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• Exchange 2007 with Android activesync

  - by lbanz

  A few of our users noticed that it will stop working intermittently for them. I didn't believe it at first until I changed my android phone and it started occuring for me. It will just stop syncing completely, it looks like the server is blocking the device completely. This mainly occurs when they are using the wifi. I've done some testing. If I switch off the wifi and use the phone data plan it will work fine. When it's on the wifi network, I try and browse to the webmail/owa page and it says page not found! I did a dns lookup and they resolve correctly. If I use another device on the same wifi network, it can access the exchange servers fine. Sometimes the wifi network will just work without any issues. But when it fails, it looks like the phone constantly checks the server every second to see if it is online even though I've got it on manual sync. I was wondering whether it tries to sync too many times and exchange thinks its a denial service attack. My old android phone that works is Froyo and the new one is Icecream. People who have reported issues seems to be newer phones. They also tested their own wifi network at home and experience the same problem. We haven't patch our exchange recently before seeing this problem. Anyone has seen this issue?

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• DD-WRT Acces Point as a Router

  - by Dzh

  Following suggestion to this question asked on Network Engineering, I am asking the question here. this is an extension to my previous question (I think it was deleted), where I was claiming that DDWRT was disabling it's DHCP server once connected to the network. I was wrong, as it now seems that it is bridging itself with another parallel connected wireless router. I have two Draytek 2820 and one Netgear WG602v3 with latest DDWRT. Lets call one wired-Draytek and it has wireless disabled. The other one, let's call it wireless-Draytek, is connected to wired-Draytek and has wireless with MAC filtering enabled. Once I connect Netgear to the wired-Draytek, the client that connects to Netgear, will be assigned with IP address from the wireless-Draytek. If the MAC address is not on the wireles-Draytek, the client is unable to obtain IP address and has no connectivity at all, even with manually assigned static IP configuration. To illustrate further, this is how network is set up: wired-Draytek ---------- wireless-Draytek \_________ Netgear What I wish to have, is that Netgear issues IP addresses from it's own IP pool and ignores the MAC filtering rules from wireless-Draytek. This is kind of puzzling how this they are bridging (if they are) themselves automatically. Thanks. UPDATE: It's not a home network. I gave you a bit simplified set-up. If there is a better site on Stack Exchange to ask this, please let me know. The Drayteks are running stock firmware, it's only Netgear that I've flashed to get more stability. In addition to these routers, I have also three 3COM Baseline switch 2824, and another Draytek router with Prosafe FS752TP PoE switch dedicated for VoIP phones. Wired-Draytek has IP 10.0.0.1, DHCP disabled as there is AD DC which is issuing IP addresses. Wireless-Draytek has IP 1.1.1.1 and DHCP enabled. Netgear has default - 192.168.1.1. As per suggestion, the specific question is - how do I isolate these two wireless routers?

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• Why can't I use my Bluetooth Headset with my laptop?

  - by Michael Haren

  I just received a new Plantronics M50 bluetooth headset. It works great with my phone, but I can't get it working with my laptop. What are the things I should be checking? Here's what I've done so far: It pairs successfully: It's not in multipoint mode--it's only paired to my laptop I've installed all available drivers from Plantronics and Dell I have no (!) in Device Manager (though I don't see the headset there either--would I?) I can "configure" the headset by double clicking on it: "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" is unchecked in the Bluetooth radio settings Apps that let me choose the playback/mic device only list my laptop, not the headset [UPDATE] I went into the Bluetooth device's properties and Checked "headset" under the services tab. This was successful but hasn't delivered any functionality as far as I can tell I'd like to use this headset for VOIP conferencing (Goto meeting, Gmail voice chat, G+ hangouts, Skype, etc.) and listening to music (iTunes). Where else should I be digging? Is it possible that this new headset is simply not compatible with computers (i.e. it's only compatible with phones)?

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• vSphere Promiscuous mode only receiving packets one way from network switch

  - by steve.lippert

  We have two network switches, a POE switch (SwitchA) to power our phones / users computers and a non-POE switch (SwitchB for the rest network.) Each switch is setup to do port mirroring to support our VoIP recording system. SwitchA does port mirroring on specific ports if we need to record a user. SwitchB mirrors one port to monitor our work at home users (Internet comes in from managed router, to switch, back out to our firewall.) These two port mirroring setups feed into one vmware vSphere 4.1 server, it has four total physical cards. The other two NICs feed into an unmanaged switch for connecting to the rest of the network. Once into the vSphere server all network ports go into a vSwitch, and then one of the servers (Windows 2008 R2) sniffs them out and does its thing. Everything is working fine and dandy from SwitchB. But on SwitchA we only receive one side of the VoIP packets (going out to the phone, nothing coming in from the phone). Troubleshooting steps I have taken so far: I hooked up my laptop to the monitor port on SwitchB and I see both sides of the packets. I swapped which network interface is plugged into the monitor port on SwitchA. Because everything feeds into one vSwitch / vNetwork and both sides of the conversation arrive just fine from SwitchB I believe everything is configured correctly on the vSphere server/guest. What could be causing one way packets to arrive on my guest machine from only one interface, but not the other? Could a bad cable be causing the problems from SwitchB?

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• iPhone all day meeting request bug?

