cluster shared volume - Page 367

Windows Server 2008 Software Raid 5 - Data integrity issues

- by Fopedush

I've got a server running Windows Server 2008 R2, with a (windows native) software raid-5 array. The array consists of 7x 1TB Western Digital RE3 and RE4 drives. I have offline backups of this array. The problem is this: I noticed a few days ago after copying a large file to the disk that there was an integrity issue with that file - it was a ~12GB file that I had downloaded via uTorrent. After moving it to the raid array, I used uTorrent to relocate the download location, and performed a re-check so I could seed it from that location. The recheck found that only 6308/6310 chunks of the copied file were intact. My next step was to write a quick powershell script that would copy files to the array, while performing a SHA1 hash of the original and resultant files and comparing them. Smaller files (100-1000MB) copied over just fine. When I started copying larger data (~15GB), I found that the hash check failed about 2/3rds of the time. The corrupt files had very, very small inconsistencies - less than .01%. I further eliminated the possibility of networking or client issues by placing this large file on the C:\ of the server, and copying it repeatedly from there to the array, seeing similar results. Copying the data via explorer, powershell, or the standard windows command prompt yield the same results. None of the copies fail or report any problems. The raid array itself is listed as healthy in disk management. After a few experiments, I shut down the server and ran memtest overnight. No errors were detected. A basic run of chkdsk found no problems, but I did not use the /R flag, as I was unsure how that might affect a software raid-5 volume. I next ran Crystal Disk Info to check the smart data on the drives - but found that CDI only detected 5 out of 7 of the disks in the array. I have no idea why. Nevertheless, CDI shows the following "caution" flags on a single one of the drives: 05 199 199 140 000000000001 Reallocated Sectors Count C5 200 200 __0 000000000001 Current Pending Sector Count Which is a little bit alarming, but I don't really know what to do with the information. I hardly feel like one reallocated sector could be causing this. At this point, I'm looking for some guidance on what to do next. I need to determine the cause of this issue, but I'm hesitant to run chkdsk /R or any bootable disk health checkers because I'm afraid they might break the array. I've considered triggering a re-sync of the array, but I'm not actually sure how to do that without doing something silly like manually dropping a disk and then restoring it. Any advice that could help me ferret out the precise cause of this issue would be greatly appreciated.

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Mysql Servers for Attendance System

- by foo

I'm building an attendance system. There are about 20 places where people will check in and check out using Mifare 1K Card. It will use MySQL as the database. The system will display something like "#ID IN: 800AM" when the first time the user checks in and "#ID OUT: 400PM" when the user checks out. For this to work, all the databases need to be synchronized with each other all the times. For an example, if user A went to location #1 to check in but by the time he wants to return home, the server at location #1 went down, he needs to go to location #2 or the nearest server to check out. The server at location #2 should display '#ID OUT: 400PM" and not "#ID IN: 400PM" since he's already checked in. So, what should I use to ensure this idea will work? My main concern is with the network (other department manages it) which is very unpredictable. It just love to go down anytime it wants to. Update LOL, didn't realize my question is not clear, just noticed it when you guys pointed it out, sorry about that. My real question is, how can I configure my MySQL to be synchronized with each other (20 servers)? MySQL cluster ? (tried reading about it, but I'm not sure if it's the right thing to do) My current setup (first phase): Local database for each server OS: Slackware A main server that keeps track which staff is at which server A web based front end for the user to see their history (which connects to the server based on their records) Main Pros No worries about network problems since it is a local database Main Cons A user can only check in and out at the same server. Databases/Servers are not connected with each others. Have to add the user to each server if the users want to check in at different locations. Which means, if he wants to go to location A, he must be checked out from location A first and then check in at location B. The server at location B didn't know that the user has checked in before at A. By the way, I've already centralized my NTP to a local server. About the network, let's just say, I don't have the authority to make changes so that the network will be better. The network won't effect all 20 servers at once, usually, just a few of them for several times a week. If there are anything else you would like me to answer, please just ask.

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recommendations for efficient offsite remote backup solution of vm's

- by senorsmile

I am looking for recommendations for backing up my current 6 vm's(and soon to grow to up to 20). Currently I am running a two node proxmox cluster(which is a debian base using kvm for virtualization with a custom web front end to administer). I have two nearly identical boxes with amd phenom II x4's and asus motherboards. Each has 4 500 GB sata2 hdd's, 1 for the os and other data for the proxmox install, and 3 using mdadm+drbd+lvm to share the 1.5 TB's of storage between the two machines. I mount lvm images to kvm for all of the virtual machines. I currently have the ability to do live transfer from one machine to the other, typically within seconds(it takes about 2 minutes on the largest vm running win2008 with m$ sql server). I am using proxmox's built-in vzdump utility to take snapshots of the vm's and store those on an external harddrive on the network. I then have jungledisk service (using rackspace) to sync the vzdump folder for remote offsite backup. This is all fine and dandy, but it's not very scalable. For one, the backups themselves can take up to a few hours every night. With jungledisk's block level incremental transfers, the sync only transfers a small portion of the data offsite, but that still takes at least a half an hour. The much better solution would of course be something that allows me to instantly take the difference of two time points (say what was written from 6am to 7am), zip it, then send that difference file to the backup server which would instantly transfer to the remote storage on rackspace. I have looked a little into zfs and it's ability to do send/receive. That coupled with a pipe of the data in bzip or something would seem perfect. However, it seems that implementing a nexenta server with zfs would essentially require at least one or two more dedicated storage servers to serve iSCSI block volumes (via zvol's???) to the proxmox servers. I would prefer to keep the setup as minimal as possible (i.e. NOT having separate storage servers) if at all possible. I have also briefly read about zumastor. It looks like it could also do what I want, but it appears to have halted development in 2008. So, zfs, zumastor or other?

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Can Remote Desktop Services be deployed and administered by PowerShell alone, without a Domain in WIndows Server 2012 and 2012 R2?

- by Warren P

Windows Server 2008 R2 allowed deployment of Terminal Server (Remote Desktop Services) without a domain, and without any insistence on domains. This was very useful, especially for standalone virtual or cloud deployments of a server that is managed remotely for a remote client who has no need or desire for any ActiveDirectory or Domain features. This has become steadily more and more difficult as Microsoft restricts its technologies further and further in each Windows release. With Windows Server 2012, configuring licensing for Remote Desktop Services, is more difficult when not on a domain, but possible still. With Windows Server 2012 R2 (at least in the preview) the barriers are now severe: The Add/Remove Roles and Features wizard in Windows Server 2012 R2 has a special RDS deployment mode that has a rule that says if you aren't on a domain you can't deploy. It tells you to create or join a domain first. This of course comes in direct conflict with the fact that an Active Directory domain controller should not be the same machine as a terminal server machine. So Microsoft's technology is not such much a Cloud Operating System as a Cluster of Unwanted Nodes, needed to support the one machine I actually WANT to deploy. This is gross, and so I am trying to find a workaround. However if you skip that wizard and just go check the checkboxes in the main Roles/Features wizard, you can deploy the features, but the UI is not there to configure them, and when you go back to the RDS configuration page on the roles wizard, you get a message saying you can not administer your Remote Desktop Services system when you are logged in as a Local-Computer Administrator, because although you have all admin priveleges you could have (in your workgroup based system), the RDS configuration UI will not accept those credentials and let you continue. My question in brief is, can I still somehow, obtain the following end result: I need to allow 10-20 users per system to have an RDS (TS) session. I do not need any of the fancy pants RDS options, unless Microsoft somehow depends on those features being present. I believe I need the "RDS Session Host" as this is the guts of "Terminal Server". Microsoft says it is "full Windows desktop for Remote Desktop Services client. I need to configure licensing so that the Grace Period does not expire leaving my RDS non functional, so this probably means I need a way to configure TS CALs. If all of the above could technically be done with the judicious use of the PowerShell, I am prepared to even consider developing all the PowerShell scripts I would need to do the above. I'm not asking someone to write that for me. What I'm asking is, does anyone know if there is a technical impediment to what I want to do above, other than the deliberate crippling of the 2012 R2 UI for Workgroup users? Would the underlying technologies all still work if I manipulate and control them from a PowerShell script? Obviously a 1 word Yes or No answer isn't that useful to anyone, so the question is really, yes or no, and why? In the case the answer is Yes, then how.

