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• How do brand laptop manufacturers restrict hard disk drive?

  - by user176705

  I'm curious to know, when I bought a brand new laptop there are limitations to create or change the HDD partitions, except the following partitions: c:\ drive (Main partition + OS drive) NTFS. 400 Gb. Recovery drive NTFS. 15 Gb. Tools drive FAT32. 2 Gb. System drive NTFS. 0.3 Gb. My questions are: How do manufacturers restrict HDDs ? What is the term for these restrictions? Can this be applied to desktop PCs? Is it possible to modify the restrictions by an end-user?

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• How to fix a Corrupted USB

  - by Help

  My USB stick has suddenly stopped working. It's a Busbi 4GB. My USB used to be G:/ but as soon as I plugged it in, I used to get a pop up box showing that it was plugged in. Now, when I plug this in, it shows as I:/ and no pop up box appears. It shows in my computer as I:/ and when I click to open it says I:/ is not accessible the disk structure is corrupted and unreadable. I have tried to change the file name back to G:/ but nothing happened (this was under disk management). On disk management, it shows Volume as I:/ Layout simple Type Basic File system RAW status Healthy (Active,Primary partition) Capacity 3.42GB. I've tried right clicking properties then the tab tools and click error checking (this option will check the volume for errors). When I click "check now" it comes up with the disk check could not be performed because Windows cannot access the disk.

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• Total network data sent/received of a non-daemon Linux process?

  - by leden

  I'm looking for a simple and effective way of measuring total bytes received/sent from a single process upon its termination. Basically, I am looking for a tool which has the interface similar to "time" and "/usr/bin/time", e.g. measure-net-data <prog_to_run> <prog_args> Received (b): XYZ Sent (b): ABC I know that there are many tools for bandwidth/network monitoring, but as far I can tell all of them are performing the measurements it real-time, which is inappropriate not only because of overhead but also because of the inconvenience - I would need to stop the program, capture the output of the tool and then kill it. I have seen that newer versions of Linux 2.6.20+ provide /proc/<pid>/io/ which contain the information I'm looking for; however, everything under /proc/<pid> when the process terminates, so I'm again back to the same problem as with any network monitoring tool.

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• Command-line tool to search for file names on offline backup drives

  - by halloleo

  I am looking for an open-source (command-line) tool to register and search all my (backup) drives on a file name level. I want to search for file and folder names preferably written as regular expressions or file glob patterns. The external drives contain just normal HFS and NTFS filesystems. The backups are done via direct file copy. Requirement is that the tool compiles on OS X and works without each of the drives attached, but rather pointing me to the drive in case a drive contains a file with the pattern I searched for. At the moment I use a hand-knit script solution with locate databases, one for each external backup drive, but this is rather cumbersome, because locate itself can accesses only one database at a time and does not contain any management system for all the indices/databases. Are there any other tools out there for this?

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• Best tool for writing a Programming Book?

  - by walkthedog

  Well, this is not directly programming related! But a friend of mine wants to write a book about programming. Now he asked me if I knew a good software for this, because Word crashes 10 times a day on his machine, and OpenOffice is just very chunky and slow. Also none of them seem to have any useful support for including Code Listings (examples) with useful syntax highlighting or at least some sort of support for inserting code (i.e. indicating line breaks with arrows that turn around, line numbers, etc). Latex is out of question since it's incredible hard to use and has no really useful feature for including tables. It's a mess. Maybe some IT authors are here who can give some hints what tools they use. That would be great!

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• Need help sending mass emails [closed]

  - by Jose

  Possible Duplicate: Prevent mail being marked as spam I have an Ubuntu server that I want to be able to send out several thousand emails each containing a generic header and an unique pdf attachment containing an invoice. What I want to know is what would be the best way to accomplish this? Also, are there any other programs I need to install such as anti-virus / verification tools? I would like to be able to know what the procedures for this normally are as I would prefer that the emails are not send to the junk folder of the clients receiving the emails. Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks

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• permanently mount multiple directories from different disks under root [on hold]

  - by piotrek

  I have SSD and HDD. Some directories like /var /srv /tmp should be on hdd while /boot /usr /lib on ssd. But do I have to create separate partition for every single directory? i want to have 2 or so partitions. one for each disk and distribute directories as needed. is it possible? and how? i've heard about symlinks, mount --bind, mhddfs but: symlinks are treated differently by tools like cp so i'm not sure if it's safe to have main system directories symlinked i have no idea how can I use mount --bind or mhddfs in fstab

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• anoymous access and automatic mounting of a samba share from a windows system to a linux system

  - by The Journeyman geek

  I have most of my audio files on a system shared by most of the people in my family, and i'd like to be able to get them accessable to a headless linux box i control over smb. The share(s) in question are not on a share that requires authentication (and most examples assume so), and i'd like to have them automatically mounted, and accessable on boot. I'd like to only use command line tools - so anything that has x dependancies is out, and shares should be accessable to any user on the system via a mount point OS shouldn't matter, but the "fileserver" is a windows XP system, and i can access the shares without logging in, and the client is a ubuntu 10.04 lts system with a minimal CLI install.

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• Move database from SQL 7 to 2005 / 2008

  - by etechpartner

  I have several pretty large databases located in a SQL Server 7 box. Whats the best way to get them into SQL Server 2008? As far as I know, there were changes to the underlying file structures so I am not sure that a simple detach/attach would work. When I tried attaching from 2008 it complained strongly. "Version no longer supported" etc etc. What options do I have? Are there any tools on the market that can connect to both 7 and 2008 and then move the schema and data?

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• No option to import documents into Google Docs [migrated]

  - by Code Droid

  How do I import document into Google Docs? I don't see an import option. Do I open the drive and drop it in? I am trying to follow these ACRA (Application Crash Report for Android) steps: Login to your Google Docs account Import the CrashReports-template.csv contained in the archive (acra-4.2.3/CrashReport/doc), with conversion enabled Open the imported document Rename it as you like In the Google Docs menu, click on Tools / Form / Create a form Where is import option and conversion enabled? I have Google Docs and I'm on a Mac.

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• How to create a RAM Drive (RAM Disk) in Windows 2008 R2?

  - by Mark

  There are lots of tools for creating RAM drives. None of them seem to work for windows 2008 R2. Does anyone know if this is possible and if so how. Does anyone know of a tool that does work? I've tried the gavotte ram disk. It doesn't work. When i try to install it it just sais "Failed". I don't see log files anywhere. I've tried a couple of other ones (forgot the names) to no avail. Any ideas? Thanks

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• OTN Developer Days - Calgary, Alberta March 18 & Atlanta, GA April 1

