Search Results

Search found 11954 results on 479 pages for 'gets'.

Page 296/479 | < Previous Page | 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303  | Next Page >

• Silverlight Cream for April 11, 2010 -- #836

  - by Dave Campbell

  In this Issue: Rénald Nollet, Roboblob, Laurent Bugnion, Timmy Kokke, Michael Sync(-2-), Victor Gaudioso, and Bill Reiss. Brought to you from a tiny table in my no-tell-motelTM in 'Vegas AKA "cheaper than anywhere else" and the WiFi is free and smokin'... From SilverlightCream.com: Sync your Silverlight out-of-browser application data without service but with Dropbox Rénald Nollet is in good company (Walt Ritscher) because he's demo'ing synching OOB apps with dropbox. Unit Testable WCF Web Services in MVVM and Silverlight 4 Roboblob is discussing calling WCF Web Services from a Silverlight MVVM app... something he's been avoiding up to now. Good long code and text-filled article, with the project to download. Using commands with ApplicationBarMenuItem and ApplicationBarButton in Windows Phone 7 I almost missed this post by Laurent Bugnion, on how to get around the problem of not being able to attach commands to the ApplicationBarMenuItem and ApplicationBarButton in WP7. He gets around it with (gasp) code behind :) Introducing jLight – Talking to the DOM using Silverlight and jQuery. Oh boy... if you haven't been using jQuery yet, this should get it going for you... Timmy Kokke has produced jLight which brings jQuery into Silverlight for ease of DOM interaction... and it's on CodePlex! Test-Driven Development in Windows Phone7 – Part 1: Unit Testing with Silverlight for Phone7 Michael Sync's starting a series on TDD with Silverlight on WP7. Great tutorial and all the code is available. Tip: “Object reference not set to an instance of an object” Error in Silverlight for Windows Phone 7 Michael Sync also has a tip up for the resolution of an error we've all seen in all sorts of development, but now in WP7, and the workaround is deceptively simple. New Silverlight Video Tutorial: How to Create Gradients Victor Gaudioso has a new video tutorial up for creating gradients in Expression Blend... don't fumble around in Blend... learn from the master! Space Rocks game step 8: Hyperspace Bill Reiss is up to episode 8 in his Silverlight game series now... this latest is on Hyperspace ... don'cha wish you could just do that? My trip to 'Vegas would have been a lot faster :) Stay in the 'Light! Twitter SilverlightNews | Twitter WynApse | WynApse.com | Tagged Posts | SilverlightCream Join me @ SilverlightCream | Phoenix Silverlight User Group Technorati Tags: Silverlight    Silverlight 3    Silverlight 4    Windows Phone MIX10

  Read the article

• Idea to develop a caching server between IIS and SQL Server

  - by John

  I work on a few high traffic websites that all share the same database and that are all heavily database driven. Our SQL server is max-ed out and, although we have already implemented many changes that have helped but the server is still working too hard. We employ some caching in our website but the type of queries we use negate using SQL dependency caching. We tried SQL replication to try and kind of load balance but that didn't prove very successful because the replication process is quite demanding on the servers too and it needed to be done frequently as it is important that data is up to date. We do use a Varnish web caching server (Linux based) to take a bit of the load off both the web and database server but as a lot of the sites are customised based on the user we can only do so much. Anyway, the reason for this question... Varnish gave me an idea for a possible application that might help in this situation. Just like Varnish sits between a web browser and the web server and caches response from the web server, I was wondering about the possibility of creating something that sits between the web server and the database server. Imagine that all SQL queries go through this SQL caching server. If it's a first time query then it will get recorded, and the result requested from the SQL server and stored locally on the cache server. If it's a repeat request within a set time then the result gets retrieved from the local copy without the query being sent to the SQL server. The caching server could also take advantage of SQL dependency caching notifications. This seems like a good idea in theory. There's still the same amount of data moving back and forward from the web server, but the SQL server is relieved of the work of processing the repeat queries. I wonder about how difficult it would be to build a service that sort of emulates requests and responses from SQL server, whether SQL server's own caching is doing enough of this already that this wouldn't be a benefit, or even if someone has done this before and I haven't found it? I would welcome any feedback or any references to any relevant projects.

  Read the article

• Own a KINECT for MS-XBOX before anyone does

  Following is the announced by Richik Nandi from Microsoft team. Dear Customer, We believe that our privileged customers shouldn't have to wait for good things. So, here's a special offer exclusively for you. Be one of the first in India to own and experience Kinect for XBOX 360, few days before it is even launched in stores. Introducing the new Kinect for XBOX 360®. Kinect needs no controllers. You are the controller. Kinect brings games and entertainment to life in extraordinary new ways without using a controller. The sensor recognizes your face, eyes and body movements to deliver a superb gaming experience. Easy to use and great fun, Kinect gets everyone off the couch. See a ball? Kick it. Want to join a friend in the fun? Simply jump in. Imagine controlling movies and music with the wave of a hand or the sound of your voice! Kinect is all about fun for you and your family. And the best part is Kinect works with every Xbox 360®. There are two options you can choose from: •  Kinect sensor + 4GB Xbox 360 bundle + Kinect Adventures game at Rs 22,990/-and get Dance Central game worth Rs 1999 from Redington, 20% discount voucher from Starwood on food and beverages, T-shirt from PUMA and a Kinect adventure live card absolutely free using your unique promo code : XbTXXZl2Sb •  Kinect Sensor at Rs 9,500/-and get 20% discount voucher from Starwood on food and beverages, T-shirt from PUMA and a Kinect adventure live card absolutely free using your unique promo code : lDg6o8SuYh We want you to own your Kinect before the official launch. The promotion closes by 10th November. To know more about Kinect click here. To book your Kinect PRE-ORDER now! Enter your details along with the above mentioned promo code to avail of the free gifts offer. We will have your Kinect delivered by 19th November 2010. Enjoy being the controller. Enjoy the Kinect. span.fullpost {display:none;}

