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  • Apache 2.4 + PHP-FPM + ProxyPassMatch

    - by apfelbox
    I recently installed Apache 2.4 on my local machine, together with PHP 5.4.8 using PHP-FPM. Everything went quite smoothly (after a while...) but there is still a strange error: I configured Apache for PHP-FPM like this: <VirtualHost *:80> ServerName localhost DocumentRoot "/Users/apfelbox/WebServer" ProxyPassMatch ^/(.*\.php(/.*)?)$ fcgi://127.0.0.1:9000/Users/apfelbox/WebServer/$1 </VirtualHost> It works, for example if I call http://localhost/info.php I get the correct phpinfo() (it is just a test file). If I call a directory however, I get a 404 with body File not found. and in the error log: [Tue Nov 20 21:27:25.191625 2012] [proxy_fcgi:error] [pid 28997] [client ::1:57204] AH01071: Got error 'Primary script unknown\n' Update I now tried doing the proxying with mod_rewrite: <VirtualHost *:80> ServerName localhost DocumentRoot "/Users/apfelbox/WebServer" RewriteEngine on RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteRule ^/(.*\.php(/.*)?)$ fcgi://127.0.0.1:9000/Users/apfelbox/WebServer/$1 [L,P] </VirtualHost> But the problem is: it is always redirecting, because on http://localhost/ automatically http://localhost/index.php is requested, because of DirectoryIndex index.php index.html Update 2 Ok, so I think "maybe check whether there is a file to give to the proxy first: <VirtualHost *:80> ServerName localhost DocumentRoot "/Users/apfelbox/WebServer" RewriteEngine on RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f RewriteRule ^/(.*\.php(/.*)?)$ fcgi://127.0.0.1:9000/Users/apfelbox/WebServer/$1 [L,P] </VirtualHost> Now the complete rewriting does not work anymore... Update 3 Now I have this solution: ServerName localhost DocumentRoot "/Users/apfelbox/WebServer" RewriteEngine on RewriteCond /Users/apfelbox/WebServer/%{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f RewriteRule ^/(.*\.php(/.*)?)$ fcgi://127.0.0.1:9000/Users/apfelbox/WebServer/$1 [L,P] First check, that there is a file to pass to PHP-FPM (with the full and absolute path) and then do the rewriting. This does not work when using URL rewriting inside a subdirectory, also it fails for URLs like http://localhost/index.php/test/ So back to square one. Any ideas?

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  • How to easily input and display isolated japanese radicals on MacOS X?

    - by ogerard
    (This question was considered as off-topic on Japanese.SE and more suitable for SuperUser). I like to write computer notes about what I learn in Japanese. From time to time, I would like to be able to include in my text a given radical, say kokoro ?, which takes several graphic forms when used as an element in a more complex kanji, for instance . I did not succeed on my system (Mac OS X 10.7) to find the glyphs for these variants conveniently and exactly as I would like them (I would also be interested about how to do this on Windows 7 or Linux). I first tried the name of the kanji from which the radical is derived. Then I tried to use the japanese name for them, such as risshinben (as in ?) and shitagokoro (as in ?), hoping that the hiragana or katakana input would recognize them and propose me their representation, but it did not work. So I looked into the Full Japanese Character Table, under the "by radical" tab, and found at least a version of each of them : ? (CJK 5FC4) and ? (CJK 38FA) with the correct kun readings. I have them now as favorites but do I need to do that for all radicals? Do I need to register all of them in a user dictionary? I would imagine that I am not the only one who wants to do use them. Besides, the versions I have found are not suited for all occasions: they are centered on a standard kanji square. If I want them to appear near to a placeholder, or demonstrate their proportion to the rest of a typical kanji, I have to make complicated adjustments, depending on my use and the kind of radical. More generally are there computer tools for japanese dictionary editors and japanese teachers I could use on Mac OS X? (I could not add relevant tags such as : japanese or ideogram, please feel free to edit)

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  • can't access SATA card config screen on boot, nor access the disks

    - by Ronald
    We've just upgraded our file server using an ASUS P6T WS Pro board, running FreeBSD-RELEASE 8.2 and using zfs to manage 12 WD20EARS disks. Since our 3ware card has been giving us trouble we started using the six on-board SATA connectors and got a SuperMicro USAS2-L8i to provide eight more ports. Mechanically, the card is an awkward fit but electrically it all seems ok. Upon boot, the LSI controller shows up and states that pressing ctrl-c will bring up the LSI Config Utility. When doing that, the message changes to state that the utility will be started after initialization, however that never happens. There does seem to be an error message that's only displayed too briefly to read and seems to be about PCI and "not enough space". (That message is pushed off by a hardware summary and I've found no way to scroll back at this point.) The disks do not show up in any recognizable ways after booting, either. I found a hint in another discussion to check the address mapping on either the card or the motherboard BIOS, but have found no way to do that. So what I tried on a hunch is to disable everything that's on-board, including network adapters, Firewire controller and SATA. In fact, after doing that, I can successfully launch the LSI Config Utility. As far as I can tell, all looks well in there, and when booting in that configuration it also displays a list of the disks connected to it, which looks just fine as well. Only problem now is that I can't boot that way, because I need the on-board SATA controller and network adapters. As soon as I re-enable any of them I'm back to square one. That discussion I mentioned about mapping addresses said to try D000, then D7FF, then DFFF, in order. The LSI Config Utility shows the card address as D000 but offers no way of changing it. Any tips or insights would be appreciated.

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  • Cannot set up dual monitors correctly in Fedora15 with KDE.

    - by adivasile
    I have 2 monitors: 24" LCD connected via DVI(primary) 19" LCD connected via VGA(secondary) Everytime Fedora starts the second display is always set to clone the first one and they both run at 1280x1024 and I always have to disable the 19" monitor, in order for the bigger one to run at 1920x1080. I want to set them up so that my secondary monitor extends the primary one.The problem is that no matter what kind of configuration I choose it has no effect.My secondary monitor remains disabled. I've tried using both the Display manager from KDE and the ATI Control Panel and the behaviour is always the same.The moment I click apply, the screen flickers and nothing changes. I've succesfully used the extended setup in Fedora15 with Gnome3. I have a RadeonHD 4300 series videocard and I'm using the drivers downloaded from the AMD site. This is the output of xrandr -q : Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 1920 x 1920 VGA-0 connected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 1280x1024 75.0 60.0 1280x960 60.0 1152x864 75.0 1024x768 75.0 70.1 66.0 60.0 832x624 74.6 800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2 640x480 75.0 72.8 66.7 59.9 720x400 70.1 DVI-0 connected 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 477mm x 268mm 1920x1080 60.0*+ 60.0 1680x1050 59.9 1600x900 60.0 1280x1024 75.0 60.0 1280x960 60.0 1152x864 75.0 1280x720 60.0 1152x720 60.0 1024x768 75.0 60.0 832x624 74.6 800x600 75.0 60.3 640x480 75.0 59.9 720x400 70.1 Later edit: The problem seems to come from the ATI drivers.I managed to set up the monitors like I wanted after I uninstalled the drivers. Unfortunately I'm working on an OpenCL project so I had to reinstall them.The moment I did that, all my previous settings were forgotten and I was back to square one.

