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• How To Play DVDs on Windows 8

  - by Chris Hoffman

  Upgrade to Windows 8 and you may be surprised to find that you can no longer play video DVDs. Unlike previous versions of Windows, Windows 8 doesn’t include built-in support for playing DVDs. Microsoft opted not to include DVD support because so many new computers – especially tablets and ultrabooks – aren’t coming with DVD drives. Microsoft pays a licensing fee for each copy of Windows that ships with DVD support. Note: You can still use data DVDs with Windows 8. This only applies to video DVDs. 6 Start Menu Replacements for Windows 8 What Is the Purpose of the “Do Not Cover This Hole” Hole on Hard Drives? How To Log Into The Desktop, Add a Start Menu, and Disable Hot Corners in Windows 8

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• Ransomware: Why This New Malware is So Dangerous and How to Protect Yourself

  - by Chris Hoffman

  Ransomware is a type of malware that tries to extort money from you. One of the nastiest examples, CryptoLocker, takes your files hostage and holds them for ransom, forcing you to pay hundreds of dollars to regain access. Most malware is no longer created by bored teenagers looking to cause some chaos. Much of the current malware is now produced by organized crime for profit and is becoming increasingly sophisticated. How Ransomware Works Not all ransomware is identical. The key thing that makes a piece of malware “ransomware” is that it attempts to extort a direct payment from you. Some ransomware may be disguised. It may function as “scareware,” displaying a pop-up that says something like “Your computer is infected, purchase this product to fix the infection” or “Your computer has been used to download illegal files, pay a fine to continue using your computer.” In other situations, ransomware may be more up-front. It may hook deep into your system, displaying a message saying that it will only go away when you pay money to the ransomware’s creators. This type of malware could be bypassed via malware removal tools or just by reinstalling Windows. Unfortunately, Ransomware is becoming more and more sophisticated. One of the latest examples, CryptoLocker, starts encrypting your personal files as soon as it gains access to your system, preventing access to the files without knowing the encryption key. CryptoLocker then displays a message informing you that your files have been locked with encryption and that you have just a few days to pay up. If you pay them $300, they’ll hand you the encryption key and you can recover your files. CryptoLocker helpfully walks you through choosing a payment method and, after paying, the criminals seem to actually give you a key that you can use to restore your files. You can never be sure that the criminals will keep their end of the deal, of course. It’s not a good idea to pay up when you’re extorted by criminals. On the other hand, businesses that lose their only copy of business-critical data may be tempted to take the risk — and it’s hard to blame them. Protecting Your Files From Ransomware This type of malware is another good example of why backups are essential. You should regularly back up files to an external hard drive or a remote file storage server. If all your copies of your files are on your computer, malware that infects your computer could encrypt them all and restrict access — or even delete them entirely. When backing up files, be sure to back up your personal files to a location where they can’t be written to or erased. For example, place them on a removable hard drive or upload them to a remote backup service like CrashPlan that would allow you to revert to previous versions of files. Don’t just store your backups on an internal hard drive or network share you have write access to. The ransomware could encrypt the files on your connected backup drive or on your network share if you have full write access. Frequent backups are also important. You wouldn’t want to lose a week’s worth of work because you only back up your files every week. This is part of the reason why automated back-up solutions are so convenient. If your files do become locked by ransomware and you don’t have the appropriate backups, you can try recovering them with ShadowExplorer. This tool accesses “Shadow Copies,” which Windows uses for System Restore — they will often contain some personal files. How to Avoid Ransomware Aside from using a proper backup strategy, you can avoid ransomware in the same way you avoid other forms of malware. CryptoLocker has been verified to arrive through email attachments, via the Java plug-in, and installed on computers that are part of the Zeus botnet. Use a good antivirus product that will attempt to stop ransomware in its tracks. Antivirus programs are never perfect and you could be infected even if you run one, but it’s an important layer of defense. Avoid running suspicious files. Ransomware can arrive in .exe files attached to emails, from illicit websites containing pirated software, or anywhere else that malware comes from. Be alert and exercise caution over the files you download and run. Keep your software updated. Using an old version of your web browser, operating system, or a browser plugin can allow malware in through open security holes. If you have Java installed, you should probably uninstall it. For more tips, read our list of important security practices you should be following. Ransomware — CryptoLocker in particular — is brutally efficient and smart. It just wants to get down to business and take your money. Holding your files hostage is an effective way to prevent removal by antivirus programs after it’s taken root, but CryptoLocker is much less scary if you have good backups. This sort of malware demonstrates the importance of backups as well as proper security practices. Unfortunately, CryptoLocker is probably a sign of things to come — it’s the kind of malware we’ll likely be seeing more of in the future.     

