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• Stopping the animation after you let go of a key

  - by Michael Zeuner

  What I have right now is an animation that starts when I press space: if(input.isKeyDown(Input.KEY_SPACE)) player = movingRightSwingingSword; However when I stop clicking space my animation continues. until I move my player, how do I make it so it stops the animation right when you let go of space? A few lines Animation player, movingUp, movingDown, movingLeft, movingRight, movingRightSwingingSword; int[] duration = {200,200}; public void init(GameContainer gc, StateBasedGame sbg) throws SlickException { Image[] attackRight = {new Image("res/buckysRightSword1.png"), new Image("res/buckysRightSword2.png")}; movingRightSwingingSword = new Animation(attackRight, duration, true); } public void update(GameContainer gc, StateBasedGame sbg, int delta) throws SlickException { if(input.isKeyDown(Input.KEY_SPACE)) player = movingRightSwingingSword; } Full Code package javagame; import org.newdawn.slick.*; import org.newdawn.slick.state.*; public class Play extends BasicGameState { Animation player, movingUp, movingDown, movingLeft, movingRight, movingRightSwingingSword; Image worldMap; boolean quit = false; int[] duration = {200,200}; float playerPositionX = 0; float playerPositionY = 0; float shiftX = playerPositionX + 320; float shiftY = playerPositionY + 160; public Play(int state) { } public void init(GameContainer gc, StateBasedGame sbg) throws SlickException { worldMap = new Image("res/world.png"); Image[] walkUp = {new Image("res/buckysBack.png"), new Image("res/buckysBack.png")}; Image[] walkDown = {new Image("res/buckysFront.png"), new Image("res/buckysFront.png")}; Image[] walkLeft = {new Image("res/buckysLeft.png"), new Image("res/buckysLeft.png")}; Image[] walkRight = {new Image("res/buckysRight.png"), new Image("res/buckysRight.png")}; Image[] attackRight = {new Image("res/buckysRightSword1.png"), new Image("res/buckysRightSword2.png")}; movingUp = new Animation(walkUp, duration, false); movingDown = new Animation(walkDown, duration, false); movingLeft = new Animation(walkLeft, duration, false); movingRight = new Animation(walkRight, duration, false); //doesnt work! vvv movingRightSwingingSword = new Animation(attackRight, duration, true); player = movingDown; } public void render(GameContainer gc, StateBasedGame sbg, Graphics g) throws SlickException { worldMap.draw(playerPositionX, playerPositionY); player.draw(shiftX, shiftY); g.drawString("Player X: " + playerPositionX + "\nPlayer Y: " + playerPositionY, 400, 20); if (quit == true) { g.drawString("Resume (R)", 250, 100); g.drawString("MainMenu (M)", 250, 150); g.drawString("Quit Game (Q)", 250, 200); if (quit==false) { g.clear(); } } } public void update(GameContainer gc, StateBasedGame sbg, int delta) throws SlickException { Input input = gc.getInput(); if(input.isKeyDown(Input.KEY_UP)) { player = movingUp; playerPositionY += delta * .1f; if(playerPositionY>162) playerPositionY -= delta * .1f; } if(input.isKeyDown(Input.KEY_DOWN)) { player = movingDown; playerPositionY -= delta * .1f; if(playerPositionY<-600) playerPositionY += delta * .1f; } if(input.isKeyDown(Input.KEY_RIGHT)) { player = movingRight; playerPositionX -= delta * .1f; if(playerPositionX<-840) playerPositionX += delta * .1f; } if(input.isKeyDown(Input.KEY_LEFT)) { player = movingLeft; playerPositionX += delta * .1f; if(playerPositionX>318) playerPositionX -= delta * .1f; } if(input.isKeyDown(Input.KEY_SPACE)) player = movingRightSwingingSword; if(input.isKeyDown(Input.KEY_ESCAPE)) quit = true; if(input.isKeyDown(Input.KEY_R)) if (quit == true) quit = false; if(input.isKeyDown(Input.KEY_M)) if (quit == true) {sbg.enterState(0); quit = false;} if(input.isKeyDown(Input.KEY_Q)) if (quit == true) System.exit(0); } public int getID() { return 1; } }

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• New line (in the code) after <li> element breaking layout

  - by BT643

  Weirdly, I've never come across this issue before, but I've just started making a site and the top navigation isn't playing nicely. I want a small amount of white space between each menu item, but when I have new lines between my <li> elements and my <a> elements in my IDE (Netbeans), the white space disappears, yet it looks fine if I have <li><a></a></li> all on the same line. I was always under the impression html ignored white space in the code. I've checked for any weird characters causing problems in other text editors and can't find anything. Here's the code... Like this the menu looks correct but code looks ugly (I know it looks fine when it's this simple, but I'm going be adding more complexity in which makes it look awful all on one line): <ul id="menu"> <li><a href="#">About</a></li> <li class="active"><a href="<?php echo site_url("tracklist"); ?>">Track List</a></li> <li><a href="<?php echo site_url("stats"); ?>">Stats</a></li> <li><a href="#">Stats</a></li> </ul> Like this the menu looks wrong but code looks fine: <ul id="menu"> <li> <a href="#">About</a> </li> <li class="active"> <a href="<?php echo site_url("tracklist"); ?>">Track List</a> </li> <li> <a href="<?php echo site_url("stats"); ?>">Stats</a> </li> <li> <a href="#">Stats</a> </li> </ul> Here's the css: #menu { float: right; } #menu li { display: inline-block; padding: 5px; background-color: #932996; border-bottom: solid 1px #932996; } #menu li:hover { border-bottom: solid 3px #FF0000; } #menu li.active { background-color: #58065e; } I'm sure it's something simple I'm doing wrong... but can someone shed some light on this for me? Sorry for the lengthy post (my first on stackoverflow).

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• How does java.util.Collections.contains() perform faster than a linear search?

  - by The111

  I've been fooling around with a bunch of different ways of searching collections, collections of collections, etc. Doing lots of stupid little tests to verify my understanding. Here is one which boggles me (source code further below). In short, I am generating N random integers and adding them to a list. The list is NOT sorted. I then use Collections.contains() to look for a value in the list. I intentionally look for a value that I know won't be there, because I want to ensure that the entire list space is probed. I time this search. I then do another linear search manually, iterating through each element of the list and checking if it matches my target. I also time this search. On average, the second search takes 33% longer than the first one. By my logic, the first search must also be linear, because the list is unsorted. The only possibility I could think of (which I immediately discard) is that Java is making a sorted copy of my list just for the search, but (1) I did not authorize that usage of memory space and (2) I would think that would result in MUCH more significant time savings with such a large N. So if both searches are linear, they should both take the same amount of time. Somehow the Collections class has optimized this search, but I can't figure out how. So... what am I missing? import java.util.*; public class ListSearch { public static void main(String[] args) { int N = 10000000; // number of ints to add to the list int high = 100; // upper limit for random int generation List<Integer> ints; int target = -1; // target will not be found, forces search of entire list space long start; long end; ints = new ArrayList<Integer>(); start = System.currentTimeMillis(); System.out.print("Generating new list... "); for (int i = 0; i < N; i++) { ints.add(((int) (Math.random() * high)) + 1); } end = System.currentTimeMillis(); System.out.println("took " + (end-start) + "ms."); start = System.currentTimeMillis(); System.out.print("Searching list for target (method 1)... "); if (ints.contains(target)) { // nothing } end = System.currentTimeMillis(); System.out.println(" Took " + (end-start) + "ms."); System.out.println(); ints = new ArrayList<Integer>(); start = System.currentTimeMillis(); System.out.print("Generating new list... "); for (int i = 0; i < N; i++) { ints.add(((int) (Math.random() * high)) + 1); } end = System.currentTimeMillis(); System.out.println("took " + (end-start) + "ms."); start = System.currentTimeMillis(); System.out.print("Searching list for target (method 2)... "); for (Integer i : ints) { // nothing } end = System.currentTimeMillis(); System.out.println(" Took " + (end-start) + "ms."); } }

