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• How to send audio data from Java Applet to Rails controller

  - by cooldude

  Hi, I have to send the audio data in byte array obtain by recording from java applet at the client side to rails server at the controller in order to save. So, what encoding parameters at the applet side be used and in what form the audio data be converted like String or byte array so that rails correctly recieve data and then I can save that data at the rails in the file. As currently the audio file made by rails controller is not playing. It is the following ERROR : LAVF_header: av_open_input_stream() failed while playing with the mplayer. Here is the Java Code: package networksocket; import java.util.logging.Level; import java.util.logging.Logger; import javax.swing.JApplet; import java.net.*; import java.io.*; import java.awt.event.*; import java.awt.*; import java.sql.*; import javax.swing.*; import javax.swing.border.*; import java.awt.*; import java.util.Properties; import javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicSplitPaneUI.BasicHorizontalLayoutManager; import sun.awt.HorizBagLayout; import sun.awt.VerticalBagLayout; import sun.misc.BASE64Encoder; /** * * @author mukand */ public class Urlconnection extends JApplet implements ActionListener { /** * Initialization method that will be called after the applet is loaded * into the browser. */ public BufferedInputStream in; public BufferedOutputStream out; public String line; public FileOutputStream file; public int bytesread; public int toread=1024; byte b[]= new byte[toread]; public String f="FINISH"; public String match; public File fileopen; public JTextArea jTextArea; public Button refreshButton; public HttpURLConnection urlConn; public URL url; OutputStreamWriter wr; BufferedReader rd; @Override public void init() { // TODO start asynchronous download of heavy resources //textField= new TextField("START"); //getContentPane().add(textField); JPanel p = new JPanel(); jTextArea= new JTextArea(1500,1500); p.setLayout(new GridLayout(1,1, 1,1)); p.add(new JLabel("Server Details")); p.add(jTextArea); Container content = getContentPane(); content.setLayout(new GridBagLayout()); // Used to center the panel content.add(p); jTextArea.setLineWrap(true); refreshButton = new java.awt.Button("Refresh"); refreshButton.reshape(287,49,71,23); refreshButton.setFont(new Font("Dialog", Font.PLAIN, 12)); refreshButton.addActionListener(this); add(refreshButton); Properties properties = System.getProperties(); properties.put("http.proxyHost", "netmon.iitb.ac.in"); properties.put("http.proxyPort", "80"); } @Override public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) { try { url = new URL("http://localhost:3000/audio/audiorecieve"); urlConn = (HttpURLConnection)url.openConnection(); //String login = "mukandagarwal:rammstein$"; //String encodedLogin = new BASE64Encoder().encodeBuffer(login.getBytes()); //urlConn.setRequestProperty("Proxy-Authorization",login); urlConn.setRequestMethod("POST"); // urlConn.setRequestProperty("Content-Type", //"application/octet-stream"); //urlConn.setRequestProperty("Content-Type","audio/mpeg");//"application/x-www- form-urlencoded"); //urlConn.setRequestProperty("Content-Type","application/x-www- form-urlencoded"); //urlConn.setRequestProperty("Content-Length", "" + // Integer.toString(urlParameters.getBytes().length)); urlConn.setRequestProperty("Content-Language", "UTF-8"); urlConn.setDoOutput(true); urlConn.setDoInput(true); byte bread[]=new byte[2048]; int iread; char c; String data=URLEncoder.encode("key1", "UTF-8")+ "="; //String data="key1="; FileInputStream fileread= new FileInputStream("//home//mukand//Hellion.ogg");//Dogs.mp3");//Desktop//mausam1.mp3"); while((iread=fileread.read(bread))!=-1) { //data+=(new String()); /*for(int i=0;i<iread;i++) { //c=(char)bread[i]; System.out.println(bread[i]); }*/ data+= URLEncoder.encode(new String(bread,iread), "UTF-8");//new String(new String(bread));// // data+=new String(bread,iread); } //urlConn.setRequestProperty("Content-Length",Integer.toString(data.getBytes().length)); System.out.println(data); //data+=URLEncoder.encode("mukand", "UTF-8"); //data += "&" + URLEncoder.encode("key2", "UTF-8") + "=" + URLEncoder.encode("value2", "UTF-8"); //data="key1="; wr = new OutputStreamWriter(urlConn.getOutputStream());//urlConn.getOutputStream(); //if((iread=fileread.read(bread))!=-1) // wr.write(bread,0,iread); wr.write(data); wr.flush(); fileread.close(); jTextArea.append("Send"); // Get the response rd = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(urlConn.getInputStream())); while ((line = rd.readLine()) != null) { jTextArea.append(line); } wr.close(); rd.close(); //jTextArea.append("click"); } catch (MalformedURLException ex) { Logger.getLogger(Urlconnection.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex); } catch (IOException ex) { Logger.getLogger(Urlconnection.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex); } } @Override public void start() { } @Override public void stop() { } @Override public void destroy() { } // TODO overwrite start(), stop() and destroy() methods } Here is the Rails controller function for recieving: def audiorecieve puts "///////////////////////////////////////******RECIEVED*******////" puts params[:key1]#+" "+params[:key2] data=params[:key1] #request.env('RAW_POST_DATA') file=File.new("audiodata.ogg", 'w') file.write(data) file.flush file.close puts "////**************DONE***********//////////////////////" end Please reply quickly

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• What pseudo-operators exist in Perl 5?

  - by Chas. Owens

  I am currently documenting all of Perl 5's operators (see the perlopref GitHub project) and I have decided to include Perl 5's pseudo-operators as well. To me, a pseudo-operator in Perl is anything that looks like an operator, but is really more than one operator or a some other piece of syntax. I have documented the four I am familiar with already: ()= the countof operator =()= the goatse/countof operator ~~ the scalar context operator }{ the Eskimo-kiss operator What other names exist for these pseudo-operators, and do you know of any pseudo-operators I have missed? =head1 Pseudo-operators There are idioms in Perl 5 that appear to be operators, but are really a combination of several operators or pieces of syntax. These pseudo-operators have the precedence of the constituent parts. =head2 ()= X =head3 Description This pseudo-operator is the list assignment operator (aka the countof operator). It is made up of two items C<()>, and C<=>. In scalar context it returns the number of items in the list X. In list context it returns an empty list. It is useful when you have something that returns a list and you want to know the number of items in that list and don't care about the list's contents. It is needed because the comma operator returns the last item in the sequence rather than the number of items in the sequence when it is placed in scalar context. It works because the assignment operator returns the number of items available to be assigned when its left hand side has list context. In the following example there are five values in the list being assigned to the list C<($x, $y, $z)>, so C<$count> is assigned C<5>. my $count = my ($x, $y, $z) = qw/a b c d e/; The empty list (the C<()> part of the pseudo-operator) triggers this behavior. =head3 Example sub f { return qw/a b c d e/ } my $count = ()= f(); #$count is now 5 my $string = "cat cat dog cat"; my $cats = ()= $string =~ /cat/g; #$cats is now 3 print scalar( ()= f() ), "\n"; #prints "5\n" =head3 See also L</X = Y> and L</X =()= Y> =head2 X =()= Y This pseudo-operator is often called the goatse operator for reasons better left unexamined; it is also called the list assignment or countof operator. It is made up of three items C<=>, C<()>, and C<=>. When X is a scalar variable, the number of items in the list Y is returned. If X is an array or a hash it it returns an empty list. It is useful when you have something that returns a list and you want to know the number of items in that list and don't care about the list's contents. It is needed because the comma operator returns the last item in the sequence rather than the number of items in the sequence when it is placed in scalar context. It works because the assignment operator returns the number of items available to be assigned when its left hand side has list context. In the following example there are five values in the list being assigned to the list C<($x, $y, $z)>, so C<$count> is assigned C<5>. my $count = my ($x, $y, $z) = qw/a b c d e/; The empty list (the C<()> part of the pseudo-operator) triggers this behavior. =head3 Example sub f { return qw/a b c d e/ } my $count =()= f(); #$count is now 5 my $string = "cat cat dog cat"; my $cats =()= $string =~ /cat/g; #$cats is now 3 =head3 See also L</=> and L</()=> =head2 ~~X =head3 Description This pseudo-operator is named the scalar context operator. It is made up of two bitwise negation operators. It provides scalar context to the expression X. It works because the first bitwise negation operator provides scalar context to X and performs a bitwise negation of the result; since the result of two bitwise negations is the original item, the value of the original expression is preserved. With the addition of the Smart match operator, this pseudo-operator is even more confusing. The C<scalar> function is much easier to understand and you are encouraged to use it instead. =head3 Example my @a = qw/a b c d/; print ~~@a, "\n"; #prints 4 =head3 See also L</~X>, L</X ~~ Y>, and L<perlfunc/scalar> =head2 X }{ Y =head3 Description This pseudo-operator is called the Eskimo-kiss operator because it looks like two faces touching noses. It is made up of an closing brace and an opening brace. It is used when using C<perl> as a command-line program with the C<-n> or C<-p> options. It has the effect of running X inside of the loop created by C<-n> or C<-p> and running Y at the end of the program. It works because the closing brace closes the loop created by C<-n> or C<-p> and the opening brace creates a new bare block that is closed by the loop's original ending. You can see this behavior by using the L<B::Deparse> module. Here is the command C<perl -ne 'print $_;'> deparsed: LINE: while (defined($_ = <ARGV>)) { print $_; } Notice how the original code was wrapped with the C<while> loop. Here is the deparsing of C<perl -ne '$count++ if /foo/; }{ print "$count\n"'>: LINE: while (defined($_ = <ARGV>)) { ++$count if /foo/; } { print "$count\n"; } Notice how the C<while> loop is closed by the closing brace we added and the opening brace starts a new bare block that is closed by the closing brace that was originally intended to close the C<while> loop. =head3 Example # count unique lines in the file FOO perl -nle '$seen{$_}++ }{ print "$_ => $seen{$_}" for keys %seen' FOO # sum all of the lines until the user types control-d perl -nle '$sum += $_ }{ print $sum' =head3 See also L<perlrun> and L<perlsyn> =cut

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• Why is this class re-initialized every time?

  - by pinnacler

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

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• Block Hover Effect - Why doesn't it work correctly in FF3.6?

  - by Brian Ojeda

  Why doesn't following code work correctly in FireFox 3.6? I have tested in IE7, IE8, and Chrome with out any issues. Issue: The first block hover link (the table's 3rd row) doesn't apply the same style/effect as the following below it. Notes: I am trying to create my own table framework. This project is something I am doing to learn more about CSS. Before I started, I thought I knew a lot about CSS. However, to my surprise I was wrong. Who knew? Moving on... As side note, I do not want to take the time to support IE6. So, if you see a problem related IE6, please don't waste your time telling. One another side note, the following style script and HTML listed when this question is strip-down/bare-bone of the complete CSS/HTML. It should be enough to assist me. CSS: /* Main Properties */ .ojtable{display:block;clear:both; margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto; margin-top:0px; width:650px;} .ojtable-row, .ojtable-head {display:block;clear:both;position:relative; margin-left:0px;margin-right:0px;padding:0px;} .col-1, .col-2, .col-3, .col-4, .col-5, .col-6, .col-7, .col-8, .col-9, .col-10, .col-11, .col-12, .col-13, .col-1-b1, .col-2-b1, .col-3-b1, .col-4-b1, .col-5-b1, .col-6-b1, .col-7-b1, .col-8-b1, .col-9-b1, .col-10-b1, .col-11-b1, .col-12-b1, .col-13-b1 {display:block;float:left;position:relative; margin-left:0px;margin-right:0px;padding:0px 2px;} /* Border */ .border-b1{border:solid #000000; border-width:0 0 1px 0;} .border-ltr{border:solid #000000; border-width:1px 1px 0 1px;} /* Header */ .ojtable-row{width:100%;} .ojtable-head{width:100%;} /* No Border*/ .col-2{width:96px;} /* Border: 1px */ .col-2-b1{width:95px;} .col-7-b1{width:345px;} /*--- Clear Floated Elements ---*/ /* Credit: http://sonspring.com/journal/clearing-floats */ .clear { clear: both; display: block; overflow: hidden; visibility: hidden; width: 0; height: 0; } /* Credit: http://perishablepress.com/press/2008/02/05/ lessons-learned-concerning-the-clearfix-css-hack/ */ .clearfix:after { visibility: hidden; display: block; font-size: 0; content: " "; clear: both; height: 0; } .clearfix { display:inline-block; } /* start commented backslash hack \*/ * html .clearfix { height: 1%; } .clearfix { display: block; } /* close commented backslash hack */ /*--- Hover Effect for the Tables ---*/ a {text-decoration:none;} * .ojtable a .ojtable-row{width:650px; display:block; text-decoration:none;} * html .ojtable a .ojtable-row {width:650px;}/* Hover Fix for IE */ .ojtable a:hover .ojtable-row{background:#AAAAAA; cursor:pointer;} HTML: <div class="ojtable border-ltr clearfix"> <div class="ojtable-row border-b1 clearfix"> <div class="col-13">Newest Blogs</div> </div> <div class="ojtable-row border-b1 clearfix"> <div class="col-7-b1 border-r1">Name</div> <div class="col-4-b1 border-r1">Creater's Name</div> <div class="col-2">Dated Created</div> </div> <a href="#"><div class="ojtable-row border-b1 clearfix"> <div class="col-7-b1 border-r1">Why jQuery?</div> <div class="col-4-b1 border-r1">Gramcracker</div> <div class="col-2">Mar 11 2010</div> </div></a> <a href="#"><div class="ojtable-row border-b1 clearfix"> <div class="col-7-b1 border-r1">Thank You For Your Help</div> <div class="col-4-b1 border-r1">O'Hater</div> <div class="col-2">Nov 2 2009</div> </div></a> <a href="#"><div class="ojtable-row border-b1 clearfix"> <div class="col-7-b1 border-r1">Click Me! Hahaha!</div> <div class="col-4-b1 border-r1">Brian Ojeda</div> <div class="col-2">Nov 29 2008</div> </div></a> <a href="#"><div class="ojtable-row border-b1 clearfix"> <div class="col-7-b1 border-r1">Moment of Zen</div> <div class="col-4-b1 border-r1">Jedi</div> <div class="col-2">Mar 11 2010</div> </div></a> <a href="#"><div class="ojtable-row border-b1 clearfix"> <div class="col-7-b1 border-r1"></div> <div class="col-4-b1 border-r1">SGT OJ</div> <div class="col-2">Mar 11 2010</div> </div></a> </div> <!-- End of Table --> PS: Thank you for assistant, if you do choose to help.

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• Customized listfield with image displaying from a url

  - by arunabha

  I am displaying a customized list field with text on the right side and image on the left side.The image comes from a URL dynamically.Initially i am placing a blank image on the left of the list field,then call URLBitmapField class's setURL method,which actually does the processing and places the processed image on top of the blank image.The image gets displayed on the list field,but to see that processed image i need to press any key or click on the list field items.I want the processed image to be displayed automatically in the list field after the processing.Can anyone tell me where i am getting wrong? import java.util.Vector; import net.rim.device.api.system.Bitmap; import net.rim.device.api.system.Display; import net.rim.device.api.ui.ContextMenu; import net.rim.device.api.ui.DrawStyle; import net.rim.device.api.ui.Field; import net.rim.device.api.ui.Font; import net.rim.device.api.ui.Graphics; import net.rim.device.api.ui.Manager; import net.rim.device.api.ui.MenuItem; import net.rim.device.api.ui.UiApplication; import net.rim.device.api.ui.component.BitmapField; import net.rim.device.api.ui.component.Dialog; import net.rim.device.api.ui.component.LabelField; import net.rim.device.api.ui.component.ListField; import net.rim.device.api.ui.component.ListFieldCallback; import net.rim.device.api.ui.component.NullField; import net.rim.device.api.ui.container.FullScreen; import net.rim.device.api.ui.container.MainScreen; import net.rim.device.api.ui.container.VerticalFieldManager; import net.rim.device.api.util.Arrays; import net.rim.device.api.ui.component.ListField; public class TaskListField extends UiApplication { // statics // ------------------------------------------------------------------ public static void main(String[] args) { TaskListField theApp = new TaskListField(); theApp.enterEventDispatcher(); } public TaskListField() { pushScreen(new TaskList()); } } class TaskList extends MainScreen implements ListFieldCallback { private Vector rows; private Bitmap p1; private Bitmap p2; private Bitmap p3; String Task; ListField listnew = new ListField(); private VerticalFieldManager metadataVFM; TableRowManager row; public TaskList() { super(); URLBitmapField artistImgField; listnew.setRowHeight(80); listnew.setCallback(this); rows = new Vector(); for (int x = 0; x <3; x++) { row = new TableRowManager(); artistImgField = new URLBitmapField(Bitmap .getBitmapResource("res/images/bg.jpg")); row.add(artistImgField); String photoURL = "someimagefrmurl.jpg"; Log.info(photoURL); // strip white spaces in the url, which is causing the // images to not display properly for (int i = 0; i < photoURL.length(); i++) { if (photoURL.charAt(i) == ' ') { photoURL = photoURL.substring(0, i) + "%20" + photoURL.substring(i + 1, photoURL.length()); } } Log.info("Processed URL: " + photoURL); artistImgField.setURL(photoURL); LabelField task = new LabelField("Display"); row.add(task); LabelField task1 = new LabelField( "Now Playing" + String.valueOf(x)); Font myFont = Font.getDefault().derive(Font.PLAIN, 12); task1.setFont(myFont); row.add(task1); rows.addElement(row); } listnew.setSize(rows.size()); this.add(listnew); //listnew.invalidate(); } // ListFieldCallback Implementation public void drawListRow(ListField listField, Graphics g, int index, int y, int width) { TableRowManager rowManager = (TableRowManager) rows.elementAt(index); rowManager.drawRow(g, 0, y, width, listnew.getRowHeight()); } protected void drawFocus(Graphics graphics, boolean on) { } private class TableRowManager extends Manager { public TableRowManager() { super(0); } // Causes the fields within this row manager to be layed out then // painted. public void drawRow(Graphics g, int x, int y, int width, int height) { // Arrange the cell fields within this row manager. layout(width, height); // Place this row manager within its enclosing list. setPosition(x, y); // Apply a translating/clipping transformation to the graphics // context so that this row paints in the right area. g.pushRegion(getExtent()); // Paint this manager's controlled fields. subpaint(g); g.setColor(0x00CACACA); g.drawLine(0, 0, getPreferredWidth(), 0); // Restore the graphics context. g.popContext(); } // Arrages this manager's controlled fields from left to right within // the enclosing table's columns. protected void sublayout(int width, int height) { // set the size and position of each field. int fontHeight = Font.getDefault().getHeight(); int preferredWidth = getPreferredWidth(); // start with the Bitmap Field of the priority icon Field field = getField(0); layoutChild(field, 146,80); setPositionChild(field, 0, 0); // set the task name label field field = getField(1); layoutChild(field, preferredWidth - 16, fontHeight + 1); setPositionChild(field, 149, 3); // set the list name label field field = getField(2); layoutChild(field, 150, fontHeight + 1); setPositionChild(field, 149, fontHeight + 6); setExtent(360, 480); } // The preferred width of a row is defined by the list renderer. public int getPreferredWidth() { return listnew.getWidth(); } // The preferred height of a row is the "row height" as defined in the // enclosing list. public int getPreferredHeight() { return listnew.getRowHeight(); } } public Object get(ListField listField, int index) { // TODO Auto-generated method stub return null; } public int getPreferredWidth(ListField listField) { return 0; } public int indexOfList(ListField listField, String prefix, int start) { // TODO Auto-generated method stub return 0; } }

