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• Tools to Help Post Content On Your WordPress Blog

  - by Matthew Guay

  Now that you’ve got a nice blog, you want to do more with it and start posting content.  Here we look at some tools that will allow you to post directly to your WordPress blog. Writing a new blog post is easy with WordPress as we saw in our previous post about Starting your own WordPress blog.  The web editor gives you a lot of features and even lets you edit your post’s source code if you enjoy hacking HTML.  There are other tools that will allow you to post content, here we look at how you can post with dedicated apps, browser plugins, and even by email. Windows Live Writer Windows Live Writer (part of the Windows Live Essentials Suite) is a great app for posting content to your blog.  This free program for Microsoft lets you post content to a variety of blogging services, including Blogger, Typepad, LiveJournal, and of course WordPress.  You can write blog posts directly from its Word-like editor, complete with pictures and advanced formatting.  Even if you’re offline, you can still write posts and save them for when you’re online again. For more information about installing Live writer, check out our article on how to Install Windows Live Essentials In Windows 7. Once Live Writer is installed, open it to add your blog.  If you already had Live Writer installed and configured for a blog, you can add your new blog, too.  Just click your blog’s name in the top right corner, and select “Add blog account”. Select “Other blog service” to add your WordPress blog to Writer, and click Next.   Enter your blog’s web address, and your username and password.  Check Remember my password so you don’t have to enter it every time you write something. Writer will analyze your blog and setup your account. During the setup process it may ask to post a temporary post.  This will let you preview blog posts using your blog’s real theme, which is helpful, so click Yes. Finally, add your Blog’s name, and click Finish. You can now use the rich editor to write and add content to a new blog post.   Select the Preview tab to see how your post will look on your blog… Or, if you’re a HTML geek, select the Source tab to edit the code of your blog post. From the bottom of the window, you can choose categories, insert tags, and even schedule the post to publish on a different day.  Live Writer is fully integrated with WordPress; you’re not missing anything by using the desktop editor. If you want to edit a post you’ve already published, click the Open button and select the post.  You can chose and edit any post, including ones you published via the web interface or other editors. Add Multimedia Content to your Posts with Live Writer Back in the Edit tab, you can add pictures, videos and more from the sidebar.  Select what you want to insert. Pictures If you insert a picture, you can add many nice borders and designs to it. Or, you can even add artistic effects from the Effects tab in the sidebar. Photo Gallery If you want to post several pictures, say some of your vacation shots, then inserting a picture gallery may be the best option.  Select Insert Photo Gallery in the sidebar, and then choose the pictures you want in the gallery. Once the gallery is inserted, you can choose from several styles to showcase your pictures. When you post the blog, you will be asked to sign in with your Windows Live ID as the gallery pictures will be stored in the free Skydrive storage service. Your blog readers can see the preview of your pictures directly on your blog, and then can view each individual picture, download them, or see a slideshow online via the link. Video If you want to add a video to your blog post, select Video from the sidebar as above.  You can select a video that’s already online, or you can choose a new video from file and upload it via YouTube directly from Windows Live Writer.   Note that you will have to sign in with your YouTube account to upload videos to YouTube, so if you’re not logged in you’ll be prompted to do so when you click Insert. Geek Tip:  If you ever want to copy your Live Writer settings to another computer, check out our article on how to Backup Your Windows Live Writer Settings. Microsoft Office Word Word 2007 and 2010 also let you post content directly to your blog.  This is especially nice if you’ve already typed up a document and think it would be good on your Blog as well.  Check out our in-depth tutorial on posting blog posts via Word 2007 using Word 2007 as a blogging tool. This works in Word 2010 too, except the Office Orb has been replaced by the new Backstage view.  So, in Word 2010, to start a new blog post, click File \ New then select Blog post.  Proceed as you would in Word 2007 to add your blog settings and post the content you want. Or, if you’ve already written a document and want to post it, select File \ Share (or Save and Send in the final version of Word 2010), and then click Publish as Blog Post.  If you haven’t setup your blog account yet, set it up as shown in the Word 2007 article. Post Via Email Most of us use email daily, and already have our favorite email app or service.  Whether on your desktop or mobile phone, it’s easy to create rich emails and add content.  WordPress lets you generate a unique email address that you can use to easily post content and email to your blog.  Just compose your email with the subject as the title of your post, and send it to this unique address.  Your new post will be up in minutes. To active this feature, click the My Account button in the top menu bar in your WordPress.com account, and select My Blogs. Click the Enable button under Post by Email beside your blog’s name.   Now you’ll have a private email you can use to post to your blog.  Anything you send to this email will be posted as a new post.  If you think your email may be compromised, click Regenerate to get a new publishing email address. Any email program or webapp now is a blog post editor.  Feel free to use rich formatting or insert pictures; it all comes through great.  This is also a great way to post to your blog from your mobile device.  Whether you’re using webmail or a dedicated email client on your phone, you can now blog from anywhere.   Mobile Applications WordPress also offer dedicated applications for blogging directly from your mobile device.  You can write new posts, edit existing ones, and manage comments all from your Smartphone.  Currently they offer apps for iPhone, Android, and Blackberry.  Check them out at the link below. Conclusion Whether you want to write from your browser or email a post to your blog, WordPress is flexible enough to work right along with your preferences.  However you post, you can be sure that it will look professional and be easily accessible with your WordPress blog. Download Windows Live Writer Download WordPress apps for your mobile device Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Quick Tip: Set a Future Date for a Post in WordPressAdd Social Bookmarking (Digg This!) Links to your Wordpress BlogFuture Date a Post in Windows Live WriterHow To Start Your Own Professional Blog with WordPressUsing Word 2007 as a Blogging Tool 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 Acronis Online Backup DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows Fun with 47 charts and graphs Tomorrow is Mother’s Day Check the Average Speed of YouTube Videos You’ve Watched OutlookStatView Scans and Displays General Usage Statistics How to Add Exceptions to the Windows Firewall Office 2010 reviewed in depth by Ed Bott

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• Use an Ubuntu Live CD to Securely Wipe Your PC’s Hard Drive

