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Account confirmation email sent as SPAM :( PHP

- by praveen

Hi, I'm using PHPMailer to send a confirmation email for newly registered users in my social network. But i found out most of them have ended up in user's spam list. (hotmail and yahoo). How to avoid this? This is my script $mail=new PHPMailer(); $mail->IsSMTP(); $mail->SMTPAuth = mSMTPAuth(); $mail->SMTPSecure = mSMTPSecure(); $mail->Host = mHost(); $mail->Port = mPort(); $mail->Username = mUsername(); $mail->Password = mPassword(); $mail->From = mFrom(); $mail->FromName = "SiteName"; $mail->Subject = "SiteName New Account Activation"; $mail->IsHTML(true); $mail->WordWrap = 50; $mail->Body = "<h2>Welcome to " .$sitename. " " .$username. "! </h2><br><br>"; $mail->Body .= "Please click on the link below to verify your email address:<br><br>"; $mail->Body .= "<a href='".$base. "verify.php?a=" .$gen_key."'>".$base. "verify.php?a=" .$gen_key."</a>"; $mail->Body .= "<br><br>Regards<br>"; $mail->AltBody = "Welcome to " .$sitename. " " .$username. "!\n\nTo verify your email address, please click on the link below:\n\n".$base. "verify.php?a=" .$gen_key; $mail->AddAddress($email); $mail->Send(); $mail->ClearAddresses(); Please help. This is really confusing. Thanks in advance

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Just a small problem regarding javscript BOM question

- by caramel1991

The question is this: Create a page with a number of links. Then write code that fires on the window onload event, displaying the href of each of the links on the page. And this is my solution <html> <body language="Javascript" onload="displayLink()"> <a href="http://www.google.com/">First link</a> <a href="http://www.yahoo.com/">Second link</a> <a href="http://www.msn.com/">Third link</a> <script type="text/javascript" language="Javascript"> function displayLink() { for(var i = 0;document.links[i];i++) { alert(document.links[i].href); } } </script> </body> </html> This is the answer provided by the book <html> <head> <script language=”JavaScript” type=”text/javascript”> function displayLinks() { var linksCounter; for (linksCounter = 0; linksCounter < document.links.length; linksCounter++) { alert(document.links[linksCounter].href); } } </script> </head> <body onload=”displayLinks()”> <A href=”link0.htm” >Link 0</A> <A href=”link1.htm”>Link 2</A> <A href=”link2.htm”>Link 2</A> </body> </html> Before I get into the javascript tutorial on how to check user browser version or model,I was using the same method as the example,by acessing the length property of the links array for the loop,but after I read through the tutorial,I find out that I can also use this alternative ways,by using the method that the test condition will evalute to true only if the document.links[i] return a valid value,so does my code is written using the valid method??If it's not,any comment regarding how to write a better code??Correct me if I'm wrong,I heard some of the people say "a good code is not evaluate solely on whether it works or not,but in terms of speed,the ability to comprehend the code,and could posssibly let others to understand the code easily".Is is true??

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Error sending email to alias with Postfix

- by Burning the Codeigniter

I'm on Ubuntu 11.04 64bit. I'm trying to set up Postfix on my VPS, which has been configured but when I send an email to an alias e.g. [email protected] it will send it to myemail@hotmail.co.uk. Now when I sent the email from my GMail account, I got this returned: Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently: [email protected] Technical details of permanent failure: Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the recipient domain. We recommend contacting the other email provider for further information about the cause of this error. The error that the other server returned was: 550 550 #5.1.0 Address rejected [email protected] (state 14). ----- Original message ----- DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=mime-version:date:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type; bh=R1WtjVRWywfkWCR2g4QKbSjAfUaU9DAAMKbg9UAWqvs=; b=FiSfdhEaV4pEq/76ENlH4tvOgm35Ow3ulRg06kDYrIQTaDf3eOEgfSEgH25PjZuAj/ 7Hg1CL++o6Rt/tl80ZiR2AWekhA0zIn2JkqE7KssMG7WbBmMmbf8V9KDo2jOw+mZv+C/ KDKsQ65AudBZ/NYLDDpTT7MkKf8DzqeGCKj9MAct6sHDoC0wCciXYxNfTf+MKxrZvRHQ oICTkH5LOugKW9wEjPF2AoO8X0qgYmTLYeSUtXxu46VeNKRBGmdRkkpPOoJlQN9ank7i SW6kU6M9bk2bYOgKwV/YPsaantmYlu1XdmYx+kWeJkNJAyYOfXfZZ8WUJhbbFFD9bZCi m/hw== MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.101.3.5 with SMTP id f5mr783908ani.86.1334247306547; Thu, 12 Apr 2012 09:15:06 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.236.73.136 with HTTP; Thu, 12 Apr 2012 09:15:06 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2012 17:15:06 +0100 Message-ID: <CAN+9S2aB=xjiDxVZx3qYZoBMFD4XuadUyR_3OYWaxw1ecrZmOQ@mail.gmail.com> Subject: Test Email From: My Name <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=001636c597eabfd21504bd7da8fd Now that I don't understand why it isn't working, my aliases are set up correctly - I see no error messages being produced in /var/log/mail.log or any other mail logs, which makes it harder for me to debug. This is my postfix configuration (postconf -n): alias_database = hash:/etc/aliases alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases append_dot_mydomain = no biff = no config_directory = /etc/postfix inet_interfaces = all mailbox_command = procmail -a "$EXTENSION" mailbox_size_limit = 0 mydestination = $mydomain, $myhostname, localhost, localhost.localdomain, localhost mydomain = domain.com myhostname = localhost mynetworks = 192.168.1.0/24 127.0.0.0/8 readme_directory = no recipient_delimiter = + smtp_tls_session_cache_database = btree:${data_directory}/smtp_scache smtpd_banner = $myhostname ESMTP $mail_name (Ubuntu) smtpd_tls_cert_file = /etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem smtpd_tls_key_file = /etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key smtpd_tls_session_cache_database = btree:${data_directory}/smtpd_scache smtpd_use_tls = yes Does anyone know how to solve this specific issue?

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How to encrypt dual boot windows 7 and xp (bitlocker, truecrypt combo?) on sdd (recommended?)

- by therobyouknow

I would like to setup a dual boot Windows 7 and Windows XP laptop/notebook computer where each operation system's partition is fully encrypted. I would like to do this on a SSD - a 128Gb Crucial M4. My research Dual boot of truecrypt encrypted OSs on one drive (not possible - in Truecript 7.x at time of writing) This cannot be done on a standard Truecrypt setup - it will only support encrypting one of the operating systems. I have tried this and also read about it here on superuser.com However, I did see a solution here that uses grub4dos as the initial bootloader to chain to separate truecrypt encrypted OSs, in my case Windows 7 and Windows XP: http://yyzyyz.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/truecrypt-how-to-encrypt-multiple.html I am not going to consider this solution as it relies upon some custom code for use in the bootloader that is provided by the author. I would prefer a solution that can be fully understood so that I can be sure that there is nothing undesirable occuring (i.e. malware or just simply bugs in the code). I would like to believe such a solution doesn't have those risks but I can't be sure. BitLocker and Truecrypt combination - possible solution? So I am now considering a combination of encryption programs: I now aim to encrypt Windows XP with Truecrypt and Windows 7 with BitLocker. Assuming Truecrypt bootloader can boot into non-Truecrypt OSs (e.g. via hitting Escape to go to another menu), then this solution may be viable. SSDs and Encryption (use fastest possible spinning hard disk instead (?)) I read on various superuser.com posts and elsewhere that current SSDs are not suited to whole drive encryption for various reasons: impact of performance algorithms that give SSDs advantage over spinning harddisks. Algorithms used in compression of data for example. Wear on the SSD, shortening its life Security issues whereby data is repeated, as indicated in some Truecrypt documentation So I am now considering not using SSD. But with the aim to have the fastest drive possible, I am considering using the Western Digital Scorpion black 2.5" 7200rpm harddisk as this appears to be top rated among spinning platter-based harddrives (don't work for Western Digital). Summary So to achieve whole drive encrypted dual boot Windows 7 and Windows XP with minimal performance impact I intend to use a combination of Truecrypt and Bitlocker on a top-rated conventional spinning platter-based harddisk. Questions Will my summary: achieve whole disk encryption of the dual-boot Windows XP, Windows 7? OR an you suggest a simpler solution, including one that only requires only Truecrypt (BitLocker not available on XP). Or another encryption tool, including paid-for? provide the highest performance. Am I correct to avoid using SDD with encryption for the reasons I discovered? Are the concerns about SSDs and encryption still very real (some articles I read go back to 2010) Thanks for your input!

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Virtualbox - routing subnet to bridge adapters

- by user42384

Hello, I have set up a Debian Lenny box with 3 vbox Lenny machines running eth0 of the host in bridged mode (on virtualbox 3.1.6). When testing in my local LAN, this all worked perfectly well and traffic flowed to and from the IPs of the virtual machines as it should. However, now that it's in its co-lo home, the networking setup is a bit different, and I'm unable to get traffic to flow to the vboxes properly. Specifically, the host has its own Primary IP, and I have a separate subnet of 8 (6 usable) IPs routed to the box for use by the vboxes. So, eth0 on host is: Machine IP: 2x.x.x.137 Gateway IP: 2x.x.x.138 Subnet Msk: 255.255.255.252 Subnet for vboxes is Subnet: 2x.x.x.240/29 Netmask: 255.255.255.248 vbox1 is configured to 2x.x.x.241 on eth0 as follows: auto eth0 iface eth0 inet static address 2x.x.x.241 netmask 255.255.255.248 Setting up a virtual interface (eth0:0) on the host with one of these subnet IPs allows me to ping to that address only from vbox1, and it allows me to ping vbox1 from the host. I can also ping that virtual interface perfectly well from outside, so the IPs are definitely landing at my machine. It seems I'm missing some sort of routing instruction either on the host or vbox1 to get traffic moving between the subnet and the default gateway, but I can't seem to figure out what it should be, or what glaringly obvious thing i'm missing. Most of my obvious attempts (the gw of eth0, the ip of eth0) were rejected by route command with SIOCADDRT: No such device (eg - i can't find it). I tried setting vbox1 to bridge on eth0:0, but this was not an acceptable device name and VBoxHeadless refused to start. The physical machine does have an unused physical NIC at eth1 that can be used if necessary for something or other. Host machine is running iptables configured by ferm, have experimented with it allowing forwarding for that subnet, but I wouldn't have thought this was necessary given the nature of the virtualbox devices (nor did it actually work). Clearing out all of these rules for a blank iptables set does not resolve the issue. (you can see ferm generated iptables at http://codedumper.com/ojaze) Thanks for any help you can give... Patrick

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Ubuntu hardware wireless switch has no effect after suspend and 13.10 upgrade

- by blaineh

I'm posting this on SU after it stalled on askubuntu. I hope someone here can help! If you'd prefer to answer on AU itself, here's the link: http://askubuntu.com/questions/365177/hardware-wireless-switch-has-no-effect-after-suspend-and-13-10-upgrade Wireless works fine after a reboot, but after a suspend the hardware switch (for my laptop this is f12) has no effect on the wireless, it is just permanently off, and shows that it is with a red LED. My rfkill list all reads: 0: phy0: Wireless LAN Soft blocked: no Hard blocked: yes 1: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN Soft blocked: no Hard blocked: yes Any combination with rfkill <un>block wifi doesn't work, although one time first blocking then unblocking actually turned it on again. sudo lshw -C network reads: *-network DISABLED description: Wireless interface product: AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) vendor: Qualcomm Atheros physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0 logical name: wlan0 version: 01 serial: 78:e4:00:65:2e:3f width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ath9k driverversion=3.11.0-12-generic firmware=N/A latency=0 link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn resources: irq:17 memory:90100000-9010ffff *-network DISABLED description: Ethernet interface product: RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0 logical name: eth0 version: 02 serial: c8:0a:a9:89:b4:30 size: 10Mbit/s capacity: 100Mbit/s width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix vpd bus_master cap_list rom ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8169 driverversion=2.3LK-NAPI duplex=half latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=MII speed=10Mbit/s resources: irq:42 ioport:2000(size=256) memory:90010000-90010fff memory:90000000-9000ffff memory:90020000-9002ffff Also, adding a /etc/pm/sleep.d/brcm.sh file as recommended here simply prevents the laptop from suspending at all, which of course is no good. This question has an answer urging to install the original driver, but it wasn't an "accepted answer" so I'd rather not take a chance on it. Also I'll admit I'm a bit lost on that and would like help doing so with the specific information I've given. I would be happy to provide more information, so long as you're willing to help me find it for you! This is a very annoying bug. I have a Compaq Presario CQ62. Edit. Output of lspci | grep Network: 02:00.0 Network controller: Qualcomm Atheros AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01) Edit. This morning, I had had the laptop suspended all night, and then when I tried to awake it, it simply wouldn't. It would try, and then it would sleep again (I guess it felt a little bit like me! </badjoke>). Is it possible these problems are related? Edit. I don't have enough reputation on SU proper to post links to pastebins and other questions I've tried, so I'm putting them in comments, and of course they're available in the original question.

