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How can I guarantee a solvable Fifteen Puzzle shuffle?

- by Codemiester

I am making a 15 Puzzle game in C# that allows the user to enter a custom row and column value up to a maximum of a 10 x 10 puzzle. I am having problems with the shuffle method. I want to make it so the puzzle is always solvable by first creating a winning puzzle then shuffling the empty space. The problem is it is too inefficient to call every click event each time. I need a way to invoke the click event of a button adjacent to the empty space but not diagonal. I also use an invisible static button for the empty spot. The PuzzlePiece class inherits from Button. I am not too sure how to do this. Here is what I have: private void shuffleBoard() { //5 is just for test purposes for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++) { foreach (Control item in this.Controls) { if (item is PuzzlePiece) { ((PuzzlePiece)item).PerformClick(); } } } } void PuzzlePiece_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { PuzzlePiece piece = (PuzzlePiece)sender; if (piece.Right == puzzleForm.emptyPiece.Left && piece.Top == puzzleForm.emptyPiece.Top) { movePiece(piece); } else if (piece.Left == puzzleForm.emptyPiece.Right && piece.Top == puzzleForm.emptyPiece.Top) { movePiece(piece); } else if (piece.Top == puzzleForm.emptyPiece.Bottom && piece.Left == puzzleForm.emptyPiece.Left) { movePiece(piece); } else if (piece.Bottom == puzzleForm.emptyPiece.Top && piece.Left == puzzleForm.emptyPiece.Left) { movePiece(piece); } }

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Dynamic object creation with HashMap

- by Salor

I want to use a HashMap to dynamically create objects based on the key. I have a Random Map Generator that stores the maps in 3D Arrays of Type Integer[][][]. Upon creation of the actual map I iterate through this array and based on the Integer I want to create the right block. Example: Integer[][][] map ... map[6][6][6] = 3; 3 is a Earth-Block and now I want to initialize a new Block of this type and give it the right coordinates. Currently I store my Bindings from Integer to Class in a HashMap(Integer, String) and create my objects like that: int id = array[x][y][z]; String block_name = Blocks.map.get(id); Block block = (Block) Class.forName(block_name).newInstance(); block.setPosition(x,y,z); But I want to avoid newInstance() if possible. I've never worked that dynamically with Java before and I couldn't find a solution like changing the HashMap to (Integer, Class) or something. I just need to create a new Object based upon the Integer. Any ideas/solutions? Thanks in advance and have a wonderful day!

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Model View Controller² [closed]

- by user694971

I am working on a quite complex web application in Go and I tried to stay in an MVC pattern. However, I ended up having a structure isomorphic to this: /boilerplate The usual boilerplate an application needs to survive in the wilderness /db Layer talking to an SQL DB /helpers Helpers /logic Backend logic, not directly affiliated with any routes, sessions etc. /templates View /web Glue between /logic and /templates. In more dynamic languages the size of /web would be next to zero. But Go doesn't exactly have a RoR integrated so I need a lot of helper structures to feed the templates with data, to process GET/POST parameters and session information. I remember once reading about patterns similar to MVC with one extra letter but Wiki-searching I couldn't find it right now. (BTW currently /logic also contains data retrieval from API services to fill some hash maps; this is no simple task, but that probably belongs into the model, right?) So question: is this structure considered sane? Or does it need some bending to be tagged MVC app?

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Data model for unlockable card collection

- by Karlos Zafra

My game has a collection of cards (about 64) that are unlocked (one by one) provided that 4 items are collected/gained in the game. Right now the deck of cards is modeled with a plist file, like this: <plist> <dict> <key>card1</key> <dict> <key>available</key> <true/> <key>series</key> <integer>1</integer> <key>model</key> <integer>1</integer> <key>color</key> <integer>1</integer> </dict> <key>card2</key> <dict> <key>available</key> <false/> <key>series</key> <integer>1</integer> <key>model</key> <integer>1</integer> <key>color</key> <integer>2</integer> </dict> The value for the key named "available" marks if the item is locked or not. Right now I have to include the data for the items collected by the user, but including that inside the plist looks like too much hassle. What kind of structure should be more suitable for this? How do you manage a collection of unlockable items like this?

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When to open source a project under development? [closed]

- by QuasarDonkey

Possible Duplicate: Is it OK to push my code to GitHub while it is still in early development? I've been working on a hobby project for a few months now; it's clocking in at over 15000 source lines of code. A number of people have expressed interest in joining development, and I have full intentions of going open source, since it would not be feasible for me to complete the project alone. I'm just not sure when to open-source it. For context, I've notice many successful open source projects, such as the Linux kernel, had considerable work done before they were open-sourced. In my case, I'd been planning on open-sourcing it after I complete all the underlying libraries and overall architecture. Is this a mistake; should I just release it right now? I'm worried that since certain critical underlying components haven't been finalized, if people build a large codebase around them, it will be very difficult to change or fix things later. On the other hand, it's a very large project that will require multiple developers to complete in a reasonable time. So when is the right time during development to go open source? Preferably, I'd like to hear from some folks who have started their own projects.

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Is it fair to not support IE or older browsers? [closed]

- by XToro

Possible Duplicate: So now Google has said no to old browsers when can the rest of us follow suit? Normally a SO browser but this question doesn't fit there, hopefully it fits here. I just want to ask from web designers' point of view if it's wrong to not care about supporting Internet Explorer or older browsers. The site I'm designing looks great in all browsers except IE9-. There are certain things that IE doesn't support or behave like other browsers; webkit stuff, some CSS styles, drop-and-drop files from OS etc etc, but it all works great in Safari, FireFox, Chrome etc. Should I be that concerned? I know there are several people that use IE, but it's limitations have just been causing me more work by having to come up with workarounds. From what I've read, many of the issues I've been having should be solved with IE10, but not everybody keeps up to date. I know of several people who are still using IE6! Again, I'm hoping this is the right place to ask a question like this, and if not, please point me to the right stack exchange site instead of just downvoting me. Thanks!

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I am being paid very little(imo), how can I change this? [migrated]

- by LagWagon

I am a web developer with about 4 years of relevant work experience in my field. Recently, I went from making $30/hr working from home contracting for large companies to a full time job that only pays 40k/yr. The company I work for now is great, nice people, but a little behind the times. I joined on with very little experience in SQL development but they put me in charge of querying the DB and making reports right away, so I had to go in head first and pick up that skill right away. Which is great, I'm happy I learned more of that, and really make good time when doing SQL now. However, I'm now doing most of their advanced SQL stuff. The day I started, another employee who was running a MVC project based in Yii (which is the sole item that makes this company software) put in his two weeks. Two weeks later, I'm the only one who knows how to use, access, modify, or update this project. Its quite a large responsibility for an "entry level dev", no? I am doing highly advanced jQuery for them to modernize their forms, webpages, amongst other things, a skill that I would bet on few Entry levels being able to do as well as me. I may be wrong, but I feel that what I'm making now is not acceptable. We don't have reviews, ever, so I can't just wait for that.. so I was wondering.. do I sound justified in wanting to be paid more, and how can I make this happen?

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How do OSes work on multiple CPUs? [on hold]

- by user3691093

Assumption: "OS es (atleast in some part) should be written in assembly.Assembly programs are CPU specefic." If so how can one os run on different CPUs ? For example: how is that I can load Ubuntu on different systems having different CPUs (like intel i3,i5,i7, amd a8,a6,etc) from the same bootable disk? Does the disk contain seporate assembly programs for each CPU? Are these CPUs 'similar' enough to run the same assembly program? Is my assumption wrong? Something else.... Thanks for responding. I tried to find out in what way are the CPUs that I mentioned 'similar'. I came across the concepts of Instruction Set Architecture and Microarchitecture of CPUs.A CPU will understand a program if it is combatible with its ISA. Even if CPUs are 'wired up' differently (different microarchitecture) , as long as the ISA implemented on top is same ,the program will work. ARM and x86 have different ISA ( that why there are 2 windows 8 versions, right?). And if an app program is written in an HLL with compilers for both platforms we will saved from wasting time writing 2 programs. Did I understand anything wrong? Are there programs that can take a compiled program as input and produce a program executable on another CPU as output? Is it possible? (Virtualisation?) 32 bit windows programs do install on 64 bit windows ,dont they? Arent 64 bit CPUs 'differerent' from 32 bit CPUs? They do get seporate OS versions, right? Is this backward combatibility achieved using programes mentioned in (3) ?

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How Do I make my own keyboard for an app in android

- by Ephraim

I am currently working on an app, that requires a keyboard in a different language (Specifically Hebrew), the problem is, that I don't know where to begin. I don't want the user to have to go onto an app store, and install a separate app that has more languages in it just to use my app, and, I only want the keyboard to be available in my app, ie, it shouldn't effect anything outside my specific app. the way I am doing it right now, is to create it as part of the main layout, and just make it visible whenever the user clicks on the Edit Text. the problem with this, is I can't get the size of it to readjust. I had originally tried using 2 different layouts (one in the res/layout folder, and one in the res/layout-lnd folder), but this caused different problems in my app, making it slower. so I am wondering 2 things, either of which should work. one: how would I create the layout for the keyboard to readjust. or Two: how would I make a keyboard correctly. here is the xml code that I am useing specifically partaining to the keyboard: <FrameLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:visibility="gone" android:background="@color/puzzle_dark" android:id="@+id/hebrwKeyboardView" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="146dip" android:layout_gravity="right|center_vertical|center_horizontal|bottom" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" android:clipChildren="false" android:orientation="vertical" > <TableLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="145dip" android:clipChildren="false" android:layout_gravity="center_vertical|center_horizontal|bottom" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" android:orientation="horizontal" > <TableLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="145dip" android:clipChildren="false" android:layout_gravity="center_vertical|center_horizontal|bottom" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" android:orientation="vertical" > <TableRow android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal|center_vertical|center" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" android:clipChildren="false" android:orientation="horizontal" android:stretchColumns="true"> <LinearLayout android:baselineAligned="true" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_gravity="center" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" android:clipChildren="false" android:orientation="horizontal"> <Button android:id="@+id/KoofButton" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="35dip" android:text="@string/Koof" android:layout_gravity="center" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" android:ellipsize="marquee"/> <Button android:soundEffectsEnabled="true" android:id="@+id/raishButton" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="35dip" android:text="@string/Raish" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" android:ellipsize="marquee"/> <Button android:soundEffectsEnabled="true" android:id="@+id/alephButton" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="35dip" android:text="@string/Alef" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" android:ellipsize="marquee"/> <Button android:soundEffectsEnabled="true" android:id="@+id/tetButton" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal" android:layout_height="35dip" android:text="@string/Tet" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" android:ellipsize="marquee"/> <Button android:soundEffectsEnabled="true" android:id="@+id/vuvButton" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="35dip" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal" android:text="@string/Vuv" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" android:ellipsize="marquee"/> <Button android:soundEffectsEnabled="true" android:id="@+id/nunSophitButton" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="35dip" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal" android:text="@string/NunSofit" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" android:gravity="fill" android:ellipsize="marquee"/> <Button android:soundEffectsEnabled="true" android:id="@+id/memSofitButton" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal" android:layout_height="35dip" android:text="@string/MemSofit" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" android:ellipsize="marquee"/> <Button android:soundEffectsEnabled="true" android:id="@+id/payButton" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="35dip" android:text="@string/Pay" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal" android:ellipsize="marquee"/> </LinearLayout> </TableRow> <TableRow android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:clipChildren="true" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal|center_vertical|center" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" android:orientation="horizontal"> <RelativeLayout android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:clipChildren="true" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal|center" android:gravity="bottom" android:orientation="horizontal"> <Button android:layout_alignWithParentIfMissing="true" android:soundEffectsEnabled="true" android:id="@+id/shinButton" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_centerHorizontal="true" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal|center_vertical|center" android:layout_height="35dip" android:text="@string/Shin" android:layout_alignParentLeft="true" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" /> <Button android:layout_centerHorizontal="true" android:soundEffectsEnabled="true" android:layout_toRightOf="@id/shinButton" android:id="@+id/dalidButton" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal|center_vertical|center" android:layout_height="35dip" android:text="@string/Dalid" android:layout_alignWithParentIfMissing="true" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" /> <Button android:layout_alignWithParentIfMissing="true" android:layout_centerHorizontal="true" android:soundEffectsEnabled="true" android:id="@+id/gimleButton" android:layout_toRightOf="@id/dalidButton" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal|center_vertical|center" android:layout_height="35dip" android:text="@string/Gimle" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" /> <Button android:layout_alignWithParentIfMissing="true" android:layout_centerHorizontal="true" android:soundEffectsEnabled="true" android:id="@+id/chufButton" android:layout_toRightOf="@id/gimleButton" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal|center_vertical|center" android:layout_height="35dip" android:text="@string/Chuf" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" /> <Button android:layout_alignWithParentIfMissing="true" android:layout_centerHorizontal="true" android:soundEffectsEnabled="true" android:id="@+id/ieyinButton" android:layout_toRightOf="@id/chufButton" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="35dip" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal|center_vertical|center" android:text="@string/Ieyin" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" /> <Button android:layout_alignWithParentIfMissing="true" android:layout_centerHorizontal="true" android:soundEffectsEnabled="true" android:id="@+id/yudButton" android:layout_toRightOf="@id/ieyinButton" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="35dip" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal|center_vertical|center" android:text="@string/Yud" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" /> <Button android:layout_alignWithParentIfMissing="true" android:layout_centerHorizontal="true" android:soundEffectsEnabled="true" android:id="@+id/chetButton" android:layout_toRightOf="@id/yudButton" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="35dip" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal|center_vertical|center" android:text="@string/Chet" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" /> <Button android:layout_alignWithParentIfMissing="true" android:layout_centerHorizontal="true" android:soundEffectsEnabled="true" android:id="@+id/lamidButton" android:layout_toRightOf="@id/chetButton" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="35dip" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal|center_vertical|center" android:text="@string/Lamid" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" /> <Button android:layout_alignWithParentIfMissing="true" android:layout_centerHorizontal="true" android:soundEffectsEnabled="true" android:id="@+id/chufSofitButton" android:layout_toRightOf="@id/lamidButton" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="35dip" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal|center_vertical|center" android:text="@string/ChufSofit" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" /> <Button android:layout_alignWithParentIfMissing="true" android:layout_centerHorizontal="true" android:soundEffectsEnabled="true" android:id="@+id/paySofitButton" android:layout_toRightOf="@id/chufSofitButton" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="35dip" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal|center_vertical|center" android:text="@string/PaySofit" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" /> </RelativeLayout> </TableRow> <TableRow android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal|center_vertical|center" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" android:orientation="horizontal"> <LinearLayout android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal|center" android:gravity="bottom" android:orientation="horizontal"> <Button android:soundEffectsEnabled="true" android:id="@+id/zionButton" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal|center_vertical|center" android:layout_height="35dip" android:text="@string/Zion" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" /> <Button android:soundEffectsEnabled="true" android:id="@+id/samichButton" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal|center_vertical|center" android:layout_height="35dip" android:text="@string/Samich" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" /> <Button android:soundEffectsEnabled="true" android:id="@+id/betButton" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal|center_vertical|center" android:layout_height="35dip" android:text="@string/Bet" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" /> <Button android:soundEffectsEnabled="true" android:id="@+id/heyButton" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal|center_vertical|center" android:layout_height="35dip" android:text="@string/Hey" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" /> <Button android:soundEffectsEnabled="true" android:id="@+id/nunButton" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="35dip" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal|center_vertical|center" android:text="@string/Nun" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" /> <Button android:soundEffectsEnabled="true" android:id="@+id/memButton" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="35dip" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal|center_vertical|center" android:text="@string/Mem" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" /> <Button android:soundEffectsEnabled="true" android:id="@+id/tzadiButton" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="35dip" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal|center_vertical|center" android:text="@string/Tzadi" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" /> <Button android:soundEffectsEnabled="true" android:id="@+id/tuffButton" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="35dip" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal|center_vertical|center" android:text="@string/Tuff" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" /> <Button android:soundEffectsEnabled="true" android:id="@+id/tzadiSofitButton" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="35dip" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal|center_vertical|center" android:text="@string/TzadiSofit" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" /> </LinearLayout> </TableRow> <TableRow android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal|center_vertical|center" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" android:orientation="horizontal"> <LinearLayout android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal|center" android:gravity="bottom" android:orientation="horizontal"> <Button android:soundEffectsEnabled="true" android:id="@+id/hebrewBackButton" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="35dip" android:layout_gravity="right" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" android:text="<--"/> <Button android:soundEffectsEnabled="true" android:id="@+id/hebrewSpaceButton" android:layout_width="150dip" android:layout_height="35dip" android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal|center_vertical|center" android:text="" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" /> <Button android:soundEffectsEnabled="true" android:id="@+id/hebrewDoneButton" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_gravity="right" android:text="Done" android:fitsSystemWindows="true" /> </LinearLayout> </TableRow> </TableLayout> </TableLayout> </FrameLayout> Here is a picture of what it looks like right now in portrait: and here is what it looks like in landscape:

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Project Euler #15

- by Aistina

Hey everyone, Last night I was trying to solve challenge #15 from Project Euler: Starting in the top left corner of a 2×2 grid, there are 6 routes (without backtracking) to the bottom right corner. How many routes are there through a 20×20 grid? I figured this shouldn't be so hard, so I wrote a basic recursive function: const int gridSize = 20; // call with progress(0, 0) static int progress(int x, int y) { int i = 0; if (x < gridSize) i += progress(x + 1, y); if (y < gridSize) i += progress(x, y + 1); if (x == gridSize && y == gridSize) return 1; return i; } I verified that it worked for a smaller grids such as 2×2 or 3×3, and then set it to run for a 20×20 grid. Imagine my surprise when, 5 hours later, the program was still happily crunching the numbers, and only about 80% done (based on examining its current position/route in the grid). Clearly I'm going about this the wrong way. How would you solve this problem? I'm thinking it should be solved using an equation rather than a method like mine, but that's unfortunately not a strong side of mine. Update: I now have a working version. Basically it caches results obtained before when a n×m block still remains to be traversed. Here is the code along with some comments: // the size of our grid static int gridSize = 20; // the amount of paths available for a "NxM" block, e.g. "2x2" => 4 static Dictionary<string, long> pathsByBlock = new Dictionary<string, long>(); // calculate the surface of the block to the finish line static long calcsurface(long x, long y) { return (gridSize - x) * (gridSize - y); } // call using progress (0, 0) static long progress(long x, long y) { // first calculate the surface of the block remaining long surface = calcsurface(x, y); long i = 0; // zero surface means only 1 path remains // (we either go only right, or only down) if (surface == 0) return 1; // create a textual representation of the remaining // block, for use in the dictionary string block = (gridSize - x) + "x" + (gridSize - y); // if a same block has not been processed before if (!pathsByBlock.ContainsKey(block)) { // calculate it in the right direction if (x < gridSize) i += progress(x + 1, y); // and in the down direction if (y < gridSize) i += progress(x, y + 1); // and cache the result! pathsByBlock[block] = i; } // self-explanatory :) return pathsByBlock[block]; } Calling it 20 times, for grids with size 1×1 through 20×20 produces the following output: There are 2 paths in a 1 sized grid 0,0110006 seconds There are 6 paths in a 2 sized grid 0,0030002 seconds There are 20 paths in a 3 sized grid 0 seconds There are 70 paths in a 4 sized grid 0 seconds There are 252 paths in a 5 sized grid 0 seconds There are 924 paths in a 6 sized grid 0 seconds There are 3432 paths in a 7 sized grid 0 seconds There are 12870 paths in a 8 sized grid 0,001 seconds There are 48620 paths in a 9 sized grid 0,0010001 seconds There are 184756 paths in a 10 sized grid 0,001 seconds There are 705432 paths in a 11 sized grid 0 seconds There are 2704156 paths in a 12 sized grid 0 seconds There are 10400600 paths in a 13 sized grid 0,001 seconds There are 40116600 paths in a 14 sized grid 0 seconds There are 155117520 paths in a 15 sized grid 0 seconds There are 601080390 paths in a 16 sized grid 0,0010001 seconds There are 2333606220 paths in a 17 sized grid 0,001 seconds There are 9075135300 paths in a 18 sized grid 0,001 seconds There are 35345263800 paths in a 19 sized grid 0,001 seconds There are 137846528820 paths in a 20 sized grid 0,0010001 seconds 0,0390022 seconds in total I'm accepting danben's answer, because his helped me find this solution the most. But upvotes also to Tim Goodman and Agos :) Bonus update: After reading Eric Lippert's answer, I took another look and rewrote it somewhat. The basic idea is still the same but the caching part has been taken out and put in a separate function, like in Eric's example. The result is some much more elegant looking code. // the size of our grid const int gridSize = 20; // magic. static Func<A1, A2, R> Memoize<A1, A2, R>(this Func<A1, A2, R> f) { // Return a function which is f with caching. var dictionary = new Dictionary<string, R>(); return (A1 a1, A2 a2) => { R r; string key = a1 + "x" + a2; if (!dictionary.TryGetValue(key, out r)) { // not in cache yet r = f(a1, a2); dictionary.Add(key, r); } return r; }; } // calculate the surface of the block to the finish line static long calcsurface(long x, long y) { return (gridSize - x) * (gridSize - y); } // call using progress (0, 0) static Func<long, long, long> progress = ((Func<long, long, long>)((long x, long y) => { // first calculate the surface of the block remaining long surface = calcsurface(x, y); long i = 0; // zero surface means only 1 path remains // (we either go only right, or only down) if (surface == 0) return 1; // calculate it in the right direction if (x < gridSize) i += progress(x + 1, y); // and in the down direction if (y < gridSize) i += progress(x, y + 1); // self-explanatory :) return i; })).Memoize(); By the way, I couldn't think of a better way to use the two arguments as a key for the dictionary. I googled around a bit, and it seems this is a common solution. Oh well.

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vertical accordion from horizontal

- by Sify Juhy

//# jQuery - Horizontal Accordion //# Version 2.00.00 Alpha 1 //# //# portalZINE(R) - New Media Network //# http://www.portalzine.de //# //# Alexander Graef //# [email protected] //# //# Copyright 2007-2009 (function($) { $.hrzAccordion = { setOnEvent: function(i, container, finalWidth, settings){ $("#"+container+"Handle"+i).bind(settings.eventTrigger,function() { var status = $('[rel='+container+'ContainerSelected]').data('status'); if(status ==1 && settings.eventWaitForAnim === true){ return false; } if( $("#"+container+"Handle"+i).attr("rel") != container+"HandleSelected"){ settings.eventAction; $('[id*='+container+'Handle]').attr("rel",""); $('[id*='+container+'Handle]').attr("class",settings.handleClass); $("#"+container+"Handle"+i).addClass(settings.handleClassSelected); $("."+settings.contentWrapper).css({width: finalWidth+"px" }); switch(settings.closeOpenAnimation) { case 1: if($('[rel='+container+'ContainerSelected]').get(0) ){ $('[rel='+container+'ContainerSelected]').data('status',1); //current_width = $('[rel='+container+'ContainerSelected]').width(); $('[rel='+container+'ContainerSelected]').animate({width: "0px",opacity:"0"}, { queue:true, duration:settings.closeSpeed ,easing:settings.closeEaseAction,complete: function(){ $('[rel='+container+'ContainerSelected]').data('status',0); } ,step: function(now){ width = $(this).width(); //new_width = finalWidth- (finalWidth * (width/current_width)); new_width = finalWidth - width; $('#'+container+'Content'+i).width(Math.ceil(new_width)).css("opacity","1"); }}); }else{ $('[rel='+container+'ContainerSelected]').data('status',1); $('#'+container+'Content'+i).animate({width: finalWidth,opacity:"1"}, { queue:false, duration:settings.closeSpeed ,easing:settings.closeEaseAction,complete: function(){ $('[rel='+container+'ContainerSelected]').data('status',0); }}); } break; case 2: $('[id*='+container+'Content]').css({width: "0px"}); $('#'+container+'Content'+i).animate({width: finalWidth+"px",opacity:"1"}, { queue:false, duration:settings.openSpeed ,easing:settings.openEaseAction, complete: settings.completeAction }); break; } $('[id*='+container+'Content]').attr("rel",""); $("#"+container+"Handle"+i).attr("rel",container+"HandleSelected"); $("#"+container+"Content"+i).attr("rel",container+"ContainerSelected"); } }); } }; $.fn.extend({ hrzAccordionLoop: function(options) { return this.each(function(a){ var container = $(this).attr("id") || $(this).attr("class"); var elementCount = $('#'+container+' > li, .'+container+' > li').size(); var settings = $(this).data('settings'); variable_holder="interval"+container ; var i =0; var loopStatus = "start"; variable_holder = window.setInterval(function(){ $("#"+container+"Handle"+i).trigger(settings.eventTrigger); if(loopStatus =="start"){ i = i + 1; }else{ i = i-1; } if(i==elementCount && loopStatus == "start"){ loopStatus = "end"; i=elementCount-1; } if(i==0 && loopStatus == "end"){ loopStatus = "start"; i=0; } },settings.cycleInterval); }); }, hrzAccordion: function(options) { this.settings = { eventTrigger : "click", containerClass : "container", listItemClass : "listItem", contentContainerClass : "contentContainer", contentWrapper : "contentWrapper", contentInnerWrapper : "contentInnerWrapper", handleClass : "handle", handleClassOver : "handleOver", handleClassSelected : "handleSelected", handlePosition : "right", handlePositionArray : "", // left,left,right,right,right closeEaseAction : "swing", closeSpeed : 500, openEaseAction : "swing", openSpeed : 500, openOnLoad : 2, hashPrefix : "tab", eventAction : function(){ //add your own extra clickAction function here }, completeAction : function(){ //add your own onComplete function here }, closeOpenAnimation : 1,// 1 - open and close at the same time / 2- close all and than open next cycle : false, // not integrated yet, will allow to cycle through tabs by interval cycleInterval : 10000, fixedWidth : "", eventWaitForAnim : true }; if(options){ $.extend(this.settings, options); } var settings = this.settings; return this.each(function(a){ var container = $(this).attr("id") || $(this).attr("class"); $(this).data('settings', settings); $(this).wrap("<div class='"+settings.containerClass+"'></div>"); var elementCount = $('#'+container+' > li, .'+container+' > li').size(); var containerWidth = $("."+settings.containerClass).width(); var handleWidth = $("."+settings.handleClass).css("width"); handleWidth = handleWidth.replace(/px/,""); var finalWidth; var handle; if(settings.fixedWidth){ finalWidth = settings.fixedWidth; }else{ finalWidth = containerWidth-(elementCount*handleWidth)-handleWidth; } $('#'+container+' > li, .'+container+' > li').each(function(i) { $(this).attr('id', container+"ListItem"+i); $(this).attr('class',settings.listItemClass); $(this).html("<div class='"+settings.contentContainerClass+"' id='"+container+"Content"+i+"'>" +"<div class=\""+settings.contentWrapper+"\">" +"<div class=\""+settings.contentInnerWrapper+"\">" +$(this).html() +"</div></div></div>"); if($("div",this).hasClass(settings.handleClass)){ var html = $("div."+settings.handleClass,this).attr("id",""+container+"Handle"+i+"").html(); $("div."+settings.handleClass,this).remove(); handle = "<div class=\""+settings.handleClass+"\" id='"+container+"Handle"+i+"'>"+html+"</div>"; }else{ handle = "<div class=\""+settings.handleClass+"\" id='"+container+"Handle"+i+"'></div>"; } if(settings.handlePositionArray){ splitthis = settings.handlePositionArray.split(","); settings.handlePosition = splitthis[i]; } switch(settings.handlePosition ){ case "left": $(this).prepend( handle ); break; case "right": $(this).append( handle ); break; case "top": $("."+container+"Top").append( handle ); break; case "bottom": $("."+container+"Bottom").append( handle ); break; } $("#"+container+"Handle"+i).bind("mouseover", function(){ $("#"+container+"Handle"+i).addClass(settings.handleClassOver); }); $("#"+container+"Handle"+i).bind("mouseout", function(){ if( $("#"+container+"Handle"+i).attr("rel") != "selected"){ $("#"+container+"Handle"+i).removeClass(settings.handleClassOver); } }); $.hrzAccordion.setOnEvent(i, container, finalWidth, settings); if(i == elementCount-1){ $('#'+container+",."+container).show(); } if(settings.openOnLoad !== false && i == elementCount-1){ var location_hash = location.hash; location_hash = location_hash.replace("#", ""); if(location_hash.search(settings.hashPrefix) != '-1' ){ var tab = 1; location_hash = location_hash.replace(settings.hashPrefix, ""); } if(location_hash && tab ==1){ $("#"+container+"Handle"+(location_hash)).attr("rel",container+"HandleSelected"); $("#"+container+"Content"+(location_hash)).attr("rel",container+"ContainerSelected"); $("#"+container+"Handle"+(location_hash-1)).trigger(settings.eventTrigger); }else{ $("#"+container+"Handle"+(settings.openOnLoad)).attr("rel",container+"HandleSelected"); $("#"+container+"Content"+(settings.openOnLoad)).attr("rel",container+"ContainerSelected"); $("#"+container+"Handle"+(settings.openOnLoad-1)).trigger(settings.eventTrigger); } } }); if(settings.cycle === true){ $(this).hrzAccordionLoop(); } }); } }); })(jQuery); **Given is the code used for the accordion...please check out this Accordion Link. in the link there are four examples of accordions. i want the last accordion i.e example 4 to be vertical ...kindly help me.