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• How to know if the client has terminated in sockets

  - by shadyabhi

  Suppose, I have a connected socket after writing this code.. if ((sd = accept(socket_d, (struct sockaddr *)&client_addr, &alen)) < 0) { perror("accept failed\n"); exit(1); } How can I know at the server side that client has exited. My whole program actually does the following.. Accepts a connection from client Starts a new thread that reads messages from that particular client and then broadcast this message to all the connected clients. If you want to see the whole code... In this whole code. I am also struggling with one more problem that whenever I kill a client with Ctrl+C, my server terminates abruptly.. It would be nice if anyone could suggest what the problem is.. #include <sys/types.h> #include <sys/socket.h> #include <netinet/in.h> #include <arpa/inet.h> #include <netdb.h> #include <stdio.h> #include <unistd.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <string.h> #include <signal.h> #include <errno.h> #include <pthread.h> /*CONSTANTS*/ #define DEFAULT_PORT 10000 #define LISTEN_QUEUE_LIMIT 6 #define TOTAL_CLIENTS 10 #define CHAR_BUFFER 256 /*GLOBAL VARIABLE*/ int current_client = 0; int connected_clients[TOTAL_CLIENTS]; extern int errno; void *client_handler(void * socket_d); int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { struct sockaddr_in server_addr;/* structure to hold server's address*/ int socket_d; /* listening socket descriptor */ int port; /* protocol port number */ int option_value; /* needed for setsockopt */ pthread_t tid[TOTAL_CLIENTS]; port = (argc > 1)?atoi(argv[1]):DEFAULT_PORT; /* Socket Server address structure */ memset((char *)&server_addr, 0, sizeof(server_addr)); server_addr.sin_family = AF_INET; /* set family to Internet */ server_addr.sin_addr.s_addr = INADDR_ANY; /* set the local IP address */ server_addr.sin_port = htons((u_short)port); /* Set port */ /* Create socket */ if ( (socket_d = socket(PF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0)) < 0) { fprintf(stderr, "socket creation failed\n"); exit(1); } /* Make listening socket's port reusable */ if (setsockopt(socket_d, SOL_SOCKET, SO_REUSEADDR, (char *)&option_value, sizeof(option_value)) < 0) { fprintf(stderr, "setsockopt failure\n"); exit(1); } /* Bind a local address to the socket */ if (bind(socket_d, (struct sockaddr *)&server_addr, sizeof(server_addr)) < 0) { fprintf(stderr, "bind failed\n"); exit(1); } /* Specify size of request queue */ if (listen(socket_d, LISTEN_QUEUE_LIMIT) < 0) { fprintf(stderr, "listen failed\n"); exit(1); } memset(connected_clients,0,sizeof(int)*TOTAL_CLIENTS); for (;;) { struct sockaddr_in client_addr; /* structure to hold client's address*/ int alen = sizeof(client_addr); /* length of address */ int sd; /* connected socket descriptor */ if ((sd = accept(socket_d, (struct sockaddr *)&client_addr, &alen)) < 0) { perror("accept failed\n"); exit(1); } else printf("\n I got a connection from (%s , %d)\n",inet_ntoa(client_addr.sin_addr),ntohs(client_addr.sin_port)); if (pthread_create(&tid[current_client],NULL,(void *)client_handler,(void *)sd) != 0) { perror("pthread_create error"); continue; } connected_clients[current_client]=sd; current_client++; /*Incrementing Client number*/ } return 0; } void *client_handler(void *connected_socket) { int sd; sd = (int)connected_socket; for ( ; ; ) { ssize_t n; char buffer[CHAR_BUFFER]; for ( ; ; ) { if (n = read(sd, buffer, sizeof(char)*CHAR_BUFFER) == -1) { perror("Error reading from client"); pthread_exit(1); } int i=0; for (i=0;i<current_client;i++) { if (write(connected_clients[i],buffer,sizeof(char)*CHAR_BUFFER) == -1) perror("Error sending messages to a client while multicasting"); } } } } My client side is this (Maye be irrelevant while answering my question) #include <stdio.h> #include <sys/types.h> #include <sys/socket.h> #include <netinet/in.h> #include <netdb.h> #include <string.h> #include <stdlib.h> void error(char *msg) { perror(msg); exit(0); } void *listen_for_message(void * fd) { int sockfd = (int)fd; int n; char buffer[256]; bzero(buffer,256); printf("YOUR MESSAGE: "); fflush(stdout); while (1) { n = read(sockfd,buffer,256); if (n < 0) error("ERROR reading from socket"); if (n == 0) pthread_exit(1); printf("\nMESSAGE BROADCAST: %sYOUR MESSAGE: ",buffer); fflush(stdout); } } int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { int sockfd, portno, n; struct sockaddr_in serv_addr; struct hostent *server; pthread_t read_message; char buffer[256]; if (argc < 3) { fprintf(stderr,"usage %s hostname port\n", argv[0]); exit(0); } portno = atoi(argv[2]); sockfd = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0); if (sockfd < 0) error("ERROR opening socket"); server = gethostbyname(argv[1]); if (server == NULL) { fprintf(stderr,"ERROR, no such host\n"); exit(0); } bzero((char *) &serv_addr, sizeof(serv_addr)); serv_addr.sin_family = AF_INET; bcopy((char *)server->h_addr, (char *)&serv_addr.sin_addr.s_addr, server->h_length); serv_addr.sin_port = htons(portno); if (connect(sockfd,&serv_addr,sizeof(serv_addr)) < 0) error("ERROR connecting"); bzero(buffer,256); if (pthread_create(&read_message,NULL,(void *)listen_for_message,(void *)sockfd) !=0 ) { perror("error creating thread"); } while (1) { fgets(buffer,255,stdin); n = write(sockfd,buffer,256); if (n < 0) error("ERROR writing to socket"); bzero(buffer,256); } return 0; }

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• IE7 doesn't render part of page until the window resizes or switch between tabs

  - by BlackMael

  I have a problem with IE7. I have a fixed layout for keeping the header and a sidepanel fixed on a page leaving only the "main content" area switch can happily scroll it's content. This layout works perfectly fine for IE6 and IE8, but sometimes one page may start "hiding" the content that should be showing in the "main content" area. The page finishes loading just fine. For a split second IE7 will render the main content just fine and then it will immediately hide it from view.. somewhere.. It would also seem that it only experiences this problem when there is enough content to force the "main content" area to scroll. By resizing the window or switching to another open tab and back again will cause IE7 to show the page as it was intended. Note the same problem does occur with IE8 in compatibility mode, but the page is rendered correctly in IE8 mode. If need be I can attach the basic CSS styling I use, but I first want to see if this is a known issue with IE7. Does IE7 have issues with positioned layout and overflow scrolling that is sometimes likes to forgot to finish rendering the page correctly until some window redraw event forces to finish rendering? Please remember, this exact same layout is used across multiple pages in the site as it is set up in a master page. It is just (in this case) one page that is experiencing this problem. Other pages with the exact same layout do render correctly. Even if the main content is full enough to also scroll. UPDATE: A related question which doesn't have an answer at this point. LATE UPDATE: Adding example masterpage and css Please note this same layout is the same for all the pages in the application. My problem with IE7 only occurs on one such page. All other pages have happily render correctly in IE7. Just one page, using the exact same layout, has issues where it sometimes hides the content in the "work-space" div. The master page <%@ Master Language="VB" CodeFile="MasterPage.master.vb" Inherits="shared_templates_MasterPage" %> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head runat="server"> <title></title> <link rel="Stylesheet" type="text/css" href="~/common/yui/2.7.0/build/reset-fonts/reset-fonts.css" runat="server" /> <link rel="Stylesheet" type="text/css" href="~/shared/css/layout.css" runat="server" /> <asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="head" runat="server" /> </head> <body> <form id="form1" runat="server"> <asp:ScriptManager ID="ScriptManager1" runat="server" /> <div id="app-header"> </div> <div id="side-panel"> </div> <div id="work-space"> <asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="WorkSpaceContentPlaceHolder" runat="server" /> </div> <div id="status-bar"> <asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="StatusBarContentPlaceHolder" runat="server" /> </div> </form> </body> </html> The layout.css html { overflow: hidden; } body { overflow: hidden; padding: 0; margin: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; background-color: white; } body, table, td, th, select, textarea, input { font-family: Tahoma, Arial, Sans-Serif; font-size: 9pt; } p { padding-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; } #app-header { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 80px; background-color: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 4px #000; } #side-panel { position: absolute; top: 84px; left: 0px; bottom: 0px; overflow: auto; padding: 0; margin: 0; width: 227px; background-color: #AABCCA; border-right: solid 1px black; background-repeat: repeat-x; padding-top: 5px; } #work-space { position: absolute; top: 84px; left: 232px; right: 0px; padding: 0; margin: 0; bottom: 22px; overflow: auto; background-color: White; } #status-bar { position: absolute; height: 20px; left: 228px; right: 0px; padding: 0; margin: 0; bottom: 0px; border-top: solid 1px #c0c0c0; background-color: #f0f0f0; } The Default.aspx <%@ Page Title="Test" Language="VB" MasterPageFile="~/shared/templates/MasterPage.master" AutoEventWireup="false" CodeFile="Default.aspx.vb" Inherits="_Default" %> <asp:Content ID="WorkspaceContent" ContentPlaceHolderID="WorkSpaceContentPlaceHolder" Runat="Server"> Workspace <asp:ListView ID="DemoListView" runat="server" DataSourceID="DemoObjectDataSource" ItemPlaceholderID="DemoPlaceHolder"> <LayoutTemplate> <table style="border: 1px solid #a0a0a0; width: 600px"> <colgroup> <col width="80" /> <col /> <col width="80" /> <col width="120" /> </colgroup> <tbody> <asp:PlaceHolder ID="DemoPlaceHolder" runat="server" /> </tbody> </table> </LayoutTemplate> <ItemTemplate> <tr> <th><%#Eval("ID")%></th> <td><%#Eval("Name")%></td> <td><%#Eval("Size")%></td> <td><%#Eval("CreatedOn", "{0:yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss}")%></td> </tr> </ItemTemplate> </asp:ListView> <asp:ObjectDataSource ID="DemoObjectDataSource" runat="server" OldValuesParameterFormatString="original_{0}" SelectMethod="GetData" TypeName="DemoLogic"> <SelectParameters> <asp:Parameter Name="path" Type="String" /> </SelectParameters> </asp:ObjectDataSource> </asp:Content> <asp:Content ID="StatusContent" ContentPlaceHolderID="StatusBarContentPlaceHolder" Runat="Server"> Ready OK. </asp:Content>

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• Using Handlebars.js issue

  - by Roland

  I'm having a small issue when I'm compiling a template with Handlebars.js . I have a JSON text file which contains an big array with objects : Source ; and I'm using XMLHTTPRequest to get it and then parse it so I can use it when compiling the template. So far the template has the following structure : <div class="product-listing-wrapper"> <div class="product-listing"> <div class="left-side-content"> <div class="thumb-wrapper"> <img src="{{ThumbnailUrl}}"> </div> <div class="google-maps-wrapper"> <div class="google-coordonates-wrapper"> <div class="google-coordonates"> <p>{{LatLon.Lat}}</p> <p>{{LatLon.Lon}}</p> </div> </div> <div class="google-maps-button"> <a class="google-maps" href="#" data-latitude="{{LatLon.Lat}}" data-longitude="{{LatLon.Lon}}">Google Maps</a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="right-side-content"></div> </div> And the following block of code would be the way I'm handling the JS part : $(document).ready(function() { /* Default Javascript Options ~a javascript object which contains all the variables that will be passed to the cluster class */ var default_cluster_options = { animations : ['flash', 'bounce', 'shake', 'tada', 'swing', 'wobble', 'wiggle', 'pulse', 'flip', 'flipInX', 'flipOutX', 'flipInY', 'flipOutY', 'fadeIn', 'fadeInUp', 'fadeInDown', 'fadeInLeft', 'fadeInRight', 'fadeInUpBig', 'fadeInDownBig', 'fadeInLeftBig', 'fadeInRightBig', 'fadeOut', 'fadeOutUp', 'fadeOutDown', 'fadeOutLeft', 'fadeOutRight', 'fadeOutUpBig', 'fadeOutDownBig', 'fadeOutLeftBig', 'fadeOutRightBig', 'bounceIn', 'bounceInUp', 'bounceInDown', 'bounceInLeft', 'bounceInRight', 'bounceOut', 'bounceOutUp', 'bounceOutDown', 'bounceOutLeft', 'bounceOutRight', 'rotateIn', 'rotateInDownLeft', 'rotateInDownRight', 'rotateInUpLeft', 'rotateInUpRight', 'rotateOut', 'rotateOutDownLeft', 'rotateOutDownRight', 'rotateOutUpLeft', 'rotateOutUpRight', 'lightSpeedIn', 'lightSpeedOut', 'hinge', 'rollIn', 'rollOut'], json_data_url : 'data.json', template_data_url : 'template.php', base_maps_api_url : 'https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?sensor=false', cluser_wrapper_id : '#content-wrapper', maps_wrapper_class : '.google-maps', }; /* Cluster ~main class, handles all javascript operations */ var Cluster = function(environment, cluster_options) { var self = this; this.options = $.extend({}, default_cluster_options, cluster_options); this.environment = environment; this.animations = this.options.animations; this.json_data_url = this.options.json_data_url; this.template_data_url = this.options.template_data_url; this.base_maps_api_url = this.options.base_maps_api_url; this.cluser_wrapper_id = this.options.cluser_wrapper_id; this.maps_wrapper_class = this.options.maps_wrapper_class; this.test_environment_mode(this.environment); this.initiate_environment(); this.test_xmlhttprequest_availability(); this.initiate_gmaps_lib_load(self.base_maps_api_url); this.initiate_data_processing(); }; /* Test Environment Mode ~adds a modernizr test which looks wheater the cluster class is initiated in development or not */ Cluster.prototype.test_environment_mode = function(environment) { var self = this; return Modernizr.addTest('test_environment', function() { return (typeof environment !== 'undefined' && environment !== null && environment === "Development") ? true : false; }); }; /* Test XMLHTTPRequest Availability ~adds a modernizr test which looks wheater the xmlhttprequest class is available or not in the browser, exception makes IE */ Cluster.prototype.test_xmlhttprequest_availability = function() { return Modernizr.addTest('test_xmlhttprequest', function() { return (typeof window.XMLHttpRequest === 'undefined' || window.XMLHttpRequest === null) ? true : false; }); }; /* Initiate Environment ~depending on what the modernizr test returns it puts LESS in the development mode or not */ Cluster.prototype.initiate_environment = function() { return (Modernizr.test_environment) ? (less.env = "development", less.watch()) : true; }; Cluster.prototype.initiate_gmaps_lib_load = function(lib_url) { return Modernizr.load(lib_url); }; /* Initiate XHR Request ~prototype function that creates an xmlhttprequest for processing json data from an separate json text file */ Cluster.prototype.initiate_xhr_request = function(url, mime_type) { var request, data; var self = this; (Modernizr.test_xmlhttprequest) ? request = new ActiveXObject('Microsoft.XMLHTTP') : request = new XMLHttpRequest(); request.onreadystatechange = function() { if(request.readyState == 4 && request.status == 200) { data = request.responseText; } }; request.open("GET", url, false); request.overrideMimeType(mime_type); request.send(); return data; }; Cluster.prototype.initiate_google_maps_action = function() { var self = this; return $(this.maps_wrapper_class).each(function(index, element) { return $(element).on('click', function(ev) { var html = $('<div id="map-canvas" class="map-canvas"></div>'); var latitude = $(element).attr('data-latitude'); var longitude = $(element).attr('data-longitude'); log("LAT : " + latitude); log("LON : " + longitude); $.lightbox(html, { "width": 900, "height": 250, "onOpen" : function() { } }); ev.preventDefault(); }); }); }; Cluster.prototype.initiate_data_processing = function() { var self = this; var json_data = JSON.parse(self.initiate_xhr_request(self.json_data_url, 'application/json; charset=ISO-8859-1')); var source_data = self.initiate_xhr_request(self.template_data_url, 'text/html'); var template = Handlebars.compile(source_data); for(var i = 0; i < json_data.length; i++ ) { var result = template(json_data[i]); $(result).appendTo(self.cluser_wrapper_id); } self.initiate_google_maps_action(); }; /* Cluster ~initiate the cluster class */ var cluster = new Cluster("Development"); }); My problem would be that I don't think I'm iterating the JSON object right or I'm using the template the wrong way because if you check this link : http://rolandgroza.com/labs/valtech/ ; you will see that there are some numbers there ( which represents latitude and longitude ) but they are all the same and if you take only a brief look at the JSON object each number is different. So what am I doing wrong that it makes the same number repeat ? Or what should I do to fix it ? I must notice that I've just started working with templates so I have little knowledge it.

