Search Results

Search found 13494 results on 540 pages for 'desktop effects'.

Page 258/540 | < Previous Page | 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265  | Next Page >

  • Disabling the shell of user "daemon" (/bin/false)

    - by BurninLeo
    on a Linux system there are lot's of users by default: daemon, bin, sys, games, etc. According to my /etc/passwd most of these users have a shell assigned (/bin/sh) which seems some kind of insecure to me. My naive thinking would say: Only give those users a shell that may login to the server. Is my thinking wrong? If not completely wrong: Can I disable the shell for "daemon" and "www-data" without having side effects (e.g. the system wont start or the Apache PHP cannot excute system calls)? Thanks for your hints!

    Read the article

  • USB 3.0 Device not detected in Windows 8

    - by Tek
    About my setup: Windows 8 64-bit. X79-UD3 Motherboard. Latest Windows 8 USB 3.0 Drivers from motherboard manufacturer website. All right so device manager detects my USB 3.0 ports, so all is well there. However when I plug in my external USB 3.0 hard drive, windows doesn't even make a beep; the hard drive is not picked up by device manager at all. The SAME thing happens with Ubuntu 12.10 BUT adding PCI=nomsi (as a workaround) to the Grub command line of the Ubuntu boot option makes Ubuntu 12.10 detect my external hard drive. I also have a few other doubts, if you guys would be kind enough to answer them that include: Should XHCI hand-off in the UEFI bios be enabled or disabled for Windows 8? The difference between XHCI hand-off and EHCI hand-off and what are it's effects on USB 3.0 functionality? And last but not least how can I get Windows 8 to recognize my external hard drive when Ubuntu 12.10 (after the Grub workaround) works fine?

    Read the article

  • Tuning Nvidia driver in Nvidia X Server Settings in Ubuntu to avoid tearing?

    - by c00kiemonster
    I'm running Ubuntu 10.10 on an Asus at3ion motherboard. I have installed the proprietary nvidia drivers and everything is working fine, but it's a but ragged when I move windows etc. I think the issue is called tearing. There is flickering and the window isn't refreshed smoothly. The ion acceleration works fine (I am running xbmc at 1080p completely without any issues). Please note I am not interested in any fancy effects etc, I just want the graphics to be smooth and nice. How can I tune the nvidia driver for this, i.e., what do I need to change in the Nvidia X Server Settings?

    Read the article

  • Is it bad to put your computer in sleep mode every time?

    - by Ivo Flipse
    Often I have a lot of stuff open and don't feel like shutting down my laptop, so I just use sleep mode when I'm transferring it. But I have no idea if this might have any disadvantages. So my question is: is it bad to put your computer in sleep mode every time? Things I'm wondering: Should I turn off my computer every once in a while? Will continuous use of sleep mode slow down my system in any way? Are there any bad side effects (in the long term)? Any thoughts? FYI I'm using Windows 7 on a laptop

    Read the article

  • Contacts and chat history of skype was lost.

    - by oommu
    First, my skype didn't have sound effects so I uninstalled it then I reinstall the skype. The sound effect still not working so I downloaded the new version of skype ( beta one), I installed it then the sound effect still not working so I download the old version of skype then install it. The sound effect works but I lost all of my contacts and lost all of chat history. The chat history is really important for me. May you please help me to restore my chat history? Thank you.

    Read the article

  • Large recovery partitions

    - by Unsigned
    Is there any good reason as to why factory restore partitions are generally much larger than they need to be? Examples I have found in my own experience: Dell XPS laptop Partition: 13.67 GB Used: 6.68 GB Dell Inspiron laptop Partition: 14.7 GB Used: 7.2 GB Toshiba laptop Partition: 15.3 GB Used: 9 GB In all cases, shrinking the partition to only slightly more than the Used space had no ill effects on future factory restorations. Why the exorbitant amount of extra space, given that neither of the three computers ever writes any data to the recovery partition? Is there a good reason I'm overlooking?

    Read the article

  • Slow Jquery Animation

    - by Pyronaut
    I have this webpage : http://miloarc.pyrogenicmedia.com/ Which atm is nothing special. It has a few effects but none that break the bank. If you mouse over a tile, it should change it's opacity to give it a fade effect. This is done through the Jquery Animation, not through CSS (I do this so it can fade, instead of being a straight change). Everything looks nice when the page loads, and the fades look perfect. Infact if you drag your mouse all over the place, if gives you a "trail" almost like a snake. Anyway, My next problem is that you will see there is a box in the top left, which is going to tell you information about the tile you are hovering over. This seems to work fine. When you mouse over that information box, it switches it's position (So that you can reach the tiles that were previously hidden underneath it). From my understanding, this is all working fine, and to the letter. However, After one move of the info box (One hover). Viewing the page in Firefox turns slugish. As in, after a successful move of the info box, the fade effects become very stuttered, and it doesn't pick up events as fast meaning you can't draw a "trail" on the screen. Chrome doesn't have this issue. It seems to work fine no matter what. Safari also seems ok. Although I do notice if I move my mouse really fast, it does jump a bit but not as much as firefox. Internet explorer doesn't work at all. Seems to crash the browser... And there is an error with the rounded corner plugin im using (Not sure why...). All in all, I think whatever I'm doing inside my code must be heavily sluggish. But I don't know where it is happening. Here is the full code, but I would advise go to the link to view everything. <script type="text/javascript"> $(document).ready(function() { var WindowWidth = $(window).width(); var WindowMod = WindowWidth % 20; var WindowWidth = WindowWidth - WindowMod; var BoxDimension = WindowWidth / 20; var BoxDimensionFixed = BoxDimension - 12; var dimensions = BoxDimensionFixed + 'px'; $('.gamebutton').each(function(i) { $(this).css('width', dimensions); $(this).css('height', dimensions); }); var OuterDivHeight = BoxDimension * 10; var TopMargin = ($(window).height() - OuterDivHeight) / 2; var OuterDivWidth = BoxDimension * 20; var LeftMargin = ($(window).width() - OuterDivWidth) / 2; $('#gamePort').css('margin-top', TopMargin).css('margin-left', LeftMargin).css('margin-right', LeftMargin); $('.gamebutton img').each(function(i) { $(this).hover( function () { $(this).animate({'opacity': 0.65}); }, function () { $(this).animate({'opacity': 1}); } ); }); $('.rounded').corners(); $('.gamebutton').each(function(i) { $(this).hover(function() { $('.gameTitlePopup').html($(this).attr('title')); FadeActive(); }); }); function FadeActive() { $('.activeInfo').fadeIn('slow'); } $('#gameInfoLeft').hover(function() { $(this).removeClass('activeInfo'); $(this).fadeOut('slow', function() { $('#gameInfoRight').addClass('activeInfo'); FadeActive(); }); }); $('#gameInfoRight').hover(function() { $(this).removeClass('activeInfo'); $(this).fadeOut('slow', function() { $('#gameInfoLeft').addClass('activeInfo'); FadeActive(); }); }); }); </script> Thanks for any help :).

