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• Moodle 2 pages loading up to 2000% faster

  - by TJ

  On average our Moodle 2 pages were loading in 2.8 seconds, now they load in as little as 0.12 seconds, so that’s like 2333.333% faster!What was it I hear you say?Well it was the database connection, or more correctly the database library. I was using FreeTDS http://docs.moodle.org/22/en/Installing_MSSQL_for_PHP, but now I’m using the new Microsoft Drivers 3.0 for PHP for SQL Server http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=20098. I’m in a Windows Server IT department, and in both our live and development environments, we have Moodle 2.2.3, IIS 7.5, and PHP 5.3.10 running on two Windows Server 2008 R2 servers and using MS Network Load Balancing.Since moving to Moodle 2, the pages have always loaded much more slowly than they did in Moodle 1.9, I’ve been chasing this issue for quite a while. I had previously tried the Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server 2.0, but my testing showed it was slower than the FreeTDS driver.Then yesterday I found Microsoft had released the new version, Microsoft Drivers 3.0 for PHP for SQL Server, so I thought I’d give it a run, and wow what a difference it made.Pages that were loading in 2.8 seconds, now they load in as little as 0.12 seconds, 2333.333% faster…I have more testing to do, but so far it’s looking good, I have scheduled multi user load testing for early next week (fingers crossed).To make the change all I need to do was,download the driverscopy the relevant files to PHP\ext (for us they were php_pdo_sqlsrv_53_nts.dll and php_sqlsrv_53_nts.dll) install the Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Native Client x64 http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29065 add to PHP.ini, extension=php_pdo_sqlsrv_53_nts.dll, extension=php_sqlsrv_53_nts.dllremove form PHP.ini, extension=php_dblib.dllvchange in PHP.ini, mssql.textlimit = 20971520 and mssql.textsize = 20971520change Moodle config.php, $CFG->dbtype = 'sqlsrv'; and 'dbpersist' => Trueand then reboot and test…I've browsed courses, backed up/restored some really large and complicated courses, deleted courses etc. etc. all good.Still more testing to do but, hey this is good start...Hope this helps anyone experiencing the same slowness…

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• How to connect to my Local Host?

  - by Mazen Ayman

  I have Mac OSx (mountain Lion), Windows 7, Fedora 17 installed on my Macbook pro, and I can't connect to the local host on any of them, it always tells me can't connect. I'm learning mysql and from the tutorials, I guess I have to be connected to my localhost to create databases and stuff, but do I have to install something first for it to work? P.S. - for mac, I don't have the option "web sharing" to enable in the system preferences. - for windows, I tried to enable IIS, but it gives me an error ... I also tried to work it out using the cmd.exe but it just doesn't work as well. - for fedora, I'm new to it, but I just installed and I have no idea why it's not working.

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• Failing to upgrade to linux-image-3.0.0-26-generic

  - by Dan Lee

  When I try to upgrade linux-image-3.0.0-26-generic I get following problems: dpkg-deb (subprocess): data: internal bzip2 read error: 'DATA_ERROR' dpkg-deb: error: subprocess <decompress> returned error exit status 2 dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/linux-image-3.0.0-26-generic_3.0.0-26.42_amd64.deb (--unpack): short read on buffer copy for backend dpkg-deb during `./lib/modules/3.0.0-26-generic/kernel/drivers/scsi/fnic/fnic.ko' No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already Examining /etc/kernel/postrm.d . run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postrm.d/initramfs-tools 3.0.0-26-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-26-generic run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postrm.d/zz-update-grub 3.0.0-26-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-26-generic Errors were encountered while processing: /var/cache/apt/archives/linux-image-3.0.0-26-generic_3.0.0-26.42_amd64.deb E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) A package failed to install. Trying to recover: dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-image-generic: linux-image-generic depends on linux-image-3.0.0-26-generic; however: Package linux-image-3.0.0-26-generic is not installed. I don't know why this happens to me; earlier upgrades always worked without problems. Does anybody know how to fix this?

