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• Hard freeze on new computer

  - by mphair

  OCZ Gold 3x2GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM PC312800 Palit NE5T240SFHD01 GeForce GT240 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 ASUS P7P55D-E LGA 1156 P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard Intel Core i7-860 Lynnfield 2.8GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor SAMSUNG 22X Optical drive (DVD+-R/RW) CORSAIR CMPSU-620HX 620W ATX12V V2.2 Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Brand new system (got it from newegg two days ago) and it booted up and installed windows and ran for a day just fine. Yesterday, I boot it up in the afternoon and run various games at full graphics for most of the day. I turn on WoW and play for a few hours and it hard stalls. No numlock switching, no mouse feedback but nothing going wrong on the screen. No BSOD. I wait a bit to see if the stall is just a temporary one, but then force shutdown the computer. Upon reboot, everything seems fine, windows sees that it didn't shut down properly but I go into normal boot and restart WoW. I'm able to load it up and start running around when it freezes again. This time when I restart, it doesn't even get to BIOS. It starts (power goes on) and it just hangs with no output to the monitors. I shut it off and went to bed. This morning, I turned it on and went into BIOS setup. I'm not terribly experienced with messing with BIOS settings but I checked over them the best I could. Everything seems fine so I boot into windows and browse the internet for a bit looking for a solution, hard freeze within 10 minutes. I restart and go into BIOS and check the CPU temperature, 40c. I'm kinda stumped here. Some people say it might be a memory issue, but why would it take so long for it to come up? Could it have been slowly accessing one memory stick at a time and then it just got to a bad one and that's what is causing it to fail? It seems odd that I don't get a BSOD from a hardware failure. Having the screen just halt with no input or output change seems like a software thing to me. Any thoughts?

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• Lag spikes at full CPU usage, maybe video card

  - by Roberts

  I am posting this thread in hurry so few things may be missed (I will update tomorrow). My PC specs: Motherboard Name - Gigabyte GA-945PL-S3 CPU Type - DualCore Intel Core 2 Duo E4300, 1800 MHz (9 x 200) OS - Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate OS Kernel Type - 32-bit OS Version - 6.1.7601 I bougth a new video card one month ago. GeForce 210. I didn't have any problems. I wanted to overclock it, in other words: "Play with it". So I installed Gigabyte EasyBoost from CD and overclocked the GPU 590 + 110 mhz, memory to max to 960mhz from 800mhz. Benchmarks showed a little bit bigger score. Then I overclocked shader clock from 1405 to [..] (don't remeber really). So I was playing Modern Warfare 2 when off sudden computer froze when I wanted to select team, I was afk before that. I had to reset CMOS. After that I had problems with Skype: unread messages and no sound. Then I figured it out that when ever I open EasyBoost - Skype starts to glitch again. Now I use EVGA Precission X. Now after a month, I cleaned computer and closed the case, it was open all the time. I started to overclock GPU clock only (just a bit) because there was no problems that would stop me. So sometimes on heavy CPU load graphics starts to lag. Dragging a window is painful to watch too. Sometimes the screen freezes for 5 to 10 seconds (I can see that hard disk activity is maximal). You may say that CPU fault it is, isn't it? But sometimes lag spikes starts randomly when CPU load is at maximum. All 3 benchmark softwares (PerformanceTest, NovaBench and MSI Kombustor) shows that performance of my video card has dropped about 25%. BUT! CPU score is lower too. I ignored these problems but when I refreshed Windows Experience Index I was shocked. Month before (in latvian language but not so hard to understand): Now (upgraded RAM): This happened when I tried to capture Minecraft with Fraps on underclocked GPU to 580mhz (def: 590mhz): All drivers are up to date. Average CPU temperature from 55°C to 75°C (at 70°C sometimes starts these lag spikes). Video card's tempratures are from 45°C to 60°C (very hard to reach 60°C). So my hope is that the video card is fine, cause this card is very new and I want to upgrade CPU anyways. Aplogies for my mistakes in vocabulary (I am trying to type this as fast I can).

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• file corruption on read/write 2.6.32-22-server (happens across many kernels)

  - by Jonathan

  Hi Guys, I'm having an issue where after the server has been up for a period of time (~week/few days) the server will start reading corrupt data. For instance when I run a sha1sum of a file after a fresh boot it remains the same. However after a while I will start to get segfaults and from then on whenever I read this file I get a different sha1sum. I've checked S.M.A.R.T with long tests and I've run an extended memtest86+(12 passes) My lspci is as follows: 00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 Host Bridge 00:01.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (int gfx) 00:06.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 2) 00:07.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 3) 00:11.0 SATA controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 SATA Controller [AHCI mode] 00:12.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI0 Controller 00:12.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700 USB OHCI1 Controller 00:12.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB EHCI Controller 00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI0 Controller 00:13.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700 USB OHCI1 Controller 00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB EHCI Controller 00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 SMBus Controller (rev 3c) 00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 IDE Controller 00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 LPC host controller 00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge 00:14.5 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI2 Controller 00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K10 [Opteron, Athlon64, Sempron] HyperTransport Configuration 00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K10 [Opteron, Athlon64, Sempron] Address Map 00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K10 [Opteron, Athlon64, Sempron] DRAM Controller 00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K10 [Opteron, Athlon64, Sempron] Miscellaneous Control 00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K10 [Opteron, Athlon64, Sempron] Link Control 01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon HD 3300 Graphics 01:05.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc RS780 Azalia controller 02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Atheros AR8121/AR8113/AR8114 PCI-E Ethernet Controller (rev b0) 03:00.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. Device 3403 I could really use some help on this, do you have any idea what could cause this? It's really frustrating me as it seems to trigger entirely randomly and will not go away until I reboot. I'm also use KVM for virtualization as well as MD for software RAID on this server and the processor is a Phenom II X4 965. I don't believe it's the software raid however as this affects files also hosted on non-raid partitions so I don't know.

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• Why do some games randomly turn my screen a random solid color?

  - by Emlena.PhD

  When playing some games my computer will randomly have an error that I cannot fix without turning it off and back on again. The screen changes to one solid color, which varies (off the top of my head I can remember seeing solid green, magenta, etc..) and the sound blares a single tone. The sound sometimes briefly restores and I can still hear the game sounds and even hear and still be heard by people in my Mumble channel, but the screen doesn't right itself so I'm still blind. What's more is this happens in some games but not in others. While the game is actually running, not while I'm still in the menu. However, it does happen if I'm afk or idle but the game world is still rendering. Games where the error occurs: League of Legends World of Warcraft Trine The Sims 2 Dungeon Defenders Safe games: games where it has never occurred: Tribes: Ascend Star Wars: the Old Republic Battlefield 3 So relatively older games cause the problem while newer games do not? I cannot predict when it will happen, it just seems random. However, if it happens and I try playing the same game further after restart it does appear to occur more frequently after the first time. But if I switch to a safe game it doesn't continue happening. Both of my RAM sticks appear fine, flipped position or either one on their own and games still run, computer still boots. I would think over-heating, but then why not all games? ALso, sometimes it happens immediately after I start playing, within seconds of the 3D world booting up. I'm looking to upgrade very soon so I want to figure out what component or software is fubar and replace/repair it. Any suggestions or recommendations of tools would be helpful. Below is some system information. Dxdiag does not detect any problems. Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.120305-1505) System Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. System Model: EP45-UD3R BIOS: Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8500 @ 3.16GHz (2 CPUs), ~3.2GHz Memory: 4096MB RAM DirectX Version: DirectX 11 DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 64bit Unicode Graphics card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 Driver Version: 8.17.12.9610 (error has occurred w/several driver versions) Sound: I do not have a sound card, been using motherboard's built in sound)

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• Why many applications close after opening a document or doing a specific actions?

  - by Mohsen Farjami

  I have some encrypted pdf files that have no problem and in my last windows, I could open them easily with Adobe Reader 9.2 and other pdf readers. But now, I can only open non-encrypted pdf files and one encrypted file with Adobe Reader. every time I open almost any encrypted pdf, it closes itself. Also, when I try to search a folder for a keyword with Foxit Reader, once it closed. This is not related to Adobe Reader, because I have the same problem with Word 2007. When I open a document, sometimes it closes instantly and sometimes it closes after a few seconds and sometimes it is stable. My windows is Fresh. I have installed it a few days ago. I have ESET Smart Security 5.2 and I have updated it today. OS: XP Pro SP3, RAM: 3 GB, CPU: 2 GHZ, HDD: 320 GB My installed applications: Adobe AIR Adobe Flash Player 11 ActiveX Adobe Flash Player 11 Plugin Adobe Photoshop CS4 Adobe Reader 9.2 Atheros Wireless LAN Client Adapter Babylon Bluetooth Stack for Windows by Toshiba CCleaner Conexant HD Audio Dell Touchpad ESET Smart Security Farsi (101) Custom Foxit Reader Framing Studio 3.27 Google Chrome Hard Disk Sentinel PRO HDAUDIO Soft Data Fax Modem with SmartCP Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator Driver IrfanView (remove only) Java(TM) 6 Update 18 K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 8.8.0 Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 1 Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 Service Pack 1 Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Microsoft Data Access Components KB870669 Microsoft Office 2007 Primary Interop Assemblies Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 Microsoft User-Mode Driver Framework Feature Pack 1.0.0 (Pre-Release 5348) Mozilla Firefox 7.0.1 (x86 en-US) Notepad++ Office Tab FreeEdition 8.50 ParsQuran PerfectDisk 12 Professional Registry First Aid RICOH R5C83x/84x Flash Media Controller Driver Ver.3.54.06 Sahar Money Manager 2.5 Stickies 7.1d The KMPlayer (remove only) TurboLaunch 5.1.2 Unlocker 1.9.1 USB Safely Remove 4.2 Virastyar Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office Second Edition Runtime Winamp Windows Internet Explorer 8 Windows Media Player 11.0.5358.4826 Windows XP Service Pack 3 WinRAR 4.11 (32-bit) WorkPause 1.2 Z Dictionary My startup applications: WorkPause USB Safely Remove TurboLaunch SunJavaUpdateSched Stickies rfagent Persistence ParsQuran Daily Verse ITSecMng IgfxTray HotKeysCmds Hard Disk Sentinel egui disable shift+delete CTFMON.EXE Bluetooth Manager Babylon Client Apoint AdobeCS4ServiceManager Adobe Reader Speed Launcher Adobe ARM What should I do to solve it? If you recommend installing Windows again, what guarantees that it won't happen again?