  Read the article

• Silverlight Cream for November 20, 2011 -- #1169

  - by Dave Campbell

  In this Issue: Andrea Boschin, Michael Crump, Michael Sync, WindowsPhoneGeek, Jesse Liberty, Derik Whittaker, Sumit Dutta, Jeff Blankenburg(-2-), and Beth Massi. Above the Fold: WP7: "Silver VNC 1.0 for Windows Phone "Mango"" Andrea Boschin Metro/WinRT/W8: "Lighting up your C# Metro apps by being a Share Source" Derik Whittaker LightSwitch: "Using the Save and Query Pipeline to “Archive” Deleted Records" Beth Massi Shoutouts: Michael Palermo's latest Desert Mountain Developers is up Michael Washington's latest Visual Studio #LightSwitch Daily is up From SilverlightCream.com: Silver VNC 1.0 for Windows Phone "Mango" Andrea Boschin published the first release of his "Silver VNC" version 1.0 on CodePlex. Check out the video on the blog post to see the capabilities, then go grab it from CodePlex. Fixing a broken toolbox (In Visual Studio 2010 SP1) Not Silverlight or Metro, but near to us all is Visual Studio... read how Michael Crump resolves the 'broken' toolbox that we all get now and then Windows Phone 7 – USB Device Not Recognized Error Michael Sync is looking for ideas about an error he gets any time he updates his phone. Windows Phone Toolkit MultiselectList in depth| Part2: Data Binding WindowsPhoneGeek has up the second part of his tutorial series on the MultiselectList from the Windows Phone Toolkit... this part is about data binding, complete with lots of code, discussion, pictures, and project to download New Mini-Tutorial Video Series Jesse Liberty started a new video series based on his Mango Mini tutorials. They will be on Channel 9, and he has a link on this post to the index. The firs of the series is on animation without code Lighting up your C# Metro apps by being a Share Source Derik Whittaker continues investigating Metro with this post about how to set your app up to share its content with other apps Part 21 - Windows Phone 7 - Toast Push Notification Sumit Dutta has part 21 of his WP7 series up and is talking about Toast Notification by creating a Windows form app for sending notifications to the WP7 app for viewing 31 Days of Mango | Day #6: Motion Jeff Blankenburg's Day 6 in his Mango series is about the Motion class which combines the data we get from the Accelerometer, Compass, and Gyroscope of the last couple days of posts 31 Days of Mango | Day #7: Raw Camera Data In Day 7, Jeff Blankenburg talks about the Camera on the WP7 and how to use the raw data in your own application Using the Save and Query Pipeline to “Archive” Deleted Records Beth Massi's latest LightSwith post is this one on tapping into the Save and Query pipelines to perform some data processing prior to saving or pulling data Stay in the 'Light! Twitter SilverlightNews | Twitter WynApse | WynApse.com | Tagged Posts | SilverlightCream Join me @ SilverlightCream | Phoenix Silverlight User Group Technorati Tags: Silverlight    Silverlight 3    Silverlight 4    Windows Phone MIX10

  Read the article

• clear explanation sought: throw() and stack unwinding

  - by Jerry Gagelman

  I'm not a programmer but have learned a lot watching others. I am writing wrapper classes to simplify things with a really technical API that I'm working with. Its routines return error codes, and I have a function that converts those to strings: static const char* LibErrString(int errno); For uniformity I decided to have member of my classes throw an exception when an error is encountered. I created a class: struct MyExcept : public std::exception { const char* errstr_; const char* what() const throw() {return errstr_;} MyExcept(const char* errstr) : errstr_(errstr) {} }; Then, in one of my classes: class Foo { public: void bar() { int err = SomeAPIRoutine(...); if (err != SUCCESS) throw MyExcept(LibErrString(err)); // otherwise... } }; The whole thing works perfectly: if SomeAPIRoutine returns an error, a try-catch block around the call to Foo::bar catches a standard exception with the correct error string in what(). Then I wanted the member to give more information: void Foo::bar() { char adieu[128]; int err = SomeAPIRoutine(...); if (err != SUCCESS) { std::strcpy(adieu,"In Foo::bar... "); std::strcat(adieu,LibErrString(err)); throw MyExcept((const char*)adieu); } // otherwise... } However, when SomeAPIRoutine returns an error, the what() string returned by the exception contains only garbage. It occurred to me that the problem could be due to adieu going out of scope once the throw is called. I changed the code by moving adieu out of the member definition and making it an attribute of the class Foo. After this, the whole thing worked perfectly: a try-call block around a call to Foo::bar that catches an exception has the correct (expanded) string in what(). Finally, my question: what exactly is popped off the stack (in sequence) when the exception is thrown in the if-block when the stack "unwinds?" As I mentioned above, I'm a mathematician, not a programmer. I could use a really lucid explanation of what goes onto the stack (in sequence) when this C++ gets converted into running machine code.

  Read the article

• OracleServiceBus+SOA in same server

  - by Manoj Neelapu

  Oracle Service Bus 11gR1 (11.1.1.3) supports running in same JVM as SOA. This tutorial covers on how to do create domain in of SOA+OSB combined to run in single JVM .For this tutorial we will use a flavor  WebLogic installer bundled with both OEPE and coherence components (eg oepe111150_wls1033_win32.exe). WebLogic installer bundled with coherence and OEPE components can be seen in the screen shot.Oracle Service Bus 11gR1 (11.1.1.3) has built-in caching support for Business Services using coherence. Because of this we will have to install coherence before  installing OSB.  To get SOAand OSB running in the same domain, we have to install the SOA and OSB on the above ORACLE_HOME. After installation we should see both the SOA and OSB homes has highlighted in red.We could also see the coherence components which is mandatory for OSB and optional OEPE also installed.                     Now we will execute RCU(ofm_rcu_win_11.1.1.3.0_disk1_1of1) to install the schema for SOA and OSB. New RCU contains OSB tables (WLI_QS_REPORT_DATA , WLI_QS_REPORT_ATTRIBUTE) gets loaded as part of SOAINFRA schema  After this step we will have to create soa+osb domain using config wizard. It is located under $WEBLOGIC_HOME\common\bin\config.* (.cmd or .sh as per your platform) .While creating a domain we will select options for SOA Suite  and Oracle Service Bus Extension-All Domain Topologies.We can also bundle Enterprise Manager in the same installation or in a different server. Here in this case we will use the enterprise manager in the same domain. So we selected the Enterprise Manager component also. There is another option for OSB  Oracle Service Bus Extension-Single server Domain Topology. This topology is for users who want to use OSB in single server configuration. Currently SOA doesn't support single server topology. So this topology cannot be used with SOA domain but can only be used for stand alone OSB installations.We can continue with domain configuration till we reach the below screen. Following steps are mandatory if we want to have the SOA and OSB run in same JVMwe should select Managed Server, Clusters and Machines as shown below   After this selection you should see a screen with two servers One managed server for OSB and one managed for SOA.  Since we would like to have both the servers in one managed server (one JVM) we will have to do one  