  - by RodH257

  We've come across a bit of a weird bug in the office. our office is closing for a week or so over christmas, and our admin staff sent a meeting request to everyone in the office to go from 5pm on the 23rd of December until we return to work at 8.30 on the 5th. However there was some confusion, as if you look at the image below, the same meeting request is showing up with different start times for some people. While most people get the 5pm date, for others it shows up as an all day event! Staff have been planning their activities for the 23rd only to find out that their calendar is wrong and they are required to work. With some investigation, we noticed that all of the people with the incorrect time own iPhones or iPads. So perhaps they accepted the meeting on their phones, and it has put the meeting in wrong? There are people with the correct one that have iPhones, but perhaps they are on ios4 still, or perhaps they didn't accept the meeting request on their phone. has anyone else come across this error at all? is there a fix?

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• lenovo x1 carbon windows 8 frequent wifi disconnect issue

  - by hIpPy

  I'm having frequent wifi disconnects on my Lenovo X1 Carbon Touch laptop. I got this laptop 2 months back and it has been happening ever since about 3-5 times a day and 10 times a week on average. I've Frontier Fios internet. Power connected or not does not matter. Once I get disconnected, I try below to connect again in that order: turn Airplane mode on and off, troubleshoot network problems windows troubleshooter), restart the laptop I'd find that the WiFi adapter would get disabled and sometimes windows troubleshooting would help but more than often I'd end up restarting the laptop. A week back, I upgraded my wifi network adapter drivers (now Intel, version 15.5.6.48, 10/3/2012). I still get disconnected frequently but turning Airplane mode on and off gets me connected again. So the driver update did help. Windows 8 is updated. None of the other devices (nexus, iphone phones, nexus7, ipad tablets) would have wifi issues when my laptop would get disconnected. config: Intel(R) Centrino(R) Advanced-N 6205 (WiFi network adapter) Microsoft Windows 8 Pro Microsoft Windows [Version 6.2.9200] x64-based PC LENOVO System Model: 3443CTO X1 Carbon Touch I recently noticed this log message When I got disconnected in event viewer: Your computer was not assigned an address from the network (by the DHCP Server) for the Network Card with network address 0x[XXXXXXXXXXXX]. The following error occurred: 0x79. Your computer will continue to try and obtain an address on its own from the network address (DHCP) server. Any idea?

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• Configuring two nearby WLANs: should I use the same ssid?

  - by Rory

  I'm configuring a home network for basic internet use (ie don't really need connectivity between workstations on the network). My brick walls mean a single wireless router doesn't provide good coverage throughout the house, so I have purchased two powerline adapters and now have the incoming modem/wireless router at one end of the house plugged into a powerline adapter, and at the other end of the house the other powerline adapter plugged into another wireless router. Currently the two wireless networks have different ssids. (The powerline adapters only do power-Ethernet; they're not wireless access points themselves.) This works well, except when I move between rooms and would ideally like my devices (iPad, phones, laptops) to switch from the weak to the strong signal. Sometimes there's enough signal that they hold on to the weak connects instead of switching to the strong one. Should I name the two networks the same ssid, and if so what is the actual effect? Do the signals get confused, is the bandwidth affected, will this help my devices seamlessly move from one to the other, or is the ssid just a cosmetic thing that actually doesn't have any impact on this situation? Are there any other settings that I should configure to make my setup optimal?

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• How best to handle end user notification in the event of system failure incl. email?

  - by BrianLy

  I've been asked to research ways of handling end user notifications when systems such as email are experiencing problems. Perhaps an example will make this a little clearer. We have a number of sites in different countries. Recently email was impacted at one of the sites, but it could have been a complete network outage. Information was provided by phone to local IT managers at the site but onward communication was slower than some would have liked. It seems like almost everyone at the site has a personal mobile phone which could receive text messages, and perhaps access a remote website with postings on the situation. However managing and supporting a system to text people on these relatively infrequent occasions would be very costly to do internally. What are other people doing to handle situations like this? Some things I've thought of include: Database of phone numbers to text. Seems costly and not very easy to maintain for an already stretched IT group. Is there an external service that would let you do this policies? Send voicemail message to all phones on site. Maintain an external website. This would not work in all situations (network failure), and there is a limit on the amount of info that can be posted externally. A site outage could be sensitive information in some situations. How could the site be password protected? Maybe OpenId/Facebook connect would work. Use a site like Yammer.com which is publicly accessible but only by people with a company email address. Anyone using this for IT outage notifications? To me it looks like there is no clear answer, and that there are solutions for some subsets of users. To be comprehensive a number of solutions would need to be combined. Any additional thoughts or recommendations? What worked or didn't work for your organization?

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• Cisco VoIP stuck as Unregistered?

  - by Shifty

  Question: Why is one VoIP stuck as Unregistered? Background: We have a Cisco UC540 Small Business switch/router/voip combo. This phone was working until I powered everything down to install a larger UPS unit. The phone originally had a status of "Deceased". I removed the registration and tried to add it again. Now it just sits as "Unregistered". I even tried giving it another extension. I am stuck using the Cisco Communication Assistant since this is small business hardware. There is very limited CLI access. Also, from what I heard, if you access the CLI with out cisco permission, you will void any warranty. The phone in question is a Cisco SPA501G. It is connected to a SG300-28P. There are 5 other phones on this switch working just fine. I have tried other ports with no luck. Both the link and PoE lights are lit up. Any ideas?

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• Network bandwidth usage dashboard?

  - by SkippyFlipjack

  I have a couple of wifi access points hooked up to my home network, one of which I keep unsecured for some development I do; there are only a couple other homes within range and they've got their own wifi so it's not a big concern. I also have a Sonos system, Tivo, Roku, a couple laptops, a couple phones, an iPad and a desktop machine, all of which are internet-smart. So when my internet bandwidth tanks and it takes five minutes to load a YouTube video, I want to know what's going on, and there are many potential culprits. I'd like to be able to plug my MacBook into the primary router and see a nice little dashboard of the units on the network and what kind of bandwidth each is using at that moment. I could figure this out from WireShark or tcpdump but figure there has to be an easier way. I've tried a few different commercial products but none really presented the right info. Suggestions? (This may be a question for superuser since my Apple Time Capsule's SNMP capabilities are limited, but I figure admins of small business networks would have dealt w/ the same issue..)