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• Why doesn't video run smoothly on my laptop anymore?

  - by andygrunt

  This might be an impossible question to answer remotely but I figure there may be some common causes that people can suggest so I think it's worth asking... Video no longer plays smoothly on my laptop. It used to but not for a while now. For example, playing a video on YouTube is pretty typical: I press play (making sure it's not on HD or even HQ) and the video buffers a little then starts to play. At first it plays fine then the video starts to stutter, turning into a slideshow while the sound continues to play smoothly. If I try playing the same video on my Playstation 3 (which is linked to the same network) it plays smoothly so it can't be the connection. Another example is streaming DivX videos. Again, I wait while it buffers and it starts but very soon, instead of a slideshow, this time the video just plays slowly while the sound continues as normal (instantly getting out of sync). Even if I let the video fully load before pressing play (i.e. it's no longer streaming), it still behaves the same way. I can even let it load 100% then save the file to hard disk and use VLC player to view it, and the same thing happens. I'm using an old laptop running Windows XP. For the past several years it's been connected to the router via Wi-Fi but in the past few days I've changed that to a network cable (like my PS3) but that hasn't helped. Yes, I regularly install various bits and pieces of software but nothing that I can identify as being the cause. So, are there known causes of this sort of behaviour and if so, what can I do to fix it? Thanks. Update to answer a few questions... Laptop Spec' (note: video has played back fine for the majority of time I've had the laptop) Toshiba Satellite 1900-603 (possibly called something else outside the UK) Intel Pentium 4 2.2 Ghz Processor Originally had 512Mb memory but recently doubled that to 1 Gig of memory Graphics: ATI Mobility Radeon 16Mb DDR VRAM Windows XP SP3 (Home edition) Over the years I've done several things to speed it up (disabling indexing etc) and am generally happy with the performance. I also regularly have a clear out of old software (if for no other reason than the laptop only has a 40Gb hard disk) and use CCleaner and Glary Utilities to strip out much of the crap from my system. Also recently (after doubling the memory), I've tried a few new things which might be likely candidates for slowing the video down such as Rocketdock, Jingle keyboard (which gives an old style 'clacky' typewriter sound when I type - love it), SugarSync, Taskbar Shuffle. However, the video doesn't play smoothly even when I try quit all these apps.

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• Nvidia Drivers on Debian / Lenny (Stable) -> Installation successful -> Monitors gets black

  - by David

  I have successfully installed the proprietary drivers for my nvidia (geforce 7300 gt) graphics card on debian/lenny. I know its not the best way to chose for driver installation ( see this link: http://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers#non-freedrivers ). but the two ways seem to be possible for me (nvidia-kernel module compilation). Now the problem is that the monitors gets black, the power light starts blinking after i launch the x-server. Have a short look a the logs (output truncated from /var/log/Xorg.0.log): (II) Setting vga for screen 0. (**) NVIDIA(0): Depth 24, (--) framebuffer bpp 32 (==) NVIDIA(0): RGB weight 888 (==) NVIDIA(0): Default visual is TrueColor (==) NVIDIA(0): Using gamma correction (1.0, 1.0, 1.0) (**) Jul 28 17:10:11 NVIDIA(0): Enabling RENDER acceleration (II) Jul 28 17:10:11 NVIDIA(0): Support for GLX with the Damage and Composite X extensions is (II) Jul 28 17:10:11 NVIDIA(0): enabled. (II) Jul 28 17:10:11 NVIDIA(0): NVIDIA GPU GeForce 7300 GT (G73) at PCI:1:0:0 (GPU-0) (--) Jul 28 17:10:11 NVIDIA(0): Memory: 262144 kBytes (--) Jul 28 17:10:11 NVIDIA(0): VideoBIOS: 05.73.22.25.00 (II) Jul 28 17:10:11 NVIDIA(0): Detected PCI Express Link width: 16X (--) Jul 28 17:10:11 NVIDIA(0): Interlaced video modes are supported on this GPU (--) Jul 28 17:10:11 NVIDIA(0): Connected display device(s) on GeForce 7300 GT at PCI:1:0:0: (--) Jul 28 17:10:11 NVIDIA(0): Samsung SyncMaster (CRT-0) (--) Jul 28 17:10:11 NVIDIA(0): Samsung SyncMaster (DFP-0) (--) Jul 28 17:10:11 NVIDIA(0): Samsung SyncMaster (CRT-0): 400.0 MHz maximum pixel clock (--) Jul 28 17:10:11 NVIDIA(0): Samsung SyncMaster (DFP-0): 165.0 MHz maximum pixel clock (--) Jul 28 17:10:11 NVIDIA(0): Samsung SyncMaster (DFP-0): Internal Single Link TMDS (II) Jul 28 17:10:11 NVIDIA(0): Assigned Display Device: CRT-0 (==) Jul 28 17:10:11 NVIDIA(0): (==) Jul 28 17:10:11 NVIDIA(0): No modes were requested; the default mode "nvidia-auto-select" (==) Jul 28 17:10:11 NVIDIA(0): will be used as the requested mode. (==) Jul 28 17:10:11 NVIDIA(0): (II) Jul 28 17:10:11 NVIDIA(0): Validated modes: (II) Jul 28 17:10:11 NVIDIA(0): "nvidia-auto-select" (II) Jul 28 17:10:11 NVIDIA(0): Virtual screen size determined to be 1280 x 1024 (--) Jul 28 17:10:11 NVIDIA(0): DPI set to (85, 86); computed from "UseEdidDpi" X config (--) Jul 28 17:10:11 NVIDIA(0): option (==) Jul 28 17:10:11 NVIDIA(0): Enabling 32-bit ARGB GLX visuals. (--) Depth 24 pixmap format is 32 bpp Here is the complete /etc/X11/xorg.conf file as generated by nvidia-xconfig: # nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig # nvidia-xconfig: version 256.35 (buildmeister@builder101) Wed Jun 16 19:25:59 PDT 2010 Section "ServerLayout" Identifier "Layout0" Screen 0 "Screen0" InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard" InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer" EndSection Section "Files" EndSection Section "Module" Load "dbe" Load "extmod" Load "type1" Load "freetype" Load "glx" EndSection Section "InputDevice" # generated from default Identifier "Mouse0" Driver "mouse" Option "Protocol" "auto" Option "Device" "/dev/psaux" Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no" Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5" EndSection Section "InputDevice" # generated from default Identifier "Keyboard0" Driver "kbd" EndSection Section "Monitor" Identifier "Monitor0" VendorName "Unknown" ModelName "Unknown" Hor

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• I want to virtualize my workstation (Tier 1), Looking for Bare Metal Hypervisor for consumer grade components

  - by Chase Florell

  I find myself in this similar bind at least once a year. The bind whereby I'm either upgrading a motherboard, or an OS hard drive. It drives me crazy to have to reinstall Windows, Visual Studio, all my addins, reconfigure my settings etc... every single time. I have a layout and I like and I want to stick with it. My question is... Is there a Bare Metal Hypervisor on the market that will enable me to virtualize my consumer grade workstation? I really want to avoid Host/Client virtualization. Bare Metal is definitely a better way to go for my needs. Is this a good approach, or am I going to suffer some other undesirable side effects by doing this? Clarification My machine has very limited purposes. My primary use is Visual Studio 2010 Professional where I develop ASP.NET MVC Web Applications. The second piece of software that I use (that's system intensive) is Photoshop CS3. Beyond that, my applications are limited to Outlook, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Chrome, LinqPad, and various other (small) apps. Beyond this, I'm considering working on a node.js project and might run ubuntu on the same hypervisor if possible. System Specs: Gigabyte Motherboard Intel i7 920 12 GB Ram basic 500GB 7200RPM HDD for OS 4 VelociRaptors in Raid 1/0 for build disk Dual GTS250 (512MB) Graphics cards (non SLI) for quad monitors On a side note I also wouldn't be opposed to an alternative suggestion if the limitations are too great. I could install the ESXi (or Zen Server) on my box, and build a separate "thin client" to RDP into the virtual machine. It appears as though RDP supports dual monitors. Edit (Dec 9, 2011) It's been nearly a year since I first asked this question. Since then, there have been a lot of great strides in Hypervisor technology... AND MokaFive is now released for corporate use. I'd love to dig into this question a little more and find out if there is a solid BareMetal Hypervisor for workstations running consumer grade components (IE: not Dell, HP, Lenovo, Etc).

