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• ubuntu precise high hard drive I/O

  - by pavolzetor

  on ubuntu precise, all apps starts slowly, and my hard drive is all time in use. What is the cause? it was never before, even nautilus takes a lot time to load, boot is also slower. top - 18:37:05 up 1:07, 1 user, load average: 2.03, 2.34, 2.25 Tasks: 182 total, 1 running, 180 sleeping, 0 stopped, 1 zombie Cpu(s): 30.2%us, 7.2%sy, 1.4%ni, 53.9%id, 7.1%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.2%si, 0.0%st Mem: 3941576k total, 3522048k used, 419528k free, 50156k buffers Swap: 0k total, 0k used, 0k free, 1827640k cached PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 2508 pk 20 0 1018m 189m 28m S 4 4.9 22:28.04 plugin-containe 1290 root 20 0 82336 16m 1492 S 2 0.4 0:04.41 landscape-clien 1305 root 20 0 97280 22m 5584 S 2 0.6 0:01.57 landscape-manag 4201 pk 20 0 17328 1312 924 R 2 0.0 0:00.02 top 1 root 20 0 24436 2364 1268 S 0 0.1 0:00.68 init 2 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kthreadd 3 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.45 ksoftirqd/0 6 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/0 7 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.02 watchdog/0 8 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/1 10 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.43 ksoftirqd/1 12 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.01 watchdog/1 13 root 0 -20 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 cpuset

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• When and how does one become a good programmer these days? [closed]

  - by YoungMoney

  I mean, good enough to make software people want and get paid for it. Maybe even good enough to launch a company or something. I'm also concerned that I'm not applying the finer points of my algorithms/data structures/software design knowledge. Background: I'm 20 and have been struggling with programming for about two years now, trying to become a software engineer. I started with a few university courses that I did quite poorly in. I learned how to make websites with HTML/JavaScript and PHP/MySQL, but feel like I know very relevant theory for making good databases - how does something like Facebook serve hundreds of millions of people? What would be smart ways to store data? I don't know. Now I'm doing some android application development, but again I have no idea about good Java design theory (I use static variables like they're going out of fashion) and feel more like I'm gluing stuff together and letting Eclipse slowly autocomplete my project. In short, I'm not sure if I'm becoming a legitimate software developer or just "doing what's cool". At least I've taken some data structures and Algorithms courses and plan to take more in the next years. But I'm having a really tough time applying this stuff to my fun little apps that I'm building. Every language higher level than C++ seems to have its own quicksort function already built-in, for example. Similarly, I can't remember ever needing to implement a linked-list, heap, binary tree, or or worry about pointers and memory management. But maybe this is a good thing so that I focus on other things? I'm not too sure what those other things are though. Hopefully something more than building another photo sharing app. Anyways that's it for me, I look forward to your responses!

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• Looking for some advice on the next steps to take [closed]

  - by mopsyd

  I am looking for some advice on the next step to take in development of my programming skills. I was directed here when asking this question on Stack Overflow. What I know already Have a solid grasp of xhtml, xml, php, javascript, MySQL, actionscript. Have a working knowledge of vb, and have a slight grasp of java from tinkering with a minecraft server. Some brief exposure to the Unreal Engine in college. Some skills with sql server, ms sql, office integration, etc. Also some knowledge of Asterix and PBX/VOIP. Been coding off and on since the age of 8 but I have no computer science education aside from what I have taught myself or learned from work/freelance. I work in OSX mostly, but can use/troubleshoot windows and ubuntu fluently also. Decent with both UNIX and DOS CLI. What I'm considering I'm looking to learn a scripting language to build web apps, help streamline my home server that I am building and run shell scripts. Being able to help code games later is a big plus. My Question Between java, ruby, perl, and python, which would be the best investment of my time considering what I already know and what direction I would like to take my skillset? What are good resources for your suggested direction? Thanks in advance.

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• Problem video nvidia ubuntu 12.04

  - by dragonov7

  I just did a fresh install of ubuntu 12.04 on my PC (Dell precision 370) but the video is not working as it should. Problems: When I log in to unity 3D I get a transparent bar (where the firefox, libre office, etc icons are) but I can see the tooltips when I put my mouse over where the icons are, I can see the top toolbar with no problem and I see just white on the rest of the desktop! When I log in using unity 2D I see the left bar cut in half (so I can't see the trash icon that is at the botton), the toolbar at the top shows OK and the desktop show OK but with some apps. For example, if I open a terminal and maximize it, it will only show just where the left toolbar "cuts". But if I open firefox it will open fine. Config: My PC comes with a nvidia quadro nvs 280 and I see that by default ubuntu is using the nouveau driver. Workarounds tried: I tried uninstalling the nouveau driver and the desktop works fine but I can use only unity 2D. I tried installing the nvidia-173 drivers using synaptic but I get "Could not apply changes! Fix broken packages first". I go to "Edit - Fix Broken packages" and I get the error: "E: Unable to correct problem, you have held broken packages.E: Error, PkgProblemResolver::Resolve generated breakes, this may be caused by held packages.E:Unable to correct dependencies" Output of lspci: 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation NV37GL [Quadro PCI-E Series] (rev a2) Any idea so as to what I should do? Thanks in advance for any help. PS: Ah, the nvidia-173 driver was working fine on ubuntu 10.04.

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• HttpWebRequest: How to find a postal code at Canada Post through a WebRequest with x-www-form-enclos

  - by Will Marcouiller

  I'm currently writing some tests so that I may improve my skills with the Internet interaction through Windows Forms. One of those tests is to find a postal code which should be returned by Canada Post website. My default URL setting is set to: http://www.canadapost.ca/cpotools/apps/fpc/personal/findByCity?execution=e4s1 The required form fields are: streetNumber, streetName, city, province The contentType is "application/x-www-form-enclosed" EDIT: Please consider the value "application/x-www-form-encoded" instead of point 3 value as the contentType. (Thanks EricLaw-MSFT!) The result I get is not the result expected. I get the HTML source code of the page where I could manually enter the information to find the postal code, but not the HTML source code with the found postal code. Any idea of what I'm doing wrong? Shall I consider going the XML way? Is it first of all possible to search on Canada Post anonymously? Here's a code sample for better description: public static string FindPostalCode(ICanadadianAddress address) { var postData = string.Concat(string.Format("&streetNumber={0}", address.StreetNumber) , string.Format("&streetName={0}", address.StreetName) , string.Format("&city={0}", address.City) , string.Format("&province={0}", address.Province)); var encoding = new ASCIIEncoding(); byte[] postDataBytes = encoding.GetBytes(postData); request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(DefaultUrlSettings); request.ImpersonationLevel = System.Security.Principal.TokenImpersonationLevel.Anonymous; request.Container = new CookieContainer(); request.Timeout = 10000; request.ContentType = contentType; request.ContentLength = postDataBytes.LongLength; request.Method = @"post"; var senderStream = new StreamWriter(request.GetRequestStream()); senderStream.Write(postDataBytes, 0, postDataBytes.Length); senderStream.Close(); string htmlResponse = new StreamReader(request.GetResponse().GetResponseStream()).ReadToEnd(); return processedResult(htmlResponse); // Processing the HTML source code parsing, etc. } I seem stuck in a bottle neck in my point of view. I find no way out to the desired result. EDIT: There seems to have to parameters as for the ContentType of this site. Let me explain. There's one with the "meta"-variables which stipulates the following: meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="application/xhtml+xml, text/xml, text/html; charset=utf-8" And another one later down the code that is read as: form id="fpcByAdvancedSearch:fpcSearch" name="fpcByAdvancedSearch:fpcSearch" method="post" action="/cpotools/apps/fpc/personal/findByCity?execution=e1s1" enctype="application/x-www-form-urlencoded" My question is the following: With which one do I have to stick? Let me guess, the first ContentType is to be considered as the second is only for another request to a function or so when the data is posted? EDIT: As per request, the closer to the solution I am is listed under this question: WebRequest: How to find a postal code using a WebRequest against this ContentType=”application/xhtml+xml, text/xml, text/html; charset=utf-8”? Thanks for any help! :-)

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• Implementing a popularity algorithm in Django

  - by TheLizardKing

  I am creating a site similar to reddit and hacker news that has a database of links and votes. I am implementing hacker news' popularity algorithm and things are going pretty swimmingly until it comes to actually gathering up these links and displaying them. The algorithm is simple: Y Combinator's Hacker News: Popularity = (p - 1) / (t + 2)^1.5` Votes divided by age factor. Where` p : votes (points) from users. t : time since submission in hours. p is subtracted by 1 to negate submitter's vote. Age factor is (time since submission in hours plus two) to the power of 1.5.factor is (time since submission in hours plus two) to the power of 1.5. I asked a very similar question over yonder http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1964395/complex-ordering-in-django but instead of contemplating my options I choose one and tried to make it work because that's how I did it with PHP/MySQL but I now know Django does things a lot differently. My models look something (exactly) like this class Link(models.Model): category = models.ForeignKey(Category) user = models.ForeignKey(User) created = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add = True) modified = models.DateTimeField(auto_now = True) fame = models.PositiveIntegerField(default = 1) title = models.CharField(max_length = 256) url = models.URLField(max_length = 2048) def __unicode__(self): return self.title class Vote(models.Model): link = models.ForeignKey(Link) user = models.ForeignKey(User) created = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add = True) modified = models.DateTimeField(auto_now = True) karma_delta = models.SmallIntegerField() def __unicode__(self): return str(self.karma_delta) and my view: def index(request): popular_links = Link.objects.select_related().annotate(karma_total = Sum('vote__karma_delta')) return render_to_response('links/index.html', {'links': popular_links}) Now from my previous question, I am trying to implement the algorithm using the sorting function. An answer from that question seems to think I should put the algorithm in the select and sort then. I am going to paginate these results so I don't think I can do the sorting in python without grabbing everything. Any suggestions on how I could efficiently do this? EDIT This isn't working yet but I think it's a step in the right direction: from django.shortcuts import render_to_response from linkett.apps.links.models import * def index(request): popular_links = Link.objects.select_related() popular_links = popular_links.extra( select = { 'karma_total': 'SUM(vote.karma_delta)', 'popularity': '(karma_total - 1) / POW(2, 1.5)', }, order_by = ['-popularity'] ) return render_to_response('links/index.html', {'links': popular_links}) This errors out into: Caught an exception while rendering: column "karma_total" does not exist LINE 1: SELECT ((karma_total - 1) / POW(2, 1.5)) AS "popularity", (S... EDIT 2 Better error? TemplateSyntaxError: Caught an exception while rendering: missing FROM-clause entry for table "vote" LINE 1: SELECT ((vote.karma_total - 1) / POW(2, 1.5)) AS "popularity... My index.html is simply: {% block content %} {% for link in links %} karma-up {{ link.karma_total }} karma-down {{ link.title }} Posted by {{ link.user }} to {{ link.category }} at {{ link.created }} {% empty %} No Links {% endfor %} {% endblock content %} EDIT 3 So very close! Again, all these answers are great but I am concentrating on a particular one because I feel it works best for my situation. from django.db.models import Sum from django.shortcuts import render_to_response from linkett.apps.links.models import * def index(request): popular_links = Link.objects.select_related().extra( select = { 'popularity': '(SUM(links_vote.karma_delta) - 1) / POW(2, 1.5)', }, tables = ['links_link', 'links_vote'], order_by = ['-popularity'], ) return render_to_response('links/test.html', {'links': popular_links}) Running this I am presented with an error hating on my lack of group by values. Specifically: TemplateSyntaxError at / Caught an exception while rendering: column "links_link.id" must appear in the GROUP BY clause or be used in an aggregate function LINE 1: ...karma_delta) - 1) / POW(2, 1.5)) AS "popularity", "links_lin... Not sure why my links_link.id wouldn't be in my group by but I am not sure how to alter my group by, django usually does that.

