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• This is the End of Business as Usual...

  - by Michael Snow

  This week, we'll be hosting our last Social Business Thought Leader Series Webcast for 2012. Our featured guest this week will be Brian Solis of Altimeter Group. As we've been going through the preparations for Brian's webcast, it became very clear that an hour's time is barely scraping the surface of the depth of Brian's insights and analysis. Accordingly, in the spirit of sharing Brian's perspective for all of our readers, we'll be featuring guest posts all this week pulled from Brian's larger collection of blog postings on his own website. If you like what you've read here this week, we highly recommend digging deeper into his tome of wisdom. Guest Post by Brian Solis, Analyst, Altimeter Group as originally featured on his site with the minor change of the video addition at the beginning of the post. This is the End of Business as Usual and the Beginning of a New Era of Relevance - Brian Solis, Principal Analyst, Altimeter Group The Times They Are A-Changin’ Come gather ’round people Wherever you roam And admit that the waters Around you have grown And accept it that soon You’ll be drenched to the bone If your time to you Is worth savin’ Then you better start swimmin’ Or you’ll sink like a stone For the times they are a-changin’. - Bob Dylan I’m sure you are wondering why I chose lyrics to open this article. If you skimmed through them, stop here for a moment. Go back through the Dylan’s words and take your time. Carefully read, and feel, what it is he’s saying and savor the moment to connect the meaning of his words to the challenges you face today. His message is as important and true today as it was when they were first written in 1964. The tide is indeed once again turning. And even though the 60s now live in the history books, right here, right now, Dylan is telling us once again that this is our time to not only sink or swim, but to do something amazing. This is your time. This is our time. But, these times are different and what comes next is difficult to grasp. How people communicate. How people learn and share. How people make decisions. Everything is different now. Think about this…you’re reading this article because it was sent to you via email. Yet more people spend their online time in social networks than they do in email. Duh. According to Nielsen, of the total time spent online 22.5% are connecting and communicating in social networks. To put that in perspective, the time spent in the likes of Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube is greater than online gaming at 9.8%, email at 7.6% and search at 4%. Imagine for a moment if you and I were connected to one another in Facebook, which just so happens to be the largest social network in the world. How big? Well, Facebook is the size today of the entire Internet in 2004. There are over 1 billion people friending, Liking, commenting, sharing, and engaging in Facebook…that’s roughly 12% of the world’s population. Twitter has over 200 million users. Ever hear of tumblr? More time is spent on this popular microblogging community than Twitter. The point is that the landscape for communication and all that’s affected by human interaction is profoundly different than how you and I learned, shared or talked to one another yesterday. This transformation is only becoming more pervasive and, it’s not going back. Survival of the Fitting But social media is just one of the channels we can use to reach people. I must be honest. I’m as much a part of tomorrow as I am of yesteryear. It’s why I spend all of my time researching the evolution of media and its impact on business and culture. Because of you, I share everything I learn in newsletters, emails, blogs, Youtube videos, and also traditional books. I’m dedicated to helping everyone not only understand, but grasp the change that’s before you. Technologies such as social, mobile, virtual, augmented, et al compel us adapt our story and value proposition and extend our reach to be part of communities we don’t realize exist. The people who will keep you in business or running tomorrow are the very people you’re not reaching today. Before you continue to read on, allow me to clarify my point of view. My inspiration for writing this is to help you augment, not necessarily replace, the programs you’re running today. We must still reach those whom matter to us in the ways they prefer to be engaged. To reach what I call the connected consumer of Geneeration-C we must too reach them in the ways they wish to be engaged. And in all of my work, how they connect, talk to one another, influence others, and make decisions are not at all like the traditional consumers of the past. Nor are they merely the kids…the Millennial. Connected consumers are representative across every age group and demographic. As you can see, use of social networks, media sharing sites, microblogs, blogs, etc. equally span across Gen Y, Gen X, and Baby Boomers. The DNA of connected customers is indiscriminant of age or any other demographic for that matter. This is more about psychographics, the linkage of people through common interests (than it is their age, gender, education, nationality or level of income. Once someone is introduced to the marvels of connectedness, the sensation becomes a contagion. It touches and affects everyone. And, that’s why this isn’t going anywhere but normalcy. Social networking isn’t just about telling people what you’re doing. Nor is it just about generic, meaningless conversation. Today’s connected consumer is incredibly influential. They’re connected to hundreds and even thousands of other like-minded people. What they experiences, what they support, it’s shared throughout these networks and as information travels, it shapes and steers impressions, decisions, and experiences of others. For example, if we revisit the Nielsen research, we get an idea of just how big this is becoming. 75% spend heavily on music. How does that translate to the arts? I’d imagine the number is equally impressive. If 53% follow their favorite brand or organization, imagine what’s possible. Just like this email list that connects us, connections in social networks are powerful. The difference is however, that people spend more time in social networks than they do in email. Everything begins with an understanding of the “5 W’s and H.E.” – Who, What, When, Where, How, and to What Extent? The data that comes back tells you which networks are important to the people you’re trying to reach, how they connect, what they share, what they value, and how to connect with them. From there, your next steps are to create a community strategy that extends your mission, vision, and value and it align it with the interests, behavior, and values of those you wish to reach and galvanize. To help, I’ve prepared an action list for you, otherwise known as the 10 Steps Toward New Relevance: 1. Answer why you should engage in social networks and why anyone would want to engage with you 2. Observe what brings them together and define how you can add value to the conversation 3. Identify the influential voices that matter to your world, recognize what’s important to them, and find a way to start a dialogue that can foster a meaningful and mutually beneficial relationship 4. Study the best practices of not just organizations like yours, but also those who are successfully reaching the type of people you’re trying to reach – it’s benching marking against competitors and benchmarking against undefined opportunities 5. Translate all you’ve learned into a convincing presentation written to demonstrate tangible opportunity to your executive board, make the case through numbers, trends, data, insights – understanding they have no idea what’s going on out there and you are both the scout and the navigator (start with a recommended pilot so everyone can learn together) 6. Listen to what they’re saying and develop a process to learn from activity and adapt to interests and steer engagement based on insights 7. Recognize how they use social media and innovate based on what you observe to captivate their attention 8. Align your objectives with their objectives. If you’re unsure of what they’re looking for…ask 9. Invest in the development of content, engagement 10. Build a community, invest in values, spark meaningful dialogue, and offer tangible value…the kind of value they can’t get anywhere else. Take advantage of the medium and the opportunity! The reality is that we live and compete in a perpetual era of Digital Darwinism, the evolution of consumer behavior when society and technology evolve faster than our ability to adapt. This is why it’s our time to alter our course. We must connect with those who are defining the future of engagement, commerce, business, and how the arts are appreciated and supported. Even though it is the end of business as usual, it is the beginning of a new age of opportunity. The consumer revolution is already underway, and the question is: How do you better understand the role you play in this production as a connected or social consumer as well as business professional? Again, this is your time to define a new era of engagement and relevance. Originally written for The National Arts Marketing Project Connect with Brian via: Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook | Google+ --- Note from Michael: If you really like this post above - check out Brian's TEDTalk and his thought process for preparing it in this post: 12.00 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} http://www.briansolis.com/2012/10/tedtalk-reinventing-consumer-capitalism-screw-business-as-usual/

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• How to set Alpha value from pixel shader in SlimDX Direct3d9

