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• Oracle Spatial and Graph – A year in review

  - by Mandy Ho

  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} What a great year for Oracle Spatial! Or shall I now say, Oracle Spatial and Graph, with our official name change this summer. There were so many exciting events and updates we had this year, and this blog will review and link to some of the events you may have missed over the year. We kicked off 2012 with our webinar: Situational Analysis at OnStar with Oracle Spatial and Graph. We collaborated with OnStar’s Emergency Strategy and Outreach expert, Jeff Joyner ,on how Onstar uses Google Earth Visualization, NAVTEQ data and Oracle Database to deliver fast, accurate emergency services to its customers. In the next webinar in our 2012 series, Oracle partner TARGUSinfo showcased how to build a robust, scalable and secure customer relationship management systems – with built-in mapping and spatial analysis, and deployed in the cloud. This is a very cool system using all Oracle technologies including Oracle Database and Fusion Middleware MapViewer. Attendees learned how to gather market insight, score prospects and customers and perform location analysis. The replay is available here. Our final webinar of the year focused on using Oracle Business Intelligence tools, along with Oracle Spatial and Graph to perform location-aware predictive analysis. Watch the webcast here: In June, we joined up with the Location Intelligence conference in Washington, DC, and had a very successful 2012 Oracle Spatial User Conference. Customers and partners from the US, as well as from EMEA and Asia, flew in to share experiences and ideas, and get technical updates from Oracle experts. Users were excited to hear about spatial-Exadata performance, and advances in MapViewer and BI. Peter Doolan of Oracle Public Sector kicked off the event with a great keynote, and US Census, NOAA, and Ordnance Survey Great Britain were just a few of the presenters. Presentation archive here. We recognized some of the most exceptional partners and customers for their contributions to advancing mainstream solutions using geospatial technologies. Planning for 2013’s conference has already started. Please contribute your papers for consideration here. http://www.locationintelligence.net/ We also launched a new Oracle PartnerNetwork Spatial Specialization – to enable partners to get validated in the marketplace for their expertise in taking solutions to market. Individuals can also get individual certifications. Learn more here. Oracle Open World was not to disappoint, with news regarding our next Oracle Spatial and Graph release, as well as the announcement of our new Oracle Spatial and Graph SIG board! Join the SIG today. One more exciting event as we look to 2013. Spatial and location technologies have a dedicated track at the January BIWA SIG Summit – on January 9-10 in Redwood Shores, CA. View the agenda and register here: www.biwasummit.org. We thank you for all your support during the year of 2012 and look towards an even more exciting 2013! Wishing you and your family a prosperous New Year and Happy Holidays!

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• Guaranteed Restore Points as Fallback Method

  - by Mike Dietrich

  Thanks to the great audience yesterday in the Upgrade & Migration Workshop in Utrecht. That was really fun and I was amazed by our new facilities (and the  "wellness" lights surrounding the plenum room's walls). And another reason why I like to do these workshops is that often I learn new things from you So credits here to Rick van  Ek who has highlighted the following topic to me. Yesterday (and in some previous workshops) I did mention during the discussion about Fallback Strategies that you'll have to switch on Flashback Database beforehand to create a guaranteed restore point in case you'll encounter an issue during the database upgrade. I knew that we've made it possible since Oracle Database 11.2 to switch Flashback Database on without taking the database into MOUNT status (you could switch it off anyway while the database is open before in all releases). But before Oracle Database 11.2 that did require MOUNT status. SQL> create restore point rp1 guarantee flashback database ; create restore point rp1 guarantee flashback database * ERROR at line 1: ORA-38784: Cannot create restore point 'RP1'. ORA-38787: Creating the first guaranteed restore point requires mount mode when flashback database is off. But Rick did mention that I won't need to switch Flashback Database On to create a guaranteed restore point. And he's right - in older releases I would have had to go into MOUNT state to define the restore point which meant to restart the database. But in 11.2 that's no necessary anymore. And the same will apply when you upgrade your pre-11.2 database (e.g. an Oracle Database 10.2.0.4) to Oracle Database 11.2. As soon as you start your "old" not-yet-upgraded database in your 11.2 environment with STARTUP UPGRADE you can define a guaranteed restore point. If you tail the alert.log you'll see that the database will start the RVWR (Recovery Writer) background process - you'll just have to make sure that you'd define the values for db_recovery_file_dest_size and db_recovery_file_dest. SQL> startup upgrade ORACLE instance started. Total System Global Area  417546240 bytes Fixed Size                  2228944 bytes Variable Size             134221104 bytes Database Buffers          272629760 bytes Redo Buffers                8466432 bytes Database mounted. Database opened. SQL> create restore point grpt guarantee flashback database; Restore point created.SQL> drop restore point grpt; And don't forget to drop that restore point the sooner or later as it is guaranteed - and will fill up your Fast Recovery Area pretty quickly Just on the side: in any case archivelog mode is required if you'd like to work with restore points. - Mike

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• Find Knowledge Quickly

  - by Get Proactive Customer Adoption Team

  Untitled Document Get to relevant knowledge on the Oracle products you use in a few quick steps! Customers tell us that the volume of search results returned can make it difficult to find the information they need, especially when similar Oracle products exist. These simple tips show you how to filter, browse, search, and refine your results to get relevant answers faster. Filter first: PowerView is your best friend Powerview is an often ignored feature of My Oracle Support that enables you to control the information displayed on the Dashboard, the Knowledge tab and regions, and the Service Request tab based on one or more parameters. You can define a PowerView to limit information based on product, product line, support ID, platform, hostname, system name and others. Using PowerView allows you to restrict: Your search results to the filters you have set The product list when selecting your products in Search & Browse and when creating service requests   The PowerView menu is at the top of My Oracle Support, near the title You turn PowerView on by clicking PowerView is Off, which is a button. When PowerView is On, and filters are active, clicking the button again will toggle Powerview off. Click the arrow to the right to create new filters, edit filters, remove a filter, or choose from the list of previously created filters. You can create a PowerView in 3 simple steps! Turn PowerView on and select New from the PowerView menu. Select your filter from the Select Filter Type dropdown list and make selections from the other two menus. Hint: While there are many filter options, selecting your product line or your list of products will provide you with an effective filter. Click the plus sign (+) to add more filters. Click the minus sign (-) to remove a filter. Click Create to save and activated the filter(s) You’ll notice that PowerView is On displays along with the active filters. For more information about the PowerView capabilities, click the Learn more about PowerView… menu item or view a short video. Browse & Refine: Access the Best Match Fast For Your Product and Task In the Knowledge Browse region of the Knowledge or Dashboard tabs, pick your product, pick your task, select a version, if applicable. A best match document – a collection of knowledge articles and resources specific to your selections - may display, offering you a one-stop shop. The best match document, called an “information center,” is an aggregate of dynamically updated links to information pertinent to the product, task, and version (if applicable) you chose. These documents are refreshed every 24 hours to ensure that you have the most current information at your fingertips. Note: Not all products have “information centers.” If no information center appears as a best match, click Search to see a list of search results. From the information center, you can access topics from a product overview to security information, as shown in the left menu. Just want to search? That’s easy too! Again, pick your product, pick your task, select a version, if applicable, enter a keyword term, and click Search. Hint: In this example, you’ll notice that PowerView is on and set to PeopleSoft Enterprise. When PowerView is on and you select a product from the Knowledge Base product list, the listed products are limited to the active PowerView filter. (Products you’ve previously picked are also listed at the top of the dropdown list.) Your search results are displayed based on the parameters you entered. It’s that simple! Related Information: My Oracle Support - User Resource Center [ID 873313.1] My Oracle Support Community For more tips on using My Oracle Support, check out these short video training modules. My Oracle Support Speed Video Training [ID 603505.1]

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• Randomely loosing wireless connexion with Cubuntu 12.04

  - by statquant

  I am presently experiencing random disconnections from my wireless network. It looks like it is more and more frequent (however I have not seen any clear pattern). This is killing me... Here is some information that should help (from ubuntu forums). Thanks for reading Machine : Acer Aspire S3 statquant@euclide:~$ lsb_release -d Description: Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS statquant@euclide:~$ uname -mr 3.2.0-33-generic x86_64 statquant@euclide:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart * Running /etc/init.d/networking restart is deprecated because it may not enable again some interfaces * Reconfiguring network interfaces... statquant@euclide:~$ lspci 02:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01) statquant@euclide:~$ lsusb Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub Bus 001 Device 004: ID 064e:c321 Suyin Corp. Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0bda:0129 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. statquant@euclide:~$ ifconfig wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 74:de:2b:dd:c4:78 inet addr:192.168.1.3 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 inet6 addr: fe80::76de:2bff:fedd:c478/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:913 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:802 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:873218 (873.2 KB) TX bytes:125826 (125.8 KB) statquant@euclide:~$ iwconfig wlan0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:"Bbox-D646D1" Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: 00:19:70:80:01:6C Bit Rate=65 Mb/s Tx-Power=16 dBm Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Power Management:on Link Quality=56/70 Signal level=-54 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:71 Missed beacon:0 statquant@euclide:~$ dmesg | grep "wlan" [ 17.495866] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready [ 17.498950] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready [ 20.072015] wlan0: authenticate with 00:19:70:80:01:6c (try 1) [ 20.269853] wlan0: authenticate with 00:19:70:80:01:6c (try 2) [ 20.272386] wlan0: authenticated [ 20.298682] wlan0: associate with 00:19:70:80:01:6c (try 1) [ 20.302321] wlan0: RX AssocResp from 00:19:70:80:01:6c (capab=0x431 status=0 aid=1) [ 20.302325] wlan0: associated [ 20.307307] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready [ 30.402292] wlan0: no IPv6 routers present statquant@euclide:~$ sudo lshw -C network [sudo] password for statquant: *-network description: Wireless interface product: AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter vendor: Atheros Communications Inc. physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0 logical name: wlan0 version: 01 serial: 74:de:2b:dd:c4:78 width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list rom ethernet physical wireless configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ath9k driverversion=3.2.0-33-generic firmware=N/A ip=192.168.1.3 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn resources: irq:17 memory:c0400000-c047ffff memory:afb00000-afb0ffff statquant@euclide:~$ iwlist scan wlan0 Scan completed : Cell 01 - Address: 00:19:70:80:01:6C Channel:6 Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6) Quality=56/70 Signal level=-54 dBm Encryption key:on ESSID:"Bbox-D646D1" Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s 9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s Bit Rates:24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s Mode:Master Extra:tsf=000000125fb152bb Extra: Last beacon: 40020ms ago IE: Unknown: 000B42626F782D443634364431 IE: Unknown: 010882848B960C121824 IE: Unknown: 030106 IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1 Group Cipher : TKIP Pairwise Ciphers (2) : CCMP TKIP Authentication Suites (1) : PSK IE: WPA Version 1 Group Cipher : TKIP Pairwise Ciphers (2) : CCMP TKIP Authentication Suites (1) : PSK IE: Unknown: 2A0100 IE: Unknown: 32043048606C IE: Unknown: DD180050F2020101820003A4000027A4000042435E0062322F00 IE: Unknown: 2D1A4C101BFF00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 IE: Unknown: 3D1606080800000000000000000000000000000000000000 IE: Unknown: DD0900037F01010000FF7F IE: Unknown: DD0A00037F04010000000000 And... finally, please note that I did the following (after looking for fixes of similar problems), but unfortunately it did not work sudo modprobe -r iwlwifi sudo modprobe iwlwifi 11n_disable=1

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• Perfect End to a Bad Day

  - by TehGrumpyCoder

  Yesterday's post about A Bad Day at Work actually had an addendum to it. There were apparently a bunch of guys on ice skates last night competing in some sport way the hell and gone over on the other side of the valley, and enough people couldn't live without seeing them that they had all major arteries heading west honked. I mean honked... the traffic guy reported the 101 had 16 miles of backup... yikes. Since I worked downtown for a number of years, my fallback is to cut across the city on surface streets to get to one of my old 'haunts' and just drive it home from there. Of course with the 101 backed up, then I17 would logically be as well, so I kept the news on rather than my Zune and heard where the bad stuff was going North. I popped out on the freeway about 7 miles south of my exit. Got to the exit which is about a mile from the house without killing or maiming me or anyone else. Waited patiently at the light in the inside lane to make a left and go under the freeway proceeding West. The light changed, I had full green, I started through and whoa... I've got someone in a little rat car crossing my bow! A little explanation... I drive a 3/4 ton pickup with a V-10, extended cab and shell on the back. It's not jacked up, but it sits up pretty good and is longer than any parking place I've ever tried to put it into. I consider this truck to be the consolation prize for paying uninsured motorist coverage for 45 years and having Pilar Martinez totally destroy a 3/4 ton Silverado on March 1, 2007 by plowing into me at traffic speed while I was stopped at a light. If you pay for uninsured motorist coverage, ask your insurance agent *exactly* what that means... I bet it's different than what you think it means. But I digress, sorry... So here I am with a car that is shorter from top to road than the hood on my truck, and the driver thought it would be safe to run a red light and see if they could get past me before I got into the lane. The right side of my front bumper was almost into the driver's window when I hit the brakes and wheeled it left. Fortunately for all involved, I saw it soon enough, and pulled into the 2nd lane for making a left to go back South. I looked in my mirror, signalled a move, then moved over behind the yuck in the rat car. I then punched it, and the future hood ornament and I both made it through the next light. I pulled alongside to let her know that she was DEFINITELY Number 1 in my book, and it's a middle-age woman looking at me with a "sorry, it was an accident" show of pouty face and arms held up. Tough $hit lady... that may have worked when you were 18, but it's not working anymore, and it wasn't an accident... you ran a freakin' red light and almost got yourself killed. That just about put a bow on the day... I was home later than usual, pissed off about work stuff, pissed off at traffic, and now that. I ate dinner, watched a little TV, and was asleep about 9:30 exhausted. Hope today is better.

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• How do you deal with poor management [closed]

  - by Sybiam

  I come from a company where during a project, we saw the client 3 time during the whole project. We were never informed when did the client came in office in order to discuss with him about his requirements. I did setup redmine and told them that if they have any request they can post an issue there. But they never really used redmine to publish anything. They would instead: harass a team member on the phone at any time of the day or night hand us over sheets of paper with new requests or changes hand us over new design (graphical) They requested how much time it would take us to finish the project, I gave them a date and a week to test everything and deployment. I calculated that time taking into account the current features we had to do. And then blamed us that our deadline was wrong and that we lied. But the truth is that one week before that deadline they added a couple of monster feature from nowhere and that week were we were supposed to test and deploy, my friends spent all day in the office changing all little things. After that project, my friend got some kind of depression and got scared everytime his phone rang. They kind of used him as a communication proxy. After that project of hell, (every body got pissed off on that project) as far as I know the designer who was working with us left work after that project and she had some kind of issue too with managers. My team also started looking for work somewhere else. At first I tried to get things straight with management, I tried to make a meeting to discuss about the communication issues and so on.. What really pissed me off and made me leave that job for good is the following. Me: "We have to discuss about what went wrong on the last project. It's quite important" Him: "Lets talk about it in a week or two. Just make a list of all the things you did wrong" Me: "We already have a new project and we want to prevent what happened on the last project to happen again" Him: "Just do it and well have our meeting in a week, make a list of all the thing you did wrong." It kind of ended there then he organized a meeting at a moment I wasn't unable to come. My friend discussed with him and tried to explained him that we really had to discuss about organization issue on how to manage a project. And his answer was pretty much: "During the meeting I don't want to ear how you want to us to manage a project but I want to know what you guys did wrong" After that I felt it wasn't even worth it discussing anything since they weren't even ready listening to us. Found a new job and I'm pretty happy with my choice. I'd like to know how you'd handle such situation. Is there anything to do to solve communication problem? After that project my friend got a depression and some other employee had their down too as far as I know. I wonder what else we can do other than leave these place as soon as possible. Feel sad for the people that are still there and get screamed at just because they need money in order to eat and finding an other job like that isn't that easy. note I died a little when our boss asked us to make a list of things we (programmers) did wrong. This is probably the stupidest request I ever got. If everybody thinks they did everything right, it doesn't mean that there is no problems. Individual problem are rarely the big issue. Colleagues help each others and solve theses issues to prevent problems.

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• Dual monitor not working completely in 12.10 after upgrade

  - by Mark Baldridge

  At 12.04, dual monitors worked perfectly. After upgrading to 12.10, the primary monitor works, the second monitor only partly works. I am sure there is some difference between the releases that I have missed setting properly. System settings - Displays show both correctly as Acer 22" monitors at 1680x1050 (16:10). An icon on monitor 2 is present, but elongated; almost an artifact, since other icons on the primary screen are absent, but this one icon is there on th second monitor. Selecting the icons on both screens exist. Painting is weird on monitor 2. Launcher exists and works on both screens, but even with sticky edges off, the cursor stops at the left edge of monitor 2. Clicking on text editor on screen 2 launcer will launch gedit there. If I drag it, it leaves a trail of after images like repaint is failing. If I drive the cursor on the launcher, the help tags like "LibreOffice Writer" appear, but stay on screen unless I drag the active gedit window over them. Then part of the help bubbles are overwritten, leaving behind after images of the gedit window on screen. What is really fascinating is that the System settings - Displays is now ignoring monitor selection, after allowing it earlier. Just before this, the help popup which said "Select a monitor to change its properties; drag to rearrange its placement" actually let me do that. Maybe a trick of where I grab the edge of the monitor in the Displays setting. I just found a working handle. When I drag monitor 1 to the right of monitor 2, "Apply" and confirm, both monitors work normally (although the right monitor lets the cursor slide off the right edge onto the left edge of monitor 1 - which sounds correct). Painting of windows does not leave an after image. However, success is only temporary. The setting survives the reboot, but painting on the left monitor, now monitor 2, now replicates the issues from before. The after image of the gedit window and the small window for "Are you sure you want to close all programs and restart the computer?" are still on monitor 2 (on the left now), even though they are not real windows, nor do they have processes behind them. Curiously, in Displays, the "green" monitor on the left in the display window is matched by the right monitor color in the monitor upper left corner. Probably makes sense as the one on the right is now monitor 1. If I repeat the "drag the left monitor to the right of the right monitor on the "Displays" window, things are oriented properly, with no display artifacts as I drag windows around either screen. Also the description bubbles that pop up are overwritten on both screens, so none of those artifacts either. This goodness does not survive a reboot, however. Have not tried logging out and back in. All of this after positing that the motherboard VGA and HDMI ports could have been the issue. So, I installed an e-GeForce 7600 GT Dual DVI (I know the web thinks it is not DVI, but VGA, but the connectors are DVI). No change to the weird behavior. The good parts continue to work, the weirdness also works, and swapping monitor positions seems to cure the issue. So, is there a setting I have missed? Given "swapping" monitor 1 and 2 on the System Settings... - Displays makes it work, just not across boot, I suspect so.

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• When things go awry

  - by Phil Factor

  The moment the Entrepreneur opened his mouth on prime-time national TV, spelled out the URL and waxed big on how exciting ‘his’ new website was, I knew I was in for a busy night. I’d designed and built it. All at once, half a million people tried to log into the website. Although all my stress-testing paid off, I have to admit that the network locked up tight long before there was any danger of a database or website problem. Soon afterwards, the Entrepreneur and the Big Boss were there in the autopsy meeting. We picked through all our systems in detail to see how they’d borne the unexpected strain. Mercifully, in view of the sour mood of the Big Boss, it turned out that the only thing we could have done better was buy a bigger pipe to and from the internet. We’d specified that ‘big pipe’ when designing the system. The Big Boss had then railed at the cost and so we’d subsequently compromised. I felt that my design decisions were vindicated. The Big Boss brooded for a while. Then he made the significant comment: “What really ****** me off is the fact that, for ten minutes, we couldn’t take people’s money.” At that point I stopped feeling smug. Had the internet connection been better, the system would have reached its limit and failed rather precipitously, and that wasn’t what he wanted. Then it occurred to me that what had gummed up the connection was all those images on the site, that had made it so impressive for the visitors. If there had been a way to automatically pare down the site to the bare essentials under stress… Hmm. I began to consider disaster-recovery in the broadest sense – maintaining a service in spite of unusual or unexpected events. What he said makes a lot of sense: sacrifice whatever isn’t essential to keep the core service running when we approach the capacity limits. Maybe in IT we should borrow (or revive) the business concept of the ‘Skeleton service’, maintaining only the priority parts under stress, using a process that is well-prepared and carefully rehearsed. How might this work? Whatever the event we have to prepare for, it is all about understanding the priorities; knowing what one can dispense with when the going gets tough. In the event of database disaster, it’s much faster to deploy a skeletal system with only the essential data than to restore the entire system, though there would have to be a reconciliation process to update the revived database retrospectively, once the emergency was over. It isn’t just the database that could be designed for resilience. One could prepare for unusually high traffic in a website by designing a system that degraded gradually to a ‘skeletal’ site, one that maintained the commercial essentials without fat images, JavaScript libraries and razzmatazz. This is all what the Big Boss scathingly called ‘a mere technicality’. It seems to me that what is needed first is a culture of application and database design which acknowledges that we live in a very imperfect world, and react accordingly when things go awry.

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• Syntax of passing lambda causing hair loss (pulling out)

  - by Astara

  Right now, I'm working on refactoring a program that calls its parts by polling to a more event-driven structure. I've created sched and task classes with the sced to become a base class of the current main loop. The tasks will be created for each meter so they can be called off of that instead of polling. Each of the events main calls are a type of meter that gather info and display it. When the program is coming up, all enabled meters get 'constructed' by a main-sub. In that sub, I want to store off the "this" pointer associated with the meter, as well as the common name for the "action routine. void MeterMaker::Meter_n_Task (Meter * newmeter,) { push(newmeter); // handle non-timed draw events Task t = new Task(now() + 0.5L); t.period={0,1U}; t.work_meter = newmeter; t.work = [&newmeter](){newmeter.checkevent();};<<--attempt at lambda t.flags = T_Repeat; t.enable_task(); _xos->sched_insert(t); } A sample call to it: Meter_n_Task(new CPUMeter(_xos, "CPU ")); 've made the scheduler a base class of the main routine (that handles the loop), and I've tried serveral variations to get the task class to be a base of the meter class, but keep running into roadblocks. It's alot like "whack-a-mole" -- pound in something to fix something one place, and then a new probl pops out elsewhere. Part of the problem, is that the sched.h file that is trying to hold the Task Q, includes the Task header file. The task file Wants to refer to the most "base", Meter class. The meter class pulls in the main class of the parent as it passes a copy of the parent to the children so they can access the draw routines in the parent. Two references in the task file are for the 'this' pointer of the meter and the meter's update sub (to be called via this). void *this_data= NULL; void (*this_func)() = NULL; Note -- I didn't really want to store these in the class, as I wanted to use a lamdba in that meter&task routine above to store a routine+context to be used to call the meter's action routine. Couldn't figure out the syntax. But am running into other syntax problems trying to store the pointers...such as g++: COMPILE lsched.cc In file included from meter.h:13:0, from ltask.h:17, from lsched.h:13, from lsched.cc:13: xosview.h:30:47: error: expected class-name before ‘{’ token class XOSView : public XWin, public Scheduler { Like above where it asks for a class, where the classname "Scheduler" is. !?!? Huh? That IS a class name. I keep going in circles with things that don't make sense... Ideally I'd get the lamba to work right in the Meter_n_Task routine at the top. I wanted to only store 1 pointer in the 'Task' class that was a pointer to my lambda that would have already captured the "this" value ... but couldn't get that syntax to work at all when I tried to start it into a var in the 'Task' class. This project, FWIW, is my teething project on the new C++... (of course it's simple!.. ;-))... I've made quite a bit of progress in other areas in the code, but this lambda syntax has me stumped...its at times like thse that I appreciate the ease of this type of operation in perl. Sigh. Not sure the best way to ask for help here, as this isn't a simple question. But thought I'd try!... ;-) Too bad I can't attach files to this Q.