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• WebSphere Application Server EJB Optimization

  - by Chris Aldrich

  We are working on developing a Java EE based application. Our application is Java 1.5 compatible and will be deployed to WAS ND 6.1.0.21 with EBJ 3.0 and Web Services feature packs. The configuration is currently one cell with two clusters. Each cluster will have two nodes. Our application, or our system, as I should rather say, comes in two or three parts. Part 1: An ear deployed to one cluster that contains 3rd party vendor code combined with customization code. Their code is EJB 2.0 compliant and has a lot of Remote Home interfaces. Part 2: An ear deployed to the same cluster as the first ear. This ear contains EBJ 3's that make calls into the EJB 2's supplied by the vendor and the custom code. These EJB 3's are used by the JSF UI also packaged with the EAR, and some of them are also exposed as web services (JAX-WS 2.0 with SOAP 1.2 compliance) for other clients. Part 3: There may be other services that do not depend on our vendor/custom code app. These services will be EJB 3.0's and web services that are deployed to the other cluster. Per a recommendation from some IBM staff on site here, communication between nodes in a cluster can be EJB RMI. But if we are going across clusters and/or other cells, then the communication should be web services. That said, some of us are wondering about performance and optimizing communication for speed of our applications that will use our web services and EJB's. Right now most EJB's are exposed as remote. (and our vendor set theirs up that way, rather than also exposing local home interfaces). We are wondering if WAS does any optimizations between apps in the same node/cluster node space. If two apps are installed in the same area and they call each other via remote home interface, is WAS smart enough to make it a local home interface call? Are their other optimization techniques? Should we consider them? Should we not? What are the costs/benefits? Here is the question from one of our team members as sent in their email: The question is: Supposing we develop our EJBs as remote EJBs, where our UI controller code is talking to our EXT java services via EJB3...what are our options for performance optimization when both the EJB server and client are running in the same container? As one point of reference, google has given me some oooooold websphere performance tuning documentation from 2000 that explains a tuning configuration you can set to enable Call By Reference for EJB communication when they're in the same application server JVM. It states the following: Because EJBs are inherently location independent, they use a remote programming model. Method parameters and return values are serialized over RMI-IIOP and returned by value. This is the intrinsic RMI "Call By Value" model. WebSphere provides the "No Local Copies" performance optimization for running EJBs and clients (typically servlets) in the same application server JVM. The "No Local Copies" option uses "Call By Reference" and does not create local proxies for called objects when both the client and the remote object are in the same process. Depending on your workload, this can result in a significant overhead savings. Configure "No Local Copies" by adding the following two command line parameters to the application server JVM: * -Djavax.rmi.CORBA.UtilClass=com.ibm.CORBA.iiop.Util * -Dcom.ibm.CORBA.iiop.noLocalCopies=true CAUTION: The "No Local Copies" configuration option improves performance by changing "Call By Value" to "Call By Reference" for clients and EJBs in the same JVM. One side effect of this is that the Java object derived (non-primitive) method parameters can actually be changed by the called enterprise bean. Consider Figure 16a: Also, we will also be using Process Server 6.2 and WESB 6.2 as well in the future. Any ideas? recommendations? Thanks

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• Facebook invites partialy working..

  - by dugi007

  Hello! im new to facebook api and i have a litle problem.. i created iframe app and im using the folowing code to invite my friends. invitation screen renders and im able to send invitation. when someone accepts invitation it redirects them to the following link: http://www.facebook.com/reqs.php#!//apps.facebook.com/erste_app/ and nothing happens (only the facebook header apears and thats all)...when they manualy repost that link they are redirected to app and everything works... <?php include 'facebook.php'; define( 'FB_API_KEY', 'e23463********9c7ebfd6d34' ); define( 'FB_SECRET', '5f6************7efff5c8cb8' ); define( 'FB_APPID', '312*********23' ); define( 'FB_CANVAS_URL', 'http://apps.facebook.com/erste_app/' ); define( 'FB_APP_HOME_URL', 'http://www.bijelarukavica.com/test/' ); define( 'FB_APP_NAME', 'Zaigraj s Rokom' ); $bOK=SendStandardInvitation("", false); function SendStandardInvitation($to, $bNewStyle = true) { $typeword = FB_APP_NAME; // Warning: double quotes in the content string will screw up the invite signature process $content = '<fb:req-choice url=\' ' . FB_CANVAS_URL . '\' label=\'Check out ' . FB_APP_NAME . ' />'; // if your have post add routines take them to that add app URL instead. $actionText = 'Probaj jesi bolji od mene uz "' . FB_APP_NAME . '".'; $bOK = SendNewRequest($to, $typeword, $content, $actionText); return $bOK; } function SendNewRequest($to, $typeword, $content, $actionText, $bInvitation = true) { $facebook = new Facebook(FB_API_KEY,FB_SECRET); $to = implode(",", $facebook->api_client->friends_get('','')); $bInviteAll = (!$to || $to == "" ? true : false); $excludeFriends = null; if (!$bInviteAll) $excludeFriends = $facebook->api_client->friends_get(); else // Get all friends with the app $excludeFriends = $facebook->api_client->friends_getAppUsers(); $excludeFriendsStr = null; foreach ($excludeFriends as $userid) { $pos = strpos($to, (string)$userid); if ($pos !== false) continue; if ($excludeFriendsStr) $excludeFriendsStr .= ','; $excludeFriendsStr .= $userid; } $params = array(); $params['api_key'] = FB_API_KEY; $params['content'] = $content; // Don't use htmlentities() or urlencode() here $params['type'] = $typeword; $params['action'] = FB_CANVAS_URL ; $params['actiontext'] = $actionText; $params['invite'] = ($bInvitation ? 'true' : 'false'); $params['rows'] = '5'; $params['max'] = '20'; $params['exclude_ids'] = $excludeFriendsStr; $params['sig'] = $facebook->generate_sig($params, FB_SECRET); $qstring = null; foreach ($params as $key => $value) { if ($qstring) $qstring .= '&'; $qstring .= "$key=".urlencode($value); } $inviteUrl = 'http://www.facebook.com/multi_friend_selector.php?'; $facebook->redirect($inviteUrl . $qstring); return true; } $facebook->api_client->notifications_sendRequest function SendRequest($to, $typeword, $content, $bInvitation = true) { $facebook = new Facebook(FB_API_KEY,FB_SECRET); $image = FB_APP_HOME_URL . 'logo.gif'; $result = $facebook->api_client->notifications_sendRequest($to, $typeword, $content, $image, $bInvitation); $url = $result; if (isset($url) && $url) { $facebook->redirect($url . '&canvas=1&next=index.php'); return true; } $bOK = ($result && $result != ""); return $bOK; } SendStandardInvitation($to, $bNewStyle = false) ?>

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• AIDL based two way communication

  - by sshasan

  I have two apps between which I want some data exchanged. As they are running in different processes, so, I am using AIDL to communicate between them. Now, everything is happening really great in one direction (say my apps are A and B) i.e. data is being sent from A to B but, now I need to send some data from B to A. I noticed that we need to include the app with the AIDL in the build path of app where the AIDL method will be called. So in my case A includes B in its build path. For B to be able to send something to A, by that logic, B would need A in its build path. This would create a cycle. I am stuck at this point. And I cannot think of a work around this loop. Any help would be greatly appreciated :) . Thanks! ----EDIT---- So, I following the advice mentioned in one of the comments below, I have the following code In the IPCAIDL project the AIDL file resides, its contents are package ipc.android.aidl; interface Iaidl{ boolean pushBoolean(boolean flag); } This project is being used as a library in both the IPCServer and the IPC Client. The IPCServer Project has the service which defines what happens with the AIDL method. The file is booleanService.java package ipc.android.server; import ipc.android.aidl.Iaidl; import android.app.Service; import android.content.Intent; import android.os.IBinder; import android.os.RemoteException; import android.util.Log; public class booleanService extends Service { @Override public IBinder onBind(Intent intent) { return new Iaidl.Stub() { @Override public boolean pushBoolean(boolean arg0) throws RemoteException { Log.i("SERVER(IPC AIDL)", "Truth Value:"+arg0); return arg0; } }; } } The IPCClient file which calls this method is package ipc.android.client2; import ipc.android.aidl.Iaidl; import android.app.Activity; import android.content.ComponentName; import android.content.Context; import android.content.Intent; import android.content.ServiceConnection; import android.os.Bundle; import android.os.IBinder; import android.os.RemoteException; import android.view.View; import android.widget.Button; public class IPCClient2Activity extends Activity { Button b1; Iaidl iAIDL; boolean k = false; /** Called when the activity is first created. */ @Override public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.main); bindService(new Intent("ipc.android.server.booleanService"), conn, Context.BIND_AUTO_CREATE); startService(new Intent("ipc.android.server.booleanService")); b1 = (Button) findViewById(R.id.button1); b1.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() { @Override public void onClick(View v) { if(k){ k = false; } else{ k = true; } try { iAIDL.pushBoolean(k); } catch (RemoteException e) { // TODO Auto-generated catch block e.printStackTrace(); } } }); } private ServiceConnection conn = new ServiceConnection() { @Override public void onServiceDisconnected(ComponentName name) { // TODO Auto-generated method stub } @Override public void onServiceConnected(ComponentName name, IBinder service) { iAIDL = Iaidl.Stub.asInterface(service); } }; } The manifest file for IPCServer includes the declaration of the service.

