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SQL SERVER – 3 Online SQL Courses at Pluralsight and Free Learning Resources

- by pinaldave

Usain Bolt is an inspiration for all. He broke his own record multiple times because he wanted to do better! Read more about him on wikipedia. He is great and indeed fastest man on the planet. Usain Bolt – World’s Fastest Man “Can you teach me SQL Server Performance Tuning?” This is one of the most popular questions which I receive all the time. The answer is YES. I would love to do performance tuning training for anyone, anywhere. It is my favorite thing to do, and it is my favorite thing to train others in. If possible, I would love to do training 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. To me, it doesn’t feel like a job. Of course, as much as I would love to do performance tuning 24/7/365, obviously I am just one human being and can only be in one place t one time. It is also very difficult to train more than one person at a time, and it is difficult to train two or more people at a time, especially when the two people are at different levels. I am also limited by geography. I live in India, and adjust to my own time zone. Trying to teach a live course from India to someone whose time zone is 12 or more hours off of mine is very difficult. If I am trying to teach at 2 am, I am sure I am not at my best! There was only one solution to scale – Online Trainings. I have built 3 different courses on SQL Server Performance Tuning with Pluralsight. Now I have no problem – I am 100% scalable and available 24/7 and 365. You can make me say the same things again and again till you find it right. I am in your mobile, PC as well as on XBOX. This is why I am such a big fan of online courses. I have recorded many performance tuning classes and you can easily access them online, at your own time. And don’t think that just because these aren’t live classes you won’t be able to get any feedback from me. I encourage all my viewers to go ahead and ask me questions by e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, or whatever way you can get a hold of me. Here are details of three of my courses with Pluralsight. I suggest you go over the description of the course. As an author of the course, I have few FREE codes for watching the free courses. Please leave a comment with your valid email address, I will send a few of them to random winners. SQL Server Performance: Introduction to Query Tuning SQL Server performance tuning is an art to master – for developers and DBAs alike. This course takes a systematic approach to planning, analyzing, debugging and troubleshooting common query-related performance problems. This includes an introduction to understanding execution plans inside SQL Server. In this almost four hour course we cover following important concepts. Introduction 10:22 Execution Plan Basics 45:59 Essential Indexing Techniques 20:19 Query Design for Performance 50:16 Performance Tuning Tools 01:15:14 Tips and Tricks 25:53 Checklist: Performance Tuning 07:13 The duration of each module is mentioned besides the name of the module. SQL Server Performance: Indexing Basics This course teaches you how to master the art of performance tuning SQL Server by better understanding indexes. In this almost two hour course we cover following important concepts. Introduction 02:03 Fundamentals of Indexing 22:21 Practical Indexing Implementation Techniques 37:25 Index Maintenance 16:33 Introduction to ColumnstoreIndex 08:06 Indexing Practical Performance Tips and Tricks 24:56 Checklist : Index and Performance 07:29 The duration of each module is mentioned besides the name of the module. SQL Server Questions and Answers This course is designed to help you better understand how to use SQL Server effectively. The course presents many of the common misconceptions about SQL Server, and then carefully debunks those misconceptions with clear explanations and short but compelling demos, showing you how SQL Server really works. In this almost 2 hours and 15 minutes course we cover following important concepts. Introduction 00:54 Retrieving IDENTITY value using @@IDENTITY 08:38 Concepts Related to Identity Values 04:15 Difference between WHERE and HAVING 05:52 Order in WHERE clause 07:29 Concepts Around Temporary Tables and Table Variables 09:03 Are stored procedures pre-compiled? 05:09 UNIQUE INDEX and NULLs problem 06:40 DELETE VS TRUNCATE 06:07 Locks and Duration of Transactions 15:11 Nested Transaction and Rollback 09:16 Understanding Date/Time Datatypes 07:40 Differences between VARCHAR and NVARCHAR datatypes 06:38 Precedence of DENY and GRANT security permissions 05:29 Identify Blocking Process 06:37 NULLS usage with Dynamic SQL 08:03 Appendix Tips and Tricks with Tools 20:44 The duration of each module is mentioned besides the name of the module. SQL in Sixty Seconds You will have to login and to get subscribed to the courses to view them. Here are my free video learning resources SQL in Sixty Seconds. These are 60 second video which I have built on various subjects related to SQL Server. Do let me know what you think about them? Here are three of my latest videos: Identify Most Resource Intensive Queries – SQL in Sixty Seconds #028 Copy Column Headers from Resultset – SQL in Sixty Seconds #027 Effect of Collation on Resultset – SQL in Sixty Seconds #026 You can watch and learn at your own pace. Then you can easily ask me any questions you have. E-mail is easiest, but for really tough questions I’m willing to talk on Skype, Gtalk, or even Facebook chat. Please do watch and then talk with me, I am always available on the internet! Here is the video of the world’s fastest man.Usain St. Leo Bolt inspires us that we all do better than best. We can go the next level of our own record. We all can improve if we have a will and dedication. Watch the video from 5:00 mark. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL in Sixty Seconds, SQL Performance, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL Training, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology, Video

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User Guide to Dropbox Shared Folders

- by Matthew Guay

Dropbox is an incredibly useful tool for keeping all your files synced between your computers and the cloud. Here we’re going to look at how you can keep all of your team on the same page with Dropbox shared folders. Creating a Shared Folder Setting up a shared folder in Dropbox is easy. Add the files you want to share to a folder in Dropbox on your computer, then right-click in the folder, select Dropbox, and then choose Share This Folder. Alternately, log into your Dropbox account online, click the drop-down menu beside the folder you want to share, and click Share this folder. Now, enter the email addresses of the people you want to share the folder with, and optionally enter a message explaining why you’re sharing the folder. The people you invite will receive an email inviting them to view and join the shared folder. If they haven’t signed up for Dropbox, they can directly signup; otherwise, they can simply log into their Dropbox account and start adding or editing files. Shared folders have a slightly different icon in your Dropbox. Notice the shared folder on the left has an icon with 2 people, while the folder on the right that is not shared, shows previews of its contents. See Your Shared Folder’s History Whenever your collaborators with your shared folders add or change files, you will see a tooltip notification telling you what changed. You can also view the changes online. Log into your Dropbox account in your browser and select the Events tab. This shows all changes to your Dropbox, but you can view only the changes in your shared folder by selecting its name on the left sidebar. Now you can see all recent changes to your folder, and can also see who added or removed each file. On the bottom of the page, you can even add a comment that all the collaborators will see. If someone deleted a file you still need, you can restore it by clicking its link in this online history. Or, you can view any deleted files by right-clicking in your Dropbox folder in Explorer. Select Dropbox, and then click Show Deleted Files. Get Notified When a Change is Made You’re not always in front of your computer; you’ve got a life beyond your projects, after all (at least hopefully). If you really want to stay connected to what’s happening with your project, though, you can easily do that no matter where you are. Your shared Dropbox folder’s history page offers an RSS feed of all changes to the folder. Click the Subscribe to this feed hyperlink. Now, in the popup that opens, click “Copy to clipboard” so you can use this RSS feed. You can subscribe to RSS feeds through many web browsers, email clients, dedicated feed readers, and more. In Firefox, Internet Explorer 7/8, or Opera, you can paste the feed address into your address bar and subscribe to the feed directly in your browser. However, subscribing to the feed in a desktop application won’t help you much when you’re away from your computer. One great option is to subscribe in the popular Google Reader. Then you can check your feed from any browser, on any computer or mobile device. To add your Dropbox feed to Google Reader, log into Google Reader (link below), click Add a subscription on the top left, paste your RSS feed from Dropbox, and click Add. Now you can see any changes to files or folders in Google Reader. You can even add your feed to your iGoogle homepage. Click the Add it Now button on the right in the front page of Google Reader to add your feeds to iGoogle. Now you can see updates on your files from your homepage. If you’re using a different computer, just login to your Google account to see what’s happening. You can also access your Google Reader feeds from many programs and apps for most major Smartphones including iPhone, Windows Phone, and Blackberry. Receive a Tweet or Text When Changes are Made If you’re a hyper-connected individual, chances are you send and receive tweets on the go. If so, this might be the best way for you to get notified when changes are made to your Dropbox shared folder. To do this, first create a new Twitter account to publish your changes through. If you don’t want the whole world to see your updates, click Settings and set your new Twitter account to Private. Once the new account is created, follow it with your normal Twitter account so you’ll see updates. Now, let’s publish our Dropbox RSS feed to Twitter. Create an account with Twitterfeed (link below). Once your account is setup, add your feed to it. Name your feed, and enter your Feed address from Dropbox. Click Advanced Settings to make your feed work just like you want. In Advanced Settings, change the frequency to “Every 30 mins” to make sure you’re updated on changes as quick as possible. You can also change other settings if you like. Click “Continue to Step 2”, and then click Twitter under the available services to add your account. Make sure your signed into your new Twitter account, and then click Authenticate Twitter. Allow the application. Now, finally, click Create Service. Whenever a change is made, you will receive a tweet via your new Twitter account. And since you can receive tweets via text message or many mobile applications, you’ll never be very far away from your Dropbox changes! Conclusion Dropbox shared folders are a great way to keep your whole team working together on the same files in a project. And with these handy tricks, you can keep up with your shared files wherever you are! There are a lot of cool things you can do with Dropbox make sure to check out our posts on adding Dropbox to the Windows 7 Start menu, Accessing Dropbox files from Chrome, and Syncing your Pidgin Profile Across Multiple PCs. Links Signup or access your Dropbox account Google Reader Tweet your feed with Twitterfeed Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips How to Add and Manage Shared Folders on Windows Home ServerManage User Accounts in Windows Home ServerAdd "My Dropbox" to Your Windows 7 Start MenuComplete Guide to Networking Windows 7 with XP and VistaMoving Your Personal Data Folders in Windows Vista the Easy Way TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Office 2010 reviewed in depth by Ed Bott FoxClocks adds World Times in your Statusbar (Firefox) Have Fun Editing Photo Editing with Citrify Outlook Connector Upgrade Error Gadfly is a cool Twitter/Silverlight app Enable DreamScene in Windows 7

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Conversion of BizTalk Projects to Use the New WCF-SAP Adaptor

- by Geordie

We are in the process of upgrading our BizTalk Environment from BizTalk 2006 R2 to BizTalk 2010. The SAP adaptor in BizTalk 2010 is an all new and more powerful WCF-SAP adaptor. When my colleagues tested out the new adaptor they discovered that the format of the data extracted from SAP was not identical to the old adaptor. This is not a big deal if the structure of the messages from SAP is simple. In this case we were receiving the delivery and invoice iDocs. Both these structures are complex especially the delivery document. Over the past few years I have tweaked the delivery mapping to remove bugs from original mapping. The idea of redoing these maps did not appeal and due to the current work load was not even an option. I opted for a rather crude alternative of pulling in the iDoc in the new typed format and then adding a static map at the start of the orchestration to convert the data to the old schema. Note WCF-SAP data formats (on the binding tab of the configuration dialog box is the ‘RecieiveIdocFormat’ field): Typed: Returns a XML document with the hierarchy represented in XML and all fields being represented by XML tags. RFC: Returns an XML document with the hierarchy represented in XML but the iDoc lines in flat file format. String: This returns the iDoc in a format that is closest to the original flat file format but is still wrapped with some top level XML tags. The files also contained some strange characters at the end of each line. I started with the invoice document and it was quite straight forward to add the mapping but this is where my problems started. The orchestrations for these documents are dynamic and so require the identity of the partner to be able to correctly configure the orchestration. The partner identity is in the EDI_DC40 segment of the iDoc. In the old project the RECPRN node of the segment was promoted. The code to set a variable to the partner ID was now failing. After lot of head scratching I discovered the problem was due to the addition of Namespaces to the fields in the EDI_DC40 segment. To overcome this I needed to use an xPath query with a Namespace Manager. This had to be done in custom code. I now tried to repeat the process with the delivery document. Unfortunately when we tried to get sample typed data from SAP an exception was thrown. The adapter "WCF-SAP" raised an error message. Details "Microsoft.ServiceModel.Channels.Common.XmlReaderGenerationException: The segment or group definition E2EDKA1001 was not found in the IDoc metadata. The UniqueId of the IDoc type is: IDOCTYP/3/DESADV01/ZASNEXT1/640. For Receive operations, the SAP adapter does not support unreleased segments. Our guess is that when the WCF-SAP adaptor tries to down load the data it retrieves a data schema from SAP. For some reason the schema does not match the data. This may be due to the version of SAP we are running or due to a customization. Either way resolving this problem did not look easy. When doing some research on this problem I found an article showing me how to get the data from SAP using the WCF-SAP adaptor without any XML tags. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/adapters/archive/2007/10/05/receiving-idocs-getting-the-raw-idoc-data.aspx Reproduction of Mustansir blog: Since the WCF based SAP Adapter is ... well, WCF based, all data flowing in and out of the adapter is encapsulated within a SOAP message. Which means there are those pesky xml tags all over the place. If you want to receive an Idoc from SAP, you can receive it in "Typed" format (in which case each column in each segment of the idoc appears within its own xml tag), or you can receive it in "String" format (in which case there are just 2 xml tags at the top, the raw xml data in string/flat file format, and the 2 closing xml tags). In "String" format, an incoming idoc (for ORDERS05, containing 5 data records) would look like: <ReceiveIdoc ><idocData>EDI_DC40 8000000000001064985620 E2EDK01005 800000000000106498500000100000001 E2EDK14 8000000000001064985000002000000020111000 E2EDK14 8000000000001064985000003000000020081000 E2EDK14 80000000000010649850000040000000200710 E2EDK14 80000000000010649850000050000000200600</idocData></ReceiveIdoc> (I have trimmed part of the control record so that it fits cleanly here on one line). Now, you're only interested in the IDOC data, and don't care much for the XML tags. It isn't that difficult to write your own pipeline component, or even some logic in the orchestration to remove the tags, right? Well, you don't need to write any extra code at all - the WCF Adapter can help you here! During the configuration of your one-way Receive Location using WCF-Custom, navigate to the Messages tab. Under the section "Inbound BizTalk Messge Body", select the "Path" radio button, and: (a) Enter the body path expression as: /*[local-name()='ReceiveIdoc']/*[local-name()='idocData'] (b) Choose "String" for the Node Encoding. What we've done is, used an XPATH to pull out the value of the "idocData" node from the XML. Your Receive Location will now emit text containing only the idoc data. You can at this point, for example, put the Flat File Pipeline component to convert the flat text into a different xml format based on some other schema you already have, and receive your version of the xml formatted message in your orchestration. This was potentially a much easier solution than adding the static maps to the orchestrations and overcame the issue with ‘Typed’ delivery documents. Not quite so fast… Note: When I followed Mustansir’s blog the characters at the end of each line disappeared. After configuring the adaptor and passing the iDoc data into the original flat file receive pipelines I was receiving exceptions. There was a failure executing the receive pipeline: "PAPINETPipelines.DeliveryFlatFileReceive, CustomerIntegration2.PAPINET.Pipelines, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=4ca3635fbf092bbb" Source: "Pipeline " Receive Port: "recSAP_Delivery" URI: "D:\CustomerIntegration2\SAP\Delivery\*.xml" Reason: An error occurred when parsing the incoming document: "Unexpected data found while looking for: 'Z2EDPZ7' The current definition being parsed is E2EDP07GRP. The stream offset where the error occured is 8859. The line number where the error occured is 23. The column where the error occured is 0.". Although the new flat file looked the same as the old one there was a differences. In the original file all lines in the document were exactly 1064 character long. In the new file all lines were truncated to the last alphanumeric character. The final piece of the puzzle was to add a custom pipeline component to pad all the lines to 1064 characters. This component was added to the decode node of the custom delivery and invoice flat file disassembler pipelines. Execute method of the custom pipeline component: public IBaseMessage Execute(IPipelineContext pc, IBaseMessage inmsg) { //Convert Stream to a string Stream s = null; IBaseMessagePart bodyPart = inmsg.BodyPart; // NOTE inmsg.BodyPart.Data is implemented only as a setter in the http adapter API and a //getter and setter for the file adapter. Use GetOriginalDataStream to get data instead. if (bodyPart != null) s = bodyPart.GetOriginalDataStream(); string newMsg = string.Empty; string strLine; try { StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(s); strLine = sr.ReadLine(); while (strLine != null) { //Execute padding code if (strLine != null) strLine = strLine.PadRight(1064, ' ') + "\r\n"; newMsg += strLine; strLine = sr.ReadLine(); } sr.Close(); } catch (IOException ex) { throw new Exception("Error occured trying to pad the message to 1064 charactors"); } //Convert back to stream and set to Data property inmsg.BodyPart.Data = new MemoryStream(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(newMsg)); ; //reset the position of the stream to zero inmsg.BodyPart.Data.Position = 0; return inmsg; }