  Read the article

• Keep website and webservices warm with zero coding

  - by oazabir

  If you want to keep your websites or webservices warm and save user from seeing the long warm up time after an application pool recycle, or IIS restart or new code deployment or even windows restart, you can use the tinyget command line tool, that comes with IIS Resource Kit, to hit the site and services and keep them warm. Here’s how: First get tinyget from here. Download and install the IIS 6.0 Resource Kit on some PC. Then copy the tinyget.exe from “c:\program files…\IIS 6.0 ResourceKit\Tools'\tinyget” to the server where your IIS 6.0 or IIS 7 is running. Then create a batch file that will hit the pages and webservices. Something like this: SET TINYGET=C:\Program Files (x86)\IIS Resources\TinyGet\tinyget.exe"%TINYGET%" -srv:dropthings.omaralzabir.com -uri:http://dropthings.omaralzabir.com/ -status:200"%TINYGET%" -srv:dropthings.omaralzabir.com -uri:http://dropthings.omaralzabir.com/WidgetService.asmx?WSDL - status:200 First I am hitting the homepage to keep the webpage warm. Then I am hitting the webservice URL with ?WSDL parameter, which allows ASP.NET to compile the service if not already compiled and walk through all the operations and reflect on them and thus loading all related DLLs into memory and reducing the warmup time when hit. Tinyget gets the servers name or IP in the –srv parameter and then the actual URI in the –uri. I have specified what’s the HTTP response code to expect in –status parameter. It ensures the site is alive and is returning http 200 code. Besides just warming up a site, you can do some load test on the site. Tinyget can run in multiple threads and run loops to hit some URL. You can literally blow up a site with commands like this: "%TINYGET%" -threads:30 -loop:100 -srv:google.com -uri:http://www.google.com/ -status:200 Tinyget is also pretty useful to run automated tests. You can record http posts in a text file and then use it to make http posts to some page. Then you can put matching clause to check for certain string in the output to ensure the correct response is given. Thus with some simple command line commands, you can warm up, do some transactions, validate the site is giving off correct response as well as run a load test to ensure the server performing well. Very cheap way to get a lot done.

  Read the article

• How can I get my progress reviewed as a solo junior developer

  - by Oliver Hyde

  I am currently working for a 2 person company, as the solo primary developer. My boss gets the clients, mocks up some png design templates and hands them over to me. This system has been working fine and i'm really enjoying it. The types of projects I work on are for small - medium sized businesses and they usually want a CMS system. Developed from scratch i'll build a customised backend for the client to add/edit/remove categories, tags, products etc and then output them to the front end according to the design template handed to me. As time has gone on, the projects have increased in complexity, with shopping cart / ordering features and other common e-commerce type features. Again, this system has been working fine and i'm really enjoying it. My issue is my personal development as a programmer. I spend a lot of my spare time reading programming blogs, checking through stackexchange, reading suggested programming books (currently on 'The Pragmatic Programmer', really good so far), doing brain exercises (lumosity.com and khanacademy math problems), doing lots of physical exercise and other personal development type activities. I can't help but feel though, that I'm missing out on feedback, critique. My boss is great and never holds back on praise in regards to my work, but he unfortunately is either to busy to check my code, or to be honest, I don't think it's one of his specialties and so can't provide feedback. I want to know what i'm doing wrong and what i'm doing right. Should I be putting that much logic in the controller, am I modulating my code enough etc. So what I have done is developed a little 'Family Budgeting' app and tried to do it as cleanly and effectively as I currently know how. What i'm wanting to know is, is there somewhere I can submit this app, and have some seasoned developers provide feedback. It's not just a subsection of my code like 'codereview.stackexchange' appears to require, it's my entire workflow that I want critiqued. I know this is a lot to ask, and I expect the main advice given will be to look for a job within a team, which is certainly something I will look into later down the track, but for now I want to persist with my current employment situation, but just don't want to develop too many bad habits. Let me know if I can provide any further information to help clarify, or if this isn't the right place for this type of question I apologise in advance. Didn't want to use reddit as I felt this community fosters more well thought out responses.

  Read the article

• SQL SERVER – Transaction Log Full – Transaction Log Larger than Data File – Notes from Fields #001

  - by Pinal Dave

  I am very excited to announce a new series on this blog – Notes from Fields. I have been blogging for almost 7 years on this blog and it has been a wonderful experience. Though, I have extensive experience with SQL and Databases, it is always a good idea that we consult experts for their advice and opinion. Following the same thought process, I have started this new series of Notes from Fields. In this series we will have notes from various experts in the database world. My friends at Linchpin People have graciously decided to support me in my new initiation.  Linchpin People are database coaches and wellness experts for a data driven world. In this very first episode of the Notes from Fields series database expert Tim Radney (partner at Linchpin People) explains a very common issue DBA and Developer faces in their career, when database logs fills up your hard-drive or your database log is larger than your data file. Read the experience of Tim in his own words. As a consultant, I encounter a number of common issues with clients.  One of the more common things I encounter is finding a user database in the FULL recovery model that does not make a regular transaction log backups or ever had a transaction log backup. When I find this, usually the transaction log is several times larger than the data file. Finding this issue is very significant to me in that it allows to me to discuss service level agreements with the client. I get to ask questions such as, are nightly full backups sufficient or do they need point in time recovery.  This conversation has now signed with the customer and gets them to thinking about their disaster recovery and high availability solutions. This issue is also very prominent on SQL Server forums and usually has the title of “Help, my transaction log has filled up my disk” or “Help, my transaction log is many times the size of my database”. In cases where the client only needs the previous full nights backup, I am able to change the recovery model to SIMPLE and shrink the transaction log using DBCC SHRINKFILE (2,1) or by specifying the transaction log file name by using DBCC SHRINKFILE (file_name, target_size). When the client needs point in time recovery then in most cases I will still end up switching the client to the SIMPLE recovery model to truncate the transaction log followed by a full backup. I will then schedule a SQL Agent job to make the regular transaction log backups with an interval determined by the client to meet their service level agreements. It should also be noted that typically when I find an overgrown transaction log the virtual log file count is also out of control. I clean up will always take that into account as well.  That is a subject for a future blog post. If your SQL Server is facing any issue we can Fix Your SQL Server. Additional reading: Monitoring SQL Server Database Transaction Log Space Growth – DBCC SQLPERF(logspace)  SQL SERVER – How to Stop Growing Log File Too Big Shrinking Truncate Log File – Log Full Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Backup and Restore, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL

