H "X-Auth-Token: 3eefa1837d984426a633fe09259a1534" -d '{"server": {"name": "cirros", "imageRef": "28bed1bc-bc1c-4533-beee-8e0428ad40dd", "key_name": "key2", "flavorRef": "1", "max_count": 1, "min_count": 1, "security_groups": [{"name": "default"}]}}' INFO (connectionpool:191) Starting new HTTP connection (1): nova.cloud.controller DEBUG (connectionpool:283) "POST /v1.1/08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239/servers HTTP/1.1" 202 436 RESP: [202] {'date': 'Tue, 10 Jun 2014 00:01:05 GMT', 'x-compute-request-id': 'req-41e53086-6454-4efb-bb35-a30dc2c780be', 'content-type': 'application/json', 'location': 'http://nova.cloud.controller:8774/v1.1/08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239/servers/2eb5e3ad-3044-41c1-bbb7-10f398f83e43', 'content-length': '436'} RESP BODY: {"server": {"security_groups": [{"name": "default"}], "OS-DCF:diskConfig": "MANUAL", "id": "2eb5e3ad-3044-41c1-bbb7-10f398f83e43", "links": [{"href": "http://nova.cloud.controller:8774/v1.1/08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239/servers/2eb5e3ad-3044-41c1-bbb7-10f398f83e43", "rel": "self"}, {"href": "http://nova.cloud.controller:8774/08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239/servers/2eb5e3ad-3044-41c1-bbb7-10f398f83e43", "rel": "bookmark"}], "adminPass": "oFRbvRqif2C8"}} REQ: curl -i http://nova.cloud.controller:8774/v1.1/08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239/servers/2eb5e3ad-3044-41c1-bbb7-10f398f83e43 -X GET -H "X-Auth-Project-Id: admin" -H "User-Agent: python-novaclient" -H "Accept: application/json" -H "X-Auth-Token: 3eefa1837d984426a633fe09259a1534" INFO (connectionpool:191) Starting new HTTP connection (1): nova.cloud.controller DEBUG (connectionpool:283) "GET /v1.1/08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239/servers/2eb5e3ad-3044-41c1-bbb7-10f398f83e43 HTTP/1.1" 200 1349 RESP: [200] {'date': 'Tue, 10 Jun 2014 00:01:05 GMT', 'x-compute-request-id': 'req-d91d0858-7030-469d-8e55-40e05e4d00fd', 'content-type': 'application/json', 'content-length': '1349'} RESP BODY: {"server": {"status": "BUILD", "updated": "2014-06-10T00:01:05Z", "hostId": "", "OS-EXT-SRV-ATTR:host": null, "addresses": {}, "links": [{"href": "http://nova.cloud.controller:8774/v1.1/08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239/servers/2eb5e3ad-3044-41c1-bbb7-10f398f83e43", "rel": "self"}, {"href": "http://nova.cloud.controller:8774/08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239/servers/2eb5e3ad-3044-41c1-bbb7-10f398f83e43", "rel": "bookmark"}], "key_name": "key2", "image": {"id": "28bed1bc-bc1c-4533-beee-8e0428ad40dd", "links": [{"href": "http://nova.cloud.controller:8774/08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239/images/28bed1bc-bc1c-4533-beee-8e0428ad40dd", "rel": "bookmark"}]}, "OS-EXT-STS:task_state": "scheduling", "OS-EXT-STS:vm_state": "building", "OS-EXT-SRV-ATTR:instance_name": "instance-00000004", "OS-EXT-SRV-ATTR:hypervisor_hostname": null, "flavor": {"id": "1", "links": [{"href": "http://nova.cloud.controller:8774/08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239/flavors/1", "rel": "bookmark"}]}, "id": "2eb5e3ad-3044-41c1-bbb7-10f398f83e43", "security_groups": [{"name": "default"}], "OS-EXT-AZ:availability_zone": "nova", "user_id": "b3730a52a32e40f0a9500440d1ef1c7d", "name": "cirros", "created": "2014-06-10T00:01:04Z", "tenant_id": "08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239", "OS-DCF:diskConfig": "MANUAL", "accessIPv4": "", "accessIPv6": "", "progress": 0, "OS-EXT-STS:power_state": 0, "config_drive": "", "metadata": {}}} REQ: curl -i http://nova.cloud.controller:8774/v1.1/08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239/flavors/1 -X GET -H "X-Auth-Project-Id: admin" -H "User-Agent: python-novaclient" -H "Accept: application/json" -H "X-Auth-Token: 3eefa1837d984426a633fe09259a1534" INFO (connectionpool:191) Starting new HTTP connection (1): nova.cloud.controller DEBUG (connectionpool:283) "GET /v1.1/08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239/flavors/1 HTTP/1.1" 200 418 RESP: [200] {'date': 'Tue, 10 Jun 2014 00:01:05 GMT', 'x-compute-request-id': 'req-896c0120-1102-4408-9e09-cd628f2dd699', 'content-type': 'application/json', 'content-length': '418'} RESP BODY: {"flavor": {"name": "m1.tiny", "links": [{"href": "http://nova.cloud.controller:8774/v1.1/08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239/flavors/1", "rel": "self"}, {"href": "http://nova.cloud.controller:8774/08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239/flavors/1", "rel": "bookmark"}], "ram": 512, "OS-FLV-DISABLED:disabled": false, "vcpus": 1, "swap": "", "os-flavor-access:is_public": true, "rxtx_factor": 1.0, "OS-FLV-EXT-DATA:ephemeral": 0, "disk": 0, "id": "1"}} REQ: curl -i http://nova.cloud.controller:8774/v1.1/08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239/images/28bed1bc-bc1c-4533-beee-8e0428ad40dd -X GET -H "X-Auth-Project-Id: admin" -H "User-Agent: python-novaclient" -H "Accept: application/json" -H "X-Auth-Token: 3eefa1837d984426a633fe09259a1534" INFO (connectionpool:191) Starting new HTTP connection (1): nova.cloud.controller DEBUG (connectionpool:283) "GET /v1.1/08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239/images/28bed1bc-bc1c-4533-beee-8e0428ad40dd HTTP/1.1" 200 719 RESP: [200] {'date': 'Tue, 10 Jun 2014 00:01:05 GMT', 'x-compute-request-id': 'req-454e9651-c247-4d31-8049-6b254de050ae', 'content-type': 'application/json', 'content-length': '719'} RESP BODY: {"image": {"status": "ACTIVE", "updated": "2014-06-09T22:17:54Z", "links": [{"href": "http://nova.cloud.controller:8774/v1.1/08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239/images/28bed1bc-bc1c-4533-beee-8e0428ad40dd", "rel": "self"}, {"href": "http://nova.cloud.controller:8774/08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239/images/28bed1bc-bc1c-4533-beee-8e0428ad40dd", "rel": "bookmark"}, {"href": "http://External.Public.Port:9292/08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239/images/28bed1bc-bc1c-4533-beee-8e0428ad40dd", "type": "application/vnd.openstack.image", "rel": "alternate"}], "id": "28bed1bc-bc1c-4533-beee-8e0428ad40dd", "OS-EXT-IMG-SIZE:size": 13147648, "name": "Cirros 0.3.1", "created": "2014-06-09T22:17:54Z", "minDisk": 0, "progress": 100, "minRam": 0, "metadata": {}}} +-------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+ | Property | Value | +-------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+ | OS-EXT-STS:task_state | scheduling | | image | Cirros 0.3.1 | | OS-EXT-STS:vm_state | building | | OS-EXT-SRV-ATTR:instance_name | instance-00000004 | | flavor | m1.tiny | | id | 2eb5e3ad-3044-41c1-bbb7-10f398f83e43 | | security_groups | [{u'name': u'default'}] | | user_id | b3730a52a32e40f0a9500440d1ef1c7d | | OS-DCF:diskConfig | MANUAL | | accessIPv4 | | | accessIPv6 | | | progress | 0 | | OS-EXT-STS:power_state | 0 | | OS-EXT-AZ:availability_zone | nova | | config_drive | | | status | BUILD | | updated | 2014-06-10T00:01:05Z | | hostId | | | OS-EXT-SRV-ATTR:host | None | | key_name | key2 | | OS-EXT-SRV-ATTR:hypervisor_hostname | None | | name | cirros | | adminPass | oFRbvRqif2C8 | | tenant_id | 08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239 | | created | 2014-06-10T00:01:04Z | | metadata | {} | +-------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+ ubuntu@node7:~$ ubuntu@node7:~$ nova list +--------------------------------------+--------+--------+----------+ | ID | Name | Status | Networks | +--------------------------------------+--------+--------+----------+ | 2eb5e3ad-3044-41c1-bbb7-10f398f83e43 | cirros | ERROR | | +--------------------------------------+--------+--------+----------+ ubuntu@node7:~$ var/log/nova/nova-compute.log shows the following error: ... 2014-06-10 00:01:06.048 AUDIT nova.compute.claims [req-41e53086-6454-4efb-bb35-a30dc2c780be b3730a52a32e40f0a9500440d1ef1c7d 08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239] [instance: 2eb5e3ad-3044-41c1-bbb7-10f398f83e43] Attempting claim: memory 512 MB, disk 0 GB, VCPUs 1 2014-06-10 00:01:06.049 AUDIT nova.compute.claims [req-41e53086-6454-4efb-bb35-a30dc2c780be b3730a52a32e40f0a9500440d1ef1c7d 08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239] [instance: 2eb5e3ad-3044-41c1-bbb7-10f398f83e43] Total Memory: 3885 MB, used: 512 MB 2014-06-10 00:01:06.049 AUDIT nova.compute.claims [req-41e53086-6454-4efb-bb35-a30dc2c780be b3730a52a32e40f0a9500440d1ef1c7d 08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239] [instance: 2eb5e3ad-3044-41c1-bbb7-10f398f83e43] Memory limit: 5827 MB, free: 5315 MB 2014-06-10 00:01:06.049 AUDIT nova.compute.claims [req-41e53086-6454-4efb-bb35-a30dc2c780be b3730a52a32e40f0a9500440d1ef1c7d 08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239] [instance: 2eb5e3ad-3044-41c1-bbb7-10f398f83e43] Total Disk: 146 GB, used: 0 GB 2014-06-10 00:01:06.050 AUDIT nova.compute.claims [req-41e53086-6454-4efb-bb35-a30dc2c780be b3730a52a32e40f0a9500440d1ef1c7d 08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239] [instance: 2eb5e3ad-3044-41c1-bbb7-10f398f83e43] Disk limit not specified, defaulting to unlimited 2014-06-10 00:01:06.050 AUDIT nova.compute.claims [req-41e53086-6454-4efb-bb35-a30dc2c780be b3730a52a32e40f0a9500440d1ef1c7d 08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239] [instance: 2eb5e3ad-3044-41c1-bbb7-10f398f83e43] Total CPU: 2 VCPUs, used: 0 VCPUs 2014-06-10 00:01:06.050 AUDIT nova.compute.claims [req-41e53086-6454-4efb-bb35-a30dc2c780be b3730a52a32e40f0a9500440d1ef1c7d 08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239] [instance: 2eb5e3ad-3044-41c1-bbb7-10f398f83e43] CPU limit not specified, defaulting to unlimited 2014-06-10 00:01:06.051 AUDIT nova.compute.claims [req-41e53086-6454-4efb-bb35-a30dc2c780be b3730a52a32e40f0a9500440d1ef1c7d 08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239] [instance: 2eb5e3ad-3044-41c1-bbb7-10f398f83e43] Claim successful 2014-06-10 00:01:06.963 WARNING nova.network.quantumv2.api [req-41e53086-6454-4efb-bb35-a30dc2c780be b3730a52a32e40f0a9500440d1ef1c7d 08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239] [instance: 2eb5e3ad-3044-41c1-bbb7-10f398f83e43] No network configured! 2014-06-10 00:01:08.347 ERROR nova.compute.manager [req-41e53086-6454-4efb-bb35-a30dc2c780be b3730a52a32e40f0a9500440d1ef1c7d 08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239] [instance: 2eb5e3ad-3044-41c1-bbb7-10f398f83e43] Instance failed to spawn 2014-06-10 00:01:08.347 32223 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: 2eb5e3ad-3044-41c1-bbb7-10f398f83e43] Traceback (most recent call last): 2014-06-10 00:01:08.347 32223 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: 2eb5e3ad-3044-41c1-bbb7-10f398f83e43] File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/nova/compute/manager.py", line 1118, in _spawn 2014-06-10 00:01:08.347 32223 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: 2eb5e3ad-3044-41c1-bbb7-10f398f83e43] self._legacy_nw_info(network_info), 2014-06-10 00:01:08.347 32223 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: 2eb5e3ad-3044-41c1-bbb7-10f398f83e43] File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/nova/compute/manager.py", line 703, in _legacy_nw_info 2014-06-10 00:01:08.347 32223 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: 2eb5e3ad-3044-41c1-bbb7-10f398f83e43] network_info = network_info.legacy() 2014-06-10 00:01:08.347 32223 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: 2eb5e3ad-3044-41c1-bbb7-10f398f83e43] AttributeError: 'list' object has no attribute 'legacy' 2014-06-10 00:01:08.347 32223 TRACE nova.compute.manager [instance: 2eb5e3ad-3044-41c1-bbb7-10f398f83e43] 2014-06-10 00:01:08.919 AUDIT nova.compute.manager [req-41e53086-6454-4efb-bb35-a30dc2c780be b3730a52a32e40f0a9500440d1ef1c7d 08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239] [instance: 2eb5e3ad-3044-41c1-bbb7-10f398f83e43] Terminating instance 2014-06-10 00:01:09.712 32223 ERROR nova.virt.libvirt.driver [-] [instance: 2eb5e3ad-3044-41c1-bbb7-10f398f83e43] During wait destroy, instance disappeared. 2014-06-10 00:01:09.718 INFO nova.virt.libvirt.firewall [req-41e53086-6454-4efb-bb35-a30dc2c780be b3730a52a32e40f0a9500440d1ef1c7d 08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239] [instance: 2eb5e3ad-3044-41c1-bbb7-10f398f83e43] Attempted to unfilter instance which is not filtered 2014-06-10 00:01:09.719 INFO nova.virt.libvirt.driver [req-41e53086-6454-4efb-bb35-a30dc2c780be b3730a52a32e40f0a9500440d1ef1c7d 08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239] [instance: 2eb5e3ad-3044-41c1-bbb7-10f398f83e43] Deleting instance files /var/lib/nova/instances/2eb5e3ad-3044-41c1-bbb7-10f398f83e43 2014-06-10 00:01:10.044 ERROR nova.compute.manager [req-41e53086-6454-4efb-bb35-a30dc2c780be b3730a52a32e40f0a9500440d1ef1c7d 08cff06d13b74492b780d9ceed699239] [instance: 2eb5e3ad-3044-41c1-bbb7-10f398f83e43] Error: ['Traceback (most recent call last):\n', ' File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/nova/compute/manager.py", line 864, in _run_instance\n set_access_ip=set_access_ip)\n', ' File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/nova/compute/manager.py", line 1123, in _spawn\n LOG.exception(_(\'Instance failed to spawn\'), instance=instance)\n', ' File "/usr/lib/python2.7/contextlib.py", line 24, in __exit__\n self.gen.next()\n', ' File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/nova/compute/manager.py", line 1118, in _spawn\n self._legacy_nw_info(network_info),\n', ' File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/nova/compute/manager.py", line 703, in _legacy_nw_info\n network_info = network_info.legacy()\n', "AttributeError: 'list' object has no attribute 'legacy'\n"] 2014-06-10 00:01:40.951 32223 AUDIT nova.compute.resource_tracker [-] Auditing locally available compute resources 2014-06-10 00:01:41.072 32223 AUDIT nova.compute.resource_tracker [-] Free ram (MB): 2861 2014-06-10 00:01:41.072 32223 AUDIT nova.compute.resource_tracker [-] Free disk (GB): 146 2014-06-10 00:01:41.073 32223 AUDIT nova.compute.resource_tracker [-] Free VCPUS: 1 2014-06-10 00:01:41.262 32223 INFO nova.compute.resource_tracker [-] Compute_service record updated for node5:node5.maas ... Can't seem to find any entries in quantum.conf related to "legacy". Any help would be appreciated. Cheers,