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• Why is VMware vSphere Client hanging at the console?

  - by David

  When I use the vSphere Client (against an ESXi 4.1 server) it hangs a lot. It's always at the same place - using the console on a VM. The console stops responding - and a lot of times, the management window stops responding as well. The operating system won't close the window (as the application isn't responding) and requires a force close. I've had the console refuse to give up the mouse, and have had the console freeze with the cursor in the top left (before any VM software starts, maybe?). The environment is this: the system is a Dell laptop running Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick) fully updated with VirtualBox OSE running Windows XP (also fully updated). The vSphere Client is running in the Windows XP VM. Got all that? How do I keep these hangs from happening? It is very aggravating. I'm still trying just to get the VM loaded with Ubuntu Server...

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• Global Perspective: Oracle AppAdvantage Does its Stage Debut in the UK

  - by Tanu Sood

  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-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii- mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi- mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Global Perspective is a monthly series that brings experiences, business needs and real-world use cases from regions across the globe. This month’s feature is a follow-up from last month’s Global Perspective note from a well known ACE Director based in EMEA. My first contribution to this blog was before Oracle Open World and I was quite excited about where this initiative would take me in my understanding of the value of Oracle Fusion Middleware. Rimi Bewtra from the Oracle AppAdvantage team came as promised to the Oracle ACE Director briefings and explained what this initiative was all about and I then asked the directors to take part in the new survey. The story was really well received and then at the SOA advisory board that many of these ACE Directors already take part in there was a further discussion on how this initiative will help customers understand the benefits of adoption. A few days later Rick Beers launched the program at a lunch of invited customer executives which included one from Pella who talked about their projects (a quick recap on that here). I wasn’t able to stay for the whole event but what really interested me was that these executives who understood the technology but where looking for how they could use them to drive their businesses. Lots of ideas were bubbling up in my head about how we can use this in user groups to help our members, and the timing was fantastic as just three weeks later we had UKOUG_Apps13, our flagship Applications conference in the UK. We had independently working with Oracle marketing in the UK on an initiative called Apps Transformation to help our members look beyond just the application they use today. We have had a Fusion community page but felt the options open are now much wider than Fusion Applications, there are acquired applications, social, mobility and of course the underlying technology, Oracle Fusion Middleware. I was really pleased to be allowed to give the Oracle AppAdvantage story as a session in our conference and we are planning a special Apps Transformation event in March where I hope the Oracle AppAdvantage team will take part and we will have the results of the survey to discuss. But, life also came full circle for me. In my first post, I talked about Andrew Sutherland and his original theory that Oracle Fusion Middleware adoption had technical drivers. Well, Andrew was a speaker at our event and he gave a potted, tech-talk free update on Oracle Open World. Andrew talked about the Prevailing Technology Winds, and what is driving this today and he talked about that in the past it was the move from simply automating processes (ERP etc), through the altering of those processes (SOA) and onto consolidation. The next drivers are around the need to predict, both faster and more accurately; how to better exploit the information that we have available. He went on to talk about The Nexus of Forces: Social, Mobile, Cloud and Information – harnessing these forces of change with Oracle technology. Gartner really likes this concept and if you want to know more you can get their paper here. All this has made me think, and I hope it will make you too. Technology can help us drive our businesses better and understanding your needs can be the first step on your journey, which was the theme of our event in the UK. I spoke to a number of the delegates and I hope to share some of their stories in later posts. If you have a story to share, the survey is at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/P335DD3 About the Author: Debra Lilley, Fujitsu Fusion Champion, UKOUG Board Member, Fusion User Experience Advocate and ACE Director. Debra has 18 years experience with Oracle Applications, with E Business Suite since 9.4.1, moving to Business Intelligence Team Leader and then Oracle Alliance Director. She has spoken at over 100 conferences worldwide and posts at debrasoraclethoughts Editor’s Note: Debra has kindly agreed to share her musings and experience in a monthly column on the Fusion Middleware blog so do stay tuned…

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• Formatting php, what works more efficiently?