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• Where can someone store >100GB of pictures online? [closed]

  - by sbi

  A person who is not very computer-savvy needs to store 130GB of photos. The key parameters are: an non-negligible probability that the company selling the storage will be existing, and the data accessible, for at least five years data should be considered safe once uploaded reasonable terms of service: google drive reserving the right to literally do anything they want with their user's data is not acceptable; the possibility that the CIA might look at those pictures is not considered a threat easy to use from Windows, preferably as a drive no nerve-wracking limitations ("cannot upload 10GB/day" or "files 500MB" etc.) that serve no purpose other than pushing the user to the next-higher price plan some upgrade plan: there's currently 10-30GB of new photos per year, with a tendency to increase, which might bust a 150GB limit next January ability to somehow sort the pictures: currently they are sorted into folders, but something alike (tags) would be just as good, if easy enough to apply of course, the pricing is important (although there's a reason this is the last bullet; reasonable data safety is considered more important) Nice to have, but not necessary features would be: additional features related to photos (thumbnail generation, album sharing etc.) access from web and other platforms than Windows (smart phones) Let me stress this again: The person in need of that is able to copy pictures from the camera to the computer, can copy files in the explorer, and uses a web email service. That's about it, there's almost no understanding of what happens under the hood.

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• Locate devices within a building

  - by ams0

  The situation: Our company is spread between two floors in a building. Every employee has a laptop (macbook Air or MacbookPro) and an iPhone. We have static DHCP mappings and DNS resolution so every mobile gets a name like employeeiphone.example.com, every macbook air gets a employeelaptop.example.com and every macbook pro gets a employeelaptop.example.com on the Ethernet interface (the wifi gets a dynamic IP from a small range dedicated for the purpose). We know each and every MAC address of phones and laptops, since we do DHCP static mapping (ISC DHCP server runs on linux). At each floor we have a Netgear stack of two switches, connected via 10GB fiber to each other. No VLANs so far. At every floor there are 4 Airport Extreme making a single SSID network with WPA2 authentication. The request: Our CTO wants to know who is present at which floor. My solution (so far): Every switch contains an table listing MAC address and originating port. On each switch stack, all the MAC addresses coming from the other floor are listed as coming on port 48 (the fiber link). So I came up with: 1) Get the table from each switch via SNMP 2) Filter out the ones associated with port 48 3) Grep dhcpd.conf, removing all entries not *laptop and not *iphone 4) Match the two lists for each switch, output in JSON or XML 5) present the results on a dashboard for all to see I wrote it in bash with a lot of awk and sed, it kinda works but I always have for some reason stale entries in the switch lookup tables, making it unreliable; some people may have put their laptop to sleep, their iphones drop connections after a while, if not woken up and so on..I searched left and right, we are prepared to spend a little on the project too (RFIDs?), does anybody do something similar? I can provide with the script if needed (although it's really specific to our switches and naming scheme). Thanks! p.s. perhaps is this a question for stackoverflow? please move if it so.

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• Asterisk relay between multiple subnets

  - by immoune

  I wonder what's the best way to go when you have phones on multiple networks which are not directly reachable. I have 3 networks 10.3.x.x 10.6.x.x 10.17.x.x My asterisk server resides on the 10.3.0.5 IP. The machines from the 10.6 and 10.17 networks are routed here through VPN tunnels. At this point we don't talk about NAT anywhere on the network just pure routing. Since the 10.3.0.5 PBX has routes back to all the subnet's it has no problem to communicate with softphones/hardphones from these ranges. The problem comes from that Asterisk (as far as I understand) only responsible for the SIP communication part not the Audio/Video transmission which is in P2P fashion done between the devices. So although a client using sipdroid from 10.6.x.x is able to connect to the pbx (10.3.0.5) and dial a bria client on the 10.17.x.x network once the phone rings out and the call establishes no audio will be transmitted simply because it has no way to directly connect there. For this there are multiple solutions described in this text: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee480411%28v=winembedded.60%29.aspx What I would prefer is to keep these networks segregated as they are now. What would be the best solution? Is it possible to actually relay through all the audio/video information through the Asterisk server? That would be the best in my case, I using Astlinux there which has a lot of other parts. Thanks

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• Connection reset to some websites

  - by user143271

  I'm using a 2wire 3600HGV modem/router. Starting around this afternoon, any time I try to access anything from i.imgur.com I get The connection to i.imgur.com was interrupted in chrome, and the actual error is Error 101 (net::ERR_CONNECTION_RESET). It's network wide (tested multiple browsers on multiple computers and phones). I can access imgur.com just fine, but nothing from its content server i.imgur.com. If I disable wifi on my phone and use its 4G connection, I can access it just fine, so obviously imgur isn't down. I haven't changed any configuration on the router, and I have tried changing DNS servers (I tried google and OpenDNS). It also seems that imgur is not the only site; howtogeek and a couple of others seem to have the same problem. It looks like they are all edgecast cdn content servers, but not all edgecast cdn servers fail. Tumblr, for instance, works just fine. Does anyone have any idea what would be causing this? EDIT: Related to the edgecast remark, it would appear that this is a specific edgecast server: gs1.wpc.edgecastcdn.net. Tumbler's content is on gs1.wac.edgecastcdn.net, so it might be on a different server. Edit #2: These sites all respond to ping just fine as well.

