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• Mac OS X: Getting detailed process information (specifically its launch arguments) for arbitrary run

  - by Jasarien

  I am trying to detect when particular applications are launched. Currently I am using NSWorkspace, registering for the "did launch application" notification. I also use the runningApplications method to get apps that are currently running when my app starts. For most apps, the name of the app bundle is enough. I have a plist of "known apps" that I cross check with the name of that passed in the notification. This works fine until you come across an app that acts as a proxy for launching another application using command line arguments. Example: The newly released Portal on the Mac doesn't have a dedicated app bundle. Steam can create a shortcut, which serves as nothing more than to launch the hl2_osx app with the -game argument and portal as it's parameter. Since more Source based games are heading to the Mac, I imagine they'll use the same method to launch, effectively running the hl2_osx app with the -game argument. Is there a nice way to get a list of the arguments (and their parameters) using a Cocoa API? NSProcessInfo comes close, offering an `-arguments' method, but only provides information for its own process... NSRunningApplication offers the ability to get information about arbitrary apps using a PID, but no command line args... Is there anything that fills the gap between the two? I'm trying not to go down the route of spawning an NSTask to run ps -p [pid] and parsing the output... I'd prefer something more high level.

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• Installing sfJqueryTreeDoctrineManagerPlugin to Symfony 1.4

  - by Christine Q.

  I have faced serious difficulties while installing sfJqueryTreeDoctrineManagerPlugin to Symfony 1.4 w/ Doctrine ORM. The installation directly from the server did not work out like with previous plugins that I have installed: C:\pathsymfony plugin:install sfJqueryTreeDoctrineManagerPlugin plugin installing plugin "sfJqueryTreeDoctrineManagerPlugin" No release available for plugin "sfJqueryTreeDoctrineManagerPlugin" This is why I needed to install the plugin by downloading the tgz-archive and install it manually like this: C:\pathsymfony plugin:install "C:\path\to\downloads\sfJqueryTreeDoctrineManagerPlugin-1.2.4.tgz" plugin installing plugin "C:\path\to\downloads\sfJqueryTreeDoctrineManagerPlugin-1.2.4.tgz" sfSymfonyPluginManager Installing web data for plugin I guess everything should be fine this far? After that I edited \apps\admin\config\settings.yml like instructed in the plugins readme file. all: .settings: enabled_modules: [default, sfJqueryTreeDoctrineManager] I also checked that the plugin was enabled in \config\ProjectConfiguration.class.php like this: $this->enablePlugins(array( // other plugins, 'sfJqueryTreeDoctrineManagerPlugin' )); I published assets and cleared cache: C:\pathsymfony plugin:publish-assets >> plugin Configuring plugin - sfJqueryTreeDoctrineManagerPlugin C:\pathsymfony cc Finally I added the required helper to the newly created apps\admin\modules\category\templates\indexSuccess.php <?php use_helper("sfJqueryTreeDoctrine"); echo get_nested_set_manager("Category", "name"); When loading the page I unfortunately get the following error: 500 | Internal Server Error | InvalidArgumentException Unable to load "sfJqueryTreeDoctrineHelper.php" helper in: SF_ROOT_DIR\apps\admin\modules/businessunitgroup/lib/helper, SF_ROOT_DIR\apps\admin\lib/helper, SF_ROOT_DIR\lib/helper, SF_SYMFONY_LIB_DIR/helper. The file sfJqueryTreeDoctrineHelper.php exists indeed but not in any previously mentioned folder. The file can only be found in the folder \plugins\sfJqueryTreeDoctrineManagerPlugin\lib\helper. I guess that Symfony doesn't look to that folder while finding helpers? I have tried to move the helper file to one of the previously mentioned folders. As expected, that changes the error. Now I get: 500 | Internal Server Error | sfConfigurationException The component does not exist: "sfJqueryTreeDoctrineManager", "manager". Unfortunately I can't figure out how should I be able to retrieve the "missing" component from the correct folder. I would be very grateful for any advice to help me forward. By the way, I am aware that there are other nested-set / tree plugins available for Symfony (like sfDoctrineTreePlugin and caPropelTreePlugin) but unluckily those are either uncompatible or too limited for my needs.

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• Debug NAudio MP3 reading difference?

  - by Conrad Albrecht

  My code using NAudio to read one particular MP3 gets different results than several other commercial apps. Specifically: My NAudio-based code finds ~1.4 sec of silence at the beginning of this MP3 before "audible audio" (a drum pickup) starts, whereas other apps (Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, WavePad) show ~2.5 sec of silence before that same drum pickup. The particular MP3 is "Like A Rolling Stone" downloaded from Amazon.com. Tested several other MP3s and none show any similar difference between my code and other apps. Most MP3s don't start with such a long silence so I suspect that's the source of the difference. Debugging problems: I can't actually find a way to even prove that the other apps are right and NAudio/me is wrong, i.e. to compare block-by-block my code's results to a "known good reference implementation"; therefore I can't even precisely define the "error" I need to debug. Since my code reads thousands of samples during those 1.4 sec with no obvious errors, I can't think how to narrow down where/when in the input stream to look for a bug. The heart of the NAudio code is a P/Invoke call to acmStreamConvert(), which is a Windows "black box" call which I can't think how to error-check. Can anyone think of any tricks/techniques to debug this?

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• Reading DATA from an OBJECT asp.net MVC C#

  - by kalyan

  Hi, I am new to the MVC and I am stuck with a wierd situation. I have to read the Data from the type object and I tried different ways and I couldn't get a solution.Please help. IList<User> u = new UserRepository().Getuser(Name.ToUpper(), UserName.ToUpper(), UserCertNumber.ToUpper(), Date.ToUpper(), UserType.ToUpper(), Company.ToUpper(), PageNumber, Orderby, SearchALL.ToUpper(), PrintAllPages.ToUpper()); object[] users = new object[u.Count]; for (int i = 0; i < u.Count; i++) { users[i] = new { Id = u[i].UserId, Title = u[i].Title, FirstName = u[i].FirstName, LastName = u[i].LastName, Privileges = (from apps in u[i].UserPrivileges select new { PrivilegeId = apps.Privilege.PrivilegeId, PrivilegeName = apps.Privilege.Name, DeactiveDate = apps.DeactiveDate }), Status = (from status in u[i].UserStatus select new { StatusId = status.Status.StatusId, StatusName = status.Status.StatusName, DeactiveDate = status.DeactiveDate }), ActiveDate = u[i].ActiveDate, UserName = u[i].Email, UserCN = (from cert in u[i].UserCertificates select new { CertificateNumber = cert.CertificateNumber, DeactiveDate = cert.DeactiveDate }), Company = u[i].Company.Name }; } string x = ""; string y = ""; var report = users; foreach (var r in report) { x = r[0].....; i want to assign the values from the report to something else and I am not able to read the data from the report object. Please help. } Thank you.