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• Can't validate mine, sudo nor root in Debian "Jessie" Gnome anymore?

  - by Janar

  I'm Debian beginner & GUI guy in a bit of trouble? Can't login as sudo/gksu/root/su nor as (main/super)user after removed user password via Gnome-user-settings. History of actions (Probably irrelevant though) Installed Debian "Jessie" GNU/Linux with xFce GUI (en-US) as only OS. HardWare is ThinkPad w510. Skipped root user password in setup, to get sudo for superuser easily. Logged in (as always had) with Gnome (3.4.x), not once with xFCE. (installed Xfce. Installed xFce only to achieve more control (easier management) over packages this way, to set-up gnome much more by mine likes. Added more jessie repros (same ones as in Wheesy stable by default but for Jessie as, Jessie only had repros for security updates by default). Installed lots of gtk(3) & gnome(3) based soft; (- restarted again after this) Installed propietary graphics card driver for mine nvidia quadro. (- restarted once again after that one) Installed more stuff related to mine work/school/devel. The actual problem Had a plan to restart again, but wanted to set up auto-login first, instead set user password to none (don't ask why / perhaps caused by being awake for a looooong time), noticed it, and set also to auto-login, but couldn't undo mine previous mistake to create new password for me. As mine password is set to none I would have expected that simply return in pass prompt for emty password field would do, but it won't authenticate. I tried Alt+F2 "gksu gedit" as well as: sudo wget "https://www.some-page.eu/file.ext" and "su" in terminals, none has applied (quite logical actually - as I'm sudoer and highest ranked super user, besides only user in computer). Current stand Everything worked & still works nice after this accident, besides this password prompts part. To spoked to log-out nor restart. Synaptic package-manager is still open with root rights (only one, that has left open prior to the issue and not closed since, just in case). Goggled for help and read some manuals/faqs/how-tos - mostly lead to sudoers file management, but not found one specifically for mine issue - so still not any smarter. Really hope, that I don't have to redo OS inst all over again, by just one stupid mistake. Thanks for your reply :-)

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• How to temporary disable a mirror video driver in windows xp registry

  - by happy clicker

  Because its a lot of text, I will ask first my question and then explain what the base problem is. Perhaps someone can give me a solution to the base problem: Is there is a way to temporary disable mirror video drivers (through registry or so), without uninstalling the corresponding software. I tested changing the enumeration in LocalMachine\Hardware\DeviceMap\Video but after reboot always the old configuration is restored. Explanation of the base problem We are working on a wpf-project for a department of a big company. There we have the problem that WPF renders only in software mode, although the hardware they have, must support hardware rendering (Tier 2). After searching for a solution to the problem, we found out that direct 3d does not work properly and we think thats why WPF can only use SW-rendering. In dxdiag.exe the direct3d-acceleration is enabled, but if we start the test-routine it always fails saying that it has not enough memory (it says memory, not video memory!). I have seen there 3 different types of pc’s (they have some hundreds of each type) and every type shows the exactly same behavior. We tried to update all the drivers, also dx (Version 9.0c) and we searched a lot in the web but could not find a solution. All the pcs have Intel Dual-Core processors or better, one type has an Intel gma 9000 graphics card the other two types have actual ATI and NVidia graphic-cards with 256MB onboard memory. Also the system memory is at least 2GB. Windows is XPSP3. The pc’s are of two different manufacturers. Because we see the exactly same behavior on every computer of this three very different computer-types, we don’t think that this is a driver or a direct x problem. What we’ve found in other newsgroups is, that direct x could be disturbed through mirror-video drivers such as NetMeeting, VNC and other remote desktop-installations. In the registry, we see under LocalMachine\Hardware\DeviceMap\Video a lot of such mirror-entries and we find also the definitions in the CurrentControlSet\Control\Video-Section (However this drivers are not shown in the hardware panel of the os). We can have admin-rights to one of these computers to test if disabling these drivers would help, but we must not change the configuration so that some software does not work after the tests. Therefore I cannot uninstall any software because I have not the mediums, licenses or knowhow to reinstall those apps. The support of this company however will only begin to work, if I can tell them what the real problem is. Thats why we search for a way to disable these mirror-drivers (or a hint to solve the dx problem if we are on a false trace)

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• Computer suddenly dies; screen displays weird flickering lines, then restarts

  - by Imray

  I've been having this terrible problem for a little while and just managed to get a picture of 'dead screen' for the first time and I am posting it to seek help. Randomly, at irregular intervals (typically once a week), while working on something (it's been different things every time) my computer will just suddenly go dead - the screen turns to exactly the picture below (the lines flicker a little bit), it hangs there for a few seconds and then restarts. Obviously this is extremely frustrating and I want to try to stop it. I've searched numerous postings with similar keywords but nothing exactly the same as mine. Does anyone have any idea what might be the cause of this? I would post all my system settings and installed programs but the list is long and I don't know how much relevance each item would be. If you'd like to know something specific, please comment and I'll let you know whatever you need. SPECS C:\Users\Imray>systeminfo Host Name: Imray OS Name: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional OS Version: 6.1.7600 N/A Build 7600 OS Manufacturer: Microsoft Corporation OS Configuration: Standalone Workstation OS Build Type: Multiprocessor Free Registered Owner: Imray - Owner Registered Organization: Product ID: 00371-152-9333854-85895 Original Install Date: 06/09/1999, 5:45:21 PM System Boot Time: 22/03/2013, 8:58:18 AM System Manufacturer: Gateway System Model: DX4840 System Type: x64-based PC Processor(s): 1 Processor(s) Installed. [01]: Intel64 Family 6 Model 37 Stepping 2 GenuineIntel ~3201 Mhz BIOS Version: American Megatrends Inc. P01-A3 , 17/05/2010 Windows Directory: C:\Windows System Directory: C:\Windows\system32 Boot Device: \Device\HarddiskVolume2 System Locale: en-us;English (United States) Input Locale: en-us;English (United States) Time Zone: (UTC-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada) Total Physical Memory: 6,135 MB Available Physical Memory: 3,632 MB Virtual Memory: Max Size: 12,268 MB Virtual Memory: Available: 8,114 MB Virtual Memory: In Use: 4,154 MB Page File Location(s): C:\pagefile.sys Domain: WORKGROUP Logon Server: \\Imray-OWNER Hotfix(s): 4 Hotfix(s) Installed. [01]: KB971033 [02]: KB958559 [03]: KB977206 [04]: KB981889 Network Card(s): 2 NIC(s) Installed. [01]: 802.11n Wireless PCI Express Card LAN Adapter Connection Name: Wireless Network Connection DHCP Enabled: Yes DHCP Server: 192.168.2.1 IP address(es) [01]: 192.168.2.13 [02]: fe80::1df1:5399:6890:91f6 [02]: Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter Connection Name: Wireless Network Connection 2 DHCP Enabled: Yes DHCP Server: N/A IP address(es) Graphics Card Specs Name ATI Radeon HD 5570 PNP Device ID PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68D9&SUBSYS_E142174B&REV_00\4&18A4B35E&0&0008 Adapter Type ATI display adapter (0x68D9), ATI Technologies Inc. compatible Adapter Description ATI Radeon HD 5570 Adapter RAM 1.00 GB (1,073,741,824 bytes) Installed Drivers atiu9p64 aticfx64 aticfx64 atiu9pag aticfx32 aticfx32 atiumd64 atidxx64 atidxx64 atiumdag atidxx32 atidxx32 atiumdva atiumd6a atitmm64 Driver Version 8.700.0.0 INF File oem1.inf (ati2mtag_Evergreen section) Color Planes Not Available Color Table Entries 4294967296 Resolution 1920 x 1080 x 59 hertz Bits/Pixel 32 Memory Address 0xD0000000-0xDFFFFFFF Memory Address 0xFBDE0000-0xFBDFFFFF I/O Port 0x0000D000-0x0000DFFF IRQ Channel IRQ 4294967293 I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\atikmpag.sys (8.14.1.6095, 181.00 KB (185,344 bytes), 06/09/1999 5:59 PM)

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• Windows 7 reboot and freezing, possible power problems?

  - by mikelbring

  My Gateway LX Series desktop is about 6-8 months old. When I bought it, it had Windows Vista. I then put the RC version of Windows 7 on it. About 3 months after I bought it, it would randomly start to reboot, actually just shut off. I monitored the temperature levels and they seemed normal. So I installed a fresh Windows 7 Ultimate OEM 64bit. It actually got worse and would reboot more frequently. I then contacted Gateway and they said my machine was built for Windows Vista (made me chuckle), and told me to update my BIOS. So I did, and it was fixed for a good couple months. Recently, it started to do it again. Now I noticed early on it was doing it most often, if not every time when I was either watching a flash video or playing a flash game. So I decided to download the drivers again and I also downloaded my motherboard drivers. Seemed to be okay. A week later it started doing it again. And now it's doing it even more frequently. Sometimes I would turn it on, login into Windows and *BAM!* it would shut off. Now I am at the point where I can hardly get it to turn on. It would freeze at the point where it says "Starting Windows", with the Windows logo. Sometimes it would say "Checking disk for consistency" or whatever and freeze there (not shut off, just freeze). I even got the prompt to launch startup repair. But that also freezes when it says starting Windows. It does not really freeze, just never loads up. I am kind of lost as to what's going on. I have a few ideas but nothing I want to pursue (graphics card? hard drive?). Another thing I did try was to boot into a live disk of Ubuntu and try to launch every program I could and get on the internet but I never got it to reboot. So it sounds like to me it's a Windows thing, but I have no idea. I am just stuck and would like to see if any one has any ideas or could lead me in the right direction.