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• On a BPM Mission with Process Accelerators. Part 1: BPM as an ATV

  - by Cesare Rotundo

  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Part 1: BPM as an ATV It’s always exciting to talk to customers that are in the middle of a BPM transformational journey. Their thirst for new processes to improve with BPM makes them explorers in a landscape of opportunities. They have discovered that with BPM the can “go places” they couldn’t reach before. In a way, learning how to generate value with BPM is like adopting a new mean of transportation. Apps are like regular cars: very efficient, but to be used on paved roads: the road/process has been traced, and there are fixed paths to follow to get from “opportunity to quote” or from “quote to cash”. Getting off the road is risky, and laying down new asphalt is slow and expensive. Custom development is like running: you can go virtually anywhere, following any path you like, yet it’s slow, and a lot of sweat. BPM allows you to go “off the beaten path” laid out by packaged apps, yet make fast progress compared to custom development. BPM is therefore more like an All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV): less efficient than a car, but much faster than running, with a powerful enough engine that can get you places. The similarities between BPM and ATVs don’t stop here: you must learn to ride it even if you already know how to drive a car; you can reach places but figuring out the path to your destination is harder. Ultimately, with BPM as with an ATV, you reach places that you thought you could never reach, and you discover new destinations that provide great benefit to you … and that you didn’t even know existed! That’s where the sense of accomplishment that we heard from our BPM customers comes from, as well as the desire to share their experience, or even, as in the case of a County, the willingness to contribute their BPM solutions to help other agencies that face the same challenges. The question we wanted to answer is how can we teach organizations to drive ATV/BPM, thus leading them to deeper success with BPM, while increasing their awareness of the potential for reaching new targets, and finally equip them with the right tools. Like with ATVs, getting from point A to point B is more of a work of art than cruising on the highway by car. There is a lot we can do: after all many sought after destinations are common: someone else has been on the same path before. If only you could learn from their experience …

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• How to restore/change Alt+Tab behaviour/ram usage and a few other things after Ubuntu upgrade from 11.04 to 11.10?

  - by fiktor

  I use Ubuntu for programming. I recently updated it from 11.04 to 11.10. There are some things I don't like in the new version of Unity desktop interface. I don't actually know if it is hard to restore previous behavior or not, and if it is not, where should I look to do that. I know a bit of programming, but I really don't know much about Linux settings. I used to have 3-6 terminal windows and switch between them with Alt+Tab and Shift+Alt+Tab. I liked half-transparent terminal windows, since with them I could open web-page with some instruction in Firefox, press Alt+Tab and type commands in a console window, being able to recognize text on a web-page under it. Now I have problems with my usual work-style because of the following. List of "negative" changes Alt+Tab shows just one icon for all console windows. When I wait some time, it, however, shows all windows, but I don't like to wait. I prefer to remember order of windows and press Alt+Tab as many times as I need to switch to the right window. Alt+Shift+Tab to switch in reverse order doesn't work now. Console windows are not transparent any more. When I don't wait, and switch to this icon, it shows all console windows altogether. So even if they were transparent, I wouldn't be able to see anything below them (I can read something only from the window, which is directly under current one, not a few levels under). When I run a few console windows in Unity I had 740Mb used on Ubuntu 11.04, but I have 1050Mb now. The question is how to make it back to 750-. I really need my memory, since I use my computer to work with 1512Mb of data and I try to save every 10Mb possible (if it doesn't take too much of machine and, more importantly, my time). When I press "The Super key" I have a field to type the name of the program I want to run. But now it sometimes shows this field, but when I'm trying to type nothing happens. Probably, focus is not on the right field. I don't really mean to restore exactly the same behavior, but I want to make my work in Ubuntu 11.10 efficient (at least as efficient as in Ubuntu 11.04). I would be happy if there are some ways to accomplish that. What have I tried I have installed CompizConfig Settings Manager. I have read this question. However enabling "Static Application Switcher" makes Alt+Tab crazy: after enabling it It says about key-binding conflicts with "Ubuntu Unity Plugin"; "Alt+Tab" switching doesn't change, but "Shift+Alt+Tab" now works and shows all windows; Memory usage increases. I have tried turning off Ubuntu Unity Plugin, but this doesn't seem right thing to do, since it seems to turn off all menus, a lot of keystrokes and app-launcher, which usually activates with "The Super key". I have found, that window transparency can be enabled by "Opacity, Brightness and Saturation" plugin from Accessibility. However I don't know if enabling it is the right thing to do (at least it increases memory usage). Update: everything solved but #3: see my own answer below. I have made a separate question about issue #3 (transparency).

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• Appropriate design / technologies to handle dynamic string formatting?

  - by Mark W

  recently I was tasked with implementing a way of adding support for versioning of hardware packet specifications to one of our libraries. First a bit of information about the project. We have a hardware library which has classes for each of the various commands we support sending to our hardware. These hardware modules are essentially just lights with a few buttons, and a 2 or 4 digit display. The packets typically follow the format {SOH}AADD{ETX}, where AA is our sentinel action code, and DD is the device ID. These packet specs are different from one command to the next obviously, and the different firmware versions we have support different specifications. For example, on version 1 an action code of 14 may have a spec of {SOH}AADDTEXT{ETX} which would be AA = 14 literal, DD = device ID, TEXT = literal text to display on the device. Then we come out with a revision with adds an extended byte(s) onto the end of the packet like this {SOH}AADDTEXTE{ETX}. Assume the TEXT field is fixed width for this example. We have now added a new field onto the end which could be used to say specify the color or flash rate of the text/buttons. Currently this java library only supports one version of the commands, the latest. In our hardware library we would have a class for this command, say a DisplayTextArgs.java. That class would have fields for the device ID, the text, and the extended byte. The command class would expose a method which generates the string ("{SOH}AADDTEXTE{ETX}") using the value from the class. In practice we would create the Args class as needed, populate the fields, call the method to get our packet string, then ship that down across the CAN. Some of our other commands specification can vary for the same command, on the same version, depending on some runtime state. For example, another command for version 1 may be {SOH}AA{ETX}, where this action code clears all of the modules behind a specific controller device of their text. We may overload this packet to have option fields with multiple meanings like {SOH}AAOC{ETX} where OC is literal text, which tells the controller to only clear text on a specific module type, and to leave the others alone, or the spec could also have an option format of {SOH}AADD{ETX} to clear the text off a a specific device. Currently, in the method which generates the packet string, we would evaluate fields on the args class to determine which spec we will be using when formatting the packet. For this example, it would be along the lines of: if m_DeviceID != null then use {SOH}AADD{ETX} else if m_ClearOCs == true then use {SOH}AAOC{EXT} else use {SOH}AA{ETX} I had considered using XML, or a database to store String.format format strings, which were linked to firmware version numbers in some table. We would load them up at startup, and pass in the version number of the hardwares firmware we are currently using (I can query the devices for their firmware version, but the version is not included in all packets as part of the spec). This breaks down pretty quickly because of the dynamic nature of how we select which version of the command to use. I then considered using a rule engine to possibly build out expressions which could be interpreted at runtume, to evaluate the args class's state, and from that select the appropriate format string to use, but my brief look at rule engines for java scared me away with its complexity. While it seems like it might be a viable solution, it seems overly complex. So this is why I am here. I wouldn't say design is my strongest skill, and im having trouble figuring out the best way to approach this problem. I probably wont be able to radically change the args classes, but if the trade off was good enough, I may be able to convince my boss that the change is appropriate. What I would like from the community is some feedback on some best practices / design methodologies / API or other resources which I could use to accomplish: Logic to determine which set of commands to use for a given firmware version Of those command, which version of each command to use (based on the args classes state) Keep the rules logic decoupled from the application so as to avoid needing releases for every firmware version Be simple enough so I don't need weeks of study and trial and error to implement effectively.

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• VBA WinHTTPRequest and submitting forms

  - by Hazerider

  Hi. I spent all day yesterday trying to figure out how to submit a form using WinHTTPRequest. I can do it pretty easily with an InternetExplorer object, but the problem is that I need to save a PDF file that gets returned, and I am not sure how to do this with the IE object. Here is the relevant HTML code snippet: <div class="loginHome-left"> <fieldset> <h3>Log in Using</h3> <form> <label for="standardLogin" accesskey="s"> <input name="useLogin" id="standardLogin" value="standard" type="radio" checked="true">Standard Login</label> &nbsp; <label for="rsaSecurID" accesskey="r"> <input name="useLogin" value="rsaSecur" type="radio" id="rsaSecurID" onclick="redirectLogin('ct_logon_securid');return false;">RSA SecurID</label> &nbsp; <label for="employeeNTXP" accesskey="e"> <input name="useLogin" id="employeeNTXP" value="employee" type="radio" onclick="redirectLogin('ct_logon_external_nt');return false; "> Employee Windows Login<br></label> </form> <br> <div class="error">Error: ...</div><br> <form onSubmit="if(validate(this)) {formSubmit();} return false;" name="passwdForm" method="post" action="/UAB/ct_logon"> <input value="custom" name="pageId" type="hidden"> <input value="custom" name="auth_mode" type="hidden"> <input value="/UAB/ct_logon" name="ct_orig_uri" type="hidden"> <INPUT VALUE="" NAME="orig_url" TYPE="hidden"> <input value="" name="lpSp" type="hidden"> <label for="user"> <strong>Username</strong> </label> <input autocomplete="off" name="user" type="text" value="" class="txtFld" onkeypress="return handleEnter(this, event);"> <br> <label for="EnterPassword"> <strong>Password</strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;(<a tabindex="-1" href="/UAB/BCResetWithSecrets">Forgot Your Password?</a>) </label> <input autocomplete="off" name="password" type="password" class="txtFld" onkeypress="return handleEnter(this, event);"> <INPUT id="rememberLogin" name="lpCookie" type="checkbox"> <label for="rememberLogin">Remember My Login Information</label><br> </form> <div class="right"> <br> <input type="image" src="/BC_S/images/bclogin/btn_login.gif" name="" value="Submit" onClick="if(validate(document.forms['passwdForm'])){formSubmit();}return false;"> </div> <div class="clearfix"></div> </fieldset> </div> In order to log in through InternetExplorer, I do the following: Sub TestLogin() Dim ie As InternetExplorer, doc As HTMLDocument, form As HTMLFormElement, inp As Variant Set ie = New InternetExplorer ie.Visible = True ie.navigate "https://URL of the login page" Do Until ie.readyState = READYSTATE_COMPLETE Loop Set doc = ie.document For Each form In doc.forms If InStr(form.innerText, "Password") <> 0 Then form.elements("user").Value = "my_name" form.elements("password").Value = "my_password" Exit For Else End If Next 'This is the unnamed input with an image that is used to submit the form' doc.all(78).Click ie.navigate "https://url of the PDF" Do Until ie.readyState = READYSTATE_COMPLETE Loop Dim filename As String, filenum As Integer filename = "somefile.pdf" filenum = FreeFile Open filename For Binary Access Write As #filenum Write #filenum, doc.DocumentElement.innerText Close #filenum ie.Quit Debug.Print Set ie = Nothing End Sub What I really would like to do is something along the lines of the following: Sub TestLogin3() Dim whr As New WinHttpRequest, postData As String whr.Open "POST", "https://live.barcap.com/UAB/ct_logon", False whr.setRequestHeader "User-Agent", "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0)" whr.setRequestHeader "Connection", "Keep-Alive" whr.Send whr.WaitForResponse postData = "user=paschom1&password=change01" 'Or the following?' postData = "user=paschom1&password=change01&orig_url=&pageId=custom&auth_mode=custom&ct_orig_uri=/BC/dispatcher&lpSp=&lpCookie=off" whr.Send postData whr.WaitForResponse Debug.Print whr.responseText End Sub It just refuses to work though. Not sure if I need to use more setRequestHeader with Content-Form or something similar, and if I do, not sure what exactly I am supposed to pass it. If anyone has any advice regarding this, it would be hugely appreciated. I could probably use a perl module to do it, but I would rather keep it all in VBA if possible. Thanks, Marc.

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• What’s new in ASP.NET 4.0: Core Features

  - by Rick Strahl

  Microsoft released the .NET Runtime 4.0 and with it comes a brand spanking new version of ASP.NET – version 4.0 – which provides an incremental set of improvements to an already powerful platform. .NET 4.0 is a full release of the .NET Framework, unlike version 3.5, which was merely a set of library updates on top of the .NET Framework version 2.0. Because of this full framework revision, there has been a welcome bit of consolidation of assemblies and configuration settings. The full runtime version change to 4.0 also means that you have to explicitly pick version 4.0 of the runtime when you create a new Application Pool in IIS, unlike .NET 3.5, which actually requires version 2.0 of the runtime. In this first of two parts I'll take a look at some of the changes in the core ASP.NET runtime. In the next edition I'll go over improvements in Web Forms and Visual Studio. Core Engine Features Most of the high profile improvements in ASP.NET have to do with Web Forms, but there are a few gems in the core runtime that should make life easier for ASP.NET developers. The following list describes some of the things I've found useful among the new features. Clean web.config Files Are Back! If you've been using ASP.NET 3.5, you probably have noticed that the web.config file has turned into quite a mess of configuration settings between all the custom handler and module mappings for the various web server versions. Part of the reason for this mess is that .NET 3.5 is a collection of add-on components running on top of the .NET Runtime 2.0 and so almost all of the new features of .NET 3.5 where essentially introduced as custom modules and handlers that had to be explicitly configured in the config file. Because the core runtime didn't rev with 3.5, all those configuration options couldn't be moved up to other configuration files in the system chain. With version 4.0 a consolidation was possible, and the result is a much simpler web.config file by default. A default empty ASP.NET 4.0 Web Forms project looks like this: <?xml version="1.0"?> <configuration> <system.web> <compilation debug="true" targetFramework="4.0" /> </system.web> </configuration> Need I say more? Configuration Transformation Files to Manage Configurations and Application Packaging ASP.NET 4.0 introduces the ability to create multi-target configuration files. This means it's possible to create a single configuration file that can be transformed based on relatively simple replacement rules using a Visual Studio and WebDeploy provided XSLT syntax. The idea is that you can create a 'master' configuration file and then create customized versions of this master configuration file by applying some relatively simplistic search and replace, add or remove logic to specific elements and attributes in the original file. To give you an idea, here's the example code that Visual Studio creates for a default web.Release.config file, which replaces a connection string, removes the debug attribute and replaces the CustomErrors section: <?xml version="1.0"?> <configuration xmlns:xdt="http://schemas.microsoft.com/XML-Document-Transform"> <connectionStrings> <add name="MyDB" connectionString="Data Source=ReleaseSQLServer;Initial Catalog=MyReleaseDB;Integrated Security=True" xdt:Transform="SetAttributes" xdt:Locator="Match(name)"/> </connectionStrings> <system.web> <compilation xdt:Transform="RemoveAttributes(debug)" /> <customErrors defaultRedirect="GenericError.htm" mode="RemoteOnly" xdt:Transform="Replace"> <error statusCode="500" redirect="InternalError.htm"/> </customErrors> </system.web> </configuration> You can see the XSL transform syntax that drives this functionality. Basically, only the elements listed in the override file are matched and updated – all the rest of the original web.config file stays intact. Visual Studio 2010 supports this functionality directly in the project system so it's easy to create and maintain these customized configurations in the project tree. Once you're ready to publish your application, you can then use the Publish <yourWebApplication> option on the Build menu which allows publishing to disk, via FTP or to a Web Server using Web Deploy. You can also create a deployment package as a .zip file which can be used by the WebDeploy tool to configure and install the application. You can manually run the Web Deploy tool or use the IIS Manager to install the package on the server or other machine. You can find out more about WebDeploy and Packaging here: http://tinyurl.com/2anxcje. Improved Routing Routing provides a relatively simple way to create clean URLs with ASP.NET by associating a template URL path and routing it to a specific ASP.NET HttpHandler. Microsoft first introduced routing with ASP.NET MVC and then they integrated routing with a basic implementation in the core ASP.NET engine via a separate ASP.NET routing assembly. In ASP.NET 4.0, the process of using routing functionality gets a bit easier. First, routing is now rolled directly into System.Web, so no extra assembly reference is required in your projects to use routing. The RouteCollection class now includes a MapPageRoute() method that makes it easy to route to any ASP.NET Page requests without first having to implement an IRouteHandler implementation. It would have been nice if this could have been extended to serve *any* handler implementation, but unfortunately for anything but a Page derived handlers you still will have to implement a custom IRouteHandler implementation. ASP.NET Pages now include a RouteData collection that will contain route information. Retrieving route data is now a lot easier by simply using this.RouteData.Values["routeKey"] where the routeKey is the value specified in the route template (i.e., "users/{userId}" would use Values["userId"]). The Page class also has a GetRouteUrl() method that you can use to create URLs with route data values rather than hardcoding the URL: <%= this.GetRouteUrl("users",new { userId="ricks" }) %> You can also use the new Expression syntax using <%$RouteUrl %> to accomplish something similar, which can be easier to embed into Page or MVC View code: <a runat="server" href='<%$RouteUrl:RouteName=user, id=ricks %>'>Visit User</a> Finally, the Response object also includes a new RedirectToRoute() method to build a route url for redirection without hardcoding the URL. Response.RedirectToRoute("users", new { userId = "ricks" }); All of these routines are helpers that have been integrated into the core ASP.NET engine to make it easier to create routes and retrieve route data, which hopefully will result in more people taking advantage of routing in ASP.NET. To find out more about the routing improvements you can check out Dan Maharry's blog which has a couple of nice blog entries on this subject: http://tinyurl.com/37trutj and http://tinyurl.com/39tt5w5. Session State Improvements Session state is an often used and abused feature in ASP.NET and version 4.0 introduces a few enhancements geared towards making session state more efficient and to minimize at least some of the ill effects of overuse. The first improvement affects out of process session state, which is typically used in web farm environments or for sites that store application sensitive data that must survive AppDomain restarts (which in my opinion is just about any application). When using OutOfProc session state, ASP.NET serializes all the data in the session statebag into a blob that gets carried over the network and stored either in the State server or SQL Server via the Session provider. Version 4.0 provides some improvement in this serialization of the session data by offering an enableCompression option on the web.Config <Session> section, which forces the serialized session state to be compressed. Depending on the type of data that is being serialized, this compression can reduce the size of the data travelling over the wire by as much as a third. It works best on string data, but can also reduce the size of binary data. In addition, ASP.NET 4.0 now offers a way to programmatically turn session state on or off as part of the request processing queue. In prior versions, the only way to specify whether session state is available is by implementing a marker interface on the HTTP handler implementation. In ASP.NET 4.0, you can now turn session state on and off programmatically via HttpContext.Current.SetSessionStateBehavior() as part of the ASP.NET module pipeline processing as long as it occurs before the AquireRequestState pipeline event. Output Cache Provider Output caching in ASP.NET has been a very useful but potentially memory intensive feature. The default OutputCache mechanism works through in-memory storage that persists generated output based on various lifetime related parameters. While this works well enough for many intended scenarios, it also can quickly cause runaway memory consumption as the cache fills up and serves many variations of pages on your site. ASP.NET 4.0 introduces a provider model for the OutputCache module so it becomes possible to plug-in custom storage strategies for cached pages. One of the goals also appears to be to consolidate some of the different cache storage mechanisms used in .NET in general to a generic Windows AppFabric framework in the future, so various different mechanisms like OutputCache, the non-Page specific ASP.NET cache and possibly even session state eventually can use the same caching engine for storage of persisted data both in memory and out of process scenarios. For developers, the OutputCache provider feature means that you can now extend caching on your own by implementing a custom Cache provider based on the System.Web.Caching.OutputCacheProvider class. You can find more info on creating an Output Cache provider in Gunnar Peipman's blog at: http://tinyurl.com/2vt6g7l. Response.RedirectPermanent ASP.NET 4.0 includes features to issue a permanent redirect that issues as an HTTP 301 Moved Permanently response rather than the standard 302 Redirect respond. In pre-4.0 versions you had to manually create your permanent redirect by setting the Status and Status code properties – Response.RedirectPermanent() makes this operation more obvious and discoverable. There's also a Response.RedirectToRoutePermanent() which provides permanent redirection of route Urls. Preloading of Applications ASP.NET 4.0 provides a new feature to preload ASP.NET applications on startup, which is meant to provide a more consistent startup experience. If your application has a lengthy startup cycle it can appear very slow to serve data to clients while the application is warming up and loading initial resources. So rather than serve these startup requests slowly in ASP.NET 4.0, you can force the application to initialize itself first before even accepting requests for processing. This feature works only on IIS 7.5 (Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2) and works in combination with IIS. You can set up a worker process in IIS 7.5 to always be running, which starts the Application Pool worker process immediately. ASP.NET 4.0 then allows you to specify site-specific settings by setting the serverAutoStartEnabled on a particular site along with an optional serviceAutoStartProvider class that can be used to receive "startup events" when the application starts up. This event in turn can be used to configure the application and optionally pre-load cache data and other information required by the app on startup.  The configuration settings need to be made in applicationhost.config: <sites> <site name="WebApplication2" id="1"> <application path="/" serviceAutoStartEnabled="true" serviceAutoStartProvider="PreWarmup" /> </site> </sites> <serviceAutoStartProviders> <add name="PreWarmup" type="PreWarmupProvider,MyAssembly" /> </serviceAutoStartProviders> Hooking up a warm up provider is optional so you can omit the provider definition and reference. If you do define it here's what it looks like: public class PreWarmupProvider System.Web.Hosting.IProcessHostPreloadClient { public void Preload(string[] parameters) { // initialization for app } } This code fires and while it's running, ASP.NET/IIS will hold requests from hitting the pipeline. So until this code completes the application will not start taking requests. The idea is that you can perform any pre-loading of resources and cache values so that the first request will be ready to perform at optimal performance level without lag. Runtime Performance Improvements According to Microsoft, there have also been a number of invisible performance improvements in the internals of the ASP.NET runtime that should make ASP.NET 4.0 applications run more efficiently and use less resources. These features come without any change requirements in applications and are virtually transparent, except that you get the benefits by updating to ASP.NET 4.0. Summary The core feature set changes are minimal which continues a tradition of small incremental changes to the ASP.NET runtime. ASP.NET has been proven as a solid platform and I'm actually rather happy to see that most of the effort in this release went into stability, performance and usability improvements rather than a massive amount of new features. The new functionality added in 4.0 is minimal but very useful. A lot of people are still running pure .NET 2.0 applications these days and have stayed off of .NET 3.5 for some time now. I think that version 4.0 with its full .NET runtime rev and assembly and configuration consolidation will make an attractive platform for developers to update to. If you're a Web Forms developer in particular, ASP.NET 4.0 includes a host of new features in the Web Forms engine that are significant enough to warrant a quick move to .NET 4.0. I'll cover those changes in my next column. Until then, I suggest you give ASP.NET 4.0 a spin and see for yourself how the new features can help you out. © Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2010Posted in ASP.NET  