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Postfix issues sending mail to addresses under domain located on server

- by iamthewit

I recently installed virtualmin on my nice shiny new rackspace cloud. Everything went seemlessly but I've been having some issues getting emails to send properly. The problem seems to be that the server can not send mail to email addresses where the domain is owned by my server. For example, on my server I run multiple virtual domains, lets call this one test.com. When I run the mail command from shell (mail [email protected]) I get the following back from my maillog: Oct 6 14:55:18 test postfix/pickup[8737]: DC1131612CC: uid=0 from= Oct 6 14:55:18 test postfix/cleanup[8769]: DC1131612CC: [email protected] Oct 6 14:55:18 test postfix/qmgr[8738]: DC1131612CC: [email protected], size=353, nrcpt=1 (queue active) Oct 6 14:55:18 test postfix/error[8771]: DC1131612CC: to=me@example.co.uk, relay=none, delay=0, delays=0/0/0/0, dsn=5.0.0, status=bounced (User unknown in virtual alias table) Oct 6 14:55:18 test postfix/cleanup[8769]: DD07D1612D1: [email protected] Oct 6 14:55:18 test postfix/bounce[8772]: DC1131612CC: sender non-delivery notification: DD07D1612D1 Oct 6 14:55:18 test postfix/qmgr[8738]: DD07D1612D1: from=<, size=2268, nrcpt=1 (queue active) Oct 6 14:55:18 test postfix/qmgr[8738]: DC1131612CC: removed Oct 6 14:55:18 test postfix/local[8773]: DD07D1612D1: [email protected], relay=local, delay=0.03, delays=0/0/0/0.03, dsn=2.0.0, status=sent (delivered to command: /usr/bin/procmail-wrapper -o -a $DOMAIN -d $LOGNAME) Oct 6 14:55:18 test postfix/qmgr[8738]: DD07D1612D1: removed when I run mail [email protected] the message is sent and received perfectly fine. I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to servers, but I pick things up fairly quickly, so please excuse any incorrect terminology and my general noobiness. Any help would be greatly appreciated, I've been googling for quite a while but I haven't found a solution yet, I'll add a copy of my main.cf file in a response below cheers guys here is the reformatted postconf, do you want the reformatted main.cf file too, or is this enough? alias_database = hash:/etc/postfix/aliases alias_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/aliases broken_sasl_auth_clients = yes command_directory = /usr/sbin config_directory = /etc/postfix daemon_directory = /usr/libexec/postfix debug_peer_level = 2 home_mailbox = Maildir/ html_directory = no mailbox_command = /usr/bin/procmail-wrapper -o -a $DOMAIN -d $LOGNAME mailq_path = /usr/bin/mailq.postfix manpage_directory = /usr/share/man myhostname = server.test.com newaliases_path = /usr/bin/newaliases.postfix readme_directory = /usr/share/doc/postfix-2.3.3/README_FILES sample_directory = /usr/share/doc/postfix-2.3.3/samples sender_bcc_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/bcc sendmail_path = /usr/sbin/sendmail.postfix setgid_group = postdrop smtpd_recipient_restrictions = permit_mynetworks permit_sasl_authenticated reject_unauth_destination smtpd_sasl_auth_enable = yes smtpd_sasl_security_options = noanonymous unknown_local_recipient_reject_code = 550 virtual_alias_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/virtual

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Slow WLAN file transfer between server and tablet

- by user266985

My file server is running Ubuntu 12.04 and I'm sharing files from it over samba. It is connected via gigabit ethernet. My desktop, running Windows 8.1, is also connected via gigabit ethernet. I can transfer files between the two and completely saturate that gigabit pipe. However, I just got a Surface Pro 2, and I'm trying to stream HD movies from my server to the device over WiFi. For some reason, I can't break much past 1.5MB/s transferring files over the network. I've tried streaming through XBMC and a standard file copy; no difference. To add the confusion, if I connect to my guest network and then use my VPN server (installed on the router) to access the file server, I get around 3.2MB/s. I've been running diagnostics to determine the root and I think I've found it but I have no idea what is causing it or how to fix it. Router: Asus RT-N66U Surface Pro 2 Network Card: Marvell Avastar 350N (Driver 19/09/2013 v14.69.24044.150) InSSIDer: Link Score: 100 Co-Channels: 0 Overlapping: 0 5GHz Network Channel: 48+44 iperf File Server as Server; Surface Pro 2 as Client - TCP Performance: Acceptable ------------------------------------------------------------ Server listening on TCP port 5001 TCP window size: 85.3 KByte (default) ------------------------------------------------------------ [ 4] local 192.168.0.90 port 5001 connected with 192.168.0.56 port 57367 [ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth [ 4] 0.0- 1.0 sec 10.1 MBytes 84.7 Mbits/sec [ 4] 1.0- 2.0 sec 10.4 MBytes 87.6 Mbits/sec [ 4] 2.0- 3.0 sec 10.6 MBytes 88.8 Mbits/sec [ 4] 3.0- 4.0 sec 10.7 MBytes 89.5 Mbits/sec [ 4] 4.0- 5.0 sec 10.1 MBytes 84.4 Mbits/sec [ 4] 5.0- 6.0 sec 10.2 MBytes 85.8 Mbits/sec [ 4] 6.0- 7.0 sec 7.04 MBytes 59.1 Mbits/sec [ 4] 7.0- 8.0 sec 10.8 MBytes 90.2 Mbits/sec [ 4] 8.0- 9.0 sec 10.6 MBytes 89.1 Mbits/sec [ 4] 9.0-10.0 sec 8.62 MBytes 72.3 Mbits/sec [ 4] 0.0-10.0 sec 99.2 MBytes 83.1 Mbits/sec iperf Surface Pro 2 as Server, File Server as Client Performance: Poor ------------------------------------------------------------ Client connecting to 192.168.0.56, TCP port 5001 TCP window size: 22.9 KByte (default) ------------------------------------------------------------ [ 3] local 192.168.0.90 port 40233 connected with 192.168.0.56 port 5001 [ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth [ 3] 0.0- 1.0 sec 1.50 MBytes 12.6 Mbits/sec [ 3] 1.0- 2.0 sec 1.50 MBytes 12.6 Mbits/sec [ 3] 2.0- 3.0 sec 1.50 MBytes 12.6 Mbits/sec [ 3] 3.0- 4.0 sec 1.25 MBytes 10.5 Mbits/sec [ 3] 4.0- 5.0 sec 1.62 MBytes 13.6 Mbits/sec [ 3] 5.0- 6.0 sec 1.50 MBytes 12.6 Mbits/sec [ 3] 6.0- 7.0 sec 1.38 MBytes 11.5 Mbits/sec [ 3] 7.0- 8.0 sec 1.50 MBytes 12.6 Mbits/sec [ 3] 8.0- 9.0 sec 1.50 MBytes 12.6 Mbits/sec [ 3] 9.0-10.0 sec 1.62 MBytes 13.6 Mbits/sec [ 3] 0.0-10.1 sec 15.0 MBytes 12.4 Mbits/sec For some reason, it gets capped and I haven't got a clue why. Any suggestions? Edit: My link speed is reported as 270Mbps by Windows. I'm less than two metres from the router with a clear line of sight.

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How to unmangle PDF format into a usable text or spreadsheet document?

- by Chuck

Upon requesting some daily/hourly sales data from a coworker who is responsible for such requests, I was given a series of PDF files. The point of sale program that is used, for some reason, answers requests for this type of information in the form of PDF files. The issue: The PDF files look to be in a format that should easily be copy and pasted into a spreadsheet. There are three columns that look to be neatly organized across two pages. When copy/pasting the first page, all three columns from the PDF's first page are dumped into a single column consisting of the Date followed by the Hours for the transactions on that day. The end of this Date/Time information is followed by all of the Total Sales values that should be attached a Date and Time of the transaction. (NOTE: There are no duplicated Dates in the Date column, ie, Multiple transactions for a day only have one yyyy/mm/dd listed for the first row but not the following rows.) While it was a huge pain, it was possible to, in about four or five steps, get the single column of data broken out into three columns that matched the PDF. The second page of the PDF file, when attempting to copy/paste into a spreadsheet, creates a single column with the first third of the cells being the Dates from the PDF, the second third of the cells being the Hours of the transactions and the final third of the cells being filled with the Total Sales. After the copy/paste there is no way to figure out which Hours belong to which Dates or Total Sales due to the lack of the duplicated Dates in the Date column as mentioned above. My PDF-fu is next to non-existent. I've just now started to work with PDF editors and some www.convertmyPDFforfree.com websites, so far, with absolutely nothing remotely coming anywhere near usable output. (Both methods have so far done nothing but product blank documents.) Before I go back and pester my co-worker into figuring out a way to create a report in some other format than PDF, is there any method by which to take the data that looks to be formatted correctly in a PDF and copy/paste it into a spreadsheet that will look the same? I appreciate any help that can be made available. The sales data isn't so sensitive that I couldn't part with a bit to let somebody actually see what it is that needs to be dealt with, just let me know. The PDF's are less than 100kb each so sending them shouldn't be a burden to any interested party.

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What else can I do to secure my Linux server?

- by eric01

I want to put a web application on my Linux server: I will first explain to you what the web app will do and then I will tell you what I did so far to secure my brand new Linux system. The app will be a classified ads website (like gumtree.co.uk) where users can sell their items, upload images, send to and receive emails from the admin. It will use SSL for some pages. I will need SSH. So far, what I did to secure my stock Ubuntu (latest version) is the following: NOTE: I probably did some things that will prevent the application from doing all its tasks, so please let me know of that. My machine's sole purpose will be hosting the website. (I put numbers as bullet points so you can refer to them more easily) 1) Firewall I installed Uncomplicated Firewall. Deny IN & OUT by default Rules: Allow IN & OUT: HTTP, IMAP, POP3, SMTP, SSH, UDP port 53 (DNS), UDP port 123 (SNTP), SSL, port 443 (the ones I didn't allow were FTP, NFS, Samba, VNC, CUPS) When I install MySQL & Apache, I will open up Port 3306 IN & OUT. 2) Secure the partition in /etc/fstab, I added the following line at the end: tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults,rw 0 0 Then in console: mount -o remount /dev/shm 3) Secure the kernel In the file /etc/sysctl.conf, there are a few different filters to uncomment. I didn't know which one was relevant to web app hosting. Which one should I activate? They are the following: A) Turn on Source Address Verification in all interfaces to prevent spoofing attacks B) Uncomment the next line to enable packet forwarding for IPv4 C) Uncomment the next line to enable packet forwarding for IPv6 D) Do no accept ICMP redirects (we are not a router) E) Accept ICMP redirects only for gateways listed in our default gateway list F) Do not send ICMP redirects G) Do not accept IP source route packets (we are not a router) H) Log Martian Packets 4) Configure the passwd file Replace "sh" by "false" for all accounts except user account and root. I also did it for the account called sshd. I am not sure whether it will prevent SSH connection (which I want to use) or if it's something else. 5) Configure the shadow file In the console: passwd -l to lock all accounts except user account. 6) Install rkhunter and chkrootkit 7) Install Bum Disabled those services: "High performance mail server", "unreadable (kerneloops)","unreadable (speech-dispatcher)","Restores DNS" (should this one stay on?) 8) Install Apparmor_profiles 9) Install clamav & freshclam (antivirus and update) What did I do wrong and what should I do more to secure this Linux machine? Thanks a lot in advance

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extracting multiple tags from xml using PHP

- by user1479431

Here is my address.xml <?xml version="1.0" ?>  <AddressBook> <Addressentry> <firstName>jack</firstName> <lastName>S</lastName> <Address>2899,Ray Road</Address> <Email>[email protected]</Email> </Addressentry> <Addressentry> <firstName>Sid</firstName> <lastName>K</lastName> <Address>238,Baseline Road,TX</Address> <Email>[email protected]</Email> <Email>[email protected]</Email> </Addressentry> <Addressentry> <firstName>Satya</firstName> <lastName>Yar</lastName> <Address>6,Rural Road,Tempe,AZ</Address> <Email>[email protected]</Email> <Email>[email protected]</Email> <Email>[email protected]</Email> </Addressentry> </AddressBook> I am trying to load all the entries using PHP code as below. Each addressentry can have one or more tags. Right now from the code below I am able to extract only one tag. My question is how do I extract all tags associated with particular Addressentry. that is I want to print all emails on the same line. <?php $theData = simplexml_load_File("address.xml"); foreach($theData->Addressentry as $theAddress) { $theFirstName = $theAddress->firstName; $theLastName = $theAddress->lastName; $theAdd = $theAddress->Address; echo "<p>".$theFirstName." ".$theLastName."<br/> ".$theAdd."<br/> ".$theAddress->Email."<br/> </p>"; unset($theFirstName); unset($theLastName); unset($theAdd); unset($theEmail); } ?> Any help would be appreciated

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show tweets inside div from an asynchronous loop

