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  • MSI install sequence - run DB scripts before services start

    - by marc_s
    Folks, we're running into some sequencing troubles with our MSI install. As part of our app, we install a bunch of services and allow the user to pick whether to start them right away or later. When they start right away, they seem to start too early in the install sequence - before our database manager had a chance to update the database. Right now, our custom action to run the database updater looks like this - it's being run after "InstallFinalize" - very late in the process. <InstallExecuteSequence> <RemoveExistingProducts After='InstallInitialize' /> <Custom Action='RunDbUpdateManagerAction' After='InstallFinalize'> DbUpdateManager=3</Custom> </InstallExecuteSequence> What would be the more appropriate step to run after or before, to make sure the DB scripts are executed before any of the installed services start up? Is there a "BeforeServiceStart" step? EDIT: Just defining the "Before='StartServices'" attribute on the tag didn't solve my problem. I am assuming the issue is this: the custom action has an "inner text", which represents a condition, and this condition is: "&DbUpdateManager=3". From what I can deduce from trial & error, this probably means "the DbUpdateManager feature must be published". Now, trouble is: "PublishFeature" comes way at the end in the install sequence, just before "InstallFinalize", and definitely AFTER InstallServices / StartServices. So when I specify the "Before=StartServices" requirement, the condition "DbUpdateManager feature must be published" isn't true yet, so the DbUpdateManager doesn't get executed :-( I tried removing the condition - in that case, my DbUpdateManager sometimes doesn't execute at all, sometimes more than once - no real clear pattern as to what happens when..... Any more ideas?? Is there a way I could check for a condition "the DbUpdateManager feature is installed" which would be true after the "InstallFiles" step?? Marc

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  • How do I read from a file consists of city names and coordinates/Populations and create functions to get the coordinates and population?

    - by Braybray
    I'm using Python, and I have a file which has city names and information such as names, coordinates of the city and population of the city: Youngstown, OH[4110,8065]115436 Yankton, SD[4288,9739]12011 966 Yakima, WA[4660,12051]49826 1513 2410 Worcester, MA[4227,7180]161799 2964 1520 604 Wisconsin Dells, WI[4363,8977]2521 1149 1817 481 595 How can I create a function to take the city name and return a list containing the latitude and longitude of the given city? fin = open ("miles.dat","r") def getCoordinates cities = [] for line in fin: cities.append(line.rstrip()) for word in line: print line.split() That's what I tried now; how could I get the coordinates of the city by calling the names of the city and how can I return the word of each line but not letters? Any help will be much appreciated, thanks all.

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  • Get countries within range of LAT/LONG coordinates

    - by ptrn
    Trouble! I'm looking for a way to find the countries within a given range of LAT/LONG coordinates. E.g.: When viewing a place in Africa in Google Maps, I get out which countries that are in my current view. This is a bit ambitious, and I think the main problem will be dealing with accuracy of the needed polygons. The accuracy of these don't need to be all that great, the borders can probably be tens of miles off, or even more. This will be needed for the entire world.

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  • How can I control UISlider Value Changed-events frequncy?

    - by Albert
    I'm writing an iPhone app that is using two uisliders to control values that are sent using coreBluetooth. If I move the sliders quickly one value freezes at the receiver, presumably because the Value Changed events trigger so often that the write-commands stack up and eventually get thrown away. How can I make sure the events don't trigger too often? Edit: Here is a clarification of the problem; the bluetooth connection sends commands every 105ms. If the user generates a bunch of events during that time they seem to que up. I would like to throw away any values generated between the connection events and just send one every 105ms. This is basically what I'm doing right now: -(IBAction) sliderChanged:(UISlider *)sender{ static int8_t value = 0; int8_t new_value = (int8_t)sender.value; if ( new_value > value + threshold || new_value < value - threshold ) { value = new_value; [btDevice writeValue:value]; } } What I'm asking is how to implement something like -(IBAction) sliderChanged:(UISlider *)sender{ static int8_t value = 0; if (105msHasPassed) { int8_t new_value = (int8_t)sender.value; if ( new_value > value + threshold || new_value < value - threshold ) { value = new_value; [btDevice writeValue:value]; } } }

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  • When to define SDD operations System->Actor?

    - by devoured elysium
    I am having some trouble understanding how to make SDDs, as I don't fully grasp why in some cases one should define operations for System - Actor and in others don't. Here is an example: 1) The User tells the System that wants to buy some tickets, stating his client number. 2) The System confirms that the given client number is valid. 3) The User tells the System the movie that wants to see. 4) The System shows the set of available sessions and seats for that movie. 5) The System asks the user which session/seat he wants. 6) The user tells the System the chosen session/seat. This would be converted to: a) -----> tellClientNumber(clientNumber) b) <----- validClientNumber c) -----> tellMovieToSee(movie) d) <----- showsAvailableSeatsHours e) -----> tellSystemChosenSessionSeat(session, seat) I know that when we are dealing with SDD's we are still far away from coding. But I can't help trying to imagine how it how it would have been had I to convert it right away to code: I can understand 1) and 2). It's like if it was a C#/Java method with the following signature: boolean tellClientNumber(clientNumber) so I put both on the SDD. Then, we have the pair 3) 4). I can imagine that as something as: SomeDataStructureThatHoldsAvailableSessionsSeats tellSystemMovieToSee(movie) Now, the problem: From what I've come to understand, my lecturer says that we shouldn't make an operation on the SDD for 5) as we should only show operations from the Actor to the System and when the System is either presenting us data (as in c)) or validating sent data (such as in b)). I find this odd, as if I try to imagine this like a DOS app where you have to put your input sequencially, it makes sense to make an arrow even for 5). Why is this wrong? How should I try to visualize this? Thanks