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• Exchange 2013 really slow outside of localhost

  - by ItsJustJP

  We've got a 12 core xeon, 24GB of ram 2012 server. We've recently migrated from exchange 2010 (which was on another server) to exchange 2013 which resides on our new 12 core server. Accessing the OWA on the exchange server is fine; it's very quick and responsive however accessing it via any other computer connect to the domain via a 1 gpbs connection and it'll take 10-15 seconds to load. Also running slow is public calenders that people in my place need to access, again taking 10-15 seconds to access and can sometimes cause outlook to not respond. Further to that we have phones that connect via the internet (of course) to the exchange so people can get work emails when they are out of the office. Guess what, this is also running slow. I've have search for many solutions and have tried changing outlook authentication methods but there is no change in speed. The old exchange 2010 server no longer exists but there was no problem before the migration. Has anyone got any suggestions? Thanks :) Must also mention that server 2012 that exchange 2013 is installed on is also the DC. Update: It would appear that any connection via https is slow. It took more than 15 mins for an outlook client to download 50MB of emails (outlook anywhere).

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• DESIGNING FOR WIN PHONE 7

  Designing applications for the Win Phone 7 is very similar to designing for print. In my opinion, it feels like a cross between a tri-fold brochure and a poster. I based my prototype designs on Microsofts Metro style guide, with typography as the main focus and stunning imagery for support. Its nice to have fixed factors regulating the design, making it a fun and fresh design experience. Microsoft provides a UI Design Guidelines document that outlines layout sizes, background image size, recommended typefaces and spacing. You know what you are designing for and you know how it will look and act on the win phone 7 platform. Although applications are not required to strictly adhere to the Metro style guide I feel it makes the best use of the panorama view  and navigation. With strong examples of this UI concept in place like their Zune-like music + videos hub, I found it fairly easy to put together a few quick app mockups (see below). In addition to design guidelines, using a ready built design templates, or a win phone 7 specific panorama control like the one by Clarity Consulting will make the process of bringing your designs to life much more efficient. Likes, Dislikes, and Challenges I think the idea of the hub is completely intuitive. This concept clearly breaks down info into more manageable pieces, and greatly helps with organization when designing for the phone. I like the chromeless appearance, allowing the core functionality of the application to take precedence over gradients, textures, bevels, drop shadows, and the complicated animations you see on the web. Although I understand the Win Phone 7 guidelines are a work in progress, I found a few contradictions. I also noticed that certain design specifications did not translate well to the phone emulator . If you use their guidelines as suggested best practices and not as fixed definitions you will have more success. Multi-directional vs Linear The main challenge I had was stepping away from familiar navigational examples seen in other mobile phones. I had to keep reminding myself that the content to the right and to the left of what I was working on didnt necessarily have to have a direct link to one another. I started thinking multi-directional as opposed to linear. Win phone 7 vs IPhone The Metro styling of the Win Phone 7 is similar to the Zune HD and the Windows Media Center UI and offers a different interface paradigm than the IPhone. When navigating an application it feels like you are panning a long seamless page of information in contrast to the multiple panels of an IPhone. I think there is less of an opportunity to overdesign your application, which happens often with IPhone applications. While both interfaces are simple and sleek, win phone 7 really gets down to the basics. IPhone sets a high standard for designing for touch, designing for win phone 7 could improve on that user experience with a consistent and strategic use of white space and staying away from a menu and icon heavy UI. Design Examples for Win Phone 7 Applications Here are some concepts for both generic and brand specific applications for Win Phone 7: View Full Album Resources to get you going with your own Win Phone 7 design: Helpful design templates for Win Phone 7  http://www.shazaml.com/archives/windows-phone-7-ui-templates Here is the interaction design guide for Win Phone 7 http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9713252 Windows has a project template for Blend 4 and Visual Studio 2010 RC1 http://developer.windowsphone.com/ Clarity Consulting developed a panorama control for Win Phone 7 http://blogs.claritycon.com/blogs/design/archive/2010/03/30/building-the-elusive-windows-phone-panorama-control.aspxDid you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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• DESIGNING FOR WIN PHONE 7