  - by dana.singleterry

  Discover a Faster Way to Develop Ajax -Enabled Application Based on Java and SOA Standards Get Hands-on with Oracle Jdeveloper, Oracle Application Developer Framework and Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g. You are invited to attend Oracle Technology Network (OTN) Developer Day, a free, hands-on workshop that will give you insight into how to create Ajax-enabled rich Web user interfaces and Java EE-based SOA services with ease. We'll introduce you to the development platform Oracle is using for its Fusion enterprise applications, and show you how to get up to speed with it. The workshop will get you started developing with the latest versions of Oracle JDeveloper and Oracle ADF 11g, including the Ajax-enabled ADF Faces rich client components. Thursday, March 18, 2010 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Calgary Marriott hotel 110 9th Avenue, SE Calgary, Alberta T2G 5A6 Wednesday, April 1, 2010 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Four Seasons Hotel Atlanta 75 Fourteenth Street Atlanta, Georgia 30309 This workshop is designed for developers, project managers, and architects. Whether you are currently using Java, traditional 4GL tools like Oracle Forms, PeopleTools, and Visual Basic, or just looking for a better development platform - this session is for you. Get explanation from Oracle experts, try your hands at actual development, and get a chance to win an Apple iPod Touch and Oracle prizes. Come see how Oracle can help you deliver cutting edge UIs and standard -based applications faster with the Oracle Fusion Development software stack. At this event you will: * Get to know the Oracle Fusion development architecture and strategy from Oracle's experts. * Learn the easy way to extend your existing development skill sets to incorporate new technologies and architectures that include Service-Oriented Architecture, Java EE, and Web 2.0 * Participate in hands-on labs and experience new technologies in a familiar and productive development environment with Oracle experts guidance. Click on the Register Now Calgary, Alberta to register for the Calgary event and click on the Register Now Atlanta, GA to register for the Atlanta FREE events. Don't miss your exclusive opportunity to network with your peers and discuss today's most vital application development topics with Oracle experts.

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• Desktop Fun: Steampunk Theme Wallpapers

  - by Asian Angel

  Do you enjoy imagining what it would be like to live in a world where technology and fantasy are mixed together? Then kick back and get ready to indulge in some great daydreaming with our Steampunk Theme wallpapers collection. Note: Click on the picture to see the full-size image—these wallpapers vary in size so you may need to crop, stretch, or place them on a colored background in order to best match them to your screen’s resolution.                         For more fun wallpapers be certain to visit our new Desktop Fun section. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Windows 7 Welcome Screen Taking Forever? Here’s the Fix (Maybe)Desktop Fun: Starship Theme WallpapersDesktop Fun: Underwater Theme WallpapersDesktop Fun: Forest Theme WallpapersDesktop Fun: Fantasy Theme Wallpapers 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 NoSquint Remembers Site Specific Zoom Levels (Firefox) New Firefox release 3.6.3 fixes 1 Critical bug Dark Side of the Moon (8-bit) Norwegian Life If Web Browsers Were Modes of Transportation Google Translate (for animals)

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• SQLAuthority News – Feature Pack for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 SP4

  - by pinaldave

  If you are still using SQL Server 2005 – I suggest that you consider migrating to later version of the SQL Server 2008/2008 R2. Due to any reason, you wanted to continue using SQL Server 2005, I suggest that you take a look at the Feature Pack for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 SP4. There are many different tools and features available in pack, which can be very handy and can solve issues. Microsoft ADOMD.NET Microsoft Core XML Services (MSXML) 6.0 Microsoft OLEDB Provider for DB2 Microsoft SQL Server Management Pack for MOM 2005 Microsoft SQL Server 2000 PivotTable Services Microsoft SQL Server 2000 DTS Designer Components Microsoft SQL Server Native Client Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services 9.0 OLE DB Provider Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Backward Compatibility Components Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Command Line Query Utility Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Datamining Viewer Controls Microsoft SQL Server 2005 JDBC Driver Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Management Objects Collection Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Notification Services Client Components Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Upgrade Advisor Microsoft .NET Data Provider for mySAP Business Suite, Preview Version Reporting Add-In for Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Microsoft Exception Message Box Data Mining Managed Plug-in Algorithm API for SQL Server 2005 Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services Add-in for Microsoft SharePoint Technologies Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Data Mining Add-ins for Microsoft Office 2007 SQL Server 2005 Performance Dashboard Reports SQL Server 2005 Best Practices Analyzer Download Feature Pack for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 SP4 Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Documentation, SQL Download, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Service Pack, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology

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• Export data to Excel from Silverlight/WPF DataGrid

  - by outcoldman

  Data export from DataGrid to Excel is very common task, and it can be solved with different ways, and chosen way depend on kind of app which you are design. If you are developing app for enterprise, and it will be installed on several computes, then you can to advance a claim (system requirements) with which your app will be work for client. Or customer will advance system requirements on which your app should work. In this case you can use COM for export (use infrastructure of Excel or OpenOffice). This approach will give you much more flexibility and give you possibility to use all features of Excel app. About this approach I’ll speak below. Other way – your app is for personal use, it can be installed on any home computer, in this case it is not good to ask user to install MS Office or OpenOffice just for using your app. In this way you can use foreign tools for export, or export to xml/html format which MS Office can read (this approach used by JIRA). But in this case will be more difficult to satisfy user tasks, like create document with landscape rotation and with defined fields for printing. At this article I'll show you how to work with Excel object from .NET 4 and Silverlight 4 with dynamic objects and give you an approach which allow you to export data from DataGrid Silverlight and WPF controls. Read more...

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• Solution: Testing Web Services with MSTest on Team Build

