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• Ubuntu 12.04 + Wifi not working

  - by user171154

  i'm having problems connecting over wireless. At the moment, I'm using wicd. It seems to get stuck on "Verifying AP association...". Without wicd I can get the connection up and ping the Net - but if I take eth0 down (ifconfig eth0 down), my wireless goes away too (same result if I unplug the wire instead). wicd is the only way I can bring eth0 back (which is the main reason I'm using it) - ifconfig eth0 and/or ifup eth0 do not re-enable the connection (I just discovered it leaves out the gateway. Adding the gateway back in re-enables the connection including wifi; I didn't want to delete the info about wicd above in case it gives someone an idea.) Doing it manually, despite the errors (which it would be nice to also resolve) - allows me to ping the outside world: ifup wlan0 ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODEEXT]: Invalid argument ioctl[SIOCSIWENCODEEXT]: Invalid argument ssh stop/waiting ssh start/running, process 17336 ping -I wlan0 -c 4 8.8.8.8 PING 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8) from 192.168.0.12 wlan0: 56(84) bytes of data. 64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_req=1 ttl=43 time=48.8 ms 64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_req=2 ttl=43 time=47.9 ms 64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_req=3 ttl=43 time=48.7 ms 64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_req=4 ttl=43 time=53.2 ms --- 8.8.8.8 ping statistics --- 4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 3003ms rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 47.975/49.711/53.235/2.063 ms # iwconfig lo no wireless extensions. wlan0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:"TPLINK" Mode:Managed Frequency:2.427 GHz Access Point: 64:66:xx:xx:xx:22 Bit Rate=108 Mb/s Tx-Power=27 dBm Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Encryption key:off Power Management:off Link Quality=70/70 Signal level=-39 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:3 Missed beacon:0 bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0 logical name: wlan0 version: 01 serial: f0:7d:68:c1:b4:13 width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ath9k driverversion=3.2.0-67-generic-pae firmware=N/A latency=0 link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn resources: irq:17 memory:dfbf0000-dfbfffff ip route default via 192.168.0.1 dev eth0 default via 192.168.0.1 dev wlan0 metric 100 169.254.0.0/16 dev wlan0 scope link metric 1000 192.168.0.0/24 dev eth0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.0.102 192.168.0.0/24 dev wlan0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.0.12 (For the record, I have no idea what the 169.254.0.0 address is doing there.) uname -a 3.2.0-67-generic-pae #101-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jul 15 18:04:54 UTC 2014 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux lshw -C network *-network description: Ethernet interface product: NetXtreme BCM5751 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express vendor: Broadcom Corporation physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0 logical name: eth0 version: 01 serial: 00:11:11:59:fc:09 size: 100Mbit/s capacity: 1Gbit/s width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pm vpd msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=tg3 driverversion=3.121 duplex=full firmware=5751-v3.23a ip=192.168.0.102 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=100Mbit/s resources: irq:16 memory:dfcf0000-dfcfffff *-network description: Wireless interface product: AR5418 Wireless Network Adapter [AR5008E 802.11(a)bgn] (PCI-Express) vendor: Qualcomm Atheros physical id: 0 /etc/network/interfaces # interfaces(5) file used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8) auto lo iface lo inet loopback source /etc/network/interfaces.eth0 source /etc/network/interfaces.wlan0 /etc/network/interfaces.eth0 #Main Interface auto eth0 iface eth0 inet static address 192.168.0.102 netmask 255.255.255.0 gateway 192.168.0.1 /etc/network/interfaces.wlan0 auto wlan0 iface wlan0 inet static address 192.168.0.12 gateway 192.168.0.1 dns-nameservers 192.168.0.1 8.8.8.8 netmask 255.255.255.0 wpa-driver wext wpa-ssid TPLINK wpa-ap-scan 1 wpa-proto RSN wpa-pairwise CCMP wpa-group CCMP wpa-key-mgmt WPA-PSK wpa-psk dca1badb5fd4e9axxx4xxdaaxxfa91xx610bxx6a7d57ef67af9809dxx6af42e39 /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant network={ ssid="TPLINK" psk="my password" key_mgmt=WPA-PSK proto=RSN pairwise=CCMP group=CCMP } ifdown eth0 ifdown: interface eth0 not configured ifconfig eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:11:xx:xx:xx:09 inet addr:192.168.0.102 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 inet6 addr: fe80::211:11ff:fe59:fc09/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:213690 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:155266 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:220057808 (220.0 MB) TX bytes:21137696 (21.1 MB) Interrupt:16 lo Link encap:Local Loopback inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0 inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1 RX packets:196412 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:196412 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 RX bytes:153270697 (153.2 MB) TX bytes:153270697 (153.2 MB) wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr f0:7d:xx:xx:xx:13 inet addr:192.168.0.12 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 inet6 addr: fe80::f27d:68ff:fec1:b413/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:11335 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:7287 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:2563290 (2.5 MB) TX bytes:855746 (855.7 KB) ifconfig eth0 down ifconfig eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:xx:xx:xx:xx:09 inet addr:192.168.0.102 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 inet6 addr: fe80::211:11ff:fe59:fc09/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:2 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:1 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:192 (192.0 B) TX bytes:94 (94.0 B) Interrupt:16 lo Link encap:Local Loopback inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0 inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1 RX packets:196418 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:196418 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 RX bytes:153270871 (153.2 MB) TX bytes:153270871 (153.2 MB) wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr f0:7d:xx:xx:xx:13 inet addr:192.168.0.12 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 inet6 addr: fe80::f27d:68ff:fec1:b413/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:11359 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:7293 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:2565482 (2.5 MB) TX bytes:856363 (856.3 KB) ip route default via 192.168.0.1 dev wlan0 metric 100 169.254.0.0/16 dev wlan0 scope link metric 1000 192.168.0.0/24 dev wlan0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.0.12 192.168.0.0/24 dev eth0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.0.102 ping -I wlan0 -c 4 8.8.8.8 PING 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8) from 192.168.0.12 wlan0: 56(84) bytes of data. --- 8.8.8.8 ping statistics --- 4 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 3024ms ping -I eth0 -c 3 router PING router (192.168.0.1) from 192.168.0.102 eth0: 56(84) bytes of data. --- router ping statistics --- 3 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 2015ms ping -I wlan0 -c 3 router PING router (192.168.0.1) from 192.168.0.12 wlan0: 56(84) bytes of data. --- router ping statistics --- 3 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 2014ms Let me know if you need more info. Thank you in advance.

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• ADF version of "Modern" dialog windows

  - by Martin Deh

  It is no surprise with the popularity of the i-devices (iphone, ipad), that many of the iOS UI based LnF (look and feel) would start to inspire web designers to incorporate the same LnF into their web sites.  Take for example, a normal dialog popup.  In the iOS world, the LnF becomes a bit more elegant by add just a simple element as a "floating" close button: In this blog post, I will describe how this can be accomplished using OOTB ADF components and CSS3 style elements. There are two ways that this can be achieved.  The easiest way is to simply replace the default image, which looks like this, and adjust the af|panelWindow:close-icon-style skin selector.   Using this simple technique, you can come up with this: The CSS code to produce this effect is pretty straight forward: af|panelWindow.test::close-icon-style{    background-image: url("../popClose.gif");    line-height: 10px;    position: absolute;    right: -10px;    top: -10px;    height:38px;    width:38px;    outline:none; } You can see from the CSS, the position of the region, which holds the image, is relocated based on the position based attributes.  Also, the addition of the "outline" attribute removes the border that is visible in Chrome and IE.  The second example, is based on not having an image to produce the close button.  Like the previous sample, I will use the OOTB panelWindow.  However, this time I will use a OOTB commandButton to replace the image.  The construct of the components looks like this: The commandButton is positioned first in the hierarchy making the re-positioning easier.  The commandButton will also need a style class assigned to it (i.e. closeButton), which will allow for the positioning and the over-riding of the default skin attributes of a default button.  In addition, the closeIconVisible property is set to false, since the default icon is no longer needed.  Once this is done, the rest is in the CSS.  Here is the sample that I created that was used for an actual customer POC: The CSS code for the button: af|commandButton.closeButton, af|commandButton.closeButton af|commandButton:text-only{     line-height: 10px;     position: absolute;     right: -10px;     top: -10px;     -webkit-border-radius: 70px;     -moz-border-radius: 70px;     -ms-border-radius: 70px;     border-radius: 70px;     background-image:none;     border:#828c95 1px solid;     background-color:black;     font-weight: bold;     text-align: center;     text-decoration: none;     color:white;     height:30px;     width:30px;     outline:none; } The CSS uses the border radius to create the round effect on the button (in IE 8, since border-radius is not supported, this will only work with some added code). Also, I add the box-shadow attribute to the panelWindow style class to give it a nice shadowing effect.

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• Top Questions and Answers for Pluging into Oracle Database as a Service

  - by David Swanger

  Yesterday we hosted a comprehensive online forum that shared a comprehensive path to help your organization design, deploy, and deliver a Database as a Service cloud. If you missed the online forum, you can watch it on demand by registering here. We received numerous questions.  Below are highlights of the most informative: DBaaS requires a lengthy and careful design efforts. What is the minimum requirements of setting up a scaled-down environment and test it out? You should have an OEM 12c environment for DBaaS administration and then a target database deployment platform that has the key characteristics of what your production environment will look like. This could be a single server or it could be a small pool of hosts if your production DBaaS will be larger and you want to test a more robust / real world configuration with Zones and Pools or DR capabilities for example. How does this benefit companies having their own data center? This allows companies to transform their internal IT to a service delivery model for the database. The benefits to the company are significant cost savings, improved business agility and reduced risk. The benefits to the consumers (internal) of services if much fast provisioning, and response to change in business requirements. From a deployment perspective, is DBaaS's job solely DBA's job? The best deployment model enables the DBA (or end-user) to control the entire process. All resources required to deploy the service are pre-provisioned, and there are no external dependencies (on network, storage, sysadmins teams). The service is created either via a self-service portal or by the DBA. The purpose of self service seems to be that the end user does not rely on the DBA. I just need to give him a template. He decides how much AMM he needs. Why shall I set it one by one. That doesn't seem to be the purpose of self service. Most customers we have worked with define a standardized service catalog, with a few (2 to 5) different classes of service. For each of these classes, there is a pre-defined deployment template, and the user has the ability to select from some pre-defined service sizes. The administrator only has to create this catalog once. Each user then simply selects from the options offered in the catalog.  Looking at DBaaS service definition, it seems to be no different from a service definition provided by a well defined DBA team. Why do you attribute it to DBaaS? There are a couple of perspectives. First, some organizations might already be operating with a high level of standardization and a higher level of maturity from an ITIL or Service Management perspective. Their journey to DBaaS could be shorter and their Service Definition will evolve less but they still might need to add capabilities such as Self Service and Metering/Chargeback. Other organizations are still operating in highly siloed environments with little automation and their formal Service Definition (if they have one) will be a lot less mature today. Therefore their future state DBaaS will look a lot different from their current state, as will their Service Definition. How database as a service impact or help with "Click to Compute" or deploying "Database in cloud infrastructure" DBaaS enables Click to Compute. Oracle DBaaS can be implemented using three architecture models: Oracle Multitenant 12c, native consolidation using Oracle Database and consolidation using virtualization in infrastructure cloud. As Deploy session showed, you get higher consolidating density and efficiency using Multitenant and higher isolation using infrastructure cloud. Depending upon your business needs, DBaaS can be implemented using any of these models. How exactly is the DBaaS different from the traditional db? Storage/OS/DB all together to 'transparently' provide service to applications? Will there be across-databases access by application/user. Some key differences are: 1) The services run on a shared platform. 2) The services can be rapidly provisioned (< 15 minutes). 3) The services are dynamic and can be relocated, grown, shrunk as needed to meet business needs without disruption and rapidly. 4) The user is able to provision the services directly from a standardized service catalog.. With 24x7x365 databases its difficult to find off peak hrs to do basic admin tasks such as gathering stats, running backups, batch jobs. How does pluggable database handle this and different needs/patching downtime of apps databases might be serving? You can gather stats in Oracle Multitenant the same way you had been in regular databases. Regarding patching/upgrading, Oracle Multitenant makes patch/upgrade very efficient in that you can pre-provision a new version/patched multitenant db in a different ORACLE_HOME and then unplug a PDB from its CDB and plug it into the newer/patched CDB in seconds.  Thanks for all the great questions!  If you'd like to learn more and missed the online forum, you can watch it on demand here.

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• JavaDay Taipei 2014 Trip Report

  - by reza_rahman

  JavaDay Taipei 2014 was held at the Taipei International Convention Center on August 1st. Organized by Oracle University, it is one of the largest Java developer events in Taiwan. This was another successful year for JavaDay Taipei with a fully sold out venue packed with youthful, energetic developers (this was my second time at the event and I have already been invited to speak again next year!). In addition to Oracle speakers like me, Steve Chin and Naveen Asrani, the event also featured a bevy of local speakers including Taipei Java community leaders. Topics included Java SE, Java EE, JavaFX, cloud and Big Data. It was my pleasure and privilege to present one of the opening keynotes for the event. I presented my session on Java EE titled "JavaEE.Next(): Java EE 7, 8, and Beyond". I covered the changes in Java EE 7 as well as what's coming in Java EE 8. I demoed the Cargo Tracker Java EE BluePrints. I also briefly talked about Adopt-a-JSR for Java EE 8. The slides for the keynote are below (click here to download and view the actual PDF): It appears your Web browser is not configured to display PDF files. No worries, just click here to download the PDF file. In the afternoon I did my JavaScript + Java EE 7 talk titled "Using JavaScript/HTML5 Rich Clients with Java EE 7". This talk is basically about aligning EE 7 with the emerging JavaScript ecosystem (specifically AngularJS). The talk was completely packed. The slide deck for the talk is here: JavaScript/HTML5 Rich Clients Using Java EE 7 from Reza Rahman The demo application code is posted on GitHub. The code should be a helpful resource if this development model is something that interests you. Do let me know if you need help with it but the instructions should be fairly self-explanatory. I am delivering this material at JavaOne 2014 as a two-hour tutorial. This should give me a little more bandwidth to dig a little deeper, especially on the JavaScript end. I finished off Java Day Taipei with my talk titled "Using NoSQL with ~JPA, EclipseLink and Java EE" (this was the last session of the conference). The talk covers an interesting gap that there is surprisingly little material on out there. The talk has three parts -- a birds-eye view of the NoSQL landscape, how to use NoSQL via a JPA centric facade using EclipseLink NoSQL, Hibernate OGM, DataNucleus, Kundera, Easy-Cassandra, etc and how to use NoSQL native APIs in Java EE via CDI. The slides for the talk are here: Using NoSQL with ~JPA, EclipseLink and Java EE from Reza Rahman The JPA based demo is available here, while the CDI based demo is available here. Both demos use MongoDB as the data store. Do let me know if you need help getting the demos up and running. After the event the Oracle University folks hosted a reception in the evening which was very well attended by organizers, speakers and local Java community leaders. I am extremely saddened by the fact that this otherwise excellent trip was scarred by terrible tragedy. After the conference I joined a few folks for a hike on the Maokong Mountain on Saturday. The group included friends in the Taiwanese Java community including Ian and Robbie Cheng. Without warning, fatal tragedy struck on a remote part of the trail. Despite best efforts by us, the excellent Taiwanese Emergency Rescue Team and World class Taiwanese physicians we were unable to save our friend Robbie Cheng's life. Robbie was just thirty-four years old and is survived by his younger brother, mother and father. Being the father of a young child myself, I can only imagine the deep sorrow that this senseless loss unleashes. Robbie was a key member of the Taiwanese Java community and a Java Evangelist at Sun at one point. Ironically the only picture I was able to take of the trail was mere moments before tragedy. I thought I should place him in that picture in profoundly respectful memoriam: Perhaps there is some solace in the fact that there is something inherently honorable in living a bright life, dying young and meeting one's end on a beautiful remote mountain trail few venture to behold let alone attempt to ascend in a long and tired lifetime. Perhaps I'd even say it's a fate I would not entirely regret facing if it were my own. With that thought in mind it seems appropriate to me to quote some lyrics from the song "Runes to My Memory" by legendary Swedish heavy metal band Amon Amarth idealizing a fallen Viking warrior cut down in his prime: "Here I lie on wet sand I will not make it home I clench my sword in my hand Say farewell to those I love When I am dead Lay me in a mound Place my weapons by my side For the journey to Hall up high When I am dead Lay me in a mound Raise a stone for all to see Runes carved to my memory" I submit my deepest condolences to Robbie's family and hope my next trip to Taiwan ends in a less somber note.