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• Single developer, project organization

  - by poke

  I am looking for a good (and free) way to organize some of my personal projects. I am saying "organize" because I'm not sure, if the standard project management software solutions are exactly what I am looking for and especially something what I, as a single developer, need. In general, I just want to keep my progress of my projects organized in some way. I would like to be able to keep track of milestones and split those into multiple smaller tasks, so I can keep track of my progress. So some task/issue based system would probably be good, especially as I also want to keep track of issues/bugs with specific versions (although I alone will create those issues). I am and will be the only developer on those projects, so it doesn't matter if the software is offline or online, and I also don't need any collaboration features (like commenting on things, or assigning tasks to other developers etc). But if there is a good software that fits my needs, and in addition it has those things, I don't really care. After all it's easy enough to not use available features. Many online solutions also offer integrated code hosting. I am using git internally, but I don't plan to push any of the code, so such a feature is not needed either. In case of online solutions however I would like the projects to be closed to the public (some of the online utilities only offer open source projects for free and require payments for private projects). I have looked at some project management solutions already, I also read some similar questions here on SO. But given that I'm a single developer, my focus is probably a bit different as when others ask for a huge distributed software that supports many developers and different collaboration features. Some standard answers such as Trac (which also only supports one project), Redmine and FogBUGZ look interesting, but are a bit off my interest (although you may change my mind on that :P). Currently, I'm looking at Indefero which doesn't look too bad. But what do you think?

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• Hibernate database integrity with multiple java applications

  - by Austen

  We have 2 java web apps both are read/write and 3 standalone java read/write applications (one loads questions via email, one processes an xml feed, one sends email to subscribers) all use hibernate and share a common code base. The problem we have recently come across is that questions loaded via email sometimes overwrite questions created in one of the web apps. We originally thought this to be a caching issue. We've tried turning off the second level cache, but this doesn't make a difference. We are not explicitly opening and closing sessions, but rather let hibernate manage them via Util.getSessionFactory().getCurrentSession(), which thinking about it, may actually be the issue. We'd rather not setup a clustered 2nd level cache at this stage as this creates another layer of complexity and we're more than happy with the level of performance we get from the app as a whole. So does implementing a open-session-in-view pattern in the web apps and manually managing the sessions in the standalone apps sound like it would fix this? Or any other suggestions/ideas please? <property name="hibernate.transaction.factory_class">org.hibernate.transaction.JDBCTransactionFactory</property> <property name="hibernate.current_session_context_class">thread</property> <property name="hibernate.cache.use_second_level_cache">false</property>

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• Selenium: Can i test if a page loaded a flash app (ie a swf) properly?

  - by Max Williams

  hi all. I'm writing some selenium tests (in rspec for a rails app). One of my pages loads a swf and while i don't want to test the functionality of this flash app i do want to test that it loaded up ok. Is this possible? In case it helps, the html to load the swf is: <OBJECT classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0" width="800" height="600"> <PARAM NAME=movie VALUE="http://localhost:3000/assets/players/millionaire/millionaire.swf"> <PARAM NAME=quality VALUE="high"> <PARAM NAME=FlashVars VALUE="quizXML=http://localhost:3000/quizzes/371.xml?online=true&myURL=http://localhost:3000/assets/players/millionaire/&online=true"> <param name=width value="800"> <param name=height value="600"> <EMBED src="http://localhost:3000/assets/players/millionaire/millionaire.swf" FlashVars="quizXML=http://localhost:3000/quizzes/371.xml?online=true&myURL=http://localhost:3000/assets/players/millionaire/&online=true" width="800" height="600" quality=high TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash" PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"> </EMBED> </OBJECT> thanks - max

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• How to authenticate multiple entry points in a facebook app?

  - by Simon_Weaver

  I am using an IFrame application with XFBML and the new Javascript API. I'd like to have a facebook application with multiple entry points. These will most likely represent different links coming from a fan page tab. I can do this quite easily if the pages don't require authentication - for instance I can create several pages under the app and if a new user comes I can send them to any page: http://apps.facebook.com/myapp/offers http://apps.facebook.com/myapp/game http://apps.facebook.com/myapp/products The problem is that if I need to have authentication then once the user is authenticated they get redirected to my default post-authorization url. Is there a way for a user that comes to /game to stay on /game after they are authenticated without redirecting. I thought I could do it with the AJAX login form - but I cannot find out how to do that in a Facebook IFrame application. I think the example using requirelogin only works for FBML. <a href="http://apps.facebook.com/mysmiley" requirelogin=1> Welcome to my app</a>. Is there a way to accomplish this with Facebook APIs - or will I have to do some kind of clever cookie handling?

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• Really Need a Facebook App to post to Facebook Page Wall?

  - by Lee Englestone

  Hi, I'm using the Facebook API Graph (C# & ASP.NET) to try to dynamically post to a Facebook page I created. Looking at the code samples floating around.. they suggest creating a Facebook App first (which I have done).. However.. I have 3 different pages I want to post to.. Do I need to create an app for each? (I want to post different things to the 3 pages, not the same posts to each) I just want messages & links to appear as Wall posts. I'm not bothered about having an 'app' that has 'canvas' that is placed in an IFrame. Question : So do I still need to write one or more Facebook Apps to post to my 3 different Facebook pages?? Where I am so far.. I can pass in my apps credentials and get back the access_token. But my posts don't appear to be going anywhere. I'd rather drop the 'facebook application /canvas' approach if possible If I can post directly to a wall (For the above reasons). Oh, and before you ask. I don't want to post to my Apps Wall page, I want to post to my other pages (Unless I have to post to my Apps Wall page first?). I'm sure loads of people have the same questions.. Thanks in advance. -- Lee

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• How to provide an inline model field with a queryset choices without losing field value for inline r

  - by Judith Boonstra

  The code displayed below is providing the choices I need for the app field, and the choices I need for the attr field when using Admin. I am having a problem with the attr field on the inline form for already saved records. The attr selected for these saved does show in small print above the field, but not within the field itself. # MODELS: Class Vocab(models.Model): entity = models.Charfield, max_length = 40, unique = True) Class App(models.Model): name = models.ForeignKey(Vocab, related_name = 'vocab_appname', unique = True) app = SelfForeignKey('self, verbose_name = 'parent', blank = True, null = True) attr = models.ManyToManyField(Vocab, related_name = 'vocab_appattr', through ='AppAttr' def parqs(self): a method that provides a queryset consisting of available apps from vocab, excluding self and any apps within the current app's dependent line. def attrqs(self): a method that provides a queryset consisting of available attr from vocab excluding those already selected by current app, 2) those already selected by any apps within the current app's parent line, and 3) those selected by any apps within the current app's dependent line. Class AppAttr(models.Model): app = models.ForeignKey(App) attr = models.ForeignKey(Vocab) # FORMS: from models import AppAttr def appattr_form_callback(instance, field, *args, **kwargs) if field.name = 'attr': if instance: return field.formfield(queryset = instance.attrqs(), *kwargs) return field.formfield(*kwargs) # ADMIN: necessary imports class AppAttrInline(admin.TabularInline): model = AppAttr def get_formset(self, request, obj = None, **kwargs): kwargs['formfield_callback'] = curry(appattr_form_callback, obj) return super(AppAttrInline, self).get_formset(request, obj, **kwargs) class AppForm(forms.ModelForm): class Meta: model = App def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs): super(AppForm, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs) if self.instance.id is None: working = App.objects.all() else: thisrec = App.objects.get(id = self.instance.id) working = thisrec.parqs() self.fields['par'].queryset = working class AppAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin): form = AppForm inlines = [AppAttrInline,] fieldsets = .......... necessary register statements

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• Which web framework or technologies would suit me?

