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• Running a simple integration scenario using the Oracle Big Data Connectors on Hadoop/HDFS cluster

  - by hamsun

  Between the elephant ( the tradional image of the Hadoop framework) and the Oracle Iron Man (Big Data..) an english setter could be seen as the link to the right data Data, Data, Data, we are living in a world where data technology based on popular applications , search engines, Webservers, rich sms messages, email clients, weather forecasts and so on, have a predominant role in our life. More and more technologies are used to analyze/track our behavior, try to detect patterns, to propose us "the best/right user experience" from the Google Ad services, to Telco companies or large consumer sites (like Amazon:) ). The more we use all these technologies, the more we generate data, and thus there is a need of huge data marts and specific hardware/software servers (as the Exadata servers) in order to treat/analyze/understand the trends and offer new services to the users. Some of these "data feeds" are raw, unstructured data, and cannot be processed effectively by normal SQL queries. Large scale distributed processing was an emerging infrastructure need and the solution seemed to be the "collocation of compute nodes with the data", which in turn leaded to MapReduce parallel patterns and the development of the Hadoop framework, which is based on MapReduce and a distributed file system (HDFS) that runs on larger clusters of rather inexpensive servers. Several Oracle products are using the distributed / aggregation pattern for data calculation ( Coherence, NoSql, times ten ) so once that you are familiar with one of these technologies, lets says with coherence aggregators, you will find the whole Hadoop, MapReduce concept very similar. Oracle Big Data Appliance is based on the Cloudera Distribution (CDH), and the Oracle Big Data Connectors can be plugged on a Hadoop cluster running the CDH distribution or equivalent Hadoop clusters. In this paper, a "lab like" implementation of this concept is done on a single Linux X64 server, running an Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.4.0, and a single node Apache hadoop-1.2.1 HDFS cluster, using the SQL connector for HDFS. The whole setup is fairly simple: Install on a Linux x64 server ( or virtual box appliance) an Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.4.0 server Get the Apache Hadoop distribution from: http://mir2.ovh.net/ftp.apache.org/dist/hadoop/common/hadoop-1.2.1. Get the Oracle Big Data Connectors from: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/bdc/big-data-connectors/downloads/index.html?ssSourceSiteId=ocomen. Check the java version of your Linux server with the command: java -version java version "1.7.0_40" Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_40-b43) Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 24.0-b56, mixed mode) Decompress the hadoop hadoop-1.2.1.tar.gz file to /u01/hadoop-1.2.1 Modify your .bash_profile export HADOOP_HOME=/u01/hadoop-1.2.1 export PATH=$PATH:$HADOOP_HOME/bin export HIVE_HOME=/u01/hive-0.11.0 export PATH=$PATH:$HADOOP_HOME/bin:$HIVE_HOME/bin (also see my sample .bash_profile) Set up ssh trust for Hadoop process, this is a mandatory step, in our case we have to establish a "local trust" as will are using a single node configuration copy the new public keys to the list of authorized keys connect and test the ssh setup to your localhost: We will run a "pseudo-Hadoop cluster", in what is called "local standalone mode", all the Hadoop java components are running in one Java process, this is enough for our demo purposes. We need to "fine tune" some Hadoop configuration files, we have to go at our $HADOOP_HOME/conf, and modify the files: core-site.xml hdfs-site.xml mapred-site.xml check that the hadoop binaries are referenced correctly from the command line by executing: hadoop -version As Hadoop is managing our "clustered HDFS" file system we have to create "the mount point" and format it , the mount point will be declared to core-site.xml as: The layout under the /u01/hadoop-1.2.1/data will be created and used by other hadoop components (MapReduce = /mapred/...) HDFS is using the /dfs/... layout structure format the HDFS hadoop file system: Start the java components for the HDFS system As an additional check, you can use the GUI Hadoop browsers to check the content of your HDFS configurations: Once our HDFS Hadoop setup is done you can use the HDFS file system to store data ( big data : )), and plug them back and forth to Oracle Databases by the means of the Big Data Connectors ( which is the next configuration step). You can create / use a Hive db, but in our case we will make a simple integration of "raw data" , through the creation of an External Table to a local Oracle instance ( on the same Linux box, we run the Hadoop HDFS one node cluster and one Oracle DB). Download some public "big data", I use the site: http://france.meteofrance.com/france/observations, from where I can get *.csv files for my big data simulations :). Here is the data layout of my example file: Download the Big Data Connector from the OTN (oraosch-2.2.0.zip), unzip it to your local file system (see picture below) Modify your environment in order to access the connector libraries , and make the following test: [oracle@dg1 bin]$./hdfs_stream Usage: hdfs_stream locationFile [oracle@dg1 bin]$ Load the data to the Hadoop hdfs file system: hadoop fs -mkdir bgtest_data hadoop fs -put obsFrance.txt bgtest_data/obsFrance.txt hadoop fs -ls /user/oracle/bgtest_data/obsFrance.txt [oracle@dg1 bg-data-raw]$ hadoop fs -ls /user/oracle/bgtest_data/obsFrance.txt Found 1 items -rw-r--r-- 1 oracle supergroup 54103 2013-10-22 06:10 /user/oracle/bgtest_data/obsFrance.txt [oracle@dg1 bg-data-raw]$hadoop fs -ls hdfs:///user/oracle/bgtest_data/obsFrance.txt Found 1 items -rw-r--r-- 1 oracle supergroup 54103 2013-10-22 06:10 /user/oracle/bgtest_data/obsFrance.txt Check the content of the HDFS with the browser UI: Start the Oracle database, and run the following script in order to create the Oracle database user, the Oracle directories for the Oracle Big Data Connector (dg1 it’s my own db id replace accordingly yours): #!/bin/bash export ORAENV_ASK=NO export ORACLE_SID=dg1 . oraenv sqlplus /nolog <<EOF CONNECT / AS sysdba; CREATE OR REPLACE DIRECTORY osch_bin_path AS '/u01/orahdfs-2.2.0/bin'; CREATE USER BGUSER IDENTIFIED BY oracle; GRANT CREATE SESSION, CREATE TABLE TO BGUSER; GRANT EXECUTE ON sys.utl_file TO BGUSER; GRANT READ, EXECUTE ON DIRECTORY osch_bin_path TO BGUSER; CREATE OR REPLACE DIRECTORY BGT_LOG_DIR as '/u01/BG_TEST/logs'; GRANT READ, WRITE ON DIRECTORY BGT_LOG_DIR to BGUSER; CREATE OR REPLACE DIRECTORY BGT_DATA_DIR as '/u01/BG_TEST/data'; GRANT READ, WRITE ON DIRECTORY BGT_DATA_DIR to BGUSER; EOF Put the following in a file named t3.sh and make it executable, hadoop jar $OSCH_HOME/jlib/orahdfs.jar \ oracle.hadoop.exttab.ExternalTable \ -D oracle.hadoop.exttab.tableName=BGTEST_DP_XTAB \ -D oracle.hadoop.exttab.defaultDirectory=BGT_DATA_DIR \ -D oracle.hadoop.exttab.dataPaths="hdfs:///user/oracle/bgtest_data/obsFrance.txt" \ -D oracle.hadoop.exttab.columnCount=7 \ -D oracle.hadoop.connection.url=jdbc:oracle:thin:@//localhost:1521/dg1 \ -D oracle.hadoop.connection.user=BGUSER \ -D oracle.hadoop.exttab.printStackTrace=true \ -createTable --noexecute then test the creation fo the external table with it: [oracle@dg1 samples]$ ./t3.sh ./t3.sh: line 2: /u01/orahdfs-2.2.0: Is a directory Oracle SQL Connector for HDFS Release 2.2.0 - Production Copyright (c) 2011, 2013, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Enter Database Password:] The create table command was not executed. The following table would be created. CREATE TABLE "BGUSER"."BGTEST_DP_XTAB" ( "C1" VARCHAR2(4000), "C2" VARCHAR2(4000), "C3" VARCHAR2(4000), "C4" VARCHAR2(4000), "C5" VARCHAR2(4000), "C6" VARCHAR2(4000), "C7" VARCHAR2(4000) ) ORGANIZATION EXTERNAL ( TYPE ORACLE_LOADER DEFAULT DIRECTORY "BGT_DATA_DIR" ACCESS PARAMETERS ( RECORDS DELIMITED BY 0X'0A' CHARACTERSET AL32UTF8 STRING SIZES ARE IN CHARACTERS PREPROCESSOR "OSCH_BIN_PATH":'hdfs_stream' FIELDS TERMINATED BY 0X'2C' MISSING FIELD VALUES ARE NULL ( "C1" CHAR(4000), "C2" CHAR(4000), "C3" CHAR(4000), "C4" CHAR(4000), "C5" CHAR(4000), "C6" CHAR(4000), "C7" CHAR(4000) ) ) LOCATION ( 'osch-20131022081035-74-1' ) ) PARALLEL REJECT LIMIT UNLIMITED; The following location files would be created. osch-20131022081035-74-1 contains 1 URI, 54103 bytes 54103 hdfs://localhost:19000/user/oracle/bgtest_data/obsFrance.txt Then remove the --noexecute flag and create the external Oracle table for the Hadoop data. Check the results: The create table command succeeded. CREATE TABLE "BGUSER"."BGTEST_DP_XTAB" ( "C1" VARCHAR2(4000), "C2" VARCHAR2(4000), "C3" VARCHAR2(4000), "C4" VARCHAR2(4000), "C5" VARCHAR2(4000), "C6" VARCHAR2(4000), "C7" VARCHAR2(4000) ) ORGANIZATION EXTERNAL ( TYPE ORACLE_LOADER DEFAULT DIRECTORY "BGT_DATA_DIR" ACCESS PARAMETERS ( RECORDS DELIMITED BY 0X'0A' CHARACTERSET AL32UTF8 STRING SIZES ARE IN CHARACTERS PREPROCESSOR "OSCH_BIN_PATH":'hdfs_stream' FIELDS TERMINATED BY 0X'2C' MISSING FIELD VALUES ARE NULL ( "C1" CHAR(4000), "C2" CHAR(4000), "C3" CHAR(4000), "C4" CHAR(4000), "C5" CHAR(4000), "C6" CHAR(4000), "C7" CHAR(4000) ) ) LOCATION ( 'osch-20131022081719-3239-1' ) ) PARALLEL REJECT LIMIT UNLIMITED; The following location files were created. osch-20131022081719-3239-1 contains 1 URI, 54103 bytes 54103 hdfs://localhost:19000/user/oracle/bgtest_data/obsFrance.txt This is the view from the SQL Developer: and finally the number of lines in the oracle table, imported from our Hadoop HDFS cluster SQL select count(*) from "BGUSER"."BGTEST_DP_XTAB"; COUNT(*) ---------- 1151 In a next post we will integrate data from a Hive database, and try some ODI integrations with the ODI Big Data connector. Our simplistic approach is just a step to show you how these unstructured data world can be integrated to Oracle infrastructure. Hadoop, BigData, NoSql are great technologies, they are widely used and Oracle is offering a large integration infrastructure based on these services. Oracle University presents a complete curriculum on all the Oracle related technologies: NoSQL: Introduction to Oracle NoSQL Database Using Oracle NoSQL Database Big Data: Introduction to Big Data Oracle Big Data Essentials Oracle Big Data Overview Oracle Data Integrator: Oracle Data Integrator 12c: New Features Oracle Data Integrator 11g: Integration and Administration Oracle Data Integrator: Administration and Development Oracle Data Integrator 11g: Advanced Integration and Development Oracle Coherence 12c: Oracle Coherence 12c: New Features Oracle Coherence 12c: Share and Manage Data in Clusters Oracle Coherence 12c: Oracle GoldenGate 11g: Fundamentals for Oracle Oracle GoldenGate 11g: Fundamentals for SQL Server Oracle GoldenGate 11g Fundamentals for Oracle Oracle GoldenGate 11g Fundamentals for DB2 Oracle GoldenGate 11g Fundamentals for Teradata Oracle GoldenGate 11g Fundamentals for HP NonStop Oracle GoldenGate 11g Management Pack: Overview Oracle GoldenGate 11g Troubleshooting and Tuning Oracle GoldenGate 11g: Advanced Configuration for Oracle Other Resources: Apache Hadoop : http://hadoop.apache.org/ is the homepage for these technologies. "Hadoop Definitive Guide 3rdEdition" by Tom White is a classical lecture for people who want to know more about Hadoop , and some active "googling " will also give you some more references. About the author: Eugene Simos is based in France and joined Oracle through the BEA-Weblogic Acquisition, where he worked for the Professional Service, Support, end Education for major accounts across the EMEA Region. He worked in the banking sector, ATT, Telco companies giving him extensive experience on production environments. Eugen currently specializes in Oracle Fusion Middleware teaching an array of courses on Weblogic/Webcenter, Content,BPM /SOA/Identity-Security/GoldenGate/Virtualisation/Unified Comm Suite) throughout the EMEA region.

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• When Your Boss Doesn't Want you to Succeed

  - by Phil Factor

  You're working hard to get an application finished. You are programming long into the evenings sometimes, and eating sandwiches at your desk instead of taking a lunch break. Then one day you glance up at the IT manager, serene in his mysterious round of meetings, and think 'Does he actually care whether this project succeeds or not?'. The question may seem absurd. Of course the project must succeed. The truth, as always, is often far more complex. Your manager may even be doing his best to make sure you don't succeed. Why? There have always been rich pickings for the unscrupulous in IT.  In extreme cases, where administrators struggle with scarcely-comprehended technical issues, huge sums of money can be lost and gained without any perceptible results. In a very few cases can fraud be proven: most of the time, the intricacies of the 'game' are such that one can do little more than harbor suspicion.  Where does over-enthusiastic salesmanship end and fraud begin? The Business of Information Technology provides rich opportunities for White-collar crime. The poor developer has his, or her, hands full with the task of wrestling with the sheer complexity of building an application. He, or she, has no time for following the complexities of the chicanery of the management that is directing affairs.  Most likely, the developers wouldn't even suspect that their company management had ulterior motives. I'll illustrate what I mean with an entirely fictional, hypothetical, example. The Opportunist and the Aged Charities often do good, unexciting work that is funded by the income from a bequest that dates back maybe hundreds of years.  In our example, it isn't exciting work, for it involves the welfare of elderly people who have fallen on hard times.  Volunteers visit, giving a smile and a chat, and check that they are all right, but are able to spend a little money on their discretion to ameliorate any pressing needs for these old folk.  The money is made to work very hard and the charity averts a great deal of suffering and eases the burden on the state. Daisy hears the garden gate creak as Mrs Rainer comes up the path. She looks forward to her twice-weekly visit from the nice lady from the trust. She always asked ‘is everything all right, Love’. Cheeky but nice. She likes her cheery manner. She seems interested in hearing her memories, and talking about her far-away family. She helps her with those chores in the house that she couldn’t manage and once even paid to fill the back-shed with coke, the other year. Nice, Mrs. Rainer is, she thought as she goes to open the door. The trustees are getting on in years themselves, and worry about the long-term future of the charity: is it relevant to modern society? Is it likely to attract a new generation of workers to take it on. They are instantly attracted by the arrival to the board of a smartly dressed University lecturer with the ear of the present Government. Alain 'Stalin' Jones is earnest, persuasive and energetic. The trustees welcome him to the board and quickly forgive his humorless political-correctness. He talks of 'diversity', 'relevance', 'social change', 'equality' and 'communities', but his eye is on that huge bequest. Alain first came to notice as a Trotskyite union official, who insinuated himself into one of the duller Trades Unions and turned it, through his passionate leadership, into a radical, headline-grabbing organization.  Middle age, and the rise of European federal socialism, had brought him quiet prosperity and charcoal suits, an ear in the current government, and a wide influence as a member of various Quangos (government bodies staffed by well-paid unelected courtiers).  He was employed as a 'consultant' by several organizations that relied on government contracts. After gaining the confidence of the trustees, and showing a surprising knowledge of mundane processes and the regulatory framework of charities, Alain launches his plan.  The trust will expand their work by means of a bold IT initiative that will coordinate the interventions of several 'caring agencies', and provide  emergency cover, a special Website so anxious relatives can see how their elderly charges are doing, and a vastly more efficient way of coordinating the work of the volunteer carers. It will also provide a special-purpose site that gives 'social networking' facilities, rather like Facebook, to the few elderly folk on the lists with access to the internet. The trustees perk up. Their own experience of the internet is restricted to the occasional scanning of railway timetables, but they can see that it is 'relevant'. In his next report to the other trustees, Alain proudly announces that all this glamorous and exciting technology can be paid for by a grant from the government. He admits darkly that he has influence. True to his word, the government promises a grant of a size that is an order of magnitude greater than any budget that the trustees had ever handled. There was the understandable proviso that the company that would actually do the IT work would have to be one of the government's preferred suppliers and the work would need to be tendered under EU competition rules. The only company that tenders, a multinational IT company with a long track record of government work, quotes ten million pounds for the work. A trustee questions the figure as it seems enormous for the reasonably trivial internet facilities being built, but the IT Salesmen dazzle them with presentations and three-letter acronyms until they subside into quiescent acceptance. After all, they can’t stay locked in the Twentieth century practices can they? The work is put in hand with a large project team, in a splendid glass building near west London. The trustees see rooms of programmers working diligently at screens, and who talk with enthusiasm of the project. Paul, the project manager, looked through his resource schedule with growing unease. His initial excitement at being given his first major project hadn’t lasted. He’d been allocated a lackluster team of developers whose skills didn’t seem right, and he was allowed only a couple of contractors to make good the deficit. Strangely, the presentation he’d given to his management, where he’d saved time and resources with a OTS solution to a great deal of the development work, and a sound conservative architecture, hadn’t gone down nearly as big as he’d hoped. He almost got the feeling they wanted a more radical and ambitious solution. The project starts slipping its dates. The costs build rapidly. There are certain uncomfortable extra charges that appear, such as the £600-a-day charge by the 'Business Manager' appointed to act as a point of liaison between the charity and the IT Company.  When he appeared, his face permanently split by a 'Mr Sincerity' smile, they'd thought he was provided at the cost of the IT Company. Derek, the DBA, didn’t have to go to the server room quite some much as he did: but It got him away from the poisonous despair of the development group. Wave after wave of events had conspired to delay the project.  Why the management had imposed hideous extra bureaucracy to cover ISO 9000 and 9001:2008 accreditation just as the project was struggling to get back on-schedule was  beyond belief.  Then  the Business manager was coming back with endless changes in scope, sorrowing saying that the Trustees were very insistent, though hopelessly out in touch with the reality of technical challenges. Suddenly, the costs mount to the point of consuming the government grant in its entirety. The project remains tantalizingly just out of reach. Alain Jones gives an emotional rallying speech at the trustees review meeting, urging them not to lose their nerve. Sadly, the trustees dip into the accumulated capital of the trust, the seed-corn of all their revenues, in order to save the IT project. A few months later it is all over. The IT project is never delivered, even though it had seemed so incredibly close.  With the trust's capital all gone, the activities it funded have to be terminated and the trust becomes just a shell. There aren't even the funds to mount a legal challenge against the IT company, even had the trust's solicitor advised such a foolish thing. Alain leaves as suddenly as he had arrived, only to pop up a few months later, bronzed and rested, at another charity. The IT workers who were permanent employees are dispersed to other projects, and the contractors leave to other contracts. Within months the entire project is but a vague memory. One or two developers remain  puzzled that their managers had been so obstructive when they should have welcomed progress toward completion of the project, but they put it down to incompetence and testosterone. Few suspected that they were actively preventing the project from getting finished. The relationships between the IT consultancy, and the government of the day are intricate, and made more complex by the Private Finance initiatives and political patronage.  The losers in this case were the taxpayers, and the beneficiaries of the trust, and, perhaps the soul of the original benefactor of the trust, whose bid to give his name some immortality had been scuppered by smooth-talking white-collar political apparatniks.  Even now, nobody is certain whether a crime was ever committed. The perfect heist, I guess. Where’s the victim? "I hear that Daisy’s cottage is up for sale. She’s had to go into a care home.  She didn’t want to at all, but then there is nobody to keep an eye on her since she had that minor stroke a while back.  A charity used to help out. The ‘social’ don’t have the funding, evidently for community care. Yes, her old cat was put down. There was a good clearout, and now the house is all scrubbed and cleared ready for sale. The skip was full of old photos and letters, memories. No room in her new ‘home’."

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, May 29, 2010

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, May 29, 2010New ProjectsASP.NET MVC Time Planner: ASP.NET MVC based time planner is example solution that introduces ASP.NET MVC, MSSQL AJAX and jQuery development.Blit Scripting Engine: Blit Scripting Engine provides developers using Microsofts XNA Framework the ability to implement a scripting solution to their games and other pro...Expression Evaluator: This is an article on how to build a basic expression evaluator. It can evaluate any numerical expression combined with trigonometric functions for...Log Analyzer: This project has the aim to help developers to see live log/trace from their application applying visual styles to the grabbed text.LParse: LParse is a monadic parser combinator library, similar to Haskell’s Parsec. It allows you create parsers on C# language. All parsers are first-clas...NeatHtml: NeatHtml™ is a highly-portable open source website component that displays untrusted content securely, efficiently, and accessibly. Untrusted conte...NeatUpload: The NeatUpload ™ ASP.NET component allows developers to stream uploaded files to storage (filesystem or database) and allows users to monitor uplo...NSoup: NSoup is a .NET port of the jsoup (http://jsoup.org) HTML parser and sanitizer originally written in Java. jsoup originally written by Jonathan He...Ordering: c# farm softwarephone7: Project for Windows Phone 7RestCall: A very simple library to make a simple REST call and deserialize to an object. It uses WCF REST Starter Kit and the .net serializer in: System.Runt...SCSM CSV Connector: CSV Connector allows you to specify a data file and mapping location and a scheuled interval in minutes. At each scheduled interval Service Manage...Silverlight Adorner Control: An Adorner is a custom FrameworkElement that is bound to a FrameworkElement and displays information about that element 'above' the element without...Simple Stupid Tools: Simple Stupid ToolsSQScriptRunner: Simple Quick Script Runner allows an administrator to run T-SQL Scripts against one or more servers with common characteristics. For example, an m...ssisassembly: ssisassemblySSRS Report RoboCopy: a tools used to pass a report from a server to anotherTeam Foundation Server Explorer: A standalone Team Foundation Server explorer that can be used to view and manage source files.New Releases(SocketCoder) Full Silverlight Web Video/Voice Conferencing: SocketCoderWebConferencingSystem_Compiled: Installing The Server: 1- before you start you should allow the SocketCoderWCService.MainService.exe service to use the TCP ports from 4528 to 4532...ASP.NET MVC Time Planner: MVC Time Planner - v0.0.1.0: First public alpha of MVC Time Planner is now available. I got a lot of letters from my ASP.NET blog readers who are interested in this example sol...AvalonDock: AvalonDock 1.3.3384: Welcome to AvalonDock 1.3 This is the new version of AvalonDock targetting .NET 4 These are the main features that are included: - Target Microso...Blit Scripting Engine: Blit Scripting Engine 1.0: This marks the initial release of the Blit Scripting Engine. It provides the ability to compile scripts to an assembly, load pre-compiled assemblie...Community Forums NNTP bridge: Community Forums NNTP Bridge V12: Release of the Community Forums NNTP Bridge to access the social and anwsers MS forums with a single, open source NNTP bridge. This release has add...Community Forums NNTP bridge: Community Forums NNTP Bridge V13: Release of the Community Forums NNTP Bridge to access the social and anwsers MS forums with a single, open source NNTP bridge. This release has add...CSharp Intellisense: V2.4: bug fix: Pascal Casing, Single Selection and other selection errorsExpression Evaluator: Expression Evaluator - Visual Studio 2010: Visual Studio 2010 VersionFacebook Graph Toolkit: Preview 2: Preview 2 updates the source to be much more like the Facebook PHP-SDK. Additionally, the code has been updated to follow StyleCop framework rules....Facebook Graph Toolkit: Preview 3: Rest API now working although not fully tested. Removed JsonObject and JsonArray custom dynamic objects in favor of standard ExpandoObject and List...Free Silverlight & WPF Chart Control - Visifire: Visifire SL and WPF Charts v3.1.1 beta Released: Hi, Today we are releasing the two most awaited features i.e, Logarithmic axis and auto update of y-axis while Scrolling and Zooming. * Logar...Free Silverlight & WPF Chart Control - Visifire: Visifire SL and WPF Charts v3.5.4 beta Released: Hi, Today we are releasing the two most awaited features i.e, Logarithmic axis and auto update of y-axis while Scrolling and Zooming. Logarithmic...Fulcrum: Fulcrum 1.0: Initial release.Git Source Control Provider: V 0.3: V 0.3 Add automatic status refresh when files in solution folder changedIBCSharp: IBCSharp 1.04: What IBCSharp 1.04.zip unzips to: http://i50.tinypic.com/205qofl.png IBCSharp Change Log 1.04 - 5/28/2010 Updated IBClient.dll to IB API version...MapWindow6: MapWindow 6.0 May 28 2010: This shifts the projection library to System.Spatial.Projections instead of MWProj4. This also fixes a meter/feet conversion error.Microsoft Health Common User Interface: Release 8.2.51.000: This is version 8.2 of the Microsoft® Health Common User Interface Control Toolkit. This release includes code updates to controls as listed below....NeatHtml: NeatHtml-trunk.221: Adds support for Internet Explorer Mobile 6.NeatUpload: NeatUpload-1.3.25: Fixes the following bugs: SWFUpload.swf could not be served by a CDN because it was embedded without setting allowScriptAccess="always". NeatUpl...NSoup: NSoup 0.1: Initial port release. Corresponds to jsoup version 0.3.1.Numina Application/Security Framework: Numina.Framework Core 53265: Visit http://framework.numina.net to help get you started.Nuntio Content: Nuntio Content 4.2.0: This upgrades MagicContent instances to the latest version that is now called NuntioContent. While this release is quite stable it is still marked ...patterns & practices: Composite WPF and Silverlight: ProjectLinker Source for VS2010 - May 2010: The ProjectLinker helps keep the source for two projects in sync by automatically creating a linked file in one project as files are added in anoth...phone7: Prism for WP7: This the first version of prism for wp7SCSM CSV Connector: SCSM CSV Connector Version 0.1: Release Notes This is the first release of the SCSM CSV Connector solution. It is an 'alpha' release and has only been tested by the developers on ...Silverlight Adorner Control: 1.0: Initial releaseSilverlight Web Comic: Comic 1.1.1: Comic Beta with functionality to button newSilverlight Web Comic: Web Comic 1.1: This version has a little implementation no visible about the future versions, options to new, save, and load. The next version has a better review...Simple.NET: Simple.Mocking 1.0.0.6: Initial version of a new mocking framework for .NET Revision 1: Expect.AnyInocationOn<T>(T target) changed to Expect.AnyInocationOn(object target...Sonic.Net: Sonic.Net v1.0.1 For Unity 2.0: This Version is a port to VS2010 of the codebase with support for unity 2.0. note: currently follows the xsd schema of the previous unity Configur...Squiggle - A Free open source Lan Messenger: Squiggle 1.0.2: v1.0 Release.Team Foundation Server Explorer: Beta 1: The first public beta release of the TFS Explorer.thinktecture WSCF.blue: WSCF.blue V1 Update (1.0.8): Bug fix release with the following fix: When an XmlArrayAttribute decorated member has IsNullable=false, and the List<T> or Collection option is s...VCC: Latest build, v2.1.30528.0: Automatic drop of latest buildVisual Studio 2010 AutoScroller Extension: AutoScroller v0.4: A Visual studio 2010 auto-scroller extension. Simply hold down your middle mouse button and drag the mouse in the direction you wish to scroll, fu...WatchersNET CKEditor™ Provider for DotNetNuke: CKEditor Provider 1.10.03: !!Whats New Added CKEditor 3.3 Revision 5542 changes Options: Default Toolbar Set to Full for Administrators Browser Window: Increased Size of ...Most Popular ProjectsRawrWBFS ManagerAJAX Control ToolkitMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: DatabaseSilverlight ToolkitWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)patterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryMicrosoft SQL Server Community & SamplesPHPExcelASP.NETMost Active ProjectsAStar.netpatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryBlogEngine.NETGMap.NET - Great Maps for Windows Forms & PresentationCommunity Forums NNTP bridgeRawrSqlServerExtensionsCustomer Portal Accelerator for Microsoft Dynamics CRMPAPpatterns & practices: Windows Azure Security Guidance

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• T-SQL Tuesday #53-Matt's Making Me Do This!