  - by Martin Hinshelwood

  Guess what. About 20 minutes after I fixed the build, Allan broke it again! Update: 4th March 2010 – After having huge problems getting this working I read Billy Wang’s post which showed me the light. The problem here is that even though the test passes locally it will not during an Automated Build. When you send your tests to the build server it does not understand that you want to spin up the web site and run tests against that! When you run the test in Visual Studio it spins up the web site anyway, but would you expect your test to pass if you told the website not to spin up? Of course not. So, when you send the code to the build server you need to tell it what to spin up. First, the best way to get the parameters you need is to right click on the method you want to test and select “Create Unit Test”. This will detect wither you are running in IIS or ASP.NET Development Server or None, and create the relevant tags. Figure: Right clicking on “SaveDefaultProjectFile” will produce a context menu with “Create Unit tests…” on it. If you use this option it will AutoDetect most of the Attributes that are required. /// <summary> ///A test for SSW.SQLDeploy.SilverlightUI.Web.Services.IProfileService.SaveDefaultProjectFile ///</summary> // TODO: Ensure that the UrlToTest attribute specifies a URL to an ASP.NET page (for example, // http://.../Default.aspx). This is necessary for the unit test to be executed on the web server, // whether you are testing a page, web service, or a WCF service. [TestMethod()] [HostType("ASP.NET")] [AspNetDevelopmentServerHost("D:\\Workspaces\\SSW\\SSW\\SqlDeploy\\DEV\\Main\\SSW.SQLDeploy.SilverlightUI.Web", "/")] [UrlToTest("http://localhost:3100/")] [DeploymentItem("SSW.SQLDeploy.SilverlightUI.Web.dll")] public void SaveDefaultProjectFileTest() { IProfileService target = new ProfileService(); // TODO: Initialize to an appropriate value string strComputerName = string.Empty; // TODO: Initialize to an appropriate value bool expected = false; // TODO: Initialize to an appropriate value bool actual; actual = target.SaveDefaultProjectFile(strComputerName); Assert.AreEqual(expected, actual); Assert.Inconclusive("Verify the correctness of this test method."); } Figure: Auto created code that shows the attributes required to run correctly in IIS or in this case ASP.NET Development Server If you are a purist and don’t like creating unit tests like this then you just need to add the three attributes manually. HostType – This attribute specified what host to use. Its an extensibility point, so you could write your own. Or you could just use “ASP.NET”. UrlToTest – This specifies the start URL. For most tests it does not matter which page you call, as long as it is a valid page otherwise your test may not run on the server, but may pass anyway. AspNetDevelopmentServerHost – This is a nasty one, it is only used if you are using ASP.NET Development Host and is unnecessary if you are using IIS. This sets the host settings and the first value MUST be the physical path to the root of your web application. OK, so all that was rubbish and I could not get anything working using the MSDN documentation. Google provided very little help until I ran into Billy Wang’s post  and I heard that heavenly music that all developers hear when understanding dawns that what they have been doing up until now is just plain stupid. I am sure that the above will work when I am doing Web Unit Tests, but there is a much easier way when doing web services. You need to add the AspNetDevelopmentServer attribute to your code. This will tell MSTest to spin up an ASP.NET Development server to host the service. Specify the path to the web application you want to use. [AspNetDevelopmentServer("WebApp1", "D:\\Workspaces\\SSW\\SSW\\SqlDeploy\\DEV\\Main\\SSW.SQLDeploy.SilverlightUI.Web")] [DeploymentItem("SSW.SQLDeploy.SilverlightUI.Web.dll")] [TestMethod] public void ProfileService_Integration_SaveDefaultProjectFile_Returns_True() { ProfileServiceClient target = new ProfileServiceClient(); bool isTrue = target.SaveDefaultProjectFile("Mav"); Assert.AreEqual(true, isTrue); } Figure: This AspNetDevelopmentServer will make sure that the specified web application is launched. Now we can run the test and have it pass, but if the dynamically assigned ASP.NET Development server port changes what happens to the details in your app.config that was generated when creating a reference to the web service? Well, it would be wrong and the test would fail. This is where Billy’s helper method comes in. Once you have created an instance of your service call, and it has loaded the config, but before you make any calls to it you need to go in and dynamically set the Endpoint address to the same address as your dynamically hosted Web Application. using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting; using System.Reflection; using System.ServiceModel.Description; using System.ServiceModel; namespace SSW.SQLDeploy.Test { class WcfWebServiceHelper { public static bool TryUrlRedirection(object client, TestContext context, string identifier) { bool result = true; try { PropertyInfo property = client.GetType().GetProperty("Endpoint"); string webServer = context.Properties[string.Format("AspNetDevelopmentServer.{0}", identifier)].ToString(); Uri webServerUri = new Uri(webServer); ServiceEndpoint endpoint = (ServiceEndpoint)property.GetValue(client, null); EndpointAddressBuilder builder = new EndpointAddressBuilder(endpoint.Address); builder.Uri = new Uri(endpoint.Address.Uri.OriginalString.Replace(endpoint.Address.Uri.Authority, webServerUri.Authority)); endpoint.Address = builder.ToEndpointAddress(); } catch (Exception e) { context.WriteLine(e.Message); result = false; } return result; } } } Figure: This fixes a problem with the URL in your web.config not being the same as the dynamically hosted ASP.NET Development server port. We can now add a call to this method after we created the Proxy object and change the Endpoint for the Service to the correct one. This process is wrapped in an assert as if it fails there is no point in continuing. [AspNetDevelopmentServer("WebApp1", D:\\Workspaces\\SSW\\SSW\\SqlDeploy\\DEV\\Main\\SSW.SQLDeploy.SilverlightUI.Web")] [DeploymentItem("SSW.SQLDeploy.SilverlightUI.Web.dll")] [TestMethod] public void ProfileService_Integration_SaveDefaultProjectFile_Returns_True() { ProfileServiceClient target = new ProfileServiceClient(); Assert.IsTrue(WcfWebServiceHelper.TryUrlRedirection(target, TestContext, "WebApp1")); bool isTrue = target.SaveDefaultProjectFile("Mav"); Assert.AreEqual(true, isTrue); } Figure: Editing the Endpoint from the app.config on the fly to match the dynamically hosted ASP.NET Development Server URL and port is now easy. As you can imagine AspNetDevelopmentServer poses some problems of you have multiple developers. What are the chances of everyone using the same location to store the source? What about if you are using a build server, how do you tell MSTest where to look for the files? To the rescue is a property called" “%PathToWebRoot%” which is always right on the build server. It will always point to your build drop folder for your solutions web sites. Which will be “\\tfs.ssw.com.au\BuildDrop\[BuildName]\Debug\_PrecompiledWeb\” or whatever your build drop location is. So lets change the code above to add this. [AspNetDevelopmentServer("WebApp1", "%PathToWebRoot%\\SSW.SQLDeploy.SilverlightUI.Web")] [DeploymentItem("SSW.SQLDeploy.SilverlightUI.Web.dll")] [TestMethod] public void ProfileService_Integration_SaveDefaultProjectFile_Returns_True() { ProfileServiceClient target = new ProfileServiceClient(); Assert.IsTrue(WcfWebServiceHelper.TryUrlRedirection(target, TestContext, "WebApp1")); bool isTrue = target.SaveDefaultProjectFile("Mav"); Assert.AreEqual(true, isTrue); } Figure: Adding %PathToWebRoot% to the AspNetDevelopmentServer path makes it work everywhere. Now we have another problem… this will ONLY run on the build server and will fail locally as %PathToWebRoot%’s default value is “C:\Users\[profile]\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects”. Well this sucks… How do we get the test to run on any build server and any developer laptop. Open “Tools | Options | Test Tools | Test Execution” in Visual Studio and you will see a field called “Web application root directory”. This is where you override that default above. Figure: You can override the default website location for tests. In my case I would put in “D:\Workspaces\SSW\SSW\SqlDeploy\DEV\Main” and all the developers working with this branch would put in the folder that they have mapped. Can you see a problem? What is I create a “$/SSW/SqlDeploy/DEV/34567” branch from Main and I want to run tests in there. Well… I would have to change the value above. This is not ideal, but as you can put your projects anywhere on a computer, it has to be done. Conclusion Although this looks convoluted and complicated there are real problems being solved here that mean that you have a test ANYWHERE solution. Any build server, any Developer workstation. Resources: http://billwg.blogspot.com/2009/06/testing-wcf-web-services.html http://tough-to-find.blogspot.com/2008/04/testing-asmx-web-services-in-visual.html http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms243399(VS.100).aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/dscruggs/archive/2008/09/29/web-tests-unit-tests-the-asp-net-development-server-and-code-coverage.aspx http://www.5z5.com/News/?543f8bc8b36b174f Technorati Tags: VS2010,MSTest,Team Build 2010,Team Build,Visual Studio,Visual Studio 2010,Visual Studio ALM,Team Test,Team Test 2010

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• Week in Geek: USDA Chooses Microsoft for Cloud Services Edition