- by ak_47

Am trying to laod tweets into a div after looping them from yahoo placemaker. They are loading on the div but the information shown by them is placemaker's last result. This is the code.. function getLocation(user, date, profile_img, text,url) { var templates = []; templates[0] = '<div><div></div><h2 class="firstHeading">'+user+'</h2><div>'+text+'</div><div><p><a href="' + url + '"target="_blank">'+url+'</a></p></div><p>Date Posted- '+date+'</p></div>'; templates[1] = '<table width="320" border="0"><tr><td class="user" colspan="2" rowspan="1">'+user+'</td></tr><tr><td width="45"><a href="'+profile_img+'"><img src="'+profile_img+'" width="55" height="50"/></a></td><td width="186">'+text+'<p><a href="' + url + '"target="_blank">'+url+'</a></p></td></tr></table><hr>'; templates[2] = '<div><div></div><h2 class="firstHeading">'+user+'</h2><div>'+text+'</div><div><p><a href="' + url + '"target="_blank">'+url+'</a></p></div><p>Date Posted- '+date+'</p></div>'; templates[3] = '<table width="320" border="0"><tr><td class="user" colspan="2" rowspan="1">'+user+'</td></tr><tr><td width="45"><a href="'+profile_img+'"><img src="'+profile_img+'" width="55" height="50"/></a></td><td width="186">'+text+'<p><a href="' + url + '"target="_blank">'+url+'</a></p></td></tr></table><hr>'; var geocoder = new google.maps.Geocoder(); Placemaker.getPlaces(text, function (o) { console.log(o); if (!$.isArray(o.match)) { var latitude = o.match.place.centroid.latitude; var longitude = o.match.place.centroid.longitude; var myLatLng = new google.maps.LatLng(latitude, longitude); var marker = new google.maps.Marker({ icon: profile_img, title: user, map: map, position: myLatLng }); var infowindow = new google.maps.InfoWindow({ content: templates[0].replace('user',user).replace('text',text).replace('url',url).replace('date',date) }); var $tweet = $(templates[1].replace('%user',user).replace(/%profile_img/g,profile_img).replace('%text',text).replace('%url',url)); $('#user-banner').css("visibility","visible");$('#news-banner').css("visibility","visible"); $('#news-tweets').css("overflow","scroll").append($tweet); function openInfoWindow() { infowindow.open(map, marker); } google.maps.event.addListener(marker, 'click', openInfoWindow); $tweet.find(".user").on('click', openInfoWindow); bounds.extend(myLatLng); } }); }

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What server setup for a small web development company? [closed]

- by Giordano

I co-own a company with a friend of mine and we have decided to buy a new server to support our business (our current server is an Asus EEE Box, working great but too limited :) ). I should mention that we are web developers but occasionally we do small-office sys admin. Thus, 99% of time we work on GNU/Linux (mainly Ubuntu) but from time to time we need to setup a Windows environment to assist some customers (e.g. setup a temporary SQL Server 2008). Our requirements: Low budget: we don't want the cheapest solution out there but we can't afford to spend too much. Budget could be ~1000-1500€ (before VAT) Robustness: we would like to setup a RAID array and maybe have an external disk where we can store backups Virtualization: we need to be able to setup few servers for development. The scenario is something like this (~8 appliances running in parallel): Redmine + GIT server Bacula server FTP server 3-4 virtual appliances that could be set up on demand to test our applications or support a customer. The appliances could be: LAMP, Tomcat+PostgreSQL, SQL Server Support: if something breaks down it shouldn't be too difficult to find a replacement. Now, given the main requirements, there are some doubts we need to clarify: Do you suggest to buy a prepackaged solution (for example a customized Dell PowerEdge T110 or T310) or to assemble the server by ourselves (buy the separate components)? What RAID configuration do you suggest? I was thinking of RAID1 (probably cheaper) or RAID5. should we buy a hardware RAID controller or is it ok to use a software RAID (mdadm)? In case, which controller do you suggest? What processor do you suggest (Intel Xeon, i3, i5, i7, AMD)? How much RAM? (I was thinking at least 8GB, ~1GB per appliance) What virtualization software do you recommend? VMWare seems to be the best choice, but what about XEN or KVM? We don't want to buy licenses at the moment so we would like to consider only free options. What OS do you recommend? We know Ubuntu, Debian, Gentoo very well (we would like to use Ubuntu Server), however it seems a lot of people goes for CentOS. Thanks in advance if you can help us with this! It's our first "serious" server so many doubts popped up :) Please feel free to add further recommendations if you have some to share ;) Have a nice day

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PHP form auto response

- by Mark

Hi, I am using the following php code which has been given to me, it works fine, apart from the auto response bit. I know its not a lot of code I just dont know how to do it or why it snot working. Any help would be appreciated. thanks in advance. <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> <title> - Contact Us</title>  <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/reset.css" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/styles.css" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/colorbox.css" />  <?php require_once('includes/js.php'); ?> </head> <body> <?php //FIll out the settings below before using this script $your_email = "(email address)"; $website = "(website name)"; //BOTS TO BLOCK $bots = "/(Indy|Blaiz|Java|libwww-perl|Python|OutfoxBot|User-Agent|PycURL|AlphaServer|T8Abot|Syntryx|WinHttp|WebBandit|nicebot)/i"; //Check if known bot is visiting if (preg_match($bots, $_SERVER["HTTP_USER_AGENT"])) { exit ("Sorry bots are not allowed here!"); } //Known Exploits $exploits = "/(content-type|bcc:|cc:|from:|reply-to:|javascript|onclick|onload)/i"; //Spam words $spam_words = "/(viagra|poker|blackjack|porn|sex)/i"; // BAD WORDS $words = "/( bitch|dick|pussy|pussies|ass|fuck|cum|cumshot|cum shot| gangbang|gang bang|god dammit|goddammit|viagra|anus|analsex )/i"; //BAD WORD/SPAM WORD/EXPLOIT BLOCKER function wordBlock($word) { //Make variables global global $words; global $exploits; global $spam_words; if (preg_match($words, $word)) { $word = preg_replace($words, "#####", $word); } if(preg_match($exploits,$word)){ $word = preg_replace($exploits,"",$word); } if(preg_match($spam_words,$word)){ $word = preg_replace($spam_words,"$$$$",$word); } return $word; } //CLean data function function dataClean($data) { $data = stripslashes(trim(rawurldecode(strip_tags($data)))); return $data; } //CREATE MAIN VARIABLES $name = (isset ($_POST['name'])) ? dataClean($_POST['name']) : FALSE; $company = (isset ($_POST['company'])) ? dataClean($_POST['company']) : FALSE; $address = (isset ($_POST['address'])) ? dataClean($_POST['address']) : FALSE; $postcode = (isset ($_POST['postcode'])) ? dataClean($_POST['postcode']) : FALSE; $phone = (isset ($_POST['phone'])) ? dataClean($_POST['phone']) : FALSE; $email = (isset ($_POST['email'])) ? dataClean($_POST['email']) : FALSE; $comment = (isset ($_POST['message'])) ? wordBlock(dataClean($_POST['message'])) : FALSE; $submit = (isset ($_POST['send'])) ? TRUE : FALSE; $email_check = "/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,6}$/i"; //$ip = $_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"]; $errors = array(); //Check if send button was clicked if ($submit) { if (!$name) { $errors[] = "Please enter a name!"; } if ($name) { if (!ereg("^[A-Za-z' -]*$", $name)) { $errors[] = "You may not use special characters in the name field!"; } } if (!$email) { $errors[] = "Please enter an email address!"; } if ($email) { if (!preg_match($email_check, $email)) { $errors[] = "The E-mail you entered is invalid!"; } } /* if (!$subject) { $errors[] = "Please enter an email subject!"; } */ if (!$comment) { $errors[] = "Please don't leave the message field blank!"; } //Check if any errors are present if (count($errors) > 0) { foreach ($errors AS $error) { print "• $error <br />"; } } else { //MESSAGE TO SEND TO ADMIN //Create main headers $headers = "From: " . $website . " <$your_email> \n"; $headers .= "Reply-to:" . $email . " \n"; $headers .= "MIME-Version: 1.0\n"; $headers .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit\n"; $headers .= "Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8\n"; $message = ""; $message .= "<h1>New E-Mail From " . $website . "</h1><br /><br />"; $message .= "<b>Name:</b> " . $name . "<br />"; $message .= "<b>Company:</b> " . $company . "<br />"; $message .= "<b>Address:</b> " . $address . "<br />"; $message .= "<b>Postcode:</b > " . $postcode . "<br />"; $message .= "<b>Phone No:</b> " . $phone . "<br />"; $message .= "<b>E-mail:</b> " . $email . "<br />"; $message .= "<b>Message:</b> " . $comment . "<br />"; //E-mails subject $mail_subject = "Message from " . $website . ""; /* CHECK TO BE SURE FIRST E-MAIL TO ADMIN IS A SUCCESS AND SEND EMAIL TO ADMIN OTHERWISE DON'T SEND AUTO RESPONCE */ if (mail($your_email, $mail_subject, $message, $headers)) { //UNSET ALL VARIABLES unset ($name, $email, $company, $address, $postcode, $phone, $comment, $_REQUEST); //JAVASCRIPT SUCCESS MESSAGE echo " <script type='text/javascript' language='JavaScript'> alert('Your message has been sent'); </script> "; //SUCCESS MESSAGE TO SHOW IF JAVASCRIPT IS DISABLED echo "<noscript><p>THANK YOU YOUR MESSAGE HAS BEEN SENT</p></noscript>"; /* -----------------END MAIL BLOCK FOR SENDING TO ADMIN AND START AUTO RESPONCE SEND----------------- */ //AUTO RESPONCE MESSAGE //Create main headers $headers = "From: " . $website . " <$your_email> \n"; $headers .= "Reply-to:" . $your_email . " \n"; $headers .= "MIME-Version: 1.0\n"; $headers .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit\n"; $headers .= "Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8\n"; $message = ""; $message .= "<h1>Thank You For Contacting Us </h1><br /><br />"; $message .= "On behalf of <b>" . $website . "</b> we wanna thank you for contacting us and to let you know we will respond to your message as soon as possible thank you again."; //E-mails subject $mail_subject = "Thank you for contacting " . $website . ""; //Send the email mail($email, $mail_subject, $message, $headers); /* -----------------END MAIL BLOCK FOR SENDING AUTO RESPONCE ----------------- */ } else { echo " <script type='text/javascript' language='JavaScript'> alert('Sorry could not send your message'); </script> "; echo "<noscript><p style='color:red;'>SORRY COULD NOT SEND YOUR MESSAGE</p></noscript>"; } } } ?> <div id="wrapper"> <div id="grad_overlay">  <div id="header"> <a href="index.php" title="Regal Balustrades"><img src="images/regal_logo.png" alt="Regal Balustrades" /></a> <div id="strapline"> <img src="images/strapline.png" alt="Architectural metalwork systems" /> </div> </div>  <div id="nav"> <?php require_once('includes/nav.php'); ?> </div>  <div id="content"> <div id="details"> <p class="getintouch env">Get In Touch</p> <ul class="details"> <li>T. (0117) 935 3888</li> <li>F. (0117) 967 7333</li> <li>E. <a href="mailto:sales@regalbalustrades.co.uk" title="Contact via email">sales@regalbalustrades.co.uk</a></li> </ul> <p class="whereto hse">Where To Find Us</p> <ul class="details"> <li>Regal Balustrades</li> <li>Regal House, </li> <li>Honey Hill Road,</li> <li>Kingswood, </li> <li>Bristol BS15 4HG</li> </ul> </div> <div id="contact"> <h1>Contact us</h1> <p>Please use this form to request further information about Regal Balustrades and our services. To speak to a member of our staff in person, please call us on 0117 9353888</p> <div id="form"> <form method='POST' action='<?php echo "".$_SERVER['PHP_SELF'].""; ?>'> <p class='form-element'> <label for='name'>Name:</label> <input type='text' name='name' value='<?php echo "" . $_REQUEST['name'] . "";?>' /> </p> <p class='form-element'> <label for='company'>Company:</label> <input type='text' name='company' value='<?php echo "" . $_REQUEST['company'] . "";?>' /> </p> <p class='form-element'> <label for='address'>Address:</label> <textarea name='address' rows='5' id='address' class='address' ><?php echo "" . $_REQUEST['address'] . "";?></textarea> </p> <p class='form-element'> <label for='postcode'>Postcode:</label> <input type='text' name='postcode' value='<?php echo "" . $_REQUEST['postcode'] . "";?>' /> </p> <p class='form-element'> <label for='phone'>Telephone:</label> <input type='text' name='phone' value='<?php echo "" . $_REQUEST['phone'] . "";?>' /> </p> <p class='form-element'> <label for='email'>Email:</label> <input type='text' name='email' value='<?php echo "" . $_REQUEST['email'] . "";?>' /> </p> </div> <div id='form-right'> <p class='form-element'> <label for='message'>Enquiry:</label> <textarea name='message' class='enquiry' id='enquiry' rows='5' cols='40' ><?php echo "" . $_REQUEST['message'] . "";?></textarea> </p> <p class='form-element'> <input type='submit' class='submit' name='send' value='Send message' /> </p> </div> <p class='nb'><em>We will respond as soon as possible.</em></p> </form> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div>  <div id="footer-container"> <?php require_once('includes/footer.php'); ?> </div>  <script> $(document).ready(function() { $("ul#navig li:nth-child(6)").addClass("navon"); }); </script> </body> </html>

