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• Why do I get a NullReferenceException when using a style on a ContentPresenter?

  - by Robert Rossney

  I've created this template, which uses a style applied to the ContentPresenter so that I can bind the data object's Column property to Grid.Column, allowing the items to determine for themselves which column of the Grid they go into: <DataTemplate DataType="{x:Type local:MyObject}"> <ItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding Items}"> <ItemsControl.Resources> <Style TargetType="{x:Type ContentPresenter}"> <Setter Property="Grid.Column" Value="{Binding Column}" /> </Style> </ItemsControl.Resources> <ItemsControl.ItemsPanel> <ItemsPanelTemplate> <Grid> <Grid.ColumnDefinitions> <ColumnDefinition Width="*" /> <ColumnDefinition Width="*" /> <ColumnDefinition Width="*" /> </Grid.ColumnDefinitions> </Grid> </ItemsPanelTemplate> </ItemsControl.ItemsPanel> </ItemsControl> </DataTemplate> When I run the program, I get a NullReferenceException. The beginning of the hilariously long stack trace: at System.Windows.StyleHelper.ApplyAutoAliasRules(OptimizedTemplateContent optimizedTemplateContent, HybridDictionary childIndexFromChildID, FrameworkTemplate frameworkTemplate, FrugalStructList`1& childRecordFromChildIndex, FrugalStructList`1& triggerSourceRecordFromChildIndex, FrugalStructList`1& resourceDependents, HybridDictionary& dataTriggerRecordFromBinding, Boolean& hasInstanceValues) at System.Windows.StyleHelper.ProcessTemplateContent(FrameworkTemplate frameworkTemplate, FrugalStructList`1& childRecordFromChildIndex, FrugalStructList`1& triggerSourceRecordFromChildIndex, FrugalStructList`1& resourceDependents, ItemStructList`1& eventDependents, HybridDictionary& dataTriggerRecordFromBinding, HybridDictionary childIndexFromChildID, Boolean& hasInstanceValues) at System.Windows.StyleHelper.SealTemplate(FrameworkTemplate frameworkTemplate, Boolean& isSealed, FrameworkElementFactory templateRoot, TriggerCollection triggers, ResourceDictionary resources, HybridDictionary childIndexFromChildID, FrugalStructList`1& childRecordFromChildIndex, FrugalStructList`1& triggerSourceRecordFromChildIndex, FrugalStructList`1& containerDependents, FrugalStructList`1& resourceDependents, ItemStructList`1& eventDependents, HybridDictionary& triggerActions, HybridDictionary& dataTriggerRecordFromBinding, Boolean& hasInstanceValues, EventHandlersStore& eventHandlersStore) at System.Windows.FrameworkTemplate.Seal() at System.Windows.StyleHelper.UpdateTemplateCache(FrameworkElement fe, FrameworkTemplate oldTemplate, FrameworkTemplate newTemplate, DependencyProperty templateProperty) at System.Windows.Controls.ContentPresenter.OnTemplateChanged(DependencyObject d, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e) at System.Windows.DependencyObject.OnPropertyChanged(DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e) at System.Windows.FrameworkElement.OnPropertyChanged(DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e) at System.Windows.DependencyObject.NotifyPropertyChange(DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs args) ...etc. It's not the binding. I still get the error if I explicitly set the value in the style's setter to 0, say. And the error vanishes if I remove the style, though then all of the items end up in column 0. What's going on here? And how do I debug a problem like this?

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• How to write specs with MSpec for code that changes Thread.CurrentPrincipal?

  - by Dan Jensen

  I've been converting some old specs to MSpec (were using NUnit/SpecUnit). The specs are for a view model, and the view model in question does some custom security checking. We have a helper method in our specs which will setup fake security credentials for the Thread.CurrentPrincipal. This worked fine in the old unit tests, but fails in MSpec. Specifically, I'm getting this exception: "System.Runtime.Serialization.SerializationException: Type is not resolved for member" It happens when part of the SUT tries to read the app config file. If I comment out the line which sets the CurrentPrincipal (or simply call it after the part that checks the config file), the error goes away, but the tests fail due to lack of credentials. Similarly, if I set the CurrentPrincipal to null, the error goes away, but again the tests fail because the credentials aren't set. I've googled this, and found some posts about making sure the custom principal is serializable when it crosses AppDomain boundaries (usually in reference to web apps). In our case, this is not a web app, and I'm not crossing any AppDomains. Our pincipal object is also serializable. I downloaded the source for MSpec, and found that the ConsoleRunner calls a class named AppDomainRunner. I haven't debugged into it, but it looks like it's running the specs in different app domains. So does anyone have any ideas on how I can overcome this? I really like MSpec, and would love to use it exclusively. But I need to be able to supply fake security credentials while running the tests. Thanks! Update: here's the spec class: [Subject(typeof(CountryPickerViewModel))] public class When_the_user_makes_a_selection : PickerViewModelSpecsBase { protected static CountryPickerViewModel picker; Establish context = () => { SetupFakeSecurityCredentials(); CreateFactoryStubs(); StubLookupServicer<ICountryLookupServicer>() .WithData(BuildActiveItems(new [] { "USA", "UK" })); picker = new CountryPickerViewModel(ViewFactory, ViewModelFactory, BusinessLogicFactory, CacheFactory); }; Because of = () => picker.SelectedItem = picker.Items[0]; Behaves_like<Picker_that_has_a_selected_item> a_picker_with_a_selection; } We have a number of these "picker" view models, all of which exhibit some common behavior. So I'm using the Behaviors feature of MSpec. This particular class is simulating the user selecting something from the (WPF) control which is bound to this VM. The SetupFakeSecurityCredentials() method is simply setting Thread.CurrentPrincipal to an instance of our custom principal, where the prinipal has been populated will full-access rights. Here's a fake CountryPickerViewModel which is enough to cause the error: public class CountryPickerViewModel { public CountryPickerViewModel(IViewFactory viewFactory, IViewModelFactory viewModelFactory, ICoreBusinessLogicFactory businessLogicFactory, ICacheFactory cacheFactory) { Items = new Collection<int>(); var validator = ValidationFactory.CreateValidator<object>(); } public int SelectedItem { get; set; } public Collection<int> Items { get; private set; } } It's the ValidationFactory call which blows up. ValidationFactory is an Enterprise Library object, which tries to access the config.

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• Python: Memory usage and optimization when modifying lists

  - by xApple

  The problem My concern is the following: I am storing a relativity large dataset in a classical python list and in order to process the data I must iterate over the list several times, perform some operations on the elements, and often pop an item out of the list. It seems that deleting one item out of a Python list costs O(N) since Python has to copy all the items above the element at hand down one place. Furthermore, since the number of items to delete is approximately proportional to the number of elements in the list this results in an O(N^2) algorithm. I am hoping to find a solution that is cost effective (time and memory-wise). I have studied what I could find on the internet and have summarized my different options below. Which one is the best candidate ? Keeping a local index: while processingdata: index = 0 while index < len(somelist): item = somelist[index] dosomestuff(item) if somecondition(item): del somelist[index] else: index += 1 This is the original solution I came up with. Not only is this not very elegant, but I am hoping there is better way to do it that remains time and memory efficient. Walking the list backwards: while processingdata: for i in xrange(len(somelist) - 1, -1, -1): dosomestuff(item) if somecondition(somelist, i): somelist.pop(i) This avoids incrementing an index variable but ultimately has the same cost as the original version. It also breaks the logic of dosomestuff(item) that wishes to process them in the same order as they appear in the original list. Making a new list: while processingdata: for i, item in enumerate(somelist): dosomestuff(item) newlist = [] for item in somelist: if somecondition(item): newlist.append(item) somelist = newlist gc.collect() This is a very naive strategy for eliminating elements from a list and requires lots of memory since an almost full copy of the list must be made. Using list comprehensions: while processingdata: for i, item in enumerate(somelist): dosomestuff(item) somelist[:] = [x for x in somelist if somecondition(x)] This is very elegant but under-the-cover it walks the whole list one more time and must copy most of the elements in it. My intuition is that this operation probably costs more than the original del statement at least memory wise. Keep in mind that somelist can be huge and that any solution that will iterate through it only once per run will probably always win. Using the filter function: while processingdata: for i, item in enumerate(somelist): dosomestuff(item) somelist = filter(lambda x: not subtle_condition(x), somelist) This also creates a new list occupying lots of RAM. Using the itertools' filter function: from itertools import ifilterfalse while processingdata: for item in itertools.ifilterfalse(somecondtion, somelist): dosomestuff(item) This version of the filter call does not create a new list but will not call dosomestuff on every item breaking the logic of the algorithm. I am including this example only for the purpose of creating an exhaustive list. Moving items up the list while walking while processingdata: index = 0 for item in somelist: dosomestuff(item) if not somecondition(item): somelist[index] = item index += 1 del somelist[index:] This is a subtle method that seems cost effective. I think it will move each item (or the pointer to each item ?) exactly once resulting in an O(N) algorithm. Finally, I hope Python will be intelligent enough to resize the list at the end without allocating memory for a new copy of the list. Not sure though. Abandoning Python lists: class Doubly_Linked_List: def __init__(self): self.first = None self.last = None self.n = 0 def __len__(self): return self.n def __iter__(self): return DLLIter(self) def iterator(self): return self.__iter__() def append(self, x): x = DLLElement(x) x.next = None if self.last is None: x.prev = None self.last = x self.first = x self.n = 1 else: x.prev = self.last x.prev.next = x self.last = x self.n += 1 class DLLElement: def __init__(self, x): self.next = None self.data = x self.prev = None class DLLIter: etc... This type of object resembles a python list in a limited way. However, deletion of an element is guaranteed O(1). I would not like to go here since this would require massive amounts of code refactoring almost everywhere.

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• Help with this code.

  - by karthick6891

  Heading ##Hey guys i need help with this code.The short version is,i have to do match the follwing by using drag and drop in jquery and later i need to show a message whether it is right or wrong. var output = "Wrong"; var old_item ; var new_item ; var newObjArray=[]; $(function() { var $gallery = $('.gallery'), $trash = $('.trash'); $('div',$gallery).draggable({ revert: 'invalid', containment: 'document', helper: 'clone', cursor: 'move', }); // let the trash be droppable, accepting the gallery items $trash.droppable({ //accept: '#gallery div', //activeClass: 'ui-state-highlight', tolerance: 'touch', drop: function(ev, ui) { new_item = ui.draggable; $(this).droppable("option","activeClass",'.ui-state-highlight'); if(contains(newObjArray,ui.draggable)) { newObjArray.pop(ui.draggable); } newObjArray.push(ui.draggable); deleteImage(ui.draggable,$(this)); } }); // let the gallery be droppable as well, accepting items from the trash $gallery.droppable({ //accept: '#trash li', activeClass: 'custom-state-active', drop: function(ev, ui) { recycleImage(ui.draggable); } }); // image deletion function function deleteImage($item,element) { var $list; $item.fadeOut(10,function() { if($(".ui-widget-content", element).length <1){ old_item = $item; $list = $('<div class="gallery ui-helper-reset"/>').appendTo(element); //$('ul',$trash).length ? $('ul',$trash) : $('<ul class="gallery ui-helper-reset"/>').appendTo($trash); $item.appendTo($list).fadeIn(10); } else{ recycleImage($(".ui-widget-content",element)); $list = $('<div class="gallery ui-helper-reset"/>').appendTo(element); $item.appendTo($list).fadeIn(10); old_item = $item; } }); } //check for given answer // image recycle function function recycleImage($item) { $item.fadeOut(10,function() { $item.find("img").end().appendTo($gallery).fadeIn(10); }); } // image preview function, demonstrating the ui.dialog used as a modal window }); function checkOrder(){ if(newObjArray==null){ } else if(newObjArray!=null){ if(newObjArray[0].attr("id")=="5"&& newObjArray[1].attr("id")=="1" && newObjArray[2].attr("id")=="3" && newObjArray[3].attr("id")=="2" && newObjArray[4].attr("id")=="4"){ parent.parent.increaseCorrectA(); } else{ parent.parent.increaseWrongA(); } } } function contains(a, obj) { var i = a.length; while (i--) { if (a[i] === obj) { return true; } } return false; } I am calling the function checkOrder() from the html page after the matching of items is over.What happens here is i have just stored the user responses on the draggable over droppable in an array,based on it's position.It is a bad practice cause,i am saying whether it's right or wrong through its position in the array.The only thing i can do is get the draggable's id present in the droppable.But i dont know how to get that inside the function checkOrder().Any ideas please?

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• Function calls not working in my page

  - by Vivek Dragon

  I made an select menu that works with the google-font-Api. I made to function in JSBIN here is my work http://jsbin.com/ocutuk/18/ But when i made the copy of my code in a html page its not even loading the font names in page. i tried to make it work but still it is in dead end. This is my html code <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1/jquery.min.js"> </script> <meta charset=utf-8 /> <title>FONT API</title> <script> function SetFonts(fonts) { for (var i = 0; i < fonts.items.length; i++) { $('#styleFont') .append($("<option></option>") .attr("value", fonts.items[i].family) .text(fonts.items[i].family)); } } var script = document.createElement('script'); script.src = 'https://www.googleapis.com/webfonts/v1/webfonts?key=AIzaSyB8Ua6XIfe-gqbkE8P3XL4spd0x8Ft7eWo&callback=SetFonts'; document.body.appendChild(script); WebFontConfig = { google: { families: ['ABeeZee', 'Abel', 'Abril Fatface', 'Aclonica', 'Acme', 'Actor', 'Adamina', 'Advent Pro', 'Aguafina Script', 'Akronim', 'Aladin', 'Aldrich', 'Alegreya', 'Alegreya SC', 'Alex Brush', 'Alfa Slab One', 'Alice', 'Alike', 'Alike Angular', 'Allan', 'Allerta', 'Allerta Stencil', 'Allura', 'Almendra', 'Almendra Display', 'Almendra SC', 'Amarante', 'Amaranth', 'Amatic SC', 'Amethysta', 'Anaheim', 'Andada', 'Andika', 'Angkor', 'Annie Use Your Telescope', 'Anonymous Pro', 'Antic', 'Antic Didone', 'Antic Slab', 'Anton', 'Arapey', 'Arbutus', 'Arbutus Slab', 'Architects Daughter', 'Archivo Black', 'Archivo Narrow', 'Arimo', 'Arizonia', 'Armata', 'Artifika', 'Arvo', 'Asap', 'Asset', 'Astloch', 'Asul', 'Atomic Age', 'Aubrey', 'Audiowide', 'Autour One', 'Average', 'Average Sans', 'Averia Gruesa Libre', 'Averia Libre', 'Averia Sans Libre', 'Averia Serif Libre', 'Bad Script', 'Balthazar', 'Bangers', 'Basic', 'Battambang', 'Baumans', 'Bayon', 'Belgrano', 'Belleza', 'BenchNine', 'Bentham', 'Berkshire Swash', 'Bevan', 'Bigelow Rules', 'Bigshot One', 'Bilbo', 'Bilbo Swash Caps', 'Bitter', 'Black Ops One', 'Bokor', 'Bonbon', 'Boogaloo', 'Bowlby One', 'Bowlby One SC', 'Brawler', 'Bree Serif', 'Bubblegum Sans', 'Bubbler One', 'Buda', 'Buenard', 'Butcherman', 'Butterfly Kids', 'Cabin', 'Cabin Condensed', 'Cabin Sketch', 'Caesar Dressing', 'Cagliostro', 'Calligraffitti', 'Cambo', 'Candal', 'Cantarell', 'Cantata One', 'Cantora One', 'Capriola', 'Cardo', 'Carme', 'Carrois Gothic', 'Carrois Gothic SC', 'Carter One', 'Caudex', 'Cedarville Cursive', 'Ceviche One', 'Changa One', 'Chango', 'Chau Philomene One', 'Chela One', 'Chelsea Market', 'Chenla', 'Cherry Cream Soda', 'Cherry Swash', 'Chewy', 'Chicle', 'Chivo', 'Cinzel', 'Cinzel Decorative', 'Clicker Script', 'Coda', 'Coda Caption', 'Codystar', 'Combo', 'Comfortaa', 'Coming Soon', 'Concert One', 'Condiment', 'Content', 'Contrail One', 'Convergence', 'Cookie', 'Copse', 'Corben', 'Courgette', 'Cousine', 'Coustard', 'Covered By Your Grace', 'Crafty Girls', 'Creepster', 'Crete Round', 'Crimson Text', 'Croissant One', 'Crushed', 'Cuprum', 'Cutive', 'Cutive Mono']} }; (function() { var wf = document.createElement('script'); wf.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https' : 'http') + '://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/webfont/1/webfont.js'; wf.type = 'text/javascript'; wf.async = 'true'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(wf, s); })(); $("#styleFont").change(function (){ var id =$('#styleFont option' +':selected').val(); $("#custom_text").css('font-family',id); }); </script> <style> #custom_text { font-family: Arial; resize: none; margin-top: 20px; width: 500px; } #styleFont { width: 100px; } </style> </head> <body> <select id="styleFont"> </select><br> <textarea id="custom_text"></textarea> </body> </html> How can i make it work. Whats the mistake i am making here.