  - by Most Valuable Yak (Rob Volk)

  Hello everyone! It's that time again, time for T-SQL Tuesday, the wonderful blog series started by Adam Machanic (b|t). This month we are hosted by Matt Velic (b|t) who asks the question, "Why So Serious?", in celebration of April Fool's Day. He asks the contributors for their dirty tricks. And for some reason that escapes me, he and Jeff Verheul (b|t) seem to think I might be able to write about those. Shocked, I am! Nah, not really. They're absolutely right, this one is gonna be fun! I took some inspiration from Matt's suggestions, namely Resource Governor and Login Triggers.  I've done some interesting login trigger stuff for a presentation, but nothing yet with Resource Governor. Best way to learn it! One of my oldest pet peeves is abuse of the sa login. Don't get me wrong, I use it too, but typically only as SQL Agent job owner. It's been a while since I've been stuck with it, but back when I started using SQL Server, EVERY application needed sa to function. It was hard-coded and couldn't be changed. (welllllll, that is if you didn't use a hex editor on the EXE file, but who would do such a thing?) My standard warning applies: don't run anything on this page in production. In fact, back up whatever server you're testing this on, including the master database. Snapshotting a VM is a good idea. Also make sure you have other sysadmin level logins on that server. So here's a standard template for a logon trigger to address those pesky sa users: CREATE TRIGGER SA_LOGIN_PRIORITY ON ALL SERVER WITH ENCRYPTION, EXECUTE AS N'sa' AFTER LOGON AS IF ORIGINAL_LOGIN()<>N'sa' OR APP_NAME() LIKE N'SQL Agent%' RETURN; -- interesting stuff goes here GO   What can you do for "interesting stuff"? Books Online limits itself to merely rolling back the logon, which will throw an error (and alert the person that the logon trigger fired).  That's a good use for logon triggers, but really not tricky enough for this blog.  Some of my suggestions are below: WAITFOR DELAY '23:59:59';   Or: EXEC sp_MSforeach_db 'EXEC sp_detach_db ''?'';'   Or: EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_add_job @job_name=N'`', @enabled=1, @start_step_id=1, @notify_level_eventlog=0, @delete_level=3; EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_add_jobserver @job_name=N'`', @server_name=@@SERVERNAME; EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_add_jobstep @job_name=N'`', @step_id=1, @step_name=N'`', @command=N'SHUTDOWN;'; EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_start_job @job_name=N'`';   Really, I don't want to spoil your own exploration, try it yourself!  The thing I really like about these is it lets me promote the idea that "sa is SLOW, sa is BUGGY, don't use sa!".  Before we get into Resource Governor, make sure to drop or disable that logon trigger. They don't work well in combination. (Had to redo all the following code when SSMS locked up) Resource Governor is a feature that lets you control how many resources a single session can consume. The main goal is to limit the damage from a runaway query. But we're not here to read about its main goal or normal usage! I'm trying to make people stop using sa BECAUSE IT'S SLOW! Here's how RG can do that: USE master; GO CREATE FUNCTION dbo.SA_LOGIN_PRIORITY() RETURNS sysname WITH SCHEMABINDING, ENCRYPTION AS BEGIN RETURN CASE WHEN ORIGINAL_LOGIN()=N'sa' AND APP_NAME() NOT LIKE N'SQL Agent%' THEN N'SA_LOGIN_PRIORITY' ELSE N'default' END END GO CREATE RESOURCE POOL SA_LOGIN_PRIORITY WITH ( MIN_CPU_PERCENT = 0 ,MAX_CPU_PERCENT = 1 ,CAP_CPU_PERCENT = 1 ,AFFINITY SCHEDULER = (0) ,MIN_MEMORY_PERCENT = 0 ,MAX_MEMORY_PERCENT = 1 -- ,MIN_IOPS_PER_VOLUME = 1 ,MAX_IOPS_PER_VOLUME = 1 -- uncomment for SQL Server 2014 ); CREATE WORKLOAD GROUP SA_LOGIN_PRIORITY WITH ( IMPORTANCE = LOW ,REQUEST_MAX_MEMORY_GRANT_PERCENT = 1 ,REQUEST_MAX_CPU_TIME_SEC = 1 ,REQUEST_MEMORY_GRANT_TIMEOUT_SEC = 1 ,MAX_DOP = 1 ,GROUP_MAX_REQUESTS = 1 ) USING SA_LOGIN_PRIORITY; ALTER RESOURCE GOVERNOR WITH (CLASSIFIER_FUNCTION=dbo.SA_LOGIN_PRIORITY); ALTER RESOURCE GOVERNOR RECONFIGURE;   From top to bottom: Create a classifier function to determine which pool the session should go to. More info on classifier functions. Create the pool and provide a generous helping of resources for the sa login. Create the workload group and further prioritize those resources for the sa login. Apply the classifier function and reconfigure RG to use it. I have to say this one is a bit sneakier than the logon trigger, least of all you don't get any error messages.  I heartily recommend testing it in Management Studio, and click around the UI a lot, there's some fun behavior there. And DEFINITELY try it on SQL 2014 with the IO settings included!  You'll notice I made allowances for SQL Agent jobs owned by sa, they'll go into the default workload group.  You can add your own overrides to the classifier function if needed. Some interesting ideas I didn't have time for but expect you to get to before me: Set up different pools/workgroups with different settings and randomize which one the classifier chooses Do the same but base it on time of day (Books Online example covers this)... Or, which workstation it connects from. This can be modified for certain special people in your office who either don't listen, or are attracted (and attractive) to you. And if things go wrong you can always use the following from another sysadmin or Dedicated Admin connection: ALTER RESOURCE GOVERNOR DISABLE;   That will let you go in and either fix (or drop) the pools, workgroups and classifier function. So now that you know these types of things are possible, and if you are tired of your team using sa when they shouldn't, I expect you'll enjoy playing with these quite a bit! Unfortunately, the aforementioned Dedicated Admin Connection kinda poops on the party here.  Books Online for both topics will tell you that the DAC will not fire either feature. So if you have a crafty user who does their research, they can still sneak in with sa and do their bidding without being hampered. Of course, you can still detect their login via various methods, like a server trace, SQL Server Audit, extended events, and enabling "Audit Successful Logins" on the server.  These all have their downsides: traces take resources, extended events and SQL Audit can't fire off actions, and enabling successful logins will bloat your error log very quickly.  SQL Audit is also limited unless you have Enterprise Edition, and Resource Governor is Enterprise-only.  And WORST OF ALL, these features are all available and visible through the SSMS UI, so even a doofus developer or manager could find them. Fortunately there are Event Notifications! Event notifications are becoming one of my favorite features of SQL Server (keep an eye out for more blogs from me about them). They are practically unknown and heinously underutilized.  They are also a great gateway drug to using Service Broker, another great but underutilized feature. Hopefully this will get you to start using them, or at least your enemies in the office will once they read this, and then you'll have to learn them in order to fix things. So here's the setup: USE msdb; GO CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.SA_LOGIN_PRIORITY_act WITH ENCRYPTION AS DECLARE @x XML, @message nvarchar(max); RECEIVE @x=CAST(message_body AS XML) FROM SA_LOGIN_PRIORITY_q; IF @x.value('(//LoginName)[1]','sysname')=N'sa' AND @x.value('(//ApplicationName)[1]','sysname') NOT LIKE N'SQL Agent%' BEGIN -- interesting activation procedure stuff goes here END GO CREATE QUEUE SA_LOGIN_PRIORITY_q WITH STATUS=ON, RETENTION=OFF, ACTIVATION (PROCEDURE_NAME=dbo.SA_LOGIN_PRIORITY_act, MAX_QUEUE_READERS=1, EXECUTE AS OWNER); CREATE SERVICE SA_LOGIN_PRIORITY_s ON QUEUE SA_LOGIN_PRIORITY_q([http://schemas.microsoft.com/SQL/Notifications/PostEventNotification]); CREATE EVENT NOTIFICATION SA_LOGIN_PRIORITY_en ON SERVER WITH FAN_IN FOR AUDIT_LOGIN TO SERVICE N'SA_LOGIN_PRIORITY_s', N'current database' GO   From top to bottom: Create activation procedure for event notification queue. Create queue to accept messages from event notification, and activate the procedure to process those messages when received. Create service to send messages to that queue. Create event notification on AUDIT_LOGIN events that fire the service. I placed this in msdb as it is an available system database and already has Service Broker enabled by default. You should change this to another database if you can guarantee it won't get dropped. So what to put in place for "interesting activation procedure code"?  Hmmm, so far I haven't addressed Matt's suggestion of writing a lengthy script to send an annoying message: SET @[email protected]('(//HostName)[1]','sysname') + N' tried to log in to server ' + @x.value('(//ServerName)[1]','sysname') + N' as SA at ' + @x.value('(//StartTime)[1]','sysname') + N' using the ' + @x.value('(//ApplicationName)[1]','sysname') + N' program. That''s why you''re getting this message and the attached pornography which' + N' is bloating your inbox and violating company policy, among other things. If you know' + N' this person you can go to their desk and hit them, or use the following SQL to end their session: KILL ' + @x.value('(//SPID)[1]','sysname') + N'; Hopefully they''re in the middle of a huge query that they need to finish right away.' EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_send_dbmail @recipients=N'[email protected]', @subject=N'SA Login Alert', @query_result_width=32767, @body=@message, @query=N'EXEC sp_readerrorlog;', @attach_query_result_as_file=1, @query_attachment_filename=N'UtterlyGrossPorn_SeriouslyDontOpenIt.jpg' I'm not sure I'd call that a lengthy script, but the attachment should get pretty big, and I'm sure the email admins will love storing multiple copies of it.  The nice thing is that this also fires on Dedicated Admin connections! You can even identify DAC connections from the event data returned, I leave that as an exercise for you. You can use that info to change the action taken by the activation procedure, and since it's a stored procedure, it can pretty much do anything! Except KILL the SPID, or SHUTDOWN the server directly.  I'm still working on those.

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• Software Engineering Practices &ndash; Different Projects should have different maturity levels

  - by Dylan Smith

  I’ve had a lot of discussions at the office lately about the drastically different sets of software engineering practices used on our various projects, if what we are doing is appropriate, and what factors should you be considering when determining what practices are most appropriate in a given context. I wanted to write up my thoughts in a little more detail on this subject, so here we go: If you compare any two software projects (specifically comparing their codebases) you’ll often see very different levels of maturity in the software engineering practices employed. By software engineering practices, I’m specifically referring to the quality of the code and the amount of technical debt present in the project. Things such as Test Driven Development, Domain Driven Design, Behavior Driven Development, proper adherence to the SOLID principles, etc. are all practices that you would expect at the mature end of the spectrum. At the other end of the spectrum would be the quick-and-dirty solutions that are done using something like an Access Database, Excel Spreadsheet, or maybe some quick “drag-and-drop coding”. For this blog post I’m going to refer to this as the Software Engineering Maturity Spectrum (SEMS). I believe there is a time and a place for projects at every part of that SEMS. The risks and costs associated with under-engineering solutions have been written about a million times over so I won’t bother going into them again here, but there are also (unnecessary) costs with over-engineering a solution. Sometimes putting multiple layers, and IoC containers, and abstracting out the persistence, etc is complete overkill if a one-time use Access database could solve the problem perfectly well. A lot of software developers I talk to seem to automatically jump to the very right-hand side of this SEMS in everything they do. A common rationalization I hear is that it may seem like a small trivial application today, but these things always grow and stick around for many years, then you’re stuck maintaining a big ball of mud. I think this is a cop-out. Sure you can’t always anticipate how an application will be used or grow over its lifetime (can you ever??), but that doesn’t mean you can’t manage it and evolve the underlying software architecture as necessary (even if that means having to toss the code out and re-write it at some point…maybe even multiple times). My thoughts are that we should be making a conscious decision around the start of each project approximately where on the SEMS we want the project to exist. I believe this decision should be based on 3 factors: 1. Importance - How important to the business is this application? What is the impact if the application were to suddenly stop working? 2. Complexity - How complex is the application functionality? 3. Life-Expectancy - How long is this application expected to be in use? Is this a one-time use application, does it fill a short-term need, or is it more strategic and is expected to be in-use for many years to come? Of course this isn’t an exact science. You can’t say that Project X should be at the 73% mark on the SEMS and expect that to be helpful. My point is not that you need to precisely figure out what point on the SEMS the project should be at then translate that into some prescriptive set of practices and techniques you should be using. Rather my point is that we need to be aware that there is a spectrum, and that not everything is going to be (or should be) at the edges of that spectrum, indeed a large number of projects should probably fall somewhere within the middle; and different projects should adopt a different level of software engineering practices and maturity levels based on the needs of that project. To give an example of this way of thinking from my day job: Every couple of years my company plans and hosts a large event where ~400 of our customers all fly in to one location for a multi-day event with various activities. We have some staff whose job it is to organize the logistics of this event, which includes tracking which flights everybody is booked on, arranging for transportation to/from airports, arranging for hotel rooms, name tags, etc The last time we arranged this event all these various pieces of data were tracked in separate spreadsheets and reconciliation and cross-referencing of all the data was literally done by hand using printed copies of the spreadsheets and several people sitting around a table going down each list row by row. Obviously there is some room for improvement in how we are using software to manage the event’s logistics. The next time this event occurs we plan to provide the event planning staff with a more intelligent tool (either an Excel spreadsheet or probably an Access database) that can track all the information in one location and make sure that the various pieces of data are properly linked together (so for example if a person cancels you only need to delete them from one place, and not a dozen separate lists). This solution would fall at or near the very left end of the SEMS meaning that we will just quickly create something with very little attention paid to using mature software engineering practices. If we examine this project against the 3 criteria I listed above for determining it’s place within the SEMS we can see why: Importance – If this application were to stop working the business doesn’t grind to a halt, revenue doesn’t stop, and in fact our customers wouldn’t even notice since it isn’t a customer facing application. The impact would simply be more work for our event planning staff as they revert back to the previous way of doing things (assuming we don’t have any data loss). Complexity – The use cases for this project are pretty straightforward. It simply needs to manage several lists of data, and link them together appropriately. Precisely the task that access (and/or Excel) can do with minimal custom development required. Life-Expectancy – For this specific project we’re only planning to create something to be used for the one event (we only hold these events every 2 years). If it works well this may change (see below). Let’s assume we hack something out quickly and it works great when we plan the next event. We may decide that we want to make some tweaks to the tool and adopt it for planning all future events of this nature. In that case we should examine where the current application is on the SEMS, and make a conscious decision whether something needs to be done to move it further to the right based on the new objectives and goals for this application. This may mean scrapping the access database and re-writing it as an actual web or windows application. In this case, the life-expectancy changed, but let’s assume the importance and complexity didn’t change all that much. We can still probably get away with not adopting a lot of the so-called “best practices”. For example, we can probably still use some of the RAD tooling available and might have an Autonomous View style design that connects directly to the database and binds to typed datasets (we might even choose to simply leave it as an access database and continue using it; this is a decision that needs to be made on a case-by-case basis). At Anvil Digital we have aspirations to become a primarily product-based company. So let’s say we use this tool to plan a handful of events internally, and everybody loves it. Maybe a couple years down the road we decide we want to package the tool up and sell it as a product to some of our customers. In this case the project objectives/goals change quite drastically. Now the tool becomes a source of revenue, and the impact of it suddenly stopping working is significantly less acceptable. Also as we hold focus groups, and gather feedback from customers and potential customers there’s a pretty good chance the feature-set and complexity will have to grow considerably from when we were using it only internally for planning a small handful of events for one company. In this fictional scenario I would expect the target on the SEMS to jump to the far right. Depending on how we implemented the previous release we may be able to refactor and evolve the existing codebase to introduce a more layered architecture, a robust set of automated tests, introduce a proper ORM and IoC container, etc. More likely in this example the jump along the SEMS would be so large we’d probably end up scrapping the current code and re-writing. Although, if it was a slow phased roll-out to only a handful of customers, where we collected feedback, made some tweaks, and then rolled out to a couple more customers, we may be able to slowly refactor and evolve the code over time rather than tossing it out and starting from scratch. The key point I’m trying to get across is not that you should be throwing out your code and starting from scratch all the time. But rather that you should be aware of when and how the context and objectives around a project changes and periodically re-assess where the project currently falls on the SEMS and whether that needs to be adjusted based on changing needs. Note: There is also the idea of “spectrum decay”. Since our industry is rapidly evolving, what we currently accept as mature software engineering practices (the right end of the SEMS) probably won’t be the same 3 years from now. If you have a project that you were to assess at somewhere around the 80% mark on the SEMS today, but don’t touch the code for 3 years and come back and re-assess its position, it will almost certainly have changed since the right end of the SEMS will have moved farther out (maybe the project is now only around 60% due to decay). Developer Skills Another important aspect to this whole discussion is around the skill sets of your architects and lead developers. When talking about the progression of a developers skills from junior->intermediate->senior->… they generally start by only being able to write code that belongs on the left side of the SEMS and as they gain more knowledge and skill they become capable of working at a higher and higher level along the SEMS. We all realize that the learning never stops, but eventually you’ll get to the point where you can comfortably develop at the right-end of the SEMS (the exact practices and techniques that translates to is constantly changing, but that’s not the point here). A critical skill that I’d love to see more evidence of in our industry is the most senior guys not only being able to work at the right-end of the SEMS, but more importantly be able to consciously work at any point along the SEMS as project needs dictate. An even more valuable skill would be if you could make the conscious decision to move a projects code further right on the SEMS (based on changing needs) and do so in an incremental manner without having to start from scratch. An exercise that I’m planning to go through with all of our projects here at Anvil in the near future is to map out where I believe each project currently falls within this SEMS, where I believe the project *should* be on the SEMS based on the business needs, and for those that don’t match up (i.e. most of them) come up with a plan to improve the situation.

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• How did I get here? My route to Android, iPhone, Windows Phone 7, and interest in Mobile Devices

  - by Wallym

  I get asked all the time how/why I got interested in mobile and jumped on this fairly early.  I tend to give half answers because it wasn't just one thing that took me to mobile, but a whole host of separate ivents culminating in a specific event where I wasdoing market research in May/June 2008.  Let me throw out the events and the facts about me: I tend to like new, different, cool stuff.  I jumped on .NET early on.  I jumped on Ajax early on.  I don't jump on every new technology that comes down the road, I'm probably the only person on the planet that doesn't "get" MVC, though I acknowledge that a lot of people do and it solves a number of problems in the default settings of ASP.NET WebForms. I remember buying an early Windows CE device. It was interesting, but dang, this stylus thing sucks. After I lost my third stylus, i just gave up.  I got my first mobile phone in early 1999.  Reception was crappy, but I could see the value in being mobile. In 1999, I worked on a manufacturing systems project.  One piece of the projects was a set of handheld devices on the shop floor.  While the UI was a crappy DOS based, yes I said DOS as in Disk Operating System Version 6.22, I could see that the wireless world was a direction I wanted to be in. In 2000, Microsoft released the first public alpha of .NET.  Very cool stuff indeed.  One piece of the puzzle was a set of mobile controls for ASP.NET.  I build numerous test apps as well as mobile version using these mobile controls.  Now, the mobile UIs of the time were based on WML, which was crap. I could real all the analysis of mobile and read all about growth rates.  Now, you have to realize that growth rates can be impressive when dealing with small numbers, but I knew it was a comer. In our first book, I got talked out of mobile because of the line from the publisher "Wally, mobile doesn't sell." Blackberry was the dominant device of the mid 2000s.  Its users were referred to as "Crackberry addicts."  Unfortunately, the mobile development experience for native apps was crap and the web experience was fairly rough as well, but if they could get the ecosystem started, other phones and better blackberryies would come out.  I finally jumped into using a blackberry. Sometime around 2006, I heard "Wally, mobile doesn't sell" again.  Now, anyone that knows me knows that someone saying something like this to me means I'll keep trying it. The phones of the mid 2000s were moving to be more graphical, but there were too many that had this idea that they had to use a stylus.  Stylus suck.  They get lost too easily. I worked on a project in 2007 and 2008 for a startup trying to answer the question of "What is there to do where I am at?"  For some reason, they wanted to be tied to PCs.  As it became obvious that they were having problems, their investor asked us to do some market research and to figure out what the marketplace did want.  One of the important things that I figured out was the we lived in a mobile world and if you had a mobile app, it need to be on a mobile device, not tied to a desktop/laptop/netbook device.  If there was any single event, this was it - I was doing some market research and sat and talked to people in a bar/restaurant in Atlanta called "The Grove" on Lavista.  The consensus of the people that I talked to was that they wanted their data where ever they were at, laptop, pc, mobile, whereever. In 2007, Apple released the iPhone.  Wow, what an impressive device, even with all the problems of a 1st generation device.  I bought an iPod Touch 1st generation to understand touch better, one of the best decisions I ever made. I decided in late 2008, to make a move into cloud, for a number of reasons.  I was working on an example app.  In April, 2009, one of my friends at Microsoft said "don't mention my name with this, but you need an iPhone front end for this app."  How do you get on the iPhone.  Well, there are a number of ways including: ObjectiveC.  Its hard to teach an old dog new tricks, and this dog knows .NET, not ObjectiveC. HTML, web, javascript optimized interface.  yeah, this is possible. PhoneGap.  Now, this is interesting, take an html interface and get it to run on the iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and other platforms.  I thought that this way made the most sense for me until......... MonoTouch.  In May/June 2009, Novell announced a way for .NET/c# developers to write apps for the iPhone.  This is the way that made the most sense to me. Titanium by Appcelerator.  This is similar in concept to PhoneGap.  I haven't played with this much but do want to learn more about it. In July, 2009, I emailed one of my contacts at Wrox to see if they would be interested in a short MonoTouch ebook in their Wrox Blox format.  I fully expected another  response along the lines of "Wally, mobile doesn't sell."  The response I got was "Wally, iPhone is H O T, get started immediately, can you have this to me before Labor Day."  Not quite the response I expected.  Thankfully, we didn't make the Labor Day, first draft date. I kept pushing back because I had a feeling that things were not going to be quite as polished and feature rich as necessary.  After all, Novell doesn't have the resouces of Microsoft's developer division. The ebook shipped on November 30, 2009. On about December, 15, 2009, my editor emailed and said "Your ebook is selling really well, lets do a full book and it by March 1 so get started."  Thankfully, guys like Craig Dunn and Chris Hardy were interested along with Martin and Ror joinged us later on. I bought my wife an iPhone 3Gs in early 2010 to go along with all my iPod Touch devices. I tried to pretend in 2010 that I wasn't that interested in mobile and still had interest in the desktop technologies.  I love the technologies and continue to use them today, but that isn't where my interest is right now.  I'm just about all mobile all the time with my energies.  Our book shipped in the beginning of July, 2010 right in the middle of the Apple FUD.I've been looking at Mobile Web as a way around the AppStores and Apple FUD problems of 2010. With all the Apple self FUD, we became interested in Android.I went up to Dino Esposito at DevConnections in Las Vegas at introduced myself. I've always tried to keep up with what Dino has been doing. I was shocked, he wanted to meet me.  We must have talked for 1.5 hours. It was way more time than I deserved. If you get a chance, go and introduce yourself to Dino. He's a great guy. Microsoft released Windows Phone 7 in the Fall of 2010.  I'm not doing development on that platform at this time.  I think they have a very interesting user interface.  The devices are being positively reviewed.  For my purposes, the devices are limited at this point in time.  We'll see what 2011 brings as far as updates to the operating system.  I need multitasking/background processing and html5 in the browser. Add that as well as acceptance in the marketplace and I'll be more interested in the device. Obviosuly, I'm now working on a MonoDroid book . I own Android and iPhone/iOS devices.  I am currently working on some startup ideas and am exploring as much in that area as I can. For 2011, I'm planning on speaking at Android Developer's Conference (AnDevCon) and Mobile Connections.  I'm really excited about this. I have a couple of magazine articles coming out in 2011 on Android and iPhone development with the Mono technologies.is Mono "The Answer"? What's "The Question?" I think it will work for me.  It might work for you, it might not.  it depends on your situation.  Its the current horse that I am riding. I might find a better horse tomorrow. So, that's how I got here.  I'm in love with mobile.  Mobile native apps on the device as well as mobile web.  I'm into all this cool stuff.  Where are you at?