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Introducing Oracle Multitenant

- by OracleMultitenant

0 0 1 1142 6510 Oracle Corporation 54 15 7637 14.0 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:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:JA;} The First Database Designed for the Cloud Today Oracle announced the general availability (GA) of Oracle Database 12c, the first database designed for the Cloud. Oracle Multitenant, new with Oracle Database 12c, is a key component of this – a new architecture for consolidating databases and simplifying operations in the Cloud. With this, the inaugural post in the Multitenant blog, my goal is to start the conversation about Oracle Multitenant. We are very proud of this new architecture, which we view as a major advance for Oracle. Customers, partners and analysts who have had previews are very excited about its capabilities and its flexibility. This high level review of Oracle Multitenant will touch on our design considerations and how we re-architected our database for the cloud. I’ll briefly describe our new multitenant architecture and explain it’s key benefits. Finally I’ll mention some of the major use cases we see for Oracle Multitenant. Industry Trends We always start by talking to our customers about the pressures and challenges they’re facing and what trends they’re seeing in the industry. Some things don’t change. They face the same pressures and the same requirements as ever: Pressure to do more with less; be faster, leaner, cheaper, and deliver services 24/7. Big companies have achieved scale. Now they want to realize economies of scale. As ever, DBAs are faced with the challenges of patching and upgrading large numbers of databases, and provisioning new ones. Requirements are familiar: Performance, scalability, reliability and high availability are non-negotiable. They need ever more security in this threatening climate. There’s no time to stop and retool with new applications. What’s new are the trends. These are the techniques to use to respond to these pressures within the constraints of the requirements. With the advent of cloud computing and availability of massively powerful servers – even engineered systems such as Exadata – our customers want to consolidate many applications into fewer larger servers. There’s a move to standardized services – even self-service. Consolidation Consolidation is not new; companies have tried various different approaches to consolidation of databases in the cloud. One approach is to partition a powerful server between several virtual machines, one per application. A downside of this is that you have the resource and management overheads of OS and RDBMS per VM – that is, per application. Another is that you have replaced physical sprawl with virtual sprawl and virtual sprawl is still expensive to manage. In the dedicated database model, we have a single physical server supporting multiple databases, one per application. So there’s a shared OS overhead, but RDBMS process and memory overhead are replicated per application. Let's think about our traditional Oracle Database architecture. Every time we create a database, be it a production database, a development or a test database, what do we do? We create a set of files, we allocate a bunch of memory for managing the data, and we kick off a series of background processes. This is replicated for every one of the databases that we create. As more and more databases are fired up, these replicated overheads quickly consume the available server resources and this limits the number of applications we can run on any given server. In Oracle Database 11g and earlier the highest degree of consolidation could be achieved by what we call schema consolidation. In this model we have one big server with one big database. Individual applications are installed in separate schemas or table-owners. Database overheads are shared between all applications, which affords maximum consolidation. The shortcomings are that application changes are often required. There is no tenant isolation. One bad apple can spoil the whole batch. New Architecture & Benefits In Oracle Database 12c, we have a new multitenant architecture, featuring pluggable databases. This delivers all the resource utilization advantages of schema consolidation with none of the downsides. There are two parts to the term “pluggable database”: "pluggable", which is new, and "database", which is familiar. Before we get to the exciting new stuff let’s discuss what hasn’t changed. A pluggable database is a fully functional Oracle database. It’s not watered down in any way. From the perspective of an application or an end user it hasn’t changed at all. This is very important because it means that no application changes are required to adopt this new architecture. There are many thousands of applications built on Oracle databases and they are all ready to run on Oracle Multitenant. So we have these self-contained pluggable databases (PDBs), and as their name suggests, they are plugged into a multitenant container database (CDB). The CDB behaves as a single database from the operations point of view. Very much as we had with the schema consolidation model, we only have a single set of Oracle background processes and a single, shared database memory requirement. This gives us very high consolidation density, which affords maximum reduction in capital expenses (CapEx). By performing management operations at the CDB level – “managing many as one” – we can achieve great reductions in operating expenses (OpEx) as well, but we retain granular control where appropriate. Furthermore, the “pluggability” capability gives us portability and this adds a tremendous amount of agility. We can simply unplug a PDB from one CDB and plug it into another CDB, for example to move it from one SLA tier to another. I'll explore all these new capabilities in much more detail in a future posting. Use Cases We can identify a number of use cases for Oracle Multitenant. Here are a few of the major ones. 0 0 1 113 650 Oracle Corporation 5 1 762 14.0 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:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:JA;} Development / Testing where individual engineers need rapid provisioning and recycling of private copies of a few "master test databases" Consolidation of disparate applications using fewer, more powerful servers Software as a Service deploying separate copies of identical applications to individual tenants Database as a Service typically self-service provisioning of databases on the private cloud Application Distribution from ISV / Installation by Customer Eliminating many typical installation steps (create schema, import seed data, import application code PL/SQL…) - just plug in a PDB! High volume data distribution literally via disk drives in envelopes distributed by truck! - distribution of things like GIS or MDM master databases …various others! Benefits Previous approaches to consolidation have involved a trade-off between reductions in Capital Expenses (CapEx) and Operating Expenses (OpEx), and they’ve usually come at the expense of agility. With Oracle Multitenant you can have your cake and eat it: Minimize CapEx More Applications per server Minimize OpEx Manage many as one Standardized procedures and services Rapid provisioning Maximize Agility Cloning for development and testing Portability through pluggability Scalability with RAC Ease of Adoption Applications run unchanged It’s a pure deployment choice. Neither the database backend nor the application needs to be changed. In future postings I’ll explore various aspects in more detail. However, if you feel compelled to devour everything you can about Oracle Multitenant this very minute, have no fear. Visit the Multitenant page on OTN and explore the various resources we have available there. Among these, Oracle Distinguished Product Manager Bryn Llewellyn has written an excellent, thorough, and exhaustively detailed White Paper about Oracle Multitenant, which is available here. Follow me I tweet @OraclePDB #OracleMultitenant

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Tools and Utilities for the .NET Developer