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Load balancers, multiple data centers and url based routing

- by kunkunur

There is one data center - dc1. There is a business need to setup another data center - dc2 in another geography and there might be more in the future say dc3. Within the data center dc1: There are two web servers say WS1 and WS2. These two webservers do not share anything currently. There isnt any necessity foreseen to have more webservers within each dc. dc1 also has a local load balancer which has been setup with session stickiness. So if a user say u1 lands on dc1 and if the load balancer decides to route his first request to WS1 then from there on all u1's requests will get routed to WS1. Local load balancer and webservers are invisible to the user. Local load balancer listens to the traffic on a virtual ip which is assigned to the virtual cluster of webservers ws1 and ws2. Virtual ip is the ip to which the host name is resolved to in the DNS. There are no client specific subdomains as of now instead there is a client specific url(context). ex: www.example.com/client1 and www.example.com/client2. Given above when dc2 is onboarded I want to route the traffic between dc1 and dc2 based on the client. The options that I have found so far are. Have client specific subdomains e.g. client1.example.com and client2.example.com and assign each of them with the virtual ip of the data center to which I want to route them. or Assign www.example.com and www1.example.com to first dc i.e. dc1 and assign www2.example.com to dc2. All requests will first get routed to dc1 where WS1 and WS2 will redirect the user to www1.example.com or www2.example.com based on whether the url ends with /client1 or /client2. I need help in the following If I setup a global load balancer between dc1 and dc2 do I have any alternative solutions. That is, can a global load balancer route the traffic based on the url ? Are there drawbacks to subdomain based solutions compared to www1 solution? With www1 solution I am worried that it creates a dependency on dc1 atleast for the first request and the user will see that he is getting redirected to a different url.

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Cooling Server Rack with Water? Sensible? Reuse energy for small installation?

- by TomTom

First - this is not a shopping question, this is not so much about concrete prices but about general feasibility. Makes no sense to get looking fo ra manufacturer it the approach is bad. I am moving my company to new Offices in September, and among them we will expand and consolidate our number crunch cluster. It is so far in a data center. I have a nice room in the basement prepared now. I think about cooling. We will likely run up a power usage of around 10kw by end of the year. That is a LOT of stuff, and cooling will be expensive. I am located in south Poland, close to the German border. This is an area where water is available for relatively cheap price - "wasting water" is not a concern here. My situation is thus a lot different for example than in Spain ;) Physics tells me that to heat 1 liter of water by 1 degree I use 1 Calorie (1KCal), and a kwh power is (and we can assume 100% efficiency - water heaters are pretty efficient) 750 Calories. That means that 1 KWH is 750 liter by 1 degree. 10kw and a 20 degree heat would mean that per hour I need 375 liters. That is 6.25 liters per minute and not WHAT much ;) We talk 270 cubic meters here. Even in summer, the significant underground pipes really cool down the water a LOT more ;) Question: This such an approach feasible? Anyone done that? We talk of a 10kw installation for now. Is it feasible to reuse that heat? The alternative is a decent cooling system that WILL use around 2.5kwh for running. Dropping the water would basically (a) get me a quite cold input compared to the outside air even in summer (I.e. a lower temperature medium to drop the heat in) and (b) replace the need to actually have the outside cooling (which may b problematic - if the air is 22 degree, that is a LOT to fight off, but OTOH the water will be quite cold). I also would possibly save the investment for the outside part of the cooling circuit. Now, second question - is there a feasible way to heat a house with that? ;) After all, brutally speaking, it is a LOT of energy in that water ;) If it is a bad idea, I stop here - if it is not, I start looking for suppliers. Maybe my math is wrong?

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Repair corrupt hard disk on Mac without install CD

- by Sarah

The hard disk of my late 2009 MacBook Pro appears to have become corrupted. I am traveling and do not have my install CD (and won't for several weeks, nor will I be anywhere near an Apple store). The hard disk is not the original, which failed in June 2011. It's some Hitachi replacement installed by IT. History: I was typing an email this afternoon, my computer suddenly started making soft clicking sounds and then froze. I was not moving around. I rebooted, which took a while. I heard more clicking sounds and the computer froze at least once again. It's now kind of working, with mdworker sucking up one CPU. There are no awkward hard drive sounds when I run Chrome or play music. However, when I launched Stickies, I found no trace of my saved Stickies. I ran a live disk verification from within Disk Utility, and it reported Problem: As reported, I don't have access to an installation disc and am nowhere near an area where I can get one for at least two weeks. I have the option of asking someone to go to some trouble and expense to get one for me, but I'm not sure it's worth it: I've read that I can use fsck from single-user mode to repair the disk. Should I just try this? Is it risky? I'm concerned that the clicky sound portends imminent (mechanical) hard drive failure, so it's not worth doing a silly repair. This hard disk is backed up, but I definitely won't be able to access the backup while traveling. I'd like to maximize the probability that I can keep using my computer (and all its current files) while traveling. Update I bit the bullet and ran fsck -fy from single-user mode. It only needed one pass (modification) to reach the "okay" stage. However, rebooting took nearly 5 min and involved several rounds of scratchy sounds and a few bad clicks. I'm now back to kind of using my computer (the same files are missing as before). When I ran live disk verification from Disk Utility this time, however, it reported that the volume appears to be OK. Am I right to infer from the scratchy sounds, however, that my hard drive is still rapidly on its way out? Is there anything else I can do to increase its functionality over the next few weeks?

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Mac OSX 10.8 Server DNS Domain Routing

- by Oldek

I just cant seem to figure out the logic in how to configure my Mac Server. So I have set up an DNS, which will take the domain and all subdomains and point towards an IP. File: db.mydomain.com (in /var/named/) mydomain.com. 10800 IN SOA mydomain.com. admin.mydomain.com. ( 2012110903 ; serial 3600 ; refresh (1 hour) 900 ; retry (15 minutes) 1209600 ; expire (2 weeks) 86400 ; minimum (1 day) ) 10800 IN NS mydomain.com. 10800 IN A 10.0.1.2 www.mydomain.com. 10800 IN A 10.0.1.2 So I want all of these requests to be requested to the 10.0.1.2 server, as I run 2 servers in my cluster. This one has always handled the requests, and now I want to add a server in between. So the server in between will get all the signals from my router which NAT the trafic coming from outside. So after setting this up and trying to point my port 80 towards my new server which will be the middle point, it doesn't work. Is it even possible to do it this way? First server: Mac Second server: Linux So what I try to achieve once more: 1. User goes to mydomain.com or www.mydomain.com 2. User request gets handled by my first server 3. First server refers to a local server, which is only available locally (it is configured to allow requests on port 80 and handle them) 4. Second server receives signal 5. Second server returns a request (either directly send to user or send through first server, whichever is most secure and configurable) I also want to be able to set up domains that lead to other servers in the future, and some that are only available within the VPN. (If that changes anything) I hope some kind soul could help me with this, it is really cumbersome for my mind to get the logic here. Do I have to configure my other server in any way? /Marcus

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OEM sound card with no drivers or support

- by randy

I thought my sound card was going out so I bought a sound card online. Everything seemed to work ok, I do have sound. But after a few months, I noticed the extra software that downloaded with the sound card drivers didn't work. I ended up contacting creative and after a month of e-mail support, they asked for the serial number and/or model number. Their reply back was I had purchased an OEM sound card and they could not provide support for that, and informed me that that is why their drivers and software didn't work. They informed me that I had to contact the company that distributed the sound card and install their software. Is there anything I can do to find out who distributed this sound card, or is there anything I can do to get other features to work? I have 4 speakers and a sub but only 2 speakers produce sound. The only control I have is the volume. Creative's driver update program will find my sound card, download updates and even added software, but if I try to click on a downloaded program like Creative's Toolbox or Media Center, I get an error that it cannot find the devise. That is why I contacted creative in the first place. EDIT Thanks for the responses everyone. Here's an update. I thought I'd go thru my old computer stuff for my classes at school. I have a lot of old stuff saved, boxes and cables and stuff. I found the box the sound card came in. It looks like a box you'd buy at the store, like Best Buy or CompUSA. I worked with creative for such a long time, it went past the point of being able to return it to the junk online store this shipped from. The box did have an install CD, so I thought I'd start over to reinstall the drivers and software that shipped with the card. I noticed that the install would uninstall a program, then reinstall it. so I thought things were working out. But no good. Everything still works but the programs were still bad. I'd get an error trying to load them - not found. I'll look on the card the next time I get a chance and see if I can spot any kind of name on it.