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Referencing movie clips from within an actionscript class

- by Ant

Hi all, I have been given the task of adding a scoring system to various flash games. This simply involves taking input, adding functionality such as pausing and replaying and then outputting the score, time left etc. at the end. I've so far successfully edited two games. Both these games used the "actions" code on frames. The latest game I'm trying to do uses an actionscript class which makes it both easier and harder. I'm not very adept at flash at all, but I've worked it out so far. I've added various movie clips that are to be used for displaying the pause screen background, buttons for replaying etc. I've been showing and hiding these using: back._visible = true; //movie clip, instance of back (back.png) I doubt it's best practice, but it's quick and has been working. However, now with the change of coding style to classes, this doesn't seem to work. I kinda understand why, but I'm now unsure how to hide/show these elements. Any help would be greatly appreciated :) I've attached the modified AS. class RivalOrbs extends MovieClip { var infinite_levels, orbs_start, orbs_inc, orbs_per_level, show_timer, _parent, one_time_per_level, speed_start, speed_inc_percent, max_speed, percent_starting_on_wrong_side, colorize, colors, secs_per_level; function RivalOrbs() { super(); mc = this; this.init(); } // End of the function function get_num_orbs() { if (infinite_levels) { return (orbs_start + (level - 1) * orbs_inc); } else if (level > orbs_per_level.length) { return (0); } else { return (orbs_per_level[level - 1]); } // end else if } // End of the function function get_timer_str(secs) { var _loc2 = Math.floor(secs / 60); var _loc1 = secs % 60; return ((_loc2 > 0 ? (_loc2) : ("0")) + ":" + (_loc1 >= 10 ? (_loc1) : ("0" + _loc1))); } // End of the function function frame() { //PLACE PAUSE CODE HERE if (!Key.isDown(80) and !Key.isDown(Key.ESCAPE)) { _root.offKey = true; } else if (Key.isDown(80) or Key.isDown(Key.ESCAPE)) { if (_root.offKey and _root.game_mode == "play") { _root.game_mode = "pause"; /* back._visible = true; btn_resume._visible = true; btn_exit._visible = true; txt_pause._visible = true; */ } else if (_root.offKey and _root.game_mode == "pause") { _root.game_mode = "play"; } _root.offKey = false; } if (_root.game_mode == "pause" or paused) { return; } else { /* back._visible = false; btn_resume._visible = false; btn_exit._visible = false; txt_pause._visible = false; */ } if (show_timer && total_secs != -1 || show_timer && _parent.timesup) { _loc7 = total_secs - Math.ceil((getTimer() - timer) / 1000); var diff = oldSeconds - (_loc7 + additional); if (diff > 1) additional = additional + diff; _loc7 = _loc7 + additional; oldSeconds = _loc7; trace(oldSeconds); mc.timer_field.text = this.get_timer_str(Math.max(0, _loc7)); if (_loc7 <= -1 || _parent.timesup) { if (one_time_per_level) { _root.gotoAndPlay("Lose"); } else { this.show_dialog(false); return; } // end if } // end if } // end else if var _loc9 = _root._xmouse; var _loc8 = _root._ymouse; var _loc6 = {x: _loc9, y: _loc8}; mc.globalToLocal(_loc6); _loc6.y = Math.max(-mc.bg._height / 2 + gap / 2, _loc6.y); _loc6.y = Math.min(mc.bg._height / 2 - gap / 2, _loc6.y); mc.wall1._y = _loc6.y - gap / 2 - mc.wall1._height / 2; mc.wall2._y = _loc6.y + gap / 2 + mc.wall1._height / 2; var _loc5 = true; for (var _loc4 = 0; _loc4 < this.get_num_orbs(); ++_loc4) { var _loc3 = mc.stage["orb" + _loc4]; _loc3.x_last = _loc3._x; _loc3.y_last = _loc3._y; _loc3._x = _loc3._x + _loc3.x_speed; _loc3._y = _loc3._y + _loc3.y_speed; if (_loc3._x < l_thresh) { _loc3.x_speed = _loc3.x_speed * -1; _loc3._x = l_thresh + (l_thresh - _loc3._x); _loc3.gotoAndPlay("hit"); } // end if if (_loc3._x > r_thresh) { _loc3.x_speed = _loc3.x_speed * -1; _loc3._x = r_thresh - (_loc3._x - r_thresh); _loc3.gotoAndPlay("hit"); } // end if if (_loc3._y < t_thresh) { _loc3.y_speed = _loc3.y_speed * -1; _loc3._y = t_thresh + (t_thresh - _loc3._y); _loc3.gotoAndPlay("hit"); } // end if if (_loc3._y > b_thresh) { _loc3.y_speed = _loc3.y_speed * -1; _loc3._y = b_thresh - (_loc3._y - b_thresh); _loc3.gotoAndPlay("hit"); } // end if if (_loc3.x_speed > 0) { if (_loc3._x >= m1_thresh && _loc3.x_last < m1_thresh || _loc3._x >= m1_thresh && _loc3._x <= m2_thresh) { if (_loc3._y <= mc.wall1._y + mc.wall1._height / 2 || _loc3._y >= mc.wall2._y - mc.wall2._height / 2) { _loc3.x_speed = _loc3.x_speed * -1; _loc3._x = m1_thresh - (_loc3._x - m1_thresh); _loc3.gotoAndPlay("hit"); } // end if } // end if } else if (_loc3._x <= m2_thresh && _loc3.x_last > m2_thresh || _loc3._x >= m1_thresh && _loc3._x <= m2_thresh) { if (_loc3._y <= mc.wall1._y + mc.wall1._height / 2 || _loc3._y >= mc.wall2._y - mc.wall2._height / 2) { _loc3.x_speed = _loc3.x_speed * -1; _loc3._x = m2_thresh + (m2_thresh - _loc3._x); _loc3.gotoAndPlay("hit"); } // end if } // end else if if (_loc3.side == 1 && _loc3._x > 0) { _loc5 = false; } // end if if (_loc3.side == 2 && _loc3._x < 0) { _loc5 = false; } // end if } // end of for if (_loc5) { this.end_level(); } // end if } // End of the function function colorize_hex(mc, hex) { var _loc4 = hex >> 16; var _loc5 = (hex ^ hex >> 16 << 16) >> 8; var _loc3 = hex >> 8 << 8 ^ hex; var _loc2 = new flash.geom.ColorTransform(0, 0, 0, 1, _loc4, _loc5, _loc3, 0); mc.transform.colorTransform = _loc2; } // End of the function function tint_hex(mc, hex, amount) { var _loc4 = hex >> 16; var _loc5 = hex >> 8 & 255; var _loc3 = hex & 255; this.tint(mc, _loc4, _loc5, _loc3, amount); } // End of the function function tint(mc, r, g, b, amount) { var _loc4 = 100 - amount; var _loc1 = new Object(); _loc1.ra = _loc1.ga = _loc1.ba = _loc4; var _loc2 = amount / 100; _loc1.rb = r * _loc2; _loc1.gb = g * _loc2; _loc1.bb = b * _loc2; var _loc3 = new Color(mc); _loc3.setTransform(_loc1); } // End of the function function get_num_levels() { if (infinite_levels) { return (Number.MAX_VALUE); } else { return (orbs_per_level.length); } // end else if } // End of the function function end_level() { _global.inputTimeAvailable = _global.inputTimeAvailable - (60 - oldSeconds); ++level; _parent.levelOver = true; if (level <= this.get_num_levels()) { this.show_dialog(true); } else { _root.gotoAndPlay("Win"); } // end else if } // End of the function function get_speed() { var _loc3 = speed_start; for (var _loc2 = 0; _loc2 < level - 1; ++_loc2) { _loc3 = _loc3 + _loc3 * (speed_inc_percent / 100); } // end of for return (Math.min(_loc3, Math.max(max_speed, speed_start))); } // End of the function function init_orbs() { var _loc6 = this.get_speed(); var _loc7 = Math.max(1, Math.ceil(this.get_num_orbs() * (percent_starting_on_wrong_side / 100))); for (var _loc3 = 0; _loc3 < this.get_num_orbs(); ++_loc3) { var _loc2 = null; if (_loc3 % 2 == 0) { _loc2 = mc.stage.attachMovie("Orb1", "orb" + _loc3, _loc3); _loc2.side = 1; if (colorize && color1 != -1) { this.colorize_hex(_loc2.orb.bg, color1); } // end if _loc2._x = Math.random() * (mc.bg._width * 4.000000E-001) - mc.bg._width * 2.000000E-001 - mc.bg._width / 4; } else { _loc2 = mc.stage.attachMovie("Orb2", "orb" + _loc3, _loc3); _loc2.side = 2; if (colorize && color2 != -1) { this.colorize_hex(_loc2.orb.bg, color2); } // end if _loc2._x = Math.random() * (mc.bg._width * 4.000000E-001) - mc.bg._width * 2.000000E-001 + mc.bg._width / 4; } // end else if _loc2._width = _loc2._height = orb_w; _loc2._y = Math.random() * (mc.bg._height * 8.000000E-001) - mc.bg._height * 4.000000E-001; if (_loc3 < _loc7) { _loc2._x = _loc2._x * -1; } // end if var _loc5 = Math.random() * 60; var _loc4 = _loc5 / 180 * 3.141593E+000; _loc2.x_speed = Math.cos(_loc4) * _loc6; _loc2.y_speed = Math.sin(_loc4) * _loc6; if (Math.random() >= 5.000000E-001) { _loc2.x_speed = _loc2.x_speed * -1; } // end if if (Math.random() >= 5.000000E-001) { _loc2.y_speed = _loc2.y_speed * -1; } // end if } // end of for } // End of the function function init_colors() { if (colorize && colors.length >= 2) { color1 = colors[Math.floor(Math.random() * colors.length)]; for (color2 = colors[Math.floor(Math.random() * colors.length)]; color2 == color1; color2 = colors[Math.floor(Math.random() * colors.length)]) { } // end of for this.tint_hex(mc.side1, color1, 40); this.tint_hex(mc.side2, color2, 40); } else { color1 = -1; color2 = -1; } // end else if } // End of the function function get_total_secs() { if (show_timer) { if (secs_per_level.length > 0) { if (level > secs_per_level.length) { return (secs_per_level[secs_per_level.length - 1]); } else { return (secs_per_level[level - 1]); } // end if } // end if } // end else if return (-1); } // End of the function function start_level() { trace ("start_level"); _parent.timesup = false; _parent.levelOver = false; _parent.times_up_comp.start_timer(); this.init_orbs(); mc.level_field.text = "LEVEL " + level; total_secs = _global.inputTimeAvailable; if (total_secs > 60) total_secs = 60; timer = getTimer(); paused = false; mc.dialog.gotoAndPlay("off"); } // End of the function function clear_orbs() { for (var _loc2 = 0; mc.stage["orb" + _loc2]; ++_loc2) { mc.stage["orb" + _loc2].removeMovieClip(); } // end of for } // End of the function function show_dialog(new_level) { mc.back._visible = false; trace("yes"); paused = true; if (new_level) { this.init_colors(); } // end if this.clear_orbs(); mc.dialog.gotoAndPlay("level"); if (!new_level || _parent.timesup) { mc.dialog.level_top.text = "Time\'s Up!"; /* dyn_line1.text = "Goodbye " + _global.inputName + "!"; dyn_line2.text = "You scored " + score; //buttons if (_global.inputTimeAvailable > 60) btn_replay._visible = true; btn_resume._visible = false; btn_exit._visible = false; txt_pause._visible = false; sendInfo = new LoadVars(); sendLoader = new LoadVars(); sendInfo.game_name = 'rival_orbs'; sendInfo.timeavailable = _global.inputTimeAvailable; if (sendInfo.timeavailable < 0) sendInfo.timeavailable = 0; sendInfo.id = _global.inputId; sendInfo.score = level*_global.inputFactor; sendInfo.directive = 'record'; //sendInfo.sendAndLoad('ncc1701e.aspx', sendLoader, "GET"); sendInfo.sendAndLoad('http://keyload.co.uk/output.php', sendLoader, "POST"); */ } else if (level > 1) { mc.dialog.level_top.text = "Next Level:"; } else { mc.dialog.level_top.text = ""; } // end else if mc.dialog.level_num.text = "LEVEL " + level; mc.dialog.level_mid.text = "Number of Orbs: " + this.get_num_orbs(); _root.max_level = level; var _this = this; mc.dialog.btn.onRelease = function () { _this.start_level(); }; } // End of the function function init() { var getInfo = new LoadVars(); var getLoader = new LoadVars(); getInfo.directive = "read"; getInfo.sendAndLoad('http://keyload.co.uk/input.php', getLoader, "GET"); getLoader.onLoad = function (success) { if (success) { _global.inputId = this.id; _global.inputTimeAvailable = this.timeavailable; _global.inputFactor = this.factor; _global.inputName = this.name; } else { trace("Failed"); } } _root.game_mode = "play"; /* back._visible = false; btn_exit._visible = false; btn_replay._visible = false; btn_resume._visible = false; txt_pause._visible = false; */ l_thresh = -mc.bg._width / 2 + orb_w / 2; t_thresh = -mc.bg._height / 2 + orb_w / 2; r_thresh = mc.bg._width / 2 - orb_w / 2; b_thresh = mc.bg._height / 2 - orb_w / 2; m1_thresh = -wall_w / 2 - orb_w / 2; m2_thresh = wall_w / 2 + orb_w / 2; this.show_dialog(true); mc.onEnterFrame = frame; } // End of the function var mc = null; var orb_w = 15; var wall_w = 2; var l_thresh = 0; var r_thresh = 0; var t_thresh = 0; var b_thresh = 0; var m1_thresh = 0; var m2_thresh = 0; var color1 = -1; var color2 = -1; var level = 1; var total_secs = 30; var gap = 60; var timer = 0; var additional = 0; var oldSeconds = 0; var paused = true; var _loc7 = 0; } // End of Class