  Designing applications for the Win Phone 7 is very similar to designing for print. In my opinion, it feels like a cross between a tri-fold brochure and a poster. I based my prototype designs on Microsofts Metro style guide, with typography as the main focus and stunning imagery for support. Its nice to have fixed factors regulating the design, making it a fun and fresh design experience. Microsoft provides a UI Design Guidelines document that outlines layout sizes, background image size, recommended typefaces and spacing. You know what you are designing for and you know how it will look and act on the win phone 7 platform. Although applications are not required to strictly adhere to the Metro style guide I feel it makes the best use of the panorama view  and navigation. With strong examples of this UI concept in place like their Zune-like music + videos hub, I found it fairly easy to put together a few quick app mockups (see below). In addition to design guidelines, using a ready built design templates, or a win phone 7 specific panorama control like the one by Clarity Consulting will make the process of bringing your designs to life much more efficient. Likes, Dislikes, and Challenges I think the idea of the hub is completely intuitive. This concept clearly breaks down info into more manageable pieces, and greatly helps with organization when designing for the phone. I like the chromeless appearance, allowing the core functionality of the application to take precedence over gradients, textures, bevels, drop shadows, and the complicated animations you see on the web. Although I understand the Win Phone 7 guidelines are a work in progress, I found a few contradictions. I also noticed that certain design specifications did not translate well to the phone emulator . If you use their guidelines as suggested best practices and not as fixed definitions you will have more success. Multi-directional vs Linear The main challenge I had was stepping away from familiar navigational examples seen in other mobile phones. I had to keep reminding myself that the content to the right and to the left of what I was working on didnt necessarily have to have a direct link to one another. I started thinking multi-directional as opposed to linear. Win phone 7 vs IPhone The Metro styling of the Win Phone 7 is similar to the Zune HD and the Windows Media Center UI and offers a different interface paradigm than the IPhone. When navigating an application it feels like you are panning a long seamless page of information in contrast to the multiple panels of an IPhone. I think there is less of an opportunity to overdesign your application, which happens often with IPhone applications. While both interfaces are simple and sleek, win phone 7 really gets down to the basics. IPhone sets a high standard for designing for touch, designing for win phone 7 could improve on that user experience with a consistent and strategic use of white space and staying away from a menu and icon heavy UI. Design Examples for Win Phone 7 Applications Here are some concepts for both generic and brand specific applications for Win Phone 7: View Full Album Resources to get you going with your own Win Phone 7 design: Helpful design templates for Win Phone 7  http://www.shazaml.com/archives/windows-phone-7-ui-templates Here is the interaction design guide for Win Phone 7 http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9713252 Windows has a project template for Blend 4 and Visual Studio 2010 RC1 http://developer.windowsphone.com/ Clarity Consulting developed a panorama control for Win Phone 7 http://blogs.claritycon.com/blogs/design/archive/2010/03/30/building-the-elusive-windows-phone-panorama-control.aspxDid you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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• Home Energy Management & Automation with Windows Phone 7

  A number of people at Clarity are personally interested in home energy conservation and home automation. We feel that a mobile device is a great fit for bringing this idea to fruition. While this project is merely a concept and not directly associated with Microsofts Hohm web service, it provides a great model for communicating the concept. I wanted to take the idea a step further and combine saving energy in your home with the ability to track water usage and control your home devices. I designed an application that focuses on total home control and not just energy usage. Application Overview By monitoring home consumption in real time and with yearly projections users can pinpoint vampire devices, times of high or low consumption, and wasteful patterns of energy use. Energy usage meters indicate total current consumption as well as individual device consumption. Users can then use the information to take action, make adjustments, and change their consumption behaviors. The app can be used to automate certain systems like lighting, temperature, or alarms. Other features can be turned on an off at the touch of a toggle switch on your phone, away from home. Forget to turn off the TV or shut the garage door? No problem, you can do it from your phone. Through settings you can enable and disable features of the phone that apply to your home making it a completely customized and convenient experience. To be clear, this equates to more security, big environmental impact, and even bigger savings.   Design and User Interface  Since this panorama application is designed for win phone 7 devices, it complies with the UI Design and Interaction Guide for wp7. I developed the frame and page hierarchy from existing examples. The interface takes advantage of the interactive nature of touch screens with slider controls, pivot control views, and toggle switches to turn on and off devices (not shown in mockup). I followed recommendations for text based elements and adapted the tile notifications to display the most recent user activity. For example, the mockup indicates upon launching the app that the last thing you did was program the thermostat. This model is great for quick launching common user actions. One last design feature to point out is the technical reasons for supplying both light and dark themes for the app. Since this application is targeting energy consumption it only makes sense to consider the effect of the apps background color or image on the phones energy use. When displaying darker colors like black the OLED display may use less power, extending battery life. Other Considerations For now I left out options of wind and solar powered energy options because they are not available to everyone. Renewable energy sources and new technologies associated with them are definitely ideas to keep in mind for a next iteration. Another idea to explore for such an application would be to include a savings model similar to mint.com. In addition to general energy-saving recommendations the application could recommend customized ways to save based on your current utility providers and available options in your area. If your television or refrigerator is guilty of sucking a lot of energy then you may see recommendations for energy star products that could save you even more money! Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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• Windows Azure Use Case: Web Applications

  - by BuckWoody

  This is one in a series of posts on when and where to use a distributed architecture design in your organization's computing needs. You can find the main post here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/buckwoody/archive/2011/01/18/windows-azure-and-sql-azure-use-cases.aspx  Description: Many applications have a requirement to be located outside of the organization’s internal infrastructure control. For instance, the company website for a brick-and-mortar retail company may want to post not only static but interactive content to be available to their external customers, and not want the customers to have access inside the organization’s firewall. There are also cases of pure web applications used for a great many of the internal functions of the business. This allows for remote workers, shared customer/employee workloads and data and other advantages. Some firms choose to host these web servers internally, others choose to contract out the infrastructure to an “ASP” (Application Service Provider) or an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) company. In any case, the design of these applications often resembles the following: In this design, a server (or perhaps more than one) hosts the presentation function (http or https) access to the application, and this same system may hold the computational aspects of the program. Authorization and Access is controlled programmatically, or is more open if this is a customer-facing application. Storage is either placed on the same or other servers, hosted within an RDBMS or NoSQL database, or a combination of the options, all coded into the application. High-Availability within this scenario is often the responsibility of the architects of the application, and by purchasing more hosting resources which must be built, licensed and configured, and manually added as demand requires, although some IaaS providers have a partially automatic method to add nodes for scale-out, if the architecture of the application supports it. Disaster Recovery is the responsibility of the system architect as well. Implementation: In a Windows Azure Platform as a Service (PaaS) environment, many of these architectural considerations are designed into the system. The Azure “Fabric” (not to be confused with the Azure implementation of Application Fabric - more on that in a moment) is designed to provide scalability. Compute resources can be added and removed programmatically based on any number of factors. Balancers at the request-level of the Fabric automatically route http and https requests. The fabric also provides High-Availability for storage and other components. Disaster recovery is a shared responsibility between the facilities (which have the ability to restore in case of catastrophic failure) and your code, which should build in recovery. In a Windows Azure-based web application, you have the ability to separate out the various functions and components. Presentation can be coded for multiple platforms like smart phones, tablets and PC’s, while the computation can be a single entity shared between them. This makes the applications more resilient and more object-oriented, and lends itself to a SOA or Distributed Computing architecture. It is true that you could code up a similar set of functionality in a traditional web-farm, but the difference here is that the components are built into the very design of the architecture. The API’s and DLL’s you call in a Windows Azure code base contains components as first-class citizens. For instance, if you need storage, it is simply called within the application as an object.  Computation has multiple options and the ability to scale linearly. You also gain another component that you would either have to write or bolt-in to a typical web-farm: the Application Fabric. This Windows Azure component provides communication between applications or even to on-premise systems. It provides authorization in either person-based or claims-based perspectives. SQL Azure provides relational storage as another option, and can also be used or accessed from on-premise systems. It should be noted that you can use all or some of these components individually. Resources: Design Strategies for Scalable Active Server Applications - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms972349.aspx  Physical Tiers and Deployment  - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee658120.aspx