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• Proxy Issues with Javascript Cross Domain RSS Feed Parsing

  - by Amir

  This is my Javascript function which grabs an rss feed via the proxy script and then spits out the 5 latest rss items from the feed along with a link to my stylesheet: function getWidget (feed,limit) { if (window.XMLHttpRequest) { xhttp=new XMLHttpRequest() } else { xhttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP") } xhttp.open("GET","http://MYSITE/proxy.php?url="+feed,false); xhttp.send(""); xmlDoc=xhttp.responseXML; var x = 1; var div = document.getElementById("div"); srdiv.innerHTML = '<link type="text/css" href="http://MYSITE/css/widget.css" rel="stylesheet" /><div id="rss-title"></div></h3><div id="items"></div><br /><br /><a href="http://MYSITE">Powered by MYSITE</a>'; document.body.appendChild(div); content=xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("title"); thelink=xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("link"); document.getElementByTagName("rss-title").innerHTML += content[0].childNodes[0].nodeValue; for (x=1;x<=limit;srx++) { y=x; y--; var shout = '<div class="item"><a href="'+thelink[y].childNodes[0].nodeValue+'">'+content[x].childNodes[0].nodeValue+'</a></div>'; document.getElementById("items").innerHTML += shout; } } Here is the the code from proxy.php: $session = curl_init($_GET['url']); // Open the Curl session curl_setopt($session, CURLOPT_HEADER, false); // Don't return HTTP headers curl_setopt($session, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true); // Do return the contents of the call $xml = curl_exec($session); // Make the call header("Content-Type: text/xml"); // Set the content type appropriately echo $xml; // Spit out the xml curl_close($session); // And close the session Now when I try to load this on any domain that's not my site nothing loads. I get no JS errors, but I in the Console tab in firebug I get "407 Proxy Authentication Required" So I'm not really sure how to make this work. The goal is to be able to grab the RSS feed, parse it to grab the titles and links and spit it out into some HTML on any website on the web. I"m basically making a simple RSS widget for my site's various RSS feeds. My Javascript is wack Also, I'm really a beginner with Javascript. I know jQuery pretty well, but I wasn't able to use it in this case, because this script will be embeded on any site and I can't really rely on the jQuery library. So I was decided to write some basic Javascript relying on the default XML parsing options available. Any suggestions here would be cool. Thanks! What's with the x and y They way my site creates RSS feeds is that the first title is actually the RSS feed title. The second title is the title of the first item. The first link is the link to the first item. So when using the javascript to get the title, I had to first grab the first title (which is the RSS title) and then start with the second title that being the first title of the item. Sorry for the confusion, but I don't think this is related to my issue. Just wanted to clarify my code.

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• Session state provider and global.asax not interacting properly?

  - by yodaj007

  I'm experimenting with creating a crude, proof-of-concept session state store provider in ASP.Net. But I've got a problem and I'm not sure what to do about it. The website works properly when using the InProc provider. The Session_Start in global.asax is called on session creation as it should. But not if I implement my own provider. The Session_Start method from global.asax isn't being called at all if a new session is being created (that is, I delete the session state file). Am I missing something important here? public class TestSessionProvider : SessionStateStoreProviderBase { private const string ROOT = "c:\\projects\\sessions\\"; private const int TIMEOUT_MINUTES = 30; public string ApplicationName { get { return HostingEnvironment.ApplicationVirtualPath; } } private string GetFilename(string id) { string filename = String.Format("{0}_{1}.session", ApplicationName, id); char[] invalids = Path.GetInvalidPathChars(); for (int i = 0; i < invalids.Length; i++) { filename = filename.Replace(invalids[i], '_'); } return Path.Combine(ROOT, Path.GetFileName(filename)); } public override void Initialize(string name, NameValueCollection config) { if (config == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("config"); if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(name)) name = "Sporkalicious"; base.Initialize(name, config); } public override SessionStateStoreData CreateNewStoreData(HttpContext context, int timeout) { SessionStateItemCollection items = new SessionStateItemCollection(); HttpStaticObjectsCollection objects = SessionStateUtility.GetSessionStaticObjects(context); return new SessionStateStoreData(items, objects, TIMEOUT_MINUTES); } /// <summary> /// The CreateUninitializedItem method is used with cookieless sessions when the regenerateExpiredSessionId /// attribute is set to true, which causes SessionStateModule to generate a new SessionID value when an /// expired session ID is encountered. /// </summary> /// <param name="context"></param> /// <param name="id"></param> /// <param name="timeout"></param> public override void CreateUninitializedItem(HttpContext context, string id, int timeout) { FileStream fs = File.Open(GetFilename(id), FileMode.CreateNew, FileAccess.Write, FileShare.None); BinaryWriter writer = new BinaryWriter(fs); SessionStateItemCollection coll = new SessionStateItemCollection(); coll.Serialize(writer); fs.Flush(); fs.Close(); } public override SessionStateStoreData GetItem(HttpContext context, string id, out bool locked, out TimeSpan lockAge, out object lockId, out SessionStateActions actions) { return GetItemExclusive(context, id, out locked, out lockAge, out lockId, out actions); } public override SessionStateStoreData GetItemExclusive(HttpContext context, string id, out bool locked, out TimeSpan lockAge, out object lockId, out SessionStateActions actions) { locked = false; lockAge = TimeSpan.FromDays(1); lockId = 0; actions = SessionStateActions.None; if (!File.Exists(GetFilename(id))) { return null; } FileStream fs = File.Open(GetFilename(id), FileMode.Open, FileAccess.ReadWrite, FileShare.Read); BinaryReader reader = new BinaryReader(fs); SessionStateItemCollection coll = SessionStateItemCollection.Deserialize(reader); fs.Close(); return new SessionStateStoreData(coll, new HttpStaticObjectsCollection(), TIMEOUT_MINUTES); } public override void ReleaseItemExclusive(HttpContext context, string id, object lockId) { } public override void RemoveItem(HttpContext context, string id, object lockId, SessionStateStoreData item) { File.Delete(GetFilename(id)); } public override void ResetItemTimeout(HttpContext context, string id) { } public override void SetAndReleaseItemExclusive(HttpContext context, string id, SessionStateStoreData item, object lockId, bool newItem) { if (!File.Exists(GetFilename(id))) { CreateUninitializedItem(context, id, 10); } FileStream fs = File.Open(GetFilename(id), FileMode.Truncate, FileAccess.Write, FileShare.None); BinaryWriter writer = new BinaryWriter(fs); SessionStateItemCollection coll = (SessionStateItemCollection)item.Items; coll.Serialize(writer); fs.Flush(); fs.Close(); } public override bool SetItemExpireCallback(SessionStateItemExpireCallback expireCallback) { return false; } public override void InitializeRequest(HttpContext context){} public override void EndRequest(HttpContext context){} public override void Dispose(){} }

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• Choosing a type for search results in C#

  - by Chris M

  I have a result set that will never exceed 500; the results that come back from the web-service are assigned to a search results object. The data from the webservice is about 2mb; the bit I want to use is about a third of each record, so this allows me to cache and quickly manipulate it. I want to be able to sort and filter the results with the least amount of overhead and as fast as possible so I used the VCSKICKS timing class to measure their performance Average Total (10,000) Type Create Sort Create Sort HashSet 0.1579 0.0003 1579 3 IList 0.0633 0.0002 633 2 IQueryable 0.0072 0.0432 72 432 Measured in Seconds using http://www.vcskicks.com/algorithm-performance.php I created the hashset through a for loop over the web-service response (adding to the hashset). The List & IQueryable were created using LINQ. Question I can understand why HashSet takes longer to create (the foreach loop vs linq); but why would IQueryable take longer to sort than the other two; and finally is there a better way to assign the HashSet. Thanks Actual Program public class Program { private static AuthenticationHeader _authHeader; private static OPSoapClient _opSession; private static AccommodationSearchResponse _searchResults; private static HashSet<SearchResults> _myHash; private static IList<SearchResults> _myList; private static IQueryable<SearchResults> _myIQuery; static void Main(string[] args) { #region Setup WebService _authHeader = new AuthenticationHeader { UserName = "xx", Password = "xx" }; _opSession = new OPSoapClient(); #region Setup Search Results _searchResults = _opgSession.SearchCR(_authHeader, "ENG", "GBP", "GBR"); #endregion Setup Search Results #endregion Setup WebService // HASHSET SpeedTester hashTest = new SpeedTester(TestHashSet); hashTest.RunTest(); Console.WriteLine("- Hash Test \nAverage Running Time: {0}; Total Time: {1}", hashTest.AverageRunningTime, hashTest.TotalRunningTime); SpeedTester hashSortTest = new SpeedTester(TestSortingHashSet); hashSortTest.RunTest(); Console.WriteLine("- Hash Sort Test \nAverage Running Time: {0}; Total Time: {1}", hashSortTest.AverageRunningTime, hashSortTest.TotalRunningTime); // ILIST SpeedTester listTest = new SpeedTester(TestList); listTest.RunTest(); Console.WriteLine("- List Test \nAverage Running Time: {0}; Total Time: {1}", listTest.AverageRunningTime, listTest.TotalRunningTime); SpeedTester listSortTest = new SpeedTester(TestSortingList); listSortTest.RunTest(); Console.WriteLine("- List Sort Test \nAverage Running Time: {0}; Total Time: {1}", listSortTest.AverageRunningTime, listSortTest.TotalRunningTime); // IQUERIABLE SpeedTester iqueryTest = new SpeedTester(TestIQueriable); iqueryTest.RunTest(); Console.WriteLine("- iquery Test \nAverage Running Time: {0}; Total Time: {1}", iqueryTest.AverageRunningTime, iqueryTest.TotalRunningTime); SpeedTester iquerySortTest = new SpeedTester(TestSortableIQueriable); iquerySortTest.RunTest(); Console.WriteLine("- iquery Sort Test \nAverage Running Time: {0}; Total Time: {1}", iquerySortTest.AverageRunningTime, iquerySortTest.TotalRunningTime); } static void TestHashSet() { var test = _searchResults.Items; _myHash = new HashSet<SearchResults>(); foreach(var x in test) { _myHash.Add(new SearchResults { Ref = x.Ref, Price = x.StandardPrice }); } } static void TestSortingHashSet() { var sorted = _myHash.OrderBy(s => s.Price); } static void TestList() { var test = _searchResults.Items; _myList = (from x in test select new SearchResults { Ref = x.Ref, Price = x.StandardPrice }).ToList(); } static void TestSortingList() { var sorted = _myList.OrderBy(s => s.Price); } static void TestIQueriable() { var test = _searchResults.Items; _myIQuery = (from x in test select new SearchResults { Ref = x.Ref, Price = x.StandardPrice }).AsQueryable(); } static void TestSortableIQueriable() { var sorted = _myIQuery.OrderBy(s => s.Price); } }

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• How to best propagate changes upwards a hierarchical structure for binding?

  - by H.B.

  If i have a folder-like structure that uses the composite design pattern and i bind the root folder to a TreeView. It would be quite useful if i can display certain properties that are being accumulated from the folder's contents. The question is, how do i best inform the folder that changes occurred in a child-element so that the accumulative properties get updated? The context in which i need this is a small RSS-FeedReader i am trying to make. This are the most important objects and aspects of my model: Composite interface: public interface IFeedComposite : INotifyPropertyChanged { string Title { get; set; } int UnreadFeedItemsCount { get; } ObservableCollection<FeedItem> FeedItems { get; } } FeedComposite (aka Folder) public class FeedComposite : BindableObject, IFeedComposite { private string title = ""; public string Title { get { return title; } set { title = value; NotifyPropertyChanged("Title"); } } private ObservableCollection<IFeedComposite> children = new ObservableCollection<IFeedComposite>(); public ObservableCollection<IFeedComposite> Children { get { return children; } set { children.Clear(); foreach (IFeedComposite item in value) { children.Add(item); } NotifyPropertyChanged("Children"); } } public FeedComposite() { } public FeedComposite(string title) { Title = title; } public ObservableCollection<FeedItem> FeedItems { get { ObservableCollection<FeedItem> feedItems = new ObservableCollection<FeedItem>(); foreach (IFeedComposite child in Children) { foreach (FeedItem item in child.FeedItems) { feedItems.Add(item); } } return feedItems; } } public int UnreadFeedItemsCount { get { return (from i in FeedItems where i.IsUnread select i).Count(); } } Feed: public class Feed : BindableObject, IFeedComposite { private string url = ""; public string Url { get { return url; } set { url = value; NotifyPropertyChanged("Url"); } } ... private ObservableCollection<FeedItem> feedItems = new ObservableCollection<FeedItem>(); public ObservableCollection<FeedItem> FeedItems { get { return feedItems; } set { feedItems.Clear(); foreach (FeedItem item in value) { AddFeedItem(item); } NotifyPropertyChanged("Items"); } } public int UnreadFeedItemsCount { get { return (from i in FeedItems where i.IsUnread select i).Count(); } } public Feed() { } public Feed(string url) { Url = url; } Ok, so here's the thing, if i bind a TextBlock.Text to the UnreadFeedItemsCount there won't be simple notifications when an item is marked unread, so one of my approaches has been to handle the PropertyChanged event of every FeedItem and if the IsUnread-Property is changed i have my Feed make a notification that the property UnreadFeedItemsCount has been changed. With this approach i also need to handle all PropertyChanged events of all Feeds and FeedComposites in Children of FeedComposite, from the sound of it, it should be obvious that this is not such a very good idea, you need to be very careful that items never get added or removed to any collection without having attached the PropertyChanged event handler first and things like that. Also: What do i do with the CollectionChanged-Events which necessarily also cause a change in the sum of the unread items count? Sounds like more event handling fun. It is such a mess, it would be great if anyone has an elegant solution to this since i don't want the feed-reader to end up as awful as my first attempt years ago when i didn't even know about DataBinding...

