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  • 100% Min Height CSS layout

    - by Chris Porter
    What's the best way to make an element of 100% minimum height across a wide range of browsers ? In particular if you have a layout with a header and footer of fixed height how do you make the middle content part fill 100% of the space in between with the footer fixed to the bottom ?

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  • Html width 100%

    - by vtortola
    Hi, This is driving me nuts. What happens with "width:100%" ? Apparently it just works in IExplore, so I think it's one of those things Microsoft made up. But then... how do you tell to a element that has to take all available parent's space in a way that all browsers can understand? Cheers?

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  • Decoding with html_entity_decode, and then having problem with &nbsp;

    - by AleGore
    After decoding the special character &nbsp; with the html_entity_decode function, I get spaces in replace of &nbsp; entities. My problem is when I check if if ($decoded_str[5] == ' ') it isn't true, though in $decoded_str[5] there is a space that was &nbsp; before decoding. How to settle the matter? I need to be able to check it like this way: if ($decoded_str[5] == ' ')

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  • Do spaces in your URL (%20) have a negative impact on SEO?

    - by Kevin
    All the articles I Googled on this subject are dated back in 2004-2005. Basically I am structuring precanned searches, and it is based off of categories the client will input. Example content/(term name)/index.htm Does it matter if I used the raw term with a space, which is converted to %20 in the URL, or should I convert the link to '-' and remove that before querying for results? I already have it working, but does anyone know if this definitely has a negative impact on SEO and ranking?

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  • Need help merging 2 AHK scripts

    - by Mikey
    i have two functioning scripts that i want to merge into a single AHK File. My problem is that when i combine both scripts, the second script doesnt function or causes an error on script 1. Either way, script 2 ist not functioning at all. Here are some facts: Script 1 = a simple menu script where i want to assign hotkeys to. Script 2 = A small launcher script from a user named Tertius in autohotkey forum. Can someone please look at both codes and help me merge this? The INI File for script 2 looks like this: Keywords.ini npff|Firefox|Firefox gm|Gmail|http://gmail.google.com ;;;;;;;;;;;; BEGIN SCRIPT 2 DetectHiddenWindows, On SetWinDelay, -1 SetKeyDelay, -1 SetBatchLines, -1 GoSub Remin SetTimer, Remin, % 1000 * 60 Loop, read, %A_ScriptDir%\keywords.ini { LineNumber = %A_Index% Loop, parse, A_LoopReadLine, | { if (A_Index == 1) abbrevs%LineNumber% := A_LoopField else if (A_Index == 2) tips%LineNumber% := A_LoopField else if (A_Index == 3) programs%LineNumber% := A_LoopField else if (A_Index == 4) params%LineNumber% := A_LoopField } tosay := abbrevs%LineNumber% } cnt = %LineNumber% Loop { Input, Key, L1 V, % "{LControl}{RControl}{LAlt}{RAlt}{LShift}{RShift}{LWin}{RWin}" . "{AppsKey}{F1}{F2}{F3}{F4}{F5}{F6}{F7}{F8}{F9}{F10}{F11}{F12}{Left}{Right}{Up}{Down}" . "{Home}{End}{PgUp}{PgDn}{Del}{Ins}{BS}{Capslock}{Numlock}{PrintScreen}{Pause}{Escape}" If( ( Asc(Key) = 65 && Asc(Key) <= 90 ) || ( Asc(Key) = 97 && Asc(Key) <= 122 ) ) Word .= Key Else { Word := "" Continue } tipup := false Loop %cnt% { if (Word == abbrevs%A_index%) { tip := tips%A_index% ToolTip %tip% tipup := true } else { if (tipup == false) ToolTip } } } $Tab:: Loop %cnt% { if (Word != "" && Word == abbrevs%A_index%) { Word := "" StringLen, len, abbrevs%A_index% Loop %len% Send {Shift Down}{Left} Send {Shift Up}{BS} ToolTip program := programs%A_index% param := params%A_index% run, %program% %param% return } } Word := "" Send {Tab} Return ~LButton:: ~MButton:: ~RButton:: ~XButton1:: ~XButton2:: Word := "" Tooltip Return Remin: WinMinimize, %A_ScriptFullPath% - AutoHotkey v WinHide, %A_ScriptFullPath% - AutoHotkey v Return ;;;;;;;;;; END SCRIPT 2 ;;;;;;;;;;;;;; BEGIN SCRIPT 1 ;This is a working script that creates a popup menu. ; Create the popup menu by adding some items to it. Menu, MyMenu, Add, FIS 201, MenuHandler Menu, MyMenu, Add ; Add a separator line. Menu, MyMenu, Color, Lime, Single ;Define the Menu Color ; Create another menu destined to become a submenu of the above menu. Menu, Submenu1, Add, Item2, MenuHandler Menu, Submenu1, Add, Item3, MenuHandler Menu, Submenu1, Color, Yellow ;Define the Menu Color ; Create another menu destined to become a submenu of the above menu. Menu, Submenu2, Add, Item1a, MenuHandler Menu, Submenu2, Add, Item2a, MenuHandler Menu, Submenu2, Add, Item3a, MenuHandler Menu, Submenu2, Add, Item4a, MenuHandler Menu, Submenu2, Add, Item5a, MenuHandler Menu, Submenu2, Add, Item6a, MenuHandler Menu, Submenu2, Color, Aqua ;Define the Menu Color ; Create a submenu in the first menu (a right-arrow indicator). When the user selects it, the second menu is displayed. Menu, MyMenu, Add, BKRS 119, :Submenu1 Menu, MyMenu, Add ; Add a separator line below the submenu. Menu, MyMenu, Add, BKRS 201, :Submenu2 Menu, MyMenu, Add ; Add a separator line below the submenu. Menu, MyMenu, Add ; Add a separator line below the submenu. Menu, MyMenu, Add, Google Search, Google ; Add another menu item beneath the submenu. return ; End of script's auto-execute section. Capslock & LButton::Menu, MyMenu, Show ; i.e. press the Win-Z hotkey to show the menu. MenuHandler: MsgBox You selected %A_ThisMenuItem% from the menu %A_ThisMenu%. return ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;;;;;;;; Google Search ;;; FORMAT InputBox, OutputVar [, Title, Prompt, HIDE, Width, Height, X, Y, Font, Timeout, Default] Google: InputBox, SearchTerm, Google Search,,,350, 120 if SearchTerm < "" Run http://www.google.de/search?sclient=psy-ab&hl=de&site=&source=hp&q=%SearchTerm%&btnG=Suche return ; Make Window Transparent Space::WinSet, Transparent, 125, A ^!Space UP::WinSet, Transparent, OFF, A return ;;;;;;;;;;; END SCRIPT 1 Help is appreciated. Kind Regards, Mikey

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  • Custom SNMP Cacti Data Source fails to update

    - by Andrew Wilkinson
    I'm trying to create a custom SNMP datasource for Cacti but despite everything I can check being correct, it is not creating the rrd file, or updating it even when I create it. Other, standard SNMP sources are working correctly so it's not SNMP or permissions that are the problem. I've created a new Data Query, which when I click on "Verbose Query" on the device screen returns the following: + Running data query [10]. + Found type = '3' [SNMP Query]. + Found data query XML file at '/volume1/web/cacti/resource/snmp_queries/syno_volume_stats.xml' + XML file parsed ok. + missing in XML file, 'Index Count Changed' emulated by counting oid_index entries + Executing SNMP walk for list of indexes @ '.1.3.6.1.2.1.25.2.3.1.3' Index Count: 8 + Index found at OID: '.1.3.6.1.2.1.25.2.3.1.3.1' value: 'Physical memory' + Index found at OID: '.1.3.6.1.2.1.25.2.3.1.3.3' value: 'Virtual memory' + Index found at OID: '.1.3.6.1.2.1.25.2.3.1.3.6' value: 'Memory buffers' + Index found at OID: '.1.3.6.1.2.1.25.2.3.1.3.7' value: 'Cached memory' + Index found at OID: '.1.3.6.1.2.1.25.2.3.1.3.10' value: 'Swap space' + Index found at OID: '.1.3.6.1.2.1.25.2.3.1.3.31' value: '/' + Index found at OID: '.1.3.6.1.2.1.25.2.3.1.3.32' value: '/volume1' + Index found at OID: '.1.3.6.1.2.1.25.2.3.1.3.33' value: '/opt' + index_parse at OID: '.1.3.6.1.2.1.25.2.3.1.3.1' results: '1' + index_parse at OID: '.1.3.6.1.2.1.25.2.3.1.3.3' results: '3' + index_parse at OID: '.1.3.6.1.2.1.25.2.3.1.3.6' results: '6' + index_parse at OID: '.1.3.6.1.2.1.25.2.3.1.3.7' results: '7' + index_parse at OID: '.1.3.6.1.2.1.25.2.3.1.3.10' results: '10' + index_parse at OID: '.1.3.6.1.2.1.25.2.3.1.3.31' results: '31' + index_parse at OID: '.1.3.6.1.2.1.25.2.3.1.3.32' results: '32' + index_parse at OID: '.1.3.6.1.2.1.25.2.3.1.3.33' results: '33' + Located input field 'index' [walk] + Executing SNMP walk for data @ '.1.3.6.1.2.1.25.2.3.1.3' + Found item [index='Physical memory'] index: 1 [from value] + Found item [index='Virtual memory'] index: 3 [from value] + Found item [index='Memory buffers'] index: 6 [from value] + Found item [index='Cached memory'] index: 7 [from value] + Found item [index='Swap space'] index: 10 [from value] + Found item [index='/'] index: 31 [from value] + Found item [index='/volume1'] index: 32 [from value] + Found item [index='/opt'] index: 33 [from value] + Located input field 'volsizeunit' [walk] + Executing SNMP walk for data @ '.1.3.6.1.2.1.25.2.3.1.4' + Found item [volsizeunit='1024 Bytes'] index: 1 [from value] + Found item [volsizeunit='1024 Bytes'] index: 3 [from value] + Found item [volsizeunit='1024 Bytes'] index: 6 [from value] + Found item [volsizeunit='1024 Bytes'] index: 7 [from value] + Found item [volsizeunit='1024 Bytes'] index: 10 [from value] + Found item [volsizeunit='4096 Bytes'] index: 31 [from value] + Found item [volsizeunit='4096 Bytes'] index: 32 [from value] + Found item [volsizeunit='4096 Bytes'] index: 33 [from value] + Located input field 'volsize' [walk] + Executing SNMP walk for data @ '.1.3.6.1.2.1.25.2.3.1.5' + Found item [volsize='1034712'] index: 1 [from value] + Found item [volsize='3131792'] index: 3 [from value] + Found item [volsize='1034712'] index: 6 [from value] + Found item [volsize='775904'] index: 7 [from value] + Found item [volsize='2097080'] index: 10 [from value] + Found item [volsize='612766'] index: 31 [from value] + Found item [volsize='1439812394'] index: 32 [from value] + Found item [volsize='1439812394'] index: 33 [from value] + Located input field 'volused' [walk] + Executing SNMP walk for data @ '.1.3.6.1.2.1.25.2.3.1.6' + Found item [volused='1022520'] index: 1 [from value] + Found item [volused='1024096'] index: 3 [from value] + Found item [volused='32408'] index: 6 [from value] + Found item [volused='775904'] index: 7 [from value] + Found item [volused='1576'] index: 10 [from value] + Found item [volused='148070'] index: 31 [from value] + Found item [volused='682377865'] index: 32 [from value] + Found item [volused='682377865'] index: 33 [from value] AS you can see it appears to be returning the correct data. I've also set up data templates and graph templates to display the data. The create graphs for a device screen shows the correct data, and when selecting one row can clicking create a new data source and graph are created. Unfortunately the data source is never updated. Increasing the poller log level shows that it appears to not even be querying the data source, despite it being used? What should my next steps to debug this issue be?

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  • Where's the Swap File/Partition?

