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  • Regarding AD Domain controllers and remote branch offices

    - by Alex
    We have central HQ building and a lot of small branch offices connecting via VPN and want to implement AD (If you can believe we still haven't). We want everyone to log in using domain accounts and be policed centrally. We are OK with having a RODC in a branch office with like 10 computers. But we have these small branches with two to four PCs only. Some of these branches connect to HQ via IPSec site-to-site VPN, some via remote access (client-based) VPN. So there is no problem with ones that have local RODC or connecting to HQ DCs via VPN router. But how about small branches? We don't really want to set up a machine there, neither we want to invest into Windows Server licenses or fancy network equipment. Also, the problem is that we cannot access HQ DCs via VPN because we are not logged in and connected to HQ internal network yet, so DCs aren't reachable. What is typically done in that situation if it is needed to have central management over policies on those PCs? Or is it better to let 'em loose and use local policies and accounts in this situation?

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  • Improve wireless performance

    - by djechelon
    Hello, I have a Trust Speedshare Turbo Pro router, which is running on channel 6. I found that the wireless signal (and network performance) dramatically drops from my PDA (I can barely attach to the network, even if I set the PDA's energy settings to maximum wireless performance) when I even exit my room, and I don't have shielded walls or something like that. I can't even stream a SD video from my desktop (connected via LAN) to my laptop using WiFi, while via LAN it works fine. I read that changing router's channel could improve performance due to interference reducing. I found that almost all wireless networks around here run on channels 6 and 11. I tried to go to my router's settings page to change channel, but I found that the combo box only allows me to select 6!! I'm not sure, but I may have been able in the past to change channel, though not to all of the available channels. A few minutes ago I tried a firmware upgrade, but it didn't solve my problem. My question is Is it possible that my router is someway locked to its channel? I bought it on my own, I didn't receive it from my ISP Apart from boosting the antenna power to the maximum (which, by the way, increases the EM radiation my and my family's bodies absorb 24/7 and is little more environment-unfriendly), do you have any tips on getting high quality transmission up to 5 metres from the antenna? Thank you

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  • Recommended drive encryption solution

    - by Chris Driver
    Hello, I will soon be purchasing a number of laptops running Windows 7 for our mobile staff. Due to the nature of our business I will need drive encryption. Windows BitLocker seems the obvious choice, but it looks like I need to purchase either Windows 7 Enterprise or Ultimate editions to get it. Can anyone offer suggestions on the best course of action: a) Use BitLocker, bite the bullet and pay to upgrade to Enterprise/Ultimate b) Pay for another 3rd party drive encryption product that is cheaper (suggestions appreciated) c) Use a free drive encryption product such as TrueCrypt Ideally I am also interested in 'real world' experience from people who are using drive encryption software and any pitfalls to look out for. Many thanks in advance... UPDATE Decided to go with TrueCrypt for the following reasons: a) The product has a good track record b) I am not managing a large quantity of laptops so integration with Active Directory, Management consoles etc is not a huge benefit c) Although eks did make a good point about Evil Maid (EM) attacks, our data is not that desirable to consider it a major factor d) The cost (free) is a big plus but not the primary motivator The next problem I face is imaging (Acronis/Ghost/..) encrypted drives will not work unless I perform sector-by-sector imaging. That means an 80Gb encrypted partition creates an 80Gb image file :(

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  • Bonnie does not provide speed for Sequential Input / Block

    - by Lqp1
    I'm using ProxmoxVE and I would like to run some benchmarks regarding performances of this product. One of these benchmarks is bonnie++ ; it runs very well in a VM (qemu-kvm) but when I run it in a conainer (openVZ), it does not provide me reading speed (only writing). I don't understand why... Does anyone know what's happenning ? VMs ans Containers are Debian 7.4. Here's the output of bonnie in the container: root@ct2:/# bonnie++ -u root Using uid:0, gid:0. Writing a byte at a time...done Writing intelligently...done Rewriting...done Reading a byte at a time...done Reading intelligently...done start 'em...done...done...done...done...done... Create files in sequential order...done. Stat files in sequential order...done. Delete files in sequential order...done. Create files in random order...done. Stat files in random order...done. Delete files in random order...done. Version 1.96 ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random- Concurrency 1 -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks-- Machine Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP /sec %CP ct2 1G 843 99 59116 8 60351 4 4966 99 +++++ +++ 2745 8 Latency 9558us 3582ms 527ms 1672us 936us 5248us Version 1.96 ------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create-------- ct2 -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- files /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP 16 +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++ Latency 19567us 358us 368us 107us 59us 25us 1.96,1.96,ct2,1,1401810323,1G,,843,99,59116,8,60351,4,4966,99,+++++,+++,2745,8,16,,,,,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,9558us,3582ms,527ms,1672us,936us,5248us,19567us,358us,368us,107us,59us,25us The filesystem for / is of type "simfs", which is a pseudo filesystem for openVZ. Maybe it's related to this issue but I can't find anyone with the same issue with bonnie and openVZ... Thanks for your help. Regards, Thomas.

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  • Data recovery; nearly 1 tb of movies on a WD 3.5 tb personal cloud drive disappears with scanty traces

    - by Effector Dhanushanth
    I have a great collection of movies that I had stored in a logical mesh of folder on my 3.5 tb WD personal cloud drive. I woke up 1 morning and found that everything was fine with my data on this drive, except for my movie collection: There were two great folders, one "2sort" nd the other "segregated". out of all the segregated sub folders, only letter C D and 2 or 3 others remain. and the 2 sort folder, which has umpteen subfolders, amounting to more than 0.5 tb. is.. it's just gone!! this is a great downfall.. now this is a personal cloud drive and has no usb port etc. unfortunately to hardwire and recover files.. now I'm sure there are softwares out there that can help me recover my beloved movies from such an interestingly "hard-to-reach" (should I say?) device? what may that software be compadre, my happiness lies within your answer.. thank you.. remember, recovery software or (WD) personal cloud. :) these ovies were All, "hand-picked", over the course of ten years.. I just never catalogued my collection.. if I could just get the "list" of my lost collection, that'd be enough.. recovering em would be a bonus.. but they out to be damaged if I were to somehow recover you know? still, I'm certain they're all intact.. I guess the file index just got corrupted.. There surely is a veil of some sort that need to be thrown or pushed aside to reveal my movies.. what software can do/does that? thanks immensely!

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  • oracle access on vmware fusion

    - by gaudi_br
    Hello, I'm running snow leopard and I'm doing some development that requires some network knowledge. I've installed vmware fusion 3.0 and I've set up a virtual machine with windows 2003 server. I need to mimic the exact configuration of another server in the network, so I really need to run the versions I'll be mentioning here. Besides, I set up two network configurations on the VM: one NAT config (so that I can have internet access) and one host-only config (because I need to use another server's mac adress and my local area network might have a problem with it) From the installation of windows 2003, I then installed oracle 10.2.0.1. During the installation I received a warning about the primary ip-address of the system being dhcp assigned, but I ignored it (maybe it was a mistake)... Now, from experience, unless the DHCP assigned address changes, I should be able to access the guest system's database from the host system, so I went to safari and tried to access the oracle em. As it turns out, because my computer is on a company network, the company's DNS doesn't know about the virtual machine, unless of course I switch to a bridged network config. However, I don't want to do that because I don't to mix up the domains. So I guess the question is, how can I define my own dns or router, or whatever it is that I need to define so that whenever I try the guest system's ip address form the host, it will use the vmnet1 or vmnet8 interface define by vmware and bypass the dns configuration of my local area network. I'd also like to know what to do incase I want to change ip addresses on the guest machine without having oracle go haywire (I've noticed a few folders on the structure which are specific for the very first IP Address)... Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

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  • Ask How-To Geek: Learning the Office Ribbon, Booting to USB with an Old BIOS, and Snapping Windows

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    You’ve got questions and we’ve got answers. Today we highlight how to master the new Office interface, USB boot a computer with outdated BIOS, and snap windows to preset locations. Learning the New Office Ribbon Dear How-To Geek, I feel silly asking this (in light of how long the new Office interface has been out) but my company finally got around to upgrading from Windows XP and Office 2000 so the new interface it totally new to me. Can you recommend any resources for quickly learning the Office ribbon and the new changes? I feel completely lost after two decades of the old Office interface. Help! Sincerely, Where the Hell is Everything? Dear Where the Hell, We think most people were with you at some point in the last few years. “Where the hell is…” could possibly be the slogan for the new ribbon interface. You could browse through some of the dry tutorials online or even get a weighty book on the topic but the best way to learn something new is to get hands on. Ribbon Hero turns learning the new Office features and ribbon layout into a game. It’s no vigorous round of Team Fortress mind you, but it’s significantly more fun than reading a training document. Check out how to install and configure Ribbon Hero here. You’ll be teaching your coworkers new tricks in no time. Boot via USB with an Old BIOS Dear How-To Geek, I’m trying to repurpose some old computers by updating them with lightweight Linux distros but the BIOS on most of the machines is ancient and creaky. How ancient? It doesn’t even support booting from a USB device! I have a large flash drive that I’ve turned into a master installation tool for jobs like this but I can’t use it. The computers in question have USB ports; they just aren’t recognized during the boot process. What can I do? USB Bootin’ in Boise Dear USB Bootin’, It’s great you’re working to breathe life into old hardware! You’ve run into one of the limitations of older BIOSes, USB was around but nobody was thinking about booting off of it. Fortunately if you have a computer old enough to have that kind of BIOS it’s likely to also has a floppy drive or a CDROM drive. While you could make a bootable CDROM for your application we understand that you want to keep using the master USB installer you’ve made. In light of that we recommend PLoP Boot Manager. Think of it like a boot manager for your boot manager. Using it you can create a bootable floppy or CDROM that will enable USB booting of your master USB drive. Make a CD and a floppy version and you’ll have everything in your toolkit you need for future computer refurbishing projects. Read up on creating bootable media with PLoP Boot Manager here. Snapping Windows to Preset Coordinates Dear How-To Geek, Once upon a time I had a company laptop that came with a little utility that snapped windows to preset areas of the screen. This was long before the snap-to-side features in Windows 7. You could essentially configure your screen into a grid pattern of your choosing and then windows would neatly snap into those grids. I have no idea what it was called or if was anymore than a gimmick from the computer manufacturer, but I’d really like to have it on my new computer! Bend and Snap in San Francisco, Dear Bend and Snap, If we had to guess, we’d guess your company must have had a set of laptops from Acer as the program you’re describing sounds exactly like Acer GridVista. Fortunately for you the application was extremely popular and Acer released it independently of their hardware. If, by chance, you’ve since upgraded to a multiple monitor setup the app even supports multiple monitors—many of the configurations are handy for arranging IM windows and other auxiliary communication tools. Check out our guide to installing and configuring Acer GridVista here for more information. Have a question you want to put before the How-To Geek staff? Shoot us an email at [email protected] and then keep an eye out for a solution in the Ask How-To Geek column. Latest Features How-To Geek ETC How to Upgrade Windows 7 Easily (And Understand Whether You Should) The How-To Geek Guide to Audio Editing: Basic Noise Removal Install a Wii Game Loader for Easy Backups and Fast Load Times The Best of CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in 2011 The Worst of CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in 2011 HTG Projects: How to Create Your Own Custom Papercraft Toy Download the New Year in Japan Windows 7 Theme from Microsoft Once More Unto the Breach – Facebook Apps Can Now Access Your Address and Phone Number Dial Zero Speeds You Through Annoying Customer Service Menus Complete Dropquest 2011 and Receive Free Dropbox Storage Desktop Computer versus Laptop Wallpaper The Kids Have No Idea What Old Tech Is [Video]