  - by Yashwinder

  I am trying to set alpha value of color as color.a = 0.5f in my pixel shader but all the time it is giving an exception. I can set color.r, color.g, color.b but it is not allowing me to set color.a and throwing an exception D3DERR_INVALIDCALL: Invalid call (-2005530516). I have just created a direct3d9 device and assigned my pixel shader to it. My pixel shader code is as below sampler2D ourImage : register(s0); float4 main(float2 locationInSource : TEXCOORD) : COLOR { float4 color = tex2D( ourImage , locationInSource.xy); color.a = 0.2; return color; } I am creating my pixel shader as byte[] byteCode = GiveFxFile(transitionEffect.PixelShaderFileName); var shaderBytecode = ShaderBytecode.Compile(byteCode, "main", "ps_2_0", ShaderFlags.None); var pixelShader = new PixelShader(device, ShaderBytecode); _device.PixelShader=pixelShader; I have initialized my device as var _presentParams = new PresentParameters { Windowed = _isWindowedMode, BackBufferWidth = (int)SystemParameters.PrimaryScreenWidth, BackBufferHeight = (int)SystemParameters.PrimaryScreenHeight, // Enable Z-Buffer // This is not really needed in this sample but real applications generaly use it EnableAutoDepthStencil = true, AutoDepthStencilFormat = Format.D16, // How to swap backbuffer in front and how many per screen refresh BackBufferCount = 1, SwapEffect = SwapEffect.Copy, BackBufferFormat = _direct3D.Adapters[0].CurrentDisplayMode.Format, PresentationInterval = PresentInterval.Immediate, DeviceWindowHandle = _windowHandle }; _device = new Device(_direct3D, 0, DeviceType.Hardware, _windowHandle, deviceFlags | CreateFlags.Multithreaded, _presentParams);

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• C#/.NET Little Wonders: Fun With Enum Methods

  - by James Michael Hare

  Once again lets dive into the Little Wonders of .NET, those small things in the .NET languages and BCL classes that make development easier by increasing readability, maintainability, and/or performance. So probably every one of us has used an enumerated type at one time or another in a C# program.  The enumerated types we create are a great way to represent that a value can be one of a set of discrete values (or a combination of those values in the case of bit flags). But the power of enum types go far beyond simple assignment and comparison, there are many methods in the Enum class (that all enum types “inherit” from) that can give you even more power when dealing with them. IsDefined() – check if a given value exists in the enum Are you reading a value for an enum from a data source, but are unsure if it is actually a valid value or not?  Casting won’t tell you this, and Parse() isn’t guaranteed to balk either if you give it an int or a combination of flags.  So what can we do? Let’s assume we have a small enum like this for result codes we want to return back from our business logic layer: 1: public enum ResultCode 2: { 3: Success, 4: Warning, 5: Error 6: } In this enum, Success will be zero (unless given another value explicitly), Warning will be one, and Error will be two. So what happens if we have code like this where perhaps we’re getting the result code from another data source (could be database, could be web service, etc)? 1: public ResultCode PerformAction() 2: { 3: // set up and call some method that returns an int. 4: int result = ResultCodeFromDataSource(); 5:  6: // this will suceed even if result is < 0 or > 2. 7: return (ResultCode) result; 8: } So what happens if result is –1 or 4?  Well, the cast does not fail, so what we end up with would be an instance of a ResultCode that would have a value that’s outside of the bounds of the enum constants we defined. This means if you had a block of code like: 1: switch (result) 2: { 3: case ResultType.Success: 4: // do success stuff 5: break; 6:  7: case ResultType.Warning: 8: // do warning stuff 9: break; 10:  11: case ResultType.Error: 12: // do error stuff 13: break; 14: } That you would hit none of these blocks (which is a good argument for always having a default in a switch by the way). So what can you do?  Well, there is a handy static method called IsDefined() on the Enum class which will tell you if an enum value is defined.  1: public ResultCode PerformAction() 2: { 3: int result = ResultCodeFromDataSource(); 4:  5: if (!Enum.IsDefined(typeof(ResultCode), result)) 6: { 7: throw new InvalidOperationException("Enum out of range."); 8: } 9:  10: return (ResultCode) result; 11: } In fact, this is often recommended after you Parse() or cast a value to an enum as there are ways for values to get past these methods that may not be defined. If you don’t like the syntax of passing in the type of the enum, you could clean it up a bit by creating an extension method instead that would allow you to call IsDefined() off any isntance of the enum: 1: public static class EnumExtensions 2: { 3: // helper method that tells you if an enum value is defined for it's enumeration 4: public static bool IsDefined(this Enum value) 5: { 6: return Enum.IsDefined(value.GetType(), value); 7: } 8: }   HasFlag() – an easier way to see if a bit (or bits) are set Most of us who came from the land of C programming have had to deal extensively with bit flags many times in our lives.  As such, using bit flags may be almost second nature (for a quick refresher on bit flags in enum types see one of my old posts here). However, in higher-level languages like C#, the need to manipulate individual bit flags is somewhat diminished, and the code to check for bit flag enum values may be obvious to an advanced developer but cryptic to a novice developer. For example, let’s say you have an enum for a messaging platform that contains bit flags: 1: // usually, we pluralize flags enum type names 2: [Flags] 3: public enum MessagingOptions 4: { 5: None = 0, 6: Buffered = 0x01, 7: Persistent = 0x02, 8: Durable = 0x04, 9: Broadcast = 0x08 10: } We can combine these bit flags using the bitwise OR operator (the ‘|’ pipe character): 1: // combine bit flags using 2: var myMessenger = new Messenger(MessagingOptions.Buffered | MessagingOptions.Broadcast); Now, if we wanted to check the flags, we’d have to test then using the bit-wise AND operator (the ‘&’ character): 1: if ((options & MessagingOptions.Buffered) == MessagingOptions.Buffered) 2: { 3: // do code to set up buffering... 4: // ... 5: } While the ‘|’ for combining flags is easy enough to read for advanced developers, the ‘&’ test tends to be easy for novice developers to get wrong.  First of all you have to AND the flag combination with the value, and then typically you should test against the flag combination itself (and not just for a non-zero)!  This is because the flag combination you are testing with may combine multiple bits, in which case if only one bit is set, the result will be non-zero but not necessarily all desired bits! Thanks goodness in .NET 4.0 they gave us the HasFlag() method.  This method can be called from an enum instance to test to see if a flag is set, and best of all you can avoid writing the bit wise logic yourself.  Not to mention it will be more readable to a novice developer as well: 1: if (options.HasFlag(MessagingOptions.Buffered)) 2: { 3: // do code to set up buffering... 4: // ... 5: } It is much more concise and unambiguous, thus increasing your maintainability and readability. It would be nice to have a corresponding SetFlag() method, but unfortunately generic types don’t allow you to specialize on Enum, which makes it a bit more difficult.  It can be done but you have to do some conversions to numeric and then back to the enum which makes it less of a payoff than having the HasFlag() method.  But if you want to create it for symmetry, it would look something like this: 1: public static T SetFlag<T>(this Enum value, T flags) 2: { 3: if (!value.GetType().IsEquivalentTo(typeof(T))) 4: { 5: throw new ArgumentException("Enum value and flags types don't match."); 6: } 7:  8: // yes this is ugly, but unfortunately we need to use an intermediate boxing cast 9: return (T)Enum.ToObject(typeof (T), Convert.ToUInt64(value) | Convert.ToUInt64(flags)); 10: } Note that since the enum types are value types, we need to assign the result to something (much like string.Trim()).  Also, you could chain several SetFlag() operations together or create one that takes a variable arg list if desired. Parse() and ToString() – transitioning from string to enum and back Sometimes, you may want to be able to parse an enum from a string or convert it to a string - Enum has methods built in to let you do this.  Now, many may already know this, but may not appreciate how much power are in these two methods. For example, if you want to parse a string as an enum, it’s easy and works just like you’d expect from the numeric types: 1: string optionsString = "Persistent"; 2:  3: // can use Enum.Parse, which throws if finds something it doesn't like... 4: var result = (MessagingOptions)Enum.Parse(typeof (MessagingOptions), optionsString); 5:  6: if (result == MessagingOptions.Persistent) 7: { 8: Console.WriteLine("It worked!"); 9: } Note that Enum.Parse() will throw if it finds a value it doesn’t like.  But the values it likes are fairly flexible!  You can pass in a single value, or a comma separated list of values for flags and it will parse them all and set all bits: 1: // for string values, can have one, or comma separated. 2: string optionsString = "Persistent, Buffered"; 3:  4: var result = (MessagingOptions)Enum.Parse(typeof (MessagingOptions), optionsString); 5:  6: if (result.HasFlag(MessagingOptions.Persistent) && result.HasFlag(MessagingOptions.Buffered)) 7: { 8: Console.WriteLine("It worked!"); 9: } Or you can parse in a string containing a number that represents a single value or combination of values to set: 1: // 3 is the combination of Buffered (0x01) and Persistent (0x02) 2: var optionsString = "3"; 3:  4: var result = (MessagingOptions) Enum.Parse(typeof (MessagingOptions), optionsString); 5:  6: if (result.HasFlag(MessagingOptions.Persistent) && result.HasFlag(MessagingOptions.Buffered)) 7: { 8: Console.WriteLine("It worked again!"); 9: } And, if you really aren’t sure if the parse will work, and don’t want to handle an exception, you can use TryParse() instead: 1: string optionsString = "Persistent, Buffered"; 2: MessagingOptions result; 3:  4: // try parse returns true if successful, and takes an out parm for the result 5: if (Enum.TryParse(optionsString, out result)) 6: { 7: if (result.HasFlag(MessagingOptions.Persistent) && result.HasFlag(MessagingOptions.Buffered)) 8: { 9: Console.WriteLine("It worked!"); 10: } 11: } So we covered parsing a string to an enum, what about reversing that and converting an enum to a string?  The ToString() method is the obvious and most basic choice for most of us, but did you know you can pass a format string for enum types that dictate how they are written as a string?: 1: MessagingOptions value = MessagingOptions.Buffered | MessagingOptions.Persistent; 2:  3: // general format, which is the default, 4: Console.WriteLine("Default : " + value); 5: Console.WriteLine("G (default): " + value.ToString("G")); 6:  7: // Flags format, even if type does not have Flags attribute. 8: Console.WriteLine("F (flags) : " + value.ToString("F")); 9:  10: // integer format, value as number. 11: Console.WriteLine("D (num) : " + value.ToString("D")); 12:  13: // hex format, value as hex 14: Console.WriteLine("X (hex) : " + value.ToString("X")); Which displays: 1: Default : Buffered, Persistent 2: G (default): Buffered, Persistent 3: F (flags) : Buffered, Persistent 4: D (num) : 3 5: X (hex) : 00000003 Now, you may not really see a difference here between G and F because I used a [Flags] enum, the difference is that the “F” option treats the enum as if it were flags even if the [Flags] attribute is not present.  Let’s take a non-flags enum like the ResultCode used earlier: 1: // yes, we can do this even if it is not [Flags] enum. 2: ResultCode value = ResultCode.Warning | ResultCode.Error; And if we run that through the same formats again we get: 1: Default : 3 2: G (default): 3 3: F (flags) : Warning, Error 4: D (num) : 3 5: X (hex) : 00000003 Notice that since we had multiple values combined, but it was not a [Flags] marked enum, the G and default format gave us a number instead of a value name.  This is because the value was not a valid single-value constant of the enum.  However, using the F flags format string, it broke out the value into its component flags even though it wasn’t marked [Flags]. So, if you want to get an enum to display appropriately for whether or not it has the [Flags] attribute, use G which is the default.  If you always want it to attempt to break down the flags, use F.  For numeric output, obviously D or  X are the best choice depending on whether you want decimal or hex. Summary Hopefully, you learned a couple of new tricks with using the Enum class today!  I’ll add more little wonders as I think of them and thanks for all the invaluable input!   Technorati Tags: C#,.NET,Little Wonders,Enum,BlackRabbitCoder