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CSS layout problem on Firefox with filling space between end of left column and footer

- by Jean

Basically, the left column is supposed to extend to the footer with the continuous red color. However, in Firefox on pages with lots of text, the column does not extend to the footer and leaves a large white gap--see site: http://library.luhs.org/JHSII/about.html I've tried readjusting the heights, creating the sticky footer, and other things I've read about on this site. So I admit that I'm stumped, and what's really odd is that the layout seems to work in IE as there is no white space! I didn't create the site, but I recently inherited it and trying to work through the mess Any help is much appreciated, here's the CSS #html,body{ margin:0; padding:0; border:0; height:100%; } #body{ background:#ffffff; min-width:965px; text-align:center; width: 600px; font: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; } #.style7{ clear:both; height:1px; overflow:hidden; line-height:1%; font-size:0px; margin-bottom:-1px; } #fullheightcontainer{ margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; text-align:left; position:relative; width:965px; height:100%; } #wrapper{ min-height:100%; height:100%; background:#660000; background-color: #660000; background-repeat: repeat; } #wrapp\65 r{ height:auto; } # html wrapper{ height:100%; } #outer{ z-index:1; position:relative; margin-left:150px; width:815px; background:#FFFFFF; height:100%; background-color: #FFFFFF; } #left{ width:151px; float:left; display:inline; position:relative; margin-left:-150px; } padding: 20px; border: 0; margin: 0 0 0 240px *>html #left{width:150px;} #container-left{ width:150px; color: #CCCCCC; } * html #left{margin-right:-3px;} #center{ width:800px; float:right; display:inline; margin-left:-1px; } #clearheadercenter{ height:125px; overflow:hidden; } #clearfootercenter{ height:50px; overflow:hidden; } #footer{ z-index:1; position:relative; clear: both; width:965px; height:50px; overflow:hidden; margin-top:-50px; background-color: #660000; } #subfooter1{ background:#FFFFCC; text-align:left; margin-left:150px; height:50px; } #header{ z-index:1; position:absolute; top:0px; width:815px; margin-left:150px; height:100px; overflow:hidden; background-color: #660000; } #subheader1{ background:#FFFFCC; text-align:center; height:70px; } #gfx_bg_middle{ top:0px; position:absolute; height:100%; overflow:hidden; width:815px; margin-left:150px; background:#FFFFFF; } # html #gfx_bg_middle{ display:none; } #floatingnav { margin: 5px 10px 5px 5px; padding: 0px 5px 5px; float: right; font: .75em/1.35em Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; height: 600px; width: 300px; } #floatingnav a { color: #630; } #floatingnav ul { margin-top: -5; } #.floatright { float: right; margin: 0 0 10px 10px; border: 1px solid #666; padding: 2px; } #outer{ word-wrap:break-word; } #table.s1 { border-width: medium; border-spacing: 2px; border-style: none; border-color: rgb(85, 0, 0); border-collapse: collapse; background-color: white; } #table.s1 th { border-width: medium; padding: 2px; border-style: groove; border-color: red; background-color: white; -moz-border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px; } #table.s1 td { border-width: medium; padding: 2px; border-style: groove; border-color: #660000; background-color: #FFFFFF; -moz-border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px; } #a:link { color: #000066; } #a:visited { color: #000066; } #p.sample { font-family: serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: medium; line-height: 100%; word-spacing: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-decoration: none; text-transform: none; text-align: left; text-indent: 0ex; }

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Facebook like button not going back side on the fixed div

- by Lahiru Chathuranga

I added a Facebook like button to my website.My website has a fixed div on top of the page(blue color div in the image). The like button is below that(in a div which can scroll) My problem is when the page is scroll down the like button comes on top of the fixed div(blue color).I want to scroll it from the backside of the div.How can I do that? There are couple of screenshots I added Before Scroll After Scroll Here is my code of the fixed div <script type="text/javascript"> function got_to_signup(){ window.location.href = "view/policy"; } </script> <div id="fb-root"></div> <script>(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/all.js#xfbml=1&appId=368003049941951"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script> <div style="width:100%;background-color:#0094d6;" > <div id="dd" style="background-color:#0094d6; width:100%; height:75px;position:fixed; " class="center "><div id="a" style="width:1010px; height:75px; background-color:#000000;background:url(xx.png); background-repeat:no-repeat; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:11px; color:#003; " class="inner div_border"> <table width="1010" border="0" > <tr > <td width="15%" rowspan="2"><a href="" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;"><div style="width:200px; height:50px;background-color:none;"></div></a></td> <td width="22%" height="14"> </td> <td width="5%"> </td> <td width="5%"> </td> <td width="28%"> </td> <td width="2%"> </td> <td width="23%"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="4"> </td> <td colspan="2"><span style="float: right; " ><div style="background-color:#006d9e;border-radius:3px; width:250px; height:34px; display: table; vertical-align: middle; color:#FFF; "> <table width="100%" border="0" > <tr > <td width="43%" style="text-align:center"> Start to bump !</td> <td width="29%"><div id='basic-modal'><span style="float: right; " ><input name="login_btn" type="button" class="login_button basic" id="login_btn" value="Sign in" /></span></div></td> <td width="28%"><span style="float: right; " ><form id="form_reg" method="post"><input name="register_btn" type="button" class="register_button" id="register_btn" value="Sign up" onclick="got_to_signup()"/></form></span></td> </tr> </table> </div></span></td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td style="color:#FFF; font:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:9px; text-align:right;"> Beta Version </td> </tr> </table> </div></div></div> here is my facebook like button code </script> <div id="fb-root"></div> <script>(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/all.js#xfbml=1&appId=368003049941951"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script> <td height="21" colspan="2"> <table width="187" style="margin-left:3px;font-size:1px;background-image:url(share_back.png);background-repeat:no-repeat;border-radius:3px;" >  <tr><td width="71"><a href="https://twitter.com/bump_lk" class="twitter-follow-button" data-show-count="false" style="float:right;">Follow @bump_lk</a> <script>!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");</script></td>  <td width="48"><div class="fb-like" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/Bump.lk" data-send="false" data-layout="button_count" data-width="10" data-show-faces="false" style="position:relative;"></div> </td></tr></table></td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td >

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Asp controls Id generation inside repeater

- by toraan

I define some controls inside repeater itemtemplate, the problem is with the Id that are generated automatically. This is my page: <asp:Repeater ID="rptThreads" runat="server" onitemcreated="rptThreads_ItemCreated"> <HeaderTemplate> <table cellpadding="0px" cellspacing="0"> </HeaderTemplate> <ItemTemplate> <tr style="height:50px"> <td> <asp:PlaceHolder ID="plcItemTitle" runat="server"> <asp:Panel id="titleContainer" runat="server" style="position:absolute;"> <asp:HyperLink ID="lnkTitle" runat="server" style="float:left;padding-right:10px;" Text='<%# Container.DataItem%>'/> <asp:Panel id="pnlEditButtons" runat="server" Visible="false" style="vertical-align:middle;z-index:100;display:none;float:left;" > <asp:ImageButton ID="imgbtn1" runat="server" ImageUrl="~/Images/misc/edit.png" /> <asp:ImageButton ID="imgbtn2" runat="server" ImageUrl="~/Images/misc/Rename.png" /> </asp:Panel> </asp:Panel> </asp:PlaceHolder> </td> </tr> </ItemTemplate> <FooterTemplate> </table> </FooterTemplate> </asp:Repeater> Now I will try to describe the problem: code-behind: protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) { int [] array = {1,2,3,4,5}; rptThreads.DataSource = array; rptThreads.DataBind(); } protected void rptThreads_ItemCreated(object sender, RepeaterItemEventArgs e) { if (e.Item.ItemType == ListItemType.Item || e.Item.ItemType == ListItemType.AlternatingItem) { Panel editButtonsPanel = e.Item.FindControl("pnlEditButtons") as Panel; editButtonsPanel.Visible = true; Panel containerPanel = e.Item.FindControl("titleContainer") as Panel; //Point of Interest!!!! containerPanel.Attributes.Add("onmouseover", "ShowEditButtons('" + editButtonsPanel.ClientID + "');"); } } If I run the page as is, the generated html will be the following (I show only the first 2 items): <table cellpadding="0px" cellspacing="0"> <tr style="height:50px"> <td> <div id="titleContainer" onmouseover="ShowEditButtons('pnlEditButtons');" style="position:absolute;"> <a id="lnkTitle" style="float:left;padding-right:10px;">1</a> <div id="pnlEditButtons" style="vertical-align:middle;z-index:100;display:none;float:left;"> <input type="image" name="imgbtn1" id="imgbtn1" src="Images/misc/edit.png" style="border-width:0px;" /> <input type="image" name="imgbtn2" id="imgbtn2" src="Images/misc/Rename.png" style="border-width:0px;" /> </div> </div> </td> </tr> <tr style="height:50px"> <td> <div id="titleContainer" onmouseover="ShowEditButtons('pnlEditButtons');" style="position:absolute;"> <a id="lnkTitle" style="float:left;padding-right:10px;">2</a> <div id="pnlEditButtons" style="vertical-align:middle;z-index:100;display:none;float:left;"> <input type="image" name="imgbtn1" id="imgbtn1" src="Images/misc/edit.png" style="border-width:0px;" /> <input type="image" name="imgbtn2" id="imgbtn2" src="Images/misc/Rename.png" style="border-width:0px;" /> </div> </div> </td> </tr> As you can see all divs get the SAME ID, THIS I DONT WANT!!! But If I omit this line form the ItemCreated event: containerPanel.Attributes.Add("onmouseover", "ShowEditButtons('" + editButtonsPanel.ClientID + "');"); The generated HTML will be the following: <table cellpadding="0px" cellspacing="0"> <tr style="height:50px"> <td> <div id="rptThreads_ctl01_titleContainer" style="position:absolute;"> <a id="rptThreads_ctl01_lnkTitle" style="float:left;padding-right:10px;">1</a> <div id="rptThreads_ctl01_pnlEditButtons" style="vertical-align:middle;z-index:100;display:none;float:left;"> <input type="image" name="rptThreads$ctl01$imgbtn1" id="rptThreads_ctl01_imgbtn1" src="Images/misc/edit.png" style="border-width:0px;" /> <input type="image" name="rptThreads$ctl01$imgbtn2" id="rptThreads_ctl01_imgbtn2" src="Images/misc/Rename.png" style="border-width:0px;" /> </div> </div> </td> </tr> <tr style="height:50px"> <td> <div id="rptThreads_ctl02_titleContainer" style="position:absolute;"> <a id="rptThreads_ctl02_lnkTitle" style="float:left;padding-right:10px;">2</a> <div id="rptThreads_ctl02_pnlEditButtons" style="vertical-align:middle;z-index:100;display:none;float:left;"> <input type="image" name="rptThreads$ctl02$imgbtn1" id="rptThreads_ctl02_imgbtn1" src="Images/misc/edit.png" style="border-width:0px;" /> <input type="image" name="rptThreads$ctl02$imgbtn2" id="rptThreads_ctl02_imgbtn2" src="Images/misc/Rename.png" style="border-width:0px;" /> </div> </div> </td> </tr> All divs get unique IDs, and this I do want My questions are: 1)why it happens? why this line of code messup the ids? 2)how can have the unique ID's and assign javascript in codebehind? I can add this on aspx (it will wotk and I will get unique ids): onmouseover='<%# "javascript:ShowEditButtons(\""+ Container.FindControl("pnlEditButtons").ClientID+ "\");" %>' But I must do it in codebehind because I need to set the javascript only if server validate some things.

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what "Debug Assertion Failed" mean and how to fix it, c++?