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• How I Record Screencasts

  - by Daniel Moth

  I get this asked a lot so here is my brain dump on the topic. What A screencast is just a demo that you present to yourself while recording the screen. As such, my advice for clearing your screen for demo purposes and setting up Visual Studio still applies here (adjusting for the fact I wrote those blog posts when I was running Vista and VS2008, not Windows 8 and VS2012). To see examples of screencasts, watch any of my screencasts on channel9. Why If you are a technical presenter, think of when you get best reactions from a developer audience in your sessions: when you are doing demos, of course. Imagine if you could package those alone and share them with folks to watch over and over? If you have ever gone through a tutorial trying to recreate steps to explore a feature, think how much more helpful it would be if you could watch a video and follow along. Think of how many folks you "touch" with a conference presentation, and how many more you can reach with an online shorter recording of the demo. If you invest so much of your time for the first type of activity, isn't the second type of activity also worth an investment? Fact: If you are able to record a screencast of a demo, you will be much better prepared to deliver it in person. In fact lately I will force myself to make a screencast of any demo I need to present live at an upcoming event. It is also a great backup - if for whatever reason something fails (software, network, etc) during an attempt of a live demo, you can just play the recorded video for the live audience. There are other reasons (e.g. internal sharing of the latest implemented feature) but the context above is the one within which I create most of my screencasts. Software & Hardware I use Camtasia from Tech Smith, version 7.1.1. Microsoft has a variety of options for capturing the screen to video, but I have been using this software for so long now that I have not invested time to explore alternatives… I also use whatever cheapo headset is near me, but sometimes I get some complaints from some folks about the audio so now I try to remember to use "the good headset". I do not use a web camera as I am not a huge fan of PIP. Preparation First you have to know your technology and demo. Once you think you know it, write down the outline and major steps of the demo. Keep it short 5-20 minutes max. I break that rule sometimes but try not to. The longer the video is the more chances that people will not have the patience to sit through it and the larger the download wmv file ends up being. Run your demo a few times, timing yourself each time to ensure that you have the planned timing correct, but also to make sure that you are comfortable with what you are going to demo. Unlike with a live audience, there is no live reaction/feedback to steer you, so it can be a bit unnerving at first. It can also lead you to babble too much, so try extra hard to be succinct when demoing/screencasting on your own. TIP: Before recording, hide your desktop/taskbar clock if it is showing. Recording To record you start the Camtasia Recorder tool Configure the settings thought the menus Capture menu to choose custom size or full screen. I try to use full screen and remember to lower the resolution of your screen to as low as possible, e.g. 1024x768 or 1360x768 or something like that. From the Tools -> Options dialog you can choose to record audio and the volume level. Effects menu I typically leave untouched but you should explore and experiment to your liking, e.g. how the mouse pointer is captured, and whether there should be a delay for the recording when you start it. Once you've configured these settings, typically you just launch this tool and hit the F9 key to start recording. TIP: As you record, if you ever start to "lose your way" hit F9 again to pause recording, regroup your thoughts and flow, and then hit F9 again to resume. Finally, hit F10 to stop recording. At that point the video starts playing for you in the recorder. This is where you can preview the video to see that you are happy with it before saving. If you are happy, hit the Save As menu to choose where you want to save the video.     TIP: If you've really lost your way to the extent where you'll need to do some editing, hit F10 to stop recording, save the video and then record some more - you'll be able to stitch the videos together later and this will make it easier for you to delete the parts where you messed up. TIP: Before you commit to recording the whole demo, every time you should record 5 seconds and preview them to ensure that you are capturing the screen the way you want to and that your audio is still correctly configured and at the right level. Trust me, you do not want to be recording 15 minutes only to find out that you messed up on the configuration somewhere. Editing To edit the video you launch another Camtasia app, the Camtasia Studio. File->New Project. File->Save Project and choose location. File->Import Media and choose the video(s) you saved earlier. These adds them to the area at the top/middle but not at the timeline at the bottom. Right click on the video and choose Add to timeline. It will prompt you for the Editing dimensions and I always choose Recording Dimensions. Do whatever edits you want to do for this video, then add the next video if you have one to stitch and repeat. In terms of edits there are many options. The simplest is to do nothing, which is the option I did when I first starting doing these in 2006. Nowadays, I typically cut out pieces that I don't like and also lower/mute the audio in other areas and also speed up the video in some areas. A full tutorial on how to do this is beyond the scope of this blog post, but your starting point is to select portions on the timeline and then open the Edit menu at the very top (tip: the context menu doesn't have all options). You can spend hours editing a recording, so don’t lose track of time! When you are done editing, save again, and you are now ready to Produce. Producing Production is specific to where you will publish. I've only ever published on channel9, so for that I do the following File -> Produce and share. This opens a wizard dialog In the dropdown choose Custom production settings Hit Next and then choose WMV Hit Next and keep the default of Camtasia Studio Best Quality and File Size (recommended) Hit Next and choose Editing dimensions video size Hit Next, hit Options and you get a dialog. Enter a Title for the project tab and then on the author tab enter the Creator and Homepage. Hit OK Hit Next. Hit Next again. Enter a video file name in the Production name textbox and then hit Finish. Now do other stuff while you wait for the video to be produced and you hear it playing. After the video is produced watch it to ensure it was produced correctly (e.g. sometimes you get mouse issues) and then you are ready for publishing it. Publishing Follow the instructions of the place where you are going to publish. If you are MSFT internal and want to choose channel9 then contact those folks so they can share their instructions (if you don't know who they are ping me and I'll connect you but they are easy to find in the GAL). For me this involves using a tool to point to the video, choosing a file name (again), choosing an image from the video to display when it is not playing, choosing what output formats I want, and then later on a webpage adding tags, adding a description, and adding a title. That’s all folks, have fun! Comments about this post by Daniel Moth welcome at the original blog.

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• How I understood monads, part 1/2: sleepless and self-loathing in Seattle

  - by Bertrand Le Roy

  For some time now, I had been noticing some interest for monads, mostly in the form of unintelligible (to me) blog posts and comments saying “oh, yeah, that’s a monad” about random stuff as if it were absolutely obvious and if I didn’t know what they were talking about, I was probably an uneducated idiot, ignorant about the simplest and most fundamental concepts of functional programming. Fair enough, I am pretty much exactly that. Being the kind of guy who can spend eight years in college just to understand a few interesting concepts about the universe, I had to check it out and try to understand monads so that I too can say “oh, yeah, that’s a monad”. Man, was I hit hard in the face with the limitations of my own abstract thinking abilities. All the articles I could find about the subject seemed to be vaguely understandable at first but very quickly overloaded the very few concept slots I have available in my brain. They also seemed to be consistently using arcane notation that I was entirely unfamiliar with. It finally all clicked together one Friday afternoon during the team’s beer symposium when Louis was patient enough to break it down for me in a language I could understand (C#). I don’t know if being intoxicated helped. Feel free to read this with or without a drink in hand. So here it is in a nutshell: a monad allows you to manipulate stuff in interesting ways. Oh, OK, you might say. Yeah. Exactly. Let’s start with a trivial case: public static class Trivial { public static TResult Execute<T, TResult>( this T argument, Func<T, TResult> operation) { return operation(argument); } } This is not a monad. I removed most concepts here to start with something very simple. There is only one concept here: the idea of executing an operation on an object. This is of course trivial and it would actually be simpler to just apply that operation directly on the object. But please bear with me, this is our first baby step. Here’s how you use that thing: "some string" .Execute(s => s + " processed by trivial proto-monad.") .Execute(s => s + " And it's chainable!"); What we’re doing here is analogous to having an assembly chain in a factory: you can feed it raw material (the string here) and a number of machines that each implement a step in the manufacturing process and you can start building stuff. The Trivial class here represents the empty assembly chain, the conveyor belt if you will, but it doesn’t care what kind of raw material gets in, what gets out or what each machine is doing. It is pure process. A real monad will need a couple of additional concepts. Let’s say the conveyor belt needs the material to be processed to be contained in standardized boxes, just so that it can safely and efficiently be transported from machine to machine or so that tracking information can be attached to it. Each machine knows how to treat raw material or partly processed material, but it doesn’t know how to treat the boxes so the conveyor belt will have to extract the material from the box before feeding it into each machine, and it will have to box it back afterwards. This conveyor belt with boxes is essentially what a monad is. It has one method to box stuff, one to extract stuff from its box and one to feed stuff into a machine. So let’s reformulate the previous example but this time with the boxes, which will do nothing for the moment except containing stuff. public class Identity<T> { public Identity(T value) { Value = value; } public T Value { get; private set;} public static Identity<T> Unit(T value) { return new Identity<T>(value); } public static Identity<U> Bind<U>( Identity<T> argument, Func<T, Identity<U>> operation) { return operation(argument.Value); } } Now this is a true to the definition Monad, including the weird naming of the methods. It is the simplest monad, called the identity monad and of course it does nothing useful. Here’s how you use it: Identity<string>.Bind( Identity<string>.Unit("some string"), s => Identity<string>.Unit( s + " was processed by identity monad.")).Value That of course is seriously ugly. Note that the operation is responsible for re-boxing its result. That is a part of strict monads that I don’t quite get and I’ll take the liberty to lift that strange constraint in the next examples. To make this more readable and easier to use, let’s build a few extension methods: public static class IdentityExtensions { public static Identity<T> ToIdentity<T>(this T value) { return new Identity<T>(value); } public static Identity<U> Bind<T, U>( this Identity<T> argument, Func<T, U> operation) { return operation(argument.Value).ToIdentity(); } } With those, we can rewrite our code as follows: "some string".ToIdentity() .Bind(s => s + " was processed by monad extensions.") .Bind(s => s + " And it's chainable...") .Value; This is considerably simpler but still retains the qualities of a monad. But it is still pointless. Let’s look at a more useful example, the state monad, which is basically a monad where the boxes have a label. It’s useful to perform operations on arbitrary objects that have been enriched with an attached state object. public class Stateful<TValue, TState> { public Stateful(TValue value, TState state) { Value = value; State = state; } public TValue Value { get; private set; } public TState State { get; set; } } public static class StateExtensions { public static Stateful<TValue, TState> ToStateful<TValue, TState>( this TValue value, TState state) { return new Stateful<TValue, TState>(value, state); } public static Stateful<TResult, TState> Execute<TValue, TState, TResult>( this Stateful<TValue, TState> argument, Func<TValue, TResult> operation) { return operation(argument.Value) .ToStateful(argument.State); } } You can get a stateful version of any object by calling the ToStateful extension method, passing the state object in. You can then execute ordinary operations on the values while retaining the state: var statefulInt = 3.ToStateful("This is the state"); var processedStatefulInt = statefulInt .Execute(i => ++i) .Execute(i => i * 10) .Execute(i => i + 2); Console.WriteLine("Value: {0}; state: {1}", processedStatefulInt.Value, processedStatefulInt.State); This monad differs from the identity by enriching the boxes. There is another way to give value to the monad, which is to enrich the processing. An example of that is the writer monad, which can be typically used to log the operations that are being performed by the monad. Of course, the richest monads enrich both the boxes and the processing. That’s all for today. I hope with this you won’t have to go through the same process that I did to understand monads and that you haven’t gone into concept overload like I did. Next time, we’ll examine some examples that you already know but we will shine the monadic light, hopefully illuminating them in a whole new way. Realizing that this pattern is actually in many places but mostly unnoticed is what will enable the truly casual “oh, yes, that’s a monad” comments. Here’s the code for this article: http://weblogs.asp.net/blogs/bleroy/Samples/Monads.zip The Wikipedia article on monads: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monads_in_functional_programming This article was invaluable for me in understanding how to express the canonical monads in C# (interesting Linq stuff in there): http://blogs.msdn.com/b/wesdyer/archive/2008/01/11/the-marvels-of-monads.aspx

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, May 08, 2010

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, May 08, 2010New ProjectsBizSpark Camp Sample Code: This sample project demonstrates best practices when developing Windows Phone 7 appliactions with Azure. **This code is meant only as a sample f...CLB Article Module: The CLB Article Module is a simple DotNetNuke Module for Article writers. This module is designed to provide a simple location for article/screenc...cvplus: a computer vision libraryDemina: Demina is a simple keyframe based 2d skeletal animation system. It's developed in C# using XNA.Expo Live: Expo LiveFeedMonster: FeedMonster is a Cross platform Really Simple Syndication reader made to allow you to easily follow updates to your favorite sites. Its made using ...GamePad to KeyBoard: GamePad to KeyBoard (GP2KB) is a small app that lets you define an associated keyboard key for each button in your XBox 360 controller. This way, y...huanhuan's project: moajfiodsafasLazyNet: Lazynet Allows users to save the proxy settings and IP addresses of wireless networks. This makes it easier for users that move a lot between diffe...mfcfetionapi: mfcfetionapiMocking BizTalk: Mocking BizTalk is a set of tools aimed at bringing Mock Object concepts in BizTalk solution testing. Actually it consists in a set of MockPipelin...nkSWFControl: nkSWFControl is a ASP.NET control that provides numberous ways for publishing SWF movies in your pages. The project goal is to become defacto ...Property Pack for EPiServer CMS: With EPiServer CMS 6 it's possible to create a wide variety of custom property types that have customized settings in each usage. This Property Pac...SPRoleAssignment: SPRoleAssignment makes it easier for programmers to assign custom item level permissions. You can now easily grant or remove permissions to certain...Thats-Me Dot Net API: Thats-Me Dot Net API is a library which implements the Thats-Me.ch API for the Dot Net Framework.The Information Literacy Education Learning Environment (ILE): Written in C# utilizing the .net framework the Information Literacy Education (ILE) learning environment is designed to deliver information litera...tinytian: Tools, shared.Unidecode Sharp: UnidecodeSharp is a C# port of Python and Perl Unidecode module. Intended to transliterate an Unicode object into an ASCII string, no matter what l...Wave 4: Wave 4 is a platform for professional bloggers, integrated with many social networking services.New ReleasesµManager for MaNGOS: 0.8.6: Improvements: Supports up to MaNGOS revision 9692 (may support higher revisions, this is dependent on any changes made to the database structure b...BFBC2 PRoCon: PRoCon 0.3.5.0: Release Notes CommingBizSpark Camp Sample Code: Initial Check-in: There are two downloads available for this project. There is a windows phone 7 application that calls webservices hosted in Azure. And there is a...Bojinx: Bojinx Core V4.5.11: Minor release that fixes several minor bugs and adds more error prevention logic. Fixed: You will no longer get a null pointer error when loading ...CuttingEdge.Logging: CuttingEdge.Logging v1.2.2: CuttingEdge.Logging is a library that helps the programmer output log statements to a variety of output targets in .NET applications. The design is...DotNetNuke® Events: 05.01.00 Beta 1: Please take note: this is a Beta releaseThis is a not a formal Release of DNN Events 05.01.00. This is a beta version, which is not extensively te...dylan.NET: dylan.NET v. 9.8: This is the latest version of dylan.NET features the new locimport statement, improved error handling and other new stuff and bug fixes.Free Silverlight & WPF Chart Control - Visifire: Visifire SL and WPF Charts v3.0.9 beta 2 Released: Hi, This release contains the following enhancements: * New Property named ClosestPlotDistance has been implemented in Axis. It defines the d...Free Silverlight & WPF Chart Control - Visifire: Visifire SL and WPF Charts v3.5.2 beta 2 Released: Hi, This release contains the following enhancements: * New Property named ClosestPlotDistance has been implemented in Axis. It defines the d...GamePad to KeyBoard: GP2KB v0.1: First public version of GamePad to KeyBoard.Global: Version 0.1: This is the first beta stable release of this assembly. Check out the Test console app to see how some of the stuff works. EnjoyHtml Agility Pack: 1.4.0 Stable: 1.4.0 Adds some serious new features to Html Agility Pack to make it work nicer in a LINQ driven .NET World. The HtmlNodeCollection and HtmlAttribu...LazyNet: Beta Release: This is the Beta Version, All functionality has been implemented but needs further testing for bugs.Mercury Particle Engine: Mercury Particle Engine 3.1.0.0: Long overdue release of the latest version of Mercury Particle Engine, this release is changeset #66009NazTek.Extension.Clr4: NazTek.Extension.Clr4 Binary Cab: Includes bin, config, and chm filesnetDumbster: netDumbster 1.0: netDumbster release 1.0Opalis Community Releases: Workflow Examples (May 7, 2010): The Opalis team is providing some sample Workflows (policies) for customers and partners to help you get started in creating your own workflows in ...patterns & practices SharePoint Guidance: SPG2010 Drop10: SharePoint Guidance Drop Notes Microsoft patterns and practices ****************************************** ***************************************...Shake - C# Make: Shake v0.1.9: First public release including samples. Basic tasks: - MSBuild task (msbuild command line with parameters) - SVN command line client with checkout...SPRoleAssignment: Role Assigment Project [Eng]: SPRoleAssignment makes it easier for programmers to assign custom item level permissions. You can now easily grant or remove permissions to certain...SQL Server Metadata Toolkit 2008: Alpha 7 SQL Server Metadata Toolkit: The changes in this are to the Parser, and a change to handle WITH CTE's within the Analyzers. The Parser now handles CAST better, EXEC, EXECUTE, ...StackOverflow Desktop Client in C# and WPF: StackOverflow Client 0.5: Made the popup thinner, removed the extra icon and title. The questions on the popup automatically change every 5 seconds.TimeSpanExt: TimeSpanExt 1.0: This had been stuck in beta for a long time, so I'm glad to finally make the full release.Transcriber: Transcriber V0.2.0: First alpha release. See Issue Tracker for known bugs and incomplete features.Unidecode Sharp: UnidecodeSharp 0.04: First release. Tested and stable. Versions duplicates Perl and Python ones.Visual Studio 2010 AutoScroller Extension: AutoScroller v0.3: A Visual studio 2010 auto-scroller extension. Simply hold down your middle mouse button and drag the mouse in the direction you wish to scroll, fu...Visual Studio 2010 Test Case Import Utilities: V 1.0 (RC2): Work Item Migrator With the prior releases of Test Case Migrator ( Beta and RC1), it was possible to: migrate test cases (along with test steps) ...Word Add-in For Ontology Recognition: Technology Preview, Beta 2 - May 2010: This is a technology preview release of the Word Add-in for Ontology Recognition for Word. These are some of the updates included in this version:...Most Popular ProjectsWBFS ManagerRawrAJAX Control ToolkitMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: DatabaseSilverlight Toolkitpatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)Microsoft SQL Server Community & SamplesASP.NETPHPExcelMost Active Projectspatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryAJAX Control FrameworkRawrThe Information Literacy Education Learning Environment (ILE)Caliburn: An Application Framework for WPF and SilverlightBlogEngine.NETpatterns & practices - UnityjQuery Library for SharePoint Web ServicesNB_Store - Free DotNetNuke Ecommerce Catalog ModuleTweetSharp

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• How to have other divs with a flash liquid layout that fits to the page?

  - by brybam

  Basically the majority of my content is flash based. I designed it using Flash Builder (Flex) and Its in a liquid layout, (everything is in percents) and if im JUST embedding the flash content it scales to the page fine, and i have the flash content set to have a padding of 50 px. I put a header div in fine with no problems, but I have 2 problems, the first being the footer div seems to cover up the buttom of the flash content in IE, but it looks just fine in chrome. How can I solve this? I'm using the stock embed code that Flex provides, I tried to edit the css style for the div which I think is #flashContent and give it a min width and min height but it didnt seem to work, actually anything I did to #flashContent didn't seem to do anything, maybe its not the div i need to be adding that attribute to... And my other problem is I dont even know where to start when it comes to placing a div thats 280width by 600height colum to the right side of the flash content. If i could specify a size for the flash content, and the float it left, and float the colum right, and clear it with the container div id be just fine....But remember the flash content is set to 100% Scale (well techically 100%x80% because it looked better that way). Does anyone know how I can start to deal with creating a more complex scaleable flash layouts that includes other divs? ALL WELL MAINTAINING IE SUPPORT? IE is ruining my life. Here's the code I'm using: (or if it will help you visualize what im trying to do here's the page where im working on setting this up http://apumpkinpatch.com/textmashnew/) <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en"> <head> <title>TextMixup</title> <meta name="google" value="notranslate"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <link href="css.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" /> <script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.5.2/jquery.min.js"></script> <script src="../appassets/scripts/jquery.titlealert.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-19768131-2']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); function tabNotification() { $.titleAlert('New Message!', {interval:200,requireBlur:true,stopOnFocus:true}); } function joinNotification() { $.titleAlert('Joined Chat!', {interval:200,requireBlur:true,stopOnFocus:true}); } </script> <!-- BEGIN Browser History required section --> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="history/history.css" /> <script type="text/javascript" src="history/history.js"></script> <!-- END Browser History required section --> <script type="text/javascript" src="swfobject.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> var swfVersionStr = "10.2.0"; var xiSwfUrlStr = "playerProductInstall.swf"; var flashvars = {}; var params = {}; params.quality = "high"; params.bgcolor = "#ffffff"; params.allowscriptaccess = "sameDomain"; params.allowfullscreen = "true"; var attributes = {}; attributes.id = "TextMixup"; attributes.name = "TextMixup"; attributes.align = "middle"; swfobject.embedSWF( "TextMixup.swf", "flashContent", "100%", "80%", swfVersionStr, xiSwfUrlStr, flashvars, params, attributes); swfobject.createCSS("#flashContent", "display:block;text-align:left;"); </script> </head> <body> <div id="homebar"><a href="http://apumpkinpatch.com"><img src="../appassets/images/logo/logoHor_130_30.png" alt="APumpkinPatch HOME" width="130" height="30" hspace="10" vspace="3" border="0"/></a> </div> <div id="topad"> <script type="text/javascript"><!-- google_ad_client = "pub-5824388356626461"; /* 728x90, textmash */ google_ad_slot = "1114351240"; google_ad_width = 728; google_ad_height = 90; //--> </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> </div> <div id="mainContainer"> <div id="flashContent"> <p> To view this page ensure that Adobe Flash Player version 10.2.0 or greater is installed. </p> <script type="text/javascript"> var pageHost = ((document.location.protocol == "https:") ? "https://" : "http://"); document.write("<a href='http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer'><img src='" + pageHost + "www.adobe.com/images/shared/download_buttons/get_flash_player.gif' alt='Get Adobe Flash player' /></a>" ); </script> </div> <noscript> <object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="100%" height="80%" id="TextMixup"> <param name="movie" value="TextMixup.swf" /> <param name="quality" value="high" /> <param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff" /> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" /> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /> <!--[if !IE]>--> <object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="TextMixup.swf" width="100%" height="80%"> <param name="quality" value="high" /> <param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff" /> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" /> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /> <!--<![endif]--> <!--[if gte IE 6]>--> <p> Either scripts and active content are not permitted to run or Adobe Flash Player version 10.2.0 or greater is not installed. </p> <!--<![endif]--> <a href="http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer"> <img src="http://www.adobe.com/images/shared/download_buttons/get_flash_player.gif" alt="Get Adobe Flash Player" /> </a> <!--[if !IE]>--> </object> <!--<![endif]--> </object> </noscript> <div id="convosPreview">This is a div I would want to appear as a colum to the right of the flash content that can scale</div> <!---End mainContainer --> </div> <div id="footer"> <a href="../apps.html"><img src="../appassets/images/apps.png" hspace="5" vspace="5" alt="random chat app apumpkinpatch" width="228" height="40" border="0" /></a><a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hjmnobclpbhnjcpdnpdnkbgdkbfifbao?hl=en-US#"><img src="../appassets/images/chromeapp.png" alt="chrome app random video chat apumpkinpatch" width="115" height="40" vspace="5" border="0" /></a><br /><br /> <a href="http://spacebarup.com" target="_blank">©2011 Space Bar</a> | <a href="../tos.html">TOS & Privacy Policy</a> | <a href="../help.html">FAQ & Help</a> | <a href="../tips.html">Important online safety tips</a> | <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/APumpkinPatchcom/164279206963001?sk=app_2373072738" target="_blank">Discussion Boards</a><br /> <p>You must be at least 18 years of age to access this web site.<br />APumpkinPatch.com is not responsible for the actions of any visitors of this site.<br />APumpkinPatch.com does not endorse or claim ownership to any of the content that is broadcast through this site. </p><h2>A Pumpkin Patch is BRAND NEW and will be developed a lot over the next few months adding video chat games, chat rooms, and more! Check back often it's going to be a lot of fun!</h2> </div> </body> </html> myCSS: html, body { height:100%; } body { text-align:center; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin:0; padding:0; overflow:auto; text-align:center; background-color: #ffffff; } object:focus { outline:none; } #homebar { clear:both; text-align: left; width: 100%; height: 40px; background-color:#333333; color:#CCC; overflow:hidden; box-shadow: 0px 0px 14px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65); -moz-box-shadow: 0px 0px 14px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65); -webkit-box-shadow: 0px 0px 14px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65); margin-bottom: 10px; } #mainContainer { height:auto; width:auto; clear:both; } #flashContent { display:none; height:auto; float:left; min-height: 500px; min-width: 340px; } /**this is the div i want to appear as a column net to the scaleable flash content **/ #convosPreview { float:right; width:280px; height:600px; }