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• change an absolutely positioned webpage into a centered one

  - by Jonathan

  So I have this template design that is currently absolutely positioned, but I'm trying to make it centered in any widescreen browser. I've tried making the width auto on the left and right side in my container, but it is still aligned with the left side. Css .JosephSettin_png { position: absolute; left:0px; top:0px; width:216px; height:40px; background: url("JosephSettin.png") no-repeat; } .home_png { position: absolute; left:472px; top:16px; width:48px; height:16px; } .discography_png { position: absolute; left:528px; top:16px; width:80px; height:24px; } .purchase_png { position: absolute; left:608px; top:16px; width:88px; height:24px; } .about_png { position: absolute; left:696px; top:16px; width:48px; height:24px; } .contact_png { position: absolute; left:744px; top:16px; width:56px; height:24px; } .main__pic_png { position: absolute; left:0px; top:56px; width:264px; height:264px; background: url("main_pic.png") no-repeat; } .footer__lines_png { position: absolute; left:0px; top:512px; width:800px; height:24px; background: url("footer_lines.png") no-repeat; } .info__heading_png { position: absolute; left:32px; top:360px; width:216px; height:32px; background: url("info_heading.png") no-repeat; } .info__pic3_png { position: absolute; left:265px; top:360px; width:159px; height:112px; background: url("info_pic3.png") no-repeat; } .info__pic2_png { position: absolute; left:432px; top:360px; width:176px; height:112px; background: url("info_pic2.png") no-repeat; } .info__pic1_png { position: absolute; left:616px; top:360px; width:177px; height:112px; background: url("info_pic1.png") no-repeat; } .info__pane_png { position: absolute; left:0px; top:345px; width:800px; height:144px; background: url("info_pane.png") no-repeat; } body { text-align: center; background-color:maroon; } #wrapper { width: 800px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left; } #a { text-decoration: none; color:white; font-weight:bold; } .style1 { font-weight: bold; color: #FFFFFF; } html <body> <center> <div id="wrapper"> <div class="JosephSettin_png"> </div> <div class="home_png"> <a href="home.html" style="color:yellow">Home</a></div> <div class="discography_png"> <a href="discography.html">Discography</a></div> <div class="purchase_png"><a href="store.html"><span class="style1">Store</span></a></div> <div class="about_png"><a href="about.html">About</a></div> <div class="contact_png"><a href="contact.html"><span class="style1"></span>Contact</a></div> <div class="ad_png"> </div> <div class="main__pic_png"> </div> <div class="welcome__header_png"> </div> <div class="welcome__text_png"> </div> <div class="footer__lines_png"> </div> <div class="footer__text_png"> </div> <div class="info__pane_png"></div> <div class="info__heading_png"> </div> <div class="info__text_png"> </div> <div class="info__pic3_png"> </div> <div class="info__pic2_png"> </div> <div class="info__pic1_png"> </div> <div class="info__pic3_png"> </div> </div> </center> </body> I know the container I create works if all my div classes aren't absolutely positioned. Do I have to change the position or did I make another error?

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• SINGLE SIGN ON SECURITY THREAT! FACEBOOK access_token broadcast in the open/clear

  - by MOKANA

  Subsequent to my posting there was a remark made that this was not really a question but I thought I did indeed postulate one. So that there is no ambiquity here is the question with a lead in: Since there is no data sent from Facebook during the Canvas Load process that is not at some point divulged, including the access_token, session and other data that could uniquely identify a user, does any one see any other way other than adding one more layer, i.e., a password, sent over the wire via HTTPS along with the access_toekn, that will insure unique untampered with security by the user? Using Wireshark I captured the local broadcast while loading my Canvas Application page. I was hugely surprised to see the access_token broadcast in the open, viewable for any one to see. This access_token is appended to any https call to the Facebook OpenGraph API. Using facebook as a single click log on has now raised huge concerns for me. It is stored in a session object in memory and the cookie is cleared upon app termination and after reviewing the FB.Init calls I saw a lot of HTTPS calls so I assumed the access_token was always encrypted. But last night I saw in the status bar a call from what was simply an http call that included the App ID so I felt I should sniff the Application Canvas load sequence. Today I did sniff the broadcast and in the attached image you can see that there are http calls with the access_token being broadcast in the open and clear for anyone to gain access to. Am I missing something, is what I am seeing and my interpretation really correct. If any one can sniff and get the access_token they can theorically make calls to the Graph API via https, even though the call back would still need to be the site established in Facebook's application set up. But what is truly a security threat is anyone using the access_token for access to their own site. I do not see the value of a single sign on via Facebook if the only thing that was established as secure was the access_token - becuase for what I can see it clearly is not secure. Access tokens that never have an expire date do not change. Access_tokens are different for every user, to access to another site could be held tight to just a single user, but compromising even a single user's data is unacceptable. http://www.creatingstory.com/images/InTheOpen.png Went back and did more research on this: FINDINGS: Went back an re ran the canvas application to verify that it was not any of my code that was not broadcasting. In this call: HTTP GET /connect.php/en_US/js/CacheData HTTP/1.1 The USER ID is clearly visible in the cookie. So USER_ID's are fully visible, but they are already. Anyone can go to pretty much any ones page and hover over the image and see the USER ID. So no big threat. APP_ID are also easily obtainable - but . . . http://www.creatingstory.com/images/InTheOpen2.png The above file clearly shows the FULL ACCESS TOKEN clearly in the OPEN via a Facebook initiated call. Am I wrong. TELL ME I AM WRONG because I want to be wrong about this. I have since reset my app secret so I am showing the real sniff of the Canvas Page being loaded. Additional data 02/20/2011: @ifaour - I appreciate the time you took to compile your response. I am pretty familiar with the OAuth process and have a pretty solid understanding of the signed_request unpacking and utilization of the access_token. I perform a substantial amount of my processing on the server and my Facebook server side flows are all complete and function without any flaw that I know of. The application secret is secure and never passed to the front end application and is also changed regularly. I am being as fanatical about security as I can be, knowing there is so much I don’t know that could come back and bite me. Two huge access_token issues: The issues concern the possible utilization of the access_token from the USER AGENT (browser). During the FB.INIT() process of the Facebook JavaScript SDK, a cookie is created as well as an object in memory called a session object. This object, along with the cookie contain the access_token, session, a secret, and uid and status of the connection. The session object is structured such that is supports both the new OAuth and the legacy flows. With OAuth, the access_token and status are pretty much al that is used in the session object. The first issue is that the access_token is used to make HTTPS calls to the GRAPH API. If you had the access_token, you could do this from any browser: https://graph.facebook.com/220439?access_token=... and it will return a ton of information about the user. So any one with the access token can gain access to a Facebook account. You can also make additional calls to any info the user has granted access to the application tied to the access_token. At first I thought that a call into the GRAPH had to have a Callback to the URL established in the App Setup, but I tested it as mentioned below and it will return info back right into the browser. Adding that callback feature would be a good idea I think, tightens things up a bit. The second issue is utilization of some unique private secured data that identifies the user to the third party data base, i.e., like in my case, I would use a single sign on to populate user information into my database using this unique secured data item (i.e., access_token which contains the APP ID, the USER ID, and a hashed with secret sequence). None of this is a problem on the server side. You get a signed_request, you unpack it with secret, make HTTPS calls, get HTTPS responses back. When a user has information entered via the USER AGENT(browser) that must be stored via a POST, this unique secured data element would be sent via HTTPS such that they are validated prior to data base insertion. However, If there is NO secured piece of unique data that is supplied via the single sign on process, then there is no way to guarantee unauthorized access. The access_token is the one piece of data that is utilized by Facebook to make the HTTPS calls into the GRAPH API. it is considered unique in regards to BOTH the USER and the APPLICATION and is initially secure via the signed_request packaging. If however, it is subsequently transmitted in the clear and if I can sniff the wire and obtain the access_token, then I can pretend to be the application and gain the information they have authorized the application to see. I tried the above example from a Safari and IE browser and it returned all of my information to me in the browser. In conclusion, the access_token is part of the signed_request and that is how the application initially obtains it. After OAuth authentication and authorization, i.e., the USER has logged into Facebook and then runs your app, the access_token is stored as mentioned above and I have sniffed it such that I see it stored in a Cookie that is transmitted over the wire, resulting in there being NO UNIQUE SECURED IDENTIFIABLE piece of information that can be used to support interaction with the database, or in other words, unless there were one more piece of secure data sent along with the access_token to my database, i.e., a password, I would not be able to discern if it is a legitimate call. Luckily I utilized secure AJAX via POST and the call has to come from the same domain, but I am sure there is a way to hijack that. I am totally open to any ideas on this topic on how to uniquely identify my USERS other than adding another layer (password) via this single sign on process or if someone would just share with me that I read and analyzed my data incorrectly and that the access_token is always secure over the wire. Mahalo nui loa in advance.

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• Numpy zero rank array indexing/broadcasting

  - by Lemming

  I'm trying to write a function that supports broadcasting and is fast at the same time. However, numpy's zero-rank arrays are causing trouble as usual. I couldn't find anything useful on google, or by searching here. So, I'm asking you. How should I implement broadcasting efficiently and handle zero-rank arrays at the same time? This whole post became larger than anticipated, sorry. Details: To clarify what I'm talking about I'll give a simple example: Say I want to implement a Heaviside step-function. I.e. a function that acts on the real axis, which is 0 on the negative side, 1 on the positive side, and from case to case either 0, 0.5, or 1 at the point 0. Implementation Masking The most efficient way I found so far is the following. It uses boolean arrays as masks to assign the correct values to the corresponding slots in the output vector. from numpy import * def step_mask(x, limit=+1): """Heaviside step-function. y = 0 if x < 0 y = 1 if x > 0 See below for x == 0. Arguments: x Evaluate the function at these points. limit Which limit at x == 0? limit > 0: y = 1 limit == 0: y = 0.5 limit < 0: y = 0 Return: The values corresponding to x. """ b = broadcast(x, limit) out = zeros(b.shape) out[x>0] = 1 mask = (limit > 0) & (x == 0) out[mask] = 1 mask = (limit == 0) & (x == 0) out[mask] = 0.5 mask = (limit < 0) & (x == 0) out[mask] = 0 return out List Comprehension The following-the-numpy-docs way is to use a list comprehension on the flat iterator of the broadcast object. However, list comprehensions become absolutely unreadable for such complicated functions. def step_comprehension(x, limit=+1): b = broadcast(x, limit) out = empty(b.shape) out.flat = [ ( 1 if x_ > 0 else ( 0 if x_ < 0 else ( 1 if l_ > 0 else ( 0.5 if l_ ==0 else ( 0 ))))) for x_, l_ in b ] return out For Loop And finally, the most naive way is a for loop. It's probably the most readable option. However, Python for-loops are anything but fast. And hence, a really bad idea in numerics. def step_for(x, limit=+1): b = broadcast(x, limit) out = empty(b.shape) for i, (x_, l_) in enumerate(b): if x_ > 0: out[i] = 1 elif x_ < 0: out[i] = 0 elif l_ > 0: out[i] = 1 elif l_ < 0: out[i] = 0 else: out[i] = 0.5 return out Test First of all a brief test to see if the output is correct. >>> x = array([-1, -0.1, 0, 0.1, 1]) >>> step_mask(x, +1) array([ 0., 0., 1., 1., 1.]) >>> step_mask(x, 0) array([ 0. , 0. , 0.5, 1. , 1. ]) >>> step_mask(x, -1) array([ 0., 0., 0., 1., 1.]) It is correct, and the other two functions give the same output. Performance How about efficiency? These are the timings: In [45]: xl = linspace(-2, 2, 500001) In [46]: %timeit step_mask(xl) 10 loops, best of 3: 19.5 ms per loop In [47]: %timeit step_comprehension(xl) 1 loops, best of 3: 1.17 s per loop In [48]: %timeit step_for(xl) 1 loops, best of 3: 1.15 s per loop The masked version performs best as expected. However, I'm surprised that the comprehension is on the same level as the for loop. Zero Rank Arrays But, 0-rank arrays pose a problem. Sometimes you want to use a function scalar input. And preferably not have to worry about wrapping all scalars in at least 1-D arrays. >>> step_mask(1) Traceback (most recent call last): File "<ipython-input-50-91c06aa4487b>", line 1, in <module> step_mask(1) File "script.py", line 22, in step_mask out[x>0] = 1 IndexError: 0-d arrays can't be indexed. >>> step_for(1) Traceback (most recent call last): File "<ipython-input-51-4e0de4fcb197>", line 1, in <module> step_for(1) File "script.py", line 55, in step_for out[i] = 1 IndexError: 0-d arrays can't be indexed. >>> step_comprehension(1) array(1.0) Only the list comprehension can handle 0-rank arrays. The other two versions would need special case handling for 0-rank arrays. Numpy gets a bit messy when you want to use the same code for arrays and scalars. However, I really like to have functions that work on as arbitrary input as possible. Who knows which parameters I'll want to iterate over at some point. Question: What is the best way to implement a function as the one above? Is there a way to avoid if scalar then like special cases? I'm not looking for a built-in Heaviside. It's just a simplified example. In my code the above pattern appears in many places to make parameter iteration as simple as possible without littering the client code with for loops or comprehensions. Furthermore, I'm aware of Cython, or weave & Co., or implementation directly in C. However, the performance of the masked version above is sufficient for the moment. And for the moment I would like to keep things as simple as possible.

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• outgoing DNS flood targeted to non-ISP hosts

  - by radudani

  Below is the specific traffic monitored at the network perimeter and originating from a user PC on Vista platform. My question is not about the effects of the flood, but about the nature of the source of it. Is this some known infection, or just an application went out of control? a standard NOD32 scan didn't find anything, as the user told me. Thank you for any hint. 14:40:10.115876 IP 192.168.7.42.4122 > 67.228.0.181.53: S 2742536765:2742536765(0) win 16384 <mss 1460,nop,nop,sackOK> 14:40:10.115943 IP 192.168.7.42.4124 > 67.228.181.207.53: S 3071079888:3071079888(0) win 16384 <mss 1460,nop,nop,sackOK> 14:40:10.116015 IP 192.168.7.42.4126 > 67.228.0.181.53: S 3445199428:3445199428(0) win 16384 <mss 1460,nop,nop,sackOK> 14:40:10.116086 IP 192.168.7.42.4128 > 67.228.181.207.53: S 2053198691:2053198691(0) win 16384 <mss 1460,nop,nop,sackOK> 14:40:10.116154 IP 192.168.7.42.4130 > 67.228.0.181.53: S 2841660872:2841660872(0) win 16384 <mss 1460,nop,nop,sackOK> 14:40:10.116222 IP 192.168.7.42.4132 > 67.228.181.207.53: S 3150822465:3150822465(0) win 16384 <mss 1460,nop,nop,sackOK> 14:40:10.116290 IP 192.168.7.42.4134 > 67.228.0.181.53: S 1692515021:1692515021(0) win 16384 <mss 1460,nop,nop,sackOK> 14:40:10.116358 IP 192.168.7.42.4136 > 67.228.181.207.53: S 3358275919:3358275919(0) win 16384 <mss 1460,nop,nop,sackOK> 14:40:10.116430 IP 192.168.7.42.4138 > 67.228.0.181.53: S 930184999:930184999(0) win 16384 <mss 1460,nop,nop,sackOK> 14:40:10.116498 IP 192.168.7.42.4140 > 67.228.181.207.53: S 1504984630:1504984630(0) win 16384 <mss 1460,nop,nop,sackOK> 14:40:10.116566 IP 192.168.7.42.4142 > 67.228.0.181.53: S 546074424:546074424(0) win 16384 <mss 1460,nop,nop,sackOK> 14:40:10.116634 IP 192.168.7.42.4144 > 67.228.181.207.53: S 4241828590:4241828590(0) win 16384 <mss 1460,nop,nop,sackOK> 14:40:10.116702 IP 192.168.7.42.4146 > 67.228.0.181.53: S 668634627:668634627(0) win 16384 <mss 1460,nop,nop,sackOK> 14:40:10.116769 IP 192.168.7.42.4148 > 67.228.181.207.53: S 3768119461:3768119461(0) win 16384 <mss 1460,nop,nop,sackOK> 14:40:10.117360 IP 192.168.7.42.4111 > 67.228.0.181.53: 12676 op8 Resp12*- [2128q][|domain] 14:40:10.117932 IP 192.168.7.42.4112 > 67.228.181.207.53: 44190 op7 NotAuth*|$ [29103q],[|domain] 14:40:10.118726 IP 192.168.7.42.4113 > 67.228.0.181.53: 49196 inv_q [b2&3=0xeea] [64081q] [28317a] [43054n] [23433au] Type63482 (Class 5889)? M-_^OS>M-JM-m^_M-i.[|domain] 14:40:10.119934 IP 192.168.7.42.4114 > 67.228.181.207.53: 48131 updateMA Resp12$ [43850q],[|domain] 14:40:10.121164 IP 192.168.7.42.4115 > 67.228.0.181.53: 46330 updateM% [b2&3=0x665b] [23691a] [998q] [32406n] [11452au][|domain] 14:40:10.121866 IP 192.168.7.42.4116 > 67.228.181.207.53: 34425 op7 YXRRSet* [39927q][|domain] 14:40:10.123107 IP 192.168.7.42.4117 > 67.228.0.181.53: 56536 notify+ [b2&3=0x27e6] [59761a] [23005q] [33341n] [29705au][|domain] 14:40:10.123961 IP 192.168.7.42.4118 > 67.228.181.207.53: 19323 stat% [b2&3=0x14bb] [32491a] [41925q] [2038n] [5857au][|domain] 14:40:10.132499 IP 192.168.7.42.4119 > 67.228.0.181.53: 50432 updateMA+ [b2&3=0x6bc2] [10733a] [9775q] [46984n] [15261au][|domain] 14:40:10.133394 IP 192.168.7.42.4120 > 67.228.181.207.53: 2171 notify Refused$ [26027q][|domain] 14:40:10.134421 IP 192.168.7.42.4121 > 67.228.0.181.53: 25802 updateM NXDomain*-$ [28641q][|domain] 14:40:10.135392 IP 192.168.7.42.4122 > 67.228.181.207.53: 2073 updateMA+ [b2&3=0x6d0b] [43177a] [54332q] [17736n] [43636au][|domain] 14:40:10.136638 IP 192.168.7.42.4123 > 67.228.0.181.53: 15346 updateD+% [b2&3=0x577a] [61686a] [19106q] [15824n] [37833au] Type28590 (Class 64856)? [|domain] 14:40:10.137265 IP 192.168.7.42.4124 > 67.228.181.207.53: 60761 update+ [b2&3=0x2b66] [43293a] [53922q] [23115n] [11349au][|domain] 14:40:10.148122 IP 192.168.7.42.4125 > 67.228.0.181.53: 3418 op3% [b2&3=0x1a92] [51107a] [60368q] [47777n] [56081au][|domain]

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• How to Upgrade Your Netbook to Windows 7 Home Premium