    - by chrisbunney
    I'm investigating the virtual memory configuration of a Debian based Amazon EC2 instance, and as my background isn't in system admin, I'm slightly confused by what I'm seeing. We're using MongoDB, and the monitoring server we have indicates that the Mongo process is using about 20GB of swap space, however I can't figure out where this is located on the server. As far as I can tell from using the various suggested methods from Google, there is either a much smaller amount, or none at all. top indicates that there is 1.8GB of swap memory: top - 15:35:21 up 6 days, 3:23, 1 user, load average: 1.60, 1.43, 1.37 Tasks: 47 total, 2 running, 45 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie Cpu(s): 0.0%us, 1.3%sy, 0.0%ni, 14.7%id, 83.8%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.1%st Mem: 3928924k total, 2855572k used, 1073352k free, 640564k buffers Swap: 0k total, 0k used, 0k free, 1887788k cached swapon -s doesn't seem to think there's any swap space: Filename Type Size Used Priority free -m doesn't think there's any swap either: total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 3836 3663 172 0 626 2701 -/+ buffers/cache: 336 3500 Swap: 0 0 0 And neither does vmstat: procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- ----cpu---- r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa 0 3 0 66224 641372 2874744 0 0 21 5012 21 33 2 2 76 19 But cat /etc/fstab thinks there is a swap partition: /dev/xvda1 / ext3 defaults 1 1 /dev/xvda2 /mnt ext3 defaults 0 0 /dev/xvda3 swap swap defaults 0 0 none /proc proc defaults 0 0 none /sys sysfs defaults 0 0 However df -k gives no indication of the xvda3 partition: Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on /dev/xvda1 16513960 15675324 0 100% / tmpfs 1964460 8 1964452 1% /lib/init/rw udev 1914148 28 1914120 1% /dev tmpfs 1964460 4 1964456 1% /dev/shm So I really don't know what to make of this, because I appear to have a process using about 10 times more virtual memory than what might be available, and I have no idea where this virtual memory is on the system. I'm probably misinterpreting the output of the tools, so I'd be grateful if someone would be able to set me straight: What have I got wrong, what's the right interpretation, and how do you reach that interpretation? EDIT0: We use 10gen's MMS for monitoring the database, the relevant section for memory from the last data point is: "mem": { "virtual": 20749, "bits": 64, "supported": true, "mappedWithJournal": 20376, "mapped": 10188, "resident": 1219 }, This JSON is specific to the database process (I believe) rather than the system as a whole. fdisk -l /dev/xvda outputs... nothing? I tried each of the 3 xvda entries in /etc/fstab as well: root@ip:~# fdisk -l /dev/xvda1 Disk /dev/xvda1: 34.4 GB, 34359738368 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4177 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00000000 Disk /dev/xvda1 doesn't contain a valid partition table root@ip:~# fdisk -l /dev/xvda2 root@ip:~# fdisk -l /dev/xvda3 root@ip:~# Edit1: Output of cat /proc/meminfo for the sake of completeness: MemTotal: 3928924 kB MemFree: 726600 kB Buffers: 648368 kB Cached: 2216556 kB SwapCached: 0 kB Active: 1945100 kB Inactive: 994016 kB Active(anon): 60476 kB Inactive(anon): 12952 kB Active(file): 1884624 kB Inactive(file): 981064 kB Unevictable: 0 kB Mlocked: 0 kB SwapTotal: 0 kB SwapFree: 0 kB Dirty: 387180 kB Writeback: 0 kB AnonPages: 73380 kB Mapped: 1188260 kB Shmem: 48 kB Slab: 149768 kB SReclaimable: 146076 kB SUnreclaim: 3692 kB KernelStack: 1104 kB PageTables: 16096 kB NFS_Unstable: 0 kB Bounce: 0 kB WritebackTmp: 0 kB CommitLimit: 1964460 kB Committed_AS: 305572 kB VmallocTotal: 34359738367 kB VmallocUsed: 16760 kB VmallocChunk: 34359721448 kB HardwareCorrupted: 0 kB HugePages_Total: 0 HugePages_Free: 0 HugePages_Rsvd: 0 HugePages_Surp: 0 Hugepagesize: 2048 kB DirectMap4k: 3932160 kB DirectMap2M: 0 kB

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  • Debian Lenny to Debian Squeeze upgrade problems

    - by Roland Soós
    Hi! Yesterday I made a dist-upgrade on my Debian Lenny server. I thought it will be easy as an usual upgrade, but it's not. I got a lot of problem after the update: # apt-get upgrade Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these. The following packages have unmet dependencies: linux-image-2.6-amd64 : Depends: linux-image-2.6.32-5-amd64 but it is not installed E: Unmet dependencies. Try using -f. Then I tried the suggestion: # apt-get -f install Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Correcting dependencies... Done The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required: libio-compress-base-perl libatk1.0-0 libts-0.0-0 libmime-types-perl libc-client2007b libgtk2.0-common libxfixes3 libgsf-1-common hicolor-icon-theme libfile-remove-perl libxcomposite1 libltdl3-dev libneon27 libmd5-perl libwmf0.2-7 libilmbase6 libatk1.0-data djvulibre-desktop libdirectfb-1.0-0 fam libxinerama1 libcroco3 libopenexr6 libgsf-1-114 libmail-box-perl libdjvulibre21 openssl-blacklist librsvg2-2 libio-compress-zlib-perl libsysfs2 libbeecrypt6 libxdamage1 libobject-realize-later-perl libuser-identity-perl libgtk2.0-bin libxi6 libxcursor1 portmap libxrandr2 libgtk2.0-0 Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them. The following extra packages will be installed: linux-image-2.6.32-5-amd64 Suggested packages: linux-doc-2.6.32 The following NEW packages will be installed: linux-image-2.6.32-5-amd64 0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 121 not upgraded. 98 not fully installed or removed. Need to get 0 B/28.6 MB of archives. After this operation, 103 MB of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y perl: warning: Setting locale failed. perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings: LANGUAGE = (unset), LC_ALL = (unset), LANG = "hu_HU.UTF-8" are supported and installed on your system. perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C"). locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: Nincs ilyen f?jl vagy k?nyvt?r Preconfiguring packages ... (Reading database ... 37915 files and directories currently installed.) Unpacking linux-image-2.6.32-5-amd64 (from .../linux-image-2.6.32-5-amd64_2.6.32-30_amd64.deb) ... locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: Nincs ilyen f?jl vagy k?nyvt?r dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/linux-image-2.6.32-5-amd64_2.6.32-30_amd64.deb (--unpack): failed in write on buffer copy for backend dpkg-deb during `./lib/modules/2.6.32-5-amd64/kernel/sound/pci/hda/snd-hda-codec-realtek.ko': No space left on device configured to not write apport reports dpkg-deb: subprocess paste killed by signal (Broken pipe) locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: Nincs ilyen f?jl vagy k?nyvt?r Running postrm hook script /sbin/update-grub. Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub Searching for default file ... found: /boot/grub/default Testing for an existing GRUB menu.lst file ... found: /boot/grub/menu.lst Searching for splash image ... none found, skipping ... Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-2-amd64 Updating /boot/grub/menu.lst ... done Examining /etc/kernel/postrm.d . run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postrm.d/initramfs-tools 2.6.32-5-amd64 /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-amd64 Errors were encountered while processing: /var/cache/apt/archives/linux-image-2.6.32-5-amd64_2.6.32-30_amd64.deb E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) # dpkg-reconfigure locales perl: warning: Setting locale failed. perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings: LANGUAGE = (unset), LC_ALL = (unset), LANG = "hu_HU.UTF-8" are supported and installed on your system. perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C"). locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: Nincs ilyen f?jl vagy k?nyvt?r /usr/sbin/dpkg-reconfigure: locales is broken or not fully installed Then I stucked. Do you have any idea how could I solve this?

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  • Intel Rapid Storage / Smart Response SSD caching issue

    - by goober
    Background Recently built my own PC. It works! Almost. It's been a while since getting into the guts of these things, so I'm familiar but may be missing something simple. FYI, I don't care about blowing the OS away -- it's brand new and we can go back from scratch as many times as necessary. Goal / Issue I'd like to use the SSD to take advantage of Intel's Smart Response technology (allows the SSD to act as a cache for HDDs) I would like the SSD cache to act as a cache for my HDDs, which I would like to be in a RAID1 array (so I get the speed from the SSD and the redundancy from the RAID1) However, Windows only sees the drive in device manager (not as a drive), so I'm unsure what to do about that. Related: as far as I know, for this to work, the drives all have to be in a single RAID array (i.e. a RAID0 pairing of the SSD and the RAID1 HDD array). However, when attempting this at the BIOS level, I am told there is not enough space for an array. Steps so Far Moved the SSD onto the Intel controller (I'd had it on the Marvel 6.0 controller instead of the Intel controller, so the BIOS was only seeing it in a strange way) Updated the BIOS of the motherboard to the latest version Reinstalled Intel's RST (iRST?) software several times, as some forums reported it working after reinstalling 3 times (which does not inspire confidence). Checked Intel storage: it does see the SSD as a physical, non-RAID device. However, it says no space exists if I try to create an array. Checked the BIOS: it does not show up in the boot order, but is an option that can be selected under boot options. Tried the firmware update for that model. Issue: the firmware CD doesn't detect a drive; maybe the Intel storage controller is making it difficult? moved the ssd to the marvel controller. The firmware update cd appeared to hang while searching for drives. swapped out the SATA cable for the manufacturer's and moved back to the intel storage controller. Noticed at this point that in the Intel RST software, a device DOES show up in addition to the RAID set -- only shown as a "60 GB internal disk". Windows doesn't appear to see it as a drive, but it does still show in device manager. Move SSD to port from 0-3 on MOBO and set SATA mode to IDE (after disconnecting RAID1 config) to allow the firmware update to work. Firmware was already at the latest version. Next Steps ? Components involved ASUS P8Z68-V PRO motherboard (Intel Z68 Chipset) Intel i7 2600k Processor 2 x 1TB 7200 RPM HDDs 64 GB Crucial M4 SSD (M4-CT064M4SSD2) For Reference -- Storage Configuration Intel 3 gbps Intel 3gbps Intel 6gbps Marvel 6gbps +----------+ +----------+ +----------+ +----------+ | | <----+ | | +-+ | | | |----------| | |----------| |-|--------| |----------| | | | | + | | | | | | +----------+ | +--|-------+ +-|--------+ +----------+ | | | + v v | 1 TB HDD 64 GB SSD + +> 1 TB HDD For Reference -- Intel RST (v10.8.0.1003) Screenshot Don't mind the "rebuilding" -- knocked a power cable out at one point; it's doing its job, not an indicator of a bad HDD. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance for any help!