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• SQL Cruise Alaska 2011

  - by Grant Fritchey

  I had the extreme good fortune to get sent on the last SQL Cruise to Alaska. I love my job. In case you don't what this is, SQL Cruise is a trip on a cruise ship during which you get to attend classes while on the boat, learning all about SQL Server and related topics as well as network with the instructors and the other Cruisers. Frankly, it's amazing. Classes ran from Monday, 5/30, to Saturday, 6/4. The networking was constant, between classes, at night on cruise ship, out on excursions in Alaskan rainforests and while snorkeling in ocean waters. Here's a run down of the experience from my point of view. Because I couldn't travel out 2 days early, I missed the BBQ that occurred the day before the cruise when many of the Cruisers received their swag bags. Some of that swag came from Red Gate. I researched what was useful on a cruise like this and purchased small flashlights and binoculars for all the Cruisers. The flashlights were because, depending on your cabin, ships can be very dark. The binoculars were so that the cruisers could watch all the beautiful landscape as it flowed by. I would have liked to have been there when the bags were opened, but I heard from several people that they appreciated the gifts. Cruisers "In" the hot tub. Pictured: Marjory Woody, Michele Grondin, Kyle Brandt, Grant Fritchey, John Halunen Sunday I went to board the ship with my wife. We had a bit of an adventure because I messed up our documents. It all worked out and we got on board to meet up at the back of the boat at one of the outdoor bars with the other Cruisers, thanks to tweets letting everyone know where to go. That was the end of electronic coordination on the trip (connectivity in Alaska was horrible for everyone except AT&T). The Cruisers were a great bunch of people and it was a real honor to meet them and get to spend time with them. After everyone settled into their cabins, our very first activity was a contest, sponsored by Red Gate. The Cruisers, in an effort to get to know each other and the ship, were required to go all over taking various photographs, some of them hilarious. The winning team of three would all win prizes. Some of the significant others helped out and I tagged along with a team that tied for first but lost the coin toss. The winning team consisted of Christina Leo (blog|twitter), Ryan Malcom (twitter), Neil Hambly (blog|twitter). They then had to do math and identify the cabin with the lowest prime number, oh, and get a picture of it and be the first to get back up to the bar where we were waiting. Christina came in first and very happily carried home an Ipad2. Ryan won a 1TB portable hard drive and Neil won a wireless mouse (picture below, note my special SQL Server Central Friday Shirt. Thanks Steve (blog|twitter)). Winners: Christina Leo, Neil Hambly, Ryan Malcolm. Just Lucky: Grant Fritchey Monday morning classes started. Buck Woody (blog|twitter) was a special guest speaker on this cruise. His theme was "Three C's on the High Seas: Career, Communication and Cloud." The first session was all on Career. I'm not going to type out all my notes from the session, but let's just say, if you get the chance to hear Buck talk about how to manage your career, I suggest you attend. I have a ton of blog posts that I'll be putting together over the next several months (yes, months) both here and over on ScaryDBA. I also have a bunch of work I'm going to be doing to get my career performance bumped up a notch or two (and let's face it, that won't be easy). Later on Monday, Tim Ford (blog|twitter) did a session on DMOs. Specifically the session was on Tim's Period Table of DMOs that he has put together, and how to use some of the more interesting DMOs in your day to day job. It was a great session, packed with good information. Next, Brent Ozar (blog|twitter) did a session on how to monitor and guide SAN configuration for the DBA that doesn't have access to the SAN. That was some seriously useful information. Tuesday morning we only had a single class. Kendra Little (blog|twitter) taught us all about "No Lock for Yes Fun".  It was all about the different transaction isolation levels and how they work. There is so often confusion in this area and Kendra does a great job in clarifying the information. Also, she tosses in her excellent drawings to liven up the presentation. Then it was excursion time in Juneau. My wife and I, along with several other Cruisers, took a hike up around the Mendenhall Glacier. It was absolutely beautiful weather and walking through the Alaskan rain forest was a treat. Our guide, Jason, was a great guy and it was a good day of hiking. Wednesday was an all day excursion in Skagway. My wife and I took the "Ghost and Good Time Girls" walking tour that ended up at a bar that used to be a brothel, the Red Onion. It was a great history of the town. We went back out and hit a few museums and exhibits. We also hiked up the side of the mountain to see the Dewey Lake and some great views of the town. Finally we hiked out to the far side of town to see the Gold Rush cemetery. Hiking done we went back to the boat and had a quiet dinner on our own. Thursday we cruised through Glacier Bay and saw at least four different glaciers including sitting next to the Marjory Glacier for  about an hour. It was amazing. Then it got better. We went into class with Buck again, this time to talk about Communication. Again, I've got pages of notes that I'm going to be referring back to for some time to come. This was an excellent opportunity to learn. Snorkelers: Nicole Bertrand, Aaron Bertrand, Grant Fritchey, Neil Hambly, Christina Leo, John Robel, Yanni Robel, Tim Ford Friday we pulled into Ketchikan. A bunch of us went snorkeling. Yes, snorkeling. Yes, in Alaska. Yes, snorkeling in the ocean in Alaska. It was fantastic. They had us put on 7mm thick wet suits (an adventure all by itself) so it was basically warm the entire time we were in the water (except for the occasional squirt of cold water down my back). Before we got in the water a bald eagle flew up and landed about 15 feet in front of us, which was just an incredible event. Then our guide pointed out about 14 other eagles in the area, hanging out in the trees. Wow! The water was pretty clear and there was a ton of things to see. That was absolutely a blast. Back on the boat I presented a session called Execution Plans: The Deep Dive (note the nautical theme). It seemed to go over well and I had several good questions come out of the session that will lead to new blog posts. After I presented, it was Aaron Bertrand's (blog|twitter) turn. He did a session on "What's New in Denali" that provided a lot of great information. He was able to incorporate new things straight out of Tech-Ed, so this was expanded beyond his usual presentation. The man really knows what he's talking about and communicates it well. Saturday we were travelling so there was time for a bunch of classes. Jeremiah Peschka (blog|twitter) did a great overview of some of the NoSQL databases and what they should be used for. The session was called "The Database is Dead" but it was really about how there are specific uses for these databases that SQL Server doesn't fill, but also that these databases can't replace SQL Server in other areas. Again, good material. Brent Ozar presented again with a session on Defensive Indexing. It was an overview of how indexes work and a deep dive into how to apply them appropriately in your databases to better support access. A good session, as you would expect. Then we pulled into Victoria, BC, in Canada and had a nice dinner with several of the Cruisers, including Denny Cherry (blog|twitter). After that it was back to Seattle on Sunday. By the way, the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle isn't a Science Fiction Museum any more. I was very disappointed to discover this. Overall, it was a great experience. I'm extremely appreciative of Red Gate for sending me and for Tim, Brent, Kendra and Jeremiah for having me. The other Cruisers were all amazing people and it was an honor & privilege to meet them and spend time with them. While this was a seriously fun time, it was also a very serious training opportunity with solid information coming from seasoned industry pros.

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Tuesday, August 14, 2012

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Tuesday, August 14, 2012Popular ReleasesMicrosoft Ajax Minifier: Microsoft Ajax Minifier 4.60: Allow for CSS3 grid-column and grid-row repeat syntax. Provide option for -analyze scope-report output to be in XML for easier programmatic processing; also allow for report to be saved to a separate output file.Diablo III Drop Statistics Service: 1.0: Client OnlyClosedXML - The easy way to OpenXML: ClosedXML 0.67.2: v0.67.2 Fix when copying conditional formats with relative formulas v0.67.1 Misc fixes to the conditional formats v0.67.0 Conditional formats now accept formulas. Major performance improvement when opening files with merged ranges. Misc fixes.Umbraco CMS: Umbraco 4.8.1: Whats newBug fixes: Fixed: When upgrading to 4.8.0, the database upgrade didn't run The changes to the <imaging> section in umbracoSettings.config caused errors when you didn't apply them during the upgrade. Defaults will now be used if any keys are missing Scheduled unpublishes now only unpublishes nodes set to published rather than newest Work item: 30937 - Fixed problem with FileHanderData in intranet environment in IE Work item: 3098 - Fix for null exception issue when using 'umbr...MySqlBackup.NET - MySQL Backup Solution for C#, VB.NET, ASP.NET: MySqlBackup.NET 1.4.4 Beta: MySqlBackup.NET 1.4.4 beta Fix bug: If the target database's default character set is not UTF8, UTF8 character will be encoded wrongly during Import. Now, database default character set will be recorded into Dump File at line of "SET NAMES". During import(restore), MySqlBackup will again detect and use the target database default character char set. MySqlBackup.NET 1.4.2 beta Fix bug: MySqlConnection is not closed when AutoCloseConnection set to true after Export or Import completed/halted. M...patterns & practices - Unity: Unity 3.0 for .NET 4.5 and WinRT - Preview: The Unity 3.0.1208.0 Preview enables Unity to work on .NET 4.5 with both the WinRT and desktop profiles. This is an updated version of the port after the .NET Framework 4.5 and Windows 8 have RTM'ed. Please see the Release Notes Providing feedback Post your feedback on the Unity forum Submit and vote on new features for Unity on our Uservoice site.LiteBlog (MVC): LiteBlog 1.31: Features of this release Windows8 styled UI Namespace and code refactoring Resolved the deployment issues in the previous release Added documentation Help file Help file is HTML based built using SandCastle Help file works in all browsers except IE10Self-Tracking Entity Generator for WPF and Silverlight: Self-Tracking Entity Generator v 2.0.0 for VS11: Self-Tracking Entity Generator for WPF and Silverlight v 2.0.0 for Entity Framework 5.0 and Visual Studio 2012Coding4Fun Tools: Coding4Fun.Phone.Toolkit v1.6.0: New Stuff ImageTile Control - think People Tile MicrophoneRecorder - Coding4Fun.Phone.Audio GzipWebClient - Coding4Fun.Phone.Net Serialize - Coding4Fun.Phone.Storage this is code I've written countless times. JSON.net is another alternative ChatBubbleTextBox - Added in Hint TimeSpan languages added: Pl Bug Fixes RoundToggleButton - Enable Visual State not being respected OpacityToggleButton - Enable Visual State not being respected Prompts VS Crash fix for IsPrompt=true More...AssaultCube Reloaded: 2.5.2 Unnamed: Linux has Ubuntu 11.10 32-bit precompiled binaries and Ubuntu 10.10 64-bit precompiled binaries, but you can compile your own as it also contains the source. If you are using Mac or other operating systems, please wait while we try to pack it. Try to compile it. If it fails, download a virtual machine. The server pack is ready for both Windows and Linux, but you might need to compile your own for Linux (source included) Added 3rd person Added mario jumps Fixed nextprimary code exploit ...NPOI: NPOI 2.0: New features a. Implement OpenXml4Net (same as System.Packaging from Microsoft). It supports both .NET 2.0 and .NET 4.0 b. Excel 2007 read/write library (NPOI.XSSF) c. Word 2007 read/write library(NPOI.XWPF) d. NPOI.SS namespace becomes the interface shared between XSSF and HSSF e. Load xlsx template and save as new xlsx file (partially supported) f. Diagonal line in cell both in xls and xlsx g. Support isRightToLeft and setRightToLeft on the common spreadsheet Sheet interface, as per existin...BugNET Issue Tracker: BugNET 1.1: This release includes bug fixes from the 1.0 release for email notifications, RSS feeds, and several other issues. Please see the change log for a full list of changes. http://support.bugnetproject.com/Projects/ReleaseNotes.aspx?pid=1&m=76 Upgrade Notes The following changes to the web.config in the profile section have occurred: Removed <add name="NotificationTypes" type="String" defaultValue="Email" customProviderData="NotificationTypes;nvarchar;255" />Added <add name="ReceiveEmailNotifi...Visual Rx: V 2.0.20622.9: help will be available at my blog http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/bnaya/archive/2012/08/12/visual-rx-toc.aspx the SDK is also available though NuGet (search for VisualRx) http://nuget.org/packages/VisualRx if you want to make sure that the Visual Rx Viewer can monitor on your machine, you can install the Visual Rx Tester and run it while the Viewer is running.????: ????2.0.5: 1、?????????????。RiP-Ripper & PG-Ripper: PG-Ripper 1.4.01: changes NEW: Added Support for Clipboard Function in Mono Version NEW: Added Support for "ImgBox.com" links FIXED: "PixHub.eu" links FIXED: "ImgChili.com" links FIXED: Kitty-Kats Forum loginPlayer Framework by Microsoft: Player Framework for Windows 8 (Preview 5): Support for Smooth Streaming SDK beta 2 Support for live playback New bitrate meter and SD/HD indicators Auto smooth streaming track restriction for snapped mode to conserve bandwidth New "Go Live" button and SeekToLive API Support for offset start times Support for Live position unique from end time Support for multiple audio streams (smooth and progressive content) Improved intellisense in JS version Support for Windows 8 RTM ADDITIONAL DOWNLOADSSmooth Streaming Client SD...Windows Uninstaller: Windows Uninstaller v1.0: Delete Windows once You click on it. Your Anti Virus may think It is Virus because it delete Windows. Prepare a installation disc of any operating system before uninstall. ---Steps--- 1. Prepare a installation disc of any operating system. 2. Backup your files if needed. (Optional) 3. Run winuninstall.bat . 4. Your Computer will shut down, When Your Computer is shutting down, it is uninstalling Windows. 5. Re-Open your computer and quickly insert the installation disc and install the new ope...WinRT XAML Toolkit: WinRT XAML Toolkit - 1.1.2 (Win 8 RP) - Source: WinRT XAML Toolkit based on the Release Preview SDK. For compiled version use NuGet. From View/Other Windows/Package Manager Console enter: PM> Install-Package winrtxamltoolkit http://nuget.org/packages/winrtxamltoolkit Features Controls Converters Extensions IO helpers VisualTree helpers AsyncUI helpers New since 1.0.2 WatermarkTextBox control ImageButton control updates ImageToggleButton control WriteableBitmap extensions - darken, grayscale Fade in/out method and prope...Media Companion: Media Companion 3.506b: This release includes an update to the XBMC scrapers, for those who prefer to use this method. There were a number of behind-the-scene tweaks to make Media Companion compatible with the new TMDb-V3 API, so it was considered important to get it out to the users to try it out. Please report back any important issues you might find. For this reason, unless you use the XBMC scrapers, there probably isn't any real necessity to download this one! The only other minor change was one to allow the mc...JSON C# Class Generator: JSON CSharp Class Generator 1.3: Support for native JSON.net serializer/deserializer (POCO) New classes layout option: nested classes Better handling of secondary classesNew Projects.NET MSI Install Manager: MSI Install Manager is an API that allows you to install an MSI within a .NET application. You can create a WPF install experience and drive the execution of thArchi Simple: ArchiSimple is a project to create simple house plans.Arduino Installer For Atmel Studio 6: Deploy libraries and project templates to Atmel Studio 6 to allow the creation of Arduino sketches and libraries.BDD Editor: The editor list the text from already created file in the feature folder.Binary Times: Binary TimesCaliburn.Micro.FrameworkContentElement: A library to enable attaching Caliburn.Micro messages to FrameworkContentElement descendant objects. Target platform: WPF.CoinChoue2: .CustomEDMX: Prover *customização* da geração automática de código do EntityFramework, gerando objetos de acordo com os padrões de nomenclatura da equipe de desenvolvimento.DeForm: DeForm is a WinRT component that allows you to apply a pipeline of effects to a picture.DeTaiCS2012_Srmdep: Ð? tài CS nam 2012 v? qu?n lý kinh doanh có di?u ki?nEMSolution: This is only a porject for me, a .net beginner, to practise .net programming skills. SO any suggestion or help is welcome. On going...Facebook SDK Orchard module: Orchard module containing the Facebook C# SDK (http://csharpsdk.org/) for simple installation to an Orchard site.Federation Metadata Signing: This is a console application (to give a feeling as if we are doing something serious on black screen) built using .NET 4 (to signify that we work on latest .neGit-TF: Git-TF is a set of cross-platform, command line tools that facilitate sharing of changes between TFS and Git.mobx.mobi: mobx.mobi - mobile CMS. Good for beginners learning MVC and mobile, or webforms programmer seeking to switch to MVC. Simple and friendly design.PdfExtractor: PdfExtractorSpeed Run: Speed Run for WP7technoschool: Aplikasi sistem informasi sekolah baik SD, SMP maupun SMA. Dimana aplikasi ini telah mencakup akademik, perpustakaan, keuangan, dan kepegawaianThe LogNut logging library and facilities: LogNut is a comprehensive logging facility written in C# for C# developers. It provides a simple way to write something from within your program, as it runs.Visual Studio File Cleanup: Visual Studio File Cleaner Good code examples on how to do a poor man’s obfuscation of your solutionWeatherSpark: Sprarkline-inspired graphs provide a comprehensive view of each day’s temperature, humidity, precipitation, and cloud cover.Windows Phone Interprocess Messaging API: Message passing sample WinLogCheck - Eventlogs Scanner: WinLogCheck is a command line windows eventlogs scanner. The main goal is get a report about the events in the eventlog, except for repetitive events.WinUnleaked Image Uploader: WinUnleaked Image Uploader for WinUnleaked Staff members

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Tuesday, July 03, 2012

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Tuesday, July 03, 2012Popular ReleasesMini SQL Query: Mini SQL Query: Just a bug fix release for when the connections try to refresh after an edit. Make sure you read the http://pksoftware.net/Content/MiniSqlQuery/Help/MiniSqlQueryQuickStart.docx for an introduction.Microsoft Ajax Minifier: Microsoft Ajax Minifier 4.58: Fix for Issue #18296: provide "ALL" value to the -ignore switch to ignore all error and warning messages. Fix for issue #18293: if encountering EOF before a function declaration or expression is properly closed, throw an appropriate error and don't crash. Adjust the variable-renaming algorithm so it's very specific when renaming variables with the same number of references so a single source file ends up with the same minified names on different platforms. add the ability to specify kno...LogExpert: 1.4 build 4566: This release for the 1.4 version line contains various fixes which have been made some times ago. Until now these fixes were only available in the 1.5 alpha versions. It also contains a fix for: 710. Column finder (press F8 to show) Terminal server issues: Multiple sessions with same user should work now Settings Export/Import available via Settings Dialog still incomple (e.g. tab colors are not saved) maybe I change the file format one day no command line support yet (for importin...DynamicToSql: DynamicToSql 1.0.0 (beta): 1.0.0 beta versionCommonLibrary.NET: CommonLibrary.NET 0.9.8.5 - Final Release: A collection of very reusable code and components in C# 4.0 ranging from ActiveRecord, Csv, Command Line Parsing, Configuration, Holiday Calendars, Logging, Authentication, and much more. FluentscriptCommonLibrary.NET 0.9.8 contains a scripting language called FluentScript. Releases notes for FluentScript located at http://fluentscript.codeplex.com/wikipage?action=Edit&title=Release%20Notes&referringTitle=Documentation Fluentscript - 0.9.8.5 - Final ReleaseApplication: FluentScript Versio...SharePoint 2010 Metro UI: SharePoint 2010 Metro UI8: Please review the documentation link for how to install. Installation takes some basic knowledge of how to upload and edit SharePoint Artifact files. Please view the discussions tab for ongoing FAQsBack-Propagation Neural Networks Simulation: Back-Propagation Neural Networks Simulation: This is the first release application for Back-Propagation Neural Networks Simulation. It is required .NET Framework 4.0. Check this to use http://backpronn.codeplex.comnopCommerce. Open source shopping cart (ASP.NET MVC): nopcommerce 2.60: Highlight features & improvements: • Significant performance optimization. • Use AJAX for adding products to the cart. • New flyout mini-shopping cart. • Auto complete suggestions for product searching. • Full-Text support. • EU cookie law support. To see the full list of fixes and changes please visit the release notes page (http://www.nopCommerce.com/releasenotes.aspx).THE NVL Maker: The NVL Maker Ver 3.51: http://download.codeplex.com/Download?ProjectName=nvlmaker&DownloadId=371510 ????：http://115.com/file/beoef05k#THE-NVL-Maker-ver3.51-sim.7z ????：http://www.mediafire.com/file/6tqdwj9jr6eb9qj/THENVLMakerver3.51tra.7z ======================================== ???? ======================================== 3.51 beta ???： ·?????????????????????? ·?????????，?????????0，?????????????????????? ·??????????????????????????? ·?????????????TJS????（EXP??） ·??4:3???，???????????????，??????????? ·?????????...????: ????2.0.3: 1、???????????。 2、????????。 3、????????????。 4、bug??，????。Generic enumeration: Enumeration.zip: Generic enumeration dll with a test console application.Apworks: Apworks (v2.5.4563.21309, 30JUN2012): Installation Prerequisites: 1. Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 SP1 2. Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 SP1 3. Other required libraries & assemblies are now included in the installation package so no more prerequisites needed Functional Updates: 1. Refactor the identity field of the IEntity interface from 'Id' to 'ID' 2. Changed the MySql Storage to use the MySql NetConnector version 6.4.4. 3. Implemented the paging support for the repositories. 4. Added the Eager Loading Property specification t...AssaultCube Reloaded: 2.5 Intrepid: Linux has Ubuntu 11.10 32-bit precompiled binaries and Ubuntu 10.10 64-bit precompiled binaries, but you can compile your own as it also contains the source. If you are using Mac or other operating systems, download the Linux package. Try to compile it. If it fails, download a virtual machine. The server pack is ready for both Windows and Linux, but you might need to compile your own for Linux (source included) You should delete /home/config/saved.cfg to reset binds/other stuff If you us...WallSwitch: WallSwitch 1.0.4: Version 1.0.4 Changes: Changes in previous version broke hotkey support; fixed this. When minimizing the window to tray, if there are unsaved changes, then prompt to save first. When changing the path on a folder location, reset the file list. Fixed app not shutting down properly when closed externally. Improved installer to shut down app instead of requiring reboot. Clear History action now clears all history, rather than just the current theme.List Form Manipulation Framework (LFMF) for SharePoint 2010: LFMF v1.1: Added new SPFieldIO field type to reference filenamesSystem.Net.FtpClient: API Reference 2012.06.29: Updated with new file listing example as well as any API changes since the last release.Magelia WebStore Open-source Ecommerce software: Magelia WebStore 2.0: User Right Licensing ContentType version 2.0.267.1Designing Windows 8 Applications with C# and XAML: Chapters 1 - 7 Release Preview: Source code for all examples from Chapters 1 - 7 for the Release PreviewSQL Server FineBuild: Version 3.1.0: Top SQL Server FineBuild Version 3.1.0This is the stable version of FineBuild for SQL Server 2012, 2008 R2, 2008 and 2005 Documentation FineBuild Wiki containing details of the FineBuild process Known Issues Limitations with this release FineBuild V3.1.0 Release Contents List of changes included in this release Please DonateFineBuild is free, but please donate what you think FineBuild is worth as everything goes to charity. Tearfund is one of the UK's leading relief and de...EasySL: RapidSL V2: Rewrite RapidSL UI Framework, Using Silverlight 5.0 EF4.1 Code First Ria Service SP2 + Lastest Silverlight Toolkit.New Projects2DoTasks: This is a simple Dnn Module for Project/Tasks/time management. I hope you all found it useful.AOPify: AOPify lightweight fluent AOP framework that provides basic AOP features both before,after,onerror etc with fluent syntax..Capacitacion: This is my first Project - mvillasecoCLFiling: Client filing with search functionsContoso University MVC NTier: This is first version reference application for ASP.NET MVC NTier.DynamicToSql: DynamicToSql is a lightweight API that maps dynamically typed entities to a database and vice versa. It works against any database that has ADO.NET drivers.Enlightener: Deobfuscator target at Confuser. Child project of http://netdeob0.codeplex.com/Excel Adjacency List to Dot: Excel add-in to generate graphs in GraphViz dot file format from an adjacency list in Excel.FFXIV Job Bar: This is a little utility to help with Job changes in FFXIV. Gallery: A simple javascript/jquery based image gallery. Just include the Gallery.js and jquery in your html page.Grocery Droid: Transfer your P.C. designed shopping list to androidLOCOL: Locol is a internet medium to provide local information and services to district local residents.Meter: Log communal meters dataNthDownload: NthDownload is yet another attempt at a download manager.Paginacion de un objeto en un gridview: Como paginar un objeto con multiples resultados en un gridviewRunman game: "Runman" is port of "Pac-Man" game writing on C# and XNASB01: Project will be a startup for a warehouse management and easy to extend by any developer. Plug n play kind of setup.SC2Ranks API: A .NET 4.0 SC2Ranks APISharePoint 2010 Cookie Approval Control: If you need to comply with EU cookie law this control displays a message to each user that cookies are in use on the site and allows them to accept the messageSharePoint Advanced Visibility Options: Advanced Visibility Options - is an extension to SharePoint providing configurable List Field Iterator with PowerShell scripts.smtools2: Add-on tools for Service MonsterSparqube Picture Column Lite for SharePoint 2010: Sparqube Picture Column Lite is simple component for uploading and displaying images in SharePoint 2010 lists.SpudloFizzBuzz: This project is part of a job application process.SwiftMVVM: An extremely fast, easily refactorable implementation of INotifyPropertyChanged/ing, using dynamic proxy generation, as well as a robust change tracking engine.ZPL Converter: ZPL Converter converts Zune Playlists (.ZPL) easily and fast into other playlist formats, e.g. '.M3U' or '.PLS'.