- by nonon

hi, why this program gives me a "Debug Assertion Failed" Error Message while running #include "stdafx.h" #include "iostream" #include "fstream" #include "string" using namespace std; int conv_ch(char b) { int f; f=b; b=b+0; switch(b) { case 48: f=0; break; case 49: f=1; break; case 50: f=2; break; case 51: f=3; break; case 52: f=4; break; case 53: f=5; break; case 54: f=6; break; case 55: f=7; break; case 56: f=8; break; case 57: f=9; break; default: f=0; } return f; } class Student { public: string id; size_t id_len; string first_name; size_t first_len; string last_name; size_t last_len; string phone; size_t phone_len; string grade; size_t grade_len; void print(); void clean(); }; void Student::clean() { id.erase (id.begin()+6, id.end()); first_name.erase (first_name.begin()+15, first_name.end()); last_name.erase (last_name.begin()+15, last_name.end()); phone.erase (phone.begin()+10, phone.end()); grade.erase (grade.begin()+2, grade.end()); } void Student::print() { int i; for(i=0;i<6;i++) { cout<<id[i]; } cout<<endl; for(i=0;i<15;i++) { cout<<first_name[i]; } cout<<endl; for(i=0;i<15;i++) { cout<<last_name[i]; } cout<<endl; for(i=0;i<10;i++) { cout<<phone[i]; } cout<<endl; for(i=0;i<2;i++) { cout<<grade[i]; } cout<<endl; } int main() { Student k[80]; char data[1200]; int length,i,recn=0; int rec_length; int counter = 0; fstream myfile; char x1,x2; char y1,y2; char zz; int ad=0; int ser,j; myfile.open ("example.txt",ios::in); int right; int left; int middle; string key; while(!myfile.eof()){ myfile.get(data,1200); char * pch; pch = strtok (data, "#"); printf ("%s\n", pch); j=0; for(i=0;i<6;i++) { k[recn].id[i]=data[j]; j++; } for(i=0;i<15;i++) { k[recn].first_name[i]=data[j]; j++; } for(i=0;i<15;i++) { k[recn].last_name[i]=data[j]; j++; } for(i=0;i<10;i++) { k[recn].phone[i]=data[j]; j++; } for(i=0;i<2;i++) { k[recn].grade[i]=data[j]; j++; } recn++; j=0; } //cout<<recn; string temp1; size_t temp2; int temp3; for(i=0;i<recn-1;i++) { for(j=0;j<recn-1;j++) { if(k[i].id.compare(k[j].id)<0) { temp1 = k[i].first_name; k[i].first_name = k[j].first_name; k[j].first_name = temp1; temp2 = k[i].first_len; k[i].first_len = k[j].first_len; k[j].first_len = temp2; temp1 = k[i].last_name; k[i].last_name = k[j].last_name; k[j].last_name = temp1; temp2 = k[i].last_len; k[i].last_len = k[j].last_len; k[j].last_len = temp2; temp1 = k[i].grade; k[i].grade = k[j].grade; k[j].grade = temp1; temp2 = k[i].grade_len; k[i].grade_len = k[j].grade_len; k[j].grade_len = temp2; temp1 = k[i].id; k[i].id = k[j].id; k[j].id = temp1; temp2 = k[i].id_len; k[i].id_len = k[j].id_len; k[j].id_len = temp2; temp1 = k[i].phone; k[i].phone = k[j].phone; k[j].phone = temp1; temp2 = k[i].phone_len; k[i].phone_len = k[j].phone_len; k[j].phone_len = temp2; } } } for(i=0;i<recn-1;i++) { k[i].clean(); } char z; string id_sear; cout<<"Enter 1 to display , 2 to search , 3 to exit:"; cin>>z; while(1){ switch(z) { case '1': for(i=0;i<recn-1;i++) { k[i].print(); } break; case '2': cin>>key; right=0; left=recn-2; while(right<=left) { middle=((right+left)/2); if(key.compare(k[middle].id)==0){ cout<<"Founded"<<endl; k[middle].print(); break; } else if(key.compare(k[middle].id)<0) { left=middle-1; } else { right=middle+1; } } break; case '3': exit(0); break; } cout<<"Enter 1 to display , 2 to search , 3 to exit:"; cin>>z; } return 0; } the program reads from a file example.txt 313121crewwe matt 0114323111A # 433444cristinaee john 0113344325A+# 324311matte richee 3040554032B # the idea is to read fixed size field structure with a text seprator record strucutre

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Unknown Space between 2 Container Divs

- by Paul

Im trying to determine why there would be space between 2 Containing Divs as shown, and I would appreciate any insight as to why this is occurring: The unknown space occurs between the mid-feature div (olive) and bottom-wrap div (orange) I have no heights set anywhere. I would like to see the orange div up against the olive div just above it. I can post all of the CSS, or you can FireBug this: www.davincispainting.com Here is all of the CSS: *{ margin:0; padding:0 } body { /*background: url("/images/blueback5.jpg") repeat-x scroll 0 0 transparent;*/ background-color: #9EB0C8; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 62.5%; } #top-wrap { height: 126px; width: 940px; /*background-color: Yellow;*/ margin: 5px 0 0 0; } #head-logo { background: url("/images/logo3.png") no-repeat scroll 0 0 transparent; /*background-color: Green;*/ height: 126px; width: 214px; margin: 0px 0 0 58px; position: absolute; z-index: 100; } #submenu1 { border: 0 solid #000000; color: #FFFFFF; /*background-color:Green;*/ font-family: Arial,Impact,Impact5,Charcoal6,sans-serif; font-size: 1.6em; height: 35px; width: 155px; /*padding: 10px 0 0;*/ margin: 7px 0 0 774px; position: absolute; } #submenu2 { /*border: 0 solid #000000;*/ color: #FFFFFF; /*background-color:Blue;*/ font-family: Arial,Impact,Impact5,Charcoal6,sans-serif; font-size: 1.8em; text-align: right; height: 20px; width: 114px; margin: 30px 0 0 818px; /*padding: 5px 0 0;*/ } a.contact { background-image: url("/images/RapidButton2.png"); /*border: 1px solid #CCCCCC;*/ /*clear: both;*/ /*color: #FFFFFF;*/ display: block; font-size: 11px; /*margin-bottom: 1px;*/ /*padding: 3px 5px;*/ text-align: center; width: 165px; height: 27px; } a.contact:hover { background-image: url("/images/RapidButtonHov2.png"); } #navigation-primary { margin: 12px 0 0 276px; position: absolute; } #global-wrap { margin: 0 auto; text-align: left; width: 880px; overflow: hidden; } #global-inner { background: url("/images/main_bg.gif") repeat-y scroll 0 0 #E4EAEF; font-family: Arial; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 15px 0 55px 0; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; width: 880px; } #global-inner .topleft { background: url("/images/main_left_top_corner2.jpg") no-repeat scroll left top transparent; float: left; height: 9px; width: 9px; } #global-inner .topright { background: url("/images/main_right_top_corner2.jpg") no-repeat scroll right top transparent; float: right; height: 9px; width: 9px; } #global-inner .bottomleft { background: url("/images/main_left_bottom_corner.jpg") no-repeat scroll left bottom transparent; float: left; height: 9px; margin-top: -8px; /*margin: 776px 0 0 0;*/ width: 9px; } #global-inner .bottomright { background: url("/images/main_right_bottom_corner.jpg") no-repeat scroll right bottom transparent; float: right; height: 9px; margin-top: -8px; /*margin: 776px 0 0 0;*/ width: 9px; } #top-feature { height:330px; width: 848px; margin: 12px 0 0 16px; background: #E4EAEF; /*background: orange;*/ /*padding: 10px 0 0 10px;*/ position: absolute; text-align: left; } .slideshow { height: 330px; width: 848px; margin: 0 0 0 0; /*background: blue;*/ position: absolute; } #mid-feature { margin:350px 0 0 16px; width:848px; height:318px; background-color:Olive; position:relative; overflow:hidden; } #mid-featureleft { height:318px; width:552px; /*background-color:Purple;*/ float:left; position:relative; } #mid-featureright { height:318px; width:296px; background-color:#B9C1CC; /*background-color: red;*/ float:left; position: relative; } #mid-featureleft h1 { color: #FF0000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 2.1em; } #mid-featureleft .contentbox { padding:7px 7px 7px 7px; } #mid-featureleft p { color: #0C2A55; margin:0px 0 11px 0px; /*font-style:normal;*/ /*width: 97%;*/ /*font-size: .5em;*/ font-size: 12px; } #bottom-wrap { height:60px; width: 868px; margin: auto 0 0 6px; background:orange; position: relative; } #copyright { float: left; /*background-color:Teal;*/ width: 260px; height: 60px; text-align: left; position: absolute; margin:0 0 0 6px; } #bottom-logos { height:60px; width:596px; margin:0 0 0 267px; background: url("/images/logos2.png") no-repeat scroll 0 0 transparent; /*background-color:red;*/ position:absolute; }

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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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Map a Network Drive from XP to Windows 7

- by Mysticgeek

We’ve received a lot of questions about mapping a drive from XP to Windows 7 to access data easily. Today we look at how to map a drive in Windows 7, and how to map to an XP drive from Windows 7. With the new Homegroup feature in Windows 7, it makes sharing data between computers a lot easier. But you might need to map a network drive so you can go directly into a folder to access its contents. Mapping a network drive may sound like “IT talk”, but the process is fairly easy. Map Network Drive in Windows 7 Note: All of the computers used in this article are part of the same workgroup on a home network. In this first example we’re mapping to another Windows 7 drive on the network. Open Computer and from the toolbar click on Map Network Drive. Alternately in Computer you can hit “Alt+T” to pull up the toolbar and click on Tools \ Map Network Drive. Now give it an available drive letter, type in the path or browse to the folder you want to map to. Check the box next to Reconnect at logon if you want it available after a reboot, and click Finish. If both machines aren’t part of the same Homegroup, you may be prompted to enter in a username and password. Make sure and check the box next to Remember my credentials if you don’t want to log in every time to access it. The drive will map and the contents of the folder will open up. When you look in Computer, you’ll see the drive under network location. This process works if you want to connect to a server drive as well. In this example we map to a Home Server drive. Map an XP Drive to Windows 7 There might be times when you need to map a drive on an XP machine on your network. There are extra steps you’ll need to take to make it work however. Here we take a look at the problem you’ll encounter when trying to map to an XP machine if things aren’t set up correctly. If you try to browse to your XP machine you’ll see a message that you don’t have permission. Or if you try to enter in the path directly, you’ll be prompted for a username and password, and the annoyance is, no matter what credentials you put in, you can’t connect. To solve the problem we need to set up the Windows 7 machine as a user on the XP machine and make them part of the Administrators group. Right-click My Computer and select Manage. Under Computer Management expand Local Users and Groups and click on the Users folder. Right-click an empty area and click New User. Add in the user credentials, uncheck User must change password at next logon, then check Password never expires then click Create. Now you see the new user you created in the list. After the user is added you might want to reboot before proceeding to the next step. Next we need to make the user part of the Administrators group. So go back into Computer Management \ Local Users and Groups \ Groups then double click on Administrators. Click the Add button in Administrators Properties window. Enter in the new user you created and click OK. An easy way to do this is to enter the name of the user you created then click Check Names and the path will be entered in for you. Now you see the user as a member of the Administrators group. Back on the Windows 7 machine we’ll start the process of mapping a drive. Here we’re browsing to the XP Media Center Edition machine. Now we can enter in the user name and password we just created. If you only want to access specific shared folders on the XP machine you can browse to them. Or if you want to map to the entire drive, enter in the drive path where in this example it’s “\\XPMCE\C$” –Don’t forget the “$” sign after the local drive letter. Then login… Again the contents of the drive will open up for you to access. Here you can see we have two drives mapped. One to another Windows 7 machine on the network, and the other one to the XP computer. If you ever want to disconnect a drive, just right-click on it and then Disconnect. There are several scenarios where you might want to map a drive in Windows 7 to access specific data. It takes a little bit of work but you can map to an XP drive from Windows 7 as well. This comes in handy where you have a network with different versions of Windows running on it. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Find Your Missing USB Drive on Windows XPMake Vista Index Your Network ConnectionsEasily Backup & Import Your Wireless Network Settings in Windows 7Quickly Open Network Connections List in Windows 7 or VistaHow To Find Drives Easily with Desk Drive TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Kill Processes Quickly with Process Assassin Need to Come Up with a Good Name? Try Wordoid StockFox puts a Lightweight Stock Ticker in your Statusbar Explore Google Public Data Visually The Ultimate Excel Cheatsheet Convert the Quick Launch Bar into a Super Application Launcher

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Blending the Sketchflow Action

- by GeekAgilistMercenary

Started a new Sketchflow Prototype in Expression Blend recently and documented each of the steps. This blog entry covers some of those steps, which are the basic elements of any prototype. I will have more information regarding design, prototype creation, and the process of the initial phases for development in the future. For now, I hope you enjoy this short walk through. Also, be sure to check out my last quick entry on Sketchflow. I started off with a Sketchflow Project, just like I did in my previous entry (more specifics in that entry about how to manipulate and build out the Sketchflow Map). Once I created the project I setup the following Sketchflow Map. The CoreNavigation is a ComponentScreen setup solely for the page navigation at the top of the screen. The XAML markup in case you want to create a Component Screen with the same design is included below. <UserControl xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008" xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006" mc:Ignorable="d" xmlns:i="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Interactivity;assembly=System.Windows.Interactivity" xmlns:pb="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Expression.Prototyping.Behavior;assembly=Microsoft.Expression.Prototyping.Interactivity" x:Class="RapidPrototypeSketchScreens.CoreNavigation" d:DesignWidth="624" d:DesignHeight="49" Height="49" Width="624"> <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot"> <TextBlock HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" Margin="307,3,0,0" Style="{StaticResource TitleCenter-Sketch}" Text="Aütøchart Scorecards" TextWrapping="Wrap"> <i:Interaction.Triggers> <i:EventTrigger EventName="MouseLeftButtonDown"> <pb:NavigateToScreenAction TargetScreen="RapidPrototypeSketchScreens.Screen_1"/> </i:EventTrigger> </i:Interaction.Triggers> </TextBlock> <Button HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="164,8,0,11" Style="{StaticResource Button-Sketch}" Width="144" Content="Scorecard"> <i:Interaction.Triggers> <i:EventTrigger EventName="Click"> <pb:NavigateToScreenAction TargetScreen="RapidPrototypeSketchScreens.Screen_1_2"/> </i:EventTrigger> </i:Interaction.Triggers> </Button> <Button HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="8,8,0,11" Style="{StaticResource Button-Sketch}" Width="152" Content="Standard Reports"> <i:Interaction.Triggers> <i:EventTrigger EventName="Click"> <pb:NavigateToScreenAction TargetScreen="RapidPrototypeSketchScreens.Screen_1_1"/> </i:EventTrigger> </i:Interaction.Triggers> </Button> </Grid> </UserControl> Now that the CoreNavigation Component Screen is done I built out each of the others. In each of those screens I included the CoreNavigation Screen (all those little green lines in the image) as the top navigation. In order to do that, as I created each of the pages I would hover over the CoreNavigation Object in the Sketchflow Map. When the utilities drawer (the small menu that pops down under a node when you hover over it) shows click on the third little icon and drag it onto the page node you want a navigation screen on. Once I created all the screens I setup the navigation by opening up each screen and right clicking on the objects that needed to point to somewhere else in the prototype. Once I was done with the main page, my Home Navigation Page, it looked something like this in the Expression Blend Designer. I fleshed out each of the additional screens. Once I was done I wanted to try out the deployment package. The way to deploy a Sketchflow Prototype is to merely click on File –> Package SketchFlow Project and a prompt will appear. In the prompt enter what you want the package to be called. I like to see the files generated afterwards too, so I checked the box to see that. When Expression Blend is done generating everything you’ll have a directory like the one shown below, with all the needed files for deployment. Now these files can be copied or moved to any location for viewing. One can even copy them (such as via FTP) to a server location to share with others. Once they are deployed and you run the "TestPage.html" the other features of the Sketchflow Package are available. In the image below I have tagged a few sections to show the Sketchflow Player Features. To the top left is the navigation, which provides a clearly defined area of movement in a list. To the center right is the actual prototype application. I have placed lists of things and made edits. On the left hand side is the highlight feature, which is available in the Feedback section of the lower left. On the right hand list I underlined the Autochart with an orange marker, and marked out two list items with a red marker. In the lower left hand side in the Feedback section is also an area to type in your feedback. This can be useful for time based feedback, when you post this somewhere and want people to provide subsequent follow up feedback. Overall lots of great features, that enable some fairly rapid prototyping with customers. Once one is familiar with the steps and parts of this Sketchflow Prototype Capabilities it is easy to step through an application without even stopping. It really is that easy. So get hold of Expression Blend 3 and get ramped up on Sketchflow, it will pay off in the design phases to do so! Original Entry