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Recovering damaged external hard disk by installing internally

- by nfarshchi

I had a 1TB Western Digital (My book series) 3.5" USB3. One day, the SATA to USB3 converter board was damaged and has not worked since. I decided to open the cover and use the HDD as an internal HDD. When I attached the HDD to my PC and booted up in Windows, it asked me which type of ????? I want to use "MBR or GBR" (I dont remember the exact question) I chose MBR and Windows gave me a 1TB empty Hard drive. I tried to recover with recover my files and some other recovery programs but no success. Some one told me that you should choosed GBR instead of MBR . How can I do that now? Another guy told me that the SATA to USB3 converter board is coded to save data on HDD and you can not use them internally without losing data, and I should find another SATA to USB3 board (exact same). It is impossible to find because they are not produced any more. Please help me to find a solution to bring back my data. UPDATE I have 1TB WD "Mybook" USB 3. the board that convert sata to usb3 was damaged. so when the HDD was in the box computer did not recognize it. I opened the box and remove HDD to use it internal. after connecting to my PC windows showed me one massage that I had two choice MBR or GPT I choosed MBR one and windows gave me 1TB empty new volume. I tried many recovery software to recover my data but no success. I brought it to one expert recovery company and they told me the converter board (SATA to USB3) make some encryption on data and with out that board you cannot recover any thing. so I bought another empty WD box and put the HDD inside but even after that also there is no file. I tried to recover again in this state but no success. so I have some unanswered question. does this converted boards make any password or encryption? if yes how can I solve it? does using many recovery programs affected my data? any suggestion or solution for bring back my data? I had use recovery programs such as : recover my files , EaseUS data recovery, easy recovery, test disk, Ontrack easy recovery . Note: when I was using test disk it asked me to choose which partition table I want to use. as it was I choose NTFS, does this made any change on data?

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SQL Express 2008 R2 on Amazon EC2 instance: tons of free memory, poor performance

- by gravyface

The old SQL Express 2005 was running on a low-end single Xeon CPU Dell server, RAID 5 7200 disks, 2 GB RAM (SBS 2003). I have not done any baseline measurements on the old physical server, but the Web app is used by half a dozen people (maybe 2 concurrently), so I figured "how bad can an Amazon EC2 instance be?". It's pretty horrible: a difference of 8 seconds of load time on one screen. First of all, I'm not a SQL guru, but here's what I've tried: Had a Small Instance, now running a c1.medium (High Cpu Medium) Windows 2008 32-bit R2 EBS-backed instance running IIS 7.5 and SQL Express 2008 R2. No noticeable improvement. Changed Page File from fixed 256 to Automatic. Setup a Striped Mirror from within Disk Management with two attached 1 GB EBS volumes. Moved database and transaction log, left everything else on the boot EBS volume. No noticeable change. Looked at memory, ~1000 MB of physical memory free (1.7 GB total). Changed SQL instance to use a minimum of 1024 RAM; restarted server, no change in memory usage. SQL still only using ~28MB of RAM(!). So I'm thinking: this database is tiny (28MB), why isn't the whole thing cached in RAM? Surely that would speed up performance. The transaction log is 241 MB. Seems kind of large in comparison -- has this not been committed? Is it a cause of performance degradation? I recall something about Recovery Models and log sizes somewhere in my travels, but not positive. Another thing: the old server was running SQL Express 2005. Not sure if that has any impact, but I tried changing the compatibility level from SQL 2000 to 2008, but that had no effect. Anyways, what else can I try here? Seems ridiculous to throw more virtual hardware at this thing. I know I/O is going to be rough on EBS volumes, but surely others are successfully running small .NET/SQL apps on reasonably priced instances?

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How to make Nginx fire 504 immediately is server is not available?

- by Georgiy Ivankin

I have Nginx set up as a load balancer with cookie-based stickiness. The logic is: If the cookie is NOT there, use round-robbing to choose a server from cluster. If the cookie is there, go to the server that is associated with the cookie value. Server is then responsible for setting the cookie. What I want to add is this: If the cookie is there, but server is down, fallback to round-robbing step to choose next available server. So actually I have load balancing and want to add failover support on top of it. I have managed to do that with the help of error_page directive, but it doesn't work as I expected it to. The problem: 504 (and the fallback associated with it) fires only after 30s timeout even if the server is not physically available. So what I want Nginx to do is fire a 504 (or any other error, doesn't matter) immediately (I suppose this means: when TCP connection fails). This is the behavior we can see in browsers: if we go directly to server when it is down, browser immediately tells us that it can't connect. Moreover, Nginx seems to be doing this for 502 error: if I intentionally misconfigure my servers, Nginx fires 502 immediately. Configuration (stripped down to basics): http { upstream my_cluster { server 192.168.73.210:1337; server 192.168.73.210:1338; } map $cookie_myCookie $http_sticky_backend { default 0; value1 192.168.73.210:1337; value2 192.168.73.210:1338; } server { listen 8080; location @fallback { proxy_pass http://my_cluster; } location / { error_page 504 = @fallback; # Create a map of choices # see https://gist.github.com/jrom/1760790 set $test HTTP; if ($http_sticky_backend) { set $test "${test}-STICKY"; } if ($test = HTTP-STICKY) { proxy_pass http://$http_sticky_backend$uri?$args; break; } if ($test = HTTP) { proxy_pass http://my_cluster; break; } return 500 "Misconfiguration"; } } } Disclaimer: I am pretty far from systems administration of any kind, so there may be some basics that I miss here. EDIT: I'm interested in solution with standard free version of Nginx, not Nginx Plus. Thanks.

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Webcast Q&A: Los Angeles Department of Building & Safety Lowers Customer Service Costs with Oracle WebCenter

- by Kellsey Ruppel

This week we had the fifth webcast in our WebCenter in Action webcast series, "Los Angeles Department of Building & Safety Lowers Customer Service Costs with Oracle WebCenter", where customers Giovani Dacumos and Minh Ong from the Los Angeles Department of Building & Safety (LADBS), and Sheetal Paranjpye and Rajiv Desai from Oracle Partner 3Di, shared how Oracle WebCenter is powering LADBS' externally facing website and providing a superior self-service experience for their customers. We asked the speakers to provide some dialogue for Q&A. Giovani Dacumos, Director of Systems and Minh Ong, LADBS Q: Did you run into any issues when integrating all of the different applications together?A: Yes. We did have issues integrating a secure sign on between the portal and other legacy applications. We used portlets and iframes to overcome those. This is a new technology for us and we are also learning as we go so there were a lot of challenges in developing and implementing our vision. Q: What has been the biggest benefit your end users have seen?A: The biggest benefit for our ends users is ease-of-use. We've given them a system that provided a new and improved source of information, as well as a very organized flow of transaction processing. It has made our online service very user friendly. Q: Was there any resistance internally when implementing the solution? If so, how did you overcome that?A: There was no internal resistance during the implementation, only challenges. As mentioned earlier, this is a new technology for us. We've come across issues that needed assistance from Oracle. Working with 3Di and Oracle has helped us tremendously to find solutions to our implementation issues. Q: Given the performance, what do you estimate to be the top end capacity of the system? A: With the current performance and architecture we have, we are able to support approx 300-400 concurrent users. We would need more hardware to support additional user load. Q: What's the overview or summary of feedback from the users interacting with the site?A: LADBS has a wide spectrum of customers, from simple users like homeowners to large construction firms. Anything new that we offer could be a little bit challenging for some, but overall, the customers liked it. They saw a huge improvement on the usability. Q: Can you describe the impressions about the site before and after the project within LADBS?A: The old site was using old technology and it was hard for us to keep on building into it as we got more business requirements. It made our application seem a bit complicated. It was confusing for our new customers to use and we've improved on this with the new site. It's now easier for them to complete their transactions and, at the same time, allowed us to provide more useful information. Sheetal Paranjpye and Rajiv Desai, 3Di Q: Did you run into any obstacles when implementing the solution?A: Yes we did run into some obstacles. One of the key show stoppers was the issue with portlet to portal communication. The GIS viewer (portlet) needed information to be passed to and from Permit LA (Portal), but we were able to get everything configured and up and working quickly! Q: Was there a lot of custom work that needed to be done for this particular solution?A: We have done some customizations where workflows/ Task flows are involved. Q: What do you think were the keys to success for rolling out WebCenter?A: Having a service oriented architecture and using portlets have been the key areas for rolling out Oracle WebCenter at LADBS. The Oracle WebCenter Content integration allows the flexibility to business users to maintain the content, which has really cut down on the reliance of IT, and employee productivity has increased as a result. If you missed the webcast, be sure to catch the replay to see a live demonstration of WebCenter in action! Los Angeles Department of Building & Safety Lowers Customer Service Costs with Oracle WebCenter from Oracle WebCenter

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AGENT: The World's Smartest Watch