  Read the article

• Silverlight Cream for March 14, 2011 -- #1060

  - by Dave Campbell

  In this Issue: Lazar Nikolov, Rudi Grobler, WindowsPhoneGeek, Jesse Liberty, Pete Brown, Jessica Foster, Chris Rouw, Andy Beaulieu, and Colin Eberhardt. Above the Fold: Silverlight: "A Silverlight Resizable TextBlock (and other resizable things)" Colin Eberhardt WP7: "Retrofitting the Trial API" Jessica Foster Shoutouts: Rudi Grobler has a post up that's not Silverlight, but it's cool stuff you may be interested in: WPF Themes now available on NuGet From SilverlightCream.com: Simulating rain in Silverlight Lazar Nikolov has a cool tutorial up at SilverlightShow... Simulating rain. Nice demo near to top, and source code plus a very nice tutorial on the entire process. Making the ApplicationBar bindable Rudi Grobler has a couple new posts up... first this one on making the WP7 AppBar bindable... he's created 2 simple wrappers that make it possible to bind to a method... with source as usual! All about Splash Screens in WP7 – Creating animated Splash Screen WindowsPhoneGeek's latest is about splash screens in WP7, but he goes one better with animated splash screens. Lots of good information including closing points in more of a FAQ-style listing. Testing Network Availability Jesse Liberty's latest is on testing for network availability in your WP7 app. This should be required reading for anyone building a WP7 app, since you never know when the network is going to be there or not. Lighting up on Windows 7 with Native Extensions for Microsoft Silverlight Pete Brown's latest post is about the Native Extensions for Microsoft Silverlight or NESL library. Pete describes what NESL is, a link to the library, installing it, and tons more information. If you wanna know or try NESL... this looks like the place to start. Retrofitting the Trial API Jessica Foster paused on the way to shipping her WP7 app to add in the trial API code. Check out what she went through to complete that task, as she explains the steps and directions she took. Good description, links, and code. WP7 Insights #2: Creating a Splash Screen in WP7 In the 2nd post in his series on WP7 development, Chris Rouw is discussing a WP7 splash screen. He gives some good external links for references then gets right into discussing his code. Air Hockey for Windows Phone 7 Andy Beaulieu shares a tutorial he wrote for the Expression Toolbox site, using the Physics Helper Library and Farseer Physics Engine -- an Air Hockey game for WP7. A Silverlight Resizable TextBlock (and other resizable things) I think Michael Washington had the best comment about Colin Eberhardt's latest outing: "Another WOW example" ... drop this in the pretty darn cool category: an attached behavior that uses a Thumb control within a popup to adorn any UI element to allow the user to resize it! Stay in the 'Light! Twitter SilverlightNews | Twitter WynApse | WynApse.com | Tagged Posts | SilverlightCream Join me @ SilverlightCream | Phoenix Silverlight User Group Technorati Tags: Silverlight    Silverlight 3    Silverlight 4    Windows Phone MIX10

  Read the article

• This Task Is Currently Locked by a Running Workflow and Cannot Be Edited

  - by Jayant Sharma

  Problem: In SharePoint Workflow, "This task is currently locked by a running workflow and cannot be edited" is the common exception, that we face. Solution: Generally this exception occurs 1.  when the number of items in the Task List gets highThis exception says that the workflow is not able to deliver the all the events at a given time and so the tasks get locked.  Out Of Box, the default event delivery throttle value is 15.  Event delivery throttle value Specifies the number of workflows that can be processed at the same time across all front-end Web serverslook at following link.(http://blogs.msdn.com/b/vincent_runge/archive/2008/09/16/about-the-workflow-eventdelivery-throttle-parameter.aspx)If the value returned by query is superior to the throttle (15 by default), any new workflow event will not be processed immediately. so we need to change it by stsadm command like...stsadm -o setproperty -pn workflow-eventdelivery-throttle -pv "20"(http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc287939(office.12).aspx) 2. When we modify a Workflow Task from Custom TaskEdit Page.   when we try to modify the workflow task from outside workflow default Page, like custom workflow taskedit page. then is exception occurs.suppose we have custom task edit page with dropdown  and values are submitted/ Progress/ completed etc and we want to complete task from here. it will throw exception on SPWorkflowTask.AlterTask method, which changes the TaskStatus.When I debug, to find the root cause I actully found that the workflow is not locked. The InternalState flag of the workflow does not include the Locked flag bits(http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd928318(v=office.12).aspx) When I found this link http://geek.hubkey.com/2007/09/locked-workflow.htmlIt is exactly what I wanted. It says that "when the WorkflowVersion of the task list item is not equal to 1" then the error occurs. The solution that is propsed here works fantastically if ((int)task[SPBuiltInFieldId.WorkflowVersion] != 1){    SPList parentList = task.ParentList.ParentWeb.Lists[new Guid(task[SPBuiltInFieldId.WorkflowListId].ToString())];    SPListItem parentItem = parentList.Items.GetItemById((int)task[SPBuiltInFieldId.WorkflowItemId]);    SPWorkflow workflow = parentItem.Workflows[new Guid(task[SPBuiltInFieldId.WorkflowInstanceID].ToString())];    if (!workflow.IsLocked)    {       task[SPBuiltInFieldId.WorkflowVersion] = 1;       task.SystemUpdate();      break;    }} It will reset the workflow version to 1 again.Conclusion: This Exception is completely confusing. So, we need to find at first whether our workflow is really locked or not. If it is really locked then use 1st method. If not, then check the workflow version and set it to 1 again.Jayant Sharma

  Read the article

• Reasons to Use a VM For Development

  - by George Stocker

  Background: I work at a start-up company, where one team uses Virtual Machines to connect to a remote server to do their development, and another team (the team I'm on) uses local IIS/SQL Server 2005/Visual Studio installations to conduct work. Team VM is located about 1000 miles from Team Non-VM, and the servers the VMs run off of are located near Team VM (Latency, for those that are wondering, is about 50ms). A person high in the company is pushing for Team Non-VM to use virtual machines for programming, development, and testing. The latter point we agree on -- we want Virtual Machines to test configurations and various aspects of the web application in a 'clean' state. The Problem: What we don't agree on is having developers using RDP to connect to a desktop remotely that contains Visual Studio, SQL Server, and IIS to do the same development we could do locally on our laptops. I've tried the VM set-up, and besides the color issue, there is a latency issue that is rather noticeable, not to mention that since we're a start-up, a good number of employees work from home on occasion with our work laptops, and this move would cut off the laptops. They'd be turned in. Reasons to Use Remote VMs for Development (Not Testing!): Here are the stated reasons that this person wants us to use VMs: They work for TeamVM. They keep the source code "safe". If we want to work from home, we could just use our home PCs. Licenses (I don't know what the argument is, only that it's been used). Reasons not to use Remote VMs for Development: Here are the stated reasons why we don't want to use VMs: We like working from home. We get a lot done on our own time. We're not going to use our Home PCs to do work related stuff. The Latency is noticeable. Support for the VMs (if they go down, or if we need a new VM) takes a while. We don't have administrative privileges on the VM, and are unable to change settings as needed. What I'm looking for from the community is this: What reasons would you give for not using VMs for development? Keep in mind these are remote VMs -- this isn't a VM running on a local desktop. It's using the laptop (or a desktop) as a thin client for a remote VM. Also, on the other side of the coin: Is there something we're missing that makes VMs more palatable for development? Edit: I think 'safe' is used in term of corporate espionage, or more correctly if the Laptop gets stolen, the person who stole would have access to our source code. The former (as we've pointed out, is always going to be a possibility -- companies stop that with litigation, there isn't a technical solution (so far as I can see)). The latter point is ( though I don't know its usefulness in a corporate scenario) mitigated by Truecrypt'ing the entire volume.