  - by Suraj Chandran

  Hi, I had been working on desktop apps and server side(non web) for some time and now I am diving in to web first time. I plan to write a scalable enterprise level app. I have worked with Java, Javascript, Jquery etc. but I absolutely hate jsp. So is there any framework that focuses on developing enterprise level web apps without jsp. I liked Wicket's approach, but I think there is a little lack of support of dynamic html in it and jquery(yes i looked at wiquery). Also I feel making wicket apps scalable would take some sweat. Can Spring MVC, Struts2 etc. help me make with this with just using say Java, JavaScript, and JQuery. Or are there any other options for me like Wicket. Please do forgive if anything above looks insane, I am still working on my understanding with enterprise web apps. NOTE: If you think that I should take a different direction or approach, please do suggest!

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• What is the best cross-platform language for desktop applications? (Java, Adobe Air, Flex, Silverlight??, Anything Else)

  - by Sootah

  My business partner needs a desktop application programmed, and it needs to be cross-platform as he wants Mac owners (OS X) to be able to run it as well. This, of course, is a bit of a problem for me as I program in PHP for my web projects and exclusively in C# (formerly used Visual Basic) for my desktop apps. I've been using (and love) NetBeans for my PHP stuff, and love Visual Studio just as much; they're both excellent IDEs. With this in mind, I'd like to find a language and IDE that's as similar to Visual Studio as possible (or at least something that makes development as easy as it does) for my cross-platform application development. In fact, if there is a language I can use with VS I'd be extremely happy. I realize that NetBeans has a Java Desktop App IDE, but have been having problems with it (my question in regards to that issue is here. I am also not sure that I really want to learn and use Java if there is a better, easier option out there. Obviously, the first language that came to mind that I can use cross-platform was Java, but I've also heard of people using Adobe Air, as well as Flex being used. I've never programmed in any of those languages, and as such have no frame of reference from which I can decide which would be best for me. I'm also not sure what other options there may be for me; perhaps there's another language I can use that'd be better than the three options I've already provided. (Can you make desktop apps with Silverlight? If so, did MS make an interpreter that will get them to work on OS X?) I like the syntax of C# quite a bit, and the Visual Studio IDE makes it extremely easy to make my apps with. As such, I'd like to find something that'll work as well for me with the cross-platform shatner as C# and its IDE does with my Windows apps. Thanks in advance for your help/opinions!

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• Connection Pool Strategy: Good, Bad or Ugly?

  - by Drew

  I'm in charge of developing and maintaining a group of Web Applications that are centered around similar data. The architecture I decided on at the time was that each application would have their own database and web-root application. Each application maintains a connection pool to its own database and a central database for shared data (logins, etc.) A co-worker has been positing that this strategy will not scale because having so many different connection pools will not be scalable and that we should refactor the database so that all of the different applications use a single central database and that any modifications that may be unique to a system will need to be reflected from that one database and then use a single pool powered by Tomcat. He has posited that there is a lot of "meta data" that goes back and forth across the network to maintain a connection pool. My understanding is that with proper tuning to use only as many connections as necessary across the different pools (low volume apps getting less connections, high volume apps getting more, etc.) that the number of pools doesn't matter compared to the number of connections or more formally that the difference in overhead required to maintain 3 pools of 10 connections is negligible compared to 1 pool of 30 connections. The reasoning behind initially breaking the systems into a one-app-one-database design was that there are likely going to be differences between the apps and that each system could make modifications on the schema as needed. Similarly, it eliminated the possibility of system data bleeding through to other apps. Unfortunately there is not strong leadership in the company to make a hard decision. Although my co-worker is backing up his worries only with vagueness, I want to make sure I understand the ramifications of multiple small databases/connections versus one large database/connection pool.

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• How did you learn to be a programming guru?

  - by Xonara

  College courses are obviously very helpful, but I hear all the time about great programmers that just "taught themselves," and I wonder how the hell they did it. Online tutorials are nice - online support, even better - but learning with nothing but online resources is difficult to say the least, and I don't know anybody that's experienced enough to help me learn. Even if I did, they probably wouldn't have the time for it. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Becoming an application/game designer is something I've wanted to achieve for a long, long time, even if I never use it for a career, and it does mean alot to me. However, I'm constantly thwarted by lack of motivation, or perhaps confidence. Though I've found some good tutorials online, sometimes I feel it just isn't enough to really get me somewhere, and my limited knowledge of computers (and any other technology) in general is hardly reassuring. I'm constantly getting the feeling that maybe it isn't "in me." Well, guess that's it. I just don't want to join the legions of aspiring techies that just gave up.

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• Booking logic and architecture, database sync: Hotels, tennis courts reservation system ...

  - by coulix

  Hello Stackers, Imagine that you want to design a tennis booking system. You have 5 tennis clubs as partenrs with no online api allowing you to check on their side if a court is booked or not: You have to build this part as well. Every time a booking is done on their side you want it to be know by our system. Probably using a POST request form tennis partner to our server. Every time a booking is done on our website, we want to push the booking to their system. The difficulty is that their system need to be online and accessible from outside. Ip may change, we have to use a dns updater. In case their system is not available we still accept the booking and fallback to an async email with 'i confirm booking/reject booking' link sent to the club. I find the whole process quite complex and was wondering about the way online hotel booking system and hotel were working. Do they all have their data open and online ? The good thing is that the data will grow large and fits nicely to some no SQL ;) like couch db

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• I want to build a Google-friendly web app, where should I start?

  - by ronii

  I have only very basic experience with HTML/CSS and have quite a bit of experience with testing software and web apps from a consumer perspective. I'd love to launch a web application that plays nicely with Google services, similar to some of the apps you'd find on the Google Apps Marketplace, such as ManyMoon, time to note, Socialwok, etc. I'm a huge Google fan and would like to build something that's well integrated with other Google services. If you were a total beginner and wanted to build a complex app like one of examples above (project management, CRM, etc), where would you start? If you worked your ass off 18 hours a day, 24/7, how fast could you do it? I've dabbled into various languages and development frameworks, and read about which apps are using what languages but it's hard to figure out what would be most beneficial to jump into. Ruby on Rails, PHP, Google Web Toolkit, AppEngine. The list goes on and on. I want to be able to build and launch my own scalable web app. Thanks.