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• Inheritance Mapping Strategies with Entity Framework Code First CTP5: Part 3 – Table per Concrete Type (TPC) and Choosing Strategy Guidelines

  - by mortezam

  This is the third (and last) post in a series that explains different approaches to map an inheritance hierarchy with EF Code First. I've described these strategies in previous posts: Part 1 – Table per Hierarchy (TPH) Part 2 – Table per Type (TPT)In today’s blog post I am going to discuss Table per Concrete Type (TPC) which completes the inheritance mapping strategies supported by EF Code First. At the end of this post I will provide some guidelines to choose an inheritance strategy mainly based on what we've learned in this series. TPC and Entity Framework in the Past Table per Concrete type is somehow the simplest approach suggested, yet using TPC with EF is one of those concepts that has not been covered very well so far and I've seen in some resources that it was even discouraged. The reason for that is just because Entity Data Model Designer in VS2010 doesn't support TPC (even though the EF runtime does). That basically means if you are following EF's Database-First or Model-First approaches then configuring TPC requires manually writing XML in the EDMX file which is not considered to be a fun practice. Well, no more. You'll see that with Code First, creating TPC is perfectly possible with fluent API just like other strategies and you don't need to avoid TPC due to the lack of designer support as you would probably do in other EF approaches. Table per Concrete Type (TPC)In Table per Concrete type (aka Table per Concrete class) we use exactly one table for each (nonabstract) class. All properties of a class, including inherited properties, can be mapped to columns of this table, as shown in the following figure: As you can see, the SQL schema is not aware of the inheritance; effectively, we’ve mapped two unrelated tables to a more expressive class structure. If the base class was concrete, then an additional table would be needed to hold instances of that class. I have to emphasize that there is no relationship between the database tables, except for the fact that they share some similar columns. TPC Implementation in Code First Just like the TPT implementation, we need to specify a separate table for each of the subclasses. We also need to tell Code First that we want all of the inherited properties to be mapped as part of this table. In CTP5, there is a new helper method on EntityMappingConfiguration class called MapInheritedProperties that exactly does this for us. Here is the complete object model as well as the fluent API to create a TPC mapping: public abstract class BillingDetail {     public int BillingDetailId { get; set; }     public string Owner { get; set; }     public string Number { get; set; } }          public class BankAccount : BillingDetail {     public string BankName { get; set; }     public string Swift { get; set; } }          public class CreditCard : BillingDetail {     public int CardType { get; set; }     public string ExpiryMonth { get; set; }     public string ExpiryYear { get; set; } }      public class InheritanceMappingContext : DbContext {     public DbSet<BillingDetail> BillingDetails { get; set; }              protected override void OnModelCreating(ModelBuilder modelBuilder)     {         modelBuilder.Entity<BankAccount>().Map(m =>         {             m.MapInheritedProperties();             m.ToTable("BankAccounts");         });         modelBuilder.Entity<CreditCard>().Map(m =>         {             m.MapInheritedProperties();             m.ToTable("CreditCards");         });                 } } The Importance of EntityMappingConfiguration ClassAs a side note, it worth mentioning that EntityMappingConfiguration class turns out to be a key type for inheritance mapping in Code First. Here is an snapshot of this class: namespace System.Data.Entity.ModelConfiguration.Configuration.Mapping {     public class EntityMappingConfiguration<TEntityType> where TEntityType : class     {         public ValueConditionConfiguration Requires(string discriminator);         public void ToTable(string tableName);         public void MapInheritedProperties();     } } As you have seen so far, we used its Requires method to customize TPH. We also used its ToTable method to create a TPT and now we are using its MapInheritedProperties along with ToTable method to create our TPC mapping. TPC Configuration is Not Done Yet!We are not quite done with our TPC configuration and there is more into this story even though the fluent API we saw perfectly created a TPC mapping for us in the database. To see why, let's start working with our object model. For example, the following code creates two new objects of BankAccount and CreditCard types and tries to add them to the database: using (var context = new InheritanceMappingContext()) {     BankAccount bankAccount = new BankAccount();     CreditCard creditCard = new CreditCard() { CardType = 1 };                      context.BillingDetails.Add(bankAccount);     context.BillingDetails.Add(creditCard);     context.SaveChanges(); } Running this code throws an InvalidOperationException with this message: The changes to the database were committed successfully, but an error occurred while updating the object context. The ObjectContext might be in an inconsistent state. Inner exception message: AcceptChanges cannot continue because the object's key values conflict with another object in the ObjectStateManager. Make sure that the key values are unique before calling AcceptChanges. The reason we got this exception is because DbContext.SaveChanges() internally invokes SaveChanges method of its internal ObjectContext. ObjectContext's SaveChanges method on its turn by default calls AcceptAllChanges after it has performed the database modifications. AcceptAllChanges method merely iterates over all entries in ObjectStateManager and invokes AcceptChanges on each of them. Since the entities are in Added state, AcceptChanges method replaces their temporary EntityKey with a regular EntityKey based on the primary key values (i.e. BillingDetailId) that come back from the database and that's where the problem occurs since both the entities have been assigned the same value for their primary key by the database (i.e. on both BillingDetailId = 1) and the problem is that ObjectStateManager cannot track objects of the same type (i.e. BillingDetail) with the same EntityKey value hence it throws. If you take a closer look at the TPC's SQL schema above, you'll see why the database generated the same values for the primary keys: the BillingDetailId column in both BankAccounts and CreditCards table has been marked as identity. How to Solve The Identity Problem in TPC As you saw, using SQL Server’s int identity columns doesn't work very well together with TPC since there will be duplicate entity keys when inserting in subclasses tables with all having the same identity seed. Therefore, to solve this, either a spread seed (where each table has its own initial seed value) will be needed, or a mechanism other than SQL Server’s int identity should be used. Some other RDBMSes have other mechanisms allowing a sequence (identity) to be shared by multiple tables, and something similar can be achieved with GUID keys in SQL Server. While using GUID keys, or int identity keys with different starting seeds will solve the problem but yet another solution would be to completely switch off identity on the primary key property. As a result, we need to take the responsibility of providing unique keys when inserting records to the database. We will go with this solution since it works regardless of which database engine is used. Switching Off Identity in Code First We can switch off identity simply by placing DatabaseGenerated attribute on the primary key property and pass DatabaseGenerationOption.None to its constructor. DatabaseGenerated attribute is a new data annotation which has been added to System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations namespace in CTP5: public abstract class BillingDetail {     [DatabaseGenerated(DatabaseGenerationOption.None)]     public int BillingDetailId { get; set; }     public string Owner { get; set; }     public string Number { get; set; } } As always, we can achieve the same result by using fluent API, if you prefer that: modelBuilder.Entity<BillingDetail>()             .Property(p => p.BillingDetailId)             .HasDatabaseGenerationOption(DatabaseGenerationOption.None); Working With The Object Model Our TPC mapping is ready and we can try adding new records to the database. But, like I said, now we need to take care of providing unique keys when creating new objects: using (var context = new InheritanceMappingContext()) {     BankAccount bankAccount = new BankAccount()      {          BillingDetailId = 1                          };     CreditCard creditCard = new CreditCard()      {          BillingDetailId = 2,         CardType = 1     };                      context.BillingDetails.Add(bankAccount);     context.BillingDetails.Add(creditCard);     context.SaveChanges(); } Polymorphic Associations with TPC is Problematic The main problem with this approach is that it doesn’t support Polymorphic Associations very well. After all, in the database, associations are represented as foreign key relationships and in TPC, the subclasses are all mapped to different tables so a polymorphic association to their base class (abstract BillingDetail in our example) cannot be represented as a simple foreign key relationship. For example, consider the the domain model we introduced here where User has a polymorphic association with BillingDetail. This would be problematic in our TPC Schema, because if User has a many-to-one relationship with BillingDetail, the Users table would need a single foreign key column, which would have to refer both concrete subclass tables. This isn’t possible with regular foreign key constraints. Schema Evolution with TPC is Complex A further conceptual problem with this mapping strategy is that several different columns, of different tables, share exactly the same semantics. This makes schema evolution more complex. For example, a change to a base class property results in changes to multiple columns. It also makes it much more difficult to implement database integrity constraints that apply to all subclasses. Generated SQLLet's examine SQL output for polymorphic queries in TPC mapping. For example, consider this polymorphic query for all BillingDetails and the resulting SQL statements that being executed in the database: var query = from b in context.BillingDetails select b; Just like the SQL query generated by TPT mapping, the CASE statements that you see in the beginning of the query is merely to ensure columns that are irrelevant for a particular row have NULL values in the returning flattened table. (e.g. BankName for a row that represents a CreditCard type). TPC's SQL Queries are Union Based As you can see in the above screenshot, the first SELECT uses a FROM-clause subquery (which is selected with a red rectangle) to retrieve all instances of BillingDetails from all concrete class tables. The tables are combined with a UNION operator, and a literal (in this case, 0 and 1) is inserted into the intermediate result; (look at the lines highlighted in yellow.) EF reads this to instantiate the correct class given the data from a particular row. A union requires that the queries that are combined, project over the same columns; hence, EF has to pad and fill up nonexistent columns with NULL. This query will really perform well since here we can let the database optimizer find the best execution plan to combine rows from several tables. There is also no Joins involved so it has a better performance than the SQL queries generated by TPT where a Join is required between the base and subclasses tables. Choosing Strategy GuidelinesBefore we get into this discussion, I want to emphasize that there is no one single "best strategy fits all scenarios" exists. As you saw, each of the approaches have their own advantages and drawbacks. Here are some rules of thumb to identify the best strategy in a particular scenario: If you don’t require polymorphic associations or queries, lean toward TPC—in other words, if you never or rarely query for BillingDetails and you have no class that has an association to BillingDetail base class. I recommend TPC (only) for the top level of your class hierarchy, where polymorphism isn’t usually required, and when modification of the base class in the future is unlikely. If you do require polymorphic associations or queries, and subclasses declare relatively few properties (particularly if the main difference between subclasses is in their behavior), lean toward TPH. Your goal is to minimize the number of nullable columns and to convince yourself (and your DBA) that a denormalized schema won’t create problems in the long run. If you do require polymorphic associations or queries, and subclasses declare many properties (subclasses differ mainly by the data they hold), lean toward TPT. Or, depending on the width and depth of your inheritance hierarchy and the possible cost of joins versus unions, use TPC. By default, choose TPH only for simple problems. For more complex cases (or when you’re overruled by a data modeler insisting on the importance of nullability constraints and normalization), you should consider the TPT strategy. But at that point, ask yourself whether it may not be better to remodel inheritance as delegation in the object model (delegation is a way of making composition as powerful for reuse as inheritance). Complex inheritance is often best avoided for all sorts of reasons unrelated to persistence or ORM. EF acts as a buffer between the domain and relational models, but that doesn’t mean you can ignore persistence concerns when designing your classes. SummaryIn this series, we focused on one of the main structural aspect of the object/relational paradigm mismatch which is inheritance and discussed how EF solve this problem as an ORM solution. We learned about the three well-known inheritance mapping strategies and their implementations in EF Code First. Hopefully it gives you a better insight about the mapping of inheritance hierarchies as well as choosing the best strategy for your particular scenario. Happy New Year and Happy Code-Firsting! References ADO.NET team blog Java Persistence with Hibernate book a { color: #5A99FF; } a:visited { color: #5A99FF; } .title { padding-bottom: 5px; font-family: Segoe UI; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold; padding-top: 15px; } .code, .typeName { font-family: consolas; } .typeName { color: #2b91af; } .padTop5 { padding-top: 5px; } .padTop10 { padding-top: 10px; } .exception { background-color: #f0f0f0; font-style: italic; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 5px; padding-top: 5px; padding-right: 5px; }

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• Ball to Ball Collision - Detection and Handling

  - by Simucal

  With the help of the Stack Overflow community I've written a pretty basic-but fun physics simulator. You click and drag the mouse to launch a ball. It will bounce around and eventually stop on the "floor". My next big feature I want to add in is ball to ball collision. The ball's movement is broken up into a x and y speed vector. I have gravity (small reduction of the y vector each step), I have friction (small reduction of both vectors each collision with a wall). The balls honestly move around in a surprisingly realistic way. I guess my question has two parts: What is the best method to detect ball to ball collision? Do I just have an O(n^2) loop that iterates over each ball and checks every other ball to see if it's radius overlaps? What equations do I use to handle the ball to ball collisions? Physics 101 How does it effect the two balls speed x/y vectors? What is the resulting direction the two balls head off in? How do I apply this to each ball? Handling the collision detection of the "walls" and the resulting vector changes were easy but I see more complications with ball-ball collisions. With walls I simply had to take the negative of the appropriate x or y vector and off it would go in the correct direction. With balls I don't think it is that way. Some quick clarifications: for simplicity I'm ok with a perfectly elastic collision for now, also all my balls have the same mass right now, but I might change that in the future. In case anyone is interested in playing with the simulator I have made so far, I've uploaded the source here (EDIT: Check the updated source below). Edit: Resources I have found useful 2d Ball physics with vectors: 2-Dimensional Collisions Without Trigonometry.pdf 2d Ball collision detection example: Adding Collision Detection Success! I have the ball collision detection and response working great! Relevant code: Collision Detection: for (int i = 0; i < ballCount; i++) { for (int j = i + 1; j < ballCount; j++) { if (balls[i].colliding(balls[j])) { balls[i].resolveCollision(balls[j]); } } } This will check for collisions between every ball but skip redundant checks (if you have to check if ball 1 collides with ball 2 then you don't need to check if ball 2 collides with ball 1. Also, it skips checking for collisions with itself). Then, in my ball class I have my colliding() and resolveCollision() methods: public boolean colliding(Ball ball) { float xd = position.getX() - ball.position.getX(); float yd = position.getY() - ball.position.getY(); float sumRadius = getRadius() + ball.getRadius(); float sqrRadius = sumRadius * sumRadius; float distSqr = (xd * xd) + (yd * yd); if (distSqr <= sqrRadius) { return true; } return false; } public void resolveCollision(Ball ball) { // get the mtd Vector2d delta = (position.subtract(ball.position)); float d = delta.getLength(); // minimum translation distance to push balls apart after intersecting Vector2d mtd = delta.multiply(((getRadius() + ball.getRadius())-d)/d); // resolve intersection -- // inverse mass quantities float im1 = 1 / getMass(); float im2 = 1 / ball.getMass(); // push-pull them apart based off their mass position = position.add(mtd.multiply(im1 / (im1 + im2))); ball.position = ball.position.subtract(mtd.multiply(im2 / (im1 + im2))); // impact speed Vector2d v = (this.velocity.subtract(ball.velocity)); float vn = v.dot(mtd.normalize()); // sphere intersecting but moving away from each other already if (vn > 0.0f) return; // collision impulse float i = (-(1.0f + Constants.restitution) * vn) / (im1 + im2); Vector2d impulse = mtd.multiply(i); // change in momentum this.velocity = this.velocity.add(impulse.multiply(im1)); ball.velocity = ball.velocity.subtract(impulse.multiply(im2)); } Source Code: Complete source for ball to ball collider. Binary: Compiled binary in case you just want to try bouncing some balls around. If anyone has some suggestions for how to improve this basic physics simulator let me know! One thing I have yet to add is angular momentum so the balls will roll more realistically. Any other suggestions? Leave a comment!

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• Building The Right SharePoint Team For Your Organization

  - by Mark Rackley

  I see the question posted fairly often asking what kind SharePoint team an organization should have. How many people do I need? What roles do I need to fill? What is best for my organization? Well, just like every other answer in SharePoint, the correct answer is “it depends”. Do you ever get sick of hearing that??? I know I do… So, let me give you my thoughts and opinions based upon my experience and what I’ve seen and let you come to your own conclusions. What are the possible SharePoint roles? I guess the first thing you need to understand are the different roles that exist in SharePoint (and their are LOTS). Remember, SharePoint is a massive beast and you will NOT find one person who can do it all. If you are hoping to find that person you will be sorely disappointed. For the most part this is true in SharePoint 2007 and 2010. However, generally things are improved in 2010 and easier for junior individuals to grasp. SharePoint Administrator The absolutely positively only role that you should not be without no matter the size of your organization or SharePoint deployment is a SharePoint administrator. These guys are essential to keeping things running and figuring out what’s wrong when things aren’t running well. These unsung heroes do more before 10 am than I do all day. The bad thing is, when these guys are awesome, you don’t even know they exist because everything is running so smoothly. You should definitely invest some time and money here to make sure you have some competent if not rockstar help. You need an admin who truly loves SharePoint and will go that extra mile when necessary. Let me give you a real world example of what I’m talking about: We have a rockstar admin… and I’m sure she’s sick of my throwing her name around so she’ll just have to live with remaining anonymous in this post… sorry Lori… Anyway! A couple of weeks ago our Server teams came to us and said Hi Lori, I’m finalizing the MOSS servers and doing updates that require a restart; can I restart them? Seems like a harmless request from your server team does it not? Sure, go ahead and apply the patches and reboot during our scheduled maintenance window. No problem? right? Sounded fair to me… but no…. not to our fearless SharePoint admin… I need a complete list of patches that will be applied. There is an update that is out there that will break SharePoint… KB973917 is the patch that has been shown to cause issues. What? You mean Microsoft released a patch that would actually adversely affect SharePoint? If we did NOT have a rockstar admin, our server team would have applied these patches and then when some problem occurred in SharePoint we’d have to go through the fun task of tracking down exactly what caused the issue and resolve it. How much time would that have taken? If you have a junior SharePoint admin or an admin who’s not out there staying on top of what’s going on you could have spent days tracking down something so simple as applying a patch you should not have applied. I will even go as far to say the only SharePoint rockstar you NEED in your organization is a SharePoint admin. You can always outsource really complicated development projects or bring in a rockstar contractor every now and then to make sure you aren’t way off track in other areas. For your day-to-day sanity and to keep SharePoint running smoothly, you need an awesome Admin. Some rockstars in this category are: Ben Curry, Mike Watson, Joel Oleson, Todd Klindt, Shane Young, John Ferringer, Sean McDonough, and of course Lori Gowin. SharePoint Developer Another essential role for your SharePoint deployment is a SharePoint developer. Things do start to get a little hazy here and there are many flavors of “developers”. Are you writing custom code? using SharePoint Designer? What about SharePoint Branding?  Are all of these considered developers? I would say yes. Are they interchangeable? I’d say no. Development in SharePoint is such a large beast in itself. I would say that it’s not so large that you can’t know it all well, but it is so large that there are many people who specialize in one particular category. If you are lucky enough to have someone on staff who knows it all well, you better make sure they are well taken care of because those guys are ready-made to move over to a consulting role and charge you 3 times what you are probably paying them. :) Some of the all-around rockstars are Eric Shupps, Andrew Connell (go Razorbacks), Rob Foster, Paul Schaeflein, and Todd Bleeker SharePoint Power User/No-Code Solutions Developer These SharePoint Swiss Army Knives are essential for quick wins in your organization. These people can twist the out-of-the-box functionality to make it do things you would not even imagine. Give these guys SharePoint Designer, jQuery, InfoPath, and a little time and they will create views, dashboards, and KPI’s that will blow your mind away and give your execs the “wow” they are looking for. Not only can they deliver that wow factor, but they can mashup, merge, and really help make your SharePoint application usable and deliver an overall better user experience. Before you hand off a project to your SharePoint Custom Code developer, let one of these rockstars look at it and show you what they can do (in probably less time). I would say the second most important role you can fill in your organization is one of these guys. Rockstars in this category are Christina Wheeler, Laura Rogers, Jennifer Mason, and Mark Miller SharePoint Developer – Custom Code If you want to really integrate SharePoint into your legacy systems, or really twist it and make it bend to your will, you are going to have to open up Visual Studio and write some custom code.  Remember, SharePoint is essentially just a big, huge, ginormous .NET application, so you CAN write code to make it do ANYTHING, but do you really want to spend the time and effort to do so? At some point with every other form of SharePoint development you are going to run into SOME limitation (SPD Workflows is the big one that comes to mind). If you truly want to knock down all the walls then custom development is the way to go. PLEASE keep in mind when you are looking for a custom code developer that a .NET developer does NOT equal a SharePoint developer. Just SOME of the things these guys write are: Custom Workflows Custom Web Parts Web Service functionality Import data from legacy systems Export data to legacy systems Custom Actions Event Receivers Service Applications (2010) These guys are also the ones generally responsible for packaging everything up into solution packages (you are doing that, right?). Rockstars in this category are Phil Wicklund, Christina Wheeler, Geoff Varosky, and Brian Jackett. SharePoint Branding “But it LOOKS like SharePoint!” Somebody call the WAAAAAAAAAAAAHMbulance…   Themes, Master Pages, Page Layouts, Zones, and over 2000 styles in CSS.. these guys not only have to be comfortable with all of SharePoint’s quirks and pain points when branding, but they have to know it TWICE for publishing and non-publishing sites.  Not only that, but these guys really need to have an eye for graphic design and be able to translate the ramblings of business into something visually stunning. They also have to be comfortable with XSLT, XML, and be able to hand off what they do to your custom developers for them to package as solutions (which you are doing, right?). These rockstars include Heater Waterman, Cathy Dew, and Marcy Kellar SharePoint Architect SharePoint Architects are generally SharePoint Admins or Developers who have moved into more of a BA role? Is that fair to say? These guys really have a grasp and understanding for what SharePoint IS and what it can do. These guys help you structure your farms to meet your needs and help you design your applications the correct way. It’s always a good idea to bring in a rockstar SharePoint Architect to do a sanity check and make sure you aren’t doing anything stupid.  Most organizations probably do not have a rockstar architect on staff. These guys are generally brought in at the deployment of a farm, upgrade of a farm, or for large development projects. I personally also find architects very useful for sitting down with the business to translate their needs into what SharePoint can do. A good architect will be able to pick out what can be done out-of-the-box and what has to be custom built and hand those requirements to the development Staff. Architects can generally fill in as an admin or a developer when needed. Some rockstar architects are Rick Taylor, Dan Usher, Bill English, Spence Harbar, Neil Hodgkins, Eric Harlan, and Bjørn Furuknap. Other Roles / Specialties On top of all these other roles you also get these people who specialize in things like Reporting, BDC (BCS in 2010), Search, Performance, Security, Project Management, etc... etc... etc... Again, most organizations will not have one of these gurus on staff, they’ll just pay out the nose for them when they need them. :) SharePoint End User Everyone else in your organization that touches SharePoint falls into this category. What they actually DO in SharePoint is determined by your governance and what permissions you give these guys. Hopefully you have these guys on a fairly short leash and are NOT giving them access to tools like SharePoint Designer. Sadly end users are the ones who truly make your deployment a success by using it, but are also your biggest enemy in breaking it.  :)  We love you guys… really!!! Okay, all that’s fine and dandy, but what should MY SharePoint team look like? It depends! Okay… Are you just doing out of the box team sites with no custom development? Then you are probably fine with a great Admin team and a great No-Code Solution Development team. How many people do you need? Depends on how busy you can keep them. Sorry, can’t answer the question about numbers without knowing your specific needs. I can just tell you who you MIGHT need and what they will do for you. I’ll leave you with what my ideal SharePoint Team would look like for a particular scenario: Farm / Organization Structure Dev, QA, and 2 Production Farms. 5000 – 10000 Users Custom Development and Integration with legacy systems Team Sites, My Sites, Intranet, Document libraries and overall company collaboration Team Rockstar SharePoint Administrator 2-3 junior SharePoint Administrators SharePoint Architect / Lead Developer 2 Power User / No-Code Solution Developers 2-3 Custom Code developers Branding expert With a team of that size and skill set, they should be able to keep a substantial SharePoint deployment running smoothly and meet your business needs. This does NOT mean that you would not need to bring in contract help from time to time when you need an uber specialist in one area. Also, this team assumes there will be ongoing development for the life of your SharePoint farm. If you are just going to be doing sporadic custom development, it might make sense to partner with an awesome firm that specializes in that sort of work (I can give you the name of a couple if you are interested).  Again though, the size of your team depends on the number of requests you are receiving and how much active deployment you are doing. So, don’t bring in a team that looks like this and then yell at me because they are sitting around with nothing to do or are so overwhelmed that nothing is getting done. I do URGE you to take the proper time to asses your needs and determine what team is BEST for your organization. Also, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not skimp on the talent. When it comes to SharePoint you really do get what you pay for when it comes to employees, contractors, and software.  SharePoint can become absolutely critical to your business and because you skimped on hiring a developer he created a web part that brings down the farm because he doesn’t know what he’s doing, or you hire an admin who thinks it’s fine to stick everything in the same Content Database and then can’t figure out why people are complaining. SharePoint can be an enormous blessing to an organization or it’s biggest curse. Spend the time and money to do it right, or be prepared to spending even more time and money later to fix it.