  Read the article

• How to set up secure cookie on weblogic server

  - by adejuanc

  WebLogic Server allows a user to securely access HTTPS resources in a session that was initiated using HTTP, without loss of session data. To enable this feature, add AuthCookieEnabled="true" to the WebServer element in config.xml: <WebServer Name="myserver" AuthCookieEnabled="true"/>Setting AuthCookieEnabled to true, which is the default setting, causes the WebLogic Server instance to send a new secure cookie, _WL_AUTHCOOKIE_JSESSIONID, to the browser when authenticating via an HTTPS connection. Once the secure cookie is set, the session is allowed to access other security-constrained HTTPS resources only if the cookie is sent from the browser.Thus, WebLogic Server uses two cookies: the JSESSIONID cookie and the _WL_AUTHCOOKIE_JSESSIONID cookie. By default, the JSESSIONID cookie is never secure, but the _WL_AUTHCOOKIE_JSESSIONID cookie is always secure. A secure cookie is only sent when an encrypted communication channel is in use. Assuming a standard HTTPS login (HTTPS is an encrypted HTTP connection), your browser gets both cookies.For subsequent HTTP access, you are considered authenticated if you have a valid JSESSIONID cookie, but for HTTPS access, you must have both cookies to be considered authenticated. If you only have the JSESSIONID cookie, you must re-authenticate.To configure on Admin Console : Log into WebLogic Admin Console. Under Domain Structure, press click on <domainname> Select the "Web Applications" tab Select "Lock and Edit" in change center. Click on  "Auth Cookie Enabled" checkbox. Restart to confirm changes. Test an application and view the cookie which got stored as "JSESSIONID" To Configure the Web application's weblogic-application.xml file: Run the following to extract the file from the web application's weblogic-application.xml: $PATH_JDK_HOME\binjar -xvf easy-web-examples.ear META-INF/weblogic-application.xml Add <cookie-secure>true</cookie-secure> between <session-descriptor> </session-descriptor> to the weblogic-application.xml. Run the following to repackage the file to the application: $PATH_JDK_HOME\bin\jar -uvf easy-web-examples.ear META-INF/weblogic-application.xml Deploy the application into WebLogic For further information, please read the documentation on "Using Secure Cookies to Prevent Session Stealing " : http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E12840_01/wls/docs103/security/thin_client.html#wp1053780

  Read the article

• Calling Web Services using ADF 11g

  - by James Taylor

  One of the benefits of ADF is that fact that it can use multiple data sources. With SOA playing a big part in today’s IT landscape, applications need to be able to utilise this SOA framework to leverage functionality from multiple systems to provide a composite application. ADF provides functionality to expose web services via the ADF Business Component so if you know how to use Business Components for a database. Configuring ADF for web services is much the same. In this example I use an OSB web service that gets a customer. Create a new Fusion Web Application (ADF) Application and click OK    Provide an Application Name, GetCustomerADF and click Next    From the Project Technologies move Web Services into the Selected box. Accept the defaults and click Finish. Right-click the Model project and select New In the Gallery select Web Services –> Web Service Data Control then click OK. Provide a name GetCustomerDC and give the URL endpoint for the Web Service, then click Next Select the web service operation you want to use for the ADF application. In my example my web service only has one operation. Click Finish Save your work, File –> Save The data control has now been created, the next steps create the UI components. In your application created in step 1 find the ViewController project, right-click and choose New In the Gallery select JSF –> JSF Page Provide a name for the jsp page, GetCustomer, Also ensure that the ‘Create as XML Document (*.jsp) check box is checked. I have selected the page template, Oracle Three Column Layout but you can create a layout of your choice. I only want 2 columns so I delete the last column but right-clicking the right had panel and selecting Delete Drag the fields you require from the web service data control to the left pannel. In my example I only require the Customer ID. When you drag to the panel select Texts –>ADF Input Text w/Label In this example I want to search on a customer based on the ID. So Once I select the ID I want to execute the request. To do this I need a button. Drag the operation object under the fields created in step 15. Select Methods –> ADF Button. You now need to provide the mappings, Choose the ‘Show EI Expression Builder’ Navigate to the bindings, ADFBindings –> bindings –> parametersIterator –> currentRow Click OK Drag and drop the return information I just want the results shown in a form. I want to show all fields Now it is time to test, Right-click the jspx page created in steps 11 – 21 and select Run A browser should start, enter valid values and test  

  Read the article

• Silverlight Cream for December 26, 2010 -- #1015

  - by Dave Campbell

  In this all-submittal Issue: Michael Washington(-2-), Ian T. Lackey(-2-, -3-), Sandrino Di Mattia, Colin Eberhardt(-2-), and Antoni Dol. Above the Fold: Silverlight: "A Style for the Silverlight CoverFlow Control Slider" Antoni Dol WP7: "Getting the right behaviors in your Phone 7 App – Part 1 Phone Home" (and the other two parts) Ian T. Lackey Silverlight/WPF: "A Simplified Grid Markup for Silverlight and WPF" Colin Eberhardt Shoutouts: Dennis Doomen has updated his Coding Guidelines and provided a new WhitePaper, A4 cheat sheet, and VS2010 rule sets: December Update of the Coding Guidelines for C# 3.0 and C# 4.0 From SilverlightCream.com: Windows Phone 7: Saving Data when Keyboard is visible MIchael Washington takes a possible desktop approach to a data-saving issue on WP7... good solution, and one of the commenters brought up another. Windows Phone 7 View Model (MVVM) ApplicationBar Since I'm catching up, there's another post by Michael Washington... this one is looking at the WP7 ApplicationBar, and issues if you're trying to stay MVVM-proper. Michael gets around that by creating the AppBar with a behavior, and shares with all of us! Getting the right behaviors in your Phone 7 App – Part 1 Phone Home Ian T. Lackey has begun a series where he's packaging common tasks into reusable behaviors. First up is a phone dialer launching action that can be dropped on any control in your app. Getting the right behaviors in your Phone 7 App – Part 2 Binding & Browsing In his next post, Ian T. Lackey digs into the WebBrowserTask and provides a behavior allowing you to launch a browser session straight to an URL from any WP7 control. Getting the right behaviors in your Phone 7 App – Part 3 Email ‘em In his last post (all in one day), Ian T. Lackey looks at EmailComposeTask, ending up with a behavior to pre-populate EmailAddress and Subject. Cracking a Microsoft contest or why Silverlight-WCF security is important Sandrino Di Mattia was working on an app while also having a page up for a MSDN/TechNet game, and noticed some interesting WCF traffic that he was easily able to get access to. A Simplified Grid Markup for Silverlight and WPF Colin Eberhardt built us all an attached property for the Grid control that bails us out from the ugly layout we always have to put into position... oh, also for WPF! #uksnow #silverlight The Movie! – Happy Christmas Colin Eberhardt also took some time to have fun with his Twitter/BingMaps mashup for the UKSnow hashtag... you can now playback the snowfall reports, and mouse-over the snowflakes to see the original tweet... very cool stuff, Colin! A Style for the Silverlight CoverFlow Control Slider Antoni Dol got tired of the Silverlight Slider in the CoverFlow control and crafted a very nice-looking style for the Slider ... check it out and grab the source. Stay in the 'Light! Twitter SilverlightNews | Twitter WynApse | WynApse.com | Tagged Posts | SilverlightCream Join me @ SilverlightCream | Phoenix Silverlight User Group Technorati Tags: Silverlight    Silverlight 3    Silverlight 4    Windows Phone MIX10