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• Good library for search text tokenization

  - by Chris Dutrow

  Looking to tokenize some text in the same or similar way in which a search engine would do it. The reason we are doing this is so that we can run some statistical analysis on the tokens. The language we are using is python, so would prefer a library in that language, but could probably set something up to use another language if necessary. Example Original token: We have some great burritos! More simplified: (remove plurals and punctuation) We have some great burrito Even more simplified: (remove superfluous words) great burrito Best: (recognize positive and negative meaning): burrito -positive-

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• How To Create a Shortcut That Lets a Standard User Run An Application as Administrator

  - by Chris Hoffman

  Want to allow a standard user account to run an application as administrator without a UAC or password prompt? You can easily create a shortcut that uses the runas command with the /savecred switch, which saves the password. Note that using /savecred could be considered a security hole – a standard user will be able to use the runas /savecred command to run any command as administrator without entering a password. However, it’s still useful for situations where this doesn’t matter much – perhaps you want to allow a child’s standard user account to run a game as Administrator without asking you. We’ve also covered allowing a user to run an application as Administrator with no UAC prompts by creating a scheduled task. HTG Explains: Is ReadyBoost Worth Using? HTG Explains: What The Windows Event Viewer Is and How You Can Use It HTG Explains: How Windows Uses The Task Scheduler for System Tasks

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• Windows 7+ desktop apps - what's the best UI toolkit for a new project?

  - by Chris Adams

  I'm trying to make a decision for a new Windows desktop app: what to use for the UI. (This is a desktop app that needs to have compatibility with Windows 7. It won't be distributed on the Windows Store.) This application is going to be cross-platform. I intend on writing the core in C++, and using each platform's native UI toolkit. I feel this is preferable to using a cross-platform toolkit like Qt, as it allows me to keep the native look and feel of each platform. On the Windows side, the UI situation isn't exactly clear. I'm getting the feeling that Microsoft is slowly abandoning .NET, particularly as their preferred toolkit for desktop apps. Indeed, the Getting Started chapter for Windows 7, as well as the rest of Microsoft's documentation, seems to be more suited for C++. I have a few options here: C# with WPF - This sesms like this might be the best Microsoft has to offer for Windows 7 desktop apps, even if it isn't their "preferred" toolkit. I'd need to use P/Invoke to call my C++ code. C++ with Direct2D - This is what Microsoft used in one of their examples. This feels like it's too low-level. Part of the appeal of a higher-level UI toolkit is the consistency with the native look and feel of the platform, so doing this would just feel strange. C++ with a third-party UI toolkit, like Qt There might be some other options I'm missing, which I'd love to hear about. So, if you were starting a new Windows 7+ desktop app today, what would you use?

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• INETA NorAm Component Code Challenge

  - by Chris Williams

  Want to win a trip to TechEd 2011? INETA NorAm is hosting a contest with our partners to see who can build an .NET application making effective use of reusable components to solve a problem. The Rules: Any .NET Application (WinForms, ASP.NET, WPF, Silverlight, Windows Phone 7, etc.) built in the last year (since 1/1/2010) using at least 1 component from at least 1 approved vendor. Then make a 3 - 5 minute Camtasia video showing your entry and describing what component(s) you used and why your application is cool. Our judges will review the submissions and the best two will win a scholarship to Tech·Ed 2011, May 16-19 in Atlanta GA including airfare, hotel, and conference pass. The Judging: Entries will be judged on four criteria: Effective use of a component to solve a problem/display data Innovative use of components Impact using components (i.e. reduction in lines of code written, increased productivity, etc.) Most creative use of a component. Timeline: Hurry! The submission deadline is March 15, 2011 at Midnight Eastern Standard Time. More information can be found on the INETA Component Code Challenge page: http://ineta.org/CodeChallenge/Default.aspx