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• Oracle Solaris 11 ZFS Lab for Openworld 2012

  - by user12626122

  Preface This is the content from the Oracle Openworld 2012 ZFS lab. It was well attended - the feedback was that it was a little short - thats probably because in writing it I bacame very time-concious after the ASM/ACFS on Solaris extravaganza I ran last year which was almost too long for mortal man to finish in the 1 hour session. Enjoy. Table of Contents Exercise Z.1: ZFS Pools Exercise Z.2: ZFS File Systems Exercise Z.3: ZFS Compression Exercise Z.4: ZFS Deduplication Exercise Z.5: ZFS Encryption Exercise Z.6: Solaris 11 Shadow Migration Introduction This set of exercises is designed to briefly demonstrate new features in Solaris 11 ZFS file system: Deduplication, Encryption and Shadow Migration. Also included is the creation of zpools and zfs file systems - the basic building blocks of the technology, and also Compression which is the compliment of Deduplication. The exercises are just introductions - you are referred to the ZFS Adminstration Manual for further information. From Solaris 11 onward the online manual pages consist of zpool(1M) and zfs(1M) with further feature-specific information in zfs_allow(1M), zfs_encrypt(1M) and zfs_share(1M). The lab is easily carried out in a VirtualBox running Solaris 11 with 6 virtual 3 Gb disks to play with. Exercise Z.1: ZFS Pools Task: You have several disks to use for your new file system. Create a new zpool and a file system within it. Lab: You will check the status of existing zpools, create your own pool and expand it. Your Solaris 11 installation already has a root ZFS pool. It contains the root file system. Check this: root@solaris:~# zpool list NAME SIZE ALLOC FREE CAP DEDUP HEALTH ALTROOT rpool 15.9G 6.62G 9.25G 41% 1.00x ONLINE - root@solaris:~# zpool status pool: rpool state: ONLINE scan: none requested config: NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM rpool ONLINE 0 0 0 c3t0d0s0 ONLINE 0 0 0 errors: No known data errors Note the disk device the root pool is on - c3t0d0s0 Now you will create your own ZFS pool. First you will check what disks are available: root@solaris:~# echo | format Searching for disks...done AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS: 0. c3t0d0 <ATA-VBOX HARDDISK-1.0 cyl 2085 alt 2 hd 255 sec 63> /pci@0,0/pci8086,2829@d/disk@0,0 1. c3t2d0 <ATA-VBOX HARDDISK-1.0 cyl 1534 alt 2 hd 128 sec 32> /pci@0,0/pci8086,2829@d/disk@2,0 2. c3t3d0 <ATA-VBOX HARDDISK-1.0 cyl 1534 alt 2 hd 128 sec 32> /pci@0,0/pci8086,2829@d/disk@3,0 3. c3t4d0 <ATA-VBOX HARDDISK-1.0 cyl 1534 alt 2 hd 128 sec 32> /pci@0,0/pci8086,2829@d/disk@4,0 4. c3t5d0 <ATA-VBOX HARDDISK-1.0 cyl 1534 alt 2 hd 128 sec 32> /pci@0,0/pci8086,2829@d/disk@5,0 5. c3t6d0 <ATA-VBOX HARDDISK-1.0 cyl 1534 alt 2 hd 128 sec 32> /pci@0,0/pci8086,2829@d/disk@6,0 6. c3t7d0 <ATA-VBOX HARDDISK-1.0 cyl 1534 alt 2 hd 128 sec 32> /pci@0,0/pci8086,2829@d/disk@7,0 Specify disk (enter its number): Specify disk (enter its number): The root disk is numbered 0. The others are free for use. Try creating a simple pool and observe the error message: root@solaris:~# zpool create mypool c3t2d0 c3t3d0 'mypool' successfully created, but with no redundancy; failure of one device will cause loss of the pool So destroy that pool and create a mirrored pool instead: root@solaris:~# zpool destroy mypool root@solaris:~# zpool create mypool mirror c3t2d0 c3t3d0 root@solaris:~# zpool status mypool pool: mypool state: ONLINE scan: none requested config: NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM mypool ONLINE 0 0 0 mirror-0 ONLINE 0 0 0 c3t2d0 ONLINE 0 0 0 c3t3d0 ONLINE 0 0 0 errors: No known data errors Back to topExercise Z.2: ZFS File Systems Task: You have to create file systems for later exercises. You can see that when a pool is created, a file system of the same name is created: root@solaris:~# zfs list NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT mypool 86.5K 2.94G 31K /mypool Create your filesystems and mountpoints as follows: root@solaris:~# zfs create -o mountpoint=/data1 mypool/mydata1 The -o option sets the mount point and automatically creates the necessary directory. root@solaris:~# zfs list mypool/mydata1 NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT mypool/mydata1 31K 2.94G 31K /data1 Back to top Exercise Z.3: ZFS Compression Task:Try out different forms of compression available in ZFS Lab:Create 2nd filesystem with compression, fill both file systems with the same data, observe results You can see from the zfs(1) manual page that there are several types of compression available to you, set with the property=value syntax: compression=on | off | lzjb | gzip | gzip-N | zle Controls the compression algorithm used for this dataset. The lzjb compression algorithm is optimized for performance while providing decent data compression. Setting compression to on uses the lzjb compression algorithm. The gzip compression algorithm uses the same compression as the gzip(1) command. You can specify the gzip level by using the value gzip-N where N is an integer from 1 (fastest) to 9 (best compression ratio). Currently, gzip is equivalent to gzip-6 (which is also the default for gzip(1)). Create a second filesystem with compression turned on. Note how you set and get your values separately: root@solaris:~# zfs create -o mountpoint=/data2 mypool/mydata2 root@solaris:~# zfs set compression=gzip-9 mypool/mydata2 root@solaris:~# zfs get compression mypool/mydata1 NAME PROPERTY VALUE SOURCE mypool/mydata1 compression off default root@solaris:~# zfs get compression mypool/mydata2 NAME PROPERTY VALUE SOURCE mypool/mydata2 compression gzip-9 local Now you can copy the contents of /usr/lib into both your normal and compressing filesystem and observe the results. Don't forget the dot or period (".") in the find(1) command below: root@solaris:~# cd /usr/lib root@solaris:/usr/lib# find . -print | cpio -pdv /data1 root@solaris:/usr/lib# find . -print | cpio -pdv /data2 The copy into the compressing file system takes longer - as it has to perform the compression but the results show the effect: root@solaris:/usr/lib# zfs list NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT mypool 1.35G 1.59G 31K /mypool mypool/mydata1 1.01G 1.59G 1.01G /data1 mypool/mydata2 341M 1.59G 341M /data2 Note that the available space in the pool is shared amongst the file systems. This behavior can be modified using quotas and reservations which are not covered in this lab but are covered extensively in the ZFS Administrators Guide. Back to top Exercise Z.4: ZFS Deduplication The deduplication property is used to remove redundant data from a ZFS file system. With the property enabled duplicate data blocks are removed synchronously. The result is that only unique data is stored and common componenents are shared. Task:See how to implement deduplication and its effects Lab: You will create a ZFS file system with deduplication turned on and see if it reduces the amount of physical storage needed when we again fill it with a copy of /usr/lib. root@solaris:/usr/lib# zfs destroy mypool/mydata2 root@solaris:/usr/lib# zfs set dedup=on mypool/mydata1 root@solaris:/usr/lib# rm -rf /data1/* root@solaris:/usr/lib# mkdir /data1/2nd-copy root@solaris:/usr/lib# zfs list NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT mypool 1.02M 2.94G 31K /mypool mypool/mydata1 43K 2.94G 43K /data1 root@solaris:/usr/lib# find . -print | cpio -pd /data1 2142768 blocks root@solaris:/usr/lib# zfs list NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT mypool 1.02G 1.99G 31K /mypool mypool/mydata1 1.01G 1.99G 1.01G /data1 root@solaris:/usr/lib# find . -print | cpio -pd /data1/2nd-copy 2142768 blocks root@solaris:/usr/lib#zfs list NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT mypool 1.99G 1.96G 31K /mypool mypool/mydata1 1.98G 1.96G 1.98G /data1 You could go on creating copies for quite a while...but you get the idea. Note that deduplication and compression can be combined: the compression acts on metadata. Deduplication works across file systems in a pool and there is a zpool-wide property dedupratio: root@solaris:/usr/lib# zpool get dedupratio mypool NAME PROPERTY VALUE SOURCE mypool dedupratio 4.30x - Deduplication can also be checked using "zpool list": root@solaris:/usr/lib# zpool list NAME SIZE ALLOC FREE CAP DEDUP HEALTH ALTROOT mypool 2.98G 1001M 2.01G 32% 4.30x ONLINE - rpool 15.9G 6.66G 9.21G 41% 1.00x ONLINE - Before moving on to the next topic, destroy that dataset and free up some space: root@solaris:~# zfs destroy mypool/mydata1 Back to top Exercise Z.5: ZFS Encryption Task: Encrypt sensitive data. Lab: Explore basic ZFS encryption. This lab only covers the basics of ZFS Encryption. In particular it does not cover various aspects of key management. Please see the ZFS Adminastrion Manual and the zfs_encrypt(1M) manual page for more detail on this functionality. Back to top root@solaris:~# zfs create -o encryption=on mypool/data2 Enter passphrase for 'mypool/data2': ******** Enter again: ******** root@solaris:~# Creation of a descendent dataset shows that encryption is inherited from the parent: root@solaris:~# zfs create mypool/data2/data3 root@solaris:~# zfs get -r encryption,keysource,keystatus,checksum mypool/data2 NAME PROPERTY VALUE SOURCE mypool/data2 encryption on local mypool/data2 keysource passphrase,prompt local mypool/data2 keystatus available - mypool/data2 checksum sha256-mac local mypool/data2/data3 encryption on inherited from mypool/data2 mypool/data2/data3 keysource passphrase,prompt inherited from mypool/data2 mypool/data2/data3 keystatus available - mypool/data2/data3 checksum sha256-mac inherited from mypool/data2 You will find the online manual page zfs_encrypt(1M) contains examples. In particular, if time permits during this lab session you may wish to explore the changing of a key using "zfs key -c mypool/data2". Exercise Z.6: Shadow Migration Shadow Migration allows you to migrate data from an old file system to a new file system while simultaneously allowing access and modification to the new file system during the process. You can use Shadow Migration to migrate a local or remote UFS or ZFS file system to a local file system. Task: You wish to migrate data from one file system (UFS, ZFS, VxFS) to ZFS while mainaining access to it. Lab: Create the infrastructure for shadow migration and transfer one file system into another. First create the file system you want to migrate root@solaris:~# zpool create oldstuff c3t4d0 root@solaris:~# zfs create oldstuff/forgotten Then populate it with some files: root@solaris:~# cd /var/adm root@solaris:/var/adm# find . -print | cpio -pdv /oldstuff/forgotten You need the shadow-migration package installed: root@solaris:~# pkg install shadow-migration Packages to install: 1 Create boot environment: No Create backup boot environment: No Services to change: 1 DOWNLOAD PKGS FILES XFER (MB) Completed 1/1 14/14 0.2/0.2 PHASE ACTIONS Install Phase 39/39 PHASE ITEMS Package State Update Phase 1/1 Image State Update Phase 2/2 You then enable the shadowd service: root@solaris:~# svcadm enable shadowd root@solaris:~# svcs shadowd STATE STIME FMRI online 7:16:09 svc:/system/filesystem/shadowd:default Set the filesystem to be migrated to read-only root@solaris:~# zfs set readonly=on oldstuff/forgotten Create a new zfs file system with the shadow property set to the file system to be migrated: root@solaris:~# zfs create -o shadow=file:///oldstuff/forgotten mypool/remembered Use the shadowstat(1M) command to see the progress of the migration: root@solaris:~# shadowstat EST BYTES BYTES ELAPSED DATASET XFRD LEFT ERRORS TIME mypool/remembered 92.5M - - 00:00:59 mypool/remembered 99.1M 302M - 00:01:09 mypool/remembered 109M 260M - 00:01:19 mypool/remembered 133M 304M - 00:01:29 mypool/remembered 149M 339M - 00:01:39 mypool/remembered 156M 86.4M - 00:01:49 mypool/remembered 156M 8E 29 (completed) Note that if you had created /mypool/remembered as encrypted, this would be the preferred method of encrypting existing data. Similarly for compressing or deduplicating existing data. The procedure for migrating a file system over NFS is similar - see the ZFS Administration manual. That concludes this lab session.

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• Oracle on Oracle: Is that all?

  - by Darin Pendergraft

  On October 17th, I posted a short blog and a podcast interview with Chirag Andani, talking about how Oracle IT uses its own IDM products. Blog link here. In response, I received a comment from reader Jaime Cardoso ([email protected]) who posted: “- You could have talked about how by deploying Oracle's Open standards base technology you were able to integrate any new system in your infrastructure in days. - You could have talked about how by deploying federation you were enabling the business side to keep all their options open in terms of companies to buy and sell while maintaining perfect employee and customer's single view. - You could have talked about how you are now able to cut response times to your audit and security teams into 1/10th of your former times Instead you spent 6 minutes talking about single sign on and self provisioning? If I didn't knew your IDM offer so well I would now be wondering what its differences from Microsoft's offer was. Sorry for not giving a positive comment here but, please your IDM suite is very good and, you simply aren't promoting it well enough” So I decided to send Jaime a note asking him about his experience, and to get his perspective on what makes the Oracle products great. What I found out is that Jaime is a very experienced IDM Architect with several major projects under his belt. Darin Pendergraft: Can you tell me a bit about your experience? How long have you worked in IT, and what is your IDM experience? Jaime Cardoso: I started working in "serious" IT in 1998 when I became Netscape's technical specialist in Portugal. Netscape Portugal didn't exist so, I was working for their VAR here. Most of my work at the time was with Netscape's mail server and LDAP server. Since that time I've been bouncing between the system's side like Sun resellers, Solaris stuff and even worked with Sun's Engineering in the making of an Hierarchical Storage Product (Sun CIS if you know it) and the application's side, mostly in LDAP and IDM. Over the years I've been doing support, service delivery and pre-sales / architecture design of IDM solutions in most big customers in Portugal, to name a few projects: - The first European deployment of Sun Access Manager (SAPO – Portugal Telecom) - The identity repository of 5/5 of the Biggest Portuguese banks - The Portuguese government federation of services project DP: OK, in your blog response, you mentioned 3 topics: 1. Using Oracle's standards based architecture; (you) were able to integrate any new system in days: can you give an example? What systems, how long did it take, number of apps/users/accounts/roles etc. JC: It's relatively easy to design a user management strategy for a static environment, or if you simply assume that you're an <insert vendor here> shop and all your systems will bow to that vendor's will. We've all seen that path, the use of proprietary technologies in interoperability solutions but, then reality kicks in. As an ISP I recall that I made the technical decision to use Active Directory as a central authentication system for the entire IT infrastructure. Clients, systems, apps, everything was there. As a good part of the systems and apps were running on UNIX, then a connector became needed in order to have UNIX boxes to authenticate against AD. And, that strategy worked but, each new machine required the component to be installed, monitoring had to be made for that component and each new app had to be independently certified. A self care user portal was an ongoing project, AD access assumes the client is inside the domain, something the ISP's customers (and UNIX boxes) weren't nor had any intention of ever being. When the Windows 2008 rollout was done, Microsoft changed the Active Directory interface. The Windows administrators didn't have enough know-how about directories and the way systems outside the MS world behaved so, on the go live, things weren't properly tested and a general outage followed. Several hours and 1 roll back later, everything was back working. But, the ISP still had to change all of its applications to work with the new access methods and reset the effort spent on the self service user portal. To keep with the same strategy, they would also have to trust Microsoft not to change interfaces again. Simply by putting up an Oracle LDAP server in the middle and replicating the user info from the AD into LDAP, most of the problems went away. Even systems for which no AD connector existed had PAM in them so, integration was made at the OS level, fully supported by the OS supplier. Sun Identity Manager already had a self care portal, combined with a user workflow so, all the clearances had to be given before the account was created or updated. Adding a new system as a client for these authentication services was simply a new checkbox in the OS installer and, even True64 systems were, for the first time integrated also with a 5 minute work of a junior system admin. True, all the windows clients and MS apps still went to the AD for their authentication needs so, from the start everybody knew that they weren't 100% free of migration pains but, now they had a single point of problems to look at. If you're looking for numbers: - 500K directory entries (users) - 2-300 systems After the initial setup, I personally integrated about 20 systems / apps against LDAP in 1 day while being watched by the different IT teams. The internal IT staff did the rest. DP: 2. Using Federation allows the business to keep options open for buying and selling companies, and yet maintain a single view for both employee and customer. What do you mean by this? Can you give an example? JC: The market is dynamic. The company that's being bought today tomorrow will be sold again. Companies that spread on different markets may see the regulator forcing a sale of part of a company due to monopoly reasons and companies that are in multiple countries have to comply with different legislations. Our job, as IT architects, while addressing the customers and employees authentication services, is quite hard and, quite contrary. On one hand, we need to give access to all of our employees to the relevant systems, apps and resources and, we already have marketing talking with us trying to find out who's a customer of the bough company but not from ours to address. On the other hand, we have to do that and keep in mind we may have to break up all that effort and that different countries legislation may became a problem with a full integration plan. That's a job for user Federation. you don't want to be the one who's telling your President that he will sell that business unit without it's customer's database (making the deal worth a lot less) or that the buyer will take with him a copy of your entire customer's database. Federation enables you to start controlling permissions to users outside of your traditional authentication realm. So what if the people of that company you just bought are keeping their old logins? Do you want, because of that, to have a dedicated system for their expenses reports? And do you want to keep their sales (and pre-sales) people out of the loop in terms of your group's path? Control the information flow, establish a Federation trust circle and give access to your apps to users that haven't (yet?) been brought into your internal login systems. You can still see your users in a unified view, you obviously control if a user has access to any particular application, either that user is in your local database or stored in a directory on the other side of the world. DP: 3. Cut response times of audit and security teams to 1/10. Is this a real number? Can you give an example? JC: No, I don't have any backing for this number. One of the companies I did system Administration for has a SOX compliance policy in place (I remind you that I live in Portugal so, this definition of SOX may be somewhat different from what you're used to) and, every time the audit team says they'll do another audit, we have to negotiate with them the size of the sample and we spend about 15 man/days gathering all the required info they ask. I did some work with Sun's Identity auditor and, from what I've been seeing, Oracle's product is even better and, I've seen that most of the information they ask would have been provided in a few hours with the help of this tool. I do stand by what I said here but, to be honest, someone from Identity Auditor team would do a much better job than me explaining this time savings. Jaime is right: the Oracle IDM products have a lot of business value, and Oracle IT is using them for a lot more than I was able to cover in the short podcast that I posted. I want to thank Jaime for his comments and perspective. We want these blog posts to be informative and honest – so if you have feedback for the Oracle IDM team on any topic discussed here, please post your comments below.

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• quick look at: dm_db_index_physical_stats

  - by fatherjack

  A quick look at the key data from this dmv that can help a DBA keep databases performing well and systems online as the users need them. When the dynamic management views relating to index statistics became available in SQL Server 2005 there was much hype about how they can help a DBA keep their servers running in better health than ever before. This particular view gives an insight into the physical health of the indexes present in a database. Whether they are use or unused, complete or missing some columns is irrelevant, this is simply the physical stats of all indexes; disabled indexes are ignored however. In it’s simplest form this dmv can be executed as:   The results from executing this contain a record for every index in every database but some of the columns will be NULL. The first parameter is there so that you can specify which database you want to gather index details on, rather than scan every database. Simply specifying DB_ID() in place of the first NULL achieves this. In order to avoid the NULLS, or more accurately, in order to choose when to have the NULLS you need to specify a value for the last parameter. It takes one of 4 values – DEFAULT, ‘SAMPLED’, ‘LIMITED’ or ‘DETAILED’. If you execute the dmv with each of these values you can see some interesting details in the times taken to complete each step. DECLARE @Start DATETIME DECLARE @First DATETIME DECLARE @Second DATETIME DECLARE @Third DATETIME DECLARE @Finish DATETIME SET @Start = GETDATE() SELECT * FROM [sys].[dm_db_index_physical_stats](DB_ID(), NULL, NULL, NULL, DEFAULT) AS ddips SET @First = GETDATE() SELECT * FROM [sys].[dm_db_index_physical_stats](DB_ID(), NULL, NULL, NULL, 'SAMPLED') AS ddips SET @Second = GETDATE() SELECT * FROM [sys].[dm_db_index_physical_stats](DB_ID(), NULL, NULL, NULL, 'LIMITED') AS ddips SET @Third = GETDATE() SELECT * FROM [sys].[dm_db_index_physical_stats](DB_ID(), NULL, NULL, NULL, 'DETAILED') AS ddips SET @Finish = GETDATE() SELECT DATEDIFF(ms, @Start, @First) AS [DEFAULT] , DATEDIFF(ms, @First, @Second) AS [SAMPLED] , DATEDIFF(ms, @Second, @Third) AS [LIMITED] , DATEDIFF(ms, @Third, @Finish) AS [DETAILED] Running this code will give you 4 result sets; DEFAULT will have 12 columns full of data and then NULLS in the remainder. SAMPLED will have 21 columns full of data. LIMITED will have 12 columns of data and the NULLS in the remainder. DETAILED will have 21 columns full of data. So, from this we can deduce that the DEFAULT value (the same one that is also applied when you query the view using a NULL parameter) is the same as using LIMITED. Viewing the final result set has some details that are worth noting: Running queries against this view takes significantly longer when using the SAMPLED and DETAILED values in the last parameter. The duration of the query is directly related to the size of the database you are working in so be careful running this on big databases unless you have tried it on a test server first. Let’s look at the data we get back with the DEFAULT value first of all and then progress to the extra information later. We know that the first parameter that we supply has to be a database id and for the purposes of this blog we will be providing that value with the DB_ID function. We could just as easily put a fixed value in there or a function such as DB_ID (‘AnyDatabaseName’). The first columns we get back are database_id and object_id. These are pretty explanatory and we can wrap those in some code to make things a little easier to read: SELECT DB_NAME([ddips].[database_id]) AS [DatabaseName] , OBJECT_NAME([ddips].[object_id]) AS [TableName] … FROM [sys].[dm_db_index_physical_stats](DB_ID(), NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL) AS ddips  gives us   SELECT DB_NAME([ddips].[database_id]) AS [DatabaseName] , OBJECT_NAME([ddips].[object_id]) AS [TableName], [i].[name] AS [IndexName] , ….. FROM [sys].[dm_db_index_physical_stats](DB_ID(), NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL) AS ddips INNER JOIN [sys].[indexes] AS i ON [ddips].[index_id] = [i].[index_id] AND [ddips].[object_id] = [i].[object_id]     These handily tie in with the next parameters in the query on the dmv. If you specify an object_id and an index_id in these then you get results limited to either the table or the specific index. Once again we can place a  function in here to make it easier to work with a specific table. eg. SELECT * FROM [sys].[dm_db_index_physical_stats] (DB_ID(), OBJECT_ID(‘AdventureWorks2008.Person.Address’) , 1, NULL, NULL) AS ddips   Note: Despite me showing that functions can be placed directly in the parameters for this dmv, best practice recommends that functions are not used directly in the function as it is possible that they will fail to return a valid object ID. To be certain of not passing invalid values to this function, and therefore setting an automated process off on the wrong path, declare variables for the OBJECT_IDs and once they have been validated, use them in the function: DECLARE @db_id SMALLINT; DECLARE @object_id INT; SET @db_id = DB_ID(N’AdventureWorks_2008′); SET @object_id = OBJECT_ID(N’AdventureWorks_2008.Person.Address’); IF @db_id IS NULL BEGINPRINT N’Invalid database’; ENDELSE IF @object_id IS NULL BEGINPRINT N’Invalid object’; ENDELSE BEGINSELECT * FROM sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats (@db_id, @object_id, NULL, NULL , ‘LIMITED’); END; GO In cases where the results of querying this dmv don’t have any effect on other processes (i.e. simply viewing the results in the SSMS results area)  then it will be noticed when the results are not consistent with the expected results and in the case of this blog this is the method I have used. So, now we can relate the values in these columns to something that we recognise in the database lets see what those other values in the dmv are all about. The next columns are: We’ll skip partition_number, index_type_desc, alloc_unit_type_desc, index_depth and index_level  as this is a quick look at the dmv and they are pretty self explanatory. The final columns revealed by querying this view in the DEFAULT mode are avg_fragmentation_in_percent. This is the amount that the index is logically fragmented. It will show NULL when the dmv is queried in SAMPLED mode. fragment_count. The number of pieces that the index is broken into. It will show NULL when the dmv is queried in SAMPLED mode. avg_fragment_size_in_pages. The average size, in pages, of a single fragment in the leaf level of the IN_ROW_DATA allocation unit. It will show NULL when the dmv is queried in SAMPLED mode. page_count. Total number of index or data pages in use. OK, so what does this give us? Well, there is an obvious correlation between fragment_count, page_count and avg_fragment_size-in_pages. We see that an index that takes up 27 pages and is in 3 fragments has an average fragment size of 9 pages (27/3=9). This means that for this index there are 3 separate places on the hard disk that SQL Server needs to locate and access to gather the data when it is requested by a DML query. If this index was bigger than 72KB then having it’s data in 3 pieces might not be too big an issue as each piece would have a significant piece of data to read and the speed of access would not be too poor. If the number of fragments increases then obviously the amount of data in each piece decreases and that means the amount of work for the disks to do in order to retrieve the data to satisfy the query increases and this would start to decrease performance. This information can be useful to keep in mind when considering the value in the avg_fragmentation_in_percent column. This is arrived at by an internal algorithm that gives a value to the logical fragmentation of the index taking into account the multiple files, type of allocation unit and the previously mentioned characteristics if index size (page_count) and fragment_count. Seeing an index with a high avg_fragmentation_in_percent value will be a call to action for a DBA that is investigating performance issues. It is possible that tables will have indexes that suffer from rapid increases in fragmentation as part of normal daily business and that regular defragmentation work will be needed to keep it in good order. In other cases indexes will rarely become fragmented and therefore not need rebuilding from one end of the year to another. Keeping this in mind DBAs need to use an ‘intelligent’ process that assesses key characteristics of an index and decides on the best, if any, defragmentation method to apply should be used. There is a simple example of this in the sample code found in the Books OnLine content for this dmv, in example D. There are also a couple of very popular solutions created by SQL Server MVPs Michelle Ufford and Ola Hallengren which I would wholly recommend that you review for much further detail on how to care for your SQL Server indexes. Right, let’s get back on track then. Querying the dmv with the fifth parameter value as ‘DETAILED’ takes longer because it goes through the index and refreshes all data from every level of the index. As this blog is only a quick look a we are going to skate right past ghost_record_count and version_ghost_record_count and discuss avg_page_space_used_in_percent, record_count, min_record_size_in_bytes, max_record_size_in_bytes and avg_record_size_in_bytes. We can see from the details below that there is a correlation between the columns marked. Column 1 (Page_Count) is the number of 8KB pages used by the index, column 2 is how full each page is (how much of the 8KB has actual data written on it), column 3 is how many records are recorded in the index and column 4 is the average size of each record. This approximates to: ((Col1*8) * 1024*(Col2/100))/Col3 = Col4*. avg_page_space_used_in_percent is an important column to review as this indicates how much of the disk that has been given over to the storage of the index actually has data on it. This value is affected by the value given for the FILL_FACTOR parameter when creating an index. avg_record_size_in_bytes is important as you can use it to get an idea of how many records are in each page and therefore in each fragment, thus reinforcing how important it is to keep fragmentation under control. min_record_size_in_bytes and max_record_size_in_bytes are exactly as their names set them out to be. A detail of the smallest and largest records in the index. Purely offered as a guide to the DBA to better understand the storage practices taking place. So, keeping an eye on avg_fragmentation_in_percent will ensure that your indexes are helping data access processes take place as efficiently as possible. Where fragmentation recurs frequently then potentially the DBA should consider; the fill_factor of the index in order to leave space at the leaf level so that new records can be inserted without causing fragmentation so rapidly. the columns used in the index should be analysed to avoid new records needing to be inserted in the middle of the index but rather always be added to the end. * – it’s approximate as there are many factors associated with things like the type of data and other database settings that affect this slightly.  Another great resource for working with SQL Server DMVs is Performance Tuning with SQL Server Dynamic Management Views by Louis Davidson and Tim Ford – a free ebook or paperback from Simple Talk. Disclaimer – Jonathan is a Friend of Red Gate and as such, whenever they are discussed, will have a generally positive disposition towards Red Gate tools. Other tools are often available and you should always try others before you come back and buy the Red Gate ones. All code in this blog is provided “as is” and no guarantee, warranty or accuracy is applicable or inferred, run the code on a test server and be sure to understand it before you run it on a server that means a lot to you or your manager.