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• C# - Wait to finish before doing the next task

  - by Alex Ogden

  i have a server application with a richtextbox as the console text basically. The problem is, i have start, restart and stop buttons - But my restart button doesn't work. Heres my code for the restart button: consoletxt("RESTART", "Restarting Server..."); statuslabel1.Text = "Restarting"; statuslabel1.ForeColor = Color.Orange; statuslabel2.Text = "Restarting"; statuslabel2.ForeColor = Color.Orange; command("stop"); //The performclick just starts the server startbtn.PerformClick(); statuslabel1.Text = "Online"; statuslabel1.ForeColor = Color.DarkGreen; statuslabel2.Text = "Online"; statuslabel2.ForeColor = Color.DarkGreen; consoletxt("RESTART", "Restart completed, server online!"); However, the output is this: 2012-04-01 11:32:12 [RESTART] Restarting Server... 2012-04-01 11:32:12 [RESTART] Restart completed, server online! 2012-04-01 11:32:12 [INFO] CONSOLE: Stopping the server.. 2012-04-01 11:32:12 [INFO] Stopping server So, it says that the restart has finished in the text - but it hasn't - all it has done is stop the server. Please can sombody explain to me how to do this properly? Thanks!

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• Manually extracting portions of strings contained in a list (parsing)

  - by user1652011

  I'm aware that there are modules that fully simplify this function, but saying that I am running from a base install of python (standard modules only), how would I extract the following: I have a list. This list is the contents, line by line, of a webpage. Here is a mock up list (unformatted) for informative purposes: <script> link = "/scripts/playlists/1/" + a.id + "/0-5417069212.asx"; <script> "<a href="/apps/audio/?feedId=11065"><span class="px13">Eastern Metro Area Fire</span>" From the above string, I need the following extracted. The feedId (11065), which is incidentally a.id in the code above., "/scripts/playlists/1/" and "/0-5417069212.asx". Remembering that each of these lines is just contents from objects in a list, how would I go about extracting that data? Here is the full list: contents = urllib2.urlopen("http://www.radioreference.com/apps/audio/?ctid=5586") Pseudo: from urllib2 import urlopen as getpage page_contents = getpage("http://www.radioreference.com/apps/audio/?ctid=5586") feedID = % in (page_contents.search() for "/apps/audio/?feedId=%") titleID = % in (page_contents.search() for "<span class="px13">%</span>") playlistID = % in (page_contents.search() for "link = "%" + a.id + "*.asx";") asxID = * in (page_contents.search() for "link = "*" + a.id + "%.asx";") streamURL = "http://www.radioreference.com/" + playlistID + feedID + asxID + ".asx" I plan to format it as such that streamURL should = : http://www.radioreference.com/scripts/playlists/1/11065/0-5417067072.asx

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• How to Reduce the Size of Your WinSXS Folder on Windows 7 or 8

  - by Chris Hoffman

  The WinSXS folder at C:\Windows\WinSXS is massive and continues to grow the longer you have Windows installed. This folder builds up unnecessary files over time, such as old versions of system components. This folder also contains files for uninstalled, disabled Windows components. Even if you don’t have a Windows component installed, it will be present in your WinSXS folder, taking up space. Why the WinSXS Folder Gets to Big The WinSXS folder contains all Windows system components. In fact, component files elsewhere in Windows are just links to files contained in the WinSXS folder. The WinSXS folder contains every operating system file. When Windows installs updates, it drops the new Windows component in the WinSXS folder and keeps the old component in the WinSXS folder. This means that every Windows Update you install increases the size of your WinSXS folder. This allows you to uninstall operating system updates from the Control Panel, which can be useful in the case of a buggy update — but it’s a feature that’s rarely used. Windows 7 dealt with this by including a feature that allows Windows to clean up old Windows update files after you install a new Windows service pack. The idea was that the system could be cleaned up regularly along with service packs. However, Windows 7 only saw one service pack — Service Pack 1 — released in 2010. Microsoft has no intention of launching another. This means that, for more than three years, Windows update uninstallation files have been building up on Windows 7 systems and couldn’t be easily removed. Clean Up Update Files To fix this problem, Microsoft recently backported a feature from Windows 8 to Windows 7. They did this without much fanfare — it was rolled out in a typical minor operating system update, the kind that don’t generally add new features. To clean up such update files, open the Disk Cleanup wizard (tap the Windows key, type “disk cleanup” into the Start menu, and press Enter). Click the Clean up System Files button, enable the Windows Update Cleanup option and click OK. If you’ve been using your Windows 7 system for a few years, you’ll likely be able to free several gigabytes of space. The next time you reboot after doing this, Windows will take a few minutes to clean up system files before you can log in and use your desktop. If you don’t see this feature in the Disk Cleanup window, you’re likely behind on your updates — install the latest updates from Windows Update. Windows 8 and 8.1 include built-in features that do this automatically. In fact, there’s a StartComponentCleanup scheduled task included with Windows that will automatically run in the background, cleaning up components 30 days after you’ve installed them. This 30-day period gives you time to uninstall an update if it causes problems. If you’d like to manually clean up updates, you can also use the Windows Update Cleanup option in the Disk Usage window, just as you can on Windows 7. (To open it, tap the Windows key, type “disk cleanup” to perform a search, and click the “Free up disk space by removing unnecessary files” shortcut that appears.) Windows 8.1 gives you more options, allowing you to forcibly remove all previous versions of uninstalled components, even ones that haven’t been around for more than 30 days. These commands must be run in an elevated Command Prompt — in other words, start the Command Prompt window as Administrator. For example, the following command will uninstall all previous versions of components without the scheduled task’s 30-day grace period: DISM.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup The following command will remove files needed for uninstallation of service packs. You won’t be able to uninstall any currently installed service packs after running this command: DISM.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /SPSuperseded The following command will remove all old versions of every component. You won’t be able to uninstall any currently installed service packs or updates after this completes: DISM.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase Remove Features on Demand Modern versions of Windows allow you to enable or disable Windows features on demand. You’ll find a list of these features in the Windows Features window you can access from the Control Panel. Even features you don’t have installed — that is, the features you see unchecked in this window — are stored on your hard drive in your WinSXS folder. If you choose to install them, they’ll be made available from your WinSXS folder. This means you won’t have to download anything or provide Windows installation media to install these features. However, these features take up space. While this shouldn’t matter on typical computers, users with extremely low amounts of storage or Windows server administrators who want to slim their Windows installs down to the smallest possible set of system files may want to get these files off their hard drives. For this reason, Windows 8 added a new option that allows you to remove these uninstalled components from the WinSXS folder entirely, freeing up space. If you choose to install the removed components later, Windows will prompt you to download the component files from Microsoft. To do this, open a Command Prompt window as Administrator. Use the following command to see the features available to you: DISM.exe /Online /English /Get-Features /Format:Table You’ll see a table of feature names and their states. To remove a feature from your system, you’d use the following command, replacing NAME with the name of the feature you want to remove. You can get the feature name you need from the table above. DISM.exe /Online /Disable-Feature /featurename:NAME /Remove If you run the /GetFeatures command again, you’ll now see that the feature has a status of “Disabled with Payload Removed” instead of just “Disabled.” That’s how you know it’s not taking up space on your computer’s hard drive. If you’re trying to slim down a Windows system as much as possible, be sure to check out our lists of ways to free up disk space on Windows and reduce the space used by system files.     