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  • Ask How-To Geek: Dropbox in the Start Menu, Understanding Symlinks, and Ripping TV Series DVDs

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    This week we take a look at how to incorporate Dropbox into your Windows Start Menu, understanding and using symbolic links, and how to rip your TV series DVDs right to unique and high-quality episode files. Once a week we dip into our reader mailbag and help readers solve their problems, sharing the useful solutions with you in the process. Read on to see our fixes for this week’s reader dilemmas. Add Drobox to Your Start Menu Dear How-To Geek, I use Dropbox all the time and would like to add it right onto my start menu along side the other major shortcuts like Documents, Pictures, etc. It seems like adding Dropbox into the menu should be part of the Dropbox installation package! Sincerely, Dropboxing in Des Moines Dear Dropboxing, We agree, it would be a nice installation option. As it stands you’re going to have to do a little simple hacking to get Dropbox nestled neatly into your start menu. The hack isn’t super elegant but when you’re done you’ll have the link you want and it’ll look like it was there all along. Check out this step-by-step guide here in order to take an existing Library shortcut and rework it to be a Dropbox link. Understanding and Using Symbolic Links Dear How-To Geek, I was talking to a coworker the other day about an issue I’d been having with a media center application I’m running. He suggested using symbolic links to better organize my media and make it easier for the application to access my collection. I had no idea what he was talking about and never got a chance to bug him about it later. Can you clear up this whole symbolic links business for me? I’ve been using computers for years and I’ve never even heard of it! Sincerely, Symbolic Who? Dear Symbolic, Symbolic links aren’t commonly used by many Windows users which is why you likely haven’t run into the concept. Symbolic links are essentially supercharged shortcuts—the newly introduced Windows library system is really just a type of symbolic link system. You can use symbolic links to do all sorts of neat stuff like link folders to your Dropbox folder, organize media, and more. The concept of symbolic links is pretty simple but the execution can be really tricky. We’d suggest reading over our guide to creating symbolic links in Windows 7, Windows XP, and Ubunutu to get a clearer idea what you’re getting into. Rip Your TV DVDs into Handy Episode Files Dear How-To Geek, My wife got me an iPod for Christmas and I still haven’t got around to filling it up. I have tons of entire TV show seasons on DVD and would like to get them on the iPod but I have absolutely no idea where to start. How do I get the shows off the discs? I thought it would be as easy to import the TV shows into iTunes as it is to import tracks off a CD but I was totally wrong. I tried downloading some applications to rip them but those didn’t work at all. Very frustrating! Surely there is an easy and/or automated way to do this, right? Sincerely, Free My DVDs Dear DVDs, Oh man is this a frustration we can relate to. It’s inordinately difficult to get movies and TV shows off physical media and into digital (and portable media player-friendly) formats. There are a multitude of ways to rip DVDs and quite a few applications out there (some good, some mediocre, and some outright malware). We’d recommend a two-part punch to solve your ripping woes. You’ll need a copy of DVDFab to strip away the protections on the discs and rip the disc and Handbrake to load the disc image and convert the files. It’s not quite as smooth as the CD-to-iTunes workflow but it’s still pretty easy. Check out all the steps and settings you’ll want to toggle here. Have a question you want to put before the How-To Geek staff? Shoot us an email at [email protected] and then keep an eye out for a solution in the Ask How-To Geek column. Latest Features How-To Geek ETC Internet Explorer 9 RC Now Available: Here’s the Most Interesting New Stuff Here’s a Super Simple Trick to Defeating Fake Anti-Virus Malware How to Change the Default Application for Android Tasks Stop Believing TV’s Lies: The Real Truth About "Enhancing" Images The How-To Geek Valentine’s Day Gift Guide Inspire Geek Love with These Hilarious Geek Valentines Google’s New Personal Blocklist Extension Kills Search Engine Spam KeyCounter Tracks Your Keystrokes and Mouse Clicks Add Custom LED Ambient Lighting to Your PC or Media Center The Trackor Monitors Amazon Prices; Integrates with Chrome, Firefox, and Safari Four Awesome TRON Legacy Themes for Chrome and Iron Anger is Illogical – Old School Style Instructional Video [Star Trek Mashup]

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  • Gene Hunt Says:

    - by BizTalk Visionary
    "She's as nervous as a very small nun at a penguin shoot"   "He's got fingers in more pies than a leper on a cookery course" "You so much as belch out of line and I'll have your scrotum on a barbed wire plate" "Let's go play slappyface" "your surrounded by armed barstewards" “Right, get out and find this murdering scum right now!” [pause] “Scratch that, we start 9am sharp tomorrow, it's beer-o-clock.” "So then Cartwright, you're such a good Detective.... Go and Detect me a packet of Garibaldies" "You're not the one who is going to have to knit himself a new arsehole after 25 years of aggressive male love in prison" “A dream for me is Diana Dors and a bottle of chip fat." “A dream for me is Diana Dors and a bottle of chip fat." “They reckon you've got concussion - but personally, I couldn't give a tart's furry cup if half your brains are falling out. Don't ever waltz into my kingdom playing king of the jungle.” “You great... soft... sissy... girlie... nancy... french... bender... Man-United supporting POOF!!” “Drugs eh? What's the point. They make you forget, make you talk funny, make you see things that aren't there. My old grandma got all of that for free when she had a stroke.” “He's Dead! It's quite serious!” “Fanny in the flat...Nice Work” “SoopaDoopa” “Tits in a Jumper!” “Drop your weapons! You are surrounded by armed bastards!” “It's 1973, almost dinnertime. I'm 'avin 'oops!” “Trust the Gene Genie!” “I wanna hump Britt Ekland...What're we gonna do...!” “Was that 'E' and you don't know the rest?! or you going 'Eeee, I Dunno'” “Good Girl! Prostate probe and no jelly. “ “Give over, it's nothing like Spain!” “I'll come over your houses and stamp on all your toys!” “The Wizard will sort it out. It's cos of the wonderful things he does” “Cartwright can jump up and down on his knackers!” “It's not a windup love, he really thinks like this!” “Women! You can't say two words to them” “I was thinking, maybe, a Berni Inn!” “If I wanted a bollocking for drinking too much...!” “Shhhh...hear that...that's the sound of this case being closed! “Chicken!? In a basket!?” “Seems a large quantity of cocaine...” “You probably thought he kept his cock in his keks!” “The tail-end of Rays demotion speech!” “Stephen Warren is gay!?” “You're a smart boy, use your initiative!” “Don't be such a Jessie!” “I find the idea of a bird brushing her teeth...!” “Never been tempted to the Magic talcum powder?” “Make sure she's got nice tits!” “You're more likely to find an ostrich with a plum up it's arse!” “Drink this lot under the table and have a pint on the way home!” “Never be a female Prime Minister!” “Pub? Pub! pub!.....Pub!” “Thou shalt not suck off rent boys!” “The number for the special clinic is on the notice board!” “If me uncle had tits, would he be me auntie!” “Got your vicars in a twist!” “We Done?!” “Your mates got balls...If they were any bigger he'd need a wheelbarrow!” “The Ending - from 'I want to go home' to the end music.”

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  • Searching for the Perfect Developer&rsquo;s Laptop.