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• Read only file system

  - by Jack Moon

  I'm running Ubuntu 12.10, Upon opening any shell I get the following error: /home/jack/.rbenv/libexec/rbenv-init: line 87: cannot create temp file for here-document: Read-only file system I realised this wasn't simply a rbenv issue, as any file I try to write to returns an error saying the system is Read-only. I don't know how else to describe my problem, each time I boot up the system goes through a disk check, where it supposedly fixes several errors in my disk. Here is my /etc/fstab # <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass> proc /proc proc nodev,noexec,nosuid 0 0 # / was on /dev/sda1 during installation UUID=1cc4b2ab-a984-4516-ac25-6d64f5050244 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1 # swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation UUID=4e0dfeae-701a-43ce-b5c6-65f15ab3d8e3 none swap sw 0 0 The entire file system is read-only. I've tried the following sudo fsck.ext4 -f /dev/sda1 which gave the following (shortened) output /dev/sda1: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED ***** /dev/sda1: ***** REBOOT LINUX ***** /dev/sda1: 1257080/45268992 files (1.0% non-contiguous), 50696803/181051904 blocks

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• No endpoint listening at.........

  - by Michael Stephenson

  I was having some very frustrating behaviour on our build server and while I found a number of articles online with similar error messages none of them helped me.  I thought I would just explain this here incase if helps me or anyone else in future.The error message we were getting is:There was no endpoint listening at http://localhostStubs.ExternalApplication/SampleService.svc that could accept the message. This is often caused by an incorrect address or SOAP action. See InnerException, if present, for more detailsOur scenario is as follows:We have a solution where a WCF service application hosting the WCF routing service is listening to the Windows Azure Service Bus Relay.  We have an acceptance test project in the solution which sends a message to the service bus which is then received by the WCF routing service and routed to SampleService.svc which is hosted in another IIS application on the same box.  A response is flowed back through to the test.  In the tests there are 5 scenarios simulating a successful message, and various error conditions.  On my developer machine it was working absolutely fine every time, and a clean build on my developer machine worked fine.  On the build server however one or more of the tests would fail each time with the above error message.  There didnt seem to be any pattern to which test would fail.The solution was building on a Windows 2008 R2 machine with IIS 7 and AppFabric Server installed with auto-start configured for the IIS Application which would be listening to service bus.After lots of searching online and looking at logs etc it turned out to be a simple solution to just restart the WAS service (Windows Process Activation Service) and the services it advised you to restart with it.  Hope this helps someone else

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• SSIS Prehistory video

  - by jamiet

  I’m currently wasting spending my Easter bank holiday putting together my presentation SSIS Dataflow Performance Tuning for the upcoming SQL Bits conference in London and in doing so I’m researching some old material about how the dataflow actually works. Boring as it is I’ve gotten easily sidelined and have chanced upon an old video on Channel 9 entitled Euan Garden - Tour of SQL Server Team (part I). Euan is a former member of the SQL Server team and in this series of videos he walks the halls of the SQL Server building on Microsoft’s Redmond campus talking to some of the various protagonists and in this one he happens upon the SQL Server Integration Services team. The video was shot in 2004 so this is a fascinating (to me anyway) glimpse into the development of SSIS from before it was ever shipped and if you’re a geek like me you’ll really enjoy this behind-the-scenes look into how and why the product was architected. The video is also notable for the presence of the cameraman – none other than the now-rather-more-famous-than-he-was-then Robert Scoble. See it at http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/TheChannel9Team/Euan-Garden-Tour-of-SQL-Server-Team-part-I/ Enjoy! @Jamiet Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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• How to get the path of a file after publishing my game

  - by NDraskovic

  I made a "game" for a college project that reads data from .txt file at startup and draws some models according to the data in that file. This is the code I use using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(@"C:\Users\User\Desktop\Linije.txt")) { String linija; while ((linija = sr.ReadLine()) != null) { red = linija.Split(','); model = red[0]; x = red[1]; y = red[2]; z = red[3]; elementi.Add(Convert.ToInt32(model)); podatci.Add(new Vector3(Convert.ToSingle(x),Convert.ToSingle(y),Convert.ToSingle(z))); } } As you see, this code fills some variables that are then used to define the model that will be drawn and the coordinates where it will be drawn. The problem that I'm having is that I don't know how to distribute that file to other computers (obviously on another computer it would have another path)? Do you have some advices on how to do this? P.S I tried to put it in the Content and set the Build Action on None, and I can see the file in the content directory, but when I change it, nothing happens (the models don't change as they should)