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Friday, November 01, 2013

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Friday, November 01, 2013Popular ReleasesFamily Tree Analyzer: Version 3.0.3.0-beta test3: Count Isle of Man as England & Wales for Census Lost Cousins text was preventing drag n drop of files Lost Cousins no Countries form wont open more than one copy Changed sort order of Lost Cousins buttons to match report which matches Lost Cousins website UK Census date verification is only applied to UK facts Counts duplicate Lost Cousins facts Added report for Lost Cousins facts but no census fact Added Census Duplicate and Census Missing Location reports BEF & AFT residence facts were coun...uComponents: uComponents v6.0.0: This release of uComponents will compile against and support the new API in Umbraco v6.1.0. What's new in uComponents v6.0.0? New features / Resolved issuesThe following workitems have been implemented and/or resolved: 14781 14805 14808 14818 14854 14827 14868 14859 14790 14853 14790 DataType Grid 14788 14810 Drag & Drop support for rows Support for 11 new datatypes (to a total of 20 datatypes): Color Picker Dropdown Checklist Enum Checboxlist Enum Dropdownl...Local History for Visual Studio: Local History - 1.0: New - Support for Visual Studio 2013SmartStore.NET - Free ASP.NET MVC Ecommerce Shopping Cart Solution: SmartStore.NET 1.2.1: New FeaturesAdded option Limit to current basket subtotal to HadSpentAmount discount rule Items in product lists can be labelled as NEW for a configurable period of time Product templates can optionally display a discount sign when discounts were applied Added the ability to set multiple favicons depending on stores and/or themes Plugin management: multiple plugins can now be (un)installed in one go Added a field for the HTML body id to store entity (Developer) New property 'Extra...Community Forums NNTP bridge: Community Forums NNTP Bridge V54 (LiveConnect): This is the first release which can be used with the new LiveConnect authentication. Fixes the problem that the authentication will not work after 1 hour. Also a logfile will now be stored in "%AppData%\Community\CommunityForumsNNTPServer". If you have any problems please feel free to sent me the file "LogFile.txt".WPF Extended DataGrid: WPF Extended DataGrid 2.0.0.9 binaries: Fixed issue with ICollectionView containg null values (AutoFilter issue)Community TFS Build Extensions: October 2013: The October 2013 release contains Scripts - a new addition to our delivery. These are a growing library of PowerShell scripts to use with VS2013. See our documentation for more on scripting. VS2010 Activities(target .NET 4.0) VS2012 Activities (target .NET 4.5) VS2013 Activities (target .NET 4.5.1) Community TFS Build Manager VS2012 Community TFS Build Manager VS2013 The Community TFS Build Managers for VS2010, 2012 and 2013 can also be found in the Visual Studio Gallery where upda...SuperSocket, an extensible socket server framework: SuperSocket 1.6 stable: Changes included in this release: Process level isolation SuperSocket ServerManager (include server and client) Connect to client from server side initiatively Client certificate validation New configuration attributes "textEncoding", "defaultCulture", and "storeLocation" (certificate node) Many bug fixes http://docs.supersocket.net/v1-6/en-US/New-Features-and-Breaking-ChangesBarbaTunnel: BarbaTunnel 8.1: Check Version History for more information about this release.Collections2: Collections2 v.1.1: Collection2 v.1.1 is the 1st developer and user release of the Collections2 library. The library contains 3 classes TwoWayDictionary<S,T>, TwoWayDictionary<T>, and TwoWayDictException. Binaries are available for .NET 2.0-3.5 (Binary Collections2NET2.0 v.1.1.1.1) and .NET 4.0 (Binary Collections2NET4 v.1.1.1.1). Also available are a source code zip file (Source Collections2NET4 v.1.1.1.1.zip) containing a solution file, and, example console and library project files for Visual Studio 2010. ...Mugen MVVM Toolkit: Mugen MVVM Toolkit 2.1: v 2.1 Added the 'Should' class instead of the 'Validate' class. The 'Validate' class is now obsolete. Added 'Toolkit.Annotations' to support the Mugen MVVM Toolkit ReSharper plugin. Updated JetBrains annotations within the project. Added the 'GlobalSettings.DefaultActivationPolicy' property to represent the default activation policy. Removed the 'GetSettings' method from the 'ViewModelBase' class. Instead of it, the 'GlobalSettings.DefaultViewModelSettings' property is used. Updated...NAudio: NAudio 1.7: full release notes available at http://mark-dot-net.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/naudio-17-release-notes.htmlDirectX Tool Kit: October 2013: October 28, 2013 Updated for Visual Studio 2013 and Windows 8.1 SDK RTM Added DGSLEffect, DGSLEffectFactory, VertexPositionNormalTangentColorTexture, and VertexPositionNormalTangentColorTextureSkinning Model loading and effect factories support loading skinned models MakeSpriteFont now has a smooth vs. sharp antialiasing option: /sharp Model loading from CMOs now handles UV transforms for texture coordinates A number of small fixes for EffectFactory Minor code and project cleanup ...ExtJS based ASP.NET Controls: FineUI v4.0beta1: +2013-10-28 v4.0 beta1 +?????Collapsed???????????????。 -????：window/group_panel.aspx??，???????，???????，?????????。 +??????SelectedNodeIDArray???????????????。 -????：tree/checkbox/tree_checkall.aspx??，?????，?????，????????????。 -??TimerPicker???????（????、????ing）。 -??????????????????????（???）。 -?????????????，??type=text/css（??~`）。 -MsgTarget???MessageTarget，???None。 -FormOffsetRight?????20px??5px。 -?Web.config?PageManager??FormLabelAlign???。 -ToolbarPosition??Left/Right。 -??Web.conf...CODE Framework: 4.0.31028.0: See change notes in the documentation section for details on what's new. Note: If you download the class reference help file with, you have to right-click the file, pick "Properties", and then unblock the file, as many browsers flag the file as blocked during download (for security reasons) and thus hides all content.VidCoder: 1.5.10 Beta: Broke out all the encoder-specific passthrough options into their own dropdown. This should make what they do a bit more clear and clean up the codec list a bit. Updated HandBrake core to SVN 5855.Indent Guides for Visual Studio: Indent Guides v14: ImportantThis release has a separate download for Visual Studio 2010. The first link is for VS 2012 and later. Version History Changed in v14 Improved performance when scrolling and editing Fixed potential crash when Resharper is installed Fixed highlight of guides split around pragmas in C++/C# Restored VS 2010 support as a separate download Changed in v13 Added page width guide lines Added guide highlighting options Fixed guides appearing over collapsed blocks Fixed guides not...ASP.net MVC Awesome - jQuery Ajax Helpers: 3.5.3 (mvc5): version 3.5.3 - support for mvc5 version 3.5.2 - fix for setting single value to multivalue controls - datepicker min max date offset fix - html encoding for keys fix - enable Column.ClientFormatFunc to be a function call that will return a function version 3.5.1 ========================== - fixed html attributes rendering - fixed loading animation rendering - css improvements version 3.5 ========================== - autosize for all popups ( can be turned off by calling in js...Media Companion: Media Companion MC3.585b: IMDB plot scraping Fixed. New* Movie - Rename Folder using Movie Set, option to move ignored articles to end of Movie Set, only for folder renaming. Fixed* Media Companion - Fixed if using profiles, config files would blown up in size due to some settings duplicating. * Ignore Article of An was cutting of last character of movie title. * If Rescraping title, sort title changed depending on 'Move article to end of Sort Title' setting. * Movie - If changing Poster source order, list would beco...Custom Controls for TFS Work Item Tracking: 1.2.0.0: This is a maintenance release that adds support for TFS 2013. The control pack contains the following work item custom controls: MultiValueControl: a ComboBox to accept and show multiple values for a field by showing a list of checkboxes. More details here: MultiValue Control ScreenshotControl: a simple control (button) to capture a screenshot as a work item attachment. More details here: Screenshot controls. AttachmentsControl: this control cab be used as an alternative to the standar...New Projects3DChemFold: TODOAcc Oct2013 Liq2 MVC3EF5: Proyecto hecho en mvc3 con Entity Framework 5 para liquidación de sueldosAssociated List Box Control: A server side control combining list boxes and buttons to move items between lists. This has custom list boxes developed from a user control in ASP.Net website.AutoSPCUInstaller: Install the SharePoint Cumulative Update without pain. Use the AutoSPCUInstaller for a clean an easy installation process.Catalano Secure Delete: Delete your privacy data permanently.Duplica: Duplica is console (Command Prompt) tool aimed to duplicate existing file into a desired destination.High performance xll add-ins for Excel: A modern C++ interface to the Microsoft Excel SDK.Home Server SMART Classic: Home Server SMART is a hard disk and SSD health monitoring, reporting and alerting tool for Windows Home Server.Message Locked Encryption Library for .NET: A MLE (Message Locked Encryption) library developed for the .NET FrameworkMuServer: Web server mainly for streaming media to web browsing capable devices.MVA: Code examples from the book Programming in C# Exam Ref 70-483.NETCommon: This is only common library for NETonioncry: onion makes the aliens cry :(sfast: cms、??????、??????SPWrap - TileBoard Webpart: SPWrap Suite: Contains web parts that are wrapping existing libraries and features into reusable & fully configurable SharePoint components.TFS Build Launcher: A single command line utility to launch your TFS builds, allowing you to pass values into build process parameters.UsefulTools: A collection of useful extension methods and utility classes for .NET in general and WPFVirtual Book Libreria Online: Proyecto Libreria entity frame 5.0XML File Editor: XML Editor

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• Game Over function is not working Starling

  - by aNgeLyN omar

  I've been following a tutorial over the web but it somehow did not show something about creating a game over function. I am new to the Starling framework and Actionscript so I'm kind of still trying to find a way to make it work. Here's the complete snippet of the code. package screens { import flash.geom.Rectangle; import flash.utils.getTimer; import events.NavigationEvent; import objects.GameBackground; import objects.Hero; import objects.Item; import objects.Obstacle; import starling.display.Button; import starling.display.Image; import starling.display.Sprite; import starling.events.Event; import starling.events.Touch; import starling.events.TouchEvent; import starling.text.TextField; import starling.utils.deg2rad; public class InGame extends Sprite { private var screenInGame:InGame; private var screenWelcome:Welcome; private var startButton:Button; private var playAgain:Button; private var bg:GameBackground; private var hero:Hero; private var timePrevious:Number; private var timeCurrent:Number; private var elapsed:Number; private var gameState:String; private var playerSpeed:Number = 0; private var hitObstacle:Number = 0; private const MIN_SPEED:Number = 650; private var scoreDistance:int; private var obstacleGapCount:int; private var gameArea:Rectangle; private var touch:Touch; private var touchX:Number; private var touchY:Number; private var obstaclesToAnimate:Vector.<Obstacle>; private var itemsToAnimate:Vector.<Item>; private var scoreText:TextField; private var remainingLives:TextField; private var gameOverText:TextField; private var iconSmall:Image; static private var lives:Number = 2; public function InGame() { super(); this.addEventListener(starling.events.Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE, onAddedToStage); } private function onAddedToStage(event:Event):void { this.removeEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE, onAddedToStage); drawGame(); scoreText = new TextField(300, 100, "Score: 0", "MyFontName", 35, 0xD9D919, true); remainingLives = new TextField(600, 100, "Lives: " + lives +" X ", "MyFontName", 35, 0xD9D919, true); iconSmall = new Image(Assets.getAtlas().getTexture("darnahead1")); iconSmall.x = 360; iconSmall.y = 40; this.addChild(iconSmall); this.addChild(scoreText); this.addChild(remainingLives); } private function drawGame():void { bg = new GameBackground(); this.addChild(bg); hero = new Hero(); hero.x = stage.stageHeight / 2; hero.y = stage.stageWidth / 2; this.addChild(hero); startButton = new Button(Assets.getAtlas().getTexture("startButton")); startButton.x = stage.stageWidth * 0.5 - startButton.width * 0.5; startButton.y = stage.stageHeight * 0.5 - startButton.height * 0.5; this.addChild(startButton); gameArea = new Rectangle(0, 100, stage.stageWidth, stage.stageHeight - 250); } public function disposeTemporarily():void { this.visible = false; } public function initialize():void { this.visible = true; this.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, checkElapsed); hero.x = -stage.stageWidth; hero.y = stage.stageHeight * 0.5; gameState ="idle"; playerSpeed = 0; hitObstacle = 0; bg.speed = 0; scoreDistance = 0; obstacleGapCount = 0; obstaclesToAnimate = new Vector.<Obstacle>(); itemsToAnimate = new Vector.<Item>(); startButton.addEventListener(Event.TRIGGERED, onStartButtonClick); //var mainStage:InGame =InGame.current.nativeStage; //mainStage.dispatchEvent(new Event(Event.COMPLETE)); //playAgain.addEventListener(Event.TRIGGERED, onRetry); } private function onStartButtonClick(event:Event):void { startButton.visible = false; startButton.removeEventListener(Event.TRIGGERED, onStartButtonClick); launchHero(); } private function launchHero():void { this.addEventListener(TouchEvent.TOUCH, onTouch); this.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, onGameTick); } private function onTouch(event:TouchEvent):void { touch = event.getTouch(stage); touchX = touch.globalX; touchY = touch.globalY; } private function onGameTick(event:Event):void { switch(gameState) { case "idle": if(hero.x < stage.stageWidth * 0.5 * 0.5) { hero.x += ((stage.stageWidth * 0.5 * 0.5 + 10) - hero.x) * 0.05; hero.y = stage.stageHeight * 0.5; playerSpeed += (MIN_SPEED - playerSpeed) * 0.05; bg.speed = playerSpeed * elapsed; } else { gameState = "flying"; } break; case "flying": if(hitObstacle <= 0) { hero.y -= (hero.y - touchY) * 0.1; if(-(hero.y - touchY) < 150 && -(hero.y - touchY) > -150) { hero.rotation = deg2rad(-(hero.y - touchY) * 0.2); } if(hero.y > gameArea.bottom - hero.height * 0.5) { hero.y = gameArea.bottom - hero.height * 0.5; hero.rotation = deg2rad(0); } if(hero.y < gameArea.top + hero.height * 0.5) { hero.y = gameArea.top + hero.height * 0.5; hero.rotation = deg2rad(0); } } else { hitObstacle-- cameraShake(); } playerSpeed -= (playerSpeed - MIN_SPEED) * 0.01; bg.speed = playerSpeed * elapsed; scoreDistance += (playerSpeed * elapsed) * 0.1; scoreText.text = "Score: " + scoreDistance; initObstacle(); animateObstacles(); createEggItems(); animateItems(); remainingLives.text = "Lives: "+lives + " X "; if(lives == 0) { gameState = "over"; } break; case "over": gameOver(); break; } } private function gameOver():void { gameOverText = new TextField(800, 400, "Hero WAS KILLED!!!", "MyFontName", 50, 0xD9D919, true); scoreText = new TextField(800, 600, "Score: "+scoreDistance, "MyFontName", 30, 0xFFFFFF, true); this.addChild(scoreText); this.addChild(gameOverText); playAgain = new Button(Assets.getAtlas().getTexture("button_tryAgain")); playAgain.x = stage.stageWidth * 0.5 - startButton.width * 0.5; playAgain.y = stage.stageHeight * 0.75 - startButton.height * 0.75; this.addChild(playAgain); playAgain.addEventListener(Event.TRIGGERED, onRetry); } private function onRetry(event:Event):void { playAgain.visible = false; gameOverText.visible = false; scoreText.visible = false; var btnClicked:Button = event.target as Button; if((btnClicked as Button) == playAgain) { this.dispatchEvent(new NavigationEvent(NavigationEvent.CHANGE_SCREEN, {id: "playnow"}, true)); } disposeTemporarily(); } private function animateItems():void { var itemToTrack:Item; for(var i:uint = 0; i < itemsToAnimate.length; i++) { itemToTrack = itemsToAnimate[i]; itemToTrack.x -= playerSpeed * elapsed; if(itemToTrack.bounds.intersects(hero.bounds)) { itemsToAnimate.splice(i, 1); this.removeChild(itemToTrack); } if(itemToTrack.x < -50) { itemsToAnimate.splice(i, 1); this.removeChild(itemToTrack); } } } private function createEggItems():void { if(Math.random() > 0.95){ var itemToTrack:Item = new Item(Math.ceil(Math.random() * 10)); itemToTrack.x = stage.stageWidth + 50; itemToTrack.y = int(Math.random() * (gameArea.bottom - gameArea.top)) + gameArea.top; this.addChild(itemToTrack); itemsToAnimate.push(itemToTrack); } } private function cameraShake():void { if(hitObstacle > 0) { this.x = Math.random() * hitObstacle; this.y = Math.random() * hitObstacle; } else if(x != 0) { this.x = 0; this.y = 0; lives--; } } private function initObstacle():void { if(obstacleGapCount < 1200) { obstacleGapCount += playerSpeed * elapsed; } else if(obstacleGapCount !=0) { obstacleGapCount = 0; createObstacle(Math.ceil(Math.random() * 5), Math.random() * 1000 + 1000); } } private function animateObstacles():void { var obstacleToTrack:Obstacle; for(var i:uint = 0; i<obstaclesToAnimate.length; i++) { obstacleToTrack = obstaclesToAnimate[i]; if(obstacleToTrack.alreadyHit == false && obstacleToTrack.bounds.intersects(hero.bounds)) { obstacleToTrack.alreadyHit = true; obstacleToTrack.rotation = deg2rad(70); hitObstacle = 30; playerSpeed *= 0.5; } if(obstacleToTrack.distance > 0) { obstacleToTrack.distance -= playerSpeed * elapsed; } else { if(obstacleToTrack.watchOut) { obstacleToTrack.watchOut = false; } obstacleToTrack.x -= (playerSpeed + obstacleToTrack.speed) * elapsed; } if(obstacleToTrack.x < -obstacleToTrack.width || gameState == "over") { obstaclesToAnimate.splice(i, 1); this.removeChild(obstacleToTrack); } } } private function checkElapsed(event:Event):void { timePrevious = timeCurrent; timeCurrent = getTimer(); elapsed = (timeCurrent - timePrevious) * 0.001; } private function createObstacle(type:Number, distance:Number):void{ var obstacle:Obstacle = new Obstacle(type, distance, true, 300); obstacle.x = stage.stageWidth; this.addChild(obstacle); if(type >= 4) { if(Math.random() > 0.5) { obstacle.y = gameArea.top; obstacle.position = "top" } else { obstacle.y = gameArea.bottom - obstacle.height; obstacle.position = "bottom"; } } else { obstacle.y = int(Math.random() * (gameArea.bottom - obstacle.height - gameArea.top)) + gameArea.top; obstacle.position = "middle"; } obstaclesToAnimate.push(obstacle); } } }

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• Ubuntu 12.04 does not see windows already install on my computer (dual installation)

  - by jacinta

  I was trying to install the ubuntu 12.4 along side windows 7 on my new HP Pavilion 64k desktop with windows 7 computer but Ubuntu said that ( This computer has no detected operating system) and some one said (I suggest you chkdsk your Windows partition. I also suggest you resize the NTFS in WIndows then install Ubuntu to the free space.) Therefore I did (To shrink a simple or spanned volume using the Windows interface In Disk Management, right-click the simple or spanned volume you want to shrink. Click Shrink Volume…. Follow the instructions on your screen.) Then When I try to install ubuntu 12.4 after doing this, I received the same error. I was going to undo what I did but I see that I lose 1g when I do that so now what do I do? it says I can do a new simple volume and maybe then the space will no longer be unallocated. Please help me. I think I have a bad cd (ubuntu 12.4) cause from my research I see that I am not suppose to get a screen saying that (The computer has no detected operating system) I think this is a bad cd and I hope I did not mess up my computer. Please help. .................................................................................... O k I think I am following what you said about how to edit my question irrational john. I did chkdsk as you and actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) told me to AND ALSO did a lot of other things before I found out how to chkdsk. No problems. Thank you. Then I put back the space (extended) I took from system. I still was only able to put back 15 and not 16 so it is up to 99mb not back to 100mb. Then I shrank HP (C) as you told me, to 10 13,240 mb which is (12.93gb Unallocated). I did not change it into NTSF by doing the (New Simple Volume Action) I just left it. Then I tried to install UBUNTU 12.04 live CD amd64 and it gave me the results it was sometimes giving me before which is result (THAT Ubuntu) does not tell me weather I have or have not an already installed windows7. It just goes to a window that would have showed me information on what I have and on the bottom (DEVICE FOR BOOT LOADER INSTALLATION /dev/sda ) and the option to go BACK, QUIT, or INSTALL. (I think it is the INSTALLATION TYPE window). Therefore I do what I have been doing and I QUIT. What do I do now? Sorry that it seems like I cannot do anything on my own. On the Youtube video how to install ubuntu dual-boot alongside windows UBUNTU is installed so easy. The installation option page gives 3 options including dual instillation and the disk even lets you use a slider to slide to the size of the partition size you want. Yet my UBUNTU live cd is a mess and I checked it as one of you guys told me and got back information that it is good. Oh well this guy says you should press a control key to tell which device you are using to install ubuntu before the screen comes up. I guess cause it is old. This page also shows you easy stuff that do not show up on my cd. how to dual-boot UBUNTU and windows 7 P.S.. I saw this on the windows 7 website windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Formatting-disks-and-drives-frequently-asked-questions CREATE A BOOT PARTITION I HAD TO LEAVE OUT THE HTTP STUFF CAUSE I AM ONLY ALLOWED 2 ON A PAGE IT SAID To create a boot partition Warning Warning If you are installing different versions of Windows, you must install the earliest version first. If you don't do this, your computer may become inoperable. Open Computer Management by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Security, clicking Administrative Tools, and then double-clicking Computer Management.? Administrator permission required If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation. In the left pane, under Storage, click Disk Management. Right-click an unallocated region on your hard disk, and then click New Simple Volume. In the New Simple Volume Wizard, click Next. Type the size of the volume you want to create in megabytes (MB) or accept the maximum default size, and then click Next. Accept the default drive letter or choose a different drive letter to identify the volume, and then click Next. In the Format Partition dialog box, do one of the following: If you don't want to format the volume right now, click Do not format this volume, and then click Next. To format the volume with the default settings, click Next. For more information about formatting, see Formatting disks and drives: frequently asked questions. Review your choices, and then click Finish. AND THIS ON ANOTHER PAGE. Formatting disks and drives: frequently asked questions Hard disks, the primary storage devices on your computer, need to be formatted before you can use them. When you format a disk, you configure it with a file system so that Windows can store information on the disk. Hard disks in new computers running Windows are already formatted. If you buy an additional hard disk to expand the storage of your computer, you might need to format it. Storage devices such as USB flash drives and flash memory cards usually come preformatted by the manufacturer, so you probably won't need to format them. CDs and DVDs, on the other hand, use different formats from hard disks and removable storage devices. For information about formatting CDs and DVDs, see Which CD or DVD format should I use? Warning Warning Formatting erases any existing files on a hard disk. If you format a hard disk that has files on it, the files will be deleted. WHAT I DID WAS I GOT TO COMPUTER MANAGEMENT SECTION THEN I CLICKED ON DRIVE HP(C) (it put stripes on to show it is selected) Then I click on ACTION selected ALL TASKS AND THEN selected SHRINK VOLUME and then chose how much space from what it was giving me that I wanted. (12.93gb) AND THAT WAS ALL I DID. THEN I TRIED TO INSTALL UBUNTU i NEVER GOT THE 3RD SCREEN THAT IS IN THE VIDEO I INCLUDED (THE YOUTUBE WITH THE ENGLISH GUY) INSTALLATION TYPE I ALSO DID NOT GET THE 4TH SCREEN THAT ALLOWS YOU TO SELECT PARTITION SIZE what i got next was the 2nd INSTILLATION TYPE window shown on the (LINUX BS DOS.COM) PAGE THAT I INCLUDED and it showed no information about any drives (no drives /partition or stuff was shown) only the Boot Loader statement and the dev/sda bar and that's why i did not press install but chose to QUIT. SORRY I JUST NOW SAW YOUR ANSWER IRRATIONAL JOHN. I SHRANK HP(C) BY 12.93GB MY UNALLOCATED SPACE IS NOW 12.93GB HP(C) = 907.17gb NTSF...YOU ARE CORRECT WITH EVERYTHING YOU SAID This is what i read on (http://)windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Create-a-boot-partition I am only allowed 2 links Create a boot partition You must be logged on as an administrator to perform these steps. A boot partition is a partition that contains the files for the Windows operating system. If you want to install a second operating system on your computer (called a dual-boot or multiboot configuration), you need to create another partition on the hard disk, and then install the additional operating system on the new partition. Your hard disk would then have one system partition and two boot partitions. (A system partition is the partition that contains the hardware-related files. These tell the computer where to look to start Windows.) To create a partition on a basic disk, there must be unallocated disk space on your hard disk. With Disk Management, you can create a maximum of three primary partitions on a hard disk. You can create extended partitions, which include logical drives within them, if you need more partitions on the disk. Picture of disk space in Computer ManagementUnallocated disk space If there is no unallocated space, you will either need to create space by shrinking or deleting an existing partition or by using a third-party partitioning tool to repartition your hard disk. For more information, see Can I repartition my hard disk? To create a boot partition Warning Warning If you are installing different versions of Windows, you must install the earliest version first. If you don't do this, your computer may become inoperable. Open Computer Management by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Security, clicking Administrative Tools, and then double-clicking Computer Management.? Administrator permission required If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation. In the left pane, under Storage, click Disk Management. Right-click an unallocated region on your hard disk, and then click New Simple Volume. In the New Simple Volume Wizard, click Next. Type the size of the volume you want to create in megabytes (MB) or accept the maximum default size, and then click Next. Accept the default drive letter or choose a different drive letter to identify the volume, and then click Next. In the Format Partition dialog box, do one of the following: If you don't want to format the volume right now, click Do not format this volume, and then click Next. To format the volume with the default settings, click Next. For more information about formatting, see Formatting disks and drives: frequently asked questions. Review your choices, and then click Finish. I did what you told me @irrational john and this is the screen shot. I ENTERED ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo os-prober computer did not respond so I entered ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get -y remove dmraid computer responded with Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following packages will be REMOVED: dmraid 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded. After this operation, 141 kB disk space will be freed. (Reading database ... 147515 files and directories currently installed.) Removing dmraid ... update-initramfs is disabled since running on read-only media Processing triggers for man-db ... I entered ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo os-prober Computer Responded with /dev/sda1:Windows 7 (loader):Windows:chain /dev/sda3:Windows Recovery Environment (loader):Windows1:chain ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ ............... @obsessiveFOSS I don't know what is a Grub menu and I do not know what is the Ubuntu boot option The answer you gave to me was correct. This one {This apparently removes the dmraid metadata. After doing that, you can use the desktop icon Install Ubuntu 12.04 LTS to start the Ubuntu installer. This time the Installation Type window should contain the option to Install Ubuntu alongside Windows 7.} This is what I decided to do. I did not see the rest of your help 'till now. Never the less. I think the best thing for me to do now is to get a cheap used laptop and either do a dual installation or just install Ubuntu on to it. This way if I have any issues that I cannot solve like the one I had here, at least I will still have a usable computer to work on and to use to get answers with because I am not an expert like the people on this forum. Thanks a lot I will try to keep learning and do research enough to some day help someone else.