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Taking the training wheels off: Accelerating the Business with Oracle IAM by Brian Mozinski (Accenture)

- by Greg Jensen

Today, technical requirements for IAM are evolving rapidly, and the bar is continuously raised for high performance IAM solutions as organizations look to roll out high volume use cases on the back of legacy systems. Existing solutions were often designed and architected to support offline transactions and manual processes, and the business owners today demand globally scalable infrastructure to support the growth their business cases are expected to deliver. To help IAM practitioners address these challenges and make their organizations and themselves more successful, this series we will outline the: • Taking the training wheels off: Accelerating the Business with Oracle IAM The explosive growth in expectations for IAM infrastructure, and the business cases they support to gain investment in new security programs. • "Necessity is the mother of invention": Technical solutions developed in the field Well proven tricks of the trade, used by IAM guru’s to maximize your solution while addressing the requirements of global organizations. • The Art & Science of Performance Tuning of Oracle IAM 11gR2 Real world examples of performance tuning with Oracle IAM • No Where to go but up: Extending the benefits of accelerated IAM Anything is possible, compelling new solutions organizations are unlocking with accelerated Oracle IAM Let’s get started … by talking about the changing dynamics driving these discussions. Big Companies are getting bigger everyday, and increasingly organizations operate across state lines, multiple times zones, and in many countries or continents at the same time. No longer is midnight to 6am a safe time to take down the system for upgrades, to run recon’s and import or update user accounts and attributes. Further IT organizations are operating as shared services with SLA’s similar to telephone carrier levels expected by their “clients”. Workers are moved in and out of roles on a weekly, daily, or even hourly rate and IAM is expected to support those rapid changes. End users registering for services during business hours in Singapore are expected their access to be green-lighted in custom apps hosted in Portugal within the hour. Many of the expectations of asynchronous systems and batched updates are not adequate and the number and types of users is growing. When organizations acted more like independent teams at functional or geographic levels it was manageable to have processes that relied on a handful of people who knew how to make things work …. Knew how to get you access to the key systems to get your job done. Today everyone is expected to do more with less, the finance administrator previously supporting their local Atlanta sales office might now be asked to help close the books for the Johannesburg team, and access certification process once completed monthly by Joan on the 3rd floor is now done by a shared pool of resources in Sao Paulo. Fragmented processes that rely on institutional knowledge to get access to systems and get work done quickly break down in these scenarios. Highly robust processes that have automated workflows for connected or disconnected systems give organizations the dynamic flexibility to share work across these lines and cut costs or increase productivity. As the IT industry computing paradigms continue to change with the passing of time, and as mature or proven approaches become clear, it is normal for organizations to adjust accordingly. Businesses must manage identity in an increasingly hybrid world in which legacy on-premises IAM infrastructures are extended or replaced to support more and more interconnected and interdependent services to a wider range of users. The old legacy IAM implementation models we had relied on to manage identities no longer apply. End users expect to self-request access to services from their tablet, get supervisor approval over mobile devices and email, and launch the application even if is hosted on the cloud, or run by a partner, vendor, or service provider. While user expectations are higher, they are also simpler … logging into custom desktop apps to request approvals, or going through email or paper based processes for certification is unacceptable. Users expect security to operate within the paradigm of the application … i.e. feel like the application they are using. Citizen and customer facing applications have evolved from every where, with custom applications, 3rd party tools, and merging in from acquired entities or 3rd party OEM’s resold to expand your portfolio of services. These all have their own user stores, authentication models, user lifecycles, session management, etc. Often the designers/developers are no longer accessible and the documentation is limited. Bringing together underlying directories to scale for growth, and improve user experience is critical for revenue … but also for operations. Job functions are more dynamic.... take the Olympics for example. Endless organizations from corporations broadcasting, endorsing, or marketing through the event … to non-profit athletic foundations and public/government entities for athletes and public safety, all operate simultaneously on the world stage. Each organization needs to spin up short-term teams, often dealing with proprietary information from hot ads to racing strategies or security plans. IAM is expected to enable team’s to spin up, enable new applications, protect privacy, and secure critical infrastructure. Then it needs to be disabled just as quickly as users go back to their previous responsibilities. On a more technical level … Optimized system directory; tuning guidelines and parameters are needed by businesses today. Business’s need to be making the right choices (virtual directories) and considerations via choosing the correct architectural patterns (virtual, direct, replicated, and tuning), challenge is that business need to assess and chose the correct architectural patters (centralized, virtualized, and distributed) Today's Business organizations have very complex heterogeneous enterprises that contain diverse and multifaceted information. With today's ever changing global landscape, the strategic end goal in challenging times for business is business agility. The business of identity management requires enterprise's to be more agile and more responsive than ever before. The continued proliferation of networking devices (PC, tablet, PDA's, notebooks, etc.) has caused the number of devices and users to be granted access to these devices to grow exponentially. Business needs to deploy an IAM system that can account for the demands for authentication and authorizations to these devices. Increased innovation is forcing business and organizations to centralize their identity management services. Access management needs to handle traditional web based access as well as handle new innovations around mobile, as well as address insufficient governance processes which can lead to rouge identity accounts, which can then become a source of vulnerabilities within a business’s identity platform. Risk based decisions are providing challenges to business, for an adaptive risk model to make proper access decisions via standard Web single sign on for internal and external customers,. Organizations have to move beyond simple login and passwords to address trusted relationship questions such as: Is this a trusted customer, client, or citizen? Is this a trusted employee, vendor, or partner? Is this a trusted device? Without a solid technological foundation, organizational performance, collaboration, constituent services, or any other organizational processes will languish. A Single server location presents not only network concerns for distributed user base, but identity challenges. The network risks are centered on latency of the long trip that the traffic has to take. Other risks are a performance around availability and if the single identity server is lost, all access is lost. As you can see, there are many reasons why performance tuning IAM will have a substantial impact on the success of your organization. In our next installment in the series we roll up our sleeves and get into detailed tuning techniques used everyday by thought leaders in the field implementing Oracle Identity & Access Management Solutions.

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.NET to iOS: From WinForms to the iPad

- by RobertChipperfield

One of the great things about working at Red Gate is getting to play with new technology - and right now, that means mobile. A few weeks ago, we decided that a little research into the tablet computing arena was due, and purely from a numbers point of view, that suggested the iPad as a good target device. A quick trip to iPhoneDevCon in San Diego later, and Marine and I came back full of ideas, and with some concept of how iOS development was meant to work. Here's how we went from there to the release of Stacks & Heaps, our geeky take on the classic "Snakes & Ladders" game. Step 1: Buy a Mac I've played with many operating systems in my time: from the original BBC Model B, through DOS, Windows, Linux, and others, but I'd so far managed to avoid buying fruit-flavoured computer hardware! If you want to develop for the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, that's the first thing that needs to change. If you've not used OS X before, the first thing you'll realise is that everything is different! In the interests of avoiding a flame war in the comments section, I'll only go so far as to say that a lot of my Windows-flavoured muscle memory no longer worked. If you're in the UK, you'll also realise your keyboard is lacking a # key, and that " and @ are the other way around from normal. The wonderful Ukelele keyboard layout editor restores some sanity here, as long as you don't look at the keyboard when you're typing. I couldn't give up the PC entirely, but a handy application called Synergy comes to the rescue - it lets you share a single keyboard and mouse between multiple machines. There's a few limitations: Alt-Tab always seems to go to the Mac, and Windows 7's UAC dialogs require the local mouse for security reasons, but it gets you a long way at least. Step 2: Register as an Apple Developer You can register as an Apple Developer free of charge, and that lets you download XCode and the iOS SDK. You also get the iPhone / iPad emulator, which is handy, since you'll need to be a paid member before you can deploy your apps to a real device. You can either enroll as an individual, or as a company. They both cost the same ($99/year), but there's a few differences between them. If you register as a company, you can add multiple developers to your team (all for the same $99 - not $99 per developer), and you get to use your company name in the App Store. However, you'll need to send off significantly more documentation to Apple, and I suspect the process takes rather longer than for an individual, where they just need to verify some credit card details. Here's a tip: if you're registering as a company, do so as early as possible. The approval process can take a while to complete, so get the application in in plenty of time. Step 3: Learn to love the square brackets! Objective-C is the language of the iPad. C and C++ are also supported, and if you're doing some serious game development, you'll probably spend most of your time in C++ talking OpenGL, but for forms-based apps, you'll be interacting with a lot of the Objective-C SDK. Like shifting from Ctrl-C to Cmd-C, it feels a little odd at first, with the familiar string.format(.) turning into: NSString *myString = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"Hello world, it's %@", [NSDate date]]; Thankfully XCode's auto-complete is normally passable, if not up to Visual Studio's standards, which coupled with a huge amount of content on Stack Overflow means you'll soon get to grips with the API. You'll need to get used to some terminology changes, though; here's an incomplete approximation: Coming from a .NET background, there's some luxuries you no longer have developing Objective C in XCode: Generics! Remember back in .NET 1.1, when all collections were just objects? Yup, we're back there now. ReSharper. Or, more generally, very much refactoring support. The not-many-keystrokes to rename a class, its file, and al references to it in Visual Studio turns into a much more painful experience in XCode. Garbage collection. This is actually rather less of an issue than you might expect: if you follow the rules, the reference counting provided by Objective C gets you a long way without too much pain. Circular references are their usual problematic self, though. Decent exception handling. You do have exceptions, but they're nowhere near as widely used. Generally, if something goes wrong, you get nil (see translation table above) back. Which brings me on to. Calling a method on a nil object isn't a failure - it just returns nil itself! There's many arguments for and against this, but personally I fall into the "stuff should fail as quickly and explicitly as possible" camp. Less specifically, I found that there's more chance of code failing at runtime rather than getting caught at compile-time: using the @selector(.) syntax to pass a method signature isn't (can't be) checked at compile-time, so the first you know about a typo is a crash when you try and call it. The solution to this is of course lots of great testing, both automated and manual, but I still find comfort in provably correct type safety being enforced in addition to testing. Step 4: Submit to the App Store Assuming you want to distribute to more than a handful of devices, you're going to need to submit your app to the Apple App Store. There's a few gotchas in terms of getting builds signed with the right certificates, and you'll be bouncing around between XCode and iTunes Connect a fair bit, but eventually you get everything checked off the to-do list, and are ready to upload your first binary! With some amount of anticipation, I pressed the Upload button in XCode, ready to release our creation into the world, but was instead greeted by an error informing me my XML file was malformed. Uh. A little Googling later, and it turned out that a simple rename from "Stacks&Heaps.app" to "StacksAndHeaps.app" worked around an XML escaping bug, and we were good to go. The next step is to wait for approval (or otherwise). After a couple of weeks of intensive development, this part is agonising. Did we make it? The Apple jury is still out at the moment, but our fingers are firmly crossed! In the meantime, you can see some screenshots and leave us your email address if you'd like us to get in touch when it does go live at the MobileFoo website. Step 5: Profit! Actually, that wasn't the idea here: Stacks & Heaps is free; there's no adverts, and we're not going to sell all your data either. So why did we do it? We wanted to get an idea of what it's like to move from coding for a desktop environment, to something completely different. We don't know whether in a year's time, the iPad will still be the dominant force, or whether Android will have smoothed out some bugs, tweaked the performance, and polished the UI, but I think it's a fairly sure bet that the tablet form factor is here to stay. We want to meet people who are using it, start chatting to them, and find out about some of the pain they're feeling. What better way to do that than do it ourselves, and get to write a cool game in the process?

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wireless LAN soft blocked on Ubuntu 13.10

- by iacopo

I've troubles with bluetooth and with lan. When I digit: rfkill list all 0: hci0: Bluetooth Soft blocked: no Hard blocked: no 1: phy0: Wireless LAN Soft blocked: yes Hard blocked: no When I digit: lspci -v 00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor Root Complex Subsystem: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor Root Complex Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 0 00:01.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Trinity [Radeon HD 7600G] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller]) Subsystem: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Trinity [Radeon HD 7600G] Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 48 Memory at c0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M] I/O ports at f000 [size=256] Memory at feb00000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256K] Expansion ROM at [disabled] Capabilities: Kernel driver in use: radeon 00:01.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Trinity HDMI Audio Controller Subsystem: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Trinity HDMI Audio Controller Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 49 Memory at feb44000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K] Capabilities: Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel 00:10.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH USB XHCI Controller (rev 03) (prog-if 30 [XHCI]) Subsystem: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH USB XHCI Controller Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 18 Memory at feb48000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K] Capabilities: Kernel driver in use: xhci_hcd 00:11.0 SATA controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 40) (prog-if 01 [AHCI 1.0]) Subsystem: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Device 7800 Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 45 I/O ports at f190 [size=8] I/O ports at f180 [size=4] I/O ports at f170 [size=8] I/O ports at f160 [size=4] I/O ports at f150 [size=16] Memory at feb50000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2K] Capabilities: Kernel driver in use: ahci 00:12.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH USB OHCI Controller (rev 11) (prog-if 10 [OHCI]) Subsystem: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH USB OHCI Controller Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 18 Memory at feb4f000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K] Kernel driver in use: ohci-pci 00:12.2 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH USB EHCI Controller (rev 11) (prog-if 20 [EHCI]) Subsystem: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH USB EHCI Controller Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 17 Memory at feb4e000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256] Capabilities: Kernel driver in use: ehci-pci 00:13.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH USB OHCI Controller (rev 11) (prog-if 10 [OHCI]) Subsystem: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH USB OHCI Controller Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 18 Memory at feb4d000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K] Kernel driver in use: ohci-pci 00:13.2 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH USB EHCI Controller (rev 11) (prog-if 20 [EHCI]) Subsystem: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH USB EHCI Controller Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 17 Memory at feb4c000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256] Capabilities: Kernel driver in use: ehci-pci 00:14.0 SMBus: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SMBus Controller (rev 14) Subsystem: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SMBus Controller Flags: 66MHz, medium devsel Kernel driver in use: piix4_smbus 00:14.1 IDE interface: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH IDE Controller (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP]) Subsystem: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH IDE Controller Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 17 I/O ports at 01f0 [size=8] I/O ports at 03f4 [size=1] I/O ports at 0170 [size=8] I/O ports at 0374 [size=1] I/O ports at f100 [size=16] Kernel driver in use: pata_atiixp 00:14.2 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH Azalia Controller (rev 01) Subsystem: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH Azalia Controller Flags: bus master, slow devsel, latency 32, IRQ 16 Memory at feb40000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K] Capabilities: Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel 00:14.3 ISA bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH LPC Bridge (rev 11) Subsystem: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH LPC Bridge Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 0 00:14.4 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH PCI Bridge (rev 40) (prog-if 01 [Subtractive decode]) Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64 Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=64 00:14.5 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH USB OHCI Controller (rev 11) (prog-if 10 [OHCI]) Subsystem: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH USB OHCI Controller Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 18 Memory at feb4b000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K] Kernel driver in use: ohci-pci 00:14.7 SD Host controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SD Flash Controller (prog-if 01) Subsystem: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SD Flash Controller Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 39, IRQ 16 Memory at feb4a000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256] Kernel driver in use: sdhci-pci 00:15.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Hudson PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 0) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode]) Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0 Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=02, sec-latency=0 I/O behind bridge: 0000e000-0000efff Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000d0000000-00000000d00fffff Capabilities: Kernel driver in use: pcieport 00:15.1 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Hudson PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 1) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode]) Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0 Bus: primary=00, secondary=03, subordinate=03, sec-latency=0 Memory behind bridge: fe900000-feafffff Capabilities: Kernel driver in use: pcieport 00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor Function 0 Flags: fast devsel 00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor Function 1 Flags: fast devsel 00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor Function 2 Flags: fast devsel 00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor Function 3 Flags: fast devsel Capabilities: Kernel driver in use: k10temp 00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor Function 4 Flags: fast devsel 00:18.5 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor Function 5 Flags: fast devsel 02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 07) Subsystem: PC Partner Limited / Sapphire Technology Device 0123 Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 46 I/O ports at e000 [size=256] Memory at d0004000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=4K] Memory at d0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=16K] Capabilities: Kernel driver in use: r8169 03:00.0 Network controller: Ralink corp. RT3290 Wireless 802.11n 1T/1R PCIe Subsystem: AzureWave Device 2b87 Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 47 Memory at fea40000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K] Memory at fea30000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K] Capabilities: Kernel driver in use: rt2800pci 03:00.1 Bluetooth: Ralink corp. RT3290 Bluetooth Subsystem: AzureWave Device 2787 Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11 Memory at fea20000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K] Memory at fea10000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K] Memory at fe900000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1M] Expansion ROM at fea00000 [disabled] [size=64K] Capabilities: Thank you for all the help

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How can I keep the cpu temp low?