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• Possible iphone animation timing/rendering bug?

  - by David

  Hi all, I have been working on an iphone apps for several weeks. Now I encounter an animation problem that I can't figure out how to resolve. Mayhbe you can help. Here is the details (a little long, bear with me): Basically the effect I want to achieve is, when user click a button, a loading view pops up, hiding the whole screen; and then the apps does a lot of heavy computation, which takes a few seconds. Once the computation is done, soem result views (something likes checkers on a checker board) are rendered under the loading view. Once all result views are rendered, I used animation animation to remove the loading view nand show the result views to the user. Here is what I do: when user click a button, run this code: [UIView beginAnimations:nil context:nil]; [UIView setAnimationDuration:1.0]; [UIView setAnimationBeginsFromCurrentState:YES]; [UIView setAnimationTransition:UIViewAnimationTransitionCurlDown forView:self.view cache:YES]; [UIView setAnimationDelegate:self]; [UIView setAnimationDidStopSelector:@selector(loadingViewInserted:finished:context:)]; // use a really high index number so it will always on top [self.view insertSubview:loadingViewController.view atIndex:1000]; [UIView commitAnimations]; In the "loadingViewInserted" function, it calls another function doing the heavy computation work. Once the computation is done, a lot of result views (like checkers on a checker board) are rendered under the loading view. for(int colIndex = 1; colIndex <= result.columns; colIndex++) { for(int rowIndex = 1; rowIndex <= result.rows; rowIndex++) { ResultView *rv = [ResultView resultViewWithData:results[colIndex][rowIndex]]; [self.view addSubview:rv]; } } Once all result views are added, following animation is invoked to remove the loading view: [UIView beginAnimations:nil context:nil]; [UIView setAnimationDuration:1.0]; [UIView setAnimationBeginsFromCurrentState:YES]; [UIView setAnimationTransition:UIViewAnimationTransitionCurlUp forView:self.view cache:YES]; [loadingViewController.view removeFromSuperview]; [UIView commitAnimations]; By doing this, most of the time (maybe 90%) it does exactly what I want. However, sometime I see some weird result: the loading view shows up first as expected, then before it disappears, some result views, which suppose to be under the loading view, suddenly appears on top of the loading view; and some of them are partial rendered. And then the loading view curled up, and everything looks normal again. The weird situation only lasts for less than a second, but already bad enough to screw up the UI. I have tried all different kinds of thing to fix this (using another thread to remove the loading view, make the loading view non-transparent), but none of them works. The only thing that makes a little better is, I hide all the result views first; after the last animation finished, in its call back, unhide all result views. But this loses the nice effect that when curling up the loading view, the results are already there. At this point, I really think this is a bug in iphone (I compile it with OS 3.0) OS. Or maybe you can point out what I have done wrong (or could do differently). (thanks for finishing this long post, :-) )

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• Received memory warning on setimage

  - by Sam Budda

  This problem has completely stumped me. This is for iOS 5.0 with Xcode 4.2 What's going on is that in my app I let user select images from their photo album and I save those images to apps document directory. Pretty straight forward. What I do then is that in one of the viewController.m files I create multiple UIImageViews and I then set the image for the image view from one of the picture that user selected from apps dir. The problem is that after a certain number of UIImage sets I receive a "Received memory warning". It usually happens when there are 10 pictures. If lets say user selected 11 pictures then the app crashes with Error (GBC). NOTE: each of these images are at least 2.5 MB a piece. After hours of testing I finally narrowed down the problem to this line of code [button1AImgVw setImage:image]; If I comment out that code. All compiles fine and no memory errors happen. But if I don't comment out that code I receive memory errors and eventually a crash. Also note it does process the whole CreateViews IBAction but still crashes at the end. I cannot do release or dealloc since I am running this on iOS 5.0 with Xcode 4.2 Here is the code that I used. Can anyone tell me what did I do wrong? - (void)viewDidLoad { [super viewDidLoad]; // Do any additional setup after loading the view, typically from a nib. [self CreateViews]; } -(IBAction) CreateViews { paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask ,YES); documentsPath = [paths objectAtIndex:0]; //here 15 is for testing purposes for (int i = 0; i < 15; i++) { //Lets not get bogged down here. The problem is not here UIImageView *button1AImgVw = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(10*i, 10, 10, 10)]; [self.view addSubview:button1AImgVw]; NSMutableString *picStr1a = [[NSMutableString alloc] init]; NSString *dataFile1a = [[NSString alloc] init]; picStr1a = [NSMutableString stringWithFormat:@"%d.jpg", i]; dataFile1a = [documentsPath stringByAppendingPathComponent:picStr1a]; NSData *potraitImgData1a =[[NSData alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:dataFile1a]; UIImage *image = [[UIImage alloc] initWithData:potraitImgData1a]; // This is causing my app to crash if I load more than 10 images! //[button1AImgVw setImage:image]; } NSLog(@"It went to END!"); } //Error I get when 10 images are selected. App does launch and work 2012-10-07 17:12:51.483 ABC-APP[7548:707] It went to END! 2012-10-07 17:12:51.483 ABC-APP [7531:707] Received memory warning. //App crashes with this error when there are 11 images 2012-10-07 17:30:26.339 ABC-APP[7548:707] It went to END! (gdb)

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• NEED your opinion on .net Profile class VS session vars

  - by Ted

  To save trips to sql db in my older apps, I store *dozens of data points about the current user in an array and then store the array in a session. For example, info that might be used repeatedly during user’s session might be stored… Dim a(7) as string a(0) = “FirstName” a(1) = “LastName” a(2) = “Address” a(3) = “Address2” a(4) = “City” a(5) = “State” a(6) = “Zip” session.add(“s_a”, a) *Some apps have an array 100 in size. That is something I learned in my asp classic days. Referencing the correct index can be laborsome and I find it difficult to go back and add another data point in the array grouped with like data. For example, suppose I need to add Middle Initial to the array as a design alteration. Unless I redo the whole index mapping, I have to stick Middle Initial in the next open slot, which might be in the 50s. NOW, I am considering doing something easier to reference each time (eliminating the need to know the index of the value wanted). So I am looking to do this… session.add(“Firstname”, “FirstName”) session.add(“Lastname”, “LastName”) session.add(“Address”, “Address”) etc. BUT, before I do this, I would like some guidance. I am afraid this might be less efficient, even though easier to use. I don’t know if a new session object is created for each data point or if there is only one session object, and I am adding a name/value pair to that object? If I am adding a name/value pair to a single object, that seems like a good idea. Does anyone know? Or is there a more preferred way? Built-in Profile class? Re: Profile class I have an internal debate about scope. It seems that the .net Profile class is good for storing app-SPECIFIC user settings (i.e. style theme, object display properties, user role, etc.) The examples I give are information whose values are selected/edited by the user to customize the application experience. This information is not typically stored/edited elsewhere in the app db. But when you have data that 1) is stored already in the app db and 2) can be altered by other users (in this case: company reps may update client's status, address, etc.), then the persistence of the Profile data may be an issue. In this case, the Profile would need to be reset at the beginning and dropped like a session.abandon at the end of each user's session to prevent reloading info that had since been edited by someone. I believe this is possible, but not sure Currently, I use the session array to store both scopes, app-specific and user-specific data. If my session plan is good, I think I will create a class to set/get values from the session also. I appreciate your thoughts. I would like to know how others have handled this type of situation. Thanks.

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• Our Look at the Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview

  - by Asian Angel

  Have you been hearing all about Microsoft’s work on Internet Explorer 9 and are curious about it? If you are wanting a taste of the upcoming release then join us as we take a look at the Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview. Note: Windows Vista and Server 2008 users may need to install a Platform Update (see link at bottom for more information). Getting Started If you are curious about the systems that the platform preview will operate on here is an excerpt from the FAQ page (link provided below). There are two important points of interest here: The platform preview does not replace your regular Internet Explorer installation The platform preview (and the final version of Internet Explorer 9) will not work on Windows XP There really is not a lot to the install process…basically all that you will have to deal with is the “EULA Window” and the “Install Finished Window”. Note: The platform preview will install to a “Program Files Folder” named “Internet Explorer Platform Preview”. Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview in Action When you start the platform preview up for the first time you will be presented with the Internet Explorer 9 Test Drive homepage. Do not be surprised that there is not a lot to the UI at this time…but you can get a good idea of how Internet Explorer will act. Note: You will not be able to alter the “Homepage” for the platform preview. Of the four menus available there are two that will be of interest to most people…the “Page & Debug Menus”. If you go to navigate to a new webpage you will need to go through the “Page Menu” unless you have installed the Address Bar Mini-Tool (shown below). Want to see what a webpage will look like in an older version of Internet Explorer? Then choose your version in the “Debug Menu”. We did find it humorous that IE6 was excluded from the choices offered. Here is what the URL entry window looks like if you are using the “Page Menu” to navigate between websites. Here is the main page of the site here displayed in “IE9 Mode”…looking good. Here is the main page viewed in “Forced IE5 Document Mode”. There were some minor differences (colors, sidebar, etc.) in how the main page displayed in comparison to “IE9 Mode”. Being able to switch between modes makes for an interesting experience… As you can see there is not much to the “Context Menu” at the moment. Notice the slightly altered icon for the platform preview… “Add” an Address Bar of Sorts If you would like to use a “make-shift” Address Bar with the platform preview you can set up the portable file (IE9browser.exe) for the Internet Explorer 9 Test Platform Addressbar Mini-Tool. Just place it in an appropriate folder, create a shortcut for it, and it will be ready to go. Here is a close look at the left side of the Address Bar Mini-Tool. You can try to access “IE Favorites” but may have sporadic results like those we experienced during our tests. Note: The Address Bar Mini-Tool will not line up perfectly with the platform preview but still makes a nice addition. And a close look at the right side of the Address Bar Mini-Tool. In order to completely shut down the Address Bar Mini-Tool you will need to click on “Close”. Each time that you enter an address into the Address Bar Mini-Tool it will open a new window/instance of the platform preview. Note: During our tests we noticed that clicking on “Home” in the “Page Menu” opened the previously viewed website but once we closed and restarted the platform preview the test drive website was the starting/home page again. Even if the platform preview is not running the Address Bar Mini-Tool can still run as shown here. Note: You will not be able to move the Address Bar Mini-Tool from its’ locked-in position at the top of the screen. Now for some fun. With just the Address Bar Mini-Tool open you can enter an address and cause the platform preview to open. Here is our example from above now open in the platform preview…good to go. Conclusion During our tests we did experience the occasional crash but overall we were pleased with the platform preview’s performance. The platform preview handled rather well and definitely seemed much quicker than Internet Explorer 8 on our test system (a definite bonus!). If you are an early adopter then this could certainly get you in the mood for the upcoming beta releases! Links Download the Internet Explorer 9 Preview Platform Download the Internet Explorer 9 Test Platform Addressbar Mini-Tool Information about Platform Update for Windows Vista & Server 2008 View the Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview FAQ Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Mysticgeek Blog: A Look at Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 on Windows XPMake Ctrl+Tab in Internet Explorer 7 Use Most Recent OrderRemove ISP Text or Corporate Branding from Internet Explorer Title BarWhy Can’t I Turn the Details/Preview Panes On or Off in Windows Vista Explorer?Prevent Firefox or Internet Explorer from Printing the URL on Every Page 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 Awesome Lyrics Finder for Winamp & Windows Media Player Download Videos from Hulu Pixels invade Manhattan Convert PDF files to ePub to read on your iPad Hide Your Confidential Files Inside Images Get Wildlife Photography Tips at BBC’s PhotoMasterClasses