    Read the article

  • Can a conforming C implementation #define NULL to be something wacky

    - by janks
    I'm asking because of the discussion that's been provoked in this thread: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2597142/when-was-the-null-macro-not-0/2597232 Trying to have a serious back-and-forth discussion using comments under other people's replies is not easy or fun. So I'd like to hear what our C experts think without being restricted to 500 characters at a time. The C standard has precious few words to say about NULL and null pointer constants. There's only two relevant sections that I can find. First: 3.2.2.3 Pointers An integral constant expression with the value 0, or such an expression cast to type void * , is called a null pointer constant. If a null pointer constant is assigned to or compared for equality to a pointer, the constant is converted to a pointer of that type. Such a pointer, called a null pointer, is guaranteed to compare unequal to a pointer to any object or function. and second: 4.1.5 Common definitions <stddef.h> The macros are NULL which expands to an implementation-defined null pointer constant; The question is, can NULL expand to an implementation-defined null pointer constant that is different from the ones enumerated in 3.2.2.3? In particular, could it be defined as: #define NULL __builtin_magic_null_pointer Or even: #define NULL ((void*)-1) My reading of 3.2.2.3 is that it specifies that an integral constant expression of 0, and an integral constant expression of 0 cast to type void* must be among the forms of null pointer constant that the implementation recognizes, but that it isn't meant to be an exhaustive list. I believe that the implementation is free to recognize other source constructs as null pointer constants, so long as no other rules are broken. So for example, it is provable that #define NULL (-1) is not a legal definition, because in if (NULL) do_stuff(); do_stuff() must not be called, whereas with if (-1) do_stuff(); do_stuff() must be called; since they are equivalent, this cannot be a legal definition of NULL. But the standard says that integer-to-pointer conversions (and vice-versa) are implementation-defined, therefore it could define the conversion of -1 to a pointer as a conversion that produces a null pointer. In which case if ((void*)-1) would evaluate to false, and all would be well. So what do other people think? I'd ask for everybody to especially keep in mind the "as-if" rule described in 2.1.2.3 Program execution. It's huge and somewhat roundabout, so I won't paste it here, but it essentially says that an implementation merely has to produce the same observable side-effects as are required of the abstract machine described by the standard. It says that any optimizations, transformations, or whatever else the compiler wants to do to your program are perfectly legal so long as the observable side-effects of the program aren't changed by them. So if you are looking to prove that a particular definition of NULL cannot be legal, you'll need to come up with a program that can prove it. Either one like mine that blatantly breaks other clauses in the standard, or one that can legally detect whatever magic the compiler has to do to make the strange NULL definition work. Steve Jessop found an example of way for a program to detect that NULL isn't defined to be one of the two forms of null pointer constants in 3.2.2.3, which is to stringize the constant: #define stringize_helper(x) #x #define stringize(x) stringize_helper(x) Using this macro, one could puts(stringize(NULL)); and "detect" that NULL does not expand to one of the forms in 3.2.2.3. Is that enough to render other definitions illegal? I just don't know. Thanks!

    Read the article

  • What is wrong with my SQL syntax here?

    - by CT
    I'm trying to create a IT asset database with a web front end. I've gathered some data from forms using POST as well as one variable that had already written to a cookie. This is the first time I have tried to enter the data into the database. Here is the code: <?php //get data $id = $_POST['id']; $company = $_POST['company']; $location = $_POST['location']; $purchase_date = $_POST['purchase_date']; $purchase_order = $_POST['purchase_order']; $value = $_POST['value']; $type = $_COOKIE["type"]; $notes = $_POST['notes']; $manufacturer = $_POST['manufacturer']; $model = $_POST['model']; $warranty = $_POST['warranty']; //set cookies setcookie('id', $id); setcookie('company', $company); setcookie('location', $location); setcookie('purchase_date', $purchase_date); setcookie('purchase_order', $purchase_order); setcookie('value', $value); setcookie('type', $type); setcookie('notes', $notes); setcookie('manufacturer', $manufacturer); setcookie('model', $model); setcookie('warranty', $warranty); //checkdata //start database interactions // connect to mysql server and database "asset_db" mysql_connect("localhost", "asset_db", "asset_db") or die(mysql_error()); mysql_select_db("asset_db") or die(mysql_error()); // Insert a row of information into the table "asset" mysql_query("INSERT INTO asset (id, company, location, purchase_date, purchase_order, value, type, notes) VALUES('$id', '$company', '$location', '$purchase_date', $purchase_order', '$value', '$type', '$notes') ") or die(mysql_error()); echo "Asset Added"; // Insert a row of information into the table "server" mysql_query("INSERT INTO server (id, manufacturer, model, warranty) VALUES('$id', '$manufacturer', '$model', '$warranty') ") or die(mysql_error()); echo "Server Added"; //destination url //header("Location: verify_submit_server.php"); ?> The error I get is: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '', '678 ', 'Server', '789')' at line 2 That data is just test data I was trying to throw in there, but it looks to be the at the $value, $type, $notes. Here are the table create statements if they help: <?php // connect to mysql server and database "asset_db" mysql_connect("localhost", "asset_db", "asset_db") or die(mysql_error()); mysql_select_db("asset_db") or die(mysql_error()); // create asset table mysql_query("CREATE TABLE asset( id VARCHAR(50) PRIMARY KEY, company VARCHAR(50), location VARCHAR(50), purchase_date VARCHAR(50), purchase_order VARCHAR(50), value VARCHAR(50), type VARCHAR(50), notes VARCHAR(200))") or die(mysql_error()); echo "Asset Table Created.</br />"; // create software table mysql_query("CREATE TABLE software( id VARCHAR(50) PRIMARY KEY, software VARCHAR(50), license VARCHAR(50))") or die(mysql_error()); echo "Software Table Created.</br />"; // create laptop table mysql_query("CREATE TABLE laptop( id VARCHAR(50) PRIMARY KEY, manufacturer VARCHAR(50), model VARCHAR(50), serial_number VARCHAR(50), esc VARCHAR(50), user VARCHAR(50), prev_user VARCHAR(50), warranty VARCHAR(50))") or die(mysql_error()); echo "Laptop Table Created.</br />"; // create desktop table mysql_query("CREATE TABLE desktop( id VARCHAR(50) PRIMARY KEY, manufacturer VARCHAR(50), model VARCHAR(50), serial_number VARCHAR(50), esc VARCHAR(50), user VARCHAR(50), prev_user VARCHAR(50), warranty VARCHAR(50))") or die(mysql_error()); echo "Desktop Table Created.</br />"; // create server table mysql_query("CREATE TABLE server( id VARCHAR(50) PRIMARY KEY, manufacturer VARCHAR(50), model VARCHAR(50), warranty VARCHAR(50))") or die(mysql_error()); echo "Server Table Created.</br />"; ?> Running a standard LAMP stack on Ubuntu 10.04. Thank you.

    Read the article

  • Haskell: monadic takeWhile?

    - by Mark Rushakoff
    I have some functions written in C that I call from Haskell. These functions return IO (CInt). Sometimes I want to run all of the functions regardless of what any of them return, and this is easy. For sake of example code, this is the general idea of what's happening currently: Prelude> let f x = print x >> return x Prelude> mapM_ f [0..5] 0 1 2 3 4 5 Prelude> I get my desired side effects, and I don't care about the results. But now I need to stop execution immediately after the first item that doesn't return my desired result. Let's say a return value of 4 or higher requires execution to stop - then what I want to do is this: Prelude> takeWhile (<4) $ mapM f [0..5] Which gives me this error: <interactive:1:22: Couldn't match expected type `[b]' against inferred type `IO a' In the first argument of `mapM', namely `f' In the second argument of `($)', namely `mapM f ([0 .. 5])' In the expression: takeWhile (< 4) $ mapM f ([0 .. 5]) And that makes sense to me - the result is still contained in the IO monad, and I can't just compare two values contained in the IO monad. I know this is precisely the purpose of monads -- chaining results together and discarding operations when a certain condition is met -- but is there an easy way to "wrap up" the IO monad in this case to stop executing the chain upon a condition of my choosing, without writing an instance of MonadPlus? Can I just "unlift" the values from f, for the purposes of the takeWhile? Is this a solution where functors fit? Functors haven't "clicked" with me yet, but I sort of have the impression that this might be a good situation to use them. Update: @sth has the closest answer to what I want - in fact, that's almost exactly what I was going for, but I'd still like to see whether there is a standard solution that isn't explicitly recursive -- this is Haskell, after all! Looking back on how I worded my question, now I can see that I wasn't clear enough about my desired behavior. The f function I used above for an example was merely an example. The real functions are written in C and used exclusively for their side effects. I can't use @Tom's suggestion of mapM_ f (takeWhile (&lt;4) [0..5]) because I have no idea whether any input will really result in success or failure until executed. I don't actually care about the returned list, either -- I just want to call the C functions until either the list is exhausted or the first C function returns a failure code. In C-style pseudocode, my behavior would be: do { result = function_with_side_effects(input_list[index++]); } while (result == success && index < max_index); So again, @sth's answer performs the exact behavior that I want, except that the results may (should?) be discarded. A dropWhileM_ function would be equivalent for my purposes. Why isn't there a function like that or takeWhileM_ in Control.Monad? I see that there was a similar discussion on a mailing list, but it appears that nothing has come of that.