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• Parallelism in .NET – Part 2, Simple Imperative Data Parallelism

  - by Reed

  In my discussion of Decomposition of the problem space, I mentioned that Data Decomposition is often the simplest abstraction to use when trying to parallelize a routine.  If a problem can be decomposed based off the data, we will often want to use what MSDN refers to as Data Parallelism as our strategy for implementing our routine.  The Task Parallel Library in .NET 4 makes implementing Data Parallelism, for most cases, very simple. Data Parallelism is the main technique we use to parallelize a routine which can be decomposed based off data.  Data Parallelism refers to taking a single collection of data, and having a single operation be performed concurrently on elements in the collection.  One side note here: Data Parallelism is also sometimes referred to as the Loop Parallelism Pattern or Loop-level Parallelism.  In general, for this series, I will try to use the terminology used in the MSDN Documentation for the Task Parallel Library.  This should make it easier to investigate these topics in more detail. Once we’ve determined we have a problem that, potentially, can be decomposed based on data, implementation using Data Parallelism in the TPL is quite simple.  Let’s take our example from the Data Decomposition discussion – a simple contrast stretching filter.  Here, we have a collection of data (pixels), and we need to run a simple operation on each element of the pixel.  Once we know the minimum and maximum values, we most likely would have some simple code like the following: for (int row=0; row < pixelData.GetUpperBound(0); ++row) { for (int col=0; col < pixelData.GetUpperBound(1); ++col) { pixelData[row, col] = AdjustContrast(pixelData[row, col], minPixel, maxPixel); } } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } This simple routine loops through a two dimensional array of pixelData, and calls the AdjustContrast routine on each pixel. As I mentioned, when you’re decomposing a problem space, most iteration statements are potentially candidates for data decomposition.  Here, we’re using two for loops – one looping through rows in the image, and a second nested loop iterating through the columns.  We then perform one, independent operation on each element based on those loop positions. This is a prime candidate – we have no shared data, no dependencies on anything but the pixel which we want to change.  Since we’re using a for loop, we can easily parallelize this using the Parallel.For method in the TPL: Parallel.For(0, pixelData.GetUpperBound(0), row => { for (int col=0; col < pixelData.GetUpperBound(1); ++col) { pixelData[row, col] = AdjustContrast(pixelData[row, col], minPixel, maxPixel); } }); Here, by simply changing our first for loop to a call to Parallel.For, we can parallelize this portion of our routine.  Parallel.For works, as do many methods in the TPL, by creating a delegate and using it as an argument to a method.  In this case, our for loop iteration block becomes a delegate creating via a lambda expression.  This lets you write code that, superficially, looks similar to the familiar for loop, but functions quite differently at runtime. We could easily do this to our second for loop as well, but that may not be a good idea.  There is a balance to be struck when writing parallel code.  We want to have enough work items to keep all of our processors busy, but the more we partition our data, the more overhead we introduce.  In this case, we have an image of data – most likely hundreds of pixels in both dimensions.  By just parallelizing our first loop, each row of pixels can be run as a single task.  With hundreds of rows of data, we are providing fine enough granularity to keep all of our processors busy. If we parallelize both loops, we’re potentially creating millions of independent tasks.  This introduces extra overhead with no extra gain, and will actually reduce our overall performance.  This leads to my first guideline when writing parallel code: Partition your problem into enough tasks to keep each processor busy throughout the operation, but not more than necessary to keep each processor busy. Also note that I parallelized the outer loop.  I could have just as easily partitioned the inner loop.  However, partitioning the inner loop would have led to many more discrete work items, each with a smaller amount of work (operate on one pixel instead of one row of pixels).  My second guideline when writing parallel code reflects this: Partition your problem in a way to place the most work possible into each task. This typically means, in practice, that you will want to parallelize the routine at the “highest” point possible in the routine, typically the outermost loop.  If you’re looking at parallelizing methods which call other methods, you’ll want to try to partition your work high up in the stack – as you get into lower level methods, the performance impact of parallelizing your routines may not overcome the overhead introduced. Parallel.For works great for situations where we know the number of elements we’re going to process in advance.  If we’re iterating through an IList<T> or an array, this is a typical approach.  However, there are other iteration statements common in C#.  In many situations, we’ll use foreach instead of a for loop.  This can be more understandable and easier to read, but also has the advantage of working with collections which only implement IEnumerable<T>, where we do not know the number of elements involved in advance. As an example, lets take the following situation.  Say we have a collection of Customers, and we want to iterate through each customer, check some information about the customer, and if a certain case is met, send an email to the customer and update our instance to reflect this change.  Normally, this might look something like: foreach(var customer in customers) { // Run some process that takes some time... DateTime lastContact = theStore.GetLastContact(customer); TimeSpan timeSinceContact = DateTime.Now - lastContact; // If it's been more than two weeks, send an email, and update... if (timeSinceContact.Days > 14) { theStore.EmailCustomer(customer); customer.LastEmailContact = DateTime.Now; } } Here, we’re doing a fair amount of work for each customer in our collection, but we don’t know how many customers exist.  If we assume that theStore.GetLastContact(customer) and theStore.EmailCustomer(customer) are both side-effect free, thread safe operations, we could parallelize this using Parallel.ForEach: Parallel.ForEach(customers, customer => { // Run some process that takes some time... DateTime lastContact = theStore.GetLastContact(customer); TimeSpan timeSinceContact = DateTime.Now - lastContact; // If it's been more than two weeks, send an email, and update... if (timeSinceContact.Days > 14) { theStore.EmailCustomer(customer); customer.LastEmailContact = DateTime.Now; } }); Just like Parallel.For, we rework our loop into a method call accepting a delegate created via a lambda expression.  This keeps our new code very similar to our original iteration statement, however, this will now execute in parallel.  The same guidelines apply with Parallel.ForEach as with Parallel.For. The other iteration statements, do and while, do not have direct equivalents in the Task Parallel Library.  These, however, are very easy to implement using Parallel.ForEach and the yield keyword. Most applications can benefit from implementing some form of Data Parallelism.  Iterating through collections and performing “work” is a very common pattern in nearly every application.  When the problem can be decomposed by data, we often can parallelize the workload by merely changing foreach statements to Parallel.ForEach method calls, and for loops to Parallel.For method calls.  Any time your program operates on a collection, and does a set of work on each item in the collection where that work is not dependent on other information, you very likely have an opportunity to parallelize your routine.

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• How to calculate checksum?