- by Rob Chartier

AGENT: The World's Smartest Watch by Secret Labs + House of Horology Disclaimer: Most if not all of this content has been gleaned from the comments on the Kickstarter project page and comments section. Any discrepancies between this post and any documentation on agentwatches.com, kickstarter.com, etc.., those official sites take precedence. Overview The next generation smartwatch with brand-new technology. World-class developer tools, unparalleled battery life, Qi wireless charging. Kickstarter Page, Comments Funding period : May 21, 2013 - Jun 20, 2013 MSRP : $249 Other Urls http://www.agentwatches.com/ https://www.facebook.com/agentwatches http://twitter.com/agentwatches http://pinterest.com/agentwatches/ http://paper.li/robchartier/1371234640 Developer Story The first official launch of the preview SDK and emulator will happen on 20-Jun-2013. All development will be done in Visual Studio 2012, using the .NET Micro Framework SDK 2.3. The SDK will ship with the first round of the expected API for developers along with an emulator. With that said, there is no need to wait for the SDK. You can download the tooling now and get started with Apps and Faces immediately. The only thing that you will not be able to work with is the API; but for example, watch faces, you can start building the basic face rendering with the Bitmap graphics drawing in the .NET Micro Framework. Does it look good? Before we dig into any more of the gory details, here are a few photos of the current available prototype models. The watch on the tiny QI Charter If you wander too far away from your phone, your watch will let you know with a vibration and a message, all but one button will dismiss the message. An app showing the premium weather data! Nice stitching on the straps, leather and silicon will be available, along with a few lengths to choose from (short, regular, long lengths). On to those gory details…. Hardware Specs Processor 120MHz ARM Cortex-M4 processor (ATSAM4SD32) with secondary AVR co-processor Flash & RAM 2MB of onboard flash and 160KB of RAM 1/4 of the onboard flash will be used by the OS The flash is permanent (non-volatile) storage. Bluetooth Bluetooth 4.0 BD/EDR + LE Bluetooth 4.0 is backwards compatible with Bluetooth 2.1, so classic Bluetooth functions (BD/EDR, SPP/AVRCP/PBAP/etc.) will work fine. Sensors 3D Accelerometer (Motion) ST LSM303DLHC Ambient Light Sensor Hardware power metering Vibration Motor (You can pulse it to create vibration patterns, not sure about the vibration strength - driven with PWM) No piezo/speaker or microphone. Other QI Wireless Charging, no NFC, no wall adapter included Custom LED Backlight No GPS in the watch. It uses the GPS in your phone. AGENT watch apps are deployed and debugged wirelessly from your PC via Bluetooth. RoHS, Pb-free Battery Expected to use a CR2430-sized rechargeable battery – replaceable (Mouser, Amazon) Estimated charging time from empty is 2 hours with provided charger 7 Days typical with Bluetooth on, 30 days with Bluetooth off (watch-face only mode) The battery should last at least 2 years, with 100s of charge cycles. Physical dimensions Roughly 38mm top-to-bottom on the front face 35mm left-to-right on the front face and around 12mm in depth 22mm strap Two ~1/16" hex screws to attach the watch pin The top watchcase material candidates are PVD stainless steel, brushed matte ceramic, and high-quality polycarbonate (TBD). The glass lens is mineral glass, Anti-glare glass lens Strap options Leather and silicon straps will be available Expected to have three sizes Display 1.28" Sharp Memory Display The display stays on 100% of the time. Dimensions: 128x128 pixels Buttons Custom "Pusher" buttons, they will not make noise like a mouse click, and are very durable. The top-left button activates the backlight; bottom-left changes apps; three buttons on the right are up/select/down and can be used for custom purposes by apps. Backup reset procedure is currently activated by holding the home/menu button and the top-right user button for about ten seconds Device Support Android 2.3 or newer iPhone 4S or newer Windows Phone 8 or newer Heart Rate monitors - Bluetooth SPP or Bluetooth LE (GATT) is what you'll want the heart monitor to support. Almost limitless Bluetooth device support! Internationalization & Localization Full UTF8 Support from the ground up. AGENT's user interface is in English. Your content (caller ID, music tracks, notifications) will be in your native language. We have a plan to cover most major character sets, with Latin characters pre-loaded on the watch. Simplified Chinese will be available Feature overview Phone lost alert Caller ID Music Control (possible volume control) Wireless Charging Timer Stopwatch Vibrating Alarm (possibly custom vibrations for caller id) A few default watch faces Airplane mode (by demand or low power) Can be turned off completely Customizable 3rd party watch faces, applications which can be loaded over bluetooth. Sample apps that maybe installed Weather Sample Apps not installed Exercise App Other Possible Skype integration over Bluetooth. They will provide an AGENT app for your smartphone (iPhone, Android, Windows Phone). You'll be able to use it to load apps onto the watch.. You will be able to cancel phone calls. With compatible phones you can also answer, end, etc. They are adopting the standard hands-free profile to provide these features and caller ID.

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SharpDX: best practice for multiple RenderForms?

- by Rob Jellinghaus

I have an XNA app, but I really need to add multiple render windows, which XNA doesn't do. I'm looking at SharpDX (both for multi-window support and for DX11 / Metro / many other reasons). I decided to hack up the SharpDX DX11 MultiCubeTexture sample to see if I could make it work. My changes are pretty trivial. The original sample had: [STAThread] private static void Main() { var form = new RenderForm("SharpDX - MiniCubeTexture Direct3D11 Sample"); ... I changed this to: struct RenderFormWithActions { internal readonly RenderForm Form; // should just be Action but it's not in System namespace?! internal readonly Action RenderAction; internal readonly Action DisposeAction; internal RenderFormWithActions(RenderForm form, Action renderAction, Action disposeAction) { Form = form; RenderAction = renderAction; DisposeAction = disposeAction; } } [STAThread] private static void Main() { // hackity hack new Thread(new ThreadStart(() = { RenderFormWithActions form1 = CreateRenderForm(); RenderLoop.Run(form1.Form, () = form1.RenderAction(0)); form1.DisposeAction(0); })).Start(); new Thread(new ThreadStart(() = { RenderFormWithActions form2 = CreateRenderForm(); RenderLoop.Run(form2.Form, () = form2.RenderAction(0)); form2.DisposeAction(0); })).Start(); } private static RenderFormWithActions CreateRenderForm() { var form = new RenderForm("SharpDX - MiniCubeTexture Direct3D11 Sample"); ... Basically, I split out all the Main() code into a separate method which creates a RenderForm and two delegates (a render delegate, and a dispose delegate), and bundles them all together into a struct. I call this method twice, each time from a separate, new thread. Then I just have one RenderLoop on each new thread. I was thinking this wouldn't work because of the [STAThread] declaration -- I thought I would need to create the RenderForm on the main (STA) thread, and run only a single RenderLoop on that thread. Fortunately, it seems I was wrong. This works quite well -- if you drag one of the forms around, it stops rendering while being dragged, but starts again when you drop it; and the other form keeps chugging away. My questions are pretty basic: Is this a reasonable approach, or is there some lurking threading issue that might make trouble? My code simply duplicates all the setup code -- it makes a duplicate SwapChain, Device, Texture2D, vertex buffer, everything. I don't have a problem with this level of duplication -- my app is not intensive enough to suffer resource issues -- but nonetheless, is there a better practice? Is there any good reference for which DirectX structures can safely be shared, and which can't? It appears that RenderLoop.Run calls the render delegate in a tight loop. Is there any standard way to limit the frame rate of RenderLoop.Run, if you don't want a 400FPS app eating 100% of your CPU? Should I just Thread.Sleep(30) in the render delegate? (I asked on the sharpdx.org forums as well, but Alexandre is on vacation for two weeks, and my sister wants me to do a performance with my app at her wedding in three and a half weeks, so I'm mighty incented here! http://robjsoftware.org for details of what I'm building....)