    Read the article

  • How to hide the div on any click outside

    - by user1720527
    I am starting up on jquery and was tryin to create a simple div hide and show effect. The effects seem to work fine but i need that when user clicks on any other part of the document(i. except the hide/show box), the box should hide back. This is the jsfiddle : http://jsfiddle.net/39DzJ/. I have not styled it properly. I wanted the effects to work first. Can anyone help me out ? Here's the HTML code : <style> #mail_floater { background:#fce8bd; height:88px; width:342px; border:1px solid #b7ad02; border-radius:5px; position:absolute; left:200px; top:50px; border-top:none; z-index:100; padding:0; } #subscribe_user { width:248px; height:16px; border:1px solid #b7ad02; } #cust_care_floater { background:#fce8bd; height:12px; width:108px; border:1px solid #b7ad02; border-radius:2px; border-bottom-left-radius:2px; position:absolute; left:450px; top:30px; border-top:none; z-index:100; clear:both; font-family:Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size:10px; font-weight:bold; color:#036f05; box-shadow:1px 1px 3px #ccc inset; } #closer { float:right; margin-right:5px; margin-top:2px; width:19px; height:19px; background:url(../images/close.png) no-repeat; } </style> </head> <body> <a href="#" id="subscribe">Subscribe</a> <a href="#" id="customer_care">Customer care</a> <div id="mail_floater"> <h5>Email</h5> <div id="closer"></div> <div id="email_input"><form><label>Enter E-mail : </label><span><input type="text" id="subscribe_user" /></span> <input type="submit" id="subscribe_me" value="Done" /></form></div> </div> <div id="cust_care_floater"> <span style="padding:0px 10px 0 10px;">033-993-99920</span> </div> </body>? The javascript code : $(document).ready ( function() { var disp_box=$('#mail_floater'); var sub_link=$('#subscribe'); var disp_box_2=$('#cust_care_floater'); var sub_link_2=$('#customer_care'); disp_box.hide(); disp_box_2.hide(); sub_link.click ( function() { disp_box.show(); }); disp_box.find('#closer').click ( function() { disp_box.hide(); }); sub_link_2.click ( function() { disp_box_2.show(); }); });

    Read the article

  • SharpDX: Render to bitmap using Direct2D 1.1

    - by mwhouser
    I have a command line application that I am currently using SharpDX (Direct2D 1.0) to render to PNG files. This is a window-less application. It's currently creating a SharpDX.WIC.WicBitmap, a WicRenderTarget, then rendering to that. I then save the WicBitmap to the PNG file. For various reasons, I need to migrate to Direct2D 1.1 to take advantage of some of the effects available in 1.1. I'm trying to get a SharpDX.Direct2D1.Bitmap that I can save as PNG. I cannot use FromWicBitmap because that copies the bitmap, it does not share it. I see CreateSharedBitmap in the Direct2D1 API that takes a IWICBitmapLock. However, I do not see this implemented as a constructor of SharpDX.Direct2D.Bitmap. This is what I'm trying to do: // Bunch of setup var d2dDevice = new SharpDX.Direct2D1.Device(dxgiDevice); var d2dDeviceContext = new SharpDX.Direct2D1.DeviceContext(d2dDevice, SharpDX.Direct2D1.DeviceContextOptions.None); using (var wicFactory = new SharpDX.WIC.ImagingFactory()) { using (SharpDX.WIC.Bitmap wicBitmap = new SharpDX.WIC.Bitmap(wicFactory, 500, 500, SharpDX.WIC.PixelFormat.Format32bppPBGRA, SharpDX.WIC.BitmapCreateCacheOption.CacheOnDemand)) { var wicLock = wicBitmap.Lock(SharpDX.WIC.BitmapLockFlags.Write); var props = new SharpDX.Direct2D1.BitmapProperties1(); props.BitmapOptions = SharpDX.Direct2D1.BitmapOptions.Target; var bitmap = new SharpDX.Direct2D1.Bitmap1(d2dDeviceContext, wicLock, props); // This is not available d2dDeviceContext.Target = bitmap; // Do the drawing // Save the PNG } } Is there a way to do what I'm trying to accomplish?

    Read the article

  • SDL2 sprite batching and texture atlases

    - by jms
    I have been programming a 2D game in C++, using the SDL2 graphics API for rendering. My game concept currently features effects that could result in even tens of thousands of sprites being drawn simultaneously to the screen. I'd like to know what can be done for increasing rendering efficiency if the need arises, preferably using the SDL2 API only. I have previously given a quick look at OpenGL-based 2D rendering, and noticed that SDL2 lacks a command like int SDL_RenderCopyMulti(SDL_Renderer* renderer, SDL_Texture* texture, const SDL_Rect* srcrects, SDL_Rect* dstrects, int count) Which would permit SDL to benefit from two common techniques used for efficient 2D graphics: Texture batching: Sorting sprites by the texture used, and then simultaneously rendering as many sprites that use the same texture as possible, changing only the source area on the texture and the destination area on the render target between sprites. This allows the encapsulation of the whole operation in a single GPU command, reducing the overhead drastically from multiple distinct calls. Texture atlases: Instead of creating one texture for each frame of each animation of each sprite, combining multiple animations and even multiple sprites into a single large texture. This lessens the impact of changing the current texture when switching between sprites, as the correct texture is often ready to be used from the previous draw call. Furthemore the GPU is optimized for handling large textures, in contrast to the many tiny textures typically used for sprites. My question: Would SDL2 still get somewhat faster from any rudimentary sprite sorting or from combining multiple images into one texture thanks to automatic video driver optimizations? If I will encounter performance issues related to 2D rendering in the future, will I be forced to switch to OpenGL for lower level control over the GPU? Edit: Are there any plans to include such functionality in the near future?

    Read the article

  • XNA - Strange Texture Rendering Issue Using XNA BasicEffect

    - by Spencer Marr
    I have been reading and working through Riemers 3D XNA tutorials to expand my knowledge of XNA from 2D into 3D. Unfortunately I am having rendering issues that I am unable to solve and I need a point in the right direction. I am not expecting the Models to look identical to Blender but there is some serious discoloring from the texture files once rendering through XNA. The Character model is using completely incorrect colors (Red where Grey should be) and the Cube is rendering a strange pattern where a flat color should be drawn. My sampling mode is set to PointClamp. The Character model that I created has a 32 by 32 pixel texture that has been UV mapped to the model in blender. The model was then exported to .FBX. For the Cube Model a 64 by 64 pixel texture is used. foreach (ModelMesh mesh in samuraiModel.Meshes) { foreach (BasicEffect effect in mesh.Effects) { effect.Projection = Projection; effect.View = View; effect.World = World; } mesh.Draw(); } Does this look like it is caused by a mistake I made while UV Mapping or Creating Materials in Blender? Is this a problem with using the default XNA BasicEffect? Or something completely different that i have not considered? Thank You!

    Read the article

  • "const char *" is incompatible with parameter of type "LPCWSTR" error

    - by N0xus
    I'm trying to incorporate some code from Programming an RTS Game With Direct3D into my game. Before anyone says it, I know the book is kinda old, but it's the particle effects system he creates that I'm trying to use. With his shader class, he intialise it thusly: void SHADER::Init(IDirect3DDevice9 *Dev, const char fName[], int typ) { m_pDevice = Dev; m_type = typ; if(m_pDevice == NULL)return; // Assemble and set the pixel or vertex shader HRESULT hRes; LPD3DXBUFFER Code = NULL; LPD3DXBUFFER ErrorMsgs = NULL; if(m_type == PIXEL_SHADER) hRes = D3DXCompileShaderFromFile(fName, NULL, NULL, "Main", "ps_2_0", D3DXSHADER_DEBUG, &Code, &ErrorMsgs, &m_pConstantTable); else hRes = D3DXCompileShaderFromFile(fName, NULL, NULL, "Main", "vs_2_0", D3DXSHADER_DEBUG, &Code, &ErrorMsgs, &m_pConstantTable); } How ever, this generates the following error: Error 1 error C2664: 'D3DXCompileShaderFromFileW' : cannot convert parameter 1 from 'const char []' to 'LPCWSTR' The compiler states the issue is with fName in the D3DXCompileShaderFromFile line. I know this has something to do with the character set, and my program was already running with a Unicode Character set on the go. I read that to solve the above problem, I need to switch to a multi-byte character set. But, if I do that, I get other errors in my code, like so: Error 2 error C2664: 'D3DXCreateEffectFromFileA' : cannot convert parameter 2 from 'const wchar_t *' to 'LPCSTR' With it being accredited to the following line of code: if(FAILED(D3DXCreateEffectFromFile(m_pD3DDevice9,effectFileName.c_str(),NULL,NULL,0,NULL,&m_pCurrentEffect,&pErrorBuffer))) This if is nested within another if statement checking my effectmap list. Though it is the FAILED word with the red line. Like wise I get the another error with the following line of code: wstring effectFileName = TEXT("Sky.fx"); With the error message being: Error 1 error C2440: 'initializing' : cannot convert from 'const char [7]' to 'std::basic_string<_Elem,_Traits,_Ax' If I change it back to a Uni code character set, I get the original (fewer) errors. Leaving as a multi-byte, I get more errors. Does anyone know of a way I can fix this issue?