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  • How to let short content pages reach the bottom of the browser window and then a footer should appea

    - by UXdesigner
    In this case, I've developed a CSS code for this web application ..and sometimes the resulting data is too small and the footer of the site appears in the middle of the page and looks odd. I'd like to push that whitespace of the background to the browser's bottom and then followed by a footer. AND if the page is long, that text won't get overlapped by the footer. Can someone help me out with this code right here? I've been trying to use some of the codes I found on this page:http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/keeping-footers-at-the-bottom-of-the-page which talks about pretty much the same issue, but I can't get it completely done: What am I doing wrong ? @charset "utf-8"; body { margin: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center; height:100%; position: relative; height:100%; /* needed for container min-height */ } .spacer { clear: both; height: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0; font-size: 0.1em; } .spacer_left { clear: left; margin: 0 0 10px 0; padding: 0; font-size: 0.1em; } hr { height: 1px; margin: 20px 0 20px 0; border: 0; color: #ccc; background: #ccc; } #container { position:relative; /* needed for footer positioning*/ height:auto !important; /* real browsers */ height:100%; /* IE6: treaded as min-height*/ min-height:100%; /* real browsers */ width: 1160px; /* width of the site ! */ margin: 0 auto; padding: 0; border: 1px solid #333; text-align: left; } /* Context Bar */ h1#contexto { background:url('../images/menubarbg2.png'); width:1160px; height:30px; position:relative; margin-top:10px; visibility: inherit; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:12px; } #header { margin: 0; padding: 5px; height:70px; } h1#titulo { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0; } #content { margin: -15px 20px 0 20px; /*padding: -6px 5px 20px 5px;*/ padding:1em 1em 5em; /* bottom padding for footer */ } div#content.columns { margin-left: 100px; } #content abbr, #content acronym { cursor: help; border-bottom: 1px dotted; } #content ul { list-style-type: square; } #content ul li, #content ol li { margin: 0 0 0.4em 0; padding: 0; } #content blockquote { width: 75%; margin: 0 auto; padding: 20px; } #footer { margin: 0; height: -30px; padding: 5px; clear: both; bottom:0; position:relative; } UPDATE: THE SOLUTION @charset "utf-8"; body, html { margin: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center; position: relative; height:100%; /* needed for footer positioning*/ } .spacer { clear: both; height: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0; font-size: 0.1em; } .spacer_left { clear: left; margin: 0 0 10px 0; padding: 0; font-size: 0.1em; } hr { height: 1px; margin: 20px 0 20px 0; border: 0; color: #ccc; background: #ccc; } #container { position:relative; /* needed for footer positioning*/ min-height: 100%;/* needed for footer positioning*/ height: auto !important;/* needed for footer positioning*/ height: 100%;/* needed for footer positioning*/ margin: 0 auto -30px;/* needed for footer positioning*/ width: 1160px; padding: 0; border: 1px solid #333; text-align: left; } #header { margin: 0; padding: 5px; height:70px; } h1#titulo { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0; } h1#contexto { background:url('../images/menubarbg2.png'); width:1160px; height:30px; position:relative; margin-top:10px; visibility: inherit; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:12px; } #content { margin: -15px 20px 30px 20px; /* needed for footer positioning*/ } div#content.columns { margin-left: 100px; } #content abbr, #content acronym { cursor: help; border-bottom: 1px dotted; } #content ul { list-style-type: square; } #content ul li, #content ol li { margin: 0 0 0.4em 0; padding: 0; } #content blockquote { width: 75%; margin: 0 auto; padding: 20px; } #footer, .push /* needed for footer positioning*/ { padding: 5px; clear: both; position:absolute;/* needed for footer positioning*/ bottom:0;/* needed for footer positioning*/ height: -30px;/* needed for footer positioning*/ width:1150px; }

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  • Reusing XSL template to be invoked with different relative XPaths