- by mbcrump

Tweet this list! Add a link to my site to your bookmarks to quickly find this page again! Add me to twitter! This is a list of the tools/utilities that I use to do my job/hobby. I wanted this page to load fast and contain information that only you care about. If I have missed a tool that you like, feel free to contact me and I will add it to the list. Also, this list took a lot of time to complete. Please do not steal my work, if you like the page then please link back to my site. I will keep the links/information updated as new tools/utilities are created. Windows/.NET Development – This is a list of tools that any Windows/.NET developer should have in his bag. I have used at some point in my career everything listed on this page and below is the tools worth keeping. Name Description License AnkhSVN Subversion support for Visual Studio. It also works with VS2010. Free Aurora XAML Designer One of the best XAML creation tools available. Has a ton of built in templates that you can copy/paste into VS2010. COST/Trial BeyondCompare Beyond Compare 3 is the ideal tool for comparing files and folders on your Windows or Linux system. Visualize changes in your code and carefully reconcile them. COST/Trial BuildIT Automated Task Tool Its main purpose is to automate tasks, whether it is the final packaging of a product, an automated daily build, maybe sending out a mailing list, even backing-up files. Free C Sharper for VB Convert VB to C#. COST CLRProfiler Analyze and improve the behavior of your .NET app. Free CodeRush Direct competitor to ReSharper, contains similar feature. This is one of those decide for yourself. COST/Trial Disk2VHD Disk2vhd is a utility that creates VHD (Virtual Hard Disk - Microsoft's Virtual Machine disk format) versions of physical disks for use in Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines (VMs). Free Eazfuscator.NET Is a free obfuscator for .NET. The main purpose is to protect intellectual property of software. Free EQATEC Profiler Make your .NET app run faster. No source code changes are needed. Just point the profiler to your app, run the modified code, and get a visual report. COST Expression Studio 3/4 Comes with Web, Blend, Sketch Flow and more. You can create websites, produce beautiful XAML and more. COST/Trial Expresso The award-winning Expresso editor is equally suitable as a teaching tool for the beginning user of regular expressions or as a full-featured development environment for the experienced programmer or web designer with an extensive knowledge of regular expressions. Free Fiddler Fiddler is a web debugging proxy which logs all HTTP(s) traffic between your computer and the internet. Free Firebug Powerful Web development tool. If you build websites, you will need this. Free FxCop FxCop is an application that analyzes managed code assemblies (code that targets the .NET Framework common language runtime) and reports information about the assemblies, such as possible design, localization, performance, and security improvements. Free GAC Browser and Remover Easy way to remove multiple assemblies from the GAC. Assemblies registered by programs like Install Shield can also be removed. Free GAC Util The Global Assembly Cache tool allows you to view and manipulate the contents of the global assembly cache and download cache. Free HelpScribble Help Scribble is a full-featured, easy-to-use help authoring tool for creating help files from start to finish. You can create Win Help (.hlp) files, HTML Help (.chm) files, a printed manual and online documentation (on a web site) all from the same Help Scribble project. COST/Trial IETester IETester is a free Web Browser that allows you to have the rendering and JavaScript engines of IE9 preview, IE8, IE7 IE 6 and IE5.5 on Windows 7, Vista and XP, as well as the installed IE in the same process. Free iTextSharp iText# (iTextSharp) is a port of the iText open source java library for PDF generation written entirely in C# for the .NET platform. Use the iText mailing list to get support. Free Kaxaml Kaxaml is a lightweight XAML editor that gives you a "split view" so you can see both your XAML and your rendered content. Free LINQPad LinqPad lets you interactively query databases in a LINQ. Free Linquer Many programmers are familiar with SQL and will need a help in the transition to LINQ. Sometimes there are complicated queries to be written and Linqer can help by converting SQL scripts to LINQ. COST/Trial LiquidXML Liquid XML Studio 2010 is an advanced XML developers toolkit and IDE, containing all the tools needed for designing and developing XML schema and applications. COST/Trial Log4Net log4net is a tool to help the programmer output log statements to a variety of output targets. log4net is a port of the excellent log4j framework to the .NET runtime. We have kept the framework similar in spirit to the original log4j while taking advantage of new features in the .NET runtime. For more information on log4net see the features document. Free Microsoft Web Platform Installer The Microsoft Web Platform Installer 2.0 (Web PI) is a free tool that makes getting the latest components of the Microsoft Web Platform, including Internet Information Services (IIS), SQL Server Express, .NET Framework and Visual Web Developer easy. Free Mono Development Don't have Visual Studio - no problem! This is an open Source C# and .NET development environment for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X Free Net Mass Downloader While it’s great that Microsoft has released the .NET Reference Source Code, you can only get it one file at a time while you’re debugging. If you’d like to batch download it for reading or to populate the cache, you’d have to write a program that instantiated and called each method in the Framework Class Library. Fortunately, .NET Mass Downloader comes to the rescue! Free nMap Nmap ("Network Mapper") is a free and open source (license) utility for network exploration or security auditing. Many systems and network administrators also find it useful for tasks such as network inventory, managing service upgrade schedules, and monitoring host or service uptime. Free NoScript (Firefox add-in) The NoScript Firefox extension provides extra protection for Firefox, Flock, Seamonkey and other Mozilla-based browsers: this free, open source add-on allows JavaScript, Java and Flash and other plug-ins to be executed only by trusted web sites of your choice (e.g. your online bank), and provides the most powerful Anti-XSS protection available in a browser. Free NotePad 2 Notepad2, a fast and light-weight Notepad-like text editor with syntax highlighting. This program can be run out of the box without installation, and does not touch your system's registry. Free PageSpy PageSpy is a small add-on for Internet Explorer that allows you to select any element within a webpage, select an option in the context menu, and view detailed information about both the coding behind the page and the element you selected. Free Phrase Express PhraseExpress manages your frequently used text snippets in customizable categories for quick access. Free PowerGui PowerGui is a free community for PowerGUI, a graphical user interface and script editor for Microsoft Windows PowerShell! Free Powershell Comes with Win7, but you can automate tasks by using the .NET Framework. Great for network admins. Free Process Explorer Ever wondered which program has a particular file or directory open? Now you can find out. Process Explorer shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded. Also, included in the SysInterals Suite. Free Process Monitor Process Monitor is an advanced monitoring tool for Windows that shows real-time file system, Registry and process/thread activity. Free Reflector Explore and analyze compiled .NET assemblies, viewing them in C#, Visual Basic, and IL. This is an Essential for any .NET developer. Free Regular Expression Library Stuck on a Regular Expression but you think someone has already figured it out? Chances are they have. Free Regulator Regulator makes Regular Expressions easy. This is a must have for a .NET Developer. Free RenameMaestro RenameMaestro is probably the easiest batch file renamer you'll find to instantly rename multiple files COST ReSharper The one program that I cannot live without. Supports VS2010 and offers simple refactoring, code analysis/assistance/cleanup/templates. One of the few applications that is worth the $$$. COST/Trial ScrewTurn Wiki ScrewTurn Wiki allows you to create, manage and share wikis. A wiki is a collaboratively-edited, information-centered website: the most famous is Wikipedia. Free SharpDevelop What is #develop? SharpDevelop is a free IDE for C# and VB.NET projects on Microsoft's .NET platform. Free Show Me The Template Show Me The Template is a tool for exploring the templates, be their data, control or items panel, that comes with the controls built into WPF for all 6 themes. Free SnippetCompiler Compiles code snippets without opening Visual Studio. It does not support .NET 4. Free SQL Prompt SQL Prompt is a plug-in that increases how fast you can work with SQL. It provides code-completion for SQL server, reformatting, db schema information and snippets. Awesome! COST/Trial SQLinForm SQLinForm is an automatic SQL code formatter for all major databases including ORACLE, SQL Server, DB2, UDB, Sybase, Informix, PostgreSQL, Teradata, MySQL, MS Access etc. with over 70 formatting options. COST/OnlineFree SSMS Tools SSMS Tools Pack is an add-in for Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) including SSMS Express. Free Storm STORM is a free and open source tool for testing web services. Free Telerik Code Convertor Convert code from VB to C Sharp and Vice Versa. Free TurtoiseSVN TortoiseSVN is a really easy to use Revision control / version control / source control software for Windows.Since it's not an integration for a specific IDE you can use it with whatever development tools you like. Free UltraEdit UltraEdit is the ideal text, HTML and hex editor, and an advanced PHP, Perl, Java and JavaScript editor for programmers. UltraEdit is also an XML editor including a tree-style XML parser. An industry-award winner, UltraEdit supports disk-based 64-bit file handling (standard) on 32-bit Windows platforms (Windows 2000 and later). COST/Trial Virtual Windows XP Comes with some W7 version and allows you to run WinXP along side W7. Free VirtualBox Virtualization by Sun Microsystems. You can virtualize Windows, Linux and more. Free Visual Log Parser SQL queries against a variety of log files and other system data sources. Free WinMerge WinMerge is an Open Source differencing and merging tool for Windows. WinMerge can compare both folders and files, presenting differences in a visual text format that is easy to understand and handle. Free Wireshark Wireshark is one of the best network protocol analyzer's for Unix and windows. This has been used several times to get me out of a bind. Free XML Notepad 07 Old, but still one of my favorite XML viewers. Free Productivity Tools – This is the list of tools that I use to save time or quickly navigate around Windows. Name Description License AutoHotKey Automate almost anything by sending keystrokes and mouse clicks. You can write a mouse or keyboard macro by hand or use the macro recorder. Free CLCL CLCL is clipboard caching utility. Free Ditto Ditto is an extension to the standard windows clipboard. It saves each item placed on the clipboard allowing you access to any of those items at a later time. Ditto allows you to save any type of information that can be put on the clipboard, text, images, html, custom formats, ..... Free Evernote Remember everything from notes to photos. It will synch between computers/devices. Free InfoRapid Inforapid is a search tool that will display all you search results in a html like browser. If you click on a word in that browser, it will start another search to the word you clicked on. Handy if you want to trackback something to it's true origin. The word you looked for will be highlighted in red. Clicking on the red word will open the containing file in a text based viewer. Clicking on any word in the opened document will start another search on that word. Free KatMouse The prime purpose of the KatMouse utility is to enhance the functionality of mice with a scroll wheel, offering 'universal' scrolling: moving the mouse wheel will scroll the window directly beneath the mouse cursor (not the one with the keyboard focus, which is default on Windows OSes). This is a major increase in the usefulness of the mouse wheel. Free ScreenR Instant Screencast with nothing to download. Works with Mac or PC and free. Free Start++ Start++ is an enhancement for the Start Menu in Windows Vista. It also extends the Run box and the command-line with customizable commands. For example, typing "w Windows Vista" will take you to the Windows Vista page on Wikipedia! Free Synergy Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware. It's intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s). Free Texter Texter lets you define text substitution hot strings that, when triggered, will replace hotstring with a larger piece of text. By entering your most commonly-typed snippets of text into Texter, you can save countless keystrokes in the course of the day. Free Total Commander File handling, FTP, Archive handling and much more. Even works with Win3.11. COST/Trial Available Wizmouse WizMouse is a mouse enhancement utility that makes your mouse wheel work on the window currently under the mouse pointer, instead of the currently focused window. This means you no longer have to click on a window before being able to scroll it with the mouse wheel. This is a far more comfortable and practical way to make use of the mouse wheel. Free Xmarks Bookmark sync and search between computers. Free General Utilities – This is a list for power user users or anyone that wants more out of Windows. I usually install a majority of these whenever I get a new system. Name Description License µTorrent µTorrent is a lightweight and efficient BitTorrent client for Windows or Mac with many features. I use this for downloading LEGAL media. Free Audacity Audacity® is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. Learn more about Audacity... Also check our Wiki and Forum for more information. Free AVast Free FREE Antivirus. Free CD Burner XP Pro CDBurnerXP is a free application to burn CDs and DVDs, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs. It also includes the feature to burn and create ISOs, as well as a multilanguage interface. Free CDEX You can extract digital audio CDs into mp3/wav. Free Combofix Combofix is a freeware (a legitimate spyware remover created by sUBs), Combofix was designed to scan a computer for known malware, spyware (SurfSideKick, QooLogic, and Look2Me as well as any other combination of the mentioned spyware applications) and remove them. Free Cpu-Z Provides information about some of the main devices of your system. Free Cropper Cropper is a screen capture utility written in C#. It makes it fast and easy to grab parts of your screen. Use it to easily crop out sections of vector graphic files such as Fireworks without having to flatten the files or open in a new editor. Use it to easily capture parts of a web site, including text and images. It's also great for writing documentation that needs images of your application or web site. Free DropBox Drag and Drop files to sync between computers. Free DVD-Fab Converts/Copies DVDs/Blu-Ray to different formats. (like mp4, mkv, avi) COST/Trial Available FastStone Capture FastStone Capture is a powerful, lightweight, yet full-featured screen capture tool that allows you to easily capture and annotate anything on the screen including windows, objects, menus, full screen, rectangular/freehand regions and even scrolling windows/web pages. Free ffdshow FFDShow is a DirectShow decoding filter for decompressing DivX, XviD, H.264, FLV1, WMV, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, MPEG-4 movies. Free Filezilla FileZilla Client is a fast and reliable cross-platform FTP, FTPS and SFTP client with lots of useful features and an intuitive graphical user interface. You can also download a server version. Free FireFox Web Browser, do you really need an explanation? Free FireGestures A customizable mouse gestures extension which enables you to execute various commands and user scripts with five types of gestures. Free FoxIt Reader Light weight PDF viewer. You should install this with the advanced setting or it will install a toolbar and setup some shortcuts. Free gSynchIt Synch Gmail and Outlook. Even supports Outlook 2010 32/64 bit COST/Trial Available Hulu Desktop At home or in a hotel, this has replaced my cable/satellite subscription. Free ImgBurn ImgBurn is a lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application that everyone should have in their toolkit! Free Infrarecorder InfraRecorder is a free CD/DVD burning solution for Microsoft Windows. It offers a wide range of powerful features; all through an easy to use application interface and Windows Explorer integration. Free KeePass KeePass is a free open source password manager, which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. Free LastPass Another password management, synchronize between browsers, automatic form filling and more. Free Live Essentials One download and lots of programs including Mail, Live Writer, Movie Maker and more! Free Monitores MonitorES is a small windows utility that helps you to turnoff monitor display when you lock down your machine.Also when you lock your machine, it will pause all your running media programs & set your IM status message to "Away" / Custom message(via options) and restore it back to normal when you back. Free mRemote mRemote is a full-featured, multi-tab remote connections manager. Free Open Office OpenOffice.org 3 is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose. Free Paint.NET Simple, intuitive, and innovative user interface for editing photos. Free Picasa Picasa is free photo editing software from Google that makes your pictures look great. Free Pidgin Pidgin is an easy to use and free chat client used by millions. Connect to AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and more chat networks all at once. Free PING PING is a live Linux ISO, based on the excellent Linux From Scratch (LFS) documentation. It can be burnt on a CD and booted, or integrated into a PXE / RIS environment. Free Putty PuTTY is an SSH and telnet client, developed originally by Simon Tatham for the Windows platform. Free Revo Uninstaller Revo Uninstaller Pro helps you to uninstall software and remove unwanted programs installed on your computer easily! Even if you have problems uninstalling and cannot uninstall them from "Windows Add or Remove Programs" control panel applet.Revo Uninstaller is a much faster and more powerful alternative to "Windows Add or Remove Programs" applet! It has very powerful features to uninstall and remove programs. Free Security Essentials Microsoft Security Essentials is a new, free consumer anti-malware solution for your computer. Free SetupVirtualCloneDrive Virtual CloneDrive works and behaves just like a physical CD/DVD drive, however it exists only virtually. Point to the .ISO file and it appears in Windows Explorer as a Drive. Free Shark 007 Codec Pack Play just about any file format with this download. Also includes my W7 Media Playlist Generator. Free Snagit 9 Screen Capture on steroids. Add arrows, captions, etc to any screenshot. COST/Trial Available SysinternalsSuite Go ahead and download the entire sys internals suite. I have mentioned multiple programs in this suite already. Free TeraCopy TeraCopy is a compact program designed to copy and move files at the maximum possible speed, providing the user with a lot of features. Free for Home TrueCrypt Free open-source disk encryption software for Windows 7/Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux Free TweetDeck Fully featured Twitter client. Free UltraVNC UltraVNC is a powerful, easy to use and free software that can display the screen of another computer (via internet or network) on your own screen. The program allows you to use your mouse and keyboard to control the other PC remotely. It means that you can work on a remote computer, as if you were sitting in front of it, right from your current location. Free Unlocker Unlocks locked files. Pretty simple right? Free VLC Media Player VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player and multimedia framework capable of reading most audio and video formats Free Windows 7 Media Playlist This program is special to my heart because I wrote it. It has been mentioned on podcast and various websites. It allows you to quickly create wvx video playlist for Windows Media Center. Free WinRAR WinRAR is a powerful archive manager. It can backup your data and reduce the size of email attachments, decompress RAR, ZIP and other files downloaded from Internet and create new archives in RAR and ZIP file format. COST/Trial Available Blogging – I use the following for my blog. Name Description License Insert Code for Windows Live Writer Insert Code for Windows Live Writer will format a snippet of text in a number of programming languages such as C#, HTML, MSH, JavaScript, Visual Basic and TSQL. Free LiveWriter Included in Live Essentials, but the ultimate in Windows Blogging Free PasteAsVSCode Plug-in for Windows Live Writer that pastes clipboard content as Visual Studio code. Preserves syntax highlighting, indentation and background color. Converts RTF, outputted by Visual Studio, into HTML. Free Desktop Management – The list below represent the best in Windows Desktop Management. Name Description License 7 Stacks Allows users to have "stacks" of icons in their taskbar. Free Executor Executor is a multi purpose launcher and a more advanced and customizable version of windows run. Free Fences Fences is a program that helps you organize your desktop and can hide your icons when they are not in use. Free RocketDock Rocket Dock is a smoothly animated, alpha blended application launcher. It provides a nice clean interface to drop shortcuts on for easy access and organization. With each item completely customizable there is no end to what you can add and launch from the dock. Free WindowsTab Tabbing is an essential feature of modern web browsers. Window Tabs brings the productivity of tabbed window management to all of your desktop applications. Free