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• Ask How-To Geek: Dropbox in the Start Menu, Understanding Symlinks, and Ripping TV Series DVDs

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  This week we take a look at how to incorporate Dropbox into your Windows Start Menu, understanding and using symbolic links, and how to rip your TV series DVDs right to unique and high-quality episode files. Once a week we dip into our reader mailbag and help readers solve their problems, sharing the useful solutions with you in the process. Read on to see our fixes for this week’s reader dilemmas. Add Drobox to Your Start Menu Dear How-To Geek, I use Dropbox all the time and would like to add it right onto my start menu along side the other major shortcuts like Documents, Pictures, etc. It seems like adding Dropbox into the menu should be part of the Dropbox installation package! Sincerely, Dropboxing in Des Moines Dear Dropboxing, We agree, it would be a nice installation option. As it stands you’re going to have to do a little simple hacking to get Dropbox nestled neatly into your start menu. The hack isn’t super elegant but when you’re done you’ll have the link you want and it’ll look like it was there all along. Check out this step-by-step guide here in order to take an existing Library shortcut and rework it to be a Dropbox link. Understanding and Using Symbolic Links Dear How-To Geek, I was talking to a coworker the other day about an issue I’d been having with a media center application I’m running. He suggested using symbolic links to better organize my media and make it easier for the application to access my collection. I had no idea what he was talking about and never got a chance to bug him about it later. Can you clear up this whole symbolic links business for me? I’ve been using computers for years and I’ve never even heard of it! Sincerely, Symbolic Who? Dear Symbolic, Symbolic links aren’t commonly used by many Windows users which is why you likely haven’t run into the concept. Symbolic links are essentially supercharged shortcuts—the newly introduced Windows library system is really just a type of symbolic link system. You can use symbolic links to do all sorts of neat stuff like link folders to your Dropbox folder, organize media, and more. The concept of symbolic links is pretty simple but the execution can be really tricky. We’d suggest reading over our guide to creating symbolic links in Windows 7, Windows XP, and Ubunutu to get a clearer idea what you’re getting into. Rip Your TV DVDs into Handy Episode Files Dear How-To Geek, My wife got me an iPod for Christmas and I still haven’t got around to filling it up. I have tons of entire TV show seasons on DVD and would like to get them on the iPod but I have absolutely no idea where to start. How do I get the shows off the discs? I thought it would be as easy to import the TV shows into iTunes as it is to import tracks off a CD but I was totally wrong. I tried downloading some applications to rip them but those didn’t work at all. Very frustrating! Surely there is an easy and/or automated way to do this, right? Sincerely, Free My DVDs Dear DVDs, Oh man is this a frustration we can relate to. It’s inordinately difficult to get movies and TV shows off physical media and into digital (and portable media player-friendly) formats. There are a multitude of ways to rip DVDs and quite a few applications out there (some good, some mediocre, and some outright malware). We’d recommend a two-part punch to solve your ripping woes. You’ll need a copy of DVDFab to strip away the protections on the discs and rip the disc and Handbrake to load the disc image and convert the files. It’s not quite as smooth as the CD-to-iTunes workflow but it’s still pretty easy. Check out all the steps and settings you’ll want to toggle here. Have a question you want to put before the How-To Geek staff? Shoot us an email at [email protected] and then keep an eye out for a solution in the Ask How-To Geek column. Latest Features How-To Geek ETC Internet Explorer 9 RC Now Available: Here’s the Most Interesting New Stuff Here’s a Super Simple Trick to Defeating Fake Anti-Virus Malware How to Change the Default Application for Android Tasks Stop Believing TV’s Lies: The Real Truth About "Enhancing" Images The How-To Geek Valentine’s Day Gift Guide Inspire Geek Love with These Hilarious Geek Valentines Google’s New Personal Blocklist Extension Kills Search Engine Spam KeyCounter Tracks Your Keystrokes and Mouse Clicks Add Custom LED Ambient Lighting to Your PC or Media Center The Trackor Monitors Amazon Prices; Integrates with Chrome, Firefox, and Safari Four Awesome TRON Legacy Themes for Chrome and Iron Anger is Illogical – Old School Style Instructional Video [Star Trek Mashup]

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Sunday, March 07, 2010

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Sunday, March 07, 2010New ProjectsAlgorithminator: Universal .NET algorithm visualizer, which helps you to illustrate any algorithm, written in any .NET language. Still in development.ALToolkit: Contains a set of handy .NET components/classes. Currently it contains: * A Numeric Text Box (an Extended NumericUpDown) * A Splash Screen base fo...Automaton Home: Automaton is a home automation software built with a n-Tier, MVVM pattern utilzing WCF, EF, WPF, Silverlight and XBAP.Developer Controls: Developer Controls contains various controls to help build applications that can script/write code.Dynamic Reference Manager: Dynamic Reference Manager is a set (more like a small group) of classes and attributes written in C# that allows any .NET program to reference othe...indiologic: Utilities of an IndioNeural Cryptography in F#: This project is my magistracy resulting work. It is intended to be an example of using neural networks in cryptography. Hashing functions are chose...Particle Filter Visualization: Particle Filter Visualization Program for the Intel Science and Engineering FairPólya: Efficient, immutable, polymorphic collections. .Net lacks them, we provide them*. * By we, we mean I; and by efficient, I mean hopefully so.project euler solutions from mhinze: mhinze project euler solutionsSilverlight 4 and WCF multi layer: Silverlight 4 and WCF multi layersqwarea: Project for a browser-based, minimalistic, massively multiplayer strategy game. Part of the "Génie logiciel et Cloud Computing" course of the ENS (...SuperSocket: SuperSocket, a socket application framework can build FTP/SMTP/POP server easilyToast (for ASP.NET MVC): Dynamic, developer & designer friendly content injection, compression and optimization for ASP.NET MVCNew ReleasesALToolkit: ALToolkit 1.0: Binary release of the libraries containing: NumericTextBox SplashScreen Based on the VB.NET code, but that doesn't really matter.Blacklist of Providers: 1.0-Milestone 1: Blacklist of Providers.Milestone 1In this development release implemented - Main interface (Work Item #5453) - Database (Work Item #5523)C# Linear Hash Table: Linear Hash Table b2: Now includes a default constructor, and will throw an exception if capacity is not set to a power of 2 or loadToMaintain is below 1.Composure: CassiniDev-Trunk-40745-VS2010.rc1.NET4: A simple port of the CassiniDev portable web server project for Visual Studio 2010 RC1 built against .NET 4.0. The WCF tests currently fail unless...Developer Controls: DevControls: These are the version 1.0 releases of these controls. Download the individually or all together (in a .zip file). More releases coming soon!Dynamic Reference Manager: DRM Alpha1: This is the first release. I'm calling it Alpha because I intend implementing other functions, but I do not intend changing the way current functio...ESB Toolkit Extensions: Tellago SOA ESB Extenstions v0.3: Windows Installer file that installs Library on a BizTalk ESB 2.0 system. This Install automatically configures the esb.config to use the new compo...GKO Libraries: GKO Libraries 0.1 Alpha: 0.1 AlphaHome Access Plus+: v3.0.3.0: Version 3.0.3.0 Release Change Log: Added Announcement Box Removed script files that aren't needed Fixed & issue in directory path Stylesheet...Icarus Scene Engine: Icarus Scene Engine 1.10.306.840: Icarus Professional, Icarus Player, the supporting software for Icarus Scene Engine, with some included samples, and the start of a tutorial (with ...mavjuz WndLpt: wndlpt-0.2.5: New: Response to 5 LPT inputs "test i 1" New: Reaction to 12 LPT outputs "test q 8" New: Reaction to all LPT pins "test pin 15" New: Syntax: ...Neural Cryptography in F#: Neural Cryptography 0.0.1: The most simple version of this project. It has a neural network that works just like logical AND and a possibility to recreate neural network from...Password Provider: 1.0.3: This release fixes a bug which caused the program to crash when double clicking on a generic item.RoTwee: RoTwee 6.2.0.0: New feature is as next. 16649 Add hashtag for tweet of tune.Now you can tweet your playing tune with hashtag.Visual Studio DSite: Picture Viewer (Visual C++ 2008): This example source code allows you to view any picture you want in the click of a button. All you got to do is click the button and browser via th...WatchersNET CKEditor™ Provider for DotNetNuke: CKEditor Provider 1.8.00: Whats New File Browser: Folders & Files View reworked File Browser: Folders & Files View reworked File Browser: Folders are displayed as TreeVi...WSDLGenerator: WSDLGenerator 0.0.0.4: - replaced CommonLibrary.dll by CommandLineParser.dll - added better support for custom complex typesMost Popular ProjectsMetaSharpSilverlight ToolkitASP.NET Ajax LibraryAll-In-One Code FrameworkWindows 7 USB/DVD Download Toolニコ生アラートWindows Double ExplorerVirtual Router - Wifi Hot Spot for Windows 7 / 2008 R2Caliburn: An Application Framework for WPF and SilverlightArkSwitchMost Active ProjectsUmbraco CMSRawrSDS: Scientific DataSet library and toolsBlogEngine.NETjQuery Library for SharePoint Web Servicespatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryIonics Isapi Rewrite FilterFarseer Physics EngineFasterflect - A Fast and Simple Reflection APIFluent Assertions