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• Booby Traps and Locked-in Kids: An Interview with a Safecracker

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  While most of our articles focus on security of the digital sort, this interview with a professional safecracker is an interesting look the physical side of securing your goods. As part of their Interviews with People Who Have Interesting or Unusual Jobs series over at McSweeney’s, they interviewed Ken Doyle, a professional a locksmithing and safecracking veteran with 30 years of industry experience. The interview is both entertaining and an interesting read. One of the more unusual aspects of safecracking he highlights: Q: Do you ever look inside? A: I NEVER look. It’s none of my business. Involving yourself in people’s private affairs can lead to being subpoenaed in a lawsuit or criminal trial. Besides, I’d prefer not knowing about a client’s drug stash, personal porn, or belly button lint collection. When I’m done I gather my tools and walk to the truck to write my invoice. Sometimes I’m out of the room before they open it. I don’t want to be nearby if there is a booby trap. Q: Why would there be a booby trap? A: The safe owner intentionally uses trip mechanisms, explosives or tear gas devices to “deter” unauthorized entry into his safe. It’s pretty stupid because I have yet to see any signs warning a would-be culprit about the danger. HTG Explains: Why Linux Doesn’t Need Defragmenting How to Convert News Feeds to Ebooks with Calibre How To Customize Your Wallpaper with Google Image Searches, RSS Feeds, and More

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• Inverted textures

  - by brainydexter

  I'm trying to draw textures aligned with this physics body whose coordinate system's origin is at the center of the screen. (XNA)Spritebatch has its default origin set to top-left corner. I got the textures to be positioned correctly, but I noticed my textures are vertically inverted. That is, an arrow texture pointing Up , when rendered points down. I'm not sure where I am going wrong with the math. My approach is to convert everything in physic's meter units and draw accordingly. Matrix proj = Matrix.CreateOrthographic(scale * graphics.GraphicsDevice.Viewport.AspectRatio, scale, 0, 1); Matrix view = Matrix.Identity; effect.World = Matrix.Identity; effect.View = view; effect.Projection = proj; effect.TextureEnabled = true; effect.VertexColorEnabled = true; effect.Techniques[0].Passes[0].Apply(); SpriteBatch.Begin(SpriteSortMode.BackToFront, BlendState.AlphaBlend, null, DepthStencilState.Default, RasterizerState.CullNone, effect); m_Paddles[1].Draw(gameTime); SpriteBatch.End(); where Paddle::Draw looks like: SpriteBatch.Draw(paddleTexture, mBody.Position, null, Color.White, 0f, new Vector2(16f, 16f), // origin of the texture 0.1875f, SpriteEffects.None, // width of box is 3*2 = 6 meters. texture is 32 pixels wide. to make it 6 meters wide in world space: 6/32 = 0.1875f 0); The orthographic projection matrix seem fine to me, but I am obviously doing something wrong somewhere! Can someone please help me figure out what am i doing wrong here ? Thanks

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• How is IntelliJ better than Eclipse?

  - by NickC

  I know there have been questions like What is your favorite editor/IDE?, but none of them have answered this question: Why spend the money on IntelliJ when Eclipse is free? I'm personally a big IntelliJ fan, but I haven't really tried Eclipse. I've used IntelliJ for projects that were Java, JSP, HTML/CSS, Javascript, PHP, and Actionscript, and the latest version, 9, has been excellent for all of them. Many coworkers in the past have told me that they believe Eclipse to be "pretty much the same" as IntelliJ, but, to counter that point, I've occasionally sat behind a developer using Eclipse who's seemed comparably inefficient (to accomplish roughly the same task), and I haven't experienced this with IntelliJ. They may be on par feature-by-feature but features can be ruined by a poor user experience, and I wonder if it's possible that IntelliJ is easier to pick up and discover time-saving features. For users who are already familiar with Eclipse, on top of the real cost of IntelliJ, there is also the cost of time spent learning the new app. Eclipse gets a lot of users who simply don't want to spend $250 on an IDE. If IntelliJ really could help my team be more productive, how could I sell it to them? For those users who've tried both, I'd be very interested in specific pros or cons either way.

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• How I Work: A Cloud Developer's Workstation

  - by BuckWoody

  I've written here a little about how I work during the day, including things like using a stand-up desk (still doing that, by the way). Inspired by a Twitter conversation yesterday, I thought I might explain how I set up my computing environment. First, a couple of important points. I work in Cloud Computing, specifically (but not limited to) Windows Azure. Windows Azure has features to run a Virtual Machine (IaaS), run code without having to control a Virtual Machine (PaaS) and use databases, video streaming, Hadoop and more (a kind of SaaS for tech pros). As such, my designs run the gamut of on-premises, VM's in the Cloud, and software that I write for a platform. I focus on data primarily, meaning that I design a lot of systems that use an RDBMS (like SQL Server or Windows Azure Databases) or a NoSQL approach (MongoDB on Azure or large-scale Key-Value Pairs in Table storage) and even Hadoop and R, and also Cloud Numerics in F#. All that being said, those things inform my choices below. Hardware I have a Lenovo X220 tablet/laptop which I really like a great deal - it's a light, tough, extremely fast system. When I travel, that's the system I take. It has 8GB of RAM, and an SSD drive. I sometimes use that to develop or work at a client's site, on the road, or in the living room when I'm not in my home office. My main system is a GateWay DX430017 - I've maxed it out on RAM, and I have two 1TB drives in it. It's not only my workstation for work; I leave it on all the time and it streams our videos, music and books. I have about 3400 e-books, and I've just started using Calibre to stream the library. I run Windows 8 on it so I can set up Hyper-V images, since Windows Azure allows me to move regular Hyper-V disks back and forth to the Cloud. That's where all my "servers" are, when I have to use an IaaS approach. The reason I use a desktop-style system rather than a laptop only approach is that a good part of my job is setting up architectures to solve really big, complex problems. That means I have to simulate entire networks on-premises, along with the Hybrid Cloud approach I use a lot. I need a lot of disk space and memory for that, and I use two huge monitors on my stand-up desk. I could probably use 10 monitors if I had the room for them. Also, since it's our home system as well, I leave it on all the time and it doesn't travel.   Software For the software for my systems, it's important to keep in mind that I not only write code, but I design databases, teach, present, and create Linux and other environments. Windows 8 - While the jury is out for me on the new interface, the context-sensitive search, integrated everything, and speed is just hands-down the right choice. I've evaluated a server OS, Linux, even an Apple, but I just am not as efficient on those as I am with Windows 8. Visual Studio Ultimate - I develop primarily in .NET (C# and F# mostly) and I use the Team Foundation Server in the cloud, and I'm asked to do everything from UI to Services, so I need everything. Windows Azure SDK, Windows Azure Training Kit - I need the first to set up my Azure PaaS coding, and the second has all the info I need for PaaS, IaaS and SaaS. This is primarily how I get paid. :) SQL Server Developer Edition - While I might install Oracle, MySQL and Postgres on my VM's, the "outside" environment is SQL Server for an RDBMS. I install the Developer Edition because it has the same features as Enterprise Edition, and comes with all the client tools and documentation. Microsoft Office -  Even if I didn't work here, this is what I would use. I've just grown too accustomed to doing business this way to change, so my advice is always "use what works", and this does. The parts I use are: OneNote (and a Math Add-in) - I do almost everything - and I mean everything in OneNote. I can code, do high-end math, present, design, collaborate and more. All my notebooks are on my Skydrive. I can use them from any system, anywhere. If you take the time to learn this program, you'll be hooked. Excel with PowerPivot - Don't make that face. Excel is the world's database, and every Data Scientist I know - even the ones where I teach at the University of Washington - know it, use it, and love it.  Outlook - Primary communications, CRM and contact tool. I have all of my social media hooked up to it, so when I get an e-mail from you, I see everything, see all the history we've had on e-mail, find you on a map and more. Lync - I was fine with LiveMeeting, although it has it's moments. For me, the Lync client is tres-awesome. I use this throughout my day, present on it, stay in contact with colleagues and the folks on the dev team (who wish I didn't have it) and more.  PowerPoint - Once again, don't make that face. Whenever I see someone complaining about PowerPoint, I have 100% of the time found they don't know how to use it. If you suck at presenting or creating content, don't blame PowerPoint. Works great on my machine. :) Zoomit - Magnifier - On Windows 7 (and 8 as well) there's a built-in magnifier, but I install Zoomit out of habit. It enlarges the screen. If you don't use one of these tools (or their equivalent on some other OS) then you're presenting/teaching wrong, and you should stop presenting/teaching until you get them and learn how to show people what you can see on your tiny, tiny monitor. :) Cygwin - Unix for Windows. OK, that's not true, but it's mostly that. I grew up on mainframes and Unix (IBM and HP, thank you) and I can't imagine life without  sed, awk, grep, vim, and bash. I also tend to take a lot of the "Science" and "Development" and "Database" packages in it as well. PuTTY - Speaking of Unix, when I need to connect to my Linux VM's in Windows Azure, I want to do it securely. This is the tool for that. Notepad++ - Somewhere between torturing myself in vim and luxuriating in OneNote is Notepad++. Everyone has a favorite text editor; this one is mine. Too many features to name, and it's free. Browsers - I install Chrome, Firefox and of course IE. I know it's in vogue to rant on IE, but I tend to think for myself a great deal, and I've had few (none) problems with it. The others I have for the haterz that make sites that won't run in IE. Visio - I've used a lot of design packages, but none have the extreme meta-data edit capabilities of Visio. I don't use this all the time - it can be rather heavy, but what it does it does really well. I also present this way when I'm not using PowerPoint. Yup, I just bring up Visio and diagram away as I'm chatting with clients. Depending on what we're covering, this can be the right tool for that. Tweetdeck - The AIR one, not that new disaster they came out with. I live on social media, since you, dear readers, are my cube-mates. When I get tired of you all, I close Tweetdeck. When I need help or someone needs help from me, or if I want to see a picture of a cat while I'm coding, I bring it up. It's up most all day and night. Windows Media Player - I listen to Trance or Classical when I code, and I find music managers overbearing and extra. I just use what comes in the box, and it works great for me. R - F# and Cloud Numerics now allows me to load in R libraries (yay!) and I use this for statistical work on big data loads. Microsoft Math - One of the most amazing, free, rich, amazing, awesome, amazing calculators out there. I get the 64-bit version for quick math conversions, plots and formula-checks. Python - I know, right? Who knew that the scientific community loved Python so much. But they do. I use 2.7; not as much runs with 3+. I also use IronPython in Visual Studio, or I edit in Notepad++ Camstudio recorder - Windows PSR - In much of my training, and all of my teaching at the UW, I need to show a process on a screen. Camstudio records screen and voice, and it's free. If I need to make static training, I use the Windows PSR tool that's built right in. It's ostensibly for problem duplication, but I use it to record for training.   OK - your turn. Post a link to your blog entry below, and tell me how you set your system up.  