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• How to improve performance of map that loads new overlay images

  - by anthonysomerset

  I have inherited a website to maintain that uses a html map overlaying a real map to link specific countries to specific pages. previously it loaded the default map image, then with some javascript it would change the image src to an image with that particular country in a different colour on mouseover and reset the image source back to the original image on mouse out to make maintenance (adding new countries) easier i made the initial map a background image by utilising some CSS for the div tag, and then created new images for each country which only had that countries hightlight so that the images remain fairly small. this works great but theres one issue which is particularly noticeable on slower internet connections when you hover over a country if you dont have the image file in your browser cache or downloaded it wont load the image unless you hover over another country and then back onto the first country - i guess this is due to the image having to manually be downloaded on first hover. My question: is it possible to force the load of these extra images AFTER the page and all the other assets have finished loading so that this behaviour is all but eliminated? the html code for the MAP is as follows: <div class="gtmap"><img id="Image-Maps_6200909211657061" src="<?php echo cdnhttpsCheck(); ?>assets/wmap/a-guided-tours-map-blank.png" usemap="#Image-Maps_6200909211657061" alt="We offer Guided Motorcycle Tours all around the world" width="615" height="296" /> <map id="_Image-Maps_6200909211657061" name="Image-Maps_6200909211657061"> <area shape="poly" coords="511,134,532,107,542,113,520,141" href="/guided-motorcycle-tours-japan/" alt="Guided Japan Motorcycle Tours" title="Japan" onmouseover="if(document.images) document.getElementById('Image-Maps_6200909211657061').src='<?php echo cdnhttpsCheck(); ?>assets/wmap/a-guided-tours-map-japan.png';" onmouseout="if(document.images) document.getElementById('Image-Maps_6200909211657061').src='<?php echo cdnhttpsCheck(); ?>assets/wmap/a-guided-tours-map-blank.png';" /> <area shape="poly" coords="252,61,266,58,275,64,262,68" href="/guided-motorcycle-tour.php?iceland-motorcycle-adventure-39" alt="Guided Iceland Motorcycle Tours" title="Iceland" onmouseover="if(document.images) document.getElementById('Image-Maps_6200909211657061').src='<?php echo cdnhttpsCheck(); ?>assets/wmap/a-guided-tours-map-iceland.png';" onmouseout="if(document.images) document.getElementById('Image-Maps_6200909211657061').src='<?php echo cdnhttpsCheck(); ?>assets/wmap/a-guided-tours-map-blank.png';" /> <area shape="poly" coords="587,246,597,256,577,279,568,270" href="/guided-motorcycle-tour.php?new-zealand-south-island-adventure-10" alt="New Zealand Guided Motorcycle Tours" title="New Zealand" onmouseover="if(document.images) document.getElementById('Image-Maps_6200909211657061').src='<?php echo cdnhttpsCheck(); ?>assets/wmap/a-guided-tours-map-nz.png';" onmouseout="if(document.images) document.getElementById('Image-Maps_6200909211657061').src='<?php echo cdnhttpsCheck(); ?>assets/wmap/a-guided-tours-map-blank.png';" /> <area shape="poly" coords="418,133,412,145,412,154,421,178,430,180,430,166,443,154,443,145,438,144,433,142,430,138,431,130,430,129,425,128" href="/guided-motorcycle-tours-india/" alt="India Guided Motorcycle Tours" title="India" onmouseover="if(document.images) document.getElementById('Image-Maps_6200909211657061').src='<?php echo cdnhttpsCheck(); ?>assets/wmap/a-guided-tours-map-india.png';" onmouseout="if(document.images) document.getElementById('Image-Maps_6200909211657061').src='<?php echo cdnhttpsCheck(); ?>assets/wmap/a-guided-tours-map-blank.png';" /> <area shape="poly" coords="460,152,466,149,474,165,470,171,466,161" href="/guided-motorcycle-tours-laos/" alt="Laos Guided Motorcycle Tours" title="Laos" onmouseover="if(document.images) document.getElementById('Image-Maps_6200909211657061').src='<?php echo cdnhttpsCheck(); ?>assets/wmap/a-guided-tours-map-laos.png';" onmouseout="if(document.images) document.getElementById('Image-Maps_6200909211657061').src='<?php echo cdnhttpsCheck(); ?>assets/wmap/a-guided-tours-map-blank.png';" /> <area shape="poly" coords="468,179,475,166,468,152,475,152,482,169" href="/guided-motorcycle-tour.php?indochina-motorcycle-adventure-tour-32" onClick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/internal-links/guided-tours/map/vietnam');" alt="Vietnam Guided Motorcycle Tours" title="Vietnam" onmouseover="if(document.images) document.getElementById('Image-Maps_6200909211657061').src='<?php echo cdnhttpsCheck(); ?>assets/wmap/a-guided-tours-map-viet.png';" onmouseout="if(document.images) document.getElementById('Image-Maps_6200909211657061').src='<?php echo cdnhttpsCheck(); ?>assets/wmap/a-guided-tours-map-blank.png';" /> <area shape="poly" coords="330,239,337,235,347,226,352,233,351,243,344,250,335,253,327,255,323,249,322,242,323,241" href="/guided-motorcycle-tours-southafrica/" alt="South Africa Guided Motorcycle Tours" title="South Africa" onmouseover="if(document.images) document.getElementById('Image-Maps_6200909211657061').src='<?php echo cdnhttpsCheck(); ?>assets/wmap/a-guided-tours-map-sa.png';" onmouseout="if(document.images) document.getElementById('Image-Maps_6200909211657061').src='<?php echo cdnhttpsCheck(); ?>assets/wmap/a-guided-tours-map-blank.png';" /> <area shape="poly" coords="290,77,293,86,298,96,286,102,285,97,285,89,282,84,282,79" href="/guided-motorcycle-tour.php?great-britain-isle-of-man-scotland-wales-uk-18" alt="United Kingdom" title="United Kingdom Guided Motorcycle Tours" onmouseover="if(document.images) document.getElementById('Image-Maps_6200909211657061').src='<?php echo cdnhttpsCheck(); ?>assets/wmap/a-guided-tours-map-uk.png';" onmouseout="if(document.images) document.getElementById('Image-Maps_6200909211657061').src='<?php echo cdnhttpsCheck(); ?>assets/wmap/a-guided-tours-map-blank.png';" /> <area shape="poly" coords="357,118,368,118,369,126,345,129,338,125,338,117,342,115,348,116" href="/guided-motorcycle-tour.php?explore-turkey-adventure-45" alt="Turkey" title="Turkey Guided Motorcycle Tours" onmouseover="if(document.images) document.getElementById('Image-Maps_6200909211657061').src='<?php echo cdnhttpsCheck(); ?>assets/wmap/a-guided-tours-map-turkey.png';" onmouseout="if(document.images) document.getElementById('Image-Maps_6200909211657061').src='<?php echo cdnhttpsCheck(); ?>assets/wmap/a-guided-tours-map-blank.png';" /> <area shape="poly" coords="206,95,193,101,185,101,178,106,165,111,157,109,147,105,134,103,121,103,107,103,96,103,86,104,81,99,77,91,70,83,62,79,60,72,61,64,59,57,60,51,71,50,83,49,95,50,107,54,117,53,129,47,137,36,148,37,163,38,177,44,187,54,195,60,184,72,191,80,200,87" href="/guided-motorcycle-tours-canada/" alt="Guided Canada Motorcycle Tours" title="Canada" onmouseover="if(document.images) document.getElementById('Image-Maps_6200909211657061').src='<?php echo cdnhttpsCheck(); ?>assets/wmap/a-guided-tours-map-canada.png';" onmouseout="if(document.images) document.getElementById('Image-Maps_6200909211657061').src='<?php echo cdnhttpsCheck(); ?>assets/wmap/a-guided-tours-map-blank.png';" /> <area shape="poly" coords="61,75,60,62,60,55,59,44,51,44,43,43,36,42,28,43,23,48,17,51,15,62,19,74,27,79,19,83,16,93,35,83,43,77,50,75,55,75" href="/guided-motorcycle-tours-alaska/" alt="Guided Alaska Motorcycle Tours" title="Alaska" onmouseover="if(document.images) document.getElementById('Image-Maps_6200909211657061').src='<?php echo cdnhttpsCheck(); ?>assets/wmap/a-guided-tours-map-alaska.png';" onmouseout="if(document.images) document.getElementById('Image-Maps_6200909211657061').src='<?php echo cdnhttpsCheck(); ?>assets/wmap/a-guided-tours-map-blank.png';" /> <area shape="poly" coords="82,101,99,101,133,101,148,105,161,110,172,106,187,100,180,113,171,122,165,131,159,149,147,141,137,140,129,147,120,141,112,138,103,137,93,132,86,122,86,112,86,106" href="/guided-motorcycle-tours-usa/" alt="USA Guided Motorcycle Tours" title="USA" onmouseover="if(document.images) document.getElementById('Image-Maps_6200909211657061').src='<?php echo cdnhttpsCheck(); ?>assets/wmap/a-guided-tours-map-usa.png';" onmouseout="if(document.images) document.getElementById('Image-Maps_6200909211657061').src='<?php echo cdnhttpsCheck(); ?>assets/wmap/a-guided-tours-map-blank.png';" /> <area shape="poly" coords="178,225,180,214,175,208,174,204,178,198,174,193,167,192,157,199,158,204,164,211,167,218" href="/guided-motorcycle-tour.php?peru-machu-picchu-adventure-25" alt="Peru Guided Motorcycle Tours" title="Peru" onmouseover="if(document.images) document.getElementById('Image-Maps_6200909211657061').src='<?php echo cdnhttpsCheck(); ?>assets/wmap/a-guided-tours-map-peru.png';" onmouseout="if(document.images) document.getElementById('Image-Maps_6200909211657061').src='<?php echo cdnhttpsCheck(); ?>assets/wmap/a-guided-tours-map-blank.png';" /> <area shape="poly" coords="172,226,169,239,166,256,166,267,164,279,171,277,174,262,175,250,179,234,180,225,176,224" href="/guided-motorcycle-tours-chile/" alt="Guided Chile Motorcycle Tours" title="Chile" onmouseover="if(document.images) document.getElementById('Image-Maps_6200909211657061').src='<?php echo cdnhttpsCheck(); ?>assets/wmap/a-guided-tours-map-chile.png';" onmouseout="if(document.images) document.getElementById('Image-Maps_6200909211657061').src='<?php echo cdnhttpsCheck(); ?>assets/wmap/a-guided-tours-map-blank.png';" /> <area shape="poly" coords="199,260,194,261,187,265,184,276,183,296,170,292,168,282,174,270,174,257,177,245,180,230,190,228,205,237,199,245" href="/guided-motorcycle-tours-argentina/" alt="Guided Argentina Motorcycle Tours" title="Argentina" onmouseover="if(document.images) document.getElementById('Image-Maps_6200909211657061').src='<?php echo cdnhttpsCheck(); ?>assets/wmap/a-guided-tours-map-arg.png';" onmouseout="if(document.images) document.getElementById('Image-Maps_6200909211657061').src='<?php echo cdnhttpsCheck(); ?>assets/wmap/a-guided-tours-map-blank.png';" /> </map> </div> The <?php echo cdnhttpsCheck(); ?> is just a site specific function that gets the correct web domain/url from a config file to load resources from CDN where possible (eg all non HTTPS requests) We are loading Jquery at the bottom of the HTML if anybody wonders why it is missing from the code snippet for reference, the page with the map in question is found here: http://www.motoquest.com/guided-motorcycle-tours/

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, September 08, 2012

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, September 08, 2012Popular ReleasesJson.NET: Json.NET 4.5 Release 9: New feature - Added JsonValueConverter Fix - Fixed DefaultValueHandling.Ignore not igoring default values of non-nullable properties Fix - Fixed DefaultValueHandling.Populate error with non-nullable properties Fix - Fixed error when writing JSON for a JProperty with no value Fix - Fixed error when calling ToList on empty JObjects and JArrays Fix - Fixed losing decimal precision when writing decimal JValuesfastJSON: v2.0.4: 2.0.4 - fixed null objects -> returns "null" - added sealed keyword to classes - bug fix SerializeNullValues=false and an extra comma at the end - UseExtensions=false will disable global types also - fixed paramerters setting for Parse()Microsoft Ajax Minifier: Microsoft Ajax Minifier 4.66: Just going to bite the bullet and rip off the band-aid... SEMI-BREAKING CHANGE! Well, it's a BREAKING change to those who already adjusted their projects to use the previous breaking change's ill-conceived renamed DLLs (versions 4.61-4.65). For those who had not adapted and were still stuck in this-doesn't-work-please-fix-me mode, this is more like a fixing change. The previous breaking change just broke too many people, I'm sorry to say. Renaming the DLL from AjaxMin.dll to AjaxMinLibrary.dl...DotNetNuke® Community Edition CMS: 07.00.00 CTP (Not for Production Use): NOTE: New Minimum Requirementshttp://www.dotnetnuke.com/Portals/25/Blog/Files/1/3418/Windows-Live-Writer-1426fd8a58ef_902C-MinimumVersionSupport_2.png Simplified InstallerThe first thing you will notice is that the installer has been updated. Not only have we updated the look and feel, but we also simplified the overall install process. You shouldn’t have to click through a series of screens in order to just get your website running. With the 7.0 installer we have taken an approach that a...Umbraco CMS: Umbraco 4.9.0: Whats newThe media section has been overhauled to support HTML5 uploads, just drag and drop files in, even multiple files are supported on any HTML5 capable browser. The folder content overview is also much improved allowing you to filter it and perform common actions on your media items. The Rich Text Editor’s “Media” button now uses an embedder based on the open oEmbed standard (if you’re upgrading, enable the media button in the Rich Text Editor datatype settings and set TidyEditorConten...menu4web: menu4web 0.4.1 - javascript menu for web sites: This release is for those who believe that global variables are evil. menu4web has been wrapped into m4w singleton object. Added "Vertical Tabs" example which illustrates object notation.Microsoft SQL Server Product Samples: Database: AdventureWorks OData Feed: The AdventureWorks OData service exposes resources based on specific SQL views. The SQL views are a limited subset of the AdventureWorks database that results in several consuming scenarios: CompanySales Documents ManufacturingInstructions ProductCatalog TerritorySalesDrilldown WorkOrderRouting How to install the sample You can consume the AdventureWorks OData feed from http://services.odata.org/AdventureWorksV3/AdventureWorks.svc. You can also consume the AdventureWorks OData fe...Desktop Google Reader: 1.4.6: Sorting feeds alphabetical is now optional (see preferences window)Droid Explorer: Droid Explorer 0.8.8.7 Beta: Bug in the display icon for apk's, will fix with next release Added fallback icon if unable to get the image/icon from the Cloud Service Removed some stale plugins that were either out dated or incomplete. Added handler for *.ab files for restoring backups Added plugin to create device backups Backups stored in %USERPROFILE%\Android Backups\%DEVICE_ID%\ Added custom folder icon for the android backups directory better error handling for installing an apk bug fixes for the Runn...The Visual Guide for Building Team Foundation Server 2012 Environments: Version 1: --Nearforums - ASP.NET MVC forum engine: Nearforums v8.5: Version 8.5 of Nearforums, the ASP.NET MVC Forum Engine. New features include: Built-in search engine using Lucene.NET Flood control improvements Notifications improvements: sync option and mail body View Roadmap for more details webdeploy package sha1 checksum: 961aff884a9187b6e8a86d68913cdd31f8deaf83JQuery SharePoint Autocomplete People Picker: jquery-ui-sppeoplepicker-1.0: This is the first releaes of the jquery sharepoint people picker. Currently it supports searching, selecting and getting selectable value of SharePoint profiles. This version requires the jquery-ui which can be found here: http://jqueryui.com/demosjos .net sdk: 1.0 beta: 1.0 betaWordPress???? on Windows Azure: WordPress 3.4.1 ????: v3.4.1???????????????????????? WordPress?3.4.1????????????? Windows Azure Storage for WordPress?2.0????????????? WordPress 3.4.1 ???? ★updated WP Db Abstraction 1.1.3 Windows Azure Storage for WordPress 2.0 ★updated WP Mail SMTP 0.9.1 ???????????????????、????????????「500 - Internal server error.」??????。（????????????）WiX Toolset: WiX Toolset v3.6: WiX Toolset v3.6 introduces the Burn bootstrapper/chaining engine and support for Visual Studio 2012 and .NET Framework 4.5. Other minor functionality includes: WixDependencyExtension supports dependency checking among MSI packages. WixFirewallExtension supports more features of Windows Firewall. WixTagExtension supports Software Id Tagging. WixUtilExtension now supports recursive directory deletion. Melt simplifies pure-WiX patching by extracting .msi package content and updating .w...SharePoint Developers & Admins: SPUserManager - Get users info: IntroductionSP User Manager is a tool that allows you to extract a list of unique users who accessed a certain site collection. The tool will list all available SharePoint Applications and the underlying site collection. You can then choose which Site Collection you are interested to extract their user list. You can then store the extracted list in a comma separated file (*.CSV). If you are interested to see each site collection that users belong to you can get that done by selecting the ch...Iveely Search Engine: Iveely Search Engine （0.2.0）: ????ISE?0.1.0??，?????，ISE?0.2.0?????????，???????，????????20???follow?ISE，????，??ISE??????????，??????????，?????????，?????????0.2.0??????，??????????。 Iveely Search Engine ?0.2.0?????????“??????????”，??????，?????????，???????，???????????????????，????、????????????。???0.1.0????????????： 1. ??“????” ??。??????????，?????????，???????????????????。??：????????，????????????，??????????????????。??????。 2. ??“????”??。?0.1.0??????，???????，???????????????，?????????????，????????，?0.2.0?，???????...YUGI-AR Project: YUGI-AR 1.0: yugi-ar 1.0GmailDefaultMaker: GmailDefaultMaker 3.0.0.2: Add QQ Mail BugfixSmart Data Access layer: Smart Data access Layer Ver 3: In this version support executing inline query is added. Check Documentation section for detail.New Projects.NET diagnosing toolkit: Contains tools useful for analyzing and collecting .net traces.[ITFA GROUP] Code Gener: Code Gener (For .NET) is a tool to help programmers and system builders in building applications. 2D Rubik Cube Game: 2D Rubik Cube game that challenges the player to arrange a random sequence of numbers from 1 to 8 (inclusive), using a predefined set of transform operations.Automated SQL Index Generator: Automated SQL Index Generator is a utility application for developers working with SQL Server. It is a stand-alone windows application that can be used to generBootstrap .NET Framework 4 Template: Bootstrap .NET Framework 4 Template is an attempt a standardizing the way my software enigneers begin their projects.Bore Holes Manager: Supports CRUD operations on bore hole data via console. Also, draws a visual representation/map of the bore holes, displaying soil type, color & harness.CarrotCake CMS: CMS built in C# + SQL server to leverage jQuery UI and TinyMCECSharpGo: Learn C# by ExamplesDream Cheeky USB Drivers for Webmail Notifier and Stress Button: DreamCheekyUSB provides a Console App and .NET drivers for the Dream Cheeky Webmail Notifier and the Dream Cheeky Iron Man USB Stress Button.EFMetaProvider: Extends the Entity Framework to obtain sql specific columns metadata for linq queriesEstimation Studio: This is a small desktop application to assist developers in estimating projects.Example App: A sample using patterns and practices for trying out techniques to improve cohesion.FIM MA for Salesforce.com: Project providing an Extensible Connectivity 2.0 (ECMA) Connector (previously Management Agent) for Salesforce.com FRC Scout: FIRST Robotics ScoutingHDWebSite: new project for HDWebSiteIconBuild: IconBuild???Windows??????????????，????????，?????。 ??Metro??。 StandUp????????? ?????????。MyAppWithBranch2: MyAppWithBranch2MyTfsProject: dfasdfRomeo: Yet another Othello playing program...Stefano Tempesta: This project is a repository of .NET libraries released as open source under the Microsoft Public License (Ms-PL).TOOL of COBOL - TOC: Little Tools for COBOLWin Hosts Manager: It's just a simple program that helps people to edit and manage HOSTS file. Read more on Project Page.WPF Mineral Recopilation Simulation: WPF Project that simulate mineral recopilation. It had several wpf useful things.XNA and Level Validation: This project includes code for XNA and Level Validation

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, March 31, 2012

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, March 31, 2012Popular ReleasesAuto-LiMPoT: Auto-LiMPoT - v.1.1 - binary: Changelog: +Now patches updater-script with correct packager name and version number +Added option to choose position of java.exe manually if not found automaticallyExtended WPF Toolkit: Extended WPF Toolkit - 1.6.0: Want an easier way to install the Extended WPF Toolkit?The Extended WPF Toolkit is available on Nuget. What's in the 1.6.0 Release?BusyIndicator ButtonSpinner Calculator CalculatorUpDown CheckListBox - Breaking Changes CheckComboBox - New Control ChildWindow CollectionEditor CollectionEditorDialog ColorCanvas ColorPicker DateTimePicker DateTimeUpDown DecimalUpDown DoubleUpDown DropDownButton IntegerUpDown Magnifier MaskedTextBox MessageBox MultiLineTex...ScriptIDE: Release 4.4: ...Media Companion: MC 3.434b Release: General This release should be the last beta for 3.4xx. If there are no major problems, by the end of the week it will upgraded to 3.500 Stable! The latest mc_com.exe should be included too! TV Bug fix - crash when using XBMC scraper for TV episodes. Bug fix - episode count update when adding new episodes. Bug fix - crash when actors name was missing. Enhanced TV scrape progress text. Enhancements made to missing episodes display. Movies Bug fix - hide "Play Trailer" when multisaev...Better Explorer: Better Explorer 2.0.0.831 Alpha: - A new release with: - many bugfixes - changed icon - added code for more failsafe registry usage on x64 systems - not needed regfix anymore - added ribbon shortcut keys - Other fixes Note: If you have problems opening system libraries, a suggestion was given to copy all of these libraries and then delete the originals. Thanks to Gaugamela for that! (see discussion here: 349015 ) Note2: I was upload again the setup due to missing file!XAML Dialect Comparer Tool: Beta 1: This is a first beta version of this tool (as shown at DevConncetions in Vegas, March 2012). Community participation and suggestions are appreciated.LINQ Extensions Library: 1.0.2.7: Append and Prepend extensions (1.0.2.7) IndexOf extensions (1.0.2.7) New Align/Match extensions (1.0.2.6) Ready to use stable code with comprehensive unit tests and samples New Pivot extensions New Filter ExtensionsMonoGame - Write Once, Play Everywhere: MonoGame 2.5: The MonoGame team are pleased to announce that MonoGame v2.5 has been released. This release contains important bug fixes, implements optimisations and adds key features. MonoGame now has the capability to use OpenGLES 2.0 on Android and iOS devices, meaning it now supports custom shaders across mobile and desktop platforms. Also included in this release are native orientation animations on iOS devices and better Orientation support for Android. There have also been a lot of bug fixes since t...callisto: callisto 2.0.23: Patched Script static class and peak user count bug fix.Circuit Diagram: Circuit Diagram 2.0 Alpha 3: New in this release: Added components: Microcontroller Demultiplexer Flip & rotate components Open XML files from older versions of Circuit Diagram Text formatting for components New CDDX syntax Other fixesUmbraco CMS: Umbraco 5.1 CMS (Beta): Beta build for testing - please report issues at issues.umbraco.org (Latest uploaded: 5.1.0.123) What's new in 5.1? The full list of changes is on our http://progress.umbraco.org task tracking page. It shows items complete for 5.1, and 5.1 includes items for 5.0.1 and 5.0.2 listed there too. Here's two headline acts: Members5.1 adds support for backoffice editing of Members. We support the pairing up of our content type system in Hive with regular ASP.NET Membership providers (we ship a def...51Degrees.mobi - Mobile Device Detection and Redirection: 2.1.2.11: One Click Install from NuGet Changes to Version 2.1.2.11Code Changes 1. The project is now licenced under the Mozilla Public Licence 2. 2. User interface control and associated data access layer classes have been added to aid developers integrating 51Degrees.mobi into wider projects such as content management systems or web hosting management solutions. Use the following in a web form or user control to access these new UI components. <%@ Register Assembly="FiftyOne.Foundation" Namespace="...JSON Toolkit: JSON Toolkit 3.1: slight performance improvement (5% - 10%) new JsonException classPicturethrill: Version 2.3.28.0: Straightforward image selection. New clean UI look. Super stable. Simplified user experience.SQL Monitor - managing sql server performance: SQL Monitor 4.2 alpha 16: 1. finally fixed problem with logic fault checking for temporary table name... I really mean finally ...ScintillaNET: ScintillaNET 2.5: A slew of bug-fixes with a few new features sprinkled in. This release also upgrades the SciLexer and SciLexer64 DLLs to version 3.0.4. The official stuff: Issue # Title 32402 32402 27137 27137 31548 31548 30179 30179 24932 24932 29701 29701 31238 31238 26875 26875 30052 30052 Mugen MVVM Toolkit: Mugen MVVM Toolkit ver 1.1: Added Design mode support.Harness: Harness 2.0.2: change to .NET Framework Client Profile bug fix the download dialog auto answer. bug fix setFocus command. add "SendKeys" command. remove "closeAll" command. minor bugs fixed.BugNET Issue Tracker: BugNET 0.9.161: Below is a list of fixes in this release. Bug BGN-2092 - Link in Email "visit your profile" not functional BGN-2083 - Manager of bugnet can not edit project when it is not public BGN-2080 - clicking on a link in the project summary causes error (0.9.152.0) BGN-2070 - Missing Functionality On Feed.aspx BGN-2069 - Calendar View does not work BGN-2068 - Time tracking totals not ok BGN-2067 - Issues List Page Size Bug: Index was out of range. Must be non-negative and less than the si...YAF.NET (aka Yet Another Forum.NET): v1.9.6.1 RTW: v1.9.6.1 FINAL is .NET v4.0 ONLY v1.9.6.1 has: Performance Improvements .NET v4.0 improvements Improved FaceBook Integration KNOWN ISSUES WITH THIS RELEASE: ON INSTALL PLEASE DON'T CHECK "Upgrade BBCode Extensions...". More complete change list and discussion here: http://forum.yetanotherforum.net/yaf_postst14201_v1-9-6-1-RTW-Dated--3-26-2012.aspxNew ProjectsAlloCiné API: API AlloCiné v3 This is a library to use the API of AlloCiné. It covers the version 3 of the AlloCiné service as described here GroWiki API AlloCiné v3. The data-interchange format used behind the scene is JSON. Auto-LiMPoT: An automated tool to convert an N1 MIUI Rom to an AcerLiquid-compatible Rom.Azure Management API (via F#): This lib is a wrapper for Azure Management REST API. Can be used by .Net languages but adapted for F# (used asyncs and other). Supported operations: AffinityGroups (all), HostedServices (all), StorageServices (all), Azure Sql (all = manage server + firewall rules), AsyncOperationCraigsPack: This is a Light weight and Expandable library that helps search through craigslist ads but not bound to only one website. It includes interfaces and base classes to help create custom web providers for other specific websites. Written in c#Cygnus v3: Cygnus internal.DataHelperCS: Porject about DataHelper for rapid development and Simplist Architectur Model.Datewise Picture Arranger: Arranges/Renames pictures based on the date taken. d? án web: Ð? án môn phát tri?n ?ng d?ng webDrawbot: IRC Bot for /r/sketchdaily on reddit.FONIS prezenter: FONIS prezenter je aplikacija koja omogucava korisniku da odredenom kombinacijom sa tastature pozove odgovarajucu PowerPoint prezentaciju. Program je razvijen u C#. Za instaliranje i pokretanje ovog programa, potrebno je instalirati .NET Framework 4. Grammars: Grammars makes it easy to design regular, context-free and context-dependent grammars and apply various tools for parsing and language analysis. It is developed in C# and provides a BNF-like syntax with operator overloading and semantic rules as delegates, allowing you to design and code your grammar right in the middle of your C# code. It fleets with a fully-functional LR parser generator.iConference: Conference Management System.IQCare: IQCare is a Open Source, data capture and reporting system with patient management tools designed to measure patient outcomes. Having the ability to analyze data and then use the resulting analysis to provide improved care is the end goal of IQCare. IQCare has all of the key features needed to collect clean data and to do patient and facility analysis and reporting.Memory Management: General purpose memory management in C++ with policy-based architecture.Metro Style App Study Project: Metro Style App demos from QQ Group 95331609OpenNETCF CAB Installer SDK: The OpenNETCF CAB Installer SDK provides programmatic access to the extraction of CAB files under Windows CE, Windows Mobile, Windows Embedded Compact and Windows Embedded HandheldOrchard Private Content: Allows content items to be displayed by only users with roles that have permission.Pete Brown NETMF and Gadgeteer Code: Module drivers and other code for my .NET Micro Framework projects.QuanLyBanHang-Nhom100: Qu?n lý bán hàng - nhóm 100 Bùi vi?t sang Nguy?n van longRegeXml: This is about a Framework that allow you to transform a bunch of dirty data into a one and well formated XML.SSIS Row Number Component: This Rownumber component allows you to add a rownumber in the case your destination doesn't support auto-increment.Sunburn XNA advanced help custom samples: This project will include samples I do using sunburns engine. If you use it correctly it is a very powerful engine i found out. I will post samples for things that people have been trying to do in xna 4 and above with sunburn for awhile. THE webpage: gffgfgdhhgghdj91Transbin for anyone: Transbin makes it easier to contorl your computer anywhere.Wazzup module for DotNetNuke: Wazzup is a simple module for the DotNetNuke CMS to display the newest content added to your site. It leverage's DNN's search indexer and displays a simple link with publishing date and text summary. Developed in VB. Fits well into narrow vertical content areasWLCompus: WLCompusXNA Game Studio 3.0 Unleashed Book Source Code: C# Source Code and Assets from the XNA Game Studio 3.0 Unleashed book. The code is released under the Ms-PL license.