    Read the article

  • Smithsonian Showcases Video Game History with The Art of Video Games [Video]

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    The Art of Video Games is the Smithsonian’s look at the history of video games; check out this video trailer to see what the exhibition is all about and hear from some notable folks. From the Smithsonian listing for the exhibition: The Art of Video Games is one of the first exhibitions to explore the forty-year evolution of video games as an artistic medium, with a focus on striking visual effects and the creative use of new technologies. It features some of the most influential artists and designers during five eras of game technology, from early pioneers to contemporary designers. The exhibition focuses on the interplay of graphics, technology and storytelling through some of the best games for twenty gaming systems ranging from the Atari VCS to the PlayStation 3. The exhibit will be at the Smithsonian until the end of September and will then begin touring the country. Hit up the link below for more information. The Art of Video Games Tour [via Neatorama] How To Properly Scan a Photograph (And Get An Even Better Image) The HTG Guide to Hiding Your Data in a TrueCrypt Hidden Volume Make Your Own Windows 8 Start Button with Zero Memory Usage

    Read the article

  • Frederick .NET User Group April 2010 Meeting

    - by John Blumenauer
    FredNUG is pleased to announce that we have an excellent speaker lined up for April.  On April 20th, we’ll start with pizza and social networking at 6:30 PM.  Then, starting at 7 PM, Dane Morgridge will present “Getting Started with Entity Framework 4” The scheduled agenda is:   6:30 PM - 7:00 PM - Pizza/Social Networking/Announcements 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM - Main Topic: Getting Started with Entity Framework 4 with Dane Morgridge  Main Topic Description:  Getting Started with Entity Framework 4 With .Net 3.5 Microsoft release Linq to Sql and with .Net 3.5 SP1 came the Entity Framework, both powerful ORM tools leveraging Linq technology.   Entity Framework v1, while usable, was definitely lacking some important features and the Entity Framework team delivered with version 4 coming with Visual Studio 2010.  In this session we will look at Entity Framework 4 from the ground level and you will get a solid understanding of it basic principles.  We will also go through all of the new features in Entity Framework 4 and see how far it’s come since the initial release.  If you’ve never taken a look at Entity Framework, now is the time as version 4 is the real deal. Speaker Bio: Dane Morgridge has been a developer for 9+ years and has worked with .Net & C# since the first public beta. His current passions are Entity Framework, WPF, WCF, Silverlight and LINQ. He works mostly with C#, but is also a big fan of whatever new technology he happens to come across. In addition to software development, he is the host of the Community Megaphone Podcast and also enjoys dabbling in graphic design, video special effects and hockey. When not with his family he is usually learning some new technology or working on some side projects. He is currently working as the Development Manager & Architect at Roska Direct in Montgomeryville, PA.  He can be reached through is blog http://geekswithblogs.net/danemorgridge or on Twitter @danemorgridge.  8:30 PM - 8:45 PM – RAFFLE! Please join us and get involved in our .NET developers community!