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Oracle Insurance Unveils Next Generation of Enterprise Document Automation: Oracle Documaker Enterprise Edition

- by helen.pitts(at)oracle.com

Oracle today announced the introduction of Oracle Documaker Enterprise Edition, the next generation of the company's market-leading Enterprise Document Automation (EDA) solution for dynamically creating, managing and delivering adaptive enterprise communications across multiple channels. "Insurers and other organizations need enterprise document automation that puts the power to manage the complete document lifecycle in the hands of the business user," said Srini Venkatasanthanam, vice president, Product Strategy, Oracle Insurancein the press release. "Built with features such as rules-based configurability and interactive processing, Oracle Documaker Enterprise Edition makes possible an adaptive approach to enterprise document automation - documents when, where and in the form they're needed." Key enhancements in Oracle Documaker Enterprise Edition include: Documaker Interactive, the newly renamed and redesigned Web-based iDocumaker module. Documaker Interactive enables users to quickly and interactively create and assemble compliant communications such as policy and claims correspondence directly from their desktops. Users benefits from built-in accelerators and rules-based configurability, pre-configured content as well as embedded workflow leveraging Oracle BPEL Process Manager. Documaker Documaker Factory, which helps enterprises reduce cost and improve operational efficiency through better management of their enterprise publishing operations. Dashboards, analytics, reporting and an administrative console provide insurers with greater insight and centralized control over document production allowing them to better adapt their resources based on business demands. Other enhancements include: enhanced business user empowerment; additional multi-language localization capabilities; and benefits from the use of powerful Oracle technologies such as the Oracle Application Development Framework for all interfaces and Oracle Universal Content Management (Oracle UCM) for enterprise content management. Drive Competitive Advantage and Growth: Deb Smallwood, founder of SMA Strategy Meets Action, a leading industry insurance analyst consulting firm and co-author of 3CM in Insurance: Customer Communications and Content Management published last month, noted in the press release that "maximum value can be gained from investments when Enterprise Document Automation (EDA) is viewed holistically and all forms of communication and all types of information are integrated across the entire enterprise. "Insurers that choose an approach that takes all communications, both structured and unstructured data, coming into the company from a wide range of channels, and then create seamless flows of information will have a real competitive advantage," Smallwood said. "This capability will soon become essential for selling, servicing, and ultimately driving growth through new business and retention." Learn More: Click here to watch a short flash demo that demonstrates the real business value offered by Oracle Documaker Enterprise Edition. You can also see how an insurance company can use Oracle Documaker Enterprise Edition to dynamically create, manage and publish adaptive enterprise content throughout the insurance business lifecycle for delivery across multiple channels by visiting Alamere Insurance, a fictional model insurance company created by Oracle to showcase how Oracle applications can be leveraged within the insurance enterprise. Meet Our Newest Oracle Insurance Blogger: I'm pleased to introduce our newest Oracle Insurance blogger, Susanne Hale. Susanne, who manages product marketing for Oracle Insurance EDA solutions, will be sharing insights about this topic along with examples of how our customers are transforming their enterprise communications using Oracle Documaker Enterprise Edition in future Oracle Insurance blog entries. Helen Pitts is senior product marketing manager for Oracle Insurance.

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Windows Azure: Backup Services Release, Hyper-V Recovery Manager, VM Enhancements, Enhanced Enterprise Management Support