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• Stream Music and Video Over the Internet with Windows Media Player 12

  - by DigitalGeekery

  A new feature in Windows Media Player 12, which is included with Windows 7, is being able to stream media over the web to other Windows 7 computers.  Today we will take a look at how to set it up and what you need to begin. Note: You will need to perform this process on each computer that you want to use. What You’ll Need Two computers running Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate. The host, or home computer that you will be streaming the media from, cannot be on a public network or part of domain. Windows Live ID UPnP or Port Forwarding enabled on your home router Media files added to your Windows Media Player library Windows Live ID Sign up online for a Windows Live ID if you do not already have one. See the link below for a link to Windows Live.   Configuring the Windows 7 Computers Open Windows Media Player and go to the library section. Click on Stream and then “Allow Internet access to home media.”   The Internet Home Media Access pop up window will prompt you to link your Windows Live ID to a user account. Click “Link an online ID.” If you haven’t already installed the Windows Live ID Sign-In Assistant, you will be taken to Microsoft’s website and prompted to download it. Once you have completed the Windows Live download assistant install, you will see Windows Live ID online provider appear in the “Link Online IDs” window. Click on “Link Online ID.” Next, you’ll be prompted for a Windows Live ID and password. Enter your Windows Live ID and password and click “Sign In.” A pop up window will notify you that you have successfully allowed Internet access to home media. Now, you will have to repeat the exact same configuration on the 2nd Windows 7 computer. Once you have completed the same configuration on your 2nd computer, you might also need to configure your home router for port forwarding. If your router supports UPnP, you may not need to manually forward any ports on your router. So, this would be a good time to test your connection. Go to a nearby hotspot, or perhaps a neighbor’s house, and test to see if you can stream your media. If not, you’ll need to manually forward the ports. You can always choose to forward the ports anyway, just in case. Note: We tested on a Linksys WRT54GL router, which supports UPnP, and found we still needed to manually forward the ports. Finding the ports to forward on the router Open Windows Media Player and make sure you are in Library view. Click on “Stream” on the top menu, and select “Allow Internet access to home media.”   On the “Internet Home Media Access” window, click on “Diagnose connections.” The “Internet Streaming Diagnostic Tool” will pop up. Click on “Port forwarding information” near the bottom.   On the “Port Forwarding Information” window you will find both the Internal and External Port numbers you will need to forward on your router. The Internal port number should always be 10245. The external number will be different depending on your computer. Microsoft also recommends forwarding port 443. Configuring the Router Next, you’ll need to configure Port Forwarding on your home router. We will show you the steps for a Linksys WRT54GL router, however, the steps for port forwarding will vary from router to router. On the Linksys configuration page, click on the Administration Tab along the top, click the “Applications & Gaming Tab, and then the “Port Range Forward” tab below it. Under “Application,” type in a name. It can be any name you choose. In both the “Start” and “End” boxes, type the port number. Enter the IP address of your home computer in the IP address column. Click the check box under “Enable.” Do this for both the internal and external port numbers and port 443. When finished, click the “Save Settings” button. Note: It’s highly recommended that you configure your home computer with a static IP address When you’re ready to play your media over the Internet, open up Windows Media Player and look for your host computer and username listed under “Other Libraries.” Click on it expand the list to see your media libraries. Choose a library and a file to play. Now you can enjoy your streaming media over the Internet. Conclusion We found media streaming over the Internet to work fairly well. However, we did see a loss of quality with streaming video. Also, Recorded TV .wtv and dvr-ms files did not play at all. Check out our previous article to see how to stream media share and stream media between Windows 7 computers on your home network. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Enable Media Streaming in Windows Home Server to Windows Media PlayerFixing When Windows Media Player Library Won’t Let You Add FilesShare Digital Media With Other Computers on a Home Network with Windows 7Share and Stream Digital Media Between Windows 7 Machines On Your Home NetworkLearning Windows 7: Manage Your Music with Windows Media Player TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Stormpulse provides slick, real time weather data Geek Parents – Did you try Parental Controls in Windows 7? Change DNS servers on the fly with DNS Jumper Live PDF Searches PDF Files and Ebooks Converting Mp4 to Mp3 Easily Use Quick Translator to Translate Text in 50 Languages (Firefox)

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• How to Easily Put a Windows PC into Kiosk Mode With Assigned Access

  - by Chris Hoffman

  Windows 8.1′s Assigned Access feature allows you to easily lock a Windows PC to a single application, such as a web browser. This feature makes it easy for anyone to configure Windows 8.1 devices as point-of-sale or other kiosk systems. In the past, setting up a Windows PC in kiosk mode involved much more work, requiring the use of third-party software, group policy, or Linux distributions designed around kiosk mode. Assigned Access is available on Windows 8.1 RT, Windows 8.1 Professional, and Windows 8.1 Enterprise. The standard edition of Windows 8.1 doesn’t support Assigned Access. Create a User Account for Assigned Access Rather than turn your entire computer into a locked-down kiosk system, Assigned Access allows you to create a separate user account that can only launch a single app — such as a web browser. To set this up, you must be logged into Windows as a user with administrator permissions. First, open the PC settings app — swipe in from the right or press Windows Key + C to open the charms bar, tap Settings, and tap Change PC settings. In the PC settings app, select Accounts and select Other accounts. Use the Add an account button to create a new Windows account. Select  the “Sign in without a Microsoft account” option and select Local account to create a local user account. You could also create a Microsoft account, but you may not want to do this if you just want a locked-down account with only browser access. If you need to install apps from the Windows Store to use in Assigned Access mode, you’ll have to set up a Microsoft account instead of a local account. A local account will still allow you access to the preinstalled apps, such as Internet Explorer. You may want to create a user account with a blank password. This would make it simple for anyone to access kiosk mode, even if the system becomes locked or needs to be rebooted. The account will be created as a standard user account with limited permissions. Leave it as a standard user account — don’t make it an administrator account. Set Up Assigned Access Once you’ve created an account, you’ll first need to sign into it. If you don’t, you’ll see a “This account has no apps” message when trying to enable Assigned Access. Go back to the welcome screen, log in to the new account you created, and allow Windows to go through the first-time account setup process. If you want to use a non-default app in kiosk mode, install it while logged in as that user account. Once you’re done, log out of the other account, log back in as your administrator account, and go back to the Other accounts screen. Click the Set up an account for assigned access option to continue. Select the user account you created and select the app you want to limit the account to. For a web-based kiosk, this can be a web browser such as the Modern version of Internet Explorer. Businesses can also create their own Modern apps and set them to run in kiosk mode in this way. Note that Microsoft’s documentation says “web browsers are not good choices for assigned access” because they require more permissions than average Modern (or “Windows Store”) apps. However, if you want to provide a kiosk for web-browsing, using Assigned Access is a much better option than using Guest Mode and offering up a full Windows desktop. When you’re done, restart your PC and log in as the Assigned Access account. Windows will automatically open the app you chose and won’t allow a user to leave that app. Standard Windows 8 features like the charms bar, app switcher, and Start screen won’t appear. Pressing the Windows key once will do nothing. To sign out of Assigned Access mode, press the Windows key five times — quickly — while signed in. You’ll be sent back to the standard login screen. The account will actually still be logged in and the app will remain running — this method just “locks” the screen and allows another user to log in. Automatically Log Into Assigned Access Whenever your Windows device boots, you can log into the Assigned Access account and turn it into a kiosk system. While this isn’t ideal for all kiosk systems, you may want the device to automatically launch the specific app when it boots without requiring any login process. To do so, you’ll just need to have Windows automatically log into the Assigned Access account when it boots. This option is hidden and not available in the standard Control Panel. You’ll need to use the hidden netplwiz Control Panel tool to set up automatic login on boot. If you didn’t create a password for the user account, leave the Password field empty while configuring this. Security Considerations If you’re using this feature to turn a Windows 8.1 system into a kiosk and leaving it open to the public, remember to consider security. Anyone could come up to the system, press the Windows key five times, and try to log into your standard administrator user account. Ensure the administrator user account has a strong password so people won’t be able to get past the kiosk system’s limitations and tamper with the system. Even Windows 8′s detractors have to admit that it’s an ideal system for a touch-screen kiosk device, running either a browser or another specific application. Assigned Access finally makes this easy to set up on Windows systems in the real world — no IT experience, third-party software, or Linux distributions necessary.     