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• Declarative programming vs. Imperative programming

  - by EpsilonVector

  I feel very comfortable with Imperative programming. I never have trouble expressing algorithmically what I want the computer to do once I figured out what is it that I want it to do. But when it comes to languages like SQL or Relational Algebra I often get stuck because my head is too used to Imperative programming. For example, suppose you have the relations band(bandName, bandCountry), venue(venueName, venueCountry), plays(bandName, venueName), and I want to write a query that says: all venueNames such that for every bandCountry there's a band from that country that plays in venue of that name. In my mind I immediately go "for each venueName iterate over all the bandCountries and for each bandCountry get the list of bands that come from it. If none of them play in venueName, go to next venueName. Else, at the end of the bandCountries iteration add venueName to the set of good venueNames". ...but you can't talk like that in SQL and I actually need to think about how to formulate this, with the intuitive Imperative solution constantly nagging in the back of my head. Did anybody else had this problem? How did you overcome this? Did you figured out a paradigm shift? Made a map from Imperative concepts to SQL concepts to translate Imperative solutions into Declarative ones? Read a good book? PS I'm not looking for a solution to the above query, I did solve it.

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• How to read values from RESX file in ASP.NET using ResXResourceReader

  Here is the method which returns the value for a particular key in a given resource file. Below method assumes resourceFileName is the resource filename and key is the string for which the value has to be retrieved. public static string ReadValueFromResourceFile(String resourceFileName, String key)    {        String _value = String.Empty;        ResXResourceReader _resxReader = new ResXResourceReader(            String.Format("{0}{1}\\{2}",System.AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory.ToString(), StringConstants.ResourceFolderName , resourceFileName));        foreach (DictionaryEntry _item in _resxReader)        {            if (_item.Key.Equals(key))            {                _value = _item.Value.ToString();                break;            }        }        return _value;    } span.fullpost {display:none;}

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• 12.04: Persistent Gimp 2.2 from Gimphoto or Gimpshop. Cannot install 2.8

  - by Jorge M. Treviño

  I have a very messed up installation of Gimp. Some time ago I installed Gimpshop or Gimphoto (can't really remember which) and it installed Gimp 2.2. Didn't work for me and tried to remove it. I've followed all Gimp remove, autoremove, clean, update and upgrade instructions I've found here to no avail. Now Software Center doesn't even show 2.8 but instead it does 2.6. I've installed and removed Gimp from terminal nth times. Running Gimp from the dash doesn't do anything but entering "Gimp" in the terminal prompt gives me a 2.2 installation screen. Cannot for the life of me find and remove the darn leftover garbage. How can I completely clean my system (12.04, fully updated today) from everything Gimp so I can give 2.8 a try? Anticipated apologies if this is a dupe but I've run through all messages with a Gimp tag and none has helped me. sudo apt-get install -f gives me 0,0,0,0. Thanks in advance.

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• Metro: Creating a Master/Detail View with a WinJS ListView Control