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SQL SERVER – SHRINKFILE and TRUNCATE Log File in SQL Server 2008

- by pinaldave

Note: Please read the complete post before taking any actions. This blog post would discuss SHRINKFILE and TRUNCATE Log File. The script mentioned in the email received from reader contains the following questionable code: “Hi Pinal, If you could remember, I and my manager met you at TechEd in Bangalore. We just upgraded to SQL Server 2008. One of our jobs failed as it was using the following code. The error was: Msg 155, Level 15, State 1, Line 1 ‘TRUNCATE_ONLY’ is not a recognized BACKUP option. The code was: DBCC SHRINKFILE(TestDBLog, 1) BACKUP LOG TestDB WITH TRUNCATE_ONLY DBCC SHRINKFILE(TestDBLog, 1) GO I have modified that code to subsequent code and it works fine. But, are there other suggestions you have at the moment? USE [master] GO ALTER DATABASE [TestDb] SET RECOVERY SIMPLE WITH NO_WAIT DBCC SHRINKFILE(TestDbLog, 1) ALTER DATABASE [TestDb] SET RECOVERY FULL WITH NO_WAIT GO Configuration of our server and system is as follows: [Removed not relevant data]“ An email like this that suddenly pops out in early morning is alarming email. Because I am a dead, busy mind, so I had only one min to reply. I wrote down quickly the following note. (As I said, it was a single-minute email so it is not completely accurate). Here is that quick email shared with all of you. “Hi Mr. DBA [removed the name] Thanks for your email. I suggest you stop this practice. There are many issues included here, but I would list two major issues: 1) From the setting database to simple recovery, shrinking the file and once again setting in full recovery, you are in fact losing your valuable log data and will be not able to restore point in time. Not only that, you will also not able to use subsequent log files. 2) Shrinking file or database adds fragmentation. There are a lot of things you can do. First, start taking proper log backup using following command instead of truncating them and losing them frequently. BACKUP LOG [TestDb] TO DISK = N'C:\Backup\TestDb.bak' GO Remove the code of SHRINKING the file. If you are taking proper log backups, your log file usually (again usually, special cases are excluded) do not grow very big. There are so many things to add here, but you can call me on my [phone number]. Before you call me, I suggest for accuracy you read Paul Randel‘s two posts here and here and Brent Ozar‘s Post here. Kind Regards, Pinal Dave” I guess this post is very much clear to you. Please leave your comments here. As mentioned, this is a very huge subject; I have just touched a tip of the ice-berg and have tried to point to authentic knowledge. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Backup and Restore, SQL Data Storage, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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Inspire Geek Love with These Hilarious Geek Valentines

- by Eric Z Goodnight

Want to send some Geek Love to that special someone? Why not do it with these elementary school throwback valentines, and win their heart this upcoming Valentine’s day—the geek way! Read on to see the simple method to make your own custom Valentines, as well as download a set of eleven ready-made ones any geek guy or gal should be delighted get. It’s amore! How to Make Custom Valentines A size we’ve used for all of our Valentines is a 3” x 4” at 150 dpi. This is fairly low resolution for print, but makes a great graphic to email. With your new image open, Navigate to Edit > Fill and fill your background layer with a rich, red color (or whatever appeals to you.) By setting “Use” to “Foreground color as shown above, you’ll paint whatever foreground color you have in your color picker. Press to select the text tool. Set a few text objects, using whatever fonts appeal to you. Pixel fonts, like this one, are freely downloadable, and we’ve already shared a great list of Valentines fonts. Copy an image from the internet if you’re confident your sweetie won’t mind a bit of fair use of copyrighted imagery. If they do mind, find yourself some great Creative Commons images. to do a free transform on your image, sizing it to whatever dimensions work best for your design. Right click your newly added image layer in your panel and Choose “Blending Effects” to pick a Layer Style. “Stroke” with this setting adds a black line around your image. Also turning on “Outer Glow” with this setting puts a dark black shadow around the top and bottom (and sides, although they are hidden). Add some more text. Double entendre is recommended. Click and hold down on the “Rectangle Tool” to get the “Custom Shape Tool.” The custom shape tool has useful vector shapes built into it. Find the “Shape” dropdown in the menu to find the heart image. Click and drag to create a vector heart shape in your image. Your layers panel is where you can change the color, if it happens to use the wrong one at first. Click the color swatch in your panel, highlighted in blue above. will transform your vector heart. You can also use it to rotate, if you like. Add some details, like this Power or Standby symbol, which can be found in symbol fonts, taken from images online, or drawn by hand. Your Valentine is now ready to be saved as a JPG or PNG and sent to the object of your affection! Keep reading to see a list of 11 downloadable How-To Geek Valentines, including this one and the three from the header image. Download The HTG Set of Valentines Download the HTG Geek Valentines (ZIP) Download the HTG Geek Valentines (ZIP) When he’s not wooing ladies with Valentines cards, you can email the author at [email protected] with your Photoshop and Graphics questions. Your questions may be featured in a future How-To Geek article! Latest Features How-To Geek ETC Inspire Geek Love with These Hilarious Geek Valentines How to Integrate Dropbox with Pages, Keynote, and Numbers on iPad RGB? CMYK? Alpha? What Are Image Channels and What Do They Mean? How to Recover that Photo, Picture or File You Deleted Accidentally How To Colorize Black and White Vintage Photographs in Photoshop How To Get SSH Command-Line Access to Windows 7 Using Cygwin How to Kid Proof Your Computer’s Power and Reset Buttons Microsoft’s Windows Media Player Extension Adds H.264 Support Back to Google Chrome Android Notifier Pushes Android Notices to Your Desktop Dead Space 2 Theme for Chrome and Iron Carl Sagan and Halo Reach Mashup – We Humans are Capable of Greatness [Video] Battle the Necromorphs Once Again on Your Desktop with the Dead Space 2 Theme for Windows 7

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Secure wipe of a hard drive using WinPE.

- by Derek Meier

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} The wiping of a hard drive is typically seen as fairly trivial. There are tons of applications out there that will do it for you. Point àClickàGlobal-Thermo Nuclear War. However, these applications are typically expensive or unreliable. Plus, if you have a laptop or lack a secondary computer to put the hard drive into – how on earth do you wipe it quickly and easily while still conforming to a 7 pass rule (this means that every possible bit on the hard drive is set to 0 and then to 1 seven times in a row)? Yes, one pass should be enough – as turning every bit from a 1 to a zero will wipe the data from existence. But, we’re dealing with tinfoil hat wearing types here people. DOD standards dictate at least 3 passes, and typically 7 is the preferred amount. I’m not going to argue about data recovery. I have been told to use 7 passes, and so I will. So say we all! Quite some time ago I used to make a BartPE XP-based boot cd for the original purpose of securely wiping data. I loved BartPE and integrated so many plugins into my builds that I could do pretty much anything directly from CD. Reset passwords, uninstall security updates, wipe drives, chkdsk, remove spyware, install Windows, etc. However, with the newer multi-core systems and new chipsets coming out from vendors, I found that BartPE was rather difficult to keep up to date. I have since switched to WinPE 3.0 (Windows Preinstallation Environment). http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc748933(WS.10).aspx It is fairly simple to create your own CD, and I have made a few helpful scripts to easily integrate drivers and rebuild the ISO file for you. I’ll cover making your own boot CD utilizing WinPE 3.0 in a later post – I can talk about WinPE forever and need to collect my thoughts!! My wife loves talking about WinPE almost as much as talking about Doctor Who. Wait, did I say loves? Hmmmm, I may have meant loathes. The topic at hand? Right. Wiping a drive! I must have drunk too much coffee this morning. I like to use a simple batch script that calls a combination of diskpart.exe from Microsoft® and Sdelete.exe created by our friend Mark Russinovich. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897443.aspx All of the following files are located within the same directory on my WinPE boot CD. Here are the contents of wipe_me.bat, script.txt and sdelete.reg. Wipe_me.bat: @echo off echo. echo I will completely wipe the local hard drives using echo 7 individual wipes. The data will NOT echo be recoverable. I will begin after you pause echo. echo Preparing to partition and format disk. Diskpart.exe /s "script.txt" REM I was annoyed by not having a completely automated script – and Sdelete wants you to accept the license agreement. So, I added a registry file to skip doing that. regedit /S sdelete.reg rem sdelete options selected are: -p (passes) -c (zero free space) -s (recurse through subdirectories, if any) -z (clean free space) [drive letter] sdelete.exe -p 7 -c -s -z c: echo. echo Pass seven complete. echo. echo Wiping complete. Pause exit script.txt: list disk select disk 0 clean create partition primary select partition 1 active format FS=NTFS LABEL="New Volume" QUICK assign letter=c exit *Notes: This script assumes one local hard drive – change the script as you see fit for your environment. The clean command will overwrite the master boot record and any hidden sector information – so be careful! sdelete.reg: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Sysinternals\SDelete] "EulaAccepted"=dword:00000001 With a combination of WinPE, sdelete.exe and your friendly neighborhood text editor you can begin wiping drives as quickly and easily as possible! I hope this helps, I get asked this a lot in my line of work. Best of luck, Derek

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JMS Step 1 - How to Create a Simple JMS Queue in Weblogic Server 11g