  - by Trevor Bekolay

  Deleting files or quickly formatting a drive isn’t enough for sensitive personal information. We’ll show you how to get rid of it for good using a Ubuntu Live CD. When you delete a file in Windows, Ubuntu, or any other operating system, it doesn’t actually destroy the data stored on your hard drive, it just marks that data as “deleted.” If you overwrite it later, then that data is generally unrecoverable, but if the operating system don’t happen to overwrite it, then your data is still stored on your hard drive, recoverable by anyone who has the right software. By securely delete files or entire hard drives, your data will be gone for good. Note: Modern hard drives are extremely sophisticated, as are the experts who recover data for a living. There is no guarantee that the methods covered in this article will make your data completely unrecoverable; however, they will make your data unrecoverable to the majority of recovery methods, and all methods that are readily available to the general public. Shred individual files Most of the data stored on your hard drive is harmless, and doesn’t reveal anything about you. If there are just a few files that you know you don’t want someone else to see, then the easiest way to get rid of them is a built-in Linux utility called shred. Open a terminal window by clicking on Applications at the top-left of the screen, then expanding the Accessories menu and clicking on Terminal. Navigate to the file that you want to delete using cd to change directories and ls to list the files and folders in the current directory. As an example, we’ve got a file called BankInfo.txt on a Windows NTFS-formatted hard drive. We want to delete it securely, so we’ll call shred by entering the following in the terminal window: shred <file> which is, in our example: shred BankInfo.txt Notice that our BankInfo.txt file still exists, even though we’ve shredded it. A quick look at the contents of BankInfo.txt make it obvious that the file has indeed been securely overwritten. We can use some command-line arguments to make shred delete the file from the hard drive as well. We can also be extra-careful about the shredding process by upping the number of times shred overwrites the original file. To do this, in the terminal, type in: shred –remove –iterations=<num> <file> By default, shred overwrites the file 25 times. We’ll double this, giving us the following command: shred –remove –iterations=50 BankInfo.txt BankInfo.txt has now been securely wiped on the physical disk, and also no longer shows up in the directory listing. Repeat this process for any sensitive files on your hard drive! Wipe entire hard drives If you’re disposing of an old hard drive, or giving it to someone else, then you might instead want to wipe your entire hard drive. shred can be invoked on hard drives, but on modern file systems, the shred process may be reversible. We’ll use the program wipe to securely delete all of the data on a hard drive. Unlike shred, wipe is not included in Ubuntu by default, so we have to install it. Open up the Synaptic Package Manager by clicking on System in the top-left corner of the screen, then expanding the Administration folder and clicking on Synaptic Package Manager. wipe is part of the Universe repository, which is not enabled by default. We’ll enable it by clicking on Settings > Repositories in the Synaptic Package Manager window. Check the checkbox next to “Community-maintained Open Source software (universe)”. Click Close. You’ll need to reload Synaptic’s package list. Click on the Reload button in the main Synaptic Package Manager window. Once the package list has been reloaded, the text over the search field will change to “Rebuilding search index”. Wait until it reads “Quick search,” and then type “wipe” into the search field. The wipe package should come up, along with some other packages that perform similar functions. Click on the checkbox to the left of the label “wipe” and select “Mark for Installation”. Click on the Apply button to start the installation process. Click the Apply button on the Summary window that pops up. Once the installation is done, click the Close button and close the Synaptic Package Manager window. Open a terminal window by clicking on Applications in the top-left of the screen, then Accessories > Terminal. You need to figure our the correct hard drive to wipe. If you wipe the wrong hard drive, that data will not be recoverable, so exercise caution! In the terminal window, type in: sudo fdisk -l A list of your hard drives will show up. A few factors will help you identify the right hard drive. One is the file system, found in the System column of  the list – Windows hard drives are usually formatted as NTFS (which shows up as HPFS/NTFS). Another good identifier is the size of the hard drive, which appears after its identifier (highlighted in the following screenshot). In our case, the hard drive we want to wipe is only around 1 GB large, and is formatted as NTFS. We make a note of the label found under the the Device column heading. If you have multiple partitions on this hard drive, then there will be more than one device in this list. The wipe developers recommend wiping each partition separately. To start the wiping process, type the following into the terminal: sudo wipe <device label> In our case, this is: sudo wipe /dev/sda1 Again, exercise caution – this is the point of no return! Your hard drive will be completely wiped. It may take some time to complete, depending on the size of the drive you’re wiping. Conclusion If you have sensitive information on your hard drive – and chances are you probably do – then it’s a good idea to securely delete sensitive files before you give away or dispose of your hard drive. The most secure way to delete your data is with a few swings of a hammer, but shred and wipe from a Ubuntu Live CD is a good alternative! Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Reset Your Ubuntu Password Easily from the Live CDScan a Windows PC for Viruses from a Ubuntu Live CDRecover Deleted Files on an NTFS Hard Drive from a Ubuntu Live CDCreate a Bootable Ubuntu 9.10 USB Flash DriveCreate a Bootable Ubuntu USB Flash Drive the Easy Way 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 Office 2010 Product Guides Google Maps Place marks – Pizza, Guns or Strip Clubs Monitor Applications With Kiwi LocPDF is a Visual PDF Search Tool Download Free iPad Wallpapers at iPad Decor Get Your Delicious Bookmarks In Firefox’s Awesome Bar

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• A Visual Studio tool eliminating the need to rewrite for web and mobile

  - by Visual WebGui

  We have already covered the BYOD requirements that an application developer is faced with, in an earlier blog entry ( How to Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) to a .NET application ). In that entry we emphasized the fact that application developers will need to prepare their applications for serving multiple types of devices on multiple platforms, ranging from the smallest mobile devices up to and beyond the largest desktop devices. The experts prediction is that in the near future we will see that the...(read more)

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• Free Tools for Network Super-Heroes!

  - by TATWORTH

  At http://www.solarwinds.com/products/solarwinds_free_tools/ there is a comprehensive list of free tools, including the IP Address Tracker that I previously blogged about. Suggest this list to your network administrators! The tools include: http://www.solarwinds.com/products/freetools/permissions_analyzer_for_active_directory/ WMI Monitor VM Console Real-Time NetFlow Analyzer Network Device Monitor Network Config Generator TFTP Server IP Address Tracker VM Monitor Advanced Subnet Calculator Wake-On-Lan

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• Adaptive ADF/WebCenter template for the iPad