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• Get item from spinner into url

  - by ShadowCrowe

  I searched for an answer but couldn't find it. The problem: Depending on the selected spinner-item the application should show a different image. At this moment I can't get it to work. The Url works like this: "my.site.com/images/" imc_met ".png" were imc_met is the filename. I can't get it to work. Btw the app isn't finished yet package example.myapplication; import java.io.IOException; import java.net.MalformedURLException; import java.net.URI; import java.net.URISyntaxException; import java.net.URL; import java.util.ArrayList; import java.util.List; import android.app.Activity; import android.graphics.Bitmap; import android.graphics.BitmapFactory; import android.os.Bundle; import android.view.Menu; import android.view.View; import android.view.View.OnClickListener; import android.widget.AdapterView; import android.widget.ArrayAdapter; import android.widget.Button; import android.widget.ImageView; import android.widget.Spinner; public class itemsActivity extends Activity { private Spinner spinner1, spinner2; private Button btnSubmit; private Bitmap image; private ImageView imageView; private String imc_met, imc; @Override public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.items); addItemsOnSpinner2(); addListenerOnButton(); addListenerOnSpinnerItemSelection(); } // add items into spinner dynamically public void addItemsOnSpinner2() { spinner2 = (Spinner) findViewById(R.id.spinner2); List<String> list = new ArrayList<String>(); list.add("list 1"); list.add("list 2"); list.add("list 3"); ArrayAdapter<String> dataAdapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(this, android.R.layout.simple_spinner_item, list); dataAdapter.setDropDownViewResource(android.R.layout.simple_spinner_dropdown_item); spinner2.setAdapter(dataAdapter); } public void addListenerOnSpinnerItemSelection() { spinner1 = (Spinner) findViewById(R.id.spinner1); spinner1.setOnItemSelectedListener(new CustomOnItemSelectedListener()); } // get the selected dropdown list value public void addListenerOnButton() { spinner1 = (Spinner) findViewById(R.id.spinner1); spinner2 = (Spinner) findViewById(R.id.spinner2); btnSubmit = (Button) findViewById(R.id.btnSubmit); spinner1.setOnItemSelectedListener(new AdapterView.OnItemSelectedListener() { @Override public void onItemSelected(AdapterView<?> arg0, View arg1, int arg2, long arg3) { if(spinner1.getSelectedItem()!=null){ imc_met = spinner1.getSelectedItem().toString(); } } @Override public void onNothingSelected(AdapterView<?> arg0) { // TODO Auto-generated method stub } }); imageView = (ImageView)findViewById(R.id.ImageView01); btnSubmit.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() { public void onClick(View v) { URL url = null; try { url = new URL("my.site.com"); //here should the right link appear. } catch (MalformedURLException e) { e.printStackTrace(); } try { if (url != null) { image = BitmapFactory.decodeStream(url.openStream()); } } catch (IOException e) { e.printStackTrace(); } imageView.setImageBitmap(image); } }); } @Override public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) { // Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present. getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.main, menu); return true; } }

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• Can someone help me compare using F# over C# in this specific example (IP Address expressions)?

  - by Phobis

  So, I am writing code to parse and IP Address expression and turn it into a regular expression that could be run against and IP Address string and return a boolean response. I wrote the code in C# (OO) and it was 110 lines of code. I am trying to compare the amount of code and the expressiveness of C# to F# (I am a C# programmer and a noob at F#). I don't want to post both the C# and F#, just because I don't want to clutter the post. If needed, I will do so. Anyway, I will give an example. Here is an expression: 192.168.0.250,244-248,108,51,7;127.0.0.1 I would like to take that and turn it into this regular expression: ((192.168.0.(250|244|245|246|247|248|108|51|7))|(127.0.0.1)) Here are some steps I am following: Operations: Break by ";" 192.168.0.250,244-248,108,51,7 127.0.0.1 Break by "." 192 168 0 250,244-248,108,51,7 Break by "," 250 244-248 108 51 7 Break by "-" 244 248 I came up with F# that produces the output. I am trying to forward-pipe through my operations listed above, as I think that would be more expressive. Can anyone make this code better? Teach me something :) open System let createItemArray (group:bool) (y:char) (items:string[]) = [| let indexes = items.Length - 1 let group = indexes > 0 && group if group then yield "(" for i in 0 .. indexes do yield items.[i].ToString() if i < indexes then yield y.ToString() if group then yield ")" |] let breakBy (group:bool) (x:string) (y:char): string[] = x.Split(y) |> createItemArray group y let breakItem (x:string) (y:char): string[] = breakBy false x y let breakGroup (x:string) (y:char): string[] = breakBy true x y let AddressExpression address:string = let builder = new System.Text.StringBuilder "(" breakGroup address ';' |> Array.collect (fun octet -> breakItem octet '.') |> Array.collect (fun options -> breakGroup options ',') |> Array.collect (fun (ranges : string) -> match (breakGroup ranges '-') with | x when x.Length > 3 -> match (Int32.TryParse(x.[1]), Int32.TryParse(x.[3])) with | ((true, a) ,(true, b)) -> [|a .. b|] |> Array.map (int >> string) |> createItemArray false '-' | _ -> [|ranges|] | _ -> [|ranges|] ) |> Array.iter (fun item -> match item with | ";" -> builder.Append ")|(" | "." -> builder.Append "\." | "," | "-" -> builder.Append "|" | _ -> builder.Append item |> ignore ) builder.Append(")").ToString() let address = "192.168.0.250,244-248,108,51,7;127.0.0.1" AddressExpression address

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• Dependency Injection in ASP.NET MVC NerdDinner App using Unity 2.0

  - by shiju

  In my previous post Dependency Injection in ASP.NET MVC NerdDinner App using Ninject, we did dependency injection in NerdDinner application using Ninject. In this post, I demonstrate how to apply Dependency Injection in ASP.NET MVC NerdDinner App using Microsoft Unity Application Block (Unity) v 2.0.Unity 2.0Unity 2.0 is available on Codeplex at http://unity.codeplex.com . In earlier versions of Unity, the ObjectBuilder generic dependency injection mechanism, was distributed as a separate assembly, is now integrated with Unity core assembly. So you no longer need to reference the ObjectBuilder assembly in your applications. Two additional Built-In Lifetime Managers - HierarchicalifetimeManager and PerResolveLifetimeManager have been added to Unity 2.0.Dependency Injection in NerdDinner using UnityIn my Ninject post on NerdDinner, we have discussed the interfaces and concrete types of NerdDinner application and how to inject dependencies controller constructors. The following steps will configure Unity 2.0 to apply controller injection in NerdDinner application. Step 1 – Add reference for Unity Application BlockOpen the NerdDinner solution and add  reference to Microsoft.Practices.Unity.dll and Microsoft.Practices.Unity.Configuration.dllYou can download Unity from at http://unity.codeplex.com .Step 2 – Controller Factory for Unity The controller factory is responsible for creating controller instances.We extend the built in default controller factory with our own factory for working Unity with ASP.NET MVC. public class UnityControllerFactory : DefaultControllerFactory {     protected override IController GetControllerInstance(RequestContext reqContext, Type controllerType)     {         IController controller;         if (controllerType == null)             throw new HttpException(                     404, String.Format(                         "The controller for path '{0}' could not be found" +         "or it does not implement IController.",                     reqContext.HttpContext.Request.Path));           if (!typeof(IController).IsAssignableFrom(controllerType))             throw new ArgumentException(                     string.Format(                         "Type requested is not a controller: {0}",                         controllerType.Name),                         "controllerType");         try         {             controller = MvcUnityContainer.Container.Resolve(controllerType)                             as IController;         }         catch (Exception ex)         {             throw new InvalidOperationException(String.Format(                                     "Error resolving controller {0}",                                     controllerType.Name), ex);         }         return controller;     }   }   public static class MvcUnityContainer {     public static IUnityContainer Container { get; set; } }  Step 3 – Register Types and Set Controller Factory private void ConfigureUnity() {     //Create UnityContainer               IUnityContainer container = new UnityContainer()     .RegisterType<IFormsAuthentication, FormsAuthenticationService>()     .RegisterType<IMembershipService, AccountMembershipService>()     .RegisterInstance<MembershipProvider>(Membership.Provider)     .RegisterType<IDinnerRepository, DinnerRepository>();     //Set container for Controller Factory     MvcUnityContainer.Container = container;     //Set Controller Factory as UnityControllerFactory     ControllerBuilder.Current.SetControllerFactory(                         typeof(UnityControllerFactory));            } Unity 2.0 provides a fluent interface for type configuration. Now you can call all the methods in a single statement.The above Unity configuration specified in the ConfigureUnity method tells that, to inject instance of DinnerRepositiry when there is a request for IDinnerRepositiry and  inject instance of FormsAuthenticationService when there is a request for IFormsAuthentication and inject instance of AccountMembershipService when there is a request for IMembershipService. The AccountMembershipService class has a dependency with ASP.NET Membership provider. So we configure that inject the instance of Membership Provider.After the registering the types, we set UnityControllerFactory as the current controller factory. //Set container for Controller Factory MvcUnityContainer.Container = container; //Set Controller Factory as UnityControllerFactory ControllerBuilder.Current.SetControllerFactory(                     typeof(UnityControllerFactory)); When you register a type  by using the RegisterType method, the default behavior is for the container to use a transient lifetime manager. It creates a new instance of the registered, mapped, or requested type each time you call the Resolve or ResolveAll method or when the dependency mechanism injects instances into other classes. The following are the LifetimeManagers provided by Unity 2.0ContainerControlledLifetimeManager - Implements a singleton behavior for objects. The object is disposed of when you dispose of the container.ExternallyControlledLifetimeManager - Implements a singleton behavior but the container doesn't hold a reference to object which will be disposed of when out of scope.HierarchicalifetimeManager - Implements a singleton behavior for objects. However, child containers don't share instances with parents.PerResolveLifetimeManager - Implements a behavior similar to the transient lifetime manager except that instances are reused across build-ups of the object graph.PerThreadLifetimeManager - Implements a singleton behavior for objects but limited to the current thread.TransientLifetimeManager - Returns a new instance of the requested type for each call. (default behavior)We can also create custome lifetime manager for Unity container. The following code creating a custom lifetime manager to store container in the current HttpContext. public class HttpContextLifetimeManager<T> : LifetimeManager, IDisposable {     public override object GetValue()     {         return HttpContext.Current.Items[typeof(T).AssemblyQualifiedName];     }     public override void RemoveValue()     {         HttpContext.Current.Items.Remove(typeof(T).AssemblyQualifiedName);     }     public override void SetValue(object newValue)     {         HttpContext.Current.Items[typeof(T).AssemblyQualifiedName]             = newValue;     }     public void Dispose()     {         RemoveValue();     } }  Step 4 – Modify Global.asax.cs for configure Unity container In the Application_Start event, we call the ConfigureUnity method for configuring the Unity container and set controller factory as UnityControllerFactory void Application_Start() {     RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);       ViewEngines.Engines.Clear();     ViewEngines.Engines.Add(new MobileCapableWebFormViewEngine());     ConfigureUnity(); }Download CodeYou can download the modified NerdDinner code from http://nerddinneraddons.codeplex.com

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

  - by The Geek

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

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• Day 2 - Game Design Documentation

  - by dapostolov

  So yesterday I didn't cut any code for my game but I was able to do a tiny bit of research on the XNA Game Development Technology and the communities out there and do you know what? I feel I'm a bit closer to my goal. The bad news is today I didn't cut code either. However, not all is lost because I wanted to get my ideas on paper and today I just did that.  Today, I began to jot down notes about the game and how I felt the visual elements would interact with each other. Unlike my workplace, my personal level of documentation is nothing more than a task list or a mind map of my ideas; it helps me streamline my solutions quiet effectively and circumvent the long process of articulating each thought to the n-th degree. I truly dislike documentation (because I have an extremely hard time articulating my thought and solutions); however, because I tend to do a really good job with documentation I tend to get stuck writing the buggers. But as a generalist remark: 'No Developer likes documentation.' For now let's stick with my basic notes and call this post a living document. Here are my notes, fresh, from after watching the new first episode of Merlin second season! Actually, a quick recommendation to anyone who is reading this (if anyone is): I truly recommend you envelope yourself in the medium or task you're trying to tackle. Be one with moment and feel it! For instance: Are you writing a fantasy script / game? What would the music of the genre sound like? For me the Conan the Barbarian soundtrack by Basil Poledouris is frackin awesome. There are many other good CD's out there, which I listen to (some who even use medival instruments, but Conan I keep returning to. It's a creative trigger for me. Ask yourself what would the imagery look like? Time to surf google for artist renditions of fantasy! What would the game feel like? Start playing some of your favorite games that inspire you, be wary though, have some self control and don't let it absorb your time. Anyhow, onto the documentation... Screens, Scenes, and Sprites. Oh My! (groan...) The first thing that came to mind were the screens, I thought the following would suffice: Menu Screen Character Customisation Screen Loading Screen? Battle Ground The Menu Screen Ok. So, the thought here is when the game loads a huge title is displayed: Wizard Wars. The player is prompted with 3 menu items: 1 Player Game, 2 Player Game, and Exit. Since I'm targetting the PC platform, as a non-networked game to start, I picture myself running my mouse over each menu option and the visual element of the menu item changes, along with a sound to indicate that I am over a curent menu item. And as I move my mouse away, it changes back, and possibly an exit mouse sound. Maybe on the screen somewhere is a brazier alit with a magical tome open right beside it, OR, maybe the tome is the menu! I hear the menu music as mellow, not obtrusive or piercing. On a menu item select, a confirmation sound bellows to indicate the players selection. The Esc key will always return me to the previous screens or desktop. The menu screen must feel...dark, like a really important ritual is about to happen and thus the music should build up. 1 Player Game - > Customize Character(s) 2 Player Game - > Customize Character(s) Exit - > Back to Windows Notes: So the first thing I pick up here are a couple things: First and foremost, my artistic abilities suck crap, so I may have to hire an artist (now that i've said that, lets get techy) graphical objects will be positioned within a scene on each screen / window. Menu items will be represented grapically, possibly animated, and have sound / animation effects triggered by user input or a time line. I have an animated scene involving a brazier or fire on a stick IF I was to move this game to the xbox, I'd have to track which menu item is currently selected (unless I do a mouse pointer type thing.) WindowObject has a scene A Scene has many GameObjects GameObject has a position graphic or animation MenuObject is a GameObject which has a mouse in, mouse out, and click event which either does something graphically (animation), does something with sound, or moves to another screen.  Character Customisation Screen With either the 1 or 2 player option selected, both selections will come to this screen; a wizard requires a name, powers, and vestements of course! Player one will configure his character first and then player two. I considered a split screen for PC but to have two people fighting over a keyboard would probably suck. For XBox, a split screen could work; maybe when I get into the networking portion (phase 2 blog?) of this game I will remove the 2 player option for PC and provide only multiplayer and I will leave 2 player for xbox...hmm... Anyhow...I picture the creation process as follows: Name: (textbox / keyboard entry) - for xbox, this would have to be different. Robe Color: (color box, or something) Stats: Speed, Oomph, and Health. (as sliders) 1 as minimum and 10 as maximum. Ok, Back, and Cancel buttons / options. Each stat has a benefit which are listed below. The idea is the player decides if he wants his wizard to run fast, be a tank and ... hit with a purse.Regardless, the player will have a pool of 12 points to use. Ideally, A balanced wizard will have 5 in each attribute. Spells? The only spell of choice is a ball of fire which comes without question. The music and screen should still feel like a ritual. The Character Speed Basically, how fast your character moves and casts. Oomph (Best Monster Truck Voice): PURE POWAH!!! The damage output of your fireball. Health How much damage you can take. Notes: I realise the game dynamics may sound uninteresting at the moment; but I think after a couple releases, we could have some other grand ideas such as: saved profiles, gold to upgrade arsenal of spells, talents, etc...but for now...a vanilla fireball thrower mage will suffice for this experiment. OK. So... a MenuObject  may need to be loosely coupled to allow future items such as networking? may be a button? a CharacterObject has a name speed oomph health and a funky robe color. cap on the three stats (1-10) an arsenal of 1 spell (possibly could expand this) The Loading Screen As is. The Battleground Screen For now, I'm keeping the screen as max resolution for the PC. The screen isn't going to move or even be a split screen. I'm not aiming high here because I want to see what level of change is involved when new features / concepts are added to game content. I'm interested to find out if we could apply techniques such as MVC or MVVM to this type of development or is it too tightly coupled? This reminds me when when my best friend and I were brainstorming our game idea (this is going back a while...1994, 6?) and he cringed at the thought of bringing business technology into games, especially when I suggested a database to store character information and COM / DCOM as the medium, but it seems I wasn't far off (reflecting); just like his implementation of a xml "config file" for dynamic direct-x menus back before .net in 1999...anyhow...i digress... The Battle One screen, two characters lobing balls of fire at each other...It doesn't get better than that. Every so often a scroll appears...and the fireballs bounce off walls, or the wizard has rapid fire, or even scrolls of healing! The scroll options are endless. Two bars at the top, each the color of the wizard (with their name beside the bar) indicate how much health they have. Possibly the appearance of the scrolls means the battle is taking too long? I'm thinking 1 player controls: up, down, left, right and space to fire the button. Or even possibly, mouse click and shift - mouse button to fire a spell in the direction they are facing. Two player controls: a, s, d, f and space AND arrows (up, down, left, right) and Del key or Crtl. The game ends when a player has 0 health and a dialog box appears asking for a rematch / reconfigure / exit. Health goes down when a fireball (friendly or not), connects with a wizard. When a wizard connects with a scroll, a countdown clock / icon appears near the health bar and the wizard begins to glow. For the most part, a wizard can have only scroll 1 effect on him at a time. Notes: Ok, there's alot to cover here. a CharacterObject is a GameObject it travels at a set velocity it travels in a direction it has sounds (walking, running, casting, impact, dying, laughing, whistling, other?) it has animations (walking, running, casting, impact, dying, laughing, idle, other?) it has a lifespan (determined by health) it is alive or dead it has a position a ScrollObject is a GameObject it carries a transferance of points "damage" (or healing, bad scroll effect?) (determinde by caster) it carries a transferance of "other" it is stationary it has a sound on impact it has a stationary animation it has an impact animation / or transfers an impact animation it has a fade animation? it has a lifespan (determined by game) it is alive or dead it has a position a WallObject is a GameObject it has a sound on fireball impact? it is a still image / stationary it has an impact animation / or transfers an impact animation it is dead it has a position A FireBall is a GameObject it carries a transferance of poinst "damage" (or healing, bad scroll effect?) (determinde by caster) it travels at a set velocity it travels in a direction it has a sound it has a travel animation it has an impact animation / or transfers an impact animation it has a fade animation? it has a lifespan (determined by caster) it is alive or dead it has a position As I look at this, I can see some common attributes in each object that I can carry up to the GameObject. I think I'm going to end the documentation here, it's taken me a bit of time to type this all out, tomorrow. I'll load up my IDE and my paint studio to get some good old fashioned cowboy hacking going!   D.