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• SQLAuthority News – Android Efficiency Tips and Tricks – Personal Technology Tip #003

  - by pinaldave

  I use my phone for lots of things.  I use it mainly to replace my tablet – I can e-mail, take and edit photos, and do almost everything I can do on a laptop with this phone.  And I am sure that there are many of you out there just like me.  I personally have a Galaxy S3, which uses the Android operating system, and I have decided to feature it as the third installment of my Technology Tips and Tricks series. 1) Shortcut to your favorite contacts on home screen Access your most-called contacts easily from your home screen by holding your finger on any empty spot on the home screen.  A menu will pop up that allows you to choose Shortcuts, and Contact.  You can scroll through your contact list and then just tap on the name of the person you want to be able to dial with a single click. 2) Keep track of your data usage Yes, we all should keep a close eye on our data usage, because it is very easy to go over our limits and then end up with a giant bill at the end of the month.  Never get surprised when you open that mobile phone envelope again.  Go to Settings, then Data Usage, and you can find a quick rundown of your usage, how much data each app uses, and you can even set alarms to let you know when you are nearing the limits.   Better yet, you can set the phone to stop using data when it reaches a certain limit. 3) Bring back Good Grammar We often hear proclamations about the downfall of written language, and how texting abbreviations, misspellings, and lack of punctuation are the root of all evil.  Well, we can show all those doomsdayers that all is not lost by bringing punctuation back to texting.  Usually we leave it off when we text because it takes too long to get to the screen with all the punctuation options.  But now you can hold down the period (or “full stop”) button and a list of all the commonly-used punctuation marks will pop right up. 4) Apps, Apps, Apps and Apps And finally, I cannot end an article about smart phones without including a list of my favorite apps.  Here are a list of my Top 10 Applications on my Android (not counting social media apps). Advanced Task Killer – Keeps my phone snappy by closing un-necessary apps WhatsApp - my favorite alternate to Text SMS Flipboard - my ‘timepass’ moments Skype – keeps me close to friends and family GoogleMaps - I am never lost because of this one thing Amazon Kindle – Books my best friends DropBox - My data always safe Pluralsight Player – Learning never stops for me Samsung Kies Air – Connecting Phone to Computer Chrome – Replacing default browser I have not included any social media applications in the above list, but you can be sure that I am linked to Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)   Filed under: Best Practices, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology Tagged: Android, Personal Technology

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• Is Microsoft&rsquo;s Cloud Bet Placed on the Ground?

  - by andrewbrust

  Today at the Unversity of Washington, Steve Ballmer gave a speech on Microsoft’s cloud strategy.  Significantly, Azure was only briefly mentioned and was not shown.  Instead, Ballmer spoke about what he called the five “dimensions” of the cloud, and used that as the basis for an almost philosophical discussion.  Ballmer opined on how the cloud should be distinguished from the Internet.as well as what the cloud will and should enable.  Ballmer worked hard to portray the cloud not as a challenger to Windows and PCs (as Google would certainly suggest it is) but  really as just the latest peripheral that adds value to PCs and devices. At one point during his speech, Ballmer said “We start with Windows at Microsoft.  It’s the most popular smart device on the planet.  And our design center for the future of Windows is to make it one of those smarter devices that the cloud really wants.”  I’m not sure I agree with Ballmer’s ambition here, but I must admit he’s taken the “software + services” concept and expanded on it in more consumer-friendly fashion. There were demos too.  For example, Blaise Aguera y Arcas reprised his Bing Maps demo from the TED conference held last month.  And Simon Atwell showed how Microsoft has teamed with Sky TV in the UK to turn Xbox into something that looks uncannily like Windows Media Center.  Specifically, an Xbox console app called Sky Player provides full access to Sky’s on-demand programming but also live TV access to an array of networks carried on its home TV service, complete with an on-screen programming guide.  Windows Phone 7 Series was shown quickly and Ballmer told us that while Windows Mobile/Phone 6.5 and earlier were designed for voice and legacy functionality, Windows Phone 7 Series is designed for the cloud. Over and over during Ballmer’s talk (and those of his guest demo presenters), the message was clear: Microsoft believes that client (“smart”) devices, and not mere HTML terminals, are the technologies to best deliver on the promise of the cloud.  The message was that PCs running Windows, game consoles and smart phones  whose native interfaces are Internet-connected offer the most effective way to utilize cloud capabilities.  Even the Bing Maps demo conveyed this message, because the advanced technology shown in the demo uses Silverlight (and thus the PCs computing power), and not AJAX (which relies only upon the browser’s native scripting and rendering capabilities) to produce the impressive interface shown to the audience. Microsoft’s new slogan, with respect to the cloud, is “we’re all in.”  Just as a Texas Hold ‘em player bets his entire stash of chips when he goes all in, so too is Microsoft “betting the company” on the cloud.  But it would seem that Microsoft’s bet isn’t on the cloud in a pure sense, and is instead on the power of the cloud to fuel new growth in PCs and other client devices, Microsoft’s traditional comfort zone.  Is that a bet or a hedge?  If the latter, is Microsoft truly all in?  I don’t really know.  I think many people would say this is a sucker’s bet.  But others would say it’s suckers who bet against Microsoft.  No matter what, the burden is on Microsoft to prove this contrarian view of the cloud is a sensible one.  To do that, they’ll need to deliver on cloud-connected device innovation.  And to do that, the whole company will need to feel that victory is crucial.  Time will tell.  And I expect to present progress reports in future posts.