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  • XFS disk becomes unavailable after a while

    - by Guard
    Ubuntu 12.04 (but the same was on 11.10 before upgrading) WD MyBook, 2TB, no RAID (or RAID0, not completely sure, anyway no mirroring, both 1TB disks are in use, mounted as a single device). Formatted to XFS, normally used for big movie files. Connected to Firewire 800. At some point the LED started going up and down as when constantly reading/writing. The device gives access error. When unplugged (cable, then holding the power button for a while, then unplugging the power) and re-connected becomes available. xfs_check with no results. xfs_repair did something, but looks like didn't fix any error. Then after a massive read (checking 1.5GB torrent file for integrity) becomes unavailable again. Any ideas what's wrong? Drives? Cables? Motherboard? OS? UPD: not sure how relevant this is, but here are dmesg output [14380.632816] SGI XFS with ACLs, security attributes, realtime, large block/inode numbers, no debug enabled [14380.633356] SGI XFS Quota Management subsystem [14421.812220] firewire_core: phy config: card 0, new root=ffc1, gap_count=5 [14441.890596] firewire_core: phy config: card 0, new root=ffc1, gap_count=5 [14441.896858] firewire_core: phy config: card 0, new root=ffc1, gap_count=5 [14453.895347] firewire_core: created device fw1: GUID 0090a99500a35518, S400, 9 config ROM retries [14453.904818] scsi6 : SBP-2 IEEE-1394 [14453.905014] scsi7 : SBP-2 IEEE-1394 [14454.139993] firewire_sbp2: fw1.0: logged in to LUN 0000 (0 retries) [14454.158769] scsi 6:0:0:0: Direct-Access WD My Book 1015 PQ: 0 ANSI: 4 [14454.159251] sd 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0 [14454.162391] firewire_sbp2: fw1.1: logged in to LUN 0001 (0 retries) [14454.167453] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] 3907017568 512-byte logical blocks: (2.00 TB/1.81 TiB) [14454.178822] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off [14454.178826] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 10 00 00 00 [14454.186830] scsi 7:0:0:1: Enclosure WD My Book Device 1015 PQ: 0 ANSI: 4 [14454.186995] scsi 7:0:0:1: Attached scsi generic sg4 type 13 [14454.190078] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Cache data unavailable [14454.190087] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through [14454.202176] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Cache data unavailable [14454.202185] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through [14454.239940] sdc: [mac] sdc1 sdc2 sdc3 sdc4 [14454.271262] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Cache data unavailable [14454.271270] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through [14454.271354] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk [14454.272149] ses 7:0:0:1: Attached Enclosure device [14606.090024] XFS (sdc3): Mounting Filesystem [14612.048343] XFS (sdc3): Starting recovery (logdev: internal) [14620.697636] XFS (sdc3): Ending recovery (logdev: internal) [14748.120957] e1000e: eth0 NIC Link is Up 100 Mbps Full Duplex, Flow Control: Rx/Tx [14748.120963] e1000e 0000:00:19.0: eth0: 10/100 speed: disabling TSO [14752.568382] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1a.0: PCI INT A disabled [14752.568579] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1a.1: PCI INT B disabled [14752.568738] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1a.7: PCI INT C disabled [14752.568779] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1a.7: PME# enabled [14752.584526] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.1: PCI INT B disabled [14752.584689] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.2: PCI INT C disabled [14752.680079] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1a.7: BAR 0: set to [mem 0xe4641000-0xe46413ff] (PCI address [0xe4641000-0xe46413ff]) [14752.680104] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1a.7: restoring config space at offset 0xf (was 0x300, writing 0x30b) [14752.680136] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1a.7: restoring config space at offset 0x1 (was 0x2900000, writing 0x2900002) [14752.680170] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1a.7: PME# disabled [14752.680182] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1a.7: PCI INT C -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18 [14752.680190] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1a.7: setting latency timer to 64 [14752.710334] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1a.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16 [14752.710342] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1a.0: setting latency timer to 64 [14752.749186] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1a.1: PCI INT B -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17 [14752.749194] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1a.1: setting latency timer to 64 [14752.790231] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.1: PCI INT B -> GSI 22 (level, low) -> IRQ 22 [14752.790239] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.1: setting latency timer to 64 [14752.829170] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.2: PCI INT C -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18 [14752.829178] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.2: setting latency timer to 64

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  • Exchange Mail Flow

    - by Tuck918
    Hello. I have a question. We have one Exchange 2003 server and two Exchange 2007 servers. Most all of our mailboxes are on 2007 but we do still have one shared mailbox, unity mailbox and a journling mailbox on 2003. Public Folders have been set to replicate to 2007. I have set up a send connector on 2007 with a cost of 1. Receive connectors have Anonymous Users checked on 2007. On 2003 there are two connectors: the Internet Email connector and the connector that connects 2003 to 2007. We have a SPAM filtering device that email goes through before it is handed off to Exchange. The SPAM filtering device is set to send email to one of our Exchange 2007 servers. Here is my question/problem: Even though the SPAM filtering device is set to forward email to Exchange 2007, somehow all of our email is still going through the Exchange 2003 server before it finally hits the users mailboxes on the Exchange 2007 server. How can I change it so that all email goes directly to Exchange 2007 and never routes through Excahnge 2003 both ways, inbound and outbound? Would also like to add: In the EMC under Org- Hub- Send Connector there are two connectors. One is the "Internet Connector" from the 2003 box and the other is the new one I created. THe address space on the 2003 one is set to a cost of 2, no smart hosts and the 2003 box is listed as the Source Server. THe other Send Connector has an address space of 1, no smart host and has the 2 excahnge 2007 servers listed as the source servers. In EMC under Server- Hub- my two exchange 2007 servers are listed. Each one has 2 receive connectors. Both Recieve Connectors are setup the same way. THe Default Receive Connector has Anonymous Users checked. The other Recieve Connector is labled "Client" and I am not sure what it does or why its there. Anonymous Users are not checked. No smart hosts configured on 2003. Additional details Currently we have 3 excahnge servers. One exchange 2003 server and two excahnge 2007 servers. THe exchange 2003 server is the acting "bridgehead" serverand all email is routing through this server, inbound and outbound. We are wanting to decommission this server and use our two exchange 2007 servers as our mailbox servers. All of of user mailboxes are already on one of the exchange 2007 boxes and we want to put whats left on the exchange 2003 box on our other excahnge 2007 box. Both excahnge 2007 servers are currently CAS, HT and MB servers. We have a SPAM filtering device that sits between our excahnge servers and the firewall and have it configured to send messages to one of the excahgne 2007 servers but when we look at the message headers we can see that messgaes are still being routed to the excahnge 2003 box. We want to bypass the exchange 2003 in the routing process as it is dying and is starting to have major issues so everytime it goes down our email is down. Is there possible some sort of AD routing link/site link stuff going on?

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  • Bypass DNSSEC for local Stub zones

    - by Starsky
    I am using bind 9.9.2 as a DNSSEC validating recursive resolver in an Internet DMZ. I want to point to my internal DNS servers as stub zones (ideally) or anything except slave zones (to avoid very large zone transfers). We use a routable ip space for our Internal addressing. Sorry if I am using an IP space that you own in my example, but 167.x.x.x is the first zone I found that fits my issue. E.G dnssec-enable yes; dnssec-validation yes; dnssec-accept-expired no; zone "16.172.in-addr.arpa" { type stub; masters { 167.255.1.53; } } zone "myzone.com" in { type stub; masters { 167.255.1.53; } } When queries hit the DNS server, they attempt at being validated, and fail because 167.in-addr.arpa HAS an RRSIG record, but sub zones do not (and should not!). Google dns is used in this example, but in reality it would be my recursive resolver. @8.8.8.8 -x 167.255.1.53 +dnssec ; (1 server found) ;; global options: +cmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NXDOMAIN, id: 17488 ;; flags: qr rd ra ad; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 6, ADDITIONAL: 1 ;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION: ; EDNS: version: 0, flags: do; udp: 512 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;53.1.255.167.in-addr.arpa. IN PTR ;; AUTHORITY SECTION: 167.in-addr.arpa. 1800 IN SOA z.arin.net. dns-ops.arin.net. 2013100713 1800 900 691200 10800 167.in-addr.arpa. 1800 IN RRSIG SOA 5 3 86400 20131017160124 20131007160124 812 167.in-addr.arpa. Lcl8sCps7LapnAj4n403KXx7A3GO7+2z/9Q2R2mwkh9FL26iDx7GlU4+ NufGd92IEJCdBu9IgcZP4I9QcKi8DI28og27WrfKd5moSl/STj02GliS qPTfNiewmTTIDw5++IlhITbp+CoJuZCRCdDbyWKmd5NSLcbskAwbCVlO vVA= 167.in-addr.arpa. 10800 IN NSEC 1.167.in-addr.arpa. NS SOA TXT RRSIG NSEC DNSKEY 167.in-addr.arpa. 10800 IN RRSIG NSEC 5 3 10800 20131017160124 20131007160124 812 167.in-addr.arpa. XALsd59i+XGvCIzjhTUFXcr11/M8prcaaPQ5yFSbvP9TzqjJ3wpizvH6 202MdrIWbsT1Dndri49lHKAXgBQ5OOsUmOh+eoRYR5okxRO4VLc5Tkze Gh0fQLcwGXPuv9A4SFNIrNyi3XU4Qvq0cViKXIuEGTa3C+zMPuvc0her oKk= 254.167.in-addr.arpa. 10800 IN NSEC 26.167.in-addr.arpa. NS RRSIG NSEC 254.167.in-addr.arpa. 10800 IN RRSIG NSEC 5 4 10800 20131017160124 20131007160124 812 167.in-addr.arpa. xnsLBTnPhdyABdvqtEHPxa6Y6NASfYAWfW1yYlNliTyV8TFeNOqewjwj nY43CWD77ftFDDQTLFEOPpV5vwmnUGYTRztK+kB5UrlflhPgiqYiBaBD RQaFQ8DIKaof8/snusZjK7aNmfe09t9gRcaX/pXn3liKz7m/ggxZi0f9 xo0= ;; Query time: 31 msec ;; SERVER: 8.8.8.8#53(8.8.8.8) ;; WHEN: Mon Oct 7 16:52:59 2013 ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 722 Is there a way to bypass DNSSEC validation for specific zones? Any zone that I host internally, I do not want DNSSEC validation performed on. I have only see this interfere w/ certain reverse zones where the top level has DS/RRSIG records. Thanks.

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  • Windows 8.1 Update 1 Disk Usage 100%

    - by Gookjin Jeong
    Background Information / Computer Specs I have a 14-inch Samsung Series 5 Ultra. Core i5 CPU, 750GB HDD, 8GB RAM, Intel HD Graphics 4000. I've had the computer for about 1.5 years with no major problems. Problem The issue appeared at the beginning of April this year, when I updated the OS to Windows 8.1 Update 1 (not from 8 to 8.1). After being on continually (except for at night, when I put it on sleep mode) for about 48 hours, the disk usage as seen by Task Manager hits 100%. When this happens, everything from opening/closing applications to typing and even bringing up the start screen by pressing the Windows key becomes extremely slow. The only way to make the disk usage decrease is to restart the computer. Then the problem repeats. I've used my current laptop (as well as my previous laptops) this way -- putting it on sleep mode at night and restarting it only when Windows needs to install updates -- for a long time. So I know the 100% disk usage is not due to the way I use the computer. The thing that causes the spike varies. Sometimes it's System, sometimes it's one of the various applications I installed (e.g. Chrome, Evernote, Spotify, Wunderlist, iTunes, etc.), and sometimes it's Antimalware Service Executable, etc. Tried Solutions I think I tried almost every solution out there for this problem: Running the check disk command (chkdsk /b /f /v /scan c:) from Admin Command Prompt Running Windows Memory Diagnostic Disabling Superfetch and Windows Search from services.msc Running "Fix problems with Windows Update" from Control Panel -- Troubleshooting Updating and rolling back the graphics driver (Intel HD 4000) Disabling "Use hardware acceleration when available" from Chrome settings Disabling Intel Rapid Storage Technology Running the SFC /SCANNOW command as recommended here Running a quick scan & a full scan from Windows Defender (no threats found) Taking the hard drive out and putting it back Refreshing the computer, from the Update and recovery -- Recovery option in Windows settings NONE of the above worked for me. I was about to give up but then noticed that one of the main culprits of the disk usage spike, as shown in the "Disk Activity" section of the Resource Monitor, was C:\System (pagefile.sys). I googled around and found that one of the recommended solutions was to disable pagefile. I then went to **Control Panel -- System and Security -- System -- Advanced system settings -- Advanced tab -- Performance settings -- Advanced tab -- "Change" under Virtual memory and discovered that the number for "Currently allocated" at the bottom was 1280MB, although the number for "Recommended" was 4533MB. I immediately changed it to 4533MB and checked my family members' computers to see what the numbers were like. All of theirs had a currently allocated space that was only slightly smaller than the recommended space. See screenshot below: This might fix the problem. I'll have to wait a couple more days.But if it doesn't, what in the world should I do next? I'm guessing the hard drive isn't failing because This computer is less than 2 years old; and Speccy says that the status of the HDD is good. Update 5/27/2014 The "4533MB" solution did not work. I had to reboot the computer about 30 minutes ago because the disk usage again hit 100%. When I opened Resource Monitor the C:\System (pagefile.sys) again was shown to be the culprit. I have now disabled pagefile entirely via the same window shown above in the screenshot. The number for "currently allocated" is now 0MB. Will update again in a couple days, or if the problem occurs again, whichever comes sooner.