- by ScottGu

This morning we released a huge set of updates to Windows Azure. These new capabilities include: Backup Services: General Availability of Windows Azure Backup Services Hyper-V Recovery Manager: Public preview of Windows Azure Hyper-V Recovery Manager Virtual Machines: Delete Attached Disks, Availability Set Warnings, SQL AlwaysOn Configuration Active Directory: Securely manage hundreds of SaaS applications Enterprise Management: Use Active Directory to Better Manage Windows Azure Windows Azure SDK 2.2: A massive update of our SDK + Visual Studio tooling support All of these improvements are now available to use immediately. Below are more details about them. Backup Service: General Availability Release of Windows Azure Backup Today we are releasing Windows Azure Backup Service as a general availability service. This release is now live in production, backed by an enterprise SLA, supported by Microsoft Support, and is ready to use for production scenarios. Windows Azure Backup is a cloud based backup solution for Windows Server which allows files and folders to be backed up and recovered from the cloud, and provides off-site protection against data loss. The service provides IT administrators and developers with the option to back up and protect critical data in an easily recoverable way from any location with no upfront hardware cost. Windows Azure Backup is built on the Windows Azure platform and uses Windows Azure blob storage for storing customer data. Windows Server uses the downloadable Windows Azure Backup Agent to transfer file and folder data securely and efficiently to the Windows Azure Backup Service. Along with providing cloud backup for Windows Server, Windows Azure Backup Service also provides capability to backup data from System Center Data Protection Manager and Windows Server Essentials, to the cloud. All data is encrypted onsite before it is sent to the cloud, and customers retain and manage the encryption key (meaning the data is stored entirely secured and can’t be decrypted by anyone but yourself). Getting Started To get started with the Windows Azure Backup Service, create a new Backup Vault within the Windows Azure Management Portal. Click New->Data Services->Recovery Services->Backup Vault to do this: Once the backup vault is created you’ll be presented with a simple tutorial that will help guide you on how to register your Windows Servers with it: Once the servers you want to backup are registered, you can use the appropriate local management interface (such as the Microsoft Management Console snap-in, System Center Data Protection Manager Console, or Windows Server Essentials Dashboard) to configure the scheduled backups and to optionally initiate recoveries. You can follow these tutorials to learn more about how to do this: Tutorial: Schedule Backups Using the Windows Azure Backup Agent This tutorial helps you with setting up a backup schedule for your registered Windows Servers. Additionally, it also explains how to use Windows PowerShell cmdlets to set up a custom backup schedule. Tutorial: Recover Files and Folders Using the Windows Azure Backup Agent This tutorial helps you with recovering data from a backup. Additionally, it also explains how to use Windows PowerShell cmdlets to do the same tasks. Below are some of the key benefits the Windows Azure Backup Service provides: Simple configuration and management. Windows Azure Backup Service integrates with the familiar Windows Server Backup utility in Windows Server, the Data Protection Manager component in System Center and Windows Server Essentials, in order to provide a seamless backup and recovery experience to a local disk, or to the cloud. Block level incremental backups. The Windows Azure Backup Agent performs incremental backups by tracking file and block level changes and only transferring the changed blocks, hence reducing the storage and bandwidth utilization. Different point-in-time versions of the backups use storage efficiently by only storing the changes blocks between these versions. Data compression, encryption and throttling. The Windows Azure Backup Agent ensures that data is compressed and encrypted on the server before being sent to the Windows Azure Backup Service over the network. As a result, the Windows Azure Backup Service only stores encrypted data in the cloud storage. The encryption key is not available to the Windows Azure Backup Service, and as a result the data is never decrypted in the service. Also, users can setup throttling and configure how the Windows Azure Backup service utilizes the network bandwidth when backing up or restoring information. Data integrity is verified in the cloud. In addition to the secure backups, the backed up data is also automatically checked for integrity once the backup is done. As a result, any corruptions which may arise due to data transfer can be easily identified and are fixed automatically. Configurable retention policies for storing data in the cloud. The Windows Azure Backup Service accepts and implements retention policies to recycle backups that exceed the desired retention range, thereby meeting business policies and managing backup costs. Hyper-V Recovery Manager: Now Available in Public Preview I’m excited to also announce the public preview of a new Windows Azure Service – the Windows Azure Hyper-V Recovery Manager (HRM). Windows Azure Hyper-V Recovery Manager helps protect your business critical services by coordinating the replication and recovery of System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 SP1 and System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 R2 private clouds at a secondary location. With automated protection, asynchronous ongoing replication, and orderly recovery, the Hyper-V Recovery Manager service can help you implement Disaster Recovery and restore important services accurately, consistently, and with minimal downtime. Application data in an Hyper-V Recovery Manager scenarios always travels on your on-premise replication channel. Only metadata (such as names of logical clouds, virtual machines, networks etc.) that is needed for orchestration is sent to Azure. All traffic sent to/from Azure is encrypted. You can begin using Windows Azure Hyper-V Recovery today by clicking New->Data Services->Recovery Services->Hyper-V Recovery Manager within the Windows Azure Management Portal. You can read more about Windows Azure Hyper-V Recovery Manager in Brad Anderson’s 9-part series, Transform the datacenter. To learn more about setting up Hyper-V Recovery Manager follow our detailed step-by-step guide. Virtual Machines: Delete Attached Disks, Availability Set Warnings, SQL AlwaysOn Today’s Windows Azure release includes a number of nice updates to Windows Azure Virtual Machines. These improvements include: Ability to Delete both VM Instances + Attached Disks in One Operation Prior to today’s release, when you deleted VMs within Windows Azure we would delete the VM instance – but not delete the drives attached to the VM. You had to manually delete these yourself from the storage account. With today’s update we’ve added a convenience option that now allows you to either retain or delete the attached disks when you delete the VM: We’ve also added the ability to delete a cloud service, its deployments, and its role instances with a single action. This can either be a cloud service that has production and staging deployments with web and worker roles, or a cloud service that contains virtual machines. To do this, simply select the Cloud Service within the Windows Azure Management Portal and click the “Delete” button: Warnings on Availability Sets with Only One Virtual Machine In Them One of the nice features that Windows Azure Virtual Machines supports is the concept of “Availability Sets”. An “availability set” allows you to define a tier/role (e.g. webfrontends, databaseservers, etc) that you can map Virtual Machines into – and when you do this Windows Azure separates them across fault domains and ensures that at least one of them is always available during servicing operations. This enables you to deploy applications in a high availability way. One issue we’ve seen some customers run into is where they define an availability set, but then forget to map more than one VM into it (which defeats the purpose of having an availability set). With today’s release we now display a warning in the Windows Azure Management Portal if you have only one virtual machine deployed in an availability set to help highlight this: You can learn more about configuring the availability of your virtual machines here. Configuring SQL Server Always On SQL Server Always On is a great feature that you can use with Windows Azure to enable high availability and DR scenarios with SQL Server. Today’s Windows Azure release makes it even easier to configure SQL Server Always On by enabling “Direct Server Return” endpoints to be configured and managed within the Windows Azure Management Portal. Previously, setting this up required using PowerShell to complete the endpoint configuration. Starting today you can enable this simply by checking the “Direct Server Return” checkbox: You can learn more about how to use direct server return for SQL Server AlwaysOn availability groups here. Active Directory: Application Access Enhancements This summer we released our initial preview of our Application Access Enhancements for Windows Azure Active Directory. This service enables you to securely implement single-sign-on (SSO) support against SaaS applications (including Office 365, SalesForce, Workday, Box, Google Apps, GitHub, etc) as well as LOB based applications (including ones built with the new Windows Azure AD support we shipped last week with ASP.NET and VS 2013). Since the initial preview we’ve enhanced our SAML federation capabilities, integrated our new password vaulting system, and shipped multi-factor authentication support. We've also turned on our outbound identity provisioning system and have it working with hundreds of additional SaaS Applications: Earlier this month we published an update on dates and pricing for when the service will be released in general availability form. In this blog post we announced our intention to release the service in general availability form by the end of the year. We also announced that the below features would be available in a free tier with it: SSO to every SaaS app we integrate with – Users can Single Sign On to any app we are integrated with at no charge. This includes all the top SAAS Apps and every app in our application gallery whether they use federation or password vaulting. Application access assignment and removal – IT Admins can assign access privileges to web applications to the users in their active directory assuring that every employee has access to the SAAS Apps they need. And when a user leaves the company or changes jobs, the admin can just as easily remove their access privileges assuring data security and minimizing IP loss User provisioning (and de-provisioning) – IT admins will be able to automatically provision users in 3rd party SaaS applications like Box, Salesforce.com, GoToMeeting, DropBox and others. We are working with key partners in the ecosystem to establish these connections, meaning you no longer have to continually update user records in multiple systems. Security and auditing reports – Security is a key priority for us. With the free version of these enhancements you'll get access to our standard set of access reports giving you visibility into which users are using which applications, when they were using them and where they are using them from. In addition, we'll alert you to un-usual usage patterns for instance when a user logs in from multiple locations at the same time. Our Application Access Panel – Users are logging in from every type of devices including Windows, iOS, & Android. Not all of these devices handle authentication in the same manner but the user doesn't care. They need to access their apps from the devices they love. Our Application Access Panel will support the ability for users to access access and launch their apps from any device and anywhere. You can learn more about our plans for application management with Windows Azure Active Directory here. Try out the preview and start using it today. Enterprise Management: Use Active Directory to Better Manage Windows Azure Windows Azure Active Directory provides the ability to manage your organization in a directory which is hosted entirely in the cloud, or alternatively kept in sync with an on-premises Windows Server Active Directory solution (allowing you to seamlessly integrate with the directory you already have). With today’s Windows Azure release we are integrating Windows Azure Active Directory even more within the core Windows Azure management experience, and enabling an even richer enterprise security offering. Specifically: 1) All Windows Azure accounts now have a default Windows Azure Active Directory created for them. You can create and map any users you want into this directory, and grant administrative rights to manage resources in Windows Azure to these users. 2) You can keep this directory entirely hosted in the cloud – or optionally sync it with your on-premises Windows Server Active Directory. Both options are free. The later approach is ideal for companies that wish to use their corporate user identities to sign-in and manage Windows Azure resources. It also ensures that if an employee leaves an organization, his or her access control rights to the company’s Windows Azure resources are immediately revoked. 3) The Windows Azure Service Management APIs have been updated to support using Windows Azure Active Directory credentials to sign-in and perform management operations. Prior to today’s release customers had to download and use management certificates (which were not scoped to individual users) to perform management operations. We still support this management certificate approach (don’t worry – nothing will stop working). But we think the new Windows Azure Active Directory authentication support enables an even easier and more secure way for customers to manage resources going forward. 4) The Windows Azure SDK 2.2 release (which is also shipping today) includes built-in support for the new Service Management APIs that authenticate with Windows Azure Active Directory, and now allow you to create and manage Windows Azure applications and resources directly within Visual Studio using your Active Directory credentials. This, combined with updated PowerShell scripts that also support Active Directory, enables an end-to-end enterprise authentication story with Windows Azure. Below are some details on how all of this works: Subscriptions within a Directory As part of today’s update, we have associated all existing Window Azure accounts with a Windows Azure Active Directory (and created one for you if you don’t already have one). When you login to the Windows Azure Management Portal you’ll now see the directory name in the URI of the browser. For example, in the screen-shot below you can see that I have a “scottgu” directory that my subscriptions are hosted within: Note that you can continue to use Microsoft Accounts (formerly known as Microsoft Live IDs) to sign-into Windows Azure. These map just fine to a Windows Azure Active Directory – so there is no need to create new usernames that are specific to a directory if you don’t want to. In the scenario above I’m actually logged in using my @hotmail.com based Microsoft ID which is now mapped to a “scottgu” active directory that was created for me. By default everything will continue to work just like you used to before. Manage your Directory You can manage an Active Directory (including the one we now create for you by default) by clicking the “Active Directory” tab in the left-hand side of the portal. This will list all of the directories in your account. Clicking one the first time will display a getting started page that provides documentation and links to perform common tasks with it: You can use the built-in directory management support within the Windows Azure Management Portal to add/remove/manage users within the directory, enable multi-factor authentication, associate a custom domain (e.g. mycompanyname.com) with the directory, and/or rename the directory to whatever friendly name you want (just click the configure tab to do this). You can also setup the directory to automatically sync with an on-premises Active Directory using the “Directory Integration” tab. Note that users within a directory by default do not have admin rights to login or manage Windows Azure based resources. You still need to explicitly grant them co-admin permissions on a subscription for them to login or manage resources in Windows Azure. You can do this by clicking the Settings tab on the left-hand side of the portal and then by clicking the administrators tab within it. Sign-In Integration within Visual Studio If you install the new Windows Azure SDK 2.2 release, you can now connect to Windows Azure from directly inside Visual Studio without having to download any management certificates. You can now just right-click on the “Windows Azure” icon within the Server Explorer and choose the “Connect to Windows Azure” context menu option to do so: Doing this will prompt you to enter the email address of the username you wish to sign-in with (make sure this account is a user in your directory with co-admin rights on a subscription): You can use either a Microsoft Account (e.g. Windows Live ID) or an Active Directory based Organizational account as the email. The dialog will update with an appropriate login prompt depending on which type of email address you enter: Once you sign-in you’ll see the Windows Azure resources that you have permissions to manage show up automatically within the Visual Studio server explorer and be available to start using: No downloading of management certificates required. All of the authentication was handled using your Windows Azure Active Directory! Manage Subscriptions across Multiple Directories If you have already have multiple directories and multiple subscriptions within your Windows Azure account, we have done our best to create a good default mapping of your subscriptions->directories as part of today’s update. If you don’t like the default subscription-to-directory mapping we have done you can click the Settings tab in the left-hand navigation of the Windows Azure Management Portal and browse to the Subscriptions tab within it: If you want to map a subscription under a different directory in your account, simply select the subscription from the list, and then click the “Edit Directory” button to choose which directory to map it to. Mapping a subscription to a different directory takes only seconds and will not cause any of the resources within the subscription to recycle or stop working. We’ve made the directory->subscription mapping process self-service so that you always have complete control and can map things however you want. Filtering By Directory and Subscription Within the Windows Azure Management Portal you can filter resources in the portal by subscription (allowing you to show/hide different subscriptions). If you have subscriptions mapped to multiple directory tenants, we also now have a filter drop-down that allows you to filter the subscription list by directory tenant. This filter is only available if you have multiple subscriptions mapped to multiple directories within your Windows Azure Account: Windows Azure SDK 2.2 Today we are also releasing a major update of our Windows Azure SDK. The Windows Azure SDK 2.2 release adds some great new features including: Visual Studio 2013 Support Integrated Windows Azure Sign-In support within Visual Studio Remote Debugging Cloud Services with Visual Studio Firewall Management support within Visual Studio for SQL Databases Visual Studio 2013 RTM VM Images for MSDN Subscribers Windows Azure Management Libraries for .NET Updated Windows Azure PowerShell Cmdlets and ScriptCenter I’ll post a follow-up blog shortly with more details about all of the above. Additional Updates In addition to the above enhancements, today’s release also includes a number of additional improvements: AutoScale: Richer time and date based scheduling support (set different rules on different dates) AutoScale: Ability to Scale to Zero Virtual Machines (very useful for Dev/Test scenarios) AutoScale: Support for time-based scheduling of Mobile Service AutoScale rules Operation Logs: Auditing support for Service Bus management operations Today we also shipped a major update to the Windows Azure SDK – Windows Azure SDK 2.2. It has so much goodness in it that I have a whole second blog post coming shortly on it! :-) Summary Today’s Windows Azure release enables a bunch of great new scenarios, and enables a much richer enterprise authentication offering. If you don’t already have a Windows Azure account, you can sign-up for a free trial and start using all of the above features today. Then visit the Windows Azure Developer Center to learn more about how to build apps with it. Hope this helps, Scott P.S. In addition to blogging, I am also now using Twitter for quick updates and to share links. Follow me at: twitter.com/scottgu