  - by Matthew Guay

  Would you like more features and flash in Windows on your netbook?  Here’s how you can easily upgrade your netbook to Windows 7 Home Premium the easy way. Most new netbooks today ship with Windows 7 Starter, which is the cheapest edition of Windows 7.  It is fine for many computing tasks, and will run all your favorite programs great, but it lacks many customization, multimedia, and business features found in higher editions.  Here we’ll show you how you can quickly upgrade your netbook to more full-featured edition of Windows 7 using Windows Anytime Upgrade.  Also, if you want to upgrade your laptop or desktop to another edition of Windows 7, say Professional, you can follow these same steps to upgrade it, too. Please note: This is only for computers already running Windows 7.  If your netbook is running XP or Vista, you will have to run a traditional upgrade to install Windows 7. Upgrade Advisor First, let’s make sure your netbook can support the extra features, such as Aero Glass, in Windows 7 Home Premium.  Most modern netbooks that ship with Windows 7 Starter can run the advanced features in Windows 7 Home Premium, but let’s check just in case.  Download the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor (link below), and install as normal. Once it’s installed, run it and click Start Check.   Make sure you’re connected to the internet before you run the check, or otherwise you may see this error message.  If you see it, click Ok and then connect to the internet and start the check again. It will now scan all of your programs and hardware to make sure they’re compatible with Windows 7.  Since you’re already running Windows 7 Starter, it will also tell you if your computer will support the features in other editions of Windows 7. After a few moments, the Upgrade Advisor will show you want it found.  Here we see that our netbook, a Samsung N150, can be upgraded to Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate. We also see that we had one issue, but this was because a driver we had installed was not recognized.  Click “See all system requirements” to see what your netbook can do with the new edition. This shows you which of the requirements, including support for Windows Aero, your netbook meets.  Here our netbook supports Aero, so we’re ready to go upgrade. For more, check out our article on how to make sure your computer can run Windows 7 with Upgrade Advisor. Upgrade with Anytime Upgrade Now, we’re ready to upgrade our netbook to Windows 7 Home Premium.  Enter “Anytime Upgrade” in the Start menu search,and select Windows Anytime Upgrade. Windows Anytime Upgrade lets you upgrade using product key you already have or one you purchase during the upgrade process.  And, it installs without any downloads or Windows disks, so it works great even for netbooks without DVD drives. Anytime Upgrades are cheaper than a standard upgrade, and for a limited time, select retailers in the US are offering Anytime Upgrades to Windows 7 Home Premium for only $49.99 if purchased with a new netbook.  If you already have a netbook running Windows 7 Starter, you can either purchase an Anytime Upgrade package at a retail store or purchase a key online during the upgrade process for $79.95.  Or, if you have a standard Windows 7 product key (full or upgrade), you can use it in Anytime upgrade.  This is especially nice if you can purchase Windows 7 cheaper through your school, university, or office. Purchase an upgrade online To purchase an upgrade online, click “Go online to choose the edition of Windows 7 that’s best for you”.   Here you can see a comparison of the features of each edition of Windows 7.  Note that you can upgrade to either Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate.  We chose home Premium because it has most of the features that home users want, including Media Center and Aero Glass effects.  Also note that the price of each upgrade is cheaper than the respective upgrade from Windows XP or Vista.  Click buy under the edition you want.   Enter your billing information, then your payment information.  Once you confirm your purchase, you will directly be taken to the Upgrade screen.  Make sure to save your receipt, as you will need the product key if you ever need to reinstall Windows on your computer. Upgrade with an existing product key If you purchased an Anytime Upgrade kit from a retailer, or already have a Full or Upgrade key for another edition of Windows 7, choose “Enter an upgrade key”. Enter your product key, and click Next.  If you purchased an Anytime Upgrade kit, the product key will be located on the inside of the case on a yellow sticker. The key will be verified as a valid key, and Anytime Upgrade will automatically choose the correct edition of Windows 7 based on your product key.  Click Next when this is finished. Continuing the Upgrade process Whether you entered a key or purchased a key online, the process is the same from here on.  Click “I accept” to accept the license agreement. Now, you’re ready to install your upgrade.  Make sure to save all open files and close any programs, and then click Upgrade. The upgrade only takes about 10 minutes in our experience but your mileage may vary.  Any available Microsoft updates, including ones for Office, Security Essentials, and other products, will be installed before the upgrade takes place. After a couple minutes, your computer will automatically reboot and finish the installation.  It will then reboot once more, and your computer will be ready to use!  Welcome to your new edition of Windows 7! Here’s a before and after shot of our desktop.  When you do an Anytime Upgrade, all of your programs, files, and settings will be just as they were before you upgraded.  The only change we noticed was that our pinned taskbar icons were slightly rearranged to the default order of Internet Explorer, Explorer, and Media Player.  Here’s a shot of our desktop before the upgrade.  Notice that all of our pinned programs and desktop icons are still there, as well as our taskbar customization (we are using small icons on the taskbar instead of the default large icons). Before, with the Windows 7 Starter background and the Aero Basic theme: And after, with Aero Glass and the more colorful default Windows 7 background.   All of the features of Windows 7 Home Premium are now ready to use.  The Aero theme was activate by default, but you can now customize your netbook theme, background, and more with the Personalization pane.  To open it, right-click on your desktop and select Personalize. You can also now use Windows Media Center, and can play-back DVD movies using an external drive. One of our favorite tools, the Snipping Tool, is also now available for easy screenshots and clips. Activating you new edition of Windows 7 You will still need to activate your new edition of Windows 7.  To do this right away, open the start menu, right-click on Computer, and select Properties.   Scroll to the bottom, and click “Activate Windows Now”. Make sure you’re connected to the internet, and then select “Activate Windows online now”. Activation may take a few minutes, depending on your internet connection speed. When it is done, the Activation wizard will let you know that Windows is activated and genuine.  Your upgrade is all finished! Conclusion Windows Anytime Upgrade makes it easy, and somewhat cheaper, to upgrade to another edition of Windows 7.  It’s useful for desktop and laptop owners who want to upgrade to Professional or Ultimate, but many more netbook owners will want to upgrade from Starter to Home Premium or another edition.  Links Download the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor Windows Team Blog: Anytime Upgrade Special with new PC purchase Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips How To Upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 Home Premium EditionAnother Blog You Should Subscribe ToMysticgeek Blog: Turn Vista Home Premium Into Ultimate (Part 3) – Shadow CopyUpgrade Ubuntu from Breezy to DapperHow to Upgrade the Windows 7 RC to RTM (Final Release) TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Get Your Delicious Bookmarks In Firefox’s Awesome Bar Manage Photos Across Different Social Sites With Dropico Test Drive Windows 7 Online Download Wallpapers From National Geographic Site Spyware Blaster v4.3 Yes, it’s Patch Tuesday

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• Parallelism in .NET – Part 3, Imperative Data Parallelism: Early Termination

  - by Reed

  Although simple data parallelism allows us to easily parallelize many of our iteration statements, there are cases that it does not handle well.  In my previous discussion, I focused on data parallelism with no shared state, and where every element is being processed exactly the same. Unfortunately, there are many common cases where this does not happen.  If we are dealing with a loop that requires early termination, extra care is required when parallelizing. Often, while processing in a loop, once a certain condition is met, it is no longer necessary to continue processing.  This may be a matter of finding a specific element within the collection, or reaching some error case.  The important distinction here is that, it is often impossible to know until runtime, what set of elements needs to be processed. In my initial discussion of data parallelism, I mentioned that this technique is a candidate when you can decompose the problem based on the data involved, and you wish to apply a single operation concurrently on all of the elements of a collection.  This covers many of the potential cases, but sometimes, after processing some of the elements, we need to stop processing. As an example, lets go back to our previous Parallel.ForEach example with contacting a customer.  However, this time, we’ll change the requirements slightly.  In this case, we’ll add an extra condition – if the store is unable to email the customer, we will exit gracefully.  The thinking here, of course, is that if the store is currently unable to email, the next time this operation runs, it will handle the same situation, so we can just skip our processing entirely.  The original, serial case, with this extra condition, might look something like the following: foreach(var customer in customers) { // Run some process that takes some time... DateTime lastContact = theStore.GetLastContact(customer); TimeSpan timeSinceContact = DateTime.Now - lastContact; // If it's been more than two weeks, send an email, and update... if (timeSinceContact.Days > 14) { // Exit gracefully if we fail to email, since this // entire process can be repeated later without issue. if (theStore.EmailCustomer(customer) == false) break; customer.LastEmailContact = DateTime.Now; } } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } Here, we’re processing our loop, but at any point, if we fail to send our email successfully, we just abandon this process, and assume that it will get handled correctly the next time our routine is run.  If we try to parallelize this using Parallel.ForEach, as we did previously, we’ll run into an error almost immediately: the break statement we’re using is only valid when enclosed within an iteration statement, such as foreach.  When we switch to Parallel.ForEach, we’re no longer within an iteration statement – we’re a delegate running in a method. This needs to be handled slightly differently when parallelized.  Instead of using the break statement, we need to utilize a new class in the Task Parallel Library: ParallelLoopState.  The ParallelLoopState class is intended to allow concurrently running loop bodies a way to interact with each other, and provides us with a way to break out of a loop.  In order to use this, we will use a different overload of Parallel.ForEach which takes an IEnumerable<T> and an Action<T, ParallelLoopState> instead of an Action<T>.  Using this, we can parallelize the above operation by doing: Parallel.ForEach(customers, (customer, parallelLoopState) => { // Run some process that takes some time... DateTime lastContact = theStore.GetLastContact(customer); TimeSpan timeSinceContact = DateTime.Now - lastContact; // If it's been more than two weeks, send an email, and update... if (timeSinceContact.Days > 14) { // Exit gracefully if we fail to email, since this // entire process can be repeated later without issue. if (theStore.EmailCustomer(customer) == false) parallelLoopState.Break(); else customer.LastEmailContact = DateTime.Now; } }); There are a couple of important points here.  First, we didn’t actually instantiate the ParallelLoopState instance.  It was provided directly to us via the Parallel class.  All we needed to do was change our lambda expression to reflect that we want to use the loop state, and the Parallel class creates an instance for our use.  We also needed to change our logic slightly when we call Break().  Since Break() doesn’t stop the program flow within our block, we needed to add an else case to only set the property in customer when we succeeded.  This same technique can be used to break out of a Parallel.For loop. That being said, there is a huge difference between using ParallelLoopState to cause early termination and to use break in a standard iteration statement.  When dealing with a loop serially, break will immediately terminate the processing within the closest enclosing loop statement.  Calling ParallelLoopState.Break(), however, has a very different behavior. The issue is that, now, we’re no longer processing one element at a time.  If we break in one of our threads, there are other threads that will likely still be executing.  This leads to an important observation about termination of parallel code: Early termination in parallel routines is not immediate.  Code will continue to run after you request a termination. This may seem problematic at first, but it is something you just need to keep in mind while designing your routine.  ParallelLoopState.Break() should be thought of as a request.  We are telling the runtime that no elements that were in the collection past the element we’re currently processing need to be processed, and leaving it up to the runtime to decide how to handle this as gracefully as possible.  Although this may seem problematic at first, it is a good thing.  If the runtime tried to immediately stop processing, many of our elements would be partially processed.  It would be like putting a return statement in a random location throughout our loop body – which could have horrific consequences to our code’s maintainability. In order to understand and effectively write parallel routines, we, as developers, need a subtle, but profound shift in our thinking.  We can no longer think in terms of sequential processes, but rather need to think in terms of requests to the system that may be handled differently than we’d first expect.  This is more natural to developers who have dealt with asynchronous models previously, but is an important distinction when moving to concurrent programming models. As an example, I’ll discuss the Break() method.  ParallelLoopState.Break() functions in a way that may be unexpected at first.  When you call Break() from a loop body, the runtime will continue to process all elements of the collection that were found prior to the element that was being processed when the Break() method was called.  This is done to keep the behavior of the Break() method as close to the behavior of the break statement as possible. We can see the behavior in this simple code: var collection = Enumerable.Range(0, 20); var pResult = Parallel.ForEach(collection, (element, state) => { if (element > 10) { Console.WriteLine("Breaking on {0}", element); state.Break(); } Console.WriteLine(element); }); If we run this, we get a result that may seem unexpected at first: 0 2 1 5 6 3 4 10 Breaking on 11 11 Breaking on 12 12 9 Breaking on 13 13 7 8 Breaking on 15 15 What is occurring here is that we loop until we find the first element where the element is greater than 10.  In this case, this was found, the first time, when one of our threads reached element 11.  It requested that the loop stop by calling Break() at this point.  However, the loop continued processing until all of the elements less than 11 were completed, then terminated.  This means that it will guarantee that elements 9, 7, and 8 are completed before it stops processing.  You can see our other threads that were running each tried to break as well, but since Break() was called on the element with a value of 11, it decides which elements (0-10) must be processed. If this behavior is not desirable, there is another option.  Instead of calling ParallelLoopState.Break(), you can call ParallelLoopState.Stop().  The Stop() method requests that the runtime terminate as soon as possible , without guaranteeing that any other elements are processed.  Stop() will not stop the processing within an element, so elements already being processed will continue to be processed.  It will prevent new elements, even ones found earlier in the collection, from being processed.  Also, when Stop() is called, the ParallelLoopState’s IsStopped property will return true.  This lets longer running processes poll for this value, and return after performing any necessary cleanup. The basic rule of thumb for choosing between Break() and Stop() is the following. Use ParallelLoopState.Stop() when possible, since it terminates more quickly.  This is particularly useful in situations where you are searching for an element or a condition in the collection.  Once you’ve found it, you do not need to do any other processing, so Stop() is more appropriate. Use ParallelLoopState.Break() if you need to more closely match the behavior of the C# break statement. Both methods behave differently than our C# break statement.  Unfortunately, when parallelizing a routine, more thought and care needs to be put into every aspect of your routine than you may otherwise expect.  This is due to my second observation: Parallelizing a routine will almost always change its behavior. This sounds crazy at first, but it’s a concept that’s so simple its easy to forget.  We’re purposely telling the system to process more than one thing at the same time, which means that the sequence in which things get processed is no longer deterministic.  It is easy to change the behavior of your routine in very subtle ways by introducing parallelism.  Often, the changes are not avoidable, even if they don’t have any adverse side effects.  This leads to my final observation for this post: Parallelization is something that should be handled with care and forethought, added by design, and not just introduced casually.

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• Day 2 - Game Design Documentation

  - by dapostolov

  So yesterday I didn't cut any code for my game but I was able to do a tiny bit of research on the XNA Game Development Technology and the communities out there and do you know what? I feel I'm a bit closer to my goal. The bad news is today I didn't cut code either. However, not all is lost because I wanted to get my ideas on paper and today I just did that.  Today, I began to jot down notes about the game and how I felt the visual elements would interact with each other. Unlike my workplace, my personal level of documentation is nothing more than a task list or a mind map of my ideas; it helps me streamline my solutions quiet effectively and circumvent the long process of articulating each thought to the n-th degree. I truly dislike documentation (because I have an extremely hard time articulating my thought and solutions); however, because I tend to do a really good job with documentation I tend to get stuck writing the buggers. But as a generalist remark: 'No Developer likes documentation.' For now let's stick with my basic notes and call this post a living document. Here are my notes, fresh, from after watching the new first episode of Merlin second season! Actually, a quick recommendation to anyone who is reading this (if anyone is): I truly recommend you envelope yourself in the medium or task you're trying to tackle. Be one with moment and feel it! For instance: Are you writing a fantasy script / game? What would the music of the genre sound like? For me the Conan the Barbarian soundtrack by Basil Poledouris is frackin awesome. There are many other good CD's out there, which I listen to (some who even use medival instruments, but Conan I keep returning to. It's a creative trigger for me. Ask yourself what would the imagery look like? Time to surf google for artist renditions of fantasy! What would the game feel like? Start playing some of your favorite games that inspire you, be wary though, have some self control and don't let it absorb your time. Anyhow, onto the documentation... Screens, Scenes, and Sprites. Oh My! (groan...) The first thing that came to mind were the screens, I thought the following would suffice: Menu Screen Character Customisation Screen Loading Screen? Battle Ground The Menu Screen Ok. So, the thought here is when the game loads a huge title is displayed: Wizard Wars. The player is prompted with 3 menu items: 1 Player Game, 2 Player Game, and Exit. Since I'm targetting the PC platform, as a non-networked game to start, I picture myself running my mouse over each menu option and the visual element of the menu item changes, along with a sound to indicate that I am over a curent menu item. And as I move my mouse away, it changes back, and possibly an exit mouse sound. Maybe on the screen somewhere is a brazier alit with a magical tome open right beside it, OR, maybe the tome is the menu! I hear the menu music as mellow, not obtrusive or piercing. On a menu item select, a confirmation sound bellows to indicate the players selection. The Esc key will always return me to the previous screens or desktop. The menu screen must feel...dark, like a really important ritual is about to happen and thus the music should build up. 1 Player Game - > Customize Character(s) 2 Player Game - > Customize Character(s) Exit - > Back to Windows Notes: So the first thing I pick up here are a couple things: First and foremost, my artistic abilities suck crap, so I may have to hire an artist (now that i've said that, lets get techy) graphical objects will be positioned within a scene on each screen / window. Menu items will be represented grapically, possibly animated, and have sound / animation effects triggered by user input or a time line. I have an animated scene involving a brazier or fire on a stick IF I was to move this game to the xbox, I'd have to track which menu item is currently selected (unless I do a mouse pointer type thing.) WindowObject has a scene A Scene has many GameObjects GameObject has a position graphic or animation MenuObject is a GameObject which has a mouse in, mouse out, and click event which either does something graphically (animation), does something with sound, or moves to another screen.  Character Customisation Screen With either the 1 or 2 player option selected, both selections will come to this screen; a wizard requires a name, powers, and vestements of course! Player one will configure his character first and then player two. I considered a split screen for PC but to have two people fighting over a keyboard would probably suck. For XBox, a split screen could work; maybe when I get into the networking portion (phase 2 blog?) of this game I will remove the 2 player option for PC and provide only multiplayer and I will leave 2 player for xbox...hmm... Anyhow...I picture the creation process as follows: Name: (textbox / keyboard entry) - for xbox, this would have to be different. Robe Color: (color box, or something) Stats: Speed, Oomph, and Health. (as sliders) 1 as minimum and 10 as maximum. Ok, Back, and Cancel buttons / options. Each stat has a benefit which are listed below. The idea is the player decides if he wants his wizard to run fast, be a tank and ... hit with a purse.Regardless, the player will have a pool of 12 points to use. Ideally, A balanced wizard will have 5 in each attribute. Spells? The only spell of choice is a ball of fire which comes without question. The music and screen should still feel like a ritual. The Character Speed Basically, how fast your character moves and casts. Oomph (Best Monster Truck Voice): PURE POWAH!!! The damage output of your fireball. Health How much damage you can take. Notes: I realise the game dynamics may sound uninteresting at the moment; but I think after a couple releases, we could have some other grand ideas such as: saved profiles, gold to upgrade arsenal of spells, talents, etc...but for now...a vanilla fireball thrower mage will suffice for this experiment. OK. So... a MenuObject  may need to be loosely coupled to allow future items such as networking? may be a button? a CharacterObject has a name speed oomph health and a funky robe color. cap on the three stats (1-10) an arsenal of 1 spell (possibly could expand this) The Loading Screen As is. The Battleground Screen For now, I'm keeping the screen as max resolution for the PC. The screen isn't going to move or even be a split screen. I'm not aiming high here because I want to see what level of change is involved when new features / concepts are added to game content. I'm interested to find out if we could apply techniques such as MVC or MVVM to this type of development or is it too tightly coupled? This reminds me when when my best friend and I were brainstorming our game idea (this is going back a while...1994, 6?) and he cringed at the thought of bringing business technology into games, especially when I suggested a database to store character information and COM / DCOM as the medium, but it seems I wasn't far off (reflecting); just like his implementation of a xml "config file" for dynamic direct-x menus back before .net in 1999...anyhow...i digress... The Battle One screen, two characters lobing balls of fire at each other...It doesn't get better than that. Every so often a scroll appears...and the fireballs bounce off walls, or the wizard has rapid fire, or even scrolls of healing! The scroll options are endless. Two bars at the top, each the color of the wizard (with their name beside the bar) indicate how much health they have. Possibly the appearance of the scrolls means the battle is taking too long? I'm thinking 1 player controls: up, down, left, right and space to fire the button. Or even possibly, mouse click and shift - mouse button to fire a spell in the direction they are facing. Two player controls: a, s, d, f and space AND arrows (up, down, left, right) and Del key or Crtl. The game ends when a player has 0 health and a dialog box appears asking for a rematch / reconfigure / exit. Health goes down when a fireball (friendly or not), connects with a wizard. When a wizard connects with a scroll, a countdown clock / icon appears near the health bar and the wizard begins to glow. For the most part, a wizard can have only scroll 1 effect on him at a time. Notes: Ok, there's alot to cover here. a CharacterObject is a GameObject it travels at a set velocity it travels in a direction it has sounds (walking, running, casting, impact, dying, laughing, whistling, other?) it has animations (walking, running, casting, impact, dying, laughing, idle, other?) it has a lifespan (determined by health) it is alive or dead it has a position a ScrollObject is a GameObject it carries a transferance of points "damage" (or healing, bad scroll effect?) (determinde by caster) it carries a transferance of "other" it is stationary it has a sound on impact it has a stationary animation it has an impact animation / or transfers an impact animation it has a fade animation? it has a lifespan (determined by game) it is alive or dead it has a position a WallObject is a GameObject it has a sound on fireball impact? it is a still image / stationary it has an impact animation / or transfers an impact animation it is dead it has a position A FireBall is a GameObject it carries a transferance of poinst "damage" (or healing, bad scroll effect?) (determinde by caster) it travels at a set velocity it travels in a direction it has a sound it has a travel animation it has an impact animation / or transfers an impact animation it has a fade animation? it has a lifespan (determined by caster) it is alive or dead it has a position As I look at this, I can see some common attributes in each object that I can carry up to the GameObject. I think I'm going to end the documentation here, it's taken me a bit of time to type this all out, tomorrow. I'll load up my IDE and my paint studio to get some good old fashioned cowboy hacking going!   D.