  - by Patel Rikin

  I m developing instrument driver and i want to know how to calculate checksum of frame. Explanation: Expressed by characters [0-9] and [A-F]. Characters beginning from the character after [STX] and until [ETB] or [ETX] (including [ETB] or [ETX]) are added in binary. The 2-digit numbers, which represent the least significant 8 bits in hexadecimal code, are converted to ASCII characters [0-9] and [A-F]. The most significant digit is stored in CHK1 and the least significant digit in CHK2. This is sample frame : <STX>2Q|1|2^1||||20011001153000<CR><ETX><CHK1><CHK2><CR><LF> and i want to know what is value of chk1 and chk2 and i am new in this so i m totally blank about how to calculate checksum i am not getting above 3rd and 4th point. can any one provide sample code for c#. Please help me.

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• Ubuntu not detecting second monitor

  - by Julian Le Saux

  I'm running Ubuntu 12.04 on a Lenovo x61s Thinkpad. As the screen's rather small and I want to do some video editing, I thought I'd plug in a monitor and use that. The monitor is Relisys JM777 (quite old). When I plug it into my other computer, which is running Windows 7, it immediately mirrors the display; but when plugged into the Lenovo the monitor screen remains blank. The graphics card on the Lenovo is a "VGA compatible controller" according to SysInfo. Anybody got any suggestions? I'm quite new to Linux, so simple explanations would be greatly appreciated. The contents of my Xorg.0.log file can be seen at http://paste.ubuntu.com/1009855/ .

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• Create Awesome Map-Based Wallpapers for Your Desktop with ‘Map –> Image’

  - by Asian Angel

  Are you tired of using the same old types of wallpapers on your desktop? Then add something fresh and unique to your desktop with custom-created map wallpapers from ‘Map – Image’. When you first visit the website it will show the default location of San Francisco (home of the developers). To get started simply enter your location in the search blank in the upper left corner and click the Go Button. Your chosen location will appear in a basic black and white format as shown here. 6 Start Menu Replacements for Windows 8 What Is the Purpose of the “Do Not Cover This Hole” Hole on Hard Drives? How To Log Into The Desktop, Add a Start Menu, and Disable Hot Corners in Windows 8

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• XNA Notes 011

  - by George Clingerman

  Even with a lot of the XNA community working on Dream Build Play entries ( I swear I’m going to finish mine this year!) people are still finding time to do side projects and be amazingly active in the XNA and XBLIG community. With my one eye on my code and one eye on the community, here’s what I noticed these over achievers doing this past week! Time Critical XNA News: Xbox LIVE Indie Games sales data will be delayed March 17-20th due to some schedule maintenance http://create.msdn.com/en-us/news/indie_games_data_delay_march2011 GameMarx is releasing a series of videos to help raise donations for victims of the earthquakes and tsunami in Japan. Help out if you can! http://www.gamemarx.com/video/special/29/help-japan-sushido.aspx XNA MVPs: Catalin Zima shares his thoughts on the MVP summit and my book! http://www.catalinzima.com/2011/03/mvp-summit-2011/ Glenn Wilson (@mykre) helps the XNA team announce some new educational content that you don’t want to miss if you’re porting your app or game to Windows Phone 7 http://www.virtualrealm.com.au/Blog/tabid/62/EntryId/653/Porting-your-App-or-Game-to-Windows-Phone-7.aspx and Windows Phone 7 from scratch http://www.virtualrealm.com.au/Blog/tabid/62/EntryId/654/Windows-Phone-from-Scratch.aspx and shares a link to some free architectural models and textures http://twitter.com/#!/Mykre/status/46410160784158720 George (that’s me!) shares his MVP Summit 2011 summary and XBLIG thoughts http://geekswithblogs.net/clingermangw/archive/2011/03/15/144366.aspx XNA Developers: @SmallCaveGames shares a Code of Ethics for Xbox LIVE Indie Game Developers http://smallcavegames.blogspot.com/2011/03/unofficial-xblig-developers-code-of.html Derek S adds more Xbox LIVE Indie Game studios to his master list of XBLIG links http://twitter.com/#!/Mr_Deeke/status/46140996056125440 http://xbl-indieverse.blogspot.com/p/xblig-links.html Making games and want to help kids? Then share your story with GameFace: America! http://gameitupinitiative.com/about-the-initiative/programs/gameface-america/ Xbox LIVE Indie Games (XBLIG): XonaGames shares some video footage of their booth from GDC 2011 Video 1: http://youtu.be/lxIV9nk3Gq4 Video 2: http://youtu.be/GgfrjqkxR_o Video 3: http://youtu.be/yVcpXrTX7SQ Joystiq on Mommy’s Best Games Serious Sam Double D http://www.joystiq.com/2011/03/16/the-most-important-thing-about-serious-sam-double-d/ And The Escapist recommends that gamers start learning to avoid cleavage now http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/108543-Boobie-Bomber-Makes-First-Appearance-in-Serious-Sam-Double-D Magiko Gaming started a blog on the XBLIG dashboard daily Top 10 games in the US. Good way to go back in time and look at the history of which games were in the the Top 10. http://dailytop10indiegames.wordpress.com/ Where are they going now? XBLIG developers at a crossroads.. http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2011/03/where_are_they_going_now_xblig.php http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/33527/InDepth_Where_Are_They_Going_Now_XBLIG_Developers_At_A_Crossroads_.php BinaryTweed’s Clover: A Curious Tail is Xbox LIVE’s Deal of the Week! http://www.armlessoctopus.com/2011/03/15/what-luck-clover-a-curious-tale-is-half-price-this-week/ Looking for an Xbox LIVE Indie Game to buy? Writings of Mass Deduction has over 125 suggestions at this point! http://writingsofmassdeduction.com/ SkaStudios shares Vampire Smile Achievements AND their PAX East 2011 Both Setup video http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/03/14/vampire-smile-achievement/ http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/03/15/pax-booth-setup-time-lapse/ MasterBlud and VVGTV starts a new community for XBLIG developers and gamers to join http://vvgtv.forumotion.com/ Raymond Matthews (@DrakstarMatryx) covers Mommy’s Best Games getting Serious http://www.darkstarmatryx.com/?p=286 XNA Development: Dave Henry (@mort8088) posts the 4th tutorial in his series XNA 4.0 SpriteBatch extended http://mort8088.com/2011/03/11/xna-4-0-tutorial-4-spritebatch-extended/ Tutorial 5 - Creating a manual blank texture http://mort8088.com/2011/03/13/xna-4-tutorial-5-manual-blank-texture/ XNA 4.0 Tutorial 6 - Spritesheet Object http://mort8088.com/2011/03/18/xna-4-0-tutorial-6-spritesheet-object/ Jason Mitchell shares a tutorial on setting the alpha value for spritebatch in XNA 4.0 http://www.jason-mitchell.com/index.php/2011/03/13/setting-alpha-value-for-spritebatch-draw-in-xna-4/ XNA for Silverlight Developers: Part 7 - Collision Detection http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/XNA-for-Silverlight-developers-Part-7-Collision-detection.aspx Markus Ewald (@Cygon4) shares the full Ninject 2.0 binding for XNA and Sunburn http://twitter.com/#!/Cygon4/status/48330203826622464 Michael B. McLaughlin shares an AccelerometerInput XNA GameComponent he created (which I’m probably going to snag for a game I’m working on...) http://geekswithblogs.net/mikebmcl/archive/2011/03/17/accelerometerinput-xna-gamecomponent.aspx Extra Credit tackles the building of a good tutorial. Must watch for all Indie game devs (thanks for pointing it out Evan Johnson!) http://twitter.com/#!/johnsonevan/status/48452115680604160 http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/2921-Tutorials-101 ExEn is fully funded at this point so definitely something for XBLIG developers to keep an eye on as they consider releasing their games on other platforms http://rockethub.com/projects/752-exen-xna-for-iphone-android-and-silverlight Channel 9 and Greg Duncan post Mixing the Game State Management and Platformer XNA Recipes http://channel9.msdn.com/coding4fun/blog/Mixing-the-Game-State-Management-and-Platformer-XNA-Recipes Sgt. Conker has noticed Mike McLaughlin has been crazy productive and has done a recap of his recent posts http://www.sgtconker.com/2011/03/recap-of-mikebmcls-posts/