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• Low FPS in some games, but hardware not fully used

  - by Mario De Schaepmeester

  I just did a little funny experiment in the game/sim "Train Simulator 2013". I normally have good FPS in it (around 30) at full settings. What I did was make a really, really long train so that the calculations the sim needed to make were enormous (the sim is quite realistic, it takes all things into account like speed/acceleration, G-forces, comfort levels, possible wheel slip and many more, and most of those things on each carriage seperately). This resulted in only 14FPS as reported by the game, but it felt more like 8FPS or so. I have a Logitech G15 keyboard which has an LCD, and it allows me to monitor CPU/RAM and video card load on it. The strange thing is, all CPU cores were busy, but the total load was only about 60% maximum at all times. The video card was only on 30% load (possibly an important note, the memory was full, which is however not unusual for the game in question). The RAM had plenty of room and there weren't many operations as it didn't grow or shrink much. I just have the feeling that the game would run smoother if it used more of my hardware power. Why is it not doing so? I had the same in another game, The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind when using more than 100 mods (that all use scripting) and a few high res texture mods, + a full-on graphics improvement program. The engine is very old (2003), and so I thought this might be the cause (not being optimised for multithreading). I had thought of possible causes, like: The operating system doesn't let the games use all the resources. It doesn't make use of multi-threading appropriately. To eliminate the former, I tried a CPU stress tool and that got 100% CPU juice as I let it run, so the OS is not the problem. I gave its thread the "higher" priority though. My actual question In both games, I did things the engine was not really built to do or support. Can those games' framerate be limited cause of their own engine not being able to cope? What is the real reason and more importantly, can I help it? And in any case, could something actually be wrong with my hardware? It's all reasonably new, a couple of months, and I (almost) never experience any other trouble. Modern and much more demanding games work absolutely fine. Specs CPU: AMD Phenom II 965 X4 @ 3.4gHz RAM: 8GB of DDR3 RAM Video: MSI GTX560 (nVidia chip) with 1GB of GDDR5 memory OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit Nothing overclocked.

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• Achieving A 1600 x 900 Resolution For (Guest OS) Ubuntu Under (Host OS) Windows 7

  - by panamack

  I am running Ubuntu 11.10 as a guest OS using VirtualBox 4.1.16 installed on Windows 7 Ultimate. On my laptop I'd like to be able to run Ubuntu in full screen mode at 1600 x 900. I only have options within the virtual machine to select 4:3 display settings such as 1600 x 1200, 1440 x 1050 etc. I have guest additions installed. At the windows command prompt, I tried typing: VBoxManage setextradata "Virtual Ubuntu Coursera ESSAAS" "CustomVideoMode1" "1600x900x16" This didn't work, still no 1600 x 900 res available in Ubuntu. I tried this having read the following section of the VirtualBox help (this also says something about a 'video mode hint feature' not sure what this means): 9.7. Advanced display configuration 9.7.1. Custom VESA resolutions Apart from the standard VESA resolutions, the VirtualBox VESA BIOS allows you to add up to 16 custom video modes which will be reported to the guest operating system. When using Windows guests with the VirtualBox Guest Additions, a custom graphics driver will be used instead of the fallback VESA solution so this information does not apply. Additional video modes can be configured for each VM using the extra data facility. The extra data key is called CustomVideoMode with x being a number from 1 to 16. Please note that modes will be read from 1 until either the following number is not defined or 16 is reached. The following example adds a video mode that corresponds to the native display resolution of many notebook computers: VBoxManage setextradata "VM name" "CustomVideoMode1" "1400x1050x16" The VESA mode IDs for custom video modes start at 0x160. In order to use the above defined custom video mode, the following command line has be supplied to Linux: vga = 0x200 | 0x160 vga = 864 For guest operating systems with VirtualBox Guest Additions, a custom video mode can be set using the video mode hint feature. UPDATE 02.06.12 I've just tried creating a new virtual machine using the same original disk image I had been given. This had Guest Additions v 4.1.6 installed and provided me with the 1600 x 900 full screen display I want. It's after I then install Guest Additions v 4.1.16 (the version included with my VirtualBox installation) that my only choices are 4:3 displays e.g. 1600 x 1200. Seems this is the cause.

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• How to stretch the image from one screen to two screens

  - by wxiiir

  I want to be able to stretch the image from one monitor to a second monitor even if i have to use some software to do it. For example i want the top half of the image that is now shown on my first monitor to occupy the whole second monitor and i want the bottom half to occupy the whole first monitor, or the other way around i don't really care as long as it works. I would be cool to know how to do the same stuff but to the left half and right half. I know that image pixels would have twice the lenght or height this way but i don't really care about it as long as it works so basically i want the stuff to show on both monitors but with the same pixels as before. I have a hd4870 and windows7 and hd4000 family doesnt support having two monitors behaving like a large one, only hd5000 upwards, this would solve my problems without any of the drawbacks but it just can't be done (or maybe it can via software but i'm just too tired of searching). A solution to make almost any graphic card have two monitors behaving like a large one is matrox dualhead2go but that's just as expensive as a good hd5000 card so it's not worth it. thanks in advance EDIT I guess that nobody so far was able to fully comprehend my problem that was very explicitly written but i will elaborate some more. My hd4870 can have 2 monitors working with it but some stuff like games won't run on both monitors, which sucks. There are some ways to circumvent this problem and two of them are perfect or almost perfect but expensive and the third would be a software solution that would make it possible. The first one is to have and hd5000 family video card which will work just fine with both monitors. The second is to have a matrox dualhead2go that will make my hd4870 detect my two monitors as a large monitor. The third is to have a software that makes my two displays be detected as a large display and then captures the output of the video card, splits the images and renders them as 2d images to both monitors OR a simpler one but that would make outputted pixels double the width or height would be to capture the output of the graphics card to one screen, split it in two and enlarge it to fit both monitors and then output it to the monitors. p.s. By capturing the output of the video card i mean just make the video card process the stuff in a certain way. Making the video card detect two monitors as a large one via software may be a bit impossible or impracticable but stretching the output as a 2d image from one to both monitors for some coders should be a walk in the park so it would be likely that such program would exist or that some widespread softwares for dual monitor would have such function in them.

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• NSMutableURLRequest returns null on real device, while returning image on simulator

  - by Yanchi

  I was testing my app that I've been working on for past 2 months. Basically it requests for JSON, that contains info about items. One field of JSON file is image_url. When I want to display this image, I need to download it from another server, that needs additional credentials. So it goes like this- In my cellForRowAtIndexPath I'm doing NSDictionary *aucdict = [jsonAukResults objectAtIndex:indexPath.row]; NSURL *imageURL = [NSURL URLWithString:[aucdict objectForKey:@"img_url"]]; NSString *authPString = [[[NSString stringWithFormat:@"login:password"]dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding] base64EncodedString]; NSString *verifPString = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"Image %@",authPString]; NSMutableURLRequest *Prequest = [[NSMutableURLRequest alloc] initWithURL:imageURL]; [Prequest setValue:verifPString forHTTPHeaderField:@"Authorization"]; NSError *error = nil; NSURLResponse *resp = nil; NSData *picresult = [NSURLConnection sendSynchronousRequest:Prequest returningResponse:&resp error:&error]; UIImage *imageLoad = [[UIImage alloc] initWithData:picresult]; Now, I just obscured credentials (they are not login:password :)). My problem is, that right now, I get 3 items. All 3 have image on same server. I can get two of them with this code no problem. However third one is problematic, I always get (NULL) imageLoad. On my simulator, everything works fine, I get all 3 pictures. On real device I get error. I tried to NSURLConnection with error and response so I could debug better. This is what I got in my error. Printing description of error: Error Domain=NSURLErrorDomain Code=-1202 "The certificate for this server is invalid. You might be connecting to a server that is pretending to be “server name” which could put your confidential information at risk." UserInfo=0x1e5a3080 {NSErrorFailingURLStringKey=pictureLink.jpg, NSLocalizedRecoverySuggestion=Would you like to connect to the server anyway?, NSErrorFailingURLKey=pictureLink.jpg, NSLocalizedDescription=The certificate for this server is invalid. You might be connecting to a server that is pretending to be “server name” which could put your confidential information at risk., NSUnderlyingError=0x1e5a30e0 "The certificate for this server is invalid. You might be connecting to a server that is pretending to be “server name” which could put your confidential information at risk.", NSURLErrorFailingURLPeerTrustErrorKey=} I dont use SSL so Im really confused as what could cause this error. Btw, everything worked fine until now (this is my initial screen, so it's been done for good month and a half). Now I started to do graphics and this problem popped up :(

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• A Windows Update Prevented Live Discs From Working?