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SQLAuthority News – TechEd India – April 12-14, 2010 Bangalore – An Unforgettable Experience – An Op

- by pinaldave

TechEd India was one of the largest Technology events in India led by Microsoft. This event was attended by more than 3,000 technology enthusiasts, making it one of the most well-organized events of the year. Though I attempted to attend almost all the technology events here, I have not seen any bigger or better event in Indian subcontinents other than this. There are 21 Technical Tracks at Tech·Ed India 2010 that span more than 745 learning opportunities. I was fortunate enough to be a part of this whole event as a speaker and a delegate, as well. TechEd India Speaker Badge and A Token of Lifetime Hotel Selection I presented three different sessions at TechEd India and was also a part of panel discussion. (The details of the sessions are given at the end of this blog post.) Due to extensive traveling, I stay away from my family occasionally. For this reason, I took my wife – Nupur and daughter Shaivi (8 months old) to the event along with me. We stayed at the same hotel where the event was organized so as to maximize my time bonding with my family and to have more time in networking with technology community, at the same time. The hotel Lalit Ashok is the largest and most luxurious venue one can find in Bangalore, located in the middle of the city. The cost of the hotel was a bit pricey, but looking at all the advantages, I had decided to ask for a booking there. Hotel Lalit Ashok Nupur Dave and Shaivi Dave Arrival Day – DAY 0 – April 11, 2010 I reached the event a day earlier, and that was one wise decision for I was able to relax a bit and go over my presentation for the next day’s course. I am a kind of person who likes to get everything ready ahead of time. I was also able to enjoy a pleasant evening with several Microsoft employees and my family friends. I even checked out the location where I would be doing presentations the next day. I was fortunate enough to meet Bijoy Singhal from Microsoft who helped me out with a few of the logistics issues that occured the day before. I was not aware of the fact that the very next day he was going to be “The Man” of the TechEd 2010 event. Vinod Kumar from Microsoft was really very kind as he talked to me regarding my subsequent session. He gave me some suggestions which were really helpful that I was able to incorporate them during my presentation. Finally, I was able to meet Abhishek Kant from Microsoft; his valuable suggestions and unlimited passion have inspired many people like me to work with the Community. Pradipta from Microsoft was also around, being extremely busy with logistics; however, in those busy times, he did find some good spare time to have a chat with me and the other Community leaders. I also met Harish Ranganathan and Sachin Rathi, both from Microsoft. It was so interesting to listen to both of them talking about SharePoint. I just have no words to express my overwhelmed spirit because of all these passionate young guys - Pradipta,Vinod, Bijoy, Harish, Sachin and Ahishek (of course!). Map of TechEd India 2010 Event Day 1 – April 12, 2010 From morning until night time, today was truly a very busy day for me. I had two presentations and one panel discussion for the day. Needless to say, I had a few meetings to attend as well. The day started with a keynote from S. Somaseger where he announced the launch of Visual Studio 2010. The keynote area was really eye-catching because of the very large, bigger-than- life uniform screen. This was truly one to show. The title music of the keynote was very interesting and it featured Bijoy Singhal as the model. It was interesting to talk to him afterwards, when we laughed at jokes together about his modeling assignment. TechEd India Keynote Opening Featuring Bijoy TechEd India 2010 Keynote – S. Somasegar Time: 11:15pm – 11:45pm Session 1: True Lies of SQL Server – SQL Myth Buster Following the excellent keynote, I had my very first session on the subject of SQL Server Myth Buster. At first, I was a bit nervous as right after the keynote, for this was my very first session and during my presentation I saw lots of Microsoft Product Team members. Well, it really went well and I had a really good discussion with attendees of the session. I felt that a well begin was half-done and my confidence was regained. Right after the session, I met a few of my Community friends and had meaningful discussions with them on many subjects. The abstract of the session is as follows: In this 30-minute demo session, I am going to briefly demonstrate few SQL Server Myths and their resolutions as I back them up with some demo. This demo presentation is a must-attend for all developers and administrators who would come to the event. This is going to be a very quick yet fun session. Pinal Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 Time: 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM Lunch with Somasegar After the session I went to see my daughter, and then I headed right away to the lunch with S. Somasegar – the keynote speaker and senior vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft. I really thank to Abhishek who made it possible for us. Because of his efforts, all the MVPs had the opportunity to meet such a legendary person and had to talk with them on Microsoft Technology. Though Somasegar is currently holding such a high position in Microsoft, he is very polite and a real gentleman, and how I wish that everybody in industry is like him. Believe me, if you spread love and kindness, then that is what you will receive back. As soon as lunch time was over, I ran to the session hall as my second presentation was about to start. Time: 2:30pm – 3:30pm Session 2: Master Data Services in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Business Intelligence is a subject which was widely talked about at TechEd. Everybody was interested in this subject, and I did not excuse myself from this great concept as well. I consider myself fortunate as I was presenting on the subject of Master Data Services at TechEd. When I had initially learned this subject, I had a bit of confusion about the usage of this tool. Later on, I decided that I would tackle about how we all developers and DBAs are not able to understand something so simple such as this, and even worst, creating confusion about the technology. During system designing, it is very important to have a reference material or master lookup tables. Well, I talked about the same subject and presented the session keeping that as my center talk. The session went very well and I received lots of interesting questions. I got many compliments for talking about this subject on the real-life scenario. I really thank Rushabh Mehta (CEO, Solid Quality Mentors India) for his supportive suggestions that helped me prepare the slide deck, as well as the subject. Pinal Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 The abstract of the session is as follows: SQL Server Master Data Services will ship with SQL Server 2008 R2 and will improve Microsoft’s platform appeal. This session provides an in-depth demonstration of MDS features and highlights important usage scenarios. Master Data Services enables consistent decision-making process by allowing you to create, manage and propagate changes from a single master view of your business entities. Also, MDS – Master Data-hub which is a vital component, helps ensure the consistency of reporting across systems and deliver faster and more accurate results across the enterprise. We will talk about establishing the basis for a centralized approach to defining, deploying, and managing master data in the enterprise. Pinal Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 The day was still not over for me. I had ran into several friends but we were not able keep our enthusiasm under control about all the rumors saying that SQL Server 2008 R2 was about to be launched tomorrow in the keynote. I then ran to my third and final technical event for the day- a panel discussion with the top technologies of India. Time: 5:00pm – 6:00pm Panel Discussion: Harness the power of Web – SEO and Technical Blogging As I have delivered two technical sessions by this time, I was a bit tired but not less enthusiastic when I had to talk about Blog and Technology. We discussed many different topics there. I told them that the most important aspect for any blog is its content. We discussed in depth the issues with plagiarism and how to avoid it. Another topic of discussion was how we technology bloggers can create awareness in the Community about what the right kind of blogging is and what morally and technically wrong acts are. A couple of questions were raised about what type of liberty a person can have in terms of writing blogs. Well, it was generically agreed that a blog is mainly a representation of our ideas and thoughts; it should not be governed by external entities. As long as one is writing what they really want to say, but not providing incorrect information or not practicing plagiarism, a blogger should be allowed to express himself. This panel discussion was supposed to be over in an hour, but the interest of the participants was remarkable and so it was extended for 30 minutes more. Finally, we decided to bring to a close the discussion and agreed that we will continue the topic next year. TechEd India Panel Discussion on Web, Technology and SEO Surprisingly, the day was just beginning after doing all of these. By this time, I have almost met all the MVP who arrived at the event, as well as many Microsoft employees. There were lots of Community folks present, too. I decided that I would go to meet several friends from the Community and continue to communicate with me on SQLAuthority.com. I also met Abhishek Baxi and had a good talk with him regarding Win Mobile and Twitter. He also took a very quick video of me wherein I spoke in my mother’s tongue, Gujarati. It was funny that I talked in Gujarati almost all the day, but when I was talking in the interview I could not find the right Gujarati words to speak. I think we all think in English when we think about Technology, so as to address universality. After meeting them, I headed towards the Speakers’ Dinner. Time: 8:00 PM – onwards Speakers Dinner The Speakers’ dinner was indeed a wonderful opportunity for all the speakers to get together and relax. We talked so many different things, from XBOX to Hindi Movies, and from SQL to Samosas. I just could not express how much fun I had. After a long evening, when I returned tmy room and met Shaivi, I just felt instantly relaxed. Kids are really gifts from God. Today was a really long but exciting day. So many things happened in just one day: Visual Studio Lanch, lunch with Somasegar, 2 technical sessions, 1 panel discussion, community leaders meeting, speakers dinner and, last but not leas,t playing with my child! A perfect day! Day 2 – April 13, 2010 Today started with a bang with the excellent keynote by Kamal Hathi who launched SQL Server 2008 R2 in India and demonstrated the power of PowerPivot to all of us. 101 Million Rows in Excel brought lots of applause from the audience. Kamal Hathi Presenting Keynote at TechEd India 2010 The day was a bit easier one for me. I had no sessions today and no events planned. I had a few meetings planned for the second day of the event. I sat in the speaker’s lounge for half a day and met many people there. I attended nearly 9 different meetings today. The subjects of the meetings were very different. Here is a list of the topics of the Community-related meetings: SQL PASS and its involvement in India and subcontinents How to start community blogging Forums and developing aptitude towards technology Ahmedabad/Gandhinagar User Groups and their developments SharePoint and SQL Business Meeting – a client meeting Business Meeting – a potential performance tuning project Business Meeting – Solid Quality Mentors (SolidQ) And family friends Pinal Dave at TechEd India The day passed by so quickly during this meeting. In the evening, I headed to Partners Expo with friends and checked out few of the booths. I really wanted to talk about some of the products, but due to the freebies there was so much crowd that I finally decided to just take the contact details of the partner. I will now start sending them with my queries and, hopefully, I will have my questions answered. Nupur and Shaivi had also one meeting to attend; it was with our family friend Vijay Raj. Vijay is also a person who loves Technology and loves it more than anybody. I see him growing and learning every day, but still remaining as a ‘human’. I believe that if someone acquires as much knowledge as him, that person will become either a computer or cyborg. Here, Vijay is still a kind gentleman and is able to stay as our close family friend. Shaivi was really happy to play with Uncle Vijay. Pinal Dave and Vijay Raj Renuka Prasad, a Microsoft MVP, impressed me with his passion and knowledge of SQL. Every time he gives me credit for his success, I believe that he is very humble. He has way more certifications than me and has worked many more years with SQL compared to me. He is an excellent photographer as well. Most of the photos in this blog post have been taken by him. I told him if ever he wants to do a part time job, he can do the photography very well. Pinal Dave and Renuka Prasad I also met L Srividya from Microsoft, whom I was looking forward to meet. She is a bundle of knowledge that everyone would surely learn a lot from her. I was able to get a few minutes from her and well, I felt confident. She enlightened me with SQL Server BI concepts, domain management and SQL Server security and few other interesting details. I also had a wonderful time talking about SharePoint with fellow Solid Quality Mentor Joy Rathnayake. He is very passionate about SharePoint but when you talk .NET and SQL with him, he is still overwhelmingly knowledgeable. In fact, while talking to him, I figured out that the recent training he delivered was on SQL Server 2008 R2. I told him a joke that it hurts my ego as he is more popular now in SQL training and consulting than me. I am sure all of you agree that working with good people is a gift from God. I am fortunate enough to work with the best of the best Industry experts. It was a great pleasure to hang out with my Community friends – Ahswin Kini, HimaBindu Vejella, Vasudev G, Suprotim Agrawal, Dhananjay, Vikram Pendse, Mahesh Dhola, Mahesh Mitkari, Manu Zacharia, Shobhan, Hardik Shah, Ashish Mohta, Manan, Subodh Sohani and Sanjay Shetty (of course!) . (Please let me know if I have met you at the event and forgot your name to list here). Time: 8:00 PM – onwards Community Leaders Dinner After lots of meetings, I headed towards the Community Leaders dinner meeting and met almost all the folks I met in morning. The discussion was almost the same but the real good thing was that we were enjoying it. The food was really good. Nupur was invited in the event, but Shaivi could not come. When Nupur tried to enter the event, she was stopped as Shaivi did not have the pass to enter the dinner. Nupur expressed that Shaivi is only 8 months old and does not eat outside food as well and could not stay by herself at this age, but the door keeper did not agree and asked that without the entry details Shaivi could not go in, but Nupur could. Nupur called me on phone and asked me to help her out. By the time, I was outside; the organizer of the event reached to the door and happily approved Shaivi to join the party. Once in the party, Shaivi had lots of fun meeting so many people. Shaivi Dave and Abhishek Kant Dean Guida (Infragistics President and CEO) and Pinal Dave (SQLAuthority.com) Day 3 – April 14, 2010 Though, it was last day, I was very much excited today as I was about to present my very favorite session. Query Optimization and Performance Tuning is my domain expertise and I make my leaving by consulting and training the same. Today’s session was on the same subject and as an additional twist, another subject about Spatial Database was presented. I was always intrigued with Spatial Database and I have enjoyed learning about it; however, I have never thought about Spatial Indexing before it was decided that I will do this session. I really thank Solid Quality Mentor Dr. Greg Low for his assistance in helping me prepare the slide deck and also review the content. Furthermore, today was really what I call my ‘learning day’ . So far I had not attended any session in TechEd and I felt a bit down for that. Everybody spends their valuable time & money to learn something new and exciting in TechEd and I had not attended a single session at the moment thinking that it was already last day of the event. I did have a plan for the day and I attended two technical sessions before my session of spatial database. I attended 2 sessions of Vinod Kumar. Vinod is a natural storyteller and there was no doubt that his sessions would be jam-packed. People attended his sessions simply because Vinod is syhe speaker. He did not have a single time disappointed audience; he is truly a good speaker. He knows his stuff very well. I personally do not think that in India he can be compared to anyone for SQL. Time: 12:30pm-1:30pm SQL Server Query Optimization, Execution and Debugging Query Performance I really had a fun time attending this session. Vinod made this session very interactive. The entire audience really got into the presentation and started participating in the event. Vinod was presenting a small problem with Query Tuning, which any developer would have encountered and solved with their help in such a fashion that a developer feels he or she have already resolved it. In one question, I was the only one who was ready to answer and Vinod told me in a light tone that I am now allowed to answer it! The audience really found it very amusing. There was a huge crowd around Vinod after the session. Vinod – A master storyteller! Time: 3:45pm-4:45pm Data Recovery / consistency with CheckDB This session was much heavier than the earlier one, and I must say this is my most favorite session I EVER attended in India. In this TechEd I have only attended two sessions, but in my career, I have attended numerous technical sessions not only in India, but all over the world. This session had taken my breath away. One by one, Vinod took the different databases, and started to corrupt them in different ways. Each database has some unique ways to get corrupted. Once that was done, Vinod started to show the DBCC CEHCKDB and demonstrated how it can solve your problem. He finally fixed all the databases with this single tool. I do have a good knowledge of this subject, but let me honestly admit that I have learned a lot from this session. I enjoyed and cheered during this session along with other attendees. I had total satisfaction that, just like everyone, I took advantage of the event and learned something. I am now TECHnically EDucated. Pinal Dave and Vinod Kumar After two very interactive and informative SQL Sessions from Vinod Kumar, the next turn me presenting on Spatial Database and Indexing. I got once again nervous but Vinod told me to stay natural and do my presentation. Well, once I got a huge stage with a total of four projectors and a large crowd, I felt better. Time: 5:00pm-6:00pm Session 3: Developing with SQL Server Spatial and Deep Dive into Spatial Indexing Pinal Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 Pinal Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 I kicked off this session with Michael J Swart‘s beautiful spatial image. This session was the last one for the day but, to my surprise, I had more than 200+ attendees. Slowly, the rain was starting outside and I was worried that the hall would not be full; despite this, there was not a single seat available in the first five minutes of the session. Thanks to all of you for attending my presentation. I had demonstrated the map of world (and India) and quickly explained what Geographic and Geometry data types in Spatial Database are. This session had interesting story of Indexing and Comparison, as well as how different traditional indexes are from spatial indexing. Pinal Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 Due to the heavy rain during this event, the power went off for about 22 minutes (just an accident – nobodies fault). During these minutes, there were no audio, no video and no light. I continued to address the mass of 200+ people without any audio device and PowerPoint. I must thank the audience because not a single person left from the session. They all stayed in their place, some moved closure to listen to me properly. I noticed that the curiosity and eagerness to learn new things was at the peak even though it was the very last session of the TechEd. Everybody wanted get the maximum knowledge out of this whole event. I was touched by the support from audience. They listened and participated in my session even without any kinds of technology (no ppt, no mike, no AC, nothing). During these 22 minutes, I had completed my theory verbally. Pinal Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 After a while, we got the projector back online and we continued with some exciting demos. Many thanks to Microsoft people who worked energetically in background to get the backup power for project up. I had a very interesting demo wherein I overlaid Bangalore and Hyderabad on the India Map and find their aerial distance between them. After finding the aerial distance, we browsed online and found that SQL Server estimates the exact aerial distance between these two cities, as compared to the factual distance. There was a huge applause from the crowd on the subject that SQL Server takes into the count of the curvature of the earth and finds the precise distances based on details. During the process of finding the distance, I demonstrated a few examples of the indexes where I expressed how one can use those indexes to find these distances and how they can improve the performance of similar query. I also demonstrated few examples wherein we were able to see in which data type the Index is most useful. We finished the demos with a few more internal stuff. Pinal Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 Despite all issues, I was mostly satisfied with my presentation. I think it was the best session I have ever presented at any conference. There was no help from Technology for a while, but I still got lots of appreciation at the end. When we ended the session, the applause from the audience was so loud that for a moment, the rain was not audible. I was truly moved by the dedication of the Technology enthusiasts. Pinal Dave After Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 The abstract of the session is as follows: The Microsoft SQL Server 2008 delivers new spatial data types that enable you to consume, use, and extend location-based data through spatial-enabled applications. Attend this session to learn how to use spatial functionality in next version of SQL Server to build and optimize spatial queries. This session outlines the new geography data type to store geodetic spatial data and perform operations on it, use the new geometry data type to store planar spatial data and perform operations on it, take advantage of new spatial indexes for high performance queries, use the new spatial results tab to quickly and easily view spatial query results directly from within Management Studio, extend spatial data capabilities by building or integrating location-enabled applications through support for spatial standards and specifications and much more. Time: 8:00 PM – onwards Dinner by Sponsors After the lively session during the day, there was another dinner party courtesy of one of the sponsors of TechEd. All the MVPs and several Community leaders were present at the dinner. I would like to express my gratitude to Abhishek Kant for organizing this wonderful event for us. It was a blast and really relaxing in all angles. We all stayed there for a long time and talked about our sweet and unforgettable memories of the event. Pinal Dave and Bijoy Singhal It was really one wonderful event. After writing this much, I say that I have no words to express about how much I enjoyed TechEd. However, it is true that I shared with you only 1% of the total activities I have done at the event. There were so many people I have met, yet were not mentioned here although I wanted to write their names here, too . Anyway, I have learned so many things and up until now, I am not able to get over all the fun I had in this event. Pinal Dave at TechEd India 2010 The Next Days – April 15, 2010 – till today I am still not able to get my mind out of the whole experience I had at TechEd India 2010. It was like a whole Microsoft Family working together to celebrate a happy occasion. TechEd India – Truly An Unforgettable Experience! Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: About Me, MVP, Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority Author Visit, SQLAuthority News, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology Tagged: TechEd, TechEdIn