- by John-Brown.Evans

JMS Step 1 - How to Create a Simple JMS Queue in Weblogic Server 11g ol{margin:0;padding:0} .c5{vertical-align:top;width:156pt;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000;border-width:1pt;padding:0pt 2pt 0pt 2pt} .c7{list-style-type:disc;margin:0;padding:0} .c4{background-color:#ffffff} .c14{color:#1155cc;text-decoration:underline} .c6{height:11pt;text-align:center} .c13{color:inherit;text-decoration:inherit} .c3{padding-left:0pt;margin-left:36pt} .c0{border-collapse:collapse} .c12{text-align:center} .c1{direction:ltr} .c8{background-color:#f3f3f3} .c2{line-height:1.0} .c11{font-style:italic} .c10{height:11pt} .c9{font-weight:bold} .title{padding-top:24pt;line-height:1.15;text-align:left;color:#000000;font-size:36pt;font-family:"Arial";font-weight:bold;padding-bottom:6pt}.subtitle{padding-top:18pt;line-height:1.15;text-align:left;color:#666666;font-style:italic;font-size:24pt;font-family:"Georgia";padding-bottom:4pt} li{color:#000000;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Arial"} p{color:#000000;font-size:10pt;margin:0;font-family:"Arial"} h1{padding-top:0pt;line-height:1.15;text-align:left;color:#666;font-size:18pt;font-family:"Arial";font-weight:normal;padding-bottom:0pt} h2{padding-top:0pt;line-height:1.15;text-align:left;color:#666;font-size:14pt;font-family:"Arial";font-weight:normal;padding-bottom:0pt} h3{padding-top:0pt;line-height:1.15;text-align:left;color:#666;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Arial";font-weight:normal;padding-bottom:0pt} h4{padding-top:0pt;line-height:1.15;text-align:left;color:#666;font-style:italic;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Arial";padding-bottom:0pt} h5{padding-top:0pt;line-height:1.15;text-align:left;color:#666;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Arial";font-weight:normal;padding-bottom:0pt} h6{padding-top:0pt;line-height:1.15;text-align:left;color:#666;font-style:italic;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Arial";padding-bottom:0pt} This example shows the steps to create a simple JMS queue in WebLogic Server 11g for testing purposes. For example, to use with the two sample programs QueueSend.java and QueueReceive.java which will be shown in later examples. Additional, detailed information on JMS can be found in the following Oracle documentation: Oracle® Fusion Middleware Configuring and Managing JMS for Oracle WebLogic Server 11g Release 1 (10.3.6) Part Number E13738-06 http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E23943_01/web.1111/e13738/toc.htm 1. Introduction and Definitions A JMS queue in Weblogic Server is associated with a number of additional resources: JMS Server A JMS server acts as a management container for resources within JMS modules. Some of its responsibilities include the maintenance of persistence and state of messages and subscribers. A JMS server is required in order to create a JMS module. JMS Module A JMS module is a definition which contains JMS resources such as queues and topics. A JMS module is required in order to create a JMS queue. Subdeployment JMS modules are targeted to one or more WLS instances or a cluster. Resources within a JMS module, such as queues and topics are also targeted to a JMS server or WLS server instances. A subdeployment is a grouping of targets. It is also known as advanced targeting. Connection Factory A connection factory is a resource that enables JMS clients to create connections to JMS destinations. JMS Queue A JMS queue (as opposed to a JMS topic) is a point-to-point destination type. A message is written to a specific queue or received from a specific queue. The objects used in this example are: Object Name Type JNDI Name TestJMSServer JMS Server TestJMSModule JMS Module TestSubDeployment Subdeployment TestConnectionFactory Connection Factory jms/TestConnectionFactory TestJMSQueue JMS Queue jms/TestJMSQueue 2. Configuration Steps The following steps are done in the WebLogic Server Console, beginning with the left-hand navigation menu. 2.1 Create a JMS Server Services > Messaging > JMS Servers Select New Name: TestJMSServer Persistent Store: (none) Target: soa_server1 (or choose an available server) Finish The JMS server should now be visible in the list with Health OK. 2.2 Create a JMS Module Services > Messaging > JMS Modules Select New Name: TestJMSModule Leave the other options empty Targets: soa_server1 (or choose the same one as the JMS server)Press Next Leave “Would you like to add resources to this JMS system module” unchecked and press Finish . 2.3 Create a SubDeployment A subdeployment is not necessary for the JMS queue to work, but it allows you to easily target subcomponents of the JMS module to a single target or group of targets. We will use the subdeployment in this example to target the following connection factory and JMS queue to the JMS server we created earlier. Services > Messaging > JMS Modules Select TestJMSModule Select the Subdeployments tab and New Subdeployment Name: TestSubdeployment Press Next Here you can select the target(s) for the subdeployment. You can choose either Servers (i.e. WebLogic managed servers, such as the soa_server1) or JMS Servers such as the JMS Server created earlier. As the purpose of our subdeployment in this example is to target a specific JMS server, we will choose the JMS Server option. Select the TestJMSServer created earlier Press Finish 2.4 Create a Connection Factory Services > Messaging > JMS Modules Select TestJMSModule and press New Select Connection Factory and Next Name: TestConnectionFactory JNDI Name: jms/TestConnectionFactory Leave the other values at default On the Targets page, select the Advanced Targeting button and select TestSubdeployment Press Finish The connection factory should be listed on the following page with TestSubdeployment and TestJMSServer as the target. 2.5 Create a JMS Queue Services > Messaging > JMS Modules Select TestJMSModule and press New Select Queue and Next Name: TestJMSQueueJNDI Name: jms/TestJMSQueueTemplate: NonePress Next Subdeployments: TestSubdeployment Finish The TestJMSQueue should be listed on the following page with TestSubdeployment and TestJMSServer. Confirm the resources for the TestJMSModule. Using the Domain Structure tree, navigate to soa_domain > Services > Messaging > JMS Modules then select TestJMSModule You should see the following resources The JMS queue is now complete and can be accessed using the JNDI names jms/TestConnectionFactory andjms/TestJMSQueue. In the following blog post in this series, I will show you how to write a message to this queue, using the WebLogic sample Java program QueueSend.java.

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How To Disable Control Panel in Windows 7

- by Mysticgeek

If you have a shared computer that your family and friends can access, you might not want them to mess around in the Control Panel, and luckily with a simple tweak you can disable it. Disable Control Panel with Group Policy Note: This process uses Local Group Policy Editor which is not available in Home versions of Windows 7. Skip down below for the registry hack version that works on Home editions as well. First type gpedit.msc into the Search box in the Start menu and hit Enter. When Local Group Policy Editor opens, navigate to User Configuration \ Administrative Templates then select Control Panel in the left Column. In the right column double-click on Prohibit access to the Control Panel. In the next window, select Enable, click OK, then close out of Local Group Policy Editor. After the Control Panel is disabled, you’ll notice it’s no longer listed in the Start Menu. If the user tries to type Control Panel into the Search box in the Start menu, they will get the following message indicating it’s restricted. Disable Control Panel with a Registry Tweak You can also tweak the Registry to disable Control Panel. This will work with all versions of Windows 7, Vista, and XP. Making changes in the Registry is not recommended for beginners and you should create a Restore Point, or backup the Registry before making any changes. Type regedit into the Search box in the Start menu and hit Enter. In Registry Editor navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer. Then right-click in the right pane and create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name the value NoControlPanel. Then right-click on the new Value and click Modify… In the Value data field change the value to “1” then click OK. Close out of Registry Editor and restart the machine to complete the process. When you get back from reboot, you’ll notice Control Panel is no longer listed in the Start menu. If a user tries to access it by typing Control Panel into the Search box in the Start menu… They will get the following message indicating it is restricted, just like if you were to disable it via Group Policy. If you want to re-enable the Control Panel, go back into the Registry and change the NoControlPanel value back to “0” then reboot the computer. This comes in handy if you have inexperienced users working on your machine and don’t want them messing with Control Panel settings. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Disable User Account Control (UAC) the Easy Way on Win 7 or VistaStill Useful in Vista: Startup Control PanelRestore Missing Items in Windows Vista Control PanelHow To Manage Action Center in Windows 7New Vista Syntax for Opening Control Panel Items from the Command-line TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Home Networks – How do they look like & the problems they cause Check Your IMAP Mail Offline In Thunderbird Follow Finder Finds You Twitter Users To Follow Combine MP3 Files Easily QuicklyCode Provides Cheatsheets & Other Programming Stuff Download Free MP3s from Amazon

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Professional WordPress Business Themes