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• Biff stroganoff

  - by leffen

  oppskrift biff stroganoff for 4 personer   Tilberedning: løk og hvitløk skrelles, hakkes og stekes myk og blank. tas deretter ut av gryten. kjøttet skjæres i terninger og brunes hurtig ved sterk varme, litt om gangen. kok ut gryten med litt vann mellom hver bruning. ha kjøttet, med kraften fra utkoket, tilbake i gryten. demp varmen. ha oppi løk, hvetemel, tomatpuré og rømme. smak til med salt og pepper. la gryten trekke i ca. 4 min på svak varme. serveres med ris eller kokte poteter. gjerne med brød og frisk salat.   Ingredienser i oppskrift: 500 gr ytrefilet 1 stk stor løk 3 ss margarin 1 ts salt 2 stk hvitløksfedd   1 krm pepper 1 ss hvetemel 2-3 ss tomatpuré 3 dl rømme

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• SOA Suite Integration: Part 2: A basic BPEL process

  - by Anthony Shorten

  This is the next in the series about SOA Suite integration with Oracle Utilities Application Framework. One of the first scenarios I am going to illustrate in this series is building a basic BPEL process using Web Service calls to the Oracle Utilities Application Framework. The scenario is this. I will pass in the userid and the BPEL process will call our the AS-User Web Service we created in Part 1. This is just a basic test and illustrate how to import the Web Service into SOA Suite. To use this scenario, you will need access to Oracle SOA Suite, access to a copy of any Oracle Utilities Application Framework based product and Oracle JDeveloper (to build the process). First of all you need to start Oracle JDeveloper and create a new SOA Project to house the BPEL process in. For the purposes of this example I will call the project simpleBPEL and verify that SOA is part of the project. I will select "Composite with BPEL" to denote it as a BPEL process. I can also the same process to create a Mediator or OSB project (refer to the JDeveloper documentation on these technologies). For this example I will use BPEL 1.1 as my specification standard (BPEL 2.0 can also be used if desired). I give the individual BPEL process as simpleBPEL (you can use a different name but I wanted to keep the project and process the same for this example). I will also build a Synchronous BPEL Process as I want a response from the Web Service. I will leave the defaults to save time. I have no have a blank canvas to build my BPEL process against. Note: for simplicity I am going to use as much defaulting as possible. In fact I am not going to specify an input schema for the incoming call as I will use the basic single field used by BPEL as default. The first step is to import the AS-User Web Service into my BPEL project. To do this I use the standard Web Service BPEL component from the Component Palette to import the WSDL into the BPEL project. Now the tricky part (a joke), you drag and drop the component from the Palette onto the right side of the canvas in the Partner Links swim lane. This swim lane is reserved for Partner Links that have a Partner Role (i.e. being called rather than calling). When you drop the Web Service onto the canvas the Create Web Service wizard is invoked to ask for details of the Web Service. At this point you give the BPEL node a name. I have used the name RetrieveUser as a name. I placed the WSDL URL from the XAI Inbound Service screen in the WSDL URL. Once you specify the URL you can press the Find existing WSDL's button to load the information into BPEL from the call. You will notice the Port Type is prefilled with the port from the WSDL. I also suggest that you check copy wsdl and it's dependent artifacts into the project if you intending to work on the BPEL process offline. If you do not check this your target application must be accessible when you work on the BPEL process (that is not always convenient). Note: For the perceptive of you will notice that the URL specified in this example is different to the URL in the last post. The reason is for the demonstrations I shifted to a new server and did not redo all of the past screen captures. If you copy the WSDL into the project you will get an information screen about Localize Files. It is just a confirmation screen. The last confirmation screen is a summary of the partner link (the main tab is locked for editing at this stage). At this stage you have successfully imported the Web Service. To complete the setup of the Web Service you need to set the credentials for the Web Service to use. Refer to the past post on how to do that. Now to use the Web Service. To call the Web Service (as it is just imported not connected to the BPEL process yet), you must add an Invoke action to your BPEL Process. To do this, select Invoke action from the BPEL Constructs zone on the Component Palette and drop it on the edit nodes between the receiveInput and replyOutput nodes This will create an empty Invoke action. You will notice some connectors on the Invoke node. Grab the node closest to your Web Service and drag it to connect the Invoke to your Web Service. This instructs BPEL to use the Invoke to call the Web Service. Once the Invoke action is connected to the Web Service an Edit Invoke edit dialog is displayed. At this point I suggest you name the Invoke node. It is important to name the nodes straightaway and name them appropriately for you to trace the logic. I used InvokeUser as the name in this example. To complete the node configuration you must create Variables to hold the input and output for the call. To do this clock on Automatically Create Input Variable on the Edit Invoke dialog. You will be presented with a default variable name. It uses the node name (that is why it is important to name the node before hitting this button) as a prefix. You can name the variable anything but I usually take the default. Repeat the same for the output variable. You now have a completed node for invoking the service. You have a very basic BPEL process which contains an input, invoke and output node. It is not complete yet though. You need to tell the BPEL process how to pass data from the input to the invoke step and how to take the output from the service call and pass it back to the service. You need to now add an Assign node to assign the input to the Web Service. To do this select Assign activity from BPEL Constructs zone in the Component Palette. Drag and drop the Assign activity between the receiveInput and InvokeUser nodes as you want to pass data between these two nodes. You have now added a new Assign node to your BPEL process Double clicking the node allows you to specify the name of the node. I use AssignUser to describe that I am assigning user data. On the Copy Rules tab you can specify the mapping between the input variable InputVariable/payload/process/input string and the input variable for the Web Service call. We are passing data from the input to BPEL to the relevant input variable on the Web Service. This is simply drag and drop between the two data structures. In the example, I am using the input to pass to the user element in my Web Service as the user is the primary key for the object. The fields become linked (which means data from source will be copied to target). Almost there. You now need to process the output from the Web Service call to the outputVariable of the client call. I have decided to pass back one piece of data, the name associated with the user by concatenating the firstName and lastName elements from the Web Service call. To do this I will use a Transform as it is not just a matter of an Assign action. It is a concatenation operation. This also illustrates how you can use BPEL functionality to transform data from a Web Service call. As with the other components you drag and drop the Transform component to the appropriate place in the BPEL process. In this case we want to transform the output from the Web Service call so we want it after the InvokeUser action and the replyOutput action. The Transform component is actually part of the Oracle Extensions to the BPEL specification. Double clicking the Transform node will allow you to name the node.  In this example I used TransformName. To complete the transform I need to tell the product the source of the transformation and the target of the transform. In the example this is the InvokeUser output variable. I also named the mapper file to TransformName. By clicking the + or pencil icon next to the map I can create the map. The mapping screen is shows the source and target schemas for me to map across. As with the assign I can map the relevant elements. In my example, I first map the firstName from the Web Service to the result element. As I want to concatenate the names, I drop the concat function on the call line. I now attach the last name to the function to indicate the concatenation of the field. By default the names will be concatenated with no space. To make the name legible I add a space between the field by clicking the function and adding a space in the call. I now have a completed mapping. I can now save the whole project as my BPEL process is now complete. As you can see the following happens: We accept input from the client (the userid for the call) in the receiveInput step. We assign that value to the input parameters for the Web Service call in the AssignUser step. We invoke the Web Service call to retrieve the data from the product in the InvokeUser step. We take the output from the InvokeUser step and concatenate the names in the TransformName step. We pass back the data in the replyOutput step. At this point we can deploy the BPEL process to the SOA Suite server. I will not cover this aspect as it really all SOA Suite specific (it is all done via Oracle JDeveloper). Now we need to test the service in SOA Suite. We will use the Fusion Middleware Control test facility. I will assume that credentials have also been setup as per our previous post (else you will get a 401 error). You navigate to the deployed BPEL process within Fusion Middleware Control and select the Test Service option. Specify some test data on the payload at the bottom of the Test Service screen. In my case I am returning my own userid information. On the response tab you will see the result. It works. You can verify the steps using the Audit trace facility on individual calls. As you can see this is a basic BPEL but you get the idea of importing the Web Service is pretty straightforward. You can create more sophisticated BPEL processes using the full facilities in Oracle SOA Suite. I just showed you the basic principals.