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  • iOS 7: Best way to implement an textview that presents previous input but is easy to clear

    - by Frank R.
    I'm porting a Mac app to the iPhone and I've run into an unexpected problem. On the Mac there's a text field that is automatically pre-selected (= first responder) when a dialog shows up. The text field shows the text you entered in the field the last time and the text is pre-selected so that if you just start typing it gets cleared away. If you want to edit the existing text instead you just hit the forwards or backwards arrow. On the iPhone this behavior seems very hard to implement. The text view shows up with the old text and I can even get it to pre-select but whatever I do the result is not quite right. When I use [aTextView setMarkedText: myText selectedRange: newRange]; the text does show up as marked and if I just start typing the old text goes away. However there's no equivalent to the cursor keys on iOS, so I cannot NOT erase the text.. which is hardly the point. What kind of iOS idiom would be appropriate for giving the option to either edit or overwrite existing text? Best regards, Frank

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  • jquery form validation, and submit-on-change

    - by Bee
    I want to make all my settings forms across my site confirm that changes are saved, kinda like facebook does if you make changes in a form and then try to navigate away without saving. So I'm disabling the submit button on the forms only enabling if the values change. I then prompt the user to hit save before they leave the page in the case that they do have changes pending. var form = $('form.edit'); if(form.length > 0) { var orig_str = form.serialize(); $(':submit',form).attr('disabled','disabled'); form.on('change keyup', function(){ if(form.serialize() == orig_str) { setConfirmUnload(false); $(':submit',form).attr('disabled','disabled'); } else { setConfirmUnload(true); $(':submit',form).removeAttr('disabled') } }); $('input[type=submit]').click(function(){ setConfirmUnload(false); }); } function setConfirmUnload(on) { window.onbeforeunload = (on) ? unloadMessage : null; } function unloadMessage() { return 'If you navigate away from this page without saving your changes, they will be lost.'; } One of these forms needs some additional validation which I do using jQuery.validate library. e.g. if i wanted to ensure the user can't double submit the form on accident by double clicking on submit or somesuch (the actual validation in question is for a credit-card form and not this simple): $('form').validate({ submitHandler: function(form) { $(':submit', form).attr('disabled','disabled'); form.submit(); } }); Unfortunately both bits are trying to bind to submit button and they're interfering with each other such that the submit button remains disabled no matter what I do and it is impossible to submit the form at all. Is there some way to chain the validations together or something? Or some other way to avoid re-writing the validation code to repeat the "did you change anything in the form" business?

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  • Remote desktop connection to Raspberry Pi without specifying a port

    - by Max Methot
    I have a Raspberry Pi running Raspbian Wheezy connected in "Site A", where the network is managed by a third party company and where all ports are closed the the Internet (for security reasons). So, there is no way for me to do any port forwarding to VNC, nor SSH or anything else. That means I just can't access it in any way other than locally, on-site. However, I need to connect to that device on the X Desktop session (graphical interface) to do some maintenance, and I am located in let's say "Site B", which is nearly 300 miles away from site A. I know you can do such tasks on Windows or x86 Linux computers with TeamViewer (we use it for our other hardware in the same location and it works like a charm), but since the Raspberry Pi is based on an ARM architecture, it isn't supported by TeamViewer yet. If anyone has ever achieved this, I would be glad to hear how to do it! Thanks!

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  • Is Domain Anaemia appropriate in a Service Oriented Architecture?

    - by Stimul8d
    I want to be clear on this. When I say domain anaemia, I mean intentional domain anaemia, not accidental. In a world where most of our business logic is hidden away behind a bunch of services, is a full domain model really necessary? This is the question I've had to ask myself recently since working on a project where the "domain" model is in reality a persistence model; none of the domain objects contain any methods and this is a very intentional decision. Initially, I shuddered when I saw a library full of what are essentially type-safe data containers but after some thought it struck me that this particular system doesn't do much but basic CRUD operations, so maybe in this case this is a good choice. My problem I guess is that my experience so far has been very much focussed on a rich domain model so it threw me a little. The remainder of the domain logic is hidden away in a group of helpers, facades and factories which live in a separate assembly. I'm keen to hear what people's thoughts are on this. Obviously, the considerations for reuse of these classes are much simpler but is really that great a benefit?

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  • Location accuracy of Google Analytics for Android

    - by BadCash
    When testing Google Analytics (version 2) for an Android project, I noticed that the Real Time map shows my location to be about 200 miles from my actual location. I'm running my project on a physical device, which leads me to believe that Google Analytics doesn't actually send any location information, but rather gets it from the phones IP address when the data is sent to Googles server. Is there any way to alter this behavior and provide my own location data using getLastKnownLocation() for example? Sending it as an actual Label/Action string would of course work, but that means I can't use Google Analytics fancy map feature to view where my users are coming from.

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  • user specific persistent cck types in drupal

    - by Fion
    Is there a way to do the following. We need to have a few basic cck types that will allow users to track their chosen parameters over a length of time. For example, one cck type may be called "numeric tracker" It would have a field for labeling the type and a field for entering a number. User A might label one numeric tracker "miles driven". Then each day user A would use this type to enter a number. User B might label a numeric tracker "hours slept". Each day user B would enter a number. Is there a way to use cck in this way?