  - by JamesM-SiteGen

  Hello fellow programmers, I was just wondering what makes php work faster, I have a few methods that I always go and do, but that only improves the way I can read it, but how about the interpreter? Should I include the curly braces when there is only one statement to run? if(...){ echo "test"; } # Or.. if(...) echo "test"; === Which should be used? I have also found http://beta.phpformatter.com/ and I find the following settings to be good, but are they? Indentation: Indentation style: {K&R (One true brace style)} Indent with: {Tabs} Starting indentation: [1] Indentation: [1] Common: [x] Remove all comments [x] Remove empty lines [x] Align assignments statements nicely [ ] Put a comment with the condition after if, while, for, foreach, declare and catch statements Improvement: [x] Remove lines with just a semicolon (;) [x] Make normal comments (//) from perl comments (#) [x] Make long opening tag (<?php) from short one (<?) Brackets: [x] Space inside brackets- ( ) [x] Space inside empty brackets- ( ) [x] Space inside block brackets- [ ] [x] Space inside empty block brackets- [ ] Tiny var names: often I go through my code and change $var1 to $a, $var2 to $b and so on. I do include comments at the start of the file to show to me what each letter(s) mean.. Final note: So am I doing the right thing with the curly braces and the settings? Are there any great tips that help it run faster?

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• Microsoft Wireless Mouse 5000 Scroll Not Working

  - by Nathan Totten

  I have a Microsoft Wireless Mouse 5000 with Intellipiont 7.1 installed on Windows 7 x64. The scroll has stopped working before, but a restart or two always seemed to resolve it. I tested the mouse on another computer and it worked. I also tested an Microsoft Arc mouse on this computer and the scroll worked. I have checked everything I could find on google and nothing helps. I have reinstalled intellipoint two times. Tried to change my mouse to another model in the intellipoint settings as suggested in many forums. Nothing. If anyone has any suggestions that would be great. Otherwise, I think my next step is to pitch this mouse and get a logitech at Best Buy tomorrow.

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• Monitoring remote laptops

  - by kaerast

  We're looking for something to monitor around 30 remote laptops that are constantly out on the road, never returning to base except for when there are serious hardware faults that need repairing. These laptops won't always be connected to the internet, they'll have mobile broadband and may work offline most of the time. They will be running a mixture of Windows XP, Vista and 7 and there is currently no server setup. We're primarily interested in making sure that Windows Updates and antivirus updates are happening, and I guess we should also be monitoring remaining disk space, what software is installed and ideally hardware health. It might also be nice if we could gain remote access to perform work on them. My main reason for wanting to monitor them is that it's going to be a real pain to get them back to base if anything goes wrong, so I want to be proactive in ensuring they last as long as possible. Can you recommend what I should be monitoring to ensure a long life? What tools would you use to monitor and maintain these computers?

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• httpd running as _www instead of www as it used to

  - by Ethon Bridges

  OSX Mountain Lion and Apache 2.2.22. I have always had the httpd.conf set as: User www Group www and it was running as such. Until today. Rebooted the server for another reason and when I tried to make some changes to a website via FTP this evening, it said access denied. Got to looking at the processes and httpd is now running as _www. WTH? Now of course all of my users are getting denied messages I assume because they were all created and permitted with the www user, not _www. Any idea why this happened or what I may have done to cause it?

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• Are copyright notices really required?