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• Taking the Plunge - or Dipping Your Toe - into the Fluffy IAM Cloud by Paul Dhanjal (Simeio Solutions)

  - by Greg Jensen

  In our last three posts, we’ve examined the revolution that’s occurring today in identity and access management (IAM). We looked at the business drivers behind the growth of cloud-based IAM, the shortcomings of the old, last-century IAM models, and the new opportunities that federation, identity hubs and other new cloud capabilities can provide by changing the way you interact with everyone who does business with you. In this, our final post in the series, we’ll cover the key things you, the enterprise architect, should keep in mind when considering moving IAM to the cloud. Invariably, what starts the consideration process is a burning business need: a compliance requirement, security vulnerability or belt-tightening edict. Many on the business side view IAM as the “silver bullet” – and for good reason. You can almost always devise a solution using some aspect of IAM. The most critical question to ask first when using IAM to address the business need is, simply: is my solution complete? Typically, “business” is not focused on the big picture. Understandably, they’re focused instead on the need at hand: Can we be HIPAA compliant in 6 months? Can we tighten our new hire, employee transfer and termination processes? What can we do to prevent another password breach? Can we reduce our service center costs by the end of next quarter? The business may not be focused on the complete set of services offered by IAM but rather a single aspect or two. But it is the job – indeed the duty – of the enterprise architect to ensure that all aspects are being met. It’s like remodeling a house but failing to consider the impact on the foundation, the furnace or the zoning or setback requirements. While the homeowners may not be thinking of such things, the architect, of course, must. At Simeio Solutions, the way we ensure that all aspects are being taken into account – to expose any gaps or weaknesses – is to assess our client’s IAM capabilities against a five-step maturity model ranging from “ad hoc” to “optimized.” The model we use is similar to Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) developed by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University. It’s based upon some simple criteria, which can provide a visual representation of how well our clients fair when evaluated against four core categories: ·         Program Governance ·         Access Management (e.g., Single Sign-On) ·         Identity and Access Governance (e.g., Identity Intelligence) ·         Enterprise Security (e.g., DLP and SIEM) Often our clients believe they have a solution with all the bases covered, but the model exposes the gaps or weaknesses. The gaps are ideal opportunities for the cloud to enter into the conversation. The complete process is straightforward: 1.    Look at the big picture, not just the immediate need – what is our roadmap and how does this solution fit? 2.    Determine where you stand with respect to the four core areas – what are the gaps? 3.    Decide how to cover the gaps – what role can the cloud play? Returning to our home remodeling analogy, at some point, if gaps or weaknesses are discovered when evaluating the complete impact of the proposed remodel – if the existing foundation wouldn’t support the new addition, for example – the owners need to decide if it’s time to move to a new house instead of trying to remodel the old one. However, with IAM it’s not an either-or proposition – i.e., either move to the cloud or fix the existing infrastructure. It’s possible to use new cloud technologies just to cover the gaps. Many of our clients start their migration to the cloud this way, dipping in their toe instead of taking the plunge all at once. Because our cloud services offering is based on the Oracle Identity and Access Management Suite, we can offer a tremendous amount of flexibility in this regard. The Oracle platform is not a collection of point solutions, but rather a complete, integrated, best-of-breed suite. Yet it’s not an all-or-nothing proposition. You can choose just the features and capabilities you need using a pay-as-you-go model, incrementally turning on and off services as needed. Better still, all the other capabilities are there, at the ready, whenever you need them. Spooling up these cloud-only services takes just a fraction of the time it would take a typical organization to deploy internally. SLAs in the cloud may be higher than on premise, too. And by using a suite of software that’s complete and integrated, you can dramatically lower cost and complexity. If your in-house solution cannot be migrated to the cloud, you might consider using hardware appliances such as Simeio’s Cloud Interceptor to extend your enterprise out into the network. You might also consider using Expert Managed Services. Cost is usually the key factor – not just development costs but also operational sustainment costs. Talent or resourcing issues often come into play when thinking about sustaining a program. Expert Managed Services such as those we offer at Simeio can address those concerns head on. In a cloud offering, identity and access services lend to the new paradigms described in my previous posts. Most importantly, it allows us all to focus on what we're meant to do – provide value, lower costs and increase security to our respective organizations. It’s that magic “silver bullet” that business knew you had all along. If you’d like to talk more, you can find us at simeiosolutions.com.

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• What's My Problem? What's Your Problem?

  - by Jacek Ziabicki

  Software installers are not made for building demo environments. I can say this much after 12 years (on and off) of supporting my fellow sales consultants with environments for software demonstrations. When we release software, we include installation programs and procedures that are designed for use by our clients – to build a production environment and a limited number of testing, training and development environments. Different Objectives Your priorities when building an environment for client use vs. building a demo environment are very different. In a production environment, security, stability, and performance concerns are paramount. These environments are built on a specific server and rarely, if ever, moved to a different server or different network address. There is typically just one application running on a particular server (physical or virtual). Once built, the environment will be used for months or years at a time. Because of security considerations, the installation program wants to make these environments very specific to the organization using the software and the use case, encoding a fully qualified name of the server, or even the IP address on the network, in the configuration. So you either go through the installation procedure for each environment, or learn how to clone and reconfigure the software as a separate instance to build all your non-production environments. This may not matter much if the installation is as simple as clicking on the Setup program. But for enterprise applications, you have a number of configuration settings that you need to get just right – so whether you are installing from scratch or reconfiguring an existing installation, this requires both time and expertise in the particular piece of software. If you need a setup of several applications that are integrated to talk to one another, it is a whole new level of complexity. Now you need the expertise in all of the applications involved (plus the supporting technology products), and in addition to making each application work, you also have to configure the integration endpoints. Each application needs the URLs and credentials to call the integration layer, and the integration must be able to call each application. Then you have to make sure that each app has the right data so a business process initiated in one application can continue in the next. And, you will need to check that each application has the correct version and patch level for the integration to work. When building demo environments, your #1 concern is agility. If you can get away with a small number of long-running environments, you are lucky. More likely, you may get a request for a dedicated environment for a demonstration that is two weeks away: how quickly can you make this available so we still have the time to build the client-specific data? We are running a hands-on workshop next month, and we’ll need 15 instances of application X environment so each student can have a separate server for the exercises. We cannot connect to our data center from the client site, the client’s security policy won’t allow our VPN to go through – so we need a portable environment that we can bring with us. Our consultants need to be able to work at the hotel, airport, and the airplane, so we really want an environment that can run on a laptop. The client will need two playpen environments running in the cloud, accessible from their network, for a series of workshops that start two weeks from now. We have seen all of these scenarios and more. Here you would be much better served by a generic installation that would be easy to clone. Welcome to the Wonder Machine The reason I started this blog is to share a particular design of a demo environment, a special way to install software, that can address the above requirements, even for integrated setups. This design was created by a team at Oracle Utilities Global Business Unit, and we are using this setup for most of our demo environments. In a bout of modesty we called it the Wonder Machine. Over the next few posts – think of it as a novel in parts – I will tell you about the big idea, how it was implemented and what you can do with it. After we have laid down the groundwork, I would like to share some tips and tricks for users of our Wonder Machine implementation, as well as things I am learning about building portable, cloneable environments. The Wonder Machine is by no means a closed specification, it is under active development! I am hoping this blog will be of interest to two groups of readers – the users of the Wonder Machine we have built at Oracle Utilities, who want to get the most out of their demo environments and be able to reconfigure it to their needs – and to people who need to build environments for demonstration, testing, training, development and would like to make them cloneable and portable to maximize the reuse of their effort. Surely we are not the only ones facing this problem? If you can think of a better way to solve it, or if you can help us improve on our concept, I will appreciate your comments!

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• Speakers, Please Check Your Time

  - by AjarnMark

  Woodrow Wilson was once asked how long it would take him to prepare for a 10 minute speech. He replied "Two weeks". He was then asked how long it would take for a 1 hour speech. "One week", he replied. 2 hour speech? "I'm ready right now," he replied.  Whether that is a true story or an urban legend, I don’t really know, but either way, it is a poignant reminder for all speakers, and particularly apropos this week leading up to the PASS Community Summit. (Cross-posted to the PASS Professional Development Virtual Chapter blog #PASSProfDev.) What’s the point of that story?  Simply this…if you have plenty of time to do your presentation, you don’t need to prepare much because it is easy to throw in more and more material to stretch out to your allotted time.  But if you are on a tight time constraint, then it will take significant preparation to distill your talk down to only the essential points. I have attended seven of the last eight North American Summit events, and every one of them has been fantastic.  The speakers are great, the material is timely and relevant, and the networking opportunities are awesome.  And every year, there is one little thing that just bugs me…speakers going over their allotted time.  Why does it bother me so?  Well, if you look at a typical schedule for a Summit, you’ll see that there are six or more sessions going on at the same time, and only 15 minutes to move from one to another.  If you’re trying to maximize your training dollar by attending something during every session time slot, and you don’t want to be the last guy trying to squeeze into the middle of the row, then those 15 minutes can be critical.  All the more so if you need to stop and use the bathroom or if you have to hike to the opposite end of the convention center.  It is really a bad position to find yourself having to choose between learning the last key points of Speaker A who is going over time, and getting over to Speaker B on time so you don’t miss her key opening remarks. And frankly, I think it is just rude.  Yes, the speakers are the function, after all they are bringing the content that the rest of us are paying to learn.  But it is also an honor to be given the opportunity to speak at a conference like this, and no one speaker is so important that the conference would be a disaster without him.  Speakers know when they submit their abstract, long before the conference, how much time they will have.  It has been the same pattern at the Summit for at least the last eight years.  Program Sessions are 75 minutes long.  Some speakers who have a good track record, and meet other qualifying criteria, are extended an invitation to present a Spotlight Session which is 90 minutes (a 20% increase).  So there really is no excuse.  It’s not like you were promised a 2-hour segment and then discovered when you got here that it was only 75 minutes.  In fact, it’s not like PASS advertised 90-minute sessions for everyone and then a select few were cut back to only 75.  As a speaker, you know well before you get here which type of session you are doing and how long it is, so as a professional, you should plan accordingly. Now you might think that this only happens to rookies, but I’ll tell you that some of the worst offenders are big-name veterans who draw huge attendance numbers for their sessions.  Some attendees blow this off as, “Hey, it’s so-and-so, and I’d stay here for hours and listen to him/her talk.”  To which I would reply, “Then they should have submitted for a pre- or post-conference day-long seminar instead, but don’t try to squeeze your day-long talk into a 90-minute session.”  Now I don’t really believe that these speakers are being malicious or just selfishly trying to extend their time in the spotlight.  I think that most of them are merely being undisciplined and did not trim their presentation sufficiently, or allowed themselves to get off-track (often in a generous attempt to help someone in the audience with a question or problem that really should have been noted for further discussion after the session). So here is my recommendation…my plea, even.  TRIM THE FAT!  Now.  Before it’s too late.  Before you even get on the airplane, take a long, hard look at your presentation and eliminate some of the points that you originally thought you had to make, but in reality are not truly crucial to your main topic.  Delete a few slides.  Test your demos and have them already scripted rather than typing them during your talk.  It is better to cut out too much and end up with plenty of time at the end for Questions & Answers.  And you can always keep some notes on the stuff that you cut out so that you could fill it back in at the end as bonus material if you really do end up with a whole bunch of time on your hands.  But I don’t think you will.  And if you do, that will look even better to the audience as it will look like you’re giving them something extra that not every audience gets.  And they will thank you for that.

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• PASS: SQLRally Thoughts

  - by Bill Graziano

  The PASS Board recently decided that we wouldn’t put another US-based SQLRally on the calendar until we had a chance to review the program. I wanted to provide some of my thinking around this. Keep in mind that this is the opinion of one Board member. The Board committed to complete two SQLRally events to determine if an event modeled between SQL Saturday and the Summit was viable. We’ve completed the two events and now it’s time to step back and review the program. This is my seventh year on the PASS Board. Over that time people have asked me why PASS does certain things. Many, many times my answer has been “Because that’s the way we did it last year”. And I am tired of giving that answer. We need to take a step back and review the US-based SQLRally before we schedule another one. It would be irresponsible for me as a Board member to commit resources to this without validating that what we’re doing makes sense for the organization and our members. I have no doubt that this was a great event for the attendees. We just need to validate it’s the best use of our resources. Please keep in mind that we haven’t cancelled the event. We’ve just said we need to review it before scheduling another one. My opinion is that some fairly serious changes are needed to the model before we consider it again – IF we do it again. I’ve come to that conclusion after speaking with the Dallas organizers, our HQ team, our Marketing team, other Board members (including one of the Orlando organizers), attendees in Orlando and Dallas and visiting other similar events. I should point out that their views aren’t unanimous on nearly any part of this event -- which is one of the reasons I want to take some time and think about this before continuing. I think it’s helpful to look at the original goals of what we were trying to accomplish. Andy Warren wrote these up in August of 2010. My summary of these goals and some thoughts on each one is below. Many of these thoughts revolve around the growth of SQL Saturdays. In the two years since that document was written these events have grown significantly. The largest SQL Saturdays are now over 500 people which mean they are nearly the same size as our recent SQLRally. Our goals included: Geographic diversity. We wanted an event in an area of the country that was away from any given Summit location. I think that’s still a valid goal. But we also have SQL Saturdays all over the country. What does SQLRally bring to this that SQLSaturday doesn’t? Speaker growth. One of the stated goals was to build a “farm club” for speakers. This gives us a way for speakers to work up to speaking at Summit by speaking in front of larger crowds. What does SQLRally bring to this that the larger SQL Saturdays aren’t providing? Pre-Conference speakers is one obvious answer here. Lower price. On a per-day basis, SQLRally is roughly 1/4th the price of the Summit. We wanted a way for people to experience something Summit-like at a lower price point. The challenge is that we are very budget constrained at that lower price point. International Event Model.  (I need to write more about this but I’m out of time.  I’ll cover it in the next installment.) There are a number of things I really like about SQLRally. I love the smaller conferences. They give me a chance to meet more people than at something the size of Summit. I like the two day format. That gives you two evenings to be at social events with people. Seeing someone a second day is a great way to build a bond with that person. That’s more difficult to do at a SQL Saturday. We also need to talk about the financial aspects of the event. Last year generated a small $17,000 profit on revenues of $200,000. Percentage-wise that’s reasonable but on an absolute basis it’s not a huge amount in our budget. We think this year will lose between $30,000 and $50,000 and take roughly 1,000 hours of HQ time. We don’t have detailed financials back yet but that’s our best guess at this point. Part of that was driven by using a convention center instead of a hotel. Until we get detailed financials back we won’t have the full picture around the financial impact. This event also takes time and mindshare from our Marketing team. This may sound like a small thing but please don’t underestimate it. Our original vision for this was something that would take very little time from our Marketing team and just a few mentions in the Connector. It turned out to need more than that. And all those mentions and emails take up space we could use to talk about other events and other programs. Last I wanted to talk about some of the things I’m thinking about. I don’t think it’s as simple as saying if we just fix “X” it all gets better. Is this that much better of an event than SQL Saturdays? What if we gave a few SQL Saturdays some extra resources? When SQL Saturdays were around 250 people that wasn’t as viable. With some of those events over 500 we need to reconsider this. We need to get back to a hotel venue. That will help with cost and networking. Is this the best use of the 1,000 HQ hours that we invested in the event? Is our price-point correct? I’m leaning toward raising our price closer to Summit on a per-day basis. I think this will let us put on a higher quality event and alleviate much of the budget pressure. Should growing speakers be a focus? Having top-line pre-conference speakers helps market the event. It will also have an impact on pricing and overall profit. We should also ask if it actually does grow speakers. How many of these people will eventually register for Summit? Attend chapters? Is SQLRally a driver into PASS or is it something that chapters, etc. drive people to? Should we have one paid day and one free instead of two paid days? This is a very interesting model that is used by SQLBits in the UK. This gives you the two day aspect as well as offering options for paid and free attendees. I’m very intrigued by this. Should we focus on a topic? Buried in the minutes is a discussion of whether PASS should have a Business Analytics conference separate from Summit. This is an interesting question to consider. Would making SQLRally be focused on a particular topic make it more attractive? Would that even be a SQLRally? Can PASS effectively manage the two events? (FYI - Probably not.) Would it help differentiate it from Summit and SQL Saturday? These are all questions that I think should be asked and answered before we do this event again. And we can’t do that if we don’t take time to have the discussion. I wanted to get this published before I take off for a few days of vacation. When I get back I’d like to write more about why the international events are different and talk about where we go from here.