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• Begin the Clone Wars Have!

  - by Antony Reynolds

  Creating a New Virtual Machine from an Existing Virtual Disk In previous posts I described how I set up an OEL6 machine under VirtualBox that can run an 11gR2 database and FMW 11.1.1.5.  That is great if you want the DB and FMW running in the same virtual image and it has served me well for some proof of concepts and also for some testing of different JVMs.  However I also wanted to run some testing of FMW with the database running on a separate physical machine.  So in this post I will show how to take a VirtualBox image and create a new image based on the disks from that original image. What are my Options? There is more than one way to skin a cat, or in this case to create two separate VMs that can run on different hardware.  Some of the options include: Create new virtual disk images for each new VM. Clone the existing disk images and point the new VM at the cloned images. Point the new VM at the existing snapshots. #1 is too much like hard work, install OEL twice, install a database again, install FMW again, run RCU again!  Life is too short! #2 is probably the safest way of doing things.  VirtualBox allows you to clone a disk image for use in a separate machine.  However this of course duplicates the disk and means that it is now occupying 3 times the space, once for the original disk and twice more for the two clones I would need. #3 is the most space efficient way of doing things.  It does mean however that I can only run the new “cloned” images if I have access to the original image because that is where the base snapshots reside.  However this is not a problem for me as long as I remember to keep all threee images together.  So this is the approach we will follow. Snapshot, What Snapshot? As we are going to create new virtual machines based on existing snapshots we need to figure out which snapshot to use.  We do this by opening the “Media Manager” from within VirtualBox and moving the mouse over the snapshot images until we find the snapshots we want – the snapshot name is identified in the “Attached to:” comment.  In my case I wanted the FMW installed snapshot because that had a database configured for FMW alongside the FMW software.  I made a note of the filename of that snapshot (actually I just noted the first 5 characters as that was all that was needed to uniquely identify the snapshot file). When we create the new machines we will point them at the snapshot filename we have just checked. Network or NotWork? Because we want the two new machines to communicate with each other when hosted in different physical machines we can’t use the default NAT networking mode without a lot of hassle.  But at the same time we need them to have fixed IP addresses relative to each other so that they can see each other whilst also being able to see the outside world. To achieve all these requirements I created two network adapters for each machine.  Adapter 1 was a standard NAT mapping.  This will allow each machine to get a dynamic IP address (10.0.2.15 by default) that can be used to access the external world through the VBox provided NAT gateway.  This is the same as the existing configuration. The second adapter I created as a bridged adapter.  This gives the virtual machine direct access to the host network card and by using fixed IP addresses each machine can see the other.  It is important to choose fixed IP addresses that are not routable across your internal network so you don’t get any clashes with other machines on your network.  Of course you could always get proper fixed IP addresses from your network people, but I have serveral people using my images and as long as I don’t have two instances of the same VM on the same network segment this is easier and avoids reconfiguring the network every time someone wants a copy of my VM.  If it is available I would suggest using the 10.0.3.* network as 10.0.2.* is the default NAT network.  You can check availability by pinging 10.0.3.1 and 10.0.3.2 from your host machine.  If it times out then you are probably safe to use that. Creating the New VMs Now that I had collected the data that I needed I went ahead and created the new VMs. When asked for a “Boot Hard Disk” I used the “Choose a virtual hard disk file…” link to find the snapshot I had previously selected and set that to be the existing hard disk.  I chose the previously existing SOA 11.1.1.5 install for both the new DB and FMW machines because that snapshot had the database with the RCU completed that I wanted for my DB machine and it had the SOA software installed which I wanted for my FMW machine. After the initial creation of the virtual machine go into the network setting section and enable a second adapter which will be bridged.  Make a note of the MAC addresses (the last four digits should be sufficient) of the two adapters so that you can later set the bridged adapter to use fixed IP and the NAT adapter to use DHCP. We are now ready to start the VMs and reconfigure Linux. Reconfiguring Linux Because I now have two new machines I need to change their network configuration.  In particular I need to change the hostname, update the hosts file and change the network settings. Changing the Hostname I renamed both hosts by running the hostname command as root: hostname vboxfmw.oracle.com I also edited the /etc/sysconfig file and set the correct hostname in there. HOSTNAME=vboxfmw.oracle.com Changing the Network Settings I needed to change the network configuration to give the bridged network a fixed IP address.  I first explicitly set the MAC addresses of the two adapters, because the order of the virtual adapters in the VirtualBox Manager is not necessarily the same as the order of the adapters in the guest OS.  So I went in to the System->Preferences->Network Connections screen and explicitly set the “Device MAC address” for the two adapters. Having correctly mapped the Linux adapters to the VirtualBox adapters I then set the Bridged adapter to use fixed IP addressing rather than DHCP.  There is no need for additional routing or default gateways because we expect the two machine to be on the same LAN segment. Updating the Hosts File Having renamed the machines and reconfigured the network I then updated the /etc/hosts file to refer to the new machine name add a new line to the hosts file to provide an additional IP address for my server (the new fixed IP address) add a new line for the fixed IP address of the other virtual machine 10.0.3.101      vboxdb.oracle.com       vboxdb  # Added by NetworkManager 10.0.2.15       vboxdb.oracle.com       vboxdb  # Added by NetworkManager 10.0.3.102      vboxfmw.oracle.com      vboxfmw # Added by NetworkManager 127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain   localhost ::1     vboxdb.oracle.com       vboxdb  localhost6.localdomain6 localhost6 To make sure everything takes effect I restarted the server. Reconfiguring the Database on the DB Machine Because we changed the hostname the listener and the EM console no longer start so I need to modify the listener.ora to use the new hostname and I also need to rebuild the EM configuration because it also relies on the hostname. I edited the $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin/listener.ora and changed the listening address to the new hostname:       (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = vboxdb.oracle.com)(PORT = 1521)) After changing the listener.ora I was able to start the listener using: lsnrctl start I also had to reconfigure the EM database control.  I first deconfigured it using the command: emca -deconfig dbcontrol db -repos drop This drops the repository and removes any existing registered dbcontrols. I then re-configured it using the following command: emca -config dbcontrol db -repos create This creates the EM repository and then configures and starts dbcontrol. Now my database machine is ready so I can close it down and take a snapshot. Disabling the Database on the FMW Machine I set up the database to start automatically by creating a service called “dbora”.  On the FMW machine I do not need the database running so I can prevent it auto-starting by running the following command: chkconfig –del dbora Note that because I am using a snapshot it is not a waste of disk space to have the DB installed but not used.  As long as I don’t run it, it won’t cost me anything. I can now close the FMW machine down and take a snapshot. Creating a New Domain The FMW machine is now ready to create a new domain.  When creating the domain I can point it at the second machine which is running the database.  I can potentially run these machines on two separate physical machines as long as I have the original virtual machine available to both of the physical machines. Gotchas in Snapshotting VirtualBox does not support the concept of linked machines in a network like some virtualization technologies so when creating a snapshot it is a good idea to shut both VMs down and then take a snapshot on both of them.  This is because we want to keep the database in sync with the middleware.  One way to make sure that this happens would be to place all the domain configuration files on the database server via an NFS share, this would mean that all we would need to snapshot would be the database machine because that would hold all the state and configuration. The Sky’s the Limit We have covered a simple case of having just two machines.  I have a more complicated configuration in which two machine run a RAC database off the same base OS image, and two more machines run a SOA cluster based on the same OS image.  Just remember what machine holds state and what are the consequences of taking a snapshot.