  - by Stephen.Walther

  The goal of this blog entry is to explain how you can create a simple master/detail view by using the WinJS ListView and Template controls. In particular, I explain how you can use a ListView control to display a list of movies and how you can use a Template control to display the details of the selected movie. Creating a master/detail view requires completing the following four steps: Create the data source – The data source contains the list of movies. Declare the ListView control – The ListView control displays the entire list of movies. It is the master part of the master/detail view. Declare the Details Template control – The Details Template control displays the details for the selected movie. It is the details part of the master/detail view. Handle the selectionchanged event – You handle the selectionchanged event to display the details for a movie when a new movie is selected. Creating the Data Source There is nothing special about our data source. We initialize a WinJS.Binding.List object to represent a list of movies: (function () { "use strict"; var movies = new WinJS.Binding.List([ { title: "Star Wars", director: "Lucas"}, { title: "Shrek", director: "Adamson" }, { title: "Star Trek", director: "Abrams" }, { title: "Spiderman", director: "Raimi" }, { title: "Memento", director: "Nolan" }, { title: "Minority Report", director: "Spielberg" } ]); // Expose the data source WinJS.Namespace.define("ListViewDemos", { movies: movies }); })(); The data source is exposed to the rest of our application with the name ListViewDemos.movies. Declaring the ListView Control The ListView control is declared with the following markup: <div id="movieList" data-win-control="WinJS.UI.ListView" data-win-options="{ itemDataSource: ListViewDemos.movies.dataSource, itemTemplate: select('#masterItemTemplate'), tapBehavior: 'directSelect', selectionMode: 'single', layout: { type: WinJS.UI.ListLayout } }"> </div> The data-win-options attribute is used to set the following properties of the ListView control: itemDataSource – The ListView is bound to the list of movies which we created in the previous section. Notice that the ListView is bound to ListViewDemos.movies.dataSource and not just ListViewDemos.movies. itemTemplate – The item template contains the template used for rendering each item in the ListView. The markup for this template is included below. tabBehavior – This enumeration determines what happens when you tap or click on an item in the ListView. The possible values are directSelect, toggleSelect, invokeOnly, none. Because we want to handle the selectionchanged event, we set tapBehavior to the value directSelect. selectionMode – This enumeration determines whether you can select multiple items or only a single item. The possible values are none, single, multi. In the code above, this property is set to the value single. layout – You can use ListLayout or GridLayout with a ListView. If you want to display a vertical ListView, then you should select ListLayout. You must associate a ListView with an item template if you want to render anything interesting. The ListView above is associated with an item template named #masterItemTemplate. Here’s the markup for the masterItemTemplate: <div id="masterItemTemplate" data-win-control="WinJS.Binding.Template"> <div class="movie"> <span data-win-bind="innerText:title"></span> </div> </div> This template simply renders the title of each movie. Declaring the Details Template Control The details part of the master/detail view is created with the help of a Template control. Here’s the markup used to declare the Details Template control: <div id="detailsTemplate" data-win-control="WinJS.Binding.Template"> <div> <div> Title: <span data-win-bind="innerText:title"></span> </div> <div> Director: <span data-win-bind="innerText:director"></span> </div> </div> </div> The Details Template control displays the movie title and director.   Handling the selectionchanged Event The ListView control can raise two types of events: the iteminvoked and selectionchanged events. The iteminvoked event is raised when you click on a ListView item. The selectionchanged event is raised when one or more ListView items are selected. When you set the tapBehavior property of the ListView control to the value “directSelect” then tapping or clicking a list item raised both the iteminvoked and selectionchanged event. Tapping a list item causes the item to be selected and the item appears with a checkmark. In our code, we handle the selectionchanged event to update the movie details Template when you select a new movie. Here’s the code from the default.js file used to handle the selectionchanged event: var movieList = document.getElementById("movieList"); var detailsTemplate = document.getElementById("detailsTemplate"); var movieDetails = document.getElementById("movieDetails"); // Setup selectionchanged handler movieList.winControl.addEventListener("selectionchanged", function (evt) { if (movieList.winControl.selection.count() > 0) { movieList.winControl.selection.getItems().then(function (items) { // Clear the template container movieDetails.innerHTML = ""; // Render the template detailsTemplate.winControl.render(items[0].data, movieDetails); }); } }); The code above sets up an event handler (listener) for the selectionchanged event. The event handler first verifies that an item has been selected in the ListView (selection.count() > 0). Next, the details for the movie are rendered using the movie details Template (we created this Template in the previous section). The Complete Code For the sake of completeness, I’ve included the complete code for the master/detail view below. I’ve included both the default.html, default.js, and movies.js files. Here is the final code for the default.html file: <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <title>ListViewMasterDetail</title> <!-- WinJS references --> <link href="//Microsoft.WinJS.0.6/css/ui-dark.css" rel="stylesheet"> <script src="//Microsoft.WinJS.0.6/js/base.js"></script> <script src="//Microsoft.WinJS.0.6/js/ui.js"></script> <!-- ListViewMasterDetail references --> <link href="/css/default.css" rel="stylesheet"> <script src="/js/default.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="js/movies.js"></script> <style type="text/css"> body { font-size: xx-large; } .movie { padding: 5px; } #masterDetail { display: -ms-box; } #movieList { width: 300px; margin: 20px; } #movieDetails { margin: 20px; } </style> </head> <body> <!-- Templates --> <div id="masterItemTemplate" data-win-control="WinJS.Binding.Template"> <div class="movie"> <span data-win-bind="innerText:title"></span> </div> </div> <div id="detailsTemplate" data-win-control="WinJS.Binding.Template"> <div> <div> Title: <span data-win-bind="innerText:title"></span> </div> <div> Director: <span data-win-bind="innerText:director"></span> </div> </div> </div> <!-- Master/Detail --> <div id="masterDetail"> <!-- Master --> <div id="movieList" data-win-control="WinJS.UI.ListView" data-win-options="{ itemDataSource: ListViewDemos.movies.dataSource, itemTemplate: select('#masterItemTemplate'), tapBehavior: 'directSelect', selectionMode: 'single', layout: { type: WinJS.UI.ListLayout } }"> </div> <!-- Detail --> <div id="movieDetails"></div> </div> </body> </html> Here is the default.js file: (function () { "use strict"; var app = WinJS.Application; app.onactivated = function (eventObject) { if (eventObject.detail.kind === Windows.ApplicationModel.Activation.ActivationKind.launch) { WinJS.UI.processAll(); var movieList = document.getElementById("movieList"); var detailsTemplate = document.getElementById("detailsTemplate"); var movieDetails = document.getElementById("movieDetails"); // Setup selectionchanged handler movieList.winControl.addEventListener("selectionchanged", function (evt) { if (movieList.winControl.selection.count() > 0) { movieList.winControl.selection.getItems().then(function (items) { // Clear the template container movieDetails.innerHTML = ""; // Render the template detailsTemplate.winControl.render(items[0].data, movieDetails); }); } }); } }; app.start(); })();   Here is the movies.js file: (function () { "use strict"; var movies = new WinJS.Binding.List([ { title: "Star Wars", director: "Lucas"}, { title: "Shrek", director: "Adamson" }, { title: "Star Trek", director: "Abrams" }, { title: "Spiderman", director: "Raimi" }, { title: "Memento", director: "Nolan" }, { title: "Minority Report", director: "Spielberg" } ]); // Expose the data source WinJS.Namespace.define("ListViewDemos", { movies: movies }); })();   Summary The purpose of this blog entry was to describe how to create a simple master/detail view by taking advantage of the WinJS ListView control. We handled the selectionchanged event of the ListView control to display movie details when you select a movie in the ListView.

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• How to Configure OpenLDAP on Ubuntu 10.04 Server

  - by user3215

  I am following the Ubuntu server guide to configure OpenLDAP on an Ubuntu 10.04 server, but can not get it to work. When I try to use sudo ldapadd -x -D cn=admin,dc=don,dc=com -W -f frontend.ldif I'm getting the following error: Enter LDAP Password: <entered 'secret' as password> adding new entry "dc=don,dc=com" ldap_add: Naming violation (64) additional info: value of single-valued naming attribute 'dc' conflicts with value present in entry Again when I try to do the same, I'm getting the following error: root@avy-desktop:/home/avy# sudo ldapadd -x -D cn=admin,dc=don,dc=com -W -f frontend.ldif Enter LDAP Password: ldap_bind: Invalid credentials (49) Here is the backend.ldif file: # Load dynamic backend modules dn: cn=module,cn=config objectClass: olcModuleList cn: module olcModulepath: /usr/lib/ldap olcModuleload: back_hdb # Database settings dn: olcDatabase=hdb,cn=config objectClass: olcDatabaseConfig objectClass: olcHdbConfig olcDatabase: {1}hdb olcSuffix: dc=don,dc=com olcDbDirectory: /var/lib/ldap olcRootDN: cn=admin,dc=don,dc=com olcRootPW: secret olcDbConfig: set_cachesize 0 2097152 0 olcDbConfig: set_lk_max_objects 1500 olcDbConfig: set_lk_max_locks 1500 olcDbConfig: set_lk_max_lockers 1500 olcDbIndex: objectClass eq olcLastMod: TRUE olcDbCheckpoint: 512 30 olcAccess: to attrs=userPassword by dn="cn=admin,dc=don,dc=com" write by anonymous auth by self write by * none olcAccess: to attrs=shadowLastChange by self write by * read olcAccess: to dn.base="" by * read olcAccess: to * by dn="cn=admin,dc=don,dc=com" write by * read frontend.ldif file: # Create top-level object in domain dn: dc=don,dc=com objectClass: top objectClass: dcObject objectclass: organization o: Example Organization dc: Example description: LDAP Example # Admin user. dn: cn=admin,dc=don,dc=com objectClass: simpleSecurityObject objectClass: organizationalRole cn: admin description: LDAP administrator userPassword: secret dn: ou=people,dc=don,dc=com objectClass: organizationalUnit ou: people dn: ou=groups,dc=don,dc=com objectClass: organizationalUnit ou: groups dn: uid=john,ou=people,dc=don,dc=com objectClass: inetOrgPerson objectClass: posixAccount objectClass: shadowAccount uid: john sn: Doe givenName: John cn: John Doe displayName: John Doe uidNumber: 1000 gidNumber: 10000 userPassword: password gecos: John Doe loginShell: /bin/bash homeDirectory: /home/john shadowExpire: -1 shadowFlag: 0 shadowWarning: 7 shadowMin: 8 shadowMax: 999999 shadowLastChange: 10877 mail: [email protected] postalCode: 31000 l: Toulouse o: Example mobile: +33 (0)6 xx xx xx xx homePhone: +33 (0)5 xx xx xx xx title: System Administrator postalAddress: initials: JD dn: cn=example,ou=groups,dc=don,dc=com objectClass: posixGroup cn: example gidNumber: 10000 Can anyone help me?