  Read the article

• Branching and Merging with TortoiseSVN

  - by capgpilk

  For this example I am using Visual Studio 2010, TortoiseSVN 1.6.6, Subversion 1.6.6 and AnkhSVN 2.1.7819.411, so if you are using different versions, some of these screen shots may differ. This is assuming you have your code checked in to the trunk directory and have a standard SVN structure of trunk, branches and tags. There are a number of developers who prefer to develop solely in a branch and never touch the trunk, but the process is generally the same and you may be on a small team and prefer to work in the trunk and branch occasionally. There are three steps to successful branching. First you branch, then when you are ready you need to reintegrate any changes that other developers may have made to the trunk in to your branch. Then finally when your branch and the trunk are in sync, you merge it back in to the trunk. Branch Right click project root in Windows Explorer > TortoiseSVN > Branch/Tag Enter the branch label in the ‘To URL’ box. For example /branches/1.1 Choose Head revision Check Switch working copy Click OK Make any changes to branch Make any changes to trunk Commit any changes For this example I copied the project to another location prior to branching and made changes to that using Notepad++. Then committed it to SVN, as this directory is mapped to the trunk, that is what gets updated.   Merge Trunk with Branch Right click project root in Windows Explorer > TortoiseSVN > Merge Choose ‘Merge a range of revisions’ In ‘URL to merge from’ choose your trunk Click Next, then the ‘test merge’ button. This will highlight any conflicts. Here we have one conflict we will need to resolve because we made a change and checked in to trunk earlier Click merge. Now we have the opportunity to edit that conflict This will open up TortoiseMerge which will allow us to resolve the issue. In this case I want both changes. Perform an Update then Commit Reloading in Visual Studio shows we have all changes that have been made to both trunk and branch. Merge Branch with Trunk Switch working copy by right clicking project root in Windows Explorer > TortoiseSVN > switch Switch to the trunk then ok Right click project root in Windows Explorer > TortoiseSVN > merge Choose ‘Reintegrate a branch’ In ‘From URL’ choose your branch then next Click ‘Test merge’, this shouldn’t show any conflicts Click Merge Perform Update then Commit Open project in Visual Studio, we now have all changes. So there we have it we are connected back to the trunk and have all the updates merged.

  Read the article

• Going Inside the Store

  - by David Dorf

  Location was the first "killer-tech" for smartphones, and innovators have found several ways to use it. For retail, apps exist to find nearby stores, provide coupons, and give directions to the front door. But once you enter the store, location-finding ceases to work. That's because your location is usually found by finding GPS satellites in they sky, and the store's roof blocks the signal. But it won't take technology long to solve that problem. The first problem to solve is a lack of indoor maps. Navteq and others provide very accurate maps of the outdoors, enabling navigation for cars and pedestrians. Micello is building a business creating digital maps of indoor locations like malls, convention centers, office buildings. They have over 500 live maps, including maps of IKEA stores. They claim it took them only four hours to create a map of the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto with its 1.4 million square feet and 140 retail stores. And within stores, retailers are producing more accurate plan-o-grams. I'm always impressed watching demos of our space planning from AVT. It uses CAD software to allow you to walk the virtual store and see products on the shelves. The second problem is being able to determine location inside the store so it can be overlayed on the map. There are several goals for this endeavor. Your smartphone might direct you straight to particular products, it might summon a sales associate to your location for immediate assistance, and it might send you coupons based on the aisle you're viewing. Companies like Nearbuy, ZuluTime, and Skyhook are working to master indoor location using a combination of GPS signals, WiFi, and cell tower positioning to calculate a location. (Skyhook calls this WPS, as depicted in the chart.) Today they can usually hit 10 meters accuracy, but that number is improving all the time. When it gets inside 3 meters some the goals mentioned earlier will be in easy reach. I for one can't wait until the time my iPhone leads me directly to the sprinkler heads in Lowes and Home Depot.

  Read the article

• OAM11gR2: Enabling SSL in the Data Store

  - by Ekta Malik

  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Enabling SSL in the Data Store of OAM11gR2 comprises of the below mentioned steps. Import the certificate/s required for establishing the trust with the Store(backend) in the keystore(cacerts) on the machine hosting OAM's Weblogic Admin server Restart the Weblogic Admin server Specify the <Hostname>:<SSL port> in the "Location" field of the Data Store and select the "Enable SSL" checkbox Pre-requisite:- Certificate/s to be imported are available for import Data Store has already been created using OAM admin console and the connection to the store is successful on non-SSL port( though one can always create a Data Store with SSL settings on the first go) Steps for importing the certificate/s:- One can use the keytool utility that comes bundled with JDK to import the certificate. The step for importing the certificate would be same for self-signed and third party certificates (like VeriSign) $JAVA_HOME/bin/keytool -import -v -noprompt -trustcacerts -alias <aliasname> -file <Path to the certificate file> -keystore $JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/security/cacerts Here $JAVA_HOME refers to the path of JDK install directory Note: In case multiple certificates are required for establishing the trust, import all those certificates using the same keytool command mentioned above  One can verify the import of the certificate/s by using the below mentioned command $JAVA_HOME/bin/keytool -list -alias <aliasname>-v -keystore $JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/security/cacerts When the trust gets established for the SSL communication, specifying the SSL specific settings in the Data Store (via OAM admin console) wouldn't result into the previously seen error (when Certificates are yet to be imported) and the "Test Connection" would be successful.

  Read the article

• Should I be looking for an alternative to Zen Cart as my business grows?