  - by user88311

  First off I'll state my system specs. Acer Aspire M1100 Windows Vista Home Basic 32bit OEM 2 Gigs of DDR2 ram 160Gig hard drive 2.7Ghz AMD Athlon 64 processor ATI Radeon X1250 Graphics card A few days ago my computer did automatic updates and updated windows defender to KB915597 (Definition 1.135.415.0), After which when shutting down and starting up I would receive BSOD with the information BUGCODE_USE_DRIVER and 0x000000FE (0x00000008, 0x00000006, 0x00000006, 0x877330000) upon where my computer would not start up with any USB devices plugged in and it always require me to run startup repair before it started. Upon when I first started it up and was able to fully boot windows, I had no use of the mouse so I was unable to install the fix that the windows solutions center brought up on my screen, so I restarted again and installed the fix hoping it would cease the problem, it did not. Upoon starting up after installing the fix and restarting I was confronted with the BSOD 0x000000FE (0x00000008, 0x00000006, 0x00000006, 0x83291000) at which I found the startup repair could not fix the problem and I restored, as I most like should have in the first place. After going through that I read that simply installing the latest defender version from the microsoft site had fixed this problem for others, so I did that, to find I still received the BSOD's. So in a attempt to find a fix to the problem I went to the microsoft answers site to try to find a way to fix the problem, there I was told to simply disable defender and reboot to see if that fixed the problem, upon doing this my computer would no longer even startup, when I boot normally I get to just when the loading screen finishes and then my computer restarts and when I run startup repair, it runs for about 15 seconds and then my computer restarts as well. I have tried running ubuntu live discs in order to simply access the drive and simply copy and paste the 2 month old physical backup I have of my C drive to the C drive, but whenever I run the live OS when it gets to the end of the load screen and is about to boot, the computer again restarts, yet if I put in a gparted disc, I am able to boot it fully, although it does not give me access to the file system just partition managing and when I attempt to access the internet through it, the computer once again restarts. So my question is, how could the update and what has happened prevent me from running the live OS's properly?

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• AGENT: The World's Smartest Watch

  - by Rob Chartier

  AGENT: The World's Smartest Watch by Secret Labs + House of Horology Disclaimer: Most if not all of this content has been gleaned from the comments on the Kickstarter project page and comments section. Any discrepancies between this post and any documentation on agentwatches.com, kickstarter.com, etc.., those official sites take precedence. Overview The next generation smartwatch with brand-new technology. World-class developer tools, unparalleled battery life, Qi wireless charging. Kickstarter Page, Comments Funding period : May 21, 2013 - Jun 20, 2013 MSRP : $249 Other Urls http://www.agentwatches.com/ https://www.facebook.com/agentwatches http://twitter.com/agentwatches http://pinterest.com/agentwatches/ http://paper.li/robchartier/1371234640 Developer Story The first official launch of the preview SDK and emulator will happen on 20-Jun-2013.  All development will be done in Visual Studio 2012, using the .NET Micro Framework SDK 2.3.  The SDK will ship with the first round of the expected API for developers along with an emulator. With that said, there is no need to wait for the SDK.  You can download the tooling now and get started with Apps and Faces immediately.  The only thing that you will not be able to work with is the API; but for example, watch faces, you can start building the basic face rendering with the Bitmap graphics drawing in the .NET Micro Framework.   Does it look good? Before we dig into any more of the gory details, here are a few photos of the current available prototype models.   The watch on the tiny QI Charter   If you wander too far away from your phone, your watch will let you know with a vibration and a message, all but one button will dismiss the message.   An app showing the premium weather data!   Nice stitching on the straps, leather and silicon will be available, along with a few lengths to choose from (short, regular, long lengths). On to those gory details…. Hardware Specs Processor 120MHz ARM Cortex-M4 processor (ATSAM4SD32) with secondary AVR co-processor Flash & RAM 2MB of onboard flash and 160KB of RAM 1/4 of the onboard flash will be used by the OS The flash is permanent (non-volatile) storage. Bluetooth Bluetooth 4.0 BD/EDR + LE Bluetooth 4.0 is backwards compatible with Bluetooth 2.1, so classic Bluetooth functions (BD/EDR, SPP/AVRCP/PBAP/etc.) will work fine. Sensors 3D Accelerometer (Motion) ST LSM303DLHC Ambient Light Sensor Hardware power metering Vibration Motor (You can pulse it to create vibration patterns, not sure about the vibration strength - driven with PWM) No piezo/speaker or microphone. Other QI Wireless Charging, no NFC, no wall adapter included Custom LED Backlight No GPS in the watch. It uses the GPS in your phone. AGENT watch apps are deployed and debugged wirelessly from your PC via Bluetooth. RoHS, Pb-free Battery Expected to use a CR2430-sized rechargeable battery – replaceable (Mouser, Amazon) Estimated charging time from empty is 2 hours with provided charger 7 Days typical with Bluetooth on, 30 days with Bluetooth off (watch-face only mode) The battery should last at least 2 years, with 100s of charge cycles. Physical dimensions Roughly 38mm top-to-bottom on the front face 35mm left-to-right on the front face and around 12mm in depth 22mm strap Two ~1/16" hex screws to attach the watch pin The top watchcase material candidates are PVD stainless steel, brushed matte ceramic, and high-quality polycarbonate (TBD). The glass lens is mineral glass, Anti-glare glass lens Strap options Leather and silicon straps will be available Expected to have three sizes Display 1.28" Sharp Memory Display The display stays on 100% of the time. Dimensions: 128x128 pixels Buttons Custom "Pusher" buttons, they will not make noise like a mouse click, and are very durable. The top-left button activates the backlight; bottom-left changes apps; three buttons on the right are up/select/down and can be used for custom purposes by apps. Backup reset procedure is currently activated by holding the home/menu button and the top-right user button for about ten seconds Device Support Android 2.3 or newer iPhone 4S or newer Windows Phone 8 or newer Heart Rate monitors - Bluetooth SPP or Bluetooth LE (GATT) is what you'll want the heart monitor to support. Almost limitless Bluetooth device support! Internationalization & Localization Full UTF8 Support from the ground up. AGENT's user interface is in English. Your content (caller ID, music tracks, notifications) will be in your native language. We have a plan to cover most major character sets, with Latin characters pre-loaded on the watch. Simplified Chinese will be available Feature overview Phone lost alert Caller ID Music Control (possible volume control) Wireless Charging Timer Stopwatch Vibrating Alarm (possibly custom vibrations for caller id) A few default watch faces Airplane mode (by demand or low power) Can be turned off completely Customizable 3rd party watch faces, applications which can be loaded over bluetooth. Sample apps that maybe installed Weather Sample Apps not installed Exercise App Other Possible Skype integration over Bluetooth. They will provide an AGENT app for your smartphone (iPhone, Android, Windows Phone). You'll be able to use it to load apps onto the watch.. You will be able to cancel phone calls. With compatible phones you can also answer, end, etc. They are adopting the standard hands-free profile to provide these features and caller ID.

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• March 21st Links: ASP.NET, ASP.NET MVC, AJAX, Visual Studio, Silverlight

  - by ScottGu

  Here is the latest in my link-listing series. If you haven’t already, check out this month’s "Find a Hoster” page on the www.asp.net website to learn about great (and very inexpensive) ASP.NET hosting offers.  [In addition to blogging, I am also now using Twitter for quick updates and to share links. Follow me at: twitter.com/scottgu] ASP.NET URL Routing in ASP.NET 4: Scott Mitchell has a nice article that talks about the new URL routing features coming to Web Forms applications with ASP.NET 4.  Also check out my previous blog post on this topic. Control of Web Control ClientID Values in ASP.NET 4: Scott Mitchell has a nice article that describes how it is now easy to control the client “id” value emitted by server controls with ASP.NET 4. Web Deployment Made Awesome: Very nice MIX10 talk by Scott Hanselman on the new web deployment features coming with VS 2010, MSDeploy, and .NET 4.  Makes deploying web applications much, much easier. ASP.NET 4’s Browser Capabilities Support: Nice blog post by Stephen Walther that talks about the new browser definition capabilities support coming with ASP.NET 4. Integrating Twitter into an ASP.NET Website: Nice article by Scott Mitchell that demonstrates how to call and integrate Twitter from within your ASP.NET applications. Improving CSS with .LESS: Nice article by Scott Mitchell that describes how to optimize CSS using .LESS – a free, open source library. ASP.NET MVC Upgrading ASP.NET MVC 1 applications to ASP.NET MVC 2: Eilon Lipton from the ASP.NET team has a nice post that describes how to easily upgrade your ASP.NET MVC 1 applications to ASP.NET MVC 2.  He has an automated tool that makes this easy. Note that automated MVC upgrade support is also built-into VS 2010.  Use the tool in this blog post for updating existing MVC projects using VS 2008. Advanced ASP.NET MVC 2: Nice video talk by Brad Wilson of the ASP.NET MVC team.  In it he describes some of the more advanced features in ASP.NET MVC 2 and how to maximize your productivity with them. Dynamic Select Lists with ASP.NET MVC and jQuery: Michael Ceranski has a nice blog post that describes how to dynamically populate dropdownlists on the client using AJAX. AJAX Microsoft AJAX Minifier: We recently shipped an updated minifier utility that allows you to shrink/minify both JavaScript and CSS files – which can improve the performance of your web applications.  You can run this either manually as a command-line tool or now automatically integrate it using a Visual Studio build task.  You can download it for free here. Visual Studio VS 2010 Tip: Quickly Closing Documents: Nice blog post that describes some techniques for optimizing how windows are closed with the new VS 2010 IDE. Collpase to Definitions with Outlining: Nice tip from Zain on how to collapse your code editor to outline mode using Ctrl + M, Ctrl + O.  Also check out his post on copy/paste with outlining here. $299 VS 2010 Upgrade Offer for VS 2005/2008 Standard Users: Soma blogs about a nice VS 2010 upgrade offer you can take advantage of if you have VS 2005 or VS 2008 Standard editions.  For $299 you can upgrade to VS 2010 Professional edition. Dependency Graphics: Jason Zander (who runs the VS team) has a nice blog post that covers the new dependency graph support within VS 2010.  This makes it easier to visualize the dependencies within your application.  Also check out this video here. Layer Validation: Jason Zander has a nice blog post that talks about the new layer validation features in VS 2010.  This enables you to enforce cleaner layering within your projects and solutions.  VS 2010 Profiler Blog: The VS 2010 Profiler Team has their own blog and on it you can find a bunch of nice posts from the last few months that talk about a lot of the new features coming with VS 2010’s Profiler support.  Some really nice features coming. Silverlight Silverlight 4 Training Course: Nice free set of training courses from Microsoft that can help bring you up to speed on all of the new Silverlight 4 features and how to build applications with them.  Updated and current with the recently released Silverlight 4 RC build and tools. Getting Started with Silverlight and Windows Phone 7 Development: Nice blog post by Tim Heuer that summarizes how to get started building Windows Phone 7 applications using Silverlight.  Also check out my blog post from last week on how to build a Windows Phone 7 Twitter application using Silverlight. A Guide to What Has Changed with the Silverlight 4 RC: Nice summary post by Tim Heuer that describes all of the things that have changed between the Silverlight 4 Beta and the Silverlight 4 RC. Path Based Layout - Part 1 and Part 2: Christian Schormann has a nice blog post about a really cool new feature in Expression Blend 4 and Silverlight 4 called Path Layout. Also check out Andy Beaulieu’s blog post on this. Hope this helps, Scott