    - by mbcrump
    I have been in the market for a new computer for several months. I set out with a budget of around $1200. I knew up front that the machine would be used for developing applications and maybe some light gaming. I kept switching between buying a laptop or a desktop but the laptop won because: With a Laptop, I can carry it everywhere and with a desktop I can’t. I searched for about 2 weeks and narrowed it down to a list of must-have’s : i7 Processor (I wasn’t going to settle for an i5 or AMD. I wanted a true Quad-core machine, not 2 dual-core fused together). 15.6” monitor SSD 128GB or Larger. – It’s almost 2011 and I don’t want an old standard HDD in this machine. 8GB of DDR3 Ram. – The more the better, right? 1GB Video Card (Prefer NVidia) – I might want to play games with this. HDMI Port – Almost a standard on new Machines. This would be used when I am on the road and want to stream Netflix to the HDTV in the Hotel room. Webcam Built-in – This would be to video chat with the wife and kids if I am on the road. 6-Cell Battery. – I’ve read that an i7 in a laptop really kills the battery. A 6-cell or 9-cell is even better. That is a pretty long list for a budget of around $1200. I searched around the internet and could not buy this machine prebuilt for under $1200. That was even with coupons and my company’s 10% Dell discount. The only way that I would get a machine like this was to buy a prebuilt and replace parts. I chose the  Lenovo Y560 on Newegg to start as my base. Below is a top-down picture of it.   Part 1: The Hardware The Specs for this machine: Color :  GrayOperating System : Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bitCPU Type : Intel Core i7-740QM(1.73GHz)Screen : 15.6" WXGAMemory Size : 4GB DDR3Hard Disk : 500GBOptical Drive : DVD±R/RWGraphics Card : ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5730Video Memory : 1GBCommunication : Gigabit LAN and WLANCard slot : 1 x Express Card/34Battery Life : Up to 3.5 hoursDimensions : 15.20" x 10.00" x 0.80" - 1.30"Weight : 5.95 lbs. This computer met most of the requirements above except that it didn’t come with an SSD or have 8GB of DDR3 Memory. So, I needed to start shopping except this time for an SSD. I asked around on twitter and other hardware forums and everyone pointed me to the Crucial C300 SSD. After checking prices of the drive, it was going to cost an extra $275 bucks and I was going from a spacious 500GB drive to 128GB. After watching some of the SSD videos on YouTube I started feeling better. Below is a pic of the Crucial C300 SSD. The second thing that I needed to upgrade was the RAM. It came with 4GB of DDR3 RAM, but it was slow. I decided to buy the Crucial 8GB (4GB x 2) Kit from Newegg. This RAM cost an extra $120 and had a CAS Latency of 7. In the end this machine delivered everything that I wanted and it cost around $1300. You are probably saying, well your budget was $1200. I have spare parts that I’m planning on selling on eBay or Anandtech.  =) If you are interested then shoot me an email and I will give you a great deal mbcrump[at]gmail[dot]com. 500GB Laptop 7200RPM HDD 4GB of DDR3 RAM (2GB x 2) faceVision HD 720p Camera – Unopened In the end my Windows Experience Rating of the SSD was 7.7 and the CPU 7.1. The max that you can get is a 7.9. Part 2: The Software I’m very lucky that I get a lot of software for free. When choosing a laptop, the OS really doesn’t matter because I would never keep the bloatware pre-installed or Windows 7 Home Premium on my main development machine. Matter of fact, as soon as I got the laptop, I immediately took out the old HDD without booting into it. After I got the SSD into the machine, I installed Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit. The BIOS was out of date, so I updated that to the latest version and started downloading drivers off of Lenovo’s site. I had to download the Wireless Networking Drivers to a USB-Key before I could get my machine on my wireless network. I also discovered that if the date on your computer is off then you cannot join the Windows 7 Homegroup until you fix it. I’m aware that most people like peeking into what programs other software developers use and I went ahead and listed my “essentials” of a fresh build. I am a big Silverlight guy, so naturally some of the software listed below is specific to Silverlight. You should also check out my master list of Tools and Utilities for the .NET Developer. See a killer app that I’m missing? Feel free to leave it in the comments below. My Software Essential List. CPU-Z Dropbox Everything Search Tool Expression Encoder Update Expression Studio 4 Ultimate Foxit Reader Google Chrome Infragistics NetAdvantage Ultimate Edition Keepass Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 Microsoft Security Essentials 2  Mindscape Silverlight Elements Notepad 2 (with shell extension) Precode Code Snippet Manager RealVNC Reflector ReSharper v5.1.1753.4 Silverlight 4 Toolkit Silverlight Spy Snagit 10 SyncFusion Reporting Controls for Silverlight Telerik Silverlight RadControls TweetDeck Virtual Clone Drive Visual Studio 2010 Feature Pack 2 Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate VS KB2403277 Update to get Feature Pack 2 to work. Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit Windows Live Essentials 2011 Windows Live Writer Backup. Windows Phone Development Tools That is pretty much it, I have a new laptop and am happy with the purchase. If you have any questions then feel free to leave a comment below.  Subscribe to my feed

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  • EU Digital Agenda scores 85/100

    - by trond-arne.undheim
    If the Digital Agenda was a bottle of wine and I were wine critic Robert Parker, I would say the Digital Agenda has "a great bouquet, many good elements, with astringent, dry and puckering mouth feel that will not please everyone, but still displaying some finesse. A somewhat controlled effort with no surprises and a few noticeable flaws in the delivery. Noticeably shorter aftertaste than advertised by the producers. Score: 85/100. Enjoy now". The EU Digital Agenda states that "standards are vital for interoperability" and has a whole chapter on interoperability and standards. With this strong emphasis, there is hope the EU's outdated standardization system finally is headed for reform. It has been 23 years since the legal framework of standardisation was completed by Council Decision 87/95/EEC8 in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector. Standardization is market driven. For several decades the IT industry has been developing standards and specifications in global open standards development organisations (fora/consortia), many of which have transparency procedures and practices far superior to the European Standards Organizations. The Digital Agenda rightly states: "reflecting the rise and growing importance of ICT standards developed by certain global fora and consortia". Some fora/consortia, of course, are distorted, influenced by single vendors, have poor track record, and need constant vigilance, but they are the minority. Therefore, the recognition needs to be accompanied by eligibility criteria focused on openness. Will the EU reform its ICT standardization by the end of 2010? Possibly, and only if DG Enterprise takes on board that Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) have driven half of the productivity growth in Europe over the past 15 years, a prominent fact in the EU's excellent Digital Competitiveness report 2010 published on Monday 17 May. It is ok to single out the ICT sector. It simply is the most important sector right now as it fuels growth in all other sectors. Let's not wait for the entire standardization package which may take another few years. Europe does not have time. The Digital Agenda is an umbrella strategy with deliveries from a host of actors across the Commission. For instance, the EU promises to issue "guidance on transparent ex-ante disclosure rules for essential intellectual property rights and licensing terms and conditions in the context of standard setting", by 2011 in the Horisontal Guidelines now out for public consultation by DG COMP and to some extent by DG ENTR's standardization policy reform. This is important. The EU will issue procurement guidance as interoperability frameworks are put into practice. This is a joint responsibility of several DGs, and is likely to suffer coordination problems, controversy and delays. We have seen plenty of the latter already and I have commented on the Commission's own interoperability elsewhere, with mixed luck. :( Yesterday, I watched the cartoonesque Korean western film The Good, the Bad and the Weird. In the movie (and I meant in the movie only), a bandit, a thief, and a bounty hunter, all excellent at whatever they do, fight for a treasure map. Whether that is a good analogy for the situation within the Commission, others are better judges of than I. However, as a movie fanatic, I still await the final shoot-out, and, as in the film, the only certainty is that "life is about chasing and being chased". The missed opportunity (in this case not following up the push from Member States to better define open standards based interoperability) is a casualty of the chaos ensued in the European Wild West (and I mean that in the most endearing sense, and my excuses beforehand to actors who possibly justifiably cannot bear being compared to fictional movie characters). Instead of exposing the ongoing fight, the EU opted for the legalistic use of the term "standards" throughout the document. This is a term that--to the EU-- excludes most standards used by the IT industry world wide. So, while it, for a moment, meant "weapon down", it will not lead to lasting peace. The Digital Agenda calls for the Member States to "Implement commitments on interoperability and standards in the Malmö and Granada Declarations by 2013". This is a far cry from the actual Ministerial Declarations which called upon the Commission to help them with this implementation by recognizing and further defining open standards based interoperability. Unless there is more forthcoming from the Commission, the market's judgement will be: you simply fall short. Generally, I think the EU focus now should be "from policy to practice" and the Digital Agenda does indeed stop short of tackling some highly practical issues. There is need for progress beyond the Digital Agenda. Here are some suggestions that would help Europe re-take global leadership on openness, public sector reform, and economic growth: A strong European software strategy centred around open standards based interoperability by 2011. An ambitious new eCommission strategy for 2011-15 focused on migration to open standards by 2015. Aligning the IT portfolio across the Commission into one Digital Agenda DG by 2012. Focusing all best practice exchange in eGovernment on one social networking site, epractice.eu (full disclosure: I had a role in getting that site up and running) Prioritizing public sector needs in global standardization over European standardization by 2014.