- by Newton

I have an HP pavilion dv7, I'm using ubuntu 12.04 so the overheating problem with sandybridge cpu is a lot better. However my laptop is still becoming too hot to keep on my legs. The problem is that the fan wait too much before starting, so the medium temp is too hight. When I'm using windows 7 the laptop is room-temperature cold, I've absolutely no problem. On windows the fan is always spinning very low & very silently so the heat is continuously removed, without reaching an unconfortable temp. How can I force the computer to act like that also on ubuntu? PS The bios can't let me control this kind of thing, and this is my experience with lm-sensors and fancontrol al@notebook:~$ sudo sensors-detect [sudo] password for al: # sensors-detect revision 5984 (2011-07-10 21:22:53 +0200) # System: Hewlett-Packard HP Pavilion dv7 Notebook PC (laptop) # Board: Hewlett-Packard 1800 This program will help you determine which kernel modules you need to load to use lm_sensors most effectively. It is generally safe and recommended to accept the default answers to all questions, unless you know what you're doing. Some south bridges, CPUs or memory controllers contain embedded sensors. Do you want to scan for them? This is totally safe. (YES/no): y Module cpuid loaded successfully. Silicon Integrated Systems SIS5595... No VIA VT82C686 Integrated Sensors... No VIA VT8231 Integrated Sensors... No AMD K8 thermal sensors... No AMD Family 10h thermal sensors... No AMD Family 11h thermal sensors... No AMD Family 12h and 14h thermal sensors... No AMD Family 15h thermal sensors... No AMD Family 15h power sensors... No Intel digital thermal sensor... Success! (driver `coretemp') Intel AMB FB-DIMM thermal sensor... No VIA C7 thermal sensor... No VIA Nano thermal sensor... No Some Super I/O chips contain embedded sensors. We have to write to standard I/O ports to probe them. This is usually safe. Do you want to scan for Super I/O sensors? (YES/no): y Probing for Super-I/O at 0x2e/0x2f Trying family `National Semiconductor/ITE'... No Trying family `SMSC'... No Trying family `VIA/Winbond/Nuvoton/Fintek'... No Trying family `ITE'... No Probing for Super-I/O at 0x4e/0x4f Trying family `National Semiconductor/ITE'... Yes Found unknown chip with ID 0x8518 Some hardware monitoring chips are accessible through the ISA I/O ports. We have to write to arbitrary I/O ports to probe them. This is usually safe though. Yes, you do have ISA I/O ports even if you do not have any ISA slots! Do you want to scan the ISA I/O ports? (YES/no): y Probing for `National Semiconductor LM78' at 0x290... No Probing for `National Semiconductor LM79' at 0x290... No Probing for `Winbond W83781D' at 0x290... No Probing for `Winbond W83782D' at 0x290... No Lastly, we can probe the I2C/SMBus adapters for connected hardware monitoring devices. This is the most risky part, and while it works reasonably well on most systems, it has been reported to cause trouble on some systems. Do you want to probe the I2C/SMBus adapters now? (YES/no): y Using driver `i2c-i801' for device 0000:00:1f.3: Intel Cougar Point (PCH) Module i2c-i801 loaded successfully. Module i2c-dev loaded successfully. Next adapter: i915 gmbus disabled (i2c-0) Do you want to scan it? (YES/no/selectively): y Next adapter: i915 gmbus ssc (i2c-1) Do you want to scan it? (YES/no/selectively): y Next adapter: i915 GPIOB (i2c-2) Do you want to scan it? (YES/no/selectively): y Next adapter: i915 gmbus vga (i2c-3) Do you want to scan it? (YES/no/selectively): y Next adapter: i915 GPIOA (i2c-4) Do you want to scan it? (YES/no/selectively): y Next adapter: i915 gmbus panel (i2c-5) Do you want to scan it? (YES/no/selectively): y Client found at address 0x50 Probing for `Analog Devices ADM1033'... No Probing for `Analog Devices ADM1034'... No Probing for `SPD EEPROM'... No Probing for `EDID EEPROM'... Yes (confidence 8, not a hardware monitoring chip) Next adapter: i915 GPIOC (i2c-6) Do you want to scan it? (YES/no/selectively): y Client found at address 0x50 Probing for `Analog Devices ADM1033'... No Probing for `Analog Devices ADM1034'... No Probing for `SPD EEPROM'... No Probing for `EDID EEPROM'... Yes (confidence 8, not a hardware monitoring chip) Next adapter: i915 gmbus dpc (i2c-7) Do you want to scan it? (YES/no/selectively): y Next adapter: i915 GPIOD (i2c-8) Do you want to scan it? (YES/no/selectively): y Next adapter: i915 gmbus dpb (i2c-9) Do you want to scan it? (YES/no/selectively): y Next adapter: i915 GPIOE (i2c-10) Do you want to scan it? (YES/no/selectively): y Next adapter: i915 gmbus reserved (i2c-11) Do you want to scan it? (YES/no/selectively): y Next adapter: i915 gmbus dpd (i2c-12) Do you want to scan it? (YES/no/selectively): y Next adapter: i915 GPIOF (i2c-13) Do you want to scan it? (YES/no/selectively): y Next adapter: DPDDC-B (i2c-14) Do you want to scan it? (YES/no/selectively): y Now follows a summary of the probes I have just done. Just press ENTER to continue: Driver `coretemp': * Chip `Intel digital thermal sensor' (confidence: 9) To load everything that is needed, add this to /etc/modules: #----cut here---- # Chip drivers coretemp #----cut here---- If you have some drivers built into your kernel, the list above will contain too many modules. Skip the appropriate ones! Do you want to add these lines automatically to /etc/modules? (yes/NO)y Successful! Monitoring programs won't work until the needed modules are loaded. You may want to run 'service module-init-tools start' to load them. Unloading i2c-dev... OK Unloading i2c-i801... OK Unloading cpuid... OK al@notebook:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/module-init-tools restart Rather than invoking init scripts through /etc/init.d, use the service(8) utility, e.g. service module-init-tools restart Since the script you are attempting to invoke has been converted to an Upstart job, you may also use the stop(8) and then start(8) utilities, e.g. stop module-init-tools ; start module-init-tools. The restart(8) utility is also available. module-init-tools stop/waiting al@notebook:~$ sudo service module-init-tools restart stop: Unknown instance: module-init-tools stop/waiting al@notebook:~$ sudo service module-init-tools start module-init-tools stop/waiting al@notebook:~$ sudo pwmconfig # pwmconfig revision 5857 (2010-08-22) This program will search your sensors for pulse width modulation (pwm) controls, and test each one to see if it controls a fan on your motherboard. Note that many motherboards do not have pwm circuitry installed, even if your sensor chip supports pwm. We will attempt to briefly stop each fan using the pwm controls. The program will attempt to restore each fan to full speed after testing. However, it is ** very important ** that you physically verify that the fans have been to full speed after the program has completed. /usr/sbin/pwmconfig: There are no pwm-capable sensor modules installed Is my case too desperate?

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Beginner’s Guide to Flock, the Social Media Browser

- by Asian Angel

Are you wanting a browser that can work as a social hub from the first moment that you start it up? If you love the idea of a browser that is ready to go out of the box then join us as we look at Flock. During the Install Process When you are installing Flock there are two install windows that you should watch for. The first one lets you choose between the “Express Setup & Custom Setup”. We recommend the “Custom Setup”. Once you have selected the “Custom Setup” you can choose which of the following options will enabled. Notice the “anonymous usage statistics” option at the bottom…you can choose to leave this enabled or disable it based on your comfort level. The First Look When you start Flock up for the first time it will open with three tabs. All three are of interest…especially if this is your first time using Flock. With the first tab you can jump right into “logging in/activating” favorite social services within Flock. This page is set to display each time that you open Flock unless you deselect the option in the lower left corner. The second tab provides a very nice overview of Flock and its’ built-in social management power. The third and final page can be considered a “Personal Page”. You can make some changes to the content displayed for quick and easy access and/or monitoring “Twitter Search, Favorite Feeds, Favorite Media, Friend Activity, & Favorite Sites”. Use the “Widget Menu” in the upper left corner to select the “Personal Page Components” that you would like to use. In the upper right corner there is a built-in “Search Bar” and buttons for “Posting to Your Blog & Uploading Media”. To help personalize the “My World Page” just a bit more you can even change the text to your name or whatever best suits your needs. The Flock Toolbar The “Flock Toolbar” is full of social account management goodness. In order from left to right the buttons are: My World (Homepage), Open People Sidebar, Open Media Bar, Open Feeds Sidebar, Webmail, Open Favorites Sidebar, Open Accounts and Services Sidebar, Open Web Clipboard Sidebar, Open Blog Editor, & Open Photo Uploader. The buttons will be “highlighted” with a blue background to help indicate which area you are in. The first area will display a listing of people that you are watching/following at the services shown here. Clicking on the “Media Bar Button” will display the following “Media Slider Bar” above your “Tab Bar”. Notice that there is a built-in “Search Bar” on the right side. Any photos, etc. clicked on will be opened in the currently focused tab below the “Media Bar”. Here is a listing of the “Media Streams” available for viewing. By default Flock will come with a small selection of pre-subscribed RSS Feeds. You can easily unsubscribe, rearrange, add custom folders, or non-categorized feeds as desired. RSS Feeds subscribed to here can be viewed combined together as a single feed (clickable links) in the “My World Page”. or can be viewed individually in a new tab. Very nice! Next on the “Flock Toolbar is the “Webmail Button”. You can set up access to your favorite “Yahoo!, Gmail, & AOL Mail” accounts from here. The “Favorites Sidebar” combines your “Browser History & Bookmarks” into one convenient location. The “Accounts and Services Sidebar” gives you quick and easy access to get logged into your favorite social accounts. Clicking on any of the links will open that particular service’s login page in a new tab. Want to store items such as photos, links, and text to add into a blog post or tweet later on? Just drag and drop them into the “Web Clipboard Sidebar” for later access. Clicking on the “Blog Editor Button” will open up a separate blogging window to compose your posts in. If you have not logged into or set up an account yet in Flock you will see the following message window. The “Blogging Window”…nice, simple, and straightforward. If you are not already logged into your photo account(s) then you will see the following message window when you click on the “Photo Uploader Button”. Clicking “OK” will open the “Accounts and Services Sidebar” with compatible photo services highlighted in a light yellow color. Log in to your favorite service to start uploading all those great images. After Setting Up Here is what our browser looked like after setting up some of our favorite services. The Twitter feed is certainly looking nice and easy to read through… Some tweaking in the “RSS Feeds Sidebar” makes for a perfect reading experience. Keeping up with our e-mail is certainly easy to do too. A look back at the “Accounts and Services Sidebar” shows that all of our accounts are actively logged in (green dot on the right side). Going back to our “My World Page” you can see how nice everything looks for monitoring our “Friend Activity & Favorite Feeds”. Moving on to regular browsing everything is looking very good… Flock is a perfect choice for anyone wanting a browser and social hub all built into a single app. Conclusion Anyone who loves keeping up with their favorite social services while browsing will find using Flock to be a wonderful experience. You literally get the best of both worlds with this browser. Links Download Flock The Official Flock Extensions Homepage The Official Flock Toolbar Homepage Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Add Color Coding to Windows 7 Media Center Program GuideAdd Social Bookmarking (Digg This!) Links to your Wordpress BlogHow to use an ISO image on Ubuntu LinuxAdvertise on How-To GeekFixing When Windows Media Player Library Won’t Let You Add Files TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Have Fun Editing Photo Editing with Citrify Outlook Connector Upgrade Error Gadfly is a cool Twitter/Silverlight app Enable DreamScene in Windows 7 Microsoft’s “How Do I ?” Videos Home Networks – How do they look like & the problems they cause

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Can Microsoft Build Appliances?

- by andrewbrust

Billy Hollis, my Visual Studio Live! colleague and fellow Microsoft Regional Director said recently, and I am paraphrasing, that the computing world, especially on the consumer side, has shifted from one of building hardware and software that makes things possible to do, to building products and technologies that make things easy to do. Billy crystalized things perfectly, as he often does. In this new world of “easy to do,” Apple has done very well and Microsoft has struggled. In the old world, customers wanted a Swiss Army Knife, with the most gimmicks and gadgets possible. In the new world, people want elegantly cutlery. They may want cake cutters and utility knives too, but they don’t want one device that works for all three tasks. People don’t want tools, they want utensils. People don’t want machines. They want appliances. Microsoft Appliances: They Do Exist Microsoft has built a few appliance-like devices. I would say XBox 360 is an appliance, It’s versatile, mind you, but it’s the kind of thing you plug in, turn on and use, as opposed to set-up, tune, and open up to upgrade the internals. Windows Phone 7 is an appliance too. It’s a true smartphone, unlike Windows Mobile which was a handheld computer with a radio stack. Zune is an appliance too, and a nice one. It hasn’t attained much traction in the market, but that’s probably because the seminal consumer computing appliance -- the iPod – got there so much more quickly. In the embedded world, Mediaroom, Microsoft’s set-top product for the cable industry (used by AT&T U-Verse and others) is an appliance. So is Microsoft’s Sync technology, used in Ford automobiles. Even on the enterprise side, Microsoft has an appliance: SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse Edition (PDW) combines Microsoft software with select OEMs’ server, networking and storage hardware. You buy the appliance units from the OEMs, plug them in, connect them and go. I would even say that Bing is an appliance. Not in the hardware sense, mind you. But from the software perspective, it’s a single-purpose product that you visit or run, use and then move on. You don’t have to install it (except the iOS and Android native apps where it’s pretty straightforward), you don’t have to customize it, you don’t have to program it. Basically, you just use it. Microsoft Appliances that Should Exist But Microsoft builds a bunch of things that are not appliances. Media Center is not an appliance, and it most certainly should be. Instead, it’s an app that runs on Windows 7. It runs full-screen and you can use this configuration to conceal the fact that Windows is under it, but eventually something will cause you to abandon that masquerade (like Patch Tuesday). The next version of Windows Home Server won’t, in my opinion, be an appliance either. Now that the Drive Extender technology is gone, and users can’t just add and remove drives into and from a single storage pool, the product is much more like a IT server and less like an appliance-premised one. Much has been written about this decision by Microsoft. I’ll just sum it up in one word: pity. Microsoft doesn’t have anything remotely appliance-like in the tablet category, either. Until it does, it likely won’t have much market share in that space either. And of course, the bulk of Microsoft’s product catalog on the business side is geared to enterprise machines and not personal appliances. Appliance DNA: They Gotta Have It. The consumerization of IT is real, because businesspeople are consumers too. They appreciate the fit and finish of appliances at home, and they increasingly feel entitled to have it at work too. Secure and reliable push email in a smartphone is necessary, but it isn’t enough. People want great apps and a pleasurable user experience too. The full Microsoft Office product is needed at work, but a PC with a keyboard and mouse, or maybe a touch screen that uses a stylus (or requires really small fingers), to run Office isn’t enough either. People want a flawless touch experience available for the times they want to read and take quick notes. Until Microsoft realizes this fully and internalizes it, it will suffer defeats in the consumer market and even setbacks in the business market. Think about how slow the Office upgrade cycle is…now imagine if the next version of Office had a first-class alternate touch UI and consider the possible acceleration in adoption rates. Can Microsoft make the appliance switch? Can the appliance mentality become pervasive at the company? Can Microsoft hasten its release cycles dramatically and shed the “some assembly required” paradigm upon which many of its products are based? Let’s face it, the chances that Microsoft won’t make this transition are significant. But there are also encouraging signs, and they should not be ignored. The appliances we have already discussed, especially Xbox, Zune and Windows Phone 7, are the most obvious in this regard. The fact that SQL Server has an appliance SKU now is a more subtle but perhaps also more significant outcome, because that product sits so smack in the middle of Microsoft’s enterprise stack. Bing is encouraging too, especially given its integrated travel, maps and augmented reality capabilities. As Bing gains market share, Microsoft has tangible proof that it can transform and win, even when everyone outside the company, and many within it, would bet otherwise. That Great Big Appliance in the Sky Perhaps the most promising (and evolving) proof points toward the appliance mentality, though, are Microsoft’s cloud offerings -- Azure and BPOS/Office 365. While the cloud does not represent a physical appliance (quite the opposite in fact) its ability to make acquisition, deployment and use of technology simple for the user is absolutely an embodiment of the appliance mentality and spirit. Azure is primarily a platform as a service offering; it doesn’t just provide infrastructure. SQL Azure does likewise for databases. And Office 365 does likewise for SharePoint, Exchange and Lync. You don’t administer, tune and manage servers; instead, you create databases or site collections or mailboxes and start using them. Upgrades come automatically, and it seems like releases will come more frequently. Fault tolerance and content distribution is just there. No muss. No fuss. You use these services; you don’t have to set them up and think about them. That’s how appliances work. To me, these signs point out that Microsoft has the full capability of transforming itself. But there’s a lot of work ahead. Microsoft may say they’re “all in” on the cloud, but the majority of the company is still oriented around its old products and models. There needs to be a wholesale cultural transformation in Redmond. It can happen, but product management, program management, the field and executive ranks must unify in the effort. So must partners, and even customers. New leaders must rise up and Microsoft must be able to see itself as a winner. If Microsoft does this, it could lock-in decades of new success, and be a standard business school case study for doing so. If not, the company will have missed an opportunity, and may see its undoing.

