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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Wednesday, June 12, 2013

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Wednesday, June 12, 2013Popular ReleasesWeb Pages CMS: 0.5.0.5: Added empty media directoryWindows 8 App Desing Reference Template: Education Big Picture: EducationBigPicture: Download includes the following -> Source (C# and JS) -> Package -> Snapshots -> DocumentationModern UI for WPF: Modern UI 1.0.4: The ModernUI assembly including a demo app demonstrating the various features of Modern UI for WPF. Related downloads NuGet ModernUI for WPF is also available as NuGet package in the NuGet gallery, id: ModernUI.WPF Download Modern UI for WPF Templates A Visual Studio 2012 extension containing a collection of project and item templates for Modern UI for WPF. The extension includes the ModernUI.WPF NuGet package. DownloadToolbox for Dynamics CRM 2011: XrmToolBox (v1.2013.6.11): XrmToolbox improvement Add exception handling when loading plugins Updated information panel for displaying two lines of text Tools improvementMetadata Document Generator (v1.2013.6.10)New tool Web Resources Manager (v1.2013.6.11)Retrieve list of unused web resources Retrieve web resources from a solution All tools listAccess Checker (v1.2013.2.5) Attribute Bulk Updater (v1.2013.1.17) FetchXml Tester (v1.2013.3.4) Iconator (v1.2013.1.17) Metadata Document Generator (v1.2013.6.10) Privilege...Document.Editor: 2013.23: What's new for Document.Editor 2013.23: New Insert Emoticon support Improved Format support Minor Bug Fix's, improvements and speed upsChristoc's DotNetNuke Module Development Template: DotNetNuke 7 Project Templates V2.4 for VS2012: V2.4 - Release Date 6/10/2013 Items addressed in this 2.4 release Updated MSBuild Community Tasks reference to 1.4.0.61 Setting up your DotNetNuke Module Development Environment Installing Christoc's DotNetNuke Module Development Templates Customizing the latest DotNetNuke Module Development Project TemplatesLayered Architecture Sample for .NET: Leave Sample - June 2013 (for .NET 4.5): Thank You for downloading Layered Architecture Sample. Please read the accompanying README.txt file for setup and installation instructions. This is the first set of a series of revised samples that will be released to illustrate the layered architecture design pattern. This version is only supported on Visual Studio 2012. This samples illustrates the use of ASP.NET Web Forms, ASP.NET Model Binding, Windows Communications Foundation (WCF), Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) and Microsoft Ente...Papercut: Papercut 2013-6-10: Feature: Shows From, To, Date and Subject of Email. Feature: Async UI and loading spinner. Enhancement: Improved speed when loading large attachments. Enhancement: Decoupled SMTP server into secondary assembly. Enhancement: Upgraded to .NET v4. Fix: Messages lost when received very fast. Fix: Email encoding issues on display/Automatically detect message Encoding Installation Note:Installation is copy and paste. Incoming messages are written to the start-up directory of Papercut. If you do n...SFDL.NET: SFDL.NET v1.1.0.4: Changelog: Ciritical Bug Fixed : Downloading of Files not possibleMapWinGIS ActiveX Map and GIS Component: MapWinGIS v4.8.8 Release Candidate - 32 Bit: This is the first release candidate of MapWinGIS. Please test it thoroughly.MapWindow 4: MapWindow GIS v4.8.8 - Release Candidate - 32Bit: Download the release notes here: http://svn.mapwindow.org/svnroot/MapWindow4Dev/Bin/MapWindowNotes.rtfLINQ to Twitter: LINQ to Twitter v2.1.06: Supports .NET 3.5, .NET 4.0, .NET 4.5, Silverlight 4.0, Windows Phone 7.1, Windows Phone 8, Client Profile, Windows 8, and Windows Azure. 100% Twitter API coverage. Also supports Twitter API v1.1! Also on NuGet.VR Player: VR Player 0.3 ALPHA: New plugin system with individual folders TrackIR support Maya and 3ds max formats support Dual screen support Mono layouts (left and right) Cylinder height parameter Barel effect factor parameter Razer hydra filter parameter VRPN bug fixes UI improvements Performances improvements Stabilization and logging with Log4Net New default values base on users feedback CTRL key to open menuSimCityPak: SimCityPak 0.1.0.8: SimCityPak 0.1.0.8 New features: Import BMP color palettes for vehicles Import RASTER file (uncompressed 8.8.8.8 DDS files) View different channels of RASTER files or preview of all layers combined Find text in javascripts TGA viewer Ground textures added to lot editor Many additional identified instances and propertiesWsus Package Publisher: Release v1.2.1306.09: Add more verifications on certificate validation. WPP will not let user to try publishing an update until the certificate is valid. Add certificate expiration date on the 'About' form. Filter Approbation to avoid a user to try to approve an update for uninstallation when the update do not support uninstallation. Add the server and console version on the 'About' form. WPP will not let user to publish an update until the server and console are not at the same level. WPP do not let user ...AJAX Control Toolkit: June 2013 Release: AJAX Control Toolkit Release Notes - June 2013 Release Version 7.0607June 2013 release of the AJAX Control Toolkit. AJAX Control Toolkit .NET 4.5 – AJAX Control Toolkit for .NET 4.5 and sample site (Recommended). AJAX Control Toolkit .NET 4 – AJAX Control Toolkit for .NET 4 and sample site (Recommended). AJAX Control Toolkit .NET 3.5 – AJAX Control Toolkit for .NET 3.5 and sample site (Recommended). Notes: - Instructions for using the AJAX Control Toolkit with ASP.NET 4.5 can be found at...Rawr: Rawr 5.2.1: This is the Downloadable WPF version of Rawr!For web-based version see http://elitistjerks.com/rawr.php You can find the version notes at: http://rawr.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=VersionNotes Rawr Addon (NOT UPDATED YET FOR MOP)We now have a Rawr Official Addon for in-game exporting and importing of character data hosted on Curse. The Addon does not perform calculations like Rawr, it simply shows your exported Rawr data in wow tooltips and lets you export your character to Rawr (including ba...VG-Ripper & PG-Ripper: PG-Ripper 1.4.13: changes NEW: Added Support for "ImageJumbo.com" links FIXED: Ripping of Threads with multiple pagesJson.NET: Json.NET 5.0 Release 6: New feature - Added serialized/deserialized JSON to verbose tracing New feature - Added support for using type name handling with ISerializable content Fix - Fixed not using default serializer settings with primitive values and JToken.ToObject Fix - Fixed error writing BigIntegers with JsonWriter.WriteToken Fix - Fixed serializing and deserializing flag enums with EnumMember attribute Fix - Fixed error deserializing interfaces with a valid type converter Fix - Fixed error deser...Biller: Biller 1.49: This release fixes company sales statisticsNew Projectsapiviewer: Documentation viewer for your service API.ArgusLib: Set of libraries I use in most of my projects.arwani: this is armani project.Blue Mercs Data Gateway: The Data Gateway is an open source project which simplifies coding fluently database SQL statements, stored procedure, connections and transactions.Convert Hashtable Rows into DataTable Columns in C#: Simplest way to convert a Hashtable into a DataTable with all the Hashtable rows converted into DataTable columns.everynet: EveryNet is an internet service provider servicing homes Fraktalysator: Software to visualize fractals such as the Mandelbrot Set. Still in early development state.Free BarCode API for .NET: Freee BarCode API for .NETGraphic filters in WPF: FiltersGrid Plugin: Grid Plugin , Turn your <table> into a fully functional price grid.mediamonitor: this is mediamonitor project.MyCodingStuffs: This solution includes C#, WCF, MVC4.0, ASP.net libraries.OpenErp .Net Connector: Access to OpenErp from .NetPhong and Flat shading: Phong shadingPixel Replacer: The Pixel Replacer is a simple library for replacing pixel colors with a new color, by setting a filter rule.plainetl in vb.net: a one db to another db transform, threaded, commandline tool, ... initially created to get a flat-File db (FoxPro) into a mssql.Programming in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3: Contains material developed while visiting a Microsoft course for the MCSD exam 70-480ProjectLinker2012: This tool helps to automatically create and maintain links from a source project to a target project to share code that is common to Silverlight and WPF.SALDERA Project: SALDERA TEST Project Summary Mire lesz ez jó? Majd Kiderül.TCPMessageServer: Simple TCP Client/Server used to pass an object between client and serverThats-Me Dot Net API: Thats-Me Dot Net API is a library which implements the Thats-Me.ch API for the Dot Net Framework.T-Sql Code Documentor: Document T-SQL Code and Extract Comments for all objects in a database.Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Measurement: Measurement template will help if you want to build an app which addresses Mass/Weight, Distance/Length, Capacity/Volume etc. measurement placeholders.Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Weather Clock: Weather Clock Template will help if you want to build an app which has the features to add Current/Previous day temperatures and add cities for coverage. Windows 8 App Desing Reference Template: Education Big Picture: Education Big Picture Template will help if you want to build an app which has an option for showcasing campus details, courses, student life etc dataWinodws 8 App Design Reference Template: Social Feed: Social Feed template will help if you want to build an app which has the Messaging, Facebook, twitter feeds sections. WP7FlacPlayer: Implemented JFlacLib in C# A simple player to play flac in windows phone system