  - by Asian Angel

  This week we learned how to create geeky LED holiday lights with old bottles, dig deeper in Windows Defrag via the command prompt, use Google Chrome’s drag/drop feature to upload files easier, find great gift recommendations by looking through the How-To Geek holiday gift guide, and have fun adding Merry Christmas fonts to our computers. Photo by ntr23. Random Geek Links It has been a busy week, so we have extra news link goodness with information that is good for you to know. USDA making the move to Microsoft The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced that it has chosen Microsoft to host things like e-mail, instant messaging, and collaboration through the software giant’s Business Productivity Online Suite. Google says it was cut off from USDA project bid Google is claiming that it was not given a chance to bid on a cloud-computing project for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, for which the contract was awarded to rival Microsoft. Apache is being forced into a Java Fork When Oracle rolled over Apache and Google’s objections to its Java plans in December, the scene was set for Apache to leave and, eventually, force a Java code fork. Tumblr explains daylong outage After experiencing an outage that started on Sunday afternoon and stretched through most of the day yesterday, Tumblr has explained what happened. Google demos Chrome OS, launches pilot program During a press briefing this week in San Francisco, Google launched the Chrome application store and demonstrated Chrome OS, its browser-centric netbook operating system. Don’t expect Spotify in U.S. this holiday season As of last week, Spotify had yet to sign a single licensing deal with a major label, after spending more than a year negotiating, multiple music sources told CNET. December 2010 Patch Tuesday will come with most bulletins ever According to the Microsoft Security Response Center, Microsoft will issue 17 Security Bulletins addressing 40 vulnerabilities on Tuesday, December 14. It will also host a webcast to address customer questions the following day. Hacker plants back door in Symbian firmware Indian hacker Atul Alex has had a look at the firmware for Symbian S60 smartphones and come up with a back door for it. PC quarantines raise tough complexities The concept of quarantining PCs to prevent widespread infection is “interesting, but difficult to implement, with far too many problems”, said security experts. Symantec: DDoS attacks hard to defend It has surfaced that the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on Visa and MasterCard Web sites on Wednesday were carried out by a toolkit known as low orbit ion cannon (LOIC). Web Sockets and the risks of unfinished standards Enthusiasm for a promising new standard called Web Sockets has quickly cooled in some quarters as a potential security problem led some browser makers to hastily postpone support. Internet Explorer 9 to get tracking protection Microsoft is making changes to Internet Explorer 9’s security features that will better enable users to keep sites from tracking their activity across browsing sessions. NASA sold PCs with sensitive data NASA failed to remove sensitive data from computers that it sold, according to an audit report released this week. Cybercrooks create fake Amazon receipts The bad guys have created yet another online scam, this one involving fake Amazon receipts. World of Warcraft character move fees waived Until December 22, Blizzard will allow free realm transfers from 25 highly populated servers to alleviate log-in queues or performance issues. (The free transfers are one-way and one-time only.) SpaceX Dragon reaches orbit atop a Falcon with a fiery tail The Space Exploration Technologies corporation has become the first nongovernmental entity to put a vehicle into low Earth orbit. Geek Video of the Week If birds have wings, then why are the Angry Birds using slingshots? Photo by Dorkly Bits. Wait… Birds have Wings, Why are the Angry Ones Using Slingshots? Sysadmin Geek Tips How To Setup Email Alerts on Linux Using Gmail or SMTP Linux machines may require administrative intervention in countless ways, but without manually logging into them how would you know about it? Here’s how to setup emails to get notified when your machines want some tender love and attention. Random TinyHacker Links Red Panda Webcam Support Firefox and the Knoxville Zoo’s Red Panda program. Christmas Icons (Icons we like) Superb set of holiday icons by lgp85 at deviantArt. Download the .zip and use as .png or convert to .ico at Convertico.com or with tiny app Imagicon. Super User Questions Enjoy reading the great answers to this week’s popular questions from Super User Useful USB boot disks? DVD/CD burning .zip: is it more reliable, faster, longer lasting to burn a zip of files rather than the files as a folder? What are other ways to backup my files if I do not have an external drive? Anti virus what is the difference between these all? How can I block all Facebook elements/content? How-To Geek Weekly Article Recap Have you had a busy week between work and preparing for the holidays? Get caught up on your HTG reading with our hottest articles of the week. 20 Windows Keyboard Shortcuts You Might Not Know The 50 Best Registry Hacks that Make Windows Better LCD? LED? Plasma? The How-To Geek Guide to HDTV Technology HTG Explains: Which Linux File System Should You Choose? How to Use and Customize Google Chrome Web Apps One Year Ago on How-To Geek This week’s batch of retro geeky goodness is all about customizing Windows 7. ClassicShell Adds Classic Start Menu and Explorer Features to Windows 7 Get an Aero-Styled Classic Start Menu in Windows 7 Customize the Windows 7 Logon Screen Get the Classic Style Network Activity Indicator Back in Windows 7 How To Enable Check Boxes for Items In Windows 7 The Geek Note We would like you to join us in welcoming Jason Fitzpatrick to the writing staff here at How-To Geek. He started with us this past week, so take some time to read through his articles about the Wii, Kindle, & PlayStation 2 Peripherals and leave a friendly comment to say “Hi”! Got a great tip to share? Make sure to send it in to us at [email protected]. Photo by real00. Latest Features How-To Geek ETC The 50 Best Registry Hacks that Make Windows Better The How-To Geek Holiday Gift Guide (Geeky Stuff We Like) LCD? LED? Plasma? The How-To Geek Guide to HDTV Technology The How-To Geek Guide to Learning Photoshop, Part 8: Filters Improve Digital Photography by Calibrating Your Monitor Our Favorite Tech: What We’re Thankful For at How-To Geek Settle into Orbit with the Voyage Theme for Chrome and Iron Awesome Safari Compass Icons Set Escape from the Exploding Planet Wallpaper Move Your Tumblr Blog to WordPress Pytask is an Easy to Use To-Do List Manager for Your Ubuntu System Snowy Christmas House Personas Theme for Firefox

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• How to Upgrade Your Netbook to Windows 7 Home Premium