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• NRF Online Merchandising Workshop: Where Online Retailers Are Focusing for Holiday and Beyond

  - by Rose Spicer-Oracle

  0 0 1 1204 6863 Oracle Corporation 57 16 8051 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:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} Last month we attended the NRF Online Merchandising Workshop in LA, and it was a great opportunity to catch up with our customers, meet new retailers, and hear some great presentations from VF Corporation, Zazzle, Julep Beauty, Backcountry, eBags and more. The one-on-one conversations with Merchants and the keynote presentations carry the same themes across companies of all sizes and across verticals. With only 125 days left (and counting) until Black Friday, these conversations provided some great insight in to what’s top of mind for retailers during the most stressful time of their year, and a sneak peek in to what they will deliver this holiday season.  Some of the most popular topics were: When to start promoting for holiday: seems like a funny conversation to have in July, but a number of retailers said they already had their holiday shopping gift guides live on their site, and it was attracting a significant portion of their onsite traffic. When it comes to timing, most retailers were questioning when to begin their holiday promotions -- carefully balancing when to release pricing and specials, and knowing that customers are holding out for last-minute deals and price drops. Many retailers noted the frustrations around transparent pricing by Amazon and a few other mega-retailers last year, publishing their “lowest prices of the season” as early as October – ensuring shoppers that those prices were the best they could get all season long. Many retailers felt their hands were forced to drop prices. Others kept their set pricing with negative customer reaction, causing some to miss their holiday goals. The pressure is on, and most retailers identified November 1 as their target start date for the holiday promotions blitz. Some are even waiting for the big guys to release their “lowest prices of the season” guides and will then follow suit.      Attribution is tough – and a huge focus: understanding the path to conversion is a tough nut to crack, especially in the new omnichannel world where consumers use multiple touchpoints to make a single purchase, and internal management wants to know hard data. This has lead many retailers to invest in attribution; carefully tracking their online marketing efforts to determine what gets “credit” for the sale, instead of giving credit to the “last click.” Retailers noted that it is very difficult to determine the numbers when online and offline worlds collide – like when a shopper uses digital channels for research and then makes a purchase in a store. As one of the presenters from The North Face mentioned in her keynote, a key to enabling better customer service and satisfaction when it comes to converged online and offline sales is training the in-store staff, and creating a culture where it eventually “doesn’t matter what group gets the credit” if they all add to the sale. No doubt, the area of attribution will be a big area of retail investment in the coming years.      How to plan for the converged world: planning to ensure inventory gets where it needs to be was another concern. In conversations with retailers, we advised them to analyze customer patterns: where shoppers purchase items, where the items were sourced from and even where items are returned. This analysis is very valuable in determining inventory plans. From there, retailers can more accurately plan and allocate inventory to support both the online and offline customer behavior. As we head into the holiday season, the need for accurate enterprise-wide inventory visibility, and providing that information to associates, is even more critical to the brand-wide customer experience.       Improving the search / navigation / usability of the site(s): Aside from some of the big ideas and standard holiday pricing pressure, most conversations we had centered around continuing to improve the basics of the site. Reinvesting in search and navigation came up time and time again (FitForCommerce blogged about what a big topic it was at the event as well). Obviously getting shoppers on their path quickly and allowing them to find what they need fast is critical, but it was definitely interesting to hear just how much effort is still going in to honing the search and navigation experience. Adding new elements to search and navigation like typeahed, inventive navigation refinements, and new navigation categories like gift guides, specialized boutiques and flash sales were top of mind, in addition to searchandising and making search-driven product recommendations. (Oracle can help!)       Reducing cart abandonment: always a hot topic that is top of mind for every online retailer. Getting shoppers to the cart is often less then half the battle; getting them to click “buy” and complete the transaction is much more difficult. While retailers carefully study the checkout process and where shoppers tend to bounce, they know that how they design their checkout page is critical. We’re all online shoppers in our personal lives and we know how frustrating it can be when total prices are not transparent (i.e. shipping, processing, taxes is not included until the very last possible screen before clicking that buy button). Online retailers are struggling with where in the checkout process to surface the total price to be charged to reduce cart abandonment, while not showing the total figure too early in the process that it keeps shoppers from getting to checkout altogether. Recent research shows that providing total pricing prior to the checkout process dramatically reduces cart abandonment – as it serves as a filter to those shopping within a specific price band. Much of the cart abandonment discussion leads us to…       The free shipping / free returns question: it’s no secret that because of Amazon and programs like Prime, consumers expect free shipping, much to the chagrin of the smaller retailer. The reality is that if you’re not a mega-retailer, shipping is an expensive part of doing business that doesn’t allow most retailers to keep their prices low and offer free shipping. This has many retailers venturing out on the “free returns” path, especially in apparel. A number of retailers we spoke with are testing a flat rate shipping fee with free returns to see if they can crack the price threshold where shoppers are willing to pay for shipping with an added service. But, free shipping remains king.      Social ads and retargeting: they are working, but do they turn off consumers? That’s the big question. Every retailer we spoke with during a roundtable on the topic said that social ads and retargeting (where that pair of boots you’re been eyeing on a site magically follows you around the Internet) work and are meeting campaign goals. The larger question many retailers are asking is if this type of tactic is turning off a large number of shoppers, even if these campaigns are meeting their early goals. Retailers also mentioned that Facebook ads are working very well for them, especially when it comes to new customer acquisition, serving as a complimentary a channel to SEO when it comes to engaging new customers. While there are always new things to experiment with in retail, standard challenges are top of mind as retailers scramble to get ready for holiday. It will undoubtedly be another record-breaking online shopping season, but as retailers get more and more advanced with each Black Friday, expect some exciting things. This excitement needs to be backed by sound solutions and optimized operations. Then again, consumers are expecting more than ever, so I don’t doubt that retailers are already thinking about the possibilities of holiday 2015… and beyond. Customers who read this article, also found value in the following stories: Personalization for Retail: http://blogs.oracle.com/retail/entry/personalization_for_retailShop Direct User Experience Focus Drives Sales:https://blogs.oracle.com/retail/entry/shop_direct_user_experience_focusMaking Waves: Australian Online Retailer SurfStitch: https://blogs.oracle.com/oracleretail/entry/surf_stitchWhat’s new in Oracle Commerce v11.1 for RetailWhat the Content+Commerce Equation is Missing

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• Windows Azure Evolution &ndash; Preview Developer Portal

  - by Shaun

  With the MEET Windows Azure event on 7th June, there are many new features and updates in windows azure platform. In the coming several posts I will try to cover some of them. And in the first post here I would like to just have a quick walkthrough of the new preview developer portal.   History of the Developer Portal If you have been working with windows azure since 2009 or 2010, you should remember the first version of the developer portal. It was built in HTML with very limited features. I have the impression when I was using is old one. The layout is not that attractive and you have very limited features. On November, 2010 alone with the SDK 1.3 release, the developer portal was getting a big jump. In order to give more usability and features this it turned to be built on Silverlight. Hence it runs like a desktop application with many windows, lists, commands and context menus. From 2010 till now many features were involved into this portal, such as the remote desktop, co-admin, virtual connect, VM role, etc.. And the portal itself became more and more complicated. But it brought some problems by using the Silverlight. The first one is the browser capability. As you know in most mobile and tablet device the browser doesn’t allow the rich content plugin, such as Flash and Silverlight. This means people cannot open and configure their azure services from their iPad, iPhone and Windows Phone, etc., even though what they need may just be restart a hosted service, or view the status of their databases. Another problem is the performance. Silverlight provides rich experience to the users, but also needs more bandwidth. So in this upgrade the preview developer portal will be back to use HTML, with JavaScript, as a mobile friendly, cross browser, interactively web site.   Preview Portal vs. Silverlight Portal Before I started to talk about the new preview portal I’d better highlight that, this preview portal is a PREVIEW version, which means even though you can do almost all features that already in the old one, as long as some cool new features I will mention in the coming several posts, there are something still under developed and migrated. So sometimes you need to switch back to the old one. For example, in preview portal there is no co-admin manage function, no remote desktop function and the SQL database manage function will take you back to the old SQL Azure Manage Portal. But as Microsoft said these missing features will be moved in the preview portal in the couple of next few months. Since the public URL of the developer portal, https://windows.azure.com/, had been changed to point to this preview one, you need to click to preview button on top of the page and click the “Take me to the previous portal” link.   Overview There are four parts in the preview portal. On the top is the header which shows the account you are currently logging in. If you click on the header it will show the top menu of windows azure, where you can navigate to the windows azure home page, the price information page, community and account, etc.. The navigation bar is on the left hand side, with the categories listed below. ALL ITEMS All items in your windows azure account, includes the web sites, services, databases, etc.. WEB SITES The web sites in your windows azure account. It will only show the web sites you have. The linked resources will be shown if you drill down into a web site. VIRTUAL MACHINES The virtual machines that you had been deployed to azure. CLOUD SERVICES All windows azure hosted services in your account. SQL DATABASES All SQL databases (SQL Azure) in your account. STORAGE All windows azure storage services in your account. NETWORKS The virtual network (Windows Azure Connect) you had been created. The available items will be listed in the main part of the page based on which category your currently selected. If there’s no item it will show the link to you to quick create. At the bottom of the page there will be the command and information bar. Based on what is selected and what is performed by the user, it will show the related information and commands. For example, in the image below when I was creating a new web site, the information bar told me that my web site is being provisioned; and there are two commands in the command bar. And once it ready the command bar will show some commands that I can do to my new web site. The “Web Sites” is a new feature introduced alone with this upgrade. It gives us an easier and quicker way to establish a website from the scratch or from some existing library. I will introduce it more details in the coming next post. Also in the command bar you can create a service by clicking the NEW button. It will slide the creation panel up to you.   Where’s My Hosted Services The Windows Azure Hosted Services had been renamed to the Cloud Services. Create a new service would be very easy. Just click the NEW button at the bottom of the page, and select the CLOUD SERVICE and QIUICK CREATE. This will create a blank hosted service without deployment and certificate. It just needs you to specify the service URL and the affinity/region. Then the service will be shown in the list. If you clicked the item all information will be shown in the main part. Since there’s no package deployed to this service so currently we cannot see any information about it. But we can upload the package by using the command at the bottom. And as you can see, we could manage the configuration, instances, certificates and we can scale up and down (change the VM size), in and out (increase and decrease the instance count) to our service. Assuming I had created an ASP.NET MVC 3 web role project in Visual Studio and completed the package. Then I can click the UPLOAD button in this page to deploy my package. In the popping up window I just specify my deployment name, package file and configure file. Also I can check the box below so that it will NOT warn me if only one instance of this deployment. Once we clicked the OK button our package will be uploaded and provisioned by the platform. After a while we can see the service was ready from the information bar. We can have the basic information about this service and deployment if we to the dashboard page. For example the usage overview diagram, status, URL, public IP address, etc.. In the configure page we can view and change the CSCFG content such as the monitor setting, connection strings, OS family. In scale page we can increase and decrease the count of the instances. And in the instances page we can view all instances status. And, if your services is using some SQL databases and storages they will be shown as the linked resources under the linked resources page. And you can manage the certificates of this service as well under the certificates page.   How About My Storage Services The storage service can be managed by clicking into the STORAGES link in the navigation bar. And we can create a new storage service from the NEW button. After specify the storage name and region it will be previsioned by the platform. If you want to copy or manage the storage key you can just click the Manage Keys button at the bottom, which is very easy. What I want to highlight here is that, you can monitor your storage service by enabling the monitor configuration. Click the storage item in the list and navigate to the configure page. As you can see in the page you can enable the monitoring for blob, table and queue. And you can also enable the logging when any requests come to the storage. But as the tooltip shown in the page, enabling the monitoring and logging will increase the usage of the storage, which means increase the bill of them. So make sure you enable them properly.   And My SQL Databases (SQL Azure) The last thing I want to quick introduce is the SQL databases, which was formally named SQL Azure. You can create a new SQL Database Server and a new database by clicking the ADD button under the SQL Database navigation item. In the popping up windows just specify the database name, the edition, size, collation and the server. You can select an existing SQL Database Server if you have, or cerate a new one. If you selected to create a new server, there will be another step you need to do, which is specify the server login, password and the region. Once it ready you can mange your databases as well as the servers in the portal. In a particular server you can update the firewall settings in its Configure page. So, What Else There are some other area on the preview portal I didn’t cover, such as the virtual machines, virtual network and web sites. Regarding the virtual machines and web sites I will talk about them in the future separated post. Regarding the virtual network, it the Windows Azure Connect we are familiar with. But as I mention in the beginning of this post, the preview portal is still under developed. Some features are not available here. For example, you cannot manage the co-admin of your subscriptions, you cannot open the remote desktop on your hosted services, and you cannot navigate to the Windows Azure Service Bus, Access Control and Caching, which formally named Windows Azure AppFabric directly. In these cases you need to navigate back to the old portal. So in the coming several months we might need to use both these two sites.   Summary In this post I quick introduced the new windows azure developer portal. Since it had been rearranged and renamed I demonstrated some features that existing in the old portal, such as how to create and deploy a hosted service, how to provision a storage service and SQL database. All features in the old portal had been, is being and will be migrated into this new portal, but some of them were in a different category and page we need to figure out.   Hope this helps, Shaun All documents and related graphics, codes are provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind. Copyright © Shaun Ziyan Xu. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons License.