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  • When to define SDD(System Sequence Diagram) operations System->Actor?

    - by devoured elysium
    I am having some trouble understanding how to make System Sequence Diagrams, as I don't fully grasp why in some cases one should define operations for System - Actor and in others don't. Here is an example: Let's assume the System is a Cinema Ticket Store and the Actor is a client that wants to buy a ticket. 1) The User tells the System that wants to buy some tickets, stating his client number. 2) The System confirms that the given client number is valid. 3) The User tells the System the movie that wants to see. 4) The System shows the set of available sessions and seats for that movie. 5) The System asks the user which session/seat he wants. 6) The User tells the System the chosen session/seat. This would be converted to: a) -----> tellClientNumber(clientNumber) b) <----- validClientNumber c) -----> tellMovieToSee(movie) d) <----- showsAvailableSeatsHours e) -----> tellSystemChosenSessionSeat(session, seat) I know that when we are dealing with SDD's we are still far away from coding. But I can't help trying to imagine how it how it would have been had I to convert it right away to code: I can understand 1) and 2). It's like if it was a C#/Java method with the following signature: boolean tellClientNumber(clientNumber) so I put both on the SDD. Then, we have the pair 3) 4). I can imagine that as something as: SomeDataStructureThatHoldsAvailableSessionsSeats tellSystemMovieToSee(movie) Now, the problem: From what I've come to understand, my lecturer says that we shouldn't make an operation on the SDD for 5) as we should only show operations from the Actor to the System and when the System is either presenting us data (as in c)) or validating sent data (such as in b)). I find this odd, as if I try to imagine this like a DOS app where you have to put your input sequencially, it makes sense to make an arrow even for 5). Why is this wrong? How should I try to visualize this? Thanks

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  • Been asked a dozen times, but no luck from what I've read. Prevent Anchor Jumping on page load

    - by jasenmp
    I'm currently working with WP theme that can be found here: sanjay.dmediastudios.com I'm currently using 'smooth scroll' on my page, I'm attempting to have the page smoothly scroll to the requested section when coming from an external link (for instance coming from the blog page takes you to sanjay.dmediastudios.com/#portfolio) from there I want the page to start at the top and THEN scroll to the portfolio section. What's happening is it briefly displays the 'portfolio section' (anchor jump) and THEN resets to the top and scrolls down. It's driving me nuts :(. Here is the code I'm using: Click function for smooth scroll: $(function() { $('.menu li a').click(function() { if (location.pathname.replace(/^\//, '') == this.pathname.replace(/^\//, '') && location.hostname == this.hostname) { var target = $(this.hash); target = target.length ? target : $('[name=' + this.hash.slice(1) + ']'); if (target.length) { $root.animate({ scrollTop: target.offset().top - 75 }, 800, 'swing'); return false; } } }); //end of click function }); The page load function: $(window).on("load", function() { if (location.hash) { // do the test straight away window.scrollTo(0, 0); // execute it straight away setTimeout(function() { window.scrollTo(0, 0); // run it a bit later also for browser compatibility }, 1); } var urlHash = window.location.href.split("#")[1]; if (urlHash && $('#' + urlHash).length) $('html,body').animate({ scrollTop: $('#' + urlHash).offset().top - 75 }, 800, 'swing'); }); Any help would be MUCH appreciated.

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  • Oracle spatial search within distance

    - by KA_lin
    I have the following table Cities: ID(int),City(char),latitude(float),longitude(float). Now based on a user`s longitude(ex:44.8) and latitude(ex:46.3) I want to search for all the cities near him within 100 miles/KM. I have found some examples but don`t know how to adapt them to my case select * from GEO.Cities a where SDO_WITHIN_DISTANCE([I don`t know], MDSYS.SDO_GEOMETRY(2001, 8307, MDSYS.SDO_POINT_TYPE(44.8,46.3, NULL) ,NULL, NULL), 'distance = 1000') = 'TRUE'; Any help would be appreciated. P.S: If it is possible to have the distance and to be sorted P.P.S: I want to do it in this way due to performance issues, I have done this in this way http://www.scribd.com/doc/2569355/Geo-Distance-Search-with-MySQL but it takes too long...

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  • c# Display the data in the List view

    - by Kumu
    private void displayResultsButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { gameResultsListView.Items.Clear(); //foreach (Game game in footballLeagueDatabase.games) //{ ListViewItem row = new ListViewItem(); row.SubItems.Add(game.HomeTeam.ToString()); row.SubItems.Add(game.HomeScore.ToString()); row.SubItems.Add(game.AwayTeam.ToString()); row.SubItems.Add(game.AwayScore.ToString()); gameResultsListView.Items.Add(row); // } //footballLeagueDatabase.games.Sort(); } } } This is the display button and the following code describes the add button. private void addGameButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { if ((homeTeamTxt.Text.Length) == 0) MessageBox.Show("You must enter a Home Team"); else if (homeScoreUpDown.Maximum <= 9 && homeScoreUpDown.Minimum >= 0) MessageBox.Show("You must enter one digit between 0 and 9"); else if ((awayTeamTxt.Text.Length) == 0) MessageBox.Show("You must enter a Away Team"); else if (awayScoreUpDown.Maximum <= 9 && awayScoreUpDown.Minimum >= 0) MessageBox.Show("You must enter one digit between 0 to 9"); else { //checkGameInputFields(); game = new Game(homeTeamTxt.Text, int.Parse(homeScoreUpDown.Value.ToString()), awayTeamTxt.Text, int.Parse(awayScoreUpDown.Value.ToString())); MessageBox.Show("Home Team" + 't' + homeTeamTxt.Text + "Away Team" + awayTeamTxt.Text + "created"); footballLeagueDatabase.AddGame(game); //clearCreateStudentInputFields(); } } I need to insert data into the above text field and Numeric up down control and display them in the list view. But I dont know How to do it, because when I press the button "Display Results" it displays the error message. If you know how can I display the data in the list view, please let me know.This is the first time I am using List view.