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  • Top ten things that don't make sense in The Walking Dead

    - by iamjames
    For those of you that don't know, The Walking Dead is a popular American TV show on AMC about a group of people trying to survive in a zombie-filled world.Here's the top ten eleven things that don't make sense on the show (and have never been explained) 1)  They never visit stores.  No Walmarts, Kmarts, Targets, shopping malls, pawn shops, gas stations, etc.  You'd think that would be the first place you'd visit for supplies, but they never have.  Not once.  There was a tiny corner store they visited in a small town, and while many products were already gone they did find several useful items.  2)  They never raid houses.  Why not?  One would imagine that they would want to search houses for useful items, but they don't.3)  They don't use 2 way radios.  Modern 2-way radios have a 36-mile range.  That's probably best possible range, but even if the range is only 10% of that, 3.6 miles, that's still more than enough for most situations, for the occasional "hey zombies attacking can you give me a hand?" or "there's zombies walking by stay inside until they leave" or "remember to pick up milk at the store love mom".  And yes they would need batteries or recharging, but they have been using gas-powered generators on the show and I'm sure a car charger would work.4)  They use gas-guzzling vehicles.  Every vehicle they have is from the 80s or 90s except for the new Kia SUV there for product placement.  Why?  They should all be driving new small SUVs or hybrids.  Visit a dealership and steal more fuel-efficient vehicles, because while the Walmart's might be empty from people raiding them for supplies, I'm sure most people weren't thinking "Gee, I should go car shopping" when the infection hit5)  They drive a motorcycle.  Seriously?  Let's find the least protective vehicle and drive that.  And while motorcycles get reasonable gas mileage, 5 people in a SUV gets better gas mileage per person than 5 people all driving motorcycles so it doesn't make economical sense either.6)  They drive loud vehicles.  The motorcycle used is commonly referred to as a chopper and is about as loud as a motorcycle can get.  The zombies are attracted to loud noise, so wouldn't it make more sense to drive vehicles that makes less sound?  Because as soon as you stop the bike and get off you're surrounded by zombies that heard you coming.  And it's not just the bike, the ~1980s Chevy SUV in the show is also very loud.7)  They never run out of food.  Seems like that would be a almost daily struggle, keeping enough food available for about a dozen people, yet I've never seen them visit a grocery store or local convenience store to stock up.8)  They don't carry swords, machetes, clubs, etc.  Let's face it, biting is not a very effective means of attack.  It's good for animals because they have fangs and little else, but humans have been finding better ways of killing each other since forever.  So why doesn't everyone on the show carry a sword or machete or at least a baseball bat?  Anything is better than wasting valuable bullets all the time.  Sure, dozen zombies approaching?  Shoot them.  One zombie approaching?  Save the bullet, cut off it's head.  9)  They do not wear protective clothing.  Human teeth are not exactly the sharpest teeth in the animal kingdom.  The leather shoes your dog ripped to shreds within minutes would probably take you days to bite through.  So why do they walk around half-naked?  Yes I know it's hot in Atlanta, but you'd think they'd at least have some tough leather coats or something for protection.  Maybe put a few small vent holes in the fabric if it's really hot.  Or better:  make your own chainmail.  Chainmail was used for thousands of years for protection from swords and is still used by scuba divers for protection from sharks.  If swords and sharks can't puncture it, human teeth don't stand a chance.  10)  They don't build barricades or dig trenches around properties.  In Season 2 they stayed at a farm in the middle of no where.  While being far away from people is a great way to stay far away from zombies, it would still make sense to build some sort of defenses.  Hordes of zombies would knock down almost any fence, but what about a trench or moat?  Maybe something not too wide so it can be jumped over easily but a zombie would fall into because I haven't seen too many jumping zombies on the show.  11)  They don't live in a mall or tall office building.  A mall would be perfect.  They have large security gates designed to keep even hundreds of people from breaking in and offer lots of supplies and food.  They're usually hundreds of thousands of square feet and fully enclosed, one could probably live their entire life happily in a mall.  Tall office building with on-site cafeteria would be another good choice.  They also usually offer good security and office furniture could be pushed out of the windows to crush approaching zombies, and the cafeteria is usually stocked to provide food for hundreds or thousands of office workers so food wouldn't be a problem for a long time. So there you have it, eleven things that don't make sense in The Walking Dead.  Have any of your own you'd like to add or were one of these things covered in the show?  Let me know in the comments.

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  • What developer conferences are you going to this year?

    - by mbcrump
    This short list is what I consider to be the “cream-of-the-crop” in developer conferences. This is also a list of the conferences that I plan on attending in 2011. If you feel your conference is just as good, then shoot me an email at [michael[at]michaelcrump[dot]net, and if possible I will check it out.   In-Person Event Las Vegas on April 18th-22nd, 2011 Redmond on October 17th-21st, 2011 Orlando on December 5th-9th, 2011 Visual Studio Live – I attended this event in November of last year and blogged about my experience. I am also planning on going back to the Orlando session in December of this year. So what did I like the most about this event? Being able to interact one-on-one with a majority of the speakers. If you read my blog post then you will see a list of the speakers that I met up with. I also made a lot of great connections with other professional developers all over the world. They are having an event in Las Vegas on April 18th-22nd. I noticed at this event that they have added a new track on mobile. Being a big fan of mobile, I feel that this is a great move. They also have a great selection for Silverlight Developers including Billy Hollis and Rocky Lhotka. For the full lineup of conference tracks, sessions and speakers visit http://bit.ly/VSLiveTrks. If you are interested in this then you can register here by February 16th. I must add that you can save $300 bucks by getting the early-bird special.   Virtual Conference SSWUG (DBTechCon) - holds the largest virtual conference in the information technology industry. It is also special to me because they selected a majority of my Silverlight content for the April conference. No traveling fees and all of the sessions are recorded so you can watch them on-demand for $189 bucks (early-bird special). For the entire speaker list then click here. The session list has also been published. If you are interested in this then you can register here.   In-Person Event Knoxville, TN on June 3rd/4th 2011. Codestock.org – If you live in the South then you have heard of CodeStock. To my knowledge, they have only had 3 events so far and they were a huge success. It was such a success that after the last event, everyone was telling me how good it was and how much they enjoyed it. They currently have a call for speakers going on right now, so if you have sessions then be sure to submit yours. So, what makes them stand out? Well for starters Michael Neal (organizer) developed an open API so conference attendees could build their own apps for the sessions. They also encouraged their speakers to go to other sessions instead of stay in a “speaker-room”. Another cool feature is that they are uploading videos from the conference so everyone can benefit. They are currently looking for sponsorship, so help out if you can.   In-Person Event Redmond, WA on October 28/29 2011 *NOT 100% SURE AT THIS POINT* PDC 11 – OK, so the logo should be pdc11 but its not out yet. This event is located on Microsoft’s campus in Redmond, WA. It is probably one of the most well known conferences for developers to attend. One of the big perks from this event is that you typically come away with free stuff. In 2010 they gave away Windows 7 Phones. I remember years earlier they gave away laptops. This of course isn’t the only reason to go, you may get to tour the Microsoft campus. Since pdc is a huge event, you can view all the events for free. Mike Taulty created a nice Silverlight application that consumes the OData feed. You can download it here. If everything goes as planned, I will be at all of these events. If you plan on going then send me a tweet and we will do lunch or dinner. I love meeting new developers and talking .net.  Subscribe to my feed

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  • Determining the angle to fire a shot when target and shooter moves, and bullet moves with shooter velocity added in

    - by Azaral
    I saw this question: Predicting enemy position in order to have an object lead its target and followed the link in the answer to stack overflow. In the stack overflow page I used the 2nd answer, the one that is a large mathematical derivation. My situation is a little different though. My first question though is will the answer provided in the stack overflow page even work to begin with, assuming the original circumstances of moving target and stationary shooter. My situation is a little different than that situation. My target moves, the shooter moves, and the bullets from the shooter start off with the velocities in x and y added to the bullets' x and y velocities. If you are sliding to the right, the bullets will remain in front of you as you move so as long as your velocity remains constant. What I'm trying to do is to get the enemy to be able to determine where they need to shoot in order to hit the player. Unless the player and enemy is stationary, the velocity from the ship adding to the velocity of the bullets will cause a miss. I'd rather like to prevent that. I used the formula in the stack overflow answer and did what I thought were the appropriate adjustments. I've been banging at this for the last four hours and I just can't make it click. It is probably something really simple and boneheaded that I am missing (that seems to be a lot of my problems lately). Here is the solution presented from the stack overflow answer: It boils down to solving a quadratic equation of the form: a * sqr(x) + b * x + c == 0 Note that by sqr I mean square, as opposed to square root. Use the following values: a := sqr(target.velocityX) + sqr(target.velocityY) - sqr(projectile_speed) b := 2 * (target.velocityX * (target.startX - cannon.X) + target.velocityY * (target.startY - cannon.Y)) c := sqr(target.startX - cannon.X) + sqr(target.startY - cannon.Y) Now we can look at the discriminant to determine if we have a possible solution. disc := sqr(b) - 4 * a * c If the discriminant is less than 0, forget about hitting your target -- your projectile can never get there in time. Otherwise, look at two candidate solutions: t1 := (-b + sqrt(disc)) / (2 * a) t2 := (-b - sqrt(disc)) / (2 * a) Note that if disc == 0 then t1 and t2 are equal. If there are no other considerations such as intervening obstacles, simply choose the smaller positive value. (Negative t values would require firing backward in time to use!) Substitute the chosen t value back into the target's position equations to get the coordinates of the leading point you should be aiming at: aim.X := t * target.velocityX + target.startX aim.Y := t * target.velocityY + target.startY Here is my code, after being corrected by Sam Hocevar (thank you again for your help!). It still doesn't work. For some reason it never enters the section of code inside the if(disc = 0) (obviously because it is always less than zero but...). However, if I plug the numbers from my game log on the enemy and player positions and velocities it outputs a valid firing solution. I have looked at the code side by side a couple of times now and I can't find any differences. There has got to be something simple I'm missing here. If someone else could look at this code and determine what is going on here I'd appreciate it. I know it's not going through that section because if it were, shouldShoot would become true and the enemy would be blasting away at the player. This section calls the function in question, CalculateShootHeading() if(shouldMove) { UseEngines(); } x += xVelocity; y += yVelocity; CalculateShootHeading(); if(shouldShoot) { ShootWeapons(); } UpdateWeapons(); This is CalculateShootHeading(). This is inside the enemy class so x and y are the enemy's x and y and the same with velocity. One output from my game log gives Player X = 2108, Player Y = -180.956, Player X velocity = 10.9949, Player Y Velocity = -6.26017, Enemy X = 1988.31, Enemy Y = -339.051, Enemy X velocity = 1.81666, Enemy Y velocity = -9.67762, 0 enemy projectiles. The output from the console tester is Bullet position = 2210.49, -239.313 and Player Position = 2210.49, -239.313. This doesn't make any sense. The only thing that could be different is the code or the input into my function in the game and I've checked that and I don't think that it is wrong as it's updated before this and never changed. float const bulletSpeed = 30.f; float const dx = playerX - x; float const dy = playerY - y; float const vx = playerXVelocity - xVelocity; float const vy = playerYVelocity - yVelocity; float const a = vx * vx + vy * vy - bulletSpeed * bulletSpeed; float const b = 2.f * (vx * dx + vy * dy); float const c = dx * dx + dy * dy; float const disc = b * b - 4.f * a * c; shouldShoot = false; if (disc >= 0.f) { float t0 = (-b - std::sqrt(disc)) / (2.f * a); float t1 = (-b + std::sqrt(disc)) / (2.f * a); if (t0 < 0.f || (t1 < t0 && t1 >= 0.f)) { t0 = t1; } if (t0 >= 0.f) { float shootx = vx + dx / t0; float shooty = vy + dy / t0; heading = std::atan2(shooty, shootx) * RAD2DEGREE; } shouldShoot = true; }

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  • If I were in a Silverlight focus group, here is ten things I would say.