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• XNA texture stretching at extreme coordinates

  - by Shaun Hamman

  I was toying around with infinitely scrolling 2D textures using the XNA framework and came across a rather strange observation. Using the basic draw code: spriteBatch.Begin(SpriteSortMode.Deferred, null, SamplerState.PointWrap, null, null); spriteBatch.Draw(texture, Vector2.Zero, sourceRect, Color.White, 0.0f, Vector2.Zero, 2.0f, SpriteEffects.None, 1.0f); spriteBatch.End(); with a small 32x32 texture and a sourceRect defined as: sourceRect = new Rectangle(0, 0, Window.ClientBounds.Width, Window.ClientBounds.Height); I was able to scroll the texture across the window infinitely by changing the X and Y coordinates of the sourceRect. Playing with different coordinate locations, I noticed that if I made either of the coordinates too large, the texture no longer drew and was instead replaced by either a flat color or alternating bands of color. Tracing the coordinates back down, I found the following at around (0, -16,777,000): As you can see, the texture in the top half of the image is stretched vertically. My question is why is this occurring? Certainly I can do things like bind the x/y position to some low multiple of 32 to give the same effect without this occurring, so fixing it isn't an issue, but I'm curious about why this happens. My initial thought was perhaps it was overflowing the coordinate value or some such thing, but looking at a data type size chart, the next closest below is an unsigned short with a range of about 32,000, and above is an unsigned int with a range of around 2,000,000,000 so that isn't likely the cause.

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• A project idea I've got...

  - by Mr Teeth

  Hi, Next year I will be doing a final year project at Uni. I've already thought of one and was wondering what you guys think of it. I want to create a University Information Search for prospective students who are trying to look for an affordable University to attend. It will depend on the student's family income and the grades they get. They enter in those two parameters (and some more) and it comes up with a list of suitable Unis based on their criteria. This is not about the price of tution fee. It's mostly to do with the cost of living. Stuff like: Rent (if living in a private flat). Student Accomadation. Cost of traveling to your home and back (for holidays). ...and some other stuff stuff I haven't thought about yet. It'll mostly be GUI driven with some textual information. I'm also thinking of using it as a website interface. What do you guys think? Can I program something like this Java? If there's any holes you see in my idea please tell me.

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• Java Virtual Developer Day Session Videos Available

  - by Tori Wieldt

  How are Lambdas handled on a bytecode level? How does replacing assembly code with Java code improve performance? Can we send flat files/comma separated/XML files to process in Batch? In a Java EE app, can I inject an EJB bean inside a REST POJO using @EJB annotation? Where I can find JavaFX UI controls? At OTN's Virtual Developer Day, Java experts answered these questions and more. Session are now available for you to view on demand (registration required). This is limited time offer: the sessions will be up to view for free for the next two weeks.  You can view sessions from these tracks: Java SE 8 Track Learn about the features scheduled for Java SE 8, including Lambda expressions, extension methods for interfaces and a new Date and Time API. Learn how to create basic apps with JavaFX.  Java EE Track Take a close look at the new functionality in Java EE 7. Get presentations and demos on JSON, WebSockets, Batch, Concurrency, JAX-RS 2, JMS 2,  Java Embedded Track Provides an introductions to the Raspberry Pi, the Keil board, ARM architecture, and how to make it all work with Java Embedded. You know Java, now really know Java. Check out the OTN Virtual Developer Day sessions!

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• How to show or direct a business analyst to do data modelling?

  - by AaronLS

  Our business analysts pushed hard to collect data through a spreadsheet. I am the programmer responsible for importing that data. Usually when they push hard for something like this, I never know how well it will work out until a few weeks later when I have time assigned to work on the task of programming the import of the data. I have tried to do as much as possible along the way, named ranges, data validations, etc. But I usually don't have time to take a detailed look at all the data and compare to the destination in the database to determine how well it matches up. A lot of times there will be maybe a little table of items that somehow I have to relate to something else in the database, but there are not natural or business keys present that would allow me to do so. Make the best of this, trying to write something that can compare strings and make a best guess at it and then go through the effort of creating interfaces for a user to match the imported data to the destination. I feel like if the business analyst was actually creating a data model, they would be forced to think about these relationships, and have an appreciation for the need of natural or business keys to be part of the spreadsheet for the purposes of smoothly importing the data. The closest they come to business analysis is a big flat list of fields, and that would be fine if it were like any other data dictionary and include data types+relationships, but it isn't. They are just a bunch of names. No indication of what type of data they might hold, and it is up to me to guess. When I have pushed for more detail, they say that it is just busy work. How can I explain the importance of data modelling? How can I tell them what it is and how to do it? It feels impossible, because they don't have an appreciation for its importance. They do however, usually have an interest in helping out in whatever way they can, it's just this in particular has never gotten a motivated response.

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• Advantages of relational databases over VSAM, ISAM and hierarchical data stores

  - by llaszews

  When migrating companies from legacy environments to the cloud, invariably you run into older hierarchical, flat file, VSAM, ISAM and other legacy data stores. There are many advantages to moving these databases into a relational database structure. The most important which is that most cloud providers run on relational database models. AWS, for example, supports Oracle, SQL Server, and MySQL. The top three 'other reasons' for moving to a relational database are: 1. Data Access – Thousands of database access tools from query creation to business intelligence. 2. Management and monitoring – Hundreds of tools for management and monitoring of the database. 3. Leverage all the free tools from relational database vendors. Free Oracle database tools include: -Application Express – WYSIWIG browse based application development and deployment. -SQL Developer – SQL and PL/SQL development. Database object maintenance. What is interesting is that Big Data NoSQL databases and XML databases are taking us back to the days of VSAM (key value databases) with NoSQL and IMS (hierarchical) with XML databases?

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• c++ How to use angular velocity that derived from inertia and force(torque) in 3d

  - by user1217203

  I am relatively new to game development. May my terminology and description are not appropriate. Please excuse my poor phrasing and help me by giving advice on how to question better if this question seems less fitting. I really appreciate your efforts. Hi. I am having hard time interpreting the set of values I have. I have inertia and force(torque) in terms of x y z. FYI I used x and y coordinates as my ground, flat coordinates and z as my up/down. I am assuming that since f = ma, that angular acceleration must be a = f / m. So I divide my torque by inertia. Then I add those x y z values to my angular velocity variable's x y z. However these x y z values confuse me. Don't I need angle/sec or radian/sec sort of values in order to apply rotation? The x y z values I have seemed to not say anything about radians or angular movement. Question : If I have ( 1, 2, 3 ) or any ( x, y, z ) as my angular velocity, how do I actually apply it as angular movement? FYI Here I am pasting my code : float mass = 100; float devidedMass = 1.0/12 * mass; Vec3 innertia( devidedMass* (_box._size.z*_box._size.z + _box._size.x*_box._size.x), devidedMass* (_box._size.y*_box._size.y + _box._size.x*_box._size.x), devidedMass* (_box._size.y*_box._size.y + _box._size.z*_box._size.z )); box._angAccel += forceAng/innertia; box._angVelo += box._angAccel; box._angAccel.allZero(); source of my inertia calculation http://www.health.uottawa.ca/biomech/courses/apa4311/solids.pdf

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• Kindle App for WP7 arrives

  - by dotgeek

  If you had asked me if I was interested in owning a Kindle device, then my response a couple months back would have been a flat out no back then. So what has changed between now on then you might be asking me then? I would have to say watching my wife enjoy the many books in digital form has peeked my interest to start with now. Was that enough for me to buy a Kindle though? Not just yet, but that is where the Windows Phone 7 comes in for me once again. It’s no secret that I’ve wanted this device and yes it does have a number of Apps that I think I’ll really enjoy. The latest must have App for me, will most certainly be the Kindle App for Windows Phone 7, released from Amazon today. I’ve already started playing around with the PC version of Kindle software and I’m looking at purchasing any future books in digital form now. So it’s a given once I have a Windows Phone 7 device, that I’ll be enjoying some of my favorite books, while I’m on the go I think and via this App. Tonight I actually had a chance to check out the WP7 Kindle App on a friends device and I was really pleased with how it looked and performed. Now if the planets could only manage to lineup for me and allow Verizon and Microsoft to come to terms on the releasing of WP7 CDMA devices, I just might be able to really enjoy some of this on my own. Do I rule out ever having an actual Kindle device? Not at all, but I do plan on having the WP7 device well before that day ever comes though.