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• Notes on Oracle BPM PS6 Adaptive Case Management

  - by gcolman

  v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} I have recently been looking at the  latest release of the BPM Case Management feature in the Oracle BPM PS6 release. I had put together some notes to help me gain a better understanding of the context of the PS6 BPM Case Management. Hopefully, this along with the other resources will enable you to gain a clear picture of the flexibility of this feature. Oracle BPM PS6 release includes Case Management capability. This initial release aims to provide: Case Management Framework Integration of Case Management with BPM & SOA suite It is best to regard the current PS6 case management feature as a case management framework. The framework provides the building blocks for creating a case management system that is fully integrated into Oracle BPM suite. As of the current PS6 release, no UI tooling exists to help manage cases or the case lifecycle. Mark Foster has written a good blog which outlines Case Management within PS6 in the following link. I wanted to provide more context on Case Management from my perspective in this blog. PS6 Case Management - High level View BPM PS6 includes “Case” as a first class component in a SOA Suite composite. The Case components (added to the SOA Composite) are created when a BPM process is assigned to a case in JDveloper. The SOA Case component is defined and configured within JDevloper, which allows us to specify the case data structures and metadata such as stakeholders, outcomes, milestones, document stores etc. "Activities" are associated with a case, and become available to be executed via the case apis. Activities are BPM processes, Human Activities or Java call outs. The PS6 release includes some additional database tables to store the case metadata and case instance data (data object, comments, etc…). These new tables are created within the SOA_INFRA schema and the documents associated with that case into a document repository that is configured with the case. One of the main features of Case Management is the control of the case logic through case events and case business rules. A PS6 Case has an associated business rule component, which can be configured to control the availability and execution of activities within the case. The business rules component is able to act upon events that the PS6 Case Management framework generates during the lifecycle of that case. Events are fired during the lifetime of the case (e.g. Case created, activity started, activity ended, note added, document uploaded.) Internal Case state The internal state of a case is represented by the diagram below. This shows the internal states and the transition paths for a Case from one state to the next Each transition in state will create an event that can be enacted upon via the Case rules engine. The internal case state lifecycle is defined as follows Defining a case A Case is created and defined as a component of a JDeveloper BPM project. When you create a Case as part of a BPM project, JDeveloper, creates the following components within the SCA composite: Case component Case component interfaces (WSDL etc) Case Rules component (Oracle Business Rules) Adds the Case Component and Case Rules Component to the BPM SOA composite Case Configuration The following section gives a high level overview of the items that can be configured for a BPM Case. Case Activities A Case is associated with a set of activities that are to be performed as part of that Case. Case activities can be: SOA Human Tasks BPM processes Custom Task (Java Class) Case activities are created from pre-existing BPM process or human tasks, which, once defined, can be configured additionally as Case activities in JDeveloper and made available within the lifecycle of a case. I've described the following configurable components of a case (very!) briefly as: Milestones Milestones are (optional) user defined logical milestones that can be achieved within a case. No activities are associates with a milestone, but milestone attainment can be programmatically set and events raised when milestones are reached Outcomes User defined status of a completed case. An event is fired when an outcome is attained. Case Data Defines the data that will be stored with a case XML schemas define the data that is stored with the case. Case Documents Defines the location of documents that are attached to a case (e.g. WebCenter Content) User Defined Events Optional user defined events that can be fired or captured to drive case processing rules Stakeholders Defines the actors who can participate in the case (roles, users, groups) Defines permissions for individual case permissions (read case, create document etc…) Business Rules Business rules are the main component controlling the flow of a Case Each case has an associated business ruleset Rules are fired on receiving Case events (or User defined events) Life cycle events Milestone events Activity events Data events Document events Comment events User event Managing the Case Managing the lifecycle of a case is achieved in two ways: Managing case logic with Business Rules Managing the case lifecycle via the Case APIs. A BPM Case can be viewed as a set of case data & documents along with the activities that can be performed within a case and also the case lifecycle state expressed as milestones and internal lifecycle state. The management of the case life is achieved though both the configuration of business rules and the “manual” interaction with a case instance through the Case APIs. Business Rules and Case Events A key component within the Case management framework is the event model. The BPM Case Management solution internally utilizes Oracle EDN (Event Delivery Network) to publish and subscribe to events generated by the Case framework. Events are generated by the Case framework on each of the processes and stages that a case instance will travel on its lifetime. The following case events are part of the BPM Case: Life cycle events Milestone events Activity events Data events Document events Comment events User event The Case business rules are configured to listen for these events, and business logic can be coded into the Case rules component to enact upon an event being received. Case API & Interaction Along with the business rules component, Cases can be managed via the Case API interfaces. These interfaces allow for the building of custom applications to integrate into case management framework. The API’s allow for updating case comments & documents, executing case activities, updating milestones etc. As there is no in built case management UI functions within the PS6 release, Cases need to be managed via a custom built UI, interacting with selected case instances, launching case activities, closing cases etc. (There is expected to be a UI component within subsequent releases) Logical Case Flow The diagram below is intended to depict a logical view of the case steps for a typical case. A UI or other service calls the Case interface to create a Case instance The case instance is created & database data inserted A lifecycle event is raised indicating a case activity (created) event The case business rules capture the event and decide on an action to take Additionally other parties can subscribe to Case events via EDN The business rules may handle the event, e.g. configured to execute a case activity on case creation event The BPM/Human Workflow/Custom activity is executed A case activity event is raised on the execute activity A case work UI or business service can inspect the case instance and call other actions to progress that case, such as: Execute activity Add Note Add document Add case data Update Milestone Raise user defined event Suspend case Resume case Close Case Summary Having had a little time to play around with the APIs and the case configuration, I really like the flexibility and power of combining Oracle Business Rules and the BPM Case Management event model. Creating something this flexible and powerful without BPM Case Management would take a lot of time and effort. This is hopefully going to save my customers a lot of time and effort! I may make amendments to this post as my understanding of Case Management increases! Take a look at the following links for official documentation etc. http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E28280_01/doc.1111/e15176/case_mgmt_bpmpd.htm https://blogs.oracle.com/bpm/entry/just_in_case Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";}

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• C#.NET vs VB.NET, Which language is better?