    Read the article

  • CodePlex Daily Summary for Tuesday, November 15, 2011

    CodePlex Daily Summary for Tuesday, November 15, 2011Popular ReleasesTHE NVL Maker: The NVL Maker Ver 3.10: 3.10 ??? ???: ·????????? ·????????? ·???“TJS”?“??”“EXP”?????“???”,???????? ·???“????”???,???????@if~@elsif~@else~@endif????? ·TJS????????? ·???????????else?endif??? ??: ·???FantasyDR?????????Wizard.exe(?????:http://code.google.com/p/nvlmaker-wizard/) ·KAGConfigEx2.exe??(?????:http://kcddp.keyfc.net/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=1374&extra=page%3D1) ·??????????skin??? ????: ·mapbutton????EXP??(??macro_map.ks) ·??????????AnimPlayer.ks?system????(??????AnimPlayer.ks???macro.ks) ·??????????????,?????...CreateHandouts: Latest Version: Latest VersionSQL Monitor - tracking sql server activities: SQLMon 4.1 alpha2: 1. improved object search, escape special characters, support search histories, and remember search option. 2. allow user to set connection time out. 3. allow user to drag & drop sql text or file to editors.SCCM Client Actions Tool: SCCM Client Actions Tool v0.8: SCCM Client Actions Tool v0.8 is currently the latest version. It comes with following changes since last version: Added "Wake On LAN" action. WOL.EXE is now included. Added new action "Get all active advertisements" to list all machine based advertisements on remote computers. Added new action "Get all active user advertisements" to list all user based advertisements for logged on users on remote computers. Added config.ini setting "enablePingTest" to control whether ping test is ru...Windows Azure SDK for PHP: Windows Azure SDK for PHP v4.0.4: INSTALLATION Windows Azure SDK for PHP requires no special installation steps. Simply download the SDK, extract it to the folder you would like to keep it in, and add the library directory to your PHP include_path. INSTALLATION VIA PEAR Maarten Balliauw provides an unofficial PEAR channel via http://www.pearplex.net. Here's how to use it: New installation: pear channel-discover pear.pearplex.net pear install pearplex/PHPAzure Or if you've already installed PHPAzure before: pear upgrade p...QuickGraph, Graph Data Structures And Algorithms for .Net: 3.6.61116.0: Portable library build that allows to use QuickGraph in any .NET environment: .net 4.0, silverlight 4.0, WP7, Win8 Metro apps.Devpad: 4.7: Whats new for Devpad 4.7: New export to Rich Text New export to FlowDocument Minor Bug Fix's, improvements and speed upsWeapsy: 0.4.1 Alpha: Edit Text bug fixedDesktop Google Reader: 1.4.2: This release remove the like and the broadcast buttons as Google Reader stopped supporting them (no, we don't like this decission...) Additionally and to have at least a small plus: the login window now automaitcally logs you in if you stored username and passwort (no more extra click needed) Finally added WebKit .NET to the about window and removed Awesomium MD5-Hash: 5fccf25a2fb4fecc1dc77ebabc8d3897 SHA-Hash: d44ff788b123bd33596ad1a75f3b9fa74a862fdbFluent Validation for .NET: 3.2: Changes since 3.1: Fixed issue #7084 (NotEmptyValidator does not work with EntityCollection<T>) Fixed issue #7087 (AbstractValidator.Custom ignores RuleSets and always runs) Removed support for WP7 for now as it doesn't support co/contravariance without crashing.RDRemote: Remote Desktop remote configurator V 1.0.0: Remote Desktop remote configurator V 1.0.0Rawr: Rawr 4.2.7: This is the Downloadable WPF version of Rawr!For web-based version see http://elitistjerks.com/rawr.php You can find the version notes at: http://rawr.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=VersionNotes Rawr AddonWe now have a Rawr Official Addon for in-game exporting and importing of character data hosted on Curse. The Addon does not perform calculations like Rawr, it simply shows your exported Rawr data in wow tooltips and lets you export your character to Rawr (including bag and bank items) like Char...VidCoder: 1.2.2: Updated Handbrake core to svn 4344. Fixed the 6-channel discrete mixdown option not appearing for AAC encoders. Added handling for possible exceptions when copying to the clipboard, added retries and message when it fails. Fixed issue with audio bitrate UI not appearing sometimes when switching audio encoders. Added extra checks to protect against reported crashes. Added code to upgrade encoding profiles on old queued items.Media Companion: MC 3.422b Weekly: Ensure .NET 4.0 Full Framework is installed. (Available from http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=17718) Ensure the NFO ID fix is applied when transitioning from versions prior to 3.416b. (Details here) TV Show Resolutions... Made the TV Shows folder list sorted. Re-visibled 'Manually Add Path' in Root Folders. Sorted list to process during new tv episode search Rebuild Movies now processes thru folders alphabetically Fix for issue #208 - Display Missing Episodes is not popu...DotSpatial: DotSpatial Release Candidate 1 (1.0.823): Supports loading extensions using System.ComponentModel.Composition. DemoMap compiled as x86 so that GDAL runs on x64 machines. How to: Use an Assembly from the WebBe aware that your browser may add an identifier to downloaded files which results in "blocked" dll files. You can follow the following link to learn how to "Unblock" files. Right click on the zip file before unzipping, choose properties, go to the general tab and click the unblock button. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library...XPath Visualizer: XPathVisualizer v1.3 Latest: This is v1.3.0.6 of XpathVisualizer. This is an update release for v1.3. These workitems have been fixed since v1.3.0.5: 7429 7432 7427MSBuild Extension Pack: November 2011: Release Blog Post The MSBuild Extension Pack November 2011 release provides a collection of over 415 MSBuild tasks. A high level summary of what the tasks currently cover includes the following: System Items: Active Directory, Certificates, COM+, Console, Date and Time, Drives, Environment Variables, Event Logs, Files and Folders, FTP, GAC, Network, Performance Counters, Registry, Services, Sound Code: Assemblies, AsyncExec, CAB Files, Code Signing, DynamicExecute, File Detokenisation, GU...Extensions for Reactive Extensions (Rxx): Rxx 1.2: What's NewRelated Work Items Please read the latest release notes for details about what's new. Content SummaryRxx provides the following features. See the Documentation for details. Many IObservable<T> extension methods and IEnumerable<T> extension methods. Many useful types such as ViewModel, CommandSubject, ListSubject, DictionarySubject, ObservableDynamicObject, Either<TLeft, TRight>, Maybe<T> and others. Various interactive labs that illustrate the runtime behavior of the extensio...Facebook C# SDK: v5.3.2: This is a RTW release which adds new features and bug fixes to v5.2.1. Query/QueryAsync methods uses graph api instead of legacy rest api. removed dependency from Code Contracts enabled Task Parallel Support in .NET 4.0+ (experimental) added support for early preview for .NET 4.5 (binaries not distributed in codeplex nor nuget.org, will need to manually build from Facebook-Net45.sln) added additional method overloads for .NET 4.5 to support IProgress<T> for upload progress added ne...Delete Inactive TS Ports: List and delete the Inactive TS Ports: UPDATEAdded support for windows 2003 servers and removed some null reference errors when the registry key was not present List and delete the Inactive TS Ports - The InactiveTSPortList.EXE accepts command line arguments The InactiveTSPortList.Standalone.WithoutPrompt.exe runs as a standalone exe without the need for any command line arguments.New ProjectsAFNC: testArithmetics: arithmetics for silverlight use note pattern by time streamAzon.Library: A collection of extensions, static helpers, AOP attributes. More will added as the project will go on.Chat TextBlock Control: A windows phone 7.1 control Resemble those chat balloon textblocks in the SMS appDiamond Framework: Diamond Framework an Common framework for Diamond Group.DNN Social Helpers: DNN Social HelpersDragon: DragonEasy Video Cropper: A simple application to make cropping videos easy for anyone. - Automatically detects black lines - Uses FFMPEGFluent Resource Mapper: This project aims to develop a framework to assist the internationalization of software using the paradigm Convetion over Configuration.Fully Observable: This project is to create an improved set of observable collections. It provides notifications for when items inside the collection change as well as when the collection itself changes.grpcmnq: no summary at allMathTool: Math tool for silverlight we plan will heve three point .matrix .differential equation .equation of locusnopCommerce Buckaroo payment provider plugin: This is a payment provider plugin for the dutch payment provider BUCKAROO. This plugin is developed and tested for nopCommerce version 2+ Phoenix MVVM+C Framework: Phoenix MVVM+C Framework PowerLib: PowerLib extends system .net library.RDRemote: This utility allows to enable the Remote Desktop connections from a remote computer using WMI.Sencha Touch Mini Workflow Framework: A workflow framework for Sencha Touch mobile apps including automatic component management ShWP: helper library for Windows PhoneTimer, Cronômetro e Despertador: Projeto desenvolvido no curso de extensão de C# da UFSCar SorocabaUtilityLibrary.Ajax: AjaxUtilityLibrary.Email: emailUtilityLibrary.FormBase: UtilityLibrary.FormBaseUtilityLibrary.Http: UtilityLibrary for HttpWebRequestUtilityLibrary.Ormapping: ormappingVoiceModel: VoiceModel is a project which make it easier to develop VoiceXML applications using ASP.Net MVC with Razor. It uses the MVVM (Model-View-VoiceModel) design pattern to abstract the voice application to a higher level. It is developed in C# and Razor.WebSite.Request: WebSite.Request launch web request (via XMLHTTP) on website. Use, for example, to make initial request to sharepoint URL and escape "slow first request" problem.Where's my lei, man?: Where's my lei, man?Zombsquare: Aplicación de ejemplo para Windows Phone utilizada en el Windows Phone Roadshow realizado en España en 2011, en esta solución podras encontra ejemplos de: -Diseño en Blend -BingMaps -GeoLocalizacion -Realidad Aumentada -Converters -Mini-trivial -Serialización de objetos ... resistir un apocalipsis Zombie...