  - by Matthew Guay

  Would you like more features and flash in Windows on your netbook?  Here’s how you can easily upgrade your netbook to Windows 7 Home Premium the easy way. Most new netbooks today ship with Windows 7 Starter, which is the cheapest edition of Windows 7.  It is fine for many computing tasks, and will run all your favorite programs great, but it lacks many customization, multimedia, and business features found in higher editions.  Here we’ll show you how you can quickly upgrade your netbook to more full-featured edition of Windows 7 using Windows Anytime Upgrade.  Also, if you want to upgrade your laptop or desktop to another edition of Windows 7, say Professional, you can follow these same steps to upgrade it, too. Please note: This is only for computers already running Windows 7.  If your netbook is running XP or Vista, you will have to run a traditional upgrade to install Windows 7. Upgrade Advisor First, let’s make sure your netbook can support the extra features, such as Aero Glass, in Windows 7 Home Premium.  Most modern netbooks that ship with Windows 7 Starter can run the advanced features in Windows 7 Home Premium, but let’s check just in case.  Download the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor (link below), and install as normal. Once it’s installed, run it and click Start Check.   Make sure you’re connected to the internet before you run the check, or otherwise you may see this error message.  If you see it, click Ok and then connect to the internet and start the check again. It will now scan all of your programs and hardware to make sure they’re compatible with Windows 7.  Since you’re already running Windows 7 Starter, it will also tell you if your computer will support the features in other editions of Windows 7. After a few moments, the Upgrade Advisor will show you want it found.  Here we see that our netbook, a Samsung N150, can be upgraded to Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate. We also see that we had one issue, but this was because a driver we had installed was not recognized.  Click “See all system requirements” to see what your netbook can do with the new edition. This shows you which of the requirements, including support for Windows Aero, your netbook meets.  Here our netbook supports Aero, so we’re ready to go upgrade. For more, check out our article on how to make sure your computer can run Windows 7 with Upgrade Advisor. Upgrade with Anytime Upgrade Now, we’re ready to upgrade our netbook to Windows 7 Home Premium.  Enter “Anytime Upgrade” in the Start menu search,and select Windows Anytime Upgrade. Windows Anytime Upgrade lets you upgrade using product key you already have or one you purchase during the upgrade process.  And, it installs without any downloads or Windows disks, so it works great even for netbooks without DVD drives. Anytime Upgrades are cheaper than a standard upgrade, and for a limited time, select retailers in the US are offering Anytime Upgrades to Windows 7 Home Premium for only $49.99 if purchased with a new netbook.  If you already have a netbook running Windows 7 Starter, you can either purchase an Anytime Upgrade package at a retail store or purchase a key online during the upgrade process for $79.95.  Or, if you have a standard Windows 7 product key (full or upgrade), you can use it in Anytime upgrade.  This is especially nice if you can purchase Windows 7 cheaper through your school, university, or office. Purchase an upgrade online To purchase an upgrade online, click “Go online to choose the edition of Windows 7 that’s best for you”.   Here you can see a comparison of the features of each edition of Windows 7.  Note that you can upgrade to either Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate.  We chose home Premium because it has most of the features that home users want, including Media Center and Aero Glass effects.  Also note that the price of each upgrade is cheaper than the respective upgrade from Windows XP or Vista.  Click buy under the edition you want.   Enter your billing information, then your payment information.  Once you confirm your purchase, you will directly be taken to the Upgrade screen.  Make sure to save your receipt, as you will need the product key if you ever need to reinstall Windows on your computer. Upgrade with an existing product key If you purchased an Anytime Upgrade kit from a retailer, or already have a Full or Upgrade key for another edition of Windows 7, choose “Enter an upgrade key”. Enter your product key, and click Next.  If you purchased an Anytime Upgrade kit, the product key will be located on the inside of the case on a yellow sticker. The key will be verified as a valid key, and Anytime Upgrade will automatically choose the correct edition of Windows 7 based on your product key.  Click Next when this is finished. Continuing the Upgrade process Whether you entered a key or purchased a key online, the process is the same from here on.  Click “I accept” to accept the license agreement. Now, you’re ready to install your upgrade.  Make sure to save all open files and close any programs, and then click Upgrade. The upgrade only takes about 10 minutes in our experience but your mileage may vary.  Any available Microsoft updates, including ones for Office, Security Essentials, and other products, will be installed before the upgrade takes place. After a couple minutes, your computer will automatically reboot and finish the installation.  It will then reboot once more, and your computer will be ready to use!  Welcome to your new edition of Windows 7! Here’s a before and after shot of our desktop.  When you do an Anytime Upgrade, all of your programs, files, and settings will be just as they were before you upgraded.  The only change we noticed was that our pinned taskbar icons were slightly rearranged to the default order of Internet Explorer, Explorer, and Media Player.  Here’s a shot of our desktop before the upgrade.  Notice that all of our pinned programs and desktop icons are still there, as well as our taskbar customization (we are using small icons on the taskbar instead of the default large icons). Before, with the Windows 7 Starter background and the Aero Basic theme: And after, with Aero Glass and the more colorful default Windows 7 background.   All of the features of Windows 7 Home Premium are now ready to use.  The Aero theme was activate by default, but you can now customize your netbook theme, background, and more with the Personalization pane.  To open it, right-click on your desktop and select Personalize. You can also now use Windows Media Center, and can play-back DVD movies using an external drive. One of our favorite tools, the Snipping Tool, is also now available for easy screenshots and clips. Activating you new edition of Windows 7 You will still need to activate your new edition of Windows 7.  To do this right away, open the start menu, right-click on Computer, and select Properties.   Scroll to the bottom, and click “Activate Windows Now”. Make sure you’re connected to the internet, and then select “Activate Windows online now”. Activation may take a few minutes, depending on your internet connection speed. When it is done, the Activation wizard will let you know that Windows is activated and genuine.  Your upgrade is all finished! Conclusion Windows Anytime Upgrade makes it easy, and somewhat cheaper, to upgrade to another edition of Windows 7.  It’s useful for desktop and laptop owners who want to upgrade to Professional or Ultimate, but many more netbook owners will want to upgrade from Starter to Home Premium or another edition.  Links Download the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor Windows Team Blog: Anytime Upgrade Special with new PC purchase Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips How To Upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 Home Premium EditionAnother Blog You Should Subscribe ToMysticgeek Blog: Turn Vista Home Premium Into Ultimate (Part 3) – Shadow CopyUpgrade Ubuntu from Breezy to DapperHow to Upgrade the Windows 7 RC to RTM (Final Release) 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 Get Your Delicious Bookmarks In Firefox’s Awesome Bar Manage Photos Across Different Social Sites With Dropico Test Drive Windows 7 Online Download Wallpapers From National Geographic Site Spyware Blaster v4.3 Yes, it’s Patch Tuesday

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• Week in Geek: US Govt E-card Scam Siphons Confidential Data Edition