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• GLSL: Strange light reflections

  - by Tom

  According to this tutorial I'm trying to make a normal mapping using GLSL, but something is wrong and I can't find the solution. The output render is in this image: Image1 in this image is a plane with two triangles and each of it is different illuminated (that is bad). The plane has 6 vertices. In the upper left side of this plane are 2 identical vertices (same in the lower right). Here are some vectors same for each vertice: normal vector = 0, 1, 0 (red lines on image) tangent vector = 0, 0,-1 (green lines on image) bitangent vector = -1, 0, 0 (blue lines on image) here I have one question: The two identical vertices does need to have the same tangent and bitangent? I have tried to make other values to the tangents but the effect was still similar. Here are my shaders Vertex shader: #version 130 // Input vertex data, different for all executions of this shader. in vec3 vertexPosition_modelspace; in vec2 vertexUV; in vec3 vertexNormal_modelspace; in vec3 vertexTangent_modelspace; in vec3 vertexBitangent_modelspace; // Output data ; will be interpolated for each fragment. out vec2 UV; out vec3 Position_worldspace; out vec3 EyeDirection_cameraspace; out vec3 LightDirection_cameraspace; out vec3 LightDirection_tangentspace; out vec3 EyeDirection_tangentspace; // Values that stay constant for the whole mesh. uniform mat4 MVP; uniform mat4 V; uniform mat4 M; uniform mat3 MV3x3; uniform vec3 LightPosition_worldspace; void main(){ // Output position of the vertex, in clip space : MVP * position gl_Position = MVP * vec4(vertexPosition_modelspace,1); // Position of the vertex, in worldspace : M * position Position_worldspace = (M * vec4(vertexPosition_modelspace,1)).xyz; // Vector that goes from the vertex to the camera, in camera space. // In camera space, the camera is at the origin (0,0,0). vec3 vertexPosition_cameraspace = ( V * M * vec4(vertexPosition_modelspace,1)).xyz; EyeDirection_cameraspace = vec3(0,0,0) - vertexPosition_cameraspace; // Vector that goes from the vertex to the light, in camera space. M is ommited because it's identity. vec3 LightPosition_cameraspace = ( V * vec4(LightPosition_worldspace,1)).xyz; LightDirection_cameraspace = LightPosition_cameraspace + EyeDirection_cameraspace; // UV of the vertex. No special space for this one. UV = vertexUV; // model to camera = ModelView vec3 vertexTangent_cameraspace = MV3x3 * vertexTangent_modelspace; vec3 vertexBitangent_cameraspace = MV3x3 * vertexBitangent_modelspace; vec3 vertexNormal_cameraspace = MV3x3 * vertexNormal_modelspace; mat3 TBN = transpose(mat3( vertexTangent_cameraspace, vertexBitangent_cameraspace, vertexNormal_cameraspace )); // You can use dot products instead of building this matrix and transposing it. See References for details. LightDirection_tangentspace = TBN * LightDirection_cameraspace; EyeDirection_tangentspace = TBN * EyeDirection_cameraspace; } Fragment shader: #version 130 // Interpolated values from the vertex shaders in vec2 UV; in vec3 Position_worldspace; in vec3 EyeDirection_cameraspace; in vec3 LightDirection_cameraspace; in vec3 LightDirection_tangentspace; in vec3 EyeDirection_tangentspace; // Ouput data out vec3 color; // Values that stay constant for the whole mesh. uniform sampler2D DiffuseTextureSampler; uniform sampler2D NormalTextureSampler; uniform sampler2D SpecularTextureSampler; uniform mat4 V; uniform mat4 M; uniform mat3 MV3x3; uniform vec3 LightPosition_worldspace; void main(){ // Light emission properties // You probably want to put them as uniforms vec3 LightColor = vec3(1,1,1); float LightPower = 40.0; // Material properties vec3 MaterialDiffuseColor = texture2D( DiffuseTextureSampler, vec2(UV.x,-UV.y) ).rgb; vec3 MaterialAmbientColor = vec3(0.1,0.1,0.1) * MaterialDiffuseColor; //vec3 MaterialSpecularColor = texture2D( SpecularTextureSampler, UV ).rgb * 0.3; vec3 MaterialSpecularColor = vec3(0.5,0.5,0.5); // Local normal, in tangent space. V tex coordinate is inverted because normal map is in TGA (not in DDS) for better quality vec3 TextureNormal_tangentspace = normalize(texture2D( NormalTextureSampler, vec2(UV.x,-UV.y) ).rgb*2.0 - 1.0); // Distance to the light float distance = length( LightPosition_worldspace - Position_worldspace ); // Normal of the computed fragment, in camera space vec3 n = TextureNormal_tangentspace; // Direction of the light (from the fragment to the light) vec3 l = normalize(LightDirection_tangentspace); // Cosine of the angle between the normal and the light direction, // clamped above 0 // - light is at the vertical of the triangle -> 1 // - light is perpendicular to the triangle -> 0 // - light is behind the triangle -> 0 float cosTheta = clamp( dot( n,l ), 0,1 ); // Eye vector (towards the camera) vec3 E = normalize(EyeDirection_tangentspace); // Direction in which the triangle reflects the light vec3 R = reflect(-l,n); // Cosine of the angle between the Eye vector and the Reflect vector, // clamped to 0 // - Looking into the reflection -> 1 // - Looking elsewhere -> < 1 float cosAlpha = clamp( dot( E,R ), 0,1 ); color = // Ambient : simulates indirect lighting MaterialAmbientColor + // Diffuse : "color" of the object MaterialDiffuseColor * LightColor * LightPower * cosTheta / (distance*distance) + // Specular : reflective highlight, like a mirror MaterialSpecularColor * LightColor * LightPower * pow(cosAlpha,5) / (distance*distance); //color.xyz = E; //color.xyz = LightDirection_tangentspace; //color.xyz = EyeDirection_tangentspace; } I have replaced the original color value by EyeDirection_tangentspace vector and then I got other strange effect but I can not link the image (not eunogh reputation) Is it possible that with this shaders is something wrong, or maybe in other place in my code e.g with my matrices? SOLVED Solved... 3 days needed for changing one letter from this: glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, vbo); glVertexAttribPointer ( 4, // attribute 3, // size GL_FLOAT, // type GL_FALSE, // normalized? sizeof(VboVertex), // stride (void*)(12*sizeof(float)) // array buffer offset ); to this: glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, vbo); glVertexAttribPointer ( 4, // attribute 3, // size GL_FLOAT, // type GL_FALSE, // normalized? sizeof(VboVertex), // stride (void*)(11*sizeof(float)) // array buffer offset ); see difference? :)

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• At times, you need to hire a professional.

  - by Phil Factor

  After months of increasingly demanding toil, the development team I belonged to was told that the project was to be canned and the whole team would be fired.  I’d been brought into the team as an expert in the data implications of a business re-engineering of a major financial institution. Nowadays, you’d call me a data architect, I suppose.  I’d spent a happy year being paid consultancy fees solving a succession of interesting problems until the point when the company lost is nerve, and closed the entire initiative. The IT industry was in one of its characteristic mood-swings downwards.  After the announcement, we met in the canteen. A few developers had scented the smell of death around the project already hand had been applying unsuccessfully for jobs. There was a sense of doom in the mass of dishevelled and bleary-eyed developers. After giving vent to anger and despair, talk turned to getting new employment. It was then that I perked up. I’m not an obvious choice to give advice on getting, or passing,  IT interviews. I reckon I’ve failed most of the job interviews I’ve ever attended. I once even failed an interview for a job I’d already been doing perfectly well for a year. The jobs I’ve got have mostly been from personal recommendation. Paradoxically though, from years as a manager trying to recruit good staff, I know a lot about what IT managers are looking for.  I gave an impassioned speech outlining the important factors in getting to an interview.  The most important thing, certainly in my time at work is the quality of the résumé or CV. I can’t even guess the huge number of CVs (résumés) I’ve read through, scanning for candidates worth interviewing.  Many IT Developers find it impossible to describe their  career succinctly on two sides of paper.  They leave chunks of their life out (were they in prison?), get immersed in detail, put in irrelevancies, describe what was going on at work rather than what they themselves did, exaggerate their importance, criticize their previous employers, aren’t  aware of the important aspects of a role to a potential employer, suffer from shyness and modesty,  and lack any sort of organized perspective of their work. There are many ways of failing to write a decent CV. Many developers suffer from the delusion that their worth can be recognized purely from the code that they write, and shy away from anything that seems like self-aggrandizement. No.  A resume must make a good impression, which means presenting the facts about yourself in a clear and positive way. You can’t do it yourself. Why not have your resume professionally written? A good professional CV Writer will know the qualities being looked for in a CV and interrogate you to winkle them out. Their job is to make order and sense out of a confused career, to summarize in one page a mass of detail that presents to any recruiter the information that’s wanted. To stand back and describe an accurate summary of your skills, and work-experiences dispassionately, without rancor, pity or modesty. You are no more capable of producing an objective documentation of your career than you are of taking your own appendix out.  My next recommendation was more controversial. This is to have a professional image overhaul, or makeover, followed by a professionally-taken photo portrait. I discovered this by accident. It is normal for IT professionals to face impossible deadlines and long working hours by looking more and more like something that had recently blocked a sink. Whilst working in IT, and in a state of personal dishevelment, I’d been offered the role in a high-powered amateur production of an old ex- Broadway show, purely for my singing voice. I was supposed to be the presentable star. When the production team saw me, the air was thick with tension and despair. I was dragged kicking and protesting through a succession of desperate grooming, scrubbing, dressing, dieting. I emerged feeling like “That jewelled mass of millinery, That oiled and curled Assyrian bull, Smelling of musk and of insolence.” (Tennyson Maud; A Monodrama (1855) Section v1 stanza 6) I was then photographed by a professional stage photographer.  When the photographs were delivered, I was amazed. It wasn’t me, but it looked somehow respectable, confident, trustworthy.   A while later, when the show had ended, I took the photos, and used them for work. They went with the CV to job applications. It did the trick better than I could ever imagine.  My views went down big with the developers. Old rivalries were put immediately to one side. We voted, with a show of hands, to devote our energies for the entire notice period to getting employable. We had a team sourcing the CV Writer,  a team organising the make-overs and photographer, and a third team arranging  mock interviews. A fourth team determined the best websites and agencies for recruitment, with the help of friends in the trade.  Because there were around thirty developers, we were in a good negotiating position.  Of the three CV Writers we found who lived locally, one proved exceptional. She was an ex-journalist with an eye to detail, and years of experience in manipulating language. We tried her skills out on a developer who seemed a hopeless case, and he was called to interview within a week.  I was surprised, too, how many companies were experts at image makeovers. Within the month, we all looked like those weird slick  people in the ‘Office-tagged’ stock photographs who stare keenly and interestedly at PowerPoint slides in sleek chromium-plated high-rise offices. The portraits we used still adorn the entries of many of my ex-colleagues in LinkedIn. After a months’ worth of mock interviews, and technical Q&A, our stutters, hesitations, evasions and periphrastic circumlocutions were all gone.  There is little more to relate. With the résumés or CVs, mugshots, and schooling in how to pass interviews, we’d all got new and better-paid jobs well  before our month’s notice was ended. Whilst normally, an IT team under the axe is a sad and depressed place to belong to, this wonderful group of people had proved the power of organized group action in turning the experience to advantage. It left us feeling slightly guilty that we were somehow cheating, but I guess we were merely leveling the playing-field.

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• iOS Support with Windows Azure Mobile Services – now with Push Notifications

  - by ScottGu

  A few weeks ago I posted about a number of improvements to Windows Azure Mobile Services. One of these was the addition of an Objective-C client SDK that allows iOS developers to easily use Mobile Services for data and authentication.  Today I'm excited to announce a number of improvement to our iOS SDK and, most significantly, our new support for Push Notifications via APNS (Apple Push Notification Services).  This makes it incredibly easy to fire push notifications to your iOS users from Windows Azure Mobile Service scripts. Push Notifications via APNS We've provided two complete tutorials that take you step-by-step through the provisioning and setup process to enable your Windows Azure Mobile Service application with APNS (Apple Push Notification Services), including all of the steps required to configure your application for push in the Apple iOS provisioning portal: Getting started with Push Notifications - iOS Push notifications to users by using Mobile Services - iOS Once you've configured your application in the Apple iOS provisioning portal and uploaded the APNS push certificate to the Apple provisioning portal, it's just a matter of uploading your APNS push certificate to Mobile Services using the Windows Azure admin portal: Clicking the “upload” within the “Push” tab of your Mobile Service allows you to browse your local file-system and locate/upload your exported certificate.  As part of this you can also select whether you want to use the sandbox (dev) or production (prod) Apple service: Now, the code to send a push notification to your clients from within a Windows Azure Mobile Service is as easy as the code below: push.apns.send(deviceToken, {      alert: 'Toast: A new Mobile Services task.',      sound: 'default' }); This will cause Windows Azure Mobile Services to connect to APNS (Apple Push Notification Service) and send a notification to the iOS device you specified via the deviceToken: Check out our reference documentation for full details on how to use the new Windows Azure Mobile Services apns object to send your push notifications. Feedback Scripts An important part of working with any PNS (Push Notification Service) is handling feedback for expired device tokens and channels. This typically happens when your application is uninstalled from a particular device and can no longer receive your notifications. With Windows Notification Services you get an instant response from the HTTP server.  Apple’s Notification Services works in a slightly different way and provides an additional endpoint you can connect to poll for a list of expired tokens. As with all of the capabilities we integrate with Mobile Services, our goal is to allow developers to focus more on building their app and less on building infrastructure to support their ideas. Therefore we knew we had to provide a simple way for developers to integrate feedback from APNS on a regular basis.  This week’s update now includes a new screen in the portal that allows you to optionally provide a script to process your APNS feedback – and it will be executed by Mobile Services on an ongoing basis: This script is invoked periodically while your service is active. To poll the feedback endpoint you can simply call the apns object's getFeedback method from within this script: push.apns.getFeedback({       success: function(results) {           // results is an array of objects with a deviceToken and time properties      } }); This returns you a list of invalid tokens that can now be removed from your database. iOS Client SDK improvements Over the last month we've continued to work with a number of iOS advisors to make improvements to our Objective-C SDK. The SDK is being developed under an open source license (Apache 2.0) and is available on github. Many of the improvements are behind the scenes to improve performance and memory usage. However, one of the biggest improvements to our iOS Client API is the addition of an even easier login method.  Below is the Objective-C code you can now write to invoke it: [client loginWithProvider:@"twitter"                     onController:self                        animated:YES                      completion:^(MSUser *user, NSError *error) {      // if no error, you are now logged in via twitter }]; This code will automatically present and dismiss our login view controller as a modal dialog on the specified controller.  This does all the hard work for you and makes login via Twitter, Google, Facebook and Microsoft Account identities just a single line of code. My colleague Josh just posted a short video demonstrating these new features which I'd recommend checking out: Summary The above features are all now live in production and are available to use immediately.  If you don’t already have a Windows Azure account, you can sign-up for a free trial and start using Mobile Services today. Visit the Windows Azure Mobile Developer Center to learn more about how to build apps with Mobile Services. Hope this helps, Scott P.S. In addition to blogging, I am also now using Twitter for quick updates and to share links. Follow me at: twitter.com/scottgu

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• Efficient way to render tile-based map in Java