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• The Art of Productivity

  - by dwahlin

  Getting things done has always been a challenge regardless of gender, age, race, skill, or job position. No matter how hard some people try, they end up procrastinating tasks until the last minute. Some people simply focus better when they know they’re out of time and can’t procrastinate any longer. How many times have you put off working on a term paper in school until the very last minute? With only a few hours left your mental energy and focus seem to kick in to high gear especially as you realize that you either get the paper done now or risk failing. It’s amazing how a little pressure can turn into a motivator and allow our minds to focus on a given task. Some people seem to specialize in procrastinating just about everything they do while others tend to be the “doers” who get a lot done and ultimately rise up the ladder at work. What’s the difference between these types of people? Is it pure laziness or are other factors at play? I think that some people are certainly more motivated than others, but I also think a lot of it is based on the process that “doers” tend to follow - whether knowingly or unknowingly. While I’ve certainly fought battles with procrastination, I’ve always had a knack for being able to get a lot done in a relatively short amount of time. I think a lot of my “get it done” attitude goes back to the the strong work ethic my parents instilled in me at a young age. I remember my dad saying, “You need to learn to work hard!” when I was around 5 years old. I remember that moment specifically because I was on a tractor with him the first time I heard it while he was trying to move some large rocks into a pile. The tractor was big but so were the rocks and my dad had to balance the tractor perfectly so that it didn’t tip forward too far. It was challenging work and somewhat tedious but my dad finished the task and taught me a few important lessons along the way including persistence, the importance of having a skill, and getting the job done right without skimping along the way. In this post I’m going to list a few of the techniques and processes I follow that I hope may be beneficial to others. I blogged about the general concept back in 2009 but thought I’d share some updated information and lessons learned since then. Most of the ideas that follow came from learning and refining my daily work process over the years. However, since most of the ideas are common sense (at least in my opinion), I suspect they can be found in other productivity processes that are out there. Let’s start off with one of the most important yet simple tips: Start Each Day with a List. Start Each Day with a List What are you planning to get done today? Do you keep track of everything in your head or rely on your calendar? While most of us think that we’re pretty good at managing “to do” lists strictly in our head you might be surprised at how affective writing out lists can be. By writing out tasks you’re forced to focus on the most important tasks to accomplish that day, commit yourself to those tasks, and have an easy way to track what was supposed to get done and what actually got done. Start every morning by making a list of specific tasks that you want to accomplish throughout the day. I’ll even go so far as to fill in times when I’d like to work on tasks if I have a lot of meetings or other events tying up my calendar on a given day. I’m not a big fan of using paper since I type a lot faster than I write (plus I write like a 3rd grader according to my wife), so I use the Sticky Notes feature available in Windows. Here’s an example of yesterday’s sticky note: What do you add to your list? That’s the subject of the next tip. Focus on Small Tasks It’s no secret that focusing on small, manageable tasks is more effective than trying to focus on large and more vague tasks. When you make your list each morning only add tasks that you can accomplish within a given time period. For example, if I only have 30 minutes blocked out to work on an article I don’t list “Write Article”. If I do that I’ll end up wasting 30 minutes stressing about how I’m going to get the article done in 30 minutes and ultimately get nothing done. Instead, I’ll list something like “Write Introductory Paragraphs for Article”. The next day I may add, “Write first section of article” or something that’s small and manageable – something I’m confident that I can get done. You’ll find that once you’ve knocked out several smaller tasks it’s easy to continue completing others since you want to keep the momentum going. In addition to keeping my tasks focused and small, I also make a conscious effort to limit my list to 4 or 5 tasks initially. I’ve found that if I list more than 5 tasks I feel a bit overwhelmed which hurts my productivity. It’s easy to add additional tasks as you complete others and you get the added benefit of that confidence boost of knowing that you’re being productive and getting things done as you remove tasks and add others. Getting Started is the Hardest (Yet Easiest) Part I’ve always found that getting started is the hardest part and one of the biggest contributors to procrastination. Getting started working on tasks is a lot like getting a large rock pushed to the bottom of a hill. It’s difficult to get the rock rolling at first, but once you manage to get it rocking some it’s really easy to get it rolling on its way to the bottom. As an example, I’ve written 100s of articles for technical magazines over the years and have really struggled with the initial introductory paragraphs. Keep in mind that these are the paragraphs that don’t really add that much value (in my opinion anyway). They introduce the reader to the subject matter and nothing more. What a waste of time for me to sit there stressing about how to start the article. On more than one occasion I’ve spent more than an hour trying to come up with 2-3 paragraphs of text.  Talk about a productivity killer! Whether you’re struggling with a writing task, some code for a project, an email, or other tasks, jumping in without thinking too much is the best way to get started I’ve found. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have an overall plan when jumping into a task, but on some occasions you’ll find that if you simply jump into the task and stop worrying about doing everything perfectly that things will flow more smoothly. For my introductory paragraph problem I give myself 5 minutes to write out some general concepts about what I know the article will cover and then spend another 10-15 minutes going back and refining that information. That way I actually have some ideas to work with rather than a blank sheet of paper. If I still find myself struggling I’ll write the rest of the article first and then circle back to the introductory paragraphs once I’m done. To sum this tip up: Jump into a task without thinking too hard about it. It’s better to to get the rock at the top of the hill rocking some than doing nothing at all. You can always go back and refine your work.   Learn a Productivity Technique and Stick to It There are a lot of different productivity programs and seminars out there being sold by companies. I’ve always laughed at how much money people spend on some of these motivational programs/seminars because I think that being productive isn’t that hard if you create a re-useable set of steps and processes to follow. That’s not to say that some of these programs/seminars aren’t worth the money of course because I know they’ve definitely benefited some people that have a hard time getting things done and staying focused. One of the best productivity techniques I’ve ever learned is called the “Pomodoro Technique” and it’s completely free. This technique is an extremely simple way to manage your time without having to remember a bunch of steps, color coding mechanisms, or other processes. The technique was originally developed by Francesco Cirillo in the 80s and can be implemented with a simple timer. In a nutshell here’s how the technique works: Pick a task to work on Set the timer to 25 minutes and work on the task Once the timer rings record your time Take a 5 minute break Repeat the process Here’s why the technique works well for me: It forces me to focus on a single task for 25 minutes. In the past I had no time goal in mind and just worked aimlessly on a task until I got interrupted or bored. 25 minutes is a small enough chunk of time for me to stay focused. Any distractions that may come up have to wait until after the timer goes off. If the distraction is really important then I stop the timer and record my time up to that point. When the timer is running I act as if I only have 25 minutes total for the task (like you’re down to the last 25 minutes before turning in your term paper….frantically working to get it done) which helps me stay focused and turns into a “beat the clock” type of game. It’s actually kind of fun if you treat it that way and really helps me focus on a the task at hand. I automatically know how much time I’m spending on a given task (more on this later) by using this technique. I know that I have 5 minutes after each pomodoro (the 25 minute sprint) to waste on anything I’d like including visiting a website, stepping away from the computer, etc. which also helps me stay focused when the 25 minute timer is counting down. I use this technique so much that I decided to build a program for Windows 8 called Pomodoro Focus (I plan to blog about how it was built in a later post). It’s a Windows Store application that allows people to track tasks, productive time spent on tasks, interruption time experienced while working on a given task, and the number of pomodoros completed. If a time estimate is given when the task is initially created, Pomodoro Focus will also show the task completion percentage. I like it because it allows me to track my tasks, time spent on tasks (very useful in the consulting world), and even how much time I wasted on tasks (pressing the pause button while working on a task starts the interruption timer). I recently added a new feature that charts productive and interruption time for tasks since I wanted to see how productive I was from week to week and month to month. A few screenshots from the Pomodoro Focus app are shown next, I had a lot of fun building it and use it myself to as I work on tasks.   There are certainly many other productivity techniques and processes out there (and a slew of books describing them), but the Pomodoro Technique has been the simplest and most effective technique I’ve ever come across for staying focused and getting things done.   Persistence is Key Getting things done is great but one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in life is that persistence is key especially when you’re trying to get something done that at times seems insurmountable. Small tasks ultimately lead to larger tasks getting accomplished, however, it’s not all roses along the way as some of the smaller tasks may come with their own share of bumps and bruises that lead to discouragement about the end goal and whether or not it is worth achieving at all. I’ve been on several long-term projects over my career as a software developer (I have one personal project going right now that fits well here) and found that repeating, “Persistence is the key!” over and over to myself really helps. Not every project turns out to be successful, but if you don’t show persistence through the hard times you’ll never know if you succeeded or not. Likewise, if you don’t persistently stick to the process of creating a daily list, follow a productivity process, etc. then the odds of consistently staying productive aren’t good.   Track Your Time How much time do you actually spend working on various tasks? If you don’t currently track time spent answering emails, on phone calls, and working on various tasks then you might be surprised to find out that a task that you thought was going to take you 30 minutes ultimately ended up taking 2 hours. If you don’t track the time you spend working on tasks how can you expect to learn from your mistakes, optimize your time better, and become more productive? That’s another reason why I like the Pomodoro Technique – it makes it easy to stay focused on tasks while also tracking how much time I’m working on a given task.   Eliminate Distractions I blogged about this final tip several years ago but wanted to bring it up again. If you want to be productive (and ultimately successful at whatever you’re doing) then you can’t waste a lot of time playing games or on Twitter, Facebook, or other time sucking websites. If you see an article you’re interested in that has no relation at all to the tasks you’re trying to accomplish then bookmark it and read it when you have some spare time (such as during a pomodoro break). Fighting the temptation to check your friends’ status updates on Facebook? Resist the urge and realize how much those types of activities are hurting your productivity and taking away from your focus. I’ll admit that eliminating distractions is still tough for me personally and something I have to constantly battle. But, I’ve made a conscious decision to cut back on my visits and updates to Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other sites. Sure, my Klout score has suffered as a result lately, but does anyone actually care about those types of scores aside from your online “friends” (few of whom you’ve actually met in person)? :-) Ultimately it comes down to self-discipline and how badly you want to be productive and successful in your career, life goals, hobbies, or whatever you’re working on. Rather than having your homepage take you to a time wasting news site, game site, social site, picture site, or others, how about adding something like the following as your homepage? Every time your browser opens you’ll see a personal message which helps keep you on the right track. You can download my ubber-sophisticated homepage here if interested. Summary Is there a single set of steps that if followed can ultimately lead to productivity? I don’t think so since one size has never fit all. Every person is different, works in their own unique way, and has their own set of motivators, distractions, and more. While I certainly don’t consider myself to be an expert on the subject of productivity, I do think that if you learn what steps work best for you and gradually refine them over time that you can come up with a personal productivity process that can serve you well. Productivity is definitely an “art” that anyone can learn with a little practice and persistence. You’ve seen some of the steps that I personally like to follow and I hope you find some of them useful in boosting your productivity. If you have others you use please leave a comment. I’m always looking for ways to improve.

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• Load and Web Performance Testing using Visual Studio Ultimate 2010-Part 3

  - by Tarun Arora

  Welcome back once again, in Part 1 of Load and Web Performance Testing using Visual Studio 2010 I talked about why Performance Testing the application is important, the test tools available in Visual Studio Ultimate 2010 and various test rig topologies, in Part 2 of Load and Web Performance Testing using Visual Studio 2010 I discussed the details of web performance & load tests as well as why it’s important to follow a goal based pattern while performance testing your application. In part 3 I’ll be discussing Test Result Analysis, Test Result Drill through, Test Report Generation, Test Run Comparison, Asp.net Profiler and some closing thoughts. Test Results – I see some creepy worms! In Part 2 we put together a web performance test and a load test, lets run the test to see load test to see how the Web site responds to the load simulation. While the load test is running you will be able to see close to real time analysis in the Load Test Analyser window. You can use the Load Test Analyser to conduct load test analysis in three ways: Monitor a running load test - A condensed set of the performance counter data is maintained in memory. To prevent the results memory requirements from growing unbounded, up to 200 samples for each performance counter are maintained. This includes 100 evenly spaced samples that span the current elapsed time of the run and the most recent 100 samples.         After the load test run is completed - The test controller spools all collected performance counter data to a database while the test is running. Additional data, such as timing details and error details, is loaded into the database when the test completes. The performance data for a completed test is loaded from the database and analysed by the Load Test Analyser. Below you can see a screen shot of the summary view, this provides key results in a format that is compact and easy to read. You can also print the load test summary, this is generated after the test has completed or been stopped.         Analyse the load test results of a previously run load test – We’ll see this in the section where i discuss comparison between two test runs. The performance counters can be plotted on the graphs. You also have the option to highlight a selected part of the test and view details, drill down to the user activity chart where you can hover over to see more details of the test run.   Generate Report => Test Run Comparisons The level of reports you can generate using the Load Test Analyser is astonishing. You have the option to create excel reports and conduct side by side analysis of two test results or to track trend analysis. The tools also allows you to export the graph data either to MS Excel or to a CSV file. You can view the ASP.NET profiler report to conduct further analysis as well. View Data and Diagnostic Attachments opens the Choose Diagnostic Data Adapter Attachment dialog box to select an adapter to analyse the result type. For example, you can select an IntelliTrace adapter, click OK and open the IntelliTrace summary for the test agent that was used in the load test.   Compare results This creates a set of reports that compares the data from two load test results using tables and bar charts. I have taken these screen shots from the MSDN documentation, I would highly recommend exploring the wealth of knowledge available on MSDN. Leaving Thoughts While load testing the application with an excessive load for a longer duration of time, i managed to bring the IIS to its knees by piling up a huge queue of requests waiting to be processed. This clearly means that the IIS had run out of threads as all the threads were busy processing existing request, one easy way of fixing this is by increasing the default number of allocated threads, but this might escalate the problem. The better suggestion is to try and drill down to the actual root cause of the problem. When ever the garbage collection runs it stops processing any pages so all requests that come in during that period are queued up, but realistically the garbage collection completes in fraction of a a second. To understand this better lets look at the .net heap, it is divided into large heap and small heap, anything greater than 85kB in size will be allocated to the Large object heap, the Large object heap is non compacting and remember large objects are expensive to move around, so if you are allocating something in the large object heap, make sure that you really need it! The small object heap on the other hand is divided into generations, so all objects that are supposed to be short-lived are suppose to live in Gen-0 and the long living objects eventually move to Gen-2 as garbage collection goes through.  As you can see in the picture below all < 85 KB size objects are first assigned to Gen-0, when Gen-0 fills up and a new object comes in and finds Gen-0 full, the garbage collection process is started, the process checks for all the dead objects and assigns them as the valid candidate for deletion to free up memory and promotes all the remaining objects in Gen-0 to Gen-1. So in the future when ever you clean up Gen-1 you have to clean up Gen-0 as well. When you fill up Gen – 0 again, all of Gen – 1 dead objects are drenched and rest are moved to Gen-2 and Gen-0 objects are moved to Gen-1 to free up Gen-0, but by this time your Garbage collection process has started to take much more time than it usually takes. Now as I mentioned earlier when garbage collection is being run all page requests that come in during that period are queued up. Does this explain why possibly page requests are getting queued up, apart from this it could also be the case that you are waiting for a long running database process to complete.      Lets explore the heap a bit more… What is really a case of crisis is when the objects are living long enough to make it to Gen-2 and then dying, this is definitely a high cost operation. But sometimes you need objects in memory, for example when you cache data you hold on to the objects because you need to use them right across the user session, which is acceptable. But if you wanted to see what extreme caching can do to your server then write a simple application that chucks in a lot of data in cache, run a load test over it for about 10-15 minutes, forcing a lot of data in memory causing the heap to run out of memory. If you get to such a state where you start running out of memory the IIS as a mode of recovery restarts the worker process. It is great way to free up all your memory in the heap but this would clear the cache. The problem with this is if the customer had 10 items in their shopping basket and that data was stored in the application cache, the user basket will now be empty forcing them either to get frustrated and go to a competitor website or if the customer is really patient, give it another try! How can you address this, well two ways of addressing this; 1. Workaround – A x86 bit processor only allows a maximum of 4GB of RAM, this means the machine effectively has around 3.4 GB of RAM available, the OS needs about 1.5 GB of RAM to run efficiently, the IIS and .net framework also need their share of memory, leaving you a heap of around 800 MB to play with. Because Team builds by default build your application in ‘Compile as any mode’ it means the application is build such that it will run in x86 bit mode if run on a x86 bit processor and run in a x64 bit mode if run on a x64 but processor. The problem with this is not all applications are really x64 bit compatible specially if you are using com objects or external libraries. So, as a quick win if you compiled your application in x86 bit mode by changing the compile as any selection to compile as x86 in the team build, you will be able to run your application on a x64 bit machine in x86 bit mode (WOW – By running Windows on Windows) and what that means is, you could use 8GB+ worth of RAM, if you take away everything else your application will roughly get a heap size of at least 4 GB to play with, which is immense. If you need a heap size of more than 4 GB you have either build a software for NASA or there is something fundamentally wrong in your application. 2. Solution – Now that you have put a workaround in place the IIS will not restart the worker process that regularly, which means you can take a breather and start working to get to the root cause of this memory leak. But this begs a question “How do I Identify possible memory leaks in my application?” Well i won’t say that there is one single tool that can tell you where the memory leak is, but trust me, ‘Performance Profiling’ is a great start point, it definitely gets you started in the right direction, let’s have a look at how. Performance Wizard - Start the Performance Wizard and select Instrumentation, this lets you measure function call counts and timings. Before running the performance session right click the performance session settings and chose properties from the context menu to bring up the Performance session properties page and as shown in the screen shot below, check the check boxes in the group ‘.NET memory profiling collection’ namely ‘Collect .NET object allocation information’ and ‘Also collect the .NET Object lifetime information’.    Now if you fire off the profiling session on your pages you will notice that the results allows you to view ‘Object Lifetime’ which shows you the number of objects that made it to Gen-0, Gen-1, Gen-2, Large heap, etc. Another great feature about the profile is that if your application has > 5% cases where objects die right after making to the Gen-2 storage a threshold alert is generated to alert you. Since you have the option to also view the most expensive methods and by capturing the IntelliTrace data you can drill in to narrow down to the line of code that is the root cause of the problem. Well now that we have seen how crucial memory management is and how easy Visual Studio Ultimate 2010 makes it for us to identify and reproduce the problem with the best of breed tools in the product. Caching One of the main ways to improve performance is Caching. Which basically means you tell the web server that instead of going to the database for each request you keep the data in the webserver and when the user asks for it you serve it from the webserver itself. BUT that can have consequences! Let’s look at some code, trust me caching code is not very intuitive, I define a cache key for almost all searches made through the common search page and cache the results. The approach works fine, first time i get the data from the database and second time data is served from the cache, significant performance improvement, EXCEPT when two users try to do the same operation and run into each other. But it is easy to handle this by adding the lock as you can see in the snippet below. So, as long as a user comes in and finds that the cache is empty, the user locks and starts to get the cache no more concurrency issues. But lets say you are processing 10 requests per second, by the time i have locked the operation to get the results from the database, 9 other users came in and found that the cache key is null so after i have come out and populated the cache they will still go in to get the results again. The application will still be faster because the next set of 10 users and so on would continue to get data from the cache. BUT if we added another null check after locking to build the cache and before actual call to the db then the 9 users who follow me would not make the extra trip to the database at all and that would really increase the performance, but didn’t i say that the code won’t be very intuitive, may be you should leave a comment you don’t want another developer to come in and think what a fresher why is he checking for the cache key null twice !!! The downside of caching is, you are storing the data outside of the database and the data could be wrong because the updates applied to the database would make the data cached at the web server out of sync. So, how do you invalidate the cache? Well if you only had one way of updating the data lets say only one entry point to the data update you can write some logic to say that every time new data is entered set the cache object to null. But this approach will not work as soon as you have several ways of feeding data to the system or your system is scaled out across a farm of web servers. The perfect solution to this is Micro Caching which means you cache the query for a set time duration and invalidate the cache after that set duration. The advantage is every time the user queries for that data with in the time span for which you have cached the results there are no calls made to the database and the data is served right from the server which makes the response immensely quick. Now figuring out the appropriate time span for which you micro cache the query results really depends on the application. Lets say your website gets 10 requests per second, if you retain the cache results for even 1 minute you will have immense performance gains. You would reduce 90% hits to the database for searching. Ever wondered why when you go to e-bookers.com or xpedia.com or yatra.com to book a flight and you click on the book button because the fare seems too exciting and you get an error message telling you that the fare is not valid any more. Yes, exactly => That is a cache failure! These travel sites or price compare engines are not going to hit the database every time you hit the compare button instead the results will be served from the cache, because the query results are micro cached, its a perfect trade-off, by micro caching the results the site gains 100% performance benefits but every once in a while annoys a customer because the fare has expired. But the trade off works in the favour of these sites as they are still able to process up to 30+ page requests per second which means cater to the site traffic by may be losing 1 customer every once in a while to a competitor who is also using a similar caching technique what are the odds that the user will not come back to their site sooner or later? Recap   Resources Below are some Key resource you might like to review. I would highly recommend the documentation, walkthroughs and videos available on MSDN. You can always make use of Fiddler to debug Web Performance Tests. Some community test extensions and plug ins available on Codeplex might also be of interest to you. The Road Ahead Thank you for taking the time out and reading this blog post, you may also want to read Part I and Part II if you haven’t so far. If you enjoyed the post, remember to subscribe to http://feeds.feedburner.com/TarunArora. Questions/Feedback/Suggestions, etc please leave a comment. Next ‘Load Testing in the cloud’, I’ll be working on exploring the possibilities of running Test controller/Agents in the Cloud. See you on the other side! Thank You!   Share this post : CodeProject