  - by Asian Angel

  This week we learned how to “back up photos to Flickr, automate repetitive tasks, & normalize MP3 volume”, enable “stereo mix” in Windows 7 to record audio, create custom papercraft toys, read up on three alternatives to Apple’s flaky iOS alarm clock, decorated our desktops & app docks with Google icon packs, and more. Photo by alexschlegel. Random Geek Links It has been a busy week on the security & malware fronts and we have a roundup of the latest news to help keep you updated. Photo by TopTechWriter.US. US govt e-card scam hits confidential data A fake U.S. government Christmas e-card has managed to siphon off gigabytes of sensitive data from a number of law enforcement and military staff who work on cybersecurity matters, many of whom are involved in computer crime investigations. Security tool uncovers multiple bugs in every browser Michal Zalewski reports that he discovered the vulnerability in Internet Explorer a while ago using his cross_fuzz fuzzing tool and reported it to Microsoft in July 2010. Zalewski also used cross_fuzz to discover bugs in other browsers, which he also reported to the relevant organisations. Microsoft to fix Windows holes, but not ones in IE Microsoft said that it will release two security bulletins next week fixing three holes in Windows, but it is still investigating or working on fixing holes in Internet Explorer that have been reportedly exploited in attacks. Microsoft warns of Windows flaw affecting image rendering Microsoft has warned of a Windows vulnerability that could allow an attacker to take control of a computer if the user is logged on with administrative rights. Windows 7 Not Affected by Critical 0-Day in the Windows Graphics Rendering Engine While confirming that details on a Critical zero-day vulnerability have made their way into the wild, Microsoft noted that customers running the latest iteration of Windows client and server platforms are not exposed to any risks. Microsoft warns of Office-related malware Microsoft’s Malware Protection Center issued a warning this week that it has spotted malicious code on the Internet that can take advantage of a flaw in Word and infect computers after a user does nothing more than read an e-mail. *Refers to a flaw that was addressed in the November security patch releases. Make sure you have all of the latest security updates installed. Unpatched hole in ImgBurn disk burning application According to security specialist Secunia, a highly critical vulnerability in ImgBurn, a lightweight disk burning application, can be used to remotely compromise a user’s system. Hole in VLC Media Player Virtual Security Research (VSR) has identified a vulnerability in VLC Media Player. In versions up to and including 1.1.5 of the VLC Media Player. Flash Player sandbox can be bypassed Flash applications run locally can read local files and send them to an online server – something which the sandbox is supposed to prevent. Chinese auction site touts hacked iTunes accounts Tens of thousands of reportedly hacked iTunes accounts have been found on Chinese auction site Taobao, but the company claims it is unable to take action unless there are direct complaints. What happened in the recent Hotmail outage Mike Schackwitz explains the cause of the recent Hotmail outage. DOJ sends order to Twitter for Wikileaks-related account info The U.S. Justice Department has obtained a court order directing Twitter to turn over information about the accounts of activists with ties to Wikileaks, including an Icelandic politician, a legendary Dutch hacker, and a U.S. computer programmer. Google gets court to block Microsoft Interior Department e-mail win The U.S. Federal Claims Court has temporarily blocked Microsoft from proceeding with the $49.3 million, five-year DOI contract that it won this past November. Google Apps customers get email lockdown Companies and organisations using Google Apps are now able to restrict the email access of selected users. LibreOffice Is the Default Office Suite for Ubuntu 11.04 Matthias Klose has announced some details regarding the replacement of the old OpenOffice.org 3.2.1 packages with the new LibreOffice 3.3 ones, starting with the upcoming Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) Alpha 2 release. Sysadmin Geek Tips Photo by Filomena Scalise. How to Setup Software RAID for a Simple File Server on Ubuntu Do you need a file server that is cheap and easy to setup, “rock solid” reliable, and has Email Alerting? This tutorial shows you how to use Ubuntu, software RAID, and SaMBa to accomplish just that. How to Control the Order of Startup Programs in Windows While you can specify the applications you want to launch when Windows starts, the ability to control the order in which they start is not available. However, there are a couple of ways you can easily overcome this limitation and control the startup order of applications. Random TinyHacker Links Using Opera Unite to Send Large Files A tutorial on using Opera Unite to easily send huge files from your computer. WorkFlowy is a Useful To-do List Tool A cool to-do list tool that lets you integrate multiple tasks in one single list easily. Playing Flash Videos on iOS Devices Yes, you can play flash videos on jailbroken iPhones. Here’s a tutorial. Clear Safari History and Cookies On iPhone A tutorial on clearing your browser history on iPhone and other iOS devices. Monitor Your Internet Usage Here’s a cool, cross-platform tool to monitor your internet bandwidth. Super User Questions See what the community had to say on these popular questions from Super User this week. Why is my upload speed much less than my download speed? Where should I find drivers for my laptop if it didn’t come with a driver disk? OEM Office 2010 without media – how to reinstall? Is there a point to using theft tracking software like Prey on my laptop, if you have login security? Moving an “all-in-one” PC when turned on/off How-To Geek Weekly Article Recap Get caught up on your HTG reading with our hottest articles from this past week. How to Combine Rescue Disks to Create the Ultimate Windows Repair Disk How To Boot 10 Different Live CDs From 1 USB Flash Drive What is Camera Raw, and Why Would a Professional Prefer it to JPG? Did You Know Facebook Has Built-In Shortcut Keys? The How-To Geek Guide to Audio Editing: The Basics One Year Ago on How-To Geek Enjoy looking through our latest gathering of retro article goodness. Learning Windows 7: Create a Homegroup & Join a New Computer To It How To Disconnect a Machine from a Homegroup Use Remote Desktop To Access Other Computers On a Small Office or Home Network How To Share Files and Printers Between Windows 7 and Vista Allow Users To Run Only Specified Programs in Windows 7 The Geek Note That is all we have for you this week and we hope your first week back at work or school has gone very well now that the holidays are over. Know a great tip? Send it in to us at [email protected]. Photo by Pamela Machado. Latest Features How-To Geek ETC HTG Projects: How to Create Your Own Custom Papercraft Toy How to Combine Rescue Disks to Create the Ultimate Windows Repair Disk What is Camera Raw, and Why Would a Professional Prefer it to JPG? The How-To Geek Guide to Audio Editing: The Basics How To Boot 10 Different Live CDs From 1 USB Flash Drive The 20 Best How-To Geek Linux Articles of 2010 Arctic Theme for Windows 7 Gives Your Desktop an Icy Touch Install LibreOffice via PPA and Receive Auto-Updates in Ubuntu Creative Portraits Peek Inside the Guts of Modern Electronics Scenic Winter Lane Wallpaper to Create a Relaxing Mood Access Your Web Apps Directly Using the Context Menu in Chrome The Deep – Awesome Use of Metal Objects as Deep Sea Creatures [Video]

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• What is Linq?

  - by Aamir Hasan

  The way data can be retrieved in .NET. LINQ provides a uniform way to retrieve data from any object that implements the IEnumerable<T> interface. With LINQ, arrays, collections, relational data, and XML are all potential data sources. Why LINQ?With LINQ, you can use the same syntax to retrieve data from any data source:var query = from e in employeeswhere e.id == 1select e.nameThe middle level represents the three main parts of the LINQ project: LINQ to Objects is an API that provides methods that represent a set of standard query operators (SQOs) to retrieve data from any object whose class implements the IEnumerable<T> interface. These queries are performed against in-memory data.LINQ to ADO.NET augments SQOs to work against relational data. It is composed of three parts.LINQ to SQL (formerly DLinq) is use to query relational databases such as Microsoft SQL Server. LINQ to DataSet supports queries by using ADO.NET data sets and data tables. LINQ to Entities is a Microsoft ORM solution, allowing developers to use Entities (an ADO.NET 3.0 feature) to declaratively specify the structure of business objects and use LINQ to query them. LINQ to XML (formerly XLinq) not only augments SQOs but also includes a host of XML-specific features for XML document creation and queries. What You Need to Use LINQLINQ is a combination of extensions to .NET languages and class libraries that support them. To use it, you’ll need the following: Obviously LINQ, which is available from the new Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 that you can download at http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7755937.You can speed up your application development time with LINQ using Visual Studio 2008, which offers visual tools such as LINQ to SQL designer and the Intellisense  support with LINQ’s syntax.Optionally, you can download the Visual C# 2008 Expression Edition tool at www.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/download. It is the free edition of Visual Studio 2008 and offers a lot of LINQ support such as Intellisense and LINQ to SQL designer. To use LINQ to ADO.NET, you need SQL

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• Modifying AD Schema permissions from the command line

  - by Ryan Roussel

  Recently while making some changes for a client, I accidently dug myself into a pretty deep hole.  I was trying to explicitly deny a certain user from reading a few group policies including the Default Domain Policy.  When I went in to make the change I accidently denied Authenticated Users rather than the AD user object.  This of course made the GPO inaccessible to all users including any with domain admin rights.  The policy could no longer be modified in the GPMC and worse, changes could not be made through ADSIedit.   The errors I was getting from inside ADSIedit when trying to edit the container looked like this This object has one or more property sheets currently open. Invalid path to object The only solution was to strip Authenticated Users from the container ACL completely in the schema, then re-add it back with the default read and apply rights.  To perform this action, I used a command I had never used before:  DSALCS.exe  It’s part of the DSMOD group of tools.  Since this command interacts with the actual schema, you have to know the full LDAP container or object name.  In this case the GUID of the Default Domain Policy: {31B2F340-016D-11D2-945F-00C04FB984F9}   The actual commands I ran looked like this:   To display the current ACL of the container: c:\>dsacls “cn={31B2F340-016D-11D2-945F-00C04FB984F9},cn=Policies,cn=System, dc=domain,dc=com” /A To strip Authenticated Users from the ACL of the container: c:\>dsacls “cn={31B2F340-016D-11D2-945F-00C04FB984F9},cn=Policies,cn=System, dc=domain,dc=com” /R “NT Authority\Authenticated Users”   For full reference of the DSACLS.EXE command visit: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/281146 Once the Authenticated Users was cleared from the ACL, I was able to use Group Policy Management Console to reassign the default permissions.