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WhatsApp & Tasker for Android – Read & Write messages

- by Shaurya Anand

So, I finally gave up on all my previous the Microsoft Mobile/Phone OS devices and made my switch to Android this year. I am using my Samsung Galaxy Note GT-N7000 with CyanogenMod 9.1.0 (http://get.cm/get/jenkins/7086/cm-9.1.0-n7000.zip) and ClockworkMod 6.0.1.2 (http://download2.clockworkmod.com/recoveries/recovery-clockwork-6.0.1.2-n7000.zip) since August this year and I am so happy with the performance and the flexibility it offers me. As a software developer by profession, I would expect most of my gadget to be highly customizable and programmable (one time or at intervals) to suit my needs as close as it can. I was introduced to Automation for Android – Tasker (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch.android.taskerm&hl=en) via reddit (http://www.reddit.com/r/tasker) and the word ‘automation’ was enough for me to dive right into this app. Only automation that I did earlier was switching profiles depending on location on there phones. And now, just imagine a complete set of possibilities that can be automate on the phone or via the phone. I did my research and found a couple of other tools that do the same/as close as what Tasker can do and few of them are even free. There’s one even by Microsoft called on{X} (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.onx.app&hl=en). Microsoft’s on{X} really caught my eye. You can write code for your phone on the web application by them, deploy it on your phone and even trace the flow all using your PC. Really brilliant, I love the fact that it’s all JavaScript. Here comes the but, it is still very very young and it’s policy of accessing my News Feed on Facebook is not something that I can not digest. On{X} is good, but as I said earlier, the API is not very mature and hence, I gave up on it. I bought Tasker, the best 5,00 € I spent in ages and I want to talk about it in this post. I am still a “noob” while operating this tool, but I tried my shot at automating WhatsApp (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.whatsapp&hl=en), a popular messenger for various platform. The requirement for the automation is that, if I send a WhatsApp ‘wru’ message to the phone, it should respond back giving the location and battery level of my phone. It could be useful, if you like to locate your misplaced phone or automatically reply to your partner/friend, honestly, I don’t know what you will use it - through this post, I am just introducing automating WhatsApp using Tasker. Before we begin, the following script only works when your phone is rooted as we will be accessing the WhatsApp database and type some special characters like ‘:’. Let’s follow the code line by line: Profile: Location request from XYZ. (12) // Name of your profile. Event: Notification [ Owner Application:WhatsApp Title:* ] // When a new notification comes from WhatsApp, this event is fired. Read the end note, if you face problems with Chrome app after enabling Tasker accessibility. Enter: A1: Run Shell [ Command:sqlite3 // We will access the WhatsApp database and check if the message comes from designated phone number or not. We mustn’t reply to every message. /data/data/com.whatsapp/databases/msgstore.db "SELECT _id, data FROM messages WHERE key_from_me='0' AND key_remote_jid LIKE '%XXXXXXXXXXX%' // Replace XXXXXXXXXXX with the phone number of your message sender. ORDER BY _id DESC LIMIT 1;" Timeout (Seconds):10 Use Root:On Store // I made a timeout for 10 seconds, if in case WhatsApp is busy accessing the database. Result In:%WHATSAPP_CURRREQ ] // Store the read Id and the last message on to the variable %WHATSAPP_CURRREQ A2: If [ %WHATSAPP_CURRREQ ~R .*[wW][rR][uU].* ] // Check if the pattern of the message is correct and we are all set to send the location. A3: If [ %WHATSAPP_CURRREQ !~ %WHATSAPP_LASTREQ ] // Verify that the message is different from the last request. Remember every message has a unique Id. A4: Notify [ Title:WhatsApp location request... Text:Sending location // Just a notification that the location message is being prepared. to Krati Gupta... Icon:<icon> Number:0 Permanent:On Priority:3 ] // Make a note it is a permanent notification, we will clear it later. A5: Secure Settings [ Configuration:Pattern Lock Disabled // I am disabling the pattern lock, that I use using the plugin Secure Settings. Package:com.intangibleobject.securesettings.plugin Name:Secure // You can download the plugin from here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.intangibleobject.securesettings.plugin&hl=en Settings ] A6: Secure Settings [ Configuration:Keyguard Disabled // Disable the keygaurd, it is useful, when your phone is on lock and you want to automate everything, even the typing. Package:com.intangibleobject.securesettings.plugin Name:Secure Settings ] A7: Secure Settings [ Configuration:GPS Enabled // Pretty clear, turn on the GPS and get location at A8 Package:com.intangibleobject.securesettings.plugin Name:Secure Settings ] A8: AutoShortcut [ Configuration:WhatsApp: Some One // I am using AutoShortcut plugin (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.joaomgcd.autoshortcut) to start WhatsApp with the indented recipient. Package:com.joaomgcd.autoshortcut Name:AutoShortcut ] // Replace Some One, actually choose it from the plugin, the right recipient. A9: Get Location [ Source:Any Timeout (Seconds):30 Continue Task // I am getting the location, timeout is 30 seconds, adjust it accordingly. Immediately:Off Keep Tracking:Off ] A10: Secure Settings [ Configuration:Screen Dim // Now, this extension of the plugin Secure Settings, wakes your device so that you can type out the string on the WhatsApp app. 5 Seconds Package:com.intangibleobject.securesettings.plugin Name:Secure Settings ] A11: Run Shell [ Command:input text // Now, I am using the shell script to type the text to the window, because the ‘:’ while not be typed from the Type task in Tasker. LOCATION:maps.google.com/maps?q=%LOC Timeout (Seconds):0 Use Root:On // And also, this is way faster, but remember you need root for this, not for the other way of typing. Store Result In: ] A12: Dpad [ Button:Right Repeat Times:1 ] // Focus the Send button A13: Dpad [ Button:Press Repeat Times:1 ] // And press it. A14: Dpad [ Button:Left Repeat Times:1 ] // Get back to the typing box. A15: Run Shell [ Command:input text LOCATION_ACCURACY:%LOCACC Timeout (Seconds):0 Use Root:On Store Result In: ] A16: Dpad [ Button:Right Repeat Times:1 ] A17: Dpad [ Button:Press Repeat Times:1 ] A18: Dpad [ Button:Left Repeat Times:1 ] A19: Run Shell [ Command:input text BATTERY_LEVEL:%BATT% Timeout // I am adding Battery level in my case as well. (Seconds):0 Use Root:On Store Result In: ] A20: Dpad [ Button:Right Repeat Times:1 ] A21: Dpad [ Button:Press Repeat Times:1 ] A22: Variable Set [ Name:%WHATSAPP_LASTREQ To:%WHATSAPP_CURRREQ Do // And now, we say, request is done. Maths:Off Append:Off ] A23: Button [ Button:Back ] // I am exiting the WhatsApp nicely and not killing it. If you are the murderer kind, kill it, just know, you don’t have any place in the heaven. A24: Button [ Button:Back ] A25: Notify Cancel [ Title: Warn Not Exist:Off ] // Remove the permanent notification. A26: Notify [ Title:WhatsApp location request Text:Location sent // Make a temporary notification, and say, location is sent. successfully. Icon:<icon> Number:0 Permanent:Off Priority:3 ] A27: Secure Settings [ Configuration:GPS Disabled // Disable all the horrible things we turned on earlier. Package:com.intangibleobject.securesettings.plugin Name:Secure Settings ] A28: Secure Settings [ Configuration:Pattern Lock Enabled Package:com.intangibleobject.securesettings.plugin Name:Secure Settings ] A29: Secure Settings [ Configuration:Keyguard Enabled Package:com.intangibleobject.securesettings.plugin Name:Secure Settings ] A30: End If A31: End If Download this Task from here: http://db.tt/9vRmbhyb That’s it in the above small example – you can read/write messages from/to WhatsApp app. I am using n7000-cm9.1-cwr6. Oh yea, and if you are having the Talkback auto enabled for Chrome browser, you need to turn Off the Web scripts to run. Tasker is amazing, I have automated a lot of tasks using this tool. I will share a few none generic ones with you in my coming post here.

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The 20 Most Important Keyboard Shortcuts For Windows PCs

- by Chris Hoffman

Keyboard shortcuts are practically essential for using any type of PC. They’ll speed up almost everything you do. But long lists of keyboard shortcuts can quickly become overwhelming if you’re just getting started. This list will cover the most useful keyboard shortcuts that every Windows user should know. If you haven’t used keyboard shortcuts much, these will show you just how useful keyboard shortcuts can be. Windows Key + Search The Windows key is particularly important on Windows 8 — especially before Windows 8.1 — because it allows you to quickly return to the Start screen. On Windows 7, it opens the Start menu. Either way, you can start typing immediately after you press the Windows key to search for programs, settings, and files. For example, if you want to launch Firefox, you can press the Windows key, start typing the word Firefox, and press Enter when the Firefox shortcut appears. It’s a quick way to launch programs, open files, and locate Control Panel options without even touching your mouse and without digging through a cluttered Start menu. You can also use the arrow keys to select the shortcut you want to launch before pressing Enter. Copy, Cut, Paste Copy, Cut, and Paste are extremely important keyboard shortcuts for text-editing. If you do any typing on your computer, you probably use them. These options can be accessed using the mouse, either by right-clicking on selected text or opening the application’s Edit menu, but this is the slowest way to do it. After selecting some text, press Ctrl+C to copy it or Ctrl+X to cut it. Position the cursor where you want the text and use Ctrl+V to paste it. These shortcuts can save you a huge amount of time over using the mouse. Search the Current Page or File To quickly perform a search in the current application — whether you’re in a web browser, PDF viewer, document editor, or almost any other type of application — press Ctrl+F. The application’s search (or “Find”) feature will pop up, and you can instantly start typing a phrase you want to search for. You can generally press Enter to go to the next appearance of the word or phrase in the document, quickly searching through it for what you’re interested in. Switch Between Applications and Tabs Rather than clicking buttons on your taskbar, Alt+Tab is a very quick way to switch between running applications. Windows orders the list of open windows by the order you accessed them, so if you’re only using two different applications, you can just press Alt+Tab to quickly switch between them. If switching between more than two windows, you’ll have to hold the Alt key and press Tab repeatedly to toggle through the list of open windows. If you miss the window you want, you can always press Alt+Shift+Tab to move through the list in reverse. To move between tabs in an application — such as the browser tabs in your web browser — press Ctrl+Tab. Ctrl+Shift+Tab will move through tabs in reverse. Quickly Print If you’re the kind of person who still prints things, you can quickly open the print window by pressing Ctrl+P. This can be faster than hunting down the Print option in every program you want to print something from. Basic Browser Shortcuts Web browser shortcuts can save you tons of time, too. Ctrl+T is a very useful one, as it will open a new tab with the address bar focused, so you can quickly press Ctrl +T, type a search phrase or web address, and press Enter to go there. To go back or forward while browsing, hold the Ctrl key and press the left or right arrow keys. If you’d just like to focus your web browser’s address bar so you can type a new web address or search without opening a new tab, press Ctrl + L. You can then start typing something and press Enter. Close Tabs and Windows To quickly close the current application, press Alt+F4. This works on the desktop and even in new Windows 8-style applications. To quickly close the current browser tab or document, press Ctrl+W. This will often close the current window if there are no other tabs open. Lock Your Computer When you’re done using your computer and want to step away, you may want to lock it. People won’t be able to log in and access your desktop unless they know your password. You can do this from the Start menu or Start screen, but the fastest way to lock your screen is by quickly pressing Windows Key + L before you get up. Access the Task Manager Ctrl+Alt+Delete will take you to a screen that allows you to quickly launch the Task Manager or perform other operations, such as signing out. This is particularly useful because if can be used to recover from situations where your computer doesn’t appear responsive or isn’t accepting input. For example, if a full-screen game becomes unresponsive, Ctrl+Alt+Delete will often allow you to escape from it and end it via the Task Manager. Windows 8 Shortcuts On Windows 8 PCs, there are other very important keyboard shortcuts. Windows Key + C will open your Charms bar, while Windows Key + Tab will open the new App Switcher. These keyboard shortcuts will allow you to avoid the hot corners, which can be tedious to use with a mouse. On the desktop side, Windows Key + D will take you back to the desktop from anywhere. Windows Key + X will open a special “power user menu” that gives you quick access to options that are hidden in the new Windows 8 interface, including Shut Down, Restart, and Control Panel. If you’re interested in learning more keyboard shortcuts, be sure to check our longer lists of 47 keyboard shortcuts that work in all web browsers and 42+ keyboard shortcuts to speed up text-editing. Image Credit: Jeroen Bennink on Flickr

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Day 3 - XNA: Hacking around with images

- by dapostolov

Yay! Today I'm going to get into some code! My mind has been on this all day! I find it amusing how I practice, daily, to be "in the moment" or "present" and the excitement and anticipation of this project seems to snatch it away from me frequently. WELL!!! (Shakes Excitedly) Let's do this =)! Let's code! For these next few days it is my intention to better understand image rendering using XNA; after said prototypes are complete I should (fingers crossed) be able to dive into my game code using the design document I hammered out the other night. On a personal note, I think the toughest thing right now is finding the time to do this project. Each night, after my little ones go to bed I can only really afford a couple hours of work on this project. However, I hope to utilise this time as best as I can because this is the first time in a while I've found a project that I've been passionate about. A friend recently asked me if I intend to go 3D or extend the game design. Yes. For now I'm keeping it simple. Lastly, just as a note, as I was doing some further research into image rendering this morning I came across some other XNA content and lessons learned. I believe this content could have probably been posted in the first couple of posts, however, I will share the new content as I learn it at the end of each day. Maybe I'll take some time later to fix the posts but for now Installation and Deployment - Lessons Learned I had installed the XNA studio (Day 1) and the site instructions were pretty easy to follow. However, I had a small difficulty with my development environment. You see, I run a virtual desktop development environment. Even though I was able to code and compile all the tutorials the game failed to run...because I lacked a 3D capable card; it was not detected on the virtual box... First Lesson: The XNA runtime needs to "see" the 3D card! No sweat, Il copied the files over to my parent box and executed the program. ERROR. Hmm... Second Lesson (which I should have probably known but I let the excitement get the better of me): you need the XNA runtime on the client PC to run the game, oh, and don't forget the .Net Runtime! Sprite, it ain't just a Soft Drink... With these prototypes I intend to understand and perform the following tasks. learn game development terminology how to place and position (rotate) a static image on the screen how to layer static images on the screen understand image scaling can we reuse images? understand how framerate is handled in XNA how to display text , basic shapes, and colors on the screen how to interact with an image (collision of user input?) how to animate an image and understand basic animation techniques how to detect colliding images or screen edges how to manipulate the image, lets say colors, stretching how to focus on a segment of an image...like only displaying a frame on a film reel what's the best way to manage images (compression, storage, location, prevent artwork theft, etc.) Well, let's start with this "prototype" task list for now...Today, let's get an image on the screen and maybe I can mark a few of the tasks as completed... C# Prototype1 New Visual Studio Project Select the XNA Game Studio 3.1 Project Type Select the Windows Game 3.1 Template Type Prototype1 in the Name textbox provided Press OK. At this point code has auto-magically been created. Feel free to press the F5 key to run your first XNA program. You should have a blue screen infront of you. Without getting into the nitty gritty right, the code that was generated basically creates some basic code to clear the window content with the lovely CornFlowerBlue color. Something to notice, when you move your mouse into the window...nothing. ooooo spoooky. Let's put an image on that screen! Step A - Get an Image into the solution Under "Content" in your Solution Explorer, right click and add a new folder and name it "Sprites". Copy a small image in there; I copied a "Royalty Free" wizard hat from a quick google search and named it wizards_hat.jpg (rightfully so!) Step B - Add the sprite and position fields Now, open/edit Game1.cs Locate the following line: SpriteBatch spriteBatch; Under this line type the following: SpriteBatch spriteBatch; // the line you are looking for... Texture2D sprite; Vector2 position; Step C - Load the image asset Locate the "Load Content" Method and duplicate the following: protected override void LoadContent() { spriteBatch = new SpriteBatch(GraphicsDevice); // your image name goes here... sprite = Content.Load<Texture2D>("Sprites\\wizards_hat"); position = new Vector2(200, 100); base.LoadContent(); } Step D - Draw the image Locate the "Draw" Method and duplicate the following: protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime) { GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.CornflowerBlue); spriteBatch.Begin(SpriteBlendMode.AlphaBlend); spriteBatch.Draw(sprite, position, Color.White); spriteBatch.End(); base.Draw(gameTime); } Step E - Compile and Run Engage! (F5) - Debug! Your image should now display on a cornflowerblue window about 200 pixels from the left and 100 pixels from the top. Awesome! =) Pretty cool how we only coded a few lines to display an image, but believe me, there is plenty going on behind the scenes. However, for now, I'm going to call it a night here. Blogging all this progress certainly takes time... However, tomorrow night I'm going to detail what we just did, plus start checking off points on that list! I'm wondering right now if I should add pictures / code to this post...let me know if you want them =) Best Regards, D.