    - by meomaxy
    Here is my contrived example that illustrates what I am attempting to accomplish. I have an input XML file that I wish to flatten for further processing. Input file: <BICYCLES> <BICYCLE> <COLOR>BLUE</COLOR> <WHEELS> <WHEEL> <WHEEL_TYPE>FRONT</WHEEL_TYPE> <FLAT>NO</FLAT> <REFLECTORS> <REFLECTOR> <REFLECTOR_NUM>1</REFLECTOR_NUM> <COLOR>RED</COLOR> <SHAPE>SQUARE</SHAPE> </REFLECTOR> <REFLECTOR> <REFLECTOR_NUM>2</REFLECTOR_NUM> <COLOR>WHITE</COLOR> <SHAPE>ROUND</SHAPE> </REFLECTOR> </REFLECTORS> </WHEEL> <WHEEL> <WHEEL_TYPE>REAR</WHEEL_TYPE> <FLAT>NO</FLAT> </WHEEL> </WHEELS> </BICYCLE> </BICYCLES> The input is a list of <BICYCLE> nodes. Each <BICYCLE> has a <COLOR> and optionally has <WHEELS>. <WHEELS> is a list of <WHEEL> nodes, each of which has a few attributes, and optionally has <REFLECTORS>. <REFLECTORS> is a list of <REFLECTOR> nodes, each of which has a few attributes. The goal is to flatten this XML. This is the XSL I'm using: <xsl:stylesheet version="2.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:fn="http://www.w3.org/2005/xpath-functions"> <xsl:output method="xml" encoding="UTF-8" indent="yes" omit-xml-declaration="yes" xml:space="preserve"/> <xsl:template match="/"> <BICYCLES> <xsl:apply-templates/> </BICYCLES> </xsl:template> <xsl:template match="BICYCLE"> <xsl:choose> <xsl:when test="WHEELS"> <xsl:apply-templates select="WHEELS"/> </xsl:when> <xsl:otherwise> <BICYCLE> <COLOR><xsl:value-of select="COLOR"/></COLOR> <WHEEL_TYPE/> <FLAT/> <REFLECTOR_NUM/> <COLOR/> <SHAPE/> </BICYCLE> </xsl:otherwise> </xsl:choose> </xsl:template> <xsl:template match="WHEELS"> <xsl:apply-templates select="WHEEL"/> </xsl:template> <xsl:template match="WHEEL"> <xsl:choose> <xsl:when test="REFLECTORS"> <xsl:apply-templates select="REFLECTORS"/> </xsl:when> <xsl:otherwise> <BICYCLE> <COLOR><xsl:value-of select="../../COLOR"/></COLOR> <WHEEL_TYPE><xsl:value-of select="WHEEL_TYPE"/></WHEEL_TYPE> <FLAT><xsl:value-of select="FLAT"/></FLAT> <REFLECTOR_NUM/> <COLOR/> <SHAPE/> </BICYCLE> </xsl:otherwise> </xsl:choose> </xsl:template> <xsl:template match="REFLECTORS"> <xsl:apply-templates select="REFLECTOR"/> </xsl:template> <xsl:template match="REFLECTOR"> <BICYCLE> <COLOR><xsl:value-of select="../../../../COLOR"/></COLOR> <WHEEL_TYPE><xsl:value-of select="../../WHEEL_TYPE"/></WHEEL_TYPE> <FLAT><xsl:value-of select="../../FLAT"/></FLAT> <REFLECTOR_NUM><xsl:value-of select="REFLECTOR_NUM"/></REFLECTOR_NUM> <COLOR><xsl:value-of select="COLOR"/></COLOR> <SHAPE><xsl:value-of select="SHAPE"/></SHAPE> </BICYCLE> </xsl:template> </xsl:stylesheet> The output is: <BICYCLES xmlns:fn="http://www.w3.org/2005/xpath-functions" xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"> <BICYCLE> <COLOR>BLUE</COLOR> <WHEEL_TYPE>FRONT</WHEEL_TYPE> <FLAT>NO</FLAT> <REFLECTOR_NUM>1</REFLECTOR_NUM> <COLOR>RED</COLOR> <SHAPE>SQUARE</SHAPE> </BICYCLE> <BICYCLE> <COLOR>BLUE</COLOR> <WHEEL_TYPE>FRONT</WHEEL_TYPE> <FLAT>NO</FLAT> <REFLECTOR_NUM>2</REFLECTOR_NUM> <COLOR>WHITE</COLOR> <SHAPE>ROUND</SHAPE> </BICYCLE> <BICYCLE> <COLOR>BLUE</COLOR> <WHEEL_TYPE>REAR</WHEEL_TYPE> <FLAT>NO</FLAT> <REFLECTOR_NUM/> <COLOR/> <SHAPE/> </BICYCLE> </BICYCLES> What I don't like about this is that I'm outputting the color attribute in several forms: <COLOR><xsl:value-of select="../../../../COLOR"/></COLOR> <COLOR><xsl:value-of select="../../COLOR"/></COLOR> <COLOR><xsl:value-of select="COLOR"/></COLOR> <COLOR/> It seems like there ought to be a way to make a named template and invoke it from the various places where it is needed and pass some parameter that represents the path back to the <BICYCLE> node to which it refers. Is there a way to clean this up, say with a named template for bicycle fields, for wheel fields and for reflector fields? In the real world example this is based on, there are many more attributes to a "bicycle" than just color, and I want to make this XSL easy to change to include or exclude fields without having to change the XSL in multiple places.

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  • Cooling for a small server room

    - by John Zwinck
    I have a server room about 12 feet square with an unfinished ceiling (exposed ducts and wiring). It houses a few servers (about ten, 1U and 2U) and some networking gear (four 1U switches, three routers, three modems, two cable boxes). With the door closed, it runs around 80 degrees Fahrenheit with half the servers turned on. When I turned on all the servers it reached 86 before I chickened out and propped the door open. The room is adjacent to air-conditioned office space, but does not itself have dedicated air conditioning. The ventilation for this room seems to be limited to one duct coming in at ceiling level, with a powered fan to draw air in, and one duct at ceiling level to allow air to flow out (it seems like it may just go into the drop ceiling cavity in the adjacent room). The adjacent office space stays fairly cool, but I'd prefer not to leave the door propped open all the time. There is both 110v and 208v service in the room, and plenty of power available. But there are no windows, and no floor drains (in a pinch we might be able to run a condensation hose through a small hole we'd drill in the wall to a nearby sink area, but only if absolutely necessary). I've considered portable A/C units, but I'm not sure on sizing and a lot less sure how we would run the exhaust hose(s). I suppose we could point one at the existing room exhaust duct (air return), but substantially modifying the duct is probably a no-no. I've also considered installing a fan box in the door of the room, but I'm concerned that this will only drop the temperature a little. Even right now, with all the equipment on, the room is at 83 degrees with the door open. And the main building A/C turns off daily at 6 PM to conserve energy, so the adjacent room temperature rises at night. How would you cool this room? Let's say the goal is to bring the temperature with everything running from a steady state of around 90 degrees down to 75 (equivalently, to offset the heat produced by ten 1U servers).

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  • Why is this class re-initialized every time?