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• The Return Of __FILE__ And __LINE__ In .NET 4.5

  - by Alois Kraus

  Good things are hard to kill. One of the most useful predefined compiler macros in C/C++ were __FILE__ and __LINE__ which do expand to the compilation units file name and line number where this value is encountered by the compiler. After 4.5 versions of .NET we are on par with C/C++ again. It is of course not a simple compiler expandable macro it is an attribute but it does serve exactly the same purpose. Now we do get CallerLineNumberAttribute  == __LINE__ CallerFilePathAttribute        == __FILE__ CallerMemberNameAttribute  == __FUNCTION__ (MSVC Extension)   The most important one is CallerMemberNameAttribute which is very useful to implement the INotifyPropertyChanged interface without the need to hard code the name of the property anymore. Now you can simply decorate your change method with the new CallerMemberName attribute and you get the property name as string directly inserted by the C# compiler at compile time.   public string UserName { get { return _userName; } set { _userName=value; RaisePropertyChanged(); // no more RaisePropertyChanged(“UserName”)! } } protected void RaisePropertyChanged([CallerMemberName] string member = "") { var copy = PropertyChanged; if(copy != null) { copy(new PropertyChangedEventArgs(this, member)); } } Nice and handy. This was obviously the prime reason to implement this feature in the C# 5.0 compiler. You can repurpose this feature for tracing to get your hands on the method name of your caller along other stuff very fast now. All infos are added during compile time which is much faster than other approaches like walking the stack. The example on MSDN shows the usage of this attribute with an example public static void TraceMessage(string message, [CallerMemberName] string memberName = "", [CallerFilePath] string sourceFilePath = "", [CallerLineNumber] int sourceLineNumber = 0) { Console.WriteLine("Hi {0} {1} {2}({3})", message, memberName, sourceFilePath, sourceLineNumber); }   When I do think of tracing I do usually want to have a API which allows me to Trace method enter and leave Trace messages with a severity like Info, Warning, Error When I do print a trace message it is very useful to print out method and type name as well. So your API must either be able to pass the method and type name as strings or extract it automatically via walking back one Stackframe and fetch the infos from there. The first glaring deficiency is that there is no CallerTypeAttribute yet because the C# compiler team was not satisfied with its performance.   A usable Trace Api might therefore look like   enum TraceTypes { None = 0, EnterLeave = 1 << 0, Info = 1 << 1, Warn = 1 << 2, Error = 1 << 3 } class Tracer : IDisposable { string Type; string Method; public Tracer(string type, string method) { Type = type; Method = method; if (IsEnabled(TraceTypes.EnterLeave,Type, Method)) { } } private bool IsEnabled(TraceTypes traceTypes, string Type, string Method) { // Do checking here if tracing is enabled return false; } public void Info(string fmt, params object[] args) { } public void Warn(string fmt, params object[] args) { } public void Error(string fmt, params object[] args) { } public static void Info(string type, string method, string fmt, params object[] args) { } public static void Warn(string type, string method, string fmt, params object[] args) { } public static void Error(string type, string method, string fmt, params object[] args) { } public void Dispose() { // trace method leave } } This minimal trace API is very fast but hard to maintain since you need to pass in the type and method name as hard coded strings which can change from time to time. But now we have at least CallerMemberName to rid of the explicit method parameter right? Not really. Since any acceptable usable trace Api should have a method signature like Tracexxx(… string fmt, params [] object args) we not able to add additional optional parameters after the args array. If we would put it before the format string we would need to make it optional as well which would mean the compiler would need to figure out what our trace message and arguments are (not likely) or we would need to specify everything explicitly just like before . There are ways around this by providing a myriad of overloads which in the end are routed to the very same method but that is ugly. I am not sure if nobody inside MS agrees that the above API is reasonable to have or (more likely) that the whole talk about you can use this feature for diagnostic purposes was not a core feature at all but a simple byproduct of making the life of INotifyPropertyChanged implementers easier. A way around this would be to allow for variable argument arrays after the params keyword another set of optional arguments which are always filled by the compiler but I do not know if this is an easy one. The thing I am missing much more is the not provided CallerType attribute. But not in the way you would think of. In the API above I did add some filtering based on method and type to stay as fast as possible for types where tracing is not enabled at all. It should be no more expensive than an additional method call and a bool variable check if tracing for this type is enabled at all. The data is tightly bound to the calling type and method and should therefore become part of the static type instance. Since extending the CLR type system for tracing is not something I do expect to happen I have come up with an alternative approach which allows me basically to attach run time data to any existing type object in super fast way. The key to success is the usage of generics.   class Tracer<T> : IDisposable { string Method; public Tracer(string method) { if (TraceData<T>.Instance.Enabled.HasFlag(TraceTypes.EnterLeave)) { } } public void Dispose() { if (TraceData<T>.Instance.Enabled.HasFlag(TraceTypes.EnterLeave)) { } } public static void Info(string fmt, params object[] args) { } /// <summary> /// Every type gets its own instance with a fresh set of variables to describe the /// current filter status. /// </summary> /// <typeparam name="T"></typeparam> internal class TraceData<UsingType> { internal static TraceData<UsingType> Instance = new TraceData<UsingType>(); public bool IsInitialized = false; // flag if we need to reinit the trace data in case of reconfigured trace settings at runtime public TraceTypes Enabled = TraceTypes.None; // Enabled trace levels for this type } } We do not need to pass the type as string or Type object to the trace Api. Instead we define a generic Api that accepts the using type as generic parameter. Then we can create a TraceData static instance which is due to the nature of generics a fresh instance for every new type parameter. My tests on my home machine have shown that this approach is as fast as a simple bool flag check. If you have an application with many types using tracing you do not want to bring the app down by simply enabling tracing for one special rarely used type. The trace filter performance for the types which are not enabled must be therefore the fasted code path. This approach has the nice side effect that if you store the TraceData instances in one global list you can reconfigure tracing at runtime safely by simply setting the IsInitialized flag to false. A similar effect can be achieved with a global static Dictionary<Type,TraceData> object but big hash tables have random memory access semantics which is bad for cache locality and you always need to pay for the lookup which involves hash code generation, equality check and an indexed array access. The generic version is wicked fast and allows you to add more features to your tracing Api with minimal perf overhead. But it is cumbersome to write the generic type argument always explicitly and worse if you do refactor code and move parts of it to other classes it might be that you cannot configure tracing correctly. I would like therefore to decorate my type with an attribute [CallerType] class Tracer<T> : IDisposable to tell the compiler to fill in the generic type argument automatically. class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { using (var t = new Tracer()) // equivalent to new Tracer<Program>() { That would be really useful and super fast since you do not need to pass any type object around but you do have full type infos at hand. This change would be breaking if another non generic type exists in the same namespace where now the generic counterpart would be preferred. But this is an acceptable risk in my opinion since you can today already get conflicts if two generic types of the same name are defined in different namespaces. This would be only a variation of this issue. When you do think about this further you can add more features like to trace the exception in your Dispose method if the method is left with an exception with that little trick I did write some time ago. You can think of tracing as a super fast and configurable switch to write data to an output destination or to execute alternative actions. With such an infrastructure you can e.g. Reconfigure tracing at run time. Take a memory dump when a specific method is left with a specific exception. Throw an exception when a specific trace statement is hit (useful for testing error conditions). Execute a passed delegate which e.g. dumps additional state when enabled. Write data to an in memory ring buffer and dump it when specific events do occur (e.g. method is left with an exception, triggered from outside). Write data to an output device. …. This stuff is really useful to have when your code is in production on a mission critical server and you need to find the root cause of sporadic crashes of your application. It could be a buggy graphics card driver which throws access violations into your application (ok with .NET 4 not anymore except if you enable a compatibility flag) where you would like to have a minidump or you have reached after two weeks of operation a state where you need a full memory dump at a specific point in time in the middle of an transaction. At my older machine I do get with this super fast approach 50 million traces/s when tracing is disabled. When I do know that tracing is enabled for this type I can walk the stack by using StackFrameHelper.GetStackFramesInternal to check further if a specific action or output device is configured for this method which is about 2-3 times faster than the regular StackTrace class. Even with one String.Format I am down to 3 million traces/s so performance is not so important anymore since I do want to do something now. The CallerMemberName feature of the C# 5 compiler is nice but I would have preferred to get direct access to the MethodHandle and not to the stringified version of it. But I really would like to see a CallerType attribute implemented to fill in the generic type argument of the call site to augment the static CLR type data with run time data.

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• How do I get a rt2800usb wireless device working?

  - by Jii

  My brand new desktop running 13.04 has endless problems with wireless. Dozens of others are flooding forums with reports of the same problems. It worked fine for a few days, then there were a few days where it started having problems sometimes and working sometimes. Now it never works at all. I have 5+ devices all able to connect without any trouble at all, including iPhone, Android phone, 3DS, multiple game consoles, a laptop running windows 7, and even a second desktop machine running Ubuntu 12.04 sitting right behind the 13.04 machine. All other devices have full wireless bars displayed (strong signals). At any moment, one of the following is happening, and it changes randomly: Trying to connect forever, but never establishing a connection. Wireless icon constantly animating. Finds no wireless networks at all. (There are 12+ in range according to other devices.) Will not try to connect to the network. If I use the icon to connect, it will display "Disconnected" within a few seconds. Will continuously ask for the network password. Typing it in correctly does not help. Wireless is working fine. This happens sometimes. It can work for days at a time, or only 10 mins at a time. Various things that usually do nothing but sometimes fix the problem: Reboot. This has the best chance of helping, but it usually takes 5+ times. Disable/re-enable Wi-Fi using the wireless icon. Disable/re-enable Networking using the wireless icon. Use the icon to try and connect to a network (if found). Use the icon to open Edit Connections and delete my connection info, causing it to be recreated (once it's actually found again). Various things that seem to make no difference: Changing between using Linux headers in grub at bootup, between 3.10.0, 3.9.0, or 3.8.0. Move the wireless router very close to the desktop. Running sudo rfkill unblock all (I dunno what this is supposed to do.) I've used Ubuntu for 6 years and I've never had a problem with networking. Now I'm spending all my time reading through endless problem reports and trying all the answers. None of them have helped. I am doing this instead of getting work done, which is defeating the whole purpose of using Ubuntu. It's heartbreaking to be honest. In the current state of "no networks are showing up", here are outputs from the random things that other people are usually asked to run: lspic 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Haswell DRAM Controller (rev 06) 00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Haswell PCI Express x16 Controller (rev 06) 00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Lynx Point USB xHCI Host Controller (rev 04) 00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Lynx Point MEI Controller #1 (rev 04) 00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection I217-V (rev 04) 00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Lynx Point USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 04) 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Lynx Point High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04) 00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Lynx Point PCI Express Root Port #1 (rev d4) 00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev d4) 00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Lynx Point USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 04) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Lynx Point LPC Controller (rev 04) 00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Lynx Point 6-port SATA Controller 1 [AHCI mode] (rev 04) 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation Lynx Point SMBus Controller (rev 04) 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GF119 [GeForce GT 610] (rev a1) 01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation GF119 HDMI Audio Controller (rev a1) 03:00.0 PCI bridge: ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM1083/1085 PCIe to PCI Bridge (rev 03) lsmod Module Size Used by e100 41119 0 nls_iso8859_1 12713 1 parport_pc 28284 0 ppdev 17106 0 bnep 18258 2 rfcomm 47863 12 binfmt_misc 17540 1 arc4 12573 2 rt2800usb 27201 0 rt2x00usb 20857 1 rt2800usb rt2800lib 68029 1 rt2800usb rt2x00lib 55764 3 rt2x00usb,rt2800lib,rt2800usb coretemp 13596 0 mac80211 656164 3 rt2x00lib,rt2x00usb,rt2800lib kvm_intel 138733 0 kvm 452835 1 kvm_intel cfg80211 547224 2 mac80211,rt2x00lib crc_ccitt 12707 1 rt2800lib ghash_clmulni_intel 13259 0 aesni_intel 55449 0 usb_storage 61749 1 aes_x86_64 17131 1 aesni_intel joydev 17613 0 xts 12922 1 aesni_intel nouveau 1001310 3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi 37407 1 lrw 13294 1 aesni_intel gf128mul 14951 2 lrw,xts mxm_wmi 13021 1 nouveau snd_hda_codec_realtek 46511 1 ablk_helper 13597 1 aesni_intel wmi 19256 2 mxm_wmi,nouveau snd_hda_intel 44397 5 ttm 88251 1 nouveau drm_kms_helper 49082 1 nouveau drm 295908 5 ttm,drm_kms_helper,nouveau snd_hda_codec 190010 3 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel cryptd 20501 3 ghash_clmulni_intel,aesni_intel,ablk_helper snd_hwdep 13613 1 snd_hda_codec snd_pcm 102477 3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel btusb 18291 0 snd_page_alloc 18798 2 snd_pcm,snd_hda_intel snd_seq_midi 13324 0 i2c_algo_bit 13564 1 nouveau snd_seq_midi_event 14899 1 snd_seq_midi snd_rawmidi 30417 1 snd_seq_midi snd_seq 61930 2 snd_seq_midi_event,snd_seq_midi bluetooth 251354 22 bnep,btusb,rfcomm snd_seq_device 14497 3 snd_seq,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_midi lpc_ich 17060 0 snd_timer 29989 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq mei 46588 0 snd 69533 20 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_pcm,snd_seq,snd_rawmidi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_seq_device psmouse 97838 0 microcode 22923 0 soundcore 12680 1 snd video 19467 1 nouveau mac_hid 13253 0 serio_raw 13215 0 lp 17799 0 parport 46562 3 lp,ppdev,parport_pc hid_generic 12548 0 usbhid 47346 0 hid 101248 2 hid_generic,usbhid ahci 30063 3 libahci 32088 1 ahci e1000e 207005 0 ptp 18668 1 e1000e pps_core 14080 1 ptp sudo lshw -c network 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Haswell DRAM Controller (rev 06) 00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Haswell PCI Express x16 Controller (rev 06) 00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Lynx Point USB xHCI Host Controller (rev 04) 00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Lynx Point MEI Controller #1 (rev 04) 00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection I217-V (rev 04) 00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Lynx Point USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 04) 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Lynx Point High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04) 00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Lynx Point PCI Express Root Port #1 (rev d4) 00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev d4) 00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Lynx Point USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 04) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Lynx Point LPC Controller (rev 04) 00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Lynx Point 6-port SATA Controller 1 [AHCI mode] (rev 04) 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation Lynx Point SMBus Controller (rev 04) 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GF119 [GeForce GT 610] (rev a1) 01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation GF119 HDMI Audio Controller (rev a1) 03:00.0 PCI bridge: ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM1083/1085 PCIe to PCI Bridge (rev 03) sudo iwconfig eth0 no wireless extensions. lo no wireless extensions. wlan0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:off/any Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=20 dBm Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Encryption key:off Power Management:on sudo iwlist scan eth0 Interface doesn't support scanning. lo Interface doesn't support scanning. wlan0 No scan results NOTE: This dmesg was done after a reboot where the network manager was continuously displaying the "disconnected" message over and over. So it must have been trying to connect at this time. My network was displayed in the list of options, as the only option despite other devices picking up 12+ access points. The router channel is set to auto. dmesg | tail -30 [ 187.418446] wlan0: associated [ 190.405601] wlan0: disassociated from 00:14:d1:a8:c3:44 (Reason: 15) [ 190.443312] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain [ 190.443431] wlan0: deauthenticating from 00:14:d1:a8:c3:44 by local choice (reason=3) [ 190.451635] cfg80211: World regulatory domain updated: [ 190.451643] cfg80211: (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp) [ 190.451648] cfg80211: (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm) [ 190.451652] cfg80211: (2457000 KHz - 2482000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm) [ 190.451656] cfg80211: (2474000 KHz - 2494000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm) [ 190.451659] cfg80211: (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm) [ 190.451662] cfg80211: (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm) [ 191.824451] wlan0: authenticate with 00:14:d1:a8:c3:44 [ 191.850608] wlan0: send auth to 00:14:d1:a8:c3:44 (try 1/3) [ 191.884604] wlan0: send auth to 00:14:d1:a8:c3:44 (try 2/3) [ 191.886309] wlan0: authenticated [ 191.886579] rt2800usb 3-5.3:1.0 wlan0: disabling HT as WMM/QoS is not supported by the AP [ 191.886588] rt2800usb 3-5.3:1.0 wlan0: disabling VHT as WMM/QoS is not supported by the AP [ 191.889556] wlan0: associate with 00:14:d1:a8:c3:44 (try 1/3) [ 192.001493] wlan0: associate with 00:14:d1:a8:c3:44 (try 2/3) [ 192.040274] wlan0: RX AssocResp from 00:14:d1:a8:c3:44 (capab=0x431 status=0 aid=3) [ 192.044235] wlan0: associated [ 193.948188] wlan0: deauthenticating from 00:14:d1:a8:c3:44 by local choice (reason=3) [ 193.981501] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain [ 193.984080] cfg80211: World regulatory domain updated: [ 193.984082] cfg80211: (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp) [ 193.984084] cfg80211: (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm) [ 193.984085] cfg80211: (2457000 KHz - 2482000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm) [ 193.984085] cfg80211: (2474000 KHz - 2494000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm) [ 193.984086] cfg80211: (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm) [ 193.984087] cfg80211: (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm) The router uses MAC filtering, and security is WPA PSK with cipher as auto. So, any ideas? Or is the solution just to not use 13.04 unless you have a wired connection? (I don't have this option.) If so, please just tell me straight. I survived 9.04 Jaunty, and I can survive 13.04 Raring. Update #1 Results from trying Wild Man's first answer: jii@conan:~$ echo "options rt2800usb nohwcrypt=y" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/rt2800usb.conf options rt2800usb nohwcrypt=y jii@conan:~$ sudo modprobe -rfv rt2800usb rmmod rt2800usb rmmod rt2800lib rmmod crc_ccitt rmmod rt2x00usb rmmod rt2x00lib rmmod mac80211 rmmod cfg80211 jii@conan:~$ sudo modprobe -v rt2800usb insmod /lib/modules/3.10.0-031000-generic/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko insmod /lib/modules/3.10.0-031000-generic/kernel/net/wireless/cfg80211.ko insmod /lib/modules/3.10.0-031000-generic/kernel/net/mac80211/mac80211.ko insmod /lib/modules/3.10.0-031000-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2x00lib.ko insmod /lib/modules/3.10.0-031000-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2800lib.ko insmod /lib/modules/3.10.0-031000-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2x00usb.ko insmod /lib/modules/3.10.0-031000-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2800usb.ko nohwcrypt=y I tried: gksudo gedit /etc/pm/power.d/wireless but I didn't have the package. It said to install gksu. I tried that, but of course, not having Internet, I didn't get the package. So instead I did: sudo gedit /etc/pm/power.d/wireless Which created the file. Here is the body: #!/bin/sh /sbin/iwconfig wlan0 power off I then rebooted. No change. I tried adding exit 0 to the bottom of the wireless file, and rebooted. No change. Please note that this is a desktop machine. I'm assuming power management is primarily for laptops, but the iwconfig does state that power management is on, so who knows. The recommended router changes I did not do, since the current router settings are (I think) required for some of the older devices I have, and because the current settings work on all my modern devices including Ubuntu 12.04 and Windows 7. I do appreciate the advice though, and I'll look into it when I have time. Anything else to try? Update #2 I booted into Ubuntu 12.04.3 from a dvd, and the same problems exist. I have a separate old desktop machine with 12.04 installed that has no wireless problems at all. So obviously the problem is wireless hardware compatibility in both 12.04.03 LTS and 13.04. Update #3 The same problems exist even when using a wired connection. I plugged an ethernet cable directly to the router and the network manager added an "Auto Ethernet" entry, but it cannot establish a connection to it. So the problem is not specific to wireless. Meanwhile, I purchased a Trendnet N300 wireless USB adapter, TEW-664UB. I plugged it in, but I have no idea how to get Ubuntu to try and use it. Can anyone tell me how? Can I download a package on another computer and copy the .deb over to do an install, etc? I'm installing windows 7 to double check that the internet connection works there and it's not just some magically faulty hardware. Thanks for your help.

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• Organising levels / rooms in a MUD-style text based world

  - by Polynomial

  I'm thinking of writing a small text-based adventure game, but I'm not particularly sure how I should design the world from a technical standpoint. My first thought is to do it in XML, designed something like the following. Apologies for the huge pile of XML, but I felt it important to fully explain what I'm doing. <level> <start> <!-- start in kitchen with empty inventory --> <room>Kitchen</room> <inventory></inventory> </start> <rooms> <room> <name>Kitchen</name> <description>A small kitchen that looks like it hasn't been used in a while. It has a table in the middle, and there are some cupboards. There is a door to the north, which leads to the garden.</description> <!-- IDs of the objects the room contains --> <objects> <object>Cupboards</object> <object>Knife</object> <object>Batteries</object> </objects> </room> <room> <name>Garden</name> <description>The garden is wild and full of prickly bushes. To the north there is a path, which leads into the trees. To the south there is a house.</description> <objects> </objects> </room> <room> <name>Woods</name> <description>The woods are quite dark, with little light bleeding in from the garden. It is eerily quiet.</description> <objects> <object>Trees01</object> </objects> </room> </rooms> <doors> <!-- a door isn't necessarily a door. each door has a type, i.e. "There is a <type> leading to..." from and to are references the rooms that this door joins. direction specifies the direction (N,S,E,W,Up,Down) from <from> to <to> --> <door> <type>door</type> <direction>N</direction> <from>Kitchen</from> <to>Garden</to> </door> <door> <type>path</type> <direction>N</direction> <from>Garden</type> <to>Woods</type> </door> </doors> <variables> <!-- variables set by actions --> <variable name="cupboard_open">0</variable> </variables> <objects> <!-- definitions for objects --> <object> <name>Trees01</name> <displayName>Trees</displayName> <actions> <!-- any actions not defined will show the default failure message --> <action> <command>EXAMINE</command> <message>The trees are tall and thick. There aren't any low branches, so it'd be difficult to climb them.</message> </action> </actions> </object> <object> <name>Cupboards</name> <displayName>Cupboards</displayName> <actions> <action> <!-- requirements make the command only work when they are met --> <requirements> <!-- equivilent of "if(cupboard_open == 1)" --> <require operation="equal" value="1">cupboard_open</require> </requirements> <command>EXAMINE</command> <!-- fail message is the message displayed when the requirements aren't met --> <failMessage>The cupboard is closed.</failMessage> <message>The cupboard contains some batteires.</message> </action> <action> <requirements> <require operation="equal" value="0">cupboard_open</require> </requirements> <command>OPEN</command> <failMessage>The cupboard is already open.</failMessage> <message>You open the cupboard. It contains some batteries.</message> <!-- assigns is a list of operations performed on variables when the action succeeds --> <assigns> <assign operation="set" value="1">cupboard_open</assign> </assigns> </action> <action> <requirements> <require operation="equal" value="1">cupboard_open</require> </requirements> <command>CLOSE</command> <failMessage>The cupboard is already closed.</failMessage> <message>You closed the cupboard./message> <assigns> <assign operation="set" value="0">cupboard_open</assign> </assigns> </action> </actions> </object> <object> <name>Batteries</name> <displayName>Batteries</displayName> <!-- by setting inventory to non-zero, we can put it in our bag --> <inventory>1</inventory> <actions> <action> <requirements> <require operation="equal" value="1">cupboard_open</require> </requirements> <command>GET</command> <!-- failMessage isn't required here, it'll just show the usual "You can't see any <blank>." message --> <message>You picked up the batteries.</message> </action> </actions> </object> </objects> </level> Obviously there'd need to be more to it than this. Interaction with people and enemies as well as death and completion are necessary additions. Since the XML is quite difficult to work with, I'd probably create some sort of world editor. I'd like to know if this method has any downfalls, and if there's a "better" or more standard way of doing it.

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