  - by MarkS

  I created a business website for a family business which is growing. It's my family, and I'm a software developer, but I don't want to rebuild the wheels or be a shopping cart programmer. For this business, I need the web store to "just work", but... it gets complicated... There are two parts of this business website. One of them is driven by Wordpress and I use the awesome Thesis theme. This is modern, flexible, and saves me a lot of time from doing custom coding and styling. I couldn't be more pleased with this arrangement. The other part of the site is a Zen Cart store. It's administration and it's flexibility is frustrating and archaic Web 1.0. For the past few years, I keep hearing that the developers are working on a 2.0 version of Zen Cart, but they haven't communicated anything significant in the past few years other than to say, "When it's ready, we'll let you know." What I'm looking for in a cart, I would need to install 6-10 additional mods, and would need to do a lot of custom coding. I'm now willing to pay for a top-notch e-commerce solution for a small business that we can grow up into a larger business over time. Requirements: Extremely flexible shipping that let's us set up rules per product/category, tables of rates, calculated rates, max package weighs, etc. (flexibility like that available with CEON Advance Shipping Module for Zen Cart Coupons and gift certificates Manual order entry for phone orders Multi-channel support (We also sell on Amazon, eBay, use Google Base and we want to maintain one set of inventory and have it kept current) Decent SEO features Reviews and star-ratings on products Easy social networking features for sharing, following, liking, etc) Easy integration with AdWords and analytics tracking Modern and very usable product and store administration (Like I was saying, I'm spoiled by Wordpress and Thesis) At the end of the day, I don't care if it's a hosted solution or if I have to host it myself. I just want something that is going to stay up-to-date, regularly be maintained and improved, and if I have to update it, things like the one-click update present in Wordpress is something it has to have. Professional Webmasters, if you had to run a store / website, but you had to spend your time focusing on your sales and marketing efforts rather than diffing php files and copying and tweaking them to change even the slightest details of your site, what would you choose?

  Read the article

• DHCP server with multiple interfaces on ubuntu, destroys default gateway

  - by Henrik Alstad

  I use Ubuntu, and I have many interfaces. eth0, which is my internet connection, and it gets its info from a DHCP-server totally outisde of my control. I then have eth1,eth2,eth3 and eth4 which I have created a DHCP-server for.(ISC DHCP-Server) It seems to work, and I even get an IP-address from the foreign DHCP-server on the internet facing interface. However, for some reason it seems my gateway for eth0 became screwed after I installed my local DHCP-server for eth1-eth4. (I think so because I got an IP for eth0, and I can ping other stuff on the local network, but I cannot get access to the internet). My eth0-specific info in /etc/network/interfaces: auto lo iface lo inet loopback auto eth0 iface eth0 inet dhcp auto eth1 iface eth1 inet static address 10.0.1.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 network 10.0.1.0 broadcast 10.0.1.255 gateway 10.0.1.1 mtu 8192 auto eth2 iface eth2 inet static address 10.0.2.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 network 10.0.2.0 broadcast 10.0.2.255 gateway 10.0.2.1 mtu 8192 My /etc/default/isc-dhcp-server: INTERFACES="eth1 eth2 eth3 eth4" So why does my local DHCP-server fuck up the gateway for eth0, when I tell it not to listen to eth0? Anyone see the problem or what I can do to fix it? The problem seems indeed to be the gateways. "netstat -nr" gives: 0.0.0.0 --- 10.X.X.X ---- 0.0.0.0 --- UG 0 0 0 eth3 It should have been 0.0.0.0 129.2XX.X.X 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0 So for some reason, my local DHCP-server overrides the gateway I get from the network DHCP. Edit: dhcp.conf looks like this(I included info only for eth1 subnet): ddns-update-style none; not authoritative; subnet 10.0.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 { interface eth1; option domain-name "example.org"; option domain-name-servers ns1.example.org, ns2.example.org; default-lease-time 600; max-lease-time 7200; range 10.0.1.10 10.0.1.100; host camera1_1 { hardware ethernet 00:30:53:11:24:6E; fixed-address 10.0.1.10; } host camera2_1 { hardware ethernet 00:30:53:10:16:70; fixed-address 10.0.1.11; } } Also, it seems that the gateway is correctly set if I run "/etc/init.d/networking restart" in a terminal, but that's not helpful for me, I need the correct gateway to be set during startup, and i'd rather find the source of the problem

  Read the article

• Partner Webcast – More out of ODA with DB Options - 19 July 2012

  - by Thanos

  The Simple, Reliable, Affordable Path to High-Availability Databases Critical business data needs to be available 24/7 for users and customers, but it can be a struggle to find the time and resources to build a highly available database system that’s reliable and affordable. That’s why Oracle created the new Oracle Database Appliance—a complete package of software, server, storage, and networking. The Oracle Database Appliance integrates the world’s most popular database - Oracle Database 11g  - with system software, servers, storage and networking in a single box. Business gets the benefit of a reliable, secure and highly available database to support applications and maintain continuity – as well as groundbreaking ease of use. But that is not all, with the support for all Oracle Database Options, Oracle Database Appliance can be the ideal solution for many use cases. The benefits?   Unmatched performance, reliability & security for your data that’s there when you need it – which is all the time. Fast installation, simple deployment, easy management. Out of the box. Significant cost savings & reduced risk and complexity compared to integrating all the elements yourself. Ongoing lower total cost of ownership with multiple automated support, detection & correction functions that also save you time.   Discover the Oracle Database Appliance Value Proposition and learn how to position and combine it with database options to capture new business and easily roll out solutions safely and with maximum cost efficiency. Agenda: Oracle Database& Engineered Systems Innovation. What’s the Oracle Database Appliance ? Oracle Database Appliance Value Proposition. Oracle Database Appliance with Database Options Oracle Database Appliance Partners Business Delivery Format This FREE online LIVE eSeminar will be delivered over the Web. Registrations received less than 24hours prior to start time may not receive confirmation to attend. Duration: 1 hour Register Now! For any questions please contact us at partner.imc-AT-beehiveonline.oracle-DOT-com Visit regularly our ISV Migration Center blog Or Follow us @oracleimc to learn more on Oracle Technologies as well as upcoming partner webcasts and events.

  Read the article

• I Choose iNada

  - by Mark Treadwell

  As a laptop and Kindle user, I have been looking at the usual cyclical Apple frenzy in the press with the same kind of amused tolerance I give my three-year-old son.  They never seem to learn, and they keep repeating the same things.  However when I ready articles like this, I am reminded that that is not always the case. I am a happy user of a monster-sized HP HDX laptop, HP touch screen all-in-one system, and multi-screen Dell desktops at home as well as a HP business laptop at work.  I have no iPod, iMac, iTouch or any other relationship with the company who wants to trademark the prefix “i”. I have not missed them. That is not to say that I have no technological gadgets.  I do.  They just do not dominate Every company wants to preserve their customer base, but Apple just does it too rigidly.  The buy-in necessary rubs me wrong.  When the fanboys scream about the next great iApple thing which will kill off another market segment (this time, the iPad will kill off laptops), the amused tolerance returns. From what I have seen, the iPad virtual keyboard is a poor substitute for an actual keyboard.  It was intended to let you get some kind of text into a device that is not really intended for keyboard input, but rather for touch manipulation of a designed interface.  I like the virtual keyboard on my LG Dare cell phone, but you will not catch me writing my next novel with it.  But, you hear, you can connect a real keyboard and get info from another computer.  That is when you realize that the iPad is not a true standalone device like a laptop.  You have to make more hardware purchases to get what you truly want.  It is an expensive accommodation to get you a different form of freedom. So if Apple made a product with me in mind, you can have it.  Everyone gets to make their own choice.  My choice is the iNada.