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Passing variables to shopping cart with Javascript

- by albatross

This question is an extension of this one: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2359238/calculate-order-price-by-date-selection-value I'm trying to make a conference registration page based off the previous page, which passes the variables(name, email, price) to my organization's outdated shopping cart using javascript. I'm also using Seminar Registration by CSSTricks (http://css-tricks.com/examples/SeminarRegTutorial/) Currently, my proceed to payment button produces an 'element is undefined' error on line 298(same thing on unresolved previous question, linked above^): switch (document.Information.amount.value) { Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm at my wits end with this. Here is the page: <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> <title>Seminar Registration Form with jQuery</title> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/style.css" media="screen" /> <script src="js/jquery-1.2.6.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script> <script src="js/form-fun.jquery.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script>  </head> <body> <div id="page-wrap"> <h1>Conference <span>Registration</span></h1> <form action="#" method="post"> <fieldset id="step_1"> <legend>Step 1</legend> <label for="num_attendees"> How cool are you? </label> <select id="amount"> <option id="0" value="0">Please Choose</option> <option id="prof" value="90.00">Professional</option> <option id="grad" value="55.00">Graduate Student</option> </select> <br /> <div id="attendee_1_wrap" class="name_wrap push"> <h3>Who are you?</h3> <p> <label for="FirstName"> First Name: </label> <input type="text" id="FirstName" class="name_input"></input> </p> <p> <label for="LastName"> Last Name: </label> <input type="text" id="LastName" class="name_input"></input> </p> <p> <label for="OfficialTitle"> Official Title: </label> <input type="text" id="OfficialTitle" class="name_input"></input> </p> <h3>How do we find you?</h3> <label for="email">Email: </label> <input id="email" name="email" class="required email" /> </p> <p> <label for="Address">Street Address: </label><input name="Address" id="Address" type="text" size="20" maxlength="75" /> </p> <p> <label for="City">City: </label><input name="City" id="City" /> </p> <p> <label for="State">State: </label><select name="State" id="State"> <option selected value="IL">IL</option> <option value="AL">AL</option> <option value="AK">AK</option> <option value="AZ">AZ</option> <option value="AR">AR</option> <option value="CA">CA</option> <option value="CO">CO</option> <option value="CT">CT</option> <option value="DE">DE</option> <option value="DC">DC</option> <option value="FL">FL</option> <option value="GA">GA</option> <option value="HI">HI</option> <option value="ID">ID</option> <option value="IN">IN</option> <option value="IA">IA</option> <option value="KS">KS</option> <option value="KY">KY</option> <option value="LA">LA</option> <option value="ME">ME</option> <option value="MD">MD</option> <option value="MA">MA</option> <option value="MI">MI</option> <option value="MN">MN</option> <option value="MS">MS</option> <option value="MO">MO</option> <option value="MT">MT</option> <option value="NE">NE</option> <option value="NV">NV</option> <option value="NH">NH</option> <option value="NJ">NJ</option> <option value="NM">NM</option> <option value="NY">NY</option> <option value="NC">NC</option> <option value="ND">ND</option> <option value="OH">OH</option> <option value="OK">OK</option> <option value="OR">OR</option> <option value="PA">PA</option> <option value="RI">RI</option> <option value="SC">SC</option> <option value="SD">SD</option> <option value="TN">TN</option> <option value="TX">TX</option> <option value="UT">UT</option> <option value="VT">VT</option> <option value="VA">VA</option> <option value="WA">WA</option> <option value="WV">WV</option> <option value="WI">WI</option> <option value="WY">WY</option> </select> </p> <p> <label for="Zip">Zip Code: </label><input name="Zip" id="Zip" type="text" value="" size="5" maxlength="10" /> </p> <p> <label for="Phone">Telephone: </label><input name="Phone" id="Phone" type="text" value="" size="10" maxlength="13" /> </p> </div> </fieldset> <fieldset id="step_2"> <legend>Step 2</legend> <p> Do you work in Higher Education? </p> <input type="radio" id="company_name_toggle_on" name="company_name_toggle_group"></input> <label for="company_name_toggle_on">Yes</label> &emsp; <input type="radio" id="company_name_toggle_off" name="company_name_toggle_group"></input> <label for="company_name_toggle_off">No</label> <div id="company_name_wrap"> <label for="company_name"> Which School? </label> <input type="text" id="company_name"></input> </div> <div class="push"> <p> Will anyone in your group require special accommodations? </p> <input type="radio" id="special_accommodations_toggle_on" name="special_accommodations_toggle"></input> <label for="special_accommodations_toggle_on">Yes</label> &emsp; <input type="radio" id="special_accommodations_toggle_off" name="special_accommodations_toggle"></input> <label for="special_accommodations_toggle_off">No</label> </div> <div id="special_accommodations_wrap"> <label for="special_accomodations_text"> Please explain below: </label> <textarea rows="10" cols="10" id="special_accomodations_text"></textarea> </div> </fieldset> <fieldset id="step_3"> <legend>Step 3</legend> <label for="rock"> Are you ready to rock? </label> <input type="checkbox" id="rock"></input> <p> <INPUT onclick="javascript:PaymentButtonClick()" type=button value="Proceed to payment" name=PaymentButton> <img src="images/visa1.gif" /> <img src="images/mastercard1.gif" /> </p> </fieldset> </form> </div> <FORM name="emailForm" action="mailform.asp" method=post"> <INPUT type="hidden" value="Conference Registration" name="mf_subject"> <INPUT type="hidden" value="Yes" name="mf_email_results"> <INPUT type="hidden" title="" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffa0" size="20" name="num_attendees"> <INPUT type="hidden" title="" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffa0" size="17" name="FirstName"> <INPUT type="hidden" title="" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffa0" size="22" name="LastName"> <INPUT type="hidden" title="" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" size="64" name="OfficialTitle"> <INPUT type="hidden" title="" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" size="40" name="email"> <INPUT type="hidden" title="" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" size="48" name="Address"> <INPUT type="hidden" title="" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffa0" size="17" name="City"> <INPUT type="hidden" title="" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffa0" size="17" name="State"> <INPUT type="hidden" title="" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffa0" size="17" name="Zip"> <INPUT type="hidden" title="" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffa0" size="17" name="Phone"> <INPUT type="hidden" title="" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffa0" size="17" name="company_name"> <INPUT type="hidden" title="" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" size="20" name="special_accomodations_text"> <INPUT type="hidden" value="[email protected]" name="mf_from"> <INPUT type="hidden" value="[email protected]" name="mf_to"> </FORM> <FORM name="addform" action="https://webcluster.niu.edu/CreditCard/servlet/Shopping_Cart_Add_Item_Servlet" method="post"> <INPUT type="hidden" value="orient" name="Dept_ID"> <INPUT type="hidden" value="Orientation" name="Product_Name"> <INPUT type="hidden" value="z000000" name="Product_Code"> <INPUT type="hidden" value="" name="amount"> <INPUT type="hidden" value="/orientation/index.shtml" name="return_link"> <INPUT type="hidden" value="http://www.niu.edu" name="return_server"> <INPUT type="hidden" value="1" name="quantity"> <INPUT type="hidden" value="0" name="tax"> <INPUT type="hidden" value="0" name="ship"> <INPUT type="hidden" value="DQ83225" name="sale_id"> <INPUT type="hidden" value="XXXXXX" name="sale_acct"> </FORM> <SCRIPT language="Javascript"> function PaymentButtonClick() { switch (document.Information.amount.value) { case 'prof': document.Information.amount.value = 90.00; break; case 'grad': document.Information.amount.value = 55.00; break; } document.addform.Product_Name.value = document.Information.FirstName.value + ","+ document.Information.LastName.value+","+ document.Information.OfficialTitle.value+","+ document.Information.email.name+","+","+ document.Information.Address.value+ "," + document.Information.City.value+ "," + document.Information.State.value+ "," + document.Information.Zip.value+ "," + document.Information.Phone.value+ "," + document.Information.company_name.value+ "," + document.Information.special_accomodations_text.value; document.addform.Product_Code.value = document.Information.LastName.value; if ((document.Information.UCheck.checked==true) && (document.Information.altDate1.value != "") && (document.Information.altDate1.value != "x")) { if (document.Information.StudentLastName.value != "" || document.Information.StudentFirstName.value != "" || document.Information.StudentID.value != "" ) { document.addform.submit(); } else { alert("Please enter missing information"); } } } </SCRIPT> </body> </html>

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AGENT: The World's Smartest Watch

- by Rob Chartier

AGENT: The World's Smartest Watch by Secret Labs + House of Horology Disclaimer: Most if not all of this content has been gleaned from the comments on the Kickstarter project page and comments section. Any discrepancies between this post and any documentation on agentwatches.com, kickstarter.com, etc.., those official sites take precedence. Overview The next generation smartwatch with brand-new technology. World-class developer tools, unparalleled battery life, Qi wireless charging. Kickstarter Page, Comments Funding period : May 21, 2013 - Jun 20, 2013 MSRP : $249 Other Urls http://www.agentwatches.com/ https://www.facebook.com/agentwatches http://twitter.com/agentwatches http://pinterest.com/agentwatches/ http://paper.li/robchartier/1371234640 Developer Story The first official launch of the preview SDK and emulator will happen on 20-Jun-2013. All development will be done in Visual Studio 2012, using the .NET Micro Framework SDK 2.3. The SDK will ship with the first round of the expected API for developers along with an emulator. With that said, there is no need to wait for the SDK. You can download the tooling now and get started with Apps and Faces immediately. The only thing that you will not be able to work with is the API; but for example, watch faces, you can start building the basic face rendering with the Bitmap graphics drawing in the .NET Micro Framework. Does it look good? Before we dig into any more of the gory details, here are a few photos of the current available prototype models. The watch on the tiny QI Charter If you wander too far away from your phone, your watch will let you know with a vibration and a message, all but one button will dismiss the message. An app showing the premium weather data! Nice stitching on the straps, leather and silicon will be available, along with a few lengths to choose from (short, regular, long lengths). On to those gory details…. Hardware Specs Processor 120MHz ARM Cortex-M4 processor (ATSAM4SD32) with secondary AVR co-processor Flash & RAM 2MB of onboard flash and 160KB of RAM 1/4 of the onboard flash will be used by the OS The flash is permanent (non-volatile) storage. Bluetooth Bluetooth 4.0 BD/EDR + LE Bluetooth 4.0 is backwards compatible with Bluetooth 2.1, so classic Bluetooth functions (BD/EDR, SPP/AVRCP/PBAP/etc.) will work fine. Sensors 3D Accelerometer (Motion) ST LSM303DLHC Ambient Light Sensor Hardware power metering Vibration Motor (You can pulse it to create vibration patterns, not sure about the vibration strength - driven with PWM) No piezo/speaker or microphone. Other QI Wireless Charging, no NFC, no wall adapter included Custom LED Backlight No GPS in the watch. It uses the GPS in your phone. AGENT watch apps are deployed and debugged wirelessly from your PC via Bluetooth. RoHS, Pb-free Battery Expected to use a CR2430-sized rechargeable battery – replaceable (Mouser, Amazon) Estimated charging time from empty is 2 hours with provided charger 7 Days typical with Bluetooth on, 30 days with Bluetooth off (watch-face only mode) The battery should last at least 2 years, with 100s of charge cycles. Physical dimensions Roughly 38mm top-to-bottom on the front face 35mm left-to-right on the front face and around 12mm in depth 22mm strap Two ~1/16" hex screws to attach the watch pin The top watchcase material candidates are PVD stainless steel, brushed matte ceramic, and high-quality polycarbonate (TBD). The glass lens is mineral glass, Anti-glare glass lens Strap options Leather and silicon straps will be available Expected to have three sizes Display 1.28" Sharp Memory Display The display stays on 100% of the time. Dimensions: 128x128 pixels Buttons Custom "Pusher" buttons, they will not make noise like a mouse click, and are very durable. The top-left button activates the backlight; bottom-left changes apps; three buttons on the right are up/select/down and can be used for custom purposes by apps. Backup reset procedure is currently activated by holding the home/menu button and the top-right user button for about ten seconds Device Support Android 2.3 or newer iPhone 4S or newer Windows Phone 8 or newer Heart Rate monitors - Bluetooth SPP or Bluetooth LE (GATT) is what you'll want the heart monitor to support. Almost limitless Bluetooth device support! Internationalization & Localization Full UTF8 Support from the ground up. AGENT's user interface is in English. Your content (caller ID, music tracks, notifications) will be in your native language. We have a plan to cover most major character sets, with Latin characters pre-loaded on the watch. Simplified Chinese will be available Feature overview Phone lost alert Caller ID Music Control (possible volume control) Wireless Charging Timer Stopwatch Vibrating Alarm (possibly custom vibrations for caller id) A few default watch faces Airplane mode (by demand or low power) Can be turned off completely Customizable 3rd party watch faces, applications which can be loaded over bluetooth. Sample apps that maybe installed Weather Sample Apps not installed Exercise App Other Possible Skype integration over Bluetooth. They will provide an AGENT app for your smartphone (iPhone, Android, Windows Phone). You'll be able to use it to load apps onto the watch.. You will be able to cancel phone calls. With compatible phones you can also answer, end, etc. They are adopting the standard hands-free profile to provide these features and caller ID.