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  • Mysqld not starting due to apparent db corruption

    - by pitosalas
    I am very new at admining mysql, and bad for me, something caused the db to get clobbered. There are many error messages in the log that I am not sure how to safely proceed. Can you give some tips? Here's the log: 110107 15:07:15 mysqld started 110107 15:07:15 InnoDB: Database was not shut down normally! InnoDB: Starting crash recovery. InnoDB: Reading tablespace information from the .ibd files... InnoDB: Restoring possible half-written data pages from the doublewrite InnoDB: buffer... 110107 15:07:15 InnoDB: Starting log scan based on checkpoint at InnoDB: log sequence number 35 515914826. InnoDB: Doing recovery: scanned up to log sequence number 35 515915839 InnoDB: 1 transaction(s) which must be rolled back or cleaned up InnoDB: in total 1 row operations to undo InnoDB: Trx id counter is 0 1697553664 110107 15:07:15 InnoDB: Starting an apply batch of log records to the database... InnoDB: Progress in percents: 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 InnoDB: Apply batch completed InnoDB: Starting rollback of uncommitted transactions InnoDB: Rolling back trx with id 0 1697553198, 1 rows to undoInnoDB: Error: trying to access page number 3522914176 in space 0, InnoDB: space name ./ibdata1, InnoDB: which is outside the tablespace bounds. InnoDB: Byte offset 0, len 16384, i/o type 10 110107 15:07:15InnoDB: Assertion failure in thread 3086403264 in file fil0fil.c line 3922 InnoDB: We intentionally generate a memory trap. InnoDB: Submit a detailed bug report to http://bugs.mysql.com. InnoDB: If you get repeated assertion failures or crashes, even InnoDB: immediately after the mysqld startup, there may be InnoDB: corruption in the InnoDB tablespace. Please refer to InnoDB: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/Forcing_recovery.html InnoDB: about forcing recovery. mysqld got signal 11; This could be because you hit a bug. It is also possible that this binary or one of the libraries it was linked against is corrupt, improperly built, or misconfigured. This error can also be caused by malfunctioning hardware. We will try our best to scrape up some info that will hopefully help diagnose the problem, but since we have already crashed, something is definitely wrong and this may fail. key_buffer_size=0 read_buffer_size=131072 max_used_connections=0 max_connections=100 threads_connected=0 It is possible that mysqld could use up to key_buffer_size + (read_buffer_size + sort_buffer_size)*max_connections = 217599 K bytes of memory Hope that's ok; if not, decrease some variables in the equation. thd=(nil) Attempting backtrace. You can use the following information to find out where mysqld died. If you see no messages after this, something went terribly wrong... Cannot determine thread, fp=0xbffc55ac, backtrace may not be correct. Stack range sanity check OK, backtrace follows: 0x8139eec 0x83721d5 0x833d897 0x833db71 0x832aa38 0x835f025 0x835f7a3 0x830a77e 0x8326b57 0x831c825 0x8317b8d 0x82a9e66 0x8315732 0x834fc9a 0x828d7c3 0x81c29dd 0x81b5620 0x813d9fe 0x40fdf3 0x80d5ff1 New value of fp=(nil) failed sanity check, terminating stack trace! Please read http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/Using_stack_trace.html and follow instructions on how to resolve the stack trace. Resolved stack trace is much more helpful in diagnosing the problem, so please do resolve it The manual page at http://www.mysql.com/doc/en/Crashing.html contains information that should help you find out what is causing the crash. 110107 15:07:15 mysqld ended

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  • Parallelism in .NET – Part 10, Cancellation in PLINQ and the Parallel class

    - by Reed
    Many routines are parallelized because they are long running processes.  When writing an algorithm that will run for a long period of time, its typically a good practice to allow that routine to be cancelled.  I previously discussed terminating a parallel loop from within, but have not demonstrated how a routine can be cancelled from the caller’s perspective.  Cancellation in PLINQ and the Task Parallel Library is handled through a new, unified cooperative cancellation model introduced with .NET 4.0. Cancellation in .NET 4 is based around a new, lightweight struct called CancellationToken.  A CancellationToken is a small, thread-safe value type which is generated via a CancellationTokenSource.  There are many goals which led to this design.  For our purposes, we will focus on a couple of specific design decisions: Cancellation is cooperative.  A calling method can request a cancellation, but it’s up to the processing routine to terminate – it is not forced. Cancellation is consistent.  A single method call requests a cancellation on every copied CancellationToken in the routine. Let’s begin by looking at how we can cancel a PLINQ query.  Supposed we wanted to provide the option to cancel our query from Part 6: double min = collection .AsParallel() .Min(item => item.PerformComputation()); .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } We would rewrite this to allow for cancellation by adding a call to ParallelEnumerable.WithCancellation as follows: var cts = new CancellationTokenSource(); // Pass cts here to a routine that could, // in parallel, request a cancellation try { double min = collection .AsParallel() .WithCancellation(cts.Token) .Min(item => item.PerformComputation()); } catch (OperationCanceledException e) { // Query was cancelled before it finished } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } Here, if the user calls cts.Cancel() before the PLINQ query completes, the query will stop processing, and an OperationCanceledException will be raised.  Be aware, however, that cancellation will not be instantaneous.  When cts.Cancel() is called, the query will only stop after the current item.PerformComputation() elements all finish processing.  cts.Cancel() will prevent PLINQ from scheduling a new task for a new element, but will not stop items which are currently being processed.  This goes back to the first goal I mentioned – Cancellation is cooperative.  Here, we’re requesting the cancellation, but it’s up to PLINQ to terminate. If we wanted to allow cancellation to occur within our routine, we would need to change our routine to accept a CancellationToken, and modify it to handle this specific case: public void PerformComputation(CancellationToken token) { for (int i=0; i<this.iterations; ++i) { // Add a check to see if we've been canceled // If a cancel was requested, we'll throw here token.ThrowIfCancellationRequested(); // Do our processing now this.RunIteration(i); } } With this overload of PerformComputation, each internal iteration checks to see if a cancellation request was made, and will throw an OperationCanceledException at that point, instead of waiting until the method returns.  This is good, since it allows us, as developers, to plan for cancellation, and terminate our routine in a clean, safe state. This is handled by changing our PLINQ query to: try { double min = collection .AsParallel() .WithCancellation(cts.Token) .Min(item => item.PerformComputation(cts.Token)); } catch (OperationCanceledException e) { // Query was cancelled before it finished } PLINQ is very good about handling this exception, as well.  There is a very good chance that multiple items will raise this exception, since the entire purpose of PLINQ is to have multiple items be processed concurrently.  PLINQ will take all of the OperationCanceledException instances raised within these methods, and merge them into a single OperationCanceledException in the call stack.  This is done internally because we added the call to ParallelEnumerable.WithCancellation. If, however, a different exception is raised by any of the elements, the OperationCanceledException as well as the other Exception will be merged into a single AggregateException. The Task Parallel Library uses the same cancellation model, as well.  Here, we supply our CancellationToken as part of the configuration.  The ParallelOptions class contains a property for the CancellationToken.  This allows us to cancel a Parallel.For or Parallel.ForEach routine in a very similar manner to our PLINQ query.  As an example, we could rewrite our Parallel.ForEach loop from Part 2 to support cancellation by changing it to: try { var cts = new CancellationTokenSource(); var options = new ParallelOptions() { CancellationToken = cts.Token }; Parallel.ForEach(customers, options, customer => { // Run some process that takes some time... DateTime lastContact = theStore.GetLastContact(customer); TimeSpan timeSinceContact = DateTime.Now - lastContact; // Check for cancellation here options.CancellationToken.ThrowIfCancellationRequested(); // If it's been more than two weeks, send an email, and update... if (timeSinceContact.Days > 14) { theStore.EmailCustomer(customer); customer.LastEmailContact = DateTime.Now; } }); } catch (OperationCanceledException e) { // The loop was cancelled } Notice that here we use the same approach taken in PLINQ.  The Task Parallel Library will automatically handle our cancellation in the same manner as PLINQ, providing a clean, unified model for cancellation of any parallel routine.  The TPL performs the same aggregation of the cancellation exceptions as PLINQ, as well, which is why a single exception handler for OperationCanceledException will cleanly handle this scenario.  This works because we’re using the same CancellationToken provided in the ParallelOptions.  If a different exception was thrown by one thread, or a CancellationToken from a different CancellationTokenSource was used to raise our exception, we would instead receive all of our individual exceptions merged into one AggregateException.

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  • Conversation as User Assistance

    - by ultan o'broin
    Applications User Experience members (Erika Web, Laurie Pattison, and I) attended the User Assistance Europe Conference in Stockholm, Sweden. We were impressed with the thought leadership and practical application of ideas in Anne Gentle's keynote address "Social Web Strategies for Documentation". After the conference, we spoke with Anne to explore the ideas further. Anne Gentle (left) with Applications User Experience Senior Director Laurie Pattison In Anne's book called Conversation and Community: The Social Web for Documentation, she explains how user assistance is undergoing a seismic shift. The direction is away from the old print manuals and online help concept towards a web-based, user community-driven solution using social media tools. User experience professionals now have a vast range of such tools to start and nurture this "conversation": blogs, wikis, forums, social networking sites, microblogging systems, image and video sharing sites, virtual worlds, podcasts, instant messaging, mashups, and so on. That user communities are a rich source of user assistance is not a surprise, but the extent of available assistance is. For example, we know from the Consortium for Service Innovation that there has been an 'explosion' of user-generated content on the web. User-initiated community conversations provide as much as 30 times the number of official help desk solutions for consortium members! The growing reliance on user community solutions is clearly a user experience issue. Anne says that user assistance as conversation "means getting closer to users and helping them perform well. User-centered design has been touted as one of the most important ideas developed in the last 20 years of workplace writing. Now writers can take the idea of user-centered design a step further by starting conversations with users and enabling user assistance in interactions." Some of Anne's favorite examples of this paradigm shift from the world of traditional documentation to community conversation include: Writer Bob Bringhurst's blog about Adobe InDesign and InCopy products and Adobe's community help The Microsoft Development Network Community Center ·The former Sun (now Oracle) OpenDS wiki, NetBeans Ruby and other community approaches to engage diverse audiences using screencasts, wikis, and blogs. Cisco's customer support wiki, EMC's community, as well as Symantec and Intuit's approaches The efforts of Ubuntu, Mozilla, and the FLOSS community generally Adobe Writer Bob Bringhurst's Blog Oracle is not without a user community conversation too. Besides the community discussions and blogs around documentation offerings, we have the My Oracle Support Community forums, Oracle Technology Network (OTN) communities, wiki, blogs, and so on. We have the great work done by our user groups and customer councils. Employees like David Haimes reach out, and enthusiastic non-employee gurus like Chet Justice (OracleNerd), Floyd Teter and Eddie Awad provide great "how-to" information too. But what does this paradigm shift mean for existing technical writers as users turn away from the traditional printable PDF manual deliverables? We asked Anne after the conference. The writer role becomes one of conversation initiator or enabler. The role evolves, along with the process, as the users define their concept of user assistance and terms of engagement with the product instead of having it pre-determined. It is largely a case now of "inventing the job while you're doing it, instead of being hired for it" Anne said. There is less emphasis on formal titles. Anne mentions that her own title "Content Stacker" at OpenStack; others use titles such as "Content Curator" or "Community Lead". However, the role remains one essentially about communications, "but of a new type--interacting with users, moderating, curating content, instead of sitting down to write a manual from start to finish." Clearly then, this role is open to more than professional technical writers. Product managers who write blogs, developers who moderate forums, support professionals who update wikis, rock star programmers with a penchant for YouTube are ideal. Anyone with the product knowledge, empathy for the user, and flair for relationships on the social web can join in. Some even perform these roles already but do not realize it. Anne feels the technical communicator space will move from hiring new community conversation professionals (who are already active in the space through blogging, tweets, wikis, and so on) to retraining some existing writers over time. Our own research reveals that the established proponents of community user assistance even set employee performance objectives for internal content curators about the amount of community content delivered by people outside the organization! To take advantage of the conversations on the web as user assistance, enterprises must first establish where on the spectrum their community lies. "What is the line between community willingness to contribute and the enterprise objectives?" Anne asked. "The relationship with users must be managed and also measured." Anne believes that the process can start with a "just do it" approach. Begin by reaching out to existing user groups, individual bloggers and tweeters, forum posters, early adopter program participants, conference attendees, customer advisory board members, and so on. Use analytical tools to measure the level of conversation about your products and services to show a return on investment (ROI), winning management support. Anne emphasized that success with the community model is dependent on lowering the technical and motivational barriers so that users can readily contribute to the conversation. Simple tools must be provided, and guidelines, if any, must be straightforward but not mandatory. The conversational approach is one where traditional style and branding guides do not necessarily apply. Tools and infrastructure help users to create content easily, to search and find the information online, read it, rate it, translate it, and participate further in the content's evolution. Recognizing contributors by using ratings on forums, giving out Twitter kudos, conference invitations, visits to headquarters, free products, preview releases, and so on, also encourages the adoption of the conversation model. The move to conversation as user assistance is not free, but there is a business ROI. The conversational model means that customer service is enhanced, as user experience moves from a functional to a valued, emotional level. Studies show a positive correlation between loyalty and financial performance (Consortium for Service Innovation, 2010), and as customer experience and loyalty become key differentiators, user experience professionals cannot explore the model's possibilities. The digital universe (measured at 1.2 million petabytes in 2010) is doubling every 12 to 18 months, and 70 percent of that universe consists of user-generated content (IDC, 2010). Conversation as user assistance cannot be ignored but must be embraced. It is a time to manage for abundance, not scarcity. Besides, the conversation approach certainly sounds more interesting, rewarding, and fun than the traditional model! I would like to thank Anne for her time and thoughts, and recommend that all user assistance professionals read her book. You can follow Anne on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/annegentle. Oracle's Acrolinx IQ deployment was used to author this article.