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  • How to find out style of NSUserNotification during run-time? Or force close an alert?

    - by Dmitri Shuralyov
    According to "OS X Mountain Lion Release Notes" (https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#releasenotes/Cocoa/Foundation.html), "The user has ultimate control over what notifications are displayed, and the style (banner, alert, etc). There is no mechanism to override the user preferences." Even though all I want to do is "downgrade" from alert style to banner style... Fine. But can I at least find out whether a notification is of alert or banner style inside the didActivateNotification method? The reason I want to do that is to respond differently according to notification.activationType. When the alert is a banner (which is what I want), clicking its contents is the only possible action, and this both triggers didActivateNotification method and closes the notification banner. When the user chooses alert-style notifications, clicking the alert contents also generates didActivateNotification with the same value of notification.activationType, but it stays on screen instead of going away (it only goes away when the Action button is pressed). I don't want my app to trigger an action repeatedly for the same alert notification, in case the user clicks the content area of an alert notification. An alternative solution would be to force the alert notification bubble to dismiss when the user clicks its contents. Is this possible?

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  • Could not laod file or assembly ‘System.Web.Silverlight’

    - by Adam Berent
    I really need some help with this as I have been trying to fix this for months and I can't figure it out. I run an online chess site written in Silverlight 3.0 The architecture is Silverlight Client connecting to a WCF service that reads and writes data to a SQL Server database. It is hosted on Godaddy, Once every so often I get the following error: Could not laod file or assembly ‘System.Web.Silverlight’ or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the path specified. If I leave it alone it will fix itself after a few hours, however usually I just make a new publish of my application and it goes away. Also all the pages in the solution get this message not just the Silverlight application. So I have an aspx page with top ranks that does not use Silverlight but is in the same solution it also gets the same error. Its almost like the whole site dies. This does not seem like a huge issue but it makes going on vacation hard since my site can go down at any time I am away. Also this seems to happen the most when I am sleeping so I often don't get to fixing it until I have already lost hours of potential logins. If you have had the same issue please, please help!

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  • SQL database self interaction entity

    - by Ricardo Costa
    I've been working on a database, wich is referent to an Aeroport management. I'm having a problem that it's freaking me out.. What i'm trying to do is, assuming that a client wants to know the distance between 2 locations, in miles or kms. As an example, if the user wants to know the distance between London and Amsterdam, should that distance be calculated by a formule or should it be already stored on the database? (1,N) ____________ ____________|__ | | | | | City/Airport |<---------| |______________| How can i show to user the distance between his 2 choices? RicardoCosta

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  • Geographic obstructions in radius searches

    - by Michael Papile
    Suppose I have an application a search for all gas stations within 10 mile radius of a certain location. However one side of this location is surrounded by a mountain range that you have to drive 50 miles to get around. You would not want to return results from the other side of the mountain. What are some good algorithms/techniques to deal with such a problem? I know with point to point searches you can use path costs but I am not sure what the technique is with radius searches.

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  • Array of Sentences?

    - by user1869915
    Javascript noob here.... I am trying to build a site that will help my kids read predefined sentences from a select group, then when a button is clicked it will display one of the sentences. Is an array the best option for this? For example, I have this array (below) and on the click of a button I would like one of these sentences to appear on the page. <script type="text/javascript"> Sentence = new Array() Sentence[0]='Can we go to the park.'; Sentence[1]='Where is the orange cat? Said the big black dog.'; Sentence[2]='We can make the bird fly away if we jump on something.' Sentence[3]='We can go down to the store with the dog. It is not too far away.' Sentence[4]='My big yellow cat ate the little black bird.' Sentence[5]='I like to read my book at school.' Sentence[6]='We are going to swim at the park.' </script> Again, is an array the best for this and how could I get the sentence to display? Ideally I would want the button to randomly select one of these sentences but just displaying one of them for now would help. Thanks

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  • jQuery: Sustain a hover over two elements

    - by wkdown
    I have an <img> that, once hovered over, animates and fades in the <div> of a larger version of the picture, along with text and a hyperlink. When mousing out, the <div> animates and fades away. This works fine, only my hover function only pertains to the <img> itself. As soon as either a) the <div> appears over the <img>, or b) one mouses off the <img> to get to the <div>, jQuery reads a mouseout and animates the <div> away. How do I re-write my jQuery to allow me to fix this? Thanks in advance ... Here is a portion of the HTML: <img runat="server" src="~/images/pc_blocks_navigation_spec1.gif" class="navigation_spec1" alt="" /> <div class="navigation_spec1_panel"> <p>filler <a href="#">test</a></p> </div> ... and the jQuery ... $('.navigation_spec1_panel').hide().css('opacity','0.0'); $('.navigation_spec1').hover(function() { $('.navigation_spec1_panel').animate({ width: '337px', height: '234px', opacity: 1.0 }, 1250 ); }, function() { $('.navigation_spec1_panel').animate({ width: '1px', height: '1px', opacity: 0.0 }, 1250); }); }); (Side comment: My animated <div> does not appear over / on top of other <div>s coded after this one in IE 6 or 7. The <div> appears behind them instead, regardless of z-index. Suggestions?)