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XNA Notes 007

- by George Clingerman

Every week I keep wondering if there’s going to be enough activity in the community to keep doing these notes on a weekly basis and every week I’m reminded of just how awesome and active the XNA community is. There’s engines being made, tutorials being created, games being crafted. There’s information being shared, questions being answered and then there’s another whole community around the Xbox LIVE Indie Games themselves. It’s really incredibly to just watch all that’s going on and I’m glad I’m playing a small part in all of this. So here’s what I noticed happening in the XNA community last week. If there’s things I’m missing, always feel free to let me know. I love learning about new corners of the XNA community that I wasn’t aware of or just have been missing! XNA Developers: Uditha Bandara held an XNA Game Development Workshops at Singapore Universities http://uditha.wordpress.com/2011/02/18/xna-game-development-workshops-at-singapore-universities-event-update/ Binary Tweed gives his talks about Indie City and gives his opinion on the false promise of digital distribution http://www.develop-online.net/news/37053/OPINION-The-false-promise-of-digital-distribution Kris Steele posts his Trivia or Die postmortem http://www.krissteele.net/blogdetails.aspx?id=246 @MadNinjaSkills (James Johnston) posts his feelings on testing for XBLIG http://www.ezmuze.co.uk/101 Simon (@DDReaper) posts hints and tips for XNA developers to help get the size of their projects down http://twitter.com/#!/DDReaper/status/38279440924545024 http://xna-uk.net/blogs/darkgenesis/archive/2011/02/17/look-at-the-size-of-that-thing.aspx Michael B. McLaughlin proving why he should be an XNA MVP posts the list of commonly used value types in XNA games http://geekswithblogs.net/mikebmcl/archive/2011/02/17/list-of-commonly-used-value-types-in-xna-games.aspx http://twitter.com/#!/mikebmcl/status/38166541354811392 Paul Powell (@ITSligoPaul) posts about a common sprite batch as a game service http://itspaulsblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/xna-common-sprite-batch-as-game-service.html @SigilXNA (John Defenbaugh) posts his new level editor video for the sequel to Opac’s Journey http://twitter.com/SigilXNA/statuses/36548174373982209 http://twitter.com/#!/SigilXNA/status/36548174373982209 http://youtu.be/QHbmxB_2AW8 @jwatte updates kW Animation for XNA 4.0 http://www.enchantedage.com/xna-animation @DSebJ posts Blender to SunBurn http://twitter.com/#!/DSebJ/status/36564920224976896 http://dsebj.evolvingsoftware.com/?p=187 Ads and WP7 Games - @mechaghost shares his revenue data for his ad based games http://www.occasionalgamer.com/2011/02/09/ads-and-wp7-games/ Xbox LIVE Indie Games (XBLIG): Steven Hurdle posts day 100 of his quest to find a fantastic XBLIG purchase every day http://writingsofmassdeduction.com/2011/02/17/day-100-radiangames-ballistic/ Xbox 360 Indie Game Buying Guide - 12 games for $60 including several Xbox LIVE Indie games! (although if the XNA community was asked we could have recommended 60 games for $60...) http://www.indiegamemag.com/xbox360-indie-games-buying-guide/ The best selling Xbox LIVE Indie games of 2010 http://www.1up.com/news/xbox-live-most-popular-games I’d buy that for a dollar! - the California Literary Review points out a few gems on the XBLIG marketplace (and other places) where you can game on the cheap. http://calitreview.com/14125 Armless Octopus Episode 39 - The Indie Gem Octocast http://www.armlessoctopus.com/2011/02/17/armless-octocast-episode-39-the-indie-gem-octocast/ Ska Studios posts a plethora of updates http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/02/11/good-morning-gato-49/ http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/02/14/vampire-smile-valentines/ http://www.ska-studios.com/2011/02/16/the-dishwasher-vs-finds-a-home/ Kotaku posts about the Xbox LIVE Indie Game that makes you go Pew Pew Pew Pew Pew Pew http://kotaku.com/#!5760632/the-game-that-makes-you-go-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew GameMarx continues to be active and doing a ton for the XBLIG community reviews and Top 5 indie games of the week 2/4-2/10 http://www.gamemarx.com/video/the-show/22/ep-9-february-11-2010.aspx a new podcast Xbox Indie New Releases http://twitter.com/#!/gamemarx/status/36888849107910656 http://www.gamemarx.com/news/2011/02/13/a-new-podcast-xbox-indie-new-releases.aspx @MasterBlud uploads Indocalypse XBLIG Collections #2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzCZSv075mc&feature=youtu.be&a http://twitter.com/#!/MasterBlud/status/37100029697064960 Just Press Start interviews Michael Hicks from MichaelArts, 18 year old creator of Honor in Vengeance http://justpressstart.net/?p=465 Achievement Locked interviews Kris Steele of FunInfused Games http://xboxindies.wordpress.com/2011/02/11/interview-fun-infused-games/ XNA Game Development: XNA -UK launches their XAP test service to help the XNA community http://xna-uk.net/blogs/news/archive/2011/02/18/xna-uk-xap-test-service-now-live.aspx Transmute shows off a video of the standard character editor http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqH6gErG948&feature=youtu.be Microsoft Tech Student introduces their first tech student of the month. Meet Daniel Van Tassel from the University of Utah and learn how he created an Xbox LIVE Indie Game using XNA Studio http://blogs.msdn.com/b/techstudent/archive/2010/12/22/introducing-our-first-tech-student-of-the-month-daniel-van-tassel.aspx XNA for Silverlight Developers Part 3 - Animation (transforms) http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/XNA-for-Silverlight-developers-Part-3-Animation-transforms.aspx XNA for Silverlight Developers Part 4 - Animation (frame based) http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/XNA-for-Silverlight-developers-Part-4-Animation-frame-based.aspx @suhinini tweets about an XNA Sprite Font generation tool http://twitter.com/#!/suhinini/status/36841370131890176 http://www.nubik.com/SpriteFont/ XNATouch 1.5 is out and in it’s words is faster, simpler, more reliable and has the XNA 4.0 API http://monogame.codeplex.com/releases/view/60815 IndieCity is hosting marketing workshops for Indie Developers (UK and US) http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/p/75197/457654.aspx#457654 New York Students - Learn XNA and Silverlight for Xbox 360 and Windows Phone 7 http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/p/72753/456964.aspx#456964 http://blogs.msdn.com/b/andrewparsons/archive/2011/01/13/learn-to-build-your-own-games-for-xbox-360-and-windows-phone-7.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/andrewparsons/archive/2011/01/13/build-a-game-in-48-hours-win-a-kinect-or-windows-phone-7.aspx Extra Credits: Videogame Music http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/2019-Videogame-Music Steve Pavlina posts an article with useful information for all XNA/XBLIG developers http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2011/02/completion-vs-perfection/

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If You Could Cut Your Meeting Times in ½ Would You?

- by Brian Dayton

I know it sounds like a big promise. And what I'm thinking about may not cut a :60 minute meeting into :30 minutes, but it could make meetings and interactions up to 2X more productive. How? Social Media for the Enterprise, Not Social Media In the Enterprise Bear with me. I'm not talking about whether or not workers should or shouldn't have access to Facebook on corporate networks. That topic has been discussed @ length. I'm also not talking about the direct benefits of Social Networking tools like Presence (the ability to see someone online and ask a question in real-time), blogs, RSS feeds or external tools like Twitter. The Un-Measurable Benefits Would you do something that you believe will have a positive effect--but can't be measured? It's impossible to quantify the effectiveness of a meeting. However, what I am talking about would be more of a byproduct of all of the social networking tools above. Here's the hypothesis: As I've gotten more and more busy with work, family, travel and kids--and the same has happened to my friends and family--I'm less and less connected. But by introducing Facebook to my life I've not only made connections with longtime friends whom I haven't spoken to in years--but I've increased the pace and quality of interactions, on and offline, with close friends who I see and speak to every week. In some cases it even enhances the connections and interactions with those I see or speak to every day. The same holds true in an organization. Especially a larger one with highly matrixed organizational structures. You work with people on a project, new people come in with each different project and a disproportionate amount of time is spent getting oriented and staying current. Going back to the initial value proposition--making meetings shorter/more effective--a large amount of time is spent: - At Project Kick-off: Meeting and understanding team member's histories, goals & roles - Ongoing: Summarizing events since the last meeting or update email In my personal, Facebook life today I know that: - My best friend from college - has been stranded in India for 5 days because of the volcano in Iceland and is now only 250 miles from home - One of my co-workers started conference calls at 6:30 this morning - My wife wasn't terribly pleased with my painting skills in our new bathroom (disclosure: she told me this face to face too) Strengthening Weak Links A recent article in CIO Magazine, Three Dangerous Social Media Misconceptions (Kristen Burnham, March 12, 2010) calls out the #1 misconception as follows: 1. "Face-to-face relationships are far more valuable than virtual ones." While some level of physical interaction will always add value to relationships, Gartner says that come 2020, most relationships and teams will be based on "weak links"--that is, you may not have personally met a contact, but you'll know of or may have interacted with him via social sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. The sooner your enterprise adopts these tools, the sooner your employees will learn them, and the sooner you'll begin to cultivate these relationships-of-the-future. I personally believe that it's not an either/or choice between face-to-face and virtual interactions. In fact, I'll be as bold as saying it doesn't matter. I can point to two extremely valuable work relationships that I've had over the past 5 years: - I shared an office with one of them - I met the other person, face-to-face, only once Both relationships were very productive. The dynamics were similar. The communication tactics differed immensely. What does matter is the quality, frequency and relevance of interactions. Still sound like too much? An over-promise? Stay tuned for my next post The Gap Between Facebook and LinkedIn. I'll also connect some of the dots with where Oracle Applications and technologies are headed.