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• Stored Procedures with SSRS? Hmm… not so much

  - by Rob Farley

  Little Bobby Tables’ mother says you should always sanitise your data input. Except that I think she’s wrong. The SQL Injection aspect is for another post, where I’ll show you why I think SQL Injection is the same kind of attack as many other attacks, such as the old buffer overflow, but here I want to have a bit of a whinge about the way that some people sanitise data input, and even have a whinge about people who insist on using stored procedures for SSRS reports. Let me say that again, in case you missed it the first time: I want to have a whinge about people who insist on using stored procedures for SSRS reports. Let’s look at the data input sanitisation aspect – except that I’m going to call it ‘parameter validation’. I’m talking about code that looks like this: create procedure dbo.GetMonthSummaryPerSalesPerson(@eomdate datetime) as begin     /* First check that @eomdate is a valid date */     if isdate(@eomdate) != 1     begin         select 'Please enter a valid date' as ErrorMessage;         return;     end     /* Then check that time has passed since @eomdate */     if datediff(day,@eomdate,sysdatetime()) < 5     begin         select 'Sorry - EOM is not complete yet' as ErrorMessage;         return;     end         /* If those checks have succeeded, return the data */     select SalesPersonID, count(*) as NumSales, sum(TotalDue) as TotalSales     from Sales.SalesOrderHeader     where OrderDate >= dateadd(month,-1,@eomdate)         and OrderDate < @eomdate     group by SalesPersonID     order by SalesPersonID; end Notice that the code checks that a date has been entered. Seriously??!! This must only be to check for NULL values being passed in, because anything else would have to be a valid datetime to avoid an error. The other check is maybe fair enough, but I still don’t like it. The two problems I have with this stored procedure are the result sets and the small fact that the stored procedure even exists in the first place. But let’s consider the first one of these problems for starters. I’ll get to the second one in a moment. If you read Jes Borland (@grrl_geek)’s recent post about returning multiple result sets in Reporting Services, you’ll be aware that Reporting Services doesn’t support multiple results sets from a single query. And when it says ‘single query’, it includes ‘stored procedure call’. It’ll only handle the first result set that comes back. But that’s okay – we have RETURN statements, so our stored procedure will only ever return a single result set.  Sometimes that result set might contain a single field called ErrorMessage, but it’s still only one result set. Except that it’s not okay, because Reporting Services needs to know what fields to expect. Your report needs to hook into your fields, so SSRS needs to have a way to get that information. For stored procs, it uses an option called FMTONLY. When Reporting Services tries to figure out what fields are going to be returned by a query (or stored procedure call), it doesn’t want to have to run the whole thing. That could take ages. (Maybe it’s seen some of the stored procedures I’ve had to deal with over the years!) So it turns on FMTONLY before it makes the call (and turns it off again afterwards). FMTONLY is designed to be able to figure out the shape of the output, without actually running the contents. It’s very useful, you might think. set fmtonly on exec dbo.GetMonthSummaryPerSalesPerson '20030401'; set fmtonly off Without the FMTONLY lines, this stored procedure returns a result set that has three columns and fourteen rows. But with FMTONLY turned on, those rows don’t come back. But what I do get back hurts Reporting Services. It doesn’t run the stored procedure at all. It just looks for anything that could be returned and pushes out a result set in that shape. Despite the fact that I’ve made sure that the logic will only ever return a single result set, the FMTONLY option kills me by returning three of them. It would have been much better to push these checks down into the query itself. alter procedure dbo.GetMonthSummaryPerSalesPerson(@eomdate datetime) as begin     select SalesPersonID, count(*) as NumSales, sum(TotalDue) as TotalSales     from Sales.SalesOrderHeader     where     /* Make sure that @eomdate is valid */         isdate(@eomdate) = 1     /* And that it's sufficiently past */     and datediff(day,@eomdate,sysdatetime()) >= 5     /* And now use it in the filter as appropriate */     and OrderDate >= dateadd(month,-1,@eomdate)     and OrderDate < @eomdate     group by SalesPersonID     order by SalesPersonID; end Now if we run it with FMTONLY turned on, we get the single result set back. But let’s consider the execution plan when we pass in an invalid date. First let’s look at one that returns data. I’ve got a semi-useful index in place on OrderDate, which includes the SalesPersonID and TotalDue fields. It does the job, despite a hefty Sort operation. …compared to one that uses a future date: You might notice that the estimated costs are similar – the Index Seek is still 28%, the Sort is still 71%. But the size of that arrow coming out of the Index Seek is a whole bunch smaller. The coolest thing here is what’s going on with that Index Seek. Let’s look at some of the properties of it. Glance down it with me… Estimated CPU cost of 0.0005728, 387 estimated rows, estimated subtree cost of 0.0044385, ForceSeek false, Number of Executions 0. That’s right – it doesn’t run. So much for reading plans right-to-left... The key is the Filter on the left of it. It has a Startup Expression Predicate in it, which means that it doesn’t call anything further down the plan (to the right) if the predicate evaluates to false. Using this method, we can make sure that our stored procedure contains a single query, and therefore avoid any problems with multiple result sets. If we wanted, we could always use UNION ALL to make sure that we can return an appropriate error message. alter procedure dbo.GetMonthSummaryPerSalesPerson(@eomdate datetime) as begin     select SalesPersonID, count(*) as NumSales, sum(TotalDue) as TotalSales, /*Placeholder: */ '' as ErrorMessage     from Sales.SalesOrderHeader     where     /* Make sure that @eomdate is valid */         isdate(@eomdate) = 1     /* And that it's sufficiently past */     and datediff(day,@eomdate,sysdatetime()) >= 5     /* And now use it in the filter as appropriate */     and OrderDate >= dateadd(month,-1,@eomdate)     and OrderDate < @eomdate     group by SalesPersonID     /* Now include the error messages */     union all     select 0, 0, 0, 'Please enter a valid date' as ErrorMessage     where isdate(@eomdate) != 1     union all     select 0, 0, 0, 'Sorry - EOM is not complete yet' as ErrorMessage     where datediff(day,@eomdate,sysdatetime()) < 5     order by SalesPersonID; end But still I don’t like it, because it’s now a stored procedure with a single query. And I don’t like stored procedures that should be functions. That’s right – I think this should be a function, and SSRS should call the function. And I apologise to those of you who are now planning a bonfire for me. Guy Fawkes’ night has already passed this year, so I think you miss out. (And I’m not going to remind you about when the PASS Summit is in 2012.) create function dbo.GetMonthSummaryPerSalesPerson(@eomdate datetime) returns table as return (     select SalesPersonID, count(*) as NumSales, sum(TotalDue) as TotalSales, '' as ErrorMessage     from Sales.SalesOrderHeader     where     /* Make sure that @eomdate is valid */         isdate(@eomdate) = 1     /* And that it's sufficiently past */     and datediff(day,@eomdate,sysdatetime()) >= 5     /* And now use it in the filter as appropriate */     and OrderDate >= dateadd(month,-1,@eomdate)     and OrderDate < @eomdate     group by SalesPersonID     union all     select 0, 0, 0, 'Please enter a valid date' as ErrorMessage     where isdate(@eomdate) != 1     union all     select 0, 0, 0, 'Sorry - EOM is not complete yet' as ErrorMessage     where datediff(day,@eomdate,sysdatetime()) < 5 ); We’ve had to lose the ORDER BY – but that’s fine, as that’s a client thing anyway. We can have our reports leverage this stored query still, but we’re recognising that it’s a query, not a procedure. A procedure is designed to DO stuff, not just return data. We even get entries in sys.columns that confirm what the shape of the result set actually is, which makes sense, because a table-valued function is the right mechanism to return data. And we get so much more flexibility with this. If you haven’t seen the simplification stuff that I’ve preached on before, jump over to http://bit.ly/SimpleRob and watch the video of when I broke a microphone and nearly fell off the stage in Wales. You’ll see the impact of being able to have a simplifiable query. You can also read the procedural functions post I wrote recently, if you didn’t follow the link from a few paragraphs ago. So if we want the list of SalesPeople that made any kind of sales in a given month, we can do something like: select SalesPersonID from dbo.GetMonthSummaryPerSalesPerson(@eomonth) order by SalesPersonID; This doesn’t need to look up the TotalDue field, which makes a simpler plan. select * from dbo.GetMonthSummaryPerSalesPerson(@eomonth) where SalesPersonID is not null order by SalesPersonID; This one can avoid having to do the work on the rows that don’t have a SalesPersonID value, pushing the predicate into the Index Seek rather than filtering the results that come back to the report. If we had joins involved, we might see some of those being simplified out. We also get the ability to include query hints in individual reports. We shift from having a single-use stored procedure to having a reusable stored query – and isn’t that one of the main points of modularisation? Stored procedures in Reporting Services are just a bit limited for my liking. They’re useful in plenty of ways, but if you insist on using stored procedures all the time rather that queries that use functions – that’s rubbish. @rob_farley

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• URL Rewrite – Protocol (http/https) in the Action

  - by OWScott

  IIS URL Rewrite supports server variables for pretty much every part of the URL and http header. However, there is one commonly used server variable that isn’t readily available.  That’s the protocol—HTTP or HTTPS. You can easily check if a page request uses HTTP or HTTPS, but that only works in the conditions part of the rule.  There isn’t a variable available to dynamically set the protocol in the action part of the rule.  What I wish is that there would be a variable like {HTTP_PROTOCOL} which would have a value of ‘HTTP’ or ‘HTTPS’.  There is a server variable called {HTTPS}, but the values of ‘on’ and ‘off’ aren’t practical in the action.  You can also use {SERVER_PORT} or {SERVER_PORT_SECURE}, but again, they aren’t useful in the action. Let me illustrate.  The following rule will redirect traffic for http(s)://localtest.me/ to http://www.localtest.me/. <rule name="Redirect to www"> <match url="(.*)" /> <conditions> <add input="{HTTP_HOST}" pattern="^localtest\.me$" /> </conditions> <action type="Redirect" url="http://www.localtest.me/{R:1}" /> </rule> The problem is that it forces the request to HTTP even if the original request was for HTTPS. Interestingly enough, I planned to blog about this topic this week when I noticed in my twitter feed yesterday that Jeff Graves, a former colleague of mine, just wrote an excellent blog post about this very topic.  He beat me to the punch by just a couple days.  However, I figured I would still write my blog post on this topic.  While his solution is a excellent one, I personally handle this another way most of the time.  Plus, it’s a commonly asked question that isn’t documented well enough on the web yet, so having another article on the web won’t hurt. I can think of four different ways to handle this, and depending on your situation you may lean towards any of the four.  Don’t let the choices overwhelm you though.  Let’s keep it simple, Option 1 is what I use most of the time, Option 2 is what Jeff proposed and is the safest option, and Option 3 and Option 4 need only be considered if you have a more unique situation.  All four options will work for most situations. Option 1 – CACHE_URL, single rule There is a server variable that has the protocol in it; {CACHE_URL}.  This server variable contains the entire URL string (e.g. http://www.localtest.me:80/info.aspx?id=5)  All we need to do is extract the HTTP or HTTPS and we’ll be set. This tends to be my preferred way to handle this situation. Indeed, Jeff did briefly mention this in his blog post: … you could use a condition on the CACHE_URL variable and a back reference in the rewritten URL. The problem there is that you then need to match all of the conditions which could be a problem if your rule depends on a logical “or” match for conditions. Thus the problem.  If you have multiple conditions set to “Match Any” rather than “Match All” then this option won’t work.  However, I find that 95% of all rules that I write use “Match All” and therefore, being the lazy administrator that I am I like this simple solution that only requires adding a single condition to a rule.  The caveat is that if you use “Match Any” then you must consider one of the next two options. Enough with the preamble.  Here’s how it works.  Add a condition that checks for {CACHE_URL} with a pattern of “^(.+)://” like so: How you have a back-reference to the part before the ://, which is our treasured HTTP or HTTPS.  In URL Rewrite 2.0 or greater you can check the “Track capture groups across conditions”, make that condition the first condition, and you have yourself a back-reference of {C:1}. The “Redirect to www” example with support for maintaining the protocol, will become: <rule name="Redirect to www" stopProcessing="true"> <match url="(.*)" /> <conditions trackAllCaptures="true"> <add input="{CACHE_URL}" pattern="^(.+)://" /> <add input="{HTTP_HOST}" pattern="^localtest\.me$" /> </conditions> <action type="Redirect" url="{C:1}://www.localtest.me/{R:1}" /> </rule> It’s not as easy as it would be if Microsoft gave us a built-in {HTTP_PROTOCOL} variable, but it’s pretty close. I also like this option since I often create rule examples for other people and this type of rule is portable since it’s self-contained within a single rule. Option 2 – Using a Rewrite Map For a safer rule that works for both “Match Any” and “Match All” situations, you can use the Rewrite Map solution that Jeff proposed.  It’s a perfectly good solution with the only drawback being the ever so slight extra effort to set it up since you need to create a rewrite map before you create the rule.  In other words, if you choose to use this as your sole method of handling the protocol, you’ll be safe. After you create a Rewrite Map called MapProtocol, you can use “{MapProtocol:{HTTPS}}” for the protocol within any rule action.  Following is an example using a Rewrite Map. <rewrite> <rules> <rule name="Redirect to www" stopProcessing="true"> <match url="(.*)" /> <conditions trackAllCaptures="false"> <add input="{HTTP_HOST}" pattern="^localtest\.me$" /> </conditions> <action type="Redirect" url="{MapProtocol:{HTTPS}}://www.localtest.me/{R:1}" /> </rule> </rules> <rewriteMaps> <rewriteMap name="MapProtocol"> <add key="on" value="https" /> <add key="off" value="http" /> </rewriteMap> </rewriteMaps> </rewrite> Option 3 – CACHE_URL, Multi-rule If you have many rules that will use the protocol, you can create your own server variable which can be used in subsequent rules. This option is no easier to set up than Option 2 above, but you can use it if you prefer the easier to remember syntax of {HTTP_PROTOCOL} vs. {MapProtocol:{HTTPS}}. The potential issue with this rule is that if you don’t have access to the server level (e.g. in a shared environment) then you cannot set server variables without permission. First, create a rule and place it at the top of the set of rules.  You can create this at the server, site or subfolder level.  However, if you create it at the site or subfolder level then the HTTP_PROTOCOL server variable needs to be approved at the server level.  This can be achieved in IIS Manager by navigating to URL Rewrite at the server level, clicking on “View Server Variables” from the Actions pane, and added HTTP_PROTOCOL. If you create the rule at the server level then this step is not necessary.  Following is an example of the first rule to create the HTTP_PROTOCOL and then a rule that uses it.  The Create HTTP_PROTOCOL rule only needs to be created once on the server. <rule name="Create HTTP_PROTOCOL"> <match url=".*" /> <conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAll" trackAllCaptures="false"> <add input="{CACHE_URL}" pattern="^(.+)://" /> </conditions> <serverVariables> <set name="HTTP_PROTOCOL" value="{C:1}" /> </serverVariables> <action type="None" /> </rule>   <rule name="Redirect to www" stopProcessing="true"> <match url="(.*)" /> <conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAll" trackAllCaptures="false"> <add input="{HTTP_HOST}" pattern="^localtest\.me$" /> </conditions> <action type="Redirect" url="{HTTP_PROTOCOL}://www.localtest.me/{R:1}" /> </rule> Option 4 – Multi-rule Just to be complete I’ll include an example of how to achieve the same thing with multiple rules. I don’t see any reason to use it over the previous examples, but I’ll include an example anyway.  Note that it will only work with the “Match All” setting for the conditions. <rule name="Redirect to www - http" stopProcessing="true"> <match url="(.*)" /> <conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAll" trackAllCaptures="false"> <add input="{HTTP_HOST}" pattern="^localtest\.me$" /> <add input="{HTTPS}" pattern="off" /> </conditions> <action type="Redirect" url="http://www.localtest.me/{R:1}" /> </rule> <rule name="Redirect to www - https" stopProcessing="true"> <match url="(.*)" /> <conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAll" trackAllCaptures="false"> <add input="{HTTP_HOST}" pattern="^localtest\.me$" /> <add input="{HTTPS}" pattern="on" /> </conditions> <action type="Redirect" url="https://www.localtest.me/{R:1}" /> </rule> Conclusion Above are four working examples of methods to call the protocol (HTTP or HTTPS) from the action of a URL Rewrite rule.  You can use whichever method you most prefer.  I’ve listed them in the order that I favor them, although I could see some people preferring Option 2 as their first choice.  In any of the cases, hopefully you can use this as a reference for when you need to use the protocol in the rule’s action when writing your URL Rewrite rules. Further information: Viewing all Server Variable for a site. URL Parts available to URL Rewrite Rules Further URL Rewrite articles

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• Wireless card power management