  - by Lucius

  Some time ago I posted here because I was having some memory issues with a game I'm working on. That has been pretty much solved thanks to some suggestions here, so I decided to come back with another problem I'm having. Basically, I feel that too much of the CPU is being used when rendering the map. I have a Core i5-2500 processor and when running the game, the CPU usage is about 35% - and I can't accept that that's just how it has to be. This is how I'm going about rendering the map: I have the X and Y coordinates of the player, so I'm not drawing the whole map, just the visible portion of it; The number of visible tiles on screen varies according to the resolution chosen by the player (the CPU usage is 35% here when playing at a resolution of 1440x900); If the tile is "empty", I just skip drawing it (this didn't visibly lower the CPU usage, but reduced the drawing time in about 20ms); The map is composed of 5 layers - for more details; The tiles are 32x32 pixels; And just to be on the safe side, I'll post the code for drawing the game here, although it's as messy and unreadable as it can be T_T (I'll try to make it a little readable) private void drawGame(Graphics2D g2d){ //Width and Height of the visible portion of the map (not of the screen) int visionWidht = visibleCols * TILE_SIZE; int visionHeight = visibleRows * TILE_SIZE; //Since the map can be smaller than the screen, I center it just to be sure int xAdjust = (getWidth() - visionWidht) / 2; int yAdjust = (getHeight() - visionHeight) / 2; //This "deducedX" thing is to move the map a few pixels horizontally, since the player moves by pixels and not full tiles int playerDrawX = listOfCharacters.get(0).getX(); int deducedX = 0; if (listOfCharacters.get(0).currentCol() - visibleCols / 2 >= 0) { playerDrawX = visibleCols / 2 * TILE_SIZE; map_draw_col = listOfCharacters.get(0).currentCol() - visibleCols / 2; deducedX = listOfCharacters.get(0).getXCol(); } //"deducedY" is the same deal as "deducedX", but vertically int playerDrawY = listOfCharacters.get(0).getY(); int deducedY = 0; if (listOfCharacters.get(0).currentRow() - visibleRows / 2 >= 0) { playerDrawY = visibleRows / 2 * TILE_SIZE; map_draw_row = listOfCharacters.get(0).currentRow() - visibleRows / 2; deducedY = listOfCharacters.get(0).getYRow(); } int max_cols = visibleCols + map_draw_col; if (max_cols >= map.getCols()) { max_cols = map.getCols() - 1; deducedX = 0; map_draw_col = max_cols - visibleCols + 1; playerDrawX = listOfCharacters.get(0).getX() - map_draw_col * TILE_SIZE; } int max_rows = visibleRows + map_draw_row; if (max_rows >= map.getRows()) { max_rows = map.getRows() - 1; deducedY = 0; map_draw_row = max_rows - visibleRows + 1; playerDrawY = listOfCharacters.get(0).getY() - map_draw_row * TILE_SIZE; } //map_draw_row and map_draw_col representes the coordinate of the upper left tile on the screen //iterate through all the tiles on screen and draw them - this is what consumes most of the CPU for (int col = map_draw_col; col <= max_cols; col++) { for (int row = map_draw_row; row <= max_rows; row++) { Tile[] tiles = map.getTiles(col, row); for(int layer = 0; layer < tiles.length; layer++){ Tile currentTile = tiles[layer]; boolean shouldDraw = true; //I only draw the tile if it exists and is not empty (id=-1) if(currentTile != null && currentTile.getId() >= 0){ //The layers above 1 can be draw behing or infront of the player according to where it's standing if(layer > 1 && currentTile.getId() >= 0){ if(playerBehind(col, row, layer, listOfCharacters.get(0))){ behinds.get(0).add(new int[]{col, row}); //the tiles that are infront of the player wont be draw right now shouldDraw = false; } } if(shouldDraw){ g2d.drawImage( tiles[layer].getImage(), (col-map_draw_col)*TILE_SIZE - deducedX + xAdjust, (row-map_draw_row)*TILE_SIZE - deducedY + yAdjust, null); } } } } } } There's some more code in this method but nothing relevant to this question. Basically, the biggest problem is that I iterate over around 5000 tiles (in this specific resolution) 60 times each second. I thought about rendering the visible portion of the map once and storing it into a BufferedImage and when the player moved move the whole image the same amount but to the opposite side and then drawn the tiles that appeared on the screen, but if I do it like that, I wont be able to have animated tiles (at least I think). That being said, any suggestions?

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• Clouds, Clouds, Clouds Everywhere, Not a Drop of Rain!

  - by sxkumar

  At the recently concluded Oracle OpenWorld 2012, the center of discussion was clearly Cloud. Over the five action packed days, I got to meet a large number of customers and most of them had serious interest in all things cloud.  Public Cloud - particularly the Oracle Cloud - clearly got a lot of attention and interest. I think the use cases and the value proposition for public cloud is pretty straight forward. However, when it comes to private cloud, there were some interesting revelations.  Well, I shouldn’t really call them revelations since they are pretty consistent with what I have heard from customers at other conferences as well as during 1:1 interactions. While the interest in enterprise private cloud remains to be very high, only a handful of enterprises have truly embarked on a journey to create what the purists would call true private cloud - with capabilities such as self-service and chargeback/show back. For a large majority, today's reality is simply consolidation and virtualization - and they are quite far off from creating an agile, self-service and transparent IT infrastructure which is what the enterprise cloud is all about.  Even a handful of those who have actually implemented a close-to-real enterprise private cloud have taken an infrastructure centric approach and are seeing only limited business upside. Quite a few were frank enough to admit that chargeback and self-service isn’t something that they see an immediate need for.  This is in quite contrast to the picture being painted by all those surveys out there that show a large number of enterprises having already implemented an enterprise private cloud.  On the face of it, this seems quite contrary to the observations outlined above. So what exactly is the reality? Well, the reality is that there is undoubtedly a huge amount of interest among enterprises about transforming their legacy IT environment - which is often seen as too rigid, too fragmented, and ultimately too expensive - to something more agile, transparent and business-focused. At the same time however, there is a great deal of confusion among CIOs and architects about how to get there. This isn't very surprising given all the buzz and hype surrounding cloud computing. Every IT vendor claims to have the most unique solution and there isn't a single IT product out there that does not have a cloud angle to it. Add to this the chatter on the blogosphere, it will get even a sane mind spinning.  Consequently, most  enterprises are still struggling to fully understand the concept and value of enterprise private cloud.  Even among those who have chosen to move forward relatively early, quite a few have made their decisions more based on vendor influence/preferences rather than what their businesses actually need.  Clearly, there is a disconnect between the promise of the enterprise private cloud and the current adoption trends.  So what is the way forward?  I certainly do not claim to have all the answers. But here is a perspective that many cloud practitioners have found useful and thus worth sharing. To take a step back, the fundamental premise of the enterprise private cloud is IT transformation. It is the quest to create a more agile, transparent and efficient IT infrastructure that is driven more by business needs rather than constrained by operational and procedural inefficiencies. It is the new way of delivering and consuming IT services - where the IT organizations operate more like enablers of  strategic services rather than just being the gatekeepers of IT resources. In an enterprise private cloud environment, IT organizations are expected to empower the end users via self-service access/control and provide the business stakeholders a transparent view of how the resources are being used, what’s the cost of delivering a given service, how well are the customers being served, etc.  But the most important thing to note here is the enterprise private cloud is not just an IT project, rather it is a business initiative to create an IT setup that is more aligned with the needs of today's dynamic and highly competitive business environment. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. Just remember how the business users have been at the forefront of public cloud adoption within enterprises and private cloud is no exception.   Such a broad-based transformation makes cloud more than a technology initiative. It requires people (organizational) and process changes as well, and these changes are as critical as is the choice of right tools and technology. In my next blog,  I will share how essential it is for enterprise cloud technology to go hand-in hand with process re-engineering and organization changes to unlock true value of  enterprise cloud. I am sharing a short video from my session "Managing your private Cloud" at Oracle OpenWorld 2012. More videos from this session will be posted at the recently introduced Zero to Cloud resource page. Many other experts of Oracle enterprise private cloud solution will join me on this blog "Zero to Cloud"  and share best practices , deployment tips and information on how to plan, build, deploy, monitor, manage , meter and optimize the enterprise private cloud. We look forward to your feedback, suggestions and having an engaging conversion with you on this blog.

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• Java EE 7 Survey Results!

  - by reza_rahman

  On November 8th, the Java EE EG posted a survey to gather broad community feedback on a number of critical open issues. For reference, you can find the original survey here. We kept the survey open for about three weeks until November 30th. To our delight, over 1100 developers took time out of their busy lives to let their voices be heard! The results of the survey were sent to the EG on December 12th. The subsequent EG discussion is available here. The exact summary sent to the EG is available here. We would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one the individuals who took the survey. It is very appreciated, encouraging and worth it's weight in gold. In particular, I tried to capture just some of the high-quality, intelligent, thoughtful and professional comments in the summary to the EG. I highly encourage you to continue to stay involved, perhaps through the Adopt-a-JSR program. We would also like to sincerely thank java.net, JavaLobby, TSS and InfoQ for helping spread the word about the survey. Below is a brief summary of the results... APIs to Add to Java EE 7 Full/Web Profile The first question asked which of the four new candidate APIs (WebSocket, JSON-P, JBatch and JCache) should be added to the Java EE 7 Full and Web profile respectively. As the following graph shows, there was significant support for adding all the new APIs to the full profile: Support is relatively the weakest for Batch 1.0, but still good. A lot of folks saw WebSocket 1.0 as a critical technology with comments such as this one: "A modern web application needs Web Sockets as first class citizens" While it is clearly seen as being important, a number of commenters expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of a higher-level JSON data binding API as illustrated by this comment: "How come we don't have a Data Binding API for JSON" JCache was also seen as being very important as expressed with comments like: "JCache should really be that foundational technology on which other specs have no fear to depend on" The results for the Web Profile is not surprising. While there is strong support for adding WebSocket 1.0 and JSON-P 1.0 to the Web Profile, support for adding JCache 1.0 and Batch 1.0 is relatively weak. There was actually significant opposition to adding Batch 1. 0 (with 51.8% casting a 'No' vote). Enabling CDI by Default The second question asked was whether CDI should be enabled in Java EE environments by default. A significant majority of 73.3% developers supported enabling CDI, only 13.8% opposed. Comments such as these two reflect a strong general support for CDI as well as a desire for better Java EE alignment with CDI: "CDI makes Java EE quite valuable!" "Would prefer to unify EJB, CDI and JSF lifecycles" There is, however, a palpable concern around the performance impact of enabling CDI by default as exemplified by this comment: "Java EE projects in most cases use CDI, hence it is sensible to enable CDI by default when creating a Java EE application. However, there are several issues if CDI is enabled by default: scanning can be slow - not all libs use CDI (hence, scanning is not needed)" Another significant concern appears to be around backwards compatibility and conflict with other JSR 330 implementations like Spring: "I am leaning towards yes, however can easily imagine situations where errors would be caused by automatically activating CDI, especially in cases of backward compatibility where another DI engine (such as Spring and the like) happens to use the same mechanics to inject dependencies and in that case there would be an overlap in injections and probably an uncertain outcome" Some commenters such as this one attempt to suggest solutions to these potential issues: "If you have Spring in use and use javax.inject.Inject then you might get some unexpected behavior that could be equally confusing. I guess there will be a way to switch CDI off. I'm tempted to say yes but am cautious for this reason" Consistent Usage of @Inject The third question was around using CDI/JSR 330 @Inject consistently vs. allowing JSRs to create their own injection annotations. A slight majority of 53.3% developers supported using @Inject consistently across JSRs. 28.8% said using custom injection annotations is OK, while 18.0% were not sure. The vast majority of commenters were strongly supportive of CDI and general Java EE alignment with CDI as illistrated by these comments: "Dependency Injection should be standard from now on in EE. It should use CDI as that is the DI mechanism in EE and is quite powerful. Having a new JSR specific DI mechanism to deal with just means more reflection, more proxies. JSRs should also be constructed to allow some of their objects Injectable. @Inject @TransactionalCache or @Inject @JMXBean etc...they should define the annotations and stereotypes to make their code less procedural. Dog food it. If there is a shortcoming in CDI for a JSR fix it and we will all be grateful" "We're trying to make this a comprehensive platform, right? Injection should be a fundamental part of the platform; everything else should build on the same common infrastructure. Each-having-their-own is just a recipe for chaos and having to learn the same thing 10 different ways" Expanding the Use of @Stereotype The fourth question was about expanding CDI @Stereotype to cover annotations across Java EE beyond just CDI. A significant majority of 62.3% developers supported expanding the use of @Stereotype, only 13.3% opposed. A majority of commenters supported the idea as well as the theme of general CDI/Java EE alignment as expressed in these examples: "Just like defining new types for (compositions of) existing classes, stereotypes can help make software development easier" "This is especially important if many EJB services are decoupled from the EJB component model and can be applied via individual annotations to Java EE components. @Stateless is a nicely compact annotation. Code will not improve if that will have to be applied in the future as @Transactional, @Pooled, @Secured, @Singlethreaded, @...." Some, however, expressed concerns around increased complexity such as this commenter: "Could be very convenient, but I'm afraid if it wouldn't make some important class annotations less visible" Expanding Interceptor Use The final set of questions was about expanding interceptors further across Java EE... A very solid 96.3% of developers wanted to expand interceptor use to all Java EE components. 35.7% even wanted to expand interceptors to other Java EE managed classes. Most developers (54.9%) were not sure if there is any place that injection is supported that should not support interceptors. 32.8% thought any place that supports injection should also support interceptors. Only 12.2% were certain that there are places where injection should be supported but not interceptors. The comments reflected the diversity of opinions, generally supportive of interceptors: "I think interceptors are as fundamental as injection and should be available anywhere in the platform" "The whole usage of interceptors still needs to take hold in Java programming, but it is a powerful technology that needs some time in the Sun. Basically it should become part of Java SE, maybe the next step after lambas?" A distinct chain of thought separated interceptors from filters and listeners: "I think that the Servlet API already provides a rich set of possibilities to hook yourself into different Servlet container events. I don't find a need to 'pollute' the Servlet model with the Interceptors API"

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• CSS hover behavior inconsistent on desktop/mobile devices [migrated]

  - by tbart

  I have a strange problem: This page looks good on desktop browsers, but the hovering effect does not seem to work correctly on at least my CM7 Android 2.3.7 device. I know hovering is not supposed to work on touch displays as it does with a mouse, but I'd like to have touch feedback, i.e. the highlight color should show once the user has tapped a menu item. This does work when the link is just a href="#" but it does not when it is a real link. I tried all sorts of stuff as you can see, to no avail. If you go back in the browser history after having tapped a real link, the item is highlighted, so the browser understands the CSS I am throwing at it. However, the javascript alert makes it clear that it only seems to interpret the link opening action and does not care about the color changing stuff. Weird that is. Workarounds welcome, preferable without javascript, but if it has to be JS, then go ahead! either go here: http://orpheus.co.at/hoverprob and Use the source, Luke! or see it here in all its glory: <html> <head> <meta name="viewport" content="width=320"> <style> #nav, #nav ul { width: 100%; float: left; list-style: none; line-height: 1; background: #fff; font-weight: bold; padding: 0; margin: 0 0 5px 0; } #nav a { display: block; color: #001834; text-decoration: none; padding: 5px 7px; } #nav li { float: left; padding: 0; width: 33%; } #nav li ul { position: absolute; left: -9999px; height: auto; margin: 0; opacity: .95; width: 100%; } #nav li a { text-align: center; height: 20px; line-height: 20px; } #nav li ul li a { text-align: left; } #nav li ul li { float: none; /* width: 316px; */ width: 100%; } #nav li:hover ul ul, #nav li:hover ul ul ul, #nav li.sfhover ul ul, #nav li.sfhover ul ul ul { left: -9999px; } #nav li:hover ul, #nav li li:hover ul, #nav li li li:hover ul, #nav li.sfhover ul, #nav li li.sfhover ul, #nav li li li.sfhover ul { left: 0; } #nav li.educate { background: #FFF0B8; /* background: #FF0000; */ /* border-radius: 5px; */ border: 5px; } #nav li.educate:hover { background: #FFCE00; /* border-radius: 5px; */ } </style> </head> <body> <div id="mobMenu"> <ul id="nav" class="nav"> <li class="educate"><a href="#">menu</a> <ul class="educate"> <li class="educate"><a href="#">href=&quot#&quot;, works</a></li> <!--(+emtpy onmouseover for iPose devices)--> <li class="educate"><a onmouseover="" href="index.html">does not work, real link</a></li> <li class="educate" id="bla"><a onmousedown="document.getElementById('bla').style.backgroundColor='Blue'; alert('Done');document.location='index.html';" href="#">JS, not interpreted in corr order</a></li> </ul> </li> </div> </body>