    - by mbcrump
    Silverlight is a great product right off the shelf. I use it, love it and spend a lot of time helping the community understand it. This however, doesn’t mean that I don’t think that it can get better. If I were invited to a Microsoft Focus Group about Silverlight here is 10 things I would say:  We need more navigation templates. I’ve found (4) templates that Microsoft has released (Cosmo, Windows 7, Accent and JetPack). This number needs to be around 16. In order to get more people developing for Silverlight, we need to give them a variety of templates to get them off the ground quickly. Silverlight needs to ship with the next version of Windows. At least version 4 needs to be pre-installed on Windows going forward. It’s small, in its own sandbox and I cannot find a reason for it not to be included. Silverlight needs to run on more platforms.  iOS and Android are the key here. I think Microsoft should shoot for Android first since I believe Android will take the lead in the mobile market (at least for the short-term). It would also be great to see Microsoft use Silverlight as the focus on their new tablets / “AppleTV”. I would even invest in getting it working with Kinect. When creating a new project in Silverlight, we should have the option to create a Unit Test. Most Silverlight developers are not unit testing. If this is surprising to you then you need to get out and talk to more developers. I partially blame this on Microsoft. When you create a new ASP.NET MVC application, you simply put a check to create a Unit Test project. We need the same thing for Silverlight. We should steer the developer into the right direction. Design patterns such as MVVM need to be easier to implement in Silverlight solutions.  I’d go so far as to say that MVVM Light should ship with Visual Studio. With the project / item templates and code snippets, Laurent puts you into the right direction. This is the way that it should have been. Easy for the 9-5 developer to grasp. I believe the majority of developers use code behind because that’s what is in all the demos provided by Microsoft. They are not trying to write sucky code it is that they simply don’t know a better way.  The XAP Files should be obfuscated/unused references deleted by default when in “Release” mode. A better Silverlight experience starts with a smaller XAP file. The less that a user has to download is the better, even with the majority of people on broadband. I would also recommend built-in obfuscation by Microsoft. People are paranoid that they can rename the .zip and run it through reflector. Get rid of the boring install experiences. Here is a great write up on what I’m talking about. The default “Install Silverlight” and “Loading screens” suck. They suck bad. We need a choice of templates that a professional designer has created.  Silverlight needs to supports more image formats. For example: it would be great to use .gif’s without converting them to .png.    Switching between Blend 4 and VS2010 to develop a Silverlight application is a pain. Probably one of the biggest issues that I can’t think of a good solution for. It would be nice if VS2012 had the best of both worlds and you never have to leave VS. We need reporting controls with SSRS included with the Silverlight Toolkit. I can’t think of another control that we need built into the toolkit. It would also be helpful to have export to .xls, .pdf and .doc included with the control. I hope that this post will at least get a few people talking. Who knows, Microsoft could be working on these things right now. Thanks for reading!  Subscribe to my feed CodeProject

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  • How much abstraction is too much?

    - by Daniel Bingham
    In an Object Oriented Program: How much abstraction is too much? How much is just right? I have always been a nuts and bolts kind of guy. I understood the concept behind high levels of encapsulation and abstraction, but always felt instinctively that adding too much would just confuse the program. I always tried to shoot for an amount of abstraction that left no empty classes or layers. And where in doubt, instead of adding a new layer to the hierarchy, I would try and fit something into the existing layers. However, recently I've been encountering more highly abstracted systems. Systems where everything that could require a representation later in the hierarchy gets one up front. This leads to a lot of empty layers, which at first seems like bad design. However, on second thought I've come to realize that leaving those empty layers gives you more places to hook into in the future with out much refactoring. It leaves you greater ability to add new functionality on top of the old with out doing nearly as much work to adjust the old. The two risks of this seem to be that you could get the layers you need wrong. In this case one would wind up still needing to do substantial refactoring to extend the code and would still have a ton of never used layers. But depending on how much time you spend coming up with the initial abstractions, the chance of screwing it up, and the time that could be saved later if you get it right - it may still be worth it to try. The other risk I can think of is the risk of over doing it and never needing all the extra layers. But is that really so bad? Are extra class layers really so expensive that it is much of a loss if they are never used? The biggest expense and loss here would be time that is lost up front coming up with the layers. But much of that time still might be saved later when one can work with the abstracted code rather than more low level code. So when is it too much? At what point do the empty layers and extra "might need" abstractions become overkill? How little is too little? Where's the sweet spot? Are there any dependable rules of thumb you've found in the course of your career that help you judge the amount of abstraction needed?

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  • How can we implement change notification propagation for WPF and SL in the MVVM pattern?

    - by Firoso
    Here's an example scenario targetting MVVM WPF/SL development: View data binds to view model Property "Target" "Target" exposes a field of an object called "data" that exists in the local application model, called "Original" when "Original" changes, it should raise notification to the view model and then propogate that change notification to the View. Here are the solutions I've come up with, but I don't like any of them all that much. I'm looking for other ideas, by the time we come up with something rock solid I'm certain Microsoft will have released .NET 5 with WPF/SL extensions for better tools for MVVM development. For now the question is, "What have you done to solve this problem and how has it worked out for you?" Option 1. Proposal: Attach a handler to data's PropertyChanged event that watches for string values of properties it cares about that might have changed, and raises the appropriate notification. Why I don't like it: Changes don't bubble naturally, objects must be explicitly watched, if data changes to a new source, events must be un-registered/registered. Why I kind of like it: I get explicit control over propogation of changes, and I don't have to use any types that belong at a higher level of the application such as dependancy properties. Option 2. Proposal: Attach a handler to data's PropertyChanged event that re-raises the event across all properties using the name property name. Why I don't like it: This is essentially the same as option 1, but less intelligent, and forces me to never change my property names, as they have to be the same as the property names on data Why I kind of like it: It's very easy to set up and I don't have to think about it... Then again if I try to think, and change names to things that make sense, I shoot myself in the foot, and then I have to think about it! Option 3. Proposal: Inherit my view model from dependancy object, and notify binding sources of changes directly. Why I don't like it: I'm not even 100% sure dependancy properties/objects can DO this, it was just a thought to look into. Also I don't personally feel that WPF/SL types like Dep Obj belong at the view model level. Why I kind of like it: IF it has the capability that I'm seeking then it's a good answer! minus that pesky layering issue. Option 4. Proposal: Use a consistant agent messaging system based off of Task Parallels DataFlow Library to propogate everything through linked pipelining. Why I don't like it: I've never tried this, and somehow I think it will be lacking, plus it requires me to think about my code completely differently all the way around. Why I kind of like it: It has the possiblity of allowing me to do some VERY fun manipulations with a push based data model and using ActionBlocks as validation AND setters to then privately change view model properties and explicitly control PropertyChanged notifications.

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  • Thread not behaving correctly