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• That Escalated Quickly

  - by Jesse Taber

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/GruffCode/archive/2014/05/17/that-escalated-quickly.aspxI have been working remotely out of my home for over 4 years now. All of my coworkers during that time have also worked remotely. Lots of folks have written about the challenges inherent in facilitating communication on remote teams and strategies for overcoming them. A popular theme around this topic is the notion of “escalating communication”. In this context “escalating” means taking a conversation from one mode of communication to a different, higher fidelity mode of communication. Here are the five modes of communication I use at work in order of increasing fidelity: Email – This is the “lowest fidelity” mode of communication that I use. I usually only check it a few times a day (and I’m trying to check it even less frequently than that) and I only keep items in my inbox if they represent an item I need to take action on that I haven’t tracked anywhere else. Forums / Message boards – Being a developer, I’ve gotten into the habit of having other people look over my code before it becomes part of the product I’m working on. These code reviews often happen in “real time” via screen sharing, but I also always have someone else give all of the changes another look using pull requests. A pull request takes my code and lets someone else see the changes I’ve made side-by-side with the existing code so they can see if I did anything dumb. Pull requests can facilitate a conversation about the code changes in an online-forum like style. Some teams I’ve worked on also liked using tools like Trello or Google Groups to have on-going conversations about a topic or task that was being worked on. Chat & Instant Messaging  - Chat and instant messaging are the real workhorses for communication on the remote teams I’ve been a part of. I know some teams that are co-located that also use it pretty extensively for quick messages that don’t warrant walking across the office to talk with someone but reqire more immediacy than an e-mail. For the purposes of this post I think it’s important to note that the terms “chat” and “instant messaging” might insinuate that the conversation is happening in real time, but that’s not always true. Modern chat and IM applications maintain a searchable history so people can easily see what might have been discussed while they were away from their computers. Voice, Video and Screen sharing – Everyone’s got a camera and microphone on their computers now, and there are an abundance of services that will let you use them to talk to other people who have cameras and microphones on their computers. I’m including screen sharing here as well because, in my experience, these discussions typically involve one or more people showing the other participants something that’s happening on their screen. Obviously, this mode of communication is much higher-fidelity than any of the ones listed above. Scheduled meetings are typically conducted using this mode of communication. In Person – No matter how great communication tools become, there’s no substitute for meeting with someone face-to-face. However, opportunities for this kind of communcation are few and far between when you work on a remote team. When a conversation gets escalated that usually means it moves up one or more positions on this list. A lot of people advocate jumping to #4 sooner than later. Like them, I used to believe that, if it was possible, organizing a call with voice and video was automatically better than any kind of text-based communication could be. Lately, however, I’m becoming less convinced that escalating is always the right move. Working Asynchronously Last year I attended a talk at our local code camp given by Drew Miller. Drew works at GitHub and was talking about how they use GitHub internally. Many of the folks at GitHub work remotely, so communication was one of the main themes in Drew’s talk. During the talk Drew used the phrase, “asynchronous communication” to describe their use of chat and pull request comments. That phrase stuck in my head because I hadn’t heard it before but I think it perfectly describes the way in which remote teams often need to communicate. You don’t always know when your co-workers are at their computers or what hours (if any) they are working that day. In order to work this way you need to assume that the person you’re talking to might not respond right away. You can’t always afford to wait until everyone required is online and available to join a voice call, so you need to use text-based, persistent forms of communication so that people can receive and respond to messages when they are available. Going back to my list from the beginning of this post for a second, I characterize items #1-3 as being “asynchronous” modes of communication while we could call items #4 and #5 “synchronous”. When communication gets escalated it’s almost always moving from an asynchronous mode of communication to a synchronous one. Now, to the point of this post: I’ve become increasingly reluctant to escalate from asynchronous to synchronous communication for two primary reasons: 1 – You can often find a higher fidelity way to convey your message without holding a synchronous conversation 2 - Asynchronous modes of communication are (usually) persistent and searchable. You Don’t Have to Broadcast Live Let’s start with the first reason I’ve listed. A lot of times you feel like you need to escalate to synchronous communication because you’re having difficulty describing something that you’re seeing in words. You want to provide the people you’re conversing with some audio-visual aids to help them understand the point that you’re trying to make and you think that getting on Skype and sharing your screen with them is the best way to do that. Firing up a screen sharing session does work well, but you can usually accomplish the same thing in an asynchronous manner. For example, you could take a screenshot and annotate it with some text and drawings to illustrate what it is you’re seeing. If a screenshot won’t work, taking a short screen recording while your narrate over it and posting the video to your forum or chat system along with a text-based description of what’s in the recording that can be searched for later can be a great way to effectively communicate with your team asynchronously. I Said What?!? Now for the second reason I listed: most asynchronous modes of communication provide a transcript of what was said and what decisions might have been made during the conversation. There have been many occasions where I’ve used the search feature of my team’s chat application to find a conversation that happened several weeks or months ago to remember what was decided. Unfortunately, I think the benefits associated with the persistence of communicating asynchronously often get overlooked when people decide to escalate to a in-person meeting or voice/video call. I’m becoming much more reluctant to suggest a voice or video call if I suspect that it might lead to codifying some kind of design decision because everyone involved is going to hang up the call and immediately forget what was decided. I recognize that you can record and archive these types of interactions, but without being able to search them the recordings aren’t terribly useful. When and How To Escalate I don’t mean to imply that communicating via voice/video or in person is never a good idea. I probably jump on a Skype call with a co-worker at least once a day to quickly hash something out or show them a bit of code that I’m working on. Also, meeting in person periodically is really important for remote teams. There’s no way around the fact that sometimes it’s easier to jump on a call and show someone my screen so they can see what I’m seeing. So when is it right to escalate? I think the simplest way to answer that is when the communication starts to feel painful. Everyone’s tolerance for that pain is different, but I think you need to let it hurt a little bit before jumping to synchronous communication. When you do escalate from asynchronous to synchronous communication, there are a couple of things you can do to maximize the effectiveness of the communication: Takes notes – This is huge and yet I’ve found that a lot of teams don’t do this. If you’re holding a meeting with  > 2 people you should have someone taking notes. Taking notes while participating in a meeting can be difficult but there are a few strategies to deal with this challenge that probably deserve a short post of their own. After the meeting, make sure the notes are posted to a place where all concerned parties (including those that might not have attended the meeting) can review and search them. Persist decisions made ASAP – If any decisions were made during the meeting, persist those decisions to a searchable medium as soon as possible following the conversation. All the teams I’ve worked on used a web-based system for tracking the on-going work and a backlog of work to be done in the future. I always try to make sure that all of the cards/stories/tasks/whatever in these systems always reflect the latest decisions that were made as the work was being planned and executed. If held a quick call with your team lead and decided that it wasn’t worth the effort to build real-time validation into that new UI you were working on, go and codify that decision in the story associated with that work immediately after you hang up. Even better, write it up in the story while you are both still on the phone. That way when the folks from your QA team pick up the story to test a few days later they’ll know why the real-time validation isn’t there without having to invoke yet another conversation about the work. Communicating Well is Hard At this point you might be thinking that communicating asynchronously is more difficult than having a live conversation. You’re right: it is more difficult. In order to communicate effectively this way you need to very carefully think about the message that you’re trying to convey and craft it in a way that’s easy for your audience to understand. This is almost always harder than just talking through a problem in real time with someone; this is why escalating communication is such a popular idea. Why wouldn’t we want to do the thing that’s easier? Easier isn’t always better. If you and your team can get in the habit of communicating effectively in an asynchronous manner you’ll find that, over time, all of your communications get less painful because you don’t need to re-iterate previously made points over and over again. If you communicate right the first time, you often don’t need to rehash old conversations because you can go back and find the decisions that were made laid out in plain language. You’ll also find that you get better at doing things like writing useful comments in your code, creating written documentation about how the feature that you just built works, or persuading your team to do things in a certain way.

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• SMB access from XP to Windows 2008 R2

  - by Pablo

  Here's the thing... I have a very slow file copy performance from Windows XP clients to Windows 2008R2 servers. Here are the facts: Windows XP to Windows 2K3: Fast Windows XP to Windows 2K8: Very Slow Windows 7 to Windows (any): Fast Despite the fact that the obvious solution would be to upgrade to Windows 7, well, we have 900 desktops so it's not an option in the short time. I have tried everything: Disabling SMB2.0, disabling security signatures, changing the TCP Window size, disabling the W2K8 auto tuning, upgraded the drivers, etc. We eliminated the network; both the server and the client are connected to the same core switch (no hops, no routers, same VLAN). Upon monitoring the network with a packet capture utility, we see that the SMB packets being exchanged between the W2K8 and the XP machines are very small packets (256 bytes); despite the fact that the MTUs are properly set (1500) and there is no fragmentation whatsoever. In fact, those SMB packets show, on the IP datagram, that the window is 65535 or close. The same trace, made using the same application but instead of using a W2K8 share uses a Windows XP share (and that goes FAST) shows SMB packets of 4096 bytes. I can post the traces if necessary. So, why does XP-W2K8 negotiation arrange for 24-bytes SMB payload, whereas the XP-XP negotiation arranges for 4096 SMB packets? Any ideas? I am running short of those...

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• Metro: Dynamically Switching Templates with a WinJS ListView

  - by Stephen.Walther

  Imagine that you want to display a list of products using the WinJS ListView control. Imagine, furthermore, that you want to use different templates to display different products. In particular, when a product is on sale, you want to display the product using a special “On Sale” template. In this blog entry, I explain how you can switch templates dynamically when displaying items with a ListView control. In other words, you learn how to use more than one template when displaying items with a ListView control. Creating the Data Source Let’s start by creating the data source for the ListView. Nothing special here – our data source is a list of products. Two of the products, Oranges and Apples, are on sale. (function () { "use strict"; var products = new WinJS.Binding.List([ { name: "Milk", price: 2.44 }, { name: "Oranges", price: 1.99, onSale: true }, { name: "Wine", price: 8.55 }, { name: "Apples", price: 2.44, onSale: true }, { name: "Steak", price: 1.99 }, { name: "Eggs", price: 2.44 }, { name: "Mushrooms", price: 1.99 }, { name: "Yogurt", price: 2.44 }, { name: "Soup", price: 1.99 }, { name: "Cereal", price: 2.44 }, { name: "Pepsi", price: 1.99 } ]); WinJS.Namespace.define("ListViewDemos", { products: products }); })(); The file above is saved with the name products.js and referenced by the default.html page described below. Declaring the Templates and ListView Control Next, we need to declare the ListView control and the two Template controls which we will use to display template items. The markup below appears in the default.html file: <!-- Templates --> <div id="productItemTemplate" data-win-control="WinJS.Binding.Template"> <div class="product"> <span data-win-bind="innerText:name"></span> <span data-win-bind="innerText:price"></span> </div> </div> <div id="productOnSaleTemplate" data-win-control="WinJS.Binding.Template"> <div class="product onSale"> <span data-win-bind="innerText:name"></span> <span data-win-bind="innerText:price"></span> (On Sale!) </div> </div> <!-- ListView --> <div id="productsListView" data-win-control="WinJS.UI.ListView" data-win-options="{ itemDataSource: ListViewDemos.products.dataSource, layout: { type: WinJS.UI.ListLayout } }"> </div> In the markup above, two Template controls are declared. The first template is used when rendering a normal product and the second template is used when rendering a product which is on sale. The second template, unlike the first template, includes the text “(On Sale!)”. The ListView control is bound to the data source which we created in the previous section. The ListView itemDataSource property is set to the value ListViewDemos.products.dataSource. Notice that we do not set the ListView itemTemplate property. We set this property in the default.js file. Switching Between Templates All of the magic happens in the default.js file. The default.js file contains the JavaScript code used to switch templates dynamically. Here’s the entire contents of the default.js file: (function () { "use strict"; var app = WinJS.Application; app.onactivated = function (eventObject) { if (eventObject.detail.kind === Windows.ApplicationModel.Activation.ActivationKind.launch) { WinJS.UI.processAll().then(function () { var productsListView = document.getElementById("productsListView"); productsListView.winControl.itemTemplate = itemTemplateFunction; });; } }; function itemTemplateFunction(itemPromise) { return itemPromise.then(function (item) { // Select either normal product template or on sale template var itemTemplate = document.getElementById("productItemTemplate"); if (item.data.onSale) { itemTemplate = document.getElementById("productOnSaleTemplate"); }; // Render selected template to DIV container var container = document.createElement("div"); itemTemplate.winControl.render(item.data, container); return container; }); } app.start(); })(); In the code above, a function is assigned to the ListView itemTemplate property with the following line of code: productsListView.winControl.itemTemplate = itemTemplateFunction;   The itemTemplateFunction returns a DOM element which is used for the template item. Depending on the value of the product onSale property, the DOM element is generated from either the productItemTemplate or the productOnSaleTemplate template. Using Binding Converters instead of Multiple Templates In the previous sections, I explained how you can use different templates to render normal products and on sale products. There is an alternative approach to displaying different markup for normal products and on sale products. Instead of creating two templates, you can create a single template which contains separate DIV elements for a normal product and an on sale product. The following default.html file contains a single item template and a ListView control bound to the template. <!-- Template --> <div id="productItemTemplate" data-win-control="WinJS.Binding.Template"> <div class="product" data-win-bind="style.display: onSale ListViewDemos.displayNormalProduct"> <span data-win-bind="innerText:name"></span> <span data-win-bind="innerText:price"></span> </div> <div class="product onSale" data-win-bind="style.display: onSale ListViewDemos.displayOnSaleProduct"> <span data-win-bind="innerText:name"></span> <span data-win-bind="innerText:price"></span> (On Sale!) </div> </div> <!-- ListView --> <div id="productsListView" data-win-control="WinJS.UI.ListView" data-win-options="{ itemDataSource: ListViewDemos.products.dataSource, itemTemplate: select('#productItemTemplate'), layout: { type: WinJS.UI.ListLayout } }"> </div> The first DIV element is used to render a normal product: <div class="product" data-win-bind="style.display: onSale ListViewDemos.displayNormalProduct"> <span data-win-bind="innerText:name"></span> <span data-win-bind="innerText:price"></span> </div> The second DIV element is used to render an “on sale” product: <div class="product onSale" data-win-bind="style.display: onSale ListViewDemos.displayOnSaleProduct"> <span data-win-bind="innerText:name"></span> <span data-win-bind="innerText:price"></span> (On Sale!) </div> Notice that both templates include a data-win-bind attribute. These data-win-bind attributes are used to show the “normal” template when a product is not on sale and show the “on sale” template when a product is on sale. These attributes set the Cascading Style Sheet display attribute to either “none” or “block”. The data-win-bind attributes take advantage of binding converters. The binding converters are defined in the default.js file: (function () { "use strict"; var app = WinJS.Application; app.onactivated = function (eventObject) { if (eventObject.detail.kind === Windows.ApplicationModel.Activation.ActivationKind.launch) { WinJS.UI.processAll(); } }; WinJS.Namespace.define("ListViewDemos", { displayNormalProduct: WinJS.Binding.converter(function (onSale) { return onSale ? "none" : "block"; }), displayOnSaleProduct: WinJS.Binding.converter(function (onSale) { return onSale ? "block" : "none"; }) }); app.start(); })(); The ListViewDemos.displayNormalProduct binding converter converts the value true or false to the value “none” or “block”. The ListViewDemos.displayOnSaleProduct binding converter does the opposite; it converts the value true or false to the value “block” or “none” (Sadly, you cannot simply place a NOT operator before the onSale property in the binding expression – you need to create both converters). The end result is that you can display different markup depending on the value of the product onSale property. Either the contents of the first or second DIV element are displayed: Summary In this blog entry, I’ve explored two approaches to displaying different markup in a ListView depending on the value of a data item property. The bulk of this blog entry was devoted to explaining how you can assign a function to the ListView itemTemplate property which returns different templates. We created both a productItemTemplate and productOnSaleTemplate and displayed both templates with the same ListView control. We also discussed how you can create a single template and display different markup by using binding converters. The binding converters are used to set a DIV element’s display property to either “none” or “block”. We created a binding converter which displays normal products and a binding converter which displays “on sale” products.