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• Algorithms or patterns for a linked question and answer cost calculator

  - by kmc

  I've been asked to build an online calculator in PHP (and the Laravel framework). It will take the answers to a series of questions to estimate the cost of a home extension. For example, a couple of questions may be: What is the lie of your property? Flat, slightly inclined, heavily inclined. (these suggestive values could have specific values in the underlying calculator like, 0 degrees, 5 degrees, 10 degrees. What is your current flooring system? Wooden, or concrete? These would then impact the results of other questions. Once the size of the extension has been input, the lie of the land will affect how much site works will cost, and how much rubbish collection will cost. The second question will impact the cost of the extensions flooring, as stumping and laying floorboards is a different cost to laying foundations and a concrete slab. It will also influence what heating and cooling systems are available in the calculator. So it's VERY interlinked. The answer to any question can influence the options of other questions, and the end result. I'm having trouble figuring out an approach to this that will allow new options and questions to be plugged in at a later stage without having things too coupled. The Observer pattern, or Laravel's events may be handy, but currently the sheer breadth of the calculator has me struggling to gather my thoughts and see a sensible implementation. Are there any patterns or OO approaches that may help? Thanks!

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• Retexturing a model via API on the web

  - by AndyMcKenna

  I'm looking at creating a site where a user could see our product and configure the options or look of it and see an image that represents that. The way I'm doing it now is if you have Piece A selected and then you choose Texture X, I have an image on the filesystem that is A with X applied to it. I just swap out my default image with that specific one. One product has 8 areas, with 10-70 pieces per area, and about 200 textures for each piece. Programming the site was pretty simple but we are getting bogged down in rendering all these pieces/textures and entering them into the system. What I would love to do is build a model and have some way to apply the textures via API and render it to the browser. I would even settle for exporting a flat image and pulling that into the browser. Is that possible with something like SolidWorks, 3DSMax, or something else? If the rendering is too time intensive it would still help to batch create all my images and use them the way I am currently.

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• Creating a 2D perspective in 3D game

  - by Accatyyc

  I'm new to XNA and 3D game development in general. I'm creating a puzzle game kind of similar to tetris, built with blocks. I decided to build the game in 3D since I can do some cool animations and transitions when using 3D blocks with physics etc. However, I really do want the game to look "2D". My blocks are made up of 3D models, but I don't want that to be visible when they're not animating. I have followed some XNA tutorials and set up my scene like this: this.view = Matrix.CreateLookAt(cameraPosition, Vector3.Zero, Vector3.Up); this.aspectRatio = graphics.GraphicsDevice.Viewport.AspectRatio; this.projection = Matrix.CreatePerspectiveFieldOfView( MathHelper.ToRadians(45.0f), aspectRatio, 1.0f, 10000.0f); ... and it gives me a very 3D-ish look. For example, the blocks in the center of the screen looks exactly how I want them, but closer to the edges of the screen I can see the rotation and sides of them. My guess is that I'm not after a perspective field of view, but any help on which field of view/settings to use to get a "flat" look when the blocks aren't rotated would be great!

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• Persisting high score table in flash game without a network. (Featuring: HttpListenerException)

  - by bearcdp

  Hi everyone, this question is very programming-centric, but it's for a game so I figured I might as well post it here. I'm doing polishing work on a GGJ '11 game because it will be shown at an indie arcade tomorrow afternoon, and they're expecting our final build in the morning. We'd like to have a high score table that displays during attract mode, but since it's Flash (Flixel) it would require some networking, Mochi, or something to keep a record of these scores. Only problem is the machine we'd be running on probably won't have network access. As a quick solution, I thought I'd just write up a dinky little high score server in C#/.NET that could take basic GET requests for submitting scores and getting the score list. We're talking REAL basic, like blocking while waiting for an incoming request, run & forget console app, etc. There's no guarantee that our .swf won't get reloaded, and we'd like the scores to persist, so this server would pretty much exists to keep a safe copy of the scores that the game can add to and request, and occasionally the server will write the scores to a flat text file. But, HttpListener is giving me Error Code 87 'The parameter is incorrect.' Have any idea what I'm doing wrong? Or better yet, am I barking up the wrong tree and missing an obviously simpler solution? This is all I've got so far in my Main(): HttpListener listener = new HttpListener(); listener.Prefixes.Add("http://localhost:66666/"); listener.Start(); The exception happens at listener.Start(); and the stack trace is: at System.Net.HttpListener.AddAllPrefixes() at System.Net.HttpListener.Start() at WOSEBCE_ScoreServer.Program.Main(String[] args) in C:\Users\Michael\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\VS2010 Projects\WOSEBCE_ScoreServer\WOSEBCE_ScoreServer\Program.cs:line 24 at System.AppDomain._nExecuteAssembly(RuntimeAssembly assembly, String[] args) at System.AppDomain.ExecuteAssembly(String assemblyFile, Evidence assemblySecurity, String[] args) at Microsoft.VisualStudio.HostingProcess.HostProc.RunUsersAssembly() at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart_Context(Object state) at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state, Boolean ignoreSyncCtx) at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state) at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart()

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• VirtualBox 4.0.10 is now available for download

  - by user12611829

  VirtualBox 4.0.10 has been released and is now available for download. You can get binaries for Windows, OS X (Intel Mac), Linux and Solaris hosts at http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads The full changelog can be found here. The high points for the 4.0.10 maintenance release include .... GUI: fixed disappearing settings widgets on KDE hosts (bug #6809) Storage: fixed hang under rare circumstances with flat VMDK images Storage: a saved VM could not be restored under certain circumstances after the host kernel was updated Storage: refuse to create a medium with an invalid variant Snapshots: none of the hard disk attachments must be attached to another VM in normal mode when creating a snapshot USB: fixed occasional VM hangs with SMP guests USB: proper device detection on RHEL/OEL/CentOS 5 guests ACPI: force the ACPI timer to return monotonic values for improve behavior with SMP Linux guests RDP: fixed screen corruption under rare circumstances rdesktop-vrdp: updated to version 1.7.0 OVF: under rare circumstances some data at the end of a VMDK file was not written during export Mac OS X hosts: Lion fixes Mac OS X hosts: GNOME 3 fix Linux hosts: fixed VT-x detection on Linux 3.0 hosts Linux hosts: fixed Python 2.7 bindings in the universal Linux binaries Windows hosts: fixed leak of thread and process handles Windows Additions: fixed bug when determining the extended version of the Guest Additions Solaris Additions: fixed installation to 64-bit Solaris 10u9 guests Linux Additions: RHEL6.1/OL6.1 compile fix Linux Additions: fixed a memory leak during VBoxManage guestcontrol execute Technocrati Tags: Sun Virtualization VirtualBox var sc_project=1193495; var sc_invisible=1; var sc_security="a46f6831";

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• Square game map rendered as sphere with OpenGL

  - by Roflha

  Okay so I have been trying to find a good way to do this for a while now and so far I have nothing. For a hobby project of mine I have created a finite voxel world (similar to minecraft), but as I said, mine is finite. When you reach the edge of it, you are sent to the other side. That is all working fine along with rendering the far side of the map, but I want to be able to render this grid as a sphere. Looking down from above, the world is a square. I basically want to be able to represent a portion of that square as a sphere, as if you were looking at a planet. Right now I am experimenting with taking a circular section of the map, and rendering that, but it look to flat (no curvature around the edges). My question then, is what would be the best way to add some curvature to the edges of a 2d circle to make it look like a hemisphere. However, I am not overly attached to this implementation so if somebody has some other idea for representing the square as a planet, I am all ears.

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• How does a segment-based rendering engine (as in Descent) work?

  - by Calmarius

  As far as I know Descent was one of the first games that featured a fully 3D environment, and it used a segment based rendering engine. Its levels are built from cubic segments (these cubes may be deformed as long as it remains convex and sides remain roughly flat). These cubes are connected by their sides. The connected sides are traversable (maybe doors or grids can be placed on these sides), while the unconnected sides are not traversable walls. So the game is played inside of this complex. Descent was software rendered and it had to be very fast, to be playable on those 10-100MHz processors of that age. Some latter levels of the game are huge and contain thousands of segments, but these levels are still rendered reasonably fast. So I think they tried to minimize the amount of cubes rendered somehow. How to choose which cubes to render for a given location? As far as I know they used a kind of portal rendering, but I couldn't find what was the technique used in this particular kind of engine. I think the fact that the levels are built from convex quadrilateral hexahedrons can be exploited.

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• Halloween: Season for Java Embedded Internet of Spooky Things (IoST) (Part 3)

  - by hinkmond

  So, let's now connect the parts together to make a Java Embedded ghost sensor using a Raspberry Pi. Grab your JFET transistor, LED light, wires, and breadboard and follow the connections on this diagram. The JFET transistor plugs into the breadboard with the flat part facing left. Then, plug in a wire to the same breadboard hole row as the top JFET lead (green in the diagram) and keep it unconnected to act as an antenna. Then, connect a wire (red) from the middle lead of the JFET transistor to Pin 1 on your RPi GPIO header. And, connect another wire (blue) from the lower lead of the JFET transistor to Pin 25 on your RPi GPIO header, then connect another (blue) wire from the lower lead of the JFET transistor to the long end of a common cathode LED, and finally connect the short end of the LED with a wire (black) to Pin 6 (ground) of the RPi GPIO header. That's it. Easy. Now test it. See: Ghost Sensor Testing Here's a video of me testing the Ghost Sensor circuit on my Raspberry Pi. We'll cover the Java SE app needed to record the ghost analytics in the next post. Hinkmond

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• why specular light is not running?