  - by penner

  I have noticed that when my computer in plugged in, the wireless strength increases. I'm assuming this is to do with power management. Is there a way to disable Wireless Power Management? I have found a few blog posts that show hacks to disable this but what is best practice here? Should there not be an option via the power menu that lets you toggle this? EDIT -- FILES AND LOGS AS REQUESTED /var/log/kern.log Jul 11 11:45:27 CoolBreeze kernel: [ 6.528052] postgres (1308): /proc/1308/oom_adj is deprecated, please use /proc/1308/oom_score_adj instead. Jul 11 11:45:27 CoolBreeze kernel: [ 6.532080] [fglrx] Gart USWC size:1280 M. Jul 11 11:45:27 CoolBreeze kernel: [ 6.532084] [fglrx] Gart cacheable size:508 M. Jul 11 11:45:27 CoolBreeze kernel: [ 6.532091] [fglrx] Reserved FB block: Shared offset:0, size:1000000 Jul 11 11:45:27 CoolBreeze kernel: [ 6.532094] [fglrx] Reserved FB block: Unshared offset:f8fd000, size:403000 Jul 11 11:45:27 CoolBreeze kernel: [ 6.532098] [fglrx] Reserved FB block: Unshared offset:3fff4000, size:c000 Jul 11 11:45:38 CoolBreeze kernel: [ 17.423743] eth1: no IPv6 routers present Jul 11 11:46:37 CoolBreeze kernel: [ 75.836426] warning: `proftpd' uses 32-bit capabilities (legacy support in use) Jul 11 11:46:37 CoolBreeze kernel: [ 75.884215] init: plymouth-stop pre-start process (2922) terminated with status 1 Jul 11 11:54:25 CoolBreeze kernel: [ 543.679614] eth1: no IPv6 routers present dmesg [ 1.411959] ACPI: Power Button [PWRB] [ 1.412046] input: Sleep Button as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0C0E:00/input/input1 [ 1.412054] ACPI: Sleep Button [SLPB] [ 1.412150] input: Lid Switch as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0C0D:00/input/input2 [ 1.412765] ACPI: Lid Switch [LID0] [ 1.412866] input: Power Button as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXPWRBN:00/input/input3 [ 1.412874] ACPI: Power Button [PWRF] [ 1.412996] ACPI: Fan [FAN0] (off) [ 1.413068] ACPI: Fan [FAN1] (off) [ 1.419493] thermal LNXTHERM:00: registered as thermal_zone0 [ 1.419498] ACPI: Thermal Zone [TZ00] (27 C) [ 1.421913] thermal LNXTHERM:01: registered as thermal_zone1 [ 1.421918] ACPI: Thermal Zone [TZ01] (61 C) [ 1.421971] ACPI: Deprecated procfs I/F for battery is loaded, please retry with CONFIG_ACPI_PROCFS_POWER cleared [ 1.421986] ACPI: Battery Slot [BAT0] (battery present) [ 1.422062] ERST: Table is not found! [ 1.422067] GHES: HEST is not enabled! [ 1.422158] isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards... [ 1.422242] Serial: 8250/16550 driver, 32 ports, IRQ sharing enabled [ 1.434620] ACPI: Battery Slot [BAT0] (battery present) [ 1.736355] Freeing initrd memory: 14352k freed [ 1.777846] isapnp: No Plug & Play device found [ 1.963650] Linux agpgart interface v0.103 [ 1.967148] brd: module loaded [ 1.968866] loop: module loaded [ 1.969134] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: version 3.0 [ 1.969154] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: PCI INT B -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 19 [ 1.969226] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: irq 45 for MSI/MSI-X [ 1.969277] ahci: SSS flag set, parallel bus scan disabled [ 1.969320] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: AHCI 0001.0300 32 slots 6 ports 3 Gbps 0x23 impl SATA mode [ 1.969329] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: flags: 64bit ncq sntf stag pm led clo pio slum part ems sxs apst [ 1.969338] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: setting latency timer to 64 [ 1.983340] scsi0 : ahci [ 1.983515] scsi1 : ahci [ 1.983670] scsi2 : ahci [ 1.983829] scsi3 : ahci [ 1.983985] scsi4 : ahci [ 1.984145] scsi5 : ahci [ 1.984270] ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m2048@0xf1005000 port 0xf1005100 irq 45 [ 1.984277] ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m2048@0xf1005000 port 0xf1005180 irq 45 [ 1.984282] ata3: DUMMY [ 1.984285] ata4: DUMMY [ 1.984288] ata5: DUMMY [ 1.984292] ata6: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m2048@0xf1005000 port 0xf1005380 irq 45 [ 1.985150] Fixed MDIO Bus: probed [ 1.985192] tun: Universal TUN/TAP device driver, 1.6 [ 1.985196] tun: (C) 1999-2004 Max Krasnyansky <[email protected]> [ 1.985285] PPP generic driver version 2.4.2 [ 1.985472] ehci_hcd: USB 2.0 'Enhanced' Host Controller (EHCI) Driver [ 1.985507] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1a.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16 [ 1.985534] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1a.0: setting latency timer to 64 [ 1.985541] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1a.0: EHCI Host Controller [ 1.985626] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1a.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1 [ 1.985666] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1a.0: debug port 2 [ 1.989663] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1a.0: cache line size of 64 is not supported [ 1.989690] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1a.0: irq 16, io mem 0xf1005800 [ 2.002183] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1a.0: USB 2.0 started, EHCI 1.00 [ 2.002447] hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found [ 2.002455] hub 1-0:1.0: 3 ports detected [ 2.002607] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 23 (level, low) -> IRQ 23 [ 2.002633] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: setting latency timer to 64 [ 2.002639] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: EHCI Host Controller [ 2.002737] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2 [ 2.002775] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: debug port 2 [ 2.006780] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: cache line size of 64 is not supported [ 2.006806] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: irq 23, io mem 0xf1005c00 [ 2.022161] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: USB 2.0 started, EHCI 1.00 [ 2.022401] hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found [ 2.022409] hub 2-0:1.0: 3 ports detected [ 2.022567] ohci_hcd: USB 1.1 'Open' Host Controller (OHCI) Driver [ 2.022599] uhci_hcd: USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver [ 2.022720] usbcore: registered new interface driver libusual [ 2.022813] i8042: PNP: PS/2 Controller [PNP0303:PS2K,PNP0f13:PS2M] at 0x60,0x64 irq 1,12 [ 2.035831] serio: i8042 KBD port at 0x60,0x64 irq 1 [ 2.035844] serio: i8042 AUX port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12 [ 2.036096] mousedev: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice [ 2.036710] rtc_cmos 00:07: RTC can wake from S4 [ 2.036881] rtc_cmos 00:07: rtc core: registered rtc_cmos as rtc0 [ 2.037143] rtc0: alarms up to one month, y3k, 242 bytes nvram, hpet irqs [ 2.037503] device-mapper: uevent: version 1.0.3 [ 2.037656] device-mapper: ioctl: 4.22.0-ioctl (2011-10-19) initialised: [email protected] [ 2.037725] EISA: Probing bus 0 at eisa.0 [ 2.037729] EISA: Cannot allocate resource for mainboard [ 2.037734] Cannot allocate resource for EISA slot 1 [ 2.037738] Cannot allocate resource for EISA slot 2 [ 2.037741] Cannot allocate resource for EISA slot 3 [ 2.037745] Cannot allocate resource for EISA slot 4 [ 2.037749] Cannot allocate resource for EISA slot 5 [ 2.037753] Cannot allocate resource for EISA slot 6 [ 2.037756] Cannot allocate resource for EISA slot 7 [ 2.037760] Cannot allocate resource for EISA slot 8 [ 2.037764] EISA: Detected 0 cards. [ 2.037782] cpufreq-nforce2: No nForce2 chipset. [ 2.038264] cpuidle: using governor ladder [ 2.039015] cpuidle: using governor menu [ 2.039019] EFI Variables Facility v0.08 2004-May-17 [ 2.040061] TCP cubic registered [ 2.041438] NET: Registered protocol family 10 [ 2.043814] NET: Registered protocol family 17 [ 2.043823] Registering the dns_resolver key type [ 2.044290] input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard as /devices/platform/i8042/serio0/input/input4 [ 2.044336] Using IPI No-Shortcut mode [ 2.045620] PM: Hibernation image not present or could not be loaded. [ 2.045644] registered taskstats version 1 [ 2.073070] Magic number: 4:976:796 [ 2.073415] rtc_cmos 00:07: setting system clock to 2012-07-11 18:45:23 UTC (1342032323) [ 2.076654] BIOS EDD facility v0.16 2004-Jun-25, 0 devices found [ 2.076658] EDD information not available. [ 2.302111] ata1: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300) [ 2.302587] ata1.00: ATA-9: M4-CT128M4SSD2, 000F, max UDMA/100 [ 2.302595] ata1.00: 250069680 sectors, multi 16: LBA48 NCQ (depth 31/32), AA [ 2.303143] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/100 [ 2.303453] scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access ATA M4-CT128M4SSD2 000F PQ: 0 ANSI: 5 [ 2.303746] sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0 [ 2.303920] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 250069680 512-byte logical blocks: (128 GB/119 GiB) [ 2.304213] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off [ 2.304225] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00 [ 2.304471] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA [ 2.306818] sda: sda1 sda2 < sda5 > [ 2.308780] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk [ 2.318162] Refined TSC clocksource calibration: 1595.999 MHz. [ 2.318169] usb 1-1: new high-speed USB device number 2 using ehci_hcd [ 2.318178] Switching to clocksource tsc [ 2.450939] hub 1-1:1.0: USB hub found [ 2.451121] hub 1-1:1.0: 6 ports detected [ 2.561786] usb 2-1: new high-speed USB device number 2 using ehci_hcd [ 2.621757] ata2: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300) [ 2.636143] ata2.00: ATAPI: TSSTcorp DVD+/-RW TS-T633C, D800, max UDMA/100 [ 2.636152] ata2.00: applying bridge limits [ 2.649711] ata2.00: configured for UDMA/100 [ 2.653762] scsi 1:0:0:0: CD-ROM TSSTcorp DVD+-RW TS-T633C D800 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5 [ 2.661486] sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 24x/24x writer dvd-ram cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray [ 2.661494] cdrom: Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20 [ 2.661890] sr 1:0:0:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0 [ 2.662156] sr 1:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 5 [ 2.694649] hub 2-1:1.0: USB hub found [ 2.694840] hub 2-1:1.0: 8 ports detected [ 2.765823] usb 1-1.4: new high-speed USB device number 3 using ehci_hcd [ 2.981454] ata6: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300) [ 2.982597] Freeing unused kernel memory: 740k freed [ 2.983523] Write protecting the kernel text: 5816k [ 2.983808] Write protecting the kernel read-only data: 2376k [ 2.983811] NX-protecting the kernel data: 4424k [ 3.014594] udevd[127]: starting version 175 [ 3.068925] sdhci: Secure Digital Host Controller Interface driver [ 3.068932] sdhci: Copyright(c) Pierre Ossman [ 3.069714] sdhci-pci 0000:09:00.0: SDHCI controller found [1180:e822] (rev 1) [ 3.069742] sdhci-pci 0000:09:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16 [ 3.069786] sdhci-pci 0000:09:00.0: Will use DMA mode even though HW doesn't fully claim to support it. [ 3.069798] sdhci-pci 0000:09:00.0: setting latency timer to 64 [ 3.069816] mmc0: no vmmc regulator found [ 3.069877] Registered led device: mmc0:: [ 3.070946] mmc0: SDHCI controller on PCI [0000:09:00.0] using DMA [ 3.071078] tg3.c:v3.121 (November 2, 2011) [ 3.071252] tg3 0000:0b:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17 [ 3.071269] tg3 0000:0b:00.0: setting latency timer to 64 [ 3.071403] firewire_ohci 0000:09:00.3: PCI INT D -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 19 [ 3.071417] firewire_ohci 0000:09:00.3: setting latency timer to 64 [ 3.078509] EXT4-fs (sda1): INFO: recovery required on readonly filesystem [ 3.078517] EXT4-fs (sda1): write access will be enabled during recovery [ 3.110417] tg3 0000:0b:00.0: eth0: Tigon3 [partno(BCM95784M) rev 5784100] (PCI Express) MAC address b8:ac:6f:71:02:a6 [ 3.110425] tg3 0000:0b:00.0: eth0: attached PHY is 5784 (10/100/1000Base-T Ethernet) (WireSpeed[1], EEE[0]) [ 3.110431] tg3 0000:0b:00.0: eth0: RXcsums[1] LinkChgREG[0] MIirq[0] ASF[0] TSOcap[1] [ 3.110436] tg3 0000:0b:00.0: eth0: dma_rwctrl[76180000] dma_mask[64-bit] [ 3.125492] firewire_ohci: Added fw-ohci device 0000:09:00.3, OHCI v1.10, 4 IR + 4 IT contexts, quirks 0x11 [ 3.390124] EXT4-fs (sda1): orphan cleanup on readonly fs [ 3.390135] EXT4-fs (sda1): ext4_orphan_cleanup: deleting unreferenced inode 7078710 [ 3.390232] EXT4-fs (sda1): ext4_orphan_cleanup: deleting unreferenced inode 2363071 [ 3.390327] EXT4-fs (sda1): ext4_orphan_cleanup: deleting unreferenced inode 7078711 [ 3.390350] EXT4-fs (sda1): ext4_orphan_cleanup: deleting unreferenced inode 7078709 [ 3.390367] EXT4-fs (sda1): ext4_orphan_cleanup: deleting unreferenced inode 7078708 [ 3.390384] EXT4-fs (sda1): ext4_orphan_cleanup: deleting unreferenced inode 7078707 [ 3.390401] EXT4-fs (sda1): ext4_orphan_cleanup: deleting unreferenced inode 7078706 [ 3.390417] EXT4-fs (sda1): ext4_orphan_cleanup: deleting unreferenced inode 7078705 [ 3.390435] EXT4-fs (sda1): ext4_orphan_cleanup: deleting unreferenced inode 7078551 [ 3.390452] EXT4-fs (sda1): ext4_orphan_cleanup: deleting unreferenced inode 7078523 [ 3.390470] EXT4-fs (sda1): ext4_orphan_cleanup: deleting unreferenced inode 7078520 [ 3.390487] EXT4-fs (sda1): ext4_orphan_cleanup: deleting unreferenced inode 7077901 [ 3.390551] EXT4-fs (sda1): ext4_orphan_cleanup: deleting unreferenced inode 4063272 [ 3.390562] EXT4-fs (sda1): ext4_orphan_cleanup: deleting unreferenced inode 4063266 [ 3.390572] EXT4-fs (sda1): ext4_orphan_cleanup: deleting unreferenced inode 4063261 [ 3.390582] EXT4-fs (sda1): ext4_orphan_cleanup: deleting unreferenced inode 4063256 [ 3.390592] EXT4-fs (sda1): ext4_orphan_cleanup: deleting unreferenced inode 4063255 [ 3.390602] EXT4-fs (sda1): ext4_orphan_cleanup: deleting unreferenced inode 2363072 [ 3.390620] EXT4-fs (sda1): ext4_orphan_cleanup: deleting unreferenced inode 2360050 [ 3.390698] EXT4-fs (sda1): ext4_orphan_cleanup: deleting unreferenced inode 5250064 [ 3.390710] EXT4-fs (sda1): ext4_orphan_cleanup: deleting unreferenced inode 2365394 [ 3.390728] EXT4-fs (sda1): ext4_orphan_cleanup: deleting unreferenced inode 2365390 [ 3.390745] EXT4-fs (sda1): 22 orphan inodes deleted [ 3.390748] EXT4-fs (sda1): recovery complete [ 3.397636] EXT4-fs (sda1): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null) [ 3.624910] firewire_core: created device fw0: GUID 464fc000110e2661, S400 [ 3.927467] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready [ 3.929965] udevd[400]: starting version 175 [ 3.933581] Adding 6278140k swap on /dev/sda5. Priority:-1 extents:1 across:6278140k SS [ 3.945183] lp: driver loaded but no devices found [ 3.999389] wmi: Mapper loaded [ 4.016696] ite_cir: Auto-detected model: ITE8708 CIR transceiver [ 4.016702] ite_cir: Using model: ITE8708 CIR transceiver [ 4.016706] ite_cir: TX-capable: 1 [ 4.016710] ite_cir: Sample period (ns): 8680 [ 4.016713] ite_cir: TX carrier frequency (Hz): 38000 [ 4.016716] ite_cir: TX duty cycle (%): 33 [ 4.016719] ite_cir: RX low carrier frequency (Hz): 0 [ 4.016722] ite_cir: RX high carrier frequency (Hz): 0 [ 4.025684] fglrx: module license 'Proprietary. (C) 2002 - ATI Technologies, Starnberg, GERMANY' taints kernel. [ 4.025691] Disabling lock debugging due to kernel taint [ 4.027410] IR NEC protocol handler initialized [ 4.030250] lib80211: common routines for IEEE802.11 drivers [ 4.030257] lib80211_crypt: registered algorithm 'NULL' [ 4.036024] IR RC5(x) protocol handler initialized [ 4.036092] snd_hda_intel 0000:00:1b.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 22 (level, low) -> IRQ 22 [ 4.036188] snd_hda_intel 0000:00:1b.0: irq 46 for MSI/MSI-X [ 4.036307] snd_hda_intel 0000:00:1b.0: setting latency timer to 64 [ 4.036361] [Firmware Bug]: ACPI: No _BQC method, cannot determine initial brightness [ 4.039006] acpi device:03: registered as cooling_device10 [ 4.039164] input: Video Bus as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0A08:00/device:01/LNXVIDEO:00/input/input5 [ 4.039261] ACPI: Video Device [M86] (multi-head: yes rom: no post: no) [ 4.049753] EXT4-fs (sda1): re-mounted. Opts: errors=remount-ro [ 4.050201] wl 0000:05:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17 [ 4.050215] wl 0000:05:00.0: setting latency timer to 64 [ 4.052252] Registered IR keymap rc-rc6-mce [ 4.052432] input: ITE8708 CIR transceiver as /devices/virtual/rc/rc0/input6 [ 4.054614] IR RC6 protocol handler initialized [ 4.054787] rc0: ITE8708 CIR transceiver as /devices/virtual/rc/rc0 [ 4.054839] ite_cir: driver has been successfully loaded [ 4.057338] IR JVC protocol handler initialized [ 4.061553] IR Sony protocol handler initialized [ 4.066578] input: MCE IR Keyboard/Mouse (ite-cir) as /devices/virtual/input/input7 [ 4.066724] IR MCE Keyboard/mouse protocol handler initialized [ 4.072580] lirc_dev: IR Remote Control driver registered, major 250 [ 4.073280] rc rc0: lirc_dev: driver ir-lirc-codec (ite-cir) registered at minor = 0 [ 4.073286] IR LIRC bridge handler initialized [ 4.077849] Linux video capture interface: v2.00 [ 4.079402] uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device Laptop_Integrated_Webcam_2M (0c45:640f) [ 4.085492] EDAC MC: Ver: 2.1.0 [ 4.087138] lib80211_crypt: registered algorithm 'TKIP' [ 4.091027] input: HDA Intel Mic as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0/input8 [ 4.091733] snd_hda_intel 0000:02:00.1: PCI INT B -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17 [ 4.091826] snd_hda_intel 0000:02:00.1: irq 47 for MSI/MSI-X [ 4.091861] snd_hda_intel 0000:02:00.1: setting latency timer to 64 [ 4.093115] EDAC i7core: Device not found: dev 00.0 PCI ID 8086:2c50 [ 4.112448] HDMI status: Codec=0 Pin=3 Presence_Detect=0 ELD_Valid=0 [ 4.112612] input: HD-Audio Generic HDMI/DP,pcm=3 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:03.0/0000:02:00.1/sound/card1/input9 [ 4.113311] type=1400 audit(1342032325.540:2): apparmor="STATUS" operation="profile_load" name="/sbin/dhclient" pid=658 comm="apparmor_parser" [ 4.114501] type=1400 audit(1342032325.540:3): apparmor="STATUS" operation="profile_load" name="/usr/lib/NetworkManager/nm-dhcp-client.action" pid=658 comm="apparmor_parser" [ 4.115253] type=1400 audit(1342032325.540:4): apparmor="STATUS" operation="profile_load" name="/usr/lib/connman/scripts/dhclient-script" pid=658 comm="apparmor_parser" [ 4.121870] input: Laptop_Integrated_Webcam_2M as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.4/1-1.4:1.0/input/input10 [ 4.122096] usbcore: registered new interface driver uvcvideo [ 4.122100] USB Video Class driver (1.1.1) [ 4.128729] [fglrx] Maximum main memory to use for locked dma buffers: 5840 MBytes. [ 4.129678] [fglrx] vendor: 1002 device: 68c0 count: 1 [ 4.131991] [fglrx] ioport: bar 4, base 0x2000, size: 0x100 [ 4.132015] pci 0000:02:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16 [ 4.132024] pci 0000:02:00.0: setting latency timer to 64 [ 4.133712] [fglrx] Kernel PAT support is enabled [ 4.133747] [fglrx] module loaded - fglrx 8.96.4 [Mar 12 2012] with 1 minors [ 4.162666] eth1: Broadcom BCM4727 802.11 Hybrid Wireless Controller 5.100.82.38 [ 4.184133] device-mapper: multipath: version 1.3.0 loaded [ 4.196660] dcdbas dcdbas: Dell Systems Management Base Driver (version 5.6.0-3.2) [ 4.279897] input: Dell WMI hotkeys as /devices/virtual/input/input11 [ 4.292402] Bluetooth: Core ver 2.16 [ 4.292449] NET: Registered protocol family 31 [ 4.292454] Bluetooth: HCI device and connection manager initialized [ 4.292459] Bluetooth: HCI socket layer initialized [ 4.292463] Bluetooth: L2CAP socket layer initialized [ 4.292473] Bluetooth: SCO socket layer initialized [ 4.296333] Bluetooth: RFCOMM TTY layer initialized [ 4.296342] Bluetooth: RFCOMM socket layer initialized [ 4.296345] Bluetooth: RFCOMM ver 1.11 [ 4.313586] ppdev: user-space parallel port driver [ 4.316619] Bluetooth: BNEP (Ethernet Emulation) ver 1.3 [ 4.316625] Bluetooth: BNEP filters: protocol multicast [ 4.383980] type=1400 audit(1342032325.812:5): apparmor="STATUS" operation="profile_load" name="/usr/lib/cups/backend/cups-pdf" pid=938 comm="apparmor_parser" [ 4.385173] type=1400 audit(1342032325.812:6): apparmor="STATUS" operation="profile_load" name="/usr/sbin/cupsd" pid=938 comm="apparmor_parser" [ 4.425757] init: failsafe main process (898) killed by TERM signal [ 4.477052] type=1400 audit(1342032325.904:7): apparmor="STATUS" operation="profile_replace" name="/sbin/dhclient" pid=1011 comm="apparmor_parser" [ 4.477592] type=1400 audit(1342032325.904:8): apparmor="STATUS" operation="profile_load" name="/usr/lib/lightdm/lightdm/lightdm-guest-session-wrapper" pid=1010 comm="apparmor_parser" [ 4.478099] type=1400 audit(1342032325.904:9): apparmor="STATUS" operation="profile_load" name="/usr/sbin/tcpdump" pid=1017 comm="apparmor_parser" [ 4.479233] type=1400 audit(1342032325.904:10): apparmor="STATUS" operation="profile_load" name="/usr/lib/telepathy/mission-control-5" pid=1014 comm="apparmor_parser" [ 4.510060] vesafb: mode is 1152x864x32, linelength=4608, pages=0 [ 4.510065] vesafb: scrolling: redraw [ 4.510071] vesafb: Truecolor: size=0:8:8:8, shift=0:16:8:0 [ 4.510084] mtrr: no more MTRRs available [ 4.513081] vesafb: framebuffer at 0xd0000000, mapped to 0xf9400000, using 3904k, total 3904k [ 4.515203] Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 144x54 [ 4.515278] fb0: VESA VGA frame buffer device [ 4.590743] tg3 0000:0b:00.0: irq 48 for MSI/MSI-X [ 4.702009] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready [ 4.704409] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready [ 4.978379] psmouse serio1: synaptics: Touchpad model: 1, fw: 7.2, id: 0x1c0b1, caps: 0xd04733/0xa40000/0xa0000 [ 5.030104] input: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad as /devices/platform/i8042/serio1/input/input12 [ 5.045782] kvm: VM_EXIT_LOAD_IA32_PERF_GLOBAL_CTRL does not work properly. Using workaround [ 5.519573] [fglrx] ATIF platform detected with notification ID: 0x81 [ 6.391466] fglrx_pci 0000:02:00.0: irq 49 for MSI/MSI-X [ 6.393137] [fglrx] Firegl kernel thread PID: 1305 [ 6.393306] [fglrx] Firegl kernel thread PID: 1306 [ 6.393472] [fglrx] Firegl kernel thread PID: 1307 [ 6.393726] [fglrx] IRQ 49 Enabled [ 6.528052] postgres (1308): /proc/1308/oom_adj is deprecated, please use /proc/1308/oom_score_adj instead. [ 6.532080] [fglrx] Gart USWC size:1280 M. [ 6.532084] [fglrx] Gart cacheable size:508 M. [ 6.532091] [fglrx] Reserved FB block: Shared offset:0, size:1000000 [ 6.532094] [fglrx] Reserved FB block: Unshared offset:f8fd000, size:403000 [ 6.532098] [fglrx] Reserved FB block: Unshared offset:3fff4000, size:c000 [ 17.423743] eth1: no IPv6 routers present [ 75.836426] warning: `proftpd' uses 32-bit capabilities (legacy support in use) [ 75.884215] init: plymouth-stop pre-start process (2922) terminated with status 1 [ 543.679614] eth1: no IPv6 routers present lsmod Module Size Used by kvm_intel 127560 0 kvm 359456 1 kvm_intel joydev 17393 0 vesafb 13516 1 parport_pc 32114 0 bnep 17830 2 ppdev 12849 0 rfcomm 38139 0 bluetooth 158438 10 bnep,rfcomm dell_wmi 12601 0 sparse_keymap 13658 1 dell_wmi binfmt_misc 17292 1 dell_laptop 17767 0 dcdbas 14098 1 dell_laptop dm_multipath 22710 0 fglrx 2909855 143 snd_hda_codec_hdmi 31775 1 psmouse 72919 0 serio_raw 13027 0 i7core_edac 23382 0 lib80211_crypt_tkip 17275 0 edac_core 46858 1 i7core_edac uvcvideo 67203 0 snd_hda_codec_idt 60251 1 videodev 86588 1 uvcvideo ir_lirc_codec 12739 0 lirc_dev 18700 1 ir_lirc_codec ir_mce_kbd_decoder 12681 0 snd_seq_midi 13132 0 ir_sony_decoder 12462 0 ir_jvc_decoder 12459 0 snd_rawmidi 25424 1 snd_seq_midi ir_rc6_decoder 12459 0 wl 2646601 0 snd_seq_midi_event 14475 1 snd_seq_midi snd_seq 51567 2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event ir_rc5_decoder 12459 0 video 19068 0 snd_hda_intel 32765 5 snd_seq_device 14172 3 snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq snd_hda_codec 109562 3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_idt,snd_hda_intel rc_rc6_mce 12454 0 lib80211 14040 2 lib80211_crypt_tkip,wl snd_hwdep 13276 1 snd_hda_codec ir_nec_decoder 12459 0 snd_pcm 80845 3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec ite_cir 24743 0 rc_core 21263 10 ir_lirc_codec,ir_mce_kbd_decoder,ir_sony_decoder,ir_jvc_decoder,ir_rc6_decoder,ir_rc5_decoder,rc_rc6_mce,ir_nec_decoder,ite_cir snd_timer 28931 2 snd_seq,snd_pcm wmi 18744 1 dell_wmi snd 62064 20 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_idt,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_timer mac_hid 13077 0 soundcore 14635 1 snd snd_page_alloc 14108 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm coretemp 13269 0 lp 17455 0 parport 40930 3 parport_pc,ppdev,lp tg3 141369 0 firewire_ohci 40172 0 sdhci_pci 18324 0 firewire_core 56906 1 firewire_ohci sdhci 28241 1 sdhci_pci crc_itu_t 12627 1 firewire_core lshw *-network description: Wireless interface product: BCM4313 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller vendor: Broadcom Corporation physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:05:00.0 logical name: eth1 version: 01 serial: 70:f1:a1:a9:54:31 width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless configuration: broadcast=yes driver=wl0 driverversion=5.100.82.38 ip=192.168.0.117 latency=0 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11 resources: irq:17 memory:f0900000-f0903fff *-network description: Ethernet interface product: NetLink BCM5784M Gigabit Ethernet PCIe vendor: Broadcom Corporation physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:0b:00.0 logical name: eth0 version: 10 serial: b8:ac:6f:71:02:a6 capacity: 1Gbit/s width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm vpd msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=tg3 driverversion=3.121 firmware=sb v2.19 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=twisted pair resources: irq:48 memory:f0d00000-f0d0ffff