  - by Alasdair

  Ever since I made my first web page 13 years ago I have followed the pattern of showing a copyright notice in the footer of each page. Over the years the format of this notice has changed in the following way; Copyright © <NAME> yyyy. All rights are reserved. Copyright © <NAME> yyyy © yyyy <NAME> © <NAME> This has generally mirrored the format used by Google. However, I recently noticed that they no longer display a copyright notice on their home page nor have one in their source code/meta tags. I see they still display it on most (if not all) other pages. I understand that Google are very keen to keep the word count down on their homepage, which could be the reason for this sacrafice, but my question is more general and relates to all websites. Since I've always just done it out of habit, I'm hoping someone can explain if/when I a copyright notice is actually required to protect your content and rights. Also, when it is required, is there a format in which the notice must adhere to in order to be valid?

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• Workaround: build FBX in XNA raise OutOfMemoryException

  - by Vitus

  If you try to add large FBX 3D model to the XNA project, and build it, you can get an OutOfMemoryException build error like following: Error    1    Building content threw OutOfMemoryException: Exception of type 'System.OutOfMemoryException' was thrown.    at System.Collections.Generic.List`1.set_Capacity(Int32 value)    at System.Collections.Generic.List`1.EnsureCapacity(Int32 min)    at System.Collections.Generic.List`1.InsertRange(Int32 index, IEnumerable`1 collection)    at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.Graphics.VertexChannel`1.InsertRange(Int32 index, Int32 count)    at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.Graphics.VertexContent.InsertRange(Int32 index, IEnumerable`1 positionIndexCollection)    at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.Graphics.MeshBuilder.AddTriangleVertex(Int32 indexIntoVertexCollection)    at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.MeshConverter.FillNodeWithInfoFromMesh(KFbxNode* fbxNode, String name, KFbxGeometryConverter* geometryConverter)    at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.FbxImporter.ProcessInformationInNode(KFbxNode* fbxNode, String name, Boolean* partOfMainSkeleton, Boolean* warnIfBoneButNotChild)    at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.FbxImporter.ProcessNode(ValueType parentAbsoluteTransform, NodeContent potentialParent, KFbxNode* fbxNode, Boolean partOfMainSkeleton, Boolean warnIfBoneButNotChild)    at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.FbxImporter.ProcessNode(ValueType parentAbsoluteTransform, NodeContent potentialParent, KFbxNode* fbxNode, Boolean partOfMainSkeleton, Boolean warnIfBoneButNotChild)    at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.FbxImporter.Import(String filename, ContentImporterContext context)    at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.ContentImporter`1.Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.IContentImporter.Import(String filename, ContentImporterContext context)    //additional calls here …   My desktop PC have 8Gb RAM, and Visual Studio’s process devenv.exe use under 2Gb of it while build process (about 3.5-4Gb of RAM is always free). It’s obvious, that VS can’t address more than 2Gb of RAM, and when that limit is over, build process is fail. OS on my PC is Win x64,  so I “charge” devenv.exe by using editbin.exe utility – in the VS Command prompt I run following: editbin "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe" /LARGEADDRESSAWARE This command edits the image to indicate that the application can handle addresses larger than 2 gigabytes. After that FBX file successfully built! Of course, you must put proper path to devenv.exe, depend on your installation path. If you are on Win x86, you need to do additional action – more info here.   P.S.: although now you can build a bigger files, than usual, keep in mind, that XNA have some restrictions on vertex buffer size etc., depend on your current XNA project profile (Reach or HiDef). And if your model’s vertexbuffer size more than 64Mb (with Reach profile), that model can’t be built and raise an error.

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• StarterSTS 1.5

  - by Your DisplayName here!