  - by nkint

  hi, i'm on JOGL this is my method for lighting: private void lights(GL gl) { float[] LightPos = {0.0f, 0.0f, -1.0f, 1.0f}; float[] LightAmb = {0.2f, 0.2f, 0.2f, 1.0f}; float[] LightDif = {0.6f, 0.6f, 0.6f, 1.0f}; float[] LightSpc = {0.9f, 0.9f, 0.9f, 1.0f}; gl.glLightfv(GL.GL_LIGHT1, GL.GL_POSITION, LightPos, 0); gl.glLightfv(GL.GL_LIGHT1, GL.GL_AMBIENT, LightAmb, 0); gl.glLightfv(GL.GL_LIGHT1, GL.GL_DIFFUSE, LightDif, 0); gl.glLightfv(GL.GL_LIGHT1, GL.GL_SPECULAR, LightSpc, 0); gl.glLightfv(GL.GL_LIGHT0, GL.GL_SPECULAR, LightSpc, 0); gl.glEnable(GL.GL_LIGHT0); gl.glEnable(GL.GL_LIGHT1); gl.glShadeModel(GL.GL_SMOOTH); gl.glEnable(GL.GL_LIGHTING); } and i see my objects flat, no specular light.. any ideas? ps. to render my objects: gl.glColor3f(1f,0f,0f); gl.glBegin(GL.GL_TRIANGLES); for(Triangle t : tubeModel.getTriangles()) { gl.glVertex3f(t.v1.x, t.v1.y, t.v1.z); gl.glVertex3f(t.v2.x, t.v2.y, t.v2.z); gl.glVertex3f(t.v3.x, t.v3.y, t.v3.z); } gl.glEnd();

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• When trying to install Wine on 12.10, 'Sudo' command will not let me type in a password.

  - by Nocturnus

  As the title explains, I have been attempting to install Wine on my laptop which is running 12.10. When I access the command terminal and entered "sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-wine/ppa" I was of course met by a password block, when I attempted to enter my password, it flat out wouldn't let me type anything, the only key that got a response from the terminal was "enter" which was met by "incorrect password". To bypass this issue I backed out and used the 'Gksudo' command, this new dialogue box seemed to give me access to sudo commands. I then entered "sudo apt-get update" and "sudo apt-get install wine1.5". Up until the installation everything went fine, but after entering the final command (still using gksudo) The terminal read "the following packages have unmet dependencies" and proceeded to list a bunch of "recommends" So my guess is that Wine hasn't been updated to run on 12.10... Is this true, and is there any other way to open .exe's? Also what was with that funky password misshap? I'm totally new to Ubuntu so I've just been using support pages and tutorials, sorry if I'm a bit naive in these matters...

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• When is it too late to go back to coding from a management role? [closed]

  - by LeoLambrettra

  Problem solving keeps the mind sharp and if you are like me then it makes you happy. But what if you went from coding up to Team Lead and then to Project Manager? I have a team of 12 and on a good salary but lately have been thinking that the politics and admin tasks of being middle level management in an Investment Bank is not the right path to happiness. I used to be able to design and code as well as manage but lately it's all budgets, admin tasks and people problems. At 39 is it too late to go be a senior developer again? Basically - Team Lead in a flat structure with good people rocks. But if half your team is offshore then it loses something - There's a lot of politics in Project Management and so many meetings that even if you want to code you start letting your team down by missing deadlines and only suited for small units of work The coding skills haven't gone so to pick up WCF services it just takes a bit of reading and then playing around. I reckon I could switch to a Hedge Fund and go back to developing and be far happier and get more money. My 2 doubts though are 1. Mid life crisis in that I'd get bored with coding again 2. Or maybe I'd like it but there aren't many dev jobs for 40+ so I'd be throwing away a high level management role that took 7 years at thee one bank to get to0 Anybody else made to switch back and survived?

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• How do I force the system to look for new sound devices?

  - by John Zeringue

  I have a small flat screen TV (Toshiba) that I often connect via HDMI to my laptop (an HP Pavilion dv4) and use as a computer monitor. When I do this, I prefer to use the TV's speakers, particularly when I'm watching video, because the sound quality is much better. However, when I connect the HDMI cable after turning on my computer (rather than having it plugged in before booting up), Sound Settings does not list the TV as an output device, and I am forced to reboot. I was curious if there is an easier solution to this, perhaps a CLI command to check for new sound outputs. Does anyone know of something like this or have another solution? To clarify, I believe this is a software problem. The HDMI always works, and I can switch my desktop over to the TV at any time. The issue is that, if the HDMI wasn't connected during start up, the TV will not appear as an output option in the Sound Settings GUI. So, unless I'm mistaken, my question is not HDMI specific, but rather a general usage question about manipulating sound settings from the command line.

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• How can I create a rectangular SDL surface filled with a particular color?

  - by user3689

  I'm learning SDL. I'd like to create rectangular surface filled with a flat color (not an image). Below is my code -- it compiles fine, but doesn't work. I'm passing the function these parameters: SDL_Surface* m_screen = SDL_SetVideoMode( SCREEN_WIDTH, SCREEN_HEIGHT, SCREEN_BPP, SDL_SWSURFACE ); SDL_FillRect( m_screen, &m_screen->clip_rect, SDL_MapRGB(m_screen->format,0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF) ); ... Button button(m_screen,0,0,50,50,255,0,0) ... ... Button::Button(SDL_Surface* screen,int x,int y,int w,int h,int R, int G, int B) { SDL_Rect box; SDL_Surface * ButtonSurface; ButtonSurface = NULL ; Uint32 rmask, gmask, bmask, amask; #if SDL_BYTEORDER == SDL_BIG_ENDIAN rmask = 0xff000000; gmask = 0x00ff0000; bmask = 0x0000ff00; amask = 0x000000ff; #else rmask = 0x000000ff; gmask = 0x0000ff00; bmask = 0x00ff0000; amask = 0xff000000; #endif box.x = x; box.y = y; box.w = w; box.h = h; ButtonSurface = SDL_CreateRGBSurface(SDL_SWSURFACE, box.w,box.h, 32, rmask, gmask, bmask, amask); if(ButtonSurface == NULL) { LOG_MSG("Button::Button Button failed"); } SDL_FillRect(screen,&box,SDL_MapRGB ( ButtonSurface->format, R, G, B )); //ut.ApplySurface(0,0,ButtonSurface,screen); SDL_BlitSurface(ButtonSurface,NULL,screen,&box); } What am I doing wrong here?

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• How to manually patch Blogger template to use Disqus