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• When should I use Areas in TFS instead of Team Projects

  - by Martin Hinshelwood

  Well, it depends…. If you are a small company that creates a finite number of internal projects then you will find it easier to create a single project for each of your products and have TFS do the heavy lifting with reporting, SharePoint sites and Version Control. But what if you are not… Update 9th March 2010 Michael Fourie gave me some feedback which I have integrated. Ed Blankenship via @edblankenship offered encouragement and a nice quote. Ewald Hofman gave me a couple of Cons, and maybe a few more soon. Ewald’s company, Avanade, currently uses Areas, but it looks like the manual management is getting too much and the project is getting cluttered. What if you are likely to have hundreds of projects, possibly with a multitude of internal and external projects? You might have 1 project for a customer or 10. This is the situation that most consultancies find themselves in and thus they need a more sustainable and maintainable option. What I am advocating is that we should have 1 “Team Project” per customer, and use areas to create “sub projects” within that single “Team Project”. "What you describe is what we generally do internally and what we recommend. We make very heavy use of area path to categorize the work within a larger project." - Brian Harry, Microsoft Technical Fellow & Product Unit Manager for Team Foundation Server   "We tend to use areas to segregate multiple projects in the same team project and it works well." - Tiago Pascoal, Visual Studio ALM MVP   "In general, I believe this approach provides consistency [to multi-product engagements] and lowers the administration and maintenance costs. All good." - Michael Fourie, Visual Studio ALM MVP   “@MrHinsh BTW, I'm very much a fan of very large, if not huge, team projects in TFS. Just FYI :) Use Areas & Iterations.” Ed Blankenship, Visual Studio ALM MVP   This would mean that SSW would have a single Team Project called “SSW” that contains all of our internal projects and consequently all of the Areas and Iteration move down one hierarchy to accommodate this. Where we would have had “\SSW\Sprint 1” we now have “\SSW\SqlDeploy\Sprint1” with “SqlDeploy” being our internal project. At the moment SSW has over 70 internal projects and more than 170 total projects in TFS. This method has long term benefits that help to simplify the support model for companies that often have limited internal support time and many projects. But, there are implications as TFS does not provide this model “out-of-the-box”. These implications stretch across Areas, Iterations, Queries, Project Portal and Version Control. Michael made a good comment, he said: I agree with your approach, assuming that in a multi-product engagement with a client, they are happy to adopt the same process template across all products. If they are not, then it’ll either be easy to convince them or there is a valid reason for having a different template - Michael Fourie, Visual Studio ALM MVP   At SSW we have a standard template that we use and this is applied across the board, to all of our projects. We even apply any changes to the core process template to all of our existing projects as well. If you have multiple projects for the same clients on multiple templates and you want to keep it that way, then this approach will not work for you. However, if you want to standardise as we have at SSW then this approach may benefit you as well. Implications around Areas Areas should be used for topological classification/isolation of work items. You can think of this as architecture areas, organisational areas or even the main features of your application. In our scenario there is an additional top level item that represents the Project / Product that we want to chop our Team Project into. Figure: Creating a sub area to represent a product/project is easy. <teamproject> <teamproject>\<Functional Area/module whatever> Becomes: <teamproject> <teamproject>\<ProjectName>\ <teamproject>\<ProjectName>\<Functional Area/module whatever> Implications around Iterations Iterations should be used for chronological classification/isolation of work items. This could include isolated time boxes, milestones or release timelines and really depends on the logical flow of your project or projects. Due to the new level in Area we need to add the same level to Iteration. This is primarily because it is unlikely that the sprints in each of your projects/products will start and end at the same time. This is just a reality of managing multiple projects. Figure: Adding the same Area value to Iteration as the top level item adds flexibility to Iteration. <teamproject>\Sprint 1 Or <teamproject>\Release 1\Sprint 1 Becomes: <teamproject>\<ProjectName>\Sprint 1 Or <teamproject>\<ProjectName>\Release 1\Sprint 1 Implications around Queries Queries are used to filter your work items based on a specified level of granularity. There are a number of queries that are built into a project created using the MSF Agile 5.0 template, but we now have multiple projects and it would be a pain to have to edit all of the work items every time we changed project, and that would only allow one team to work on one project at a time.   Figure: The Queries that are created in a normal MSF Agile 5.0 project do not quite suit our new needs. In order for project contributors to be able to query based on their project we need a couple of things. The first thing I did was to create an “_Area Template” folder that has a copy of the project layout with all the queries setup to filter based on the “_Area Template” Area and the “_Sprint template” you can see in the Area and Iteration views. Figure: The template is currently easily drag and drop, but you then need to edit the queries to point at the right Area and Iteration. This needs a tool. I then created an “Areas” folder to hold all of the area specific queries. So, when you go to create a new TFS Sub-Project you just drag “_Area Template” while holding “Ctrl” and drop it onto “Areas”. There is a little setup here. That said I managed it in around 10 minutes which is not so bad, and I can imagine it being quite easy to build a tool to create these queries Figure: These new queries can be configured in around 10 minutes, which includes setting up the Area and Iteration as well. Version Control What about your source code? Well, that is the easiest of the lot. Just create a sub folder for each of your projects/products.   Figure: Creating sub folders in source control is easy as “Right click | Create new folder”. <teamproject>\DEV\Main\ Becomes: <teamproject>\<ProjectName>\DEV\Main\ Conclusion I think it is up to each company to make a call on how you want to configure your Team Projects and it depends completely on how many projects/products you are going to have for each customer including yourself. If we decide to utilise this route it will require some configuration to get our 170+ projects into this format, and I will probably be writing some tools to help. Pros You only have one project to upgrade when a process template changes – After going through an upgrade of over 170 project prior to the changes in the RC I can tell you that that many projects is no fun. Standardises your Process Template – You will always have the same Process implementation across projects/products without exception You get tighter control over the permissions – Yes, you can do this on a standard Team Project, but it gets a lot easier with practice. You can “move” work items from one “product” to another – Have we not always wanted to do that. You can rename your projects – Wahoo: everyone wants to do this, now you can. One set of Reporting Services reports to manage – You set an area and iteration to run reports anyway, so you may as well set both. Simplified Check-In Policies– There is only one set of check-in policies per client. This simplifies administration of policies. Simplified Alerts – As alerts are applied across multiple projects this simplifies your alert rules as per client. Cons All of these cons could be mitigated by a custom tool that helps automate creation of “Sub-projects” within Team Projects. This custom tool could create areas, Iteration, permissions, SharePoint and queries. It just does not exist yet :) You need to configure the Areas and Iterations You need to configure the permissions You may need to configure sub sites for SharePoint (depends on your requirement) – If you have two projects/products in the same Team Project then you will not see the burn down for each one out-of-the-box, but rather a cumulative for the Team Project. This is not really that much of a problem as you would have to configure your burndown graphs for your current iteration anyway. note: When you create a sub site to a TFS linked portal it will inherit the settings of its parent site :) This is fantastic as it means that you can easily create sub sites and then set the Area and Iteration path in each of the reports to be the correct one. Every team wants their own customization (via Ewald Hofman) - small teams of 2 persons against teams of 30 – or even outsourcing – need their own process, you cannot allow that because everybody gets the same work item types. note: Luckily at SSW this is not a problem as our template is standardised across all projects and customers. Large list of builds (via Ewald Hofman) – As the build list in Team Explorer is just a flat list it can get very cluttered. note: I would mitigate this by removing any build that has not been run in over 30 days. The build template and workflow will still be available in version control, but it will clean the list. Feedback Now that I have explained this method, what do you think? What other pros and cons can you see? What do you think of this approach? Will you be using it? What tools would you like to support you?   Technorati Tags: Visual Studio ALM,TFS Administration,TFS,Team Foundation Server,Project Planning,TFS Customisation