  I have the 1.5 version of StarterSTS sitting here for quite some time now. But I was always reluctant to release it. Some of the reasons are: too many new features for a single (small) version change. to many features that are optional, like bridged authentication and thus make the code very complex. the way I implemented Azure integration adds a dependency on the Azure SDK, even for “on-premise” installations. I don’t like that. the fact I am using some WebForms bits and some WCF bits, the URL structure got messy. WebForms also don’t help a lot in testability All of the above reasons together plus the fact that I am the only architect, developer and tester on this project made me come to the conclusion that I will cancel this release. But wait… StarterSTS 1.5 is fully functional. We use both the on-premise and Azure versions internally “in production”. Cancelling means I will release the latest source code on Codeplex – but will not mark it as a “recommended release”. I also won’t produce updated screen casts and docs. Bu the setup is very similar to earlier versions. Feel free to use and customize 1.5 and give me feedback. On the good news front, I am working on a new version – welcome thinktecture IdentityServer. This version is based on MVC3 and the routing architecture, removed a lot of the clutter, has a SQL CE4 based configuration system, is more extensible – and in overall just cleaner. I will be able to upload CTPs very soon.

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• How do I work around sudo 'segmentation fault' on basic bash commands?

  - by sage

  I am sure the answers are out there, but alas there are too many answers (here and elsewhere) to other questions stopping me from finding them. I just encountered something substantially similar to what is described at the closed SO question, sudo : “segmentation fault” Ubuntu maverick [closed]. My team is using Ubuntu 11.04 on VMWare Workstation 8.0.4. We are doing development using c++, Xenomai, Qt, and Qt Creator. When we simulate our application on the virtual machine, we currently need to launch Qt Creator with sudo. My colleague mentioned today that he has been having issues where his workstation locks up and he needs to restart and that occasionally he has the issue that all sudo bash commands return "segmentation fault". I just ran our application in simulation mode. I was running Qt Creator under sudo and Qt Creator received the signal abort (if I recall). Afterward, every command executed with sudo from sudo qtcreator to sudo ls resulted in the message Segmentation fault. I clicked on the power widget to see if I could log out, but the system shut down straightaway without prompting. My understanding is that we run sudo because of a permissions issue with Xenomai and the VM as currently configured, but my colleague has a workaround for this. I expect that not running Qt Creator under sudo -- something that has always made me nervous -- will help contain this issue, but I find it troubling that this could happen and manifest as it does. Does anyone know what is happening? Any recommendations on how to work around this issue? This is happening often to I am trying tolobby for VM changes to be able to run the process without sudo.

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• Password manager with checking for expired logins and passwords

  - by ldigas

  I, like most in here, use a password manager for keeping all kinds of login/pass informations inside. And over time, the heap of passwords started to grow, and grow, and now it's on about 350 (give or take) entries. The problem is, most of these have been temporary, for example, for login into forums which I wanted to visit, and never come back again; same with some pages and so on ... and because of that, every now and then I come onto a password that's long gone expired. So I was wondering, is there a utility out there that can check which of these has actually expired by logging in, and logging out ? I know this is a relatively complicated operation (auto filling doesn't always works and so on, how to log out ... etc.) , but still ... maybe someone knows.

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• NRF Big Show 2011 -- Part 1

  - by David Dorf

  When Apple decided to open retail stores, they came to 360Commerce (now part of Oracle Retail) to help with the secret project. Similarly, when Disney Stores decided to reinvent itself, they also came to us for their POS system. In both cases visiting a store is an experience where sales take a backseat to entertainment, exploration, and engagement This quote from a recent Stores Magazine article says it all: "We compete based on an experience, emotion and immersion like Disney," says Neal Lassila, vice president of global information technology for Disney. "That's opposed to [competing] on price and hawking a doll for $19.99. There is no sales pressure technique." Instead, it's about delivering "a great time." While you're attending the NRF conference in New York next week, you'll definitely want to stop by the new 20,000 square-foot Disney store in Times Square. If you're not attending, you can always check out the videos to get a feel for the stores' vibe. This year we've invited Disney Stores to open a pop-up store within the Oracle Retail booth. There will be lots of items on sale that fit in your suitcase, and there's no better way to demonstrate our POS, including the mobile POS running on an iPod Touch. You should also plan to attend Tuesday morning's super-session The Magic of the Disney Store: An Immersive Retail Experience with Steve Finney. In the case of Apple and Disney, less POS is actually a good thing. In both cases it was important to make the checkout process fast and easy so as not to detract from the overall experience. There will be ample opportunities to see this play out in New York next week, so I hope you take advantage.