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• You Say You Want a (Customer Experience) Revolution

  - by Christie Flanagan

  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE 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-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} rev-o-lu-tion [rev-uh-loo-shuhn] noun 1. a sudden, radical or complete change 2. fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something; a change of paradigm 3. a changeover in use or preference especially in technology <the computer revolution> Lately, I've been hearing an awful lot about the customer experience revolution.  Tonight Oracle will be hosting The Experience Revolution, an evening of exploration and networking with customer experience executives in New York City where Oracle President Mark Hurd will introduce Oracle Customer Experience, a cross-stack suite of customer experience products that includes Oracle WebCenter and a number of other Oracle technologies. Then on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Forrester Customer Experience Forum East also kicks off in New York City where they'll examine how businesses can "reap the full business benefits of the customer experience revolution." So, are we in the midst of a customer experience revolution? As a consumer, I can answer that question with a definitive “yes.” When I bought my very first car, I had a lot of questions. How do I know if I’m paying a fair price? How do I know if this dealer is honest? Why do I have to sit through these good cop, bad cop shenanigans between sales and sales management at the dealership? Why do I feel like I’m doing these people a favor by giving them my business? In the end the whole experience left me feeling deeply unsatisfied. I didn’t feel that I held all that much power over the experience and the only real negotiating trick I had was to walk out, which I did, many times before actually making a purchase. Fast forward to a year ago and I found myself back in the market for a new car. The very first car that I bought had finally kicked the bucket after many years, many repair bills, and much wear and tear. Man, I had loved that car. It was time to move on, but I had a knot in my stomach when I reflected back on my last car purchase experience and dreaded the thought of going through that again. Could that have been the reason why I drove my old car for so long? But as I started the process of researching new cars, I started to feel really confident. I had a wealth of online information that helped me in my search. I went to Edmunds and plugged in some information on my preferences and left with a short list of vehicles. After an afternoon spent test driving the cars my short list, I had determined my favorite – it was a model I didn’t even know about until my research on Edmunds! But I didn’t want to go back to the dealership where I test drove it. They were clearly old school and wanted me to buy the way that they wanted to sell. No thanks! After that I went back online. I figured out exactly what people had paid for this car in my area. I found out what kind of discount others were able to negotiate from an online community forum dedicated to the make and model. I found out how the sales people were being incentivized by the manufacturer that month. I learned which dealers had the best ratings and reviews. This was actually getting exciting. I was feeling really empowered. My next step was to request online quotes from the some of the highest rated dealers but I already knew exactly how much I was going to pay. This was really a test for the dealers. My new mantra was “let he who delivers the best customer experience win.” An inside sales rep from one dealer responded to my quote request within a couple of hours. I told him I had already decided on the make and model and it was just a matter of figuring out who I would buy it from. I also told them that I was really busy and wouldn’t set foot in the dealership unless we had come to terms beforehand. Lastly, I let him know that I’d prefer to work out the details via email. He promised to get back to me shortly with a detailed quote. Over the next few days I received calls from other dealers. One asked me a host of questions that I had already answered in their lengthy online form. Another blamed their website performance issues for their delay in responding to my request. But by then it didn’t really matter because I’d already bought the car days before from the dealer who responded to me first and who was willing to adjust their sales process to accommodate my buying one. So, yes, I really do believe we are in the midst of a customer experience revolution. And every revolution leaves some victorious and other vanquished. Which side do you want to be on when it comes to the customer experience revolution?

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• WhatsApp &amp; Tasker for Android &ndash; Read &amp; Write messages