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• SQLAuthority News – Author Visit Review – TechMela Nepal – March 29-30, 2010

  - by pinaldave

  I was very fortunate to attend TechMela at Kathmandu, Nepal on 29th and 30th of March 2010. I would like to thank Allen Bailochan Tuladhar from Microsoft MDP Nepal for inviting me. Allen is a person with seemingly infinite energy and unlimited passion for Microsoft Technology. If you get an opportunity to spend just one hour with him, you will surely be more enthusiastic with regards to Microsoft Technology. And, I was lucky enough that I was able to spend about a total of 9 days with him in Kathmandu, working along with him in the Tech Community. TechMela Nepal Pinal at TechMela, Nepal TechMela is considered as one of the biggest events in Nepal, having been organized by Microsoft MDP Nepal. This event was attended by around 500 students and hundreds of Tech professionals. The event was handled very professionally and at very large scale. Every minor detail was properly planned and obviously thought out well. There were around 50+ volunteers from MS MDP who were monitoring this event systematically to make sure the event would run as smooth as planned. Attendees in Geek T-Shirts During this event, I was delighted to meet David Lim of Microsoft Singapore. He is very passionate in working for Microsoft Technology, as well as building deep relations with the Community. I was fortunate to spend my entire afternoon with him during the sight-seeing trip. We discussed various MS technologies and their community’s adoption as well as the way how each of us can be a part of the community activity. He also delivered excellent keynotes at the event. I must say that this is one of the most enjoyable keynotes I have ever attended. It was interesting and interactive, and I must say that I had the 70s feelings with all the fonts and graphics. I still remember him saying, “Yeah, I was a student and I know you.” Allen Tuladhar, David Lim, Pinal Dave and Guests After the keynote, everybody cheered when Allen came on stage to talk about the event and to introduce the agenda for the next two days. I must say that Allen is one of the most well-known people in Nepal. I was impressed with his popularity, and to prove this, when he got on the stage he had to wait for a long full minute before he was able to greet “Welcome” while the attendees were clapping and cheering. Technology Panelist at Techmela Kathmandu, Nepal This event was blessed with the top-of-the-top officials of various IT industries, Nepal ministries and the US Embassy. All the prominent personalities were present for panel discussion on the stage. The talk was done on various subjects. Also, the energy level which was set by Allen really echoed in the audience as they asked certain questions on different global as well local IT-related questions. The panel discussion really was discussion instead of usual monologue of one person. Pinal Dave presending at TechMela Kathmandu, Nepal This was a two-day event and my session was on either of the day. I had a great participation from the audience on both days. The place where the event was organized had a capacity of around 500+ audience. Both of my sessions were heavily attended and volunteers did a fabulous job helping the attendees find empty seats or arrange some additional seats. I was overwhelmed with the interaction I have received in the large hall. Attendees were not so shy to express their thoughts, so both the sessions were followed up by top notch one-on-one conversations for a couple of hours. Pinal Dave presending at TechMela Kathmandu, Nepal Pinal Dave presending at TechMela Kathmandu, Nepal Pinal Dave presending at TechMela Kathmandu, Nepal There are many questions that I have received during the event, and many of them can be interesting for all of us here so I will write detailed blog posts on these subjects. I also tried to participate in the gaming activities held at the event, but I felt I was kind of lost even if I was only playing for the very first minutes. This made me realize that I am really getting old for video games. Allen presending at TechMela Kathmandu, Nepal Allen’s session on Digital Photography was very impressive as he demonstrated so many features of the Windows Live Product that at one point I felt he is MVP for Windows Live. In fact, he demonstrated how all the Microsoft products work together to give users an excellent desktop experience; no wonder he is an MVP for Windows Desktop Experience. Pinal Dave presending at TechMela Kathmandu, Nepal Any event has two common dilemmas – food and logistics. However, this event had excellent food and state-of-the-art organization. I was very glad that this two-day event turned out to be one of the most successful events in Nepal. I also noticed that almost all attendees rate their experience as beyond expectation and truly exceptional. Pinal Dave and Allen Bailochan Tuladhar If you ever get invited by Allen in any of his event, I strongly suggest that you drop all your plans and scheduled stuff, and accept his invitation. For sure, the event will be a very memorable one and would be your once-in-a-lifetime experience. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: MVP, Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority Author Visit, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology

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• SQLAuthority News – Author Visit Review – TechMela Nepal – March 29-30, 2010

  - by pinaldave

  I was very fortunate to attend TechMela at Kathmandu, Nepal on 29th and 30th of March 2010. I would like to thank Allen Bailochan Tuladhar from Microsoft MDP Nepal for inviting me. Allen is a person with seemingly infinite energy and unlimited passion for Microsoft Technology. If you get an opportunity to spend just one hour with him, you will surely be more enthusiastic with regards to Microsoft Technology. And, I was lucky enough that I was able to spend about a total of 9 days with him in Kathmandu, working along with him in the Tech Community. TechMela Nepal Pinal at TechMela, Nepal TechMela is considered as one of the biggest events in Nepal, having been organized by Microsoft MDP Nepal. This event was attended by around 500 students and hundreds of Tech professionals. The event was handled very professionally and at very large scale. Every minor detail was properly planned and obviously thought out well. There were around 50+ volunteers from MS MDP who were monitoring this event systematically to make sure the event would run as smooth as planned. Attendees in Geek T-Shirts During this event, I was delighted to meet David Lim of Microsoft Singapore. He is very passionate in working for Microsoft Technology, as well as building deep relations with the Community. I was fortunate to spend my entire afternoon with him during the sight-seeing trip. We discussed various MS technologies and their community’s adoption as well as the way how each of us can be a part of the community activity. He also delivered excellent keynotes at the event. I must say that this is one of the most enjoyable keynotes I have ever attended. It was interesting and interactive, and I must say that I had the 70s feelings with all the fonts and graphics. I still remember him saying, “Yeah, I was a student and I know you.” Allen Tuladhar, David Lim, Pinal Dave and Guests After the keynote, everybody cheered when Allen came on stage to talk about the event and to introduce the agenda for the next two days. I must say that Allen is one of the most well-known people in Nepal. I was impressed with his popularity, and to prove this, when he got on the stage he had to wait for a long full minute before he was able to greet “Welcome” while the attendees were clapping and cheering. Technology Panelist at Techmela Kathmandu, Nepal This event was blessed with the top-of-the-top officials of various IT industries, Nepal ministries and the US Embassy. All the prominent personalities were present for panel discussion on the stage. The talk was done on various subjects. Also, the energy level which was set by Allen really echoed in the audience as they asked certain questions on different global as well local IT-related questions. The panel discussion really was discussion instead of usual monologue of one person. Pinal Dave presenting at TechMela Kathmandu, Nepal This was a two-day event and my session was on either of the day. I had a great participation from the audience on both days. The place where the event was organized had a capacity of around 500+ audience. Both of my sessions were heavily attended and volunteers did a fabulous job helping the attendees find empty seats or arrange some additional seats. I was overwhelmed with the interaction I have received in the large hall. Attendees were not so shy to express their thoughts, so both the sessions were followed up by top notch one-on-one conversations for a couple of hours. Pinal Dave presenting at TechMela Kathmandu, Nepal Pinal Dave presenting at TechMela Kathmandu, Nepal There are many questions that I have received during the event, and many of them can be interesting for all of us here so I will write detailed blog posts on these subjects. I also tried to participate in the gaming activities held at the event, but I felt I was kind of lost even if I was only playing for the very first minutes. This made me realize that I am really getting old for video games. Allen presenting at TechMela Kathmandu, Nepal Allen’s session on Digital Photography was very impressive as he demonstrated so many features of the Windows Live Product that at one point I felt he is MVP for Windows Live. In fact, he demonstrated how all the Microsoft products work together to give users an excellent desktop experience; no wonder he is an MVP for Windows Desktop Experience. Pinal Dave presending at TechMela Kathmandu, Nepal Any event has two common dilemmas – food and logistics. However, this event had excellent food and state-of-the-art organization. I was very glad that this two-day event turned out to be one of the most successful events in Nepal. I also noticed that almost all attendees rate their experience as beyond expectation and truly exceptional. Pinal Dave and Allen Bailochan Tuladhar If you ever get invited by Allen in any of his event, I strongly suggest that you drop all your plans and scheduled stuff, and accept his invitation. For sure, the event will be a very memorable one and would be your once-in-a-lifetime experience. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: MVP, Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority Author Visit, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology

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• New Product: Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2 – Small, Smart, Connected

  - by terrencebarr

  The Internet of Things (IoT) is coming. And, with todays launch of the Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2 product, Java is going to play an even greater role in it. Java in the Internet of Things By all accounts, intelligent embedded devices are penetrating the world around us – driving industrial processes, monitoring environmental conditions, providing better health care, analyzing and processing data, and much more. And these devices are becoming increasingly connected, adding another dimension of utility. Welcome to the Internet of Things. As I blogged yesterday, this is a huge opportunity for the Java technology and ecosystem. To enable and utilize these billions of devices effectively you need a programming model, tools, and protocols which provide a feature-rich, consistent, scalable, manageable, and interoperable platform.  Java technology is ideally suited to address these technical and business problems, enabling you eliminate many of the typical challenges in designing embedded solutions. By using Java you can focus on building smarter, more valuable embedded solutions faster. To wit, Java technology is already powering around 10 billion devices worldwide. Delivering on this vision and accelerating the growth of embedded Java solutions, Oracle is today announcing a brand-new product: Oracle Java Micro Edition (ME) Embedded 3.2, accompanied by an update release of the Java ME Software Development Kit (SDK) to version 3.2. What is Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2? Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2 is a complete Java runtime client, optimized for ARM architecture connected microcontrollers and other resource-constrained systems. The product provides dedicated embedded functionality and is targeted for low-power, limited memory devices requiring support for a range of network services and I/O interfaces.  What features and APIs are provided by Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2? Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2 is a Java ME runtime based on CLDC 1.1 (JSR-139) and IMP-NG (JSR-228). The runtime and virtual machine (VM) are highly optimized for embedded use. Also included in the product are the following optional JSRs and Oracle APIs: File I/O API’s (JSR-75)  Wireless Messaging API’s (JSR-120) Web Services (JSR-172) Security and Trust Services subset (JSR-177) Location API’s (JSR-179) XML API’s (JSR-280)  Device Access API Application Management System (AMS) API AccessPoint API Logging API Additional embedded features are: Remote application management system Support for continuous 24×7 operation Application monitoring, auto-start, and system recovery Application access to peripheral interfaces such as GPIO, I2C, SPIO, memory mapped I/O Application level logging framework, including option for remote logging Headless on-device debugging – source level Java application debugging over IP Connection Remote configuration of the Java VM What type of platforms are targeted by Oracle Java ME 3.2 Embedded? The product is designed for embedded, always-on, resource-constrained, headless (no graphics/no UI), connected (wired or wireless) devices with a variety of peripheral I/O.  The high-level system requirements are as follows: System based on ARM architecture SOCs Memory footprint (approximate) from 130 KB RAM/350KB ROM (for a minimal, customized configuration) to 700 KB RAM/1500 KB ROM (for the full, standard configuration)  Very simple embedded kernel, or a more capable embedded OS/RTOS At least one type of network connection (wired or wireless) The initial release of the product is delivered as a device emulation environment for x86/Windows desktop computers, integrated with the Java ME SDK 3.2. A standard binary of Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2 for ARM KEIL development boards based on ARM Cortex M-3/4 (KEIL MCBSTM32F200 using ST Micro SOC STM32F207IG) will soon be available for download from the Oracle Technology Network (OTN).  What types of applications can I develop with Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2? The Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2 product is a full-featured embedded Java runtime supporting applications based on the IMP-NG application model, which is derived from the well-known MIDP 2 application model. The runtime supports execution of multiple concurrent applications, remote application management, versatile connectivity, and a rich set of APIs and features relevant for embedded use cases, including the ability to interact with peripheral I/O directly from Java applications. This rich feature set, coupled with familiar and best-in class software development tools, allows developers to quickly build and deploy sophisticated embedded solutions for a wide range of use cases. Target markets well supported by Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2 include wireless modules for M2M, industrial and building control, smart grid infrastructure, home automation, and environmental sensors and tracking. What tools are available for embedded application development for Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2? Along with the release of Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2, Oracle is also making available an updated version of the Java ME Software Development Kit (SDK), together with plug-ins for the NetBeans and Eclipse IDEs, to deliver a complete development environment for embedded application development.  OK – sounds great! Where can I find out more? And how do I get started? There is a complete set of information, data sheet, API documentation, “Getting Started Guide”, FAQ, and download links available: For an overview of Oracle Embeddable Java, see here. For the Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2 press release, see here. For the Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2 data sheet, see here. For the Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2 landing page, see here. For the Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2 documentation page, including a “Getting Started Guide” and FAQ, see here. For the Oracle Java ME SDK 3.2 landing and download page, see here. Finally, to ask more questions, please see the OTN “Java ME Embedded” forum To get started, grab the “Getting Started Guide” and download the Java ME SDK 3.2, which includes the Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2 device emulation.  Can I learn more about Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2 at JavaOne and/or Java Embedded @ JavaOne? Glad you asked Both conferences, JavaOne and Java Embedded @ JavaOne, will feature a host of content and information around the new Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2 product, from technical and business sessions, to hands-on tutorials, and demos. Stay tuned, I will post details shortly. Cheers, – Terrence Filed under: Mobile & Embedded Tagged: "Oracle Java ME Embedded", Connected, embedded, Embedded Java, Java Embedded @ JavaOne, JavaOne, Smart

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• Test Drive Windows 7 Online with Virtual Labs

  - by Matthew Guay

  Did you miss out on the Windows 7 public beta and want to try it out before you actually make the leap and upgrade? Maybe you want to learn how to deploy new features in a business environment. Here’s how you can test drive Windows 7 directly from your browser. Whether you manage 10,000 desktops or simply manage your own laptop, it’s usually best to test out a new OS before installing it.  If you’re upgrading from Windows XP you may find many things unfamiliar.  Microsoft has setup a special Windows 7 Test Drive website with resources to help IT professionals test and deploy Windows 7 in their workplaces.  This is a great resource to try out Windows 7 from the comfort of your browser, and look at some of the new features without even installing it. Please note that the online version is not nearly as responsive as a full standard install of Windows 7.  It also does not run the full Aero interface or desktop effects, and may refresh slowly depending on your Internet connection.  So don’t judge Windows 7’s performance based on this virtual lab, but use it as a way to learn more about Windows 7 without installing it. Getting Started To test drive Windows 7, visit Microsoft’s Windows 7 Test Drive website (link below).  You will need to run the Windows 7 Test Drive in Internet Explorer, as it requires Active X support.  We received this error when attempting to run the Test Drive in Firefox: Now, click the “Take a Test Drive” link on the bottom left of the page. This site includes several test drives to demonstrate different features of Windows 7 and its related ecosystem of products including Windows Server 2008 R2, some of which, including the XP Mode test drive, are not yet ready.  For this test, we selected the MED-V Test drive, as this includes Office 2007 and 2010 so you can test them in Windows 7 as well.  Simply select the test drive you want, and click “Try it now!”   If you haven’t run a Windows test drive before, you will be asked to install an ActiveX control.  Click the link to install. Click the yellow bar at the top of the page in Internet Explorer, and select to Install the add-on.  You may have to approve a UAC prompt to finish the install. Once this is finished, click the link on the bottom of the page to return to your test drive.  The test drive page should automatically refresh; if it doesn’t, click refresh to reload it. Now the test drive will load the components.   Once its fully loaded, click the link to launch Windows 7 in a new window. You may see a prompt warning that the server may have been impersonated.  Simply click Yes to proceed. The test lab will give you some getting started directions; click Close Window when you’re ready to try out Windows 7. Here’s the default desktop in the Windows 7 test drive.  You can use it just like a normal Windows computer, but do note that it may function slowly depending on your internet connection.   This test drive includes both Office 2007 and Office 2010 Tech Preview, so you can try out both in Windows 7 as well. You can try out the new Windows 7 applications such as the reworked Paint with the Ribbon interface from Office. Or you can even test the newest version of Media Center, though it will warn you that it may not function good with the down-scaled graphics in the test drive.   Most importantly, you can try out the new features in Windows 7, such as Jumplists and even Aero Snap.  Once again, these features will not function the quickest, but it does let you test them out. While working with the Virtual Lab, there are different tasks it walks you through. You can also download a copy of the lab manual in PDF format to help you navigate through the various objectives. The test drive system is running Microsoft Forefront Security, the enterprise security solution from which Microsoft Security Essentials has adapted components from. Conclusion These virtual labs are great for tech students, or those of you who want to get a first-hand trial of the new features. Also, if you’re not sure on how to deploy something and want to practice in a virtual environment, these labs are quite valuable.While these labs are geared toward IT professionals, it’s a good way for anyone to try out Windows 7 features from the comfort of your current computer. Test Drive Windows 7 Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Mount Multiple ISO Images Using Virtual CloneDriveHow To Delete a VHD in Windows 7Keyboard Shortcuts for VMware WorkstationMount an ISO image in Windows 7 or VistaHow To Turn a Physical Computer Into A Virtual Machine with Disk2vhd TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 If it were only this easy SyncToy syncs Files and Folders across Computers on a Network (or partitions on the same drive) Classic Cinema Online offers 100’s of OnDemand Movies OutSync will Sync Photos of your Friends on Facebook and Outlook Windows 7 Easter Theme YoWindoW, a real time weather screensaver