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• Misadventures at Radio Shack

  - by Chris Williams

  While I'm waiting for my Arduino kits to show up, I started reading the Getting Started With Arduino book from O'Reilly (review coming later) and I'm about 40 pages in when I get to a parts list for one of the first projects. Looks pretty straightforward, and even has Radio Shack part numbers next to almost everything. So on my lunch today, I decided to run out to "The Shack" (seriously, that's their rebranding?) to pick up some basics, like a couple resistors, a breadboard, a momentary switch and a pack of pre-cut jumper wires. I found the resistors without any difficulty, and while they didn't have the exact switch I wanted, it was easy enough to find one that would do. That's where my good luck abruptly ended. I was surprised that I couldn't find a breadboard or any jumper wires, so while I was looking around, a guy came up and asked me if I needed some help. I told him I did, explained what I needed and even gave him the Radio Shack part number for the pack of jumper wires. After a couple minutes he says he can't find anything in the system, which was unfortunate but not the end of the world.  So then I asked him about the breadboard, and he pointed me to some blank circuitboards (which are not the same thing) and I said (nicely) that those weren't breadboards and attempted to explain (again) what I needed, at which point he says to me "I don't even know what the hell you're looking for!" I stood there for a moment and tried to process his words. About that time, another salesperson came up and asked what I was trying to find. I told her I needed a breadboard, and she pointed to the blank circuit boards and said "they're right in front of you..." After seeing the look on my face, she thought for a minute and said... "OH! you mean those white things. We don't have those anymore." I thanked her, set everything down on the counter and left. (I wasn't going to buy only half the stuff I needed.. and I was pretty sure I was never going to be buying ANYTHING at that particular location ever again.) Guess I'll be ordering more stuff online at this point. It's a shame really, because I used to LOVE going to Radio Shack as a kid, and looking through all the cool electronics components and stuff, even if I didnt understand what most of them were at the time. Seems like the only thing they carry in any quantity/variety now is cell phones and random stereo connectors.

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• How to Speed Up Any Android Phone By Disabling Animations

  - by Chris Hoffman

  Android phones — and tablets, too — display animations when moving between apps and screens. These animations look very slick, but they waste time — especially on fast phones, which could switch between apps instantly if not for the animations. Disabling these animations will speed up navigating between different apps and interface screens on your phone, saving you time. You can also speed up the animations if you’d rather see them. Access the Developer Options Menu First, we’ll need to access the Developer Options menu. It’s hidden by default so Android users won’t stumble across it unless they’re actually looking for it. To access the Developer Options menu, open the Settings screen, scroll down to the bottom of the list, and tap the About phone or About tablet option. Scroll down to the Build number field and tap it repeatedly. Eventually, you’ll see a message appear saying “You are now a developer!”. The Developer options submenu now appears on the Settings screen. You’ll find it near the bottom of the list, just above the About phone or About tablet option. Disable Interface Animations Open the Developer Options screen and slide the switch at the top of the screen to On. This allows you to change the hidden options on this screen. If you ever want to re-enable the animations and revert your changes, all you have to do is slide the Developer Options switch back to Off. Scroll down to the Drawing section. You’ll find the three options we want here — Window animation scale, Transition animation scale, and Animator duration scale. Tap each option and set it to Animation off to disable the associated animations. If you’d like to speed up the animations without disabling them entirely, select the Animation .5x option instead. If you’re feeling really crazy, you can even select longer animation durations. You can make the animations take as much as ten times longer with the Animation 10x setting. The Animator duration scale option applies to the transition animation that appears when you tap the app drawer button on your home screen.  Your change here won’t take effect immediately — you’ll have to restart Android’s launcher after changing the Animator duration scale setting. To restart Android’s launcher, open the Settings screen, tap Apps, swipe over to the All category, scroll down, and tap the Launcher app. Tap the Force stop button to forcibly close the launcher, then tap your device’s home button to re-launch the launcher. Your app drawer will now open immediately, too. Now whenever you open an app or transition to a new screen, it will pop up as quickly as possible — no waiting for animations and wasting processing power rendering them. How much of a speed improvement you’ll see here depends on your Android device and how fast it is. On our Nexus 4, this change makes many apps appear and become usable instantly if they’re running in the background. If you have a slower device, you may have to wait a moment for apps to be usable. That’s one of the big reasons why Android and other operating systems use animations. Animations help paper over delays that can occur while the operating system loads the app.     