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  • c++ Multiple Inheritance - Compiler modifying my pointers

    - by Bob
    If I run the following code, I get different addresses printed. Why? class Base1 { int x; }; class Base2 { int y; }; class Derived : public Base1, public Base2 { }; union U { Base2* b; Derived* d; U(Base2* b2) : b(b) {} }; int main() { Derived* d = new Derived; cout << d << "\n"; cout << U(d).d << "\n"; return 0; } Even more fun is if you repeatedly go in and out of the union the address keeps incrementing by 4, like this int main() { Derived* d = new Derived; cout << d << "\n"; d = U(d).d; cout << d << "\n"; d = U(d).d; cout << d << "\n"; return 0; } If the union is modified like this, then the problem goes away union U { void* v; Base2* b; Derived* d; U(void* v) : v(v) {} }; Also, if either base class is made empty, the problem goes away. Is this a compiler bug? I want it to leave my pointers the hell alone.

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  • Designing for the future

    - by Dennis Vroegop
    User interfaces and user experience design is a fast moving field. It’s something that changes pretty quick: what feels fresh today will look outdated tomorrow. I remember the day I first got a beta version of Windows 95 and I felt swept away by the user interface of the OS. It felt so modern! If I look back now, it feels old. Well, it should: the design is 17 years old which is an eternity in our field. Of course, this is not limited to UI. Same goes for many industries. I want you to think back of the cars that amazed you when you were in your teens (if you are in your teens then this may not apply to you). Didn’t they feel like part of the future? Didn’t you think that this was the ultimate in designs? And aren’t those designs hopelessly outdated today (again, depending on your age, it may just be me)? Let’s review the Win95 design: And let’s compare that to Windows 7: There are so many differences here, I wouldn’t even know where to start explaining them. The general feeling however is one of more usability: studies have shown Windows 7 is much easier to understand for new users than the older versions of Windows did. Of course, experienced Windows users didn’t like it: people are usually afraid of changes and like to stick to what they know. But for new users this was a huge improvement. And that is what UX design is all about: make a product easier to use, with less training required and make users feel more productive. Still, there are areas where this doesn’t hold up. There are plenty examples of designs from the past that are still fresh today. But if you look closely at them, you’ll notice some subtle differences. This differences are what keep the designs fresh. A good example is the signs you’ll find on the road. They haven’t changed much over the years (otherwise people wouldn’t recognize them anymore) but they have been changing gradually to reflect changes in traffic. The same goes for computer interfaces. With each new product or version of a product, the UI and UX is changed gradually. Every now and then however, a bigger change is needed. Just think about the introduction of the Ribbon in Microsoft Office 2007: the whole UI was redesigned. A lot of old users (not in age, but in times of using older versions) didn’t like it a bit, but new users or casual users seem to be more efficient using the product. Which, of course, is exactly the reason behind the changes. I believe that a big engine behind the changes in User Experience design has been the web. In the old days (i.e. before the explosion of the internet) user interface design in Windows applications was limited to choosing the margins between your battleship gray buttons. When the web came along, and especially the web 2.0 where the browsers started to act more and more as application platforms, designers stepped in and made a huge impact. In the browser, they could do whatever they wanted. In the beginning this was limited to the darn blink tag but gradually people really started to think about UX. Even more so: the design of the UI and the whole experience was taken away from the developers and put into the hands of people who knew what they were doing: UX designers. This caused some problems. Everyone who has done a web project in the early 2000’s must have had the same experience: the designers give you a set of Photoshop files and tell you to translate it to HTML. Which, of course, is very hard to do. However, with new tooling and new standards this became much easier. The latest version of HTML and CSS has taken the responsibility for the design away from the developers and placed them in the capable hands of the designers. And that’s where that responsibility belongs, after all, I don’t want a designer to muck around in my c# code just as much as he or she doesn’t want me to poke in the sites style definitions. This change in responsibilities resulted in good looking but more important: better thought out user interfaces in websites. And when websites became more and more interactive, people started to expect the same sort of look and feel from their desktop applications. But that didn’t really happen. Most business applications still have that battleship gray look and feel. Ok, they may use a different color but we’re not talking colors here but usability. Now, you may not be able to read the Dutch captions, but even if you did you wouldn’t understand what was going on. At least, not when you first see it. You have to scan the screen, read all the labels, see how they are related to the other elements on the screen and then figure out what they do. If you’re an experienced user of this application however, this might be a good thing: you know what to do and you get all the information you need in one single screen. But for most applications this isn’t the case. A lot of people only use their computer for a limited time a day (a weird concept for me, but it happens) and need it to get something done and then get on with their lives. For them, a user interface experience like the above isn’t working. (disclaimer: I just picked a screenshot, I