  Read the article

• Prepping a conference

  - by Laurent Bugnion

  I have had the chance to talk at many conferences these past few years, and came up with a way to prepare them which works really well for me. Most importantly, it would make it quite easy to overcome an emergency (for example if my laptop would suddenly lose data). The whole code as well as the slides and other documents are in the cloud. I also use source control for my demos, so that I always have the latest and the greatest, but also a history of changes I made to my demos. Finally I have a system of code snippets which works great, and I often had very positive remarks from the audience regarding that. Putting everything in the cloud The one thing I used to be the most scared of was a sudden crash of my laptop, and being unable to restore in time for a conference. Most conferences ask speakers to send slides a few days (or weeks…) in advance, but let's face it, we all have last minute changes to our talks and I always come in the conference with updated slides that I pass to the management team. The answer to that dilemma used to be working off memory sticks, and that worked not bad. However last year I started putting all the documents relating to a conference in a DropBox folder, and that works great too. Obviously DropBox works only if you have connectivity, so if I for instance update slides while on an international flight, I cannot save to the cloud. The obvious answer to that is to backup everything on a memory stick… but I have to admit, I have been trusting my luck and working off my laptop HD and then synching everything to the cloud after landing. Of course on some US national flights you get WiFi on board, so in that case it is even simpler :) Usually after the conference is done, I remove the files from DropBox and copy them to their "final destination". They are backed up from there to BackBlaze, the great online backup service I am using routinely (I currently have about 90GB of data in BackBlaze). Outlining the presentations I like to have a written outline of my presentations written somewhere. I keep it simple, just write the various sections of the presentation with timing. I guess it is a remnant of the time when I was a private pilot, and using checklists for flight preparation. For example: Demo about designability 15' (0:37) Switch to Blend Open MainPage.xaml Create a DataTemplate ... Here I can immediately see during the presentation if I am taking too much time for my demo (0:37 is where I need to be when I am done with this section of the presentation, and 15' is the time that this particular section takes). I keep these sections reasonable, I don't detail every step of the preparation. Typically I have one such section for every 10-15 minutes of my talks. Yes, I am timing my presentations. I keep adjusting these numbers when I rehearse, and this really helps to feel more confident during the presentations. This is especially important for presentations that are long, like my MIX11 demo which clocked at 57 minutes (I had a lot of stuff to show…). Such presentations are risky, because if anything goes wrong, you will have to cut stuff, so the answer to that is: Rehearse, rehearse and when you're done rehearsing, rehearse a little more. I also have a "Preparation" section where I outline what I need to do before a presentation. For instance: Preparation Reboot in VHD Make sure MSN and Twitter are not running. Open VS10 and load demo Open Blend and load demo Run the WP7 emulator ... I typically start preparing my laptop an hour before the talk, starting everything I need to start and then putting my laptop to sleep. Saving and printing the outline, Timing Printing is a real problem because it is really hard to find a printer at most conference venues, and also quite hard in hotels. To solve that, I simply write everything in OneNote (synched to the cloud, now you start to know what I like ;) and then I print it to a PDF (I use CutePDFWriter) that I save to my Kindle. During the presentation, I read the outline off the Kindle (I mostly just need a quick check to see how I am timing). For timing during the presentation, I use the free tool ChronoGPS on my Windows Phone 7, but of course any phone these days has a clock/chrono application. In some conferences, they even have timers that the presenters can see, but they tend to count down and I prefer to count up… so I just use my own :) Source control for demos For demos, I create a separate folder and use Mercurial as source control. Mercurial has the huge advantage (over SVN or TFS) to work offline too, so I can commit while on a plane, and all the history is saved. Then when I have connectivity I push everything to the cloud (I am using the fantastic Trunksapp.com for my private repositories). Here too the obvious downside is the risk of losing my last changes if my laptop crashes before I can push to the cloud, and here too the obvious answer would be to work from a memory stick… though I have to admit I didn't do that lately (except when I was writing Silverlight 4 Unleashed, where I was really paranoid…) And code snippets? I am one of these presenters who hates to type in front of an audience. I can type really fast (writing two books has this advantage, it really teaches you to touch type and be fast at it) but in the context of an audience, on a stage where it is often damn cold (an issue I had a lot in past conferences, air conditioning can freeze your fingers and make it really hard to type), it doesn't work as well. I don't know for you, but I really dislike seeing a presentation where the speaker uses the backspace key more often than others ;) To solve that, I like to have my code ready in snippets, and drag them to the screen. Then I can spend time explaining each code snippet, while highlighting portions of the code (always highlight what you talk about, the audience often doesn't even see the cursor and doesn't know where you are on the screen!) Over the years I have used various solutions for code snippets, and now I have one which works really well… if you take a few precautions! I use the Visual Studio Toolbox. Preparing the code snippets You can store code snippets in the Toolbox for anything, XAML, C# etc. I arrange the snippets in the order in which I need them, which is a great way to remember what comes next in the presentation. I also separate them by topic, to make it easier to find them, for example when I switch to the slides and then back to the code. Remember that no matter how experienced you are, you will feel more nervous on stage than while you are preparing, so any way to make it easier for you is going to be beneficial to the audience. To store a code snippet, I do the following: Open the final demo that you want to show to the audience in Visual Studio. In your code, select a snippet of code that you want to explain in particular. Make sure that the Visual Studio Toolbox is open (menu View, Toolbox or Ctrl-Alt-X). Drag the selected snippet from the code window to the toolbox. (if needed) drag the snippet to the correct location (for example between two other code snippets so that you can access it as you speak through the demo). Right click on the snippet and select Rename Item from the context menu. Select a meaningful name. For me I use the following conventions: If it is a method, I use the method's name. If it is not a whole method, I use a descriptive name. If it is the content of a method (i.e. the body only, without the method's signature), I use "-> MethodName". This reminds me during the presentation that this is only the body, and that I need to insert that into an existing signature. This is the case, for instance, when I use Visual Studio to automatically generate the members of an interface’s implementation; then I only need to insert my snippet inside the generated method body. Saving the snippets This is the most important!! It happened to me a few times that VS10 lost its settings. When that happens, the snippets are lost too! Yeah that really sucks, especially (as it happened once) when this is the case about an hour before a talk… Stress and sweat follows, not good conditions to start a talk in front of an audience believe me. Thankfully, saving snippets is really easy with the following steps: Select the menu Tools, Import and Export Settings. Select Export selected environment settings and press Next. Uncheck All Settings. Then expand General Settings and select Toolbox (only!). Press Next. Select your source control folder and save under a meaningful name (for instance Snippets.vssettings). Commit to source control and push to the cloud. By the way, this also has the advantage of applying source control to the snippets file (which is an XML file), so you get history for free on that file! Reimporting the snippets If VS loses its settings and you need to reimport the snippets, this can be done super easily and very fast. Make sure that the Toolbox is empty. When you import snippets, they are merged with existing ones, they do not replace the content of the Toolbox. Unless merging is really what you want, make sure that your Toolbox is clean before you import, it is really easier. Select the menu Tools, Import and Export Settings. Select Import selected environment settings and press Next. Select No, just import new settings and press Next. Press Browse and select the Snippets.vssettings file. Press Finish. Et voila, all your snippets appear again in the Toolbox. Whew, the worst was averted and you can start your demo without sweating! (I had to do that once literally 5 minutes before the start of a demo, while my laptop was already hooked to the projector, and it went just fine). What about special tools? When using special tools (for example beta versions of tools you have an early access to), or a special configuration of your laptop, things can get tricky because you cannot really be sure that you will get a laptop with the same tools and the same configuration at the conference. To solve that, I use the following precautions: I make my demos from a Virtual Hard Disk. The great John Papa made a very easy-to-follow web page where he explains how to create a VHD and install Win7 to it. This gives you the full power of your laptop (as fast as booting from the metal). For me, I have a basic configuration that I saved on a USB harddrive (Win7 plus drivers, basic settings for desktop, folder options, taskbar etc) and Visual Studio 2010 SP1 on it. When preparing, I start by copying this "basis VHD" to my laptop. I install additional tools and configurations. I save the VHD back to the USB harddrive in a different folder. This would allow me to reinstall my demo environment quite fast, for example in case of harddrive failure. Replace the harddrive, copy the VHD to it, configure the BCD and you can start. Unfortunately this only works if the laptop itself still works. In the worst case of total failure, my security is to back all the installers up: The installers I use are synched on all my laptops and backed up to BackBlaze. If the worst happens and my laptop is absolutely broken, I can download the installer from BackBlaze and install on another laptop. This of course takes some time, and if that happens 5 minutes before a presentation, well… I don't have an answer to that, except of course crossing my fingers. Still, all that gives me additional security. Conclusion Remember folks, talking to an audience, large or small, will make you nervous. Just ask Scott Hanselman :) The goal here is to create the best possible conditions for you, and to create an environment where everything is saved and easy to restore, where everything is well known and provides you with additional confidence. The cooler you feel before the presentation (and during ;)), the better your presentation will be. Here too, the goal is to provide the best user experience you can have, which in turn will make it more enjoyable for your audience! Happy presenting :) Laurent   Laurent Bugnion (GalaSoft) Subscribe | Twitter | Facebook | Flickr | LinkedIn

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• MacBook Pro Late 2009 SATA Resets, Slowness (Is my motherboard dying on both machines?)