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• You Know You’re Computer Illiterate When… [Comic]

  - by The Geek

  I remember the first time I tried to explain desktop wallpaper to my mom—totally blank stare. I imagine this is what she was thinking. Latest Features How-To Geek ETC How To Create Your Own Custom ASCII Art from Any Image How To Process Camera Raw Without Paying for Adobe Photoshop How Do You Block Annoying Text Message (SMS) Spam? How to Use and Master the Notoriously Difficult Pen Tool in Photoshop HTG Explains: What Are the Differences Between All Those Audio Formats? How To Use Layer Masks and Vector Masks to Remove Complex Backgrounds in Photoshop Hack a Wireless Doorbell into a Snail Mail Indicator Enjoy Clutter-Free YouTube Video Viewing in Opera with CleanTube Bring Summer Back to Your Desktop with the LandscapeTheme for Chrome and Iron The Prospector – Home Dash Extension Creates a Whole New Browsing Experience in Firefox KinEmote Links Kinect to Windows Why Nobody Reads Web Site Privacy Policies [Infographic]

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• Package operation failed when updating 12.04

  - by Gausstein

  Whenever I try to update 12.04, I get the "Package Operation Failed" message. I haven't been able to update my system. In the "Details" section it says: installArchives() failed: Extracting templates from packages: 30%% Extracting templates from packages: 61%% Extracting templates from packages: 91%% Extracting templates from packages: 100%% Preconfiguring packages ... Extracting templates from packages: 30%% Extracting templates from packages: 61%% Extracting templates from packages: 91%% Extracting templates from packages: 100%% Preconfiguring packages ... Extracting templates from packages: 30%% Extracting templates from packages: 61%% Extracting templates from packages: 91%% Extracting templates from packages: 100%% Preconfiguring packages ... Extracting templates from packages: 30%% Extracting templates from packages: 61%% Extracting templates from packages: 91%% Extracting templates from packages: 100%% Preconfiguring packages ... dpkg: error: parsing file '/var/lib/dpkg/available' near line 42150 package 'x11-apps': blank line in value of field 'Description' Error in function:

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• Ubuntu on the Sony Vaio VPCY 21S1E

  - by tiax

  My girlfriend got a new Subnotebook for Christmas (Sony Vayo VPCY21S1E), which comes with an "Intel HD graphics" vga adaptor. When I try to boot the Ubuntu installer from USB, the screen goes blank after a short while, before I even see the Ubuntu logo. However, when I select "nomodeset" in the boot options, I can boot it to the CLI login prompt. When I start X, though, that only works in VESA mode (I've read Intel eventually got rid of Usermode Mode Setting and only offers KMS now, which I've disabled to get it to boot). What can I do to enable a) higher resolution than 1024x768 in VESA b) hardware acceleration for compiz, video playback, etc?

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• Can't reboot netbook with any of the reboot parameters

  - by Delan Azabani

  I have a Sony VPCW218AG netbook that I've dual-booted with Ubuntu 10.10. Unlike the preinstalled Windows 7, Ubuntu will not reboot on this computer. Rebooting from Gnome, using the reboot command and SysRq+REISUB all don't work; they end hanging with a blank screen. I have read that Atom netbooks don't have a keyboard controller and therefore the default reboot method, kbd, won't work. I have actually tried all ten reboot= parameters listed here; none of them work. I have also tried disabling ACPI with noacpi acpi=off for each one; that didn't help either. Are there any other things I can try to fix the rebooting problem?

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• Youtube videos suddenly all report "Invalid parameters" and won't play

  - by Pointy

  Running 11.10, with up-to-date Flash (11.1.102.55, which the Flash site agrees is the up-to-date version). Every Youtube video reports a blank screen with the words, "Invalid parameters": I've tried fiddling with the player "hardware acceleration" setting, and that has no effect. Similarly, I've clicked and un-clicked and re-clicked the "storage" options in the global settings thing, also to no effect. I haven't seen this in any google searches (though there are other problems described involved the "Invalid parameters" message) which makes me think it's a recent phenomenon. edit — hmm, fails in Firefox but works in Chrome ...

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• How do I turn 'off' a (hosted) domain's web server while leaving email intact?

  - by foregon

  I have a web hosting account at HostGator (for a domain registered with GoDaddy), where I would like to only use email, and completely turn off the website/webserver (for that domain), such that it actually gives the following error like any other domain which isn't pointing to anything, so in Firefox it would be: Or in Chrome it would be: So I am not looking for just a blank page or server 403 error, but literally for it to act like it doesn't exist and the only way someone would know that the domain is in use, is if they WHOIS search it or know any of the email addresses on the main server. N.B. the domain is the parent domain in the HostGator account and other websites (which need to still be operational) are under it, but I'm thinking with DNS settings it can still be configured while keeping the one hosting account. How would I configure this?