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It was a figure of speech!

- by Ratman21

Yesterday I posted the following as attention getter / advertisement (as well as my feelings). In the groups, (I am in) on the social networking site, LinkedIn and boy did I get responses. I am fighting mad about (a figure of speech, really) not having a job! Look just because I am over 55 and have gray hair. It does not mean, my brain is dead or I can no longer trouble shoot a router or circuit or LAN issue. Or that I can do “IT” work at all. And I could prove this if; some one would give me at job. Come on try me for 90 days at min. wage. I know you will end up keeping me (hope fully at normal pay) around. Is any one hearing me…come on take up the challenge! This was the responses I got. I hear you. We just need to retrain and get our skills up to speed is all. That is what I am doing. I have not given up. Just got to stay on top of the game. Experience is on our side if we have the credentials and we are reasonable about our salaries this should not be an issue. Already on it, going back to school and have got three certifications (CompTIA A+, Security+ and Network+. I am now studying for my CISCO CCNA certification. As to my salary, I am willing to work at very reasonable rate. You need to re-brand yourself like a product, market and sell yourself. You need to smarten up, look and feel a million dollars, re-energize yourself, regain your confidents. Either start your own business, or re-write your CV so it stands out from the rest, get the template off the internet. Contact every recruitment agent in your town, state, country and overseas, and on the web. Apply to every job you think you could do, you may not get it but you will make a contact for your network, which may lead to a job at the end of the tunnel. Get in touch with everyone you know from past jobs. Do charity work. I maintain the IT Network, stage electrical and the Telecom equipment in my church, Again already on it. I have email the world is seems with my resume and cover letters. So far, I have rewritten or had it rewrote, my resume and cover letters; over seven times so far. Re-energize? I never lost my energy level or my self-confidents in my work (now if could get some HR personal to see the same). I also volunteer at my church, I created and maintain the church web sit. I share your frustration. Sucks being over 50 and looking for work. Please don't sell yourself short at min wage because the employer will think that’s your worth. Keep trying!! I never stop trying and min wage is only for 90 days. If some one takes up the challenge. Some post asked if I am keeping up technology. Do you keep up with the latest technology and can speak the language fluidly? Yep to that and as to speaking it also a yep! I am a geek you know. I heard from others over the 50 year mark and younger too. I'm with you! I keep getting told that I don't have enough experience because I just recently completed a Masters level course in Microsoft SQL Server, which gave me a project-intensive equivalent of between 2 and 3 years of experience. On top of that training, I have 19 years as an applications programmer and database administrator. I can normalize rings around experienced DBAs and churn out effective code with the best of them. But my 19 years is worthless as far as most recruiters and HR people are concerned because it is not the specific experience for which they're looking. HR AND RECRUITERS TAKE NOTE: Experience, whatever the language, translates across platforms and technology! By the way, I'm also over 55 and still have "got it"! I never lost it and I also can work rings round younger techs. I'm 52 and female and seem to be having the same issues. I have over 10 years experience in tech support (with a BS in CIS) and can't get hired either. Ow, I only have an AS in computer science along with my certifications. Keep the faith, I have been unemployed since August of 2008. I agree with you...I am willing to return to the beginning of my retail career and work myself back through the ranks, if someone will look past the grey and realize the knowledge I would bring to the table. I also would like some one to look past the gray. Interesting approach, volunteering to work for minimum wage for 90 days. I'm in the same situation as you, being 55 & balding w/white hair, so I know where you're coming from. I've been out of work now for a year. I'm in Michigan, where the unemployment rate is estimated to be 15% (the worst in the nation) & even though I've got 30+ years of IT experience ranging from mainframe to PC desktop support, it's difficult to even get a face-to-face interview. I had one prospective employer tell me flat out that I "didn't have the energy required for this position". Mostly I never get any feedback. All I can say is good luck & try to remain optimistic. He said WHAT! Yes remaining optimistic is key. Along with faith in God. Then there was this (for lack of better word) jerk. Give it up already. You were too old to work in high tech 10 years ago. Scratch that, 20 years ago! Try selling hot dogs in front of Fry's Electronics. At least you would get a chance to eat lunch with your previous colleagues.... You know funny thing on this person is that I checked out his profile. He is older than I am.

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HTG Explains: Why Does Rebooting a Computer Fix So Many Problems?

- by Chris Hoffman

Ask a geek how to fix a problem you’ve having with your Windows computer and they’ll likely ask “Have you tried rebooting it?” This seems like a flippant response, but rebooting a computer can actually solve many problems. So what’s going on here? Why does resetting a device or restarting a program fix so many problems? And why don’t geeks try to identify and fix problems rather than use the blunt hammer of “reset it”? This Isn’t Just About Windows Bear in mind that this soltion isn’t just limited to Windows computers, but applies to all types of computing devices. You’ll find the advice “try resetting it” applied to wireless routers, iPads, Android phones, and more. This same advice even applies to software — is Firefox acting slow and consuming a lot of memory? Try closing it and reopening it! Some Problems Require a Restart To illustrate why rebooting can fix so many problems, let’s take a look at the ultimate software problem a Windows computer can face: Windows halts, showing a blue screen of death. The blue screen was caused by a low-level error, likely a problem with a hardware driver or a hardware malfunction. Windows reaches a state where it doesn’t know how to recover, so it halts, shows a blue-screen of death, gathers information about the problem, and automatically restarts the computer for you . This restart fixes the blue screen of death. Windows has gotten better at dealing with errors — for example, if your graphics driver crashes, Windows XP would have frozen. In Windows Vista and newer versions of Windows, the Windows desktop will lose its fancy graphical effects for a few moments before regaining them. Behind the scenes, Windows is restarting the malfunctioning graphics driver. But why doesn’t Windows simply fix the problem rather than restarting the driver or the computer itself? Well, because it can’t — the code has encountered a problem and stopped working completely, so there’s no way for it to continue. By restarting, the code can start from square one and hopefully it won’t encounter the same problem again. Examples of Restarting Fixing Problems While certain problems require a complete restart because the operating system or a hardware driver has stopped working, not every problem does. Some problems may be fixable without a restart, though a restart may be the easiest option. Windows is Slow: Let’s say Windows is running very slowly. It’s possible that a misbehaving program is using 99% CPU and draining the computer’s resources. A geek could head to the task manager and look around, hoping to locate the misbehaving process an end it. If an average user encountered this same problem, they could simply reboot their computer to fix it rather than dig through their running processes. Firefox or Another Program is Using Too Much Memory: In the past, Firefox has been the poster child for memory leaks on average PCs. Over time, Firefox would often consume more and more memory, getting larger and larger and slowing down. Closing Firefox will cause it to relinquish all of its memory. When it starts again, it will start from a clean state without any leaked memory. This doesn’t just apply to Firefox, but applies to any software with memory leaks. Internet or Wi-Fi Network Problems: If you have a problem with your Wi-Fi or Internet connection, the software on your router or modem may have encountered a problem. Resetting the router — just by unplugging it from its power socket and then plugging it back in — is a common solution for connection problems. In all cases, a restart wipes away the current state of the software . Any code that’s stuck in a misbehaving state will be swept away, too. When you restart, the computer or device will bring the system up from scratch, restarting all the software from square one so it will work just as well as it was working before. “Soft Resets” vs. “Hard Resets” In the mobile device world, there are two types of “resets” you can perform. A “soft reset” is simply restarting a device normally — turning it off and then on again. A “hard reset” is resetting its software state back to its factory default state. When you think about it, both types of resets fix problems for a similar reason. For example, let’s say your Windows computer refuses to boot or becomes completely infected with malware. Simply restarting the computer won’t fix the problem, as the problem is with the files on the computer’s hard drive — it has corrupted files or malware that loads at startup on its hard drive. However, reinstalling Windows (performing a “Refresh or Reset your PC” operation in Windows 8 terms) will wipe away everything on the computer’s hard drive, restoring it to its formerly clean state. This is simpler than looking through the computer’s hard drive, trying to identify the exact reason for the problems or trying to ensure you’ve obliterated every last trace of malware. It’s much faster to simply start over from a known-good, clean state instead of trying to locate every possible problem and fix it. Ultimately, the answer is that “resetting a computer wipes away the current state of the software, including any problems that have developed, and allows it to start over from square one.” It’s easier and faster to start from a clean state than identify and fix any problems that may be occurring — in fact, in some cases, it may be impossible to fix problems without beginning from that clean state. Image Credit: Arria Belli on Flickr, DeclanTM on Flickr

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Reviewing Retail Predictions for 2011

- by David Dorf

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Alternate Payments We've seen several alternate payment schemes emerge over the last two years, and 2011 may be the year one of them takes hold. Any competition that can drive down fees will be good for everyone. I'm betting that Apple will add NFC chips to their next version of the iPhone, then enable payments in stores using iTunes accounts on the backend. Paypal will continue to make inroads, and Isis will announce a pilot. The iPhone 4S did not contain an NFC chip, so we’ll have to continuing waiting for the iPhone 5. PayPal announced its moving into in-store payments, and Google launched its wallet in selected cities. Overall I think the payment scene is heating up and that trend will continue. 2. Engineered Systems The industry is moving toward purpose-built appliances that are optimized across the entire stack. Oracle calls these "engineered systems" and the first two examples are Exadata and Exalogic, but there are other examples from other vendors. These are particularly important to the retail industry because of the volume of data that must be processed. There should be continued adoption in 2011. Oracle reports that Exadata is its fasting growing product, and at the recent OpenWorld it announced the SuperCluster and Exalytics products, both continuing the engineered systems trend. SAP’s HANA continues to receive attention, and IBM also seems to be moving in this direction. 3. Social Analytics There are lots of tools that provide insight into how a brand is perceived across popular internet sites, but as far as I know, these tools are not industry specific. The next step needs to mine the data and determine how it should influence retail operations. The data needs to help retailers determine how they create promotions, which products to stock, and how to keep consumers engaged. Social data alone does not provide the answers, but its one more data point that will help retailers make better decisions. Look for some vendor consolidation to help make this happen. In March, Salesforce.com acquired leading social monitoring vendor Radian6 and followed up with acquisitions of Heroku and Model Metrics. The notion of Social CRM seems to be going more mainstream now. 4. 2-D Barcodes Look for more QRCodes on shelf-tags, in newspaper circulars, and on billboards. It's a great portal from the physical world into the digital one that buys us time until augmented reality matures further. Nobody wants to type "www", backslash, and ".com" on their phones. QRCodes are everywhere. ‘Nuff said. 5. In the words of Microsoft, "To the Cloud!" My favorite "cloud application" is Evernote. If you take notes on your work laptop, you will inevitably need those notes on your home PC. And if you manage to solve that problem, you'll need to access them from your mobile phone. Evernote stores your notes in the cloud and provides easy ways to access them. Being able to access a service from anywhere and not having to worry about backups, upgrades, etc. is great. Retailers will start to rely on cloud services, both public and private, in the coming year. There were no shortage of announcements in this area: Amazon’s cloud-based Kindle Fire, Apple’s iCloud, Oracle’s Public Cloud, etc. I saw an interesting presentation showing how BevMo moved their systems to the cloud. Seems like retailers are starting to consider the cloud for specific uses. 6. F-CommerceTop of Form Move over "E" and "M" so we can introduce "F-Commerce," which should go mainstream in 2011. Already several retailers have created small stores on Facebook, and it won't be long before Facebook becomes a full-fledged channel in the omni-channel world of retail. The battle between Facebook and Google will heat up over retail, where both stand to make lots of money. JCPenney and ASOS both put their entire catalogs on Facebook, and lots of other retailers have connected Facebook to their e-commerce site. I still think selling from the newsfeed is the best approach, and several retailers are trying that approach as well. I just don’t see Google+ as a threat to Facebook, so I think that battle is over. I called 2011 The Year of F-Commerce, and that was probably accurate. Its good to look back at predictions, but we also have to think about what was missed. I didn't see Amazon entering the tablet business with such a splash, although in hindsight it was obvious. Nor did I think HP would fall so far so fast. Look for my 2012 predictions coming soon.

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Delivering the Integrated Portal Experience!

- by Michael Snow

v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} Guest post by Richard Maldonado, Principal Product Manager, Oracle WebCenter Portal Organizations are still struggling to standardize on a user interaction platform which can meet the needs of all their target audiences. This has not only resulted in inefficient and inconsistent experiences for their users, but it also creates inefficiencies (productivity and costs) for the departments that manage the applications and information systems. Portals have historically been the unifying platform that provide IT with a common interface which can securely surface the most relevant interactions for a given user and/or group of users. However, organizations have found that the technologies available have either not provided the flexibility necessary to address all of their use cases, or they rely too much on IT resources to manage, maintain, and evolve. Empowering the Business Groups The core issue that IT departments face with delivering portal experiences is having enough resources to respond and address the influx of requirements which come in from the business. Commonly, when a business group wants a new portal site established for their group, they will submit a request to the IT dept, the IT dept then assigns a resource to an administrator and/or developer to build. Unfortunately, this approach is not scalable, it can be a time consuming activity which requires significant interaction between the business owner and the IT resource. A modern user interaction platforms should empower the business groups by providing them tools which they can use to build and manage the portal experiences without the need for IT's involvement. And because business groups rarely have technical resources (developers) on staff, the tools must be easy enough that virtually any business user could use. In addition, the tool must be powerful enough to allow them to build the experience that they need, things such as creating a whole new portal, add/manage page and page hierarchy, manage user/group access, add/modify components within the page, etc. This balance between ease-of-use and flexibility is key to the successful adoption of tools which will ultimately reduce the burden on IT, respond to the needs of the business, and deliver high-value experiences for the users. Ready or Not, Here They Come: Smartphones and Tablets Recently, several studies have highlighted that smartphone and tablet-style devices have overtaken PC's in both sales and usage. This shift is further driving organizations to revaluate how they're delivering data, information, and applications to their users. Users are expecting to get the same level of access and interaction, but in a ways which are optimized for the capabilities of the device that they are using. Expect More With the ever growing number of new IT projects and flat/shrinking budgets, organizations are looking for comprehensive solutions which can deliver integrated web experiences that are tailored for the users and optimized for mobile devices. Piecing together a number of point solutions is no longer an option. A modern portal technology should not only address the traditional needs of integrating and surfacing back-end applications/information, but it should enable the business through easy-to-use tools and accelerate the delivery of mobile optimized experiences. v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} 12.00 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} 12.00 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii- mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi- mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} WebCenter in Action Series: Qualcomm Provides a Seamless Experience for Customers with Oracle WebCenter Featuring Qualcomm & Keste 12.00 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 -"/ /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} 12.00 Normal 0 false false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-fareast- mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}

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Windows Azure – Write, Run or Use Software