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  • Parallelism in .NET – Part 18, Task Continuations with Multiple Tasks

    - by Reed
    In my introduction to Task continuations I demonstrated how the Task class provides a more expressive alternative to traditional callbacks.  Task continuations provide a much cleaner syntax to traditional callbacks, but there are other reasons to switch to using continuations… Task continuations provide a clean syntax, and a very simple, elegant means of synchronizing asynchronous method results with the user interface.  In addition, continuations provide a very simple, elegant means of working with collections of tasks. Prior to .NET 4, working with multiple related asynchronous method calls was very tricky.  If, for example, we wanted to run two asynchronous operations, followed by a single method call which we wanted to run when the first two methods completed, we’d have to program all of the handling ourselves.  We would likely need to take some approach such as using a shared callback which synchronized against a common variable, or using a WaitHandle shared within the callbacks to allow one to wait for the second.  Although this could be accomplished easily enough, it requires manually placing this handling into every algorithm which requires this form of blocking.  This is error prone, difficult, and can easily lead to subtle bugs. Similar to how the Task class static methods providing a way to block until multiple tasks have completed, TaskFactory contains static methods which allow a continuation to be scheduled upon the completion of multiple tasks: TaskFactory.ContinueWhenAll. This allows you to easily specify a single delegate to run when a collection of tasks has completed.  For example, suppose we have a class which fetches data from the network.  This can be a long running operation, and potentially fail in certain situations, such as a server being down.  As a result, we have three separate servers which we will “query” for our information.  Now, suppose we want to grab data from all three servers, and verify that the results are the same from all three. With traditional asynchronous programming in .NET, this would require using three separate callbacks, and managing the synchronization between the various operations ourselves.  The Task and TaskFactory classes simplify this for us, allowing us to write: var server1 = Task.Factory.StartNew( () => networkClass.GetResults(firstServer) ); var server2 = Task.Factory.StartNew( () => networkClass.GetResults(secondServer) ); var server3 = Task.Factory.StartNew( () => networkClass.GetResults(thirdServer) ); var result = Task.Factory.ContinueWhenAll( new[] {server1, server2, server3 }, (tasks) => { // Propogate exceptions (see below) Task.WaitAll(tasks); return this.CompareTaskResults( tasks[0].Result, tasks[1].Result, tasks[2].Result); }); .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } This is clean, simple, and elegant.  The one complication is the Task.WaitAll(tasks); statement. Although the continuation will not complete until all three tasks (server1, server2, and server3) have completed, there is a potential snag.  If the networkClass.GetResults method fails, and raises an exception, we want to make sure to handle it cleanly.  By using Task.WaitAll, any exceptions raised within any of our original tasks will get wrapped into a single AggregateException by the WaitAll method, providing us a simplified means of handling the exceptions.  If we wait on the continuation, we can trap this AggregateException, and handle it cleanly.  Without this line, it’s possible that an exception could remain uncaught and unhandled by a task, which later might trigger a nasty UnobservedTaskException.  This would happen any time two of our original tasks failed. Just as we can schedule a continuation to occur when an entire collection of tasks has completed, we can just as easily setup a continuation to run when any single task within a collection completes.  If, for example, we didn’t need to compare the results of all three network locations, but only use one, we could still schedule three tasks.  We could then have our completion logic work on the first task which completed, and ignore the others.  This is done via TaskFactory.ContinueWhenAny: var server1 = Task.Factory.StartNew( () => networkClass.GetResults(firstServer) ); var server2 = Task.Factory.StartNew( () => networkClass.GetResults(secondServer) ); var server3 = Task.Factory.StartNew( () => networkClass.GetResults(thirdServer) ); var result = Task.Factory.ContinueWhenAny( new[] {server1, server2, server3 }, (firstTask) => { return this.ProcessTaskResult(firstTask.Result); }); .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } Here, instead of working with all three tasks, we’re just using the first task which finishes.  This is very useful, as it allows us to easily work with results of multiple operations, and “throw away” the others.  However, you must take care when using ContinueWhenAny to properly handle exceptions.  At some point, you should always wait on each task (or use the Task.Result property) in order to propogate any exceptions raised from within the task.  Failing to do so can lead to an UnobservedTaskException.

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  • Parallelism in .NET – Part 6, Declarative Data Parallelism

    - by Reed
    When working with a problem that can be decomposed by data, we have a collection, and some operation being performed upon the collection.  I’ve demonstrated how this can be parallelized using the Task Parallel Library and imperative programming using imperative data parallelism via the Parallel class.  While this provides a huge step forward in terms of power and capabilities, in many cases, special care must still be given for relative common scenarios. C# 3.0 and Visual Basic 9.0 introduced a new, declarative programming model to .NET via the LINQ Project.  When working with collections, we can now write software that describes what we want to occur without having to explicitly state how the program should accomplish the task.  By taking advantage of LINQ, many operations become much shorter, more elegant, and easier to understand and maintain.  Version 4.0 of the .NET framework extends this concept into the parallel computation space by introducing Parallel LINQ. Before we delve into PLINQ, let’s begin with a short discussion of LINQ.  LINQ, the extensions to the .NET Framework which implement language integrated query, set, and transform operations, is implemented in many flavors.  For our purposes, we are interested in LINQ to Objects.  When dealing with parallelizing a routine, we typically are dealing with in-memory data storage.  More data-access oriented LINQ variants, such as LINQ to SQL and LINQ to Entities in the Entity Framework fall outside of our concern, since the parallelism there is the concern of the data base engine processing the query itself. LINQ (LINQ to Objects in particular) works by implementing a series of extension methods, most of which work on IEnumerable<T>.  The language enhancements use these extension methods to create a very concise, readable alternative to using traditional foreach statement.  For example, let’s revisit our minimum aggregation routine we wrote in Part 4: double min = double.MaxValue; foreach(var item in collection) { double value = item.PerformComputation(); min = System.Math.Min(min, value); } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } Here, we’re doing a very simple computation, but writing this in an imperative style.  This can be loosely translated to English as: Create a very large number, and save it in min Loop through each item in the collection. For every item: Perform some computation, and save the result If the computation is less than min, set min to the computation Although this is fairly easy to follow, it’s quite a few lines of code, and it requires us to read through the code, step by step, line by line, in order to understand the intention of the developer. We can rework this same statement, using LINQ: double min = collection.Min(item => item.PerformComputation()); Here, we’re after the same information.  However, this is written using a declarative programming style.  When we see this code, we’d naturally translate this to English as: Save the Min value of collection, determined via calling item.PerformComputation() That’s it – instead of multiple logical steps, we have one single, declarative request.  This makes the developer’s intentions very clear, and very easy to follow.  The system is free to implement this using whatever method required. Parallel LINQ (PLINQ) extends LINQ to Objects to support parallel operations.  This is a perfect fit in many cases when you have a problem that can be decomposed by data.  To show this, let’s again refer to our minimum aggregation routine from Part 4, but this time, let’s review our final, parallelized version: // Safe, and fast! double min = double.MaxValue; // Make a "lock" object object syncObject = new object(); Parallel.ForEach( collection, // First, we provide a local state initialization delegate. () => double.MaxValue, // Next, we supply the body, which takes the original item, loop state, // and local state, and returns a new local state (item, loopState, localState) => { double value = item.PerformComputation(); return System.Math.Min(localState, value); }, // Finally, we provide an Action<TLocal>, to "merge" results together localState => { // This requires locking, but it's only once per used thread lock(syncObj) min = System.Math.Min(min, localState); } ); Here, we’re doing the same computation as above, but fully parallelized.  Describing this in English becomes quite a feat: Create a very large number, and save it in min Create a temporary object we can use for locking Call Parallel.ForEach, specifying three delegates For the first delegate: Initialize a local variable to hold the local state to a very large number For the second delegate: For each item in the collection, perform some computation, save the result If the result is less than our local state, save the result in local state For the final delegate: Take a lock on our temporary object to protect our min variable Save the min of our min and local state variables Although this solves our problem, and does it in a very efficient way, we’ve created a set of code that is quite a bit more difficult to understand and maintain. PLINQ provides us with a very nice alternative.  In order to use PLINQ, we need to learn one new extension method that works on IEnumerable<T> – ParallelEnumerable.AsParallel(). That’s all we need to learn in order to use PLINQ: one single method.  We can write our minimum aggregation in PLINQ very simply: double min = collection.AsParallel().Min(item => item.PerformComputation()); By simply adding “.AsParallel()” to our LINQ to Objects query, we converted this to using PLINQ and running this computation in parallel!  This can be loosely translated into English easily, as well: Process the collection in parallel Get the Minimum value, determined by calling PerformComputation on each item Here, our intention is very clear and easy to understand.  We just want to perform the same operation we did in serial, but run it “as parallel”.  PLINQ completely extends LINQ to Objects: the entire functionality of LINQ to Objects is available.  By simply adding a call to AsParallel(), we can specify that a collection should be processed in parallel.  This is simple, safe, and incredibly useful.