    - by ivor
    Hello, I wonder if anyone can help me to understand where I could be going wrong with this code; Basically I'm working on a turorial and calling the class below from another class - and it is getting the following error; Exception in thread "Thread-1" java.lang.NullPointerException at org.newdawn.spaceinvaders.TCPChat.run(TCPChat.java:322) at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source) I realise the error is beibg flagged in another class- but I have tested the other class with a small class which sets up a separate thread - and it works fine, but as soon as I try and implement a new thread in this class - it causes all sorts of problems. Am I setting up the thread correctly in this class? Basically I can set up a thread in this class, with a test loop and it's fine, but when I bring in the functionality of the rest of the game it sometimes hangs, or does not display at all. Any suggestions on where I could be going wrong would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for looking. package org.newdawn.spaceinvaders; import java.awt.BorderLayout; import java.awt.Canvas; import java.awt.Color; import java.awt.Dimension; import java.awt.FlowLayout; import java.awt.Graphics2D; import java.awt.GridLayout; import java.awt.event.ActionEvent; import java.awt.event.ActionListener; import java.awt.event.KeyAdapter; import java.awt.event.KeyEvent; import java.awt.event.WindowAdapter; import java.awt.event.WindowEvent; import java.awt.image.BufferStrategy; import java.util.ArrayList; import java.util.Scanner; import java.awt.*;//maybe not needed import javax.swing.*;//maybenot needed import java.util.Random; //import java.io.*; /** * The main hook of our game. This class with both act as a manager * for the display and central mediator for the game logic. * * Display management will consist of a loop that cycles round all * entities in the game asking them to move and then drawing them * in the appropriate place. With the help of an inner class it * will also allow the player to control the main ship. * * As a mediator it will be informed when entities within our game * detect events (e.g. alient killed, played died) and will take * appropriate game actions. * * @author Kevin Glass */ public class Game extends Canvas implements Runnable{ /** The stragey that allows us to use accelerate page flipping */ private BufferStrategy strategy; /** True if the game is currently "running", i.e. the game loop is looping */ private boolean gameRunning = true; /** The list of all the entities that exist in our game */ private ArrayList entities = new ArrayList(); /** The list of entities that need to be removed from the game this loop */ private ArrayList removeList = new ArrayList(); /** The entity representing the player */ private Entity ship; /** The speed at which the player's ship should move (pixels/sec) */ private double moveSpeed = 300; /** The time at which last fired a shot */ private long lastFire = 0; /** The interval between our players shot (ms) */ private long firingInterval = 500; /** The number of aliens left on the screen */ private int alienCount; /** The number of levels progressed */ private double levelCount; /** high score for the user */ private int highScore; /** high score for the user */ private String player = "bob"; //private GetUserInput getPlayer; /** The list of entities that need to be removed from the game this loop */ /** The message to display which waiting for a key press */ private String message = ""; /** True if we're holding up game play until a key has been pressed */ private boolean waitingForKeyPress = true; /** True if the left cursor key is currently pressed */ private boolean leftPressed = false; /** True if the right cursor key is currently pressed */ private boolean rightPressed = false; /** True if we are firing */ private boolean firePressed = false; /** True if game logic needs to be applied this loop, normally as a result of a game event */ private boolean logicRequiredThisLoop = false; //private Thread cThread = new Thread(this); //public Thread t = new Thread(this); //private Thread g = new Thread(this); void setHighscore(int setHS) { highScore = setHS; } public int getHighscore() { return highScore; } public void setPlayer(String setPlayer) { player = setPlayer; } public String getPlayer() { return player; } public void run() { //setup(); System.out.println("hello im running bob"); /*int count = 1; do { System.out.println("Count is: " + count); count++; try{Thread.sleep(1);} catch(InterruptedException e){} } while (count <= 2000000);*/ //Game g =new Game(); //Game g = this; // Start the main game loop, note: this method will not // return until the game has finished running. Hence we are // using the actual main thread to run the game. //setup(); //this.gameLoop(); //try{thread.sleep(1);} //catch{InterruptedException e} } /** * Construct our game and set it running. */ public Game () { //Thread t = new Thread(this);//set up new thread for invaders game //t.run();//run the run method of the game //Game g =new Game(); //setup(); //Thread t = new Thread(this); //thread.start(); //SwingUtilities.invokeLater(this); Thread er = new Thread(this); er.start(); } public void setup(){ //initialise highscore setHighscore(0); // create a frame to contain our game JFrame container = new JFrame("Space Invaders 101"); // get hold the content of the frame and set up the resolution of the game JPanel panel = (JPanel) container.getContentPane(); panel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(800,600)); //panel.setLayout(null); // setup our canvas size and put it into the content of the frame setBounds(0,0,800,600); panel.add(this); // Tell AWT not to bother repainting our canvas since we're // going to do that our self in accelerated mode setIgnoreRepaint(true); // finally make the window visible container.pack(); container.setResizable(false); container.setVisible(true); // add a listener to respond to the user closing the window. If they // do we'd like to exit the game container.addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() { public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e) { //cThread.interrupt(); System.exit(0); } }); // add a key input system (defined below) to our canvas // so we can respond to key pressed addKeyListener(new KeyInputHandler()); // request the focus so key events come to us requestFocus(); // create the buffering strategy which will allow AWT // to manage our accelerated graphics createBufferStrategy(2); strategy = getBufferStrategy(); // initialise the entities in our game so there's something // to see at startup initEntities(); } /** * Start a fresh game, this should clear out any old data and * create a new set. */ private void startGame() { // clear out any existing entities and intialise a new set entities.clear(); initEntities(); //initialise highscore setHighscore(0); // blank out any keyboard settings we might currently have leftPressed = false; rightPressed = false; firePressed = false; } /** * Initialise the starting state of the entities (ship and aliens). Each * entitiy will be added to the overall list of entities in the game. */ //private void initEntities() { public void initEntities() { Random randomAlien = new Random(); // create the player ship and place it roughly in the center of the screen //ship = new ShipEntity(this,"sprites/ship.gif",370,550);//orignal ship = new ShipEntity(this,"sprites/ship.gif",700,300);//changed postioning to right hand side entities.add(ship); // create a block of aliens (5 rows, by 12 aliens, spaced evenly) alienCount = 0; levelCount = 1.02; for (int row=0;row<7;row++) {//altered number of rows for (int x=0;x<5;x++) { int r = randomAlien.nextInt(100);//loop added to produce random aliens if (r < 50){ //Entity alien = new AlienEntity(this,"sprites/alien.gif",/*100+*/(x*50),(50)+row*30); Entity alien = new AlienEntity(this,"sprites/alien.gif",100+(x*90),(12)+row*85); entities.add(alien); alienCount++; } } } } //private void initEntities() { public void initAlienEntities() { Random randomAlien = new Random(); // create the player ship and place it roughly in the center of the screen //ship = new ShipEntity(this,"sprites/ship.gif",370,550);//orignal //ship = new ShipEntity(this,"sprites/ship.gif",700,300);//changed postioning to right hand side //entities.add(ship); // create a block of aliens (5 rows, by 12 aliens, spaced evenly) alienCount = 0; levelCount = levelCount + 0.10;//this increases the speed on every level for (int row=0;row<7;row++) {//altered number of rows for (int x=0;x<5;x++) { int r = randomAlien.nextInt(100);//loop added to produce random aliens if (r < 50){//randome check to show alien //Entity alien = new AlienEntity(this,"sprites/alien.gif",/*100+*/(x*50),(50)+row*30); Entity alien = new AlienEntity(this,"sprites/alien.gif",-250+(x*90),(12)+row*85); entities.add(alien); alienCount++; } } } advanceAlienSpeed(levelCount); } /** * Notification from a game entity that the logic of the game * should be run at the next opportunity (normally as a result of some * game event) */ public void updateLogic() { logicRequiredThisLoop = true; } /** * Remove an entity from the game. The entity removed will * no longer move or be drawn. * * @param entity The entity that should be removed */ public void removeEntity(Entity entity) { removeList.add(entity); } /** * Notification that the player has died. */ public void notifyDeath() { message = "Oh no! They got you, try again?"; waitingForKeyPress = true; } /** * Notification that the player has won since all the aliens * are dead. */ public void notifyWin() { message = "Well done! You Win!"; waitingForKeyPress = true; } /** * Notification that an alien has been killed */ public void notifyAlienKilled() { // reduce the alient count, if there are none left, the player has won! alienCount--; if (alienCount == 0) { //notifyWin();win not relevant here... this.initAlienEntities();//call fresh batch of aliens } // if there are still some aliens left then they all need to get faster, so // speed up all the existing aliens advanceAlienSpeed(1.30); } public void advanceAlienSpeed(double speed) { // if there are still some aliens left then they all need to get faster, so // speed up all the existing aliens for (int i=0;i<entities.size();i++) { Entity entity = (Entity) entities.get(i); if (entity instanceof AlienEntity) { // speed up by 2% entity.setHorizontalMovement(entity.getHorizontalMovement() * speed); //entity.setVerticalMovement(entity.getVerticalMovement() * 1.02); } } } /** * Attempt to fire a shot from the player. Its called "try" * since we must first check that the player can fire at this * point, i.e. has he/she waited long enough between shots */ public void tryToFire() { // check that we have waiting long enough to fire if (System.currentTimeMillis() - lastFire < firingInterval) { return; } // if we waited long enough, create the shot entity, and record the time. lastFire = System.currentTimeMillis(); ShotEntity shot = new ShotEntity(this,"sprites/shot.gif",ship.getX()+10,ship.getY()-30); entities.add(shot); } /** * The main game loop. This loop is running during all game * play as is responsible for the following activities: * <p> * - Working out the speed of the game loop to update moves * - Moving the game entities * - Drawing the screen contents (entities, text) * - Updating game events * - Checking Input * <p> */ public void gameLoop() { long lastLoopTime = System.currentTimeMillis(); // keep looping round til the game ends while (gameRunning) { // work out how long its been since the last update, this // will be used to calculate how far the entities should // move this loop long delta = System.currentTimeMillis() - lastLoopTime; lastLoopTime = System.currentTimeMillis(); // Get hold of a graphics context for the accelerated // surface and blank it out Graphics2D g = (Graphics2D) strategy.getDrawGraphics(); g.setColor(Color.black); g.fillRect(0,0,800,600); // cycle round asking each entity to move itself if (!waitingForKeyPress) { for (int i=0;i<entities.size();i++) { Entity entity = (Entity) entities.get(i); entity.move(delta); } } // cycle round drawing all the entities we have in the game for (int i=0;i<entities.size();i++) { Entity entity = (Entity) entities.get(i); entity.draw(g); } // brute force collisions, compare every entity against // every other entity. If any of them collide notify // both entities that the collision has occured for (int p=0;p<entities.size();p++) { for (int s=p+1;s<entities.size();s++) { Entity me = (Entity) entities.get(p); Entity him = (Entity) entities.get(s); if (me.collidesWith(him)) { me.collidedWith(him); him.collidedWith(me); } } } // remove any entity that has been marked for clear up entities.removeAll(removeList); removeList.clear(); // if a game event has indicated that game logic should // be resolved, cycle round every entity requesting that // their personal logic should be considered. if (logicRequiredThisLoop) { //g.drawString("Press any key",(800-g.getFontMetrics().stringWidth("Press any key"))/2,300); for (int i=0;i<entities.size();i++) { Entity entity = (Entity) entities.get(i); entity.doLogic(); } logicRequiredThisLoop = false; } // if we're waiting for an "any key" press then draw the // current message //show highscore at top of screen //show name at top of screen g.setColor(Color.white); g.drawString("Player : "+getPlayer()+" : Score : "+getHighscore(),20,20); if (waitingForKeyPress) { g.setColor(Color.white); g.drawString(message,(800-g.getFontMetrics().stringWidth(message))/2,250); g.drawString("Press any key",(800-g.getFontMetrics().stringWidth("Press any key"))/2,300); } // finally, we've completed drawing so clear up the graphics // and flip the buffer over g.dispose(); strategy.show(); // resolve the movement of the ship. First assume the ship // isn't moving. If either cursor key is pressed then // update the movement appropraitely ship.setVerticalMovement(0);//set to vertical movement if ((leftPressed) && (!rightPressed)) { ship.setVerticalMovement(-moveSpeed);//**took out setHorizaontalMOvement } else if ((rightPressed) && (!leftPressed)) { ship.setVerticalMovement(moveSpeed);//**took out setHorizaontalMOvement } // if we're pressing fire, attempt to fire if (firePressed) { tryToFire(); } // finally pause for a bit. Note: this should run us at about // 100 fps but on windows this might vary each loop due to // a bad implementation of timer try { Thread.sleep(10); } catch (Exception e) {} } } /** * A class to handle keyboard input from the user. The class * handles both dynamic input during game play, i.e. left/right * and shoot, and more static type input (i.e. press any key to * continue) * * This has been implemented as an inner class more through * habbit then anything else. Its perfectly normal to implement * this as seperate class if slight less convienient. * * @author Kevin Glass */ private class KeyInputHandler extends KeyAdapter { /** The number of key presses we've had while waiting for an "any key" press */ private int pressCount = 1; /** * Notification from AWT that a key has been pressed. Note that * a key being pressed is equal to being pushed down but *NOT* * released. Thats where keyTyped() comes in. * * @param e The details of the key that was pressed */ public void keyPressed(KeyEvent e) { // if we're waiting for an "any key" typed then we don't // want to do anything with just a "press" if (waitingForKeyPress) { return; } // if (e.getKeyCode() == KeyEvent.VK_LEFT) { ////leftPressed = true; ///} //// if (e.getKeyCode() == KeyEvent.VK_RIGHT) { //rightPressed = true; if (e.getKeyCode() == KeyEvent.VK_UP) { leftPressed = true; } if (e.getKeyCode() == KeyEvent.VK_DOWN) { rightPressed = true; } if (e.getKeyCode() == KeyEvent.VK_SPACE) { firePressed = true; } } /** * Notification from AWT that a key has been released. * * @param e The details of the key that was released */ public void keyReleased(KeyEvent e) { // if we're waiting for an "any key" typed then we don't // want to do anything with just a "released" if (waitingForKeyPress) { return; } if (e.getKeyCode() == KeyEvent.VK_UP) {//changed from VK_LEFT leftPressed = false; } if (e.getKeyCode() == KeyEvent.VK_DOWN) {//changed from VK_RIGHT rightPressed = false; } if (e.getKeyCode() == KeyEvent.VK_SPACE) { firePressed = false; } } /** * Notification from AWT that a key has been typed. Note that * typing a key means to both press and then release it. * * @param e The details of the key that was typed. */ public void keyTyped(KeyEvent e) { // if we're waiting for a "any key" type then // check if we've recieved any recently. We may // have had a keyType() event from the user releasing // the shoot or move keys, hence the use of the "pressCount" // counter. if (waitingForKeyPress) { if (pressCount == 1) { // since we've now recieved our key typed // event we can mark it as such and start // our new game waitingForKeyPress = false; startGame(); pressCount = 0; } else { pressCount++; } } // if we hit escape, then quit the game if (e.getKeyChar() == 27) { //cThread.interrupt(); System.exit(0); } } } /** * The entry point into the game. We'll simply create an * instance of class which will start the display and game * loop. * * @param argv The arguments that are passed into our game */ //public static void main(String argv[]) { //Game g =new Game(); // Start the main game loop, note: this method will not // return until the game has finished running. Hence we are // using the actual main thread to run the game. //g.gameLoop(); //} }