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SQLAuthority News – TechEd India – April 12-14, 2010 Bangalore – An Unforgettable Experience – An Op

- by pinaldave

TechEd India was one of the largest Technology events in India led by Microsoft. This event was attended by more than 3,000 technology enthusiasts, making it one of the most well-organized events of the year. Though I attempted to attend almost all the technology events here, I have not seen any bigger or better event in Indian subcontinents other than this. There are 21 Technical Tracks at Tech·Ed India 2010 that span more than 745 learning opportunities. I was fortunate enough to be a part of this whole event as a speaker and a delegate, as well. TechEd India Speaker Badge and A Token of Lifetime Hotel Selection I presented three different sessions at TechEd India and was also a part of panel discussion. (The details of the sessions are given at the end of this blog post.) Due to extensive traveling, I stay away from my family occasionally. For this reason, I took my wife – Nupur and daughter Shaivi (8 months old) to the event along with me. We stayed at the same hotel where the event was organized so as to maximize my time bonding with my family and to have more time in networking with technology community, at the same time. The hotel Lalit Ashok is the largest and most luxurious venue one can find in Bangalore, located in the middle of the city. The cost of the hotel was a bit pricey, but looking at all the advantages, I had decided to ask for a booking there. Hotel Lalit Ashok Nupur Dave and Shaivi Dave Arrival Day – DAY 0 – April 11, 2010 I reached the event a day earlier, and that was one wise decision for I was able to relax a bit and go over my presentation for the next day’s course. I am a kind of person who likes to get everything ready ahead of time. I was also able to enjoy a pleasant evening with several Microsoft employees and my family friends. I even checked out the location where I would be doing presentations the next day. I was fortunate enough to meet Bijoy Singhal from Microsoft who helped me out with a few of the logistics issues that occured the day before. I was not aware of the fact that the very next day he was going to be “The Man” of the TechEd 2010 event. Vinod Kumar from Microsoft was really very kind as he talked to me regarding my subsequent session. He gave me some suggestions which were really helpful that I was able to incorporate them during my presentation. Finally, I was able to meet Abhishek Kant from Microsoft; his valuable suggestions and unlimited passion have inspired many people like me to work with the Community. Pradipta from Microsoft was also around, being extremely busy with logistics; however, in those busy times, he did find some good spare time to have a chat with me and the other Community leaders. I also met Harish Ranganathan and Sachin Rathi, both from Microsoft. It was so interesting to listen to both of them talking about SharePoint. I just have no words to express my overwhelmed spirit because of all these passionate young guys - Pradipta,Vinod, Bijoy, Harish, Sachin and Ahishek (of course!). Map of TechEd India 2010 Event Day 1 – April 12, 2010 From morning until night time, today was truly a very busy day for me. I had two presentations and one panel discussion for the day. Needless to say, I had a few meetings to attend as well. The day started with a keynote from S. Somaseger where he announced the launch of Visual Studio 2010. The keynote area was really eye-catching because of the very large, bigger-than- life uniform screen. This was truly one to show. The title music of the keynote was very interesting and it featured Bijoy Singhal as the model. It was interesting to talk to him afterwards, when we laughed at jokes together about his modeling assignment. TechEd India Keynote Opening Featuring Bijoy TechEd India 2010 Keynote – S. Somasegar Time: 11:15pm – 11:45pm Session 1: True Lies of SQL Server – SQL Myth Buster Following the excellent keynote, I had my very first session on the subject of SQL Server Myth Buster. At first, I was a bit nervous as right after the keynote, for this was my very first session and during my presentation I saw lots of Microsoft Product Team members. Well, it really went well and I had a really good discussion with attendees of the session. I felt that a well begin was half-done and my confidence was regained. Right after the session, I met a few of my Community friends and had meaningful discussions with them on many subjects. The abstract of the session is as follows: In this 30-minute demo session, I am going to briefly demonstrate few SQL Server Myths and their resolutions as I back them up with some demo. This demo presentation is a must-attend for all developers and administrators who would come to the event. This is going to be a very quick yet fun session. Pinal Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 Time: 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM Lunch with Somasegar After the session I went to see my daughter, and then I headed right away to the lunch with S. Somasegar – the keynote speaker and senior vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft. I really thank to Abhishek who made it possible for us. Because of his efforts, all the MVPs had the opportunity to meet such a legendary person and had to talk with them on Microsoft Technology. Though Somasegar is currently holding such a high position in Microsoft, he is very polite and a real gentleman, and how I wish that everybody in industry is like him. Believe me, if you spread love and kindness, then that is what you will receive back. As soon as lunch time was over, I ran to the session hall as my second presentation was about to start. Time: 2:30pm – 3:30pm Session 2: Master Data Services in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Business Intelligence is a subject which was widely talked about at TechEd. Everybody was interested in this subject, and I did not excuse myself from this great concept as well. I consider myself fortunate as I was presenting on the subject of Master Data Services at TechEd. When I had initially learned this subject, I had a bit of confusion about the usage of this tool. Later on, I decided that I would tackle about how we all developers and DBAs are not able to understand something so simple such as this, and even worst, creating confusion about the technology. During system designing, it is very important to have a reference material or master lookup tables. Well, I talked about the same subject and presented the session keeping that as my center talk. The session went very well and I received lots of interesting questions. I got many compliments for talking about this subject on the real-life scenario. I really thank Rushabh Mehta (CEO, Solid Quality Mentors India) for his supportive suggestions that helped me prepare the slide deck, as well as the subject. Pinal Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 The abstract of the session is as follows: SQL Server Master Data Services will ship with SQL Server 2008 R2 and will improve Microsoft’s platform appeal. This session provides an in-depth demonstration of MDS features and highlights important usage scenarios. Master Data Services enables consistent decision-making process by allowing you to create, manage and propagate changes from a single master view of your business entities. Also, MDS – Master Data-hub which is a vital component, helps ensure the consistency of reporting across systems and deliver faster and more accurate results across the enterprise. We will talk about establishing the basis for a centralized approach to defining, deploying, and managing master data in the enterprise. Pinal Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 The day was still not over for me. I had ran into several friends but we were not able keep our enthusiasm under control about all the rumors saying that SQL Server 2008 R2 was about to be launched tomorrow in the keynote. I then ran to my third and final technical event for the day- a panel discussion with the top technologies of India. Time: 5:00pm – 6:00pm Panel Discussion: Harness the power of Web – SEO and Technical Blogging As I have delivered two technical sessions by this time, I was a bit tired but not less enthusiastic when I had to talk about Blog and Technology. We discussed many different topics there. I told them that the most important aspect for any blog is its content. We discussed in depth the issues with plagiarism and how to avoid it. Another topic of discussion was how we technology bloggers can create awareness in the Community about what the right kind of blogging is and what morally and technically wrong acts are. A couple of questions were raised about what type of liberty a person can have in terms of writing blogs. Well, it was generically agreed that a blog is mainly a representation of our ideas and thoughts; it should not be governed by external entities. As long as one is writing what they really want to say, but not providing incorrect information or not practicing plagiarism, a blogger should be allowed to express himself. This panel discussion was supposed to be over in an hour, but the interest of the participants was remarkable and so it was extended for 30 minutes more. Finally, we decided to bring to a close the discussion and agreed that we will continue the topic next year. TechEd India Panel Discussion on Web, Technology and SEO Surprisingly, the day was just beginning after doing all of these. By this time, I have almost met all the MVP who arrived at the event, as well as many Microsoft employees. There were lots of Community folks present, too. I decided that I would go to meet several friends from the Community and continue to communicate with me on SQLAuthority.com. I also met Abhishek Baxi and had a good talk with him regarding Win Mobile and Twitter. He also took a very quick video of me wherein I spoke in my mother’s tongue, Gujarati. It was funny that I talked in Gujarati almost all the day, but when I was talking in the interview I could not find the right Gujarati words to speak. I think we all think in English when we think about Technology, so as to address universality. After meeting them, I headed towards the Speakers’ Dinner. Time: 8:00 PM – onwards Speakers Dinner The Speakers’ dinner was indeed a wonderful opportunity for all the speakers to get together and relax. We talked so many different things, from XBOX to Hindi Movies, and from SQL to Samosas. I just could not express how much fun I had. After a long evening, when I returned tmy room and met Shaivi, I just felt instantly relaxed. Kids are really gifts from God. Today was a really long but exciting day. So many things happened in just one day: Visual Studio Lanch, lunch with Somasegar, 2 technical sessions, 1 panel discussion, community leaders meeting, speakers dinner and, last but not leas,t playing with my child! A perfect day! Day 2 – April 13, 2010 Today started with a bang with the excellent keynote by Kamal Hathi who launched SQL Server 2008 R2 in India and demonstrated the power of PowerPivot to all of us. 101 Million Rows in Excel brought lots of applause from the audience. Kamal Hathi Presenting Keynote at TechEd India 2010 The day was a bit easier one for me. I had no sessions today and no events planned. I had a few meetings planned for the second day of the event. I sat in the speaker’s lounge for half a day and met many people there. I attended nearly 9 different meetings today. The subjects of the meetings were very different. Here is a list of the topics of the Community-related meetings: SQL PASS and its involvement in India and subcontinents How to start community blogging Forums and developing aptitude towards technology Ahmedabad/Gandhinagar User Groups and their developments SharePoint and SQL Business Meeting – a client meeting Business Meeting – a potential performance tuning project Business Meeting – Solid Quality Mentors (SolidQ) And family friends Pinal Dave at TechEd India The day passed by so quickly during this meeting. In the evening, I headed to Partners Expo with friends and checked out few of the booths. I really wanted to talk about some of the products, but due to the freebies there was so much crowd that I finally decided to just take the contact details of the partner. I will now start sending them with my queries and, hopefully, I will have my questions answered. Nupur and Shaivi had also one meeting to attend; it was with our family friend Vijay Raj. Vijay is also a person who loves Technology and loves it more than anybody. I see him growing and learning every day, but still remaining as a ‘human’. I believe that if someone acquires as much knowledge as him, that person will become either a computer or cyborg. Here, Vijay is still a kind gentleman and is able to stay as our close family friend. Shaivi was really happy to play with Uncle Vijay. Pinal Dave and Vijay Raj Renuka Prasad, a Microsoft MVP, impressed me with his passion and knowledge of SQL. Every time he gives me credit for his success, I believe that he is very humble. He has way more certifications than me and has worked many more years with SQL compared to me. He is an excellent photographer as well. Most of the photos in this blog post have been taken by him. I told him if ever he wants to do a part time job, he can do the photography very well. Pinal Dave and Renuka Prasad I also met L Srividya from Microsoft, whom I was looking forward to meet. She is a bundle of knowledge that everyone would surely learn a lot from her. I was able to get a few minutes from her and well, I felt confident. She enlightened me with SQL Server BI concepts, domain management and SQL Server security and few other interesting details. I also had a wonderful time talking about SharePoint with fellow Solid Quality Mentor Joy Rathnayake. He is very passionate about SharePoint but when you talk .NET and SQL with him, he is still overwhelmingly knowledgeable. In fact, while talking to him, I figured out that the recent training he delivered was on SQL Server 2008 R2. I told him a joke that it hurts my ego as he is more popular now in SQL training and consulting than me. I am sure all of you agree that working with good people is a gift from God. I am fortunate enough to work with the best of the best Industry experts. It was a great pleasure to hang out with my Community friends – Ahswin Kini, HimaBindu Vejella, Vasudev G, Suprotim Agrawal, Dhananjay, Vikram Pendse, Mahesh Dhola, Mahesh Mitkari, Manu Zacharia, Shobhan, Hardik Shah, Ashish Mohta, Manan, Subodh Sohani and Sanjay Shetty (of course!) . (Please let me know if I have met you at the event and forgot your name to list here). Time: 8:00 PM – onwards Community Leaders Dinner After lots of meetings, I headed towards the Community Leaders dinner meeting and met almost all the folks I met in morning. The discussion was almost the same but the real