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• 6 Reasons Why You Can’t Move Your Cell Phone To Any Carrier You Want

  - by Chris Hoffman

  You can buy a laptop or Wi-Fi tablet and use it on Wi-Fi anywhere in the world, so why are cell phones and devices with mobile data not portable between different cellular networks in the same country? Unlike with Wi-Fi, there are many different competing cellular network standards — both around the world and within countries. Cellular carriers also like locking you to their specific network and making it difficult to move. That’s what contracts are for. Phone Locking Many phones are sold locked to a specific network. When you buy a phone from a cellular carrier, they often lock that phone to their network so you can’t take it to a competitor’s network. That’s why you’ll often need to unlock a phone before you can move it to a different cellular provider or take it to a different country and use it on a local provider instead of roaming. Cellular carriers will generally unlock your phone for you as long as you’re no longer in a contract with them. However, unlocking a cell phone you’ve paid for without your carrier’s permission is currently a crime in the USA. GSM vs. CDMA Some cellular networks use the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) standard, while some use CDMA (Code-division multiple access). Worldwide, most cellular networks use GSM. In the USA, both GSM and CDMA are popular. Verizon, Sprint, and other carriers that use their networks use CDMA. AT&T, T-Mobile, and other carriers that use their networks are use GSM. These are two competing standards and are not interoperable. This means you can’t simply take a phone from Verizon to T-Mobile, or from AT&T to Sprint. These carriers have incompatible phones. CDMA Restrictions CDMA is more restricted than GSM. GSM phones have SIM cards. Simply open the phone, pop out the SIM card, and pop in a new SIM card to switch carriers. (In reality, it’s more complicated thanks to phone locking and other factors here.) CDMA phones don’t have removable modules like this. All CDMA phones ship locked to a specific network and you’d have to get both your old carrier and your new carrier to cooperate to switch phones between them. In reality, many people just consider CDMA phones eternally locked to a specific carrier. Frequencies Different cellular networks throughout the USA and the rest of the world use different frequencies. These radio frequencies have to be supported by your phone’s hardware or your phone simply can’t work on a network using those frequencies. Many GSM phones support three or four bands of frequencies — 900/1800/1900 MHz, 850/1800/1900 MHz, or 850/900/1800/1900 MHz. These are sometimes called “world phones” because they allow easier roaming. This allows the manufacturer to produce a phone that will support all GSM networks in the world and allows their customers to travel with those phones. If your phone doesn’t support the appropriate frequencies, it won’t work on certain networks. LTE Bands When it comes to newer, faster LTE networks, different frequencies are still a concern. LTE frequencies are generally known as “LTE bands.” To use a smartphone on a certain LTE network, that smartphone will have to support that LTE network’s frequency. Different models of phones are often created to work on different LTE networks around the world. However, phones are generally supporting more and more LTE networks and becoming more and more interoperable over time. SIM Card Sizes The SIM cards used in GSM phones come in different sizes. Newer phones use smaller SIM cards to save space and be more compact. This isn’t a big obstacle, as the different sizes of SIM cards — full-size SIM, mini-SIM, micro-SIM, and nano-SIM are actually compatible. The only difference between them is the size of the plastic card surrounding the SIM’s chip. The actual chip is the same size between all the SIM cards. This means you can take an old SIM card and cut the plastic off until it becomes a smaller-size SIM card that fits in a modern phone. Or, you can take a smaller-size SIM card and insert it into a tray so that it becomes a larger-size SIM card that fits in an older phone. Be aware that it’s very possible to damage your SIM card and make it not work properly by cutting it to the wrong dimensions. Your cellular carrier will often be able to cut your SIM card for you or give you a new one if you want to use an old SIM card in a new phone. Hopefully they won’t overcharge you for this service, too. Be sure to check what types of networks, frequencies, and LTE bands your phone supports before trying to move it between networks. You may have to buy a new phone when moving between certain cellular carriers. Image Credit: Morgan on Flickr, 22n on Flickr

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• SQLAuthority News – Storing Data and Files in Cloud – Dropbox – Personal Technology Tip

  - by pinaldave

  I thought long and hard about doing a Personal Technology Tips series for this blog.  I have so many tips I’d like to share.  I am on my computer almost all day, every day, so I have a treasure trove of interesting tidbits I like to share if given the chance.  The only thing holding me back – which tip to share first?  The first tip obviously has the weight of seeming like the most important.  But this would mean choosing amongst my favorite tricks and shortcuts.  This is a hard task. Source: Dropbox.com My Dropbox I have finally decided, though, and have determined that the first Personal Technology Tip may not be the most secret or even trickier to master – in fact, it is probably the easiest.  My today’s Personal Technology Tip is Dropbox. I hope that all of you are nodding along in recognition right now.  If you do not use Dropbox, or have not even heard of it before, get on the internet and find their site.  You won’t be disappointed.  A quick recap for those in the dark: Dropbox is an online storage site with a lot of additional syncing and cloud-computing capabilities.  Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s explore some of my favorite options in Dropbox. Collaborate with All The first thing I love about Dropbox is the ability it gives you to collaborate with others.  You can share files easily with other Dropbox users, and they can alter them, share them with you, all while keeping track of different versions in on easy place.  I’d like to see anyone try to accomplish that key idea – “easily” – using e-mail versions and multiple computers.  It’s even difficult to accomplish using a shared network. Afraid that this kind of ease looks too good to be true?  Afraid that maybe there isn’t enough storage space, or the user interface is confusing?  Think again.  There is plenty of space – you can get 2 GB with just a free account, and upgrades are inexpensive and go up to 100 GB of storage.  And the user interface is so easy that anyone can learn to use it. What I use Dropbox for I love Dropbox because I give a lot of presentations and often they are far from home.  I can keep my presentations on Dropbox and have easy access to them anywhere, without needing to have my whole computer with me.  This is just one small way that you can use Dropbox. You can sync your entire hard drive, or hard drives if you have multiple computers (home, work, office, shared), and you can set Dropbox to automatically sync files on a certain timeline, or whenever Dropbox notices that they’ve been changed. Why I love Dropbox Dropbox has plenty of storage, but 2 GB still has a hard time competing with the average desktop’s storage space.  So what if you want to sync most of your files, but only the ones you use the most and share between work and home, and not all your files (especially large files like pictures and videos)?  You can use selective sync to choose which files to sync. Above all, my favorite feature is LanSync.  Dropbox will search your Local Area Network (LAN) for new files and sync them to Dropbox, as well as downloading the new version to all the shared files across the network.  That means that if move around on different computers at work or at home, you will have the same version of the file every time.  Or, other users on the LAN will have access to the new version, which makes collaboration extremely easy. Ref: rzfeeser.com Dropbox has so many other features that I feel like I could create a Personal Technology Tips series devoted entirely to Dropbox.  I’m going to create a bullet list here to make things shorter, but I strongly encourage you to look further into these into options if it sounds like something you would use. Theft Recover Home Security File Hosting and Sharing Portable Dropbox Sync your iCal calendar Password Storage What is your favorite tool and why? I could go on and on, but I will end here.  In summary – I strongly encourage everyone to investigate Dropbox to see if it’s something they would find useful.  If you use Dropbox and know of a great feature I failed to mention, please share it with me, I’d love to hear how everyone uses this program. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology Tagged: Personal Technology

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• SQL SERVER – TechEd India 2012 – Content, Speakers and a Lots of Fun