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SharePoint 2010 Hosting :: Error – HTTP Error 401.1 when Accessing Your SharePoint 2010 Site

- by mbridge

When attempting to view a MOSS (SharePoint) 2007 or SharePoint 2010 site locally from a Web Front End (WFE) you get an error stating: “HTTP Error 401.1 – Unauthorized: Access is denied due to invalid credentials.” I have noticed that this happens on Windows 2003/2008 Server SP1/SP2/R2 when using Host Headers and Alternate Access Mappings on a web application in MOSS 2007. If you can access the site from remote machines and cannot access the site from the server itself, then this might be your issue. For all my newer farm installs this includes SharePoint 2007 (MOSS) and SharePoint 2010. I use method number 2 on all SharePoint and SQL Servers in the farm. If you cannot access the web site locally or remotely from other machines then there is an issue with security on the site and/or possibly a Kerberos related security issue I implemented fix #2 listed in the following Microsoft KB Article. I implemented this fix on all servers in the MOSS 2007 Farm (WFE’s and Indexing/Search Server). If using method 1, you would add all Host Headers and Alternate Access Mappings for all web applications to the BackConnectionHostNames value, then you will be able to access the sites locally from the WFE’s. Microsoft KB Link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896861 Method 1: Specify Host Names Please follow this steps: 1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK. 2. In Registry Editor, locate and then click the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\MSV1_0 3. Right-click MSV1_0, point to New, and then click Multi-String Value. 4. Type BackConnectionHostNames, and then press ENTER. 5. Right-click BackConnectionHostNames, and then click Modify. 6. In the Value data box, type the host name or the host names for the sites that are on the local computer, and then click OK. 7. Quit Registry Editor, and then restart the IISAdmin service. Method 2: Disable the Loopback Check Please follow this steps: 1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK 2. In Registry Editor, locate and then click the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa 3. Right-click Lsa, point to New, and then click DWORD Value. 4. Type DisableLoopbackCheck, and then press ENTER. 5. Right-click DisableLoopbackCheck, and then click Modify. 6. In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK. 7. Quit Registry Editor, and then restart your computer. Give it try and good luck.

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Serious about Embedded: Java Embedded @ JavaOne 2012

- by terrencebarr

It bears repeating: More than ever, the Java platform is the best technology for many embedded use cases. Java’s platform independence, high level of functionality, security, and developer productivity address the key pain points in building embedded solutions. Transitioning from 16 to 32 bit or even 64 bit? Need to support multiple architectures and operating systems with a single code base? Want to scale on multi-core systems? Require a proven security model? Dynamically deploy and manage software on your devices? Cut time to market by leveraging code, expertise, and tools from a large developer ecosystem? Looking for back-end services, integration, and management? The Java platform has got you covered. Java already powers around 10 billion devices worldwide, with traditional desktops and servers being only a small portion of that. And the ‘Internet of Things‘ is just really starting to explode … it is estimated that within five years, intelligent and connected embedded devices will outnumber desktops and mobile phones combined, and will generate the majority of the traffic on the Internet. Is your platform and services strategy ready for the coming disruptions and opportunities? It should come as no surprise that Oracle is keenly focused on Java for Embedded. At JavaOne 2012 San Francisco the dedicated track for Java ME, Java Card, and Embedded keeps growing, with 52 sessions, tutorials, Hands-on-Labs, and BOFs scheduled for this track alone, plus keynotes, demos, booths, and a variety of other embedded content. To further prove Oracle’s commitment, in 2012 for the first time there will be a dedicated sub-conference focused on the business aspects of embedded Java: Java Embedded @ JavaOne. This conference will run for two days in parallel to JavaOne in San Francisco, will have its own business-oriented track and content, and targets C-level executives, architects, business leaders, and decision makers. Registration and Call For Papers for Java Embedded @ JavaOne are now live. We expect a lot of interest in this new event and space is limited, so be sure to submit your paper and register soon. Hope to see you there! Cheers, – Terrence Filed under: Mobile & Embedded Tagged: ARM, Call for Papers, Embedded Java, Java Embedded, Java Embedded @ JavaOne, Java ME, Java SE Embedded, Java SE for Embedded, JavaOne San Francisco, PowerPC

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WPF vs. WinForms - a Delphi programmer's perspective?

- by Robert Oschler

I have read most of the major threads on WPF vs. WinForms and I find myself stuck in the unfortunate ambivalence you can fall into when deciding between the tried and true previous tech (Winforms), and it's successor (WPF). I am a veteran Delphi programmer of many years that is finally making the jump to C#. My fellow Delphi programmers out there will understand that I am excited to know that Anders Hejlsberg, of Delphi fame, was the architect behind C#. I have a strong addiction to Delphi's VCL custom components, especially those involved in making multi-step Wizards and components that act as a container for child components. With that background, I am hoping that those of you that switched from Delphi to C# can help me with my WinForms vs. WPF decision for writing my initial applications. Note, I am very impatient when coding and things like full fledged auto-complete and proper debugger support can make or break a project for me, including being able to find readily available information on API features and calls and even more so, workarounds for bugs. The SO threads and comments in the early 2009 date range give me great concern over WPF when it comes to potential frustrations that could mar my C# UI development coding. On the other hand, spending an inordinate amount of time learning an API tech that is, even if it is not abandoned, soon to be replaced (WinForms), is equally troubling and I do find the GPU support in WPF tantalizing. Hence my ambivalence. Since I haven't learned either tech yet I have a rare opportunity to get a fresh start and not have to face the big "unlearning" curve I've seen people mention in various threads when a WinForms programmer makes the move to WPF. On the other hand, if using WPF will just be too frustrating or have other major negative consequences for an impatient RAD developer like myself, then I'll just stick with WinForms until WPF reaches the same level of support and ease of use. To give you a concrete example into my psychology as a programmer, I used VB and subsequently Delphi to completely avoid altogether the very real pain of coding with MFC, a Windows UI library that many developers suffered through while developing early Windows apps. I have never regretted my luck in avoiding MFC. It would also be comforting to know if Anders Hejlsberg had a hand in the architecture of WPF and/or WinForms, and if there are any disparities in the creative vision and ease of use embodied in either code base. Finally, for the Delphi programmers again, let me know how much "IDE schock" I'm in for when using WPF as opposed to WinForms, especially when it comes to debugger support. Any job market comments updated for 2011 would be appreciated too. -- roschler

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Desktop Fun: Triple Monitor Wallpaper Collection Series 1

- by Asian Angel

Triple monitor setups provide spacious amounts of screen real-estate but can be extremely frustrating to find good wallpapers for. Today we present the first in a series of wallpaper collections to help decorate your triple monitor setup with lots of wallpaper goodness. Note: Click on the picture to see the full-size image—these wallpapers vary in size so you may need to crop, stretch, or place them on a colored background in order to best match them to your screen’s resolution. Special Note: The screen resolution sizes available for each of these wallpapers has been included to help you match them up to your individual settings as easily as possible. All images shown here are thumbnail screenshots of the largest size available for download. Available in the following resolutions: 3840*1024, 4096*1024, 4320*900, 4800*1200, 5040*1050, and 5760*1200. Available in the following resolutions: 4800*1200. Available in the following resolutions: 3840*960, 3840*1024, 4096*1024, 4320*900, and 4800*1200. Available in the following resolutions: 3840*960, 3840*1024, 4096*1024, 4320*900, and 4800*1200. Available in the following resolutions: 3840*960, 3840*1024, 4096*1024, 4320*900, 4800*1200, 5040*1050, and 5760*1200. Available in the following resolutions: 3840*960, 3840*1024, 4096*1024, 4320*900, and 4800*1200. Available in the following resolutions: 3840*960, 3840*1024, 4096*1024, 4320*900, 4800*1200, and 5040*1050. Available in the following resolutions: 3840*960, 3840*1024, 4096*1024, 4320*900, 4800*1200, and 5040*1050. Available in the following resolutions: 3840*960, 3840*1024, 4096*1024, 4320*900, and 4800*1200. Available in the following resolutions: 3840*960, 3840*1024, 4096*1024, 4320*900, 4800*1200, and 5040*1050. Available in the following resolutions: 3840*960, 3840*1024, 4096*1024, 4800*1200, and 5040*1050. Available in the following resolutions: 3840*960, 3840*1024, 4096*1024, 4320*900, 4800*1200, 5040*1050, 5760*1200, and 7680*1600. Available in the following resolutions: 3840*960, 3840*1024, 4096*1024, 4320*900, 4800*1200, 5040*1050, and 5760*1200. Available in the following resolutions: 5760*1200. Available in the following resolutions: 5760*1200. More Triple Monitor Goodness Beautiful 3 Screen Multi-Monitor Space Wallpaper Span the same wallpaper across multiple monitors or use a different wallpaper for each. Dual Monitors: Use a Different Wallpaper on Each Desktop in Windows 7, Vista or XP For more wallpapers be certain to see our great collections in the Desktop Fun section. Latest Features How-To Geek ETC How to Upgrade Windows 7 Easily (And Understand Whether You Should) The How-To Geek Guide to Audio Editing: Basic Noise Removal Install a Wii Game Loader for Easy Backups and Fast Load Times The Best of CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in 2011 The Worst of CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in 2011 HTG Projects: How to Create Your Own Custom Papercraft Toy Firefox 4.0 Beta 9 Available for Download – Get Your Copy Now The Frustrations of a Computer Literate Watching a Newbie Use a Computer [Humorous Video] Season0nPass Jailbreaks Current Gen Apple TVs IBM’s Jeopardy Playing Computer Watson Shows The Pros How It’s Done [Video] Tranquil Juice Drop Abstract Wallpaper Pulse Is a Sleek Newsreader for iOS and Android Devices

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WPF vs. WinForms - a Delphi programmer's perspective?

- by Robert Oschler

Hello all. I have read most of the major threads on WPF vs. WinForms and I find myself stuck in the unfortunate ambivalence you can fall into when deciding between the tried and true previous tech (Winforms), and it's successor (WPF). I am a veteran Delphi programmer of many years that is finally making the jump to C#. My fellow Delphi programmers out there will understand that I am excited to know that Anders Hejlsberg, of Delphi fame, was the architect behind C#. I have a strong addiction to Delphi's VCL custom components, especially those involved in making multi-step Wizards and components that act as a container for child components. With that background, I am hoping that those of you that switched from Delphi to C# can help me with my WinForms vs. WPF decision for writing my initial applications. Note, I am very impatient when coding and things like full fledged auto-complete and proper debugger support can make or break a project for me, including being able to find readily available information on API features and calls and even more so, workarounds for bugs. The SO threads and comments in the early 2009 date range give me great concern over WPF when it comes to potential frustrations that could mar my C# UI development coding. On the other hand, spending an inordinate amount of time learning an API tech that is, even if it is not abandoned, soon to be replaced (WinForms), is equally troubling and I do find the GPU support in WPF tantalizing. Hence my ambivalence. Since I haven't learned either tech yet I have a rare opportunity to get a fresh start and not have to face the big "unlearning" curve I've seen people mention in various threads when a WinForms programmer makes the move to WPF. On the other hand, if using WPF will just be too frustrating or have other major negative consequences for an impatient RAD developer like myself, then I'll just stick with WinForms until WPF reaches the same level of support and ease of use. To give you a concrete example into my psychology as a programmer, I used VB and subsequently Delphi to completely avoid altogether the very real pain of coding with MFC, a Windows UI library that many developers suffered through while developing early Windows apps. I have never regretted my luck in avoiding MFC. It would also be comforting to know if Anders Hejlsberg had a hand in the architecture of WPF and/or WinForms, and if there are any disparities in the creative vision and ease of use embodied in either code base. Finally, for the Delphi programmers again, let me know how much "IDE schock" I'm in for when using WPF as opposed to WinForms, especially when it comes to debugger support. Any job market comments updated for 2011 would be appreciated too. -- roschler