  - by Maiko Rocha

  One of my WebCenter Portal customers was asking about adaptive design with ADF/WebCenter Portal and how they could go about creating an adaptive iPad template for their WebCenter Portal application. They were looking not only for the out-of-the-box support for mobile Safari which is certified against PS5+ (11.1.1.6) for ADF/WebCenter - but also to create a specific template to streamline their workflow on the iPad. Seems like they wanted something in the lines of Yahoo! Mail provides for the iPad - so the example I will use is shamelessly inspired by Y! Mail's iPad UI.  But first, let's quickly understand how can we bake in some adaptive goodness into ADF Faces. First thing we need to understand is, yes, there are a couple of constraints that we will need to work around, namely, the use or layout managers and skins. Please also keep in mind that I'm not and I don't pretend to be a web designer, much less an UX specialist, so feel free to leave your thoughts on the matter in the comments section. Now, back to the limitations. Layout Managers ADF Faces layout managers create an abstraction on top of the generated HTML code for a page so a developer doesn't need to be worried about how to size and dimension the UI layout (eg, af:panelStretchLayout). Although layout managers are very helpful, in this specific situation we will need to know a little bit more of how the final HTML is being rendered so we can apply the CSS class accordingly and create transition containers where the media queries will be applied - now, if you're using 11gR2 (11.1.2.2.3) there's the new component af:panelGridLayout (here and here) that will greatly improve creating responsive templates and pages because it is based on the grid/fluid systems and will generate straight out to DIVs on your final page. For now, I'm limited to PS5 and the af:panelStretchLayout component as a starting point because that's the release my customer is on. Skins You won't be able to use media queries, or use anything with "@" notation on the skin CSS file - the skin pre-processor will remove all extraneous "@" from the CSS file. The solution is to split your CSS in two separate files: a skin CSS file and plain CSS where you will add the media queries. The issue here is that you won't be able to use media queries for any faces components. We can, though, still apply the media queries for the components like af:panelGroupLayout and af:panelBorderLayout through their styleClass property to enable these components to be responsive to to the iPad orientation, by changing its dimensions, font sizes, hide/show areas, etc. Difference between responsive and adaptive design The best definition of adaptive vs responsive web design I could find is this: “Responsive web design,” as coined by Ethan Marcotte, means “fluid grids, fluid images/media & media queries.” “Adaptive web design,” as I use it, is about creating interfaces that adapt to the user’s capabilities (in terms of both form and function). To me, “adaptive web design” is just another term for “progressive enhancement” of which responsive web design can (an often should) be an integral part, but is a more holistic approach to web design in that it also takes into account varying levels of markup, CSS, JavaScript and assistive technology support. Responsive/adapative web design is much more than slapping an HTML template with CSS around your content or application. The content and application themselves are part of your web design - in other words, a responsive template is just an afterthought if it is not originating from a responsive design the involves the whole web application/s. Tips on responsive / adapative design with ADF/WebCenter Some of the tips listed below were already mentioned in multiple blog posts about ADF layout and skinning, but it is still worth remembering: a simple guideline for ADF/WebCenter apps would be to first create a high-level group of devices, for example: smartphones, tablets,  and desktop. For each of these large groups, create the basic structure to provide responsiveness: a page template, a skin, and an external CSS: pagetemplate_smartphone.jspx, smartphone_skin.css, smartphone-responsive.css pagetemplate_tablet.jspx, tablet_skin.css, tablet-responsive.css pagetemplate_desktop.jspx, desktop_skin.css, desktop-responsive.css These three assets can be changed on the fly through an user-agent check on the server side, delivering the right UI to the right device. Within each of the assets, you can make fine adjustments for each subgroup of devices with media queries - for example, smart phones with different screen dimensions and pixel density. Having these three groups and the corresponding assets per group seem to be a good compromise between trying to put everything on a single set of assets - specially considering the constraints above - and going to the other side of the spectrum to create assets per discrete device (iPhone4, iPhone5, Nexus, S3, etc.). Keep in mind that these are my rules and are not in any shape or form a best practice - this is how it fits best for the scenarios I've been working with. If you need to use HTML tags on your page, surround them with af:group to protect the DOM structure For stretchable/fluid layouts: Use non-stretching containers: panelGroupLayout, panelBorderLayout, … panelBorderLayout can be used to approximate HTML table component To avoid multiple scroll bars, do not nest scrolling PanelGroupLayout components. Consider layout="vertical" For stretchable/fluid layouts: Most stretchable ADF components also work in flowing context with dimensionsFrom="auto" To stretch a component horizontally, use styleClass="AFStretchWidth" instead of  "width:100%" Skinning Don't use CSS3 @media, @import, animations, etc. on skin css files. They will be removed. CSS3 properties within a class (box-shadow, transition, etc.) work just fine. Consider resetting some skin classes to better control their rendering: body {color: inherit;font: inherit;} af|document {-tr-inhibit: all;} af|commandLink {-tr-inhibit: all;} af|goLink {-tr-inhibit: all;} af|inputText::content {font: inherit;} Specific meta tags and CSS properties: Use  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, minimum-scale=1.0, maximum-scale=1.0"/> to avoid zooming (if you want) Use -webkit-overflow-scrolling: touch to enable native momentum scrolling within overflown areas (here) Use text-rendering: optmizeLegibility to improve readability. (here) User text-overflow: ellipsis to gracefully crop overflown text. (here) The meta-tags are included in each and every page in the metaContainer facet of af:document tag. You can also use a javascript to inject the meta-tags from the template. For the purpose of the example, I wanted to use as few workarounds as possible.   The iPad template and sample application This sample application has been built as a WebCenter Portal application, but you will also be able to reuse the template and techniques on your vanilla ADF application. Keep in mind that I'm neither a designer nor a CSS specialist, so please don't bash me too much on the messy CSS file you'll find on the application.  I've extended the provided PreferencesBean class that comes with WebCenter Portal and added code to dinamically change the template and skin on the fly.   This is the sample application in landscape orientation: This is the sample application in portrait orientation - the left side menu hides automatically based on a CSS media query: Another screenshot with a skinned popup opened: This is a sample application for you to play with - ideally you shouldn't use it as a starting point. On the left side bar you will find links rendered from a WebCenter Portal navigation model - the link triggers a full request through an af:goLink, while the light blue PPR button triggers a PPR navigation. The dark blue toolbar buttons at the top don't have any function,while the Approve and Reject buttons show a skinned popup. The search box of course doesn't have any behavior attahed to it either. There's a known issue right now with some PPR calls that are randomly generating a 403 error redirecting to the login page - I didn't have time to investigate if this is iOS6 specific or not - if you have any insights please let me know your findings. You can download the sample here.

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• Recover Deleted Files on an NTFS Hard Drive from a Ubuntu Live CD

  - by Trevor Bekolay

  Accidentally deleting a file is a terrible feeling. Not being able to boot into Windows and undelete that file makes that even worse. Fortunately, you can recover deleted files on NTFS hard drives from an Ubuntu Live CD. To show this process, we created four files on the desktop of a Windows XP machine, and then deleted them. We then booted up the same machine with the bootable Ubuntu 9.10 USB Flash Drive that we created last week. Once Ubuntu 9.10 boots up, open a terminal by clicking Applications in the top left of the screen, and then selecting Accessories > Terminal. To undelete our files, we first need to identify the hard drive that we want to undelete from. In the terminal window, type in: sudo fdisk –l and press enter. What you’re looking for is a line that ends with HPSF/NTFS (under the heading System). In our case, the device is “/dev/sda1”. This may be slightly different for you, but it will still begin with /dev/. Note this device name. If you have more than one hard drive partition formatted as NTFS, then you may be able to identify the correct partition by the size. If you look at the second line of text in the screenshot above, it reads “Disk /dev/sda: 136.4 GB, …” This means that the hard drive that Ubuntu has named /dev/sda is 136.4 GB large. If your hard drives are of different size, then this information can help you track down the right device name to use. Alternatively, you can just try them all, though this can be time consuming for large hard drives. Now that you know the name Ubuntu has assigned to your hard drive, we’ll scan it to see what files we can uncover. In the terminal window, type: sudo ntfsundelete <HD name> and hit enter. In our case, the command is: sudo ntfsundelete /dev/sda1 The names of files that can recovered show up in the far right column. The percentage in the third column tells us how much of that file can be recovered. Three of the four files that we originally deleted are showing up in this list, even though we shut down the computer right after deleting the four files – so even in ideal cases, your files may not be recoverable. Nevertheless, we have three files that we can recover – two JPGs and an MPG. Note: ntfsundelete is immediately available in the Ubuntu 9.10 Live CD. If you are in a different version of Ubuntu, or for some other reason get an error when trying to use ntfsundelete, you can install it by entering “sudo apt-get install ntfsprogs” in a terminal window. To quickly recover the two JPGs, we will use the * wildcard to recover all of the files that end with .jpg. In the terminal window, enter sudo ntfsundelete <HD name> –u –m *.jpg which is, in our case, sudo ntfsundelete /dev/sda1 –u –m *.jpg The two files are recovered from the NTFS hard drive and saved in the current working directory of the terminal. By default, this is the home directory of the current user, though we are working in the Desktop folder. Note that the ntfsundelete program does not make any changes to the original NTFS hard drive. If you want to take those files and put them back in the NTFS hard drive, you will have to move them there after they are undeleted with ntfsundelete. Of course, you can also put them on your flash drive or open Firefox and email them to yourself – the sky’s the limit! We have one more file to undelete – our MPG. Note the first column on the far left. It contains a number, its Inode. Think of this as the file’s unique identifier. Note this number. To undelete a file by its Inode, enter the following in the terminal: sudo ntfsundelete <HD name> –u –i <Inode> In our case, this is: sudo ntfsundelete /dev/sda1 –u –i 14159 This recovers the file, along with an identifier that we don’t really care about. All three of our recoverable files are now recovered. However, Ubuntu lets us know visually that we can’t use these files yet. That’s because the ntfsundelete program saves the files as the “root” user, not the “ubuntu” user. We can verify this by typing the following in our terminal window: ls –l We want these three files to be owned by ubuntu, not root. To do this, enter the following in the terminal window: sudo chown ubuntu <Files> If the current folder has other files in it, you may not want to change their owner to ubuntu. However, in our case, we only have these three files in this folder, so we will use the * wildcard to change the owner of all three files. sudo chown ubuntu * The files now look normal, and we can do whatever we want with them. Hopefully you won’t need to use this tip, but if you do, ntfsundelete is a nice command-line utility. It doesn’t have a fancy GUI like many of the similar Windows programs, but it is a powerful tool that can recover your files quickly. See ntfsundelete’s manual page for more detailed usage information Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Reset Your Ubuntu Password Easily from the Live CDUse Ubuntu Live CD to Backup Files from Your Dead Windows ComputerCreate a Bootable Ubuntu 9.10 USB Flash DriveCreate a Bootable Ubuntu USB Flash Drive the Easy WayGuide to Using Check Disk in Windows Vista TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Windows 7 Easter Theme YoWindoW, a real time weather screensaver Optimize your computer the Microsoft way Stormpulse provides slick, real time weather data Geek Parents – Did you try Parental Controls in Windows 7? 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• Refreshing Your PC Won’t Help: Why Bloatware is Still a Problem on Windows 8