good thing was that we were enjoying it. The food was really good. Nupur was invited in the event, but Shaivi could not come. When Nupur tried to enter the event, she was stopped as Shaivi did not have the pass to enter the dinner. Nupur expressed that Shaivi is only 8 months old and does not eat outside food as well and could not stay by herself at this age, but the door keeper did not agree and asked that without the entry details Shaivi could not go in, but Nupur could. Nupur called me on phone and asked me to help her out. By the time, I was outside; the organizer of the event reached to the door and happily approved Shaivi to join the party. Once in the party, Shaivi had lots of fun meeting so many people. Shaivi Dave and Abhishek Kant Dean Guida (Infragistics President and CEO) and Pinal Dave (SQLAuthority.com) Day 3 – April 14, 2010 Though, it was last day, I was very much excited today as I was about to present my very favorite session. Query Optimization and Performance Tuning is my domain expertise and I make my leaving by consulting and training the same. Today’s session was on the same subject and as an additional twist, another subject about Spatial Database was presented. I was always intrigued with Spatial Database and I have enjoyed learning about it; however, I have never thought about Spatial Indexing before it was decided that I will do this session. I really thank Solid Quality Mentor Dr. Greg Low for his assistance in helping me prepare the slide deck and also review the content. Furthermore, today was really what I call my ‘learning day’ . So far I had not attended any session in TechEd and I felt a bit down for that. Everybody spends their valuable time & money to learn something new and exciting in TechEd and I had not attended a single session at the moment thinking that it was already last day of the event. I did have a plan for the day and I attended two technical sessions before my session of spatial database. I attended 2 sessions of Vinod Kumar. Vinod is a natural storyteller and there was no doubt that his sessions would be jam-packed. People attended his sessions simply because Vinod is syhe speaker. He did not have a single time disappointed audience; he is truly a good speaker. He knows his stuff very well. I personally do not think that in India he can be compared to anyone for SQL. Time: 12:30pm-1:30pm SQL Server Query Optimization, Execution and Debugging Query Performance I really had a fun time attending this session. Vinod made this session very interactive. The entire audience really got into the presentation and started participating in the event. Vinod was presenting a small problem with Query Tuning, which any developer would have encountered and solved with their help in such a fashion that a developer feels he or she have already resolved it. In one question, I was the only one who was ready to answer and Vinod told me in a light tone that I am now allowed to answer it! The audience really found it very amusing. There was a huge crowd around Vinod after the session. Vinod – A master storyteller! Time: 3:45pm-4:45pm Data Recovery / consistency with CheckDB This session was much heavier than the earlier one, and I must say this is my most favorite session I EVER attended in India. In this TechEd I have only attended two sessions, but in my career, I have attended numerous technical sessions not only in India, but all over the world. This session had taken my breath away. One by one, Vinod took the different databases, and started to corrupt them in different ways. Each database has some unique ways to get corrupted. Once that was done, Vinod started to show the DBCC CEHCKDB and demonstrated how it can solve your problem. He finally fixed all the databases with this single tool. I do have a good knowledge of this subject, but let me honestly admit that I have learned a lot from this session. I enjoyed and cheered during this session along with other attendees. I had total satisfaction that, just like everyone, I took advantage of the event and learned something. I am now TECHnically EDucated. Pinal Dave and Vinod Kumar After two very interactive and informative SQL Sessions from Vinod Kumar, the next turn me presenting on Spatial Database and Indexing. I got once again nervous but Vinod told me to stay natural and do my presentation. Well, once I got a huge stage with a total of four projectors and a large crowd, I felt better. Time: 5:00pm-6:00pm Session 3: Developing with SQL Server Spatial and Deep Dive into Spatial Indexing Pinal Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 Pinal Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 I kicked off this session with Michael J Swart‘s beautiful spatial image. This session was the last one for the day but, to my surprise, I had more than 200+ attendees. Slowly, the rain was starting outside and I was worried that the hall would not be full; despite this, there was not a single seat available in the first five minutes of the session. Thanks to all of you for attending my presentation. I had demonstrated the map of world (and India) and quickly explained what Geographic and Geometry data types in Spatial Database are. This session had interesting story of Indexing and Comparison, as well as how different traditional indexes are from spatial indexing. Pinal Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 Due to the heavy rain during this event, the power went off for about 22 minutes (just an accident – nobodies fault). During these minutes, there were no audio, no video and no light. I continued to address the mass of 200+ people without any audio device and PowerPoint. I must thank the audience because not a single person left from the session. They all stayed in their place, some moved closure to listen to me properly. I noticed that the curiosity and eagerness to learn new things was at the peak even though it was the very last session of the TechEd. Everybody wanted get the maximum knowledge out of this whole event. I was touched by the support from audience. They listened and participated in my session even without any kinds of technology (no ppt, no mike, no AC, nothing). During these 22 minutes, I had completed my theory verbally. Pinal Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 After a while, we got the projector back online and we continued with some exciting demos. Many thanks to Microsoft people who worked energetically in background to get the backup power for project up. I had a very interesting demo wherein I overlaid Bangalore and Hyderabad on the India Map and find their aerial distance between them. After finding the aerial distance, we browsed online and found that SQL Server estimates the exact aerial distance between these two cities, as compared to the factual distance. There was a huge applause from the crowd on the subject that SQL Server takes into the count of the curvature of the earth and finds the precise distances based on details. During the process of finding the distance, I demonstrated a few examples of the indexes where I expressed how one can use those indexes to find these distances and how they can improve the performance of similar query. I also demonstrated few examples wherein we were able to see in which data type the Index is most useful. We finished the demos with a few more internal stuff. Pinal Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 Despite all issues, I was mostly satisfied with my presentation. I think it was the best session I have ever presented at any conference. There was no help from Technology for a while, but I still got lots of appreciation at the end. When we ended the session, the applause from the audience was so loud that for a moment, the rain was not audible. I was truly moved by the dedication of the Technology enthusiasts. Pinal Dave After Presenting session at TechEd India 2010 The abstract of the session is as follows: The Microsoft SQL Server 2008 delivers new spatial data types that enable you to consume, use, and extend location-based data through spatial-enabled applications. Attend this session to learn how to use spatial functionality in next version of SQL Server to build and optimize spatial queries. This session outlines the new geography data type to store geodetic spatial data and perform operations on it, use the new geometry data type to store planar spatial data and perform operations on it, take advantage of new spatial indexes for high performance queries, use the new spatial results tab to quickly and easily view spatial query results directly from within Management Studio, extend spatial data capabilities by building or integrating location-enabled applications through support for spatial standards and specifications and much more. Time: 8:00 PM – onwards Dinner by Sponsors After the lively session during the day, there was another dinner party courtesy of one of the sponsors of TechEd. All the MVPs and several Community leaders were present at the dinner. I would like to express my gratitude to Abhishek Kant for organizing this wonderful event for us. It was a blast and really relaxing in all angles. We all stayed there for a long time and talked about our sweet and unforgettable memories of the event. Pinal Dave and Bijoy Singhal It was really one wonderful event. After writing this much, I say that I have no words to express about how much I enjoyed TechEd. However, it is true that I shared with you only 1% of the total activities I have done at the event. There were so many people I have met, yet were not mentioned here although I wanted to write their names here, too . Anyway, I have learned so many things and up until now, I am not able to get over all the fun I had in this event. Pinal Dave at TechEd India 2010 The Next Days – April 15, 2010 – till today I am still not able to get my mind out of the whole experience I had at TechEd India 2010. It was like a whole Microsoft Family working together to celebrate a happy occasion. TechEd India – Truly An Unforgettable Experience! Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: About Me, MVP, Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority Author Visit, SQLAuthority News, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology Tagged: TechEd, TechEdIn

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Ask How-To Geek: Dropbox in the Start Menu, Understanding Symlinks, and Ripping TV Series DVDs

- by Jason Fitzpatrick

This week we take a look at how to incorporate Dropbox into your Windows Start Menu, understanding and using symbolic links, and how to rip your TV series DVDs right to unique and high-quality episode files. Once a week we dip into our reader mailbag and help readers solve their problems, sharing the useful solutions with you in the process. Read on to see our fixes for this week’s reader dilemmas. Add Drobox to Your Start Menu Dear How-To Geek, I use Dropbox all the time and would like to add it right onto my start menu along side the other major shortcuts like Documents, Pictures, etc. It seems like adding Dropbox into the menu should be part of the Dropbox installation package! Sincerely, Dropboxing in Des Moines Dear Dropboxing, We agree, it would be a nice installation option. As it stands you’re going to have to do a little simple hacking to get Dropbox nestled neatly into your start menu. The hack isn’t super elegant but when you’re done you’ll have the link you want and it’ll look like it was there all along. Check out this step-by-step guide here in order to take an existing Library shortcut and rework it to be a Dropbox link. Understanding and Using Symbolic Links Dear How-To Geek, I was talking to a coworker the other day about an issue I’d been having with a media center application I’m running. He suggested using symbolic links to better organize my media and make it easier for the application to access my collection. I had no idea what he was talking about and never got a chance to bug him about it later. Can you clear up this whole symbolic links business for me? I’ve been using computers for years and I’ve never even heard of it! Sincerely, Symbolic Who? Dear Symbolic, Symbolic links aren’t commonly used by many Windows users which is why you likely haven’t run into the concept. Symbolic links are essentially supercharged shortcuts—the newly introduced Windows library system is really just a type of symbolic link system. You can use symbolic links to do all sorts of neat stuff like link folders to your Dropbox folder, organize media, and more. The concept of symbolic links is pretty simple but the execution can be really tricky. We’d suggest reading over our guide to creating symbolic links in Windows 7, Windows XP, and Ubunutu to get a clearer idea what you’re getting into. Rip Your TV DVDs into Handy Episode Files Dear How-To Geek, My wife got me an iPod for Christmas and I still haven’t got around to filling it up. I have tons of entire TV show seasons on DVD and would like to get them on the iPod but I have absolutely no idea where to start. How do I get the shows off the discs? I thought it would be as easy to import the TV shows into iTunes as it is to import tracks off a CD but I was totally wrong. I tried downloading some applications to rip them but those didn’t work at all. Very frustrating! Surely there is an easy and/or automated way to do this, right? Sincerely, Free My DVDs Dear DVDs, Oh man is this a frustration we can relate to. It’s inordinately difficult to get movies and TV shows off physical media and into digital (and portable media player-friendly) formats. There are a multitude of ways to rip DVDs and quite a few applications out there (some good, some mediocre, and some outright malware). We’d recommend a two-part punch to solve your ripping woes. You’ll need a copy of DVDFab to strip away the protections on the discs and rip the disc and Handbrake to load the disc image and convert the files. It’s not quite as smooth as the CD-to-iTunes workflow but it’s still pretty easy. Check out all the steps and settings you’ll want to toggle here. Have a question you want to put before the How-To Geek staff? Shoot us an email at [email protected] and then keep an eye out for a solution in the Ask How-To Geek column. Latest Features How-To Geek ETC Internet Explorer 9 RC Now Available: Here’s the Most Interesting New Stuff Here’s a Super Simple Trick to Defeating Fake Anti-Virus Malware How to Change the Default Application for Android Tasks Stop Believing TV’s Lies: The Real Truth About "Enhancing" Images The How-To Geek Valentine’s Day Gift Guide Inspire Geek Love with These Hilarious Geek Valentines Google’s New Personal Blocklist Extension Kills Search Engine Spam KeyCounter Tracks Your Keystrokes and Mouse Clicks Add Custom LED Ambient Lighting to Your PC or Media Center The Trackor Monitors Amazon Prices; Integrates with Chrome, Firefox, and Safari Four Awesome TRON Legacy Themes for Chrome and Iron Anger is Illogical – Old School Style Instructional Video [Star Trek Mashup]