am not saying this is bad software but it is an example of about 95% of the Windows applications out there). For the knowledge worker, this isn’t a problem. They use one or two systems and they know exactly what they need to do to achieve their goal. They don’t want any clutter on their screen that distracts them from their task, they just want to be as efficient as possible. When they know the systems they are very productive. The point is, how long does it take to become productive? And: could they be even more productive if the UX was better? Are there things missing that they don’t know about? Are there better ways to achieve what they want to achieve? Also: could a system be designed in such a way that it is not only much more easy to work with but also less tiring? in the example above you need to switch between the keyboard and mouse a lot, something that we now know can be very tiring. The goal of most applications (being client apps or websites on any kind of device) is to provide information. Information is data that when given to the right people, on the right time, in the right place and when it is correct adds value for that person (please, remember that definition: I still hear the statement “the information was wrong” which doesn’t make sense: data can be wrong, information cannot be). So if a system provides data, how can we make sure the chances of becoming information is as high as possible? A good example of a well thought-out system that attempts this is the Zune client. It is a very good application, and I think the UX is much better than it’s main competitor iTunes. Have a look at both: On the left you see the iTunes screenshot, on the right the Zune. As you notice, the Zune screen has more images but less chrome (chrome being visuals not part of the data you want to show, i.e. edges around buttons). The whole thing is text oriented or image oriented, where that text or image is part of the information you need. What is important is big, what’s less important is smaller. Yet, everything you need to know at that point is present and your attention is drawn immediately to what you’re trying to achieve: information about music. You can easily switch between the content on your machine and content on your Zune player but clicking on the image of the player. But if you didn’t know that, you’d find out soon enough: the whole UX is designed in such a way that it invites you to play around. So sooner or later (probably sooner) you’d click on that image and you would see what it does. In the iTunes version it’s harder to find: the discoverability is a lot lower. For inexperienced people the Zune player feels much more natural than the iTunes player, and they get up to speed a lot faster. How does this all work? Why is this UX better? The answer lies in a project from Microsoft with the codename (it seems to be becoming the official name though) “Metro”. Metro is a design language, based on certain principles. When they thought about UX they took a good long look around them and went out in search of metaphors. And they found them. The team noticed that signage in streets, airports, roads, buildings and so on are usually very clear and very precise. These signs give you the information you need and nothing more. It’s simple, clearly understood and fast to understand. A good example are airport signs. Airports can be intimidating places, especially for the non-experienced traveler. In the early 1990’s Amsterdam Airport Schiphol decided to redesign all the signage to make the traveller feel less disoriented. They developed a set of guidelines for signs and implemented those. Soon, most airports around the world adopted these ideas and you see variations of the Dutch signs everywhere on the globe. The signs are text-oriented. Yes, there are icons explaining what it all means for the people who can’t read or don’t understand the language, but the basic sign language is text. It’s clear, it’s high-contrast and it’s easy to understand. One look at the sign and you know where to go. The only thing I don’t like is the green sign pointing to the emergency exit, but since this is the default style for emergency exits I understand why they did this. If you look at the Zune UI again, you’ll notice the similarities. Text oriented, little or no icons, clear usage of fonts and all the information you need. This design language has a set of principles: Clean, light, open and fast Content, not chrome Soulful and alive These are just a couple of the principles, you can read the whole philosophy behind Metro for Windows Phone 7 here. These ideas seem to work. I love my Windows Phone 7. It’s easy to use, it’s clear, there’s no clutter that I do not need. It works for me. And I noticed it works for a lot of other people as well, especially people who aren’t as proficient with computers as I am. You see these ideas in a lot other places. Corning, a manufacturer of glass, has made a video of possible usages of their products. It’s their glimpse into the future. You’ll notice that a lot of the UI in the screens look a lot like what Microsoft is doing with Metro (not coincidentally Corning is the supplier for the Gorilla glass display surface on the new SUR40 device (or Surface v2.0 as a lot of people call it)). The idea behind this vision is that data should be available everywhere where you it. Systems should be available at all times and data is presented in a clear and light manner so that you can turn that data into information. You don’t need a lot of fancy animations that only distract from the data. You want the data and you want it fast. Have a look at this truly inspiring video that made: This is what I believe the future will look like. Of course, not everything is possible, or even desirable. But it is a nice way to think about the future . I feel very strongly about designing applications in such a way that they add value to the user. Designing applications that turn data into information. Applications that make the user feel happy to use them. So… when are you going to drop the battleship-gray designs? Tags van Technorati: surface,design,windows phone 7,wp7,metro