    Read the article

  • Customize the Windows Media Center Start Menu with Media Center Studio

    - by DigitalGeekery
    Do you ever wish you could change the WMC start menu? Maybe move some of the tiles and strips around to different locations, add new ones, or eliminate some altogether? Today we look at how to do it using Media Center Studio. Download and install Media Center Studio. (Download link below) You’ll also want to make sure you have Windows Media Center closed before running Media Center Studio. Many of the actions cannot be performed with Media Center open. Once installed, you can open Media Center Studio from the Windows Start Menu. When you first open Media Center Studio you’ll be on the Themes tab. Click on the Start Menu tab. It should be noted that Media Center Studio is a Beta application, and it did crash on us a few times, so it’s a good idea to save your work frequently. You can save your changes by selecting Save on the Home tab, or by clicking the small disk icon at the top left. We also found that that trying to launch Media Center from the Start Media Center button on the application ribbon typically didn’t work. Opening Windows Media Center from the Windows Start Menu is preferred.   When you’re on the Start Menu tab you will see the Windows Media Center menu strips and tiles. Click the arrows located at the right, left, top, and bottom of the screen to scroll through the various menu strips.   Hiding and Removing Tiles and Menu Strips. If there is an entire menu strip that you never use and would like to remove from Media Center, simply uncheck the box to the left of the the title above that menu strip. If you’d like to hide individual tiles, uncheck the box next to the name of the individual tile. Renaming Tiles and Strips To rename a tile or menu strip, click on the small notepad icon next to the title. Note: If you do not see a small notepad icon next to the title, then the title is not editable. This applies to many of the “Promo” tiles. The title will turn into a text input box so that you can edit the name. Click away from the text box when finished. Here we will change the title of the default Movie strip to “Flicks.” Change the Default Tile and Menu Strip The Default menu strip is the strip that is highlighted, or on focus, when you open Media Center.   To change the default strip, simply click once on another strip to highlight it, and then save your work. In our example, I’m going to make our newly renamed “Flicks” strip the default.   Each menu strip has a default tile. This is the tile that is active, or on focus, when you select the menu strip. To change the default tile on a strip, click once on the tile. You will see it outlined in light blue. Now just simply save your changes. In our example below, we’ve changed the default tile on the TV strip to “guide.”   Moving Tiles and Menu Strips You can move an entire Menu Strip up or down on the screen. When you hover your mouse over the a menu strip, you will see up and down arrows appear to the right and left of the title. Click on the arrows to move the strip up or down.   You will see the menu strip appear in it’s new position.   To move a tile to a new menu strip, click and drag the tile you’d like to move. When you begin to drag the tile, green plus (+) signs will appear in between the tiles. Drag and drop the tile onto to any of these green plus signs to move it to that location. When you’ve dragged the tile over an acceptable position, you’ll see the  red “Move” label next to your cursor turn to a blue “Move to” label. Now you can drop the tile into position. You’ll see the tile located in it’s new position.   Adding a New Custom Menu Strip Click on the Start Menu tab and then select the Menu Strip button.   You will see a new Custom Menu strip appear on your Start Menu with the default name of Custom menu. You can change the name by clicking on the notepad icon just as we did earlier. For our example, we’ll change the name of the new strip to Add-ins. To add a new tile, click on Entry Points at the lower left of the application window. This will reveal all of your available Entry Points that can be added to the Media Center Menu. You should see the built-in Media Center Games and any Media Center Plug-ins you have added to your system. You can then drag and drop any of the Entry Points onto any of the Menu Strips. Below we’ve added Media Browser to our custom Add-ins menu strip. You can also add additional applications to launch directly from Media Center. Click on the Application button on the Start Menu tab. Note: Many applications may not work with your remote, but with keyboard and mouse only.    Type in a title which will appear under the tile in Media Center, and then type the path to the application. In our example, we will add Internet Explorer 8. Note: Be sure to add the actual path to the application and not just a link on the desktop. Click any of the check boxes to select any options under Required Capabilities. You can also browse to choose an image if you don’t care for the image that appears automatically.   Next, you can select keyboard strokes to press to exit the application and return to Media Center. Click the green plus (+) button. When prompted, press a key you’ll use to close the program. Repeat the process if you’d also like to select a keystroke to kill the program.   You’ll see your button programs listed below. When you’re finished, save your work and close out of Media Center Studio.   Now your new program entry point will appear in the Entry Points section. Drag the icon to the desired position on the Start Menu and save again before exiting Media Center Studio. When you open Media Center you will see your new application on the start menu. Click the tile to open the application just as you would any other tile. The application will open and minimize Media Center. When you press the key you choose to close the program, Windows Media Center will automatically be restored. Note: You can also exit the application through normal methods by clicking the red “X” or File > Exit. Conclusion Media Center Studio is a Beta application which the developer freely admits still has some bugs. Despite it’s flaws Media Center Studio is a powerful tool, and when it comes to customizing your Media Center start menu, it’s pretty much the only game in town. It works with both Vista and Windows 7, and according to the developer, has not been officially tested with extenders. Media Center Studio can also be used to add custom themes to Windows 7 Media Center and we’ll be covering that in a future article. Looking for more ways to customize your Media Center experience? Be sure to check out our earlier posts on Media Browser, as well as how to add Hulu, Boxee, and weather conditions your Windows 7 Media Center. Download Media Center Studio Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Using Netflix Watchnow in Windows Vista Media Center (Gmedia)How To Rip a Music CD in Windows 7 Media CenterSchedule Updates for Windows Media CenterStartup Customizations for Media Center in Windows 7Automatically Start Windows 7 Media Center in Live TV Mode TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Acronis Online Backup DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows Video Toolbox is a Superb Online Video Editor Fun with 47 charts and graphs Tomorrow is Mother’s Day Check the Average Speed of YouTube Videos You’ve Watched OutlookStatView Scans and Displays General Usage Statistics How to Add Exceptions to the Windows Firewall

    Read the article

  • Communication Between Your PC and Azure VM via Windows Azure Connect

    - by Shaun
    With the new release of the Windows Azure platform there are a lot of new features available. In my previous post I introduced a little bit about one of them, the remote desktop access to azure virtual machine. Now I would like to talk about another cool stuff – Windows Azure Connect.   What’s Windows Azure Connect I would like to quote the definition of the Windows Azure Connect in MSDN With Windows Azure Connect, you can use a simple user interface to configure IP-sec protected connections between computers or virtual machines (VMs) in your organization’s network, and roles running in Windows Azure. IP-sec protects communications over Internet Protocol (IP) networks through the use of cryptographic security services. There’s an image available at the MSDN as well that I would like to forward here As we can see, using the Windows Azure Connect the Worker Role 1 and Web Role 1 are connected with the development machines and database servers which some of them are inside the organization some are not. With the Windows Azure Connect, the roles deployed on the cloud could consume the resource which located inside our Intranet or anywhere in the world. That means the roles can connect to the local database, access the local shared resource such as share files, folders and printers, etc.   Difference between Windows Azure Connect and AppFabric It seems that the Windows Azure Connect are duplicated with the Windows Azure AppFabric. Both of them are aiming to solve the problem on how to communication between the resource in the cloud and inside the local network. The table below lists the differences in my understanding. Category Windows Azure Connect Windows Azure AppFabric Purpose An IP-sec connection between the local machines and azure roles. An application service running on the cloud. Connectivity IP-sec, Domain-joint Net Tcp, Http, Https Components Windows Azure Connect Driver Service Bus, Access Control, Caching Usage Azure roles connect to local database server Azure roles use local shared files,  folders and printers, etc. Azure roles join the local AD. Expose the local service to Internet. Move the authorization process to the cloud. Integrate with existing identities such as Live ID, Google ID, etc. with existing local services. Utilize the distributed cache.   And also some scenarios on which of them should be used. Scenario Connect AppFabric I have a service deployed in the Intranet and I want the people can use it from the Internet.   Y I have a website deployed on Azure and need to use a database which deployed inside the company. And I don’t want to expose the database to the Internet. Y   I have a service deployed in the Intranet and is using AD authorization. I have a website deployed on Azure which needs to use this service. Y   I have a service deployed in the Intranet and some people on the Internet can use it but need to be authorized and authenticated.   Y I have a service in Intranet, and a website deployed on Azure. This service can be used from Internet and that website should be able to use it as well by AD authorization for more functionalities. Y Y   How to Enable Windows Azure Connect OK we talked a lot information about the Windows Azure Connect and differences with the Windows Azure AppFabric. Now let’s see how to enable and use the Windows Azure Connect. First of all, since this feature is in CTP stage we should apply before use it. On the Windows Azure Portal we can see our CTP features status under Home, Beta Program page. You can send the apply to join the Beta Programs to Microsoft in this page. After a few days the Microsoft will send an email to you (the email of your Live ID) when it’s available. In my case we can see that the Windows Azure Connect had been activated by Microsoft and then we can click the Connect button on top, or we can click the Virtual Network item from the left navigation bar.   The first thing we need, if it’s our first time to enter the Connect page, is to enable the Windows Azure Connect. After that we can see our Windows Azure Connect information in this page.   Add a Local Machine to Azure Connect As we explained below the Windows Azure Connect can make an IP-sec connection between the local machines and azure role instances. So that we firstly add a local machine into our Azure Connect. To do this we will click the Install Local Endpoint button on top and then the portal will give us an URL. Copy this URL to the machine we want to add and it will download the software to us. This software will be installed in the local machines which we want to join the Connect. After installed there will be a tray-icon appeared to indicate this machine had been joint our Connect. The local application will be refreshed to the Windows Azure Platform every 5 minutes but we can click the Refresh button to let it retrieve the latest status at once. Currently my local machine is ready for connect and we can see my machine in the Windows Azure Portal if we switched back to the portal and selected back Activated Endpoints node.   Add a Windows Azure Role to Azure Connect Let’s create a very simple azure project with a basic ASP.NET web role inside. To make it available on Windows Azure Connect we will open the azure project property of this role from the solution explorer in the Visual Studio, and select the Virtual Network tab, check the Activate Windows Azure Connect. The next step is to get the activation token from the Windows Azure Portal. In the same page there is a button named Get Activation Token. Click this button then the portal will display the token to me. We copied this token and pasted to the box in the Visual Studio tab. Then we deployed this application to azure. After completed the deployment we can see the role instance was listed in the Windows Azure Portal - Virtual Connect section.   Establish the Connect Group The final task is to create a connect group which contains the machines and role instances need to be connected each other. This can be done in the portal very easy. The machines and instances will NOT be connected until we created the group for them. The machines and instances can be used in one or more groups. In the Virtual Connect section click the Groups and Roles node from the left side navigation bar and clicked the Create Group button on top. This will bring up a dialog to us. What we need to do is to specify a group name, description; and then we need to select the local computers and azure role instances into this group. After the Azure Fabric updated the group setting we can see the groups and the endpoints in the page. And if we switch back to the local machine we can see that the tray-icon have been changed and the status turned connected. The Windows Azure Connect will update the group information every 5 minutes. If you find the status was still in Disconnected please right-click the tray-icon and select the Refresh menu to retrieve the latest group policy to make it connected.   Test the Azure Connect between the Local Machine and the Azure Role Instance Now our local machine and azure role instance had been connected. This means each of them can communication to others in IP level. For example we can open the SQL Server port so that our azure role can connect to it by using the machine name or the IP address. The Windows Azure Connect uses IPv6 to connect between the local machines and role instances. You can get the IP address from the Windows Azure Portal Virtual Network section when select an endpoint. I don’t want to take a full example for how to use the Connect but would like to have two very simple tests. The first one would be PING.   When a local machine and role instance are connected through the Windows Azure Connect we can PING any of them if we opened the ICMP protocol in the Filewall setting. To do this we need to run a command line before test. Open the command window on the local machine and the role instance, execute the command as following netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="ICMPv6" dir=in action=allow enable=yes protocol=icmpv6 Thanks to Jason Chen, Patriek van Dorp, Anton Staykov and Steve Marx, they helped me to enable  the ICMPv6 setting. For the full discussion we made please visit here. You can use the Remote Desktop Access feature to logon the azure role instance. Please refer my previous blog post to get to know how to use the Remote Desktop Access in Windows Azure. Then we can PING the machine or the role instance by specifying its name. Below is the screen I PING my local machine from my azure instance. We can use the IPv6 address to PING each other as well. Like the image following I PING to my role instance from my local machine thought the IPv6 address.   Another example I would like to demonstrate here is folder sharing. I shared a folder in my local machine and then if we logged on the role instance we can see the folder content from the file explorer window.   Summary In this blog post I introduced about another new feature – Windows Azure Connect. With this feature our local resources and role instances (virtual machines) can be connected to each other. In this way we can make our azure application using our local stuff such as database servers, printers, etc. without expose them to Internet.   Hope this helps, Shaun All documents and related graphics, codes are provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind. Copyright © Shaun Ziyan Xu. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons License.