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  • Looking for an Open Source Project in need of help

    - by hvidgaard
    Hi StackOverflow! I'm a CS student on well on my way to graduate. I have had a difficult time of finding relevant student jobs (they seems to be taken merely hours after the notice gets on the board) , so instead I'm looking for an open source project in need of help. I'm aware that I should choose one that I use, but I'm not aware of any OS-project that I use that needs help. That's why I'm asking you. I don't have any deep experience, but I here are some of my biggest projects so far: BitTorrent-ish client in Python (a subset of BitTorrent) HTTP 1.1 webserver in Java Compiler from a subset of Java to run on JRE Flash-framework project to model an iPad look and feel (not to run actual iPad programs) complete with an API for programs. Complete MySQL database for a booking system, with departure and arrival times, so you could only book valid tickets (with a Java frontend). I know, Java and languages like AS3 and C# feels natural per se, Python, and have done a fair bit of hacking around in C, but I don't feel very comfortable with it. Mostly I'm afraid to make a fuckup because I have such a high degree of control. I would like to think I'm well aware of good software design practices, but in reality what I do is ask myself "would I like to use/maintain this?", and I love to refactor my code because I see optimizations. I love algorithms and to make them run in the best possible time. I don't have any preferred domain to work in, but I wouldn't mind it to be graphics or math heavy. Ideally I'm looking for a project in C++ to learn the in's and out's of it, but I'm well aware that I don't know that language very well. I would like to have a mentor-like figure until I'm confident enough to stand on my own, not one to review all my code (I'm sure someone will to start with anyway), but to ask questions about the project and language in question. I do have a wife and two children, so don't expect me to put in 10+ hours every week. In return I can work on my own, I strive to program modular and maintainable code. Know how to read an API, use Google, StackOverflow and online resources in general. If you have any questions, shoot. I'm looking forward to your suggestions.

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  • mod_rewrite not working for a specific directory

    - by punkish
    This has got me completely foxed for a couple of days now, and I am convinced that I will look stupid once I solve it, but will be even stupider if I don't ask for help now. I have mod_rewrite working successfully on my localhost (no vhosts involved; this is my laptop, my development machine), and I use .htaccess in various directories to help rewrite crufty URLs to clean ones. EXCEPT... it doesn't work in one directory. Since it is impossible to reproduce my entire laptop in this question, I provide the following details. In my httpd.conf, I have mod_rewrite.so loaded. LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so In my httpd.conf, I have included another conf file like so Include /usr/local/apache2/conf/other/punkish.conf In my punkish.conf, I have directories defined like so DocumentRoot "/Users/punkish/Sites" <Directory "/Users/punkish/Sites"> Options ExecCGI AllowOverride None Order allow,deny Allow from all </Directory> <Directory "/Users/punkish/Sites/one"> Options FollowSymLinks AllowOverride All Order allow,deny Allow from all </Directory> <Directory "/Users/punkish/Sites/two"> Options FollowSymLinks AllowOverride All Order allow,deny Allow from all </Directory> In ~/Sites/one I have the following .htaccess file RewriteEngine On RewriteBase /one/ # If an actual file or directory is requested, serve directly RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d # Otherwise, pass everything through to the dispatcher RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.cgi/$1 [L,QSA] and, everything works just fine. However, in my directory ~/Sites/two I have the following .htaccess file RewriteEngine On RewriteBase /two/ # If an actual file or directory is requested, serve directly RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d # Otherwise, pass everything through to the dispatcher RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.cgi/$1 [L,QSA] and, nothing works. Nada. Zip. Zilch. I just get a 404. I have determined that mod_rewrite is not even looking at my ~/Sites/two/.htaccess by putting spurious commands in it and not getting any error other than 404. Another confounding issue -- I have turned on RewriteLog in my httpd.conf with RewriteLogLevel 3, but my rewrite_log is completely empty. I know this is hard to trouble shoot unless sitting physically at the computer in question, but I hope someone can give me some indication as to what is going on. **Update: ** There are no aliases involved anywhere. This is my laptop, and everything is under the above stated Document Root, so I just access each directory as http://localhost/. Yes, typos are a big possibility (I did say that I will look stupid once I solve it, however, for now, I have not discovered a single typo anywhere, and yes, I have restarted Apache about a dozen times now. I even thought that perhaps I had two different Apaches running, but no, I have only one, the one under /usr/local/apache2, and I installed it myself a while back.

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  • iOS dynamic object creation

    - by Abdul Ahmad
    I've worked with Xcode and iOS on a few personal projects and have always used non-object-oriented designs for everything... just because I've been doing mostly learning/experimenting with things. Now I've been trying to implement some object oriented design into one game I've made previously. The idea is, I have a space ship that can shoot bullets. In the past I basically added the UIImageView to the storyboard and then connected it to the .h file and from there did things on it like move it around or whatever (using CGPointMake). The idea now is to make a method (and a whole other class soon) that will create a UIImageView programmatically, allocate it, add it to the superview etc... I've got this working so far, easy stuff, but the next part is a bit harder. Where do I store this local variable "bullet"? I've been saving it to an NSMutableArray and doing the following: (actually here are the methods that I have) -(void)movement { for (int i = 0; i < [array1 count]; i ++) { UIImageView *a = [array1 objectAtIndex:i]; a.center = CGPointMake(a.center.x + 2, a.center.y); if (a.center.x > 500) { [array1 removeObjectAtIndex:i]; [a removeFromSuperview]; } } } -(void)getBullet { UIImageView *bullet = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(ship.center.x + 20, ship.center.y - 2, 15, 3)]; bullet.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"bullet2.png"]; bullet.hidden = NO; [self.view addSubview:bullet]; [array1 addObject:bullet]; } (by the way, array1 is declared in the .h file) and theres a timer that controls the movement method timer = [NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval:0.5 target:self selector:@selector(movement) userInfo:nil repeats:YES]; first question is: what is the correct way of doing this? Storing a bullet for example until it is removed from the superview, should I store it another way? and another question is, when I remove a UIImageView from the superview, does that remove it from memory so its not using up system resources? Thank you for the help! (will update if I Think of other questions

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  • Painted JPanel won't show up in JFrame