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  • Microsoft TypeScript : A Typed Superset of JavaScript

    - by shiju
    JavaScript is gradually becoming a ubiquitous programming language for the web, and the popularity of JavaScript is increasing day by day. Earlier, JavaScript was just a language for browser. But now, we can write JavaScript apps for browser, server and mobile. With the advent of Node.js, you can build scalable, high performance apps on the server with JavaScript. But many developers, especially developers who are working with static type languages, are hating the JavaScript language due to the lack of structuring and the maintainability problems of JavaScript. Microsoft TypeScript is trying to solve some problems of JavaScript when we are building scalable JavaScript apps. Microsoft TypeScript TypeScript is Microsoft's solution for writing scalable JavaScript programs with the help of Static Types, Interfaces, Modules and Classes along with greater tooling support. TypeScript is a typed superset of JavaScript that compiles to plain JavaScript. This would be more productive for developers who are coming from static type languages. You can write scalable JavaScript  apps in TypeScript with more productive and more maintainable manner, and later you can compiles to plain JavaScript which will be run on any browser and any OS. TypeScript will work with browser based JavaScript apps and JavaScript apps that following CommonJS specification. You can use TypeScript for building HTML 5 apps, Node.JS apps, WinRT apps. TypeScript is providing better tooling support with Visual Studio, Sublime Text, Vi, Emacs. Microsoft has open sourced its TypeScript languages on CodePlex at http://typescript.codeplex.com/    Install TypeScript You can install TypeScript compiler as a Node.js package via the NPM or you can install as a Visual Studio 2012 plug-in which will enable you better tooling support within the Visual Studio IDE. Since TypeScript is distributed as a Node.JS package, and it can be installed on other OS such as Linux and MacOS. The following command will install TypeScript compiler via an npm package for node.js npm install –g typescript TypeScript provides a Visual Studio 2012 plug-in as MSI file which will install TypeScript and also provides great tooling support within the Visual Studio, that lets the developers to write TypeScript apps with greater productivity and better maintainability. You can download the Visual Studio plug-in from here Building JavaScript  apps with TypeScript You can write typed version of JavaScript programs with TypeScript and then compiles it to plain JavaScript code. The beauty of the TypeScript is that it is already JavaScript and normal JavaScript programs are valid TypeScript programs, which means that you can write normal  JavaScript code and can use typed version of JavaScript whenever you want. TypeScript files are using extension .ts and this will be compiled using a compiler named tsc. The following is a sample program written in  TypeScript greeter.ts 1: class Greeter { 2: greeting: string; 3: constructor (message: string) { 4: this.greeting = message; 5: } 6: greet() { 7: return "Hello, " + this.greeting; 8: } 9: } 10:   11: var greeter = new Greeter("world"); 12:   13: var button = document.createElement('button') 14: button.innerText = "Say Hello" 15: button.onclick = function() { 16: alert(greeter.greet()) 17: } 18:   19: document.body.appendChild(button) .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } The above program is compiling with the TypeScript compiler as shown in the below picture The TypeScript compiler will generate a JavaScript file after compiling the TypeScript program. If your TypeScript programs having any reference to other TypeScript files, it will automatically generate JavaScript files for the each referenced files. The following code block shows the compiled version of plain JavaScript  for the above greeter.ts greeter.js 1: var Greeter = (function () { 2: function Greeter(message) { 3: this.greeting = message; 4: } 5: Greeter.prototype.greet = function () { 6: return "Hello, " + this.greeting; 7: }; 8: return Greeter; 9: })(); 10: var greeter = new Greeter("world"); 11: var button = document.createElement('button'); 12: button.innerText = "Say Hello"; 13: button.onclick = function () { 14: alert(greeter.greet()); 15: }; 16: document.body.appendChild(button); .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } Tooling Support with Visual Studio TypeScript is providing a plug-in for Visual Studio which will provide an excellent support for writing TypeScript  programs within the Visual Studio. The following screen shot shows the Visual Studio template for TypeScript apps   The following are the few screen shots of Visual Studio IDE for TypeScript apps. Summary TypeScript is Microsoft's solution for writing scalable JavaScript apps which will solve lot of problems involved in larger JavaScript apps. I hope that this solution will attract lot of developers who are really looking for writing maintainable structured code in JavaScript, without losing any productivity. TypeScript lets developers to write JavaScript apps with the help of Static Types, Interfaces, Modules and Classes and also providing better productivity. I am a passionate developer on Node.JS and would definitely try to use TypeScript for building Node.JS apps on the Windows Azure cloud. I am really excited about to writing Node.JS apps by using TypeScript, from my favorite development IDE Visual Studio. You can follow me on twitter at @shijucv

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  • Upgrading Windows 8 boot to VHD to Windows 8.1&ndash;Step by step guide

    - by Liam Westley
    Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/twickers/archive/2013/10/19/upgrading-windows-8-boot-to-vhd-to-windows-8.1ndashstep-by.aspxBoot to VHD – dual booting Windows 7 and Windows 8 became easy When Windows 8 arrived, quite a few people decided that they would still dual boot their machines, and instead of mucking about with resizing disk partitions to free up space for Windows 8 they decided to use the boot from VHD feature to create a huge hard disc image into which Windows 8 could be installed.  Scott Hanselman wrote this installation guide, while I myself used the installation guide from Ed Bott of ZD net fame. Boot to VHD is a great solution, it achieves a dual boot, can be backed up easily and had virtually no effect on the original Windows 7 partition. As a developer who has dual booted Windows operating systems for years, hacking boot.ini files, the boot to VHD was a much easier solution. Upgrade to Windows 8.1 – ah, you can’t do that on a virtual disk installation (boot to VHD) Last week the final version of Windows 8.1 arrived, and I went into the Windows Store to upgrade.  Luckily I’m on a fast download service, and use an SSD, because once the upgrade was downloaded and prepared Windows informed that This PC can’t run Windows 8.1, and provided the reason, You can’t install Windows on a virtual drive.  You can see an image of the message and discussion that sparked my search for a solution in this Microsoft Technet forum post. I was determined not to have to resize partitions yet again and fiddle with VHD to disk utilities and back again, and in the end I did succeed in upgrading to a Windows 8.1 boot to VHD partition.  It takes quite a bit of effort though … tldr; Simple steps of how you upgrade Boot into Windows 7 – make a copy of your Windows 8 VHD, to become Windows 8.1 Enable Hyper-V in your Windows 8 (the original boot to VHD partition) Create a new virtual machine, attaching the copy of your Windows 8 VHD Start the virtual machine, upgrade it via the Windows Store to Windows 8.1 Shutdown the virtual machine Boot into Windows 7 – use the bcedit tool to create a new Windows 8.1 boot to VHD option (pointing at the copy) Boot into the new Windows 8.1 option Reactivate Windows 8.1 (it will have become deactivated by running under Hyper-V) Remove the original Windows 8 VHD, and in Windows 7 use bcedit to remove it from the boot menu Things you’ll need A system that can run Hyper-V under Windows 8 (Intel i5, i7 class CPU) Enough space to have your original Windows 8 boot to VHD and a copy at the same time An ISO or DVD for Windows 8 to create a bootable Windows 8 partition Step by step guide Boot to your base o/s, the real one, Windows 7. Make a copy of the Windows 8 VHD file that you use to boot Windows 8 (via boot from VHD) – I copied it from a folder on C: called VHD-Win8 to VHD-Win8.1 on my N: drive. Reboot your system into Windows 8, and enable Hyper-V if not already present (this may require reboot) Use the Hyper-V manager , create a new Hyper-V machine, using half your system memory, and use the option to attach an existing VHD on the main IDE controller – this will be the new copy you made in Step 2. Start the virtual machine, use Connect to view it, and you’ll probably discover it cannot boot as there is no boot record If this is the case, go to Hyper-V manager, edit the Settings for the virtual machine to attach an ISO of a Windows 8 DVD to the second IDE controller. Start the virtual machine, use Connect to view it, and it should now attempt a fresh installation of Windows 8.  You should select Advanced Options and choose Repair - this will make VHD bootable When the setup reboots your virtual machine, turn off the virtual machine, and remove the ISO of the Windows 8 DVD from the virtual machine settings. Start virtual machine, use Connect to view it.  You will see the devices to be re-discovered (including your quad CPU becoming single CPU).  Eventually you should see the Windows Login screen. You may notice that your desktop background (Win+D) will have turned black as your Windows installation has become deactivate due to the hardware changes between your real PC and Hyper-V. Fortunately becoming deactivated, does not stop you using the Windows Store, where you can select the update to Windows 8.1. You can now watch the progress joy of the Windows 8 update; downloading, preparing to update, checking compatibility, gathering info, preparing to restart, and finally, confirm restart - remember that you are restarting your virtual machine sitting on the copy of the VHD, not the Windows 8 boot to VHD you are currently using to run Hyper-V (confused yet?) After the reboot you get the real upgrade messages; setting up x%, xx%, (quite slow) After a while, Getting ready Applying PC Settings x%, xx% (really slow) Updating your system (fast) Setting up a few more things x%, (quite slow) Getting ready, again Accept license terms Express settings Confirmed previous password Next, I had to set up a Microsoft account – which is possibly now required, and not optional Using the Microsoft account required a 2 factor authorization, via text message, a 7 digit code for me Finalising settings Blank screen, HI .. We're setting up things for you (similar to original Windows 8 install) 'You can get new apps from the Store', below which is ’Installing your apps’ - I had Windows Media Center which is counts as an app from the Store ‘Taking care of a few things’, below which is ‘Installing your apps’ ‘Taking care of a few things’, below ‘Don't turn off your PC’ ‘Getting your apps ready’, below ‘Don't turn off your PC’ ‘Almost ready’, below ‘Don't turn off your PC’ … finally, we get the Windows 8.1 start menu, and a quick Win+D to check the desktop confirmed all the application icons I expected, pinned items on the taskbar, and one app moaning about a missing drive At this point the upgrade is complete – you can shutdown the virtual machine Reboot from the original Windows 8 and return to Windows 7 to configure booting to the Windows 8.1 copy of the VHD In an administrator command prompt do following use the bcdedit tool (from an MSDN blog about configuring VHD to boot in Windows 7) Type bcedit to list the current boot options, so you can copy the GUID (complete with brackets/braces) for the original Windows 8 boot to VHD Create a new menu option, copy of the Windows 8 option; bcdedit /copy {originalguid} /d "Windows 8.1" Point the new Windows 8.1 option to the copy of the VHD; bcdedit /set {newguid} device vhd=[D:]\Image.vhd Point the new Windows 8.1 option to the copy of the VHD; bcdedit /set {newguid} osdevice vhd=[D:]\Image.vhd Set autodetection of the HAL (may already be set); bcdedit /set {newguid} detecthal on Reboot from Windows 7 and select the new option 'Windows 8.1' on the boot menu, and you’ll have some messages to look at, as your hardware is redetected (as you are back from 1 CPU to 4 CPUs) ‘Getting devices ready, blank then %xx, with occasional blank screen, for the graphics driver, (fast-ish) Getting Ready message (fast) You will have to suffer one final reboots, choose 'Windows 8.1' and you can now login to a lovely Windows 8.1 start screen running on non virtualized hardware via boot to VHD After checking everything is running fine, you can now choose to Activate Windows, which for me was a toll free phone call to the automated system where you type in lots of numbers to be given a whole bunch of new activation codes. Once you’re happy with your new Windows 8.1 boot to VHD, and no longer need the Windows 8 boot to VHD, feel free to delete the old one.  I do believe once you upgrade, you are no longer licensed to use it anyway. There, that was simple wasn’t it? Looking at the huge list of steps it took to perform this upgrade, you may wonder whether I think this is worth it.  Well, I think it is worth booting to VHD.  It makes backups a snap (go to Windows 7, copy the VHD, you backed up the o/s) and helps with disk management – want to move the o/s, you can move the VHD and repoint the boot menu to the new location. The downside is that Microsoft has complete neglected to support boot to VHD as an upgradable option.  Quite a poor decision in my opinion, and if you read twitter and the forums quite a few people agree with that view.  It’s a shame this got missed in the work on creating the upgrade packages for Windows 8.1.