- by BuckWoody

Windows Azure is a platform that has you covered, whether you need to write software, run software that is already written, or Install and use “canned” software whether you or someone else wrote it. Like any platform, it’s a set of tools you can use where it makes sense to solve a problem. The primary location for Windows Azure information is located at http://windowsazure.com. You can find everything there from the development kits for writing software to pricing, licensing and tutorials on all of that. I have a few links here for learning to use Windows Azure – although it’s best if you focus not on the tools, but what you want to solve. I’ve got it broken down here into various sections, so you can quickly locate things you want to know. I’ll include resources here from Microsoft and elsewhere – I use these same resources in the Architectural Design Sessions (ADS) I do with my clients worldwide. Write Software Also called “Platform as a Service” (PaaS), Windows Azure has lots of components you can use together or separately that allow you to write software in .NET or various Open Source languages to work completely online, or in partnership with code you have on-premises or both – even if you’re using other cloud providers. Keep in mind that all of the features you see here can be used together, or independently. For instance, you might only use a Web Site, or use Storage, but you can use both together. You can access all of these components through standard REST API calls, or using our Software Development Kit’s API’s, which are a lot easier. In any case, you simply use Visual Studio, Eclipse, Cloud9 IDE, or even a text editor to write your code from a Mac, PC or Linux. Components you can use: Azure Web Sites: Windows Azure Web Sites allow you to quickly write an deploy websites, without setting a Virtual Machine, installing a web server or configuring complex settings. They work alone, with other Windows Azure Web Sites, or with other parts of Windows Azure. Web and Worker Roles: Windows Azure Web Roles give you a full stateless computing instance with Internet Information Services (IIS) installed and configured. Windows Azure Worker Roles give you a full stateless computing instance without Information Services (IIS) installed, often used in a "Services" mode. Scale-out is achieved either manually or programmatically under your control. Storage: Windows Azure Storage types include Blobs to store raw binary data, Tables to use key/value pair data (like NoSQL data structures), Queues that allow interaction between stateless roles, and a relational SQL Server database. Other Services: Windows Azure has many other services such as a security mechanism, a Cache (memcacheD compliant), a Service Bus, a Traffic Manager and more. Once again, these features can be used with a Windows Azure project, or alone based on your needs. Various Languages: Windows Azure supports the .NET stack of languages, as well as many Open-Source languages like Java, Python, PHP, Ruby, NodeJS, C++ and more. Use Software Also called “Software as a Service” (SaaS) this often means consumer or business-level software like Hotmail or Office 365. In other words, you simply log on, use the software, and log off – there’s nothing to install, and little to even configure. For the Information Technology professional, however, It’s not quite the same. We want software that provides services, but in a platform. That means we want things like Hadoop or other software we don’t want to have to install and configure. Components you can use: Kits: Various software “kits” or packages are supported with just a few clicks, such as Umbraco, Wordpress, and others. Windows Azure Media Services: Windows Azure Media Services is a suite of services that allows you to upload media for encoding, processing and even streaming – or even one or more of those functions. We can add DRM and even commercials to your media if you like. Windows Azure Media Services is used to stream large events all the way down to small training videos. High Performance Computing and “Big Data”: Windows Azure allows you to scale to huge workloads using a few clicks to deploy Hadoop Clusters or the High Performance Computing (HPC) nodes, accepting HPC Jobs, Pig and Hive Jobs, and even interfacing with Microsoft Excel. Windows Azure Marketplace: Windows Azure Marketplace offers data and programs you can quickly implement and use – some free, some for-fee. Run Software Also known as “Infrastructure as a Service” (IaaS), this offering allows you to build or simply choose a Virtual Machine to run server-based software. Components you can use: Persistent Virtual Machines: You can choose to install Windows Server, Windows Server with Active Directory, with SQL Server, or even SharePoint from a pre-configured gallery. You can configure your own server images with standard Hyper-V technology and load them yourselves – and even bring them back when you’re done. As a new offering, we also even allow you to select various distributions of Linux – a first for Microsoft. Windows Azure Connect: You can connect your on-premises networks to Windows Azure Instances. Storage: Windows Azure Storage can be used as a remote backup, a hybrid storage location and more using software or even hardware appliances. Decision Matrix With all of these options, you can use Windows Azure to solve just about any computing problem. It’s often hard to know when to use something on-premises, in the cloud, and what kind of service to use. I’ve used a decision matrix in the last couple of years to take a particular problem and choose the proper technology to solve it. It’s all about options – there is no “silver bullet”, whether that’s Windows Azure or any other set of functions. I take the problem, decide which particular component I want to own and control – and choose the column that has that box darkened. For instance, if I have to control the wiring for a solution (a requirement in some military and government installations), that means the “Networking” component needs to be dark, and so I select the “On Premises” column for that particular solution. If I just need the solution provided and I want no control at all, I can look as “Software as a Service” solutions. Security, Pricing, and Other Info Security: Security is one of the first questions you should ask in any distributed computing environment. We have certification info, coding guidelines and more, even a general “Request for Information” RFI Response already created for you. Pricing: Are there licenses? How much does this cost? Is there a way to estimate the costs in this new environment? New Features: Many new features were added to Windows Azure - a good roundup of those changes can be found here. Support: Software Support on Virtual Machines, general support.

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Secure Your Wireless Router: 8 Things You Can Do Right Now

- by Chris Hoffman

A security researcher recently discovered a backdoor in many D-Link routers, allowing anyone to access the router without knowing the username or password. This isn’t the first router security issue and won’t be the last. To protect yourself, you should ensure that your router is configured securely. This is about more than just enabling Wi-Fi encryption and not hosting an open Wi-Fi network. Disable Remote Access Routers offer a web interface, allowing you to configure them through a browser. The router runs a web server and makes this web page available when you’re on the router’s local network. However, most routers offer a “remote access” feature that allows you to access this web interface from anywhere in the world. Even if you set a username and password, if you have a D-Link router affected by this vulnerability, anyone would be able to log in without any credentials. If you have remote access disabled, you’d be safe from people remotely accessing your router and tampering with it. To do this, open your router’s web interface and look for the “Remote Access,” “Remote Administration,” or “Remote Management” feature. Ensure it’s disabled — it should be disabled by default on most routers, but it’s good to check. Update the Firmware Like our operating systems, web browsers, and every other piece of software we use, router software isn’t perfect. The router’s firmware — essentially the software running on the router — may have security flaws. Router manufacturers may release firmware updates that fix such security holes, although they quickly discontinue support for most routers and move on to the next models. Unfortunately, most routers don’t have an auto-update feature like Windows and our web browsers do — you have to check your router manufacturer’s website for a firmware update and install it manually via the router’s web interface. Check to be sure your router has the latest available firmware installed. Change Default Login Credentials Many routers have default login credentials that are fairly obvious, such as the password “admin”. If someone gained access to your router’s web interface through some sort of vulnerability or just by logging onto your Wi-Fi network, it would be easy to log in and tamper with the router’s settings. To avoid this, change the router’s password to a non-default password that an attacker couldn’t easily guess. Some routers even allow you to change the username you use to log into your router. Lock Down Wi-Fi Access If someone gains access to your Wi-Fi network, they could attempt to tamper with your router — or just do other bad things like snoop on your local file shares or use your connection to downloaded copyrighted content and get you in trouble. Running an open Wi-Fi network can be dangerous. To prevent this, ensure your router’s Wi-Fi is secure. This is pretty simple: Set it to use WPA2 encryption and use a reasonably secure passphrase. Don’t use the weaker WEP encryption or set an obvious passphrase like “password”. Disable UPnP A variety of UPnP flaws have been found in consumer routers. Tens of millions of consumer routers respond to UPnP requests from the Internet, allowing attackers on the Internet to remotely configure your router. Flash applets in your browser could use UPnP to open ports, making your computer more vulnerable. UPnP is fairly insecure for a variety of reasons. To avoid UPnP-based problems, disable UPnP on your router via its web interface. If you use software that needs ports forwarded — such as a BitTorrent client, game server, or communications program — you’ll have to forward ports on your router without relying on UPnP. Log Out of the Router’s Web Interface When You’re Done Configuring It Cross site scripting (XSS) flaws have been found in some routers. A router with such an XSS flaw could be controlled by a malicious web page, allowing the web page to configure settings while you’re logged in. If your router is using its default username and password, it would be easy for the malicious web page to gain access. Even if you changed your router’s password, it would be theoretically possible for a website to use your logged-in session to access your router and modify its settings. To prevent this, just log out of your router when you’re done configuring it — if you can’t do that, you may want to clear your browser cookies. This isn’t something to be too paranoid about, but logging out of your router when you’re done using it is a quick and easy thing to do. Change the Router’s Local IP Address If you’re really paranoid, you may be able to change your router’s local IP address. For example, if its default address is 192.168.0.1, you could change it to 192.168.0.150. If the router itself were vulnerable and some sort of malicious script in your web browser attempted to exploit a cross site scripting vulnerability, accessing known-vulnerable routers at their local IP address and tampering with them, the attack would fail. This step isn’t completely necessary, especially since it wouldn’t protect against local attackers — if someone were on your network or software was running on your PC, they’d be able to determine your router’s IP address and connect to it. Install Third-Party Firmwares If you’re really worried about security, you could also install a third-party firmware such as DD-WRT or OpenWRT. You won’t find obscure back doors added by the router’s manufacturer in these alternative firmwares. Consumer routers are shaping up to be a perfect storm of security problems — they’re not automatically updated with new security patches, they’re connected directly to the Internet, manufacturers quickly stop supporting them, and many consumer routers seem to be full of bad code that leads to UPnP exploits and easy-to-exploit backdoors. It’s smart to take some basic precautions. Image Credit: Nuscreen on Flickr

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Ubuntu 12.04 wireless (wifi) not working, can not upgrade to 12.10, touchpad gestures not working. What to do?

- by Ritwik

I installed ubuntu 12.04 LTS 3 days ago and since then wireless feature and touchpad gestures are not working. Tried everything on internet but still unsuccessful. I cant upgrade to ubuntu 12.10. These are the following comments I tried. Please help me. EDIT: just realized usb 3.0 is also not working. COMMAND lsb_release -r OUTPUT ----------------------------------------------------------------- Release: 12.04 ----------------------------------------------------------------- COMMAND lspci OUTPUT ------------------------------------------------------------------ 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor DRAM Controller (rev 06) 00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor PCI Express x16 Controller (rev 06) 00:01.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor PCI Express x8 Controller (rev 06) 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 06) 00:03.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor HD Audio Controller (rev 06) 00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI (rev 05) 00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04) 00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB EHCI #2 (rev 05) 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset High Definition Audio Controller (rev 05) 00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #1 (rev d5) 00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #2 (rev d5) 00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port #3 (rev d5) 00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family USB EHCI #1 (rev 05) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation HM86 Express LPC Controller (rev 05) 00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family 6-port SATA Controller 1 [AHCI mode] (rev 05) 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 05) 07:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation GF117M [GeForce 610M/710M / GT 620M/625M/630M/720M] (rev a1) 08:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller (rev 07) 09:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTS5229 PCI Express Card Reader (rev 01) 0f:00.0 Network controller: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01) ------------------------------------------------------------------ COMMAND sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-wireless-lucid-generic OUTPUT ------------------------------------------------------------------- Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done E: Unable to locate package linux-backports-modules-wireless-lucid-generic ------------------------------------------------------------------- COMMAND cat /etc/lsb-release; uname -a OUTPUT ------------------------------------------------------------------- DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu DISTRIB_RELEASE=12.04 DISTRIB_CODENAME=precise DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 12.04.5 LTS" Linux ritwik-PC 3.2.0-67-generic #101-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jul 15 17:46:11 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux ------------------------------------------------------------------- COMMAND lspci -nnk | grep -iA2 net OUTPUT ------------------------------------------------------------------- 08:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller [10ec:8136] (rev 07) Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:225d] Kernel driver in use: r8169 -- 0f:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter [168c:0036] (rev 01) Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:217f] ------------------------------------------------------------------- COMMAND lsusb OUTPUT ------------------------------------------------------------------- Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:8008 Intel Corp. Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:8000 Intel Corp. ------------------------------------------------------------------- COMMAND iwconfig OUTPUT ------------------------------------------------------------------- lo no wireless extensions. eth0 no wireless extensions. ------------------------------------------------------------------- COMMAND rfkill list all OUTPUT ------------------------------------------------------------------- 0: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN Soft blocked: no Hard blocked: no 1: hp-bluetooth: Bluetooth Soft blocked: no Hard blocked: no ------------------------------------------------------------------- COMMAND lsmod OUTPUT ------------------------------------------------------------------- Module Size Used by snd_hda_codec_realtek 224215 1 bnep 18281 2 rfcomm 47604 0 bluetooth 180113 10 bnep,rfcomm parport_pc 32866 0 ppdev 17113 0 nls_iso8859_1 12713 1 nls_cp437 16991 1 vfat 17585 1 fat 61512 1 vfat snd_hda_intel 33719 3 snd_hda_codec 127706 2 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel snd_hwdep 17764 1 snd_hda_codec snd_pcm 97275 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec snd_seq_midi 13324 0 snd_rawmidi 30748 1 snd_seq_midi snd_seq_midi_event 14899 1 snd_seq_midi snd_seq 61929 2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event nouveau 775039 0 joydev 17693 0 snd_timer 29990 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq snd_seq_device 14540 3 snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq ttm 76949 1 nouveau uvcvideo 72627 0 snd 79041 15 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device videodev 98259 1 uvcvideo drm_kms_helper 46978 1 nouveau psmouse 98051 0 drm 241971 3 nouveau,ttm,drm_kms_helper i2c_algo_bit 13423 1 nouveau soundcore 15091 1 snd snd_page_alloc 18529 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm v4l2_compat_ioctl32 17128 1 videodev hp_wmi 18092 0 serio_raw 13211 0 sparse_keymap 13890 1 hp_wmi mxm_wmi 13021 1 nouveau video 19651 1 nouveau wmi 19256 2 hp_wmi,mxm_wmi mac_hid 13253 0 lp 17799 0 parport 46562 3 parport_pc,ppdev,lp r8169 62190 0 ------------------------------------------------------------------- COMMAND sudo su modprobe -v ath9k OUTPUT ------------------------------------------------------------------- insmod /lib/modules/3.2.0-67-generic/kernel/net/wireless/cfg80211.ko insmod /lib/modules/3.2.0-67-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath.ko insmod /lib/modules/3.2.0-67-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath9k/ath9k_hw.ko insmod /lib/modules/3.2.0-67-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath9k/ath9k_common.ko insmod /lib/modules/3.2.0-67-generic/kernel/net/mac80211/mac80211.ko insmod /lib/modules/3.2.0-67-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath9k/ath9k.ko ------------------------------------------------------------------- COMMAND do-release-upgrade OUTPUT ------------------------------------------------------------------- Err Upgrade tool signature 404 Not Found [IP: 91.189.88.149 80] Err Upgrade tool 404 Not Found [IP: 91.189.88.149 80] Fetched 0 B in 0s (0 B/s) WARNING:root:file 'quantal.tar.gz.gpg' missing Failed to fetch Fetching the upgrade failed. There may be a network problem. ------------------------------------------------------------------- COMMAND sudo modprobe ath9k dmesg | grep ath9k NO OUTPUT FOR THEM COMMAND dmesg | grep -e ath -e 80211 OUTPUT ------------------------------------------------------------------- [ 13.232372] type=1400 audit(1408867538.399:9): apparmor="STATUS" operation="profile_load" name="/usr/lib/telepathy/mission-control-5" pid=975 comm="apparmor_parser" [ 13.232615] type=1400 audit(1408867538.399:10): apparmor="STATUS" operation="profile_load" name="/usr/lib/telepathy/telepathy-*" pid=975 comm="apparmor_parser" [ 15.186599] ath3k: probe of 3-4:1.0 failed with error -110 [ 15.186635] usbcore: registered new interface driver ath3k [ 88.219329] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain [ 88.351665] cfg80211: World regulatory domain updated: [ 88.351667] cfg80211: (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp) [ 88.351670] cfg80211: (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm) [ 88.351671] cfg80211: (2457000 KHz - 2482000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm) [ 88.351673] cfg80211: (2474000 KHz - 2494000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm) [ 88.351674] cfg80211: (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm) [ 88.351675] cfg80211: (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm) ------------------------------------------------------------------- COMMAND sudo apt-get install touchpad-indicator OUTPUT ------------------------------------------------------------------- Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following extra packages will be installed: gir1.2-gconf-2.0 python-pyudev Suggested packages: python-qt4 python-pyside.qtcore The following NEW packages will be installed: gir1.2-gconf-2.0 python-pyudev touchpad-indicator 0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 84.1 kB of archives. After this operation, 1,136 kB of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue [Y/n]? Y Get:1 http://ppa.launchpad.net/atareao/atareao/ubuntu/ precise/main touchpad-indicator all 0.9.3.12-1ubuntu1 [46.5 kB] Get:2 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main gir1.2-gconf-2.0 amd64 3.2.5-0ubuntu2 [7,098 B] Get:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main python-pyudev all 0.13-1 [30.5 kB] Fetched 84.1 kB in 2s (31.6 kB/s) Selecting previously unselected package gir1.2-gconf-2.0. (Reading database ... 169322 files and directories currently installed.) Unpacking gir1.2-gconf-2.0 (from .../gir1.2-gconf-2.0_3.2.5-0ubuntu2_amd64.deb) ... Selecting previously unselected package python-pyudev. Unpacking python-pyudev (from .../python-pyudev_0.13-1_all.deb) ... Selecting previously unselected package touchpad-indicator. Unpacking touchpad-indicator (from .../touchpad-indicator_0.9.3.12-1ubuntu1_all.deb) ... Processing triggers for bamfdaemon ... Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf.index... Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils ... Processing triggers for gnome-menus ... Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme ... Processing triggers for software-center ... INFO:softwarecenter.db.update:no translation information in database needed Setting up gir1.2-gconf-2.0 (3.2.5-0ubuntu2) ... Setting up python-pyudev (0.13-1) ... Setting up touchpad-indicator (0.9.3.12-1ubuntu1) ... ------------------------------------------------------------------- Not able to find ( drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath9k/hw.c ) or ( drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath9k/hw.h )