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• thttpd: Daemon exiting, I don't know why

  - by Tobe

  I run thttpd to serve some perl files. But for some reason the daemon is exiting every second or third day. Strangely it's always at 6.25 am. Here are some lines from syslog: Nov 10 06:25:40 b1 thttpd[6370]: up 86404 seconds, stats for 86404 seconds: Nov 10 06:25:40 b1 thttpd[6370]: thttpd - 25 connections (0.000289338/sec), 1 max simultaneous, 625000 bytes (7.23346/sec), 2 httpd_conns allocated Nov 10 06:25:40 b1 thttpd[6370]: libhttpd - 30 strings allocated, 8200 bytes (273.333 bytes/str) Nov 10 06:25:40 b1 thttpd[6370]: map cache - 0 allocated, 0 active (0 bytes), 0 free; hash size: 0; expire age: 1800 Nov 10 06:25:40 b1 thttpd[6370]: fdwatch - 20902 selects (0.24191/sec) Nov 10 06:25:40 b1 thttpd[6370]: timers - 2 allocated, 2 active, 0 free Nov 10 06:25:40 b1 thttpd[6370]: exiting Any ideas?

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• Multiple CD writer taking long to burn

  - by Mirage

  I have installed 6 DVD writers in Tower case. I am using Alcohol Software to burn multiple CDS. I have seen that about 4 dvd/cd writer finish recording early but some take long time finish and their speed is around 7x. Its not that those are the only writers doing that, some times other writer write slowly. But there are always 1 or 2 writer which takes about 25 min to write the 700Mb cd and some finish in 5 mins Why is that. All writers can write upto 40px speed. Which thing determines the speed

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• Branded Application Pages (layouts pages) in SharePoint 2010

  - by Sahil Malik

  Ad:: SharePoint 2007 Training in .NET 3.5 technologies (more information). Application pages are now branded by default in SharePoint 2010. WOOHOO!!! The DynamicMasterPageFile attribute in SharePoint 2010 master pages allows application pages start using the site’s master page instead of the application master page. If you want backwards compatibility with SharePoint 2007, i.e. you want unbranded application pages, here is what you can do, a) You can change the MasterPageReferenceEnabled property to false in your SPWebApplication object, orb) Go to central administration\application management\manage web application\select your web app … go to the ribbon, look for general settings\general settings, and detach application pages from the site’s master page. I don’t see why you’d ever wanna do that, but hey if you want to .. go for it. This article was first published on blah.winsmarts.com. Stealing content is not cool. Safeguarded application pages Now for the fine print, there is something called as “Safeguarded application pages” in SP2010. These are pages, that IF IN CASE your custom master page screws up, they will automatically revert to use a master page that is guaranteed to work in the _layouts folder. Now that’s nice! That means, if you screw up, you always have a way to fix things. How nice! Here is a list of such safe guarded application pages - AccessDenied.aspx MngSiteAdmin.aspx People.aspx RecycleBin.aspx ReGhost.aspx ReqAcc.aspx Settings.aspx UserDisp.aspx ViewLsts.aspx Have fun! Comment on the article ....

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• How do "custom software companies" deal with technical debt?

  - by andy

  What are "custom software companies"? By "custom software companies" I mean companies that make their money primarily from building custom, one off, bits of software. Example are agencies or middle-ware companies, or contractors/consultants like Redify. What's the opposite of "custom software companies"? The oposite of the above business model are companies that focus on long term products, whether they be deployable desktop/mobile apps, or SaaS software. A sure fire way to build up technical debt: I work for a company that attempts to focus on a suite of SaaS products. However, due to certain constraints we sometimes end up bending to the will of certain clients and we end building bits of custom software that can only be used for that client. This is a sure fire way to incur technical debt. Now we have a bit of software to maintain that adds nothing to our core product. If custom work is a sure fire way to build technical debt, how do agencies handle it? So that got me thinking. Companies who don't have a core product as the center of their business model, well they're always doing custom software work. How do they cope with the notion of technical debt? How does it not drive them into technical bankruptcy?