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• Create a Search Filter List in Google Chrome

  - by Asian Angel

  Are you tired of unwanted and/or non-relevant results cluttering up the search results at Bing, Yahoo, and Google? With the Search Filter extension for Chrome you can easily remove the unwanted “chaff” from your search results. Note: The extension only works on Bing, Yahoo, and Google at this time. Before For our example we conducted a search for “anime wallpapers” at Yahoo Singapore, Bing Singapore, and Google. In each set of results we decided to focus on results that would display either a yellow or red warning color from WOT. You can see our targeted result for Yahoo Singapore… The one for Bing Singapore… And the targeted result from Google. Search Filter in Action As soon as you install the extension you should take a quick look at the “Options”. At first the “Filters List Area” will be empty but will not remain so for long as you create your own filter list. The second part may or may not be of interest to you…the ability to opt into the filter service. If you opt in your filter list will be connected to your “Google Account” and will be available on any of your Chrome installs with the extension installed (and set to “Opt In”). Keep in mind that if you choose this option the filter list that you create will be aggregated anonymously and have a GUID number attached to it. After installing the extension we refreshed each of our three search pages…notice the small red circle button beside each search result link. Clicking on the red circle button will cause the entire browser window area to “shade out” temporarily while you decide between adding that website to the filter list or cancelling the action. If you add a website to the filter list that result will immediately disappear from the search results list without refreshing the webpage. Looks like we have another website at the bottom that we could add to the filter list… Click, click, click! After adding one website from each of the three search services you can see that our filter list has gotten off to a nice start. If for some reason you accidentally add a website to the list or change your mind about a website simply click on the red circle button to remove that particular listing. Conclusion If you are looking for an easy way to create a search filter list then this is definitely an extension that is worth taking the time to look at. Links Download the Search Filter extension (Google Chrome Extensions) Visit the Search Filter Hub Website to View Lists of Filtered Sites Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips How to Make Google Chrome Your Default BrowserGeek’s Spam Filter – Updated to Version 0.2Access Wolfram Alpha Search in Google ChromeGain Access to a Search Box in Google ChromeGeek’s Spam Filter – Updated to Version 0.3 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 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Scan News With NY Times Article Skimmer SpeedyFox Claims to Speed up your Firefox Beware Hover Kitties Test Drive Mobile Phones Online With TryPhone Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day, 3/23/10 New Stinger from McAfee Helps Remove ‘FakeAlert’ Threats

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• SQLAuthority News – Android Efficiency Tips and Tricks – Personal Technology Tip

  - by pinaldave

  I use my phone for lots of things.  I use it mainly to replace my tablet – I can e-mail, take and edit photos, and do almost everything I can do on a laptop with this phone.  And I am sure that there are many of you out there just like me.  I personally have a Galaxy S3, which uses the Android operating system, and I have decided to feature it as the third installment of my Technology Tips and Tricks series. 1) Shortcut to your favorite contacts on home screen Access your most-called contacts easily from your home screen by holding your finger on any empty spot on the home screen.  A menu will pop up that allows you to choose Shortcuts, and Contact.  You can scroll through your contact list and then just tap on the name of the person you want to be able to dial with a single click. 2) Keep track of your data usage Yes, we all should keep a close eye on our data usage, because it is very easy to go over our limits and then end up with a giant bill at the end of the month.  Never get surprised when you open that mobile phone envelope again.  Go to Settings, then Data Usage, and you can find a quick rundown of your usage, how much data each app uses, and you can even set alarms to let you know when you are nearing the limits.   Better yet, you can set the phone to stop using data when it reaches a certain limit. 3) Bring back Good Grammar We often hear proclamations about the downfall of written language, and how texting abbreviations, misspellings, and lack of punctuation are the root of all evil.  Well, we can show all those doomsdayers that all is not lost by bringing punctuation back to texting.  Usually we leave it off when we text because it takes too long to get to the screen with all the punctuation options.  But now you can hold down the period (or “full stop”) button and a list of all the commonly-used punctuation marks will pop right up. 4) Apps, Apps, Apps and Apps And finally, I cannot end an article about smart phones without including a list of my favorite apps.  Here are a list of my Top 10 Applications on my Android (not counting social media apps). Advanced Task Killer – Keeps my phone snappy by closing un-necessary apps WhatsApp - my favorite alternate to Text SMS Flipboard - my ‘timepass’ moments Skype – keeps me close to friends and family GoogleMaps - I am never lost because of this one thing Amazon Kindle – Books my best friends DropBox - My data always safe Pluralsight Player – Learning never stops for me Samsung Kies Air – Connecting Phone to Computer Chrome – Replacing default browser I have not included any social media applications in the above list, but you can be sure that I am linked to Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)   Filed under: Best Practices, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology Tagged: Android, Personal Technology

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• The Oracle Retail Week Awards - most exciting awards yet?