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• Windows Azure: Import/Export Hard Drives, VM ACLs, Web Sockets, Remote Debugging, Continuous Delivery, New Relic, Billing Alerts and More

  - by ScottGu

  Two weeks ago we released a giant set of improvements to Windows Azure, as well as a significant update of the Windows Azure SDK. This morning we released another massive set of enhancements to Windows Azure.  Today’s new capabilities include: Storage: Import/Export Hard Disk Drives to your Storage Accounts HDInsight: General Availability of our Hadoop Service in the cloud Virtual Machines: New VM Gallery, ACL support for VIPs Web Sites: WebSocket and Remote Debugging Support Notification Hubs: Segmented customer push notification support with tag expressions TFS & GIT: Continuous Delivery Support for Web Sites + Cloud Services Developer Analytics: New Relic support for Web Sites + Mobile Services Service Bus: Support for partitioned queues and topics Billing: New Billing Alert Service that sends emails notifications when your bill hits a threshold you define All of these improvements are now available to use immediately (note that some features are still in preview).  Below are more details about them. Storage: Import/Export Hard Disk Drives to Windows Azure I am excited to announce the preview of our new Windows Azure Import/Export Service! The Windows Azure Import/Export Service enables you to move large amounts of on-premises data into and out of your Windows Azure Storage accounts. It does this by enabling you to securely ship hard disk drives directly to our Windows Azure data centers. Once we receive the drives we’ll automatically transfer the data to or from your Windows Azure Storage account.  This enables you to import or export massive amounts of data more quickly and cost effectively (and not be constrained by available network bandwidth). Encrypted Transport Our Import/Export service provides built-in support for BitLocker disk encryption – which enables you to securely encrypt data on the hard drives before you send it, and not have to worry about it being compromised even if the disk is lost/stolen in transit (since the content on the transported hard drives is completely encrypted and you are the only one who has the key to it).  The drive preparation tool we are shipping today makes setting up bitlocker encryption on these hard drives easy. How to Import/Export your first Hard Drive of Data You can read our Getting Started Guide to learn more about how to begin using the import/export service.  You can create import and export jobs via the Windows Azure Management Portal as well as programmatically using our Server Management APIs. It is really easy to create a new import or export job using the Windows Azure Management Portal.  Simply navigate to a Windows Azure storage account, and then click the new Import/Export tab now available within it (note: if you don’t have this tab make sure to sign-up for the Import/Export preview): Then click the “Create Import Job” or “Create Export Job” commands at the bottom of it.  This will launch a wizard that easily walks you through the steps required: For more comprehensive information about Import/Export, refer to Windows Azure Storage team blog.  You can also send questions and comments to the [email protected] email address. We think you’ll find this new service makes it much easier to move data into and out of Windows Azure, and it will dramatically cut down the network bandwidth required when working on large data migration projects.  We hope you like it. HDInsight: 100% Compatible Hadoop Service in the Cloud Last week we announced the general availability release of Windows Azure HDInsight. HDInsight is a 100% compatible Hadoop service that allows you to easily provision and manage Hadoop clusters for big data processing in Windows Azure.  This release is now live in production, backed by an enterprise SLA, supported 24x7 by Microsoft Support, and is ready to use for production scenarios. HDInsight allows you to use Apache Hadoop tools, such as Pig and Hive, to process large amounts of data in Windows Azure Blob Storage. Because data is stored in Windows Azure Blob Storage, you can choose to dynamically create Hadoop clusters only when you need them, and then shut them down when they are no longer required (since you pay only for the time the Hadoop cluster instances are running this provides a super cost effective way to use them).  You can create Hadoop clusters using either the Windows Azure Management Portal (see below) or using our PowerShell and Cross Platform Command line tools: The import/export hard drive support that came out today is a perfect companion service to use with HDInsight – the combination allows you to easily ingest, process and optionally export a limitless amount of data.  We’ve also integrated HDInsight with our Business Intelligence tools, so users can leverage familiar tools like Excel in order to analyze the output of jobs.  You can find out more about how to get started with HDInsight here. Virtual Machines: VM Gallery Enhancements Today’s update of Windows Azure brings with it a new Virtual Machine gallery that you can use to create new VMs in the cloud.  You can launch the gallery by doing New->Compute->Virtual Machine->From Gallery within the Windows Azure Management Portal: The new Virtual Machine Gallery includes some nice enhancements that make it even easier to use: Search: You can now easily search and filter images using the search box in the top-right of the dialog.  For example, simply type “SQL” and we’ll filter to show those images in the gallery that contain that substring. Category Tree-view: Each month we add more built-in VM images to the gallery.  You can continue to browse these using the “All” view within the VM Gallery – or now quickly filter them using the category tree-view on the left-hand side of the dialog.  For example, by selecting “Oracle” in the tree-view you can now quickly filter to see the official Oracle supplied images. MSDN and Supported checkboxes: With today’s update we are also introducing filters that makes it easy to filter out types of images that you may not be interested in. The first checkbox is MSDN: using this filter you can exclude any image that is not part of the Windows Azure benefits for MSDN subscribers (which have highly discounted pricing - you can learn more about the MSDN pricing here). The second checkbox is Supported: this filter will exclude any image that contains prerelease software, so you can feel confident that the software you choose to deploy is fully supported by Windows Azure and our partners. Sort options: We sort gallery images by what we think customers are most interested in, but sometimes you might want to sort using different views. So we’re providing some additional sort options, like “Newest,” to customize the image list for what suits you best. Pricing information: We now provide additional pricing information about images and options on how to cost effectively run them directly within the VM Gallery. The above improvements make it even easier to use the VM Gallery and quickly create launch and run Virtual Machines in the cloud. Virtual Machines: ACL Support for VIPs A few months ago we exposed the ability to configure Access Control Lists (ACLs) for Virtual Machines using Windows PowerShell cmdlets and our Service Management API. With today’s release, you can now configure VM ACLs using the Windows Azure Management Portal as well. You can now do this by clicking the new Manage ACL command in the Endpoints tab of a virtual machine instance: This will enable you to configure an ordered list of permit and deny rules to scope the traffic that can access your VM’s network endpoints. For example, if you were on a virtual network, you could limit RDP access to a Windows Azure virtual machine to only a few computers attached to your enterprise. Or if you weren’t on a virtual network you could alternatively limit traffic from public IPs that can access your workloads: Here is the default behaviors for ACLs in Windows Azure: By default (i.e. no rules specified), all traffic is permitted. When using only Permit rules, all other traffic is denied. When using only Deny rules, all other traffic is permitted. When there is a combination of Permit and Deny rules, all other traffic is denied. Lastly, remember that configuring endpoints does not automatically configure them within the VM if it also has firewall rules enabled at the OS level.  So if you create an endpoint using the Windows Azure Management Portal, Windows PowerShell, or REST API, be sure to also configure your guest VM firewall appropriately as well. Web Sites: Web Sockets Support With today’s release you can now use Web Sockets with Windows Azure Web Sites.  This feature enables you to easily integrate real-time communication scenarios within your web based applications, and is available at no extra charge (it even works with the free tier).  Higher level programming libraries like SignalR and socket.io are also now supported with it. You can enable Web Sockets support on a web site by navigating to the Configure tab of a Web Site, and by toggling Web Sockets support to “on”: Once Web Sockets is enabled you can start to integrate some really cool scenarios into your web applications.  Check out the new SignalR documentation hub on www.asp.net to learn more about some of the awesome scenarios you can do with it. Web Sites: Remote Debugging Support The Windows Azure SDK 2.2 we released two weeks ago introduced remote debugging support for Windows Azure Cloud Services. With today’s Windows Azure release we are extending this remote debugging support to also work with Windows Azure Web Sites. With live, remote debugging support inside of Visual Studio, you are able to have more visibility than ever before into how your code is operating live in Windows Azure. It is now super easy to attach the debugger and quickly see what is going on with your application in the cloud. Remote Debugging of a Windows Azure Web Site using VS 2013 Enabling the remote debugging of a Windows Azure Web Site using VS 2013 is really easy.  Start by opening up your web application’s project within Visual Studio. Then navigate to the “Server Explorer” tab within Visual Studio, and click on the deployed web-site you want to debug that is running within Windows Azure using the Windows Azure->Web Sites node in the Server Explorer.  Then right-click and choose the “Attach Debugger” option on it: When you do this Visual Studio will remotely attach the debugger to the Web Site running within Windows Azure.  The debugger will then stop the web site’s execution when it hits any break points that you have set within your web application’s project inside Visual Studio.  For example, below I set a breakpoint on the “ViewBag.Message” assignment statement within the HomeController of the standard ASP.NET MVC project template.  When I hit refresh on the “About” page of the web site within the browser, the breakpoint was triggered and I am now able to debug the app remotely using Visual Studio: Note above how we can debug variables (including autos/watchlist/etc), as well as use the Immediate and Command Windows. In the debug session above I used the Immediate Window to explore some of the request object state, as well as to dynamically change the ViewBag.Message property.  When we click the the “Continue” button (or press F5) the app will continue execution and the Web Site will render the content back to the browser.  This makes it super easy to debug web apps remotely. Tips for Better Debugging To get the best experience while debugging, we recommend publishing your site using the Debug configuration within Visual Studio’s Web Publish dialog. This will ensure that debug symbol information is uploaded to the Web Site which will enable a richer debug experience within Visual Studio.  You can find this option on the Web Publish dialog on the Settings tab: When you ultimately deploy/run the application in production we recommend using the “Release” configuration setting – the release configuration is memory optimized and will provide the best production performance.  To learn more about diagnosing and debugging Windows Azure Web Sites read our new Troubleshooting Windows Azure Web Sites in Visual Studio guide. Notification Hubs: Segmented Push Notification support with tag expressions In August we announced the General Availability of Windows Azure Notification Hubs - a powerful Mobile Push Notifications service that makes it easy to send high volume push notifications with low latency from any mobile app back-end.  Notification hubs can be used with any mobile app back-end (including ones built using our Mobile Services capability) and can also be used with back-ends that run in the cloud as well as on-premises. Beginning with the initial release, Notification Hubs allowed developers to send personalized push notifications to both individual users as well as groups of users by interest, by associating their devices with tags representing the logical target of the notification. For example, by registering all devices of customers interested in a favorite MLB team with a corresponding tag, it is possible to broadcast one message to millions of Boston Red Sox fans and another message to millions of St. Louis Cardinals fans with a single API call respectively. New support for using tag expressions to enable advanced customer segmentation With today’s release we are adding support for even more advanced customer targeting.  You can now identify customers that you want to send push notifications to by defining rich tag expressions. With tag expressions, you can now not only broadcast notifications to Boston Red Sox fans, but take that segmenting a step farther and reach more granular segments. This opens up a variety of scenarios, for example: Offers based on multiple preferences—e.g. send a game day vegetarian special to users tagged as both a Boston Red Sox fan AND a vegetarian Push content to multiple segments in a single message—e.g. rain delay information only to users who are tagged as either a Boston Red Sox fan OR a St. Louis Cardinal fan Avoid presenting subsets of a segment with irrelevant content—e.g. season ticket availability reminder to users who are tagged as a Boston Red Sox fan but NOT also a season ticket holder To illustrate with code, consider a restaurant chain app that sends an offer related to a Red Sox vs Cardinals game for users in Boston. Devices can be tagged by your app with location tags (e.g. “Loc:Boston”) and interest tags (e.g. “Follows:RedSox”, “Follows:Cardinals”), and then a notification can be sent by your back-end to “(Follows:RedSox || Follows:Cardinals) && Loc:Boston” in order to deliver an offer to all devices in Boston that follow either the RedSox or the Cardinals. This can be done directly in your server backend send logic using the code below: var notification = new WindowsNotification(messagePayload); hub.SendNotificationAsync(notification, "(Follows:RedSox || Follows:Cardinals) && Loc:Boston"); In your expressions you can use all Boolean operators: AND (&&), OR (||), and NOT (!).  Some other cool use cases for tag expressions that are now supported include: Social: To “all my group except me” - group:id && !user:id Events: Touchdown event is sent to everybody following either team or any of the players involved in the action: Followteam:A || Followteam:B || followplayer:1 || followplayer:2 … Hours: Send notifications at specific times. E.g. Tag devices with time zone and when it is 12pm in Seattle send to: GMT8 && follows:thaifood Versions and platforms: Send a reminder to people still using your first version for Android - version:1.0 && platform:Android For help on getting started with Notification Hubs, visit the Notification Hub documentation center.  Then download the latest NuGet package (or use the Notification Hubs REST APIs directly) to start sending push notifications using tag expressions.  They are really powerful and enable a bunch of great new scenarios. TFS & GIT: Continuous Delivery Support for Web Sites + Cloud Services With today’s Windows Azure release we are making it really easy to enable continuous delivery support with Windows Azure and Team Foundation Services.  Team Foundation Services is a cloud based offering from Microsoft that provides integrated source control (with both TFS and Git support), build server, test execution, collaboration tools, and agile planning support.  It makes it really easy to setup a team project (complete with automated builds and test runners) in the cloud, and it has really rich integration with Visual Studio. With today’s Windows Azure release it is now really easy to enable continuous delivery support with both TFS and Git based repositories hosted using Team Foundation Services.  This enables a workflow where when code is checked in, built successfully on an automated build server, and all tests pass on it – I can automatically have the app deployed on Windows Azure with zero manual intervention or work required. The below screen-shots demonstrate how to quickly setup a continuous delivery workflow to Windows Azure with a Git-based ASP.NET MVC project hosted using Team Foundation Services. Enabling Continuous Delivery to Windows Azure with Team Foundation Services The project I’m going to enable continuous delivery with is a simple ASP.NET MVC project whose source code I’m hosting using Team Foundation Services.  I did this by creating a “SimpleContinuousDeploymentTest” repository there using Git – and then used the new built-in Git tooling support within Visual Studio 2013 to push the source code to it.  Below is a screen-shot of the Git repository hosted within Team Foundation Services: I can access the repository within Visual Studio 2013 and easily make commits with it (as well as branch, merge and do other tasks).  Using VS 2013 I can also setup automated builds to take place in the cloud using Team Foundation Services every time someone checks in code to the repository: The cool thing about this is that I don’t have to buy or rent my own build server – Team Foundation Services automatically maintains its own build server farm and can automatically queue up a build for me (for free) every time someone checks in code using the above settings.  This build server (and automated testing) support now works with both TFS and Git based source control repositories. Connecting a Team Foundation Services project to Windows Azure Once I have a source repository hosted in Team Foundation Services with Automated Builds and Testing set up, I can then go even further and set it up so that it will be automatically deployed to Windows Azure when a source code commit is made to the repository (assuming the Build + Tests pass).  Enabling this is now really easy.  To set this up with a Windows Azure Web Site simply use the New->Compute->Web Site->Custom Create command inside the Windows Azure Management Portal.  This will create a dialog like below.  I gave the web site a name and then made sure the “Publish from source control” checkbox was selected: When we click next we’ll be prompted for the location of the source repository.  We’ll select “Team Foundation Services”: Once we do this we’ll be prompted for our Team Foundation Services account that our source repository is hosted under (in this case my TFS account is “scottguthrie”): When we click the “Authorize Now” button we’ll be prompted to give Windows Azure permissions to connect to the Team Foundation Services account.  Once we do this we’ll be prompted to pick the source repository we want to connect to.  Starting with today’s Windows Azure release you can now connect to both TFS and Git based source repositories.  This new support allows me to connect to the “SimpleContinuousDeploymentTest” respository we created earlier: Clicking the finish button will then create the Web Site with the continuous delivery hooks setup with Team Foundation Services.  Now every time someone pushes source control to the repository in Team Foundation Services, it will kick off an automated build, run all of the unit tests in the solution , and if they pass the app will be automatically deployed to our Web Site in Windows Azure.  You can monitor the history and status of these automated deployments using the Deployments tab within the Web Site: This enables a really slick continuous delivery workflow, and enables you to build and deploy apps in a really nice way. Developer Analytics: New Relic support for Web Sites + Mobile Services With today’s Windows Azure release we are making it really easy to enable Developer Analytics and Monitoring support with both Windows Azure Web Site and Windows Azure Mobile Services.  We are partnering with New Relic, who provide a great dev analytics and app performance monitoring offering, to enable this - and we have updated the Windows Azure Management Portal to make it really easy to configure. Enabling New Relic with a Windows Azure Web Site Enabling New Relic support with a Windows Azure Web Site is now really easy.  Simply navigate to the Configure tab of a Web Site and scroll down to the “developer analytics” section that is now within it: Clicking the “add-on” button will display some additional UI.  If you don’t already have a New Relic subscription, you can click the “view windows azure store” button to obtain a subscription (note: New Relic has a perpetually free tier so you can enable it even without paying anything): Clicking the “view windows azure store” button will launch the integrated Windows Azure Store experience we have within the Windows Azure Management Portal.  You can use this to browse from a variety of great add-on services – including New Relic: Select “New Relic” within the dialog above, then click the next button, and you’ll be able to choose which type of New Relic subscription you wish to purchase.  For this demo we’ll simply select the “Free Standard Version” – which does not cost anything and can be used forever:  Once we’ve signed-up for our New Relic subscription and added it to our Windows Azure account, we can go back to the Web Site’s configuration tab and choose to use the New Relic add-on with our Windows Azure Web Site.  We can do this by simply selecting it from the “add-on” dropdown (it is automatically populated within it once we have a New Relic subscription in our account): Clicking the “Save” button will then cause the Windows Azure Management Portal to automatically populate all of the needed New Relic configuration settings to our Web Site: Deploying the New Relic Agent as part of a Web Site The final step to enable developer analytics using New Relic is to add the New Relic runtime agent to our web app.  We can do this within Visual Studio by right-clicking on our web project and selecting the “Manage NuGet Packages” context menu: This will bring up the NuGet package manager.  You can search for “New Relic” within it to find the New Relic agent.  Note that there is both a 32-bit and 64-bit edition of it – make sure to install the version that matches how your Web Site is running within Windows Azure (note: you can configure your Web Site to run in either 32-bit or 64-bit mode using the Web Site’s “Configuration” tab within the Windows Azure Management Portal): Once we install the NuGet package we are all set to go.  We’ll simply re-publish the web site again to Windows Azure and New Relic will now automatically start monitoring the application Monitoring a Web Site using New Relic Now that the application has developer analytics support with New Relic enabled, we can launch the New Relic monitoring portal to start monitoring the health of it.  We can do this by clicking on the “Add Ons” tab in the left-hand side of the Windows Azure Management Portal.  Then select the New Relic add-on we signed-up for within it.  The Windows Azure Management Portal will provide some default information about the add-on when we do this.  Clicking the “Manage” button in the tray at the bottom will launch a new browser tab and single-sign us into the New Relic monitoring portal associated with our account: When we do this a new browser tab will launch with the New Relic admin tool loaded within it: We can now see insights into how our app is performing – without having to have written a single line of monitoring code.  The New Relic service provides a ton of great built-in monitoring features allowing us to quickly see: Performance times (including browser rendering speed) for the overall site and individual pages.  You can optionally set alert thresholds to trigger if the speed does not meet a threshold you specify. Information about where in the world your customers are hitting the site from (and how performance varies by region) Details on the latency performance of external services your web apps are using (for example: SQL, Storage, Twitter, etc) Error information including call stack details for exceptions that have occurred at runtime SQL Server profiling information – including which queries executed against your database and what their performance was And a whole bunch more… The cool thing about New Relic is that you don’t need to write monitoring code within your application to get all of the above reports (plus a lot more).  The New Relic agent automatically enables the CLR profiler within applications and automatically captures the information necessary to identify these.  This makes it super easy to get started and immediately have a rich developer analytics view for your solutions with very little effort. If you haven’t tried New Relic out yet with Windows Azure I recommend you do so – I think you’ll find it helps you build even better cloud applications.  Following the above steps will help you get started and deliver you a really good application monitoring solution in only minutes. Service Bus: Support for partitioned queues and topics With today’s release, we are enabling support within Service Bus for partitioned queues and topics. Enabling partitioning enables you to achieve a higher message throughput and better availability from your queues and topics. Higher message throughput is achieved by implementing multiple message brokers for each partitioned queue and topic.  The  multiple messaging stores will also provide higher availability. You can create a partitioned queue or topic by simply checking the Enable Partitioning option in the custom create wizard for a Queue or Topic: Read this article to learn more about partitioned queues and topics and how to take advantage of them today. Billing: New Billing Alert Service Today’s Windows Azure update enables a new Billing Alert Service Preview that enables you to get proactive email notifications when your Windows Azure bill goes above a certain monetary threshold that you configure.  This makes it easier to manage your bill and avoid potential surprises at the end of the month. With the Billing Alert Service Preview, you can now create email alerts to monitor and manage your monetary credits or your current bill total.  To set up an alert first sign-up for the free Billing Alert Service Preview.  Then visit the account management page, click on a subscription you have setup, and then navigate to the new Alerts tab that is available: The alerts tab allows you to setup email alerts that will be sent automatically once a certain threshold is hit.  For example, by clicking the “add alert” button above I can setup a rule to send myself email anytime my Windows Azure bill goes above $100 for the month: The Billing Alert Service will evolve to support additional aspects of your bill as well as support multiple forms of alerts such as SMS.  Try out the new Billing Alert Service Preview today and give us feedback. Summary Today’s Windows Azure release enables a ton of great new scenarios, and makes building applications hosted in the cloud even easier. If you don’t already have a Windows Azure account, you can sign-up for a free trial and start using all of the above features today.  Then visit the Windows Azure Developer Center to learn more about how to build apps with it. Hope this helps, Scott P.S. In addition to blogging, I am also now using Twitter for quick updates and to share links. Follow me at: twitter.com/scottgu