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The broken Promise of the Mobile Web

- by Rick Strahl

High end mobile devices have been with us now for almost 7 years and they have utterly transformed the way we access information. Mobile phones and smartphones that have access to the Internet and host smart applications are in the hands of a large percentage of the population of the world. In many places even very remote, cell phones and even smart phones are a common sight. I’ll never forget when I was in India in 2011 I was up in the Southern Indian mountains riding an elephant out of a tiny local village, with an elephant herder in front riding atop of the elephant in front of us. He was dressed in traditional garb with the loin wrap and head cloth/turban as did quite a few of the locals in this small out of the way and not so touristy village. So we’re slowly trundling along in the forest and he’s lazily using his stick to guide the elephant and… 10 minutes in he pulls out his cell phone from his sash and starts texting. In the middle of texting a huge pig jumps out from the side of the trail and he takes a picture running across our path in the jungle! So yeah, mobile technology is very pervasive and it’s reached into even very buried and unexpected parts of this world. Apps are still King Apps currently rule the roost when it comes to mobile devices and the applications that run on them. If there’s something that you need on your mobile device your first step usually is to look for an app, not use your browser. But native app development remains a pain in the butt, with the requirement to have to support 2 or 3 completely separate platforms. There are solutions that try to bridge that gap. Xamarin is on a tear at the moment, providing their cross-device toolkit to build applications using C#. While Xamarin tools are impressive – and also *very* expensive – they only address part of the development madness that is app development. There are still specific device integration isssues, dealing with the different developer programs, security and certificate setups and all that other noise that surrounds app development. There’s also PhoneGap/Cordova which provides a hybrid solution that involves creating local HTML/CSS/JavaScript based applications, and then packaging them to run in a specialized App container that can run on most mobile device platforms using a WebView interface. This allows for using of HTML technology, but it also still requires all the set up, configuration of APIs, security keys and certification and submission and deployment process just like native applications – you actually lose many of the benefits that Web based apps bring. The big selling point of Cordova is that you get to use HTML have the ability to build your UI once for all platforms and run across all of them – but the rest of the app process remains in place. Apps can be a big pain to create and manage especially when we are talking about specialized or vertical business applications that aren’t geared at the mainstream market and that don’t fit the ‘store’ model. If you’re building a small intra department application you don’t want to deal with multiple device platforms and certification etc. for various public or corporate app stores. That model is simply not a good fit both from the development and deployment perspective. Even for commercial, big ticket apps, HTML as a UI platform offers many advantages over native, from write-once run-anywhere, to remote maintenance, single point of management and failure to having full control over the application as opposed to have the app store overloads censor you. In a lot of ways Web based HTML/CSS/JavaScript applications have so much potential for building better solutions based on existing Web technologies for the very same reasons a lot of content years ago moved off the desktop to the Web. To me the Web as a mobile platform makes perfect sense, but the reality of today’s Mobile Web unfortunately looks a little different… Where’s the Love for the Mobile Web? Yet here we are in the middle of 2014, nearly 7 years after the first iPhone was released and brought the promise of rich interactive information at your fingertips, and yet we still don’t really have a solid mobile Web platform. I know what you’re thinking: “But we have lots of HTML/JavaScript/CSS features that allows us to build nice mobile interfaces”. I agree to a point – it’s actually quite possible to build nice looking, rich and capable Web UI today. We have media queries to deal with varied display sizes, CSS transforms for smooth animations and transitions, tons of CSS improvements in CSS 3 that facilitate rich layout, a host of APIs geared towards mobile device features and lately even a number of JavaScript framework choices that facilitate development of multi-screen apps in a consistent manner. Personally I’ve been working a lot with AngularJs and heavily modified Bootstrap themes to build mobile first UIs and that’s been working very well to provide highly usable and attractive UI for typical mobile business applications. From the pure UI perspective things actually look very good. Not just about the UI But it’s not just about the UI - it’s also about integration with the mobile device. When it comes to putting all those pieces together into what amounts to a consolidated platform to build mobile Web applications, I think we still have a ways to go… there are a lot of missing pieces to make it all work together and integrate with the device more smoothly, and more importantly to make it work uniformly across the majority of devices. I think there are a number of reasons for this. Slow Standards Adoption HTML standards implementations and ratification has been dreadfully slow, and browser vendors all seem to pick and choose different pieces of the technology they implement. The end result is that we have a capable UI platform that’s missing some of the infrastructure pieces to make it whole on mobile devices. There’s lots of potential but what is lacking that final 10% to build truly compelling mobile applications that can compete favorably with native applications. Some of it is the fragmentation of browsers and the slow evolution of the mobile specific HTML APIs. A host of mobile standards exist but many of the standards are in the early review stage and they have been there stuck for long periods of time and seem to move at a glacial pace. Browser vendors seem even slower to implement them, and for good reason – non-ratified standards mean that implementations may change and vendor implementations tend to be experimental and likely have to be changed later. Neither Vendors or developers are not keen on changing standards. This is the typical chicken and egg scenario, but without some forward momentum from some party we end up stuck in the mud. It seems that either the standards bodies or the vendors need to carry the torch forward and that doesn’t seem to be happening quickly enough. Mobile Device Integration just isn’t good enough Current standards are not far reaching enough to address a number of the use case scenarios necessary for many mobile applications. While not every application needs to have access to all mobile device features, almost every mobile application could benefit from some integration with other parts of the mobile device platform. Integration with GPS, phone, media, messaging, notifications, linking and contacts system are benefits that are unique to mobile applications and could be widely used, but are mostly (with the exception of GPS) inaccessible for Web based applications today. Unfortunately trying to do most of this today only with a mobile Web browser is a losing battle. Aside from PhoneGap/Cordova’s app centric model with its own custom API accessing mobile device features and the token exception of the GeoLocation API, most device integration features are not widely supported by the current crop of mobile browsers. For example there’s no usable messaging API that allows access to SMS or contacts from HTML. Even obvious components like the Media Capture API are only implemented partially by mobile devices. There are alternatives and workarounds for some of these interfaces by using browser specific code, but that’s might ugly and something that I thought we were trying to leave behind with newer browser standards. But it’s not quite working out that way. It’s utterly perplexing to me that mobile standards like Media Capture and Streams, Media Gallery Access, Responsive Images, Messaging API, Contacts Manager API have only minimal or no traction at all today. Keep in mind we’ve had mobile browsers for nearly 7 years now, and yet we still have to think about how to get access to an image from the image gallery or the camera on some devices? Heck Windows Phone IE Mobile just gained the ability to upload images recently in the Windows 8.1 Update – that’s feature that HTML has had for 20 years! These are simple concepts and common problems that should have been solved a long time ago. It’s extremely frustrating to see build 90% of a mobile Web app with relative ease and then hit a brick wall for the remaining 10%, which often can be show stoppers. The remaining 10% have to do with platform integration, browser differences and working around the limitations that browsers and ‘pinned’ applications impose on HTML applications. The maddening part is that these limitations seem arbitrary as they could easily work on all mobile platforms. For example, SMS has a URL Moniker interface that sort of works on Android, works badly with iOS (only works if the address is already in the contact list) and not at all on Windows Phone. There’s no reason this shouldn’t work universally using the same interface – after all all phones have supported SMS since before the year 2000! But, it doesn’t have to be this way Change can happen very quickly. Take the GeoLocation API for example. Geolocation has taken off at the very beginning of the mobile device era and today it works well, provides the necessary security (a big concern for many mobile APIs), and is supported by just about all major mobile and even desktop browsers today. It handles security concerns via prompts to avoid unwanted access which is a model that would work for most other device APIs in a similar fashion. One time approval and occasional re-approval if code changes or caches expire. Simple and only slightly intrusive. It all works well, even though GeoLocation actually has some physical limitations, such as representing the current location when no GPS device is present. Yet this is a solved problem, where other APIs that are conceptually much simpler to implement have failed to gain any traction at all. Technically none of these APIs should be a problem to implement, but it appears that the momentum is just not there. Inadequate Web Application Linking and Activation Another important piece of the puzzle missing is the integration of HTML based Web applications. Today HTML based applications are not first class citizens on mobile operating systems. When talking about HTML based content there’s a big difference between content and applications. Content is great for search engine discovery and plain browser usage. Content is usually accessed intermittently and permanent linking is not so critical for this type of content. But applications have different needs. Applications need to be started up quickly and must be easily switchable to support a multi-tasking user workflow. Therefore, it’s pretty crucial that mobile Web apps are integrated into the underlying mobile OS and work with the standard task management features. Unfortunately this integration is not as smooth as it should be. It starts with actually trying to find mobile Web applications, to ‘installing’ them onto a phone in an easily accessible manner in a prominent position. The experience of discovering a Mobile Web ‘App’ and making it sticky is by no means as easy or satisfying. Today the way you’d go about this is: Open the browser Search for a Web Site in the browser with your search engine of choice Hope that you find the right site Hope that you actually find a site that works for your mobile device Click on the link and run the app in a fully chrome’d browser instance (read tiny surface area) Pin the app to the home screen (with all the limitations outline above) Hope you pointed at the right URL when you pinned Even for you and me as developers, there are a few steps in there that are painful and annoying, but think about the average user. First figuring out how to search for a specific site or URL? And then pinning the app and hopefully from the right location? You’ve probably lost more than half of your audience at that point. This experience sucks. For developers too this process is painful since app developers can’t control the shortcut creation directly. This problem often gets solved by crazy coding schemes, with annoying pop-ups that try to get people to create shortcuts via fancy animations that are both annoying and add overhead to each and every application that implements this sort of thing differently. And that’s not the end of it - getting the link onto the home screen with an application icon varies quite a bit between browsers. Apple’s non-standard meta tags are prominent and they work with iOS and Android (only more recent versions), but not on Windows Phone. Windows Phone instead requires you to create an actual screen or rather a partial screen be captured for a shortcut in the tile manager. Who had that brilliant idea I wonder? Surprisingly Chrome on recent Android versions seems to actually get it right – icons use pngs, pinning is easy and pinned applications properly behave like standalone apps and retain the browser’s active page state and content. Each of the platforms has a different way to specify icons (WP doesn’t allow you to use an icon image at all), and the most widely used interface in use today is a bunch of Apple specific meta tags that other browsers choose to support. The question is: Why is there no standard implementation for installing shortcuts across mobile platforms using an official format rather than a proprietary one? Then there’s iOS and the crazy way it treats home screen linked URLs using a crazy hybrid format that is neither as capable as a Web app running in Safari nor a WebView hosted application. Moving off the Web ‘app’ link when switching to another app actually causes the browser and preview it to ‘blank out’ the Web application in the Task View (see screenshot on the right). Then, when the ‘app’ is reactivated it ends up completely restarting the browser with the original link. This is crazy behavior that you can’t easily work around. In some situations you might be able to store the application state and restore it using LocalStorage, but for many scenarios that involve complex data sources (like say Google Maps) that’s not a possibility. The only reason for this screwed up behavior I can think of is that it is deliberate to make Web apps a pain in the butt to use and forcing users trough the App Store/PhoneGap/Cordova route. App linking and management is a very basic problem – something that we essentially have solved in every desktop browser – yet on mobile devices where it arguably matters a lot more to have easy access to web content we have to jump through hoops to have even a remotely decent linking/activation experience across browsers. Where’s the Money? It’s not surprising that device home screen integration and Mobile Web support in general is in such dismal shape – the mobile OS vendors benefit financially from App store sales and have little to gain from Web based applications that bypass the App store and the cash cow that it presents. On top of that, platform specific vendor lock-in of both end users and developers who have invested in hardware, apps and consumables is something that mobile platform vendors actually aspire to. Web based interfaces that are cross-platform are the anti-thesis of that and so again it’s no surprise that the mobile Web is on a struggling path. But – that may be changing. More and more we’re seeing operations shifting to services that are subscription based or otherwise collect money for usage, and that may drive more progress into the Web direction in the end . Nothing like the almighty dollar to drive innovation forward. Do we need a Mobile Web App Store? As much as I dislike moderated experiences in today’s massive App Stores, they do at least provide one single place to look for apps for your device. I think we could really use some sort of registry, that could provide something akin to an app store for mobile Web apps, to make it easier to actually find mobile applications. This could take the form of a specialized search engine, or maybe a more formal store/registry like structure. Something like apt-get/chocolatey for Web apps. It could be curated and provide at least some feedback and reviews that might help with the integrity of applications. Coupled to that could be a native application on each platform that would allow searching and browsing of the registry and then also handle installation in the form of providing the home screen linking, plus maybe an initial security configuration that determines what features are allowed access to for the app. I’m not holding my breath. In order for this sort of thing to take off and gain widespread appeal, a lot of coordination would be required. And in order to get enough traction it would have to come from a well known entity – a mobile Web app store from a no name source is unlikely to gain high enough usage numbers to make a difference. In a way this would eliminate some of the freedom of the Web, but of course this would also be an optional search path in addition to the standard open Web search mechanisms to find and access content today. Security Security is a big deal, and one of the perceived reasons why so many IT professionals appear to be willing to go back to the walled garden of deployed apps is that Apps are perceived as safe due to the official review and curation of the App stores. Curated stores are supposed to protect you from malware, illegal and misleading content. It doesn’t always work out that way and all the major vendors have had issues with security and the review process at some time or another. Security is critical, but I also think that Web applications in general pose less of a security threat than native applications, by nature of the sandboxed browser and JavaScript environments. Web applications run externally completely and in the HTML and JavaScript sandboxes, with only a very few controlled APIs allowing access to device specific features. And as discussed earlier – security for any device interaction can be granted the same for mobile applications through a Web browser, as they can for native applications either via explicit policies loaded from the Web, or via prompting as GeoLocation does today. Security is important, but it’s certainly solvable problem for Web applications even those that need to access device hardware. Security shouldn’t be a reason for Web apps to be an equal player in mobile applications. Apps are winning, but haven’t we been here before? So now we’re finding ourselves back in an era of installed app, rather than Web based and managed apps. Only it’s even worse today than with Desktop applications, in that the apps are going through a gatekeeper that charges a toll and censors what you can and can’t do in your apps. Frankly it’s a mystery to me why anybody would buy into this model and why it’s lasted this long when we’ve already been through this process. It’s crazy… It’s really a shame that this regression is happening. We have the technology to make mobile Web apps much more prominent, but yet we’re basically held back by what seems little more than bureaucracy, partisan bickering and self interest of the major parties involved. Back in the day of the desktop it was Internet Explorer’s 98+% market shareholding back the Web from improvements for many years – now it’s the combined mobile OS market in control of the mobile browsers. If mobile Web apps were allowed to be treated the same as native apps with simple ways to install and run them consistently and persistently, that would go a long way to making mobile applications much more usable and seriously viable alternatives to native apps. But as it is mobile apps have a severe disadvantage in placement and operation. There are a few bright spots in all of this. Mozilla’s FireFoxOs is embracing the Web for it’s mobile OS by essentially building every app out of HTML and JavaScript based content. It supports both packaged and certified package modes (that can be put into the app store), and Open Web apps that are loaded and run completely off the Web and can also cache locally for offline operation using a manifest. Open Web apps are treated as full class citizens in FireFoxOS and run using the same mechanism as installed apps. Unfortunately FireFoxOs is getting a slow start with minimal device support and specifically targeting the low end market. We can hope that this approach will change and catch on with other vendors, but that’s also an uphill battle given the conflict of interest with platform lock in that it represents. Recent versions of Android also seem to be working reasonably well with mobile application integration onto the desktop and activation out of the box. Although it still uses the Apple meta tags to find icons and behavior settings, everything at least works as you would expect – icons to the desktop on pinning, WebView based full screen activation, and reliable application persistence as the browser/app is treated like a real application. Hopefully iOS will at some point provide this same level of rudimentary Web app support. What’s also interesting to me is that Microsoft hasn’t picked up on the obvious need for a solid Web App platform. Being a distant third in the mobile OS war, Microsoft certainly has nothing to lose and everything to gain by using fresh ideas and expanding into areas that the other major vendors are neglecting. But instead Microsoft is trying to beat the market leaders at their own game, fighting on their adversary’s terms instead of taking a new tack. Providing a kick ass mobile Web platform that takes the lead on some of the proposed mobile APIs would be something positive that Microsoft could do to improve its miserable position in the mobile device market. Where are we at with Mobile Web? It sure sounds like I’m really down on the Mobile Web, right? I’ve built a number of mobile apps in the last year and while overall result and response has been very positive to what we were able to accomplish in terms of UI, getting that final 10% that required device integration dialed was an absolute nightmare on every single one of them. Big compromises had to be made and some features were left out or had to be modified for some devices. In two cases we opted to go the Cordova route in order to get the integration we needed, along with the extra pain involved in that process. Unless you’re not integrating with device features and you don’t care deeply about a smooth integration with the mobile desktop, mobile Web development is fraught with frustration. So, yes I’m frustrated! But it’s not for lack of wanting the mobile Web to succeed. I am still a firm believer that we will eventually arrive a much more functional mobile Web platform that allows access to the most common device features in a sensible way. It wouldn't be difficult for device platform vendors to make Web based applications first class citizens on mobile devices. But unfortunately it looks like it will still be some time before this happens. So, what’s your experience building mobile Web apps? Are you finding similar issues? Just giving up on raw Web applications and building PhoneGap apps instead? Completely skipping the Web and going native? Leave a comment for discussion. Resources Rick Strahl on DotNet Rocks talking about Mobile Web© Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2014Posted in HTML5 Mobile Tweet !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();