  - by Chris Hoffman

  Bloatware is still a big problem on new Windows 8 and 8.1 PCs. Some websites will tell you that you can easily get rid of manufacturer-installed bloatware with Windows 8′s Reset feature, but they’re generally wrong. This junk software often turns the process of powering on your new PC from what could be a delightful experience into a tedious slog, forcing you to spend hours cleaning up your new PC before you can enjoy it. Why Refreshing Your PC (Probably) Won’t Help Manufacturers install software along with Windows on their new PCs. In addition to hardware drivers that allow the PC’s hardware to work properly, they install more questionable things like trial antivirus software and other nagware. Much of this software runs at boot, cluttering the system tray and slowing down boot times, often dramatically. Software companies pay computer manufacturers to include this stuff. It’s installed to make the PC manufacturer money at the cost of making the Windows computer worse for actual users. Windows 8 includes “Refresh Your PC” and “Reset Your PC” features that allow Windows users to quickly get their computers back to a fresh state. It’s essentially a quick, streamlined way of reinstalling Windows.  If you install Windows 8 or 8.1 yourself, the Refresh operation will give your PC a clean Windows system without any additional third-party software. However, Microsoft allows computer manufacturers to customize their Refresh images. In other words, most computer manufacturers will build their drivers, bloatware, and other system customizations into the Refresh image. When you Refresh your computer, you’ll just get back to the factory-provided system complete with bloatware. It’s possible that some computer manufacturers aren’t building bloatware into their refresh images in this way. It’s also possible that, when Windows 8 came out, some computer manufacturer didn’t realize they could do this and that refreshing a new PC would strip the bloatware. However, on most Windows 8 and 8.1 PCs, you’ll probably see bloatware come back when you refresh your PC. It’s easy to understand how PC manufacturers do this. You can create your own Refresh images on Windows 8 and 8.1 with just a simple command, replacing Microsoft’s image with a customized one. Manufacturers can install their own refresh images in the same way. Microsoft doesn’t lock down the Refresh feature. Desktop Bloatware is Still Around, Even on Tablets! Not only is typical Windows desktop bloatware not gone, it has tagged along with Windows as it moves to new form factors. Every Windows tablet currently on the market — aside from Microsoft’s own Surface and Surface 2 tablets — runs on a standard Intel x86 chip. This means that every Windows 8 and 8.1 tablet you see in stores has a full desktop with the capability to run desktop software. Even if that tablet doesn’t come with a keyboard, it’s likely that the manufacturer has preinstalled bloatware on the tablet’s desktop. Yes, that means that your Windows tablet will be slower to boot and have less memory because junk and nagging software will be on its desktop and in its system tray. Microsoft considers tablets to be PCs, and PC manufacturers love installing their bloatware. If you pick up a Windows tablet, don’t be surprised if you have to deal with desktop bloatware on it. Microsoft Surfaces and Signature PCs Microsoft is now selling their own Surface PCs that they built themselves — they’re now a “devices and services” company after all, not a software company. One of the nice things about Microsoft’s Surface PCs is that they’re free of the typical bloatware. Microsoft won’t take money from Norton to include nagging software that worsens the experience. If you pick up a Surface device that provides Windows 8.1 and 8 as Microsoft intended it — or install a fresh Windows 8.1 or 8 system — you won’t see any bloatware. Microsoft is also continuing their Signature program. New PCs purchased from Microsoft’s official stores are considered “Signature PCs” and don’t have the typical bloatware. For example, the same laptop could be full of bloatware in a traditional computer store and clean, without the nasty bloatware when purchased from a Microsoft Store. Microsoft will also continue to charge you $99 if you want them to remove your computer’s bloatware for you — that’s the more questionable part of the Signature program. Windows 8 App Bloatware is an Improvement There’s a new type of bloatware on new Windows 8 systems, which is thankfully less harmful. This is bloatware in the form of included “Windows 8-style”, “Store-style”, or “Modern” apps in the new, tiled interface. For example, Amazon may pay a computer manufacturer to include the Amazon Kindle app from the Windows Store. (The manufacturer may also just receive a cut of book sales for including it. We’re not sure how the revenue sharing works — but it’s clear PC manufacturers are getting money from Amazon.) The manufacturer will then install the Amazon Kindle app from the Windows Store by default. This included software is technically some amount of clutter, but it doesn’t cause the problems older types of bloatware does. It won’t automatically load and delay your computer’s startup process, clutter your system tray, or take up memory while you’re using your computer. For this reason, a shift to including new-style apps as bloatware is a definite improvement over older styles of bloatware. Unfortunately, this type of bloatware has not replaced traditional desktop bloatware, and new Windows PCs will generally have both. Windows RT is Immune to Typical Bloatware, But… Microsoft’s Windows RT can’t run Microsoft desktop software, so it’s immune to traditional bloatware. Just as you can’t install your own desktop programs on it, the Windows RT device’s manufacturer can’t install their own desktop bloatware. While Windows RT could be an antidote to bloatware, this advantage comes at the cost of being able to install any type of desktop software at all. Windows RT has also seemingly failed — while a variety of manufacturers came out with their own Windows RT devices when Windows 8 was first released, they’ve all since been withdrawn from the market. Manufacturers who created Windows RT devices have criticized it in the media and stated they have no plans to produce any future Windows RT devices. The only Windows RT devices still on the market are Microsoft’s Surface (originally named Surface RT) and Surface 2. Nokia is also coming out with their own Windows RT tablet, but they’re in the process of being purchased by Microsoft. In other words, Windows RT just isn’t a factor when it comes to bloatware — you wouldn’t get a Windows RT device unless you purchased a Surface, but those wouldn’t come with bloatware anyway. Removing Bloatware or Reinstalling Windows 8.1 While bloatware is still a problem on new Windows systems and the Refresh option probably won’t help you, you can still eliminate bloatware in the traditional way. Bloatware can be uninstalled from the Windows Control Panel or with a dedicated removal tool like PC Decrapifier, which tries to automatically uninstall the junk for you. You can also do what Windows geeks have always tended to do with new computers — reinstall Windows 8 or 8.1 from scratch with installation media from Microsoft. You’ll get a clean Windows system and you can install only the hardware drivers and other software you need. Unfortunately, bloatware is still a big problem for Windows PCs. Windows 8 tries to do some things to address bloatware, but it ultimately comes up short. Most Windows PCs sold in most stores to most people will still have the typical bloatware slowing down the boot process, wasting memory, and adding clutter. Image Credit: LG on Flickr, Intel Free Press on Flickr, Wilson Hui on Flickr, Intel Free Press on Flickr, Vernon Chan on Flickr     

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• What is New in ASP.NET 4 Web Development Overview

  - by Aamir Hasan

   Microsoft Recently Microsoft introduce Visual  studio 2010 which have new feature's Name of some new Features are given below. In ASP.NET 4.O has focus on performance and Search Engine Optimization. I'll be taking a look at what I think are the most important new features in ASP.NET 4.Output cache extensibility Session state compression View state mode for individual control Page.MetaKeyword and Page.MetaDescription properties Response.RedirectPermanent method Routing in ASP.NET Increase the URL character length New syntax for Html Encode Predictable Client IDs Web.config file refactoring Auto-Start ASP.NET applications Improvements on Microsoft Ajax LibraryReference:ASP.NET 4 and Visual Studio 2010 Web Development Overview 

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• ASP.NET 4 Unleashed in Bookstores!