  - by user317944

  I'm trying to add disqus to my blog and I tried following this guide to do so: http://disqus.com/docs/patch-blogger/ However their instructions are completely off with what I have on my custom template. Here is the template: <b:skin><![CDATA[/*----------------------------------------------- Blogger Template Style Name: Picture Window Designer: Josh Peterson URL: www.noaesthetic.com ----------------------------------------------- */ /* Variable definitions ==================== */ /* Content ----------------------------------------------- */ body { font: $(body.font); color: $(body.text.color); } html body .region-inner { min-width: 0; max-width: 100%; width: auto; } .content-outer { font-size: 90%; } a:link { text-decoration:none; color: $(link.color); } a:visited { text-decoration:none; color: $(link.visited.color); } a:hover { text-decoration:underline; color: $(link.hover.color); } .body-fauxcolumn-outer { background: $(body.background); } .content-outer { background: $(content.background); -moz-border-radius: $(content.border.radius); -webkit-border-radius: $(content.border.radius); -goog-ms-border-radius: $(content.border.radius); border-radius: $(content.border.radius); -moz-box-shadow: 0 0 $(content.shadow.spread) rgba(0, 0, 0, .15); -webkit-box-shadow: 0 0 $(content.shadow.spread) rgba(0, 0, 0, .15); -goog-ms-box-shadow: 0 0 $(content.shadow.spread) rgba(0, 0, 0, .15); box-shadow: 0 0 $(content.shadow.spread) rgba(0, 0, 0, .15); margin: $(content.margin) auto; } .content-inner { padding: $(content.padding); } /* Header ----------------------------------------------- */ .header-outer { background: $(header.background.color) $(header.background.gradient) repeat-x scroll top left; _background-image: none; color: $(header.text.color); -moz-border-radius: $(header.border.radius); -webkit-border-radius: $(header.border.radius); -goog-ms-border-radius: $(header.border.radius); border-radius: $(header.border.radius); } .Header img, .Header #header-inner { -moz-border-radius: $(header.border.radius); -webkit-border-radius: $(header.border.radius); -goog-ms-border-radius: $(header.border.radius); border-radius: $(header.border.radius); } .header-inner .Header .titlewrapper, .header-inner .Header .descriptionwrapper { padding-left: $(header.padding); padding-right: $(header.padding); } .Header h1 { font: $(header.font); text-shadow: 1px 1px 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3); } .Header h1 a { color: $(header.text.color); } .Header .description { font-size: 130%; } /* Tabs ----------------------------------------------- */ .tabs-inner { margin: .5em $(tabs.margin.sides) $(tabs.margin.bottom); padding: 0; } .tabs-inner .section { margin: 0; } .tabs-inner .widget ul { padding: 0; background: $(tabs.background.color) $(tabs.background.gradient) repeat scroll bottom; -moz-border-radius: $(tabs.border.radius); -webkit-border-radius: $(tabs.border.radius); -goog-ms-border-radius: $(tabs.border.radius); border-radius: $(tabs.border.radius); } .tabs-inner .widget li { border: none; } .tabs-inner .widget li a { display: block; padding: .5em 1em; margin-$endSide: $(tabs.spacing); color: $(tabs.text.color); font: $(tabs.font); -moz-border-radius: $(tab.border.radius) $(tab.border.radius) 0 0; -webkit-border-top-left-radius: $(tab.border.radius); -webkit-border-top-right-radius: $(tab.border.radius); -goog-ms-border-radius: $(tab.border.radius) $(tab.border.radius) 0 0; border-radius: $(tab.border.radius) $(tab.border.radius) 0 0; background: $(tab.background); border-$endSide: 1px solid $(tabs.separator.color); } .tabs-inner .widget li:first-child a { padding-$startSide: 1.25em; -moz-border-radius-top$startSide: $(tab.first.border.radius); -moz-border-radius-bottom$startSide: $(tabs.border.radius); -webkit-border-top-$startSide-radius: $(tab.first.border.radius); -webkit-border-bottom-$startSide-radius: $(tabs.border.radius); -goog-ms-border-top-$startSide-radius: $(tab.first.border.radius); -goog-ms-border-bottom-$startSide-radius: $(tabs.border.radius); border-top-$startSide-radius: $(tab.first.border.radius); border-bottom-$startSide-radius: $(tabs.border.radius); } .tabs-inner .widget li.selected a, .tabs-inner .widget li a:hover { position: relative; z-index: 1; background: $(tabs.selected.background.color) $(tab.selected.background.gradient) repeat scroll bottom; color: $(tabs.selected.text.color); -moz-box-shadow: 0 0 $(region.shadow.spread) rgba(0, 0, 0, .15); -webkit-box-shadow: 0 0 $(region.shadow.spread) rgba(0, 0, 0, .15); -goog-ms-box-shadow: 0 0 $(region.shadow.spread) rgba(0, 0, 0, .15); box-shadow: 0 0 $(region.shadow.spread) rgba(0, 0, 0, .15); } /* Headings ----------------------------------------------- */ h2 { font: $(widget.title.font); text-transform: $(widget.title.text.transform); color: $(widget.title.text.color); margin: .5em 0; } /* Main ----------------------------------------------- */ .main-outer { background: $(main.background); -moz-border-radius: $(main.border.radius.top) $(main.border.radius.top) 0 0; -webkit-border-top-left-radius: $(main.border.radius.top); -webkit-border-top-right-radius: $(main.border.radius.top); -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 0; -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 0; -goog-ms-border-radius: $(main.border.radius.top) $(main.border.radius.top) 0 0; border-radius: $(main.border.radius.top) $(main.border.radius.top) 0 0; -moz-box-shadow: 0 $(region.shadow.offset) $(region.shadow.spread) rgba(0, 0, 0, .15); -webkit-box-shadow: 0 $(region.shadow.offset) $(region.shadow.spread) rgba(0, 0, 0, .15); -goog-ms-box-shadow: 0 $(region.shadow.offset) $(region.shadow.spread) rgba(0, 0, 0, .15); box-shadow: 0 $(region.shadow.offset) $(region.shadow.spread) rgba(0, 0, 0, .15); } .main-inner { padding: 15px $(main.padding.sides) 20px; } .main-inner .column-center-inner { padding: 0 0; } .main-inner .column-left-inner { padding-left: 0; } .main-inner .column-right-inner { padding-right: 0; } /* Posts ----------------------------------------------- */ h3.post-title { margin: 0; font: $(post.title.font); } .comments h4 { margin: 1em 0 0; font: $(post.title.font); } .post-outer { background-color: $(post.background.color); border: solid 1px $(post.border.color); -moz-border-radius: $(post.border.radius); -webkit-border-radius: $(post.border.radius); border-radius: $(post.border.radius); -goog-ms-border-radius: $(post.border.radius); padding: 15px 20px; margin: 0 $(post.margin.sides) 20px; } .post-body { line-height: 1.4; font-size: 110%; } .post-header { margin: 0 0 1.5em; color: $(post.footer.text.color); line-height: 1.6; } .post-footer { margin: .5em 0 0; color: $(post.footer.text.color); line-height: 1.6; } blog-pager { font-size: 140% } comments .comment-author { padding-top: 1.5em; border-top: dashed 1px #ccc; border-top: dashed 1px rgba(128, 128, 128, .5); background-position: 0 1.5em; } comments .comment-author:first-child { padding-top: 0; border-top: none; } .avatar-image-container { margin: .2em 0 0; } /* Widgets ----------------------------------------------- */ .widget ul, .widget #ArchiveList ul.flat { padding: 0; list-style: none; } .widget ul li, .widget #ArchiveList ul.flat li { border-top: dashed 1px #ccc; border-top: dashed 1px rgba(128, 128, 128, .5); } .widget ul li:first-child, .widget #ArchiveList ul.flat li:first-child { border-top: none; } .widget .post-body ul { list-style: disc; } .widget .post-body ul li { border: none; } /* Footer ----------------------------------------------- */ .footer-outer { color:$(footer.text.color); background: $(footer.background); -moz-border-radius: $(footer.border.radius.top) $(footer.border.radius.top) $(footer.border.radius.bottom) $(footer.border.radius.bottom); -webkit-border-top-left-radius: $(footer.border.radius.top); -webkit-border-top-right-radius: $(footer.border.radius.top); -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: $(footer.border.radius.bottom); -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: $(footer.border.radius.bottom); -goog-ms-border-radius: $(footer.border.radius.top) $(footer.border.radius.top) $(footer.border.radius.bottom) $(footer.border.radius.bottom); border-radius: $(footer.border.radius.top) $(footer.border.radius.top) $(footer.border.radius.bottom) $(footer.border.radius.bottom); -moz-box-shadow: 0 $(region.shadow.offset) $(region.shadow.spread) rgba(0, 0, 0, .15); -webkit-box-shadow: 0 $(region.shadow.offset) $(region.shadow.spread) rgba(0, 0, 0, .15); -goog-ms-box-shadow: 0 $(region.shadow.offset) $(region.shadow.spread) rgba(0, 0, 0, .15); box-shadow: 0 $(region.shadow.offset) $(region.shadow.spread) rgba(0, 0, 0, .15); } .footer-inner { padding: 10px $(main.padding.sides) 20px; } .footer-outer a { color: $(footer.link.color); } .footer-outer a:visited { color: $(footer.link.visited.color); } .footer-outer a:hover { color: $(footer.link.hover.color); } .footer-outer .widget h2 { color: $(footer.widget.title.text.color); } ]] <b:template-skin> <b:variable default='930px' name='content.width' type='length' value='930px'/> <b:variable default='0' name='main.column.left.width' type='length' value='180px'/> <b:variable default='360px' name='main.column.right.width' type='length' value='180px'/> <![CDATA[ body { min-width: $(content.width); } .content-outer, .region-inner { min-width: $(content.width); max-width: $(content.width); _width: $(content.width); } .main-inner .columns { padding-left: $(main.column.left.width); padding-right: $(main.column.right.width); } .main-inner .fauxcolumn-center-outer { left: $(main.column.left.width); right: $(main.column.right.width); /* IE6 does not respect left and right together */ _width: expression(this.parentNode.offsetWidth - parseInt("$(main.column.left.width)") - parseInt("$(main.column.right.width)") + 'px'); } .main-inner .fauxcolumn-left-outer { width: $(main.column.left.width); } .main-inner .fauxcolumn-right-outer { width: $(main.column.right.width); } .main-inner .column-left-outer { width: $(main.column.left.width); right: $(main.column.left.width); margin-right: -$(main.column.left.width); } .main-inner .column-right-outer { width: $(main.column.right.width); margin-right: -$(main.column.right.width); } #layout { min-width: 0; } #layout .content-outer { min-width: 0; width: 800px; } #layout .region-inner { min-width: 0; width: auto; } ]]> </b:template-skin> <div class='main-cap-bottom cap-bottom'> <div class='cap-left'/> <div class='cap-right'/> </div> </div> <footer> <div class='footer-outer'> <div class='footer-cap-top cap-top'> <div class='cap-left'/> <div class='cap-right'/> </div> <div class='fauxborder-left footer-fauxborder-left'> <div class='fauxborder-right footer-fauxborder-right'/> <div class='region-inner footer-inner'> <macro:include id='footer-sections' name='sections'> <macro:param default='2' name='num' value='3'/> <macro:param default='footer' name='idPrefix'/> <macro:param default='foot' name='class'/> <macro:param default='false' name='includeBottom'/> </macro:include> <!-- outside of the include in order to lock Attribution widget --> <b:section class='foot' id='footer-3' showaddelement='no'> document.body.className = document.body.className.replace('loading', ''); <macro:if cond='data:col.num &gt;= 2'> <table border='0' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' mexpr:class='&quot;section-columns columns-&quot; + data:col.num'> <tbody> <tr> <td class='first columns-cell'> <b:section mexpr:class='data:col.class' mexpr:id='data:col.idPrefix + &quot;-2-1&quot;'/> </td> <td class='columns-cell'> <b:section mexpr:class='data:col.class' mexpr:id='data:col.idPrefix + &quot;-2-2&quot;'/> </td> <macro:if cond='data:col.num &gt;= 3'> <td class='columns-cell'> <b:section mexpr:class='data:col.class' mexpr:id='data:col.idPrefix + &quot;-2-3&quot;'/> </td> </macro:if> <macro:if cond='data:col.num &gt;= 4'> <td class='columns-cell'> <b:section mexpr:class='data:col.class' mexpr:id='data:col.idPrefix + &quot;-2-4&quot;'/> </td> </macro:if> </tr> </tbody> </table> <macro:if cond='data:col.includeBottom'> <b:section mexpr:class='data:col.class' mexpr:id='data:col.idPrefix + &quot;-3&quot;' showaddelement='no'/> </macro:if> </macro