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  • Simplify your Ajax code by using jQuery Global Ajax Handlers and ajaxSetup low-level interface

    - by hajan
    Creating web applications with consistent layout and user interface is very important for your users. In several ASP.NET projects I’ve completed lately, I’ve been using a lot jQuery and jQuery Ajax to achieve rich user experience and seamless interaction between the client and the server. In almost all of them, I took advantage of the nice jQuery global ajax handlers and jQuery ajax functions. Let’s say you build web application which mainly interacts using Ajax post and get to accomplish various operations. As you may already know, you can easily perform Ajax operations using jQuery Ajax low-level method or jQuery $.get, $.post, etc. Simple get example: $.get("/Home/GetData", function (d) { alert(d); }); As you can see, this is the simplest possible way to make Ajax call. What it does in behind is constructing low-level Ajax call by specifying all necessary information for the request, filling with default information set for the required properties such as data type, content type, etc... If you want to have some more control over what is happening with your Ajax Request, you can easily take advantage of the global ajax handlers. In order to register global ajax handlers, jQuery API provides you set of global Ajax methods. You can find all the methods in the following link http://api.jquery.com/category/ajax/global-ajax-event-handlers/, and these are: ajaxComplete ajaxError ajaxSend ajaxStart ajaxStop ajaxSuccess And the low-level ajax interfaces http://api.jquery.com/category/ajax/low-level-interface/: ajax ajaxPrefilter ajaxSetup For global settings, I usually use ajaxSetup combining it with the ajax event handlers. $.ajaxSetup is very good to help you set default values that you will use in all of your future Ajax Requests, so that you won’t need to repeat the same properties all the time unless you want to override the default settings. Mainly, I am using global ajaxSetup function similarly to the following way: $.ajaxSetup({ cache: false, error: function (x, e) { if (x.status == 550) alert("550 Error Message"); else if (x.status == "403") alert("403. Not Authorized"); else if (x.status == "500") alert("500. Internal Server Error"); else alert("Error..."); }, success: function (x) { //do something global on success... } }); .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } Now, you can make ajax call using low-level $.ajax interface and you don’t need to worry about specifying any of the properties we’ve set in the $.ajaxSetup function. So, you can create your own ways to handle various situations when your Ajax requests are occurring. Sometimes, some of your Ajax Requests may take much longer than expected… So, in order to make user friendly UI that will show some progress bar or animated image that something is happening in behind, you can combine ajaxStart and ajaxStop methods to do the same. First of all, add one <div id=”loading” style=”display:none;”> <img src="@Url.Content("~/Content/images/ajax-loader.gif")" alt="Ajax Loader" /></div> anywhere on your Master Layout / Master page (you can download nice ajax loading images from http://ajaxload.info/). Then, add the following two handlers: $(document).ajaxStart(function () { $("#loading").attr("style", "position:absolute; z-index: 1000; top: 0px; "+ "left:0px; text-align: center; display:none; background-color: #ddd; "+ "height: 100%; width: 100%; /* These three lines are for transparency "+ "in all browsers. */-ms-filter:\"progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(Opacity=50)\";"+ " filter: alpha(opacity=50); opacity:.5;"); $("#loading img").attr("style", "position:relative; top:40%; z-index:5;"); $("#loading").show(); }); $(document).ajaxStop(function () { $("#loading").removeAttr("style"); $("#loading img").removeAttr("style"); $("#loading").hide(); }); .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } Note: While you can reorganize the style in a more reusable way, since these are global Ajax Start/Stop, it is very possible that you won’t use the same style in other places. With this way, you will see that now for any ajax request in your web site or application, you will have the loading image appearing providing better user experience. What I’ve shown is several useful examples on how to simplify your Ajax code by using Global Ajax Handlers and the low-level AjaxSetup function. Of course, you can do a lot more with the other methods as well. Hope this was helpful. Regards, Hajan

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  • Solaris 10 branded zone VM Templates for Solaris 11 on OTN

    - by jsavit
    Early this year I wrote the article Ours Goes To 11 which describes the ability to import Solaris 10 systems into a "Solaris 10 branded zone" under Oracle Solaris 11. I did this using Solaris 11 Express, and the capability remains in Solaris 11 with only slight changes. This important tool lets you painlessly inhaling a Solaris Container from Solaris 10 or entire Solaris 10 systems ("the global zone") into virtualized environments on a Solaris 11 OS. Just recently, Oracle provided Oracle VM Templates for Oracle Solaris 10 Zones to let you create Solaris 10 branded zones for Solaris 11 even if you don't currently have access to install media or a running Solaris 10 system. To use this, just download the Oracle VM Template for Oracle Solaris Zone 10 from OTN at http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/solaris11/downloads/virtual-machines-1355605.html. This page contains images of Oracle Solaris 10 8/11 (the recent update to Solaris 10) in SPARC and x86 formats suitable for creating branded zones. The same page also has a VirtualBox image you can download for a complete Solaris 10 install in a guest virtual machine you can run on any host OS that supports VirtualBox. Both sets of downloads provide a quick - and extremely easy - way to set up a virtual Solaris 10 environment. In the case of the Oracle VM Templates, they illustrate several advanced features of Solaris 11. To start, just go to the above link, download the template for the hardware platform (SPARC or x86) you want, and download the README file also linked from that page. Install prerequisites The README file tells you to install the prerequisite Solaris 11 package that implements the Solaris 10 brand. Then you can install instances of zones with that brand. # pkg install pkg:/system/zones/brand/brand-solaris10 Packages to install: 1 Create boot environment: No Create backup boot environment: Yes DOWNLOAD PKGS FILES XFER (MB) Completed 1/1 44/44 0.4/0.4 PHASE ACTIONS Install Phase 74/74 PHASE ITEMS Package State Update Phase 1/1 Image State Update Phase 2/2 That took only a few minutes, and didn't require a reboot. Install the Solaris 10 zone Now it's time to run the downloaded template file. First make it executable via the chmod command, of course. I found that (unlike stated in the README) there was no need to rename the downloaded file to remove the .bin. When you run it you provide several parameters to describe the zone configuration: -a IP address - the IP address and optional netmask for the zone. This is the only mandatory parameter. -z zonename - the name of the zone you would like to create. -i interface - the package will create an exclusive-IP zone using a virtual NIC (vnic) based on this physical interface. In my case, I have a NIC called rge0. -p PATH - specifies the path in which you want the zoneroot to be placed. In my case, I have a ZFS dataset mounted at /zones, and this will create a zoneroot at /zones/s10u10. Kicking it off, you will see a copyright message, and then messages showing progress building the zone, which only takes a few minutes. # ./solaris-10u10-x86.bin -p /zones -a 192.168.1.100 -i rge0 -z s10u10 ... ... Checking disk-space for extraction Ok Extracting in /export/home/CDimages/s10zone/bootimage.ihaqvh ... 100% [===============================] Checking data integrity Ok Checking platform compatibility The host and the image do not have the same Solaris release: host Solaris release: 5.11 image Solaris release: 5.10 Will create a Solaris 10 branded zone. Warning: could not find a defaultrouter Zone won't have any defaultrouter configured IMAGE: ./solaris-10u10-x86.bin ZONE: s10u10 ZONEPATH: /zones/s10u10 INTERFACE: rge0 VNIC: vnicZBI13379 MAC ADDR: 2:8:20:5c:1a:cc IP ADDR: 192.168.1.100 NETMASK: 255.255.255.0 DEFROUTER: NONE TIMEZONE: US/Arizona Checking disk-space for installation Ok Installing in /zones/s10u10 ... 100% [===============================] Using a static exclusive-IP Attaching s10u10 Booting s10u10 Waiting for boot to complete booting... booting... booting... Zone s10u10 booted The zone's root password has been set using the root password of the local host. You can change the zone's root password to further harden the security of the zone: being root, log into the zone from the local host with the command 'zlogin s10u10'. Once logged in, change the root password with the command 'passwd'. The nifty part in my opinion (besides being so easy), is that the zone was created as an exclusive-IP zone on a virtual NIC. This network configuration lets you enforce traffic isolation from other zones, enforce network Quality of Service, and even let the zone set its own characteristics like IP address and packet size. Independence of the zone's network characteristics from the global zone is one of the enhancements in Solaris 10 that make it easier to consolidate zones while preserving their autonomy, yet provide control in a consolidated environment. Let's see what the virtual network environment looks like by issuing commands from the Solaris 11 global zone. First I'll use Old School ifconfig, and then I'll use the new ipadm and dladm commands. # ifconfig -a4 lo0: flags=2001000849<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4,VIRTUAL> mtu 8232 index 1 inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000 rge0: flags=1004943<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,PROMISC,MULTICAST,DHCP,IPv4> mtu 1500 index 2 inet 192.168.1.3 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255 ether 0:14:d1:18:ac:bc vboxnet0: flags=201000843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4,CoS> mtu 1500 index 3 inet 192.168.56.1 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 192.168.56.255 ether 8:0:27:f8:62:1c # dladm show-phys LINK MEDIA STATE SPEED DUPLEX DEVICE yge0 Ethernet unknown 0 unknown yge0 yge1 Ethernet unknown 0 unknown yge1 rge0 Ethernet up 1000 full rge0 vboxnet0 Ethernet up 1000 full vboxnet0 # dladm show-link LINK CLASS MTU STATE OVER yge0 phys 1500 unknown -- yge1 phys 1500 unknown -- rge0 phys 1500 up -- vboxnet0 phys 1500 up -- vnicZBI13379 vnic 1500 up rge0 s10u10/vnicZBI13379 vnic 1500 up rge0 s10u10/net0 vnic 1500 up rge0 # dladm show-vnic LINK OVER SPEED MACADDRESS MACADDRTYPE VID vnicZBI13379 rge0 1000 2:8:20:5c:1a:cc random 0 s10u10/vnicZBI13379 rge0 1000 2:8:20:5c:1a:cc random 0 s10u10/net0 rge0 1000 2:8:20:9d:d0:79 random 0 # ipadm show-addr ADDROBJ TYPE STATE ADDR lo0/v4 static ok 127.0.0.1/8 rge0/_a dhcp ok 192.168.1.3/24 vboxnet0/_a static ok 192.168.56.1/24 lo0/v6 static ok ::1/128 Log into the zone The install step already booted the zone, so lets log into it. Notice how you have to be appropriately privileged to log into a zone. This is my home system so I'm being a bit cavalier, but in a production environment you can give granular control of who can login to which zones. Voila! a Solaris 10 environment under a Solaris 11 kernel. Notice the output from the uname -a and ifconfig commands, and output from a ping to a nearby host. $ zlogin s10u10 zlogin: You lack sufficient privilege to run this command (all privs required) savit@home:~$ sudo zlogin s10u10 Password: [Connected to zone 's10u10' pts/5] Oracle Corporation SunOS 5.10 Generic Patch January 2005 # uname -a SunOS s10u10 5.10 Generic_Virtual i86pc i386 i86pc # ifconfig -a4 lo0: flags=2001000849 mtu 8232 index 1 inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000 vnicZBI13379: flags=1000843 mtu 1500 index 2 inet 192.168.1.100 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255 ether 2:8:20:5c:1a:cc # bash bash-3.2# ifconfig -a lo0: flags=2001000849 mtu 8232 index 1 inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000 vnicZBI13379: flags=1000843 mtu 1500 index 2 inet 192.168.1.100 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255 ether 2:8:20:5c:1a:cc bash-3.2# ping 192.168.1.2 192.168.1.2 is alive For fun, I configured Apache (setting its configuration file in /etc/apache2) and brought it up. Easy - took just a few minutes. bash-3.2# svcs apache2 STATE STIME FMRI disabled 12:38:46 svc:/network/http:apache2 bash-3.2# svcadm enable apache2 Summary In just a few minutes, I built a functioning virtual Solaris 10 environment under by Solaris 11 system. It was... easy! While I can still do it the manual way (creating and using a system archive), this is a low-effort way to create a Solaris 10 zone on Solaris 11.