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• Almost time to hit the road again

  - by Chris Williams

  I’ve had a few months of not much traveling, but now that the weather is improving… conference season is starting up again. That means it’s time for me to start hitting the road. In June, I have Tech Ed 2010 in New Orleans, LA. I lived in New Orleans for several years, both as military and civilian and I have a few friends still down there. I haven’t been there since before Hurricane Katrina, so I have mixed feelings about returning… but I am still looking forward to it. Also in June, I have Codestock in Knoxville, TN. Codestock is one of my favorite events, primarily because of the excellent people that speak there and also attend sessions. It’s a great mix of people and technologies. Sometime in July or August, I’m headed to Austin, TX for a couple days. I don’t know the exact date yet, but if you have an event down there in that timeframe, let me know and maybe we can sort something out. In September, I’m heading to Seattle for my first PAX (Penny Arcade Expo.)  I’m going strictly as an attendee and it looks like a LOT of fun. Really excited to check it out. Also in September, I’m headed to Omaha for the Heartland Developers Conference. This is a FANTASTIC event, and certainly one of my local favorites. (I guess local is relative, it’s about a 6 hour drive.) In addition to speaking on WP7, I’ll be doing a series of hands on labs on XNA they day before the conference starts, so that should be a lot of fun as well.   In addition to all this stuff, I have my own XNA User Group to take care of. In August, Andy “The Z-Man” Dunn is coming to speak and check out the various food on a stick offerings at the Minnesota State Fair!

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• Updating your DotNetNuke Copyright Statement for 2011, and beyond

  - by Chris Hammond

  originally posted on my DotNetNuke.com blog Every January people start thinking “oh crap, I need to update the copyright statement on my website”. And everyone runs out and makes the change to the current year. Well, if you use DotNetNuke you can easily change the Copyright statement on your site from the Site Settings page, found under the Admin menu. You’ll find a setting like the following. If your Skin in DotNetNuke uses the Copyright SkinObject then changing that setting and updating the settings...(read more)

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• Agile Testing Days 2012 – My First Conference!

  - by Chris George

  I’d like to give you a bit of background first… so please bear with me! In 1996, whilst studying for my final year of my degree, I applied for a job as a C++ Developer at a small software house in Hertfordshire  After bodging up the technical part of the interview I didn’t get the job, but was offered a position as a QA Engineer instead. The role sounded intriguing and the pay was pretty good so in the absence of anything else I took it. Here began my career in the world of software testing! Back then, testing/QA was often an afterthought, something that was bolted on to the development process and very much a second class citizen. Test automation was rare, and tools were basic or non-existent! The internet was just starting to take off, and whilst there might have been testing communities and resources, we were certainly not exposed to any of them. After 8 years I moved to another small company, and again didn’t find myself exposed to any of the changes that were happening in the industry. It wasn’t until I joined Red Gate in 2008 that my view of testing and software development as a whole started to expand. But it took a further 4 years for my view of testing to be totally blown open, and so the story really begins… In May 2012 I was fortunate to land the role of Head of Test Engineering. Soon after, I received an email with details for the “Agile Testi However, in my new role, I decided that it was time to bite the bullet and at least go to one conference. Perhaps I could get some new ideas to supplement and support some of the ideas I already had.ng Days” conference in Potsdam, Germany. I looked over the suggested programme and some of the talks peeked my interest. For numerous reasons I’d shied away from attending conferences in the past, one of the main ones being that I didn’t see much benefit in attending loads of talks when I could just read about stuff like that on the internet. So, on the 18th November 2012, myself and three other Red Gaters boarded a plane at Heathrow bound for Potsdam, Germany to attend Agile Testing Days 2012. Tutorial Day – “Software Testing Reloaded” We chose to do the tutorials on the 19th, I chose the one titled “Software Testing Reloaded – So you wanna actually DO something? We’ve got just the workshop for you. Now with even less powerpoint!”. With such a concise and serious title I just had to see what it was about! I nervously entered the room to be greeted by tables, chairs etc all over the place, not set out and frankly in one hell of a mess! There were a few people in there playing a game with dice. Okaaaay… this is going to be a long day! Actually the dice game was an exercise in deduction and simplification… I found it very interesting and is certainly something I’ll be using at work as a training exercise! (I won’t explain the game here cause I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag…) The tutorial consisted of several games, exploring different aspects of testing. They were all practical yet required a fair amount of thin king. Matt Heusser and Pete Walen were running the tutorial, and presented it in a very relaxed and light-hearted manner. It was really my first experience of working in small teams with testers from very different backgrounds, and it was really enjoyable. Matt & Pete were very approachable and offered advice where required whilst still making you work for the answers! One of the tasks was to devise several strategies for testing some electronic dice. The premise was that a Vegas casino wanted to use the dice to appeal to the twenty-somethings interested in tech, but needed assurance that they were as reliable and random as traditional dice. This was a very interesting and challenging exercise that forced us to challenge various assumptions, determine/clarify requirements but most of all it was frustrating because the dice made a very very irritating beeping noise. Multiple that by at least 12 dice and I was dreaming about them all that night!! Some of the main takeaways that were brilliantly demonstrated through the games were not to make assumptions, challenge requirements, and have fun testing! The tutorial lasted the whole day, but to be honest the day went very quickly! My introduction into the conference experience started very well indeed, and I would talk to both Matt and Pete several times during the 4 days. Days 1,2 & 3 will be coming soon…  