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• SQL SERVER – Configure Management Data Collection in Quick Steps – T-SQL Tuesday #005

  - by pinaldave

  This article was written as a response to T-SQL Tuesday #005 – Reporting. The three most important components of any computer and server are the CPU, Memory, and Hard disk specification. This post talks about  how to get more details about these three most important components using the Management Data Collection. Management Data Collection generates the reports for the three said components by default. Configuring Data Collection is a very easy task and can be done very quickly. Please note: There are many different ways to get reports generated for CPU, Memory and IO. You can use DMVs, Extended Events as well Perfmon to trace the data. Keeping the T-SQL Tuesday subject of reporting this post is created to give visual tutorial to quickly configure Data Collection and generate Reports. From Book On-Line: The data collector is a core component of the Data Collection platform for SQL Server 2008 and the tools that are provided by SQL Server. The data collector provides one central point for data collection across your database servers and applications. This collection point can obtain data from a variety of sources and is not limited to performance data, unlike SQL Trace. Let us go over the visual tutorial on how quickly Data Collection can be configured. Expand the management node under the main server node and follow the direction in the pictures. This reports can be exported to PDF as well Excel by writing clicking on reports. Now let us see more additional screenshots of the reports. The reports are very self-explanatory  but can be drilled down to get further details. Click on the image to make it larger. Well, as we can see, it is very easy to configure and utilize this tool. Do you use this tool in your organization? Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Performance, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology Tagged: SQL Reporting, SQL Reports

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• SharePoint 2010 MSDN Labs

  - by Kelly Jones

  Eric Ligman, from Microsoft, posted a great blog post this week listing all of the SharePoint 2010 Virtual Labs that are available from Microsoft.  His blog entry is here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mssmallbiz/archive/2012/03/13/sharepoint-server-2010-msdn-virtual-labs-available-to-you-online-plus-more-sharepoint-2010-resources.aspx He also posted other resources as well. I’ve copied his Virtual Lab links here: SharePoint Server 2010 Virtual Labs MSDN Virtual Lab: SharePoint Server 2010: Introduction MSDN Virtual Lab: Getting Started with SharePoint 2010 MSDN Virtual Lab: SharePoint 2010 User Interface Advancements MSDN Virtual Lab: SharePoint Server 2010 Connectors & Using the Business Data Connectivity (BDC) Service MSDN Virtual Lab: SharePoint Server 2010: Advanced Search Security MSDN Virtual Lab: SharePoint Server 2010: Configuring Search UIs MSDN Virtual Lab: SharePoint Server 2010: Content Processing and Property Extraction MSDN Virtual Lab: SharePoint Server 2010: Developing a Custom Connector MSDN Virtual Lab: SharePoint Server 2010: Fast Search Web Crawler MSDN Virtual Lab: SharePoint Server 2010: Federated Search MSDN Virtual Lab: SharePoint Server 2010: Linguistics MSDN Virtual Lab: SharePoint Server 2010: People Search Administration and Management MSDN Virtual Lab: SharePoint Server 2010: Relevancy and Ranking MSDN Virtual Lab: Customizing MySites MSDN Virtual Lab: Designing Lists and Schemas MSDN Virtual Lab: Developing a BCS External Content Type with Visual Studio 2010 MSDN Virtual Lab: Developing a Sandboxed Solution with Web Parts MSDN Virtual Lab: Developing a Visual Web Part in Visual Studio 2010 MSDN Virtual Lab: Developing Business Intelligence Applications MSDN Virtual Lab: Enterprise Content Management MSDN Virtual Lab: LINQ to SharePoint 2010 MSDN Virtual Lab: Visual Studio SharePoint Tools MSDN Virtual Lab: Workflow In addition to the SharePoint Server 2010 Virtual Labs, here are a few other SharePoint 2010 resources that I thought you might also be interested in: Technical reference for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 SharePoint 2010: IT Pro Evaluation Guide Connecting SharePoint 2010 to Line-of-Business Systems to Deliver Business-Critical Solutions Configure SharePoint Server 2010 as a Single Server with Microsoft SQL Server: Test Lab Guide Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services Add-in for Microsoft SharePoint Technologies 2010 Deploying FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint Add or Remove an Index Column Upgrade worksheet for SharePoint Server 2010 Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Technical Library in Compiled Help format Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 Technical Library in Compiled Help format Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint Technical Library in Compiled Help format Microsoft Reseller partner Learning Path Microsoft solutions partners and ISVs Learning Path Microsoft partner Practice Accelerator for SharePoint Microsoft partner SharePoint 2010 Internal Use Licenses SharePoint Case Studies SharePoint MSDN Forums SharePoint TechNet Forums Microsoft SharePoint 2010 page on Microsoft Partner Network portal

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• Unofficial Prep guide for TS: Microsoft Lync Server 2010, Configuring (70-664)

  - by Enrique Lima

  Managing Users and Client Access (20 percent)   Objective Materials Configure user accounts http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg182543.aspx Deploy and maintain clients http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg412773.aspx Configure conferencing policies http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg182561.aspx Configure IM policies http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg182558.aspx Deploy and maintain Lync Server 2010 devices http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg412773.aspx Resolve client access issues http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg398307.aspx   Configuring a Lync Server 2010 Topology (21 percent)   Objective Materials Prepare to deploy a topology http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg398630.aspx Configure Lync Server 2010 by using Topology Builder http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg398420.aspx Configure role-based access control in Lync Server 2010 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg412794.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg425917.aspx Configure a location information server http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg398390.aspx Configure server pools for load balancing http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg398827.aspx   Configuring Enterprise Voice (19 percent)   Objective Materials Configure voice policies http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg398450.aspx Configure dial plans http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg398922.aspx Manage routing http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg425890.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg182596.aspx Configure Microsoft Exchange Unified Messaging integration http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg398768.aspx Configure dial-in conferencing http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg398600.aspx Configure call admission control http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg520942.aspx Configure Response Group Services (RGS) http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg398584.aspx Configure Call Park and Unassigned Number http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg399014.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg425944.aspx Manage a Mediation Server pool and PSTN Gateway http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg412780.aspx   Configuring Lync Server 2010 for External Access (19 percent)   Objective Materials Configure Edge Services http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg398918.aspx Configure a firewall http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg425882.aspx Configure a reverse proxy http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg425779.aspx   Monitoring and Maintaining Lync Server 2010 (21 percent)   Objective Materials Back up and restore Lync Server 2010 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg412771.aspx Configure monitoring and archiving http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg398199.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg398507.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg520950.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg520990.aspx Implement troubleshooting tools http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg425800.aspx Use PowerShell to test Lync Server 2010 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg398474.aspx

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