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• Oracle BI Server Modeling, Part 1- Designing a Query Factory

  - by bob.ertl(at)oracle.com

    Welcome to Oracle BI Development's BI Foundation blog, focused on helping you get the most value from your Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (BI EE) platform deployments.  In my first series of posts, I plan to show developers the concepts and best practices for modeling in the Common Enterprise Information Model (CEIM), the semantic layer of Oracle BI EE.  In this segment, I will lay the groundwork for the modeling concepts.  First, I will cover the big picture of how the BI Server fits into the system, and how the CEIM controls the query processing. Oracle BI EE Query Cycle The purpose of the Oracle BI Server is to bridge the gap between the presentation services and the data sources.  There are typically a variety of data sources in a variety of technologies: relational, normalized transaction systems; relational star-schema data warehouses and marts; multidimensional analytic cubes and financial applications; flat files, Excel files, XML files, and so on. Business datasets can reside in a single type of source, or, most of the time, are spread across various types of sources. Presentation services users are generally business people who need to be able to query that set of sources without any knowledge of technologies, schemas, or how sources are organized in their company. They think of business analysis in terms of measures with specific calculations, hierarchical dimensions for breaking those measures down, and detailed reports of the business transactions themselves.  Most of them create queries without knowing it, by picking a dashboard page and some filters.  Others create their own analysis by selecting metrics and dimensional attributes, and possibly creating additional calculations. The BI Server bridges that gap from simple business terms to technical physical queries by exposing just the business focused measures and dimensional attributes that business people can use in their analyses and dashboards.   After they make their selections and start the analysis, the BI Server plans the best way to query the data sources, writes the optimized sequence of physical queries to those sources, post-processes the results, and presents them to the client as a single result set suitable for tables, pivots and charts. The CEIM is a model that controls the processing of the BI Server.  It provides the subject areas that presentation services exposes for business users to select simplified metrics and dimensional attributes for their analysis.  It models the mappings to the physical data access, the calculations and logical transformations, and the data access security rules.  The CEIM consists of metadata stored in the repository, authored by developers using the Administration Tool client.     Presentation services and other query clients create their queries in BI EE's SQL-92 language, called Logical SQL or LSQL.  The API simply uses ODBC or JDBC to pass the query to the BI Server.  Presentation services writes the LSQL query in terms of the simplified objects presented to the users.  The BI Server creates a query plan, and rewrites the LSQL into fully-detailed SQL or other languages suitable for querying the physical sources.  For example, the LSQL on the left below was rewritten into the physical SQL for an Oracle 11g database on the right. Logical SQL   Physical SQL SELECT "D0 Time"."T02 Per Name Month" saw_0, "D4 Product"."P01  Product" saw_1, "F2 Units"."2-01  Billed Qty  (Sum All)" saw_2 FROM "Sample Sales" ORDER BY saw_0, saw_1       WITH SAWITH0 AS ( select T986.Per_Name_Month as c1, T879.Prod_Dsc as c2,      sum(T835.Units) as c3, T879.Prod_Key as c4 from      Product T879 /* A05 Product */ ,      Time_Mth T986 /* A08 Time Mth */ ,      FactsRev T835 /* A11 Revenue (Billed Time Join) */ where ( T835.Prod_Key = T879.Prod_Key and T835.Bill_Mth = T986.Row_Wid) group by T879.Prod_Dsc, T879.Prod_Key, T986.Per_Name_Month ) select SAWITH0.c1 as c1, SAWITH0.c2 as c2, SAWITH0.c3 as c3 from SAWITH0 order by c1, c2   Probably everybody reading this blog can write SQL or MDX.  However, the trick in designing the CEIM is that you are modeling a query-generation factory.  Rather than hand-crafting individual queries, you model behavior and relationships, thus configuring the BI Server machinery to manufacture millions of different queries in response to random user requests.  This mass production requires a different mindset and approach than when you are designing individual SQL statements in tools such as Oracle SQL Developer, Oracle Hyperion Interactive Reporting (formerly Brio), or Oracle BI Publisher.   The Structure of the Common Enterprise Information Model (CEIM) The CEIM has a unique structure specifically for modeling the relationships and behaviors that fill the gap from logical user requests to physical data source queries and back to the result.  The model divides the functionality into three specialized layers, called Presentation, Business Model and Mapping, and Physical, as shown below. Presentation services clients can generally only see the presentation layer, and the objects in the presentation layer are normally the only ones used in the LSQL request.  When a request comes into the BI Server from presentation services or another client, the relationships and objects in the model allow the BI Server to select the appropriate data sources, create a query plan, and generate the physical queries.  That's the left to right flow in the diagram below.  When the results come back from the data source queries, the right to left relationships in the model show how to transform the results and perform any final calculations and functions that could not be pushed down to the databases.   Business Model Think of the business model as the heart of the CEIM you are designing.  This is where you define the analytic behavior seen by the users, and the superset library of metric and dimension objects available to the user community as a whole.  It also provides the baseline business-friendly names and user-readable dictionary.  For these reasons, it is often called the "logical" model--it is a virtual database schema that persists no data, but can be queried as if it is a database. The business model always has a dimensional shape (more on this in future posts), and its simple shape and terminology hides the complexity of the source data models. Besides hiding complexity and normalizing terminology, this layer adds most of the analytic value, as well.  This is where you define the rich, dimensional behavior of the metrics and complex business calculations, as well as the conformed dimensions and hierarchies.  It contributes to the ease of use for business users, since the dimensional metric definitions apply in any context of filters and drill-downs, and the conformed dimensions enable dashboard-wide filters and guided analysis links that bring context along from one page to the next.  The conformed dimensions also provide a key to hiding the complexity of many sources, including federation of different databases, behind the simple business model. Note that the expression language in this layer is LSQL, so that any expression can be rewritten into any data source's query language at run time.  This is important for federation, where a given logical object can map to several different physical objects in different databases.  It is also important to portability of the CEIM to different database brands, which is a key requirement for Oracle's BI Applications products. Your requirements process with your user community will mostly affect the business model.  This is where you will define most of the things they specifically ask for, such as metric definitions.  For this reason, many of the best-practice methodologies of our consulting partners start with the high-level definition of this layer. Physical Model The physical model connects the business model that meets your users' requirements to the reality of the data sources you have available. In the query factory analogy, think of the physical layer as the bill of materials for generating physical queries.  Every schema, table, column, join, cube, hierarchy, etc., that will appear in any physical query manufactured at run time must be modeled here at design time. Each physical data source will have its own physical model, or "database" object in the CEIM.  The shape of each physical model matches the shape of its physical source.  In other words, if the source is normalized relational, the physical model will mimic that normalized shape.  If it is a hypercube, the physical model will have a hypercube shape.  If it is a flat file, it will have a denormalized tabular shape. To aid in query optimization, the physical layer also tracks the specifics of the database brand and release.  This allows the BI Server to make the most of each physical source's distinct capabilities, writing queries in its syntax, and using its specific functions. This allows the BI Server to push processing work as deep as possible into the physical source, which minimizes data movement and takes full advantage of the database's own optimizer.  For most data sources, native APIs are used to further optimize performance and functionality. The value of having a distinct separation between the logical (business) and physical models is encapsulation of the physical characteristics.  This encapsulation is another enabler of packaged BI applications and federation.  It is also key to hiding the complex shapes and relationships in the physical sources from the end users.  Consider a routine drill-down in the business model: physically, it can require a drill-through where the first query is MDX to a multidimensional cube, followed by the drill-down query in SQL to a normalized relational database.  The only difference from the user's point of view is that the 2nd query added a more detailed dimension level column - everything else was the same. Mappings Within the Business Model and Mapping Layer, the mappings provide the binding from each logical column and join in the dimensional business model, to each of the objects that can provide its data in the physical layer.  When there is more than one option for a physical source, rules in the mappings are applied to the query context to determine which of the data sources should be hit, and how to combine their results if more than one is used.  These rules specify aggregate navigation, vertical partitioning (fragmentation), and horizontal partitioning, any of which can be federated across multiple, heterogeneous sources.  These mappings are usually the most sophisticated part of the CEIM. Presentation You might think of the presentation layer as a set of very simple relational-like views into the business model.  Over ODBC/JDBC, they present a relational catalog consisting of databases, tables and columns.  For business users, presentation services interprets these as subject areas, folders and columns, respectively.  (Note that in 10g, subject areas were called presentation catalogs in the CEIM.  In this blog, I will stick to 11g terminology.)  Generally speaking, presentation services and other clients can query only these objects (there are exceptions for certain clients such as BI Publisher and Essbase Studio). The purpose of the presentation layer is to specialize the business model for different categories of users.  Based on a user's role, they will be restricted to specific subject areas, tables and columns for security.  The breakdown of the model into multiple subject areas organizes the content for users, and subjects superfluous to a particular business role can be hidden from that set of users.  Customized names and descriptions can be used to override the business model names for a specific audience.  Variables in the object names can be used for localization. For these reasons, you are better off thinking of the tables in the presentation layer as folders than as strict relational tables.  The real semantics of tables and how they function is in the business model, and any grouping of columns can be included in any table in the presentation layer.  In 11g, an LSQL query can also span multiple presentation subject areas, as long as they map to the same business model. Other Model Objects There are some objects that apply to multiple layers.  These include security-related objects, such as application roles, users, data filters, and query limits (governors).  There are also variables you can use in parameters and expressions, and initialization blocks for loading their initial values on a static or user session basis.  Finally, there are Multi-User Development (MUD) projects for developers to check out units of work, and objects for the marketing feature used by our packaged customer relationship management (CRM) software.   The Query Factory At this point, you should have a grasp on the query factory concept.  When developing the CEIM model, you are configuring the BI Server to automatically manufacture millions of queries in response to random user requests. You do this by defining the analytic behavior in the business model, mapping that to the physical data sources, and exposing it through the presentation layer's role-based subject areas. While configuring mass production requires a different mindset than when you hand-craft individual SQL or MDX statements, it builds on the modeling and query concepts you already understand. The following posts in this series will walk through the CEIM modeling concepts and best practices in detail.  We will initially review dimensional concepts so you can understand the business model, and then present a pattern-based approach to learning the mappings from a variety of physical schema shapes and deployments to the dimensional model.  Along the way, we will also present the dimensional calculation template, and learn how to configure the many additivity patterns.