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Right-Time Retail Part 1

- by David Dorf

This is the first in a three-part series. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Right-Time Revolution Technology enables some amazing feats in retail. I can order flowers for my wife while flying 30,000 feet in the air. I can order my groceries in the subway and have them delivered later that day. I can even see how clothes look on me without setting foot in a store. Who knew that a TV, diamond necklace, or even a car would someday be as easy to purchase as a candy bar? Can technology make a mattress an impulse item? Wake-up and your back is hurting, so you rollover and grab your iPad, then a new mattress is delivered the next day. Behind the scenes the many processes are being choreographed to make the sale happen. This includes moving data between systems with the least amount for friction, which in some cases is near real-time. But real-time isn’t appropriate for all the integrations. Think about what a completely real-time retailer would look like. A consumer grabs toothpaste off the shelf, and all systems are immediately notified so that the backroom clerk comes running out and pushes the consumer aside so he can replace the toothpaste on the shelf. Such a system is not only cost prohibitive, but it’s also very inefficient and ineffectual. Retailers must balance the realities of people, processes, and systems to find the right speed of execution. That’ what “right-time retail” means. Retailers used to sell during the day and count the money and restock at night, but global expansion and the Web have complicated that simplistic viewpoint. Our 24hr society demands not only access but also speed, which constantly pushes the boundaries of our IT systems. In the last twenty years, there have been three major technology advancements that have moved us closer to real-time systems. Networking is the first technology that drove the real-time trend. As systems became connected, it became easier to move data between them. In retail we no longer had to mail the daily business report back to corporate each day as the dial-up modem could transfer the data. That was soon replaced with trickle-polling, when sale transactions were occasionally sent from stores to corporate throughout the day, often through VSAT. Then we got terrestrial networks like DSL and Ethernet that allowed the constant stream of data between stores and corporate. When corporate could see the sales transactions coming from stores, it could better plan for replenishment and promotions. That drove the need for speed into the supply chain and merchandising, but for many years those systems were stymied by the huge volumes of data. Nordstrom has 150 million SKU/Store combinations when planning (RPAS); The Gap generates 110 million price changes during end-of-season (RPM); Argos does 1.78 billion calculations executed each day for replenishment planning (AIP). These areas are now being alleviated by the second technology, storage. The typical laptop disk drive runs at 5,400rpm with PCs stepping up to 7,200rpm and servers hitting 15,000rpm. But the platters can only spin so fast, so to squeeze more performance we’ve had to rely on things like disk striping. Then solid state drives (SSDs) were introduced and prices continue to drop. (Augmenting your harddrive with a SSD is the single best PC upgrade these days.) RAM continues to be expensive, but compressing data in memory has allowed more efficient use. So a few years back, Oracle decided to build a box that incorporated all these advancements to move us closer to real-time. This family of products, often categorized as engineered systems, combines the hardware and software so that they work together to provide better performance. How much better? If Exadata powered a 747, you’d go from New York to Paris in 42 minutes, and it would carry 5,000 passengers. If Exadata powered baseball, games would last only 18 minutes and Boston’s Fenway would hold 370,000 fans. The Exa-family enables processing more data in less time. So with faster networks and storage, that brings us to the third and final ingredient. If we continue to process data in traditional ways, we won’t be able to take advantage of the faster networks and storage. Enter what Harvard calls “The Sexiest Job of the 21st Century” – the data scientist. New technologies like the Hadoop-powered Oracle Big Data Appliance, Oracle Advanced Analytics, and Oracle Endeca Information Discovery change the way in which we organize data. These technologies allow us to extract actionable information from raw data at incredible speeds, often ad-hoc. So the foundation to support the real-time enterprise exists, but how does a retailer begin to take advantage? The most visible way is through real-time marketing, but I’ll save that for part 3 and instead begin with improved integrations for the assets you already have in part 2.

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Sonicwall VPN, Domain Controller Issues

- by durilai

I am trying to get the domain logon script to execute when I connect to VPN. I have a SonicWall 4060PRO, with the SonicOS Enhanced 4.2.0.0-10e. The VPN connects successfully, but the script does not execute. I am posting the log below, but I see two issues. The first is the inability to connect to domain. 2009/12/18 19:49:53:457 Information XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX NetGetDCName failed: Could not find domain controller for this domain. The second is the failure of the script. 2009/12/18 19:49:53:466 Warning XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX Failed to execute script file \DT-WIN7netlogondomain.bat, Last Error: The network name cannot be found.. I assume the second issue is caused because of the first, also on the second issue it seems to be trying to get the logon script from my local PC, not the server. Finally, the DC can be pinged and reached by its computer name once the VPN is connected. The shares that the script is tring to map can be mapped manually. Any help is appreciated. 2009/12/18 19:49:31:063 Information The connection "GroupVPN_0006B1030980" has been enabled. 2009/12/18 19:49:32:223 Information XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX Starting ISAKMP phase 1 negotiation. 2009/12/18 19:49:32:289 Information XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX Starting aggressive mode phase 1 exchange. 2009/12/18 19:49:32:289 Information XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX NAT Detected: Local host is behind a NAT device. 2009/12/18 19:49:32:289 Information XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX The SA lifetime for phase 1 is 28800 seconds. 2009/12/18 19:49:32:289 Information XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX Phase 1 has completed. 2009/12/18 19:49:32:336 Information XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX Received XAuth request. 2009/12/18 19:49:32:336 Information XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX XAuth has requested a username but one has not yet been specified. 2009/12/18 19:49:32:336 Information XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX Sending phase 1 delete. 2009/12/18 19:49:32:336 Information XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX User authentication information is needed to complete the connection. 2009/12/18 19:49:32:393 Information An incoming ISAKMP packet from XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX was ignored. 2009/12/18 19:49:36:962 Information XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX Starting ISAKMP phase 1 negotiation. 2009/12/18 19:49:37:036 Information XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX Starting aggressive mode phase 1 exchange. 2009/12/18 19:49:37:036 Information XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX NAT Detected: Local host is behind a NAT device. 2009/12/18 19:49:37:036 Information XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX The SA lifetime for phase 1 is 28800 seconds. 2009/12/18 19:49:37:036 Information XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX Phase 1 has completed. 2009/12/18 19:49:37:094 Information XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX Received XAuth request. 2009/12/18 19:49:37:100 Information XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX Sending XAuth reply. 2009/12/18 19:49:37:110 Information XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX Received initial contact notify. 2009/12/18 19:49:37:153 Information XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX Received XAuth status. 2009/12/18 19:49:37:154 Information XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX Sending XAuth acknowledgement. 2009/12/18 19:49:37:154 Information XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX User authentication has succeeded. 2009/12/18 19:49:37:247 Information XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX Received request for policy version. 2009/12/18 19:49:37:253 Information XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX Sending policy version reply. 2009/12/18 19:49:37:303 Information XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX Received policy change is not required. 2009/12/18 19:49:37:303 Information XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX Sending policy acknowledgement. 2009/12/18 19:49:37:303 Information XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX The configuration for the connection is up to date. 2009/12/18 19:49:37:377 Information XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX Starting ISAKMP phase 2 negotiation with 10.10.10.0/255.255.255.0:BOOTPC:BOOTPS:UDP. 2009/12/18 19:49:37:377 Information XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX Starting quick mode phase 2 exchange. 2009/12/18 19:49:37:472 Information XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX The SA lifetime for phase 2 is 28800 seconds. 2009/12/18 19:49:37:472 Information XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX Phase 2 with 10.10.10.0/255.255.255.0:BOOTPC:BOOTPS:UDP has completed. 2009/12/18 19:49:37:896 Information Renewing IP address for the virtual interface (00-60-73-4C-3F-45). 2009/12/18 19:49:40:189 Information The virtual interface has been added to the system with IP address 10.10.10.112. 2009/12/18 19:49:40:319 Information The system ARP cache has been flushed. 2009/12/18 19:49:40:576 Information XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX NetWkstaUserGetInfo returned: user: Dustin, logon domain: DT-WIN7, logon server: DT-WIN7 2009/12/18 19:49:53:457 Information XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX NetGetDCName failed: Could not find domain controller for this domain. 2009/12/18 19:49:53:457 Information XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX calling NetUserGetInfo: Server: , User: Dustin, level: 3 2009/12/18 19:49:53:460 Information XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX NetUserGetInfo returned: home dir: , remote dir: , logon script: 2009/12/18 19:49:53:466 Warning XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX Failed to execute script file \DT-WIN7netlogondomain.bat, Last Error: The network name cannot be found..

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howto only tunnel specific hosts route through openvpn client on tomato

- by kcome

I am relatively newbie in networking world although I did coding and know some sysadmin background for a long time. and here I'm only one step from my destination. The whole picture is : at home I use one LinkSys E3000 as the gateway(don't know yet if this is it's name), wireless AP and no other routing/switching devices. It serves 1 PC and 1 Mac with LAN, 1 Mac Mini + 1 iPad + 2 smartphones with WIFI. My goal is use an openvpn client on the E3000 (with tomato firmware) and make my iPad and smartphone's all WiFi traffic through it, and other devices route remain the same non-openvpn route. So far I'm able to connect openvpn client on E3000 to an openvpn server, tunnel all my devices' all traffic through that openvpn connection. What's left is howto selectively route by source IP (at least in my guessing) to the tunnel while don't bother others. I had learned some 'iptables' and 'route' in past few days however without much luck, so here comes my question. Here are some info which will help you get the structure. ifconfig -a output, some useless lines striped, and in the web interface C0:C1:C0:1A:E0:28 is WAN, C0:C1:C0:1A:E0:27 is LAN, C0:C1:C0:1A:E0:29 is 2.4G wifi AP, C0:C1:C0:1A:E0:2A is 5G wifi AP. root@router:/tmp/home/root# ifconfig -a br0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr C0:C1:C0:1A:E0:27 inet addr:192.168.1.1 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr C0:C1:C0:1A:E0:27 UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr C0:C1:C0:1A:E0:29 UP BROADCAST RUNNING ALLMULTI MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 eth2 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr C0:C1:C0:1A:E0:2A UP BROADCAST RUNNING ALLMULTI MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 lo Link encap:Local Loopback inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0 inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host ppp0 Link encap:Point-to-Point Protocol inet addr:172.200.1.43 P-t-P:172.200.0.1 Mask:255.255.255.255 UP POINTOPOINT RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1480 Metric:1 vlan1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr C0:C1:C0:1A:E0:27 UP BROADCAST RUNNING ALLMULTI MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 vlan2 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr C0:C1:C0:1A:E0:28 UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 wl0.1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr C0:C1:C0:1A:E0:29 BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 brctl show output root@router:/tmp/home/root# brctl show bridge name bridge id STP enabled interfaces br0 8000.c0c1c01ae027 no vlan1 eth1 eth2 before openvpn route-up script root@router:/tmp/home/root# route -n Kernel IP routing table Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface 172.200.0.1 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.255 UH 0 0 0 ppp0 192.168.1.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 br0 127.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo 0.0.0.0 172.200.0.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 ppp0 openvpn server push PUSH: Received control message: 'PUSH_REPLY,redirect-gateway,dhcp-option DNS 8.8.8.8,route 172.20.0.1,topology net30,ping 10,ping-restart 120,ifconfig 172.20.0.6 172.20.0.5' openvpn's stock route-up script Apr 24 14:52:06 router daemon.notice openvpn[1768]: /sbin/ifconfig tun11 172.20.0.6 pointopoint 172.20.0.5 mtu 1500 Apr 24 14:52:08 router daemon.notice openvpn[1768]: /sbin/route add -net 72.14.177.29 netmask 255.255.255.255 gw 172.200.0.1 Apr 24 14:52:08 router daemon.notice openvpn[1768]: /sbin/route add -net 0.0.0.0 netmask 128.0.0.0 gw 172.20.0.5 Apr 24 14:52:08 router daemon.notice openvpn[1768]: /sbin/route add -net 128.0.0.0 netmask 128.0.0.0 gw 172.20.0.5 Apr 24 14:52:08 router daemon.notice openvpn[1768]: /sbin/route add -net 172.20.0.1 netmask 255.255.255.255 gw 172.20.0.5 route after openvpn root@router:/tmp/home/root# route -n Kernel IP routing table Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface 172.20.0.5 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.255 UH 0 0 0 tun11 72.14.177.29 172.200.0.1 255.255.255.255 UGH 0 0 0 ppp0 172.200.0.1 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.255 UH 0 0 0 ppp0 172.20.0.1 172.20.0.5 255.255.255.255 UGH 0 0 0 tun11 192.168.1.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 br0 127.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo 0.0.0.0 172.20.0.5 128.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 tun11 128.0.0.0 172.20.0.5 128.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 tun11 0.0.0.0 172.200.0.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 ppp0 something I had noticed and tried: * on the web interface of openvpn client there is an option "Create NAT on tunnel", if i check this, there is the following script (probably executed after openvpn connection established) root@router:/tmp/home/root# cat /tmp/etc/openvpn/fw/client1-fw.sh #!/bin/sh iptables -I INPUT -i tun11 -j ACCEPT iptables -I FORWARD -i tun11 -j ACCEPT iptables -t nat -I POSTROUTING -s 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0 -o tun11 -j MASQUERADE if i uncheck this option, the last line will not appear. Then I guess probably the my issue will be solved by iptables and NAT related commands, I just haven't got enough knowledge to figure them out. I tried run iptables -t nat -I POSTROUTING -s 192.168.1.6 -o tun11 -j MASQUERADE manually after openvpn connected (192.168.1.6 is the ip address of my iPad), then my iPad get internet with openvpn tunnel, however all other devices can't reach internet. in case if needed, here is the iptables about NAT root@router:/tmp/home/root# iptables -t nat -L -n Chain PREROUTING (policy ACCEPT) target prot opt source destination DROP all -- 0.0.0.0/0 192.168.1.0/24 WANPREROUTING all -- 0.0.0.0/0 172.200.1.43 upnp all -- 0.0.0.0/0 172.200.1.43 Chain POSTROUTING (policy ACCEPT) target prot opt source destination MASQUERADE all -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 SNAT all -- 192.168.1.0/24 192.168.1.0/24 to:192.168.1.1 Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT) target prot opt source destination Chain WANPREROUTING (1 references) target prot opt source destination DNAT icmp -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 to:192.168.1.1 Chain upnp (1 references) target prot opt source destination DNAT udp -- 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 udp dpt:5353 to:192.168.1.3:5353 Thanks in advance for helping and read this so much, I hope i made every info you need to give a help :)

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Poor home office network performance and cannot figure out where the issue is