    Read the article

  • How Star Wars Changed the World [Infographic]

    - by ETC
    The Star Wars film franchise has had an enormous impact on the world of film, gaming, and special effects. Check out this interesting infographic to see how Star Wars has impacted the world. Created by Michelle Devereau, the “How Star Wars Changed the World” infographic is a massive under taking of charting and cross-referencing. It does an excellent job highlighting the impact the Star Wars films have had on film, television, gaming, and the surrounding technologies. At minimum you’ll nail down some new trivia (I learned, for example, that famed puppeteer and voice actor Frank Oz was the man behind Yoda), even better you’ll have an appreciate for what a sweeping effect Star Wars has had. For readers behind finicky firewalls, click here to view a local mirror of the image. How Star Wars Changed the World [Daily Infographic] Latest Features How-To Geek ETC Should You Delete Windows 7 Service Pack Backup Files to Save Space? What Can Super Mario Teach Us About Graphics Technology? Windows 7 Service Pack 1 is Released: But Should You Install It? How To Make Hundreds of Complex Photo Edits in Seconds With Photoshop Actions How to Enable User-Specific Wireless Networks in Windows 7 How to Use Google Chrome as Your Default PDF Reader (the Easy Way) Reclaim Vertical UI Space by Moving Your Tabs to the Side in Firefox Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles – An Awesome Game for Linux and Windows How Star Wars Changed the World [Infographic] Tabs Visual Manager Adds Thumbnailed Tab Switching to Chrome Daisies and Rye Swaying in the Summer Wind Wallpaper Read On Phone Pushes Data from Your Desktop to the Appropriate Android App

    Read the article

  • 10 Useful CSS Tips And Tutorials

    - by Jyoti
    CSS is a technology that web designers use everyday, but yet it is something that most struggle with as well. Whether it’s keeping stylesheets for large sites manageable or creating image effects that are cross browser compatible, there are plenty of things to cause frustration. This article is an attempt to provide you with a few resources that might help you with your CSS or introduce you to a few tricks you didn’t know about. Organizing Your Stylesheet Using CSS Edit: Rob Soule of Viget Labs shows you how to organize your style sheets using CSS Edit, a powerful CSS editor built exclusively for the mac. Tips For Organizing Your CSS: A set of practical tips for organizing your style sheets. Write A Well Structured CSS File: A detailed and well written post about how to write a well structured CSS file. Expandable CSS Tabs Tutorials: A tutorial on creating expandable CSS tabs. Simple Round CSS Buttons: Learn how to create rounded corner buttons with only One Image and One CSS file. Beautiful CSS Buttons With Icons Set: Learn how to create a clean set of buttons with CSS and an icon set. Scalable CSS Buttons Using PNG And Background Colors: Create Resizing Thumbnails Using Overflow Property: Learn how to create a cool resizing thumbnail effect. CSS Decorative Gallery: Decorate your images and photo galleries without editing the source images. Placing Text Over Image Using CSS Position Property: A simple technique for placing text over an image.

    Read the article

  • Photoshop Retro Vintage Design Tutorials

    - by Aditi
    Gone are the days when designers only wanted to create high glossy web2.0 gradient rich website designs. Now a days designers are coming up with rugged, retro & vintage themes for their website designs. Colorful or subtle with that worn out look the website seems like a masterpiece. It is not hard to pick up on such Photoshop techniques to master the art of making themes that are retro & vibrant. We have complied a list of tutorials you would like to learn from..rest is in your hands & creativity. Photochrom Vintage Postcard effect Turn your high definition photos into vintage postcards and use them in your website concepts. Learn More Add Retro Look to your Images Give that 1970’s retro look to your images and web concepts. It’s a very easy process using either patterns, brushes, colors or gradients, layer modes and variable opacity. Learn More Brushed metal effect, Just like World War Airplanes texture This is one of a kind photoshop tutorial that teaches how to use  noise and blur filters to create a brushed metal effect unlike other gradient based effects, Also it covers a few layer styles to create airplane graphic. Learn More Transform a New Image into Illustration, Retro Poster Style With the help of this tutorial you can create brilliant poster style or illustrative images and concepts for your new website. This tutorial is superb example of image enhancement & creative use of blending options in photoshop. Learn More Retro Neon Style Text Tutorial Just like the old days, the rainbow neon curvy text format that can be seen on many posters etc, can now be made for your use on website. This tutorial gives you a easy step by step procedure. Learn More Retro Dotted Photo Tutorial Find how to make a dotted poster of your image, pure retro feel. Learn More