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• Problem while installing amd driver on ubuntu 12.10 on my dell inspiron 5520

  - by Arun

  I have a dell inspiron 5520 which has switchable graphics mode with amd radeon hd 7600m. I have recently installed ubuntu 12.10 alongside windows. But i can't install the driver for grahics card. While typing "sudo apt-get install fglrx-installer" it says unable to locate the package. While adding the repository ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates it shows error that "The requested URL /ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates/ubuntu/dists/quantal/main/binary- i386/Packages was not found on this server." In another attempt i download driver from amd-driver site, and then installing from terminal it shows that some errors come while installing and I get the blank screen only. So how to install the amd driver on my laptop.

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• Slide Creation Checklist

  - by Daniel Moth

  PowerPoint is a great tool for conference (large audience) presentations, which is the context for the advice below. The #1 thing to keep in mind when you create slides (at least for conference sessions), is that they are there to help you remember what you were going to say (the flow and key messages) and for the audience to get a visual reminder of the key points. Slides are not there for the audience to read what you are going to say anyway. If they were, what is the point of you being there? Slides are not holders for complete sentences (unless you are quoting) – use Microsoft Word for that purpose either as a physical handout or as a URL link that you share with the audience. When you dry run your presentation, if you find yourself reading the bullets on your slide, you have missed the point. You have a message to deliver that can be done regardless of your slides – remember that. The focus of your audience should be on you, not the screen. Based on that premise, I have created a checklist that I go over before I start a new deck and also once I think my slides are ready. Turn AutoFit OFF. I cannot stress this enough. For each slide, explicitly pick a slide layout. In my presentations, I only use one Title Slide, Section Header per demo slide, and for the rest of my slides one of the three: Title and Content, Title Only, Blank. Most people that are newbies to PowerPoint, get whatever default layout the New Slide creates for them and then start deleting and adding placeholders to that. You can do better than that (and you'll be glad you did if you also follow item #11 below). Every slide must have an image. Remove all punctuation (e.g. periods, commas) other than exclamation points and question marks (! ?). Don't use color or other formatting (e.g. italics, bold) for text on the slide. Check your animations. Avoid animations that hide elements that were on the slide (instead use a new slide and transition). Ensure that animations that bring new elements in, bring them into white space instead of over other existing elements. A good test is to print the slide and see that it still makes sense even without the animation. Print the deck in black and white choosing the "6 slides per page" option. Can I still read each slide without losing any information? If the answer is "no", go back and fix the slides so the answer becomes "yes". Don't have more than 3 bullet levels/indents. In other words: you type some text on the slide, hit 'Enter', hit 'Tab', type some more text and repeat at most one final time that sequence. Ideally your outer bullets have only level of sub-bullets (i.e. one level of indentation beneath them). Don't have more than 3-5 outer bullets per slide. Space them evenly horizontally, e.g. with blank lines in between. Don't wrap. For each bullet on all slides check: does the text for that bullet wrap to a second line? If it does, change the wording so it doesn't. Or create a terser bullet and make the original long text a sub-bullet of that one (thus decreasing the font size, but still being consistent) and have no wrapping. Use the same consistent fonts (i.e. Font Face, Font Size etc) throughout the deck for each level of bullet. In other words, don't deviate form the PowerPoint template you chose (or that was chosen for you). Go on each slide and hit 'Reset'. 'Reset' is a button on the 'Home' tab of the ribbon or you can find the 'Reset Slide' menu when you right click on a slide on the left 'Slides' list. If your slides can survive doing that without you "fixing" things after the Reset action, you are golden! For each slide ask yourself: if I had to replace this slide with a single sentence that conveys the key message, what would that sentence be? This exercise leads you to merge slides (where the key message is split) or split a slide into many, if there were too many key messages on the slide in the first place. It can also lead you to redesign a slide so the text on it really is just explanation or evidence for the key message you are trying to convey. Get the length right. Is the length of this deck suitable for the time you have been given to present? If not, cut content! It is far better to deliver less in a relaxed, polished engaging, memorable way than to deliver in great haste more content. As a rule of thumb, multiply 2 minutes by the number of slides you have, add the time you need for each demo and check if that add to more than the time you have allotted. If it does, start cutting content – we've all been there and it has to be done. As always, rules and guidelines are there to be bent and even broken some times. Start with the above and on a slide-by-slide basis decide which rules you want to bend. That is smarter than throwing all the rules out from the start, right? Comments about this post welcome at the original blog.

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• Booting the liveCD/USB in efi mode fails on tablet xe700t1a

  - by F.L.

  My tablet is Samsung Series 7 Slate (xe700t1a-a02fr). It operates an intel sandy bridge architecture. The main issue about this tablet is that it ships with a windows 7 install in (U)EFI mode (GPT partition table, etc.), so I'd like to get an EFI dual boot with Ubuntu. But it seems I can't boot on the liveCD in EFI mode. It starts loading (up to initrd), but I then get a blank (black) screen. I've tried the nomodeset kernel option (as well as removing quiet and splash) with no luck. I have used the 12.04.1 desktop iso (I have read somewhere that it is the only one that can boot in EFI mode). What are the other leads I can follow ? thanks

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• TechEd 2012 - last day

  - by Stefan Barrett

  Miss when TechEd was 5 days long!, it's Thursday already and we are on the last day. The snacks haven't appeared, but more developer sessions have. Having access to online schedule is very important, since the new sessions are usually the more interesting ones. On the whole, I think the wifi network has been worse this year - more blank spots, and more areas where performance is bad. I do think its funny that I get better reception on my iPad than my phones (iPad & Nokia/Microsoft). There seems to be less areas for people to plug in their own laptops this year - I do wonder, since more and more people have smart phones, and since most of the attendees are from America, perhaps they are not using the wifi - but rather their own phone provider. If I was in Japan, I would probably do the same. About to attend a session on F#, something which is probably going to be important for me over the next year.

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• Surface RT: To Be Or Not To Be (Part 1)