    - by pinnacler
    I have 4 files and the code 'works' as expected. I try to clean everything up, place code into functions, etc... and everything looks fine... and it doesn't work. Can somebody please explain why MatLab is so quirky... or am I just stupid? Normally, I type terminator = simulation(100,20,0,0,0,1); terminator.animate(); and it should produce a map of trees with the terminator walking around in a forest. Everything rotates to his perspective. When I break it into functions... everything ceases to work. I really only changed a few lines of code, shown in comments. Code that works: classdef simulation properties landmarks robot end methods function obj = simulation(mapSize, trees, x,y,heading,velocity) obj.landmarks = landmarks(mapSize, trees); obj.robot = robot(x,y,heading,velocity); end function animate(obj) %Setup Plots fig=figure; xlabel('meters'), ylabel('meters') set(fig, 'name', 'Phil''s AWESOME 80''s Robot Simulator') xymax = obj.landmarks.mapSize*3; xymin = -(obj.landmarks.mapSize*3); l=scatter([0],[0],'bo'); axis([xymin xymax xymin xymax]); obj.landmarks.apparentPositions %Simulation Loop THIS WAS ORGANIZED for n = 1:720, %Calculate and Set Heading/Location obj.robot.headingChange = navigate(n); %Update Position obj.robot.heading = obj.robot.heading + obj.robot.headingChange; obj.landmarks.heading = obj.robot.heading; y = cosd(obj.robot.heading); x = sind(obj.robot.heading); obj.robot.x = obj.robot.x + (x*obj.robot.velocity); obj.robot.y = obj.robot.y + (y*obj.robot.velocity); obj.landmarks.x = obj.robot.x; obj.landmarks.y = obj.robot.y; %Animate set(l,'XData',obj.landmarks.apparentPositions(:,1),'YData',obj.landmarks.apparentPositions(:,2)); rectangle('Position',[-2,-2,4,4]); drawnow end end end end ----------- classdef landmarks properties fixedPositions %# positions in a fixed coordinate system. [ x, y ] mapSize = 10; %Map Size. Value is side of square x=0; y=0; heading=0; headingChange=0; end properties (Dependent) apparentPositions end methods function obj = landmarks(mapSize, numberOfTrees) obj.mapSize = mapSize; obj.fixedPositions = obj.mapSize * rand([numberOfTrees, 2]) .* sign(rand([numberOfTrees, 2]) - 0.5); end function apparent = get.apparentPositions(obj) %-STILL ROTATES AROUND ORIGINAL ORIGIN currentPosition = [obj.x ; obj.y]; apparent = bsxfun(@minus,(obj.fixedPositions)',currentPosition)'; apparent = ([cosd(obj.heading) -sind(obj.heading) ; sind(obj.heading) cosd(obj.heading)] * (apparent)')'; end end end ---------- classdef robot properties x y heading velocity headingChange end methods function obj = robot(x,y,heading,velocity) obj.x = x; obj.y = y; obj.heading = heading; obj.velocity = velocity; end end end ---------- function headingChange = navigate(n) %steeringChange = 5 * rand(1) * sign(rand(1) - 0.5); Most chaotic shit %Draw an S if n <270 headingChange=1; elseif n<540 headingChange=-1; elseif n<720 headingChange=1; else headingChange=1; end end Code that does not work... classdef simulation properties landmarks robot end methods function obj = simulation(mapSize, trees, x,y,heading,velocity) obj.landmarks = landmarks(mapSize, trees); obj.robot = robot(x,y,heading,velocity); end function animate(obj) %Setup Plots fig=figure; xlabel('meters'), ylabel('meters') set(fig, 'name', 'Phil''s AWESOME 80''s Robot Simulator') xymax = obj.landmarks.mapSize*3; xymin = -(obj.landmarks.mapSize*3); l=scatter([0],[0],'bo'); axis([xymin xymax xymin xymax]); obj.landmarks.apparentPositions %Simulation Loop for n = 1:720, %Calculate and Set Heading/Location %Update Position headingChange = navigate(n); obj.robot.updatePosition(headingChange); obj.landmarks.updatePerspective(obj.robot.heading, obj.robot.x, obj.robot.y); %Animate set(l,'XData',obj.landmarks.apparentPositions(:,1),'YData',obj.landmarks.apparentPositions(:,2)); rectangle('Position',[-2,-2,4,4]); drawnow end end end end ----------------- classdef landmarks properties fixedPositions; %# positions in a fixed coordinate system. [ x, y ] mapSize; %Map Size. Value is side of square x; y; heading; headingChange; end properties (Dependent) apparentPositions end methods function obj = createLandmarks(mapSize, numberOfTrees) obj.mapSize = mapSize; obj.fixedPositions = obj.mapSize * rand([numberOfTrees, 2]) .* sign(rand([numberOfTrees, 2]) - 0.5); end function apparent = get.apparentPositions(obj) %-STILL ROTATES AROUND ORIGINAL ORIGIN currentPosition = [obj.x ; obj.y]; apparent = bsxfun(@minus,(obj.fixedPositions)',currentPosition)'; apparent = ([cosd(obj.heading) -sind(obj.heading) ; sind(obj.heading) cosd(obj.heading)] * (apparent)')'; end function updatePerspective(obj,tempHeading,tempX,tempY) obj.heading = tempHeading; obj.x = tempX; obj.y = tempY; end end end ----------------- classdef robot properties x y heading velocity end methods function obj = robot(x,y,heading,velocity) obj.x = x; obj.y = y; obj.heading = heading; obj.velocity = velocity; end function updatePosition(obj,headingChange) obj.heading = obj.heading + headingChange; tempy = cosd(obj.heading); tempx = sind(obj.heading); obj.x = obj.x + (tempx*obj.velocity); obj.y = obj.y + (tempy*obj.velocity); end end end The navigate function is the same... I would appreciate any help as to why things aren't working. All I did was take the code from the first section from under comment: %Simulation Loop THIS WAS ORGANIZED and break it into 2 functions. One in robot and one in landmarks. Is a new instance created every time because it's constantly printing the same heading for this line int he robot class obj.heading = obj.heading + headingChange;

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  • Change Laptop Wireless Card?

    - by Craig
    I have just bought a new Samsung RV511 Laptop (the i5 Version). Anyway it comes installed with a Broadcom Wifi Card, I have a Super Atheros Mini Wifi Card that I would like to swap for the Broadcom one. I use Atheros for security auditing purposes in Linux that the Broadcom one is not good for. Trouble is I have never got to the barebones of a laptop, although I am a Custom PC Builder, laptops i generally have no concern for. Take a look at this picture, I took one back panel off to reveal some of the components: I believe the Wireless Card is where I marked the arrow pointing too. That little white square thing appears to be a sticker of the Wifi card, it says WLAN. How can I access it to swap it with my Atheros one. Do I need to remove all the outermost screws? There are screws located to the right of where I scribbled in Yellow and next to the HDD, do I just remove those? I dont want to destroy the machine, only just got it today. Appreciate some help thanks.

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  • How can I make the Windows 7 taskbar behave like a cross between the old Quick Launch and new Superbar?

    - by frumious
    I really like the taskbar in Windows 7, I think combining buttons to launch apps and the icons that show your running apps is groovy. However, because I like having as much space as possible, I've got small icons enabled and shrunk the bar down to one row. I've also told it not to group the running apps unless there's no space left (to save me having to work harder to find the particular window I want), which also means that they have captions, and are thus quite wide. The (admittedly small) problem this gives me is that I can pin all my favourite apps to the bar, which looks much like the old Quick Launch bar, but when I launch them the running apps because much wider, and the unlaunched apps get lost amongst them. I can manually change the order to fix this, but next time I'll launch a different app and I'll be back to square one. What I'd prefer is for small unlaunched icons to be kept on the left, and wider running apps to move over to the right, which for me would be the best of both worlds. Is there any way I can organise that? I'm aware that one can use the traditional quick launch bar in Windows 7, but that's not what I'm after; I generally prefer the Windows 7 way.