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• Exam 70-480 Study Material: Programming in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3

  - by Stacy Vicknair

  Here’s a list of sources of information for the different elements that comprise the 70-480 exam: General Resources http://www.w3schools.com (As pointed out in David Pallmann’s blog some of this content is unverified, but it is a decent source of information. For more about when it isn’t decent, see http://www.w3fools.com ) http://www.bloggedbychris.com/2012/09/19/microsoft-exam-70-480-study-guide/ (A guy who did a lot of what I did already, sadly I found this halfway through finishing my resources list. This list is expertly put together so I would recommend checking it out.) http://davidpallmann.blogspot.com/2012/08/microsoft-certification-exam-70-480.html http://pluralsight.com/training/Courses (Yes, this isn’t free, but if you look at the course listing there is an entire section on HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript. You can always try the trial!)   Some of the links I put below will overlap with the other resources above, but I tried to find explanations that looked beneficial to me on links outside those already mentioned.   Test Breakdown Implement and Manipulate Document Structures and Objects (24%) Create the document structure. o This objective may include but is not limited to: structure the UI by using semantic markup, including for search engines and screen readers (Section, Article, Nav, Header, Footer, and Aside); create a layout container in HTML http://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_new_elements.asp   Write code that interacts with UI controls. o This objective may include but is not limited to: programmatically add and modify HTML elements; implement media controls; implement HTML5 canvas and SVG graphics http://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_canvas.asp http://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_svg.asp   Apply styling to HTML elements programmatically. o This objective may include but is not limited to: change the location of an element; apply a transform; show and hide elements   Implement HTML5 APIs. o This objective may include but is not limited to: implement storage APIs, AppCache API, and Geolocation API http://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_geolocation.asp http://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_webstorage.asp http://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_app_cache.asp   Establish the scope of objects and variables. o This objective may include but is not limited to: define the lifetime of variables; keep objects out of the global namespace; use the “this” keyword to reference an object that fired an event; scope variables locally and globally http://robertnyman.com/2008/10/09/explaining-javascript-scope-and-closures/ http://www.quirksmode.org/js/this.html   Create and implement objects and methods. o This objective may include but is not limited to: implement native objects; create custom objects and custom properties for native objects using prototypes and functions; inherit from an object; implement native methods and create custom methods http://www.javascriptkit.com/javatutors/object.shtml http://www.crockford.com/javascript/inheritance.html http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1635116/javascript-class-method-vs-class-prototype-method http://www.javascriptkit.com/javatutors/proto.shtml     Implement Program Flow (25%) Implement program flow. o This objective may include but is not limited to: iterate across collections and array items; manage program decisions by using switch statements, if/then, and operators; evaluate expressions http://www.javascriptkit.com/jsref/looping.shtml http://www.javascriptkit.com/javatutors/varshort.shtml http://www.javascriptkit.com/javatutors/switch.shtml   Raise and handle an event. o This objective may include but is not limited to: handle common events exposed by DOM (OnBlur, OnFocus, OnClick); declare and handle bubbled events; handle an event by using an anonymous function http://dev.w3.org/2006/webapi/DOM-Level-3-Events/html/DOM3-Events.html http://javascript.info/tutorial/bubbling-and-capturing   Implement exception handling. o This objective may include but is not limited to: set and respond to error codes; throw an exception; request for null checks; implement try-catch-finally blocks http://www.javascriptkit.com/javatutors/trycatch.shtml   Implement a callback. o This objective may include but is not limited to: receive messages from the HTML5 WebSocket API; use jQuery to make an AJAX call; wire up an event; implement a callback by using anonymous functions; handle the “this” pointer http://www.w3.org/TR/2011/WD-websockets-20110419/ http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/websockets/basics/ http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.ajax/   Create a web worker process. o This objective may include but is not limited to: start and stop a web worker; pass data to a web worker; configure timeouts and intervals on the web worker; register an event listener for the web worker; limitations of a web worker https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/DOM/Using_web_workers http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/workers/basics/   Access and Secure Data (26%) Validate user input by using HTML5 elements. o This objective may include but is not limited to: choose the appropriate controls based on requirements; implement HTML input types and content attributes (for example, required) to collect user input http://diveintohtml5.info/forms.html   Validate user input by using JavaScript. o This objective may include but is not limited to: evaluate a regular expression to validate the input format; validate that you are getting the right kind of data type by using built-in functions; prevent code injection http://www.regular-expressions.info/javascript.html http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/66ztdbe6(v=vs.94).aspx https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/JavaScript/Reference/Operators/typeof http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2008/06/safe-html-and-xss/ http://stackoverflow.com/questions/942011/how-to-prevent-javascript-injection-attacks-within-user-generated-html   Consume data. o This objective may include but is not limited to: consume JSON and XML data; retrieve data by using web services; load data or get data from other sources by using XMLHTTPRequest http://www.erichynds.com/jquery/working-with-xml-jquery-and-javascript/ http://www.webdevstuff.com/86/javascript-xmlhttprequest-object.html http://www.json.org/ http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4935632/how-to-parse-json-in-javascript   Serialize, deserialize, and transmit data. o This objective may include but is not limited to: binary data; text data (JSON, XML); implement the jQuery serialize method; Form.Submit; parse data; send data by using XMLHTTPRequest; sanitize input by using URI/form encoding http://api.jquery.com/serialize/ http://www.javascript-coder.com/javascript-form/javascript-form-submit.phtml http://stackoverflow.com/questions/327685/is-there-a-way-to-read-binary-data-into-javascript https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/encodeURI     Use CSS3 in Applications (25%) Style HTML text properties. o This objective may include but is not limited to: apply styles to text appearance (color, bold, italics); apply styles to text font (WOFF and @font-face, size); apply styles to text alignment, spacing, and indentation; apply styles to text hyphenation; apply styles for a text drop shadow http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_text.asp http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_font.asp http://nicewebtype.com/notes/2009/10/30/how-to-use-css-font-face/ http://webdesign.about.com/od/beginningcss/p/aacss5text.htm http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-text/ http://www.css3.info/preview/box-shadow/   Style HTML box properties. o This objective may include but is not limited to: apply styles to alter appearance attributes (size, border and rounding border corners, outline, padding, margin); apply styles to alter graphic effects (transparency, opacity, background image, gradients, shadow, clipping); apply styles to establish and change an element’s position (static, relative, absolute, fixed) http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/html-css-techniques/10-css3-properties-you-need-to-be-familiar-with/ http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_image_transparency.asp http://www.w3schools.com/cssref/pr_background-image.asp http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/graphics/cssgradientbackgroundmaker/default.html http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/visufx.html http://www.barelyfitz.com/screencast/html-training/css/positioning/ http://davidwalsh.name/css-fixed-position   Create a flexible content layout. o This objective may include but is not limited to: implement a layout using a flexible box model; implement a layout using multi-column; implement a layout using position floating and exclusions; implement a layout using grid alignment; implement a layout using regions, grouping, and nesting http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/flexbox/quick/ http://www.css3.info/preview/multi-column-layout/ http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ie/hh673558(v=vs.85).aspx http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css3-grid-layout/ http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css3-regions/   Create an animated and adaptive UI. o This objective may include but is not limited to: animate objects by applying CSS transitions; apply 3-D and 2-D transformations; adjust UI based on media queries (device adaptations for output formats, displays, and representations); hide or disable controls http://www.bloggedbychris.com/2012/09/19/microsoft-exam-70-480-study-guide/   Find elements by using CSS selectors and jQuery. o This objective may include but is not limited to: choose the correct selector to reference an element; define element, style, and attribute selectors; find elements by using pseudo-elements and pseudo-classes (for example, :before, :first-line, :first-letter, :target, :lang, :checked, :first-child) http://www.bloggedbychris.com/2012/09/19/microsoft-exam-70-480-study-guide/   Structure a CSS file by using CSS selectors. o This objective may include but is not limited to: reference elements correctly; implement inheritance; override inheritance by using !important; style an element based on pseudo-elements and pseudo-classes (for example, :before, :first-line, :first-letter, :target, :lang, :checked, :first-child) http://www.bloggedbychris.com/2012/09/19/microsoft-exam-70-480-study-guide/   Technorati Tags: 70-480,CSS3,HTML5,HTML,CSS,JavaScript,Certification

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• Building the Ultimate SharePoint 2010 Development Environment

  - by Manesh Karunakaran

  It’s been more than a month since SharePoint 2010 RTMed. And a lot of people have downloaded and set up their very own SharePoint 2010 development rigs. And quite a few people have written blogs about setting up good development environments, there is even an MSDN article on it. Two of the blogs worth noting are from MVPs Sahil Malik and Wictor Wilén. Make sure that you check these out as well. Part of the bad side-effects of being a geek is the need to do the technical stuff the best way possible (pragmatic or otherwise), but the problem with this is that what is considered “best” is relative. Precisely the reason why you are reading this post now. Most of the posts that I read are out dated/need updations or are using the wrong OS’es or virtualization solutions (again, opinions vary) or using them the wrong way. Here’s a developer’s view of Building the Ultimate SharePoint 2010 Development Rig. If you are a sales guy, it’s time to close this window. Confusion 1: Which Host Operating System and Virtualization Solution to use? This point has been beaten to death in numerous blog posts in the past, if you have time to invest, read this excellent post by our very own SharePoint Joel on this subject. But if you are planning to build the Ultimate Development Rig, then Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V is the option that you should be looking at. I have been using this as my primary OS for about 6-7 months now, and I haven’t had any Driver issue or Application compatibility issue. In my experience all the Windows 7 drivers work fine with WIN2008 R2 also. You can enable Aero for eye candy (and the Windows 7 look and feel) and except for a few things like the Hibernation support (which a can be enabled if you really want it), Windows Server 2008 R2, is the best Workstation OS that I have used till date. But frankly the answer to this question of which OS to use depends primarily on one question - Are you willing to change your primary OS? If the answer to that is ‘Yes’, then Windows 2008 R2 with Hyper-V is the best option, if not look at vmWare or VirtualBox, both are equally good. Those who are familiar with a Virtual PC background might prefer Sun VirtualBox. Besides, these provide support for running 64 bit guest machines on 32 bit hosts if the underlying hardware is truly 64 bit. See my earlier post on this. Since we are going to make the ultimate rig, we will use Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V, for reasons mentioned above. Confusion 2: Should I use a multi-(virtual) server set up? A lot of people use multiple servers for their development environments - like Wictor Wilén is suggesting - one server hosting the Active directory, one hosting SharePoint Server and another one for SQL Server. True, this mimics the production environment the best possible way, but as somebody who has fallen for this set up earlier, I can tell you that you don’t really get anything by doing this. Microsoft has done well to ensure that if you can do it on one machine, you can do it in a farm environment as well. Besides, when you run multiple Server class machine instances in parallel, there are a lot of unwanted processor cycles wasted for no good use. In my personal experience, as somebody who needs to switch between MOSS 2007/SharePoint 2010 environments from time to time, the best possible solution is to Make the host Windows Server 2008 R2 machine your Domain Controller (AD Server) Make all your Virtual Guest OS’es join this domain. Have each Individual Guest OS Image have it’s own local SQL Server instance. The advantages are that you can reuse the users and groups in each of the Guest operating systems, you can manage the users in one place, AD is light weight and doesn't take too much resources on your host machine and also having separate SQL instances for each of the Development images gives you maximum flexibility in terms of configuration, for example your SharePoint rigs can have simpler DB configurations, compared to your MS BI blast pits. Confusion 3: Which Operating System should I use to run SharePoint 2010 Now that’s a no brainer. Use Windows 2008 R2 as your Guest OS. When you are building the ultimate rig, why compromise? If you are planning to run Windows Server 2008 as your Guest OS, there are a few patches that you need to install at different times during the installation, for that follow the steps mentioned here Okay now that we have made our choices, let’s get to the interesting part of building the rig, Step 1: Prepare the host machine – Install Windows Server 2008 R2 Install Windows Server 2008 R2 on your best Desktop/Laptop. If you have read this far, I am quite sure that you are somebody who can install an OS on your own, so go ahead and do that. Make sure that you run the compatibility wizard before you go ahead and nuke your current OS. There are plenty of blogs telling you how to make a good Windows 2008 R2 Workstation that feels and behaves like a Windows 7 machine, follow one and once you are done, head to Step 2. Step 2: Configure the host machine as a Domain Controller Before we begin this, let me tell you, this step is completely optional, you don’t really need to do this, you can simply use the local users on the Guest machines instead, but if this is a much cleaner approach to manage users and groups if you run multiple guest operating systems.  This post neatly explains how to configure your Windows Server 2008 R2 host machine as a Domain Controller. Follow those simple steps and you are good to go. If you are not able to get it to work, try this. Step 3: Prepare the guest machine – Install Windows Server 2008 R2 Open Hyper-V Manager Choose to Create a new Guest Operating system Allocate at least 2 GB of Memory to the Guest OS Choose the Windows 2008 R2 Installation Media Start the Virtual Machine to commence installation. Once the Installation is done, Activate the OS. Step 4: Make the Guest operating systems Join the Domain This step is quite simple, just follow these steps below, Fire up Hyper-V Manager, open your Guest OS Click on Start, and Right click on ‘Computer’ and choose ‘Properties’ On the window that pops-up, click on ‘Change Settings’ On the ‘System Properties’ Window that comes up, Click on the ‘Change’ button Now a window named ‘Computer Name/Domain Changes’ opens up, In the text box titled Domain, type in the Domain name from Step 2. Click Ok and windows will show you the welcome to domain message and ask you to restart the machine, click OK to restart. If the addition to domain fails, that means that you have not set up networking in Hyper-V for the Guest OS to communicate with the Host. To enable it, follow the steps I had mentioned in this post earlier. Step 5: Install SQL Server 2008 R2 on the Guest Machine SQL Server 2008 R2 gets installed with out hassle on Windows Server 2008 R2. SQL Server 2008 needs SP2 to work properly on WIN2008 R2. Also SQL Server 2008 R2 allows you to directly add PowerPivot support to SharePoint. Choose to install in SharePoint Integrated Mode in Reporting Server Configuration. Step 6: Install KB971831 and SharePoint 2010 Pre-requisites Now install the WCF Hotfix for Microsoft Windows (KB971831) from this location, and SharePoint 2010 Pre-requisites from the SP2010 Installation media. Step 7: Install and Configure SharePoint 2010 Install SharePoint 2010 from the installation media, after the installation is complete, you are prompted to start the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard. If you are using a local instance of Microsoft SQL Server 2008, install the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 KB 970315 x64 before starting the wizard. If your development environment uses a remote instance of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 or if it has a pre-existing installation of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 on which KB 970315 x64 has already been applied, this step is not necessary. With the wizard open, do the following: Install SQL Server 2008 KB 970315 x64. After the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 KB 970315 x64 installation is finished, complete the wizard. Alternatively, you can choose not to run the wizard by clearing the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard check box and closing the completed installation dialog box. Install SQL Server 2008 KB 970315 x64, and then manually start the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard by opening a Command Prompt window and executing the following command: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared Debug\Web Server Extensions\14\BIN\psconfigui.exe The SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard may fail if you are using a computer that is joined to a domain but that is not connected to a domain controller. Step 8: Install Visual Studio 2010 and SharePoint 2010 SDK Install Visual Studio 2010 Download and Install the Microsoft SharePoint 2010 SDK Step 9: Install PowerPivot for SharePoint and Configure Reporting Services Pop-In the SQLServer 2008 R2 installation media once again and install PowerPivot for SharePoint. This will get added as another instance named POWERPIVOT. Configure Reporting Services by following the steps mentioned here, if you need to get down to the details on how the integration between SharePoint 2010 and SQL Server 2008 R2 works, see Working Together: SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services Integration in SharePoint 2010 an excellent article by Alan Le Marquand Step 10: Download and Install Sample Databases for Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2 SharePoint 2010 comes with a lot of cool stuff like PerformancePoint Services and BCS, if you need to try these out, you need to have data in your databases. So if you want to save yourself the trouble of creating sample data for your PerformancePoint and BCS experiments, download and install Sample Databases for Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2 from CodePlex. And you are done! Fire up your Visual Studio 2010 and Start Coding away!!