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• Picasa v.3.6.2 for Mac is suddenly very slow - what are the implications of rebuilding my database?

  - by 3rdparty

  Recently Picasa v3.6.2 for Mac has become very sluggish - mainly noticable for any (non destructive) changes made to photos such as starring an image. This action used to be nearly immediate, but recently I've found it can take 1-3 seconds for Picasa to register the change, and become responsive again. I'm considering rebuilding my Picasa database as per these instructions - however I'm concerned I may lose any pre-existing non-destructive (unsaved) edits, along with Picasa albums that I have created. Curious if anyone has experienced Picasa sluggishness with the latest version and/or what their results have been from rebuilding their database. My last resort is to SuperDuper my drive and then rebuild the database, so I can always restore it if I lose critical data.

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• Game-a-Week One

  - by Matt Christian

  Anyone who chats with me on a semi-regular basis knows I am absolutely horrible at completing something from beginnning to end.  Often times I'll begin something, lose interest at some point, and end up moving onto the next thing.  For example, I have 1/2 a full game created, 1/3 of a novel written, and half of a model set created.  Needless to say, unless I have some sort of pressure to finish something I don't stick to it. Recently however one of my online buddies challenged me to create a simple game.  The start date was last Thursday and the final game needed to be delivered by this next Sunday (giving me just over a week).  However, I am going out of town this Friday so will need to deliver it by Thursday, giving me exactly 1 week to develop a game.  Here is what the game needed to include: The player should be able to shoot Shooting things should score points Sounds very simple, but given a single week to produce all art assets plus the game isn't an easy task.  So far I've developed: An animated Main Menu that loads via script files, allows the user to start a new game or exit the game The game is 3D and the player can move around the play area with an 'over-the-shoulder' camera HUD elements are drawn to display the player's current score When the player presses Esc they are shown a pause menu where they can resume the game by pressing Esc again, or quit the game by pressing Space There are also 2 items implemented that don't work perfectly: JigLibX physics library implementation On the main menu there is an arrow symbol that rotates to always point at your mouse I've got 2 days of development left so hopefully I can get collision working, some of the art cleaned up, and some more of the camera functionality working.  Also, I'll need to take some time to package the game up which hopefully shouldn't take too long.

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• Which keyboard has better ergomics?

  - by Absolute0

  When I was a kid I fell hard on my right wrist and since then I always get wrist pains when angling my wrist very high up (ie: when using a very high shaped mouse or doing push ups). So I have narrowed down my choices for a keyboard to the following 2: Microsoft Natural 4000: And the Razer Arctosa: The Razer is a slim type keyboard similar to a laptop feel and the hand-rest would help with keeping my hands straight with respect to my forearms. I am more inclined on getting the razer but am not sure if this will benefit my wrists in the long run. Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

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• Performance due to entity update