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• Azure &ndash; Part 6 &ndash; Blob Storage Service

  - by Shaun

  When migrate your application onto the Azure one of the biggest concern would be the external files. In the original way we understood and ensure which machine and folder our application (website or web service) is located in. So that we can use the MapPath or some other methods to read and write the external files for example the images, text files or the xml files, etc. But things have been changed when we deploy them on Azure. Azure is not a server, or a single machine, it’s a set of virtual server machine running under the Azure OS. And even worse, your application might be moved between thses machines. So it’s impossible to read or write the external files on Azure. In order to resolve this issue the Windows Azure provides another storage serviec – Blob, for us. Different to the table service, the blob serivce is to be used to store text and binary data rather than the structured data. It provides two types of blobs: Block Blobs and Page Blobs. Block Blobs are optimized for streaming. They are comprised of blocks, each of which is identified by a block ID and each block can be a maximum of 4 MB in size. Page Blobs are are optimized for random read/write operations and provide the ability to write to a range of bytes in a blob. They are a collection of pages. The maximum size for a page blob is 1 TB.   In the managed library the Azure SDK allows us to communicate with the blobs through these classes CloudBlobClient, CloudBlobContainer, CloudBlockBlob and the CloudPageBlob. Similar with the table service managed library, the CloudBlobClient allows us to reach the blob service by passing our storage account information and also responsible for creating the blob container is not exist. Then from the CloudBlobContainer we can save or load the block blobs and page blobs into the CloudBlockBlob and the CloudPageBlob classes.   Let’s improve our exmaple in the previous posts – add a service method allows the user to upload the logo image. In the server side I created a method name UploadLogo with 2 parameters: email and image. Then I created the storage account from the config file. I also add the validation to ensure that the email passed in is valid. 1: var storageAccount = CloudStorageAccount.FromConfigurationSetting("DataConnectionString"); 2: var accountContext = new DynamicDataContext<Account>(storageAccount); 3:  4: // validation 5: var accountNumber = accountContext.Load() 6: .Where(a => a.Email == email) 7: .ToList() 8: .Count; 9: if (accountNumber <= 0) 10: { 11: throw new ApplicationException(string.Format("Cannot find the account with the email {0}.", email)); 12: } Then there are three steps for saving the image into the blob service. First alike the table service I created the container with a unique name and create it if it’s not exist. 1: // create the blob container for account logos if not exist 2: CloudBlobClient blobStorage = storageAccount.CreateCloudBlobClient(); 3: CloudBlobContainer container = blobStorage.GetContainerReference("account-logo"); 4: container.CreateIfNotExist(); Then, since in this example I will just send the blob access URL back to the client so I need to open the read permission on that container. 1: // configure blob container for public access 2: BlobContainerPermissions permissions = container.GetPermissions(); 3: permissions.PublicAccess = BlobContainerPublicAccessType.Container; 4: container.SetPermissions(permissions); And at the end I combine the blob resource name from the input file name and Guid, and then save it to the block blob by using the UploadByteArray method. Finally I returned the URL of this blob back to the client side. 1: // save the blob into the blob service 2: string uniqueBlobName = string.Format("{0}_{1}.jpg", email, Guid.NewGuid().ToString()); 3: CloudBlockBlob blob = container.GetBlockBlobReference(uniqueBlobName); 4: blob.UploadByteArray(image); 5:  6: return blob.Uri.ToString(); Let’s update a bit on the client side application and see the result. Here I just use my simple console application to let the user input the email and the file name of the image. If it’s OK it will show the URL of the blob on the server side so that we can see it through the web browser. Then we can see the logo I’ve just uploaded through the URL here. You may notice that the blob URL was based on the container name and the blob unique name. In the document of the Azure SDK there’s a page for the rule of naming them, but I think the simple rule would be – they must be valid as an URL address. So that you cannot name the container with dot or slash as it will break the ADO.Data Service routing rule. For exmaple if you named the blob container as Account.Logo then it will throw an exception says 400 Bad Request.   Summary In this short entity I covered the simple usage of the blob service to save the images onto Azure. Since the Azure platform does not support the file system we have to migrate our code for reading/writing files to the blob service before deploy it to Azure. In order to reducing this effort Microsoft provided a new approch named Drive, which allows us read and write the NTFS files just likes what we did before. It’s built up on the blob serivce but more properly for files accessing. I will discuss more about it in the next post.   Hope this helps, Shaun All documents and related graphics, codes are provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind. Copyright © Shaun Ziyan Xu. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons License.

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• Building the Elusive Windows Phone Panorama Control

  When the Windows Phone 7 Developer SDK was released a couple of weeks ago at MIX10 many people noticed the SDK doesnt include a template for a Panorama control.   Here at Clarity we decided to build our own Panorama control for use in some of our prototypes and I figured I would share what we came up with. There have been a couple of implementations of the Panorama control making their way through the interwebs, but I didnt think any of them really nailed the experience that is shown in the simulation videos.   One of the key design principals in the UX Guide for Windows Phone 7 is the use of motion.  The WP7 OS is fairly stripped of extraneous design elements and makes heavy use of typography and motion to give users the necessary visual cues.  Subtle animations and wide layouts help give the user a sense of fluidity and consistency across the phone experience.  When building the panorama control I was fairly meticulous in recreating the motion as shown in the videos.  The effect that is shown in the application hubs of the phone is known as a Parallax Scrolling effect.  This this pseudo-3D technique has been around in the computer graphics world for quite some time. In essence, the background images move slower than foreground images, creating an illusion of depth in 2D.  Here is an example of the traditional use: http://www.mauriciostudio.com/.  One of the animation gems I've learned while building interactive software is the follow animation.  The premise is straightforward: instead of translating content 1:1 with the interaction point, let the content catch up to the mouse or finger.  The difference is subtle, but the impact on the smoothness of the interaction is huge.  That said, it became the foundation of how I achieved the effect shown below.   Source Code Available HERE Before I briefly describe the approach I took in creating this control..and Ill add some **asterisks ** to the code below as my coding skills arent up to snuff with the rest of my colleagues.  This code is meant to be an interpretation of the WP7 panorama control and is not intended to be used in a production application.  1.  Layout the XAML The UI consists of three main components :  The background image, the Title, and the Content.  You can imagine each  these UI Elements existing on their own plane with a corresponding Translate Transform to create the Parallax effect.  2.  Storyboards + Procedural Animations = Sexy As I mentioned above, creating a fluid experience was at the top of my priorities while building this control.  To recreate the smooth scroll effect shown in the video we need to add some place holder storyboards that we can manipulate in code to simulate the inertia and snapping.  Using the easing functions built into Silverlight helps create a very pleasant interaction.    3.  Handle the Manipulation Events With Silverlight 3 we have some new touch event handlers.  The new Manipulation events makes handling the interactivity pretty straight forward.  There are two event handlers that need to be hooked up to enable the dragging and motion effects: the ManipulationDelta event :  (the most relevant code is highlighted in pink) Here we are doing some simple math with the Manipulation Deltas and setting the TO values of the animations appropriately. Modifying the storyboards dynamically in code helps to create a natural feel.something that cant easily be done with storyboards alone.   And secondly, the ManipulationCompleted event:  Here we take the Final Velocities from the Manipulation Completed Event and apply them to the Storyboards to create the snapping and scrolling effects.  Most of this code is determining what the next position of the viewport will be.  The interesting part (shown in pink) is determining the duration of the animation based on the calculated velocity of the flick gesture.  By using velocity as a variable in determining the duration of the animation we can produce a slow animation for a soft flick and a fast animation for a strong flick. Challenges to the Reader There are a couple of things I didnt have time to implement into this control.  And I would love to see other WPF/Silverlight approaches.  1.  A good mechanism for deciphering when the user is manipulating the content within the panorama control and the panorama itself.   In other words, being able to accurately determine what is a flick and what is click. 2.  Dynamically Sizing the panorama control based on the width of its content.  Right now each control panel is 400px, ideally the Panel items would be measured and then panorama control would update its size accordingly.  3.  Background and content wrapping.  The WP7 UX guidelines specify that the content and background should wrap at the end of the list.  In my code I restrict the drag at the ends of the list (like the iPhone).  It would be interesting to see how this would effect the scroll experience.     Well, Its been fun building this control and if you use it Id love to know what you think.  You can download the Source HERE or from the Expression Gallery  Erik Klimczak  | [email protected] | twitter.com/eklimczDid you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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