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Windows Phone 7 Design using Expression Blend - Resources

- by Nikita Polyakov

I’ve been doing a series of talks across Florida regarding Windows Phone 7 Design using Microsoft Expression Blend 4. I discuss the WP7 phone and application experience; show how to use Expression Blend toolset to effectively design such apps. Next presentation is on 5/4/2010 at 6:30PM EST will be a webcast format over LiveMeeting at Ft. Lauderdale Online group. Registration and the LiveMeeting link are both here: http://www.fladotnet.com/Reg.aspx?EventID=459 [I will post a link if it’s recorded] Here are the resources from my presentations: The Biggest source is the Windows Phone UI and Design Language video from MIX10 Windows Phone 7 Design Guide as it’s found on the WP7 Dev Home Page Study The Silverlight Mobile Tutorials on official Silverlight website I will be blogging a separate entry for a new demo app that will showcase the elements I presented. I suggest you actually watch all of the MIX videos about SL and Design as great primer to get you thinking the WP7 way. A lot happening with WP7Dev and it’s just the beginning! So watch these Twitter accounts and blogs: @Ckindel - Charlie Kindel - WP7 Dev Head http://blogs.msdn.com/ckindel @WP7Dev - Official Dev Twitter @WP7 - Official WP7 Twitter Peter Torr - http://blogs.msdn.com/ptorr Mike Harsh - http://blogs.msdn.com/mharsh Shawn Oster - http://www.shawnoster.com Other worthwhile mention my local friends speaking and blogging about Windows Phone 7: Bill Reiss is doing great presentations on Building games with XNA for Windows Phone 7. Be on the lookout for those around Florida. Bill is a Silverlight MVP and has a legacy of XNA and Silverlight games, see his site. Kevin Wolf aka ByteMaster he is a Device Application Developer MVP with tremendous experience building mobile applications. He has developed WinMo-GF a multi-platform gaming framework. Get these tools and get creating! You will need the following components installed in this order: Expression Blend 4 Beta Windows Phone Developer Tools Microsoft Expression Blend Add-in Preview for Windows Phone Microsoft Expression Blend SDK Preview for Windows Phone Want more training? Don’t forget that Channel 9 has complete walkthroughs of their WP7 Training Kit posted online. PS: To continue with all this design talk check out Microsoft .toolbox “Learn to create Silverlight applications using Expression Studio and to apply fundamental design principles.” A great website with a lot of design tutorials set up as a wonderful full course on design all for free, including a great forum community and neat little avatars you can build yourself.

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Multiple Monitors

- by mroberts

At my workplace .Net developers get pretty much the same equipment. A decent Dell workstation / Desktop, mine is a Dell Precision 390. One dual core 2.40 GHz. Eight GB RAM. Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit. Two Dell 20.1 Monitors. I'm happy with this. The machine is about 3 years old but still runs with some decent speed. New developers are getting a Dell workstation with dual quad processors. I just put in a request for myself and three other developers for an upgraded video card and two additional monitors, for a total of four monitors per person. We suggested this card, BTW, mainly for the cost. The move from one monitor to two was fantastic (one might even say life (or work) changing) and truly did increase productivity. Now what about going from 2 monitors to 4? I'm sure the change is not as dramatic as one to two, but I can't help but to think four monitors is better than two. But if four is better than two, should we have asked for six?!? Also what about mixing monitor types? Right now my monitors are the older square type vs. wide-screen. It's been rumored that we will be getting monitors out of current stock and they will be 22 inch wide-screens. I understand this, recession and all. 2-20 inch square monitors with 2-22 inch wide-screen monitors...hmmmmm. I'm thinking I'd rather get 2 additional 17 inch square monitors to put on each side of my 20's. Also, a question was raised about the layout of four monitors. By default, my thought was I'll just put them all on my desk, kinda in a line. I've heard others say they want to stack them in a 2 x 2 square. BTW, loving multi monitor support in Visual studio 2010! I’d love some comments on your experience with one, two, four, or however many monitors from a developers perspective.

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ActAs and OnBehalfOf support in WIF

- by cibrax

I discussed a time ago how WIF supported a new WS-Trust 1.4 element, “ActAs”, and how that element could be used for authentication delegation. The thing is that there is another feature in WS-Trust 1.4 that also becomes handy for this kind of scenario, and I did not mention in that last post, “OnBehalfOf”. Shiung Yong wrote an excellent summary about the difference of these two new features in this forum thread. He basically commented the following, “An ActAs RST element indicates that the requestor wants a token that contains claims about two distinct entities: the requestor, and an external entity represented by the token in the ActAs element. An OnBehalfOf RST element indicates that the requestor wants a token that contains claims only about one entity: the external entity represented by the token in the OnBehalfOf element. In short, ActAs feature is typically used in scenarios that require composite delegation, where the final recipient of the issued token can inspect the entire delegation chain and see not just the client, but all intermediaries to perform access control, auditing and other related activities based on the whole identity delegation chain. The ActAs feature is commonly used in multi-tiered systems to authenticate and pass information about identities between the tiers without having to pass this information at the application/business logic layer. OnBehalfOf feature is used in scenarios where only the identity of the original client is important and is effectively the same as identity impersonation feature available in the Windows OS today. When the OnBehalfOf is used the final recipient of the issued token can only see claims about the original client, and the information about intermediaries is not preserved. One common pattern where OnBehalfOf feature is used is the proxy pattern where the client cannot access the STS directly but is instead communicating through a proxy gateway. The proxy gateway authenticates the caller and puts information about him into the OnBehalfOf element of the RST message that it then sends to the real STS for processing. The resulting token is going to contain only claims related to the client of the proxy, making the proxy completely transparent and not visible to the receiver of the issued token.” Going back to WIF, “ActAs” and “OnBehalfOf” are both supported as extensions methods in the WCF client channel. public static class ChannelFactoryOperations { public static T CreateChannelActingAs<T>(this ChannelFactory<T> factory, SecurityToken actAs); public static T CreateChannelOnBehalfOf<T>(this ChannelFactory<T> factory, SecurityToken onBehalfOf); } Both methods receive the security token with the identity of the original caller.

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