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• Antenna Aligner Part 3: Kaspersky

  - by Chris George

  Quick one today. Since starting this project, I've been encountering times where Nomad fails to build my app. It would then take repeated attempts at building to then see a build go through successfully. Rob, who works on Nomad at Red Gate, investigated this and it showed that certain parts of the message required to trigger the 'cloud build' were not getting through to the Nomad app, causing the HTTP connection to stall until timeout. After much scratching heads, it turns out that the Kaspersky Internet Security system I have installed on my laptop at home, was being very aggressive and was causing the problem. Perhaps it's trying to protect me from myself? Anyway, we came up with an interim solution why the Nomad guys investigate with Kaspersky by setting Visual Studio to be a trusted application with the Kaspersky settings and setting it to not scan network traffic. Hey presto! This worked and I have not had a single build problem since (other than losing internet connection, or that embarrassing moment when you blame everyone else then realise you've accidentally switched off your wireless on the laptop).

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• How To Prevent Your Computer From Waking Up Accidentally

  - by Chris Hoffman

  If you find your Windows computer waking from sleep for no apparent reason, your computer is either being woken up by a hardware device – such as your mouse — or scheduled task set to wake your computer. In some cases, the cause may not be obvious. For example, if your laptop occasionally wakes up for no apparent reason, it’s possible that the floor is shaking a bit, causing the mouse to vibrate slightly and wake the computer. Java is Insecure and Awful, It’s Time to Disable It, and Here’s How What Are the Windows A: and B: Drives Used For? HTG Explains: What is DNS?

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• How to Easily Share Files Between Nearby Computers

  - by Chris Hoffman

  It’s a common situation — you have several computers near each other and you want to transfer files between them. You don’t have to pull out a USB drive, nor do you have to send them over email — there are faster, easier ways. This is easier than it was in the past, as you don’t have to mess with any complicated Windows networking settings. There are lots of ways to share files, but we’ll cover some of the best.    

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• How would I install drivers for N900 WNDA4100 wireless adapter?

  - by Chris-Flux

  I am currently using a N900 WNDA4100 wireless adapter, and I am unable to install the drivers for it. It is using a Ralink chipset http://www.wikidevi.com/wiki/Netgear_WNDA4100 I found that Ralink does give support to linux http://www.ralinktech.com/en/04_support/support.php?sn=501 however, I am still rather new to Ubuntu and I was wondering if anyone could help me understand how I would install the drivers (on the Ralink website for the RT3573 USB).