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Sunday, May 25, 2014

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Sunday, May 25, 2014Popular ReleasesClosedXML - The easy way to OpenXML: ClosedXML 0.71.0: Major improvement when saving large files.SimCityPak: SimCityPak 0.3.1.0: Main New Features: Fixed Importing of Instance Names (get rid of the Dutch translations) Added advanced editor for Decal Dictionaries Added possibility to import .PNG to generate new decals Added advanced editor for Path display entriesTiny Deduplicator: Tiny Deduplicator 1.0.1.0: Increased version number to 1.0.1.0 Moved all options to a separate 'Options' dialog window. Allows the user to specify a selection strategy which will help when dealing with large numbers of duplicate files. Available options are "None," "Keep First," and "Keep Last"SEToolbox: SEToolbox 01.031.009 Release 1: Added mirroring of ConveyorTubeCurved. Updated Ship cube rotation to rotate ship back to original location (cubes are reoriented but ship appears no different to outsider), and to rotate Grouped items. Repair now fixes the loss of Grouped controls due to changes in Space Engineers 01.030. Added export asteroids. Rejoin ships will merge grouping and conveyor systems (even though broken ships currently only maintain the Grouping on one part of the ship). Installation of this version wi...Player Framework by Microsoft: Player Framework for Windows and WP v2.0: Support for new Universal and Windows Phone 8.1 projects for both Xaml and JavaScript projects. See a detailed list of improvements, breaking changes and a general overview of version 2 ADDITIONAL DOWNLOADSSmooth Streaming Client SDK for Windows 8 Applications Smooth Streaming Client SDK for Windows 8.1 Applications Smooth Streaming Client SDK for Windows Phone 8.1 Applications Microsoft PlayReady Client SDK for Windows 8 Applications Microsoft PlayReady Client SDK for Windows 8.1 Applicat...TerraMap (Terraria World Map Viewer): TerraMap 1.0.6: Added support for the new Terraria v1.2.4 update. New items, walls, and tiles Added the ability to select multiple highlighted block types. Added a dynamic, interactive highlight opacity slider, making it easier to find highlighted tiles with dark colors (and fixed blurriness from 1.0.5 alpha). Added ability to find Enchanted Swords (in the stone) and Water Bolt books Fixed Issue 35206: Hightlight/Find doesn't work for Demon Altars Fixed finding Demon Hearts/Shadow Orbs Fixed inst...DotNet.Highcharts: DotNet.Highcharts 4.0 with Examples: DotNet.Highcharts 4.0 Tested and adapted to the latest version of Highcharts 4.0.1 Added new chart type: Heatmap Added new type PointPlacement which represents enumeration or number for the padding of the X axis. Changed target framework from .NET Framework 4 to .NET Framework 4.5. Closed issues: 974: Add 'overflow' property to PlotOptionsColumnDataLabels class 997: Split container from JS 1006: Series/Categories with numeric names don't render DotNet.Highcharts.Samples Updated s...51Degrees - Device Detection and Redirection: 3.1.1.12: Version 3.1 HighlightsDevice detection algorithm is over 100 times faster. Regular expressions and levenshtein distance calculations are no longer used. The device detection algorithm performance is no longer limited by the number of device combinations contained in the dataset. Two modes of operation are available: Memory – the detection data set is loaded into memory and there is no continuous connection to the source data file. Slower initialisation time but faster detection performanc...VisioAutomation: Visio PowerShell Module (VisioPS) 1.2.0: DocumentationDocumentation is here http://sdrv.ms/11AWkp7 Screencasthttp://vimeo.com/61329170 FilesFor easy installation, download and run the MSI file. If you want to manually install, a ZIP file is provided. ChangeLogInvoke-* cmdlets replaced with more specific PowerShell Verbs Enhanced handling of values in User-Defined Cells Get-VisioShape works more unituitivelyNino Seisei Code Generator: Nino Seisei v2.1.1: Mejoras en la interfaz, posibilidad de ejecutar instrucciones Berta cíclicas una dentro de otra con la nueva instrucción @BSETRECURSIVITY_ON. GUI Improvements, posibility of running ciclic Berta instructions one inside another with the new @BSETRECURSIVITY_ON instruction.PowerShell App Deployment Toolkit: PowerShell App Deployment Toolkit v3.1.3: Added CompressLogs option to the config file. Each Install / Uninstall creates a timestamped zip file with all MSI and PSAppDeployToolkit logs contained within Added variable expansion to all paths in the configuration file Added documentation for each of the Toolkit internal variables that can be used Changed Install-MSUpdates to continue if any errors are encountered when installing updates Implement /Force parameter on Update-GroupPolicy (ensure that any logoff message is ignored) ...ULS Log Viewer: Alpha 0.2: Changeset CI&T ULS Log 22/05/2014 - Inclusão do botão de limpar filtro - Inclusão da possibilidade de filtrar as entradas pelo texto da mensagem; - Inclusão da opção de abrir mais de um arquivo de log no mesmo grid para análise; - Inclusão da tela de Sobre. - Campo de Filtro Rápido Level carrega somente os Levels encontrados no arquivo de log carregado; - Campo de exibição rápida de mensagem setado para somente leitura; - Inclusão da Barra de Status com informações do nome do arquivo ...Application Parameters for Microsoft Dynamics CRM: Application Parameters (1.2.0.1): Fix plugin when updating parameters without changing parameter typeWordMat: WordMat v. 1.07: A quick fix because scientific notation was broken in v. 1.06 read more at http://wordmat.blogspot.com????: 《????》: 《????》（c???）??“????”???????，???????????????C?????????。???????,???????????????????????. ??????????????????????????????????；????????????????????????????。Mini SQL Query: Mini SQL Query (1.0.72.457): Apologies for the previous update! FK issue fixed and also a template data cache issue.Wsus Package Publisher: Release v1.3.1405.17: Add Russian translation (thanks to VSharmanov) Fix a bug that make WPP to crash if the user click on "Connect/Reload" while the Report Tab is loading. Enhance the way WPP store the password for remote computers command.MoreTerra (Terraria World Viewer): More Terra 1.12.9: =========== = Compatibility = =========== Updated to account for new format 1.2.4.1 =========== = Issues = =========== all items have not been added. Some colors for new tiles may be off. I wanted to get this out so people have a usable program.LINQ to Twitter: LINQ to Twitter v3.0.3: Supports .NET 4.5x, Windows Phone 8.x, Windows 8.x, Windows Azure, Xamarin.Android, and Xamarin.iOS. New features include Status/Lookup, Mute APIs, and bug fixes. 100% Twitter API v1.1 coverage, Async, Portable Class Library (PCL).CS-Script for Notepad++ (C# intellisense and code execution): Release v1.0.26.0: Added access to the Release Notes during 'Check for Updates...'' Debug panels Added support for generic types members Members are grouped into 'Raw View' and 'Non-Public members' categories Implemented dedicated (array-like) view for Lists and Dictionaries http://download-codeplex.sec.s-msft.com/Download?ProjectName=csscriptnpp&DownloadId=846498New Projects2111110107: Thanh Loi2111110152: Nguy?n Doãn Tu?nASP.NET MVC4 Warehouse management system: WMSNet is an easy to use warehouse management solution for manually operated warehouses and can smoothly be customized according to your requirements. Code Snippets: Code snippets to empower the developers to write quality code faster while adhering to the industry standards.CRM 2011 / CRM 2013 Form Helper: Library of CRM 2011 / CRM 2013 Web Resources that can be used on Forms for making input simpler; ex Automatic title case Kinect Translation Tool: From Sign Language to spoken text and vice versa: Software System Component 1. Kinect SDKver.1.7 for the Kinect sensor. 2. Windows 7 standard APIs- The audio, speech, and media APIs in Windows 7MDriven Getting started - MVC: This is the suggested getting started template for doing MVC with MDriven. Fork it and begin to fill up with your model. Rules Engine Validator: A simple rules validator. It's based on a rule manager component (an implementation of the Command GoF pattern), with a main method called Validate().Simple Connect To Db: ????? ???? ?? ??????? ?? ????? ??? ? ??????? ????? ??z3-str-purdue: test geekchina.com

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• Day 6 - Game Menuing Woes and Future Screen Sneak Peeks

  - by dapostolov

  So, after my last post on Day 5 I dabbled with my game class design. I took the approach where each game objects is tightly coupled with a graphic. The good news is I got the menu working but not without some hard knocks and game growing pains. I'll explain later, but for now...here is a class diagram of my first stab at my class structure and some code...   Ok, there are few mistakes, however, I'm going to leave it as is for now... As you can see I created an inital abstract base class called GameSprite. This class when inherited will provide a simple virtual default draw method:        public virtual void DrawSprite(SpriteBatch spriteBatch)         {             spriteBatch.Draw(Sprite, Position, Color.White);         } The benefits of coding it this way allows me to inherit the class and utilise the method in the screen draw method...So regardless of what the graphic object type is it will now have the ability to render a static image on the screen. Example: public class MyStaticTreasureChest : GameSprite {} If you remember the window draw method from Day 3's post, we could use the above code as follows...         protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime)         {             GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.CornflowerBlue);             spriteBatch.Begin(SpriteBlendMode.AlphaBlend);             foreach(var gameSprite in ListOfGameObjects)            {                 gameSprite.DrawSprite(spriteBatch);            }             spriteBatch.End();             base.Draw(gameTime);         } I have to admit the GameSprite object is pretty plain as with its DrawSprite method... But ... we now have the ability to render 3 static menu items on the screen ... BORING! I want those menu items to do something exciting, which of course involves animation... So, let's have a peek at AnimatedGameSprite in the above game diagram. The idea with the AnimatedGameSprite is that it has an image to animate...such as ... characters, fireballs, and... menus! So after inheriting from GameSprite class, I added a few more options such as UpdateSprite...         public virtual void UpdateSprite(float elapsed)         {             _totalElapsed += elapsed;             if (_totalElapsed > _timePerFrame)             {                 _frame++;                 _frame = _frame % _framecount;                 _totalElapsed -= _timePerFrame;             }         }  And an overidden DrawSprite...         public override void DrawSprite(SpriteBatch spriteBatch)         {             int FrameWidth = Sprite.Width / _framecount;             Rectangle sourcerect = new Rectangle(FrameWidth * _frame, 0, FrameWidth, Sprite.Height);             spriteBatch.Draw(Sprite, Position, sourcerect, Color.White, _rotation, _origin, _scale, SpriteEffects.None, _depth);         } With these two methods...I can animate and image, all I had to do was add a few more lines to the screens Update Method (From Day 3), like such:             float elapsed = (float) gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.TotalSeconds;             foreach (var item in ListOfAnimatedGameObjects)             {                 item.UpdateSprite(elapsed);             } And voila! My images begin to animate in one spot, on the screen... Hmm, but how do I interact with the menu items using a mouse...well the mouse cursor was easy enough... this.IsMouseVisible = true; But, to have it "interact" with an image was a bit more tricky...I had to perform collision detection!             mouseStateCurrent = Mouse.GetState();             var uiEnabledSprites = (from s in menuItems                                    where s.IsEnabled                                    select s).ToList();             foreach (var item in uiEnabledSprites)             {                 var r = new Rectangle((int)item.Position.X, (int)item.Position.Y, item.Sprite.Width, item.Sprite.Height);                 item.MenuState = MenuState.Normal;                 if (r.Intersects(new Rectangle(mouseStateCurrent.X, mouseStateCurrent.Y, 0, 0)))                 {                     item.MenuState = MenuState.Hover;                     if (mouseStatePrevious.LeftButton == ButtonState.Pressed                         && mouseStateCurrent.LeftButton == ButtonState.Released)                     {                         item.MenuState = MenuState.Pressed;                     }                 }             }             mouseStatePrevious = mouseStateCurrent; So, basically, what it is doing above is iterating through all my interactive objects and detecting a rectangle collision and the object , plays the state animation (or static image).  Lessons Learned, Time Burned... So, I think I did well to start, but after I hammered out my prototype...well...things got sloppy and I began to realise some design flaws... At the time: I couldn't seem to figure out how to open another window, such as the character creation screen Input was not event based and it was bugging me My menu design relied heavily on mouse input and I couldn't use keyboard. Mouse input, is tightly bound with graphic rendering / positioning, so its logic will have to be in each scene. Menu animations would stop mid frame, then continue when the action occured again. This is bad, because...what if I had a sword sliding onthe screen? Then it would slide a quarter of the way, then stop due to another action, then render again mid-slide... it just looked sloppy. Menu, Solved!? To solve the above problems I did a little research and I found some great code in the XNA forums. The one worth mentioning was the GameStateManagementSample. With this sample, you can create a basic "text based" menu system which allows you to swap screens, popup screens, play the game, and quit....basic game state management... In my next post I'm going to dwelve a bit more into this code and adapt it with my code from this prototype. Text based menus just won't cut it for me, for now...however, I'm still going to stick with my animated menu item idea. A sneak peek using the Game State Management Sample...with no changes made... Cool Things to Mention: At work ... I tend to break out in random conversations every-so-often and I get talking about some of my challenges with this game (or some stupid observation about something... stupid) During one conversation I was discussing how I should animate my images; I explained that I knew I had to use the Update method provided, but I didn't know how (at the time) to render an image at an appropriate "pace" and how many frames to use, etc.. I also got thinking that if a machine rendered my images faster / slower, that was surely going to f-up my animations. To which a friend, Sheldon,  answered, surely the Draw method is like a camera taking a snapshot of a scene in time. Then it clicked...I understood the big picture of the game engine... After some research I discovered that the Draw method attempts to keep a framerate of 60 fps. From what I understand, the game engine will even leave out a few calls to the draw method if it begins to slow down. This is why we want to put our sprite updates in the update method. Then using a game timer (provided by the engine), we want to render the scene based on real time passed, not framerate. So even the engine renders at 20 fps, the animations will still animate at the same real time speed! Which brings up another point. Why 60 fps? I'm speculating that Microsoft capped it because LCD's dont' refresh faster than 60 fps? On another note, If the game engine knows its falling behind in rendering...then surely we can harness this to speed up our games. Maybe I can find some flag which tell me if the game is lagging, and what the current framerate is, etc...(instead of coding it like I did last time) Sheldon, suggested maybe I can render like WoW does, in prioritised layers...I think he's onto something, however I don't think I'll have that many graphics to worry about such a problem of graphic latency. We'll see. People to Mention: Well,as you are aware I hadn't posted in a couple days and I was surprised to see a few emails and messenger queries about my game progress (and some concern as to why I stopped). I want to thank everyone for their kind words of support and put everyone at ease by stating that I do intend on completing this project. Granted I only have a few hours each night, but, I'll do it. Thank you to Garth for mailing in my next screen! That was a nice surprise! The Sneek Peek you've been waiting for... Garth has also volunteered to render me some wizard images. He was a bit shocked when I asked for them in 2D animated strips. He said I was going backward (and that I have really bad Game Development Lingo). But, I advised Garth that I will use 3D images later...for now...2D images. Garth also had some great game design ideas to add on. I advised him that I will save his ideas and include them in the future design document (for the 3d version?). Lastly, my best friend Alek, is going to join me in developing this game. This was a project we started eons ago but never completed because of our careers. Now, priorities change and we have some spare time on our hands. Let's see what trouble Alek and I can get into! Tonight I'll be uploading my prototypes and base game to a source control for both of us to work off of. D.