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  • 5GHz vs 2.4GHz dual band router, max mbps

    - by Tallboy
    I've done a fair amount of reading before posting this but there are a few things still unclear. I just bought a Netgear WNDR3700 N600. I understand that 5GHz offers more channels, less interference because of more available channels, wont interfere with a microwave and so on, and also has a shorter range. Currently, my router is broadcasting both signals (for my iPhone on 2.4, and my computer on 5) But my question is What is the max speed of 5GHz in mbps? In the router settings, it allows me to set '300mbps', but I keep reading online that the max is 54. Is this true? I noticed when I set up the router the default for 2.4 was set to 300 and the default for 5 was set to 54, so I changed both to 300. Is this fine as well? I don't see why it wouldn't be maxed out for both by default. On the box it says max rate of 300+300 so I assume this is correct, but it's throttled down so the router isn't stressing in case you have something streaming media 24/7 and slowing the internet down too. What is the max range of 5GHz? my apt is 780 square feet, and the router is in the main living room.

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  • Split MPEG video from command line?

    - by Tim
    I have a homemade DVD that I'm effectively trying to insert chapters into and rearrange - the original author burned it as one long chapter, and I'd like to rip it into smaller pieces and re-encode it into a new DVD. I ripped the DVD with the following command: mplayer dvd:// -dvd-device /dev/sr2 -dumpstream -dumpfile raw.vob I'm running Gentoo Linux with mplayer version 1.0-rc2_p20090731 (the latest available in Portage). I have a list of times that the chapters are supposed to span (for example 30:11-33:25), so my first thought was to rip the entire DVD and use mpgtx to cut out certain pieces of the file. My issue is that running mpgtx -i on the file reports quite a few timestamp jumps: Time stamps jumped from 59.753789 to 0.001622 at position 1d29800 Time stamps jumped from 204963823030450.343750 to 31.165900 at position 2d4f800 Time stamps jumped from 60.077878 to 0.001622 at position 43cc000 Time stamps jumped from 60.024233 to 0.001622 at position 65c5000 Time stamps jumped from 204963823068631.718750 to 52.549244 at position 7fd1000 I've tried to fix the indexes using: mencoder raw.vob -oac copy -ovc copy -forceidx -o fixed.vob -of mpeg But mpgtx will still report timestamp issues. My immediate question: is there a way to take the ripped movie I have and correct its timestamps so I can cut it with mpgtx? If I can get that one issue out of the way, building the rest of the DVD will be smooth sailing. If it's not possible to fix the timestamps on this file: is there a better way to rip small chunks of the DVD into separate files for recompilation later? I'd very much like this to be done on Linux, and it'd be even better if I could script it somehow (feed in a list of start and end positions, or start times and durations, and get out a series of ripped files). If need be, I also have a Mac OS X machine available, but no Windows. Edit: I wound up finding another solution involving HandBrake and ffmpeg (with help from this question), but the question stands. Edit again: Turns out my other solution didn't quite work - the audio desynchronized by about five seconds, in about half of my cut mpgs - so I'm back to square one. Anyone?

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  • Ubuntu 10.04 freezing and Ctrl + Alt + Backspace does nothing but music keeps playing

    - by Bryce Thomas
    I'm having intermittent problems where the screen will freeze in Ubuntu. I've tried using Ctrl + Alt + Backspace to restart the X-server, though this does nothing. When the freeze occurs, there's a small square of black dashes around the mouse pointer - maybe 1 inch in size. These dashes look a lot like a 2d barcode. The rest of the screen looks normal, but I can't move the mouse and none of the keyboard shortcuts work to do anything. However, music that I begin playing before the freeze continues to play, which seems to indicate it hasn't stalled up completely. I've noticed a similar freezing problem when I'm using Windows 7. That is, I see the same barcode like dashes around the mouse pointer when it freezes up. So I'm guessing it's either a driver or hardware problem. I thought if it was a hardware problem though, the whole computer might stop working (i.e. music would stop playing)? The video card I am using is an Nvidia, and I believe it's in the 7600 range. In Ubuntu I have the drivers for the card set to the latest available (proprietary). Ideally I'd like to be able to continue using the proprietary drivers. Is there any known issues with the drivers for this model graphics card, or has anyone experienced the same problem and knows how to fix it?

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  • Blending Background for Polar Distortion in GIMP

    - by Chris S
    I followed a tutorial to perform a polar distortion on a panoramic image. The instructions are geared for Photoshop but seem to mostly apply to GIMP as well. The only thing I couldn't really figure out was how they were able to automatically fill in the area around the circle by "extending" the border of the circle. e.g. In GIMP, performing the polar distortion leaves a black white canvas around the circle, not the attractive blended background shown in the tutorial. Is there an easy way to implement this? The only way I found was to reserve half of the "square" as blank canvas and then manually copy the image's top row of pixels over this empty portion. Then, after the polar distortion, I crop out the extra area. Although this achieves the effect, it seems a bit awkward. How do you stretch selections? Ideally, I just want to select the top row and stretch it vertically until it fills in half of the canvas. Instead I had to manaully copy, paste, translate, etc.

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  • What is the peak theoretical WiFi G user density? [closed]

    - by Bigbio2002
    I've seen a few WiFi capacity planning questions, and this one is related, but hopefully different enough not to be closed. Also, this is related specifically to 802.11g, but a similar question could be made for N. In order to squeeze more WiFi users into a space, the transmit power on the APs need to be reduced and the APs squeezed closer together. My question is, how far can you practically take this before the network becomes unusable? There will come a point where the transmit power is so weak that nobody will actually be able to pick up a connection, or be constantly roaming to/from APs spaced a few feet apart as they walk around. There are also only 3 available channels to use as well, which is a factor to consider. After determining the peak AP density, then multiply by users-per-AP, which should be easier to find out. After factoring all of this in and running some back-of-the-envelope calculations, I'd like to be able to get a figure of "XX users per 10ft^2" or something. This can be considered the physical limit of WiFi, and will keep people from asking about getting 3,000 people in a ballroom conference on WiFi. Can anyone with WiFi experience chime in, or better yet, provide some calculations for a more accurate figure? Assumptions: Let's assume an ideal environment with no reflection (think of a big, square, open room, with the APs spaced out on a plane), APs are placed on the ceiling so humans won't absorb the waves, and the only interference are from the APs themselves and the devices. As for what devices specifically, that's irrelevant for the first point of the question (AP density, so only channel and transmit power should matter). User experience: Wikipedia states that Wireless G has about 22Mbps maximum effective throughput, or about 2.75MB/s. For the purpose of this question, anything below 100KB/s per user can be deemed to be a poor user experience. As for roaming, I'll assume the user is standing in the same place, so hopefully that will be a non-issue.