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XNA Notes 006

- by George Clingerman

If you used to think the XNA community was small and inactive, hopefully these XNA Notes are opening your eyes. And I honestly feel like I’m still only catching the tail end of everything that’s going on. It’s a large and active community and you can be so mired down in one part of it you miss all sorts of cool stuff another part is doing. XNA is many things to a lot of people and that makes for a lot of really awesome things going on. So here’s what I saw going on this last week! Time Critical XNA New: XNA Team - Peer Review now closes for XNA 3.1 games http://blogs.msdn.com/b/xna/archive/2011/02/08/peer-review-pipeline-closed-for-new-xna-gs-3-1-games-or-updates-on-app-hub.aspx http://twitter.com/XNACommunity/statuses/34649816529256448 The XNA Team posts about a meet up with Microsoft for Creator’s going to be at GDC, March 3rd at the Lobby Bar http://on.fb.me/fZungJ XNA Team: @mklucher is busying playing the the bubblegum on WP7 made by a member of the XNA team (although reportedly made in Silverlight? Crazy! ;) ) http://twitter.com/mklucher/statuses/34645662737895426 http://bubblegum.me Shawn Hargreaves posts multiple posts (is this a sign that something new is coming from the XNA team? Usually when Shawn has time to post, something has just wrapped up…) Random Shuffle http://blogs.msdn.com/b/shawnhar/archive/2011/02/09/random-shuffle.aspx Doing the right thing: resume, rewind or skip ahead http://blogs.msdn.com/b/shawnhar/archive/2011/02/10/doing-the-right-thing-resume-rewind-or-skip-ahead.aspx XNA Developers: Andrew Russel was on .NET Rocks recently talking with Carl and Richard about developing games for Xbox, iPhone and Android http://www.dotnetrocks.com/default.aspx?ShowNum=635 Eric W. releases the Fishing Girl source code into the wild http://ericw.ca/blog/posts/fishing-girl-now-open-source/ http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/p/74642/454512.aspx#454512 BinaryTweedDeej reminds that XNA community that Indie City wants you involved http://twitter.com/BinaryTweedDeej/statuses/34596114028044288 http://www.indiecity.com Mike McLaughlin (@mikebmcl) releases his first two XNA articles on the TechNet wiki http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/xna-framework-overview.aspx http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/content-pipeline-overview.aspx John Watte plays around with the Content Pipeline and Music Visualization exploring just what can be done. http://www.enchantedage.com/xna-content-pipeline-fft-song-analysis http://www.enchantedage.com/fft-in-xna-content-pipeline-for-beat-detection-for-the-win Simon Stevens writes up his talk on Vector Collision Physics http://www.simonpstevens.com/News/VectorCollisionPhysics @domipheus puts together an XNA Task Manager http://www.flickr.com/photos/domipheus/5405603197/ MadNinjaSkillz releases his fork of Nick's Easy Storage component on CodePlex http://twitter.com/MadNinjaSkillz/statuses/34739039068229634 http://ezstorage.codeplex.com @ActiveNick was interviewed by Rob Cameron and discusses Windows Phone 7, Bing Maps and XNA http://twitter.com/ActiveNick/statuses/35348548526546944 http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/cc537546 Radiangames (Luke Schneider) posts about converting his games from XNA to Unity http://radiangames.com/?p=592 UberMonkey (@ElementCy) posts about a new project in the works, CubeTest a Minecraft style terrain http://www.ubergamermonkey.com/personal-projects/new-project-in-the-works/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Ubergamermonkey+%28UberGamerMonkey%29 Xbox LIVE Indie Games (XBLIG): VideoGamer Rob review Bonded Realities http://videogamerrob.wordpress.com/2011/02/05/xblig-review-bonded-realities/ XBLIG Round Up on Gamergeddon http://www.gamergeddon.com/2011/02/06/xbox-indie-game-round-up-february-6th/ Are gamers still rating Indie Games after the Xbox Dashboard update? http://www.gamemarx.com/news/2011/02/06/are-gamers-still-rating-indie-games-after-the-xbox-dashboard-update.aspx Joystiq - Xbox Live Indie Gems: Corrupted http://www.joystiq.com/2011/02/04/xbox-live-indie-gems-corrupted/ Raymond Matthews of DarkStarMatryx reviews (Almost) Total Mayhem and Aban Hawkins & the 1000 Spikes http://www.darkstarmatryx.com/?p=225 http://www.darkstarmatryx.com/?p=229 8 Bit Horse reviews Aban Hawkins & the 1000 spikes http://8bithorse.blogspot.com/2011/01/aban-hawkins-1000-spikes-xbl-indie.html 2010 wrap-up for FunInfused Games http://www.krissteele.net/blogdetails.aspx?id=245 NeoGaf roundup of January's XBLIGs http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=420528 Armless Ocotopus interviews Michael Ventnor creator of Bonded Realities http://www.armlessoctopus.com/2011/02/07/interview-michael-ventnor-of-red-crest-studios/ @recharge_media posts about the new city music for Woodvale in Sin Rising http://rechargemedia.com/2011/02/08/new-city-theme-woodvale/ @DrMisty posts some footage of YoYoYo in action http://www.mstargames.co.uk/mistryblogmain/54-yoyoyoblogs/184-video-update.html Xona Games - Decimation X3 on Reviews on the Run http://video.citytv.com/video/detail/782443063001.000000/reviews-on-the-run--february-8-2011/g4/ @benkane gives an early peek at his action RPG coming to XBLIG http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDF_PrvtwU8 Rock, Paper Shotgun talks to Zeboyd games about bringing Cthulhu Saves the World to PC http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/02/11/summoning-cthulhu-natter-with-zeboyd/ Xbox LIVE Indieverse interviews the creator of Bonded Realities http://xbl-indieverse.blogspot.com/2011/02/xbl-indieverse-interview-red-crest.html XNA Game Development: Dream-In-Code posts about an upcoming XNA Challenge/Coding contest http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/blog/1385/entry-3192-xna-challengecontest/ Sgt.Conker covers Fishing Girl and IndieFreaks Game Framework release http://www.sgtconker.com/2011/02/fishing-girl-did-not-sell-a-single-copy/ http://www.sgtconker.com/2011/02/indiefreaks-game-framework-v0-2-0-0/ @slyprid releases Transmute v0.40a with lots of new features and fixes http://twitter.com/slyprid/statuses/34125423067533312 http://twitter.com/slyprid/statuses/35326876243337216 http://forgottenstarstudios.com/ Jeff Brown writes an XNA 4.0 tutorial on Saving/Loading on the Xbox 360 http://www.robotfootgames.com/xna-tutorials/92-xna-tutorial-savingloading-on-xbox-360-40 XNA for Silverlight Developers: Part 3- Animation http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/XNA-for-Silverlight-developers-Part-3-Animation-transforms.aspx?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+xna-connection-twitter-specific-stream+%28XNA+Connection%27s+Twitter+specific+stream%29 The news from Nokia is definitely something XNA developers will want to keep their eye on http://blogs.forum.nokia.com/blog/nokia-developer-news/2011/02/11/letter-to-developers?sf1066337=1

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Convert Excel File 'xls' to CSV, CAUTION: Bumps Ahead

- by faizanahmad

The task was to provide users with an interface where they can upload the 'csv' files, these files were to be processed and loaded to Database by a Console application. The code in Console application could not handle the 'xls' files so we thought, OK, lets convert 'xls' to 'csv' in the code, Seemed like fun. The idea was to convert it right after uploading within 'csv' file. As Microsoft does not recommend using the Excel objects in ASP.NET, we decided to use the Jet engine to open xls. (Ace driver is used for xlsx) The code was pretty straight, can be found on following links: http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/uploadfile/yuanwang200409/102242008174401pm/1.aspx http://www.devasp.net/net/articles/display/141.html FIRST BUMP 'OleDbException (0x80004005): Unspecified error' ( Impersonation ): The ablove code ran fine in my test web site and test console application, but it gave an 'OleDbException (0x80004005): Unspecified error' in main web site, turns out imperonation was set to True and as soon as I changed it to False, it did work. on My XP box, web site was running under user 'ASPNET' with imperosnation set to FALSE 'IUSR_*' i.e IIS guest user with impersonation set to TRUE The weired part was that both users had same rights on the folders I was saving files to and on Excel app in DCOM Config. We decided to give it a try on Windows Server 2003 with web site set to windows authentication ( impersonation = true ) and yes it did work. SECOND BUMP 'External table not in correct format': I got this error with some files and it appeared that the file from client has some metadata issues ( when I opened the file in Excel and try to save it ,excel would give me this error saying File can not be saved in current format ) and the error was caused by that. Some people were able to reslove the error by using "Extended Properties=HTML Import;" in connection string. But it did not work for me. We decided to detour from here and use Excel object :( as we had no control on client setting the meta deta of Excel files. Before third bump there were a ouple of small thingies like 'Retrieving the COM class factory for component with CLSID {00024500-0000-0000-C000-000000000046} failed due to the following error: 80070005' Fix can be found at http://blog.crowe.co.nz/archive/2006/03/02/589.aspx THIRD BUMP ( Could not get rid of the EXCEL process ): I has all the code in place to 'Quiet' the excel, but, it just did not work. work around was done to Kill the process as we knew no other application on server was using EXCEL. The normal steps to quite the excel application worked just fine in console application though. FOURTH BUMP: Code worked with one file 1 on my machine and with the other file 2 code will break. and the same code will work perfectly fine with file 2 on some other machine . We moved it to QA ( Windows Server 2003 )and worked with every file just perfect. But , then there was another problem: one user can upload it and second cant, permissions on folder and DCOM Conifg checked. Another Detour: Uplooad the xls as it is and convert in Console application. Lesson Learnt: If its 'xlsx' use 'ACE Driver' or read xml within excel as recommneded by MS. If xls and you know its always going to be properly formatted 'jet Engine' Code: Imports Microsoft.Office.Interop Private Function ConvertFile(ByVal SourceFolder As String, ByVal FileName As String, ByVal FileExtension As String)As Boolean Dim appExcel As New Excel.Application Dim workBooks As Excel.Workbooks = appExcel.Workbooks Dim objWorkbook As Excel.Workbook Try objWorkbook = workBooks.Open(CompleteFilePath ) objWorkbook.SaveAs(Filename:=CObj(SourceFolder & FileName & ".csv"), FileFormat:=Excel.XlFileFormat.xlCSV) Catch ex As Exception GenerateAlert(ex.Message().Replace("'", "") & " Error Converting File to CSV.") LogError(ex ) Return False Finally If Not(objWorkbook is Nothing) then objWorkbook.Close(SaveChanges:=CObj(False)) End If ReleaseObj(objWorkbook) ReleaseObj(workBooks) appExcel.Quit() ReleaseObj(appExcel) Dim proc As System.Diagnostics.Process For Each proc In System.Diagnostics.Process.GetProcessesByName("EXCEL") proc.Kill() Next DeleteSourceFile(SourceFolder & FileName & FileExtension) End Try Return True End Function Private Sub ReleaseObj(ByVal o As Object) Try System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ReleaseComObject(o) Catch ex As Exception LogError(ex ) Finally o = Nothing End Try End Sub Protected Sub DeleteSourceFile(Byval CompleteFilePath As string) Try Dim MyFile As FileInfo = New FileInfo(CompleteFilePath) If MyFile.Exists Then File.Delete(CompleteFilePath) Else Throw New FileNotFoundException() End If Catch ex As Exception GenerateAlert( " Source File could not be deleted.") LogError(ex) End Try End Sub The code to kill the process ( Avoid it if you can ): Dim proc As System.Diagnostics.Process For Each proc In System.Diagnostics.Process.GetProcessesByName("EXCEL") proc.Kill() Next

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ASP.NET and WIF: Showing custom profile username as User.Identity.Name

- by DigiMortal

I am building ASP.NET MVC application that uses external services to authenticate users. For ASP.NET users are fully authenticated when they are redirected back from external service. In system they are logically authenticated when they have created user profiles. In this posting I will show you how to force ASP.NET MVC controller actions to demand existence of custom user profiles. Using external authentication sources with AppFabric Suppose you want to be user-friendly and you don’t force users to keep in mind another username/password when they visit your site. You can accept logins from different popular sites like Windows Live, Facebook, Yahoo, Google and many more. If user has account in some of these services then he or she can use his or her account to log in to your site. If you have community site then you usually have support for user profiles too. Some of these providers give you some information about users and other don’t. So only thing in common you get from all those providers is some unique ID that identifies user in service uniquely. Image above shows you how new user joins your site. Existing users who already have profile are directed to users homepage after they are authenticated. You can read more about how to solve semi-authorized users problem from my blog posting ASP.NET MVC: Using ProfileRequiredAttribute to restrict access to pages. The other problem is related to usernames that we don’t get from all identity providers. Why is IIdentity.Name sometimes empty? The problem is described more specifically in my blog posting Identifying AppFabric Access Control Service users uniquely. Shortly the problem is that not all providers have claim called http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/05/identity/claims/name. The following diagram illustrates what happens when user got token from AppFabric ACS and was redirected to your site. Now, when user was authenticated using Windows Live ID then we don’t have name claim in token and that’s why User.Identity.Name is empty. Okay, we can force nameidentifier to be used as name (we can do it in web.config file) but we have user profiles and we want username from profile to be shown when username is asked. Modifying name claim Now let’s force IClaimsIdentity to use username from our user profiles. You can read more about my profiles topic from my blog posting ASP.NET MVC: Using ProfileRequiredAttribute to restrict access to pages and you can find some useful extension methods for claims identity from my blog posting Identifying AppFabric Access Control Service users uniquely. Here is what we do to set User.Identity.Name: we will check if user has profile, if user has profile we will check if User.Identity.Name matches the name given by profile, if names does not match then probably identity provider returned some name for user, we will remove name claim and recreate it with correct username, we will add new name claim to claims collection. All this stuff happens in Application_AuthorizeRequest event of our web application. The code is here. protected void Application_AuthorizeRequest() { if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(User.Identity.Name)) { var identity = User.Identity; var profile = identity.GetProfile(); if (profile != null) { if (profile.UserName != identity.Name) { identity.RemoveName(); var claim = new Claim("http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/05/identity/claims/name", profile.UserName); var claimsIdentity = (IClaimsIdentity)identity; claimsIdentity.Claims.Add(claim); } } } } RemoveName extension method is simple – it looks for name claims of IClaimsIdentity claims collection and removes them. public static void RemoveName(this IIdentity identity) { if (identity == null) return; var claimsIndentity = identity as ClaimsIdentity; if (claimsIndentity == null) return; for (var i = claimsIndentity.Claims.Count - 1; i >= 0; i--) { var claim = claimsIndentity.Claims[i]; if (claim.ClaimType == "http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/05/identity/claims/name") claimsIndentity.Claims.RemoveAt(i); } } And we are done. Now User.Identity.Name returns the username from user profile and you can use it to show username of current user everywhere in your site. Conclusion Mixing AppFabric Access Control Service and Windows Identity Foundation with custom authorization logic is not impossible but a little bit tricky. This posting finishes my little series about AppFabric ACS and WIF for this time and hopefully you found some useful tricks, tips, hacks and code pieces you can use in your own applications.