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• Friday Tips #3

  - by Chris Kawalek

  Even though yesterday was Thanksgiving here in the US, we still have a Friday tip for those of you around your computers today. In fact, we have two! The first one came in last week via our #AskOracleVirtualization Twitter hashtag. The tweet has disappeared into the ether now, but we remember the gist, so here it is: Question: Will there be an Oracle Virtual Desktop Client for Android? Answer by our desktop virtualization product development team: We are looking at Android as a supported platform for future releases. Question: How can I make a Sun Ray Client automatically connect to a virtual machine? Answer by Rick Butland, Principal Sales Consultant, Oracle Desktop Virtualization: Someone recently asked how they can assign VM’s to specific Sun Ray Desktop Units (“DTU’s”) without any user interfaction being required, without the “Desktop Selector” being displayed, or any User Directory.  That is, they wanted each Sun Ray to power on and immediately connect to a pre-assigned Solaris VM.   This can be achieved by using “tokens” for user assignment – that is, the tokens found on Smart Cards, DTU’s, or OVDC clients can be used in place of user credentials.  Note, however, that mixing “token-only” assignments and “User Directories” in the same VDI Center won’t work.   Much of this procedure is covered in the documentation, particularly here. But it can useful to have everything in one place, “cookbook-style”:  1. Create the “token-only” directory type: From the VDI administration interface, select:  “Settings”, “Company”, “New”, select the “None” radio button, and click “Next.” Enter a name for the new “Company”, and click “Next”, then “Finish.” 2. Create Desktop Providers, Pools, and VM’s as appropriate. 3. Access the Sun Ray administration interface at http://servername:1660 and login using “root” credentials, and access the token-id’s you wish to use for assignment.  If you’re using DTU tokens rather than Smart Card tokens, these can be found under the “Tokens” tab, and “Search-ing” using the “Currently Used Tokens” tab.  DTU’s can be identified by the prefix “psuedo.”   For example: 4. Copy/paste this token into the VDI administrative interface, by selecting “Users”, “New”, and pasting in the token ID, and click “OK” - for example: 5. Assign the token (DTU) to a desktop, that is, in the VDI Admin Gui, select “Pool”, “Desktop”, select the VM, and click "Assign" and select the token you want, for example: In addition to assigning tokens to desktops, you'll need to bypass the login screen.  To do this, you need to do two things:  1.  Disable VDI client authentication with:  /opt/SUNWvda/sbin/vda settings-setprops -p clientauthentication=Disabled 2. Disable the VDI login screen – to do this,  add a kiosk argument of "-n" to the Sun Ray kiosk arguments screen.   You set this on the Sun Ray administration page - "Advanced", "Kiosk Mode", "Edit", and add the “-n” option to the arguments screen, for example: 3.  Restart both the Sun Ray and VDI services: # /opt/SUNWut/sbin/utstart –c # /opt/SUNWvda/sbin/vda-service restart Remember, if you have a question for us, please post on Twitter with our hashtag (again, it's #AskOracleVirtualization), and we'll try to answer it if we can. See you next time!

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• Switch from encrypted partition to unencrypted (Error: cryptsetup: evms_activate is not available)

  - by Chris Lercher

  I initially installed Ubuntu 11.04 with an encrypted file system (from the alternate install CD: Guided Partitioning, LVM encrypted). Now I wanted to change this setup to have my root file system on an unencrypted partition. I had the following setup before: /dev/mapper/my-root on / type ext4 (rw,noatime,errors=remount-ro,commit=0,commit=0) /dev/sda1 on /boot type ext2 (rw,noatime) I backed up /, reformatted /dev/sda5 (which had contained the encrypted LVM device) to an ext3 partition, and restored / to that partition. I edited /etc/fstab, removed the line /dev/mapper/my-root / ..., and added the line: /dev/sda5 / ext3 noatime,rw,errors=remount-ro,commit=0 0 1 I edited /etc/crypttab, and commented out the single entry. On reboot, I get the grub screen as usual, but then I get the message cryptsetup:evms_activate is not available, waiting for encrypted source device. I tried reinstalling Grub2 using a LiveCD with the ChRoot method, but that didn't make any difference. Why is Ubuntu still searching for an encrypted device?