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• StreamInsight 2.1 Released

  - by Roman Schindlauer

  The wait is over—we are pleased to announce the release of StreamInsight 2.1. Since the release of version 1.2, we have heard your feedbacks and suggestions and based on that we have come up with a whole new set of features. Here are some of the highlights: A New Programming Model – A more clear and consistent object model, eliminating the need for complex input and output adapters (though they are still completely supported). This new model allows you to provision, name, and manage data sources and sinks in the StreamInsight server. Tight integration with Reactive Framework (Rx) – You can write reactive queries hosted inside StreamInsight as well as compose temporal queries on reactive objects. High Availability – Check-pointing over temporal streams and multiple processes with shared computation. Here is how simple coding can be with the 2.1 Programming Model: class Program {     static void Main(string[] args)     {         using (Server server = Server.Create("Default"))         {             // Create an app             Application app = server.CreateApplication("app");             // Define a simple observable which generates an integer every second             var source = app.DefineObservable(() =>                 Observable.Interval(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1)));             // Define a sink.             var sink = app.DefineObserver(() =>                 Observer.Create<long>(x => Console.WriteLine(x)));             // Define a query to filter the events             var query = from e in source                         where e % 2 == 0                         select e;             // Bind the query to the sink and create a runnable process             using (IDisposable proc = query.Bind(sink).Run("MyProcess"))             {                 Console.WriteLine("Press a key to dispose the process...");                 Console.ReadKey();             }         }     } }   That’s how easily you can define a source, sink and compose a query and run it. Note that we did not replace the existing APIs, they co-exist with the new surface. Stay tuned, you will see a series of articles coming out over the next few weeks about the new features and how to use them. Come and grab it from our download center page and let us know what you think! You can find the updated MSDN documentation here, and we would appreciate if you could provide feedback to the docs as well—best via email to [email protected]. Moreover, we updated our samples to demonstrate the new programming surface. Regards, The StreamInsight Team

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• StreamInsight 2.1 Released

  - by Roman Schindlauer

  The wait is over—we are pleased to announce the release of StreamInsight 2.1. Since the release of version 1.2, we have heard your feedbacks and suggestions and based on that we have come up with a whole new set of features. Here are some of the highlights: A New Programming Model – A more clear and consistent object model, eliminating the need for complex input and output adapters (though they are still completely supported). This new model allows you to provision, name, and manage data sources and sinks in the StreamInsight server. Tight integration with Reactive Framework (Rx) – You can write reactive queries hosted inside StreamInsight as well as compose temporal queries on reactive objects. High Availability – Check-pointing over temporal streams and multiple processes with shared computation. Here is how simple coding can be with the 2.1 Programming Model: class Program {     static void Main(string[] args)     {         using (Server server = Server.Create("Default"))         {             // Create an app             Application app = server.CreateApplication("app");             // Define a simple observable which generates an integer every second             var source = app.DefineObservable(() =>                 Observable.Interval(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1)));             // Define a sink.             var sink = app.DefineObserver(() =>                 Observer.Create<long>(x => Console.WriteLine(x)));             // Define a query to filter the events             var query = from e in source                         where e % 2 == 0                         select e;             // Bind the query to the sink and create a runnable process             using (IDisposable proc = query.Bind(sink).Run("MyProcess"))             {                 Console.WriteLine("Press a key to dispose the process...");                 Console.ReadKey();             }         }     } }   That’s how easily you can define a source, sink and compose a query and run it. Note that we did not replace the existing APIs, they co-exist with the new surface. Stay tuned, you will see a series of articles coming out over the next few weeks about the new features and how to use them. Come and grab it from our download center page and let us know what you think! You can find the updated MSDN documentation here, and we would appreciate if you could provide feedback to the docs as well—best via email to [email protected]. Moreover, we updated our samples to demonstrate the new programming surface. Regards, The StreamInsight Team

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• Multi Monitor Setup Problems

  - by Shamballa

  I have Ubuntu 10.04 LTS - the Lucid Lynx. I have until recently been using a nVida Graphics card (NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT) with two monitors attached, this all worked fine and dandy. A couple of days ago I bought two new identical LCD monitors for a multi monitor setup and two ATI graphics cards (ATI Sapphire Radeon HD5450). NOTE *All monitors work fine in Windows XP, 2k, Vista and 7 After I had booted into Ubuntu only one display came on, that I kind of expected anyway, then I removed the driver for the nVidia card and downloaded the ATI version which gave me the ATI Catalyst Control Center - in that only two of the displays were showing the third was disabled and showing unknown driver. I enabled the third monitor that stated "Unkown Driver" and had to reboot, upon reboot none of the displays work. I restarted and booted up into recovery mode and from now that is only what I can get into using a failsafe driver. It seems according to the log that a server is already active for Display 0 and I have to remove /tmp/.X0-lock and start again. This is what the log file is saying: Fatal Server Error Server is already active for display 0 if this server is no longer running, remove /tmp/.X0-lock and start again. (WW) xf86 closeconsole: KDSETMODE failed: Bad file descriptor (WW) xf86 closeconsole: VT_GETMODE failed: Bad file descriptor (WW) xf86 closeconsole: VT_GETSTATE failed: Bad file descriptor ddxSigGiveUp: closing log I have tried looking at my xorg.config file but unfortunately I have not really got a clue as to how it "should" be - I have tried regenerating it using this command from a terminal: sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg but that had no effect so I am currently stuck in failsafe driver mode but two monitors are active but are mirroring each other. I hope that this is not to long - looking back I have been going on a bit! but I am just trying to explain as much as I can... I have asked this on Linuxquestions but nobody seems to know either or at least I have not had any responses. Could some kind soul please help explain what I can do from here? I would be eternally grateful. Chris * Update * Removing xorg.conf does nothing other than allowing me to use only two monitors - using the command: sudo aticonfig --initial generates the xorg.conf file below: but does not work either - I just get two monitors... Section "ServerLayout" Identifier "aticonfig Layout" Screen 0 "aticonfig-Screen[0]-0" 0 0 EndSection Section "Files" EndSection Section "Module" EndSection Section "Monitor" Identifier "aticonfig-Monitor[0]-0" Option "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver" Option "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor" Option "DPMS" "true" EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "aticonfig-Device[0]-0" Driver "fglrx" BusID "PCI:1:0:0" EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[0]-0" Device "aticonfig-Device[0]-0" Monitor "aticonfig-Monitor[0]-0" DefaultDepth 24 SubSection "Display" Viewport 0 0 Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection I have tried using this command from a thread on the Ubuntu Forums with a question similar to mine: sudo aticonfig --initial=dual-head --adapter=all Generated xorg.conf file Section "ServerLayout" Identifier "aticonfig Layout" Screen 0 "aticonfig-Screen[0]-0" 0 0 Screen "aticonfig-Screen[0]-1" RightOf "aticonfig-Screen[0]-0" Screen "aticonfig-Screen[1]-0" RightOf "aticonfig-Screen[0]-1" Screen "aticonfig-Screen[1]-1" RightOf "aticonfig-Screen[1]-0" EndSection Section "Files" EndSection Section "Module" EndSection Section "Monitor" Identifier "aticonfig-Monitor[0]-0" Option "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver" Option "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor" Option "DPMS" "true" EndSection Section "Monitor" Identifier "aticonfig-Monitor[0]-1" Option "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver" Option "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor" Option "DPMS" "true" EndSection Section "Monitor" Identifier "aticonfig-Monitor[1]-0" Option "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver" Option "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor" Option "DPMS" "true" EndSection Section "Monitor" Identifier "aticonfig-Monitor[1]-1" Option "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver" Option "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor" Option "DPMS" "true" EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "aticonfig-Device[0]-0" Driver "fglrx" BusID "PCI:1:0:0" EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "aticonfig-Device[0]-1" Driver "fglrx" BusID "PCI:1:0:0" Screen 1 EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "aticonfig-Device[1]-0" Driver "fglrx" BusID "PCI:2:0:0" EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "aticonfig-Device[1]-1" Driver "fglrx" BusID "PCI:2:0:0" Screen 1 EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[0]-0" Device "aticonfig-Device[0]-0" Monitor "aticonfig-Monitor[0]-0" DefaultDepth 24 SubSection "Display" Viewport 0 0 Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[0]-1" Device "aticonfig-Device[0]-1" Monitor "aticonfig-Monitor[0]-1" DefaultDepth 24 SubSection "Display" Viewport 0 0 Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[1]-0" Device "aticonfig-Device[1]-0" Monitor "aticonfig-Monitor[1]-0" DefaultDepth 24 SubSection "Display" Viewport 0 0 Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[1]-1" Device "aticonfig-Device[1]-1" Monitor "aticonfig-Monitor[1]-1" DefaultDepth 24 SubSection "Display" Viewport 0 0 Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection This upon reboot renders ALL monitors blank and I have to go into recovery mode and use a failsafe driver. This is so much harder than I thought it would be, I don't think Ubuntu likes ATI for multi (3) monitors or maybe the other way around. Can anyone help still?

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• What's New in SGD 5.1?

  - by Fat Bloke

  Oracle announced the latest version of Secure Global Desktop (SGD) this week with 3 major themes: Support for Android devices; Support for Desktop Chrome clients;  Support for Oracle Unified Directory. I'll talk about the new features in a moment, but a bit of context first: Oracle SGD - what, how and why?  Oracle Secure Global Desktop is Oracle's secure remote access product which allows users on almost any device, to access almost any type application which  is hosted in the data center, from almost any location. And it does this by sitting on the edge of the datacenter, between the user and the applications: This is actually a really smart environment for an increasing number of use cases where: Users need mobility of location AND device (i.e. work from anywhere); IT needs to ensure security of applications and data (of course!) The application requires an end-user environment which can't be guaranteed and IT may not own the client platform (e.g. BYOD, working from home, partners or contractors). Oracle has a a specific interest in this of course. As the leading supplier of enterprise applications, many of Oracle's customers, and indeed Oracle itself, fit these criteria. So, as an IT guy rolling out an application to your employees, if one of your apps absolutely needs, say,  IE10 with Java 6 update 32, how can you be sure that the user population has this, especially when they're using their own devices? In the SGD model you, the IT guy, can set up, say, a Windows Server running the exact environment required, and then use SGD to publish this app, without needing to worry any further about the device the end user is using. What's new?  So back to SGD 5.1 and what is new there: Android devices Since we introduced our support for iPad tablets in SGD 5.0 we've had a big demand from customers to extend this to Android tablets too, and so we're pleased to announce that 5.1 supports Android 4.x tablets such as Nexus 7 and 10, and the Galaxy Tab. Here's how it works, with screenshots from my Nexus 7: Simply point your browser to the SGD server URL and login; The workspace is the list of apps that the admin has deemed ok for you to run. You click on an application to run it (here's Excel and Oracle E-Business Suite): There's an extended on-screen keyboard (extended because desktop apps need keys that don't appear on a tablet keyboard such as ctrl, WIndow key, etc) and touch gestures can be mapped to desktop events (such as tap and hold to right click) All in all a pretty nice implementation for Android tablet users. Desktop Chrome Browsers SGD has always been designed around using a browser to access your applications. But traditionally, this has involved using Java to deliver the SGD client component. With HTML5 and Javascript engines becoming so powerful, we thought we'd see how well a pure web client could perform with desktop apps. And the answer was, surprisingly well. So with this release we now offer this additional way of working, which can be enabled by a simple bit of configuration. Here's a Linux desktop running in a tab in Chrome. And if you resize the browser window, the Linux desktop is resized by SGD too. Very cool! Oracle Unified Directory As I mentioned above, a lot of Oracle users already benefit from SGD. And a lot of Oracle customers use Oracle Unified Directory as their Enterprise and Carrier grade user directory. So it makes a lot of sense that SGD now supports this LDAP directory for both Authentication and as a means to determine which users get which applications, e.g. publish the engineering app to the guys in the Development group, but give everyone E-Business Suite to let them do their expenses. Summary With new devices, and faster 4G networking becoming more prevalent, the pressure for businesses to move to a increasingly mobile enterprise is stronger than ever. SGD is good for users, and even better for IT. By offering the user the ability to work from anywhere, and IT the control and security they need, everyone wins with SGD. To try this for yourself, download SGD 5.1 (look under Desktop Virtualization Products) from the Oracle Software Delivery Cloud or if you're an existing customer, get it from My Oracle Support.  -FB 

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• How to manually patch Blogger template to use Disqus