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C# 4.0: Named And Optional Arguments

- by Paulo Morgado

As part of the co-evolution effort of C# and Visual Basic, C# 4.0 introduces Named and Optional Arguments. First of all, let’s clarify what are arguments and parameters: Method definition parameters are the input variables of the method. Method call arguments are the values provided to the method parameters. In fact, the C# Language Specification states the following on §7.5: The argument list (§7.5.1) of a function member invocation provides actual values or variable references for the parameters of the function member. Given the above definitions, we can state that: Parameters have always been named and still are. Parameters have never been optional and still aren’t. Named Arguments Until now, the way the C# compiler matched method call definition arguments with method parameters was by position. The first argument provides the value for the first parameter, the second argument provides the value for the second parameter, and so on and so on, regardless of the name of the parameters. If a parameter was missing a corresponding argument to provide its value, the compiler would emit a compilation error. For this call: Greeting("Mr.", "Morgado", 42); this method: public void Greeting(string title, string name, int age) will receive as parameters: title: “Mr.” name: “Morgado” age: 42 What this new feature allows is to use the names of the parameters to identify the corresponding arguments in the form: name:value Not all arguments in the argument list must be named. However, all named arguments must be at the end of the argument list. The matching between arguments (and the evaluation of its value) and parameters will be done first by name for the named arguments and than by position for the unnamed arguments. This means that, for this method definition: public static void Method(int first, int second, int third) this call declaration: int i = 0; Method(i, third: i++, second: ++i); will have this code generated by the compiler: int i = 0; int CS$0$0000 = i++; int CS$0$0001 = ++i; Method(i, CS$0$0001, CS$0$0000); which will give the method the following parameter values: first: 2 second: 2 third: 0 Notice the variable names. Although invalid being invalid C# identifiers, they are valid .NET identifiers and thus avoiding collision between user written and compiler generated code. Besides allowing to re-order of the argument list, this feature is very useful for auto-documenting the code, for example, when the argument list is very long or not clear, from the call site, what the arguments are. Optional Arguments Parameters can now have default values: public static void Method(int first, int second = 2, int third = 3) Parameters with default values must be the last in the parameter list and its value is used as the value of the parameter if the corresponding argument is missing from the method call declaration. For this call declaration: int i = 0; Method(i, third: ++i); will have this code generated by the compiler: int i = 0; int CS$0$0000 = ++i; Method(i, 2, CS$0$0000); which will give the method the following parameter values: first: 1 second: 2 third: 1 Because, when method parameters have default values, arguments can be omitted from the call declaration, this might seem like method overloading or a good replacement for it, but it isn’t. Although methods like this: public static StreamReader OpenTextFile( string path, Encoding encoding = null, bool detectEncoding = true, int bufferSize = 1024) allow to have its calls written like this: OpenTextFile("foo.txt", Encoding.UTF8); OpenTextFile("foo.txt", Encoding.UTF8, bufferSize: 4096); OpenTextFile( bufferSize: 4096, path: "foo.txt", detectEncoding: false); The complier handles default values like constant fields taking the value and useing it instead of a reference to the value. So, like with constant fields, methods with parameters with default values are exposed publicly (and remember that internal members might be publicly accessible – InternalsVisibleToAttribute). If such methods are publicly accessible and used by another assembly, those values will be hard coded in the calling code and, if the called assembly has its default values changed, they won’t be assumed by already compiled code. At the first glance, I though that using optional arguments for “bad” written code was great, but the ability to write code like that was just pure evil. But than I realized that, since I use private constant fields, it’s OK to use default parameter values on privately accessed methods.

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Your thoughts on Best Practices for Scientific Computing?

- by John Smith

A recent paper by Wilson et al (2014) pointed out 24 Best Practices for scientific programming. It's worth to have a look. I would like to hear opinions about these points from experienced programmers in scientific data analysis. Do you think these advices are helpful and practical? Or are they good only in an ideal world? Wilson G, Aruliah DA, Brown CT, Chue Hong NP, Davis M, Guy RT, Haddock SHD, Huff KD, Mitchell IM, Plumbley MD, Waugh B, White EP, Wilson P (2014) Best Practices for Scientific Computing. PLoS Biol 12:e1001745. http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1001745 Box 1. Summary of Best Practices Write programs for people, not computers. (a) A program should not require its readers to hold more than a handful of facts in memory at once. (b) Make names consistent, distinctive, and meaningful. (c) Make code style and formatting consistent. Let the computer do the work. (a) Make the computer repeat tasks. (b) Save recent commands in a file for re-use. (c) Use a build tool to automate workflows. Make incremental changes. (a) Work in small steps with frequent feedback and course correction. (b) Use a version control system. (c) Put everything that has been created manually in version control. Don’t repeat yourself (or others). (a) Every piece of data must have a single authoritative representation in the system. (b) Modularize code rather than copying and pasting. (c) Re-use code instead of rewriting it. Plan for mistakes. (a) Add assertions to programs to check their operation. (b) Use an off-the-shelf unit testing library. (c) Turn bugs into test cases. (d) Use a symbolic debugger. Optimize software only after it works correctly. (a) Use a profiler to identify bottlenecks. (b) Write code in the highest-level language possible. Document design and purpose, not mechanics. (a) Document interfaces and reasons, not implementations. (b) Refactor code in preference to explaining how it works. (c) Embed the documentation for a piece of software in that software. Collaborate. (a) Use pre-merge code reviews. (b) Use pair programming when bringing someone new up to speed and when tackling particularly tricky problems. (c) Use an issue tracking tool. I'm relatively new to serious programming for scientific data analysis. When I tried to write code for pilot analyses of some of my data last year, I encountered tremendous amount of bugs both in my code and data. Bugs and errors had been around me all the time, but this time it was somewhat overwhelming. I managed to crunch the numbers at last, but I thought I couldn't put up with this mess any longer. Some actions must be taken. Without a sophisticated guide like the article above, I started to adopt "defensive style" of programming since then. A book titled "The Art of Readable Code" helped me a lot. I deployed meticulous input validations or assertions for every function, renamed a lot of variables and functions for better readability, and extracted many subroutines as reusable functions. Recently, I introduced Git and SourceTree for version control. At the moment, because my co-workers are much more reluctant about these issues, the collaboration practices (8a,b,c) have not been introduced. Actually, as the authors admitted, because all of these practices take some amount of time and effort to introduce, it may be generally hard to persuade your reluctant collaborators to comply them. I think I'm asking your opinions because I still suffer from many bugs despite all my effort on many of these practices. Bug fix may be, or should be, faster than before, but I couldn't really measure the improvement. Moreover, much of my time has been invested on defence, meaning that I haven't actually done much data analysis (offence) these days. Where is the point I should stop at in terms of productivity? I've already deployed: 1a,b,c, 2a, 3a,b,c, 4b,c, 5a,d, 6a,b, 7a,7b I'm about to have a go at: 5b,c Not yet: 2b,c, 4a, 7c, 8a,b,c (I could not really see the advantage of using GNU make (2c) for my purpose. Could anyone tell me how it helps my work with MATLAB?)

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Adaptive ADF/WebCenter template for the iPad

- by Maiko Rocha

One of my WebCenter Portal customers was asking about adaptive design with ADF/WebCenter Portal and how they could go about creating an adaptive iPad template for their WebCenter Portal application. They were looking not only for the out-of-the-box support for mobile Safari which is certified against PS5+ (11.1.1.6) for ADF/WebCenter - but also to create a specific template to streamline their workflow on the iPad. Seems like they wanted something in the lines of Yahoo! Mail provides for the iPad - so the example I will use is shamelessly inspired by Y! Mail's iPad UI. But first, let's quickly understand how can we bake in some adaptive goodness into ADF Faces. First thing we need to understand is, yes, there are a couple of constraints that we will need to work around, namely, the use or layout managers and skins. Please also keep in mind that I'm not and I don't pretend to be a web designer, much less an UX specialist, so feel free to leave your thoughts on the matter in the comments section. Now, back to the limitations. Layout Managers ADF Faces layout managers create an abstraction on top of the generated HTML code for a page so a developer doesn't need to be worried about how to size and dimension the UI layout (eg, af:panelStretchLayout). Although layout managers are very helpful, in this specific situation we will need to know a little bit more of how the final HTML is being rendered so we can apply the CSS class accordingly and create transition containers where the media queries will be applied - now, if you're using 11gR2 (11.1.2.2.3) there's the new component af:panelGridLayout (here and here) that will greatly improve creating responsive templates and pages because it is based on the grid/fluid systems and will generate straight out to DIVs on your final page. For now, I'm limited to PS5 and the af:panelStretchLayout component as a starting point because that's the release my customer is on. Skins You won't be able to use media queries, or use anything with "@" notation on the skin CSS file - the skin pre-processor will remove all extraneous "@" from the CSS file. The solution is to split your CSS in two separate files: a skin CSS file and plain CSS where you will add the media queries. The issue here is that you won't be able to use media queries for any faces components. We can, though, still apply the media queries for the components like af:panelGroupLayout and af:panelBorderLayout through their styleClass property to enable these components to be responsive to to the iPad orientation, by changing its dimensions, font sizes, hide/show areas, etc. Difference between responsive and adaptive design The best definition of adaptive vs responsive web design I could find is this: “Responsive web design,” as coined by Ethan Marcotte, means “fluid grids, fluid images/media & media queries.” “Adaptive web design,” as I use it, is about creating interfaces that adapt to the user’s capabilities (in terms of both form and function). To me, “adaptive web design” is just another term for “progressive enhancement” of which responsive web design can (an often should) be an integral part, but is a more holistic approach to web design in that it also takes into account varying levels of markup, CSS, JavaScript and assistive technology support. Responsive/adapative web design is much more than slapping an HTML template with CSS around your content or application. The content and application themselves are part of your web design - in other words, a responsive template is just an afterthought if it is not originating from a responsive design the involves the whole web application/s. Tips on responsive / adapative design with ADF/WebCenter Some of the tips listed below were already mentioned in multiple blog posts about ADF layout and skinning, but it is still worth remembering: a simple guideline for ADF/WebCenter apps would be to first create a high-level group of devices, for example: smartphones, tablets, and desktop. For each of these large groups, create the basic structure to provide responsiveness: a page template, a skin, and an external CSS: pagetemplate_smartphone.jspx, smartphone_skin.css, smartphone-responsive.css pagetemplate_tablet.jspx, tablet_skin.css, tablet-responsive.css pagetemplate_desktop.jspx, desktop_skin.css, desktop-responsive.css These three assets can be changed on the fly through an user-agent check on the server side, delivering the right UI to the right device. Within each of the assets, you can make fine adjustments for each subgroup of devices with media queries - for example, smart phones with different screen dimensions and pixel density. Having these three groups and the corresponding assets per group seem to be a good compromise between trying to put everything on a single set of assets - specially considering the constraints above - and going to the other side of the spectrum to create assets per discrete device (iPhone4, iPhone5, Nexus, S3, etc.). Keep in mind that these are my rules and are not in any shape or form a best practice - this is how it fits best for the scenarios I've been working with. If you need to use HTML tags on your page, surround them with af:group to protect the DOM structure For stretchable/fluid layouts: Use non-stretching containers: panelGroupLayout, panelBorderLayout, … panelBorderLayout can be used to approximate HTML table component To avoid multiple scroll bars, do not nest scrolling PanelGroupLayout components. Consider layout="vertical" For stretchable/fluid layouts: Most stretchable ADF components also work in flowing context with dimensionsFrom="auto" To stretch a component horizontally, use styleClass="AFStretchWidth" instead of "width:100%" Skinning Don't use CSS3 @media, @import, animations, etc. on skin css files. They will be removed. CSS3 properties within a class (box-shadow, transition, etc.) work just fine. Consider resetting some skin classes to better control their rendering: body {color: inherit;font: inherit;} af|document {-tr-inhibit: all;} af|commandLink {-tr-inhibit: all;} af|goLink {-tr-inhibit: all;} af|inputText::content {font: inherit;} Specific meta tags and CSS properties: Use <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, minimum-scale=1.0, maximum-scale=1.0"/> to avoid zooming (if you want) Use -webkit-overflow-scrolling: touch to enable native momentum scrolling within overflown areas (here) Use text-rendering: optmizeLegibility to improve readability. (here) User text-overflow: ellipsis to gracefully crop overflown text. (here) The meta-tags are included in each and every page in the metaContainer facet of af:document tag. You can also use a javascript to inject the meta-tags from the template. For the purpose of the example, I wanted to use as few workarounds as possible. The iPad template and sample application This sample application has been built as a WebCenter Portal application, but you will also be able to reuse the template and techniques on your vanilla ADF application. Keep in mind that I'm neither a designer nor a CSS specialist, so please don't bash me too much on the messy CSS file you'll find on the application. I've extended the provided PreferencesBean class that comes with WebCenter Portal and added code to dinamically change the template and skin on the fly. This is the sample application in landscape orientation: This is the sample application in portrait orientation - the left side menu hides automatically based on a CSS media query: Another screenshot with a skinned popup opened: This is a sample application for you to play with - ideally you shouldn't use it as a starting point. On the left side bar you will find links rendered from a WebCenter Portal navigation model - the link triggers a full request through an af:goLink, while the light blue PPR button triggers a PPR navigation. The dark blue toolbar buttons at the top don't have any function,while the Approve and Reject buttons show a skinned popup. The search box of course doesn't have any behavior attahed to it either. There's a known issue right now with some PPR calls that are randomly generating a 403 error redirecting to the login page - I didn't have time to investigate if this is iOS6 specific or not - if you have any insights please let me know your findings. You can download the sample here.

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