  - by pinaldave

  TechEd is one event which every developers and IT professionals are looking forward to attend. It is opportunity of life time and no matter how many time one gets chance to engage with it, it is never enough. I still remember every single moment of every TechEd I have attended so far. We are less than 100 hours away from TechEd India 2012 event.This event is the one must attend event for every Technology Enthusiast. Fourth time in the row I am going to attend this event and I am equally excited as the first time of the event. There are going to be two very solid SQL Server track this time and I will be attending end of the end both the tracks. Here is my view on each of the 10 sessions. Each session is carefully crafted and leading exeprts from industry will present it. Day 1, March 21, 2012 T-SQL Rediscovered with SQL Server 2012 – This session is going to bring some of the lesser known enhancements that were brought with SQL Server 2012. When I learned that Jacob Sebastian is going to do this session my reaction to this is DEMO, DEMO and DEMO! Jacob spends hours and hours of his time preparing his session and this will be one of those session that I am confident will be delivered over and over through out the next many events. Catapult your data with SQL Server 2012 Integration Services – Praveen is expert story teller and one of the wizard when it is about SQL Server and business intelligence. He is surely going to mesmerize you with some interesting insights on SSIS performance too. Processing Big Data with SQL Server 2012 and Hadoop – There are three sessions on Big Data at TechEd India 2012. Stephen is going to deliver one of the session. Watching Stephen present is always joy and quite entertaining. He shares knowledge with his typical humor which captures ones attention. I wrote about what is BIG DATA in a blog post. SQL Server Misconceptions and Resolutions – I will be presenting this Session along with Vinod Kumar. READ MORE HERE. Securing with ContainedDB in SQL Server 2012 – Pranab is expert when it is about SQL Server and Security. I have seen him presenting and he is indeed very pleasant to watch. A dry subject like security, he makes it much lively. A Contained Database is a database which contains all the necessary settings and metadata, making database easily portable to another server. This database will contain all the necessary details and will not have to depend on any server where it is installed for anything. You can take this database and move it to another server without having any worries. Day 3, March 23, 2012 Peeling SQL Server like an Onion: Internals Demystified – Vinod Kumar has been writing about this extensively on his other blog post. In recent conversation he suggested that he will be creating very exclusive content for this presentation. I know Vinod for long time and have worked with him along many community activities. I am going to pay special attention to the details. I know Vinod has few give-away planned now for attending the session now only if he shares with us. Speed Up – Parallel Processes and unparalleled Performance – Performance tuning is my favorite subject. I will be discussing effect of parallelism on performance in this session. Here me out, there will be lots of quiz questions during this session and if you get the answers correct – you can win some really cool goodies – I Promise! READ MORE HERE. Keep your database available – AlwaysOn – Balmukund is like an army man. He is always ready to show and prove that he has coolest toys in terms of SQL Server and he knows how to keep them running AlwaysON. Availability groups, Listener, Clustering, Failover, Read-Only replica etc all will be demo’ed in this session. This is really heavy but very interesting content not to be missed. Lesser known facts about SQL Server Backup and Restore – Amit Banerjee – this name is known internationally for solving SQL Server problems in 140 characters. He has already blogged about this and this topic is going to be interesting. A successful restore strategy for applications is as good as their last good known backup. I have few difficult questions to ask to Amit and I am very sure that his unique style will entertain people. By the way, his one of the slide may give few in audience a funny heart attack. Top 5 reasons why you want SQL Server 2012 BI – Praveen plans to take a tour of some of the BI enhancements introduced in the new version. Business Insights with SQL Server is a critical building block and this version of SQL Server is no exception. For the matter of the fact, when I saw the demos he was going to show during this session, I felt like that I wish I can set up all of this on my machine. If you miss this session – you will miss one of the most informative session of the day. Also TechEd India 2012 has a Live streaming of some content and this can be watched here. The TechEd Team is planning to have some really good exclusive content in this channel as well. If you spot me, just do not hesitate to come by me and introduce yourself, I want to remember you! Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority Author Visit, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology Tagged: TechEd, TechEdIn

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• Allowing Access to HttpContext in WCF REST Services

  - by Rick Strahl

  If you’re building WCF REST Services you may find that WCF’s OperationContext, which provides some amount of access to Http headers on inbound and outbound messages, is pretty limited in that it doesn’t provide access to everything and sometimes in a not so convenient manner. For example accessing query string parameters explicitly is pretty painful: [OperationContract] [WebGet] public string HelloWorld() { var properties = OperationContext.Current.IncomingMessageProperties; var property = properties[HttpRequestMessageProperty.Name] as HttpRequestMessageProperty; string queryString = property.QueryString; var name = StringUtils.GetUrlEncodedKey(queryString,"Name"); return "Hello World " + name; } And that doesn’t account for the logic in GetUrlEncodedKey to retrieve the querystring value. It’s a heck of a lot easier to just do this: [OperationContract] [WebGet] public string HelloWorld() { var name = HttpContext.Current.Request.QueryString["Name"] ?? string.Empty; return "Hello World " + name; } Ok, so if you follow the REST guidelines for WCF REST you shouldn’t have to rely on reading query string parameters manually but instead rely on routing logic, but you know what: WCF REST is a PITA anyway and anything to make things a little easier is welcome. To enable the second scenario there are a couple of steps that you have to take on your service implementation and the configuration file. Add aspNetCompatibiltyEnabled in web.config Fist you need to configure the hosting environment to support ASP.NET when running WCF Service requests. This ensures that the ASP.NET pipeline is fired up and configured for every incoming request. <system.serviceModel>     <serviceHostingEnvironment aspNetCompatibilityEnabled="true" multipleSiteBindingsEnabled="true" /> </system.serviceModel> Markup your Service Implementation with AspNetCompatibilityRequirements Attribute Next you have to mark up the Service Implementation – not the contract if you’re using a separate interface!!! – with the AspNetCompatibilityRequirements attribute: [ServiceContract(Namespace = "RateTestService")] [AspNetCompatibilityRequirements(RequirementsMode = AspNetCompatibilityRequirementsMode.Allowed)] public class RestRateTestProxyService Typically you’ll want to use Allowed as the preferred option. The other options are NotAllowed and Required. Allowed will let the service run if the web.config attribute is not set. Required has to have it set. All these settings determine whether an ASP.NET host AppDomain is used for requests. Once Allowed or Required has been set on the implemented class you can make use of the ASP.NET HttpContext object. When I allow for ASP.NET compatibility in my WCF services I typically add a property that exposes the Context and Request objects a little more conveniently: public HttpContext Context { get { return HttpContext.Current; } } public HttpRequest Request { get { return HttpContext.Current.Request; } } While you can also access the Response object and write raw data to it and manipulate headers THAT is probably not such a good idea as both your code and WCF will end up writing into the output stream. However it might be useful in some situations where you need to take over output generation completely and return something completely custom. Remember though that WCF REST DOES actually support that as well with Stream responses that essentially allow you to return any kind of data to the client so using Response should really never be necessary. Should you or shouldn’t you? WCF purists will tell you never to muck with the platform specific features or the underlying protocol, and if you can avoid it you definitely should avoid it. Querystring management in particular can be handled largely with Url Routing, but there are exceptions of course. Try to use what WCF natively provides – if possible as it makes the code more portable. For example, if you do enable ASP.NET Compatibility you won’t be able to self host a WCF REST service. At the same time realize that especially in WCF REST there are number of big holes or access to some features are a royal pain and so it’s not unreasonable to access the HttpContext directly especially if it’s only for read-only access. Since everything in REST works of URLS and the HTTP protocol more control and easier access to HTTP features is a key requirement to building flexible services. It looks like vNext of the WCF REST stuff will feature many improvements along these lines with much deeper native HTTP support that is often so useful in REST applications along with much more extensibility that allows for customization of the inputs and outputs as data goes through the request pipeline. I’m looking forward to this stuff as WCF REST as it exists today still is a royal pain (in fact I’m struggling with a mysterious version conflict/crashing error on my machine that I have not been able to resolve – grrrr…).© Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2011Posted in ASP.NET  AJAX  WCF  

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• Puppet: Making Windows Awesome Since 2011

  - by Robz / Fervent Coder

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/robz/archive/2014/08/07/puppet-making-windows-awesome-since-2011.aspxPuppet was one of the first configuration management (CM) tools to support Windows, way back in 2011. It has the heaviest investment on Windows infrastructure with 1/3 of the platform client development staff being Windows folks.  It appears that Microsoft believed an end state configuration tool like Puppet was the way forward, so much so that they cloned Puppet’s DSL (domain-specific language) in many ways and are calling it PowerShell DSC. Puppet Labs is pushing the envelope on Windows. Here are several things to note: Puppet x64 Ruby support for Windows coming in v3.7.0. An awesome ACL module (with order, SIDs and very granular control of permissions it is best of any CM). A wealth of modules that work with Windows on the Forge (and more on GitHub). Documentation solely for Windows folks - https://docs.puppetlabs.com/windows. Some of the common learning points with Puppet on Windows user are noted in this recent blog post. Microsoft OpenTech supports Puppet. Azure has the ability to deploy a Puppet Master (http://puppetlabs.com/solutions/microsoft). At Microsoft //Build 2014 in the Day 2 Keynote Puppet Labs CEO Luke Kanies co-presented with Mark Russonivich (http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2014/KEY02  fast forward to 19:30)! Puppet has a Visual Studio Plugin! It can be overwhelming learning a new tool like Puppet at first, but Puppet Labs has some resources to help you on that path. Take a look at the Learning VM, which has a quest-based learning tool. For real-time questions, feel free to drop onto #puppet on freenode.net (yes, some folks still use IRC) with questions, and #puppet-dev with thoughts/feedback on the language itself. You can subscribe to puppet-users / puppet-dev mailing lists. There is also ask.puppetlabs.com for questions and Server Fault if you want to go to a Stack Exchange site. There are books written on learning Puppet. There are even Puppet User Groups (PUGs) and other community resources! Puppet does take some time to learn, but with anything you need to learn, you need to weigh the benefits versus the ramp up time. I learned NHibernate once, it had a very high ramp time back then but was the only game on the street. Puppet’s ramp up time is considerably less than that. The advantage is that you are learning a DSL, and it can apply to multiple platforms (Linux, Windows, OS X, etc.) with the same Puppet resource constructs. As you learn Puppet you may wonder why it has a DSL instead of just leveraging the language of Ruby (or maybe this is one of those things that keeps you up wondering at night). I like the DSL over a small layer on top of Ruby. It allows the Puppet language to be portable and go more places. It makes you think about the end state of what you want to achieve in a declarative sense instead of in an imperative sense. You may also find that right now Puppet doesn’t run manifests (scripts) in order of the way resources are specified. This is the number one learning point for most folks. As a long time consternation of some folks about Puppet, manifest ordering was not possible in the past. In fact it might be why some other CMs exist! As of 3.3.0, Puppet can do manifest ordering, and it will be the default in Puppet 4. http://puppetlabs.com/blog/introducing-manifest-ordered-resources You may have caught earlier that I mentioned PowerShell DSC. But what about DSC? Shouldn’t that be what Windows users want to choose? Other CMs are integrating with DSC, will Puppet follow suit and integrate with DSC? The biggest concern that I have with DSC is it’s lack of visibility in fine-grained reporting of changes (which Puppet has). The other is that it is a very young Microsoft product (pre version 3, you know what they say :) ). I tried getting it working in December and ran into some issues. I’m hoping that newer releases are there that actually work, it does have some promising capabilities, it just doesn’t quite come up to the standard of something that should be used in production. In contrast Puppet is almost a ten year old language with an active community! It’s very stable, and when trusting your business to configuration management, you want something that has been around awhile and has been proven. Give DSC another couple of releases and you might see more folks integrating with it. That said there may be a future with DSC integration. Portability and fine-grained reporting of configuration changes are reasons to take a closer look at Puppet on Windows. Yes, Puppet on Windows is here to stay and it’s continually getting better folks.

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• Video games, content strategy, and failure - oh my.