  - by sarah.taylor(at)oracle.com

  Last night's annual Oracle Retail Week Awards saw the UK's top retailers come together to celebrate the very best of our industry over the last year.  The Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane in London was the setting for an exciting ceremony which this year marked several significant milestones in British - and global - retail.  Check out our videos about the event at our Oracle Retail YouTube channel, and see if you were snapped by our photographer on our Oracle Retail Facebook page. There were some extremely hot contests for many of this year's awards - and all very deserving winners.  The entries have demonstrated beyond doubt that retailers have striven to push their standards up yet again in all areas over the past year.  The judging panel includes some of the most prestigious names in the retail industry - to impress the panel enough to win an award is a substantial achievement.  This year the panel included the likes of Andy Clarke - Chief Executive of ASDA Group; Mark Newton Jones - CEO of Shop Direct Group; Richard Pennycook - the finance director at Morrisons; Rob Templeman - Chief Executive of Debenhams; and Stephen Sunnucks - the president of Gap Europe.  These are retail veterans  who have each helped to shape the British High Street over the last decade.  It was great to chat with many of them in the Oracle VIP area last night.  For me, last night's highlight was honouring both Sir Stuart Rose and Sir Terry Leahy for their contributions to the retail industry.  Both have set the standards in retailing over the last twenty years and taken their respective businesses from strength to strength, demonstrating that there is always a need for innovation even in larger businesses, and that a business has to adapt quickly to new technology in order to stay competitive.  Sir Terry Leahy's retirement this year marks the end of an era of global expansion for the Tesco group and a milestone in the progression of British retail.  Sir Terry has helped steer Tesco through nearly 20 years of change, with 14 years as Chief Executive.  During this time he led the drive for international expansion and an aggressive campaign to increase market share.  He has led the way for High Street retailers in adapting to the rise of internet retailing and nurtured a very successful home delivery service.  More recently he has pioneered the notion of cross-channel retailing with the introduction of Tesco apps for the iPhone and Android mobile phones allowing customers to scan barcodes of items to add to a shopping list which they can then either refer to in store or order for delivery.  John Lewis Partnership was a very deserving winner of The Oracle Retailer of the Year award for their overall dedication to excellent retailing practices.  The business was also named the American Express Marketing/Advertising Campaign of the Year award for their memorable 'Never Knowingly Undersold' advert series, which included a very successful viral video and radio campaign with Fyfe Dangerfield's cover of Billy Joel's 'She's Always a Woman' used for the adverts.  Store Design of the Year was another exciting category with Topshop taking the accolade for its flagship Oxford Street store in London, which combines boutique concession-style stalls with high fashion displays and exclusive collections from leading designers.  The store even has its own hairdressers and food hall, making it a truly all-inclusive fashion retail experience and a global landmark for any self-respecting international fashion shopper. Over the next few weeks we'll be exploring some of the winning entries in more detail here on the blog, so keep an eye out for some unique insights into how the winning retailers have made such remarkable achievements. 

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• Book review (Book 6) - Wikinomics

  - by BuckWoody

  This is a continuation of the books I challenged myself to read to help my career - one a month, for year. You can read my first book review here. The book I chose for November 2011 was: Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, by Don Tapscott   Why I chose this Book: I’ve heard a lot about this book - was one of the “must read” kind of business books (many of which are very “fluffy”) and supposedly deals with collaborating using technology - so I want to see what it says about collaborative efforts and how I can leverage them. What I learned: I really disliked this book. I’ve never been a fan of the latest “business book”, and sadly that’s what this felt like to me. A “business book” is what I call a work that has a fairly simple concept to get across, and then proceeds to use various made-up terms, analogies and other mechanisms to fill hundreds of pages doing it. This perception is at my own – the book is pretty old, and these things go stale quickly. The author’s general point (at least what I took away from it) was: Open Source is good, proprietary is bad. Collaboration is the hallmark of successful companies. In my mind, you can save yourself the trouble of reading this work if you get these two concepts down. Don’t get me wrong – open source is awesome, and collaboration is a good thing, especially in places where it fits. But it’s not a panacea as the author seems to indicate. For instance, he continuously uses the example of MySpace to show a “2.0” company, which I think means that you can enter text as well as read it on a web page. All well and good. But we all know what happened to MySpace, and of course he missed the point entirely about this new web environment: low barriers to entry often mean low barriers to exit. And the open, collaborative company being the best model – well, I think we all know a certain computer company famous for phones and music that is arguably quite successful, and is probably one of the most closed, non-collaborative (at least with its customers) on the planet. So that sort of takes away that argument. The reality of business is far more complicated. Collaboration is an amazing tool, and should be leveraged heavily. However, at the end of the day, after you do your research you need to pick a strategy and stick with it. Asking thousands of people to assist you in building your product probably will not work well. Open Source is great – but some proprietary products are quite functional as well, have a long track record, are well supported, and will probably be upgraded. Everything has its place, so use what works where it is needed. There is no single answer, sadly. So did I waste my time reading the book? Did I make a bad choice? Not at all! Reading the opinions and thoughts of others is almost always useful, and it’s important to consider opinions other than your own. If nothing else, thinking through the process either convinces you that you are wrong, or helps you understand better why you are right.

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