  - by Rizzo

  I always think about 2 ways to code the global Step() function, both with pros and cons. Please note that AIStep is just to provide another more step for whoever who wants it. // Approach 1 step foreach( entity in entities ) { entity.DeltaStep( delta_time ); if( time_for_fixed_step ) entity.FixedStep(); if( time_for_AI_step ) entity.AIStep(); ... // all kind of updates you want } PRO: you just have to iterate once over all entities. CON: fidelity could be lower at some scenarios, since the entity.FixedStep() isn't going all at a time. // Approach 2 step foreach( entity in entities ) entity.DeltaStep( delta_time ); if( time_for_fixed_step ) foreach( entity in entities ) entity.FixedStep(); if( time_for_AI_step ) foreach( entity in entities ) entity.FixedStep(); // all kind of updates you want SEPARATED PRO: fidelity on FixedStep is higher, shouldn't be much time between all entities update, rather than Approach 1 where you may have to wait other updates until FixedStep() comes. CON: you iterate once for each kind of update. Also, a third approach could be a hybrid between both of them, something in the way of foreach( entity in entities ) { entity.DeltaStep( delta_time ); if( time_for_AI_step ) entity.AIStep(); // all kind of updates you want BUT FixedStep() } if( time_for_fixed_step ) { foreach( entity in entities ) { entity.FixedStep(); } } Just two loops, don't caring about time fidelity in nothing other than at FixedStep(). Any thoughts on this matter? Should it really matters to make all steps at once or am I thinking on problems that don't exist?

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• SQLRally Nordic gets underway

  - by Rob Farley

  PASS is becoming more international, which is great. The SQL Community has always been international – it’s not as if data is only generated in North America. And while it’s easy for organisations to have a North American focus, PASS is taking steps to become international. Regular readers will be aware that I’m one of three advisors to the PASS Board of Directors, with a focus on developing PASS as a more global organisation. With this in mind, it’s great that today is Day 1 of SQLRally Nordic, being hosted in in Sweden – not only a non-American country, but one that doesn’t have English as its major language. The event has been hosted by the amazing Johan Åhlén and Raoul Illyés, two guys who I met earlier this year, but the thing that amazes me is the incredible support that this event has from the SQL Community. It’s been sold out for a long time, and when you see the list of speakers, it’s not surprising. Some of the industry’s biggest names from Microsoft have turned up, including Mark Souza (who is also a PASS Director), Thomas Kejser and Tobias Thernström. Business Intelligence experts such as Jen Stirrup, Chris Webb, Peter Myers, Marco Russo and Alberto Ferrari are there, as are some of the most awarded SQL MVPs such as Itzik Ben-Gan, Aaron Bertrand and Kevin Kline. The sponsor list is also brilliant, with names such as HP, FusionIO, SQL Sentry, Quest and SolidQ complimented by Swedish companies like Cornerstone, Informator, B3IT and Addskills. As someone who is interested in PASS becoming global, I’m really excited to see this event happening, and I hope it’s a launch-pad into many other international events hosted by the SQL community. If you have the opportunity, thank Johan and Raoul for putting this event on, and the speakers and sponsors for helping support it. The noise from Twitter is that everything is going fantastically well, and everyone involved should be thoroughly congratulated! @rob_farley

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• How to balance a non-symmetric "extension" based game?

  - by Klaim

  Most strategy games have fixed units and possible behaviours. However, think of a game like Magic The Gathering : each card is a set of rules. Regularly, new sets of card types are created. I remember that the firsts editions of the game have been said to be prohibited in official tournaments because the cards were often too powerful. Later extensions of the game provided more subtle effects/rules in cards and they managed to balance the game apparently effectively, even if there is thousands of different cards possible. I'm working on a strategy game that is a bit in the same position : every units are provided by extensions and the game is thought to be extended for some years, at least. The effects variety of the units are very large even with some basic design limitations set to be sure it's manageable. Each player choose a set of units to play with (defining their global strategy) before playing (like chooseing a themed deck of Magic cards). As it's a strategy game (you can think of Magic as a strategy game too in some POV), it's essentially skirmish based so the game have to be fair, even if the players don't choose the same units before starting to play. So, how do you proceed to balance this type of non-symmetric (strategy) game when you know it will always be extended? For the moment, I'm trying to apply those rules but I'm not sure it's right because I don't have enough design experience to know : each unit would provide one unique effect; each unit should have an opposite unit that have an opposite effect that would cancel each others; some limitations based on the gameplay; try to get a lot of beta tests before each extension release? Looks like I'm in the most complex case?

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