  - by user317944

  I'm trying to add disqus to my blog and I tried following this guide to do so: http://disqus.com/docs/patch-blogger/ However their instructions are completely off with what I have on my custom template. Here is the template: <b:skin><![CDATA[/*----------------------------------------------- Blogger Template Style Name: Picture Window Designer: Josh Peterson URL: www.noaesthetic.com ----------------------------------------------- */ /* Variable definitions ==================== */ /* Content ----------------------------------------------- */ body { font: $(body.font); color: $(body.text.color); } html body .region-inner { min-width: 0; max-width: 100%; width: auto; } .content-outer { font-size: 90%; } a:link { text-decoration:none; color: $(link.color); } a:visited { text-decoration:none; color: $(link.visited.color); } a:hover { text-decoration:underline; color: $(link.hover.color); } .body-fauxcolumn-outer { background: $(body.background); } .content-outer { background: $(content.background); -moz-border-radius: $(content.border.radius); -webkit-border-radius: $(content.border.radius); -goog-ms-border-radius: $(content.border.radius); border-radius: $(content.border.radius); -moz-box-shadow: 0 0 $(content.shadow.spread) rgba(0, 0, 0, .15); -webkit-box-shadow: 0 0 $(content.shadow.spread) rgba(0, 0, 0, .15); -goog-ms-box-shadow: 0 0 $(content.shadow.spread) rgba(0, 0, 0, .15); box-shadow: 0 0 $(content.shadow.spread) rgba(0, 0, 0, .15); margin: $(content.margin) auto; } .content-inner { padding: $(content.padding); } /* Header ----------------------------------------------- */ .header-outer { background: $(header.background.color) $(header.background.gradient) repeat-x scroll top left; _background-image: none; color: $(header.text.color); -moz-border-radius: $(header.border.radius); -webkit-border-radius: $(header.border.radius); -goog-ms-border-radius: $(header.border.radius); border-radius: $(header.border.radius); } .Header img, .Header #header-inner { -moz-border-radius: $(header.border.radius); -webkit-border-radius: $(header.border.radius); -goog-ms-border-radius: $(header.border.radius); border-radius: $(header.border.radius); } .header-inner .Header .titlewrapper, .header-inner .Header .descriptionwrapper { padding-left: $(header.padding); padding-right: $(header.padding); } .Header h1 { font: $(header.font); text-shadow: 1px 1px 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3); } .Header h1 a { color: $(header.text.color); } .Header .description { font-size: 130%; } /* Tabs ----------------------------------------------- */ .tabs-inner { margin: .5em $(tabs.margin.sides) $(tabs.margin.bottom); padding: 0; } .tabs-inner .section { margin: 0; } .tabs-inner .widget ul { padding: 0; background: $(tabs.background.color) $(tabs.background.gradient) repeat scroll bottom; -moz-border-radius: $(tabs.border.radius); -webkit-border-radius: $(tabs.border.radius); -goog-ms-border-radius: $(tabs.border.radius); border-radius: $(tabs.border.radius); } .tabs-inner .widget li { border: none; } .tabs-inner .widget li a { display: block; padding: .5em 1em; margin-$endSide: $(tabs.spacing); color: $(tabs.text.color); font: $(tabs.font); -moz-border-radius: $(tab.border.radius) $(tab.border.radius) 0 0; -webkit-border-top-left-radius: $(tab.border.radius); -webkit-border-top-right-radius: $(tab.border.radius); -goog-ms-border-radius: $(tab.border.radius) $(tab.border.radius) 0 0; border-radius: $(tab.border.radius) $(tab.border.radius) 0 0; background: $(tab.background); border-$endSide: 1px solid $(tabs.separator.color); } .tabs-inner .widget li:first-child a { padding-$startSide: 1.25em; -moz-border-radius-top$startSide: $(tab.first.border.radius); -moz-border-radius-bottom$startSide: $(tabs.border.radius); -webkit-border-top-$startSide-radius: $(tab.first.border.radius); -webkit-border-bottom-$startSide-radius: $(tabs.border.radius); -goog-ms-border-top-$startSide-radius: $(tab.first.border.radius); -goog-ms-border-bottom-$startSide-radius: $(tabs.border.radius); border-top-$startSide-radius: $(tab.first.border.radius); border-bottom-$startSide-radius: $(tabs.border.radius); } .tabs-inner .widget li.selected a, .tabs-inner .widget li a:hover { position: relative; z-index: 1; background: $(tabs.selected.background.color) $(tab.selected.background.gradient) repeat scroll bottom; color: $(tabs.selected.text.color); -moz-box-shadow: 0 0 $(region.shadow.spread) rgba(0, 0, 0, .15); -webkit-box-shadow: 0 0 $(region.shadow.spread) rgba(0, 0, 0, .15); -goog-ms-box-shadow: 0 0 $(region.shadow.spread) rgba(0, 0, 0, .15); box-shadow: 0 0 $(region.shadow.spread) rgba(0, 0, 0, .15); } /* Headings ----------------------------------------------- */ h2 { font: $(widget.title.font); text-transform: $(widget.title.text.transform); color: $(widget.title.text.color); margin: .5em 0; } /* Main ----------------------------------------------- */ .main-outer { background: $(main.background); -moz-border-radius: $(main.border.radius.top) $(main.border.radius.top) 0 0; -webkit-border-top-left-radius: $(main.border.radius.top); -webkit-border-top-right-radius: $(main.border.radius.top); -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 0; -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 0; -goog-ms-border-radius: $(main.border.radius.top) $(main.border.radius.top) 0 0; border-radius: $(main.border.radius.top) $(main.border.radius.top) 0 0; -moz-box-shadow: 0 $(region.shadow.offset) $(region.shadow.spread) rgba(0, 0, 0, .15); -webkit-box-shadow: 0 $(region.shadow.offset) $(region.shadow.spread) rgba(0, 0, 0, .15); -goog-ms-box-shadow: 0 $(region.shadow.offset) $(region.shadow.spread) rgba(0, 0, 0, .15); box-shadow: 0 $(region.shadow.offset) $(region.shadow.spread) rgba(0, 0, 0, .15); } .main-inner { padding: 15px $(main.padding.sides) 20px; } .main-inner .column-center-inner { padding: 0 0; } .main-inner .column-left-inner { padding-left: 0; } .main-inner .column-right-inner { padding-right: 0; } /* Posts ----------------------------------------------- */ h3.post-title { margin: 0; font: $(post.title.font); } .comments h4 { margin: 1em 0 0; font: $(post.title.font); } .post-outer { background-color: $(post.background.color); border: solid 1px $(post.border.color); -moz-border-radius: $(post.border.radius); -webkit-border-radius: $(post.border.radius); border-radius: $(post.border.radius); -goog-ms-border-radius: $(post.border.radius); padding: 15px 20px; margin: 0 $(post.margin.sides) 20px; } .post-body { line-height: 1.4; font-size: 110%; } .post-header { margin: 0 0 1.5em; color: $(post.footer.text.color); line-height: 1.6; } .post-footer { margin: .5em 0 0; color: $(post.footer.text.color); line-height: 1.6; } blog-pager { font-size: 140% } comments .comment-author { padding-top: 1.5em; border-top: dashed 1px #ccc; border-top: dashed 1px rgba(128, 128, 128, .5); background-position: 0 1.5em; } comments .comment-author:first-child { padding-top: 0; border-top: none; } .avatar-image-container { margin: .2em 0 0; } /* Widgets ----------------------------------------------- */ .widget ul, .widget #ArchiveList ul.flat { padding: 0; list-style: none; } .widget ul li, .widget #ArchiveList ul.flat li { border-top: dashed 1px #ccc; border-top: dashed 1px rgba(128, 128, 128, .5); } .widget ul li:first-child, .widget #ArchiveList ul.flat li:first-child { border-top: none; } .widget .post-body ul { list-style: disc; } .widget .post-body ul li { border: none; } /* Footer ----------------------------------------------- */ .footer-outer { color:$(footer.text.color); background: $(footer.background); -moz-border-radius: $(footer.border.radius.top) $(footer.border.radius.top) $(footer.border.radius.bottom) $(footer.border.radius.bottom); -webkit-border-top-left-radius: $(footer.border.radius.top); -webkit-border-top-right-radius: $(footer.border.radius.top); -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: $(footer.border.radius.bottom); -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: $(footer.border.radius.bottom); -goog-ms-border-radius: $(footer.border.radius.top) $(footer.border.radius.top) $(footer.border.radius.bottom) $(footer.border.radius.bottom); border-radius: $(footer.border.radius.top) $(footer.border.radius.top) $(footer.border.radius.bottom) $(footer.border.radius.bottom); -moz-box-shadow: 0 $(region.shadow.offset) $(region.shadow.spread) rgba(0, 0, 0, .15); -webkit-box-shadow: 0 $(region.shadow.offset) $(region.shadow.spread) rgba(0, 0, 0, .15); -goog-ms-box-shadow: 0 $(region.shadow.offset) $(region.shadow.spread) rgba(0, 0, 0, .15); box-shadow: 0 $(region.shadow.offset) $(region.shadow.spread) rgba(0, 0, 0, .15); } .footer-inner { padding: 10px $(main.padding.sides) 20px; } .footer-outer a { color: $(footer.link.color); } .footer-outer a:visited { color: $(footer.link.visited.color); } .footer-outer a:hover { color: $(footer.link.hover.color); } .footer-outer .widget h2 { color: $(footer.widget.title.text.color); } ]] <b:template-skin> <b:variable default='930px' name='content.width' type='length' value='930px'/> <b:variable default='0' name='main.column.left.width' type='length' value='180px'/> <b:variable default='360px' name='main.column.right.width' type='length' value='180px'/> <![CDATA[ body { min-width: $(content.width); } .content-outer, .region-inner { min-width: $(content.width); max-width: $(content.width); _width: $(content.width); } .main-inner .columns { padding-left: $(main.column.left.width); padding-right: $(main.column.right.width); } .main-inner .fauxcolumn-center-outer { left: $(main.column.left.width); right: $(main.column.right.width); /* IE6 does not respect left and right together */ _width: expression(this.parentNode.offsetWidth - parseInt("$(main.column.left.width)") - parseInt("$(main.column.right.width)") + 'px'); } .main-inner .fauxcolumn-left-outer { width: $(main.column.left.width); } .main-inner .fauxcolumn-right-outer { width: $(main.column.right.width); } .main-inner .column-left-outer { width: $(main.column.left.width); right: $(main.column.left.width); margin-right: -$(main.column.left.width); } .main-inner .column-right-outer { width: $(main.column.right.width); margin-right: -$(main.column.right.width); } #layout { min-width: 0; } #layout .content-outer { min-width: 0; width: 800px; } #layout .region-inner { min-width: 0; width: auto; } ]]> </b:template-skin> <div class='main-cap-bottom cap-bottom'> <div class='cap-left'/> <div class='cap-right'/> </div> </div> <footer> <div class='footer-outer'> <div class='footer-cap-top cap-top'> <div class='cap-left'/> <div class='cap-right'/> </div> <div class='fauxborder-left footer-fauxborder-left'> <div class='fauxborder-right footer-fauxborder-right'/> <div class='region-inner footer-inner'> <macro:include id='footer-sections' name='sections'> <macro:param default='2' name='num' value='3'/> <macro:param default='footer' name='idPrefix'/> <macro:param default='foot' name='class'/> <macro:param default='false' name='includeBottom'/> </macro:include> <!-- outside of the include in order to lock Attribution widget --> <b:section class='foot' id='footer-3' showaddelement='no'> document.body.className = document.body.className.replace('loading', ''); <macro:if cond='data:col.num &gt;= 2'> <table border='0' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' mexpr:class='&quot;section-columns columns-&quot; + data:col.num'> <tbody> <tr> <td class='first columns-cell'> <b:section mexpr:class='data:col.class' mexpr:id='data:col.idPrefix + &quot;-2-1&quot;'/> </td> <td class='columns-cell'> <b:section mexpr:class='data:col.class' mexpr:id='data:col.idPrefix + &quot;-2-2&quot;'/> </td> <macro:if cond='data:col.num &gt;= 3'> <td class='columns-cell'> <b:section mexpr:class='data:col.class' mexpr:id='data:col.idPrefix + &quot;-2-3&quot;'/> </td> </macro:if> <macro:if cond='data:col.num &gt;= 4'> <td class='columns-cell'> <b:section mexpr:class='data:col.class' mexpr:id='data:col.idPrefix + &quot;-2-4&quot;'/> </td> </macro:if> </tr> </tbody> </table> <macro:if cond='data:col.includeBottom'> <b:section mexpr:class='data:col.class' mexpr:id='data:col.idPrefix + &quot;-3&quot;' showaddelement='no'/> </macro:if> </macro

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• Can this PHP version of SPICE be improved?

  - by Noctis Skytower

  I do not know much about PHP's standard library of functions and was wondering if the following code can be improved in any way. The implementation should yield the same results, the API should remain as it is, but ways to make is more PHP-ish would be greatly appreciated. This is a custom encryption library. Code <?php /*************************************** Create random major and minor SPICE key. ***************************************/ function crypt_major() { $all = range("\x00", "\xFF"); shuffle($all); $major_key = implode("", $all); return $major_key; } function crypt_minor() { $sample = array(); do { array_push($sample, 0, 1, 2, 3); } while (count($sample) != 256); shuffle($sample); $list = array(); for ($index = 0; $index < 64; $index++) { $b12 = $sample[$index * 4] << 6; $b34 = $sample[$index * 4 + 1] << 4; $b56 = $sample[$index * 4 + 2] << 2; $b78 = $sample[$index * 4 + 3]; array_push($list, $b12 + $b34 + $b56 + $b78); } $minor_key = implode("", array_map("chr", $list)); return $minor_key; } /*************************************** Create the SPICE key via the given name. ***************************************/ function named_major($name) { srand(crc32($name)); return crypt_major(); } function named_minor($name) { srand(crc32($name)); return crypt_minor(); } /*************************************** Check validity for major and minor keys. ***************************************/ function _check_major($key) { if (is_string($key) && strlen($key) == 256) { foreach (range("\x00", "\xFF") as $char) { if (substr_count($key, $char) == 0) { return FALSE; } } return TRUE; } return FALSE; } function _check_minor($key) { if (is_string($key) && strlen($key) == 64) { $indexs = array(); foreach (array_map("ord", str_split($key)) as $byte) { foreach (range(6, 0, 2) as $shift) { array_push($indexs, ($byte >> $shift) & 3); } } $dict = array_count_values($indexs); foreach (range(0, 3) as $index) { if ($dict[$index] != 64) { return FALSE; } } return TRUE; } return FALSE; } /*************************************** Create encode maps for encode functions. ***************************************/ function _encode_map_1($major) { return array_map("ord", str_split($major)); } function _encode_map_2($minor) { $map_2 = array(array(), array(), array(), array()); $list = array(); foreach (array_map("ord", str_split($minor)) as $byte) { foreach (range(6, 0, 2) as $shift) { array_push($list, ($byte >> $shift) & 3); } } for ($byte = 0; $byte < 256; $byte++) { array_push($map_2[$list[$byte]], chr($byte)); } return $map_2; } /*************************************** Create decode maps for decode functions. ***************************************/ function _decode_map_1($minor) { $map_1 = array(); foreach (array_map("ord", str_split($minor)) as $byte) { foreach (range(6, 0, 2) as $shift) { array_push($map_1, ($byte >> $shift) & 3); } } return $map_1; }function _decode_map_2($major) { $map_2 = array(); $temp = array_map("ord", str_split($major)); for ($byte = 0; $byte < 256; $byte++) { $map_2[$temp[$byte]] = chr($byte); } return $map_2; } /*************************************** Encrypt or decrypt the string with maps. ***************************************/ function _encode($string, $map_1, $map_2) { $cache = ""; foreach (str_split($string) as $char) { $byte = $map_1[ord($char)]; foreach (range(6, 0, 2) as $shift) { $cache .= $map_2[($byte >> $shift) & 3][mt_rand(0, 63)]; } } return $cache; } function _decode($string, $map_1, $map_2) { $cache = ""; $temp = str_split($string); for ($iter = 0; $iter < strlen($string) / 4; $iter++) { $b12 = $map_1[ord($temp[$iter * 4])] << 6; $b34 = $map_1[ord($temp[$iter * 4 + 1])] << 4; $b56 = $map_1[ord($temp[$iter * 4 + 2])] << 2; $b78 = $map_1[ord($temp[$iter * 4 + 3])]; $cache .= $map_2[$b12 + $b34 + $b56 + $b78]; } return $cache; } /*************************************** This is the public interface for coding. ***************************************/ function encode_string($string, $major, $minor) { if (is_string($string)) { if (_check_major($major) && _check_minor($minor)) { $map_1 = _encode_map_1($major); $map_2 = _encode_map_2($minor); return _encode($string, $map_1, $map_2); } } return FALSE; } function decode_string($string, $major, $minor) { if (is_string($string) && strlen($string) % 4 == 0) { if (_check_major($major) && _check_minor($minor)) { $map_1 = _decode_map_1($minor); $map_2 = _decode_map_2($major); return _decode($string, $map_1, $map_2); } } return FALSE; } ?> This is a sample showing how the code is being used. Hex editors may be of help with the input / output. Example <?php # get and process all of the form data @ $input = htmlspecialchars($_POST["input"]); @ $majorname = htmlspecialchars($_POST["majorname"]); @ $minorname = htmlspecialchars($_POST["minorname"]); @ $majorkey = htmlspecialchars($_POST["majorkey"]); @ $minorkey = htmlspecialchars($_POST["minorkey"]); @ $output = htmlspecialchars($_POST["output"]); # process the submissions by operation # CREATE @ $operation = $_POST["operation"]; if ($operation == "Create") { if (strlen($_POST["majorname"]) == 0) { $majorkey = bin2hex(crypt_major()); } if (strlen($_POST["minorname"]) == 0) { $minorkey = bin2hex(crypt_minor()); } if (strlen($_POST["majorname"]) != 0) { $majorkey = bin2hex(named_major($_POST["majorname"])); } if (strlen($_POST["minorname"]) != 0) { $minorkey = bin2hex(named_minor($_POST["minorname"])); } } # ENCRYPT or DECRYPT function is_hex($char) { if ($char == "0"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "1"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "2"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "3"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "4"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "5"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "6"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "7"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "8"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "9"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "a"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "b"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "c"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "d"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "e"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "f"): return TRUE; else: return FALSE; endif; } function hex2bin($str) { if (strlen($str) % 2 == 0): $string = strtolower($str); else: $string = strtolower("0" . $str); endif; $cache = ""; $temp = str_split($str); for ($index = 0; $index < count($temp) / 2; $index++) { $h1 = $temp[$index * 2]; if (is_hex($h1)) { $h2 = $temp[$index * 2 + 1]; if (is_hex($h2)) { $cache .= chr(hexdec($h1 . $h2)); } else { return FALSE; } } else { return FALSE; } } return $cache; } if ($operation == "Encrypt" || $operation == "Decrypt") { # CHECK FOR ANY ERROR $errors = array(); if (strlen($_POST["input"]) == 0) { $output = ""; } $binmajor = hex2bin($_POST["majorkey"]); if (strlen($_POST["majorkey"]) == 0) { array_push($errors, "There must be a major key."); } elseif ($binmajor == FALSE) { array_push($errors, "The major key must be in hex."); } elseif (_check_major($binmajor) == FALSE) { array_push($errors, "The major key is corrupt."); } $binminor = hex2bin($_POST["minorkey"]); if (strlen($_POST["minorkey"]) == 0) { array_push($errors, "There must be a minor key."); } elseif ($binminor == FALSE) { array_push($errors, "The minor key must be in hex."); } elseif (_check_minor($binminor) == FALSE) { array_push($errors, "The minor key is corrupt."); } if ($_POST["operation"] == "Decrypt") { $bininput = hex2bin(str_replace("\r", "", str_replace("\n", "", $_POST["input"]))); if ($bininput == FALSE) { if (strlen($_POST["input"]) != 0) { array_push($errors, "The input data must be in hex."); } } elseif (strlen($bininput) % 4 != 0) { array_push($errors, "The input data is corrupt."); } } if (count($errors) != 0) { # ERRORS ARE FOUND $output = "ERROR:"; foreach ($errors as $error) { $output .= "\n" . $error; } } elseif (strlen($_POST["input"]) != 0) { # CONTINUE WORKING if ($_POST["operation"] == "Encrypt") { # ENCRYPT $output = substr(chunk_split(bin2hex(encode_string($_POST["input"], $binmajor, $binminor)), 58), 0, -2); } else { # DECRYPT $output = htmlspecialchars(decode_string($bininput, $binmajor, $binminor)); } } } # echo the form with the values filled echo "<P><TEXTAREA class=maintextarea name=input rows=25 cols=25>" . $input . "</TEXTAREA></P>\n"; echo "<P>Major Name:</P>\n"; echo "<P><INPUT id=textbox1 name=majorname value=\"" . $majorname . "\"></P>\n"; echo "<P>Minor Name:</P>\n"; echo "<P><INPUT id=textbox1 name=minorname value=\"" . $minorname . "\"></P>\n"; echo "<DIV style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><INPUT class=submit type=submit value=Create name=operation>\n"; echo "</DIV>\n"; echo "<P>Major Key:</P>\n"; echo "<P><INPUT id=textbox1 name=majorkey value=\"" . $majorkey . "\"></P>\n"; echo "<P>Minor Key:</P>\n"; echo "<P><INPUT id=textbox1 name=minorkey value=\"" . $minorkey . "\"></P>\n"; echo "<DIV style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><INPUT class=submit type=submit value=Encrypt name=operation> \n"; echo "<INPUT class=submit type=submit value=Decrypt name=operation> </DIV>\n"; echo "<P>Result:</P>\n"; echo "<P><TEXTAREA class=maintextarea name=output rows=25 readOnly cols=25>" . $output . "</TEXTAREA></P></DIV></FORM>\n"; ?>

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• How can this PHP code be improved? What should be changed?