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• Metro: Dynamically Switching Templates with a WinJS ListView

  - by Stephen.Walther

  Imagine that you want to display a list of products using the WinJS ListView control. Imagine, furthermore, that you want to use different templates to display different products. In particular, when a product is on sale, you want to display the product using a special “On Sale” template. In this blog entry, I explain how you can switch templates dynamically when displaying items with a ListView control. In other words, you learn how to use more than one template when displaying items with a ListView control. Creating the Data Source Let’s start by creating the data source for the ListView. Nothing special here – our data source is a list of products. Two of the products, Oranges and Apples, are on sale. (function () { "use strict"; var products = new WinJS.Binding.List([ { name: "Milk", price: 2.44 }, { name: "Oranges", price: 1.99, onSale: true }, { name: "Wine", price: 8.55 }, { name: "Apples", price: 2.44, onSale: true }, { name: "Steak", price: 1.99 }, { name: "Eggs", price: 2.44 }, { name: "Mushrooms", price: 1.99 }, { name: "Yogurt", price: 2.44 }, { name: "Soup", price: 1.99 }, { name: "Cereal", price: 2.44 }, { name: "Pepsi", price: 1.99 } ]); WinJS.Namespace.define("ListViewDemos", { products: products }); })(); The file above is saved with the name products.js and referenced by the default.html page described below. Declaring the Templates and ListView Control Next, we need to declare the ListView control and the two Template controls which we will use to display template items. The markup below appears in the default.html file: <!-- Templates --> <div id="productItemTemplate" data-win-control="WinJS.Binding.Template"> <div class="product"> <span data-win-bind="innerText:name"></span> <span data-win-bind="innerText:price"></span> </div> </div> <div id="productOnSaleTemplate" data-win-control="WinJS.Binding.Template"> <div class="product onSale"> <span data-win-bind="innerText:name"></span> <span data-win-bind="innerText:price"></span> (On Sale!) </div> </div> <!-- ListView --> <div id="productsListView" data-win-control="WinJS.UI.ListView" data-win-options="{ itemDataSource: ListViewDemos.products.dataSource, layout: { type: WinJS.UI.ListLayout } }"> </div> In the markup above, two Template controls are declared. The first template is used when rendering a normal product and the second template is used when rendering a product which is on sale. The second template, unlike the first template, includes the text “(On Sale!)”. The ListView control is bound to the data source which we created in the previous section. The ListView itemDataSource property is set to the value ListViewDemos.products.dataSource. Notice that we do not set the ListView itemTemplate property. We set this property in the default.js file. Switching Between Templates All of the magic happens in the default.js file. The default.js file contains the JavaScript code used to switch templates dynamically. Here’s the entire contents of the default.js file: (function () { "use strict"; var app = WinJS.Application; app.onactivated = function (eventObject) { if (eventObject.detail.kind === Windows.ApplicationModel.Activation.ActivationKind.launch) { WinJS.UI.processAll().then(function () { var productsListView = document.getElementById("productsListView"); productsListView.winControl.itemTemplate = itemTemplateFunction; });; } }; function itemTemplateFunction(itemPromise) { return itemPromise.then(function (item) { // Select either normal product template or on sale template var itemTemplate = document.getElementById("productItemTemplate"); if (item.data.onSale) { itemTemplate = document.getElementById("productOnSaleTemplate"); }; // Render selected template to DIV container var container = document.createElement("div"); itemTemplate.winControl.render(item.data, container); return container; }); } app.start(); })(); In the code above, a function is assigned to the ListView itemTemplate property with the following line of code: productsListView.winControl.itemTemplate = itemTemplateFunction;   The itemTemplateFunction returns a DOM element which is used for the template item. Depending on the value of the product onSale property, the DOM element is generated from either the productItemTemplate or the productOnSaleTemplate template. Using Binding Converters instead of Multiple Templates In the previous sections, I explained how you can use different templates to render normal products and on sale products. There is an alternative approach to displaying different markup for normal products and on sale products. Instead of creating two templates, you can create a single template which contains separate DIV elements for a normal product and an on sale product. The following default.html file contains a single item template and a ListView control bound to the template. <!-- Template --> <div id="productItemTemplate" data-win-control="WinJS.Binding.Template"> <div class="product" data-win-bind="style.display: onSale ListViewDemos.displayNormalProduct"> <span data-win-bind="innerText:name"></span> <span data-win-bind="innerText:price"></span> </div> <div class="product onSale" data-win-bind="style.display: onSale ListViewDemos.displayOnSaleProduct"> <span data-win-bind="innerText:name"></span> <span data-win-bind="innerText:price"></span> (On Sale!) </div> </div> <!-- ListView --> <div id="productsListView" data-win-control="WinJS.UI.ListView" data-win-options="{ itemDataSource: ListViewDemos.products.dataSource, itemTemplate: select('#productItemTemplate'), layout: { type: WinJS.UI.ListLayout } }"> </div> The first DIV element is used to render a normal product: <div class="product" data-win-bind="style.display: onSale ListViewDemos.displayNormalProduct"> <span data-win-bind="innerText:name"></span> <span data-win-bind="innerText:price"></span> </div> The second DIV element is used to render an “on sale” product: <div class="product onSale" data-win-bind="style.display: onSale ListViewDemos.displayOnSaleProduct"> <span data-win-bind="innerText:name"></span> <span data-win-bind="innerText:price"></span> (On Sale!) </div> Notice that both templates include a data-win-bind attribute. These data-win-bind attributes are used to show the “normal” template when a product is not on sale and show the “on sale” template when a product is on sale. These attributes set the Cascading Style Sheet display attribute to either “none” or “block”. The data-win-bind attributes take advantage of binding converters. The binding converters are defined in the default.js file: (function () { "use strict"; var app = WinJS.Application; app.onactivated = function (eventObject) { if (eventObject.detail.kind === Windows.ApplicationModel.Activation.ActivationKind.launch) { WinJS.UI.processAll(); } }; WinJS.Namespace.define("ListViewDemos", { displayNormalProduct: WinJS.Binding.converter(function (onSale) { return onSale ? "none" : "block"; }), displayOnSaleProduct: WinJS.Binding.converter(function (onSale) { return onSale ? "block" : "none"; }) }); app.start(); })(); The ListViewDemos.displayNormalProduct binding converter converts the value true or false to the value “none” or “block”. The ListViewDemos.displayOnSaleProduct binding converter does the opposite; it converts the value true or false to the value “block” or “none” (Sadly, you cannot simply place a NOT operator before the onSale property in the binding expression – you need to create both converters). The end result is that you can display different markup depending on the value of the product onSale property. Either the contents of the first or second DIV element are displayed: Summary In this blog entry, I’ve explored two approaches to displaying different markup in a ListView depending on the value of a data item property. The bulk of this blog entry was devoted to explaining how you can assign a function to the ListView itemTemplate property which returns different templates. We created both a productItemTemplate and productOnSaleTemplate and displayed both templates with the same ListView control. We also discussed how you can create a single template and display different markup by using binding converters. The binding converters are used to set a DIV element’s display property to either “none” or “block”. We created a binding converter which displays normal products and a binding converter which displays “on sale” products.

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Tuesday, June 26, 2012

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Tuesday, June 26, 2012Popular ReleasesSOLID by example: All examples: All solid examplesJSLint for Resharper: 0.1.4560 Beta: Deadlock removed. No locks before reading cscript output from jslint, not verified to be very safe, but at least VS doesn't crash. Happy linting. :)SiteMap Editor for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011: SiteMap Editor (1.1.1726.406): Use of new version of connection controls for a full support of OSDP authentication mechanism for CRM Online.DotNetNuke® Form and List: 06.00.02: DotNetNuke Form and List 06.00.02 Changes in 06.00.02 The scripts are now finally compatible with SQL Azure, tested in a new instance on Azure. If you are not targetting Azure, there is no need to upgrade from 06.00.01 (it won't hurt though). Changes in 06.00.01 Icons are shown in module action buttons (workaraound to core issue with IconAPI) Fix to Token2XSL Editor, changing List type raised exception MakeTumbnail and ShowXml handlers had been missing in install package Updated ...StreamInsight Samples: StreamInsight Product Team Samples V2.1: These samples correspond to the new StreamInsight APIs introduced with V2.1.Umbraco CMS: Umbraco CMS 5.2: Development on Umbraco v5 discontinued After much discussion and consultation with leaders from the Umbraco community it was decided that work on the v5 branch would be discontinued with efforts being refocused on the stable and feature rich v4 branch. For full details as to why this decision was made please watch the CodeGarden 12 Keynote. What about all that hard work?!?? We are not binning everything and it does not mean that all work done on 5 is lost! we are taking all of the best and m...IIS Express Manager: IIS Express 0.31 B: V0.1B - 04 May, 2012 Initiated Project. V0.2B - 05May, 2012 1. Fixed small bug. Threw error when stop button was pressed in an already stopped application. 2. Removed start and stop button. Double clicking on list items will now stop / start the websites. 3. Improved code readability. 4. Changed Orientation of Buttons in UI. V0.3B - 06May, 2012 1. Complete modification of IISEM and process ID handling 2. IISEM is now capable of reflecting the existing IISExpress processes right from startup...SPMegaMenu 0.2.0.a: SPMegaMenu 0.2.0.a: SPMegaMenu 0.2.0.a - *Refined the menu to allow for sub category additions. *Release 0.1.0.a did not allow for sub categories. *Also added a Javascript Array Prototype to facilitate removal of duplicates in the sub category return. (the prototype is added as a workaround as I am not able to get the CAML GroupBy function to work correctly against a lookup column)CodeGenerate: CodeGenerate Alpha: The Project can auto generate C# code. Include BLL Layer、Domain Layer、IDAL Layer、DAL Layer. Support SqlServer And Oracle This is a alpha program,but which can run and generate code. Generate database table info into MS WordXDA ROM HUB: XDA ROM HUB v0.9: Kernel listing added -- Thanks to iONEx Added scripts installer button. Added "Nandroid On The Go" -- Perform a Nandroid backup without a PC! Added official Android app!ExtAspNet: ExtAspNet v3.1.8.2: +2012-06-24 v3.1.8 +????Grid???????（???????ExpandUnusedSpace????????）（??）。 -????MinColumnWidth（??????）。 -????AutoExpandColumn，???????????????（ColumnID）（?????ForceFitFirstTime??ForceFitAllTime，??????）。 -????AutoExpandColumnMax?AutoExpandColumnMin。 -????ForceFitFirstTime，????????????，??????????（????????????）。 -????ForceFitAllTime，????????????，??????????（??????????????????）。 -????VerticalScrollWidth，????????（??????????，0?????????????）。 -????grid/grid_forcefit.aspx。 -???????????En...AJAX Control Toolkit: June 2012 Release: AJAX Control Toolkit Release Notes - June 2012 Release Version 60623June 2012 release of the AJAX Control Toolkit. AJAX Control Toolkit .NET 4 – AJAX Control Toolkit for .NET 4 and sample site (Recommended). AJAX Control Toolkit .NET 3.5 – AJAX Control Toolkit for .NET 3.5 and sample site (Recommended). Notes: - The current version of the AJAX Control Toolkit is not compatible with ASP.NET 2.0. The latest version that is compatible with ASP.NET 2.0 can be found here: 11121. - Pages using ...WPF Application Framework (WAF): WPF Application Framework (WAF) 2.5.0.5: Version: 2.5.0.5 (Milestone 5): This release contains the source code of the WPF Application Framework (WAF) and the sample applications. Requirements .NET Framework 4.0 (The package contains a solution file for Visual Studio 2010) The unit test projects require Visual Studio 2010 Professional Changelog Legend: [B] Breaking change; [O] Marked member as obsolete WAF: Add IsInDesignMode property to the WafConfiguration class. WAF: Introduce the IModuleController interface. WAF: Add ...Windows 8 Metro RSS Reader: Metro RSS Reader.v7: Updated for Windows 8 Release Preview Changed background and foreground colors Used VariableSizeGrid layout to wrap blog posts with images Sort items with Images first, text-only last Enabled Caching to improve navigation between framesConfuser: Confuser 1.9: Change log: * Stable output (i.e. given the same seed & input assemblies, you'll get the same output assemblies) + Generate debug symbols, now it is possible to debug the output under a debugger! (Of course without enabling anti debug) + Generating obfuscation database, most of the obfuscation data in stored in it. + Two tools utilizing the obfuscation database (Database viewer & Stack trace decoder) * Change the protection scheme -----Please read Bug Report before you report a bug-----...XDesigner.Development: First release: First releaseBlackJumboDog: Ver5.6.5: 2012.06.22 Ver5.6.5 　(1) FTP??????? EPSV ??　EPRT　???????MVVM Light Toolkit: V4RTM (binaries only) including Windows 8 RP: This package contains all the latest DLLs for MVVM Light V4 RTM. It includes the DLLs for Windows 8 Release Preview. An updated Nuget package is also available at http://nuget.org/packages/MvvmLightLibs An installer with binaries, snippets and templates will follow ASAP.Weapsy - ASP.NET MVC CMS: 1.0.0: - Some changes to Layout and CSS - Changed version number to 1.0.0.0 - Solved Cache and Session items handler error in IIS 7 - Created the Modules, Plugins and Widgets Areas - Replaced CKEditor with TinyMCE - Created the System Info page - Minor changesAcDown????? - AcDown Downloader Framework: AcDown????? v3.11.7: ?? ●AcDown??????????、??、??????。????，????，?????????????????????????。???????????Acfun、????(Bilibili)、??、??、YouTube、??、???、??????、SF????、????????????。 ●??????AcPlay?????，??????、????????????????。 ● AcDown??????????????????，????????????????????????????。 ● AcDown???????C#??，????.NET Framework 2.0??。?????"Acfun?????"。 ????32??64? Windows XP/Vista/7/8 ??：????????Windows XP???,?????????.NET Framework 2.0???(x86)，?????"?????????"??? ??????????????，??????????： ??"AcDown?????"????????? ...New Projects1000: ONE THOUSANDBackground Folder Copy for Sharepoint 2010: En esta solución se combinan varios elementos para conseguir sincronizar una carpeta local o compartida con una librería de documentos de Sharepoint 2010Cache in sandbox: The illustration for the question on Stack Overflow: http://stackoverflow.com/q/11182321/240613CCITTCodecs: A native .NET CCITT Group4 Codec. This is NOT a full featured tiff library. It only encodes pixels into group4.CharTest: Small utility that allows you to analyze a string of characters and see at-a-glance in which categories each characters belongs and other small features.EDT Attribute Editor: One of the applications in the Ecosystem Diagnosis & Treatment suite.EDT Geometry Navigator: One of the applications in the Ecosystem Diagnosis & Treatment suite.EDT Population Editor: One of the applications in the Ecosystem Diagnosis & Treatment suite.EDT Report Generator: One of the applications in the Ecosystem Diagnosis & Treatment suite.ePay payment gateway provider for NB_Store: ePay payment gateway provider for DNN module NB_StoreFizzBuzzCode: FizzBuzz coding assignmentINI Library: The IniLibrary is a simplified C# library for accessing INI files quickly and efficiently. It is able to parse virtually all INI files.jos .net sdk: jos .net sdkjQuery Metro Plug in: Simple jQuery plug in to create easy Metro UI.Metro Event To Command: Metro Event To Command is a replacement for EventToCommand behavior for Windows RT. MyMichael: My MichaelNETDeob0: .NET Deobfuscator by UbbeLoLNokia Image Downloader: Simple application to download image and video files from some source (typically phone). Application ensures that only new files will be downloaded into specified folder; previously downloaded files are ignored. Moreover, user can specify which folders will be searched for image and video files.PaRV: Parallelizing Runtime Detection and Prevention of Concurrency Errors: Will be added soonSimple Things to do website: Users can manage their own individual to-do lists by registering themselves on this site.SP Workflows: The SP Workflows utility is a tool used for monitoring a “Workflow Internal State” and “Workflow Status” for the workflows associated to a SharePoint List testdd06252012: zxctestddgit062520122: ghtestddhg06252012: zcxtesthg062520122: gfTopAddIn: Excel???? VSTOUniversal redirector: Use NTFS junctions to redirect directories, the easy way!VSE: This is a source management site for VSE before deployed.WPFClock: Simple clock app, written in WFP.www.blfoley.com Samples by Bradley Foley: A project containing various sample on quick ways to do thingsZune Connection Detector: A quick, clean method to detect if Zune is connected with Windows Phone.zy26: zy26 was here...