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• Alternative to google map api, so that I can use it on a HTTPS/SSL encrypted website.

  - by Zeeshan Rang

  I did find a solution for this on Google map api page, and I made the following changes as mentioned in it. 1.Use Google Maps API for Flash version 1.9a or later. 2.Add the following to your Flash application before the map is instantiated: Security.allowInsecureDomain("maps.googleapis.com"); Ref:http://code.google.com/apis/maps/faq.html#flash_ssl My code looks like this, after the changes: <mx:TitleWindow verticalAlign="middle" horizontalAlign="center" xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" xmlns:maps="com.google.maps.*" width="1000" height="600" layout="absolute" backgroundAlpha="0" borderAlpha="0" borderThickness="0" showCloseButton="true" close="PopUpManager.removePopUp(this);"> <mx:VBox width="70%" height="100%" > <maps:Map id="map" key="ABQIAAAA0L1JEoR6rWjh-BBQnLMtMBSVuZ5VlaqlIqiYPFMK_I5M2UTmHhSq_BJxLHiYcTDW9RxSF6HewNY7uA" mapevent_mapready="onMapReady(event)" width="100%" height="100%" /> </mx:VBox> <mx:Script> <![CDATA[ //import flashx.textLayout.formats.Direction; import mx.effects.AddItemAction; //import flashx.textLayout.factory.TruncationOptions; import mx.controls.Alert; import mx.managers.PopUpManager; import mx.rpc.events.ResultEvent; import com.adobe.serialization.json.JSON; import flash.events.Event; import com.google.maps.*; import com.google.maps.overlays.*; import com.google.maps.services.*; import com.google.maps.controls.ZoomControl; import com.google.maps.controls.PositionControl; import com.google.maps.controls.MapTypeControl; import com.google.maps.services.ClientGeocoderOptions; import com.google.maps.LatLng; import com.google.maps.Map; import com.google.maps.MapEvent; import com.google.maps.MapMouseEvent; import com.google.maps.MapType; import com.google.maps.services.ClientGeocoder; import com.google.maps.services.GeocodingEvent; import com.google.maps.overlays.Marker; import com.google.maps.overlays.MarkerOptions; import com.google.maps.InfoWindowOptions; private function onMapReady(event:MapEvent):void { Security.allowInsecureDomain("maps.googleapis.com"); map.setCenter(new LatLng(41.651505,-72.094455), 13, MapType.NORMAL_MAP_TYPE); map.addControl(new ZoomControl()); map.addControl(new PositionControl()); map.addControl(new MapTypeControl()); map.enableScrollWheelZoom(); map.enableContinuousZoom(); } ]]> </mx:Script> </mx:TitleWindow> But i still get the following error using this: The requested URL /mapsapi/publicapi?file=flashapi&url=https%3A%2F%2Fvirtual.c7beta.com%2Findex_cloud.swf&key=ABQIAAAA0L1JEoR6rWjh-BBQnLMtMBTW_Qkp6J0z76Etz3qzo8Hg3HdUQhSnD6lqp53NB0UrBmg5Xm2DlazWqA&v=1.18&flc=xt was not found on this server. Any suggestions to what am I doing wrong here, what should i do to make this work. Regards zee

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• Using ASP.NET MVC 2 with Ninject 2 from scratch

  - by Rune Jacobsen

  I just did File - New Project last night on a new project. Ah, the smell of green fields. I am using the just released ASP.NET MVC 2 (i.e. no preview or release candidate, the real thing), and thought I'd get off to a good start using Ninject 2 (also released version) with the MVC extensions. I downloaded the MVC extensions project, opened it in VS2008Sp1, built it in release mode, and then went into the mvc2\build\release folder and copied Ninject.dll and Ninject.Web.Mvc.dll from there to the Libraries folder on my project (so that I can lug them around in source control and always have the right version everywhere). I didn't include the corresponding .xml files - should I? Do they just provide intellisense, or some other function? Not a big deal I believe. Anyhoo, I followed the most up-to-date advice I could find; I referenced the DLLs in my MVC2 project, then went to work on Global.asax.cs. First I made it inherit from NinjectHttpApplication. I removed the Application_Start() method, and overrode OnApplicationStarted() instead. Here is that method: protected override void OnApplicationStarted() { base.OnApplicationStarted(); AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas(); RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes); // RegisterAllControllersIn(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly()); } And I also followed the advice of VS and implemented the CreateKernel method: protected override Ninject.IKernel CreateKernel() { // RegisterAllControllersIn(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly()); return new StandardKernel(); } That is all. No other modifications to the project. You'll notice that the RegisterAllControllersIn() method is commented out in two places above. I've figured I can run it in three different combinations, all with their funky side effects; Running it like above. I am then presented with the standard "Welcome to ASP.NET MVC" page in all its' glory. However, after this page is displayed correctly in the browser, VS shows me an exception that was thrown. It throws in NinjectControllerFactory.GetControllerInstance(), which was called with a NULL value in the controllerType parameter. Notice that this happens after the /Home page is rendered - I have no idea why it is called again, and by using breakpoints I've already determined that GetControllerInstance() has been successfully called for the HomeController. Why this new call with controllerType as null? I really have no idea. Pressing F5 at this time takes me back to the browser, no complaints there. Uncommenting the RegisterAllControllersIn() method in CreateKernel() This is where stuff is really starting to get funky. Now I get a 404 error. Some times I have also gotten an ArgumentNullException on the RegisterAllControllersIn() line, but that is pretty rare, and I have not been able to reproduce it. Uncommenting the RegisterAllControllers() method in OnApplicationStarted() (And putting the comment back on the one in CreateKernel()) Results in behavior that seems exactly like that in point 1. So to keep from going on forever - is there an exact step-by-step guide on how to set up an MVC 2 project with Ninject 2 (both non-beta release versions) to get the controllers provided by Ninject? Of course I will then start providing some actual stuff for injection (like ISession objects and repositories, loggers etc), but I thought I'd get this working first. Any help will be highly appreciated! (Also posted to the Ninject Google Group)

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Thursday, June 03, 2010

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Thursday, June 03, 2010New ProjectsAlbatross: Albatross framework. We are still working on the documentation, more details will be available soon.ApiChange: ApiChange is the Swiss army knife for inspecting your assemblies from the command line. Now you can do basic operations like diff, who uses (method...BaseCalendar: BaseCalendar is a server-side ASP.NET web control (WebForms or MVC) that renders a calendar while giving you full control over the generated HTML. ...CESAVE: Proyectos para el Comité Estatal de Sanidad Vegetal.Closure Compiler w/ Annotations Visual Studio 2010 Snippets: This is an attempt to create reusable Visual Studio snippets to make working with closure compiler annotated JavaScript more productive. VS2010 ...Common Service Host: Common Service Host is a generic Windows Communication Service Host and factory that uses the Common Service Locator to create Service objects. ...DarkLight: DarkLight is a 2D Lighting Engine written in XNA, and allows developers to create 2D shadowing effects in their 2D games easily. It supports poi...Earn Burn Tracker: A tool to track earned value against a given release, initiative, feature set, and objects.eOfficeAACS: eOffice is an open source access control and attendance management system developed by e-bird Innovation (www.ebirdinfo.com).Its flexible design al...FLV Video conversion library for .Net 3.5: This is a component created to call the ffmpeg tool to convert various video formats to the Adobe Flash FLV output format. The component also takes...Google Moderator: .NET client library for the Google Moderator API.linq to jquery: provides support for linq to jquery objectsMobile Vikings Data: App to view your data usage RefBrowser: RefBrowserRESX Translator with Bing (from Microsoft Consulting Services, UK): A Windows Form application that automatically translates RESX files using Bing web servicesRhyduino - Remote Arduino Control via Managed Code: Rhyduino makes it easy for Visual Studio / Windows devs to control the Arduino using a computer. It's like supercharging your Arduino with all the ...SharePoint 2010 CSV Bulk Term Set Importer: Allows for multiple import of *.csv files to a given term group in SharePoint 2010 Term Store. It will create new term group based on the name pr...SharePoint Feature - Export history version to Excel: Add a function to list the action button, the ability to export history version of the item sheet to Excel from the specified date. Features suppo...SwEntry: A system that allows people to open doors by using a Bluetooth enabled phone. Things to Do with the DLR: This project is about ideas and sample code around the Dynamic Language Runtime.Work Recorder - Hold on own time!: Work Recorder is a office aid software which can recorde the time used on PC for researchers, office workers and students. And it is also a good he...xuezhixu: xuezhixu foundYaget: Yet Another Game Engine TechnologyNew ReleasesBackUpAnyWhere: backupanywhere RC1: this is the RC of our programBaseCalendar: BaseControls 1.0: BaseControls 1.0 contains the BaseCalendar ASP.NET control.BizTalk Server Pipeline Component Wizard: 2.20: Version suitable for 2010 release.CheckHeader: CheckHeader v0.8.6: The Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 is needed to run this program.Chirpy - VS Add In For Handling Js, Css, and DotLess Files: Chirpy Installer for VS 2010 (Ver-1.0.0.2): VS 2010 Installer for the Chirpy AddIn. Version 1.0.0.2Christoc's DotNetNuke C# Module Development Template: 00.00.01: This is the initial release of Christoc's DotNetNuke C# Module Development Template. You can use the Template as-is, or you can customize the VSTem...Closure Compiler w/ Annotations Visual Studio 2010 Snippets: v1 release: The initial release of the projectCommunity Forums NNTP bridge: Community Forums NNTP Bridge V22: Release of the Community Forums NNTP Bridge to access the social and anwsers MS forums with a single, open source NNTP bridge. This release has ad...Community Forums NNTP bridge: Community Forums NNTP Bridge V23: Release of the Community Forums NNTP Bridge to access the social and anwsers MS forums with a single, open source NNTP bridge. This release has ad...Community Forums NNTP bridge: Community Forums NNTP Bridge V24: Release of the Community Forums NNTP Bridge to access the social and anwsers MS forums with a single, open source NNTP bridge. 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If you experienced any issues with the previous version, please update your modules to the 7.2.0 rel...Work Recorder - Hold on own time!: WorkRecorder 1.0: +Finished Version 1.0Most Popular ProjectsCommunity Forums NNTP bridgeOutSyncASP.NET MVC Time PlannerNeatUploadMoonyDesk (windows desktop widgets)Mute4eXpress Persistent Objects (XPO) ToolkitAgUnit - Silverlight unit testing with ReSharperASP.NET MVC ExtensionsAviva Solutions C# Coding GuidelinesMost Active ProjectsCommunity Forums NNTP bridgeGMap.NET - Great Maps for Windows Forms & PresentationRawrIonics Isapi Rewrite FilterN2 CMSpatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryBlogEngine.NETGameSetFarseer Physics EngineMirror Testing System

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• Experience your music in a whole new way with Zune for PC

  - by Matthew Guay

  Tired of the standard Media Player look and feel, and want something new and innovative?  Zune offers a fresh, new way to enjoy your music, videos, pictures, and podcasts, whether or not you own a Zune device. Microsoft started out on a new multimedia experience for PCs and mobile devices with the launch of the Zune several years ago.  The Zune devices have been well received and noted for their innovative UI, and the Zune HD’s fluid interface is the foundation for the widely anticipated Windows Phone 7.  But regardless of whether or not you have a Zune Device, you can still use the exciting new UI and services directly from your PC.  Zune for Windows is a very nice media player that offers a music and video store and wide support for multimedia formats including those used in Apple products.  And if you enjoy listening to a wide variety of music, it also offers the Zune Pass which lets you stream an unlimited number of songs to your computer and download 10 songs for keeps per month for $14.99/month. Or you can do a pre-paid music card as well.  It does all this using the new Metro UI which beautifully shows information using text in a whole new way.  Here’s a quick look at setting up and using Zune on your PC. Getting Started Download the installer (link below), and run it to begin setup.  Please note that Zune offers a separate version for computers running the 64 bit version of Windows Vista or 7, so choose it if your computer is running these. Once your download is finished, run the installer to setup Zune on your computer.  Accept the EULA when prompted. If there are any updates available, they will automatically download and install during the setup.  So, if you’re installing Zune from a disk (for example, one packaged with a Zune device), you don’t have to worry if you have the latest version.  Zune will proceed to install on your computer.   It may prompt you to restart your computer after installation; click Restart Now so you can proceed with your Zune setup.  The reboot appears to be for Zune device support, and the program ran fine otherwise without rebooting, so you could possibly skip this step if you’re not using a Zune device.  However, to be on the safe side, go ahead and reboot. After rebooting, launch Zune.  It will play a cute introduction video on first launch; press skip if you don’t want to watch it. Zune will now ask you if you want to keep the default settings or change them.  Choose Start to keep the defaults, or Settings to customize to your wishes.  Do note that the default settings will set Zune as your default media player, so click Settings if you wish to change this. If you choose to change the default settings, you can change how Zune finds and stores media on your computer.  In Windows 7, Zune will by default use your Windows 7 Libraries to manage your media, and will in fact add a new Podcasts library to Windows 7. If your media is stored on another location, such as on a server, then you can add this to the Library.  Please note that this adds the location to your system-wide library, not just the Zune player. There’s one last step.  Enter three of your favorite artists, and Zune will add Smart DJ mixes to your Quickplay list based on these.  Some less famous or popular artists may not be recognized, so you may have to try another if your choice isn’t available.  Or, you can click Skip if you don’t want to do this right now. Welcome to Zune!  This is the default first page, QuickPlay, where you can easily access your pinned and new items.   If you have a Zune account, or would like to create a new one, click Sign In on the top. Creating a new account is quick and simple, and if you’re new to Zune, you can try out a 14 day trial of Zune Pass for free if you want. Zune allows you to share your listening habits and favorites with friends or the world, but you can turn this off or change it if you like. Using Zune for Windows To access your media, click the Collection link on the top left.  Zune will show all the media you already have stored on your computer, organized by artist and album. Right-click on any album, and you choose to have Zune find album art or do a variety of other tasks with the media.   When playing media, you can view it in several unique ways.  First, the default Mix view will show related tracks to the music you’re playing from Smart DJ.  You can either play these fully if you’re a Zune Pass subscriber, or otherwise you can play 30 second previews. Then, for many popular artists, Zune will change the player background to show pictures and information in a unique way while the music is playing.  The information may range from history about the artist to the popularity of the song being played.   Zune also works as a nice viewer for the pictures on your computer. Start a slideshow, and Zune will play your pictures with nice transition effects and music from your library. Zune Store The Zune Store offers a wide variety of music, TV shows, and videos for purchase.  If you’re a Zune Pass subscriber, you can listen to or download any song without purchasing it; otherwise, you can preview a 30 second clip first. Zune also offers a wide selection of Podcasts you can subscribe to for free. Using Zune for PC with a Zune Device If you have a Zune device attached to your computer, you can easily add media files to it by simply dragging them to the Zune device icon in the left corner.  In the future, this will also work with Windows Phone 7 devices. If you have a Zune HD, you can also download and add apps to your device. Here’s the detailed information window for the weather app.  Click Download to add it to your device.   Mini Mode The Zune player generally takes up a large portion of your screen, and is actually most impressive when run maximized.  However, if you’re simply wanting to enjoy your tunes while you’re using your computer, you can use the Mini mode to still view music info and control Zune in a smaller mode.  Click the Mini Player button near the window control buttons in the top right to activate it. Now Zune will take up much less of your desktop.  This window will stay on top of other windows so you can still easily view and control it. Zune will display an image of the artist if one is available, and this shows up in Mini mode more often than it does in the full mode. And, in Windows 7, you could simply minimize Zune as you can control it directly from the taskbar thumbnail preview.   Even more controls are available from Zune’s jumplist in Windows 7.  You can directly access your Quickplay links or choose to shuffle all music without leaving the taskbar. Settings Although Zune is designed to be used without confusing menus and settings, you can tweak the program to your liking from the settings panel.  Click Settings near the top left of the window. Here you can change file storage, types, burn, metadata, and many more settings.  You can also setup Zune to stream media to your XBOX 360 if you have one.   You can also customize Zune’s look with a variety of modern backgrounds and gradients. Conclusion If you’re ready for a fresh way to enjoy your media, Zune is designed for you.  It’s innovative UI definitely sets it apart from standard media players, and is very pleasing to use.  Zune is especially nice if your computer is using XP, Vista Home Basic, or 7 Starter as these versions of Windows don’t include Media Center.  Additionally, the mini player mode is a nice touch that brings a feature of Windows 7’s Media Player to XP and Vista.  Zune is definitely one of our favorite music apps.  Try it out, and get a fresh view of your music today! Link Download Zune for Windows Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Redeem Pre-paid Zune Card Points for Zune Marketplace MediaUpdate Your Zune Player SoftwaredoubleTwist is an iTunes Alternative that Supports Several DevicesFind Free or Cheap Indie Music at Amie StreetAmie Street Downloader Makes Purchasing Music Easier TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 The Ultimate Guide For YouTube Lovers Will it Blend? iPad Edition Penolo Lets You Share Sketches On Twitter Visit Woolyss.com for Old School Games, Music and Videos Add a Custom Title in IE using Spybot or Spyware Blaster When You Need to Hail a Taxi in NYC