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  • Using glDrawElements does not draw my .obj file

    - by Hallik
    I am trying to correctly import an .OBJ file from 3ds Max. I got this working using glBegin() & glEnd() from a previous question on here, but had really poor performance obviously, so I am trying to use glDrawElements now. I am importing a chessboard, its game pieces, etc. The board, each game piece, and each square on the board is stored in a struct GroupObject. The way I store the data is like this: struct Vertex { float position[3]; float texCoord[2]; float normal[3]; float tangent[4]; float bitangent[3]; }; struct Material { float ambient[4]; float diffuse[4]; float specular[4]; float shininess; // [0 = min shininess, 1 = max shininess] float alpha; // [0 = fully transparent, 1 = fully opaque] std::string name; std::string colorMapFilename; std::string bumpMapFilename; std::vector<int> indices; int id; }; //A chess piece or square struct GroupObject { std::vector<Material *> materials; std::string objectName; std::string groupName; int index; }; All vertices are triangles, so there are always 3 points. When I am looping through the faces f section in the obj file, I store the v0, v1, & v2 in the Material-indices. (I am doing v[0-2] - 1 to account for obj files being 1-based and my vectors being 0-based. So when I get to the render method, I am trying to loop through every object, which loops through every material attached to that object. I set the material information and try and use glDrawElements. However, the screen is black. I was able to draw the model just fine when I looped through each distinct material with all the indices associated with that material, and it drew the model fine. This time around, so I can use the stencil buffer for selecting GroupObjects, I changed up the loop, but the screen is black. Here is my render loop. The only thing I changed was the for loop(s) so they go through each object, and each material in the object in turn. void GLEngine::drawModel() { glEnable(GL_BLEND); glBlendFunc(GL_SRC_ALPHA, GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA); // Vertex arrays setup glEnableClientState( GL_VERTEX_ARRAY ); glVertexPointer(3, GL_FLOAT, model.getVertexSize(), model.getVertexBuffer()->position); glEnableClientState( GL_NORMAL_ARRAY ); glNormalPointer(GL_FLOAT, model.getVertexSize(), model.getVertexBuffer()->normal); glClientActiveTexture( GL_TEXTURE0 ); glEnableClientState( GL_TEXTURE_COORD_ARRAY ); glTexCoordPointer(2, GL_FLOAT, model.getVertexSize(), model.getVertexBuffer()->texCoord); glUseProgram(blinnPhongShader); objects = model.getObjects(); // Loop through objects... for( int i=0 ; i < objects.size(); i++ ) { ModelOBJ::GroupObject *object = objects[i]; // Loop through materials used by object... for( int j=0 ; j<object->materials.size() ; j++ ) { ModelOBJ::Material *pMaterial = object->materials[j]; glMaterialfv(GL_FRONT_AND_BACK, GL_AMBIENT, pMaterial->ambient); glMaterialfv(GL_FRONT_AND_BACK, GL_DIFFUSE, pMaterial->diffuse); glMaterialfv(GL_FRONT_AND_BACK, GL_SPECULAR, pMaterial->specular); glMaterialf(GL_FRONT_AND_BACK, GL_SHININESS, pMaterial->shininess * 128.0f); // Draw faces, letting OpenGL loop through them glDrawElements( GL_TRIANGLES, pMaterial->indices.size(), GL_UNSIGNED_INT, &pMaterial->indices ); } } if (model.hasNormals()) glDisableClientState(GL_NORMAL_ARRAY); if (model.hasTextureCoords()) { glClientActiveTexture(GL_TEXTURE0); glDisableClientState(GL_TEXTURE_COORD_ARRAY); } if (model.hasPositions()) glDisableClientState(GL_VERTEX_ARRAY); glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0); glUseProgram(0); glDisable(GL_BLEND); } I don't know what I am missing that's important. If it's also helpful, here is where I read a 'f' face line and store the info in the obj importer in the pMaterial-indices. else if (sscanf(buffer, "%d/%d/%d", &v[0], &vt[0], &vn[0]) == 3) // v/vt/vn { fscanf(pFile, "%d/%d/%d", &v[1], &vt[1], &vn[1]); fscanf(pFile, "%d/%d/%d", &v[2], &vt[2], &vn[2]); v[0] = (v[0] < 0) ? v[0] + numVertices - 1 : v[0] - 1; v[1] = (v[1] < 0) ? v[1] + numVertices - 1 : v[1] - 1; v[2] = (v[2] < 0) ? v[2] + numVertices - 1 : v[2] - 1; currentMaterial->indices.push_back(v[0]); currentMaterial->indices.push_back(v[1]); currentMaterial->indices.push_back(v[2]); Again, this worked drawing it all together only separated by materials, so I haven't changed code anywhere else except added the indices to the materials within objects, and the loop in the draw method. Before everything was showing up black, now with the setup as above, I am getting an unhandled exception write violation on the glDrawElements line. I did a breakpoint there, and there are over 600 elements in the pMaterial-indices array, so it's not empty, it has indices to use. When I set the glDrawElements like this, it gives me the black screen but no errors glDrawElements( GL_TRIANGLES, pMaterial->indices.size(), GL_UNSIGNED_INT, &pMaterial->indices[0] ); I have also tried adding this when I loop through the faces on import if ( currentMaterial->startIndex == -1 ) currentMaterial->startIndex = v[0]; currentMaterial->triangleCount++; And when drawing... //in draw method glDrawElements( GL_TRIANGLES, pMaterial->triangleCount * 3, GL_UNSIGNED_INT, model.getIndexBuffer() + pMaterial->startIndex );

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  • How do I calculate the cost of printing a given page?