  - by smehaffie

  So the Surface RT has been out for 9 months and Microsoft just declared a $900 million dollar write-down. So how did this happen and what does it mean for Microsoft’s efforts to break into the tablet market? I have been thinking a lot about most of the information below since the Surface product line was released. If you are looking for a “Microsoft Is Dead” story, then don’t read any further. But if you want an honest look at what I think led Microsoft to this point and what I think can be done to make Surface RT devices better, then please continue reading. What Led Microsoft To The $900 Million Write-Down Surface Unveiling:Microsoft totally missed the boat when they unveiled the Surface product line on June 18th, 2012. Microsoft should’ve been ready to post the specifications of both devices that night. Microsoft should’ve had a site up and running right after the event so people could pre-order the devices. This would have given them a good idea what the interest was in each device.  They could also have used this data to make a better estimate for the number of units to to have available for the launch and beyond.  They also lost out on taking advantage of the excitement generated by the Surface RT and Surface Pro announcement. They could have thrown in a free touch keyboard to anyone who pre-ordered. The advertising should have started right after the announcement and gotten bigger as launch day approached. Push for as many pre-order as possible and build excitement for the launch. Actual Launch (Surface RT): By this time all excitement was gone from the initial announcement, except for the Micorsoft faithful. Microsoft should have been ready to sell the Surface in as many markets as possible at launch. The limited market release was a real letdown for a lot of people.  A limited release right after the initial announce is understandable, but not at the official launch of the product. Microsoft overpriced the device and now they are lowering it to what it should have been to start with. The $349 price is within the range I suggested it should be at before pricing was announced. (Surface Tablets: The Price Must Be Right). Limited ordering options online was also a killer. User should have been able to buy the base unit of each device and then add on whatever keyboard they wanted to (this applies more to the Surface Pro).  There should have also been a place where users could order any additional add-ins that they wanted to buy (covers, extra power supplies, etc.) Marketing was better and the dancing “Click In” commercial was cool, but the ads comparing the iPad with Siri should have been on the air from day one of the announcement (or at least the launch).  Consumers want to know why you tablet is better, not just that is has a clickable keyboard and built-in kickstand. They could have also compared it to some of the other mid-range tablets if they had not overprices it to begin with. Stock Applications (Mail, People, Calendar, Music, Video, Reader and IE): This is where Microsoft really blew it. They had all the time in the world to make these applications the best of breed and instead we got applications that seemed thrown together.  Some updates have made these application better, but they are all still lacking in features that should have been there from day one. This did not help to enhance a new users experience any. ** I will admit that the applications that were data driven were first class citizen’s and that makes it even more perplexing why MS could knock it out of the park with the Weather, Travel, Finance, Bing, etc.) and fail so miserably on the core applications users would use the most on a tablet. Desktop on Tablet: The desktop just is so out of place on the tablet  I understand it was needed for Office but think it would have been better to not have the desktop in Windows RT, but instead open up the Office applications in full screen mode, in a desktop shell (same goes for  IE11).That way the user wouldn’t realize they are leaving Metro and going to the desktop. The other option would have been to just not include Office on Windows RT devices. Instead they could have made awesome Widows Store Apps for Word, Excel, OneNote and PowerPoint. In addition, they could have made the stock Mail, People, and Calendar applications contain all the functions that Outlook gives desktop users. Having some of the settings in desktop mode and others under “Change PC Settings” made Windows RT seemed unfinished and rushed to market. What Can Be Done To Make Windows RT Based Tablets Better (At least in my opinion) Either eliminate the desktop all together from Windows RT or at least make the user experience better by hiding the fact the user is running Office/IE in the desktop. Personally I ‘d like them to totally get rid of it and just make awesome Windows Store Application version of Word, Excel PowerPoint & OneNote.  This might also make the OS smaller and give the user more available disk space. I doubt there will ever be a Windows Store App versions of Office, but I still think it is a good idea. Make is so users can easily direct their documents, picture, videos and music to their extra storage and can access these files from the standard libraries.  A user should not have to create a VM on their microSD card or create symbolic links to get this to work properly. Most consumers would not be able to do this. Then users get frustrated when they run out or room on their main storage because nothing is automatically save to their microSD card when saved to libraries.  This is a major bug that needs to be fixed, otherwise Microsoft’s selling point of having a microSD slot is worthless. Allows users to uninstall and re-install any of the Office product that come with the Surface. That way people can free up storage space by uninstalling the Office applications they do not need. Everyone’s needs are different, so make the options flexible. Don’t take up storage space for applications the user will not use. Make the Core applications the “Cream of the Crop” Windows App Store applications. The should set the bar for all other Store applications. Improve performance as much as possible, if it seems to be sluggish on a tablet consumer will not buy it. They need to price the next line of Surface product very aggressive to undercut not only iPad but also Android low end tablets (Nook, Kindle Fire, and Nexus, etc.) Give developers incentives to write quality applications for the devices. Don’t reward developers for cranking out cookie cutter, low quality applications. I’d even suggest Microsoft consider implementing some new store certification guideline to stop these type of applications being published. Allow users to easily move the recover disk “partition between their microSD card and main storage. My Predictions for the Surface RT and Windows RT I honestly think even with all the missteps MS has made since the announcement  about the Surface product line, that they are on the right path. I was excited the Surface tablets when they were announced, and I still am. The truth be told, Windows 8 on a tablet (aka: Windows RT) is better than both iOS and Android. My nephew who is an Apple fan boy told me after he saw and used Windows 8 (he got the beta running on his iPad), that Windows 8 kicked Apples butt as a tablet OS. So there is hope for all Windows RT based tablets. I agree with my nephew and that is why whenever anyone asks me about my Surface, I love showing it off and recommend it. The 6 keys to gaining market share in the tablet market are; Aggressive pricing by both Microsoft and their OEM’s Good quality devices put out by Microsoft and their OEM’s (there are some out there, but not enough) Marketing, Marketing, Marketing from both Microsoft and their OEM’s (Need more ads showing why windows based tablets are better than iPads and Android tablets) Getting Widows tablets in retails stores all over, and giving sales people incentive to sell them. Consumers like to try electronics out before they buy them, and most will listen to what the sales person suggest. Microsoft needs sales people in retail stores directing people to buy windows based tablets over iPads and Android tablets. I think the Microsoft Stores within Best Buy is a good start, but they also need to get prominent displays in Walmart, Target, etc.. Release a smaller form factor Surface, Hopefully the 8”-10” next generation Surface is not a rumor. Make “Surface” the brand name for all Microsoft tablets and hybrid devices that they come out with. They cannot change the name with each new release.  Make Surface synonymous with quality, the same way that iPad  is for Apple. Well, that is my 2 cents on the subject. Let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment below. Soon to follow will be my thought on the Surface Pro, so keep an eye out for it. var addthis_pub="smehaffie"; var addthis_options="email, print, digg, slashdot, delicious, twitter, live, myspace, facebook, google, stumbleupon, newsvine";

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• Reformating xml document

  - by Joseph Reeves

  I have an xml document in the format below: <key>value</key> <key>value</key> <key>value</key> But need to convert it to the following: <tag k='key' v='value' /> <tag k='key' v='value' /> <tag k='key' v='value' /> The original xml file is roughly 20,000 lines long, so I'm keen to automate as much as possible! I've looked at xmlstarlet, but drew a blank with it. Presumably it would be a good place to start though? Help gratefully received, thanks.

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• How to print a web page that contains flash

  - by Richard

  I am using the chromium browser to display the following web page: http://www.primaryworksheets.co.uk/multiws/multi23.html I want to print off this maths worksheet for my son, but all I ever get out of my printer is a blank page. The web page appears to be produced using flash. I have been to the software centre and re-installed the flash plugin, but that did not help. I don't seem to have problems printing anything else. Firefox isn't any better. Can anyone tell me what else I might try? I'm using '11.04'. Thanks, Richard

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• How do I run Sim City 4?

  - by Jacob Larson

  I know that it is possible to run Sim City 4 Deluxe, as this page clearly proves so. http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=10515 I have tried two different commands, and the paths are all right, but when I enter them, I simply get a blank terminal line. WINEDEUB=-all wine C:\\Program\ Files\ \(x86\)\\Maxis\\SimCity\ 4\ Deluxe\\Apps\\SimCity\ 4.exe -d:software -intro:off -CPUCount:1 env WINEPREFIX="/home/jacob/.wine" wine "C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -intro:off -CPUCount:1 So, what could be the problem? I'm fairly new, so I'm not really sure what info I need to provide. Thanks.

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