  - by Noctis Skytower

  This is a custom encryption library. I do not know much about PHP's standard library of functions and was wondering if the following code can be improved in any way. The implementation should yield the same results, the API should remain as it is, but ways to make is more PHP-ish would be greatly appreciated. Code <?php /*************************************** Create random major and minor SPICE key. ***************************************/ function crypt_major() { $all = range("\x00", "\xFF"); shuffle($all); $major_key = implode("", $all); return $major_key; } function crypt_minor() { $sample = array(); do { array_push($sample, 0, 1, 2, 3); } while (count($sample) != 256); shuffle($sample); $list = array(); for ($index = 0; $index < 64; $index++) { $b12 = $sample[$index * 4] << 6; $b34 = $sample[$index * 4 + 1] << 4; $b56 = $sample[$index * 4 + 2] << 2; $b78 = $sample[$index * 4 + 3]; array_push($list, $b12 + $b34 + $b56 + $b78); } $minor_key = implode("", array_map("chr", $list)); return $minor_key; } /*************************************** Create the SPICE key via the given name. ***************************************/ function named_major($name) { srand(crc32($name)); return crypt_major(); } function named_minor($name) { srand(crc32($name)); return crypt_minor(); } /*************************************** Check validity for major and minor keys. ***************************************/ function _check_major($key) { if (is_string($key) && strlen($key) == 256) { foreach (range("\x00", "\xFF") as $char) { if (substr_count($key, $char) == 0) { return FALSE; } } return TRUE; } return FALSE; } function _check_minor($key) { if (is_string($key) && strlen($key) == 64) { $indexs = array(); foreach (array_map("ord", str_split($key)) as $byte) { foreach (range(6, 0, 2) as $shift) { array_push($indexs, ($byte >> $shift) & 3); } } $dict = array_count_values($indexs); foreach (range(0, 3) as $index) { if ($dict[$index] != 64) { return FALSE; } } return TRUE; } return FALSE; } /*************************************** Create encode maps for encode functions. ***************************************/ function _encode_map_1($major) { return array_map("ord", str_split($major)); } function _encode_map_2($minor) { $map_2 = array(array(), array(), array(), array()); $list = array(); foreach (array_map("ord", str_split($minor)) as $byte) { foreach (range(6, 0, 2) as $shift) { array_push($list, ($byte >> $shift) & 3); } } for ($byte = 0; $byte < 256; $byte++) { array_push($map_2[$list[$byte]], chr($byte)); } return $map_2; } /*************************************** Create decode maps for decode functions. ***************************************/ function _decode_map_1($minor) { $map_1 = array(); foreach (array_map("ord", str_split($minor)) as $byte) { foreach (range(6, 0, 2) as $shift) { array_push($map_1, ($byte >> $shift) & 3); } } return $map_1; }function _decode_map_2($major) { $map_2 = array(); $temp = array_map("ord", str_split($major)); for ($byte = 0; $byte < 256; $byte++) { $map_2[$temp[$byte]] = chr($byte); } return $map_2; } /*************************************** Encrypt or decrypt the string with maps. ***************************************/ function _encode($string, $map_1, $map_2) { $cache = ""; foreach (str_split($string) as $char) { $byte = $map_1[ord($char)]; foreach (range(6, 0, 2) as $shift) { $cache .= $map_2[($byte >> $shift) & 3][mt_rand(0, 63)]; } } return $cache; } function _decode($string, $map_1, $map_2) { $cache = ""; $temp = str_split($string); for ($iter = 0; $iter < strlen($string) / 4; $iter++) { $b12 = $map_1[ord($temp[$iter * 4])] << 6; $b34 = $map_1[ord($temp[$iter * 4 + 1])] << 4; $b56 = $map_1[ord($temp[$iter * 4 + 2])] << 2; $b78 = $map_1[ord($temp[$iter * 4 + 3])]; $cache .= $map_2[$b12 + $b34 + $b56 + $b78]; } return $cache; } /*************************************** This is the public interface for coding. ***************************************/ function encode_string($string, $major, $minor) { if (is_string($string)) { if (_check_major($major) && _check_minor($minor)) { $map_1 = _encode_map_1($major); $map_2 = _encode_map_2($minor); return _encode($string, $map_1, $map_2); } } return FALSE; } function decode_string($string, $major, $minor) { if (is_string($string) && strlen($string) % 4 == 0) { if (_check_major($major) && _check_minor($minor)) { $map_1 = _decode_map_1($minor); $map_2 = _decode_map_2($major); return _decode($string, $map_1, $map_2); } } return FALSE; } ?> This is a sample showing how the code is being used. Hex editors may be of help with the input / output. Example <?php # get and process all of the form data @ $input = htmlspecialchars($_POST["input"]); @ $majorname = htmlspecialchars($_POST["majorname"]); @ $minorname = htmlspecialchars($_POST["minorname"]); @ $majorkey = htmlspecialchars($_POST["majorkey"]); @ $minorkey = htmlspecialchars($_POST["minorkey"]); @ $output = htmlspecialchars($_POST["output"]); # process the submissions by operation # CREATE @ $operation = $_POST["operation"]; if ($operation == "Create") { if (strlen($_POST["majorname"]) == 0) { $majorkey = bin2hex(crypt_major()); } if (strlen($_POST["minorname"]) == 0) { $minorkey = bin2hex(crypt_minor()); } if (strlen($_POST["majorname"]) != 0) { $majorkey = bin2hex(named_major($_POST["majorname"])); } if (strlen($_POST["minorname"]) != 0) { $minorkey = bin2hex(named_minor($_POST["minorname"])); } } # ENCRYPT or DECRYPT function is_hex($char) { if ($char == "0"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "1"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "2"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "3"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "4"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "5"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "6"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "7"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "8"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "9"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "a"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "b"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "c"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "d"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "e"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "f"): return TRUE; else: return FALSE; endif; } function hex2bin($str) { if (strlen($str) % 2 == 0): $string = strtolower($str); else: $string = strtolower("0" . $str); endif; $cache = ""; $temp = str_split($str); for ($index = 0; $index < count($temp) / 2; $index++) { $h1 = $temp[$index * 2]; if (is_hex($h1)) { $h2 = $temp[$index * 2 + 1]; if (is_hex($h2)) { $cache .= chr(hexdec($h1 . $h2)); } else { return FALSE; } } else { return FALSE; } } return $cache; } if ($operation == "Encrypt" || $operation == "Decrypt") { # CHECK FOR ANY ERROR $errors = array(); if (strlen($_POST["input"]) == 0) { $output = ""; } $binmajor = hex2bin($_POST["majorkey"]); if (strlen($_POST["majorkey"]) == 0) { array_push($errors, "There must be a major key."); } elseif ($binmajor == FALSE) { array_push($errors, "The major key must be in hex."); } elseif (_check_major($binmajor) == FALSE) { array_push($errors, "The major key is corrupt."); } $binminor = hex2bin($_POST["minorkey"]); if (strlen($_POST["minorkey"]) == 0) { array_push($errors, "There must be a minor key."); } elseif ($binminor == FALSE) { array_push($errors, "The minor key must be in hex."); } elseif (_check_minor($binminor) == FALSE) { array_push($errors, "The minor key is corrupt."); } if ($_POST["operation"] == "Decrypt") { $bininput = hex2bin(str_replace("\r", "", str_replace("\n", "", $_POST["input"]))); if ($bininput == FALSE) { if (strlen($_POST["input"]) != 0) { array_push($errors, "The input data must be in hex."); } } elseif (strlen($bininput) % 4 != 0) { array_push($errors, "The input data is corrupt."); } } if (count($errors) != 0) { # ERRORS ARE FOUND $output = "ERROR:"; foreach ($errors as $error) { $output .= "\n" . $error; } } elseif (strlen($_POST["input"]) != 0) { # CONTINUE WORKING if ($_POST["operation"] == "Encrypt") { # ENCRYPT $output = substr(chunk_split(bin2hex(encode_string($_POST["input"], $binmajor, $binminor)), 58), 0, -2); } else { # DECRYPT $output = htmlspecialchars(decode_string($bininput, $binmajor, $binminor)); } } } # echo the form with the values filled echo "<P><TEXTAREA class=maintextarea name=input rows=25 cols=25>" . $input . "</TEXTAREA></P>\n"; echo "<P>Major Name:</P>\n"; echo "<P><INPUT id=textbox1 name=majorname value=\"" . $majorname . "\"></P>\n"; echo "<P>Minor Name:</P>\n"; echo "<P><INPUT id=textbox1 name=minorname value=\"" . $minorname . "\"></P>\n"; echo "<DIV style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><INPUT class=submit type=submit value=Create name=operation>\n"; echo "</DIV>\n"; echo "<P>Major Key:</P>\n"; echo "<P><INPUT id=textbox1 name=majorkey value=\"" . $majorkey . "\"></P>\n"; echo "<P>Minor Key:</P>\n"; echo "<P><INPUT id=textbox1 name=minorkey value=\"" . $minorkey . "\"></P>\n"; echo "<DIV style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><INPUT class=submit type=submit value=Encrypt name=operation> \n"; echo "<INPUT class=submit type=submit value=Decrypt name=operation> </DIV>\n"; echo "<P>Result:</P>\n"; echo "<P><TEXTAREA class=maintextarea name=output rows=25 readOnly cols=25>" . $output . "</TEXTAREA></P></DIV></FORM>\n"; ?> What should be editted for better memory efficiency or faster execution?

  Read the article

• How can this PHP code be improved? What should change?