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  • CodePlex Daily Summary for Wednesday, February 02, 2011

    CodePlex Daily Summary for Wednesday, February 02, 2011Popular ReleasesTweetSharp: TweetSharp v2.0.0.0 - Preview 10: Documentation for this release may be found at http://tweetsharp.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=UserGuide&referringTitle=Documentation. Note: This code is currently preview quality. Preview 9 ChangesAdded support for trends Added support for Silverlight 4 Elevated WP7 fixes Third Party Library VersionsHammock v1.1.7: http://hammock.codeplex.com Json.NET 4.0 Release 1: http://json.codeplex.comFacebook C# SDK: 5.0.0 (BETA): This is our first BETA release of the version 5 branch of the Facebook C# SDK. Remember this is a BETA build. Some things may change or not work exactly as planned. We are absolutely looking for feedback on this release to help us improve the final 5.X.X release. This release contains some breaking changes. Particularly with authentication. After spending time reviewing the trouble areas that people are having using this SDK (and Facebook in general) we decided to spend a good deal of time w...Phalanger - The PHP Language Compiler for the .NET Framework: 2.0 (February 2011): Next release of Phalanger; again faster, more stable and ready for daily use. Based on many user experiences this release is one more step closer to be perfect compiler and runtime of your old PHP applications; or perfect platform for migrating to .NET. February 2011 release of Phalanger introduces several changes, enhancements and fixes. See complete changelist for all the changes. To improve the performance of your application using MySQL, please use Managed MySQL Extension for Phalanger....Chemistry Add-in for Word: Chemistry Add-in for Word - Version 1.0: On February 1, 2011, we announced the availability of version 1 of the Chemistry Add-in for Word, as well as the assignment of the open source project to the Outercurve Foundation by Microsoft Research and the University of Cambridge. System RequirementsHardware RequirementsAny computer that can run Office 2007 or Office 2010. Software RequirementsYour computer must have the following software: Any version of Windows that can run Office 2007 or Office 2010, which includes Windows XP SP3 and...StyleCop for ReSharper: StyleCop for ReSharper 5.1.15005.000: Applied patch from rodpl for merging of stylecop setting files with settings in parent folder. Previous release: A considerable amount of work has gone into this release: Huge focus on performance around the violation scanning subsystem: - caching added to reduce IO operations around reading and merging of settings files - caching added to reduce creation of expensive objects Users should notice condsiderable perf boost and a decrease in memory usage. Bug Fixes: - StyleCop's new Objec...Minecraft Tools: Minecraft Topographical Survey 1.4: MTS requires version 4 of the .NET Framework - you must download it from Microsoft if you have not previously installed it. This version of MTS adds MCRegion support and fixes bugs that caused rendering to fail for some users. New in this version of MTS: Support for rendering worlds compressed with MCRegion Fixed rendering failure when encountering non-NBT files with the .dat extension Fixed rendering failure when encountering corrupt NBT files Minor GUI updates Note that the command...MVC Controls Toolkit: Mvc Controls Toolkit 0.8: Fixed the following bugs: *Variable name error in the jvascript file that prevented the use of the deleted item template of the Datagrid *Now after the changes applied to an item of the DataGrid are cancelled all input fields are reset to the very initial value they had. *Other minor bugs. Added: *This version is available both for MVC2, and MVC 3. The MVC 3 version has a release number of 0.85. This way one can install both version. *Client Validation support has been added to all control...Office Web.UI: Beta preview (Source): This is the first Beta. it includes full source code and all available controls. Some designers are not ready, and some features are not finalized allready (missing properties, draft styles) ThanksASP.net Ribbon: Version 2.2: This release brings some new controls (part of Office Web.UI). A few bugs are fixed and it includes the "auto resize" feature as you resize the window. (It can cause an infinite loop when the window is too reduced, it's why this release is not marked as "stable"). I will release more versions 2.3, 2.4... until V3 which will be the official launch of Office Web.UI. Both products will evolve at the same speed. Thanks.Barcode Rendering Framework: 2.1.1.0: Finally fixed bugs with code 128 symbology. It was envisioned that this would be the last release to target VS2008 but support will continue due in no small part to a desire to add SSRS support in the future.xUnit.net - Unit Testing for .NET: xUnit.net 1.7: xUnit.net release 1.7Build #1540 Important notes for Resharper users: Resharper support has been moved to the xUnit.net Contrib project. Important note for TestDriven.net users: If you are having issues running xUnit.net tests in TestDriven.net, especially on 64-bit Windows, we strongly recommend you upgrade to TD.NET version 3.0 or later. This release adds the following new features: Added support for ASP.NET MVC 3 Added Assert.Equal(double expected, double actual, int precision) Ad...Spark View Engine: Spark v1.5: Release Notes There have been a lot of minor changes going on since version 1.1, but most important to note are the major changes which include: Support for HTML5 "section" tag. Spark has now renamed its own section tag to "segment" instead to avoid clashes. You can still use "section" in a Spark sense for legacy support by specifying ParseSectionAsSegment = true if needed while you transition Bindings - this is a massive feature that further simplifies your views by giving you a powerful ...WPF Application Framework (WAF): WPF Application Framework (WAF) 2.0.0.3: Version: 2.0.0.3 (Milestone 3): This release contains the source code of the WPF Application Framework (WAF) and the sample applications. Requirements .NET Framework 4.0 (The package contains a solution file for Visual Studio 2010) The unit test projects require Visual Studio 2010 Professional Remark The sample applications are using Microsoft’s IoC container MEF. However, the WPF Application Framework (WAF) doesn’t force you to use the same IoC container in your application. You can use ...Rawr: Rawr 4.0.17 Beta: Rawr is now web-based. The link to use Rawr4 is: http://elitistjerks.com/rawr.phpThis is the Cataclysm Beta Release. More details can be found at the following link http://rawr.codeplex.com/Thread/View.aspx?ThreadId=237262 and on the Version Notes page: http://rawr.