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• Make An Old Android Feel Like New: How To Make Gingerbread Feel Like Jelly Bean

  - by Chris Hoffman

  Android has taken huge strides since Android 2.3 Gingerbread, but many devices are still using it. If you can’t upgrade your old device, there are ways to make it feel more modern. These apps won’t actually upgrade your Android device to Jelly Bean, but they’ll replace some of the more outdated parts of Gingerbread and make your device feel more like Jelly Bean and Ice Cream Sandwich. the latest versions of Android. How To Delete, Move, or Rename Locked Files in Windows HTG Explains: Why Screen Savers Are No Longer Necessary 6 Ways Windows 8 Is More Secure Than Windows 7

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• HTG Explains: Do You Need to Worry About Updating Your Desktop Programs?

  - by Chris Hoffman

  There was a time when we had to worry about manually updating desktop applications. Adobe Flash and Reader were full of security holes and didn’t update themselves, for example — but those days are largely behind us. The Windows desktop is the only big software platform that doesn’t automatically update applications, forcing every developer to code their own updater. This isn’t ideal, but developers have now largely stepped up to the plate.    

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• Staggered Isometric Map: Calculate map coordinates for point on screen

  - by Chris

  I know there are already a lot of resources about this, but I haven't found one that matches my coordinate system and I'm having massive trouble adjusting any of those solutions to my needs. What I learned is that the best way to do this is to use a transformation matrix. Implementing that is no problem, but I don't know in which way I have to transform the coordinate space. Here's an image that shows my coordinate system: How do I transform a point on screen to this coordinate system?

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• Which Open Source Licenses can address concerns for an Open Source Game Engine?

  - by Chris

  I am on a team that is looking to open source an engine we are building. It's intended as an engine for Online RPG style games. We're writing it to work on both desktops and android platforms. I've been over to the OSI http://opensource.org/licenses/category to check out the most common licenses. However, this will be my first time going into an open source project and I wanted to know if the community had some insight into which licenses might be best suited. Key licensing concerns: Removing or limiting our liability (most already seem to cover this, but stating for completeness). We want other developers to be able to take part or all of our project and use it in their own projects with proper accreditation to our project. Licensing should not hinder someone's ability to quickly use the engine. They should be able to download a release and start using it without needing to wait on licensing issues. Game content (gfx, sound, etc.) that is not part of the engine should be allowed to be licensed separately. If someone is using our engine, they can retain full copy right of their content, including engine generated data. Our primary goal is exposure, which is why we're going open source to start with. Both for the project and for the individuals developing it. Are there any licenses that can require accreditation visible to players? While I'd put our primary goal as exposure, for licensing the accreditation is less of a concern. From what I've read through (and have been able to understand) it doesn't seem like any of the licenses cover anything that is produced by the licensed software. Are there any that state this specifically, or does simply not mentioning it leave it open for other licensing? Are there any other concerns that we should consider? Has anyone had any issues using any of these licenses?

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• Extra Life 2012 - The Final Plea ... Until the Next One