- by Jeff Willener

This is the most bizarre issue. I have worked with small to mid size networks for quite a long time and can say I'm comfortable connecting hardware. Where you will start to lose me is with managed switches and firewalls. To start, let me describe my network (sigh, shouldn't but I MUST solve this). 1) Comcast Cable Internet 2) Motorola SURFboard eXtreme Cable Modem. a) Model: SB6120 b) DOCSIS 3.0 and 2.0 support c) IPv4 and IPv6 support 3-A) Cisco Small Business RV220W Wireless N Firewall a) Latest firmware b) Model: RV220W-A-K9-NA c) WAN Port to Modem (2) d) vlan 1: work e) vlan 2: everything else. 3-B) D-Link DIR-615 Draft 802.11 N Wireless Router a) Latest firmware b) WAN Port to Modem (2) 4) Servers connected directly to firewall a) If firewall 3-A, then vlan 1 b) CAT5e patch cables c) Dell PowerEdge 1400SC w/ 10/100 integrated NIC (Domain Controller, DNS, former DHCP) d) Dell PowerEdge 400SC w/ 10/100/1000 integrated NIC (VMWare Server) 4) Linksys EZXS88W unmanaged Workgroup 10/100 Switch a) If firewall 3-A, then vlan 2 b) 25' CAT5e patch cable to firewall (3-A or 3-B) c) Connects xBox 360, Blu-Ray player, PC at TV 5) Office equipment connected directly to firewall a) If firewall 3-A, then vlan 1 b) ~80' CAT6 or CAT5e patch cable to firewall (3-A or 3-B) c) Connects 1) Dell Latitude laptop 10/100/1000 2) Dell Inspiron laptop 10/100 3) Dell Workstation 10/100/1000 (Pristine host, VMWare Workstation 7.x with many bridged VM's) 4) Brother Laser Printer 10/100 5) Epson All-In-One Workforce 310 10/100 5-A) NetGear FS116 unmanaged 10/100 switch a) I've had this switch for a long time and never had issues. 5-B) NetGear GS108 unmanaged 10/100/1000 switch a) Bought new for this issue and returned. 5-C) Linksys SE2500 unmanaged 10/100/1000 switch a) Bought new for this issue and returned. 5-D) TP-Link TL-SG10008D unmanaged 10/100/1000 a) Bought new for this issue and still have. 6) VLan 1 Wireless Connections (on same subnet if 3-B) a) Any of those at 5c b) HP Laptop 7) VLan 2 Wireless Connection (on same subnet if 3-B) a) IPad, IPod b) Compaq Laptop c) Epson Wireless Printer Shew, without hosting a diagram I hope that paints a good picture. The Issue The breakdown here is at item 5. No matter what I do I cannot have a switch at 5 and have to run everything wireless regardless of router. Issues related to using a switch (point 5 above) SpeedTest is good. Poor throughput to other devices if can communicate at all. Usually cannot ping other devices even on the same switch although, when able, ping times are good. Eventual lose of connectivity and can "sometimes" be restored by unplugging everything for several days, not minutes or hours but we're talking a week if at all. Directly connect to computer gives good internet connection however throughput to other devices connected to firewall is at best horrible. Yet printing doesn't seem to be an issue as long as they are connected via wireless. I have to force the RV220W to 1000Mb on the respective port if using a Gig Switch Issues related to using wireless in place of a switch (point 5 above) Poor throughput to other devices if can communicate. SpeedTest is good. Bottom line Internet speeds are awesome. By the way, Comcast went WAY above and beyond to make sure it was not them. They rewired EVERYTHING which did solve internet drops. Computer to computer connections are garbage Cannot get switch at 5 to work, yet other at 4 has never had an issue. Direct connection, bypass switch, is good for DHCP and internet. DNS must be on server, not firewall. Cisco insists its my switches but as you can see I have used four and two different cables with the same result. My gut feeling is something is happening with routing. But I'm not smart enough to know that answer. I run a lot of VM's at 5-c-3, could that cause it? What's different compared to my previous house is I have introduced Gigabit hardware (firewall/switches/computers). Some of my computers might have IPv6 turned on if I haven't turned it off already. I'm truly at a loss and hope anyone has some crazy idea how to solve this. Bottom line, I need a switch in my office behind the firewall. I've changed everything. The real crux is I will find a working solution and, again, after days it will stop working. So this means I cannot isolate if its a computer since I have to use them. Oh and a solution is not throwing more money at this. I'm well into $1k already. Yah, lame.

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Strategy for using snapshots to back up Ubuntu Linux server?

- by MountainX

I need some backup advice for my home file server. Here are the mount points, volume groups, logical volumes and used/total space of all the volumes on my Ubuntu 8.10 home file server. / vgA/lvRoot [7.5G/50G] /tmp vgB/lvTmp [195M/30G] /var vgB/lvVar [780M/30G] swap vgB/lvSwap [16.00 GB] /media1 vgC/lvMedia1 [400G/975G] /media2 vgC/lvMedia2 [75G/295G] /boot partition (no volume group) [95M/200M] /video partition (no volume group) [450G/950G] /backups vgD/lvBackupTarget [800G/925G] /home vgE/lvHome [85G/200G] I have just added a 2.0 TB external USB drive that I would like to use to backup everything. (It will be a close fit to get it all on one 2.0 TB drive. I actually have a 2nd external USB drive if needed.) I'd like to backup "/", var, /media1, media2 and /home. I'll deal with /boot and /video separately since they are not logical volumes. For all the logical volumes I'm anticipating taking snapshots and then copying those snapshots to the 2.0 TB external USB drive. I have never done a task like that before. If I do that, I could use the tutorial I found here: http://www.howtoforge.com/linux_lvm_snapshots My questions are: What is the best overall strategy? Is it LVM snapshots, as I'm assuming? How should I prepare, subdivide and mount the 2.0 TB external USB drive? 2.a. Should I create one or more regular partitions or should I create a physical volume with one or more logical volumes? 2.b. Would it be advisable to extactly mirror the source pv/lv layout on the external drive, and if so, is this a good strategy? What's the best way to get the snapshots onto the external drive? dd? Even though this is a strategy question, feedback with actual commands is appreciated. I need step-by-step cookbook-style help because I don't do much server admin work. (Background: This is a home file server that I have rarely had to touch in about 2 years. It has done its job without much intervention. The really old PC that I used to back everything up recently failed, so I'm replacing that with the external USB drive(s) and I'd like to upgrade my backup strategy at the same time. Previously, I just copied stuff from /backups over to the other computer and that would not have made things very easy in a real restore situation. The /backups mount point contains backup copies of "most" of the important data on a file by file basis, but it does not contain copies of /boot, etc. BTW, the actual internal HDD that holds /backups is separate from the other storage devices.) EDIT: I'll propose a strategy... The idea came from a comment here: LVM mirroring VS RAID1 "LVM mirrors are for replication of a logical volume to a different physical volume. It's essentially meant to "move the data to a different disk". The mirror is then broken..." That would fit my requirements well. Here is an ideal situation: establish the LV mirror on the external drive break the link with the mirror create a (persistent) snapshot on the mirror after a week, resync the mirror with the original source and update the mirror break the link and create another snapshot on the mirror. Obviously, the mirror will be like a weekly full backup. And the snapshots on the mirror will represent earlier points in time. If this would work and if it would be time efficient, it would give a nice full & differential type backup on the external drive based on LVM. I have not heard of a strategy like this before. Will it work? Could it be scripted? Thoughts? EDIT 2: Creating Portable DiskSafes With LoopbackFS And LVM Snapshots This article seems intriguing: http://www.howtoforge.com/creating-portable-disksafes-with-loopbackfs-and-lvm-snapshots Unfortunately, I don't understand exactly how to map those ideas to the strategy I'm proposing above. I'm going to ask this last bit as a separate question. I will leave my original question in place because I still desire feedback on the overall best strategy. At this moment I'm assuming it is LVM mirroring in the style of "Creating Portable DiskSafes with LVM Snapshots" but that might be wrong.

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Again WPA Connection problem even after changed to latest version ..please help

- by Renjith G

I am using hostapd, wireless tools with madwifi for my wireless ap in my board. The WEP, WPA-PSK connections and communications between my board with linux and my desktop PC, Windows XP SP2 (with Olitec USB wireless) are fine. But when I configured the WPA type, the connection seems established but shows the status "TKIP - Key Absent" in the security dialog box. Anyone faced this problem? Am attaching the conf files and the connection status. In the AP side am complaining . I am using the in built radius server conf with the hostapd 0.4.7 hostapd.conf interface=ath0 driver=madwifi logger_syslog=0 logger_syslog_level=0 logger_stdout=0 logger_stdout_level=0 debug=0 eapol_key_index_workaround=1 dump_file=/tmp/hostapd.dump.0.0 ssid=Renjith G wpa wpa=1 wpa_passphrase=mypassphrase wpa_key_mgmt=WPA-EAP wpa_pairwise=TKIP CCMP wpa_group_rekey=600 macaddr_acl=2 /* commented */ ieee8021x=1 /* commented */ eap_authenticator=1 own_ip_addr=172.16.25.1 nas_identifier=renjithg.com auth_server_addr=172.16.25.1 auth_server_port=1812 auth_server_shared_secret=key1 ca_cert=/flash1/ca.crt server_cert=/flash1/server.crt eap_user_file=/etc/hostapd.eap_user hostapd.eap_user "*@renjithg.com" TLS And the commands am using are wlanconfig ath0 create wlandev wifi0 wlanmode ap iwconfig ath0 essid Renjith channel 6 ifconfig ath0 192.168.25.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 up hostapd -ddd /etc/hostapd.conf Please correct if am wrong .. Also am getting the debug messages on my AP when am connecting in my windows machine through WPA ~/wlanexe # ./hostapd -ddd /etc/hostapd.conf Configuration file: /etc/hostapd.conf Line 18: obsolete eap_authenticator used; this has been renamed to eap_server madwifi_set_iface_flags: dev_up=0 Using interface ath0 with hwaddr 00:0b:6b:33:8c:30 and ssid 'Renjith G wpa' madwifi_set_ieee8021x: enabled=1 madwifi_configure_wpa: group key cipher=1 madwifi_configure_wpa: pairwise key ciphers=0xa madwifi_configure_wpa: key management algorithms=0x1 madwifi_configure_wpa: rsn capabilities=0x0 madwifi_configure_wpa: enable WPA= 0x1 madwifi_set_iface_flags: dev_up=1 madwifi_set_privacy: enabled=1 WPA: group state machine entering state GTK_INIT GMK - hexdump(len=32): 9c 77 cd 38 5a 60 3b 16 8a 22 90 e8 65 b3 c2 86 40 5c be c3 dd 84 3e df 58 1d 16 61 1d 13 d1 f2 GTK - hexdump(len=32): 02 78 d7 d3 5d 15 e3 89 9c 62 a8 fe 8a 0f 40 28 ba dc cd bc 07 f4 59 88 1c 08 84 2b 49 3d e2 32 WPA: group state machine entering state SETKEYSDONE madwifi_set_key: alg=TKIP addr=00:00:00:00:00:00 key_idx=1 Flushing old station entries madwifi_sta_deauth: addr=ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff reason_code=3 Deauthenticate all stations l2_packet_receive - recvfrom: Network is down Wireless event: cmd=0x8c03 len=20 New STA WPA: 00:0a:78:a0:0b:09 WPA_PTK entering state INITIALIZE madwifi_del_key: addr=00:0a:78:a0:0b:09 key_idx=0 WPA: 00:0a:78:a0:0b:09 WPA_PTK_GROUP entering state IDLE WPA: 00:0a:78:a0:0b:09 WPA_PTK entering state AUTHENTICATION WPA: 00:0a:78:a0:0b:09 WPA_PTK entering state AUTHENTICATION2 IEEE 802.1X: 4 bytes from 00:0a:78:a0:0b:09 IEEE 802.1X: version=1 type=1 length=0 Wireless event: cmd=0x8c04 len=20 madwifi_del_key: addr=00:0a:78:a0:0b:09 key_idx=0 ioctl[unknown???]: Invalid argument WPA: 00:0a:78:a0:0b:09 WPA_PTK entering state DISCONNECTED WPA: 00:0a:78:a0:0b:09 WPA_PTK entering state INITIALIZE madwifi_del_key: addr=00:0a:78:a0:0b:09 key_idx=0 ioctl[unknown???]: Invalid argument Wireless event: cmd=0x8c03 len=20 New STA WPA: 00:0a:78:a0:0b:09 WPA_PTK entering state INITIALIZE madwifi_del_key: addr=00:0a:78:a0:0b:09 key_idx=0 WPA: 00:0a:78:a0:0b:09 WPA_PTK_GROUP entering state IDLE WPA: 00:0a:78:a0:0b:09 WPA_PTK entering state AUTHENTICATION WPA: 00:0a:78:a0:0b:09 WPA_PTK entering state AUTHENTICATION2 IEEE 802.1X: 4 bytes from 00:0a:78:a0:0b:09 IEEE 802.1X: version=1 type=1 length=0 < Register Fail < Register Fail Wireless event: cmd=0x8c04 len=20 madwifi_del_key: addr=00:0a:78:a0:0b:09 key_idx=0 ioctl[unknown???]: Invalid argument WPA: 00:0a:78:a0:0b:09 WPA_PTK entering state DISCONNECTED WPA: 00:0a:78:a0:0b:09 WPA_PTK entering state INITIALIZE madwifi_del_key: addr=00:0a:78:a0:0b:09 key_idx=0 ioctl[unknown???]: Invalid argument Wireless event: cmd=0x8c03 len=20 New STA WPA: 00:0a:78:a0:0b:09 WPA_PTK entering state INITIALIZE madwifi_del_key: addr=00:0a:78:a0:0b:09 key_idx=0 WPA: 00:0a:78:a0:0b:09 WPA_PTK_GROUP entering state IDLE WPA: 00:0a:78:a0:0b:09 WPA_PTK entering state AUTHENTICATION WPA: 00:0a:78:a0:0b:09 WPA_PTK entering state AUTHENTICATION2 IEEE 802.1X: 4 bytes from 00:0a:78:a0:0b:09 IEEE 802.1X: version=1 type=1 length=0 NOW am getting the following error message with latest tools. *This is the latest error messages..please refer this only..* ~/wlanexe # ./hostapd -ddd /etc/hostapd.conf TLS: Trusted root certificate(s) loaded madwifi_set_iface_flags: dev_up=0 madwifi_set_privacy: enabled=0 BSS count 1, BSSID mask ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff (0 bits) Flushing old station entries madwifi_sta_deauth: addr=ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff reason_code=3 ioctl[IEEE80211_IOCTL_SETMLME]: Invalid argument madwifi_sta_deauth: Failed to deauth STA (addr ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff reason 3) Could not connect to kernel driver. Deauthenticate all stations madwifi_sta_deauth: addr=ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff reason_code=2 ioctl[IEEE80211_IOCTL_SETMLME]: Invalid argument madwifi_sta_deauth: Failed to deauth STA (addr ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff reason 2) madwifi_set_privacy: enabled=0 madwifi_del_key: addr=00:00:00:00:00:00 key_idx=0 madwifi_del_key: addr=00:00:00:00:00:00 key_idx=1 madwifi_del_key: addr=00:00:00:00:00:00 key_idx=2 madwifi_del_key: addr=00:00:00:00:00:00 key_idx=3 Using interface ath0 with hwaddr 00:0b:6b:33:8c:30 and ssid 'RenjithGwpa' SSID - hexdump_ascii(len=11): 52 65 6e 6a 69 74 68 47 77 70 61 RenjithGwpa PSK (ASCII passphrase) - hexdump_ascii(len=12): 6d 79 70 61 73 73 70 68 72 61 73 65 mypassphrase PSK (from passphrase) - hexdump(len=32): a6 55 3e 76 94 8b d9 81 a1 22 5e 24 29 83 33 86 11 a8 7e 93 19 7c a9 ab ab cc 12 58 37 e5 35 b6 RADIUS local address: 172.16.25.1:1024 madwifi_set_ieee8021x: enabled=1 madwifi_configure_wpa: group key cipher=1 madwifi_configure_wpa: pairwise key ciphers=0xa madwifi_configure_wpa: key management algorithms=0x1 madwifi_configure_wpa: rsn capabilities=0x0 madwifi_configure_wpa: enable WPA=0x1 WPA: group state machine entering state GTK_INIT (VLAN-ID 0) GMK - hexdump(len=32): [REMOVED] GTK - hexdump(len=32): [REMOVED] WPA: group state machine entering state SETKEYSDONE (VLAN-ID 0) madwifi_set_key: alg=TKIP addr=00:00:00:00:00:00 key_idx=1 madwifi_set_privacy: enabled=1 madwifi_set_iface_flags: dev_up=1 ath0: Setup of interface done. l2_packet_receive - recvfrom: Network is down Wireless event: cmd=0x8b1a len=24 Wireless event: cmd=0x8c03 len=20 New STA ioctl[unknown???]: Invalid argument madwifi_process_wpa_ie: Failed to get WPA/RSN IE Failed to get WPA/RSN information element. Data frame from not associated STA 00:0a:78:a0:0b:09 Wireless event: cmd=0x8c04 len=20 Wireless event: cmd=0x8c03 len=20 New STA ioctl[unknown???]: Invalid argument madwifi_process_wpa_ie: Failed to get WPA/RSN IE Failed to get WPA/RSN information element. Data frame from not associated STA 00:0a:78:a0:0b:09 Data frame from not associated STA 00:0a:78:a0:0b:09 Data frame from not associated STA 00:0a:78:a0:0b:09 Wireless event: cmd=0x8c04 len=20 Wireless event: cmd=0x8c03 len=20 New STA ioctl[unknown???]: Invalid argument madwifi_process_wpa_ie: Failed to get WPA/RSN IE Failed to get WPA/RSN information element. Data frame from not associated STA 00:0a:78:a0:0b:09

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