  - by Noctis Skytower

  This is a custom encryption library. I do not know much about PHP's standard library of functions and was wondering if the following code can be improved in any way. The implementation should yield the same results, the API should remain as it is, but ways to make is more PHP-ish would be greatly appreciated. Code <?php /*************************************** Create random major and minor SPICE key. ***************************************/ function crypt_major() { $all = range("\x00", "\xFF"); shuffle($all); $major_key = implode("", $all); return $major_key; } function crypt_minor() { $sample = array(); do { array_push($sample, 0, 1, 2, 3); } while (count($sample) != 256); shuffle($sample); $list = array(); for ($index = 0; $index < 64; $index++) { $b12 = $sample[$index * 4] << 6; $b34 = $sample[$index * 4 + 1] << 4; $b56 = $sample[$index * 4 + 2] << 2; $b78 = $sample[$index * 4 + 3]; array_push($list, $b12 + $b34 + $b56 + $b78); } $minor_key = implode("", array_map("chr", $list)); return $minor_key; } /*************************************** Create the SPICE key via the given name. ***************************************/ function named_major($name) { srand(crc32($name)); return crypt_major(); } function named_minor($name) { srand(crc32($name)); return crypt_minor(); } /*************************************** Check validity for major and minor keys. ***************************************/ function _check_major($key) { if (is_string($key) && strlen($key) == 256) { foreach (range("\x00", "\xFF") as $char) { if (substr_count($key, $char) == 0) { return FALSE; } } return TRUE; } return FALSE; } function _check_minor($key) { if (is_string($key) && strlen($key) == 64) { $indexs = array(); foreach (array_map("ord", str_split($key)) as $byte) { foreach (range(6, 0, 2) as $shift) { array_push($indexs, ($byte >> $shift) & 3); } } $dict = array_count_values($indexs); foreach (range(0, 3) as $index) { if ($dict[$index] != 64) { return FALSE; } } return TRUE; } return FALSE; } /*************************************** Create encode maps for encode functions. ***************************************/ function _encode_map_1($major) { return array_map("ord", str_split($major)); } function _encode_map_2($minor) { $map_2 = array(array(), array(), array(), array()); $list = array(); foreach (array_map("ord", str_split($minor)) as $byte) { foreach (range(6, 0, 2) as $shift) { array_push($list, ($byte >> $shift) & 3); } } for ($byte = 0; $byte < 256; $byte++) { array_push($map_2[$list[$byte]], chr($byte)); } return $map_2; } /*************************************** Create decode maps for decode functions. ***************************************/ function _decode_map_1($minor) { $map_1 = array(); foreach (array_map("ord", str_split($minor)) as $byte) { foreach (range(6, 0, 2) as $shift) { array_push($map_1, ($byte >> $shift) & 3); } } return $map_1; }function _decode_map_2($major) { $map_2 = array(); $temp = array_map("ord", str_split($major)); for ($byte = 0; $byte < 256; $byte++) { $map_2[$temp[$byte]] = chr($byte); } return $map_2; } /*************************************** Encrypt or decrypt the string with maps. ***************************************/ function _encode($string, $map_1, $map_2) { $cache = ""; foreach (str_split($string) as $char) { $byte = $map_1[ord($char)]; foreach (range(6, 0, 2) as $shift) { $cache .= $map_2[($byte >> $shift) & 3][mt_rand(0, 63)]; } } return $cache; } function _decode($string, $map_1, $map_2) { $cache = ""; $temp = str_split($string); for ($iter = 0; $iter < strlen($string) / 4; $iter++) { $b12 = $map_1[ord($temp[$iter * 4])] << 6; $b34 = $map_1[ord($temp[$iter * 4 + 1])] << 4; $b56 = $map_1[ord($temp[$iter * 4 + 2])] << 2; $b78 = $map_1[ord($temp[$iter * 4 + 3])]; $cache .= $map_2[$b12 + $b34 + $b56 + $b78]; } return $cache; } /*************************************** This is the public interface for coding. ***************************************/ function encode_string($string, $major, $minor) { if (is_string($string)) { if (_check_major($major) && _check_minor($minor)) { $map_1 = _encode_map_1($major); $map_2 = _encode_map_2($minor); return _encode($string, $map_1, $map_2); } } return FALSE; } function decode_string($string, $major, $minor) { if (is_string($string) && strlen($string) % 4 == 0) { if (_check_major($major) && _check_minor($minor)) { $map_1 = _decode_map_1($minor); $map_2 = _decode_map_2($major); return _decode($string, $map_1, $map_2); } } return FALSE; } ?> This is a sample showing how the code is being used. Hex editors may be of help with the input / output. Example <?php # get and process all of the form data @ $input = htmlspecialchars($_POST["input"]); @ $majorname = htmlspecialchars($_POST["majorname"]); @ $minorname = htmlspecialchars($_POST["minorname"]); @ $majorkey = htmlspecialchars($_POST["majorkey"]); @ $minorkey = htmlspecialchars($_POST["minorkey"]); @ $output = htmlspecialchars($_POST["output"]); # process the submissions by operation # CREATE @ $operation = $_POST["operation"]; if ($operation == "Create") { if (strlen($_POST["majorname"]) == 0) { $majorkey = bin2hex(crypt_major()); } if (strlen($_POST["minorname"]) == 0) { $minorkey = bin2hex(crypt_minor()); } if (strlen($_POST["majorname"]) != 0) { $majorkey = bin2hex(named_major($_POST["majorname"])); } if (strlen($_POST["minorname"]) != 0) { $minorkey = bin2hex(named_minor($_POST["minorname"])); } } # ENCRYPT or DECRYPT function is_hex($char) { if ($char == "0"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "1"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "2"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "3"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "4"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "5"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "6"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "7"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "8"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "9"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "a"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "b"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "c"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "d"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "e"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "f"): return TRUE; else: return FALSE; endif; } function hex2bin($str) { if (strlen($str) % 2 == 0): $string = strtolower($str); else: $string = strtolower("0" . $str); endif; $cache = ""; $temp = str_split($str); for ($index = 0; $index < count($temp) / 2; $index++) { $h1 = $temp[$index * 2]; if (is_hex($h1)) { $h2 = $temp[$index * 2 + 1]; if (is_hex($h2)) { $cache .= chr(hexdec($h1 . $h2)); } else { return FALSE; } } else { return FALSE; } } return $cache; } if ($operation == "Encrypt" || $operation == "Decrypt") { # CHECK FOR ANY ERROR $errors = array(); if (strlen($_POST["input"]) == 0) { $output = ""; } $binmajor = hex2bin($_POST["majorkey"]); if (strlen($_POST["majorkey"]) == 0) { array_push($errors, "There must be a major key."); } elseif ($binmajor == FALSE) { array_push($errors, "The major key must be in hex."); } elseif (_check_major($binmajor) == FALSE) { array_push($errors, "The major key is corrupt."); } $binminor = hex2bin($_POST["minorkey"]); if (strlen($_POST["minorkey"]) == 0) { array_push($errors, "There must be a minor key."); } elseif ($binminor == FALSE) { array_push($errors, "The minor key must be in hex."); } elseif (_check_minor($binminor) == FALSE) { array_push($errors, "The minor key is corrupt."); } if ($_POST["operation"] == "Decrypt") { $bininput = hex2bin(str_replace("\r", "", str_replace("\n", "", $_POST["input"]))); if ($bininput == FALSE) { if (strlen($_POST["input"]) != 0) { array_push($errors, "The input data must be in hex."); } } elseif (strlen($bininput) % 4 != 0) { array_push($errors, "The input data is corrupt."); } } if (count($errors) != 0) { # ERRORS ARE FOUND $output = "ERROR:"; foreach ($errors as $error) { $output .= "\n" . $error; } } elseif (strlen($_POST["input"]) != 0) { # CONTINUE WORKING if ($_POST["operation"] == "Encrypt") { # ENCRYPT $output = substr(chunk_split(bin2hex(encode_string($_POST["input"], $binmajor, $binminor)), 58), 0, -2); } else { # DECRYPT $output = htmlspecialchars(decode_string($bininput, $binmajor, $binminor)); } } } # echo the form with the values filled echo "<P><TEXTAREA class=maintextarea name=input rows=25 cols=25>" . $input . "</TEXTAREA></P>\n"; echo "<P>Major Name:</P>\n"; echo "<P><INPUT id=textbox1 name=majorname value=\"" . $majorname . "\"></P>\n"; echo "<P>Minor Name:</P>\n"; echo "<P><INPUT id=textbox1 name=minorname value=\"" . $minorname . "\"></P>\n"; echo "<DIV style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><INPUT class=submit type=submit value=Create name=operation>\n"; echo "</DIV>\n"; echo "<P>Major Key:</P>\n"; echo "<P><INPUT id=textbox1 name=majorkey value=\"" . $majorkey . "\"></P>\n"; echo "<P>Minor Key:</P>\n"; echo "<P><INPUT id=textbox1 name=minorkey value=\"" . $minorkey . "\"></P>\n"; echo "<DIV style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><INPUT class=submit type=submit value=Encrypt name=operation> \n"; echo "<INPUT class=submit type=submit value=Decrypt name=operation> </DIV>\n"; echo "<P>Result:</P>\n"; echo "<P><TEXTAREA class=maintextarea name=output rows=25 readOnly cols=25>" . $output . "</TEXTAREA></P></DIV></FORM>\n"; ?> What should be editted for better memory efficiency or faster execution?

  Read the article

• What can be improved in this PHP code?

  - by Noctis Skytower

  This is a custom encryption library. I do not know much about PHP's standard library of functions and was wondering if the following code can be improved in any way. The implementation should yield the same results, the API should remain as it is, but ways to make is more PHP-ish would be greatly appreciated. Code <?php /*************************************** Create random major and minor SPICE key. ***************************************/ function crypt_major() { $all = range("\x00", "\xFF"); shuffle($all); $major_key = implode("", $all); return $major_key; } function crypt_minor() { $sample = array(); do { array_push($sample, 0, 1, 2, 3); } while (count($sample) != 256); shuffle($sample); $list = array(); for ($index = 0; $index < 64; $index++) { $b12 = $sample[$index * 4] << 6; $b34 = $sample[$index * 4 + 1] << 4; $b56 = $sample[$index * 4 + 2] << 2; $b78 = $sample[$index * 4 + 3]; array_push($list, $b12 + $b34 + $b56 + $b78); } $minor_key = implode("", array_map("chr", $list)); return $minor_key; } /*************************************** Create the SPICE key via the given name. ***************************************/ function named_major($name) { srand(crc32($name)); return crypt_major(); } function named_minor($name) { srand(crc32($name)); return crypt_minor(); } /*************************************** Check validity for major and minor keys. ***************************************/ function _check_major($key) { if (is_string($key) && strlen($key) == 256) { foreach (range("\x00", "\xFF") as $char) { if (substr_count($key, $char) == 0) { return FALSE; } } return TRUE; } return FALSE; } function _check_minor($key) { if (is_string($key) && strlen($key) == 64) { $indexs = array(); foreach (array_map("ord", str_split($key)) as $byte) { foreach (range(6, 0, 2) as $shift) { array_push($indexs, ($byte >> $shift) & 3); } } $dict = array_count_values($indexs); foreach (range(0, 3) as $index) { if ($dict[$index] != 64) { return FALSE; } } return TRUE; } return FALSE; } /*************************************** Create encode maps for encode functions. ***************************************/ function _encode_map_1($major) { return array_map("ord", str_split($major)); } function _encode_map_2($minor) { $map_2 = array(array(), array(), array(), array()); $list = array(); foreach (array_map("ord", str_split($minor)) as $byte) { foreach (range(6, 0, 2) as $shift) { array_push($list, ($byte >> $shift) & 3); } } for ($byte = 0; $byte < 256; $byte++) { array_push($map_2[$list[$byte]], chr($byte)); } return $map_2; } /*************************************** Create decode maps for decode functions. ***************************************/ function _decode_map_1($minor) { $map_1 = array(); foreach (array_map("ord", str_split($minor)) as $byte) { foreach (range(6, 0, 2) as $shift) { array_push($map_1, ($byte >> $shift) & 3); } } return $map_1; }function _decode_map_2($major) { $map_2 = array(); $temp = array_map("ord", str_split($major)); for ($byte = 0; $byte < 256; $byte++) { $map_2[$temp[$byte]] = chr($byte); } return $map_2; } /*************************************** Encrypt or decrypt the string with maps. ***************************************/ function _encode($string, $map_1, $map_2) { $cache = ""; foreach (str_split($string) as $char) { $byte = $map_1[ord($char)]; foreach (range(6, 0, 2) as $shift) { $cache .= $map_2[($byte >> $shift) & 3][mt_rand(0, 63)]; } } return $cache; } function _decode($string, $map_1, $map_2) { $cache = ""; $temp = str_split($string); for ($iter = 0; $iter < strlen($string) / 4; $iter++) { $b12 = $map_1[ord($temp[$iter * 4])] << 6; $b34 = $map_1[ord($temp[$iter * 4 + 1])] << 4; $b56 = $map_1[ord($temp[$iter * 4 + 2])] << 2; $b78 = $map_1[ord($temp[$iter * 4 + 3])]; $cache .= $map_2[$b12 + $b34 + $b56 + $b78]; } return $cache; } /*************************************** This is the public interface for coding. ***************************************/ function encode_string($string, $major, $minor) { if (is_string($string)) { if (_check_major($major) && _check_minor($minor)) { $map_1 = _encode_map_1($major); $map_2 = _encode_map_2($minor); return _encode($string, $map_1, $map_2); } } return FALSE; } function decode_string($string, $major, $minor) { if (is_string($string) && strlen($string) % 4 == 0) { if (_check_major($major) && _check_minor($minor)) { $map_1 = _decode_map_1($minor); $map_2 = _decode_map_2($major); return _decode($string, $map_1, $map_2); } } return FALSE; } ?> This is a sample showing how the code is being used. Hex editors may be of help with the input / output. Example <?php # get and process all of the form data @ $input = htmlspecialchars($_POST["input"]); @ $majorname = htmlspecialchars($_POST["majorname"]); @ $minorname = htmlspecialchars($_POST["minorname"]); @ $majorkey = htmlspecialchars($_POST["majorkey"]); @ $minorkey = htmlspecialchars($_POST["minorkey"]); @ $output = htmlspecialchars($_POST["output"]); # process the submissions by operation # CREATE @ $operation = $_POST["operation"]; if ($operation == "Create") { if (strlen($_POST["majorname"]) == 0) { $majorkey = bin2hex(crypt_major()); } if (strlen($_POST["minorname"]) == 0) { $minorkey = bin2hex(crypt_minor()); } if (strlen($_POST["majorname"]) != 0) { $majorkey = bin2hex(named_major($_POST["majorname"])); } if (strlen($_POST["minorname"]) != 0) { $minorkey = bin2hex(named_minor($_POST["minorname"])); } } # ENCRYPT or DECRYPT function is_hex($char) { if ($char == "0"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "1"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "2"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "3"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "4"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "5"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "6"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "7"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "8"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "9"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "a"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "b"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "c"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "d"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "e"): return TRUE; elseif ($char == "f"): return TRUE; else: return FALSE; endif; } function hex2bin($str) { if (strlen($str) % 2 == 0): $string = strtolower($str); else: $string = strtolower("0" . $str); endif; $cache = ""; $temp = str_split($str); for ($index = 0; $index < count($temp) / 2; $index++) { $h1 = $temp[$index * 2]; if (is_hex($h1)) { $h2 = $temp[$index * 2 + 1]; if (is_hex($h2)) { $cache .= chr(hexdec($h1 . $h2)); } else { return FALSE; } } else { return FALSE; } } return $cache; } if ($operation == "Encrypt" || $operation == "Decrypt") { # CHECK FOR ANY ERROR $errors = array(); if (strlen($_POST["input"]) == 0) { $output = ""; } $binmajor = hex2bin($_POST["majorkey"]); if (strlen($_POST["majorkey"]) == 0) { array_push($errors, "There must be a major key."); } elseif ($binmajor == FALSE) { array_push($errors, "The major key must be in hex."); } elseif (_check_major($binmajor) == FALSE) { array_push($errors, "The major key is corrupt."); } $binminor = hex2bin($_POST["minorkey"]); if (strlen($_POST["minorkey"]) == 0) { array_push($errors, "There must be a minor key."); } elseif ($binminor == FALSE) { array_push($errors, "The minor key must be in hex."); } elseif (_check_minor($binminor) == FALSE) { array_push($errors, "The minor key is corrupt."); } if ($_POST["operation"] == "Decrypt") { $bininput = hex2bin(str_replace("\r", "", str_replace("\n", "", $_POST["input"]))); if ($bininput == FALSE) { if (strlen($_POST["input"]) != 0) { array_push($errors, "The input data must be in hex."); } } elseif (strlen($bininput) % 4 != 0) { array_push($errors, "The input data is corrupt."); } } if (count($errors) != 0) { # ERRORS ARE FOUND $output = "ERROR:"; foreach ($errors as $error) { $output .= "\n" . $error; } } elseif (strlen($_POST["input"]) != 0) { # CONTINUE WORKING if ($_POST["operation"] == "Encrypt") { # ENCRYPT $output = substr(chunk_split(bin2hex(encode_string($_POST["input"], $binmajor, $binminor)), 58), 0, -2); } else { # DECRYPT $output = htmlspecialchars(decode_string($bininput, $binmajor, $binminor)); } } } # echo the form with the values filled echo "<P><TEXTAREA class=maintextarea name=input rows=25 cols=25>" . $input . "</TEXTAREA></P>\n"; echo "<P>Major Name:</P>\n"; echo "<P><INPUT id=textbox1 name=majorname value=\"" . $majorname . "\"></P>\n"; echo "<P>Minor Name:</P>\n"; echo "<P><INPUT id=textbox1 name=minorname value=\"" . $minorname . "\"></P>\n"; echo "<DIV style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><INPUT class=submit type=submit value=Create name=operation>\n"; echo "</DIV>\n"; echo "<P>Major Key:</P>\n"; echo "<P><INPUT id=textbox1 name=majorkey value=\"" . $majorkey . "\"></P>\n"; echo "<P>Minor Key:</P>\n"; echo "<P><INPUT id=textbox1 name=minorkey value=\"" . $minorkey . "\"></P>\n"; echo "<DIV style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><INPUT class=submit type=submit value=Encrypt name=operation> \n"; echo "<INPUT class=submit type=submit value=Decrypt name=operation> </DIV>\n"; echo "<P>Result:</P>\n"; echo "<P><TEXTAREA class=maintextarea name=output rows=25 readOnly cols=25>" . $output . "</TEXTAREA></P></DIV></FORM>\n"; ?> What should be editted for better memory efficiency or faster execution?

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• FullCalendar events from asp.net ASHX page not displaying

  - by Steve Howard

  Hi I have been trying to add some events to the fullCalendar using a call to a ASHX page using the following code. Page script: <script type="text/javascript"> $(document).ready(function() { $('#calendar').fullCalendar({ header: { left: 'prev,next today', center: 'title', right: 'month, agendaWeek,agendaDay' }, events: 'FullCalendarEvents.ashx' }) }); c# code: public class EventsData { public int id { get; set; } public string title { get; set; } public string start { get; set; } public string end { get; set; } public string url { get; set; } public int accountId { get; set; } } public class FullCalendarEvents : IHttpHandler { private static List<EventsData> testEventsData = new List<EventsData> { new EventsData {accountId = 0, title = "test 1", start = DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd"), id=0}, new EventsData{ accountId = 1, title="test 2", start = DateTime.Now.AddHours(2).ToString("yyyy-MM-dd"), id=2} }; public void ProcessRequest(HttpContext context) { context.Response.ContentType = "application/json."; context.Response.Write(GetEventData()); } private string GetEventData() { List<EventsData> ed = testEventsData; StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(); sb.Append("["); foreach (var data in ed) { sb.Append("{"); sb.Append(string.Format("id: {0},", data.id)); sb.Append(string.Format("title:'{0}',", data.title)); sb.Append(string.Format("start: '{0}',", data.start)); sb.Append("allDay: false"); sb.Append("},"); } sb.Remove(sb.Length - 1, 1); sb.Append("]"); return sb.ToString(); } } The ASHX page gets called and returnd the following data: [{id: 0,title:'test 1',start: '2010-06-07',allDay: false},{id: 2,title:'test 2',start: '2010-06-07',allDay: false}] The call to the ASHX page does not display any results, but if I paste the values returned directly into the events it displays correctly. I am I have been trying to get this code to work for a day now and I can't see why the events are not getting set. Any help or advise on how I can get this to work would be appreciated. Steve

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