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• Emulating old-school sprite flickering (theory and concept)

  - by Jeffrey Kern

  I'm trying to develop an oldschool NES-style video game, with sprite flickering and graphical slowdown. I've been thinking of what type of logic I should use to enable such effects. I have to consider the following restrictions if I want to go old-school NES style: No more than 64 sprites on the screen at a time No more than 8 sprites per scanline, or for each line on the Y axis If there is too much action going on the screen, the system freezes the image for a frame to let the processor catch up with the action From what I've read up, if there were more than 64 sprites on the screen, the developer would only draw high-priority sprites while ignoring low-priority ones. They could also alternate, drawing each even numbered sprite on opposite frames from odd numbered ones. The scanline issue is interesting. From my testing, it is impossible to get good speed on the XBOX 360 XNA framework by drawing sprites pixel-by-pixel, like the NES did. This is why in old-school games, if there were too many sprites on a single line, some would appear if they were cut in half. For all purposes for this project, I'm making scanlines be 8 pixels tall, and grouping the sprites together per scanline by their Y positioning. So, dumbed down I need to come up with a solution that.... 64 sprites on screen at once 8 sprites per 'scanline' Can draw sprites based on priority Can alternate between sprites per frame Emulate slowdown Here is my current theory First and foremost, a fundamental idea I came up with is addressing sprite priority. Assuming values between 0-255 (0 being low), I can assign sprites priority levels, for instance: 0 to 63 being low 63 to 127 being medium 128 to 191 being high 192 to 255 being maximum Within my data files, I can assign each sprite to be a certain priority. When the parent object is created, the sprite would randomly get assigned a number between its designated range. I would then draw sprites in order from high to low, with the end goal of drawing every sprite. Now, when a sprite gets drawn in a frame, I would then randomly generate it a new priority value within its initial priority level. However, if a sprite doesn't get drawn in a frame, I could add 32 to its current priority. For example, if the system can only draw sprites down to a priority level of 135, a sprite with an initial priority of 45 could then be drawn after 3 frames of not being drawn (45+32+32+32=141) This would, in theory, allow sprites to alternate frames, allow priority levels, and limit sprites to 64 per screen. Now, the interesting question is how do I limit sprites to only 8 per scanline? I'm thinking that if I'm sorting the sprites high-priority to low-priority, iterate through the loop until I've hit 64 sprites drawn. However, I shouldn't just take the first 64 sprites in the list. Before drawing each sprite, I could check to see how many sprites were drawn in it's respective scanline via counter variables . For example: Y-values between 0 to 7 belong to Scanline 0, scanlineCount[0] = 0 Y-values between 8 to 15 belong to Scanline 1, scanlineCount[1] = 0 etc. I could reset the values per scanline for every frame drawn. While going down the sprite list, add 1 to the scanline's respective counter if a sprite gets drawn in that scanline. If it equals 8, don't draw that sprite and go to the sprite with the next lowest priority. SLOWDOWN The last thing I need to do is emulate slowdown. My initial idea was that if I'm drawing 64 sprites per frame and there's still more sprites that need to be drawn, I could pause the rendering by 16ms or so. However, in the NES games I've played, sometimes there's slowdown if there's not any sprite flickering going on whereas the game moves beautifully even if there is some sprite flickering. Perhaps give a value to each object that uses sprites on the screen (like the priority values above), and if the combined values of all objects w/ sprites surpass a threshold, introduce the sprite flickering? IN CONCLUSION... Does everything I wrote actually sound legitimate and could work, or is it a pipe dream? What improvements can you all possibly think with this game programming theory of mine?

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• How I Record Screencasts

  - by Daniel Moth

  I get this asked a lot so here is my brain dump on the topic. What A screencast is just a demo that you present to yourself while recording the screen. As such, my advice for clearing your screen for demo purposes and setting up Visual Studio still applies here (adjusting for the fact I wrote those blog posts when I was running Vista and VS2008, not Windows 8 and VS2012). To see examples of screencasts, watch any of my screencasts on channel9. Why If you are a technical presenter, think of when you get best reactions from a developer audience in your sessions: when you are doing demos, of course. Imagine if you could package those alone and share them with folks to watch over and over? If you have ever gone through a tutorial trying to recreate steps to explore a feature, think how much more helpful it would be if you could watch a video and follow along. Think of how many folks you "touch" with a conference presentation, and how many more you can reach with an online shorter recording of the demo. If you invest so much of your time for the first type of activity, isn't the second type of activity also worth an investment? Fact: If you are able to record a screencast of a demo, you will be much better prepared to deliver it in person. In fact lately I will force myself to make a screencast of any demo I need to present live at an upcoming event. It is also a great backup - if for whatever reason something fails (software, network, etc) during an attempt of a live demo, you can just play the recorded video for the live audience. There are other reasons (e.g. internal sharing of the latest implemented feature) but the context above is the one within which I create most of my screencasts. Software & Hardware I use Camtasia from Tech Smith, version 7.1.1. Microsoft has a variety of options for capturing the screen to video, but I have been using this software for so long now that I have not invested time to explore alternatives… I also use whatever cheapo headset is near me, but sometimes I get some complaints from some folks about the audio so now I try to remember to use "the good headset". I do not use a web camera as I am not a huge fan of PIP. Preparation First you have to know your technology and demo. Once you think you know it, write down the outline and major steps of the demo. Keep it short 5-20 minutes max. I break that rule sometimes but try not to. The longer the video is the more chances that people will not have the patience to sit through it and the larger the download wmv file ends up being. Run your demo a few times, timing yourself each time to ensure that you have the planned timing correct, but also to make sure that you are comfortable with what you are going to demo. Unlike with a live audience, there is no live reaction/feedback to steer you, so it can be a bit unnerving at first. It can also lead you to babble too much, so try extra hard to be succinct when demoing/screencasting on your own. TIP: Before recording, hide your desktop/taskbar clock if it is showing. Recording To record you start the Camtasia Recorder tool Configure the settings thought the menus Capture menu to choose custom size or full screen. I try to use full screen and remember to lower the resolution of your screen to as low as possible, e.g. 1024x768 or 1360x768 or something like that. From the Tools -> Options dialog you can choose to record audio and the volume level. Effects menu I typically leave untouched but you should explore and experiment to your liking, e.g. how the mouse pointer is captured, and whether there should be a delay for the recording when you start it. Once you've configured these settings, typically you just launch this tool and hit the F9 key to start recording. TIP: As you record, if you ever start to "lose your way" hit F9 again to pause recording, regroup your thoughts and flow, and then hit F9 again to resume. Finally, hit F10 to stop recording. At that point the video starts playing for you in the recorder. This is where you can preview the video to see that you are happy with it before saving. If you are happy, hit the Save As menu to choose where you want to save the video.     TIP: If you've really lost your way to the extent where you'll need to do some editing, hit F10 to stop recording, save the video and then record some more - you'll be able to stitch the videos together later and this will make it easier for you to delete the parts where you messed up. TIP: Before you commit to recording the whole demo, every time you should record 5 seconds and preview them to ensure that you are capturing the screen the way you want to and that your audio is still correctly configured and at the right level. Trust me, you do not want to be recording 15 minutes only to find out that you messed up on the configuration somewhere. Editing To edit the video you launch another Camtasia app, the Camtasia Studio. File->New Project. File->Save Project and choose location. File->Import Media and choose the video(s) you saved earlier. These adds them to the area at the top/middle but not at the timeline at the bottom. Right click on the video and choose Add to timeline. It will prompt you for the Editing dimensions and I always choose Recording Dimensions. Do whatever edits you want to do for this video, then add the next video if you have one to stitch and repeat. In terms of edits there are many options. The simplest is to do nothing, which is the option I did when I first starting doing these in 2006. Nowadays, I typically cut out pieces that I don't like and also lower/mute the audio in other areas and also speed up the video in some areas. A full tutorial on how to do this is beyond the scope of this blog post, but your starting point is to select portions on the timeline and then open the Edit menu at the very top (tip: the context menu doesn't have all options). You can spend hours editing a recording, so don’t lose track of time! When you are done editing, save again, and you are now ready to Produce. Producing Production is specific to where you will publish. I've only ever published on channel9, so for that I do the following File -> Produce and share. This opens a wizard dialog In the dropdown choose Custom production settings Hit Next and then choose WMV Hit Next and keep the default of Camtasia Studio Best Quality and File Size (recommended) Hit Next and choose Editing dimensions video size Hit Next, hit Options and you get a dialog. Enter a Title for the project tab and then on the author tab enter the Creator and Homepage. Hit OK Hit Next. Hit Next again. Enter a video file name in the Production name textbox and then hit Finish. Now do other stuff while you wait for the video to be produced and you hear it playing. After the video is produced watch it to ensure it was produced correctly (e.g. sometimes you get mouse issues) and then you are ready for publishing it. Publishing Follow the instructions of the place where you are going to publish. If you are MSFT internal and want to choose channel9 then contact those folks so they can share their instructions (if you don't know who they are ping me and I'll connect you but they are easy to find in the GAL). For me this involves using a tool to point to the video, choosing a file name (again), choosing an image from the video to display when it is not playing, choosing what output formats I want, and then later on a webpage adding tags, adding a description, and adding a title. That’s all folks, have fun! Comments about this post by Daniel Moth welcome at the original blog.

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• Load and Web Performance Testing using Visual Studio Ultimate 2010-Part 2

  - by Tarun Arora

  Welcome back, in part 1 of Load and Web Performance Testing using Visual Studio 2010 I talked about why Performance Testing the application is important, the test tools available in Visual Studio Ultimate 2010 and various test rig topologies. In this blog post I’ll get into the details of web performance & load tests as well as why it’s important to follow a goal based pattern while performance testing your application. Tools => Options => Test Tools Have you visited the treasures of Visual Studio Menu bar tools => Options => Test Tools lately? The options to enable disable prompts on creating, editing, deleting or running manual/automated tests can be controller from here. The default test project language and default test types created on a new test project creation could be selected/unselected from here. Ever wondered how you can change the default limit of 25 test results, this can again be changed from here. If you record a lot of Web Tests and wish for the web test recorder to start with “that” URL populated, well this again can be specified from here. If you haven’t so far, I would urge you to spend 2 minutes in the test tools options.   Test Menu => Ready Steady Test Action! The Test tools are under the Test Menu in Visual Studio, apart from being able to create a new Test and Test List you can also load an existing vsmdi file. You can also manage your test controllers from here. A solution can have one or more test setting files, but there can only be one active test settings file at any time. Again, this selection can be done from here.  You can open the various test windows from under the windows option from the test menu. If you open the Test view window you will see that you have the option to group the tests by work items, project, test type, etc. You can set these properties by right clicking a test in the test list and choosing properties from the context menu.    So, what is a vsmdi file? vsmdi stands for Visual Studio Test Metadata File. Placed under the Solution Items this file keeps track of the list of unit tests in your solution. If you open the vsmdi file as an xml file you will see a series of Test Links nested with in the list Test List tags along with the Run Configuration tag. When in visual studio you run tests, the IDE looks at the vsmdi file to see what tests need to be run. You also have the option of using the vsmdi file in your team builds to specify which tests need to run as part of the build. Refer here for a walkthrough from a fellow blogger on how to use the vsmdi file in the team builds. Web Performance Test – The Truth! In Visual Studio 2010 “Web Tests” have been renamed to “Web Performance Tests”. Apart from renaming this test type there have been several improvements to this test type in visual studio 2010. I am very active on the MSDN Visual Studio And Load Testing forum and a frequent question from many users is “Do Web Tests support Pages that run JavaScript?” I will start with a little bit of background before answering this question. Web Performance Tests operate at the HTTP Layer, but why? To enable you to generate high loads with a relatively low amount of hardware, Web performance tests are driven at the protocol layer rather than instantiating a browser.The most common source of confusion is that users do not realize Web Performance Tests work at the HTTP layer. The tool adds to that misconception. After all, you record in IE, and when running a Web test you can select which browser to use, and then the result viewer shows the results in a browser window. So that means the tests run through the browser, right? NO! The Web test engine works at the HTTP layer, and does not instantiate a browser. What does that mean? In the diagram below, you can see there are no browsers running when the engine is sending and receiving requests. Does that mean I can’t test pages that use Java script? The best example for java script generating HTTP traffic is AJAX calls. The most common example of browser plugins are Silverlight or Flash. The Web test recorder will record HTTP traffic from AJAX calls and from most (but not all) browser plugins. This means you will still be able to web performance test pages that use java script or plugin and play back the results but the playback engine will not show the java script or plug in results in the ‘browser control’. If you want to test the page behaviour as a result of the java script or plug in consider using Coded UI Tests. This page looks like it failed, when in fact it succeeded! Looking closely at the response, and subsequent requests, it is clear the operation succeeded. As stated above, the reason why the browser control is pasting this message is because java script has been disabled in this control. So, to reiterate, the web performance test recorder: - Sends and receives data at the HTTP layer. - Does NOT run a browser. - Does NOT run java script. - Does NOT host ActiveX controls or plugins. There is a great series of blog posts from Ed Glas, i would highly recommend his blog to any one performing Load/Performance testing through Visual Studio. Demo – Web Performance Test [Demo] - Visual Studio Ultimate 2010: Test Settings and Configuration   [Demo]–Visual Studio Ultimate 2010: Web Performance Test   In this short video I try and answer the following questions, Why is performance Testing important? How does Visual Studio Help you performance Test your applications? How do i record a web performance test? How do make a web performance test data driven, transaction driven, loop driven, convert to code, add validations? Best practices for recording Web Performance Tests. I have a web performance test, what next? Creating the Web Performance Test was the first step towards load testing your application. Now that we have the base test we can test the page behaviour when N-users access the page. Have you ever had the head of business call you and mention that the marketing team has done a fantastic job and are expecting increased traffic on the web site, can the website survive the weekend with that additional load? This is the perfect opportunity to capacity test your application to see how your website holds up under various levels of load, you can work the results backwards to see how much hardware you may need to scale up your application to survive the weekend. Apart from that it is always a good idea to have some benchmarks around how the application performs under light loads for short duration, under heavy load for long duration and soak test the application run a constant load for a very week or two to record the effects of constant load for really long durations, this is a great way of identifying how your application handles the default IIS application pool reset which by default is configured to once every 25 hours. These bench marks will act as the perfect yard stick to measure performance gains when you start making improvements. BUT there are some best practices! => Goal Based Load Testing Approach Since the subject is vast and there are a lot of things to measure and analyse, … it is very easy to get distracted from the real goal!  You can optimize your application once you know where the pain points are. There is no point performing a load test of 5000 users if your intranet application will only have a 100 simultaneous users, it is important to keep focussed on the real goals of the project. So the idea is to have a user story around your load testing scenarios and test realistically. So it is recommended that you follow the below outline, It is an Iterative process, refine your objectives, identify the key scenarios, what is the expected workload, key metrics you want to report, record the web performance tests, simulate load and analyse results. Is your application already deployed in Production? This is great! You can analyse the IIS Logs to understand the user behaviour… But what are IIS LOGS? The IIS logs allow you to record events for each application and Web site on the Web server. You can create separate logs for each of your applications and Web sites. Logging information in IIS goes beyond the scope of the event logging or performance monitoring features provided by Windows. The IIS logs can include information, such as who has visited your site, what the visitor viewed, and when the information was last viewed. You can use the IIS logs to identify any attempts to gain unauthorized access to your Web server. How to configure IIS LOGS? For those Ninjas who already have IIS Logs configured (by the way its on by default) and need a way to analyse the IIS Logs, can use the Windows IIS Utility – Log Parser. Log Parser is a very powerful tool that provides a generic SQL-like language on top of many types of data like IIS Logs, Event Viewer entries, XML files, CSV files, File System and others; and it allows you to export the result of the queries to many output formats such as CSV, XML, SQL Server, Charts and others; and it works well with IIS 5, 6, 7 and 7.5. Frequently used Log Parser queries. Demo – Load Test [Demo]–Visual Studio Ultimate 2010: Load Testing   In this short video I try and answer the following questions, - Types of Performance Testing? - Perform Goal driven Load Testing, analyse Test Run Result and Generate a report? Recap A quick recap of what we have covered so far,     Thank you for taking the time out and reading this blog post, in part III of this blog series I’ll be getting into the details of Test Result Analysis, Test Result Drill through, Test Report Generation, Test Run Comparison, and the Asp.net Profiler. If you enjoyed the post, remember to subscribe to http://feeds.feedburner.com/TarunArora. Questions/Feedback/Suggestions, etc please leave a comment. See you on in Part III   Share this post : CodeProject

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