    - by javawarrior
    When I run my code, I expect to see a JPanel in my JFrame, but nothing shows up. I had a button in the frame, and it shows up. But the JPanel doesn't show up, I even colored it in red. Here is the code for my JPanel: import java.awt.*; import javax.swing.JPanel; public class graphic extends JPanel { private static final long serialVersionUID = -3458717449092499931L; public Game game; public graphic(Game game){ this.game = game; this.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(400,400)); this.setBackground(Color.RED); } public void paintComponent(Graphics g){ for (Line l:game.mirrors){ g.setColor(Color.BLACK); g.drawLine(l.start.x, l.start.y, l.end.x, l.end.y); } } } And my JFrame code: import java.awt.Container; import java.awt.event.*; import java.util.Timer; import java.util.TimerTask; import javax.swing.*; public class Viewer implements ActionListener { public JFrame frame; public JButton drawShoot; public boolean draw; public Game game; public graphic graphic; public TimerTask timert; public Timer timer; public Viewer(){ draw = true; game = new Game(); } public static void main(String args[]){ Viewer v = new Viewer(); v.setup(); } public void setup(){ frame = new JFrame("Laser Stimulator"); drawShoot = new JButton("Edit Mode"); graphic = new graphic(game); graphic.repaint(); frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE); frame.setBounds(300, 300, 600, 600); Container contentPane = frame.getContentPane(); SpringLayout layout = new SpringLayout(); contentPane.setLayout(layout); drawShoot.addActionListener(this); timert = new TimerTask() { @Override public void run() { } }; timer =new Timer(); timer.scheduleAtFixedRate(timert, 0, 1000/30); contentPane.add(graphic); layout.putConstraint(SpringLayout.NORTH, graphic, 0, SpringLayout.NORTH, contentPane); layout.putConstraint(SpringLayout.WEST, graphic, 0, SpringLayout.WEST, contentPane); frame.setVisible(true); } @Override public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) { if (e.getSource()==drawShoot){ draw = !draw; drawShoot.setText((draw)?"Edit Mode":"Shoot Mode"); } } }

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  • Is Microsoft&rsquo;s Cloud Bet Placed on the Ground?

    - by andrewbrust
    Today at the Unversity of Washington, Steve Ballmer gave a speech on Microsoft’s cloud strategy.  Significantly, Azure was only briefly mentioned and was not shown.  Instead, Ballmer spoke about what he called the five “dimensions” of the cloud, and used that as the basis for an almost philosophical discussion.  Ballmer opined on how the cloud should be distinguished from the Internet.as well as what the cloud will and should enable.  Ballmer worked hard to portray the cloud not as a challenger to Windows and PCs (as Google would certainly suggest it is) but  really as just the latest peripheral that adds value to PCs and devices. At one point during his speech, Ballmer said “We start with Windows at Microsoft.  It’s the most popular smart device on the planet.  And our design center for the future of Windows is to make it one of those smarter devices that the cloud really wants.”  I’m not sure I agree with Ballmer’s ambition here, but I must admit he’s taken the “software + services” concept and expanded on it in more consumer-friendly fashion. There were demos too.  For example, Blaise Aguera y Arcas reprised his Bing Maps demo from the TED conference held last month.  And Simon Atwell showed how Microsoft has teamed with Sky TV in the UK to turn Xbox into something that looks uncannily like Windows Media Center.  Specifically, an Xbox console app called Sky Player provides full access to Sky’s on-demand programming but also live TV access to an array of networks carried on its home TV service, complete with an on-screen programming guide.  Windows Phone 7 Series was shown quickly and Ballmer told us that while Windows Mobile/Phone 6.5 and earlier were designed for voice and legacy functionality, Windows Phone 7 Series is designed for the cloud. Over and over during Ballmer’s talk (and those of his guest demo presenters), the message was clear: Microsoft believes that client (“smart”) devices, and not mere HTML terminals, are the technologies to best deliver on the promise of the cloud.  The message was that PCs running Windows, game consoles and smart phones  whose native interfaces are Internet-connected offer the most effective way to utilize cloud capabilities.  Even the Bing Maps demo conveyed this message, because the advanced technology shown in the demo uses Silverlight (and thus the PCs computing power), and not AJAX (which relies only upon the browser’s native scripting and rendering capabilities) to produce the impressive interface shown to the audience. Microsoft’s new slogan, with respect to the cloud, is “we’re all in.”  Just as a Texas Hold ‘em player bets his entire stash of chips when he goes all in, so too is Microsoft “betting the company” on the cloud.  But it would seem that Microsoft’s bet isn’t on the cloud in a pure sense, and is instead on the power of the cloud to fuel new growth in PCs and other client devices, Microsoft’s traditional comfort zone.  Is that a bet or a hedge?  If the latter, is Microsoft truly all in?  I don’t really know.  I think many people would say this is a sucker’s bet.  But others would say it’s suckers who bet against Microsoft.  No matter what, the burden is on Microsoft to prove this contrarian view of the cloud is a sensible one.  To do that, they’ll need to deliver on cloud-connected device innovation.  And to do that, the whole company will need to feel that victory is crucial.  Time will tell.  And I expect to present progress reports in future posts.

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  • Oracle User Communities and Enterprise Manager

    - by Anand Akela
    Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} Contributed by Joe Dimmer, Senior Business Development Manager, Oracle Enterprise Manager Heightened interest and adoption of Oracle Enterprise Manager has led to keen interest in “manageability” within the user group community.  In response, user groups are equipping their membership with the right tools for implementation and use manageability through education opportunities and Special Interest Groups.  Manageability is increasingly viewed not only as a means to enable the Oracle environment to become a competitive business advantage for organizations, but also as a means to advance the individual careers of those who embrace enterprise management.  Two Oracle user groups – the Independent Oracle User Group (IOUG) and the United Kingdom Oracle User Group (UKOUG) – each have Special Interest Groups where manageability is prominently featured.  There are also efforts underway to establish similarly charted SIGs that will be reported in future blogs.  The good news is, there’s a lot of news! First off, the IOUG will be hosting a Summer Series of live webcasts:  “Configuring and Managing a Private Cloud with Enterprise Manager 12c” by Kai Yu of Dell, Inc.              Wednesday, June 20th from Noon – 1 PM CDT , Click here for details & registration “What is User Experience Monitoring and What is Not? A case study of Oracle Global IT’s implementation of Enterprise Manager 12c and RUEI” by Eric Tran Le of Oracle            Wednesday, July 18th from Noon – 1 PM CDT , Click here for details & registration “Shed some light on the ‘bumps in the night’ with Enterprise Manager 12c” by David Start of Johnson Controls            Wednesday, August 22nd from Noon – 1 PM CDT, Click here for details & registration   In addition, the UKOUG Availability and Infrastructure Management (AIM) SIG is hosting its next meeting on Tuesday, July 3rd at the Met in Leeds where EM 12c Cloud Management will be presented.  Click here for details & registration.  In future posts from Joe, look for news related to the following: ·         IOUG Community Page and Newsletter devoted to manageability ·         Full day of manageability featured during Oracle OpenWorld 2012 “SIG Sunday” ·         Happenings from other regional User Groups that feature manageability Stay Connected: Twitter |  Face book |  You Tube |  Linked in |  Newsletter

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  • JDBC Triggers

    - by Tim Dexter
    Received a question from a customer last week, they were using the new rollup patch on top of 10.1.3.4.1. What are these boxes for? Don't you know? Surely? Well, they are for ... that new functionality, you know it's in the user docs, that thingmabobby doodah. OK, I dont know either, I can have a guess but let me check first. Serveral IM sessions, emails and a dig through the readme for the new patch and I had my answer. Its not in the official documentation, yet. Leslie is on the case. The two fields were designed to allow an Admin to set a users context attributes before a connection is made to a database and for un-setting the attributes after the connection is broken by the extraction engine. We got a sample from the Enterprise Manager team on how they will be using it with their VPD connections. FUNCTION bip_to_em_user (user_name_in IN VARCHAR2) RETURN BOOLEAN IS BEGIN SETEMUSERCONTEXT(user_name_in, MGMT_USER.OP_SET_IDENTIFIER); return TRUE; END bip_to_em_user; And used in the jdbc data source definition like this (pre-process function): sysman.mgmt_bip.bip_to_em_user(:xdo_user_name) You, of course can call any function that is going to return a boolean value, another example might be. FUNCTION set_per_process_username (username_in IN VARCHAR2) RETURN BOOLEAN IS BEGIN SETUSERCONTEXT(username_in); return TRUE; END set_per_process_username Just use your own function/package to set some user context. Very grateful for the mail from Leslie on the EM team's usage but I had to try it out. Rather than set up a VPD, I opted for a simpler test. Can I log the comings and goings of users and their queries using the same pre-process text box. Reaching back into the depths of my developer brain to remember some pl/sql, it was not that deep and I came up with: CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION BIPTEST (user_name_in IN VARCHAR2, smode IN VARCHAR2) RETURN BOOLEAN AS BEGIN INSERT INTO LOGTAB VALUES(user_name_in, sysdate,smode); RETURN true; END BIPTEST; To call it in the pre-fetch trigger. BIPTEST(:xdo_user_name) Not going to set the pl/sql world alight I know, but you get the idea. As a new connection is made to the database its logged in the LOGTAB table. The SMODE value just sets if its an entry or an exit. I used the pre- and post- boxes. NAME UPDATE_DATE S_FLAG oracle 14-MAY-10 09.51.34.000000000 AM Start oracle 14-MAY-10 10.23.57.000000000 AM Finish administrator 14-MAY-10 09.51.38.000000000 AM Start administrator 14-MAY-10 09.51.38.000000000 AM Finish oracle 14-MAY-10 09.51.42.000000000 AM Start oracle 14-MAY-10 09.51.42.000000000 AM Finish It works very well, I had some fun trying to find a nasty query for the extraction engine so that the timestamps from in to out actually had a difference. That engine is fast! The only derived value you can pass from BIP is :xdo_user_name. None of the other server values are available. Connection pools are not currently supported but planned for a future release. Now you know what those fields are for and look for some official documentation, rather than my ramblings, coming soon!

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