  Read the article

• Copying & Pasting Rows Between Grids in SQL Developer

  - by thatjeffsmith

  Apologies for slacking on the blogging front here lately. Still mentally hung over from Open World, and lots of things going on behind the scenes here in Oracle-land. Whilst (love that word) blogging is part of my job, it’s not the ONLY part of my job So a super-quick and dirty ‘trick’ this morning. Copying Query Result Record as New Row in Table Copy and paste is something everyone ‘gets.’ I don’t know we have to thank for that, whether it’s Microsoft or Xerox, but it’s been ingrained in our way of dealing with all things computers. Almost to the detriment of some of our users – they’ll use Copy and Paste when perhaps our Export feature is superior, but I digress. Where it does work just fine is when you want to create a new row in your table that matches a row you have retrieved from an executed query. Just click in the gutter or row number to get the entire row selected Once you have your data selected, do your thing, i.e. ctrl+C or Command/Apple+C or whatever. Now open your view or table editor, go to the data page, and ask for a new row. New record, no data Paste in the data from the clipboard. It’s smart enough to paste the separate values out to the separate columns. The clipboard saves the day, again. If your columns orders are different, just change the order in the grids. If you have extra information, don’t copy the entire row. I know, I know – Jeff this is too simple, why are you wasting our time here? It seems intuitive, but how many of you actually tried this before reading it just now? I seem to get more positive feedback from the very basic user interface 101 tips than the esoteric click-click-click-ctrl-shift-click tricks I prefer to post. Lots of interesting stuff on tap, so stay tuned!

  Read the article

• Convert DVDs and ISO Files to MKV with MakeMKV

  - by DigitalGeekery

  Looking for a quick and easy way to convert your DVDs or ISOs to MKV files? Today we take a look at the MakeMKV Beta which gets the job done very well. Installing and Using MakeMKV Download and install MakeMKV (See download link below) If converting a DVD, place it into your optical drive. When you open MakeMKV you will be greeted by it’s minimalistic interface. Click on the DVD to hard drive button to open the DVD, or the folder icon on the top menu to browse for an ISO file.   MakeMKV will open the disc or file. Once the disc or file is opened, you’ll see the titles listed in the window on the left. Double-click on the titles to expand the tree structure.   Remove any title or tracks you don’t want to convert by unselecting the check box to the left. On the right side of the window, click the folder icon to select browse for your file output directory. When ready, click the MakeMkv button to begin the conversion process.   Conversion will proceed.   When the conversion is finished. Click OK. That’s all there is to it! Your MKV file is ready to play. Conclusion MakeMKV is currently still in beta and during the beta phase it will rip both DVD and Blu-ray for free. However, the DVD ripping functionality will always remain free. After 30 days if you want to continue ripping Blu-ray discs, you’ll need to purchase a license. DVD rips are very quick…typically around 15-20 minutes depending on the length of the movie. MakeMKV is available for Windows, Mac, Linux and will rip and convert DVDs to MKV files. Not all media players natively support MKV playback, so if you’re having trouble playing MKV files, try downloading VLC Media player, or the latest version of the DivX codec. Download MakeMKV Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips How To Rip DVDs with VLCEasily Change Audio File Formats with XRECODEHow To Convert Video Files to MP3 with VLCConvert PDF Files to Word Documents and Other FormatsConvert DVD to MP4 / H.264 with HD Decrypter and Handbrake TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Office 2010 Product Guides Google Maps Place marks – Pizza, Guns or Strip Clubs Monitor Applications With Kiwi LocPDF is a Visual PDF Search Tool Download Free iPad Wallpapers at iPad Decor Get Your Delicious Bookmarks In Firefox’s Awesome Bar

  Read the article

• Character Stats and Power

  - by Stephen Furlani

  I'm making an RPG game system and I'm having a hard time deciding on doing detailed or abstract character statistics. These statistics define the character's natural - not learned - abilities. For example: Mass Effect: 0 (None that I can see) X20 (Xtreme Dungeon Mastery): 1 "STAT" Diablo: 4 "Strength, Magic, Dexterity, Vitality" Pendragon: 5 "SIZ, STR, DEX, CON, APP" Dungeons & Dragons (3.x, 4e): 6 "Str, Dex, Con, Wis, Int, Cha" Fallout 3: 7 "S.P.E.C.I.A.L." RIFTS: 8 "IQ, ME, MA, PS, PP, PE, PB, Spd" Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (1st ed?): 12-ish "WS, BS, S, T, Ag, Int, WP, Fel, A, Mag, IP, FP" HERO (5th ed): 14 "Str, Dex, Con, Body, Int, Ego, Pre, Com, PD, ED, Spd, Rec, END, STUN" The more stats, the more complex and detailed your character becomes. This comes with a trade-off however, because you usually only have limited resources to describe your character. D&D made this infamous with the whole min/max-ing thing where strong characters were typically not also smart. But also, a character with a high Str typically also has high Con, Defenses, Hit Points/Health. Without high numbers in all those other stats, they might as well not be strong since they wouldn't hold up well in hand-to-hand combat. So things like that force trade-offs within the category of strength. So my original (now rejected) idea was to force players into deciding between offensive and defensive stats: Might / Body Dexterity / Speed Wit / Wisdom Heart Soul But this left some stat's without "opposites" (or opposites that were easily defined). I'm leaning more towards the following: Body (Physical Prowess) Mind (Mental Prowess) Heart (Social Prowess) Soul (Spiritual Prowess) This will define a character with just 4 numbers. Everything else gets based off of these numbers, which means they're pretty important. There won't, however, be ways of describing characters who are fast, but not strong or smart, but absent minded. Instead of defining the character with these numbers, they'll be detailing their character by buying skills and powers like these: Quickness Add a +2 Bonus to Body Rolls when Dodging. for a character that wants to be faster, or the following for a big, tough character Body Building Add a +2 Bonus to Body Rolls when Lifting, Pushing, or Throwing objects. [EDIT - removed subjectiveness] So my actual questions is what are some pitfalls with a small stat list and a large amount of descriptive powers? Is this more difficult to port cross-platform (pen&paper, PC) for example? Are there examples of this being done well/poorly? Thanks,

  Read the article

< Previous Page | 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303  | Next Page >