  Features I cannot say any language good or bad as long as it's compiler can produce MSIL can run under .NET CLR. If someone says C# has more futures, you can understand that those new features are of C# compiler but not .NET, because if C# has a specific future then CLR cannot understand them. So the new features of C# will have to convert to the code understood by CLR eventually. that means the new features are developed for C# compiler basically to facilitates the developer to write their code in better way. so that means no difference in feature list between C# and VB.NET if you think in CLR perspective. Ease of writing Code I feel writing code in C# is easy, because my background is C and C++, Java, syntaxes very are similar. I assume most developers feel the same. Readability But some people say VB.NET code most readable for the members who are from non technical background, because keywords are generally in English rather special charectors. No of Projects in Market I assume 80 percent of market uses C# in their .NET development. for example in my company many projects are there .nET and all are using C#. Productivity & Experience though the feature list is same, generally developers wants to write code in their familiar languages. because it increase the productivity. Hope this helps to choose the language which suits for you. span.fullpost {display:none;}

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• Reading from a staging 2D texture array in DirectX10

  - by Don Reba

  I have a DX10 program, where I create an array of 3 16x16 textures, then map, read, and unmap each subresource in turn. I use a single mip level, set resource usage to staging and CPU access to read. Now, here is the problem: Subresource 0 contains 1024 bytes, pitch 64, as expected. Subresource 1 contains 512 bytes, pitch 64. Subresource 2 contains 256 bytes, pitch 64. I expect all three to be the same size. Debugging output is enabled, but not reporting any warnings or errors. Am I missing something, or might this be some sort of driver issue? Here is the code. The language is Nemerle, but C# and C++ would look almost the same. I have looked through the generated code, and am fairly confident the problem is not language-related. def cpuTexture = Texture2D ( device , Texture2DDescription() <- { Width = 16; Height = 16; MipLevels = 1; ArraySize = 3; Format = Format.R32_Float; Usage = ResourceUsage.Staging; CpuAccessFlags = CpuAccessFlags.Read; SampleDescription = SampleDescription(count = 1, quality = 0); } ); foreach (subresource in [0 .. 2]) { def data = cpuTexture.Map(subresource, MapMode.Read, MapFlags.None); Console.WriteLine($"subresource $subresource"); Console.WriteLine($"length = $(data.Data.Length)"); Console.WriteLine($"pitch = $(data.Pitch)"); cpuTexture.Unmap(subresource); }

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• Ubuntu 11.10 - How can i stop self-feedback-loop, coming directly from my microphone to speaker?

  - by YumYumYum

  I have microphone audio, which comes instantly to my speaker. I am using default pulseaudio and alsa from the package. I have tried to setup: 1) PA /etc/pulse/default.pa /etc/asound.conf $ ls analog-input-aux.conf analog-input-fm.conf analog-input-mic.conf analog-input-tvtuner.conf analog-output-desktop-speaker.conf analog-output-mono.conf analog-input.conf analog-input-front-mic.conf analog-input-mic.conf.common analog-input-video.conf analog-output-headphones-2.conf analog-output-speaker.conf analog-input.conf.common analog-input-internal-mic.conf analog-input-mic-line.conf analog-output.conf analog-output-headphones.conf iec958-stereo-output.conf analog-input-dock-mic.conf analog-input-linein.conf analog-input-rear-mic.conf analog-output.conf.common analog-output-lfe-on-mono.conf 2) ALSA in lsmod to make sure no loopback modules are loaded etc but none is resolving it. And there are many less information available on this. Has anyone similar problem solution in Ubuntu 11.10? (this problem i have resolved in Ubuntu 11.04 by replacing the default pulseaudio version to latest source from git, but while trying the same in Ubuntu 11.10 does not worked). Any tips please?

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• Enum.HasFlag

  - by Scott Dorman

  An enumerated type, also called an enumeration (or just an enum for short), is simply a way to create a numeric type restricted to a predetermined set of valid values with meaningful names for those values. While most enumerations represent discrete values, or well-known combinations of those values, sometimes you want to combine values in an arbitrary fashion. These enumerations are known as flags enumerations because the values represent flags which can be set or unset. To combine multiple enumeration values, you use the logical OR operator. For example, consider the following: public enum FileAccess { None = 0, Read = 1, Write = 2, }   class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { FileAccess access = FileAccess.Read | FileAccess.Write; Console.WriteLine(access); } } The output of this simple console application is: The value 3 is the numeric value associated with the combination of FileAccess.Read and FileAccess.Write. Clearly, this isn’t the best representation. What you really want is for the output to look like: To achieve this result, you simply add the Flags attribute to the enumeration. The Flags attribute changes how the string representation of the enumeration value is displayed when using the ToString() method. Although the .NET Framework does not require it, enumerations that will be used to represent flags should be decorated with the Flags attribute since it provides a clear indication of intent. One “problem” with Flags enumerations is determining when a particular flag is set. The code to do this isn’t particularly difficult, but unless you use it regularly it can be easy to forget. To test if the access variable has the FileAccess.Read flag set, you would use the following code: (access & FileAccess.Read) == FileAccess.Read Starting with .NET 4, a HasFlag static method has been added to the Enum class which allows you to easily perform these tests: access.HasFlag(FileAccess.Read) This method follows one of the “themes” for the .NET Framework 4, which is to simplify and reduce the amount of boilerplate code like this you must write. Technorati Tags: .NET,C# 4

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• Universal navigation menu across domains

  - by Jon Harley

  I'd like to start by saying that I've searched for hours and could not find a definitive answer to my question. Across different sites on different second-level domains exists a universal navigation bar with a collection of roughly 30 links. This universal bar is exactly the same for every page on each domain. The bar's HTML, CSS and JavaScript are all stored in a subfolder for each domain and the HTML is embedded upon serving the page and is not being injected on the client side. None of the links use any rel directives and are as vanilla as can be. My question is about Google's duplicate content rule. Would something like this be considered duplicate content? Matt Cutt's blog post about duplicate content mentions boilerplate repetition, but then he mentions lengthy legalese. Since the text in this universal bar is brief and uses common terms, I wonder if this same rule applies. If this is considered duplicate content, what would be a good way to correct the problem? Thank you for your help.

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

  - by brybam

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

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• Cross-Platform Mobile Development With Mono for Android and MonoTouch

  - by Wallym

  Many years ago, in fact pre-Java, I remember a hallway discussion about the desire to write a single application that could easily run across various platforms. At the time, we were only worried about writing applications on Windows 3.1 and Mac OS 7.x. There were many discussions about windows, user interface concepts, and specifically a rather long discussion as to whether Mac users would accept a Mac application that didn't have balloon help. Thankfully, the marketplace answered this question for us with the Windows API winning the battle.A similar set of questions is currently going on in the mobile world. Unfortunately, at this point in time, there is currently no winning API and none currently in sight. What's a developer to do? Here are some questions that developers have (and there are many more):How can mobile developers target Android and the iPhone with the same code?How can .NET developers share their code across Android, iPhone and other platforms?How can developers give applications the look and feel of the specific platform and still allow as much code as possible to be shared?Mobile devices share many common features, such as cameras, accelerometers, and address books. How can we take advantage of them in a platform independent way and still give the users the look of every other application running on their platform?In this article, we'll look at some solutions to these cross-platform and code-sharing questions between Mono for Android, MonoTouch and the .NET Framework available to developers. 

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• 3DS Max 2012 OBJ file import missing polygons

  - by Vit

  I started learning OpenGL. I got to a point I want to import some "real" objects. After "Googling" I decided I will go with OBJ file for start, since it is simple to understand, and there are plenty of tutorials on how to read them properly. I have from university access to 3DS Max 2012. So I tried to create very simple model (just deformated cube) and exporting it using OBJ file, just to vertices and triangles for the moment, without textures, so I can examine its structure by myself. But if I imported it right back to 3DS from OBJ file, now it renders somewhat strange, like its smoothen, and with lightsource, even I have none in scene. But the geometry, its wireframe is intact. So I thought maybe it is problem of exporting only vertices and triangles so I downloaded Enterprise-D model from internet, exported with everything on (normals, textures everything), and again imported it. Now, some polygons are missing. So, I want to ask, am I doing something terribly wrong, or is there some incompatibility issue between .max and .obj file ? Even it is only simple textured model without any lightsources, animation etc.? Thanks. Edit: I tried objects with MeshLab, the first, deformated cube was absolutelly OK. But still bothers me that 3DS Max doesen´t render it properly. In Enterprise-D model, there are polygons missing even in MeshLab. I uploaded rar archive with .max model of Enterprise, same .obj model exported from 3DS, and obj model of deformated cube. Download here (2.5 MB, filesonic).

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