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• How to create a new WCF/MVC/jQuery application from scratch

  - by pjohnson

  As a corporate developer by trade, I don't get much opportunity to create from-the-ground-up web sites; usually it's tweaks, fixes, and new functionality to existing sites. And with hobby sites, I often don't find the challenges I run into with enterprise systems; usually it's starting from Visual Studio's boilerplate project and adding whatever functionality I want to play around with, rarely deploying outside my own machine. So my experience creating a new enterprise-level site was a bit dated, and the technologies to do so have come a long way, and are much more ready to go out of the box. My intention with this post isn't so much to provide any groundbreaking insights, but to just tie together a lot of information in one place to make it easy to create a new site from scratch. Architecture One site I created earlier this year had an MVC 3 front end and a WCF 4-driven service layer. Using Visual Studio 2010, these project types are easy enough to add to a new solution. I created a third Class Library project to store common functionality the front end and services layers both needed to access, for example, the DataContract classes that the front end uses to call services in the service layer. By keeping DataContract classes in a separate project, I avoided the need for the front end to have an assembly/project reference directly to the services code, a bit cleaner and more flexible of an SOA implementation. Consuming the service Even by this point, VS has given you a lot. You have a working web site and a working service, neither of which do much but are great starting points. To wire up the front end and the services, I needed to create proxy classes and WCF client configuration information. I decided to use the SvcUtil.exe utility provided as part of the Windows SDK, which you should have installed if you installed VS. VS also provides an Add Service Reference command since the .NET 1.x ASMX days, which I've never really liked; it creates several .cs/.disco/etc. files, some of which contained hardcoded URL's, adding duplicate files (*1.cs, *2.cs, etc.) without doing a good job of cleaning up after itself. I've found SvcUtil much cleaner, as it outputs one C# file (containing several proxy classes) and a config file with settings, and it's easier to use to regenerate the proxy classes when the service changes, and to then maintain all your configuration in one place (your Web.config, instead of the Service Reference files). I provided it a reference to a copy of my common assembly so it doesn't try to recreate the data contract classes, had it use the type List<T> for collections, and modified the output files' names and .NET namespace, ending up with a command like: svcutil.exe /l:cs /o:MyService.cs /config:MyService.config /r:MySite.Common.dll /ct:System.Collections.Generic.List`1 /n:*,MySite.Web.ServiceProxies http://localhost:59999/MyService.svc I took the generated MyService.cs file and drop it in the web project, under a ServiceProxies folder, matching the namespace and keeping it separate from classes I coded manually. Integrating the config file took a little more work, but only needed to be done once as these settings didn't often change. A great thing Microsoft improved with WCF 4 is configuration; namely, you can use all the default settings and not have to specify them explicitly in your config file. Unfortunately, SvcUtil doesn't generate its config file this way. If you just copy & paste MyService.config's contents into your front end's Web.config, you'll copy a lot of settings you don't need, plus this will get unwieldy if you add more services in the future, each with its own custom binding. Really, as the only mandatory settings are the endpoint's ABC's (address, binding, and contract) you can get away with just this: <system.serviceModel>  <client>    <endpoint address="http://localhost:59999/MyService.svc" binding="wsHttpBinding" contract="MySite.Web.ServiceProxies.IMyService" />  </client></system.serviceModel> By default, the services project uses basicHttpBinding. As you can see, I switched it to wsHttpBinding, a more modern standard. Using something like netTcpBinding would probably be faster and more efficient since the client & service are both written in .NET, but it requires additional server setup and open ports, whereas switching to wsHttpBinding is much simpler. From an MVC controller action method, I instantiated the client, and invoked the method for my operation. As with any object that implements IDisposable, I wrapped it in C#'s using() statement, a tidy construct that ensures Dispose gets called no matter what, even if an exception occurs. Unfortunately there are problems with that, as WCF's ClientBase<TChannel> class doesn't implement Dispose according to Microsoft's own usage guidelines. I took an approach similar to Technology Toolbox's fix, except using partial classes instead of a wrapper class to extend the SvcUtil-generated proxy, making the fix more seamless from the controller's perspective, and theoretically, less code I have to change if and when Microsoft fixes this behavior. User interface The MVC 3 project template includes jQuery and some other common JavaScript libraries by default. I updated the ones I used to the latest versions using NuGet, available in VS via the Tools > Library Package Manager > Manage NuGet Packages for Solution... > Updates. I also used this dialog to remove packages I wasn't using. Given that it's smart enough to know the difference between the .js and .min.js files, I was hoping it would be smart enough to know which to include during build and publish operations, but this doesn't seem to be the case. I ended up using Cassette to perform the minification and bundling of my JavaScript and CSS files; ASP.NET 4.5 includes this functionality out of the box. The web client to web server link via jQuery was easy enough. In my JavaScript function, unobtrusively wired up to a button's click event, I called $.ajax, corresponding to an action method that returns a JsonResult, accomplished by passing my model class to the Controller.Json() method, which jQuery helpfully translates from JSON to a JavaScript object.$.ajax calls weren't perfectly straightforward. I tried using the simpler $.post method instead, but ran into trouble without specifying the contentType parameter, which $.post doesn't have. The url parameter is simple enough, though for flexibility in how the site is deployed, I used MVC's Url.Action method to get the URL, then sent this to JavaScript in a JavaScript string variable. If the request needed input data, I used the JSON.stringify function to convert a JavaScript object with the parameters into a JSON string, which MVC then parses into strongly-typed C# parameters. I also specified "json" for dataType, and "application/json; charset=utf-8" for contentType. For success and error, I provided my success and error handling functions, though success is a bit hairier. "Success" in this context indicates whether the HTTP request succeeds, not whether what you wanted the AJAX call to do on the web server was successful. For example, if you make an AJAX call to retrieve a piece of data, the success handler will be invoked for any 200 OK response, and the error handler will be invoked for failed requests, e.g. a 404 Not Found (if the server rejected the URL you provided in the url parameter) or 500 Internal Server Error (e.g. if your C# code threw an exception that wasn't caught). If an exception was caught and handled, or if the data requested wasn't found, this would likely go through the success handler, which would need to do further examination to verify it did in fact get back the data for which it asked. I discuss this more in the next section. Logging and exception handling At this point, I had a working application. If I ran into any errors or unexpected behavior, debugging was easy enough, but of course that's not an option on public web servers. Microsoft Enterprise Library 5.0 filled this gap nicely, with its Logging and Exception Handling functionality. First I installed Enterprise Library; NuGet as outlined above is probably the best way to do so. I needed a total of three assembly references--Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.ExceptionHandling, Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.ExceptionHandling.Logging, and Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Logging. VS links with the handy Enterprise Library 5.0 Configuration Console, accessible by right-clicking your Web.config and choosing Edit Enterprise Library V5 Configuration. In this console, under Logging Settings, I set up a Rolling Flat File Trace Listener to write to log files but not let them get too large, using a Text Formatter with a simpler template than that provided by default. Logging to a different (or additional) destination is easy enough, but a flat file suited my needs. At this point, I verified it wrote as expected by calling the Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Logging.Logger.Write method from my C# code. With those settings verified, I went on to wire up Exception Handling with Logging. Back in the EntLib Configuration Console, under Exception Handling, I used a LoggingExceptionHandler, setting its Logging Category to the category I already had configured in the Logging Settings. Then, from code (e.g. a controller's OnException method, or any action method's catch block), I called the Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.ExceptionHandling.ExceptionPolicy.HandleException method, providing the exception and the exception policy name I had configured in the Exception Handling Settings. Before I got this configured correctly, when I tried it out, nothing was logged. In working with .NET, I'm used to seeing an exception if something doesn't work or isn't set up correctly, but instead working with these EntLib modules reminds me more of JavaScript (before the "use strict" v5 days)--it just does nothing and leaves you to figure out why, I presume due in part to the listener pattern Microsoft followed with the Enterprise Library. First, I verified logging worked on its own. Then, verifying/correcting where each piece wires up to the next resolved my problem. Your C# code calls into the Exception Handling module, referencing the policy you pass the HandleException method; that policy's configuration contains a LoggingExceptionHandler that references a logCategory; that logCategory should be added in the loggingConfiguration's categorySources section; that category references a listener; that listener should be added in the loggingConfiguration's listeners section, which specifies the name of the log file. One final note on error handling, as the proper way to handle WCF and MVC errors is a whole other very lengthy discussion. For AJAX calls to MVC action methods, depending on your configuration, an exception thrown here will result in ASP.NET'S Yellow Screen Of Death being sent back as a response, which is at best unnecessarily and uselessly verbose, and at worst a security risk as the internals of your application are exposed to potential hackers. I mitigated this by overriding my controller's OnException method, passing the exception off to the Exception Handling module as above. I created an ErrorModel class with as few properties as possible (e.g. an Error string), sending as little information to the client as possible, to both maximize bandwidth and mitigate risk. I then return an ErrorModel in JSON format for AJAX requests: if (filterContext.HttpContext.Request.IsAjaxRequest()){    filterContext.Result = Json(new ErrorModel(...));    filterContext.ExceptionHandled = true;} My $.ajax calls from the browser get a valid 200 OK response and go into the success handler. Before assuming everything is OK, I check if it's an ErrorModel or a model containing what I requested. If it's an ErrorModel, or null, I pass it to my error handler. If the client needs to handle different errors differently, ErrorModel can contain a flag, error code, string, etc. to differentiate, but again, sending as little information back as possible is ideal. Summary As any experienced ASP.NET developer knows, this is a far cry from where ASP.NET started when I began working with it 11 years ago. WCF services are far more powerful than ASMX ones, MVC is in many ways cleaner and certainly more unit test-friendly than Web Forms (if you don't consider the code/markup commingling you're doing again), the Enterprise Library makes error handling and logging almost entirely configuration-driven, AJAX makes a responsive UI more feasible, and jQuery makes JavaScript coding much less painful. It doesn't take much work to get a functional, maintainable, flexible application, though having it actually do something useful is a whole other matter.