  - by Roger Hart

  Last night was the CS London group's event Content Strategy, Manhattan Style. Yes, it's a terrible title, feeling like a self-conscious grasp for chic, sadly commensurate with the venue. Fortunately, this was not commensurate with the event itself, which was lively, relevant, and engaging. Although mostly if you're a consultant. This is a strong strain in current content strategy discourse, and I think we're going to see it remedied quite soon. Not least in Paris on Friday. A lot of the bloggers, speakers, and commentators in the sphere are consultants, or part of agencies and other consulting organisations. A lot of the talk is about how you sell content strategy to your clients. This is completely acceptable. Of course it is. And it's actually useful if that's something you regularly have to do. To an extent, it's even portable to those of us who have to sell content strategy within an organisation. We're still competing for credibility and resource. What we're doing less is living in the beginning of a project. This was touched on by Jeffrey MacIntyre (albeit in a your-clients kind of a way) who described "the day two problem". Companies, he suggested, build websites for launch day, and forget about the need for them to be ongoing entities. Consultants, agencies, or even internal folks on short projects will live through Day Two quite often: the trainwreck moment where somebody realises that even if the content is right (which it often isn't), and on time (which it often isn't), it'll be redundant, outdated, or inaccurate by the end of the week/month/fickle social media attention cycle. The thing about living through a lot of Day Two is that you see a lot of failure. Nothing succeeds like failure? Failure is good. When it's structured right, it's an awesome tool for learning - that's kind of how video games work. I'm chewing over a whole blog post about this, but basically in game-like learning, you try, fail, go round the loop again. Success eventually yields joy. It's a relatively well-known phenomenon. It works best when that failing step is acutely felt, but extremely inexpensive. Dying in Portal is highly frustrating and surprisingly characterful, but the save-points are well designed and the reload unintrusive. The barrier to re-entry into the loop is very low, as is the cost of your failure out in meatspace. So it's easy (and fun) to learn. Yeah, spot the difference with business failure. As an external content strategist, you get to rock up with a big old folder full of other companies' Day Two (and ongoing day two hundred) failures. You can't send the client round the learning loop - although you may well be there because they've been round it once - but you can show other people's round trip. It's not as compelling, but it's not bad. What about internal content strategists? We can still point to things that are wrong, and there are some very compelling tools at our disposal - content inventories, user testing, and analytics, for instance. But if we're picking up big organically sprawling legacy content, Day Two may well be a distant memory, and the felt experience of web content failure is unlikely to be immediate to many people in the organisation. What to do? My hunch here is that the first task is to create something immediate and felt, but that it probably needs to be a success. Something quickly doable and visible - a content problem solved with a measurable business result. Now, that's a tall order; but scrape of the "quickly" and it's the whole reason we're here. At Red Gate, I've started with the text book fear and passion introduction to content strategy. In fact, I just typo'd that as "contempt strategy", and it isn't a bad description. Yelling "look at this, our website is rubbish!" gets you the initial attention, but it doesn't make you many friends. And if you don't produce something pretty sharp-ish, it's easy to lose the momentum you built up for change. The first thing I've done - after the visual content inventory - is to delete a bunch of stuff. About 70% of the SQL Compare web content has gone, in fact. This is a really, really cheap operation. It's visible, and it's powerful. It's cheap because you don't have to create any new content. It's not free, however, because you do have to validate your deletions. This means analytics, actually reading that content, and talking to people whose business purposes that content has to serve. If nobody outside the company uses it, and nobody inside the company thinks they ought to, that's a no-brainer for the delete list. The payoff here is twofold. There's the nebulous hard-to-illustrate "bad content does user experience and brand damage" argument; and there's the "nobody has to spend time (money) maintaining this now" argument. One or both are easily felt, and the second at least should be measurable. But that's just one approach, and I'd be interested to hear from any other internal content strategy folks about how they get buy-in, maintain momentum, and generally get things done.

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• BIP and Mapviewer Mash Up I

  - by Tim Dexter

  I was out in Yellowstone last week soaking up various wildlife and a bit too much rain ... good to be back until the 95F heat yesterday. Taking a little break from the Excel templates; the dev folks are planing an Excel patch in the next week or so that will add a mass of new functionality. At the risk of completely mis leading you I'm going to hang back a while. What I have written so far holds true and will continue to do so. This week, I have been mostly eating 'mapviewer' ... answers on a post card please, TV show and character. I had a request to show how BIP can call mapviewer and render a dynamic map in an output. So I hit the books and colleagues for some answers. Mapviewer is Oracle's geographic information system, hereby known as GIS. I use it a lot in our BIEE demos where the interaction with the maps is very impressive. Need a map of California and its congressional districts? I have contacts; Jerry and David with their little black box of maps. Once in my possession I can build highly interactive, clickable maps that allow the user to drill into more information using a very friendly interface driving BIEE content and navigation. But what about maps in BIP output? Bryan Wise, who has written some articles on this blog did some work a while back with the PL/SQL API interface. The extract for the report called a function that in turn called the mapviewer server, passing a set of mapping requirements, it then returned a URL to a cached copy of that map. Easy to then have BIP render that image. Thats still very doable. You need to install a couple of packages and then load the mapviewer java APIs into the database. Then you can write your function to the APIs. A little involved? Maybe, but the database is doing all the heavy lifting for you. I thought I would investigate another method for getting the maps back into BIP. There is a URL interface you can call, this involves building an XML message to be passed to the mapviewer server. It's pretty straightforward to use on the mapviewer side. On the BIP side things are little more tricksy. After some unexpected messing about I finally got the ubiquitous Hello World map to render using the URL method. Not the most exciting map in the world, lots of ocean and a rather long URL to get it to render. http://127.0.0.1:9704/mapviewer/omserver?xml_request=%3Cmap_request%20title=%22Hello%20World%22%20datasource=%22cagis%22%20format=%22GIF_STREAM%22/%3E Notice all of the encoding in the URL string to handle the spaces, quotes, etc. All necessary to get BIP to make the call to the mapviewer server correctly without truncating the URL if it hits a real space rather than a %20. With that in mind constructing the URL was pretty simple. I'm not going to get into the content of the URL too much, for that you need to bone up on the mapviewer XML API. Check out the home page here and the documentation here. To make the template portable I used the standard CURRENT_SERVER_URL parameter from the BIP server and declared that in my template. <?param@begin:CURRENT_SERVER_URL;'myserver'?> Ignore the 'myserver', that was just a dummy value for testing at runtime it will resolve to: 'http://yourserver:port/xmlpserver' Not quite what we need as mapviewer has its own server path, in my case I needed 'mapviewer/omserver?xml_request=' as the fixed path to the mapviewer request URL. A little concatenation and substringing later I came up with <?param@begin:mURL;concat(substring($CURRENT_SERVER_URL,1,22),'mapviewer/omserver?xml_request=')?> Thats the basic URL that I can then build on. To get the Hello World map I need to add the following: <map_request title="Hello World" datasource="cagis" format="GIF_STREAM"/> Those angle brackets were the source of my headache, BIPs XSLT engine was attempting to process them rather than just pass them. Hok Min to the rescue ... again. I owe him lunch when I get out to HQ again! To solve the problem, I needed to escape all the characters and white space and then use native XSL to assign the string to a parameter. <xsl:param xdofo:ctx="begin"name="pXML">%3Cmap_request%20title=%22Hello%20World%22 %20datasource=%22cagis%22%20format=%22GIF_STREAM%22/%3E</xsl:param> I did not need to assign it to a parameter but I felt that if I were going to do anything more serious than Hello World like plotting points of interest on the map. I would need to dynamically build the URL, so using a set of parameters or variables that I then concatenated would be easier. Now I had the initial server string and the request all I then did was combine the two using a concat: concat($mURL,$pXML) Embedding that into an image tag: <fo:external-graphic src="url({concat($mURL,$pXML)})"/> and I was done. Notice the curly braces to get the concat evaluated prior to the image call. As you will see next time, building the XML message to go onto the URL can get quite complex but I have used it with some data. Ultimately, it would be easier to build an extension to BIP to handle the data to be plotted, it would then build the XML message, call mapviewer and return a URL to the map image for BIP to render. More on that next time ...

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• Java EE at JavaOne - A Few Picks from a Very Rich Line-up