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Creating an ASP.NET report using Visual Studio 2010 - Part 3

- by rajbk

We continue building our report in this three part series. Creating an ASP.NET report using Visual Studio 2010 - Part 1 Creating an ASP.NET report using Visual Studio 2010 - Part 2 Adding the ReportViewer control and filter drop downs. Open the source code for index.aspx and add a ScriptManager control. This control is required for the ReportViewer control. Add a DropDownList for the categories and suppliers. Add the ReportViewer control. The markup after these steps is shown below. <div> <asp:ScriptManager ID="smScriptManager" runat="server"> </asp:ScriptManager> <div id="searchFilter"> Filter by: Category : <asp:DropDownList ID="ddlCategories" runat="server" /> and Supplier : <asp:DropDownList ID="ddlSuppliers" runat="server" /> </div> <rsweb:ReportViewer ID="rvProducts" runat="server"> </rsweb:ReportViewer> </div> The design view for index.aspx is shown below. The dropdowns will display the categories and suppliers in the database. Changing the selection in the drop downs will cause the report to be filtered by the selections in the dropdowns. You will see how to do this in the next steps. Attaching the RDLC to the ReportViewer control by clicking on the top right of the control, going to Report Viewer tasks and selecting Products.rdlc. Resize the ReportViewer control by dragging at the bottom right corner. I set mine to 800px x 500px. You can also set this value in source view. Defining the data sources. We will now define the Data Source used to populate the report. Go back to the “ReportViewer Tasks” and select “Choose Data Sources” Select a “New data source..” Select “Object” and name your Data Source ID “odsProducts” In the next screen, choose “ProductRepository” as your business object. Choose “GetProductsProjected” in the next screen. The method requires a SupplierID and CategoryID. We will set these so that our data source gets the values from the drop down lists we defined earlier. Set the parameter source to be of type “Control” and set the ControlIDs to be ddlSuppliers and ddlCategories respectively. Your screen will look like this: We are now going to define the data source for our drop downs. Select the ddlCategory drop down and pick “Choose Data Source”. Pick “Object” and give it an id “odsCategories” In the next screen, choose “ProductRepository” Select the GetCategories() method in the next screen. Select “CategoryName” and “CategoryID” in the next screen. We are done defining the data source for the Category drop down. Perform the same steps for the Suppliers drop down. Select each dropdown and set the AppendDataBoundItems to true and AutoPostback to true. The AppendDataBoundItems is needed because we are going to insert an “All“ list item with a value of empty. Go to each drop down and add this list item markup as shown below> Finally, double click on each drop down in the designer and add the following code in the code behind. This along with the “Autopostback= true” attribute refreshes the report anytime a drop down is changed. protected void ddlCategories_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e) { rvProducts.LocalReport.Refresh(); } protected void ddlSuppliers_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e) { rvProducts.LocalReport.Refresh(); } Compile your report and run the page. You should see the report rendered. Note that the tool bar in the ReportViewer control gives you a couple of options including the ability to export the data to Excel, PDF or word. Conclusion Through this three part series, we did the following: Created a data layer for use by our RDLC. Created an RDLC using the report wizard and define a dataset for the report. Used the report design surface to design our report including adding a chart. Used the ReportViewer control to attach the RDLC. Connected our ReportWiewer to a data source and take parameter values from the drop downlists. Used AutoPostBack to refresh the reports when the dropdown selection was changed. RDLCs allow you to create interactive reports including drill downs and grouping. For even more advanced reports you can use Microsoft® SQL Server™ Reporting Services with RDLs. With RDLs, the report is rendered on the report server instead of the web server. Another nice thing about RDLs is that you can define a parameter list for the report and it gets rendered automatically for you. RDLCs and RDLs both have their advantages and its best to compare them and choose the right one for your requirements. Download VS2010 RTM Sample project NorthwindReports.zip Alfred Borden: Are you watching closely?

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How To Replace Notepad in Windows 7

- by Trevor Bekolay

It used to be that Notepad was a necessary evil because it started up quickly and let us catch a quick glimpse of plain text files. Now, there are a bevy of capable Notepad replacements that are just as fast, but also have great feature sets. Before following the rest of this how-to, ensure that you’re logged into an account with Administrator access. Note: The following instructions involve modifying some Windows system folders. Don’t mess anything up while you’re in there! If you follow our instructions closely, you’ll be fine. Choose your replacement There are a ton of great Notepad replacements, including Notepad2, Metapad, and Notepad++. The best one for you will depend on what types of text files you open and what you do with them. We’re going to use Notepad++ in this how-to. The first step is to find the executable file that you’ll replace Notepad with. Usually this will be the only file with the .exe file extension in the folder where you installed your text editor. Copy the executable file to your desktop and try to open it, to make sure that it works when opened from a different folder. In the Notepad++ case, a special little .exe file is available for the explicit purpose of replacing Notepad.If we run it from the desktop, it opens up Notepad++ in all its glory. Back up Notepad You will probably never go back once you switch, but you never know. You can backup Notepad to a special location if you’d like, but we find it’s easiest to just keep a backed up copy of Notepad in the folders it was originally located. In Windows 7, Notepad resides in: C:\Windows C:\Windows\System32 C:\Windows\SysWOW64 in 64-bit versions only Navigate to each of those directories and copy Notepad. Paste it into the same folder. If prompted, choose to Copy, but keep both files. You can keep your backup as “notepad (2).exe”, but we prefer to rename it to “notepad.exe.bak”. Do this for all of the folders that have Notepad (2 total for 32-bit Windows 7, 3 total for 64-bit). Take control of Notepad and delete it Even if you’re on an administrator account, you can’t just delete Notepad – Microsoft has made some security gains in this respect. Fortunately for us, it’s still possible to take control of a file and delete it without resorting to nasty hacks like disabling UAC. Navigate to one of the directories that contain Notepad. Right-click on it and select Properties. Switch to the Security tab, then click on the Advanced button. Note that the owner of the file is a user called “TrustedInstaller”. You can’t do much with files owned by TrustedInstaller, so let’s take control of it. Click the Edit… button. Select the desired owner (you could choose your own account, but we’re going to give any Administrator control) and click OK. You’ll get a message that you need to close and reopen the Properties windows to edit permissions. Before doing that, confirm that the owner has changed to what you selected. Click OK, then OK again to close the Properties window. Right-click on Notepad and click on Properties again. Switch to the Security tab. Click on Edit…. Select the appropriate group or user name in the list at the top, then add a checkmark in the checkbox beside Full control in the Allow column. Click OK, then Yes to the dialog box that pops up. Click OK again to close the Properties window. Now you can delete Notepad, by either selecting it and pressing Delete on the keyboard, or right-click on it and click Delete. You’re now free from Notepad’s foul clutches! Repeat this procedure for the remaining folders (or folder, on 32-bit Windows 7). Drop in your replacement Copy your Notepad replacement’s executable, which should still be on your desktop. Browse to the two or three folders listed above and copy your .exe to those locations. If prompted for Administrator permission, click Continue. If your executable file was named something other than “notepad.exe”, rename it to “notepad.exe”. Don’t be alarmed if the thumbnail still shows the old Notepad icon. Double click on Notepad and your replacement should open. To make doubly sure that it works, press Win+R to bring up the Run dialog box and enter “notepad” into the text field. Press enter or click OK. Now you can allow Windows to open files with Notepad by default with little to no shame! All without restarting or having to disable UAC! Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Search and Replace Specific Formatting (fonts, styles,etc) in Microsoft WordHow to Drag Files to the Taskbar to Open Them in Windows 7Customize the Windows 7 or Vista Send To MenuKill Processes from the Windows Command LineChange Your Windows 7 Library Icons the Easy Way TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Use My TextTools to Edit and Organize Text Discovery Channel LIFE Theme (Win7) Increase the size of Taskbar Previews (Win 7) Scan your PC for nasties with Panda ActiveScan CleanMem – Memory Cleaner AceStock – The Personal Stock Monitor

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Request Limit Length Limits for IIS’s requestFiltering Module

- by Rick Strahl

Today I updated my CodePaste.net site to MVC 3 and pushed an update to the site. The update of MVC went pretty smooth as well as most of the update process to the live site. Short of missing a web.config change in the /views folder that caused blank pages on the server, the process was relatively painless. However, one issue that kicked my ass for about an hour – and not foe the first time – was a problem with my OpenId authentication using DotNetOpenAuth. I tested the site operation fairly extensively locally and everything worked no problem, but on the server the OpenId returns resulted in a 404 response from IIS for a nice friendly OpenId return URL like this: http://codepaste.net/Account/OpenIdLogon?dnoa.userSuppliedIdentifier=http%3A%2F%2Frstrahl.myopenid.com%2F&dnoa.return_to_sig_handle=%7B634239223364590000%7D%7BjbHzkg%3D%3D%7D&dnoa.return_to_sig=7%2BcGhp7UUkcV2B8W29ibIDnZuoGoqzyS%2F%2FbF%2FhhYscgWzjg%2BB%2Fj10ZpNdBkUCu86dkTL6f4OK2zY5qHhCnJ2Dw%3D%3D&openid.assoc_handle=%7BHMAC-SHA256%7D%7B4cca49b2%7D%7BMVGByQ%3D%3D%7D&openid.claimed_id=http%3A%2F%2Frstrahl.myopenid.com%2F&openid.identity=http%3A%2F%2Frstrahl.myopenid.com%2F&openid.mode=id_res&openid.ns=http%3A%2F%2Fspecs.openid.net%2Fauth%2F2.0&openid.ns.sreg=http%3A%2F%2Fopenid.net%2Fextensions%2Fsreg%2F1.1&openid.op_endpoint=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.myopenid.com%2Fserver&openid.response_nonce=2010-10-29T04%3A12%3A53Zn5F4r5&openid.return_to=http%3A%2F%2Fcodepaste.net%2FAccount%2FOpenIdLogon%3Fdnoa.userSuppliedIdentifier%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Frstrahl.myopenid.com%252F%26dnoa.return_to_sig_handle%3D%257B634239223364590000%257D%257BjbHzkg%253D%253D%257D%26dnoa.return_to_sig%3D7%252BcGhp7UUkcV2B8W29ibIDnZuoGoqzyS%252F%252FbF%252FhhYscgWzjg%252BB%252Fj10ZpNdBkUCu86dkTL6f4OK2zY5qHhCnJ2Dw%253D%253D&openid.sig=h1GCSBTDAn1on98sLA6cti%2Bj1M6RffNerdVEI80mnYE%3D&openid.signed=assoc_handle%2Cclaimed_id%2Cidentity%2Cmode%2Cns%2Cns.sreg%2Cop_endpoint%2Cresponse_nonce%2Creturn_to%2Csigned%2Csreg.email%2Csreg.fullname&openid.sreg.email=rstrahl%40host.com&openid.sreg.fullname=Rick+Strahl A 404 of course isn’t terribly helpful – normally a 404 is a resource not found error, but the resource is definitely there. So how the heck do you figure out what’s wrong? If you’re just interested in the solution, here’s the short version: IIS by default allows only for a 1024 byte query string, which is obviously exceeded by the above. The setting is controlled by the RequestFiltering module in IIS 6 and later which can be configured in ApplicationHost.config (in \%windir\system32\inetsvr\config). To set the value configure the requestLimits key like so: <configuration> <security> <requestFiltering> <requestLimits maxQueryString="2048"> </requestLimits> </requestFiltering> </security> </configuration> This fixed me right up and made the requests work. How do you find out about problems like this? Ah yes the troubles of an administrator? Read on and I’ll take you through a quick review of how I tracked this down. Finding the Problem The issue with the error returned is that IIS returns a 404 Resource not found error and doesn’t provide much information about it. If you’re lucky enough to be able to run your site from the localhost IIS is actually very helpful and gives you the right information immediately in a nicely detailed error page. The bottom of the page actually describes exactly what needs to be fixed. One problem with this easy way to find an error: You HAVE TO run localhost. On my server which has about 10 domains running localhost doesn’t point at the particular site I had problems with so I didn’t get the luxury of this nice error page. Using Failed Request Tracing to retrieve Error Info The first place I go with IIS errors is to turn on Failed Request Tracing in IIS to get more error information. If you have access to the server to make a configuration change you can enable Failed Request Tracing like this: Find the Failed Request Tracing Rules in the IIS Service Manager. Select the option and then Edit Site Tracing to enable tracing. Then add a rule for * (all content) and specify status codes from 100-999 to capture all errors. if you know exactly what error you’re looking for it might help to specify it exactly to keep the number of errors down. Then run your request and let it fail. IIS will throw error log files into a folder like this C:\inetpub\logs\FailedReqLogFiles\W3SVC5 where the last 5 is the instance ID of the site. These files are XML but they include an XSL stylesheet that provides some decent formatting. In this case it pointed me straight at the offending module: Ok, it’s the RequestFilteringModule. Request Filtering is built into IIS 6-7 and configured in ApplicationHost.config. This module defines a few basic rules about what paths and extensions are allowed in requests and among other things how long a query string is allowed to be. Most of these settings are pretty sensible but the query string value can easily become a problem especially if you’re dealing with OpenId since these return URLs are quite extensive. Debugging failed requests is never fun, but IIS 6 and forward at least provides us the tools that can help us point in the right direction. The error message the FRT report isn’t as nice as the IIS error message but it at least points at the offending module which gave me the clue I needed to look at request restrictions in ApplicationHost.config. This would still be a stretch if you’re not intimately familiar, but I think with some Google searches it would be easy to track this down with a few tries… Hope this was useful to some of you. Useful to me to put this out as a reminder – I’ve run into this issue before myself and totally forgot. Next time I got it, right?© Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2010Posted in ASP.NET Security

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