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=VersionNotes As of the 4.0.16 release, you can now also begin using the new Downloadable WPF version of Rawr!This is a pre-alpha release of the WPF version, there are likely to be a lot of issues. If you...Squiggle - A Free open source LAN Messenger: Squiggle 2.5 Beta: In this release following are the new features: Localization: Support for Arabic, French, German and Chinese (Simplified) Bridge: Connect two Squiggle nets across the WAN or different subnets Aliases: Special codes with special meaning can be embedded in message like (version),(datetime),(time),(date),(you),(me) Commands: cls, /exit, /offline, /online, /busy, /away, /main Sound notifications: Get audio alerts on contact online, message received, buzz Broadcast for group: You can ri...VivoSocial: VivoSocial 7.4.2: Version 7.4.2 of VivoSocial has been released. If you experienced any issues with the previous version, please update your modules to the 7.4.2 release and see if they persist. If you have any questions about this release, please post them in our Support forums. If you are experiencing a bug or would like to request a new feature, please submit it to our issue tracker. Web Controls * Updated Business Objects and added a new SQL Data Provider File. Groups * Fixed a security issue whe...PHP Manager for IIS: PHP Manager 1.1.1 for IIS 7: This is a minor release of PHP Manager for IIS 7. It contains all the functionality available in 56962 plus several bug fixes (see change list for more details). Also, this release includes Russian language support. SHA1 codes for the downloads are: PHPManagerForIIS-1.1.0-x86.msi - 6570B4A8AC8B5B776171C2BA0572C190F0900DE2 PHPManagerForIIS-1.1.0-x64.msi - 12EDE004EFEE57282EF11A8BAD1DC1ADFD66A654BloodSim: WControls.dll update: Priority Update It's just come to my attention that the latest version of WControls.dll was not included in the 1.4 release and as a result, BloodSim has been unuseable. Please download WControls.dll from here, and this will rectify the issue.VFPX: VFP2C32 2.0.0.8 Release Candidate: This release includes several bugfixes, new functions and finally a CHM help file for the complete library.DB>doc for Microsoft SQL Server: 1.0.0.0: Initial release Supported output HTML WikiPlex markup Raw XML Supported objects Tables Primary Keys Foreign Keys ViewsNew ProjectsAlay Plugin for Windows Live Writer: a project for creating an alay languageAnalyse Rapide des Droits sur une Arborescence du Système de Fichiers: Outil permettant une analyse simple sur une arborescence du système de fichier. L'idée étant de repérer rapidement les parties de l'arborescence qui changent de droits (arrêt de la propagation des droits). Developpement en C#, Interface WPF.Asp.Net Chat 4 All: Asp.Net Chat Application made easy By VaibhavBlogEngine.NET Image Picker: The image picker for BlogEngine.NET An utitilty to pick previously uploaded images in BlogEngine.NET blog posts. CMS for the kubert.info web-site: CMS for the kubert.info web-siteCommonRepositoryInterface: <project name> is a interface for abstracting away the details of the underlying data store behind a repositoryDragon Library Lite: This is a free version of my game engine missing some of its components, and parts of some, to make it so I could put this up for free without giving away all my source code. Also, any developers that show an interest here may be able to get access to the full version and help meeBookInfoGrabber: eBookInfoGrabber is a simple program designed to quickly grab any possible information you could desire on a given eBook using ISBN-10, ISBN-13, or by Title. It uses the Sony eBook store to gather all the data, and is developed in C#.Japanese Character Sets - Input, Identification and Comparison: Basic application written in C# which demonstrates the input, identification and comparison of specific Hiragana (half- and full-width), Katakana (half- and full-width), Kanji and Romaji Japanese characters. May be useful for developers beginning a project for Japanese users.Lighting UP 2011: 2011 NDSU Capstone project. Developing a Windows Phone 7 service application.Localization for SharePoint: Localize for SharePoint gives you the flexibility of localizing any site collection to any language. You don't need to have any language packs installed on your server. Any page on your site will be instantly translated to your preferred language.mzXML Corrupted Scans Remover: This application makes fast error correction on mzXML files. Each empty scan is being replaced by previous one. Program is optimized to work with large files (>2GB) with very small amout of memory needed while processing.Net Rank BR: Um projeto para criar analises sobre o log do jogo Urban Terror, um centro de encontro de players para jogo em time, um editor e criador de configs para Urt.NGinn.BPM: NGinn.BPM - a BPM / Workflow engine for Microsoft.NetOmegaEngine: A simple, light weight and easy to use Game Engine created in XNA. Intended to help reduce time needed with coding and focus more on game creation.Open Intel: Open Intel (OI) is an accelerator for rapidly building open data solutions with business intelligence and spatial analysis capabilities.Peekaboo - Proxy Server StarterKit: Peekaboo is a proxy server starterkit made in Java. Its a HTTP proxy server with a Swing UI to peek into the application/browser <-> server communication. Red Arrow: Turn based space strategy game. Source is published, but assets are considered private. Developed with C# / XNA FrameworkRPG engine: RPG engine for RPG games!Sancer: This is a school project which aids the teachers/advisers in choosing a students class depending on their grade on the placement test. Scaffold it !: "Scaffold it !" is a Visual Studio 2010 extension that enable you to scaffold elements from your entities. It's a time saver tool that leverage T4 templates and Visual Studio extensibility. SharePoint 2010 Design Guides for Developers: This projects holds visual guides to help developers and software architects take the best decision when building SharePoint ApplicationsSmith Image Converter: An easy-to-use tool to convert images format. At present, it supports bmp, png and jpeg type conversion.TFS Process Dashboard Integration: Small tool which allows integration of Team Foundation Server source control with the Process Dashboard line counter.Tibco Team Foundation Server (TFS) plugin: This project creates a Team Foundation Server plugin for Tibco BW Designer. It can be used from Tibco Designer as RCS adapter and manipulates the project files that are stored-version controlled- in TFS. ubotia: ubotiaXNA 4.0 Content Compiler: <project name> Compile to .xnb your texture files, audio files and SpriteFont files without adding to the Content project. Very Usefull in tools to create content for a game.

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  • How to Remove UAC Icon Overlays (Blue-Yellow Shields) in Windows 7

    - by nocturne
    Over some of my program shortcuts and install files, there is an uac icon overlay (blue-yellow shield) and I find them really ugly. Is there any way to get rid of them please? Edit I closed UAC to see if overlays go away or not. Now it's open. But maybe there is a way to remove them without closing the UAC like removing shortcut arrows in this question: Remove shortcut icon overlay from shortcuts on Windows 7

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