  - by Shaurya Anand

  So, I finally gave up on all my previous the Microsoft Mobile/Phone OS devices and made my switch to Android this year. I am using my Samsung Galaxy Note GT-N7000 with CyanogenMod 9.1.0 (http://get.cm/get/jenkins/7086/cm-9.1.0-n7000.zip) and ClockworkMod 6.0.1.2 (http://download2.clockworkmod.com/recoveries/recovery-clockwork-6.0.1.2-n7000.zip) since August this year and I am so happy with the performance and the flexibility it offers me. As a software developer by profession, I would expect most of my gadget to be highly customizable and programmable (one time or at intervals) to suit my needs as close as it can. I was introduced to Automation for Android – Tasker (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch.android.taskerm&hl=en) via reddit (http://www.reddit.com/r/tasker) and the word ‘automation’ was enough for me to dive right into this app. Only automation that I did earlier was switching profiles depending on location on there phones. And now, just imagine a complete set of possibilities that can be automate on the phone or via the phone. I did my research and found a couple of other tools that do the same/as close as what Tasker can do and few of them are even free. There’s one even by Microsoft called on{X} (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.onx.app&hl=en). Microsoft’s on{X} really caught my eye. You can write code for your phone on the web application by them, deploy it on your phone and even trace the flow all using your PC. Really brilliant, I love the fact that it’s all JavaScript. Here comes the but, it is still very very young and it’s policy of accessing my News Feed on Facebook is not something that I can not digest. On{X} is good, but as I said earlier, the API is not very mature and hence, I gave up on it. I bought Tasker, the best 5,00 € I spent in ages and I want to talk about it in this post. I am still a “noob” while operating this tool, but I tried my shot at automating WhatsApp (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.whatsapp&hl=en), a popular messenger for various platform. The requirement for the automation is that, if I send a WhatsApp ‘wru’ message to the phone, it should respond back giving the location and battery level of my phone. It could be useful, if you like to locate your misplaced phone or automatically reply to your partner/friend, honestly, I don’t know what you will use it - through this post, I am just introducing automating WhatsApp using Tasker. Before we begin, the following script only works when your phone is rooted as we will be accessing the WhatsApp database and type some special characters like ‘:’. Let’s follow the code line by line: Profile:         Location request from XYZ. (12) // Name of your profile. Event:         Notification [ Owner Application:WhatsApp Title:* ] // When a new notification comes from WhatsApp, this event is fired. Read the end note, if you face problems with Chrome app after enabling Tasker accessibility. Enter:         A1: Run Shell [ Command:sqlite3 // We will access the WhatsApp database and check if the message comes from designated phone number or not. We mustn’t reply to every message.                 /data/data/com.whatsapp/databases/msgstore.db "SELECT _id, data FROM                  messages WHERE key_from_me='0' AND key_remote_jid LIKE '%XXXXXXXXXXX%' // Replace XXXXXXXXXXX with the phone number of your message sender.                 ORDER BY _id DESC LIMIT 1;" Timeout (Seconds):10 Use Root:On Store // I made a timeout for 10 seconds, if in case WhatsApp is busy accessing the database.                 Result In:%WHATSAPP_CURRREQ ] // Store the read Id and the last message on to the variable %WHATSAPP_CURRREQ         A2: If [ %WHATSAPP_CURRREQ ~R .*[wW][rR][uU].* ] // Check if the pattern of the message is correct and we are all set to send the location.                 A3: If [ %WHATSAPP_CURRREQ !~ %WHATSAPP_LASTREQ ] // Verify that the message is different from the last request. Remember every message has a unique Id.                         A4: Notify [ Title:WhatsApp location request... Text:Sending location // Just a notification that the location message is being prepared.                                 to Krati Gupta... Icon:<icon> Number:0 Permanent:On Priority:3 ] // Make a note it is a permanent notification, we will clear it later.                         A5: Secure Settings [ Configuration:Pattern Lock Disabled // I am disabling the pattern lock, that I use using the plugin Secure Settings.                                 Package:com.intangibleobject.securesettings.plugin Name:Secure // You can download the plugin from here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.intangibleobject.securesettings.plugin&hl=en                                 Settings ]                         A6: Secure Settings [ Configuration:Keyguard Disabled // Disable the keygaurd, it is useful, when your phone is on lock and you want to automate everything, even the typing.                                 Package:com.intangibleobject.securesettings.plugin Name:Secure                                 Settings ]                         A7: Secure Settings [ Configuration:GPS Enabled // Pretty clear, turn on the GPS and get location at A8                                 Package:com.intangibleobject.securesettings.plugin Name:Secure                                 Settings ]                         A8: AutoShortcut [ Configuration:WhatsApp: Some One // I am using AutoShortcut plugin (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.joaomgcd.autoshortcut) to start WhatsApp with the indented recipient.                                 Package:com.joaomgcd.autoshortcut Name:AutoShortcut ] // Replace Some One, actually choose it from the plugin, the right recipient.                         A9: Get Location [ Source:Any Timeout (Seconds):30 Continue Task // I am getting the location, timeout is 30 seconds, adjust it accordingly.                                 Immediately:Off Keep Tracking:Off ]                         A10: Secure Settings [ Configuration:Screen Dim // Now, this extension of the plugin Secure Settings, wakes your device so that you can type out the string on the WhatsApp app.                                 5 Seconds Package:com.intangibleobject.securesettings.plugin                                 Name:Secure Settings ]                         A11: Run Shell [ Command:input text // Now, I am using the shell script to type the text to the window, because the ‘:’ while not be typed from the Type task in Tasker.                                 LOCATION:maps.google.com/maps?q=%LOC Timeout (Seconds):0 Use Root:On // And also, this is way faster, but remember you need root for this, not for the other way of typing.                                 Store Result In: ]                         A12: Dpad [ Button:Right Repeat Times:1 ] // Focus the Send button                         A13: Dpad [ Button:Press Repeat Times:1 ] // And press it.                         A14: Dpad [ Button:Left Repeat Times:1 ] // Get back to the typing box.                         A15: Run Shell [ Command:input text LOCATION_ACCURACY:%LOCACC Timeout                                 (Seconds):0 Use Root:On Store Result In: ]                         A16: Dpad [ Button:Right Repeat Times:1 ]                         A17: Dpad [ Button:Press Repeat Times:1 ]                         A18: Dpad [ Button:Left Repeat Times:1 ]                         A19: Run Shell [ Command:input text BATTERY_LEVEL:%BATT% Timeout // I am adding Battery level in my case as well.                                 (Seconds):0 Use Root:On Store Result In: ]                         A20: Dpad [ Button:Right Repeat Times:1 ]                         A21: Dpad [ Button:Press Repeat Times:1 ]                         A22: Variable Set [ Name:%WHATSAPP_LASTREQ To:%WHATSAPP_CURRREQ Do // And now, we say, request is done.                                 Maths:Off Append:Off ]                         A23: Button [ Button:Back ] // I am exiting the WhatsApp nicely and not killing it. If you are the murderer kind, kill it, just know, you don’t have any place in the heaven.                         A24: Button [ Button:Back ]                         A25: Notify Cancel [ Title: Warn Not Exist:Off ] // Remove the permanent notification.                         A26: Notify [ Title:WhatsApp location request Text:Location sent // Make a temporary notification, and say, location is sent.                                 successfully. Icon:<icon> Number:0 Permanent:Off Priority:3 ]                                                         A27: Secure Settings [ Configuration:GPS Disabled // Disable all the horrible things we turned on earlier.                                 Package:com.intangibleobject.securesettings.plugin Name:Secure                                 Settings ]                         A28: Secure Settings [ Configuration:Pattern Lock Enabled                                 Package:com.intangibleobject.securesettings.plugin Name:Secure                                 Settings ]                         A29: Secure Settings [ Configuration:Keyguard Enabled                                 Package:com.intangibleobject.securesettings.plugin Name:Secure                                 Settings ]                 A30: End If         A31: End If Download this Task from here: http://db.tt/9vRmbhyb That’s it in the above small example – you can read/write messages from/to WhatsApp app. I am using n7000-cm9.1-cwr6. Oh yea, and if you are having the Talkback auto enabled for Chrome browser, you need to turn Off the Web scripts to run. Tasker is amazing, I have automated a lot of tasks using this tool. I will share a few none generic ones with you in my coming post here.

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• How to Never Use iTunes With Your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch

  - by Chris Hoffman

  iTunes isn’t an amazing program on Windows. There was a time when Apple device users had to plug their devices into their PCs or Macs and use iTunes for device activation, updates, and syncing, but iTunes is no longer necessary. Apple still allows you to use iTunes for these things, but you don’t have to. Your iOS device can function independently from iTunes, so you should never be forced to plug it into a PC or Mac. Device Activation When the iPad first came out, it was touted as a device that could replace full PCs and Macs for people who only needed to perform light computing tasks. Yet, to set up a new iPad, users had to plug it into a PC or Mac running iTunes and use iTunes to activate the device. This is no longer necessary. With new iPads, iPhones, and iPod Touches, you can simply go through the setup process after turning on your new device without ever having to plug it into iTunes. Just connect to a Wi-Fi or cellular data network and log in with your Apple ID when prompted. You’ll still see an option that allows you to activate the device via iTunes, but this should only be necessary if you don’t have a wireless Internet connection available for your device. Operating System Updates You no longer have to use Apple’s iTunes software to update to a new version of Apple’s iOS operating system, either. Just open the Settings app on your device, select the General category, and tap Software Update. You’ll be able to update right from your device without ever opening iTunes. Purchased iTunes Media Apple allows you to easily access content you’ve purchased from the iTunes Store on any device. You don’t have to connect your device to your computer and sync via iTunes. For example, you can purchase a movie from the iTunes Store. Then, without any syncing, you can open the iTunes Store app on any of your iOS devices, tap the Purchased section, and see stuff you’ve downloaded. You can download the content right from the store to your device. This also works for apps — apps you purchase from the App Store can be accessed in the Purchased section on the App Store on your device later. You don’t have to sync apps from iTunes to your device, although iTunes still allows you to. You can even set up automatic downloads from the iTunes & App Store settings screen. This would allow you to purchase content on one device and have it automatically download to your other devices without any hassle. Music Apple allows you to re-download purchased music from the iTunes Store in the same way. However, there’s a good chance you have your own music you didn’t purchase from iTunes. Maybe you spent time ripping it all from your old CDs and you’ve been syncing it to your devices via iTunes ever since. Apple’s solution for this is named iTunes Match. This feature isn’t free, but it’s not a bad deal at all. For $25 per year, Apple allows you to upload all your music to your iCloud account. You can then access all your music from any iPhone, IPad, or iPod Touch. You can stream all your music — perfect if you have a huge library and little storage on your device — and choose which songs you want to download to your device for offline use. When you add additional music to your computer, iTunes will notice it and upload it using iTunes Match, making it available for streaming and downloading directly from your iOS devices without any syncing. This feature is named iTunes Match because it doesn’t just upload music — if Apple already has a song you upload, it will “match” your song with Apple’s copy. This means you may get higher-quality versions of your songs if you ripped them from CD at a lower bitrate. Podcasts You don’t have to use iTunes to subscribe to podcasts and sync them to your devices. Even if you have a lowly iPod Touch, you can install APple’s Podcasts app from the app store. Use it to subscribe to podcasts and configure them to automatically download directly to your device. You can use other podcast apps for this, too. Backups You can continue backing up your device’s data through iTunes, generating local backups that are stored on your computer. However, new iOS devices are configured to automatically back up their data to iCloud. This happens automatically in the background without you even having to think about it, and you can restore such backups when setting up a device simply by logging in with your Apple ID. Personal Data In the days of PalmPilots, people would use desktop programs like iTunes to sync their email, contacts, and calendar events with their mobile devices. You probably shouldn’t have to sync this data form your computer. Just sign into your email account — for example, a Gmail account — on your device and iOS will automatically pull your email, contacts, and calendar events from your associated account. Photos Rather than connecting your iOS device to your computer and syncing photos from it, you can use an app that automatically uploads your photos to a web service. Dropbox, Google+, and even Flickr all have this feature in their apps. You’ll be able to access your photos from any computer and have a backup copy without any syncing required. You may still need to use iTunes if you want to sync local music without paying for iTunes Match or copy local video files to your device. Copying large local files over is the only real scenario where you’d need iTunes. If you don’t need to copy such files over, you can go ahead and uninstall iTunes from your Windows PC if you like. You shouldn’t need it.     

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• Nokia Windows Phone 8 App Collection

  - by Tim Murphy

  I recently upgraded to a Nokia Lumia 920.  Along with it came the availability of a number of Nokia developed apps or apps that Nokia has made available from other developers.  Below is a summary of some of the ones that I have used to this point.  There are quite a few of them so I won’t be covering everything that is available. Nokia Maps I am quite pleased with the accuracy of Nokia Maps and not having to tap the screen for each turn any more.  The information on the screen is quite good as well.  The couple of improvements I would like to see are for the voice directions to include which street or exit you need to use and improve the search accuracy.  Bing maps had much better search results in my opinion. Nokia Drive This one really had me confused when I first setup the phone.  I was driving down the road and suddenly I am getting notification tones, but there were no visual notifications on the phone.  It seems that in their infinite wisdom Nokia thinks I don’t know when I am going over the speed limit and need to be told. ESPN I really liked my ESPN app on Windows Phone 7.5, but I am not getting the type of experience I was looking for out of this app.  While it allows me to pick my favorite teams, but there isn’t a pivot page or panorama page that shows a summary of my favorite teams.  I have also found that the live tile don’t update very often.  Over all I am rather disappointed compared app produced by ESPN. Smart Shoot I really need to get the kids to let me use this on.  I like the concept, but I need to spend more time with it.  The idea how running the camera through a continuous shooting mode and then picking the best is something that I have done with my DSLR and am glad to see it available here. Cinemagraph Here is a fun filter.  It doesn’t have the most accurate editing features, but it is fun to stop certain parts of a scene and let other parts move.  As a test I stopped the traffic on the highway and let the traffic on the frontage road flow.  It makes for a fun effect.  If nothing else it could be great for sending prank animations to your friends. YouSendIt I have only briefly touched this application.  What I don’t understand is why it is needed.  Most of the functionality seems to be similar to SkyDrive and it gives you less storage.  They only feature that seems to differentiate the app is the signature capability. Creative Studio This app has some nice quick edits, but it is not very comprehensive.  I am also not to thrilled with the user experience.  It puts you though an initial color cast series that I’m not sure why it is there.  Discovery of the remaining adjustments isn’t that great.  In the end I found myself wanting Thumbia back. Panorama This is one of the apps that I like.  I found it easy to use as it guides you with a target circle that you center for it to take the next pictures.  It also stitches the images with amazing speed.  The one thing I wish it had was the capability to turn the phone into portrait orientation and do a taller panorama.  Perhaps we will see this in the future. Nokia Music After getting over the missing album art I found that there were a number of missing features with this app as well.  I have a Zune HD and I am used to being able to go through my collection and adding songs, albums or artists to my now playing.  There also doesn’t seem to be a way to manage playlists that I have seen yet.  Other than that the UI is familiar and it give Nokia City Lens Augmented reality is a cool concept, but I still haven’t seen it implemented in a compelling fashion beyond a demo at TED a couple of years ago.  The app still leaves me wanting as well.  It does give an interesting toy.  It gives you the ability to look for general categories and see general direction and clusters of locations.  I think as this concept is better thought out it will become more compelling. Nokia Trailers I don’t know how often I will use this app, but I do like being able to see what movies are being promoted.  I can’t wait for The Hobbit to come out and the trailer was just what the doctor ordered.  I can see coming back to this app from time to time. PhotoBeamer PhotoBeamer is a strange beast that needs a better instruction manual.  It seems a lot like magic but very confusing.  I need some more testing, but I don’t think this is something that most people are going to understand quickly and may give up before getting it to work.  I may put an update here after playing with it further. Ringtone Maker The app was just published and it didn’t work very well for me. It couldn’t find 95% of the songs that Nokia Music was playing for me and crashed several times.  It also had songs named wrong that when I checked them in Nokia Music they were fine.  This app looks like it has a long way to go. Summary In all I think that Nokia is offering a well rounded set of initial applications that can get any new owner started.  There is definitely room for improvement in all of these apps.  The main need is usability upgrades.  I would guess that with feedback from users they will come up to acceptable levels.  Try them out and see if you agree. del.icio.us Tags: Windows Phone,Nokia,Lumia,Nokia Apps,ESPN,PhotoBeamer,City Lens,YouSendIt,Drive,Maps

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