  - by A Student at a University

  My MacBook Pro runs slower the longer it's on. I am getting kernel warnings. Some, but not all, resets correlate with AC power connects and disconnects. I don't think the warnings do. (How do I tell?) What are these errors? What causes them? Can this damage the drive or corrupt data? What is it seeing that motivates these? 02:37:16[ 0.791992] ahci 0000:00:0b.0: PCI INT A -> Link[LSI0] -> GSI 20 (level, low) -> IRQ 20 02:37:16[ 0.792047] ahci 0000:00:0b.0: irq 43 for MSI/MSI-X 02:37:16[ 0.792053] ahci 0000:00:0b.0: controller can't do PMP, turning off CAP_PMP 02:37:16[ 0.792104] ahci 0000:00:0b.0: AHCI 0001.0200 32 slots 6 ports 1.5 Gbps 0x3 impl IDE mode 02:37:16[ 0.792107] ahci 0000:00:0b.0: flags: 64bit ncq sntf pm led pio slum part boh 02:37:16[ 0.792111] ahci 0000:00:0b.0: setting latency timer to 64 02:37:16[ 0.813473] scsi0 : ahci 02:37:16[ 0.823340] scsi1 : ahci 02:37:16[ 0.848164] ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m8192@0xe7484000 port 0xe7484100 irq 43 02:37:16[ 0.848166] ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m8192@0xe7484000 port 0xe7484180 irq 43 02:37:16[ 1.190132] ata1: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300) 02:37:16[ 1.190153] ata2: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300) 02:37:16[ 1.213568] ata1.00: ATA-8: OCZ-VERTEX2, 1.23, max UDMA/133 02:37:16[ 1.213572] ata1.00: 195371568 sectors, multi 1: LBA48 NCQ (depth 31/32) 02:37:16[ 1.227293] ata2.00: ATA-8: ST9500420ASG, 0002SDM1, max UDMA/133 02:37:16[ 1.227297] ata2.00: 976773168 sectors, multi 16: LBA48 NCQ (depth 31/32) 02:37:16[ 1.229570] ata2.00: configured for UDMA/133 02:37:16[ 1.240120] ata2: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x5850000 action 0xe frozen 02:37:16[ 1.240123] ata2: irq_stat 0x00000040, connection status changed 02:37:16[ 1.240127] ata2: SError: { PHYRdyChg CommWake LinkSeq TrStaTrns DevExch } 02:37:16[ 1.240133] ata2: hard resetting link 02:37:16[ 1.260738] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133 02:37:16[ 1.280111] ata1: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x5850000 action 0xe frozen 02:37:16[ 1.280114] ata1: irq_stat 0x00000040, connection status changed 02:37:16[ 1.280118] ata1: SError: { PHYRdyChg CommWake LinkSeq TrStaTrns DevExch } 02:37:16[ 1.280122] ata1: hard resetting link 02:37:16[ 1.990101] ata2: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300) 02:37:16[ 1.994215] ata2.00: configured for UDMA/133 02:37:16[ 1.994220] ata2: EH complete 02:37:16[ 2.030097] ata1: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300) 02:37:16[ 2.090773] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133 02:37:16[ 2.090778] ata1: EH complete 02:37:16[ 2.090931] scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access ATA OCZ-VERTEX2 1.23 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5 02:37:16[ 2.091045] sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0 02:37:16[ 2.091121] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 195371568 512-byte logical blocks: (100 GB/93.1 GiB) 02:37:16[ 2.091159] scsi 1:0:0:0: Direct-Access ATA ST9500420ASG 0002 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5 02:37:16[ 2.091163] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off 02:37:16[ 2.091165] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00 02:37:16[ 2.091183] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA 02:37:16[ 2.091252] sd 1:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0 02:37:16[ 2.091446] sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] 976773168 512-byte logical blocks: (500 GB/465 GiB) 02:37:16[ 2.091580] sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off 02:37:16[ 2.091582] sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00 02:37:16[ 2.091637] sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA 02:37:16[ 2.093140] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk 02:37:16[ 2.093773] sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk 02:37:16[ 2.693899] EXT4-fs (dm-0): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null) 02:37:16[ 5.483492] EXT4-fs (dm-0): re-mounted. Opts: errors=remount-ro 02:37:16[ 7.905040] EXT4-fs (dm-2): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null) 02:37:25[ 19.553095] EXT4-fs (dm-0): re-mounted. Opts: errors=remount-ro,commit=600 02:37:25[ 19.555266] EXT4-fs (dm-2): re-mounted. Opts: commit=600 02:37:25[ 19.641532] ata1: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x5950000 action 0xe frozen t4 02:37:25[ 19.641532] ata1: irq_stat 0x00000040, connection status changed 02:37:25[ 19.641532] ata1: SError: { PHYRdyChg CommWake Dispar LinkSeq TrStaTrns DevExch } 02:37:25[ 19.641533] ata1: hard resetting link 02:37:25[ 19.642076] ata2: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x5950000 action 0xe frozen t4 02:37:25[ 19.642078] ata2: irq_stat 0x00000040, connection status changed 02:37:25[ 19.642081] ata2: SError: { PHYRdyChg CommWake Dispar LinkSeq TrStaTrns DevExch } 02:37:25[ 19.642084] ata2: hard resetting link 02:37:26[ 20.392606] ata1: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300) 02:37:26[ 20.392610] ata2: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300) 02:37:26[ 20.396697] ata2.00: configured for UDMA/133 02:37:26[ 20.396703] ata2: EH complete 02:37:26[ 20.451491] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133 02:37:26[ 20.451498] ata1: EH complete 02:37:30[ 24.563725] EXT4-fs (dm-0): re-mounted. Opts: errors=remount-ro,commit=600 02:37:30[ 24.565939] EXT4-fs (dm-2): re-mounted. Opts: commit=600 02:37:30[ 24.627236] ata1: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x5900000 action 0xe frozen t4 02:37:30[ 24.627240] ata1: irq_stat 0x00000040, connection status changed 02:37:30[ 24.627242] ata1: SError: { Dispar LinkSeq TrStaTrns DevExch } 02:37:30[ 24.627246] ata1: hard resetting link 02:37:30[ 24.632241] ata2: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x5950000 action 0xe frozen t4 02:37:30[ 24.632244] ata2: irq_stat 0x00000040, connection status changed 02:37:30[ 24.632247] ata2: SError: { PHYRdyChg CommWake Dispar LinkSeq TrStaTrns DevExch } 02:37:30[ 24.632250] ata2: hard resetting link 02:37:31[ 25.372582] ata1: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300) 02:37:31[ 25.382615] ata2: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300) 02:37:31[ 25.386782] ata2.00: configured for UDMA/133 02:37:31[ 25.386788] ata2: EH complete 02:37:31[ 25.431668] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133 02:37:31[ 25.431674] ata1: EH complete 02:45:54[ 529.141844] EXT4-fs (dm-0): re-mounted. Opts: errors=remount-ro,commit=0 02:45:55[ 529.544529] EXT4-fs (dm-2): re-mounted. Opts: commit=0 02:45:55[ 529.622561] ata1: limiting SATA link speed to 1.5 Gbps 02:45:55[ 529.622568] ata1: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x5850000 action 0xe frozen 02:45:55[ 529.622572] ata1: irq_stat 0x00400040, connection status changed 02:45:55[ 529.622576] ata1: SError: { PHYRdyChg CommWake LinkSeq TrStaTrns DevExch } 02:45:55[ 529.622583] ata1: hard resetting link 02:45:55[ 529.622609] ata2: limiting SATA link speed to 1.5 Gbps 02:45:55[ 529.622613] ata2: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x5950000 action 0xe frozen 02:45:55[ 529.622616] ata2: irq_stat 0x00000040, connection status changed 02:45:55[ 529.622620] ata2: SError: { PHYRdyChg CommWake Dispar LinkSeq TrStaTrns DevExch } 02:45:55[ 529.622624] ata2: hard resetting link 02:45:56[ 530.380135] ata2: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310) 02:45:56[ 530.380157] ata1: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310) 02:45:56[ 530.384305] ata2.00: configured for UDMA/133 02:45:56[ 530.384314] ata2: EH complete 02:45:56[ 530.399225] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133 02:45:56[ 530.399233] ata1: EH complete 02:45:58[ 532.395990] EXT4-fs (dm-0): re-mounted. Opts: errors=remount-ro,commit=600 02:45:58[ 532.518270] EXT4-fs (dm-2): re-mounted. Opts: commit=600 02:45:58[ 532.590968] ata1: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x5840000 action 0xe frozen t4 02:45:58[ 532.590973] ata1: irq_stat 0x00000040, connection status changed 02:45:58[ 532.590977] ata1: SError: { CommWake LinkSeq TrStaTrns DevExch } 02:45:58[ 532.590983] ata1: hard resetting link 02:45:58[ 532.591034] ata2: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x5950000 action 0xe frozen t4 02:45:58[ 532.591037] ata2: irq_stat 0x00000040, connection status changed 02:45:58[ 532.591041] ata2: SError: { PHYRdyChg CommWake Dispar LinkSeq TrStaTrns DevExch } 02:45:58[ 532.591045] ata2: hard resetting link 02:45:59[ 533.340147] ata1: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310) 02:45:59[ 533.340168] ata2: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310) 02:45:59[ 533.344416] ata2.00: configured for UDMA/133 02:45:59[ 533.344424] ata2: EH complete 02:45:59[ 533.360839] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133 02:45:59[ 533.360847] ata1: EH complete 02:45:59[ 533.584449] EXT4-fs (dm-0): re-mounted. Opts: errors=remount-ro,commit=0 02:45:59[ 533.586999] EXT4-fs (dm-2): re-mounted. Opts: commit=0 02:45:59[ 533.660117] ata2: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x5950000 action 0xe frozen 02:45:59[ 533.660122] ata2: irq_stat 0x00000040, connection status changed 02:45:59[ 533.660126] ata2: SError: { PHYRdyChg CommWake Dispar LinkSeq TrStaTrns DevExch } 02:45:59[ 533.660132] ata2: hard resetting link 02:45:59[ 533.660141] ata1: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x5850000 action 0xe frozen 02:45:59[ 533.660143] ata1: irq_stat 0x00000040, connection status changed 02:45:59[ 533.660147] ata1: SError: { PHYRdyChg CommWake LinkSeq TrStaTrns DevExch } 02:45:59[ 533.660151] ata1: hard resetting link 02:46:00[ 534.412536] ata2: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310) 02:46:00[ 534.412562] ata1: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310) 02:46:00[ 534.416768] ata2.00: configured for UDMA/133 02:46:00[ 534.416777] ata2: EH complete 02:46:00[ 534.431396] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133 02:46:00[ 534.431401] ata1: EH complete 02:46:03[ 537.384649] EXT4-fs (dm-0): re-mounted. Opts: errors=remount-ro,commit=600 02:46:03[ 537.504214] EXT4-fs (dm-2): re-mounted. Opts: commit=600 02:46:03[ 537.585992] ata1: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x5900000 action 0xe frozen t4 02:46:03[ 537.585996] ata1: irq_stat 0x00000040, connection status changed 02:46:03[ 537.585999] ata1: SError: { Dispar LinkSeq TrStaTrns DevExch } 02:46:03[ 537.586002] ata1: hard resetting link 02:46:03[ 537.586028] ata2: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x5950000 action 0xe frozen t4 02:46:03[ 537.586030] ata2: irq_stat 0x00000040, connection status changed 02:46:03[ 537.586033] ata2: SError: { PHYRdyChg CommWake Dispar LinkSeq TrStaTrns DevExch } 02:46:03[ 537.586036] ata2: hard resetting link 02:46:04[ 538.330147] ata1: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310) 02:46:04[ 538.330168] ata2: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310) 02:46:04[ 538.334389] ata2.00: configured for UDMA/133 02:46:04[ 538.334398] ata2: EH complete 02:46:04[ 538.343511] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133 02:46:04[ 538.343519] ata1: EH complete 02:46:04[ 538.456413] EXT4-fs (dm-0): re-mounted. Opts: errors=remount-ro,commit=0 02:46:04[ 538.459404] EXT4-fs (dm-2): re-mounted. Opts: commit=0 02:46:04[ 538.540138] ata1.00: limiting speed to UDMA/100:PIO4 02:46:04[ 538.540144] ata1: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x5850000 action 0xe frozen 02:46:04[ 538.540148] ata1: irq_stat 0x00000040, connection status changed 02:46:04[ 538.540153] ata1: SError: { PHYRdyChg CommWake LinkSeq TrStaTrns DevExch } 02:46:04[ 538.540159] ata1: hard resetting link 02:46:04[ 538.540202] ata2.00: limiting speed to UDMA/100:PIO4 02:46:04[ 538.540207] ata2: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x5950000 action 0xe frozen 02:46:04[ 538.540211] ata2: irq_stat 0x00000040, connection status changed 02:46:04[ 538.540215] ata2: SError: { PHYRdyChg CommWake Dispar LinkSeq TrStaTrns DevExch } 02:46:04[ 538.540220] ata2: hard resetting link 02:46:05[ 539.290054] ata1: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310) 02:46:05[ 539.290041] ata2: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310) 02:46:05[ 539.294100] ata2.00: configured for UDMA/100 02:46:05[ 539.294106] ata2: EH complete 02:46:05[ 539.314125] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/100 02:46:05[ 539.314132] ------------[ cut here ]------------ 02:46:05[ 539.314140] WARNING: at /build/buildd/linux-2.6.35/drivers/ata/libata-eh.c:3638 ata_eh_finish+0xdf/0xf0() 02:46:05[ 539.314144] Hardware name: MacBookPro5,3 02:46:05[ 539.314146] Modules linked in: michael_mic arc4 xt_multiport binfmt_misc rfcomm sco bnep l2cap parport_pc ppdev nvidia(P) ipt_REJECT xt_recent snd_hda_codec_cirrus xt_limit xt_tcpudp ipt_addrtype xt_state snd_hda_intel snd_hda_codec snd_hwdep snd_pcm snd_seq_midi applesmc led_class ip6table_filter lib80211_crypt_tkip snd_rawmidi snd_seq_midi_event ip6_tables input_polldev hid_apple snd_seq wl(P) snd_timer snd_seq_device snd joydev bcm5974 usbhid mbp_nvidia_bl uvcvideo btusb videodev v4l1_compat v4l2_compat_ioctl32 nf_nat_irc hid nf_conntrack_irc soundcore snd_page_alloc i2c_nforce2 coretemp lib80211 bluetooth nf_nat_ftp nf_nat nf_conntrack_ipv4 nf_defrag_ipv4 nf_conntrack_ftp nf_conntrack lp parport iptable_filter ip_tables x_tables usb_storage firewire_ohci firewire_core forcedeth crc_itu_t ahci libahci 02:46:05[ 539.314221] Pid: 202, comm: scsi_eh_0 Tainted: P 2.6.35-25-generic #44-Ubuntu 02:46:05[ 539.314224] Call Trace: 02:46:05[ 539.314233] [<ffffffff8106091f>] warn_slowpath_common+0x7f/0xc0 02:46:05[ 539.314237] [<ffffffff8106097a>] warn_slowpath_null+0x1a/0x20 02:46:05[ 539.314242] [<ffffffff813dc77f>] ata_eh_finish+0xdf/0xf0 02:46:05[ 539.314246] [<ffffffff813e441e>] sata_pmp_error_handler+0x2e/0x40 02:46:05[ 539.314256] [<ffffffffa00021bf>] ahci_error_handler+0x1f/0x90 [libahci] 02:46:05[ 539.314261] [<ffffffff813dd6d2>] ata_scsi_error+0x492/0x5e0 02:46:05[ 539.314266] [<ffffffff813b24cd>] scsi_error_handler+0x10d/0x190 02:46:05[ 539.314270] [<ffffffff813b23c0>] ? scsi_error_handler+0x0/0x190 02:46:05[ 539.314275] [<ffffffff8107f266>] kthread+0x96/0xa0 02:46:05[ 539.314280] [<ffffffff8100aee4>] kernel_thread_helper+0x4/0x10 02:46:05[ 539.314284] [<ffffffff8107f1d0>] ? kthread+0x0/0xa0 02:46:05[ 539.314288] [<ffffffff8100aee0>] ? kernel_thread_helper+0x0/0x10 02:46:05[ 539.314291] ---[ end trace 76dbffc2d5d49d9b ]--- 02:46:05[ 539.314296] ata1: EH complete 02:46:12[ 547.040091] ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x6 frozen 02:46:12[ 547.040098] ata1.00: failed command: IDENTIFY DEVICE 02:46:12[ 547.040106] ata1.00: cmd ec/00:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/40 tag 0 pio 512 in 02:46:12[ 547.040108] res 40/00:01:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/e0 Emask 0x4 (timeout) 02:46:12[ 547.040111] ata1.00: status: { DRDY } 02:46:12[ 547.040117] ata1: hard resetting link 02:46:13[ 547.390144] ata1: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310) 02:46:13[ 547.408430] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/100 02:46:13[ 547.408438] ------------[ cut here ]------------ 02:46:13[ 547.408447] WARNING: at /build/buildd/linux-2.6.35/drivers/ata/libata-eh.c:3638 ata_eh_finish+0xdf/0xf0() 02:46:13[ 547.408451] Hardware name: MacBookPro5,3 02:46:13[ 547.408453] Modules linked in: michael_mic arc4 xt_multiport binfmt_misc rfcomm sco bnep l2cap parport_pc ppdev nvidia(P) ipt_REJECT xt_recent snd_hda_codec_cirrus xt_limit xt_tcpudp ipt_addrtype xt_state snd_hda_intel snd_hda_codec snd_hwdep snd_pcm snd_seq_midi applesmc led_class ip6table_filter lib80211_crypt_tkip snd_rawmidi snd_seq_midi_event ip6_tables input_polldev hid_apple snd_seq wl(P) snd_timer snd_seq_device snd joydev bcm5974 usbhid mbp_nvidia_bl uvcvideo btusb videodev v4l1_compat v4l2_compat_ioctl32 nf_nat_irc hid nf_conntrack_irc soundcore snd_page_alloc i2c_nforce2 coretemp lib80211 bluetooth nf_nat_ftp nf_nat nf_conntrack_ipv4 nf_defrag_ipv4 nf_conntrack_ftp nf_conntrack lp parport iptable_filter ip_tables x_tables usb_storage firewire_ohci firewire_core forcedeth crc_itu_t ahci libahci 02:46:13[ 547.408528] Pid: 202, comm: scsi_eh_0 Tainted: P W 2.6.35-25-generic #44-Ubuntu 02:46:13[ 547.408531] Call Trace: 02:46:13[ 547.408540] [<ffffffff8106091f>] warn_slowpath_common+0x7f/0xc0 02:46:13[ 547.408544] [<ffffffff8106097a>] warn_slowpath_null+0x1a/0x20 02:46:13[ 547.408549] [<ffffffff813dc77f>] ata_eh_finish+0xdf/0xf0 02:46:13[ 547.408553] [<ffffffff813e441e>] sata_pmp_error_handler+0x2e/0x40 02:46:13[ 547.408563] [<ffffffffa00021bf>] ahci_error_handler+0x1f/0x90 [libahci] 02:46:13[ 547.408567] [<ffffffff813dd6d2>] ata_scsi_error+0x492/0x5e0 02:46:13[ 547.408572] [<ffffffff813b24cd>] scsi_error_handler+0x10d/0x190 02:46:13[ 547.408577] [<ffffffff813b23c0>] ? scsi_error_handler+0x0/0x190 02:46:13[ 547.408582] [<ffffffff8107f266>] kthread+0x96/0xa0 02:46:13[ 547.408587] [<ffffffff8100aee4>] kernel_thread_helper+0x4/0x10 02:46:13[ 547.408591] [<ffffffff8107f1d0>] ? kthread+0x0/0xa0 02:46:13[ 547.408595] [<ffffffff8100aee0>] ? kernel_thread_helper+0x0/0x10 02:46:13[ 547.408598] ---[ end trace 76dbffc2d5d49d9c ]--- 02:46:13[ 547.408620] ata1: EH complete 02:46:13[ 547.562470] EXT4-fs (dm-0): re-mounted. Opts: errors=remount-ro,commit=600 02:46:13[ 547.671380] EXT4-fs (dm-2): re-mounted. Opts: commit=600 02:46:13[ 547.738198] ata1.00: limiting speed to UDMA/33:PIO4 02:46:13[ 547.738204] ata1: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x5800000 action 0xe frozen t4 02:46:13[ 547.738208] ata1: irq_stat 0x00000040, connection status changed 02:46:13[ 547.738212] ata1: SError: { LinkSeq TrStaTrns DevExch } 02:46:13[ 547.738218] ata1: hard resetting link 02:46:13[ 547.738262] ata2: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x5900000 action 0xe frozen t4 02:46:13[ 547.738265] ata2: irq_stat 0x00000040, connection status changed 02:46:13[ 547.738269] ata2: SError: { Dispar LinkSeq TrStaTrns DevExch } 02:46:13[ 547.738274] ata2: hard resetting link 02:46:14[ 548.482561] ata2: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310) 02:46:14[ 548.484083] ata1: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310) 02:46:14[ 548.486809] ata2.00: configured for UDMA/100 02:46:14[ 548.486818] ata2: EH complete 02:46:14[ 548.498998] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/33 02:46:14[ 548.499004] ata1: EH complete 02:46:18[ 552.410499] EXT4-fs (dm-0): re-mounted. Opts: errors=remount-ro,commit=600 02:46:18[ 552.522521] EXT4-fs (dm-2): re-mounted. Opts: commit=600 02:46:18[ 552.529674] ata1: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x5800000 action 0xe frozen t4 02:46:18[ 552.529678] ata1: irq_stat 0x00000040, connection status changed 02:46:18[ 552.529680] ata1: SError: { LinkSeq TrStaTrns DevExch } 02:46:18[ 552.529684] ata1: hard resetting link 02:46:18[ 552.529716] ata2: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x5800000 action 0xe frozen t4 02:46:18[ 552.529718] ata2: irq_stat 0x00000040, connection status changed 02:46:18[ 552.529720] ata2: SError: { LinkSeq TrStaTrns DevExch } 02:46:18[ 552.529723] ata2: hard resetting link 02:46:19[ 553.280059] ata1: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310) 02:46:19[ 553.280068] ata2: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310) 02:46:19[ 553.284141] ata2.00: configured for UDMA/100 02:46:19[ 553.284150] ata2: EH complete 02:46:19[ 553.301629] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/33 02:46:19[ 553.301637] ata1: EH complete

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• Creating a new instance, C#

  - by Dave Voyles

  This sounds like a very n00b question, but bear with me here: I'm trying to access the position of my bat (paddle) in my pong game and use it in my ball class. I'm doing this because I want a particle effect to go off at the point of contact where the ball hits the bat. Each time the ball hits the bat, I receive an error stating that I haven't created an instance of the bat. I understand that I have to (or can use a static class), but I'm not sure of how to do so in this example. I've included both my Bat and Ball classes. namespace Pong { #region Using Statements using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Audio; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Input; #endregion public class Ball { #region Fields private readonly Random rand; private readonly Texture2D texture; private readonly SoundEffect warp; private double direction; private bool isVisible; private float moveSpeed; private Vector2 position; private Vector2 resetPos; private Rectangle size; private float speed; private bool isResetting; private bool collided; private Vector2 oldPos; private ParticleEngine particleEngine; private ContentManager contentManager; private SpriteBatch spriteBatch; private bool hasHitBat; private AIBat aiBat; private Bat bat; #endregion #region Constructors and Destructors /// <summary> /// Constructor for the ball /// </summary> public Ball(ContentManager contentManager, Vector2 ScreenSize) { moveSpeed = 15f; speed = 0; texture = contentManager.Load<Texture2D>(@"gfx/balls/redBall"); direction = 0; size = new Rectangle(0, 0, texture.Width, texture.Height); resetPos = new Vector2(ScreenSize.X / 2, ScreenSize.Y / 2); position = resetPos; rand = new Random(); isVisible = true; hasHitBat = false; // Everything to do with particles List<Texture2D> textures = new List<Texture2D>(); textures.Add(contentManager.Load<Texture2D>(@"gfx/particle/circle")); textures.Add(contentManager.Load<Texture2D>(@"gfx/particle/star")); textures.Add(contentManager.Load<Texture2D>(@"gfx/particle/diamond")); particleEngine = new ParticleEngine(textures, new Vector2()); } #endregion #region Public Methods and Operators /// <summary> /// Checks for the collision between the bat and the ball. Sends ball in the appropriate /// direction /// </summary> public void BatHit(int block) { if (direction > Math.PI * 1.5f || direction < Math.PI * 0.5f) { hasHitBat = true; particleEngine.EmitterLocation = new Vector2(aiBat.Position.X, aiBat.Position.Y); switch (block) { case 1: direction = MathHelper.ToRadians(200); break; case 2: direction = MathHelper.ToRadians(195); break; case 3: direction = MathHelper.ToRadians(180); break; case 4: direction = MathHelper.ToRadians(180); break; case 5: direction = MathHelper.ToRadians(165); break; } } else { hasHitBat = true; particleEngine.EmitterLocation = new Vector2(bat.Position.X, bat.Position.Y); switch (block) { case 1: direction = MathHelper.ToRadians(310); break; case 2: direction = MathHelper.ToRadians(345); break; case 3: direction = MathHelper.ToRadians(0); break; case 4: direction = MathHelper.ToRadians(15); break; case 5: direction = MathHelper.ToRadians(50); break; } } if (rand.Next(2) == 0) { direction += MathHelper.ToRadians(rand.Next(3)); } else { direction -= MathHelper.ToRadians(rand.Next(3)); } AudioManager.Instance.PlaySoundEffect("hit"); } /// <summary> /// JEP - added method to slow down ball after powerup deactivates /// </summary> public void DecreaseSpeed() { moveSpeed -= 0.6f; } /// <summary> /// Draws the ball on the screen /// </summary> public void Draw(SpriteBatch spriteBatch) { if (isVisible) { spriteBatch.Begin(); spriteBatch.Draw(texture, size, Color.White); spriteBatch.End(); // Draws sprites for particles when contact is made particleEngine.Draw(spriteBatch); } } /// <summary> /// Checks for the current direction of the ball /// </summary> public double GetDirection() { return direction; } /// <summary> /// Checks for the current position of the ball /// </summary> public Vector2 GetPosition() { return position; } /// <summary> /// Checks for the current size of the ball (for the powerups) /// </summary> public Rectangle GetSize() { return size; } /// <summary> /// Grows the size of the ball when the GrowBall powerup is used. /// </summary> public void GrowBall() { size = new Rectangle(0, 0, texture.Width * 2, texture.Height * 2); } /// <summary> /// Was used to increased the speed of the ball after each point is scored. /// No longer used, but am considering implementing again. /// </summary> public void IncreaseSpeed() { moveSpeed += 0.6f; } /// <summary> /// Check for the ball to return normal size after the Powerup has expired /// </summary> public void NormalBallSize() { size = new Rectangle(0, 0, texture.Width, texture.Height); } /// <summary> /// Check for the ball to return normal speed after the Powerup has expired /// </summary> public void NormalSpeed() { moveSpeed += 15f; } /// <summary> /// Checks to see if ball went out of bounds, and triggers warp sfx /// </summary> public void OutOfBounds() { // Checks if the player is still alive or not if (isResetting) { AudioManager.Instance.PlaySoundEffect("warp"); { // Used to stop the the issue where the ball hit sfx kept going off when detecting collison isResetting = false; AudioManager.Instance.Dispose(); } } } /// <summary> /// Speed for the ball when Speedball powerup is activated /// </summary> public void PowerupSpeed() { moveSpeed += 20.0f; } /// <summary> /// Check for where to reset the ball after each point is scored /// </summary> public void Reset(bool left) { if (left) { direction = 0; } else { direction = Math.PI; } // Used to stop the the issue where the ball hit sfx kept going off when detecting collison isResetting = true; position = resetPos; // Resets the ball to the center of the screen isVisible = true; speed = 15f; // Returns the ball back to the default speed, in case the speedBall was active if (rand.Next(2) == 0) { direction += MathHelper.ToRadians(rand.Next(30)); } else { direction -= MathHelper.ToRadians(rand.Next(30)); } } /// <summary> /// Shrinks the ball when the ShrinkBall powerup is activated /// </summary> public void ShrinkBall() { size = new Rectangle(0, 0, texture.Width / 2, texture.Height / 2); } /// <summary> /// Stops the ball each time it is reset. Ex: Between points / rounds /// </summary> public void Stop() { isVisible = true; speed = 0; } /// <summary> /// Updates position of the ball /// </summary> public void UpdatePosition() { size.X = (int)position.X; size.Y = (int)position.Y; oldPos.X = position.X; oldPos.Y = position.Y; position.X += speed * (float)Math.Cos(direction); position.Y += speed * (float)Math.Sin(direction); bool collided = CheckWallHit(); particleEngine.Update(); // Stops the issue where ball was oscillating on the ceiling or floor if (collided) { position.X = oldPos.X + speed * (float)Math.Cos(direction); position.Y = oldPos.Y + speed * (float)Math.Sin(direction); } } #endregion #region Methods /// <summary> /// Checks for collision with the ceiling or floor. 2*Math.pi = 360 degrees /// </summary> private bool CheckWallHit() { while (direction > 2 * Math.PI) { direction -= 2 * Math.PI; return true; } while (direction < 0) { direction += 2 * Math.PI; return true; } if (position.Y <= 0 || (position.Y > resetPos.Y * 2 - size.Height)) { direction = 2 * Math.PI - direction; return true; } return true; } #endregion } } namespace Pong { using Microsoft.Xna.Framework; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics; using System; public class Bat { public Vector2 Position; public float moveSpeed; public Rectangle size; private int points; private int yHeight; private Texture2D leftBat; public float turbo; public float recharge; public float interval; public bool isTurbo; /// <summary> /// Constructor for the bat /// </summary> public Bat(ContentManager contentManager, Vector2 screenSize, bool side) { moveSpeed = 7f; turbo = 15f; recharge = 100f; points = 0; interval = 5f; leftBat = contentManager.Load<Texture2D>(@"gfx/bats/batGrey"); size = new Rectangle(0, 0, leftBat.Width, leftBat.Height); // True means left bat, false means right bat. if (side) Position = new Vector2(30, screenSize.Y / 2 - size.Height / 2); else Position = new Vector2(screenSize.X - 30, screenSize.Y / 2 - size.Height / 2); yHeight = (int)screenSize.Y; } public void IncreaseSpeed() { moveSpeed += .5f; } /// <summary> /// The speed of the bat when Turbo is activated /// </summary> public void Turbo() { moveSpeed += 8.0f; } /// <summary> /// Returns the speed of the bat back to normal after Turbo is deactivated /// </summary> public void DisableTurbo() { moveSpeed = 7.0f; isTurbo = false; } /// <summary> /// Returns the bat to the nrmal size after the Grow/Shrink powerup has expired /// </summary> public void NormalSize() { size = new Rectangle(0, 0, leftBat.Width, leftBat.Height); } /// <summary> /// Checks for the size of the bat /// </summary> public Rectangle GetSize() { return size; } /// <summary> /// Adds point to the player or the AI after scoring. Currently Disabled. /// </summary> public void IncrementPoints() { points++; } /// <summary> /// Checks for the number of points at the moment /// </summary> public int GetPoints() { return points; } /// <summary> /// Sets thedefault starting position for the bats /// </summary> /// <param name="position"></param> public void SetPosition(Vector2 position) { if (position.Y < 0) { position.Y = 0; } if (position.Y > yHeight - size.Height) { position.Y = yHeight - size.Height; } this.Position = position; } /// <summary> /// Checks for the current position of the bat /// </summary> public Vector2 GetPosition() { return Position; } /// <summary> /// Controls the bat moving up the screen /// </summary> public void MoveUp() { SetPosition(Position + new Vector2(0, -moveSpeed)); } /// <summary> /// Controls the bat moving down the screen /// </summary> public void MoveDown() { SetPosition(Position + new Vector2(0, moveSpeed)); } /// <summary> /// Updates the position of the AI bat, in order to track the ball /// </summary> /// <param name="ball"></param> public virtual void UpdatePosition(Ball ball) { size.X = (int)Position.X; size.Y = (int)Position.Y; } /// <summary> /// Resets the bat to the center location after a new game starts /// </summary> public void ResetPosition() { SetPosition(new Vector2(GetPosition().X, yHeight / 2 - size.Height)); } /// <summary> /// Used for the Growbat powerup /// </summary> public void GrowBat() { // Doubles the size of the bat collision size = new Rectangle(0, 0, leftBat.Width * 2, leftBat.Height * 2); } /// <summary> /// Used for the Shrinkbat powerup /// </summary> public void ShrinkBat() { // 1/2 the size of the bat collision size = new Rectangle(0, 0, leftBat.Width / 2, leftBat.Height / 2); } /// <summary> /// Draws the bats /// </summary> public virtual void Draw(SpriteBatch batch) { batch.Draw(leftBat, size, Color.White); } } }

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