  - by Chris Gardner

  I thought I'd share the email stream that my friends and family get about the event.So, here we are again. We scream closer to the event, and the goal is not met.I was approached by the ghost of feral platypii past last night. Well, approached is putting it lightly. I was mugged by the ghost of platypii past last night. He reminded me, in no uncertain terms that I have only reached the midway point of my fundraising goal. He then reminded me, in even less uncertain terms, that we are one week away from the event. There were other reminders past that, but this is a family broadcast. *shudder*Now, let us be serious for a moment. The event organizers claim a personal story helps to tug heart strings, whatever those are...I've been to Children's Hospital of Birmingham. I had to take Spawn, the Latter, there to verify she was not going to die. Instead, she's just a ticking time bomb for the next generation, but I digress.While I was there, I saw things. I saw child after child after child waiting for their appointment. I saw the most sublime displays of children's art juxtaposed with hospital sterilization that I could ever possibly imagine. I saw and heard things that only occur in the nightmares of parents, and I was only in the waiting rooms.But I will never forget the 10-ish year old girl that came in for her regularly scheduled dialysis appointment ... as if it was just another Friday afternoon. She had her school books, a little snack, a book to read for pleasure, and a DVD, in case she finished her homework a little early. You know, everything you'd need for an afternoon hooked up to a huge medical machine that going to clean out all the toxins in your blood. As she entered the secured area, she warmly greeted all the doctors and nurses with the same familiarity that I would greet the staff of my favorite coffee shop as I stopped in for my morning cup of coffee.I don't know the status of that little girl. I don't know if she's healthy or, quite frankly, alive. I don't even know her name, as I only heard it in passing for the 37 seconds our paths crossed. However, I do remember being incredibly moved and touched by her upbeat attitude about the situations, and I hope that my efforts last two Octobers got her, in some way, a little comfort.And, if she is still with us, I hope we can get her a little more.=== PREVIOUS MESSAGE FOLLOWS ===Greetings (Again),If you are receiving this updated message, then you didn't feel generous the first time. Now, I tried to be nice the first time. I tried to send a simple, unobtrusive email message to get you into the spirit. Well, much like the bell ringers that I ignore in front of the Wal-Mart, you ignored me.I probably should have seen that coming...However, unlike those poor souls, I know how to contact you. And I can find out where you live. So, so, so, you better feel lucky that I'm too lazy to terrorize you people, but cause I could do it.Remember, it's not for me, it's for those poor kids... and the feral platypii.  Because, we can make more children, but platypii are hard to come by.=== ORIGINAL MESSAGE FOLLOWS ===It's that time of year again. The time when I beg you for money for charity. See, unlike those bell ringers outside Wal-Mart, I don't do it when you have ten bazillion holiday obligations...Once again, I will be enduring a 24-hour marathon of gaming to raise money for Children Hospital in Birmingham. All the money goes straight to them, and you get to tell Uncie Samuel that you're good for that money. I'd REALLY like to break $1000 this year, as I have come REALLY close for the past 2 year to doing so.This year, the event will take place on October 20th, beginning at 8 A.M. Once again, I will try to provide some web streams, etc, if you want to point and laugh (especially if I have to result to playing Dance Central at 4 AM to stay awake for the last part.)Look at it this way, I'm going to badger you about this for the next month. You might as well donate some money so you can righteously tell me to shut the Smurf up.You can place your bid at the link below. Feel free to spread the word to anyone and everyone.I thank you. The children thank you. Several breeds of feral platypus thank you. Maybe, just maybe, doing so will help you feel the love felt by re-fried beans when lovingly hugged in a warm tortilla.Enjoy your burrito.http://www.extra-life.org/participant/cgardner

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• Bing Maps WPF Hack

  - by Chris Gardner

  I've spent the past couple of days adding the Bing Maps WFP Control to an application I'm developing. I kept running into a strange thing that was driving me crazy. I have the control in the bottom of a StackPanel, under a Grid. No matter how hard I tried, setting the Height of the Bing control to Auto would cause the ActualHeight to always be 60.93. Now, I still don't know why this is happening. Truth be told, I'm not too sure I care. I did, however, find a reasonable hack around the problem. I do know the size of everything else. As such, I tied into the SizeChanged Event of the StackPanel. Using this, I could set the Height to the correct size based on the new size of the panel. private void ResizeMap( object sender, SizeChangedEventArgs e ) { myMap.Height = ((StackPanel)sender).ActualHeight - 75.0; } The hard-coded number is was because I had a fixed height of controls above my map. If you have dynamic elements, you could easily iterate through them and delete out the portions. So, there you have it. It's not much, but it annoyed the Smurf out of me for a brief period of time. Since I never found an answer, I figured I'd share.

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• If-Else V.S. Switch end of flow

  - by Chris Okyen

  I was wondering the if if-else statements, is like a switch statement that does not have a break statement.To clarify with an example, will the if-else statement go through all the boolean expressions even if comes to one that is true before the final one... I.E., if boolean_expression_1 was true, would it check if boolean_expression_2 is true? If not, why do switch statements need break statements but if-else statements do not? And if they do, I ask the opposite sort question proposed in the previous sentence. if( boolean_expression_1 ) statement_1 else if( boolean_expression_2 ) statement_2 else default_statement switch( controlling_expression ) { case: ( A ) .... case: ( z ) }

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• A Bit Cloudy

  - by Chris Massey

  "Systems Administrators, I come in peace. You have nothing to fear from me" - Office 365 Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite recently absorbed a few other services and has been rebranded as Office 365, which is currently in private Beta and NDA-d up to the eyeballs. As Microsoft's (slightly delayed) answer to Google Apps Premier Edition, it shows a lot of promise; MS has technical expertise, market penetration, and financial capital all going for it. On the other hand, Google...(read more)

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