    - by Alenanno
    I have seen questions like How much does a square inch of ink cost and How much more will a high-dpi image cost to print?, but mine isn't asking neither about a specific case, nor about how much something costs, as that would depend on the toner, for example. Rather, I was wondering how should I go about calculating the cost of printing a given page. Note that "given page" should be seen as a sort of x, i.e. the answer should be applicable in any case; I'd like this question to provide a good reference for those who want to calculate this cost. What should be taken into consideration? The cost of a single page (the paper only) is easily checkable, since you divide the cost of the whole package for the number of pages in the package itself. But how do I calculate the cost of the ink/toner? Which could translate to: how do I calculate the Ink Density1 for a given printer? I know it depends on quality of the printer itself, the type, the quality of the image being printed, the very nature of what I'm going to print, etc. But again, the focus of my question is not on the variables of this case, but rather the constants, hoping the math simile works for this case too. 1: Total amount of ink in one area of the page.

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  • AHCI, Windows 7 and can only boot with Windows DVD present

    - by Rob Pridham
    Foolishly, I installed Windows 7 with my new SSD set to IDE. I would like to change it to AHCI. I have done this before, with a different motherboard. What happens: I set the controller to AHCI in the BIOS; I also check correct boot order On boot, I get the 'BOOTMGR not found' error I use the Windows Recovery Console on the DVD Diskpart etc can see the disks, and bootrec claims to have rewritten the MBR/bootloader I reboot, same problem Recovery Console again and it detects a problem, fixes, reboots Recovery Console again and it detects the OS, and a problem - fixes, reboots I ignore the 'press any key to boot from DVD' prompt Windows boots fine I restart without the DVD and I'm back to square one That optional 'press a key to boot from DVD' stage is something that the recovery process introduces - normally you have to choose to boot to the DVD at the BIOS stage. You also see this when installing Windows. I suspect that whatever temporary state that is is compatible with AHCI - but not the standard it returns to. I have done the msahci/iaStorV registry hacks to no avail (this worked with the previous board). I can put it back to IDE where normal service is resumed. The board is an Asus M5A99X, the southbridge is AMD SB950, and this is Windows 7 x64. I would quite like not to have to reinstall it again. Any ideas as to what I can do as a permanent fix?

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  • How can I get Pinch to Zoom back in Desktop mode?

    - by Ben Brocka
    Windows 7 had an old implimentation of Pinch to Zoom where bringing your fingers apart/together would act similar to ctrl + +/-, the standard zoom. It's not as nice as granular zoom (like iOS/Android use) but it worked. Most notably it doesn't work in Chrome (did before) but I haven't noticed it working in any other apps. In windows 8 desktop mode, pinch to zoom doesn't seem to work at all. It doesn't even work in One Note 2010, which, if I recall correctly, had granular zoom in Windows 7. I have an (older) 2 touch point multi-touch monitor, and I can see the visual feedback that the two touch points and coming closer/farther apart, but it doesn't zoom. Note I'm using the touchscreen, not a touchpad or the Arch mouse or other peripherals. Can I enable this somehow or is it gone from Desktop mode? It works fine in Metro apps. Additionally I get weird visual feedback when placing my second finger on the screen; a shrinking transparent square appears somewhere between the two fingers, visually similar to the Right Click visual queue when long-pressing. It's not a right click though, I can't tell what, if anything, it's doing.

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  • Permanent fix for unicode characters not displaying correctly (as boxes)

    - by Chase
    Please read this entire message before replying. First I know how to fix the issue on a temporary basis. I am looking for a permanent fix. I work with foreign language files a lot. Unfortunately sometimes all the unicode characters in windows explorer, notepad, and other places (as rendered by windows, probably GDI) do not display correctly. That is they display as square blocks, where as they had just been displaying correctly. There are countless methods to temporarily correct the issue. But again, I want a way to permanently resolve the issue. What I have tried: The silly "Hide fonts based on language settings". This setting only applies to what fonts you see in the fonts folder and font dropdowns. It doesn't disable foreign fonts (doesn't work, or if it does, it is temporary). Deleting the font cache file and rebooting (works.. usually, temporary solution). Changing my locale and then back (sometimes works, temporary solution). Rebooting my PC and getting lucky (50-50 chance, temporary solution). Changing my keyboard input/adding foreign keyboard (temporary solution that only seems to work once). Reinstalling windows (temporary solution, sometimes lasts a few months though, I have done this 7 times across 3 computers) What I have not tried: Buying Windows Ultimate and installing the interface packs. This is not a solution. I can't read Japanese/Chinese and I do not want my interface in those languages. What I will not do: Switch to a different brand operating system (unix, linux, mac os x) Switch to an older version of windows (Windows Vista, XP, 2000, etc). So can anyone recommend a permanent fix for the problem?

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  • Microsoft Excel not graphing

    - by SmartLemon
    Im not sure if this is a math question or a su question. The experiment was relating the period of one "bounce" when you hang a weight on a spring and let it bounce. I have this data here, one being mass and one being time. The time is an average of 5 trials, each one being and average of 20 bounces, to minimize human error. t 0.3049s 0.3982s 0.4838s 0.5572s 0.6219s 0.6804s 0.7362s 0.7811s 0.8328s 0.869s The mass is the mass that was used in each trial (they aren't going up in exact differences because each weight has a slight difference, nothing is perfect in the real world) m 50.59g 100.43g 150.25g 200.19g 250.89g 301.16g 351.28g 400.79g 450.43g 499.71g My problem is that I need to find the relationship between them, I know m = (k/4PI^2)*T^2 so I can work out k like that but we need to graph it. I can assume that the relationship is a sqrt relation, not sure on that one. But it appears to be the reverse of a square. Should it be 1/x^2 then? Either way my problem is still present, I have tried 1/x, 1/x^2, sqrt, x^2, none of them produce a straight line. The problem for SU is that when I go to graph the data on Excel I set the y axis data (which is the weights) and then when I go to set the x axis (which is the time) it just replaces the y axis with what I want to be the x axis, this is only happening when I have the sqrt of "m" as the y axis and I try to set the x axis as the time. The problem of math is that, am I even using the right thing? To get a straight line it would need to be x = y^1/2 right? I thought I was doing the right thing, it is what we were told to do. I'm just not getting anything that looks right.

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  • Is there an simple but good To Do Manager app for the Mac?

    - by Another Registered User
    Every morning I think about what I am going to do today. So I take a paper and start to write things like: [ ] Call Mr. XYZ [ ] Answer Support E-Mails [ ] Reduce website header height by 20 px [ ] Create new navigation bar icons And every time I'm done with something, I paint a checkmark in this square. On paper. It would be fun to have something like this as an application. But I don't want a heavy project management tool or integration with email. It should be like download, install, use without fat configuration and steep learning curve. usually I don't schedule my to do's, I just write down every day what I want to accomplish today. For my experience it doesn't make sense to plan what to do next week, because next week everything looks totally different. Would be cool if such a simple utility exists. At the moment I try just using textEdit and deleting rows which are done. With a nice interface, this would be much more fun.