  - by Stephen Walther

  I’m happy to announce that ASP.NET 4 Unleashed is now in bookstores! The book is over 1,800 pages and it is packed with code samples and tutorials on all the features of ASP.NET 4. Given the size of the book – did I mention that it is over 1,800 pages? -- I can safely say that it is the most comprehensive book on ASP.NET  This edition of the book has several new chapters written by Kevin Hoffman and Nate Dudek. Kevin and Nate did a fantastic job of covering the new features of ASP.NET 4 including: The new ASP.NET Chart Control The new ASP.NET QueryExtender Control The new ASP.NET routing framework jQuery You can buy the book from your local bookstore or buy the book from Amazon:

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• ¿Como puedo instalar Age of Mythology en Ubuntu? - How I can install Age of Mythology on Ubuntu?

  - by edgarsalguero93

  Spanish: Tengo un problema al tratar de instalar Age of Mythology Gold Edition (v 1.03). Al iniciarle con el Wine (1.3.28) en mi Ubuntu 11.10, y después de ingresar el serial y pulsar Siguiente, me sale un error "No se puede cargar PidGen.dll", y se regresa a la ventana anterior. En Configurar Wine, y en la pestaña Librerías le añadí el archivo DLL que me pide pero todo sigue igual. He intentado todo para que se instale pero no funciona. También he intentado instalarlo en una maquina virtual de VMware Workstation 8.0.1 con Microsoft Windows XP SP3 y me sale un error de compatibilidad con la tarjeta de vídeo: "Tarjeta de vídeo 0: vmx_fb.dll VMware SVGA II Vendor(0x15AD) Device(0x405)" y se cierra el Age of Mythology. Me parece que la solución en este caso seria aumentar la cantidad de vídeo que pone a disposición el VMware a la maquina virtual o un driver para esta tarjeta, pero no se como hacer eso. O tal vez alguien sabe la manera de que mi tarjeta de vídeo que tiene mi computadora se use también para VMware o destinar parte de la memoria del vídeo a la maquina virtual. He buscado en varios sitios, pero ninguno soluciona mi problema. Por favor, si alguien ya encontró la respuesta, que responda a esta pregunta, y de antemano gracias. English: I have a problem trying to install Age of Mythology Gold Edition (v 1.03). At the beginning of the Wine (1.3.28) on my Ubuntu 11.10, and after entering the serial and click Next, I get an error "Unable to load pidgen.dll" and return to the previous window. In Configure Wine and in the Libraries tab I added the DLL that calls me but nothing has changed. I tried everything to be installed but not working. I have also tried to install in a virtual machine with VMware Workstation 8.0.1 Microsoft Windows XP SP3 and I get a compatibility error with video card: "Video Card 0: VMware SVGA II vmx_fb.dll Vendor (0x15AD) Device (0x405) "and closes the Age of Mythology. I think the solution in this case would increase the amount of video available to the VMware virtual machine or a driver for this card, but not how to do that. Or maybe someone knows the way that my video card that has my computer is also used for VMware or earmark part of the video memory to the virtual machine. I searched several sites, but none solved my problem. Please, if someone already found the answer, to answer this question. I also apologize if the translation is not well understood. I used the Google translator. Thanks and greetings from Latin America

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• How to delete/edit files from readonly filesystem

  - by Santosh Linkha

  I am having problem with my memory device (actually a memory card that act external memory device like pendrive). experimentx@workmateX:/var/www/zendtest$ sudo rm /media/A88F-8788/python-2.7.1-docs-html.zip rm: cannot remove `/media/A88F-8788/python-2.7.1-docs-html.zip': Read-only file system I tried to change the file permission of the system but that doesn't work experimentx@workmateX:/var/www/zendtest$ sudo chmod 0777 /media/A88F-8788/python-2.7.1-docs-html.zip chmod: changing permissions of `/media/A88F-8788/python-2.7.1-docs-html.zip': Read-only file system But it perfectly works on windows. UPDATE On opening the drive and running command sudo mount -o remount,rw /media/A88F-8788 /var/log/syslog: Mar 23 15:29:48 workmateX kernel: [18042.257407] fat_get_cluster: 11 callbacks suppressed Mar 23 15:29:48 workmateX kernel: [18042.257414] FAT: Filesystem error (dev sdb1) Mar 23 15:29:48 workmateX kernel: [18042.257418] fat_get_cluster: invalid cluster chain (i_pos 0) Mar 23 15:29:48 workmateX kernel: [18042.257425] FAT: Filesystem has been set read-only Mar 23 15:29:48 workmateX kernel: [18042.258187] FAT: Filesystem error (dev sdb1) Mar 23 15:29:48 workmateX kernel: [18042.258194] fat_get_cluster: invalid cluster chain (i_pos 0) Mar 23 15:31:35 workmateX kernel: [18149.333787] FAT: Filesystem error (dev sdb1) Mar 23 15:31:35 workmateX kernel: [18149.333795] fat_get_cluster: invalid cluster chain (i_pos 0) Mar 23 15:31:35 workmateX kernel: [18149.335949] FAT: Filesystem error (dev sdb1) Mar 23 15:31:35 workmateX kernel: [18149.335957] fat_get_cluster: invalid cluster chain (i_pos 0) Mar 23 15:31:35 workmateX kernel: [18149.354903] FAT: Filesystem error (dev sdb1) Mar 23 15:31:35 workmateX kernel: [18149.354911] fat_get_cluster: invalid cluster chain (i_pos 0) Mar 23 15:31:35 workmateX kernel: [18149.357213] FAT: Filesystem error (dev sdb1) Mar 23 15:31:35 workmateX kernel: [18149.357221] fat_get_cluster: invalid cluster chain (i_pos 0) Mar 23 15:31:35 workmateX kernel: [18149.359547] FAT: Filesystem error (dev sdb1) Mar 23 15:31:35 workmateX kernel: [18149.359555] fat_get_cluster: invalid cluster chain (i_pos 0) Mar 23 15:31:35 workmateX kernel: [18149.361929] FAT: Filesystem error (dev sdb1) Mar 23 15:31:35 workmateX kernel: [18149.361936] fat_get_cluster: invalid cluster chain (i_pos 0) Mar 23 15:31:35 workmateX kernel: [18149.377416] FAT: Filesystem error (dev sdb1) Mar 23 15:31:35 workmateX kernel: [18149.377424] fat_get_cluster: invalid cluster chain (i_pos 0) Mar 23 15:31:35 workmateX kernel: [18149.379384] FAT: Filesystem error (dev sdb1) Mar 23 15:31:35 workmateX kernel: [18149.379392] fat_get_cluster: invalid cluster chain (i_pos 0) Mar 23 15:31:35 workmateX kernel: [18149.381898] FAT: Filesystem error (dev sdb1) Mar 23 15:31:35 workmateX kernel: [18149.381906] fat_get_cluster: invalid cluster chain (i_pos 0) Mar 23 15:31:35 workmateX kernel: [18149.383764] FAT: Filesystem error (dev sdb1) Mar 23 15:31:35 workmateX kernel: [18149.383772] fat_get_cluster: invalid cluster chain (i_pos 0) Mar 23 15:31:40 workmateX kernel: [18154.569747] fat_get_cluster: 11 callbacks suppressed Mar 23 15:31:40 workmateX kernel: [18154.569754] FAT: Filesystem error (dev sdb1) Mar 23 15:31:40 workmateX kernel: [18154.569758] fat_get_cluster: invalid cluster chain (i_pos 0) Mar 23 15:31:40 workmateX kernel: [18154.569765] FAT: Filesystem has been set read-only Mar 23 15:31:40 workmateX kernel: [18154.572022] FAT: Filesystem error (dev sdb1) Mar 23 15:31:40 workmateX kernel: [18154.572029] fat_get_cluster: invalid cluster chain (i_pos 0) Mar 23 15:31:40 workmateX kernel: [18154.582933] FAT: Filesystem error (dev sdb1) Mar 23 15:31:40 workmateX kernel: [18154.582941] fat_get_cluster: invalid cluster chain (i_pos 0) Mar 23 15:31:40 workmateX kernel: [18154.585921] FAT: Filesystem error (dev sdb1) Mar 23 15:31:40 workmateX kernel: [18154.585929] fat_get_cluster: invalid cluster chain (i_pos 0) Mar 23 15:31:40 workmateX kernel: [18154.587819] FAT: Filesystem error (dev sdb1) Mar 23 15:31:40 workmateX kernel: [18154.587827] fat_get_cluster: invalid cluster chain (i_pos 0) Mar 23 15:31:40 workmateX kernel: [18154.597547] FAT: Filesystem error (dev sdb1) Mar 23 15:31:40 workmateX kernel: [18154.597555] fat_get_cluster: invalid cluster chain (i_pos 0) Mar 23 15:31:40 workmateX kernel: [18154.599503] FAT: Filesystem error (dev sdb1) Mar 23 15:31:40 workmateX kernel: [18154.599511] fat_get_cluster: invalid cluster chain (i_pos 0) Mar 23 15:31:40 workmateX kernel: [18154.602896] FAT: Filesystem error (dev sdb1) Mar 23 15:31:40 workmateX kernel: [18154.602905] fat_get_cluster: invalid cluster chain (i_pos 0) Mar 23 15:31:40 workmateX kernel: [18154.615338] FAT: Filesystem error (dev sdb1) Mar 23 15:31:40 workmateX kernel: [18154.615346] fat_get_cluster: invalid cluster chain (i_pos 0) Mar 23 15:31:40 workmateX kernel: [18154.618574] FAT: Filesystem error (dev sdb1) Mar 23 15:31:40 workmateX kernel: [18154.618581] fat_get_cluster: invalid cluster chain (i_pos 0) var/log/message: Mar 23 15:29:48 workmateX kernel: [18042.257407] fat_get_cluster: 11 callbacks suppressed Mar 23 15:31:40 workmateX kernel: [18154.569747] fat_get_cluster: 11 callbacks suppressed