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• Does anyone really understand how HFSC scheduling in Linux/BSD works?

  - by Mecki

  I read the original SIGCOMM '97 PostScript paper about HFSC, it is very technically, but I understand the basic concept. Instead of giving a linear service curve (as with pretty much every other scheduling algorithm), you can specify a convex or concave service curve and thus it is possible to decouple bandwidth and delay. However, even though this paper mentions to kind of scheduling algorithms being used (real-time and link-share), it always only mentions ONE curve per scheduling class (the decoupling is done by specifying this curve, only one curve is needed for that). Now HFSC has been implemented for BSD (OpenBSD, FreeBSD, etc.) using the ALTQ scheduling framework and it has been implemented Linux using the TC scheduling framework (part of iproute2). Both implementations added two additional service curves, that were NOT in the original paper! A real-time service curve and an upper-limit service curve. Again, please note that the original paper mentions two scheduling algorithms (real-time and link-share), but in that paper both work with one single service curve. There never have been two independent service curves for either one as you currently find in BSD and Linux. Even worse, some version of ALTQ seems to add an additional queue priority to HSFC (there is no such thing as priority in the original paper either). I found several BSD HowTo's mentioning this priority setting (even though the man page of the latest ALTQ release knows no such parameter for HSFC, so officially it does not even exist). This all makes the HFSC scheduling even more complex than the algorithm described in the original paper and there are tons of tutorials on the Internet that often contradict each other, one claiming the opposite of the other one. This is probably the main reason why nobody really seems to understand how HFSC scheduling really works. Before I can ask my questions, we need a sample setup of some kind. I'll use a very simple one as seen in the image below: Here are some questions I cannot answer because the tutorials contradict each other: What for do I need a real-time curve at all? Assuming A1, A2, B1, B2 are all 128 kbit/s link-share (no real-time curve for either one), then each of those will get 128 kbit/s if the root has 512 kbit/s to distribute (and A and B are both 256 kbit/s of course), right? Why would I additionally give A1 and B1 a real-time curve with 128 kbit/s? What would this be good for? To give those two a higher priority? According to original paper I can give them a higher priority by using a curve, that's what HFSC is all about after all. By giving both classes a curve of [256kbit/s 20ms 128kbit/s] both have twice the priority than A2 and B2 automatically (still only getting 128 kbit/s on average) Does the real-time bandwidth count towards the link-share bandwidth? E.g. if A1 and B1 both only have 64kbit/s real-time and 64kbit/s link-share bandwidth, does that mean once they are served 64kbit/s via real-time, their link-share requirement is satisfied as well (they might get excess bandwidth, but lets ignore that for a second) or does that mean they get another 64 kbit/s via link-share? So does each class has a bandwidth "requirement" of real-time plus link-share? Or does a class only have a higher requirement than the real-time curve if the link-share curve is higher than the real-time curve (current link-share requirement equals specified link-share requirement minus real-time bandwidth already provided to this class)? Is upper limit curve applied to real-time as well, only to link-share, or maybe to both? Some tutorials say one way, some say the other way. Some even claim upper-limit is the maximum for real-time bandwidth + link-share bandwidth? What is the truth? Assuming A2 and B2 are both 128 kbit/s, does it make any difference if A1 and B1 are 128 kbit/s link-share only, or 64 kbit/s real-time and 128 kbit/s link-share, and if so, what difference? If I use the seperate real-time curve to increase priorities of classes, why would I need "curves" at all? Why is not real-time a flat value and link-share also a flat value? Why are both curves? The need for curves is clear in the original paper, because there is only one attribute of that kind per class. But now, having three attributes (real-time, link-share, and upper-limit) what for do I still need curves on each one? Why would I want the curves shape (not average bandwidth, but their slopes) to be different for real-time and link-share traffic? According to the little documentation available, real-time curve values are totally ignored for inner classes (class A and B), they are only applied to leaf classes (A1, A2, B1, B2). If that is true, why does the ALTQ HFSC sample configuration (search for 3.3 Sample configuration) set real-time curves on inner classes and claims that those set the guaranteed rate of those inner classes? Isn't that completely pointless? (note: pshare sets the link-share curve in ALTQ and grate the real-time curve; you can see this in the paragraph above the sample configuration). Some tutorials say the sum of all real-time curves may not be higher than 80% of the line speed, others say it must not be higher than 70% of the line speed. Which one is right or are they maybe both wrong? One tutorial said you shall forget all the theory. No matter how things really work (schedulers and bandwidth distribution), imagine the three curves according to the following "simplified mind model": real-time is the guaranteed bandwidth that this class will always get. link-share is the bandwidth that this class wants to become fully satisfied, but satisfaction cannot be guaranteed. In case there is excess bandwidth, the class might even get offered more bandwidth than necessary to become satisfied, but it may never use more than upper-limit says. For all this to work, the sum of all real-time bandwidths may not be above xx% of the line speed (see question above, the percentage varies). Question: Is this more or less accurate or a total misunderstanding of HSFC? And if assumption above is really accurate, where is prioritization in that model? E.g. every class might have a real-time bandwidth (guaranteed), a link-share bandwidth (not guaranteed) and an maybe an upper-limit, but still some classes have higher priority needs than other classes. In that case I must still prioritize somehow, even among real-time traffic of those classes. Would I prioritize by the slope of the curves? And if so, which curve? The real-time curve? The link-share curve? The upper-limit curve? All of them? Would I give all of them the same slope or each a different one and how to find out the right slope? I still haven't lost hope that there exists at least a hand full of people in this world that really understood HFSC and are able to answer all these questions accurately. And doing so without contradicting each other in the answers would be really nice ;-)

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