- by Matt

Every now and then JustSkins.com receives quote requests for WordPress design for business websites. Most companies now keep up to date with a blog on their corporate website, that showcases their day to day activities & progresses. Getting such professional wordpress driven website designed from the scratch costs you a lot. If you have decided to make WordPress the CMS for your business website, there are some Professional WordPress themes you can take a look at. We have created this list to help you save some time to do all the trying and the testing. Optimize by WooThemes Last year one of the most popular Business theme by WooThemes was the Coffee Break theme, Optimize is further adaptation of the same. It is simple, sleek design with great functionality. The customizable front page lets you showcase your work or product etc. Demo | Price: $70, Developer Price: $150 | DOWNLOAD WooThemes is also offering their whole Business theme pack for a very very reasonable fee, If you like multiple designs from them you can get this big deal for only $125 Onyx , Impacto by Simple Themes Simple Themes has been making very crisp & beautiful WordPress Themes & are also very reasonably priced. If their themes solve your purpose $39 membership for 3 months is a good deal. If you are looking to create quick website, landing page or micro site their templates are best. Demo | Price: $39 for 3 Months Membership Rejuvenate by Templatic One of the most beautiful Premium WordPress Theme, Available in 4 elegant color schemes. This theme can be used for your Beauty, Spa and Studio Business. Demo | Price: $65 | DOWNLOAD Templatic has created great professional business templates, such as Gourmet, Real Estate, Job Board, Automobile & lots More. You can also get a Best Value Offer in $299 for all of Templatic Themes. TheProfessional by ElegantThemes Elegant Themes is known to provide very beautiful & straightforward designs. The professional wordpress theme is a simple, crisp & concise Theme you can use to create a business website. The 3 short blurbs on the homepage are simple, which can be used to point them to your major offerings and the prominent slider indicates a clear call to action. There are 52 themes to choose from & Elegant Themes is giving a great offer at such a small yearly fee. Demo | Price: $39 Yearly Membership | DOWNLOAD Elegant Themes has a cluster of 52 magnificent themes, and all you have to do is pay $39 to win access to all of them. Join today! Some of the Professional designs that I like for a business website are SimplePress and Corporation. Extatic by Chimera Themes The theme includes plenty of great features including custom feature tour pages, portfolio sections, static feature areas, pricing table page, 20+ shortcodes, multiple page/post options, unlimited custom sidebars which can be assigned to posts/pages, advanced theme style editor and options page and much more. Its a must buy Demo | Price: $37 | DOWNLOAD Corporate by Clover Themes Simple Theme for a small business. Corporate is an clean, powerful and feature-rich corporate theme with dynamic and energy design. Demo | Price: $69.95 | DOWNLOAD Bizco by Themify Bizco is a very professional template for wordpress targeted at corporate and product based businesses. This theme is simple yet highly functional and is suitable for showcasing features of your service or product. With the custom page template you can change the display of your pages and posts easily with our visual custom panel. Demo | Price: $70 |DOWNLOAD Devision by Themetrust Devision is a small business wordpress theme that can be used to make a business website within a few minutes. It makes it very easy to showcase and highlight your services or product on the homepage. Demo | Price: Euro 39 | DOWNLOAD BizPress by WPZoom A professional business WordPress theme from WPZoom suitable for companies, organizations, product showcases or other business websites. The theme comes with 4 colour options, featured products / services slider on the homepage, drop down menus, theme options page etc. Demo | Price: $ 69 | DOWNLOAD Clean Classy Corporate by ThemeFuse A very impressive WordPress business theme, that can be used in multiple ways. It is suitable for many kinds, like web products, services, hosting etc etc. Clean Classy Corporate WordPress Theme has a clean crisp look and is professional in appeal. Demo | Price: $49 | DOWNLOAD Insdustry by ThemeJam A powerful Business WordPress Template along with lots of options, colors, and customizable features. This is one for almost any kind of blogger, corporate, or organization. Lots of features, gives it the kind of scalability you might need to create any kind of website. Demo | Price: $ 59 | DOWNLOAD AppPress by ChimeraThemes This professional business WordPress theme includes 5 different colour schemes, advanced theme options page, multiple homepage sliders, custom widgets and page templates. The theme also includes a range of other unique features such as custom title, live style editor to modify colours, font styles, sizes etc, and 20+ shortcodes for creating pricing tables, content columns, boxes, buttons and others. Demo | Price: $ 37 | DOWNLOAD Why WordPress Professional Template? You can modify them, these usually come with a lot of fancy features that enable you to create the website as per your usability & choice. In some cases the Premium WordPress business themes can be accessed through a subscription service. Premium Vs Free WordPress Themes There are very good Free WordPress themes out there that you can use to modify and code further or create what you want, but this possible when you are technically able. On the contrary Premium WordPress business themes offers great features & can save you a lot of time and money. It varies from business to business, some like to keep their website simple while most want to keep cool nifty features and abilities to scale it differently for various sections, products or categories. All this & more is possible with a Professional Business theme that is suitable/close to your needs.

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Looking into ASP.Net MVC 4.0 Mobile Development - part 1

- by nikolaosk

In this post I will be looking how ASP.Net MVC 4.0 helps us to create web solutions that target mobile devices.We all experience the magic that is the World Wide Web through mobile devices. Millions of people around the world, use tablets and smartphones to view the contents of websites,e-shops and portals.ASP.Net MVC 4.0 includes a new mobile project template and the ability to render a different set of views for different types of devices.There is a new feature that is called browser overriding which allows us to control exactly what a user is going to see from your web application regardless of what type of device he is using.In order to follow along this post you must have Visual Studio 2012 and .Net Framework 4.5 installed in your machine.Download and install VS 2012 using this link.My machine runs on Windows 8 and Visual Studio 2012 works just fine.It will work fine in Windows 7 as well so do not worry if you do not have the latest Microsoft operating system.1) Launch VS 2012 and create a new Web Forms application by going to File - >New Project - > ASP.Net MVC 4 Web Application and then click OKHave a look at the picture below 2) From the available templates select Mobile Application and then click OK.Have a look at the picture below 3) When I run the application I get the mobile view of the page. I would like to show you what a typical ASP.Net MVC 4.0 application looks like. So I will create a new simple ASP.Net MVC 4.0 Web Application. When I run the application I get the normal page view.Have a look at the picture below.On the left is the mobile view and on the right the normal view. As you can see we have more or less the same content in our mobile application (log in,register) compared with the normal ASP.Net MVC 4.0 application but it is optimised for mobile devices. 4) Let me explain how and when the mobile view is selected and finally rendered.There is a feature in MVC 4.0 that is called Display Modes and with this feature the runtime will select a view.If we have 2 views e.g contact.mobile.cshtml and contact.cshtml in our application the Controller at some point will instruct the runtime to select and render a view named contact.The runtime will look at the browser making the request and will determine if it is a mobile browser or a desktop browser. So if there is a request from my IPhone Safari browser for a particular site, if there is a mobile view the MVC 4.0 will select it and render it. If there is not a mobile view, the normal view will be rendered.5) In the ASP.Net MVC 4.0 (Internet application) I created earlier (not the first project which was a mobile one) I can run it once more and see how it looks on the browser. If I want to view it with a mobile browser I must download one emulator like Opera Mobile.You can download Opera Mobile hereWhen I run the application I get the same view in both the desktop and the mobile browser. That was to be expected. Have a look at the picture below 6) Then I create another version of the _Layout.mobile.cshtml view in the Shared folder.I simply copy and paste the _Layout.cshtml into the same folder and then rename it to _Layout.mobile.cshtml and then just alter the contents of the _Layout.mobile.cshtml.When I run again the application I get a different view on the desktop browser and a different one on the Opera mobile browser.Have a look at the picture below ?he Controller will instruct the ASP.Net runtime to select and render a view named _Layout.mobile.cshtml when the request will come from a mobile browser.?he runtime knows that a browser is a mobile one through the ASP.Net browser capability provider. Hope it helps!!!