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• Gnome Shell segfault in libglib-2.0

  - by slohui

  I have been using Ubuntu 11.10 + Gnome Shell with a Nvidia card, but now I've moved it to my new PC which has an ATI card, at first it wasn't booting but I installed the driver from amd.com and then it worked. Anyway my problem is that gnome-shell is crashing, mostly when I try to start a VirtualBox machine (it happened in other times but I don't remember what I was doing). Sometimes gnome-shell respawns and it continue working but sometimes it doesn't so I have to restart lightdm and lose all the windows I was using. Here's some of the syslog when the crash occurs: Apr 9 12:20:08 desktop-1 NetworkManager[1032]: SCPlugin-Ifupdown: devices added (path: /sys/devices/virtual/net/vboxnet0, iface: vboxnet0) Apr 9 12:20:08 desktop-1 NetworkManager[1032]: SCPlugin-Ifupdown: device added (path: /sys/devices/virtual/net/vboxnet0, iface: vboxnet0): no ifupdown configuration found. Apr 9 12:20:08 desktop-1 NetworkManager[1032]: <warn> /sys/devices/virtual/net/vboxnet0: couldn't determine device driver; ignoring... Apr 9 12:20:08 desktop-1 kernel: [ 4498.689561] warning: `VirtualBox' uses 32-bit capabilities (legacy support in use) Apr 9 12:24:29 desktop-1 gnome-session[1617]: WARNING: Application 'gnome-shell.desktop' killed by signal Apr 9 12:24:45 desktop-1 gnome-session[1617]: WARNING: App 'gnome-shell.desktop' respawning too quickly Apr 9 12:24:45 desktop-1 gnome-session[1617]: CRITICAL: We failed, but the fail whale is dead. Sorry.... Apr 9 12:25:20 desktop-1 kernel: [ 4810.769775] show_signal_msg: 30 callbacks suppressed |----- > Apr 9 12:25:20 desktop-1 kernel: [ 4810.769785] gnome-shell[3427]: segfault at b0 ip b6bd09cd sp bfc9b650 error 4 in libglib-2.0.so.0.3000.0[b6b71000+f7000]** Apr 9 12:25:20 desktop-1 gnome-session[1617]: WARNING: Application 'gnome-shell.desktop' killed by signal Apr 9 12:25:23 desktop-1 kernel: [ 4814.055705] EXT4-fs (sda1): Unaligned AIO/DIO on inode 133295 by VirtualBox; performance will be poor. Apr 9 12:26:55 desktop-1 gnome-session[1617]: Gdk-WARNING: gnome-session: Fatal IO error 11 (Resource temporarily unavailable) on X server :0.#012 Apr 9 12:26:55 desktop-1 kernel: [ 4905.373256] [fglrx] IRQ 56 Disabled Apr 9 12:26:59 desktop-1 acpid: client 1124[0:0] has disconnected Apr 9 12:26:59 desktop-1 acpid: client connected from 3864[0:0] Apr 9 12:26:59 desktop-1 acpid: 1 client rule loaded Apr 9 12:26:59 desktop-1 kernel: [ 4909.700095] fglrx_pci 0000:02:00.0: irq 56 for MSI/MSI-X Apr 9 12:26:59 desktop-1 kernel: [ 4909.701466] [fglrx] Firegl kernel thread PID: 3867 Apr 9 12:26:59 desktop-1 kernel: [ 4909.701625] [fglrx] Firegl kernel thread PID: 3868 Apr 9 12:26:59 desktop-1 kernel: [ 4909.701852] [fglrx] Firegl kernel thread PID: 3869 Apr 9 12:26:59 desktop-1 kernel: [ 4909.702021] [fglrx] IRQ 56 Enabled Apr 9 12:26:59 desktop-1 kernel: [ 4909.861815] [fglrx] Gart USWC size:1280 M. Apr 9 12:26:59 desktop-1 kernel: [ 4909.861817] [fglrx] Gart cacheable size:508 M. Apr 9 12:26:59 desktop-1 kernel: [ 4909.861820] [fglrx] Reserved FB block: Shared offset:0, size:1000000 Apr 9 12:26:59 desktop-1 kernel: [ 4909.861821] [fglrx] Reserved FB block: Unshared offset:f8fd000, size:403000 Apr 9 12:26:59 desktop-1 kernel: [ 4909.861823] [fglrx] Reserved FB block: Unshared offset:3fff4000, size:c000 Does anyone could guide me on how to fix this? Or the proper place where to ask for help.

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• Error after sudo-ing "sudo: must be setuid root"

  - by Kaustubh P

  On a colleagues computer, everytime I use a sudo command, I get this error: sudo: must be setuid root I tried various things mentioned on the internet, like changing the permissions to 4755 from a live cd, but even this command from a live-cd sudo chmod 4755 /media/device/usr/bin/sudo gives the same error. EDIT: The colleague told me that he executed this command, god knows why :/ sudo chmod -R 777 / or sudo chmod -R 777 He isnt exactly sure.