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  • Easiest way to find out if user has either Windows 7 or Vista (through telephone support)?

    - by Rabarberski
    If you have to provide some initial troubleshooting support by phone [or email], and you don't have access to the PC itself, what is the easiest and most foolproof question to find out if the 'dumb' user is using either Windows 7 or Windows Vista? For example: determining if the user has either Windows XP or Windows Vista/7 is easy. Just ask the user if the button at the left bottom corner is (a) either square with the word 'Start' on it, or (b) it is a round button. But how to determine the difference between Vista and 7? Edit: For all the existing answers the user has to type something, and do it correctly. Sometimes even that is already hard for a computer illiterate user. My XP example just requires looking. If it exists (although I am afraid it doesn't), I think a solution that is just based on something this is visually different between Vista and 7 would stand above all others. (Which makes Dan's suggestion to turn over the box and look at the label" not so stupid). Perhaps the small 'show desktop' rectangle at the right side of the task bar (was that present in Vista)?

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  • Is HR/Recruitment Really Ready For Innovative Candidates

    - by david.talamelli
    Before I begin this blog post, I want to acknowledge that there are some great HR/Recruitment people out there who are innovative and are leading the way in using new means to successfully attract and connect with talented people. For those of you who fit in this category, please keep thinking outside the square - just because what you do may not be the norm doesn't mean it is bad. Ok, with that acknowledgment out of the way - Earlier this morning (I started this post Friday morning) I came across this online profile via a tweet from Philip Tusing I love the information that Jason has put on his web-pages. From his work Jason clearly demonstrates not only his skills/experience but also I love how he relates his experience and shows how it will help an employer and what the value add of having him on your team is. Looking at Jason's profile makes me think though, is HR/Recruitment in general terms ready to deal with innovative candidates. Sure most Recruiters are online in some form or another, but how many actually have a process that is flexible enough to deal with someone who may not fit into your processes. Is your company's recruitment practice proactive enough to find Jason's web-pages? I am not sure what he is doing in terms of a job search, but if he is not mailing a resume or replying to ads on a Job Board - hopefully Jason comes up on some of the candidate searching you are doing. Once you find this information, would the information Jason provides fit nicely into your Applicant Tracking System or your Database? If not, how much of the intangible information are you losing and potentially not passing on to a Hiring Manager. I think what has worked in the past will not necessarily work in the future. Candidates want to work somewhere they will be challenged and learn and grow. If your HR/Recruitment team displays processes that take don't necessarily convey this message, this potentially could turn people away who were once interested in your company. For example (and I have to admit I still do some of these things myself), once calling up and having a talk to a candidate a company may say: 1) HR Question: Send me in a copy of your resume - Candidate Reply - you actually already have my resume, the web-page is http:// 2) HR Question:Come in for a chat so we can get to know you - Candidate Reply - if this is the basis of a meeting, you already know me and my thoughts by looking at my online links (blog, portfolio, homepage, etc...) These questions if not handled properly could potentially turn a candidate from being interested in your company to not being interested in your company. It potentially could demonstrate that your company is not social media savvy or maybe give the impression of not really being all that innovative. A candidate may think, if this company isn't able to take information I have provided in the public forum and use it, is it really a company I want to work for? I think when liaising with candidates a company should utilise the information the person has provided in the public domain. A candidate may inadvertantly give you answers to many of the questions you are seeking on their online presence and save everyone time instead of having to fill out forms or paperwork. If you build this into your conversations with your candidates it becomes a much more individualised service you are providing and really demonstrates to a candidate you are thinking of them as an individual. Yes I know we need to have processes in place and I am not saying don't work to those processes, but don't let process take away a candidates individuality. Don't let your process inadvertently scare away the top candidates that you may want in your company. This article was originally posted on David Talamelli's Blog - David's Journal on Tap

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  • Why Haven’t NFC Payments Taken Off?

    - by David Dorf
    With the EMV 2015 milestone approaching rapidly, there’s been renewed interest in smartcards, those credit cards with an embedded computer chip.  Back in 1996 I was working for a vendor helping Visa introduce a stored-value smartcard to the US.  Visa Cash was debuted at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, and I firmly believed it was the beginning of a cashless society.  (I later worked on MasterCard’s system called Mondex, from the UK, which debuted the following year in Manhattan). But since you don’t have a Visa Cash card in your wallet, it’s obvious the project never took off.  It was convenient for consumers, faster for merchants, and more cost-effective for banks, so why did it fail?  All emerging payment systems suffer from the chicken-and-egg dilemma.  Consumers won’t carry the cards if few merchants accept them, and merchants won’t install the terminals if few consumers have cards. Today’s emerging payment providers are in a similar pickle.  There has to be enough value for all three constituents – consumers, merchants, banks – to change the status quo.  And it’s not enough to exceed the value, it’s got to be a leap in value, because people generally resist change.  ATMs and transit cards are great examples of this, and airline kiosks and self-checkout systems are to a lesser extent. Although Google Wallet and ISIS, the two leading NFC payment platforms in the US, have shown strong commitment, there’s been very little traction.  Yes, I can load my credit card number into my phone then tap to pay, but what was the incremental value over swiping my old card?  For it to be a leap in value, it has to offer more than just payment, which I can do very easily today.  The other two ingredients are thought to be loyalty programs and digital coupons, but neither Google nor ISIS really did them well. Of course a large portion of the mobile phone market doesn’t even support NFC thanks to Apple, and since it’s not in their best interest that situation is unlikely to change.  Another issue is getting access to the “secure element,” the chip inside the phone where accounts numbers can be held securely.  Telco providers and handset manufacturers own that area, and they’re not willing to share with banks.  (Host Card Emulation, which has been endorsed by MasterCard and Visa, might be a solution.) Square recently gave up on its wallet, and MCX (the group of retailers trying to create a mobile payment platform) is very slow out of the gate.  That leaves PayPal and a slew of smaller companies trying to introduce easier ways to pay. But is it really so cumbersome to carry and swipe (soon to insert) a credit card?  Aren’t there more important problems to solve in the retail customer experience?  Maybe Apple will come up with some novel way to use iBeacons and fingerprint identification to make payments, but for now I think we need to focus on upgrading to Chip-and-PIN and tightening security.  In the meantime, NFC payments will continue to struggle.

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