  - by Janice J. Heiss

  A rich and diverse set of sessions cast a spotlight on Java EE at this year’s JavaOne, ranging from the popular Web Framework Smackdown, to Java EE 6 and Spring, to sessions exploring Java EE 7, and one on the implications of HTML5. Some of the world’s best EE architects and developers will be sharing their insight and expertise. If only I could be at ten places at once!BOF4149 - Web Framework Smackdown 2012    Markus Eisele - Principal IT Architect, msg systems ag    Graeme Rocher - Senior Staff Engineer, VMware    James Ward - Developer Evangelist, Heroku    Ed Burns - Consulting Member of Technical Staff, Oracle    Santiago Pericasgeertsen - Software Engineer, Oracle* Monday, Oct 1, 8:30 PM - 9:15 PM - Parc 55 - Cyril Magnin II/III Much has changed since the first Web framework smackdown, at JavaOne 2005. Or has it? The 2012 edition of this popular panel discussion surveys the current landscape of Web UI frameworks for the Java platform. The 2005 edition featured JSF, Webwork, Struts, Tapestry, and Wicket. The 2012 edition features representatives of the current crop of frameworks, with a special emphasis on frameworks that leverage HTML5 and thin-server architecture. Java Champion Markus Eisele leads the lively discussion with panelists James Ward (Play), Graeme Rocher (Grails), Edward Burns (JSF) and Santiago Pericasgeertsen (Avatar).CON6430 - Java EE and Spring Framework Panel Discussion    Richard Hightower - Developer, InfoQ    Bert Ertman - Fellow, Luminis    Gordon Dickens - Technical Architect, IT101, Inc.    Chris Beams - Senior Technical Staff, VMware    Arun Gupta - Technology Evangelist, Oracle* Tuesday, Oct 2, 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM - Parc 55 - Cyril Magnin II/III In the age of Java EE 6 and Spring 3, enterprise Java developers have many architectural choices, including Java EE 6 and Spring, but which one is right for your project? Many of us have heard the debate and seen the flame wars—it’s a topic with passionate community members, and it’s a vibrant debate. If you are looking for some level-headed discussion, grounded in real experience, by developers who have tried both, then come join this discussion. InfoQ’s Java editors moderate the discussion, and they are joined by independent consultants and representatives from both Java EE and VMWare/SpringSource.BOF4213 - Meet the Java EE 7 Specification Leads   Linda Demichiel - Consulting Member of Technical Staff, Oracle   Bill Shannon - Architect, Oracle* Tuesday, Oct 2, 5:30 PM - 6:15 PM – Parc 55 - Cyril Magnin II/III This is your chance to meet face-to-face with the engineers who are developing the next version of the Java EE platform. In this session, the specification leads for the leading technologies that are part of the Java EE 7 platform discuss new and upcoming features and answer your questions. Come prepared with your questions, your feedback, and your suggestions for new features in Java EE 7 and beyond.CON10656 - JavaEE.Next(): Java EE 7, 8, and Beyond    Ian Robinson - IBM Distinguished Engineer, IBM    Mark Little - JBoss CTO, NA    Scott Ferguson - Developer, Caucho Technology    Cameron Purdy - VP Development, Oracle*Wednesday, Oct 3, 4:30 PM - 5:30 PM - Parc 55 - Cyril Magnin II/IIIIn this session, hear from a distinguished panel of industry and open source luminaries regarding where they believe the Java EE community is headed, starting with Java EE 7. The focus of Java EE 7 and 8 is mostly on the cloud, specifically aiming to bring platform as a service (PaaS) providers and application developers together so that portable applications can be deployed on any cloud infrastructure and reap all its benefits in terms of scalability, elasticity, multitenancy, and so on. Most importantly, Java EE will leverage the modularization work in the underlying Java SE platform. Java EE will, of course, also update itself for trends such as HTML5, caching, NoSQL, ployglot programming, map/reduce, JSON, REST, and improvements to existing core APIs.CON7001 - HTML5 WebSocket and Java    Danny Coward - Java, Oracle*Wednesday, Oct 3, 4:30 PM - 5:30 PM - Parc 55 - Cyril Magnin IThe family of HTML5 technologies has pushed the pendulum away from rich client technologies and toward ever-more-capable Web clients running on today’s browsers. In particular, WebSocket brings new opportunities for efficient peer-to-peer communication, providing the basis for a new generation of interactive and “live” Web applications. This session examines the efforts under way to support WebSocket in the Java programming model, from its base-level integration in the Java Servlet and Java EE containers to a new, easy-to-use API and toolset that are destined to become part of the standard Java platform.

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• Enable DreamScene in Any Version of Vista or Windows 7

  - by DigitalGeekery

  Windows DreamScene was a utility available for Vista Ultimate that allowed users to set video as desktop wallpaper. It was dropped in Windows 7, but we’ll take a look at how to play DreamScenes in all versions of Windows 7 or Vista. Downloading DreamScenes First, you’ll need to find some DreamScenes to download. We’ve found some nice ones at both DreamScene.org and DeviantArt. You can find those download links at the end of the article. They’ll come as compressed files, so you’ll need to extract them after downloading. Windows 7 DreamScene Activator If you are running Windows 7 you can use Windows 7 DreamScene Activator. This free portable utility enables DreamScene in both 32 & 64 bit versions of Windows 7. Users can then set either MPG or WMV files as desktop wallpaper. Download and extract the Windows 7 DreamScene Activator (link below). Once extracted, you’ll need to run the application as administrator. Right-click on the .exe and select Run as administrator. Click on Enable DreamScene. This will also restart Windows Explorer if it is open. To play your DreamScene, browse for the file in Windows Explorer, right-click the file and select Set as Desktop Background. Enjoy your new Windows 7 DreamScene.   Although it says it is for Windows 7 only, we were able to get it to work with no problems on Vista Home Premium x32 as well.   You can Pause the DreamScene at anytime by right-clicking on the desktop and selecting Pause DreamScene.   When you are ready for a change, click Disable DreamScene and switch back to your previous wallpaper. Using VLC Media Player Users of all versions of Windows 7 & Vista can enable a DreamScene using VLC. Recently, we showed you how to set a video as your desktop wallpaper in VLC.  Since DreamScenes are in MPEG or WMV format, we will use the same tactic to display them as desktop wallpaper. We’ll just need to make a few additional tweaks to the VLC settings. You’ll need to download and install VLC media player if you don’t already have it. You can find the download link below. Next, select Tools > Preferences from the Menu. Select the Video button on the left and then choose DirectX video output from the Output dropdown list. Next, select All under Show Settings at the lower left, then select the Video button on the left pane. Uncheck Show media title on video. This will prevent VLC from constantly showing the title of the video on the screen each time the video loops. Click Save and the restart VLC.   Now we will add the video to our playlist and set it to continuously loop. Select View > Playlist from the Menu. Select the Add file button from the bottom of the Playlist window and select Add file.   Browse for your file and click Open.   Click the Loop button at the bottom so the video plays in a continuous loop.   Now, we’re ready to play the video. After the video starts playing, select Video > DirectX Wallpaper from the Menu, then minimize VLC.   If you’re using Aero Themes, you may get a pop-up warning and Windows will switch automatically to a basic theme.   If looping one video gets to be a little repetitive, you can add multiple videos to your playlist in VLC and loop the entire playlist. Just make sure you toggle the Loop button on the playlist window to Loop All. Now you’ve got a nice DreamScene playing on your desktop. Another cool trick you can do with VLC is take snapshots of favorite movie scenes and set them as backgrounds. When you’re ready to go back to your old wallpaper, maximize VLC, select Video and click DirectX Wallpaper again to turn it off the video background. Occasionally we were left with a black screen and had to manually change our wallpaper back to normal even after turning off the DirectX Wallpaper. Note: Keep in mind that using the VLC method takes up a lot of resources so if you try to run it on older hardware, or say a netbook, you’re not going to get good results. We also tried to use the VLC method in XP, but couldn’t get it to work. If you have leave a comment and let us know. While the DreamScene feature never really caught on in Vista, we find them to be a cool way to pump a little life into your desktop on any version of Vista or Windows 7. Downloads DreamScenes from Dreamscene.org DreamScenes from DeviantArt Download VLC media player Windows 7 DreamScene Activator Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Wait, How do I Turn on DreamScene Again?Enable Run Command on Windows 7 or Vista Start MenuEnable or Disable UAC From the Windows 7 / Vista Command LineUnderstanding Windows Vista Aero Glass RequirementsEnable Mapping to \HostnameC$ Share on Windows 7 or 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 HippoRemote Pro 2.2 Xobni Plus for Outlook All My Movies 5.9 CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Microsoft Office Web Apps Guide Know if Someone Accessed Your Facebook Account Shop for Music with Windows Media Player 12 Access Free Documentaries at BBC Documentaries Rent Cameras In Bulk At CameraRenter Download Songs From MySpace

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• Deep in the Heart of Texas

  - by Applications User Experience

  Author: Erika Webb, Manager, Fusion Applications UX User Assistance When I was first working in the usability field, the only way I could consider conducting a usability study was to bring a potential user to a lab environment where I could show them whatever I was interested in learning more about and ask them questions. While I hate to reveal just how long I have been working in this field, let's just say that pads of paper and a stopwatch were key tools for any test I conducted. Over the years, I have worked in simple labs with basic video taping equipment and not much else, and I have worked in corporate environments with sophisticated usability labs and state-of-the-art equipment. Years ago, we conducted all usability studies at the location of the user. If we wanted to see if there were any differences between users in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, we went to those places to run the test. A lab environment is very useful for many test situations. However, there has always been a debate in the usability field about whether bringing someone into a lab environment, however friendly we make it, somehow intrinsically changes the behavior of the user as compared to having them work in their own environment, at their own desk, and on their own computer. We developed systems to create a portable usability lab, so that we could go to the users that we needed to test.  Do lab environments change user behavior patterns? Then 9/11 hit. You may not remember, but no planes flew for weeks afterwards. Companies all over the world couldn't fly-in employees for meetings. Suddenly, traveling to the location of the users had an additional difficulty. The company I was working for at the time had usability specialists stuck in New York for days before they could finally rent a car and drive home to Colorado. This changed the world pretty suddenly, and technology jumped on the change. Companies offering Internet meeting tools were strugglinguntil no one could travel. The Internet boomed with collaboration tools that enabled people to work together wherever they happened to be. This change in technology has made a huge difference in my world. We use collaborative tools to bring our product concepts and ideas to the user across the Internet. As a global company, we benefit from having users from all over the world inform our designs. We now run usability studies with users all over the world in a single day, a feat we couldn't have accomplished 10 years ago by plane! Other technology companies have started to do more of this type of usability testing, since the tools have improved so dramatically. Plus, in our busy world, it's not always easy to find users who can take the time away from their jobs to come to our labs. reaching users where it is convenient for them greatly improves the odds that people do participate. I manage a team of usability specialists who live in India and California, whlie I live in Colorado. We have wonderful labs that we bring users into to show them our products. But very often, we run our studies remotely. We used to take the lab to the users now we use the labs, but we let the users stay where they are. We gain users who might not have been able to leave work to come to our labs, and they get to use the system they are familiar with. And we gain users nearly anywhere that we can set up an Internet connection, as long as the users have a phone, a broadband connection, and a compatible Web browser (with no pop-up blockers). After we recruit participants in a traditional manner, we send them an invitation to participate through the use of a telephone conference call and Web conferencing tool. At Oracle, we use Oracle Web Conference part of Oracle Collaboration Suite, which enables us to give the user control of the mouse, while we present a prototype or wireframe pictures. We can record the sessions over the Web and phone conference. We send the users instructions, plus tips to ensure that we won't have problems sharing screens. In some cases, when time is tight, we even run a five-minute "test session" with users a day in advance to be sure that we can connect. Prior to the test, we send users a participant script that contains information about the study, including any questionnaires. This is exactly the same script we give to participants who come to the labs. We ask users to print this before the beginning of the session. We generally run these studies by having a usability engineer in our usability labs, so that we can record the session as though the user were in the lab with us. Roughly 80% of our application software usability testing at Oracle is performed using remote methods. The probability of getting a   remote test participant decreases the higher up the person is in the target organization. We have a methodology checklist available to help our usability engineers work through the remote processes.

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