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• MVC Architecture

  Model-View-Controller (MVC) is an architectural design pattern first written about and implemented by  in 1978. Trygve developed this pattern during the year he spent working with Xerox PARC on a small talk application. According to Trygve, “The essential purpose of MVC is to bridge the gap between the human user's mental model and the digital model that exists in the computer. The ideal MVC solution supports the user illusion of seeing and manipulating the domain information directly. The structure is useful if the user needs to see the same model element simultaneously in different contexts and/or from different viewpoints.”  Trygve Reenskaug on MVC The MVC pattern is composed of 3 core components. Model View Controller The Model component referenced in the MVC pattern pertains to the encapsulation of core application data and functionality. The primary goal of the model is to maintain its independence from the View and Controller components which together form the user interface of the application. The View component retrieves data from the Model and displays it to the user. The View component represents the output of the application to the user. Traditionally the View has read-only access to the Model component because it should not change the Model’s data. The Controller component receives and translates input to requests on the Model or View components. The Controller is responsible for requesting methods on the model that can change the state of the model. The primary benefit to using MVC as an architectural pattern in a project compared to other patterns is flexibility. The flexibility of MVC is due to the distinct separation of concerns it establishes with three distinct components.  Because of the distinct separation between the components interaction is limited through the use of interfaces instead of classes. This allows each of the components to be hot swappable when the needs of the application change or needs of availability change. MVC can easily be applied to C# and the .Net Framework. In fact, Microsoft created a MVC project template that will allow new project of this type to be created with the standard MVC structure in place before any coding begins. The project also creates folders for the three key components along with default Model, View and Controller classed added to the project. Personally I think that MVC is a great pattern in regards to dealing with web applications because they could be viewed from a myriad of devices. Examples of devices include: standard web browsers, text only web browsers, mobile phones, smart phones, IPads, IPhones just to get started. Due to the potentially increasing accessibility needs and the ability for components to be hot swappable is a perfect fit because the core functionality of the application can be retained and the View component can be altered based on the client’s environment and the View component could be swapped out based on the calling device so that the display is targeted to that specific device.

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• SCALE 8x: Color management for everyone

  <b>LWN.net:</b> "Color management is sometimes unfairly characterized as a topic of interest only to print shops and video editors, but as Cruz explained at the top of his talk, anyone who shares digital content wants it to look correct, and everyone who uses more than one device knows how tricky that can be."

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• Silverlight Cream for March 15, 2011 -- #1061

  - by Dave Campbell

  In this Issue: Peter Kuhn, Emil Stoychev, Viktor Larsson(-2-), Kevin Hoffman, Rudi Grobler, WindowsPhoneGeek, Jesse Liberty(-2-), and Martin Krüger. Above the Fold: Silverlight: "Image comparison using a GridSplitter" Martin Krüger WP7: "Using WP7 accent color effectively" Viktor Larsson XNA: "XNA for Silverlight developers: Part 7 - Collision detection" Peter Kuhn From SilverlightCream.com: XNA for Silverlight developers: Part 7 - Collision detection Peter Kuhn has part 7 of his XNA for Silverlight devs tutorial series up at SilverlightShow... discussing Collision detection... something you need to get your head around if you're going to do a game. Interview with John Papa about the upcoming MIX11 event and the Open Source Fest Emil Stoychev of SilverlightShow reverses the roles with John Papa and interviews John on this MIX11 and Open Source Fest discussion they had at the MVP Summit Debugging Videos or Camera in WP7 Viktor Larsson has a quick post up on the 3 ways of debugging a WP7 app and why and under what circumstances you should change debug method. Using WP7 accent color effectively Viktor Larsson's next post is about the 10 accent colors available on WP7 devices. He shows how to make best use of that capability in XAML and runtime code. WP7 for iPhone and Android Developers - Hardware and Device Services Kevin Hoffman's part 4 of a 12-part tutorial series at SilverlightShow on WP7 for iPhone/Android devs is up ... this oe concentrates on Hardware and Device Services... Launchers/Choosers/Sensors. How to publish WP7 applications if you live in the Middle-east & Africa region Rudi Grobler has a short post up on a legit way to publish WP7 apps if you are in the MEA region. Creating WP7 Custom Theme – Sample Theme Implementation WindowsPhoneGeek has a new post up and he's starting a series of 3 articles on Creating Wp7 Custom Themes... first up is this tutorial on Basic Theme Implementation... and use it as well. From Android to Windows Phone For "Windows Phone from Scratch #43", Jesse Liberty begins a series on moving apps from Android to WP7, beginning with a tip calculating program. Yet Another Podcast #28–Jeremy Likness Jesse Liberty's next post is his "Yet Another Podcast #28" with Jeremy Likness this time around... the list of all things fun that Jeremy's involved in is getting long... should be a good podcast! Image comparison using a GridSplitter Martin Krüger posted a cool 'Clip Splitter' for comparing images, and what a great set of example images he's using... pretty darn cool lining them up with a grid-splitter. Stay in the 'Light! Twitter SilverlightNews | Twitter WynApse | WynApse.com | Tagged Posts | SilverlightCream Join me @ SilverlightCream | Phoenix Silverlight User Group Technorati Tags: Silverlight    Silverlight 3    Silverlight 4    Windows Phone MIX10

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• A Review: Ben NanoNote Gets Small with Embedded Linux

  <b>Linux.com:</b> "Qi Hardware is now shipping its first "copyleft hardware" device, the ultra-portable Ben NanoNote. The palm-sized notebook is designed to be a hackable hardware platform for Linux developers, akin to what the Arduino board is for electronics projects."

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• Integrating OSB - B2B for a healthcare scenario

  - by Ramesh Nittur

  Usecase 1: Admin to send a HL7 Message to Pharmacy. OSB to use B2B for translating the XML document to HL7 native document using the translation webservice exposed by B2B. B2B configuration Oracle B2B 11g PS2 release has exposed a webservices to translate XML document to Native document. This service needs an outbound agreement configured with "HL7 Message Facility ID" as the Identifier. Document Type and revision can be identified from the document itself. B2B translation webservice can be used in two mode, one for only translation and another for translation and routing. OSB-B2B Integration sample are developed based on the "b2b-005-hl7" sample in OTN. We are not going to discuss about the b2b metadata configuration creation details, as it is dealt detail in OTN sample document. OSB Configuration Steps to create OSB Configuration sample: Create a OSB Project with name OSB-B2B Create BusinessService with name B2BBusinessService to consume B2B TranslateService URL http://<host:8001>/b2b/services/ TranslateService

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• Google I/O 2010 - Fireside chat w/ Android handset partners

  Google I/O 2010 - Fireside chat w/ Android handset partners Google I/O 2010 - Fireside chat with Android handset manufacturers Fireside Chats, Android Lori Fraleigh (Motorola), Bill Maggs (Sony Ericsson), Joon Kang (LGE), Ciaran Rochford (Samsung), Eric Chu (Google; moderator) Come join us for a fireside chat with the top Android handset manufacturers. Hear about the types of devices being planned for 2010 and get your device-specific questions answered. For all I/O 2010 sessions, please go to code.google.com From: GoogleDevelopers Views: 8 0 ratings Time: 01:02:57 More in Science & Technology

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• How do I get the Apple Wireless Keyboard Working in 10.10?