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  • Convert a DVD Movie Directly to AVI with FairUse Wizard 2.9

    - by DigitalGeekery
    Are you looking for a way to backup your DVD movie collection to AVI?  Today we’ll show you how to rip a DVD movie directly to AVI with FairUse Wizard. About FairUse Wizard FairUse Wizard 2.9 uses the DivX, Xvid, or h.264 codec to convert DVD to an AVI file. It comes in both a free version and commercial version. The free, or “Light” version, can create files up 700MB while the commercial version can output a 1400MB file. This will allow you to back up your movies to CD, or even multiple movies on a single DVD. FairUse Wizard states that it does not work on copy protected discs, but we’ve seen it work on all but some of the most recent copy protection. For this tutorial we’re using the free Light Edition to convert a DVD to AVI. They also offer a commercial version that you can get for $29.99 and it offers even more encoding possibilities for converting video to you portable digital devices. Installation and Configuration Download and install FairUse Wizard. (Download link below). Once the install is complete, open FairUse Wizard by going to Start > All Programs >  FairUse Wizard 2 >  FairUse Wizard 2.   FairUse Wizard will open on the new project screen. Select “Create a new project” and type a project name into the text box. This will be used as the file output name.  Ex: A project name of Simpsons Movie will give you an output file of Simpsons Movie.avi.   Next, browse for a destination folder for the output file and temp files. Note that you will need a minimum of 6 GB of free disk space for the conversion process. Note: Much of that 6 GB will be used for temporary files that we will delete after the conversion process.   Click on the Options button at the bottom.   Under Preferences, choose your preferred video codec and file output size. XviD and x264 are installed by default. If you prefer to use DivX, you will have to install it separately. Also note the “Two pass” option. Checking the “Two pass” box will encode your video twice for higher quality, but will take more time. Un-checking the box will speed up the conversion process.   Under Audio track, note that English subtitles are enabled by default, so to remove the subtitles, you will need to change the dropdown list so it shows only a dash (-). You can also select “Use TV Mode” if your primary playback will be on a 4:3 TV screen. Click “Next.” Full Auto Mode vs. Manual Mode You should now be back to the initial screen. Next, we’ll need to determine whether or not we can use “Full Auto Mode” to convert the movie. The difference is that “Full Auto Mode” will automatically perform a few steps that you will otherwise have to do manually. If you choose the “Full Auto Mode” option, FairUse Wizard will look for the video on the DVD with the longest duration and assume it is the chain that it should convert to AVI. It’s possible, however, your disc may contain a few chains of similar size, such as a theatrical cut and director’s cut, and the longest chain may not be the one you wish to convert. Make sure that “Full auto mode” is not checked yet, and click “Next.”   FairUse Wizard will parse the IFO files and display all video chains longer than 60  seconds. In most cases, you will only find that the largest chain is the one closely matching the duration of the movie. In these instances, you can use “Full Auto Mode.” If you find more than one chain that are close in duration to the length of the movie, consult the literature on the DVD case, or search online, to find the actual running time of the movie. If the proper file chain is not the longest chain, you won’t be able to use “Full Auto Mode.”   Full Auto Mode To use “Full Auto Mode,” simply click the “Back” button to return to the initial screen Now, place a check in the “Full auto mode” check box. Click “Next.” You will then be prompted to chose your DVD drive, then click “OK.” FairUse Wizard will parse the IFO files… … and then prompt you to Select your drive that contains the DVD one more time before beginning the conversion process. Click “OK.”   Manual Mode If you cannot (or don’t wish to) use Full Auto Mode, choose the appropriate video chain and click “Next.” FairUse Wizard will first go through the process of indexing the video. Note: If you get a runtime error during this portion of the process, it likely means that FairUse Wizard cannot handle the copy protection, and thus cannot convert the DVD. FairUse Wizard will automatically detect a cropping region. If necessary, you can edit the cropping region by adjusting the cropping region settings to the left. Click “Next.” Next, click “Auto Detect” to choose the proper field combination. Click “OK” on the pop up window that displays your Field Mode. Then click “Next.” This next screen is mainly comprised of settings from the Options screen. You can make changes at this point such as codec or output size. Click “Next” when ready.   Video Conversion Now the video conversion process will begin. This may take a few hours depending on your system’s hardware. Note: There is a check box to “Shutdown computer when done” if you choose to run the conversion overnight or before leaving for work. The first phase will be video encoding… Then the audio… If you chose the “Two Pass” option, your video video will be encoded again on 2nd pass. Then you’re finished. Unfortunately, FairUse Wizard doesn’t clean up after itself very well. After the process is complete, you’ll want to browse to your output directory and delete all the temporary files as they take up a considerable amount of hard drive space. Now you’re ready to enjoy your movie. Conclusion FairUse Wizard is a nice way to backup your DVD movies to good quality .avi files. You can store them on your hard drive, watch them on a media PC, or burn them to disc. Many DVD players even allow for playback of DivX or XviD encoded video from a CD or DVD. For those of you with children, you can burn that AVI file to CD for your kids, and keep your original DVDs stored safely out of harms way. Download Download FairUse Wizard 2.9 LE Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Kantaris is a Unique Media Player Based on VLCHow to Make/Edit a movie with Windows Movie Maker in Windows VistaAutomatically Mount and View ISO files in Windows 7 Media CenterTune Your ClearType Font Settings in Windows VistaAdd Images and Metadata to Windows 7 Media Center Movie Library TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Make your Joomla & Drupal Sites Mobile with OSMOBI Integrate Twitter and Delicious and Make Life Easier Design Your Web Pages Using the Golden Ratio Worldwide Growth of the Internet How to Find Your Mac Address Use My TextTools to Edit and Organize Text

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  • Interesting articles and blogs on SPARC T4

    - by mv
    Interesting articles and blogs on SPARC T4 processor   I have consolidated all the interesting information I could get on SPARC T4 processor and its hardware cryptographic capabilities.  Hope its useful. 1. Advantages of SPARC T4 processor  Most important points in this T4 announcement are : "The SPARC T4 processor was designed from the ground up for high speed security and has a cryptographic stream processing unit (SPU) integrated directly into each processor core. These accelerators support 16 industry standard security ciphers and enable high speed encryption at rates 3 to 5 times that of competing processors. By integrating encryption capabilities directly inside the instruction pipeline, the SPARC T4 processor eliminates the performance and cost barriers typically associated with secure computing and makes it possible to deliver high security levels without impacting the user experience." Data Sheet has more details on these  : "New on-chip Encryption Instruction Accelerators with direct non-privileged support for 16 industry-standard cryptographic algorithms plus random number generation in each of the eight cores: AES, Camellia, CRC32c, DES, 3DES, DH, DSA, ECC, Kasumi, MD5, RSA, SHA-1, SHA-224, SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512" I ran "isainfo -v" command on Solaris 11 Sparc T4-1 system. It shows the new instructions as expected  : $ isainfo -v 64-bit sparcv9 applications crc32c cbcond pause mont mpmul sha512 sha256 sha1 md5 camellia kasumi des aes ima hpc vis3 fmaf asi_blk_init vis2 vis popc 32-bit sparc applications crc32c cbcond pause mont mpmul sha512 sha256 sha1 md5 camellia kasumi des aes ima hpc vis3 fmaf asi_blk_init vis2 vis popc v8plus div32 mul32  2.  Dan Anderson's Blog have some interesting points about how these can be used : "New T4 crypto instructions include: aes_kexpand0, aes_kexpand1, aes_kexpand2,         aes_eround01, aes_eround23, aes_eround01_l, aes_eround_23_l, aes_dround01, aes_dround23, aes_dround01_l, aes_dround_23_l.       Having SPARC T4 hardware crypto instructions is all well and good, but how do we access it ?      The software is available with Solaris 11 and is used automatically if you are running Solaris a SPARC T4.  It is used internally in the kernel through kernel crypto modules.  It is available in user space through the PKCS#11 library." 3.   Dans' Blog on Where's the Crypto Libraries? Although this was written in 2009 but still is very useful  "Here's a brief tour of the major crypto libraries shown in the digraph:   The libpkcs11 library contains the PKCS#11 API (C_\*() functions, such as C_Initialize()). That in turn calls library pkcs11_softtoken or pkcs11_kernel, for userland or kernel crypto providers. The latter is used mostly for hardware-assisted cryptography (such as n2cp for Niagara2 SPARC processors), as that is performed more efficiently in kernel space with the "kCF" module (Kernel Crypto Framework). Additionally, for Solaris 10, strong crypto algorithms were split off in separate libraries, pkcs11_softtoken_extra libcryptoutil contains low-level utility functions to help implement cryptography. libsoftcrypto (OpenSolaris and Solaris Nevada only) implements several symmetric-key crypto algorithms in software, such as AES, RC4, and DES3, and the bignum library (used for RSA). libmd implements MD5, SHA, and SHA2 message digest algorithms" 4. Difference in T3 and T4 Diagram in this blog is good and self explanatory. Jeff's blog also highlights the differences  "The T4 servers have improved crypto acceleration, described at https://blogs.oracle.com/DanX/entry/sparc_t4_openssl_engine. It is "just built in" so administrators no longer have to assign crypto accelerator units to domains - it "just happens". Every physical or virtual CPU on a SPARC-T4 has full access to hardware based crypto acceleration at all times. .... For completeness sake, it's worth noting that the T4 adds more crypto algorithms, and accelerates Camelia, CRC32c, and more SHA-x." 5. About performance counters In this blog, performance counters are explained : "Note that unlike T3 and before, T4 crypto doesn't require kernel modules like ncp or n2cp, there is no visibility of crypto hardware with kstats or cryptoadm. T4 does provide hardware counters for crypto operations.  You can see these using cpustat: cpustat -c pic0=Instr_FGU_crypto 5 You can check the general crypto support of the hardware and OS with the command "isainfo -v". Since T4 crypto's implementation now allows direct userland access, there are no "crypto units" visible to cryptoadm.  " For more details refer Martin's blog as well. 6. How to turn off  SPARC T4 or Intel AES-NI crypto acceleration  I found this interesting blog from Darren about how to turn off  SPARC T4 or Intel AES-NI crypto acceleration. "One of the new Solaris 11 features of the linker/loader is the ability to have a single ELF object that has multiple different implementations of the same functions that are selected at runtime based on the capabilities of the machine.   The alternate to this is having the application coded to call getisax(2) system call and make the choice itself.  We use this functionality of the linker/loader when we build the userland libraries for the Solaris Cryptographic Framework (specifically libmd.so and libsoftcrypto.so) The Solaris linker/loader allows control of a lot of its functionality via environment variables, we can use that to control the version of the cryptographic functions we run.  To do this we simply export the LD_HWCAP environment variable with values that tell ld.so.1 to not select the HWCAP section matching certain features even if isainfo says they are present.  This will work for consumers of the Solaris Cryptographic Framework that use the Solaris PKCS#11 libraries or use libmd.so interfaces directly.  For SPARC T4 : export LD_HWCAP="-aes -des -md5 -sha256 -sha512 -mont -mpul" .. For Intel systems with AES-NI support: export LD_HWCAP="-aes"" Note that LD_HWCAP is explained in  http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E23823_01/html/816-5165/ld.so.1-1.html "LD_HWCAP, LD_HWCAP_32, and LD_HWCAP_64 -  Identifies an alternative hardware capabilities value... A “-” prefix results in the capabilities that follow being removed from the alternative capabilities." 7. Whitepaper on SPARC T4 Servers—Optimized for End-to-End Data Center Computing This Whitepaper on SPARC T4 Servers—Optimized for End-to-End Data Center Computing explains more details.  It has DTrace scripts which may come in handy : "To ensure the hardware-assisted cryptographic acceleration is configured to use and working with the security scenarios, it is recommended to use the following Solaris DTrace script. #!/usr/sbin/dtrace -s pid$1:libsoftcrypto:yf*:entry, pid$target:libsoftcrypto:rsa*:entry, pid$1:libmd:yf*:entry { @[probefunc] = count(); } tick-1sec { printa(@ops); trunc(@ops); }" Note that I have slightly modified the D Script to have RSA "libsoftcrypto:rsa*:entry" as well as per recommendations from Chi-Chang Lin. 8. References http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/features/sparc-t4-announcement-494846.html http://www.oracle.com/us/products/servers-storage/servers/sparc-enterprise/t-series/sparc-t4-1-ds-487858.pdf https://blogs.oracle.com/DanX/entry/sparc_t4_openssl_engine https://blogs.oracle.com/DanX/entry/where_s_the_crypto_libraries https://blogs.oracle.com/darren/entry/howto_turn_off_sparc_t4 http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E23823_01/html/816-5165/ld.so.1-1.html   https://blogs.oracle.com/hardware/entry/unleash_the_power_of_cryptography https://blogs.oracle.com/cmt/entry/t4_crypto_cheat_sheet https://blogs.oracle.com/martinm/entry/t4_performance_counters_explained  https://blogs.oracle.com/jsavit/entry/no_mau_required_on_a http://www.oracle.com/us/products/servers-storage/servers/sparc-enterprise/t-series/sparc-t4-business-wp-524472.pdf

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