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SQLAuthority News – Wireless Router Security and Attached Devices – Complex Password

- by pinaldave

In the last four days (April 21-24), I have received calls from friends who told me that they have got strange emails from me. To my surprise, I did not send them any emails. I was not worried until my wife complained that she was not able to find one of the very important folders containing our daughter’s photo that is located in our shared drive. This was alarming in my par, so I started a search around my computer’s folders. Again, please note that I am by no means a security expert. I checked my entire computer with virus and spyware, and strangely, there I found nothing. I tried to think what can cause this happening. I suddenly realized that there was a power outage in my area for about two hours during the days I have mentioned. Back then, my wireless router needed to be reset, and so I did. I had set up my WPA-PSK [TKIP] + WPA2-PSK [AES] very well. My key was very simple ( ‘SQLAuthority1′), and I never thought of changing it. (It is now replaced with a very complex one). While checking the Attached Devices, I found out that there was another very strange computer name and IP attached to my network. And so as soon as I found out that there is strange device attached to my computer, I shutdown my local network. Afterwards, I reconfigured my wireless router with a more complex security key. Since I created the complex password, I noticed that the user is no more connecting to my machine. Subsequently, I figured out that I can also set up Access Control List. I added my networked computer to that list as well. When I tried to connect from an external laptop which was not in the list but with a valid security key, I was not able to access the network, neither able to connect to it. I wasn’t also able to connect using a remote desktop, so I think it was good. If you have received any nasty emails from me (from my gmail account) during the afore-mentioned days, I want to apologize. I am already paying for my negligence of not putting a complex password; by way of losing the important photos of my daughter. I have already checked with my client, whose password I saved in SSMS, so there was no issue at all. In fact, I have decided to never leave any saved password of production server in my SSMS. Here is the tip SQL SERVER – Clear Drop Down List of Recent Connection From SQL Server Management Studio to clean them. I think after doing all this, I am feeling safe right now. However, I believe that safety is an illusion of many times. I need your help and advice if there is anymore I can do to stop unauthorized access. I am seeking advice and help through your comments. Reference : Pinal Dave (http://www.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Security, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology

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SQL SERVER – PAGEIOLATCH_DT, PAGEIOLATCH_EX, PAGEIOLATCH_KP, PAGEIOLATCH_SH, PAGEIOLATCH_UP – Wait Type – Day 9 of 28

- by pinaldave

It is very easy to say that you replace your hardware as that is not up to the mark. In reality, it is very difficult to implement. It is really hard to convince an infrastructure team to change any hardware because they are not performing at their best. I had a nightmare related to this issue in a deal with an infrastructure team as I suggested that they replace their faulty hardware. This is because they were initially not accepting the fact that it is the fault of their hardware. But it is really easy to say “Trust me, I am correct”, while it is equally important that you put some logical reasoning along with this statement. PAGEIOLATCH_XX is such a kind of those wait stats that we would directly like to blame on the underlying subsystem. Of course, most of the time, it is correct – the underlying subsystem is usually the problem. From Book On-Line: PAGEIOLATCH_DT Occurs when a task is waiting on a latch for a buffer that is in an I/O request. The latch request is in Destroy mode. Long waits may indicate problems with the disk subsystem. PAGEIOLATCH_EX Occurs when a task is waiting on a latch for a buffer that is in an I/O request. The latch request is in Exclusive mode. Long waits may indicate problems with the disk subsystem. PAGEIOLATCH_KP Occurs when a task is waiting on a latch for a buffer that is in an I/O request. The latch request is in Keep mode. Long waits may indicate problems with the disk subsystem. PAGEIOLATCH_SH Occurs when a task is waiting on a latch for a buffer that is in an I/O request. The latch request is in Shared mode. Long waits may indicate problems with the disk subsystem. PAGEIOLATCH_UP Occurs when a task is waiting on a latch for a buffer that is in an I/O request. The latch request is in Update mode. Long waits may indicate problems with the disk subsystem. PAGEIOLATCH_XX Explanation: Simply put, this particular wait type occurs when any of the tasks is waiting for data from the disk to move to the buffer cache. ReducingPAGEIOLATCH_XX wait: Just like any other wait type, this is again a very challenging and interesting subject to resolve. Here are a few things you can experiment on: Improve your IO subsystem speed (read the first paragraph of this article, if you have not read it, I repeat that it is easy to say a step like this than to actually implement or do it). This type of wait stats can also happen due to memory pressure or any other memory issues. Putting aside the issue of a faulty IO subsystem, this wait type warrants proper analysis of the memory counters. If due to any reasons, the memory is not optimal and unable to receive the IO data. This situation can create this kind of wait type. Proper placing of files is very important. We should check file system for the proper placement of files – LDF and MDF on separate drive, TempDB on separate drive, hot spot tables on separate filegroup (and on separate disk), etc. Check the File Statistics and see if there is higher IO Read and IO Write Stall SQL SERVER – Get File Statistics Using fn_virtualfilestats. It is very possible that there are no proper indexes on the system and there are lots of table scans and heap scans. Creating proper index can reduce the IO bandwidth considerably. If SQL Server can use appropriate cover index instead of clustered index, it can significantly reduce lots of CPU, Memory and IO (considering cover index has much lesser columns than cluster table and all other it depends conditions). You can refer to the two articles’ links below previously written by me that talk about how to optimize indexes. Create Missing Indexes Drop Unused Indexes Updating statistics can help the Query Optimizer to render optimal plan, which can only be either directly or indirectly. I have seen that updating statistics with full scan (again, if your database is huge and you cannot do this – never mind!) can provide optimal information to SQL Server optimizer leading to efficient plan. Checking Memory Related Perfmon Counters SQLServer: Memory Manager\Memory Grants Pending (Consistent higher value than 0-2) SQLServer: Memory Manager\Memory Grants Outstanding (Consistent higher value, Benchmark) SQLServer: Buffer Manager\Buffer Hit Cache Ratio (Higher is better, greater than 90% for usually smooth running system) SQLServer: Buffer Manager\Page Life Expectancy (Consistent lower value than 300 seconds) Memory: Available Mbytes (Information only) Memory: Page Faults/sec (Benchmark only) Memory: Pages/sec (Benchmark only) Checking Disk Related Perfmon Counters Average Disk sec/Read (Consistent higher value than 4-8 millisecond is not good) Average Disk sec/Write (Consistent higher value than 4-8 millisecond is not good) Average Disk Read/Write Queue Length (Consistent higher value than benchmark is not good) Note: The information presented here is from my experience and there is no way that I claim it to be accurate. I suggest reading Book OnLine for further clarification. All of the discussions of Wait Stats in this blog is generic and varies from system to system. It is recommended that you test this on a development server before implementing it to a production server. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL Wait Stats, SQL Wait Types, T SQL, Technology

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If You Could Cut Your Meeting Times in ½ Would You?

- by [email protected]

By Brian Dayton on April 22, 2010 2:02 PM I know it sounds like a big promise. And what I'm thinking about may not cut a :60 minute meeting into :30 minutes, but it could make meetings and interactions up to 2X more productive. How? Social Media for the Enterprise, Not Social Media In the Enterprise Bear with me. I'm not talking about whether or not workers should or shouldn't have access to Facebook on corporate networks. That topic has been discussed @ length. I'm also not talking about the direct benefits of Social Networking tools like Presence (the ability to see someone online and ask a question in real-time), blogs, RSS feeds or external tools like Twitter. The Un-Measurable Benefits Would you do something that you believe will have a positive effect--but can't be measured? It's impossible to quantify the effectiveness of a meeting. However, what I am talking about would be more of a byproduct of all of the social networking tools above. Here's the hypothesis: As I've gotten more and more busy with work, family, travel and kids--and the same has happened to my friends and family--I'm less and less connected. But by introducing Facebook to my life I've not only made connections with longtime friends whom I haven't spoken to in years--but I've increased the pace and quality of interactions, on and offline, with close friends who I see and speak to every week. In some cases it even enhances the connections and interactions with those I see or speak to every day. The same holds true in an organization. Especially a larger one with highly matrixed organizational structures. You work with people on a project, new people come in with each different project and a disproportionate amount of time is spent getting oriented and staying current. Going back to the initial value proposition--making meetings shorter/more effective--a large amount of time is spent: - At Project Kick-off: Meeting and understanding team member's histories, goals & roles - Ongoing: Summarizing events since the last meeting or update email In my personal, Facebook life today I know that: - My best friend from college - has been stranded in India for 5 days because of the volcano in Iceland and is now only 250 miles from home - One of my co-workers started conference calls at 6:30 this morning - My wife wasn't terribly pleased with my painting skills in our new bathroom (disclosure: she told me this face to face too) Strengthening Weak Links A recent article in CIO Magazine, Three Dangerous Social Media Misconceptions (Kristen Burnham, March 12, 2010) calls out the #1 misconception as follows: 1. "Face-to-face relationships are far more valuable than virtual ones." While some level of physical interaction will always add value to relationships, Gartner says that come 2020, most relationships and teams will be based on "weak links"--that is, you may not have personally met a contact, but you'll know of or may have interacted with him via social sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. The sooner your enterprise adopts these tools, the sooner your employees will learn them, and the sooner you'll begin to cultivate these relationships-of-the-future. I personally believe that it's not an either/or choice between face-to-face and virtual interactions. In fact, I'll be as bold as saying it doesn't matter. I can point to two extremely valuable work relationships that I've had over the past 5 years: - I shared an office with one of them - I met the other person, face-to-face, only once Both relationships were very productive. The dynamics were similar. The communication tactics differed immensely. What does matter is the quality, frequency and relevance of interactions. Still sound like too much? An over-promise? Stay tuned for my next post The Gap Between Facebook and LinkedIn. I'll also connect some of the dots with where Oracle Applications and technologies are headed.

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