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• Row Number Transformation

  The Row Number Transformation calculates a row number for each row, and adds this as a new output column to the data flow. The column number is a sequential number, based on a seed value. Each row receives the next number in the sequence, based on the defined increment value. The final row number can be stored in a variable for later analysis, and can be used as part of a process to validate the integrity of the data movement. The Row Number transform has a variety of uses, such as generating surrogate keys, or as the basis for a data partitioning scheme when combined with the Conditional Split transformation. Properties Property Data Type Description Seed Int32 The first row number or seed value. Increment Int32 The value added to the previous row number to make the next row number. OutputVariable String The name of the variable into which the final row number is written post execution. (Optional). The three properties have been configured to support expressions, or they can set directly in the normal manner. Expressions on components are only visible on the hosting Data Flow task, not at the individual component level. Sometimes the data type of the property is incorrectly set when the properties are created, see the Troubleshooting section below for details on how to fix this. Installation The component is provided as an MSI file which you can download and run to install it. This simply places the files on disk in the correct locations and also installs the assemblies in the Global Assembly Cache as per Microsoft’s recommendations. You may need to restart the SQL Server Integration Services service, as this caches information about what components are installed, as well as restarting any open instances of Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS) / Visual Studio that you may be using to build your SSIS packages. For 2005/2008 Only - Finally you will have to add the transformation to the Visual Studio toolbox manually. Right-click the toolbox, and select Choose Items.... Select the SSIS Data Flow Items tab, and then check the Row Number transformation in the Choose Toolbox Items window. This process has been described in detail in the related FAQ entry for How do I install a task or transform component? We recommend you follow best practice and apply the current Microsoft SQL Server Service pack to your SQL Server servers and workstations, and this component requires a minimum of SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 1. Downloads The Row Number Transformation  is available for SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008 (includes R2) and SQL Server 2012. Please choose the version to match your SQL Server version, or you can install multiple versions and use them side by side if you have more than one version of SQL Server installed. Row Number Transformation for SQL Server 2005 Row Number Transformation for SQL Server 2008 Row Number Transformation for SQL Server 2012 Version History SQL Server 2012 Version 3.0.0.6 - SQL Server 2012 release. Includes upgrade support for both 2005 and 2008 packages to 2012. (5 Jun 2012) SQL Server 2008 Version 2.0.0.5 - SQL Server 2008 release. (15 Oct 2008) SQL Server 2005 Version 1.2.0.34 – Updated installer. (25 Jun 2008) Version 1.2.0.7 - SQL Server 2005 RTM Refresh. SP1 Compatibility Testing. Added the ability to reuse an existing column to hold the generated row number, as an alternative to the default of adding a new column to the output. (18 Jun 2006) Version 1.2.0.7 - SQL Server 2005 RTM Refresh. SP1 Compatibility Testing. Added the ability to reuse an existing column to hold the generated row number, as an alternative to the default of adding a new column to the output. (18 Jun 2006) Version 1.0.0.0 - Public Release for SQL Server 2005 IDW 15 June CTP (29 Aug 2005) Screenshot Code Sample The following code sample demonstrates using the Data Generator Source and Row Number Transformation programmatically in a very simple package. Package package = new Package(); package.Name = "Data Generator & Row Number"; // Add the Data Flow Task Executable taskExecutable = package.Executables.Add("STOCK:PipelineTask"); // Get the task host wrapper, and the Data Flow task TaskHost taskHost = taskExecutable as TaskHost; MainPipe dataFlowTask = (MainPipe)taskHost.InnerObject; // Add Data Generator Source IDTSComponentMetaData100 componentSource = dataFlowTask.ComponentMetaDataCollection.New(); componentSource.Name = "Data Generator"; componentSource.ComponentClassID = "Konesans.Dts.Pipeline.DataGenerator.DataGenerator, Konesans.Dts.Pipeline.DataGenerator, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b2ab4a111192992b"; CManagedComponentWrapper instanceSource = componentSource.Instantiate(); instanceSource.ProvideComponentProperties(); instanceSource.SetComponentProperty("RowCount", 10000); // Add Row Number Tx IDTSComponentMetaData100 componentRowNumber = dataFlowTask.ComponentMetaDataCollection.New(); componentRowNumber.Name = "FlatFileDestination"; componentRowNumber.ComponentClassID = "Konesans.Dts.Pipeline.RowNumberTransform.RowNumberTransform, Konesans.Dts.Pipeline.RowNumberTransform, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b2ab4a111192992b"; CManagedComponentWrapper instanceRowNumber = componentRowNumber.Instantiate(); instanceRowNumber.ProvideComponentProperties(); instanceRowNumber.SetComponentProperty("Increment", 10); // Connect the two components together IDTSPath100 path = dataFlowTask.PathCollection.New(); path.AttachPathAndPropagateNotifications(componentSource.OutputCollection[0], componentRowNumber.InputCollection[0]); #if DEBUG // Save package to disk, DEBUG only new Application().SaveToXml(String.Format(@"C:\Temp\{0}.dtsx", package.Name), package, null); #endif package.Execute(); foreach (DtsError error in package.Errors) { Console.WriteLine("ErrorCode : {0}", error.ErrorCode); Console.WriteLine(" SubComponent : {0}", error.SubComponent); Console.WriteLine(" Description : {0}", error.Description); } package.Dispose(); Troubleshooting Make sure you have downloaded the version that matches your version of SQL Server. We offer separate downloads for SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2012. If you get an error when you try and use the component along the lines of The component could not be added to the Data Flow task. Please verify that this component is properly installed.  ... The data flow object "Konesans ..." is not installed correctly on this computer, this usually indicates that the internal cache of SSIS components needs to be updated. This is held by the SSIS service, so you need restart the the SQL Server Integration Services service. You can do this from the Services applet in Control Panel or Administrative Tools in Windows. You can also restart the computer if you prefer. You may also need to restart any current instances of Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS) / Visual Studio that you may be using to build your SSIS packages. Once installation is complete you need to manually add the task to the toolbox before you will see it and to be able add it to packages - How do I install a task or transform component? Please also make sure you have installed a minimum of SP1 for SQL 2005. The IDtsPipelineEnvironmentService was added in SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 1 (SP1) (See  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/916940). If you get an error Could not load type 'Microsoft.SqlServer.Dts.Design.IDtsPipelineEnvironmentService' from assembly 'Microsoft.SqlServer.Dts.Design, Version=9.0.242.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89845dcd8080cc91'. when trying to open the user interface, it implies that your development machine has not had SP1 applied. Very occasionally we get a problem to do with the properties not being created with the correct data type. Since there is no way to programmatically to define the data type of a pipeline component property, it can only infer it. Whilst we set an integer value as we create the property, sometimes SSIS decides to define it is a decimal. This is often highlighted when you use a property expression against the property and get an error similar to Cannot convert System.Int32 to System.Decimal. Unfortunately this is beyond our control and there appears to be no pattern as to when this happens. If you do have more information we would be happy to hear it. To fix this issue you can manually edit the package file. In Visual Studio right click the package file from the Solution Explorer and select View Code, which will open the package as raw XML. You can now search for the properties by name or the component name. You can then change the incorrect property data types highlighted below from Decimal to Int32. <component id="37" name="Row Number Transformation" componentClassID="{BF01D463-7089-41EE-8F05-0A6DC17CE633}" … >     <properties>         <property id="38" name="UserComponentTypeName" …>         <property id="41" name="Seed" dataType="System.Int32" ...>10</property>         <property id="42" name="Increment" dataType="System.Decimal" ...>10</property>         ... If you are still having issues then contact us, but please provide as much detail as possible about error, as well as which version of the the task you are using and details of the SSIS tools installed.

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, May 24, 2014

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, May 24, 2014Popular ReleasesSimCityPak: SimCityPak 0.3.1.0: Main New Features: Fixed Importing of Instance Names (get rid of the Dutch translations) Added advanced editor for Decal Dictionaries Added possibility to import .PNG to generate new decals Added advanced editor for Path display entriesTiny Deduplicator: Tiny Deduplicator 1.0.1.0: Increased version number to 1.0.1.0 Moved all options to a separate 'Options' dialog window. Allows the user to specify a selection strategy which will help when dealing with large numbers of duplicate files. Available options are "None," "Keep First," and "Keep Last"C64 Studio: 3.5: Add: BASIC renumber function Add: !PET pseudo op Add: elseif for !if, } else { pseudo op Add: !TRACE pseudo op Add: Watches are saved/restored with a solution Add: Ctrl-A works now in export assembly controls Add: Preliminary graphic import dialog (not fully functional yet) Add: range and block selection in sprite/charset editor (Shift-Click = range, Alt-Click = block) Fix: Expression evaluator could miscalculate when both division and multiplication were in an expression without parenthesisSEToolbox: SEToolbox 01.031.009 Release 1: Added mirroring of ConveyorTubeCurved. Updated Ship cube rotation to rotate ship back to original location (cubes are reoriented but ship appears no different to outsider), and to rotate Grouped items. Repair now fixes the loss of Grouped controls due to changes in Space Engineers 01.030. Added export asteroids. Rejoin ships will merge grouping and conveyor systems (even though broken ships currently only maintain the Grouping on one part of the ship). Installation of this version wi...Player Framework by Microsoft: Player Framework for Windows and WP v2.0: Support for new Universal and Windows Phone 8.1 projects for both Xaml and JavaScript projects. See a detailed list of improvements, breaking changes and a general overview of version 2 ADDITIONAL DOWNLOADSSmooth Streaming Client SDK for Windows 8 Applications Smooth Streaming Client SDK for Windows 8.1 Applications Smooth Streaming Client SDK for Windows Phone 8.1 Applications Microsoft PlayReady Client SDK for Windows 8 Applications Microsoft PlayReady Client SDK for Windows 8.1 Applicat...TerraMap (Terraria World Map Viewer): TerraMap 1.0.6: Added support for the new Terraria v1.2.4 update. New items, walls, and tiles Added the ability to select multiple highlighted block types. Added a dynamic, interactive highlight opacity slider, making it easier to find highlighted tiles with dark colors (and fixed blurriness from 1.0.5 alpha). Added ability to find Enchanted Swords (in the stone) and Water Bolt books Fixed Issue 35206: Hightlight/Find doesn't work for Demon Altars Fixed finding Demon Hearts/Shadow Orbs Fixed inst...DotNet.Highcharts: DotNet.Highcharts 4.0 with Examples: DotNet.Highcharts 4.0 Tested and adapted to the latest version of Highcharts 4.0.1 Added new chart type: Heatmap Added new type PointPlacement which represents enumeration or number for the padding of the X axis. Changed target framework from .NET Framework 4 to .NET Framework 4.5. Closed issues: 974: Add 'overflow' property to PlotOptionsColumnDataLabels class 997: Split container from JS 1006: Series/Categories with numeric names don't render DotNet.Highcharts.Samples Updated s...Compile Mono With Visual Studio: 0.9 Beta 1 Release: exciting 0.9 Beta Release ( 0.9.0.2 )PowerShell App Deployment Toolkit: PowerShell App Deployment Toolkit v3.1.3: Added CompressLogs option to the config file. Each Install / Uninstall creates a timestamped zip file with all MSI and PSAppDeployToolkit logs contained within Added variable expansion to all paths in the configuration file Added documentation for each of the Toolkit internal variables that can be used Changed Install-MSUpdates to continue if any errors are encountered when installing updates Implement /Force parameter on Update-GroupPolicy (ensure that any logoff message is ignored) ...WordMat: WordMat v. 1.07: A quick fix because scientific notation was broken in v. 1.06 read more at http://wordmat.blogspot.com????: 《????》: 《????》（c???）??“????”???????，???????????????C?????????。???????,???????????????????????. ??????????????????????????????????；????????????????????????????。Mini SQL Query: Mini SQL Query (1.0.72.457): Apologies for the previous update! FK issue fixed and also a template data cache issue.Wsus Package Publisher: Release v1.3.1405.17: Add Russian translation (thanks to VSharmanov) Fix a bug that make WPP to crash if the user click on "Connect/Reload" while the Report Tab is loading. Enhance the way WPP store the password for remote computers command.MoreTerra (Terraria World Viewer): More Terra 1.12.9: =========== = Compatibility = =========== Updated to account for new format 1.2.4.1 =========== = Issues = =========== all items have not been added. Some colors for new tiles may be off. I wanted to get this out so people have a usable program.LINQ to Twitter: LINQ to Twitter v3.0.3: Supports .NET 4.5x, Windows Phone 8.x, Windows 8.x, Windows Azure, Xamarin.Android, and Xamarin.iOS. New features include Status/Lookup, Mute APIs, and bug fixes. 100% Twitter API v1.1 coverage, Async, Portable Class Library (PCL).CS-Script for Notepad++ (C# intellisense and code execution): Release v1.0.26.0: Added access to the Release Notes during 'Check for Updates...'' Debug panels Added support for generic types members Members are grouped into 'Raw View' and 'Non-Public members' categories Implemented dedicated (array-like) view for Lists and Dictionaries http://download-codeplex.sec.s-msft.com/Download?ProjectName=csscriptnpp&DownloadId=846498ClosedXML - The easy way to OpenXML: ClosedXML 0.70.0: A lot of fixes. See history.TBox - tool to make developer's life easier.: TBox 1.29: Bug fixing. Add LocalizationTool pluginYAXLib: Yet Another XML Serialization Library for the .NET Framework: YAXLib 2.13: Fixed a bug and added unit tests related to serializing path like aliases with one letter (e.g., './B'). Thanks go to CodeProject user B.O.B. for reporting this bug. Added `Bin/*.dll.mdb` to `.gitignore`. Fixed the issue with Indexer properties. Indexers must not be serialized/deserialized. YAXLib will ignore delegate (callback/function pointer) properties, so that the exception upon serializing them is prevented. Significant improve in cycling object reference detection Self Referr...SFDL.NET: SFDL.NET (2.2.9.2): Changelog: Neues Icon Xup.in CnL Plugin BugfixNew ProjectsA minimal UDP based logger: a minimal udp loggerApr-Jul-2014: Educational project for studying .NET and C#CliqSafe - Safe Email - An Add on for Microsoft Outlook & Windows Mobile Devices: CliqSafe - Safe Email - An Add on for Microsoft Outlook & Windows Mobile Devices:CodePlex Testing Project: Project for testing codeplex features.EF6: Project EF6electronixwebform: tesekkürü bir borc bilirizelektronix: tesekkuru bir borc bilirizI-Ching: This class can generate fortune telling phrases with the I-Ching book of changes.J-Processors: Various project to develop microprocessors based on FPGAs and a hardware decription language. Software environment for operation.Kart-Trie: Manage and search associative array with Kart tree.NewBreeze: NewBreeze - Fast and light-weight Qt4 based File ManagerOE Orchard Project: interactive educationPostal: Postal is a collection of open-source aspects for PostSharp.SoundCloud Downloader: SoundCloud Downloader for people who are searching for one!Ternary Search Tree: This class can insert and search text using ternary search trees.?????-?????【??】?????????: ????????????,????,?????、???、?????,???????,?????,???????????100%。??????！ ?????-?????【??】?????????: ?????????????????????,??????,???????????,????????????????,????????.??????. ?????-?????【??】?????????: ???????????????:??????!?????!???:????、????、????、????。??,??????????!??????. ?????-?????【??】?????????: ???????????????????????,????,????“???、???、???”?????,?????,?????????????????。??????！ ?????-?????【??】?????????: ????????,???????????,??????????,????:??,????,???????? ??????????,????????。??????！ ?????-?????【??】?????????: ??????????????,????????????,????????,???,???????????,????,????。?????,??????. ?????-?????【??】?????????: ???????????????????????,????,????“???、???、???”?????,?????,?????????????????。??????！ ?????-?????【??】?????????: ???????2005?,????????????????????,??????????,??????。?????,???????????????????，??????！ ?????-?????【??】?????????: ???????2005?,????????????????????,??????????,??????。?????,???????????????????，??????！ ?????-?????【??】?????????: ???????????????:??????!?????!???:????、????、????、????。??,??????????!??????. ?? API C# ??: ??.NET，?? C# ????? API ????，????????? API。?????-?????【??】?????????: ?????1992?,????????????????。??????????????????????。????????????,????，????????！ ?????-?????【??】?????????: ????????????,????,?????、???、?????,???????,?????,???????????100%。??????！ ?????-?????【??】?????????: ???????????????????????,???????????,??????,??????????????...????????。??????！ ?????-?????【??】?????????: ??????????????,????????????,????????,???,???????????,????,????。?????,??????. ?????-?????【??】?????????: ???????????????,??????,??????,??????、??????,??????、??，????，??????！ ?????-?????【??】?????????: ????????,???????????,??????????,????:??,????,???????? ??????????,????????。??????！ ?????-?????【??】?????????: ??????、??????????????????,???????.??????????,????????。 ?????-?????【??】?????????: ???????????????????????,???????????,??????,??????????????...????????。??????！ ?????-?????【??】?????????: ?????????????????????,??????,???????????,????????????????,????????.??????. ?????-?????【??】?????????: ?????1992?,????????????????。??????????????????????。????????????,????，????????！ ?????-?????【??】?????????: ??????、??????????????????,???????.??????????,????????。

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