    Read the article

  • SQL SERVER – Concurrency Basics – Guest Post by Vinod Kumar

    - by pinaldave
    This guest post is by Vinod Kumar. Vinod Kumar has worked with SQL Server extensively since joining the industry over a decade ago. Working on various versions from SQL Server 7.0, Oracle 7.3 and other database technologies – he now works with the Microsoft Technology Center (MTC) as a Technology Architect. Let us read the blog post in Vinod’s own voice. Learning is always fun when it comes to SQL Server and learning the basics again can be more fun. I did write about Transaction Logs and recovery over my blogs and the concept of simplifying the basics is a challenge. In the real world we always see checks and queues for a process – say railway reservation, banks, customer supports etc there is a process of line and queue to facilitate everyone. Shorter the queue higher is the efficiency of system (a.k.a higher is the concurrency). Every database does implement this using checks like locking, blocking mechanisms and they implement the standards in a way to facilitate higher concurrency. In this post, let us talk about the topic of Concurrency and what are the various aspects that one needs to know about concurrency inside SQL Server. Let us learn the concepts as one-liners: Concurrency can be defined as the ability of multiple processes to access or change shared data at the same time. The greater the number of concurrent user processes that can be active without interfering with each other, the greater the concurrency of the database system. Concurrency is reduced when a process that is changing data prevents other processes from reading that data or when a process that is reading data prevents other processes from changing that data. Concurrency is also affected when multiple processes are attempting to change the same data simultaneously. Two approaches to managing concurrent data access: Optimistic Concurrency Model Pessimistic Concurrency Model Concurrency Models Pessimistic Concurrency Default behavior: acquire locks to block access to data that another process is using. Assumes that enough data modification operations are in the system that any given read operation is likely affected by a data modification made by another user (assumes conflicts will occur). Avoids conflicts by acquiring a lock on data being read so no other processes can modify that data. Also acquires locks on data being modified so no other processes can access the data for either reading or modifying. Readers block writer, writers block readers and writers. Optimistic Concurrency Assumes that there are sufficiently few conflicting data modification operations in the system that any single transaction is unlikely to modify data that another transaction is modifying. Default behavior of optimistic concurrency is to use row versioning to allow data readers to see the state of the data before the modification occurs. Older versions of the data are saved so a process reading data can see the data as it was when the process started reading and not affected by any changes being made to that data. Processes modifying the data is unaffected by processes reading the data because the reader is accessing a saved version of the data rows. Readers do not block writers and writers do not block readers, but, writers can and will block writers. Transaction Processing A transaction is the basic unit of work in SQL Server. Transaction consists of SQL commands that read and update the database but the update is not considered final until a COMMIT command is issued (at least for an explicit transaction: marked with a BEGIN TRAN and the end is marked by a COMMIT TRAN or ROLLBACK TRAN). Transactions must exhibit all the ACID properties of a transaction. ACID Properties Transaction processing must guarantee the consistency and recoverability of SQL Server databases. Ensures all transactions are performed as a single unit of work regardless of hardware or system failure. A – Atomicity C – Consistency I – Isolation D- Durability Atomicity: Each transaction is treated as all or nothing – it either commits or aborts. Consistency: ensures that a transaction won’t allow the system to arrive at an incorrect logical state – the data must always be logically correct.  Consistency is honored even in the event of a system failure. Isolation: separates concurrent transactions from the updates of other incomplete transactions. SQL Server accomplishes isolation among transactions by locking data or creating row versions. Durability: After a transaction commits, the durability property ensures that the effects of the transaction persist even if a system failure occurs. If a system failure occurs while a transaction is in progress, the transaction is completely undone, leaving no partial effects on data. Transaction Dependencies In addition to supporting all four ACID properties, a transaction might exhibit few other behaviors (known as dependency problems or consistency problems). Lost Updates: Occur when two processes read the same data and both manipulate the data, changing its value and then both try to update the original data to the new value. The second process might overwrite the first update completely. Dirty Reads: Occurs when a process reads uncommitted data. If one process has changed data but not yet committed the change, another process reading the data will read it in an inconsistent state. Non-repeatable Reads: A read is non-repeatable if a process might get different values when reading the same data in two reads within the same transaction. This can happen when another process changes the data in between the reads that the first process is doing. Phantoms: Occurs when membership in a set changes. It occurs if two SELECT operations using the same predicate in the same transaction return a different number of rows. Isolation Levels SQL Server supports 5 isolation levels that control the behavior of read operations. Read Uncommitted All behaviors except for lost updates are possible. Implemented by allowing the read operations to not take any locks, and because of this, it won’t be blocked by conflicting locks acquired by other processes. The process can read data that another process has modified but not yet committed. When using the read uncommitted isolation level and scanning an entire table, SQL Server can decide to do an allocation order scan (in page-number order) instead of a logical order scan (following page pointers). If another process doing concurrent operations changes data and move rows to a new location in the table, the allocation order scan can end up reading the same row twice. Also can happen if you have read a row before it is updated and then an update moves the row to a higher page number than your scan encounters later. Performing an allocation order scan under Read Uncommitted can cause you to miss a row completely – can happen when a row on a high page number that hasn’t been read yet is updated and moved to a lower page number that has already been read. Read Committed Two varieties of read committed isolation: optimistic and pessimistic (default). Ensures that a read never reads data that another application hasn’t committed. If another transaction is updating data and has exclusive locks on data, your transaction will have to wait for the locks to be released. Your transaction must put share locks on data that are visited, which means that data might be unavailable for others to use. A share lock doesn’t prevent others from reading but prevents them from updating. Read committed (snapshot) ensures that an operation never reads uncommitted data, but not by forcing other processes to wait. SQL Server generates a version of the changed row with its previous committed values. Data being changed is still locked but other processes can see the previous versions of the data as it was before the update operation began. Repeatable Read This is a Pessimistic isolation level. Ensures that if a transaction revisits data or a query is reissued the data doesn’t change. That is, issuing the same query twice within a transaction cannot pickup any changes to data values made by another user’s transaction because no changes can be made by other transactions. However, this does allow phantom rows to appear. Preventing non-repeatable read is a desirable safeguard but cost is that all shared locks in a transaction must be held until the completion of the transaction. Snapshot Snapshot Isolation (SI) is an optimistic isolation level. Allows for processes to read older versions of committed data if the current version is locked. Difference between snapshot and read committed has to do with how old the older versions have to be. It’s possible to have two transactions executing simultaneously that give us a result that is not possible in any serial execution. Serializable This is the strongest of the pessimistic isolation level. Adds to repeatable read isolation level by ensuring that if a query is reissued rows were not added in the interim, i.e, phantoms do not appear. Preventing phantoms is another desirable safeguard, but cost of this extra safeguard is similar to that of repeatable read – all shared locks in a transaction must be held until the transaction completes. In addition serializable isolation level requires that you lock data that has been read but also data that doesn’t exist. Ex: if a SELECT returned no rows, you want it to return no. rows when the query is reissued. This is implemented in SQL Server by a special kind of lock called the key-range lock. Key-range locks require that there be an index on the column that defines the range of values. If there is no index on the column, serializable isolation requires a table lock. Gets its name from the fact that running multiple serializable transactions at the same time is equivalent of running them one at a time. Now that we understand the basics of what concurrency is, the subsequent blog posts will try to bring out the basics around locking, blocking, deadlocks because they are the fundamental blocks that make concurrency possible. Now if you are with me – let us continue learning for SQL Server Locking Basics. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Performance, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology Tagged: Concurrency

    Read the article

  • Java Spotlight Episode 75: Greg Luck on JSR 107 Java Temporary Caching API

    - by Roger Brinkley
    Tweet Recorded live at Jfokus 2012, an interview with Greg Luck on JSR 107 Java Temporary Caching API. Joining us this week on the Java All Star Developer Panel is Alexis Moussine-Pouchkine, Java EE Developer Advocate. Right-click or Control-click to download this MP3 file. You can also subscribe to the Java Spotlight Podcast Feed to get the latest podcast automatically. If you use iTunes you can open iTunes and subscribe with this link:  Java Spotlight Podcast in iTunes. Show Notes News JavaOne 2012 call for papers is open (closes April 9th) LightFish, Adam Bien's lightweight telemetry application Java EE 6 sample code JavaFX 1.2 and 1.3 EOL Repeating Annotations in the Works Events March 26-29, EclipseCon, Reston, USA March 27, Virtual Developer Days - Java (Asia Pacific (English)),9:30 am to 2:00pm IST / 12:00pm to 4.30pm SGT  / 3.00pm - 7.30pm AEDT April 4-5, JavaOne Japan, Tokyo, Japan April 12, GreenJUG, Greenville, SC April 17-18, JavaOne Russia, Moscow Russia April 18–20, Devoxx France, Paris, France April 26, Mix-IT, Lyon, France, May 3-4, JavaOne India, Hyderabad, India Feature Interview Greg Luck founded Ehcache in 2003. He regularly speaks at conferences, writes and codes. He has also founded and maintains the JPam and Spnego open source projects, which are security focused. Prior to joining Terracotta in 2009, Greg was Chief Architect at Wotif.com where he provided technical leadership as the company went from a single product startup to a billion dollar public company with multiple product lines. Before that Greg was a consultant for ThoughtWorks with engagements in the US and Australia in the travel, health care, geospatial, banking and insurance industries. Before doing programming, Greg managed IT. He was CIO at Virgin Blue, Tempo Services, Stamford Hotels and Resorts and Australian Resorts. He is a Chartered Accountant, and spent 7 years with KPMG in small business and insolvency. Mail Bag What’s Cool RT @harkje: To update an earlier tweet: #JavaFX feels like Swing with added convenience methods, better looking widgets, nice effects and...

    Read the article

< Previous Page | 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265  | Next Page >