  - by Jamie

  So I've gone and bought a Magic Mouse and Apple Wireless Non-Numeric Keyboard. The magic mouse worked out-of-the-box almost perfectly, except for the forward/back gesture which still isn't functioning, whereas the keyboard didn't. It has constant trouble with the bluetooth connection. Only the 7, 8 and 9 buttons and volume media keys correspond correctly with the output. Pressing every single key on keyboard has this output: 789/=456*123-0.+ When I use Blueman the keyboard can be setup and shows up in "Devices" but I get a warning when I click "Setup"; "Device added successfully, but failed to connect" (although removing the keyboard and setting it up as a new device doesn't incur this error). Using gnome-bluetooth I have encountered no error messages but it connects properly less often than Blueman and I can still only type the aforementioned output. What am I not doing? Where is this going wrong? EDIT: I have read this http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=224673 inside out several times to no avail. It seems these commands don't work for me with the apple peripherals sudo hidd --search hcitool scan Fortunately I have the luxury of a 1TB hard drive, near limitless patience and no job. I have installed a fresh Ubuntu 10.10 64bit (albeit smaller than mine) and after updating and restarting for the first time, I set up my devices in exactly the same way as I have learnt on my original install I succeeded once again with the mouse and, to my joy, with the keyboard also. Though I could not seem to find Alt+F2 and had to reconfigure that and several other keyboard shortcuts, the keyboard is working and in a spectacular fashion. Still, this leaves me with the issue of my original install. I returned to it with some new found knowledge but failed again. Perhaps I have a missing dependancy? I did uninstall bluetooth after the initial set up and reinstalled it recently for the pupose of these peripherals. Maybe it's because I'm running 64bit? This is still not solved, but easily avoided by not changing too much from the original install. Just hide stuff or turn it off, don't uninstall too much.

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• From the Tips Box: Monitoring Android Battery Use, DIY Camera Stabilizers, and Decluttering Pages in Chrome

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Once a week we round up some of the tips and tricks you mail in and share them with everyone. This week we’re looking at monitoring your Android device’s battery, DIY camera stabilizers, and a handy Chrome tool for tidying up web pages. HTG Explains: How Antivirus Software Works HTG Explains: Why Deleted Files Can Be Recovered and How You Can Prevent It HTG Explains: What Are the Sys Rq, Scroll Lock, and Pause/Break Keys on My Keyboard?

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• Bluetooth light not turned on and bluetooth also not working on vostro 1014

  - by Dinesh Kumar

  after running following command dmesg | grep -i bluetooth [ 17.106250] Bluetooth: Core ver 2.16 [ 17.107845] Bluetooth: HCI device and connection manager initialized [ 17.107847] Bluetooth: HCI socket layer initialized [ 17.107849] Bluetooth: L2CAP socket layer initialized [ 17.107857] Bluetooth: SCO socket layer initialized [ 18.853255] Bluetooth: BNEP (Ethernet Emulation) ver 1.3 [ 18.853260] Bluetooth: BNEP filters: protocol multicast [ 18.859350] Bluetooth: RFCOMM TTY layer initialized [ 18.859355] Bluetooth: RFCOMM socket layer initialized [ 18.859357] Bluetooth: RFCOMM ver 1.11 [14998.338293] init: bluetooth main process ended, respawning

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• Virtualization: An easy way to kill Apple's HTC lawsuit

  <b>Tech Broiler:</b> "Intel's Wind River Hypervisor and technologies like it could usher in a new age of Device-agnostic Smartphone Operating Systems and unprecedented customer choice"

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• Python PyBluez loses Bluetooth connection after a while

  - by Travis G.

  I am using Python to write a simple serial Bluetooth script that sends information about my computer stats periodically. The receiving device is a Sparkfun BlueSmirf Silver. The problem is that, after the script runs for a few minutes, it stops sending packets to the receiver and fails with the error: (11, 'Resource temporarily unavailable') Noticing that this inevitably happens, I added some code to automatically try to reopen the connection. However, then I get: Could not connect: (16, 'Device or resource busy') Am I doing something wrong with the connection? Do I need to occasionally reopen the socket? I'm not sure how to recover from this type of error. I understand that sometimes the port will be busy and a write operation is deferred to avoid blocking other processes, but I wouldn't expect the connection to fail so regularly. Any thoughts? Here is the script: import psutil import serial import string import time import bluetooth sampleTime = 1 numSamples = 5 lastTemp = 0 TEMP_CHAR = 't' USAGE_CHAR = 'u' SENSOR_NAME = 'TC0D' #gauges = serial.Serial() #gauges.port = '/dev/rfcomm0' #gauges.baudrate = 9600 #gauges.parity = 'N' #gauges.writeTimeout = 0 #gauges.open() filename = '/sys/bus/platform/devices/applesmc.768/temp2_input' def parseSensorsOutputLinux(output): return int(round(float(output) / 1000)) def connect(): while(True): try: gaugeSocket = bluetooth.BluetoothSocket(bluetooth.RFCOMM) gaugeSocket.connect(('00:06:66:42:22:96', 1)) break; except bluetooth.btcommon.BluetoothError as error: print "Could not connect: ", error, "; Retrying in 5s..." time.sleep(5) return gaugeSocket; gaugeSocket = connect() while(1): usage = psutil.cpu_percent(interval=sampleTime) sensorFile = open(filename) temp = parseSensorsOutputLinux(sensorFile.read()) try: #gauges.write(USAGE_CHAR) gaugeSocket.send(USAGE_CHAR) #gauges.write(chr(int(usage))) #write the first byte gaugeSocket.send(chr(int(usage))) #print("Wrote usage: " + str(int(usage))) #gauges.write(TEMP_CHAR) gaugeSocket.send(TEMP_CHAR) #gauges.write(chr(temp)) gaugeSocket.send(chr(temp)) #print("Wrote temp: " + str(temp)) except bluetooth.btcommon.BluetoothError as error: print "Caught BluetoothError: ", error time.sleep(5) gaugeSocket = connect() pass gaugeSocket.close() EDIT: I should add that this code connects fine after I power-cycle the receiver and start the script. However, it fails after the first exception until I restart the receiver. P.S. This is related to my recent question, Why is /dev/rfcomm0 giving PySerial problems?, but that was more about PySerial specifically with rfcomm0. Here I am asking about general rfcomm etiquette.

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• Apple iPad 2 In April, iPhone 5 in June With New Hardware[Rumours]

  - by Gopinath

  Blogs and news sites are buzzing with the rumours of Apple’s next generation iPad and iPhone devices. These rumours interests the bloggers, geeks and end users of Apple devices as Apple maintains very tight lip on the new features of their upcoming products. The gadget blog Engadget has some very interesting rumours on the release of iPad 2 & iPhone 5 as well the new hardware they are going to have. Lets get into the details if you love to read the rumours of high profile blogs iPad 2 Release Date and Specs Apple seems to be all set to release iPad 2 in April, that is almost an year after the release of first iPad. It’s common for Apple to enjoy an one year long time to release a new version of their products. So if at all the rumours are to be believed, I can place an order of iPad 2 in April. Just like many of you out there, I’m also holding my iPad buying instinct and waiting for iPad 2 as it’s going to have at the minimum retina display,  Facetime features and few game changing features in Apple’s style. The report claims, iPad 2 will have a front and back cameras retina display SD Card slot (seems to be no USB) a dual GSM / CDMA chipset, that lets you use it with both GSM(AT &T, Airte) and CDMA(Verizon, Reliance) telecom providers iPhone 5 Release Date and Specs When it comes to iPhone 5 information, the rumour claims that the new iPhone is a completed redesigned device and it’s slated to release in summer of United States(i.e. June 2011). The device is also being tested by senior Apple executives right inside the campus and strictly not allowed to carry it outside. This restriction is to make sure that iPhone 5 will not land land up in a bar and then in the hands of geek blogs like how it happened with iPhone 4 last year. When it comes to the hardware of iPhone 5 Apple’s new A5 CPU (a Cortex A9-based, multi-core chip) a dual GSM / CDMA chipset, that lets you use it with both GSM(AT &T, Airte) and CDMA(Verizon, Reliance) telecom providers via Engadget and cc image credit flickr/mr-blixt This article titled,Apple iPad 2 In April, iPhone 5 in June With New Hardware[Rumours], was originally published at Tech Dreams. Grab our rss feed or fan us on Facebook to get updates from us.

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